| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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These other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. | |
| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live. | ||
| And then Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute analyzes President Trump's return to the White House and potential second-term challenges. | ||
| And Politico White House reporter Adam Kankren reports on White House News of the Day and previews the week ahead. | ||
| Also, auto reporter Jeff Gilbert of WWJ News Radio on Donald Trump's executive actions targeting the electric vehicle industry. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| Join the conversation. | ||
| This is the Washington Journal for January 27th. | ||
| Today marks the first full week of the Trump administration, and it's been a busy one, which included ending a short standoff with Columbia over deportees, immigration raids taking place across the United States, rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government, some of his key cabinet positions being filled, and the pardons and commutations for those who participated in the attack of the Capitol. | ||
| Perhaps you agreed with the president on those efforts. | ||
| Maybe you didn't. | ||
| To start the program today, what did you think about the actions of the Trump administration in its first week? | ||
| And did you support or oppose those actions? | ||
| Here's how you can call us and let us know what you think about the actions of the Trump administration in its first week. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8000. | ||
| Two. | ||
| If you want to text us whether you supported or opposed some of these actions in the Trump administration and its first week, 202-748-8003 is how you do that. | ||
| You can post on Facebook at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN, and you can also post on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| If you go to the publication, TheHill at theHill.com, they have a look at the president's first week and some of the actions he took place. | ||
| Five takeaways from Trump's whirlwind week back at the White House. | ||
| They start the list with efforts on immigration, saying this, that Mr. Trump wasted no time this week following through on his pledge to drastically reshape the country's approach to immigration. | ||
| The president, on his first day in office, took a number of actions to severely restrict immigration while driving a greater military presence at the border. | ||
| He paused refugee admissions, declared a national emergency at the southern border, designated cartels as the foreign terrorist organizations, shut down an app used by asylum seekers to make appointments at the border, and attempted to end birthright citizenship. | ||
| That's just one of the lists from that Hill story about those takeaways in the first week. | ||
| If you go to the Chicago Tribune this morning, their front page takes a look at some of these raids taking place in Chicago. | ||
| They report this saying ICE announced that it had arrested 1,000 people nationwide on Sunday. | ||
| But a spokesperson declined to say how many were from the Chicago area last year. | ||
| The Biden administration averaged about 310 immigration arrests per day. | ||
| The story saying that Chicagoans and advocates for undocumented immigrants reported at least half a dozen ICE sightings across the cities and above in suburbs on Sunday. | ||
| And it was the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, on the Sunday shows, specifically on Meet the Press or on CBS, talking about the issue of immigration and also taking criticism of the Catholic bishops over comments they made over immigration. | ||
| You can see that full interview online, but here's a portion from the vice president yesterday. | ||
| The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week condemned some of the executive orders signed by President Trump, specifically those allowing immigration and customs enforcement to enter churches and to enter schools. | ||
| Do you personally support the idea of conducting a raid or enforcement action in a church service at a school? | ||
| Well, let me address this. | ||
| Of course, if you have a person who is convicted of a violent crime, whether they're an illegal immigrant or a non-illegal immigrant, you have to go and get that person to protect the public safety. | ||
| That's not unique to immigration. | ||
| But let me just address this particular issue, Margaret, because as a practicing Catholic, I was actually heartbroken by that statement. | ||
| And I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they actually worried about their bottom line? | ||
| We are going to enforce immigration law. | ||
| We're going to protect the American people. | ||
| Donald Trump promised to do that. | ||
| And I believe the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, if they're worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden. | ||
| Let them talk about people like Lake and Riley, who were brutally murdered. | ||
| I support us doing law enforcement against violent criminals, whether they're illegal immigrants or anybody else, in a way that keeps us safe. | ||
| The vice president from yesterday, immigration, just one of the actions of the Trump administration in its first week, you can talk about that and other actions taken by the administration. | ||
| If you support those actions or oppose them, Democrats 202-748-8000, Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| Text us at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Some of you posting on Facebook this morning before the start of the show. | ||
| This is a viewer saying, why are my eggs, groceries, and gas still expensive? | ||
| Also, the weather is the same. | ||
| I just know he wouldn't lie about that, right? | ||
| Another viewer, Dave Latin, saying releasing the files on JFK were a positive. | ||
| He gives a negative to everything else. | ||
| And then Kevin James from Facebook saying he's done more than a week in a week than Biden has done in 50 years. | ||
| Not to mention, he has spoken to and taken questions from more reporters than former President Biden did in four years. | ||
| Support him. | ||
| What he's doing, we voted him in for. | ||
| Again, if you want to make the comments on social media, you can do that. | ||
| You can tell us about your views on supporting or opposing the president's actions in the first weeks. | ||
| This is on our Independent Line. | ||
| Connecticut, this is Kevin on the efforts of the administration. | ||
| And if you support or oppose them, Kevin, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| The DEI, what they did with the DEI, they took a page from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers because since the mid-80s, in all the contracts, in all the locals from the East Coast to the West Coast, the International put into contracts saying the companies and the contractors have the right to spit an electrician at any given time, and they don't have to give any excuses. | ||
|
unidentified
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And this wily discrimination in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has been going on for decades, and they still reallowed it today. | |
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| So is this something you supported or opposed? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I oppose because they took the rights away from the electricians and workers. | |
| You know, I mean, the companies, contractors, they're running the International Brotherhood of electrical workers now. | ||
| And this has been going on for all the construction outfits. | ||
| The companies and the contractors have the right to turn any electrician round back to the hall. | ||
| That's Kevin there in Connecticut, Fox News in recent days with this headline, just to show it to you that the president's actions on those purges, as they describe it, of those DEI programs, puts hundreds on leave Nixon's $420 million in contracts. | ||
| Horace in Philadelphia, Democrats lying, you're next up. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, young man. | |
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead, sir. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| We can hear you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| I oppose all of it. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| Everything that he's doing, I oppose except getting the criminals out of the country. | ||
| I think that's a good thing. | ||
| But that's a double-edged sword as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| Because this man that's supposed to be our president, a convicted felon, is a criminal himself. | ||
| So I just don't see what kind of sense that makes. | ||
| You have a good day. | ||
| Well, you said you supported, though, the effort, even given the president's criminal path or criminal history, you said you supported the effort. | ||
| Specifically, why? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, because I don't think that criminals ought to be crossing the border and coming into our country and wreaking havoc and committing crimes and stuff when they could have stayed home and did the same thing. | |
| Okay, Horace there in Philadelphia. | ||
| Let's hear from Terrence. | ||
| Again, what did you support or oppose in this first week of the Trump administration? | ||
| Terrence in Virginia, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Hey, yeah, I've been waiting for him to take or anybody in the country to take action against illegal immigration for a long time. | ||
| Before that, it was people overstaying their H-1Bs or their student visas. | ||
| And it greatly affects the economy aside from just human trafficking, the violence and stuff like this. | ||
| And these people are also participating in online podcasts pretending to be American citizens. | ||
| So it's a huge issue. | ||
| So what do you think about the approach the administration's taking, particularly when it comes to these raids that the papers have been talking about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we have to clean up the mess that Biden created. | |
| I mean, he had people like taking up entire hotels that wouldn't let anybody in there to see what was going on or how it was occurring. | ||
| I mean, these people are committing crimes. | ||
| They're driving illegally on the roads. | ||
| They crash all the time where I live, and they run red lights. | ||
| And the police doesn't, they don't even approach them for the most part because they know that they're desperate and violent. | ||
| Not all of them, of course, but I mean, it's just turned into a giant mess. | ||
| Terrence there in Virginia, giving us his thoughts on, particularly on the immigration front. | ||
| It took on an international flavor over the weekend. | ||
| The BBC and others reporting that the U.S. deciding it will not go ahead with tariffs on Colombia after Bogotá agreed to accept without restrictions deported migrants, according to the White House. | ||
| The president had ordered 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods after its president barred 2SU U.S. military deportation flights from landing in the country on Sunday. | ||
| Colombian President Gustavo Petro had initially responded by saying his country would accept repatriated citizens on civilian planes without treating them like criminals. | ||
| A White House statement says Colombia has now agreed to accept migrants arriving on U.S. military aircraft, quote, without limitation or delay. | ||
| Columbia said a dialogue would be maintained to guarantee the dignity of our citizens. | ||
| Again, you can comment on the immigration piece. | ||
| There are other aspects of the first week of the Trump administration. | ||
| If you want to comment on those too on the phone lines, or if you want to do that on our social media sites, or if you want to text us, 202-748-8003. | ||
| Isaac in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I totally oppose the actions that have been going on the last week. | ||
| I think some of the actions and executive orders that took place are the reason why people decided to end friendships. | ||
| Whether people realize it or not, I keep hearing the same, specifically when it comes to the DEI and affirmative action. | ||
| I keep hearing people say over and over again that there are already these laws in place. | ||
| There are already these laws in the books. | ||
| Here's what he did in one week. | ||
| What he did in one week with the stroke of a pen was take civil rights protections for minorities to the pre-civil rights era. | ||
| I need people to think about that for a second. | ||
| Environmental protections, work protections. | ||
| Through executive order, he has rescinded, he rescinded environmental protections for minorities, communities, and housing. | ||
| How does that help people moving forward? | ||
| What he has done through executive order is put civil rights back to the pre-civil rights era for minorities, people of color, and other minorities. | ||
| And people ask, well, there's already protections on the books. | ||
| And here's what you can forget because, you know, people have short-term memories. | ||
| The reason why the civil rights era happened is because the laws were on the books, but we couldn't trust the community and the culture to abide by those laws. | ||
| So that was the reason why affirmative action was put into place, which later evolved into DEI. | ||
| And then look at some of the things that have happened from the Tuskegee Airmen, a training video being removed, but then being reinstated from supposedly, don't know if this is true, but supposedly removing some DEI as well as Black history month celebrations from the federal government agencies. | ||
| These are things that we kept saying. | ||
| When we say Donald Trump is a racist, this is how we prove that he's a racist because he does things that directly impact communities of color in a negative way. | ||
| And people can't see that. | ||
| That's Isaac there in Maryland. | ||
| Let's hear from Tim in Florida, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, good morning. | ||
| Well, first thing is, the first thing he did, it was supposed to be, oh, everything's going to be cheaper again. | ||
| We're going to, you know, the haze gas, all that garbage. | ||
| Anyway, the first thing he does is rescind the Biden administration's thing on prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare. | ||
| Yeah, I went down to get my wife's script for one medication for 30 days. | ||
| Used to be $47. | ||
| They went $540. | ||
| So I'd just like to thank him for making my bills a lot more. | ||
| I was all saying it was going to get cheaper. | ||
| So all you seniors on Medicare, when you get down to the pharmacy and you get a ticket shock when they tell you I'm hundreds of dollars, don't blame me. | ||
| You voted for him. | ||
| This story was published out of Nevada. | ||
| Thank you, Caller. | ||
| This story was published out of Nevada on the 21st of January. | ||
| President Trump rescinding Mr. Biden's executive order on prescription drug costs, a change that could significantly affect Americans with chronic health conditions and fixed incomes. | ||
| Quote, my understanding of the policy is that it will slow or halt some of the progression that President Biden was making on initiative to decrease medication costs. | ||
| The order that was signed by Mr. Biden, the former president, on October 14th of 2022, directed the Department of Health and Human Services to modify payment models, reduce prices, and improve transparency of prices. | ||
| Medicare beneficiaries were expected to benefit from the cost-saving measures. | ||
| The Trump action, however, does not actually repeal the Biden-era $35 monthly cap on insulin, Medicare's 2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs, or Medicare's ability to negotiate drug price. | ||
| And those policies were remained enforced by federal statutes that were passed by Congress. | ||
| Stanley joins us from Arizona, Republican line on the first week of the Trump administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What did you support or oppose? | |
| Well, I'm actually from Arkansas, but uh that's all right. | ||
| Uh, but uh, I really like Donald Trump, it's gonna be a very good thing. | ||
| He's already stopping stuff over in Israel, he's gonna stop that war over in Russia and Ukraine, and prices will go down, Mr. Isaac. | ||
| They will go down, I promise you. | ||
| Just give him a little time, can't do everything in a week, but uh it's it's gonna be very fine, you'll see, and prices will go down. | ||
| And uh, I imagine privileging sales didn't go down a whole lot in Washington, D.C. Because, and I guarantee you, within a year, Joe Biden will be completely inconfident. | ||
| Ain't no telling how many privileging pills they were throwing down him a day. | ||
| So, Stanley, you said you were confident in the administration's ability to reduce those prices. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What gives you that confidence? | |
| Well, he's only been in there, what, six days, seventh day? | ||
| I mean, but he'll do what he says he'll do. | ||
| I mean, just give him a little time, give him a few months, and things will start coming down. | ||
| Prices will start coming down. | ||
| Just, you know, the world wouldn't build it in a day. | ||
| So things are going to get a whole lot better. | ||
| Okay, Stanley Ver in Arkansas giving us his thoughts. | ||
| He meant in international affairs. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal highlights recent comments by the president over the situation in Gaza. | ||
| This is out of Tel Aviv saying that President Trump says he wants to, quote, clean out the Gaza Strip and urge Jordan and Egypt to take in refugees either temporarily or for the long term, a move that has been rejected by Arab countries since the war began. | ||
| The president said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan in a phone call Saturday that he wants the monarch's country to receive Palestinians. | ||
| He said he expected to make a similar request of Egypt's president in a coming phone call. | ||
| Quote, you're talking about a million and a half people, and we just cleaned out that whole thing, the president said Saturday. | ||
| The comments and other recent moves by his administration reflect a sharp change in policy towards conflict in Gaza compared with under former President Joe Biden. | ||
| Again, international affairs, you can make your comments on that front. | ||
| As far as support or oppose what the president has done, you can pick economics, immigration, or other things. | ||
| 202748, 8,000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202748, 8001, and Independents, 202748, 8002. | ||
| Mo in San Diego, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I just have a little thing about the deportations and then the Social Security tax elimination. | ||
| The deportations, according to MidasTouch.com, the military planes he's using are costing us $852,000 for one trip for 80 people. | ||
| But here's the kicker: he doesn't have to use the military planes. | ||
| Customs and immigration have been flying out the same amount of people on charter planes for years for $8,000. | ||
| So Trump's charging us, the taxpayer, $843,000 to put on a show for his followers. | ||
| But his followers are paying for this too. | ||
| That's extremely bad business for all of us. | ||
| Now, the Social Security elimination tax, his plan to eliminate it is not fiscally sound. | ||
| Could you do me a favor, Pedro, to look up ThompsonReuters.com upcoming tax law changes for me? | ||
| No, Color, go ahead and finish your thought. | ||
| I'm going to let people do that at home if they want. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Well, his plan might cause Social Security to run out by 2035, to 2031. | ||
| That's the Reuters. | ||
| That's from Reuters. | ||
| That's six years from now. | ||
| I don't know who can last six years from now with no Social Security. | ||
| What are people going to do without Social Security in six years? | ||
| Everything he does is just fiscally unsound and wrong. | ||
| Will you be okay if your Social Security runs out in six years? | ||
| Okay, okay, okay. | ||
| Mo in San Diego there. | ||
| Let's hear from Dwayne in Indiana, Republican line, what you support or oppose in this first week of the Trump administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have more questions than supporter or whatever. | |
| And it's on immigration. | ||
| My question is: well, first a comment: it seems as if most immigrants coming in here illegally are coming because of the situation that they have in Haiti or Colombia or wherever it is. | ||
| They're trying to avoid the poverty, the crime, and things of that nature there. | ||
| So, question number one is: what are we doing to alleviate the issues in those countries? | ||
| And if we're doing anything, what's the cost of that compared to the cost of trying to build a wall or keep immigrants out? | ||
| All right, that's Dwayne in Indiana. | ||
| Mark is up next. | ||
| Mark in Michigan, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hi. | |
| I think most of the problem started with Reagan, and it's on this Christianity. | ||
| All of a sudden, everybody was, you know, just jumping on the Christianity bandwagon. | ||
| Even I was on it. | ||
| And now, when I talk to Christians, they're all Trump and they're all doing things that have nothing to do with Christianity. | ||
| So I basically just kind of divorce my family and divorce the suddenly tells you we're a Christian. | ||
| I just turn away and when I and how does that apply to the first week's actions of the Trump administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he's trying to appease his Christians and make them think that he's a Christian himself. | |
| And so he's just all he's doing is just blocking everything. | ||
| And he's going to let those, what, the 12,000 or 1,200 of those 1,500 of those guys from January 6th off and girls too. | ||
| I mean, I saw them all holding hands and praying while they were attacking the Capitol. | ||
| That just pisses me off. | ||
| Mark there in Michigan. | ||
| It was on Sunday where the newly appointed to the Senate, Adam Schiff of California, this is from NBC, blasting the president over his decision to fire 18 inspectors general late Friday night and accuse the president of breaking the law. | ||
| His comment was responding to Senator Lindsey Graham, who early in the program told me at the press that technically, yeah, the president had violated the Inspector General Act, which Congress amended to strengthen protections from undue termination for inspectors general. | ||
| More of that conversation on NBC, but here's Senator Schiff from yesterday talking specifically about that action by the president. | ||
| In legislation, which actually you originally sponsored, presidents have to give a 30-day notice to Congress that they are going to do this. | ||
| You heard Senator Graham just say technically he may have violated the law by not notifying Congress. | ||
| Is there anything that Congress can do about this decision by President Trump? | ||
| There's a lot that we can do. | ||
| And I have to say, as someone who introduced the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which was designed in part to protect inspector generals, to write off this clear violation of law by saying, well, technically he broke the law. | ||
| Yeah, he broke the law. | ||
| And not just any law, but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| And yeah, the remedies Congress has. | ||
| We have the power of the purse. | ||
| We have the power right now to confirm or not confirm people for cabinet positions that control agencies or would control agencies whose inspector generals have just been fired. | ||
| And let's remember in his first term, he fired an inspector general for providing whistleblower complaints to Congress, fired an inspector general for saying the pandemic response, his response, had flaws. | ||
| The American people, if we don't have good and independent inspector generals, are going to see the swamp refill. | ||
| They're going to see rampant waste fraud. | ||
| They're going to see corruption. | ||
| It may be the president's goal here, when he's got a meme coin that's making him billions, is to remove anyone that's going to call the public attention to his malfeasance. | ||
| If you're just joining us, the first week of the Trump administration takes, we'll be on later today. | ||
| And in that first week, a lot of actions. | ||
| Did you support those actions? | ||
| Did you oppose those actions? | ||
| You can let us know on the phone lines: Democrats 202-748-8,000, Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us, it's 202-748-8003. | ||
| And then Facebook and X available to you if you want to post there. | ||
| Ohio is up next. | ||
| This is Greg, Independent Line on that support or oppose idea. | ||
| Greg, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I support everything Trump's doing. | |
| This is what we voted for. | ||
| You little crybabies, get over it. | ||
| And how come you people don't report on CNN's getting rid of them people and MSBS losing all the people? | ||
| You guys are probably hired, ain't you? | ||
| So the caller, that's one topic. | ||
| The topic is what you said as far as support for the president's actions. | ||
| Specifically, what did you support this week? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Putting the troops on the border. | |
| I want them to start shooting these people on site. | ||
| Okay, let's go to Linda in Pennsylvania, Republican line from New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Yeah, my name is Linda. | ||
| First of all, you don't shoot just people on site. | ||
| I'm sitting here listening to all of this. | ||
| What I liked about what happened the first week, Donald Trump came in there with an agenda that was to close the border and to keep America safe. | ||
| And that is exactly what he is doing. | ||
| This thing of the guy from Michigan saying, well, I gave up. | ||
| It's a Christian thing. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| That's your problem. | ||
| This is not Republican versus a Democrat, not Donald Trump versus Adam Schiff. | ||
| Schiff, first of all, made a mistake. | ||
| He said, we have the power. | ||
| No, you don't. | ||
| We do right now, Adam Schiff. | ||
| Deal with it. | ||
| Second, we need to keep this country safe. | ||
| There's been too many things that have happened. | ||
| Children dying, being sex trafficked, young girls being raped and killed. | ||
| Come on, wake up. | ||
| They're yelling because he left the J-Sixers out. | ||
| I applaud that. | ||
| But I did not applaud whenever Oatmeal had, I'm sorry, Mr. Biden, when he pardoned all those rapists and murderers, why don't they take homies that? | ||
| That's okay. | ||
| But the J-Sixers, they're having a sit about. | ||
| I think Trump's going to do a good job. | ||
| He has an agenda. | ||
| He's back. | ||
| Yes, there's going to be problems in Congress. | ||
| There is all the time. | ||
| That's called government. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Linda, there in Pennsylvania, Gary in Texas, Democrats line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I don't have a whole lot to say. | ||
| You know, I'm not sure if Biden was running this country, unfortunately, or not. | ||
| But, you know, it hurt me, you know, with groceries and gas and so forth. | ||
| As far as President Trump, I kind of have to agree with him on everything except for one thing, and that's his Secretary of Defense nomination. | ||
| I just don't think he has doesn't have the experience or the knowledge to deal with all these world leaders and stuff like that. | ||
| I was hoping he would put in that's Pete Hegseth. | ||
| You're talking about the Secretary of Defense who got the vote over the weekend. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm just not comfortable with him at all. | |
| I was hoping he would have put in that, what's his name? | ||
| He's on Fox all the time, General. | ||
| I forget what his name is. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Is it the Secretary's background? | ||
| Is his experience? | ||
| What causes you pause when it comes to him taking the position? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's his experience. | |
| You know, he could have served in, I think it said Iraq or whoever it was he was at. | ||
| He just doesn't have the experience. | ||
| I don't care if he's been in Iraq for two, three tours or not. | ||
| He just doesn't have that experience. | ||
| Gary there in Texas talking about the first week of the Trump administration. | ||
| As many of you have, what you support, what you oppose. | ||
| He talked about Secretary Hegseth. | ||
| There's what's going on at the Justice Department in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, a picture of Pam Bondi, the nominee of the president to become the next Attorney General. | ||
| That not confirmed yet. | ||
| But as far as what's going on currently at the Justice Department, saying many department employees are on edge as they await that Senate confirmation of Pam Bondi. | ||
| Her chief of staff, Chad Mizell, is leading the department. | ||
| Until then, along with the acting Attorney General James McHenry, a longtime immigration lawyer from the Wall Street Journal, it reports that as part of the department's pivots, Mizell issued a memo Friday sharply limiting prosecutions of people accused of blocking access to abortion clinics, calling such cases as prototypical example of federal weaponization. | ||
| Mizell put an immediate hold on civil rights litigation, meaning department lawyers can't take additional steps in many existing cases, quote, to ensure that the president's appointees or designes have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases, according to a memo that was viewed by the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| More there at the website of the journal, if you want to read that there. | ||
| From Bob in Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, I kind of oppose maybe everything he's doing because of the way he's going about it. | ||
| And what really bothers me about Gaza is he promised, well, I don't know about a promise, but him and Nat Yahweh had discussed the Gaza Strip being turned into a, put it this way, a resort for the rich people back when he was president the first time. | ||
| But let's go back one little step in and say, I wish y'all would have a discussion about the illegality of Donald Trump because he's a felon and he's really not our president. | ||
| JD Vance is the only one that's been elected by the law and by the Constitution. | ||
| And the all-alone today, I tell you, what is going to is civil war in this country because Donald Trump's not worth two cents. | ||
| That's Bob there in Virginia. | ||
| As far as we all keep going, and if you want to keep participating, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans 202-748-8001, Independents 202748-8002. | ||
| What to look out for today on our networks. | ||
| A lot going on when it comes to the president and his first administration. | ||
| Florida will be the focus of a meeting between the president and House GOP leaders over how they'll deal with reconciliation, how many bills it will take, and other parts of the president agenda. | ||
| Later on today, House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer will speak at that party retreat at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami. | ||
| That will be at 3 o'clock Eastern. | ||
| You can see that on C-SPAN later on, the president expected to address the Republican conference at 5 o'clock live on our main channel, C-SPAN, and our other platforms, C-SPANNow and C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Nominations today for Wednesday and Thursday later on this week that just to watch out for, President Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will testify at the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing. | ||
| He's an environmental lawyer and activist. | ||
| He was the 2024 independent presidential candidate. | ||
| You can see that hearing Wednesday, 10 o'clock, Thursday, he'll face another committee, the Senate Health Committee, 10 o'clock as well. | ||
| Watch that on C-SPAN 3 when Mr. Kennedy getting questioned by members of that committee. | ||
| And then the president's nominee for the Director of National Intelligence. | ||
| That's Tulsi Gabber. | ||
| 10 o'clock this coming Thursday morning. | ||
| She will be on Capitol Hill to take questions about this nomination to become the next DNI. | ||
| That Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing will be live 10 o'clock on C-SPAN. | ||
| Our other platforms, that's the app, C-SPANNow, C-SPAN.org. | ||
| And you can always go to the website or the app for the latest information on what's going on in this transition period of the Trump administration. | ||
| Clifford in California, Republican line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, yes. | |
| Thank you so much for taking my call this morning. | ||
| And it looks like we won that civil war, according to the last caller there, by waiting those four disastrous years that Biden destroyed our country. | ||
| And I thank God that Trump is back in office. | ||
| It's a great day for America and a great week. | ||
| What did you support specifically or oppose? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, sir. | |
| I support his immigration and the illegal aliens that have poured into this country. | ||
| And I support all that Trump is doing to take care of that national security problem that Biden just, well, not only him, but his second in command, the czar, the great Kamala, how she just ignored the situation and couldn't do nothing about it. | ||
| Went took vacations to the countries of origin. | ||
| They're in Guadalajara, Guatemala, and all them places. | ||
| And what did she do? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| But we did something. | ||
| We voted for the man who would do something about it, our great President Trump. | ||
| And I thank God for that. | ||
| Clifford in California, Taylor in North Carolina, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I mean, it's really hard to pick what I disliked about the past week because there's so much to choose from. | ||
| If it's, let's see, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send these immigrants back home. | ||
| Totally wastefully. | ||
| That's out of our pocket. | ||
| The price of eggs at an all-time high. | ||
| I thought that was something these people cared about. | ||
| Gasoline is high. | ||
| Sending these migrants home is going to make food prices go up because you can bet that nobody wants to go out and pick blueberries. | ||
| Nobody wants to go out and pick vegetables. | ||
| We need these migrants in our country. | ||
| These are our neighbors and friends. | ||
| What else? | ||
| Trump managed to turn Christians against the church because a bishop begged him for mercy. | ||
| Can you believe that? | ||
| He managed to put himself above God in the eyes of Christians. | ||
| It's incredible. | ||
| He managed to put a drunk domestic abuser in charge of the military. | ||
| Let's see. | ||
| Oh, there's a guy that did a literal Nazi salute twice at his inauguration that he said nothing about, who he's a defense contractor who he's putting in charge of defense contracts. | ||
| That's not a conflict of interest, I guess. | ||
| Oh, he pardoned the Jan Sixers, so now he's got his own thug army. | ||
| Whatever happened to these Republicans who keep saying back of the blue, but they're so happy about these people who beat up police being freed. | ||
| Also, wait a second. | ||
| I thought Antifa did that. | ||
| Why did he pardon all these people if it was Antifa? | ||
| Okay, Steve there in Ohio, he bringing up those January 6th people who participated on that attack of the Capitol. | ||
| That was one of the topics from the South Carolina, South Carolina's Republican Lindsey Graham. | ||
| He was on NBC, talked about that specific action by the Trump administration. | ||
| Here is Lindsey Graham from yesterday. | ||
| Even his own vice president said, quote, if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned. | ||
| Do you believe that President Trump was wrong to issue these blanket pardons to the January 6th? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Number one, he had the legal authority to do it, but I fear that you will get more violence. | |
| Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently, I think, was a mistake because it seems to suggest that's an okay thing to do. | ||
| Kamala Harris wanted to raise bail money for people burning down Minneapolis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, Biden pardoned half his family going out the door. | |
| I think most Americans, if this continues to see this as an abuse of the pardon power, that we'll revisit the pardon power of the president if this continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But as to pardoning violent people who beat up cops, I think that's a mistake. | |
| So you think it was a mistake by President Trump to issue these blanket pardons. | ||
| What message does it convey to law enforcement? | ||
| And if you convey that directly to Mr. Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's really been no better support of law enforcement in general. | |
| And there are a lot of people who supported President Trump law enforcement didn't like this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But he said it during the campaign. | |
| He's not tricking people. | ||
| You know, Biden promised not to pardon his family. | ||
| He did. | ||
| Trump said, I'm going to pardon these people. | ||
| So the fact that he did it is no surprise. | ||
| But I'll be consistent here. | ||
| I don't like the idea of bailing people out of jail or pardoning people who burn down cities and beat up cops, whether you're Republican or a Democrat. | ||
| From Ohio, this is Steve, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I was just calling, and good morning. | |
| I was just calling to see if the only immigrants that are being harassed or arrested or sent back home are people of color, because I'm sure there's some immigrants here in this country that aren't, you know, that live white, basically. | ||
| And I don't see any planes going back to Russia or anywhere like that to Europe. | ||
| So I was curious about that. | ||
| You know, the DEI stuff that's going on and not wanting to teach different things as far as black history goes, that's fine if that's what you want to do. | ||
| However, just do the same thing with the, say the same thing about, say, the Holocaust. | ||
| Let's not teach that either and see how people feel. | ||
| And that's my only comment. | ||
| From the Harry in Virginia Republican line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| It's Harry. | ||
| Yep, you're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, United States. | |
| I support the president. | ||
| He is true to form. | ||
| If anybody familiar with horse racing, we use the term true to form. | ||
| He's true to form. | ||
| And he said what he would do. | ||
| I really support the immigration thing. | ||
| I cannot go nowhere to no other country. | ||
| I applaud the president. | ||
| And the rest of the president, this immigration thing has been going on too long. | ||
| So hats off to President Trump. | ||
| Harry there in Virginia. | ||
| Some of you have mentioned the so-called DEI programs. | ||
| That was one of the things in the Hill story about this first week. | ||
| Mr. Trump, President Trump's spending much of that first week in office targeting issues that are considered liberal or, quote, woke, taking aim at gender identity and at diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. | ||
| He signed an executive order on his first day in office mandating that the federal government recognize only two sexes, male and female, and directed federal agencies to cease promotion of the concept of gender transition. | ||
| He said his actions were part of a broader campaign promise to rid the nation of what he called, quote, transgender insanity. | ||
| He also signed that executive order to end DEI programs within the federal government and put employees who are working on DEI programs on administration on administrative leave. | ||
| Memos were sent to federal employees across the government, pushing them to report any efforts to, quote, disguise diversity programs and threatening, quote, adverse consequences for those who did not comply. | ||
| Ralph is next. | ||
| He is in New York, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I'm a UAW worker from upstate New York, and I'm in opposition to what President Trump is doing. | ||
| He rolled back Lyndon Johnson's 1965 civil rights law that barred discrimination for workers working for federal contractors. | ||
| And he has two slick schemes: no tax on tips. | ||
| Employers can use that to shift their wages to tips so they don't have to pay their half of Social Security and Medicare and the no tax on Social Security. | ||
| That's going to increase the shortfall, revenue shortfall for Social Security. | ||
| And that hurts today's workers. | ||
| And lastly, his notion of merit shops. | ||
| That's the opposition to union shops. | ||
| And I thank you for your time. | ||
| Ralph Barr in New York, the president in Las Vegas over the weekend, taking some of that time to talk about that promise on exempting tips from federal taxes. | ||
| Here's a portion. | ||
| Near the top of the agenda for our historic Republican majorities in Congress is to pass a massive tax cut for American workers and families. | ||
| Last year we campaigned across the country at a pledge that I'm sure most of you didn't hear too much about, a pledge to take the Trump tax cuts and make them permanent. | ||
| And that's exactly what we're doing. | ||
| In the coming weeks, I'll be working with Congress to get a bill on my desk that cuts taxes for workers, families, small businesses, and very importantly, keeps my promise for a thing called, and I know you didn't hear anything about this. | ||
| And I'm sure it had no influence on the state, the fact that we won this crazy, massive majority, a state that hadn't been won by a Republican in decades. | ||
| But I'm sure you haven't heard, but we're going to get it for you. | ||
| No tax on tips. | ||
| So if you're a restaurant worker, a server, a valet, a bellhop, a bartender, one of my caddies, I go through caddies like candy. | ||
| If I play badly, I always blame my caddy. | ||
| Or any other worker who relies on tipped income, your tips will be 100% yours. | ||
| President Trump's first week, what did you support or oppose? | ||
| We'll hear from Laura in Massachusetts, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, you're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Hi. | ||
| So I wanted to say a couple of things. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So first of all, I mean, all of this is, you know, again, it's just a lot of distraction. | ||
| This is what the Republicans do. | ||
| Basically, what they're doing now is they want to gut Medicaid while they're giving billions of dollars for AI for their billionaire buddies that sat on the podium there during his inauguration. | ||
| And, you know, it's all about, you know, wagging the dog, right? | ||
| It's about making everybody look the other way while they're doing their dirty dealings on the other end. | ||
| I mean, how can you take Medicaid from poor, poor Americans? | ||
| And this is not going to, this is going to affect hospitals, nursing homes, group homes. | ||
| Well, to the spirit of the question in the first week specifically, what did you support or oppose in that first week? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, okay, well, this is it. | |
| This is his plan. | ||
| And this is, you know, this is Reaganomics. | ||
| This is Trump doing his Reaganomics again, you know, take from the poor to give to the wealthy. | ||
| You know, he's trying to say he's going to do tax breaks for, you know, people that work in restaurants. | ||
| I mean, where's going to be their social security when they go to retire? | ||
| I mean, a lot of this stuff is just throwing bones to people so that they can do their agenda, which is to really enrich the billionaires that are already so rich that it's just so much to spare. | ||
| You know, this country is just so poor and so many workers are struggling. | ||
| And his stuff is just, it's just another act. | ||
| That's what it is. | ||
| He's a good con man. | ||
| He's doing the same con that con job that he's done, you know, part one. | ||
| This is part two of it. | ||
| And it's just really sad. | ||
| And, you know, and letting people out on January, the January 6th people, you know, like, oh, they're all, they're all good people. | ||
| You know, I mean, he like, we can't see what we're seeing. | ||
| You know, we can't, we didn't see what we saw on television, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That was a mirage. | |
| So, you know, it's just very disappointing to see this man back in office. | ||
| That's all I can say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Lauren, Massachusetts, let's go to Charles in Indiana, Republican line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I support the wall in Mexico. | |
| I think it's a very needed thing for our country. | ||
| And I appreciate the fact that he sends a lot of our military folks down there to help protect that. | ||
| We have a lot of military folks in this country just waiting to do something for our country. | ||
| And who, why would we, anybody, bring those people into our country in the first place? | ||
| I fully support that. | ||
| And thank you very much. | ||
| Charles there in Indianapolis. | ||
| I get 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| 202-748-8,000 for Republicans. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| What did you support or oppose in this first week of the Trump administration? | ||
| It was yesterday that Illinois' Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker talked about a memo that was put out by the Trump administration warning state and local officials not to interfere with those immigration efforts that are taking place statewide. | ||
| Here's a portion of some of his comments on CNN yesterday. | ||
| Are you concerned that Illinois state or local officials, up to and including maybe yourself, could face prosecution if you don't comply with federal immigration authorities? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Obviously, you say you agree on people who are in the United States, in Chicago and elsewhere illegally, who are criminals. | |
| But what about those who are, as you say, citizens of the community? | ||
| Dana, we're going to follow the law in Illinois and federal law too. | ||
| We expect them to do the same. | ||
| I'm very afraid that they will not follow the law. | ||
| The reason they put a memo out like that is that that's already the law. | ||
| You know, everybody, we have to follow federal law. | ||
| We have to follow state law. | ||
| Otherwise, we're potentially subject to prosecution. | ||
| Of course, we all know that. | ||
| They're just putting that out because they want to threaten everybody. | ||
| They want people to step back and let them do whatever they want to do, the federal officials. | ||
| And the reality is that they can't break the law. | ||
| You heard them talk about something unconstitutional this year, the removal of birthright citizenship. | ||
| We're going to stand in the way of an unconstitutional order. | ||
| We'll also stand in the way of them breaking the law in Illinois if they're not following federal law. | ||
| Now, we know that if they show up with warrants to take people away, that we're going to hand them over. | ||
| There are people who have deportation orders and have had for many years, even during the prior Trump administration, who need to be picked up and who are violent criminals and, again, should be deported. | ||
| So we're going to do what we need to do. | ||
| But we also have a law in the books in Illinois that says that our local law enforcement will stand up for those law-abiding, undocumented people in our state who are doing the right thing. | ||
| And we're not going to help federal officials just drag them away because somebody pointed at them and said, oh, that person's brown or that person's not from here. | ||
| Check it out. | ||
| Maybe they're undocumented. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, Governor. | |
| Danny joins us from Maryland, Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for having me on. | ||
| I think my most disappointing thing in this first week has been the downfall of the Republican Party and individuals in it following this godless leader. | ||
| I mean, we've seen somebody that's actually decided that he can control nature. | ||
| 0.1% of people are born intersex. | ||
| 10% of people are transgender. | ||
| He can't control that by making an executive order. | ||
| The other issue here is that we have people like your caller earlier who said to shoot at people coming over the border with that on site, which is disgusting. | ||
| Our country is supposed to be built on Christian values, American values. | ||
| And we've seen Republicans who voted for him falling into a bed of corruption, hate, violence. | ||
| I mean, this guy's perpetuating it. | ||
| He's breaking the law. | ||
| We've got the whole situation with the inspector generals being fired. | ||
| He's a felon and he's breaking the law and office. | ||
| His followers love it. | ||
| The thing is, we thought that people voted for him by mistake and didn't understand who he was, but they're as hateful and sinister as he is. | ||
| And I think it's time that we start recognizing that in our day-to-day lives. | ||
| We've got the Catholic Bishops Commission putting out a statement against him. | ||
| We have the Episcopalian Church putting out statements against him. | ||
| And yet, still, his followers continue to love and follow a false God. | ||
| I'm kind of thinking that the years of conspiracy and Facebook and Meta and all this crap getting into your life has convinced people that the reality is not true and that this fake America that they want isn't America. | ||
| Okay, that's Danny there in Maryland. | ||
| Let's hear from Mel in New York, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Pedro. | |
| Way to go, President Trump, for challenging this leftist application of the birthright clause in the 14th Amendment that was not meant to justify anchor babies that we've seen in the past decade. | ||
| Thank you, President Trump, for making measures for America's energy independence and dominance. | ||
| Thank you, President Trump, for pardoning the pro-lifers who were unjustly imprisoned by the previous administration. | ||
| Thank you, President Trump, for deep-fixing DEI. | ||
| That should not be in government. | ||
| It belongs in the category of meritocracy. | ||
| And that initiative is appreciated. | ||
| I thank President Trump for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. | ||
| I thank President Trump for terminating the EV mandate. | ||
| Stop this government intervention in trying to make America's energy policy whereby it interferes with the free market. | ||
| Thank you, President Trump. | ||
| That's Mel there in New York. | ||
| The New York Times looks at aspects of the Trump administration's policy, especially in this first week, the federal workforce being one of those categories. | ||
| This is from the New York Times. | ||
| The administration issued one executive order that makes it easier to fire. federal employees by subjecting them to the rules governing political appointees who have much weaker due process rights. | ||
| Mr. Trump also issued a memo asserting his authority to fire several thousand members of the so-called senior executive service. | ||
| Top bureaucrats across the government and administration began to remove some of them. | ||
| Other memos told agencies to require employees to return to an office full-time, quote, as soon as practicable, which some federal employees said had prompted them to look for new jobs outside government and to list employees who are still completing the probationary period required of new hires, typically one or two years, depending on the role or category of the employee. | ||
| A lot of categories in that piece from the New York Times about the Trump administration in its first week. | ||
| You can find it online. | ||
| Willie's next. | ||
| He's in Texas, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| I can laugh at liberals all day long. | ||
| You know, they're very unserious folks. | ||
| But okay, so I support the president's efforts in pardoning and commuting all of the January 6th prisoners. | ||
| I call them political prisoners. | ||
| And I really support Trump, President Trump, in his explaining the difference between what he did and what Biden did. | ||
| What Biden did was very, very bad because he pardoned folks who hadn't apparently done any crime. | ||
| And it's amazing because you don't see any of these people like, oh, Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney. | ||
| You don't see any of these folks, Benny Thompson. | ||
| You don't see any of these folks standing up, raising their hands saying, hey, we don't want the pardon. | ||
| President Trump, if you remember, you had some folks on Washington Journal who was explaining four years ago, okay, what the preemptive pardon was. | ||
| And Donald Trump never asked for that. | ||
| He never asked for it. | ||
| He was the one who put it all in the papers. | ||
| What it was was the mainstream media planting a seed and getting people who are totally gaslit to follow. | ||
| Again, President Trump never did that. | ||
| He never did anything with preemptive pardons. | ||
| I thank him for doing what he did, and I appreciate it for what he's doing now. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Willie in Texas. | ||
| He mentioned the media, one of those things from the Hill, highlighting that first week. | ||
| Here's the header. | ||
| Mr. Trump still loves the press, adding, the president spoke to the press every day this week, starting on Monday right after his inauguration when he took questions for more than an hour while signing executive orders in the Oval Office. | ||
| He talked to the press again Tuesday from the White House while announcing a new artificial intelligence investment. | ||
| And he was interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. | ||
| On Thursday, President Trump took several more questions from the Oval Office while citing additional executive orders. | ||
| He answered an array of questions throughout Friday, starting when he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina, again during briefings in the Tar Hill State, and while surveying damage from Hurricane Helene from that Hill, you can find it at thehill.com if you want to read more about this first week of President Trump. | ||
| Let's go to Christine. | ||
| Christine in Pennsylvania, Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm looking here at breakfast. | ||
| We've got egg prices through the roof. | ||
| Now we've got Columbia that is going to have to deal with 25 or 50 percent tariffs. | ||
| Columbia provides a huge amount of our coffee. | ||
| Drug prices are up. | ||
| Our $35 insulin out the window, buddy, you're paying up. | ||
| You are going to stink and pay because of what Trump has done to you. | ||
| Right now, and you know, the egg prices are up because of bird flu to some extent, to a large extent. | ||
| This is a huge tragedy in this country because the NIH has been, it's not allowed to communicate anymore. | ||
| It can't tell us what's best for our health. | ||
| We won't find out about bird flu. | ||
| We will not know how bad it is. | ||
| Now, for two months, when COVID was rampaging, he said it was not going to be, it was going to go away in the spring. | ||
| He said it would be fine. | ||
| He said it's nothing. | ||
| Don't worry about it. | ||
| We had 1.2 million dead people. | ||
| We had refrigerated trucks in the streets in front of hospitals with the dead people, you know, stacking up in there. | ||
| This is huge. | ||
| Okay, Martin in Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hello. | ||
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah, yes. | |
| I have a couple comments. | ||
| I agree with the action President Trump is taking. | ||
| But just to comment, like on the tips, instead of going through all the rigamarole of not being taxed, why don't the patrons just say it's a gift? | ||
| All right, because gifts are non-taxable, so change the word tips to gifts. | ||
| Also, as far as the migrants, all these people that are supporting them staying here, what about aiding and abetting crimes that's taking place? | ||
| And then thirdly, this so-called bishop in Washington, D.C., just because a person is called a bishop, all right, does not mean that that person is a person of God or a Christian. | ||
| And also, if you look at that Episcopal Church, look at the organization. | ||
| It's not a church. | ||
| It's a business. | ||
| If you look at all the annual reports they put out and all the people that they have, it's a business masquerading as a religion. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Also. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Let's go to Will. | ||
| Will in Texas, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| I pretty much support everything President Trump is doing. | ||
| It's just his first week in office. | ||
| People expect prices to drop, gas to drop, eggs to drop in one week. | ||
| Come on, give him some time. | ||
| I never called in and complained about Biden for four years doing nothing but hurting our country. | ||
| But every time you can see a call from a Democrat coming in, they're going to whine and cry about, oh, he's doing this, he's doing that. | ||
| Give me a specific on this first week. | ||
| What did you support or oppose in this first week specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I support him going to North Carolina. | |
| I support him going to California and what he's going to do to help those poor people that got burned out because Gavin didn't do his job. | ||
| Another Democrat failure. | ||
| That's about it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| One more call from Al in Texas, Democrats line. | ||
| Al in Texas, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead, please. | |
| Do I need to turn my TV down? | ||
| Yes, please. I'll go ahead, please. | ||
| Al, one more time. | ||
| Please go ahead, Al from Texas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, you know, I'm a retired Alforce Mass Sergeant. | |
| And the thing about this whole deal, man, we talk about immigrants. | ||
| But the thing about the gods that control all this and the thing about it is this. | ||
| If President Trump can get re-elected, man, we're talking about the bosses. | ||
| We don't have no country. | ||
| Well, then, specific-wise, was it Gaza or was it the immigration thing? | ||
| Specifically, what did you oppose or support? | ||
|
unidentified
|
If President Trump can get re-elected, we'll have a country. | |
| Okay, that's Al there in Texas finishing off this hour of calls. | ||
| Thanks to those of you who participated. | ||
| Two guests will join us during the course of the morning together. | ||
| Next up, we'll hear from American Enterprise Institute's Yuval Levin. | ||
| He'll talk about the return of President Trump and how his new term is the same and different from the last one. | ||
| And then later on in the program, one of the first actions by the president were several executive orders targeting electric vehicles. | ||
| Detroit-based automotive reporter Jeff Gilbert will join us to discuss how EVs could be affected in the future in the Trump administration. | ||
| Those conversations coming up on Washington Journal. | ||
|
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This week on the C-SPAN networks, the House is out as House Republicans hold their annual retreat. | |
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Yuval Levin joins us from the American Enterprise Institute. | ||
| He's their social, cultural, and constitutional studies director. | ||
| He's also the author of the recent book, American Covenant, How the Constitution Unified Our Nation. | ||
| and could. | ||
| Again, Mr. Levin, thanks for joining us. | ||
| Thank you very much for having me and thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| This idea from the book as far as the Constitution bringing things together, we've had you all have to talk about it before, but how does that parallel to the days we're seeing now under a new president when it comes to unity in the United States? | ||
| Yeah, you know, the argument of the book really is that the Constitution brings us together by helping us fight properly, by helping us disagree in ways that are constructive, and that it assumes that there will always be deep divisions, but establishes procedures and institutions that are set up to let Americans disagree in ways that lead toward negotiation, toward bargaining, toward compromise. | ||
| I think that is what our institutions can do for us, and especially in a time when we're intensely, deeply divided, the kind of 50-50 moment that we've lived in now in the United States in our national politics for the last generation means that we have to let our institutions function. | ||
| That's going to be hard to see in the first week of a new administration where everything we hear is what they want to do, but what they want to do and what is actually going to happen is going to be mediated by these institutions. | ||
| The difference between what the president wants and what he gets is a function of what he can get through Congress, of what he can persuade the courts of, of what the public thinks about what he's up to. | ||
| All of these things are there to help us broaden coalitions, to help us deal with each other, to force us to confront the reality of disagreement, which is the basic underlying fact of our democracy. | ||
| His main avenue right now, executive order, he has a Republican-controlled Congress. | ||
| How does that help or hinder him? | ||
| Well, look, every new president since Bill Clinton, so for 30 years now, has come in with his party controlling both houses of Congress. | ||
| And that hasn't meant that they've just been able to do whatever they want. | ||
| It's a challenge. | ||
| The first week of a new administration, you know, this is one week. | ||
| There are, what, 208 weeks in a presidential term. | ||
| The first week is defined by the president because what's in the news is what he wants to do and what he's starting to say. | ||
| Very soon, the president has to confront the reality of the world. | ||
| And he doesn't simply control that reality. | ||
| And very often, our presidents are really assessed and tested by how they respond to events they don't control. | ||
| So what we learn in this first week is what he's trying to achieve. | ||
| And I think it does show us that President Trump has a distinctly assertive executive approach to this term. | ||
| There are things he wants to do, and he's going to be very aggressive about doing them on his own. | ||
| But the system nonetheless constrains the president in trying to do those kinds of things. | ||
| The orders we've seen, a lot of them are about telling his executive officials to start a process, to begin to do something. | ||
| And the question of what really comes of it is very much an open question. | ||
| Every president seems like he's on top of the world and getting everything he wants in the first week, but it doesn't last. | ||
| He said in his inaugural address, and I'll quote, my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier. | ||
| What does he face on that front? | ||
| Well, obviously we're a divided nation. | ||
| And so I think a lot of our recent presidents have started out by saying they want unity. | ||
| I think if you look at his inaugural address, the way in which he describes unity is actually very similar to how a lot of our recent presidents have. | ||
| You look at former President Biden's inaugural or at Trump's previous one or at President Obama. | ||
| They talk about unity in terms of not disagreeing. | ||
| They say if we all agree with each other, there's nothing we can't do. | ||
| But that's not actually what unity means in the life of a free society. | ||
| What unity means is not so much thinking alike as acting together. | ||
| The challenge for a president, the challenge for our national politics, is how do we act together on national problems when we don't think alike. | ||
| And the answer to that involves negotiation, involves bargaining, involves working through the system. | ||
| And the test of any president is what he can get accomplished in that way. | ||
| Not only how does he use his power himself to do what our system lets him do on his own, because ultimately that's actually much more constrained than we often imagine. | ||
| And what presidents learn is they need other people to agree with them in order to get anything accomplished. | ||
| The challenge of whether this president, as any president, can be a unifier is whether he can get other people to come along. | ||
| Do you think there's a better sense of him doing that this time around, say, the first time around he was president? | ||
| I think President Trump seems to have a better sense of what the role of the president is than he did at the beginning of the last term. | ||
| That's natural for a president who's already served for four years. | ||
| I think he's much more inclined to be active in dealing with Congress than he was last time. | ||
| He said that he wants to meet every Republican member of the House in the first month. | ||
| I think he should meet every Democrat, too. | ||
| Our presidents too often assume they can only get support from their own party, but I actually think if the president reached out to some Democrats, you can easily imagine Democratic votes for certain versions of a tax bill or some of his immigration bills, as we've seen in this first week. | ||
| But he's intent on getting to know members more than he was last time. | ||
| He's much more involved in setting the strategy for Republicans in Congress, thinking about, you know, how many reconciliation bills, what do we do first, what do we do second. | ||
| He was much more passive about that last time than this time. | ||
| And I think that's in part because he thinks he sees how important it is for that to work out, for his agenda to get anywhere. | ||
| Whether it'll succeed is another question. | ||
| Presidents who involve themselves in how Congress does its work don't always end up getting what they want. | ||
| But I think he does have a different approach, a different strategy than at the beginning of this first time around. | ||
| Yuval Levin from American Enterprise Institute joins us for this discussion. | ||
| If you want to ask him questions, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us, questions or comments, 202-748-8003, a recent piece that folks can find online, Trump Redux Begins. | ||
| You write in it that him coming back now is a refusal to pay attention to some things, not only from the former President Joe Biden, from former President Trump at his first term. | ||
| Yeah, look, there's a way that really you look at the politics of the 21st century in America, and in a sense, the public over and over has said no thank you to the person in power and has wanted change. | ||
| We've had very, very close, narrow elections now for a long time. | ||
| What really stands out about this moment in American politics is that we've had no majority party, no clear majority party for almost 30 years. | ||
| That is very unusual in the scope of American history. | ||
| All of our elections have been close. | ||
| Every newly elected president has started out thinking, oh, I won. | ||
| I get to do what I want now. | ||
| I'm going to push hard. | ||
| But in fact, every one of them has won very narrowly. | ||
| And that's true of Donald Trump in this second time, too. | ||
| He won less narrowly than the first time, but he got 49.8% of the vote. | ||
| That's a 50-50 election. | ||
| And each time when a new president has pushed hard at the outset, the public has reacted poorly because what they've said is, we don't like the last guy more than we love what you're offering. | ||
| That's what's happened here, too. | ||
| And I think the danger of overreading the mandate is a danger that every 21st century president has run and that Donald Trump is clearly running. | ||
| He's behaving as though he won a massive landslide election when he won a narrow election, a 21st century election. | ||
| And rather than start out by broadening his coalition, he seems to be starting out by spending political capital gained from the election. | ||
| And, you know, we'll see. | ||
| But that has not worked out for his predecessors. | ||
| It didn't work out for him in the first term. | ||
| What's the danger of a president spending that gain early on? | ||
| The danger is losing public support quickly and the public saying, no, no, no, we don't like this either. | ||
| This is not what we were saying. | ||
| The fact is, neither of our parties is quite connected with what voters are looking for. | ||
| They've faced this challenge for a generation now. | ||
| And each time they've been elected because the other party was unpopular. | ||
| And that's a hard mandate to read, to just say, well, I'm here because the other guy didn't meet the public's expectations. | ||
| You want to say, I'm here because I made promises. | ||
| The public wanted it. | ||
| And now we're going to do it. | ||
| It's very hard for presidents to get their heads around the fact that they won because the incumbent was unpopular. | ||
| They then take actions that make themselves unpopular. | ||
| And as we've seen with President Trump, the public is willing to turn against him and throw him out, even when they elect him. | ||
| I think he needs to be very cognizant of that and think about how to build broader support before he takes aggressive action. | ||
| But like our other 21st century presidents, it's going to be a challenge for him. | ||
| Could immigration or one of those other topics be because we see Democrats now, some Democrats expressing support for some of these immigration proposals, is that an avenue he can start building that support? | ||
| Or are there other avenues that he can take? | ||
| It's possible, but he has to think about where there is broad public support on immigration. | ||
| I think there is broad public support for controlling the inflow at the border. | ||
| I think there's much less public support for mass deportation of people who are here. | ||
| And that distinction is an important line to draw. | ||
| So there are ways, I think, that he could use immigration to broaden his support, but there are also ways in which it could become a huge political problem for him if he acts too aggressively. | ||
| Again, the lessons of the first term are there for him. | ||
| The way in which they moved early on with travel bans and other things soured the public pretty quickly on President Trump's immigration views. | ||
| He does run that risk, but he does have some opportunities here as well, of course. | ||
| Yuval Levin of American Enterprise Institute. | ||
| The book is American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation and Could Again. | ||
| This is Dorothy in Baltimore, Democrats line. | ||
| You're on with our guests. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I wanted to ask him, because he seemed to be very knowledgeable as far as what he's talking about, his Constitution and everything. | ||
| I want him to answer me this question. | ||
| Why does the press not talk more about the things that help or hurt us when presidents, Congress, or the Senate does what they do? | ||
| The thing I think we're missing is this. | ||
| We talk about, you say, what the president wanted to do and what Congress and all that, and that's good. | ||
| But the things that people were talking about was hurting them wasn't just immigration. | ||
| Now, Trump has went against the Constitution. | ||
| He files the Inspector General. | ||
| Now, that is against it because it's a law. | ||
| He halted the DOJ's civil rights division, which people just keep saying that's minorities. | ||
| That is not all minorities. | ||
| That's just people with disabilities. | ||
| It could be with lawsuits. | ||
| You know, they've been discriminated against. | ||
| It could be for women, white, black, or whatever. | ||
| It's not just for people of color. | ||
| Let me put it like that. | ||
| And people keep saying it, but that's a major place where you would go if some, even if the police department, if they did something that wasn't right to a citizen, that's where you would go. | ||
| You would contact your federal government if your police department wasn't handling it right. | ||
| He halted all of that. | ||
| People don't know that hurts citizens. | ||
| They're not thinking very well. | ||
| When the press keeps talking about what the president wants, what the Congress wants, what does you all should name each one of those things that he do that hurt us and be truthful about it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Dorothy, thank you for the question. | ||
| We'll let our guests respond. | ||
| Yeah, you raise a number of important points. | ||
| I would say a few things. | ||
| First of all, one of the ways in which thinking about politics in this first week of a new administration is a challenge is that there hasn't yet been much of a response to the president's actions within the system, and especially from the courts. | ||
| The federal courts act in the past tense. | ||
| They review actions after they happen. | ||
| And the question is, which of these early actions are going to pass muster in the courts and which are not. | ||
| I think there's some that are going to run into challenges very quickly. | ||
| The notion that the 14th Amendment doesn't require birthright citizenship, I think it's going to get tested all the way up to the Supreme Court, and we'll see what happens. | ||
| What you describe here also falls into some of these categories. | ||
| To fire the inspectors general, for example, is a violation of federal law. | ||
| A relatively recent federal law that was passed in 2022 after Trump's first term says that the president can fire them, but has to give Congress 30 days' notice. | ||
| He didn't do that here, and there's going to be a lawsuit almost inevitably, and we'll see what happens. | ||
| I think there will be some pushback from the courts. | ||
| There may ultimately be some pushback from Congress, maybe from the states, to various things that the president does. | ||
| And that is how our system works. | ||
| Our system exists in a kind of tension so that different interests, different pressures, different groups can exercise the power they have in the system. | ||
| And where we end up is where they land when all of those pressures are added together. | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| This is not the last word, it's the first word. | ||
| The other thing I'd say, though, is part of what you say is that politicians need to focus on what the public is asking for and not only what they want. | ||
| And one of the challenges of operating as a political official in a 50-50 era is that it is difficult to know what the public wants. | ||
| There's not a strong, broad majority behind any party's agenda or platform at this point. | ||
| Again and again, we've had 50-50 elections, and that genuinely does make it difficult for policymakers to know exactly where the public is pushing them. | ||
| I think gradually they're coming to some understandings about public concerns about disorder, public concerns about a lack of agency and control, whether that's at the border, whether that's in foreign policy, whether that's in criminal law in the United States. | ||
| Both parties are coming to recognize that that's a public priority, for example. | ||
| But when elections are so close, and when the other factor we've seen in this century is control goes back and forth. | ||
| We've had more swings back and forth of control of Congress in the last 25 years than in any quarter century period in our history. | ||
| We've just had the third presidential election in a row where the party in the White House has shifted. | ||
| That's only happened one other time in American history at the end of the 19th century. | ||
| So this is a time when politicians find it genuinely difficult to know what voters are asking for. | ||
| From Pensacola, Republican line, we'll hear from Pat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pat, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I want to respond to the previous caller from Maryland. | ||
| She was talking about the Constitution and Trump halting some civil rights issued cases or whatever. | ||
| My question for her, and this is what people on the right see. | ||
| Where was the civil rights division of DOJ when these students at Columbia and Georgetown were blocking Jewish students from being able to go to their classes? | ||
| We heard nothing from the DOJ about that. | ||
| If that situation was reversed, if there were a bunch of white students keeping black students from getting to their classes, Biden would have had the National Guard on campus. | ||
| But this is another plain hypocrisy that we as the right see from the civil rights or the DOJ because they were left-leaning. | ||
| They didn't even touch that issue. | ||
| And they still haven't mentioned the issue. | ||
| And the civil rights division, I think it was Kristen Clark, she never uttered a word about it. | ||
| So this is the, you talk about the Constitution, it's all about people's perception. | ||
| People like us, on the right, Republicans, we expect to be treated fairly. | ||
| The J6 people were not treated fairly. | ||
| And it goes on and on, and that's why we voted for change. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Pat in Florida. | ||
| Well, I agree with a lot of what he said. | ||
| I don't agree about the January 6th folks who I think committed violent crimes and were treated accordingly. | ||
| But otherwise, I think you make a very important point. | ||
| The selective enforcement of civil rights laws under the Biden administration is a big part of why there's been this reaction against DEI and against the way in which the civil rights division of the Justice Department has been operating. | ||
| And some of the President's early administrative actions on that front are very much a response to that, including a response to campus anti-Semitism, which I think was not taken seriously enough by the Biden administration and needed to be responded to in the way in which we ought to respond to the violations of any American's rights. | ||
| My hope is that the direction we're headed in is that kind of direction, a colorblind enforcement of our laws that doesn't take account of someone's identity first, what religion are they, what color is their skin, but of the simple fact that they are Americans and their rights need to be protected regardless of anything else about them. | ||
| I think that's the way our laws need to be enforced. | ||
| We'll see if that's where we're headed in this administration. | ||
| But I do think that that is part of why there has been the kind of reaction that the caller describes, and I agree with him. | ||
| This is the recent headline about the DEI programs of the federal government, that the administration will lay off employees in those offices. | ||
| What do you think about specifically the action? | ||
| And what do you think about the existence of these programs overall within federal offices? | ||
| Yeah, look, these programs are new. | ||
| They're not some kind of long-standing feature of American public policy or the federal government. | ||
| They're intended, frankly, to advance part of the progressive agenda of the Biden administration, which tried to treat federal workers, among others, differently based on their race, based on their ethnicity, based on other factors that I do not think should factor into how our government treats its employees or its citizens. | ||
| And so I agree that these offices should go away. | ||
| I think the federal government has less power to do that over the private sector. | ||
| And the idea that the president is trying to compel private actors and private companies to change their procedures seems less right to me. | ||
| But the underlying principle does seem right to me. | ||
| I think we should treat one another as equals, regardless of any identifying feature about ourselves. | ||
| What matters is that we are all American citizens, and that means that we are all equally American citizens. | ||
| It was the former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, Stacey Abrams, who ran for office, runs an organization known as American Pride Rises, said this about this action, saying, DEI works to ensure that all people, no matter their background or zip code, are treated fairly and able to participate fully in our nation. | ||
| The principles of DEI have undergirded important legislation advancing these goals, such as the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. | ||
| Despite false arguments about DEI from cynical activists and politicians that pervert Dr. King's vision of a society of equals, the values of DEI are rooted in removing barriers to opportunity so that merits can speak for themselves. | ||
| I think those are good goals, but I don't think that's a good description of what DEI has been in practice. | ||
| It seems to me that it's actually stood in the way of the kinds of principles that underlie our civil rights laws and our commitment to civil rights in the Constitution. | ||
| And so I don't disagree with what she says there about what our goals and aims should be, but I do disagree about what DEI has been in practice. | ||
| Yuvala Vin is with us for this conversation from American Enterprise Institute. | ||
| This is Susan in Massachusetts, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Oh, hi. | ||
| Well, thank you for being on today, Mr. Levin. | ||
| Yeah, I, you know, I believe the Constitution is a great roadmap for running democracy. | ||
| But we have a failed one due to our two-party system, which isn't embedded in the Constitution as I understand it. | ||
| It's really rooted in politics. | ||
| I think it got solidified in the 1840s maybe by Congress, and it protects two parties that don't represent the American electorate. | ||
| The American electorate, by and large, is center-left, center-right, center. | ||
| They're not fringe. | ||
| And yet, the way things are set up, their states end up being one-party states. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So that sends technically safe people to Congress. | |
| They know they're safe because they come from one-party states, right? | ||
| And then they have no incentive to compromise with people of the opposite party. | ||
| So that's something I learned when Jeffrey Rosen is always on on Constitution Day, and I just love that man. | ||
| And, you know, and then, so I also think as a sidebar to that, because Congress has failed really since Roe v. Wade, even if you're pro-choice, which I am, with modification, you know, with limitations, severe ones actually. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But, you know, the Supreme Court now has become a legislative wing of our federal government. | |
| And I think they're overburdened, and they're picking up the slack from a failed Congress. | ||
| And lastly, I think we should start getting back to formally declaring wars overseas and not just do it. | ||
| And then what? | ||
| Okay, you got three points. | ||
| Thank you, Carler. | ||
| Appreciate the calls and the points, but we'll let our guests respond to the. | ||
| Well, great points. | ||
| There's a lot I agree with. | ||
| Let me start with where I don't quite agree. | ||
| It's true that the two-party system is not embedded formally in the Constitution, but the two-party system is a function of our constitutional structure in a very important way, and particularly of the way in which we choose the president. | ||
| So because in order to win the presidency, you have to win an absolute majority of electors in the Electoral College. | ||
| It's been the case since the beginning that if there are more than two serious candidates for president, there's a very real danger of the election going to the House of Representatives and the people not really getting to choose the president. | ||
| That happened twice in the 19th century. | ||
| And then you had the doubling down on the two-party system, which you described, which happened for that reason. | ||
| And we haven't had an election go to the House since then, since 1824, when we began to see the real entrenchment of a two-party system. | ||
| I think our two-party system actually is a pretty good fit for the American Constitution. | ||
| What it means is that each of the two parties is a broad coalition, and that a lot of the kind of coalition building that happens between parties in the European parliamentary systems happens within parties in the American system. | ||
| And the parties themselves are broad tense where a lot of negotiating has to happen, where a lot of coalition building has to happen. | ||
| I think generally that's been good for us. | ||
| But in recent decades, we've seen the party system become deformed somewhat, especially by primaries, somewhat also by changes in the media environment, so that we are left in a place where, as you say, the fringes of the two parties make the most important decisions at the beginning of each election cycle, which is who gets to run, who's the nominee of the party. | ||
| Doing that in the way we do through primaries means that a very, very small fringe of each party, you have about 8% of the public showing up to vote on primary day. | ||
| Those people are very intensely engaged. | ||
| They're ideological. | ||
| They don't want to see a lot of bargaining and accommodation in our politics. | ||
| They want to see people who are more hardline along their views. | ||
| And those are the kind of people we now get in our system. | ||
| I think there is room for reform of how the parties choose their candidates. | ||
| But I do think that broadly speaking, the two-party system works well for us. | ||
| But I very much agree with what you say about the way in which the weakness of Congress has come to misshape and deform the American constitutional system. | ||
| A lot of the overreaching of the courts, even a lot of the overreaching of presidents, which we see now, is a result of underreaching by Congress, underreaching that's intentional, where members don't want the responsibility of making the big decisions in our system, and they leave it to other people. | ||
| The system's not meant to work that way, and we do see a lot of problems as a result of that. | ||
| I think it's necessary for Congress to reassert itself in the system, to put itself at the center again. | ||
| You write in your piece about disgrace. | ||
| And I think you said of President Biden he leaves disgrace, not because he was re-elected, because he has acted disgracefully. | ||
| But at the same time, there's no getting around the disgrace involved in bringing Donald Trump back to the White House after his own post-election betrayals of his constitutional oath in 2021. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
| Well, look, what happened in 2020 and 2021, Donald Trump lost re-election. | ||
| That happens. | ||
| And instead of accepting that as every past president has, he decided that it didn't really happen. | ||
| And he decided to try to persuade his voters that it didn't really happen. | ||
| He persuaded a large chunk of the public that the result of that election was not real, was not legitimate, and created a real constitutional crisis, part of which was an assault on the Capitol, which was done by people who thought they were acting at his behest, whether they were or not. | ||
| I think there's no getting around the fact that that is a failure of a failure to uphold the president's responsibility under our Constitution. | ||
| Whatever you think of Donald Trump and of what he did before that moment and of what he's done since, that was a failure to uphold the responsibility of the president that I think can only be seen as a disgrace in our constitutional system. | ||
| To bring him back after that, I do think is a kind of civic failure that the Republican Party went back to the same candidate it had given what he did, I think was a failure of responsibility on their part. | ||
| Now look, President Biden ended his term by taking all kinds of actions that I think are well beyond the scope of appropriate uses of presidential power. | ||
| His use of the pardon power at the end, the notion that he could declare a new constitutional amendment to be valid. | ||
| That is not how our system works. | ||
| That is not what our presidents do. | ||
| And I think in both of these cases, the public was faced with a very unfortunate choice in this election. | ||
| And, you know, you could see it in the way people voted. | ||
| They were not happy with either choice here. | ||
| That's what a 50-50 election looks like. | ||
| They had to make a choice between, in a sense, two evils. | ||
| And they made one. | ||
| They decided that the incumbent needed to be out. | ||
| But I don't think we should forget what happened after the 2020 election. | ||
| And I think it's very important to hold our presidents to account when they fail to uphold their oath of office. | ||
| And that has happened here. | ||
| There's just no way around it. | ||
| This is Liz from New Jersey, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I am an American on one side of my family tree. | ||
| We've been here since the 1600s. | ||
| We fought in the Revolution and we also had a part to play in forming the Constitution that everybody's talking about today. | ||
| But right now we have a president who does not really wish to follow the U.S. Constitution. | ||
| He sees himself as above the law and he has reason to, thanks to the poor actions of our Supreme Court, giving him what he sees as unlimited power. | ||
| It's going to be a rocky four years. | ||
| I pray that we don't have anything serious happen to this nation as a result of his total incompetence and criminal activity. | ||
| But I can't be guaranteed it. | ||
| Nobody can be guaranteed it. | ||
| And I would not blame President Biden. | ||
| His four years was a relief from the rule of Donald Trump. | ||
| And what it also tells me is that America has changed, and not demographically or racially or ethnically, but we have people who applaud criminality. | ||
| They applauded what he did. | ||
| They applauded what the oath keepers and the proud boys did on January 6th because they are criminals to the core. | ||
| And we have to call it out as it's not who we are. | ||
| Gotcha. | ||
| Liz, thank you. | ||
| Thank you for the call. | ||
| Well, look, I agree with what she says at the end there. | ||
| I do think that there was dangerous criminality in the January 6th assault on the Capitol. | ||
| I don't think they should have been pardoned. | ||
| At least the people who committed violent crimes certainly should not have been. | ||
| And I also think we're in for a rocky ride. | ||
| There's no way around that. | ||
| You know, at the end of the day, every administration has something like the personality of the president, for good and bad. | ||
| We saw that the first time around with Donald Trump, but we've seen it with every president. | ||
| And the strengths and weaknesses of the individual are reflected in the work of the administration. | ||
| There's a way in which character is destiny. | ||
| And if character is destiny, that's not great news for Donald Trump. | ||
| I mean, what can you say? | ||
| She talked about the Supreme Court and the immunity decision, how it could affect the next four years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What did they do? | |
| What is it, and what is it not? | ||
| I don't agree that that immunity decision broke new ground in a way that changes the place of the president in our system. | ||
| The idea that there is some immunity for presidential actions and for especially the processes by which presidents make decisions is a very long-standing principle in our law. | ||
| The court had never before really been asked to codify or expound on the meaning or extent of that principle. | ||
| What they did was fairly generic, and it's going to have to be tested as a practical matter. | ||
| I think the question of exactly what it means is going to have to be decided over the next few years because Donald Trump does intend, I think, to test the bounds of his constitutional power. | ||
| My hope is that the courts are strong enough to stand up for those bounds. | ||
| Our system only works if our constitutional officers are assertive and aggressive, but also restrict and restrain one another. | ||
| And it is incumbent on the courts to make sure that presidential actions happen within the framework of our laws and of the Constitution itself. | ||
| I think the Supreme Court does mean to do that. | ||
| That's my sense of this Supreme Court, is that it does want to restrain both of the other branches from reaching beyond their appropriate powers. | ||
| They've done that a fair amount. | ||
| They've restricted the power of the president, of the administrative state. | ||
| And I certainly hope that they have the backbone to continue to do that. | ||
| I think they will, but we'll see. | ||
| On our Republican line from Florida, this is Nelson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Mr. Levine, I tend to disagree with a number of your statements. | ||
| So before I ask my question, I would like to point out that in the 2020 election, there were several states that violated their own election laws and their own constitutions, which puts a question mark as to what the real results were for that particular election. | ||
| I would also like to point out that Donald Trump, since he's taken over in one week, has been making the United States a safer place to be by his getting rid of the numerous criminals that were allowed to come in by the last administration. | ||
| Now, having said that, I am a Trump supporter. | ||
| I think he's a good president, and I did vote for him. | ||
| Having said that, I do have a concern where you and I may agree, and that is the proliferation of executive orders that has been used by the last several presidents because Congress can't seem to even agree as to what a man and a woman are. | ||
| And I think that that is a danger in regards to the possibility of slowly losing our freedoms and our rights. | ||
| I hear a lot of things about dictators and things of that nature, oligarchs, but I think that this trend of a continuation of executive orders in order to get anything done leads to the possibility of those potential results. | ||
| Gotcha. | ||
| Nelson in Florida. | ||
| Yeah, a number of points there. | ||
| First of all, I would say the 2020 election was litigated and adjudicated, and the outcome of it was decided in the ways in which are available to us in our system to decide things like that. | ||
| In a close election, what's really being tested is our commitment to the law. | ||
| And I do think that it's important to recognize that what happened after that election was the loser of the election just simply being unwilling to accept the result, and that should not happen in our system. | ||
| I very much agree with the latter point. | ||
| A big part of the problem we face is that Congress is not willing to step up and do its job. | ||
| And so on whatever issue may be important to you, where you see presidential action in an aggressive, assertive way that tries to make policy through executive orders and administrative actions, very often what's happening there is a vacuum has been created by Congress, and the president is rushing in to fill it. | ||
| It is a problem. | ||
| The presidents are doing this. | ||
| They exceed their authority. | ||
| But the underlying problem is the vacuum created by Congress, is the unwillingness of our national legislature to step up and do its job. | ||
| That job is hard. | ||
| It means taking responsibility for decisions that may not always be popular. | ||
| And it does require a willingness to do it. | ||
| But no one's forcing these people to run for Congress. | ||
| If that's the job they want, they have to recognize that that's the responsibility they've taken on. | ||
| And Congress has to reassert itself. | ||
| I think we've seen under both parties in the 21st century Congress stepping back, turning power over to the president, and treating itself as a kind of observer, or at best as just doing oversight over presidential action. | ||
| That's not Congress's fundamental role. | ||
| Legislation is, and I think we need to see much more legislative action in our system. | ||
| To that end, to what degree do you see Congress as it currently stands as a rubber stamp to the president? | ||
| Well, yeah, I mean, there are narrow Republican majorities, and they're going to try to support the president's agenda in whatever way they can. | ||
| The challenge is they make themselves secondary to the president. | ||
| They treat themselves as existing to advance his agenda, and that's just not quite right, even when the president is of your own party. | ||
| I think we're reasonably likely to see a divided Congress after the midterm election. | ||
| And at that point, obviously, oversight changes a lot. | ||
| But that just shouldn't be the case. | ||
| There should be a commitment both to oversight and to legislation at any point under any kind of party leadership in Congress. | ||
| Congress has to see itself as the prime mover in our system. | ||
| And we've gotten to a place where Congress sees itself as secondary. | ||
| A conversation with Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute. | ||
| He's also the author of the book, American Covenant, How the Constitution Unified Our Nation and Could Again. | ||
| Jack is up next. | ||
| He's in Pennsylvania, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi there. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Thanks for taking the call. | ||
| Hello, Mr. Levin. | ||
| You seem to have taken a stance that the 2020 election was a free and fair election to the American people. | ||
| And I don't believe that for a minute. | ||
| I believe that in every form and fashion, the 2020 election was corrupted. | ||
| I believe it was corrupted and targeted in one direction. | ||
| From summertime on, I believe people like Mark Elias, people like the 51 intelligence officers, and our mainstream media were in full cahoots to create an election that was neither free nor fair. | ||
| Something we're guaranteed. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, we do disagree on that front. | ||
| I mean, look, I think that there certainly were all kinds of actions at the margin on both sides that were attempts to distort the election result, but that ultimately the election was a free and fair election, that where there were questions, they were litigated, they were adjudicated. | ||
| But it's worth seeing that the reason that we can even have this kind of argument about an election at the national level is that our elections have been very close in the 21st century. | ||
| And whatever you think of how it was run, you would certainly say the 2020 election was extremely close. | ||
| And what happens in a close election is that it becomes a test of our commitment to the law, to the rule of law, by which ultimately these questions are decided in court. | ||
| The outcomes are determined both by judges and by Congress through its certification. | ||
| That was done in 2020. | ||
| I think we have to accept the results of elections. | ||
| The prior two elections before 2024, both 2016 and 2020, were treated as illegitimate by the party that lost them in somewhat different ways, but nonetheless, the result and the resulting president were treated as illegitimate. | ||
| I think we have to move away from that way of treating our national politics. | ||
| And one thing I do feel good about about the 2024 election is that even though it was still quite close, it was at least decisive enough that the losing party did not treat it as an illegitimate election and instead is trying to think about how to deal with the fact that it went the way it did. | ||
| What are voters teaching us? | ||
| What are they showing us about what they believe and about what we should be arguing for? | ||
| I think a party that loses an election should always try to learn from its loss in that way. | ||
| To pretend that it did not happen is not a serious way to respond to the outcome of an election. | ||
| The 2020 election did happen. | ||
| It was four years ago. | ||
| Any of us who are adults saw it happen. | ||
| And I think the notion that it was fundamentally distorted by some conspiracy is not right. | ||
| It's worth looking at the results. | ||
| It's worth looking at the work that's been done since then to assess the outcomes, to assess the way it was administered. | ||
| It was certainly not without problems. | ||
| But I do think we have to take the outcome of it as legitimate and serious. | ||
| Let's hear from Jill. | ||
| Jill's in Ohio, Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yes, you know, when I look back at the past election, I look at it as an election of hate. | ||
| And on the Republican side, I never would have guessed 10 years ago that they would be against the Constitution, against law and order. | ||
| They are pro-Russian and they're pro-corruption. | ||
| I just, you know, all because the fact is that they are freaking out over the fact that the white population is decreasing in the United States. | ||
| And then on the Democratic side, you know, a lot of people didn't come out to vote because of their anti-Semitism. | ||
| I mean, I never would have guessed that the progressive wing of the party would be for the death of Israel and the extermination of Jews, either wittingly or unwittingly. | ||
| And so as a result, a lot of these people sat home, and that's why Trump won. | ||
| And I just, I'm very upset over the fact that when everybody, you know, votes on hate, it makes everybody poor, especially with the corruption. | ||
| We should have been concentrating on trying to increase the middle class. | ||
| Look at the housing. | ||
| You know, why do we have a shortage of housing? | ||
| You know, look at economic issues. | ||
| But no, people are driven by hate. | ||
| And now, look what we got. | ||
| We got Trump and we got corruption. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Jill and Ohio. | ||
| You know, I think one way to think about the point that this caller is making is that a lot of our elections lately have been fundamentally negative elections. | ||
| Voters have been voting on the basis of what they're against and have not been offered enough by way of a positive agenda to vote for what they're for. | ||
| It's actually connected to the fact that we've had 50-50 elections over and over. | ||
| What happens when you have two minority parties, rather than a majority that's holding a coalition together and a minority that's trying to broaden its own coalition, both of those are engaged in coalition building and trying to reach out to more voters and build support. | ||
| In a 50-50 moment, when you have essentially two minority parties, they're each most invested in getting their most devoted voters out, which means that their core message to the country is that the other party must not be allowed to win. | ||
| And if you step back from American elections in the last 20 years, the essential message that both parties have offered is if the other party wins, the country's over. | ||
| That's an argument that might get 50% plus one out there for you, but it's not an argument that builds the future of the country. | ||
| It's not true. | ||
| And it's not an argument that helps us think about what we're going to need in 20 years that we don't have now, what our politics are going to be doing for us to help this country be more prosperous, more peaceful a generation from now. | ||
| The next durable majority coalition, the next real winner of an American national election, is going to have to offer the country a positive vision to vote for, to think about not just 50%, but 60% voting for you. | ||
| You have to think about how to appeal to that broad segment, middle of the country, that is underrepresented in our elections over and over. | ||
| And you have to offer more than the argument that if the other guys win, it's the end of everything. | ||
| You have to offer up yourself as more than just not the other party. | ||
| And I think both of our parties have done a terrible job on this front for most of the 21st century. | ||
| We have confirmations hearings this week for RFK Jr. at Health and Human Services. | ||
| Tulsi Gabbard is the director of national intelligence. | ||
| Kash Patella's FBI. | ||
| You can comment specifically on those, but what message do you think these and other nominations is the president trying to send? | ||
| Well, look, I think these are very controversial nominations. | ||
| Not all of President Trump's appointments have been that way. | ||
| Marco Rubio got confirmed 99-0. | ||
| We've seen a number of other of his cabinet-level appointments get confirmed with very broad bipartisan support. | ||
| I think we're going to see that at the sub-cabinet level, too. | ||
| But there are a number of individuals he's chosen who absolutely pick at the divisions of our society and who, frankly, in some respects, are just not the right choices for the jobs they've been appointed to. | ||
| Are not appropriate, are not experienced, are not right for it. | ||
| I think that way, especially about RFK Jr., who strikes me as a very poor choice for running the Department of Health and Human Services. | ||
| But I think in all these cases, they're going to be marginal. | ||
| They're going to be very hard to get through. | ||
| And the fact that even in this moment, when Republicans are very intent on helping Trump succeed and on advancing his agenda, a number of them are willing to say no to these particular nominees, should raise red flags. | ||
| That's the Senate's job. | ||
| The Senate's job is to raise red flags when those are necessary when it comes to nominees who are not appropriate for the jobs they've been appointed to. | ||
| It happens to every president. | ||
| Every modern president has lost a couple. | ||
| This president already has his first choice for Attorney General, dropped out before there was even a confirmation hearing. | ||
| I think he'll have some more choppy waters in the coming weeks. | ||
| The website for our guest organization, AEI.org. | ||
| You all live in of the American Enterprise Institute. | ||
| Thanks for the conversation. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Coming up, we'll take a look at the future of the electric vehicle industry with Jeff Gilbert, an automotive reporter from Detroit. | ||
| But first up, open forum. | ||
| And if you want to participate, 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| We'll take those calls in Washington Journal. | ||
|
unidentified
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| This week on the C-SPAN Networks, the House is out as House Republicans hold their annual retreat. | ||
| The Senate will be in session as they continue to hold hearings for several of President Trump's cabinet nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary. | ||
| He'll appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday. | ||
| Also on Thursday, Kash Patel will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as he seeks to become FBI Director. | ||
| Then, Tulsi Gabbard, Mr. Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. | ||
| Watch this week live on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app. | ||
| Also, head over to C-SPAN.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime. | ||
| C-SPAN. | ||
| Democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| This is open forum. | ||
| And if you want to participate, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents, 2027-8002. | ||
| Later today, we'll hear from House Republican leaders from that retreat that's taking place in Miami, Florida with President Trump talking about future legislation and other topics. | ||
| 3 o'clock is when that is set to go. | ||
| 3 o'clock at C-SPAN, C-SPANNOW, and C-SPAN.org. | ||
| The president later expected to make remarks, which we will take as well. | ||
| You can see that on C-SPAN and our other platforms too. | ||
| When it comes to those nomination hearings, two days for RFK Jr. Live Wednesday at 10 o'clock. | ||
| He'll appear before the Senate Finance Committee. | ||
| You can see that on our main channel, our app and the .org. | ||
| It's the next day he'll go back to Capitol Hill to take questions from the Senate Health Committee. | ||
| C-SPAN 3 is where you see that, as well as the .org and the app. | ||
| And Tulsi Gabbard, the president's nominee to become the Director of National Intelligence. | ||
| Her confirmation is set for 10 o'clock Thursday. | ||
| The main channels where you can see it, those platforms there as well. | ||
| You can always go to the website for more information. | ||
| Let's hear from Dave in this open forum. | ||
| Dave joins us from Ohio Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I was just going into about the birthright citizens, where Trump wants to send a lot of the immigrants back to their countries, saying that just because they were born here in the United States, that they're not a citizen. | ||
| Just remember, his father was born over, grandfather was born over in Germany, and he's saying that they're illegal immigrants over here that committed felonies, that he wants to send them back to their country. | ||
| So he's an illegal immigrant, and he did commit felonies. | ||
| So are we going to send him back to Germany and his wife back to the country that she's born from? | ||
| Sue is in West Virginia, Democrats Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I was calling to comment on Hegset. | ||
| I know it's a little bit late to be remarking on him, but during his testimony, which I watched, he stated emphatically that he was going to treat everybody fairly, regardless of sex, which was a big issue with him and religion or race. | ||
| But during the actual confirmation process, he never met with a single Democrat before his testimony, which, in my view, is a form of discrimination. | ||
| He discriminated against Democrats. | ||
| So why should we believe that he is also not going to discriminate against people for religion, sex, and race? | ||
| We are told. | ||
| Caller, finish your thought. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Selections come up. | ||
| Well, I just hope that some of them have a different outcome. | ||
| I thought the Hegset confirmation was very disappointing. | ||
| I'm really disappointed in the GOP for their support of such an unqualified and, in my opinion, bigoted person. | ||
| Okay, that's Sue there in West Virginia. | ||
| We are told that the Defense Secretary expected to make some comments sometime this morning before heading to work on his first day. | ||
| There's a video from the place at the Pentagon where he is expected to make those comments. | ||
| We'll continue watching that. | ||
| Let's hear from William. | ||
| William in North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, young man. | |
| How are you? | ||
| I'm well, thanks. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, sir. | |
| My comment is: I first called in 2012 when I told y'all the bush was burning. | ||
| We had also had just been conceived, birth, in the spirit from above by the truth. | ||
| We are the second one, Father, Lord Christ. | ||
| He is the Holy One. | ||
| This is to all the faithful, true, loyal believers scattered throughout the seven continents. | ||
| The poor, the hungry, the maim, the blind, the sick, the homeless, the addicts, the alcoholics, the petty thieves, to the widows, to the orphans, also to all the worldly leaders, to the ministries of defense, ministry of science, ministry of religion. | ||
| And the message is? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The message is we have suffered long enough. | |
| Time is at hand. | ||
| Time has come. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's go to Roy. | ||
| Roy in North Carolina, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Pedro, thank you. | |
| I'm responding to the callers that C-SPAN seems to get every day that the 2020 election was stolen. | ||
| The media and just knowledgeable people should know every instance of voter fraud was a Trump person. | ||
| In Maricopa County, Arizona, they had that voter ninja thing going on where they counted, I don't know how many votes. | ||
| Trump lost 360 votes. | ||
| Every media person should know that. | ||
| They did a recount, he lost 360 votes. | ||
| In Pennsylvania, there were three advertised, probably dozens actually, of kids, well, sons and daughters voting for their dead parents, and they all voted for Donald Trump. | ||
| If there was in North Carolina, there was a congressional district in the Northeast, I forget what number it is, and we had to have a re-election. | ||
| The Republican malfeasance, I don't know what else you can call it, was just so bad that it couldn't even be dealt with. | ||
| So all the voter fraud that's ever gone on in Trump elections has been by Donald Trump's people. | ||
| Okay, let's go to Keith. | ||
| Keith in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, and you and most of your C-SPAN moderators do a great job. | ||
| It's not easy to listen to everybody's unique proprietary point of view and deal with it with courtesy and also information for the listeners. | ||
| So I appreciate that, and I think we all do. | ||
| A couple of things. | ||
| I'm a journalist for Harvard's Nieman Foundation, and I appeal to critical thinking. | ||
| And the opposite of critical thinking is groupthink. | ||
| I would just say that. | ||
| And it connects to the idea of what Trump represents. | ||
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yeah, you're up. | ||
| Keep going. | ||
| Okay, I'm sorry. | ||
| So the legacy of Trump is that the public, to the extent that it doesn't want to deal with partisanship and factionalism and the groupthink mindset that so many people are captured by and believe from their partisan leaders, they can look at the legacy that Trump offers, and that is that don't elect political people. | ||
| Just elect individuals from the private sector, like Vivek, Elon, of course, Elon Camp, but others like him and Trump and elect them and don't elect anybody from a political party. | ||
| Keith, there in Florida. | ||
| Again, this is open forum. | ||
| If you want to participate on the phone lines, let's hear from Debbie. | ||
| Debbie is in Oregon, Republican line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Okay. | ||
| I just wanted to say that I'm MAGA, and I voted for Trump in 2016 and now. | ||
| And it's because our government sucked. | ||
| And it was vote for the lesser of the two evils. | ||
| That's all you ever heard. | ||
| Or you can't vote at all. | ||
| Or vote an independent who will never win. | ||
| They would tell us. | ||
| Paula, I'm going to put you on pause there. | ||
| Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary arriving at the Pentagon. | ||
| It's an amazing job, beyond what anyone can fathom. | ||
| But in talking to the chairman and so many other folks here, we're in capable hands. | ||
| The warfighters are ready to go. | ||
| If you see what the president said last week in his executive orders, he's hitting the ground running. | ||
| He's made it very clear. | ||
| There's an emergency at the southern border, that the sovereign, the protection of the sovereign territory of the United States is the job of the Defense Department, and the cartels are foreign terrorist organizations. | ||
| As a result, this Pentagon snapped to last week. | ||
| We helped move forward troops, put in more barriers, and also to ensure mass deportation, support of mass deportations in support of the president's objective. | ||
| That is something the Defense Department absolutely will continue to do. | ||
| And today, there are more executive orders coming that we fully support on removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of COVID mandates, Iron Dome for America. | ||
| This is happening quickly. | ||
| And as the Secretary of Defense, it's an honor to salute smartly, as I did as a junior officer and now as the Secretary of Defense, to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly. | ||
| Every moment that I'm here, I'm thinking about the guys and gals in Guam, in Germany, in Fort Benning and Fort Bragg, on missile defense sites and aircraft carriers. | ||
| Our job is lethality and readiness and warfighting. | ||
| We're going to hold people accountable. | ||
| I know the chairman agrees with that. | ||
| The lawful orders of the President of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse. | ||
| We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us. | ||
| So, Mr. Chairman, thanks for welcoming me today. | ||
| I look forward to serving the troops, the warriors of this department. | ||
| It's the honor of a lifetime, and we're going to get to work. | ||
| God bless you all. | ||
| This right here is Jorge Oliveira. | ||
| He was killed in Afghanistan. | ||
| He was asked about what I wear on my wrist every single day. | ||
| It was a troop I served with, a soldier I served with in Guantanamo Bay when I was a platoon leader. | ||
| He was killed in Afghanistan, not in my unit, but when I was there. | ||
| It's these guys that we do this for, those that have given the ultimate sacrifice. | ||
| First comments of Pete Hagseff, the Defense Secretary of the United States at the Pentagon. | ||
| Brayne, you can continue watching on C-SPAN 2, I believe, if you want to continue seeing his comments. | ||
| Joining us now from the White House, from Politico, Adam Cancren. | ||
| He serves as their White House reporter. | ||
| Mr. Cancer, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Mr. Cancer, we just heard from Pete Hagseff, a lot of other nominees this week. | ||
| To what extent is the White House confident in these nominees or if there are any concerns going forward? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, look, the White House has been very confident publicly in all of their nominees. | |
| Pete Hegseth was obviously the first big barrier they got over that. | ||
| And that's really given a lot of Trump officials confidence that they can get through this kind of gauntlet of a week. | ||
| You have Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary nominee. | ||
| These are three of what some folks thought would be the most difficult ones. | ||
| But now that we've gotten to the actual week, there's really only a lot of concern over Tulsi Gabbard and whether she'll be able to kind of overcome some of the concerns with Republicans about her past, number one, as a Democrat, and also her past associations and conversations with Bashar al-Assad in Syria. | ||
| That's really the one to watch. | ||
| The other two, the expectation at this point is that they have the votes to get through. | ||
| But of course, we're going to see what happens during the hearings. | ||
| You wrote about one of those nominees, RFK Jr., particularly his take on vaccines and a recent story. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, this is the big question swirling around RFK since he's been nominated, actually going back to his independent run for president, is what does he believe when it comes to vaccines, kind of the core element of our public health? | |
| For a long time, RFK was one of the most, if not the most influential anti-vaccine activists in the United States. | ||
| He now says, no, I'm not anti-vaccine. | ||
| I just want transparency. | ||
| But that's not the belief that you hear from a lot of Democrats and even some concerns from Republicans. | ||
| And now inside his camp, had RFK advisors and allies telling me that they're concerned that ultimately his closest and most ardent anti-vaccine supporters will ultimately win out and have influence over his agenda. | ||
| And that could include anything from disbanding a key advisory panel that looks at vaccines, decides and recommends whether they're safe. | ||
| That could mean rescheduling vaccines so maybe they're not necessary to have your child go to school. | ||
| And so it'd just be a really kind of a sea change in how we approach vaccines as a country. | ||
| And you're going to hear a lot of questions probably from both sides of the aisle during RFK's confirmation hearing about what exactly he believes, what he would do on this pivotal issue. | ||
| And viewers, you can find that story at Politico.com. | ||
| Mr. Cancer, the president said to meet with House and Senate leaders in Florida. | ||
| What's the agenda? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The agenda is what exactly the legislative agenda is going to look like. | |
| So there's been all this talk up until now about is there going to be one major landmark reconciliation bill? | ||
| Is there going to be two? | ||
| Is there going to be possibly even three? | ||
| Trump has laid out a lot of things that he wants done, right? | ||
| He wants tax cuts. | ||
| He wants action on immigration and the border. | ||
| He wants all this litany of other things. | ||
| The question is how exactly does Congress get it done? | ||
| There's been some sharp disagreement between the House side and the Senate side over the process there. | ||
| And they really just need to get a decision on how to go forward before they can start kind of assembling these bills. | ||
| These are going to be bills that are most likely going to be party line, right? | ||
| They're not going to get any Democratic help. | ||
| And with a thin margin, especially in the House, but also in the Senate, Republicans are really going to have to make sure they move together on this. | ||
| The first Trump term, we saw this was a problem with Obamacare repeal. | ||
| And there's a lot of anxiety about trying to avoid a repeat of that major failure. | ||
| Is it the president himself directly dealing with the leaders? | ||
| Is it part of his team dealing with the leaders in order to achieve this? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We've seen the president actually take a much more hands-on role than he did during his first term. | |
| The first term, look, he was very new to politics, trusted a lot of the congressional leaders to kind of orchestrate and figure out their own caucuses. | ||
| What we've seen now here is Trump much, much more involved. | ||
| He's due to address this retreat at 5 o'clock later this afternoon. | ||
| He has a lot of strong opinions. | ||
| He also believes and has a lot more confidence in himself this time around that he knows how Washington works. | ||
| He knows how politics works. | ||
| And so he should be able to be the one in charge here. | ||
| Now, we're going to see if that helps or if it hurts. | ||
| So far, we just really have not gotten a lot of resolution in terms of the path ahead. | ||
| And Mr. Cancer, does the agenda also include coming up with a plan and dealing with the spending deadline that Congress faces later this year? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what the president wants. | |
| If you remember going back to the government funding showdown in December, one of the big flashpoints that really scuttled the original deal and created a crisis right at the last minute was whether there was going to be a raise to the debt ceiling, right? | ||
| How long it would be, whether it was something you could put in there, and then also just federal spending overall, wanting to cut a trillion, $2 trillion from government spending. | ||
| These are big numbers. | ||
| These are big ambitions. | ||
| A lot of doubts over whether it's realistic. | ||
| And that's why it comes down to this question of one bill, two bills. | ||
| The process really, really matters here more than maybe it does normally in Washington. | ||
| And so these are all kinds of things that need to be answered. | ||
| If not at the retreat today, then in the next four or five days, certainly in the coming week. | ||
| What's on the president's schedule this week? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a good question. | |
| We don't really know. | ||
| We know that he's going to address congressional Republicans later this afternoon. | ||
| Obviously, there is all kinds of controversy and work going on over tariffs. | ||
| We saw the back and forth, the threats between the president and the leaders of Colombia over tariffs and taking deportees. | ||
| But one of the kinds of things that has been odd about the first couple weeks here is that we have not gotten a regular schedule ahead of time of what the president's plans are every day. | ||
| This is something that's pretty standard. | ||
| We got it during the Biden administration, a full week ahead, and then you'd get a daily schedule every day. | ||
| That has not really happened with any kind of regularity. | ||
| So so far, we're just, we know what he's doing today, and then we're going to find out what he's doing tomorrow, probably at some point tomorrow. | ||
| To that end, what's the expectation that the new White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, will hold her first press conference? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We've received really no information on what that plan looks like. | |
| The expectation is that at some point she will do a briefing. | ||
| Now, of course, this would be a bigger issue if the president himself had not done several media availabilities in his first few days. | ||
| If you remember, inauguration night, he did about 40, 50 minutes straight from the oval taking questions. | ||
| The next day, did about the same thing, about 40 minutes taking questions from reporters. | ||
| And so, from the media perspective, as long as there is that regular cadence of interaction with the president himself, I think it's an open question, the necessity and whether there's going to be a regular cadence of press briefings. | ||
| There is the expectation, though, that there should be one at some point soon. | ||
| We just haven't gotten any kind of assurance that that's going to happen on any particular date. | ||
| Adam Cancer covers the White House Politico. | ||
| You can see his work at politico.com joining us from the White House. | ||
| Mr. Cancer, thanks for your time today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Anytime. | ||
| We will resume with calls on Open Forum. | ||
| Thanks to all of you who waited on the lines in North Carolina Democrats line. | ||
| Tina, thank you for waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Thank you for accepting my call. | ||
| What I wanted to say, I just wanted to let all the voters that voted for Trump know how illiterate they are. | ||
| The stimulus checks, Trump denied them. | ||
| He denied it. | ||
| News people need to look up this stuff when people accept things and it's not true. | ||
| He denied our stimulus checks. | ||
| But when President Obid into the White House, he accepted. | ||
| Trump wanted his name put on there because the stimulus checks came up while he was in the chair. | ||
| And that's how that happened. | ||
| He never accepted a stimulus check at all. | ||
| And something else I want to let people know, most of those women that's coming to America, they're pregnant when they get here. | ||
| So they're going to come here to have their babies. | ||
| And the ones that they just put up in the hotels, those are the immigrants they need to go ahead and get out. | ||
| They know they're not legal. | ||
| Get them. | ||
| And also the ones that they know have caused trouble in the United States. | ||
| I mean, there's so much going on that could easily be solved if the news people just do what they need to. | ||
| And one more thing, please, please, please. | ||
| Rachel Lee, read out, please look up the statement where Trump said he wanted to run America like Russia. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| We'll go to Sylvia. | ||
| Sylvia in Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| I'm excited about the reports coming out for the Kennedys, John and Robert and Dr. King, because I was nine years old and just listening to the radio when I found out that President Kennedy was shot. | ||
| And then I was 12 years old when Dr. King was hurt and shot. | ||
| And we didn't have TV. | ||
| We weren't allowed to. | ||
| We had a religion where we weren't allowed to have TV, just radio. | ||
| And I was very shook when I was a child about it. | ||
| And I'll be happy to hear more truth. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sylvia there in Virginia. | ||
| Eric joins us from Minnesota, Democrats line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm going to give you a comment that is common sense to everybody, but first impressions matter. | |
| And secondly, oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. | ||
| We've talked about 2020 when Trump issued the big lie and everybody wondered why he would do that. | ||
| Well, they should drop back to 2016 and remember how he won that election was by lying about the fact that he had hired a porn star when his wife was freshly postpartum. | ||
| And then when she wanted to tell the country, and if she had told the country, that would have swayed that election toward Hillary Clinton. | ||
| Look at the Gary Hart story. | ||
| Look at all the stories of scandal that poured out and ended election attempts. | ||
| John Edwards. | ||
| Well, in this case, he paid monies to further cover up a lie. | ||
| So in 2020, we had that example that he is not only a liar, but a dirty liar. | ||
| And now, as it pours out and he's hiring imbeciles to run the country, we are learning our lesson. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| James is next. | ||
| He joins us from California, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| During the pandemic, Trump was saying, wait, during the pandemic, we found out that Florida got all the test strips. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And while DeSantis was running for president, he said that Trump gave all the vaccines and test strips to Florida only in the beginning. | ||
| So Florida was always protected from the beginning. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's what I'm just curious about. | ||
| Okay, James in California. | ||
| It was the CIA director John Radcliffe appearing on Sunday Fox News amongst the conversation and the topics there. | ||
| The origin of COVID-19 coming up. | ||
| Here's a part of that exchange. | ||
| Part of what we have to do is we have to restore Americans' trust in our own institutions like the intelligence community and law enforcement. | ||
| And that includes the CIA. | ||
| And, you know, one of the things the president stressed, you know, the purpose of the CIA is to protect Americans, to keep us safe from foreign threats and foreign adversaries. | ||
| But we also need to be truthful with Americans. | ||
| And he has stressed to me and others that, you know, these aren't mutually exclusive missions. | ||
| We can do both. | ||
| And so, in the case of the CIA, which is the best foreign intelligence service in the world, after five years to not have a public assessment to be honest with the American people about where the likely source of a pandemic that killed millions around the world, including a million Americans, and really impacted all 345 million Americans in some way. | ||
| People lost jobs, they lost houses, they lost their health, they lost their businesses, all of that. | ||
| And so, I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration. | ||
| So, it can't be accused of being political, and it does assess. | ||
| The CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab-related incident in Wuhan. | ||
| And so, we'll continue to investigate that moving forward. | ||
| Here is Phil. | ||
| He's in Minnesota, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| You know, when I look at everything that's going on in our country, I don't know what to think to be honest about it. | ||
| I just know that the president is nowhere near as strong as he appears to be. | ||
| But how do you get people to see him as he is and not how he appears to be? | ||
| And you know, Pedro, I've lived in Denmark, in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, in Germany, in five years in Russia. | ||
| I've been in 20 countries. | ||
| I used to sing the blues. | ||
| And I've never been a member of a political party. | ||
| And I've always been a 100% moderate. | ||
| And, you know, I think I'm going to run for president in 2028 on an independent party that I'm going to start. | ||
| And it's going to be 100% moderate with a moderate message, a moderate platform. | ||
| And just something that I have to do because the way it's going, no one is doing anything for the children and the next generations of Americans. | ||
| And I thank you. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| William is in Ohio Democrats line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yes, Pedro. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| This is the old dumb, I can say 89-year-old Hillbilly now. | ||
| It's just a shame of what our country is coming to. | ||
| My lovely little great-granddaughter, baby, she just got out of the Navy, which made me so happy that she got out. | ||
| She was a nuclear engineer. | ||
| So was her husband. | ||
| They both got out of the service. | ||
| And I am so thankful to God that they were able to get out. | ||
| It's just a shame what this country is coming to. | ||
| I used to live in West Palm Beach. | ||
| I used to see him every day. | ||
| Oh, Pedro, I'm sorry, but I just can't keep going because every time I think of him and see his lips move, I know the whole world is getting lied too. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Pedro. | |
| William there in Ohio. | ||
| Let's hear from Joe, Joe in Maine, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I hate to wreck your day, Pedro, but I'm just going to continue with the last caller. | |
| This big hero, President Trump, has got such nerve to take on the bishop in Washington, D.C., but he just got put on his knees by the President of Colombia. | ||
| You're not reporting that he's coming. | ||
| Colombians are coming here to get an explanation from Trump, which is going to lead to the rest of the Latin American countries to band together and form an agreement, not Donald Trump holding his breath till countries change. | ||
| He didn't tariff anybody, hasn't tariffed any countries. | ||
| They're more empty threats. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| He threatened a tariff, and the President of Columbia responded to that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| He didn't apply the tariff. | ||
| It's just hardwash, and the whole world knows it. | ||
| That was what he ran on, was confronting Colombians. | ||
| You know, cut the crap. | ||
| You know, cut the crap. | ||
| Okay, one more call. | ||
| One more call. | ||
| Tom in California, Democrats line high. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| You're going to show my age, but the first presidential debate I remember in campaign and election was John Kennedy. | ||
| Now, I've always been under the impression when a president selects or nominates his cabinet members, he wants people who have authority or have some knowledge of these particular positions. | ||
| Well, there's a number of them. | ||
| I don't see they have no, like RFK Jr., he has no background in medicine or anything else. | ||
| The other thing that I want to just briefly go on is this thing about Social Security. | ||
| This whole idea that it's going to go broke, I realize there being some major cutbacks, but how can something go broke if everybody's paying into it every two well? | ||
| Even you, you get a paycheck. | ||
| And in your paycheck, you have to take out for Social Security. | ||
| Well, as long as there's people working in this country, they'll be paying into the system. | ||
| Now, eventually they may be cutbacks, but here's a great suggestion. | ||
| Why doesn't Congress put back all the money that they've been taking out of it over the years? | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Tom in California, finishing off this round of open forum. | ||
| Thank you to all who participated. | ||
| The future of electric vehicles is up for question in the new Trump administration. | ||
| And joining us next to talk about how automakers are responding, Jeff Gilbert with WWJ Radio in Detroit. | ||
| We'll have that conversation when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The Senate will be in session as they continue to hold hearings for several of President Trump's cabinet nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary. | |
| He'll appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday. | ||
| Also on Thursday, Kash Patel will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee as he seeks to become FBI Director. | ||
| Then Tulsi Gabbard, Mr. Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. | ||
| Watch this week, live on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app. | ||
| Also, head over to C-SPAN.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Nonfiction book lovers, C-SPAN has a number of podcasts for you. | ||
| Listen to best-selling non-fiction authors and influential interviewers on the Afterwords podcast and on QA. | ||
| Hear wide-ranging conversations with the non-fiction authors and others who are making things happen. | ||
| BookNotes Plus episodes are weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics. | ||
| And the About Books podcast takes you behind the scenes of the nonfiction book publishing industry with insider interviews, industry updates, and bestsellers lists. | ||
| Find all of our podcasts by downloading the free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts. | ||
| And on our website, cspan.org slash podcasts. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Joining us is Jeff Gilbert. | ||
| He reports on the automotive world for WWJ News Radio out of Detroit here to talk about, amongst other things, electric vehicles and the incoming administration. | ||
| Mr. Gilbert, thanks for your time as always. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, a pleasure. | |
| Why do you think this industry, this subset of the industry, was a particular target for this administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, obviously, electric vehicles have been a lightning rod for a long time. | |
| People on the left tend to support them. | ||
| They see them as something green, something that will clean up the environment. | ||
| People on the right have a tendency to oppose them. | ||
| They see them as expensive and unnecessary. | ||
| So, you know, you had that backdrop to begin with before the election even started. | ||
| When it comes to the actual things the president done, several executive orders, just to run through them, and if you could elaborate maybe a little bit on it, one of those things, particularly targeting what the Biden administration did on this, can you elaborate on that for us? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, at this particular point, a lot of these things are kind of in flux. | |
| We really can't tell for sure how much the president can do by executive order. | ||
| For example, he would like to get rid of the waiver that allows California to set its own emission standards, but he has to go through the EPA rulemaking process to do that and then likely go through court challenges to do that. | ||
| He wants to get rid of the $7,500, or should I say up to $7,500 tax rebate. | ||
| That's something he would like to do by executive order, but that was in the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| So that will likely require some sort of action by Congress. | ||
| So exactly what the president can do, what the president cannot do, that's going to develop over the next several months. | ||
| Former President Bryden wanted to see a certain amount of electric vehicles sold in the U.S. by, I believe, 2030. | ||
| Is that off the table as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would say under the Trump administration's preference, it would be off the table. | |
| And again, these percentages were never hard set in stone. | ||
| What was set in stone was certain emission standards that would likely lead to certain percentages, which were goals. | ||
| So at this point, there is so much in flux, it's hard to tell. | ||
| And that, of course, is driving product planners in the auto industry crazy. | ||
| Who is the most directed affected right now of those planners? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would say General Motors, because General Motors went all in on EVs earlier than everybody else. | |
| So they're going, I mean, they converted one plant in Detroit to total EV production. | ||
| They're working on another plant, which was to have been open this year. | ||
| It's been delayed until next year, and who knows long term. | ||
| So they've invested a lot, but everybody's affected. | ||
| And we saw some backpedaling even before Mr. Trump was elected. | ||
| Ford had a lot of ambitious EV plans that they backed off on in the past year. | ||
| Again, everybody's saying they'll follow market conditions and market conditions tend to change. | ||
| You're talking primarily domestic. | ||
| What about foreign automakers as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, we see that in terms of Mercedes and BMW. | |
| They had some high-end EVs that didn't sell as well as many people thought. | ||
| Volvo is a company that is coming in with a new electric vehicle. | ||
| A year or so ago, they wanted to have a small kind of a compact EV. | ||
| It was made in China. | ||
| That caused a few problems. | ||
| So there are issues here in terms of where the vehicles are made as well. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert joining us for this conversation. | ||
| And if you want to be part of it and asking questions about EVs and the future there, 202-748-8000. | ||
| For those of you who support this idea of an EV or an electric vehicle, if you oppose it, 202-748-8001. | ||
| If you're an owner of an electric vehicle and you want to give us your perspective, your ideas on it, 202-748-8002, you can always text us at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Mr. Gilbert, there's an organization known as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation here out of D.C. | ||
| This is part of the statement they put out after the president's EO executive orders came down. | ||
| Anyone who has been paying attention knows there's a mismatch between current EV market dynamics and the emissions and EV sales targets for the recent regulations, especially in the states that adopted California's gas-powered vehicle ban and EV sales requirements that by any measure are achievable. | ||
| The country should have a single national standard to reduce carbon in transportation. | ||
| We can't have regulations that push the industry too far ahead of the customer. | ||
| First of all, they represent the full auto industry as they describe themselves. | ||
| Is that the general take of automobile makers these days? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, what the Alliance for Automotive Innovation does, and it used to be the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers, is they do speak for the industry. | |
| So that means that individual car makers can lay back and give a little more cautious statements. | ||
| Carmakers have not gone out as individuals as aggressively as that. | ||
| They do want one national standard. | ||
| That's something that they have wanted for a while. | ||
| But a number of car makers got their hands slapped when they supported President Trump at his first administration in trying to roll back the California rules. | ||
| Well, then Mr. Trump was defeated. | ||
| Mr. Biden came in. | ||
| And all of a sudden, the California rules were golden and the car makers had to do a lot of backpedaling. | ||
| So they don't want to get into that kind of situation right now. | ||
| So they let the alliance speak for them so it doesn't come from an individual car maker. | ||
| But for the most part, they would love to have one national standard that sets a fair table for everybody and they can compete on it as opposed to essentially California setting the de facto standard for the rest of the country. | ||
| There was also another reaction from a group known as the Zero Emission Transportation Association. | ||
| This is part of their statement saying today three out of four EVs on the road in the United States are built in the U.S. By onshore domestic supply chain, the EV industry has reduced our dependence on other countries and grown our competitiveness in the global market. | ||
| Yesterday's executive orders contained some opportunities for securing mineral supply chains, along with the risk of undercutting growth in battery and vehicle manufacturing here at home. | ||
| All of these sectors are critical to America's security and future global competitiveness and merit continued support. | ||
| Again, that's another association. | ||
| Give a take of who they represent and what they're saying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And again, this is the association that is strongly in favor of electric vehicles. | |
| They've been promoting them for a while. | ||
| The Inflation Recovery Act had a lot of incentives for onshoring of batteries, onshoring of materials and batteries. | ||
| So that's the way we've been moving. | ||
| That's why we tend to have a number of more domestic EVs. | ||
| But in terms of domestic EVs, is a Mexican-made EV domestic? | ||
| Well, under USMCA, it is, but possibly under future tariffs, it may not be. | ||
| So there are vague areas there. | ||
| And you see car makers backing off on some of the investments again, even before Mr. Trump took office. | ||
| General Motors selling one of the battery plants that they had planned to build. | ||
| Ford backing off on some battery and EV production. | ||
| So you've seen a number of things happening because of the marketplace, not just because of the political atmosphere. | ||
| Automotive reporter Jeff Gilbert joining us for this conversation for our those who support EVs. | ||
| Alan in Iowa, you're on with our guest, Jeff Gilbert. | ||
| Alan, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Good morning, Jeff. | ||
| Thank you for this topic. | ||
| Vader, you and I have talked before. | ||
| I talked to you a couple years ago. | ||
| I've got into electric bicycles. | ||
| And in the past four and a half years, I've put over 15,000 miles on my electric bicycles. | ||
| I really like the whole concept of electric. | ||
| I bought a Prius about two years ago, a little used Prius. | ||
| That's another point I want to make. | ||
| People talk about the expense of electric cars. | ||
| There's a lot of used electric cars out there. | ||
| Now, if a person starts looking, there's a lot of possibilities. | ||
| That's Alan in giving away. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you know, one point he brings up: okay, the Prius is not what one will call a BEV, a battery-electric vehicle. | |
| It's a hybrid, and it was one of the original hybrids. | ||
| And Toyota, of all of the car makers, has been pretty consistent in its saying that it feels hybrids have more bang for the buck because they do have a gasoline engine as well as the electric motor. | ||
| So you don't have to worry about running out of range and having to recharge, but you do get better fuel economy. | ||
| And Toyota, in particular, I mean, the Toyota Camry, its best-selling car, you can only buy in a hybrid form. | ||
| So we're seeing more people adopt hybrids and more people even planning what's called extended-range electric vehicles, where you have an electric vehicle that has a gasoline generator on board to recharge electricity. | ||
| So that's something we're seeing more of. | ||
| So it's not just pure battery electric vehicles. | ||
| We're starting to see a lot more choices in the marketplace. | ||
| Catherine is in New York, an EV owner. | ||
| Catherine, you're on with our guest. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'm an EV owner because I needed to buy a new car during COVID lockdown, and there were no cars to be bought. | ||
| And I had a lot of time to do research. | ||
| And I decided to find out which car company made the most efficient internal combustion engine. | ||
| And it turns out that the best internal combustion engine is 35% efficient. | ||
| And then compared to an electric engine, it's 85% efficient. | ||
| And that is what decided it for me. | ||
| Why out of every $100 of fuel I ever pumped in my car, did I throw away $65 on the heat and on the pollution? | ||
| So why aren't we talking about the efficiencies of the one engine versus the other? | ||
| And that's my question. | ||
| Catherine in New York. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Well, you're very much getting into the engineering weeds there, and that's an area that I'm not really well qualified to talk about. | ||
| But for an individual, the efficiency comes with: okay, what am I going to be paying to fuel this vehicle? | ||
| And that really depends on your lifestyle. | ||
| For somebody who doesn't do a lot of long trips, somebody who does a short commute, somebody who is not going to take a vehicle a long distance, an electric vehicle is an awesome option. | ||
| I mean, they never have to go to a gasoline station. | ||
| So it is extremely efficient for them. | ||
| For other people, for people who do a lot of driving, will have to charge publicly, that could be a different equation because the public charging infrastructure isn't the best. | ||
| And even at its best, it takes longer than fueling up a tank of gasoline. | ||
| So, you know, a lot of these arguments depend on your own lot in life. | ||
| We saw the federal government enter into helping that infrastructure be built. | ||
| What was the success rate there getting charging stations and the like up? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, so far there has not been a lot of success, but it's not over yet. | |
| So we'll have to see what happens. | ||
| The commercial industry is putting in more chargers. | ||
| I've thought one of the most ingenious things is the General Motors tie in with a number of rest stops, pilot and flying J to put them on rest stops in interstates and things of that nature. | ||
| But you still end up with the incidents or the case where I've had this happen myself where I need to go to a recharger and all of a sudden things have changed. | ||
| It doesn't work with my current app. | ||
| It may not be working. | ||
| And unlike gasoline stations, there are not usually people around who can help you if you have a problem. | ||
| So those are a number of the issues that we're still facing, even several years into this. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, the Energy Information Agency, tells us that for the third quarter of 2024, hybrid electric and plug-in vehicles, 21% of sales. | ||
| What does that number tell you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that number tells me, again, we're talking about a variety of vehicles. | |
| The pure electric vehicles, the battery electrics, are closer to 9% to 10%. | ||
| The rest of that number includes hybrids and plug-in hybrids, which, you know, like the extended range, operate for a while in gasoline, for a while in electricity. | ||
| So there are a group of electrified vehicles. | ||
| That's what it covers. | ||
| And another interesting thing is if you look at December sales numbers, which is the latest month that we have data for, you saw a large spike in electric vehicle sales, probably because a lot of people who are interested in buying an EV are concerned about that tax credit going away. | ||
| So they went to the dealerships to look for one. | ||
| So you're going to see a mini boom in EV sales over the next couple of months because people who may be considering an EV may want to get off the fence before those tax credits possibly go away. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert joining us for this conversation. | ||
| Let's hear from Eric in New York, opposing EVs. | ||
| Eric, hello. | ||
| You're on with our guests. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Well, I mean, when we started in this exploration or experiment, really, of EVs, I mean, of course, it was hybrids to begin with. | ||
| And that seemed like a good idea to me because you can create your own power on board. | ||
| It doesn't have to lose any of its energy that was initially created through transmission lines or the transfer of it into a battery. | ||
| Not to mention all the supply lines and the lithium and all the various things that are, I think, downsides of electric vehicles. | ||
| And could you explain to me again, I know you talked about hybrids a little bit, Why it just strikes me as the logical step is to create your own power on board and reduce the amount of fossil fuels you're going to use and lighten up on the lithium a little bit because the batteries are smaller. | ||
| And, you know, we got your point, Color. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, and a lot of people, as you can tell from a number of the callers, don't quite, they hear all of these terms and they don't live it every day. | |
| So they don't quite understand what things are. | ||
| A hybrid, they started coming about about the turn of the century. | ||
| They improve the efficiency by adding an electric motor to the gasoline motor. | ||
| There are a number of different ways to do that, but essentially like a hybrid plant, which is a cross between two plants, this has two powertrains. | ||
| It has electric and it has gasoline. | ||
| It improves fuel economy. | ||
| It can also improve power without hurting your fuel economy. | ||
| So they're used for a number of different reasons. | ||
| A plug-in hybrid actually has a bigger battery that you can run for a short period of time, maybe 20, 25 miles as an electric vehicle. | ||
| Then it becomes a regular hybrid. | ||
| But again, it has a gasoline engine. | ||
| No worry about recharging when you're away. | ||
| What is called an extended range electric vehicle, and the Chevy Volt a few years ago was an example of that, is an electric vehicle, but there's a gasoline motor on board that when the battery wears down, it kicks on and it recharges the battery. | ||
| Your car runs on electricity, but the gasoline is there to generate the electricity. | ||
| So you've got all of those different things under the moniker of hybrid. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, how capable is the United States currently in developing minerals and other things for batteries? | ||
| How dependent are we still on out-of-country sources? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're very dependent right now on out-of-country sources, but you see companies like General Motors invested in areas where there's lithium mining, and there is a ton of investment into batteries that need less and less of these rare earths and things of that nature. | |
| For right now, we get a lot of those abroad, but a lot of that is changing quite rapidly. | ||
| And so to follow up on that, if the president decides to go forward on the certain tariffs that he wants to place on certain countries, does the EV market get affected that way? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It very well could be. | |
| It just depends on what kind of retaliation there is, what's happening. | ||
| But the EV market is also affected by competition because there are a lot of low-cost electric vehicles from China that are going into other markets around the world. | ||
| And the tariffs put in by the Biden administration before the Trump administration have been keeping those out of the U.S. market. | ||
| But you go to Europe, you're seeing more and more of these Chinese vehicles. | ||
| There are a lot of them in Mexico. | ||
| And I had a supplier recently, a company that brings in vehicles and tears them down to examine them. | ||
| They had an event where they showed a lot of these Chinese electric vehicles, and many of them are quite advanced. | ||
| And again, the cost is a lot lower than American-made vehicles. | ||
| So you've got a lot of moving parts here. | ||
| From Vermont, an EV owner, this is Larry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| You're on with our guest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| I'm from very cold, windy, snowy Vermont. | ||
| I'm in cold, windy, snowy Michigan, so I feel your pain. | ||
| We like it. | ||
| My Chevy Equinox is wonderful. | ||
| Is it the EV Equinox? | ||
| It's a cold weather. | ||
| It doesn't stop and just go roll over and put its tires up in the air and say, oh, I can't run. | ||
| You know, I'm so tired of the current administration, which has only been there a couple of weeks, but the man's been running for four years. | ||
| He's a dinosaur. | ||
| You know, he's bought by the energy companies. | ||
| This EV electric car that I have bought, I charge on my house here in Vermont, and I'm off-grid, and I charge it up. | ||
| And if I don't have enough power, I drive down to my little 500-person town and charge it up for 36 cents a kilowatt, which is a fraction of what gas costs. | ||
| And I'm not polluting my local environment. | ||
| I'm driving around with super efficiency. | ||
| The car runs like a top. | ||
| You know, I've got brothers who say it's a junker, and I've got Trump that says it's no good. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| It's wonderful. | ||
| And just to clarify, caller, is it the Equinox that's the EV? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm sorry? | |
| Is it the Equinox you own that's the EV? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It certainly is. | |
| Okay, thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chevrolet, in the past six months, put out an electric version of its Equinox. | |
| Equinox itself is a mid-sized gasoline-powered vehicle, but it has an electric trim. | ||
| I'm one of the jurors for North American Car Truck and Utility of the Year. | ||
| It was one of the finalists this year. | ||
| It really is a very good product. | ||
| And the caller brings home one of the points I made earlier. | ||
| It depends on your lifestyle. | ||
| For this man's lifestyle, an electric vehicle is obviously perfect. | ||
| For somebody who drives a lot of miles, it may be a different equation. | ||
| From Ann in Massachusetts, go ahead. | ||
| You're on with our guests. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| thing i i would like to say before i say anything about the electric cars is i was a little bit disappointed that this gentleman refers to president trump as mr trump he is now president of the united states and it would be may i interrupt may interrupt you ma'am Under proper reference, under Associated Press rule book, I did not call him Trump. | ||
| I called him Mr. Trump because you're supposed to refer to a president as President Trump on first reference and Mr. on second reference. | ||
| So that is proper usage. | ||
| I mean no disrespect to Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush. | ||
| These are presidents of the United States. | ||
| They all have my respect. | ||
| Okay, thank you very much for explaining that. | ||
| But people sitting here in TV land don't understand that. | ||
| Okay, so I will continue on. | ||
| I right now drive a gas-powered car, and I don't very much appreciate somebody telling me what kind of car I'm going to have to be buying. | ||
| We have China that is polluting the world much more than the United States is, but for some reason, the Biden administration, forget screwing everything up, then came out with a mandate that we were all going to have to be driving electric cars by, is it 2030? | ||
| Was that the year that was given? | ||
| That was in California and several states. | ||
| It wasn't the Biden administration. | ||
| And as you know, everything that happens in California. | ||
| So I don't have any desire whatsoever. | ||
| We live in Rockport, Massachusetts, and we have a house that is up in New Hampshire. | ||
| I have heard horror stories from women getting lost in the middle of the night, driving around, trying to find a place to plug in their electric car. | ||
| I'm in my mid-70s. | ||
| There is no way I want to be caught on the highway because the infrastructure of having places to plug your car in is just not there. | ||
| And you made your point. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And, you know, we'll go back to it fitting into people's individual lifestyles. | ||
| They're both great examples of that. | ||
| But it's also an example that elections have consequences. | ||
| If one side pushes too far, then there's going to be a response from the voters. | ||
| So you've kind of seen that with the Biden administration transitioning into the Trump administration. | ||
| At the end of the day, it's the voters who have the say. | ||
| It's the marketplace who has the say. | ||
| And yeah, California may pass legislation that it believes that all new vehicles sold have to be electric by 2035. | ||
| But if it's challenged in the courts, that could very well change. | ||
| If the market's not there for electric vehicles and they are still allowed to do it, it may have to be pushed back. | ||
| So all of these things that are decrees from the government, we live in a country where the people have the final choice. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, Elon Musk owns Tesla. | ||
| Tesla's arguably the largest electric vehicle seller of the world. | ||
| He's intersected with the Trump administration. | ||
| What do you think of that intersection? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a very interesting intersection. | |
| You've got two larger-than-life personalities working together, and you have two people working together who sometimes have different goals. | ||
| For example, Mr. Trump is not a big supporter of EVs. | ||
| Elon Musk could be called the original electric vehicle evangelist. | ||
| So there are some differences there. | ||
| The president is looking to bring more jobs, but Elon Musk tends to be an automation person. | ||
| So he looks at efficiencies. | ||
| So it's interesting to see how that plays out because you've got two people who have common goals, but a lot of differences in between. | ||
| From Kenny. | ||
| Kenny is in Florida, an EV owner, Jeff, with Jeff Gilbert of WWJ News Radio. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, gentlemen. | |
| So I am an EV owner by default. | ||
| I still have a gas-powered car. | ||
| I love my Ford gas-powered car. | ||
| However, I was given this Tesla. | ||
| I can no longer drive my gas-powered car because this thing is quite the experience. | ||
| The acceleration, the miles per gallon, so to say, is just incredible. | ||
| I don't have to go to gas stations anymore. | ||
| And if this woman in Massachusetts doesn't choose to buy an electric car, she's got until 2035 to move away from California. | ||
| She's already living in Massachusetts. | ||
| Don't buy an electric car. | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| Before Elon Musk became the Lex Luther of international politics, he was the most innovative human being on this planet, taking electric cars the whole course and bringing it to the next level. | ||
| This level is incredible. | ||
| I've also driven the electric hummer, by the way, which is another incredible vehicle. | ||
| It went from being an obscene gas guzzler to now an electric car that's environmentally secure. | ||
| I just don't understand what the big deal is in looking in the future. | ||
| Okay, Kenny. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, Brent bringing a couple of things that we haven't talked about yet. | |
| Electric cars can be a lot of fun to drive. | ||
| Last week, Jeep brought me to Southern California to drive their first EV, the Wagoneer S. | ||
| I drove it around a bunch of canyons. | ||
| It's a large vehicle. | ||
| It handled nimbly. | ||
| Those batteries give it a great center of gravity, so they handle quite well. | ||
| This particular Jeep is the fastest Jeep ever. | ||
| It was faster than what they called the Trackhawk, which was a very fast V8 Jeep. | ||
| This one has a 0 to 60 times faster than that. | ||
| It has 600 horsepower. | ||
| He mentions the Hummer. | ||
| What's interesting to look at is a Hummer brand from General Motors was originally based on the old military Hum V, and they were big gas-guzzling SUVs. | ||
| And around 2008, 2009, they really fell out of favor. | ||
| GM couldn't give that brand away. | ||
| They wanted to give that brand away to a Chinese company, and they couldn't make it work. | ||
| So they discontinued it, but they kept the name. | ||
| So they have now brought it back as a GMC vehicle. | ||
| Basically, it's a GMC Hummer EV. | ||
| It's a pickup or an SUV, and it's meant to show how fast, how powerful, and has a thousand horsepower that an electric vehicle can be. | ||
| So, you know, in the midst of all of this, you have a lot of EVs that are a lot of fun to drive. | ||
| And I think I saw the other day that the VW, we introduced an electric vehicle that's reminiscent of the old VW bug or the buzz. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we go back to the awards. | |
| That's North American Utility of the Year. | ||
| That's a vehicle that edged out the Chevy Equinox EV. | ||
| It's the Volkswagen ID Buzz. | ||
| And I have driven that vehicle. | ||
| It looks like the old micro bus, and I have driven the old micro bus. | ||
| I will tell you, the old micro bus is one of the scariest vehicles I ever drove. | ||
| There's absolutely no protection in there and no power. | ||
| Well, this vehicle, you have a lot of protection, a lot of power. | ||
| It is electric. | ||
| It has sliding doors like a minivan, all-wheel drive like an SUV, a spacious interior. | ||
| It's a little big, doesn't quite have the gasoline or rather the EV range that others do. | ||
| But it'll be interesting to see how that does long-term in the marketplace because everybody who commented on that vehicle when I drove it was a gasoline-powered vehicle aficionado. | ||
| And it'll be interesting to see if it gets some of them to move over to EVs just because it's cool looking. | ||
| This is John. | ||
| John is here not too far from here in Virginia, a supporter of EVs. | ||
| John, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Hi, thanks for taking my call. | ||
| Love C-SPAN. | ||
| So I love the debate. | ||
| One of the points I don't really hear mentioned very often is environment in terms of sort of where you live. | ||
| I think I definitely support EVs for urban environments. | ||
| I think regenerative braking is really the main selling point for them. | ||
| If you stop and go a lot, you're not wasting energy to do that in an EV. | ||
| And also, if you live in a hilly environment with lots of hills, you know, internal combustion just isn't very economical for you. | ||
| I would like to get an EV. | ||
| I don't have one. | ||
| But if I did end up moving to the countryside, I probably would stay with internal combustion. | ||
| So I'm really tired of sort of the black and white. | ||
| We need to go all EV or all internal combustion. | ||
| I just wanted to get your thoughts on that, of maybe just looking at where people live. | ||
| And if you live in the city, I think an EV is better. | ||
| And if you live in the country, I think internal combustion is better. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Yeah, and as mentioned, it's your own lifestyle. | ||
| And living in a city, it's better if you have a garage. | ||
| If you don't have a garage, then you're going to have to go with the public charging infrastructure, which can cause certain issues. | ||
| So it depends on your lifestyle. | ||
| And I am working from the assumption that we're going to have a mix of vehicles for a while, that consumers will have choices, that total EV mandates based on what we're seeing in terms of the will of the country, if they're not eliminated, they may be pushed back. | ||
| We might see 2035 as unrealistic. | ||
| And realize that even if California gets its way and 2035, you can't sell a new gasoline-powered vehicle in California. | ||
| There are going to be a lot of used vehicles on the road, so you'll still be able to buy a vehicle with a gasoline engine for a long, long time. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, how prohibitive is the price of EVs these days? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's going to be a big question going forward, because if the Trump administration gets its way and the $7,500 rebate goes away, then we're going to see them being a little bit more expensive. | |
| But if sales go down, car makers may have to sell them at a loss. | ||
| So it depends on the marketplace, as it always does. | ||
| And car makers are making progress on the cost, but it's still a new technology. | ||
| It still costs more money. | ||
| And, you know, vehicle to vehicle, an internal combustion vehicle is going to be less expensive. | ||
| A viewer asked off of a text this morning, what's the difference between the cheapest price for a Chinese electric vehicle versus an American electric vehicle? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It could be tens of thousands of dollars. | |
| I mean, they have some that are in line with what a gasoline-powered vehicle would be in the United States. | ||
| But you have to add, these companies are subsidized by the Chinese government. | ||
| A lot of their research and I mean, if Ford does research and development, it's paying the bill. | ||
| If General Motors does research and development, it's paying the bill. | ||
| If a Chinese car maker does research and development, often the Chinese government is paying the bill. | ||
| So these companies do have a lot of government backing. | ||
| So that's another one of the reasons that some of their vehicles are less expensive. | ||
| And another thing that we're seeing in terms of expense globally is car makers finding ways to cut expenses elsewhere in vehicles using less expensive materials just so that they can offset the high cost of the battery. | ||
| I mean, Ford was to the point where they were counting the number of brackets in vehicles to try to eliminate as much cost as possible just so they can keep the cost of an EV lower. | ||
| From Jennifer in California, an EV owner. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| We just purchased an EV trying to get ahead of Donald Trump taking away the rebates. | ||
| And so we bought nearly. | ||
| We got an Ionic 5. | ||
| We bought a 2024 because the 25 was already out, but it was more expensive. | ||
| And we ended up paying about $40,000, which is about what cars seem to cost now anyways. | ||
| And we love it. | ||
| It has a 300-mile range, which is fine for us. | ||
| We're senior citizens. | ||
| We can't really sit for more than that long anyway. | ||
| Yeah, the charging was a little scary at first. | ||
| When my husband, we drove down to LA to get it, I came back earlier, and he was having trouble finding a charging place. | ||
| They didn't charge it fully before we left, so that was disappointing. | ||
| But we made it, and now we have a power wall in our garage, so we just charge it there. | ||
| And we're looking forward to taking a nice long trip here. | ||
| It's beautiful. | ||
| I can't say enough good things about it, except I'm going to go buy one, probably a smaller one. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Jennifer in California, she sold on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Very good. | |
| And I will tell you, Hyundai and Kia are among the leaders in electric vehicles. | ||
| They make a number of very nice vehicles that have won a number of awards and have done very well in the marketplace. | ||
| Bob in Virginia, in Perceval, Virginia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes, good morning. | ||
| I just have a question. | ||
| The repair or the disposal of the battery after something I understand is six to eight years. | ||
| The battery, if you want to replace it, the lithium battery cars are somewhere between $8,000 to replace. | ||
| And secondly, the disposal is a concern of where do you put these batteries and what kind of research is being done to use the minerals that are in these batteries for recycling purposes. | ||
| And doesn't that just cause a little bit more environmental issues? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Yeah, it certainly has become an actual industry in trying to recycle some of these batteries. | ||
| So there are a number of companies that have come up in terms of the recycling. | ||
| And now that EVs have been out a decade or so, the early EVs, it'll be interesting to see how long the batteries do last. | ||
| There have been tales anecdotally of expensive battery replacements. | ||
| There have also been tales of batteries that last a lot longer than people expected. | ||
| But that is going to be an issue, and it's one we're going to start seeing more of in the next couple of years as we see more and more of the older EVs on the road and more and more people who are buying used EVs. | ||
| But theoretically, the car companies say you shouldn't have to replace the EV in your vehicle, but that also means you're probably not going to be able to milk 20 to 25 years out of an electric vehicle like some people are able to do out of a lot of gasoline-powered vehicles. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, we've been focusing on EVs, but when it comes to the Trump administration, how does the auto industry writ large look at the incoming administration? | ||
| What are their concerns, or at least what are their desires, perhaps? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, at this point, it's more about reaching out to the new administration to let them know their concerns and their desires. | |
| They are obviously very worried about, in particular, tariffs on Canada and Mexico. | ||
| That's something there's a lot of parts that go across the border on a daily basis. | ||
| So they're a little bit worried about that, but they're also standing back with a wait and see to see how much of this is going to be negotiated long term. | ||
| If there are tariffs, how long they would be in effect, because obviously these tariffs have been threatened to try to get changes on the part of the behavior of Canada and Mexico. | ||
| So a lot of car makers are taking a wait and see attitude about that. | ||
| So that they do like the idea of the incentives on electric vehicles, but I think they're starting to realize that those probably are going to go away. | ||
| There was a dealers meeting last week where a lot of dealers were saying, look, if you're going to get rid of them, at least phase them out so we have them to help us sell down our electric vehicles. | ||
| So there's a little caution on one side, but a reaching out on the other side to try to tell the Trump administration, hey, these are some of the issues that we have. | ||
| And this is our input. | ||
| Please, if you make changes, at least take that into account. | ||
| Our guest, Jeff Gilbert, covers the automotive industry for WWJ News Radio out of Detroit, wwjnewsradio.com, the website. | ||
| You could see his work. | ||
| Jeff Gilbert, as always, thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was a pleasure. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| That's it for the program today. | ||
| Again, the House leaders meeting with President Trump and Florida. | ||
| Expect to hear from them later on this afternoon. | ||
| Stay close to C-SPAM for their responses on what's being discussed in Florida. | ||
| Another edition of Washington Journal comes your way tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. | ||
| We'll see you then. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You can see that live at 3 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | |
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