PBS News Hour full episode, Jan. 28, 2026

The FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia, election center, seeking physical ballots, envelopes, provisional ballots, ballot images, and voter rolls from the 2020 election. This action is seen as a significant escalation of President Trump's persistent, unfounded claims of voter fraud in Georgia, despite ballots having been counted multiple times, including by hand.

Liz Landers, White House correspondent, confirmed the FBI action and the details of the search warrant, noting that elections attorney David Becker stated the ballots had already been counted three times. President Trump's continued focus on the 2020 election and his past call to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to 'find' votes were cited.

State Secretaries of State are facing requests from the Trump administration for voter information, with varying degrees of compliance. Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows expressed deep concern, viewing requests for voter rolls, especially those linked to ICE presence, as intimidation tactics. Kentucky's Secretary of State Michael Adams, while providing public voter files, draws the line at personally identifying information like driver's license or Social Security numbers, highlighting legal ambiguities.

Shenna Bellows (D-ME) stated, 'ICE's presence in Minnesota isn't really about immigration at all. It's about intimidating election officials.' Michael Adams (R-KY) explained, 'The law is not super clear on this. No one -- no DOJ has ever asked for this before.' Both emphasized state control over elections.

The political climate is marked by increasing violence and threats against members of Congress. Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall, and Capitol Police reported a dramatic increase in threats, investigating over 14,000 in the last year—a 50% increase from the previous year. This environment is causing lawmakers to take personal security precautions.

Lisa Desjardins reported on the attack on Rep. Omar and presented Capitol Police statistics showing 14,000+ threats investigated last year. She noted, 'lawmakers are feeling this, some of them having to move their residence, taking careful plans with family vacations.'

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, a high-ranking Catholic leader, publicly criticized the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, labeling ICE a 'lawless organization.' He urged church members to pressure lawmakers to block funding for ICE, motivated by a concern for the common good and the human dignity of all people, regardless of legal status, following deaths and detentions related to ICE actions.

Cardinal Tobin stated, 'I think what I was calling for and I still call for and will call for is the recognition of the dignity of human beings, no matter what their legal status may be.' He invoked the rise of authoritarianism and the need for respectful listening.

The Dilley family detention center in Texas was placed on lockdown following protests by hundreds of detainees against substandard living conditions and treatment. Immigration attorney Eric Lee reported guards rummaging through belongings to find evidence of protest participation, describing it as an 'attack on the First Amendment rights.' Families, including the El Gamals, are detained without charge, solely based on a relative's actions, which Lee argues offends basic democratic principles.

Eric Lee stated, 'people are not allowed to leave their rooms. They were escorted to the lunch area for meals. And so this is the reaction of the Trump administration to individuals expressing their free speech rights.' He detailed the El Gamal family's detention, noting an immigration judge denied bond because the children and mother 'lack sufficient property and assets.'

As the U.S. observes its 250th anniversary, the question of 'what it means to be an American' continues to evolve. Presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky highlights that the founders, including George Washington, did not create a perfect system and expected future generations to adapt and improve the nation. Washington's own evolution on slavery, influenced by interactions with free Black communities and abolitionists, serves as a reminder of the nation's ongoing struggle with its founding contradictions.

Lindsay Chervinsky noted, 'There was never one answer to the question of, what is an American?' and 'They didn't think what they were creating was perfect. They genuinely believed that they were trying to create something that was just a little bit better than what they had had before.' She detailed Washington's shift on slavery, including his will to free enslaved people upon his wife's death.

The 40th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle explosion is remembered as a profound national tragedy that occurred on live television, killing all seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space. The event, watched by hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, shattered NASA's public image of infallibility and marked a collective loss of innocence for the nation, rivaling the assassination of JFK in its immediate impact.

Miles O'Brien, science correspondent, described the public's fixation on Christa McAuliffe and the shuttle's routine image. He recounted seeing the 'big, giant Y in the sky' from 150 miles away and stated, 'there was a profound sense of loss of innocence, I think, for NASA, which at that point really, in the public's mind, could do no wrong.'