PBS News Hour | Season 2024 | October 30, 2024 – PBS News Hour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I’m Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I’m Geoff Bennett.

On the “News Hour” tonight: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump make swings across multiple battleground states with only days left until voting ends.

AMNA NAWAZ: The diploma divide.

How having a college degree is becoming one of the best predictors of which candidate voters support.

GEOFF BENNETT: And American volunteers fighting in Ukraine offer their views on the U.S. presidential election and how a Trump victory and potential cuts to military aid could affect the fight.

ZACHARY JAYNES, U.S. Army Veteran: The European countries can step up and try and fill those gaps, but, in the end, it will basically be the beginning of the death toll for Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the “News Hour.”

The race for president ran through the Tar Heel State today.

AMNA NAWAZ: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump both rallied in North Carolina, one of the crucial swing states that could secure a victory in next week’s election.

In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, former President Donald Trump urged voters to send him back to the White House.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: This election is the choice between whether we will have a — four more years, think of this, four more years of gross incompetence.

AMNA NAWAZ: Continuing to sow doubt about the security of the election.

DONALD TRUMP: I’m hearing all sorts of stories.

We’re not going to have the result by Tuesday night.

We spend all this money on computers.

If you go back to paper ballots — and it’s watermarked.

Paper is now very sophisticated, believe it or not.

AMNA NAWAZ: In fact, the vast majority, over 97 percent of votes cast in this election, will be recorded on paper, the head official in charge of U.S. cybersecurity and infrastructure told the “News Hour” recently.

JEN EASTERLY, Director, U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: First, got to remember election infrastructure, the voting systems where Americans cast their ballots not connected to the Internet, so very difficult for somebody to hack into those voting machines.

Secondly, over 97 percent paper ballots that voters can look at and verify themselves.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris made her case in North Carolina’s capital, Raleigh.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: We have just six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.

And we have work to do.

AMNA NAWAZ: In Washington, D.C., last night, a crowd in the tens of thousands gathered to see Harris deliver her closing arguments on the White House Ellipse lawn, the same place Trump gave his infamous January 6 speech.

KAMALA HARRIS: We know who Donald Trump is.

He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.

(CHEERING) AMNA NAWAZ: Harris painted Trump as a threat to democracy and vowed to represent all Americans.

KAMALA HARRIS: These United States of America, we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.

(CHEERING) KAMALA HARRIS: The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised, a nation big enough to encompass all our dreams, strong enough to withstand any fracture or fissure between us, and fearless enough to imagine a future of possibilities.

So, America, let us reach for that future.

AMNA NAWAZ: Trump made his closing arguments with a large rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden last Sunday, an event later criticized for racist and sexist rhetoric throughout, including a comedian calling Puerto Rico a – – quote — “floating island of garbage.”

Trump responded to the criticism last night on FOX.

DONALD TRUMP: They put a comedian in, which everybody does.

You throw comedians in.

You don’t vet them and go crazy.

It’s nobody’s fault.

But somebody said some bad things.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Biden also weighed in on a Zoom call with Latino supporters last night.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.

His demonization is unconstitutional.

And it’s un-American.

AMNA NAWAZ: Later clarifying he was referring to the comedian’s rhetoric, not Trump voters.

Today, Harris distanced herself from his remarks.

KAMALA HARRIS: First of all, he clarified his comments.

But let me be clear.

I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.

And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.

AMNA NAWAZ: Her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, echoed that message in Charlotte, North Carolina.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: We can choose a path that includes everyone, that is hopeful, that adheres to the American values, or we can get dark, negative and sink into a place that’s all about one person, Donald Trump.

That’s the choice.

AMNA NAWAZ: But the Trump campaign pounced, with Senator J.D.

Vance saying Harris and Biden should be ashamed of themselves.

That too comes in the context of a pattern of coarse and insulting language from Trump.

DONALD TRUMP: Joe Biden became mentally impaired.

Kamala was born that way.

We can’t stand you.

You’re a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) vice president.

(CHEERING) AMNA NAWAZ: Including these remarks today about Democrats.

DONALD TRUMP: These are the most corrupt, horrible people.

These are horrible people.

Oops, we should get along with everybody.

They’re horrible people.

AMNA NAWAZ: With less than a week of campaigning left, both candidates will travel to Wisconsin tonight.

Harris will speak to supporters in Madison, while Trump rallies in Green Bay.

GEOFF BENNETT: While all eyes are on the presidential race, there are also several key downballot races that will determine the balance of power in Congress.

AMNA NAWAZ: Republicans in the House hold a razor-thin majority, but Democrats are honing in on a handful of races to help them win back the Lower Chamber.

Lisa Desjardins has been following this all closely and joins us now.

So, Lisa, set the table for us in the House.

What do Democrats need to do to win control?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let’s take a look.

Here is that razor-thin majority you were talking about right now.

Republicans control 221 seats in the House of Representatives, to Democrats controlling 214.

That includes current vacancies.

Now, both parties believe that due to redistricting and court battles that have happened since the last election, Republicans are poised to automatically pick up a net of one seat.

So let’s color that in.

Given all of that, what do Democrats have to do, to answer your question?

They need to flip on net five seats across the country to regain control of the House.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, how difficult will it be for Democrats to do that, Lisa?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Let’s take a look here.

This is what Cook Political Report, how they look at the map, of course, with our good Amy Walter.

So, I said they need to pick up five seats across the country.

Let’s start out with this likely flip.

The Cook Political Report believes a seat in New York is likely to move from Republican to Democrat.

So if that happens, Democrats would just need to pick up four seats everywhere else.

Where would they do that?

The toss-up races favor Democrats.

Right now, 14 vulnerable Republicans are in toss-up races that could go either way compared with 11 Democrats.

That’s something Democrats feel very good about.

However, if there is kind of a red wave, if there is Trump momentum at the top of the ticket, as you were talking about, then these other Democrats who are in slightly safer seats, they could be affected.

This is what Republicans hope for, to convert these sort of harder-to-get seats in this election in order to keep the House.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, take us into a little bit more detail here.

Where is it that Republicans are most vulnerable?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

This is where it gets very interesting.

We have reported on this before, but a reminder that some of these seats, in fact, the biggest bulk of vulnerable Republicans are in Democratic states, five races in California Republicans, four races in New York vulnerable Republicans.

So that’s nine seats right there.

Remember, Democrats just want to flip four at this point.

So of these nine, something else that’s important about them, eight of them are in districts that Joe Biden won.

These are Republicans kind of running against the wind, trying to outrun kind of their district and get some split-ticket voters.

I want to look at one of these districts in particular.

This is New York’s Fourth District.

Where is it?

Hello, Long Island right there, Nassau County.

This is a rematch between current Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, the Republican — he’s a former police detective — against Laura Gillen, attorney, also a former town supervisor.

This is a place where Democrats think abortion is bolstering their chances.

And this came up prominently in their debate.

Laura Gillen talked about her personal story where she had a fetus die in her second trimester.

She told that story during the debate.

LAURA GILLEN (D), New York Congressional Candidate: I needed to have a procedure called a D&E.

And that procedure saved my life.

We must protect reproductive freedom in this country.

It is not a state’s right.

It’s a human right.

LISA DESJARDINS: D’Esposito says he opposes a national ban and that he has been misconstrued as extreme.

He talked in particular about something that’s been in ads in the district, his position that a physician should have to attempt to give lifesaving care to a fetus or baby that survives an abortion.

He says that that too has been misconstrued.

REP. ANTHONY D’ESPOSITO (R-NY): The law says that the doctor has to provide every bit of medical care to that living baby that was just born.

If the care isn’t provided to keep it alive, then, yes, the doctor would be responsible.

That doesn’t seem to me as extremism.

It seems to me that that’s common sense.

LISA DESJARDINS: One more note about this race.

There was a bombshell report that D’Esposito paid and hired his mistress to work in his congressional office.

He has not denied that, but he has said he did nothing wrong.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Lisa, what about Democrats?

Where are Democrats potentially in trouble?

LISA DESJARDINS: There are absolutely vulnerable Democrats, and a lot of them in swing states, two races in Pennsylvania, two in Michigan, also Democrats on defense in Maine, Virginia, Colorado, all over the map.

Let’s look at one particular race here.

This is Pennsylvania’s Seventh District.

Look at that.

It’s a swing area.

Susan Wild has been in office there since 2018.

Ryan Mackenzie, rising Republican star, challenging her.

Now, in their debate, abortion did come up, but the economy is a bigger issue here.

In their debate, these two went back and forth over who’s to blame for cost of living issues right now.

Is it the Biden administration or is it corporate America?

RYAN MACKENZIE (R), Pennsylvania Congressional Candidate: Susan Wild has voted for every single plank of Bidenomics.

That massive overspending in Washington, D.C., is what has caused the inflation and the high prices that we are all struggling with.

And so we need to rein in that wasteful spending in Washington, D.C., and that’s something that I would do if elected to Congress.

REP. SUSAN WILD (D-PA): I do my own grocery shopping.

I pump my own gas.

I’m very aware of prices.

And although I’m happy that gas prices seem to be coming down, believe me, I understand what people have been going through.

People at the top, the 1 percent, they’re doing just fine.

So we have got to make sure that we are cracking down on corporations that are price gouging.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, this is just one of the roughly four dozen races that will determine control of the House.

And, also, in a presidential year where we have got a real toss-up here, guys, you know control the House means, will the president have someone that works with them, or will it be a balance, a check on that presidential power?

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.

We appreciate it.

LISA DESJARDINS: You’re welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we start the day’s other headlines in Spain, where at least 95 people have been killed in catastrophic flash floods.

Rainstorms that started yesterday quickly overwhelmed rivers and sent torrents of muddy water gushing through streets.

Authorities carried out helicopter rescues for those who were trapped in flooded homes.

The Valencia region was among the hardest hit and is now facing unprecedented damage.

Some survivors say they have lost everything.

JAVIER BERENGUER, Spain Resident (through translator): I own the bakery on the corner, and with eight feet of water, I had to escape through a window when the water started coming up to my shoulders.

It took everything, about 300 to 400 cars.

I have to throw everything out of the bakery, freezers, ovens, everything.

GEOFF BENNETT: Authorities are searching for an unknown number of people who are still missing.

They say the death toll is expected to rise in what’s already the nation’s worst natural disaster in recent memory.

Spain’s government has declared three days of mourning starting tomorrow.

In Lebanon, Israel is expanding its military campaign beyond the country’s south as it targets what it says are Hezbollah strongholds.

Today, Israel issued evacuation orders for the eastern city of Baalbek, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as surrounding villages.

A few hours after that order, Lebanese TV caught this fireball over the city’s skyline.

Israel says it struck Hezbollah fuel storage throughout the region.

Meantime, in his first speech as the militant group’s new leader, Naim Qassem vowed to carry on with Hezbollah’s war plan.

NAIM QASSEM, Hezbollah Secretary-General (through translator): We will continue to confront the aggression.

If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but with the conditions that we see as suitable and sufficient.

We will not beg for a cease-fire as we will continue fighting, no matter how long it takes.

GEOFF BENNETT: Those remarks came as international mediators ramped up efforts to halt the fighting in Lebanon and in Gaza.

Palestinian officials say new Israeli bombardments killed at least 30 people in the Gaza Strip, one day after Israel waged one of the deadliest single strikes of the conflict so far.

North Korea’s top diplomat is in Russia for talks today.

Her visit comes as the deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia’s war effort in Ukraine raises concerns in the West about a possible expansion of the conflict.

Today, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon.

He said that North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving to the Kursk region near Ukraine’s border.

He called the deployment a dangerous and destabilizing escalation.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: This is pretty serious.

Again, we’re going to continue to watch it and continue to work with our allies and partners to discourage it.

I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia.

It does have the potential of lengthening the conflict or broadening the conflict if that continues.

GEOFF BENNETT: It’s all unfolding as Russia and Ukraine exchanged dozens of drone strikes overnight that killed at least four people.

In Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, nine people were injured, including a child, after strikes hit an apartment building and a kindergarten.

There have been more voting-related developments here at home.

The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing Virginia to proceed with purging the voter registrations of about 1,600 people whom Republican officials suspect are not American citizens.

All three of the court’s liberal justices dissented.

The ruling comes after Virginia appealed a federal judge’s ruling that deemed the voter removals illegal.

It’s rare for noncitizens to try to vote in a U.S. election, but Donald Trump and his Republican allies have frequently raised fears about immigrants voting illegally in November.

Authorities in Portland, Oregon, say the suspect behind a series of ballot box fires is likely an experienced metalworker.

That’s based on a design of the incendiary devices involved in the blazes.

They describe the suspect as a white man between 30 and 40 years old who they say may plan more attacks.

Authorities in the city of Vancouver, Washington, say 475 ballots were salvaged from a fire on Monday.

An unknown number of others were destroyed.

They’re working to find voter information so they can contact people about getting new ballots.

The FBI is among the agencies investigating.

No arrests have been made.

The U.S. economy grew at a healthy clip of 2.8 percent in the latest quarter when compared to this same time last year.

That’s thanks largely to ongoing consumer spending, which rose by 3.7 percent.

That’s despite still high interest rates.

Today’s reading was actually down a bit from the 3 percent growth the country saw in the previous quarter.

But it still signals ongoing strength in the U.S. economy as voters head into the final days before the U.S. election.

On Wall Street today, stocks slipped as investors focused on the latest corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 90 points on the day.

The Nasdaq gave back just over 100 points, or about half-a-percent.

The S&P 500 also ended in negative territory.

And a common practice has become the law of the land in New York City.

Jaywalking is now legal.

The city council passed a bill last month allowing pedestrians to cross the street at will.

It became law over the weekend after time ran out from Mayor Eric Adams to veto the measure.

Jaywalking used to carry a fine of up to $250.

And, by one count, more than 90 percent of those targeted last year were Black and Latino.

There are concerns that the new measure will lead to more pedestrian deaths, but, for many New Yorkers, it’s simply an acknowledgement of life in the busy city.

Still to come on the “News Hour”: we look at the stark divide between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s health care policies; a new federal rule requires airlines to automatically offer refunds for significant delays and cancellations; and a photographer travels to politically divided communities to document the things people still have in common.

AMNA NAWAZ: With less than a week until Election Day, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are making their final case to voters, laying out starkly different visions on a number of key issues.

That includes health care.

Our White House government, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been covering this as part of our ongoing deep dive into the candidates’ Promises and Policies this election.

Good to see you, Laura.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Good to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you reported recently about the candidates’ approach on abortion access and reproductive rights.

There’s a lot more to talk about, broader with health care policy.

So let’s start with Vice President Harris.

What are her key plans on health care?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Some of Harris’ big health care policy proposals are to build on the Inflation Reduction Act, cancel more medical debt, renew the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expiring in 2025, and expand access to birth control pills.

Now, Amna, when it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act, she wants to expand that $35 cap on insulin that she and Biden passed for Medicare recipient.

She wants to expand that to all Americans.

She also wants to cap every American’s prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year.

Currently, it only applies to Medicare recipients.

And, recently, Harris proposed that there should be an at-home care benefit covered by Medicare.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Currently, if you need home care and you don’t have some money to hire someone, you and your family need to deplete your savings to qualify for help.

That’s just not right.

So, we’re going to change the approach and allow Medicare to cover the cost of home care… (CHEERING) KAMALA HARRIS: … so seniors can get the health and care they need in their own homes.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: That home care benefit, Amna, would also cover people with disabilities that are on Medicare.

And policy experts that we talked to said that could end up covering millions of seniors.

AMNA NAWAZ: So those are the plans we have heard from Vice President Harris.

How do those differ from the plans we have heard from former President Trump?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Some of Donald Trump’s top health care positions are to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

He also wants to lower health care insurance premiums, but doesn’t have details on how he’d do that.

He has been silent on protecting Medicaid and he also wants to institute an anti-vaccine mandate for public schools.

Now, recently, Donald Trump also said that he would put Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a staunch anti-vaxxer, in charge of health care policy.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health and the environment than anybody.

(CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: I’m going to let him go wild on health.

I’m going to let him go wild on the food.

I’m going to let him go wild on medicines.

(CHEERING) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Health experts on the say that appointing someone like RFK Jr. to potentially lead Health and Human Services, to lead the Centers for Disease Control could end up spreading more public health disinformation, because he has been known to do that.

On that Medicaid front, Amna, Trump has said that he wants to reduce federal government spending and he wants to cut taxes and that he doesn’t want to touch Social Security or Medicare to do it.

So, health experts are concerned that means there’s going to be a big target on Medicaid.

AMNA NAWAZ: So those are the plans, that they have been laying them out.

You have also looked at their health care policies.

How do their outlooks differ on this?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, a lot of it comes down to the Affordable Care Act, which currently covers 21 million Americans.

Donald Trump tried to repeal it in 2017 without much of a replacement plan when he was president.

It didn’t work.

And seven years later, he says now that he has — quote — “concepts of a plan” to replace it.

His running mate, J.D.

Vance, has filled in some of those concepts.

J.D.

Vance has floated repealing a mandate within the ACA that requires insurance — insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions.

And if Trump and Vance were successful in repealing that mandate, Larry Levitt, vice president of health policy at KFF, said it would have a huge impact on sick Americans.

LARRY LEVITT, Executive Vice President For Health Policy, KFF: If you start segregating people into different pools, that leaves people with preexisting conditions at risk.

I mean, we know what insurers do when they’re not required to cover people with preexisting conditions or charge them the same premiums as healthy people.

They exclude them from insurance.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Bottom line, Larry Levitt said, is that, under Trump, young and currently healthy people would receive lower premium costs, but sick and people — sick people and people with preexisting conditions would end up not being covered by insurers.

And also this week, we should note, Amna, that House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed that there should be no Obamacare, multiple outlets have reported, according to some leaked video.

Now, the difference between him, Donald Trump, and his proposals, and Harris when it comes to the Affordable Care Act is that she wants to expand on what is already in place.

The issue, though, Amna, is that many of her policies rely on favorable numbers in Congress.

And it’s looking like the Senate may flip to Republicans and Democrats may control the House.

So being able to expand on subsidies that are already in the Affordable Care Act could be difficult for Harris to do.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know the experts you have been talking to have been digging into these plans, running the numbers, examining them.

What did they tell you would be the overarching impact of these proposals?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Experts like Larry Levitt say that, ultimately, both candidates appear to approach health care as an economic issue.

But the big difference is who they’re trying to save money for.

LARRY LEVITT: Trump has focused particularly in his comments around the Affordable Care Act on government spending, on making programs less expensive for the federal government.

And Harris, we have seen a focus on health care as everyday pocketbook issues, so whether that’s improving premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and lowering the premiums people pay out of pocket and trying to relieve medical debt.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Those expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies that Larry was talking about there, they expanded the number of people who qualified for financial assistance and the amount of help that they receive.

And they’re set to expire in 2025.

Harris says she wants to extend them.

But if they expire under a Donald Trump presidency, it could have a huge burden on everyday Americans.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you very much.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Americans are divided in many ways, including based on their education backgrounds.

That’s especially true in this presidential election.

A recent PBS News/NPR/Marist poll found that Donald Trump is leading among voters without a college degree by 10 percentage points.

Kamala Harris is leading with college graduates by 21 points.

To explore this so-called diploma divide, Judy Woodruff visited two neighboring, but very different counties in Michigan, where both candidates have repeatedly made their case as this year’s campaign nears the end.

It’s part of her ongoing series America at a Crossroads.

DIANE DOYLE SMITH, Democratic Voter: Do you still consider yourself a Democrat?

WOMAN: I do now.

(LAUGHTER) DIANE DOYLE SMITH: Oh, good.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Diane Doyle Smith has spent much of this campaign season canvassing door-to-door to try to boost the Democratic turnout near her home in Novi, Michigan, less than 30 miles northwest of downtown Detroit.

DIANE DOYLE SMITH: I was a Republican for many, many years.

I never voted for Clinton or Obama.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Despite her voting record and the fact that she lives in Oakland County, a once reliably Republican stronghold, Smith is now the vice chair of her local Democrats club.

DIANE DOYLE SMITH: When Donald Trump got the nomination in 2015, I did not want him to be our candidate.

After he won, I cried for, gosh, probably two days and then I looked online for our local Democratic club and I went to the next meeting.

JUDY WOODRUFF: When you realize he was running again for president, what was your thinking?

DIANE DOYLE SMITH: Shock, dismay, disbelief that they would choose him.

I still cannot get over it, especially after January 6.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Smith, now retired, worked in sales and studied criminology in college, but a short drive away, just across the county line in Macomb County, political momentum has shifted in the opposite direction.

A small group supporting Auto Workers for Trump gathered outside the Stellantis assembly plant in Sterling Heights.

AUSTIN IONETZ, Republican Voter: Gave us tax cuts, gave us prison reform.

People were just — it was all better all around.

Inflation was at an all-time low.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Chris Vitale works for Stellantis and is a member of Auto Workers for Trump.

He was born and raised in this historically blue county and still lives there with his wife and three children.

CHRIS VITALE, Republican Voter: I feel more like the Democrat Party has left me, not that I have left them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: He points to policies that he says have hurt the auto industry.

Michigan has lost more than a third of those jobs since 1990, in part because of trade policies like NAFTA, increasing automation, and companies moving factories to non-unionized plants in the South and overseas.

CHRIS VITALE: They don’t realize how much they damage our employers with the regulations and the mandates and the uncompetitive positions that we’re forced into.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That message has resonated with Michigan autoworkers, who have historically voted for Democrats.

Macomb County, home to many union and blue-collar workers, has been seen as a political barometer that’s flipped Republican at the top of the ticket amid economic downturns.

CHRIS VITALE: Trump becomes a different type of president in the fact that he recognizes the strategic importance of manufacturing.

He sees that this is the greatest way you turn a commodity into something that’s got more value, that there’s a great importance of manufacturing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Actually, putting the pandemic and global economic downturn aside, manufacturing jobs under former President Trump and President Biden followed a similar pattern, growth in the first two years in office, followed by losses in the third year.

But there’s another reason why these two neighboring counties vote so differently, education.

In Oakland County, where Democrats won decisively in the last two presidential elections, 51 percent of adults have a college degree, while, next door, in Macomb County, it’s 27 percent.

And Macomb went decisively for Donald Trump in those same two elections.

It’s a phenomenon playing out across the country, a contrast with the class and income divisions that defined political parties for much of the 20th century.

MATT GROSSMANN, Author, “Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics”: Well, it’s been the biggest change in American politics over the last few decades, as college-educated voters moving toward the Democrats and those without college education moving toward the Republicans.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Matt Grossmann is a professor of political science at Michigan State University and co-author of a new book, “Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics.”

MATT GROSSMANN: The college-educated voters used to have a very small proportion of the population, not enough to really make up a voting constituency.

And now they have.

They also dominate our social and cultural institutions.

They dominate the media, academia, nonprofit world, and even the corporate world.

And it’s reflected not just in voting, but in pretty much everything we see around us in the culture war kind of inflaming our society.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The number of Americans with four-year college degrees has increased dramatically.

In 1960, less than 8 percent of American adults held college degrees.

By the last couple of years, that had grown to over 37 percent.

But whom their voting for has changed.

MATT GROSSMANN: College-educated voters used to be more likely to vote Republican, but it wasn’t education.

It was really income that was driving that relationship.

Instead of having the rich vote Republican and the poor vote Democratic, what you have is the more educated voting Democratic and the less educated voting Republican, which means that there’s almost no difference based on income anymore.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For Vitale, a third-generation autoworker, there’s a good reason that difference exists.

CHRIS VITALE: I think, when you come up in a blue-collar background, there’s a lot more wanting to get down to work and get down to your life, and that, when you are a little more removed from, that it’s more like, well, let’s go up to university and we will have a party for four years on dad’s dime.

And I didn’t have any interest in that.

And of course, college university systems largely become reeducation centers, where we take these kids that may have grown up with traditional values, and we fill their heads-up full of new ideas that are basically meant to just tear everyone apart.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But a few miles away, in Oakland County, Vital Anne, a mechanical engineer in the auto industry, says her degrees have broadened her perspective.

VITAL ANNE, Democratic Voter: For a long time, I was apolitical.

And then I kind of shifted towards the Democratic side because it felt like it aligned with my values a lot more.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I asked Anne if she thinks her academic background has impacted her views.

VITAL ANNE: The demographic that I work with are very highly educated.

And because they are highly educated, they pay more attention to science and data.

And we also may be a little more affluent, so we can afford to think more about what is the long-term view of this or long-term effect of this, instead of people who are living paycheck to paycheck, and then all they can think about is, why are these groceries costing so much right now?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Matt Grossmann said this new fault line in politics has contributed to increased polarization and resentment of the other side.

MATT GROSSMANN: It’s reflected not just in voting, but in pretty much everything we see around us in the culture war kind of inflaming our society.

Republicans have become less trustful of experts.

Republicans and Democrats now disagree about all kinds of cultural, social issues that they didn’t used to.

Things that really didn’t used to be about politics are now about politics.

We’re experiencing it in our everyday lives.

You can see the signals of people on the left or the right in far more places than you used to.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which is happening faster, that Democrats are gaining among higher educated voters, or that they’re losing among voters with less education?

MATT GROSSMANN: They’re gaining lately at a faster clip among college-educated voters than they’re losing among white voters without a college degree.

But the declines among white voters without a college degree are much more longstanding.

Some of them date from the 1970s onwards.

So that’s a trend that has been more longstanding, but is currently slower than the trend on the other side.

The trend we’re looking for in this election is, do those education divides extend to minority voters?

Minority voters have not divided along educational lines anywhere near the level that white voters have, and they maintain a stronger attachment to the Democratic Party.

If that breaks and they start to divide along educational lines like white voters have, that would be good for the Republican Party’s electoral change.

JUDY WOODRUFF: One more division in an already polarized America.

And this one could be the deciding factor in next week’s presidential election.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Judy Woodruff in Macomb County and Oakland County, Michigan.

GEOFF BENNETT: Just weeks before the holiday travel season kicks into gear, new airline refund rules have gone into effect across the country.

They can mean big changes for when and how tens of millions of Americans get paid back for things like flight delays or mishandled baggage.

They also put an end to some haggling, communication breakdowns, and all-around frustration for passengers.

To help walk us through them, we’re joined now by Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy.

That’s a popular travel Web site.

Thanks for being with us.

BRIAN KELLY, Founder, The Points Guy: Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Brian, these rules were first announced by the Biden administration back in April, because, previously, airlines set their own policies when it came to delayed flights or flight cancellations.

Help us understand the changes.

BRIAN KELLY: Yes, these changes are great for consumers because they give clarity on exactly when you can get a full refund.

Now, what’s been happening is airlines have been giving vouchers to consumers, instead of refunds.

Now the regulation states that consumers are owed a refund to their original form of payment if a flight is delayed, whether three hours or more domestically or six hours or more internationally, or if the flight is canceled for any reason by the carrier.

So, cash is king.

So, this is definitely a win for consumers because getting the refund is much better than a voucher that will eventually expire.

GEOFF BENNETT: And these are automatic refunds?

BRIAN KELLY: These are supposed to be automatic if you choose not to be reaccommodated.

Now, most airlines in their Web site will give you the option to take the next flight or different routes.

If you choose not to do that and say, hey, look, I’m just going to nix this trip, you should automatically get it within seven business days.

If you don’t see that, then it’s time to request it from the airline.

And if they don’t provide it, you can file a DOT complaint, but hopefully automatic.

GEOFF BENNETT: And what are the rules around mishandled baggage and situations like where you pay for Wi-Fi on the plane and it doesn’t work?

BRIAN KELLY: Yes, the new rules that were put into place were meant to protect consumers whenever they paid for extras, which are becoming more and more common, like seat upgrades or checked baggage.

If that checked baggage does not show up within 12 hours domestically, you get that baggage fee refunded.

In the past, it was up to the airlines to decide if they wanted to do that.

Now, this is in addition to compensation if the airline loses your bag.

Every airline has different policies on what they will reimburse for missing luggage.

And I will also note, always check with your credit card company too, because many of them will reimburse you for those missing bags.

But if the Wi-Fi didn’t work, or if the airline changes your flight and adds extra connections, which happens a lot, you don’t have to accept them.

If you booked a nonstop flight and they try to change it, you are owed a full refund, which is great news.

GEOFF BENNETT: How have the airlines responded to these new rules?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, there was a lot of grumbling.

I thought the airlines might try to protest the new rules, because there’s a lot of — that has to go into this.

But, so far, we haven’t seen that.

My professional opinion is that the airlines are waiting to see what happens on Election Day, because, if there is a change in administration, I expect there will be some heavy lobbying to either water down or get rid of these new regulations altogether, which is in the purview of whoever runs the DOT come next year.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Brian, while we have you here, I want to ask you about something else, because last month the Transportation Department opened an investigation into airline loyalty programs, looking into problems with devaluing earned points and some hidden fees.

Why are airlines making it harder to accrue and use loyalty points?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, interestingly, airlines are actually making it easier to earn points.

There’s more credit card offers than ever before.

The issue comes with redeeming points.

Specifically, the big four U.S. airlines have continued to increase the amount of miles needed, where it can be very confusing for consumers.

What are these miles actually worth?

So the DOT is currently in an investigation and fact-finding mission, and they potentially could come out with new regulations that would mandate the airlines to post minimum values that the average consumer could expect to get from their frequent flier mile programs and also make them give notice for any big changes to the programs and not just be able to change them at will at any given time, which is how it is today.

GEOFF BENNETT: Brian Kelly, The Points Guy himself, founder of the popular travel Web site, thanks for being with us.

BRIAN KELLY: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: Next Tuesday’s election results are being closely watched overseas, but perhaps nowhere more anxiously than in Ukraine.

Vice President Harris has promised to continue supporting Ukraine if she wins, while former President Trump has ridiculed the billions of dollars in military aid the U.S. has sent to Ukraine and says he could negotiate an immediate end to the conflict.

Special correspondent Jack Hewson traveled to the front-line town of Kurakhove in the Eastern Donbass region to meet with American volunteer fighters considering whom to vote for and what their votes might need for the war.

ZACHARY JAYNES, U.S. Army Veteran: My name is Zachary Jaynes.

I spent four years in the U.S. Army, where I deployed to Afghanistan three times.

And I have been fighting in Ukraine since March of 2022.

JACK HEWSON: Jaynes and a squad of international fighters gave us access to talk to them about the nature of the war and how it may be affected by the U.S. election.

Like all parties to this conflict, they’re being forced to adapt to drone warfare, and today is test day.

ZACHARY JAYNES: So this is just a field we use as a range.

JACK HEWSON: Drone headsets and control pads are increasingly superseding machine guns and artillery in this war.

At this range, just a few miles from the front line, they’re testing a kamikaze drone.

Hundreds of thousands of these flying, improvised explosive devices, $500 a pop, are the most effective part of Ukraine’s air force.

The contrast with the resources available to Jaynes when he was in Afghanistan is stark.

ZACHARY JAYNES: Being in the U.S. Army, you have every asset available to you.

No question that, if you need something, you’re going to get it.

We’re flying on Chinooks.

We have as many air assets flying above us as we can, whereas, here, I mean, we’re in the trenches.

You’re fighting gets done to me that has air superiority.

So the first time you’re in a tree line and you hear a jet fly overhead or a cruise missile fly by, it kind of makes you realize that you’re the underdog here.

JACK HEWSON: Even magazines for their rifles have at times been scarce.

But, for Jaynes, the differences with Afghanistan aren’t just material.

ZACHARY JAYNES: So, even as a soldier there, you couldn’t help but shake the feeling sometimes that you are a foreign soldier in fact occupying a foreign land, whereas, here, it’s the opposite.

We’re fighting with Ukrainians who are defending their homes, defending their families from a foreign invasion.

And being able to be on the other side of that for once, it feels good.

JACK HEWSON: But Ukraine’s cause may be threatened by domestic political developments.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I think Zelenskyy is maybe the greatest salesman of any politician that’s ever lived.

Every time he comes to our country, he walks away with $60 billion.

I will have that settled prior to taking the White House as president-elect.

(CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: I will have that settled.

JACK HEWSON: Trump says he can broker a settlement, but Moscow has shown no interest in negotiating peace, except on humiliating terms deeply threatening to Ukraine’s long-term security.

The political archetype of Republicanism with regards to international affairs is usually rather more hawkish.

What do you make of the situation where it feels the other way around right now?

ZACHARY JAYNES: Yes, it’s a bit strange, but we’re seeing again with the America first movement, which is hearkening back to the era of the 1930s and the 1940s of American isolationism in the face of a different fascist threat at the time.

So we’re seeing the parallels happening today.

JACK HEWSON: Jaynes is a Democrat, but, like his fellow squad member Call Sign Sturdy, anecdotally, most of the American soldiers fighting in Ukraine are Republican.

Given the noises Trump has so far made on Ukraine, it puts them in a confusing position.

STURDY, U.S. Army Veteran: So I would probably vote Trump, mainly for the isolationist view of, like, America comes first, build America back up, and then we can probably try and help the world again, or whoever else, because it’s hard to support others when you yourself are falling.

JACK HEWSON: But doesn’t that mean in the immediate term it could greater endanger your life?

STURDY: Absolutely.

But that’s my personal risk to choose.

America should come first, but also that I think, in the grand geopolitics, I think it’s very vital that Ukraine is like an independent country.

So it is a personal conflict.

JACK HEWSON: How this personal conflict and how the U.S. election turns will be pivotal.

Under renewed bombardment captured here on Jaynes’ phone in the days after we left, the squad has now abandoned this drone workshop, as Russian forces continue to advance.

Arriving under cover of dark, headlights off to avoid targeting by drones, we visited an artillery position near the front line 10 miles south of Zach’s team.

This is an American supplied M777 howitzer.

For all the drones and improvised tech, the bulk of the battle is still artillery.

But the Ukrainians need more shells.

Dwindling ammunition for these guns has already cost Ukraine big.

After U.S. Congress dithered over its military aid approval over the past year, key strategic towns were lost as Ukrainian guns fell silent.

ZACHARY JAYNES: So, when funding for Ukraine doesn’t get approved, that doesn’t just stop in D.C.

It doesn’t stop in Congress.

That affects everything down the chain all the way to the guy in the trench in the Donbass fighting for his life.

JACK HEWSON: If Donald Trump wins this election and aid is cut off, what would that mean here on the front line?

ZACHARY JAYNES: It means the guns stop working.

They start going quiet, slowly run out of shells, ammunition, medical supplies.

Sure, the European countries can step up and try and fill those gaps, but, in the end, that would basically be the beginning of the death toll for Ukraine.

JACK HEWSON: No one knows for sure what Trump will do if elected, but as the sun sets on November 5, Ukraine’s defenders will have a sleepless night ahead of them as they wait for the results on which their survival may depend.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jack Hewson in Kurakhove, Ukraine.

GEOFF BENNETT: With the 2024 election just days away, there is no shortage of reflections on the state of American politics and democracy.

But photographer Paul Shambroom has a unique view.

Shambroom’s images have been displayed at major American museums, including the Whitney and the Museum of Modern art.

His recent project and book “Purpletown” used photos to examine the American cities and towns that are most evenly divided politically.

We spoke to Shambroom for our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy, and for our ongoing coverage of arts and culture, Canvas.

PAUL SHAMBROOM, Photographer, “Purpletown”: I’m not trained as a social scientist or a political scientist.

I’m just a guy with a camera.

The country is extremely polarized now, maybe more so than I have ever seen it in my lifetime.

2020 just seemed like a turning point in terms of how we relate to each other.

Many very smart people are writing and talking about polarization and the current political situation, but I’m just a real believer in kind of getting out there myself.

A purple town is a community that, specifically for this project, was either an exact tie or a very close or virtual tie in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

I’m really troubled by the notion that the country is so divided, not just politically, but in terms of how we feel about each other, and the notion that 30 or 40 percent of the people in this country have beliefs and values that are very different than mine.

That’s OK.

But what’s going on now is that we’re just not accepting each other’s humanity.

Photography and art is really a coping mechanism for me.

It’s just a way for me to feel like I’m doing something to try and understand what’s going on in the world and maybe share it with other people.

I would look for places where people were gathering, whether it was an outdoor cafe or eating establishment or football games.

If you’re in a small community that’s split down the middle, there’s a good chance that your kids go to school together.

You may work together.

You may go to church together or shop in the same stores.

And so I really wanted to see how that played out, to see if there really is a difference that is visible and noticeable.

I wasn’t going into these places attempting to come up with some kind of definitive portrait of the community.

It was more as if I had dropped in from outer space and didn’t know anything and didn’t know anybody, and I just walked around.

I wonder, if what I have seen in these small towns, which I take to be sort of a necessary civility because people are in such proximity to each other, and they just can’t afford to be jerks to each other.

They just can’t get away with it.

And I think that maybe used to be true on a broader level, on a more national level, but now we can find our little beehive of like-minded folks and express ourselves and be reinforced in beliefs that I think maybe are more extreme.

And it’s more acceptable because there’s an outlet now that didn’t exist before.

I mean, honestly, I wish that I could take people that I know and force them into my car and drive to these places and have them walk around with me, because they have never done it before.

And I know it’s true on the other side as well.

I live in Minneapolis.

And if you believe what you hear from some people, they think that the city itself is some kind of crime-infested cesspool.

And it’s not.

The things that people believe about small-town rural America are not true either.

And we just have to go to these places and see it.

People are always going to have differences.

That’s what makes this world interesting.

And I think it’s kind of what makes our democracy work when it does work.

But I think we’re really at a turning point now where things can go really bad, or maybe we can start to recover our civility, and we’re just going to have to see what happens.

I tend to be an optimist at heart.

And there are a lot of things to worry about with our democracy right now.

I think we’re going to pull through.

But that’s maybe my optimism more than my common sense speaking.

I really believe that everyone cares about this country, including leaders that I haven’t agreed with.

I think deep down they believe what they’re doing is the right thing for our country.

I think that’s part of what helps keep me sane and having some degree of hope.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the “News Hour” for tonight.

I’m Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I’m Geoff Bennett.

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