Duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. House republicans finally choose a speaker. Who is mike johnson, and can he get pressing legislative Business Done . Israel appears ready to delay a Ground Invasion of gaza, buying time for hostage negotiations, humanitarian aid for palestinians, and a buildup of u. S. Defenses. And Judy Woodruff explores how american democracy has survived despite deep polarization at many points in history. A reason for optimism in these divided times. We have in fact always been divided. The question is if that division dominates our politics or not. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years, bnsf. The engine that connects us. The Walton Family foundation, working for solutions to protect water during Climate Change so people and nature can thrive together. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. And with the ongoing support of these institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Welcome to the newshour. We are following two major stories tonight. Deadly bombardments continue in gaza, and there are signs today that israels expected Ground Invasion may be delayed. We will delve into the wars developments in the program. First, in the u. S. , a breakthrough. The house of representatives has a new speaker after 22 days of leaderless, gridlocked chaos following the ouster of former speaker kevin mccarthy. Mike johnson won all 220 republican votes cast today, 20 more than the three prior nominees managed on the floor or behind closed doors. After emerging from the leadership vacuum, speaker johnson said Congress Must win back americans faith. Their faith is at an alltime low and one of the reasons they have lost it is because congress over the years has not delivered to the American People well enough. We are in the majority right now. Weve gone through a little bit of struggle and character building, and you know what it has produced . More strength, more perseverance , and that is what we are about to deliver for the American People. Lisa is on capitol hill where she has tracked every twist in this unfolding political drama. Weeks of infighting among House Republicans apparently open a lane for mike johnson to emerge as a fourth round draft pick. How did it all come together . How about that . Three weeks it took and four nominees. There were several dynamics at play. House republicans were simply exhausted, and they ran through all their top leaders, and they landed on mike johnson, who has allies and is well thought of in most every faction here in the house, and he is also liked and endorsed by former President Trump. He said on the house floor, he has pledged to give House Republican members more power. The job of the speaker of the house is to serve the whole body, and i will, but i have made a commitment to my colleagues here that this Speakers Office is going to be known for decentralizing the power here. That, of course, can lead to a more robust house floor, more legislation, but it also is a doubleedged sword, as we have seen, because more power to members could mean problems for leadership, and when you have big decisions, as speaker johnson will soon with government funding running out in a few days. A decade ago, mike johnson was not even in politics. Now he is in the president ial line of succession. Tell us more about him and his background. Mike johnson is 51 years old. He was elected the same year as President Trump came in to congress s President Trump, in 2016 into congress. He is the cohost of a christian podcast. Lets talk about his beliefs and policy here. He is a fiscal hawk. He announced today that he wants to create a commission to look at the national debt. He is someone who supports ukraine, but he has recently questioned larger funding bills, even voted against some, so we will watch him closely on that issue. On gay rights, lgbtq issues, in early 2000s, he is someone who spoke about the idea that gay marriage should not be allowed to be banned and that states should be allowed to have sodomy laws. On abortion, he supports and filed legislation for a national 15week abortion ban. Abortion is a key issue for him. I thought we were going to hear some sound there there we go. We have that sound . The Quintessential Health care issue is the sanctity of every single human life, the sanctity of the life of the unborn child. Believing that life begins at conception. One more thing, mike johnson was actually a big force in supporting the state lawsuit to try to object to the certification of results. Filed an amicus brief and objected to the results on january 6. He later said that was symbolic. However, that is something we are going to hear more about. Tell me more about that, what he said about his role in working to undermine the 2020 Election Results and what democrats have said about that. Right. Johnson on january 6, after the ride happened, did an interview in which he said he never thought his actions would lead to and he did not intend them to lead to overturning the election, but some of those who listened to him thought otherwise. This is a question democrats leak raised today democrats raised today. This is also a question laura asked President Biden today. After 22 days, House Republicans just elected mike johnson of louisiana as the speaker of the house. Johnson advocated conspiracy theories about Voting Machines and a rigged election in 2020. He encouraged his colleagues to join a lawsuit to invalidate the results for states. If you win reelection in 2024, are you worried that speaker johnson would again attempt to overturn the election . No. This week im not worried in last week, i was not worried about overturn of the election. Weve had 60 lawsuits and every time, they lost. I understand the constitution. Speaker johnson was asked about it last night shortly after he was nominated. He said, next question. Did not answer. Also today when he gave some remarks, he did not take questions, so i think that is something we hope to clarify. Meanwhile, democrats who do have that concern, some of the most progressive democrats told me today they like speaker johnsons remarks on the floor today and they want to see how he does before they judge him any more. Thanks, as always. For a view from inside the house publican conference on the new speaker, we are joined by congresswoman mary Annette Miller meeks of ohio. Thank you for being with us. Mike johnson was the architect of an effort to overturn the 2020 Election Results. Why was that not a dealbreaker for you, given that you were someone who did not object to the certification of joe bidens election win . As you know, i voted to certify all of the electors. I think that is what constitutionally we are to do. However, other individuals interpreted that a different way. As you know, we have been 22 days without a speaker. 208 democrats voted with republicans to oust speaker mccarthy. I think that was an erroneous decision. I voted against the motion to vacate speaker mccarthy, so we are left in a position where in order to have a candidate that all of the House Republicans could vote on, that person ended up being mike johnson after several other candidates were eliminated. I think we need a speaker. We need to put forth our resolution to condemn hamas and to support israel. We need to get back american hostages, and we need to pass Appropriations Bills because we know that we are coming up against another deadline on november 17 to be able to fund the government. The job of House Speaker requires one to be bipartisan. That is especially true in this current scenario. Will the current House Republican conference chair allow speaker johnson to do deals with democrats . I think if you know representative johnson, now speaker johnson, he is a person th is very humble. He is willing to work with individuals. He is respectful of other individuals, so i think, although we dont have a track record from him, i think he is someone that puts the best interest of the country both in mind and in heart, so i think you will see that displayed in action. You mentioned earlier this prolong speaker base. He ultimately voted twice against jim jordan, voted for mike johnson, obviously. Mike johnson is more genial than jim jordan but no less a hardliner. He is on the far right of the spectrum when it comes to issues like reproductive rights, samesex marriage. Why vote in support of johnson and against jordan . I had reasons for voting against jim jordan and we sent out a press release to that effect. I think we have yet to see how representative, now speaker johnson will be and what policies he will put forward. We have a conference that has a lot of different members, and one of the jobs of the speaker is to gain the majority and protect their members, so i think there are a lot of voices in our conference that will be speaking with speaker johnson, and that will help to direct where we go with policy. You received Death Threats for voting against jim jordan. How did that affect you and your view of extremism within the party . I think that Death Threats are not acceptable, no matter what party you are, and as a matter of fact, they are not acceptable if you are an ordinary citizen. I think that we moved through that process and if you have a rationale or reason for doing what you do and you feel that it is the best decision and ethical decision for you, you make that decision. I put it into perspective of what is happening in israel, and this is minor compared to what is happening in israel, quite frankly. Looking ahead, lawmakers have until november 17 to come up with some plan to give the government funded and avoid a shutdown. What is the past forward . I think first and foremost was getting a speaker put in place. That has been achieved. Today we will be voting on in just a little bit our resolution condemning hamas in support of israel and making sure israel has the forces it needs to combat terrorism and the atrocities that occurred, and next week, we will be staying here and voting on Appropriations Bills, so we will try to get through as many Appropriations Bills as possible, and the next step will if we need to, reconsider a resolution, and that will determine what they be things added to the resolution to continue funding the government. From the republican side, we would want to get that across. Thank you so much for your time this evening. Thank you. Here the latest headlines. It is day 19 of the israelhamas war, and israel continues a heavy heavy air assault on gaza as palestine fires rockets on israel, but there are new signs and israeli Ground Invasion may not be imminent at all. On the gaza border, they are parked and poised for a fight. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli Soldiers readying and training to invade gaza, but the Ground Invasion appears to be on hold for now. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated tonight we are working to ensure the ideal conditions for our troops for the next operations. The delay discussed by netanyahu and President Biden as the u. S. Military wants the uss eisenhower and air Defense Systems to arrive in the middle east before the invasion begins. Already, 21 American Service members were injured in drone attacks last week that the u. S. Blames on iranianbacked munitions. My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond and he should be prepared. The delay in the Ground Invasion also buys time for negotiations to release more hostages, as biden told netanyahu. What i have indicated to him is if that is possible to get these folks out safely, that is what he should do. It is their decision, but i did not demand it. But israel refuses to halt its air campaign, and across the gaza strip, the most vulnerable victims continue to need respite care. Gaza Health Authorities controlled by hamas, say 17,000 have been wounded. And more than 6500 killed. President biden today cast doubt on those numbers. What they say to me today is that no notion of how many palestinians have been killed. Im sure innocence have been killed, and is the price of waging war. I continue to be alarmed about extremist settlers attacking palestinians in the west bank, pouring gasoline on fires. The fire gazans one stock is israeli airstrikes. Today, they lifted a pile of rubble as the bombs continued to fall. The Israeli Occupation has proven that it is and capable of achieving any of its goals. Yet again, gazans run for safety as if there was any safe place in this war. The United Auto Workers union has restate the with four this evening. The lowest paid workers will see a 150 pay raise. The deal still has to be ratified by union members. Strikes continue at gm. They have led to more than 9 billion in economic losses. Former President Trump was fined 10,000 for violating a gag order in his civil fraud trial again. He criticized an unnamed person in the new york court as very partisan. Under oath, he insisted he meant michael cohen, his former lawyer who testified for a second day, but the judge said his law clerk was the target and warned, dont do it again or it will be worse. It is the second time he has fined mr. Trump for maligning the clerk. A representative was charged today with a misdemeanor for setting off a fire alarm, forcing the occupation of a House Office Building last month. Democrats were trying to delay a vote on a funding bill to get the government opened their the new york congressman said it was a mistake. He is expected to plead guilty, formally apologized to capitol police, and pay 1000 fine. An antiisrael protests not far from the u. S. Capitol through condemnation in capital washington today. Last night, students for justice in palestine projected slogans onto the library at George Washington university. One image seen on social media declared glory to our martyrs in the war between israel and hamas. Another call for establishing a palestinian state across all of what is now israel. Mitch mcconnell was sharply critical tonight. Student activists projected antisemitic messages on the side of a campus building. They issued a call to free palestine from the river to the sea. Anyone unfamiliar with israels geography, that is a call for the destruction of the jewish state. Vladimir putin called for withdrawing from a 1996 packed. Pact. If the u. S. Continues to take no steps to fulfill its obligations, then this agreement will remain a sham, and there is, of course, no point in russia participating in this imitation any further. I think if the west and United States are seriously interested in international stability, they will hear this signal and take the necessary actions. Russian hardliners have called for resuming Nuclear Testing amid tensions over the war in ukraine, but the Foreign Ministry says moscow will still respect the ban as long as the United States does not begin Nuclear Testing. A passing of noah, Richard Rowntree rountree died of pancreatic cancer. He sprang to stardom as the title character of the shaft movies in the early 1970s. He was 81 years old. Still to come, the expanding uaw strike against detroit automakers. How the nations divisions compared to other points in u. S. History, and david brooks new book on building genuine Human Connection. This is the pbs newshour, from weta studios in washington and in the west from Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State university. Among the 220 hostages taken by hamas during the october 7 attack, a 79yearold father of five and grandfather of 13. He was a 61year resident of kibbutz where he and his wife raised their kids. One of his children joins us now as the representative of the 73 people kidnapped from the area. Good to see you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting me. I know the shock of what your community and family have been through was a visceral, that barbaric attack your mother witnessed, managed to escape from. Two and a half weeks later, how do you look back on that day . We know now we know the story of my father, but we also note this community, this peaceful and Cultural Community of 350 people has undergone a massacre. We know now that one out of four people from this community is either murdered or kidnapped. This is hard to imagine. There is no one family that is left untouched. And you know or have a connection to everyone, including one of the hostages who was released earlier this week. What was it like for you to see her released and hear her talk about what her time was like in captivity . I know both of the hostages t