GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Amna Nawaz is on assignment.

On the "News Hour" tonight: President Trump rallies House Republicans on Capitol Hill, making a personal pitch for passing his sweeping tax and spending cuts bill.

Deadly tornadoes spark scrutiny of FEMA's preparedness, as the White House overhauls the agency and slashes its staffing.

And Jonathan Capehart reflects on the life lessons and revelations chronicled in his new memoir, a candid exploration of his journey towards self-discovery.

JONATHAN CAPEHART, Author, "Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home": I can't impart the lessons that I learned without writing about the hard things I had to go through in order to learn them.

(BREAK) JONATHAN CAPEHART: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Donald Trump spent the morning on Capitol Hill trying to get House Republicans to line up behind his massive domestic policy bill.

As he departed, the president expressed confidence, both in the bill's chances and in House Speaker Mike Johnson.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I think we have unbelievable unity.

I think we're going to get everything we want.

And I think we're going to have a great victory.

And this man has done a great job.

And I think this was a tremendous session.

GEOFF BENNETT: The bill includes trillions in tax cuts, new restrictions on Medicaid, and funding for Mr. Trump's mass deportation operation, among other things.

It remains an open question whether the House speaker can deliver on the president's agenda.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is here with the latest.

So, Lisa, it's great to see you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Do Republicans have the votes to get this passed?

LISA DESJARDINS: As we speak, no,they do not.

They do not have enough votes in their conference.

But they have been negotiating all day with some of those holdouts.

And I want to look at two key groups of holdouts that still remain.

The first, these are moderate Republicans, mostly from New York, but one from California, who would like a change in the way state and local taxes are done.

They want more of an exemption at a higher level for their states.

Now, there is another group of holdouts on the other end of the ideological spectrum.

These are fiscal conservatives, many, if not all of them, from the House Freedom Caucus.

They are worried about the red ink in this bill.

They want more cuts to Medicaid spending, among other things.

Now, all in all, there's just a margin of three votes for House Republicans.

So, that means really, the margin for error here is very small.

And that -- see that red box?

That's Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

He is already a hard no.

That's one no-vote.

Now, these three in yellow, they were no's, but today talking to them, they now seem to be leaning yes, and why is that, Geoff?

Because of President Trump.

He went in that room today, talked to House Republicans, and had a rally.

I could hear the cheering from outside the room.

He told jokes, sometimes at the expense of his opponents on this bill.

But he really gave them a message which was, don't mess with Medicaid and pass the bill.

No specifics.

This is Trump.

But he said pass the bill, and it did affect some of those members that I talked to, not all, but some.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we heard the president say in that clip there this.... REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I think he was just trying to persuade people who weren't there yet.

QUESTION: he change your mind?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: No.

QUESTION: Where are you on this bill?

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I'm leaning maybe.

I liked what he said about the Medicaid.

QUESTION: Which was what?

REP. TIM BURCHETT: He messaged it very well.

We're not kicking little old ladies off.

LISA DESJARDINS: So there you hear some of them trying to get toward a yes on this bill.

But they're not there now quite yet.

We know some of those holdouts just left meeting with Speaker Johnson, and said there's progress, but they're not there yet.

Here's the thing,.

They're supposed to meet at 1:00 a.m. Eastern time tonight.

And the idea was to have this finalized by then.

But I don't know if they will.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, I was going to say, we heard the president earlier say that this bill has everything we want.

What are the remaining issues and who does it affect?

LISA DESJARDINS: It's funny he said that because for this bill to pass, everyone basically has to give up something.

So those remaining issues are the state and local taxes, also Medicaid and the overall spending levels on it.

But when you think about it, the majority of House Republicans are on board this bill.

And when you talk about that state and local taxes issue and those five Republicans right now that seem to really want higher levels, they're negotiating right now, but they're not even the majorities necessarily from their two states.

So I spoke with one Republican from New York, Claudia Tenney.

Now, her district is one that is kind of more rural, doesn't have as much high tax problems.

But she's really weighed this and she's come out in favor of the bill right now.

Here's what she said.

REP. CLAUDIA TENNEY (R-NY): It's important to New York state, but I think we got a really good deal for SALT.

We hammered all these things out.

There's a lot of things I'd love to see in the bill that would really help my communities that I didn't get.

And I'm hoping we can get this on another round possibly.

LISA DESJARDINS: So Trump says we will get everything we want.

Clearly, that's not going to happen for most of these members, but the stakes here are so high for Republicans and for the country.

If they don't pass something, everyone's taxes will go up.

And also the Republican agenda, they may not have another chance at this for a few years.

And need I also mention the Senate will probably change this bill again.

So Republicans need to get around this bill soon if they're going to get it out of the House.

GEOFF BENNETT: I want to ask you, Lisa, about another matter involving Congress.

And it's because the Justice Department has charged a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey with a felony for an incident that happened at an ICE detention facility.

This is a highly unusual action by the DOJ to charge a sitting member of Congress for this scuffle in which no one was injured.

Tell us more about it.

LISA DESJARDINS: And with a very serious crime, felonious assault.

We're talking about Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey.

She and two other members of Congress visited an ICE detention facility in New Jersey.

Now, they do have the ability to show up at any ICE facility and request a tour.

Sometimes, they will have to wait.

With them was local mayor.

He does not have that same right.

So what happened was the members were sort of circling around the mayor.

The ICE folks were saying they would arrest the mayor if he didn't leave.

He didn't leave.

They moved to arrest him.

And then the members of Congress sort of tried to circle around the mayor.

I want to show the video of what happened here so people can judge for themselves.

Now, there you see in red, Congresswoman McIver.

She is part of that big scrum of people moving as the mayor is getting arrested.

Here's a closer look at what she did in her interaction with those ICE officers.

Here it is slowed down because this is really the question in this charge.

Her actions, was this assault?

Was this a felony?

Was this a crowd movement?

Now she says that -- she spoke on CNN today and she has said she did nothing wrong.

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): This is our obligation to do.

It's in our job description to have oversight over a facility and the entire situation was escalated by ICE.

LISA DESJARDINS: Republicans say, no, she went above and beyond, she went past the borders of what she should have been doing.

They say Democrats are able to do their job as members of Congress, but that doesn't mean they can break the law.

Kristi Noem, the secretary of DHS, spoke today at a Senate hearing.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: Yes, they can conduct oversight, but, Senator, what I would ask is that they understand that doesn't mean they could show up with a mob with the intention to break in and assault law enforcement officers.

That's what happened at Delaney Hall.

LISA DESJARDINS: I think we will keep hearing about this.

This gets to this idea of law and order, but also the tensions in our politics right now and how much our public servants can perhaps talk about their own actions and each other's actions without it being political itself.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, our deep thanks to you, as always.

We appreciate it.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: We begin the day's other headlines in Gaza, where the U.N. says no aid has reached Palestinians two days after Israel ended its three-month blockade.

It comes as Israeli forces are pressing ahead with a new military offensive deep into the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian health officials say a barrage of air assaults overnight into today killed at least 85 people, including women and children.

Israel says the strikes targeted Hamas command centers.

International allies, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are growing increasingly critical over Israel's actions.

KEIR STARMER, British Prime Minister: I want to put on record today that we're horrified by the escalation from Israel.

The recent announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza, a basic quantity, is totally and utterly inadequate.

GEOFF BENNETT: The British government today suspended free trade talks with Israel and hit settlers in the West Bank with new sanctions.

France and Canada have also voiced concerns about what they called Israel's egregious actions in Gaza and have threatened to take action as well.

Instability in the Middle East was just one of the topics Secretary of State Marco Rubio tackled today in a pair of hearings on Capitol Hill.

In his first testimony before his former Senate colleagues, Rubio defended the Trump administration's policies on Ukraine, foreign aid and refugee admissions.

And he warned that Syria could soon fall back into civil war.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. Secretary of State: Frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they're facing, are maybe weeks, not many months away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically, the country splitting up.

GEOFF BENNETT: Rubio went on to say that if Syria's new government collapses, it could lead to chaos throughout the Middle East.

Also on Capitol Hill, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stirred controversy by making the false claim that the constitutional writ of habeas corpus justifies the administration's ability to detain and deport migrants.

Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan corrected her.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional writ that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to... (CROSSTALK) SEN. MAGGIE HASSAN (D-NH): Let me stop, ma'am.

Habeas corpus -- excuse me.

That's incorrect.

Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.

If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, practically, habeas corpus involves the right to challenge one's detention in court.

The Trump administration has floated the idea of suspending it as part of its broader efforts to expel undocumented immigrants, but only Congress has the authority to do so.

The FDA is changing the way it approves annual COVID-19 vaccines.

The pivot means that officials will no longer routinely approve annual shots for younger adults and healthy children.

The agency said it wants to see new clinical trials showing COVID shots are still safe and effective before approving them for healthy adults and children.

It's a costly new requirement for pharmaceutical companies that could limit who gets new shots each year, but the FDA says the vaccines will remain fully available to adults over age 65 and others with increased health risks.

The World Health Organization approved an agreement today on how to handle future pandemics following the global chaos brought on by COVID-19.

At the group's Assembly Hall in Geneva, member countries passed the measure without opposition following three years of negotiations.

The treaty aims to ensure that all nations, including poor countries, have access to drugs and vaccines when the next pandemic hits.

The WHO's director general called it a victory for public health, but the U.S. is not involved in the pact after the Trump administration announced in January that it's withdrawing from the agency.

In New Orleans, police have arrested a maintenance worker at the jail where last week 10 inmates pulled off a daring escape.

Sterling Williams admitted to shutting off the cell's water, saying an inmate had threatened to stab him if he didn't.

That allowed the inmates to move a toilet and squeeze through a hole behind it.

They left behind the words "Too easy, LOL" in graffiti.

You see the spelling mistake there.

New Orleans officials say a number of other security lapses were at play, like faulty cell locks and a distracted guard.

Four inmates have been recaptured.

Six are still at large.

On Wall Street today, stocks gave up a bit of ground following recent gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average gave back more than 100 points on the day.

The Nasdaq slipped about 70 points.

The S&P 500 also ended lower, ending a six-session winning streak.

And there's an empty barstool tonight in the hearts of millions of TV fans.

George Wendt, who played Norm Peterson on "Cheers," has died.

GEORGE WENDT, Actor: Afternoon, everybody.

ACTORS: Norm!

TED DANSON, Actor: How you doing, Norm?

What do you know?

GEORGE WENDT: Not enough.

GEOFF BENNETT: With his trademark entrances and everyman appeal, Wendt was a fan favorite for 11 seasons.

He earned six straight Emmy nominations along the way.

A Chicago native himself, Wendt also popped up on "Saturday Night Live," appeared in films and on Broadway and even wrote a book about beer.

His family says Wendt died peacefully early this morning at home.

Tonight, we raise a glass to George Wendt, who was 76 years old.

And still to come on the "News Hour": near misses and electrical outages at major airports heighten concerns over flight safety; we examine U.S. policy on Taiwan as the threat of China looms; and tribal colleges and universities face an uncertain future amid cuts to their federal funding.

It has been another day of storms and tornado watches in parts of the South.

For the better part of a week now, severe weather has left major damage and deaths in its wake.

As residents are beginning to dig out, there are real questions about the immediate federal response and what states can expect this summer as the Trump administration makes big changes to FEMA.

Here's William Brangham.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A family comes to grips with what they have lost.

It's one of many surreal scenes of devastation across the Midwest and southeast, as communities reckon with the aftermath of days of severe storms and dozens of tornadoes.

(SIRENS BLARING) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Late Friday, a powerful twister tore through Laurel County, Kentucky, killing at least 19 people and destroying homes.

In St. Louis, Missouri, another tornado on the same day killed at least five people and injured 38 more when it tore through this densely populated part of the city.

MYA GRIMES, Tornado Survivor: Well, my car ended up right here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Twenty-year-old Mya Grimes was driving home when her car was seized by the tornado.

MYA GRIMES: As I was spinning in circles, just thinking every terrible thought that you could imagine and praying, I was flung out of my car, the driver's side door opened, and I just flew.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That tornado cut a miles-long path of destruction through North St. Louis, damaging roughly 5,000 buildings and causing an estimated $1 billion in damage.

Compounding the destruction are reports of a sluggish federal response.

CARA SPENCER, Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri: What we need right now is federal assistance.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC that, as of yesterday, her city is still waiting for assistance from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

CARA SPENCER: Our city cannot shoulder this alone.

The state of Missouri cannot shoulder this alone.

We need partners at the national level, at the federal level to step up.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Missouri's governor, Mike Kehoe, said FEMA teams are expected on the ground tomorrow.

President Trump has suggested FEMA should largely be eliminated.

He wants responsibility for disaster relief to be handled principally by individual states.

The acting head of FEMA was replaced earlier this month after contradicting that idea, saying he didn't support dismantling the agency.

This morning on Capitol Hill, Missouri Senator Republican Josh Hawley pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to approve an emergency declaration for his state.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): We need it as quickly as possible.

Will you help us expedite that?

KRISTI NOEM, U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary: Absolutely.

I have spoken with your governor and did that day that this devastation happened.

And so we have promised and pledged to get that expedited as soon as possible.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hawley said three other major disaster declaration requests from Missouri still haven't been approved.

And it's a problem not just in Missouri.

Frustration is growing in Tylertown, Mississippi, where residents say they're still waiting for federal assistance some two months after a tornado tore through their town.

BOBBY MCGINNIS, Tylertown, Mississippi Resident: I know President Trump said that America first, we're going to help our American folks first.

But we haven't seen the federal folks down here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All this while tens of millions of Americans are under warnings for more severe weather this afternoon and into tonight, with the highest potential for dangerous storms across the South.

So, for more on the changes happening within FEMA and what this means for communities facing natural disasters, we are joined by Hayley Smith.

She's the environment reporter for The Los Angeles Times.

Hayley Smith, thank you so much for being here.

There is this turmoil within FEMA.

The former head, acting head, gets ousted because he contradicts the president's vision.

The new head, David Richardson, doesn't seem to have a lot of experience in disaster management.

What does your reporting tell us about what's going on within FEMA right now?

HAYLEY SMITH, Environment Reporter, The Los Angeles Times: Yes, so just in the five or six months since President Trump has taken office, there's been a number of changes or turmoil, as you said, within the agency.

That includes layoffs and budget cuts, grant cancellations, leadership changes.

My reporting has shown that at least 2,000 staffers have either taken a buyout or been fired already this year.

That's an estimated 30 percent of FEMA's work force, so big changes there.

And it's worth noting that all of that is happening against this larger backdrop of climate disasters getting worse and more frequent and more expensive here in the United States.

You have got the tornadoes in Kentucky and Missouri.

Here in Los Angeles, we had these $250 billion wildfires here in January.

And we haven't even gotten to the peak of hurricane season and fire season yet this year.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So President Trump has said that he largely wants to phase out FEMA and push the responsibility principally to the states.

What does your reporting indicate about the state's ability to pick up that slack?

HAYLEY SMITH: Yes, this is the great question.

This is the billion-dollar question, right?

I think that the experts I have spoken to have said it's potentially a conversation worth having in terms of how much the states should be managing and how much the federal government should when it comes to disaster response.

But any kind of transition like that is something that would need to happen slowly.

We need to make sure that states have the time to prepare for that kind of responsibility.

That would be staffing.

That would be budget.

That would be infrastructure.

It's not something that can happen in one fell swoop.

And so right now a lot of states are in limbo and not sure of -- if response -- if aid is going to come when they need it and how much is going to be expected to fall onto their shoulders.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And this new head, David Richardson, do we have any sense as to whether he is in line with President Trump's vision of a much diminished role for FEMA?

HAYLEY SMITH: Yes, very much so.

So, as you mentioned, the previous director was fired earlier this month just one day after he testified in front of Congress that he did not think it would be in the best interest of the American people for FEMA to be broken up or eliminated.

And his successor, David Richardson, has said that he fully intends to carry out the president's directives to a T, that he is very much interested in pushing the response on to the states and that he is not going to be tolerating anyone at the agency who stands in his way.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Hayley Smith, environment reporter of The L.A. Times.

Thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us.

HAYLEY SMITH: Yes, thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport again lost contact with airplanes yesterday.

It's the fourth such incident at that airport in less than a month and the latest in a string of alarming incidents and close calls around the country, including a 90-second communication breakdown in Denver last week and close calls on runways at La Guardia and Chicago Midway.

To ease congestion at Newark, the FAA announced today it will substantially cap the number of flights there for the summer and much of the fall.

For more on all of this, we're joined now by David Grizzle.

He was the chief operating officer of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization during the Obama administration and he's also a former senior vice president of United Airlines.

Great to have you here.

DAVID GRIZZLE, Former Air Traffic Organization COO, Federal Aviation Administration: Glad to be here, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So you once oversaw the air traffic control systems.

Why are we seeing all of these issues apparently so suddenly?

DAVID GRIZZLE: Almost all of these communication lapses are the result of this 1980s vintage communication technology that the FAA is still running.

It's not been used in the private sector for over a decade.

And the telcos are ceasing to support this communication technology.

We have all been in the situation of where we receive a notification that we need to update our phone or an app or it will stop working.

Well, the FAA has been receiving update notifications for a number of years, but they have not had the budget in order to actually update the system.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about the impact of the Trump administration cuts?

Because some of the FAA jobs that were eliminated had direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations.

That's according to the union and former employees.

DAVID GRIZZLE: Yes, none of these cuts would have actually affected this problem, which long predated the Trump administration.

GEOFF BENNETT: The FAA oversees some 50,000 flights each day.

And, last year, a government audit found they continue to be slow to modernize their most critical and at-risk systems.

What kind of technology are the controllers using?

And why is it so hard to update?

DAVID GRIZZLE: The systems that they are using are the very best systems of the 1980s.

Part of the problem is the way that the federal government acquires new technology.

They do it about every 40 years, which means that when they do in fact install new technology, it's over budget, behind schedule, and is outmoded by the time they actually install it.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what does a real overhaul look like?

What would be required?

DAVID GRIZZLE: The first thing that needs to be done -- and this is the plan of Secretary Duffy -- is to, first of all, arrest the descent, to deal with the most safety-critical systems first, to, in essence, shore them up, and then begin installing on an incremental and iterative basis the new technology that we need, so that we don't find ourselves 40 years from now with 40-year-old technology.

GEOFF BENNETT: Staffing is another issue, as you well know.

A New York Times analysis last week found that 99 percent, 99 percent of air traffic control facilities in the U.S. are operating at below recommended staffing levels.

Why are we so critically understaffed when it comes to air traffic controllers?

DAVID GRIZZLE: We are about 3,000 controllers understaffed.

The plan is to hire 2,000 during the next year, but we are at a generational high in retirements.

Plus, more controllers are simply resigning because they're burned out.

And so unless we actually up our hiring numbers and change the processes and the technology we use for training them, we're not going to close that gap.

GEOFF BENNETT: That doesn't sound like an immediate fix.

DAVID GRIZZLE: It is not an immediate fix.

GEOFF BENNETT: What does that mean for airline safety?

DAVID GRIZZLE: First of all, the controllers have consistently preserved safety by reducing efficiency.

And so the airspace is still extremely safe.

You may have a lot of delays, but Secretary Duffy is addressing that by pulling down at Newark the capacity, so that they will only be scheduling the number of flights that they can efficiently handle with the challenges that they have right now.

GEOFF BENNETT: The transportation secretary has also blamed the Biden administration for what he calls a lack of investment in this system.

Is there any truth to that?

DAVID GRIZZLE: The Biden administration could certainly have done more, but the problems the FAA faces long predated the Biden administration.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's an air traffic controller who oversees flights at Newark who gave an anonymous interview published today in The Times of London.

And she says this -- quote -- "I deliberately avoid my own airport when booking flights, even if the alternatives are more expensive and less convenient.

If Newark's air traffic control problems don't get fixed, I believe it's only a matter of time before we have a fatal crash between two planes."

What's your reaction to that?

DAVID GRIZZLE: I appreciate this controller's concern, but I come back to what I said earlier.

These controllers are consummate professionals, and they maintain safety by slowing down the traffic.

That's the reason that you have seen such massive cancellations and delays at Newark.

They are doing only what they can do safely.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, heading into the summer travel season, we should expect more disruptions, more delays, more cancellations?

DAVID GRIZZLE: Yes, until the schedule reductions go into place, at which time we will only be scheduling the number of flights that can be safely and efficiently handled.

GEOFF BENNETT: David Grizzle, thanks so much for your insights.

I appreciate you being here.

DAVID GRIZZLE: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te, marked one year in office.

In a speech, he said Taipei seeks peace and dialogue with Beijing, but warned that Taiwan must not harbor any illusions and should continue to strengthen its defenses.

China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, has labeled Lai a separatist.

Nick Schifrin is here with the final part of our series, Taiwan: Risk and Resistance.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Taiwan has long been the most tense flash point between Washington and Beijing.

By law, the U.S. is required to help Taiwan defend itself, and the U.S. trains Taiwanese soldiers, sells Taiwan weapons, and in recent years has advanced regional alliances while expanding its own military presence.

Beijing vows to unite with Taiwan peacefully or by force, and the Chinese military regularly exercises around Taiwan.

There is now a public debate about whether Taiwan is spending enough on its defense, whether Ukraine is either a distraction or a test case, and whether defending Taiwan is a vital U.S. interest.

So, to have that debate, we have two views.

Randall Schriver was assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs during the first Trump administration.

He is now chairman of the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security.

And Michael Swaine is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and writes extensively about security issues in Asia.

Thanks very much, both of you.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

Randy Schriver, let me start with you.

Is defending Taiwan a vital U.S. interest?

RANDALL SCHRIVER, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indonesia-Pacific Affairs: Well, our law says any threat to Taiwan is of grave concern, and that's a view that's been held for decades.

Taiwan is clearly very important to us across the spectrum of issues, economic and trade issues.

We all know the semiconductor story, the geography being really central in the region with proximity to things we care a lot about, South China Sea, East China Sea.

It's a partner in so many different efforts, assisting Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Ebola in Western Africa, so it's a like-minded partner.

So I think it certainly merits at least meeting what our law says, have the capacity to resist force and help Taiwan defend itself.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, is defending Taiwan a vital U.S. interest?

MICHAEL SWAINE, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: If you put it that way, defending Taiwan to the point of going to war with China, I don't believe is a vital U.S. interest, no.

I think, if you define a vital interest in exactly those terms, what is the United States willing to go to full-fledged war over, this time with a major nuclear power, then I would say Taiwan does not meet that bar.

Taiwan has never been regarded as a strategically critical location for the United States in Asia.

At one time, there was an effort to define it in that way, but that never succeeded.

That was never the underlying assumption behind the One China policy or the Taiwan Relations Act with the United -- with -- in U.S. law.

And the issue of credibility, people say that Taiwan should be defended because, if the United States doesn't defend Taiwan, its credibility in Asia will be lost, allies will no longer have confidence in the United States.

I don't believe that that's the case.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randy Schriver, take on those ideas, credibility and critical geography.

RANDALL SCHRIVER: Credibility, I disagree.

And we hear from partners and allies about this issue directly.

So we may have an opinion that, but it's -- the credibility will be in the eyes of our partners and allies.

And Japan has said Taiwan's security is Japan's security.

That was the exact quote from Shinzo Abe.

So I think there is a credibility issue here, in that we have a law that's been upheld for decades.

We have commitments.

The last president of the United States said we would defend Taiwan.

So I do think credibility is a concern.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, allies, including the former prime minister of Japan that Randy mentioned, but also leaders of South Korea, Australia, Philippines, are more willing to talk about Taiwan than they were in the past.

MICHAEL SWAINE: Sure.

They're more willing to talk about Taiwan.

They're more willing to say Taiwan is an important location.

They want peace and security in the Far East.

For sure, they do.

Are they willing to go to war with China over that issue?

And my answer is, no, they're not.

If you take public opinion polls in Japan of the Japanese and you ask them, would you be willing to go to war alongside the United States to defend Taiwan against China, the response that says yes is a little over 10 percent of the Japanese people.

The vast majority of the Japanese people say no, we would not.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randy Schriver, we talk a lot about deterrence.

Is Washington doing enough to assure Beijing that, whether it's about restraining Taipei in terms of how far they're going to go or restraining our own language about Taiwan?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: We have decades of a record of restraint.

We don't recognize the government in Taipei.

We restrict the level of contact and whether or not high-level officials can go to Taiwan and vice versa.

We have been very modest in terms of the security assistance we have provided and made sure it's of a defensive nature.

So we have decades of this experience and I think a very good track record.

What we're seeing from Beijing now is a lot more coercion and intimidation and aggression, an unwillingness to talk to the government in Taipei.

So I think assurance, reassurance is part of the equation, but I think our record on that is very good.

And we haven't really landed in a place where Beijing is willing to back off its intimidation and coercion campaigns.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, is Washington doing enough to assure Beijing?

MICHAEL SWAINE: No.

I think you have to look at this situation as an interaction.

Both the United States and China, and, I should say, Taiwan as well are contributing to a worsening of the situation, where neither side has as much confidence in the word of the other side that it had in the past.

I think the United States has eroded its One China policy.

I think it's become much more loose in what it defines as unofficial relations with Taiwan.

I think it has had senior U.S. defense officials say that Taiwan is a strategic node that is critical to the U.S. defense posture in Asia, which is not congruent with U.S. policy at all.

NICK SCHIFRIN: There's a question of whether Taiwan is spending enough.

President Trump has called Taiwan to spend 10 percent of its GDP on defense.

Taipei says it can't afford that, but it is trying to get over 3 percent of spending of GDP.

But take a listen to what the top Defense Department policy official today, Elbridge Colby, said during his confirmation hearing about Taiwan.

ELBRIDGE COLBY, U.S.

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy: I don't think it's fair to Americans to ask Americans and our service men and women to suffer at great -- if our allies are not pulling their weight, but also that it won't even be capable -- viable.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randy Schriver, let me start with you.

Is the U.S. defense of Taiwan not viable, as Bridge Colby said, and is Taiwan failing to pull it own weight?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: Taiwan is spending more on its own defense.

I think it's up to 2.4 percent of GDP now.

As you noted, the president is committed to getting to 3 percent, and that's a floor, not a ceiling.

So they're going in the right direction.

They're also spending on things related to national resilience, which don't get counted in the defense budget, but more secure communications, energy stockpiles, other kinds of support for continuity of government, civil defenses.

All these things aren't counted, and they're investing more heavily there.

So I do think they're moving in the right direction.

They have the will to defend themselves and are making the investments that they can make given their political environment.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, do you agree with Bridge Colby?

MICHAEL SWAINE: I believe that Taiwan certainly isn't spending enough.

I do believe that Taiwan needs to spend a good deal more.

I don't think it can spend 10 percent of its GDP structurally.

That's not going to happen.

But I think it could do a lot more.

If, as Randy says, the Taiwanese are doing more in that area, then I applaud that.

I think that's good, because, as I'm saying, I don't think Taiwan should be thrown under the bus.

The United States should be supporting Taiwan in every way possible, except through military intervention.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Let me move to Ukraine.

When I was in Taiwan, it was very clear that Taiwanese people, the military, the government was very focused on what happens in Taiwan and also the fate of the Washington-Kyiv relationship.

But, today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while acknowledging the ties between Ukraine, Washington and Beijing, said that Ukraine was a distraction from China.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. Secretary of State: Every minute we spend, every dollar we spend on this conflict in Europe is distracting both our focus and our resources away from a potential for a much more serious and much more cataclysmic confrontation in the Indo-Pacific.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Randy Schriver, is it more important to focus and send resources to the Western Pacific than it is to get Ukraine right?

RANDALL SCHRIVER: I do see the theaters as related.

And I have said that I think the best way to deter Xi Jinping is to make sure Putin fails in his efforts in Ukraine.

They're very close.

China is watching very carefully what's happening on the battlefield.

They're extracting lessons learned.

And I think it's giving them some degree of pause.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, is there a connection between Ukraine and Taipei?

And what is it?

MICHAEL SWAINE: I do support the arrival of a cease-fire in the Ukraine situation, not really to devote more resources to dealing with China and Asia, but because that war needs to come to an end.

And if you then turn to say, well, what should we be doing vis-a-vis the Chinese in the Western Pacific, my argument is not we just need to pull out our resources from Ukraine and then double down on defense spending in the Pacific.

It's not a simple matter of devoting more resources to the Western Pacific.

It's really a political issue, first and foremost, regarding Taiwan, and only secondarily is it a military issue.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Michael Swaine, Randy Schriver, thanks very much.

RANDALL SCHRIVER: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tribal colleges and universities have endured decades of chronic underfunding, relying heavily on federal support to stay afloat.

Now the Trump administration's broad cuts to federal programs are hitting Indian country hard and posing a serious threat to the future of these vital institutions.

Stephanie Sy reports for our series Rethinking College.

STEPHANIE SY: Ella Bowen was midway through freshman year at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, when her academic world was turned upside down.

ELLA BOWEN, Haskell Indian Nations University Student: Absolutely nobody knew it was coming.

This is something I never thought would happen, just because this is our education.

And I thought, if anything, that the government is supposed to protect our education and not cause harm to it.

KAIYA BROWN, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute Student: This semester, I am going to be taking math for elementary and middle school teachers.

STEPHANIE SY: Nearly 800 miles away, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kaiya Brown was having a similarly surreal day at SIPI, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute.

KAIYA BROWN: There was so much misinformation at the time.

There was so much chaos.

It was just chaos.

Like, I can't explain it and emphasize even more.

It was just chaos.

STEPHANIE SY: But people were just gone from campus.

KAIYA BROWN: Like, I came into class.

The cubicles were empty.

People that I usually say good morning to, their offices were off, like, empty, lights off, everything.

STEPHANIE SY: On February 14, the Trump administrations wave of federal job cuts arrived on SIPI's campus without warning, wiping out nearly a quarter of the staff.

For this small tribal college, already chronically and visibly under resourced, the day was described as traumatic.

KAIYA BROWN: There was so much that had to be done, but no one to do it.

And there were students that did not know if SIPI was even open anymore.

There was questions if the school even existed anymore.

STEPHANIE SY: Teachers weren't the only ones affected.

Ella Bowen says other school support staff were fired.

ELLA BOWEN: Being left without maintenance, custodial, and R.A.s, everything was super messy and almost unsafe.

I mean, there was overflowing trash cans.

The quality of food significantly decreased.

SUE PARTON, President, Federation of Indian Service Employees: It's always thought of being a stable job, especially in Indian country STEPHANIE SY: Sue Parton is the president of the Federation of Indian Service Employees, representing some 5,500 federal workers in 23 states and a longtime instructor at SIPI.

SUE PARTON: One employee at SIPI that contacted me and said he was in the middle of teaching a class, this is in the middle of the trimester, and he was pulled out of his class.

And he had two hours to clean out his office and get off of campus.

The professors who did not get fired had to then pick up extra class loads, so that at least something would be offered to the students.

STEPHANIE SY: After several weeks, all employees at SIPI and Haskell were reinstated, but not everyone returned.

PBS News reached out to the Bureau of Indian Education about the firings, but they did not respond.

SUE PARTON: It is very traumatic.

Even now, we have an imminent reduction in force now, and so the union is getting calls from our members all the time.

That never would have happened prior to this administration because, it's like this administration just ignores the norm.

STEPHANIE SY: SIPI and Haskell are two of the 37 tribal colleges and universities in the U.S. and the only two operated by the federal government.

AHNIWAKE ROSE, President and CEO, American Indian Higher Education Consortium: That means that all of their employees are federal employees.

All of their buildings are federal buildings.

STEPHANIE SY: Ahniwake Rose is the president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

AHNIWAKE ROSE: So, the federal government has a direct responsibility for education through treaties that our nation signed when we ceded over a billion acres of land to the federal government.

MAN: What we are saying here is that you must allow us to live in peace.

You must allow us to live as sovereign people.

STEPHANIE SY: But the U.S. government's failure to live up to those treaty obligations has long been a problem.

In 1969, then-Senator Ted Kennedy submitted a lengthy report calling Indian education a national tragedy.

He wrote: "The first American had become the last American with the opportunity for employment, education, a decent income, and the chance for a fulfilling and rewarding life."

To this day, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the lowest college graduation rate of any racial or ethnic group.

Kaiya Brown says community colleges like SIPI are many Native students only chance for a higher education.

KAIYA BROWN: A lot of us are growing up on the reservation.

A lot of us are living in our own respective tribal communities.

And jumping from very small, tight-knit areas to a huge institution with thousands of students is really hard.

STEPHANIE SY: But other funding reductions loom over Native colleges, part of the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts.

TWYLA BAKER, President, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College: It's been up and down.

It has been myriad changes and rapid fire.

And it continues to happen because it's not necessarily one particular funding source.

It is several.

STEPHANIE SY: Twyla Baker is the president of Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in North Dakota.

She says President Trump's executive orders have severely impacted federal grants for programs at the college, including grants that bolstered its agricultural and stem programs, investments that studies show reap returns for tribal economies.

TWYLA BAKER: Our students have a tendency to stay where they are, to work where they are, and really just kind of improve the quality of life.

Pulling these dollars is not just an injustice.

It's kind of a travesty, really.

STEPHANIE SY: Tribal colleges and universities serve some of the country's most economically vulnerable students, offering low or free tuition.

Without massive endowments, federal funding is their lifeblood.

TWYLA BAKER: I have kind of compared it to something of a death by strangulation, so to speak.

You don't necessarily have to say - - tell a college you're going to shut down, we have to shut you down.

You can shut down a college by cutting off their resources, however.

STEPHANIE SY: Back at Haskell, freshman Ella Bowen says students are still reeling from the upheaval.

ELLA BOWEN: My academic adviser was fired, and it left me clueless for the next steps of my education.

I didn't know how to sign up for my next classes.

I didn't know what classes I had to sign up for.

STEPHANIE SY: Bowen and Kaiya Brown are plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the Native American Rights Fund that not only claims that federal officials failed to consult tribes before making cuts, as required by law, but also violated Native students' rights to receive an adequate post-secondary education.

ELLA BOWEN: I felt hopeless for a long time, like, what am I, a 19-year-old girl, college student, going to do about the government?

STEPHANIE SY: Has it been hard for you to come out and speak so openly about what's going on at SIPI?

KAIYA BROWN: As indigenous people, it's always about giving back to your people.

It's always about, how am I going to serve my community?

I don't want that to be taken from us, and I will not let that be taken from us.

STEPHANIE SY: The fact that the Bureau of Indian Education has reversed the layoffs for now hasn't raised Brown's confidence in a system that has long failed her people.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

GEOFF BENNETT: On Friday nights, you see Jonathan Capehart alongside David Brooks discussing the big political stories of the week.

But it was a long journey that led him to the "News Hour" and his work at The Washington Post and MSNBC.

Jonathan shares his life story and his new memoir, "Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home."

Amna spoke with Jonathan about his memoir, which is out today.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan Capehart, I want to say welcome to the "News Hour," but welcome back, and it's good to see you on this set.

JONATHAN CAPEHART, Author, "Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home": Thank you very much, Amna.

This is very lovely what you have here.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: It's very lovely.

It's a different view altogether.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: People who know your work will get a chance to know a lot more about your life and what made you, you today.

You write about growing up in New Jersey, raised by your mom.

You also say that you spent summers with your family in North Carolina, which you say was key to developing who you are today.

You write in the book: "My views on race, my sense of place in the American story took root there."

How so?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: So, in New Jersey, during the school year, I went to Catholic school.

In the summers until I was 12, I went down South to my maternal grandparents' house, where my grandmother was a Jehovah's Witness.

And so I went out witnessing with my grandmother on those country back roads.

And it was there -- the seminal thing that happened that stuck with me from then until adulthood was going to these houses of almost always African Americans, older African Americans, and being in their houses and seeing what I started calling the holy Black trinity.

There are always three portraits, sometimes four, in Black homes.

And there are always portraits of Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ.

Some homes had a fourth, and that was Robert F. Kennedy.

And so, to me, as I got older and learned about who these three people were and then understanding what he meant to all of those people, that was one thing that was very cementing for me, but also, as I write in the book, the contrast between me and my grandmother and the people we were witnessing to... AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: ... and the lessons I learned from my grandmother about what it means to be in service, what it means to relate to other people, a real sense of humility.

But, also in this town, it's sort of like a little Jim Crow relic in terms of grandma and granddaddy living on what became known as South Street, originally unpaved, right across -- their backyard faced Main Street, which was this wide, paved, beautifully paved boulevard, which is where white people lived in Severn.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's a big moment in your career as you become a journalist and you join The New York Daily News and you're among this esteemed group to win a Pulitzer.

It's for a series of 1998 editorials that exposed basically the financial management at this iconic Harlem landmark the Apollo Theater.

And you're celebrated for your journalism, but you also write this.

You say: "Lots of Black people were angry with me.

They called me everything from a sellout to Uncle Tom for going after Rangel and Sutton, those two legendary, trailblazing New York Black lawmakers.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Right.

AMNA NAWAZ: Did that response surprise you?

What did you take away from that?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: The response didn't surprise me.

There is always a protective circle around African American elected officials.

And yet writing editorials that put -- that cast them in a negative light was one that a lot of Black people were like, what are you doing?

Why are you doing this?

AMNA NAWAZ: And, specifically, what are you doing as a Black journalist?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, what am -- right, what am I doing?

And as I write in the book, I knew this was going to happen, which was why I went to Harlem constantly to make myself a presence, to understand Harlem, to learn, to learn the characters and what was going on at the Apollo Theater, and to understand that what was happening at the Apollo was not -- no one was stealing money from the theater.

What was happening was, the theater was being robbed of its potential.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, you write about your time at The Washington Post as well, and joining the editorial board, and you write very deeply about why you chose to leave the board as well at a time that you were not feeling valued and felt like your voice was being ignored.

But the thing that struck me about your time on the board was you note that, for years, you were the only Black member of that editorial board.

That seemed really surprising at The Washington Post, and I just wonder what that was like for you in those years.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I had a role and a job to do, and that was to be the voice and the experience the people who weren't at the table.

Being the lone African American voice around that table was difficult a lot of the times, but, if I hadn't been there, who would have been there to talk about police-involved shootings of unarmed African American men to at least be a representative of the community around the table?

That was the benefit of the job, but with that benefit came -- and there's a lot of weight with that, that just became too heavy and too much to bear as time went on.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, I said this to you when I first began to read the book, but you really went there in this book.

I texted you and I was like, wow.

There are stories that are uncomfortable at times, I'm sure, to rethink and share, professional and also personal stories.

There's a tale about a box of your belongings.

I'm not going to get into details, but unfurling in front of your mother.

And I can't get it out of my head.

(LAUGHTER) AMNA NAWAZ: But you didn't hold back.

And a lot of people who write memoirs will sanitize them.

It'll become kind of a listing of a resume.

You don't clean this up.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Why not?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Because I wanted people to really get to know me.

I am very cognizant of the fact that a nice tie and a nice suit and the way I live my life projects one image of me.

And I think, sometimes, it leads people to have misperceptions of me, leading to some people thinking that, oh, well, does he know he's Black, or is he -- does he know he is among us?

I can't impart the lessons that I learned without writing about the hard things I had to go through in order to learn them.

Living through the hard parts, the tough parts, coming through on the other side, being able to share those lessons, so that, if someone else is going through the same thing, that maybe they either see some part of themselves in the stories that I'm telling, or maybe find some solace in the lessons that I have learned, and I'm telling them, I'm showing them, then that's -- I mean, that would be bigger than anyone buying the book.

If someone comes to me and says, oh, my God, you helped me so much by what you wrote, I mean, that's everything.

AMNA NAWAZ: The book is "Yet Here I Am."

The author is none other than Jonathan Capehart.

Jonathan, great to see you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: You too, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thanks for being here.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Later this evening on PBS, the premiere of a new episode of "Breaking the Deadlock."

Produced by PBS station GBH in Boston, the series brings together a diverse panel of prominent voices.

Tonight's episode focuses on executive power in government.

FMR.

GOV.

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ): About whether the president has the authority to do that, take away monies that were already appropriated by the House and the Senate.

Probably are going to want to talk to the president about whether or not there might be another way to get done what he wants to get done.

So, as most of my colleagues in the Senate often do, I will wait and see.

(LAUGHTER) WOMAN: OK. SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN Senior Political Commentator: Senator, consider your political position and consider what the American people asked us to do last November before you step out here and cause a problem for yourself or the president.

Don't be on the wrong side of history.

Save the republic's fiscal situation.

GEOFF BENNETT: "Breaking the Deadlock"'s new episode premieres at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on PBS.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.