“Brooks and Capehart on the year in politics and what’s ahead in 2023–and goodbye to Judy Woodruff”, PBS NewsHour

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• Judy Woodruff:

  And now we continue reflecting on 2022 and the new year ahead with the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

  That’s New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

  Hello to both of you on this Friday night, last Friday night of the year, December the 30th. It’s very good to see you, Jonathan joining us from Italy.

  We admire the fireplace behind you.

  (LAUGHTER)

• Judy Woodruff:

  Jonathan, a lot to look back on, which is what I want to ask both of you to do. We have heard from some of our viewers just now.

  But if you look back on 2022, Jonathan, what are you thinking about positively? What are you thinking about otherwise?

  And I have to say, the news is happening right up until today, Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader in the House, agreeing to do whatever he needed to do to secure the speakership

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Well, of all the big things that happened in 2022, the two big things for me were the January 6 hearings over the summer.

  They were, as I have said many times on Friday night, they were really important for history. But I think, after now going through nine hearings, plus the final report, what we have seen or what I have seen is, these hearings were a slow burn. They captured the imagination of the American people, the interest of the American people by the way they were handled.

  But then — and this leads to the second thing that I — big story for me for 2022 — is the results of the midterm elections.

  And I think that those hearings demonstrating to the American people just what was done by the former president of the United States and people who supported him to try to subvert a free and fair election drove a lot of people, not just Democrats, but we saw lots of Republicans joining independents and Democrats pushing back against extremism within the Republican Party and rejecting big lie pushers, the folks who were constant he’s saying that the 2020 election were — was stolen and supporters — people who were supported by former President Donald Trump.

  Those people who went out to vote in the midterm elections saved our democracy in this last election. And I think that that is, for me, the biggest story and the biggest result out of 2022.

• Judy Woodruff:

  There’s so much look back on.

• David Brooks:

  Yes.

• Judy Woodruff:

  What are you taking…

  (CROSSTALK)

• David Brooks:

  First, I have got fireplace envy. That’s the best fireplace I have ever…

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  I knew Jonathan was going to Italy. I didn’t know he was staying with the Medicis.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  I look back, it’s a bad year for authoritarians. And so Russia invaded Ukraine, but the freedom-loving people of Ukraine fought back.

  Russia was revealed as not only malevolent, but incompetent, and a regime that’s really rotting from the inside. Things didn’t go so well for Xi in China. Their COVID policies have been shambolic or worse. And so it reminds you of the tendencies that authoritarian regimes, as they age, they get more rigid and more corrupt.

  And it reminds us that our system, for all its many flaws, is adaptable. It takes full advantage of the talent of its people. And it was not only bad for authoritarians abroad, but here, as Jonathan said.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  To me, it was the January 6 leading up to those midterm results, which really, to me, not 100 percent-proof wall against Donald Trump reentering the White House, but I do think, at least at the moment, there’s an anti-Trump majority that wants to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Jonathan, anything else positive you want to say about 2022, before we move to the coming — next year?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  I’m looking forward looking to the next year.

  The big thing, what’s the 2022 midterm elections for me.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

  Well, let’s — I mean, let’s pick it up. I mean, what about the year ahead? It’s just two days from now. What are you looking for? What gives you hope right now?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Well, I don’t know so much about hope, but what I’m looking for is the big vote that’s going to happen on Tuesday, on January 3, the vote for the next speaker.

  And a lot hinges on how that vote goes. If Kevin McCarthy, now House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, actually gets the 218 votes to secure the speaker’s gavel, how many compromises and concessions has he made to the Freedom Caucus, to Marjorie Taylor Greene, to others, to the other never-Kevins, in order to get those votes?

  Will he be a weak speaker? And then that gets to my biggest fear. And that is that this incoming Republican majority is even more extreme than the Republican majority in 2011 that played games with the debt ceiling. You can’t play games with the debt ceiling, not in 2011, and you certainly shouldn’t be doing it in 2022, that that’s what I’m afraid is going to happen with this incoming Republican majority in the House.

  And that is — that is the big thing I’m watching, because if the United States does not pay its bills, and pay its bills on time, and the full faith and credit of the United States is destroyed, well, we catch hell in the United States, but the global financial system could collapse as well.

  And no one wants to see that.

• Judy Woodruff:

  What are your worries as you look ahead?

• David Brooks:

  Yes, I’m always irrationally optimistic, as you may remember.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  So, I’m looking forward, I hope, to a year when Ukraine wins this war. I don’t know if they will get 100 percent of what they want, but I do think they’re heading in that trajectory. And that would just be a massive, defining moment for our decade.

  I’m hopeful that we’re in a moment where the economy will remain strong, and inflation does seem to be coming down. And so that will be a great burden off a lot of people. I’m hoping, whatever happens in the Republican run-up to the primaries, that a lot of candidates step forward, and maybe, maybe, maybe we will see the waning of Donald Trump.

  And so those are the things I’m hopeful about for the year. There’s one thing I’m certain about for the year, which is that your journalism is…

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  … going to be more exciting and better than ever.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  There’s a — we have this phase…

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  … in life.

  And, here, I’m hijacking the segment from you for a few minutes, Judy.

• Judy Woodruff:

  It sounds like it. It sounds like it.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  People step down from a job, but they have got many years of vitality and vital service ahead of them.

  And we don’t have a name for that phase of life. So, I’m calling it the prime of life.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  And you’re entering the prime of life.

  And I know the journalism you’re going to do in the coming years is just going to be so rewarding to — for you and rewarding for us. And it is on a moment, your final day and as a full-time anchor here, to reflect on — with gratitude on the gifts you have given me, to Jonathan, I think everybody in this building.

  And you have set a tone, a culture, and a set of values. And it’s just easy to be better when you’re around you. And that involves the values of dedication, hard work — you’re the hardest-working person I know in journalism — a spirit of kindness, a spirit of generosity, and a spirit of humility.

  There’s — ego is not allowed here. And that radiates from you.

  And, just finally, you have done it in a difficult moment in journalism, when we have had to be fair to everybody, be neutral and objective, but at the same time not be morally neutered, not not react when moral outrageous and cruelties happen.

  And it’s been hard to walk that line, but I have admired the way you have done that over the last — and I — I think Jonathan wants to add something.

• Judy Woodruff:

  That touches my heart, David.

  (LAUGHTER)

• Judy Woodruff:

  Over the top.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Yes, I’m relatively — I’m relatively new to the table, even though I have been around the table for two years.

  But, Judy, you have welcomed me with open arms. You are — and so, therefore, I don’t have all the personal history and story that David does with you.

  But you are such an avatar for the profession. You’re someone who — you’re inscrutable. There’s no one anywhere in the country or the world who watches you who can tell what your views are.

  And let me tell you, for those who are watching, when I’m sitting at the table, and I’m looking at Judy, and I’m giving my opinion, she gives me this flat look, where I’m thinking…

  (LAUGHTER)

• Jonathan Capehart:

  … does she think an I’m — she thinks I’m an idiot, or I don’t know what she’s thinking.

  (LAUGHTER)

• Judy Woodruff:

  Never.

  (LAUGHTER)

• Jonathan Capehart:

  But that is — but that is the quintessential — that’s quintessentially you, Judy.

  But I want people to understand that folks who — I’m on the opinion side. David is on the opinion side. Our job is to tell you what we think. Judy is on the news side. Her job is to tell you what is happening, and why it’s happening, in the context of history and the context of the moment.

  Her job is not to tell you what she thinks. And so, if you don’t think, for real, that news side journalists don’t take that job seriously, then just look at Judy Woodruff and her work, not just at PBS, but when she was at CNN and other places.

  And I’m really looking forward to your reporting over the next couple of years, Judy, about what’s happening in the country, and what people are really thinking.

  And I can’t think of anyone better for people to talk to, and really talk to, and share what they’re thinking about this country than you.

  So, Judy, cheers.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Wow. Oh, my gosh.

  (CROSSTALK)

• Jonathan Capehart:

  We don’t have a glass. We’re going to — what I’m wondering is, why didn’t I ask you all about this a long time ago?

• David Brooks:

  Much sooner.

  I have actually…

  (LAUGHTER)

• Judy Woodruff:

  I could have been hearing this for years. Instead, I have waited until my last night as the anchor.

• David Brooks:

  But we’re happy to — yes. Yes.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I just have to say what a joy it is to sit across a table or across continents and oceans from the two of you.

  I mean, we read your columns. We know generally what you’re thinking, but to have you here, to have the benefit of your thought process, your humanity, as you think about, as you share with us your ideas, and what you feel strongly about, and what matters to you, our audience just has so — is so taken by that.

  And we know that by the enormous response that we get.

• David Brooks:

  If I could share, just one minute, just some personal reminiscences…

• Judy Woodruff:

  Uh-oh.

• David Brooks:

  … when I think of just scenes that we have shared together.

  First, sitting in this room, and you come over to where Jonathan are sitting, and you have got a list of questions.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  You have been doing this a fair bit, but you are always so prepared with the questions.

  Second, I think of just somehow a scene that leaps in my mind. It was after one of the conventions we covered. Maybe it was Gwen’s last convention.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  And you guys high-fiving after a four-hour broadcast. That — just the camaraderie between the two of you was fun.

  I can’t not remember the time you sang at my bachelor party.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  People don’t know this, but Ruth Marcus and Judy and two other friends sang at…

• Judy Woodruff:

  Right. That’s right.

• David Brooks:

  … my bachelor party, which just shows how raucous a bachelor party it was.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And now we know why I don’t sing for a living.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  That’s very witty.

• Judy Woodruff:

  But that was much fun.

• David Brooks:

  And then the final thing that leaps to mind is, in the makeup room after the show, there’s often a suitcase there, and it’s your suitcase.

  (LAUGHTER)

• David Brooks:

  And you’re off to host an awards show for young journalists or something in honor of journalists who are under fire and under threat.

  You’re flying off somewhere to do something. And that’s part of the wider service. And so those are some of the memories that I that have.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, it’s — that’s just incredibly over the top. I’m just so grateful to the two of you.

  I mean, I barely know what to say.

• David Brooks:

  You don’t have to say anything.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I’m completely embarrassed and humbled by this, for the audience to have to listen to this.

  But I have to come back and say to both of you, again, what a — what a treasure I consider it to be able to work with you.

  I think back to the people who’ve been fortunate to sit at this desk, Jim Lehrer here in Washington, of course, Gwen, whom both of you knew so well, and the amazing human being she was. And we have lost her.

  So, there’s a lot of memories here tonight, but I also think about the fantastic future of this program with our new co-anchors, Amna Nawaz, Geoff Bennett. They’re going to be here. The same team of correspondents is going to be here.

  And so the “NewsHour” will go on.

• David Brooks:

  Yes.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I’m stepping away to do something different for the next few years. Very excited about reporting on the American people and, as you said, Jonathan, what their hopes, dreams, aspirations are, and how they think we can heal some of our — some of our divisions.

  But I leave, as I will say in a minute with an even longer speech, how much my heart is full tonight.

  What a treasure for me, what a gift for me to be able to work with both of you.

• David Brooks:

  Yes. Thanks a billion, Judy.

• Judy Woodruff:

  David Brooks…

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Thanks, Judy.

• Judy Woodruff:

  … Jonathan Capehart, thank you.