| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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President Trump's cabinet nominees. | |
| And over on C-SPAN 3 at 10.15 a.m., the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing to discuss online child safety and the role artificial intelligence is playing in exploitation. | ||
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| Coming up this morning on Washington Journal, your calls and comments live. | ||
| Then we'll talk about the first month of the Trump administration. | ||
| First, with political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host Armstrong Williams. | ||
| And later, we're joined by the nation magazine's Ellie Mistahl, who is also the host of the legal podcast Contempt of Court. | ||
| Washington Journal is next. | ||
| Join the conversation. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's Wednesday, February 19th. | ||
| Last night, in their first joint television interview, President Trump and Elon Musk spoke to Fox News's Sean Hannity about Doge and the first 100 days of the administration. | ||
| We'll show you portions of the interview and get your reaction to that, to the role Elon Musk is playing in government and the actions of Doge so far. | ||
|
unidentified
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Are you in support or are you opposed to those actions? | |
| Here's how to call us. | ||
| Republicans, 202748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can send a text to 202-748-8003. | ||
| Include your first name in your city-state. | ||
| And we're on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with this news from The Hill headlined, Chutkin refuses to block Musk, Doge from seven federal agencies. | ||
| The U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin yesterday refused the request of 14 Democratic state attorneys general to immediately impose wide-ranging restrictions on Elon Musk's Doge. | ||
| It's a coalition of states. | ||
| It claims that Musk's far-reaching role heading Doge is unconstitutional since he was not confirmed by the Senate and the state sought to block Doge from accessing seven federal agencies. | ||
| She refused their demand to do so at the current stage of the case, saying they had not made the necessary showing of irreparable harm. | ||
| Here's what she said. | ||
| Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight. | ||
| In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority. | ||
| Accordingly, it cannot issue a temporary restraining order, especially one as wide-ranging as plaintiffs request, without clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm to these plaintiffs. | ||
| The current record does not meet that standard. | ||
| Well, we will show you a portion of the interview that aired on Fox News last night. | ||
| Here is Elon Musk responding to criticism about Doge. | ||
| And this is what you get from the Democrats. | ||
| You get, nobody voted for Elon. | ||
| Well, nobody voted for any of your cabinet nominees. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| People are dying because of Doge cuts. | ||
| I'll give you a chance to respond all this. | ||
| What Doge is doing is illegal. | ||
| Elon Musk is more street vernacular for a male body part. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a constitutional crisis. | |
| Why are they reacting like this? | ||
| Well, first of all, do you give it a flying rip over number one? | ||
| Well, I guess we must be over the target of doing something right. | ||
| They wouldn't be complaining so much if we weren't doing something useful, I think. | ||
| What all we're really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. | ||
| And what we're finding is that there's an unelected bureaucracy. | ||
| Speaking of unelected, there's a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacabed to the president and the cabinet. | ||
| And you look at, say, D.C. voting, it's 92% Kamala. | ||
| Okay, so we're in 92% Kamala. | ||
| That's a lot. | ||
| They don't like me here either. | ||
| I think about that number a lot. | ||
| I'm like 92%. | ||
| That's basically almost everyone. | ||
| And so how can you, if the will of the president is not implemented and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented. | ||
| And that means we don't live in a democracy. | ||
| We live in a bureaucracy. | ||
| And so I think what we're seeing here is the sort of thrashing of the bureaucracy as we try to restore democracy and the will of the people. | ||
| And we will take your calls now and start with Andrew in Sterling, Virginia, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Amy. | |
| Yeah, this introduction of Elon as co-president of the United States is probably one of the most dangerous, one of the most undemocratic actions ever done by a sitting U.S. president. | ||
| We now have a president and a co-president who are in a process of destroying this country, this democracy. | ||
| He was not an elected official. | ||
| He has not gone through proper security clearance. | ||
|
unidentified
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He's gone through every department in this country and basically undermining and destroying what makes this country work and what makes this country great. | |
| This guy is truly a danger. | ||
| Trump, along with Musk, have basically sold our country out to Putin and every dictator in this world. | ||
| So, Andrew, respond to what you just heard Elon Musk say that he's restoring democracy and that it's the bureaucracy that is contrary to the people's will. | ||
|
unidentified
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For them to attack federal workers, to go through every department and just slash and burn when these are the people, these federal workers who are the heroes of this country, who are basically protecting every American citizen, is crazy. | |
| I would love to know what this country, what kind of position this country is going to be in after four years of these two clowns. | ||
| You will not be able to recognize this country. | ||
| We'll resemble Russia. | ||
| We'll resemble Red China. | ||
| We'll resemble every autocratic dictatorship in this world. | ||
| And the American people are going to suffer. | ||
| I would like to think that the American people, after what they've seen in the first few weeks, are regretting their vote for Donald Trump. | ||
| This is not what they asked for. | ||
| And this is what they're going to get. | ||
| Andrew, let's see if anybody is regretting that vote, as you believe. | ||
| This is a Republican in Wilmington, North Carolina. | ||
| David, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Just to respond to the last caller, democracy is not equated with wasting trillions of dollars. | ||
| But there's a couple of points that the press could really help, but they won't, but C-SPAN can. | ||
| Inflation is not the rise in prices. | ||
| Inflation is a rise, inflation of the money supply, one of the symptoms of which is a rise in prices. | ||
| So the root cause is an increase in the money supply through borrowing. | ||
| And the other is, well, the point about is just an aside, but could you set the record straight on Elon Musk's security clearance? | ||
| I think like three of my five kids, he has top secret. | ||
| Maybe you could you could you could straighten that out. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, David, it's not clear to me as far as his I've been looking into this and I will continue to look into it because you're right there. | ||
| It's not clear. | ||
| I had seen that he did not get a top secret clearance because of previous drug use and because of his international contact. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's because of his other missions. | |
| But he's got a secret clearance and not a top secret clearance. | ||
| It's not totally clear to me. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
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I had heard top secret, but it is also based on your need to know and it doesn't cover all areas. | |
| That's correct. | ||
| But the other major point is I don't, again, that the press has not helped with this. | ||
| And Congress could do a better job too, which is to explain to Americans the magnitude of the debt and the trouble that we're in. | ||
| I've been talking about this at C-SPAN the last couple of years that after all the other major issues, I said the big issue coming up is going to be the debt and the changes that we're going to have to make. | ||
| Cutbacks and entitlements is the number one. | ||
| You only hear that really mentioned. | ||
| Sometimes Congressmen and Senators mention it. | ||
| But cutbacks and entitlements, it's a painful, painful withdrawal from our addiction to spending. | ||
| It's going to hurt. | ||
| It's definitely going to hurt, but it's not because we're not democratic or we're ruining democracy. | ||
| It's because we're in debt. | ||
| And Americans don't understand the size of it and the price we're going to pay if we go over the cliff. | ||
| I wish C-SPAN would have more programs on that. | ||
| Thank you very much for your great work. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is, actually, our producer found a posting on X by Elon Musk who says this. | ||
| I've had a top secret clearance for many years and have clearances that themselves are classified. | ||
| That said, far too much information is made, quote, classified. | ||
| If something is easily found online or patently obvious, it should not be classified. | ||
| Of course, we have no way of checking that information, but here's William in Ohio Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, William. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'd like to say one thing before I get into Musk and Trump. | ||
| The Republican Party cannot call themselves a party of law and order ever again after hiring a convicted felon like that and his henchman, Elon Musk. | ||
| They are destroying my beautiful country. | ||
| This has been a democracy for 248 years, and they're trying to destroy it in a matter of weeks. | ||
| And, you know, how big your pocketbook is, it's supposed to be for all people. | ||
| And a lot of people depend on this stuff that they're giving them. | ||
| And they're just going to make the poor class a lot poorer, and they're going to give themselves big tax cuts. | ||
| And, you know, it's going to destroy them. | ||
| It's going to destroy democracy before this. | ||
| You know, Trump is a cancer body politic, and it must be removed. | ||
| I'm sorry I say that, but the way he's acting is crazy. | ||
| He's not an autocrat. | ||
| He's not a Republican. | ||
| He's a Trumpian. | ||
| He only thinks about one thing, 1%. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And we got this from Robin on Facebook, who says, Support. | ||
| Who wouldn't support cutting fraudulent spending? | ||
| And let's talk to Howard, Indianapolis, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| My concern is this whole issue with Doge is just a mass to cut government. | ||
| All the items I've heard reported from Elon and his team have just been things they don't like that they call waste. | ||
| For example, if some program advanced DEI initiatives, they'll call that waste. | ||
| Just because a president now has this racist view that DEI is not important. | ||
| That is not waste. | ||
| That's just doing away with things that a congressional legislative body approved. | ||
| I think what Trump and Elon are engaged with, particularly Trump, is an unlawful act because they are changing acts that were approved by a congressional process which reflects the collective will of all of our citizens. | ||
| So the gentleman before that says that Trump is just trying to be a dictator and using this Doge thing as an excuse is just one point. | ||
| And another more important point is this distortion over the federal budget deficit. | ||
| There is no such thing as a deficit for a sovereign fiat currency-based country like the U.S. In other words, the U.S. can issue any currency and any value it wants. | ||
| What we call debt is just really federal expenditures beyond taxes. | ||
| And it does not, it's not necessarily detrimental or positive. | ||
| It's an irrelevant measure. | ||
| But this doge and Trump and this budget austerity march they're on is just to use it as an excuse to take benefits away from people. | ||
| And I look to C-SPAN to do a much better job in having a more intelligent discussion on budget planning for the U.S. because we're a sovereign fiat currency-based country where that just simply means we issue our own currency. | ||
| We don't need to raise taxes, issue bonds, do any of that. | ||
| And the U.S. has done that over time. | ||
| If you just look at the history of our country in terms of employment, low employment, and inflation, you'll see that the budget deficits and budget debt have been all over the place. | ||
| They have no impact on what the actual activity is in our economy. | ||
| So thank you for letting me make sure that. | ||
| All right, Howard, let's take a look at another portion of that interview from yesterday on Hannity talking about the goal of getting $1 trillion out of the debt. | ||
| If you had to put a number on it, how much do you think you've identified waste, fraud, abuse, corruption at this point? | ||
| And again, we're going to be scrolling this throughout the program. | ||
| Well, the overall goal is to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit. | ||
| And if the deficit is not brought under control, America will go bankrupt. | ||
| This is a very important thing for people to understand. | ||
| A country is no different from an individual in that if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt, and so can a country. | ||
| And the massive waste, warden abuse that has been going on, which is leading to a $2 trillion a year deficit, that's what the president was handed on Jan 20th, a $2 trillion deficit. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's insane for this fiscal year. | |
| Two trillion. | ||
| Yeah, we inherited it. | ||
| And inflation is back. | ||
| I'm only here for two and a half weeks. | ||
| That was January 2015. | ||
| Inflation is back. | ||
| Now, think of it. | ||
| Inflation's back. | ||
| And they said, oh, Trump and Flat. | ||
| I had nothing to do with it. | ||
| These people have run the country. | ||
| They spent money like nobody's ever spent. | ||
| They were given $9 trillion to throw out the window. | ||
| $9 trillion. | ||
| And they spent it on the Green News scam. | ||
| I call it the greatest scam in the history of the country. | ||
| One of them. | ||
| We have a lot of them, I guess, but one of them dollar-wise probably and woke issues. | ||
| Well, that's all part of it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And LGBTQ. | ||
| By the way, not in America, other countries, not here. | ||
| You know, the amazing thing is when you see the teaching of DEI, $9 million. | ||
| How do you spend $9 million to teach? | ||
| No matter what it is, you could teach physics. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You could go to MIT for expensive. | |
| The teaching of TECPS. | ||
| How much do you believe, Elon, you've identified in waste, fraud, abuse, corruption now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And how much do you anticipate you will be 1%? | |
| No, because it's so massive. | ||
| This is huge money. | ||
| So what we found out was 1%. | ||
| As good as they are, they're not going to find some contract that was crooked as hell. | ||
| I mean, there's going to be so much that isn't found. | ||
| But what is fed, I think he's going to find a trillion dollars. | ||
| Yeah, I think so. | ||
| But I think it's a very small percentage compared to what it is. | ||
| And this is what Fred says on X. | ||
| We just keep hearing Democrats whining about Elon, and they won't even bring up all the wasted tax dollars. | ||
| I think they're more worried that it's going to come out. | ||
| They've been making money off of just one big money laundering scam. | ||
| And let's hear from John and Troy, New York, Republican. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I just wanted to comment on one of your caller about two callers ago who said, oh, I can't wait to see. | |
| I'm scared to see what this country is going to look like after four years of Trump and Elon Musk. | ||
| Well, I'd like to, you know, I was wondering what the country would have looked like in four years had Kamala Harris been running the show because between the open borders, the war on energy, the gender brainwashing of little kids. | ||
| I mean, what someone does as an adult is their own business, but tell five-year-old, 10-year-old kids that it's okay to switch that. | ||
| Just the general overall insanity that they were pushing. | ||
| It had to be stopped. | ||
| I mean, Trump might come up with an idea that won't stick, like renaming the Gulf of Mexico or some other things. | ||
| But by and large, he's writing the ship that the Democrats have tried so hard in the last four years. | ||
| I mean, Democrats 10 years ago, they had a lot of normal positions. | ||
| Just look at Hillary and Obama talking about immigration 10 years ago. | ||
| It's basically a Republican position. | ||
| Get in line, go through, pay your taxes. | ||
| Now it's like open borders, everyone come on in. | ||
| We'll take care of you. | ||
| It was absolutely great. | ||
| I hear what you're saying. | ||
| You're talking about the immigration and the border. | ||
| But if we're just to look at the actions of Doge and Elon Musk's role, are you in full support of what he's doing? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think the Democrats are upset. | |
| What they're more upset about is that they are basically shining a light on the spending that's going on. | ||
| And the $200 million for a transgender plan. | ||
| I'm just pulling examples wily out of off the top of my head. | ||
| But I mean, they are upset because they are exposing what has been probably an insider secret in terms of the level and the amount of waste that is not in the American people's interest. | ||
| It's just wasteful, wasteful spending. | ||
| I'm not for a bunch of people losing their jobs, but I mean, the waste has to be cut and the money that could be saved. | ||
| Oh, it's only a few billion there, a few billion there. | ||
| Well, it adds up. | ||
| It adds up. | ||
| And I think that the So, John, I want to, sorry, I know you're still talking, but I wanted to ask you one more thing. | ||
| Elon Musk in the first clip that I played talked about, you know, the bureaucracy is not elected. | ||
| And anyway, everybody that lives in D.C., you know, practically everybody lives in D.C. voted for Kamala Harris. | ||
| Do you think that federal employees should be asked, who did you vote for? | ||
| And if you're not supporting or if you didn't vote for, let's say, the current president, so this would apply indefinitely, that you should not be hired into the federal government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, I don't believe that at all. | |
| I think that's something the Democrats did the last four years. | ||
| They're actively persecuting people, not persecuting, but not promoting from within. | ||
| And that was wrong. | ||
| It's wrong in either case. | ||
| And whether the weaponization of any agency to go after certain people because you don't agree with them is wrong. | ||
| And I think Trump is addressing that as well. | ||
| It shouldn't happen on either side. | ||
| But it was happening on steroids under Biden and Harris. | ||
| So it's just, and when Democrats say we can't understand how we lost with these policies, well, I can't understand how they don't understand it because their policies were so horrible. | ||
| And for Busk and Trump to expose the wasteful spending, it's just them being upset because their wasteful spending is being exposed. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And this is, is it Cerebral in Michigan, Independent Line? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, that's correct. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go right ahead. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Here's my thing. | ||
| E. Musk and the Musketeers, isn't the debt, the budget, basically 50% of it is from defense spending. | ||
| And didn't he have a rocket that he launched that exploded in the air? | ||
| How many billions did that cost? | ||
| And then the New York Times just exposed that they said they found $8 billion in fraud or corruption or whatever, but it was really $8 million. | ||
| Only thing seems E. Musk and his Musketeers is probably good at time management because his illegitimate girlfriend is all over TMZ with his illegitimate child, one of them. | ||
| So I'm just trying to understand. | ||
| We're living in the United States of South Africa now. | ||
| Where is the, you know, how do we? | ||
| Yep, you mentioned SpaceX. | ||
| This is the Washington Post. | ||
| Team from Elon Musk's SpaceX to review air traffic control system. | ||
| Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the plan after the FAA laid off roughly 400 probationary employees. | ||
| It says that a team from billionaire Elon Musk SpaceX rocket company will help envision ways to overhaul the nation's aging air traffic control systems. | ||
| It says that SpaceX's rocket launches are regulated by the FAA, and the agency has alleged that the company violated safety rules in the past. | ||
| Officials did not respond to questions about what air traffic control expertise SpaceX, which specializes in rocket launches, could bring to bear. | ||
| That's on the Washington Post. | ||
| And this is Rob in Florida. | ||
| Democrat, good morning, Rob. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Just want to say you do an excellent job at the host position when you're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I say that because you challenge both Democrat and Republican callers and guests that you bring in, which is kind of hard to see when I see your other host or your other host on there. | |
| And I appreciate you. | ||
| But let's get back to Elon Musk. | ||
| Again, you really got to make a line for progressives and MAGA because that's what's really calling in. | ||
| I'm a progressive. | ||
| I think what Elon is doing is okay, but it's the process that he's going about doing it that I have an issue with. | ||
| Again, a lot of Republicans like to say, well, Democrats did this. | ||
| They like to mention Clinton, who did this, but he did it legally through the court process, got us a surplus, fired, you know, 300,000 people. | ||
| You can look at the stats. | ||
| But, you know, what Elon and Trump and this waste, fraud, and abuse, it adds up to pennies. | ||
| I know it's billions, but in the big scheme of things, in our budget, it's pennies, less than what, like 2%. | ||
| You know, when Trump was doing his interview yesterday at Mar-a-Lago and he's reading off the numbers and that episode you just showed when he was on Hannity and you're looking at the numbers, I probably counted, what, maybe $10 billion? | ||
| That's $10 billion. | ||
| And again, I'm on the fence as far as what they're doing in their quote-unquote audit. | ||
| I'm just waiting for them to hit the military, which they said they were going to do this week or next week. | ||
| The military that has an $850 billion budget that is rising failed seven audits, three under Trump his first term, four under Biden, probably another one under Trump. | ||
| You know, so what do you do, Rob, with the contracts that Elon Musk has with the Defense Department through SpaceX? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he's policing himself. | |
| He's policing himself. | ||
| So we got to see how honest he's going to be. | ||
| But, you know, halfway through this audit, this so-called audit, you know, he's gained some contracts. | ||
| So, you know, again, where's the transparency? | ||
| I'm still waiting to see. | ||
| So, you know, it's a hard one, right? | ||
| You got to police your own. | ||
| But when it comes to money and greed, it's kind of hard to police your own, you know? | ||
| Got it, Rob. | ||
| And I want to show you some results from a YouGov poll. | ||
| This asks the question, how much influence do you think Elon Musk has within the Trump administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So this dark purple is a lot. | |
| Then it gets lighter to a little, not sure, not at all. | ||
| Among all U.S. citizens, the number rose from 51 to 63% who says that they believe Elon Musk has a lot of influence. | ||
| And then you can see how it's broken up among Democrats, independents, Republicans. | ||
| Then it says, then it asks the question, the difference between perceived influence, how much influence do you think Elon Musk has within the Trump administration versus how much influence do you want Elon Musk to have within the administration? | ||
| Among all U.S. adults that were questioned, the perceived influence that he has a lot of influence is at 63%. | ||
| How much do you want him to have is only at 18%. | ||
| So quite a difference there. | ||
| But you can take a look at that. | ||
| That's at yougov.com if you want to take a look at that, the results of those polls. | ||
| Here is Michael in California, New Jersey. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, I appreciate what you're doing, getting a lot of different perspectives. | ||
| I just want to point out the glaring obvious. | ||
| I'm actually not a Republican. | ||
| I am, I guess I would consider I voted for Trump in this last election, but I consider myself more of a libertarian. | ||
| And when the rights started leaning that way, it's pretty obvious that everyone in Trump's orbit is basically a former Democrat. | ||
| So I think that speaks volumes to what he's doing. | ||
| And I think people should just relax and see what comes out of this. | ||
| Doge is doing a lot. | ||
| And what have you seen as far as what's come out so far? | ||
| Or do you think it's too early to tell? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's too early to tell. | |
| But I think people should just take a rest. | ||
| Republicans, you know, they're more libertarian leaning now. | ||
| And I think the Democrats shouldn't die on this hill. | ||
| I think if you listen to podcasts, I listened to a Joe Rogan podcast with Mike Benz, and USAID is a CIA slush fund. | ||
| I know that sounds conspiratorial, but if you listen to all three and a half hours of it, he makes a pretty good point. | ||
| All right, Michael, and this is Ron in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
| I would just like to say, you know, when things are at their worst, we should all be hoping for the best. | ||
| And I don't see a lot of that happening in this country. | ||
| I see a lot of people that have more than they need out to get more, and people that don't have enough can't figure out how to put food on the table. | ||
| And I think the people that have more than they need should think about that a little bit. | ||
| And that's about all I have to say, except like I said at the beginning, when things are at their worst, we should all hope for the best. | ||
| All right, Ron. | ||
| Here's a Democrat in West Palm Beach, Florida. | ||
| Alfred, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Mimi. | |
| I certainly appreciate C-SPAN for all of the information, the people that are calling around the country. | ||
| And certainly the outrage is looming high now for the mere fact that an unelected person has the power that is being given to an elected person. | ||
| I'm saying that Congress and the government now is obfuscating its powers that they have. | ||
| I believe that there was a system that was put into place. | ||
| Inspector Generals were put in place to do the things that we have. | ||
| This person, there's a conflict of interest, Mimi, when you're getting multi-billion dollar contracts and you're the one that is supposedly doing audits for the government. | ||
| That is a conflict of interest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I want to say that Congress itself has no spine. | |
| They asked for this person to come in, and the person refused to come in. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'm going to close with this, Mimi. | |
| My last point is, 35 left with one of the highest amount of lost jobs, and now he's beginning his administration on the road to surpass that. | ||
| So I want to say, Mimi, if America is going to be America, and if we're going to have elected officials, then we ask for them to do their part. | ||
| And I'm going to let you know, as a veteran, a retired civil service employee, I want to say, please, please, I'm asking you, because you're going to have the biggest uproar you've ever seen. | ||
| If the benefits, not entitlement, the benefits that have been earned by American citizens in any way is brought to an end, America now has one of the biggest problems it has ever seen. | ||
| And my last point is when we make promises to countries, we should keep our promise. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And with 47 saying that Ukraine started the war, I think that's the whole, we know who started the war. | |
| Thank you, Nimi. | ||
| All right, I'll further. | ||
| Here's Jimmy in Alabama, Republican. | ||
| Hey, Jimmy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, baby. | |
| How you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I sort of agree with this administration. | |
| I'm a poor man, but, you know, the dang government keeps giving money to all these Democrats. | ||
| We all know that the government is crooked, Republican, Democrat, or whatever. | ||
| They're crooked as a devil. | ||
| I say they start the damn war. | ||
| Let's get this stuff going. | ||
| We'll straighten it out that way. | ||
| What war, Jimmy? | ||
| You're not talking about... | ||
|
unidentified
|
The damn war. | |
| Just like a civil war. | ||
| Let's just start it all over again. | ||
| Come on, Jimmy. | ||
| You don't want us to go to war with each other. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it don't really matter because we're at war with each other right now. | |
| All right. | ||
| And this is Alan in Independent in Cleveland, Ohio. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| You know, I'm just sharing my thoughts. | ||
| I don't think it's a political thing like Republican or Democrat. | ||
| I mean, over the decades, you know, both parties have spent all this money. | ||
| But, you know, it's funny because my little feelings about it, I remember it was several years ago watching Judge Judy. | ||
| And there, you know, Judge Judy's, she's Democrat, but she'd ask so many young, very young people, where do you get your money? | ||
| And they would say, I'm on disability. | ||
| And she would say, well, what's your disability? | ||
| And it was, it's always my back, my back. | ||
| And these people are standing up. | ||
| And they're very young. | ||
| So, you know, there's a lot of ways. | ||
| Hopefully they'll look into that. | ||
| But I don't think that it's a political thing. | ||
| So I support what they're doing. | ||
| It'll go through agency by agency. | ||
| I think that the programs that are good, they're going to keep. | ||
| And we'll find a way to, you know, even with the USAID, if they got good programs out there, then let's keep them. | ||
| But the bad ones, you know, we're going to have to get rid of them. | ||
| And I don't think we really had any choice because, you know, we couldn't, you know, like when Kamala Harris was writing, and I think she's beautiful, she's talented, but let's put her talents to somewhere else, not in government. | ||
| So when she would talk, I wanted to throw off. | ||
| So Alan, I just wanted to ask you about going back to Doge, when you say that they'll keep what's good and throw out what's bad. | ||
| One of the criticisms is they're throwing out the baby with the bathwater and that they're not being careful and asking what are the different roles, what are the good programs, let's continue those. | ||
| What do you think of that criticism? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't know. | |
| I don't maybe know everything, but I'm not so sure that they're able to just say, hey, listen, this is a bad program. | ||
| I just threw it out. | ||
| I don't think that can be thrown out. | ||
| Some of the stuff is going to probably have to go through Congress. | ||
| And, you know, I do trust Trump to, because I do think that he's a humanitarian, even though it doesn't seem like it. | ||
| And I do believe that they will keep the best programs. | ||
| And there's even ones that are not, that are bad. | ||
| Some people are going to consider someone's bad. | ||
| Some people are going to consider some of the programs good. | ||
| I think we need to have that discussion in detail. | ||
| But so far, I am going to trust for what he's doing. | ||
| And I urge all Americans to at least give President Trump a chance this time. | ||
| And let's see what comes out of it. | ||
| I don't think that he's going to get rid of things that are very humanitarian-based. | ||
| All right, Alan. | ||
| This is ABC News that says this. | ||
| Elon Musk's Doge asks for access to IRS taxpayer data. | ||
| If granted, Doge would have personal financial details on millions of Americans. | ||
| It says that Doge is pushing for access to an internal revenue service system that retains the personal tax information of millions of Americans for the ostensible reason of rooting out fraud. | ||
| According to several sources, the move has rattled agency insiders and privacy experts who warn that granting political operatives access to such private information could be extraordinarily dangerous. | ||
| The system is known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System. | ||
| It's used by IRS employees to review a person's tax information, issue notices, and update taxpayer records. | ||
| The database includes such private information as a person's Social Security number and address, as well as details on how much they earn, how much money they owe, properties, and even details related to child custody agreements. | ||
| Here is Elizabeth, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Elizabeth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, hi there. | |
| Hi, Nini. | ||
| Thank you for having me, and thank you for what you do. | ||
| I just had a few points that I wanted to go over with what Trump and Elon are trying to do. | ||
| There are so many issues there in what they're doing and how they're trying to go about it that I, for one, don't agree with. | ||
| Everybody talks about the top clearance, the top clearance that he doesn't have, that Elon has or doesn't have. | ||
| There's no transparency on that or accountability. | ||
| And also, the people that are under him, the staff that's under him, under Elon, they just sort of shot them in there. | ||
| And we don't know what their qualifications are or what their clearances are. | ||
| I think that's a concern. | ||
| And what could happen in the future with what these gentlemen are doing for the staff are doing for Elon. | ||
| And then the other thing is that I think it's a conflict is that nobody has brought up is that Elon has paid billions of dollars. | ||
| I'm not sure exactly, I forgot the figure, to Trump's campaign. | ||
| How can he be such a significant campaign donor? | ||
| Yeah, millions, Elizabeth, not billions. | ||
| Millions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How can he do that and then being this figurehead to this investigation, this Doge investigation? | |
| I'm sure that's a conflict. | ||
| And the other thing that I wanted to bring up is all of his contracts that Elon does have with the government that he actively had. | ||
| I'm surprised that's not a conflict in that either Congress isn't pushing harder or that is even being allowed. | ||
| But Trump is like a bulldozer and really doesn't care what's allowed. | ||
| I think that raises a lot of alarms to me. | ||
| Okay, Elizabeth, let me show you a portion of President Trump. | ||
| He had a news conference outside of Mar-a-Lago yesterday, and he talked about some of the issues that you just brought up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, given your concerns about corruption, you said that if there were any conflicts of interest with Elon Musk, you wouldn't let him anywhere near it. | |
| That's right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Doge and SpaceX employees are now working directly at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department agencies that have billions of dollars in contracts with Musk's companies or that directly regulate his companies. | |
| How is that not a conflict of interest? | ||
| Well, I mean, I'm just hearing about it. | ||
| And if there is, and he told me before I told him, but obviously I will not let there be any conflict of interest. | ||
| He's done an amazing job. | ||
| They've revealed, in fact, he's going to be on tonight a big show called Sean Hannity at 9 o'clock. | ||
| And he's on, and I'm on, and we talk about a lot of different things. | ||
| And any conflicts, I told Elon, any conflicts, you can't have anything to do with that. | ||
| So anything to do with possibly even space, we won't let Elon partake in that. | ||
| We're asking you for your opinion. | ||
| Do you support, do you oppose Elon Musk and his Doge efforts? | ||
| What are your thoughts on that? | ||
| We'll talk to Raymond, a Republican in Chesapeake, Virginia. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
| I am so amazed of the American people. | ||
| I love this country. | ||
| But to sit here and to keep calling people racist, you can't trust Musk. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| They are opening the books up for everybody, for everybody to see. | ||
| We had a president that just left. | ||
| You couldn't get anything, any information. | ||
| What they're doing is a good thing for this country because everybody knows there's a lot of corruption, corruption going on up in Congress and up in the bureaucracy. | ||
| So won't everybody just relax? | ||
| Let these people do their job because Musk and his people are excellent in what they're doing. | ||
| Only thing he has the right to do is to go and find this information out. | ||
| That is it. | ||
| That is it. | ||
| But you got, you had this last administration that let over 20 million people into this country. | ||
| You don't know who they are. | ||
| You don't know what they are, but you want to hop on Musk. | ||
| You know, I'm a retired driver. | ||
| And like I said, I have security clearance on many bases. | ||
| And to see this going on in this country, it just bogs my mind that so many people don't understand the Constitution and how it works. | ||
| And that's what scares me right now. | ||
| You know, is that these people just calling me in do not have any clue of what these people are trying to do. | ||
| One thing, the reason why I voted for Trump the first time this time, because the man really loves this country. | ||
| You know, if I had the money he had, I'd be gone. | ||
| I'd be out of here. | ||
| But he's trying to do his best to bring the light of the problem that we have in this country. | ||
| You know, and these people with these ego on them, these Democrats, you know, it just bogs my mind. | ||
| And every time I heard about somebody being racist, I'm about sick of it. | ||
| I'm a black man. | ||
| I'm 71 years old. | ||
| I love this country. | ||
| I worked hard. | ||
| My parents worked hard, my grandparents. | ||
| And I'm going to tell you, my parents and my grandparents told me, you know, when we were coming up, baby, we're going to let you know something. | ||
| The world owes you nothing. | ||
| The only people that owes you something is me and your father. | ||
| That is it. | ||
| And how we raised you. | ||
| All right, Raymond. | ||
| This got to stop. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| This is an article in NewsNation. | ||
| White House seeks to rehire nuclear weapons workers fired by Doge. | ||
| It says that last week, more than 300 staffers at the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired as part of wider layoffs at the Department of Energy. | ||
| However, the cuts may have overlooked critical roles leading to the reveal of some terminations. | ||
| While the Energy Department insists there's no need for concern, lawmakers are demanding answers. | ||
| And this is Lori in North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Lori. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just wanted to throw out a couple of numbers and a fact. | ||
| The fact is that Elon Musk is not disclosing his financial records to us. | ||
| He wants to look at our financial records. | ||
| I don't understand that. | ||
| That should be the least of the requirements if he has or doesn't have a reason to do what he's doing. | ||
| The second thing is this. | ||
| Initially, corporations, the billionaires, the banked millionaires are paying a 34% tax. | ||
| When Trump came in to office, he reduced it down to 21%. | ||
| I don't have the number of how much revenue we lost then, but now it's going to go from when they do this new bill from 21% to 15%. | ||
| And that is going to, that little jump there is going to cost us $4 trillion in revenue, $4 trillion by giving those tax breaks to those people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now, when he was president the first time, he added $8 trillion to our debt, $8 trillion. | |
| The other part, you know, whatever that is, minus the 37 we're in now, that came from the 40s when this program originally started. | ||
| So in four years, he did $8 trillion. | ||
| Obama was in office for eight years, and I believe he was $3 trillion. | ||
| In eight years, he did $8 trillion in $4. | ||
| So those are numbers. | ||
| I would love for Republicans, without insulting us, without calling people names, and without opinion, tell me how to fix those numbers because Elon is tasked with cutting $1 trillion in debt, $1 trillion. | ||
| But those taxes are taking away $4 trillion. | ||
| Doesn't make sense. | ||
| That's what I think. | ||
| Got it, Lori. | ||
| And this is a text we got. | ||
| It says, quickly becoming a Musk fan here after witnessing all these new cost-cutting measures while exposing the taxpayer-funded corruption waste. | ||
| Clearly, a whole lot of people in Washington, D.C. appear very nervous as to where all these money trails connect and might ultimately end. | ||
| Also wanted to show you an opinion piece that was in the New York Times with the headline, Elon Musk is leading a hostile takeover of the federal government. | ||
| This is Thomas Edsel. | ||
| Want to know what your thoughts are on that? | ||
| He says, President Trump has empowered Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, to fire government employees, eliminate federal agencies, and run roughshod over both federal law and the Constitution. | ||
| It says, the elevation of Musk demonstrates a major reversal of Trump ideology from the angry working class anti-elitism of his first winning campaign in 2016 under the guidance of Steve Bannon to the explicit privileging this time around of tech oligarchs, rich beyond the imagination of ordinary people, to guide government policies. | ||
| That's in the New York Times if you want to read that and share your opinion here. | ||
| Here's Morell, Odenton, Maryland, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, first of all, I'd like to say that I don't, that last call a couple calls ago, who said that he's fine with Elon Musk going into all finances and all that and talking about how he was raised. | |
| Well, I'm raised about right or wrong. | ||
| I'm a Democrat, and I'm not calling here to bash any Republican. | ||
| So why don't he just give them his bank information because they're about to have empower to go into his, all of our records to see what we have in our banks and all of our financial statements. | ||
| And I just don't think that's right. | ||
| And one other thing I'd like to say is I keep hearing about these entitlements. | ||
| I'm currently on SFBI due to a work injury. | ||
| I've had seven back surgery as a result of it. | ||
| I paid into Social Security for 42 years before I got hurt. | ||
| So I would love for someone to tell me exactly what I am entitled to and what I earned. | ||
| And that, for now, is all I have to say. | ||
| And thank you for taking my call. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And there's other news. | ||
| Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and talking about the talks between the United States and Russia on the Ukraine war. | ||
| Here's a portion. | ||
| We're not going to prenegotiate an end to this conflict. | ||
| These are the kinds of things that have to happen through hard and difficult diplomacy and closed rooms over a period of time. | ||
| What's important to understand is two things. | ||
| The first is the only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even bring people together to begin to talk about it in a serious way is President Trump. | ||
| He's the only one in the world that can do that right now. | ||
| The second thing I would say is that in order for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it. | ||
| It has to be acceptable to them. | ||
| But we have to understand that it's been three and a half years since there's been any sort of regularized contact between the United States and Russia, and in some cases between any of the participants in this conflict and Russia. | ||
| So the goal of today's meeting was to follow up on the phone call the president had a week ago and begin to establish those lines of communication. | ||
| The work remains. | ||
| Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one. | ||
| And President Trump is committed to bringing an end to this conflict. | ||
| And as he said when he campaigned for president, and he wants it to end in a way that's fair. | ||
| He wants it to end in a way that's sustainable and enduring, not that leads to another conflict in two to three years. | ||
| That's not going to be easy to achieve, but he's the only one in the world that can begin that process. | ||
| Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that could initiate that process. | ||
| And today was the first step in that process. | ||
| Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday in Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And back to the calls to Betty, a Republican in Blacksburg, South Carolina. | ||
| Betty, are you there? | ||
| Blacksburg, South Carolina? | ||
| No? | ||
| Here's Mike in Oak Grove, Missouri, Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| Do I support or oppose this? | ||
| I highly oppose this. | ||
| It's being done by a man who should be in prison. | ||
| The only reason he's not is because of the judges he appointed. | ||
| Elon Musk, he is a foreigner who has no business in our government. | ||
| You know, Donald Trump, he spent over $126 million, his first go-round golfing at his clubs. | ||
| He charged our Secret Service twice, sometimes three times the price that he would charge anyone else. | ||
| I mean, you know, Elon Musk, he shut off his Starlight deal so that Ukraine couldn't do a crippling attack on Russia. | ||
| I mean, of course I disagree with all this. | ||
| I mean, a foreigner, not even an American, dealing in our government. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| He's a naturalized American citizen, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he shouldn't be. | |
| I mean, you know, here he is. | ||
| I mean, you're showing all these pictures of Musk up there parading around acting like somebody high on drugs, but you haven't shown the Nazi salute that he threw to his buddy Trump. | ||
| I mean, you know. | ||
| We did show that after he did that, the hand gesture. | ||
| We did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today. | |
| But not today. | ||
| Yes, you're right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today. | |
| I mean, you know, a Nazi salute, and then they want to say that it wasn't a Nazi. | ||
| He was just excited. | ||
| Well, he was excited. | ||
| He got so excited he forgot where he was and threw a Nazi salute to Trump. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right, Mike. | ||
| Take a look at some of the results of that YouGov Economist poll that I mentioned earlier in the program. | ||
| So the question was about favorability of Elon Musk, and he's unfavorable at 52%. | ||
| That number rose seven points from last week. | ||
| Favorable is at 42%. | ||
| Then when asked about Doge, favorability rate is at 42%, unfavorable at 38%. | ||
| The rest did not have an opinion. | ||
| Here's Rick in Virginia, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Mimi. | |
| I am so fired up. | ||
| I'm so sorry, but you have some callers coming in. | ||
| I guess they say the U.S. is on a fifth grade level of understanding and comprehension because some of the things I'm hearing from people just don't make any sense. | ||
| Because if Obama was president and he decided, okay, I'm going to get Louis Farrakhan and his tech group to go into all these agencies. | ||
| What do you think Fox News would be doing? | ||
| What do you think if he had the presidency, he had the Senate and the Congress, what do you think senators and congressmen would be doing? | ||
| And nobody's investigating Musk. | ||
| He's got two people, Mimi, on his team who are racist, who said they're racist. | ||
| Even Musk in the New York Times, you just quoted the New York Times. | ||
| February 5th, February 6th, 2025, the company which accounted for almost half electric cars sold in the United States last year has been sued by the California Civil Rights Department for what the agency calls pervasive racial discrimination and harassment. | ||
| Pervasive. | ||
| Who is this guy? | ||
| You said he's an American now naturalized, but his affinity is with apartheid South Africa. | ||
| We got apartheid South Africa. | ||
| We got Trump. | ||
| He's a racist and a fluster. | ||
| He owes New York $500 million for his civil penalty. | ||
| He had to shut down a charity. | ||
| He shut down a school. | ||
| He's got to make a spell. | ||
| What are they doing right here, people? | ||
| Where is our common sense? | ||
| Where is our critical thinking? | ||
| You know, Mimi, this country, if I was to put a white man and a black man on a racetrack, just real quick, and we ran a mile, which is four laps around the track, 350, 3.5 miles of that track, the black man stays still. | ||
| The white man's running. | ||
| The last half, he runs. | ||
| Are we caught up? | ||
| Is that catching up? | ||
| DEI, that's a problem. | ||
| Come on, really? | ||
| People need to wake up and start critically thinking and start investigating people. | ||
| Dig into Musk. | ||
| Dig into Trump, Mimi. | ||
| The press needs to be digging into these people. | ||
| They're taking stuff away from the American people. | ||
| It's all illegal. | ||
| All right, Rick. | ||
| Here's a Republican in Miami. | ||
| Rodney, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know, that racist rant, I don't know, that made my morning. | ||
| I appreciate that guy going off on race on this thing. | ||
| You know, Democratic leaders have for decades been clamoring for smaller government. | ||
| Clinton did. | ||
| Obama did. | ||
| The only person that's powerful enough to do this is a business leader who founded a worldwide payment system called PayPal, who saw all of our data anyway, who understands the utility of AI and has some workers that understand the utility of AI and has one of the largest, most transparent media platforms in the world. | ||
| Musk can find the corruption and then he can report on the corruption, which is blowing Democrats' minds now. | ||
| Now, many media outlets, including C-SPAN, refuse to report on all the foreign DEI and the sex change grant for USAID and the $8 million for politico subscriptions. | ||
| I think that $8 million has been debunked. | ||
| No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But go ahead. | |
| $8 million was spent. | ||
| And then, you know, I know, I think that all these media outlets know that they're terribly on the wrong side of what the public wants. | ||
| Trump's approval ratings are very, very high, and our country is on the precipice of bankruptcy. | ||
| Musk and Trump are saving it. | ||
| Next, we need real economic growth. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And just wanted to bring up, since you mentioned the subscriptions, this is factcheck.org. | ||
| Trump online posts misrepresent government subscriptions to news services. | ||
| Take a look at that at factcheck.org if you want to read the details on that. | ||
| And here is Patricia, Independent, Chrisfield, Maryland. | ||
| Good morning, Patricia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I sit here and I listen to first a Democrat, then a Republican, who's making sense, who isn't making sense. | ||
| A lady talking about what Trump did for trillions of dollars. | ||
| I'm sure she wasn't having a problem when she was getting her stimulus checks. | ||
| As far as Musk is concerned, he doesn't have anything to gain on this. | ||
| He's trying to help our government here and cut out this waste. | ||
| No one seems to complain on the Democrat side when these representatives go into government with nothing and come out millionaires. | ||
| Did anyone complain about Biden? | ||
| Has anyone brought that up recently as to what went on, having his son in the White House doing drugs? | ||
| You know, come on. | ||
| Trump has nothing to gain either. | ||
| He is rich. | ||
| You know, so is Musk. | ||
| So they want to see what his bank account says. | ||
| Hey, I don't have a problem with anybody going into my bank account because I don't do anything wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So those who complain the most are the ones that, as far as I'm concerned, have something to hide. | |
| These Democrats out there screaming, representatives, oh, come on. | ||
| Maxine Waters, it's about time that woman went, you know, over the hill. | ||
| Some of these are over the hill. | ||
| Schumer, Elias Pelosi still got her fists in this situation. | ||
| Come on, people. | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| Okay, there's some on the Republican side, but the Democrats always come out rich. | ||
| Think about that. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Cal in Silver Spring, Maryland, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Cal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I listen to your show every morning. | ||
| I go into work here in D.C. | ||
| And it's always amazing to witness democracy where both sides of all three fights can become Republicans. | ||
| Oh, boy. | ||
| Cal, you're breaking up. | ||
| If you can give us a call back on a better line, because we're not able to make out what you're saying. | ||
| Elsie in Alabama, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I fully support what they're doing to find the waste in the government. | ||
| There is much two ways in the government. | ||
| And some of the money that they can find should go towards a deficit. | ||
| We're getting close to the where we can't borrow money anymore. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And here is Joan in Carmichael, California. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go right ahead, Joan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I am opposed to what Elon Musk is doing. | |
| Our government is being run by criminals and people who have never worked an honest day in their life. | ||
| And so looking into the American people's Social Security, my banking, how does that help with fraud, race, and abuse? | ||
| The abuse comes from the White House. | ||
| He has been very clear about it. | ||
| Going after people because they disagree with him, that is abusive. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so I am opposed to it. | |
| I am not opposed to cutting back on things that it's wasteful. | ||
| But start with the White House. | ||
| All of the security that we provide for a criminal is outrageous. | ||
| Nobody provides that kind of support and protection for me. | ||
| I thank you for taking my question, my answer. | ||
| All right, Joan. | ||
| And that's it for this segment. | ||
| But after the break, we'll have two different perspectives on President Trump's nearly one month in office. | ||
| First up, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host Armstrong Williams. | ||
| And later, Nation Magazine justice correspondent Ellie Mistahl. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All this week, watch C-SPAN's new Members of Congress series, where we speak with both Republicans and Democrats about their early lives, previous careers, families, and why they decided to run for office. | |
| Tonight, at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, our interviews include Virginia Democratic Congressman Eugene Vintman, who was born in Ukraine, served as a U.S. Army officer, and played a role in the story of his brother, Alexander Vindman, who came to national attention in 2019 for his testimony before Congress on President Trump's relationship with Ukraine. | ||
| I was a lieutenant colonel assigned to the White House on a detail, deputy legal advisor on National Security Council staff, the chief ethics official on the National Security Council staff. | ||
| And so I worked right across the hall from my twin brother. | ||
| And he had the portfolio of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova. | ||
| He listened to the phone call. | ||
| He heard the president's attempt at extortion, and he reported directly to me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch new members of Congress all this week, starting at 9.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | |
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| Scan the code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to pre-order your copy today. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We're joined now by Armstrong Williams. | ||
| He's a columnist, TV talk show host, and entrepreneur. | ||
| Armstrong, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| You have been largely supportive of President Trump's actions this first month in office. | ||
| Tell me why and why you think Trump 2.0, as it's being called, is different from the first. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As a broadcast and a media owner, it's not about being supportive of the president or not. | |
| I think it is the media's responsibility to be more of a referee and just tell the facts about what any administration is doing, whether it's Biden-Harris or Trump Vance. | ||
| And I think, and I made some of my own notes here, I think when you look at the legal border crossings, and when you think about the fact that on the southern border you have less than 269 people crossing a day versus 11,000 when Biden-Harris were in the White House, you just cannot ignore that's progress for the American people. | ||
| And that's one of the things that the president promised that he would deal with when he was running for president. | ||
| And that has happened. | ||
| Even when you talk about Doge, he and Elon Musk campaigned together, and they made it clear that they were going to reduce the waste and fraud in government. | ||
| They want to make sure that the taxpayers' money works better for them. | ||
| Obviously, Mimi, there's a lot of chaos in the process. | ||
| Obviously, there are people that are being terminated that probably should be terminated. | ||
| Obviously, there's some harm that is being done. | ||
| But in chaos, particularly at the rapid, fusilized speed that President Trump is moving, obviously you're going to have to have some corrective courses. | ||
| And this is why it's necessary that Congress, unlike the last Congress, who conceded so much of their responsibilities to the White House, do their job. | ||
| This is why we have a check and balance system in place. | ||
| We have the courts and we have the Congress to make sure that you balance out what the President does because the President cannot shut down a federal agency that is funded by Congress. | ||
| That is Congress's role. | ||
| And I think Congress is getting over the shock. | ||
| The USAID has been shut down and those programs have been stopped. | ||
| Even the sign has been taken down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is true. | |
| The U.S.AID is sort of unique in its own way, and we understand that. | ||
| But listen, there's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse in USAID, as well as other government agencies. | ||
| I mean, listen, the conversation that we should have instead of being, and we should criticize the president constructively. | ||
| That's what a democracy is. | ||
| But listen, I mean, if you just look at the whistleblowers, when they talk about the waste, when you talk about checks that are being written, and because they've been written this way for so long, you cannot even question whether they're going to terrorist organizations, whether they're going to people who are living, whether they're going to people that are in need. | ||
| I mean, that's $55 billion. | ||
| It may not seem like a lot when you think about the budget of the United States government, but it is a start. | ||
| I mean, I'll take my own example. | ||
| You look at, as someone in the media, when you cover these community action agencies around the country, you have people that go to these agencies to get their lot bills paid, to make sure they are able to have their water turned on. | ||
| They cannot pay their rent on time. | ||
| And so sometimes what these agencies will do is pay this for them three and four months in advance. | ||
| And these same people come back at the same time because they don't use the money that they have to pay for their expenses. | ||
| There are a lot of these things that just go on and on and on. | ||
| And what is needed is better management. | ||
| Yes, we know these agencies do a lot of good. | ||
| There are a lot of people that are in need, like the elderly, but sometimes the people in need, because these systems have become so out of corrupt and so mismanaged that the people that really need it don't get it. | ||
| And so the fact that the president and Elon Musk is pursuing this government efficiency, accountability, and responsibility is a good thing. | ||
| And look, as a CEO of a business, I understand. | ||
| We can talk about working from home and the benefits that that has, but there's nothing like being in person, working with your colleagues, sitting, coming up with an idea, having these exchanges, running back to the office, have a better idea when you're talking face-to-face. | ||
| There's nothing like the human interaction. | ||
| The government, particularly here in Washington, D.C., when the federal government is shut down, it affects tourism, it affects the economy, it affects everything. | ||
| Yes, there may be some people that may need to work from home, but so many people need to be back at work. | ||
| People being back at work to meet me is an economy in and of itself. | ||
| As you said, you are a businessman, and you have cautioned Elon Musk not to approach the federal government as he would in downsizing one of his businesses. | ||
| What do you see as the fundamental difference there of how Elon Musk should approach this, you know, the good objective of reducing fraud in the federal government? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, this is a piece that was in the Baltimore Sun on Sunday. | |
| And, you know, while you may have these noble intentions, you cannot run a private business the way you run the federal government. | ||
| You can go in and you can cut and slash, you can do that. | ||
| But in government, you've got to respect the processes. | ||
| Elon Musk, as well-intended as he may be, he has to work with Congress. | ||
| He has to work with people within these agencies that you have to trust to a certain extent that are willing. | ||
| There are people willing to tell you what a waste and fraud is. | ||
| You just cannot go and just shut down agencies and not realize the harm that you can do in the long run because that becomes the narrative. | ||
| You cannot become a dictator when it comes to the government because you will lose. | ||
| And as well-intended as he may be, he will fail in the process. | ||
| And because of what he's doing is so important, he should respect the different processes that are in place that can better help him accomplish the goals that he's trying to achieve. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation with Armstrong Williams, you can do so. | ||
| Start calling in now. | ||
| 202748-8001 is for Republicans. | ||
| 202748-8000 is for Democrats. | ||
| And 202748-8002 is for Independents. | ||
| You just bought the Baltimore Sun. | ||
| This is on the front page of the paper for today. | ||
| It says, Christian leaders grapple with new Trump policies, targeting of, quote, anti-Christian bias, eradication of DEI programs, provoke reactions from Maryland clergy. | ||
| Explain that article. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Pastor Al Hathaway, who's a prominent pastor in Baltimore, is quoted throughout the article. | |
| He talks about the old school Bible and biblical understanding. | ||
| Listen, when Donald Trump skated death with an attempt at Saddamson's bullet where it glazed his ear and you could see the blood, even he has said that God saved them and it was an act of God. | ||
| Many Christians will see that as God had a greater purpose for Donald Trump. | ||
| And so therefore Donald Trump is a president about destiny and it was destined for Donald Trump the one. | ||
| But also then you look at Donald Trump's character and people say that what Donald Trump does in his moral life, in his personal life, is not necessarily what Christians adhere to. | ||
| I mean when you look at him. | ||
| But then they also point to David who was an adulteress and how he betrayed his wife. | ||
| But God was able to use him for a greater good. | ||
| Now, you know. | ||
| He also repented. | ||
|
unidentified
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He repented. | |
| That's right. | ||
| He repented. | ||
| I'm not saying the president has not repented. | ||
| I don't know what he does in his private life. | ||
| But we do know when you think about Donald Trump's extraordinary journey, what he's gone through, the indictments, the lawsuits, people have given up on him, the fact that he could come back surviving an assassin's bullet and become president again. | ||
| For Christians, that has a very spiritual, strong foundation for them. | ||
| And they think there's a greater good in Donald Trump. | ||
| And this is why they believe that Donald Trump, there may be the possibility that Donald Trump could usher in a golden age. | ||
| But I would say you have to be cautious with that because listen, the bottom line is Donald Trump is human. | ||
| And sometimes you don't want to become a syncophant for the president that everything he does, you support it. | ||
| And you turn a blind eye to the things that you can caution on him to be a better person. | ||
| You don't want to be an enabler. | ||
| And while I would say that Donald Trump is a much calmer president, he's not sending out the crazy tweets. | ||
| He's not attacking people the way he has attacked them. | ||
| So you do see a more mature, a more laid-back, and a more measured president. | ||
| And I say that is progress, but still, I do think that Donald Trump, from his experiences as a businessman, he's got to have some compassion about his policies. | ||
| Because the Bible tells you, don't allow your good to be evil spoken of. | ||
| And so Donald Trump has to be very measured. | ||
| I like the fact that he's getting along very well with Elon Musk. | ||
| That's a little surprise. | ||
| I like the fact that he's working very well with his trifect in Congress. | ||
| They all seem to be on the same page. | ||
| The people that seem to be upset seems to be the Democratic legislatures, the members of Congress, and some of the articles that you see in the media. | ||
| But for the most part, Americans, 55 to 60%, are willing to give Donald Trump a chance to see if his policies work in the long run for the American people. | ||
| Now, how long are they willing to suffer, be inconvenienced, and live in fear? | ||
| That remains to be seen. | ||
| But I do think what is giving Donald Trump the win that he needs right now is that the American people believe these are the promises made, the promises kept. | ||
| Let's give him a chance. | ||
| I just don't know how long this honeymoon will last. | ||
| Let me ask you about DEI diversity, equity, inclusion efforts. | ||
| Are you supportive of President Trump's efforts to essentially take that out of the federal government completely? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that's what he promised to do. | |
| I do think we are all closing. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Look, it is one thing to talk about equality. | ||
| I think we all believe in equality, Mimi. | ||
| But equity is a different thing. | ||
| I don't want anyone to give me an advantage because of what they perceive my race is. | ||
| I want to go back to the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, that a man is judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. | ||
| But let me also caution that racism, bigotry is not dead. | ||
| People still harbor that in their hearts. | ||
| And people are not going to always do what is in the best interest of people because sometimes they cannot let go of the baggage of their ancestry. | ||
| But still, the government needs to be colorblind. | ||
| I don't like filling out a form when someone asks me what my race is. | ||
| I don't want somebody to perceive just because some kid got into college and a scholarship, they got there because of their race, somebody gave them a disadvantage. | ||
| I think it cheapens those who fight hard, work hard, parents make sacrifices, those that study to be the best and brightest, not only in the classroom, but wherever they are. | ||
| I do think that we live in a country today where we should be judged not by the color of our skin, not by our sexual preference, but by the content of our character and our work ethic and our sacrifice and our discipline. | ||
| And you are, and you think that that's going to happen during the next four years? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a process. | |
| Nothing happens overnight. | ||
| Justice, equality. | ||
| You're optimistic that it's moving in the right direction. | ||
| I'm cautiously optimistic. | ||
| I don't have an issue with what the president is doing because I find it shocking that someone who campaigns and made all these promises are actually keeping them. | ||
| The problem is the Democrats and others did not take him seriously. | ||
| And for the speed that he's working in his late 70s, his focus, his organization, the way his team has been in place putting this together, these executive orders, this has been well planned out. | ||
| It did not happen overnight. | ||
| Donald Trump is prepared. | ||
| Whether Congress is prepared or not, that's a different question. | ||
| I want to show you a clip of Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| He's a House Democratic leader talking about DEI programs, and then you can respond. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are American values. | ||
| It's about economic opportunity for everyone. | ||
| We support merit for everyone based on What you know, not who you know. | ||
| The problem that seems to be unfolding is that there are some in this country who want an America of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. | ||
| Not for working class Americans, middle-class Americans or everyday Americans. | ||
| A country of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. | ||
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are about economic opportunity for everyone, even if you're not wealthy, well-off, or well-connected. | ||
| These are values that everybody in this country should embrace. | ||
| What do you think, Armstrong Williams? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, listen, I was with them until he got to the billionaires. | |
| I mean, when you talk about these DEI programs, someone who's watching us today, you ask how average lower-income person benefits from these programs. | ||
| How much has government really changed their lives, whether Biden and Harris is in the White House, whether it's Trump Pence in the White House? | ||
| How much does it really impact progress? | ||
| I mean, unfortunately, the people that were poor when Biden and Harris were in the White House, they're poor now. | ||
| What he's talking about are contracts that go to their friends, that go to their colleagues. | ||
| You know, you're talking about a Congress that stocks, the rules that we have to abide by, that you cannot have a conflict of interest. | ||
| They're able to delve in stocks with companies that come before their legislative body. | ||
| I mean, these guys, and it wasn't until recent that the civil rights laws that he alludes to apply to Congress. | ||
| I mean, I don't want to call him a hypocrite, but what is this? | ||
| This is political grandstanding. | ||
| They're in the minority now. | ||
| They lost. | ||
| And until they learn the lessons of that election, to try to support Donald Trump where he is, to try to improve DEI and these programs that he speaks of, where they work across the board, where they don't favor some based on some illogical thing like race agenda, where it works with people because they're qualified and they're the best at what they do. | ||
| They've got to realize this messaging that they had during the last election was profoundly defeated. | ||
| They need to face reality. | ||
| They've lost and they need to find a new message that resonates with the American people because until they do so, they will continue to lose and lose it again. | ||
| The Democratic Party has been decimated because they have lost touch. | ||
| They used to be the party of the working class of America and the middle class America. | ||
| That demographic voted for Donald Trump. | ||
| Blacks, Hispanics, even people in Michigan who consider themselves to be Muslim. | ||
| And people said, how in the world could you support Donald Trump and his policies? | ||
| It seems to go against your best interest. | ||
| But they're voting for family values. | ||
| It's not just about whether it's about the economy. | ||
| It's about what is gender affirming. | ||
| You're talking about dry queens teaching children in the classroom. | ||
| You're talking about parents cannot have a say-so and their children. | ||
| If you're talking about if they're going through some kind of sexual evolution, listen, the bottom line, Americans still care about traditional values. | ||
| And until Hakeem Jefferson and the Democratic Party get a message that resonate with the majority of Americans, they will continue to remain in the minority. | ||
| Ready to talk to callers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| We've got Homer is a Republican in Florence, Massachusetts. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Amen and hallelujah to everything that you said. | |
| You are highly intelligent. | ||
| I'm wondering why it was okay for Joe Biden to fire Americans work federal workers for not getting a vaccine and people in the military, but now it's not okay for Trump to fire people. | ||
| And I also noticed that Bill Clinton fired 400,000 federal employees. | ||
| Is that going to happen under Trump? | ||
| He's not even close to that, so I don't know if he's complaining. | ||
| And I'm just curious, there's 383 million people active on the Social Security with Social Security, active Social Security numbers. | ||
| There's only 340 million people in the country. | ||
| 383 is a lot more. | ||
| That's ridiculous. | ||
| We've got to look into these things. | ||
| And I love all the election deniers that call in for the Democrats now, and it's all okay because it was racism and misogyny and sexism. | ||
| I mean, can you guys please tell me why that's okay, that you let those people go on and on saying racism and sexism? | ||
| And thank you for not. | ||
| You know, here's a larger point. | ||
| You know, this criticism of Trump using executive orders, this criticism of Trump's cabinet that he put forth for the Senate, and all of them are going to be confirmed. | ||
| And I mean, this criticism about Trump embracing billionaires alike Elon Musk, and no one talks about Biden Harris embracing George Soros and Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. | ||
| But since you bring it up, Armstrong, what about not, he's got a trifecta. | ||
| Why not go to Congress with some of these things? | ||
| Why depend on an executive order that can be reversed by the next president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We agree. | |
| But we know President Trump. | ||
| President Trump feels that Congress does not move fast enough for him. | ||
| It would be better for him to wait two or three months. | ||
| His attitude is the American people cannot afford to wait two or three months. | ||
| And why put something in place that three or four years later, another administration can come in or two years later if there's a new Congress and rescind? | ||
| I agree with you. | ||
| But Donald Trump is not like any president that we've seen in recent memory. | ||
| We've never seen such a frenetic way of so many executive orders because he wants to change it. | ||
| And he also knows he has more experience that a lot of these things that are pushing will probably go through and become effective. | ||
| And once that happens, if people really begin to believe that it's having an impact on empowering their lives and moving them forward, particularly when it comes to their economy, they will remain in place. | ||
| Because remember, it doesn't matter whether it's the president, members of Congress, their boss is the American people. | ||
| And the American people, what has happened, Mimi, we have awakened a sleeping giant and we, the people, and they're not going back to sleep. | ||
| They're more educated, they're more in tune than they have ever been before. | ||
| Here's James, a Democrat in Chicago. | ||
| Hi, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, how you doing, Mimi? | |
| Good. | ||
| You know, people can make their mouths say anything. | ||
| Now, all this fraud and waste. | ||
| Is anybody going to jail? | ||
| Have anybody, one person been accused or anyone been accused of this? | ||
| And since he brought up the Lord, the man on the stage with him, did the God kill him? | ||
| And did he have a purpose for that man? | ||
| Thank you, Mimi. | ||
| You know, when it comes to what Donald Trump is doing, it takes time before you find out what the fraud is and who the culprits are. | ||
| It doesn't mean that someone won't be held accountable down the road. | ||
| And listen, I don't try to understand the ways of God. | ||
| You know, my heart goes out to that person that died on that stage. | ||
| You ask yourself, why is it that that Toronto plane that crashed in the snow, everyone survived. | ||
| But why is it that those over the Potomac a few weeks ago, everybody died? | ||
| You know, God has ways that many of us cannot understand. | ||
| When it comes to the ways of the Lord, I don't get into trying to explain that because you know what? | ||
| Some things you cannot explain. | ||
| I want to ask you about a posting on X that Elon Musk wrote in response to the 60 Minutes interview. | ||
| He says, 60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world. | ||
| They engaged in deliberate deception to interfere with the last election. | ||
| They deserve a long prison sentence. | ||
| I want to ask you, since you're the owner of the Baltimore Sun now, if one of your journalists did an interview that Elon Musk disagreed with, how would you respond if he posted on X that they deserve a prison sentence? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would vehemently push back. | |
| You cannot judge CBS, our media institution, by the 60 Minutes interview with Comrade Harris. | ||
| And listen, the media, obviously the media is biased. | ||
| There's no question about that. | ||
| Obviously, many people believe that the legacy media was in the tank with Biden Harris. | ||
| And obviously, they feel as though their policies are more reflective of what the agenda they want for America. | ||
| But I would defend the Forfeit State at every turn. | ||
| CBS, NBC, Sinclair Broadcast Group, I would defend them because many of these reporters are very decent. | ||
| They have a lot of integrity, and they do their jobs very well. | ||
| And they put a lot on the line to do those jobs. | ||
| And what changes should we expect at the Baltimore Sun now that you own it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, we're fortunate because David Smith, who's my business partner, we're working with a terrific group of people. | |
| You know, people, I've always perceived the Baltimore Sun as being this liberal paper and us being conservative. | ||
| But when your realm of your cohen is journalistic integrity, putting out the best editorial, finding divergent voices that represent all voices in the community, and when you want to deal with commentary that reflects where people are, and also give a lot of attention to localism, the local issues that people care about, that affects their way of life immediately. | ||
| It's not always about what's going on on the national stage. | ||
| We put together a very good work collaboration with the Baltimore Sun. | ||
| The paper has greatly improved. | ||
| And I've never worked with a greater group of people than I've worked with at the Baltimore Sun. | ||
| So our formula works. | ||
| Here's Juan in Fairfax, Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, how are you doing? | |
| Morning, Mimi. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call, and welcome to the show here as first-time caller. | ||
| So I appreciate your time. | ||
| I wanted to do a quick glance and maybe highlight an article from the Department of Education regarding the Department of Education in the New York Times, where it looks like they're warning schools apparently in higher education that take considerations into scholarships or hiring regarding, not DEI necessarily, but culturally based aspects. | ||
| And when they tailor sororities of attorneys or something like that, I just want to note, President Trump to this point, or even in his first administration, all politics generally have been okay, you know, with general, I think, not a sleeping giant like myself, or I don't think I represent that population. | ||
| But when it gets to the part where, you know, now you want to shut down, you know, I think higher education, each one, teach one sort of philosophy, you know, that kind of will impact, I think, you know, a part of society that I think maybe I'd like to hear your guests sort of illuminate on, where, you know, Department of Education might be going a little too far, maybe. | ||
| These are institutions that help out in higher education. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, Juan, and I just want to show you what I think he's talking about. | ||
| This is the New York Times with the headline, Education Department gives schools two weeks to eliminate race-based programs. | ||
| It says the Department's Office for Civil Rights warned that it would penalize schools that consider race in scholarships, hiring, and an array of other activities. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I actually think the president is correct. | |
| I think that is favoring one certain Americans over other Americans. | ||
| You have a new leader in town that is Donald Trump. | ||
| He made it clear that during his campaign, this is exactly what he would do. | ||
| And I think it would be wise for the Department of Education to adhere to this new administration's guidelines. | ||
| Let's talk to Mark next in Florida, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you very much for taking my call. | ||
| And I agree a lot with what your guest has to say, Mr. Williams. | ||
| And I am all in favor of what is going on with Elon Musk, President Trump, and Doge. | ||
| And the biggest thing, though, that I would contradict your guest on is that there's the way that private industry works and the way that they go through their processes, and there's the way that the government works. | ||
| And I question the government's processes. | ||
| And when I say that, do you think that they're like ISO 9000 certified? | ||
| Are they ISO certified? | ||
| Do you think they're AS9100 certified? | ||
| These are certifications that the federal government requires private business to be in order to conduct business with them. | ||
| But I don't think they have the same standard. | ||
| I can speak to this because I was in the industry for almost 39 years. | ||
| I worked for the largest defense contractor in the world. | ||
| And there are some good government employees. | ||
| Don't get me wrong. | ||
| But there's a lot of oxygen thieves. | ||
| There's a lot of cruisers. | ||
| They will pound on their chest and tell you it takes an act of Congress to fire them. | ||
| Nobody in their job in the private sector thinks like that that works that way. | ||
| I mean, no matter how important you think you are as the general worker, if you would, God forbid, die that day, the stock's not going down one penny because you died. | ||
| That's a fact. | ||
| So the government needs to work at a more efficient rate. | ||
| And that might mean slashing complete areas because it's redundancy. | ||
| And in the private sector, they make us look at ourselves as to how can we be more efficient every single year. | ||
| How can we squeeze out more efficiency and get better at what we do? | ||
| And unless you're trying to practice continuous improvements, then you're just doing the same thing over and over again, looking for a different result. | ||
| And the government acts like grandma's ham. | ||
| They keep doing it the same way. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because that's how they've always done it. | ||
| All right, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, he makes an excellent point. | |
| And this is why you have to create chaos in government, because they have created this preponderance of layers where they're protected. | ||
| And it's created a lot of incompetency. | ||
| They know where the fraud is. | ||
| They know where the duplication is. | ||
| They know people are not doing their jobs. | ||
| And what many of these government workers should be doing now is working with the president and working with the White House. | ||
| He said, this is where we can do better. | ||
| This is where we're ineffective. | ||
| These are the programs that are working. | ||
| They know this. | ||
| And listen, the bottom line is that nothing remains the same. | ||
| Change is necessary. | ||
| And our government, me me, is not as effective, not as accountable, not as responsible, and not as efficient as it could be. | ||
| And it should. | ||
| This is a start. | ||
| No one knows how it's going to play out, but Donald Trump has the right attitude. | ||
| And plus, let's not forget, we still face this trillion-dollar deficit that America could go over the financial cliff if we don't get our financial order and our financial house in order. | ||
| Here's Joanne in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Joanne. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yeah, I just want to tell this guy. | ||
| And Donald Trump, there's only one God, and his name is definitely not Trump. | ||
| R. Williams, thank you for your time. | ||
| Have a nice day. | ||
| His lips keep moving and Elias keep throwing. | ||
| And I absolutely agree with her that Trump is not God, never will be. | ||
| He's just a man, flawed like everybody else, but he just happens to be President of the United States. | ||
| Here's Marie, an independent in Maryland. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, we can. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is what I don't understand. | |
| I don't like anyone having my Social Security number because the NRA was taking a little bit of money out of my checking account until I caught it because sometimes as you're getting older, we don't look at the small things. | ||
| Now, if the NRA was removing money from my checking account without my permission, I can imagine what someone else who was going to have my Social Security number and everybody's is what they're going to do. | ||
| But my main thing is what I don't understand. | ||
| It's what happened to the values of the adults here in this country. | ||
| Period. | ||
| That the President of the United States is a registered sex offender. | ||
| And all of you act like this is something to applaud. | ||
| You should be ashamed of yourselves for even thinking that that part of the case. | ||
| Forget his felons. | ||
| He is a registered sex offender. | ||
| Sir, how do you feel about that when it comes to your family? | ||
| Well, I don't think the president is a registered sex offender. | ||
| We do know that the president is flawed. | ||
| We know the president has had moral challenges like all of us. | ||
| But the American people understand this better than anyone else. | ||
| I think it was because he was so flawed and they thought that the government targeted him that it built a lot of empathy for him until they became his protector during the last presidential election. | ||
| I think they know exactly what Donald Trump is. | ||
| And I think that's why he was elected, because they realize they'd rather have an imperfect man that do their bidding than someone who professes something very different. | ||
| Here is Jesse in Babylon, New York, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Mr. Williams, you're a very interesting man to listen to. | ||
| I just want to ask you, do you support Mr. Trump 100%? | ||
| You know, as a broadcaster, I support journalism. | ||
| I am a referee. | ||
| I'm not a coach. | ||
| It is our responsibility to prevent both sides without manipulating the facts, favoring the facts, and let you, as the reader at the Watcher broadcast, come to your own conclusion. | ||
| I'm not here to do any bidding for Donald Trump or for the Democrats. | ||
| My bidding is citizen journalism, bringing the facts for you to make your own determination. | ||
| I want to ask you about New York City Mayor Eric Adams. | ||
| The Trump administration's Department of Justice has asked that those, all the charges of corruption against him be dropped. | ||
| What was your reaction to that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, listen, obviously, a lot of top prosecutors and lawyers resign over this. | |
| And, you know, there are two schools. | ||
| You know, Donald Trump believed, because of his own journey and prosecution by the courts, he feels it was a witch hunt that this happened to Mayor Adams because he bumped the Biden administration on the immigration policies. | ||
| Do you believe that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That partly, yes. | |
| Even though the prosecutor said that they had been investigating the allegations of corruption before immigration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I believe that also. | |
| But I don't believe that Governor Hoko should have the power because, you know, she's trying to make a decision now of whether to remove Mayor Adams from office. | ||
| I don't think the governor should undo the will of the people. | ||
| You have an election that is coming up. | ||
| Donald Trump wants to have someone that he wants to work with in New York because that's a very important sanctuary city and immigration is very important there. | ||
| It could have been done a little different. | ||
| And what I think some people realize, some of these top prosecutors that stepped down were Republicans. | ||
| They're just Democrats. | ||
| Some of these people had just been recently appointed by the president himself. | ||
| You just got to let this play out. | ||
| Mayor Adams is very defiant. | ||
| He feels he's done nothing wrong. | ||
| But in the end, the president, his decision, he asked the Justice Department to drop the case. | ||
| There's been a fallout. | ||
| We just have to see where it goes. | ||
| Here's Lisa in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Democrat. | ||
| Lisa, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I've been very upset with what's going on with what Trump's doing. | ||
| I find that he has put Elon Musk in place to do what he's doing. | ||
| So, because Trump likes to get other people to do his dirty work, so he can have Elon Musk do the dirty work so he can say, I have nothing to do with that. | ||
| And with what's going on with Russia and Ukraine, it's pretty disgusting because Russia started it. | ||
| It was not. | ||
| Russia started it. | ||
| And Putin is not scared of Trump. | ||
| Trump is scared of Putin. | ||
| And if Trump gives Putin everything he wants, no, this is wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you know what? | |
| You're right. | ||
| God let Trump live that day because he does. | ||
| Pour it on, pile it up. | ||
| He'll get him in the end. | ||
| All right, Lisa. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let me respond too, because I think she said some things that really need to be addressed. | |
| Listen, the only people who pay the price for war are the innocent families who lose their sons in this war. | ||
| JD Vance gave a speech in Europe that was defiant, but it was truthful. | ||
| The Europeans, the Germans did not like it. | ||
| McCrone in France called an emergency meeting. | ||
| But listen, their migrant policies are really out of control. | ||
| I mean, I don't know the last time you've been to London. | ||
| They can use knives, they can attack you, they can beat you, they can assault you, and you have no rights. | ||
| If you punch back, you hit them, you're going to jail. | ||
| The fact that Europe has not carried its weight, if they don't like, if a particular leader is about to be elected, they suspend the elections. | ||
| I think JD Vance gave Europe a reality check. | ||
| The bottom line is: Donald Trump maintained a relationship with Putin. | ||
| Say whatever you want to say about that. | ||
| But it's because of that relationship that you stay in contact with what we perceive to be as our enemy. | ||
| You're able to bring Ukraine and Russia to Saudi Arabia to talk about. | ||
| But Ukraine's not there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| But you know what? | ||
| Mark Rubio, the Secretary of State, said they will be at the table. | ||
| And I'm going to take his word for it. | ||
| But still, it is best to sit down, to cut out the bureaucracy in Russia and Ukraine and Europe to bring a close to this so people stop dying and the infrastructure is destroyed. | ||
| But I heard the foreign minister of the EU say as early as this morning, let's try to work with the United States instead of fighting against her to bring some kind of resolution to this situation where innocent people continue to die. | ||
| Who would be upset if it were your son and somebody else's son dying in this war? | ||
| Someone steps in like Donald Trump and says, let's bring a close to this. | ||
| I know that Landon's in the issue. | ||
| Mark Rubio said it's not going to happen overnight. | ||
| But this is where we should be instead of innocents continuing to die. | ||
| Let's talk to Mark in Clearwater, Florida, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I have a question for the gentleman here. | ||
| I was watching one of y'all's shows a few weeks back where it was about the insurance thing and all this and that. | ||
| You had two people, one on the phone and one at the table, and she was going to make a statement on how the subsidies that the government gives to corporations. | ||
| And then I looked it up and the government gives to corporations $500 worth of insurance coverage for the company for help their coverage, $1,200 for two people, and an X number for three for family. | ||
| My question, the gentleman is, does he take subsidies for insurance coverages? | ||
| And then why is the government going to look into those fraud and abuse, that why the American people are paying company subsidies for their employees' insurance thinking? | ||
| You know, what is not talked about, Mimi, enough, it's not just people who did not support people on the lower rung of the ladder, people in the federal government that's been impacted by Donald Trump's policy. | ||
| There are a lot of businesses, farmers, who hire these workers. | ||
| They're not showing up for work because they feel that ICE is going to come along and pick them up. | ||
| I mean, you've got these Venezuelan migrants who were saying we're no longer going to extend their work visas, which really impacts a lot of companies in this country. | ||
| Listen, I don't do work with the government. | ||
| You know, I went through this thing called No Child Left Behind early on in my life and almost got left behind. | ||
| And I vowed after that I would never have any kind of business with the government. | ||
| I'm in the private industry. | ||
| In the private industry, we cannot allow our operation to run like the government does because we would not be in business. | ||
| You cannot allow your household to run the certain way. | ||
| We provide health care coverage for our employees, not because we have to, because we choose to, because it's the right thing to do. | ||
| There's only so much government could do in people's lives. | ||
| But I do think for private corporations that do well, whether they're getting on the dole of the government or not, you should take care of your employees first. | ||
| I mean, listen, the government can only do so much with people that are struggling. | ||
| Corporations in these communities do a lot to lift up lives that are struggling, particularly in the particular economy that we're in right now. | ||
| But yes, I think everything is open in terms of government in terms of what Elon Musk is trying to do because they're looking for the transparency. | ||
| I want to ask you about criticism of President Trump that says one of the biggest concerns of the American people during the campaign was the economy and inflation and that President Trump hasn't done enough or hasn't focused enough on bringing prices down at the grocery store. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a slow process and he's come back to admit that it may have been a little over exaggerated during the campaign. | |
| But I do think when you cut out waste and abuse, when you cut out the number of migrants that are crossing the borders, I mean, I think many people felt that weight on their way of life as it related to housing and other things. | ||
| I think those things will add relief. | ||
| But what you just mentioned, that's a slow process that must take place. | ||
| It's not going to happen overnight. | ||
| And people have to be patient. | ||
| Here's Gary in Guyton, Georgia, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mr. Williams. | |
| How you this morning? | ||
| Good morning, Gary. | ||
| You know, when I was young, we always took the vacation up to the Smoky Mountains, and we would all pile in the station wagon and go. | ||
| And back then, they would allow you to feed the bears right on the side of the road. | ||
| And it got to be a big thing, and it went on for years and years. | ||
| Well, when they stopped that, all the bears just stood out on the side of the road and starved to death because they didn't know how to feed themselves. | ||
| You know, if you've got a man that's going to teach you how to fish, and you've got a man that's going to give you a fish, and you come back to him tomorrow for that fish, which man you want to be with? | ||
| You know, I want to say to him, and I think his point is well taken: the best, me, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare I had growing up was my mother and my father. | ||
| Much of what is happening today, wise, there's so much pain in society. | ||
| Men and this juvenile justice and this crime, because these young boys have no idea what it means to be a man. | ||
| They have no idea right and wrong. | ||
| And we must strengthen the family again. | ||
| Not only do we need men in the households, but we need them in the school system. | ||
| Because where you have men in the school system teaching these kids, especially these young boys, they react differently to them. | ||
| You have less behavior problems. | ||
| You have less crime. | ||
| You have less homicide. | ||
| You have less rape. | ||
| And so we've got to get back to the understanding of the family that work ethic, discipline, sacrifice works. | ||
| And that's something that can be taught in the family. | ||
| There's only so much the government can do. | ||
| And there's only so much the government can help unless you've already built yourself a stable foundation. | ||
| And every now and then you may struggle. | ||
| Something may blindside you. | ||
| But at least because you have a stable foundation, the government is better prepared to help you. | ||
| But if you're just solely dependent on the government and you're not bringing any other resources to the table except the government help, that's not going to work for you in the long run. | ||
| You said there should be more men in the classroom. | ||
| How do you encourage more men to become teachers, especially if there's no Department of Education? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm not going to say there's not going to be a Department of Education. | |
| I do believe that states do a better job than the federal government. | ||
| So then how can states encourage more men to become teachers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know what? | |
| You encourage them to mentor. | ||
| You must make them realize the value of being in the classroom because this is a child that could take your child's life someday. | ||
| This is a child that could marry your daughter someday. | ||
| Men, I think men want to be in the classroom, but I think you've got to give them incentive. | ||
| Whether better pay, I think teachers should be paid the way CEOs. | ||
| I think they have more of an impact on the lives of kids than these CEOs who make these millions of dollars. | ||
| I think we need to show more respect for teaching and what people sacrifice in the classroom because me, it's become a war zone. | ||
| These schools is what it is. | ||
| One more call. | ||
| Carolyn in Baltimore, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Carolyn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning, and I'm glad I got through. | |
| Thank you for this information. | ||
| Two comments in the question. | ||
| I'll be really brief. | ||
| I'm a retired federal government worker. | ||
| I wish people would stop trying to demonize federal government workers. | ||
| We worked hard, and we had a lot of credentials to get the positions that we had. | ||
| I do see, and there were people who didn't work, but those were a few. | ||
| And I have an issue with the indiscriminate firings that are being done. | ||
| You have people who are working hard and they shouldn't be fired just because, you know, some random issue. | ||
| Second, the media has always been biased. | ||
| With you being now with the sun, I hope you show more black people doing well. | ||
| They seem to focus on the ones that are not. | ||
| And it's more of us who are doing well who are Christian values, family values. | ||
| And I wish you would focus more on that because I'm tired of being demonized for that. | ||
| My question is, 63 years old, when I was coming up, our community taught us we had to be twice as good as other populations to get a job. | ||
| So as far as DEI is concerned, and adding to that, I've personally trained at least two white people who got promoted over me. | ||
| So my question is regarding DEI. | ||
| Do you actually think that the people who were hired under these programs are incompetent and got the position only because they're black? | ||
| Because I would say that is not the case. | ||
| All right, Carolyn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, absolutely. | |
| The majority not. | ||
| I think most people would get there on their own merit. | ||
| That's why you don't necessarily need DEI. | ||
| But I really appreciate you calling from Baltimore because we have, over the last few weeks, have been focusing on very successful Americans who happen to be black and entrepreneurs and how they contribute to the better way of life in Baltimore. | ||
| So I hope you follow that series. | ||
| If not, just go to baltimoreson.com. | ||
| And I would encourage you also to subscribe to the Baltimore Sun. | ||
| I had to get that in there, Mimi. | ||
| All right, Armstrong Williams, columnist, TV talk show host, entrepreneur. | ||
| His website is armstrongwilliams.com, also the owner of the Baltimore Sun. | ||
| Thank you so much for being here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mimi. | |
| Always a pleasure to see you. | ||
| I always enjoy watching you when I'm not here. | ||
| You do such a terrific job. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| After the break, a conversation with Nation Magazine justice correspondent Ellie Mistel about President Trump's first month in office and how Democrats are reacting. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
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| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We're joined now by Ellie Mistal. | ||
| He is a justice correspondent and columnist for the nation. | ||
| Ellie, welcome to the program. | ||
| Hey, thank you so much for having me. | ||
| I want to start with this Associated Press article with the headline, Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to let the firing of whistleblower agency head proceed. | ||
| Could you get us up to speed on what that court case is about and what the issue is there? | ||
| Yeah, so Trump likes to fire people, and he thinks that because he is the president, he can fire anybody he wants for any reason, whether or not they were appointed or not, for just because he feels like it and he remembers it from his TV days, right? | ||
| There are laws regarding how you can fire people when they work for the federal government, who you can fire, what the proper process is, and all that sort of thing. | ||
| Trump wants to ignore those laws, ignore people who have their positions that are authorized by Congress and fire people willingly. | ||
| And he's hoping for the Supreme Court to let them let him do that. | ||
| There are specifically laws in place to protect whistleblowers from retaliatory firings. | ||
| One of the reasons why we have whistleblowers is because we have these laws, but Trump, because he has that kind of mobster mentality, he wants people to have Omerta and never say anything against him. | ||
| And so he thinks that a whistleblower law is completely ridiculous and he should never be bound by it. | ||
| And so we have our classic setup of Trump versus American law. | ||
| And he is once again hoping the Supreme Court allows him to escape the realities of American law. | ||
| And quite frankly, the Supreme Court has done that for him before and might well do that for him again. | ||
| So when do you think the Supreme Court would rule on this? | ||
| Yeah, the timing on the court right now, I can't quite know. | ||
| There is so much percolating up through the lower courts to the Supreme Court. | ||
| We have seen in the past that the Supreme Court can move very, very quickly, especially when it wants to help Trump. | ||
| We've seen in the past that this court can move very slowly when it wants, when extending the timeframe is in Trump's benefit. | ||
| And I don't know how they'll play this one. | ||
| What I do know is that the Supreme Court has the conservatives on the Supreme Court, the Republican justices, the most extremist ones, believe in this very impactful theory called unitary executive theory, which basically holds that the executive branch of government, Article 1, Article 2, sorry, of the Constitution, is the president of the United States and nobody else, that he is the entire executive branch. | ||
| And everybody in the executive branch, from a whistleblower, from the head of the EPA, from the Department of Justice, everybody serves at his pleasure or whim. | ||
| That is something that they have been trying to push over the years. | ||
| Trump is going to give them many opportunities to push that theory, to stretch that theory even further and make him an even more powerful president. | ||
| And people often wonder, like, well, why would the Supreme Court give Trump so much power? | ||
| Aren't they concerned about their own power? | ||
| And of course, they are. | ||
| But the idea here is that if you make the president kind of the very most powerful person in the world, then the only person that can tell the president no is the Supreme Court. | ||
| Because the Supreme Court then becomes the only body that's able to say, put like this, if they make up the theory, right, then they're the only people who can tell you if somebody has gone too far against their made-up theory, right? | ||
| It's not Congress. | ||
| It's not the people, voters elected that can restrain the president. | ||
| It's the court and only the Supreme Court. | ||
| And so that's why giving the executive more power actually rebounds to give the Supreme Court itself even more power. | ||
| And that is what Roberts has always been about. | ||
| Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court has always been about, arrogating as much power to himself and his court as he possibly can. | ||
| Now, you had said that, you know, the president does not have the legal authority to fire whoever he wants, whenever he wants. | ||
| But he and Elon Musk have been making the argument that this is, you know, the people that are being fired in the federal government are an unelected bureaucracy, that we are trying to restore democracy by getting rid of these people. | ||
| And that, yes, the president should have the right to fire people that are not on board with his policies. | ||
| Okay, first of all, I don't want to hear anything from Elon Musk, right? | ||
| You can't be an unelected bureaucrat talking about the dangers of unelected bureaucrats, right? | ||
| I voted many times in my life, and never once have I seen Elon Musk's name on a ballot. | ||
| I don't know anybody who's pulled a lever for him, so he needs to shut the hell up or if he's going to talk about unelected bureaucrats running America. | ||
| That's number one. | ||
| Number two, of course, the president has the power and should have the power to assign people to work with him and advance his agenda. | ||
| We have an entire process for this. | ||
| It's called the cabinet. | ||
| And if you think about the cabinet, so if you think about this idea that the president can just fire or hire anybody he wants at every time, we know that's not true because we know that even for his own cabinet, even for the people that he puts in charge of executive agencies, they have to go through a Senate confirmation process. | ||
| That has happened throughout American history. | ||
| The Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, now the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, all of these people have to be confirmed by the Senate. | ||
| And the Senate doesn't want to confirm somebody, then the President can't have that person in that position. | ||
| Hello, Mr. Matt Gates. | ||
| I hope you are well wherever you are in Florida. | ||
| But, Ellie. | ||
| We know, just from a basic understanding of American civics, that what Trump and Musk are arguing for is provably wrong and inconsistent with American law. | ||
| I'd just like to say that, I mean, there are Elon Musk right now is a special advisor to the president, and the president can have whoever advising him as he likes, and they are not Senate confirmed. | ||
| Yes, Elon Musk is an advisor, so that's why I'm saying he cannot talk to me about being an unelected official holding power. | ||
| And sure, the president can have advisors. | ||
| The president can talk to whoever he wants. | ||
| And if he wants to put his buddy Musk on the payroll, if he wants to put, I don't know, his daughter Ivanka on the payroll or his son-in-law, Jared, on the payroll, that's fine. | ||
| He can talk to whoever he wants. | ||
| But there's an entire government that he represents, right? | ||
| There's an entire government that he works for, and he does not have unassailable, unaccountable power to hire and fire every single person in the federal government. | ||
| He just doesn't. | ||
| And I just proved to you why he doesn't, right? | ||
| Like the idea that just because you're the president, you can reach all the way down into a lowly civil service person working in the GAO and fire them because they happen to be black. | ||
| That is insane. | ||
| And that is, again, against the entire thrust of American civics, not even law, just the civic structure of how the country works. | ||
| This isn't how it's supposed to work. | ||
| Trump is claiming an authority that no other president has had. | ||
| And you know that he's asking for something that no other president has had because he has to ask for it. | ||
| If this is how we always did it, then Trump wouldn't have to ask the Supreme Court to let him do it because it would just be the thing that is always done. | ||
| It's not always done. | ||
| This isn't how it's supposed to work. | ||
| And there's a really good reason for why it's not supposed to work because we like to think of the president as one official among many. | ||
| He has a specific job. | ||
| He has a unique job. | ||
| He has an important job. | ||
| But he's not the only person who has authority in the federal government. | ||
| Ellie Mistall is our guest. | ||
| He's a justice correspondent and columnist with the nation. | ||
| If you'd like to join the conversation, you can. | ||
| The numbers are Republicans, 202748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, call us on 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| President Trump, Ellie, has said that he will abide by court orders that block parts of his agenda. | ||
| Do you see that as likely? | ||
| And what happens if that doesn't happen? | ||
| He's already lying. | ||
| He's already lying. | ||
| He's not abiding by court orders against him right now. | ||
| The federal funding freeze, the pause that he put on has already been blocked by multiple courts through temporary restraining orders around the country. | ||
| And yet, the money is not back on. | ||
| ProPublico last week did an excellent report on this. | ||
| If you go to organizations that are expecting federal checks, they will tell you in many cases the money has not been turned back on. | ||
| So that is a clear example of Trump lying to everybody's face. | ||
| And all of us are pretending like it's normal. | ||
| It's not normal. | ||
| He said he will abide by court orders. | ||
| This is a court order against him. | ||
| He is not abiding by it. | ||
| A, B, C, right? | ||
| So do I think he will abide by future court orders? | ||
| Well, hell, I don't know. | ||
| He's not abiding by this one. | ||
| Maybe he'll abide by some other one that he finds more amenable to him. | ||
| But here's the rub, Mimi. | ||
| Here's the real, here's my real problem. | ||
| Here's my real issue. | ||
| Whatever Trump says he is going to abide by, there has so far been no at all indication that he will enforce court orders, court orders against his owner, Elon Musk. | ||
| We haven't seen any indication of that at all. | ||
| There's no suggestion at all that Trump will impose a court order against Elon Musk, telling him to rein in it. | ||
| And so that's, I think, what I'm most worried about. | ||
| But that's because I already know that Trump is lying about whether or not he himself will follow court orders, because he's not following a court order right now. | ||
| Ellie, I want to play for you, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, when she was responding to people who say that Trump's actions are causing a constitutional crisis. | ||
| And then I'll get your response. | ||
| Now, before I take questions, I would like to address an extremely dishonest narrative that we've seen emerging over the past few days. | ||
| Many outlets in this room have been fear-mongering the American people into believing there is a constitutional crisis taking place here at the White House. | ||
| I've been hearing those words a lot lately. | ||
| But in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority. | ||
| We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law. | ||
| And they have issued at least 12 injunctions against this administration in the past 14 days, often without citing any evidence or grounds for their lawsuits. | ||
| This is part of a larger concerted effort by Democrat activists and nothing more than the continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump. | ||
| Quick news flash to these liberal judges who are supporting their obstructionist efforts. | ||
| 77 million Americans voted to elect this president. | ||
| And each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people. | ||
| As the president clearly stated in the Oval Office yesterday, we will comply with the law in the courts, but we will also continue to seek every legal remedy to ultimately overturn these radical injunctions and ensure President Trump's policies can be enacted. | ||
| Your reaction to that, Ellie Mistall. | ||
| If I may translate that gobbledygook, it's basically, oh my God, every judge that I don't like is a constitutional crisis. | ||
| That's what she said. | ||
| She's obviously wrong. | ||
| It's a well-established part of American law that when you do something, you can be sued. | ||
| And that lawsuit will go to a judge. | ||
| And that judge will make a ruling. | ||
| And that ruling will be appealed. | ||
| And once you get to a final ruling, that ruling is final. | ||
| That's just how it works. | ||
| There is no constitutional crisis with judges imposing the law. | ||
| There is one with presidents ignoring the law, right? | ||
| That's the inversion that Levitt is trying to gaslight people and confuse people about. | ||
| It is very simple to have a court order and follow it. | ||
| That's normal. | ||
| That's easy. | ||
| It's Trump who doesn't want to do the normal, easy thing. | ||
| And he's trying to say that these judges doing their job is somehow a constitutional problem. | ||
| But there's another thing that she said that I want people to notice and pick up on and realize how insane it is, right? | ||
| She's basically saying, and Republicans have been saying this for weeks now, that Trump was elected with 77 million people and blah, blah, blah. | ||
| And so that somehow means that because he won a majority of the vote, he gets to do whatever he wants. | ||
| And again, that's just not how it works. | ||
| That's not how law works. | ||
| That's not how Civic works. | ||
| Yes, the president was elected fairly. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| Congratulations on all your success, Donald Trump. | ||
| But he is still part of a system. | ||
| He is still part of a legal structure. | ||
| He is not above that legal structure. | ||
| And there are therefore limitations on what he can do, no matter how many people want him to do it. | ||
| There are things that he can do. | ||
| There are things that he can't do. | ||
| The judges are saying that in many cases, he is exceeding his constitutional and legal authority. | ||
| Just because 77 million people ostensibly want him to exceed his constitutional and legal authority doesn't mean he can. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| Let's go back to the Supreme Court. | ||
| Your cover article for the nation says this, how Trump could remake the Supreme Court for a generation with the subheading, Donald Trump is poised to become the first president since FDR to have appointed the majority of high court justices. | ||
| His potential picks are terrifying. | ||
| Yeah, so my so liberals generally think that the Supreme Court can't get any worse because it's already stacked six to three with Republican appointees over Democratic appointees. | ||
| And so I wrote that to remind people that, of course, it can get worse. | ||
| It can always get worse. | ||
| And worse right now is taking that Republican 6-3 majority and making it permanent for the lifetime of my natural life and everybody who is viewing this program's natural life, right? | ||
| And that's because the two oldest justices on the Supreme Court are both Republican. | ||
| Clarence Thomas, he's 76. | ||
| Samuel Alito, he's 74. | ||
| If both of those two men retire in the next four years, Trump will have the opportunity to replace them with those men but 30 years younger. | ||
| Thus, at some level, I can't say permanent, but like giving him control of the Supreme Court long after Trump's life, right? | ||
| These are justices that are going to outlive Trump. | ||
| These are justices that are going to impose the MAG legacy on the rest of us through unelected means for the next 30 or 40 years. | ||
| And Trump is in position, if Alito and Thomas retire, to become the first president since FDR to appoint not just Supreme Court justices, but a majority of the Supreme Court, if these two men retire, will be appointed by Trump. | ||
| And that is, you know, what keeps me up at night. | ||
| Ellie, there is a question for you on text from David Elmira, New York, regarding not following court orders. | ||
| He says, if I'm not mistaken, Biden did not follow court orders either, giving forgiveness of millions of dollars in school loans. | ||
| What's your response to that? | ||
| So, David Elmira, you're just wrong. | ||
| Biden did follow the court order. | ||
| They said he couldn't do the program. | ||
| He said, okay, I can't do it that way. | ||
| I'm going to try it some other way. | ||
| So he followed the letter of the law. | ||
| He followed the spirit of the law. | ||
| But just because he got an adverse court order didn't mean that he gave up on the program. | ||
| He tried to find another legal way to achieve his end. | ||
| Trump did that last time. | ||
| The first Muslim ban overruled by the court. | ||
| The second Muslim ban overruled by the court. | ||
| Did Trump say, no, I'm just going to stop banning Muslims? | ||
| No. | ||
| No, Trump did not just say, I'm going to stop banning Muslims. | ||
| He tried again and again and again until he got a Muslim ban that the Supreme Court was willing to uphold. | ||
| Now, I think that was a horrible decision by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Hawaii, but that is a problem with the Supreme Court, not with Donald Trump. | ||
| Donald Trump, when he was trying to immorally ban Muslims from coming into the country, did it the right way. | ||
| Joe Biden, when he was trying to relieve student debt relief, did it the right way. | ||
| What Trump is doing now by ignoring the court orders, ordering him to restore the funding that he illegally and unconstitutionally took away, that is different in kind than anything that Biden did, than anything that Trump did the first time. | ||
| And frankly, that anything that any other American president has done until we have to go all the way back to Andrew Jackson or Abraham Lincoln to find somebody who so openly defined a court order. | ||
| All right, let's talk to the callers and start with Maria in Atlanta, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Maria. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, C-SPAN family. | |
| Good morning, Mia. | ||
| And good morning, Eli. | ||
| Was wondering if they ever bring you back again? | ||
| I have a question for you. | ||
| I'm glad to see you. | ||
| I'm a big time follower. | ||
| But nevertheless, I want to ask you, Trump gets on TV and say all kinds of stuff. | ||
| And a while back, he got on TV and he talked about how Elon Musk helped him and his swing states and how he went over there and worked on his computer and he said he's mostly good at computers. | ||
| Do you actually think, because I never heard none of the media ever, ever pick this up again and comment it. | ||
| You think he was trying to say that the election was stolen? | ||
| No, I don't. | ||
| And Maria, just I want to thank you for the love. | ||
| I just want to say for your own mental health, try very hard to stop watching Trump on TV. | ||
| It's not good for you, right? | ||
| He's going to say the same thing. | ||
| It's like, you know, once you see a dog bark at the dog run, like, you don't need to hear it for the rest of your afternoon. | ||
| Like, go out, touch grass, man, because it will get into your soul if you listen to that man too much. | ||
| As opposed to the specific allegation, no, I don't think that Trump, what Trump is not the most rhetorically cautious individual. | ||
| I do not think that he was trying to say that Elon Musk helped him steal the election. | ||
| And I do not think that Elon Musk helped Trump steal the election. | ||
| I actually think that Democrats and liberals somehow sometimes roll into or protect themselves with feelings that maybe something fishy, something untoward happened because that's easier to believe than it is that 77 million Americans voted for a convicted felon crazy person, right? | ||
| It's just easier to believe that we live in a place where, well, something had to be fishy there than no, people knew who Trump was and they just wanted this for to do this to the country. | ||
| Like the latter is actually true. | ||
| So no, I don't think Elon Musk helped him steal anything. | ||
| I do think that now that he's in power, Elon Musk is helping him do some serious illegal activity with Musk wielding power that he never should have. | ||
| But that's a different problem. | ||
| All right, let's talk to Mark, a Republican in Clifton Park, New York. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Trump won the election fair and square. | ||
| And he has a mandate to govern conservatively. | ||
| He's allowed to govern conservatively for at least the next two years until the midterms and the next four years until a Republican successor will have to run again. | ||
| So Trump is given the latitude because he won the election by the majority, by the popular vote, and by a landslide electoral vote. | ||
| So Mark, we agree that Trump won the election fairly. | ||
| I don't agree that he has a mandate, but that's a word. | ||
| Who cares? | ||
| Trump won the election fairly, and he is allowed to govern as a conservative. | ||
| And conservatives are allowed to like the crazy things that he does. | ||
| What he's not allowed to do is illegal stuff, right? | ||
| Surely, Mark, we can agree that he's not allowed to do illegal things, that he's not allowed to do unconstitutional things. | ||
| Surely we can agree on that. | ||
| And while you and I might disagree on what's legal or constitutional, surely we can agree that a federal judge is the right person, is the person who should be able to tell us what's legal and what's constitutional and what is not. | ||
| So Mark, can we not agree that Trump, while yes, he's allowed to govern conservatively, while yes, he's allowed to do what the people elected him to do, he is not allowed to break the law. | ||
| Mark, you still there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm still here. | |
| What Trump is doing is the right thing. | ||
| He's doing the right thing. | ||
| Is it the legal thing, Mark? | ||
| Is it the legal thing, Mark? | ||
| And then who is supposed to decide whether or not it's the legal thing? | ||
| Is nobody supposed to decide whether or not it's the legal thing? | ||
| Is anything that Trump says legal? | ||
| Is that how we're going to are we back to Nixon now? | ||
| When the president does it, it's not illegal. | ||
| Is that literally the best that you can get to, Mark? | ||
| Or do you think that maybe somebody who is not the president should have a say in whether or not what the president is doing is legal or illegal? | ||
| All right, Ellie, let's give Mark a chance. | ||
| Go ahead, Mark. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think what Trump's doing is great right now. | |
| He's cutting waste. | ||
| He's going out. | ||
| No, no, but that's not the question, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As far as legality, I think that he has a lot. | |
| He has a large latitude, and we're going to have to find out because obviously these court orders and judges blocking things, I think they will eventually work their way through the problem. | ||
| I suppose. | ||
| All right. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Got it. | |
| Ellie Mistall. | ||
| There's a posting here on X that I'm sure you're aware of by Vice President Vance who said this. | ||
| If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. | ||
| If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. | ||
| Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power. | ||
| What's your response to that? | ||
| Well, I went to Harvard and JD Vance went to Yale, and I'm feeling really good about my choices if that's the best that JD Vance can do right now. | ||
| Look, if JD Vance was right, then the Dobbs decision canceling the right to abortion was illegitimate and illegal on its face. | ||
| And Joe Biden should have personally performed abortions for the last four years, if JD Vance was right. | ||
| Of course, JD Vance is not right. | ||
| JD Vance sounds like an idiot when he says that because the idea that judges, that the third branch of government doesn't have a legitimate check on the power of the other two branches, the legislative branch and the executive branch, again, flies in the face of basic American civics. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Now, I have many problems with the Supreme Court and how it wields power. | ||
| And I can argue that the Supreme Court has too much power. | ||
| I've argued that in the past. | ||
| I'm in favor of what the scholars call jurisdiction stripping, which is kind of a way for Congress to limit the power that the Supreme Court has on constitutional issues. | ||
| I'm all for reform of the Supreme Court. | ||
| I do not think that it is the greatest body on earth, but it is a legitimate part of American government. | ||
| And acting like it cannot say what is illegal or not, what is constitutional or not, is just not something that we do in this country, right? | ||
| We understand that the judges have a role and that the rest of us have to follow the judge's role. | ||
| If you don't like it, there are many opportunities to reform the Supreme Court that I have listed in many articles in the nation that JD Vance is welcome to read. | ||
| But the idea that the Supreme Court has no authority on Trump just because he's the president, again, flies in the face of basic American law and basic American civics. | ||
| And JD Vance knows that. | ||
| JD Vance knows that he's saying what he's saying because it is in his best political interest to lick Trump's boots, even if it flies in the face of all law and reason and civics. | ||
| Here's Lewis in Pennsaukin, New Jersey, Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Lewis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning, sir. | ||
| This reminds me of when Trump was in his first term, and we had all these judges blocking him from building the wall. | ||
| It's just politics and judges shouldn't be involved in politics and that's what's going on here. | ||
| And another thing, he's the executive. | ||
| He can fire anybody he wants. | ||
| Okay, Lewis. | ||
| So let's start. | ||
| Let's start at the end. | ||
| Again, he can't. | ||
| Like, I know maybe you want him to be able to, right? | ||
| Maybe because you watched The Apprentice, you just want him to say, I'm fired. | ||
| You're fired. | ||
| And it just makes it feel good inside to know there's a strong daddy figure firing people. | ||
| Maybe that's what you want, Lewis. | ||
| But that's not how the country works. | ||
| He doesn't actually have the power to fire anybody he wants, no matter how many times he beats his chest and says, I'm the president, I'm the executive. | ||
| It just doesn't work. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't like anybody's boots, okay? | |
| He can you don't lick anybody's boots, but you want him to fire people. | ||
| Lewis, why can't he fire people the right way? | ||
| There's a process for firing people. | ||
| Why can't he use that process, Lewis? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Like, it's really there. | |
| I agree with you there, okay? | ||
| So to your second point about the judges playing politics. | ||
| Lewis, let him address your second point about the judges. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You were saying that the judges were playing politics with the wall, just like it was in the first Trump administration. | ||
| Have you forgotten what happened during the Biden years? | ||
| Because there were a lot of decisions from these exact same judges that were adverse to Biden's agenda and policies. | ||
| One of the other callers earlier brought up the student debt relief as just one. | ||
| So if you think the judges are playing politics, do you think it's politics that hurts Trump? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| Because I seem to recall. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I agree with you. | |
| What they did to Biden, too, sir. | ||
| I agree with you there, too. | ||
| So you think judges just shouldn't have as much power as they do? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's politics, okay? | |
| It's politics. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I want to ask you about an article that you wrote, Ellie, for the nation with the headline, Trump's attacks on DEI are a green light for the government to discriminate. | ||
| I want you to explain that because critics of DEI say that it is discrimination because it's preferring people of diverse races, women over men, that kind of thing. | ||
| So what's your response to that? | ||
| Yeah, so DEI was invented by white people. | ||
| DEI was invented by white men. | ||
| DEI was invented by white men to try to comply with the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, right? | ||
| DEI was their white male creation to comply with constitutional law. | ||
| What diverse people, if that's what we're calling us today, what women have been asking for, has not been DEI. | ||
| They've been asking for fair and equal employment opportunities. | ||
| They've been asking for the application of the equal of the equality clause in the 14th Amendment and the application of the Civil Rights Act in hiring. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| It was white guys were just like, well, we don't know how to hire all these people. | ||
| So we're just going to do some DEI. | ||
| That makes sure that we have to hire black people and women and Latinos and whatever. | ||
| Ever. | ||
| That was their solution. | ||
| So now that they don't like that solution anymore, that's fine. | ||
| It is constitutional. | ||
| DEI is a policy. | ||
| It is constitutional and legal to change policy. | ||
| Trump has every authority that he might need to change the policy of the United States. | ||
| But my question is always: well, what are you going to do instead? | ||
| Because you still have to comply with the Civil Rights Act and you still have to comply with the 14th Amendment. | ||
| So what are you going to do instead, Trump, instead, Musk, instead, white tech bros? | ||
| What are you going to do instead, Meta, to make sure that you are still in compliance with the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment? | ||
| there they never have an answer and so it goes but I think I think what they would say is we're just going to hire the most qualified person for each job And therefore, we are in compliance. | ||
| Is that what's happening? | ||
| Because, okay, A, remember, DEI was invented because that wasn't happening. | ||
| For whatever reason, they weren't able to hire the most qualified person for every job. | ||
| They were only able to hire the whitest male person for every job, right? | ||
| So that was what was happening before DEI. | ||
| Now the DEI is ostensibly gone. | ||
| Is that what we see, Mimi? | ||
| Do we see them hiring the most qualified people for every job? | ||
| Heck, do we see them only firing the least qualified people for every job? | ||
| And of course, no, we don't see that. | ||
| In your last segment with Armstrong Williams, there was a caller who specifically asked that man, does he think that every single person who works in the federal government who is of color is a DEI hire and was unqualified for their job? | ||
| And Armstrong said, no, of course not. | ||
| That would be ridiculous. | ||
| Of course, he said, and I'm quoting him from your last segment, most people, I'm sure, got their job on merit, which is an interesting statement because they're firing everybody. | ||
| They're firing people not based on merit, not based on their qualifications, not based on their actual work history. | ||
| They're firing people because they're black. | ||
| And that is what violates the Constitution. | ||
| And that is what violates the law. | ||
| Nobody has a problem. | ||
| I mean, like, I want to say it that way. | ||
| It is legal for you to get rid of DEI policies. | ||
| What's illegal is for you to fire people just because they happen to be black at work. | ||
| It is ridiculous to fire everybody who's been hired under a DEI program without any kind of assessment of their actual work performance, their actual, dare I say, merit for the job. | ||
| But they're not doing it that way. | ||
| They're firing everybody who happens to be black in government. | ||
| That is what's illegal. | ||
| That is what the problem is. | ||
| Let's hear from Jennifer in Midlothian, Virginia, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Jennifer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning and good morning, Ellie. | |
| Thank you for taking the time to listen to our calls. | ||
| So my question is, sort of piggybacking on what you're talking about with DEI, I'm trying to understand, right? | ||
| We know there's no statute for taxation, quote, without representation necessarily. | ||
| But what legal recourse do those of us who fall within these marginalized groups, i.e. African-American, disabled, LGBTQ, all the things that, you know, are labeled as marginalized communities, to push back on everything being dismantled in the name of DEI? | ||
| If we are federal taxpayers, if we're paying our money, but every book that represents us is being banned from schools, every program that potentially may create spaces and access for these individuals, special education, all the things, we're paying our money. | ||
| This is an economic issue. | ||
| So as citizens and as residents of whatever state you're in, Commonwealth of Virginia, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, how can we push back and say, wait, my tax dollars are going to everybody but my community? | ||
| And how is that legal that we don't have any recourse because they're doing it in a discriminatory way, just like you said, under this guise of, well, that's considered DEI, so we just don't want it. | ||
| It's like, no, we also have Title VI, Title VII, and all of these rights that we're supposed to have access to. | ||
| And we're paying our money and we're seeing that we're not getting the services and access and empowerment that we should be getting. | ||
| So can you tell me, do we have recourse? | ||
| So Jennifer, I would just start with, it is legal. | ||
| I believe it is illegal. | ||
| And you named the statute, right? | ||
| I believe that what they are doing is illegal under the Civil Rights Act. | ||
| And again, that's not because they're changing the DEI policy. | ||
| DEI is not required by the Civil Rights Act, but fairness is, but equality is. | ||
| And so when they willy-nilly fire everybody who's for the crime of being black, fire everybody for the crime of being a woman without any individualized assessment of their merit, then I do believe that that is violating the Civil Rights Act and they should catch a lawsuit. | ||
| Now, unfortunately, once they catch that lawsuit, and I know Lewis is still out there, why are they going to sue the courts? | ||
| But when they do catch that lawsuit, eventually that goes to the Supreme Court. | ||
| And the Supreme Court, my read on the six Republican judges, is that they don't think the Civil Rights Act should be constitutional in the first place, right? | ||
| They didn't like the Voting Rights Act. | ||
| Roberts has done everything he can to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act, which is my pick for the single most important piece of legislation in American history. | ||
| So they've already gotten through the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Rights Act. | ||
| I believe next on the chopping block for these conservatives is the 1964 Civil Rights Act. | ||
| And so I don't think the lawsuit that Trump deserves to catch because what he is doing and the way he is doing it is illegal. | ||
| I don't know that that's going to work at the Supreme Court. | ||
| So to Jennifer's question, what's the recourse? | ||
| The recourse is the recourse that the people always have, right? | ||
| Trump was elected by a majority of Americans, and the only people who can take that power away are a majority of Americans activating, voting, convincing people. | ||
| I personally have started to boycott Target, right? | ||
| I vote with my wallet as well. | ||
| Target, specifically, because Target has spent like a decade telling my community, oh, we like you here. | ||
| Come to Target, put your products on our shelves. | ||
| We love, you know, Target's basically Jerry Maguire, right? | ||
| Tom Cruise and Jerry McGuire. | ||
| We love black people, except for when Trump gets in charge. | ||
| Now we hate black people, and now DEI is not a thing that we do at Target anymore, right? | ||
| So Target deserves to not have my dollars at this moment. | ||
| So I'm doing what I can with my wallet. | ||
| I'm doing what I can with my feet. | ||
| I'm doing what I can with my voice. | ||
| We all have to do that, right? | ||
| In the words of Kermit the Frog, man, we need more dogs and chats and dogs and cats and Muppets and chickens and things. | ||
| All right, let's hear from Dania in Butler, Missouri. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| I have a question. | ||
| You know, Biden didn't do nothing except stay on vacation most of the time. | ||
| And I hear people keep calling in, badmouth of Trump and what he's doing and everything. | ||
| And, you know, it's like deja vu. | ||
| Are we going to keep trying to put Trump in the courts again during his presidency? | ||
| Are we going to give him a chance? | ||
| I say give him a chance. | ||
| I think he's the best president we've ever had. | ||
| And whatever he does, he knows right from wrong. | ||
| He ain't going to do anything wrong. | ||
| Look at all the lawsuits they did and all of them dismissed. | ||
| I mean, come on. | ||
| It's just the witch hunt starting all over. | ||
| And this person that you've got on your show this morning, if they are so smart and think that Trump is doing wrong, why ain't they president? | ||
| Why don't they get off their lazy button run for the moment? | ||
| All right, Dania, let's get a response. | ||
| Go ahead, Ellie. | ||
| I will fight Trump with everything I have. | ||
| I will fight Trump on the beaches. | ||
| I will fight Trump in the streets. | ||
| I will never yield to this orange menace. | ||
| And if that makes De Nier unhappy, then I apologize to her. | ||
| But I will do everything in my small power to fight this man and what he is trying to do to my country. | ||
| But his supporters are saying that that's exactly the problem, that you're just fighting him for no reason. | ||
| So yes, I got reasons. | ||
| You want me to start listing the reasons? | ||
| He's just that woman said that he did wrong. | ||
| That man's been convicted on 34 counts of a felony. | ||
| The only reason why those cases have been, the other cases have been dismissed against them is because he has judges in his pocket like Eileen Cannon. | ||
| The Supreme Court gave him absolute immunity for official acts. | ||
| For the first time in American history, a president was placed squarely above the law by his hand-picked Supreme Court justice. | ||
| We've just been talking about his racist actions with DEI. | ||
| He is calling white South Africans to live as refugees in this country while expelling black and brown actual refugees who are living here now. | ||
| He is trying to overturn the 14th Amendment and strip away birthright citizenship from people who have been born Americans. | ||
| And those are the reasons that I can think of to oppose him off the top of my head. | ||
| Ellie, you have a you have a book coming out next month. | ||
| It's called Bad Law, 10 Popular Laws Ruining America. | ||
| Give us one of those. | ||
| Give us a real brief explanation. | ||
| Let's go with voting registration, right? | ||
| All voting registration should be renounced, right? | ||
| Voting registration does not help keep our elections safe. | ||
| All it does is decrease the participation in our elections. | ||
| In the first chapter of the book, I have an argument for how voter eligibility requirements are, in fact, necessary. | ||
| But once you meet those eligibility requirements, you should be automatically registered to vote. | ||
| And that registration should be what's called portable. | ||
| That means that when you move, you are still registered. | ||
| The registration follows you. | ||
| You don't have to chase registration. | ||
| People might think that's kind of a radical idea. | ||
| I like to point out to people, and I do in the first chapter of that book, that that is the way they do it in most of the rest of the functional democracies in the world. | ||
| That's how they do it in England. | ||
| That's how they do it in France. | ||
| That's how they do it in Argentina. | ||
| That's how they do it in Australia. | ||
| That's how they do it everywhere else. | ||
| We're the slow people. | ||
| We're the people who haven't caught up with the 21st century by still doing registration as a case-by-case basis instead of having automatic or mandatory registration for all eligible voters. | ||
| And if we had that, I wonder if Mark's 77 million people who voted for Trump, I wonder if that number would be enough for him to have one election. | ||
| Dave in Lynchburg, Virginia, wants to end us on a positive note. | ||
| He says, you've suggested what keeps you up at night. | ||
| Conversely, what gives you hope? | ||
| I'm sure you can come up with something. | ||
| I got kids. | ||
| I got two kids, 12 and 9. | ||
| They're beautiful little boys. | ||
| And they are not afraid. | ||
| They are not depressed all the time. | ||
| They think that the world is going to get better. | ||
| They understand that we've got serious problems. | ||
| But, you know, my kids think that they're going to be the people who come up with a solution for climate change, right? | ||
| They think they're going to be the people who come up with solutions for our problems. | ||
| And so I take a lot of strength and hope from them. | ||
| I do think generally, and I know it's kind of trite to say, I do generally think the kids are right. | ||
| I think the kids are seeing how our generation, my generation, Gen X, is screwing up and they're kind of committed to doing better. | ||
| And I hope that that remains the case. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Justice correspondent and columnist for the nation, Ellie Mistall. | ||
| You can find his work at thenation.com. | ||
| Thanks so much for joining us. | ||
| Thanks so much for having me. | ||
| Coming up, more of your phone calls after the break in Open Forum. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| The numbers are on your screen. | ||
| And while you're dialing in, we want you to know that there are more than 60 new members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and you can meet many of them here on C-SPAN. | ||
| We got to talk to them about their lives, past careers, and why they ran for Congress. | ||
| Here's some of what they had to say. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So my father integrated University of Alabama's law school. | |
| And then following that experience, he came back home and launched into a civil rights, among other things. | ||
| He was a labor lawyer as well and did other civil litigation, but he spent a lot of time focusing on civil rights. | ||
| And one of the more noteworthy things he did in that civil rights space was bringing a lawsuit against the United Klans of America back in the mid-80s after they had lynched a young man in 1981 in Mobile. | ||
| That lawsuit ultimately resulted in the financial bankruptcy of the Klan, obviously not bankrupting their mission, but certainly putting a dent into their financial capacity to execute that mission. | ||
| And that was something, that's a case that has obviously loomed large over my life and something that my father was very well known for. | ||
| And several members around here still know him for that case. | ||
| I actually was born in the district. | ||
| I grew up in the district, did a little time here in DC when I went to Georgetown for undergrad and then my first year of law school and then moved back to the district after I had my second, or right before I had my second child and have been living there since. | ||
| So I have deep, deep roots there, raising four children there and very much in touch with the people who live there. | ||
| Did I read that before law school you worked in Thailand for a while? | ||
| What did you do there? | ||
| I did. | ||
| I was a dive master at a scuba school on an island called Kosumui and I spent some time there, worked there on my way to India. | ||
| After I left there I went to India and I lived in Calcutta and worked for Mother Teresa. | ||
| What brought you across the world to do that? | ||
| What was the motivation? | ||
| So I had gone to visit a friend in Hong Kong the year before. | ||
| She's a friend from high school from the district who was a Chinese language major and was living in Hong Kong for a while. | ||
| So I went and visited her, did a little bit of traveling with her and with her sister and got the travel bug and decided that I was going to go explore more of the world while I was single and in my 20s and had the opportunity to do that. | ||
| But I did want to have a focal point for my travel. | ||
| So I found a book called Volunteer Vacations and looked for different volunteer opportunities and found that you could, if you show up in Calcutta and you want to work for Mother Teresa, you can. | ||
| So that was the focal point of my trip. | ||
| What did you do for Mother Teresa and what was the overall experience like for you? | ||
| I worked in Kali Got, which is her home for the dying. | ||
| So your tasks there could be anything from cooking breakfast, cleaning up, bathing patients, feeding patients, just providing comfort to the patients, doing the laundry, all kinds of tasks. | ||
| Where there are people willing to work, they will give you something to do. | ||
| And you go there to give, but you get so much more. | ||
| It was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. | ||
| Born and raised in Fort Worth, I'm a fifth generation native of Texas, fourth generation native of Fort Worth. | ||
| So it's been fascinating to trace my family roots. | ||
| My great-great-great-grandfather moved there in the late 1800s to help build the original TMP Railroad from Fort Worth to El Paso. | ||
| And we know this because there was an article written about him in 1910. | ||
| And so his name was Ike Gronsky, and he was a character. | ||
| And so, you know, just really establishing roots and helping build not only Fort Worth, but Texas, you know, helped build Texas. | ||
| My family has been part of for a number of generations. | ||
| So, yeah, with that kind of base of my family being there, not only in Texas, but in Fort Worth, I know, and it's kind of been instilled in me from the very beginning, from a baby in Fort Worth, is we're here to serve the community. | ||
| And so, any and all opportunities I've had to be able to get back to the community that I love so much, I've been able to do it. | ||
| And then, you know, got into politics about 12 years ago, 13 years ago, and I've loved every second of representing southwest Tarrant County and now the great honor of representing western Tarrant County and northern Parker County. | ||
| I was born in 1970, and my hero growing up was Wonder Woman, but the Linda Carter Wonder Woman. | ||
| I dressed up like her for Halloween three years in a row. | ||
| So, Fashboard, where we're in the middle of this campaign and they say, okay, if you can have any surrogate in the country come in for you, who do you want? | ||
| And I know everybody else was saying things like, Michelle Obama, who's great, right? | ||
| I just said, Linda Carter, can you please get Linda Carter here? | ||
| And the last week before the campaign, she came in and she went all throughout my district. | ||
| She did a whole district tour with me. | ||
| And we went in front of these groups of people and everybody was just so excited to see her. | ||
| The governor came and we were all, but at the start of every single one, we started just talking about how important it is to, you know, in the world to protect the country. | ||
| And I said, okay, everybody in there, Wonder Woman Stands. | ||
| And everybody did this, and all these little girls were doing this. | ||
| And it was the most memorable moment, not just of the campaign, but it was a big deal to me in my life trajectory. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're in open forum until the end of the program at about 10 a.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| This is the front page of the Washington Times. | ||
| It's got the picture of the table, the American delegation here. | ||
| The Saudis are in the middle, and here's the Russian delegation. | ||
| The headline is: Talks open door to more Russian land. | ||
| And President Trump was in Mar-a-Lago yesterday talking to reporters, and here's what he said about those talks between the U.S. and Russia. | ||
| And I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well. | ||
| But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. | ||
| Well, you've been there for three years. | ||
| You should have ended it three years. | ||
| You should have never started it. | ||
| You could have made a deal. | ||
| I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. | ||
| But they chose not to do it that way. | ||
| And President Biden, in all fairness, he doesn't have a clue. | ||
| He was so bad for this. | ||
| It was so bad, so pathetic. | ||
| It's so sad. | ||
| But with all of that being said, look, it is what it is. | ||
| That was a trouble. | ||
| The president yesterday in Mar-a-Lago and the headline in the Washington Post this morning: Trump blames war on Ukraine. | ||
| Kiev, quote, should have never started it. | ||
| And here is Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate floor. | ||
| He's a minority whip, talking about President Trump's approach to ending that war. | ||
| Last week, Donald Trump announced he's ready to make a deal with Russian President Putin over Ukraine while apparently ignoring Ukraine's key demands for peace. | ||
| In fact, Trump and his fledgling Defense Secretary publicly gave away huge concessions at the start, signaling they would not insist on a return to Ukraine's sovereign 2014 borders or future NATO membership. | ||
| It's also not clear from the administration's bewildering Munich Security Conference remarks if President Trump plans to even include Ukraine or our European allies in the negotiations for the future of Ukraine. | ||
| It is no wonder that in the United Kingdom, where they remember Chamberlain's folly all too well, Donald Trump's early pronouncements were lambasted for their misreading of history by leaders across the political spectrum. | ||
| Let me share some of the things that have been said by our ally, United Kingdom, about Trump's opening bid to end the war in Ukraine. | ||
| One member of parliament lamented that the West now, quote, might be facing the worst betrayal of a European ally since Poland in 1945. | ||
| And another said, surely in Europe we understand that no matter what we give Vladimir Putin, he's always going to want more. | ||
| And one final member of parliament, in a refrain I think best summarizes the situation, said, there is less the art of a deal and more a charter for appeasement. | ||
| President Trump has always had a strange affinity for autocrats and dictators, a troubling character weakness for the leader of the free world to have. | ||
| He almost seems to want their adoration and admiration, especially compared to the clear-eyed leadership of previous leaders, even on the Republican side, like Ronald Reagan, who knew how to deal with the Soviets. | ||
| But there are real consequences to Trump's autocratic liaisons for America and allied security. | ||
| That was Senator Durbin yesterday, and we'll go to your calls now for Open Forum. | ||
| Vince, Lake City, Florida, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Vince. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you doing this morning? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| I think that the problem we have is with ourselves because we all got to the point where a lot of people hate each other. | ||
| You know, I grew up in a time when the songs were like, come on, people, now, smile on your brother. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everybody, get together, try to love one another right now. | |
| You remember that song? | ||
| Yeah, I do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What's wrong with us? | |
| We're all connected. | ||
| You know, I was a union guy. | ||
| You know, I grew up in Philly. | ||
| And there's no unions word on that now. | ||
| But anyway, you know, we had power against the machine, per se, because we had the right to strike. | ||
| And when we would do that, we'd shut them down and we'd hurt them in their pocket. | ||
| That's all they care about. | ||
| It's their pocket. | ||
| They don't care about you and me. | ||
| They don't even care about their own mother. | ||
| All they care about is money. | ||
| Does that make any sense? | ||
| And here's Richard in Texas, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Richard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I want to make a little comment. | |
| Kind of what this guy said. | ||
| I'm not a history professor, but in my lifetime, I've read well over a thousand books on history well over. | ||
| I'm not a complete idiot on the subject. | ||
| And I agree with that man, and I have been saying this. | ||
| If you look at history and you look at a country like we are right now, this country did not hate each other in 1860 as much as we hate each other now. | ||
| And that is a fact. | ||
| And history tells me that the only way that this will end is when enough people pick up guns and one side wins the war. | ||
| Because it will never end. | ||
| The hate will never end. | ||
| This last individual. | ||
| Surely there's a solution rather than taking up arms against each other. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Will you please like to tell me what it is? | |
| What do you think, Richard? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What I'm trying to tell you is history tells me that when a country hates each other the way this country hates each other, and if you don't think we don't, look at this last individual you had answering phone calls. | |
| All I heard out of his voice was hate for the other side. | ||
| All I'm telling you is history tells me the only solution that's going to happen is when one side is eradicated. | ||
| And here's Lillian in Temple Hills, Maryland. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Lillian? | |
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have an issue with Congress, with the Republicans. | |
| I'm so upset that they're not doing their constitutional duties as far as firing all the federal employees about the budget. | ||
| We all know that Congress is responsible for doing the budget. | ||
| Donald Trump has no right to go in or just have Elon Musk to delete what he feels like he wants to delete. | ||
| Congress is supposed to do line-by-line items with each agency individually, annually, on a fiscal basis, which they have not done in the past four years. | ||
| So my thing is, what are the Republicans there for and what is wrong with their constituents that they cannot see that they're neglecting to do their duties? | ||
| Molly in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm calling because I feel that it's not just hate, it's fear. | |
| We fear what Trump can do. | ||
| I think he wants to be a ruler that takes over following the steps of Hitler and other people like that. | ||
| What he says has to be done, and it has caused those to hate or fear one another. | ||
| We're afraid to speak out against him. | ||
| And it's shameful that's what's happening to our country. | ||
| And we can lose all of our democracy if we don't take a stand. | ||
| Our Congress won't take a stand against him. | ||
| If he says vote for this, they do it. | ||
| Even if they know that some of the people he's putting into charge are not equipped to handle that job, but they'll vote them in because they're afraid of him. | ||
| And it's once we don't stand up for what we believe, whether we're in Congress or on the street, we're going to lose our democracy. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And a Republican in Florida, Pam, good morning. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| Can you hear me? | ||
| Yes, go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Well, I'm one of those former Democrats that went Republican after 9-11. | ||
| And I can tell you that what caused me initially to switch or to vote for a Republican for president was love of country over all the hate and division. | ||
| And what I'm seeing in our country, similar to what some of the other callers have said, regardless of what political views they may have, is that there is so much hate. | ||
| Your last guest, hate. | ||
| That's all I could hear coming from him. | ||
| All right? | ||
| That's the problem with our country right now. | ||
| The left wants us divided. | ||
| They don't want black people. | ||
| And I'm a black female. | ||
| I'm an American first. | ||
| They don't want us to succeed. | ||
| That is the goal to keep us down. | ||
| And we fall for it, or you fall for it, every single time, because I'm done with people who benefit from my failure. | ||
| And I'm kill black people as a whole. | ||
| Stop making white people your standard. | ||
| You will continue to fail. | ||
| If you continue to believe that the only way you can succeed in life is that a white person has to give you something, you will continue to fail. | ||
| And the people like your last caller and the Maxine Waters and the Nancy Pelosi's and all these people who pretend to be your friend because they want to give you things. | ||
| They want to give them to you to keep you down, brothers and sisters of all races. | ||
| They don't care about you succeeding. | ||
| They benefit when you fail. | ||
| And what you have to do, and what I had decided to do many, many years ago was I have my own values. | ||
| And I work hard and I live within my means. | ||
| And I try to do the best for myself and try to do the best for my own family. | ||
| And that's all you can do. | ||
| All right, Pam. | ||
| And this is Bill in Minneapolis, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Bill. | ||
| Billy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yeah, that was really passionate. | ||
| I appreciated what that last caller said. | ||
| So this is more of a directed towards the DNC and the head of the DNC, Ken Martin, and the Democratic Party. | ||
| I just had some ideas, if I could really quickly. | ||
| You're losing the communication battle against the GOP. | ||
| They've got a huge apparatus. | ||
| They've got Steve Bannon's War Room has multiple episodes daily live. | ||
| You've got Charlie Kirk podcast that's multiple episodes daily. | ||
| They're essentially an extension of GOP's communication. | ||
| What the DNC has got to do, they've got to get a live podcast going every night, a live podcast press conference. | ||
| Get everybody out there, speak to the press live every night, explain what the Trump administration did to hurt the American people that day and explain what you're going to do to help them. | ||
| You've got to get out there and communicate. | ||
| That's one idea. | ||
| Also, yes, the campaign season doesn't exist anymore. | ||
| It's year-round, 24 hours a day, starting on day one. | ||
| You've got to start campaigning again. | ||
| Get people out there on tour, your strongest voices, your Jasmine Crocketts, your AOCs. | ||
| Get them out there to speak to the American people. | ||
| You'll find out who your primary, who your strongest candidate will be for 2028 that way. | ||
| Get the people out there, speak to the people of the American people. | ||
| The second idea is tell the disaffected Trump voters who will be affected by all these cuts from the FDA, from all these cuts that Elon Musk is doing. | ||
| There will be an effect. | ||
| They will feel this pain. | ||
| Tell them every day that you're there for them. | ||
| You will be there with open arms to help them once they start losing their health care, their VA benefits, things like that. | ||
| And the third thing is, I remember, I'm old enough to remember the days of the first Trump administration during the ACA fight. | ||
| There were town halls. | ||
| The GOP were holding town halls and people were speaking out. | ||
| The constituents were speaking out at these town halls and just they were loud. | ||
| They were speaking. | ||
| Well, GOP doesn't do town halls anymore. | ||
| So what DNC needs to do is hire some sort of like TMC paparazzi or something. | ||
| The GOP members have to go back home every weekend, camp out at the airports with these paparazzis and ask the GOP members when you bump into them, what are you doing? | ||
| Why are you relinquishing your duties to Elon Musk? | ||
| Why are you giving up your power? | ||
| And see where it goes. | ||
| So that's the DNC. | ||
| Billy, do you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you work in this kind of field in politics? | |
| You seem to have a lot of well-thought-out plan here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you. | |
| I appreciate that. | ||
| Not politics, but in communications and media. | ||
| You know, I'm sort of like on the fringe side of things, but I do have a passion for politics. | ||
| You know, it affects us all as an American. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I want to let you know something that's starting very soon is Lori Chavez-DeReamer's hearing. | ||
| She's President Trump's nominee to serve as labor secretary. | ||
| She'll be testifying at about 10 a.m. | ||
| It's scheduled to start then. | ||
| Give you an idea of her background. | ||
| She served as a U.S. Representative for Oregon's 5th District from 2023 until January of this year. | ||
| Prior to Congress, she was the mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. | ||
| You can watch that confirmation hearing. | ||
| It's before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. | ||
| It will be live. | ||
| You can see right now on your screen the room is starting to fill up. | ||
| Once the nominee arrives, we will take you there and show you that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So do stay with us for that. | |
| Here's Marshall in Nashville, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Marshall. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Maney. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to ask you and your audience to, if possible, give me three minutes. | |
| I want to read a poem. | ||
| It's only a minute or so long, but I want to address a couple of things. | ||
| First off, you've had a couple people who have called in and they've hinted towards a civil war. | ||
| You've also had people who have called in and said, we have to get rid of Trump. | ||
| On the Democrat side, they're talking about a constitutional crisis and the end of democracy. | ||
| I want the viewers to know 80% of us agree with each other. | ||
| A lot of this is done by the news media and politicians. | ||
| Don't fall into their game of separating us. | ||
| Two things for C-STAN. | ||
| During the Jimmy Carter funeral, there was a program on it. | ||
| It wasn't identified as Washington Journal. | ||
| It had a different phone number. | ||
| And I just want to see if it was discrimination against a conservative. | ||
| I called into that number and I was disconnected. | ||
| Because I know for Washington Journal, it's a 30-day limit on calls, but this didn't have the same number. | ||
| I ended up calling that number 65 times and being disconnected. | ||
| I used to be in this. | ||
| This was during the funeral. | ||
| So was it in the morning between 7 and 10 a.m. Eastern? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, it wasn't Washington Journal. | |
| Oh. | ||
| And the number was 202-748-4920. | ||
| I would like your producers to look at that because, like I said, it wasn't advertised as Washington Journal. | ||
| So I felt I had the right to call in and to give my opinion. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| My opinion. | ||
| But that was within the 30 days? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was within the 30 days. | |
| Yes. | ||
| So actually, Marshall, just so everybody knows the rule, it's any C-SPAN program. | ||
| You have to wait 30 days. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Not just 30. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I need to apologize whoever had to answer my call and just get back. | |
| No problem. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| So the other thing is I just want to push towards with you because it happened. | ||
| I need to apologize to you openly, and you probably don't even know about this, but when you had the young lady who did the book review on second class, you had a caller who called in and first noticed the star David around her neck and then ranted and raved about white segregation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I took it the wrong way and I called in and complained. | |
| When I went back and looked at that segment, I realized that though what he was saying had a smell of anti-Semitism, everything he said was okay and I called back to apologize. | ||
| I just want to openly apologize to you because I complained that you let that go on. | ||
| And I hope you, like you said, I said you probably don't even know about it, but it's been on my heart ever since. | ||
| No, I remember that segment, but I appreciate you apologizing, and I accept. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The other thing is how you tailor a conversation. | |
| And it's not just you. | ||
| I mean, it's just the way journalists do and hosts do. | ||
| When Trump did all the pardons, which I disagreed with, when you opened that segment up, you said, and I'm only going to go on one word, which was the fallout of his decision. | ||
| And you used the word fallout. | ||
| You never mentioned the millions of people. | ||
| Once again, I disagreed with it, but who agreed with what he did. | ||
| And I just ask that you kind of look at that as how you steer a conversation when you open up Washington Journal. | ||
| All right, Marshall. | ||
| Thanks for all that. | ||
| And this is Kathy in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| And happy MLK, Black History Month, and merit history for everyone of all colors, creeds, you know, red, yellow, black, and white. | ||
| You know, they are precious in our sight. | ||
| I just want to say, like one of the ladies said before, most of the people who voted for President Barack Obama voted for President Donald J. Trump. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because we're Americans first. | ||
| Calling the race card, it's just so it doesn't cut the mustard. | ||
| We know now, more than ever before, there should not be one person in this country that's an American homeless without a roof over their head, without food on their table. | ||
| We're the richest country in the world. | ||
| And if we can get to that page and make that solidify, I do see where we can open the borders. | ||
| President Obama was the most supportive president in terms of the border. | ||
| No president has done more with the border than President Obama until now, where every single president has done something good. | ||
| Let me just put that interject that first, okay? | ||
| Every single president has done something good, even Nixon in creating the EPA. | ||
| I want to end on this note, okay, with this, your special month. | ||
| Our president and the first lady, President Donald J. Trump, he was the best friend of Michael Jackson. | ||
| When nobody else, when people turned their back on Michael Jackson and they said things about him that were not true, who did he lean to? | ||
| They were President Donald, Donald Trump at that time was not president, of course, back in 2015, but they were so close. | ||
| They were the best of friends. | ||
| If you look in history and you look back and you'll see, and you can say that a lot of the rhetoric is not needed. | ||
| If you could take your moment of hate and look and see the love that you have for yourself, okay, maybe you can open your heart and look and see the good in someone who you do not understand. | ||
| There is absolutely no reason for us to have this discrepancy. | ||
| And I have one thing here, and I'm going to let you listen to this. | ||
| All right, thanks, Kathy. | ||
| I want to bring this to your attention. |