| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
September 11th attacks. | |
| I was actually moose hunting in Alaska when September 11th happened, so I was one of the last people on the planet to find out about it. | ||
| I didn't see it on TV and got stuck there because the borders were closed. | ||
| I couldn't fly over Canada. | ||
| And as soon as I could get home, I walked into a recruiter's office. | ||
| I said, hey, I've got a pilot's license. | ||
| I used to, you know, was a researcher at NYU. | ||
| What can you do with me? | ||
| Watch new members of Congress all this week, starting at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| Later today, former Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu discusses democracy and Trump administration policies at an event hosted by George Washington University. | ||
| Watch live at 6 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
| Here's the Gallup poll from last week, taking a look at questions asked about members of political parties and changes they would like to see within those parties. | ||
| Just some of those results. | ||
| One of the questions was when it comes to preferences, saying that if you had to choose, what would you rather see the Democratic Party become more liberal, stay the same, or become more moderate? | ||
| If you had to choose, would you see the Republican Party become more conservative, stay the same, or become more moderate? | ||
| When asked in 2021 for Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 34% of those saying they wanted to see their party more liberal, 31% saying they wanted it to stay the same, and then more moderate, 34%. | ||
| Go to 2025. | ||
| Same question to Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. | ||
| 29% of those saying they wanted their party to become more liberal. | ||
| 22% saying they wanted to stay the same. | ||
| 45% of those questioned saying Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents more moderate is what they wanted to see. | ||
| When asked of Republicans in 2021, 40% said they wanted to see the party more conservative, 34% saying stay the same, and 24% saying they wanted to see the party more moderate. | ||
| Going flash forward to 25, 2025, 28% of those conservatives, Republicans, and Republican-leaning independents, 28% saying they wanted to see the party more conservative. | ||
| 43% of those saying when it comes to their party, they wanted it to stay the same. | ||
| And then 27% saying they wanted their party to become more moderate. | ||
| That's the Gallup poll. | ||
| And we're taking our own poll of sorts when it comes to the party you belong to. | ||
| If you think it needs changes and you want to tell us what you think those changes should be, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| And for independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| And as always, you can text us your thoughts too at 202-748-8003 and post on our social media sites as well. | ||
| One of those other categories, specifically for members of the Democratic Party, saying that if you had to choose, would you rather see that Democratic Party become more liberal, stay the same, or more moderate? | ||
| Amongst those who identified as liberal Democrats, saying that they wanted the party to become more liberal. | ||
| 45% of those, 22% of those saying stay the same, and 30% saying more moderate. | ||
| When it comes to those who identified as moderate Democrats, 14% saying that the party should be more liberal, 22% saying it should stay the same, 62% of those saying that the party should become more moderate. | ||
| There's more there for the Gallup poll. | ||
| If you want to take a look at that, that came out just recently. | ||
| More Democrats favor party moderation than in the past is the title. | ||
| So when it comes to those party modifications, you would like to see if you think your party does need those changes. | ||
| Luke in Miami, Florida, Democrats line, starts us off. | ||
| Luke, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Pedro. | |
| It's my first time calling. | ||
| Yeah, I think absolutely that the parties need to change. | ||
| I've been really disappointed in the Democratic Party recently. | ||
| I think that they're stuck in a lot of positions that are just extremely unpopular with the voter base, especially these social positions. | ||
| There was an incident recently where, you know, someone that was like a chair of the Democratic Party or something was like, you know, trying to deal with pronouns and it was just a complete mess. | ||
| I think a lot of those positions are just incredibly unpopular. | ||
| And, you know, I think that if the recent election is anything to go by, if the Democratic Party wants to win, it needs to abandon some of these weird positions that it has. | ||
| So as Luke, let me ask you then, what are one of the specific positions perhaps you have that maybe that would differ within most in your party? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, well, I don't think that we should be having these transgender athletes that are like competing in women's sports. | |
| I think that they have an unfair advantage. | ||
| And I think, you know, I mean, statistics I've seen say that like over 60% of the general American population, you know, doesn't think that they should be participating in these sports. | ||
| And I think, you know, positions like that, where we have clear statistics that most people just don't want these things that the Democratic Party refuses to change on is just, you know, it's really putting them out of touch with the American people. | ||
| Luke there in Miami, Florida, on our Democrats line about changes he would perhaps want to see within the party he is belonging to. | ||
| Raymond in Mount Vernon, New York, Republican line, you're next up. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Morning. | |
| My thing is, I just want to know: is term limits a possibility in this country? | ||
| Because it seems like people are in office too long. | ||
| Should there be an age requirement for term limits for Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court justices? | ||
| Just my question. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Well, narrow it down to your party. | ||
| Would you want to see those within specifically your party be term limited as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everybody, yes. | |
| Why is that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I feel like, you know, like they're like, like, like they've been in office for so long. | |
| And, you know, like they always bickering back and forth. | ||
| You know, politicians, you know, that's what they do. | ||
| I understand, you know, but it just seems like they're in office too long. | ||
| I just asked just to see if that's a possibility term limits. | ||
| That's what I asked. | ||
| That's Raymond there in New York. | ||
| Gallup taking a look at the issues of the Republican Party as well. | ||
| Here's the question they asked on their recent poll saying that if you had to choose, would you rather see you rather see the Republican Party become more conservative, stay the same, or become more moderate? | ||
| Conservative Republicans, as they identified themselves, 38% of those saying they wanted to see the party become more conservative, 45% saying they wanted the party to stay the same, 16% saying that the party, Republican Party, should become more moderate. | ||
| And then amongst moderate Republicans, as I identified themselves, 10% of those saying they wanted to see the party become more conservative, 36% saying they wanted the party to stay the same, and then 50% of those polled by Gallup amongst moderate Republicans saying they wanted the Republican Party to become more moderate. | ||
| So you may reflect those ideas. | ||
| You may not. | ||
| Call and let us know. | ||
| Democrats line in Wisconsin. | ||
| Mike, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| As a Democrat, the problem that the Democrats have is a number of things, but the biggest one is they don't have a simplified platform. | ||
| I went back the other day and looked at FDR's platform in the early 30s, and that's what the Democratic Party needs. | ||
| Too many fringe ideas. | ||
| They need to focus on three to five big ones that they can communicate simply to the American people. | ||
| And it's really not left or right or conservative or liberal. | ||
| It really is relevant, what is relevant to the American people. | ||
| And they need to focus on those things. | ||
| For example, one of the big ones that we need to do is the campaign funding. | ||
| Citizens United has destroyed the country with money in Washington. | ||
| We need to reform that. | ||
| We've got to go back on the issues where we made mistakes and refocus. | ||
| And that is one, campaign finance reform and stay relevant in terms of the American people. | ||
| It's really not a left and right, but we went. | ||
| Democrats went with some very fringe issues where, for example, the NCAA in terms of the sexual change rule, there are 10 people participating in the NCAA, 511,000 student athletes, and we're focused on 11 of them. | ||
| I'm not saying they shouldn't participate. | ||
| What I'm saying is that's what was focused on. | ||
| And it defocuses the relevance of the party. | ||
| And it dissipates what's meaningful to the American people. | ||
| The relevance is the important thing. | ||
| The other thing is we've got to round up some representatives that are able to communicate. | ||
| And I call it the New Deal 2.0, that need to focus on that. | ||
| One of the other big ones is we have a rich and poor issue in the United States. | ||
| We need a sovereign wealth fund where we dilute every public corporation in the United States by 25%, and that becomes the sovereign wealth fund. | ||
| I did the calculation. | ||
| It's about two times, or it's about half the national debt. | ||
| And that would be equity held by the Treasury of the United States on behalf of the American people with restrictions on how it can be used, et cetera. | ||
| Anyway, that's my thought for the day. | ||
| Have a wonderful one. | ||
| Mike in Wisconsin there with a list of ideas of how his party should change on our independent line. | ||
| Again, if you are independent and you want to give your thoughts on the party you're part of or at least lean towards Mike in Orlando, Florida, your next up hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Pedro. | |
| Pedro, I've been an independent, registered independent since 1974. | ||
| I've been hoping for a viable third party. | ||
| It was kind of happening when Ross Perot made his run there. | ||
| And, you know, of course, we got close to 20% of the vote. | ||
| But as I get older, I don't see a viable third party. | ||
| So here's my suggestions. | ||
| First, for the Republican Party. | ||
| Their party has turned into nothing but a spineless people that are just basically Donald Trump's shoe polishers, bootlickers, whatever you want to call them. | ||
| The Democratic Party needs major change. | ||
| First off, and I'm above 65, if you're 65 to 70, it's time to retire. | ||
| We need young voices, AOC, Maxwell, Frost from Florida. | ||
| These things happen to change. | ||
| But I just don't understand why these old fossils want to keep on going when it's time for younger people who are energetic and ready to get in there and fight. | ||
| Why do you think that they don't have the opportunity to do so? | ||
| What keeps them from doing that, do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're talking about the younger people from getting positions? | |
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I just think the older people and me being one of them just don't want to give up that power and prestige of being in D.C. and calling the shots. | ||
| Now, I understand. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
| Here comes a younger person. | ||
| But Pedro, I taught school for over 25 years. | ||
| There are very good younger people who can take a stand and actually take over this party. | ||
| And as again, me being up in that upper age there, I don't understand how these people that get to be 70, 80 years old can do it on a daily basis. | ||
| I mean, I'm strong, in great shape, and I don't want to do it on a daily basis. | ||
| Mike, there in Florida, giving us thoughts for more younger voices within the party. | ||
| Maybe that's one of the things you see as far as what your party needs. | ||
| You can call and let us know. | ||
| Maybe you think there's no changes needed to your current state of the party. | ||
| You can let us know those thoughts as well. | ||
| 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Independents, 202748-80002. | ||
| In California Democrats line, this is Oscar. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Oh, hi. | ||
| How are you doing this evening? | ||
| I want to, can you hear me okay? | ||
| Yeah, you're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| So I, you know, it's the Democrats need to focus, you know, refocus and on money, on this money separation. | ||
| They need to make it, they need to make things simple, simplify things and not cluttered up with all unnecessary issues. | ||
| And they need to just stick to that because there's what the Democrats are good at, and that's digging into the corruption and stuff. | ||
| Not that they're not doing it either, but they're good at finding discrepancies in the Republican, you know, with the Republican Party. | ||
| So they could do that all they want, but they need to refocus on just making it about these billionaires, just getting away with, I mean, doing away with the Constitution, practically. | ||
| I mean, we know it. | ||
| And Republicans, you know, come on. | ||
| I mean, you've got to be seeing this. | ||
| I mean, you guys voted the guy in office. | ||
| So just, I mean, we both, the both parties need to refocus on this because I think that's what it's all about. | ||
| It's big money and just, you know, they're leaving the poor working class behind in everything across the board. | ||
| Oscar there in this early morning for him in California, giving us his thoughts as well. | ||
| One of the people making their thoughts known to is the new head of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, appearing on MSNBC, talking about the new role he has and what he saw was job one as he described it for his party. | ||
| Here's some of his thoughts from yesterday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When I ran, I said, we need to get the DNC out of D.C. | |
| And someone said, well, what do you mean, moving the headquarters from D.C.? | ||
| No, it's a mindset change. | ||
| It's really focusing back on the states, building a 57-state party strategy, up and down the ballot, contesting every race in all 3,244 of our counties. | ||
| We have to be organizing everywhere, which is, by the way, the name of this tour. | ||
| We're going to be talking with voters, with union members, with farmers, door knocking for candidates, holding listening sessions throughout those red, purple, and blue states that we're visiting this week. | ||
| We need to get the DNC out of DC, out of the beltway, reconnecting our message back with voters. | ||
| That's job number one, right? | ||
| So many parts of our coalition left us this last election cycle, right? | ||
| We know that from Latino voters to working class households to young voters to women. | ||
| You can go down the list. | ||
| The only two groups that we overperformed with in the last election cycle were wealthy households and college-educated voters. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a damning indictment on the Democratic Party. | |
| We got to do a better job. | ||
| So that's why we're getting out there to these states this week to reconnect our message to the voters. | ||
| Some of you posting on Facebook this morning, this is Cindy Castro saying that when it comes to the party and what they should do, I think speaking to the Republican Party is primary every Republican in name only or rhino, as the acronym goes, that doesn't support the president's agenda. | ||
| Michael Safko saying a very strong ethical oversight based on logic and knowledge that removes rumors and mistrust. | ||
| Misbehavior must not be tolerated. | ||
| And then Heather Collins saying that the 99% needs to make the change. | ||
| Party politics, describing as a noun, the politics that relate to political parties rather than to the good of the general public. | ||
| You can take some of those ideas if they are your own. | ||
| Call us this morning or share them on our tech service 2027-488003. | ||
| You can post on Facebook at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Independent Line, this is Bill in Florida on the changes needed for your political party. | ||
| Bill, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning to you too as well. | |
| I definitely think there has to be, as far as an independent myself goes, I think there needs to be more transparency in all government institutions at all levels, whether it's county, city, state, federal. | ||
| Also, as far as certain positions, as far as like, you know, attention plans, insurance, that type of thing needs to be changed, you know, medical insurance, and also, you know, how they handle our tax money in general, which, you know, is kind of like, you know, nothing's accounted for. | ||
| I mean, it's all over the map, part of me. | ||
| And you just, I just think that, you know, all parties, including independents, they need to start really, you know, being more active as far as the election process goes. | ||
| And it's sad that more younger people aren't. | ||
| Okay, Bill there in Florida. | ||
| Let's hear from Eric, who joins us from Maryland, also on our independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, thanks. | ||
| I was a Democrat for my entire life up until after the 2016 election. | ||
| So I'm going to respond that way. | ||
| Democrats' biggest problem is they just lie about everything. | ||
| And it's just the most extreme. | ||
| They accuse people of the most extreme things that just aren't happening. | ||
| I mean, and it continues through today. | ||
| I mean, I was at party meetings where I had leader heads telling people in the room that their own relatives wanted them dead. | ||
| And when I asked them if they believed this, after a second or two of contemplation, they actually said yes. | ||
| And that's the mentality of the Democrat Party these days. | ||
| And as far as the Republicans go, you know, in Maryland, we call it what they don't call us independent. | ||
| They call us unaffiliated. | ||
| So I've been unaffiliated since after the 2016 election. | ||
| But Republicans can't get their act together. | ||
| They fight together, fight all the time. | ||
| There's no party. | ||
| And it's George Bush days when he went online and the party message just wasn't, there was no party message for the Republicans. | ||
| But the Democrats, they just, the party message is just ridiculous. | ||
| So, Eric, let me ask you. | ||
| Eric, you're breaking up a little bit, but let me ask you when it comes to that party messaging, particularly amongst the Republicans. | ||
| And I think you were talking about maybe disagreements or infighting. | ||
| I don't know, but why do you think that exists? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, the Republicans have always been that way. | |
| Since I first decided, looked into political parties as a kid, when I first went to vote and decided what party I was going to belong to. | ||
| The Republicans have not had a coherent message that they all stick to. | ||
| You see the Democrats, when they go and say something, you can literally see that they got the memo because every one of the Democrats is using the same words. | ||
| Identical words. | ||
| So that's, you know, that's also a tip for propaganda. | ||
| But, you know, Republicans don't have a cohesiveness, and they always fail in the end because they don't have a backbone. |