Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man had raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.But then the man was released after questioning, leaving it unclear where the investigation stood into last week’s disappearance of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.FBI agents carrying water bottles to beat the 80-degree heat Wednesday walked among rocks and desert vegetation at Guthrie’s Tucson-area home. They also fanned out across a neighborhood about a mile away, knocking on doors and searching through cactuses, bushes and boulders.Several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to the investigation, which is expanding in the area, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.In a nearby neighborhood, two investigators emerged from daughter Annie Guthrie’s home with a paper grocery sack and a white trash bag. One, still wearing blue protective gloves, also took a stack of mail from the roadside mailbox. They drove away without speaking to reporters.The New York Post is reporting investigators have seemingly recovered a black glove in the area near Nancy Guthrie’s home, but it’s not clear if authorities believe it’s the same glove worn by the person seen in doorbell camera footage. Barb Dutrow, who was jogging through a neighborhood where teams were searching, said an FBI agent told her they were looking for anything that might have been tossed from a car. Dutrow, who was visiting from Louisiana for a convention, said she “can’t imagine the feeling of the family of having their mother taken.”A day earlier, authorities said they had stopped a man near the U.S.-Mexico border, just hours after the FBI released videos of a person wearing a gun holster, ski mask and backpack and approaching Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson. The man told media outlets early Wednesday that he was released after several hours and had nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance last week.Authorities have not said what led them to stop the man Tuesday but confirmed he was released. The sheriff’s department said its deputies and FBI agents also searched a location in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson where the man lives.Video above: Person detained for questioning and released as search for Nancy Guthrie continuesIt was the latest twist in an investigation that has gripped the nation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to her or finding who was responsible.The black and white images released by the FBI showing a masked person trying to cover a doorbell camera on Guthrie’s porch marked the first significant break in the case. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images.Even though the images do not show the person’s face, investigators are hopeful someone will know who was on the porch. More than 4,000 calls came into the Pima County sheriff’s tip line within the past 24 hours, the department said Wednesday afternoon.Authorities have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media and said the family believes their mother is still alive.The longtime NBC host and her two siblings have indicated a willingness to pay a ransom.It is not known whether ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic, and whether the family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.TMZ reported it received a message Wednesday from someone claiming to know the kidnapper’s identity and that they unsuccessfully tried to reach Savannah Guthrie’s brother and sister. The person asked for bitcoin in exchange for the information, TMZ said. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message.Authorities have said Nancy Guthrie takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them.___Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
TUCSON, Ariz. —
Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man had raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.
But then the man was released after questioning, leaving it unclear where the investigation stood into last week’s disappearance of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
FBI agents carrying water bottles to beat the 80-degree heat Wednesday walked among rocks and desert vegetation at Guthrie’s Tucson-area home. They also fanned out across a neighborhood about a mile away, knocking on doors and searching through cactuses, bushes and boulders.
Several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to the investigation, which is expanding in the area, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
In a nearby neighborhood, two investigators emerged from daughter Annie Guthrie’s home with a paper grocery sack and a white trash bag. One, still wearing blue protective gloves, also took a stack of mail from the roadside mailbox. They drove away without speaking to reporters.
The New York Post is reporting investigators have seemingly recovered a black glove in the area near Nancy Guthrie’s home, but it’s not clear if authorities believe it’s the same glove worn by the person seen in doorbell camera footage.
Barb Dutrow, who was jogging through a neighborhood where teams were searching, said an FBI agent told her they were looking for anything that might have been tossed from a car. Dutrow, who was visiting from Louisiana for a convention, said she “can’t imagine the feeling of the family of having their mother taken.”
A day earlier, authorities said they had stopped a man near the U.S.-Mexico border, just hours after the FBI released videos of a person wearing a gun holster, ski mask and backpack and approaching Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson. The man told media outlets early Wednesday that he was released after several hours and had nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance last week.
Authorities have not said what led them to stop the man Tuesday but confirmed he was released. The sheriff’s department said its deputies and FBI agents also searched a location in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson where the man lives.
Video above: Person detained for questioning and released as search for Nancy Guthrie continues
It was the latest twist in an investigation that has gripped the nation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to her or finding who was responsible.
The black and white images released by the FBI showing a masked person trying to cover a doorbell camera on Guthrie’s porch marked the first significant break in the case. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images.
Even though the images do not show the person’s face, investigators are hopeful someone will know who was on the porch. More than 4,000 calls came into the Pima County sheriff’s tip line within the past 24 hours, the department said Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media and said the family believes their mother is still alive.
The longtime NBC host and her two siblings have indicated a willingness to pay a ransom.
It is not known whether ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic, and whether the family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.
TMZ reported it received a message Wednesday from someone claiming to know the kidnapper’s identity and that they unsuccessfully tried to reach Savannah Guthrie’s brother and sister. The person asked for bitcoin in exchange for the information, TMZ said. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message.
Authorities have said Nancy Guthrie takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them.
___
Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
President Trump delivered a prime-time address from the White House on Wednesday night, touting the administration’s actions during the first 11 months of his second term and outlining his goals for the next three years. CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell anchors a special report.
Billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer announced Wednesday that he is running for governor of California, arguing that he is not beholden to special interests and can take on corporations that are making life unaffordable in the state.
“The richest people in America think that they earned everything themselves. Bull—, man. That’s so ridiculous,” Steyer said in an online video announcing his campaign. “We have a broken government. It’s been bought by corporations and my question is: Who do you think is going to change that? Sacramento politicians are afraid to change up this system. I’m not. They’re going to hate this. Bring it on.”
Steyer, 68, founded Farallon Capital Management, one of the nation’s largest hedge funds, and left it in 2012 after 26 years. Since his departure, he has become a global environmental activist and a major donor to Democratic candidates and causes.
But the hedge firm’s investments — notably a giant coal mine in Australia that cleared 3,700 acres of koala habitat and a company that runs migrant detention centers on the U.S.-Mexico border for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — will make him susceptible to political attack by his gubernatorial rivals.
Steyer has expressed regret for his involvement in such projects, saying it was why he left Farallon and started focusing his energy on fighting climate change.
Tom Steyer, who ran for president in 2020, addresses a crowd during a primary election night party in Columbia, S.C.
(Sean Rayford / Getty Images)
Steyer previously flirted with running for governor and the U.S. Senate but decided against it, instead opting to run for president in 2020. He dropped out after spending nearly $342 million on his campaign, which gained little traction before he ended his run after the South Carolina primary.
Next year’s gubernatorial race is in flux, after former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla decided not to run, and Proposition 50, the successful Democratic effort to redraw congressional districts, consumed all of the political oxygen during an off-year election.
In recent years, Steyer has been a longtime benefactor of progressive causes, most recently spending $12 million to support the redistricting ballot measure. But when he was the focus of one of the ads, rumors spiraled that he was considering a run for governor.
In prior California ballot initiatives, Steyer successfully supported efforts to close a corporate tax loophole and to raise tobacco taxes, and fought oil-industry-backed efforts to roll back environmental law.
His campaign platform is to build 1 million homes in four years, lower energy costs by ending monopolies, make preschool and community college free and ban corporate contributions to political action committees in California elections.
Steyer’s brother Jim, the leader of Common Sense Media, and former Biden administration U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy are aiming to put an initiative on next year’s ballot to protect children from social media, specifically the chatbots that have been accused of prompting young people to kill themselves. Newsom recently vetoed a bill aimed at addressing this artificial intelligence issue.
President Trump has thrust the U.S. military into a critical role deterring illegal crossings into this country at the southern border. As Charlie D’Agata reports, their presence is having unintended consequences.
President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.Hegseth announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness, while Trump bragged about U.S. nuclear capabilities and warned that “America is under invasion from within.”“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help we’re defending the borders of our country,” Trump said.Hegseth had called military leaders to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. His address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in QuanticoAdmirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.‘We will not be politically correct’Trump is used to boisterous crowds of supporters who laugh at his jokes and applaud his boasts during his speeches. But he wasn’t getting that kind of soundtrack from the generals and admirals in attendance.In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, the military leaders sat mostly stone-faced through Trump’s politicized remarks, a contrast from when rank-and-file soldiers cheered during Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg this summer.During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.That was echoed by Trump, who said “the purposes of America military is not to protect anyone’s feelings. It’s to protect our republic.″″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,” Trump said. “And we will be a fighting and winning machine.”Loosening disciplinary rulesHegseth said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigationsHe said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”The defense secretary called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”“People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”Gender-neutral physical standardsHegseth used the platform to slam environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.Hegseth said this is not about preventing women from serving.“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.Hegseth has championed the military’s role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump’s law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.
QUANTICO, Va. —
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of U.S. military officials to an in-person meeting Tuesday to declare an end to “woke” culture in the military and announce new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump had abruptly called military leaders from around the world to convene at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. Hegseth’s address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.
Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.
Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.
Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in Quantico
During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”
“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.
He said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigations
Hegseth said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”
He called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”
“People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”
Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.
A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”
Hegseth used the platform to slam physical fitness and grooming standards, environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”
Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”
“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.
Hegseth said this is is not about preventing women from serving.
“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.
Mexico activated emergency controls Monday after detecting a new case of New World screwworm in cattle in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon state, the closest case to the U.S. border since the outbreak began last year.The animal, found in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, came from the Gulf state of Veracruz, Mexico’s National Health for Food Safety and Food Quality Service said. The last case was reported July 9 in Veracruz, prompting Washington to suspend imports of live Mexican cattle.The parasite, a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, attacks warm-blooded animals, including humans. Mexico has reported more than 500 active cases in cattle across southern states.The block on cattle imports has spelled trouble for Mexico’s government, which has already been busy trying to offset the brunt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats this year.The government and ranchers have sought to get the ban lifted. If it stays in place through the year, Mexico’s ranching federation estimates losses up to $400 million.Mexico’s Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said in a post on X that Mexico is “controlling the isolated case of screwworm in Nuevo Leon,” under measures to fight the pest agreed with the U.S. in August.U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Washington will take “decisive measures to protect our borders, even in the absence of cooperation” and said imports on Mexican cattle, bison and horses will remain suspended.“We will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply or our way of life,” she said.
Mexico activated emergency controls Monday after detecting a new case of New World screwworm in cattle in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon state, the closest case to the U.S. border since the outbreak began last year.
The animal, found in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, came from the Gulf state of Veracruz, Mexico’s National Health for Food Safety and Food Quality Service said. The last case was reported July 9 in Veracruz, prompting Washington to suspend imports of live Mexican cattle.
The parasite, a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, attacks warm-blooded animals, including humans. Mexico has reported more than 500 active cases in cattle across southern states.
The block on cattle imports has spelled trouble for Mexico’s government, which has already been busy trying to offset the brunt of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats this year.
The government and ranchers have sought to get the ban lifted. If it stays in place through the year, Mexico’s ranching federation estimates losses up to $400 million.
Mexico’s Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué said in a post on X that Mexico is “controlling the isolated case of screwworm in Nuevo Leon,” under measures to fight the pest agreed with the U.S. in August.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Washington will take “decisive measures to protect our borders, even in the absence of cooperation” and said imports on Mexican cattle, bison and horses will remain suspended.
“We will not rely on Mexico to defend our industry, our food supply or our way of life,” she said.
A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration program that would allow unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens to get legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. citizenship, declaring the policy illegal.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump, found the program violates U.S. immigration law, agreeing with a lawsuit filed by Texas and more than a dozen other Republican-led states.
The ruling is a major defeat for the outgoing Biden administration, which argued the policy, known as Keeping Families Together, promoted family unity among mixed-status households. When it was announced earlier this year, officials said roughly half-a-million undocumented immigrants were likely eligible for the program.
The Justice Department can appeal Thursday’s ruling, but the Keeping Families Together program is likely to be in the crosshairs of the incoming administration of Trump, who has vowed to dismantle President Biden’s immigration policies. Trump has separately vowed to seal and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and oversee the largest mass deportation in American history.
Representatives for the White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Keeping Families Together initiative was announced by Mr. Biden in June, just weeks after he took a different executive action to sharply limit asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The program would give work permits and deportation protections to undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens and have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years without committing serious crimes.
Most importantly, the policy would also allow these immigrants to apply for permanent residency, also known as a green card. After three years, green card holders married to U.S. citizens can apply for citizenship.
Immigrants who marry U.S. citizens are already eligible for a green card on paper. American immigration law, however, requires those who entered the U.S. illegally to leave the country and re-enter legally to be eligible for a green card. But leaving the U.S. after living in the country unlawfully for some time can trigger a 3 or 10-year exile, prompting many families to refrain from pursuing that option.
The Biden administration’s program would allow eligible immigrants to apply for a green card without having to leave the country by granting them an immigration benefit known as parole, which effectively cancels out their illegal entry.
In his ruling, Campbell Barker said the Biden administration did not have the legal authority to grant parole to unauthorized immigrants who are already in the U.S.
Former President Donald Trump delivered remarks at Mar-a-Lago focused on the economy, immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border as both presidential campaigns make last-minute efforts to court undecided voters. CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez has more.
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Most of the 30,000 residents of the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, are of Latino or Mexican descent, and are proud of the town’s bi-national, bi-cultural, bi-lingual traditions. But the city has also become a flashpoint in the national conversation about immigration. Correspondent Lee Cowan talks with locals who have seen their town become a draw for migrants, politicians, and Texas National Guard.
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Kamala Harris has been a candidate for president for just two-and-a-half months and the post convention “honeymoon” is over. With the election just 29 days away, Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz face unrelenting attacks from Donald Trump, and the race remains extremely close.
We met the 59-year-old vice president this past week on the campaign trail and later at the vice president’s residence in Washington, DC. We spoke about the economy and immigration, Ukraine, and China, but we began with the escalating war in the Middle East, one year after the Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Bill Whitaker: The events of the past few weeks have pushed us to the brink, if—if not into an all-out regional war in the Middle East. What can the U.S. do at this point to stop this from spinning out of control?
Vice President Kamala Harris: Well, let’s start with October 7. 1,200 people were massacred, 250 hostages were taken, including Americans, women were brutally raped, and as I said then, I maintain Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. This war has to end.
Bill Whitaker: We supply Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, and yet Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to be charting his own course. The Biden-Harris administration has pressed him to agree to a ceasefire. He’s resisted. You urged him not to go into Lebanon. He went in anyway. Does the U.S. have no sway over Prime Minister Netanyahu?
Vice President Kamala Harris: The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles.
Bill Whitaker: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
Vice President Kamala Harris: We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.
Bill Whitaker: Do we have a–a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I think, with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people. And the answer to that question is yes.
While the war in the Middle East has dominated recent headlines, it’s the economy that most concerns American voters this election year, as always.
Bill Whitaker: There are lots of signs that the American economy is doing very well, better than most countries, I think. But the American people don’t seem to be feeling it. Groceries are 25% higher and people are blaming you and Joe Biden for that. Are they wrong?
Vice President Kamala Harris: We now have historic low unemployment in America among all groups of people. We now have an economy that is thriving by all macroeconomic measures. And, to your point, prices are still too high. And I know that, and we need to deal with it, which is why part of my plan—you mentioned groceries. Part of my plan is what we must do to bring down the price of groceries.
Bill Whitaker and Vice President Kamala Harris
60 Minutes
Harris says she’ll press Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries, but details are yet to be defined.
Bill Whitaker: You want to give tax breaks to first-time home buyers.
Vice President Kamala Harris: Yes.
Bill Whitaker: And people starting small businesses.
Vice President Kamala Harris: Correct.
Bill Whitaker: But it is estimated by the Nonpartisan Committee for Responsible Federal Budget that your economic plan would add $3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. How are you gonna pay for that?
Vice President Kamala Harris: OK, so the other econ- economists that have reviewed my plan versus my opponent and determined that my economic plan would strengthen America’s economy. His would weaken it.
Bill Whitaker: But–
Vice President Kamala Harris: My plan, Bill, if you don’t mind, my plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses, you invest in the middle class, and you strengthen America’s economy. Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy.
Bill Whitaker: But—but pardon me, Madame Vice President, I– the– the question was, how are you going to pay for it?
Vice President Kamala Harris: Well, one of the things is I’m gonna make sure that the richest among us, who can afford it, pay their fair share in taxes. It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a har– a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations.
Bill Whitaker: But—but
Vice President Kamala Harris: And I plan on making that fair.
Bill Whitaker: But we’re dealing with the real world here.
Vice President Kamala Harris: But the real world includes—
Bill Whitaker: How are you gonna get this through Congress?
Vice President Kamala Harris
60 Minutes
Vice President Kamala Harris: You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about, ’cause their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses. Their constituents are middle-class, hard-working folk.
Bill Whitaker: And Congress has shown no inclination to move in your direction.
Vice President Kamala Harris: I– I disagree with you. There are plenty of leaders in Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up our federal deficit. None of us, and certainly I cannot afford to be myopic in terms of how I think about strengthening America’s economy. Lemme tell you something. I am a devout public servant. You know that. I am also a capitalist. And I know the limitations of government.
Kamala Harris has been in government for decades; she was first elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003, then California attorney general, she went on to the U.S. Senate, and now vice president.
Bill Whitaker: A quarter of registered voters still say they don’t know you. They don’t know what makes you tick. And– and why do you think that is? What–what’s the disconnect?
Vice President Kamala Harris: It’s an election, Bill. And I take– it seriously that I have to earn everyone’s vote. This is an election for president of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support. You have to earn it. And that’s what I intend to do.
Bill Whitaker: Lemme tell you what your critics and the columnists say.
Vice President Kamala Harris: OK.
Bill Whitaker: They say that the reason so many voters don’t know you is that you have changed your position on so many things. You were against fracking, now you’re for it. You supported looser immigration policies, now you’re tightening them up. You were for Medicare for all, now you’re not. So many that people don’t truly know what you believe or what you stand for. And I know you’ve heard that.
Vice President Kamala Harris: In the last four years I have been vice president of the United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people. Geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus. Where we can figure out compromise and understand it’s not a bad thing, as long as you don’t compromise your values, to find common-sense solutions. And that has been my approach.
But one issue that has proven impervious to compromise is immigration. Over the past four years, the Biden/Harris approach has been inconsistent, and Republicans are convinced immigration is the vice president’s achilles heel.
Bill Whitaker: You recently visited the southern border and– embraced President Biden’s recent crackdown on asylum seekers. And that crackdown produced an almost immediate and dramatic decrease in the number of border crossings. If that’s the right answer now, why didn’t your administration take those steps in 2021?
Vice President Kamala Harris: The first bill we proposed to Congress was to fix our broken immigration system, knowing that if you want to actually fix it, we need Congress to act. It was not taken up. Fast forward to a moment when a bipartisan group of members of the United States Senate, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, got together, came up with the border security bill. Well, guess what happened? Donald Trump got word that this bill was afoot and could be passed and he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem, so he told his buddies in Congress, “Kill the bill. Don’t let it move forward.”
Bill Whitaker: But I’ve been covering the border for– for years. And so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration.
Vice President Kamala Harris: Correct. Correct.
Bill Whitaker: But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?
Vice President Kamala Harris: It’s a longstanding problem. And solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions.
Bill Whitaker and Vice President Kamala Harris
60 Minutes
Bill Whitaker: What I was asking was, was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I think– the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem, okay? But the–
Bill Whitaker: But the numbers did quadruple under your–
Vice President Kamala Harris: And the numbers today–
Bill Whitaker: –under your watch–
Vice President Kamala Harris: –because of what we have done– we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half. We have cut the–
Bill Whitaker: But should you have done that–
Vice President Kamala Harris: –flow of fentanyl–
Bill Whitaker: –should you have done that–
Vice President Kamala Harris: –by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.
Bill Whitaker: You have accused Donald Trump of using racist tropes when it comes to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, when it comes to birtherism, when it comes to Charlottesville. In fact, you have called him a racist and divisive. Yet Donald Trump has the support of millions and millions of Americans. How do you explain that?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I am glad you’re pointing these comments out that he has made, that have resulted in a response by most reasonable people to say, “It’s just wrong. It’s just wrong.”
Bill Whitaker: With so many people supporting Donald Trump, a man you have called a racist. How do you bridge that seemingly unbridgeable gap?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I believe that the people of America want a leader who’s not tryin’ to divide us and demean. I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s based on who you lift up.
The Harris campaign has been hopscotching the country and with less than a month to go, the pace is picking up. The vice president told us, she’s lost track of how many states she’s visited.
Vice President Kamala Harris: How are you doing?
Bill Whitaker: I’m doing well.
Vice President Kamala Harris: You well?
We joined her on the trail late last week, in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin, in the town of Ripon, the birthplace in 1854 of the Republican Party.
And at a rally plastered with “country over party” banners, Harris appeared with staunch conservative Liz Cheney. As vice chair of the House January 6th Committee, Cheney became one of Donald Trump’s fiercest critics.
Liz Cheney: I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris (applause)
That proclamation spurred a chant of approval from the crowd…
Bill Whitaker: Four years ago if someone had told you that you would be campaigning with Liz Cheney, what would you have said to them?
Vice President Kamala Harris: That’d be great. (laughter)
Liz Cheney: She’s really diplomatic. (laughter)
Bill Whitaker: Would you ever have thought that you’d be campaigning with Kamala Harris?
Liz Cheney: I hope that if you had said to me four years ago, “Our constitution is going to be under threat and it’s gonna be crucial for the parties to come together– and to support Vice President Harris because she’ll defend the rule of law”– I know I would’ve said, “That’s exactly what I’ll do.”
Whoever wins the presidency will take on a host of daunting challenges, especially beyond our borders. Back in Washington, Vice President Harris told us she’s determined the U.S must win the economic competition with China for the 21st century. And as for the war between Russia and Ukraine?
Bill Whitaker: What does success look like in ending the war in Ukraine?
Vice President Kamala Harris: There will be no success in ending that war without Ukraine and the UN charter participating in what that success looks like.
Bill Whitaker: Would you meet with President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a solution to the war in Ukraine?
Vice President Kamala Harris: Not bilaterally without Ukraine, no. Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine.
Bill Whitaker: As president, would you support the effort to expand NATO to include Ukraine?
Vice President Kamala Harris: Those are all issues that we will deal with if and when it arrives at that point. Right now, we are supporting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked aggression. Donald Trump, if he were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now. He talks about, “Oh, he can end it on day one.” You know what that is? It’s about surrender.
Bill Whitaker: A hard left turn here. But– you recently surprised people when you said that you are a gun owner and that if someone came into your house–
Vice President Kamala Harris: That was not the first time I’ve– I’ve–
Bill Whitaker: –they would get shot.
Vice President Kamala Harris: –talked about it. That’s not the first time I’ve talked about it.
Bill Whitaker: So what kind of gun do you own, and when and why did you get it?
Vice President Kamala Harris: I have a Glock, and– I’ve had it for quite some time. And– I mean, look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement. And– so there you go.
Bill Whitaker: Have you– ever fired it?
Vice President Kamala Harris: Yes. (laugh) Of course I have. At a shooting range. Yes, of course I have.
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz was little-known outside Minnesota just two months ago. He didn’t exactly come from nowhere. He was a six-term congressman and now is governor of Minnesota, where he has championed abortion rights, gun control, and other progressive ideas. But it was calling former President Trump and Sen. JD Vance “weird” that may have landed him on the ticket.
60 Minutes
Bill Whitaker: Two months ago, you and Kamala Harris barely knew each other. Now, you’re running together, vying for the top offices in the land. It’s not possible that you agree on everything.
Gov. Tim Walz: Yeah.
Bill Whitaker: What have been some disagreements you’ve had since you became a team?
Gov. Tim Walz: Well—I—she’d probably disagreed with—she said, “Tim, you know, you need to be a little more careful on how you say (laugh) things,” whatever it might be.
Whatever it might be, Walz has been criticized for embellishing or telling outright falsehoods about his military record, and about his travels to Asia in the 1980s.
Bill Whitaker: In your debate with JD Vance, you said, “I’m a knucklehead (laugh) at times.” And I think you were referring to the time that you said that you were in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square unrest when you were not.
Gov. Tim Walz: Yeah.
Bill Whitaker: Is that kind of misrepresentation, isn’t that more than just being a knucklehead?
Gov. Tim Walz: I think folks know who I am. And I think they know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong by–you–rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump.
Bill Whitaker: But I think it comes down to the question of whether—whether you can be trusted to tell the truth.
Gov. Tim Walz: Yeah. Well– I can– I think I can. I will own up to being a knucklehead at times, but the folks closest to me know that I keep my word.
Walz proudly touts his record as governor of Minnesota, but it also has opened him up to criticism from his Republican opponents.
Bill Whitaker: Former President Trump says that you and your administration here in Minnesota has been dangerously liberal. Radical left, he calls it. So, what do you say to that criticism, that rather than leading the way, you and Minnesota are actually out of step with the rest of the country?
Gov. Tim Walz: President Trump may be referring to that – that our children get breakfast and lunch in school so that they can learn. He may be talkin’ about we have a paid family medical leave policy that was promoted by the business community. Donald Trump spends his time tearing down states rather than lifting up the things we do, the best of it. Donald Trump’s critiques of that, not only are they wrong, but I’m waiting for, “What—what is his solution? Here in Minnesota, we’re so optimistic, we walk on water half the year (laugh).
It was that kind of humor and candor that helped land Tim Walz the job as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
Bill Whitaker: Before you joined the– ticket, you called Republicans “weird.” And that’s sort of become a rallying cry for Democrats. Why do you think that label stuck?
Gov. Tim Walz: I was really talking about the behaviors. Being obsessed with people’s personal lives in their bedrooms and their reproductive rights, making up stories about legal –folks legally here eating cats and dogs, they’re dehumanizing. They go beyond weird because I said this: it becomes almost dangerous. Let’s debate policy in a real way and let’s try and find an objective truth again.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are in a full sprint to November 5th, hoping their arguments will give them a chance to cross the line ahead of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Bill Whitaker: You are sitting here with us. The Trump campaign canceled an interview that they had agreed to, to participate in this broadcast. What do you make of that?
Vice President Kamala Harris: If he is not gonna give your viewers the ability to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, question and answer with you, then watch his rallies. You’re gonna hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances. And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener. You will not hear about how he is gonna try to bring the country together, find common ground. And, Bill, that is why I believe in my soul and heart, the American people are ready to turn the page.
Produced by Marc Lieberman and Rome Hartman. Associate producers: Cassidy McDonald, Matthew Riley and LaCrai Scott. Broadcast associates: Mariah Johnson and Georgia Rosenberg. Edited by Warren Lustig and Craig Crawford.
Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.
On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Arizona to visit the U.S.-Mexico border. She plans to criticize former President Donald Trump for his role in blocking a bipartisan border security and immigration bill earlier this year. Meanwhile Trump will be in New York, meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before heading to Michigan.
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The number of migrant apprehensions have dropped dramatically since the beginning of the year. Adam Yamaguchi visited the U.S.-Mexico border near Tucson, Arizona, to find out what’s working.
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CBS News polls consistently show that democracy and the American Dream itself are on the ballot this November, but why do voters think that? And how do their personal lives shape their views on our national conversations? CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto spoke with people from across America, including some who participated in our polls, to find out.
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John Dickerson reports on the new immigration policy affecting asylum seekers at the southern border, NATO military exercises in the Baltic region, and what’s behind the slew of liberal arts schools shutting down.
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John Dickerson reports on an executive order that could restrict asylum processing at the southern border, the historic election outcome in Mexico, and what’s really behind the dark web.
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Law enforcement officials — with the help of sniffer dogs — seized nearly six tons of methamphetamine hidden within a shipment of green squash this week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
The illicit substance was discovered inside 1,419 packages within the squash shipment, the agency said in a news release.
The shipment was found in a commercial tractor-trailer being driven by a 44-year-old man on Monday evening. When CBP officers at the Otay Mesa port in San Diego, California encountered the man, they requested that his truck undergo further examination, the agency said.
After scans of the tractor trailer detected “irregularities,” a canine team responded and alerted officers to the presence of narcotics.
The 11,469 pounds of meth found have an estimated street value of over $18 million, the CBP said.
A package of methamphetamine found among green squash.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
The drugs were seized, as was the vehicle. The unidentified driver, who had a valid border crossing card, was turned over to the custody of Homeland Security for further investigation.
The seizure was done as part of Operation Apollo, a CBP operation working to target fentanyl smuggling in southern California and Arizona. The operation connects local CBP officers with federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners, the agency said, increasing collaboration between the groups and allowing them to share resources and intelligence.
“Our officers’ commitment to duty, excellence, and the safety of our nation is truly commendable. These results serve as an outstanding display of effectiveness in thwarting the illegal importation of narcotics,” stated Rosa E. Hernandez, the Otay Mesa Area Port Director, in the news release. “Their exceptional efforts truly embody the highest standards of service.”
Nearly six tons of methamphetamine were found by officers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
It’s far from the first time a massive shipment of illicit drugs has been found inside a food shipment. More than 750 pounds of fentanyl pills were found hidden among a shipment of green beans being transported through the Otay Mesa port in April 2023. The deadly synthetic opioid has also been found smuggled in flour bags and candy boxes, CBS News previously reported.
CBP agents found more than 3,000 pounds of methamphetamine and cocaine hidden in bins of jalapeño paste being transported over the border in December 2023.
Since Oct. 1, 2023, CBP agents have seized over 12,000 shipments of illegal drugs at border checkpoints. That includes over 3,300 methamphetamine seizures.
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
The Biden administration on Thursday announced an effort to shorten the time it takes for U.S. immigration judges to decide the asylum cases of certain migrants who enter the country illegally along the border with Mexico.
Migrant adults released by federal border officials after crossing into the U.S. unlawfully will be eligible to be placed in the program, under a joint initiative between the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts.
The effort’s objective, senior U.S. officials said, is to speed up the process of granting asylum to migrants with legitimate cases, and rejecting weak cases. Federal officials under Republican and Democratic administrations have said the current years-long timeframe to decide asylum cases serves as a “pull factor” that attracts migration by economic migrants, who don’t qualify for humanitarian protection, but who often use the asylum system to work in the U.S.
Over the past years, the backlog of cases received by the immigration courts has ballooned, leading to wait times that often surpass four years. Fewer than 800 immigration judges are overseeing more than 3.5 million unresolved cases.
Single migrant adults who plan to live in five major U.S. cities — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City — could be selected for the new process, which will instruct immigration judges to issue decisions within 180 days, instead of years.
Since the Obama administration, the U.S. has set up several similar programs, colloquially known as “rocket dockets.” While officials have portrayed them as ways to discourage illegal immigration, advocates have said the rocket dockets trample on migrants’ due process by making it more difficult for them to secure lawyers in time for their hearings.
The scope of Thursday’s announcement was not immediately clear, as U.S. officials declined to provide an estimate of the number of migrants who would be placed in the fast-track proceedings. Ten judges have been assigned to the program, one of the officials said during a call with reporters.
The latest rocket docket is the most recent step taken by the Biden administration to curtail unlawful border crossings, which spiked last year to record levels. Last week, the Biden administration published a proposed rule that would allow immigration officials to more quickly reject and deport asylum-seeking migrants who are deemed to endanger public safety or national security.
Last year, the administration implemented a regulation that presumes migrants are ineligible for U.S. asylum if they enter the country illegally after failing to request refuge in another country. It paired that policy with a vast expansion of avenues for some would-be migrants to enter the U.S. legally.
President Biden, who has increasingly embraced more restrictive border policies, has also been considering a more sweeping measure that would further restrict asylum for those entering the U.S. illegally. The move, which would rely on a presidential authority known as 212(f), would almost certainly face legal challenges.
Administration officials have argued they are exploring unilateral immigration actions due to the collapse of a border security agreement that the White House forged with a bipartisan group of senators earlier this year. While the deal would have severely restricted asylum and increased deportations without legalizing unauthorized immigrants, most Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, rejected it outright.
“This administrative step is no substitute for the sweeping and much-needed changes that the bipartisan Senate bill would deliver, but in the absence of congressional action we will do what we can to most effectively enforce the law and discourage irregular migration,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Thursday.
The Biden administration has faced unprecedented levels of migration along the southern border, including over two million migrant apprehensions in each of the past two years.
Migrants line up to be transferred by U.S. Border Patrol after having crossed the Bravo River in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, Mexico, on April 18, 2024.
HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images
In recent months, however, migrant crossings have plunged, bucking historical patterns that have seen migration soar in the spring. Last month, Border Patrol recorded nearly 129,000 migrant apprehensions, down from 137,000 in March, according to government data. U.S. officials have credited increased deportations and an immigration crackdown by Mexico for the surprising drop.
