PBS NewsHour full episode, March 6, 2024

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening. I'm Geoff Bennett. AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz. On the "NewsHour" tonight: Nikki Haley ends her presidential run after former President Donald Trump dominates Super Tuesday, setting up a rematch between Trump and President Biden. GEOFF BENNETT: On the eve of President Biden's third State of the Union address, we speak with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. AMNA NAWAZ: And residents of Texas towns destroyed in historic wildfires struggle with the loss

and the long road to recovery. LAURIE EZZELL BROWN, Publisher and Editor, The Canadian Record: I have never seen anything like this. And we have had wildfires before, and pretty devastating ones, but the extent of the damage here is profound. It looks apocalyptic to me. (BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "NewsHour." Nikki Haley's bid for the White House is now over. AMNA NAWAZ: The former South Carolina governor suspended her campaign today, setting up a rematch between President Biden and f

ormer President Trump. Speaking in Charleston this morning, Haley did not promise to back her party's likely nominee. NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that. At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing. AMNA NAWAZ: To discuss what comes

next in the race for the White House, I'm joined now by Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who's worked on Mitt Romney's presidential bids. Kevin, good to see you again. KEVIN MADDEN, Republican Strategist: Good to be with you. AMNA NAWAZ: So let's just start with Haley's announcement today. What do you make of that announcement on this day after what happened yesterday on Super Tuesday? KEVIN MADDEN: Well, I think the numbers and the math became very obvious and that Nikki Haley realized and h

er campaign realized that she just didn't have a path to the nomination. I think it's pretty startling if you look at Trump's numbers and how dominant he was in this Republican presidential primary, 64 percent of the overall vote, 24 contests versus Nikki Haley, who won two contests, and 90 percent of the delegates. This -- there is a voice for Nikki Haley and Nikki Haley-like candidates, I think, inside the party, but it is very clear right now that this is a Donald Trump party driven and fuele

d by a MAGA base. And the Haley campaign came to that realization, based on the numbers they saw yesterday. AMNA NAWAZ: So, in that same vein, we today saw outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorse Mr. Trump officially, despite past criticism of him, especially after the January 6 insurrection. Here's a part of what Mr. McConnell said. SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I said in February of 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, that I would support President Trump if he were th

e nominee of our party, and he obviously is going to be the nominee of our party. AMNA NAWAZ: So, Kevin, Haley has not endorsed Mr. Trump. Do you think she will? KEVIN MADDEN: I think she will ultimately. But it is going to be an endorsement that is going to feel like an extraction over a long period of time. I think, clearly, first of all, the open wounds of a presidential primary will take some time to heal. But I think, if she's looking to still have a voice in the party and still play a role

in the direction of the party, that ultimately playing a role in unifying that party, which has its divisions, would be probably in her best political interests. AMNA NAWAZ: So, where do her supporters go? I mean, you take a look at the delegate count. She did have a number of people backing her, although her delegate count did not compare to Mr. Trump's. She ended up with 89 delegates to his 1,031. Where does the more than $12 million she raised in February go? Where do her backers go? KEVIN M

ADDEN: Well, I think backers, as well as voters, they are not a monolithic bloc for Nikki Haley. She has made an incredible, I think, impression on a lot of Republican voters, but she's not yet a movement candidate. So, I don't think that these voters are sort of calcified around Nikki Haley and waiting for a signal from Nikki Haley. I think they're very much up for grabs. They're up for grabs for Donald Trump. He's going to have to work hard to gain their support and win them back in November,

especially if he wants to win. But some of them are up for grabs as well for President Joe Biden. So, the Nikki Haley voter, the profile of the Nikki Haley voter is the profile of a swing voter in a lot of key battleground states. They're going to determine who wins or loses this election. AMNA NAWAZ: Does former President Trump need them, though? Because to hear him today and his online post in response to yesterday, it doesn't look like he's courting them exactly. This is what he had to say. H

e said: "Nikki Haley got trounced last night. Much of her money came from radical left Democrats, as did many of her voters, according to the polls. At this point, I hope she stays in the race and fights it out until the end." It's not exactly an appeal to Haley voters. KEVIN MADDEN: Yes. And, look, first of all, if we remember 2020 election, it came down to about 300,000 voters across six states. So, all of these votes count. So, you're going to try and get as many voters -- of these Haley vote

rs as possible if you want to win, Right? But if today was the starter pistol for the general election and you looked at how Donald Trump tried to appeal to these swing voters and how Joe Biden tried to appeal to them by saying, hey, he's going to try and earn their vote, he wants to be a uniting force for Republicans, Democrats, and independents, you have to give the edge to Biden on starting to the race towards winning these voters over. AMNA NAWAZ: When you look at where the party is now and

the fact that Mr. Trump is now the presumptive nominee, you see he beat out more than a dozen challengers. Nikki Haley also beat out most of them as well. She did it as a woman, as a woman of color, made history in her race, was beating President Biden in some hypothetical matchups. But the party said, we're going with Trump. We're going with the guy who lost to Biden, who's facing all these criminal charges, who was twice-impeached. What does this say to you about the voters and where the party

is right now? KEVIN MADDEN: Right. Well, a lot of those general election polls that showed Nikki Haley winning, they weren't necessarily a reflection of a primary electorate, right? So the primary electorates are much less interested in bringing people together and finding common ground. Primary electorates are much more interested in trying to find a candidate that's going to fight the perceived opposition the other side. And that, I think, is why Donald Trump won this primary so resoundingly,

which is that he spoke to those voters and said he's going to be a fighter for them. So I think it tells you that Donald Trump has a very, very firm grip on this party, yet he has not done the work needed yet to really build out and appeal to the broader, big middle of the American electorate. That big middle of the American electorate that's caught between what I would describe as like the 47-yard lines of American politics, they're going to decide who wins or loses this election. AMNA NAWAZ:

Got eight months to go. Kevin Madden, thank you so much. Always great to talk to you. KEVIN MADDEN: Great to be with you, as always. GEOFF BENNETT: After President Biden's strong showing in last night's contests, one of his longshot challengers, Dean Phillips, suspended his campaign today. Now, with Super Tuesday in the rearview, the president's focus turns to tomorrow night's State of the Union address. I spoke earlier today with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about what to expe

ct from President Biden's high-profile and high-stakes speech. Karine Jean-Pierre, welcome back to the "NewsHour." KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary: Thank you, Geoff, so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. GEOFF BENNETT: So tomorrow night marks President Biden's third State of the Union address, but you could argue that this one is freighted with significance because it's essentially the hard launch of his reelection campaign. And this is a president who is facing si

nking poll numbers, concerns about his age, a progressive base that's been splintered over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. How is the president aiming to use this speech to address those concerns, while also conveying his vision for the future? KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, the president, as you just stated, third State of the Union address, he sees this as an important moment to talk directly to the American people. Just think about it. He will be talking to Americans who will be sitting on th

eir couch, sitting in their kitchen table, having that direct conversation. Millions of Americans are going to be tuning in. And he understands this moment, how critical it is, how important it is. He's going to talk about the last three years. We have seen some historic achievements from this administration of the last two years. If you think about the infrastructure bill, a bipartisan bill, in the last administration, it was a punchline. Now we're going to see infrastructure a decade. You thin

k about the PACT Act that's going to help veterans and their families. That was actually done in a bipartisan way as well. But you think about the American Rescue Plan. It was only passed by Democrats, which got the economy back on its feet, because, when he walked in, it was a tailspin that was happening. And so the Americans -- the president is going to hear, is going to really speak to the American people. They're going to hear from this president. And he's going to talk about the progress th

at he wants to continue to make. The president is an optimistic person. He's going to talk about the future. He's going to give his vision. We got to continue to grow on that, lower costs for the American people, give them a little bit of breathing room. That's so important. We see how women's reproductive health is under attack, relentless attack by Republicans, elected officials. So he's going to talk about that. Our democracy is under attack. Yes, we are at an inflection point here. Our democ

racy, we got to continue to fight for that, making sure corporations, the wealthiest among us, are paying their fair share. He always puts the middle class first. He understands how important it is to deliver for the middle class. So there are a lot of issues here that he wants to lean into. GEOFF BENNETT: I have spoken with Democrats, Karine, supporters of his, who make the case that in some ways what matters more than what the president says is how he says it. Does he appear energetic? Does he

appear to be vigorous, given the fact that poll after poll shows that majorities of Americans have serious concerns about his age? How attuned is the White House to that? KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, look, here's what I would say to that. This is a president, as we're talking about the achievements he's made in the first three years, he's done more in the first three years than presidents have done in two terms, in their two terms. I mean, that is just a fact in what we have seen in the data, wh

at he's been able to accomplish. That's what this president has been able to do. And why has that happened? Because it takes experience. It does. It takes someone who has been in the Senate for 36 years, been vice president for eight years, and you see that experience because he's been able to deliver for the American people. GEOFF BENNETT: And yet there is this persistent disconnect between the president's objectively popular policies like student debt relief... KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes. GEOFF B

ENNETT: ... reducing prescription drug costs, capping junk fees, et cetera, and his underwater approval ratings. What's the White House's theory of the case as to why that is? KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, here's what I will say. You just said it. Every issue that the president is working on is popular, whether it's student loans, whether it is making sure that we're dealing with gun violence in a way that really helps to save and protect communities, save our young people's lives, right? He was

able to get a bipartisan deal on gun -- a gun prevention deal that we hadn't seen in 30 years. That's also important. I don't want to forget that. Beating big pharma. In that Inflation Reduction Act, he was able to put forth a piece of legislation that obviously is act -- is a law now that really fights back big pharma and makes sure that Medicare is able to negotiate for itself. And that's something that Americans care about. Look, we understand what Americans have gone through this past three

years. It is incredibly complicated, and we get it. We get that it's going to take a little bit of time for Americans to see what this president has done. GEOFF BENNETT: Hasn't the president been saying that for the better part of three years, that once the American people start to feel the impact of these policies, once the American people start to see these shovel-ready infrastructure projects begin, then they will fully understand the impact of the work that I have been doing? KARINE JEAN-PI

ERRE: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: He's been saying that for years. Why hasn't that shifted? KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: And I understand that, but I also understand and we also understand that it takes time, right? You asked me what the president's going to say and what he's going to do tomorrow. He's going to lay that out. He's going to lay out the achievements that he's done in the last three years. It is so important. We know millions, 20 million Americans are probably likely to tune in tomorrow. That is imp

ortant. That is critical. It is -- this is part of messaging, connecting with the American people, being able to say that over and over again, lay that out, lay it very, very clear for the American people. And that's what he's going to do. We see this as an important opportunity to talk directly to the American people. The president's certainly, certainly looking forward to that. GEOFF BENNETT: That is White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Thanks so much for your time this evening. We

appreciate it. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Thanks, Geoff. Appreciate it. AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: The head of the Federal Reserve again talked about cutting interest rates this year, but only after more signs that inflation will keep falling. At a House hearing, Jerome Powell noted that price hikes have definitely slowed from the 40-year highs of 2022. But he said the Central Bank does not want to act prematurely. JEROME POWELL, Federal Reserve Chairman: We think, because of the strengt

h in the economy and the strength in the labor market and the progress we have made, we can approach that step carefully and thoughtfully and with greater confidence. And when we reach that confidence -- the expectation is we will do so some time this year -- we can then begin dialing back the restriction on our policy. AMNA NAWAZ: For now, inflation remains slightly above the Fed's target of 2 percent on an annual basis. In Haiti, politicians began trying to form a new governing coalition, as t

he Caribbean nation remained largely paralyzed by gang violence. The gangs have demanded that Prime Minister Ariel Henry step aside or face a possible civil war. The U.S. State Department called today for Henry to respond. MATTHEW MILLER, State Department Spokesman: We are not calling on him or pushing for him to resign, but we are urging him to expedite the transition to an empowered and inclusive governance structure that will move with urgency to help the country prepare for a multinational s

ecurity support mission to address the security situation and pave the way for free and fair elections. AMNA NAWAZ: Henry has been abroad, but he flew into Puerto Rico last night because Haiti's main airport is closed. He was taken through customs, then driven away in a convoy. A missile attack by Houthi fighters in Yemen killed three crew members on a commercial vessel today and forced the others to abandon ship. They were the first deaths since the Iranian-backed group began targeting ships in

November over the war in Gaza. Separately, video from the Indian navy showed sailors fighting a fire on another ship. The owner said it was hit by a Houthi missile. The United Nations' migration agency reports a record number of migrants, more than 8,500, died on land and sea routes last year. That was up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier. The biggest increase came in the Mediterranean, with people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and in North Africa. Back in this country, police patroll

ing New York's subway system will soon be joined by the National Guard after a series of violent crimes. Governor Kathy Hochul announced today that 750 guard members will conduct bag searches and deter people from bringing weapons into the subway system. GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): This has to end. New Yorkers deserve no less. And to those who are feeling anxious whenever they walk through those turnstiles, we will stop at nothing to keep you safe, you and your family members. AMNA NAWAZ: Overall,

crime in New York has dropped since the pandemic, but, just last week, a passenger slashed a subway conductor in the neck. The House passed a spending package of $460 billion today to avert a partial government shutdown Friday night. The legislation funds five major departments for the rest of the fiscal year. The Senate is expected to approve it as well. A second package, including defense spending, has to pass before March 22. And on Wall Street, stocks managed modest gains after Monday's big

losses. The Dow Jones industrial average added 75 points to close at 38661. The Nasdaq rose 92 points. The S&P 500 was up 26. Still to come on the "NewsHour": how Sudan's civil war has created a massive hunger crisis; a measles outbreak in more than a dozen states raises concerns about a drop in vaccinations; author Paul Lynch discusses his Booker Prize-winning dystopian novel; plus much more. GEOFF BENNETT: Firefighters are making some progress against the Texas wildfires. But the fires are no

t yet contained. And across the Texas Panhandle, concerns are mounting about the cost of rebuilding. Many of the losses won't be covered by insurance. Stephanie Sy has our report on the long road ahead. STEPHANIE SY: The largest wildfire in the state's history continues to spread across the Texas Panhandle, leaving behind devastation, crop destruction, dead livestock, leveled buildings and houses. In Fritch, Texas, home to roughly 2,000 residents, Angela and Shane Grisham lost their house, pets

and belongings. They didn't have time to save much of anything, except their five kids. SHANE GRISHAM, Wildfire Victim: We had about 20 minutes to get out of there. As we were packing, doing our thing, just throwing things, is what we could get in the trunk of a car, it just started raining down, just burning ash and the smoke came across the front yard. So I told my wife, I said: "We have to go now. Like, there's -- that's it. That's all we can get." STEPHANIE SY: With only the clothes on their

backs, they took shelter in a motel before getting into an Airbnb. SHANE GRISHAM: I want to say it was two days later when they finally let us in, because there was still some stuff burning here and there. And we got back to the house, and then checked on it, and we saw the property and completely just leveled. STEPHANIE SY: In just over a week, wildfires have burned more than 1.3 million acres in the Texas Panhandle, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest, only 37 percent contained as of this

morning. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but a new lawsuit filed by a Texan who lost her home in the Smokehouse Fire alleges a splintered power pole operated by Xcel Energy started the blaze. Laurie Brown is publisher and editor of The Canadian Record. LAURIE EZZELL BROWN, Publisher and Editor, The Canadian Record: We know that what caused the pole to drop and all of that is going to be argued about, I'm sure, for months, if not years. STEPHANIE SY: Brown has lived in Canadian

most of her life, a city of roughly 2,300 people near the Oklahoma state line. LAURIE EZZELL BROWN: I have never seen anything like this. I mean, we have had wildfires before, and pretty devastating ones, but the extent of the damage here is profound. It looks apocalyptic to me. JOHN JULIAN, Resident of Canadian, Texas: We were some of the ones that did not get evacuated out of town. We ended up sitting on the courthouse parking lot and pretty much watched the world burn down. STEPHANIE SY: Joh

n Julian owns a water well business in Canadian that services local ranchers and farmers. JOHN JULIAN: They're reporting over 80 to 100 homes lost in the immediate Canadian and surrounding area. The loss of cattle and horses is in the thousands and thousands. It's devastating and something I have never seen in my life. STEPHANIE SY: With over 85 percent of Texas' cattle population located in the Panhandle, the blazes are wreaking havoc on the region's agricultural economy. Officials estimate mor

e than 3,600 animals have died to date. CHANCE BOWERS, Ranch Operator: We have about a little over 1,000 cows here. As you can see behind us, we're picking up beds today. STEPHANIE SY: In Skellytown, Texas, ranch operator Chance Bowers says it will take weeks to know how much he's lost. CHANCE BOWERS: This pasture we're standing in, there was a -- there was 93 cows in it, and there's six left. STEPHANIE SY: As residents try to cope, volunteers from across Texas are trying to see to it that no on

e goes it alone in the Lone Star State. RAND JENKINS, Texans on Mission: Our command center is -- it's a mobile trailer that has its own Wi-Fi and electricity and everything. STEPHANIE SY: Rand Jenkins is with Texans on Mission, a Dallas-based Christian ministry that specializes in disaster relief. They have dozens of volunteers on the ground. RAND JENKINS: We are with homeowners the last time they're going to see their house. We sit down next to them and we scoop a bucket of ash, pour it over a

screen, and just sift through, hoping to find important memorable items, and just sit with them and listen to their story and be a sponge for the pain that they're going through STEPHANIE SY: The Grisham family's story is unfolding a day at a time. ANGELA GRISHAM, Wildfire Victim: We're just trying to take it moment by moment. We're trying not to rush the process, just to keep our anxiety levels down and just trying to save up some money, so we can be ready when our property is clear of debris

and when we can rebuild and maybe get a loan for a new place. STEPHANIE SY: As crews assault the fire from the air with water and fire retardants, there's hope in coming days, with rain expected in the Panhandle later this week. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy. AMNA NAWAZ: Today, the United Nations Security Council discussed the 11-month-old brutal conflict in Sudan, the third largest country in Africa. It's killed 14,000 people and displaced eight million so far. The World Food Program

now says what began as a power struggle could become the world's largest hunger crisis. In a moment, Nick Schifrin speaks with the executive director of the World Food Program. But, first, we hear from the Sudanese, who are victims of war crimes catastrophe and hunger. And a caution: Some of the images in this story are disturbing NICK SCHIFRIN: With every step they take, they move further away from home. Sudan refugees crowd a U.N. boat in search of safety, too young to walk themselves, old en

ough to bear the burden of war. Every day, hundreds cross the border into South Sudan, children without enough food precariously close to starvation. And so 27-year-old Mahide Ibrahim (ph) takes what she can, U.N. packets of energy for her husband and three children who fled Sudan's capital, Khartoum. WOMAN (through translator): We came by bus. It took us two days to reach here. What we need is food. The immediate support we need is to eat, to be able to survive. NICK SCHIFRIN: What they have su

rvived is civil war that turned residential blocks into battlegrounds. It's a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, which the U.S. has accused of war crimes and has bombed residential villages, and, on the other side, the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, accused by the U.S. of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. RSF and allied militias hunt and kill young men they believe to be supporters of Sudan's army. NAJWA MUSA KONDA, Sudanese Civil Rights Activ

ist: You see your loved ones dying in front of your eyes, and then people come to rape you, and you don't understand what is going on. What -- why? What is the reason for all this? NICK SCHIFRIN: Najwa Musa Konda is a Sudanese civil rights activist who we met in Washington. She says the brutality of war on both sides has created a dystopian land of militia warfare and gender-based violence. NAJWA MUSA KONDA: And when it happens for this area, the next area, people will start fleeing already, bec

ause they know the next will be them. So they start running. If they find men, many cases of arbitrary killings on the way while running away. Women were raped also on the way. And there is horrible, horrible stories, when the women are telling us they are completely traumatized. NICK SCHIFRIN: When the RSF captured Wad Madani, Sudan's second largest city, last December, it took over the Sudan army's offices and burned down the city infrastructure, including the national bank. Hundreds of thousa

nds fled their homes, including Dr. Shakir Yahia of the international humanitarian group CARE. DR. SHAKIR YAHIA, CARE Sudan: I was so scared. So, yes, I was uncertain what's going to happen to my family, to my kids, these airstrikes, this shelling. NICK SCHIFRIN: It was the second time he'd been forced to take his six children and find a new home. He'd first fled Khartoum, then to Wad Madani, and then took his family to Kassala. DR. SHAKIR YAHIA: I saw thousands of people escaping for their life

, using whatever is available to move them out. So women were scared that they might be attacked and might be looted. So thousands of people were in panic. NICK SCHIFRIN: The war has stolen the smile from his 6-year-old daughter, Reem (ph). DR. SHAKIR YAHIA: What I saw in her drawings are men with machine guns. This was a shocking to me. I think it will be hard for my daughter and other kids to forget what had happened. NICK SCHIFRIN: The war has crushed already fragile infrastructure and pushed

the population into hunger and catastrophe; 25 million, more than half the population, is hungry and with no work. JEAN-GUY VATAUX, Head of Mission in Sudan, Doctors Without Borders: You have a huge economic crisis. It's incredibly difficult to make a living at the moment in Sudan, and the public services are all down. NICK SCHIFRIN: Jean-Guy Vataux is the head of Doctors Without Borders in Sudan. He spoke to the "NewsHour" from Wad Madani. JEAN-GUY VATAUX: Food used to be produced, a lot of it

in Sudan, and the next problem we will face is crops have been extremely bad for the past year, and all the specialists warn that the famine is looming for 2024 in Sudan. NICK SCHIFRIN: And joining me now from South Sudan is Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Program. Executive Director McCain, thank you very much. Welcome back to the "NewsHour." CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: Thank you. NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's talk about South Sudan, where you visited to

day, in a minute. But I want to ask the overall question first. What is the state of the humanitarian catastrophe that the war in Sudan has created? CINDY MCCAIN: The place I'm in today and the surrounding refugee camps have the possibility of becoming the world's largest hunger crisis very soon. We have saw people, not only refugees coming in, but people that were re-returning, all who had suffered unbelievable difficulties getting to where they're at now. And, most of all, they have had no foo

d. And, as you know, we have had to cut rations. So we are in a predicament now where we have got so many people sitting here. We're this close to famine, and children are dying of malnutrition every day here. NICK SCHIFRIN: You have had to cut rations because you haven't received from the international community the funds that you have been asking for, and the location that you visited today, Renk, is where 85 percent of those fleeing Sudan crossed the border. What are the stories that you hear

from these people? CINDY MCCAIN: Oh. Oh. I sat next to a grandmother who had her grandson her lap, and she had lost her entire family. And the stories that she told and the angst just -- she's in a terrible situation, as were all the other women in the room that I was talking to. I'm here today to make sure that we remind the world that this crisis is happening and that it's real and that we need help. We cannot forget about Sudan and South Sudan. NICK SCHIFRIN: The extent of the problem is eno

rmous. One in five children at the transit center that you visited today are malnourished. Are they getting what they need? CINDY MCCAIN: Well, once they get to the transit center, yes, we can help the very seriously malnourished and those infants and pregnant mothers also. But it's not enough, because we can't do it for long term. With our infants, we do try to obviously take care of them much longer, but we need more. And I can't do it unless the world community steps up and pays attention to

what is going on in this region. NICK SCHIFRIN: The State Department called out both sides of this conflict for -- quote -- "the obstruction of humanitarian assistance." The State Department says the Sudanese Armed Forces has been prohibiting cross-border assistance, and the Rapid Support Forces are looting homes, markets and humanitarian warehouses. How big of a challenge does that make your job? CINDY MCCAIN: Oh, it's huge. We -- on the rare occasion that we can get a full convoy across, somet

imes, things are looted. Sometimes, they're not. Sometimes, people are injured as a result of it. Sometimes, they're not. We need peace, access and funding, period. That's what we need here, and we need it soon. NICK SCHIFRIN: What would it take for you to be able to do the work you need to do? CINDY MCCAIN: Well, to give you some idea, we're $300 million short this year, and to do the kind of job that we need to be doing and making sure not only that we're feeding, but that we're also caring fo

r those longer-term feeding problems, like with malnutrition, especially with our children or pregnant mothers. This year, the money has not come. It's not just with WFP. It's around the world. It's every organization that I know of is facing the same funding crunch. But, with that said, there is a responsibility to this particular region and to these people. Without our help and without the world's help and consideration, they are going to die. NICK SCHIFRIN: And this isn't only about Sudan, ri

ght? What is the regional risk if this conflict continues the way it has? CINDY MCCAIN: Well, the way I have described it and the way that I think -- I will speak directly to the United States, but we have described it as a national security issue, because what you're seeing, with the lack of food, the lack of ability to support, to farm, to do any of those things, people migrate. They migrate into other areas. And in those areas, the bad guys are waiting. They're waiting to do just that. They w

ill give them food. They will take their children or they will -- or families will wind up selling their children for one reason or another, just so they can get food. That's what we're up against. NICK SCHIFRIN: Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, thank you very much. CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you. GEOFF BENNETT: In all of last year, there were a total of 58 reported cases of measles in this country, but just three months into this year, there have already been 41 cases across

16 states. The outbreak of this highly contagious virus is concerning public health departments. And William Brangham delves deeper into why it's occurring. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Geoff, thanks to widespread vaccination, measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. back in 2000. So seeing these outbreaks in different states, while they're still small in number of cases, has been disturbing to many. Dr. Paul Offit is a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who specializes in virolo

gy and immunology. His new book about where we are in our struggle against COVID is called "Tell Me When It's Over." Dr. Paul Offit, welcome back to the program. I just want to put up this graph that shows the rising number of cases of measles over the last few months. It starts there on the left in '23 and goes all the way up to the present. What is your understanding of what is driving this uptick? DR. PAUL OFFIT, Author, "Tell Me When It's Over: An Insider's Guide to Deciphering COVID Myths a

nd Navigating Our Post-Pandemic World": A critical percentage of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children. The CDC recently put out data in the last few months showing that the rate of immunization among kindergartners is starting to drop, and it's not surprising that this is the disease you see, because this is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, the CDC just said that 92 percent of American kids have received the MMR vaccine -- that's me

asles, mumps, and rubella -- that's a few notches below 95 percent that gets us to herd immunity. That percentage is enough to make a difference? DR. PAUL OFFIT: Yes, absolutely. To put this in perspective, there's something called the contagiousness index, meaning how many people would you infect during the day, assuming you're infected and everybody you come in contact with is susceptible? For diseases like COVID or influenza, the contagiousness index is about two to three. For measles, it's 1

8. One case of measles is concerning just because you sense it may be the tip of a much bigger iceberg. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I don't mean to date you with your age here, but I know you had measles as a child. This was before the vaccine was available. For people who don't remember, can you just remind us, what is this disease like? How serious of a virus are we talking about? DR. PAUL OFFIT: Right. So, before there was a measles vaccine in 1963, every year in this country, there would be three to f

our million cases of measles. There would be 48,000 people hospitalized, mostly children less than 15 years of age, and there'd be 500 people who died, again, mostly children. When they died, they died from severe dehydration or severe pneumonia or encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. It is a terrible disease, and I think what we're suffering right now is not just that we're not seeing measles in the manner we used to before, but I think we're -- we don't remember measles. I think w

e don't remember just how sick this virus can make you. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One of the things we have also seen is some somewhat confusing and conflicting official guidance. We know, in Florida, there was an outbreak at a school, and the state surgeon general there sent a letter to families that seemed to contradict all the official guidance. He didn't recommend that parents get vaccinated. He didn't recommend that unvaccinated children who had been exposed quarantine themselves. I mean, how are p

eople supposed to know what to do if they're getting this mixed message? DR. PAUL OFFIT: Well, the messaging that they were getting from Dr. Joseph Ladapo here and in Florida was the wrong message. I mean, there are essentially two weapons in the armamentarium of public health officials when you see a measles outbreak. One is isolation of people who are infected. They need to isolate for 21 days. And two is vaccination. By giving a very soft sell for both of those, I think Dr. Ladapo has the pot

ential to do a lot of harm. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, we are talking about this in terms of a larger decline in public faith in public health. And this is something you deal with in your new book. And you point out too some missteps that the FDA took back during the COVID pandemic and other federal officials. How do we go about repairing this breach so that, when the next outbreak comes, people know where to get good, smart information? DR. PAUL OFFIT: I think by mandating COVID vaccines, we ina

dvertently leaned into this libertarian left hook. So now you have hundreds of pieces of legislation pushing back against vaccine mandates, against masking mandates, because this was seen as an issue of personal freedom, of bodily autonomy. But it's not a personal choice when you talk about measles, because it's a contagious disease. So when you make a decision for yourself, you're also making a decision for others. And, remember, there's about nine million people in this country who can't be va

ccinated because they're getting chemotherapy for their cancer or because they have a solid organ transplant or a bone marrow transplant. They depend on those around them to be protected. Do we have any responsibility to our neighbor? I think we do. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But that's the argument that was made during COVID. And again we're making it now during measles. And yet we're still seeing this resistance, this pushback, both legislatively and personally. I mean, this is going to be an enormous

challenge, it seems, for the country going forward. DR. PAUL OFFIT: No, I think that's right. I think that now, under the name of personal choice or individual freedom, we have now incorporated vaccines. I think, in some sectors, the word vaccine has become a dirty word. And, as a consequence, what we're seeing is the children are now suffering a disease they don't need to suffer, because it's invariably the most vulnerable among us who suffer rare events. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Dr. Paul O

ffit, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The new book is called "Tell Me When It's Over." Always good to see you. Thank you very much. DR. PAUL OFFIT: Thank you. AMNA NAWAZ: It's a story mirroring today's headlines, a country dissolving into political chaos, descending into violence, and one woman watching her family fall apart. Jeffrey Brown talks to Booker prize-winning novelist Paul Lynch for our arts and culture series, Canvas. JEFFREY BROWN: A city full of life, Dublin, Ireland, for examp

le, its citizens enjoying the benefits of an open and vibrant democracy, until, as democratic norms are stripped away, they don't. The novel "Prophet Song" captures the impact on one woman, Eilish Stack, who wakes up to see that now she is living in another country. The author is Irish writer Paul Lynch. PAUL LYNCH, Author, "Prophet Song": We're in an Ireland that seems to be the known Ireland, the Ireland that I would know, that I live in Dublin city. But at the same time, it's an unknown world

. Ireland has elected a populist government. And things are beginning to slide. And there's a tipping point. And nobody sees it. JEFFREY BROWN: Lynch's novel won the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards. The judges called it harrowing and dystopian, capturing the social and political anxieties of our moment so compellingly. I have to assume a Booker Prize is kind of life-changing? PAUL LYNCH: Well, there's an adjustment required? JEFFREY BROWN: An adjustment? PAUL LY

NCH: An adjustment. I mean, so few are selected. So -- and you don't ever believe that you're going to be one of the few, you know? JEFFREY BROWN: Lynch, 46, and author of four previous novels, met us recently at Swift Hibernian Lounge, one of New York's classic pubs. This is a big story, a big moment in the history of a country. But you tell it through this one family and, in particular, this one woman. PAUL LYNCH: I'm interested in this idea of the personal cost of events. And I think that, if

you go back through literature, you go through a great book like "The Iliad," it foregrounds the politics. It foregrounds the heroics and the great characters. But if you take "The Iliad" and you turn it inside out, you arrive at Eilish Stack. You arrive at the individual living the ordinary life and how the individual is caught up within the cogs, the machinations of this enormous thing that's unfolding. And so I'm really interested in that. JEFFREY BROWN: You don't tell us much about the spec

ific events. There's an emergency that's happened, but we don't know exactly what's happened. There's a new party that's taken control, but we don't even really know much about their ideology or who they are. PAUL LYNCH: If I had identified the politics, then the book would become about the politics. And so it would appear that I'm then messaging, I'm then trying to identify political politics and trying to say something about that. And this book's not doing that. JEFFREY BROWN: So this is not a

political novel? Or we shouldn't read it that way? PAUL LYNCH: I think that it has a political dimension that's inescapably true. But I think that the complexity of the novel points the reader to more things. I'm really interested in the problem of grief, not grievance. I'm interested in the idea of the political of what is lost, how fragile this world that we're in is. JEFFREY BROWN: Also, he says, in how loss is always happening somewhere, whether we choose to pay attention or not. He had Syr

ia in mind when he began writing. Then Ukraine happened, now Israel and Gaza, the rightward shift in Western Europe and this country, the violence that suddenly flares, including the shocking riot by extremists in Dublin in November. PAUL LYNCH: People have always said, oh, the far right doesn't exist in Ireland. My attitude would be, that energy is always there. It's just a matter, is it being directed? And so this kind of -- this sense of unraveling is -- we have watched it and are watching it

on a massive scale on the news, but you can feel it, that maybe this thing that we take for granted, this idea of the civilized world, it's a thin veneer. It's so fragile and so easily lost. JEFFREY BROWN: As his character Eilish comes to realize, the end of the world is always a local event. PAUL LYNCH: She understands finally that this idea of Armageddon, this biblical idea of the end of the world being this global catastrophe, this sudden thing, that it's nonsense, that actually the end of t

he world is always happening, it's happening again and again and again. It just comes to your city, it comes to your town and it knocks on your door. JEFFREY BROWN: A knock on the door, in fact, by the newly formed secret police is how the novel begins. PAUL LYNCH: "The night has come and she has not heard the knocking, standing at the window looking out onto the garden. How the dark gathers without sound the cherry trees. It gathers the last of the leaves and the leaves do not resist the dark,

but accept the dark and whisper." JEFFREY BROWN: And note the writing itself, the density of the pages, the lack of paragraph breaks or quotation marks, words and images piling up. PAUL LYNCH: When you sit down around a novel, every choice that you make, everything that goes into the mesh, the form of the novel must be justified, because it must speak back to the meaning of the tale. JEFFREY BROWN: Even how it looks and how it how it... PAUL LYNCH: How -- the look and feel, and that is communica

ting meaning back to the reader, because we are in something that is very claustrophobic And Eilish is. Eilish imprisoned within this. JEFFREY BROWN: But you want us as readers to be... (CROSSTALK) PAUL LYNCH: I want you to feel that too. JEFFREY BROWN: You have written about the role of the novel today and I guess a concern about whether it can still be valued, even important, have a place in our society. PAUL LYNCH: Yes. It goes back to what I call the whisper in the ear. I mean, the novelist

can whisper in the reader's ear, and that's a beautiful conversation. There's also whisper in the ear that you have with yourself. But we live in a time where technology has done something to us. We are no longer, for many of us anyway -- unless you cultivate it and shape it, we are not in tune with ourselves. We're not hearing the voice in the ear. And it's harder to read fiction too. And I think that a culture that cannot hear itself think is a culture that is in serious trouble. JEFFREY BROWN

: But that means for a novelist? I mean, a novelist could throw up -- you could say, I'm not going to write these anymore. Or you could say, I'm going to write it even more. PAUL LYNCH: I'm going to write it even more. I'm going to push deeper and harder in. And I like that idea of fiction just being a little bit more dangerous, a little bit more engaging, pushing into -- seeking this hidden charge of things and giving the reader maybe a little bit more electricity, but doing it respectfully. JE

FFREY BROWN: All right, the book is "Prophet Song." Paul Lynch, congratulations. Thanks for talking to us. PAUL LYNCH: My pleasure. Thank you. GEOFF BENNETT: And we will be back shortly. But, first, take a moment to hear from your local PBS station. AMNA NAWAZ: It's a chance to offer your support, which helps to keep programs like this one on the air. GEOFF BENNETT: In the 1980s, roughly 75 percent of doctors in the U.S. worked for themselves, owning small clinics. Today, that same percentage of

physicians are employees of hospital systems or large corporate groups. Some physicians who worry that trend is taking a heavy personal toll and leading to diminished quality of care are deciding to unionize. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports has more in this encore report. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Hours before sunrise, Kate Martin shepherds her daughter to the ice rink. While her daughter perfects her balance on the ice, Martin uses the time to seek her own work-life balance. DR. LEAH DUVOR, Allina Health

: I currently have about 86 things in my in-basket. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For family practitioner Leah Duvor, the best time to catch up with backlogged work is after her small children are in bed. DR. LEAH DUVOR: It will depend on my kids, whether they wake up and come down or cry, or the baby needs a bottle. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For many primary care clinicians, work stretches far beyond clinic hours, notes from clinic appointments, lab results, medication orders, messages from specialists. For so

me, it's reaching a breaking point. On this recent morning, Martin, a nurse practitioner and colleagues, doctors and physician assistants, all employed by the Allina Health system, gathered in an unfamiliar setting, the Minneapolis offices of the National Labor Relations Board, here to witness the ballot count in a historic vote to form a union. DR. MATT HOFFMAN, Allina Health: We can't rely on corporations, we can't rely on health care executives to do the right thing for our patients. FRED DE

SAM LAZARO: Dr. Matt Hoffman, a leading organizer of the drive, says primary care providers have borne the brunt of a relentless drive to squeeze profits by increasingly large corporate owners, all at the expense of patient care. His employer, Allina, is a $5-billion-a-year health system, with 60 primary and urgent care clinics across the Twin Cities area and nearby Wisconsin communities. Hoffman says that the problems here are hardly unique. DR. MATT HOFFMAN: You could go to any city, you could

find a health system where the same issues exist. The main problem is, we have so much paperwork, so much administrative work that really isn't about delivering care to patients. The victims of that are really the patients we see. It's waiting on hold. It's not getting to see your normal doctor. It's having to see someone that doesn't know about you. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Pediatrician Jennifer Mehmel said she'd had enough and took an early retirement from Allina to strike out on her own. With a p

sychotherapist colleague, she was just settling in a new small clinic above a St. Paul strip mall targeted at adolescent patients. DR. JENNIFER MEHMEL, Collegiate Mental Wellness: I have a luxury of controlling my own schedule. I can spend the amount of time I need. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She began her career in a provider-owned group which was later bought by Allina. With the merger came centralized scheduling and standardization in everything, from how much time is spent with each patient, even t

o hand sanitizers, she says. DR. JENNIFER MEHMEL: They were putting them all at kind of waist level right as you came in the room. And I went up to the fellow doing it and said, this is the pediatrics department. How about if we put them up a little bit higher, because I could see kids really enjoying these? He said, no, I have been told they have to all be at this level. A week later, of course, they had to come and move them all. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Dr. Hoffman was among those who protested an

even graver policy at Allina, one they took to The New York Times. The policy instructed staff to stop providing care to patients with more than $4,500 in overdue bills, going beyond the more common practice of turning such debts over to collection agencies. Did you have personal experiences with patients that you could no longer see? DR. MATT HOFFMAN: Yes, absolutely. These are the patients are really need the care the most, people that can't pay their bills. A lot of these people are children

. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Allina announced it has since discontinued the policy. The company declined to be interviewed for this story, but, in a statement said -- quote -- "While we are disappointed in the decision by some of our providers to be represented by a union, we remain committed to our ongoing work to create a culture where all employees feel supported and valued." When all the ballots were tallied, the 500-plus providers voted 2-1 in favor of the union. What do you expect if you get to t

he bargaining table? DR. MATT HOFFMAN: We need more staff. We need better paid staff to help support us, so that we can spend our time in the exam room with patients. We need help with our paperwork, with the administrative tasks, so that we can focus on patient care. That's really what were looking for. PAUL CLARK, Pennsylvania State University: Things have to be pretty bad, I would argue, when physicians do try to organize, because this has never remotely been a part of their professional cult

ure. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State, says the doctors' vote is hardly the final chapter. Your guess is that we won't see a contract between Allina and this group of doctors anytime soon? PAUL CLARK: If there was it would be highly unusual. They have sent a signal that they're going to fight this. They have hired one of the top anti-union law firms in the country and paid them a tremendous amount of money. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The sa

me law firm has represented Starbucks, he notes, where employees at more than 300 outlets have voted to unionize over the past two years. Not one has reached a contract. PAUL CLARK: The strategy is delay, delay, delay. If you can delay signing a contract for a year, then there's a provision of the law that allows the workers to basically reverse their vote. It's called decertification. Workers expect a contract that's going to improve things. The hospital delays. A year goes by. The employees th

ere are saying, well, we're not getting what we thought we would get. We're paying dues. And we went to all this trouble. And it's not producing anything. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: On the other hand, he says, physicians do have more leverage and less job turnover than baristas. And the vote comes as a recent Gallup poll showed a majority of Americans, 71 percent, approve of unions, the highest level since 1965. Whether these doctors get a contract and how far, if at all, the Allina model spreads, Clar

k says, may become clearer in a couple of years. WOMAN: Solidarity. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minneapolis. AMNA NAWAZ: Tomorrow evening, President Biden will be laying out his priorities to Congress, the American people and to the world during his State of the Union address. And you can join us right here for live coverage. NARRATOR: President Biden's first term is coming to a close, with issues persisting at home... REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Under Pre

sident Biden, America has laid out the welcome mat. NARRATOR: ... and abroad. KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States: History shows us, if we allow an aggressor to take land with impunity, they keep going. NARRATOR: Can the president instill a sense of unity amongst a divided nation? The State of the Union address and Republican response, Thursday, March 7, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on PBS. AMNA NAWAZ: Join us tomorrow night for special coverage online, during the "NewsHour," and live dur

ing the president's address. GEOFF BENNETT: And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight. I'm Geoff Bennett. AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz. On behalf of the entire "NewsHour" team, thank you for joining us.