September 11, 2026 - PBS News Hour full episode - PBS

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

Major corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...More

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

PBS News Hour is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Americans remember the lives lost in the September 11 attacks 25 years ago.

We look at how that day led to the longest war in U.S.

history and how it transformed the nation.

Secretary of State: It was just a really terrible, terrible assault on our nation.

We were more unified than we've been in a long time.

GEOFF BENNETT: Iran-backed Houthi rebels capture an island at the entrance to the Red Sea, threatening one of the world's key shipping lanes for oil exports.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Republicans wrap up their first ever midterm convention.

Did it give the party the boost it needs heading into the elections?

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Families, survivors, first responders, and dignitaries spent much of this day marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with somber and poignant ceremonies.

GEOFF BENNETT: That included major gatherings in New York, a memorial attended by President Trump at the Pentagon, and a service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people and sent the country on a course that would define the next quarter-century.

BOY: On behalf of Atay (ph), Kuya (ph), and Dee Dee (ph), thank you for being our guardian angel.

GEOFF BENNETT: Where the Twin Towers once touched the sky, this morning names of the dead echoed in memorial.

GEOFF BENNETT: Each one a testament to a life cut short 25 years ago.

MAN: These were full three-dimensional people.

And if they were here today, I think they would prefer that we remember them for how they lived versus how they died.

GEOFF BENNETT: Family members read out each name over roughly four hours, accompanied by music, moments of silence, and bell ringing... (BELL RINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: ... to mark when the four planes crashed and two towers fell that day; 25 years ago, New York was the first place struck in the attacks, shocking the city and the nation.

American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the World Trade Center's North Tower at 8:46 a.m.

A second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, followed at 9:03.

Roughly 30 minutes later, another plane, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon, creating a fireball.

And at 10:03, United Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers fought back against the hijackers.

By the end of the hour, the Twin Towers had collapsed and the country was forever changed.

(BELL RINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: Those paying tribute at Ground Zero today included every living former president and first lady, Vice President J.D.

Vance, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

(SINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: The moment was first marked at the Pentagon at dawn when a flag was unfurled.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hours later, President Trump spoke at a memorial service for the 184 men and women who died in that attack, praising the sacrifice of the U.S.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: In 25 years, a generation has passed since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

Yet time has not dimmed the honor of that day when our country came face-to-face with true evil.

GEOFF BENNETT: Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's national security adviser on September 11, spoke as well.

Secretary of State: But I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel and for the trauma that our country endured.

(BELL RINGING) GEOFF BENNETT: And, in Shanksville, bells and speeches honored the 40 lives lost on United Airlines Flight 93.

One notable contrast to ceremonies of the past, more explicit political remarks in some cases, including President Trump, who tied support for the Iran war to the memory of 9/11.

DONALD TRUMP: We will never, ever forget.

GEOFF BENNETT: And in Manhattan, the relatives of two victims accused the government of withholding information about the role Saudi Arabia played in the attacks and called for accountability.

TERRY STRADA, Widow of 9/11 Victim: For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis, instead of standing with the 9/11 families.

(CHEERING) GEOFF BENNETT: Though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement in 9/11.

Many of those gathered urged a return to the national sense of unity that followed the attacks.

GREG CARAFELLO, 9/11 Survivor: The camaraderie you had after 9/11 was amazing.

And I don't know -- the young people have not experienced.

They have only experienced the bitter polarization and so on.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, more than a quarter of all living Americans, roughly 100 million people, were not yet born on September 11, 2001.

For Sonia Argon, a recovery worker at Ground Zero, that made the act of remembering this year more important than ever.

SONIA ARGON, Ground Zero Recovery Worker: And it's 25 years later, and we have a bunch of people that still don't understand.

And my mission is to help them understand that they inherited this world and what's normal for them is abnormal for us.

I don't know why it's harder than any other year.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, today, the CIA released its largest ever batch of declassified presidential intelligence briefs on the threat from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida before 9/11.

Among the 71 documents is a September 1998 brief warning that Osama bin Laden's preferred option is to strike the U.S.

on its own soil in Washington, adding that al-Qaida may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S.

The documents show both the Clinton and Bush administrations received repeated warnings, but experts say they do not fundamentally change what was known.

The threat was clear, while the intelligence lacked the timing and specifics needed to identify the coming attack.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: Houthi rebels in Yemen consolidated lightning gains across the country's Western coast.

The group recently resumed fighting with the Saudi-backed government, saying at least 82 people have been killed or wounded in recent Saudi-led attacks.

The Houthis have extended their hold on a crucial choke point at the southern reaches of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

ALI ROGIN: In one of the most watched waterways in the world today, Yemen's Houthi fighters captured the strategic island of Mayun.

It's volcanic, nearly empty, and for the first time in years, Houthi-controlled.

They didn't even have to fight for it.

Overnight, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces slipped away.

MAN (through translator): Now we now we place a chain from there to there.

ALI ROGIN: A chain that could cripple global trade.

It started here in Mokha yesterday, the Red Sea port where Saudi-backed forces collapsed in a single day.

Today, Houthis control it for the first time in a decade.

Saudi Arabia hit back, striking its airport.

But Saudi Arabia also wanted American help.

A person familiar tells "PBS News Hour" the kingdom formally requested U.S.

consistently helps Riyadh militarily, but has not yet agreed to launch airstrikes.

For Mokha, Houthi fighters pushed south and reached Mayun today.

Together, Mokha and Mayun give the Houthis something they have never fully controlled, both shores of the Bab al-Mandab Strait that carries roughly a 10th of the world's trade.

It matters even more now with Iran and the U.S.

battling over the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis say they're only blocking Saudi ships.

YAHYA SAREE, Houthi Military Spokesman (through translator): The Yemeni armed forces affirm that maritime navigation is safe for all companies except for Saudi vessels.

We will continue and meet escalation with escalation until the aggression stops and the blockade on our dear people is lifted.

ALI ROGIN: But, tonight, Saudi Arabia's own lifeline may already be burning.

Satellite data from Saudi Arabia shows black smoke rising near the East-West Pipeline, Riyadh's only route to move oil away from the Strait of Hormuz.

The kingdom said it shut it down as a precautionary measure following the attack.

A regional official told the "News Hour" it was not the Houthis, but an Iran-backed Shia militia in Iraq, that launched the attack.

Tonight, even away from the coast, the signs of escalation keep coming.

Houthi media circulated this footage, which they say shows the wreckage of a Saudi drone shot down as tensions continue to escalate.

Two choke points choking not just trade and oil flows, but the chance at a swift resolution to this wider war.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Ali Rogin.

AMNA NAWAZ: Also, today, the latest reading on U.S.

inflation is fueling speculation that the Fed will raise interest rates when it meets next week.

The Labor Department said this morning that consumer prices rose 3.4 percent in August when compared to last year.

That's the same as a month earlier.

And energy prices remain elevated, with fighting in the Middle East showing no signs of easing.

In fact, diesel prices hit record highs above $6 a gallon today.

And that has a knock-on effect, since it pushes up the costs of shipping for groceries and other goods.

Health officials today declared an end to this year's cyclospora outbreak, which was the largest in U.S.

The FDA expressed confidence that the recalled iceberg lettuce related to this particular outbreak is now off the market.

Federal data shows that nearly 13,000 people across 21 states fell ill with the intestinal parasite this summer.

Most were in Michigan, where two deaths were tied to the disease.

The FDA says it will continue its investigation into the outbreak's origins and how infections became so widespread.

In the U.K., lawmakers rejected a proposal to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales.

WOMAN: The ayes to the right 270, the no's to the left 286.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today's vote in the House of Commons effectively ends a two-year debate in Parliament that had inflamed passions among lawmakers and the public.

The bill would have allowed patients with fewer than six months to live to choose to end their lives with medical assistance, provided they had the approval of doctors and an expert panel.

Polls suggest solid public support for the practice, but opponents have cited concerns about coercion and a lack of safeguards.

A senior British defense official says more than half-a-million Russian troops have been killed since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

The assessment from the chief of the U.K.

's Defense Staff comes as Russia's advance has slowed significantly this year.

Ukrainian casualties were not mentioned and neither side gives regular updates on losses.

In the meantime, Ukraine continues to strike Russia, with drones hitting this warehouse in the southwestern city of Saratov today, while, in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, firefighters battled flames after Russian drones hit gas stations and residential buildings.

One woman who lost her apartment in the strikes spoke of her exhaustion even as air raids sounded.

OLEKSANDRA GAZIYEVA, Kyiv, Ukraine, Resident (through translator): I'm so tired of this that I don't know what to say.

Things are only getting worse and worse.

AMNA NAWAZ: Also today, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized what he called the -- quote -- "unseemly actions" by Western leaders on the global stage.

In remarks ahead of this weekend's BRICS summit in New Delhi, he cited attacks on logistical facilities, the seizing of maritime vessels, and sanctions, among others.

A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for stronger A.I.

regulations after two stark warnings this week about the dangers of the technology.

Industry experts are still poring over the threats raised by Anthropic in a lengthy report yesterday.

That includes attempts by bad actors to use its A.I.

models to develop biological weapons and even efforts by Iran to target U.S.

That comes after outgoing Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon sparked global concerns by posting online that A.I.

could -- quote -- "kill us all" by the end of the decade.

An Indiana state senator has finally won his primary race four months after votes were cast and even after President Trump worked to defeat him.

Spencer Deery was one of seven Republican lawmakers targeted by the president for refusing to redraw the state's congressional map to help the GOP pick up two House seats.

Five of those senators lost their primary bids after Mr.

But the state Supreme Court certified yesterday that Deery won his primary by three votes, advancing him to the general election in November.

A teenage boy is safely back with his family after surviving for days on top of a capsized boat in Alaska's Bering Sea.

MAN: We will swing around and grab you!

AMNA NAWAZ: A fishing boat working with the Coast Guard spotted the 15-year-old kneeling on his overturned boat on Monday before helping him on board.

The Coast Guard said he had symptoms of hypothermia from the frigid waters.

The teenager was the sole survivor on board.

His older brother and cousin drowned some time after the boat flipped over, and their bodies were later recovered.

On Wall Street today, stocks regained some of their losses from earlier in the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 500 points.

The S&P 500 also closed out the week with a solid gain.

Still to come on the "News Hour": former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton reflects on the tragedy of 9/11; we report from Afghanistan 25 years after the start of the U.S.

war on terror; and David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart provide their analysis of the week's news.

GEOFF BENNETT: With November's midterms closing in, Republicans wrapped an unprecedented two-day convention in Dallas aimed at firing up the party's base.

President Trump and Vice President J.D.

Vance headlined an event that also produced some striking and unexpected moments.

Our Liz Landers spoke with attendees and has this report.

ANNOUNCER: Tonight, President Trump.

LIZ LANDERS: On the final night of the Republican Convention... DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: You know what happens if you don't vote.

(LAUGHTER) LIZ LANDERS: ... the commander in chief delivered marching orders to his loyal MAGA warriors.

DONALD TRUMP: So please raise your right hand.

I pledge... AUDIENCE: I pledge... DONALD TRUMP: ... to the greatest president in the history of the United States... LIZ LANDERS: Administering a pledge for the crowd to vote in November.

DONALD TRUMP: I will go out with my family, my friends.

I don't care if I'm registered or not.

I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do.

LIZ LANDERS: As convention attendees leave Dallas and return to their home districts, polling suggests the party has work to do to win over voters with 53 days until the midterm elections.

That has some Republicans like 32-year-old Sara Tabor concerned.

SARA TABOR, RNC Midterm Convention Attendee: I am a little bit worried, I'm not going to lie, but I do think that there's a lot of fake news.

So I think that we have the majority, and I think that good will prevail in the end.

LIZ LANDERS: While President Trump took center stage at the unprecedented Republican Midterm Convention, even some attendees are torn about how big his profile should be in the final weeks of the campaign.

LISA HOLOMSHEK, RNC Midterm Convention Attendee: I love my president, but sometimes... (LAUGHTER) LISA HOLOMSHEK: Sometimes, I just need to hear less of him and more -- I just -- I want to see action.

LIZ LANDERS: Others say Trump is a big motivator for the base.

KENTON KIRKPATRICK, RNC Midterm Convention Attendee: It's always better to be more Trump.

I mean, and I think he's done a really good thing to make it it's a referendum on heel.

LIZ LANDERS: Inside the convention, other GOP speakers focus their attention on Democrats, hoping to instead turn the election into a referendum on socialism and make New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed the poster children for the Democratic Party, leading to this moment as Senator Ted Cruz addressed the crowd.

TED CRUZ (R-TX): When Mamdani says he wants to seize the means of production, he means it.

When Abdul El-Sayed says he has a -- quote -- "obligation" to comply with Sharia law, he means it.

LIZ LANDERS: While Cruz did not acknowledge the shouted comments, El-Sayed responded later on CNN.

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), Michigan Senatorial Candidate: Democracy is supposed to be the process by which we solve our problems peacefully, we can learn to disagree agreeably.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: The Democrats are the party of hatred.

Vance made the case to stay the course.

VANCE: Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

VANCE: Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.

LIZ LANDERS: With Trump term-limited and Vance delivering the keynote address, attention inevitably turned to 2028.

JERIEL JAMMULLAMUDY, RNC Midterm Convention Attendee: We need to start setting up who's going to be coming after next and have a succession plan ready to go.

LIZ LANDERS: And who do you hope is that succession plan?

Who do you want to see as the Republican nominee in 2028?

JERIEL JAMMULLAMUDY: I really like Marco Rubio.

Vance, of course, I think is great as well.

So there's a lot of good options, I think.

LIZ LANDERS: For his part, the vice president downplayed any speculation about his future.

VANCE: We got to take care of business this November.

Then we will worry about what comes next.

LIZ LANDERS: So, talk about 2028 remains just talk for now.

As the convention ended with the traditional balloon drop, President Donald Trump stood alone on stage, still the center of the Republican Party.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Liz Landers in Dallas, Texas.

AMNA NAWAZ: Twenty-five years ago, Hillary Clinton was the junior senator for the state of New York.

This week, she's reflecting on what's been lost and what she's learned in the generation since.

In her new essay for "The Atlantic" entitled "What the Aftermath of 9/11 Taught Me," the former secretary of state looks back at how leaders handled public health, national security, and transparency after the attacks, writing in part -- quote -- "There are many important lessons worth learning from 9/11.

Government should be about producing results for people.

Our leaders need to level with people, tell them the truth, and follow through with actual results that make a difference in their lives."

Secretary, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Secretary of State: Thank you for having me, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: I do want to dig more deeply into this piece that you wrote for "The Atlantic."

But, on this day, I want to begin with your own memories of that day, because you were in D.C.

You made it back to New York very quickly the next day on a special FEMA flight.

What do you remember about that moment in history?

What stays with you all these years later?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I have so many memories, but let me just highlight two of them.

Obviously, on the day of the attack, I was in Washington on my way to my Senate office.

I was going to attend a hearing that featured Laura Bush testifying about the Bush administration's proposals for education.

And so when the first plane hit, we were incredulous.

We couldn't understand how a plane could have literally run into an incredibly tall building in the middle of New York City, and began to reach out for information.

And then, of course, when the second plane hit, it became abundantly clear to everyone that this was not an accident.

And we spent the day trying to gather as much information as possible, trying to understand what the continuing threats were, because, as you remember, there was a third plane that went down in the fields of Pennsylvania after a plane had hit the Pentagon.

But it was thought that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was heading toward the Capitol itself.

So there was a lot of confusion and scrambling.

I watched every bit of footage that I could about what was actually happening in the city that I was then honored to represent, talking to people in all levels of government.

And then the next day, when Senator Schumer and I were, I think, the only civilian plane in the sky on the way from Washington to New York, we landed at LaGuardia.

We asked the helicopter to fly us over Ground Zero.

And it is so indelibly just in my mind what I saw, because it was like looking at Dante's Inferno, looking at the twisted metal, looking at the burning fires, looking at the firefighters, the construction workers, others frantically continuing to try to carefully dig through all of that wreckage, with the hope that maybe somebody was still alive.

And then, when we landed, we met up with then-Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani and went toward the site itself on the ground.

And it was like seeing a curtain of darkness because of all of the particulates and the debris that was in the air, and you could smell it and you could taste it.

And I just left that experience not only incredibly moved and worried and fearful and angry and every other emotion you could imagine, but I left that first day worrying about the air, because I knew how it tasted and smelled and felt to me.

So that became an issue that I was particularly focused on in the days and weeks to come.

AMNA NAWAZ: And you write in this essay about knowing about those toxins in the air as early as August of 2003.

You note there was an EPA inspector general report that found White House officials had instructed the agency to reassure New Yorkers that the air was safe, despite the presence of some deadly toxins.

You said at a press conference afterwards, someone at the White House had to call someone.

Someone at the White House White House had to call or send an e-mail and tell the EPA, don't tell the truth.

You said: "I want to know who that is."

HILLARY CLINTON: I did not, and I don't know if we will.

I write that it was almost the most -- angriest moment in my public life that I had, because, for two years, we had been seeking answers.

We had been pushing our federal government to give us information.

And you referenced the desire on the part of our government to get Wall Street open, to get businesses up and going.

I mean, obviously, we were devastated economically, as well as physically and loss of life.

But I think there could have and should have been better ways to send the messages, so that people would have been alerted that, no, it is not safe, wear a mask.

If you have asthma, if you have any respiratory problems at all, probably stay away.

We should have had a concerted effort by the city, state, and federal government to clean all of the buildings far better than they were, and on a repeating basis, because the searching on the pile was continuing, and there was a lot of construction equipment to move away huge steel beams, and that would release more debris and toxins into the air.

So one of the lessons I hope we have learned, but perhaps need to be reminded of, is, number one, level with people.

Try to find ways to meet more than one goal at a time, keep people safe, keep their lungs safe, but also try to let those people who are properly attired, who can manage to go back to work to do that on a staggered basis.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, I should mention, Secretary Clinton, we had former Governor George Pataki on the show last night.

He was speaking with my colleague Geoff Bennett, and he was talking about his 9/11-related diagnosis of a restrictive airway disease.

He was diagnosed just in the last five years.

I have to ask, have you had any similar symptoms or are you worried you could develop them?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I heard about Governor Pataki.

And I obviously am very concerned for him, but I think he is kind of like the canary in the mine, in a sense that we know more and more people will be diagnosed.

I have not been, and I know many people who have, people who 10, 15, 20 years later, like the governor, are being told that probably this can be related in some way to your exposure on 9/11 and the weeks and months to follow.

And my hope is that, because of the information that is coming out, the 170,000 pages of additional information that advocates from a group called Health Watch were able to get from the city government now, that we take a hard look at what more needs to be done to reach out to people who might have problems in the future, to screen them and help provide the health care that they need right now.

Because I'm afraid that we're going to hear more stories like Governor Pataki's.

AMNA NAWAZ: I'd like to ask you about President Trump and what we heard from him and his remarks at the Pentagon to commemorate the 25th anniversary of these attacks.

He made the link to the war in Iran today.

He said, we're saluting those who served in the war in terror, and then he went on to say Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

I wonder what you make of that linkage and the way the president made it.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think he's looking for any explanation he can provide as to why he launched this war in Iran without fully understanding some of the consequences, like the closing of the Strait of Hormuz and the explosion in oil and gas prices that were precipitated because the strait was closed and tankers are not getting through.

Look, Iran has sponsored terrorism for many years, and we have seen the results, not just in the Middle East, but around the world, of attacks that Iran has either directly or indirectly supported.

So there is always ground to criticize and condemn Iran for their involvement in terrorism and the proxies that they support around the world who do their bidding.

But I don't see the connection between the current action in Iran and what happened on 9/11.

AMNA NAWAZ: Before I let you go, I want to ask.

As the nation is reflecting on this moment in history, for all the horror and the chaos of that day, there was this moment of unity we saw coming out of the attacks.

And I wonder what you think would happen in this nation today, divided as we are, if there was a similar-style attack.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I'm confident the American people would respond as we always do.

There would be people running toward danger to help those who are at risk.

What I would hope is that, if it were to happen right now, that our current government would act out of a sense of generosity and inclusivity and reaching out to every American, not just the ones who support them, but every one of us would be part of the America that would be -- they would be concerned about.

So I hope nothing like that happens ever again in our country.

It was such a painful, terrible experience for the entire nation, and particularly for those who lost loved ones.

It was just a really terrible, terrible assault on our nation.

We were more unified than we have been in a long time.

So, we need to have a government that's as good in responding to disaster as the American people ourselves are.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joining us tonight.

Secretary Clinton, thank you for your time.

GEOFF BENNETT: Already scarred by decades of war, Afghanistan became the center of America's response to 9/11 after the Taliban harbored the men who planned the attacks.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen and videographer Eric O'Connor hear from three men who fought that war and still carry it with them.

MOHAMMED, Former Afghan National Army Special Forces Soldier (through translator): After all that fighting, everything we lost, our friends, we lost everything we did for this country.

And that is a trauma for the rest of our life.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Mohammed, whose name we have changed to protect him, grew up amid America's forever war in Afghanistan.

He believed in the promise of a new Afghanistan and became a soldier to fight for it.

As a member of the Afghan Special Forces, he was trained by U.S.

Marines and fought alongside the Green Berets on secret raid missions, pursuing high-level Taliban and ISIS targets from 2019 to 2021.

MOHAMMED (through translator): We had a very good friendship.

And we weren't thinking that we're Afghan or they're U.S.

We were like the same people, the same blood, the same idea that we were fighting for humanity.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But, in 2021, they were told to surrender their weapons and go home.

Suddenly, he became the high-level target for his work with U.S.

military couldn't or wouldn't get him out.

MOHAMMED (through translator): America had promised that the people fighting with us, we will stand up for them.

I thought, what did we do wrong that they would abandon these people that they fought alongside?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Mohammed is at such high risk that, even though we're in the same city, we can't visit him in case we're followed.

Every few days, he hears news of the execution or arrest of former brothers in arms.

He says, no matter how strong they are, he knows every human being eventually breaks under torture and could reveal what they know.

So, last month, your friend was executed by the Taliban who was a former soldier.

MOHAMMED (through translator): Yes.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: You're living in hiding.

You know people are searching for you.

MOHAMMED (through translator): Our life now is just waiting.

When will be your last day in this world?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: He hasn't seen a family member or friend in five years.

The only people he does see are a secret network of former soldiers who help men like him move between safe houses.

So you're moving every couple of weeks.

MOHAMMED (through translator): Yes.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: What's it like to be constantly on the run?

MOHAMMED (through translator): You cannot call that a life.

It's really hard, like you're a criminal or something, like everyone is following you.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: In a quiet corner of Kabul, behind high stone walls marked by the centuries, stands a garden of memories.

The Kabre Gora, the 19th century name for foreigner, holds the names and remains of foreign fighters killed here over centuries of war, Americans, British, Canadians, Russians, French, Germans, Poles, en Chinese, a graveyard for the human beings who lost their lives in the country famously called the graveyard of empires.

Combat medic Bryan Rippee is not there.

He made it home after four tours in Afghanistan, serving with the elite 75th Ranger Regiment from 2009 to 2012.

One of a generation of volunteers driven to serve by 9/11, Bryan says he only really came to understand what the war was for once he was already there fighting it.

Army Combat Medic: Nine-eleven really changed the discourse about what it meant to serve and how important it was.

When I started to deploy to Afghanistan, our mission had really shifted focus from being finding al-Qaida and the folks that had done 9/11 and planned it and executed it to being one where we were fighting the Taliban.

What is the tie-in between these seemingly farmers and relatively poor people that were going and doing these missions to go after, what is their connection to 9/11?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: While on a night mission on his first tour, an apparent success went horribly wrong when a Ranger stepped on an improvised explosive device the Taliban had placed on a bridge.

BRYAN RIPPEE: Suddenly there's a giant explosion, and then everything is covered in dust.

And so you're running through a dust storm, essentially.

And me, as the medic, I'm not really sure what I'm running towards.

What sticks with me to this day is just the chaos of it all, combat-tested folks, combat leaders looking very frazzled, seeming very desperate and a little panicked.

That's just not something I had seen to that point in my career.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Saving many others, Bryan only discovered later that the man who stepped on the IED was his closest friend.

BRYAN RIPPEE: I lost a really, really good friend of mine.

My oldest son's middle name is Roberto, after Roberto Sanchez, who died that day.

The hardest part was getting back to our tent and seeing his empty bunk.

As the years go by, I have since gone to college, started my career, gotten married, had a couple of kids.

I always wonder what he would have gone on to do.

Would our kids have played together?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: That same year, Bryan pulled a pilot near death from the wreckage of a helicopter crash that killed four other crew members.

The privilege of saving a life is one he won't forget.

BRYAN RIPPEE: I think about that guy a lot, because I'm like, hey, that really to me is the culmination of all that training and all the risk that you assume to be on these missions all the time.

It's just -- it's the opportunity to save one life and to feel like you saved it.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Bryan was awarded Special Operations Medic of the Year for his valor in 2009 for both those operations.

To this day, he struggles with the idea that he gained so much from his service personally, while others suffered incalculable loss.

BRYAN RIPPEE: I made it out of the war and kind of turned that into a life for myself.

A lot of folks I know didn't, and countless others, Afghan folks, multigenerational conflict for the Afghans.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Every inch of this vast country bears the memories and scars of that conflict.

During the war, this road was one of the most dangerous in the country.

It was a critical supply route for international forces, making it a frequent target for improvised explosive devices.

And these high mountain passes gave the Taliban natural hiding places from which to launch ambushes.

Today, Mujahir Farahi sits in an air conditioned office in Kabul as a deputy minister in the Ministry of Information and Culture.

But he remembers those days, hidden in the high mountains, waiting to attack.

MUJAHIR FARAHI, Former Taliban Fighter (through translator): Of course, in the beginning, fighting the Americans was tough.

But slowly, with time, the mujahideen used diverse tactics against them.

They used things that could be made at home and inside the country, like land mines or other weapons they made themselves.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As a Taliban mujahid, he fought the United States in Afghanistan for 20 long years.

MUJAHIR FARAHI (through translator): Yes, many of our friends were martyred and injured, some in front of our eyes.

Luckily, the enemy wasn't able to catch me.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: To him, their victory and resulting control of the country is the inevitable outcome of their decades of commitment to jihad.

MUJAHIR FARAHI (through translator): When the Americans started the war and Bush announced the occupation of Afghanistan, it was the worst day.

But after 20 years of fighting to remove the occupiers, we entered the cities and the whole country was freed.

This was medicine and a resolution for that 20 years of fighting and exhaustion.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: He wants the United States to accept the outcome it chose, lift sanctions, and agree to full diplomatic and trade relations with Taliban-run Afghanistan.

MUJAHIR FARAHI (through translator): All of this was made clear in the agreement in Doha that there would be no more meddling into Afghanistan's internal issues and no economic restrictions.

When America doesn't hold to their side of the deal like this, we feel they are taking revenge on Afghanistan for the past.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: It's a war that left Mohammed and millions of other Afghans, now deprived of their personal safety and their rights, wondering what happened to the safer Afghanistan and safer world America promised and whether it might have been better if they'd never come at all.

Are you proud of the work you did alongside America?

MOHAMMED (through translator): Yes, definitely.

But now these are the same people, the same leaders back in power.

So why did you come to Afghanistan and fight for 20 years and spend billions of dollars and lose thousands of your best people?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: When Bryan and his buddies think about the risks they took and the sacrifices they made, Bryan says he's consumed by emptiness.

BRYAN RIPPEE: Nine-eleven led to this decades-long war in Afghanistan.

I don't think that the blood and treasure that we spent in Afghanistan for several decades has changed the security of America for the better in any measurable way.

A lot of folks my age that served in the war look at Afghanistan now and they think, OK, the Taliban's in control there, which was like the very thing a lot of us were willing to die to prevent.

It truly feels like we went there and spent years of our lives fighting for something that became completely inconsequential.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A country forever changed, but somehow right back where it started, with only blood, betrayal, and bitterness to show for it.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Kabul, Afghanistan.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more on America 25 years after the 9/11 attacks and on the GOP Midterm Convention, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That's "The Atlantic"'s David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to put two things together this week and get your take on it.

We saw this week Republicans holding their midterm convention in Texas essentially built around President Trump, who asked people to take a pledge to him while on stage and promised $5,000 for every adult if Republicans win the midterms.

This week also marks one year since Charlie Kirk's assassination.

This is someone who was sort of a bridge to the young conservative movement, hailed as the future of the Republican Party, a party now somewhat fractured on foreign policy and economic pressures, but really united around the president.

David, I want to ask you, if you put those two things together, what does it tell you about the identity of the party today?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I thought the most important and, frankly, impressive speech, surprisingly for me, was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

He really tried to describe why so many working-class voters who voted for his uncle and his dad in the '60s, then became Reagan Democrats under -- in the '80s, and then became Trump Republicans in 2016.

And I certainly didn't agree with everything in that speech, but it was -- it was a very persuasive and to my Republican friends a very compelling story.

And that is the foundational strength of the modern Republican Party, that working-class shift.

Now, as for the contemporary party, and Kennedy explicitly thanked -- why am I blanking out Turning Point USA guy?

For brokering the deal between Trump and him.

And I would say we're seeing in the Republican Party first on the influencer side a crack-up.

And so you got Candace going over to here, Tucker Carlson go over to here, Ben Shapiro trying to play William F. Buckley and police the movement and failing, by the way, though I admire him for trying.

DAVID BROOKS: And so on that level, there's just like -- and that's like show business.

Among the Trump supporters I know, I would say there's exhaustion, disappointment, some sense of betrayal, but they're not turning Democrat.

But they but they are -- they're flatter.

DAVID BROOKS: And then I think the long-term thing is, Donald Trump has -- with the exception of tariffs and immigration, he's undercut the intellectual consistency of the party, because he's all over the place on everything, including these $5,000, which is like super Keynesian pump priming at a time of inflation, which is like the worst thing you want to do.

So it's just intellectually incoherent.

So that's a little complicated to say that the Republican still has a good story to tell.

DAVID BROOKS: They're cracking up on the ideological level, and then they're sort of adrift intellectually.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jonathan, how do you look at this, and also the idea that this is someone, the president, who can boost the turnout, right?

He's starting to get more involved, deploying some of his significant PAC funds.

Should Democrats be worried about that as you approach midterms?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: OK, where to begin.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I will start with the money first.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Yes, Democrats should be worried when there is a tsunami of cash that's coming in, in the last two months, and ad buys are popping up all over the place.

But I will tell you, Democrats have also been wide-eyed about their prospects.

Even though the momentum seems to be going their way, even though there are incredible candidates in all of these races around the country, they have always known, particularly on the Senate side, that the map is really tough.

And so the fact that the president's actually going to spend his money in these races, good on him, but I think it's going to be tough for Democrats to match the money.

But I would also say to Democrats and to others that money isn't everything.

We have seen that in races around the country.

Angie Nixon had, what, less than a million dollars, and Mr.

Vindman had six -- multiple millions, and she beat him by double digits in that primary race.

Candidate quality can count for something, but money is something that is going to be hard to surmount.

And then, when it comes to the Republican Party, look, if you're holding a midterm convention and it's meant to boost turnout and meant to boost candidates around the country, and the president demands that he be center stage on both nights and pledge allegiance to him, great that Secretary Kennedy gave this great speech, but it would have been better if it had been coming from the president.

But that was never going -- that was never going to happen.

And so this ideological drift that's happening within the Republican Party, I look forward to one day the Republicans going back to where they were under W., where they were under Reagan, because at least then there was consistency.

We knew what they stood for, we knew what the battle lines were, and you could talk and compromise.

And one last point on this, to your point about your friends being sort of emotionally flat.

I have been hearing that from folks who live in some of these states where there used to be Trump signs everywhere, one person in Pennsylvania, another in Virginia, and I can't remember the other state.

But now these Trump signs are nowhere to be seen.

And I think that speaks to a level of maybe disappointment, maybe betrayal that folks among Trump's faithful are feeling.

AMNA NAWAZ: I do, while I have you both, want to spend a little time reflecting on this day.

I know you both have been thinking deeply on it as well, but this moment as we are marking 25 years since those September 11 attacks.

David, how do you look back on your memories of that day and how we as a nation are different today than we were on September 10, 2001?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, well, I was in the air on when it all happened.

I was flying to Sydney, Australia, and when we landed, the pilot said: "We haven't told you something, but this is not a joke.

And they told us what had happened, and they said: "When you get off the jetway, there will be Qantas people with cell phones.

They handed us phones, and they did everything they can to make us feel right.

And what I mostly remember on that day is the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel.

My Australian taxi driver was weeping.

Well, it's a sign of why you need allies, why you need friends, because that Australian guy was like one of us on that day.

And there were people like that all around the world.

And when I look back 25 years hence, to me, that was the first day of the 21st century.

And I mean that the al-Qaida did this thing.

They sent the gyroscope oscillating, and then we overreacted in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then Putin is overreacting in Ukraine, and then October 7 happens, and then Israel responds.

So what we have just seen is like this gyroscope spinning wildly out of control.

And it's like before World War -- I don't want to make that comparison too tightly, but it's like things are spinning out of control.

The world feels ever more dangerous.

There was a world before, and there's a world after.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, on September 11, 25 years ago, today, it was primary day in New York City, and I had taken my first detour away from journalism and was working on Mike Bloomberg's first campaign for mayor.

And I left home, and I remember walking to the voting station, and I looked up at the sky, and it was and remains the most beautiful day I have ever seen.

In my book, I wrote it was like New York City was domed by a sapphire.

And then we all know what happened next.

It was a devastating day, absolutely devastating day for this -- for the people on those planes, for the people who passed away, their families, for the city, for the nation, for the world.

The fact that the world came together -- I mean, Article 5 has only been invoked once, and that was for us, because we had been attacked.

We are a long way away from that world.

I did an event last night at the Paley Center, and it wasn't until like the day before I realized, wait, I'm flying back on September 11.

And a chill went through me, getting on a plane on September 11.

I got to the airport this morning, and I got there just in time for them to be close up on the TSA line because they shut it down.

And I heard someone say, they're shutting it down because they're going to do a moment of silence.

And I just -- my eyes just welled up with tears just remembering 25 years ago, those - - the people, their families, where we are now.

It's really hard to think back what we were like on September 10, what we were like on September 11 at 8:30 a.m.

I pray we can maybe even get halfway back to that time.

AMNA NAWAZ: We are a long way from where we were, but hope springs eternal.

And I thank you both for always being here to help us see some of that hope.

David Brooks, Jonathan Capehart, thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: This weekend, we will have more remembrances of 9/11, beginning tonight with "Washington Week With The Atlantic."

Later on right here on PBS, Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel remember that day and examine the fallout in the years since.

GEOFF BENNETT: On "Compass Points" this weekend, Nick Schifrin sits down with former White House Situation Room officials who were tasked with quickly distilling fact from fiction amid the chaos of the attacks.

Here's a preview of that conversation.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The Pentagon is hit next.

And this is another example of information not necessarily being official.

So how do you first hear the Pentagon has been hit?

ROB HARGIS, Former Senior Duty Officer, White House Situation Room: Just before the Pentagon was hit, I was on the phone with the deputy director of operations of the National Military Command Center.

It's a one-star general, I think it was a - - I think it was an Army general that day, and we were talking with some updates about aircraft and things.

And while that's going on, we had a White House communicator that was coming into the White House to help augment our staff and was driving along a road called 395 between Pentagon City and the Pentagon, and was on the phone with our communicator, Scott Heyer, Navy communicator, and told Scott: "Hey, there's an aircraft over Crystal City right now."

And Scott yelled that to me from the back of the Situation Room.

And I said: "Everything's grounded."

He's saying there's an aircraft over" -- and then he said: "Oh, my God, the Pentagon's just been hit."

And so I relayed that to the DDO, to the battle watch captain, my counterpart essentially in the Pentagon, yes.

ROB HARGIS: And I said: "I think you just got hit by a plane."

And he said: "That's impossible, I would know."

And about a second later, I could hear Klaxons or alarms go off in the back.

He dropped an expletive and said: "I have got to go."

And we dropped the call, at which point we knew the Pentagon had been in.

GEOFF BENNETT: You can watch both "Compass Points" and "Horizons" on our YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts, and, of course, on your local PBS station.

And that's the "News Hour" for tonight.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us and have a good weekend.

News Wrap: August inflation report shows prices up 3.4%

News Wrap: August inflation report shows consumer prices up 3.4% (5m 34s)

Today's top journalists discuss Washington's current political events and public affairs.

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.

Major corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...More