| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Senator Ilhan Omar meets with constituents live on the free C-SPAN Now video app at around 7 p.m. Eastern and streaming live at c-SPAN.org. | |
| And at 7:30 on C-SPAN, Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennett holds a town hall in Colorado Springs. | ||
| Also on C-SPAN 2, Wyoming Republican Representative Harriet Hageman will answer questions from voters in her district. | ||
| Expected to start at 8:30 Eastern. | ||
| You can also stream these events live on the C-SPAN Now video app and online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with a town hall held by Maryland Democrat Glenn Ivey. | ||
| The C-SPAN cameras went there, and we have that exchange for you regarding the Democratic vote on the continuing resolution. | ||
| So here's a portion of that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not that you're in the minority, it's that you aren't even working together on a shared strategy, and that is failure. | |
| So to be clear, Congressman, the message you should clearly take to your colleagues from your constituents, is this. | ||
| We are not interested in hearing that you are in the minority. | ||
| We know that. | ||
| We want you to show some of the backbone and strategic brilliance that Mitch McConnell would have in the minority. | ||
| Right. | ||
| We want you to show fight. | ||
| And you are not fighting. | ||
| We are on the front lines and you are talking about 2026. | ||
| Democrats should win in 2026, but those Democrats may need to be the people who beat incumbents in primaries for being too passive now. | ||
| If you want airtime, be disruptive. | ||
| And you voted correctly on the CR. | ||
| Please take the message to your colleagues. | ||
| We must primary those who are against us, and we feel that Democrats in Congress are against us. | ||
| This must change, Congressman. | ||
| This must change. | ||
| Yeah, I agree. | ||
| And I think your point about the vote on the CR is right. | ||
| I mean, you know, as we said at the beginning of this, that was a devastating vote. | ||
| It was a huge, not just a missed opportunity, but like really devastating to folks, especially after he said it initially, he was going to vote for it. | ||
| And then flip. | ||
| He just asked me about this. | ||
| He just asked me about that. | ||
| I'm going to answer his question. | ||
| You'll get a turn. | ||
| You will get a turn. | ||
| But it's not your turn. | ||
| That was on Tuesday. | ||
| We've got the full event for you on C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Also happening last night, U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman stops in Laramie for Town Hall State Tour. | ||
| That's in Wyoming. | ||
| This is the Wyoming News. | ||
| We have a short clip for you that was posted on X by reporter for NBC News, Kate Santalis. | ||
| Social security. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I would request that you actually watch some accurate TV and read valid news because that is untrue. | |
| In terms of social security, President Trump has repeatedly stated that he is not cutting social security. | ||
| He is not a part of the CR in the budget resolution. | ||
| That is untrue. | ||
| Social security. | ||
| And we will go to your calls now. | ||
| We'll start with Susan on the Republican line in Worcester, Massachusetts. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| I'm laughing at these women. | ||
| I think Congress is doing the right thing. | ||
| Keep doing it. | ||
| My Republicans in the Senate and the House, these women are crazy. | ||
| They all have Trump derangement. | ||
| And one of the senators from Minnesota put that toward legislation and told them that the liberals are mentally ill. | ||
| So, Susan, who's your representative in Congress? | ||
| I know you have two Democratic senators. | ||
| Who's your representative? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know. | |
| I can't think of, I can see him. | ||
| He's always on Suspan. | ||
| And I don't even talk to him. | ||
| I don't even talk to this. | ||
| Why not, Susan? | ||
| Why don't you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
But he's a Democrat. | |
| But you can talk to Democrats and share your opinion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, but I don't want to. | |
| I don't want to even look at them. | ||
| These women, hey, can I ask you a question? | ||
| These women are getting more ugly, more ferocious. | ||
| Come on. | ||
| Sid in Upper Marlborough, Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My congressman is Stenyhoyer, and he has helped me in the past because I'm a disabled veteran. | ||
| You know, I don't really have anything to say to them apart from rebuilding the Democratic Party from the base up right now. | ||
| I think that's if they want to win this 2026 election, I think that's what they need to focus on. | ||
| You really can't blame them because people voted for Donald Trump. | ||
| And if you, and like I like even Glenn Ivey said yesterday, that elections have consequences. | ||
| So yelling and screaming and being obstructionists is really not going to help because you voted Trump in, so face the consequences. | ||
| But on the other hand, I feel my congressman, Chris Van Holland, I mean the senator, and Constantihor, they should really focus on rebuilding the Democratic Party from the base up. | ||
| How do you think it needs to be rebuilt? | ||
| What needs to be done? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just like Glenn Ivey said, get out there and talk to the constituents, get to know what the voters are thinking, maybe come up with some new leadership. | |
| You know, that's what the Democratic Party is known for, knocking door to door, listening to voters' concerns, and coming up with a strategy to take back the House and the Senate. | ||
| That's the only way at this point, really, and winning in the courts that they've been doing, to the federal judges, thank God President Biden put in federal judges to have a system of checks and balances for the Trump administration. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| And Rob is in New York City, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Rob. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| You know, all these cuts that we're watching happen with Doge are not slowing the national debt clock one iota. | ||
| Here I am, a Democrat, but I hate our national debt and I hate the deficit. | ||
| But there are, I think what we're seeing from Doge are just the small potatoes. | ||
| The big potatoes, the big kahuna is things like oil subsidies, where these oil companies get subsidies from the United States government. | ||
| Removing the cap on Social Security, if I was going to advise my fellow Democrats, it would be to certainly complain about the meanness of these minor cuts to our budget. | ||
| But to accentuate really the big potatoes, the big things in our budget that could be addressed, again, oil subsidies, the cap on Social Security, instead about the Democrats, you know, the meanness of the idea of cutting Social Security, but give the solution about how to save Social Security. | ||
| Listen, this has been, and there's so many other big ticket items that the Democrats should be hammering away on the way the Republicans do. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You should be hammering away. | |
| Well, Rob, let's take a look. | ||
| Let's take a look at Congressman Mike Flood. | ||
| He's a Republican of Oklahoma. | ||
| C-SPAN cameras were there for that, and he did talk about Doge's efforts specifically with the Treasury Department. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You talk about national security, yet you have done nothing to stop Elon Musk and his little band of tech geeks. | |
| They went in and they had read-write access to the agencies, and that is a huge national security threat. | ||
| I took enough computer classes to understand that it takes like 30 seconds of someone with an unsecured device in a building and connected to a mainframe to wreck everything. | ||
| The fact that you have not done anything to stand up to him and this talk of I support Trump, I support Elon Musk, that's not enough. | ||
| We need actual action. | ||
| We need actual cybersecurity experts to go in and make sure that our government is secure because Trump is in the pocket of Putin and you are letting him continue. | ||
| Well, first and foremost, the premise of your question is going to be hard to answer because you've made your mind up about a number of things. | ||
| But one of the things that you said one of the things that you said was that I've done nothing as it relates to access to our Treasury system. | ||
| I have, on more than one occasion, had direct conversation with Treasury officials, including the Secretary of the Treasury. | ||
| I'm on the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| I have oversight jurisdiction over as a member of that committee over the U.S. Treasury system. | ||
| And I have directly Asked and gotten an answer from the Treasury Secretary as to the access that Doge and its employees have. | ||
| I also have confirmed that the people working in that agency or in that Department of Government Efficiency have passed the security tests. | ||
| They have the appropriate clearances and they are working under a president and a treasury secretary that has the president's been elected by the American people and the Treasury Secretary has been confirmed by the United States Senate. | ||
| And if you would like to see that and all the town halls that we've got, we're going to be airing those this Saturday starting at 10 a.m. | ||
| It's going to be a series of town halls. | ||
| You can watch that here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Again, that's Saturday starting at 10 a.m. | ||
| And all those are on our website if you'd like to take a look. | ||
| And this is Bradley in Clare Fork, West Virginia, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've got about three or four policies there. | ||
| You might not like this one that much, but I want to commend NBC for last night's 100th anniversary of the grand old Opry, the greatest show I think that was on earth. | ||
| Okay, I switched politics September the 10th. | ||
| I went Republican. | ||
| I've been a Democrat all my life. | ||
| They're in the dugout. | ||
| They're in the dugout. | ||
| Our new senator, Justice, is a Republican. | ||
| Our other senator, I can't think Donald Fanny, but she is a Republican. | ||
| They've all went Republican for some reason. | ||
| So go get them elected officials. | ||
| Back Donald Trump for what he's doing. | ||
| You know, this country has went to the dogs so severely it is something pathetic. | ||
| And, you know, we just need to do it. | ||
| And all these people that's doing all this destruction, I'd like to be the security guard at those dealerships and anywhere they're at. | ||
| That'd probably be the last time that they've done any kind of damage. | ||
| That's just uncalled for. | ||
| You know, there's no reason for none of this damage and all this stuff going on. | ||
| That's just radical. | ||
| That's why I switched. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And you have a very nice day. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And here's Mike, Massachusetts Independent Line. | ||
| Mike, what do you think? | ||
| What would you say to your representative or senator? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it goes back to when the Democrats helped the Republicans pass the budget about a week or so ago, Schumer and all. | |
| And in that budget, there were $6 billion added for defense. | ||
| And I think it's time that both sides again get together and talk about that $6 billion. | ||
| I think there's no reason why we can't at least take between $500 million and $1 billion out of that budget and find a way to get it to the people who need it the most, which is our veterans. | ||
| You know, we have a suicide rate in America of veterans of almost 8,000 a year. | ||
| These are figures that were on C-SPAN some time ago. | ||
| That's almost one veteran an hour, practically. | ||
| And how long can our military be, can we count on our veterans to defend, fight, and die in more wars that are never-ending, it seems like, that we're in. | ||
| So even though I could spend a year talking on this show, what I'd like to see them do, at least that $6 billion, some of that money should be going to the veterans, and both sides should be fighting for it. | ||
| And other than that, we got that, Mike. | ||
| And here's Cliff, Henrietta, Oklahoma, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I would urge my congressmen and congressmen all across this nation to take a look at the wildlife department in these various states. | ||
| They've done the State Department, wildlife departments have done wonderful jobs of protecting the wildlife and managing the wildlife estates. | ||
| They derive their funding from the sale of hunting and fishing license and fines. | ||
| The federal government has bought and purchased land that own lands all across this nation. | ||
| They hire and pay federal game wardens to patrol those, and those game wardens are paid by the taxpayers of this nation. | ||
| And there would be a savings of paying these game wardens if they would just turn that control and the wildlife department laws over to the states. | ||
| So that that money, they could have more money coming in from people that actually hunt and fish in the states and cut out those federal game wardens that are being. | ||
| being paid by the taxpayers. | ||
| All right, got that cliff. | ||
| And here's Paul in New Albany Indiana, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning to you. | |
| What do you think? | ||
| What would you say to your uh representative or senator? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I, I would say, Republican or Democrat uh, just do your job, because Congress has the power of the purse strings and I don't want an unelected uh Apartheid Nazi with six juvenile delinquents rummaging through files. | |
| Just do your job. | ||
| So what do you want them to do specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, doing their job is they have the power of the purse strings and uh, if they think they're spending too much, then vote on, stand up and be heard and let the voters decide where you return to Congress. | |
| They're a bunch of what I call cowards, all right. | ||
| And here's Bertha in New Jersey, Independent LINE. | ||
| Good morning, hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Um, I just wanted to say that until we get the lobbyists out of our house and stop the insider trading. | |
| Nothing is going to change. | ||
| It'll be back to business as usual, and that's how we got Trump in the first place. | ||
| We got him because we, the Democrats and the Republicans, were not doing their job and and we need to put a policy called past the torch, people that are 70 years old should not be running for for president, especially the highest job. | ||
| I'm sorry, I'm 70 years old and I'm seeing it myself. | ||
| They should that. | ||
| That should not be Allowed, even in Congress, in the Senate, and even in the Supreme Court. | ||
| Things have to change. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And we are taking your calls this hour about what you would say to your lawmaker. | ||
| What would you say to your member of Congress if you were in a town hall and you were able to speak to them directly? | ||
| The numbers are on your screen. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8,000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| And we'll go back to that town hall with Representative Glenn Ivey, a Democrat of Maryland. | ||
| He was asked about the fight against the Republican budget resolution. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So what I'm asking of you now, don't talk to me about the courts. | |
| Don't talk to me about the next election. | ||
| Talk to me about how you are working with your Democratic colleagues, with our regional colleagues in the Congress and in the Senate to oppose and make it difficult between now and September to do the kinds of things that we're all complaining about. | ||
| I loan to talk bad about Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer with my friends. | ||
| I came here to understand what my congressman is specifically doing. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Well, before we get to September, actually, we've got the budget resolution coming up. | ||
| And so, and the budget resolution, as I mentioned, was the Medicaid vote. | ||
| So, and I know you don't want to talk about 2026, but the only way we can win that vote is if we've got Republicans who are paying attention to 2026. | ||
| And the only way they will pay attention to 2026 is if we create a situation where they think it could help them lose if they vote for it. | ||
| So, for example, in my view, one of the things Democrats should do is have an alternative tax bill because the budget resolution is really about Trump doing the $4 trillion tax cut, right? | ||
| And the $4 trillion, as you know, most of that's going to go to Elon and his buddies. | ||
| We've got to make sure we explain to regular folks in red districts, blue districts apparently, too, where some of these senators came from. | ||
| So they understand that that's where that money is going to go. | ||
| But the Democrats have a different approach. | ||
| We're going to make sure that if there are going to be tax cuts, it's going to go to regular people. | ||
| And to the extent there are cuts that go to businesses, it's not going to be Exxon and the offshore guys. | ||
| It'll be small businesses in our neighborhoods that hire people locally. | ||
| And I think that makes sense because it's really better for regular folks. | ||
| To the extent we had trouble and we lost in 2024, in part, it was because we lost a lot of working class voters, mostly white voters, especially white males. | ||
| But we started losing young black males and young Latino males too. | ||
| Many of them voted for Trump in numbers we've never seen before. | ||
| Now, it may be that that's just they like Trump and there aren't going to be coattails for other elections, but we've got to make sure we start reaching out to them too. | ||
| We can't just assume that black voters are always going to turn up and save the Democratic Party in every election cycle. | ||
| We've got to earn them too. | ||
| And we have more town hall meetings for you for your schedule. | ||
| Later tonight at 7.30 p.m., we'll have live coverage of Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennett. | ||
| He'll take questions from his constituents at a town hall in Colorado Springs. | ||
| So that's at 7.30 tonight on C-SPAN. | ||
| Friday, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosts a rally in Denver, part of Senator Sanders' tour of congressional districts that were narrowly won by Republicans. | ||
| They're expected to discuss their economic policy agenda and what they say is the rise of authoritarianism in America. | ||
| We'll cover that live at 7 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN on Friday. | ||
| And then on Saturday at 10 a.m., New Jersey Freshman Senator Andy Kim hosts a town hall in Brick Township in Ocean County, New Jersey that will have live coverage of that Saturday, 10 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| All of those you can find on our website, c-span.org, and on our app, C-SPAN Now. | ||
| Eric in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Eric. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Unfortunately, I can't make it to that town hall that's coming up with my senator, Sandy, and Senator Andy Kim that you just mentioned. | ||
| But my comment is for him. | ||
| He's a Democrat, and I am hopeful that during the Trump administration, the Democrats can really take on an issue that is long overdue for Democrats to take on, and that's changing Richard Nixon's approach to the federal war on drugs. | ||
| So there's a simple change that the Democrats can really spearhead that would save lives. | ||
| We have over 100,000 people a year dying of fentanyl overdoses. | ||
| So much violence domestically between gangs and in the foreign countries where the cartels make those countries really difficult to live in. | ||
| So we have a lot of asylum cases coming from those foreign countries. | ||
| It's just a catastrophe. | ||
| So my proposal for the Democrats under Trump, and this is addressed to my senator, Senator Andy Kim, is to make a simple change that there can continue to be federal prosecution of illegal drugs, but you just have an FDA labeling system for the current narcotics. | ||
| So basically, you allow the states to decide whether or not someone can buy heroin cocaine from an FDA registered outlet, and it has an FDA label, an FDA barcode on it. | ||
| But the federal government will only prosecute people who are going outside of the FDA labeling system. | ||
| So that would be going after the cartels and also allowing for, for example, Trump vodka never has fentanyl in it. | ||
| You never have to worry about Trump vodka having fentanyl in it. | ||
| All right, Eric, got your point. | ||
| William in McKees, Rocks, Pennsylvania, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Yes, I'm an independent, but I originally was a Democrat. | ||
| And the last great Democrat president was Bill Clinton. | ||
| And he was a middle-of-the-road Democrat. | ||
| He put 100,000 more policemen on the streets. | ||
| This party, taking people, taking policemen off the streets, they're doing everything that they shouldn't be doing as an old-time Democrat. | ||
| And they have to have someone take charge of this party who knows what the hell they're doing and not be radical and be middle of the road. | ||
| So what do you think of it? | ||
| William, what do you Senator Fetterman? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I like him. | |
| Do you think he could be like the next Democratic leader? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know what? | |
| I think that might be the man. | ||
| Yes, indeed. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And here's Miles in San Angelo, Texas, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Miles. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| Hey, I just got to tell you, I never call in unless it's you because you brighten my day so much when I see you. | ||
| Listen, I would tell my representative His Majesty August Luger, who runs unopposed as a Republican here in Texas, and who basically is a, what would I call it, a drone for President Stinky Emperor? | ||
| Anyway, I really wish that these Democrats are complaining about Democrats and saying, why are they tearing up these cars? | ||
| I wish I could shoot that guy. | ||
| But then they tear up the Capitol and y'all change the Republican. | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| And one more thing: no Republicans have changed to Democrat. | ||
| So I would tell August, sir, Your Majesty, please change parties or resign today. | ||
| In fact, I call him and tell them that all the time. | ||
| But Mimi, you are the coolest. | ||
| You are fantastic today. | ||
| John in Chicago, Illinois, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thanks for taking my call. | |
| Now, what the Democrats got to do, we got to go out and select younger people because the Democratic Party, they're too old and they just ain't got enough fight in them. | ||
| I mean, they let this man walk all over them and they don't do nothing about it. | ||
| We have to go out and get some young black people that are going to fight. | ||
| Do you have anybody in mind, John? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah, quite a few of them. | |
| But, you know, I can't just call them off here. | ||
| Yeah, I have quite a few of them here in Chicago. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And in other news, this is USA Today, Trump to sign order Thursday. | ||
| That's today aimed at eliminating Education Department. | ||
| Trump will direct his Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, to take, quote, all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. | ||
| We're expecting that at about 4 p.m. Eastern time. | ||
| And you can keep your eyes on the C-SPAN networks if you'd like to see that. | ||
| Rex in Andover, Minnesota, Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Been really enjoying listening to the very intelligent comments that I've been hearing this morning. | ||
| And in particular, one of the people called a name. | ||
| I hate using the name coward, but it's true. | ||
| I would ask my representative, why are you being such a coward? | ||
| I mean, the thing is that, like the last gentleman just said, they're letting Trump walk all over them. | ||
| And that is not the way the system of the United States is set up. | ||
| There are systematic, methodical procedures that are supposed to be held in place as per the Constitution. | ||
| And Trump is running roughshod over the Constitution. | ||
| And my concern is, why isn't anybody saying, hey, you know what? | ||
| Having Elon Musk going into these various departments and cutting them and then reversing the order after all the damage is done, right? | ||
| I mean, you've got, you know, his minions going in there, storing all this very sensitive, valuable data. | ||
| You know, what are they doing? | ||
| Keeping that on their hard drives so that they can use that against us a little bit later and hold us hostage, you know, so that we can't threaten the kingdom that they're building anymore. | ||
| I don't quite get it. |