| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | |
| Coming up Friday morning, David Super, a professor at Georgetown Law School, discusses the legality of the efforts by President Trump and Elon Musk through the Department of Government Efficiency. | ||
| Then, longtime economic advisor to President Trump and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Moore, talks about the president's economic agenda. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Thursday morning on C-SPAN. | ||
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| Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. | ||
| At 12.20 p.m., Tamara Lanier, author of From These Roots, traces her family's bloodline to an enslaved man, Papa Renti, who's in one of the first ever photos of enslaved people from Africa. | ||
| She also speaks about her lawsuit against Harvard University to reclaim the 19th century daguerreotype of him. | ||
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| Then at 10 p.m. Eastern on afterwards, former president of Anheuser-Busch Sales and Distribution Company Anson Freerichs offers his insight to the Bud Light controversy, declining sales, and its future in his book, Last Call for Bud Light. | ||
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| Well, we'll start with a portion of President Trump at the Oval Office answering questions yesterday about his conversation with Vladimir Putin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| When and where did you plan on meeting with Vladimir Putin and were there any preconditions? | ||
| No, we had a great call and it lasted for a long time, over an hour, this morning. | ||
| I also had with President Zelensky a very good call after that. | ||
| And I think we're on the way to getting peace. | ||
| I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelensky wants peace and I want peace. | ||
| I just want to see people stop getting killed. | ||
| We're very far away from that particular war, but that's a vicious war. | ||
| Probably a million and a half soldiers killed in a short period of time. | ||
| I've never seen anything. | ||
| I have pictures that are, you wouldn't believe it. | ||
| You wouldn't believe what you have to look at. | ||
| Young, beautiful soldiers that are just being decimated. | ||
| And it would be nice to end it immediately. | ||
| But we had a very good talk with, people didn't really know what President Putin's thoughts were, but I think I can say with great confidence he wants to see it ended also. | ||
| That's good. | ||
| We're talking about Ukraine this morning and the developments around that. | ||
| This is NBC News. | ||
| By the way, you remember that Mark Fogel, the American school teacher, was released from Russia yesterday. | ||
| This is the news about what was exchanged. | ||
| So, Russian money launderer to be freed in exchange for Mark Fogel. | ||
| It says that Alexander Vinnick will leave behind $100 million worth of digital assets in the United States as part of the deal to free him. | ||
| It says that the Trump administration has agreed to send a convicted money launderer back to Russia in exchange for the release of American Mark Vogel. | ||
| Alexander Vinnick is in American custody and awaiting transport to Russia, expected to happen by the end of the week. | ||
| As part of the deal to free him, he will leave behind $100 million worth of digital assets in the United States. | ||
| That's a picture of him. | ||
| He was arrested in Greece. | ||
| And you can read the rest of that at nbcnews.com. | ||
| Let's talk to Sid first in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I support residents from the ceasefire deal. | ||
| I think VHEC said Secretary of Defense is right in moving forward, in ending this war. | ||
| You know, there's really a lot of Russians who live in Ukraine, so there's really no reason for NATO membership. | ||
| And also, the fact that at this point, really, the best way to end the war is to just end with what is going on. | ||
| So I support President Trump's strategy. | ||
| And also, in the end, really, they need to start giving us back some rare earth metals. | ||
| All that money we gave to Ukraine was not for free. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| And Sid, this is what Sid was talking about about rare earth metals. | ||
| Actually, this is not coming up for me, but we will get that for you. | ||
| So in the meantime, let's hear again from President Trump talking about his conversation with Russian President Putin and about the ceasefire. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| We talked about the possibility, I mentioned it, of a ceasefire so we can stop the killing. | ||
| And I think we'll probably end up at some point getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you expect Ukraine? | |
| Do you view Ukraine as an equal member of this peace process? | ||
| It's an interesting question. | ||
| I think they have to make peace. | ||
| Their people are being killed, and I think they have to make peace. | ||
| I said that was not a good war to go into, and I think they have to make peace. | ||
| That's what I think. | ||
| The whole thing. | ||
| That was the president yesterday, and we're taking your calls. | ||
| Sid had mentioned the rare earth minerals, so I wanted to update you on that. | ||
| So this is the Kiev post. | ||
| It says, U.S. Treasury Secretary met with Zelensky and Kiev to kick off rare earth peace deal. | ||
| This is Scott Besant. | ||
| This was his first, he's the first U.S. official to visit Ukraine. | ||
| It says this. | ||
| Besant will hold discussions focused on U.S. access to Ukraine's critical minerals, energy resources, and the future of state-owned enterprises, according to a source. | ||
| It says the announcement came after Trump started floating the idea of exchanging mineral access for continued U.S. security support on February 3rd. | ||
| We're putting in hundreds of billions of dollars, Trump said. | ||
| They have great rare earth, and I want security of the rare earth, and they're willing to do it. | ||
| Zelensky quickly reacted by stating that he supported the idea. | ||
| Quote, we are open to the fact that all this can be developed with our partners who are both helping us to protect our land and pushing the enemy back with their weapons and sanctions packages. | ||
| And this is absolutely fair. | ||
| That's what Zelensky said on February 5th. | ||
| So we'll talk to Stanley now. | ||
| Eldorado, Arkansas, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Stanley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Thank you for taking my call this morning. | ||
| Yes, we do need to stop that war over there. | ||
| His business has been to end. | ||
| And the rare earth minerals, that is very important for trade and everything, and for peace and everything. | ||
| And he will stop this war here pretty quick. | ||
| And if I may, another subject. | ||
| This Reverend Al Sharpman, I don't know where he got his paperwork at, but he's not surely no reverend. | ||
| The way he talks on TV, stirring up people. | ||
| And that Maxine Waters, she's even worse than he is. | ||
| Because every time you see her on TV, she's starting riots. | ||
| For a person to only make $170,000 a year, where did she get that $5 million mansion at? | ||
| All right. | ||
| We'll go back to our conversation on Ukraine. | ||
| Here is Democrat Morcy Kaptur. | ||
| She's the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine caucus. | ||
| She was on the floor of the House yesterday to reiterate that Ukraine needs to be at the negotiating table and that its original border has to be maintained. | ||
| Here she is. | ||
| Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelensky, has stated a negotiated peace will require an exchange of territory. | ||
| Working with our closest and most valued allies in NATO and the free world, the United States must do everything possible to bring full liberty to Ukraine and move Russia back into her own borders. | ||
| The international community must safeguard those borders, and those negotiations are yet to come. | ||
| But we have some hope this morning, if we are serious, about making sure the dividing line between the free world and the suppressed world is clearly drawn and safeguarded. | ||
| Getting your calls this morning on Ukraine. | ||
| Rush is an East McKeysport, Pennsylvania, independent line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| You're the last person I talked to on C-SPAN months ago because I was still up in the air. | ||
| I was for Bobby Kennedy, of course, but I was up in the air. | ||
| And people always say I beat her on the bush. | ||
| And at the end, you said, okay, well, who are you going to vote for? | ||
| But at any rate. | ||
| So, wait, who did you vote for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
One of you, pardon. | |
| Who did you end up voting for, or do you not want to say Trump? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Trump, especially when Bobby wants, you know, is going to be confirmed here sooner or later. | |
| I don't know what our guy do. | ||
| They're supposed to do it today. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, that's at 10:30 rush. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thank you. | |
| On the Ukraine thing, I listen to, I don't watch a whole lot of TV. | ||
| I'm a big Tucker Carlson fan. | ||
| I followed him for 26 years. | ||
| When Fox got rid of him, it seems like all the podcasts I listen to have been fired from Fox. | ||
| Judge Netanyahu, not Netanyahu, Napolitano, O'Reilly, Megan Kelly, Dad Bongino. | ||
| But mainly I listen to this Napolitano. | ||
| And he has on this Professor Jeffrey Sachs, teaches at Columbia, I believe. | ||
| And he gives the best description of all the world history that the United States have been in. | ||
| And actually, I even knew this one. | ||
| In 2014, under Obama, this Newland. | ||
| I forget her first name. | ||
| Newland over there. | ||
| Barton. | ||
| Victoria Newland. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Victoria Newland. | |
| So we went over there and we overthrew. | ||
| Now I get the name, there was a Portashanka and another guy. | ||
| We overthrew their government in 2014 to put another guy in because the guy that was in there wanted to be too close to Russia and we shifted away from the EU and this and that. | ||
| So we got this other guy in and then that's you know, I don't want to get into stupid stuff at the barisma thing and we know what happened there. | ||
| And then so I do believe Trump when he says that war would have never happened. | ||
| Now everybody says, well, he's a Trump supporter or what or you know a Putin lover or something. | ||
| Well, heck. | ||
| No, I think I believe him. | ||
| I think that he just doesn't want to see people getting killed. | ||
| I don't either. | ||
| I went through the Vietnam. | ||
| I'm 73 years old. | ||
| So Rush, do you think that Ukraine should be at the table or should this just be negotiated between the U.S. and Russia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, no. | |
| Ukraine will be at the table. | ||
| In fact, Zelensky was at the White House. | ||
| It may have been either before Trump was even elected and was behind him. | ||
| I'm sure Zelensky. | ||
| But here's the thing: Zelensky made a comment. | ||
| I heard him say it less than a week ago. | ||
| Oh, the United States says they've given us hello? | ||
| Yes, yes, we're here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, they say they've given us $177 billion. | |
| I've only seen $77 billion of it. | ||
| So there's, you know, there is a lot of this stuff going on here, not just with the Ukraine, but with everything. | ||
| But they're not going to get that land back. | ||
| You say they're not on the other side. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a border thing. | |
| But Danansk and the other one that borders Russia, those are a lot of Russian people in there. | ||
| They're not going to get that land back. | ||
| I even think Hegzeth might have said that yesterday. | ||
| That's not going to be in the deal. | ||
| And the borders are unrealistic. | ||
| United Nations. | ||
| Okay, so, well, here's what Zelensky said in response. | ||
| So here's the newest thing that we've got. | ||
| I had a long and detailed conversation with President Trump. | ||
| I appreciate his genuine interest in our shared opportunities and how we can bring about real peace together. | ||
| We discussed many aspects: diplomatic, military, and economic. | ||
| And President Trump informed me about what Putin told him. | ||
| We believe that America's strength, together with Ukraine and all our partners, is enough to push Russia to peace. | ||
| John, Easton, Pennsylvania, Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Amy. | |
| The reason this war started is when NATO was formed, okay, Poland and them kind of countries were moved into the, you know, the war on the other side of the wall, you know, the communist Europe. | ||
| Ukraine was not included. | ||
| And neither was Crimea and all them other countries here. | ||
| Okay, so you're saying Ukraine was not included in NATO? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, in the border. | |
| If it was, Putin would have never been able to cross that border into Ukraine. | ||
| If there would have been a nuclear stockpile there, there would have been a military presence there and everything else. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Yeah, so there was nuclear weapons in Ukraine as part of the Soviet Union since they were part of the Soviet Union. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| And they gave them up. | ||
| Oh, on the American side. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Like in Europe, in Germany, and all that. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's, you know. | |
| So what are you thinking about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We weren't there. | |
| He was wide open. | ||
| Ukraine was wide open. | ||
| So what do you think about what's going on now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| What's going on now is Putin is getting old and he's a dictator and a dictator needs a place to go. | ||
| And there isn't a country in this world that'll take him except for the United States. | ||
| And the minute Trump got elected, that was his ticket to come here. | ||
| And the only reason Trump wants him here is because he wants to get his hands on his money. | ||
| Because Putin has been stealing from the Russian people for years. | ||
| He's got trillions of dollars all over the freaking world in bank. | ||
| And that's all Trump wants to do is get his hands on that. | ||
| And Putin will be living in this country, and we won't even be knowing him. | ||
| And Russia could be, who knows? | ||
| We might have a chance at getting democracy in Russia again. | ||
| This is Eric in Newport, New Hampshire, Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Eric. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, well, that Putin coming to America thing, you think he wants to come to America. | |
| He's got so much money, he can go anywhere in the world. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So, anyways, this Ukraine thing, yeah, it's a great, it's a great development. | ||
| I mean, it took what Trump a month. | ||
| He said he was going to do it overnight, you know, but you got to give him credit. | ||
| He did it in about a month. | ||
| And, you know, I mean, I think that's a great thing. | ||
| One of the things that will come out of this, our funding of the Ukraine effort, we sent billions over there. | ||
| We can't even reconcile our own DOD books. | ||
| And that's been well acknowledged for, I think, eight years. | ||
| We don't know where the money goes. | ||
| How do you think that's going to end up with the billions of dollars that we sent to Ukraine for a country half-bombed out? | ||
| That would be concerning, and I hope to see. | ||
| But Trump's doing a great job. | ||
| He's answered more questions in the last months than Joe Biden did in his 40 years combined. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| I'm glad that one more thing. | ||
| I'm glad that the Fort Liberty is now renamed back to what it should be, Fort Bragg, 82nd Airborne, all the way. | ||
| This is Jeffrey and Henderson, Nevada Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Jeffrey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Go right ahead. | ||
| What do you think about Ukraine? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think Ukraine is fighting for their freedom. | |
| And I thought that we in America stood for freedom. | ||
| And I think that we should back Ukraine as long as they're being attacked by another country. | ||
| I thought we stood for it. | ||
| It gives me liberty. | ||
| It gives me death. | ||
| And I think Ukraine is doing a meritorious job in fighting for their freedom. | ||
| Jeffrey, do you think that Ukraine should give up land in exchange for peace? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| No. | ||
| So then how does the war end? | ||
| Does it just keep going? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, then Russia should stop attacking them. | |
| Russia started the war. | ||
| Russia should just pack up and go back home. | ||
| And how do you get Russia to do that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I guess you continue to fight them as long as they're being attacked. | |
| That's just like if somebody came into your home and tell you, okay, I'm taking over your home, Jeffrey. | ||
| Lay down your arms. | ||
| I'm taking over your home. | ||
| Your wife belongs to me now. | ||
| It's almost the same. | ||
| Let's take a look at what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday about the Trump administration's approach. | ||
| We are at, as you said, Mr. Secretary, a critical moment. | ||
| As the war approaches its third anniversary, our message is clear. | ||
| The bloodshed must stop and this war must end. | ||
| President Trump has been clear with the American people and with many of your leaders that stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a top priority. | ||
| He intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both Russia and Ukraine to the table. | ||
| And the U.S. Department of Defense will help achieve this goal. | ||
| We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling Allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield. | ||
| We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. | ||
| But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. | ||
| Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering. | ||
| A durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. | ||
| This must not be Minsk 3.0. | ||
| That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. | ||
| Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops. | ||
| If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, and they should not be covered under Article 5. | ||
| There also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact. | ||
| To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine. | ||
| So Defense Secretary yesterday in Brussels want to know what you think about that. | ||
| The numbers are on your screen, and we'll hear from Brian in Venice, Florida, Independent. | ||
| Hi, Brian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, thank you for having me on. | |
| I'm really concerned about this. | ||
| I feel as if we're almost living in Britain in the 1930s. | ||
| Pete Hegseth, he shows up. | ||
| He used to show up at work drunk all the time, and now he's Secretary of Defense. | ||
| All the Republicans are terrified of Trump, so they just vote for all his people. | ||
| Well, Hegseth is kind of like having Neville Chamberlain. | ||
| Peace for the world. | ||
| He held up this big piece of paper coming back from Berlin talking to Adolf Hitler. | ||
| So what do you think is going to happen, Brian? | ||
| You think that Putin will get everything he wants? | ||
| What do you think it would look like? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think Putin will get everything he wants. | |
| And he's like Trump. | ||
| If their lips are moving their line, they'll destroy Ukraine. | ||
| I don't trust them. | ||
| And then what happens if Ukraine is destroyed? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, and then he'll be a bigger threat to the rest of Eastern Europe, especially Poland, in places like this. | |
| The ignorance I hear coming from mega supporters. | ||
| I'm sorry, mega supporters. | ||
| You think you know all this history? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| You don't. | ||
| You watch what happens with this. | ||
| And not only that, it's like Trump wants us to practically pull out of NATO. | ||
| That's what kept peace for so many years in Europe. | ||
| That's crazy. | ||
| That's insane. | ||
| We can't have that. | ||
| Trump, he just thrives on ignorance and anger. | ||
| Ignorance and anger. | ||
| United States, I never dreamt in my life a president of the United States would give up everything to a dictator of Putin. | ||
| And now it's happening. | ||
| That's about all I'm going to say. | ||
| Please wake up, people. | ||
| Please. | ||
| All right, Brian. | ||
| Let's go to Chevy Chase, Maryland at Republican Line. | ||
| Jim, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, I'm just getting tired of these Democrats calling up. | ||
| Trump does not want us to get out of NATO. | ||
| He just wants each one of those countries that they did their share. | ||
| And I love what Trump is doing. | ||
| He's in there a month, and he's done so much on all these issues that are so important. | ||
| The border, taking care of the wars. | ||
| And in terms of Ukraine war, I feel the solution would be to have Russia keep the land that they've occupied, but have the ability for Ukraine to join NATO. | ||
| Now, I know that Pete Hedzik said that couldn't be done, but why? | ||
| That seems to me to be the solution. | ||
| Because if Ukraine was part of NATO, then that would end any kind of attack from Russia. | ||
| I think it would stabilize the area. | ||
| Do you think Russia would accept that? | ||
| I mean, that's kind of a red line for them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is a red line, but the thing is that they would be able to keep the land they've occupied. | |
| So to me, it's a win-win for both countries. | ||
| And that would stabilize the area because then Russia would not be able to go into Ukraine anymore because then NATO countries would defend it. | ||
| So Jim, I know you can't see this, but we've got on the screen the Ukraine and the area that we're talking about here. | ||
| So Russia controls all the area in pink. | ||
| There's a small sliver of land in Russia, in the Kirks region, that the Ukrainians are controlling at this point. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think they should be allowed to keep that? | |
| Yeah, I mean, I think that could be worked out. | ||
| But I think the main point is that Russia, you know, I don't think they want to give up the land they've occupied. | ||
| And I think Pete Hedzek has already said that that would not be a point. | ||
| So to me, it's clear, you know, if you tell Russia that they could keep the land they have, but in the future, you won't be able to go and attack Ukraine anymore. | ||
| And all the European countries would be happy because they didn't know that the area would be stabilized. | ||
| So I think that would be the solution to this area. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| Let's talk to James next. | ||
| Newark, New Jersey, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, titling. | |
| Yeah, good. | ||
| Heid on feet, Ben. | ||
| That'll be all. | ||
| Now, I've been done in Russian politics since 1956. | ||
| You know? | ||
| Yep. | ||
| We're listening. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, good. | |
| And I really think this is a good deal. | ||
| I know way too much information about both countries, all these years. | ||
| I'm 21 years young right now. | ||
| And I think it's a good deal. | ||
| But we don't know what the deal is yet, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What do you think would do with that? | |
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just cut John John McCain back in early 2000 to Russia Eastern Ukraine. | |
| And John McCain turned against me for that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And like, um, yes, what's your East Ukraine? | |
| I already knew that. | ||
| From being with Russian people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. | ||
| Don't know I can't get in detail. | ||
| But yeah. | ||
| So I got Russia one Eastern Ukraine. | ||
| And what's your East Ukraine? | ||
| Not Russian Ukrainians to move for East Ukraine. | ||
| All right, James, let's hear a little bit more from Defense Secretary Hegsef from NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday. | ||
| Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of NATO. | ||
| As part of this, Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine. | ||
| Members of this contact group must meet the moment. | ||
| This means donating more ammunition and equipment, leveraging comparative advantages, expanding your defense industrial base, and importantly, leveling with your citizens about the threat facing Europe. | ||
| Part of this is speaking frankly with your people about how this threat can only be met by spending more on defense. | ||
| 2% is not enough. | ||
| President Trump has called for 5%, and I agree. | ||
| Increasing your commitment to your own security is a down payment for the future, a down payment, as you said, Mr. Secretary, of peace through strength. | ||
| We're also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe. | ||
| The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. | ||
| We must, and we are, focusing on security of our own borders. | ||
| We also face a peer competitor in the communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific. | ||
| The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific, recognizing the reality of scarcity and making the resourcing trade-offs to ensure deterrence does not fail. | ||
| That was a Defense Secretary yesterday. | ||
| I want to share with you an editorial from Bloomberg and get your reaction to it. | ||
| It says, talking to Putin won't be enough to end Ukraine war. | ||
| The Russian leader says he's ready to meet. | ||
| He won't negotiate seriously until the costs of fighting are steeper. | ||
| It says that later this week, White House envoys plan to discuss with their European counterparts how to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine. | ||
| For any negotiations to produce a durable settlement, however, the U.S. and its allies must show they're willing to enforce it. | ||
| To date, Russian President Putin has demonstrated no serious interest in peacemaking. | ||
| Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine and believes it holds the upper hand on the battlefield. | ||
| Putin set out to subjugate the whole country, walking away with parts of four war-ravaged regions after taking more than 600,000 casualties would hardly be a triumph. | ||
| He has repeatedly denied Ukraine sovereignty and set preconditions for talks, including forcing Ukraine to effectively disarm and abandon its NATO ambitions designed to make it easier to restart the fighting. | ||
| You can read the rest of that at Bloomberg. | ||
| We'll talk next to Catherine, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Catherine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just was calling in reference to Donald Trump seemingly siding with Putin on the settlement. | ||
| And I'm as old as Donald Trump. | ||
| He's actually three months older than me. | ||
| And I don't understand why he doesn't remember Khrushchev at the UN. | ||
| He took his shoe off and he was banging it on the table and he was saying, we will bury you. | ||
| And my feeling is everything Donald Trump is doing is to bow down to Putin. | ||
| Putin was the one who started the war. | ||
| I'm so sorry that he lost 600,000 troops. | ||
| He's devastated the Ukrainian economy and the population there. | ||
| But I think to bow down to his demands would be to giving in to him. | ||
| And I do believe that when Khrushchev retired, he also moved to the United States and he lived in Florida. | ||
| And I'm wondering if that I was laughing when I heard the guy who was saying when Putin retires, he's going to move to the United States. | ||
| I'm sure Trump will have a spot for him right at Mar-a-Lago. | ||
| I say stand firm, which is going to be unfortunate for the United States with Donald Trump there. | ||
| I don't know what the solution will be, but I just say he should bring up the words of Khrushchev, we will bury you, and remind himself of that before he makes any deals with Putin. | ||
| So thank you very much. | ||
| All right, Catherine. | ||
| A couple of things for your schedule later. | ||
| This is at 9 a.m. | ||
| Today we'll have the Senate will have the vote on Kash Patel's nomination to be FBI director. | ||
| You can see that over on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| Again, 9 a.m. live, the vote for Kash Patel at the Senate Judiciary Committee. | ||
| So that is not the full Senate vote. | ||
| That is the Senate Judiciary Committee vote. | ||
| Then at 10 a.m., President Trump's nominee to serve as Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, she testifies at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. | ||
| She led the agency dealing with small business during the first Trump administration and is co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment. | ||
| That's 10 a.m. Eastern Live on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| Both of those you can see at C-SPAN now, our free video app and online at c-span.org. | ||
| Also, RFK Jr. is set to have his confirmation vote. | ||
| That's set for 10.30 a.m. this morning. | ||
| That will be followed by a vote on Brooke Rawlins as agriculture secretary. | ||
| So be sure to stay with the C-SPAN networks for all of those. | ||
| Chris, Dunloring, Virginia, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Chris. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Listen, I have really enjoyed the show this morning, and I'm so entertained by these Democrats talking about Trump's lining up with Putin. | ||
| Listen, the Ukrainian invasion happened on Joe Biden's watch. | ||
| All these Putin aggressions seem to happen when Democrats are in the White House. | ||
| So if you want to talk about who's lining up with Putin, they allowed these things to occur. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Donald Trump is going to fix them. | |
| And the American people have decided that he's the only one that can do it. | ||
| So there's nothing funny going on other than Donald Trump fixing the problems that Democrats created with their weak, weak leadership. | ||
| So Chris, what do you think the deal should include for ending the war in Ukraine? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there's going to have to be some concessions of land, and people shouldn't go crazy about that. | |
| The most important thing is the fighting needs to end. | ||
| And Joe Biden wasn't able to do that. | ||
| This president will do it. | ||
| And make no mistake, when he does, the Democrats will have some problem with it. | ||
| But lives will be saved. | ||
| The war will end, and Donald Trump will do it. | ||
| Josephine in Livingston, New Jersey, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Unfortunately, when you get older, you've sort of been there, done that, sort of observed what's going on. | ||
| I have to give a new name to Trump, Neville Chamberlain. | ||
| Easement. | ||
| He is already giving up his chips. | ||
| And what are you talking about? | ||
| Oh, you want to create the Soviet Union again. | ||
| That's Putin's words. | ||
| Don't forget, they tell you they communicate. | ||
| He's been in power for 25 years. | ||
| He, too, that country, has sort of democratized where he'd be only in power for five or six years. | ||
| Watch Trump do the same little stunt. | ||
| I'm just saying, bottom line is he's already told him, you want those 20% of Ukraine? | ||
| You got it. | ||
| You want him nothing to be a NATO? | ||
| You got it. | ||
| What are we negotiating? | ||
| He's already told Putin, what do you want? | ||
| I bow down, I kiss your feet. | ||
| You got it. | ||
| Remember, he said, I'm going to create the Soviet Union again. | ||
| He went into the state of Georgia, going George W. Bush. | ||
| He's trying to go into Moldavia. | ||
| He's trying, where are your heads, folks? | ||
| The man is a killer. | ||
| They got a thing that's going to be on CNN about Moggovy. | ||
| Who the heck did Moggobe? | ||
| But Putin, what is wrong with you? | ||
| He is a murderer. | ||
| You don't negotiate with a murderer. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| David in Lynchburg, Virginia, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning, Maria. | ||
| I still see you up in my house in the background there. | ||
| I'm a Vietnam veteran. | ||
| Wait, David, we're having trouble hearing you. | ||
| Say it again. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I said. | |
| Sorry, we can't. | ||
| David, do me a favor and call back, please, on a better line. | ||
| We're having trouble hearing you, but we definitely want to hear your comment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm a Vietnam veteran. | |
| I don't support it all the way. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| Frank in Englewood, Florida, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, C-SPEN. | |
| Good job on the non-biased reporting. | ||
| First of all, I really think that these Monday morning quarterback individuals who are calling in and criticizing our president for what he's doing, they need to spend more time on their knees and away from the tiki bar, as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| The way I see it is the president is doing his best to end the war and to end the massacre of so many young people that are dying in these wars in Ukraine and Russia. | ||
| It has to come to an end. | ||
| He said he was going to try to bring this war to an end. | ||
| Let him try to bring the war to an end. | ||
| Yes, there's going to be compromise. | ||
| Yes, there's going to be a loss of land. | ||
| But the war needs to come to an end, just like the hostages need to be released immediately. | ||
| For President Trump to do all this within three weeks is incredible. | ||
| And what I see is I see the hand of God moving across this country, moving across this world to carry out his will. | ||
| And guess what? | ||
| God uses people to do it. | ||
| And if he uses Trump, so be it. | ||
| No matter if you like him, if you don't like him, God is going to have his will and his way carried out in this country and in this world. | ||
| And that's my take on this whole thing. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is Politico with the headline, Trump and Putin stun Europe with peace plan for Ukraine. | ||
| U.S. President announces that talks with Russia's leader on ending the war will start, quote, immediately after his defense chief warns that Ukraine's peace goals won't be met. | ||
| That's at politico.com. | ||
| And this is Carol, Sacramento, California, Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Carol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I don't know how much I can contribute to everything, but I do agree with one previous caller about, you know, that the war has to end. | ||
| And I do have to commend, although I'm sure we'll get a lot of nasties from people about Biden just giving equipment and artillery and the things that they needed to try to save Ukraine's democracy. | ||
| So we saved lives there. | ||
| The problem is going to be when you put two narcissists together, which are Putin and Trump, the man with the most money will win. | ||
| And that may not be good for us. | ||
| And we need to think, too, that when we supported Ukraine, I'm sure there were some deals about, well, we're going to give you this trillions of dollars to save your democracy. | ||
| And we may have needed some of their raw materials in the end. | ||
| But don't you think that Tesla and Elon are going to need those raw materials? | ||
| So let's think about that too, which we raped, or I should say, Tesla raped Australia for raw materials to make their batteries. | ||
| Now we're going to do that to Ukraine because there's some deals going on that we're not aware of or things that aren't being transparent. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I want the war to end as much as anybody, and I want lives saved. | ||
| And I was glad that we didn't send any of our troops over there, and I don't think we should. | ||
| And this is a posting on X by Anders Fo Rasmussen. | ||
| He's the former NATO Secretary General. | ||
| He said this. | ||
| President Trump is a businessman, and he must know that it would be a mistake to give away leverage before a negotiation even begins. | ||
| Peace through strength is a winning formula. | ||
| And I wonder what you think about that, whether the Defense Secretary should have said immediately that Ukraine would not get what it's looking for, which is their territorial integrity prior to 2014, or NATO membership. | ||
| This is Jonathan, a Democrat in North Las Vegas, Nevada. | ||
| What do you think, Jonathan? | ||
| Jonathan, you got to just talk into your phone. | ||
| Mute your TV. | ||
| Ukraine will not get what it's like. | ||
| Jonathan, you're there? | ||
| Nope. | ||
| Jim in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Republican. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| Jim? | ||
| Grand Forks, North Dakota. | ||
| Let's try Butch. | ||
| Temple Hills, Maryland, Democrat. | ||
| Are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Oh, good. | ||
| Go ahead, Butch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I can't figure out, for God's sake, that everybody see knows that Trump is not truly honest about anything. | |
| He lies about everything, and he didn't have the education to be the president. | ||
| And yet these oligons are in place to destroy America. | ||
| And most of the Republicans somehow, for some reason, do not understand anything. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Marty is next. | ||
| In Van Buren, Arkansas, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Yeah, just my thoughts on it are, you know, reminding us, you know, how we got here. | ||
| We say that Trump is easy on Putin and that he is sympathetic, but I think we forget that Putin's biggest problem with this whole thing is pushing NATO towards his border. | ||
| And I would think of that as if China and North Korea and Russia had a military pact to come to each other's aid and they call Canada and say, we want you in, we would have an issue with that, just like Putin. | ||
| And so I don't think his some of some of his concerns are to be brushed off by the U.S. | ||
| And I think Trump is wise to hear him out and consider. | ||
| I don't think that the war is necessarily justified, but I don't think we talk since the 90s, a chain of events has gone on that is far more complex than we can have in a two-minute conversation. | ||
| And so the best thing to do is to understand that history and what's really going on rather than blaming Biden or blaming Trump or whoever. | ||
| Where we are now is more complicated than anyone listening in the radio will ever know because we're not in those closed-door meetings. | ||
| And let's talk to Fritz in Clarksville, Tennessee, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I can't believe the ignorance of people about this situation. | ||
| My wife is Russian. | ||
| He was born in Odessa, Ukraine. | ||
| And we travel back and forth to Russia a couple times a year for the past 12 years or so. | ||
| And Russia's economy is doing great. | ||
| There's new construction everywhere. | ||
| They're not losing. | ||
| They're not going to lose. | ||
| And as far as they're worried about Russian aggression, how is Austria doing right now? | ||
| That has been a neutral country since the 1950s, I believe. | ||
| And unaligned, and Russia never attacked, the Soviet Union never attacked Austria, and they're doing just fine. | ||
| And that's what they wanted Ukraine to be. | ||
| Just neutral. | ||
| And they could have traded with Russia, could have traded with the West, been independent, and no problem. | ||
| No, the United States went in there and did a coup via Victoria Newland, John McCain, that bunch. | ||
| And we started that war. | ||
| Russia put a red line in the sand, said, nope, you don't, not in Ukraine. | ||
| They put up with it in Poland and the Baltic states. | ||
| So, Fritz, you're not saying that Russia was justified in invading Ukraine? | ||
| Is that what you mean? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| They were. | ||
| What would we have done if Russia had put in or China had put in, you know, tried to move into Mexico and been on our border with and make Mexico part of some alliance there? | ||
| A defensive alliance. | ||
| Which is what NATO is. | ||
| A defensive alliance, which is what NATO is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, well, they were defensive when they bombed Yugoslavia, Serbia. | |
| All right. | ||
| Well, Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed and sworn in yesterday as the Director of National Intelligence. | ||
| I want to share with you what Mitch McConnell said, Senator Mitch McConnell said on why he voted no. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| He said, The nation should not have to worry that the intelligence assessments the president receives are tainted by a director of national intelligence with a history of alarming lapses in judgment. | ||
| Edward Snowden's treasonous portrayal of the United States and its most sensitive, lawful intelligence activities endangered sources, methods, and lives. |