Capitol Report Full Broadcast (Aug. 1)

Good evening and welcome to Captive Report on NTD. Here's what's coming up. President Trump firing the chief of labor statistics after steep revisions to jobs numbers. But a latest report shows about America's job market and what factors the White House says are impacting the numbers. And after Russia talks about war, President Trump orders nuclear submarines to be repositioned. What led to the move? And as President Trump is bringing back the presidential fitness test in public schools, how do Americans feel about it? We spoke to people at the National Mall in D.C. to find out. This is Capitol Report, live from our global headquarters in our nation's capital. Here's Steve Lance. I'm Iris Tao and for Steve Lance tonight, faking jobs numbers. That's what President Trump is accusing the chief of labor statistics of doing, as he orders the firing of the Biden appointee. But Democrats say the move is unjustified. President Trump on Friday says he's firing Erica MacIntyre, who was appointed back in 2014 by President Biden to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And President Trump is now accusing MacIntyre of faking jobs numbers, and that's after a He's further accusing her and the Bureau of manipulating numbers for political reasons, citing two major upward revisions made back in August and September of last year before the election. Here's what President Trump told reporters tonight. If you look at before the election, the same kind of thing happened. And I think you'll see some very interesting information come out. But you have to have honest reports. And when you look at those numbers or when you look at just before the election and then after the election, they corrected it by eight or nine hundred thousand jobs. Yeah, I would say new data released today shows that the U.S. economy added seventy three thousand jobs in July, which is a downturn from major major job numbers released in the past two months. They will also revise the jobs numbers for the previous two months in May, as well as June, bring the numbers down by over two hundred and fifty thousand jobs in total. The White House is dismissing concerns and saying that the loss of jobs mainly stems from, for example, a reduction in the number of foreign born workers as a result of stronger immigration policy. The president took office of over a million foreign born jobs, whereas American jobs have replaced those that decline in foreign born jobs. Creating jobs for American workers is ultimately going to show up in some sense in the economic data. But Democrats are now criticizing President Trump for his move of firing the labor statistics chief here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking on the floor today. What does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger. That's just what happened with the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The labor secretary, though, is defending the president and hailing his move today. She says that a recent string of major revisions by the department is raising concern about the decisions made by the Biden appointee. She further asked that Trump's move is to ensure that our numbers, especially when it comes to jobs, are accurate, fair as well as not manipulated for political reasons. And President Trump says he's ordering two nuclear submarines to be repositioned in case of Russian aggression. This after the chairman of Russia's Security Council spoke of a possible war with the U.S. Kennedy's international correspondent, Ariane Pastor, has the Russia update. A threat was made by a former president of Russia, and we're going to protect our people. President Trump is preparing for possible Russian aggression. On Friday, Trump posted, I ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions. He added that words are very important and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances. Trump was referring to recent statements by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who responded to Trump's 10 day deadline to end the Ukraine war. Medvedev, who's now the chairman of Russia's Security Council, said each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war, not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Trump says he'll put more sanctions on Russia if no deal is made by Friday of next week and impose up to 100 percent secondary tariffs on any country doing business with Russia. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't have much to say about the increase in pressure. Negotiations are always in demand and always important, especially if it is a desire for peace. In general, I view the negotiations positively. Arianne Pastar, NTD News. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, will begin to wind down its operations. It comes after President Trump launched a successful campaign to claw back the one point one billion dollars allocated for the organization for the next two years. Congress has now excluded funding for the CPB from the budget for the first time in more than five decades. The private nonprofit corporation was authorized by Congress back in 1967. It distributes funds to more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPP president and CEO said, quote, We now face the difficult reality of closing our operations. Most staff positions will conclude at the end of next month and final operations will shut down by January 2026. The Senate will be working past the scheduled August 1st recess to address a backlog of nominations. Our Washington correspondent, Luis Martinez, has the details. Our important jobs in the government. That are currently standing empty. Eight months now into this president's term, because Democrats have dragged out the confirmation process and denied President Trump the courtesy. That Republicans and Democrats alike. And the past have extended the previous president, the Senate was supposed to go on recess this Friday, but there is a backlog of over 150 civilian nominees pending confirmation in the Senate calendar. At the rate the Senate is confirming this administration, civilian nominees, there will be potentially hundreds of them that won't even get to their jobs by the end of President Trump's term in office. This isn't sustainable. We can't keep on this track, Mr. President, this has got to change. And it will change. Either Democrats are going to play ball or we're going to figure out a way to change Senate Majority Leader John Thune is considering changing the Senate rules to allow for a simple majority to confirm these nominations or to vote on a package of nominations bundled together. The Democrats learned nothing from the November election. They lost at the ballot box. They have lost on the floor of the House and the Senate. They are losing in the courts and they feel like they've got one thing left and that is obstruction. By this time during President George W. Bush's first presidency, the Senate had confirmed 192 civilian nominees by unanimous consent or voice vote. By this time in Obama's first term, some 209 civilian nominees were confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote. Thus far, Trump has had zero nominees confirmed this way during his second term. They have forced us to burn valuable floor time. During which we might have taken up other important bipartisan matters, the Senate will at least work through the weekend to vote on nominations and appropriations. Senate Appropriations Committee has so far passed six bipartisan appropriations bills and Republicans are ready to consider a package of appropriations bills and have a floor process. And there have been some encouraging signs that some of my Democrat colleagues are ready to come to the table on this. There are some 1,200 executive nominations that require Senate confirmation. Some have suggested that these are too many for Congress to manage and also attend to its other duties. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. In the Middle East, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wyckoff takes a first hand look at the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel's top general says they will learn about a hostage deal in the coming days. Kennedy's Jason Perry has the details. Footage released by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, showed residents in the GHF, which is supported by the U.S. and Israel, said they recently designated women only aid distribution sites for women and children to be able to collect the aid. And on Friday, the GHF said they had delivered 100 million meals to residents. And present at the occasion inside the Gaza Strip were U.S. Special Envoy Steve Wyckoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Wyckoff said they spent over five hours inside the Gaza Strip to gather facts on the ground and meet with the GHF and other agencies. He said the purpose of the visit was to give President Trump, quote, a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza. Huckabee reposted a screenshot of a United Nations website that tracks the U.N.'s aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. And the U.N.'s tracking information showed that over 80 percent of the aid they have tried to deliver inside the Gaza Strip since May has been intercepted, quote, either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors. Meanwhile, President Trump on Thursday said the U.S. had given 60 million dollars to help get food into the territory. And we gave it to people that in theory are watching over it fairly closely. We wanted Israel to watch over it. Part of the problem is Hamas is taking the money and they're taking the food. Multiple countries continue to transport humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as well. On Friday, Germany, France and Spain joined the list of countries who recently began airdropping aid into the territory. Spain said they also brought 13 Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip to Spanish hospitals for urgent medical treatment. Since the war began, Israel said they had helped over 38,000 Gazans, 80 percent of them children, along with their escorts to receive medical treatment in other countries. And in another development, Israel's chief of the general staff said he thinks they'll know in the coming days whether a deal to free the hostages will be reached. And he said, quote, if not, the combat will continue without rest. And on the same day, sirens sounded across Israel as the country reported intercepting another missile fired from Yemen. The Houthi terrorist group in Yemen has been firing missiles at Israel, saying it's in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Jason Perry, NTV News. Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is now in custody in a minimum security federal prison in Texas. Maxwell was serving a 20 year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses. She was moved to Camp Bryan from Florida. Last week, she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee over two days. Then she made significant demands, including immunity for potential testimony to Congress. Relatives of alleged victims of Maxwell Epstein reacted with what they called outrage to Maxwell's move. The presidential fitness test is now coming back to public schools and parents and students on are they on board with the decision? And Sam Wong was down the National Mall in D.C. to hear from the people. Do you remember what it was like back in the days when presidential fitness test was very much in place? I actually grew up in Canada. It was kind of a competition amongst classmates. So I think it was similar down here in the state. So I honestly don't mind it. They had like a couple of variations of what you could do. How many chin ups can you do? Can you do a pull over? Did you make it to the top 15 percent? I don't I don't think so. Did you ever get the no, I didn't. But I remember the tests were very diverse. So there were lots of different ways for kids in some ways to succeed in some ways and not in others. I remember getting the presidential fitness award two years in a row, signed by Ronald Reagan back then. And it meant nothing to me then means nothing to me now because it does not impact the quality of education that these children are receiving. President Trump has reinstated the presidential fitness test. What are your thoughts on it? Against or pro? Kind of both. I'm all for fitness. I think that health, especially among kids, is something that we need to focus on. But also I gave me a lot of anxiety when I was in school. That's pretty cool to kind of work and strive for that. It would be pretty fun, actually. You're excited for it? Yeah, I'm excited for it. I'd rather have my child educated equitably and properly than wonder how many pull ups or push ups he can do in a minute. Ultimately, it's on mom and dad and the family to make sure your kids are getting the exercise. But a national standard, maybe that'll help elevate. We all know that obesity and those types of things are an issue. So I think it's a good thing. I definitely try to try to be on the more athletic side myself. But, you know, some people aren't always like that. And I think, you know, a little bit of a push would help for sure. And a little bit of push ups. No, just a push, a push in the right direction. But some push ups would definitely help. Yeah. How many can you do? I have no idea. Probably around 25, something like that. For one thing, let's not kid ourselves. Kids are a little fat and weak, but not talking to you. And, you know, just at least we'll know where we're at. Do you think there should be a certain requirement in PE class for every kid to pass? Like, do you think there should be a threshold? Yes. And tell us why. Because because everybody needs to exercise. Do you want a presidential fitness award? Yes. Coming up, we'll discuss President Trump firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following a weaker than expected jobs report for July. Jeff Franklin and Cole Kipperlove will join our panel to break it all down after the break. Focus on beauty, showcase nature, share kindness, feel brightness. 2025, the fifth NTD International Photography Competition. Capture the beautiful moments in your eyes. Your works will be showcased in galleries and on multiple online platforms, appreciated and collected. Please visit photo.ntdtv.com. If joint pain from aging is slowing you down, Omega XL can help you get back in the saddle just like it did for John Walsh. Today, I'm here at my ranch exercising some of my polo ponies. Got to be really fit to ride these horses. So as you get older, it gets tougher. I was starting to suffer some of that business. And then I ran into somebody who said, look, you should try Omega XL and look what it's done. 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See now, pay later with Select Specs, next day delivery and deferred payment options only at selectspecs.com. Welcome back. I'm Iris Tao. President Trump shakes up the leadership of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after today's release of July's jobs numbers, which show lower growth than expected. Joining me now to discuss these developments is our panel, Democratic Strategist Chip Franklin and Republican Strategist Nicole Kipariloff. Thank you both for joining us. Thanks for having me. Good to see you, Iris. Thank you. So President Trump has now replaced the head of labor as statistics. The jobs numbers out today show that lower than expected growth in July. And the president says that she faked employment numbers going to last year's election as well to try to help Kamala Harris back then. So first, Nicole, how do you read the jobs numbers that came out today? Was the firing a reasonable move for President Trump? I would say it was because the head of labor statistics, look, she's a Biden appointee. There shouldn't be any Biden appointees in the Trump administration because the reality is that the Biden bureaucracy, as we've seen time and time again, are fighting with everything they have against President Trump's America first agenda because it's coming from Trump. This is also the same labor statistics head who we're finding out now, as you mentioned, was overreporting Joe Biden's job numbers right before the election, presumably to help Kamala Harris get elected. I don't see another explanation for that. Just weeks before the election, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they claimed strong job gains and economic resilience. And today we know that those numbers were likely grossly inflated. And to me, in my opinion, that sounds like election interference by bureaucracy. The reality is that the politicization of the BLS, it has to stop. And that's what President Trump is doing. He's putting an end to this and he's saying we have to restore credibility and fiscal transparency to the bureau. And this move is important because if you think about accurate labor data, it underpins policy and it affects investor confidence. It affects national strategy. So this is necessary. We want to restore trust in government data. And finally, I'll say that this is also what President Trump has been saying when it comes to draining the swamp. He's acting on that. He's firing dishonest bureaucrats who think they're there and they're on account. They're there forever. They're unaccountable. And they put the American people last. Chip, what are your thoughts? Is it a political move or do you think it's justified? First of all, her name is Kamala, not Kamala. This was a result of the tariffs and the mishandling of this economy. He can attack. He's attacked her own pal. He's attacked Democrats. But what he won't do is look at his own self. These tariffs are inflationary. And it's not really that hard to figure out. When Trump talks about they brought in one hundred billion dollars in tariff revenue, that means Americans paid one hundred billion dollars more than they needed to because, of course, these countries add whatever the tariff is on to the price and we pay it. That's one of the reasons why that the job report was so bad is when people don't have money, they don't buy things. And when things are too expensive and they don't buy things, that means the companies themselves have to lay people off. And when they lay those people off, they don't have a salary. They can't buy a thing and buy things. And it begins a spiral into exactly what we have right now for Trump to go after the head of labor statistics. First of all, it's this is math. This is not voodoo. This is not some kind of swamp thing. You can check these numbers. You can accurately check these numbers. They come from all over the country, from blue and red states. So this is just pathetic to do this. And it's just typical of what this guy does. He's a sociopathic mindset that is just it's not good for our company, our country, and it's especially not bad for the companies in this country that are trying to get by while he continues to play around with tariffs. And every Republican will tell you the same thing, Iris, that tariffs are taxes. And speaking of tariffs, stocks took a tumble today after the White House came out with new reciprocal tariffs announced last night. Nicole, is this short term paying for long term gain, as the administration says, or should we be concerned here? It absolutely is short term pain for long term gain. What's happening with the stock market is this short term volatility that the mainstream media is taking in their usual typical fashion. They're blowing it up and they're fear mongering about it by calling this a failure. The markets are reacting to uncertainty. That's normal. This isn't a collapse. We're talking about the worst day since like May. And frankly, you are going to have that uncertainty. You are going to have ups and downs when you're making bold moves to protect American workers the way President Trump is. Look at what he inherited. He inherited a disastrous economy, record inflation level under Biden. And to fix it, he needs to be making these bold, strong moves now to address the tariff portion of this. These reciprocal tariffs, they aren't arbitrary. They're responding to long standing trade barriers and a hollowing out of the American middle class. We have the numbers to back this up. We know what the trade deficits have been through these tariffs. The president is using leverage to tackle the problem that the left created, which is these chronic trade deficits, unfair practices and ultimately weakness on an international stage under Biden. No one respected Biden internationally. So markets may wobble in the short term, but the long term goal here is we want to revive U.S. manufacturing jobs and long term self-sufficiency and encouraging domestic investment and production. Again, it may cause some shakiness in the short term, but the long run trajectory absolutely favors American competitiveness. And Chip, we've heard your disagreement of the president's tariff approach here. Alternatively, though, what do you think is the better way of potentially balancing these trade relationships with different countries? Well, you know, a trade imbalance is not the end of the world. We've had trade imbalances with countries like Cambodia and Thailand for years, even Japan, mostly because we don't buy that much from them. I mean, they don't buy much from us, but we love what they make and we buy for less and we bring it over here. The idea that you're talking about protecting American jobs with these tariffs, let me tell you something. Nike's never made a sneaker in the United States and they never will. That's just the way it works. You'd have to pay $500 for the sneakers here if you used American workers. Same goes for Apple. You're not going to find a computer or an iPhone ever made in the United States just because it'd be impossibly expensive. But all that said, you know, the idea that you have these numbers with the stock market numbers. Remember the stock market when the first time the tariffs were announced and how it dropped precipitously? And then we found out that before that announcement was made, that a lot of Republicans sold stocks and then bought them back before Trump paused it again. This is, again, just another grift that Trump said. And again, this is CNBC talking. I'm not talking about the mainstream media that Republicans like to pretend is out there like the boogeyman. This is Fox News saying this as well. Something went down that day that should have. This is again, this is a grift. It's the same continued grift. Janet Yellen, the former head of the Fed, the one that was there before Trump out. She said that Trump had no idea of macroeconomics. He couldn't even begin to explain how it works. And switching gears here now to another move by the administration, the public broadcasting corporation is shutting down at the end of September after, of course, Congress, as well as President Trump, rescinded funds for public media, including one point one billion dollars for the PBC. Chip, what the public broadcasting corporation do and who's going to play that role now? Good question. First of all, it cost the taxpayers about the average taxpayer paid about 40 cents a year to have NPR. NPR was and still is a nonpartisan view of what's going on. It's not CNN. It's not Fox. It's a nonpartisan view by dedicated journalists that, again, just deliver what people want, especially in rural areas in this country in the past that we've had. You know, the inability is pre-Internet, the inability for people to get that kind of information. If you want to get rid of NPR, that's fine. That's that's Trump's move. But don't say it's about money and don't say it's about bias because it's neither one of those two things. This is just something that they feel they feel that liberals want and that liberals listen to. And that may be true. You know, I can't begin to explore the minds of some of the MAGA people in this country. But NPR and the national, again, all national broadcasting that came from there was, in my opinion, unbiased and good information. And if it's not, give me an example. And Nicole, quickly here, as we wrap up your response to that, and how could defunding public media impact the news landscape as a whole? Do you think it's going to make it a good change in a positive direction or like Chipstead is going to hurt the landscape? Well, look, first of all, I don't care how much American taxpayers are paying, they shouldn't even be paying one cent. And here's why, because for decades, the CPB funneled all of these taxpayer dollars into left wing programming under the guise of public broadcasting. I think cutting this funding is an absolute win for American taxpayers who shouldn't have to subsidize any of that broke indoctrination that's been disguised as reporting or educational content. NPR can't even report the weather without talking about climate alarmism and the climate agenda. President Trump, he ran on this platform to dismantle taxpayer funded media bureaucracies that don't serve the American people. And honestly, the American people don't want it. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 53 percent of voters opposed federal funding for media outlets in any amount. And clearly these media outlets show political bias. Of course, now we're waiting to see if NPR and PBS will actually make more moves to now that they're the middlemen for their funding is now stopping its operation. So a lot remaining to be seen here. Nicole and Chip, thank you both for sharing your insights on these topics today. I appreciate it. And coming up, what's in the newly declassified Durham appendix and could we see more investigations into the Trump-Russia narrative following the 2016 election? I'll sit down with legal fellow Zach Smith to break it down. And more online protections for young people. YouTube says it will begin using artificial intelligence to verify the ages of its users. That and more when we return. We said we'd never give in to a meltdown. We'd never babysit with a screen. We said we'd never let the toys take over. Mariela. Never leave the house looking, well, out of our sight. Cars get hot fast and kids can be at risk. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. I don't remember how it started. Our back and forth. Victory. Fumble, repeat. It always came back. You probably don't remember what you told me. Every word. Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back. I'm Iris Tao. Newly declassified documents are reviving longstanding questions about the Trump-Russia investigation following the 2016 election. Could we see more investigations or even charges? To discuss, we'll welcome Zach Smith, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Zach Smith, thank you so much for joining us. Of course. Thank you for having me on. Of course. So yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, released a newly declassified appendix to the Durham report, which he says reveals more details about how the Clinton campaign back then really began the narrative that Russia was helping with Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. So, first of all, what's your take of the new materials released? Do you see any valid points in it? Or what do you think about a criticism that it's just another way for Republicans to attack the other side? Well, look, I don't think there's anything in here that people didn't suspect on some level. What happened before is John Durham released an unclassified report and then had this classified appendix with more details, particularly information he gleaned from the NSA, the CIA and other classified intel agencies. And so what this appendix has done as released to the public, much of the information that John Durham had at his disposal, it released many of the documents that he relied on in compiling his report. And I think what we have seen from this classified appendix is really the double standard that the FBI applied in investigating this supposed Russian collusion hoax. While it ignored information that tended to indicate this was essentially an op initiated by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, it then turned around and relied heavily on even more dubious information, the Steele dossier, to launch its investigation into Donald Trump. So, look, this is more information that's come to light. Kudos to Senator Grassley for releasing this. And I think it paints a very troubling picture of exactly what happened. And legally speaking, on your field, what's the most revealing part of this new information that the public is now getting? And anything you think could worth an investigation further into or potentially even something that could bring charges against anyone here? Yeah. So I think the two things I would say is, one, the double standard that the FBI used in launching these investigations and choosing what information to rely on and choosing what information to ignore. That is very troubling. The second point I would make is we heard a lot of testimony from many Obama era officials. In particular, they testified in front of Congress. They gave interviews. And I think they may find themselves in some legal jeopardy now. Potential perjury charges could be on the table. Potential false statement charges could be on the table. And I suspect we'll hear more about this in the coming weeks and months. You may see an investigation by the Justice Department. I think you will certainly see more information being requested by the oversight committees from potentially the Senate and the House as well. So stay tuned. I suspect there will be a lot more to come on that front. Well, certainly seen a lot of actions form from both the DOJ and the oversight committee throughout the past few months. And specifically, an email in the appendix shows that Clinton campaign aides in one of the emails wrote, quote, the point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue, say something like a critical infrastructure threat for the election to feel manic. Why is this significant? What do you make of that? Well, again, it certainly seems like if the FBI had that at their disposal, that should raise red flags for them about what information to rely on, what information not to rely on. And I think we all remember some of the press conferences that James Comey gave at the time. Certainly the FBI, we now know, placed a lot of reliance on that very dubious still dossier, which was problematic, to say the least, from the get go. And again, I think the differential treatment from what we're seeing, we've seen Kevin Clinesmith, he's a former FBI lawyer that has now been convicted of altering documents in the course of that Russia collusion investigation. And yet he received a slap on the wrist and really received no accountability for his very problematic actions. And yet just yesterday, the D.C. Bar recommended that Jeff Clark be disbarred after his involvement in the Trump White House and his work at the Justice Department. And so, again, it's this double standard that we've seen and we are seeing being applied against the Trump administration and conservative lawyers that I think I find very problematic and many others do as well. Well, certainly hard administration even right now talking about the weaponization of not only the whole justice system, but also when it comes to the intelligence community specifically. And materials in this new appendix, for example, also indicates that an intel community was aware of the Clinton campaign's plan and potentially knowingly pushed such potentially false information here. How serious an accusation is that and what evidence will be needed to prove it? Well, it's a very serious accusation when you essentially have the federal government being weaponized against one political candidate or one political party. And in terms of the evidence, look, I think we're already seeing some of that come to light. There have been rumblings for many years now. The president has made clear his view that the intelligence community has been weaponized against him. And I think the Durham report, the unclassified portions that were released previously and now this appendix, unfortunately helped to confirm some of those previous suspicions. And with all these new revolutions coming out, of course, the public's getting a fresh take at all of this. And back then, though, as we remember, a lot of media outlets were actually reporting more extensively on the Russian angle. And it was basically taboo to talk about what President Trump's defense was. What do you think could bring a change to this environment? And do you see changes actually right now, anything to prevent such scenario from happening again? Well, I think it's going to be a multifaceted attack that needs to happen. I think, one, the media environment today hopefully is different than the media environment we previously have seen. I think many Americans are rightfully skeptical of the mainstream media and don't take at face value any longer or at least do their own research before taking what the mainstream media pushes at face value. I also think you're seeing the Trump administration undertaking structural reforms, trying to put in place safeguards both within the executive branch of government and through congressional action as well to try to prevent this weaponization from taking place again. Look, love Donald Trump, dislike Donald Trump. This should be very troubling to every American when you have our federal civil servants, and that's what these intelligence agents are supposed to be, essentially taking political sides. That is not their job and is fundamentally, it's not at odds with the way our country is supposed to work. And let's see if the more transparency right now will bring more accountability. Zach Smith, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on. More online protections for young people following Australia's ban on social media for minors. YouTube says it will begin using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are under the age of 18. What do people in Silicon Valley have to say about it? MTV's David Lam finds out. Major changes to how people will use YouTube. While many locals in Silicon Valley support the safeguards that tech companies are implementing for minors. Yeah, I think overall that's that's good. I think there definitely needs to be protections in place for for younger kids that are more impressionable. Even older people kind of need boundaries with that. They are not fully on board with artificial intelligence taking the reins. YouTube's new AI age verification tool is coming soon, but some say they're concerned with privacy when it comes to AI deciding whether an account owner is an adult or minor. Yeah, in places like that, I think it can be tricky because then you get into areas of like censorship where maybe it's won't be as necessary there. So I'm a little hesitant with that. This week, YouTube said AI will interpret signals such as types of videos a user searches for, categories they have watched or longevity of the account. When the system identifies a teen user, YouTube will automatically apply its built in protections such as disabling personalized ads, turning on digital well-being tools and adding safeguards to some content. If the system incorrectly determines someone to be under 18, the person will have the option to verify that they're 18 or over by using a credit card or government ID. It depends on actually how they use the information you input, but I tend to read like what the protections are for the information that I input because it's pretty secure. If you're asking me for an ID and a credit card, I'm not sure how YouTube is actually going to collect that information and store it. YouTube's announcement comes as Australia's government said the country is banning social media for teenagers, a global first. This week, Australia added YouTube to the ban list for teenagers. Importantly, following advice from the E-Safety Commissioner, young people under the age of 16 will not be able to have accounts on YouTube. YouTube said they plan to test the AI age verification system with a small group of users in the U.S. over the next few weeks. David Lam, NTD News. And campers are returning today to the largest campground in Yosemite National Park. Construction crews could only work during the summer on the three-year, 26 million dollar renovation project. The Tuolumne Meadows Campground is one of the largest campgrounds at the U.S. National Park. It boasts more than 300 campsites, serving more than 140,000 campers a year. Built in 1934 by former President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps, it was designed to stop visitors from parking in the fragile meadows. The campground now has rebuilt water and sewer systems and upgraded electrical equipment. And the campsites have new picnic tables, fire rings and food lockers. The project is one of a series of recent multi-million dollar renovations at the park. This project, among others, was funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. President Trump signed it into law back in 2020. It provided nearly 10 billion dollars in new funding for park renovation projects across the country. And coming up, President Trump pressuring drug companies to lower prices for American consumers. What will it take for the industry to comply with the demand? And Katie Talento will be joining us shortly. And if you think you're too old to start a new career, think again. A 76-year-old EMT says it's worth finding meaningful work later in life. That and more when we return. What if you could whiten your teeth by simply brushing your teeth? Now you can with SmileActives, the teeth whitening breakthrough that safely gets your teeth white and keeps them white every day just by brushing your teeth. I never thought that whitening my teeth could be so easy. I just put the gel on the brush, the toothpaste on it, brush, and I can see my white teeth. Simply add SmileActives to any toothpaste and our patented PolyClean technology activates into a powerful microfoam that penetrates into the enamel surface to safely lift and remove stains. 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Black ginseng reaches its full potency, enriched with ginsengicide RG3 and enhanced absorption efficiency. No sugar, no caffeine, no artificial ingredients. Experience the pure natural power of Pure Tang Black Ginseng, nourish your body, strengthen your immunity and boost your energy. To order Pure Tang Black Ginseng, please visit puretang.com. Welcome back, I'm Iris Tao. President Trump issuing an ultimatum to pharmaceutical companies demanding they lower drug prices to match those in other countries. Joining us now live to discuss this, Katie Palento, former White House health care official and executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries. Katie, great to have you on the show. Thank you, Iris. So the White House says of drug companies refuse to slash prices for Americans, the federal government will, quote, deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abuse of drug pricing practices. What options does the administration have to pressure the industry? Yeah, there aren't that many legal options, and so I'm interested to see how the pharmaceutical industry responds to these demands really from the White House. But there are some options, one of which is as a result of the Medicare program and the Medicaid program, almost half of all Americans are getting their health coverage through those two programs. And the federal government is the largest payer for health care on planet Earth through these two programs for about one hundred and fifty million. So they can set prices in the Medicare program through a few authorities given to them by Congress during the covid pandemic. They also but they can't set prices for every drug through that program. So that is a limitation. But they can also set criteria on the insurance companies and what they do, the insurance companies that work for the federal government, such as for Medicare, such as for Medicaid or for the ACA Affordable Care Act exchange plans. So there are some guidance and some rules that they can put out to force this issue. But it's going to be difficult and I think it will take more time probably than the White House hopes. But I do think it's useful. The demands that have come out recently when we see the president acting in a demanding way, I think most of us think, oh, nothing will ever come of that. But look what's happened in the trade space with the trade deals with Europe and Asia. And so you never know what may go. I never want to bet against this president for delivering on his promises. So given your knowledge about the health care industry, you talked about some of the limitations when it comes to the pressuring tactic by the administration. How long do you think it will take, though, for these companies to actually comply with the administration's demand? The White House has given them about two months. I don't think they're going to comply. I think that they're going to call the president left and there's going to be an intense lobbying pressure campaign on the federal government right now. They probably think that they won't get through to the White House, so they'll probably go directly to Secretary Kennedy and CMS administrator Dr. Oz. So I suspect that they're going to try to get out of this. They may come in with some big kind of watered down proposals. I mean, really what had been happening is the department had been meeting with these industry representatives for months already due to the president's executive order on drug pricing a few months ago, and they weren't getting anywhere. The industry was not putting forward reasonable proposals. And this most recent sort of salvo out of the White House was the response of the federal government to their sort of dithering by the industry. So I think that there isn't much more in the voluntary space that's going to be done by these companies. It's going to require rulemaking and actual guidance setting by the federal programs that are going to be binding and legally required. So that's really the only option they have at this point. And speaking about these long term and honestly deep seated issues with the industry here, President Trump has been saying that Americans have been paying far more for pharmaceuticals and other people in other countries around the world. What do you think is driving such disparities here? And how did we even get to this point in the first place? Yeah, well, America is the last bastion, the last refuge for profiteering, price gouging, predatory pricing, secret pricing, third parties involved in driving the pricing, secret contact contracts, sweetheart deals between pharmaceutical companies and insurers. This is the last place on Earth where that's allowed. And so that's what's happening. And so these companies can keep raising their prices on drugs and the insurers are in league with these companies because the insurers are taking kickbacks for each price increase that a drug manufacturer jacks up their prices. They're giving more, bigger and better kickbacks to insurers. And all that is being passed on to employers who pay for help for most health care, to the taxpayers who pay for the rest of health care and to patients and to unions and other purchasers. So it's being passed on to those purchasers because it can be in America. In these other countries, you have the government just setting the price and saying to the drug manufacturers, here's the price our sort of Marxist health care system is willing to pay. Take it or leave it if you want access to our market. And the drug companies are left to take it or leave it. And so they take it. They'll take a dime rather than zero. And so they take those prices and they make the high prices in America pay for all their overhead and all their profit so that they're just paying for the cost to manufacture the drug in those other countries. And everything else they need to pay for is paid for by American patients. And no wonder we're seeing such massive lobbying efforts by these powerful industries teamed up together. And let's now turn to another headline also related to health. President Trump yesterday signed an executive order reinstating the presidential fitness test for America's young people. What impact does this have on our children, in your opinion? Well, I hope that we're going to start talking a little bit more aggressively about the fitness problem of our children and why we're seeing fitness problems that we see. I mean, your previous story, Australia banning YouTube for kids. I mean, this is one of the greatest drivers of obesity and overweight and many, many mental health problems among children is social media and screens and technology. I mean, our kids aren't even getting pregnant anymore. There's no teen pregnancy anymore. Kids are not hanging out together, much less running and playing and kicking and playing dodgeball in the streets and street hockey and all the things we used to do when we were growing up before the advent of technology and screens. So I do think it's really important to get more aggressive about the expectations we have on children for their fitness. And and it starts with what's expected in school. And of course, what happens at home is really important. The more we have two parents working the way they did not in previous generations, two parents working and they can't be there to say, hey, kids, go out and play. Stop watching TV. So I think that there is a bigger problem in our society and our culture that's driving overweight and obesity and lack of fitness. But there are some small things that we can do. And one of those is the physical fitness regimen that we put kids through at school. So I think this will have an impact there. And I'm hopeful and encouraged by at least these baby steps. And let's see if this small change, as you said, will spark a bigger, bigger cultural shift. Katie Salento, executive director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us. A 76 year old EMT is proving age is just a number. He finds fulfillment in volunteering on the rescue crew, even as a senior citizen. He shared his story of his second career with The Washington Post. Ed Levien is the oldest EMT in Maryland. Twelve years ago, he didn't let his age or hearing aids stop him from starting medical training and volunteering as an EMT. Levien's life experience was an asset to his co-workers and the butt of jokes between them, according to the outlet. He told the news outlet that he was inspired by the help he received from strangers when he was injured in a collision back in 2000. And now he has responded to more than 3,000 emergency calls on the rescue squad in his second career. Levien has also helped save lives, deliver a baby and calm a worried mother whose child was having a seizure. He told The Washington Post that he sleeps well at night because his work makes a difference in people's lives. No longer able to go out, though, on calls, Levien still helps by training new EMTs and stalking ambulances. And that's all we have for you tonight on The Capital Report. For round-the-clock original news coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live or download our NTD app. From the nation's capital, I'm Iris Tao. Have a nice evening and we'll see you back here tomorrow.