March 17, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode

Good evening, I'm Amna Nawaz.

And I'm Jeff Bennett.

On the news hour tonight, Israeli strikes kill Iran's security chief and another high-level

official in a major blow to that country's leadership.

The head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center resigned in protest over the war in

Iran, saying the country posed no imminent threat.

And a group of Chicago artists is channeling their skills into organizing and protest

amid the federal immigration crackdown.

Am I completely surprised?

No.

In communities of color and in disenfranchised communities, we're always waiting for the

shoot to drop.

It's always going to drop on us first.

Welcome to the news hour.

Iranian officials confirmed today that Ali Larajani was killed by an Israeli air strike

that also killed a second-top security official.

Larajani had been a fixture of Iran's regime for decades and had essentially led Iran since

the killing of its supreme leader at the start of the war.

Also today, for the first time in years, a senior U.S. government official resigned in

protest.

Joe Kent directed the National Counterterrorism Center and today refuted President Trump's

statements that Iran presented an imminent threat.

And said the war was in Israel's interest, but not the United States.

Nick Schifrin starts us off looking at both of those stories, beginning with Israel's

strikes on the regime in Tehran.

In Tehran today, in Israeli assault to decapitate the Iranian state, Ali Larajani was the country's

top national security official.

An analyst believed he was largely running the country since the death of Ayatollah

Ali Khamenei.

Larajani was responsible for the Ayatollah's succession plan, oversaw the recent nuclear

negotiations with the U.S.

Was the main conduit for decades for Iran's allies, China and Russia.

And during January protests that challenged the theocracy's 47-year-old rule, he oversaw

the crackdown that left tens of thousands dead.

His last public appearance at this pro-government protest, he was to the end, defiant.

Trump's problem is that he does not have the wisdom to realize that Iranian people

are brave.

They are a strong nation and a determined nation.

He was in charge of the killing of protesters, it's an evil group.

In Washington, President Trump praised Israel's strike on Larajani, and these follow-on

Israeli strikes today that Iran confirmed killed Golem Result, Soleimani.

The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's besiege militia, responsible for domestic

security, including the January crackdown.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strikes a path to regime change.

We are undermining this regime, and the hope of giving the Iranian people an opportunity

to remove it.

Netanyahu also suggested that Israeli jets will soon help defend the U.S.'s Gulf allies

from Iranian attacks.

With God's help, we have reached a situation where, after October 7th, when we were on

the brink of collapse, we are now a mighty power, almost global, together with our ally

who is the global superpower, fighting shoulder to shoulder.

Israel has been our partner.

Israel has been very, very strong.

It is that very American Israeli collaboration.

The President asked me to come and make sure you were okay.

Today, a social media video of Netanyahu with American Ambassador Lake Huckabee in

crescendoing in this joint U.S.-Israeli war in Iran that came under attack today by National

Counterterror Center Director Joe Kent.

He publicly resigned in protest, writing to President Trump directly saying, quote, early

in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American

media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America's first

platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.

This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent

threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a

swift victory.

This was a lie.

Multiple former officials tell PBS NewsHour that Kent's criticism is echoed by other members

of the administration.

Kent is an army veteran who deployed 11 times, and whose wife was killed by ISIS in Syria.

He is also a politician who twice ran and lost congressional races in Washington State.

When I ran a statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said

that Iran was not a threat.

Iran was a threat every country realized what a threat Iran was.

The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.

Today, Iran and its proxies continue to prove their ongoing threat.

Lockets and drones targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

While in Central Israel, a cluster warhead fired by Iran spewed shrapnel into a parking

lot and train station.

Israel maintained its own pressure today on Lebanon, pounding southern Beirut where

Hezbollah operates.

Since these strikes began, Lebanon's health ministry said today 900 have been killed.

This regional war continues to rage, and sparked political battles in the U.S.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Nick Schiffern.

We turn now to our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, for more on the political context

to all of this.

All right, Liz, so tell us more about Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism

Center, who was on today in protest.

Yeah, well, with his background as a green beret and a former CIA official, he has with

this military and intelligence background, but he really represents sort of the mega

portion of this administration who is anti-war.

And that is what we saw today in these comments from him.

He is a close relationship with Tucker Carlson, who we've mentioned previously has been

critical of this war in Iran since it started.

He's also a close ally of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.

She herself has been quite anti-war in the past when she ran as a Democratic candidate

in 2020.

She ran really on that platform, no more foreign wars and interventions.

I remember seeing him at her confirmation hearings last year on Capitol Hill as a close

friend of hers.

She responded today, it seemed, to his comments that Iran posed no imminent threats.

And these are the first comments that we've seen from her about the war since it started.

She said, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed

an imminent threat, and he took action based on that conclusion.

Jeff, she testifies tomorrow on Capitol Hill.

I am sure that she will be asked about both Kent's resignation and also these comments

about Iran.

Yeah.

Kent, we should note had some extremist associations.

Tell us more about that.

During the confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill last year, both the ADL, the Anti-Defamation

League and the Southern Poverty Law Center were urging members of Congress not to confirm

him because of these extremist links of his in the past.

Today we heard from Congressman Don Bacon online who quit good riddance and accused Kent

of anti-Semitism.

The Anti-Defamation League said again today that Kent has a quote, history of anti-Semitism

and extremism.

So it's no surprise that he would blame Israel and the media in that resignation letter.

The Associated Press has covered some of Kent's extremism links in the past.

He has held calls.

He held a call with Nick Fuentes, who is a Holocaust denier.

He later denounced Fuentes, but that's just one example of a very extreme figure that

he has links you from past.

Those landers, thank you for that reporting.

We appreciate it.

All right, let's get another take on National Counterterrorism Director Joe Kent's resignation.

And for that, we hand it back over to Nick Schifrin.

To discuss Kent's comments about Iran and what his resignation says about the intelligence

community, I'm joined by Nick Rasmussen, who under the Obama Administration directed

the National Counterterrorism Center, the same center from which Kent resigned today.

And Nick Rasmussen, thanks very much.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

To the NewsHour, in the letter, Kent refutes the president and says Iran was not an imminent

threat.

What do we know about what Kent might have seen in the intelligence that would lead him

to so publicly go against the president?

Well, the question of imminence when you're talking about threats, national security threats

is not a black and white matter, as you can imagine.

And even in what director Kent put on the record with his letter today, he didn't speak specifically

to the nuclear threat or the threat to U.S. interest from terrorism or the threat from,

for example, Iran's ballistic missile program.

So in a sense, we don't know exactly what he was alluding to with his comments.

As I was saying a bit ago, the concept of imminence is not black and white.

It can have a very temporal component to it.

The intelligence community, for example, were in possession of information that said or

suggested that an attack on U.S. interest was going to happen at this place on that day,

in this manner, that would certainly constitute an imminent threat.

But you can have imminence without having all of those elements as well.

If you feel like, and I say feel, if you feel like you don't have the ability to forecast

and project when an attack might happen, that might create a sense of imminence, even

if you don't have that specific intelligence giving you time and place.

It can't also say as a letter, it's a, quote, a lie that there's a clear path to victory.

We don't really know what necessarily that means.

But U.S. officials have told me that the intelligence assessment is that the Iranian regime

is unlikely to fall, despite this war.

Is that the kind of thing that he would be saying, that he would be talking about there?

Again, I don't really, I obviously have no insight into what the intelligence assessments

say right now about what Iran will look like in the aftermath of this campaign.

But I will say that most national security professionals, I know, on all political sides,

very much want to see the Iranian capability to carry out terrorist activity around the

world, to act aggressively against neighbors, to threaten the West, want to see that capability

degraded and diminished.

And so that is something I think on which there is pretty wide unanimity among intelligence

and national security professionals.

Bottom line, the NCTC is responsible for analyzing, assessing the threat, and integrating intelligence

both foreign and domestic.

So is that mission affected by his resignation today?

I mean, I'd like to think, and I have confidence, that the men and women who work at NCTC

are still doing exactly that work, Nick, in kind of keeping their eye on the ball, the

very mission focused, making sure that they have their eyes on every bit of available intelligence

so that they can prepare the best possible assessments to support policymakers up to

and including the president.

At the same time, anytime a leader is, you know, departs the scene, it can be a little

bit disruptive.

And I suspect the acting director, whoever he or she is, is moving to try to send signals

of stability and confidence to the workforce to keep them on track.

How much do we know whether the NCTC has been doing, whether Joe Kent has been doing that

role that we traditionally believe the NCTC has done, including under you?

Well, the organization has certainly been preparing, I would believe, the intelligence

assessments to undergird, to support good policymaking and good decision-making.

As ever, it's a question of how those assessments are landing with the customer set.

Right.

The customer, of course, the ultimate IC customer is the president of the United States.

Exactly.

But I don't want to understate how important it is that that work go on even to support

those beyond the president.

For example, when you're thinking about the homegrown violent extremist threat here in

the United States, it's just as important, I would argue, that NCTC, along with FBI,

the Department of Homeland Security and CIA and other Intel community partners, support

the state and local apparatus around the country as they try to worry and deal with, you

know, potential homegrown threats.

So that customer set is wide, deep, and very expansive.

And since the war has started, we have seen multiple homegrown attacks.

Some of which it does seem to be, to be inspired by the war, whether in Iran or in Lebanon

with Hezbollah.

How much would the NCTC have been focused on that and how much will it be going forward?

They would certainly be focused on those kinds of attacks.

When an attack like that happens, along with FBI partners and other intelligence community

and law enforcement partners, they would be digging in to try to determine what motivated

this individual to carry out the attacks that were undertaken.

And I would surmise, we don't know the full answer to that.

We've seen some early press reporting, as you suggested, linking these attacks to what

happened in Iran or what's happening in Lebanon.

But that work probably continues, you know, with FBI and the lead as an investigative matter.

And just quickly in the last few seconds, we have overall zoom out for us.

Where is the overall counterterrorism effort for the United States today?

I mean, I worry a bit, but again, I'm used to worrying in the sense.

You always worry when you come from a background where you focus on terrorism and counterterrorism.

But I worry a little bit about the hollowing out of a workforce that has gotten younger

and less experienced over time with departures from government service, either voluntary

or involuntary, downsizing budget cuts, budget reductions, the shift in emphasis away from

counterterrorism and terrorism towards state competition, state conflict, and other administration

priorities to include immigration.

Nick Rasmussen, thank you very much.

I'm now back to you.

When we return now to the Israeli killing of one of Iran's most senior leaders, Ali

Larajani, and their killing of the head of Iran's besiege internal security force.

For that, we get two views.

Alan Ayer had a four-decade career in U.S. government, including in the Foreign Service

focusing on Iran.

He's now at the Middle East Institute and retired Colonel Joel Rayburn had a 26-year career

in the Army.

During the first Trump administration, he was on the National Security Council staff focusing

on Iran in the Middle East.

He's now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Welcome back to you both.

Alan, I'll begin with you.

The killing of Ali Larajani, how significant is it?

What does it change?

It's pretty significant.

He was the most important civilian leader right now in Iran alongside the head of the

parliament, Speaker Goliath.

So it's important that it's quite possibly he'll be replaced by someone more hard-line,

but what's supposed to be important above and beyond what individual is up, down, living

and dead are the institutions.

And here's what hasn't changed.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Baiterrahpari, which is the administrative

exoskeleton that the late Ayatollah Khomeini created, they're still in the driver's seat.

So Larajani's dead, but his power never came from popular appeal.

He was, you know, handpicked by the elites.

They'll pick someone else, and Iranian policy will buy a large, continue in the cart,

war footing.

Joel, this idea that Larajani's killing means a more extremist replacement for him, a

more hard-line replacement that makes the regime more intractable, harder to deal with.

Do you agree with that?

Well, they're already pretty intractable.

I don't know.

I mean, how much more intractable they can become is marginal.

And I think Ali Larajani represented continuity from Ali Khamenei's policy, his national

security policy, his hostility to the United States and the surrounding region.

He was also one of the main people, as Alan pointed out, directing the Iranian war effort.

So I mean, he's a valid legitimate military target, and I don't think you can worry about

the personalities inside that really coterie when you're doing that kind of targeting.

You have to go after the enemy chain of command if you're in the position of the United

States in Israel.

So that's what was done.

I think actually, though, where I would disagree with Alan somewhat is leadership does matter.

Ali Larajani's been there in that leadership team for more than a decade.

I mean, he's had a very senior role going back multiple decades.

So there is institutions may be strong or they may be brittle.

There is in the Iranian regime a president that leadership, if it's eliminated, can lead

to a drop-off.

So yeah, the removal of Qasim Salamani, the Quds Force, the Iranian Quds Force has never

been the same since the taking out of Qasim Salamani, replaced him by Ism El-Kani, there's

a degradation in their capabilities, their effectiveness, and their coherence.

So yeah, institutions matter, but leadership, individual leadership matters just as much,

I think.

Is the regime less capable, less competent, without Larajani, could that lead to regime

change?

Well, certainly less competent.

Joel's quite right.

There's collective expertise.

Larajani had a lot of it.

What's interesting about him, though, is, for example, he was on the outs politically,

as recently as 2025.

He was barred for running for president by the elites in 2021 and 2024.

So he's had an up and down career, but you're quite right.

There's a degradation of function here.

Will that increase the chances of regime change?

I don't think so.

I don't think that's a logical corollary to the fact that he's been killed by the Israelis.

I think it's just more likely that this regime will continue on its war footing and sort

of stumble along, and whoever replaces him might not be as competent, but will follow

the same general lines.

Joel, what have you seen that leads you to believe that the killing of Larajani and

other senior leaders could lead to regime change when the next person in line basically

steps up to replace them each and every time.

The resolution at Garcora has tens of thousands of people ready to step up and keep replacing

anyone killed.

Well, if leaders are eliminated and new ones step up and they're eliminated, eventually

there's a deterrent to the leadership.

I don't think they're all suicidal.

I don't think they're all seeking martyrdom.

At some point, there's pragmatism that sets in, and there is a pragmatic element to the

Iranian regime over time.

They can be deterred over time.

I mean, the law of gravity does apply to the Iranian regime, and it is, I think, in the

process of kicking in, as their military capabilities are getting close to nil.

When you look at their military capabilities out on the way, they are still fighting this

war.

You've talked about Iran having a sort of mosaic defense.

Explain that to us and why it's working for them.

Well, it's not how well it's working.

They're still getting pummeled by the U.S. and Israel.

But the mosaic doctorate was born of law and experience.

It started after the Iran report, and it's basically decentralizing command and control

to much lower levels.

So if you decapitate the leadership, you can still have lower levels, acting on their

own autonomously, perhaps with pre-arranged or pre-written orders, and that's what's

working for Iran right now.

So Israel is pursuing a decapitation strategy, but all that's done, and it's significant.

In addition to degradating sort of the collective expertise, it's pushing decisions down and

out.

So, if the plan is to operate in this decentralized way, what does that mean?

For how the U.S. and Israel wage this war, and does it stretch the timeline?

I mean, that an unpopular war here in the U.S., it's causing oil prices to go up, could

stretch even longer?

Well, I don't think you can mount a coherent strategic defense when your decentralized

elements can't cross coordinate.

They can't mount a synchronized defense, synchronized operations, and their capabilities are distributed.

You just wind up with a bunch of over time.

You may, in the first few volleys, have a significant response.

That petered out after the first couple of days, and now there are essentially isolated

elements that can't communicate with one another, if they're pressured in one place,

they can't come to one another's assistance and so on.

I mean, in an operational sense, a strategic sense, the Iranian regime is essentially

defenseless right now.

In a few seconds, I have laughed.

If the regime does collapse, Alan, what takes its place?

Is the U.S. better off with whatever replaces it?

Well, if it collapses, you have a collapsed state, you have a failed state.

The law of entropy works one way.

You don't collapse into something as complex or more complex.

So a failed state doesn't lead to a do different, better, more pro-western, more user-friendly

regime.

It leads to a failed state.

And we've seen, in the Middle East, lots of examples of failed states at what happens.

I'll give you the final word here, Jolly.

Well, you can have a failed state, Iran, that is not a threat to the surrounding region,

or you can have a coherent, the kind of Iran that Ali Khamenei built, which was quasi-thriving,

using its resources to pose a threat to the region and international security.

Colonel Joel Rayburn, Alan Air, great to see you, Bill.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In the day's other headlines, the weather Whiplash shows no signs of letting up with

travelers caught in the middle.

The wild weather has played a part in the more than 7,000 delays across the country.

The airport upheaval has been compounded by the DHS shutdown, which has led to widespread

TSA staffing shortages.

A top TSA official said today that some smaller airports may have to shut down if agency funding

remains cut off.

It comes after powerful storms swept through the eastern half of the country, toppling trees

and power lines overnight, in parts of New England.

While in the upper Midwest, people are still digging out from feet of snow that fell over

the weekend.

In Cuba, utility providers are slowly restoring power after the island's latest blackout,

that is, Trump administration officials call for new leadership.

The Caribbean nation suffered its third country-wide blackout in just the last four months, which

officials largely blame on the ongoing U.S. oil blockade, in that Oval Office meeting

earlier today with Ireland's delegation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that Cuba's

leaders are incapable of addressing its problems.

There are a lot of trouble, and the people in charge are, they don't know how to fix it,

so they have to get new people in charge.

Just yesterday, President Trump said he could have the honor of taking Cuba in some form,

adding, quote,

and do anything I want with the nation.

It follows Cuba's president saying talks have started between U.S. and Cuban officials

with the aim of ending the crisis.

In Afghanistan, officials say at least 400 people were killed in an air strike overnight

by Pakistan.

Workers pulled bodies from the wreckage of a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul today,

and the Taliban led government-threatened retaliation.

Pakistan did claim responsibility for the strike, but said it had targeted a military facility,

and it dismissed Afghanistan's claims that hundreds were killed as propaganda.

Survivors filled nearby hospitals where they described the chaotic moments of the attack.

I was in the kitchen cooking food for the patients.

When suddenly I heard the sound of an aircraft, and the kitchen filled with fire, I rushed

outside and saw that everything was on fire.

The flames were coming from above.

The U.N. has called for an investigation of the strike and marks a dramatic escalation

in tensions between the two countries following weeks of cross-order attacks.

Back in this country, residents in Northeast Ohio reported a loud boom this morning as a

suspected meteor fell from the sky.

The National Weather Service put out this video of the fireball streaking across the

horizon.

You see it there.

It could be seen hundreds of miles away, with the American Meteor Society saying it

received reports from Wisconsin to Maryland.

An astronomer with that organization said it was likely the size of a softball or a basketball,

though an expert at NASA put it at nearly six feet across.

And of course, today is St. Patrick's Day, which brought celebrations of Irish heritage

across the country.

As usual, New York City hosted the world's oldest and largest St. Patrick's Day parade

with root-stating back to the 1760s.

Thousands braved the cold to watch marching bands, veterans groups, and community organizations

march up Fifth Avenue with many dressed in their festive green.

Maintime on Capitol Hill today.

In many ways, the story of America cannot be told without the story of the Irish.

We are intertwined in that way.

House Speaker Mike Johnson joined President Trump and Ireland's leader, Michal Martin,

for a Friends of Ireland luncheon.

While in Boston, former President Joe Biden, who often speaks about his Irish roots,

made an unannounced stop at a St. Patrick's Day breakfast, where he commended Ireland's

commitment to democratic values.

On Wall Street today, stocks held steady despite another rise in oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average managed a slight gain of nearly 50 points.

The NASDAQ added roughly 100 points on the day.

The S&P 500 also ended slightly higher.

And Kiki Shepard, longtime co-host of Showtime at the Apollo, has died.

Dubbed the Apollo Queen of Fashion, Shepard was a staple on the show, appearing from 1987

to 2002.

She also appeared on a range of TV shows, including a different world in Grey's Anatomy.

And Shepard was a devoted advocate for patients and families of those affected by sickle cell

disease.

Her representative said she died of a heart attack.

Kiki Shepard was 74 years old.

Still to come on the news hour, how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing massive

trade disruptions worldwide.

We examine the career and qualifications of Senator Mark Lane Mullin, President Trump's

pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

The team USA faces off against Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic Final.

This is the PBS NewsHour from the David M. Rubenstein Studio at WETA in Washington, headquarters

of PBS News.

As the war with Iran continues, businesses and shipping companies are growing increasingly

concerned about potential disruptions to the global supply chain, from rising shipping

costs to delayed cargo and vessels stranded at sea.

So far, major ports here in the U.S., including the port of Los Angeles, are operating normally

with no significant congestion.

Much of that traffic moves along trans-Pacific routes between Asia and the U.S., but there

are real questions about how long that stability can hold as tensions escalate in the Middle

East and shipping routes face heightened security risks.

For more on what this could mean for global trade in the weeks ahead, we're joined again

by Gene Soroka, executive director of the port of Los Angeles.

Welcome back to the program.

Good to see you, Jeff.

So there are a number of forces hitting shipping and the global supply chain all at once

right now.

Let's start with Iran.

We've heard about the threat, but when might the impact really begin to show up?

Well, it's very interesting, because we're already seeing impacts, but how much and how

far they cascade remains to be answered.

For example, we're now about 18 days into this war, and there are about 2,000 ships that

normally would have crossed through and back on the Strait of Hormos.

They're not moving right now.

The price of the ship fuel that we use on the container vessels has more than doubled

in the past two and a half weeks.

And while the trans-Pacific trade accounts for 95% of our business and is moving smoothly,

it's after Lunar New Year, where we're typically in a slower time of our season.

Well, right.

You pointed out that February volumes were the second highest ever for that month, but

this possible seasonal slowdown, what kind of slowdown are you expecting?

Well, realistically speaking, last year, Jeff, we had a pretty big run-up before the

tariffs.

And then as hard policy went in, we saw the ups and downs of cargo flow.

Realistically speaking, we'll probably be down about 5% this year with the information

we have today, just based on the inventory levels across the country from the import side

of the business.

What about the safety of these vessels going through the Strait of Hormos?

How much is that reshaping routes, transit times, the cost of moving goods?

It's the focus of our entire industry when it comes to shipping and transportation, and

not just containers, the energy products, bulk, agriculture, as well as fertilizers.

Realistically speaking, right now, the Middle East trade for global carriers accounts

for about 10% of their business, yet all eyes are on this geography and situation.

We have to look at regrets possibly for fueling of those vessels.

And what do you do with those ships with the Arabian Gulf, as well as the Red Sea, both

in high-level security alerts, cargo ships are going around the Capigode Hope of Africa

to get to markets in Europe and the East Coast of the U.S.?

There's been discussion about military escorts for vessels going through the Strait.

How realistic is that?

We're not there yet.

Executives tell me that they are not willing to risk the safety and the lives of their

crew.

We're about insurance and caravans to go through the Strait are nowhere near where we need

to be.

And there's not going to be an all-clear sign.

This is going to be progress that has to be worked on day in and day out.

We haven't seen a real end game here yet.

Given your experience, your past experience working in the Middle East, what other flash

points are you worried about when it comes to global shipping?

Well, this goes well beyond what we had seen before, with the attacks on the fueling stations

at the Dubai Airport, the Fajera Port, which is on the other side of the Strait and looking

upstream in Bahrain and Kuwait.

These are all concerning areas because there's a lot of consumption and be the output from

these areas on the energy products is very important to the world markets.

In your conversations with administration officials, do you get the sense that they

understand the severity here?

Yes, I do.

There are no real clear answers.

This has been a complicated situation for decades.

And one of the concerns we had when I lived in the Middle East was that day that those

straight, that straight closed, we've reached that, and the consequences are quite dire.

What signs are you watching for most closely at the port of Los Angeles?

Realistically, that cargo flow.

We look at the velocity of the ships, how quickly they're unloaded, the trains and the trucks

that move, and all of those key indicators are really humming at this point, better than

where we were before COVID.

Watching that price of fuel because it will get passed on to the importers and exporters

and then ultimately their customers and consumers.

But also, if we start to see Asia ports get clogged up because cargo is not moving to the

Middle East, that could have secondary impacts in the Trans-Pacific markets.

And just think of that port congestion that we witnessed several years back.

It's not going to be to that level just yet, but if this becomes a more protracted war

in the Middle East, we're going to have to make decisions from there.

Jeane Soroka, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Jeff.

Oklahoma, Senator Mark Wayne Mullin will face his colleagues tomorrow for his confirmation

hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Mullin's nomination comes after President Trump fired former DHS head Christy

Nome in the first cabinet shake-up of his second term.

Lisa Desjardins takes a look at how Senator Mullin went from an MMA fighter to a MAGA warrior

and now he might soon run DHS.

Yes, tonight.

Please, put your hands together for Senator Mark Wayne Mullin.

He is unconventional, a former MMA fighter, a businessman without a bachelor's degree,

and he's often unfiltered.

For example, stumping for the Trump campaign in 2024 in North Carolina.

Man, I'd like to say I got a great connection to North Carolina.

I don't really.

But he is Oklahoma through and through.

Hi, I'm Mark Wayne Mullin with Mullin, plumbing.

The owner of his family's plumbing business and a cattle rancher, Mullin branded himself

as a political outsider when he first ran for Oklahoma's second congressional district in 2011.

Like you, Mark Wayne Mullin is at enough of Washington intruding in our lives.

Mullin won, becoming the second Republican to represent the district in a century.

He's from still well, Oklahoma, which is a very rural part of the state.

And also is one of the poorest cities in all of the country.

Rescormon reports on Congress for notice and covered Mullin as an Oklahoma reporter,

including Mullin's pledge to serve no more than three house terms.

But when the time came, Mullin and his wife, Christie, reconsidered, prayed and...

We looked at each other and we said, we're running again.

And immediately we understand that people are going to be upset.

And we get that. We understand it.

Oklahoma's were definitely upset about it, but it didn't cost him in the election.

Mullin won the race and more attention followed, including from President Donald Trump.

And President Trump was one of the first people to call me.

Mullin said on a podcast last year that Trump phoned him weekly after his son suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2020.

Later that year, when Trump lost the presidential election, Mullin echoed lies that the vote was stolen,

and said he planned to contest the results.

When there's as many questions still out there on the electoral votes and the votes that took place,

we have to challenge it. That's what Congress is supposed to do on January 6th.

Instead, rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

That day, Mullin helped Capitol police block the doors to the House Chamber.

The nose had it.

Hours later, he still voted to challenge the 2020 election results and continued to defend Trump.

And soon, Trump backed Mullin in his 2022 Senate run.

Mullin won that too. And as a member of the Cherokee Nation,

he became the first Native American Senator since 2005.

When Trump hit the campaign trail for the 2024 election,

why is tribal land treated like public land?

Mullin especially reached out to tribal areas.

Among Republicans, he's known as a specialist in building relationships.

Even though he's a senator, he's in these House GOP conference meetings every week.

He sees himself as a conduit between Senate leadership and House leadership and the White House.

That has included staunch work for Trump's immigration agenda,

backing his efforts to deport undocumented migrants and end birthright citizenship,

as well as defending federal officers after the killings of Alex Prety and Renee Good in Minnesota.

If you don't want to be in a horrors way, don't get in the way of police officers from doing their job.

At the same time, Mullin also is seen as potentially open to limited immigration reform,

with a legal status for some.

I think there would be a conversation that might have towards like DACA individuals

that were brought here under the age of 18 by their parents.

Maybe if you want to talk to someone that's been here in the country for 10 years or longer.

Mullin's tenure in Congress has not come without controversy.

The House Ethics Committee ordered Mullin to pay $40,000 back to his family business.

After learning, he received company money through an accounting error, violating Ethics guidance.

And in 2023, he made headlines when he challenged the Teamsters Union President,

Sean O'Brien, to a fight during a Senate hearing.

You want to do it now?

I'd love to do it right now.

We'll stain your butt up, then.

You'll stain your butt up.

Oh, hold on.

Oh, stop it.

Is that your solution, everybody pull it?

No, no, sit down.

Sit down.

Okay.

You know, you're a United States senator.

Sit down.

Okay.

Sit down, please.

But Mullin applied relationship skills.

And O'Brien is now a supporter, endorsing Mullin to be DHS Secretary as someone willing to

quote, stand his butt up for the country.

Speaking to his approach, Mullin praised his predecessor, Kristi Nome.

But told reporters earlier this month that he wants to improve the agency.

Is there always lessons he can be learned?

You know, listen, my wife and I, over the years, we have been fortunate to purchase companies

and draw our companies.

And every day, there's something you can do better.

And so I think there's an opportunity to build off successes.

And there's also opportunities to build off things that maybe they can go quite as planned.

But there are questions about his experience.

Mullin has worked with FEMA on Oklahoma disasters.

But he doesn't really have the immigration experience.

Or just the experience that you usually would see in Canada,

in Canada, Secretary Trump loves loyalty, loves people to not criticize him.

And he's found that in Mark Wayne Mullin.

Mullin will face his fellow senators.

And the Senate Committee overseeing Homeland Security at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardins.

And you can livestream Senator Mark Wayne Mullin's confirmation hearing tomorrow beginning

at 9.30 a.m. Eastern on our website and on our YouTube page.

The Trump administration's nationwide immigration crackdown has ignited protests from Los Angeles to Minneapolis.

It has also galvanized grassroots artists and community organization.

Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown reports from Chicago

were shootings involving federal immigration agents

and President Trump's threats to send in the National Guard led to citywide protests.

Artists have been at the center of the movement using their skills and resources as part of organized dissent.

This report is part of our art in action series exploring the intersection of art and democracy and our canvas arts coverage.

At first glance, a normal craft night at a neighborhood art center.

But as volunteers full printed pamphlets called Zines, they're really participating in a grassroots political protest.

With everything that's been going on since the summer with immigration and ICE presence,

we started a whistle community alert campaign.

And so people come in on Mondays and Tuesdays to help pack whistles and Zines.

Theresa Magganya is an artist and co-founder of the Pilsen Arts and Community House in Chicago.

It hosts art exhibitions, teaches classes for kids, and offers a free space for artists to work.

It's in the heart of the heavily Latino Pilsen neighborhood, which has been one target area amid the Trump administration's citywide immigration raids.

The Zines and whistles instruct volunteers how to signal to residents when ICE is in the neighborhood.

Magganya was inspired after seeing protests in Los Angeles this past summer.

It came very naturally, I think, for us to say, hey, this is something we know we have capacity to do.

We're artists. We know how to make Zines. We know how to make a design.

Why through this place? Why was that your response?

We are a community space focused on arts, but we also are very much part of an activist community.

Pilsen and Chicago is historically known for that through the arts and through our voices.

The history of that activism is written quite literally on the walls of the Pilsen neighborhood.

Political murals here go back decades, protesting gentrification, American military intervention, and more recently the presence of federal immigration agents in the city.

Local printmaker Otlan Arceo Wixel has turned his focus to helping.

And printmaking is an art form that enables him to get his work out quickly.

Now we have all this water-based media that dries really fast.

It's something you can kind of push out to your networks of support.

Whether that be for a demonstration in the streets or for, you know, pasting up outside or, you know, stapling to a telephone pole.

From a graphic image perspective, what do you need to make it work?

Having a balance between the words and the images, key because sometimes the image is the thing that holds you after you're able to read the text.

Making sure those images reach people in the real world presents another challenge.

I think there is a tendency for people to think about the arts as something that doesn't happen in our everyday life.

Art Professor Malita Morales is part of a collective that supports immigrant families impacted by federal raids.

She organizes events where the group makes banners together using art to get out their message and to build community.

My role as an artist is to create opportunities for people to come together and work side by side and ask each other questions about who they are and how they got to Chicago and their lives as we sit and work with each other.

Morales also silkscreens bandanas that so-called rapid response groups use to identify each other when they watch for immigration agents in their neighborhoods.

I think a lot of times artists are processing the world around them and they express that through their use of color form and shape.

And when they're brought to view in a public world, then they become meanings that are expressed and negotiated by all those who view them.

This becomes a more of an everyday image, doesn't it?

You've seen this in different ways in our news.

The scenes of the immigration crack down in the streets and the protests against it are also impacting how traditional arts institutions think says Jose Ochoa, president of the National Museum of Mexican Art.

His wake up call came after Department of Homeland Security officials showed up at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture last summer.

We needed to know how to engage if ice were to come to the door, what do we tell our people, what happens to our guests, employees, what do we have school groups, like what do we do?

So he organized an event with cultural institutions across the city.

The rules of the game kept changing and so here at the museum we've had to keep moving along and so back then in the summer I was learning how to identify the warrants.

What's an administrative warrant versus a judicial warrant?

These are not the kind of concerns you thought you'd have as a head of a museum.

No, not really. Am I completely surprised?

No. In communities of color and in disenfranchised communities, we're always waiting for the shoot to drop.

That's always going to drop on us first.

Museum is also saving pieces of community protest art.

It's traditional work of collecting art now very much in the moment.

Promoted artists in Chicago's hip hop community including Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper have also been using their voices to respond to what they're seeing.

We're seeing videos of things people getting pushed out of buildings and out of cars and things of that sort and it's like you can't unsee it.

We met 30-year-old Femda, a Chicago native born to Nigerian immigrant parents who's active in the community as musician and head of an education and civic engagement nonprofit.

I'm a child of immigrants so like it's extremely personal. It could be me.

So how does that impact you as an artist as a musician?

Having a platform, whether that is just a music itself or the platform I've built based off the music, it's like okay I have to be able to speak to this in some capacity.

Simply just tapping into my community, what's happening, what's going on, how can I be a service, how can I amplify things, and also create safe places for community to develop.

Because also like people also experiencing joy and also having a community is equally as radical.

Back at the Pilsen Arts and Community House, Theresa Magganya says she sees her work as part of a wider movement.

Everybody that has stepped in here, they've taken it back home to their family, their friends, to local businesses.

It's just a way to spread the pollen, you know.

In the form of whistles and zines, with orders for more coming in nationwide.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown in Chicago.

The United States takes on Venezuela tonight in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic.

That's a kind of World Cup for the sport.

The match-up caps two weeks of international play that had everything.

Male fighters, comebacks, controversial calls, a Cinderella story, and heartbreak for fans in Japan and the Dominican Republic.

Tonight's game pits top American players against a potent Venezuela team, playing in a WBC final for the first time in their country's history.

And we should say there are players four major league baseball teams on both sides here, as has been true throughout the tournament.

So to break it all down, we are joined again by Howard Bryant, journalist and author of multiple books, including most recently, Kings and Ponds, Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.

Howard, welcome back to the NewsHour.

No, thanks for having me back.

Okay, so let's talk about the path that both these teams took to get to the championship game.

The US, we should say, was a favorite from the start, right?

The roster has 17 all-stars, four MVP's, two-star young winners.

But they almost didn't make it to the final. What happened?

Pretty starts the team. Well, I think one of the things that happens is that when you're considered to be the favorite,

and this isn't really their tournament, even though the United States hosts it.

A lot of those players view the World Series as sort of what they play for, their professional players.

It's not like the international community where that really, this really is their World Series, and it took them a little bit to get into it.

They lost a game. They went five and one and lost to Italy, you know, a huge upset.

It had a great game against Canada, had a very good game, controversial win, but a good two-to-one win against the Dominican Republic, another team that is loaded with major leagueers.

And so I think that what sort of the Americans have sort of eased their way into the tournament, and now that's for all the marbles,

that's also not forget that when the last World Baseball Classic in 2023, they were in the final again.

They lost to the eventual win in Japan.

So the Americans are, it's almost, it's not quite basketball where you just expect them to show up and win because there are a lot of other good teams.

But when America is involved in baseball, they're going to be a pretty good team.

All right, what about Venezuela? You're talking about a country with the deep baseball tradition, a team with serious star power as well,

but they were not necessarily expected to make it to the championship, so how'd they do it?

Oh, they did it by beating Japan. They beat the defending champions.

They came through against the team that everyone was expecting a rematch between the United States and Japan with Shoei Otoni.

Of course, the best player in the game, but let's not forget that as much as we talk about the Americans and their star power,

you still have Ronald Akuni Jr., who is the superstar of the Atlanta Braves.

You've got, you know, Jenny Oswares from Seattle.

You've got Jackson Shoei O, superstar from Milwaukee. They've got players, trust me. They've got a lot of good players.

And they sort of broke the hearts of Italy coming back in the semifinal. Italy looked like they were going to do the Cinderella thing.

So you've got two really good teams who, a lot of those players know each other. They've all been playing against each other for years.

They're going to be playing against each other again once spring training resumes and when the regular season goes.

So it's going to be a big game, a great game, and it's really fun.

It's actually been, I think, the best tournament so far of the last 20 years they've been doing it.

You know, the American team captain Aaron Judge said the crowds were bigger and better than the World Series.

For anyone unfamiliar with the World Baseball Classic, give us a sense of that, that atmosphere.

Well, the atmosphere you're getting is, and it really does depend.

I mean, I think one of the beauties of baseball, it's a true international sport there.

And not all the countries play it, but the, what the countries that do play at the United States, Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,

Venezuela, Japan, Korea.

They all play with a little bit of different style.

Certainly when you bring the Latino players into it, it's a party.

I mean, you watch Venezuela. They've got a drum in the dugout.

You watch Nicaragua. They were having fun as well.

The Dominican Republic, it's always feels like the Caribbean League when they're playing.

So they bring that sort of, they bring there that flavor, that flavor to it.

And so it's a, it's a big party. They really enjoy playing the game.

And I, and I think that that's actually one of the things that's been really interesting is that the Americans were the ones who were sort of the sourpuss.

Of the tournament because it's not the Olympics as Bryce Hopper said that they, you know, they kind of, they were kind of their carmuggians.

And, but when you look at the other teams, Japan, and they, you know, this is that, this is their moment where they get to be on the international stage.

They're playing in the United States. And, and baseball has worked really, really hard to sort of turn this into a World Cup of baseball.

A lot of people rolled their eyes, but when you go to those games down in Houston and you look at where those games, you, you look in the crowd.

People are having a lot of fun. There's really nothing to be sort of sour about.

You know, we should also point out none of this is happening in a vacuum.

And while players for both the U.S. team and the Venezuelan team have avoided talking about politics, tonight's matchup is going to come less than two months after the U.S.

Seeds the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from his home in Caracas brought him to the U.S. to face Narco terrorism charges.

How is that backdrop impacting the game at all? What does it mean in particular for team Venezuela?

Yeah, it'll be very interesting to find out a lot of these players have avoided these questions.

They're still there. Everyone knows what's happening. I think that the, this is a very interesting moment in sports in general.

Because there is so much international activity and sports has overlapped. You see it with the U.S. in Canada.

Not just when they played in the World Baseball Classic last week, but also when the U.S. and Canada played in the Olympics.

This is one of the things, one of the things about international competition. You see it with the Olympics, depending on certain countries, how they interact with each other.

So I'm looking forward to seeing sort of what that energy is. Maybe these players are downplaying it because they just don't want to get involved.

Or maybe you're going to see some real heightened intensity because of everything that's happened.

So before I let you go, care to make up prediction about tonight's game. Who will win?

Oh, I can't make any predictions, but I will say one thing. I don't know who's going to win. That's why they play the game.

But the one thing I will say about this is that baseball's got something really good going on here.

You've got Canada in the World Series for the first time back in October for the first time in 30 something years, 33 years, 32 years.

You've got the World Baseball Classic with all of these teams really involved. And baseball's got something really good going.

And what is in the backdrop, possible labor at the end of this season that they may shut the game down.

So I'm really hoping that the combination of last year's World Series and this World Baseball Classic is going to get the people in the in the back rooms to realize that you're on a hot streak.

Don't miss it up by fighting about money.

Howard Bryant, always such a joy to speak with you. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And that is the News Hour for tonight. I'm Amna Navaz.

And I'm Jeff Bennett for all of us here at the News Hour. Thanks for spending part of your evening with us.