AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Judy Woodruff is off.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: the pardon power.

The president issues another round of controversial pardons, while complicating congressional efforts towards a new COVID relief bill.

Then: at the last minute.

Negotiators from the United Kingdom and the European Union finalize a Brexit trade deal four years in the making.

Plus: in the time of an economic crisis, a crucial time for giving and what it means to organizations that serve those in need.

And a nation divided.

We step back for the long view of how the U.S. is being transformed by the pandemic.

YUVAL LEVIN, American Enterprise Institute: One of the striking things about this year is that the partisan divides that have shaped our politics for so long clearly also shape our culture and our way of processing reality.

AMNA NAWAZ: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: This Christmas Eve has been anything but quiet in Washington, after President Trump's surprise announcement that he does not support the COVID relief bill passed by Congress.

The U.S. House of Representatives met briefly today and rejected two proposed revisions, to increase direct checks for individuals and to remove foreign aid.

Now, without Trump's signature, millions of people hoping for economic assistance this holiday season will be left waiting.

On Saturday, pandemic unemployment benefits are set to expire.

And, on Monday, the government will run out of money.

The House and Senate will return early next week for a planned override of Trump's veto of a defense bill.

Meanwhile, President Trump is spending Christmas Eve in Florida, but he continued his flurry of pardons late yesterday.

Just this week, he has more than doubled his acts of clemency from the previous four years.

William Brangham picks up the story.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Amna.

President Trump added 29 new pardons and commutations last night.

And there were many familiar names, including Charles Kushner.

He's the father of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

But there were also two new pardons for people connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump confidant Roger Stone.

Those two joined three others from that same investigation who were pardoned earlier this month.

For more on all of this, I am joined by Andrew Weissmann.

He was the lead prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller.

Andrew Weissmann, very good to have you on the "NewsHour."

We now have five individuals who you and your colleagues helped convict who were all guilty of lying or obstructing this investigation, and now they have been pardoned by the president of the United States.

I mean, this has got to be a relatively dark period for you.

ANDREW WEISSMANN, Former Department of Justice Prosecutor: Well, that's an understatement.

I spent 20 years at the Department of Justice, and career people there are trained to apply the rule of law.

And what we're seeing now is the pardon power being used to undermine the rule of law.

And with Paul Manafort, he didn't just lie to the government.

He engaged in tens of millions of dollars in bank fraud, tax fraud, money laundering.

He lobbied for a foreign government in the United States illegally.

He obstructed justice by tampering with witnesses while he was even out on bail in a criminal case.

So, this is not an upstanding citizen.

And I would ask viewers to think about, if you were exercising the pardon power and trying to meet out justice to the most deserving applicants for a pardon, are these the people you would choose, you know, corrupt politicians, corrupt law enforcement officials, people who committed murder, a health care fraud defendant who committed billions of dollars in health care fraud?

These are really sort of outrageous exercises of the pardon power by the president of the United States.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, this has got to imperil in some way -- if I'm any future special counsel, special prosecutor who is trying to investigate the president or allies of the president, this has got to make my job in the future incredibly difficult, if I simply know that, with a nudge, nudge and a wink, wink, the president can signal to people, I have got your back.

You don't have to worry about what these prosecutors do to you.

ANDREW WEISSMANN: Absolutely.

That, I think, is exactly the right point, which is to focus on what the precedent is here.

As bad as it is in terms of what is president is doing now, we had to deal with the dangling of pardons, and that is trying to thwart this incentives people have to cooperate.

The way that investigations are made is people come in and tell you the truth.

And they know that, if they don't do that and they lie, they have committed a crime, and they could be prosecuted.

But if you dangle pardons and then, as we have seen in the last two days, make good on that dangling, it really undermines the ability of a nation that upholds itself as a nation of laws to actually say the president is not above the law, because, de facto, he's using the pardon power to make himself above the law.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You have suggested recently that these pardons could, in fact, backfire on President Trump.

Can you explain, how would that happen?

ANDREW WEISSMANN: Well, it's an interesting phenomenon, because, while the pardon power in the Constitution is incredibly broad, one thing that is not clear is whether the president himself can pardon himself.

So, while he can pardon Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, it's not at all clear whether that he can do that with respect to his own past crimes.

And what you can look at today in terms of the various pardons as sort of the final act of his obstructing justice.

In other words, he's carried through, as you mentioned, with the dangling by saying, you know what, if you just keep quiet, you will get a pardon.

And now we're seeing it done.

So, the new attorney general, when he or she is named and confirmed, is going to have on his or her plate the issue of whether to hold the former president to account, in the way that, frankly, other nations around the world hold their leaders to account.

So, it wouldn't be unusual to do that.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, there is a big if embedded in there as to whether or not whomever Joe Biden selects as attorney general chooses to go down that route.

If you were still in the DOJ, do you think, knowing all the political and sort of psychic turmoil that the country went through, would you encourage the new A.G. to pursue this, to keep this case going?

ANDREW WEISSMANN: I think I would.

I by no means say this is an easy decision, but we're supposed to be a nation that believes in the rule of law.

And if the president of the United States is allowed to obstruct justice, and there are no consequences, as you mentioned, it's not only unfair with respect to this president, but the precedent set is really terrible.

I have this anecdote that I think is really important for people to know, which is, when Paul Manafort was convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Virginia, the one juror who spoke out said, it would be a huge mistake to pardon him.

And she said, I voted for the president, but I left my MAGA hat in my car because I understood that I had taken an oath to uphold the law and follow the facts and render a true and fair verdict.

And I think that is a real lesson for all of us, including the next attorney general, to decide on how to deal with the kind of corrupt behavior that we have seen.

And I really don't think, in many ways, that you can move on until you do deal with what's happened and don't sweep it under the rug.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, in just the short time we have left, it's hard not to notice that Attorney General William Barr's last day was yesterday.

Now we have a deputy attorney general in that position for the remainder of the president's term.

Do you think that these pardons had anything to do with that timing or not?

ANDREW WEISSMANN: I don't know the answer to that question.

I suspect the answer is no.

And I would hope that the new attorney general, in the very few days that he has remaining to him, acquits himself well and the honor of the Department of Justice.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Andrew Weissmann, very good to have you.

Thank you very much.

ANDREW WEISSMANN: Nice to be here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Following nine months of tense final negotiations, Britain and the European Union have at last hammered out a post-Brexit trade deal.

The agreement will ensure that Britain and the 27-nation bloc can continue trading goods without tariffs or quotas after the U.K. leaves the E.U.

on New Year's Day.

And it paints a clearer picture of Britain's future four-and-a-half years after its residents voted to exit the bloc.

BORIS JOHNSON, British Prime Minister: We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny.

AMNA NAWAZ: In London today, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated the breakthrough.

BORIS JOHNSON: We have also today resolved a question that has bedeviled our politics for decades.

And it is up to us, all together, as a newly and truly independent nation, to realize the immensity of this moment.

AMNA NAWAZ: The trade deal between Britain and the E.U.

averts a chaotic and costly breakup on New Year's Day, the deadline to complete the separation Brits voted for in 2016.

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen marked the moment with relief.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, President, European Commission: It was a long and winding road.

But we have got a good deal to show for it.

It is fair, it is a balanced deal, and it is the right and responsible thing to do for both sides.

AMNA NAWAZ: Negotiators worked through the night, with last-minute wrangling over fishing rights in Britain's coastal waters.

The deal sets the term for more than $900 billion in trade free of quotas and tariffs.

But it will also mean layers of new bureaucracy, with paperwork and inspections for every item sold across the border.

Both sides still need to ratify the deal, and all 27 E.U.

countries will need to sign off.

In Germany, the bloc's largest economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said a decision would come quickly.

And French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that -- quote -- "European unity and firmness have paid off."

If approved, today's agreement will end the years-long divorce, disentangling economies still dependent on each other.

For more on the breakthrough between the United Kingdom and the European Union, we turn to Robin Niblett, the director of the British think tank Chatham House.

Robin Niblett, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

We should say, many people have tried and failed and tried and failed to reach a deal.

What was it about right now?

How were they able to get this across the finish line?

ROBIN NIBLETT, Director, Chatham House: They were able to get it across the finish line because they had to by the 31st of December.

Otherwise, the U.K. would have dropped out of the market arrangements it had kept since it left the E.U.

a year ago, and we would have had chaos at the borders, which would have been bad for the U.K., but bad also for the rest of the European Union and the many countries that rely on the U.K. market.

The U.K., in a way, becomes one of the E.U.

's biggest trading partners outside the single market.

So, they had to get the deal done, which is why most analysts reckon that some compromises would be made and we would get there.

AMNA NAWAZ: Deadline is a powerful force indeed.

But what does this mean now, in practical terms, for citizens of the E.U., for British citizens, everyday life there?

What does the deal mean?

ROBIN NIBLETT: For most British citizens, it will make no difference whatsoever.

They won't notice anything.

The part of the world in the U.K. that will be affected by this will be business and, in particular, those businesses that export to the European Union, to continental Europe.

That includes, in particular, the car business, for example -- 75 percent of U.K. car exports go to the E.U.

-- pharmaceuticals, agriculture, fisheries.

For those folks, you will have lots more border restrictions.

Even with this new deal, even with zero tariffs, zero quotas, zero quotas, you will have all sorts of standards and regulations that will not be automatically accepted.

So, exporters will feel some pain.

And consumers may feel a little bit of the impact of the price.

I think the other part is anyone taking a holiday.

Going to Spain, you're now going to have to have a visa -- you're going to be on a waiver visa.

And you will have to worry about health insurance, all sorts things like that.

And, obviously, if you want to work in the E.U., well, you can't do it as a Brit.

You can't go over there and look for a job, as E.U.

citizens come and do in the U.K. up until now.

All of that is over.

So, you won't feel it day to day, but it will be a different relationship.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, this still needs to be ratified by both the European Parliament, by the British Parliament.

I have to ask because history is what it is.

Is there any chance this falls apart?

ROBIN NIBLETT: I don't think so.

The British Parliament went through the agony of being unable to come to any alternative other than Brexit, despite, in essence, taking over control from the therm Theresa May government over a year ago.

They failed.

Even the new Labor Party is desperate to get this done and get it out of the way and stop banging on about Europe.

And in the E.U.

itself, they have got bigger fish to fry.

They have got to worry about the COVID crisis.

They have got to worry about Russia.

They have got to think about a new relationship with the Biden administration.

They do not want Brexit hanging over into 2021.

So, I am 98 percent confident this deal will get done by both sides.

AMNA NAWAZ: Ninety-eight percent, we will take that, indeed.

Robin Niblett of the British think thank Chatham House, thank you for joining us.

ROBIN NIBLETT: My pleasure.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other news: The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 328,000, as California became the first state to surpass two million infections.

Even so, millions of Americans are traveling this Christmas, in spite of warnings from public health experts.

Delta and United Airlines announced passengers flying to the U.S. from the U.K. must present a negative COVID test before departing to prevent the spread of a new highly contagious COVID variants in Britain.

Those airlines don't have similar test requirements for flights within the U.S. A powerful winter storm in the Midwest is barreling toward the East Coast today, bringing heavy snow, damaging winds, and dangerously low temperatures.

Blizzard conditions in Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas closed highways and grounded flights on this busy holiday travel day.

Forecasters warned parts of that region could see wind chills plunge to 40 degrees below zero.

Ethiopian forces killed 42 armed men accused of massacring a village in the western part of their country yesterday.

State-affiliated media reported the military also seized bows and arrows, as well as other weapons from the attackers, who had torched homes and killed more than 100 villagers yesterday.

The government also deployed more troops to the area to reestablish calm amid rising ethnic tensions.

At least 20 African migrants trying to reach Europe by boat have died off the coast of Central Tunisia.

Their boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea while en route to Italy.

Crews rescued five survivors.

The Tunisian navy is searching for as many as 20 other missing passengers.

A provincial court in Pakistan has ordered the release of the key suspect in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheik, a British-born Pakistani man, was acquitted of killing Pearl earlier this year.

But he was held while Pearl's family appealed that ruling.

Now, the family's attorney said Sheik will return to prison if his acquittal is successfully overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court next month.

Back in this country, stocks managed modest gains on Wall Street in today's shortened holiday trading session.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 70 points to close at 30200.

The Nasdaq rose more than 33 points, and the S&P 500 added 13.

And a number of traditional Christmas Eve religious services and celebrations were far more subdued this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis celebrated mass in the nearly empty Saint Peter's Basilica with some 200 faithful, a much different scene from the thousands who usually attend.

And in the West Bank, a lockdown in Bethlehem muted festivities at Manger Square in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

ANTON SALMAN, Mayor of Bethlehem (through translator): Christmas is a holiday that renews hope in the souls.

And, therefore, despite all the obstacles and challenges due to the coronavirus and due to the lack of tourism, the city of Bethlehem is still looking forward to the future with optimism and will celebrate Christmas in all its human and religious meanings.

AMNA NAWAZ: Some churches around the world were forced to hold their midnight masses earlier in the day to abide by local pandemic curfews.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": a crucial time for giving and what it means for groups that serve those in need; stepping back to consider how the U.S. is being transformed by overlapping crises; despite the pandemic, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well; and much more.

This time of year is a critical one for charities and nonprofits that rely on a surge of holiday giving to make ends meet.

But this year, we have seen the need for their services dramatically grow, especially at food banks, where lines are stretching longer than before.

For more on the state of giving in America, I'm joined by Stacy Palmer.

She's the editor of "The Chronicle of Philanthropy."

Stacy Palmer, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

I think it's fair to say the pandemic has had devastating economic impact on the country, and philanthropies are no exception.

In fact, one analysis looked at over 300,000 U.S.-based nonprofits, and it found that, in the most dire scenario, nearly 120,000 of them could close.

How badly has the pandemic hurt philanthropy?

STACY PALMER, "The Chronicle of Philanthropy": Philanthropy itself is fairly strong.

People are giving generously.

But that's not enough to help nonprofits.

And so you're right.

Many nonprofits are worried about closing.

They have laid off their employees.

They can't keep up with the demand for services.

So it's a really rough time in the nonprofit world, no matter how generous Americans have been.

AMNA NAWAZ: And is there a difference between how larger groups vs. smaller groups have fared during this time?

STACY PALMER: Groups of all sizes are struggling, but it's those small and midsized groups that we count on in many communities.

They barely have any reserves.

Some of them have one to two weeks of reserves.

So, when that financial cushion runs out, their only choice is to cut back services, lay off workers or that kind of thing.

So it's a very scary situation for many nonprofits.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have also seen during the pandemic inequality in America also grow dramatically.

And millions of Americans are struggling with lost wages and jobs.

But the country's richest, over 600 billionaires, added almost a trillion dollars in total net worth during the pandemic.

Has that fueled any additional giving from the richest Americans?

STACY PALMER: We have seen some amazing gifts from some of the very wealthiest people.

MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Jeff Bezos, has given $6 billion this year.

So, it's an amazing thing.

Jack Dorsey of Twitter has given very generously.

So, we're seeing those amazing gifts.

But, even still, it's not enough to make up for the losses that nonprofits have.

And nonprofits depend on government, just like a lot of us do.

So, it's not just philanthropy, but the reason they're suffering is because they get their money in so many different ways.

And they're not available anymore.

AMNA NAWAZ: Stacy, the need is so great right now, but that need will extend far beyond the holidays, when people are more likely to give.

For folks out there who are struggling, trying to prioritize where and how to give, what would your advice be?

STACY PALMER: Almost every nonprofit needs money now.

So, it's -- you should make the choice of what you care about most in your community.

Those of us who are getting stimulus checks, maybe don't need them, have a little bit of extra money, it's a great thing for us to try to give to the people in our communities who are suffering the most.

But think about other causes, mental health groups, arts groups, other kinds of groups that we don't think about with those food bank lines.

They also need your help.

So, they will appreciate anything that you could give.

AMNA NAWAZ: And we know that need will be there for many weeks and months to come.

That is Stacy Palmer from "The Chronicle of Philanthropy."

Thank you for joining us.

STACY PALMER: Thank you so much.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now we want to take a step back for a long view of what this historic year has revealed.

In a conversation recorded yesterday, Judy Woodruff is our guide.

JUDY WOODRUFF: 2020 has been a year unlike any within living memory and one that exposed some of our deepest divides.

The pandemic has now killed more than 320,000 people in the U.S. and left millions in financial distress.

America's race problem erupted anew this summer after the killing of George Floyd and the deaths of other African Americans, all of this happening in the midst of a national election.

We're joined now by four people to take a look at this past year and look ahead.

Dr. Uche Blackstock is an emergency medicine physician and the founder of Advancing Health Equity, which is focused on addressing racism in health care, Yuval Levin, editor of "National Affairs" magazine and a director at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research center in Washington.

Jill Lepore is a professor of American history at Harvard University, a staff writer at "The New Yorker," and an award-winning author.

And Eddie Glaude Jr. is chair of the Department of African-American studies at Princeton University and an author himself.

And we welcome all four of you back to the "NewsHour."

We normally, at the end of a year, look back at the highs and the lows, but, Dr. Blackstock, I think it's fair to say this year it's been a year of low and lower.

But let's focus first on the pandemic.

What has it said to us, do you think, about America's leadership and about who we are as Americans?

DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK, Advancing Health Equity: Yes.

So, as we head into this -- I would say this dark winter, with cases at record highs, that's increasing, I would say that there was a social contract that was broken between this country's leadership and its people.

The fact that we have a virus that can be mitigated, and other nations have done that much more successfully than we have, has really shown the degree of the lack of leadership here.

I have witnessed this firsthand as an emergency medicine physician.

I have cared for probably up to this point thousands of COVID-19 patients.

I have never been scared to go to work as I have been this year, scared of what would happen to my patients and also scared of what would happen to me and my family.

And so I think that's a result of lack of investment in our health care infrastructure, as well as our public health infrastructure.

And that's why we're seeing what we're seeing currently.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yuval Levin, what would you say this pandemic has said about our leadership and about us?

YUVAL LEVIN, American Enterprise Institute: Well, I certainly agree with Dr. Blackstock.

What we have seen is a failure of leadership.

And, ultimately, a failure of leadership is a failure of responsibility.

I think up and down the chain, that is what this year has shown us.

And one thing that I have certainly learned, as someone who's tried to observe the American system of government for a long time, what's been clearest this year is that the president's responsibility, the responsibility of our leaders, ultimately, is an obligation to deal with reality.

And I think what we have seen again and again this year is a desire to avoid dealing with reality, and instead to create alternative realities that might allow our leaders to ignore and deny their obligations.

But we faced a reality that didn't care what we thought about it, right, that wasn't going to be swayed by whatever a president might have to say.

The virus was what it was, and it required leadership that was willing to deal with it as it was, to respond to problems, to learn from failures.

And it has to be said that, although we're ending the year with some light at the end of the tunnel because of the vaccine, which certainly is a triumph and, in part, an American triumph, we have for the most part seen failure after failure this year when it comes to our leadership class.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Professor Eddie Glaude, pick up on that.

And then I know you have spoken and written a lot about what it -- what this year has revealed in terms of our economic inequality, hand in hand with our -- the inequality in our health care.

EDDIE GLAUDE JR., Princeton University: Yes, so, in some ways, you can -- we can echo Dr. Blackstock here, in the sense that that the social contract has been broken.

But it's not just simply, I think, about the leadership class.

In some ways, the leadership class reflects what's happening in the body politic itself, in our sense of community, right?

Our relationship with each other, our sense of obligation to each other has broken, and in some ways has broken primarily because I think of what can be described as selfishness and greed.

So, what has been revealed for me, really quickly, is that the last 40 years of particular political and economic ideology has revealed itself to be bankrupt, that it has transformed us from citizens and community with each other to individual persons in pursuit of our own self-interest, in competition and rivalry with others.

So, there's no robust conception of the public good.

And it evidences itself with liberty becoming a synonym for selfishness.

It evidences itself with folks being more concerned about their 401(k)s or their stock portfolios than they are with their fellows.

And so there's a sense in which the very ideological frame of the last 40 years has collapsed right in front of us, and we're searching and grappling for a different way of being together.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And Jill Lepore, thinking about that, and as someone who looks at the arc of history, how does this pandemic fit into America's story?

JILL LEPORE, Harvard University: Well, I think we really won't know until we get to the other side of it.

But I think an interesting question is, when did this historical moment begin?

Forty years ago is a really reasonable point of departure.

We can think about 1980 as a real turning point in American politics and in American economic structures.

But I think, actually, if you look at the quantitative data, we need to go back a little bit further to sort of 1968 to 1972, because there, if you plot on a graph, you see income inequality begins to rise in that moment, and so does political polarization, both of which have been increasingly -- increasing consistently since the late '60s, early '70s.

So, what we see now, of course, with the pandemic is, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but there's also a great deal of light been cast on inequalities and asymmetries in American economic and political life that have been getting worse and worse and worse for decades.

So, how we will remember this moment is whether we rise to the challenge at all or not.

And I guess there's just one more thing I might speak to that hasn't been raised yet coming last year.

And that is the degree to which this is a disease that affects the human family, all of us across the planet Earth.

And I think there's a way in which the hope that we can find here has to do with that sensibility, that there is such a thing as a public good, and there's the good of humankind, and there's the good of our environment and the good of the planet as a whole.

But maybe there's a way in which that one of the ways to rise to the challenge of this moment, of course, is to think about the massive failures of our federal government and the lack of leadership that everyone else has pointed to, but also to think about this as an opportunity for a kind of spiritual renewal as a human family.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Dr. Blackstock, I mean, thinking about asymmetry and the human spirit into all this, in the midst of the pandemic, we have the killing of George Floyd of other Black Americans, Breonna Taylor.

How has that changed the way we have not only looked at this pandemic, but is this another - - is this another civil rights movement in this country?

How do you see it?

DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK: You know, it's interesting.

I think that it took a Black man being murdered on video by a police officer to wake up a sizable proportion of the U.S. population.

It took a pandemic to reveal racial health inequities that have always been there.

And we're -- obviously, we're having conversations in a candid, more public way than was had before.

I think what we really need to see is policy change.

I think we need to see what we call the social determinants of health, jobs, housing, education, a legislative policy focus on reinvestment in Black communities.

That would be action.

If that doesn't happen, then we will just continue on with the same structural inequities that we currently have.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We talk, Yuval Levin, about having a national conversation about these things, but we are a very divided country right now.

Some of these conversations are not being had around every workspace, every dinner table.

How does that affect, do you think, our ability to move forward, to take advantage of this moment?

YUVAL LEVIN: Yes, one of the striking things about this year is that the partisan divides that have shaped our politics for so long clearly also shape our culture and our way of processing reality, so that whether it is talking about the pandemic or whether it is talking about racial justice and some of what we have seen on our streets this year, you have seen really two sorts of political conversations happening alongside each other, very rarely engaging each other, two realities that have had to face each other.

We can hope that the challenges we faced this year, the enormous deprivation and insecurity that so many Americans are facing, might force us, as people, as citizens, and force our leaders to confront these realities as one whole.

But I have to say, so far, and even in the wake of the election, we have seen the persistence of these two separate, distinct tracks, two separate realities, that make it so difficult for us to really come to terms with the underlying problems that we as a country are going to have to face.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Professor Glaude, what about that?

How possible is it, truly, for us to tackle these issues that you're all describing, when we are so split?

EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: We have to tell ourselves the truth, that these two parallel worlds, these two parallel realities, one is rooted in this assumption that white people ought to be valued more than others, that there's a way in which a sense of one's own precarity, a sense of one's own economic insecurity is being displaced on to others, who are in some ways the recipients of a tyrannical government that's redistributing wealth from hardworking folk to lazy folk.

I mean, we have to tell ourselves the truth, it seems to me.

And that is, in some ways, we may very well be experiencing the last gasp of a particular understanding of the country.

The demographic shifts that are -- that have happened are exerting certain kinds of pressures.

We're seeing those pressures evidence themselves in the body politic, as well as in our cultural lives.

So, we're -- in some ways, we're at a crossroads, to invoke a blues metaphor.

And the question is, what kind of choice will we make?

And I think we're waiting see -- we're waiting to see what the answer will be.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jill Lepore, does our history give us any clues about that?

JILL LEPORE: I think our history would suggest that there needs to be -- and, in fact, the history of the last year as well suggests there needs to be a lot of action at the local level.

I mean, each of the speakers has talked about the failure of leadership on the part of the federal government.

But we have seen a lot of tremendous leadership by governors and even by state legislatures and I think in local communities, providing food relief and doing their own efforts to address racial injustice and begin some of some long overdue steps.

I do think you see evidence in different moments of crisis in the American past, where some conversations that needed to be had were really never going to be national conversations.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Blackstock, do you see ingredients in the coming political leadership, the Biden administration or elsewhere, that you think will show us a way to work through some of these enormous challenges we're facing?

DR. UCHE BLACKSTOCK: I definitely see some promise.

I see focus on the science, a focus on health equity and racial equity.

But I think that we have to, as usual, hold our leadership accountable and make sure that they keep working on these goals of racial justice.

Look, racism has essentially made Black people and other people of color sick in this country, by putting them at risk for illness for this virus.

And we really need our, not just federal leadership, but local and state, to start working on efforts to address this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yuval Levin, so now two of you have brought up the importance of local leadership looking away from the center.

What would you add to that?

YUVAL LEVIN: Well, I very much agree.

And I think that, if you want to be hopeful about America at this point, you would do better to look at our country from the bottom up than from the top down.

There are a lot of promising signs of communities coming together to try to address challenges that have arisen in the course of the pandemic and that have become clearer in the course of this year in other ways, around race and policing and other things.

We also have an incoming administration that will come in with very narrow congressional majorities.

It's not clear yet if the Republicans or Democrats will control the Senate.

Democrats will narrowly control the House, so that, whatever their ambitions, the new administration is going to have a lot of challenges and will have to find ways to make incremental progress through various kinds of bipartisan compromises.

That's no easy thing now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Professor Glaude, is this a time for compromise, as we just heard from Mr. Levin, from Yuval Levin, or is it a time for standing one's ground?

EDDIE GLAUDE JR.: Well, it all depends on what the nature of the compromise is.

It seems to me that the scale of the problems the country face require -- requires a major intervention, transformative leadership, bold vision.

America is broken, in my view.

Even though we may we may be able to point to pockets at the local level where people are trying to imagine different ways of being together, I think, fundamentally, how we imagine ourselves as living together has kind of come apart.

And so we need, I think, a bold vision, transformative vision, right?

Now, that -- I will not put my faith in the fact that it's going to happen in Washington, D.C., but we need it, it seems to me.

We have to figure out a different way of being together if America is going to survive.

That sounds like an old jeremiad.

And I know Professor Lepore recognizes the nature of the language.

But it seems to me that we have to -- we have to kind of describe the nature of the crisis at that scale.

And it seems to me we need both/and, not either/or, in terms of the response, both local and national response, not tinkering around the edges, though.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And I see you smiling, Professor Jill Lepore.

I'm going to give you the last word.

JILL LEPORE: Well, I couldn't agree more that we need that bold vision.

And I think we do need it at the national level.

We need a new moral platform on which people can stand.

I mean, I would like to just hear Eddie give that jeremiad to the American people.

(LAUGHTER) JILL LEPORE: I mean, I just don't see -- I agree entirely with where we began, that the social contract has been broken.

How do you repair that?

That's an obligation that falls to each and every one of us.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well we could go on and on, but we are going to leave it at that, and thank each one of you.

Jill Lepore, Professor Eddie Glaude Jr., Yuval Levin, and Dr. Uche Blackstock, thank you, each one of you.

AMNA NAWAZ: With the pandemic raging and the nation's economy teetering, this might seem like a strange time to start a business.

But is it?

Paul Solman considers this question as part of his regular series, Making Sense.

PAUL SOLMAN: Twenty-four-year-old Saida Florexil, deaf since birth, working at a hothouse for start-ups in Florida.

SAIDA FLOREXIL, Founder, Imanyco: My company is Imanyco.

It advocates for communication accessibility and delivers a live transcription technology to help people who are deaf and hard of hearing with communication.

PAUL SOLMAN: In short, an app that transcribes conversations in real time, tells you who's speaking.

Florexil lip-reads easily, but how do you lip-read a group?

SAIDA FLOREXIL: If my head is still that way, and then this person started talking, somebody has to tap me and be like, "Saida, I'm talking this way."

PAUL SOLMAN: And, of course: SAIDA FLOREXIL: Because of the pandemic right now, with COVID, like, everyone wearing face masks.

I don't even know if you're talking or if you're not talking.

PAUL SOLMAN: Surprising, at least to me, is that Florexil is one of several million Americans who've tried to start a business since the pandemic hit, despite the economic anxieties of COVID.

From April to June, 900,000 government applications to start a business, from July to September, a million-and-a-half.

But, really, launch a company now?

SCOTT GALLOWAY, Author, "Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity": I would argue, as someone who started nine companies myself, that a recession is actually a fantastic time to start a business.

PAUL SOLMAN: Serial entrepreneur Scott Galloway.

SCOTT GALLOWAY: I have had winners.

I have had losers.

As I look through all of them and try and determine the signal from the noise as to what is the best forward-looking indicator of success, simply put, it was where in the economic cycle I started the business.

PAUL SOLMAN: Booms go bust and busts recover, says Galloway, now a marketing professor.

During the busts, start-up costs are low, the unemployed are cheap, and so is commercial real estate.

ANNIE MOLNAR, The Emporium: This building used to be a church built in, I believe, the early 1940s.

PAUL SOLMAN: In Veneta, Oregon, Annie Molnar gave me a tour of The Emporium, a brand-new marketplace for local artisans.

ANNIE MOLNAR: Right here is my product line.

PAUL SOLMAN: Molnar, who sells soaps, partnered with Aida Camalich Lough, who sells artisanal foods and bakeware.

They rented this building for less than half its price pre-COVID.

AIDA CAMALICH LOUGH, Owner, Aida Food Company: The building had been vacant.

And we came in.

It was perfect timing.

PAUL SOLMAN: Just down the road, Amy Wells, her husband, Cameron, and business partner Chris Archer are turning this abandoned site into Arable Brewing Company, at $870 a month, with an option to buy, and, crucially, no overhead.

AMY WELLS, Co-Founder, Arable Brewing Company: We aren't up against the same struggles that a lot of the other businesses out there are up against right now, because we don't have to serve the public currently.

We don't have to worry about any of the lockdowns.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, of course, they're betting on a post-bust upswing, says Cameron.

CAMERON WELLS, Co-Founder, Arable Brewing Company: If everything works out well with the vaccine, I don't think it could work out any better, because people are going to be tired of being in -- socially distanced in their house for a year or and then some.

PAUL SOLMAN: In other words, pent-up demand for bellying up to the bar.

Now, if you're thinking it's a long shot for folks who've never run a business to start a brewery or a crafts store during a pandemic, how about the hurdles Saida Florexil has faced since childhood?

SAIDA FLOREXIL: I have never thought that one day I will be able to do something like this.

I was not like other students.

I had to spend extra time at home learning how to write, learning how to speak clearly.

I spent hours, years going to speech therapy, learning how to pronounce my name.

PAUL SOLMAN: Florexil is saddled with student loans, car payments.

But with so many lips impossible to read because of masks these days, she's hopeful.

And in addition: SAIDA FLOREXIL: One thing I have learned is that a lot of big companies started during the recession, so why not take that opportunity?

PAUL SOLMAN: On the other hand: SAIDA FLOREXIL: Oh, my gosh.

I still think I'm crazy for doing this.

PAUL SOLMAN: Now, some would say Florexil is crazy.

Pandemic aside, half of new businesses fold within five years.

And starting a business in America has become more and more dicey for decades, as even Scott Galloway acknowledges.

SCOTT GALLOWAY: Over the last 20 or 30 years, it's actually a very difficult time to start a business.

PAUL SOLMAN: Reasons?

One is the increasing market dominance of mega-companies like Amazon, Apple and Google, says Galloway.

SCOTT GALLOWAY: It is very hard to get funding in an environment that is controlled by huge, dominant invasive species.

So, I would argue that it's this continued march of monopolies that, if you will, is taking all the oxygen out of the room for small businesses.

PAUL SOLMAN: There's a second reason entrepreneurs often balk.

There's more red tape these days, says researcher Sameeksha Desai, and so: SAMEEKSHA DESAI, Kauffman Foundation: The complexity of navigating the business environment and the business process can contribute to people making specific decisions not to grow or not to expand in a certain way.

PAUL SOLMAN: But many would-be entrepreneurs are shrugging off these concerns because the pandemic has left them no other choice.

Molnar and Lough opened the Emporium, because, with the usual venues shut down, they desperately needed somewhere to sell their soaps and bakeware.

And Florexil started her app because she was a substitute teacher before the pandemic forced schools to close.

And, when they reopened, students were required to wear masks, which obscured their lips.

SAIDA FLOREXIL: So, I knew that was going to be very hard for me with communication, and that I couldn't do it.

PAUL SOLMAN: Scott Galloway, as usual, puts it bluntly.

For entrepreneurship, he says: SCOTT GALLOWAY: There's nothing like desperation, there's nothing like need to create a certain level of innovation, a certain level of hunger.

PAUL SOLMAN: Of course, desperation doesn't mean success.

But entrepreneurs are optimists.

They have to be.

And thank goodness, wrote the famous 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes, because - quote -- "If spontaneous optimism falters, leaving us to depend on nothing but a mathematical expectation, enterprise will fade and die" -- unquote.

Florexil knows the risks, but, along with her optimism: SAIDA FLOREXIL: I'm scared of missing out, not doing it.

That's my biggest fear.

So, I feel like now is the right time.

You can't buy time.

PAUL SOLMAN: No, you can't.

For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Paul Solman.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, 2020 has been a long and difficult year for many, with particular challenges for parents of small children and for front-line workers, including those who deliver mail and packages.

But, still, we look for moments of delight.

Here's Stephanie Sy with a story of just that.

STEPHANIE SY: Social distancing may have defined 2020, but it didn't stop spontaneous moments of joy from springing up and making us feel connected.

One of those moments was captured on video.

Avalina Whitlow, a toddler in Portland, Oregon, and her neighborhood mailman dance together every day while separated by the window in her family's living room.

It's a video that has gotten millions of views, including the 30 times I watched it.

And Avalina, her father, David, who made the video, and Ian Simon, their mailman, joins us now.

What a beautiful sight.

Thank you all so much for being with us.

David, let me ask you, because Avalina is 3, and if she's anything like my toddler, she doesn't probably speak much in front of national television.

What are these daily appearances and dancing, what has that meant to you and your family?

DAVID WHITLOW, Father of Avalina: I think it's meant everything.

Even the smallest gesture during these times, any kindness that someone can pay, means everything, because it's been a struggle for everybody.

So, I think it means everything.

Anybody that does something nice for someone else, it really means a lot.

And it meant a lot to me and my family.

And it certainly means a lot to Ava.

STEPHANIE SY: Can you tell me a little bit how this year has been, how these last nine months have been for you and your family?

DAVID WHITLOW: It's been an incredible struggle.

I think, just like everybody else, our whole - - all of our daily activities were -- kind of came to a halt.

I lost the business that I had.

I was at the end of some pretty major schooling.

I didn't work for five months.

And now I'm back to work three-quarter time, and things seem to be looking up a little bit.

A lot of positivity has come out of this video.

And so I'm hoping to keep that going.

STEPHANIE SY: And, Ian, what about you?

What's been your personal struggle throughout all of this?

IAN SIMON, Mailman: I have been pretty lucky that I still get to work every day.

Yes, I work, work a lot six, sometimes seven days a week.

The school is shut down.

My wife can't work.

Our son's autistic, so she's got to stay home with him and do the laptop schooling, try and keep him focused.

STEPHANIE SY: David, I think any parent would want to capture this on video, but you also put together a whole montage of different days where you saw Avalina dancing with Ian.

What inspired you to put the video out to the world?

DAVID WHITLOW: Well, throughout the pandemic, I have actually made a lot of videos of my daughter.

So, I have a ton of these videos.

And some of them are pretty sweet.

Others are just kind of fun.

This one was to sweet not to share.

And I kind of thought that this would really make some people cry, because it made us cry when we watched it together, my wife and I.

And so I thought the world needed something to feel good about.

And Ian was a huge part of that, obviously.

He -- that's how it made me feel, is happy.

And I am really glad that everybody else felt so happy when they watched it.

I think they feel how I feel when I watch her dance.

STEPHANIE SY: Ian, what about you?

What kind of reactions have you gotten since this video has been out there?

It's gotten millions of views.

IAN SIMON: I'm getting messages from people all over the world thanking me.

It's very inspiring.

One lady started doing Meals on Wheels.

And her first week on her route, she started dancing the food up to the door.

And a lot of the messages, I tear up.

It's just so heartwarming.

STEPHANIE SY: I just wanted to thank you guys for sharing that video and bringing joy to all of us that have been blessed to see it.

Ian Simon and David and Avalina Whitlow, thank you so much, and happy holidays.

DAVID WHITLOW: Same to you.

Thank you so much.

IAN SIMON: Thank you so much, putting it out there.

AVALINA WHITLOW, 3 Years Old: Bye.

AMNA NAWAZ: And finally tonight, we continue a "NewsHour" tradition.

Each year, we have asked the Department of Defense and its Defense Media Activity Agency to spread a little holiday cheer and record service members singing a Christmas song.

From members across the services, here now is "Little Drummer Boy."

(SINGING) AMNA NAWAZ: And our thanks to all of those out there serving tonight.

And that is the "NewsHour" for this Christmas Eve.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you for joining us, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.