| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live. | |
| Then former acting director of the CDC, Dr. Richard Besser, will talk about Trump administration actions that impact public health. | ||
| And Trita Parsi with the Quincy Institute discusses the latest on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and U.S. efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| It's Thursday, May 29th. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're getting your top news story of the week. | |
| Here are some options. | ||
| Elon Musk has ended his government service. | ||
| President Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin recently over his continued attacks in Ukraine, saying he was, quote, playing with fire. | ||
| And a U.S. court has blocked President Trump's ability to impose most tariffs. | ||
| We want to know what's your top news story. | ||
| Here's how to reach us. | ||
| Democrats, 202748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| You can send a text to 202748-8003. | ||
| Include your first name in your city-state. | ||
| You can also post your comments on social media, facebook.com slash C-SPAN, and X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We'll start with the headline from the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and it says this, court strikes down Trump tariffs. | ||
| A federal trade court ruled President Trump didn't have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs on virtually every nation, voiding the levies that have sparked a global trade war and threatened to upend the world economy. | ||
| Decision on Wednesday from the Court of International Trade blocked one of the Trump administration's most audacious assertions of executive power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. | ||
| Shortly after the decision was handed down, lawyers for the Trump administration notified the court they will appeal. | ||
| Also, here's the AP. | ||
| Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading effort to slash federal government. | ||
| It says his departure announced Wednesday evening marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs, the evisceration of government agencies, and reams of litigation. | ||
| Despite the upheaval, the billionaire entrepreneur struggled in the unfamiliar environment of Washington, and he accomplished far less than he hoped. | ||
| It says that he dramatically reduced his target for cutting spending from $2 trillion to $1 trillion to $150 billion and increasingly expressed frustration about resistance to his goals. | ||
| Sometimes he clashed with other top members of Trump's administration who chafed at the newcomers' efforts to reshape their departments and he faced fierce political blowback for his efforts. | ||
| Well, this is what he posted on his social media platform, X. | ||
| He said this, as my scheduled time as a special government employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. | ||
| The Doge mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout government. | ||
| Also on Elon Musk, he was interviewed by CBS News. | ||
| He says he's disappointed by Trump's Big Beautiful bill and what it means for Doge. | ||
| Here is a portion of what he said. | ||
| The full interview will air this coming Sunday on CBS. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, you know, I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bow, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, if not just decrease it. | |
| And our reminds the work that the Doge team is doing. | ||
| I actually thought that when this big, beautiful bill came along. | ||
| I mean, like, everything he's done on Doge gets wiped out in the first year. | ||
| I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. | ||
| I don't know if it could be both. | ||
| My personal opinion. | ||
| Again, that's going to air on CBS this coming Sunday if you want to watch the whole thing. | ||
| Here's the AP with this headline. | ||
| Trump says he warned Netanyahu to hold off on an Iran strike to give U.S. more time for nuclear talks. | ||
| And we will have a segment later on in this program about those Iran nuclear talks. | ||
| So if you're interested, please stay with us for that. | ||
| We'll go to your calls now. | ||
| Here's Bronson in Las Vegas, Republican line. | ||
| Good morning, Bronson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| What's your top news story? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my top news story. | |
| Uh-oh. | ||
| We lost him. | ||
| Bronson, try to call us back. | ||
| Here is President Trump with reporters in the Oval Office yesterday. | ||
| You can take a look at this about what I just mentioned about his conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Beckham Iran, did you warn Prime Minister Netanyahu against taking some sort of actions that could disrupt the talks there in a phone call last week? | |
| Well, I'd like to be honest. | ||
| Yes, I did. | ||
| Next question, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, that's why sanctions are not. | |
| I did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The Senate Republicans want to push it. | |
| It's not a warning. | ||
| I said, I don't think it's appropriate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What exactly did you tell him to do? | |
| She said, I don't think it's appropriate. | ||
| We're having very good discussions with him. | ||
| And I said, I don't think it's appropriate right now. | ||
| Because if we can settle it with a very strong document, very strong, with inspections and no trust. | ||
| I don't trust anybody. | ||
| I don't trust anybody. | ||
| So no trust. | ||
| I want it very strong where we can go in with inspectors. | ||
| We can take whatever we want. | ||
| We can blow up whatever we want, but nobody getting killed. | ||
| We can blow up a lab, but nobody's going to be in the lab as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up, right? | ||
| Two ways of doing it. | ||
| Yeah, I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we're very close to a solution. | ||
| Now, that could change at any moment. | ||
| Could change with a phone call. | ||
| But right now, I think they want to make a deal. | ||
| And if we can make a deal, save a lot of lives. | ||
| And let's go to your calls to John in Portland, Connecticut, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
| Yes, I think Elon did the best he could. | ||
| I wish he had more support from the, I hate to use the word rhino Republicans in Congress, but I think he set a pattern for our country, and I hope we continue it. | ||
| It's just a lot of work. | ||
| There's a lot to uncover, and I just hope that things work out and we start saving money and get rid of this fraud and abuse that's been going on in our country for years. | ||
| But I do support him. | ||
| I do support the president. | ||
| And I think we got a good chance of recovering a lot of money. | ||
| Thank you, Mimi. | ||
| And here is from Politico. | ||
| White House plans at last to send some Doge cuts to the Hill. | ||
| If you could see it, House Republicans are expecting a modest package next week amid an online pressure campaign. | ||
| It says this, that President Donald Trump plans to send a small package of spending cuts to Congress next week. | ||
| That's according to White House Budget Director Russ Vogt. | ||
| The planned transmission of the, quote, rescissions bill, previously relayed to Politico by two Republicans, granted anonymity to describe the plans, comes after a long internal battle over how to formalize the cuts that have been made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency Initiative. | ||
| Top GOF officials started informing some House Republicans of the plans early yesterday. | ||
| You can see that at Politico if you'd like to see the rest of that article. | ||
| Here's Rob in New York Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Rob. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| To show just how truly independent I am, I'm recommending that everyone watch the script's national spelling bee. | ||
| The semifinals are the semis were last night, and the finals are tonight. | ||
| It's live on television. | ||
| I wish you guys on C-SPAN would cover it. | ||
| And why is that your top news story? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because it makes far more sense than anything going on in Congress or in the administration or the courts. | |
| And Nicole is in Brandon, Florida. | ||
| Democrat, good morning, Nicole. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| So I got a few things to touch on. | ||
| The first thing I want to touch on is these tariffs. | ||
| So, first of all, with the tariffs, they don't hurt the poor people or the rich people. | ||
| The middle-class people are the ones that's being hurt because we're not seeing no change. | ||
| The second thing that I want to touch on is an article or news I heard about Harvard and how 33% of the school population is from out of the country. | ||
| First of all, I think he's correct in that because my child with a 3.6 can't even get in there because it's overpacked. | ||
| That's my second thing. | ||
| The third thing is Elon Musk. | ||
| I don't really believe Elon Musk was in there to do anything positive. | ||
| I think he came in there with Trump to get what he was going to get. | ||
| And now, all of a sudden, oh, he's going to step down. | ||
| I believe that that was the plan from the beginning. | ||
| The plan was for him to get his money back that he invested in Trump and keep it moving. | ||
| Now he done got all his money back. | ||
| He done got his satellites over here. | ||
| Canada done told him they don't want to deal with him no more. | ||
| Everybody was focused on Tesla. | ||
| But what you didn't focus on is how many pots Elon Musk had his hand in as far as telecommunication with T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, Consumer Seller, Frontier, ATT. | ||
| So this man has been making money off of us. | ||
| It's just the fact that until he got into the Trump administration, nobody knew. | ||
| And everybody was concentrating on Tesla. | ||
| But this man has been making money off of us. | ||
| And what's so sad about it is us as Americans have not had knowledge. | ||
| You know what I'm saying? | ||
| Like, you're not putting on the news that this man is continuously making money off of us. | ||
| Like I said, he came to get what he got. | ||
| He came to get his money back after all the money he invested in Trump. | ||
| And now he's gone. | ||
| The DOG or whatever all that stuff was really didn't exist. | ||
| It was a plot for Elon Musk to get his money back from Trump. | ||
| And, Nicole, on one of your points about Harvard and international students, The Hill reports this. | ||
| Trump suggests a 15% cap on foreign students at Harvard and other universities. | ||
| He proposed that yesterday on Wednesday, and it says that he said that he suggested that foreign students take up too much of the student body and raised issues over some of the foreign students he called troublemakers. | ||
| And regarding tariffs, take a look at this. | ||
| Is the president in the Oval Office yesterday? | ||
| Now, this is before that announcement from the judge halting most of his tariffs, talking about his on-again, off-again policy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, please. | |
| Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the taco trade. | ||
| They're saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats, and that's why markets are higher this week. | ||
| What's your response to that? | ||
| I kick out. | ||
| Chicken out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, and then I chicken out. | |
| I've never heard that. | ||
| You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to 100% and then down to another number? | ||
| And I said you have to open up your whole country. | ||
| And because I gave the European Union a 50% tax tariff, and they called up and they said, please let's meet right now. | ||
| Please, let's meet right now. | ||
| And I said, okay, I'll give you till June 9th. | ||
| I actually asked them, I said, what's the date? | ||
| Because they weren't willing to meet. | ||
| And after I did what I did, they said, we'll meet anytime you want. | ||
| And we have an end date of July 9th. | ||
| You call that chickening out? | ||
| Because we have $14 trillion now invested, committed to investing when Biden didn't have practically anything. | ||
| Biden, this country was dying. | ||
| You know, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. | ||
| I went to Saudi Arabia. | ||
| The king told me, he said, you got the hottest comp, we have the hottest country in the world right now. | ||
| Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead. | ||
| We had a dead country. | ||
| We had a country people didn't think it was going to survive. | ||
| And you ask a nasty question like that. | ||
| It's called negotiation. | ||
| You set a number. | ||
| And if you go down, you know, if I set a number at a ridiculous high number, and I go down a little bit, you know, a little bit, they want me to hold that number, 145% tariff. | ||
| Even I said, man, that really got up. | ||
| You know how it got? | ||
| Because of fentanyl and many other things. | ||
| And you added it up. | ||
| I said, where are we now? | ||
| We're at 145%. | ||
| I said, whoa, that's high. | ||
| That's high. | ||
| They were doing no business whatsoever. | ||
| And they were having a lot of problems. | ||
| We were very nice to China. | ||
| I don't know if they're going to be nice to us, but we were very nice to China. | ||
| And in many ways, I think we really helped China tremendously because you know they were having great difficulty because we were basically going cold turkey with China. | ||
| We were doing no business because of the tariff because it was so high. | ||
| But I knew that. | ||
| But don't ever say what you said. | ||
| That's a nasty question. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| To me, that's the nastiest question. | ||
| And this is the New York Times reporting this: why Vietnam ignored its own laws to fast-track a Trump family golf complex. | ||
| It says as President Trump blurs the lines between politics and business and threatens steep tariffs on trade partners, governments feel compelled to favor Trump-related projects. | ||
| And here is Kevin in Independent in Windsor, Connecticut. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| All these guys did their work. | ||
| They didn't show no proof of any fraud or anything. | ||
| Just say the American people are ripping off the government. | ||
| You know, the able-bodied people should get off Medicaid and all that. | ||
| I think it's about time able-bodied billionaires should start paying their fair share of taxes instead of having all the pain on the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, and I see Trump is laying out the prisons now. | |
| You know, he's just partying the ex-governor of Connecticut, Republican, naturally. | ||
| You know, he gets a free ticket out, you know, with everybody else, murderers, everybody else. | ||
| I, you know, this ain't the country I remember. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| And here is Betty in Blacksburg, South Carolina. | ||
| Republican, good morning, Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think Trump's doing a good, good job. | |
| He did a good job before, and he's still doing a good job. | ||
| And one thing why people keep saying, talk about Trump all the time. | ||
| I mean, this is our time. | ||
| And to me, I'm 80 years low. | ||
| And I know lies when I hear him because the fact that I've seen everything he's done and I've watched TV and I've heard him. | ||
| And why in the world would a man do what he's trying to do? | ||
| And people keep putting this man down. | ||
| If you had four more years of Democrats, this wouldn't be American no more. | ||
| They just want what they want, which is power and money. | ||
| All right, buddy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And previous caller talked about pardons from President Trump. | ||
| Here's NBC News: Todd and Julie Chris Lee released from prison after pardons from Trump. | ||
| It says attorney Alex Little said he supplied President Donald Trump with a binder filled with court documents and testimonials to convince him to release the couple. | ||
| So here is it says disgraced reality TV stars convicted in a scheme to swindle banks out of tens of millions of dollars walked free from prison Wednesday after they were pardoned by President Trump. | ||
| The pair known for the show Chris Lee Knows Best were headed from home to Nashville following their release. | ||
| It says they're called the Trumps of the South who are unanimously convicted by a jury in 2022 of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. | ||
| Received the pardons after intervention by one of their daughters. | ||
| It said, well, you can read more about that at NBC News. | ||
| And here is Kathleen, Chicago, Illinois, Democrat. | ||
| Kathleen, what's your top news story? | ||
| I'm doing good. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I was under the impression that this president was a law and order president. | |
| First of all, he campaigned of relieving America of immigrants. | ||
| I don't call anybody illegal because we're all God's kids. | ||
| Okay, he did that. | ||
| But then, too, he brought thousands of white, you know, South African immigrants here on a lie that they are being misused. | ||
| Then this man gets in here. | ||
| He's supposed to be sold with law and order. | ||
| Why are he releasing all of these criminals? | ||
| I know why, because they're giving him money. | ||
| But everybody was up in arms about Joe Biden pardoning his son. | ||
| In 100 days, or however many days this man has been in office, look how many people he have pardoned. | ||
| And then he's talking about people here in America is scamming this, scamming the economy. | ||
| And you got Fosters here. | ||
| You know, Elon Musk used to be the richest man in the world. | ||
| But guess who's the richest man in the world now? | ||
| That's that Donald Trump. | ||
| He's doing all this klepto. | ||
| He doesn't, he's not a part-time president. | ||
| He's a full-time president. | ||
| I was under the impression he wasn't supposed to be making money while he's president. | ||
| But every time you turn around, this man is making billions. | ||
| And then you got people like this lady from South Carolina talking about he's doing a good job. | ||
| Yeah, he's doing a good job of scanning America. | ||
| People, we need to wake up. | ||
| Donald Trump was only in this for himself. | ||
| And he's showing you every day. | ||
| Where is the lord of the eggs? | ||
| He don't even talk about eggs and rent anymore. | ||
| His thing was to get in there, to keep him going to jail, and to make himself rich. | ||
| And he's around here. | ||
| He's a dictator, like he said. | ||
| People believe the lies, but they don't believe the truth. | ||
| He said he wanted to be a dictator for one day. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| The news outlets and whoever the judges, the lawyers, whoever don't agree with him, he finds reason to prosecute him. | ||
| What kind of law and order is that? | ||
| All right, Kathleen. | ||
| Let's go to the Republican line now to Mountain Home, Arkansas. | ||
| Timbo, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, America. | |
| Our major crime boss is well on his way of achieving his goal of pardoning all the MAGA criminals in America. | ||
| I guess he wants to shore up his voter base. | ||
| Six months ago, I predicted that either way, we were going to find out how many criminals we got in this country. | ||
| If Trump got elected, I guess we got more criminals than we got law-abiding citizens. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| God bless America. | ||
| Let's get this idiot out of office. | ||
| Here's Tony in Waterbury, Connecticut, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Tony. | ||
| What's your top news story? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Mimi. | |
| Yeah, I'm an independent. | ||
| I live in a blue state. | ||
| And I'm going over all these different items, these news stories over the last few weeks you guys do it, and the different topics. | ||
| And I said, I got a call. | ||
| My news, top news story is: I heard it on, I think it was News Nation, not too far to the left, not too far to the right. | ||
| Trump's popularity is over 50%. | ||
| The people now believe that we're in the right, going in the right direction. | ||
| I really would like you to show those because I know you guys show it when he's underwater, but now he's above. | ||
| He's over 50%. | ||
| And the other thing is, I see Pete Hex up there. | ||
| Our enlistment into the armed forces is breaking records now. | ||
| I think that's a great thing. | ||
| It's about time we start having some positive, excuse me, some positive news stories for the president. | ||
| You have a nice day, Mimi. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And let me look for some approval ratings for President Trump so that I can share that with everybody. | ||
| Here's Crystal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Crystal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let me tell you, that lady from South Carolina, that last gentleman trying to get Trump some credit and stuff is, you know, so blind that they can't see what's in front of their eyes. | |
| They buy what this con man is busy trying to sell stuff for himself. | ||
| You're not supposed to be enriching yourself as a president. | ||
| You're supposed to be paying attention to the people. | ||
| And that woman in South Carolina, he wants to take stuff away from you. | ||
| Stuff that we pay taxes into. | ||
| He's trying to skim and take money away from people just trying to get some food from Snap and all. | ||
| I mean, come on now. | ||
| Having dinners at the White House for himself. | ||
| What is wrong with you folks and still support this man? | ||
| He doesn't give two hoots and a rats about you. | ||
| Biden might have been a little slow talking about stuff, but at least his intentions were right to try and help people. | ||
| And now he don't want people to get booster shots and stuff. | ||
| Busy taking jets from foreign countries. | ||
| Come on, I learned in high school when I was seventh, eighth grade, what terrorists were. | ||
| And I said for the longest, I said, he's not allowed to do that. | ||
| That's a Congress kind of thing they have to vote on. | ||
| And for him to just be standing there talking, talking about all the countries that have helped us through the years and that we invested in, that's investments to help people, starving people, help Americans. | ||
| Come on, people, stop acting like what is wrong with you folks that still support this man. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, let's take a look at Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Cesar. | ||
| He appeared on MSNBC yesterday criticizing both President Trump and Elon Musk for their cost-cutting agenda. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
| Elon Musk and Donald Trump are in total agreement that they want to have this bill give billionaires a tax break. | ||
| They're in total agreement that they want this bill to have a $25 billion contract for Trump's, quote, golden dome, where Elon Musk is the frontrunner to get those $25 billion. | ||
| It seems the area of disagreement is whether they want to kick 10 or 15 or 20 million Americans off their health care. | ||
| What people at home need to know is that we don't need to give billionaires a penny. | ||
| We don't need to kick anyone off their health care, and we don't need to give Elon Musk another sweetheart contract. | ||
| So we should be fighting to block this bill, period, and not be distracted by Elon Musk and Donald Trump having little disagreements about how many Americans they want to let die just so that they can get themselves a sweetheart contract or a tax cut. | ||
| And a caller had asked about President Trump's approval rating. | ||
| I found this on the Hill. | ||
| It says Trump's approval ratings down in April bounced back in May. | ||
| It says that President Trump's approval ratings coaster since his inauguration. | ||
| Immediately after being sworn in, he had a net seven-point positive. | ||
| By the end of April, there had been a 14-point swing. | ||
| 45% approve versus 52% disapprove. | ||
| Then it says, following a high-profile trip to the Middle East and progress in trade talks with China, polling indicates that perceptions of Trump's performance have ticked up again. | ||
| This is Daily Mail and Rasmussen approval at 50% and 49% respectively approve and disapprove. | ||
| Morning Consult, and the findings of all three polls are in line with Real Clear Politics Tracker, which shows Trump's approval currently sitting at 48% with 49% disapproving, which is a virtual tie. | ||
| Here is Donald in Troy, North Carolina, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Ronald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I was just telling you what's wrong with this country. | ||
| The Democrat Party has given welfare and all this stuff to all the people, the poor people now, but they mess around, give too much, and mess our country up and let them live off our country, run us in debt, and they're too sorry to work. | ||
| They give them a job and go to work like I did when I was 15. | ||
| Get a job, go to work, and be somebody. | ||
| Run our country in the ground. | ||
| That's what I want to say. | ||
| Let's talk to Mike in Strongsville, Ohio. | ||
| Republican, good morning, Mike. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go right ahead, Mike. | ||
| We're listening. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's just, you know, I just think that everybody's got different views on things. | |
| But at the end of the day, we go back to the common sense, the ones that say, you know, Donald Trump this, Donald Trump that. | ||
| You got to remember one thing, everybody. | ||
| Most of America voted for Donald Trump. | ||
| That's the bottom line. | ||
| So if you want to be that low part of that, that's on you. | ||
| But that's what everybody voted for. | ||
| So give him a chance to see what he can do. | ||
| Why would you want to take that away from him? | ||
| He got a goal with the won presidency. | ||
| That's the bottom line. | ||
| So everybody should try to unite together instead of bust all the thing. | ||
| All right, Mike. | ||
| Let's talk to Angeline in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Angeline. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| I'm calling because Trump is destroying this country, and Doge was nothing but a setup. | ||
| It was a setup for Elon Musk to come back and get his money that he pledged to Trump's election. | ||
| He got his money, and now he's fleeing. | ||
| And with the refugees that's coming over here from South Africa, that's a lie, okay? | ||
| And he's appointing all the colored people out of the country to make it white again, not great again, white again. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| We told the American people what was going to happen, and they're seeing what's going to happen. | ||
| And those that voted for him, I don't feel sorry for them. | ||
| They get what they deserve. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is News Nation with this. | ||
| Rubio says the U.S. will revoke visas of Chinese students. | ||
| Secretary of State announced revocation of Chinese student visas. | ||
| His prepared statement did not go into great detail. | ||
| It says the Trump administration and China are involved in a trade war. | ||
| You can see more about that in a News Nation. | ||
| And, yeah, here it is. | ||
| Let me show you his posting on X. | ||
| It says this. | ||
| The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. | ||
| Here is Robert, Aurora, Indiana, Republican line. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| I tell you, I don't even know where to start, but it says religion and politics does not mix. | ||
| That's true, true. | ||
| God gave us 10 commandments to live by. | ||
| We've taken it out of our government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And look what our country's in right now. | |
| Look at Israel. | ||
| All the trouble is around Israel right now. | ||
| And it tells you in the last days, Israel will be surrounded by all nations and be at war with all nations. | ||
| People, and he says they'll be blinded to the truth. | ||
| And that's exactly what we've got in this world today. | ||
| So, Robert, sorry, you started talking about the Ten Commandments being taken out of our country. | ||
| Which of the commandments specifically do you feel like the federal government is breaking? | ||
|
unidentified
|
All ten of them. | |
| All of them. | ||
| You don't break porn, you break them all. | ||
| When you break porn, you break them all. | ||
| People don't realize that. | ||
| God sent you a message. | ||
| Love him or love the world. | ||
| Whichever you want. | ||
| These millionaires, billionaires, are not going to go to heaven with their money. | ||
| So just decide what you want in this world. | ||
| I worked all my life. | ||
| I'm in my 80s. | ||
| I raised my children. | ||
| That was my glory. | ||
| It wasn't money. | ||
| It was loving my children, raising my children, grandchildren, and being good to the people of this country. | ||
| I was an entertainer for 60-some years, and I loved people, and that's my glory. | ||
| That's my pay. | ||
| It's that people respect me. | ||
| And that's all I ask. | ||
| I don't want money. | ||
| I just want friendship and to love this country and love the people. | ||
| All right, Robert. | ||
| This is Joy, also a Republican in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm sorry for the soggy throat. | ||
| That's okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As a result, listen, everyone, I never spoke in my life. | |
| But what the biggest matter with me now is a result of second-hand smoke from someone that I lived with for 12 years. | ||
| And if I could, I'd go dig him up and I'd shoot him. | ||
| Anyways, I'll get through this as quickly as I can. | ||
| First of all, Donnie, you don't realize it, but years ago you filed bankruptcy and it was in our paper. | ||
| I found bankruptcy the same day you did. | ||
| Now this is what I want to tell you. | ||
| I didn't follow you a whole lot, but I did some. | ||
| And I look at you in the White House and I just thought I'd let you know, you made it. | ||
| You made it. | ||
| Don't spoil it by cheating. | ||
| I made it. | ||
| I'm here in a nursing home, going on 13 years, and can't walk again, don't you as I will, because COVID took my legs. | ||
| But here I am, my body's broken, but I still have my brain, and I still have Jesus in my heart. | ||
| Now, the next thing on my list does he or anyone in government, I have watched two shows, a number of streets on TV, about victims from the Holocaust. | ||
| Every Christmas holidays, and maybe between, the Jews of the world get packages together and they go to Russia. | ||
| Do we, or guys, government or whoever realize that Putin has some Holy Cost survivors in no more than pig pens, chicken coops, walking around in mud, no flowers or anything like that. | ||
| Appreciate the call. | ||
| We do need to move on. | ||
| We'll talk to Leslie now in Easton, Pennsylvania, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| What's your top news story? | ||
| Well, my top news story, I guess, would be a story about that I read in the post a little while ago about the economy and people's concerns about that. | ||
| Most Trump people who voted for Trump voted for him because they thought he would be good for the economy. | ||
| They were concerned about the prices of groceries and the stock market performance and that sort of thing. | ||
| And, well, around here, everything is still expensive and getting more so. | ||
| And my stocks, which are a big part of my income, are tanking. | ||
| And so are, you know, so is my 401k. | ||
| So, you know, somebody somewhere out there might be benefiting from Donald Trump, but, you know, I'm not. | ||
| I'm losing a lot of money right now. | ||
| And, you know, my income might shrink, but my bills don't. | ||
| And Leslie, did you vote for President Trump? | ||
| No, I voted for Harris. | ||
| And the reason for that, because I remembered for the first Trump presidency, and it was all going good until the pandemic. | ||
| Now, it's easy to say that, well, that wasn't his fault. | ||
| That was the pandemic's fault. | ||
| But he could have managed that better and didn't. | ||
| And at that point, that's when I became convinced that this guy doesn't know what he's doing. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| And here's Patty on X who says from Ohio. | ||
| She says, mine would be the disappointment heard in Elon Musk's voice regarding the Big Beautiful bill. | ||
| He sacrificed quite a lot for our country, and now he feels this bill will wipe out all that Doge has done monetarily. | ||
| But remember, Elon, Doge opened a lot of eyes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And here is President Trump at the White House yesterday. | ||
| He was asked about Elon Musk's criticism of that bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Elon Musk in a television interview criticized the one big, beautiful bill, saying he was disappointed it didn't cut enough essentially that undercut the Doge efforts. | |
| What's your reaction to that? | ||
| Well, the reaction is a lot of things. | ||
| Number one, we have to get a lot of votes. | ||
| We can't be cutting, you know, we need to get a lot of support, and we have a lot of support. | ||
| We had to get it through the House. | ||
| The House was, we have no Democrats. | ||
| You know, if it's up to the Democrats, they'll take the 65% increase. | ||
| You know, if that doesn't get approved, this country is going to have a 65% increase in taxes and lots of other problems, big problems, almost bigger than that. | ||
| But we'll have a 65% increase as opposed to the largest tax cut in the history of our country. | ||
| We will be negotiating that bill, and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it. | ||
| That's the way they go. | ||
| It's very big. | ||
| It's the big, beautiful bill. | ||
| But the beautiful is because of all of the things we have. | ||
| The biggest thing being, I would say, the level of tax cutting that we're going to be doing. | ||
| We're going to make people really be able to, we'll have one of the, we'll have the lowest tax rate we've ever had in the history of our country, and tremendous amounts of benefit are going to the middle-income people of our country, low- and middle-income people of our country. | ||
| So we're going to see what happens because the Senate, as you know, is negotiating with us, and they have to then go back to the House. | ||
| And, you know, it's got a way to go. | ||
| But I have to say, Speaker Johnson and Thun have done an incredible job. | ||
| John Thune has done a fantastic leader, Thune, a fantastic job. | ||
| And they're working together with me and others. | ||
| And if you would like to watch the whole press conference there from the White House, you can do so. | ||
| It's on our website, cspan.org. | ||
| Here's Pamela Dixon, Tennessee, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| Hi, how are you? | ||
| Oh, my gosh, I'm so tired of listening to that man lie. | ||
| I usually don't watch him on TV anymore, but I was holding for you to come on. | ||
| My news story wasn't really, I didn't see a news story. | ||
| Maybe you can inform me about it. | ||
| I saw it on the cryline on CNN that Lindsey Graham and 20 others had drafted a proposal to put sanctions on Russia, which I thought, that's great. | ||
| They're developing a spine. | ||
| They're no longer testicularly challenged. | ||
| And if that's the case, I would like to find out about it. | ||
| So maybe you can find that and tell me more about it. | ||
| Because I think it's great that the Republicans are actually going to start. | ||
| I would have said they wanted to go ahead and do it even without approval from the White House. | ||
| So I thought that is fabulous if the Republicans are going to finally start doing their job instead of just acquiescing to the president all the time. | ||
| So there is a story about it. | ||
| Here is Axios. | ||
| It says this, Pamela, Senate GOP demands new sanctions against Russia. | ||
| Here's a picture of Lindsey Graham. | ||
| It says, Senate Republicans are seizing on President Donald Trump's growing frustration with Russian President Putin to argue the time to impose fresh sanctions on Russia is now. | ||
| The Kremlin dismissed Trump's criticism after Russia escalated its missile and drone attacks against Kyiv this weekend. | ||
| It says with its former President Dmitry Medvedev posting on X this. | ||
| I only know one really bad thing, World War III. | ||
| I hope Trump understands this. | ||
| And Senator Chuck Grassley posted on X, it's time for sanctions strong enough so Putin knows, quote, game over. | ||
| That's at Axios if you want to find out more about that. | ||
| And here is Roy, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Republican. | ||
| Roy, what do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Mimi. | |
| I think that the biggest story to me this week, or any week, really, is how corrupt the Democrat Party is and the media. | ||
| And honestly, you go along with that. | ||
| You remember the other day when the guy called in and said, yeah, there's a story about AOC's grandma taking Social Security, you know, illegally or something. | ||
| And then, and you looked that up real quick. | ||
| You're like, oh, no, no, no, that's fake. | ||
| But he also mentioned the lady, is it Fannie Willis or Jackson or one of those corrupt liberal judges going after Trump? | ||
| And she was taking out loans illegally and saying that she was married to her dad, so it looked like she had a husband and not living in the same state. | ||
| And this is a judge that is trying to go after Trump for saying he's doing the same thing, but he's not. | ||
| She was. | ||
| And you couldn't find that story. | ||
| You remember that, Mimi? | ||
| Nope. | ||
| I'm afraid not. | ||
| And I typically remember. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look for it then. | |
| Look for that lady that's going after him. | ||
| It'd be easy for you. | ||
| You're smart. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Oh, I'll have a producer look for that. | ||
| The story about the judge, you mean, Roy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I bet you would say again? | |
| The story about the judge? | ||
| Is that the story you're looking? | ||
| You want me to look for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, that's yes. | |
| It's going after Trump that's trying to say how corrupt he is with his dealings up in New York. | ||
| And she's the one that's corrupt. | ||
| She's getting in trouble for it now because she took out loans illegally. | ||
| Okay, let's look for it. | ||
| Here's Sharon, a Democrat in Gwen Oak, Maryland. | ||
| Good morning, Sharon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Good. | ||
| My story today is about how Donald Trump is in office trying to make a profit. | ||
| And I don't understand the American people that's out here that want a man like that that's in office and supposed to be our president. | ||
| He supposedly look out for the American people, but no, he's looking out for himself and his family. | ||
| And the people that voted for Donald Trump and see what he has done, they deserve to get what they got. | ||
| Because me and my husband, we in our 70s, and we wasn't going to go out and vote for no Donald Trump because and he's for himself. | ||
| And the Republicans that follow him, they don't have no backbone at all. | ||
| They spies. | ||
| They don't even have no spies. | ||
| They spy lists. | ||
| They don't care about the American people. | ||
| God is the judge. | ||
| He judges everything. | ||
| And they in office and they don't want to do what's right. | ||
| They would just want to run all over the American people and don't do the right thing. | ||
| You don't suppose to be in office for that. | ||
| If you can't do what to help out for the American people, you shouldn't be in office. | ||
| And Donald Trump shouldn't be in office at all. | ||
| He shouldn't be the president. | ||
| He should be impeached because he taking this country through chaos. | ||
| And we don't, and as adults, we don't even care about our children or our grandchildren's future. | ||
| And he's kidding, he's closed down Department Education. | ||
| But thank God I'm with the grandmother that I am, and all my grandkids are doing well in school because Donald Trump is crazy, and I don't know why a person wants to vote for a crazy person like that. | ||
| Got it, Sharon. | ||
| And Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska had a town hall on Tuesday, and here's a part where he admits that he did not read a provision of the reconciliation bill before he voted for it and the audience's reaction. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I share your concern for our national debt, but the ends do not justify the means. | |
| Can you please tell us why you voted to approve a budget bill that includes section 70302, which effectively prohibits federal courts from enforcing contempt orders? | ||
| Which would then allow current and future administrations to ignore those contempt orders by removing the enforcement capabilities. | ||
| I do not agree with that section that was added to that bill. | ||
| I will tell you this. | ||
| I believe in the rule of law. | ||
| I've taken an oath as an attorney. | ||
| I've taken an oath as a state senator. | ||
| I've taken an oath as a member of Congress. | ||
| And I support our court system. | ||
| And I do believe that the federal district courts, when issuing an injunction, it should have legal effect. | ||
| In fact, I relied upon that when the Biden administration was in place. | ||
| The federal courts did a tremendous amount of good work. | ||
| This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, next question. | |
| Next question. | ||
| I am not going to hide the truth. | ||
| This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill. | ||
| And when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern. | ||
| And when I returned to Washington, I am going to very clearly tell the people in my conference that we cannot support undermining our court system and we must allow our federal courts to operate and issue injunctions. | ||
| And we're getting your top news story of the week. | ||
| And this is Sue in Whiting, New Jersey says, every school, liberal or conservative, which receives federal funding should be able to account for how every dollar is spent. | ||
| What type of research are they doing at Harvard? | ||
| We have this from the New York Times. | ||
| If you'd like to take a look at that, Sue, it says, where federal dollars flow to universities around the country. | ||
| And this is a map of the country with all the different universities and how much money is going to each. | ||
| The bigger the circle, the more federal funds go to that university. | ||
| You can take a look. | ||
| That's at the New York Times. | ||
| And here is Carlos, San Antonio, Texas, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Can you hear me okay? | ||
| Yes, we can. | ||
| Go right ahead, Carlos. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to talk about the beautiful bill, big, beautiful bill that Trump is trying to get passed. | |
| People need to realize that the Republican Party, the Trumpsters right now, is basically for the rich. | ||
| Everything in that bill will be to cut funding for the poor and the needy. | ||
| And everything else will be the tax cut for the billionaires, the people making the money. | ||
| All they're going to do is get richer. | ||
| What are the things that they wanted to do was pass education down to the states? | ||
| Well, let me tell you about Texas. | ||
| We rank 41 out of all the states in providing funding for each of our public school students. | ||
| So what did Texas do to fix that problem? | ||
| They're giving $10,000 to every student attending a private school. | ||
| So I repeat back. | ||
| The Republican Party is for the rich. | ||
| The Democratic is for helping the needy. | ||
| And there was a call from Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago from a lady that Biden never did anything for her. | ||
| Well, once this bill gets passed, she's going to find out what Biden actually did, and now she's not going to get it anymore. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And on the Republican line in Dodge City, Kansas, here's Les. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| And my top story is the economy. | ||
| The other day, there was a caller that was saying that eggs in their part of the country were $7 a dozen. | ||
| Well, I got news for them. | ||
| Here in Southwest Kansas, eggs are $4 for $18. | ||
| How does that grab you? | ||
| And bacon, $4. | ||
| How does that grab you? | ||
| And I got 30 some packages of food and clothing from Walmart all for less than 90 bucks. | ||
| And it filled the van. | ||
| It filled my refrigerator. | ||
| And it was sausage. | ||
| It was eggs. | ||
| It was potatoes. | ||
| It was breakfast bowls. | ||
| Complete meals. | ||
| Meat, potatoes, and vegetables and desserts for $2 each. | ||
| Now, does that sound like Joe Biden? | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| Sounds like Donald Trump is keeping his word. | ||
| He's bringing the prices down. | ||
| And the price of gas is $2.40 a gallon. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Thank you, Donnie. | ||
| Hey, Democrats, don't be jealous because Trump's rich. | ||
| He earned it the hard way. | ||
| He worked at it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| Here is Mike in Akron, Ohio, Independent Line. | ||
| What's your top news story? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Well, I've got three comments that I made. | ||
| Number one, when it comes to voting in the primary in Ohio for governor for Republican, I'm voting for former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel over Rabaswamy. | ||
| Because Tressel, when he coached the Buckeyes, they won the vast majority of their games. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| When they lost, he took it like a man. | ||
| He was an example for the team. | ||
| His teams took those losses like real men at the age of 18, 19, and 20 years old. | ||
| The guy in the White House today could never imagine doing it. | ||
| How can you learn from your defeats if you never claim you lost? | ||
| How can you learn from your mistakes if you never admit you made a mistake? | ||
| That's what life is about. | ||
| My second comment is about Bo Biden. | ||
| Bo Biden. | ||
| He put his life on the line for every single member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, and they talk hour after hour about Hunter Biden, but they don't give Bo Biden the time of day. | ||
| How about if Hakeem Jeffries, perhaps Schubert, how about they had like a five-minute talk with Republicans, and they have to say two minutes complimenting Bo Biden. | ||
| Would the big guy be upset with the people in Congress if they took two minutes of time in front of the camera and in front of the microphone and say some really nice things about Bo Biden? | ||
| Would they get in trouble for doing that? | ||
| Tomorrow, Friday is May the 30th. | ||
| The original memorial day was always May 30th. | ||
| That's tomorrow. | ||
| Because C-SPAN takes up time out tomorrow to praise Bo Biden without risk big fires or some kind of who knows what. | ||
| And finally, on June the 14th, when there's a parade in Washington, D.C., we will finally know what the initial GOP stands for. | ||
| It stands for Goliath on Parade. | ||
| Trump is their Goliath. | ||
| The Democrats, you need a David. | ||
| Maybe the governor of Kentucky, Bashir, Governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro. | ||
| The Democrats need a David because the GOP, they've got the Goliath. | ||
| We will see it on full display on June the 14th. | ||
| And here is the Washington Post with this article about that airplane from Qatar. | ||
| It says delay to Air Force One deal as Qatar probes legal liability. | ||
| It says, despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction's terms. | ||
| Qatar is insisting that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Doha specify that the aircraft's transfer was initiated by the Trump administration and that Qatar is not responsible for any future transfers of the plane's ownership. | ||
| The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liability stemming from the White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a, quote, gift that Trump continues to tout as a major deliverable from his recent trip to the Middle East. | ||
| And here is Cindy in Norwalk, Connecticut. | ||
| Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Cindy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My top news story is a news story that's a couple of years old and it's still continuing. | ||
| I just, for the life of me, can't understand why the Democrats want to cling to that there. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't put my faith in any one man because we're all just flawed human beings. | ||
| But, you know, you were lied to about COVID. | ||
| You were lied to about Russia collusion. | ||
| You were lied to about the vaccination. | ||
| And now, you know, everything's a mess. | ||
| We don't have enough air traffic controllers. | ||
| All these people, a lot of them lost their jobs because they wouldn't take the vaccine. | ||
| And now, you know, then we find out, oh, it doesn't stop the spread of the light. | ||
| How many times are you going to be lied to by your party? | ||
| And you're still going to just go on this crazy mantra that, you know, Trumpers are a cult and he's for himself. | ||
| I don't understand it. | ||
| And then Joe Biden, the autopen, we don't know who is running the country. | ||
| Oh, but that's still better than the evil Donald Trump. | ||
| And now we have the awful cancer diagnosis and you want to say that this was just found out. | ||
| I don't know how many times you're going to be bamboozled and still just, I think we all need to reflect on, you know, our government lies to us. | ||
| And I don't understand it. | ||
| You know, I mean, look at Kamala Harris. | ||
| She spent $2 billion on a 90-day campaign. | ||
| And with your donations, Democrats, and you want to say that Donald Trump's just out for himself and only for the rich. | ||
| Look at the people, Beyonce, all the stars that didn't come and campaign for her for free. | ||
| They campaigned at the tune of $10,000 a pop. | ||
| I mean, I just don't. | ||
| Got it, Cindy. | ||
| Let's go to Kendra Independent, Ashland, Virginia. | ||
| Good morning, Kendra. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I guess my top story is about the book that recently came out about Joe Biden and all the recent stories coming out about him as well, how his administration has been covering up his cognitive decline. | ||
| I don't know actually why this is a surprise, though. | ||
| I mean, I could tell in 2020 when he was running that something was wrong. | ||
| But anyway, I know another caller had asked you to look up a story about someone that was under investigation for fraud. | ||
| Were you able to find that story? | ||
| No, we actually weren't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think he's at a judge. | |
| Okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I think we're actually talking about Letitia James, I'm sure. | ||
| Right, that's Letitia General. | ||
| About Letitia James. | ||
| What were you able to find? | ||
| Can you give me a question? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, what I see is Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, is facing accusations of mortgage fraud, including claims that she misrepresented the number of units her property in her properties to secure better loan terms. | |
| Can you allegations have led to investigate Kendra? | ||
| Where are you seeing that so we can look it up as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hold on a second. | |
| This is a story that I found on, I just Googled her name. | ||
| So it came up, and there's several stories out here. | ||
| So, yeah, go ahead. | ||
| This one says it's National Mortgage Professional. | ||
| I don't know what this is, but there's several stories out here. | ||
| So I'm sure you can find it from the New York Post and all other kinds of reputable newspapers. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| So I know I found this on CNN. | ||
| FBI Director Confirms Federal Probe into New York Attorney General. | ||
| It says FBI is probing the Democratic New York Attorney General's real estate transactions, according to Director Kash Patel, focused on whether the Attorney General committed fraud on a mortgage application. | ||
| It says James, who won a civil case last year against the Trump organization and Trump himself over allegations of faulty business practices, is the first public official who investigated the president to now face potential criminal prosecutions. | ||
| This is what Patel said to Fox News. | ||
| This case, I can tell you, is being handled by our professional pros who are subject matter experts, reporting directly to headquarters, which reports to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and I. | ||
| Okay, so we'll find out more as that goes through. | ||
| And if there's other articles I can share with you, I will do that. | ||
| Here is Reuters that says this FBI probes New York A.G. James over mortgage fraud allegations. | ||
| So that's what we're able to find from sources. | ||
| Here's Terry in Bellwood, Illinois, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Terry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Mimi. | |
| Hey, Mimi. | ||
| Well, it's not a top move story. | ||
| My concern is the independent media we have today. | ||
| Case in point. | ||
| The other day you had the interview with Norcross. | ||
| You maybe want to look that up. | ||
| But anyway, I didn't like the way that guy was filibustering you. | ||
| And I know intelligent that you are, that you try to be balanced. | ||
| And I think that's the problem with our media today. | ||
| We don't have true independent journalists that can confront some of the main issues we have. | ||
| Case in point again, CNN got a story on P. Diddy. | ||
| Can you believe that? | ||
| With all the stuff that's going on in the country with our budget, is that concerned? | ||
| You know, it's like a distraction. | ||
| And I want to, you know, I wish we can have roundtable discussions again back in this country. | ||
| I'm a little bit nervous, but Mimi, I love you, and I like your independent journalists. | ||
| But don't let that guy hunter you like that. | ||
| You're talking about Grover Norquist about taxes? | ||
| Is that the one you were talking about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, that's on our website if anybody wants to go back and take a look at that. | ||
| But appreciate the feedback, Terry. | ||
| This is Nancy in Bowling Green, Connecticut, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| I'm in Bowling Green, Kentucky. | ||
| But that's okay. | ||
| No. | ||
| Oh, what? | ||
| What did I say? | ||
| Texas? | ||
| Sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I think you said Connecticut, I believe. | |
| I'm sorry. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| Big difference. | ||
| You're in Kentucky. | ||
| Sorry about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yes, ma'am. | |
| I'm down here. | ||
| Oh, Lord, girl. | ||
| I'm way out in the I live in town, but it's way down south. | ||
| But anyway, my top story is the, I didn't even know we had federal courts against trade. | ||
| I was in shock last night when I was watching it that, you know, with the tariffs, he's going back on something. | ||
| I think our country has to be in some kind of distress before he can enact, you know, enact these tariffs. | ||
| And I just think that story needs to get out that we do have laws and we do have rules for everything and everyone. | ||
| So, and then I'm also concerned about all these what they call white-collar crimes, you know, where he's giving a lot of pardons to, you know, everybody. | ||
| Those things are just, I'm just like in awe. | ||
| We're Americans. | ||
| I'm just hoping we're going to get somebody that's going to, you know, unite us besides the Lord himself, but I don't even know if that's possible. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And that's Nancy in Bowling Green, Kentucky. | ||
| Thank you, Nancy. | ||
| And coming up later in the program, we'll talk to Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute to discuss the latest on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and Israel's role in the region. | ||
| But first, it's former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser. | ||
| He'll discuss recent actions by the Trump administration that are affecting public health efforts. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway, as John Wayne said. | |
| Y'all made it. | ||
| You climbed that mountain. | ||
| Take the risk. | ||
| Push yourself onto a new challenge. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This week, watch commencement speeches from across the country, featuring inspirational messages from political leaders, sports personalities, and celebrities. | |
| Tonight, hear remarks by Maryland Governor Wes Moore at Lincoln University, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayat at Nashua Community College, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at the University of Minnesota Law School, and Virginia Governor Glenn Youncken at Liberty University. | ||
| Watch 2025 Commencement Speeches tonight at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN 2 or anytime online at c-span.org. | ||
| In a nation divided, a rare moment of unity. | ||
| This fall, C-SPAN presents Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins in a town where partisan fighting prevails. | ||
| One table, two leaders, one goal, to find common ground. | ||
| This fall, ceasefire on the network that doesn't take sides, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| There are many ways to listen to C-SPAN radio anytime, anywhere. | ||
| In the Washington, D.C. area, listen on 90.1 FM. | ||
| Use our free C-SPAN Now app or go online to c-SPAN.org slash radio on SiriusXM Radio on channel 455, the TuneIn app, and on your smart speaker by simply saying, play C-SPAN Radio. | ||
| Hear our live call-in program, Washington Journal, daily at 7 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| Listen to House and Senate proceedings, committee hearings, news conferences, and other public affairs events live throughout the day. | ||
| And for the best way to hear what's happening in Washington with fast-paced reports, live interviews, and analysis of the day. | ||
| Catch Washington today, weekdays of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| Listen to C-SPAN programs on C-SPAN Radio anytime, anywhere. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| Joining us to talk about the Trump administration and public health is Dr. Richard Besser. | ||
| He's former acting director of the CDC and currently president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. | ||
| Dr. Besser, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Mimi. | |
| It's great to be here. | ||
| So remind us about your public health background and what you're currently doing in the mission of your organization. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I have spent my entire career in public health. | |
| By training, I'm a general pediatrician and I practiced pediatrics for more than 30 years. | ||
| But I've worked in public health as an academic doing research. | ||
| I was at the CDC for 13 years, initially as a disease detective and then working on a wide range of issues, including emergency preparedness and response. | ||
| I was the acting director at the beginning of the Obama administration. | ||
| And then I was in journalism, like you. | ||
| I was at ABC News as the chief medical editor for eight years. | ||
| And now at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we focus on a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right for all. | ||
| And our work is about supporting grantees around the country who are trying to ensure that everyone has what they need to thrive and to lead a healthy life. | ||
| And Robert Wood Johnson, is it just focused on health or do you support other initiatives? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we focus on health, but our focus is very broad. | |
| So we look at all of the conditions in people's lives that either provide opportunities for health or create barriers to health. | ||
| So conditions in communities, whether they're jobs and good schools and transportation, taxes, whether families have the resources they need to provide for their children, and our health care system in a big way, looking towards a future in which everyone is treated with respect by the healthcare system, where our public health system provides people in all communities what they need to thrive. | ||
| Well, President Trump's administration has proposed several cuts to staff and to the actual budget of several agencies and departments related to public health. | ||
| What would you say is your biggest concern? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, As I said, I worked at the CDC for 13 years, and we as a nation had the gold standard of governmental public health systems. | |
| Our federal system includes the CDC, it includes the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health. | ||
| We had incredible resources to be able to support health here in America as well as around the globe. | ||
| The cuts that have come through already, there are more proposed, but already the government has taken out of these agencies critical staff that now leave us as a nation vulnerable. | ||
| We have a Secretary of Health who talks about the importance of addressing chronic disease, and that is so important, but at the same time, eliminated the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC. | ||
| And smoking is the leading preventable cause of chronic disease. | ||
| We have an office or had an office at the CDC that was focused on lead poisoning prevention. | ||
| The city of Milwaukee is fighting a lead poisoning issue in their schools. | ||
| They called CDC, and CDC did not have people there to help support that effort. | ||
| Those are just a couple examples of the challenges that are now faced by the indiscriminate slashing of positions that are so important to protecting health in every community in America. | ||
| The budget bill that has just passed the House includes cuts to Medicaid. | ||
| The Washington Post has this headline: Trump and GOP's tax bill would force cuts to Medicare, according to the CBO. | ||
| What kind of impacts do you think this can have on public health as a whole? | ||
| And does it just impact the people that would no longer have their health insurance? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, this is, to me, this strikes me as one of the cruelest things the government is trying to move forward. | |
| We are the only wealthy nation that doesn't ensure that every citizen has high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care. | ||
| The Affordable Care Act went a long way to closing the gap by providing access to health care to so many more people, millions of more people. | ||
| This bill, if it goes forward, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 7 million people will lose their Medicaid. | ||
| 4 million people who are getting some help in the marketplace with their health insurance plans will lose that and are likely to lose health insurance. | ||
| And this is to pay for tax cuts for corporations and wealthy people. | ||
| It's important to recognize, though, that these are not the only people who are going to be impacted by these dramatic cuts. | ||
| And they're largely cuts by putting in place red tape paperwork that people would need to do every month to demonstrate that they qualify for these programs that they're qualified for. | ||
| People in states that have tried this, what happens is that hardworking Americans who just don't have the time or don't have the computer access to meet these requirements end up losing their insurance. | ||
| They've never seen that these work requirements actually lead to more people working. | ||
| But Medicaid is also the lifeline to so many hospitals around our country, in particular in rural America. | ||
| So by putting in these cuts to Medicaid, what we expect to see are the closure of rural hospitals across America. | ||
| So individuals who have insurance, who aren't losing insurance, are going to have to drive much further to get their services. | ||
| And you know that when someone is having an emergency health event, having to drive further can be a life or death situation. | ||
| So this is real. | ||
| This is something that the Senate will be addressing, and hopefully they'll make the right decision on this because it will impact every community in America in a very grim way. | ||
| Now, the Republicans have made the argument that the people that are losing Medicaid are people that should have never been on Medicaid to begin with. | ||
| You mentioned work requirements that would kick in for able-bodied people without dependents. | ||
| There's also the issue of undocumented immigrants being on Medicaid, including this bill would penalize states that offer Medicaid to undocumented children. | ||
| What are your thoughts on that as far as should they be on it to begin with? | ||
| Is there another way to provide for those children aside from taxpayer funding? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, your first point about people who never should have been on it is just not true. | |
| We fund a lot of research in this area, and the vast majority of people who are considered able-bodied and aren't working are women between the ages of 50 and 64. | ||
| So older women who have significant care responsibilities, either for children or for elderly parents. | ||
| So they would be kicked off of this. | ||
| But there are a lot of people in America who are working two, three jobs that don't have health insurance with them. | ||
| Minimum wage jobs. | ||
| We're one of the only countries that has an employer-based health care system. | ||
| So if your job comes with health care benefits, that's great. | ||
| If it doesn't, well, then you're in trouble. | ||
| And for some, that means that you are dependent on government support. | ||
| And that is a challenge. | ||
| If you're working three jobs and you have to certify every month that you're working those jobs and bring in your paperwork, that will be a real challenge. | ||
| And what we've seen in the past is that people will lose health care. | ||
| When that happens, it's not that people stop getting sick. | ||
| They're going to still be sick. | ||
| In general, people will show up in the ER in the emergency room sicker than they otherwise would have. | ||
| And those costs are passed from the federal government to the state government. | ||
| So we are going to see state budgets that are challenged by this because of the increased costs that are now with the state for providing those health care services. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation with Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, you can. | ||
| The numbers are by party. | ||
| Democrats are on 202, 748, 8,000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, 202, 748, 8,002. | ||
| Dr. Besser, I'll just put on the screen the 2026 proposed budget cuts for the health agency. | ||
| So the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, would be cut $18 billion, bringing it down to $27 billion. | ||
| The CDC would be cut by $3.6 billion. | ||
| And the substance abuse and mental health services would be cut by $1 billion. | ||
| I wonder what your initial reaction is to the concept that this is waste that is being cut out of the system. | ||
| And do you think that there is waste that could be cut out of the public health system? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Governmental programs can always do better. | |
| And I think that whenever there's a new administration asking the questions of where are there opportunities to cut costs and maintain or improve services. | ||
| But that's not what's been happening here. | ||
| We've been seeing indiscriminate cuts. | ||
| In the past, there had always been widespread support for the National Institutes of Health. | ||
| The National Institutes of Health is so critical to looking for treatments and cures for diseases. | ||
| Diseases do not lay out by party lines. | ||
| And so it's an area where there has always been bipartisan support. | ||
| So to see these kinds of cuts will impact our ability to be the world's leader in developing new treatments, a new understanding of diseases. | ||
| Those $3 billion cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be devastating. | ||
| A lot of cuts to the injury center, which focuses on things like motor vehicle accidents and prevention. | ||
| It does work not enough, or did work, but not enough, on gun violence prevention. | ||
| As I said, I'm a pediatrician, and it's absolutely unbelievable that in America, the leading cause of death in children is now gun violence. | ||
| That's something where the government could do a lot to try and look at what things work in preventing gun violence in children and saving those lives and what things don't work. | ||
| But eliminating that opportunity will cost lives. | ||
| The National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH, that's the part of CDC that is focused on ensuring that workers across America are safe and that workplace injuries are reduced. | ||
| Their budget has been slashed dramatically. | ||
| What does that say about how we value people who are hardworking in America and wanting to make sure that workplaces are safe? | ||
| These things are really concerning to me. | ||
| And at the Food and Drug Administration, the cuts are already concerning to me in terms of the FDA's ability to keep our food supply safe and keep the public safe from problems in what we purchase in the marketplace. | ||
| Well, I want to play you a portion of a hearing earlier this month. | ||
| This is Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware asking HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about who the current head of the CDC is. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
| In March, I wrote to you expressing my concern about the delayed meeting of the federal vaccine experts, otherwise known as ASIP. | ||
| The meeting of this committee is a key step in getting vaccines to millions of people, from babies to seniors, and delays can have negative impacts on vaccine accessibility and affordability. | ||
| And while I'm glad that the meeting finally happened, we're quickly approaching flu season and the CDC still hasn't adopted the April recommendations. | ||
| And I can understand the delay given that there seems to be no current CDC director. | ||
| So in the spirit of radical transparency, my question is, who is the acting CDC director? | ||
| The acting director was Susan Menares, but she is now up for permanent director. | ||
| And so she's been replaced by Matt Basoli. | ||
| Does this person have a medical background? | ||
| I believe. | ||
| Or public health expertise. | ||
| He's a public health expert. | ||
| public health expert so the fact that the recommendations are kind of stuck is and and the fact that you kind of had well i can i can i clarify something the ACIP does not do the flu shot. | ||
| Yeah, I don't want to give it away. | ||
| And those more about do we have a CDC director? | ||
| And then I want to enter into the record information about what harms could be caused until we get one. | ||
| Dr. Besser, what do you make of that exchange? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there's a lot to unpack there. | |
| I think it is critically important to have someone in the role of acting CDC director who understands public health. | ||
| I served in that role for the first five months of the Obama administration. | ||
| And I was put in that role because I had for four years been running emergency preparedness and response at E. | ||
| And they wanted someone in that role who knew how to respond if there was a public health crisis. | ||
| And at that time, there was. | ||
| The 2009 swine flu pandemic occurred. | ||
| I have great concerns about the lack of strong leadership at the CDC at this time. | ||
| You saw this week when the Secretary Kennedy announced a change to COVID vaccination recommendations that he announced that with the head of the FDA and the head of the NIH. | ||
| There was no one there from the CDC. | ||
| There was no mention of the CDC. | ||
| And normally, vaccination recommendations would come from CDC based on the advice of an expert advisory committee. | ||
| It's the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP, as was mentioned. | ||
| By bypassing that body, we are missing a lot. | ||
| As a pediatrician, I always paid very close attention to the discussions and debates that took place on that committee. | ||
| That's the appropriate place to ask questions about who should be getting a particular vaccine, what are the benefits, what are the harms, what are the costs, what will happen if the vaccine is not available to children or adults this season. | ||
| Those are questions that the committee wrestles with. | ||
| And as a pediatrician, I always had great confidence then that the recommendation that came out of there was the best available recommendation. | ||
| That's not the case for what's happening right now. | ||
| The recommendation that came from Secretary Kennedy had no transparency, no information in terms of what was driving the decision to no longer recommend the COVID vaccine for pregnant women or healthy children. | ||
| And so as a physician, I'm left wondering, well, what's behind this? | ||
| Is it simply because this secretary is one of the nation's leading anti-vaccine proponents? | ||
| Or is there information that hasn't been shared that makes this a rational decision? | ||
| That's very concerning to me. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers. | ||
| First off is Chuck in Charleston, West Virginia, Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning, Mimi, and good morning, Dr. Besser. | |
| I really admire the work that you've done. | ||
| Thank you for your service. | ||
| A few years ago, I retired after about, well, over 28 years working as an HIV prevention specialist for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health. | ||
| So Dr. Anthony Fauci is kind of a hero of mine. | ||
| But the times in which we live right now, kind of depressing considering all the disinformation that's out there. | ||
| We have a health secretary, RFK Jr., who doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS. | ||
| We have all kinds of misinformation going around, like people are still promoting ivermectin as a miracle cure for COVID. | ||
| And I keep on telling them, well, ivermectin is a very important medicine when it comes to treating certain parasitic infections, but it's not an antiviral drug. | ||
| And people say, well, I saw it online, so you know it's got to be true. | ||
| And in the age of social media, I don't, you know, it's, I mean, do you think, I guess my question to you is, are you optimistic that maybe we can restore the public's faith in public health professionals like you and Dr. Anthony Fauci, especially in the age of social media? | ||
| All right, Chuck, we'll take that up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chuck, thank you. | |
| Thank you for your question and thank you for your service. | ||
| You know, before I hit an answer to your question, I just want to reflect that I am very concerned that the cuts to CDC will impact communities like yours. | ||
| The vast majority of money that is sent to CDC is passed through to state and local health departments and it funds public health workers like yourself who are doing the frontline work that keeps people safe. | ||
| And by making these dramatic cuts to CDC, we are going to see fewer people in communities who are able to do things like prevent HIV, prevent tuberculosis, make sure that our swimming pools and restaurants are safe. | ||
| And that is greatly concerning. | ||
| You know, your question about trust is such an important one. | ||
| During the COVID pandemic, for the first time in my lifetime, we saw an intentional attempt by a president to demonize public health, make public health the enemy, rather than to support public health in its work to try and ensure that people across the country were safe, were healthy, were protected. | ||
| And we're seeing the consequences of that. | ||
| We're seeing a situation where how people view public health varies by political affiliation. | ||
| When I worked at the CDC, I spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill talking to representatives from both parties about the importance of our nation being safe and protected from both naturally occurring emergencies as well as intentional ones from terrorism. | ||
| And there was uniform support from both parties to ensuring that our country was safe and ready and prepared. | ||
| Now that's no longer certain, and we're seeing public health lifted up as the enemy rather than public health workers lifted up as our neighbors, our friends, our family members who are working to keep our country safe and healthy. | ||
| Let's talk to Deborah, who is in Westchester, Ohio, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Deborah. | ||
| You're on with Dr. Richard Besser. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| This is a question that I have asked the C-SPAN guest numerous times in the past, and it has to do with the food program that we have for children and also for families. | ||
| I happen to be in a family situation where we owned a daycare, and I participated and ran the CACFP program for 12 years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And as you know, that program feeds our children nutritious foods. | |
| But the most important thing is it develops a healthy palate for our children. | ||
| They don't get cookies, cakes, and ice cream or any of that counting toward the nutritional requirements or the reimbursement by the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a well-run program. | |
| But at the beginning of the Obama administration, they took all of the requirements off and allowed cakes, cookies, candies, everything. | ||
| Any food was acceptable. | ||
| Now, we have an epidemic of obesity in the United States. | ||
| I was appalled. | ||
| And I can't believe that you as a doctor would be jumping up and down and be against adding all of that back. | ||
| Now we have $300 billion we spend every year on diabetes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have pre-diabetic children. | |
| And at the daycares, I'm just, you know, we worked so hard to encourage our children to eat fruits and vegetables, and they loved them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When they were prepared without all the sugar and everything else, we introduced all those good foods for our children. | |
| Why aren't we taking, I would think that right now we should all be wanting to take sugary soft drinks, cakes, and all of that off of SNAP because we never had it until the beginning of the Obama administration. | ||
| All right, Deborah, let's get an answer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Deborah, thank you for your question and raising an important issue. | |
| It is so important that everyone in our country has access to healthy food, fresh fruits and vegetables. | ||
| One of the things that is in this bill that's moving through Congress is a dramatic cut to food assistance for lower income people in our country. | ||
| And that raises big concerns to me in terms of people's ability to get healthy food. | ||
| One of the things that I wonder whether there's the opportunity for people to work across parties on is our school lunch program. | ||
| Our school lunch program provides the majority of calories for millions and millions of children in our country. | ||
| And if we really took on that program and tried to shape it along the lines you're talking, where children were being given access to fresh fruits and vegetables, to real food, not to ultra-processed food, we would see a change in the health and the nutrition of children in our country. | ||
| During COVID, for the first time in my recollection, the government removed the requirements for access to the school lunch program so that all children were given access to school lunches. | ||
| If we funded that program at a proper level, if we provided through the Department of Education resources so that schools had real kitchens and could prepare food instead of just having to open food that was already prepared and was so processed, we would see an improvement in children's health. | ||
| And so, you know, this is an area where maybe there's an opportunity to work together. | ||
| Will cost money and at a time where the administration is looking to cut the budget in order to fund these crazy tax breaks. | ||
| I don't know if that's possible, but we do have a secretary who talks about the importance of getting ultra-processed foods out of diets. | ||
| The school lunch program would be a great place to look to see if we get that done. | ||
| And do you also welcome the initiative to get food dyes out of the food system? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that from my perspective, the more people can eat fresh real food, the better. | |
| And fresh real food should not have food dyes in it. | ||
| Any dye that is being put into a food should have to go through proper testing. | ||
| And there are lots of loopholes that allow food dyes to get through programs that really should no longer exist. | ||
| So I am all for providing the opportunity for people to eat real food. | ||
| But I can tell you that the best way to give people the opportunity to buy real food is to ensure that people have the income to do so. | ||
| In America today, buying fresh fruits and vegetables is a lot more expensive than buying processed food that isn't as good for you. | ||
| That would take raising the minimum wage, ensuring that people have what they need to be able to provide that food. | ||
| The reason that so many people are eating fast food in America is that it's one of the cheapest ways to feed a family, and that shouldn't be the case. | ||
| Let's go to Jamestown, North Carolina, line for Democrats. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gil, you're on. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| It's a privilege to speak with you, Dr. Besser. | ||
| I believe that you were also the director of the CDC, is that correct? | ||
| I was the acting director for about five months in 2009. | ||
| And particularly your service as a pediatrician. | ||
| I wanted to make a couple of quick points. | ||
| Just recently, there was a study published in Nature regarding pancreatic cancer and mRNA vaccines, and it was a very small study. | ||
| But as you know, with pancreatic cancer, the standard treatment has been surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. | ||
| The survivorship is only 13% after five years. | ||
| But in this study, the end was small, but all of the individuals are surviving past four years. | ||
| Secretary RFK Jr., I believe, has no idea or no appreciation for mRNA research. | ||
| And it was published in Nature, and RFK Jr. wants to have studies published out of some journal of the CDC. | ||
| I mean, this bothers my mind. | ||
| And regarding the comment by George Satyana, I believe if we don't learn from the past, we're doomed to make the mistakes of the future. | ||
| My last point, which I wanted to present, is regarding mRNA vaccines, particularly with the bird flu, H5N1, where it's now going to, the Trump administration and RFK Jr. are not, have rescinded funding for the vaccines against H5N1. | ||
| And if this emerges, and if we see a pandemic with H5N1, it's going to make COVID seem like a drop in the ocean. | ||
| It's going to be catastrophic. | ||
| And I just don't understand This essentially ignorance about mRNA vaccines. | ||
| And just lastly, this is just my opinion. | ||
| I think that this is the present administration's vendetta against Dr. Fauci, as a previous caller mentioned, and a vendetta against Moderna. | ||
| Why there is this animus against this research that's going to help millions of people just boggles my mind. | ||
| All right, Gil. | ||
| Go ahead, Dr. Busser. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Gil, thanks for your question. | |
| There's a lot there that we could talk about. | ||
| The first point I want to make is that one of the biggest and most important accomplishments of the first Trump administration was its commitment to the rapid development of vaccines against COVID. | ||
| It was miraculous that within a year of a new virus being on the scene that was causing devastated illness, we had multiple safe and highly effective vaccines against COVID. | ||
| The reason that was possible was decades of investment in the NIH to develop the mRNA technology. | ||
| That allowed for these vaccines to be developed so incredibly quickly. | ||
| Your point about flu is a really good one. | ||
| There has been the hope that mRNA technology could be used to develop safe and effective flu vaccines and potentially flu vaccines that cover more than one strain. | ||
| One of the things that we would love to see is what's called a universal flu vaccine, one that would last for not just one season, but protect you in the way that a measles vaccine does, potentially for life. | ||
| And mRNA technology is one of the ways to go at that. | ||
| I am greatly concerned when you have such a strong anti-vaccine advocate as Secretary of Health, what that would mean for our ability to be ready should this bird flu strain morph into a pandemic strain. | ||
| I led emergency preparedness and response at CDC for four years during the Bush administration. | ||
| And that was a period where there was also concerns about strains of flu that were circulating in birds. | ||
| And Mike Levitt, who was the Secretary of Health, charged us at CDC and across government with developing national plans for bird flu pandemic response. | ||
| And he sent a leader to every single state to hold a flu summit. | ||
| I went to Mississippi and Alaska. | ||
| Other people went to other states. | ||
| But the goal was for the whole nation to be ready for a pandemic. | ||
| We're not seeing those kinds of efforts right now as there's concern about a bird flu strain that's circulating. | ||
| It's more of a head-in-the-sand approach. | ||
| And that will not be, that will not serve us well when the next pandemic comes. | ||
| There's no telling whether this will be that strain, but it is telling that there will be future pandemics that face our country. | ||
| Dr. Busser, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but this is in Politico yesterday. | ||
| It says, RFK Jr. threatens to bar government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals. | ||
| It says that the health secretary says that the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Lancet are in bed with pharma. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think it's another attempt to control information, to prevent people from seeing good science. | |
| I've published in the New England Journal and in JAMA. | ||
| And they are some of the, Atlanta, I haven't published in, but these are some of the most respected journals that are out there. | ||
| They're doing a better job at disclosure so that you can see where funding has come for different researchers. | ||
| That's really important. | ||
| It's important to know who funds the studies that you're reading and reviewing. | ||
| That can help in your interpretation. | ||
| But to say that an anti-science Secretary of Health will do a better job at providing unbiased information is really ludicrous. | ||
| Here's Denise, an independent in North Branford, Connecticut. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I would like to know why doctors aren't considering the effects of glyphosate on the immune system. | ||
| Did you hear that, Dr. Besser? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think your question is an important one. | |
| It's so important that any chemicals that are used in the environment are safe. | ||
| And your question about glycos, I'm going to mispronounce it. | ||
| Your question is an important one. | ||
| I don't know what research has been done in that area. | ||
| It's not my area of expertise, but raising questions about environmental exposures is important. | ||
| I know as a pediatrician, one of the most toxic exposures for children is lead. | ||
| And so it baffles my mind why this administration has eliminated the staff at CDC who run the office on lead poisoning prevention. | ||
| As a pediatrician, I look to them to develop the standards for what is safe in terms of exposure and to help communities in their efforts to get the lead out of the pipes that are still present in so many places. | ||
| On the Republican line in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, John, you're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for taking my call. | |
| I am actually retired, but I drive a school bus in retirement and I also officiate high school basketball. | ||
| During the pandemic, I can tell you now it was almost ridiculous. | ||
| Every school had different standards. | ||
| For example, if two, I had to make sure brother and sister sat together on the bus. | ||
| If sister was in a class that was quarantined because they had so many cases of COVID, guess what? | ||
| Brothers still got to go to school. | ||
| When the state said no mask mandate, but the federal government said it had to go until March, the schools did nothing to reinforce the standard to make sure they wore the mask on the bus. | ||
| Even to the point when I started writing kids up, they'd say, stop writing people up. | ||
| And I said, hold it, these are your rules, not mine. | ||
| Officiating high school basketball. | ||
| Some schools only allowed parents in. | ||
| Some didn't allow anyone in. | ||
| Now, I have a daughter who's a physician assistant, a son-in-law who's a physician assistant, and a daughter who is a surgeon. | ||
| He's doing a fellowship right now. | ||
| Our other daughter is an English teacher. | ||
| The healthcare professionals, we had unthreated access to our grandchildren. | ||
| The daughter, who was an English teacher, you would have thought there was the rubonic plague. | ||
| I even asked my son-in-law who worked in a hospital during the pandemic. | ||
| I said, what's going on? | ||
| He said, afterwards, what they realized, we made the assumption Europe was treating people correctly. | ||
| He said, frankly, we over-ventilated people. | ||
| And he said, and he told me, he says, you work out every day, you're in good shape. | ||
| He said, however, people who diabetes, obesity, or heart problems, it's more problematic to them. | ||
| Different standards. | ||
| I mean, one more point. | ||
| Even when we had a German exchange student to get her back to Germany after her stay with us, the airline had totally different standards that were not consistent with the federal government or even with the German Democratic Republic to get her back to Germany. | ||
| We got it, John. | ||
| Regarding lessons learned, Dr. Vesser, from the COVID restrictions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| You know, one of the challenges whenever there's a new infectious agent or a new public health crisis like a pandemic is that you're learning as you go. | ||
| And we also have a system of government in America where the federal government can make recommendations but has little authority at the state level. | ||
| And each state varies in terms of what states can do versus localities versus school boards. | ||
| So you do see different things occurring in different places. | ||
| And the hope is that early on you learn from that. | ||
| But one of the challenges in this pandemic was that learning was framed as indecision and incompetence rather than learning is something that you want to see so that as you move forward the situation gets better. | ||
| People are protected more effectively and you're restricting people as little as possible. | ||
| At the start of the COVID pandemic, a lot of what was used was the model for flu, for influenza. | ||
| And what was seen in the last massive influenza pandemic in the United States, 1917 to 1919, was that children were one of the main ways that the pandemic spread through communities. | ||
| Children brought it home to adults who may have been at higher risk and caused incredible issues for health. | ||
| And so as COVID started, that was the model that was being applied, that children would be likely to spread through communities. | ||
| And so restricting would be an important thing to do. | ||
| Over time, those recommendations changed. | ||
| They changed at the state level at varying levels. | ||
| But we had politicians who, rather than saying this is what learning is about, lift it up and say, this means public health doesn't know what they're doing. | ||
| And in that situation, you end up having people being confused, not getting information so that they can make the right health decisions for themselves and for their families. | ||
| And you have a situation that we're in right now where overarching trust for public health is at an all-time low. | ||
| And that gives me great concerns because there will be future public health threats. | ||
| And you want to make sure that people have information that they feel they can trust. | ||
| I encourage people to talk to their own doctors and nurses and pharmacists, people who know them, people who they trust at the local level, at the community level, because that's where you can get information and help you sort through some of the competing ideas that you're hearing. | ||
| Lynn in Massachusetts is asking you, would you explain the new COVID variant that has now entered the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you know, as we've seen since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, this is a virus that changes fairly rapidly. | |
| And so it's very important that public health is able to monitor that, to look at that. | ||
| There are different ways that's done. | ||
| It's done by looking at strains that people come in with in emergency rooms. | ||
| It's looked at by looking at wastewater in communities and looking to see where new strains are and how they're coming. | ||
| We look to see what's going on in other countries, which is why it's so concerning to me that this administration is withdrawing from the World Health Organization. | ||
| We learn from other countries. | ||
| They learn from us. | ||
| By not participating in that, it puts our people here in America at a great disadvantage. | ||
| But as new strains occur, what you want our public health scientists to do is look to see: do the existing vaccines continue to protect, or does the vaccine need to change? | ||
| And those are the questions that are important to ask because that will determine whether a new vaccine is being manufactured and recommended. | ||
| But you want experts to be able to look at that information and data and consider it, not political appointees who may have a different set of drivers in their decision-making. | ||
| It needs to be transparent so that people can watch and listen to the debates and conversations and make up their own minds as to what they want to do. | ||
| All right, that's Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC in 2009 and currently president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. | ||
| They're online at rwjf.org. | ||
| Dr. Besser, thanks so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks so much, Mimi. | |
| Real pleasure. | ||
| Later in the program, we'll talk to Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute to discuss the Trump administration's push for a new nuclear deal with Tehran. | ||
| Up next, after the break, it's open forum. | ||
| Dial in with any public policy issue on your mind. | ||
| The numbers are on your screen. | ||
| And while you're dialing in, we'll show you a portion from yesterday. | ||
| Here's Iowa Republican Representative Ashley Hinson. | ||
| She held a town hall to show her support for President Trump's policies and the recently passed GOP tax bill. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| I remember the night before the president was sworn in, and he said we're not going to waste a moment delivering on the promises that we made to the American people. | ||
| And I think he wasn't kidding. | ||
| It's been very busy the past few months. | ||
| And in just a short time of having him back in the White House, he has demonstrated what it means to be accessible and to do exactly what you said you would do. | ||
| My colleagues and I are working alongside the president to undo all of the damage done during the Biden years, and we are fast-tracking America's path to a new golden age. | ||
| So the president, alongside Congress, has truly hit the ground running. | ||
| And a few of our accomplishments so far include passing legislation to protect girls' sports. | ||
| I was proud to join the president at the White House when he signed an executive order to do exactly that. | ||
| President Trump took decisive action to secure our border and start deporting criminal illegal aliens, making our border the most secure that it has been in more than 20 years. | ||
| Back in March, I think these numbers are important because they tell the true story here. | ||
| Border Patrol encountered just 7,100, just over 7,100 illegal immigrants at the southern border. | ||
| That is a 95% decrease, 95% decrease from the year before, and a 97% decrease from March of 2022. | ||
| This marked the lowest levels recorded since the fiscal year 2000. | ||
| I think that's remarkable. | ||
| We did not need new legislation. | ||
| We just needed a new president who was going to enforce the laws on the books. | ||
| Congress also passed the Lake and Riley Act, which ensures that illegal immigrants detained that are accused of serious crimes are actually kept detained. | ||
| This bill included Sarah's Law. | ||
| It was a bill that was championed by our Senator Joni Ernst to prevent violent offenders from being able to walk free. | ||
| I think these are common sense safety measures that we should never have to say are controversial. | ||
| We've also taken action to roll back Biden-era regulations that hurt manufacturers, consumers, and our entire economy. | ||
| And many of those votes have been bipartisan. | ||
| I voted on the SAVE Act to ensure that only American citizens are voting in American elections. | ||
| And last week, the House passed several common sense bipartisan bills to help improve care for our veterans. | ||
| We have a lot of complicated forms that veterans are required to fill out. | ||
| And just today, I saw that our Secretary of Defense got together with our Secretary of VA, and they are working to make sure that that transition out of service is more seamless. | ||
| I've also continued my bipartisan work for the people of Iowa by introducing legislation to move agency headquarters out of Washington, D.C., and closer to the people that they serve. | ||
| Through my bipartisan SWAMP Act, I introduced that with Representative Jared Golden of Maine. | ||
| We're working to improve transparency at the Small Business Administration to ensure that small business owners have a clear picture of disaster relief assistance through my SBA Transparency Act with Senator Tim Scott. | ||
| And I've reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation with several of my colleagues to work on important issues like onshoring our food supply chain, boosting domestic manufacturing, and ensuring that the CCP does not control any elements of our food supply chain. | ||
| Food security is national security. | ||
| I was also proud to vote for President Trump's one big beautiful bill last week. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a generational investment. | |
| This is a general investment. | ||
| This is your time. | ||
| Okay, so I'm here to clear up a lot of the misinformation that's out there today because this bill is about securing our borders. | ||
| This bill is about providing continued tax relief for working Americans and returning our country to prosperity. | ||
| This bill is promises made, promises kept in action, and Iowans overwhelmingly voted for President Trump's America First agenda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| It is Open Forum. | ||
| Looking forward to hearing your thoughts this morning on anything public policy related. | ||
| We'll start with Randy, a Democrat in Madison, Wisconsin. | ||
| Hi, Randy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, I want to talk about Taco Don this morning. | |
| The factor is a total lack of leadership when it comes to the tariffs and the chaotic way he applied it. | ||
| And then Wall Street calls him Taco Don, which is Trump always caves. | ||
| Trump always caves chickens out. | ||
| Excuse me. | ||
| Next is the three planes that have fallen off aircraft carriers. | ||
| I mean, there's three planes. | ||
| Total lack of leadership means that the people in the Navy have no confidence in P. Tag Seth and his total lack of leadership. | ||
| Why would they, since he does such silly things? | ||
| And then Homeland Security, Christine Love doesn't even know what habeas corpus is. | ||
| Again, lack of leadership. | ||
| America, the rest of the world is laughing at us because these people are completely incompetent. | ||
| Help us all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| This is USA Today. | ||
| Trump erupts when asked about taco trade, a new nickname mocking his tariff approach. | ||
| It says the acronym stands for Trump Always Chickens Out, a jab at the president's propensity to impose or threaten steep tariffs and later back off. | ||
| And here is Mary in Ussening, New York, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Mary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| So I'm not sure why no one is talking about this big beautiful bill and the provision in it that protects Trump officials from defying judicial orders. | ||
| If this passes, we will truly be under a dictatorship. | ||
| Trump got them to insert this provision, and most of the people did not even read the bill. | ||
| And C-SPAN, I'm surprised you're not speaking about this. | ||
| If this bill passes, that's it. | ||
| We have no protection. | ||
| the judges will have no authority okay and the other thing is wait wait wait so So let's go back to that. | ||
| There's a provision that says what? | ||
| That Trump administration officials don't have to do what? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, if they defy judicial orders, there will be no consequences. | |
| And I'm just shocked that you're not speaking about this. | ||
| The judges. | ||
| Let me try to find more information about that, okay? | ||
| But you had another point. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, the other thing is you no longer cover Gaza, and people in other countries are protesting against Israel starving the Gazans. | |
| And AIPAC has basically gotten to every single outlet. | ||
| But the most important thing is this bill and the provision in it because it's truly going to lead us under a dictatorship. | ||
| Okay, so here is the Christian Science Monitor. | ||
| It says this. | ||
| A hidden provision in Trump's big bill could weaken the judicial branch. | ||
| It says that amid a running separation of powers battle between Donald Trump and the federal courts, Congress is stepping forward with an audacious proposal. | ||
| The House last week passed a more than 1,000-page budget and spending bill, titled One Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| Buried in the bill is a paragraph that experts say would neuter, at least in the short term, a key judicial power. | ||
| The provision holds that no federal court, quote, may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt of court citation for failing to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued. | ||
| In effect, anyone wanting to sue the federal government to stop an action or policy would need to pay a bond for the judge to be able to enforce an order blocking the action or policy from being implemented. | ||
| So that's at Christian Science Monitor. | ||
| That's what Mary was talking about in the reconciliation bill that did pass the House. | ||
| It's going to the Senate now. | ||
| Jane in Limerick, Maine, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Jane. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I wanted to bring up the detention centers and the privately owned prisons. | ||
| I looked it up, and we, the taxpayer, pay for those prisons. | ||
| They are private prisons, but we, the taxpayer, pay for them. | ||
| And they should, of course, let officials in to inspect the prisons because also we the taxpayer pay for those officials. | ||
| And so, of course, they should be allowed in. | ||
| This is, and I have another question. | ||
| Are they going to keep these people in these prisons until they die? | ||
| Are they going to go about executing them? | ||
| They can never let them out. | ||
| They can never set them free because they'd be so vengeful because of their treatment. | ||
| And so I just want people to be aware that we, the taxpayer, are paying for these private prisons, and we can't even find out what's going on inside of them. | ||
| It's very, very baffling and very sign of true Nazism. | ||
| These are concentration camps. | ||
| So how are they going to kill them this time? | ||
| Turn them all to ash. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And here's Terry, Dayton, Ohio, Republican Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go right ahead, Terry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to make a statement that I served in the military, and during the time in the military, all soldiers had a commander-in-chief. | |
| We had to respect the honor of the country and up your chain of command. | ||
| And in your chain of command, the president, whether it was a Republican or a Democrat, was your commander-in-chief, and we had to give that person respect. | ||
| And so I just don't understand why the country could go crazy and not respect the commander-in-chief. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here's Jeff in Kansas City, Missouri, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Jeff. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you doing this morning? | |
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to tell you that I believe the American people are being robbed by the Republican Party, big business, and Trump. | |
| They're grifting, they're taking money from children's mouths just so they could have their trillion-dollar golden parachutes. | ||
| It is no wonder that fraud is up because there's too many people that just don't know how to understand the truth about what's going on when fraudsters are taking their money. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Let's talk to Elizabeth in Traverse City, Michigan, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Elizabeth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I would like to know what happened to the no tax on Social Security that was promised. | ||
| And I haven't heard it mentioned. | ||
| I hear about $40,000 deduction for people's taxes in New York. | ||
| But what are they doing for senior citizens? | ||
| Yeah, so that did not get into the bill, Elizabeth. | ||
| So it is not included in the reconciliation bill that passed the House. | ||
| It's possible that the Senate could put it in, but that's not in the House bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I doubt if the House will, or I doubt if the Senate will put that in. | |
| All right. | ||
| And this is Michael in Delaray Beach, Florida, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Michael. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Nice to talk to you. | ||
| I'm a Democrat, and I probably always will be until now. | ||
| I will not vote for people that are doing what my party's doing. | ||
| Right from the beginning of this thing, Trump was made out to be bad, and hey, I was one that fell for it. | ||
| But the more I'm seeing now with my own two eyes, he's making major improvements, major changes. | ||
| And this news media, this fake news that he talks about, that keeps saying all this stuff against him that isn't true, ought to be investigated and looked into. | ||
| And these people should be held accountable for their lies because they're misleading a lot of people. | ||
| People are out there harming each other. | ||
| They're protesting violently. | ||
| They're shutting down Jewish people from going to colleges. | ||
| It's ridiculous. | ||
| And I hope something gets done about it. | ||
| And I hope someone good decides to run for the Democratic Party next time. | ||
| Someone that could be trusted. | ||
| What do you think about that, Michael? | ||
| Since you're a Democrat, who would you like to see run? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know. | |
| No one that I see in there right now. | ||
| Nobody. | ||
| Hopefully, someone that has some brains in their head, that has a little bit of common sense. | ||
| I mean, someone that's going to uphold principles and morals and values that this country once had. | ||
| All right, Michael. | ||
| This is Mark in Amarillo, Texas, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to say a few things. | |
| First of all, I support the big, beautiful bill for the most part. | ||
| As a senior, I'm just kind of disappointed that the no tax on tips didn't come through. | ||
| No tax on Social Security beneficiaries. | ||
| So I'm. | ||
| But no tax on tips did is in that bill. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it did, but not for Social Security. | |
| Not Social Security. | ||
| That's right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| But as a senior, I'm a little concerned about that because the $4,000 increase on our standard deduction really doesn't help much. | ||
| And also, I believe that the last three years, as far as the COLAs for cost of living adjustments for seniors, have been 2% and 3% and far five from the 10% double-digit inflation that we had. | ||
| And so I'm just hoping that they can have a catch-up year for us in 2026. | ||
| And that's all I've got to say. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| All right, Mark. | ||
| Let's hear from John in Wichita, Kansas, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| What do you think? | ||
| It's open for him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, well, I think I'd like to talk about why the government cannot stop the scams and spams that come across the telephone lines and the email lines, which is an open network for that. | |
| Every year in Kansas, millions upon millions of dollars are scammed and spam out of people, and the government claims it cannot do anything about it. | ||
| They're the ones that invented the internet. | ||
| They should be able to do something about it. | ||
| That's my main question. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is James, Battle Creek, Michigan, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I've been ill myself, so I don't really know what's going on, but I haven't heard too much about the measles. | ||
| Is that still spreading around the country all over the place? | ||
| It still is, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I wonder how many people have died. | |
| Sorry, I didn't catch that. | ||
| Say that again? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I said, I wonder how many kids have died since, you know, in recent times. | |
| We'll look that up for you and read an article about that. | ||
| Here's Kyle in Cushing, Oklahoma, Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I just wanted to make a few points. | |
| As a Republican, especially coming from the state of Oklahoma, which is traditionally red, what is going on in Washington with a big, beautiful bill with what Donald Trump is doing shows where the Republican Party has gone. | ||
| They're beating the backs off of the unemployed, the poor, all of these things with taking Medicaid away, with attacking the media, with attacking the educational system. | ||
| It takes me back to a time in history books where the world was unstable. | ||
| And I think that's where we're going. | ||
| In the state of Oklahoma, one in four people are on Medicaid. | ||
| A million people are on sooner care. | ||
| 55% of those are kids. | ||
| And those are the people that are going to be affected in every red state. | ||
| So, you know, as a Republican, I'm definitely not happy with the trajectory of our United States of America. | ||
| Did you vote for President Trump, Kyle? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did not. | |
| I did not. | ||
| And why is that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did not. | |
| Well, I couldn't vote for his policies. | ||
| You know, I'm not one that's going to vote for a bully. | ||
| I'm not one that's going to vote for, you know, let's ride the backs of the downtrodden to help the rich. | ||
| You know, anybody who does that, you're not in it for the world, as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| And, you know, with what's showing every day when you turn the news on, it's not to try to make the world better. | ||
| And that's what our president is doing. | ||
| And anybody who allows it to happen in front of their face is complacent and will definitely be, you know, in the history books. | ||
| So, thank you. | ||
| All right, Kyle. | ||
| And real quick, the caller that asked about measles, it looks like this is the latest from the CDC. | ||
| Hospitalized, 85 have been hospitalized. | ||
| Those that have died are three, if I'm understanding that correctly, possibly four. | ||
| But that's the information we have. | ||
| But you can find that at cdc.gov if you'd like more information on measles. | ||
| Well, here's Vice President JD Vance. | ||
| He was at Bitcoin 2025. | ||
| It's a conference in Las Vegas, and he made these remarks yesterday. | ||
| 50 million Americans own Bitcoin, and I believe that's going to be 100 million before too long. | ||
| But it's not just about Bitcoin and about the value that's been generated, the wealth that's been generated by so many millions of our fellow citizens. | ||
| Through decentralized finance, crypto has transformed how Americans transact with one another. | ||
| It's expanded access to banking for many who may not otherwise have had it. | ||
| And every single day, I feel like I see some groundbreaking new use of blockchain tech, whether it's in supply chain management, whether it's in hospitals, or whether it's in changing how we track and store patients' private health records. | ||
| But for each of these new forward-looking applications, I also feel like there's an incredibly value-conservative element to crypto technology, and that's as a hedge. | ||
| Crypto is a hedge against bad policymaking from Washington, no matter what party is in control. | ||
| It's a hedge against skyrocketing inflation, which has eroded the real savings rate of Americans over the last four years. | ||
| And as you all know well, it's a hedge against the private sector that's increasingly willing to discriminate against consumers on the basis of their basic beliefs, including their politics. | ||
| His full remarks are on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| And this is Joe in Warrington, North Carolina. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Joe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you doing this morning? | |
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now, we're going to say something. | |
| I am just as old as Trump. | ||
| So therefore, what Trump is doing, he can't remember anything. | ||
| If you ask him a question, then he can. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| So therefore, he's deviating. | ||
| He can't remember anything. | ||
| And it's not Trump. | ||
| Trump is not smart enough. | ||
| It's Steve Miller is the one who's leading Trump. | ||
| Trump cannot remember anything. | ||
| If you notice, when you ask him a question, he'll start off in less than five minutes. | ||
| He'll deviate and go somewhere else to everything. | ||
| So they talk about Joe Biden remembering, but how many times have Trump ever finished any, any question without deviating and saying he can't say anything? | ||
| People need to, and they're talking about the medical, he needs to get his brains checked and they're lying about his physical condition because if you got a snake, what do you do? | ||
| You cut their head off. | ||
| And here's James in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've been getting a lot of scam calls, and I found out one way to get rid of that. | ||
| And that's to hang up on them if they don't mention your name first. | ||
| If they don't mention your name first, hang up on them. | ||
| That blocks them out. | ||
| And now I don't get no scam calls at all. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thanks for that, James. | ||
| And here's Ted in Ocean View, Hawaii, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Nice to see you, Mimi. | ||
| Yeah, I had noticed a few calls that you had on scam calls. | ||
| And the fellow before had mentioned that the best way to deal with that, to not get scammed, is to just hang up. | ||
| Whatever they're selling, you don't need. | ||
| No good will ever come of a scam call. | ||
| So you have the ability to hang the phone up. | ||
| And I, you know, I just learned, I just started texting this year. | ||
| How old are you, Ted? | ||
| Sorry? | ||
| How old are you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm 72. | |
| I retired the day Toronto Trump took office eight years ago is the day I walked into the office and told him I cannot work any longer. | ||
| And that was the manager of a $10 million macadamia factory. | ||
| And I said, I don't have to retire, but I cannot put up with this. | ||
| What have you been doing ever since? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've never had a mortgage on my house because I bought a hammer one day at Ace Hardware and I built my own house. | |
| It is a real standard 1,200 square foot, two-bedroom, two-bath, but I put it together quite well because I'm in the hurricane zone at the very tip of the big island of Hawaii, which is as far as Hawaii as you can go in south. | ||
| And so we do get hurricanes come by. | ||
| But the building inspector came by to inspect my house and he goes, Wow, you really went over code. | ||
| You overbuilt everything. | ||
| I said, yeah, because when the hurricane hits, I don't want to have to worry. | ||
| I built things. | ||
| So, Ted, is that what you called to talk about? | ||
| Was the scam calls? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, yes. | |
| Oh, okay. | ||
| I heard the other fellow. | ||
| And it's a big problem in our country. | ||
| And everybody has the ability to hang up the phone. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| And Andy is in Kentucky, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Andy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My goodness, I saw on the news there this morning that we have a U.S. court or some type of court judge is ruling to cancel Trump's tariffs. | ||
| And, oh my God, how does the courts get involved in tariffs between China and America? | ||
| Do they take it up for China? | ||
| So here's what. | ||
| So, Andy, here's the idea: they're saying that that is not appropriate for the president to be doing, that that's a function of Congress. | ||
| That's the kind of the idea. | ||
| It says, so here's what it says: Look, this is the Washington Post. | ||
| Are you still there, Andy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm here, but you're talking over me. | |
| So, so here it says: the trade court's ruling that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs on all imported goods brought an immediate, albeit perhaps temporary halt to his signature trade war policy. | ||
| It says the challenged tariff orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined. | ||
| It says the trade court's decision in a pair of lawsuits filed last month against the government applies to the 10% tariffs Trump imposed on all foreign products, as well as the much higher levies applied to goods from several dozen nations. | ||
| And that's the president invoking the 1977 law granting him emergency powers over the economy. | ||
| That's what the court said that they disagreed with. | ||
| That would be illegal for him to do that, that that would have to be the Congress levying those. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| What else did you want to say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| The courts are in better shape to do that than the president. | ||
| And you know, Congress is not going to do anything, whether it's Democrat or Republican-held Congress. | ||
| It's just they're taking up and they're ruling for China. | ||
| These courts are ruling for China. | ||
| This is incredible. | ||
| How in the world do these courts get involved with every single thing like that? | ||
| Get them out of the way. | ||
| It's not their place to do that. | ||
| They got their nose stuck in everything up everybody else's butt. | ||
| Get them out of there. | ||
| Get away from them. | ||
| Denny in Columbus, Ohio, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Denny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good lord. | |
| It's a pleasure to talk to you. | ||
| I heard two characterizations of Mr. Trump that are incorrect. | ||
| One color said he was crazy, which he's not. | ||
| And another said that he was an idiot, which is not. | ||
| Our virtual characterize our president as a man who has never read for pleasure. | ||
| Has never read for pleasure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Has never read for pleasure. | |
| Correct. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think that says a lot about so that's right. | |
| And you do a great job, Bob. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Denny. | ||
| And up next, we will talk to Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute. | ||
| We'll discuss the latest on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and Israel's role in the region. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
C-SPAN shop.org is C-SPAN's online store. | |
| Browse through our latest collection of C-SPAN products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. | ||
| There's something for every C-SPAN fan, and every purchase helps support our non-profit operations. | ||
| Shop now or anytime at cspanshop.org. | ||
| Looking to contact your members of Congress? | ||
| Well, C-SPAN is making it easy for you with our 2025 Congressional Directory. | ||
| Get essential contact information for government officials all in one place. | ||
| This compact, spiral-bound guide contains bio and contact information for every House and Senate member of the 119th Congress. | ||
| Contact information on congressional committees, the President's Cabinet, federal agencies, and state governors. | ||
| The Congressional Directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling. | ||
| And every purchase helps support C-SPAN's non-profit operations. | ||
| Scan the code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to order your copy today. | ||
| As Mike said before, I happened to listen to him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He was on C-SPAN 1. | |
| That's a big upgrade, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I've read about it in the history books. | |
| I've seen the C-SPAN footage. | ||
| If it's a really good idea, present it in public view on C-SPAN. | ||
| Every single time I tuned in on TikTok or C-SPAN or YouTube or anything, there were tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people watching. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I went home after the speech and I turned on C-SPAN. | |
| I was on C-SPAN just this week. | ||
| To the American people, now is the time to tune in to C-SPAN. | ||
| They had something $2.50 a gallon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I saw on television a little while ago in between my watching my great friends on C-SPAN. | |
| C-SPAN is televising this right now live. | ||
| So we are not just speaking to Los Angeles, we are speaking to the country. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We are talking about U.S.-Iran nuclear talks with Trita Parsi. | ||
| He's Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. | ||
| Trita, welcome to the program. | ||
| Thank you so much for having me. | ||
| So remind us of the Quincy Institute and what foreign policy positions it takes when it comes to arms control. | ||
| So the Quincy Institute is about five, six years old now in Washington. | ||
| It's a new think tank. | ||
| And it's very different because we favor a foreign policy that is centered on diplomacy and military restraint. | ||
| We favor a completely different grand strategy for the United States, one that has far less military interventions abroad and far more focus on how we have to strengthen ourselves at home and the use of diplomacy as the key tenant of foreign policy. | ||
| Well, let's talk about the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. | ||
| Are they talking directly or are they talking through intermediaries right now? | ||
| They're doing both. | ||
| There's both indirect talks, but there's also direct conversations. | ||
| It's been less reported in the media. | ||
| But bottom line is that they are talking. | ||
| They're making some advances. | ||
| And the fact that they're talking directly is very, very significant, mindful of the fact that during the entire four years of the Biden administration, they never managed to elevate it to a direct negotiation between the actual negotiators. | ||
| All right, so let's talk about where the two sides stand. | ||
| What are the kind of the must-haves on the Iranian side and what are the must-haves on the American side? | ||
| So the must-haves on the Iranian side are very clear because, as you know, this is not a new issue. | ||
| We've had negotiations before. | ||
| The Iranian red lines have been the same. | ||
| They absolutely will not give up enrichment on their own soil. | ||
| This is a red line that they've had for more than 20 years. | ||
| Whenever we have tried to get them to budge on that issue, all that has resulted in is that we don't get a deal, their program further advances, and any reasonable, realistic restraints that we can get on their program ends up getting delayed. | ||
| On the American side, it's a little bit less clear because Trump has never negotiated with the Iranians before. | ||
| He started off talking about his only red line being no weaponization. | ||
| Then a couple of weeks ago he started talking about that they have to dismantle the program, close their facilities, no enrichment, going back to a position the US has had before and unsuccessfully pursued. | ||
| But it doesn't seem clear to me as to whether that actually is the real red line or if it's part of the manner in which Trump tends to negotiate. | ||
| A lot of public negotiations, a lot of maximalist positions thrown out publicly, but not necessarily the real red lines at the negotiating table. | ||
| It remains to be seen. | ||
| I think, however, if Trump does not go back to his original red line, which is no weaponization, and insist on some of these things that we've tried before and doesn't work, he may miss a unique opportunity because I think he actually has the ability to get a better deal than Obama did. | ||
| Why does the Iranian side insist on continuing to enrich uranium? | ||
| Why is that a red line for them? | ||
| So this is actually a red line for them all the way back from the time of the Shah. | ||
| The Non-Proliferation Treaty does grant states, member states, the right to be able to use and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. | ||
| This entails enrichment on Iranian soil. | ||
| There's no explicit forbidding of enrichment on their solar energy. | ||
| Right, but why do they want to do it? | ||
| They've got plenty of energy. | ||
| They don't need nuclear energy. | ||
| That's not an argument that holds because at the end of the day, yes, they do have a lot of energy, but they're going to run out of that energy one day. | ||
| And other countries that have a lot of energy, such as the United States, nevertheless diversifies, uses all kinds of different energy sources. | ||
| If you're not dependent on import of energy from abroad, it would be quite foolish for you to allow yourself to become dependent on it. | ||
| So I think the Iranians want to make sure that they have this energy domestically so they can export more oil abroad. | ||
| And later on, when oil and gas is run out, they still have other sources of energy. | ||
| You mentioned the deal with Obama. | ||
| That's the JCPOA. | ||
| Can you remind us of the provisions in that and why you think that President Trump could possibly get a better deal than that one? | ||
| So the JCPOA, and I was a strong supporter of it, I still think it was a very good deal, essentially agreed to limitations to the Iranian nuclear program, massive restrictions on how much they could enrich, how much low-enriched uranium they could have on their own soil. | ||
| They could not have any medium or high-level enrichment. | ||
| They could only enrich to 3.67%. | ||
| They could never have more than 300 kilos of low-enriched uranium on their own soil. | ||
| You need 1,200 to actually build a bomb. | ||
| They had inspections at every level at every stage of their program with IAEA cameras inside of the nuclear program. | ||
| In return, the Iranians were promised sanctions relief. | ||
| Not all of that actually came through. | ||
| The reason why Trump can get a better deal, in my view, is because Trump is willing to put more sanctions relief on the table. | ||
| Obama only lifted secondary sanctions. | ||
| Those are the sanctions the United States imposes on foreign companies if they go into the Iranian market. | ||
| Primary sanctions are the sanctions that the U.S. government imposes on U.S. companies if they go into the Iranian market. | ||
| He never lifted the primary sanctions. | ||
| So no American company actually managed to get into the Iranian economy except for Boeing, who was written into the deal. | ||
| So Trump already back in 2015 when he was complaining about the JCPOA saying that it was a bad deal, saying it was unfair, was pointing to the fact that this deal benefited Russian, Chinese, European companies, but no American companies. | ||
| He's willing to put primary sanctions on the table. | ||
| He seems to have an attitude in which he views sanctions largely as a punishment of American companies. | ||
| If he's willing to put more on the table, he can also ask more of the Iranians. | ||
| But there's a difference between asking for more and asking for everything. | ||
| There is a sweet spot there, and I think if both sides are reasonable and pragmatic, they can find it. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation with Trita Parsi and ask a question about the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations, you can do so. | ||
| Our lines are biparty. | ||
| So, Democrats can call us on 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans on 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Tell us about Steve Witkoff, his role. | ||
| He's the major, he's a special Middle East envoy, and what you see as his qualifications for the role. | ||
| So, Witkoff is an old friend of Donald Trump. | ||
| They have very strong trust. | ||
| He does not have much experience in this specific field, certainly doesn't have expertise when it comes to the technical aspects of it, and this would be a very technical deal, although it seems like he's quickly learning a lot of the details about it. | ||
| But he has a couple of qualities that is extremely valuable. | ||
| First of all, he is deeply trusted by Trump, and he does not have an agenda of his own. | ||
| In the past, in these negotiations, there's been some challenges. | ||
| There were efforts during the first Trump administration. | ||
| Trump wanted a deal. | ||
| The Iranians were willing to explore it towards the end of his presidency. | ||
| But the person in between was Mike Pompeo, Secretary Pompeo, who was doing everything he could to sabotage it. | ||
| Now, Trump has an envoy that is really following Trump's agenda. | ||
| That's very important because it gives him credibility at the negotiating table. | ||
| Secondly, precisely because he doesn't have that much of a background, he can be a little bit more creative. | ||
| He is more pragmatic and inclined to actually get a deal rather than be stuck in the old dead ends that have existed in this very, very lengthy conflict that has been going on. | ||
| So he seems to have the ability to be able to get deals. | ||
| Whether the follow-through is there to the extent that it needs to be remains to be seen. | ||
| But it's very fascinating to see that in the region, whether it is with the Qataris, whether it is with Iranians or others, he seems to have gained a lot of respect. | ||
| Well, let's take a look at Steve Witkoff. | ||
| He was on ABC's This Week recently, and he talked about the status of U.S.-Iran talks and the possibility of Iranian nuclear enrichment. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
| Can you give us a sense of what is the outline of the deal that President Trump wants to get with Iran? | ||
| Well, the President has been very clear. | ||
| He wants to solve this conflict diplomatically and with dialogue. | ||
| And he's given all the signals. | ||
| He's directly sent letters to the Supreme Leader. | ||
| I have been dispatched to deliver that message as well, and I've delivered it. | ||
| But on the other hand, we have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. | ||
| We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability. | ||
| We've delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them. | ||
| And so that's important. | ||
| We want to get to a solution here. | ||
| And we think that we will be able to. | ||
| But everything begins from our standpoint, John, with a deal that does not include enrichment. | ||
| We cannot have that because enrichment enables weaponization and we will not allow a bomb to get here. | ||
| But short of that, there are all kinds of ways for us to achieve our goals in this negotiation. | ||
| We think that we will be meeting sometime this week in Europe, and we hope that it will lead to some real positivity. | ||
| And that's where we are, sir. | ||
| Steve Woodcoff, and he said not even 1% enrichment he would allow for Iran. | ||
| I think if that ends up being the final position, there's not going to be a deal. | ||
| We have plenty of experience, more than 20 years of seeing that not working out. | ||
| There may be some variations of this. | ||
| So there is some talk right now that there may be an international consortium, meaning that enrichment would take place on Iranian soil, but there would be other countries involved in the enrichment activities and present in the facilities. | ||
| That may then be able to be presented as a no enrichment. | ||
| only by the Iranians because they won't be doing it alone. | ||
| So there may be some areas of flexibility there, but if the position is entirely zero enrichment, which is the same position that John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and others pursued, which gave Trump zero wins on this issue, then I don't think we will have a deal. | ||
| And unfortunately, given what Trump has said, it means that there will be a gravitation towards a military confrontation. | ||
| Do you think that they would be willing to take a temporary cease to their enrichment activities to say, you know, stop for one year and we'll give you this much sanction relief? | ||
| I find it very unlikely. | ||
| They've done it once before in 2003 to 2005. | ||
| That was with the Europeans, not with the United States. | ||
| This was meant to be a confidence-building measure, but once it was tied to the duration of the negotiations, once they stopped enrichment, the Europeans slowed down the negotiations because as long as the negotiations technically were going on, the Iranians were forced to retain that suspension. | ||
| When they broke it in 2005, there was a major crisis. | ||
| If the same thing happens this time, this is part of the reason why I think the Iranians are so suspicious of this, that what is supposed to be a temporary halt ends up becoming a permanent halt because the cost of restarting it is going to be so high. | ||
| So I find that unlikely. | ||
| Could it end up being a week, two weeks, something like that? | ||
| Perhaps. | ||
| But what the administration appears to have thrown out is for there to be a three-year halt, which means for the duration of Trump's presidency. | ||
| I find it to be essentially impossible for the Iranians to agree that. | ||
| Now you talked about sanctions relief for Iran. | ||
| They also want their oil revenues to be unfrozen, those assets. | ||
| Can you explain how that's working, who's freezing them, how much money are we talking about? | ||
| So as part of the sanctions that the United States has imposed on Iran, a lot of Iran's oil revenue is held in foreign banks in other countries in which the Iranians no longer have access to them because the banks are not allowed to release the money to the Iranians. | ||
| There were some efforts during the Biden administration in which those monies would be released about $6 billion, but it actually wouldn't go to the Iranians. | ||
| They would sit in Qatar. | ||
| And then whenever the Iranians needed to buy some food or medicine, they would send the list. | ||
| The Qataris would check it with the U.S. government and then the money would be used to purchase that. | ||
| But when the actual JCPA was struck, then those monies were released back to the Iranians because it's their money and the sanctions had been lifted. | ||
| How close is Iran to being able to weaponize and to make a nuclear weapon? | ||
| So this is a very, very concerning situation right now. | ||
| During the JCPOA, as long as Iran was in the deal, which they were, as long as the U.S. was in the deal, but Trump pulled out of the deal, the Iranian breakout capability, as we call it, is the amount of time it would take for them from making a decision to build a bomb to having the material for a bomb, not having a bomb, but having the material for a bomb, was a minimum of 12 months. | ||
| Today, as a result of Trump pulling out of the deal and the restrictions falling off, the Iranians are somewhere between three and seven days from having, but that's having the material for the bomb. | ||
| Having a bomb is a different thing because they have to test it, they have to put it on a vehicle, et cetera, et cetera. | ||
| That could probably take another year or two years. | ||
| But it means that they're much, much closer and have much more leverage than they did before as a result of us pulling out of the deal, insisting on unrealistic demands such as zero enrichment, which as I said earlier on has only led to their program expanding and the kind of realistic restrictions being delayed. | ||
| All right, let's talk to a caller. | ||
| We'll start with Bob in Greenbush, Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've seen speculation from experts that Iran is just delaying a talk long enough to get an agreement similar to NATO's Article 5 with Russia, China, and North Korea. | ||
| Is there any validity to that? | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
| I find that completely unlikely. | ||
| The Chinese, the Russians, are not in the habit of providing that type of Article 5 agreements with anyone in which they actually would go and defend another country. | ||
| Nor are the Iranians seeking that. | ||
| The Iranians are seeking to make sure that they have as much of an independent capacity to defend themselves rather than relying on some form of a guarantee from another major power. | ||
| The Iranians view themselves as a major power. | ||
| And as a major power, they don't ask for security guarantees from anyone else. | ||
| It says, this is Lou in Montclair, Virginia. | ||
| He's asking, why does Iran insist on enriching uranium beyond 3 to 5% when only 3 to 5% is needed for peaceful nuclear power purposes? | ||
| Well, the Iranians actually don't insist on that because in the JCPOA, they were up to 20%. | ||
| And as a result of the JCPOA, they went down to 3.67%, which is the level you need in order to be able to build fuel pads for reactors to produce civilian energy. | ||
| In this deal, if there is a deal, they will have to agree to go down to 3.67 again. | ||
| And they have not made any indications that they won't agree to that. | ||
| What they have made very clear is that they won't go down to zero. | ||
| Now, we talked about sanctions relief. | ||
| We talked about lifting of the frozen assets that Iran has from their oil sales. | ||
| The criticism, of course, is that they will fund terrorism around the world. | ||
| They fund Hamas, they fund Hezbollah, they fund the Houthis, some of the Syrian, of course, the Syrian regime that fell, the Assad regime. | ||
| What do you make of that? | ||
| I mean, on the one hand, you know, that is a bargaining tool, but on the other, we certainly don't want more funding going to terrorist organizations. | ||
| First of all, the amount of funding is so minimal it will not be affected by this. | ||
| But the real logical conclusion of that argument is that you have to starve Iran completely to death in order to avoid that. | ||
| So that's now how things work. | ||
| The way things work is that if you actually have a deal with the Iranians, particularly if Trump manages to open up the Iranian economy to American companies, and you have an improvement of relations, then you have leverage to be able to pressure the Iranians to abandon or limit or change many of those different relationships. | ||
| Now, something has also happened in the last year, which is that, first of all, Hamas and Iran's relations were never particularly strong to begin with, but that relationship is more or less gone at this point. | ||
| As you pointed out, there is no Assad regime left. | ||
| Hezbollah is significantly weakened. | ||
| The Houthis were never, never an Iranian proxy. | ||
| That is absolutely clear. | ||
| This is a very independent movement that oftentimes publicly have criticized the Iranians for not being aggressive enough vis-a-vis the United States or vis-a-vis Israel. | ||
| So much of Iran's network in the region have already been significantly weakened. | ||
| This is part of the reason why there's an argument saying, well, Iran is so weak, you should actually push for zero enrichment. | ||
| It is true. | ||
| They're weakened in the region. | ||
| They're not weaker in terms of their nuclear program or in terms of their missile program. | ||
| That's part of the reason why it's very important in negotiations like this, making sure that we have a realistic assessment of where we are and where they are, so that we don't make demands that actually misses the mark. | ||
| Same thing is true for the Iranians. | ||
| If the Iranis were to come out with some dramatic demands for complete sanctions relief on everything and removal of U.S. troops from various regions or things of that nature, or doing what the Saudis have asked for, instance, wanting to have a security pact with the U.S. or things of that nature, those would be complete non-starters and would cause the collapse of the negotiations. | ||
| I wonder what you see as the situation with Israel specifically. | ||
| Israel has threatened to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. | ||
| They've never done that in the past. | ||
| There have been an exchange of missiles in the past, but never on a nuclear facility. | ||
| How did you react when you heard that? | ||
| That they are making those threats. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So I personally don't believe that the Israelis actually will act without the United States for several reasons. | ||
| First of all, I don't think that Tanya is willing to challenge Trump in the same manner that he was quite comfortable challenging Biden. | ||
| And Trump has made it clear that he doesn't want to see any attacks because he sees it as an effort to sabotage the negotiations that he is currently conducting. | ||
| Do you think that's true? | ||
| Do you think that's why Israel would strike in order to sabotage those talks? | ||
| The Israelis apparently have told Trump, or at least told the media that they told the U.S. government, that they may strike even if there is a successful deal. | ||
| At the end of the day, from the Israeli perspective, any deal seems to be unacceptable because any deal would reduce U.S.-Iran tensions. | ||
| And the Israelis ask themselves the question, does that entail a proportionate reduction in Iranian-Israeli tensions? | ||
| And they don't believe it will. | ||
| And as a result, it kicks in the fear of what they call abandonment, that the United States would move on because the region is not that important to the United States any longer. | ||
| The vast majority of Americans want American soldiers to come home. | ||
| They absolutely do not want another war in the Middle East. | ||
| So the Israelis see this and they realize that the United States is going to leave and it's not going to have the same tensions with Iran, but Israel is going to have still tense relationship with the Iranians. | ||
| And as a result, they want to keep the United States involved in the region, strong presence militarily in the region, and be fully on Israel's side in case of a conflict. | ||
| So we've had plenty of experience of seeing there's nothing that actually appeases the Israelis in terms of some modalities of a deal that would be acceptable. | ||
| So why does Iran back Hamas? | ||
| What are they gaining from doing that? | ||
| So the Iranian strategy in the region, which at this point clearly has been quite a failure, has been what they call forward defense. | ||
| The fact that they believe that if they don't do these things, if they don't have investment in Hezbollah, in Hamas, in other movements, particularly Iraqi militias, the United States after 2003 would have also invaded Iran, which clearly was the path, the plan. | ||
| We know that, that that was the Bush administration's plan. | ||
| But the Iranians sabotaged and destabilized Iraq, built up these militias, making sure that the U.S. got stuck in Iraq in order for it not to be able to continue onto Iran. | ||
| After that, they expanded this strategy and built it out further. | ||
| At this point, much of this has been a failure because, as we talked about, Syria has fallen, Hezbollah is much weakened, and Iran has much more ended up becoming a target rather than being able to have these layers of defense that it could rely on so that the Iranian mainland itself would be protected. | ||
| This is part of the reason, not the only reason, that I think the Iranians are much more willing to make a deal now than they were just a couple of years ago. | ||
| Another part of the reason is precisely the fact that Trump is willing to put far more sanctions relief on the table. | ||
| The Iranians need sanctions relief. | ||
| Their economy is in shatters. | ||
| And if they continue on this path, eventually, it's not close to collapse at this point, even though it's very, very bad. | ||
| But eventually, Iran will fall behind the rest of the region so much that it will cause all kinds of different problems for them. | ||
| This provides the U.S. leverage, particularly if the U.S. is willing to put sanctions relief on the table. | ||
| And this is why I do think that there is an opportunity to get a deal. | ||
| But both sides have to drop any maximalist positions that they have. | ||
| Let's talk to Anthony in Greentown, Pennsylvania, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Anthony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning, Amy. | |
| Good morning, sir. | ||
| Good morning, She Stan. | ||
| I have a question, a few questions, actually, if you don't mind. | ||
| I have three. | ||
| The first one is: when Obama made the deal with Iran, there was a limitation for a number of years where Iran could not build a nuclear weapon. | ||
| To my understanding, that extension of that time would have ended by now or would have been close to ending where Iran would have a nuclear or would have the ability to build a nuclear weapon at their disposal without anybody saying a word. | ||
| That's question number one. | ||
| Number two, the Israelis, that I understand, effectively took out all of Iran's, maybe not all, but a large majority of Iran's defensive weapons when they bombed them the last time. | ||
| What gives Iran the ability to prevent an attack now? | ||
| And why is that a strong position for them? | ||
| Because the Israelis would like to take out those nuclear facilities, and I understand there's not much keeping them back except for maybe Mr. Trump. | ||
| So that gives Trump a very strong position with Iran to negotiate. | ||
| The third one is, where are the people in Iran about this? | ||
| Are they in the loop? | ||
| Are they able to potentially overthrow this regime? | ||
| Whether or not that's a possibility, I'd like to answer that question as well. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Those are three excellent questions. | ||
| Let me start off with the first questions about their missile defenses. | ||
| The Israelis took out some of the missile defenses that they had. | ||
| However, the issue with their nuclear program, particularly the Fordo facility, is that it is so deep underground that the Israelis do not have the capability of taking it out. | ||
| It's not a function of whether the Iranians have effective air defenses or not. | ||
| Even the United States has doubts as to whether its bombs have the ability of completely taking out. | ||
| Several secretaries of defense in a row have made it clear that they believe that bombing Iran would only cause the Iranians to dig their program deeper and eventually build a bomb, making it much more likely that they will build a bomb if they are attacked. | ||
| Because at that point, they can walk out of the non-proliferation treaty, kick out all the inspectors, and the program becomes a complete black box. | ||
| As to the first question in regards to whether there would be expirations that would allow the Iranians to build a weapon, the first cause of the JCPOA is a commitment from Iran to never build nuclear weapons. | ||
| Some of the restrictions that expired did not allow the Iranians to build a bomb. | ||
| It's about the level of the size of the program, things of that nature, not whether the Iranians would be able to build a bomb. | ||
| And the most important aspects of the deal were actually permanent. | ||
| That is the inspections and verification elements of the deal. | ||
| Those would never expire. | ||
| And as a result, the world would have complete insight into what was happening in the Iranian program. | ||
| So the likelihood that the Iranians would have built a bomb after 15 or 20 years is still extremely small and probably as small as we could restrain it. | ||
| As to the third question, the position of the Iranian people. | ||
| I think, first of all, the Iranian people, by and large, are completely opposed to the current regime. | ||
| They have lost legitimacy. | ||
| There is a small minority, not small necessarily, 15 to 20 percent, that still support the regime. | ||
| But by and large, the population, particularly the younger people, have completely lost faith in the legitimacy of the regime, but also in the belief that the regime actually can be reformed into something better. | ||
| This was a belief that they held 15 or so years ago. | ||
| Today, at least amongst the young people, that belief seems to be gone. | ||
| At the same time, however, it's very clear that they do want a deal with the United States because they need to improve their economic situations and they do not want to see a military confrontation. | ||
| And again, I'm talking about the vast majority, not necessarily everyone. | ||
| I'm sure there's some minorities here and there that would prefer something else. | ||
| But the vast majority have seen what has happened in Syria, have seen what has happened in Iraq, have seen what has happened in Afghanistan, and not surprisingly, they are not jealous. | ||
| Well, Alfredo in Michigan says this on text. | ||
| I think that if certain countries have the right to have nuclear weapons, then all countries should have the same rights. | ||
| What do you think of Iran having a nuclear weapon? | ||
| What does the world look like in that sense? | ||
| There is no such thing as having a right to a nuclear weapon. | ||
| The Iranians themselves signed the non-proliferation treaty already back in 1950 or so, which then means that they have given up any type of an aspiration for a bomb, and they need to be held to that commitment because they signed that agreement. | ||
| Okay, but what if they do get one? | ||
| Hypothetically, what does the world look like? | ||
| If they were to get a nuclear weapon, there is a risk that there would be a cascading effect in the region. | ||
| The Saudis have said that they will build a nuclear weapon. | ||
| The Turks may do so as well. | ||
| The Egyptians may do so. | ||
| We would risk seeing the nuclearization of the entire Middle East. | ||
| And given all of the additional problems that we already have in the Middle East, it is difficult to say that that actually would be a movement in the right direction. | ||
| Incidentally, it would likely affect the Iranians more negatively than the others, because Iran is a major country in terms of population size, size, resources, etc. | ||
| It has a conventional natural superiority, vis-à-vis most of its neighbors. | ||
| If it weaponizes and the rest of the region weaponizes, then they're all at parity. | ||
| Tiny Bahrain, which is a fraction of Iran's size in population and geographic size, would be equal to Iran if both of them have a nuclear weapon and both of them can destroy each other. | ||
| So there is a natural resistance inside of Iran to go for a bomb. | ||
| In fact, this is part of the reason why after 50, 60 years of having a nuclear program, they don't have a bomb, because it's not a clear-cut decision for them. | ||
| It has a lot of negativity for them if they build a bomb. | ||
| Here's Steve in Maitland, Florida, Republican line. | ||
| Good morning, Steve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| How are you, guys? | ||
| I appreciate the conversation. | ||
| There's a couple of things that I wanted to bring up that may differ with you, guys. | ||
| First of all, we have bombers and we have facilities in Diego, Garcia. | ||
| And the bombs that we have put and the planes over there, the B-2 and some of the other planes that we have put over there could be do deep bunker busters into Iran. | ||
| The Israelis also capitated Biden, President Biden ruined the Israelis by not giving them certain weapons. | ||
| President Trump has given them the weapons. | ||
| I think at this point between President Obama and President Biden for rebuilding their economy, making up these fake treaties with them, making deals they won't give bombs and all this nonsense, that they won't build any bombs, and giving them money has made them closer to get the bomb. | ||
| Now under President Trump, of course, the sanctions are taking effect. | ||
| You're also leaving out the factor of China and Russia. | ||
| There's a lot of oil that moves out of that region, a lot of dark oil that no one is talking about, that is funding Iran, that President Trump should go after. | ||
| He should decapitate it. | ||
| The Iranians are very, very weak. | ||
| Their defenses are tremendously weak. | ||
| And the people in there are great people, and they really need to overthrow their government. | ||
| I believe that Israel will take them out. | ||
| President Trump can make the deal all he wants. | ||
| I know that Mr. Witkoff is over there, and they're pretty close to a deal, and they may be this and that. | ||
| But once President Trump leaves office, Iran could do what it wants again if we get the wrong administration in the United States. | ||
| Steve, let's get a response. | ||
| Thank you so much, Steve. | ||
| Let me give you a couple of corrections. | ||
| During the time that the JCPOA was in place, the restrictions that was put on the Iranian program is what made sure that they actually didn't progress the program and they were a minimum one year away from having the material for the bomb. | ||
| Once Trump pulled out of the agreement, the Iranians went up, started enriching at 20%, started enriching at 60%, and they ended up in a situation in which the number of cascades, the number of centrifuges, the amount of low enrichment, medium, and 60% stockpile grew quite dramatically and ended up in a scenario in which much closer to having the material for the bomb today than they were before as a result of us walking out of the deal. | ||
| So the time in which that program grew is when we didn't have a deal rather than when we had a deal. | ||
| So I think it's important to recognize that and recognize that the alternative that you're arguing for is another major war, much, much more complicated, much more dangerous than the Iraq War or the Afghanistan wars combined. | ||
| Because in the case of the Iranians, they have missile capabilities. | ||
| When the Iranians struck Israel on October 1st of last year, they penetrated all of Israel's air defenses. | ||
| The Arrows, the Patriots, the Iron Dome, David Sling, all of them. | ||
| And they managed to get a large number of missiles through. | ||
| This caused the Pentagon at the time to revise upward their casualty estimation of the number of Americans that would be killed if there was a war between the United States and Iran. | ||
| I suspect that that estimation has been revised further upwards after a single Houthi missile also managed to penetrate all of Israel's air defenses just a couple of weeks ago, as well as the American THAD system that has been placed in Israel now as a result of the failure of the other Israeli air defenses. | ||
| So we're talking about a very devastating war. | ||
| And if there's anything I think Trump understands about the base that elected him is that they are sick and tired of meaningless wars in the region to resolve conflicts that can be much better resolved through diplomacy. | ||
| Let's talk to another Steve, this one in Jackson, Michigan. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Steve. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I thank you for taking my call. | ||
| My question is more of a question about intuition. | ||
| You're obviously an expert. | ||
| You know a lot about all the players involved. | ||
| When you wake up in the morning, how do you feel it's going to go? | ||
| What will be your future? | ||
| What will be our future as a planet? | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| Thank you, Steve. | ||
| As a planet is a much larger question than I think our topic today. | ||
| But I think it's a wonderful question if you limit it to what will happen on this issue. | ||
| My intuition is that cooler heads will prevail. | ||
| There will be some form of a deal. | ||
| I think it can be a very good deal. | ||
| I think this is something that can end up becoming a turning point. | ||
| The United States and Iran have been enemies for more than 40 years. | ||
| This is an opportunity to turn the corner. | ||
| The U.S. and Iran don't have to become best friends. | ||
| And in many ways, that may be very difficult and perhaps not even fully desirable. | ||
| But it is in our interest to reduce the number of countries that we have tensions with. | ||
| And here is an opportunity to do so. | ||
| And I do think that cooler heads in Tehran and in Washington can prevail on this issue. | ||
| But again, as I said earlier on, it really requires that maximalist positions from all sides are set aside. | ||
| Well, speaking of positions, this is Barb in Illinois who says, who wants your opinion on Iranian requests for the U.S. to temporarily lift sanctions before negotiating any nuclear deal? | ||
| I don't think the U.S. would agree to that. | ||
| I think that is not a request that is likely to be a serious one from the Iranians. | ||
| They should also recognize that that is a non-starter. | ||
| The U.S. is not going to lift any sanctions before negotiations begin. | ||
| Now, they are talking about perhaps an interim deal, something before you get a final deal. | ||
| There could be sanctions relief as part of that interim deal if there are also significant restrictions that the Iranians agreed to as part of that interim deal. | ||
| Part of the reason why they're looking at an interim deal is because the clock is ticking and there is something called the snapback sanctions at the UN. | ||
| In October, they expire. | ||
| These are sanctions that are actually part of the JCPOA that would cause, if the Europeans trigger it, it would cause all previous UN sanctions on Iran to automatically be reinstated and the Russians and the Chinese cannot veto it. | ||
| The Europeans are inclined to use it before they lose it, but this has then created a very stark deadline to make sure that something is agreed upon before that happens. | ||
| Because if it happens, and all of those sanctions are reimposed, the Iranians have said that not only will they walk out of the JCPA, they will walk out of the non-proliferation treaty as a whole. | ||
| If they actualize that counter threat, then we're going to be in a very, very dark and dangerous escalatory situation, a complete unknown, nothing that we have experienced before. | ||
| And I think both Trump and the Iranians are eager to get something done before that deadline. | ||
| This is Richard in Marion, Illinois, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Richard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Morning. | |
| Yes. | ||
| I'm wondering how does the basic values that differ between Saudi Arabia and that of what is the position of the supreme leader in Iran relate? | ||
| And where is there an element of resolution given the two different set of values and whatever the visionary long-term leadership in the Mideast? | ||
| is to be based upon, what we knew happened with regard to the war between Iraq and Iran at one point, because of the differences in the interpretation of Muslim values, and then also, what is the design between a vision of restoration. | ||
| I remember a gentleman by the name of Hooks Bede many years ago, who was a friend, and we had vision of a Lebanon that would have been the possible Petro EAST dollar or sterling silver new BANK OF England, so to speak, | ||
| but it would be held in in Lebanon and everything has gone to smithereens all around with regard to that sense of commonality based upon the differences in the dreams of a restoration of perhaps, the Ottoman Empire but at the same time, of a great Persian state similar to what had been experienced a long time ago in the past. | ||
| Got it, Richard. | ||
| Thank you, Richard. | ||
| Your question about Saudi Arabia and Iran is a very important one, because that is one of the big shifts that we have seen in the region. | ||
| For the last five or six years now, these two countries have been stark rivals. | ||
| The Saudis funded much of Saddam's invasion of Iran. | ||
| They've had bad relations for a long time. | ||
| Of course, Iran is a Shia power, Saudi Arabia is Sunni Wahhabi, so they've had significant differences. | ||
| The Chinese actually stepped in and finished a mediation that the Iraqis and Omanis had started and managed to get an agreement between the Saudis and the Iranians that have actually held up surprisingly well. | ||
| You now have a situation in which the Saudis are very adamant about avoiding a U.S.-Iran war and seeking to help secure a U.S.-Iran nuclear Agreement. | ||
| Whereas 10-15 years ago, the Saudis were on the side of the Israelis, very much against the deal and preferring that the United States went into war with Iran. | ||
| So this is a profound shift that has happened. | ||
| So what happened? | ||
| Why that profound shift? | ||
| Well, it started off with something that happened during the time of Trump. | ||
| Trump was pursuing maximum pressure, imposing all of these sanctions. | ||
| The Saudis were very much helping and supporting that policy. | ||
| The Iranians, after a while, punished the Saudis by attacking Saudi oil fields. | ||
| The Saudis expected that the United States would come to their aid and go to war with Iran. | ||
| And Trump essentially had the attitude that this was an attack on Saudi Arabia, not an attack on the United States. | ||
| And this really became a wake-up call for the Saudis, recognizing that the United States is no longer in the mood of going into war in the Middle East. | ||
| And as a result, they cannot be on this confrontational path with Iran because they don't have American military power that they can hide behind. | ||
| So negotiations started. | ||
| It went slowly at first, but eventually the Saudis went to the Chinese and asked for help for them to come in and help take it over the finishing line. | ||
| And part of the reason why the Chinese could do this is because they have very strong relations with Iran and very strong relations with the Saudis. | ||
| So they became a guarantor of that agreement. | ||
| One more question for you, and that is how the war in Gaza might be affecting U.S.-Iran negotiations. | ||
| I think the main challenge with the war in Gaza has been, from the Iranian perspective, or how it would affect the U.S.-Iran equation, is if this would lead to a broadening of the war that would bring the U.S., bring the Israelis and the Iranians into direct blows, which happened twice in 2024. |