NICK SCHIFRIN: Good evening.
I'm Nick Schifrin.
Judy Woodruff is away for the holiday.
On the "NewsHour" this Christmas Eve: Indonesia searches for hundreds of missing people, following
the deadly tsunami that struck without warning.
Then: government in limbo.
Negotiations between the White House and Congress continue, as the shutdown threatens to extend
into the new year.
We look back at this year's major moments in movies, and which films are leading the
Oscars race.
And a "NewsHour" holiday tradition: U.S. troops around the world sing a Christmas classic.
All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."
(BREAK)
NICK SCHIFRIN: The official casualty count in this weekend's Indonesian tsunami keeps
rising.
Today, officials confirmed at least 373 dead, and they said the number will likely increase.
In Serang, Indonesia tonight, the Christmas Eve mass was heavy with tragedy.
They prayed for fellow parishioners swept away by the weekend, tsunami.
ROBERETUS BOWO SANTOSO, Indonesia (through translator): Some of our church members are
also victims of this tragedy.
Even now, some of them are in the process of burials outside the town.
NICK SCHIFRIN: It was Saturday night when the tsunami hit Sunda Strait, between the
islands of Java and Sumatra, with no warning.
A local pop band was performing at the moment the waves arrived.
Multiple band members died, and members of the crowd were swept away.
DESTIAWAN, Tsunami Survivor (through translator): When I saw water come in, about knee-high,
I tried to run, but suddenly the current dragged me, and I was drifting away.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, that beach resort is destroyed, as are local villages.
And search teams fanned out looking for signs of life.
They are getting better organized, says the International Red Cross' Steve McAndrew.
STEVE MCANDREW, International Red Cross: It's getting better every minute, as debris is
being cleared.
The government and the Indonesian armed forces are responding.
They're in the area sort of making access better every minute, every hour.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And that's allowed those who fled the tsunami to return today.
But they say they have had to clean up themselves.
JAJAM, Indonesia (through translator): We're grateful that we're safe now, and aid is coming
in from communities and the city central, but we haven't received any from the government
yet.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In all, some 1,500 were injured.
And health clinics are overwhelmed.
Family members line up outside, anxiously checking patient lists.
It's been just three months since another tsunami caused by an earthquake killed more
than 2,000 people.
Saturday's tsunami is thought to have been triggered by underwater landslides caused
by the eruption of the Anak Krakatoa Volcano.
That means Child of Krakatoa Volcano, which erupted in the 1880s and killed 36,000 people.
Today, President Joko Widodo visited the tsunami zone, and acknowledged there is no system
to detect a tsunami triggered by a volcano.
JOKO WIDODO, Indonesian President (through translator): In the future, the government
will provide detection equipment, warning systems that can give warning to everyone.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But, for now, people on these islands, are living in fear of another tsunami,
especially after the volcano erupted again yesterday.
STEVE MCANDREW: Just have to be alert.
The government has recommended people to stay away from the coast at least until 8:00 a.m.
on the morning of the 26th, so another two days.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Many will spend that time grieving.
The lead singer of the band that was hit is apparently its only surviving member.
On Instagram, he asked people to pray for his band mates and his wife, all washed away
by the tsunami.
A government spokesman today admitted the country's network of buoys, designed to detect
tsunamis, haven't worked since 2012 because of vandalism and budget shortfalls.
In this country, it's the third day of a partial government shutdown, and there's no end in
sight.
Our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, is here with an update.
OK, Yamiche, so where do things stand in negotiations between the White House and Congress?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Negotiations have stalled.
And it's looking like the shutdown is going to last with into 2019.
Incoming Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said he doesn't expect that this is going to be
resolved very quickly.
He said that the White House is willing to come off the initial $5 billion amount, which
is what the president was asking for the border wall.
But there's no specific number in sight.
And they're about at least $2 billion to $3 billion apart when it comes to Democrats and
Republicans on this.
I want to read to you a statement that the Democratic leaders Senator Chuck Schumer and
Representative Nancy Pelosi, put out today.
They said: "Different people from the same White House are saying different things about
what the president would accept or not accept to end his Trump shutdown, making it impossible
to know where they stand at any given moment."
So we're at a stalemate.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So President Trump a couple weeks ago, I think, said, I will take the
blame for this shut down.
But, more recently, he's blamed the Democrats.
We're on day three right now.
What's he saying today?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The president is saying a lot.
There was a tweetstorm going on.
But I want to read to you one specific tweet that I think encapsulates what the president
is thinking today.
He said at about -- he said this morning, on Christmas Eve: "I'm all alone, poor me
in the White House, waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately
needed border security At some point, the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will
cost our country more money than the border wall we are all talking about.
Crazy."
So the president is in fact alone in the White House.
The first lady and his son and his son Barron are going to be flown or at least flying back
from Florida to be with him for Christmas.
But there was a point today where he was sitting in the White House while the lawmakers in
the Senate and the House were out.
He did meet with the secretary of homeland security today.
But, as of right now, the president is still waiting for the shutdown to end.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And you just mentioned those lawmakers are out.
I mean, in the past, we have seen lawmakers be absolutely urgent about responding to the
shutdown.
Why aren't we seeing that urgency this time?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, it's only 25 percent of the government that's being affected.
The other thing is that government workers have been out of work since the shutdown began.
It began on midnight on Saturday.
Today, which is Christmas Eve, was a federal holiday that Trump created by executive order.
Christmas is also an executive order -- a federal holiday.
And then you have Wednesday, where furloughed workers are going to start feeling the pain.
The other thing is that the White House is saying, the incoming chief of staff is saying
that the check that is actually going to be impacted is January 11.
Also, museums around the country and in D.C. are still open, so people are able to do that.
So it's a little different than in past.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But it looks like the shutdown may last into 2019.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Yes.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yamiche Alcindor, thank you so much.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks so much.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In the day's other news: Wall Street crashed into Christmas with another
big sell-off, driven in part by President Trump's weekend attacks on the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 653 points to close at 21792.
The Nasdaq fell 140 points, and the S&P 500 shed 65.
We will have a full analysis after the news summary.
Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to dissolve Parliament and call for
early elections in April.
His announcement came amid mounting divisions within his right-wing coalition, including
last month's resignation of his defense minister.
Netanyahu said he made the move after his small parliamentary majority appeared to come
up short on a key vote.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: We knew what we were doing.
It was right not to go to elections then, and I think it's perfectly sensible to go
to elections now.
We had a complete agreement, by the way, of all the partners, complete unanimity.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Netanyahu is heavily favored to win reelection, but he is also facing an
ongoing corruption probe.
Today, Israel's attorney general said an early vote wouldn't affect that investigation.
In Afghanistan, at least 29 people died in an hours-long assault on a government building
in Kabul.
It began with a suicide car bombing, followed by gunmen storming the public welfare department.
Both the Taliban and Islamic State militants have carried out similar attacks in the past.
In Somalia, the death toll rose to 26 today, after Saturday's twin car bombings in Mogadishu.
The extremist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for detonating a car bomb near the presidential
palace and a smaller one by an underground prison.
And on this Christmas Eve, people all over the world mark the holiday with prayers for
peace.
In Bethlehem, Palestinian scouts paraded in Manger Square, playing bagpipes and drums.
Pilgrims filed into the Church of Nativity, the site revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
And at the Vatican, worshipers filled St. Peter's Basilica, where Pope Francis took
part in the traditional celebration of midnight mass.
Still to come on the "NewsHour": Wall Street in turmoil -- we examine the causes of the
market's worst month in a decade; how the president's decision to force out Defense
Secretary James Mattis will affect U.S. policy in Syria and Afghanistan; our Politics Monday
team breaks down the impact of the federal shutdown and more of the latest political
news; plus much more.
There was no Christmas Eve gift for investors, shareholders, retirees or the jittery markets.
Today was the worst trading day ever on a Christmas Eve.
And it comes after the markets finished their worst trading week since the 2008 financial
crisis.
Slower growth, higher interest rates, lower profits, a shutdown and trade wars, there's
plenty to worry investors.
But as William Brangham tells us, the president and his team seem to be adding to that anxiety.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Heading into today, several of the major stock indexes were already in
bear market territory for the first time in a decade.
That includes the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500.
A bear market is when an index drops 20 percent from a recent high.
Then, over the weekend, there were new revelations that further unnerved investors.
President Trump was reportedly considering firing the chairman of the Federal Reserve,
Jay Powell.
Administration officials have since denied the president had any such intention.
But the president again went after the Fed today, tweeting -- quote -- "The only problem
our economy has is the Fed.
They don't have a feel for the market."
On top of that, yesterday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued this puzzling statement,
saying he'd spoken with the heads of the biggest U.S. banks to reiterate the strength of the
financial system and to confirm their reserves of cash for lending.
To many, this hearkened back to a concern not seen since the Great Recession in 2008.
Annie Lowrey watches all this for "The Atlantic."
And she joins me now from New York.
Annie, thank you for being here.
You wrote a column in "The Atlantic" where you were describing this letter that Mnuchin
put out yesterday, and equated it to going to the doctor when you have the symptoms of
a head cold, your doctor can't stop talking about cancer, and how alarming that is.
I mean, what do you think the secretary was up to?
ANNIE LOWREY, "The Atlantic": Yes.
So it would be quite normal for the treasury secretary to talk to the heads of big banks.
This is something that happens all the time, that isn't surprising.
But the Treasury put out this press release on a weekend, before a holiday, assuring market
participants that nothing was happening, indicating that there was some kind of financial crisis
or liquidity crisis at the big banks, which is not something that anybody was worried
about.
We're in a very kind of classic vanilla bear market, but there's no signs that the nation's
banks are teetering or that we have to have those kind of 2007-2008 worries again.
And so it's a very weird statement.
And it, frankly, like, unnerved a lot of market participants, who are like, does Secretary
Mnuchin see something thing that we don't see, is there something that we're missing?
Because this just seems like a down market.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I guess that's just a mystery we will have to wait and find out about.
What is it, do you think, is really going on with the market?
We have seen this very precipitous drop.
What do you think is driving that?
ANNIE LOWREY: There are a number of fundamental issues that the market is responding to.
So, first and perhaps most important, the Fed is raising interest rates.
That's increasing borrowing costs.
It's slowing the economy down.
The markets are pricing that in.
And it's starting to show up in terms of decreasing home sales, decreasing car sales, perhaps
increasing defaults.
We have problems in a number of kind of financial markets.
So the leverage loan market, for instance, is having some issues, where people are losing
some money.
All of this is somewhat to be expected, though, right?
Like, we have been in a bull market for 10 years.
And this is seen as being kind of a natural correction.
People are also concerned about Donald Trump's trade war.
They are concerned about uncertainty emanating from Washington.
They are concerned about slowing global growth.
All of these things are affecting the markets, and they might indicate that the U.S. economy
might slow down.
But, again, that's very different from being in the sort of situation that Mnuchin was
gesturing to, where you might have a kind of financial crisis, and be worried about
the stability and the safety of American financial institutions themselves.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The president today, as we saw, was tweeting that the only problem
the economy has is the Federal Reserve and their announcement that they're upping interest
rates.
What do you think is going on there?
Is the president simply trying to find someone to blame for this stock market decline?
ANNIE LOWREY: Absolutely.
The president has, quite unusually, seen a rising market as being a sign of his success.
He points to a rising market as being a good indicator of economic health, which it really
isn't.
And, therefore, he's looking for somebody to blame now that the market is going down.
It's really important to note that the Federal Reserve is not responsible for the market
going up.
It doesn't see the market going up as being its responsibility.
It is responsible for two things, and two things only, price stability and unemployment.
And both of those things are looking pretty good.
So that happening within the context of a healthy financial sector means that the Fed
is going to continue probably raising rates, unless we start to see those signs of the
economy itself slowing down.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But does the president or some of his allies who agree with the criticism
of the Fed that there is -- there might be some underlying factors?
I mean, there is a sense that the global economy is slowing down, and that maybe we might see
those ripple effects fairly soon, and that maybe raising interest rates is not the best
idea.
ANNIE LOWREY: Certainly.
And I think that if you started to see the unemployment rate go up, inflation to drop,
growth to slow down, those kind of things would absolutely give the Fed pause.
But the markets going down and Donald Trump's sort of yelling at the Fed is not something
that's really going to change their path.
Right now, I think that the markets concerned about instability emanating from Washington
from the Trump administration itself.
And one thing that happened with Secretary Mnuchin's statement, talking to market participants,
is that they were weirded out by it, and they felt like it was symbolic of the kind of shambolic
state of government, inexperience at the Treasury.
And so that statement alone kind of freaked them out, along with all of the tweets that
Donald Trump has been making, the government shutdown, this general sense of chaos emanating
from Washington.
So I do think that uncertainty is sort of playing into the animal spirits here.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I want to touch on something you referenced before.
Then I'm wondering if we are making too much of this stock market decline, because, as
you say, we have had 10 years of a truly incredible market, and now we have had three months of
a bad stock market.
But 10 years vs. three months, that that's an unequal ratio.
ANNIE LOWREY: Absolutely.
Markets go up, they go down.
There's nothing right now to indicate that this is much more than a soft patch.
The economy might slow down.
We might even enter recession.
But right now, this is really just a bear market, a correction in the market.
And we would need more data to indicate that there was sort of a deeper underlying problem
just than stocks kind of selling off and investors losing some money.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Annie Lowrey of "The Atlantic," thanks for coming in on
Christmas Eve.
ANNIE LOWREY: Thanks for having me.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The president's decision to withdraw forces from Syria, signed yesterday
by Defense Secretary James Mattis, and order the Pentagon to develop plans to withdraw
troops from Afghanistan could dramatically change the path of U.S. foreign policy here
in Washington and overseas, where U.S. troops have been fighting multiple wars.
In the Northern Syrian city of Manbij, American soldiers spent Sunday with their local allies,
and patrolling a local market, exactly what President Trump has ordered them to stop.
A year-and-a-half ago, U.S. troops teamed up with Syrian Kurds to evict ISIS from Manbij
and other former ISIS strongholds.
In total, there are 2,200 Americans in Syria.
And over the last four years, U.S. support to anti-Assad forces and the Iraqi government
and a U.S.-led campaign helped eliminate 99 percent of ISIS' territory across Syria and
Iraq.
But the main U.S. ground ally, Syrian Kurds, are seen by Turkey as an enemy.
And, today, Turkish television broadcast footage of a military convoy deploying to the Syrian
border.
The Syrian Kurds warn they may have defend an imminent Turkish attack, and stop fighting
ISIS terrorists, the head of their political wing, Ilham Ahmad, said this weekend.
ILHAM AHMAD, Co-President, Syrian Democratic Council (through translator): Even when the
Americans were not in the region, we were already fighting terrorism.
We will continue our mission, but this will be difficult because our forces will have
to withdraw from the front to deploy along the Turkish border to repel any attack.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But President Trump says the U.S. withdrawal is slow and highly coordinated
with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
And, today, Mr. Trump tweeted that Erdogan promised to -- quote -- "eradicate whatever
is left of is in Syria.
And he is a man who can do it.
Plus, Turkey is right next door.
Our troops are coming home."
BRETT MCGURK, Former Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter
ISIL: Even as the end of the physical caliphate is clearly now coming into sight, the end
of ISIS will be a much more long-term initiative.
NICK SCHIFRIN: That was the U.S.' top anti-ISIS official, Brett McGurk, just last week.
This weekend, McGurk accelerated his February departure to protest the president's decision.
McGurk argued the U.S. should stay in Syria, and better coordinate with allies, to ensure
ISIS' defeat.
BRETT MCGURK: Nobody is declaring a mission accomplished.
Defeating a physical caliphate is one phase of a much longer-term campaign.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But the president opposes that kind of stabilization campaign in Syria and
in Afghanistan, where U.S. officials say President Trump wants to cut the 14,000 troops in half.
Most U.S. troops help train Afghan forces, and serve as a symbol to support the Afghan
government.
Others fight ISIS and the Taliban, helping create leverage in nascent peace talks between
the Taliban and lead U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad.
But President Trump says the U.S. will not support long-term military relationships without
something in return.
"We are substantially subsidizing the militaries of many very rich countries all over the world,
while at the same time these countries take total advantage of the U.S. and our taxpayers
on trade," he tweeted today.
"General Mattis didn't see this as a problem.
I do, and it is being fixed."
Secretary of Defense James Mattis wanted to stay until February, but this weekend the
president said he would leave next week, and replaced by deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick
Shanahan.
Let's explore what all this means with Wall Street Journal national security reporter
Nancy Youssef.
Nancy Youssef, welcome to the "NewsHour.
Thank you so much for being here.
NANCY YOUSSEF, The Wall Street Journal: Great to be with you.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Let's start with Syria.
The president used the words slow and coordinated.
What does that look like, most likely?
NANCY YOUSSEF: Well, that's actually an issue that's changing even as we speak, because,
when these talks started, the U.S. was talking about leaving Syrian 30 days.
And now we are with starting to hear of a timeline that is as long as 120 days.
And rather than just sort of precipitous withdrawal or drawdown, we are starting to hear talks
about Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meeting with
his Turkish counterparts.
We're hearing about ways that possibly the U.S. could continue some form of its airstrike
campaign in support of the coalition, and really coming up with a specific plan which
would allow potentially for U.S. troops to go in temporarily, rather than picking up
everything and leaving, so that the plan would be such that the U.S. can, in some way, support
its Kurdish partners on the ground and try to protect its gains against the Islamic State,
and even maybe finish off the last remnants there in the days and the weeks ahead.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So the president has said not that the U.S. is going to finish off ISIS,
but that Turkey is going to finish off ISIS.
He said that in a couple tweets.
But is there any evidence that Turkey actually intends to do that or wants to target ISIS,
rather than what it considers its enemy, the Syrian Kurds?
NANCY YOUSSEF: Well, the challenge for the Turks even before that is, it's not clear
that they have the military capability to go all the way down to where ISIS is, nearly
200 miles from the Turkish border.
When they were in Afrin, which is much, much closer, they were really challenged by some
of the logistics of conducting such a military operation.
So there's that.
And, as you point out, even if they were able to do it, it's not clear that they see ISIS
as a preeminent threat.
They have stated that they see the U.S.' Kurdish partners, members of the Syrian Democratic
Forces, as a terrorist group.
And so the idea that they would come in and work hand in hand the way the U.S. has with
the Kurdish partners seems very, very unlikely.
These are people they have literally called terrorists.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And the U.S., though, have required the Kurds, they have needed the Kurds,
they have allied absolutely with the Kurds.
What are the Syrian Kurds' options right now?
Could they even actually turn to the Assad government and form some sort of alliance
there?
NANCY YOUSSEF: We're already starting hear -- but let me just start by saying they're
still fighting ISIS, and they're not fighting mean necessarily out of loyalty to the United
States, but to protect themselves, because they're on the front lines of that war.
And we have started to hear that they're talking with the Assad regime.
We have had members of the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, in Moscow and in Paris
trying to negotiate.
And what they're saying is, we're working with anybody we can to fill the vacuum that
will be created when the Americans leave to protect our own interests.
And so there's a scenario where they reach a deal with the Assad regime and the Assad
regime then reaches a deal with partners like Russia to come up with some sort of exit and
what a plan for what Northeast Syria looks like, who is where, who controls what.
NICK SCHIFRIN: All right, so we got to do Syria and also Afghanistan.
So, we have got about 14,000 troops right there right now.
U.S. officials have talked about cutting that in half to 7,000.
What kind of talk is there, if any, yet of the specifics of that withdrawal?
NANCY YOUSSEF: So what's interesting is, we have been hearing for a long time that the
Trump administration was looking for some sort of withdrawal plan out of Afghanistan,
but in coordination with the ongoing peace talks being led by Zalmay Khalilzad.
What's happened now is that the United States has sort of jumped ahead of those peace talks
and said it has plans to withdraw half of its troops.
There's -- there are plans that could start that withdrawal as early as January.
The problem is, one of the key components of the peace talks for the Taliban was coming
up with some sort of number for U.S. troops leaving.
And the U.S. now essentially said, we are going to give up half, without having gotten
anything out of the Taliban.
So it really raises questions, if we're already down by 7,000, could the Taliban negotiate
something where that number drops even further?
NICK SCHIFRIN: And, lastly, we have a new acting secretary of defense, Deputy Secretary
of Defense Shanahan, very little government experience, was at Boeing.
More aligned perhaps with the president?
NANCY YOUSSEF: We don't know, because he's really a businessman.
He has run the day-to-day operations.
He's focused on business and the relationship between the business community and the Pentagon.
And even in his confirmation hearing, he said, I'm here to complement the secretary of defense,
Mattis, who will take care of policy.
I will take care of business, and, in fact, stumbled a little bit when answering policy
questions during his confirmation hearings about Ukraine.
So, we don't know.
That said, he has supported the president in his effort to create the Space Force.
He is aligned with the president in terms of fixing things financially and putting the
focus back on budgets and not on putting troops on the front lines.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And very quickly, in the time we have left, Secretary Mattis is trying to
be professional at this moment, even though this is not a normal moment for the White
House and the Department of Defense.
What about his staff?
Is there a level of anger?
And will they stick around to help Secretary Shanahan?
NANCY YOUSSEF: The indications right now are not, that a lot of people said that they joined
the department when they did to work for Secretary Mattis, and they're already indications that
as many as a dozen could be gone in the week ahead.
And so that's a real challenge, because, as we have discussed, Secretary Shanahan doesn't
have policy experience.
And he will lose a lot of experience with Secretary Mattis' departure.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Nancy Youssef of The Wall Street Journal, thank you so much.
NANCY YOUSSEF: My pleasure.
NICK SCHIFRIN: It might be Christmas Eve, but that doesn't mean politics in Washington
has any plans of slowing down.
From the departure of Secretary Mattis, to the government shutdown, our dynamic Politics
Monday duo is here to break it all down.
That is Tamara Keith of NPR and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.
All right, Tamara Keith, we have just been talking about the policy of Afghanistan, of
Syria, of this moment with Secretary Mattis' departure.
What are the politics of this moment?
Does it matter that Secretary Mattis wanted to stay until February, but will be leaving
next week?
TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: So, he resigned in protest.
That matters.
And talking to Sarah Sanders at the White House, she said the president didn't want
a long, drawn-out transition with someone who he clearly disagrees with, who wrote a
resignation letter that was pretty damning of the president and his policies.
And then you also have the possibility that Mattis would be on like a goodbye tour, receiving
love and support, with the president watching, and potentially even being called to testify
before Congress.
So, President Trump, according to Sanders, said, hey, I like this guy who is the deputy,
let's make him the acting defense secretary.
It is not -- just to be clear it, is not normal for there to be an acting defense secretary.
Typically, defense secretaries wait until their replacement is confirmed.
This is a very big, important position in the federal government.
(CROSSTALK)
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes.
We're, what, on our fifth Cabinet-level position now that will have an acting secretary, so
that's obviously not particularly normal either.
You know, it seemed this week as if we hit this new place with Republicans, with Republicans
in the Senate particularly, many of whom came out over the weekend expressing dismay about
Mattis' departure, expressing dismay about potentially new Syria policy.
And it seems like this is the place that many people have thought we were going to see earlier
in the president's tenure, with the party splitting from the president, openly and actively,
as he goes against traditional Republican orthodoxy.
They have complained about tariffs.
Not really done anything.
They have complained about his behavior.
Not really done anything.
When it comes to foreign policy, though, we are going to see if this is the breaking point,
or whether it is just another example -- or we will see just another example of Republicans
hand-wringing, but, woe is us, there is nothing we can do.
Does the Senate want to prove that it's a co-equal part of government or fall in line?
TAMARA KEITH: But when it comes do military decisions, it is difficult for the Senate
to prove that it wants to be a co-equal branch of government.
AMY WALTER: It is.
TAMARA KEITH: They haven't been able to pass an authorization of use to use military force
since, what, like 2002, 2003?
NICK SCHIFRIN: A new one, as many senators have wanted to do, right.
(CROSSTALK)
TAMARA KEITH: Right.
They talk about it.
(CROSSTALK)
AMY WALTER: But they also can decide whether there is going to be money spent on certain
decisions.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But the obvious rejoinder here is that, yes, some in Congress have objected
to this, some senators or representatives have hand-wrung when it comes to the president,
but the bottom line is, they have not really pushed back on the president, and they especially
have not pushed back on foreign policy, just because of the difficulty of that.
AMY WALTER: That's right, on foreign policy.
There is the difficulty on that.
And the president's overall broader argument about the -- Americans' involvement in these
seemingly never-ending quagmires is one in which there is a broad agreement, but...
NICK SCHIFRIN: The military calls them wars.
(LAUGHTER)
AMY WALTER: Yes.
There is some agreement there.
But I will be fascinated to see what the confirmation process is going to look like for this new
secretary of defense and once again...
NICK SCHIFRIN: If there is one, because...
AMY WALTER: If there is one.
Or can we continue to exist with...
(CROSSTALK)
NICK SCHIFRIN: We can have an acting secretary of defense for quite a long time, actually.
AMY WALTER: That's right.
That's right.
NICK SCHIFRIN: All right, let's switch over to the shutdown.
And let's listen to Mick Mulvaney, who, as you guys know, is the director of the OMB,
the Office of Management and Budget, and the acting chief of staff, speaking this weekend.
MICK MULVANEY, White House Budget Director: He is proud to have this fight.
As to where we are in the back and forth, again, the ball right now is in their corner.
We have made them an offer yesterday afternoon.
So the Senate Democrats have the ability right now to open the government and agree to the
deal.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, Tamara Keith, he is proud to be in this place, and it is all on the
Senate Democrats, that is the message we are hearing from the White House, right?
TAMARA KEITH: Right.
And the Democrats in the House and Senate will say it is a Trump shutdown.
And they have a great surrogate for them.
That would be the president himself, not two weeks ago in the Oval Office, saying he is
proud of it.
They put out a statement today essentially saying, we don't even know who to talk to
because we get a different answer from every person we talk to in the White House.
That is not the sign of a shutdown coming to an end.
That is a sign of an impasse.
And how do they get out of it?
Well, one way is -- the most likely way is that maybe Democrats come up in the dollar
amount, the White House comes down in the dollar amount.
That seems like an outline of where they are going.
The problem, though, then is, Democrats say whatever the dollar amount, it can't be spent
on the wall, and the president says whatever the dollar amount, it must be spent on the
wall.
So then you are still stuck.
AMY WALTER: Right.
And I thought it was so appropriate that Mulvaney used the term fight.
That's what the president is interested in here.
This isn't about having a prolonged debate over border policy or immigration.
This is about, I want to have an actual opponent.
When I have an opponent and the focus isn't on me, it is on how bad the other side is.
Then I look better and I thrive in that kind of environment.
That really has been on display, obviously, for the entirety of his presidency.
But the fact that he sees that this is a winning strategy has not lived up to his billing.
We just had an election not that long ago where it was a referendum on that exact strategy,
on that, the way that he has run the presidency, and Democrats had a very big night.
They won the House popular vote by almost nine points.
They picked up 40 seats.
Even in places that Republicans traditionally do well, Republicans lost.
So, if this is the message going forward, I am just going to do more of what I did for
the first two years, because the American public likes what they are seeing, well, they
certainly didn't say that in November.
TAMARA KEITH: And -- and, in the midterms, in these rallies leading up to the voting,
he talked about a wall a lot.
He made it all about immigration.
Remember the caravan?
It was all about the caravan and the wall and the immigration fight.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Amy, I want to go back to something that you said about the Republican Party and
the infighting.
I want to show the last edition of "The Weekly Standard," which is publishing today.
This was a primary voice of conservative Washington for so many years, obviously problems of subscription,
of revenue, but dominant organ of neoconservative thinking a few years ago, very critical of
Trump.
Isn't this a sign that the Trumpian side is winning this debate?
AMY WALTER: Right.
Well, again, let's look at what they actually have won.
The president now has an 89 percent approval rating the among Republicans.
It is remarkable, given that, three years ago, he wasn't really running as a Republican
to be president of the United States, right?
He was running as outside of this.
He goes against so much of the orthodoxy, traditional orthodoxy of the Republican Party.
And, at the same time, we have seen the parties splitting apart, at least among the traditional
coalition, when you look at the 2018 results.
The fact that Orange County, California, like "The Weekly Standard," once the...
NICK SCHIFRIN: Not far from where I grew up, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
AMY WALTER: ... bastion of traditional conservative everything, has now flipped to Democrats,
there is not one Republican who represents Orange County in Congress.
So, the party has been redefined and reoriented in Trump's image.
The question really that is fascinating -- and I think a lot of Republicans are thinking
forward to this -- what happens when there is no Trump to define Trumpianism?
Is it going to go back to those "Weekly Standard" days, or is it going to stay in the Trump
direction?
NICK SCHIFRIN: All right, we will have to leave it there.
Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thanks to you both.
AMY WALTER: You're welcome.
TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Christmas week is a time when many of us catch up on movies, either on our
couches or in the theaters.
So, we turn to our Jeffrey Brown, who kicks off a weeklong look at some of the year's
best art, starting today with the silver screen.
JEFFREY BROWN: The past year was, as always, a big one for blockbusters, but it was also
notable for a number of socially relevant films and movies with a greater sense of diversity
and inclusion.
The biggest hit of the year in fact was "Black Panther."
We look at other notable offerings with a pair of film critics who we often check in
with, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post and Mike Sargent, chief film critic for WBAI
and co-president of the Black Film Critics Circle.
Welcome back to both of you.
I want to start with the one that you both had on your list.
It was "If Beale Street Could Talk."
Ann, why that one?
ANN HORNADAY, Film Critic, The Washington Post: This is just an exquisite movie.
It's an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel by Barry Jenkins, whose film "Moonlight" won
best picture a couple of years ago.
And I think what I love about Barry Jenkins' work -- and it's exemplified in this movie
-- is that it's not just about plot.
It's not just about characters, even though this story is deeply meaningful and the characters
are vivid.
But this movie is told in such a rich way, so visually, and so emotionally, that it just
becomes an exercise almost in visual poetry and feeling.
I mean, the ultimate takeaway is one of feeling, rather than story.
And I love that.
JEFFREY BROWN: OK, we have got a short clip of that.
Let's take a look.
ACTRESS: This is a sacrament.
And, no, I ain't lost my mind.
We are drinking to new life.
Tish is going to have Fonny's baby.
JEFFREY BROWN: Mike Sargent, why did you pick this film?
MIKE SARGENT, Co-President, Black Film Critics Circle: Well, I picked this film for a number
of reasons.
And like Ann said, he has the ability to make something very emotional, almost visceral.
And he also can take material that you may have seen before in a movie.
A story like "Beale Street," we have seen -- a lot of the themes that are in "Beale
Street" have been done before, but Barry Jenkins can really cast a spell.
As you're watching the film, you're swept up in the feeling and in the music, in the
cinematography, and the acting, and the characters.
And it literally casts a spell on you.
And it makes you -- as Ann said, you come away with a feeling.
You have just gone through something when you see this movie.
So this is a movie that should have been made a long time, ago but I'm glad it is now made
by this filmmaker.
JEFFREY BROWN: OK, glad it's now around.
So, Ann, give us a couple.
Give us two more, briefly.
ANN HORNADAY: Two that I'm just -- that I love, one is called "Roma" by Alfonso Cuaron,
very similar to "Beale Street" in a way, in terms of just the cinematography and the acting
and the way that he structures the narrative is just engulfing.
It's just an immersive experience and a really grand one.
And another one called "The Rider," which came out earlier this year by Chloe Zhao.
She kind of reimagines the American Western using an entire cast of non-professional actors,
most of them real life cowboys.
So it manages to sort of merge the mythic American West with something much more kind
of daily and gritty and real.
And I just -- I just loved the vision of it.
MIKE SARGENT: I really have to say "A Quiet Place."
I don't know if you know the premise of "A Quiet Place," is, it's the future.
Aliens have come.
They have killed most humans.
But they realize that the aliens can't see, but they can hear you.
So if you stay quiet, you can live.
And this is a film directed by John Krasinski.
And it stars him and his wife, Emily Blunt.
Movies and good stories are about setup and payoff.
This movie set so many things up so well and pays off so well.
Completely made me look at John Krasinski differently.
And the second film -- I may get killed for this because most of my colleagues, black
film critics, don't agree -- but "Green Book."
I loved "Green Book."
I thought it was a great film.
And a lot of the criticism is that, you know, the magical Negro and the tropes that it brings
out, and it's stereo -- but, I mean, Hollywood makes Hollywood movies.
It's a road movie.
It's a buddy movie.
It's a movie about two people's lives who were changed by the fact that they connected.
And I think that's what it is, and I think it does it very, very well.
JEFFREY BROWN: We asked you both to pick out a performance that stood out for you.
And, Ann, you chose Ethan Hawke playing a pastor in the film "First Reformed."
Let's take a look.
ETHAN HAWKE, Actor: Courage is the solution to despair.
Reason provides no answers.
I can't know what the future will bring.
We have to choose, despite uncertainty.
JEFFREY BROWN: Ann, tell us about that.
ANN HORNADAY: This is an extraordinary performance by Ethan Hawke, who has been so good in so
many movies the last few years.
I feel like we have almost watched him grow up on screen.
He started as that cute young guy in the rom-coms, and he is aging so beautifully in this role
as a troubled priest trying to pastor to his community, while he's undergoing his own crisis
of faith.
It's all there on his face.
I mean, he's great with the dialogue.
This is written and directed by Paul Schrader.
And Ethan Hawke really commands all of the feeling and the verbiage of that screenplay,
but it's really his face and the expressiveness of the age lines on his face and the expression
in his eyes that I think is just overwhelming.
It's just a -- it's just a tour de force for him.
JEFFREY BROWN: And, Mike Sargent, you picked Christian Bale doing an uncanny Dick Cheney
in the film "Vice."
Let's watch that.
CHRISTIAN BALE, Actor: The vice presidency is a mostly symbolic job.
However, if we came to a different understanding, I can handle the more mundane jobs, overseeing
bureaucracy, military, energy, and foreign policy.
SAM ROCKWELL, Actor: Yes, right.
I like that.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Michael, that one brings a smile.
I can't help but smile at that one.
MIKE SARGENT: Well, this is the story of Dick Cheney and how he ended up becoming the vice
president, and a lot of things that led up to him being the Dick Cheney we all know.
You really forget that you're watching Christian Bale.
I mean, the makeup helps, but he's got the mannerisms, the speech.
He gained 45 pounds for the role.
It really makes you understand Dick Cheney as a man.
And I was never, clearly, a fan of Dick Cheney, but, watching it, you kind of go, oh, I get
Dick Cheney now, and I understand him.
And it's really largely due to the performance that Christian Bale gives.
And I have to say, Adam McKay, his take on things, his fractured narrative, the humor,
it's a really, surprisingly good movie and a fantastic performance.
JEFFREY BROWN: I want to ask you both.
You know, we have asked you this in the past.
Something that got lost or overlooked, that one film that you tell your loved ones or
best friends, you got to see this.
Ann?
ANN HORNADAY: Well, one that I wish more people had seen is "First Man," with Ryan Gosling
playing Neil Armstrong.
It's a masterful movie, and it's a very deeply patriotic movie, and another deeply emotional
movie about a man processing his own grief by isolating himself in space.
And the visceral, kind of verite style really puts you right into the capsule with him.
I thought it was a thrilling experience.
JEFFREY BROWN: Mike Sargent, what have you got?
MIKE SARGENT: Well, mine is a film that came out towards the end of the year and just did
a limited run.
And it's the "Making The Five Heartbeats" by Robert Townsend.
This is a film that looks back on -- it's kind of a seminal film.
It was way ahead of its time, didn't do well at the box office.
But seeing what he did, as he looks back, all the auditions he had, what he went through
with the studios, how they told him it wouldn't work, how -- the racism he experienced, all
of that, it really brings you back to that time here in America.
But it makes you -- any artist, anybody who has anything they want to do will be inspired
by this film.
It could be subtitled persistence of vision.
It's really one, do not miss it, wherever you can see it.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, some of the best of 2018.
Ann Hornaday, Mike Sargent, thank you both again.
ANN HORNADAY: Thank you.
MIKE SARGENT: You're welcome.
NICK SCHIFRIN: This is the season of reflection on the things that bind us together, the things
that matter most.
Judy Woodruff recently spoke to a man who combines religious faith with the secular
powers of inspiration and love.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As the presiding leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States,
the Most Reverend Michael Curry leads one of the nation's oldest denominations.
Last week, he participated in a state funeral of former President George H.W. Bush at Washington's
National Cathedral, but he's much more widely known for the sermon he delivered last May
during the marriage ceremony for Britain Duke and duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan
Markle.
MOST REV.
®MD-BO¯MICHAEL CURRY, Episcopal Church: When love is the way, then no child will go
to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness
like an ever-flowing river.
When love is the way, poverty will become history.
When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That sermon formed the basis of Bishop Curry's latest book, "The Power
of Love."
Welcome with back to the "NewsHour."
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Thank you.
Good to be back.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, you threw yourself into that sermon, but you write in the book that,
when they approached you about preaching, at first, you thought they weren't serious.
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Well, yes.
I remember the archbishop of Canterbury called a member of my staff, because I was traveling
somewhere.
And when with the staff member talked with me, I said, look, it is not April fools.
What do you really want?
What is going on?
And I couldn't believe it.
And he had to convince me that it was for real.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How did you go about deciding what to say in that sermon?
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: You know, the truth is, I had to wait until I knew what the Bible passage
that was going to be the centerpiece, if you will, of the service.
And the couple and their staff and the archbishop and the dean of the chapel were all involved
in conversations about what stricture passage would they use.
When they landed on Song of Solomon or Song of Songs, then I knew what trajectory to take,
because actually if you look at Song of Songs, it actually is love poetry between a couple.
And they are talking about their love for each other.
And they are going back and forth.
And there is the Jerusalem chorus, kind of like the Greek chorus.
And they're in the background, kind of -- they're almost -- it's sort of like Gladys Knight
and the Pips.
They're kind of the Pips in the background.
And then all of a sudden, after they have talked about why they love each other, the
woman, it's almost as though she really stops.
It's like, she stops in place.
And she's saying, wait a minute.
We didn't generate this low.
We're not the source of this love.
We're experiencing it.
And she says -- though she begins to point to the transcendent source of that love, which
ultimately is God, the source of all love, and that's where the text took its clue, and
the sermon evolved from there
JUDY WOODRUFF: And it grew naturally, Bishop Curry, out of many sermons you have given
before.
Obviously, this one's unique, but you have been preaching about love, the power of love,
which is a title of the book, for a long time.
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Yes.
I really do believe, certainly, as a Christian clergy person, that the heart and soul of
the Christian message and the great tradition, religious traditions of the world is that
the key to life is loving God and loving each other, that that's the key.
I mean, there's a lot of complexity as to how you do it, and work it out practically.
But if you start from that core principle of unselfish, sacrificial, unconditional love,
you will navigate your way through life, even its most complex and difficult sides and dimensions.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Why do people like you have to keep preaching that sermon?
Why is that message, why has it been so hard for that message to sink in, do you think?
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: You know what?
I have got a theory.
And that's all it is.
It's my theory.
But I used to think of the opposite of love is hate.
And, on some levels, that makes sense.
But what I'm beginning to see is that, if you look at love as the New Testament talks
about, as Jesus of Nazareth talks about it, he talks about love most consistently as he's
about to give up his life.
And at one point, he even says, greater love has no one than this, but that they give up
their life for their friends.
The opposite of love is not simply hatred.
The opposite of love is selfishness, self-centeredness, which the religious traditions have always
identified as the root source of all the dilemmas that are created by human beings, this selfishness.
Love is the opposite of that, the antidote to that, if you will.
And the reason it's difficult for us is, healthy self-respect and self-love can quickly become
selfishness, if we let it.
You need healthy self-respect, but the selfishness, when I become the center of the universe,
and you're the periphery, it's all about me, and the heck with you.
And that even includes God.
If I'm the center of the universe, well, God's on the periphery too.
It's kind of a reverse Copernican Revolution, if you...
(LAUGHTER)
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: And so that's why it's so difficult, because we always live in the tension between
healthy self-esteem and self-centeredness.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you -- in the sermons that are excerpted in the book, you take that concept
of love, as you did it when you were preaching at the -- at the wedding, and you talk about
how it relates to the problems we face as a people, as a humanity, whether it's immigration,
in this country right now, the plight of migrants, whether it's racial injustice.
And you talk about making it a practical thing that people live beyond just what they think
about in church every Sunday.
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Yes.
It's -- the truth is, love is not a sentiment.
It's a commitment.
It's a decision and a commitment to seek the good and the welfare and the well-being of
others, sometimes even above my own unenlightened self-interest, to borrow from the philosophers.
And the truth is that you can't build a society, there is no social compact, there is no functioning
democratic society, there is no freedom, true freedom, when everybody is functioning solely
on their own unenlightened self-interest.
If it's all about me, you actually have us tearing ourselves apart.
Somehow, we have got to look for common good, for the good of others.
It's the samaritan road, the parable of the good samaritan in the New Testament, about
the one who is willing to risk to save another person's life, to help another person's life.
Selfishness is the most destructive force in all of creation.
But selflessness is the most creative power that actually exists, because that's the nature
of God.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And how are we doing as a country right now when it comes to selfishness?
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Well, we're struggling.
But it's a mix.
It's a mix.
But we are struggling.
We're in the midst of a great struggle.
And I think some of our identity as a nation, if you will, is really rooted in the result
of that struggle, whether immigration and the migration of peoples.
Our capacity...
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you -- one of the sermons you preach in here is at a detention center...
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... where families are being kept apart from one another.
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Yes.
And that sermon was -- it actually was an example of, how do you put love in action?
And, in the sermon, I said, we do not come in hatred.
We do not come in anger or bigotry.
We come because we believe what Jesus taught us.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
And we come with love for those who are detained here and women -- this was a women's detention
center -- women who had been separated from their children.
We come in love for the prison guards, who have to do their job, whether we agree or
disagree.
We come in love for our nation.
But, because we truly love our nation, we will not sit idly by and allow our nation
to do wrong, because we're better than that.
If you love somebody, you want the best for them.
And we came because we love our country.
And we want our country to look like that lady in the New York Harbor, the Statue of
Liberty.
Give me your tired, your hungry, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
That's America.
That's America.
That's the soul -- Jon Meacham's -- that's the soul of America.
And we went to that detention center because we want America to find its soul again.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Bishop Michael Curry, writing about love and relating it to so many larger
questions our country is dealing with right now, "The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections,
and Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire," right now and this holiday season and throughout -- throughout
the year.
Thank you very much.
MOST REV.
MICHAEL CURRY: Thank you.
God bless you.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Finally tonight, we continue a "NewsHour" tradition.
There are 1.3 million active-duty U.S. military service members.
About 200,000 are based overseas and spend the holidays away from home.
Each year, we have asked the Department of Defense and its Defense Media Activity Agency
to spread a little holiday cheer and record service members sing a Christmas song.
Tonight, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
(SINGING)
NICK SCHIFRIN: And this Christmas, in case your cooking isn't going down in history,
we spoke to scientists and baking experts to find out the chemistry and physics that
can take your holiday treats to the next level.
Find those tips and more on our Web site, PBS.org/NewsHour.
And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.
I'm Nick Schifrin.
Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.
For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," I hope you had a good day.
Have a good night, and merry Christmas.
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