AMNA NAWAZ: The week began with President Trump marking 100 days in office and closed with his calling for an end to federal funds for public media.

To discuss those events and more from the week, we're joined once again by our friends Brooks and Capehart.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

Man, is it good to see you both at the end of this week.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: Let's jump right in.

Guys, in the first 100 days, we have now seen the first major shakeup in the administration with the ouster of Mike Waltz.

He's been moved from national security adviser to the United Nations.

But, before that, we had a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll that took the temperature of Americans.

They had to say this.

On President Trump's job performance overall, they gave him a 42 percent approval, 53 percent disapproval.

On his two biggest issues, on immigration, he's underwater, 44 percent approving, 52 percent disapproving, and on the economy, 39 percent approving, 55 percent disapproving.

More importantly, when people were asked to give him a report card, they give him a grade, more than half, half of respondents, responded with an F. Jonathan, this is a president who moved fast, got a lot done.

What do you make of how Americans are taking it all in?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, that last chart you showed shows that the American people -- I mean, F, that's serious.

People are not happy.

The PBS poll shows it, and the raft of other polls that came out last week also show it.

The American people are not happy with the president.

They're not happy with what he's doing, how he's doing it.

The one thing -- the one thing caution, though, is that from Trump's first time as president, I learned he couldn't care less about the overall numbers.

He cares about the Republicans.

Where do Republicans stand when it comes to him?

And I will admit, I did not look for that crosstab in the PBS/Marist poll, but I did in the other polls last week, and his support among Republicans remains strong.

And so, if you take that, he looks for their support.

Plus, a president in his second term, who feels like he has the power and is exercising the power to do whatever he wants, who cares about the American people?

I think we're -- he's not going to pay attention to these horrible poll numbers.

I think he's just going to keep plowing ahead.

AMNA NAWAZ: I just want to clarify too, it's 45 percent gave him an F, just in the way of getting the numbers right there.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: It's still a lot.

AMNA NAWAZ: It is a lot.

David, your reaction?

DAVID BROOKS: I had a lot of C's, D's, and F's in school, and I did fine.

AMNA NAWAZ: You turned out OK. DAVID BROOKS: What's striking about those numbers is his economic rating is underneath his overall rating, when the economy was generally his strong thing.

So that's -- and the same with immigration.

So that's kind of telling.

Among the Trump supporters that I have spoken to in the last three or four weeks, I would say there's some group who think, I'm taking hit on my retirement money, this is disrupting me, but I love my country and I'm willing to pay the price for the long-term benefit of this country.

So that's a chunk.

Then there's a chunk who are still Trump supporters, but who are now filled with a lot of ambivalence.

And so this is really messing up my business as an electrician.

This is really messing up my supply chain.

This is my small business, I don't know.

I wish he had gone after China, but not after Europe on tariffs.

So they're still supportive, but they're super ambivalent.

And then there's another group of people who are more swingy and a little more independent.

And some of them are saying, I don't know about this.

But then if you go down the income scale, there are a lot of people who are Trump voters who are, like, panicked.

Like, when they see a $9 carton of eggs, that's like -- that's a reality.

And so those people are flaking off big time.

And so when you look at the where the Trump is losing the support, it's among those independents and especially a little lower down the income stream.

But the rest are - - there are a lot of waverers, and they're like, I don't know, this doesn't look good, but they haven't made a decision yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, let's talk about how the Democrats are responding in these first 100 days as the opposition party.

We did see Kamala Harris come out.

And deliver her first major speech since leaving the White House, warning of what's to come for the rest of the Trump administration.

She also praised Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for speaking out against their president in this continuing Fighting Oligarchy Tour.

And I should note that Geoff Bennett, who's not here with us now, he's out with our partner local member station KQED in the Bay Area for a Reframe Festival.

He sat down with Nancy Pelosi earlier today and asked her about Democrats' messaging, which should change from their 2024 message.

Here's part of what she had to say.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): When somebody doesn't get a message, it's not because of them.

It's because of us who are delivering the message, that we did not deliver it clearly enough.

This guy comes along and says he's going to lower prices.

He hasn't.

He's going to do this.

He's going to do that.

All a smokescreen.

But we have to make sure the public knows what is in their interest.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, Jonathan, are Democrats leaning into the issues they should be at this moment?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I think they are, now that they have, like, shaken off the stunned nature since the election and certainly after the inauguration.

I think the issue here is, there's no one thing to focus on.

There is no one thing, one message.

There's the economy.

There's immigration.

There's civil liberties.

There's due process.

There are a whole host of issues that Democrats have to talk about.

And they don't all have to talk about the same thing at the same time.

I think Democrats need to be out there talking -- hitting on the issues that those individual lawmakers really care about, where they can speak to those issues with authenticity that speak to where people's concerns are.

And I do want to point something out, that Vice President Harris didn't just mention AOC and Bernie Sanders.

She talked about the breadth of Democrats who are out there speaking out, from Cory Booker and Senator Chris Murphy, Congressman Maxwell Frost.

These are all Democrats who are out there talking about any number of issues all at once, all at the same time, really highlighting what their concerns are about this president and his administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, what do you make of that approach?

DAVID BROOKS: You know, the Democrats are off the mat, so they feel good that they have had people speaking.

I think they're doing it in a pretty poor way, frankly.

The polling is bad for Trump.

But when they ask voters who would you vote for if you had rerun the 2024 election, Trump still wins over Harris by two.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

DAVID BROOKS: And so -- and then I think it's a mistake to have, frankly, AOC and Sanders out there doing the rallies.

AOC has a approval rating of 30.

And so why are you leading with someone who is going to turn off a lot -- is going to rally the base, for sure, but turn off a lot of the voters who you need to win?

And so what I think this is not the -- this should not be fought right now as a left-right conventional Democrat, Republican.

Donald Trump is attacking institutions.

And this should be -- opposition to Donald Trump should be of nonpartisan defense of institutions, of the courts, of rule of law, of NIH.

And the more you make it partisan, the more you're cutting yourself off from at least half the country.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, you want to quickly respond?

I saw a look of skepticism.

Go ahead.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, it's not like the Democratic Party is pushing Sanders and AOC out there.

They decided to go out on their own.

And that speaks to a bigger issue within the Democratic Party.

And, also, remember, Sanders and AOC were going to red states.

They weren't rallying the base in Virginia, New Jersey.

AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: They were in Montana and Idaho.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, David, I want to come to you on this other topic, because I know you're obviously both here because you are believers in the power of public media.

We did see President Trump issue this executive order directing that federal funding should be cut for NPR and PBS.

He's alleging bias in the reporting.

And it is, as we have seen, the latest move by the president to use executive power and the levers of government to target institutions, media, cultural, academic, that he disagrees with.

At its core, what do you believe this is about?

DAVID BROOKS: At its core, the Trump administration is based on one them, which is, they think progressive elites have destroyed the country, we need to take progressive elites down.

And that's whether they're in museums and sciences and universities, whatever.

And so, in some sense, they have some case to be made that the elites have become a little more progressive.

But as they go after CPB, I'm reminded of the call I got 23 years ago from Jim Lehrer offering me this job.

And I'm sitting there, of course, in a little league dugout.

And Jim said: "You're going to be on the show on Fridays.

We want you out and do a lot of reporting.

You got to bring something to the game.

This is about journalism."

And I would say, if you think the PBS is biased, compared to who?

Name one news organization in America -- and I shouldn't be defending us.

I get paid by PBS.

But I'm going to do it -- who's more straight down the line than we are.

Is it MSNBC?

Is it FOX?

Is it CNN?

Lisa Desjardins, like, one of the great journalists of our time?

And so I will defend PBS, A, because I know how good we do in relative terms, but, B, because we travel around the country.

We see the local affiliates where they're not doing some ideological thing.

They are the voice of their community.

And so that's one of the reasons I'm violating my normal principle of never defending somebody I work for... (LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: ... and trying to say, this is how I was hired, to be a journalist.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, what do you make of the president's moves at this time, not just about PBS?

This is not just about us.

It's part of a larger campaign here.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right.

And I was going to say, well, what can I say after that passionate defense of PBS and CPB?

But I think what the president is doing, it is a fundamental attack on our Constitution, on the foundation of this country.

People need to understand and remember, there is only one profession that is protected in the Constitution, and it is the free press.

It is the press.

And why?

Because the founders understood that the survival of a democracy depends on an informed citizenry.

And the citizenry can only be informed by a press that can report and do -- report on the affairs of the republic free and unfettered.

And whether they are -- come from the left or from the right, the government should not interfere with that reporting.

And so, when you have a president of the United States who is making it his mission to attack the free press, we should all be concerned, whether we are at PBS or whether we are at MSNBC, because he's focused on us too.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, I know we will all continue to do our work without fear or favor.

David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart, always great to see you at the end of the week.

Thank you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Amna.