| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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American Railroads with North Carolina Representative Valley Fouchy, a member of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads. | |
| Hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, you can watch it live at 2 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| C-SPAN viewers know Larry Sabado. | ||
| He's, of course, the founder of Sabado's Crystal Ball, the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. | ||
| And Mr. Sabado, 18 months or so before the midterm elections, what would you say is the most important poll number or metric that the savvy political viewer should pay attention to to get a sense of what direction the midterms may be going? | ||
| John, the most important word or number you used was 18, 18 months away. | ||
| And so my answer is don't pay much attention to anything. | ||
| There are so many opportunities for change for one side or the other or both sides. | ||
| It's pointless. | ||
| All you can do is look at history and you say, well, historically, the incumbent White House Party has lost X number of seats. | ||
| And the average is around 26 or so. | ||
| But we're in a new era of very intense partisanship. | ||
| And while it's certainly possible it will be at 26 or higher, it's more likely, I think, than not that it will be under that, whichever party wins. | ||
| We're having a lot of close elections. | ||
| The Senate is much more likely to be variable because you only have a third of the states electing a senator. | ||
| Sometimes it's a little more than that if you have vacant seats, or interim appointees. | ||
| So that's really all you can say. | ||
| We can talk about individual races, but that can change tomorrow, too. | ||
| So how does one run a crystal ball in this environment of a new era that we're in? | ||
| How do you try to know what's the important story to pay attention to and what's just noise? | ||
| Well, we're covered by our motto. | ||
| He who lives by the crystal ball ends up eating ground glass. | ||
| And anybody who claims to have a crystal ball has either eaten a lot of ground glass or is lying. | ||
| It's one or the other. | ||
| So what we do is we try to assess what we know about the present. | ||
| We look at some of the trends that are developing while always noting that they can change and there's plenty of time for that. | ||
| And there's plenty of time, even if there is a certain standard by Labor Day of the actual election year. | ||
| We're, again, 18 months away. | ||
| So we look at everything. | ||
| The economy usually matters more than anything else. | ||
| That's why the Democrats, more than anything else, did not win. | ||
|
unidentified
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Immigration would be a close second. | |
| And we'll look at where the economy is then, too. | ||
| By then, we'll know how the tariff thing shook out, I guess. | ||
| It keeps changing, but you never know. | ||
| Tomorrow could bring resolution. | ||
| And, of course, foreign policy, God forbid, we're involved in a foreign war. | ||
| It happens a lot if you look at American history, but so far, so good. | ||
| And scandal used to matter. | ||
| That used to be the third item on the agenda. | ||
| And I think it's pretty obvious that scandal makes very little difference anymore. | ||
| We mentioned poll numbers and metrics at the top of the conversation. | ||
| This is one that came out, I think it was just last week from the Associated Press. | ||
| Here's the headline. | ||
| Democrats are deeply pessimistic about the future of their party according to a new AP poll. | ||
| How surprising is that in right now, post-midterm election? | ||
| Is that more the norm of a party that just lost the White House, lost the Senate? | ||
| Republicans maintain control of the House. | ||
| Should we be surprised about that finding? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, no, because they control nothing. | |
| Of course they're depressed. | ||
| And there's really no opportunity to get control until 18 months from now. | ||
| I suppose you can say Democrats have influence on some votes, though not the current discussion about the big beautiful bill, because that's reconciliation takes only a simple majority and the vice presidential vote counts. | ||
| But they control nothing, as you said. | ||
| They don't control the White House. | ||
| They don't control all the appointees of the White House that run loads and loads of things beyond what we see in the headlines each day. | ||
| They don't control the House of Representatives. | ||
| They don't control the U.S. Senate. | ||
| And they certainly don't control the Supreme Court. | ||
|
unidentified
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So, yeah, there's plenty of reason for them to be depressed. | |
| Although I would just remind you that MASH was completely wrong with that opening song that said, suicide is painless. | ||
| It is not painless. | ||
| It is very painful. | ||
| So you have to continue living and fight, fight, fight. | ||
| Larry Sabado is our guest joining us until about 9.30 Eastern time this morning. | ||
| And he is always happy to take your questions, your comments. | ||
| Phone lines, as usual, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| And as the phone lines light up, Professor Sabado, there are gubernatorial races taking place this year in your home state of Virginia and New Jersey as well. | ||
| How much should folks outside the Garden State and the Commonwealth be paying attention to those races? | ||
| Outside, you know, somewhat. | ||
| They're the first major indicators of how voters are reacting to the incumbent presidential administration, but also their incumbent governors. | ||
| And New Jersey has a Democratic governor, Phil Murphy. | ||
| Virginia has a Republican governor, Glenn Young. | ||
| So president, probably first. | ||
| Virginia and New Jersey usually elect the nominee of the party, not in the White House. | ||
| But it is an absolute. | ||
| It's not an iron rule. | ||
| There's been one exception in Virginia from 1977 to the present. | ||
| No, that's not many. | ||
| One out of all those elections. | ||
| And we change governors every four years. | ||
| You can't run again until another term intercedes. | ||
| And in New Jersey, it's mainly true. | ||
| It's not as absolute as it's been in Virginia, near absolute. | ||
| But it still is a major indicator. | ||
| So sure, you pay attention to it. | ||
| But again, I'm going to say, and it will be a whole year until a third of the Senate and all of the House and loads of governorships across the country and state legislatures are elected. | ||
| How much can happen in a day anymore? | ||
| I mean, really, I have great sympathy for people who actually have legitimate jobs. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| You know, I have fun and I follow politics and that's what I do for a living. | ||
| And I can't even keep up with everything that's going on. | ||
| And so it's tough for the average person to do. | ||
| They focus on voting when voting comes near. | ||
| And a lot of the early voting starts in late September, early October. | ||
| So we have a longer election period than we used to, but it's still ages away, even by November when Virginia and New Jersey elect new governors. | ||
| By that point, is this big, beautiful bill, if it does end up passing, is it ancient history? | ||
| Are the debates that are taking place on the floor right now? | ||
| Do you think any of them resonate in November of next year? | ||
| Well, they resonate in the sense that you'll see certain excerpts in political ads on both sides. | ||
| Whatever excerpts make the other party look horrible will be defining the big, beautiful bill. | ||
| As I always say, beautiful beauty is in the eye of the beholder. | ||
| So it depends on which party you are and what positions you have. | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't think it's a bill. | |
| You know, this was a mistake that the Biden administration made and other presidential administrations have made. | ||
| They assume that people are following all this and know what's in these giant bills and care about it. | ||
| Now, maybe they'd care if they knew what was in it, but you can't just pass a bill and plop it down and say, see there? | ||
| See there what we did? | ||
| You have to sell it daily, hourly, and it's a lot of trouble. | ||
| But that's how you win elections and campaigns. | ||
| And Democrats really aren't very good at that. | ||
| Though I have to say, the one Democrat who was was Bill Clinton. | ||
| He used to sell what he could get passed, even if it was a minor bill or a minor program. | ||
| He would sell it as though it were the New Deal. | ||
| And that was smart politically. | ||
| And somehow Democrats have either forgotten to do it or they don't prioritize it. | ||
| And maybe that's one reason why their followers, their party identifiers, are so depressed. | ||
| Who is Democrats' best salesman right now? | ||
| Well, I'd have to think about that. | ||
|
unidentified
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The best salesman. | |
| Well, it isn't any of the former presidents, with all due respect to them. | ||
| But their history all the way to ancient history. | ||
| I won't say who's what. | ||
|
unidentified
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But, you know, it's just it's pointless to have them do it. | |
| Look at the legislative leaders. | ||
| I'm sure they do a fine job in their caucus, you know, Schumer in the Senate and Jeffries in the House, but they don't, they're not even recognized by a large majority of Americans. | ||
| They may recognize the name a little bit. | ||
| They can't match up the name with the person. | ||
| You know, I always remind people that an old poll showed, it's not that old, that about a third of Americans can't find Great Britain on a blank map of the world. | ||
| I mean, my God, it's an island. | ||
| You know, it's pretty easy to find, but they can't find it because they don't pay attention. | ||
| They don't care about it. | ||
| They should care about it. | ||
| And that's just the way it is. | ||
| I don't think you're ever going to change people as much as we try to emphasize civic education, which is what we do at the UBA Center for Politics. | ||
| As you know, John, as a graduate, a proud alumnus of the University of Virginia. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Plenty of calls for you down there at the Center for Politics joining us this morning on the Washington Journal. | ||
| Roger is up for Springfield, Illinois. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're on with Larry Sabadeau. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I just want to make a comparison between the Trump asking for the list of international students and taking the $2 billion from Harvard because they won't give him the list of international. | ||
| But when we asked for the cryptocurrency dinner list, he's refusing to give that list. | ||
| So on two other occasions, we asked for a list of dinners or private dinners that he had, but he has refused. | ||
| Secondly, what's the end game of this Trump regime? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| A couple questions there for you, Professor Savado. | ||
| That's a great question. | ||
| were lots of parts to it. | ||
| I wish I knew the answer. | ||
|
unidentified
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The end game, they'll have to talk about everybody has their suspicions of one sort or another, whether you're pro-Trump or anti-Trump, you've got an opinion about it. | |
| But what we know is what they're doing. | ||
| Now let's focus on disclosure, because I think that was the major part of your question. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| That whole list of crypto millionaires, billionaires should be released. | ||
| This is so unprecedented to do things like this. | ||
|
unidentified
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You know, it's not just the 200 million to 400 million. | |
| I've seen different figures for the pleasure of the jumbo jet being given to Trump, the U.S. government, I guess, and then the Trump Library for his personal use after he leaves office. | ||
| All of this should be disclosed, and it's totally unprecedented. | ||
| Someone calculated an estimate for all the gifts given to prior presidents before Trump. | ||
| They didn't come close to equaling the price of this one jumbo jet. | ||
| And it's crypto billionaire stuff. | ||
| Look, his family is enriching itself. | ||
| Trump is enriching himself. | ||
| He did some of it in the first term, but he's breaking all records in this term. | ||
| And as far, and I don't approve of that, I hope you don't approve it. | ||
| I hope nobody approves of it because it's got conflict of interest written all over it. | ||
| And I would recommend to you a wonderful article written by Evan Osnos in this week's The New Yorker. | ||
| And you're really, you're going to, you're going to be bug-eyed as you read it when you see what's really happening in this country. | ||
| And a tiny group of incredibly wealthy people are controlling a great deal, not just of the wealth, but of the decisions made, even more so than usual. | ||
| They've always been influential, but not to this degree. | ||
| Now, as far as Harvard's concerned, hey, I'm a guy who've spent my entire career. | ||
| I'm in my 70s, started in my 20s in higher education. | ||
| So guess what? | ||
| I support Harvard. | ||
| I know that's a shock, but Harvard individually has contributed so much to the country. | ||
| And forget about the politics for a moment. | ||
| I don't approve of any of the anti-Semitism that is there. | ||
| I don't know all the details of it. | ||
| But I sure recognize the tremendous advances that have been made in science and medicine because of the research done at Harvard and at other universities. | ||
| This is not something to be played with. | ||
| It's not a play toy for any politician or administration. | ||
| So, yeah, I feel strongly about that, but I've got an internal bias having spent my life in higher education. | ||
| You mentioned Evan Osnos. | ||
| He's got a new book. | ||
|
unidentified
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I think it comes out next week with a great title, The Haves and the Haves Yachts, Dispatches on the Ultra Rich. | |
| That's, I believe, June 3rd is the publishing date for that book. | ||
| We'll be covering it on C-SPAN's book TV. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Larry Sabado with us this morning. | |
| David is in your home state of Virginia, Virginia Beach. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Dr. Sabado. | |
| Wanted to just point out: you went to high school with my sister at Norfolk Catholic in the early 70s. | ||
| She's retired, traveling all over the world. | ||
| And I'm wondering, number one, when you're going to retire. | ||
| And then two more questions. | ||
| How do you explain? | ||
| Is it safe to say the bias in the media and them getting it wrong the last several cycles is because of their bias? | ||
| And then also, who do you think is going to win the governor's mansion and the House of Delegates in the Virginia House and Senate? | ||
| I'll take your answer off the air. | ||
| And I'll say, Professor Sabado, I hope you don't retire anytime soon, but go ahead. | ||
| You're very kind to say that there are loads of people rooting for my retirement. | ||
| So we'll just, we'll see. | ||
| I'm going to stay as long as I enjoy it, and I've enjoyed it always, and I'll stay as long as my health permits it. | ||
| And I'm envious of this gentleman's sister. | ||
| And I did go to go to Naupha Catholic, and he should write me and tell me who his sister is. | ||
| I don't recognize the voice because it's not his sister's. | ||
| I had 13 years of Catholic education, and it was a tough 13 years. | ||
| Corporal punishment was in the 50s and 60s, but I learned a lot. | ||
| Probably because I was afraid, like everybody else in that school. | ||
| But it worked. | ||
| And I got a wonderful grounding in Catholic education. | ||
| And I salute them, and I will always be grateful to them. | ||
| Now, as far as there were a lot of questions in there, I believe it was media bias. | ||
| And then who's going to win the governor and the House of Delegates in Virginia? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Media bias, answer, yes. | ||
| Let me go to Virginia Governor. | ||
| I don't mean to take it lightly, but there are so many biases in so many places in different directions. | ||
| And this is a very different environment since I'm guessing this gentleman's age. | ||
| He's not that far away from me. | ||
| And as a result, he remembers when we had three, really two national networks. | ||
| PBS hadn't even been created and ABC wasn't really together. | ||
| So you had CBS and NBC with a half an hour of news as of 1962 for CBS, 1962. | ||
| Before that, it was 15 minutes of news on television. | ||
| And you had the same anchors and the same tiny number of reporters, all white male. | ||
| Not that there's anything wrong with that. | ||
| I think we've accomplished a lot. | ||
| But, you know, same perspectives and pretty much in the same order. | ||
| The stories were in the same order. | ||
| And that's what we had, plus our newspapers. | ||
| We all read a morning newspaper. | ||
| We all read an afternoon newspaper. | ||
| And those newspapers are mainly gone, I'm sorry to say, or they're online. | ||
| And that's a whole different environment. | ||
| And now you have social media full of misinformation and disinformation, some intentional, some unintentional. | ||
| But you also have media organizations from every conceivable point of view. | ||
| So there are a lot of problems with today's media. | ||
| But I go back so far, and I'll bet you do too, that you can see we're in a much better place, except for the disinformation, than we were many decades ago. | ||
| So let's look on the bright side. | ||
| Always look on the bright side of life. | ||
| And no, I won't sing. | ||
| And who's going to win in Virginia? | ||
| Oh, you see, I already forgot the second question. | ||
| That's why I'm here. | ||
| What they use against me to encourage retirement. | ||
| Virginia, look, right now, I would go with the historical average in the sense that the Democrats are more likely to win than the Republicans because Trump is in the White House. | ||
| Republicans are in control of everything. | ||
| And there are controversies that build up. | ||
| And Virginia has become a light blue state. | ||
| It's not a dark blue state. | ||
| It's a light blue state, and there are purple edges to it. | ||
| And it can still go the other way. | ||
| Lots of things can happen. | ||
| But you start from that premise. | ||
| I wouldn't say necessarily the same thing in New Jersey, by the way. | ||
| New Jersey can end up being very competitive as it was four years ago when the Republican nearly won, nearly ousted the incumbent Democratic governor, who's retiring because it's the end of his two terms. | ||
| And it looks likely to be the same Republican nominee. | ||
| So that would be unusual. | ||
| I'm not predicting. | ||
| It's too early, but it would be interesting if the Republicans took over New Jersey and the Democrats took over Virginia. | ||
| But that's just one of the possible outcomes. | ||
| And the House of Delegates will probably go the way of the gubernatorial election. | ||
| And the other two statewide positions, lieutenant governor and attorney general, often are just coattail elections, depending on who's winning the governorship. | ||
| I don't want to oversimplify, but that's the way it's been recently, at least in Virginia. | ||
| From Virginia and New Jersey to the Empire State, here's a headline on the front page of the New York Times, Son of Harlem, who ascended to 23-term pillar of the House. | ||
| It's the obituary for Charlie Wrangell, 1930 to 2025. | ||
| What should viewers know about Charlie Wrangell? | ||
| Well, he was a Korean war veteran and someone who was meddled appropriately. | ||
| He was a very brave serviceman. | ||
| I'm thinking of it because, of course, Memorial Day yesterday, we should think of it at all times. | ||
| But I start there, and he was a very constructive congressman for a long time. | ||
| He was one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, I believe it was. | ||
| He was in for 46 years. | ||
| That's either good or bad. | ||
| I like to say Charlie Wrangell and a lot of others are pretty much the polar opposite of term limits. | ||
| And unfortunately for Wrangell, because I think he had a distinguished career, he had a lot of ethics questions in the final years of his service. | ||
| And I mean a lot. | ||
| There were so many pieces to it, I can't even remember all of them. | ||
| Now, he survived it. | ||
| He didn't survive as chairman of Ways and Means, partly because the Democrats lost control in 2010 of the House of Representatives. | ||
| But he managed to get reelected and he retired on his own accord in 2016. | ||
| So it was a long, distinguished career, and parts of it were undistinguished. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| That probably applies to all of us, whatever we do. | ||
| The New York Times, I'm sorry, the Wall Street Journal obituary on Charlie Wrangell delves into some of those issues that you refer to just to spark your memory on. | ||
| This was after he becomes chairman of Ways and Means in 2007, his leadership short-lived. | ||
| News outlets reported that he solicited donations on Congressional Letterhead to a public service center named after him at City College in New York in 2009. | ||
| A nonprofit sent Wrangell on several trips to the Caribbean and a sponsorship later found to have violated House rules. | ||
| And they go through some of the history there. | ||
| The headline on the Wall Street Journal obituary, longtime Harlem congressman was a power broker and a veteran. | ||
|
unidentified
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And if viewers want to check out Charlie Wrangell, there are hundreds of hours of him on the House floor in the C-SPAN video library. | |
| It's probably thousands of hours, if I'm guessing it correctly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Frank is go ahead, sir. | |
| One insertion there on Charlie Wrangell, and this is more general. | ||
| Here's what happens with a lot of congressmen and how they get in trouble and get involved in financial scandals like the one you just mentioned and conflicts of interest. | ||
| They often call before their committees some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in the country, and they're the ones grilling them. | ||
| They're in charge at those hearings. | ||
| And then they look at what they consider their puny salary, and it is quite small given that they have to run two households, one in their home district and one in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And they say, huh? | ||
| How's this? | ||
| I should be doing much better. | ||
| Maybe I don't make as much as this guy over here who runs Company X, but I certainly should be paid more. | ||
| I'm the one in charge. | ||
| And once they accept that premise, it justifies a lot of what they do. | ||
| And this applies to congressmen from both parties. | ||
| And if you say it's only one party, you are really a partisan. | ||
| Just look at history. | ||
| So that's the origin of a lot of the scandal in Congress. | ||
| And of course, there are loads of very wealthy people who get elected to the House and Senate. | ||
| And for them, the congressional salary is barely a rounding error on their 1040s. | ||
| So they aren't subject to that. | ||
| But there are actually some middle income and even a few below middle income representatives in Congress. | ||
| And I'm just explaining why it happens and why people are always saying, gosh, they're all corrupt. | ||
| They aren't all corrupt, but you hear a lot about the corruption of ABCDE. | ||
| About 15 minutes left with Larry Sabadeau this morning. | ||
| Frank is out in Utah, the Beehive State Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Oh, good morning, Larry. | ||
| Pleasure to talk to you. | ||
| I am a true independent. | ||
| I don't like either party. | ||
| What drove me away from the Republicans was Trump's first election when he eliminated that whole field. | ||
| The last man standing on the Republican side that he eliminated with John Kasich would have made an excellent president. | ||
| On the other side, the Democrats, you had Bernie and Hillary slugging it out, and they had another guy in there was Martin O'Malley, would have made an excellent president. | ||
| Either one of those guys would have been fantastic. | ||
| And we would not be in the mess that we are in today. | ||
| And I cannot stand Trump, so you know where I'm coming from. | ||
| I was very disappointed in Biden. | ||
| He should have been eliminated much, much sooner. | ||
| And it makes it hard for an independent. | ||
| You have to vote for one of the major parties. | ||
| It's all a numbers game. | ||
| And so as disappointed as I am with the Democrats, I have to go with them because I can't stand Trump and all his minions that he's got in there and what they're doing to the country. | ||
| And when you're stuck in deep red Utah, everything's 100% MAGA in Utah now. | ||
| So I'd like to get your opinion on what the Democrats could possibly do to gain a little bit of ground because on the Republican side, they have all these Dutch uncles. | ||
| They show up on C-SPAN all the time. | ||
| And these guys are praising Trump, saying he's going to make the country so fantastic. | ||
| And the Democrats are just kind of wandering around out there trying to find something to run with. | ||
| And it's very disheartening. | ||
| So I don't know what's going to happen. | ||
| I hope we're not stuck with MAGA Trumpism forever. | ||
| Well, Franklin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It looks like it's that way now. | |
| Frank, let me give Larry Sabadeau a chance to respond. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, it was very interesting. | |
| I think the gentleman obviously follows politics closely and has a well-thought-out point of view. | ||
| He said it himself: you got to vote for one of the two major parties. | ||
| You don't have to, but you're just not going to elect in the vast majority of elections anybody outside the Democratic-Republican spectrum. | ||
| Given that, and given Americans' practicality, I think they end up doing just that, even if they aren't pleased with either candidate and they don't like the candidate they're voting for, but they consider him or her better than the other person running. | ||
| And that's life. | ||
| We all make compromises like that in all sectors of life. | ||
| Look, personally, I would like to see, given the diversity that exists in America, every perspective you can think of and every ethnic group imaginable and all the rest of it. | ||
| I mean, we're one of the most diverse countries on the face of the earth, if not the most diverse country. | ||
| As a result, in order to keep the country together, which I think is kind of important, I hope everybody out there agrees. | ||
| Despite our differences, we want to stay together. | ||
| The best thing the two parties could do is to give us a choice, but also to stay in the mainstream, would be for the Republicans to nominate moderate conservative candidates and the Democrats to nominate moderate liberal candidates. | ||
| And some would say, well, they both ought to nominate moderates. | ||
| Okay, let's get real. | ||
| It's about choice. | ||
| But if we could stay in the mainstream and have a choice that's reasonable, we're not going to change everything in a day or a week or a year, or as John Kennedy said, not in the first thousand days, not in the life of this administration. | ||
| That would be ideal. | ||
| Now, let's get real. | ||
| It's not happening because so few people relatively participate in party primaries and caucuses when the candidates are being nominated for president and senate and house and all the rest. | ||
| And the people who tend to participate are a bit more extreme. | ||
| You know, they're closer to the right end of the spectrum or the left end of the spectrum. | ||
| And that's how we get, I can remember so many voters saying this to me, or writing me and saying, how did we end up with these two turkeys? | ||
| Well, we ended up, I'm not going to call them turkeys, but we end up with the people you think are turkeys because you probably didn't participate in the nominating process. | ||
| That is part of citizenship, too. | ||
| We have so few obligations left as American citizens, no draft, no public service required, no, no anything compared to other societies. | ||
| You have to pay taxes. | ||
| Well, I want to get into that. | ||
| But one of the most important obligations, one of the few left, is paying attention, learning the basics, at least, the fundamentals of who's running for what and why, and then voting, not just in November, but in the party of your choice or one of the primaries, maybe getting out there and volunteering or working or going door to door, but that's extra. | ||
| I realize most people don't have the time to do that. | ||
| But most voters don't pay enough attention. | ||
| Sorry, but you don't. | ||
| I want to follow up on Frank's comment. | ||
| He said Biden should have gotten out sooner or words to that effect. | ||
|
unidentified
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I want to get your take on all these 2024 recap books that have come out. | |
| And it's not just Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. | ||
| Chris Whipple has one out, Uncharted, How Trump Beat the Odds, Beat Biden-Harris in the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History. | ||
| And there's another one, Josh Dawsy, coming out with 2024, How Trump Retook the White House and Democrats Lost America. | ||
| What's your take on all these books? | ||
| Well, you left out the most important one, which is coming out in July, entitled Campaign of Chaos. | ||
| And who's the author? | ||
|
unidentified
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That Center for Politics team. | |
| There you go. | ||
| I don't want to mention myself, my whole team, you know, Kyle Kondick and Miles Coleman. | ||
| And I'm in there just because my family buys a lot of books. | ||
| But all I can tell you is I agree he should not have run again. | ||
| I didn't know how much of a decline he had been in because he was so isolated. | ||
| You know, I live in Charlottesville. | ||
| Most of what I saw, almost all of what I saw of Biden, was on TV, just like everybody else. | ||
| And you could see him shuffling to Marine One and shuffling out of that little room where he read the teleprompter. | ||
| And it was pretty obvious that this wasn't the vigorous Joe Biden of earlier years. | ||
| Of course, who among us who's 81 or 82 is going to be all that vigorous compared to how they were when they were young? | ||
| But he did a terrible disservice to the country and to the party. | ||
| And in a very real sense, he turned the presidency back over to Donald Trump. | ||
| And obviously, Democrats, that was the one thing they didn't want to happen. | ||
| Now, let's not ignore that he did plenty of good things and kept from doing some outrageous things while he was president. | ||
| And thank God he didn't tweet. | ||
| So, you know, there are good things you can say about anybody who served in office, but that was a terrible mistake. | ||
| And had Democrats had the opportunity to have an open presidency because he promised over and over again he was going to be a transitional president. | ||
| I listened to it. | ||
| He promised over and over and over again he was going to be a transitional president. | ||
| Well, the transition did not mean eight years, that's for sure. | ||
| And Democrats would have had a long primary process, probably with 20 people running, you know, beating each other up, but they might have picked a candidate who could have won. | ||
| Instead of having a candidate in the vice president, Vice President Harris did the best she could with the tiny number of days she had from the point in the summer when Biden finally accepted reality after the worst debate performance in American history. | ||
| Finally got out, but it was too late to put a real campaign together. | ||
| So I'm sorry. | ||
| He's got good things to praise and to talk about in the historical record, but he is bearing a terrible burden. | ||
| And Democrats are right to complain and to hold him responsible for this. | ||
| Campaign of Chaos is the name of the book, Trump Biden. | ||
| By the way, I've heard it's great. | ||
| And the 2024 American election, July 24th, I believe is the publication date. | ||
|
unidentified
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Sound correct? | |
| Somewhere around there. | ||
| They don't tell me the exact dates anymore. | ||
| Just in time for the holidays. | ||
| Selton. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, it's too late for July 4th, but Labor Day, you know, will be coming up and people should be giving gifts at Labor Day. | |
| I made that up. | ||
| Selton is in New York line for Democrats. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, how you doing, Mr. Larry? | |
| I just want to go back a bit about when you spoke on the best Democrat president was Bill Clinton. | ||
| I got to disagree with that because when you first think of Bill Clinton, you think of Monica Lewinsky. | ||
| I personally think Obama was the best president. | ||
| When you think of Obama, you think about him capturing Bin Laden. | ||
| Why people don't ever talk about that? | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| You know, nobody talks about that no more. | ||
| George Bush was in office for how long looking for Bin Laden? | ||
| And Obama comes right in. | ||
| No more, goes right over there and gets the job done. | ||
| So I just don't disagree with Bill Clinton being the best Democratic president. | ||
| I mean, I don't know why people don't like to give Obama his dues, you know, for some reason. | ||
| This is nothing new. | ||
| It's always been like this on TV shows and everything. | ||
| Nobody wants to give him his dues. | ||
| That's Selton in New York. | ||
| Professor Sabado. | ||
| Yes, I didn't say Bill Clinton was the best Democratic president. | ||
| I said he was the best at selling things. | ||
| And my proof is given by your favorite, Barack Obama, who called Bill Clinton over and over the explainer-in-chief. | ||
| And in fact, he recruited Bill Clinton to be the explainer-in-chief for his 2012 reelection campaign because Obama, Obama's very professorial, obviously a very, very good trait, something that everyone should try to emulate. | ||
| But he's professorial, which means like me, he goes on and on and on. | ||
| And, you know, he gives, he adds footnotes to his speeches. | ||
| You can't do that. | ||
| Clinton was much better at getting to the point and using language that middle-class Americans could identify with. | ||
| And so that's what I meant, That if Biden had had the Clinton ability to explain or even had recruited Bill Clinton, maybe he tried and Clinton is much older now and didn't want to do it. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But Biden did a terrible job of that during his administration, at least in the final couple of years. | ||
| So that's what I meant. | ||
| And I understand totally about Bin Laden. | ||
| And there's a wonderful new documentary on Netflix, which I watched over the Memorial Day weekend about the capture of Bin Laden. | ||
| It traces it all the way back to 9-11. | ||
| I was fascinated. | ||
| I thought I knew the story, but I didn't. | ||
| There was a lot in there that was new to me, and I'd highly recommend it to you. | ||
| I apologize to C-SPAN. | ||
| Maybe you can get that eventually and show it. | ||
| About five minutes left with Larry Sabado. | ||
| This is Sam back in the garden state of New Jersey, Republican. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Hi, how are you? | ||
| Thanks for having me on. | ||
| I just wanted to say one thing as a Republican. | ||
| I feel like the Republicans have a hard time articulating the Democrats are morally right, but in practice wrong. | ||
| And what I mean is, let's say, for example, like taxes. | ||
| 100%, there are people that are poor and there are people that deserve the money and need the money. | ||
| And morally, they have a very strong case, the Democrat Party. | ||
| But at the end of the day, that's charity. | ||
| And it becomes a thing that it should be forced, where really it shouldn't be forced. | ||
| It should be by decision that you should give the charity, even though it's the right thing to do. | ||
| And that's why I think someone has to finally say that I paid thousands of dollars in taxes this past year. | ||
| I don't own a property. | ||
| I rent. | ||
| So everything that I gave, I didn't get any tax deductions from my charity giving. | ||
| As a religious person, I gave more than 10% of my money to personal charities at my own will. | ||
| And I think if someone gives their own money to charity, it should automatically count for any social taxes and be deducted. | ||
| And then that way, we should get people to rather give their own charity on their own and help people in their community in a personal way, which would either create that, either you have to give your taxes and then you have, which will go for people, or do it in your own personal way. | ||
| Because I'm paying my charity. | ||
| I'm giving my charity. | ||
| I'm giving thousands of dollars a year personally in my own decision charity. | ||
| And then I'm also paying for everything for people to get on their Medicaid and who knows what, while other people are not paying a dollar of charity and they're paying less. | ||
| So that's what I think that's reproposed. | ||
| Got your point. | ||
| Larry Sabado, thoughts on charitable giving? | ||
| Well, first, congratulations to this fellow for tithing. | ||
| That's what he's really doing, giving 10% or more. | ||
| I think everyone who's upper-middle class and beyond should do something similar. | ||
| Maybe upper-middle class, you have kids in college and colleges are charging large amounts of money these days. | ||
|
unidentified
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But there are millions and millions of Americans who can afford and should tithe. | |
| Now, a lot of them do. | ||
| You think of Warren Buffett right away who's super rich, but is going to give it all away. | ||
| And there are other billionaires who are doing that. | ||
| But there are also some very selfish and greedy wealthy people. | ||
| Again, I would refer you to Evan Ognos's excellent article in then book. | ||
| The articles in the New Yorker excerpt, I guess, from the book that's coming out. | ||
| And they should be made to feel guilty, frankly. | ||
| They should be shamed into doing it. | ||
| And people say that's terrible. | ||
| No, I don't think it's terrible at all. | ||
| I think shame makes people do things they should have done anyway. | ||
| So I'm pro-shame. | ||
| I have tenure. | ||
| I can't be fired. | ||
| So I can be pro-shame. | ||
| And, you know, All I can say is the fact that you're doing it, whether you get a tax benefit or not, that should be a reward in and of itself. | ||
| And I'm sure it is. | ||
| And you can be very proud of your record there. | ||
| And maybe your example and even coming on this C-SPAN show will encourage other people to do the same thing. | ||
| It's important. | ||
| We have to, no matter what government does at the federal or state or local level, there are still so many unmet needs that are legitimate that people can't help their health problems, for example. | ||
| And some of them just can't pay the money for the prescriptions or the doctor visits or the tremendously expensive tests that are miracles, yes, but that the hospitals give you. | ||
| So all of us can and should help. | ||
| And so I salute this gentleman, and I think it's a great note on which to end, John. | ||
| That's upbeat. | ||
| So you were so depressing during much of this session. | ||
| Well, I've got one more for you in the final 90 seconds. | ||
|
unidentified
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And I thought we always ask with your experience down there at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. | |
| We spent the first hour of the show talking about education and higher education. | ||
| Are you optimistic about the kids today and the future of this country? | ||
| John, you know, I hear people say, oh, it's terrible. | ||
| What's it? | ||
| This generation, they always said, the older generation always says the world is going to hell. | ||
| And often at their alma mater, they say, you know, my institution started going downhill the day after I graduated. | ||
| That's really what they're saying. | ||
| It's ridiculous. | ||
| I've been teaching since my early to mid-20s, and I just am so grateful for having had contact with, you know, 25,000 plus students that I've personally had in the classroom or been advising or whatever. | ||
| They are, they're fantastic. | ||
| The vast majority of them have ideals on all sides of the spectrum. | ||
| They're left, right, everything in between, but they really want to accomplish something with their lives. | ||
| And yes, they want to build a personal life that's rewarding too. | ||
| But they're going to contribute and they are contributing in major ways to the health of this country and the world. | ||
| And I'm very, very proud of them. | ||
| And I think the whole country should be. | ||
| And they should be criticizing them a whole lot less and helping them a whole lot more. | ||
| And I know those students down at the University of Virginia appreciate you, Larry Sabado. | ||
| We always do when you come on the Washington Journal. | ||
| Thanks so much. | ||
| We'll talk to you again down the road. | ||
| Thank you, John. | ||
| I look forward to it. | ||
| All this week, we're bringing you commencement speeches from across the country, featuring remarks from political leaders, sports personalities, and celebrities. | ||
| Coming up next, CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley gives the commencement speech at Wake Forest University. | ||
| Then we'll hear from ABC News Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Carl at Washington College on Maryland's Eastern Shore. | ||
| And later, today's show co-host, Al Roker, talks to students at Siena College in New York. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, a live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | ||
| Coming up this morning, Randy Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers discusses the Trump administration's proposed changes to public education. | ||
| And then Robert Enlow of EdChoice on education policy changes under the Trump administration and their impact on the school choice movement. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Later today, journalists and editors talk about the challenges of working and reporting in conflict zones around the world. | ||
| It's moderated by Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents Association. | ||
| From the Atlantic Council, watch it live at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2. C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at cspan.org. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
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We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
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Next, CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley delivering the commencement speech to the 2025 class at Wake Forest University. | |
| In his remarks, he reminds graduates to use their voices to bring the change that they want to see in the world. | ||
| Good morning, everybody. | ||
| What a beautiful day. |