CSPAN - Washington Journal 01/29/2025

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Jan. 29, 2025 07:00-10:00 - CSPAN

02:58:16

Washington Journal 01/29/2025

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john mcardle

cspan 11:55

mike davis

25:48

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brian lamb

cspan 01:27

dick durbin

sen/d 01:22

franklin graham

01:56

karoline leavitt

admin 01:07

patty murray

sen/d 02:19

zeke miller

ap 00:34

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unidentified		We'll be there.
		Cox supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
		Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then, the president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, Reverend Paul Brandeis Rochenbush, talks about the role of faith leaders in opposing aspects of President Trump's agenda.
		And the founder and president of Article 3 Project, Mike Davis, on how the Justice Department is poised to change under President Trump.
		Also, AP White House correspondent Zeke Miller discusses White House News of the Day.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		Good morning.
		It's Wednesday, January 29th, 2025.
		The Senate's in at noon Eastern today, and several Trump administration nominees are on Capitol Hill, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kash Patel.
		But we begin with two major efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the federal government.
		Yesterday, President Trump offered buyouts to almost all government employees in an attempt to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
		Meanwhile, an effort to freeze trillions of dollars in government grants and loans was blocked by a federal judge on Tuesday, shortly before it was set to go into effect.
		We're getting your reaction to both those developments on phone line split as usual by political party.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000 is the number to call.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Special line this morning for federal employees, 202-748-8003.
		You can also catch up with us on social media on X, it's at C-SPANWJ on Facebook.
		It's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN.
		And a very good Wednesday morning to you.
		You can go ahead and start calling in now the local Washington Times here in D.C., focusing on the buyout offer in their lead story spot today.
		Their headline noting that that buyout and effort, as they describe it, to cut bureaucracy, eight months of pay to feds who leave, and no job guarantees for those who stay.
		That's the sub-headline there to the Washington Post.
		Their lead story is the grant and loan freeze.
		The Washington Post describing it as the actions by a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocking President Donald Trump from imposing that sweeping pause on trillions of dollars in federal spending.
		It capped a frenetic day, they write, of disruption to government programs to fund schools, provide housing, and ensure low-income Americans have access to health care.
		The order prevented the new restriction from taking effect until at least February 3rd, buying time for a coalition of federal health advocates, nonprofits, and businesses to proceed with a case that may test Donald Trump's claims of expansive power over the nation's fiscal trajectory.
		The Washington Post, that's their lead.
		Take you to the briefing room at the White House yesterday.
		It was White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt's first press briefing of this Trump administration, and she was asked about that freeze on grants and loans.
		Some of the confusion I think may be here with this pause on federal funding.
		You've made it clear, you're not stopping funds that go directly to individuals, but there certainly are lots of organizations that receive funding and then may pass along a benefit, Meals on Wheels for one.
		They provide meals for over 2.2 million seniors.
		What is the president's message to Americans out there, many of whom supported him and voted for him, who are concerned that this is going to impact them directly, even if, as you said, the funding isn't coming directly to their work?
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		I have now been asked and answered this question four times.
		To individuals at home who receive direct assistance from the federal government, you will not be impacted by this federal freeze.
		In fact, OMB just sent out a memo to Capitol Hill with QA to clarify some of the questions and the answers that all of you are asking me right now.
unidentified		Again, direct assistance will not be impacted.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		I've been asked and answered about this OMB memo.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		There's many other topics of the day.
unidentified		Jackie Hyde.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		Direct assistance that is in the hands of the American people will not be impacted.
		Again, as I said to Peter, we will continue to provide that list as it comes to fruition.
		But OMB right now is focused on analyzing the federal government's spending, which is exactly what the American people elected President Trump to do.
unidentified		That press briefing taking place yesterday afternoon, and it was just before that freeze was set to take effect at 5 p.m. yesterday that a federal district judge here in Washington, D.C. stepped in and put a hold on that freeze.
		That's one of the two major stories we're focusing on this morning.
		The other one being that offer of buyouts for federal employees phone lines this morning, a specific line for federal employees, 2027 8-8003.
		Otherwise, it's Democrats, Republicans, and Independents as usual.
		Danny's up first this morning in Arizona on that line for Republicans.
		Danny, what do you think about these two stories, these efforts to reshape the federal government?
		Good morning, John.
		Hey, John, could you do me a favor, please?
		Could you explain the second question?
		I want to make sure I got that right, please.
		The pause on grants and loans, it was an effort to take a look at all of these grants and loans by the federal government, trillions of dollars.
		The Trump administration said they wanted to take a look at.
		It was set to go into effect yesterday, and a federal judge yesterday pausing that at least until early February.
		So that's where we are right now, but certainly a story that is continuing to develop.
		Okay, no, I get meals on wheels, okay?
		And I sure hope they don't take that away because that helps me out a great deal.
		You know what I'm saying, John?
		Understood, Danny.
		Anything else you want to add?
		No, just that I think that before we go really fast on this, I think that the Trump administration needs to really study and take a good look at what they're doing.
		You know what I'm saying?
		Danny, you're calling in the Republican line.
		Were you a Trump voter in 2024?
		Of course.
		Of course, I support Trump all the way.
		Trump all the way.
		Yes.
		I just want them to take a step back and study it a little bit.
		That's all.
		That's Danny and Yuma, Arizona.
		Several of the major news outlets trying to parse this move, this freeze, to see what exactly was affected.
		And as you heard in that White House press briefing, it was the topic of several questions for Carolyn Levitt yesterday.
		This is USA Today trying to parse that memo.
		It points to the legal definition of federal financial assistance, which includes grants, cooperative agreements, surplus donation loans, and interest subsidies, exempts assistance received directly by individuals, including Medicare and Social Security.
		The memo refers to the executive order that Donald Trump signed on January 20th, which ordered department and agency heads to immediately pause new programs and disbursements of development assistance to foreign countries.
		The Department of State announced that pause on Sunday, though yesterday, Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State, backtracks on the foreign aid freeze, approving waivers for that.
		That's the headline of the Washington Post story on it today, approving a new waiver for life-saving humanitarian memo sent to aid groups amid widespread confusion, they write, over which programs in the roughly $60 billion foreign aid budget would be exempt from the Trump administration's freeze on U.S. assistance.
		In his memo, Rubio defined humanitarian-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.
		Programs will not be waived, he said, if they involve abortions, family planning conferences, gender or diversity programs, transgender surgeries, or other non-lifes-saving assistance.
		So, that's Marco Rubio at the State Department talking about how this would apply to foreign aid funds.
		Again, this is all now on pause until early February in the wake of a district judge decision yesterday in D.C.
		A lot to talk about this morning.
		Getting your phone calls on that story on this federal employee buyout offer.
		Joy is in Philadelphia.
		Line for Democrats.
		Good morning.
		Hi.
		Good morning.
		Actually, I'm calling because I read an article about the buyout, and I read that Elon Musk is in charge of the OPM, the personnel office, and he's trying to put his lawyerist in to get rid of career federal personnel.
		So, Joy, Elon Musk is the Department of Government Efficiency.
		OPM is a different office.
		Russ Vogt is the nominee to lead that office.
		But what is your feeling about this buyout?
		My feeling is that I have a twofold.
		I used to work for the government and I'm a Democrat, too.
		They're trying to get rid of career employees and put Trump loyalists in career jobs.
		When I was working, it was a thing called the Hatch Act, where you didn't know anybody political.
		You worked for Democrats and Republicans.
		Musk, I read the article I read that he sent the letter to the Office of Personnel.
		I mean, from the Office of Personnel for the buyout.
		He doesn't know how government work.
		That's the problem.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Joy in Philadelphia on the buyouts.
unidentified		Carolyn Levitt, again, this was yesterday evening saying in a statement, the American taxpayers deserve a federal employees who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers.
		If they don't want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work.
		And the Trump administration will provide a very generous payment of eight months.
		That's Carolyn Levitt yesterday.
		In that statement, Tim Kaine, Democratic senator from Virginia, a state with a lot of federal employees, was on the Senate floor last night, and he spoke about this buyout offer.
		This is about a minute and a half of what he had to say.
		If you tender your resignation by next Friday, we will guarantee you payment through the end of September whether or not you show up for work.
		So tender your resignation, and then boy, it's just going to be a gravy train.
		You're just going to get paid for seven months without working.
		The president has no authority to make that offer.
		There's no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work.
		This is a guy who made this promise to contractors again and again and again when he was a private business guy.
		Oh, come work for me on my casino.
		Come work for me in a hotel.
		We're going to do a handshake.
		We're going to do a contract.
		The contractor does the work and then finds out they get stiffed.
		So my message to federal employees who receive this is: yeah, the president has tried to terrorize you for about a week and then gives you a little sweetheart offer.
		If you resign in the next week, we're just going to pay you for doing nothing for the next seven months.
		Don't be fooled.
		He's tricked hundreds of people with that offer.
		If you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors.
		He doesn't have any authority to do this.
		Do not be fooled by this guy.
		You were here before he was here, and you'll be here after he was here.
		Show up for work, be diligent, serve Americans every day, make their life better, answer their phone call, give them an answer, track down their constituent call.
		Don't be fooled by a fake offer that because he's terrorized you in the last week, it would be easy to just resign now and get a check for seven months because I can tell you that promise is worth nothing.
		Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine last night taking your phone calls this morning on the Washington Journal.
		This is Jill in Chicago Independent.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I was just listening to the comments by Tim King, and I can't agree with him more.
		Basically, you know, one thing that Trump doesn't understand, the administration doesn't understand, most people in America don't understand, is that funds, grants, all kinds of federal dollars get handed out to the states who then decide how they're going to divide it up too.
		So it's not just, you know, that Trump can come in and declare that I don't like this program, so we're going to stop funding it.
		He doesn't have total control over it.
		And that is why he's not authorized to make a move like this.
		Now, I don't think even if it gets to the Supreme Court, he probably won't pay attention to what they have to say about it.
		At any rate, it's just exactly what I expected from our President Trump.
		Have a nice day.
		Alexandria, Minnesota, this is Mark Republican.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I would just like to add a comment that this is exactly what America, the people of America, what we voted into office.
		Why are people surprised now that he wants to cut the pork?
		He's not going to take away food from anybody.
		He's not going to take away any of that stuff that people are worried about.
		The man's a good man.
		The last four years of his first presidency proves that.
		Give the man a chance.
		We put him in there.
		He's simply doing what we want him to do: cut pork, get spending under control, and straighten this world out.
		And that's it.
		No more, no less.
		Thank you very much.
		I appreciate you listening to me.
		Mark in Minnesota to South Carolina, Charleston.
		This is Lee Democrat.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Well, it's good.
		It's a good thing for these people to understand and learn, but they'll never learn.
		They're just brain fogs from maybe alcohol or something because people out of here hurting.
		I'm talking about the particular administration that's in charge right now.
		It doesn't make any sense, but that's good.
	These people have to go through that.
	The poor, the people who are working every day, that's good.
	Look, this is what you ask for.
	The gentleman called the first on the first call buys remorse.
	The guy from the Illinois, I believe, buys remorse.
	They're just trying to tell themselves and convince themselves that they'll be okay based on a lie.
	Have a good day.
	Lincoln, Nebraska.
	Dan, Independent, good morning.
	Hey, good morning.
	This is Dan.
	I haven't caught Washington Journal.
	This is the first time I've caught it in a long time.
	I just lost it.
	I fell out with Danny from or Dan from Yuma, the first caller, I believe.
	And I mean, hey, Dan, in Yuma, if you're still listening, cry me a river, buddy, because you voted for him.
	You got him.
	But anyway, and then Mark from Minnesota, the apologist, you know, that says, give him a chance, you know, give him some time.
	Well, I think the first day in office was enough time to know what we're in for for the next four years.
	So, you know, I mean, when people try to say that 75 million, whatever, 75 million people voted for the guy, and that's who America voted in.
	Well, all you got to do is read and find out what we're in for.
	I recommend the book Strong Men by Ruth Ben Guillot, and you'll find out all you know what we're in for.
	Thank you, John.
	It's Dan in Nebraska.
	This is Rose in the volunteer state, Republican.
	Good morning.
	Good morning.
	Glad to be here.
	Listen, DEI was illegal from the moment it was passed.
	Hiring based on graduation date, trans experience, number of people in your family, globalist versus America viewpoint, first viewpoint, which is a potential political bias.
	The number of people in your home, those are all things I found on ads on LinkedIn.
	They're illegal.
	Merit and skills and experience should be all that counts.
	So fire them without benefits.
	He should have vetoed it when it came across his desk.
	He would have had he been president at the time.
	It never should have passed.
	It's not even close to being affirmative action.
	It's clearly an illegal mandate.
	For four years, those without merit were discriminated against by DEI and vaccine mandate employers.
	Those with merit didn't get the jobs.
	Those without any merit got the job.
	In fact, Donald Trump, if you are listening this morning, give private businesses a 30-day mandate to eliminate job ads with DEI deference.
	They're still out there.
	I see them on LinkedIn all the time.
	And Glassdoor and all indeed all of the job ad posting boards.
	Fine them.
	And when you find them, give them a small fine of maybe $10,000 for continuing to post ads that are clearly illegal.
	Make it a strong point in your next five to ten days that you are going to get this done for us because we've had to put up with this for four lousy years.
	Thank you.
	That's Rose in Tennessee.
	You mentioned vaccine mandates.
	That's a topic that's likely going to come up today at the confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He's before the Health and Human Services.
unidentified		He's up for Health and Human Services Secretary.
		He's on Capitol Hill for his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Finance Committee.
		He will also be back on Capitol Hill on Thursday before the Senate Health Committee, a series of hearings.
		You can watch today's hearing live at 10 a.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN.
		That's where we're going to go after this program.
		On Thursday, we're going to air that hearing as well.
		Other Trump nominees on Capitol Hill today include Howard Luttnick, Trump's nominee for Commerce Secretary, and Kelly Loeffler, the nominee for the head of the Small Business Administration.
		Kash Patel, Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will have his hearing on Thursday on Capitol Hill.
		That's the 9:30 is when that is set to start.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So, plenty of hearings throughout this week.
unidentified		Hope you stay with C-SPAN for all those confirmation hearings, and we'll, of course, be talking about them here on the Washington Journal.
		Back to your phone calls this morning on this federal employee buyout offer, the freeze on government grants and loans that has now been temporarily blocked.
		This is Dee in Maryland.
		Good morning.
		Yes, good morning.
		I just want to say that I would listen to Tim Kang because who will be at home and they say you can take a buyout, just write a letter.
		You need to go in there and fill out papers when you're going to a buyout.
		You don't do nothing from home.
		You have to have papers showing that you applied for a buyout.
		And that is not the proper way to do it.
		So please, people need to listen to what he's saying.
		Also, this is what happened this week about stopping everything in the federal government sounds like a concept of a plan to me.
		It has never been a plan.
		He needs to go into office and do some work.
		Stop writing all these executive orders because all he's trying to do is do these orders and then go play golf.
		We need a president who is for all the people.
		Even the people who voted for him see that this is affecting them.
		It's not about giving the little people anything.
		It's about him eliminating all these programs so these tax cuts for the rich will be available, as well as all the money being spent on the departments.
		Let me ask you something, sir.
		Hello?
		I'm listening, D.D.
		Yes, these departments cost trillions of dollars.
		Is that correct?
		Did you hear that?
		That is going to be used.
		See, he wants to be able to say, well, I deported all these people.
		Half of the people are not criminal elements, but he's trying to make it look like that.
		That is not, I wish they'll stop showing this on television because it's nothing that is really affecting people's lives.
		We got just as many problems with American citizens as well as the other citizens.
		They say the lowest crime rate is the immigrant.
		So people need to tell the truth about what's going on here.
		The money is going to be spent for the tax cuts.
		People, open your eyes.
		Stop enabling a person who does not care about the American people.
		We need to get back to real empathy for people in this country.
		All this bickering back and forth is not helping this country.
		We need people who are going to be concerned.
		Those Republicans going lockstep with him, it's like people in a trance.
		Why do you go to college in these I-relief schools and not practicing what you preach?
		Got your point.
		That's D in Maryland.
		This is Tony in Detroit Independent.
		Good morning.
		Hi.
		Good morning.
		On this topic, frozen government grants and loans.
		What I would love to see C-SPAN do is just have a segment with, you know, the disabled and the elderly over 65.
		Stop all of the other noise and just let the elderly and the disabled call in.
		I would love to hear their thoughts on, because I'm sure what he did with that, you know, with that just all of a sudden freeze, just that talk, I'm sure, that there was tragedies with the elderly just from them hearing that.
		And in some kind of way, I would think that, I don't know, voting, not voting them out of office, but what is that?
		The 25th Amendment?
		Something needs to happen because to me, it looks like he's just trying to cause a great, severe pain to people.
		And the elderly shouldn't have to suffer because of it.
		It's Tony in Detroit.
		I take you to Capitol Hill yesterday, Senator Patty Murray, the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, a Democrat from Washington.
		This is what she had to say on this federal freeze in grants and loans.
patty murray ▲ ● ▼		In a brazen and illegal move, the Trump administration is working to freeze huge amounts of federal funding passed into law by Republicans and Democrats alike.
		The scope of this illegal action is unprecedented and could have devastating consequences across the country for real people.
		We could see a screeching halt to resources for child care, cancer research, housing, police officers, opioid addiction treatment, rebuilding roads and bridges, and even disaster relief efforts.
		He was just in California to witness the devastation, and now he is holding back that aid.
		Trump's actions would wreak havoc in red and blue communities everywhere.
		This is funding that communities are expecting, and this memo is creating chaos and confusion about whether these resources will be available to them.
		Entire budgets and payrolls across the country are carefully hinging on these resources.
		We are talking about our small towns, our cities, our school districts, our universities, and a lot more.
		Will local Head Start facilities get their funding?
		Will grantees at our local universities get the funding that they use to continue clinical trials?
		What does this mean for our homeless veterans?
		We are working to get housed.
		Americans should ask themselves: is it woke to fund cancer research or to rebuild an unsafe bridge?
		All of these critical priorities are funded by the grants the Trump administration would pause tonight.
		This illegal move is a massive, massive overreach by the Trump administration.
		The American people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos.
		So I am urging the Senate Budget Committee Chair, Lindsey Graham, a fellow appropriator, to hold Russ Votes nomination that was supposed to occur this Thursday.
		Republicans should not advance that nomination out of committee until the Trump administration follows the law.
unidentified		Democratic Senator Patty Murray yesterday on Capitol Hill.
		Again, that freeze was put on hold by a federal judge just before it was set to go into effect.
		It was 5 p.m. yesterday is when it was set to go into effect.
		Now on hold until early February.
		That's the latest where we are on that.
		We're also talking about the federal employee buyout offer that was sent to almost all federal employees yesterday and a special line this morning for federal employees.
		If you want to call in, 202-748-8003 is that number.
		This is Kerry in Illinois, Independent.
		Good morning.
		You're up next.
		Good morning.
		This president is out to just hurt people.
		Why would you want him?
		When Joe Biden became president, he enacted bills that would help America.
		This man is in the office to just hurt people, to destroy and disrupt their lives.
		He's not doing anything positive.
		He's just here to hurt us.
		So why, like the guy said, why would I give him a chance when he's trying to hurt my kids?
		He's trying to hurt my, he's trying to hurt my neighbors.
		He's trying to hurt America.
		He's offering, he's off, he offers nothing to us.
		Nothing but pain is what this man is offering.
		And you guys that believe in this president need to have an understanding that he's no good.
		He's there to hurt you.
		He's going to take away your benefits.
		He's going to take away everything and your rights.
		And you're not going to have anything.
		And to me, his grand scheme is to take the treasury.
		He wants to take the treasury of the United States and use the piggy bank for himself.
		And I wish you guys would stop believing in this man because this man doesn't believe in you.
		He believes in oligarchy.
		He's nothing but a wannabe tyrant, like Millie said.
		Why would you want to believe in a man that wants to be a wannabe dictator?
		That's Kerry in Illinois.
		Kerry, you mentioned at the start of the Biden administration, a look back on that from Stephen Dinan in the Washington Times.
		C-SPAN viewers familiar with reporter Stephen Dinan's work.
		He writes that President Trump's decision to hit pause on billions of dollars in federal spending spawned an avalanche of complaints from his opponents.
		But when President Biden did the same thing four years ago, halting all border wall construction, those same voices were silent or in many cases, actively cheering the move.
		The upshot was that Mr. Biden's pause was deemed to be legal so long as it was focused on making sure that the money was spent properly.
		But he was warned that an indefinite pause would cross the line into an illegal impoundment of congressionally approved spending.
		That would be the question for judges as legal challenges to Mr. Trump's actions make their way through the courts today.
		He quotes Philip Joyce, who studies budgeting issues and public policy at the University of Maryland, saying, it's okay for a president to say that there are more efficient ways for me to faithfully execute the laws, but it is not okay for a president to say that I'm going to execute this law or I'm not going to execute this law because I don't agree with it.
		And that's been the argument from members of Congress saying that this money was already approved by Congress, signed into law by previous President Joe Biden, that Congress controls the purse strings and that therefore Donald Trump could not stop these grants and loans that have already been funded.
		That's some of the legal arguments taking place right now.
		That's going to continue to play out in the days and weeks to come.
		We're getting your reaction to that and that federal employee buyout offer this morning on the Washington Journal.
		This is Robin in Maryland, Republican.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I think the greatest thing that happened was Trump getting reelected.
		I am 73 years old.
		I had to go back to work full-time last year because I was going through my life savings.
		The inflation was so horrible.
		The interest rates were horrible.
		I am so looking forward to not having to pay Social Security on my medic on my not having to pay taxes on my Social Security.
		Everybody who says Trump's only out for himself and the rich, what about not paying tax on tips?
		What about not paying tax on overtime?
		Trump is looking at how to help people like me, people that aren't rich.
		And as far as sending government employees back to work, I was a government contractor for 20 years.
		I did a lot of work for ICE and DHS and border protection.
		And I know there's a lot of really hardworking government employees that work from home or work from the office.
		But I know there's also an awful lot of government employees that are milking the system.
		And we've got a lot of empty desks in offices.
		I think it's great that they have to go back to work.
	I would like to see something so that they can occasionally work from home because when the plumbers come in, it's great that you can work and still have the plumber come.
	But I think Trump is making some great things.
	And keep in mind, he's already been to California.
	He's already been to North Carolina.
	He's looking out for all these people.
	So anybody who says he's only in for himself obviously has not been seeing what's going on.
	Thank you very much for taking my call.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To Texas, this is Charlie Democrat.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, I've got to say that this thing of saying that this is unique is nothing.
		They've done things like this in the private industry for years.
		You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if you cut jobs and you lay people off, you're going to start making more money.
		Company, private industry has done this for years, buyouts and all that stuff.
		It's nothing new.
		Trump is not the great businessman, and neither is people he's hired to run that particular office.
		Thank you for listening.
		Appreciate it.
		Federal employees, this is John in Syracuse, New York, Independent.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yes.
		If they furlough or want these federal employees to resign, it will devastate the VA Medical Center system.
		As it is, they're short employees now.
		So it would be a grave mistake to have this buyout.
		And he's asking them to resign.
		And when you retire from any federal job, I retired from the VA.
		You have to go through a process where it takes about three months for you to actually get your first federal pension check.
		So it's a process that you have to go through.
		If you don't resign, you retire.
		There's a group of people that will then calculate how much you will get, and then you wait for that to come.
		And it would devastate the VA Medical Center system.
		They have enough problems that is now with care in the community.
		They don't need this to have people furloughed or resign and then collect their paycheck for seven months.
		You have somebody who's the GS 13th making $90,000 a year.
		You're going to have them sit home for seven months.
		No, big, big mistake.
		Big, big mistake.
		You know, if you want to retire, or they want to give you a package for those who have a lot of years in with longevity, and they say to them, you know, average retirement age is, well, say, 55.
		You know, we'll let you go out at 53 or 50.
		Okay, but to tell these people that you can just leave, it'll devastate the VA system.
		It's a bad idea.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is that where you worked when you were in the federal government?
unidentified		I did.
		I worked for the VA.
		The VA, the largest in terms of employees, federal agency, some half a million employees as compared to the smallest agency, the Department of Education, which is a couple thousand.
		Right.
		And we're helping, you know, and nothing against the Department of Education.
		I mean, they have, you know, they have a certain duty that they have to do.
		But we're helping vets.
		We're helping people who answer to the call of the colors here.
		And there's a huge mental health issue in the United States.
		And these vets are coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder.
		And to start telling people that they can just, you know, take a buyout package and all of these people even, and they didn't explain it.
		Is it going to be someone who has 15 to 20 years of service or is it 20 years and over you can leave?
		And are you near that retirement age?
		And if you're near that retirement age, well, then, okay, that's a possibility.
		But to come out with this blank statement that everybody can do.
		The reported details is that it's offered to almost everybody.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is from the Wall Street Journal reporting.
unidentified		The program, which the White House calls deferred resignation, will be available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel, the U.S. Postal Service, and positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, according to the administration.
unidentified		The White House estimates that in-office requirements of people coming back to the office will prompt 5% to 10% of the federal employees to quit and could lead to $100 billion in savings or more.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's from the White House, from the Wall Street Journal today.
unidentified		Go ahead, John.
		Well, that's a big mistake.
		Again, we're talking the VA Medical Center.
		We're talking men and women who have served their country, who, again, who have answered to the call of the colors and have served their country, and they're coming back from the service, whether it's Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia.
		These men and women, you're going to deprive them.
		You're going to deplete the VA Medical Center's workforce.
		This is just, I mean, I know the VA is having some issues now, but this is absolutely ridiculous.
		John, thanks for that.
		Absolutely ridiculous.
		Thanks for the call from Syracuse, New York.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll stay in the Empire State.
unidentified		This is Eddie Independent.
		Good morning.
		Hi, Ian.
		I just want to say, I think Trump is doing a great job.
		He's been in office for eight days, and the Democrats are ready to explode.
		What he's doing is he canceled projects, DEI, transgender, all that.
		And did you see the money they were spending?
		They were getting ready to ship out $50 million for condoms for Gaza.
		That's crazy.
		All he's doing is taking the programs that he canceled and keeping the money.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Eddie in New York.
unidentified		This is Capitol Hill.
		Yesterday, John Thune, Senate Majority Leader, was asked about the federal aid freeze.
		Again, this was before the judge moved to block that freeze.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This was after yesterday's Senate lunches.
unidentified		Well, I think they are clarifying it, and I think this is not unusual for an administration to pause funding and to take a hard look and scrub of how these programs are being spent and how they interact with a lot of the executive orders that the president signed.
		And I think that's the main criteria they're using: does this implicate executive orders implicate funding in this particular way?
		They have taken certain things, I think, off the table.
		Some of you have asked specifically about programs, any program that directly benefits an individual, Medicaid, SNAP, those types of programs are unimpacted by this.
		What is impacted, obviously, is DEI, you know, the Green New Deal, things like that.
		And so, those are in direct contradiction with the EOs the president signed earlier this week.
		So, they're providing the Green New Deal involved major infrastructure.
		And they're providing additional clarity and guidance on that.
		And hopefully, they will further clarify what exactly will be impacted by this.
		But I don't think it's unusual for an administration to pause.
		John Thune yesterday on Capitol Hill, and again, Marco Rubio at the State Department saying that the pause will not include life-saving help for foreign aid, making that announcement yesterday.
		The Secretary of State putting out that memo to his department.
		And again, we are going to see what happens with this pause because a federal judge has now stepped in here.
		This is Don in Michigan.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Ceasefans.
		Good morning to the American people.
		Donald Trump has now shown us that he's going to be a tyrant and he's going to be a dictator.
		And a lot of people voted for this.
		So I did not vote for him.
		I was a critic of him his whole four years because he's a crook and a criminal.
		But America got the president we deserve.
		So I'm just going to sit back for the next four years.
		We'll go to Tim in Michigan, Republican.
		Good morning.
		Hey, good morning, John.
		Hey, I'm wondering if this is going to be like this for the next four years.
		We really didn't talk about Joe Biden in his four years of being president.
		You kind of did, but kind of lost a lot of stuff.
		And in the first week of Donald Trump's presidency, we've got bashing going already.
		It's amazing because you've had four years of bashing Trump when Joe Biden was in office.
		Are we going to get another four years of bashing Donald Trump so the country stays in total turmoil?
		And the things that Mr. Trump's trying to get done, it just blows my mind to think that we're going to ever get any better in this country if we just keep bashing one person.
		They have, what, 400 and some odd people in Congress, and they are supposed to do the work of the states.
		The states are supposed to take care of themselves.
		We put all our energy to one man and it just blows my mind because that's a lack of responsibility for everybody in the government.
		I mean, including the workers.
		The workers, they don't take responsibility for their actions or the results that they produce or any of that.
		So we just destroy this one guy who's trying to love this country.
		It totally blows my mind to think that this is going on for another 40 years.
		Have a good day, John.
		We'll talk to you later.
		That's Tim in Michigan to that line for federal employees.
		This is Ray in Colorado.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		How are you this morning?
		Doing well.
		Go ahead.
		So I was a career employee for a bit over 10 years, and I received outstanding ratings in the last couple of years.
		But last year, I accepted a Schedule A accepted service position as a person with a disability.
		Now, the OPM memo, I know they reference accepted employees who have not yet completed their two years.
		And I'm also aware of the executive order dated January 21, keeping Americans safe in aviation.
		And the order makes reference to hiring on the basis of disability as part of diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring.
		If I may, I'd like to read a part of Section 501B of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
		May I go ahead and quote from it?
		Sure, Ray, but keep it short and get me to what you want to say.
		Sure.
		It says in part, each department shall, let's see, each department shall submit an affirmative action plan for the hiring, placement, and advancement of individuals with disabilities in such department, agency, instrumentality, or institution.
		Basically, the Trump administration is going to have a fight on its hands, particularly with that executive order going after disability hiring within the FAA.
		Thanks for taking my poem.
		And, Ray, are you with the FAA?
		I am not.
		Ray, do you think that there will be lots of federal employees taking this buyout offer that we heard about yesterday?
		I don't know.
		There will be a lot.
		I don't know how.
		I don't know the exact number.
		I can tell you one thing.
		I'm not going to take it.
		And that is what you're telling your coworkers to that would be your advice?
		Well, I don't think it would be in my place to advise others.
		Each individual employee situation is different.
		But taking everything into consideration, I myself will not be accepting the buyout.
		What's Ray in Colorado?
		This is Andrew on Staten Island, Independent.
		Good morning.
		Hi.
		Hi.
	Good morning.
	And I've been calling or had them call here for a while.
	But when I called, I warned you guys before that this must be fascism meets the lost cause.
	Trump does not run this country by himself.
	He does not run the office by himself.
	He surrounds himself with different individuals that advise him.
	If you study those advisors, you will see exactly their philosophy and you will see that it meshes with fascism and the so-called lost cause.
	Now.
	So, Andrew, what do you think about the buyout offer and the freezes on government grants and loans, that effort?
	But that's part of the same thing.
	You put individuals out there trying to get individuals to work for nothing.
	You want to take away their pensions.
	You want to take away their health care.
	All of this has been planned.
	Look at 2025.
	Nobody read those documents.
	And now that it's coming back to rear its head, people are going to be complaining, especially those who voted for Donald J. Trump.
	Have a nice day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Back to that line for federal employees.
unidentified		This is Josh in Washington, D.C. Josh, go ahead.
		Yeah, this buyout is going to create a lot of confusion.
		And I know there'll be some percentage of federal employees who won't read the fine print and take the buyout, and they will find out that this is a bad deal.
		But, you know, I think that makes it a bad deal, Josh.
		Well, I think if you've been a career employee for that long, 20-plus years or 25 years, I think you should just put in your retirement package.
		I don't, this is deferred resignation.
		When you resign before your time is up, you know, you can't really collect your retirement until you're age 62.
		So it may be fine for a few months, but, you know, if you've been a federal and career employee for that long, you should really, and if you're close to, if you're over 25 years, you should really put in your retirement.
		I'll take this buyout.
		And you know what?
		It's not a big deal.
		If they're asking to come back to work, go back to work.
		Just because of the comfort, you don't want to give up the comfort of working from home.
		You're going to take this deal.
		I think it's a total, I think this has been done to create a lot of confusion.
		How often do you work from home as a federal employee?
		Listen, I like to go to the office one day a week, which is not even a big deal for me.
		I'd be glad to go back to the office five days a week if I have to.
		I don't know when Americans forget that for a job, you need to show up to work.
		Josh, how soon do you think you will be back in the office five days a week?
		Hey, I'm going to ask as early as next week.
		For me, it's not a big deal because I never really relied on telework.
		I always like to go to the office.
		So, you know, I think people have just gotten too comfortable.
		They're teleworking three days a week, and they want the locality pay too.
		By the way, a bill has been introduced by Joni Erst that if you don't return to the office and work from home, they're going to take out your locality pay if that bill goes through.
		And the locality pay for a federal employee's salary is a big part of that salary.
		If they take that out, you really will practically not even make anything.
		And I think for D.C., it's 25%.
		So if I was a federal employee, I would give up the stupid telework and keep my locality pay and get back to the office like normal folks do and get the job done.
		Josh, before you go, do you mind saying what department you work in?
		I actually work in the foreign military sales area, Navy International Programs Office.
		Gotcha.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Josh, thanks for the call here in D.C.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Michelle, also in D.C., Democrat.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I just have a comment.
		I want to say President Musk is so smart.
		He's getting Donald Trump to take all the funding Away from Americans that will help Americans to give it to himself, to give it to Elon Musk, to support him and his little toys, his little Teslas, his SpaceX.
		That is where that money is going to.
		Wake up, people.
		Wake up.
		To the Tar Heel State.
		This is Anna Republican.
		Good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Good morning.
		I want you to know that I am so proud of Donald Trump because I'm going to cry, but this past week, you would not believe all of the dump trucks and the workers that showed up in western North Carolina to clean up our communities.
		I was just in awe that I can't believe that Biden didn't do this.
		I don't understand why it didn't happen.
		Whereabouts in North Carolina are you, Anna?
		Well, I'm in, my kids live in western North Carolina, up around the Boone area.
		But my friends, they all live up around Lake Lore, Suananoa, Chimney Rock, all in those little communities that have just been devastated.
		And I want you to know I've never seen anything like it.
		And we have the Amish people up there.
		They're building these homes.
		And you can't imagine building these tiny homes for these people.
		But that's one thing that I wanted to say.
		But God bless him.
		Thank you, Lord.
		But I know so many people that have died up there and froze to death this winter.
		It's just, it will make you sick.
		But the reason why Trump is doing the pause on all of this spending is because there's so much waste.
		When I heard all that money going to Gaza for condoms, John, that blew my mind.
		And we actually know it's not for that.
		And I also heard that about the wealthy people in, I'm not bashing the war between Ukraine and Russia, but these individuals that are in the office in Ukraine, they're billionaires now.
		And I don't understand it.
		And if somebody could please explain when Biden was in office, what was everybody talking about?
		It was to secure their pensions in their military or whatever that was.
		I'm very confused.
		All right, that's Anna.
		This is Steve in Ormond Beach, Florida, Independent.
		Good morning.
		Yes, good morning.
		I was a Republican many years.
		I became independent.
		You know, I voted Barack Obama twice.
		Donald Trump, you know, I didn't care for him in the beginning.
		I didn't care for Hillary.
		I didn't vote for either one of them.
		I put my own name in.
		Donald Trump kept us out of wars his first term.
		Donald Trump has helped me as an American citizen and helped me as a military veteran.
		I'm an Air Force veteran.
		I was in the VA clinic.
		I had a $250,000 bill, you know, going to the hospital and things like that.
		And Donald Trump helped the VA hospitals so much.
		Biden, it's been ridiculous the past four years.
		I'm hoping Trump does good again with the VA hospitals because they've been understaffed.
		It's been crazy.
		But anyway, what I want to say is...
		Are you worried, Steve, about staffing of VA hospitals?
		It's the biggest federal agency amid an effort to offer buyouts to the entire federal workforce, save the Postal Service, military, some national security jobs.
		Not at all, because Trump is going to get everything at a level, and then he's going to start putting people back in.
		Trump has always been a winner.
		Trump is always, you know, they continue attacking him all the time.
		You know, with the wars, though, again, we were close to World War III.
	You know, people don't forget, people forget where Biden had us.
	Trump is going to get us out of wars again.
	That's the number one thing.
	And with the immigration, you know, people forget about the 350,000 children that the Democrats lost, you know, and all the, you know, it's ridiculous, all the murders and rapes and crimes.
	People need to come here legally.
	All right, that's Steve.
	This is Gary Indiana Online for Federal Workers.
	Imogene, good morning.
	Good morning, John.
	First time call.
	I've been looking at you all since day one of this C-Span.
	But I'm a retired postal worker, and I took a buyout in 1992.
	And I'm just telling you, the one thing that they talk, don't talk about in this offer, if these people take what he offers, the major thing they're going to lose is their right to continue in federal employee health benefits.
	Because when you resign, you don't take your health benefits with you.
	And just a little, the main thing, the most important thing to all workers now is their health benefits.
	So they shouldn't take this.
	This is a baiting switch.
	They shouldn't take it.
	It's Imogene in Indiana.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Roxanne, Greensboro, North Carolina.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		It's Roxanna.
		And I just wanted to make several comments.
		I'm a retired government employee, and I'm a first-time caller, so I'm a little bit nervous here.
		But I worked for an agency called North Carolina Extension Service, Cooperative Extension Service.
		I worked for 16 years there.
		And I also worked in, had transferred to an office, which was a USDA office, that's the United States Department of Ag, with Soil Conservation Service.
		And I got county benefits and also state benefits.
		So I first want to say that the government, it's very complicated.
		It's very vast.
		There's so many wonderful, hardworking people that have worked there, you know, career work there for many, many years.
		And so what I see happening that if they go in with the USDA and have trouble there and start doing with the farm bill and things like that and mess with the Department of Agriculture, they could wipe out whole agencies.
		And also, I worked, one little thing I wanted to clarify that Anna said two calls back that Joe Biden didn't do anything.
		I have to say Roy Cooper and Joe Biden and they had FEMA right on the ball at Western North Carolina up near Asheville and all that terrible.
		It's devastated what happened to them.
		I live in the central part of North Carolina in Greensboro.
		We were very lucky here, but they have had devastation.
		I can tell you that Roy Cooper and the state and Joe Biden, they went all out.
		It was so devastated and catastrophic that you cannot, I mean, I understand how those people feel that they felt like nothing was, they were, that nothing was done for them, but it was so vast and so much damage that people couldn't even get in there.
		FEMA couldn't even get her there to try to help those people.
		So Anna, I mean, I know she's proud of what Trump did with the dump drugs.
		I guess that's great if that's what he did.
		But I also saw him hand out his MAGA hats, and people think that he's going to snap his fingers and everything's going to be all right.
		But you can tell I didn't vote for Donald Trump.
		And the second thing I'd like to say, I also worked for an agency.
		I'm 79 years old.
		I worked till I was 77.
		I retired when I was 52 years old.
		Had over almost 30 years of government work.
		I worked in different parts of the agencies, but then I went back to an agency that's nonprofit.
		And it's here in Greensboro that helps senior citizens.
		They get mobile meals.
		They would be affected by this.
		So I think, and also somebody else would be affected.
		I have a son who has a disability.
		He has schizophrenia.
		He's not able to work.
		And he goes to an agency that is a nonprofit that helps people who have severe mental illnesses, you know, get back on their feet in some form or way if they can work or whatever.
		This is a vast, vast undertaking that they're going to do.
		If they go into Medicaid, people don't understand that many seniors that are sitting in nursing homes all over this country are on Medicaid.
		So I just want to say that.
		Thank you for this opportunity.
		And I want people to truly quit turning off maybe stations that they are tuned to that do not give the truth.
		There is so much detail and things that are happening nowadays at fast pace.
		Just try to understand the old networks, the old networks that have been true and tried-you know, CBS, NBC, ABC.
		If you don't believe cable shows or whatever, try to get away from all this junk that's on the internet that's not telling you the truth.
		You know, they've told so much things about Donald Trump.
		Go get a book at the library and read about Donald Trump.
		And Roxanna.
		He is not.
		Go ahead.
		It's just.
		Finish your thought, but I'm running short on time here.
		Okay, I'm just saying, just inform yourself about what's going on.
		Thank you for the opportunity.
		And Roxanne, I think you said it was your first time calling.
		You can call in once every 30 days down the road.
		Hope you call in again here on the Washington Journal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's going to do it for this first hour of our program today.
unidentified		But stick around.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		A lot more to talk about, including a conversation next about the role of faith leaders in politics today.
unidentified		And later, we will discuss the Justice Department and changes in the judiciary.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Lots to talk about this morning on The Washington Journal.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		In his latest book titled Wasteland, author Robert Kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future.
		Kaplan, author of 24 books, holds the chair in geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Institute.
		In the chapter number three, in his 177-page book, Kaplan claims: Civilization is now in flux.
		The ongoing decay of the West is manifested not only in racial tensions coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, the erosion of grammar, the decline in sales of serious books, and classical music, and so on, all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization.
unidentified		Author Robert Kaplan talks about his book, Wasteland: A World in Permanent Crisis, on this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
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		Washington Journal continues.
		A focus now on the role of faith leaders when it comes to politics and public policy.
		The Reverend Paul Brandeis Roshan Bush is our guest.
		He's president and CEO of the Interfaith Alliance, an organization whose mission is what, Reverend?
		To bring people together across lines of difference in order to make our democracy work for everyone.
		And we believe in civil rights as well as religious freedom and believe those two things can go together.
		We're a 30-year-old organization started actually in response to a moment similar to this one where there was an outsized influence of the Christian coalition and one idea of what religion should be in America.
		And so we decided actually the mainstream religious viewpoints were not being heard by policymakers.
		So we were bringing people together from across the spectrum in order to offer a more mainstream, moderate, but pluralistic the idea of a multi-religious democracy where everybody's rights matter.
		So that's what we've been doing for 30 years.
		And actually, we were kind of made for this moment when we have a crisis in our country around democracy and the role that faith is playing.
		And so we were kind of preparing for this moment.
		We've been preparing for the last year, expecting this moment with Project 2025.
		It is here.
		We are ready.
		And we are finding across the country people are showing up in important ways in this moment.
		And we need to show up to preserve our democracy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Be more specific.
unidentified		What is the moment we're in for faith leaders?
		We're in a backsliding from democracy.
		We are also in a moment where there are a few religious people, a minority, an extreme minority, who are Christian nationalists who want to impose a kind of radical ideology on the rest of the nation.
		They're using the levers of government and power in order to do that.
		And so we're seeing this.
		You know, the entire last week of this administration has laid that very clear that all of Project 2025 with its underpinning of Christian nationalism has been, you know, we've seen every day it's been coming out.
		And so what we're also seeing are religious leaders from across the spectrum saying, no, this is not what we want for our country.
		And they're coming together and they're showing up and standing up and saying, no, we have another way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Define the term Christian nationalism.
unidentified		Christian nationalism is a quest for power.
		It's the idea that some people belong more than others in this country, namely white Protestant Christians.
		It has a long history, but it's the idea that we are, you know, we insist on being a Christian nation, and so some people have more privilege than others.
		And it goes completely against the Constitution, which actually says there is no established religion.
		So everybody from any different faith tradition or any different belief should have equal rights and equal say in how we the people will govern and how you know, e pluribus unum all of us matter and not one tradition.
		So, and you're seeing right now a Christian nationalist viewpoint, which is really running the show.
		Led by who specifically?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Who are the faith leaders you're referring to?
unidentified		There are faith leaders across the country, but it's also the problem is it's actually religious leaders who are religious leaders, but also government leaders, elected officials, like people like Ron DeSantis, who will use the Bible, talking about Ephesians, and say, you know, we're putting on our armor of God against the left, when actually in the Bible it says the devil.
		And they're using religion in order to create controversy, to create a zero-sum game that we can't compromise because God has anointed, you know, the right now.
		There's a whole swath of people out there who believe God has anointed President Trump to do this.
		That's a terrible idea and very anti-American.
		It's we the people who elect.
		He won an election.
		That does not mean that God anointed his policies.
		And so anybody who stands up at this point and says, no, this doesn't reflect our ideals is now, we're in the position of saying, no, we're not anti-God.
		We're actually pro-America and we're pro-religious diversity in America.
		And that if we lose that, if we lose that idea that this is a country for everyone, not just for some who wield power, we're losing an essential idea of America, which is everyone belongs.
		Everyone deserves a chance to thrive here.
		Everyone has dignity and purpose and should play a part in our democracy.
		And that's what we're at risk of losing right now.
		And we've seen this incredible onslaught in the last week.
		We were preparing for this moment because we saw the playbook in Project 2025.
		We saw the Christian nationalist underpinnings of it.
		And now we're seeing it played out in every executive order in every different way.
		Interfaithalliance.org is the website if people want to check it out.
		Here's one headline from this past week on Pete Hegseth as the chairman of, or as the head of the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, stop Pete Hegseth from bringing Christian nationalism to the Pentagon.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How is Pete Hegseth going to bring Christian nationalism to the Pentagon?
unidentified		Pete Hegseth is an open admirer of the Crusades, which is by all Christian, most Christian, like mainstream Christian idea.
		The Crusades were not great in a holy war against Muslim communities in an effort of Christian supremacy.
		He has tattoos that are Christian nationalist tattoos that are very dangerous.
		And now he has control of our Defense Department.
		It's very dangerous.
		We have to keep very close look on this.
		And people recognize not only his personal moral challenges around misogyny and violence and alcohol, but he also has serious, terrible viewpoints on the role that Christianity should play in this country, but also in how we approach the wider world.
		And so we've already seen it.
		He's stripped from former four-star generals just today.
		He stripped their security.
		I mean, it's a vengeance.
		We have had many transitions and many, you know, many presidents come and go.
		We have had different kinds of leadership.
		Elections have consequences.
		This is not normal, what we've seen this week.
		And we have to, I think it's really important that we say that and that we have clarity and that people are being completely targeted by this new administration.
		And religious leaders of all people have to see clearly, have to speak truth, and also have to show up alongside those who are being targeted right now.
		The Reverend Paul Brandeis Rauschenbush is our guest, president and CEO of the Interfaith Alliance.
		Phone lines, as usual, in this segment, if you want to join the conversation.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
unidentified		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		What's your background?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are you the Reverend of a specific church?
unidentified		I have served churches.
		I'm a Baptist minister.
		I'm also from an interfaith family, as my name indicates.
		My great-grandfather was Louis Brandeis, the Supreme Court justice, who was the first Jewish Supreme Court justice of the country.
		And his daughter married my grandfather, who was the son of Walter Rauschenbush, an important theologian also who was part of something called the social gospel, which meant that the gospel and what we do in our lives, it's not just about our relationship to God.
		It's also about a relationship to one another.
		We can't love God without loving our neighbor in a radical, completely, complete way.
		And that's what's being called upon today from faith leaders.
		And we are seeing a lot of agreement.
		I mean, you're looking at ICE attacking churches right now.
		And so we signed up, we were right there.
		We showed up with our Quaker sisters and brothers saying, you know, who filed a lawsuit.
		And we thought that was very important.
		You saw AIDS.
		He's allowing ICE officials to go into, to desecrate houses of worship.
		And houses of worship who have every right to express their solidarity with immigrants and who are worshiping there.
		It's a terrible abrogation of religious freedom.
		And so you're seeing 85 Jewish organizations who are also calling out that.
		The Catholic bishops have called this out.
		This is broad refutation of what Trump is trying to do from religious leadership.
		What is really important to recognize is that the Trump administration does not have a mandate to do the radical things they are doing, the targeting of communities, whether that's LGBTQ people, which religious communities overwhelmingly support equality for LGBTQ people.
		That is well-documented polling.
		Same with abortion rights, same with immigration, same with opposing book bans.
		So the policies that the Trump administration are putting forward are extremely unpopular, and they represent a radical, extreme idea of what this country should be that privileges the few over against the many.
		Let me let you chat with some callers.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We have plenty already in Wilson, North Carolina.
unidentified		James is up first line for Democrats.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Reverend.
		Good morning.
		How are you doing this morning?
		Just want to say good morning to you and bless you.
		I'm glad to see somebody I don't like you.
		This is what we need.
		And you are.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You still with us, James?
unidentified		I said, yeah, I'm glad to see you on this morning.
		We're going to go like this here.
		From Timothy 1, 2, and 3.
		Time of trouble.
		We're in time of trouble now.
		Nobody wants to read the Bible.
		I'm a type of guy that loves Sunday school and church.
		And I always communicate, and I just love God.
		I didn't go for Obama didn't give me nothing.
		Bush didn't give me nothing.
		And Trump not going to give me nothing.
		I get all mine from God.
		I'm blessed out of the help of God.
		God give me help.
		I'm 84 years old.
		And people see me, they think I'm 60.
		Yes, God, what God give me.
		And for real, keep the word up and go out and keep preaching to everybody.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Reference.
unidentified		Can I respond?
		Is that okay?
		I really appreciate that.
		And what we've also seen is that right now, politics is, we're in D.C. right now.
		You and I are speaking in D.C.
		A lot is happening here.
		I would say it's equally important what is happening to the states.
		Interfaith Alliance has affiliates across the country, Iowa, Wyoming, Florida, in Colorado, all sorts of states.
		And they are seeing the manifestations of this radicality and the divisions and the vitriol coming home in their local community.
		So what we need is folks who are 84 but feel and look 60 to show up in their local community and say, actually, we want to be a place where everyone belongs.
		And the attack on, for instance, DEI and on civil rights and just the sense of the rolling back of what is the vision for this multiracial, multi-religious, pluralistic society where everyone belongs.
		That's what we need to get back to.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When you say show up, what are you asking for?
unidentified		So, for instance, our local affiliates are showing up in places where people are coming in well-organized, well-funded from the outside, coming into school boards and saying, we're going to take off this book off the shelf, this book off the shelf, this book off the shelf.
		Often people of color, often LGBTQ people, sometimes also Jewish characters, Muslim characters.
		They are basically erasing entire stories in the name of protecting the children.
		They are not protecting their children.
		They are protecting an understanding of who belongs in America, and they're using their attacks on libraries and librarians in order to fulfill that.
		So what our folks across the country are doing in local affiliates, and I want to encourage everybody, if you are interested in joining us, we would welcome you as a member of Interfaith Alliance is to show up at school board meetings, show up at library meetings and saying, no, we want everybody to belong in our community.
		We want everybody's stories to be there side by side.
		And this is not a radical idea.
		This is what America means to us.
		So people think, oh, that's politics.
		You're bringing politics.
		We're not bringing politics into it.
		We are sharing a vision.
		And one of the great American prophets, American contributions to the world is Martin Luther King Jr., who talked about the beloved community.
		And what we believe is that everyone has a place in the beloved community.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Did Bishop Mary Ann Buddy here in Washington, D.C. at the National Prayer Service the day after the inauguration, did she bring politics to the pulpit when she spoke directly to Donald Trump in her sermon?
unidentified		No, she brought the gospel.
		She did not bring politics.
		This is really important to clarify.
		She brought a deeply biblical understanding of what was called in that moment.
		And she used like very religious spiritual ideas of mercy, of love, of unity.
		If you listen to the whole sermon, it's about unity and how we can create unity.
		And one of the ways we create unity is being honest and truthful.
		She didn't bring politics in there.
		She spoke directly to the president, which was amazing.
		It was actually the most important moment in the whole inauguration and probably the most played clip in the whole inauguration, frankly, because it was a moment when she said, Please, I ask you, as one American to one another and as one person of faith to one another, have mercy.
		And people are saying that was some sort of radical abrogation of this line between religion and policy.
		That was pure gospel.
		She was preaching the gospel.
		And she was saying, have mercy.
		And she mentioned LGBTQ people.
		And if you are not aware of the fear within the LGBTQ people and the way this administration is targeting trans people and making them feel unsafe, unwell in their communities, you're not speaking the whole truth.
		And so what she did, she said, she said, please have mercy.
		And if that offends you, you have to go back and look at the gospel and look at what Jesus said about welcoming the immigrant in Matthew 25 and say, when you welcome the immigrant, when you welcome the stranger in your land, you're welcoming me.
		And that's a test when you enter.
		And when you're trying to enter heaven, Jesus is going to ask you how you treated the immigrant.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Back to the phones.
		This is Shirley in Pennsylvania, Line for Republicans.
		Good morning.
		You're on with the Reverend Paul Brandeis, Roshan Bush.
unidentified		Good morning to anyone who's listening.
		I want to say this much, that God asked us to love him first and to love everybody.
		And Satan has come in and just disrupted anything.
		The Bible tells us that God raises up kings and leaders, whether we think they're good or they're not good.
		God put them there for a reason.
		And we are going and listening to Satan.
		He is trying to take America down.
		He's trying to take Israel down.
		We have to love God.
		And please, in Romans 13, it tells us about government and what government is supposed to be doing.
		And we are not going there.
		We are not listening to this.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Shirley, what do you think government should be doing?
unidentified		I don't think anything about government should be doing, but they need to respect God and what he wants us to do, not go against what he wants, love of people.
unidentified		But also, don't forget that Satan is doing just the opposite, and people are listening to Satan.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Got your point.
		That's Shirley.
		Anything you want to add to that?
unidentified		I couldn't agree more.
		We have to love our neighbor.
		But we have to really discuss what love means, which is not condemning, which is not attacking, which is not inspiring violence against.
		What does love our neighbor means?
		It means walking with them and saying, how are you?
		Can I ask you what you're feeling?
		What is your experience?
		And that we are in a diverse country.
		That is our glory, is our diversity.
		But it requires that we ask real questions.
		How are you feeling?
		What is this moment for you?
		How can I love you in the way you need to be loved?
		And if we can do that, we can develop policies around that.
		The worry I have with the last caller is the use of Satan to describe anyone we disagree with.
		And that is, you know, that's terrible because really, once you describe a political opponent as Satan, which has become part of the rhetoric of our political, you know, unfortunately, politicians are doing that more and more.
		Again, it's a zero-sum game.
		You know, and so part of what we need to recognize that is so egregious about the pardoning of January 6th violent offenders is much of the background of January 6th was Christian nationalism and this idea.
		And the last caller alluded to it potentially is that God raised up Trump.
		And so that anyone who opposes Trump is opposed to God.
		And so a lot of the impetus for January 6th was this idea in 2020.
		He can't have lost because he's anointed by God.
		That's documented.
		Like they have said that.
		January 5th, there were prayer circles saying God anointed him.
		He can't have lost.
		And so in January 6th, they attacked the Capitol.
		And the moment you start to bring that kind of rhetoric into a democracy, you're in real trouble.
		And that's the moment we're in right now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike in Logansport, Tennessee, Independent.
		Good morning.
		You are next.
unidentified		Tennessee or Indiana, one of the two.
unidentified		Oh, go ahead.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Sorry about that, Mike.
unidentified		No problem.
		I just wanted to call and make some clarifications in regards to what Christianity means anymore.
		So the cause of Israel is not the cause of Jesus Christ.
		The cause of a political radicalized segment of America is not the cause of Jesus Christ.
		The cause of Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, in my opinion, aren't the cause of Jesus Christ.
		We are called to love and accept all those, but not include them in the realm of Jesus Christ.
		And I think that might be the fundamental difference in what's being discussed is how we go about making change in our world.
		So the cause of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a kingdom of peace.
		The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
		So it's not about including those into the realm necessarily.
		It's about showing the way so that others are willing to join.
		I just would leave with a question, to what extent has Christianity been perverted by political movements such as Zionism or Christian nationalism?
		And even that term is ironic because Christian nationalism, as it's described, really doesn't have much to do with Christianity.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mike in Indiana.
unidentified		I think Mike is making a really good point.
		And I really appreciate that.
		How do we really go deep into our faith, understand that that is our commitment, and really focus our lives about our commitment to Jesus Christ?
		I appreciate that.
		It always does have political implications because somehow we live in community.
		We live in, none of us are isolated alone in the corner.
		We're all around one another.
		And I think here's the real point.
		I want Christians, like myself, to express their full Christianity and many things we're going to disagree about.
		Like, you don't have to, like, you know, I would love for you to accept all LGBTQ people.
		You don't have to.
		If you personally don't embrace that, people.
		But recognize that there are other people who do and other faith traditions that also do.
		And everyone has a right to live freely, to love, to pray, and to be who they are called to be in America.
		That's an American ideal.
		And so we have to figure out how we can recognize diversity of opinion.
		Like, for instance, with abortion, abortion is a big question right now, and it's about to become a bigger question because there will be a push to create a national abortion ban.
		I believe that.
		But I would go to the mat for someone who said, please don't make me have an abortion.
		Like, I would go to the mat for someone.
		I would never want anybody to have an abortion who did not want an abortion.
		We've seen that in other countries.
		That's a terrible thing.
		But recognize that for many faith traditions, in fact, the majority of faithful people in America, abortion is not in conflict with their faith.
		Jewish groups are very particular about this, saying that is not our understanding of our faith.
		And you're imposing an idea of what faith should be on us.
		And so what we need to understand is that we are in a pluralistic society where people are going to make different choices about their life, but loving one another, loving our neighbor, does involve a certain amount of allowing for people to live their lives and not hurt other people.
		And what we're seeing is that people are, and the Trump administration is hurting other people, specifically people who are vulnerable.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The Reverend Paul Brandeis Rosh and Bush with us until 8.45 this morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So about another 20 minutes, if you want to keep calling in, phone lines as usual, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
unidentified		This is Janie in Scottsdale, Arizona.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You are next.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		For a Reverend, you are very hateful and full of hate.
		Like you spew nonsense.
		And I've never been, I've been into mosques.
		I grew up in Dearborn, Michigan.
		I mean, I've been around every kind of faith person there is, have friends of every kind of faith.
		But I've never in my life heard a Reverend speak like you.
		You are just like, you sound like a CNN commentator.
		That's how bad you sound.
		And I don't know who you're trying to like win over.
		Obviously, it may be a few people that I've heard call in that think you sound like, oh, you're leading the charge against Donald Trump.
		I mean, it's just ridiculous.
		You sound ridiculous.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Reverend Brandeis Roshanbush, give you a chance to respond.
unidentified		I'm sorry if it comes off hateful.
		And I would hate to think that I am being hateful.
		And I really don't hate anybody.
		I'm really trying to love people as best I can.
		And so I'm saying that directly to you, ma'am.
		I do think it's important to recognize that this is kind of what we saw against Marion Buddy, Bishop Buddy, who I know, who is not a radical, but she said something truthful from her tradition to Donald Trump.
		And people said, oh, it's full of hate.
		If you listen to that, asking for mercy is not full of hate.
		And for people, you know, here's a really important idea.
		There are many traditions of Christianity that some people just, you know, the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., there's a broad tradition of Christianity in America, which is my tradition, which I am speaking out of.
		And so I'm not speaking hate.
		And what I am speaking is out of my truth as a reverend who comes out of an important tradition in American religious life.
		And so I reject the idea that because I'm speaking my truth, I'm speaking hate.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned the reaction to Bishop Buddy and her sermon and her speaking directly to Donald Trump.
		This is from Piers Morgan Uncensored.
		This was last week.
		The Reverend Franklin Graham, who we heard at the inauguration ceremony at the beginning of that ceremony, he was being interviewed by Piers Morgan.
unidentified		This is about a minute and a half.
franklin graham ▲ ● ▼		Well, she was completely wrong to do that.
		She was mixing the LGBTQ plus agenda along with the immigrants.
		And because the president talks about having a new policy of just, as far as the government, just two genders, male and female, for that somehow the LGBTQ community is going to be maligned some way.
		And that's not true.
		Like she said they're going to feel unsafe.
		Why?
		Nothing's changed.
		They still have their freedoms and their rights as we all do.
		Just because the government's only going to recognize male and female.
		So she was wrong on that.
		And then to talk about having compassion, the problems that we have with the border go to Biden.
		You have to lay those at his feet.
		And you've had a policy that welcomed people to come from around the world.
		And if you can just somehow get to the southern border, you can cross at great risk to yourself and come to America.
		And so we saw millions of people come to the United States, going through Venezuela, places like that, going through the Darien Gap, through Panama, all the way through Mexico, walking, people being raped, people being murdered.
		And then if you made it to the border, you had to swim, you know, go across barbed wire and things like that to get into America.
		That put people at great risk.
		So you talk about compassion.
		We need a system to go back to where people can come into this country legally, where they can apply.
		And like Melania Trump, her family came in legally.
		And so we just need to go back to that.
		But there's nothing wrong with it.
		We need immigrants.
		We need people to come, but not illegally.
		And they don't need to come in a way that puts their family and their loved ones at great danger.
		And that's what's happened these last four years.
unidentified		Reverend Rashan Bush, that's some of the reaction that you were talking about.
		I want to give you a chance to respond to it.
		You know, he's using his pulpit right now to say something about how he feels about what Bishop Buddy said.
		Bishop Buddy was in the cathedral, the National Cathedral.
		She is the bishop of the National Cathedral.
		It was her pulpit.
		She was speaking the gospel.
		I will respond to the idea that none of the policies that Trump has proposed are hurting trans people.
		They actually are.
		And there is like now a restriction of people being able to have gender-affirming drugs and surgery.
		I think I want to say one thing about the trans community, because I think it's really important.
		We should recognize that the Republican Party spent something like $280 million in the campaign maligning the trans community, attacking a small percentage of American population who are trying to live their lives as they want to live it.
		I know parents of trans children who have had to move away from their state because they could not provide the care for their children that their children required.
		This is government saying, we don't want you to love your child.
		We're going to tell you how to love your child.
		This is overreach of government.
		And it is the idea that Trump has already, last night he signed an order about trans people and attacking trans people.
		Trans people are feeling unsafe for Franklin Graham, who actually does not love the LGBTQ community and who has said terrible things about the Muslim community and other things.
		Let me say, Franklin Graham is no Billy Graham.
		And for him to pretend like what Donald Trump is doing is not harming immigrant communities, immigrant families, immigrant individuals, and trans people is completely, you know, he's creating a web.
		But I would listen to the Catholic bishops.
		I would listen to the 85 Jewish groups.
		I would listen to the Quakers and the many, many religious groups who are showing up in support of immigrant communities as well as trans people and saying, actually, Mary and Buddy, in asking for mercy, in asking, please consider the hurt that your policies are about to impose on communities, was doing what she believed is the gospel.
		And we talk, you know, a lot of times conservatives use the term religious freedom, but it's always religious freedom for me, not for thee.
		And so let's go back to the idea that everyone deserves religious freedom from whatever tradition you're in, including people who are at here, the growing many, many people in America who are not religious, but who deserve every bit of freedom to live their life as any religious person.
		Executive order for viewers who may have missed it last night.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is the New York Times reporting.
unidentified		It would take steps to end gender-affirming medical treatments for children and teenagers under 19, directing agencies to take a variety of steps to curtail surgeries, hormone therapy, and other regimens.
		The order chipping away at social protections for transgender and intersex people coming one day after the Trump administration directed the Pentagon to re-evaluate whether anyone who received gender-related medical treatment should be permitted to serve in the military.
		Right.
		So it's a direct attack.
		And so, you know, Franklin Glam is trying to ignore that.
		And let me say one thing also about our good friend Elon Musk, who has risen to the power of almost more important than anyone else in the government just because he's rich.
		Just because he's rich.
		And what he is doing now to the civil service and asking for everybody to give us a letter of resignation, but also all these, the attack on civil service, take away DEI, take away civil rights, take away the rights of people within the civil service.
		We need to really look at what Elon Musk has revealed to us this week.
		It's really different.
		I mean, they start with the salute, and you can argue about that.
		And people were arguing about it.
		And they were arguing about it until he went doubled down with many Nazi jokes on his own personal platform that he uses for his personal gain.
		And then now he's supporting the far-right fascist movement in Germany, saying you shouldn't be feeling so much guilt about what happened in the Nazi era.
		Like, let's forget all of that.
		This is the most powerful man in Washington right now.
		And we need to look carefully at what that says about this administration and their priorities and the kind of character that is lacking in leadership in this moment.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Less than 10 minutes left this morning left with the Reverend Paul Brandeis Roschenbusch.
unidentified		He's with the Interfaith Alliance.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's interfaithalliance.org if you want to check them out online.
unidentified		And this is Barbara in Oregon.
		It's Lebanon, Oregon.
		Democrat, good morning.
		Good morning.
		Yes, I just wanted to say thank you that you're an answer to my prayers to God because I worry about this world, you know.
		And if people really want to know what the way that Jesus spoke, they could go and read the Sermon on the Mount.
		And everybody deserves love.
		Everybody deserves care.
		I have my ancestry.
		I checked, and I had Quakers in my background, and I'm so proud of them for standing up.
		So I just want to say thank you.
		And I also wanted to give praise to James Callanrico.
		He's the representative in Texas who speaks out on Christian nationalism.
		That was another guide that God gave me to listen to him.
		So I want to thank you.
		Yeah, well, you know, it's nice to be called Satan this morning and also people say that I represent their faith.
		That's the reality.
		We're in a moment where there are people who are seeing this very differently.
		My hope is that we can actually talk to one another and bring people around one another.
		I want to say a word about the Sermon on the Mount.
		It's interesting.
		A quite conservative Southern Baptist leader, Russell Moore, I want to make sure that I'm not quoting him incorrectly.
		There was someone, and it might not be Russell Moore, and so I don't want to assume that, who said, people, when they hear the Sermon on the Mount, which was Jesus's main preaching, think that what is this communist manifesto?
		They can't believe that Jesus said that.
		And they're questioning whether that's even part of the gospel or what they should believe in.
		I'll say something about James Tallarico, who is in Texas, an amazing person.
		I have a show called The State of Belief.
		I've had James on the show, along with one of his colleagues who's a Muslim, and they are working together to try to figure out how religious pluralism can work in Texas.
		Because in Texas, you see a very big attack on religious freedom in the form of saying, well, we should have chaplains in school, untrained chaplains replacing trained school advisors.
		And these chaplains come out of very right-wing evangelical communities, and they're being placed in public schools.
		And they're being told, oh, yeah, you're as good as a trained high school counselor, and this is a way to get into public schools.
		And my big thing, whether it's Ten Commandments, prayer in public schools, chaplains in public schools, as a parent of two kids in public school, I don't want the public school to be responsible for my children's faith.
		I think it's very ironic that conservative religious leaders, Christian nationalists, Christian leaders, are trying to have public schools do the work of faith training for them.
		It's bad for faith and it's bad for our public schools.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Just about five minutes left.
		The caller talked about her ancestors, her background.
		Can I come back to your background, Louis Brandeis great-grandfather?
unidentified		Great-grandfather, yes.
unidentified		His time in the 20s and 30s on the Supreme Court, how this country dealt with whatever the term Christian nationalism was then, the idea of religious freedom, which is something we've seen the Supreme Court deal a lot with in recent years.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are there lessons from the past?
unidentified		Well, it's really interesting to think about the 20s in Washington, D.C.
		The Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in the form of a cross.
		And my great-grandfather, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, lived in D.C. at that time and had to go to work.
		The Ku Klux Klan was anti-black, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish.
		They believed, as Christian nationalists believe today, that this is a country for white Protestant Christians.
		And so, you know, he believed in America.
		That was the amazing thing about Brandeis.
		His parents came to this country, and they were so amazed at what they found.
		Where did they come from?
		They came from Prague.
		And it was a time when religious, when Jews were being persecuted, they came after the revolutions of 1948.
		They came here and they found freedom.
		And he, you know, he believed in America.
		He believed in the idea that we could live pluralistically.
		His daughter married a Protestant, and he was overjoyed with that marriage because they believed in the opportunity of America to create something better.
		They believed in the idea that we can always get better.
		And so today, this idea of looking back and saying, oh, when are we nostalgic for, really?
		I wrote a piece about like, actually, like, it's not the golden age, as Trump said, it's the Gilded Age.
		And that's terrible when a few people hold all the power.
		But actually, we the people have the power.
		And religious leadership is just part of a broader civic society that needs to recognize that this is a moment all of us need to show up and protect our democracy together.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I've got time for one or two more questions.
		A few folks waiting for you.
		Trina in New York, Republican.
		Good morning.
		Thanks for waiting.
unidentified		My call.
		I'm not going to go so far as to say that this gentleman is spewing hate like the one woman, although I did agree with a lot of what she's saying.
		I am very concerned about the impression of what Christianity is coming from your mouth because people who are true faith followers following Jesus Christ are people who are not an idea.
		Christianity is not an ideology.
		It's lifeblood.
		You cannot help but be loving towards others, and you cannot help but try to live a God-honoring life.
		And so hate is not involved, and there's a lot of judgment I hear.
		I really feel like this is really a disservice to Christianity overall, and you're kind of turning people off from what Christianity really is.
		We are living the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to our neighbors and living a life that we really, really try.
		We make mistakes, but we're trying to honor God in living.
		The purpose of the inaugural service was to lay hands on the president, bless him, ask for God's blessing, ask that he make good decisions, ask that he follows the guidance of his Lord and Savior throughout his service.
		That's the purpose, not to give him a lecture.
		She used his name personally and lectured him.
		She was wrong.
		She was also wrong.
		And I'm hearing you use the term LGBTQ a lot too.
		That's divisive.
		Why is that separated out from people?
		We are all people.
		We need to stop separating out that as a quote.
		Let me give Reverend Raj and Bush a chance to respond.
		I do think it's one of the things that actually was interesting that happened with Bishop Buddy saying what she did in that moment was that many people, like the last caller, who maybe were not acquainted with an entire, actually a big part of the Christian tradition had maybe never heard a Christian speak that way.
		They might object to her being a woman as a bishop, as many people did.
		They might object to her talking about LGBTQ people.
		And so it's really important to recognize that no one has a monopoly on Christianity.
		The tradition that I come out of, which is a rich tradition, and actually, you know, you could argue is just as big as any other Christian tradition, which is the kind of more liberal, mainstream Protestant Christian tradition, is not, is one of many.
		She has her right to have her mindset and her viewpoint, but she can't diminish mine.
		And she can't say that you are not a Christian.
		And I really reject that.
		And here's the irony of saying, oh, we can't say LGBTQ because it's divisive.
		Listen, if we could go away with all the forms of discrimination that the LGBTQ community has experienced because of their identity, people would love to just be called human.
		But that's not the way the history is, and that's not the reality of today.
		And so saying we don't need any of those labels, we don't need any of that to be part of our conversation, is to dismiss the reality that many people who are from that community are experiencing today.
		And so it's just really, and last point, but needs to be said, the majority of religious people in America support LGBTQ equality, complete equality.
		And you know what's interesting?
		She's talking about like turning people away from Christianity, Mary and Buddy.
		The people who I heard from most were non-Christians who were like, I've been waiting for a Christian to sound like Jesus, how I imagined Christians would sound.
		People are leaving the church.
		A lot of young people are leaving the church specifically because of the attacks that they see from many people in the Christian community on the right against LGBTQ people.
		And young people don't want any part of that.
		What Mary and Buddy did to many people, people I know from my colleagues, my friends, my family, saying, oh, it's great to hear a Christian be what I imagine Christians might be.
		And so I actually thought it was a great evangelical moment for the gospel and for Bishop Buddy, who I support fully.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The Reverend Paul Brandeis Roschenbush is the president and CEO of the Interfaith Alliance.
		It's interfaithalliance.org.
		Thanks for your time this morning.
unidentified		Thank you so much for having me.
unidentified		Coming up next, we'll be joined by Mike Davis.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He's the founder of the group Article 3.
		We'll talk about changes at the Justice Department and we'll talk about the legal system in this country.
		Stick around for that conversation.
unidentified		But first, just about 30 minutes ago, Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt spoke to reporters about some of these topics that we covered this morning on the Washington Journal about the federal employee buyout, about the freeze on loans and grants.
		This is about two minutes from her gaggle with reporters.
		Good morning, guys.
		Good morning.
		How are we?
		Can we borrow you?
		Sure.
		We'll take it.
		Just a couple.
		I have a meeting.
		We'll make it fast.
		And then I'll be back out in a little bit if you have more.
		What's going on?
		One question about these buyouts.
		You've been describing it as this effort to get folks to return to work.
		The union that represents federal workers, though, says this isn't a voluntary buyout.
		They say this is a purge of people that don't agree with the president.
		What's your response?
		That's absolutely false.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		This is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return and work to work.
unidentified		And if they don't, then they have the option to resign.
unidentified		And this administration is very generously offering to pay them for eight months.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		6% of the federal workforce in the city actually shows up to work.
unidentified		That's unacceptable.
		We're all here at work at the office.
		There are law enforcement officers and teachers and nurses across the country who showed up to the office today.
		People in this city need to do the same.
		It's an overwhelmingly popular policy with people outside of Washington, D.C. President campaigned on this, and his administration's keeping the promise.
		Quick question to follow up on that.
		How much more is it going to cost because a lot of the space has now been given away?
		Leases have expired, new purchases need to take place.
		What will it cost to bring all those workers back to create the new offices they need?
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		It's going to save tens of millions of dollars because this administration or this government has been wasting millions of dollars on empty office space.
unidentified		That is beautiful.
		I mean, look at the buildings in this city.
		They're gorgeous.
		They've been here for decades, and the American people are paying for them.
		And so we're going to make good use of the office space in the city by having these federal workers return to work.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		I would also add that the order simply directs federal agencies to come up with a return to work plan.
unidentified		And so this isn't a purge, and this isn't forcing every single individual in Washington, D.C. to return to work, only if they are able, and of course, within the law.
		Washington Journal continues.
		A focus now on President Trump's Department of Justice and the courts.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Our guest is Mike Davis, founder of the Article III project.
unidentified		And Mike Davis, first remind viewers what the Article III project is: your mission.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		The Article III project, or A3P, is a conservative nonprofit that fights for President Trump's judicial nominees and fights against the law fair.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		We also fight for election integrity.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How long have you been around?
unidentified		How are you funded?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		We started the three project back in 2019 after the Kavanaugh confirmation because we saw there was a major void on the rights that needed to be filled that we filled with the Article 3 project.
		And we are funded with private contributions.
		And people can go to article3project.org, article number3project.org and donate there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You say you fight against lawfair.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Define the term lawfare.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Lawfare is when you politicize and weaponize intel agencies and law enforcement to go after your political enemies for non-crimes or non-violations.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		It's just turning the legal system into another political weapon.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		A headline from the BBC.
		The Trump administration fires the Justice Department lawyers who investigated him.
		What's your view on that firing?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I think President Trump absolutely should do that.
		These Justice Department operatives engaged in an unprecedented Republicaning lawfare against President Trump.
		They made up crimes against the president.
		It is not a crime for a former president to have his presidential records in the office of former president.
		That is allowed by the Presidential Records Act.
		It's also not a crime to object to a presidential election.
		That's allowed by the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
		And if it were a crime to object to a presidential election, you would see Democrats in prison for objecting to Republican wins in 1968, 2000, 2004, and 2016.
		We don't see Al Gore and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in prison, but they did try to put President Trump in prison for objecting to the presidential election in 2020.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What was your view of last Friday's firing of some 17 inspectors general, though I guess notably not specifically the Department of Justice Inspector General?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean, the President of the United States under Article 2 of the Constitution has the absolute power to fire executive branch officials.
		And it doesn't matter what statute Congress tries to put in the way.
		You can't have a statute trump the president's constitutional power.
		So the president has an absolute right to fire inspectors general.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And then what is your view about the reshuffling of career staffers, the reassignments that we're hearing about out of the Justice Department?
unidentified		How is this different than what takes place at the outset of a new administration when a different political party takes over the federal agencies, the reins of power here in Washington?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		These Democrat prosecutors, Biden Democrat prosecutors at the Justice Department, at the state attorney general's office in New York and various DA's office and in Manhattan and Fulton County, Georgia, the state AG in Arizona, they ran unprecedented Democrat lawfare and election interference against President Trump.
		They tried to bankrupt him.
		They tried to throw him in prison for life four times for non-crimes.
		They tried to take him off the ballot in Colorado and Maine and elsewhere unconstitutionally.
		They tried to take off his head when Joe Biden intentionally underfunded President Trump's Secret Service protection and said that he's the gravest threat to democracy who must be stopped at all costs and put a target on him.
		So the American people heard all of these allegations and all of this so-called evidence against President Trump, and the American people rendered our verdict on November 5th.
		And President Trump won in a landslide.
		312 electoral votes, all seven swing states, the popular vote.
		The American people rendered a verdict, and that verdict was that we are going to end this lawfare.
		We're going to end this weaponization of our intel agencies and our justice system, and there must be accountability.
		And you're starting to see that accountability now.
		The people who waged this lawfare should be reassigned or fired, and they need to be held accountable.
		There needs to be several probes on what happened.
		There needs to be Office of Professional Responsibility probes at the Justice Department on these officials.
		There needs to be civil rights investigations because they violated President Trump's civil rights, along with the civil rights of his top aides like Steve Bannon and Peter DeVaro, who went to prison after asserting 250 years of constitutional executive privilege going back to George Washington.
		President Trump's supporters on January 6th were politically persecuted, yes, persecuted, according to the Supreme Court's Fisher ruling last unit.
		It wasn't just Trump's supporters.
		The Biden Justice Department went after parents praying at abortion clinics, including putting a 75-year-old Christian woman in prison for praying in an abortion clinic.
		They sick the FBI after parents, outraged by gender chaos in schools and the resulting rapes and high school bathrooms, right?
		And at the same time that Joe Biden and his Justice Department did this to Trump and his top aides and his supporters, his supporters, and his allies, Biden and his Justice Department gave amnesty to the much more deadly and destructive BLM and Antifa rioters, right?
		They gave amnesty to the Planned Parenthood abortion industry activists who terrorized, you know, terrorized Catholic churches and pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, illegally obstructed justice by targeting Supreme Court justices outside of their homes with intimidation campaigns before their ruling on the Dobbs decision.
		There needs to be accountability for what happens.
		We need to have new priorities in the Justice Department.
		The Justice Department should actually be going after the invasion of our southern border and the resulting rapes and murders and robberies and other violent migrant crime.
		I think that President Trump and his Justice Department team are doing exactly the right thing by reprioritizing the Justice Department on real crimes and holding people accountable who weaponize the Justice Department against political enemies.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis of the Article III project with us for about the next half hour this morning.
		If you have questions, comments for him, phone lines as usual, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, we'll put the numbers up on the screen for you to call in.
		Mike Davis, you say there needs to be multiple probes, several probes about what happened.
		Is it lawfair to investigate the last administration's investigators?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		No, because we would actually be investigating real crimes here.
		It is a very serious federal civil rights felony, conspiracy against rights, 18 U.S.C. Section 241, to politicize and weaponize intel agencies and law enforcement against your political enemies for non-crimes, right?
		Non-crimes.
		And so when you do that, that is the most dangerous thing you can do in our intel agencies and our legal system.
		And there has to be accountability for that so it never happens again.
		And frankly, this goes back to Crossfire Hurricane, the Russian collusion hoax.
		And here it is right here.
		This is what happens.
		You had Hillary Clinton with her illegal home server as the Secretary of State with our nation's most classified secrets.
		More problematically for Hillary is it had evidence of the Clinton Foundation pay-for-play foreign bribery schemes where the Clinton Foundation has taken millions of dollars from these shady foreign actors and Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State at this time.
		This money going into the Clinton Foundation is underwriting the Clintons' lavish lifestyle around the world where they're taking private jets and living like Hollywood actors.
		What was Hillary Clinton doing as Secretary of State in exchange for these millions of dollars in donations to the Clinton Foundation?
		Was there quid pro quo foreign corruption?
		Was there foreign bribery?
		We'll never know because Hillary Clinton destroyed her home server, bleach-bitted her home server, took hammers to the phone after a congressional subpoena.
		So it's obstruction of justice.
		She thought this evidence went away, but maybe, just maybe that home server was hacked by our worst enemies, including Russia.
		And maybe, just maybe, as Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016, she's worried that this hacked material of her foreign corruption will come out before the 2016 election.
		And so her campaign worked with their law firm, Perkins Cooey.
		They made up the steel dossier.
		They made up the Russian collusion hoax.
		They lied to the FISA court.
		They got spy warrants on then presidential candidate Donald Trump.
		They continued to spy on him as the president of the United States.
		They hobbled his presidency.
		This is the biggest scandal in American history.
		And you say, oh, that's not possible.
		How could you possibly think they would do that?
		They did the same thing with Hunter Biden's laptop of the Biden corruption.
		They said 51 former Intel officials said it had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.
		They got the New York Post, America's oldest newspaper, deplatformed from social media.
		They made it where you couldn't even pull up the story.
		If people would have known about Hunter's laptop before 2020, there's no chance that Biden would have been in the White House for four years.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Let me get you some colors because there's plenty for you already, and we had to be for less than about 25 minutes this morning.
		This is Lizzie in Indiana.
		Democrat, go ahead.
unidentified		Yes.
		Hello, Mike.
		Hello.
		Thank you, C-SPAN.
		My question is, how come we're people from the Trump administration and Trump, they're putting in the worst people possible to run our country.
		And the reason is, and he's trying to get rid of all the people that run the government because they're trying to take over the government to run it as a dictatorship.
		And I will have nothing of that.
		And I know there's lots of people out here that do not want a dictatorship.
		And especially with Donald Trump being the dictator.
		And this needs to be stopped.
		And they need to be accounted for.
		They need to be, it needs to be accounted for for doing their crimes.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Well, I would say that when you have a president of the United States win a presidential election, it's his job to take over the executive branch and get rid of the political appointees from the last administration and put in his political appointees who are going to carry out his policy agenda the American people elected him to carry out.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Joe in Dayton, Ohio, Republican.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning from a sunny day in Ohio.
		Good morning, Mr. Davis.
		I just want to tell you, I love you.
		I watch you on YouTube.
		You are a breath of fresh air.
		All these cases against Donald Trump are bogus.
		There was no insurrection on January 6th.
		Donald Trump did request troops on January the 3rd.
		General Milley testified under oath on that, but no one wants to report that.
		The Judge McConnell case has got more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
		And Letitia James is going to lose her $500 million case in New York.
		The grand jury, that was a disaster.
		But these Democrats love to use the word fascism, dictator, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini.
		And not one person in this country has ever lived under a dictatorship or fascist.
		My parents did under Mussolini.
		But these people today want to put labels on Donald Trump, and it's sad.
		But Mr. Davis, the reason of this call is I just want to tell you I love you and keep up the good work.
		Thank you.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Appreciate that very much.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Barbara, Oklahoma, Independent.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi.
		I just, I can't watch y'all anymore.
		I don't understand this thing when we don't have facts on here.
		Did you just let him just go off on Hillary?
		Hillary's not in the government.
		Hillary did nothing.
		Y'all, they did, everything they did.
		Oh, my goodness.
		I don't get it.
		I like the last guy.
		He was honest.
		I didn't agree with him with everything, but he was honest.
		This man is one of the liars you have on here every day.
		Three hours of lies is destroying our country.
		And I don't understand, C-SPAN.
		You have never been like this before.
		You have, oh, my gosh.
		You just, it just really, it's something.
		And every day I wonder, I can't.
		I'm not going to watch you.
		I don't.
		I can't stand it.
		I have to turn it every day because these lies, you just let you puke up lies on us every single day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Barbara.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis, anything you want to talk about?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I appreciate it, Barbara.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Richard, Montreal, Canada, Republican.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mike.
		Love your work, by the way.
		Do you think Pam Bondi is going to investigate the demonization and the banning of early treatment drugs during the pandemic, like hydroxychloroquine Ivermectin, that led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths and forcing us to take an experimental vaccine?
		Because I know several people who have been injured by the vaccine and, you know, they want justice.
		They want accountability.
		Thank you, Mike.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, there's so much that went wrong with COVID.
		And it started with Tony Fauci.
		He's probably very happy he got his pardon from Joe Biden because I think Tony Fauci committed crimes when he illegally funded COVID in the Wuhan lab from NIH through a subcontractor, which was illegal.
		Gain of function research is illegal to fund.
		And he did, Tony Fauci did it anyway.
		He lied about it to Congress.
		He obstructed the investigations.
		He covered it up.
		He conspired with others.
		This led to trillions of dollars in lost treasure, millions of lost lives, years of learning loss for kids, particularly poor black kids who are already at a huge disadvantage and years of unnecessary suffering, human misery, because of COVID.
		And there has to be accountability.
		And then after this COVID came out, when they were pushing the vaccine at all costs and not any of the therapeutics and pushing a mask mandate, a cloth mask mandate that does not work, a six-foot rule that is not based upon the science.
		How much disruption did Tony Fauci cause to our lives?
		He may have his Biden pardon, but he must be held accountable.
		He must be brought before Congress so this never happens again.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned COVID and the response to COVID and vaccines.
		Expect to hear a lot more of that today at 10 a.m. in less than an hour.
		It's the confirmation hearing for RFK Jr., up for Health and Human Services Secretary.
		He'll be before the Senate Finance Committee.
unidentified		That's where we're going to go after this program today, if you stick here on C-SPAN.
		Mike Davis, you talked about Dr. Fauci's pardon.
		Do you think presidential uses of pardon is something that can be used as lawfare?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I mean, the president has very broad power to pardon anyone he wants, for the most part, for federal crimes.
		And it is an important safeguard for presidents to have this pardon power because it's supposed to correct injustices.
		And so the president has every right to pardon.
		President Biden had every right to pardon Tony Fauci and his family.
		He had every legal right to do it.
		I think politically it was disastrous for Joe Biden, for example, to pardon his family.
		You know, they said when President Trump was doing pardons, the Democrats said when President Trump was doing pardons that you only pardon people who are guilty of crimes.
		Well, Biden preemptively pardons his family.
		It is probably because his family took over $23 million from our worst enemies into their bank accounts.
		And that's just not speculation.
		There are bank statements that House Oversight Chairman James Comer has subpoenaed showing over $23 million going into what seems like every Biden member's bank accounts, except for the six-year-old granddaughter who they didn't claim until they had to.
		So again, even though these Biden family members have their pardons, there needs to be accountability.
		So we need to have an intel assessment to see what China and Russia and Kazakhstan and every other hellhole around the world, why they were paying the Bidens, every Biden family member, and what they were getting out of those payments from Vice President Joe Biden and President Joe Biden.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		On pardons, a discussion on pardons on the Senate floor yesterday, specifically the pardons of those convicted of crimes in relation to January 6th, this is from Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin, yesterday on the Senate floor.
unidentified		It's about a minute and a half.
dick durbin ▲ ● ▼		The mob, the insurrectionist mob, was taking over the Capitol.
		Thousands of people were storming into this building, not for peaceful demonstration by any means, but sadly for violence and destruction.
		That day was the worst day I can recall in the history of the Senate in terms of our respect for this building that has become a symbol, not only for the United States, but for the world, for peace and democracy.
		And I thought of those poor Capitol policemen who were asked to defend us with their lives.
		They were asked to risk their lives for us, and they did.
		Four or five of them lost their lives as a result of it, and over 140 were seriously injured.
		Some of the things that were done to them were outrageous.
		You've seen the videotape.
		We don't have to speculate on what it was.
		We saw it as they tore down building structures, as they beat up on these cops, as many of them faced death and knew at the time it was that serious.
		The grimmest reality of those riots was the subsequent death of five of these law enforcement officers and the injuries to approximately 140 others, many of whom still pay that price to this day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis, that speech on the Senate floor as Senate Democrats attempted to pass a resolution condemning Donald Trump's pardon of those convicted of January 6 crimes.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What did you think about that effort on the floor yesterday?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Just total nonsense.
		And Dick Durbin knows better.
		First of all, he called this an insurrectionist mob when he knows that no one was ever charged with insurrection after the Biden Justice Department ran the biggest law enforcement operation in American history and charged over a thousand people.
		They couldn't find evidence at all of insurrection because it didn't happen.
		January 6th was a lawful protest permitted by the National Park Service that devolved into a riot.
		And there were three categories of people there who were at the Capitol that day.
		There were people who were outside.
		And even if you think they're crazy, even if you think they're wrong, they have an absolute First Amendment right to be there.
		Then there were people who trespassed, who should have been charged with trespassed.
		And then there were people who were violent who should have been charged more harshly.
		But like Dick Durbin did, the Biden Justice Department lumped them all together, charged them all, said they were all insurrectionists, treated them like they were enemies of the state, persecuted them for four years.
		Yes, the Supreme Court's Fisher decision makes clear that they persecuted these January 6th defendants.
		And at the same time that they persecuted these January 6th defendants, overcharged them, kept them in pretrial detention for too long, kept them in solitary confinement, abused them in the D.C. jail, they gave amnesty to the much more deadly and destructive BLM rioters who caused a billion dollars in damage and killed a dozen people.
		Those police officers that died at the Capitol that day, that's very, they didn't die that day, but the police officers who died, that was very unfortunate.
		But that was not caused by the riots that day.
		They were not killed at the riot that day.
		And Dick Durbin's making it sound like the riot killed five police officers that day.
		And that's just not true.
		And I would say this, that people who are concerned about President Trump pardoning and commuting the sentences of these January 6th defendants who were persecuted, I would say this, they have suffered enough over the last four years.
		And where the hell were these people who are concerned about January 6th pardons?
		Where the hell are their concerns about Joe Biden pardoning a monster who murdered two FBI agents?
		Joe Biden freed this man from prison.
		So he commuted the sentence.
		He didn't pardon him.
		He commuted his life sentence and freed this man from prison after he killed two FBI agents.
		So I don't want to hear the fake tears from Dick Durbin about police officers when Joe Biden freed this monster who killed two FBI agents.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		More calls for you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Mark in Austin, Texas.
unidentified		Democrat, good morning.
		Yes, good morning, Mike.
		I just want to say, you know, you guys are sitting here defending Donald Trump when you know this man is absolutely the worst, the worst ever.
		And for all the Trump supporters that are out there, he used you guys.
		You guys were useful idiots for him.
		So you said tattooed out on your forehead.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis, do you want to respond?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Well, I would say that you're calling over half of America useful idiots.
		You're calling half of the American voters useful idiots who just elected President Trump in a landslide.
		312 electoral votes, all seven swing states.
		You know, the popular vote, I would say that that caller might be the useful idiot of the Democrat Party.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Philip, Mississippi, Independent, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		This gentleman has the nerve to be such a hypocrite in talking about all the sins of the Democrats, but not looking at self.
		Remember, Jesus, if that's what you know of his name, the spiritual leader of this country, were to say, if you're going to judge, look at the beam in your eye before you make that judgment.
		And the Republicans are famous for that now.
		They just automatically take the high road with they're the most sanctified group of people helping the American public.
		And it's the furthest from the truth.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Philip, do you have a question for Mike Davis?
unidentified		My question is, how do they go about recruiting the members to go and tell us the hypocritical statements that they make each and every day?
		And this country has been doing it for over 400 years.
		Please tell us how they can say things that they say and get up in the morning and go on a normal basis.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		All right, that's Philip.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I would say I can't fix stupid, and this is why we need school choice in America.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Victoria, Texas, Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you, C-SPAN and Mr. Davis, for taking my call.
		Please hear me out.
		Please hear me out.
		There must be some accountability.
		I am not a politician.
		I am a former veteran educator, and I'm not ignorant.
		This is very personal to me, and I would love to see for the last four years I have been going through living hell.
		I am glad to see Trump come in and do something with justice.
		My home was pending in litigation, in litigation that was sold for $585,000.
		The Dallas DA judge, Crusoe DA, refused to indict the people that sold my home illegally on a crime.
		What kind of DA is that?
		Judge Soros have put a lot into our elections, and these DAs across the United States in Georgia, New York, and Dallas, including, have refused to uphold the rule of law.
		That's Victoria in Texas.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis, can you explain what the role of DAs are and how quickly they change over when it comes to a new administration?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Well, the DA district attorneys are generally elected at the local level.
		Those are the local prosecutors, and they play a crucial role.
		They're the ones who handle the day-to-day crimes in your communities.
		And so if you have a bad DA, like a George Soros-funded DA like Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, or Fulton County DA, Fannie Willis, or one of these other Larry Kreshner, one of these other terrible DAs like in Philadelphia, it can cause just utter chaos in your communities.
		Because if you don't have a local DA who's going to fight crime and then you have a Justice Department, for example, like the Biden Justice Department, who didn't want to fight real crimes, they wanted to fight, you know, they wanted to fight against Republicans and Trump supporters and parents and Christians instead of criminals, you have a real problem.
		And this is why these elections are so critically important.
		You should pay attention to your local races.
		You should pay attention to your local sheriff, your local mayor, your local DA, because they have a tremendous impact on your lives.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And so I guess the difference between a DA and a U.S. attorney, and the U.S. attorneys are the ones that then change over in a new administration.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, there are U.S. attorneys all over the country.
unidentified		I think it's like 94 right now, 93 or 94.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I just can't remember the number that are U.S. attorneys.
		They are nominated by the president.
		They are confirmed by the Senate, and they are the chief law enforcement officer of your federal district.
		And so, you know, most states have one or two of these districts where they have one or two U.S. attorneys.
		Some states have more, like California, I think, has four, but they are the ones who are responsible for prosecuting federal crimes and supervising federal law enforcement.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why are there some U.S. attorneys, why are there some districts in this country where U.S. attorneys operate that we hear so much more from than others, the Southern District of New York here in D.C., the Virginia District as well, that we hear a lot of?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why are some, I don't want to say more famous, but why do we hear from more from some than others?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Well, for example, D.C. obviously is our seat of government.
		The Eastern District of Virginia, which is just outside of D.C. and covers the CIA, the Pentagon, a lot of government agencies.
		The Southern District of New York covers Wall Street, the financial sector.
		Those tend to be the biggest offices.
		Also, the Southern District of Florida or Miami has a big office.
		The Central District of California or LA has a big office.
		But the major offices are D.C., Eastern District of Virginia, and Southern District of New York.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And you've gone through a lot of these confirmation hearings.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You talk about they all get Senate confirmed.
unidentified		Can you talk about your background in that process, what you did on Capitol Hill, what role you played?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I was the chief counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee for then Chairman Chuck Grassley back in 2017 to 2019.
		I helped with the first two years of the Trump administration to confirm President Trump's Justice Department officials along with his federal judges, including Justice Gorsuch, my former boss, who helped lead his confirmation effort as his former law clerk from the outside.
		Then I went to work for the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirmed a record number of President Trump's lower court judges, and then helped confirm Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
		Then I started the Article III project after that in 2019, and we helped confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
		For the last three and a half years, we've been very busy working on this law affair against President Trump, turning lemons into liminate.
		These Democrats thought that these indictments, these civil lawsuits were going to take out President Trump electorally.
		And so we did 4,200 media hits supporting and defending President Trump, constant social media, constant opinion pieces.
		We changed the public opinion on this law affair.
		We coined the phrase lawfare, and it ended up not working out so well on November 5th when the American people rendered our verdict.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You talk about judicial appointments, a chart from the Pew Pew Research Service on judicial appointments over the years.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It was 174, I'm sorry, 226 total in the first Trump administration.
unidentified		You talk about the record there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The Joe Biden administration will say they had a record at 228.
unidentified		You can see the numbers in the previous years.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How are there this many judicial vacancies that get filled?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why does each administration seem to set a record?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you the reason we set a record under President Trump is because I helped break every piece of China in the Senate to get through the Democrats' unprecedented obstruction to help President Trump confirm a near-record number of judges to the federal courts, particularly the critically important federal courts of appeals.
		President Trump, when he started out, the Democrat appointed judges controlled the federal courts of appeals.
		And by the time President Trump left, we had the first constitutionalist majority in 90 years on the Supreme Court, along with the majority of the critically important federal courts of appeals that had Republican-appointed judicial majority.
		So President Biden was able to make up for a lot of that in that four-year term.
		We set up the conveyor belt for President Trump, and unfortunately, President Biden took advantage of that conveyor belt.
		So it would have been disastrous from my perspective if Joe Biden or Kamala Harris won the presidency in November because they would likely be able to appoint a number of justices and maybe take control of the Supreme Court.
		And I think when left-wing justices take control of the Supreme Court, there goes our God-given rights to speak, worship, associate, and protect ourselves.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How many justices do you expect to step down from the Supreme Court in these next four years?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I don't know.
		And, you know, if you look at their tradition, I think President Trump will at least appoint one justice to the Supreme Court.
		In his second term, he could appoint two or three.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		More calls for you.
		Just a few minutes left in this segment with Mike Davis.
		It's the Article III project.
unidentified		It's his group.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Terry is in Illinois.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Yeah, I have two subjects.
		One is about the Hillary Clinton Foundation.
		We all know that President Trump during his first term, all the way through it.
		In fact, I think it was right at the last year where he dropped it because he couldn't find one bit of evidence against Hillary Clinton.
		Two, I want to talk about this law affair.
		I'm talking about the hush money payment.
		And we know that he assaulted her, and a jury of his peers found him guilty.
		And he did this to interfere with the election at that time by hiding the information that he was sleeping with a porn star while his wife was at home.
		So I understand this law affair, but the Democrats learned that from the Republicans.
		All we have to do is just look back through the years, especially the Clinton years.
		They went after him for tea parties in the White House, selling the Lincoln bedroom, the hordes of women that came through that said he sexually assaulted him.
		Hillary was.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Terry, let me give Mike Davis a chance to respond.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I would say this, that if you want the goods on Hillary Clinton, just wait till crossfire hurricane records come out.
		President Trump declassified them the day before he left office the first time.
		The intel community, the law enforcement agencies like the FBI ran to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff at the time and said, you can't release these.
		You're going to violate the Privacy Act, criminal violation of the Privacy Act.
		You're going to reveal sources and methods.
		So, Mark Meadows issued an order on January 20th, 2021, saying do your Privacy Act review and get out these crossfire hurricane declassified records.
		Well, they didn't do that review.
		Instead, they did the Mar-a-Lago raid, and that's what this lawfare is all about.
		And so, this time, when President Trump releases these crossfire hurricane records, I think people are going to see just how damning the evidence is against Hillary and Obama and Biden and Clapper and Brennan and all these other people who politicized and weaponized intel agencies to take out President Trump.
		And so, that's number one.
		It's kind of amusing that he picked the weakest case possible against President Trump, the hush money case.
		It is not a crime to settle a nuisance claim.
		It is routine in business to settle nuisance claims with a non-disclosure agreement that happens every day.
		I've been a lawyer for nearly 20 years.
		I've done that routinely.
		I didn't realize that I was committing a felony by settling a nuisance claim with a non-disclosure provision in that agreement or a hush money provision.
		And it's certainly not a campaign finance violation.
		The prior Manhattan DA, Sy Vance, declined to bring these charges.
		The Manhattan U.S. Attorney declined to bring these charges.
		The Democrat Manhattan U.S. Attorney, the Democrat Federal Election Commission declined to bring these charges.
		Alvin Bragg himself, who campaigned on getting Trump, declined to bring these charges.
		It wasn't until Matthew Colangelo got deployed from the number three office in the Biden Justice Department that they decided to bring these bogus charges and bring the first indictment ever against a former president.
		And the only reason they brought it is because they knew that Trump was running for president again.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		If the hush money case was the weakest case against Donald Trump, as you describe it, what in your estimation was the strongest case against him?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		The strongest case would probably be: look, and I don't think that there's a legal basis for this, but on the documents case in Mar-a-Lago, the obstruction case would be the strongest case against President Trump.
		But the issue is, there's an Office of Legal Counsel memo from 2019.
		It's binding on the executive branch.
		Of course, Jack Smith ignored this memo, and so did Merrick Garlands.
		But the legal memo says this: if you do not have an underlying crime, you cannot obstruct justice for a non-crime.
		So, if it's not a crime for President Trump to have his presidential records in the office of former president in Mar-a-Lago, which is allowed by the Presidential Records Act, the subpoena issued based upon the Espionage Act is invalid because there's not an Espionage Act violation when the Presidential Records Act allows the president to have his records.
		And so, the OLC memo from 2019 would suggest that you can't obstruct justice when there's not a crime.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Time for just a couple more calls.
		This is Michelle Staten Island Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Mike, thank you for being on.
		I just have something to say, and then I have a question.
		First, I'd like to say, what a crew we have work in this country that the other countries have to be laughing.
		They have to be.
		Come on.
		I mean, this is ridiculous, what's going on.
		And the people today, with this hearing today, is just I'm an RN.
		God forbid he gets elected.
		He gets this position, JFK.
		I don't know what's going to go on.
		You're talking about RFK Jr.'s confirmation hearing today.
		That's correct.
		I mean, kids are going to drop like flies.
		This is horrible.
		This is really horrible.
		And why is Trump doing all this?
		38 felony counts.
		Our president has 38 felony accounts.
		This is horrible.
		You're a lawyer.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		I think the American people heard all of these allegations and evidence against President Trump, and the American people rendered our verdict on November 5th.
		The American people know that this was lawfare.
		They know it was election interference.
		They know these were bogus charges brought by Democrat prosecutors and Democrat judges and Democrat juries and Democrat hellholes like New York, D.C., and Atlanta.
		And the American people, not these whack jobs and these Democrat hellholes, get to select the president.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		John's last, Temple Hills, Maryland, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		First of all, I would like to say good morning to all of the C-SPAN listeners.
		We are dedicated listeners and we sometimes endure a lot of stuff.
		Mike Davis, good morning, sir.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		I am an independent and I'm an independent for a reason.
		So I would love to have a colloquy with you, sir, but I know we don't have time.
		So I have four questions for you.
		And I would love for the C-SPAN listeners to listen to your answers and be objective when they hear them.
		The first question is, is Donald Trump perfect?
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		No.
unidentified		The second question is, let me finish the four and I'll get off the line and you can answer them.
		The first question was, is Donald Trump perfect?
		The second question is, is there anything that you can think of that Donald Trump has done wrong?
		Third question, Biden, is Biden perfect?
		Fourth question and last question, and I'll get off and hear off the line.
		Is there anything in Biden's whole career that you can say that he did right?
		Thank you so much, Mike.
		And I'll listen to the answers offline.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So Davis, you got the final two minutes.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		This is pretty easy.
unidentified		No, President Trump's not perfect.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		He made mistakes in his first term, including picking bad personnel.
		No, President Trump's, or President Biden's not perfect, but President Biden did one thing that he did right, and I've said this very publicly, is he picked very good people for the Justice Department Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission to do bipartisan antitrust law enforcement to hold the trillion-dollar big tech monopolist accountable.
		Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.
		That started under President Trump.
		President Biden continued that and put it on steroids.
		And now President Trump is going to continue it again.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article 3 project.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's article3project.org.
unidentified		Appreciate your time this morning on the Washington Journal.
mike davis ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Coming up and in our last half hour of the Washington Journal this morning, it's our open forum.
		It's our time when we let you lead the discussion.
		Any public policy issue, any political issue, the phone lines are yours.
		The numbers are on the screen.
		Go ahead and start calling in and we will get to your calls right after the break.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		In his latest book titled Wasteland, author Robert Kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future.
		Kaplan, author of 24 books, holds the chair in geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Institute.
		In the chapter number three, in his 177-page book, Kaplan claims, quote, civilization is now in flux.
		The ongoing decay of the West is manifested not only in racial tensions coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, the erosion of grammar, the decline in sales of serious books and classical music, and so on, all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization.
unidentified		Author Robert Kaplan talks about his book, Wasteland, A World in Permanent Crisis, on this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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		Washington Journal continues.
		Here's where we are today on Capitol Hill at noon Eastern.
		The Senate returns and on Capitol Hill today, plenty of confirmation hearings and nominees for various posts in the new Trump administration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Probably the one getting the most attention today will be RFK Jr.
unidentified		Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is up for Health and Human Services Secretary.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He'll be before the Senate Finance Committee.
unidentified		That hearing begins at 10 a.m. Eastern.
		It's where we're going to take you today after this program ends.
		We'll take you to the hearing room.
		You can also, though, watch on c-span.org and the free C-SPAN Now video app.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Other confirmation hearings happening today.
		Howard Luttnick, the nominee for commerce secretary, will be at his confirmation hearing today at 10.30 Eastern.
		That's before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
		You can watch on C-SPAN 3.
unidentified		Also, Kelly Loffler is having her confirmation hearing.
		Former Georgia Senator, she's up to be the head of the Small Business Administration.
		That hearing at 3.30 p.m. Eastern, also on C-SPAN 3.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		One other note today, as if that wasn't enough for you.
		At 2:30 p.m. Eastern, Jerome Powell will hold a news conference to discuss interest rates and monetary policy following his meeting with the Federal Open Market Committee.
		That taking place 2:30 p.m. Eastern.
		C-SPAN is where you can watch also C-SPAN.org and the C-SPAN Now video app.
		More confirmation hearings coming up later in the week as well.
		We hope you stay with us for that.
		But for now, it's open forum.
		Any public policy issue, any political issue you want to talk about, now's your time to call in.
unidentified		This is John Up First in Alabama, a Republican.
		John, good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Look, I just like to have spoken to the other guy that was just on.
		I think he's done a really good job explaining stuff.
		And those folks didn't like him.
		I watched C-SPAN, CNN, and Fox News both and swap them out and just listen to them.
		And this morning in New York City, they arrested a ring leader of those whatever you want to call them, idiots that come up there on the bus, and he had ordered grenades.
		And what was he going to do with grenades in New York City?
		And he had ordered a bunch of guns, too, that these sanctuary seaters are protecting them.
		I want the Democrats to understand we don't need people like that in this country nowhere.
		Now, I'm 75 years old.
		I'm a 30-year coal miner underground.
		I'm beat up, beat up, slap out.
		And our Steve Marshall, Alabama's attorney general, stopped the pain medicine coming to Walker County in Alabama.
		They stopped it because there's too many.
		My doctor told me last week there's too many disabled coal miners in Walker County to send the damn pain medicine to us.
		I have to drive 60 miles out of my county to go get the plane medicine there because Walker County can't get it.
		And so I don't, you know, I want people to wake up.
		This bunch we got in our offices everywhere that Biden's got in there, they ain't doing right.
		But coal miners, I know.
		And nobody else will listen.
		But anyway, thank y'all for letting me tell you what I think.
		So y'all have a great day.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's John, Alabama, St. Louis, Missouri.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Sylvia, good morning, line for Democrats.
unidentified		Yeah, I'm calling.
		I think it's real sad that you have all these people that's lying for Trump.
		And then now we have a criminal as a president.
		I grew up back in the day where people was liking people.
		It's just a bunch of hatred.
		And it's sad.
		And they're going to continue to do this, continue to harass people that doesn't like the conversation that someone else is having.
		You can't even get along with your own families anymore because everybody is running around believing this propaganda that Trump and his cronies are running around Here saying, now, since we have a president that's a criminal, why don't they let these other criminals get these good jobs that's out here for them since they don't want anybody else to work?
		You know, but it's saying that this country is going down this low is pitiful.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To Miyoshi in Beverly Hills, California, Independent.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Don, how are you?
		Doing well.
		So, I really wanted to talk with Mike as well because I wanted to push you back on all of that deliberate misinformation that he was putting out there because that kind of information is intended to cause damage and hurt and pain upon another person or a group of other people.
		Just four quick points, he brought up Dr. Fauci, blame Dr. Fauci for Donald Trump's failure.
		The fact of the matter is the country went through one of the worst events of our lifetime.
		And Donald Trump was over his head and he screwed up.
		He screwed up, he screwed up, he screwed up.
		Not one of them will put on their big boy patterns, accept responsibility, and take accountability for what they did.
		It's always laying the blame at someone else.
		Leave Dr. Fauci alone.
		Next, the Dems are responsible for removing his name off the ballot in Colorado and Maine.
		The Democrats had nothing to do with that.
		It's yet again disinformation because it's Republicans that raise the issue with the court.
		And according to their statute, if they're going to challenge a name on the ticket, it has to be someone who is on that ticket.
		So with Donald Trump being a Republican, only a Republican can challenge him.
		Third.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And Miyoshi, I've got other folks waiting.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Can you wrap it up?
unidentified		Yeah, let me just go ahead and say this.
		Donald Trump has been involved with over 4,000 lawsuits his entire life.
		Over 4,000 lawsuits his entire adult life.
		Whether or not he was running for the president or not running for the president in 2024, he would still be ensnared with legal judgment, legal entanglements.
		Will they please stop laying the blame of his legal woes on the feet of the Democrats, President Biden, the DOJ, other people, et cetera, because he is responsible for his own actions.
		I always wish he'd just grow up, act like a man, and be accountable for it himself and stop blaming other people.
		It's tiring.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mioshi in California.
		Joe is in Colorado, Dunnison, Colorado, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		First of all, you've got a lag between what's on TV and what's actually coming in over the phone, because I was listening to John in Alabama while it wasn't.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Joe, there is a bit of a delay when you call in.
		That's why it's best not to watch the TV just to listen on your phone.
		But what do you want to say?
unidentified		Okay.
		Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
		Something Biden did that was one pardon that was signed was actually a good thing.
		And that was for Leonard Peltier.
		Leonard did not kill the agents.
		That's been known in Indian country for 50 years.
		And what needs to be done here is the truth actually come out.
		And it and they need to look into David Hill shooting the agent at the car with the senior agent behind screaming to kill that agent because he was going to be a whistleblower and expose what was actually going on.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Joe, where did your particular interest in this case come from?
unidentified		I was alive when it happened.
		I know a lot of us know what really happened.
		We followed Anna May.
		We finally saw John Boy Graham convicted, but not the people who were responsible for Anna May's death.
		And this was another thing.
		Anna May's cousin Bob Branscombe knew that Leonard didn't do it, and he fought to help try to get him released before he passed.
		But the bottom line, what's very simple here is the truth needs to come out.
		The FBI did cover it up, and a lot of people have died trying to keep it covered up.
		This was one pardon that has been so long overdue, it is just pathetic.
		And it was right that it was done.
		And I'm tired of seeing people like the last presenter you had make that mistake because he probably, you know, if he was alive, he was in diapers.
		He doesn't know, really know the case.
		He's not familiar with it.
		Whereas we've talked about it for all this time, and we know what happened.
		And the real people who are responsible did not pay for that crime.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Got your point.
		That's Joe.
		That's Joe.
		This is Roger in North Carolina, Democrat.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yes, sir.
		I'd like to say I love your show.
		And I think the only thing I'd like to say is when you have somebody on like Mr. Davis, there was so one-sided, I'd like to see you have somebody who could be in opposition to him to oppose him.
		Number one, if they had evidence that Joe Biden is still $23 million, why didn't they continue to prosecute him?
		They investigated him for two years.
		Number two, yes, it's not against the law for a president to have his papers, but what Trump had, he had the confidential papers, and he refused to return them.
		That's why they prosecuted him.
		Number three, I think we're seeing now that President Trump does intend to try to be a dictator.
		He's thrown out all these people.
		He's going to put people in those jobs like Mike Davis to do his beatings, whatever he says.
		And I'm just really afraid for our nation at this time.
		Thank you very much.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To Brittany in Dallas, Texas, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hey, I just told Jesus, let me say the right thing this time.
		So, you know, people wonder about the transfoles, the gay folks, but, you know, God, you know, he didn't create a site to be gay.
		He created a site for the Amascum women, the feminine men, to actually date each other and stuff like.
		All right.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to Archie in Florida, Republican.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		I wanted to say to that Democrat caller, good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Can you hear me?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Yes, sir.
unidentified		I wanted to say to that Democrat caller, last one, that that case against President Trump for presidential papers was dismissed, by the way.
		But my point was I wanted to make was on the pardon power.
		And Mr. Davis, great segment, by the way, was him.
		And I listen to him whenever I can.
		He's a great American and doing a lot of good work for America.
		He mentioned that the Biden pardons were legal.
		And I would have liked to have asked him, maybe some other callers can chime in.
		I am an attorney, by the way.
		But I think if the Supreme Court were to hear the case, they would find it non-justiciable under the political question doctrine because the power is exclusive to the president and there's only two constitutional restrictions.
		It has to be for federal offenses and it cannot be for impeachment.
		Otherwise, I think they wouldn't hear the case.
		They'd find it a political question.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Archie.
		There's about 15 minutes left in our program today.
		As we said, we're going to be heading to the hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
		He is up for head of health and human services.
		That is happening at 10 a.m. here on C-SPAN.
		A topic you're likely going to be hearing about in that hearing is the letter and the video released by RFK Jr.'s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador.
		Here's the headline from the Washington Post.
unidentified		She warns of predator RFK Jr. in a searing letter and video, the former ambassador urging senators to reject his nomination for HHS secretary, questioning his ethics and views on vaccines.
		Here's a portion of that video released yesterday by Carolyn Kennedy.
		I've known Bobby my whole life.
		We grew up together.
		It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because Bobby himself is a predator.
		He's always been charismatic, able to attract others through the strength of his personality, his willingness to take risks and break the rules.
		I watched his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction.
		His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks.
		It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence.
		That was a long time ago, and people can change.
		Through his own strength and the many second chances he was given by people who felt sorry for the boy who lost his father, Bobby was able to pull himself out of illness and disease.
		I admire the discipline that took and the continuing commitment it requires.
		But siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death, while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life.
		Today, while he may encourage a younger generation to attend AA meetings, Bobby is addicted to attention and power.
		Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children vaccinating his own kids while building a following, hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Carolyn Kennedy releasing that video in that letter yesterday.
		Again, the hearing set to get underway in about 10 minutes here on the Senate side on Capitol Hill.
		Time for just a couple more phone calls.
		This is Nate, a Milwaukee Democrat.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hi, thank you very much for having me.
		I was actually calling about confirmation about somebody else.
		I'd point to a Business Insider article titled, starting out with a quote, yes, I'm skeptical.
		Congresswoman says there's no need to point fingers in Syria chemical weapons attack from April 7th of 2017.
		And it's Tulsi Gabbard basically trying to say other groups were responsible for the chemical weapons attack the Assad regime did in the populated area that killed a lot of civilians.
		And after Trump actually did the right thing by pointing out it was Assad by trying to punish Trump, and after this came out that other people investigated and said it's yes, Assad did this, she tried to equivocate by saying that, well, all the groups there had chemical weapons.
		And if this is somebody who's supposed to deal with intelligence, we ought to think about if there are chemical weapons left over in Syria, there are other countries and terrorist groups that would be interested in them.
		We ought to have somebody who, frankly, can be honest about something as dangerous as that is.
		One thing I also...
		Let me leave it there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And Lorraine's waiting in Dalton, Georgia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are y'all?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Doing well, Lorraine.
unidentified		What's on your mind?
		Oh, I just love y'all, and I love Mr. Mike, too.
		This is the first time I've ever got on the phone and called anybody, but I love Mr. Trump, and I think he's doing a wonderful job.
		God bless y'all.
		I just want to ask why I live in Dalton, Georgia.
		Why has anybody not come here?
		We are a sanctuary city.
		We do not have our people.
		Immigrants have took over our city.
		They have built five or six new schools here.
		All the apartments, everything.
		Our rent has gone sky high.
		I'm 85 years old, and my rent has gone up horrible.
		I went to get food stamps.
		I cannot get food stamps because they won't let me have any.
		And I only draw $1,352 a month.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Lorraine in Dalton, Georgia.
unidentified		We will now take you down Pennsylvania Avenue to 1600, Pennsylvania.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We are joined by Zeke Miller of the Associated Press there at the White House.
		Zeke Miller, thanks for the time this morning.
		It's already been a busy morning at the White House.
		The new press secretary are already gaggling with reporters there.
		What's the latest on this topic that we started our program on today?
		The latest on both the offer of buyouts for federal workers and then the grants and loan freeze that was blocked by a judge late yesterday.
unidentified		Well, federal workers have about another week and a half or so to respond to those buyout offers from the Office of Personnel Management.
		So it'll be very interesting to see over the next, you know, between now and then, how many workers raise their hand for that offer.
		The Office of Personnel Management, along with billionaire Elon Musk, promoting FAQs for federal workers because that memo that made that offer to them was a little scant on some of them.
zeke miller ▲ ● ▼		It's got details about how the buyout would work, the deferred compensation, what they can do during that period of administrative leave before they actually stop being paid by the government.
unidentified		So that may incentivize or disincentivize some government workers from taking that option.
zeke miller ▲ ● ▼		So it'll be very interesting to watch that in the coming days as we get some of those numbers.
zeke miller ▲ ● ▼		On that second item, that OMB funded, the OMB pause of government grants, that was stayed just minutes before it was supposed to go into effect at 5 o'clock yesterday by a federal judge.
unidentified		And there's a separate hearing today as an attorney general's state attorneys general have brought a separate lawsuit, also seeking a temporary restraining order that could extend that pause even beyond the one that is in existence now through Monday.
		The White House is doing a lot of explaining, trying to minimize what the impact of that offer was, sorry, of that freeze was.
		And as they got a lot of backlash from the chaos that essentially was caused by a very vague memo from the Office of Management and Budget late Monday night.
		So they've said carve outs apply for things like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, but still a lot of questions about indirect assistance that millions upon millions of Americans rely on, how that would be affected.
		So they have a lot of answers still yet to give for questions that we are still asking.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		A lot of questions yesterday at the White House press briefing with the new press secretary, Carolyn Levitt.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are we going to hear more from her today or more from President Trump on these two issues?
zeke miller ▲ ● ▼		We're not expecting a White House briefing today.
unidentified		We expect to see President Trump later this afternoon when he signs the Lake and Riley Act, that immigration legislation that did get some bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
		But knowing, having covered President Trump the first time around over the last eight or nine days, certainly his remarks there, he can take some questions.
		It can go in a lot of different topics.
zeke miller ▲ ● ▼		We could expect to hear a little bit more from him likely in that two o'clock hour.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we're already getting some live shots of the hearing room where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be testifying for his confirmation hearing this morning.
		How much is that going to be watched this morning at the White House?
		What are the expectations there for his performance today?
unidentified		Oh, it will definitely be watched over here at the White House.
		They have invested a lot in trying to sustain his nomination and preparing him for this confirmation fight.
		He is one of the most targeted appointed nominees by President Trump for his cabinet.
		So they will be looking closely at his performance and then also trying to read the tea leaves for where some of these senators are on that vote.
		The next couple of days in some ways are critical for the Trump cabin, some of those initial picks, or does he have to start looking at Plan B?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That hearing is set to get underway in just a couple minutes here, and we'll take viewers live there on C-SPAN.
		When it does, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not yet in the room, but plenty of press and members of the United States Senate starting to show up in their seats.
		In terms of confirmation hearings going forward this week, what else are you looking for?
unidentified		What will be the most interesting one for you, Zeke Miller?
		I mean, this one that's started in just a couple minutes is certainly very interesting, just of how it scrambles party lines and how RFK Jr., a Democrat who's now sort of has staked out some very unconventional and anti-science opinions in some cases, how that plays out on Capitol Hill and scrambles the loyalty of the Republican Party towards the president.
		So that was certainly one.
		And then Kash Patel later this week is another one just because he's become a lightning rod for controversy for years now in some ways.
		And he himself likes to engage.
		So that will certainly have some fireworks.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Kash Patel's confirmation hearing set for Thursday, 9.30 a.m. Eastern, and we'll be showing that live on C-SPAN 3, also on c-span.org and our free C-SPAN now video app.
		Zeke Miller, as if that's not enough, final minute here.
		What else are you covering today from the White House?
unidentified		Those are the big ones.
		And then also keeping our eyes and ears out for more executive orders from the president.
		He's had a steady drumbeat of them since he was sworn in early last week.
		And we've been told to expect pretty much one or two a day.
		So keeping our eyes peeled for that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And when they happen, always hot off the wire from the Associated Press, AP.org.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Zeke Miller, White House correspondent.
unidentified		Always appreciate the time.
unidentified		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's going to do it for us this morning on the Washington Journal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll, of course, be back here tomorrow morning.
unidentified		It is 7 a.m. Eastern.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It is 4 a.m. Pacific.

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