CSPAN - Washington Journal 05/08/2025

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May 8, 2025 07:00-09:00 - CSPAN

01:59:57

Washington Journal 05/08/2025

Participants

Main

al green

rep/d 14:44

mimi geerges

cspan 20:36

Appearances

brian lamb

cspan 00:44

donald j trump

admin 03:34

jd vance

admin 01:13

jerome powell

01:06

jodey arrington

rep/r 01:47

kristen welker

nbc 00:35

madeleine dean

rep/d 01:53

pete aguilar

rep/d 01:06

Clips

barack obama

d 00:02

bill clinton

d 00:02

george h w bush

r 00:02

george w bush

r 00:04

jimmy carter

d 00:03

kash patel

admin 00:15

ricky ross

00:04

ronald reagan

r 00:01

shannon bream

fox 00:13

Callers

alex in northern virginia

callers 00:04

dawn in colorado

callers 00:07

joe in pennsylvania

callers 00:09

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Is C-SPAN?
		When they say they're unfiltered, they're unfiltered.
		Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		And then North Carolina Republican Congressman Pat Harrigan discusses the GOP budget and defense issues.
		And Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green talks about Democrats' priorities and his vow to bring impeachment articles against President Trump.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		Join the conversation.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Tuesday, May 8th.
		It's the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe, and it is the day President Trump has designated as World War II Victory Day in the United States.
		133 Cardinals are gathered in the Vatican for a second day of voting to elect a new pope, and tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan intensified this week.
		For our first half hour, we're taking your calls on your top news story of the week.
		Here's how to call us.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Republicans, 202748-8001.
		And Independents, 202748-8002.
		You can send a text to 202-748-8003.
		Include your first name in your city-state.
		And you can post your comments on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
		Welcome to today's Two-Hour Washington Journal.
		We'll start with the Fox News.
		Trump declares May 8th as Victory Day for World War II, quote, going to start celebrating our victories again.
		President Donald Trump also declared November 11th as World War I Victory Day.
		And here he is in the Oval Office yesterday with that proclamation.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Thank you very much.
		Before we begin, I'm pleased to announce that I've just signed a proclamation officially designating tomorrow, May 8th, as a Victory Day for World War II, commemorating the 80th anniversary of America's victory in the Second World War.
		All over the globe, our World War II allies are celebrating this week, but the United States has never joined in with the proper celebration of our own.
		And the victory was mostly accomplished because of us, whether you like it or not.
		We came into that war and we won that war and we had a lot of help from a lot of great people, a lot of great allies.
		But I think there would be nobody that would say that we were not the dominant force in that war and we don't celebrate it.
		And I think that's a great disservice to the people that lost their lives and people that fought so hard in winning World War II and also a separate Victory Day for World War I.
		And we're going to be doing that too.
		It was American tanks and ships and trucks and airplanes and service members that vanquished the enemy 80 years ago this week.
		Without America, the liberation would never have happened.
		And so we have to pay tribute and homage to those people that gave us victory.
		And we did something else that people don't talk about.
		We rebuilt the world.
		All of these countries that were destroyed, we helped them rebuild.
		And that's something that, for the most part, others did not do.
		So, with this proclamation, we are hereby honoring the incredible sacrifice and heroism of millions of Americans who served in World War II, along with the unprecedented mobilization home front that helped deliver this great triumph.
		All Americans should take pride in what these incredible patriots have achieved.
		So, I just want to say happy Victory Day to all.
		So, we are celebrating every year now.
		I can guarantee for four years, but I think after that, we're going to have two victory days: World War I and World War II.
		This is World War II Victory Day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was yesterday, and today we have a program for you on that topic, which is the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
		World War II veterans and historians will be observing that anniversary at the National War World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and we'll have live coverage of that over on C-SPAN 3.
		That starts at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
		And this from the Washington Post: Trump expected to announce a trade agreement with the United Kingdom.
		It is the first of dozens of deals the administration wants to make with trade partners around the world.
		We will have that announcement for you live as well over on C-SPAN 3, and that is going to be at 10 a.m. this morning.
		Again, C-SPAN 3, C-SPAN Now, our app, and c-span.org.
		You can watch all our programs there.
		Let's go to the phones now to Rob in New York, Independent Line.
		Good morning, Rob.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
		I'm calling from Syracuse, New York.
		And my top news story of the day is apparently the Trump administration willing to send migrants to Libya.
		And that is a real problem for all of us from Syracuse because it was a couple of decades ago when 33 students from Syracuse University were blown out of the sky over Lockerbie.
		And that was perpetrated by terrorists from the Libyan government, which has been firmly established.
		I find it pathetic and pitiful that this administration would see fit to do business with the Libyan government.
		And any member of the administration who would like to come to Syracuse University can go in the front door of Byrd Library, which is the main library at Syracuse University, and they will find a student volunteer who will walk them out the front door across the street to the Lockerbie Monument.
		And they will also allow them, or they will set them up, with the opportunity to meet and greet one of the students every year who is granted a scholarship in memoriam of the students from Syracuse who were blown up over Lockerbie by the Libyan government.
		I hope, I wish, that I could leave my name and phone number and buy anybody who was into the Trump administration on a big time, a round-trip ticket right to the airport in Syracuse, and we will escort them to the Lockerbie Monument that we had to set up compliments of the Libyan government.
		Thank you for taking my call.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks, Rob.
		And this is NBC News on that topic.
		Judge Block's deportation flight of Asian migrants to Libya.
		The migrants are from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos, among other countries.
		It says a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing migrants from being sent to Libya or any other third country after immigration attorneys filed an emergency motion Wednesday.
		That was yesterday.
		The U.S. reportedly plans to send a group of migrants to Libya as early as this week.
		U.S. military aircraft is expected to transport the migrants who are from the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, among other countries.
		That's according to the motion.
		The plaintiffs are being set for removal, quote, without any reasonable fear screening, let alone a 15-day window to file a motion to reopen with the immigration court to contest any negative, reasonable fear determination, according to the motion.
		And this is Wanda in Chico, California.
		Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I think the biggest story is the big drug bus they had day before yesterday.
		Pam Bondi had a news conference, and it was about an hour long.
		And I don't think the mainstream media even covered it because you haven't talked about it all day, all morning, yesterday, at the date, very next day.
		You didn't cover it on this show.
dawn in colorado ▲ ● ▼		So, and by the way, I don't really care where they send it, the illegal immigrants to get rid of them.
unidentified		I don't care if they send them to Libya.
		I don't care what country they send them to because there is no perfect country anywhere on earth, and we don't want them here.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is the New York Post.
		Vance calls out Russia for quote asking for too much to end the Ukraine invasion.
		And he was in Washington, D.C., speaking yesterday at the Munich leaders' meeting.
		And here's what he said about the Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
jd vance ▲ ● ▼		You don't have to agree with the Russian justification for the war, and certainly both the President and I have criticized the full-scale invasion, but you have to try to understand where the other side is coming from to end the conflict.
		And I think that's what President Trump has been very deliberate about: actually forcing the Russians to say, here is what we would like in order to end the conflict.
		And again, you don't have to agree with it.
		You can think that the request is too significant.
		And certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was, you're asking for too much.
		But this is how negotiations unfold.
		And I wouldn't say, I'm not yet that pessimistic on this.
		I wouldn't say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution.
		What I would say is right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict.
		We think they're asking for too much.
		Okay?
		And then obviously, the Ukrainians matter a lot.
		They're the other Sarah side.
		They're the other party, at least, to the direct conflict.
		And we have to ask: what is the Ukrainian, what do they need in order to bring this conflict to a successful completion?
		And we're going to continue to have that conversation.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was the Vice President yesterday.
		We're asking for your top news story.
		This is what Wanda was talking about from California from the U.S. Department of Justice website: largest fentanyl bust in DEA history.
		Authorities seize over 400 kilograms of fentanyl in record-shattering operation.
		And that was posted on Tuesday of this week.
		Here's Stephen in Washington, D.C. Democrat.
		Good morning.
		Stephen.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		I was so disappointed yesterday in C-SPAN, giving your primary channel, C-SPAN One, over to the internal political machinations of a religion.
		The conclave of the Catholic Church is not an issue for U.S. governments.
		Your mission statement, which I read yesterday, is mostly about, is all about covering the U.S. government.
		The machinations of the Catholic Church are not and should not ever be represented as influencing or important to the U.S. government.
		And your giving your whole channel for live coverage of the conclave yesterday was a very big disappointment to me.
		Religion has no place in our official government, and you giving it status like that elevated that religion to a status that it does not deserve.
		I was very disappointed in C-SPAN for that choice of programming yesterday.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Thanks for that feedback.
		And this is Ray in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Republican.
		Good morning, Ray.
unidentified		Hello.
		Yes.
		Thank you for my call.
		First of all, I totally disagree with that previous caller about religion and government.
		We are founded on the Bible.
		There's no question about that.
		Our historical documents, even the Declaration of Independence, says quite clearly that we're all endowed by our creator.
		So that settles that hash.
		I believe the main news story, a lot, the big news story, is the so-called protests on our college campuses.
		It's very alarming, very alarming to me and others to see libraries taken over by violence and hearing outcries of genocide against Jews.
		I mean, against Jews.
		I'm all for free speech.
		There's no question about it.
		Free speech is great, but issuing threats and doing violence, violence is not free speech.
		Violence and destruction of property is not free speech.
		It's vandalism.
		And when you vandalize college campuses, what is college campuses, businesses?
		You know, we had that summer of violence in Portland not too long ago, and you don't hear much about that in the news.
		But that must stop.
		The talk of violence and genocide, if anybody, this just shouldn't go on.
		President Trump declared Victory Day, which is great.
		I'm all for that.
		Victory of World War II.
		But let's look at how World War II started.
		Hitler spoke against Jews.
		He called for extermination of Jews.
		And look what happened.
		And so that's very alarming to me because we've seen that happening right now on college campuses.
		And it seems like they're promoting it.
		The college answers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it, Ray.
		Let me update everybody on that, which is here's CNN.
		Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters taken into custody after demonstration at Columbia University Library.
		The article says that the large demonstration comes as universities, including Columbia, face the threat of funding cuts from the Trump administration, which has canceled hundreds of international student visas following the wave of protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept campuses last year.
		They're saying about 80 students were arrested at Columbia University.
		Here's Greg in Berea, Ohio, Democrat.
		Hi, Greg.
unidentified		Yes, the top story, in my opinion, is terrorists in the economy.
		For 787 days, the Saul MAGA Republicans here was complaining about the prices of things in the economy.
		And as soon as the election was over, all that prices talk evaporated.
		And he got people bamboozled, believing that businesses, factories are going to come back to the United States.
		I got news for you.
		Hot wheels, air fryers, and patio furniture will be never built in the United States.
		And these tariffs are going to raise prices.
		As soon as the inventory is depleted at Walmart, Target, and Holmes Depot, these prices are going to skyrocket.
		And you're going to see the prices go up this weekend.
		Try buying your mom some flowers and see how much it costs.
		But he got people so enamorated by him that they think they're in Fantasy Island.
		So I'm talking to you MAGA Republicans.
		What happened to all that complaining about prices?
		You would spontaneously combust during the Biden administration if he did or said anything that would raise prices.
		Now, all of a sudden, you're silent.
		All your talk is nothing but deflection talk.
		Have a nice day, America.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He spoke to reporters yesterday on his wait-and-see approach on interest rates.
jerome powell ▲ ● ▼		You know, we'll see the administration is entering into negotiations with many countries over tariffs.
		We'll know more with each week and month that goes by about where tariffs are going to land.
		And we'll know what the effects will be when we start to see those things.
		So we think we'll be learning.
		I can't tell you how long it will take.
		But for now, it does seem like it's a fairly clear decision for us to wait and see and watch.
unidentified		So when you say that you don't need to be in a hurry, does that mean that could the outlook change in such a way that a change in your stance could be warranted as soon as your next meeting?
jerome powell ▲ ● ▼		You know, as I said, we are comfortable with our policy stance.
		We think we're in the right place to wait and see how things evolve.
		We don't feel like we need to be in a hurry.
		We feel like it's appropriate to be patient.
		And, you know, when things develop, of course, we have a record of we can move quickly when that's appropriate.
		But we think right now, the appropriate thing to do is to wait and see how things evolve.
		There's so much uncertainty.
		If you talk to businesses or market participants or forecasters, everyone is just waiting to see how developments play out.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was the Fed chair talking about uncertainty.
		And here is the Washington Post is breaking this exclusive.
		U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk's Starlink.
		According to Cable, some countries have turned to the satellite internet firm in conjunction with trade talks.
		State Department staffers wrote, the U.S. has a strategic interest in countering Chinese internet providers, but Musk's role complicates the picture.
		It talks about that less than two weeks after President Trump announced 50% tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country's communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink.
		It said it's a country of roughly 2 million people.
		It awarded Musk's firm the nation's first ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years.
		Tony, St. Louis, Missouri, Republican, you're next.
unidentified		Hey, how are you doing today?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Yeah, I'm a little peeved about this Victory Day thing.
		The real victory day for the United States should be September 2nd, 1945, because Russia's real victory day is May 8th because they had to take the brunt of the German force on.
		And we, the United States, had to march across the whole Pacific Ocean to get to Japan.
		And they finally had to drop atomic bombs.
		And then the Japanese finally surrendered on September 2nd.
		I don't know the exact casualty numbers for either side right now, but I think Trump jumped the gun just a little bit trying to be like his buddy over there in Russia when he really named the real victory day September 2nd when they surrendered on the USS Missouri.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tony.
		And this is Carol in Wisconsin, Democrat.
		Hi, Carol.
unidentified		Hi there.
		Yes.
		Well, thank you for giving us this form.
		I was just listening to another news program, and it was saying that in the year 2000, Congress passed money to upgrade our traffic control system, and it was due to go into effect in 2017.
		But the Trump administration canceled it, setting the update program way back.
		It was a way at the same time that they could get money to help offset their big tax decrease, their big 4,000 tax decrease in 2017.
		That it's an easy place to go get money when it comes to regulation or updates.
		And, you know, I'm really concerned with the infrastructure of the United States.
		Biden tried to do something with it.
		But in the last year, I've been to both Japan and France and been on their high-speed trains.
		And we are so inadequate here in the United States.
		We need so much to go to help everybody in the infrastructure instead of the money that goes to the top 10% in this country.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Susan, Worcester, Massachusetts, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Susan.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		I find it interesting, impeachment, impeachment.
		My question would be for Republicans.
		Why can't we impeach Biden, Obama, Hillary Clinton?
		Hurricane Cresspy is going to be coming out.
		And it's unbelievable what they did.
		It was a coup against this president, like President Trump.
		And we ought to stop playing hardball.
		I see all these women all in town hall meetings.
		It's sick.
		They're mad, they yell, they scream.
		That's not how you get your point across.
		They can't, they're so emotional.
		Most of them shouldn't even be in the Senate of the House as far as I'm concerned.
		But Biden, he made his appearance.
		And just like Biden, he couldn't even get through the interview in BBC.
		They don't want him around Democrats.
		You know that, but he keeps popping up.
		He's a pathetic loser.
		Where are the 300,000 kids Biden and Harris?
		They get wet.
		Oh, it's unbelievable.
		I'm going to start really screaming.
		I'm coming up to Washington to speak to my senators.
		And they better start doing what the Democrats are trying to do, impeach Trump again.
		You people are fools.
		It didn't work the first, second, third time.
		And you think it's going to work this time?
		You people are a sorry bunch.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're right, Susan.
		And FBI Director Kash Patel was testifying in front of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday.
		And here's an exchange between him and Democrat Madeline Dean when she asked about political retaliation by the Trump administration.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		I was an impeachment manager for President Trump's second impeachment.
		It was a sad, solemn duty.
		And so I wanted to ask you about that.
		Mr. Patel, as you and the president continue to weaponize and investigate his perceived enemies, as you follow this blueprint, when can I, a former impeachment manager, expect the FBI at my door?
unidentified		Ma'am, you want to know who was targeted by a weaponized FBI?
		Me.
		You want to know how and why?
		You want to know what I'm doing to fix it?
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		Let me move on.
kash patel ▲ ● ▼		Well, you should read the book because there's no enemies list on that book.
unidentified		There are people that violated their constitutional obligations and their duties to the American people.
		It's good to do that.
		They were rightly called out.
		And you should give that book to every one of your constituents so they can read about it.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		I won't be doing that.
unidentified		That's their loss.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		During your Senate confirmation hearings, you repeatedly denied having any involvement as a private citizen in the firing of FBI officials who engaged in the prosecution against January 6th insurrectionists, the violent rioters who beat and killed Capitol police officers and whom you referred to as political prisoners.
		Since then, multiple whistleblowers have come forward, and we know that you likely committed perjury.
		At the same hearing, you claimed you were not familiar with Stew Peters, an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier, despite the fact that you appeared on Mr. Peters' podcast eight separate times, eight times, and you claimed not to recall.
		Mr. Patel, my second question is: should we worry more about your memory or your veracity?
unidentified		We should worry more about your lack of candor.
		You're accusing me of committing perjury.
		Tell the American people how I broke the law and committed a felony.
		Have the audacity to actually put the facts forward instead of lying for political banter so you can have a 20-second donation hit.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		The answer is both.
unidentified		I believe that the answer is to play my time.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		I think it's interesting that in your proposal today, you find yourself at a gulf of difference between you and the president.
		I wonder how you will resolve that.
		Will you go to the president and say we need $11.2 billion, not what you cut out of here?
		You're asking for more than a billion dollars than the president's request.
		Are you going to go to the president and straighten out that gulf?
kash patel ▲ ● ▼		I'll do what I've always done and represent the American people, defend this country, and make sure the Constitution is always upheld and the FBI is never weaponized.
unidentified		Maybe you should do the same.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		So you agree with the President when he says he doesn't know if he should uphold his constitutional duty?
kash patel ▲ ● ▼		If you want to just keep putting words in my mouth, the TV cameras are outside.
madeleine dean ▲ ● ▼		I thank you.
		I yield back.
		Again, this is an unserious moment, sadly, for the FBI.
		I yield back.
unidentified		More so for you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you want to watch that entire hearing, you can on our website at c-span.org.
		And we are asking about your top news story of the week.
		Here's Rory in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, Republican.
joe in pennsylvania ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I work, as needed, they don't use the word part-time, on the docks of Long Beach and LA, all 11 of them.
unidentified		And basically, this week, they're being reduced because of the tariffs of 150%.
		A lot of cars that were going to come in, maybe at $20,000, would cost $50,000.
		Every car would lose money, so they're anchoring out at sea, turning around, or finding new ports.
		The effect on those docks are one out of three to four out of ten workers, longshoremen, and security.
		Basically, they're not going to work.
		It's an empty dock.
		You don't need longshoremen for an empty dock or security.
		So it is hitting major in California on those docks in Long Beach.
		That's it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Rory, this is on the business and finance page of the Wall Street Journal with this article, Wall Street Eyes Ship Data to Gauge Impact of Tariffs and talking specifically about those ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach that Rory was referring to.
		And here's David in Peachtree City, Georgia, a Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		My biggest topic, I think, today is once again the economy and tariffs.
unidentified		I think that the Democrats are being disingenuous when they're talking about all these tariffs and what's going on, but when they've campaigned on this for years, I remember watching Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in 2016 campaigning in 2015, campaigning in Wisconsin on the same issues at the same time.
alex in northern virginia ▲ ● ▼		They've always championed these policies and these things.
unidentified		And now that Donald Trump does it, now where I don't agree with a lot of things, all the things that Donald Trump does, but I think it's being disingenuous.
		And I know, and also they know that the entitlements are probably our biggest part of our deficit, but the trade deficit that we have is enormous.
		And that ultimately, if we're trying to lower our overall deficit, we have to negotiate deals to get better when it comes down to these trade policies.
		Because ultimately, that's a huge part of our national debt.
		So I think they're sometimes being very disingenuous about the economy.
		And a lot of things they're being disingenuous about the tariffs because ultimately they agreed with these issues for so many years.
		And now he does it.
		It's a problem.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, David.
		And we will speak to two lawmakers this morning about the budget battles on Capitol Hill and the latest news out of the White House.
		In an hour at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, Democrat Al Green of Texas joins us, the first time since being censored for heckling President Trump at his address to Congress back in February.
		He'll talk about his budget priorities and why he's planning to introduce articles of impeachment against the president again.
		But first, on this victory in Europe Day, a conversation with Republican Pat Harrigan of North Carolina.
		He's a vet and a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
unidentified		We'll be right back.
		American History TV, Saturdays on C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
		This weekend, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, a discussion on the history of the civil service and government workers with history professors Joseph McCartan from Georgetown University, Margaret Rung from Roosevelt University, and Eric Yellen from the University of Richmond.
		Then at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures in History, a look at Native Americans and the American Revolution with Tulane University history professor Keely Smith.
		She'll also discuss how the U.S. government and American society viewed various tribes during the early republic.
		And at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on the presidency, hear the story of Elizabeth Keckley, a popular Washington, D.C. dressmaker and former slave who was a confidant of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
		Exploring the American story, watch American History TV Saturdays on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
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jimmy carter ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
ronald reagan ▲ ● ▼		Democracy is worth dying for.
george h w bush ▲ ● ▼		Democracy belongs to us all.
bill clinton ▲ ● ▼		We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
george w bush ▲ ● ▼		Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		American democracy is bigger than any one person.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
unidentified		We are still at our core a democracy.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
unidentified		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
		We're joined now by Representative Pat Harrigan, a Republican from North Carolina and member of the Armed Services Committee.
		Representative Harrigan, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Mimi, good morning.
unidentified		Thanks for having me on.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's start with the budget.
		Speaker Johnson has said that the timetable will be Memorial Day for getting the big beautiful bill passed.
		What are you hearing about a timeline and if that's likely?
unidentified		All indications that I'm hearing is that that timeline is going to hold.
		And I think we've got to keep the big picture in mind here.
		In the budgetary window that reconciliation covers, which is the next 10-year period, Congress is anticipated to spend about $87 trillion.
		And what we're talking about cutting in this $87 trillion is actually one and a half to two to two and a half trillion dollars.
		This isn't that heavy of a lift.
		It's something we should be able to get done.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And there's a lot of division among the Republicans about Medicaid.
		And the committee with jurisdiction over that is energy and commerce.
		They need to find $880 million in savings.
		What's your thinking on how best to approach that and if cuts are going to be necessary?
unidentified		They actually have to find $880 billion savings, but that's again over a 10-year budgetary window that the reconciliation process is predicated upon.
		So it's $88 billion a year.
		And I think they can absolutely do that without impacting anybody's benefits that they are entitled to.
		We want to make sure that we cut out fraud, waste, and abuse from the system.
		We know that Medicaid is the singular most abused system in government.
		It's a massive program.
		We've got to make sure those who need it get it, but we also have to protect it by eliminating the fraud, waste, and abuse.
		And that's exactly what Republicans are going to do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You do think that there's enough fraud, waste, and abuse, in your opinion, that you wouldn't have to cut benefits?
unidentified		Yes, and actually, really, if we attack the fraud, waste, and abuse, what we're going to do is we're going to preserve that program for the long term, which is what we owe the American people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What about cuts to other safety net programs such as SNAP?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Would you be in favor of that?
unidentified		I think you've got to take a broad look at who qualifies for what in our country, right?
		And we're going to talk about work requirements and several other categories of qualifications that exist for people.
		I think that if we're able-bodied, if our families are able to provide for each other, we've got to make sure that we are targeting aid in this country to those who truly genuinely need it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I want to ask you about this Associated Press story about the Military Times.
		The HEGSEF directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions.
		What's your view on that?
		Do you think that that's wise?
		Do you think that that's necessary?
unidentified		Yes, I think it's absolutely both wise and necessary.
		And the reason being is because the senior ranks of our military have swollen over the last several decades and really for no purpose, right?
		We're at peacetime.
		We're not at war.
		We have created a bunch of administrative overhead that does not need to exist.
		It causes both confusion, inefficiency, and increased costs for Department of Defense.
		I think he's exactly on the right track of what he should be doing to increase the efficiency of DOD.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I want to read you two quotes from Democratic colleagues, one from Representative Seth Moulton.
		He's a Democrat from Massachusetts.
		This is what he said about it.
		He said, he, Hegseth, is creating a formal framework to fire all the generals who disagree with him and the president.
		It is essential that our troops understand they are getting constitutional orders, not political orders, because otherwise you don't have a democracy.
		Otherwise, you have a military that just works well for one political party or another.
		And then Representative, here's Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.
		He is a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said this.
		I have always advocated for efficiency at the Department of Defense, but tough personnel decisions should be based on facts and analysis, not arbitrary percentages.
		Eliminating the positions of many of our most skilled and experienced officers without sound justification would not create, quote, efficiency in the military.
		It would cripple it.
		And he goes on to say Secretary Hegseth has shown an eagerness to dismiss military leaders without cause.
		And I will be skeptical of the rationale for these plans until he explains them before the Armed Services Committee.
		What's your response to those two?
unidentified		I disagree with both of them.
		I think if you actually take an honest set of facts and truly analyze the situation, you've got to understand that since World War II, we haven't won a conflict in this country except for Desert Storm.
		And so we don't have a single military leader, we don't have a single general officer in our ranks right now that has won a conflict on behalf of the United States of America.
		And I think that's a really big problem.
		I also think that the executive branch feels like that's a very big problem.
		And that's exactly what President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are trying to change.
		We have to get winners and warriors into the ranks of the Department of Defense.
		And that is exactly the type of leadership that we are allowing to surface to the top of DOD leadership in constrained numbers, in constrained ranks, because we are not at war right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Representative Pat Harrigan, a Republican of North Carolina, is going to be taking your call.
		So if you'd like to talk to him, you can call in now by party.
		So Democrats are on 202748-8000.
		Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
		And Independents, 202748, 8,002.
		I want to ask you about the drone production.
		You have been very vocal about the need to ramp up the capabilities of the United States in that respect and the tactics that Ukraine has been using against Russia.
		Can you elaborate on why you think that's important?
unidentified		Yes, warfare has fundamentally changed.
		And we've seen this just observing the conflict in Ukraine.
		Over 80% of the casualties on the Ukrainian battlefield on both sides, Russians and Ukrainians, are now not being caused by small arms.
		That's only 2%.
		It's not being caused by artillery.
		That's only 12%.
		It's actually being caused by FPV drones, first-person view drones, these tiny, small drones that are $500,000 to $2,000 that carry an explosive warhead or some other terminal effect.
		And these are causing more than 80% of the casualties on today's battlefield.
		We must learn the lessons coming out of Ukraine.
		And we have zero, and I'm talking zero, production capability at any type of scale on this type of effect.
		And if we don't have it and it's the most impactful effect on today's battlefield, America is behind.
		So I'm very focused on creating a domestic production capability of first-person view drones right here in the United States.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So who is producing those drones if it's not the United States?
unidentified		Problem is it's China, and the majority of the components are actually coming from China.
		And so even Ukraine is fully dependent on a Chinese supply chain.
		We have to change this paradigm given the future threats and the very adversarial nature that we have with China if we are to secure our own victory in the future as well as the victory of our allies.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And are those capabilities included in the defense budget for FY 2026?
unidentified		Yes, in the reconciliation package, there is a substantial increase of funding for SUAS, small unmanned aerial systems, which would include first-person view drones.
		Exactly how that cake is cut.
		We're going to work through instructions to the Department of Defense over the next couple months here, and I will be a very active member of that process.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And speaking of the threat from China, you have introduced a bill to take out Chinese government-controlled retailers off of U.S. military bases.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you explain what that means and why you feel like that's a big problem?
unidentified		Yes, we discovered that GNC, the supplement company, was originally a wholly owned company that was operating 83 locations on our U.S. military bases and a wholly owned American company operating on 83 locations across our military bases.
		We have since found out that they have sold to the Chinese Communist Party.
		That is a huge problem for our nation's security, for the security of our service members and their information and their data.
		We believe in free markets.
		You should be able to sell your company to whoever you want to sell to, but we also believe it's just common sense that if you choose to sell to the Chinese Communist Party, you should no longer be operating on our military bases.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So I would take it that you also believe that TikTok should be forced to sell to an American company?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		Yes, it is a pernicious, it's having an intentionally pernicious impact on not just our youth, but our entire culture.
		It is intended to degrade everything that we believe in, the faith, the hope, the values that we have in America.
		It is absolutely a tool of our greatest adversary, China.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		As you know, President Trump has put a hold on that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Have you made your concerns known to the administration?
unidentified		I would encourage him to follow through with the divestiture of TikTok or Bannett.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, let's go to calls, and we'll start with a caller in Charlotte, North Carolina, Democrat Betsy.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on.
unidentified		Hello.
		Good morning, Betsy.
		I'm a Tar Heel 2.
		Hey, love to hear from you.
		What I want to know, and I'm a Democrat.
		Oh, that's all right.
		Yeah, I know it's all right.
		Yeah, how can you support someone who does not know that they should support the Constitution that they took an oath to?
		How can you support someone that heads up defense and armed services who has no experience, real experience in education, and little expertise?
		Horrible.
		And that's more a threat to our security than anything you mentioned.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Betsy, let's get a response on both those.
unidentified		Well, Betsy, hey, thanks for your question.
		Thanks for calling in.
		Glad to hear from another Tar Heel.
		However, I fundamentally disagree with you.
		I think that the greatest threat to our Constitution is to continue to spend endless amounts of money.
		We are $36.3 trillion in debt.
		We are running a $1.8 trillion a year annual deficit.
		We have fought forever wars in this country.
		We have absolutely weaponized our justice system against the American people.
		All of this has to stop.
		President Trump has actually come back in to try to reset the equilibrium of all of these things and is now working on resetting the equilibrium of our market economy that, as you know, has absolutely hammered North Carolinians, particularly the manufacturing middle class in North Carolina, over the last 25 years since the absolutely terrible policies of NAFTA sold out American jobs to overseas.
		So I appreciate your opinion.
		I certainly respect it, but I fundamentally disagree.
		We are moving this country in the right direction right now.
		And I'm proud to stand beside President Trump taking his absolutely fantastic policies that are going to pay off for the American people, specifically the American middle class, and working alongside of him to give those policies the permanence of law here on Capitol Hill.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Congressman Betsy also asked about Secretary Hegseth's lack of experience in running a large organization and also just wondering about if you still have confidence in his abilities given the signal chat and security issues.
unidentified		Yes, I absolutely still have confidence in Secretary Hegseth.
		Everybody makes mistakes and I think we have to understand, coming back to the original comment that I had with Mimi earlier in this show, is that we don't have a general officer in our inventory that has won a conflict on behalf of the United States of America.
		The continued ascension of an elite political class to key positions in Washington, D.C. is not working for the American people and American national strategy.
		We have to do something different and I am very glad that we have somebody that has a different thought philosophy at the top of the Department of Defense because we absolutely need it right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Ray.
		He's in Aurora, Colorado, Independent.
		Hi, Ray.
unidentified		Good morning.
		May I call you Pat?
		Hey, Ray, you sure can.
		I lived out in the springs for a while.
		You live in a beautiful part of the country.
		Oh, it's very fascinating, especially the mountains.
		I used to parachute into those mountains out there.
		It was a ton of fun.
		Very beautiful.
		Oh, I bet.
		I'm affiliated with the Libertarian Party, and I've seen your name listed as a co-sponsor on a number of immigration-related bills, including H.R. 3242, which I'm waiting for the full text to be published.
		At least on the Congress website, I was wondering if there are any aspects of the Immigration Nationality Act that you're in favor of repealing so that the overall immigration process can be streamlined and simplified and or encourage more people to come in the right way.
		Yeah, look, right now we have a dual-hatted problem, and I really appreciate the question, Ray.
		We've got a problem with illegal immigration.
		We also have a problem with legal immigration.
		And we have to understand that it's very difficult to address legal immigration when we have grandmothers who are being burned on subways by illegal immigrants, and we have all sorts of fentanyl, drug trafficking, human trafficking, an overall degradation of law and order spreading throughout our country due to a wide open southern border that we've had for the last four years that President Trump has corrected.
		I mean, illegal crossings are down 99%.
		You only had nine people released in his first 100 days into this country, and they were all for basically medical reasons when during President Biden's first 100 days, you had 184,000 illegals released into our country.
		We're making demonstrable progress on the illegal immigration problem, but we still have a long way to go.
		Simultaneously, look, I'm a manufacturer, and I've said for a long time that we have wasted the greatest opportunity in the last five, six, seven, eight years to reshore American manufacturing because we don't have the labor to support it.
		We need a streamlined legal immigration process, but we absolutely have to know who is coming into our country.
		We have to have positive control of these people because over the last four years of President Biden, we had no idea who these people were.
		We had no idea what their intentions were for being in the United States of America, whether they were good, whether they were bad.
		That's absolutely unacceptable for our national security.
		So, first, we have to solve our national security concerns, which we are well in process of doing underneath President Trump, and then we need to address our economic concerns.
		We need to do both of those things, and Congress does have its eye on the ball in this regard.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Richard in Devine, Texas, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Richard, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, Richard.
		Good morning.
		I'd like to compliment you, sir, on the words coming out of your mouth.
		Appreciate it very much.
		I wish more Republicans like you and had the nerve and the concern to state facts openly and plainly the way you are and your bravery coming on CNN because you're going to take some hostile calls.
		And one question I would have to you, please, is what are your thoughts on communism and communists in this country and their threat to the American way of life?
		I will take my interrupt Lauren.
		Thank you.
		Hey, thanks for the question, Richard.
		I appreciate the compliments.
		I don't know if they're deserved, but I'll always keep fighting up here.
		You know, look, communism is always a problem.
		It's always a threat.
		But I've just looked at it this way.
		In particular, when we look at the potential of future conflict around the world with communists, we're always going to win because American exceptionalism in the specialness of our system is real.
		We absolutely unleash human innovation.
		We allow the individual to fulfill God's intent for them in their lives.
		And communists do the exact opposite.
		They take the boot of the state and they put it right on the throat of their people and they stifle every little bit of human individuality and respect for humanity.
		Long term, I'm actually not concerned about this because I know that we're going to be okay in this country.
		As long as we stick to the principles of our system, we keep limited government, we keep a conservative approach to our faith and to our values, this country will be just fine and we are moving it on the right track to ensure long-term stability and prosperity of not just the United States of America, but of all American citizens.
		So I'm proud to report that right now.
		We've got still a lot of work to do, but thanks for the question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Joe in Buttner, North Carolina, Democrat.
unidentified		Hey, Joe.
		Yes, I'm in Carolina, and sir, I have to say that I'm really disappointed that you're representing our state.
		And I'll tell you why.
		For instance, take the Defense Department and what you said lauding Secretary Hedgemith.
		One of his first acts, sir, was to fire the joint, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
		C.Q. Brown, Lieutenant General, was a 300 combat mission pilot top cat with 4,000 hours in military aircraft who commanded the sky over northern Iraq,
		chasing Russians away and not losing a single jet and a single pilot on the floor was Lloyd Austin.
		Mr. Hedgemith used the old DEI tricks to assume that these black guys, C.Q. Brown and Lloyd Austin, were not merit-based commanders of our troops.
		ISIS is gone.
		The Russian troops, including that group of militia that they sent in, got annihilated.
		But he from the National Guard, a drunk National Guardsman, takes over our Defense Department.
		Sir, where did you get your information?
		You never served in the military.
		And I'm ashamed that you are representing our state.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Joe, let's get the congressman to respond.
unidentified		Well, sir, hey, thanks for the question.
		But actually, I did serve in our military.
		I'm a West Point graduate and I was also a commander in our special forces.
		So I am very in tune to where we are moving in the defense space right now.
		And I'll tell you, I think you're misrepresenting the facts.
		General C.Q. Brown is an accomplished man.
		Nobody is impugning his character.
		The president, however, and the Secretary of Defense gets to decide who serves at the top ranks.
		They get to pick their team.
		That is their executive privilege.
		We all serve, any of us that served in the military, serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States, and we swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
		That does not guarantee us a spot in leadership.
		That is up to executive leadership, and that's exactly what Secretary Hakeseth and President Trump decided to do, and that is fully within their purview and right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tony is in Flowertown, Pennsylvania, independent.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Good morning.
		One thought I was interested in kind of having a discussion with you about is around this idea that we haven't won a war in a very long time.
		And I know that we used to call it the Department of War, and then we changed the name to the Department of Defense.
		But it doesn't seem like we've been doing a lot of defense.
		It seems like we've been doing a lot of offense or wars.
		And a lot of these are proxy wars.
		Some of these are wars of adventure.
		And so I'm concerned about how we're using our military.
		And one other concern is that the cost of war seems to be escalating.
		The amount of our budget going toward war is escalating.
		And then I would think we could find some money, even if we took our two biggest adversaries, and you could say it's Russia or China.
		And I think the Trump administration, current Republicans are saying it's more like China.
		Even if you added their budgets together for their military, it would be a fraction of ours.
		So I think there's a lot that we could cut from our military and still be safe.
		The other concern I have is about this focus on China and China, the bad guy.
		You know, China didn't take our jobs.
		The billionaires that own our government and have a boot on my neck.
		They sent the jobs overseas.
		Ross Perot was right when he talked about a giant sucking sound in all the U.S. jobs going over to communist China.
		Communist China didn't do that.
		Republicans and Democrats worked together to do that at the behest of billionaires against the American people.
		And so my enemy, I'm very clear on who my enemy is.
		My enemy is the oligarchs that run this country and have a boot on my neck.
		I am being taxed without representation.
		And I look at most of Congress as sort of like almost in a position of prostitution for billionaires in this country.
		And I'd like to hear you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tony.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Representative.
unidentified		Tony, thanks for the question.
		Some of your points are well taken, some of them I disagree with, but let me kind of parse through it real quick.
		First and foremost, we talk about defense spending.
		I want to tell you, and I want to lay it out this way.
		Number one, I absolutely think that we are spending too much money in certain places.
		We are also not spending enough money in other places.
		Let me give you an example.
		The Army just let loose last week announced its Army Transformation Initiative.
		This actually initiates $45 billion worth of cuts in things that have not helped us win the last 30 years of conflict and are not relevant to deterring or defeating China and reinvest those dollars exactly where we need them in order to deter that threat.
		The best way to win the next war is to actually be so strong that we don't even have to fight it.
		And I absolutely agree with your premise that we have fought these forever wars and we need to stop doing that.
		Simultaneously, we also have to understand that when America leaves a vacuum in the world, it will be filled by interests that are averse to ours with folks and countries that do not operate like ours, that do not stand for freedom.
		And so there's a happy medium there.
		I'm a big believer, and one of the reasons that I came to Washington is I do not want to fight wars that we shouldn't be fighting, but I absolutely want to set the conditions for the ones that we have to.
		And we must understand that as the world continues to burn right now due to a lack of American leadership, the risk of actual conflict breaking out around the globe is increasing.
		It is not decreasing.
		And so we have to make a special investment in our defense right now.
		We have to all get on the same page and say, look, what do we need to invest in in order to try to not fight the next war?
		By the way, that is also the same road that we have to go down in order to set the conditions to win the next war.
		That's why I'm so passionate about what we're doing up here.
		But I absolutely agree with you that our systems are too expensive, they're too exquisite, and we have created in our defense industrial base, unfortunately, and we've become very good at this, at creating the high-cost problems to our enemies' low-cost solutions.
		We've been losing the economics of our wars, and if we really want to deter the next conflict, we have to flip that paradigm and produce the low-cost solutions to our enemies' high-cost problems.
		We are not doing that right now, but this is something I'm very passionate about changing in our defense industrial base.
		And one last point: I disagree with you that the folks up here in Congress are working on behalf of the billionaire class in the United States of America.
		Certainly, everybody gets a voice up here, and folks that are wealthier may have the increased ability to amplify their voice, but it is still ultimately the decision of the body of the members of Congress to decide the direction of where this country should and shouldn't go.
		And in my four months up here, I can tell you that there is not a dedicated workforce to a certain class in this country.
		Quite the opposite.
		President Trump is working right now, and Congress is working alongside of him to absolutely set the conditions for the middle class to be successful.
		Leadership in this country has not done it for the last 30 years, but we are doing it right now.
		Thanks for the question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Congressman, you mentioned $45 billion cut to the Army budget.
		Can you be more specific as to where that would be coming from?
		Are those weapon systems that are being canceled?
		Where's that coming from?
unidentified		Yes, and it's actually, look, this is actually originating within the Army, right?
		This is a combination of legacy weapons systems.
		It is a combination of legacy force structures, and it is also a combination of legacy contracting mechanisms that simply are not generating the proper return on investment for the American taxpayer.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we'll talk to Robin in Cleveland, Tennessee, Democrat.
unidentified		Hey, Robin.
		Yeah.
		How dare you think that Tuskegee Airmen were DIRs?
		So at this point, you're saying we're going to cut SNAP.
		We're going to Medicaid.
		But we've got money for Trump a fake parade.
		We've got money for billionaires a tax cut.
		So where is it that the common everyday working people are going in with what you're doing?
		The Tuskegee Airmen wasn't DI, Peach Headsmith, or whoever drunk.
		The alcoholic, he's a DIR.
		He is unqualified.
		And the fact that you would defend him with a straight face says we need to know about who you are.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Robin.
		Let's get a response.
		Go ahead, Congressman Harrigan.
unidentified		Robin, I couldn't really hear you, but I think I got some of it.
		Look, I think we got to understand, and you talked about tax cuts for billionaires.
		Look, if we do not pass the extension of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act package in the reconciliation process, it will be the single largest tax hike in American history for every single level of American taxpayer, not the top, all the way down to the bottom.
		We have to understand that.
		It's a $4.5 trillion tax hike that is absolutely not sustainable.
		It also will increase, or excuse me, it will decrease the standard deduction.
		It will have, cut in half the child tax credit that so many middle-class American families depend upon.
		This is a broad tax package that impacts every single level of American income earner.
		And it is something that will absolutely, if we extend it, hypercharge the American economy, which will directly benefit the American middle class, particularly the manufacturing middle class.
		And so I disagree wholeheartedly with any assertion that this is preferential treatment for a certain class of elite individuals in this country.
		This benefits all Americans.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		She also mentioned the Army parade that that's being planned for later this year, expected to cost up to $45 million.
		What's your take on that?
		Do you think that's necessary?
unidentified		Look, I think you got to understand the way that the Army works and the way Army budgeting works is that this is already coming out of their existing budgeting structure.
		This is something that will be a source of American pride.
		It will be a source of American exceptionalism.
		I think that these are worthy investments that the American taxpayer has already made.
		This is an already funded event.
		And we have to understand that in the light of where we are in the world, it's a good thing to bring our country together to showcase our military force and to try to deter the next conflict in a very public way.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Representative Pat Harrigan, a Republican from North Carolina's 10th District and member of the Armed Services Committee.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks so much for joining us today.
unidentified		Thanks for having me, Mimi, and thanks to everybody for their questions this morning.
unidentified		Y'all take care.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		In 30 minutes on Washington Journal, Democrat Al Green of Texas joins us on where he stands on the budget battles in Congress.
		But first, more of your phone calls in Open Forum.
		You can start calling in now.
		Democrats are on 202-748-8000.
		Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		We'll be right back.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Carthyism, Whitaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Paul Robeson, House Un-American Activities Committee, the Smith Act, the Hollywood 10, the Joint Anti-Facist Committee, the Truman Loyalty Program, the Blacklist.
		Book Burning, and Communism.
		All subjects of controversy during the 30s, 40s, and 50s here in the United States.
		Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at the New York Times, has a fresh look at all this in his book, Red Scare.
		Mr. Risen writes in his preface that his grandfather was a career FBI agent who joined the Bureau during World War II, and he recounted stories of implementing loyalty tests for the federal government in the late 1940s.
unidentified		Author Clay Risen, with his book, Red Scare, Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America on this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
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		C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		It is Open Forum.
		A few programs for your schedule later this morning.
		We have programs for you on C-SPAN 3 at 9, 10, and 11 a.m. Eastern Time, 9 a.m.
		So right after this program, FBI Director Kash Patel will be on Capitol Hill to answer questions from a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee.
		Director Patel is expected to address the administration's proposed budget cuts to the FBI, among other topics.
		Then at 10 a.m. this morning, President Trump holds a news conference to announce a new trade deal that's expected to be with the UK.
		You can watch that at 10 a.m.
		Then at 11 on May 8th, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces, marking the end of World War II in Europe.
		Today, World War II vets and historians observe the 80th anniversary of VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Again, you can watch that live at 11 a.m.
		All three of those are on C-SPAN 3.
		Also on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app and online at c-span.org.
		Well, during an interview aired on Meet the Press yesterday, President Trump spoke about Kilmar Obrego Garcia, saying that he's following lawyers' advice as he tries to execute rapid deportations.
		Take a look.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Well, you say you have the power to bring them back, though.
		Your attorney general says, quote, that's up to El Salvador.
		Just to put a fine point on this, do you have the power to bring Obrego Garcia back as the Supreme Court?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I have the power to ask for him to come back if I'm instructed by the Attorney General that it's legal to do so.
		But the decision as to whether or not he should come back will be the head of El Salvador.
		He's a very capable man.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Well, you know, and your Attorney General has said the issues with that word facilitate.
		Will you seek clarification from the Supreme Court?
		Do you need to go back to the Supreme Court?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We may do that.
		I was asking about that.
		We may do that.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Your Secretary of State says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Do you agree, Mr. President?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I don't know.
		I'm not a lawyer.
		I don't know.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Well, the Fifth Amendment said.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I don't know.
		It seems it might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials.
		We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on earth.
		But it's some of the worst, most dangerous people on earth.
		And I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as President?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I don't know.
		I have to respond by saying again: I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.
		What you said is not what I heard, the Supreme Court said.
		They have a different interpretation.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was from Sundays Meet the Press on NBC.
		And here is Kim in Howell, Michigan, Democrat.
		Good morning, Kim.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I just wanted to make a comment about Representative something to clarify something that Representative Harrington said about the tax cuts.
		That somebody called NASDAQ about them being cuts for the wealthy, and he wanted to clarify that it wasn't for the wealthy, that they do it for everyone, which is true.
		The tax cuts are for everyone.
		But one of the representatives put a bill on the floor during this process that said, let's do the tax cuts that you want to do, but not include the people who make over $400,000 a year.
		And the Republicans voted no.
		They wanted to extend the tax cuts for the people over $400,000 a year.
		Who are they working for?
		That's the point.
		He is not being clear.
		He's acting like, oh, if we don't do it, everyone gets in trouble and we'll have to pay more.
		And representatives took care of that, the Democratic representatives in Congress and tried to get them to agree to the tax cuts without allowing that for the $400,000 or more income.
		That's all I wanted to say.
		Thanks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Robert, in Independent in Chesterfield, Virginia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You know, I wonder if it could be that Mr. Trump and his tariffs are knocking the prices down on the stock market so that him and his billionaires and trillionaires, whatever, can buy stock up, and then when it goes up again, they'll sell.
		Just wondered about that.
		But the other thing is, your previous guest from North Carolina, you know, he's seen, I wonder about this AI thing now where you got robots that are programmed.
		He sounded like he was programmed by Donald J. Trump.
		And one of the callers from Texas sounded like he was kind of programmed too.
		And, you know, if Texas was given back to Mexico, our gas prices would probably go down at least a dollar and a half a gallon.
		But that'll never happen, will it?
		But I advise everybody out there to keep your eyes open because the only thing that's going to take this administration back out of office, he swore in his promises that there would never be another election.
		Get your hardware after you close it and let's take this country back.
		Y'all have a good day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is Bloomberg that says this: top Trump crypto buyers vying for dinner seats are likely foreign.
		Data shows the majority of top holders of Donald Trump's meme coin have used foreign exchanges that say they ban U.S. users, suggesting many purchasers are based abroad.
		It says more than half of the top holders of President Trump's meme coin who are jockeying for dinner with the president have used foreign exchanges.
		Buyers of the Trump token, a cryptocurrency the president began marketing days before his inauguration, drove sales higher in the past two weeks after its issuers announced an unprecedented promotion.
		More than 200 of the meme coin's largest holders would be invited to attend a May 22 dinner with Trump at his Virginia Golf Club, while the top 25 would qualify for an exclusive reception beforehand and what the Meme Coin's website describes as a quote VIP tour.
		That's at Bloomberg News if you'd like to see that.
		And this is Gus in Shreveport, Louisiana.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Joe, thank you for taking my call.
		I think that nothing wrong with the parade showing off our stuff, but I don't think Trump's name should have nowhere near it.
		And because it's on his birthday, I don't think it should be missing.
		He didn't have enough hooners to go.
		Yet he can jump up there and wrap himself in flags and talk about parade.
		I just don't think it's fair when I served.
		I did eight years.
		And another thing that I don't understand is now about this crypto money.
		It looked like to me this shouldn't be.
		I thought, well, what's wrong?
		What's wrong with our green dollar?
		Thank you, and I appreciate you.
		Let me tell you, let me voice my message.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Ronnie is in Kentucky, line for independence.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I hope everybody's having a good day.
		But my point in talking about the guy in Canada was on your air a few minutes ago.
		He's talking about the lowering of taxes for the wealth, but you know, the big shots and everything and making everybody on the same level.
		You can't put everybody on the same level because everybody don't make the same.
		What they need to do is have a scale is what they ought to vote on and where the taxes are different.
		Everybody pays taxes on a different level, just like they would do on your IRS when you do your taxes at the end of the year.
		Because everybody don't pay the same amount of money at the end of the year.
		They ought to do it just like they do the food stamps when you apply for food stamps.
		If you're on a level, you don't get a whole lot of food stamps.
		But I don't think it should be where big shots, millionaires ought to be on the same level as somebody that's living in poverty or living on disability.
		He can't even buy a loaf of bread without paying it.
		If he don't pay his rent, he can buy a loaf of bread, but pays his rent.
		He can't buy a loaf of bread.
		He can't buy no vehicle.
		He can't buy gas.
		I mean, look out for us people.
		It's paid y'all's way.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Ronnie.
		And here is from Fox News Sunday.
		Representative Jody Arrington spoke on whether cuts to Medicaid would be needed for the House Republican spending bill.
shannon bream ▲ ● ▼		Hey, almost no one thinks that you can slash $880 billion just through waste fraud and abuse.
shannon bream ▲ ● ▼		So what is your response to the Democrats' warning about the fact that Medicaid may come into play here?
jodey arrington ▲ ● ▼		Well, you asked me about the if that, you know, the if conditional language I'm using.
		And the reason I'm doing that is because the question is, will Republicans surrender the opportunity to actually bend the curve on entitlement spending and enact entitlement reforms?
		Because there is a tremendous amount of waste and fraud.
		In fact, the government accountability office has upwards of $500 billion over the 10-year budget window just in Medicaid.
		You've got hundreds of billions siphoned out for other purposes than serving the Medicaid beneficiary.
		There is no work requirement for able-bodied adults like there is in every other means-tested welfare program.
		And in fact, Medicaid, because we give a higher federal match to able-bodied adult population, this is the Obamacare expansion population, we actually hurt access to the pregnant, blind, disabled, the most vulnerable, the poorest and sickest among our fellow Americans as a result of the structure of the program.
		We can save over $1.5 trillion without touching a dime of the benefit funding.
		So I just, the question is, will we be susceptible to the fear-mongering and the false rhetoric that you just heard from the Democrat minority leader in the House?
		This is the same tired play they run.
		And unfortunately, Republicans haven't collectively leaned in and just done the right thing.
		We will be rewarded because we're doing this for the sustainability of these programs for the most vulnerable, as well as being fiduciaries for tax dollars.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We're an open forum, and we'll hear from Ruth in Wilmington, North Carolina, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Ruth.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		I was just sitting here thinking I need to put my thoughts in order.
		I wanted to call when the young congressman was on.
		I listened and I found him to be a thoughtful person.
		And I heard him say he served in the military and he's to be commended.
		I started to call when he said he had been in the Congress four months.
		And I just wanted to encourage him.
		Four months is not a long time to get too opinionated and to be thoughtful and to be an independent thinker, especially when he said we serve at the command of the president.
		And unfortunately, the president we have now is not competent, nor should he be president.
		So I wanted to say that to him, to just keep on living and all of young people who are his age in Congress who don't get caught up in following.
		There's so much to be done here in this country.
		And then when Kim called, I was glad to hear what she offered and the last call and what he offered.
		And I just hope that we begin to listen to each other and stop being so opinionated.
		I'm 82 years old, and I know when they changed the draft.
		And I, of course, was an anti-war person.
		I didn't believe in the Vietnam War.
		But I truly believe that we need to go back to some kind of service for everyone in this country, whether it's in the armed forces or what kind of public service it is.
		Because what it has done, it has further made the class differences in our country more intense.
		And so, you know, politics people go into, oh, it's just, we have so much to do.
		All right, Ruth.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is Bruce in Summitville, Indiana, Independent Line.
unidentified		Oh, thanks for taking my call.
		I have a different take.
		I haven't heard anybody mention this, but I think the Democrats, both parties, Democrats and Republicans, are having too much control over the people we elect.
		All the senators and congressmen seem to say the same things.
		They should be saying what their constituents are.
		So I believe Democrats, Republicans should be considered lobbyist.
		Because I think all the lobbyists have to be registered.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Irving in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Republican line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Irving.
unidentified		Thank you.
		I'm calling to make a statement to make people aware that the news media putting out, and Democrats are putting out false statements about Republicans.
		I'm an African American.
		Thank you.
		I'm an African American.
		And the statements that are being made by the news media and Democrats that Republicans are cutting Medicare and Medicaid, that's false.
		Speaker Johnson had a news conference the other day and said that they were not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.
		So I'm just wondering why the news media and Democrats keep scaring people about Republicans cutting Medicare and Medicaid.
		It's not going to happen, people.
		So just know that we're going to have our Medicare and Medicaid intact and everything's going to be fine.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Liz in Las Vegas, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi.
		Yes.
		This is Liz.
		And my concern is that we're not paying attention to what's happening regarding the corporations being in league with the president.
		I saw it with Ronald Reagan.
		I'm an elderly person.
		I graduated when Reagan became in office.
		And since then, the corporations and the CEOs have become billionaires, millionaires, trillionaires.
		And the little people have lost all their job security.
		People used to have jobs for 30 years or more and could depend on the company.
		Now we're just slave labor.
		And now they're going after any kind of entitlements that we've tried to learn to have and depend upon.
		The corporations and the president are now looking into this Bitcoin thing.
		They want to destabilize the economy so much and to make the complete takeover of an oligarchy.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is Alicia in Klamath Falls, Oregon, Independent Line.
unidentified		Hi, this Alicia, and I agree with the African-American.
		Trump is not going to take care of Medicare Medical Cal.
		However, there's bigger issues, and we know this.
		We live, we die, we pay taxes.
		However, in saying that, we are running up a PGE bill across this nation, keeping our dead frozen in a black bag and a frozen truck.
		And who's going to be paying that bill?
		Nobody addresses that issue.
		Here's another question: We have measles on the rise.
		Well, should somebody look into how many people will die there and can't afford to pay for their loved ones, even cremation or death?
		So we'll be left in a bag, frozen in a semi-truck.
		And could it be easy dumped into a ditch and names put up on a wall?
		Maybe we could say, here's a USA knows how to bury their dead when they can't afford to do so.
		Here's the names of the birth dead for COVID and measles.
		Would that be too much to ask?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Jim is in Butler, Wisconsin, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jim.
unidentified		Hi, how are you?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Mine is about the billionaires.
		I mean, this has been going on since Reagan.
		Their percentage that they want to pay is 21%.
		I pay 22% and $69,000 a year between my Social Security and my pension.
		They're going to pay 1% less, which is actually not the truth.
		If they make $10 billion with all their deductions they get that Congress passed for them, they're down to $5 million.
		So they're paying maybe above 10.5%.
		You think that's fair?
		That's been the trouble since Reagan.
		That's why we're $36,000, $37 trillion in debt.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Talk to Keith next, Independent in Coventry, Rhode Island.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes.
		Yes.
		My name's Keith.
		I served in the Army 72, 75, honorably.
		I was an airborne medic.
		Right now, I am totally disgusted with the idea of a military parade for a president who has nothing in his 140-year history family of draft dodging.
		His grandfather was thrown out of Germany in 1905, and we got gifted with the Trumps.
		His father avoided World War II, Korea War.
		He himself said he had bone spurs.
		Where's the x-rays?
		If I was 78 years old, had bone spears.
		If I at 21, I'd be crawling on my knees.
		I don't know about you.
		But anyway, to even think about giving him a military parade is sickening.
		He'd have to.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Keith, Darrell in St. Paul, Minnesota, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Darryl.
unidentified		Hi.
		Yeah, I just wanted to say about the congressman not working for oligarchs, and they're going to tie Elon Musk startling to terrorists.
		That's all I want to say.
		Thanks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Susan in Middletown, Delaware, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
unidentified		I just want to encourage everyone, as I'm a Republican, but I still have a responsibility as we all do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Susan, sorry, we are not able to hear you.
		If you could call us back on a better line, that would be great.
		Here's Moses in Akron, Ohio.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, Mimi, thank you for taking my call.
		I'm 83 years old and I'm on Social Security.
		I get $950 a month on average.
		A few of your callers are called in and said, hey, seniors, don't have to worry.
		They're not going to touch your Social Security.
		They're not going to touch Medicare or Medicaid.
		Guess what, Mimi?
		I got a letter a few days ago from the Social Security Administration telling me that those stimulus checks that we got during COVID, they want the money back.
		Not only that, they told me that they are going to take away my Medicare.
		So you people who have been calling in.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But based on what, Moses, when they say they're going to take away your Medicare, how did they say a reason?
unidentified		Almost every and Mimi, almost every letter senior citizens get from the Social Security, there's a vague threat to take away their Medicare.
		In my case, they've already sent me a bill telling me I have to pay back the money from the two stimulus checks we got from Biden and Trump.
		And not only that, they have the audacity to say it's because they're trying to rid out waste, fraud, and abuse.
		So for those people, Mimi, who keep thinking that's nothing going to happen to their Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, they're crazy.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And how much is it, Moses that they're asking back?
		What do they want you to pay back?
		How much?
ricky ross ▲ ● ▼		So far, they sent me a bill for $344.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And are you going to pay that?
unidentified		I've already paid it, Mimi, and I'll tell you why.
		The situation in the Social Security situation in Shummy County is so bad that I refuse to go up there.
		I'm 83.
		I'm 83 years old.
		I don't need that frustration.
		I know they'll be coming at my Medicare.
		I'm just waiting.
		They tell you in the letter, hey, you can appeal.
		You got 60 days.
		I got so many of those letters meeting me.
		It's ridiculous.
		So all I'm saying to people that's on Medicare and on Medicaid and on Social Security like me, don't think you're not going to get one of those letters.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Clay Bourne in Durham, North Carolina, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		A lot of people calling this morning seem to be concerned about the economy and economics and expenses and so on, quite reasonably.
		My thing this morning is about Gaza.
		A child dies there every 40 minutes.
		Now that's increasingly due to hunger and starvation.
		So since genocide, which is a group, is saying send bread, not bombs, to Israel, to Gaza.
		Send bread, not bombs.
		Open the borders.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Katrina Fayetteville, Georgia, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Yes, I want to call in because I'm very concerned about all the calls that's coming through and all the statements are being said.
		And my main thing is I don't understand what this administration they want to look for waste, fraud, and abuse.
		This administration is nothing but waste, fraud, and abuse.
		And the gentleman that called and said something about the Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security that they're sending out letters, I tend to believe him.
		I'm not of that age, and I have not, you know, don't know anyone who have received those letters, but I don't put it past this administration to be sending out these day threatful letters to people 70 or older and knowing their state as far as being older individuals.
		A lot of them don't have time to fight those letters.
		You put them in a panic.
		Some of them don't have, they have dissent families, so they don't have anyone to fight those letters.
		And then for them to make cuts at these administration office, who are you going to talk to?
		You can't get into anyone.
		It was already bad, but when you drop off employees and make the workforce less than it already was, you cannot get assistance.
		And then you sit in multiple, multiple letters and get no response.
		So this is crazy.
		And for them to keep calling these things entitlement, yeah, it's entitled for them to have these benefits because these people worked all their lives.
		They put into this program and they should reap what they sow.
		So at the end of the day, I don't understand why they keep saying entitlement.
		Entitlement is the people who are up there in the White House and those people in Congress is constantly raking the middle class over the coal and taking money from us day in and day out, having us live from paycheck to paycheck, unable to feed our kids or be able to keep a house.
		You have to pick and check.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Got it, Katrina.
		And up next, we have Democrat Al Green of Texas joining us the first time since being censured for heckling President Trump at his address to Congress back in February.
		We'll talk about his budget priorities and why he's planning to introduce articles of impeachment against the president.
unidentified		Sunday night on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		Former Ohio Governor John Kasich, author of Heaven Help Us, talks about the work done by religious institutions and people of faith in the United States, including combating homelessness, hunger, human trafficking, and other issues.
		I do think it's not critical to count the number of times you go to church, but at the same time, I think we need to realize that those institutions are sort of like when you think about running for office, you need a clubhouse, a political clubhouse to gather.
		I look at the churches as an opportunity for people to go in there with their ideas of change in the world and to be able to find support, some material support, some psychological support.
		I also, you know, believe you can get more things done working with others than just working alone.
		John Kasich with his book, Heaven Help Us, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's QA.
		You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on the C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
		Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
		At 3 p.m. Eastern, Dr. Robert Smith shares his book, Has Medicine Lost Its Mind? in which he argues that the medical establishment has failed to consider the importance of mental health in favor of focusing on physical health.
		And at 7 Eastern, Kimberly Heckler talks about her biography of her mother-in-law, Margaret Heckler, in A Woman of First.
		Margaret Heckler was a Republican member of Congress from Massachusetts, who later served as HHS secretary and ambassador to Ireland under President Reagan.
		Then, at 10 p.m. Eastern on Afterwards, Atlantic Magazine staff writer Sophie Gilbert looks at the pop culture of the 90s and early 2000s and its impact on women and the feminist movement in her book, Girl on Girl, How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves.
		She's interviewed by Jennifer Posner, author and founder of Women in Media and News.
		Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to the program.
		We're joined now by Representative Al Green, a Democrat of Texas's 9th District, also a member of the Financial Services Committee.
		Representative Green, welcome back to the program.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Thank you for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And this is the first time you've been back here since the censure for disrupting President Trump's address to Congress back in February.
		Ten of your Democratic colleagues joined all Republicans in that censure.
		Do you still stand by your actions that night?
al green ▲ ● ▼		Well, absolutely.
		I didn't go there to make the stand that I took.
		I went there because I wanted to be present, but I did want to protest, and my protest was to simply exit the premises while the president was speaking.
		But he started to talk about his mandate.
		And when he did so, I was collecting my portable items.
		And as I was moving, I just felt compelled to say something.
		It was really done spontaneously.
		And I indicated to him, you don't have a mandate to cut Medicaid.
		And then a second time, I said Medicare and Social Security.
		My colleagues were extremely loud on the other side, so I was trying to speak louder so that he could hear me.
		And I was removed from the chamber.
		And I hold no animus toward the officers who removed me.
		They were very kind.
		The speaker did what he was supposed to do.
		And my colleagues who voted the way they voted, I don't blame them in any way.
		I told everyone, vote your conscience.
		Vote your conscience.
		And they apparently voted what their consciences dictated.
		And I respect them for it.
		No harm, no foul with me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		At a rally in Washington last month, you said that you'd be bringing articles of impeachment against President Trump within 30 days.
		It's been 30 days.
		Where does that effort stand?
al green ▲ ● ▼		I have the articles of impeachment in my hand.
		On the 30th day, I believe I previewed them in Congress to let people get some sense of what they're about.
		I have them here.
		They will be introduced within the very near future.
		But before I introduce them in Congress, I think I'm going to expose them to the public.
		I think the public needs to see what these articles of impeachment are all about.
		Because according to these articles, and my belief, and what I hear from many persons, many of them newscasters, the president is not honoring the Constitution, his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
		He is not respecting the rule of law, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
		He doesn't respect Marlborough versus Madison, the right for judicial review.
		All of these things add up to a president who is now, at this moment in time, what I call a de facto dictator.
		He literally, literally, has moved into an area where he believes he can rule with executive orders.
		And these executive orders are being overturned.
		But what the president is doing is, by his command, the courts should either be impeached or follow his lead.
		By his command, colleges and universities should do as he says, or they will lose their tax exemptions.
		By his command, law firms have to obey his commands or they will be sued.
		And he has the power of the United States government, a coffer within it, and a Justice Department that has unlimited amounts of money to spend.
		And as a result of these unlimited amounts of money, he can take you to court all the way to the Supreme Court with any issue that you raise.
		And he does it at no cost to him.
		But if you are fighting him, it's going to be at extreme cost to you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And do you think filing articles of impeachment is the best way to counter the issues that you mentioned?
al green ▲ ● ▼		No, absolutely not.
		The best way is for the president to honor the Constitution.
		The president should do as the judges indicate, and many judges have told him that he is to facilitate the return of someone that was taken from the country in error, and that person has not been facilitated by way of the court's order.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But as far as what you can do in Congress, is this the best way?
al green ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to get to that.
		But the best way is for him to follow the court's orders.
		He declines to do that.
		Then the next best way would be for his party to go to him and say, Mr. President, what you're doing is wrong.
		Carl Rove has done this on many occasions.
		He said, Mr. President, you ought to return the person.
		You ought to go ahead and get this behind you.
		But the president wants to make sure we understand that he can remove people from this country and even American citizens if he has his way and send them to a foreign place with an indeterminate amount of time.
		So if these things fail, if the courts fail and his party won't do it, then that's the only thing left is impeachment.
		So I'm doing what's left.
		And I'm doing it because we have to build the momentum for it.
		People don't always understand it, which is why I'm here today to say to people, impeachment is a means by which we can remove a president or we can deter him.
		Impeachment is a process for removal or to stop a president.
		If he sees that this momentum is building, perhaps he will mend his ways and do the right thing.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I want to show you Representative Pete Aguilar.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He's chair of the House Democratic Caucus, so he is your colleague there and was asked if anything President Trump had done in this presidency rises to the level of impeachable offenses, and then I'll get your response.
unidentified		In the first 100 days, has the president done anything that rises to the level of impeachable offenses?
pete aguilar ▲ ● ▼		What the president has done is he sought to erode the fabric of our country by stoking chaos, fear, division.
		This is not unlike behavior he has done in the past.
		But right now, we will deal with the tools in front of us and the policies that he and House Republicans have placed forward, which are reckless cuts to the health care system, to our supplemental nutrition that is relied on by women and children and families across this country.
		Those are the policies that we're going to push back against.
		And those are the items that the American public is paying attention to.
		Impeachment is at times a tool that can be used.
		This president is no stranger to that.
		He's been impeached twice.
		But we don't have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs.
		And so this is not an exercise that we're willing to undertake.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of that?
al green ▲ ● ▼		Well, I don't know that I differ with him.
		And by the way, he's a nice guy.
		And I have no reason to simply say things that are inappropriate as it relates to him.
		I don't think the Senate would engage in impeachment right now, actually the trial.
		I don't think House Republicans are going to necessarily agree with us.
		But I do believe this.
		There has to be a genesis for this process.
		In the last Congress, I introduced the Articles of Impeachment that built the momentum that caused him to eventually get impeached.
		We have to do this again.
		And again, it involves the public.
		And those who don't feel that this is impeachment can vote not to do so.
		But there are many who do believe that this is what he's doing is worthy of impeachment.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you think that this could actually help President Trump politically?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Because some of his advisors are saying that this is a former Trump attorney, David Schoen, saying, I think that Trump would recognize that while some on the far left would cheer impeachment, it would likely help him politically on the backdrop of the previous two efforts and the other attacks of the past four years, which I believe propelled many voters to vote for him.
al green ▲ ● ▼		To complete my answer to your last question before this one, impeachment is what the House says it is.
		So anyone who says that this is not impeachment, anything that comes before the House can be thought to be not impeachment.
		Every member has the right to decide for himself or herself, for their self, what impeachment is.
		Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868, Article 10, for simply speaking ill of Congress.
		So for a person to say that dishonoring court orders, to say that the president somehow is honoring his pledge to uphold and protect and defend the Constitution, that that's not impeachment, then everybody's entitled to say that.
		But there are a good many people who believe that it is worthy of impeachment.
		They just don't think that they want to do it now.
		Now, with reference to this notion of helping the president, I believe that the president lost in part last time because he was impeached.
		I think that that made a difference in that election.
		And I believe that if he tries to make this the issue in an election wherein we have a bad economy and he's saying, well, keep me because if you keep me, then I can continue this bad economy.
		I don't think that's going to go over well.
		I think the president is in a very difficult position with his tariffs, with his behavior as it relates to the federal judges saying that they should be impeached because they don't agree with him.
		But finally, on this point, I think the American people have to see where we are.
		We said he was a threat to democracy.
		He's a threat and he's becoming now that dictator.
		In fact, in some instances, he is because he's refusing to honor orders of the court.
		It was on April the 10th that the Supreme Court ordered him to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrago Garcia.
		He has not done it to date, and he's demeaned the courts for even asking him to do it or requiring him, I should say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we'll take your calls for Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, until the end of the program in about 15 minutes when the House gavels in.
		And we'll start with Richard, a Republican in Savannah, Georgia.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Maby.
		Mr. Green, I talked to you on February 6th this year, and Greta was speaking.
		I would like for you to look at a camera and tell us why you didn't attend Jocelyn Ngri's funeral.
		She was a 12-year-old girl in your district who was murdered by illegals, and it was disgusting.
		And then, of course, you haven't mentioned anything about her, and the park was renamed in her memory for the brutal murder, which she didn't attend either.
		And all this impeachment with you and the Democrats is ridiculous.
		And I think you're just on the wrong side of history, as usual.
		But to not acknowledge Jocelyn Ngungri.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's get a response, Richard.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you.
		I have indicated not just for this person, but for anyone who's lost life under similar circumstances and under other circumstances, I have great sympathy for the parents, the friends, the persons who are suffering, and of course for the loss of that life.
		I don't attend funerals that I'm not invited to.
		There are some people who have things that are private.
		And if they invite me, I attend.
		I was not invited.
		So when I'm invited, I attend.
		But even if I'm not invited, it doesn't change how I feel about what happened to her.
		People who do these dastardly deeds should be punished.
		I have no problems seeing people who commit crimes being punished.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		This is Michael in Gainesville, Florida, Independent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Michael.
unidentified		Yes, hi.
		Children in Gaza are starving, and here in the U.S., we have a constitutional crisis.
		I think it's time to grab our keys, not our shoes, and start a rolling march and a tailgate parade of protesters to block traffic in and around McDonald's, Walmart's, and Tesla's, and move over for emergency vehicles because not everyone can march at one of the organized marches, but everyone has one of those three establishments in their town.
		And let's face it, it's the dollar that counts.
		And if traffic is blocked, you're illegal.
		You're trying to get to an establishment.
		If anyone pulls up and asks you to move over and it's an emergency vehicle, pull over.
		And if it's a policeman, tell them you're hungry and you want to go to McDonald's or you want to go to Walmart or you want to buy a car at Tesla's and put a stop to traffic in your town and put a stop to traffic nationwide and just get out and drive when the time comes.
		Any time of the day, it doesn't matter.
		You're not pick a time.
		If you start feeling antsy, what's the benefit of that, Michael?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What you're asking for?
unidentified		Because marches don't do it.
		I noticed that we didn't have, we didn't, I think it's March or May the 14th.
		You know, when the children got the gun law passed, they got together and they announced on, I think it was a Saturday morning, along with the teachers' union, that they were going to go on strike.
		That Saturday night, before that next Sunday news cycle, Congress somehow got together and announced so they could interrupt the news cycle that there was going to be a bill so that no one heard that the students and the teachers union had potentially gotten together and were going to go on a get-out or standard.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Scott, got it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congressman Green.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Well, the president uses his incivility to take advantage of our civility.
		He did that at the joint session of Congress where I protest that I was removed and I was censured.
		He at his, while speaking, called the members of Congress lunatics.
		He's not been censured.
		He called another member of Congress Pocahontas.
		He's not been censured.
		So yes, I believe that peaceful protest is a solution.
		I salute all of the peaceful protest that's taking place, but I do not salute any form of violence.
		That is violence to property or people.
		I don't support that.
		It's peaceful protest that I believe can make the difference.
		And you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences, as I was when I was censured.
		Censured, but not silenced.
		And I didn't have any idea when I did it that it was going to have the impact on Medicare that it's had.
		Medicare has been a topic around the world now, topic for what's going on in Congress.
		It started with that act of conscience.
		I had no idea it was going to happen, but I'm glad I did it because we've got to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tony in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, Reverend.
		I'm sorry, Congressman Green.
		I love listening to you when you do your special orders, and you're very concise and precise with language.
		So I have a couple questions for you.
		In terms of Gaza and Israel, Ariel Sharon left Gaza.
		He made all the Israelis, Jews that were there move out.
		So why did Hamas build tunnels, arm themselves?
		No one was going to attack them.
		The Israelis left them to live there.
		What do you think the slogan from the river to the sea means?
		To me, it means something different than what they claim.
		In terms of starvation, when food is being given to the people of Gaza, why is it being sold in marketplaces?
		The people don't look like they're starving when I see them walking around.
		They don't look emaciated like Holocaust survivors that were in concentration camps or skin and bones.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Tony, we'll get our response.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Let's start with Hamas.
		I don't defend Hamas.
		Hamas committed a dastardly deed, and that is something that I think we cannot overlook.
		But I do believe that even under the circumstances that exist, that people should not be collectively punished, that you should not withhold food.
		You should not hold water, withhold water.
		You should not withhold the necessities of life.
		Because after all, war was declared on Hamas, not on the children, the babies in Israel.
		Thousands have been killed.
		Not on the innocent people in Israel, pardon me, in Gaza, the innocent Palestinians in Gaza, the innocent Palestinian babies in Gaza.
		War wasn't declared on them.
		So as a result, I think you see a form of collective punishment taking place, and that's not acceptable.
		Israel should not become what it has despised.
		Do not become what you despise.
		This is something that Israel would never appreciate if it was being imposed by another country, probably, especially if it was imposed by a country that we had a relationship with, this collective punishment.
		And as for what happened to cause all of this to continue, I can't really address that.
		But I can tell you this, Mr. Netanyahu was part and parcel to it.
		Mr. Netanyahu used Hamas as a foil.
		He never wanted to have peace in Gaza.
		He wanted all of Gaza, not just a piece of Gaza.
		He wants all of it.
		He wants the West Bank.
		He wants all of what at one time was Palestine.
		That is unacceptable.
		There has to be a state for Palestinians.
		And there has to be a state with Palestinians.
		And you should not have what I see as ethnic cleansing taking place in Gaza.
		As we speak, there is an effort to drive the Palestinians into some small corner of what was at one time Gaza, take over the land again.
		Now at this point, you become a force that has not only invaded, but you are a force that is going to be there.
		It seems to me for some period of time that's unacceptable.
		We need to talk about peace, not allow Netanyahu and President Trump, I might add, who wants to see Gaza become some sort of resort for people other than the Palestinians who were there in Gaza.
		This is just unbelievable that this is unfolding before our very eyes, and we won't say what it is.
		It is collective punishment, and it is ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Maria in Atlanta, Georgia, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Limi, Mr. Green, Ceaseman family.
		I'd just like to mention a couple things.
		Mr. Green, a long time follower of you, and I heard you were Roland Martin Monday night, and we kind of felt heartfelt for you because you told Roland that if anything happens to you, just record it.
		And I hope nothing happened to you and we appreciate it.
		And I'm also concerned about Medicare because I'm a Lucas advocate and I just wrote a book about Lucas.
		And I hope they don't do anything because we really need that.
		And I like to leave my name and number for you to read my book and to C-SPAN family.
		It's called My Lucas Journal while learning of other autoimmune diseases.
		And I just wish you well and I hope nothing happens to you.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you.
		Believe it or not, many people have said to me what you've just said.
		There really is a belief in this country that persons who get out front on these issues, some of these issues that the president, for example, is promoting, and the president says that I ought to be removed from Congress.
		Anybody that opposes him, he wants them either removed if you're a congressperson, or if you're a judge, he wants you impeached.
		This is one of the symptoms of having a dictator.
		A dictator wants no opposition to be viewed as legitimate.
		A dictator wants total control.
		And yes, I did say to Roland, who's a fraternity brother, that I would hope that if something happens to me, because this comes up as it's coming up now, I would want it to be thoroughly investigated.
		Look, I don't smoke anything, so you can't accuse me of anything along that line.
		I don't drink.
		I'm not a guy who lives a fast life.
		So I just want to make sure that if something happens and it appears that it is untoward to anybody, please investigate it because this is a reckless, ruthless president.
		And I say to you, there are no guardrails.
		He has friends that he has released from incarceration who were descending upon the Capitol.
		And when they did so, it was an insurrection.
		And he has released many of these, if not all, I don't think it's 100%, but he's released these criminals.
		And these are people who are loyal to him.
		Only God knows what he can encourage them to do.
		Yes, Mr. President, I said I'm coming for you, and I meant it.
		I'm not going to, on my watch, allow you to destroy democracy in this country and be a menace to the economy of the country.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Have you been threatened, Congressman Green?
unidentified		Yes.
al green ▲ ● ▼		Yes.
		I have to go through airports with security.
		Yes, there are people who will come up to me and say very ugly things, walk past me and say very ugly things.
		I can only be grateful that I have security when these things happen, and it has happened in the presence of one security officer.
		But my point is, these are some difficult times for people who have the courage to challenge the president.
		Difficult, not only because if you're in Congress, they're going to censure you, and they were talking about removing me from Congress.
		I'm the only person to ever be removed from a joint session of Congress, the 28th person to be censured.
		Adam Schiff was censured, and they haven't treated Adam Schiff nearly the way I've been treated.
		Adam Schiff is now a senator.
		There are still people who are trying to say my impeachment, pardon me, my having been censured is something that ought to be somehow declared so bad as to see me in a negative light when none of the other persons are seen as negatively as I'm being seen.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Albert, a Republican in California.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm Al Hughes.
		And Mimi, it's a pleasure to see you this morning.
		And separate to all my Marines out there.
		Al Green, good morning, sir.
		How are you?
al green ▲ ● ▼		Quite quite well, better than I deserve, sir.
unidentified		Well, Al Green, initially, I'm retired, 68.
		I'm up in the mountains in Megalia living in the Redwoods, and I earned every bit of it.
		There's been two Al Greens in my life.
		I remember the pastor when his first album came out, Let's Stay Together, and I recommend that to you.
		First, I was going to complain to C-SPAN for allowing you to come on after what the performance at the presidential joint session.
		You know, what you did to President Trump.
		And I understand that, Mr. Green.
		But you know what?
		There's been two Al Greens in my life.
		The pastor, and I remember that album, we put it on.
		Let's stay together, man.
		It brought so much unity to us who are listening to that.
		And I actually live streamed it the other day.
		Al Green, I'm going to pray for you, brother, because it's tough out there right now.
		It's tough out there.
al green ▲ ● ▼		But before you go, before you go, listen, I want you to just answer one question for me.
		You were concerned about my behavior, and I think that that's fair.
		Were you concerned about the president's behavior at that same joint session of Congress when he called Democrats lunatics, when he proclaimed one member of Congress to be a Pocahontas?
		All of these things are to disparage, to demean, to denigrate.
		Were you concerned about his behavior?
unidentified		Mr. Green, I respect you, and yes, I'm not just your actions and the president's actions, but I was brought up Catholic.
		I'm half Russian.
		I'm half Mexican.
		I've dealt with prejudices because of my olive skin.
		But I maneuvered through that.
		I'm concerned about everyone.
		I know my vote hasn't counted very much, but I've had some excellent Republican representatives.
		My very first political experience was walking into a Go Water convention in the 60s with my stepfather.
		And as a little kid, sir, what I experienced, oh my God, the energy.
		And on top of that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Albert, we got to go because let me try to get one more call in.
		Tony in Youngstown, Ohio, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Mr. Al Green.
		Yes, ma'am.
		I'm sorry to say that I'm very disappointed in you.
		You have tried so hard to cause trouble between whites and blacks, turning, you know, with your speeches, with your talk.
		And now that you saw that that hasn't worked, you're trying to impeach President Trump.
		And I really feel sorry for you, and I'm going to pray for you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get a response.
al green ▲ ● ▼		I do want you to pray for me.
		But I marvel, quite frankly, at how persons can see my behavior at the joint session of Congress as something that should be censured.
		But they have no ill thoughts or negative opinions about the president's behavior.

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