Politics and views in the United States

Trump again touts a deal with Iran, and again pulls back from strikes. The House fails to re-authorize a national security program and online hate and violent threats against lawmakers continues to grow.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Most importantly, we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this.

So it was a very big thing.

Although President Donald Trump is again touting a peace deal with Iran, calling it a, quote, great settlement, Tehran is not confirming the agreement.

Trump also pulled back from a series of threatened strikes on Iranian oil facilities and civilian infrastructure again.

Along with reopening the Strait of Hormuz, He says the deal would commit Iran to dismantling its nuclear sites and not enriching uranium for 15 to 20 years.

Stocks rose and oil fell on the news, but traders still seem cautious that the war may reignite.

The House failed to pass a short-term reauthorization of FISA Section 702 after most Democrats and several Republicans voted against it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson blames Democrats for letting the program lapse for the first time in nearly two decades.

On April 29th, we passed a three-year extension of the FISA national security law.

It has been sitting over in the Senate, and because the Democrats in the Senate are playing political games as well, they're unable to pass it.

The surveillance law lets federal agencies collect huge amounts of communications, mostly from foreigners' devices.

Section 702 lets them pull communications by U.S. residents out of that dragnet with few controls.

Critics want that to require a warrant, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats voted against it specifically because of Trump's nomination of Bill Pulte to be the acting National Intelligence Director.

In the middle of sensitive negotiations to reauthorize surveillance authority, which they knew were challenging, Donald Trump decides to toss a hand grenade into the middle of those negotiations to blow them up because Donald Trump decided he wants to elevate Bill Pulte.

The White House may withdraw Pulte's name since Trump nominated New York U.S. attorney and former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Jay Clayton to be the next full-time DNI.

Clayton has no national security experience, a requirement for the position, but the nomination has calmed the waters in Congress.

The New York Times is reporting the Justice Department is following up on Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud by seeking more power over how states run elections.

And the paper says the Postal Service wants to block mail-in voting in states resisting White House demands on absentee voting.

A new report says online hate has only gotten worse in the last year.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate found after Facebook parent company MetaRelax the site's rules on harassment and violent language last year, threats targeting members of Congress from both parties ballooned.

Imran Ahmed with the center says one solution is for people to police themselves.

We have to look ourselves in the face and say, well, is this the country that we want for ourselves?

Because every time we threaten or terrorize a politician out of office, our democracy dies a little bit.

As the Defense Department seeks a record trillion and a half dollar budget, Air Force leaders are separately seeking $350 million for missile defense through budget reconciliation.

Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins say a third reconciliation bill isn't an option.

They say the DOD was taking a risk trying to secure funding this way.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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