The Friday evening cast of PBS News Hour featuring moderator Geoff Bennett, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, and New York Times columnist David Brooks briefly broke character to heap praise on President Trump for his role in securing a ceasefire agreement that will see Israeli hostages return home. However, the trio quickly reverted back to form and freaked out that New York Attorney General Letitia James was recently indicted for mortgage fraud.
Capehart began the Gaza discussion by declaring, “Look, I'm going to say something that I have never said before and that this audience has never heard me say before. Kudos to the president. I think we are at this point because the president was single — he was focused, single-mindedly focused, on getting something, getting a deal done, getting the hostages out.”
At the same time, Capehart stressed there is still more work to be done, “The hard part comes after he leaves the region, after we get past phase one, assuming we get the 20 — that the Israeli hostages released, the 20 who are presumed alive, after the 2,000 Palestinians are released by Israel.”
Eventually, Bennett turned to Brooks and wondered, “Given the history of dashed hopes in the region, what gives you hope that this agreement can endure?”
Brooks began by joking, “I got hope when Jonathan praised the president. So I have my fingers crossed—he deserves the Nobel Prize. I thought you were going to go there. You know, it's impressive, what Trump has — did.”
He then added, “First, he got together with the Saudis and the Qataris in New York during U.N. Week and came up with this 20-point plan. And then he understood how to deal with Netanyahu. And I should say, in fairness, the Trump administration, both the first term and the second term, has been better on the Middle East than the Obama and Biden administration. There's something about that region he sort of gets.”
A few moments later, Bennett returned to Capehart to talk about James as the positive vibes ended, “And we talked about this last week, when the focus was solely on Comey, but President Trump's campaign of retribution is expanding.”
Capehart thought it was obvious that the charges against James are politically motivated, “He's on the record as saying they are guilty of something. Pam, go find it, Pam being the attorney general, Pam Bondi. So this is chilling because you now have a Justice Department that is supposed to, at least nominally, be separate and removed from the White House, taking orders from the president of the United States, who famously said, where's my Roy Cohn? Well, his Roy Cohn is named Pam Bondi.”
Bennett then asked Brooks, “David, there are supporters of the president who say that Letitia James ran on a campaign of going after Donald Trump and that this is simply accountability coming full circle, that this is justified reciprocity, to which you would say what?”
Brooks confessed that he would “somewhat agree” that the only reason James prosecuted Trump was because of who he is, but he still didn’t appreciate James being held to the same standard, “Nonetheless, what matters is the evidence. And Letitia James, she's accused of doing mortgage fraud that would have produced a benefit over the lifetime of the loan of $18,000. Now, you think about the numbers Donald Trump inflated his property values, they were not $18,000. They were times 100 million of that.”
He added, “And so the evidence against Comey is slight. The case against James is — it would have been — no one would have prosecuted. We know that because other prosecutors refused to do it. And so this is clearly a revenge prosecution. Donald Trump makes it hard on us pundits, because he's so blatant, there's nothing interesting to say.”
When Trump was convicted in New York, Brooks and Capehart hailed the idea that a jury of his peers found him guilty was proof that the case against him wasn’t a witch hunt. For now, at least, a grand jury has decided there is enough for an indictment. Does that mean that James’s peers are in on it too?
Here is a transcript for the October 10 show:
PBS News Hour
10/10/2025
7:35 PM ET
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Look, I'm going to say something that I have never said before and that this audience has never heard me say before. Kudos to the president. I think we are at this point because the president was single — he was focused, single-mindedly focused, on getting something, getting a deal done, getting the hostages out. The hard part comes after he leaves the region, after we get past phase one, assuming we get the 20 — that the Israeli hostages released, the 20 who are presumed alive, after the 2,000 Palestinians are released by Israel.
…
GEOFF BENNETT: And given the history of dashed hopes in the region, what gives you hope that this agreement can endure?
DAVID BROOKS: I got hope when Jonathan praised the president. So I have my fingers crossed—he deserves the Nobel Prize. I thought you were going to go there. You know, it's impressive, what Trump has — did.
First, he got together with the Saudis and the Qataris in New York during U.N. Week and came up with this 20-point plan. And then he understood how to deal with Netanyahu. And I should say, in fairness, the Trump administration, both the first term and the second term, has been better on the Middle East than the Obama and Biden administration.
There's something about that region he sort of gets. And so the way to deal with Biden — the way you deal with Netanyahu is, you show total support for Israel at the same time you're leaning on them. And so I think that the Biden people, when they were always withdrawing and threatening and saying, “don't do that,” that made Israel feel insecure.
And they had to negotiate from a position of security and then they could bend. And so he got Bibi to go against his far right colleagues who wanted to basically annex the Gaza. And there is, like, now a separate Gaza territory, and that's an important achievement.
…
BENNETT: And we talked about this last week, when the focus was solely on Comey, but President Trump's campaign of retribution is expanding.
CAPEHART: Yeah, because this is what he told us he was going to do. The people he — the folks who have been indicted or expected to be indicted soon or on the list, people like Senator Adam Schiff of California, private citizen now Miles Taylor, the president made it clear that he wants something done and he wants his Justice Department to do it.
He's on the record as saying they are guilty of something. Pam, go find it, Pam being the attorney general, Pam Bondi.
So this is chilling because you now have a Justice Department that is supposed to, at least nominally, be separate and removed from the White House, taking orders from the president of the United States, who famously said, where's my Roy Cohn? Well, his Roy Cohn is named Pam Bondi.
BENNETT: David, there are supporters of the president who say that Letitia James ran on a campaign of going after Donald Trump and that this is simply accountability coming full circle, that this is justified reciprocity, to which you would say what?
BROOKS: Well, that's how Donald Trump clearly thinks. He thinks they were politically motivated prosecutions and I somewhat agree with him. I don't think Trump would have been brought up on those charges if he hadn't been Donald Trump.
Nonetheless, what matters is the evidence. And Letitia James, she's accused of doing mortgage fraud that would have produced a benefit over the lifetime of the loan of $18,000. Now, you think about the numbers Donald Trump inflated his property values, they were not $18,000. They were times 100 million of that.
And so the evidence against Comey is slight. The case against James is — it would have been — no one would have prosecuted. We know that because other prosecutors refused to do it.
CAPEHART: Right.
BROOKS: And so this is clearly a revenge prosecution. Donald Trump makes it hard on us pundits, because he's so blatant, there's nothing interesting to say.
