PBS News Hour full episode, Aug. 12, 2024

Introduction GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening. I'm  Geoff Bennett. Amna Nawaz is away. On the "NewsHour" tonight: the Middle East on  edge. Israel and its allies ready their defenses,   anticipating retaliation for strikes  against Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. The Trump campaign is hacked in what appears to be   the latest foreign interference  in a U.S. presidential election. And is there a future for Social  Security? The benefits gap that   could leave millions of Americans with  a hole in their retirement safety net. ALICIA MUNNELL, Professor of Management  Sciences, Boston College: We are so bad at   fixing this problem. This problem  has been so evident since 1990. (BREAK) GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour." On Edge The White House said today that the U.S.  and Israel believe Iran and its proxies   across the region could launch a significant  attack in the coming days. Israel says it's   on peak readiness. And the U.S. accelerated  the deployment of forces to the region to try   and deter Iran and defend Israel. That's despite  ongoing diplomatic efforts to prevent an attack. Our story tonight starts in  the Israeli city of Haifa. And a warning: Some scenes of  war in this story are graphic. NICK SCHIFRIN: In 10 months of war, Israel's  third largest city and its largest port have   emerged untouched. But, today, Haifa and Israel  are worried an attack could come at any point,   which is why Haifa's emergency preparedness  chief, Leo Reznik, works from a bomb shelter. They have been on high alert for the  past 10 days after Israel assassinated   a senior Hezbollah commander  in Beirut and Hamas political   leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an  explosion after this event in Tehran. LEONID REZNIK, Haifa Emergency  Preparedness Chief: We are waiting   for something to happen. We are waiting  for Iranian or Hezbollah to shoot. NICK SCHIFRIN: In June, Hezbollah made its threat  to Haifa's port explicit, posting drone video   above an Israeli naval base. Thanks to Iranian  support, Hezbollah has more than 150,000 rockets   and missiles that can reach 95 percent of Israel.  Israel is not ready for a possible onslaught. LEONID REZNIK: The biggest  challenge today, I think,   that they -- we don't have enough  bomb shelters to all the citizens. NICK SCHIFRIN: Which is why the Rambam  Hospital is taking no chances. It has   moved 2,000 beds, three stories below  street level to its underground garage. Avi Weissman is the hospital's deputy director. AVI WEISSMAN, Deputy Director, Rambam Hospital:  So, look up, oxygen line, warm water, cold water,   suction, everything that doesn't exist in  a regular garage. This is a hospital floor. NICK SCHIFRIN: It has a fully  functional emergency room with   an operating theater to deal with the  kinds of injuries they fear are coming. AVI WEISSMAN: So, we mainly  prepare for conventional war,   so missiles hit, shrapnel, direct  hit, regular trauma, war trauma. NICK SCHIFRIN: The hospital is  equipped to last one week without   resupply and plans to host families, if necessary. AVI WEISSMAN: If we come down here and it's  like terrible outside, it's bombing and bombing,   we could close doors and not need to open them  at all for 72 hours. We have enough water,   food, oxygen, energy. NICK SCHIFRIN: To help defend Israel  and try to deter Iran, this weekend,   Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a  rare announcement that he had deployed   a guided missile submarine, the  USS Georgia, to the Middle East,   and accelerated the deployment of the  Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group. National Security Council spokesman  John Kirby spoke to reporters today. JOHN KIRBY, NSC Coordinator For Strategic  Communications: We have to be prepared for   what could be a significant set  of attacks, which is why we have   increased our force posture and capabilities  in the region even in just the last few days. NICK SCHIFRIN: The Biden administration  believes the best way to calm regional   tension is a Gaza cease-fire that would release  Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The U.S., alongside mediators Qatar and Egypt,  have called for formal cease-fire talks to resume   on Thursday, but it's not clear whether Hamas will  show up. But until there's a cease-fire in Gaza,   the Israeli military continues a new  campaign against Hamas in the south,   and too late for the woman who  had hoped to shield a child. Fatia Hassan's heartbreak turned to rage,  among those killed today, her nephew. FATIA HASSAN, Aunt of Victim: My nephew's  brain was hanging out of his head. Where is the   humanity? We are dying. We're dying. We are dying  every minute, every second. Where is the humanity? NICK SCHIFRIN: A wave of humanity  today evacuated yet again, tens   of thousands in Khan Yunis and an area  designated by Israel as a humanitarian   zone urged to flee by Israeli leaflets,  the fourth evacuation order issued this   month. Israel accused Hamas of hiding  within the population to fire rockets. Israel also says the school-turned-shelter  struck this weekend killed more than   30 terrorists. Palestinians say  nearly 100 died as they prayed. For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin. News Wrap GEOFF BENNETT: We start today's  other headlines in Russia. Ukraine's top military commander says his force is  now controlled nearly 400 square miles of Russian   territory in the region of Kursk, across from  Ukraine's northeastern border. It's the first   time a Ukrainian military official has commented  on the gains of last week's surprise incursion. For their part, Russian authorities say  more than 121,000 people have evacuated   the area so far and that 12 civilians  have been killed in the fighting. Today,   Russian President Vladimir Putin told  a meeting of top officials that the   attack is an attempt to give Ukraine a better  negotiating position for future peace talks. VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through  translator): It is becoming obvious and   clear now why the Kyiv regime had refused our  proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan,   as well as the proposals of interested  and neutral mediators. It appears that   the West is fighting us with  the hands of the Ukrainians. GEOFF BENNETT: Ukraine's operation is the largest   attack on Russian soil since the war  started two-and-a-half years ago. In Greece, a wildfire is raging on the outskirts  of Athens, forcing hundreds of people from the   city's northern suburbs. At last check, the  blaze was about nine miles from the city center.   It started on Sunday afternoon, sending flames  as high as 80 feet into the air. Some 700   firefighters worked today to extinguish the flames  as residents fled through thick clouds of smoke. Some, however, stayed behind  to protect their homes. SPYROS GORILAS, North Athens Resident (through  translator): The wind would go in one direction,   then in the other. The smoke was suffocating.  I couldn't see. My eyes teared up. I couldn't   breathe. I was 60 yards from the  house and couldn't even see it. GEOFF BENNETT: The fires have been fanned  by intense winds and bone-dry conditions   after recent heat waves. June and July were the  hottest months ever recorded in that country. An earthquake rattled Los Angeles around  midday today. The 4.4-magnitude quake was   centered near the Highland Park neighborhood in  the Northeast section of the city. According to   the U.S. Geological Survey, it could be felt  as far south as San Diego and as far east as   the Palm Springs desert region. There were  no initial reports of injuries or damage.   It comes less than a week after a  5.2-magnitude quake hit the area. The Biden administration has rolled out  a broad new effort to improve customer   service experiences by cutting down on wait  times and red tape. The initiative spans   a range of federal agencies and would  include requiring companies to make it   just as easy to cancel a subscription  or membership as it was to sign up. It would also crack down on so-called  doom loops and instead connect people   with a live representative  with the touch of a button,   and it would urge health care companies to  allow consumers to file their claims online. At today's White House press briefing,  Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said   companies have prioritized profits over people. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House Press Secretary:  Americans are tired of being played for suckers,   and President Biden and Vice President Harris  will continue to use every tool available   to protect Americans from corporate greed and  practices that hit people in their pocketbooks. GEOFF BENNETT: The proposals build on  earlier Biden administration efforts,   such as requiring airlines to automatically  issue cash refunds and to reduce hidden fees   to consumers. An administration official says that  none of them would require congressional approval. Mars may be hiding an ocean of liquid  water deep below its surface. That's   according to a groundbreaking new study from  the University of California that used data   from NASA's now-defunct InSight Lander. It  suggests the water is stored in rocks seven   to 12 miles underground and could be enough to  cover the planet in an ocean about a mile deep. Researchers believe the water likely  seeped down billions of years ago when   Mars had rivers and lakes. They say it  would take drills and other equipment   to confirm their theory. They could  then seek out signs of microbial life. And on Wall Street today, stocks ended little  changed ahead of a highly anticipated report on   inflation due Wednesday. The Dow Jones industrial  average lost 140 points after a wild run last   week. The Nasdaq eked out a gain, adding 35  points. The S&P 500 ended unchanged on the day. And the work of a famed secretive street  artist named Banksy has been popping up all   over London. Eight new paintings have  appeared in just the past week or so,   all of them depictions of animals. The  latest work by the mysterious graffiti   artist shows a rhinoceros climbing on  top of a real-life broken-down car. Just yesterday, onlookers gathered around  a police call box that Banksy turned into   a fish tank for piranhas. Other works have  included a stretching cat on the side of   a building and a mountain goat perched  precariously on a ledge, among others. All right, still to come on the "News Hour":   Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the  latest from the heated presidential race;   an on-the-ground look at how one battleground  state is testing voting machines to ensure   accuracy; and a special exhibit explores a  19th century art form that is now banned. Vote 2024 Vice President Kamala Harris and former President  Donald Trump spent their weekends on the road,   making their appeals to voters. They  each held rallies as concerns flooded   the Internet from cybersecurity threats to false  allegations involving artificial intelligence. Laura Barron-Lopez has more. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It was a  weekend marathon of rallies,   both candidates on the campaign trail. But  for the third presidential election in a row,   foreign interference has  again cast an ominous shadow. On Saturday, former President Trump claimed his  campaign had been hacked and suggested Iran was   to blame. It stems from a Microsoft report one  day earlier detailing a spearfishing incident   from June, where Iranian military intelligence  sent fake e-mails to a high-ranking official of   a presidential campaign from a compromised  e-mail account of a former senior adviser. It's unclear what the breach achieved, but  several media organizations say they have received   anonymous e-mails with documents from the V.P.  vetting process. The FBI is now investigating the   hack. But the incident didn't distract the former  President Trump peddling lies about his opponent. Trump reposted an image of a Harris rally in  Detroit last week, falsely claiming she used   artificial intelligence to fabricate the crowd  size. Photos and videos from the event showing   thousands of supporters gathered at an airplane  hangar easily disprove the conspiracy theory. In response, the Harris campaign posted: "This is   an actual photo of a 15,000-person  crowd for Harris/Walz in Michigan." Meanwhile, at a rally in Las Vegas,   Harris made a new pitch to service  workers, a key constituency in Nevada. KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States  (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: When I am   president, we will continue our fight  for working families of America... (CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) KAMALA HARRIS: ... including to raise  the minimum wage and eliminate taxes   on tips for service and hospitality workers. (CHEERING) (APPLAUSE) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It echoes a  similar stance taken by her rival,   a rare instance of political overlap,  but one quickly rebutted by Trump,   who accused Harris of -- quote -- "copying him,"  and said "The difference is, she won't do it." Another target of Republican criticism,   Harris' V.P. pick, Minnesota Governor  Tim Walz, and his military record,   namely, a resurfaced clip from 2018 where Walz  implied he had been deployed to a combat zone. GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate:  Those weapons of war that I carried in war. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The campaign said he misspoke,  but Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton demanded more. SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I respect the  service of all veterans, to include Tim Walz,   who served for more than 20 years, but now even  the campaign has acknowledged he's made past   inconsistent statements about his service. I think  he should answer questions about those statements. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As for Trump's running  mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance made the rounds   on Sunday shows. Vance tried to walk back  Trump's apparent willingness to ban abortion   medication and said mass deportations  should start with one million people. SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential  Candidate: President Trump is absolutely right.   You cannot have a border unless you're willing to  deport some people. I think it's interesting that   people focus on, well, how do you deploy 18  million people? Let's start with one million. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: But Vance argued, ultimately,  it's Trump, not him, who voters care about. SEN. J.D. VANCE: Most people,  99 percent of the country,   they don't vote on who the  vice presidential nominee.   They're voting for Donald Trump or for  Kamala Harris, not for J.D. or Tim Walz. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today, President Biden  returned to the White House after spending the   weekend in Delaware and expressing his support  for the Harris ticket on CBS Sunday morning,   his first sit-down interview since  dropping out of the race last month. JOE BIDEN, President of the United  States: It's a great honor being   president. I think I have an obligation  to the country to do what I -- the most   important thing you can do, and that is  we must, we must, we must defeat Trump. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Capping off a busy  weekend with more campaigning ahead. For the PBS "News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez. Campaign Hacked GEOFF BENNETT: We're going to shift our  focus now back to the new reports that   U.S. elections continue to be targeted by  foreign actors, with Microsoft outlining   what it says was an Iranian cyberattack  on an active presidential campaign. The company declined to specify which  campaign was affected, but, on Saturday,   former President Donald Trump said  on TRUTH Social that it was his,   posting that one of his campaign's Web  sites was hacked by the Iranian government. It comes after the office of the director of  national intelligence warned in late July that   it continues to observe foreign  influence operations by Russia,   China and Iran aimed at disrupting November's  election and undermining American democracy. To help put these new reports in  context, we're joined now by Chris   Krebs. He's the chief intelligence and  public policy officer at SentinelOne and   the former director of Cybersecurity  and Infrastructure Security Agency. Thanks for being with us. CHRISTOPHER KREBS, Former Director,   U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security  Agency: Thanks for having me. Good to be here. GEOFF BENNETT: So what stands  out to you about this apparent   cyberattack on the Trump campaign?  What would Iran stand to gain by   hacking the campaign and distributing  potentially sensitive information? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Well, I  think it's important to note   that the hack piece and the leak piece are  separate. We may not have certainty whether   they're actually related, whether this Robert  individual that anonymously e-mailed Politico,   Washington Post others is sharing information  that was stolen from the Trump campaign. That's, I think, just something that  we need to kind of set out. But I think   what's most significant and what's most  remarkable about this activity is that it,   to me, signifies what I have been calling the  Russification of Iranian information operations. What that means is, when you  look at the 2016 election,   as laid out in the intelligence  community assessment of 2017,   it characterized the Russian efforts to  interfere in that election along three prongs. First is going after election  infrastructure. The second is   hacking campaigns and leaking information.  The third is this broader disinformation   operation. And if you go and look at that  Microsoft report from this past Friday,   it talks about Iranians trying to continue  to stoke discord and discontent across the   nation, about hacking a county election  official and, yes, hacking a campaign. So what we're seeing again is  kind of echoes of the past,   but from a different country. And what do they  gain? Chaos. That's the immediate point is   getting in there and undermining the electoral  process and also targeting specifically someone   that they don't have a lot of affection  for. And that's former President Trump. GEOFF BENNETT: When it comes to foreign  influence campaigns by countries like Russia,   China, Iran, do they have similar goals? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Absolutely not, right? I think the one goal that they likely  do share is chaos. It's undermining our   confidence in our government's ability and  democracy in general to provide us the basic   services and look out for us. I think that  is, again, the top-line strategic objective. But, in some cases, they may have preferences.  They may want one candidate vice the other.   But a lot of the times, it is also about  targeting audiences back home to show them,   hey, look things aren't that great over there.  You're better off here with us as your leaders. And that obviously is not the  case, particularly for Russia. GEOFF BENNETT: In this instance, it's  the Trump campaign saying that they   were targeted by Iran. Should  we also expect similar actions   taken against the Harris campaign  or the Biden campaign previously? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: I think, absolutely.  I think what we're seeing right now,   it's almost like an iceberg. You just see  the part, the tip that's out of the water. There's a lot more that's going on that either has  not been discovered yet or has not been publicly   reported yet. I fully expect both the Biden  campaign previously and the Harris campaign   to have been targeted. And it's likely  happening right now this very moment,   continuing to happen, much like the Trump  campaign will continue to be targeted. And that will continue going forward. And that  will also be from any manner of threat actor,   whether it's China Russia, Iran,  even North Korea and others. GEOFF BENNETT: We know what happened back in 2016,   when the Clinton campaign was targeted  by Russia. Those leaks were extremely   damaging and ultimately you could argue were a  major factor in the outcome of that election. How do we navigate this imperative of making   sure that the public is adequately informed  without elevating the works of a bad actor? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Yes, well, I think  this does speak to journalistic ethics and   responsibility of platforms that receive  this information, outlets that receive   the information and using good judgment  on whether it's appropriate to release. I think the second aspect is, actually, it's  the voters. They need to be attuned to the   fact that foreign adversaries, our enemies,  are trying to get into our heads. We are the   targets here. It's not just the campaigns.  It's not the election system itself. It's   the American voter. And we have to keep in mind  that American voters decide American elections. And we need to take a beat, take a pause,   understand that we're the target  and not let them be successful. GEOFF BENNETT: How can Americans make  sure that the information that they're   accessing and consuming, especially online and  especially via social media, is trustworthy? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Yes, I -- it just  goes that thing of going to credible,   authoritative voices. So if you  have a question about an election,   don't listen to some random person  on X or Facebook or whatever. Go to the election official web page.  They have FAQs set up that are primed   for just those sorts of inquiries and  research. And if something that you see   online really resonates with you and kind  of gets the lizard brain going, again,   pause for a moment, ask why you're being served  that information, why you're being targeted,   and then feel free to do a little bit of  research and to confirm what you're reading. GEOFF BENNETT: I also want to ask you about  a recent social media post by Donald Trump,   where he falsely claimed that Kamala Harris   was basically inflating her crowd  sizes via artificial intelligence. It's one thing when we talk about  disinformation from a foreign actor,   but when you have this kind of bad  information put out by, in this case,   the nominee of a major party,  what are the implications of that? CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Well, I think you  have to kind of accept the fact that,   in elections for decades, if not longer,  there have always been overstatements,   misrepresentations, and in some  cases flat-out lies. That's just   part of the process. That's part  of elections in the United States. But I think it's that overarching information  ecosystem right now that I talk to that's being   targeted, that's being undermined, that's  being corrupted by actors outside and in.   And the incentive structures, meaning, how do  they benefit from this, what kind of angst and   anger do they get generated, that is in favor  of these stories, of these bold-faced lies. So I would expect that we're  going to see more of it,   until the voters hold people  accountable for lying to them. GEOFF BENNETT: Chris Krebs, thanks so  much for your insights. Appreciate it. CHRISTOPHER KREBS: Thanks so much. GEOFF BENNETT:   Politics Monday A reset in the race for president?  Fresh polling shows the Democratic   ticket having an edge in three key states. Time now for our Politics Monday duo.  That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political   Report With Amy Walter, and Tamara Keith of NPR. Hello. TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Hello. AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello. GEOFF BENNETT: So, Amy, Vice President  Kamala Harris now leads former President   Donald Trump in three crucial battleground  states, according to new surveys by The New   York Times and Siena College. That's  Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Walk us through the numbers, because this  is still, we should say, a competitive race. AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report:  This is, and the battleground -- those   are the three battleground states that, if  Kamala Harris were to win just those three   and a single electoral vote in Nebraska,  she would get to 270 electoral votes. She could lose all those other states that we talk  about in the Sun Belt like Arizona and Nevada, but   still win the Electoral College with those three.  I think what you're noticing, and we have talked   about this previously about where her success has  come, she has consolidated the Democratic base. A lot of folks who were sitting on  the sidelines who either were not   happy with Biden or were uninspired by  Biden, were thinking about voting for   a third-party candidate, they have now  consolidated behind Harris' candidacy. Why that matters, of course, is that it's  now that the two sides now have both equal   interest in the election, their partisan bases are  equally interested, and they're equally enthused. The next question is, well, what about  the other people in the race who still   haven't checked in? And I think that's  where we're going to see two things   going on for the next whatever, 80  number of days that we have left. The Trump campaign and the Harris campaign  fighting to define Harris will be number one,   and the second will be to define what this  race is about. If you're Kamala Harris,   you want this race to be about turning the  page and about Donald Trump's liabilities. If you're Trump, you want to make this a  race about the fact that Harris is not a   new face. She's actually part of the  incumbent party, the incumbent party   that many voters say they're disappointed  in, in terms of handling some key issues. GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, there are some  vulnerabilities that Kamala Harris has,   according to this new survey, in that  voters prefer Donald Trump on two key   issues. That's immigration -- excuse  me -- immigration and the economy. We should say that Harris' economic  policy is expected to roll out this   week. So what more should we be looking for? TAMARA KEITH: Right, and Democrats broadly  -- so any Democrat, a generic Democrat,   a ham sandwich Democrat, would probably have  the same issue with the economy and immigration. Voters have just for a long  time felt that Republicans are   stronger on the economy and on  immigration. In terms of the economy,   Harris in her stump speech has been alluding  to where she is likely going with her policy   rollout. And we don't exactly know what that's  going to entail in terms of the rollout. But she talks about, yes, prices are too high,  and I'm going to bring those prices down. The   way she talks about bringing prices down is  by going after corporations, by junk fees,   and some of the things, many of the things that  in fact President Biden has been talking about,   but she talks about it in a way that sort of leans  more strongly on the, I know it's rough out there. So I think that we're going to  see that. When she was in Nevada,   she announced that she supports something  that former President Trump announced a   couple of months ago, which is the idea of  not taxing tipped wages for service workers. Now, she is specific that it's for service  workers. Some of the criticism of Trump's proposal   had been that it also -- lawyers and hedge fund  people could change their income to be tips,   instead of wages. In terms of Harris and this  proposal, none of it's really fleshed out. There's   still no policy section her Web site. There was  one on the Biden presidential campaign Web site. But, again, it's like three weeks in and  they are headed towards the convention. And,   partially, she is in a race to just  keep this momentum, these good vibes,   these very excited Democrats, like just  keep that going as long as she can. GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, if Vice President  Kamala Harris is now sort of shifting her focus   toward policy, over the weekend, Donald  Trump was still focused on crowd sizes. He is famously obsessed with this issue  of crowd sizes. And there was this,   I guess we should call it a brazenly false claim,   I guess there are degrees of false claims now,  about Kamala Harris' crowd size in Detroit. AMY WALTER: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: He's suggesting that  she used artificial intelligence to   make the crowds appear larger. He's saying  that, in fact, the crowd did not exist. You were there. I was there. TAMARA KEITH: It definitely existed. And  the second she walked off of Air Force Two,   the crowd went absolutely wild. And you know what it reminds me of? Trump  rallies. Trump rallies from an earlier era,   when he would roll into an airport,  buzz over the airport and just have   incredible excitement when he got off the plane. GEOFF BENNETT: But him saying something like  this, doesn't it create an opportunity for   Democrats to make this race more  of a referendum on Donald Trump? AMY WALTER: Absolutely. GEOFF BENNETT: Whereas, before, it  was a referendum, to a certain degree,   on Joe Biden, his age, his fitness, all of that. AMY WALTER: Absolutely. Absolutely. GEOFF BENNETT: Because you have critics of Donald   Trump who are saying he's now not  just dishonest; he's delusional. AMY WALTER: Yes. Well, listen, we were at the -- we were  all at the RNC together. And we were   told by many in the -- at the convention  that this was a different Donald Trump,   that this was a more disciplined  Donald Trump, that even the attempt   on his life had altered the way he sees  the world and how he's going to operate. Obviously, that is not the case. It is the same  Donald Trump. When he feels like he is losing,   when he feels things are out of  his control, that's when you see   the lashing out. That's when you see that  these sort of comments on social media. So it's -- it is really not surprising to watch  that happen. The other thing that's happening   that I think is really frustrating  both to Trump and to the campaign is,   Kamala Harris is getting a benefit of the doubt.  Even though she is part of the incumbent party,   people see her as different, because,  let's face it, she is different. She's not an older white guy, right?  So she just walks out on the stage,   that's a turning the page from what this election  looked like just a month ago. And I think that is   also frustrating to them, because they can  no longer be the outsider change candidate. And she's the incumbent being able to  be change at the same time. Now, look,   we still have 80-plus days. You're seeing the  advertising starting to roll out. It is more   disciplined than Trump is. But you're right. If  Trump doesn't stay on message -- we're going to   find out soon enough. We have a debate on  September 10 to see how that works out. But he makes it more about  himself, that definitely helps her. GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, the Harris' campaign --  the Harris campaign, their tactics are different. As evidence of that, they posted a social media  message on Donald Trump's own social media site,   TRUTH Social, basically trolling him because  of his obsession about crowd sizes. This is   not something that we have seen, at least in this  way, with Democrats going on offense like this. TAMARA KEITH: It is somehow more on brand  for the younger Harris to have the very same   staff be much more actively into trolling  than they were when Biden was the nominee. And they are absolutely trolling Trump.  And the thing about crowd size is,   he has always measured himself by the size of  his crowds. And he's always been able to tell   himself that he was winning based on the size of  his crowds, because his crowds were always bigger. During the Clinton campaign, there was never  this level of excitement for a Democrat,   for Hillary Clinton. There was never this  level of excitement for Joe Biden during   COVID. And so Trump is used to running a  campaign where he has the biggest crowds   and he can look at those crowds and say, I  am winning. I can see it in front of my eyes. And now there is someone else who is  generating crowds just as big or bigger.   And that is a really tough adjustment that is  coming at the same time as the poll movement. Now, we should also note, though, that  the poll movement is not dramatic. Like,   this is still an incredibly close  race, an incredibly close race that   will be decided in a very small number of  states by a very small number of people. AMY WALTER: Yes. And when Harris was announced as the candidate,  there were a lot of Democrats who said, look,   I don't know how this is going to work out.  The one thing I know she can do better than   Joe Biden is to get underneath Trump's  skin. And that has obviously worked out. GEOFF BENNETT: And the campaign  has sought to make him smaller. AMY WALTER: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: You could argue that Joe  Biden, by talking about Donald Trump as   an existential threat, in many ways, sort of  elevated him and made him a bigger figure. The Harris/Walz campaign is saying  that he's weird. They're laughing at   him. They're trolling him on his  own social media site. I mean,   what are the implications of  that from a political standpoint? AMY WALTER: Well, it is to keep him off talking  about these things, rather than making the case   that, look, Kamala Harris is not change, she  is more of the same. It is four more years   of -- his argument would be four more years of  a bad economy, four more years of open borders. Instead, when you're debating about crowd  sizes and who's weird and who's not weird,   well, then that, for your average  voter, they just go back to their   image that they have of Donald Trump. And  that is problematic for the Trump campaign. GEOFF BENNETT: We will see you both in Chicago  next week at the Democratic National Convention. AMY WALTER: Absolutely. TAMARA KEITH: Yes. GEOFF BENNETT: Amy Walter and  Tamara Keith, thanks so much. AMY WALTER: You're welcome. Running Low TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome. GEOFF BENNETT: Seventy million Americans  receive Social Security benefits today,   but the program is paying  out more than it's taking in. Economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at that   worrying financial gap and  what can be done about it. PAUL SOLMAN: Social Security, the program most  seniors rely on to support them in old age. But,   as you have heard, it's running out of money. As our paychecks make clear, Social  Security takes money from us workers   today, the payroll tax, to pay  recipients, yesterday's workers,   once they're at least 62. More workers than  recipients, the money accumulates in a trust   fund. But fewer workers, more recipients, and  the fund gradually drains, as is happening now. ALICIA MUNNELL, Professor of Management  Sciences, Boston College: In the early 2030s,   the Social Security trust fund on the retirement  side is going to exhaust its reserves. PAUL SOLMAN: That's Social  Security expert Alicia Munnell. ALICIA MUNNELL: Money is going to  keep coming in from the payroll tax,   but, if nothing is done, benefits  will be cut, and no one wants that. PAUL SOLMAN: Well, as Social Security  recipients, my wife and I sure don't.   Neither do the 70 million-plus Baby Boomers  born in our wake. Nor do you, I assume. Do you think the money is going to run out? WOMAN: I kind of have an inkling that it might. PAUL SOLMAN: Do you think the  money's going to be there,   all these headlines about Social  Security running out of money? MAN: I hope so. It comes out of my  check every week, so I hope it does. PAUL SOLMAN: Do you think the  money's going to be there? MAN: God, I hope so. MAN: I would say no. PAUL SOLMAN: There's plenty of reason  for concern, says the lead author of   the Social Security guidebook I helped  write years ago, "Get What's Yours." LARRY KOTLIKOFF, Boston University: The  system is completely bankrupt, and whatever   fix they come up with is going to be a much  bigger burden on our kids and grandchildren. PAUL SOLMAN: Economist Larry Kotlikoff wrote  "The Coming Generational Storm" back in 2004,   has been sounding his alarm ever since. LARRY KOTLIKOFF: The way we're going is  either catastrophically cutting benefits   or catastrophically raising taxes. We're always  doing too little, too late. We're relying on   future generations to be large in number and  very productive in order to pay older people. So we're having each -- allowing  each generation of old people to   go and expropriate their kids, and  then tell the kids, don't worry,   when you're old, you will get your  chance to expropriate your kids. PAUL SOLMAN: Even if nothing is  done, beneficiaries will still   get 79 percent, almost 80 percent of the  amount of money they're getting now, right? LARRY KOTLIKOFF: A lot of older people  are surviving just on Social Security,   so cutting their living standard by  20 percent is just not acceptable. PAUL SOLMAN: So will Social Security beneficiaries  actually take a big hit in just a few years? ALICIA MUNNELL: I would say I'm not  worried at all because no congressman   or congresswoman could go back to  his or her district if that happened. PAUL SOLMAN: The Democrats  have long promised no cuts   and the Republican campaign now claims the same. ALICIA MUNNELL: In the Republican  platform, all in capital letters,   is a commitment not to take a penny  out of Social Security or Medicare. PAUL SOLMAN: But former President  Donald Trump has now also said: DONALD TRUMP, Former President of  the United States (R) and Current   U.S. Presidential Candidate: Seniors  should not pay taxes on Social Security. PAUL SOLMAN: But that would actually  deplete the Social Security trust   fund sooner and mainly benefit the wealthiest  recipients. On the other hand, there are fixes. One example: ALICIA MUNNELL: If they increase  the payroll tax by 2 percent on   the employee and 2 percent on the employer,  that would solve the problem for 75 years. PAUL SOLMAN: So, right now, it's  6.2 percent that I as the employee   pay and 6.2 percent that my employer pays, right? ALICIA MUNNELL: Right. PAUL SOLMAN: And so this would be? ALICIA MUNNELL: Eight-point-two and 8.2. PAUL SOLMAN: So that would  solve the problem by itself? ALICIA MUNNELL: That would solve the problem  for 75 years. We're still in a point on the   cost side where costs are rising because the  ratio of beneficiaries to workers is rising. At some point, but we're getting closer to the  point where that's going to level off. Once that's   leveled off, you will be in a position where  if we fix it for 75 years, it's fixed forever. PAUL SOLMAN: A second fix: ALICIA MUNNELL: Increase the taxable wage base. PAUL SOLMAN: You see, there's a cap  on how much of a worker's earnings are   taxed for Social Security, this year,  $168,600. It rises each year with the   average wage. But the cap used to  cover 90 percent of all earnings. Now, with rising inequality and ever more  income at the top, it only covers 80 percent. ALICIA MUNNELL: And there are a lot of  people who say, just take the cap off,   make the rich pay. I come down on just raising  it to the old 90 percent target and moving along. PAUL SOLMAN: That would hike this year's  cap to about $300,000 and cover about   20 percent of the shortfall. If  the cap were removed entirely,   it would cover something like  70 percent of the shortfall. So why not just remove the cap? ALICIA MUNNELL: If you take it off and  don't give people any benefits in return,   it really breaks that link between  contributions and benefits,   which I think could endanger  the popularity of the program. PAUL SOLMAN: OK, here's a third fix. ALICIA MUNNELL: Invest some  of the trust fund in equities. PAUL SOLMAN: In stocks. ALICIA MUNNELL: In stocks. PAUL SOLMAN: Why is that a good idea? ALICIA MUNNELL: Over the long run, stocks  have earned higher returns than bonds,   which is -- what is in the trust  fund now. They also are higher risk,   so you have to be careful when you're talking  about this that doesn't sound like magic money. PAUL SOLMAN: Still over time, investing  some in stocks would probably help. Now, a fourth fix was one last enacted in 1983,  the last time Social Security was reformed. ALICIA MUNNELL: Raise the retirement  age. Life expectancy is going up.   It only makes sense to have people  wait until they get their benefits. PAUL SOLMAN: But not everyone can wait,   even though you get 43 percent  more at age 70 than at 65. Why not wait until 70, where you get more money? MAN: Well, when you're working a blue-collar job,   sometimes waiting until 70 in  your job is a little too late. PAUL SOLMAN: Because it's too hard on your body? MAN: It's a lot of wear and tear. PAUL SOLMAN: Munnell has a tweak  to account for folks like this. ALICIA MUNNELL: I think you want to  do something that just raises the age   at which you get full benefits  for those who can work longer,   and those people are people in the  top half of the income distribution. PAUL SOLMAN: So why haven't  politicians done anything? On this, Munnell and  Kotlikoff couldn't agree more. ALICIA MUNNELL: Nobody wants  to raise taxes or cut benefits. LARRY KOTLIKOFF: It's political dynamite.  It's the third rail of politics. Congress   is more concerned about the next  election than the next generation. PAUL SOLMAN: Meanwhile, waiting exacts its price. ALICIA MUNNELL: Some options do disappear. PAUL SOLMAN: Investing funds in  the stock market, for example. ALICIA MUNNELL: A prerequisite for  that option is a trust fund. And   so as that trust fund goes to zero,  that one sort of goes off the table. PAUL SOLMAN: I asked my 20-year-old  grandson, Joe, what he makes of all this. So, as you know, your grandmother and I  get substantial Social Security benefits. JOE VIOLA, 20 Years Old: Sure. PAUL SOLMAN: Do you think you will get  those kinds of benefits when you're my age? JOE VIOLA: No, I don't think so. I would say that  but I would hope, at least for me personally,   that my income will be coming more so  from the investments that I have made,   the network that I have made. I'm not  planning to rely so much on Social Security. PAUL SOLMAN: Joe says he's typical of the younger  generations Kotlikoff worries so loudly about. JOE VIOLA: We have a lot of doubt and  uncertainty, especially about the U.S. government,   at least the circles that I'm in. And so it's  hard to have confidence in any current system. PAUL SOLMAN: OK, final verdict. Will Social  Security continue to be there or not? LARRY KOTLIKOFF: Something will be done, but  it will be too little, too late, and it will   impose even bigger burdens on our kids, and the  system will still not be fixed for the long term. PAUL SOLMAN: We have been talking  to Munnell for years about this.   Procrastination is the long-running theme. ALICIA MUNNELL: We are so bad at fixing  this problem. This problem has been so   evident since 1990, and so we're in  2024. And I don't think we're really   going to move on this until 2030. And  so a 40-year lag between the time the   problem is identified and the time it's  fixed is a little long for my taste. PAUL SOLMAN: A little long, but  not Social Security doomsday,   and we may well be facing  bigger problems by decade's end. But the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in Boston. System Check GEOFF BENNETT: Wisconsin is holding  congressional and state primary   elections this Tuesday. They're seen by  some as a critical dry run for November,   when the battleground state will play a  crucial role in deciding the next president. And, as William Brangham reports,  election officials have been increasingly   transparent about the mechanics of  voting to help boost confidence. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In McFarland, Wisconsin, a small  village just outside the state capital, Madison,   they're stress-testing the tools of democracy. Deputy administrator clerk Cassandra Suettinger  is checking their four ballot counting machines. CASSANDRA SUETTINGER, Deputy Administrator,  McFarland, Wisconsin: We put them right side   up. We put them backwards. We put them upside  down, proving to people that you can put the   ballots in any way, shape, or form, and it  will still read the results it's supposed to. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The state requires  this test within the 10 days before every   election to ensure the systems are running  correctly and counting ballots accurately. Officials scan pre-marked ballots through the  tabulators and compare the machine count to the   expected result. A perfect count is required  before any machine can be used on Election   Day. In her eight years as clerk, Suettinger says  she has never had one problem with the machines. After the test, the counts are reset to zero,   the tabulators are sealed, and  they're locked in a secure room. CASSANDRA SUETTINGER: Our elections  return was an old evidence room,   so there's four cameras at  each end of the corners. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: State law and the Wisconsin  Elections Commission also require these tests to   be open to the public, so citizens can understand  the security protocols that are in place. Suettinger says she's alarmed by the threats  made towards election workers in recent years,   but hopes this transparency will  increase trust in the system. CASSANDRA SUETTINGER: There is nothing to hide.  The public has the ability to watch all parts   of the process. The statutes outline in the  various parts of our process the ability for   observers. And I think that's really important.  It's really important for people to know that   there's transparency and they can watch any of the  various processes and nothing is done in secret. We're here to do our job. We're here to uphold  democracy and we're here to carry out the laws. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Elections in Wisconsin  are decentralized, run by more than 1,800   different clerks in their local jurisdictions,  which cuts the chance for any widespread fraud. But that hasn't stopped a plague of accusations  and misinformation. After the 2020 presidential   election, where Joe Biden won Wisconsin by roughly  21,000 votes, Republicans in the state claimed   the process was rigged and launched a slew of  recounts, audits, investigations and lawsuits. The Republican-controlled legislature  last year also tried unsuccessfully to   oust the administrator of the Wisconsin  Elections Commission. But each of the   post-election reviews found that the  2020 results were fair and accurate. This cycle in Verona, Wisconsin, during early  voting in Tuesday's state and local primary,   a steady stream of the city's 9,500  registered voters used ballot drop   boxes. Those were approved by the  state Supreme Court last month. HOLLY LICHT, Verona City Clerk,  Wisconsin: They are open 24 hours a day,   second days a week. They do have security  cameras on them and they're very secure. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Inside City Hall, clerk  Holly Licht and her team conducted their   state-mandated tests of the city's  eight vote tabulators. They prepared   a stack of test ballots that are  designed to pressure the machines. HOLLY LICHT: We purposely make  some mistakes on the ballots,   like over-voting or cross-voting, so that we  know that the machine is working correctly. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The real test,  of course, comes on Election Day,   but Licht is confident the results  will once again be accurate. After Tuesday's primary, the  work starts almost immediately   to prepare for November's presidential election. HOLLY LICHT: This is a good practice round for us.   We're hopping right back into another  election and we're preparing ballots and   training and everything for November.  There's not a lot of time off here. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Wisconsin clerks will start   sending absentee ballots for the  presidential election next month. For the "PBS News Hour," I'm William Brangham. GEOFF BENNETT:   Etching History Scrimshaw is a traditional 19th century  art form now seen through a much wider   context and a contemporary lens. That's  the goal of an exhibit which challenges   some old assumptions about the  process and the product itself. Jeffrey Brown went to the  New Bedford Whaling Museum   in Massachusetts to look for our  arts and culture series, Canvas. It's a story of contact, impact, connections,   great adventure and great loss, humans and  animals across two oceans over some 100 years.   In the exhibition titled The Wider World and  Scrimshaw, the story is told through objects. Chief curator Naomi Slipp. NAOMI SLIPP, Chief Curator, New Bedford  Whaling Museum: There are records of   individual experiences and what  those individuals were doing,   whether they were in communities that were  regular ports of call for whalers or whether   they were whalers on shipboard themselves, they  were having these extraordinary experiences. JEFFREY BROWN: The romance of sea adventures, the  fascination with whales themselves, it's part of   the experience here. Visitors are greeted by  an 8,000-pound juvenile blue whale skeleton. But, in a gallery next door, a special exhibit  offers a different kind of window. Scrimshaw is   the traditional art form of carving or engraving  on the bones, teeth and ivory of marine mammals,   typically whales and walruses. It's most  associated with 19th century whaling,   an industry long centered, think Herman  Melville and "Moby-Dick, here in New Bedford. The whaling museum in what's still  a port city with a working harbor   houses the world's largest scrimshaw  collection. But, for this exhibition,   it wanted to set those objects in a larger  context or conversation among a wide range of   works by the indigenous peoples with whom whalers  came into regular contact throughout the Pacific. Slipp points to this small busk. Busks  were a regular part of women's fashion   in the 19th century, used to  stiffen corsets and typically   made from whale bone. But this one had  an unusual pattern engraved into it. NAOMI SLIPP: And we looked at  it and thought, oh, my goodness,   it's a navigation chart. It's a navigation  chart that's used traditionally in parts of   the Pacific to learn the patterns of swells  and currents to move from island to island. JEFFREY BROWN: So not by the Yankee whalers,  but by the people they were connecting with. NAOMI SLIPP: Exactly, with Pacific Islanders. And   so the idea that someone who was on a  whaling vessel, who was creating a busk,   which is a very New England form for a corset,  was also inscribing it with something that   would have been really culturally significant  for Pacific Islanders was quite tantalizing. JEFFREY BROWN: Scholars have long  studied this collision of cultures,   as well as the often negative political,  environmental and other consequences. This exhibition, Slipp says, tries to tie into the  research and make artistic connections to today. CORA-ALLAN LAFAIKI TWISS, Artist:  It's been spoken as a lost art form,   but I like to think of it as it's been sleeping,  and I have just -- my practice has wakened it up. JEFFREY BROWN: Artist Cora-Allan Lafaiki  Twiss from New Zealand is part Maori,   part Niue, the latter a small island  some 1,500 miles to the Northeast. Eight years ago, she took up the traditional art  of making tapa bark cloth paintings called hiapo   in Niue, where she says the practice is all  but gone. It's been rare for her to even see   older hiapo, she says, and then she got an e-mail  with a photo from the New Bedford Whaling Museum,   which owned this well-preserved work  brought back on a Yankee whaler. CORA-ALLAN LAFAIKI TWISS: I was  also confused, because I'm like,   what is this doing in New Bedford?  What's it doing so far away from home? And it's in good condition and the ink itself  is absolutely bright and vibrant like the day it   would have been made. And then there's, of course,  a ship inside one of the patterns, and so that   also talks about that colonial history that Niue  have and really placing this in that time period. JEFFREY BROWN: The museum commissioned her  to create a new work, a kind of conversation   with the old, with her own imagery and  patterns of the sea and its animal life. Cora-Allan believes she's the first  practitioner in more than a hundred   years and says it was her grandparents  who first asked her to take it up. Why was it important for you to do, to take on? CORA-ALLAN LAFAIKI TWISS: It's  important to me because I was asked. JEFFREY BROWN: By them? CORA-ALLAN LAFAIKI TWISS: I was asked by them.  They asked me, and they worked six days a week. My   nanny worked until she was like 70. Why wouldn't  I take on the responsibility being asked? Because   it's so important that my culture is shared, but  they weren't able to continue these practices, and   so it's important because they asked me, and I'm  a granddaughter from the Moana from the Pacific. JEFFREY BROWN: Another contemporary  artist updating and bringing urgency   to the 19th century story, Courtney M. Leonard of   the Shinnecock Indian Nation based  on Eastern Long Island, New York. Her work at the museum part of an ongoing project  she titled Breach looks at past undertold stories,   including members of her tribe who sailed  on whaling ships. Her scrimshaw studies,   as she calls them, are made of ceramic  and the breach she addresses is moral,   legal, ownership of the land and  environmental, including today sea rise. COURTNEY M. LEONARD, Artist: You grow up with  the water and you understand your relationship   to place and your responsibility to place. Whether  one chooses to have that be their life's work is   up to them, but, for some, at least for myself,  living back home, we do have rising waters. So when you're living in a  place where the waters rise,   you realize that time is of  value in many different ways. JEFFREY BROWN: As the exhibition shows  today, marine mammals such as whales and   walruses have legal protections and the  trade in whale and walrus bone and ivory,   including scrimshaw, is heavily regulated. Still, it can be unsettling to experience  these objects made of the bones and teeth   of some of the Earth's most magnificent creatures.  I asked chief curator Naomi Slipp how she sees it. NAOMI SLIPP: It's a hard thing. I mean, I think if  you really think about what we're surrounded by in   here, there's an intense amount of death, which is  sort of sometimes overwhelming if you really sit   with it, the number of whales and walrus and other  species that are represented by these materials. But I hope that, ultimately, what people come  away with is a sense of kind of survival and   survivance, of tradition and of craft and  of communities, of the whales themselves. JEFFREY BROWN: The Wider World and  Scrimshaw is on through November 11. For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at  the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. GEOFF BENNETT: 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. Have a good night.