September 11, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: the key takeaways from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's debate.

We delve into the issues and fact-check a debunked story repeated by the former president.

GEOFF BENNETT: More turmoil in the Middle East.

An Israeli airstrike hits a U.N. school in Gaza, while President Biden speaks out about the death of an American activist in the West Bank.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Judy Woodruff explores the role social media is playing in spreading extremism and misinformation in an already divided political landscape.

CHRIS BAIL, Polarization Lab, Duke University: When we wander on to social media, we can wrongly conclude that everyone is extreme and everyone is sort of out to get everyone else.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Tens of millions of Americans tuned into last night's consequential presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: The contentious debate may be the only face off of the campaign season.

Vice President Harris tried to walk a fine line between being both an incumbent and a change candidate all while fending off attacks from Donald Trump.

And the former president was repeatedly fact-checked for inaccuracies.

Laura Barron-Lopez reports.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Kamala Harris.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Nice to see you.

Have fun.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The night began cordially before the gloves came off.

KAMALA HARRIS: World leaders are laughing at Donald Trump.

I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you, and they say you're a disgrace.

DONALD TRUMP: She got zero votes, and when she ran, she was the first one to leave because she failed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It was their first face-to-face meeting, and their first head-to-head clash on the issues, like on the economy.

KAMALA HARRIS: I have a plan, $6,000 for young families for the first year of your child's life to help you in that most critical stage of your child's development.

I have a plan.

DONALD TRUMP: She copied Biden's plan, and it's like four sentences, like run, Spot, run.

Four sentences that are just, oh, we will try and lower taxes.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The former president tried to link Harris to President Biden.

DONALD TRUMP: She is Biden.

She's trying to get away from Biden.

I don't know the gentleman she says.

She is Biden.

KAMALA HARRIS: Clearly, I am not Joe Biden, and I am certainly not Donald Trump.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And Harris, a former prosecutor, repeatedly baited Trump.

KAMALA HARRIS: They're so clear they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: From highlighting his fondness of dictators to needling Trump about the crowd size at his rallies.

KAMALA HARRIS: I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies, because it's a really interesting thing to watch.

You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter.

He will talk about windmills cause cancer.

And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

DONALD TRUMP: People don't leave my rallies.

We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.

That's because people want to take their country back.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For much of the night, Trump was on defense, not answering whether he'd sign or veto a national abortion ban.

LINSEY DAVIS, ABC News Live "Prime" Anchor: If I could just get a yes or no, because you're running mate, J.D.

Vance, has said that you would veto if you did come to your desk.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I didn't discuss it with J.D., in all fairness.

Look, we don't have to discuss it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Refusing to say if he thought defending Ukraine against Russia was in America's national security interests.

DAVID MUIR, "World News Tonight" Anchor and Managing Editor: I want to ask you a very simple question tonight.

Do you want Ukraine to win this war?

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I want the war to stop.

I want to save lives that are being uselessly -- people being killed by the millions.

It's the millions.

DAVID MUIR: Just to clarify in the question, do you believe it's in the U.S. best interests for Ukraine to win this war, yes or no?

DONALD TRUMP: I think it's the U.S. best interests to get this war finished and just get it done.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And taking no responsibility for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

DAVID MUIR: Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day, yes or no?

DONALD TRUMP: I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Vice President Harris used that moment to appeal to undecided voters.

KAMALA HARRIS: It's time to turn the page.

And if that was a bridge too far for you, well, there is a place in our campaign for you to stand for country, to stand for our democracy, to stand for rule of law, and to end the chaos.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Moments after the debate ended, Harris picked up a superstar endorsement, Taylor Swift.

And in a rare move for a presidential candidate, Trump went to the spin room afterward.

Over the last 24 hours, in multiple FOX News interviews, Trump questioned whether he'd do another debate, and said ABC should lose its license.

DONALD TRUMP: It was three to one.

It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be.

I think ABC took a big hit last night.

I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization.

They have to be licensed to do it.

They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trump and Republicans were quick to attack the moderators for fact-checking him in real time, including on abortion.

DONALD TRUMP: Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.

He also says execution after birth.

It's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born.

LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And on a debunked conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town eating pets, one that's been peddled by far right activist and 9/11 truther Laura Loomer, who traveled with Trump to the debate.

DONALD TRUMP: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in.

They're eating the cats.

They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.

DAVID MUIR: ABC News did reach out to the city manager there.

He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I have seen people on television.

DAVID MUIR: Let me just say... LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Katie Sanders of PolitiFact defended the moderators.

KATIE SANDERS, Editor in Chief, PolitiFact: When a candidate is lobbying conspiracy theories, that's kind of a softball for a moderator, and it's particularly glaring if you don't address that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: She said Harris was not immune from critique for leaving out finer details, but it was Trump who required more immediate fact-checking.

KATIE SANDERS: I think one candidate, former President Trump, was repeating conspiracy theories that are pretty well-known to be false at this point and so it's almost easier to call those out in real time.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: At Ground Zero today, disagreements were put aside.

President Biden and Vice President Harris stood just feet away from former President Trump and running mate J.D.

Vance as the nation remembered the nearly 3,000 lives lost on this day 23 years ago, the former president and Vice President Harris even shaking hands at the remembrance.

But, tomorrow, the race is back on with less than eight weeks to go before Election Day.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Laura joins us now, alongside Lisa Desjardins, who's been covering the Trump campaign.

Thank you both for being here.

So, Laura, the Harris campaign feels good about how last night went both in terms of Harris' performance and the degree to which Donald Trump lost his composure multiple times last night.

How does the debate in their view help her position in this campaign moving forward?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, the campaign feels as though it helps her immensely, that essentially the momentum she has had since she jumped into the race, they feel as though it's only going to be furthered by the debate.

And that's what a lot of Democrats that I spoke to said.

They feel as though it's totally different than how they felt after that June debate between President Biden and Donald Trump.

They have particularly pointed out direct appeals that they feel Harris was wise to make to key voting blocs, specifically appealing to women on abortion, appealing to centrists and undecideds on January 6, as we reported, and also a direct appeal to some 800,000 Polish Americans in Pennsylvania itself, specifically in her defense of Ukraine.

And I also spoke to Geoff Duncan, a former lieutenant governor of Georgia, one of those Republicans that is backing Harris, and he said that Harris is making it hard for level-headed Republicans to vote for Trump again and is giving them a strong permission structure to vote for her.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa, meantime, Donald Trump is touting his debate performance.

I think he said it was his best ever.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

GEOFF BENNETT: It would be news if he didn't say that, right?

But Lindsey Graham, one of his top allies, said it was a missed opportunity.

How are other Republicans talking about his performance last night?

LISA DESJARDINS: You're right.

The former president said he won the debate.

He also said to Vice President Harris' -- the campaign idea that there will be another debate, he said he would consider it, but he said that's a sign that she lost because she wants a rematch.

I haven't heard anyone else say that except for the former president.

But you're right.

From other Republicans, there are three reactions,one, silence.

And I will say that is the majority reaction that I found even talking to members of Congress today and trying to reach out to their offices.

The other reaction that you hear, some are saying, well, there should have been more details from Harris, maybe the moderators were the problem, finding some other thing to talk about.

But there is a significant amount, like Senator Lindsey Graham, who are saying, this was a missed opportunity.

And it's significant to understand what the problems might be for them.

Let's look at the polling that we have from our PBS/NPR/Marist poll just this week about where the generic congressional ballot would go.

It is split almost right down the middle whether people would vote for a generic Republican or Democrat for Congress.

But look at that, 8 percent undecided.

This -- the race for Congress can really still swing.

The undecided number for the race for president right now in our poll, 1 percent.

So all these members of Congress and Republicans know that this debate could affect who runs Congress.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Laura, what are you hearing from voters about their initial reactions to last night's debate?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We sat in on two focus groups run by never-Trumper Sarah Longwell's firm.

One was swing state voters who backed Trump in 2016 and then voted Biden in 2020.

And they praised how Harris conducted herself.

And one Georgia voter in particular, Justin, so that the debate impacted his views about Harris.

JUSTIN, Georgia Voter: I wanted some answers, which, in the beginning, Kamala didn't seem like she was going to give, but she got there.

She was definitely very presidential.

I feel like I got all the answers from Kamala, but Trump just sat there taking her bait, like what was said, and not answering questions.

I feel like she was the clear winner.

I think every time I watch Trump get on TV and rail and go nuts about a topic, it just pushes me further and further towards the Democratic Party.

I was born and raised a Republican.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In this group of swing voters, they were asked if the election were held today, who would they vote for?

And all nine of them said that it would be Harris.

But the election isn't today.

And so there were a few of them that said they still wanted a bit more time to think about it.

And another group of people who voted for Trump in 2020, they weren't as enthusiastic about either candidate and some expressing frustration with Kamala Harris as well, saying that they still wanted more policy details from her.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa, same question.

What have you picked up from voters over the course of your reporting?

LISA DESJARDINS: A quick note.

I spoke to two Republicans who were formerly undecided and now leaning more toward Harris today.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Laura, the Harris campaign -- Harris campaign aides, as I understand it, they spent the day in Wilmington huddled trying to figure out how best to strategize on this momentum as they see it.

What are they telling you?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, most Democrats say that they don't want to make the mistakes of 2016, so they think that she still needs to run like an underdog.

And to the point earlier about the fact that she's trying to appeal to the centrists, two lifelong Pennsylvania Republicans in those focus groups today said that the recent endorsement from Cheney is pushing them more towards Harris.

So she's going to be hitting the ground in Pennsylvania, North Carolina in the days to come.

Tim Walz will be in Michigan and Wisconsin, so they're not taking any breaks right now, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, while we have you here, I have to ask you a question about what's happening on the Hill, because House Republicans have a new problem.

We are weeks away from a funding deadline.

What's the latest?

LISA DESJARDINS: Well, today House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the funding bill that Republicans wanted to pass through the House to have that stopgap measure go.

He could not get enough Republican votes to make it through.

Attached to that was the Republican SAVE Act, which would require a national I.D.

voter law.

There were many different reasons.

Different groups of Republicans oppose this.

We have seen this playbook before.

They just cannot get 217 votes, even though they have a majority.

Here's what Speaker Johnson told reporters today.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): No vote today because we're in the consensus-building business here in Congress.

With small majorities, that's what you do, two primary obligations, responsibly fund the government, and make sure that our elections are free and fair and secure.

And that's what we're working on.

LISA DESJARDINS: Consensus-building is not going so well right now.

They only have, depending on how you count, six to eight legislative days after this week to make that September 30 funding deadlines.

Right now, Democrats just expect to have another measure.

They think this advantages them in a few ways, but we will see.

GEOFF BENNETT: We have seen this movie before.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, Laura Barron-Lopez, thanks so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, as you just heard, Donald Trump doubled down on unsupported claims that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating people's pets in the small city of Springfield, Ohio.

William Brangham recently visited Springfield, where he spoke to city officials and members of the Haitian community there.

He joins us now.

William, good to see you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hi, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we heard Donald Trump there repeat those assertions to tens of millions of people who watched the debate last night.

As you have been reporting, there is no factual evidence for those claims.

So what is actually happening in Springfield?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Three weeks ago, our wonderful producer Mary Fecteau and I were in Springfield doing a story about what is going on there.

And Springfield is like a lot of Midwestern Rust Belt cities.

It had a declining population for a long time, but in recent years, they have had an influx of Haitians moving to that community.

This is part of the wave of people that are fleeing the violence in Haiti.

Tens of thousands of people have left that country as it has fallen into chaos.

And about 12,000 to 15,000 of them have ended up in Springfield, Ohio.

And they're here legally under the Temporary Protected Status program.

But their arrival in this community has been rocky, to say the least.

There was an accident that killed a young boy last year.

But, in addition, if you just grow a city's population by 20 percent in just a few years, that causes strains.

We talked to the mayor about this, Rob Rue.

Here's what he had to say.

ROB RUE, Mayor of Springfield, Ohio: The infrastructure of the city, our safety forces, our hospitals, our schools.

Springfield is a close community and has a big heart.

But at the same point, we have had this influx that has taxed all these services.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: While we were there, we heard that there had been these Facebook rumors of ducks and geese being taken by Haitians out of city parks.

County commissioners said that there were no -- no evidence of that.

But then this pets rumor that was amplified last night really took off when the senator from Ohio, J.D.

Vance, put out this tweet earlier this week.

He said this: "Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country."

Again, we asked the city manager, and the city manager in a city like Springfield, like in many cities, is like the CEO of the city.

And he again reiterated there are no credible reports that immigrants had taken pets, abducted pets, or harmed pets in any way.

And on some level, there's a logical question you have to ask here.

If you believe that your beloved pet had been stolen and killed and eaten by someone, who would you first contact, the police or your local senator?

The local senator here, J.D.

Vance, argues he's received multiple calls about this.

The local officials say they have received none.

Even today, after the debate, they double down saying all of these things are -- quote -- "rumors" that have been spread by misinformation.

AMNA NAWAZ: William, these very ugly rumors do have some historical context we should get into here, right?

Like, how have these kinds of claims been used against other groups in the past?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That is exactly right, Amna.

Researchers who study this field say rumors like this are often used to demonize people who are seen as different, whether you are from another country, speak another language, or simply look different.

We talked earlier, Mary and I, to Cynthia Miller-Idriss.

She's a researcher at American university.

Here's what she had to say.

CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS, American University: There's always been this idea of a threat from the other, from immigrants, from people of color to the nation, to white families, to civilization itself, right, this idea that there's some terrible threat coming that has to be defended against, and then, as evidence of that, this idea that your beloved pets are being stolen and eaten, which is patently false.

There's no evidence whatsoever that that's happening.

And it's the kind of thing that makes people scared of the other.

It demonizes and it dehumanizes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, even though there is no evidence that immigrant communities in America commit violence at greater rates than native-born Americans, the former president and his running mate keep leaning into this argument that we are being invaded by a violent immigrant horde, and it is not true.

AMNA NAWAZ: It's great reporting from you and producer Mary Fecteau.

William Brangham, thank you so much.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Extreme weather is affecting two parts of the country tonight.

Hurricane Francine is making landfall tonight in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane.

Meteorologists say it could lead to a deadly storm surge, fierce winds and widespread flooding.

Meanwhile, out West, scores of large wildfires have prompted tens of thousands of evacuations.

Stephanie Sy has the latest.

STEPHANIE SY: In the Los Angeles area today, crews fought to contain massive blazes racing toward foothill communities.

Some longtime Southern California residents told reporters they'd never seen fires like this before.

LAURIE NOWOCINSKI, California Resident: This is the biggest one and the closest one so far.

QUESTION: In the 33 years?

LAURIE NOWOCINSKI: In 33 years, yes sir.

STEPHANIE SY: Three large wildfires outside of L.A. are barely contained, the Bridge Fire to the north, the Line Fire to the east, and the Airport Fire to the south.

The Line Fire's location in the San Bernardino Mountains has complicated suppression efforts.

ARNOLD MENJIVAR, Redondo Beach, California, Fire Department: The terrain is very difficult terrain, some inaccessible areas for the crews to reach to be able to fight this fire aggressively and safely.

STEPHANIE SY: The Airport Fire, ignited by a spark from heavy machinery used by public workers, quickly exploded in size.

JENNIE BROWNING, Airport Fire Evacuee: We hardly had any time.

STEPHANIE SY: Some Orange County residents evacuated as the fire reached homes.

JENNIE BROWNING: We had a packing list.

We have done this a couple times in the past.

So we grabbed all the stuff we needed and it's in the car down here at the bottom of the hill.

STEPHANIE SY: To the north, the Bridge Fire tore through a popular ski area and destroyed dozens of homes in the villages of Mount Baldy and Wrightwood.

But no state is battling more large wildfires than Oregon with 24 blazes burning right now.

Idaho is dealing with 22.

While tinderbox conditions plague the West, the Southeast, particularly Louisiana, is bracing for an onslaught of water from Hurricane Francine.

GARY DRISKELL, Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff: For days now, we have been prepping for the storm.

We have high-water vehicles, boats, you name it, extra deputies out on patrol right now until this is concluded.

STEPHANIE SY: Now they're hunkering down for a storm forecasters say could bring up to 12 inches of rain and a storm surge as high as 10 feet.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: The U.S. is sending $700 million in new humanitarian aid to Ukraine to help the country's battered energy grid.

The announcement came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the new British foreign secretary, David Lammy, traveled together to Ukraine.

The U.K. is also providing hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for permission to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia, which the U.S. has so far denied.

At a press conference today, Secretary Blinken said he would take the issue of missiles back to Washington to brief the president.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: We have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed.

And I have no doubt that we will continue to do that as this evolves.

AMNA NAWAZ: The question of whether Ukraine can fire deeper into Russia is also due to come up when Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Washington later this week.

He's due to meet with President Biden at the White House on Friday.

Back in this country, a group of state and local election officials from across America is warning the problems with the U.S.

Postal Service could disrupt voting in the upcoming presidential election.

In a letter to the head of the USPS today, they cited widespread delays receiving mail-in ballots during primary elections as well as mail being returned as undeliverable, which could disenfranchise voters.

In an interview last month, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy insisted the USPS is ready to handle the flood of election mail come November.

Inflation reached a three-year low last month, thanks largely to cooling gas prices.

Today's report showed consumer prices rising just 2.5 percent in August, compared to the same month last year.

That's down from July's reading of 2.9 percent and a far cry from the 9.1 percent inflation we saw back in 2022.

Today's report comes as Federal Reserve officials prepare to cut interest rates next week for the first time since early 2020.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended higher following that inflation data.

The Dow Jones industrial average shook off early losses to end more than 100 points higher.

The Nasdaq jumped nearly 370 points, or more than 2 percent.

The S&P 500 gained ground for a third straight session.

And a passing of note.

Singer-songwriter Frankie Beverly, who fronted the group Maze, has died.

In the 1970s, Beverly brought the soulful sounds of his hometown of Philadelphia to the music scene of the Bay Area.

From there, the group climbed the R&B charts and were dubbed by "Ebony" magazine as Black America's favorite band.

Anthems like "Before I Let Go" played at countless summer cookouts and family reunions over the years.

His friend Beyonce covered the song in 2019 and many hip-hop artists have sampled his melodies.

Frankie Beverly and Maze finished a farewell tour earlier this year.

He was 77 years old.

And commemorations have been held across the country to mark 23 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The day started in New York, where flowers were laid and tributes paid for the lives lost when two planes hit the Twin Towers that morning.

Then, around midday, President Biden and Vice President Harris visited the site where the hijacked Flight 93 went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

And this afternoon at the Pentagon, Biden and Harris joined Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to pay respects to the 184 people killed there.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a look at how Donald Trump's proposal to increase tariffs on China would affect U.S. consumers; President Biden responds to Israel's claim that the killing of an American in the West Bank was unintentional; and how social media has fundamentally changed the way Americans engage in politics.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tariffs are a hallmark of former President Donald Trump's economic agenda, and some of them have picked up bipartisan support as a way of dealing with China.

But there are still key differences between Trump and Vice President Harris when it comes to how large and wide-ranging they should be.

As economics correspondent Paul Solman reports, the potential impact of imposing more tariffs was debated on stage last night and is very much on the minds of some voters in battleground states.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we have done for the world.

PAUL SOLMAN: Last night, former President Trump began by defending his aggressive tariff policies both from his first term and what he would do if he wins again.

That includes a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all foreign goods and a 60 percent tariff, that is, import tax, on goods from China.

It was the very first policy spat in last night's debate.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump's sales tax, which would be a 20 percent tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month.

PAUL SOLMAN: To which Trump responded in part: DONALD TRUMP: The tariff will be substantial in some cases.

I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China.

In fact, they never took the tariff off because it was so much money.

PAUL SOLMAN: Almost anyone would dispute that explanation, but one thing is true.

The Biden administration maintained most of the tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of goods from the original Trump regime and added tariffs on another $18 billion worth of items from steel to medical supplies, including a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.

Harris We are fighting for middle-class families.

PAUL SOLMAN: And Vice President Harris supports tariffs too, she said, so long as they're much smaller and targeted.

You will hear more about that in a bit.

What's so striking is that protective tariffs were once a partisan point of stark conflict, but now both candidates are in favor of tariffs, which, of course, have such obvious appeal to workers afraid of losing their jobs, many of them swing-state voters in import-threatened industries.

Look the best-selling BYD Chinese E.V.

goes for $16,000 or less in China.

They're not yet sold here, but even with Biden's 100 percent tariff, they'd still be a bargain.

And despite a plunge in Chinese consumer demand, manufacturing activity across all sectors remained strong until just recently, resulting in a glut of Chinese goods being offered on Web sites like Temu at unbelievably low prices.

I bought this cap with a watercolor by Swiss artist Paul Klee for $25 from a us firm some time ago, this one from China for grandson Will $1.69, free shipping.

Small wonder that at a Detroit Teamsters union local, there was plenty of support for protective tariffs.

JEFF TRICOFF, Member, Teamsters Local 283: Short-term discomfort for long-term relief.

CASIMER GUZDZIOL, Member, Teamsters Local 283: One way to ensure that jobs are going to be at least starting back here in the United States.

good-paying jobs, jobs that they outsourced overseas, maybe it's not something that's going to happen immediately, but, over time, it's probably something I think is going to be very effective at bringing jobs back to our country.

PAUL SOLMAN: But there were tariff skeptics as well.

MICHAEL MINNIS, Member, Teamsters Local 283: I would say it probably wouldn't happen right away.

So we might not benefit from it.

PAUL SOLMAN: Professor Kim Clausing worked for the Biden administration, has studied the impact of past and would-be future tariffs as an academic.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING, UCLA School of Law: Our trading partners may retaliate against our tariffs with tariffs of their own, which hurts our export sectors.

PAUL SOLMAN: So when the Trump administration slapped tariffs on imports from multiple countries, including China, it did spur some domestic production and manufacturing.

Trump's team also cites a rise in median household income during that period, before the pandemic hit, as evidence of success.

But, overall, says economist Clausing: KIMBERLY CLAUSING: When you take a hard look at the data, they really aren't worth it for jobs and they raise costs for consumers.

PAUL SOLMAN: How much would Trump's latest proposal cost per year?

KIMBERLY CLAUSING: That comes out for a median family in the middle of the income distribution to be about $1,700.

PAUL SOLMAN: So how do the workers like them apples?

DAN HAMMON, Member, Teamsters Local 283: Seventeen hundred dollars isn't going to kill me.

That's all there is to it.

And if it's enough to bring jobs back here, I'm willing.

PAUL SOLMAN: Dan Hammon is a Democrat.

So is Jared Jackson.

JARED JACKSON, Teamsters Local 283: Some things do take time.

And if that were to work, I don't know what other repercussions would come from that and stuff.

And I'm all for it.

PAUL SOLMAN: But Clausing says the $1,700 or so will mainly and really hurt low income households.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING: What's really driving the fact that tariffs hit lower- and middle-income people harder than they hit those that are well-off is the fact that low- and middle-income people are going to the store and spending most of their money every week and every month.

PAUL SOLMAN: Moreover, she says $1,700 is a low estimate.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING: This is really an underestimate because it's just looking at the fact that when imported prices go up, consumers take that hit.

But imagine you're going to buy something like a bottle of wine.

Well, the French wine and the Spanish wine are more expensive and that gives the Californian wine growers the opportunity to raise their prices too.

PAUL SOLMAN: In fact, Kamala Harris argued last night the impact of Trump's tariffs could be even larger, as much as $4,000 per household per year.

But are we to do nothing about the tsunami of cheap Chinese imports?

Trump economic adviser and former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer has written that we have to take action - - quote -- "In circumstances where the exporting country's trade distortions are systemic, broad tariffs may be the only way to offset them and reinstate market forces."

Well, not broad tariffs, says economist Clausing.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING: I think you can reach those industries and those trade practices that you think are unfair with much more targeted, careful and strategic tariffs, but I don't think there's any reason or any argument to have such broad-based across-the-board tariffs.

PAUL SOLMAN: And that's what the Democrats are proposing, says Clausing.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING: I don't think that means you want to completely unilaterally disagree to never have a tariff, because, as our trading partners in Europe and elsewhere realize, it's important to have tools at your disposal when other countries are doing unfair trade practices.

PAUL SOLMAN: Tax expert Jim Hines says there's a basic problem with all tariffs, though, that most people never think about.

JAMES HINES, University of Michigan Law School: If you put on a tariff, it increases the value of the dollar, and that makes it harder to export.

PAUL SOLMAN: Why does the value of the dollar go up if you impose tariffs?

JAMES HINES: One way to think about it is we have less demand for foreign currency now.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, stick with us here.

That's because we need to buy foreign currency in order to buy foreign goods.

We buy that currency with dollars, but if we buy fewer foreign goods: JAMES HINES: We're not buying foreign currency, and so the dollar gets stronger relative to the foreign currencies.

PAUL SOLMAN: As an inevitable result, dollar-priced American goods become more expensive, and thus American exports will go down.

JAMES HINES: It's a tough argument, but it's true.

PAUL SOLMAN: Moreover, says Clausing: KIMBERLY CLAUSING: Even in those heartland regions, where you would expect people to be pro-tariff, the job losses from the retaliation and the shocks were higher than the job gains due to the protection from the tariffs.

PAUL SOLMAN: But let's face it, these are tough arguments, as is the argument for free trade in general.

In the short run, workers feel threatened by foreign competition or, as Trump enthusiast Brian Pannebecker says: BRIAN PANNEBECKER, Retired Autoworker: I want to have a job, and that's what I think what President Trump is going for, is protecting American jobs.

PAUL SOLMAN: Does Jim Hines not sympathize?

JAMES HINES: Your heart goes out to people who lose their jobs because of competition from foreign imports.

It absolutely does.

And I'm not saying there shouldn't be assistance for those people and those industries and those communities.

I think there should be.

But if the question is, should we adopt bad economic policies thinking that, by doing so, we're helping American workers, that's just confusion.

PAUL SOLMAN: For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in and around Detroit.

AMNA NAWAZ: It was a violent day across Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinians say Israeli strikes that hit a United Nations school turned shelter killed dozens in Gaza.

The U.N. said six of its staff died in the attack.

In the West Bank, an Israeli soldier died when a Palestinian truck rammed a bus stop.

And Palestinians say Israeli raids backed by airstrikes killed at least five.

Nick Schifrin looks at the ongoing violence starting in Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At this school turned shelter today, the aftermath was too much to bear and too graphic to show.

Survivors collected body parts in whatever they could carry after a bomb gutted the bedroom that had once been a classroom.

Israel said the target was Hamas militants planning attacks.

Palestinians said among the dead displaced women and children.

Israel has pushed the displace to Al-Mawasi, where early yesterday morning first responders dug through soft sand in the crater left by an Israeli bomb.

By day, three craters, each at least 40-feet-wide, suggested Israel had dropped large bombs on what Israel calls a safer zone, tents that lead to the sea and have become a sea of humanity.

The bombs blew through flimsy canvas and left behind the artifacts of a family's displaced life.

Mohammad Nasser is 12 years old.

MOHAMMAD NASSER, 12 Years Old (through translator): It was like any other night here, and then we heard rockets coming down right next to us.

I found myself 1.5 meters under the ground and dirt above me.

I wasn't expecting to be saved from under the dirt because I could feel the weight of the ground above me and how strong the attack was.

I didn't think I'd be saved.

Thank God for those who helped my dad who worked to get us out.

FADY ABED, MedGlobal: People were digging and searching for bodies under the sand.

And there was at least more than 20 tents that they were gone.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Fady Abed works for the international medical humanitarian organization MedGlobal.

Before the war, he was a dentist.

Since October the 7th, he's been displaced four times.

FADY ABED: The fact that we left Gaza City just seeking safety and we know that Gaza is not safe anymore, so we went to the yellow area, they call it, or humanitarian area, but, at the same time, no one is safe even in the humanitarian area, makes you think, why did I take the decision of evacuating in the first place?

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Israel says the targets were three senior Hamas commanders who were directly involved in October the 7th and embedded inside the humanitarian zone.

DAVID MENCER, Spokesperson, Israeli Prime Minister's Office: Israel is trying its hardest, more than any other nation on earth, more than any other army has in the history of armed conflict to get civilians out of harm's way and to go for the terrorist targets, even though they embed themselves in civilian areas.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But it's the death of an American civilian in the occupied West Bank that has added tension between the U.S. and Israel.

On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot dead Aysenur Eygi, 26-year-old born in Turkey who traveled to the West Bank to protest Israeli settlements.

Israel says the bullet that struck her was a ricochet aimed at the -- quote -- "instigator of the riot" and has expressed its deepest regret, an explanation that President Biden endorsed yesterday.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: We're finding more detail.

Apparently, it was an accident.

It ricocheted off the ground and got hit by accident, but we're working that out now.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But today, in a statement, President Biden said: "The shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable.

There must be full accountability and Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again."

And Vice President Harris said: "Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank, standing up against the expansion of settlements when her young life was senselessly cut short."

But, today, Eygi's family said those statements weren't enough and accused President Biden of -- quote -- "complicity" in Israeli occupation and whitewashing the killing of an American.

For more, I'm joined by Juliette Majid and Kelsie Nabass, friends of Aysenur Eygi.

Thank you very much to both of you.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

Kelsie Nabass, let me start with you.

Can you tell me about your friend?

KELSIE NABASS, Friend of Aysenur Eygi: Yes, so I met Aysenur a couple years ago on a trip to Istanbul in Turkey.

She was such a breath of fresh air and such a light in any room that she walked into.

I knew that immediately I was going to be friends with her when I was introduced to her just because of how silly and fun and goofy she was.

And I know that, after a few conversations, we really hit it off and became super close friends.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Juliette Majid, what do you remember?

JULIETTE MAJID, Friend of Aysenur Eygi: Yes, so I met Aysenur Eygi at the University of Washington.

We both graduated this past June, she with a bachelor's in psychology and a minor in Middle Eastern cultures and languages.

She was an incredibly hard worker.

She was a very staunch activist.

She was a community and a campus organizer spanning many different solidarity movements and programs across the Seattle area.

It's a profound loss that we are feeling in our community here in Seattle.

And also it's a profound loss for the American public in general to lose such a staunch American human rights activist.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Kelsie Nabass, why did she travel to the occupied West Bank?

KELSIE NABASS: As you just heard, Juliette said she was a staunch activist, and she knew that anything that she could have possibly done here on the ground between the U.W.

encampment camp met and going to protests and advocating for the liberation of the Palestinian people, she knew that going and being on the ground and observing the suffering and observing and witnessing what the Palestinian people were facing would be good for her self-conscience and also just because she felt comfortable going and being a part of that community.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Juliette Majid, you were talking to her until the end.

What did you understand and what do you understand today about what happened?

JULIETTE MAJID: I talked to Aysenur on Monday before she arrived in the West Bank.

And I just know that she was so honored to be able to be in the West Bank in a land where she understood the complex and horrible conditions that the Palestinians in the West Bank face at the hands of the Israeli military and illegal Israeli settlements.

And she was so honored to be able to experience and then come back and share these stories and help create a stronger movement here in the United States.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Kelsie Nabass, as you know, the Israeli military says that it is not defending illegal settlements and is in fact trying to crack down on what they call illegal outposts.

And as you have seen, the Israeli military has said that she was not the target of this bullet, that the -- what they called "the instigator" of the riot was the actual target and it was a ricochet.

What's your response to that Israeli military statement?

KELSIE NABASS: I think what's important here today is that anyone should have the right to peacefully protest and peacefully observe a demonstration from an illegal settlement.

I don't think that there was any right to have any live ammunition at that type of -- at that type of place.

As we know, they were peacefully having their Friday prayer and peacefully demonstrating against the occupation of farmland in the region.

And now they're saying that it was an accident, which is completely deplorable for my best friend.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Juliette Majid, what is your message?

What is the family's message as well to the Biden administration today?

JULIETTE MAJID: Yes, so I -- for me personally, I think that the Biden administration's statement today was incredibly shameful.

To release comment about and support the evidence that the Israeli military gave without conducting an independent U.S. investigation into the killing of an American citizen is very shameful.

And I don't accept that.

I don't accept that we will accept the Israeli military's evidence or proof.

What I want to see, what the family wants to see is this independent us investigation.

Aysenur was an American citizen.

She was an incredible person and she deserves justice.

Her family deserves justice.

And they won't -- they won't get that without an investigation and without the evidence that they are requiring.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Kelsie Nabass, Juliette Majid, thank you very much to you both.

JULIETTE MAJID: Thank you.

KELSIE NABASS: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Half of all American adults say they sometimes get their news from social media.

At the same time, almost two-thirds say they view social media as a bad thing for democracy, which raises the question, what responsibility do social media companies bear for our divided political climate?

Judy Woodruff explores that question as part of her ongoing series America at a Crossroads.

KATIE MCHUGH, Former Extremist: Social media was my sad little life.

I was a far right radical crazy young person who was a jerk.

My personality was not pleasant.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Less than a decade ago, Katie McHugh was a prominent figure in the online world of far right extremism.

She was a writer and editor at the deeply conservative publication Breitbart, where she was especially known for her vitriolic tweets.

KATIE MCHUGH: Whenever I was saying the really vile racist things that went viral, you find other right-wing people on social media, on Twitter, and you -- if you follow each other, you boost each other, and then the network just expands.

And you say outlandish things to push the conversation that way.

So you have this -- the real-time interaction, real-time radicalization.

JUDY WOODRUFF: McHugh has since rejected the far right.

Today, she worries about her address being revealed, which is why we agreed to interview her in this hotel room.

Some of her viral tweets are still well-known.

I'm quoting: "Funny how Europeans assimilated, unlike Third Worlders, demanding welfare while raping, killing Americans."

KATIE MCHUGH: Yes, that's what we believed.

They're taking our money, our taxes, people of color will rape the white women.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You wrote: "It's important to keep families together.

We must deport anchor babies along with their illegal alien parents."

KATIE MCHUGH: Yes, the dehumanizing language I was using, they are alien, and they are dangerous, and they are existential threat.

That's what you believe on the right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And that's what you believed at the time?

KATIE MCHUGH: That's what I believed at the time, yes, strongly.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And then the day came when you tweeted this: "There would be no deadly terror attacks in the U.K. if Muslims didn't live there."

KATIE MCHUGH: Yes, and that was the tweet that got me fired, and that was one of the best things that ever happened to me, to get me out of that environment.

CHRIS BAIL, Polarization Lab, Duke University: Most of the things we try to do to discourage this tiny group of people who ruined the Internet have very limited impact.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Chris Bail is the founder of Duke University's Polarization Lab.

His research focuses on how social media can be a driver of and a solution to political divisions.

He says posts like McHugh's get outsized attention.

CHRIS BAIL: When we look at people who are highly politically active on Twitter, we find that about 70 percent of the content about politics is generated by just 6 percent of people, and those 6 percent of people are disproportionately very liberal or very conservative.

And so when we wander on to social media, we can wrongly conclude that everyone is extreme, and everyone is sort of out to get everyone else.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Contrary to popular belief, Bail says, the problem is not so-called echo chambers, online bubbles where people only have their views reinforced.

CHRIS BAIL: We recruited a large group of Republicans and Democrats who were using Twitter, and we thought, hey, if we could just show them some messages from the other side, that surely they would come to realize that there are two sides to every story.

Unfortunately, what we found at that time was that exposing people to the other side made them a little more polarized, not less.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which is fascinating, because that's been the common assumption.

CHRIS BAIL: Think about the last time that you saw a message from people you don't agree with.

Did it produce a kind of calm, rational deliberation about whether the idea had merit, or did it make you mad?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Bail says the incentive structure on social media platforms leads to more extreme content rising to the top, as algorithms promote what gets high engagement, reactions, comments, and shares.

CHRIS BAIL: We have made it all but impossible for people to gain status for sharing and voicing the moderate views that many of us think our country needs right now.

TAYLEN HARP, Mental Health Counselor: I have seen one too many posts talking negatively, namely about Black women.

So I'm like, OK, this is when we turn this off.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Taylen Harp is a mental health counselor in Raleigh, North Carolina, with expertise in serving people of color and members of the LGBTQ community.

She struggles with what she sees online.

TAYLEN HARP: If there is a lot of negative comments being made about Black women, if there's a lot of negative commentary being made about the LGBTQ community, it's one of those things where I'm disconnecting, I'm blocking those pages so that I am not constantly being fed with that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But she says social media has also helped her connect with her community.

TAYLEN HARP: Anything having to do with Black, indigenous people of color and also LGBTQ rights, different things happening within the LGBT community, that's really where my focus comes to on social media.

MATT PERAULT, University of North Carolina: I do remain an optimist that, on balance, the technology, the developments that we will see will make our lives better.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Matt Perault was the head of global policy development at Facebook until 2019.

He's now the director of the University of North Carolina's Center on Technology Policy, which receives funding from Facebook's parent company, Meta, among others.

MATT PERAULT: I was never in a meeting where someone said, here's something that we could do that's good for the world, and here's another approach that's going to be good for our bottom line that's going to make us money, and people said, let's just do the money approach and not the good for the world approach.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is there an inherent conflict here in -- you have -- these are for-profit companies that want to grow audience, they want to increase engagement.

And what their mission is not always going to be consistent with promoting accurate information.

MATT PERAULT: I agree with what you're hinting at in your question that isn't necessarily aligned with the public good.

It might not be good for the world if it's a more connected world.

That, I think, is a good rationale for smart regulation of the tech industry where there are those kinds of market failures that produce harms.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I asked him about Meta's decision to reinstate former President Trump after he had been banned for praising people involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

MATT PERAULT: It is not clear to me that censorship results in stronger outcomes down the road.

President Trump didn't disappear just because his content wasn't hosted on Meta.

He started his own social network.

He has lots of followers on that social network and he posts there regularly.

BECKY LEW-HOBBS, Moms For Liberty: There's the truth and there's your opinion.

And so people have muddied that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Becky Lew-Hobbs chairs the Wake County, North Carolina, chapter of the conservative advocacy group Moms For Liberty.

She says she's gotten hateful messages online after her group called for removing school library books that include descriptions of sex or discussions of gender identity.

BECKY LEW-HOBBS: There's a difference between not liking a statement I make and making somebody angry versus somebody wishing harm, death on you, a family member.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean, is it your sense that the people in charge of content with these different social media platforms should do a better job of policing themselves, monitoring themselves?

BECKY LEW-HOBBS: It gets really slippery when some bot or programmer tries to determine without true thought.

What is offensive and what is not.

That's not a free platform.

CHRIS BAIL: At the end of the day, these are businesses, these are corporations.

And even though many of us don't like the fact that corporations are now in charge of democracy's public square, it's de facto what has happened.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Bail's Polarization Lab has begun to develop tools they think could reduce conflict online, including an A.I.-powered assistant.

CHRIS BAIL: Last year, Nextdoor, the social media platform that allows neighbors to connect to each other, came to us and they said, we have got a lot of toxic language going on.

How can we identify solutions that are both good for society and profitable?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Bail's team helped Nextdoor employ A.I.

to suggest less divisive language to its users.

CHRIS BAIL: And this resulted in a 15 percent decrease in the use of toxic language on their platform.

So these are real solutions that are low-hanging fruit that I think could be implemented with minimal cost to social media companies.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So you're saying these are things that companies would have to be persuaded would, frankly, raise revenue, right?

CHRIS BAIL: Yes, I do think they -- of course, they care about revenue.

They're beholden to shareholders.

Much as I might not like that and many people might not like that, that is the reality.

KATIE MCHUGH: These social media platforms, they're disincentivized from cutting down on right-wing rhetoric, because again, it's a moneymaker.

It's a huge moneymaker.

Racism is very profitable.

JUDY WOODRUFF: To help her work through her own painful experience, Katie McHugh reached out to counselors who help individuals leave hate groups and move beyond extremism.

KATIE MCHUGH: I was very lucky and blessed to have people who I trusted completely helped me extricate myself from everything.

And I described it as pulling shrapnel out of your brain.

What I believed was vile, and I didn't want to be that person anymore.

Having that community in place stops and defuses so much of the hatred, because a lot of online isolation will cause that.

CHRIS BAIL: There are a lot of angry people in our country, and one way to understand what social media does is, it gives those people more of a platform.

And I worry that if we point all the blame at social media and don't do a little bit of introspection, that we will be unhappy with the result.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Durham, North Carolina.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's 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.