New York Times columnist and the allegedly conservative half of Friday’s PBS News Hour’s weekly news recap, David Brooks, praised former Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent interview with Stephen Colbert and agreed with her that “civic capitulation” to President Trump is “a real thing.” Meanwhile, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart explained he quit his job at The Washington Post because he could not see the value in “talking about the positive things happening in the country.”
Following a clip of the Harris-Colbert interview, host Amna Nawaz asked Brooks, “David, it's a system she described as broken. What do you make of that response?”
Brooks first lamented, “one thing I didn't like what she said. The system is broken. Running for governor — the gubernatorial system is not broken. Governors all around the country are doing wonderful work. And Washington is a little broken, but running for governor, I think, would be a nice way to serve the country. But that's totally up to her, obviously.”
However, Brooks was otherwise positive, “The part where I totally agreed with her was, she made a point about capitulation. And this has shocked me too, that, in Israel, when Bibi tried to do these judicial reforms before October 7, hundreds of thousands of people got to the street and they did it for month after month after month. And now we have a similar situation.”
That’s an odd analogy. Without getting too deep in the weeds of Israel’s domestic debates about its supreme court, it should simply be noted that trying to project our domestic politics onto a foreign country misses the nuances that differentiate the two.
However, Brooks then returned to Trump and mourned, “And this happens all across the world. When somebody tries to centralize power, the people rise up. And why have the people not risen up? And everybody's cutting separate deals. And I see business leaders, university presidents, other people laying low and not trying to rise up. And, therefore, there's strength in numbers, and we're not using that strength. Trump can pick people off one and another. And so I think that civic capitulation that she mentioned, that is a real thing.”
What are people supposed to rise up against? Does Brooks really want to argue that universities don’t have an anti-Semitism problem? Does he really want to go to bat for politically toxic DEI initiatives? Apparently he does.
Later, Nawaz would conclude by giving Capehart the floor, “Jonathan, before we go, folks will have noticed that we introduced you slightly differently tonight than we usually do. We should point out, after nearly two decades at The Washington Post, you recently made the decision to leave. I just wanted to give you a chance to speak directly to our audience to tell them why.”
Capehart explained, “Well, the direction of the opinion section changed. Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, as is his right, decided that he wanted the section to focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets. And it became clear, as time went along, and especially when he chose a new leader for the section, that there was just not going to be any room for a voice like mine, especially when we were told that we would have to be unapologetically patriotic in talking about the positive things happening in the country.
How can you talk about the positive things happening in the country when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and the foundation is flooding? I wanted to go someplace where my voice would be heard.”
The whole liberal freak-out over the Post is odd. While conservatives may like the idea that one of the country’s major papers will be friendlier, a current glimpse at the Post’s opinion section does not portray the positive vibes Capehart is railing against. Like the concept of a bias monitor at CBS, just the idea that a liberal space may become slightly less liberal is appalling to those who have become accustomed to not having their echo chambers punctured.
Here is a transcript for the August 1 show:
PBS News Hour
8/1/2025
7:47 PM ET
AMNA NAWAZ: David, it's a system she described as broken. What do you make of that response?
DAVID BROOKS: First, I give people who've lost a presidential race a lot of grace. It's apparently brutal. Bob Dole used to joke, “What's it like to lose?” He says, “Oh, I sleep just like a baby. I wake up every three hours screaming.”
And so it's super hard to be in that position. One thing I really like what she said, and one thing I didn't like what she said. The system is broken. Running for governor — the gubernatorial system is not broken. Governors all around the country are doing wonderful work. And Washington is a little broken, but running for governor, I think, would be a nice way to serve the country. But that's totally up to her, obviously.
The part where I totally agreed with her was, she made a point about capitulation. And this has shocked me too, that, in Israel, when Bibi tried to do these judicial reforms before October 7, hundreds of thousands of people got to the street and they did it for month after month after month. And now we have a similar situation.
And this happens all across the world. When somebody tries to centralize power, the people rise up. And why have the people not risen up? And everybody's cutting separate deals. And I see business leaders, university presidents, other people laying low and not trying to rise up.
And, therefore, there's strength in numbers, and we're not using that strength. Trump can pick people off one and another. And so I think that civic capitulation that she mentioned, that is a real thing.
…
NAWAZ: Jonathan, before we go, folks will have noticed that we introduced you slightly differently tonight than we usually do. We should point out, after nearly two decades at The Washington Post, you recently made the decision to leave.
I just wanted to give you a chance to speak directly to our audience to tell them why.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, the direction of the opinion section changed. Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, as is his right, decided that he wanted the section to focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets. And it became clear, as time went along, and especially when he chose a new leader for the section, that there was just not going to be any room for a voice like mine, especially when we were told that we would have to be unapologetically patriotic in talking about the positive things happening in the country.
How can you talk about the positive things happening in the country when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and the foundation is flooding? I wanted to go someplace where my voice would be heard.
