GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is on assignment.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Kevin McCarthy is ousted as speaker of the House days after he defied far right Republicans and secured a deal to avoid a federal government shutdown.

Laphonza Butler is sworn in to replace the late Democratic senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.

What to know about the historymaking appointment.

And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighs in on the state of American politics and the growing GOP calls to halt aid for Ukraine.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Former U.S. Secretary of State: I don't understand any American siding with Putin, but we've seen it, and we have heard it, and we have to fight against it.

(BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

For the first time in this nation's history, the House of representatives has formally ousted its speaker.

A handful of hard-right Republicans and every Democrat voted together to remove the gavel from Speaker Kevin McCarthy's hand.

Lawmakers from both parties spoke on the House floor ahead of the final vote.

REP. MATT GAETZ: Chaos is Speaker McCarthy.

Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

The one thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican Caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common, Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to.

REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ): This body is entrenched in a suboptimal path and refuses to leave it, refuses to leave that path.

You cannot change if you are unwilling to change.

We had every opportunity to change.

We were promised change.

REP. BOB GOOD (R-VA): With the Democrats driving the fiscal bus off the cliff at 100 miles an hour, we cannot simply be content to be the party that slows it down to 95, just so we can sit in the front seat and where the captain's hat.

Our current debt and our spending trajectory is unsustainable.

We need a speaker, ideally somebody who st want to be speaker and hasn't pursued that at all costs for his entire adult life, who will meet the moment and do everything possible to fight for the country.

REP. TOM COLE (R-OK): We are proud of the leadership he has shown.

We are proud of the manner in which he has been willing to work with everybody in our conference and I believe in this chamber.

There is a second group, small group.

Honestly, they are willing to plunge this body into chaos and this country into uncertainty for reasons that only they really understand.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I can tell you this motion to vacate is a terrible idea.

As the only member who's serving here who took every chance to vote against Speaker Boehner and to vote against Speaker Ryan, I can tell you that this chamber has run -- has been run better.

REP. KELLY ARMSTRONG (R-ND): It's been messy.

It's been raucous.

And, at times, it's been chaotic.

And God bless every minute of it, because democracy is supposed to be hard and because the alternative is a closed-door process where 2,000-page bills come out of the speaker's office at midnight and are forced to the floor the next morning.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today's move came nine months to the day since McCarthy lost his first vote to become speaker.

It ultimately took 14 more ballots for him to assume the role.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been watching all of this unfold on Capitol Hill.

So, Lisa, take us through this vote.

And tell us, what is the status of the House of Representatives right now without a House speaker?

LISA DESJARDINS: California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, as he is now being known, his long run basically of political gymnastics, aerial feats to try and survive in his own caucus day by day, that has ended tonight, as the House voted on that 216-210 vote to oust him.

The motion is an old one.

It's only ever come up for a vote once before in our nation's history.

It failed that time.

But the idea is that the House declared that the speakership itself was vacant.

Now, how this happened came down to two things, essentially, Geoff, the math and also the people involved, the small group determined to get rid of McCarthy.

Let's look at who we're talking about.

Eight Republicans united together to oust him.

Those eight, if you look at their faces, are mainly conservatives, with one exception there on the bottom row, Nancy Mace.

She's known as a moderate.

She's in a swing district.

She's a vulnerable Republican.

I spoke with her after this just on the steps of short while ago.

Why did she do this?

What did she think about the risk she is taking by putting the House in limbo, as it stands now?

And she said: "I feel like the House was in chaos with Kevin McCarthy.

He broke his promises."

She said he did not come through for women, for other things.

Another person on that list, Tim Burchett, he told me that he voted no on McCarthy for a number of reasons, including a matter of character, that just, in the last day, McCarthy made fun of his religion, his call for prayer.

So these -- this was personal, as well as political, for everyone on that list.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, it's fair to say it had been a tumultuous nine months for Kevin McCarthy in the role of House speaker.

What is driving the apparent dysfunction within the House Republican Conference?

LISA DESJARDINS: As I said, the math is an issue.

It's just a slim five-vote majority that the Republicans have.

But that said, others, Democrats, have been able to govern with that.

Let's -- I really thought about, what is underneath this?

So let's look at the list.

First of all, as you heard in the tape from today, spending, that is driving a lot of these conservatives.

They feel like Kevin McCarthy has not gone far enough to cut spending, but also, underneath all of this, Geoff, is a clear distrust of Kevin McCarthy.

His relationships, his lack of relationships is really hurting him right now.

But, in addition to that, there's some other factors.

One of those, when you think about it, is the push for partisanship.

Some of those who wanted him out think that Kevin McCarthy should not have tried to work with Democrats to keep government open.

That's a factor in our government beyond Kevin McCarthy, and he's being punished for it right now.

The last thing I will say is, President Trump, who himself did call for a government shutdown, he has been someone who has really injected into the Republican Party the idea that not only is disruption safe, but it is good.

He has encouraged conservatives like this to try and challenge institutions, including the head of the institution of the House of Representatives itself.

One other thing.

Democrats, they had the option of saving Speaker McCarthy today, but, also, it comes down to relationships.

They said that he has attacked them, lied about them.

They came out of their meeting this morning, Geoff, very hot, saying: No way are we going to save him.

GEOFF BENNETT: You mentioned relationships, Lisa.

There is no obvious successor, someone that can unite the fractious Republican Party, this House Republican Conference.

What comes next?

The country is headed toward yet another government funding deadline on November 17.

What's this all mean for that?

LISA DESJARDINS: There's a lot to talk about here.

First, as I talk to you right now, the House does not have a permanent speaker of the House for the first time in our history, but it does have an acting speaker of the House.

That is Patrick McHenry, a McCarthy ally.

There is a little-known statute that came into place after September 11 in which speakers of the House must submit a list to the clerk -- it's kept secret -- of who they would like to succeed them in case something happens to them.

Patrick McHenry is the number one on the - - number one name on that list.

He is technically the acting speaker right now.

I'm told he is not in the line of presidential succession.

So what we have here, basically, Geoff, is a question mark.

How long will it take to get a speaker?

I'm told that McCarthy would like to run for speaker again.

So I think our viewers can imagine what we may be in for, a series of votes like we had in January, potentially, where McCarthy tries to convince some of those people who voted against him today to vote present, allow him somehow to win.

I will tell you, that's a long shot for him.

And you hit it right on the head, Geoff.

This is all a huge risk for so many parts of government, especially 45 days.

This does increase the risk exponentially of a shutdown.

But, also, it's a problem for Ukraine, for the money that Ukraine is waiting to get, hoping to get as it fights its war with Russia.

That's a problem then for Taiwan.

So the kind of domino effects of this situation are massive.

And I think we are going to be, obviously, following this, talking about this a lot.

So many things.

Impeachment is something rare, but we have never seen a vote like this in U.S. history.

GEOFF BENNETT: Absolutely.

Lisa Desjardins reporting from Capitol Hill tonight on the historic House vote that resulted in the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.

Lisa, thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the day's other headlines: Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he lied about drug use when he bought a handgun in 2018.

The president's son said nothing as he left a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom after his arraignment this morning.

His lawyers said they hope to get the case dismissed on constitutional grounds.

An earlier plea deal for Biden fell through last summer.

A state judge in New York imposed a limited gag order on former President Trump today at his civil trial for alleged business fraud.

That came after he disparaged a law clerk online.

Today, Mr. Trump spent a second day at the defense table.

State prosecutors began making the case that he and his company have routinely overstated his wealth and assets.

Jury selection has opened in New York in the federal fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried.

The former billionaire founded FTX, the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange.

He looked on with his lawyers today as the court began questioning prospective jurors.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to defrauding thousands of customers.

President Biden sought to reassure allied leaders today about the U.S. commitment to Ukraine.

He convened a conference call days after Congress removed additional funding for Kyiv from a government funding bill.

The White House national security spokesman John Kirby says none of the leaders voiced any concerns.

JOHN KIRBY, NSC Coordinator For Strategic Communications: They understand what's going on up on Capitol Hill.

They understand that this is a small minority of extreme Republicans that are holding this up, and that -- they understand that the bulk of Republican leadership, House and the Senate, all support Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: The White House is warning that any lapse in U.S. support will only embolden Russia.

In Pakistan, the government has ordered anyone in the country illegally to leave by November 1, or face arrest and expulsion.

That includes more than 1.7 million Afghans.

Many have been in Pakistan for decades, and they say the new policy is unjust.

QURBAN NAZAR, Afghan Refugee (through translator): If we are forced to leave Pakistan, we will leave.

But it is our right to remain in Pakistan, under Islamic law as well as under democratic norms.

Forty years is a very long time.

There should be justice.

There is no precedent of expelling people who have been living for 40 years in a country.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today's announcement follows suicide bombings that police blame on Afghan militants.

The attacks have strained relations between Pakistan and the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Police in Turkey detained nearly 1,000 people today in the wake of a suicide bombing in Ankara that wounded two policemen.

Raids were carried out in 16 provinces.

Those arrested included dozens of people with alleged ties to the outlawed PKK, a Kurdish insurgent group.

Tonight, Turkey also launched fresh airstrikes against PKK targets in neighboring Iraq.

A trio of European scientists has claimed this year's Nobel Prize in physics for producing the first glimpse of hyperfast electrons.

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier used laser pulses to track movements that happened in one quintillionth of a second.

Krausz spoke today near Munich, Germany.

FERENC KRAUSZ, Nobel Prize Winner (through translator): We capture very quickly in real time processes that are happening in the microscopic world, just as you photograph a Formula 1 racing car with a fast camera as it runs through the finish line.

You need a camera with a very short exposure time.

This is exactly the concept we use for the fastest movements that happen in nature outside the atomic nucleus, which is the movement of electrons.

GEOFF BENNETT: The research could lead to breakthroughs in a wide variety of fields, from medical diagnostics to developing electronics.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether the funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional.

The agency receives funds directly from the Federal Reserve, instead of appropriations by Congress.

A lower court found the arrangement interferes with congressional supervision.

A New Jersey appeals court has tossed out a verdict of $222 million against Johnson & Johnson over claims that its talc powder products cause cancer.

The panel said a lower court should have barred some of the expert testimony heard at trial.

Johnson & Johnson is facing more than 38,000 related lawsuits.

And on Wall Street, stocks plunged after strong data on job openings reinforced fears that the economy is still too hot for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 431 points, well over 1 percent, to close near 33000.

The Nasdaq fell 1.9 percent.

The S&P 500 dropped nearly 1.4 percent.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": the role California's newest senator could play in Congress; despite sanctions, a U.S.-based company sold machinery that Russia is using in its war against Ukraine.

And author Steve Inskeep discusses his new book on how Abraham Lincoln succeeded in a divided United States.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is once again Professor Hillary Clinton, as a professor of practice at Columbia University's newly launched Institute of Global Politics.

She's teaching alongside the dean, who said their focus is inspiring future foreign policy leaders and thinkers to collaborate around solving the world's most pressing problems.

KEREN YARHI-MILO, Columbia University: What we want to see is a next generation of leaders that they know, they understand how to lead in a polarized society, because they will feel that they got the skills here to learn to disagree with one another respectfully, to persuade, to build consensus, to hear different views, to really listen, to question their own assumptions.

That's what leadership will look like in the future.

GEOFF BENNETT: I spoke with Secretary Clinton in an exclusive interview this morning about her new role that bridges the worlds of academia and public service.

Well, Secretary Clinton, thank you so much for making time for us.

We appreciate it.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Former U.S. Secretary of State: Thank you, Geoff.

Good to talk to you.

GEOFF BENNETT: It was the 1970s when you were last a professor at the University of Arkansas Law School.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: What's it like to be back in the classroom?

And what was the intention behind taking on this new role?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: First of all, it's incredibly exciting.

And I was offered this opportunity to be a professor here at Columbia University.

And I was very intrigued, because, having been in the Senate, having been secretary of state, having literally traveled millions of miles, I wanted to know what was on young people's minds and what they were thinking about the world.

I also wanted to find out if there were more effective ways in talking about the challenges that we confront, whether it's the war in Ukraine or climate change, whatever it might be.

And I thought, there couldn't be a better way than to stand up in front of 375 young people every week with my co-teacher, the dean of the school, Keren Yarhi-Milo, to really figure out what kids are thinking, what young people worry about.

It helps me understand sort of how young people are thinking about these issues, because I will tell you, Geoff, before I started teaching, I kept hearing, like, they didn't want to talk about difficult subjects.

They wanted trigger warnings.

GEOFF BENNETT: Mm-hmm.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I haven't seen any of that.

This has been a very thoughtful and, for me, enriching experience.

GEOFF BENNETT: Your course is focused on foreign policy and decision-making.

And when you were secretary of state, you focused a lot on Asia and the growing threat that China presented.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: So now we see the Biden administration trying to contain China, trying to develop more relationships, stronger relationships in the Indo-Pacific.

He's calling for greater stability in the region.

What's your assessment of the threat that China poses as it amasses more military and scientific and technological strength?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Well, I think it poses potentially a very great threat, first and foremost, in its region, starting with Taiwan, but not ending there.

Clearly, China has demonstrated an aggressive approach.

And they have, as you said, invested a lot of money in a blue water navy, creating much more capacity.

What we're hoping is that we can manage the relationship, so, yes, we have competition.

We will have competition and strategic competition.

And we should.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with that.

But we will not tip over, by intention or accident, into conflict.

Much of that depends upon the current Chinese leadership.

And once a leader decides to stay for life, that's not a good sign.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we talk about America's role in the world, the continued funding and assistance for Ukraine is now a point of contention on Capitol Hill, how do you think Vladimir Putin is eying the growing political divide over the Ukraine issue in this country?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I think Putin is not only thrilled by the divide over whether we continue, and at what levels, to fund Ukraine.

I think he is fomenting it as well.

Putin and his team that does the kind of interventions, covert and overt, aiming to undermine democracy and to suborn political leaders, is a big part of how he sees his role.

So, when I see people parroting Russian talking points that first showed up on Russia Today or first showed up in a speech from a Russian official, that's a big point scored for Putin.

When I see Americans in positions of responsibility talking about how we shouldn't support the people of Ukraine, they're corrupt, yes, they are working very hard to be transparent and accountable.

And talk about corruption.

There is the master of corruption living in the Kremlin.

So there's an ideological and, sadly, partisan political divide.

And I know that the majority of Congress is still in favor of supporting Ukraine.

So we have got to get through this period.

We have to pass legislation and continue to support.

And, Geoff, this fight is our fight.

Honestly, I don't understand any American siding with Putin, but we have seen it, and we have heard it, and we have to fight against it.

GEOFF BENNETT: As we talk about Congress, there's this effort now led by Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Does Congressman McCarthy, Speaker McCarthy, does he deserve to keep his job as speaker, and should Democrats help bail him out?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Well, I'm going to let Hakeem Jeffries and his caucus decide that.

But I was pleasantly surprised that the speaker did the right thing when he made common cause with those, as we like to say, grownup members of his own Republican Caucus and Democrats to keep the government open.

I would have hope that that kind of mature leadership isn't punished by the most extreme members of his caucus.

So, how the Democrats play this -- and they have a couple of different options -- is for them to decide.

But I think McCarthy did the right thing for the country.

And isn't that a good thing to be able to say he did the right thing for the country?

GEOFF BENNETT: On this matter of extremists within the GOP, President Biden has said that the Trump Republicans, the MAGA Republicans, as he puts it, are semi-fascists, and that there's this growing authoritarian strain in the Republican Party.

Do you see it that way?

And what's the best way to remedy that, if you do see it that way?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I do see it that way.

And I'm not -- I'm not happy about saying that.

And I know President Biden wasn't happy, because it sounds so discordant to our ears.

How could we be growing a kind of authoritarian political force inside our country?

The people who are at the leadership level of all of that, both elected and unelected, are promoting lies and being incredibly divisive and, frankly, being loyal to a wannabe dictator.

And how did we get here?

I don't know all the answers.

Lots of people are writing books about that.

But I do know you have to do several things.

You have to defeat those people at the polls.

And there's nothing more important than sending a resounding message.

Let's get back to regular politics.

You and I can agree or disagree, as Democrats and Republicans from different regions of our country, different kinds of points of view, but let's get back to having a fact-based political discussion, where, yes, OK, what do you think about climate change and how we're going to deal with it, or what do you think about our economy and how we're going to grow it?

Let's have that kind of discussion.

But let's move away from the lies and the personal attacks and the kind of nonsense moves, like impeaching Joe Biden for nothing simply because you disagree with him politically.

I was in the Senate, as you know, for eight years.

If you have ideas -- speaking to the House extremists, if you have ideas about how we should govern our country, do the work you are elected to do.

Have committee meetings, mark up legislation, take votes.

Then work to try to reconcile whatever the Senate comes up with.

That's what used to happen, the so-called regular order.

So go to work.

Don't be walking around engaging in Twitter fights and insults and personal attacks.

That's -- that is not the way we're supposed to govern ourselves.

It's no way for a great country to behave.

GEOFF BENNETT: When you say part of the solution lies in defeating those people at the polls, is the Biden/Harris ticket the best ticket to do that?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: People ask me all the time, and they particularly ask me, well, do you think his age is a legitimate issue?

Of course, it's a legitimate issue, but the outcome of the question to me is, OK, that's a factor, and let's look at everything else.

Maybe people don't want to rebuild our infrastructure and deal with all of our physical decay, but I do, and Joe Biden does.

Maybe we don't want to compete with China on building chips factories, advanced manufacturing in this country.

But I do.

Maybe we don't want to move toward a clean energy future as quickly as I think we need to.

I like that.

He got that done.

By any measure, the accomplishments of the Biden/Harris administration are eye-popping.

And they are laying the groundwork for a richer, more secure country with more people having an opportunity to go as far as their hard work and talent will take them.

And I'm for them on the merits, but I'm also for them because the alternative is so dark and dystopian, to undermine the rule of law, to destroy our institutions, to pull us out of NATO, doing Putin's bidding, to be unwilling to stand up for the real American values, to put one person above the country.

None of that is American.

So, I think that Biden/Harris deserves to be reelected.

And I think we have to reelect them, given what the alternative is.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's your assessment of the Republican field?

Nikki Haley said that you inspired her to get into politics and run for office.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: And then there's this question of Donald Trump, four indictments, and yet he's 40 points ahead of his nearest rival.

What do you think accounts for that?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: It's psychological and emotional.

A big part of the Republican base feels a connection to Trump.

I still believe, sitting here today, he will be their nominee, no matter how hard a others may try to distinguish themselves.

And I think it's a very sad commentary on what people are looking for in a leader, because everything that he allegedly stands for is at odds with so much of what has made this country work for a long time, overcome many of our shortcomings and obstacles.

And it seems almost impossible to break through that 40 percent that is wedded to him as the next president.

So I think we have to do a better job in reaching out to everybody else who is potential -- potentially reachable, talking about what kind of life they want for themselves, their children and their grandchildren, and who's more likely to deliver it.

There's all of these projects being announced all over the country.

Donald Trump talked about infrastructure endlessly, never did a thing about it.

Joe Biden didn't talk as much, but got it done.

So, if you want a good job, if you want a big potential opportunity to grow the area you're living in, particularly rural areas, because a lot of these projects are going into areas that have real needs, Joe Biden has delivered for you.

But it's the emotional, psychological, cultural connection to someone who really has, unfortunately, manipulated social media and also some main -- so-called mainstream media in a way that people believe what he says to them.

And that's hard to break.

It's like being in a cult, almost.

And so I know the Republicans running against him are trying very hard.

I don't think they're going to be successful, given where we are.

So, then I think it's imperative on the country to once again defeat Trump and elect Biden.

GEOFF BENNETT: Final question, because I know your time is short.

In preparing to speak with you, I spoke to some of your supporters, even some people who worked in your campaign.

And the question they asked me to ask you is, is she OK?

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: And I think what they meant was, is she at peace?

Does she feel fulfilled after the -- I would imagine, the trauma of 2016?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: So, it was pretty traumatic, yes, yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, how are you doing?

(LAUGHTER) HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Yes, personally, I'm doing great.

And I appreciate that question, because I get asked it all the time.

(LAUGHTER) HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: And I always say, personally, I'm great.

I'm worried about our country and the world.

And it always reminds me of what my dear friend and the first woman secretary of state used to say when she would speak about all the problems we have.

And she -- you know, she wrote a book called "Fascism," which was a warning to the United States.

I'm talking about Madeleine Albright.

And she fled the Nazis with her family.

Then she fled the communists.

She kind of knows what she's talking about.

So she would give these very serious talks, and then somebody invariably would say, but, Secretary Albright, are you an optimist?

And here's what she would say.

And here's what I now say.

Yes, I'm an optimist who worries a lot.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Noted.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, thank you so much for your time.

And congratulations on the launch of the Institute of Global Politics.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: Thank you very much.

GEOFF BENNETT: Gavin Newsom tapped Laphonza Butler to fill the Senate seat long held by Dianne Feinstein, who died last week.

Butler is the president of EMILY's List.

That's a political action committee that backs pro-choice Democratic women.

She becomes the second Black woman to represent California in the Senate, following Vice President Kamala Harris, who swore her in today.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States: Congratulations, Madam Senator.

SEN. LAPHONZA BUTLER (D-CA): Thank you.

KAMALA HARRIS: Congratulations.

GEOFF BENNETT: Butler's appointment, while interim, heats up the Democratic primary race to permanently fill the seat.

Following this all very closely is Marisa Lagos, who covers California politics for KQED.

Thank you for joining us this evening.

MARISA LAGOS, KQED: Thanks so much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Laphonza Butler is also the first member of the LGBTQ community to represent California in the Senate.

Tell us more about her background and how Gavin Newsom ultimately selected her for this highly coveted appointment.

MARISA LAGOS: Right.

Well, so she, as you said, has been running EMILY's List for the last two years.

But, in California, she's most well-known for her role as head of the SEIU labor union.

They represented hundreds of thousands of in-home care workers and nursing home workers, the largest union in the state.

Prior to that job, she had worked for their national organization as an organizer.

But she actually has some experience of her own in campaigns.

She was on Kamala Harris' campaign for president before she dropped out and joined the Biden ticket.

And she did some consulting work around that time as well for Airbnb -- well, consulting work for Uber, and she was in-house briefly for Airbnb, so kind of an interesting spectrum, I would say, a lot of labor experience, but a little tech experience as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: Senator Feinstein famously championed issues such as reducing gun violence, women's reproductive rights, equal protection under the law.

What issues might Senator Butler adopt as her own?

MARISA LAGOS: I mean, I would not expect her to be any more conservative than Senator Feinstein on anything.

In fact, I think she is to her left.

I mean, given her experience working at SEIU, what she told us in 2019 really was born out of what she experienced at home.

Her father fell ill when she was a teenager.

Her mother had to work multiple jobs and take care of him.

So she has been a champion for working people.

And I would expect that to continue.

I think we have a lot of questions about other issues.

Obviously, she's been outspoken about reproductive rights.

But this is the first time she will ever be in elected office -- or appointed office, rather.

And so I think there's a lot of questions about -- in the past, she's always been representing other groups or other clients.

Certainly, she shares a lot of those same opinions, but I think we don't fully know yet kind of where she will go.

So we will be watching that very closely.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, of course, the big question now is, will she run for reelection?

As I understand it, she is genuinely undecided.

But her decision has the potential to scramble the California Senate race, what with three prominent Democrats already vying for it.

You have got Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee.

Tell us more about that.

MARISA LAGOS: Yes.

And, I mean, this has been a big kind of behind-the-scenes tug-of-war.

Barbara Lee had really lobbied hard and her allies, including the Congressional Black Caucus, to get her appointed to Feinstein's seat.

The governor, Governor Newsom, had promised he would appoint a Black woman if Senator Feinstein didn't finish her term.

And so I do think this just adds a ton of uncertainty for all the candidates, and certainly for now Senator Butler.

She will have to decide quickly.

The primary on Super Tuesday here is less than five months away.

We are a big state with 40 million people.

You cannot just do retail politics here.

And she's not a known quantity to most voters.

That all said, she has got an excellent group of consultants behind her, the same ones that got Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris elected here in California that she worked for before.

And she has a fund-raising network from her time at EMILY's List.

So, if she runs, she will be formidable.

GEOFF BENNETT: Marisa Lagos with KQED, thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us.

MARISA LAGOS: Thanks, Geoff.

My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: American manufacturers helping Russia rearm?

With support from the Pulitzer Center, "NewsHour" traveled to Ukraine and Upstate New York to investigate an industrial technology that has the U.S. Department of Defense among its clients.

Its products appear to be prized in Russia as well, where the military industrial complex has ramped up to meet the demand of the war in Ukraine.

Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky has this report.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: This is the Uraltrac Chelyabinsk tractor plant in Russia.

It's seen orders soar for the battle tank engines it manufactures since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

ELENA TIKHOMIROVA, Uraltrac (through translator): In the first quarter of the year, the monthly volume of modernized diesel engines manufactured exceeded that of the USSR during the Cold War by 12 percent.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: That's because, after World War II, the Soviet Union and now Russia has never fought a country that could destroy heavy armor at the rate Ukraine is destroying Russia's military hardware today.

MAN (through translator): These are our destroyed vehicles.

There's the tank turret and there's the tank itself.

But, on TV, it's always everything is great.

We're the best.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Russia has lost approximately 6,430 tracked vehicles including at least 2,253 tanks, since it launched its bloody campaign.

MAN (through translator): As a result of increased production volumes, we need young workers.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: a result the plant in Chelyabinsk has been on an unprecedented hiring blitz, posting recruitment videos like this one across social media, videos that reveal the technology Uraltrac has used to ramp up its production.

MAN (through translator): We are seeking men and women of any age.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: device seen in the background is a Niles-Simmons N30-MC turn and mill center.

It's a machine tool that uses computer numerical control, or CNC, to automatically machine metal into almost any desired shape.

Uraltrac uses the Niles-Simmons to create crankshafts needed for its various diesel tank engines.

The company that makes the machine tool is called NSH and has its roots in the Upstate New York Simmons Machine Tool Corporation, which manufactures train wheel maintenance equipment used by many U.S. metro transit systems.

NSH USA Corp., as the company is now known, also supplies the U.S. Department of Defense and was awarded an $8.8 million defense contract from the U.S. army for the supply of CNC boring and milling machines last year.

Although the Niles-Simmons machine tools NSH's defense clients are interested in get made in Germany, it's 100 percent American-owned company, so it's subject to us export controls.

They have got manufacturing facilities in Germany and in China, but also in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and here in Albany.

So how did a machine tool made by a company that got its start in the New York state capital end up on the floor of a factory owned by Russia's only tank manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod, which has been subject to U.S. sanctions since 2014?

The answer lies with this man, the German-born American chairman of NSH Group, Hans Naumann, who's been very vocal about his opposition to sanctions against Russia.

Here's Naumann in 2016.

HANS NAUMANN, NSH Group (through translator): the sanctions were foisted on us by the United States.

We will get rid of them only when America gives the safe zone.

I hope that the decision will be made soon.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Then, when Donald Trump became president in 2017, Naumann told a German newspaper he'd voted for the Republican and supported his purported stance on Russia.

HANS NAUMANN (through translator): I think that Trump, unlike many European politicians, has recognized that the white population must stand together.

Americans, Europeans, Australians, they're roughly 1.5 billion people, but Asians come to six billion.

In my opinion, the world's demographics compel the two nuclear powers, that's America and Russia, to stand together.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Those comments, while racist, aren't illegal.

His companies dealings with Russia, however, might be.

Customs records obtained by "NewsHour" reveal that shipments to the Russian arms industry continued.

In 2016, NSH shipped an N50 mill and turn center worth over $3 million from its factory in Germany to the Kolomensky zavod in the Moscow region, which manufactures massive diesel engines for the Russian railways industry, but also, notably, for the country's navy.

Like Uraltrac, Kolomensky uses its Niles-Simmons machine to make crankshafts.

The Kolomensky sale is a rare example of a direct shipment to a Russian arms producer.

Most of NSH's business with the Russian defense industry is harder to track, because it sells its products through intermediaries such as a Swiss trading firm specializing in CNC machine tools called Galika A.G..

Here's how it works.

Galika A.G. purchases Niles-Simmons products in Europe and then ships them to its own subsidiaries in Russia.

These Russian Galika affiliates then sell the machines to arms producers through public procurement competitions that state-owned defense firms are required to hold by law.

ANDRIY KULCHITSKYI, Investigator (through translator): We're at the institute where the rockets and remains of weapons used by the Russian Federation against Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine are collected.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Seven people were killed and more than 150 injured when Russia fired this Iskander cruise missile into central Chernihiv in Northern Ukraine last month.

The terrifying moment of impact was caught on video by a bystander.

OLEKSANDR VYSIKAN, Investigator (through translator): The date of manufacture, January 31, 2023, is stamped into this component from the remains of the 9M727 cruise missile.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: This is the tail end of an Iskander Russian missile.

Now, the manufacture of its guidance system is a company that in 2018 ordered a Niles-Simmons machine tool.

But things didn't go smoothly.

Galika subsidiary Galika-MET realized it wouldn't be able to deliver the equipment to the manufacture within the time frame set out in its defense contract.

So it reached out directly to the NSH plant in Germany, not the Swiss trading firm it was ostensibly purchasing the equipment from, to find out how long it would realistically take to deliver.

NSH responded directly to Galika-MET in the following letter obtained by "NewsHour."

WOMAN (through translator): "Upon receipt of the manufacturing order in December 2018, the N-mill 1000 machines will be ready for shipment from our factory in Germany in April-May 2019.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: And, in May of 2019, customs records show that Galika-MET indeed took delivery of two N-mill 1000 high-precision milling centers and two separate shipments worth $461,000 each.

The machines were sold to Moscow's Central Scientific Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics, which developed the Iskander long-range missile system currently pounding Ukrainian cities on a near-weekly basis.

I managed to get a hold of the president of NSH USA, David Davis, on the phone.

He told me the NSH Group regularly saw export licenses for the products it sold in Russia, which means they told regulators who the end user of their machines was supposed to be and asked for permission to make a sale.

DAVID DAVIS, President, NSH USA: Our policy is obviously to follow U.S. export compliance, so that's why it's important to us to know what you're talking about, not for the purpose of trying to prove right or wrong, but just trying to prove which machines we're talking about.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Once I'd given Davis the details of the three sales we uncovered, he e-mailed me that NSH had had German export licenses approved, but the names on them didn't match the end users, meaning NSH's client may have misled the company about who the machines were actually for, or NSH knew all along, or at least it should have known.

I asked David Tafuri, a specialist in sanctions law, if NSH was at fault when products sold to a Swiss intermediary end up in the wrong hands.

DAVID TAFURI, Sanctions Law Specialist: NSH should have looked further than just the first company purchasing it.

And, notably, you can be guilty or responsible for a civil infraction of sanctions, even if you don't know that what you're doing is violating the sanctions.

This is especially important, given that Russia is using some of these products from NSH to make weapons that are killing people on the battlefield in Ukraine.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: It's your belief that no shipments were made to Russia after the full-scale invasion?

DAVID DAVIS: Yes, absolutely.

Like I say, I don't have any operating authority over those plants, but, I mean, it was well-publicized inside of our group that nothing was going to Russia.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: NSH USA's president told me NSH Group halted all trade with Russia after the invasion last year.

But NSH signaled its intention to continue supplying Russia with its products in its annual report, published almost half-a-year after Russia's full-scale invasion had commenced, believing any contracts signed before the Russian offensive started were above board.

The H in NSH, a subsidiary called Hegenscheidt-MFD, made no fewer than 40 shipments to Russia worth $17 million between May of 2022 and March of this year.

"NewsHour" reached out to the U.S. Department of Commerce to check if NSH had applied for American export licenses for the machines we traced to Russian defense firms.

But the agency said it couldn't comment on company-specific licensing requests.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Albany, New York.

GEOFF BENNETT: There is little doubt the country is divided over a host of issues, but lessons can be learned from examining the past.

And NPR's Steve Inskeep did just that.

The result is a new book, which he recently discussed with Amna, titled "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America."

AMNA NAWAZ: Steve Inskeep, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

STEVE INSKEEP, Author, "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America": Oh, it's an honor to be here.

Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, this man's been dead over 150 years.

You found a fresh and fascinating way to look at his life.

STEVE INSKEEP: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Specifically, 16 different encounters with 16 different people, all of whom he disagreed with.

Why did you want to frame this, this way?

STEVE INSKEEP: I started out wanting to get a sense of the diversity of America, and that time when, of course, white men had all the power.

And so I was looking for people who were different from him, who differed from him.

And then I became -- it became apparent to me that the essence of the story and what's most relevant now is disagreement, is dealing with people who were on a different page.

And I thought that I would illuminate the country and also get a sense of Abraham Lincoln.

He's super famous, of course, and beloved, but at the same time he's kind of a mysterious character.

And I thought I would sense who he really was by seeing him in action.

AMNA NAWAZ: The title comes from a letter that Lincoln wrote to a dear friend of his.

STEVE INSKEEP: A letter, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me the story behind that.

STEVE INSKEEP: Yes, Joshua Speed was from Lincoln's home state of Kentucky, a slave state where slavery was legal at that time.

And unlike Lincoln, who grew up poor, Speed grew up rich in a slaveholding family on a farm with more than 50 enslaved people working there.

When they became adults, Speed told Lincoln: "I'm opposed to slavery.

I don't agree with slavery."

But Lincoln wrote him a letter saying: You're not really serious about that.

You're not voting that way.

You have this general opinion, but you're not really serious.

But then he goes on to say to this guy, who was his lifelong best friend: "If, for this, we must differ, differ we must."

And rather than ostracizing or shunning this guy, who was wrong, he signed the letter, "Your friend forever."

And it's a powerful anecdote for me, not because it's great to kiss and make up with somebody who was wrong, but because Lincoln ended up getting value out of that relationship.

When the Civil War came and Lincoln was president, Speed was on the Union side and helped ensure the loyalty of his state of Kentucky.

AMNA NAWAZ: You begin -- the first chapter is with an encounter with a man named Joshua Giddings, whom you label the provocateur.

It's January 1849.

Slavery was still being practiced in Washington, D.C. Giddings, who was a congressman from Ohio, was someone Lincoln, a congressman from Illinois then, asked to review a bill that he's drafted.

Why is this encounter important?

STEVE INSKEEP: I find the difference here fascinating, because Giddings, as I said, was a provocateur.

He had powerful religious convictions.

And he argued against slavery in Congress, where it was supposed to be for many years off-limits even to discuss.

That's how powerful the slave interests were in the country at the time.

Giddings made a lot of noise.

Lincoln was not a guy who was making noise about these things.

He was somebody who was making friends with everybody, talking about other issues.

But it became apparent that the two of them could collaborate on slavery, because, even though Lincoln had a different approach, they had the same basic beliefs.

And they did work together and ultimately failed, a very interesting effort, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia by getting even more conservative people than Lincoln, along with Giddings, the radical, to be on the same page.

AMNA NAWAZ: How did he do it?

What were the strategies he employed?

STEVE INSKEEP: Well, he's friendly with everybody.

He's a storyteller.

He's telling jokes, but he's not always telling everything that he knows.

He would not lie to anybody, but he would give selective truths.

He had a friend who said of Lincoln that he would be so open and candid as to give the impression that he had disclosed everything, when, in reality, he had disclosed nothing.

AMNA NAWAZ: You cover as well his first face-to-face meeting with Frederick Douglass... STEVE INSKEEP: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: ... which takes place in August of 1863.

Why was that important to understanding Lincoln?

STEVE INSKEEP: This is one of the great meetings in American history because it's two of the greatest Americans of the century.

And in this case, they had a disagreement with each other.

Lincoln was president, had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the enslaved people of Confederate rebels.

And many of them had become Union soldiers.

But Frederick Douglass, who had helped to recruit those Black soldiers, knew they were receiving unequal treatment.

They weren't getting paid the same as white men.

They weren't being treated the same as white men or promoted the same as white men.

And he effectively came to Washington to object, to protest, to say to Lincoln: Why did you make a liar out of me?

I recruited these men by saying they would be fighting for equality and that they would get equal treatment.

And they're not.

And it's an incredible meeting, because Lincoln admitted what had been done.

He said: They're not receiving equal treatment, and that's because of politics.

We have a lot of white men who would resist employing them as soldiers at all.

And so I'm getting all I can for now, and we will try to fix the rest of it later, which, in fact, he did.

Black men ultimately did get equal pay.

So these were two men who disagreed, often publicly.

Douglass publicly excoriated Lincoln again and again, but, in private, they could work together, and they were pulling the boat in the same direction.

AMNA NAWAZ: The term politician carries a very negative connotation.

STEVE INSKEEP: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lincoln, you say, was an unapologetic politician.

STEVE INSKEEP: Yes, it was what he did, and he was proud of it.

But he realized that, in politics, he would not survive, he would not succeed unless he appealed to people's interest and their self-interest.

And even when he talked about slavery to a white audience, he was trying to tell them, this is why it is bad for you if slavery spreads.

You are in the free labor system.

Slavery competes with you.

You do not want slavery to spread.

He was not saying, have sympathy for the poor Black man, although he certainly did have that sympathy.

But he was telling voters, it's in your interest to do the right thing.

He was trying to align people's interests with high moral purpose.

And that's what he had to do to succeed.

AMNA NAWAZ: The book is "Differ We Must."

The author is Steve Inskeep.

Steve, thank you so much for being here.

Always a pleasure to talk to you.

STEVE INSKEEP: Oh, great to be here.

Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jeanann Verlee uses her work to bring awareness to issues surrounding mental health.

She's also authored three books of poetry.

And, tonight, we will see her performance at Lincoln Center in New York.

JEANANN VERLEE, Poet: I live with bipolar disorder, complex PTSD, chronic anxiety, and also autoimmune disease, all of which are rooted in trauma.

I write a lot about mental health awareness, trauma survival, and domestic abuse and domestic violence.

My poem "The Mania Speaks" is written in the voice of my own mania speaking to me.

You clumsy bootlegger, little daffodil.

I water you with an ocean and you plucked one little vein, downed a couple of bottles of pills and got yourself carted off to the E.R.

What I do through poetry is I try to bring awareness to give a broader spectrum of information to the public and to work at reducing stigma and hopefully getting rid of stigma altogether, because we're all here and we're all fighting and we're all struggling together.

I channel that work through my poetry in an effort to not only work through my own issues, but also to hopefully give some access to others who are living with mental health, who are rape survivors, who are domestic abuse survivors, and give them a space where they feel compelled to engage in their own stories and bring their own stories to life.

You should be legend by now, girl in an orange jumpsuit, a headline.

I built you from the purest napalm, fed you wine and bourbon, preened you in the dark, hammered lullabies into your thin skull.

I wrote the poems, I painted the walls, I shook your goddamn boots.

It's an aggressive piece hoping to illustrate what it can be like for some people who live with bipolar disorder and the command that mania takes over our brains.

You know better than anybody I'm bigger than God.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) JEANANN VERLEE: I think the stigma I most worry about and would love to see annihilated really is, don't be afraid of people who are battling mental health issues.

We are not evil.

We are not broken.

It's just a part of who we are.

And just like somebody who may have diabetes, it's part of who they are.

It doesn't define all of who they are.

My name is Jeanann Verlee, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on destigmatizing mental illness through poetry.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

Baseball's playoffs are under way, with a series of wild card games that started today.

And, once again, the Houston Astros are in the hunt for another World Series title.

Tonight's "Frontline," "The Astros Edge," digs deep into the cheating scandal from 2017 and looks at what the league's response to it says about baseball then and now.

You can catch it tonight on your local PBS station.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna is back tomorrow.

Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.