good evening I'm Jeff Bennett and I'm Amna Nas on the NewsHour tonight Ru Giuliani is ordered to pay $148 million to two election workers for defamation displaced gauen civilians bear the brunt of continuing Israeli air strikes in areas where they sought Refuge as the US calls for a more precise offensive and the latest Court ruling over abortion access in Texas highlights the roadblocks and dangers faced during pregnancy in much of the country Physicians are placed in a situation where they are unsure uh whether what they consider to be their sound reasonable judgment woul to our attorney general or to judges in the state of Texas major fun funding for the PBS newsour has been provided by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the ne including Jim and ncy buner and Kathy and Paul Anderson it was like an aha moment this is what I love doing early stage companies have this energy that energizes me these are people who are trying to change the world when I volunteer with women entrepreneurs it's the same he lping people reach their dreams I'm thriving by helping others every day people who know know B the John S and James Elight Foundation fostering informed and engaged communities more at kf.

org and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the NewsHour this program was made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by yo ur PBS station from viewers like you thank you you welcome to the newsour as we come on the air a verdict tonight in one of the cases related to the 2020 election earlier this evening a federal jury in Washington ordered Rudy Giuliani Donald Trump's former campaign attorney to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers for distress caused by lies he spread following the 2020 election NPR's miles Park was in the courtroom today and joins us now so miles we should say this was a Civil Trial and the jury was asked decide the amount of Damages here's what Rudy Giuliani told reporters on his wa out of the courtroom today very little I coul I have to analyze this obviously possibly we'll move for a new trial certainly will appeal the absurdity of the number merely underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding so he's calling that number the $148 million absurd how did the jury arrive at that number and what message were they trying to send I m staggering number isn't it I I think throughout the entire week the plaintiff's attorneys were trying to make the case that the jury shou a message that election lies especially when the people pushing them are essentially using real people and who are getting caught up as casualties this is not acceptable you know made th at they wanted the jury to the women's reputation but more than that they wanted them to send a message that is not how healthy democracies beha heard from both sheos and Ruby Freeman who were subject to Rudy giuliani's lies about them here's what Miss Freeman told reporters money will never solve all of my problems I can never move back into the house that I called home I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with how did their attorneys make the case to the jury that the extreme emotional distress their damaged reputations that that was worth x amount well it really was kind of a two-prong approach where you had the Practical aspect and they made th ey had um an expert witness who wa marketing Professor from Northwestern come in and show how these lies reach tens of millions of Americans in a the time after voting ended in 2020 and then had her put together a strategic Communications plan essentially what it would cost to counter those lies and repair the reputation that estimate was put at roughly $47 million and so t on top of that then they said and how do you measure essentially the emotional toll of this and both women who were affected testified both women got emotional cried on the stand the jurors and the public saw I mean more death threats than I could count we heard racist voicemails that were left for these women that um she's son reportedly heard and so all of that was kind of taken into consideration when the jury was coming up with thi $148 Million number we heard Ru Giuliani say an appeal is on the way what happens next it's a little bit unclear he says he's going to ap mean throughout this entire process of the strange things about th um while the attorneys for the plaintiff say they wanted to send a message that this is not acceptab continued to say these lies that he is being sued for here on Monday after court ended on the courthouse steps Rudy Giuliani said uh everything I've said about those women is true and said again that they stole the election so what's next I think he is clearly indicating that he's going to appeal his decision I think what's a little mo how this penalty is going to af whether he and whether the former president whether other have continued to spread these lies over the last few years whether whether they continue to do ahead at 2024 NPR's miles Park for coming in straight from the courtroom to Chef there is fresh tragedy tonight in the war between Israel and Hamas Israeli troops mistakenly shot and killed three hostages today in Gaza City that news came as Israel kept up an unrelenting bombardment of Gaza and a top American Envoy pressed them to curtail the combat as Israel pounds the Gaza Strip with air strikes an IDF troops Advance on the ground US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan today laid out his vision for the future of a more limited War there will be a transition to another phase of this war one that is focused uh in more precise ways ta rgeting the leadership and uh on intelligence-driven operations that continues to the ongoing threat that Hamas poses later in the occupied West Bank Sullivan spoke with Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas on Gaza war the US wants the Palestinian Authority to help govern a plan Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects there is disagreement about the day after Hamas I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those to educate for terrorism support terrorism and finance terrorism AB boss also expressed concern today for Palestinians outside of Gaza telling Sullivan that the US must quote intervene to force Israel to stop its aggression against our people in the West Bank including occupied Jeru the West Bank has seen an uptake in violence since October 7th both ex tremist Israeli settlers and the IDF killing at least 287 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip the death toll is quickly approaching 20,000 outside of a hosp in Rafa this morning mourners including Yousef Abed prayed and wept for victims yet to be identified until now no one came t confirm their identities so we hope that someone comes to identify and bury them we need people to identify their children who are dead to k are from he fears there is no on who could recognize them the IDF announced this morning it recovered the bodies of three three Israeli in Gaza Elia todano taken from the No music festival and soldiers Ron Sherman and Nick Biser the IDF later reported the death of three other hostages by Friendly Fire which they're investigating samur toala yotam an d Alon shamri also today the worl Shipping Company MEK said it is pausing all container ship traffic through the Red Sea indefinitely citing safety concerns this after repeated mi Commercial vessels by houti rebels i Yemen backed by Iran who say they're targeting ships headed for Israel the attacks have renewed concerns that the war could spread into a broader co nflict earlier this week both CNN and the Washington Post reported that the US intelligence Community believes that 40 to 45% of the bombs that Israel has dropped in Gaza were unguided so-called dumb bombs as opposed to precision munition which are much it has struck over 22,000 Terror Targets in Gaza since the Hamas attacks on October 7th an Israeli military spokesman defended the use of unguided bombs telling the newsour in a statement that quote the IDF strikes military targets of the Hamas terrorist organization based on high intelligence while using highquality Munitions that are operated by skilled pilots and advanced systems the type of Munitions used in each strike is determined according to the characteristics of operational need and the effort to mitigate harm to civilians two perspectives now on the Israeli use of unguided bombs in Gaza retired lieutenant general David deula had a 36-year career in the Air Force an played Major roles in planning American bombing campaigns in numerous Wars including Iraq in 1991 and Afghanistan in 2001 and Mark Gasco was the chief of high value targeting at the defense intelligence agency from 1997 le d teams that planned attacks while limiting civilian deaths he th for Human Rights Watch where he investigated attacks against ci with the welcome to you both Mark will start with you what's your reacti reports that 40 to 45% o Israel is dropping in Gaza have been unguided well honestly I'm really shocked you know there's three reason that you want to use Precision guid Munitions you want to dest target with minimal civilian harm whi upholding the laws of war and there's nothing that's going to do a better job of doing that than a Preci munition especially compared to an unguided bomb Precision guided you're looking at about a 3 meter error and an unguided bomb you could have upwards of missing your Target fe et that's highly problematic and le just look at us practice in 91 8% of all bombs dropped on Iraq were Precision in 99 there were 33% of the bombs dropped on Serbia were Precision then in ' 02 and ' 03 we had 65% of all bombs were Precision guided for Afghanistan and Iraq and by Libya in 2011 it was 100% but really it's not just the use of unguided Munitions that's leading to so many civilian deaths in Gaza it's the choices that Israel's Israel's making of not applying civilian harm Mitigation Of not using smaller weapons and with less a blast and fragmentation like the GBU 39 that that they could be using and this is why we're seeing upper of 20,000 dead Palestinians right now General deula I want to get your reaction to what Mark alasco just had is it okay for Israel to use unguided bombs when the US doesn't use them anymore well um Jeff what I'd te is uh the use of a weapon is highly dependent upon the effects that need to be accomplished the collateral damage concerns regarding a particular Target and the accuracy of the weapon system in in in its entirety not just the bomb itself a dumb bomb delivered by a smart aircraft can still be accurate um so there are legitimate reasons to use lowcost uh dumb bombs and example is hitting a weapon storage location in an area where intelligence is determined there are no collateral damage or civilian casualty concerns um in other cases there are fleeting targets that don't allow for the process of obtaining coordinates fo GPS guided weapons or obstacles that prevent a laser guided delivery so the pilot with a precise delivery system can quickly get to the Target and deliver accurately before the opportunit evaporat the bottom line is I've seen the Exquisite care the Israeli Defense Force takes to avoid civilian casualti they have extraordinarily stringent rules for avoiding collateral damage and I'm told by a very good source that Israel only uses dumb bombs after they clear an area Mark your response to the the notion that unguided bombs can be dropped in a precise way and is Israel using this weapons because they don't have enough Precision guide gu in their Arsenal well I certainly agree that unguided weapons can be used in an accurate way in certain circumstances but we're talking here about 10 to 15,000 unguided bombs being dropped in one of the most densely populated parts of the Earth and this is incred dangerous now looking at the uh we transfers uh that are put publicly out by the defense security cooperation agency we can see that over 35,000 guided weapons have been provided to Israel in recent years and that doesn't include the weapons that were provided just this year and that right now is classified but let's take aga look at us practice when I was in the Pentagon and conducting targeting there for the Iraq War for example in 2003 we were dropping Munitions in Baghdad and throughout different cities in Iraq and at no time did I ever have a weapon here suggest to me that we should use an unguided munition and let's take a look at a very similar conflict right let's look at raqqa in Syria where the US involved with a lot of a lot of aerial Munitions there's a great story there's a quote there from a pilot talkin how you have all of these buildings around a densely populated a co-mingled with civilians and the pilot asks how am I supposed to fly the plane and drop a bomb down an Alleyway and the answer that the report comes up with is precision guided Munitions Genera President Biden described Israel's bombing campaign as indiscriminate a did this past week I I'd imagine you take issue with that yeah actu would it was an extraordinarily uh unfortunate um and indiscriminate use o the term indis disc criminate attacks and I think definitions are important here um in accordance with the international humanitarian law indiscriminate attacks are defined as first attacks which are not directed at specific military objectives second attacks which employ a means of combat that cannot be directed at a specific military objective or third attacks which employ a means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by International humanitarian law and consequently are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction none of these situations apply to the Israeli Air Force that is retired lieutenant general David deula and Mark Gasco we thank you both for your insights thank you you bet Jeff thank you in the day's other headlines the Congressional budget office inflation will slow to near 2% next year that is close to the federal reserve's goal and it could pave the way in terest rates the CBO also estimates that unemployment will rise to 4.4% by late next year the nation's gross domestic product or overall economic output is expected to fall to a rate of 1 and a half% before rebounding in 2025 homelessness in the United States has soared to its highest levels on record More Than 650,000 People Federa data released today showed a 12% increase in January from a year earlier the numbers are increasingly evident in Chicago Denver and other cities officials blame sharply higher rents and the end of pandemic era assistance European union leaders insisted today they will ultimately get more military aid to Ukraine early next year Germany France and others voiced optimism despite hungary's veto of a $50 bill Aid package Hungarian prime minister Victor orbon is Russia's closest Ally in the EU he defended his position in Brussels as an EU Summit ended we can say the situation in Ukraine is bad so we shouldn't send any more money to finance the war instead we should stop the war and have a ceasefire and peace talks instead of that now want to give money to keep the war going the EU Aid is especially critical for Ukraine with future us assistance stuck in Congress meanwhile the block will begin talks on letting Ukraine join but hungary's Orban says he may stop that process later Russian officials now say the jailed opposition leader Alexi navali has been moved from a pe colony east of Moscow confirmation came today during a hearing but naval's whereabouts rema unknown since his lawyer lost touch with him after December 6th Moscow is digging out from one of its biggest snow storms in 60 years blizzards dumped 8 Ines o the Russian capital and other parts of the country today it amounted to than 1if of moscow's average December snowfall in just 24 hours forecasters say the city could get a record of nearly 20 in this month a bitter cold wave has plunged much of China to below freezing temperatures snow blanketed Beijing this week and disrupted highway travel in provinces across the north today president xiin Ping called for an allout emergency response with conditions set to worsen over the weekend Britain's Prince Harry scored a victory today in his legal war with British tabloids a London Court ruled the Daily Mirror used phone hacking to Snoop on Harry in the early 2000s and it awarded him $180,000 later lawyers read a statement from the prince calling for action against Publishers who abuse their po today's ruling is vindicating and affirming I've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned but in light of today's Victory and the importance of what is doing what is needed for a free and honest press it is a worthwhile price to pay Prince Harry's testimony in the trial was the first by a British royal in more than a century back in this country former president Trump faces a new controversy over cl assified documents that disappeared as he left office reports today say it involves a binder of material on Russian efforts to medal in the 2016 election intelligence agencies are said to be worried that secret sources and wi ll be compromised first grader shot and wounded his teacher was sentenced today to 2 years in state prison for child neglect Deja Taylor's son used her gun in the attack in Newport News she'd already been sentenced to 21 months in federal pris for using marijuana while owning a gun and on Wall Street stocks had a mixed day but closed out another winning week the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 56 points to close at 37,3 the NASDAQ Rose 52 points and the S&P 500 slipped a fraction of a point still to come on the NewsHour David Brooks and Ruth Marcus weigh in on the week's political headlines and book critics share their picks for the best reads of the Year this is the PBS NewsHour from WEA studios in Washington and in the west from the Walter kronite School of Journalism at Arizona State University The Landmark Supreme Court decision overturning roie Wade nearly 18 months ago upended the American landscape of Reproductive Rights state laws popped up restricting abortion access the issue became Central to some elections and we've heard many stories of confusion from patients and doctors trying to understand the new limits a new story from the New York Times explains some of the internal of the court from how the justices decided to hear the case to how the decision was drafted and when it was ultimately handed down Jody ca of the authors of that report and she joins us now thank you for being with us Jody many of the justices including Justice Amy Coney Barrett who was picked by Donald Trump in part to help over turn row according to your reporting initially opposed even hearing the case what changed when Adam lipac and I were reporting the story that was one of the big surprises because of cours eventually over vote to overturn the law but voting whether to take the case or not is a different matter and init what she said was that she wanted to vote to Grant to hear the case sh e had timing reservations that she didn't want to hear the case that ter which some of her conservative colleagues were pushin months later she actually ended up changing her vote from a grant to a deny so it didn't make a substantive difference you only need four wh ich Justice Alo had to move the case forward but it meant that the case moved forward with a bare minimum of the Court only four votes and by the way those were all male justices there's another detail in your reporting that the justices initially voted in January 2021 to take up the case this was months before they publicly announced that they would hear it and you report that Justice Brett Kavanaugh who pushed f delay to create the appearance of distance from Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg's death why did he think that was important so one of the things that he cited was that he wanted to watch some other abortion cases play out in the lower courts but it's really the effect that's so interesting it pushes the case to the next term and also it creates this appearance of distance from Justice ginsburg's death the court has the vote to Grant the case is clearly moving forward and yet they essentially withhold the decision from the public for months and o that draft of his opinion and sent it to his colleagues you report that the othe conservative justices quickly signed on to it without requesting any changes and that was Al's way reportedly of trying to safeguard a coalition around overturning row how and why did the of his opinion to Politico in May of 2022 how did that cement the ruling so one of our discoveries is that there were really extensive attempts um to craft compromises we don't know if they would have worked we don't know what Prospect they had uh Chief Justice John Roberts Justice Steven Brer the first thing they did is they tried to stop the case from being heard then when it went forward Roberts and this is public he's described this at Oral argu in his opinion he had a kind of 15-week compromise where he wanted to uphold the Mississippi Law which restricted abortion to 15 weeks but he didn't want to overturn all of row and he was all even though a very lonely position on this court he only needed one more vote uh to make that happen and in fact Justice Steven Brier was considering joining him in that position that would have been uh just symbolic but if say justice Brett kavana had joined that position as well the entire outcome would have been different and so the leak came just as those efforts were underway and it rendered them hopeless Justice's votes are secret for a reason because they want room to change their minds which sometimes they do be official opinion comes out and in thi case because everything became so public it really cemented the results and locked them in so we don't know who leaked this opinion but we can say the effect was which was to really lock in the final result Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Jody caner of the New York Times thanks for sh your reporting with us you the Supreme Court will soon weigh in on Reproductive Rights again as the justices agreed this week to hear a case about access to M ayone for medication abortions which make up more than half of abortions in this country for many Americans these Supreme Court decisions have immediate real life implications and that is playing out this week in Texas where the state supreme co overturned a ruling that would have allowed Dallas resident Kate te rminate her nonviable pregnancy Cox had to leave the state to get that abortion but the rulin repercussions and it's put medical providers on the front lines of interpreting legal language wh for their patients we're joined Now by one such medical provider that is Dr Amna dermish she's an obgyn based in Austin Texas Dr dermish welcome it's so nice to have someone with my same name on the show that we differ slightly pronunciation I want to ask you th is exception in the Tex law though there's a near toal abortion ban in the state the exception is in the case of a risk to the life of the mother in The Kate Cox's case she said it was a risk the court disagreed and they said in the ruling the exception is predicated doctor acting within the zone of reasonable medical judgment which what doctors do every day does that make sense to you do you understand what the exception encompasses you know I I don think that really gets to the heart of the matter is that that it's it we've been set up as Healthcare Providers to be put into a wh ere um every medical decision that we make is being second guested by the legislature and the Judiciary and so Physicians are placed in a situation where they are unsure um whether what they consider to be their sound reasonable judgment woul to our attorney general or to judges in the state of Texas you know we spoke with Kate Cox before that Court he re is just a clip of what she had to say about learning her pregna non-viable she'll either die in my belly or I'll carry her to term and have to deliver her stillborn or if she arrives into this world you know her life will be measured in minutes or hours or days and plagued with medical devices um she would need to be placed directly onto hospice so imagine receiving an d pairing that with the the risk and complications of continuing the pregnancy and the child birth kn owing the uncertainty you just expressed around interpr how do you talk to your patients about this kind of thing knowing many of the will face the same thing that di d yeah well you know given that there is a essentially a complete ban on abortion in Texas these conversations are really hard to have and they're they're not happening in the way that they should um and did even you ye ars ago you know listening to Kate is heartbreaking because nobody should ever be in that situation you know we're in a situation where doctors are having to say how sick is too sick you close to death does somebody need to be and who is allowed to make that determination you know patients aren allowed to choose their own risk you know is it is it a 20% risk of death that is good enough to have an abortion in Texas or does it need to be 70% you know how much blood is too much blood for somebody to lose before we can sa that this is an acceptable abortion in the state of Texas and it's an un situation people are forced into the terrible choices that they're not even allowed to make and as a physicia just it's heartbreaking to be there you know I have the training and the capacity to provide care to these pe I live here in the state of Texas and I am prevented from providing Essential Medical Care to patients based on my judgment and the patients desires um by my state there's the mission to serve your patients there's also the legal risk you and your colleagues ha ving these discussions what's the conversation been like among othe OBGYNs in Texas I mean I culture of fear that exists now people aren't sure what is safe to say to their patients they're unsure what kind of care they can offer their patients and they are afraid that if they offer the standard of care that they will be punished that they will lose their license they will lose their family will suffer um and and again you know as and then on the other side you have this patient who suffers even more from this and you kn go into medicine to help people and to be held back from that is is really devastating as a provider and I think what we've seen in Kate Cox's case is that um the the state is determined to prevent us from practicing safe medicine you know we see that with the letters that the Attorney General sent hospitals and to The Physician threatening them um if they were to proceed with providing the standard of care um and I think it's just going to continue to harm people um in ways that we can't even imagine at this point well doctor as you know Texas is not alone in its abortion restrictions there there's some 15 other states that have near total bans the landscape shifts quickly as well the Arizona Supreme Court just heard arguments about an aborti Wyoming judge is now weighing whether not to uphold a medication abor do you consult and compare notes with with other doctors in other states I I mean we have I'm fortunate to belong to an amazing community of providers across the country and um you know it it some ways it feels like a race to the bottom and you know when when we talk about this the focus is always on the care that our patients need and what we can still do to help them in the face of all these restrictions you know our patients are terrified you know my collea telling me that patients are leaving their phones behind when they across state lines to get abortion care because they are afraid that they will be tracked and they will be punished seeking health care that's the environment that we live in that is Amna dermish OBGYN based in Austin Texas joining us tonight doctor thank you so much thank you so much Senators put an aid and Border Mega deal at top their holiday wish list the house takes a formal step toward impeaching the president and the caucus kickoff 2024's race for the presidency is less than 30 days away that brings us to the analysis of Brooks and Marcus that is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Ruth Marcus for the Washington Post Jonathan Kart is away it's great to see you both hi let's start with th late today I just want to get your reaction that Rudy Giu ordered to pay Georgia election sheos and Ruby Freeman almost $150 million for defamation David what do you make of that uh it's deserved I mean he ripped their lives to shreds uh with the tweet and with the all the lies that went on and so I think these b penalties are meant to send a message and they are sending a m lie and Destroy people's lives wh you're in a position o largest story is what ever Ry Giuliani you know when covered him I traveled around the city with him he was smart he believe me he had quirks uh he was gladiatorial but he was not the guy we see now and it's one of the most remarkable Transformations seen in public in journalism and it like what what gets rotted when you're desperate for relevance I was once having lunch decades ago now with a friend of mine named Michael wa s editing the two former officials across th restaurant and he pointed to said look a powerless lunch and they formerly held power and now they had no power and I think that's what Giuliani sold to shreds um and so he's he deserves what he's gotten Ruth what about you uh couldn't agree more um bu he did have power he had the power to destroy their lives uh I I wish um he could be summoned to pay the 150 million that amount is going to be reduced he doesn't have it no amount of money can make up for what they suffered he's not he is so um Shameless he continues continued to defame them outside the court even as the trial was going he is not going to have a comfortable retirement and he should couldn't happen to a nicer guy and I mean that sarcastically for anyb might get that wrong and we shou this is happening at a t threats against election them leaving their roles becaus don't want to deal with to come on that uh meanwhile to the because we know Senate negotiators are working to pas foreign aid bill that includes billions for Ukraine and for Israel held th ose border policy talks Senator Schumer is saying that the Senate come back next week they vote look Democrats are clearl incentivized to get this across the Finish Line are Republic incentivized nope nope uh no lo t of them would they're fine some of the Republicans would wouldn't do n't worry if we don't don't Uk raine Aid and th immigration issue and so they have les they have less urg I still somehow think it's going to get done it just makes so much s everybody gets something im want that what's happeni has to be addressed the Democr absolutely have to address it super important issue and Democr getting hammered on it uh and th Ukraine has to happen we can't let Vladimir Putin win tha seems to be so obvious the this is not sometimes when you get to 60 votes in the Senate you get 51 on e party and then you try to get nine others from the other part going to happen here you're it's going to be a 3030 you're get 30 Republicans and 3 both sides are going to lose a lot of people and doing that ki we've seen bipartisan deals before but doing a 3030 deal where you ge majority of both parties tha hard to do let alone immigration the issue that we have not made since 1986 that's correct yeah uh it's going to be a tough but it just the the logic behind this deal is so strong to me that I suspect they'll eventually get it done but you don't hear a lot of optimism right now on the about the logic behind the Biden position on this because lot of heat from the progressive in particular for many immigration concessions is he lo se many of the same members of t Coalition that put the them into office yes b there's actually Logic on both sides I think on the Republican side I have a slightly different answer than Davi gave because I think that many Republicans and particularly Senate Republicans the majority of th well uh are very incentivized to get the Ukraine funding including um Senator McConnell um and they know that border security has to be a piece of this on the how the H the problem is getting it through the house in order to get it through the house you have to Ho use Republicans that Democrats dragged to this kicking and screaming and that and so to a certain extent the administration and Advocates of getting this across the line benefit from Yelps you're hearing from the left right now they can calm them down late house but House Republicans have very mixed motives right they like border security as an issue perhaps more than and they like border security as a solution now from the pres of view this will be my last thing um is this gives he he has a problem on the left and people will be yelling at the end of this process if it uh if it's all comes together people from the left will be yelling but he has a bigger poli problem which is border security is a very motivating issue for voters that he has to get on his side in order to get reelected so this to some way gives him a little bit of an EXC use to do something that he wouldn't have po litical freedom to do sa y I took steps to help solve this well David I want to get your reaction to something Ruth s President Biden that lin policy to this foreign aid package if it does get addressed in these ways does that take it away from Republican political cudel next year it's not not going to totally solve the Border but maybe we won't have 10,0 Seekers crossing the border ever would say remember Joe Biden was in 2020 a lot of the activ groups and a lot of the democratic politicians who are on that the primary basically wanted to decriminalize the Border Joe Biden was o Democrats say no we're not going there if they had gone there Don would have won that election and think you know for Joe Biden to do what he's doing now and to be not qu Progressive On the Border while still being kind of progre political must must and the Border situation has gotten much worse since that conversation and so he really d need to do something meanwhile in house let's talk about this the Republican conferenc official impeachment inquiry into President Biden that inquiry we sh point out in our latest poll we've seen a slight increase in approval to move forward on that in the last couple of months in Octobe Americans disapproved 47% approved by December 48% disapproved 49% approved Hunter Biden of course on whom Republicans are hangin allegations this week defi a republican subpoena to testify privately he says he wants to do so publicly and here's w he had to say about this on Wednesday let me State as clearly as I can my father was not financially involved in my business not as a practicing lawyer not as a board member of barisma not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman not in my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist David there's no evidence linking the president to any wrongdoing yet why move ahead with thi vote well they it's easy to go ahead and and in do an inquiry there are a lot of Republicans who have no problem doing an inquiry but there ar Republican reason for impeachment there's no evidence here uh an think that the inquiry the inquiry was already going on so this something that was already an d so I I think I think there a lot of Republicans who are like fine let them have their inquiry unless there's some evidence sa y let them have their inquir Jordan basically and I will sa other thing one of the virtues of being on book tour is like 30 or 40 cities months and I've met hundre hundreds of people and I've Ukraine and and how many people have asked me about Hunter Biden h and so I happen to think it's one of these issues that's just not pe ople have bigger things to worr than this Ruth what's your tak take is that the Republican Maga not going to David Brooks's book events that's my take um this is I I'm ha this impeachment inquiry you sort of make it sound like no harm no th em go ahead with their inquiry this a shameful misuse of the impeachment power and the impeachment process um Michael Gerhart was on uh this program just the other night talking about how there had never been a formal impeachment inquiry um i history in the absence of credible evidence of wrongdoing so we are as you said for it's a it's a hunt for um High crimes and misdemeanors without evidence to do it and I think it threatened because once you get of ficial ball rolling then how do you stop from giving in to the demands for a vote for articles of impeachment and then you put the 18 or so Republicans who are in Biden a district set Biden won against Trump in a terrible position they're either going to invite depending on the timing they're going to invite their base to primary them i vote for it or they're going to have their General electorate um uh them when when they're trying to get reelected and so this does not sm art politics of this are to assuage Trump and to assuage the base but it's not to protect your majority well meanwhile 30 days to go until the Iowa caucuses feels like a good time to remind people about uh candidates who are still running Mr Trump is of course up 32 points comp to the other candidates uh but also still running for the Republican nominations Ronda santis ramaswami Chris Christie ASA Hutchinson's campaign also continues David do you see anything anything in that field changing between now and the time the Iowa caucuses begin no probably not um you know I we are always waiting well once campaigning starts in Iowa then the numbers will begin to move around and so campai and the numbers are not moving around if anything Donald Tr better yeah uh and little statistics that left out of me is among people Ians who've never been t caucus so political novices basically Trump I saw was winning by them by 62 63% so he's like swamping people like he's bringing in new people bring in new folks too yeah uh and so he very formidable in Iowa he's bringing in new people and he's got an operation for how to run the caucuses that was very amateurish um last time around and that is much better um last time around being 2016 um when he had a contested primary um and it's going to be much better now it's a kind of a preview forbid a second Trump term he's getting smarter at doing this and I I don't think there's any reason to expect that he's not going to be not going to win the caucuses and not going t Republican nominee there was a conversation we had several ha ven't heard in a while about eventually if enough peo stop him from becoming the nomi had to drop out they had to coales behind a single candidate has moment come and gone David l i ov er 50% so it's sort of an academic argument uh you know I think it woul useful for Chris Christie to drop o right now uh and give Nikki ki nd of shot in New Hampshire um and it's just somebody pointed it's a rerun of 2016 the other Republicans at tacking him they're not dropping out it's all the collective action problems we saw in 2016 and it's they've learned nothing it's a collective action problem politicians don't win if they drop out and they're worrying about themselves first but and it wouldn't make a difference Ruth Marcus David Brooks always good to see you both thank you so much with the holidays upon us you may be hunting for gifts for the Book yo ur life to help narrow down the many best books of the Year lists Jeffrey Brown speaks to two NewsHour regulars for our arts and culture series canvas and joining me again this year are two top readers and reviewers Gilbert Cruz books editor of the New York Times and Moren Corgan book critic of NPR's fresh air it's nice to see both of you again Moren I'll start with you should we start with fiction sure why not give us give us two of the many b a great year so two is hard Alice mcdermitt's Absolution um anybody who's read Alice mcdermit knows that she usually writes about my people Ir Catholics working class background New York you're not biased no I'm not no I'm not this time she takes those characters and puts them in Vietnam in 1963 we have uh the main character is a newlywed a young wife who is pulled into this group of women who are doing charitable Works in Vietnam while husbands are busy doing something else um and without being heavy-handed mcdermid manages to make a connection between the insistent charity of these women and early American intervention in Vietnam yeah cuz that's something else turns out to be the Vietnam War ri ght you gave it away um the other the other book that I loved uh one of the other books the Heaven and Earth grocery store by James McBride I think he's one of our most nuanced but cleare eyed writers about race this is set in pot Pottstown Pennsylvania around 1925 in a historically uh immigrant Jewish neighborhood and africanamerican and um I'll stop there it's amazing Gilbert you want to give us two Fiction two novels sure thing so one of my favorite books of the year uh one of our top books of the year was a book called The be sting by Murray is an Irish author his book was shortlisted for the booker priz this year and it's a family Saga it about uh four family members who uh forly were writing high on the hog and the 2008 financial crisis uh is hitting Ireland is hitting uh them and their little town and it's a book that sort of digs deep down into their internal lives their emotional lives their sections that go between all of the differ characters and it's a book of the unknowability of people that you love you can live with someone for a very long time and still them because you can never truly know a person it's funny it's sad it's it's tragic it's a lot of things and you really fall in love with all of ch aracters so th uh second one is called Northwoods and this is by Daniel Mason and it is set over 300 years and rather than focus on any individual character this plot of land and this house in Western Massachusetts is the main character it takes you through three centuries and it gives you all these different characters and through these characters Da Mason writes uh throug different genres and several different types of literary Styles it's constantly surprising uh and it's just a delight to read he he his writing is so beautiful interesting all four of these books have a lot of history as well as life to them how about non-fiction Moren yeah well here's some more uh history uh the wager by David Gran he's having such a big year with killers of the FL the flower moon this work of history narrative history is about as traditional as you get it's abou shipwreck a mutiny Survival on a island a bunch of British Sailors uh are on a ship called the wager that ship goes breaks apart uh in a storm in 174 off the coast of Patagonia and for a while they survive on this island and then a group of the sailors patche together a rickety vessel and sails 25 miles to Brazil and that's only part of the story so so that's that's one of them and then safia Sinclair's Memoir her debut Memoir how to say Babylon I thought was outstanding um you know it tells that kind of familiar story about breaking out of a repressive childhood context into a wider World in her case she grew up in a strict Rastafarian household she's a lovely writer she's a poet and her nature descriptions of Jamaica along with everything else are are really stunning okay Gilbert to non-fiction I have to second moren's recommendation all the books she is talking about are great bu love that one uh one is Master Slave husband wife by Ilan Wu this is uh a piece of historical narrative non-fiction it is about a couple in uh 1848 they live in Georgi they are an enslaved couple and right before Christmas they decide to to make a run for it to leave Georgia and try to escape to the North and the way that they do this is by disgu wife Ellen craft who is a light-skinned African-American as a wealthy white man and her husband sort of serves uh or play acts as her servant and they make this 4-day journey it's very tens amazingly researched uh that's just the first part of the story you get a peak into their lives after they make it to the North the way they got uh anti-slavery advocacy it's a historical You Know Drama it's a love story uh that reads like a novel it's quite an amazing book the second non-fiction book I will talk about is a book called fire weather this no w this one is set in present time i is a climate change book fire weather by John Valiant it's a sensibly about th 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire which took place in Canada Fort McMurray is an oil Boom Town it is it is a place that popped up and and has made great wealth for People based on extraction of oil from the ground that extraction has led to climate change and that climate change has led to a giant wi resulted in the evacuation of almost 100,000 people in 2016 and again it's a book that reads like a novel it mixes a beat bybe account of a wildfire with the history of oil extraction climate change it's just masterfully done I want to you're just in our short time left here about whether you're see either in your own reading or in the writing that's coming across your Mor well as many people have pointed out we're living in a time um that's very much like the 30s our our fiction especially our literary fiction is very much um centered on social issues and social problems I thought it was interesting though this year th novels that I wouldn't have expected see uh social is issues crop up in especially Reproductive Rights um all of a sudden those novels veered into uh an abortion rights plot which was Megan Abbott's suspense novel beware the women and also to a certain extent an patchett's novel Tom Lake had that s we're very much uh socially conscious in in our art these days Gilbert what are you saying there are tons and tons of historical fiction novels out there feel like this genre if you can call it a genre just continues to grow an to mention a book that Moren just uh just mentioned Tom lake that is one of at least three books set during the pandemic that uh came out this summ and fall Michael Cunningham had a book secret NES had a book I think we'll continue to see uh books set du pandemic and then there's this J this sub genre that has been around for a while and and and has ruled sort of pa of the bestseller list this year which is Romany we have written abou the Times lots of places have written about it which is a mix of fa ntasy and the author Rebecca yaros uh with her books fourth wi and and iron flame sort of really dominated the bestseller list this year all right some of the best books of the Year Gilbert Cruz of the New York Times of NPR's fresh air thank you both very much once again thank you and you can check out the full book list on our website that's pbs.org/newshour and there's always a lot more online including a story about the challeng faced by the nation's only mental health hotline specifically for and operated by transgender people that's at pbs.org/newshour and tune in to Washington Week with the Atlantic tonight on PBS Our Guest Fr anklin for and his panel discussed the convergence of political problems that could hinder president Biden's reelection and on Saturday's weekend a look at why Pope Francis advocating for church reform is creating divisions between some conservative American Catholics and the Vatican and that is the newsour for tonight I'm Jeff Bennett and I'm Anna Nas on behalf of the entire NewsHour team thank you for joining us major funding for has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years BNSF the engine that connects us and with the ongoing support of the these individuals and institutions and Friends of the newsour 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