GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue their push in critical swing states as Election Day draws closer.

GEOFF BENNETT: Boeing workers overwhelmingly reject the company's offer to end the strike, complicating the CEO's plan to turn the aerospace giant around.

AMNA NAWAZ: And aided by a new federal law, environmentalists work to detect dangerous methane leaks in energy-producing states.

MELISSA OSTROFF, Earthworks: There are health hazards to breathing this in.

And you will see tanks like this in people's backyards.

AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

With the presidential election just 12 days away, new polling shows the presidential race neck-and-neck.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's adding urgency to the Harris campaign.

The vice president is now consistently painting her opponent as an existential threat to democracy.

That's as Donald Trump is in the Sun Belt tonight focusing again on immigration.

Lisa Desjardins reports.

LISA DESJARDINS: Former President Donald Trump campaigning today down in the desert in the pivotal state of Arizona, where election workers in Maricopa County are already tabulating ballots from early voters, like these in Phoenix.

ARIANNA WELKER, Arizona Voter: So I did vote for Kamala, a lot of reasons personally, that I just don't agree with Trump.

CAROL KEANE, Arizona Voter: I like the way the country ran when he was in charge.

Not liking his personality, absolutely.

I don't like his personality, but I like his policies.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump is at Arizona State university to rally the college crowd, but also to put the spotlight back on one of those policies, immigration.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: She has eradicated our sovereign border and she has unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.

LISA DESJARDINS: Something his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, was pressed on repeatedly at a CNN town hall last night.

She was asked whether she supports more border wall.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Let's just fix the problem.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN Host: And to fix the problem, you're doing this compromise bill.

It does call for $650 million that was earmarked under Trump to actually still go to build the wall.

KAMALA HARRIS: I'm not afraid of good ideas, where they occurred.

ANDERSON COOPER: You don't think it's stupid anymore?

KAMALA HARRIS: I think what he did and how he did it was -- did not make much sense because he actually didn't do much of anything.

LISA DESJARDINS: This as a Wall Street Journal poll shows Trump with the edge nationally, up by two points over the vice president.

And a new Marist poll shows tight races, with Trump in the lead in North Carolina and Arizona and Georgia a tie, all of those polls within the margin of error.

Harris also made headlines last night for her other answers about faith.

KAMALA HARRIS: I do pray every day, sometimes twice a day.

LISA DESJARDINS: And for her thoughts after Trump's former chief of staff said he fits the definition of fascist.

ANDERSON COOPER: Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?

KAMALA HARRIS: Yes, I do.

Yes, I do.

LISA DESJARDINS: Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, doubling down today.

KAMALA HARRIS: We have the choice of Donald Trump, who will sit in the Oval Office stewing, plotting revenge, retribution, writing out his enemies list.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: But don't kid yourself.

You're somewhere on that list too if you disagree with these people.

That's who they are.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump had his own accusation against Harris last night at a rally in Georgia that was one of his largest in recent weeks.

DONALD TRUMP: Our country is being destroyed and crippled by Kamala Harris... (CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: ... a person that got no votes, no votes.

Therefore, she's a threat to democracy.

LISA DESJARDINS: And speaking to conservative podcaster Hugh Hewitt today, Trump also talked about what he would do if elected to special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the two federal cases against him.

DONALD TRUMP: We got immunity at the Supreme Court.

It's so easy.

I would fire him within two seconds.

LISA DESJARDINS: From Trump running mate J.D.

Vance today, a written argument in an op-ed in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, accusing Harris of prejudice against Catholics.

The Harris campaign did not comment after our request for response.

But the column brought Vance union criticism for crossing a virtual picket line.

Workers have been on strike at the paper for two years.

Fewer than two weeks to go, and the campaigns are battling across media and across the map.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines with a major development in a legal case that gripped the nation.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are recommending that the Menendez brothers be resentenced for the 1989 killing of their parents.

It's the first step in what could lead to their eventual release.

Lyle and Erik Menendez admitted to fatally shooting their mother and father in the family's Beverly Hills mansion.

After an initial mistrial, a second trial was held in which evidence of their father's sexual abuse was largely excluded.

The brothers received life without parole.

They are now in their 50s and many family and friends have pleaded for their release.

L.A. District attorney George Gascon told reporters today that the matter should be put before a parole board.

GEORGE GASCON (D), Los Angeles County District Attorney: I believe that they have paid their debt to society.

And the system provides a vehicle for their case to be reviewed by a parole board.

And if the parole concurs with my assessment, and it will be their decision, they will be released accordingly.

AMNA NAWAZ: The Menendez case has received increased public attention thanks in part to a and a popular Netflix drama series.

The owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice.

That comes a month after U.S. officials sued the Singapore-based companies in an effort to recover the money spent to clear the debris and reopen the port.

The DOJ had alleged that the ship's electrical systems were not properly maintained, causing it to lose power and slam into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.

Six construction workers were killed and traffic in the port was held up for months.

The Biden administration is strengthening requirements on removing lead paint dust from older homes and childcare facilities.

Paint that contains lead was banned in 1978, but an estimated 30 million American homes still have it.

That includes nearly four million households with children under the age of 6.

The new rule is projected to reduce lead exposures for up to 1.2 million people per year, including hundreds of thousands of kids.

It's set to take effect early next year and comes two weeks after the EPA imposed a nationwide deadline for the removal of lead pipes.

The White House laid out new rules today on the use of artificial intelligence by U.S. national security and spy agencies.

The framework tells agencies to expand their use of certain A.I.

systems.

It also puts guardrails on other uses, like applications that would violate civil rights or automatically deploy nuclear weapons.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told students at the National Defense University that the U.S. has an obligation to ensure the ethical use of A.I.

technology.

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. National Security Adviser: We have to carry out this effort with respect to information warfare as a democracy that doesn't do state-run propaganda and have just arms of misinformation spread everywhere.

We have got to do a consistent with our values in our ways.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sullivan also called the speed of change in A.I.

breathtaking, making regulation difficult.

And many of the deadlines that come with this order will expire after President Biden leaves office, meaning it would be up to the next president to decide whether to stick to the guidelines or change them.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Qatar today for the latest leg of his Middle East trip.

While there, he said he expects cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas to resume in the coming days.

Blinken visited with Qatari officials in Doha today, who have been key mediators for Hamas.

He said that Israel has succeeded in dismantling Hamas' military wing and now is the time to end the war.

Blinken also announced additional humanitarian funding for Palestinians, while urging Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: Today, we're announcing an additional $135 million in humanitarian assistance.

We all know that it's not enough to provide funding.

It's not even enough to get the assistance to the borders of Gaza.

What's so critical is that the aid gets to the people who need it.

AMNA NAWAZ: On the ground, Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike today on a school-turned-shelter in Central Gaza killed at least 17 people.

The hospital that received the victims reported that women and children were among the dead and that at least 42 others were wounded.

Israel says that Hamas militants were hiding inside the school.

In the Philippines, at least 24 people have died amid massive flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Trami.

It hit the northeastern province of Isabela shortly after midnight local time today.

Flash floods drenched towns and villages.

Soldiers passed out food and supplies to evacuees and used boats to rescue stranded people.

The government closed schools and offices for the entire island of Luzon for a second day.

Stormy weather has continued, making relief work difficult, and the death toll is expected to rise.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed after recent losses this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 140 points, or about a third of 1 percent.

The Nasdaq added nearly 140 points on the day.

The S&P 500 managed to snap a three-session losing streak, gaining about 12 points.

And New York has been show year's WNBA champions with love, gratitude and ticker tape today.

Series MVP Jonquel Jones led the Liberty's parade down Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes this morning.

The team won their first ever championship in thrilling style on Sunday, defeating the Minnesota Lynx in overtime in a deciding game five.

New York has hosted more than 200 ticker tape parades over the years, but this was only the third time a women's sports team has been honored following parades for the U.S. women's national soccer team in 2015 and again in 2019.

Still to come on the "News Hour": where the presidential candidates stand on the most pressing foreign policy issues facing the U.S.; a new book on the complex legacy of Senator Mitch McConnell; and Donald Trump's rambling speeches raise questions about his mental acuity.

GEOFF BENNETT: Boeing is no closer to ending its six-week-old strike after its latest contract offer was rejected by workers last night by a stunning margin.

The results of that vote came just hours after the company announced a huge quarterly loss and acknowledged it has a long way to go to earn back customers' trust.

Stephanie Sy has our report.

(CHEERING) STEPHANIE SY: The latest attempt to end a six-week strike didn't end well for Boeing.

JON HOLDEN, President, International Association of Machinists District 751: Today, members voted to reject the company's latest offer by 64 percent, 64 percent.

(CHEERING) STEPHANIE SY: An overwhelming result that keeps 33,000 factory workers on the picket lines in Washington, Oregon and California.

After last night's vote, Jon Holden, the president of the local union, vowed to keep putting the pressure on Boeing.

JON HOLDEN: We will stand for the demands that our members need to get a contract that they can respect, that shows the respect that they deserve.

There's much more work to do.

STEPHANIE SY: If the deal had passed, it would have given workers a 35 percent wage increase over four years, as well as a $7,000 signing bonus, a compromise between the company's offer of a 25 percent increase and the union's initial demand for a 40 percent raise.

Boeing refused to budge on demands that it restore a traditional pension that was axed a decade ago.

Worker say that is a major sticking point.

BRIAN HATCHER, Boeing Employee: Even a lot of the new hires are looking at the pension as a way to the future.

The fact that the country has not given that as an option and everybody says they're out of date does not mean they don't work.

CHARLES FROMONG, Boeing Employee: I feel sorry for the young people.

I have spent my life here and I'm getting ready to go.

But they deserve a pension and I deserve an increase.

STEPHANIE SY: Boeing says its machinists make about $75,000 a year, on average.

The majority of those on strike live in the Seattle area, where living costs have skyrocketed in the last decade, far outpacing Boeing's annual raises and COLA adjustments.

JEREMIAH ROSARIO, Boeing Employee: People that have been here in this leading industry, the biggest aerospace company in the world, we like to see better from them and we deserve better from them.

STEPHANIE SY: The labor standoff has contributed to a huge backlog of orders.

Ahead of the vote yesterday, the company announced its third-quarter revenue, a dismal $6 billion loss.

Boeing, a century-old icon of American aviation, had been experiencing turbulence well before the strike began.

Not long after the 737 MAX hit the market in 2017, two of them crashed, killing 346 people.

And in January of this year, a door panel blew off that same model midair.

KELLY ORTBERG, CEO, Boeing: There's no silver bullet.

This isn't going to be fixed in one fell swoop.

STEPHANIE SY: Yesterday, before the union vote, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, at the helm only since August, spoke on CNBC.

KELLY ORTBERG: We're reevaluating the values in the company, and we really need to invoke -- embark on a culture change that is something more than just a poster on the wall.

It's really going to guide how the company behaves.

STEPHANIE SY: Ortberg admitted to investors that trust has -- quote -- "eroded," but he committed to restoring the company's reputation.

KELLY ORTBERG: This is not a story about losing market support for our products.

Demand is tremendous.

This is a story about us getting our act together and being able to deliver the aircraft to the demand that they need.

STEPHANIE SY: But, first, the company needs to get all its workers back on board.

The union hopes the Biden administration, including acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, who was in Seattle 10 days ago, will facilitate the party's return to the negotiating table.

The strike is estimated to be costing the company a billion dollars a month.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: It is among the most consequential decisions presidents can make, when to go to war and how to support America's partners in their wars.

As part of our series Promises and Policies, we look at the candidates' policies on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the promises they have made on what they would do if elected president.

For more on that, we turn to Nick Schifrin.

Good to see you, Nick.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's start in the Middle East then.

So what are the candidates policies there and specifically on Gaza?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Both candidates express outrage over the October 7 terrorist attacks.

They support Israel's right to defend itself and they promise military support for Israel.

And, interestingly, both criticize the nature of the war in Gaza, but through different lenses and with different solutions.

So, first, let's listen to Harris talking about Gaza in July after meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time, we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies.

We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Now let's listen to former President Trump first speaking to reporters from Israel's Hayom, a conservative outlet, from Israel back in March.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Shots, I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza.

And I said, ooh, that's a terrible portrait.

It's a very bad picture for the world.

The world is seeing this.

QUESTION: Yes, but Hamas terrorists are in those buildings, so how can we fight them?

DONALD TRUMP: You go and do what you have to do, but you don't do that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So Trump has kept that implicit criticism consistent, Amna, even wanting to see the war in Gaza and soon, and even after speaking to Netanyahu in August.

DONALD TRUMP: I did encourage him to get this over with.

You want to get it over with.

It has to get over with fast, but have victory, get your victory, and get it over with.

It has to stop.

The killing has to stop.

NICK SCHIFRIN: So when you look at how to get the war to stop, that is where the two candidates differ.

As you just heard, Trump said that Israel has to have victory, although, as far as I can tell, he's never actually described destroying Hamas, which is, of course, how Benjamin Netanyahu describes victory.

Harris, on the other hand, has said the war in Gaza should end with a cease-fire that would release all the hostages and end the war.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we have seen now Mr. Trump has used the Biden/Harris administration's call for a cease-fire as a way to say that he is actually a stronger supporter of Israel, right?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, exactly.

Even though that framework for the cease-fire that President Biden announced is actually Israel's framework for a cease-fire, Trump's used the cease-fire and the administration's pause on 2,000-pound bombs to Israel to portray Biden and Harris as withholding support for Israel.

DONALD TRUMP: From the start, Harris has worked to tie Israel's hands behind its back, demanding an immediate cease-fire.

And I will give Israel the support that it needs to win, but I do want them to win fast.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You see how Trump actually leaves the prompter to add "win fast."

Harris, on the other hand, highlights the administration's unprecedented support for Israel, including helping shoot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel in April and just last week to plane an air defense system with 100 soldiers.

And Harris describes her support for Israel as lifelong.

KAMALA HARRIS: From when I was a young girl collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I have had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Harris describes U.S. support for Israel, Amna, through the lens of a decades-old partnership.

Former President Trump describes U.S. support for the state of Israel needing him personally.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, let's switch now to Russia's war in Ukraine.

Tell us where the candidates stand on both U.S. support for Ukraine and also just the future of the war.

NICK SCHIFRIN: As you know, Vice President Harris and, frankly, much of the foreign policy establishment here in Washington has stood by Ukraine.

Former President Donald Trump promises to end the war even before beginning a second term, and he's questioned the level of U.S. support to Ukraine.

So, first, let's listen to him during last month's ABC debate.

DAVID MUIR, Moderator: Do you want Ukraine to win this war?

DONALD TRUMP: I want the war to stop.

I want to save lives.

It's the U.S.' best interest to get this war finished and just get it done, negotiate a deal, because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Trump has not described how he would accomplish ending the war, but some advisers from the other Trump administrations, from the previous Trump administration wrote a research paper that lays out a few points.

One, Ukraine should negotiate based on the current front lines.

Two, delay Ukraine's NATO membership for at least a decade.

Offer Russia sanctions relief in exchange for giving Ukraine some kind of long-term security architecture.

And here's what Vice President Harris said about those ideas right before she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September.

KAMALA HARRIS: There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations.

These proposals are the same of those of Putin.

And let us be clear.

They are not proposals for peace.

Instead, they are proposals for surrender.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But neither Harris nor the Biden administration have described exactly how they will help Ukraine achieve victory.

Ukraine's achievement -- or Ukraine's description of victory requires NATO membership and using U.S. weapons to strike long -- deep into Russia, two items that the Biden administration has actually rejected.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, you mentioned NATO.

If you take a slightly broader lens here, how do both Harris and Trump differ when it comes to NATO and Europe?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Well, very dramatically.

In one of the most notorious foreign policy moments of the campaign, Trump seemed to dismiss Article 5 that commits the U.S. to defending European allies, regardless of whether they spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

DONALD TRUMP: Most politicians have said to that, yes, we will protect you under any circumstances.

Well, then they're never paying up.

I said, no, no, you have to understand.

You don't pay your bills.

You get no protection.

It's very simple.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Trump's allies say, don't take him literally, he is continuing a pressure campaign on Europe that they see as successful in order to get Europe to pay or spend more of their money on defense.

But we saw Harris about that, Trump's statement, say this in September: KAMALA HARRIS: Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO, and what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their independence.

Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Senior European officials I speak to, Amna, are enormously worried about what a second Trump administration would mean.

For their part, Israeli officials tell me they're worried about whether Harris will maintain the level of support for Israel.

Bottom line, of course, it's no surprise the entire world is watching this election, knowing what's at stake.

AMNA NAWAZ: The world is watching.

Nick Schifrin, thank you so much.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, is set to step down from that position next month.

Over nearly two decades in the role, he has become one of the most consequential and powerful senators in U.S. history, reshaping the federal judiciary, now navigating a party transformed by Donald Trump.

The Associated Press' Michael Tackett has written the first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell due out on Tuesday.

It's called "The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party."

Michael Tackett joins us now.

Thanks for being here.

MICHAEL TACKETT, Author, "The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party": Oh, great to be here, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So this book has already garnered a lot of attention, in large part because you quote Mitch McConnell as he is sharing his private views with you about how he views Donald Trump.

He called him a sleazeball, a narcissist, says he's stupid, as well as being ill-tempered, not very smart, irascible, nasty, just about every quality you would not want somebody to have.

And yet Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump.

Why?

MICHAEL TACKETT: there'S a real contradiction there, obviously, and it's hard for people to sort that out.

What it starts with is, he wants to be in control of the Senate.

He wants to stay as the Senate leader.

He can't stay as a Senate leader if he doesn't endorse the Republican nominee.

So that's why he did it.

GEOFF BENNETT: He also says the MAGA movement is completely wrong, that Ronald Reagan wouldn't recognize the party today.

How does he explain Donald Trump's hold on the current Republican Party?

MICHAEL TACKETT: He thinks that there are a group of people who -- in the country who feel like life has not been fair, they have not been able to partake of the greatness of the country.

They haven't had the economic opportunity that they want to have, and therefore Donald Trump was able to capture them and keep them in their fold.

And people like him or traditional Republicans really find it hard to navigate.

GEOFF BENNETT: He's also said that he's proudest of shaping the Supreme Court, that his legacy will be defined by that.

And he considers his denial of Merrick Garland his proudest achievement, based on your reporting.

Democrats see that as the height of partisan obstructionism that really damaged the legitimacy of the court.

MICHAEL TACKETT: That's the debate.

And the thing is, is that what it really was a real blunt-force use of his power.

There really wasn't a clear precedent for that.

And some would argue there was no precedent for that.

But he could do it simply because he could, because, in the Senate, he only needed to have a majority of the votes to do it.

And he did it, and he rammed it through, and he was criticized for that.

And that's a big part of his legacy.

He looks at it as this was the greatest thing I ever did.

Others think he undermined the institution of the court and undermined the faith of the court in the process.

GEOFF BENNETT: He spoke with Justice Alito as you were reporting out this book.

What did he tell you?

MICHAEL TACKETT: Well, he agrees that McConnell really steered the court in the right direction from his point of view.

And it was interesting to me that Geoff, that he actually refers to it as the McConnell court, not the Trump court, the McConnell court.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about January 6, because after the rioters had been cleared from the Capitol and lawmakers returned from their secure location, McConnell addressed his staff.

And as you write, he started to sob softly.

He told his staff: "You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this."

He eventually voted to equip Donald Trump in the second impeachment that was focused on Trump's involvement in January 6.

But he didn't necessarily get to that decision easily, based on your reporting.

Walk us through that.

MICHAEL TACKETT: There's no question about that.

I think initially he thought -- first of all, he thought there was no question that he committed an impeachable offense.

He still thinks that.

The issue for him was, could you convict somebody if they were no longer in office?

And that was the rationale that he chose to use, that nobody had ever been impeached when they were out of office.

It's a really important part of understanding McConnell.

Like him or not like him, he is a rational actor.

He looks at the cost-benefit analysis.

If he doesn't see it, he doesn't do it.

And in this particular case, his calculation was, Donald Trump is going to fade from the scene.

He will be gone.

And I need the energy of the Trump base in the midterm elections.

And as I say in the book, it was the worst political calculation of his career.

GEOFF BENNETT: Does he view it that way?

MICHAEL TACKETT: I think he looks at it in hindsight and realizes that Donald Trump is still on the scene.

So he still thinks that there's no way he could have gotten 67 votes to convict.

And he thought there was no point in going through the exercise if it wasn't going to be successful.

GEOFF BENNETT: Where does he think the Republican Party goes next?

I mean, is Trumpism cemented within the GOP, in his view?

MICHAEL TACKETT: I think we will know the answer to that after Election Day.

If the election turns out to be favorable to the Republican Party, then they are clearly completely in the hold of Donald Trump.

If Republicans don't have such a good day, then there's a reckoning of a different kind.

GEOFF BENNETT: The title of the book is "The Price of Power."

What price has Mitch McConnell paid in the pursuit of power?

MICHAEL TACKETT: He said this more than once.

He said, look, I know all the Democrats hate me because of Garland.

I know half the Republicans hate me because of Trump.

And so he's also one of the least popular members of the U.S. Senate if you look at all the polling.

Even in his home state of Kentucky, his poll numbers are terrible.

And yet every time he runs for reelection, his margins grow.

So I think he's at peace with the fact that he did what he wanted to do.

But on the other hand, he knows he paid a heavy price in terms of sort of the isolation almost of being that unpopular.

GEOFF BENNETT: The book is "The Price of Power."

Its author is Michael Tackett.

Thanks again for speaking with me.

I appreciate it.

MICHAEL TACKETT: Thank you, Geoff.

AMNA NAWAZ: If he is reelected, former President Donald Trump, now 78 years old, would be the oldest president ever elected.

After a number of appearances where his remarks were rambling or incoherent, and one event in which he swayed silently to music on stage for close to 40 minutes, questions are being raised about possible cognitive decline.

Here are a couple of recent events that sparked concern, the first one in which he began talking about electric vehicles, then switched to a story about an electrically powered boat.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Let's see your boat goes down, and I'm sitting on top of this big powerful battery, and the boat's going down.

Do I get electrocuted?

(LAUGHTER) DONALD TRUMP: And he said: "You know what?

Honestly, nobody's ever asked me that question."

But if I'm sitting down and that boat's going down and I'm on top of a battery, and the water starts flooding in, I'm getting concerned.

But then I look 10 yards to my left and there's a shark over there.

So I have a choice of electrocution or a shark.

You know what I'm going to take?

Electrocution.

I will take electrocution every single time.

Let's listen to Pavarotti sing "Ave Maria."

Can you hear that?

(MUSIC) AMNA NAWAZ: Mr. Trump has dismissed any speculation about mental decline, describing his rambling rhetoric as him weaving together different topics and saying his supporters get it.

Let's take a look at some of these questions with an author and clinical psychologist who's raised some of them.

That's Dr. Ben Michaelis.

Doctor, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

DR. BEN MICHAELIS, Clinical Psychologist: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Doctor, both his political opponents, but also some academics, look at his speech patterns, they look at his stories and some odd behavior and they say it's all evidence of mental decline.

Do you see it that way?

Are those concerns valid?

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: So, obviously, I can't diagnose someone in absentia, but, certainly, there is ample evidence.

And, look, he's 78 years old.

Just to be fair, all of us tend to decline over time.

Some of what we're seeing is pretty extreme elements of his decline that are certainly suggestive of more serious impairment.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, tell us a bit more about what you see that says that to you, especially in terms of who he is today versus a year ago or even to Trump of 2016.

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: So, I did an analysis for STAT News about seven years ago, looking at the complexity of his speech from when he was in his 40s to when he was running for president back in 2016.

And at that time, there was definitely a difference both in his sentence structure and in the complexity of his vocabulary between from when he was, say, in 40s to when he was in his earlier later 60s or earlier 70s.

What's happened between 2016, 2017 and now is not so much a difference in the vocabulary.

The vocabulary is not significantly less complex than it was, but it's in the thought patterns.

So he's not staying linear.

So, right now, we're having a conversation.

We're staying on topic.

You're asking questions.

I'm responding.

And what we're saying kind of has a sort of hand-in-glove quality to it.

But what we're seeing with Trump is, basically, he's moving further and further away from linearity, from linearity to tangentiality, so he's sort of weaving together ideas, and then it's moving further afield towards circumstantiality.

And that's really where you sort of start talking about a topic, and then you just really sort of lose the thread entirely.

And there's a lot of that we're seeing in his speech patterns.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, as you know, there are others who see this differently, and they think that his speech patterns, his remarks, his behavior don't necessarily suggest anything, especially cognitive decline.

Among them are Dr. Jamie Reilly, he's director of a cognition lab at Temple University.

Here's part of what he had to say.

DR. JAMIE REILLY, Temple University: There are people who count syllables, and they count the speech rate, and they count the number of things like how much he curses and things like that, and have noted changes.

They have noted changes in his syntax, the grammatical complexity of his language.

The question of whether that is a marker of a cognitive -- of a disease process is really, really tricky.

So, when you read that literature, you will see that people note that there are changes, but they don't take that next step of saying, this is a marker of something, right?

We just know that there are some changes happening, and sometimes people run with that, and they say this is evidence for something, but I'm not sure you can make that leap at all.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Michaelis, what do you make of that?

Is that a leap too far to make?

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: So, again, not making a formal diagnosis of dementia -- you need to actually assess him formally and face-to-face in order to do that.

You can't diagnose anyone in absentia.

But what we're seeing is real, and it's -- part of the challenge is, so, look, again, he's 78 years old.

If this was your grandfather, you probably wouldn't think twice about it.

Again, we all decline with age.

What I'm seeing is more challenges with the thought processes, that, again, I'm not saying that he has dementia, but they are suggestive of, if you sort of took this all in totality, right?

So, problems with memory loss, communication difficulties, changes in mood, poor judgment, personality changes, those in total are what really the symptoms of dementia.

And there's certainly evidence to suggest, and I think it is a reasonable thing to think about this.

I mean, this is a person that is running for the most powerful office in the world.

And I think we should be very thoughtful about who we're putting in that office, because these are real concerns.

His decisions were he to be reelected affect all of us.

AMNA NAWAZ: You mentioned dementia specifically.

There's a family history I want to ask you about, because his father, Fred Trump, was diagnosed with dementia.

Does that mean anything for a former President Trump's likelihood of also potentially developing dementia?

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: Again, it just increases the odds.

We know these things run in families.

There's certainly evidence of that.

And there are sort of genetic markers that you can certainly take tests for to see.

But all that does is increase the odds.

So you take that information, which -- as well as all the different things that you're seeing, and it paints a picture.

And what I'm hoping to do is just put a little bit of a spotlight on this, so that people make an informed decision about who they are putting in the Oval Office.

That's all.

AMNA NAWAZ: Separate and apart from any formal diagnosis, there are those who say, look, this is just who President Trump is and has always been, right, that he occasionally speaks this way and tells incoherent stories and uses more brash and aggressive language.

It's just Trump being Trump and has nothing to do with cognitive decline.

Could that be it?

Could it just be personality?

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: I mean, I suppose, but, look, he -- the fact of the matter is that he is an entertaining -- he's an entertainer fundamentally, and people -- he's entertaining to watch for people.

So if you're not trained in this, you may be focused only on -- and he has a lot of vigor.

Let's be very clear.

For a 70-year-old man, he has a lot of vigor.

And so you're focusing on those things, but not the sort of total picture of what we're seeing.

And this isn't -- from my perspective, this is not just sort of Trump being Trump.

Like, if you look at footage for him over the last few years, he seems to be becoming more and more circumstantial, I mean, this idea about sort of starting talking about electric cars and then moving to sharks, and then this sort of digression with music the other day, where he was swaying to music for 30 minutes, and then using more and more sort of derogatory language.

Again, it just paints a concerning picture.

AMNA NAWAZ: What would it take to definitively answer or quiet these concerns?

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: Look, I think that anyone that is running for office, and certainly the highest office in the land, should be evaluated by an independent evaluator, not someone that is appointed by his team or by the opposition, by someone that is truly independent.

And maybe it's three independent evaluators.

But that seems appropriate to me, right?

We license people to drive.

When you're behind the wheel of a two-ton death machine, you could harm people.

And think about the power that is invested in the presidency.

So it just seems appropriate to do a formal evaluation of him.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is clinical psychologist Dr. Ben Michaelis joining us tonight.

Dr. Michaelis, thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

DR. BEN MICHAELIS: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Two major laws passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden provide new money and new requirements for reducing potent methane emissions, including those coming from abandoned oil and gas wells.

Now the federal government has started awarding some contracts for capping those wells.

But the election could impact whether this work will continue, since former President Donald Trump wants to reverse many rules and recently referred to climate concerns as a scam.

Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports from the battleground state of Pennsylvania on the larger scope of the problem.

MILES O'BRIEN: Deep in the Allegheny National Forest of Northwestern Pennsylvania... MELISSA OSTROFF, Earthworks: I see something through there, yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: ... Melissa Ostroff is blazing trails down narrow roads through thick brush, hoping to see the methane for the trees.

MELISSA OSTROFF: All right, we have to go this way.

WOMAN: It's not through here to get around there?

MELISSA OSTROFF: Oh, this just looks so much easier.

MILES O'BRIEN: Nothing easy about this work.

She's with an environmental advocacy group called Earthworks.

Operating a $100,000 thermal imaging camera able to record plumes of hydrocarbons, she's hunting for methane, or natural gas, often found along with oil, and often found leaking out of oil wells, active or not.

MELISSA OSTROFF: You can hear and see the bubbling that comes from the methane underground, and with this optical gas imaging camera, I'm able to also see that this methane is going into the air.

MILES O'BRIEN: The forests of Pennsylvania are filled with thousands of orphaned and abandoned oil wells, many of them more than a century-old.

History's first oil rush began not far from here in 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled the first commercially viable well.

Pennsylvania estimates there are more than 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells in the state.

MELISSA OSTROFF: There's no responsible party that we can hold accountable now to clean up the mess that we have here, and so it's just leaking into the air one of these at a time.

MILES O'BRIEN: Methane traps about 80 times more heat during a 20-year lifetime than carbon dioxide.

It is responsible for about 30 percent of human-caused global warming, and about 8 percent of methane emissions in Pennsylvania are linked to orphaned and abandoned wells.

MELISSA OSTROFF: Through this camera it looks like smoke.

I can see it kind of puffing away here.

It's not totally sealed, and that's pretty typical.

MILES O'BRIEN: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection estimates the average cost to plug a conventional well like this is about $100,000, but this can vary depending on the depth, the condition of the well, and its accessibility.

The cost creates a perverse incentive to keep wells active long past their prime.

MELISSA OSTROFF: They know the cost of plugging is really high, so they're going to try to keep it in that gray area as long as possible, where it's just producing a trickle.

MILES O'BRIEN: The loopholes, the shades of gray, and the dearth of accurate records compound the devilish problem.

MARY KANG, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, McGill University: There are these documented wells that the states know about, they have records on, and then there are all these undocumented wells.

MILES O'BRIEN: Mary Kang is an associate professor of civil engineering at McGill University.

She and her team were the first to publish measurements of methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells.

They started with GPS coordinates gleaned from state databases and local activists.

MARY KANG: There were so many times we get there and we are looking for one well and then we will find five, six, or a dozen, and then you start to ask, well, how many are missing?

MILES O'BRIEN: Kang and other experts estimate there may be a million orphaned oil and gas wells in the U.S., but, right now, only 140,000 of them are documented.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill set aside $4.7 billion to begin tackling the problem.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has used the money to greatly accelerate a well-capping campaign, celebrating its 200th finished project in March.

Governor Josh Shapiro: GOV.

JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): Today, Pennsylvania is facing the consequences of a legacy left by an industry that made a buck off our natural resources and then got away with it abandoning these gas wells without properly plugging them.

MILES O'BRIEN: The American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas producers, says it has established strong industry standards to advance the permanent closure and remediation of historic wells and it supports a sound policy framework for bonding and financial assurance to ensure operators can meet their decommissioning obligations.

MELISSA OSTROFF: Typically, I will go straight to the Department of Environmental Protection and file a complaint.

MILES O'BRIEN: Methane is odorless, and yet the forest is pungent with the foul smell of rotten eggs.

It is hydrogen sulfide, a toxic chemical that often accompanies methane.

Other hitchhikers include volatile organic compounds, among them benzene, a carcinogen.

MELISSA OSTROFF: There are health hazards to breathing this in, and you will see tanks like this in people's backyards.

MILES O'BRIEN: Wow.

MELISSA OSTROFF: And it's just freely venting out.

MILES O'BRIEN: Nearby, in Bradford, Pennsylvania, wherever you go or drive through, you will see reminders that this is a city and a region built by, of, and amid oil wells.

Many are still in operation.

At the end of 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized rules designed to detect and control methane emissions from active oil and gas production facilities.

But requirements are relaxed for the small wells so common here.

MELISSA OSTROFF: Yes, they're all over the place here, right next to homes, right next to schools.

MILES O'BRIEN: The tank beside this shed is nestled in a neighborhood.

The smell offered us a telltale of trouble.

We sure are smelling it here.

The camera confirmed it was an open hatch designed to vent methane emissions.

MELISSA OSTROFF: Otherwise, it would explode, and it's unfortunately become just a part of the scenery here.

MILES O'BRIEN: While our cameras were out, we provoked some curiosity and concern.

Maddi Chaussard is a mother of four who moved here in 2020.

Melissa showed her the smoking hatch footage.

It's opened up a crack and that's just allowing it to billow out like that.

MADDI CHAUSSARD, Mother: Is there a way to fix this... MELISSA OSTROFF: So... MADDI CHAUSSARD: ... so that it's not leaking like that?

MILES O'BRIEN: She said summer nights are often the worst.

MADDI CHAUSSARD: The smell was so bad that it would wake me out of my sleep and it would give me stomach aches, headaches, just an overall feeling of sickness.

I don't want to slam anybody's livelihood, but I also don't want my health and my children's health to be in jeopardy.

Watching that video of the chemicals pouring out of those, it kind of like puts evidence to what I have been feeling for the last three years.

MILES O'BRIEN: The evidence is everywhere if you have the ability to look.

It's hard to imagine getting to net zero carbon emissions without stopping the steady stream of leaking methane.

Millions of old holes must be plugged, even as tens of thousands of new ones are drilled every year.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Miles O'Brien in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

GEOFF BENNETT: Colleges and universities are disclosing the racial makeup of the first class of students admitted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action.

The numbers give a more detailed look at the potential impact of the court's ruling.

While there's quite a bit of variation, several analyses show Black enrollment is down at a number of colleges.

As part of our series on Rethinking College, we're going to look at this with David Leonhardt of The New York Times.

Thanks so much for coming in.

We appreciate it.

DAVID LEONHARDT, The New York Times: Good to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: So this first class to be admitted post-affirmative action, when you look at the data, what stands out?

DAVID LEONHARDT: I think the first thing that stands out is that colleges are different from one another.

There's just a lot of variation.

At some schools, you see a really big decline in the share of Black students, at Columbia in New York, at MIT, at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

And then, at other schools, it's relatively flat or even slightly up.

And so places where it's fairly flat are Georgetown, Dartmouth, Northwestern.

And I think after the decision, people thought we might see similar trends at all schools.

There's just a lot of variation.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the admissions at HBCUs have seen an increase as well.

DAVID LEONHARDT: Yes, which makes sense.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about Asian American enrollment at the most prestigious schools, because that paints a mixed picture as well.

And I raise it because the people who supported the Supreme Court case said that race-based admissions were a barrier for Asian American students.

DAVID LEONHARDT: Yes.

And I think some of the evidence suggests that they really were a barrier for Asian American students.

And so what we have seen is, the changes at a typical college are not huge.

So what we have seen at a typical college is, the share of Black students is indeed down.

New York Times analysis suggests from about 12 percent to maybe 10.3 percent at a typical college, and the Asian share is up, maybe by a percentage point or so.

The official numbers may understate how much the Asian share has risen, however, because the percentage of students not reporting a race has also risen.

And people think that that's disproportionately an Asian group.

And you might say, well, wait, why would that be after affirmative action is gone?

But there was so much discussion of how this process might be biased against Asian American students that people think that, even with the Supreme Court decision, more Asian students may have chosen to leave their ethnicity off the application.

GEOFF BENNETT: You recently wrote about using a different lens to look at all of this, the lens of economic diversity.

Tell me more about that.

DAVID LEONHARDT: I think it's really important, because obviously there are enormous racial inequities in our society.

There are also enormous economic inequities.

And while they overlap, they're not the same thing.

And what has happened over the last 30 years or so is that colleges actually had made more progress diversifying racially than they had economically.

And a bunch of these very selective colleges had a diverse group of students by race, but those students were overwhelmingly upper middle class or affluent.

And there's been more pressure on the colleges to diversify recently.

And now that the Supreme Court has banned race-based affirmative action, some colleges are trying to continue to recruit a diverse class by leaning on economic affirmative action, which is still legal.

We don't yet know how much more economically diverse these colleges are going to get, if at all.

The early evidence suggests some of them, like UVA, like Duke, two schools that traditionally have been very affluent in terms of their students, may be getting more diverse economic.

GEOFF BENNETT: What are you watching for as you try to piece together a fuller picture of where students are going?

DAVID LEONHARDT: So, I think one thing that's important to remember is that this isn't just a single change.

It's not like the Supreme Court spoke and then everything's different and it's going to remain this way.

California had got rid of race-based affirmative action 30 years ago.

And one of the things that we saw was that at some schools initially there was a huge decline in the Black student population.

But over time, they figured out ways to build up more diversity.

UCLA is an example of that.

At other schools, like Berkeley, the initial decline has persisted more.

And so one thing I'm going to be looking for is, what happens not just this year but in the years ahead?

Will schools like Columbia and New York that had a big decline in Black students figure out ways to overcome that in ways that are legal?

Or will that end up being the new normal at those schools?

And I can tell you, the schools that did have big declines, they don't want it to be the new normal.

GEOFF BENNETT: David Leonhardt of The New York Times, thanks so much for speaking with me.

Appreciate it.

DAVID LEONHARDT: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's always a lot more online, including a look at the unique challenges Asian Americans face when caring for their elderly family members.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

GEOFF BENNETT: And join us again here tomorrow night, as we will report from the battleground state of North Carolina, where young voters could be the deciding factor in the presidential race.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.