AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: FBI Director Chris Wray announces his resignation, paving the way for president-elect Trump's choice of Kash Patel to take charge.

Syria's uncertain future after the fall of Bashar al-Assad raises concerns about instability in the region.

And Judy Woodruff speaks with political analysts about whether the nation can unite in the wake of the presidential election.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON, Boston College: This really is a test of who we are.

Do I believe we can do it?

I believe that we have to believe we can do it, or we have guaranteed that we cannot.

AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

In a highly unusual move, the director of the FBI is stepping down.

Christopher Wray announced today that he intends to leave his position when president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

That comes after Mr. Trump named Kash Patel as his nominee to run the FBI, despite the fact that Trump was the one who appointed Wray, and Wray was serving a 10-year term that wasn't set to end until 2027.

Speaking to FBI employees, Wray addressed his decision to resign.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI Director: My goal is to keep the focus on our mission, on the indispensable work each of you is doing every single day.

And in my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important in how we do our work.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been following the developments and joins us now.

So, Laura, what else did Chris Wray say in those remarks, and why did he decide to announce this and step down?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The FBI director, Wray, was faced with two options, Amna, either resign or be faced with firing by president-elect Donald Trump.

And FBI Director Wray said that this decision came after weeks of careful thought.

And much of the FBI's work on that is far afield from politics, and that was something that the FBI director spoke about today.

This is an apolitical organization, and he talked a lot about the mission of the bureau today in his remarks.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY: Our dedication to independence and objectivity and our defense of the rule of law, those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change.

That's the real strength of the FBI, the importance of our mission, the quality of our people and their dedication to service over self.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The FBI's dedication to the rule of law, it being a nonpartisan bureau, is a norm that was more established after the Watergate scandal, Amna.

And FBI Director Wray also added that the FBI is only on the side of the Constitution and that it has to follow the facts, he said -- quote -- "no matter who likes it or doesn't."

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, take a step back here for us and just tell us, how unprecedented is this moment in history and for the FBI?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It's incredibly unprecedented, Amna.

And, as you noted, FBI directors are confirmed to a 10-year term.

And all FBI directors to date have been Republicans, including Wray.

And that 10-year term is designed to insulate the director from politicians and to maintain the FBI's independence.

It's not normal for the FBI director to resign in this fashion and not normal for them to not necessarily - - not normal for them to be fired either.

Only two directors have been fired in the history of the FBI, one under President Bill Clinton and one under Donald Trump, meaning James Comey in 2017.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we saw president-elect Trump respond quickly to Wray's announcement.

What did he say?

And also what should we understand about his history with the bureau?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President-elect Trump celebrated, no surprise, Wray's resignation and decision to step down in a TRUTH Social post.

And in that post, Trump said that under Wray's leadership, the FBI -- quote -- "illegally raided my home without cause."

It's false that it was an illegal search of Mar-a-Lago, Amna, which was a search conducted for classified documents that the former president at the time had at Mar-a-Lago.

But Trump also said in the post - - quote -- "We want our FBI back, and that will now happen."

I look forward to Kash Patel's confirmation so that the process of making the FBI great again can begin."

Kash Patel is the president-elect's nominee to lead the FBI.

And Trump appointed Wray -- in terms of his history, he appointed Wray after he fired James Comey in 2017, angry that Comey was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

And at that time, Trump said that Wray was a model of integrity and a guardian of the law.

But, since, Trump and Republicans have soured on the FBI, they have called it the deep state, including Kash Patel, his nominee to lead the FBI, has called it the deep state, saying he wants to fire multiple people across the FBI, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know, in your reporting today, you talked to multiple current and former law enforcement officials, including from the FBI.

How are they responding to all this?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Multiple former FBI officials I talked to said that they're disappointed but not surprised.

A number of them said that they thought that Christopher Wray should have stayed in the role and forced Trump to fire him, because they believe that would have more maintained the bureau's independence and shown that it is not partisan, that this is a role that is separate from the president.

And a current government law enforcement official said the big question remaining is what role will politics play in the FBI now and how they conduct their investigations, with many concerned about Kash Patel potentially leading that bureau.

AMNA NAWAZ: Briefly, Laura, what happens next?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: What happens next is that Paul Abbate, who is currently the deputy director at the bureau, very well -- he's next in line to become the acting director of the bureau.

That's, of course, though, Amna, if president-elect Donald Trump doesn't decide to fire him and appoint his own acting director, which he has the power to do.

It would have to be someone that has already been Senate-confirmed, but he could pull them from anywhere in government.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura Barron-Lopez with the latest.

Laura, thank you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Wray's resignation comes as Kash Patel met with senators to gain support for his nomination to lead the FBI.

He's just one of several nominees on the Hill today.

And our Lisa Desjardins joins us now from the Capitol.

So, Lisa, has this news changed the momentum for Kash Patel?

What are you hearing?

LISA DESJARDINS: It certainly doesn't hurt.

It means that there will be a new FBI director.

This was pretty much known, as Laura reported, that Trump was going to replace Christopher Wray.

But as you can see, Patel was on the Hill.

This was him meeting with some of the senators.

Now, he has had a much more disciplined approach saying today, for example, that he knows he has to earn senators' trust.

Now, that's different than the tone he has taken in the past, for example, in media appearances, where he has promoted conspiracy theories, including the false idea that the 2020 election was rigged.

He also has said, for example, he wants to come after members of the media, but it's a different tone he has on Capitol Hill and in general he is earning the support of some important senators, like Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who says he's someone he thinks he can back.

Right now, Patel is trying to create an image of someone who is disciplined and focused on the job.

And while he's having a good week, senators also know this is a very important job and they are ready for these hearings that we now expect to come in January or so.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Lisa, we know you have been tracking that Patel is one of several key nominees on the Hill right now.

Help us understand how the other nominees, including the pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, are doing right now.

LISA DESJARDINS: I will tell you, Amna, you almost couldn't walk down any hallway, especially on the Senate side, without running into, as I did accidentally, another nominee for a Cabinet post.

But let's talk about Pete Hegseth.

He had a critical meeting today with Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

Now, he spoke to the press shortly after talking with her.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. Defense Secretary Nominee: I'm certainly not going to assume anything about where the senator stands.

This is a process that we respect and appreciate, and we hope, through time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor, that we can earn her support.

But it's about earning support in this process in ongoing conversations.

LISA DESJARDINS: You may have spotted a theme there, earning support, respecting the process.

This is the mantra we're seeing for these controversial Trump nominees.

As for Susan Collins, she is an important vote because she has broken with former President and president-elect Trump in the past.

She's also a pro-military member of the Senate, kind of a defense hawk at times.

She stressed she had a very thorough discussion with Hegseth.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): We had a good discussion.

I'm not going to go into every question I asked, although I asked virtually every question under the sun.

QUESTION: So did you press him on the allegations against him?

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: I pressed him on both his position military issues, as well as the allegations against him.

So I don't think there was anything that we did not cover.

LISA DESJARDINS: Those allegations include a criminal report of sexual assault in California years ago.

There were no charges filed in that.

But I asked Senator Collins, would she like to hear from the woman, the accuser, in that case, who reports she's under a nondisclosure agreement?

Susan Collins said, yes, she would like to hear from her, if possible.

One other note about Collins.

She said that Hegseth told her regarding women in combat, something he's opposed before, that he is now more open to that.

And a quick look at all these nominees on the Hill, many, many.

And in general, Amna, the nominees for Trump this week, they have had a good week on the Hill.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, we also know you're tracking all the other news on Capitol Hill.

Of course, Congress has a lot to do before they're aiming to take recess at the end of next week, including a major defense spending bill.

Where does that stand now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Let's run through this.

The National Defense Authorization Act, a key bill, it passed through the House tonight.

This is what's in it, some important things, a 4.5 percent raise for all service members, and look at this, 14.5 percent pay raise for the most junior enlisted service members.

It would also have food assistance for some of the low-income members of the military.

There are cultural items in here as well, a compromise with Republicans from Democrats.

It would ban military coverage, health care treatment for transgender military kids.

There's some debate over exactly which treatment that would entail.

Now, for that pay raise, I want to say that it would be from $24,000 to $27,000 for some members of the military.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Lisa, what about government funding?

That's scheduled to run out next week?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

And we expect we will have a continuing resolutions announced this weekend.

And I want to raise one other thing, Amna, something that happened last night.

There was a member of the House, Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, who says that she had an incident that I want to make note of in which while she was shaking hands with someone after a foster care event, she said that she was accosted.

The person was arrested for assault.

Now, this person is known as a foster youth advocate.

The police report indicates this was a handshake, which, per her telling, was too aggressive.

Per the foster youth advocate, they say those around there, witnesses say it was a normal handshake, just enthusiastic.

The advocate did bring up trans youth, which is something, transgender rights, Nancy Mace has opposed.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is our Lisa Desjardins reporting on Capitol Hill.

Lisa, thank you.

Now to Syria.

The country's new leaders today vowed to create unity, but also hold to account the people who facilitated a half-century of Assad rule.

Those calls for revenge added to the unease of many Syrian minorities, including U.S. partners in the fight against ISIS, who today had to give up hard-won territory.

Nick Schifrin begins our coverage.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In fractious Syria today, every faction is trying to seize as much power as possible.

Today, residents of Deir el-Zour in the northeast welcomed the rebel group that led Syria's takeover, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

Up until now, the city had been controlled by the U.S.-backed mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

Those Kurdish forces also lost control of Manbij in Northern Syria, this time to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.

The map of Syria continues to be redrawn.

The coalition that controls the capital in the west, HTS, and the Syrian National Army in green, are pushing against the Kurds in yellow in Manbij and Deir el-Zour.

A U.S. official tells "PBS News Hour" the U.S. negotiated with Kurdish troops to -- quote -- "hand over" both cities.

The U.S. priority continues to be ensuring the Kurds can help contain pockets of ISIS in black.

Meanwhile, in the south, Israel has seized territory that has been demilitarized for 50 years.

Syria's unease is felt among its minorities.

In the heartland of Shia Alawites, today, Sunni rebels torched the grave of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad.

The two ruled Syria for more than half-a-century.

Their brutality today is still being uncovered.

Outside this Damascus morgue, families hope for news from relatives who long ago disappeared.

Mostly, they found horror, bodies burn beyond recognition by Assad's institutionalized industrial punishment of its perceived enemies, including Hlala Merei's sons.

HLALA MEREI, Mother (through translator): I lost my sons in 2013.

I have been submitting requests to the military police and the military court, but they keep telling me they don't have them.

Since 2013, I have not seen them, nor do I know their fate.

Bring back my sons.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, the country's de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, vowed to hold former members of Assad's regime accountable and dissolve Assad's security forces.

He said -- quote -- "We call on nations to hand over to us wherever those criminals have escaped to subject them to justice."

Some mobs are taking justice into their own hands.

Across Syria, social media videos showed rebel factions killing Assad officers reportedly responsible for decades of torture.

But, today, for the victors, for those who feel free in post-Assad Syria, the Syrian capital was a picture of peace, even if the scars of war are nearby.

Today, the country's interim prime minister vowed to create unity.

That is not guaranteed, but, in the market, in the town square, there is a feeling of freedom.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

AMNA NAWAZ: The sea change toward tenuous hope in Syria over the last two weeks has been tempered with a grim accounting of the last 14 years of war, not to mention the more than half-a-century of authoritarian rule under the Assad family.

We have two teams there now.

We will have more reporting from around the country in the coming days.

Tonight, I'm joined by special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen from Damascus.

Leila, Western journalists have largely been banned from entering regime-held Syria for years now, but you did manage to get in under cover last year.

What has changed now and what has the mood been like in Damascus over these last couple of days?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Amna, it's like night and day.

I can't tell you what it's like to walk the streets here and have people freely running up to you saying: "Take my picture.

Let me tell you what I think."

Previously working here, for those of us who have been reporting on Syria, it was always about fear, secrecy, constantly looking over your shoulder for the Mukhabarat, the secret police, terrified about keeping your contacts safe, those people who were brave enough to speak out.

And, of course, most people didn't.

That mood is so different now, people so keen to share their views.

And, of course, what's so clear is that so many people who said they supported the Assad regime very clearly didn't, the number of people out on the streets now telling the stories of the horrific experiences they have endured, not just during Bashar al-Assad's regime, but his father as well.

And there's so much joy about that.

Coming into Damascus, the streets were full of people holding their children in the air, celebrating with HTS fighters, beeping their horns, holding the revolutionary free Syria flag, saying, Syria's for everyone, this country is free.

Now, we're already seeing a lot of moves towards trying to reintegrate this country that has been so split in recent years.

And, of course, the issue there was that so many people will tell you Syria's diverse, that it's not sectarian, and Assad made it so because he told people in minorities that the Sunni Muslims in this country, who are the majority, they're all ISIS, and they're going to come and kill you.

And that's how he stayed in power, because he scared them.

As one Alawite man in Damascus said to me today, that's not true.

Look at these wonderful people who've come here and liberated us.

Thus far, HTS are trying to make that point.

They're very loudly saying, look, women can be uncovered.

They don't have to dress the way that we would in our communities.

That's absolutely fine, and also trying to integrate people from the northwest, from rebel-held territory.

Already, today, we were at a phone shop.

And for the first time ever, people could use their Idlib I.D.s, rather than just their regime-held I.D.s, to buy a phone SIM.

So, just a few examples of the way things are already moving forward here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Leila, you mentioned that joy.

We have been watching those scenes of joy unfold over the last few days.

But there's also so much uncertainty ahead.

What are the biggest challenges now facing both Syria as a country and its people in the coming days and months ahead?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Well, there are, of course, so many challenges, the most immediate being getting this country up and running again.

Firstly, the economy has been in utterly dire straits for years because of the sanctions imposed on Syria.

No one here has been able to rebuild their homes.

When I was here last year, I traveled across the regime-held area and many of the buildings there are still bombed, infrastructure not working.

And, of course, here in the last few days, since HTS rebels swept into Damascus, the services have gone out there.

Hasn't been phone signal, Internet, water, electricity.

And that is because so many of those services are locked into the government.

They're quickly trying to change that because, of course, patience will last a while, but it won't last that long.

And then, across the country, there are so many issues because the country has been divided for so long.

In the northwest, where the rebels live, even though many people now can return to their homes in Damascus and Aleppo and Homs, so many of their homes have been destroyed by Russian airstrikes and by Syrian regime shelling that they don't have a place to go to.

So that's going to be a process.

Also trying to get kids back into school, trying to make a deal with the Kurds in the northeast of Syria, who are very afraid that this chaos could lead to ISIS rising up in the desert there again because that's an opportunity for them.

And then, of course, the fear over what HTS wants to do.

Right now, as I said, they're making so many noises about a liberal Syria for everyone.

Will that continue or will we see a move towards a more Islamist structure?

People are concerned.

They're waiting to see.

Some believe it.

Some don't.

And, of course, those who were loyal to the regime fleeing to try and get out of the country.

The Lebanese border is full of people trying to escape because they simply don't trust the amnesty that HTS has declared for army conscripts, saying it wasn't their fault, they were forced to fight.

So, many fears in this country, many hopes as well for what a free Syria could look like, but what they need is investment.

What they need is support.

They're saying, please, Western powers, come in now and help us while we can rebuild this country.

And, most immediately, so much joy for this liberation, but so much loss as people across the country find their homes destroyed, find family members they hoped might be in jails or in another part of Syria are dead or forgotten forever.

So it's mixed feelings, but much hope that perhaps the Syria people have dreamed of for 14 years at civil war could come.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reporting from Damascus, Syria, tonight.

Leila, thank you.

We start the day's other headlines in Malibu, California, where fire crews are working to contain a wind-driven wildfire that exploded in size overnight.

Stephanie Sy has our report.

STEPHANIE SY: In Malibu, the night sky was bright orange.

Strong winds fanned the Franklin Fire as it burned for a second night along a stretch of coast 30 miles west of Los Angeles, the flames inching toward roads, engulfing cars, and turning palm trees into tinder.

ANTHONY MARRONE, Los Angeles County, California, Fire Chief: As of this morning, the Franklin Fire has burned approximately 3,983 acres and is 7 percent contained.

This is a 39 percent increase in acreage overnight.

STEPHANIE SY: Today, officials said weather conditions appeared to improve, giving 1,500 firefighters a chance to stop the rapid spread.

Still, the fire scorched a handful of structures and remains a threat to thousands more.

Celebrities like Cher and Dick Van Dyke evacuated their seaside homes, as well as residents who described the blaze as something out of Hollywood come to life.

JOHNNY CONSTANTINE, Evacuee: Last night, it felt like a movie, because the images that I was seeing was like the craziest looking fire I have ever seen in my life, and the smell and the smoke, seeing palm trees I have seen for 10 years that are just lit like a candle.

STEPHANIE SY: Nestled in the hills along the fire's path, Pepperdine University, home to some 3,000 students.

Final exams were interrupted yesterday by a sudden shelter-in-place order.

MIA GASTILE, College Student: You just saw the flames coming up over the hill.

And, at first, it was not a problem, because they were like, the wind is blowing parallel and not in our direction.

And I think about maybe five minutes later they were like, it's in our direction.

MARCELLO CAMPANA, College Student: Last night, we were here for all of it, through the thick of it.

It was definitely a little scary at some points.

We didn't really sleep much.

STEPHANIE SY: The university reported little to no damage to structures on campus.

Evacuation centers have opened up across the region.

This one set up by the Red Cross offers a refuge for anyone and any pet.

Workers say about 12 families and a few goats have already checked in.

MIMI TELLER, American Red Cross Los Angeles Region: It's important that people evacuate when they're told to.

Their animals are welcome, because also a lot of people won't evacuate because of their animals.

STEPHANIE SY: Malibu is no stranger to major fires.

Coastal winds and often dry terrain make it one of the most fire-prone areas in Southern California.

Last night, the mayor gave words of assurance.

DOUG STEWART, Mayor of Malibu, California: It's going to be a while before it grows back, but that's the way it is here in Malibu.

It burns, it comes back, and we're resilient and strong.

STEPHANIE SY: The cause of this fire is still unknown.

No fatalities have been reported, and compared to blazes of the past, property damage has been minimal.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

AMNA NAWAZ: Also today, the grocery chain Albertsons has officially terminated its multibillion-dollar merger with rival Kroger and is now suing its competitor.

This comes a day after two judges halted the proposed deal.

The $24.6 billion tie-up would have been the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history.

It was first proposed in 2022, with the companies claiming it would help them compete against the likes of Walmart and Costco.

But the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal earlier this year, saying it would raise prices by eliminating competition.

Albertsons is now seeking billions of dollars in damages, accusing Kroger of failing to follow through on its commitments to the merger.

On Capitol Hill, outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration's handling of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Appearing before the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blinken argued that the chaos was due to the 2020 deal then-President Trump reached with the Taliban.

But Republican lawmakers insisted that it was the Biden administration that was to blame.

A suicide bombing at Kabul Airport killed 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 Afghans in the final days of the withdrawal.

Blinken opened his testimony by turning and apologizing to family members of those lost during that operation.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. Secretary of State: To the extent President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it.

In the three years since the end of our country's longest war, all of us, including myself, have wrestled with what we could have done differently during that period and over the preceding two decades.

AMNA NAWAZ: A State Department report published last year faulted both the Trump and Biden administrations for insufficient planning surrounding the withdrawal.

Today's hearing comes as a suicide blast in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed the Taliban's minister for refugees, Khalil Rahman Haqqani, along with at least six others.

The Taliban has blamed the Islamic State group for that attack.

Palestinian officials say that multiple Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip today killed at least 29 people; 19 of those were killed in a home where displaced people were sheltering in the northern town of Beit Lahia, near the border with Israel.

A separate strike hit this house in a Central Gaza refugee camp, killing at least seven people.

Palestinians there woke up to the wreckage.

ISSAM AL-HOSSARY, Displaced Palestinian (through translator): We were sleeping.

We didn't hear the sound of the missile at all.

Suddenly, I found myself waking up like this.

I saw the rubble all over me and the children.

As I stepped outside, I saw the people, bodies everywhere, blood and limbs scattered among the trees.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the meantime, the United Nations says that aid to Northern Gaza has been largely blocked for around two months.

Officials say that has left as many as 75,000 Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or health care.

Officials in South Korea say the country's former defense minister tried to take his own life after his arrest over last week's declaration of martial law.

They say correctional officers at a detention center in Seoul stopped Kim Yong-hyun from doing so.

He remains in stable condition.

Kim had been accused of recommending that President Yoon Suk Yeol impose martial law and advised him to send in troops to prevent lawmakers from voting on it.

Separately, Yoon's office resisted an attempt by police to search his office today.

Officers had been dispatched to look for evidence related to his role in last week's events.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed after the latest reading on inflation showed a slight rise in consumer prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 100 points on the day, but the Nasdaq surged, adding nearly 350 points to close above 20000 for the first time ever.

The S&P 500 also ended firmly in positive territory.

And soccer's international governing body, FIFA, announced today the host nations for two upcoming men's World Cups.

One of the selections came with controversy.

MAN: Saudi Arabia.

AMNA NAWAZ: Saudi Arabia will be tournament host in 2034.

The hugs and applause at the virtual FIFA event were a formality, though, as the country ran uncontested.

Human rights groups criticized today's decision due to the country's human rights record.

Also today, FIFA announced that Portugal, Spain and Morocco will co-host the tournament in 2030.

Before that, though, the 2026 World Cup will take place in cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Still to come on the "News Hour": police work to link evidence at the murder scene of UnitedHealthcare's CEO to the suspect in custody; a panel of political analysts lay out their hopes and concerns following the presidential election; and author Bryan Stevenson discusses inequities in the criminal justice system on the 10th anniversary of his groundbreaking book.

Police today said fingerprints and shell casings collected at the scene of last week's murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson are directly connected to their prime suspect, Luigi Mangione.

The fingerprints match the 26-year-old and the casings match the gun found on him when he was arrested earlier this week in Pennsylvania.

To break down the latest, I'm joined now by William Brangham in New York.

So, William, we have this new evidence now linking the alleged shooter here to the crime.

Police also say that they're in possession of some notes written by him.

What kind of insight is that giving us?

What have we learned, and especially as it relates to motive in this case?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Amna.

Police have at least two different pieces of writing from this suspect.

One is a notebook that is allegedly full of planning details.

And the other is what people have been calling his manifesto.

It's a 260-word handwritten document where, reportedly, he takes credit and claims responsibility for this killing.

Now, the police have not released that manifesto in its entirety.

One journalist claims to have a copy of it, and he's posted it on his Web site, and it is now floating all over the Internet.

But what we know from police sources, details of that, is that the suspect describes the killing as a - - quote -- "symbolic takedown" and generally expresses his now well-documented fury and anger at the health care industry in general.

And that is what has been -- as we have reported, resonated with so many people who seem willing to look past the grisly murderer and still side with him in their complaints as far as health insurance is run in this country.

The notebook that the police have described some of the planning process, reportedly, that he's going to go after an as-yet unnamed health care CEO at a meeting, that that would be -- quote -- "targeted, precise," and it would -- doesn't risk innocents, which apparently the suspect thought about using a bomb at one point, but decided that might injure too many other people that he didn't want to target.

But for right now, the suspect is still in custody in Pennsylvania.

He's fighting extradition, where he would come to New York City to face that serious murder charge.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, William, given that Brian Thompson, the victim here, the 50-year-old father of two, was a health insurance executive, there have been some making the connection between that, the work that he did, and also the reporting around the suspect in this case, who allegedly had a serious back injury and some back pain he was dealing with.

What do we know about that connection?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right.

For a long period of time, the suspect wrote on the Web site Reddit about his back problems, how it started in his 20s, how he suffered an injury surfing in Hawaii that made it worse, how he had spinal surgery to try to address it.

All those writings have been taken down, but journalists have read some archived versions of them.

In those writings, there is no indication of violent or ill intent towards health care workers or the industry in general, but, again, sort of documents his frustration with that system more broadly.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's another reported detail in the suspect's case here, William.

That is that he once reportedly expressed admiration for Ted Kaczynski, the man known as the Unabomber.

What should we know about that?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right.

This suspect apparently posted a lot of book reviews on the Web site called Goodreads.

And among them was him giving four stars to Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber's manifesto.

For people who are old enough to remember, Ted Kaczynski sent mail bombs all around the country, murdered three people, and hurt dozens of other people, but wanted those attacks to draw attention to his manifesto, which was a critique of industrialization and the technological revolution that we were living through.

And that is why some police officials believe that this suspect might have been inspired by Kaczynski, who, as I'm saying, used violence to draw attention to his political beliefs.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that is William Brangham with the latest on the killing of that UnitedHealthcare CEO.

William, thank you.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thanks, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: For the past two years, Judy Woodruff has been exploring the deep divisions we see playing out every day in the country.

As we wrap up the year, she recently sat down with a panel of noted thinkers to talk through their concerns and their hopes following the election.

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

JUDY WOODRUFF: We met last week at the Lincoln Cottage in Washington, D.C., a place we have returned to throughout our series, here in the room where the 16th president drafted the Emancipation Proclamation.

Joining me were former federal appellate Judge Michael Luttig, one of the nation's leading conservative jurists, Heather Cox Richardson, historian at Boston College and author on Substack of the daily Letters from an American, and Theodore Johnson, contributing columnist for The Washington Post and retired Naval officer.

I began by asking them what they thought the American people were saying in this most recent election.

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG, Former Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge: America has come to the crossroads now.

This was the most transparent president and presidency in American history.

Americans literally knew everything there was to know about Donald Trump.

And he succeeded in convincing millions upon millions of Americans that this was just another presidential election where both candidates should be considered equally, as if the one had never been president before.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON, Boston College: I think most Americans simply were saying they didn't like the higher prices that came after the coronavirus pandemic.

And what they're going to get is something very different than they thought they wanted.

So, for example, we know that people who say they paid no attention at all to political news went 19 points for Donald Trump.

People we know who were informed of what was really happening with crime and with the economy and with immigration went 2-1 for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Those people who were misinformed about those things went 3-1 for Donald Trump.

So we have -- are facing, I think, the crisis that the judge identifies of American democracy, but we're doing so in the midst of a different kind of crisis, which is a disinformation crisis.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Ted Johnson, you wrote right after the election that you thought democracy had held.

CMDR.

THEODORE JOHNSON (RET.

), Contributing Columnist, The Washington Post: Yes, I think it held because we had a free and fair election and the popular vote winner is also going to win the Electoral College and the system operated in exactly the way it was set to operate.

The one flaw in the system, at least from the founders' perspective, is the founders always suspected that the Electoral College and other representatives would ensure that people of ill character never got this far, to ensure the voice of the people were filtered through folks that put justice first, who were patriots who put the country above their own partisan or selfish concerns.

And that just has never panned out in American history and certainly hasn't recently.

I'd also say that Americans told us that they're willing to be a little transactional with their vote for president, instead of suggesting that the person they vote for is their -- a civic exemplar or a hero of sorts, instead saying maybe this person's character is a little flawed or faulty.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you believe we still have a strong democracy in this country?

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: We only know that our democracy held because Donald Trump won the vote.

Going into the election, he was unapologetic about the fact that, if he did lose the vote, that he would challenge that vote in the same way that he had done in 2020.

Donald Trump and the Republican Party essentially held America political hostage by threatening to overturn this election if Donald Trump lost.

That's not a free and fair election.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Our democracy is reeling, but it has not yet disintegrated.

I'm very concerned about the incoming Trump administration and the attempts to install what people are calling henchmen now, instead of simply loyalists, in crucial positions.

But I'm not ready yet to concede that it's gone, because the other side of that, of course, is the organization that you see going on among people who are now recognizing that our country, our way of life and our dreams are on the line right now in a way that they haven't been really since perhaps the 1890s or the 1850s, and seemingly being willing to take up the torch to carry that forward.

In the past, we have managed to do it.

I'm a little concerned about whether we will do it now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What we have been dealing with is a very divided country for the last several years, Ted Johnson.

Has this election made that worse?

CMDR.

THEODORE JOHNSON (RET.

): I don't think it's made it worse, but it certainly hasn't improved it.

And we will see if there's a sort of an evolution or a devolution of our democracy.

Our constitutional democracy was OK with slavery at the founding of the country.

Our constitutional democracy was OK with disenfranchising women until just 100 years ago.

Our democracy was OK with keeping immigrants from Asia, from Central and South America, from parts of Europe like Ireland and other places, folks that didn't have property out of democracy.

Nothing has happened in the last month to our democracy that is worse than what has happened to our democracy in the past.

And if this is the moment that breaks the democracy, then we're just not the people that have earned the right to keep it.

My sense of it is, we are just as good as the generations that have come before us and now it's our turn to protect and defend democracy, which always is in need of protection and defense.

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: We will be more divided than even we have been in the past four years, and you can rest assured that the president and the Republican Party will take that win as validation and vindication of the policies, if you will, of division and divisiveness that they have thrust upon the American people.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: The division of the American people was a very deliberate political project from the 1950s onward, and it has paid enormous dividends for certain politicians.

But the reality is, the majority of Americans have always liked the liberal consensus of the post-World War II years and they still do.

If you look at the downballot races in 2024, people voted to protect abortion rights.

They voted for the protection of minimum wages.

They voted for a lot of things that in fact the Democrats were the ones embracing.

In fact whether you're a Republican or a Democrat most people believe in a government that does the basic things of regulation of business, protection of a basic social safety net, infrastructure and the protection of civil rights, and that those people in the middle should hang together against the extremists on the outside.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So are you saying that we -- that the politicians have been trying to divide the American people... HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: I am.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... and the American people are resisting them?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: And Ted Johnson agrees.

(LAUGHTER) CMDR.

THEODORE JOHNSON (RET.

): Yes, that's right.

No, I was recently in North Carolina, and a high school friend told me that they didn't like either of the parties, either of the candidates, because both of them make the other out to be worse than they are and make problems out to be worse than they are.

And so neither could be trusted to either speak honestly about what the problems were and what were causing it or what the fixes were and who could accomplish it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Where do you see us headed?

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: There are two things I think we have to do going forward at the very basic level.

We need to protect American institutions.

But in this moment, we need to look at the right and recognize that they are serving up to their voters a fiction that shapes those people's lives and their voting behavior.

And to the degree that we all can insist on actual fact-based reality informing our policies will go a long way to healing those divisions and to recognizing that in fact most of us do agree that we're somewhere in the middle on these big questions and that solving them is actually not that difficult once you can agree on the problem.

CMDR.

THEODORE JOHNSON (RET.

): I feel pretty good about democracy.

And when I say that, I mean in terms of people having a democracy that's accessible.

A republic, however, is in tatters.

And so the Electoral College needs reform or replacement or abolishing, something.

Gerrymandering needs to be out the window, dark money in politics out the window.

And then the last thing I would say is, Americans need to turn away from D.C. and towards their communities.

Whatever the future of this country looks like, I promise you the answer is in local America and not in the nation's capital.

Turn away from that stuff and turn towards, like, the soccer teams or the neighborhoods or the churches, the school systems, et cetera, and learn how to work together in your communities.

And that will model the kind of democratic republic for the nation.

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG: The former president bent the institutions of democracy and law arguably to the breaking point.

And those institutions yielded to his will.

That was in the past four to eight years.

But he campaigned on revenge, revenge against his political opponents and an avengement of these very institutions of democracy and law, who he told the American people had failed him and them.

In my view, they elected him because they wanted done what he said he would do.

And now he is going to do that.

And there is nothing that can stop him.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: I'm a historian.

I always make the point that the future is not written.

We don't know what's going to happen.

And with as many people still having a voice in our way of life, if not necessarily in our voting world, because, in fact, free and fair maybe, because, of course, there is voter suppression in a lot of places.

So this really is a test of who we are, not just who our very worst leaders are, but who we are.

And do I believe we can do it?

I believe that we have to believe we can do it, or we have guaranteed that we cannot.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, on that note, thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Bryan Stevenson, the prominent lawyer and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has blazed a trail, representing the poor, wrongly convicted and those on death row.

He recently sat down with Geoff Bennett to discuss his career and the rerelease of his bestselling book, "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption."

GEOFF BENNETT: Bryan Stevenson, thanks for being with us.

BRYAN STEVENSON, Founder, Equal Justice Initiative: My pleasure.

GEOFF BENNETT: "Just Mercy" was first published in October of 2014.

It became a New York Times bestseller.

It was adapted into a film starring Michael B. Jordan.

Lots of acclaim and attention.

How has it significantly changed the criminal justice system or the public's understanding of the system in the decade since its release?

BRYAN STEVENSON: I have been really encouraged by what's happened over the last 10 years.

When I started doing this work 40 years ago, there were very few organizations, there were very few resources available to people who were in jails and prisons, people wrongly convicted, people condemned to die.

And that seemed to be not changing.

But, in the last 20 years, I will say, but certainly in the last 10 years, that has shifted enormously.

We have had eight states abolish the death penalty.

The rates of incarceration have dropped.

We're no longer seeing that steady increase that we saw during the last decades of the 20th century.

We have seen some real significant reforms.

Most of the young people that I wrote about in "Just Mercy" who were condemned to die in prison when they were 13 and 14 have been released and they're now out.

So I have been really encouraged by the success we have seen over the last decade, but more so by the number of people who are now engaged on these issues, on campuses, in policy spaces, in legislatures.

Overincarceration is something that there's a broad perspective of alignment on that we should be doing better to -- than what we have done over the last half-century.

So that's been really encouraging.

GEOFF BENNETT: You write in the book that: "The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving.

It's when mercy is least expected that it's most potent."

Tell me more about that.

BRYAN STEVENSON: Well, I have had the great privilege of standing next to condemned people, people who are marginalized, people who are hated, people who are despised, people who have been accused of really upsetting crimes.

And what I have learned is that when you stand next to people who are condemned and hated, you can sometimes harness the power of grace and mercy and show the world something better than just condemnation.

We have had a legal system for a long time that treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent.

And we haven't been concerned about changing that because we have just ignored this population.

And I think by highlighting the people and the stories, that has shifted.

And when you make the kind of mistakes that we have made -- this year, we saw the 200th person exonerated after being sentenced to death.

And that's a really startling and troubling statistic.

For every eight people we have executed, we have now identified one innocent person on death row.

It's a shocking rate of error.

But if we don't think in a compassionate way, in a caring way about these communities, these people, these institutions, we will be indifferent to a lot of cruelty, a lot of barbarity, a lot of unjust punishment.

And so, for me, invoking mercy, invoking grace, invoking this idea that the criminal justice system isn't just about the people we are prosecuted, it's also about us, it's about what kind of society we live in, what kind of community we create when we tolerate injustice and inequality.

GEOFF BENNETT: There are some 40 people on federal death row, including the gunmen who killed those nine parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, the surviving Boston Marathon bomber, the attacker who gunned down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Why should any of those people be shown mercy?

Why should any of them be spared the death penalty, given the gravity and intentionality of their crimes?

BRYAN STEVENSON: Well, it's largely because we don't need to execute people to show our concern, our outrage about violent crimes.

If all of those folks have their death sentence commuted, they're going to be serving death-in-prison sentences.

They're going to die in prison.

They are terminal sentences.

It's a really extreme punishment.

In most of the democratic world, life imprisonment without parole is the most severe punishment you can impose.

And so I don't think it's really about sparing people or giving people a break.

They're going to be held accountable in a really harsh way.

It's also true that many of those folks on the row have been unfairly prosecuted.

There are problems with the way in which we sometimes go about getting these convictions and sentences.

Even many of the victims in the Charleston case did not want Dylann Roof to be sentenced to death, and yet we push forward.

And now we're moving into an era where the U.S. Supreme Court has seemed to largely abandon its oversight role in these cases.

So I think there are multiple reasons for why it would be appropriate and I think positive to say we're not going to kill people who we don't have to kill, who are going to be condemned to prisons, who are going to die under incarcerations, that we don't have to kill.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, in fact, you write that we need a new era of truth and justice.

What might that era look like?

BRYAN STEVENSON: I think it will better understand -- it will be looking at to better understand the history that has created so much inequality and injustice.

We have never really taken the time in this country to confront what happened to indigenous peoples when Europeans came to this continent.

We have never really reckoned with the legacy of slavery.

Most people don't know that there were 10 million Black people enslaved in this country.

They don't know the details of all of that abuse.

We haven't talked very much about the collapse of Reconstruction and how Black people were disenfranchised for a century, how thousands of Black people were pulled out of their homes and beaten and drowned and tortured on courthouse lawns in that era of lynching.

We understand what Jim Crow was, but we don't actually understand the harm that decades of exclusion and humiliation -- I was born in a community where Black children could not attend the public schools.

I saw those signs.

My parents had to navigate the humiliation of Jim Crow.

And those signs weren't directions.

They were assaults.

They created real injuries.

And we haven't talked about those injuries.

And we haven't really committed to repairing the harm.

So I think the first thing that truth and justice requires is that we actually become more informed about the truth of our history, not because we want to punish people.

When I talk about slavery and lynching and segregation, I have no interest in punishing America or people who were implicated in that.

My interest is liberation.

I actually think there is something that feels more like freedom, more like equality, more like justice, and it's waiting for us, but we're being constrained by our unwillingness to talk honestly about the burden of this past, which I think has created toxins in the air.

It's like there's pollution everywhere in this country because we haven't been honest about this history.

And I think that truth-telling can truly set us free.

GEOFF BENNETT: Bryan Stevenson.

The book is "Just Mercy," updated with a new prologue 10 years after its initial release.

Always a pleasure to speak with you.

BRYAN STEVENSON: And you too.

Thanks.

AMNA NAWAZ: And before we go, we have a passing of note to share, someone whose name you may not know, but whose work you have seen frequently here on the "News Hour."

For more than 40 years, Bill Hennessy captured history with his sketchbook.

His work often went where cameras couldn't, offering the first draft of high-profile legal moments, from Iran-Contra, to the Clinton impeachment, trials at Guantanamo Bay, and countless arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.

He spoke to the "News Hour" in 2009 about how he approached his work.

BILL HENNESSY, Sketch Artist: But I try to delve deeper.

I look for the details.

I look for something that will give it more.

I find myself as much a journalist in that regard, looking for that special angle on it, on the visual that will help them that much more.

I certainly came into this as an artist, but I think I have had a unique opportunity to learn journalism from the people who actually -- who I worked with, both the photojournalists and the written journalists, that they have helped me understand my purpose and my responsibility in being -- telling the story accurately and truthfully, honestly and responsibly as you can.

AMNA NAWAZ: Bill Hennessy died on Monday.

It was his 67th birthday.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.