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The latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | |
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| This is Washington Journal for Sunday, June 15th. | ||
| Massive search is underway this morning for the man behind the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and what authorities say were politically motivated attacks. | ||
| And yesterday, the U.S. Army marked its 250th birthday with the parade in the nation's capital. | ||
| The military parade, which coincided with President Trump's 79th birthday, also sparked protests across the country. | ||
| For the first hour of today's program, we want to hear your thoughts, get your reaction to those events. | ||
| Here are the lines: Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text your comments to 202-748-8003. | ||
| Be sure to include your name and city. | ||
| You can also post a question or comment on Facebook at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Good morning and thank you for being with us. | ||
| We will get to your calls, comments in just a few moments, but wanted to start with the news out of Minnesota. | ||
| This is from the Associated Press. | ||
| It says hundreds of law officers fanned out across a Minneapolis suburb Saturday in pursuit of a man who authorities say posed as a police officer and fatally shot a Democratic state lawmaker in her home in what Governor Tim Walz called a politically motivated assassination. | ||
| Authorities said the suspect also shot and wounded a second lawmaker and was believed to be trying to flee the area. | ||
| Democratic former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed in their Brooklyn Park home. | ||
| Senator John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife Yvette, were injured at their champlain address about nine miles away. | ||
| Authorities identified the suspect as 57-year-old Vance Bowler, and the FBI issued a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. | ||
| Authority displayed a photo taken Saturday of Bowler wearing a tan cowboy hat and asked the public to report sightings. | ||
| Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions, said investigators obtained video as well. | ||
| He did not give details on a possible motive. | ||
| It was yesterday after those shootings that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke to reporters. | ||
| Here's a clip from that event. | ||
| This was an act of targeted political violence. | ||
| Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. | ||
| We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint. | ||
| In the state of Minnesota, and as recently as last week, in the most closely divided state legislature in the country, we sat down, we worked things out, we debated, we shook hands and compromised, and we served the state of Minnesota together. | ||
| We've proved that it's possible, even in these politically charged times, to find compromise and adhere to the principles of democracy and civil discourse. | ||
| We must all, Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence. | ||
| At this precipice moment we're on, this tragic act here in Minnesota should serve as a reminder to all of us. | ||
| The democracy and the debates in the halls of Congress, in state houses, in school boards is a way to settle our differences peacefully and move society to a better place. | ||
| Yesterday, President Trump also responded to the shooting. | ||
| He posted this on Truth Social. | ||
| He says, I have been briefed on the terrible shootings that took place in Minnesota, which appears to be a targeted attack against state lawmakers. | ||
| Our Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI are investigating the situation, and they will be prosecuting anyone involved to the fullest extent of the law. | ||
| Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. | ||
| God bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place. | ||
| That shooting of those lawmakers, as well as the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army yesterday, marked with a parade stories that we are talking about for the first hour. | ||
| Again, if you would like to call in and make a comment, the lines there on your screens, Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| We will start with Marilyn in Tennessee line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Marilyn. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I have a great idea. | ||
| I think this should be on the ballot for every state to vote on. | ||
| Congress and Senate are federal workers. | ||
| How come we're not cutting their benefits and making them get rid of all of their pages and make them do their job? | ||
| How many have said they haven't actually read this bill and didn't know certain things were in it? | ||
| What are they there for? | ||
| They're there to make sure they know what the bill pertains. | ||
| Secondly, what's going on with people being arrested that are elected by the public? | ||
| This is just ludicrous. | ||
| I used to be a staunch Republican, but I will never go back. | ||
| I really wish they would impeach Donald Trump. | ||
| Thank you and have a wonderful day. | ||
| Let's talk with Guy in St. Augustine, Florida, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Guy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking the call. | ||
| In reference to the parade, I guess I'm a little sorry and embarrassed on how our country seems to be headed. | ||
| I'm sorry that it was presented as a birthday parade for the president in spite of the 250-year Army celebration that I did watch. | ||
| I think we're really headed in a dangerous position. | ||
| I'm happy that all the No Kings Days came off with relatively no incidences. | ||
| It's just unfortunate after all this time that this administration has been an embarrassment, I think, for the party and I'm sure for the country. | ||
| And I hope that there's some blowback when the president gets to Canada on all his current activities. | ||
| It's just a shame. | ||
| Guy, you said that you watched the parade yesterday. | ||
| What did you think? | ||
|
unidentified
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I thought it was well done. | |
| It was staged at $48 plus million dollars. | ||
| I think it was excessive. | ||
| They could have just had the Army out there without spending all the money and moving a bunch of hardware. | ||
| That we all know what it is. | ||
| And it's, you know, they could have had more flyovers and not wasted the money that should go into essential projects for the country. | ||
| It's just, you know, the troops are doing a great job. | ||
| They should have a commander-in-chief that at least has served in the military and not dodged the draft. | ||
| So that's my feelings. | ||
| That was Guy in Florida. | ||
| Leslie in Norwalk, Connecticut, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Leslie. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, and I'm so grateful for your program that you listened to both sides, all sides. | |
| I really appreciate that. | ||
| I send peace to family and friends of the senators in Minnesota. | ||
| I had to work yesterday, and so I joined the protest late. | ||
| And what I appreciate most about doing that is that when I was walking along, I was with some folks who were just walking. | ||
| And I said, peaceful protest to myself, peaceful protest doesn't mean that you're quiet necessarily. | ||
| And so I had to find, I had to keep walking a little faster. | ||
| And I found the people that were loud as I like to be loud at these protests. | ||
| And I realized that the folks who are walking quietly, that is their right to walk quietly. | ||
| And it is also my right to walk and speak up and respond to all the wonderful people with their megaphones. | ||
| And I've purchased myself a copy of the Constitution and have been reading it, and I understand now why there's a Supreme Court that can interpret this stuff because it can be a little heady. | ||
| But Article 6 says that this document is the supreme law of the land. | ||
| And it is not one person who is the supreme law of the land. | ||
| It is the Constitution that was made by the people for the people. | ||
| And that's what I want to say. | ||
| Leslie, you said that you went to a protest yesterday after you got off of work. | ||
| Why was it important for you to be out there? | ||
|
unidentified
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Because it is important for me to have my voice heard. | |
| There's so many aspects of my life that my voice hasn't been heard. | ||
| And I appreciate the ability to get loud, to really get loud and have it be okay. | ||
| And on one side of my sign, I said, you know, thank you to the local police for protecting our First Amendment rights. | ||
| They can be Republican, they can be Democrat, they can be independent, they can be green. | ||
| Their job is to protect people who are protesting. | ||
| And I always appreciate that, that the officers are there, and they're bipartisan. | ||
| They say we just want people to be safe. | ||
| And it's just a wonderful thing that so many people are out there saying, this is not acceptable. | ||
| It's just as a human being, it's not acceptable. | ||
| That was Leslie in Connecticut. | ||
| Let's hear from Robert in Clearwater, Florida, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Tier. | |
| You know, I think the president is doing a great job. | ||
| I mean, the military people, they deserve that phrase. | ||
| It's 250 years ago that they started. | ||
| And also, he's doing a great job protecting his country. | ||
| I mean, these people are going around robbing, breaking the stores and stuff like that. | ||
| He's stopping them, putting the military. | ||
| He's doing the right thing. | ||
| He's sending the bad people back where they belong. | ||
| How can anybody talk about this president? | ||
| I mean, everybody has their past, but he's making up for his past doing what he's doing now. | ||
| And I think he's doing a great job. | ||
| And I think he's going to be like one of the best presidents that ever walked into. | ||
| And he's making up for every wrong thing he ever did in his life. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Robert in Florida. | ||
| Ingrid in Colorado, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Ingrid. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Hi, Ingrid. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, I just want to know what is going on with the United States right now. | ||
| Everything is an upheaval. | ||
| We have congressmen being pushed to the ground. | ||
| We have demonstrators that are demonstrating peacefully arrested in wheelchairs. | ||
| We have Democrats getting shot. | ||
| And it's all obviously tolerated. | ||
| We have people in Congress voting for bills. | ||
| They don't know what's in them. | ||
| That's their job. | ||
| Why would you vote for something you don't even know what is in the bill? | ||
| Those are my questions. | ||
| That was Ingrid in Colorado. | ||
| Let's hear from Bernie in Howard Beach, New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Bernie. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| So I have no questions. | ||
| I just would like to say that at first I was upset with the whole concept of the parade. | ||
| Now I'm pleased with the result because the country had a chance to look at the image of Donald Trump. | ||
| The long tie, the overweight, the drooping face. | ||
| He doesn't know how to salute the troops. | ||
| If you look at his hand, it's in the wrong place. | ||
| He's a pathetic person. | ||
| I'm not afraid of him anymore. | ||
| This helped me. | ||
| I was afraid of him. | ||
| I am not afraid of him. | ||
| And no one should be afraid of him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Bernie in New York and Bernie talking about the parade yesterday. | ||
| This is from the Associated Press. | ||
| It says that the grand military parade that President Donald Trump has been wanting for years barreled down on Constitution Avenue on Saturday with tanks, troops, and a 21-gun salute, playing out against a counterpoint of protest around the country by those who decried the U.S. leader as a dictator and would-be king. | ||
| The Republican president on his 79th birthday sat in a special viewing stand south of the White House to watch the display of American military might, which began early and moved swiftly as light rain fell and clouds shrouded the Washington Monument. | ||
| The procession with more than 6,000 soldiers and 120 Army tanks was one Trump tried to make happen in his first term after seeing such events in Paris in 2017, but the plans never came together until the parade was added to an event recognizing the Army's 250th anniversary. | ||
| It was yesterday at the event that President Trump spoke. | ||
| Here is some of his remarks. | ||
| Today we commemorate an event that did not just change American history, but change the history of the entire world. | ||
| With the creation of America's Army on June 14th, 1775, Liberty got its shield, freedom got its sword. | ||
| Those first Army patriots in the American Revolution fought against a fearsome enemy and impossible odds, but they were armed with a righteous cause. | ||
| They were led by an indomitable commander, a truly great man, General George Washington, and they were united by an eternal creed. | ||
| Their motto was victory or death. | ||
| Over the past two and a half centuries, our warriors have shown unrivaled valor on fields, a battle around the globe. | ||
| With the frost-bitten feet and bloody fist, they have marched into the flames and fury of combat, charged up mountains, stormed beaches, waded through torrents of gunfire, and leapt into skies thick with smoke and shrapnel. | ||
| U.S. Army has driven bayonets into the heart of sinister empires, crushed the ambitions of evil tyrants. | ||
| Beneath the threads of American tanks, it's done so well, it's done so much, and sent the devil himself flying into full retreat. | ||
| Time and again, America's enemies have learned that if you threaten the American people, our soldiers are coming for you. | ||
| your defeat will be certain, your demise will be final, and your downfall will be total and complete. | ||
| Because our soldiers never give up, never surrender, and never, ever quit. | ||
|
unidentified
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They fight, fight, fight, and they win, win, win. | |
| And that's why no institution in history has entered more names into the roster of American heroes than the U.S. Army, the Congressional Medal of Honor, more than anyone or anything. | ||
| There was Mad Anthony Wayne asked by George Washington to lead a daring midnight raid up the cliffs of Stony Point with unloaded muskets and only their bayonets to fight the Redcoats. | ||
| Mad Anthony replied, Issue the order, sir, and I will storm into hell for you. | ||
| The parade yesterday, this is a part of an article from The Hill on the takeaways from the parade. | ||
| It says, the threat of rain loomed in the days leading up to Saturday's event with forecasts showing a strong chance of storms during the parade. | ||
| Trump declared in a social media post on Saturday morning that the parade would carry on, quote, rain or shine. | ||
| The event was shifted up roughly 30 minutes, beginning closer to 6 p.m. and concluded with fireworks just before 9 p.m. | ||
| And while a few raindrops fell, the weather was a non-issue. | ||
| Says, still under the threat of possible lightning, the Army canceled a planned flyover of F-22 fighter jets and Thunderbirds. | ||
| Other aerial events went ahead, including a drop of the U.S. Army Golden Knights with at least eight troops parachuting in and landing behind the main riser as troops marched down Constitution Avenue. | ||
| That was followed by flights of Vietnam war-era helicopters over the National Mall, followed by a group of Apache attack helicopters, Blackhawks, and then Chinooks toward the end of the parade. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's hear from Mark in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Doing well, Mark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I really don't like parades, but the reaction from half these people makes me love it. | |
| You know, like I'm relatively patriotic, but it seems like Trump derangement syndrome has not only infected the media and half the politicians, but a lot of the people of America. | ||
| I watch something and think that's great. | ||
| The people with TDS think, oh, that's horrible. | ||
| Oh, my God. | ||
| Anything that Trump does, they don't like. | ||
| Someone said that this parade was his birthday parade. | ||
| I didn't see anything at all like that. | ||
| I saw a great military parade of the American Armed Forces, and people were, oh, that's terrible. | ||
| Trump likes it, so it has to be horrible. | ||
| And as far as reading the bills that are signed, that's been going on for years. | ||
| But as long as it goes one way and people think it's good, oh, that's fine. | ||
| But as soon as we stand up for America, that's terrible. | ||
| But I appreciate the offer. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Have a blessed day and go, America. | ||
| That was Mark in Pennsylvania, David in Massachusetts, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you today? | ||
| I'm doing well, David. | ||
| I'm kind of confused a little bit with this. | ||
| I agree with the last guy, definitely on this parade. | ||
| It was fantastic. | ||
| Interesting how the Democrats decided to put this no-kings farce on the same day. | ||
| First of all, it was also Flags Day, Flag Day, which is what we were celebrating in the Army's 250th anniversary. | ||
| And they display their stupidity by having a No Kings Day protest. | ||
| Now, what upsets me the most about this is you have somebody who is in office and finally doing what should have been done years ago, getting people out of here who are bleeding our system and coming in here illegally. | ||
| Try to go over to Europe and other countries and do that. | ||
| It wouldn't happen. | ||
| They do it here. | ||
| For some reason, these people think it's all right. | ||
| I just don't understand that mentality. | ||
| It's like a little kid that does something wrong. | ||
| You start telling them you can't do that. | ||
| David, are you still there? | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm good. | |
| I'm still here. | ||
| You still there? | ||
| I am. | ||
| Just wanted to give you a chance to finish your thought. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| So we have no other choice. | ||
| Otherwise, we're going downhill. | ||
| So we finally have somebody, whether you like his personality or not, has nothing to do with it. | ||
| It's somebody who's trying to clean up the mess that has been around with overspending and again, letting illegals come in here and getting free housing, free food, free medical care. | ||
| It does not make sense, but I don't know. | ||
| I guess it's in God's hands now, which is all that can help. | ||
| But again, I thank you for being a wonderful speaker, by the way, and a great hostess. | ||
| That was David in Massachusetts. | ||
| Let's hear from Barbara in Rossville, Georgia, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Barbara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| What I wanted to say is that the Mexicans are over here because people brought them over here at the beginning because the white people wouldn't work. | ||
| And also, Trump, he's a liar and a felon and really a dictator. | ||
| And right now, it's the Mexicans that he's picking on. | ||
| But later on, it's going to be our rights, which he's already started with. | ||
| I just think it's terrible what he's doing. | ||
| I don't mind getting the criminals out of here. | ||
| But when he starts picking on people that's been over here four and five years and children that was born over here in this country, I think that's just absolutely awful. | ||
| And hey, you Republicans, how about examining yourself? | ||
| If you was a Mexican, would you want somebody to do you like that? | ||
| And most of them paid a lot of money and risked their life to be over here in this country. | ||
| And now, and hey, don't forget, when the black people came over here, they were mistreated too. | ||
| Have you seen some of the films that the white, some of the things that the white people did to them? | ||
| I think it's horrible to mistreat people. | ||
| The Army had its 250th anniversary yesterday. | ||
| Did you watch the parade or what were your thoughts? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I watched some of it. | |
| But to me, that was just like seeing Putin on TV with his parade going down there. | ||
| And North Korea, I just thought it was terrible. | ||
| I thought it was absolutely terrible. | ||
| I thought it was just a display of power. | ||
| And he wanted to show everybody his power. | ||
| I looked for him to join up with Putin. | ||
| And because Putin volunteered to send help over here to help over here if he had on all these protesters. | ||
| That was Barbara and Georgia. | ||
| Let's hear from Annette in Alexander City, Alabama, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Annette. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Trump derangement syndrome is alive and well on the left-wing side. | |
| They need to stop whining. | ||
| I thought that parade was just an honor for our servicemen and women. | ||
| These young people that were in that parade and the ones, service people that weren't, that watched this, they will never forget that honor. | ||
| And it is the 250-year anniversary of the Army, and it is Flag Day. | ||
| And oh my goodness, it happens to be his birthday. | ||
| But anyway, this baloney about, oh, it costs $45, $50 million, whatever, we're spending billions on illegals who just walked across needing everything for as long as it takes. | ||
| No griping about that. | ||
| And I was really, I don't know, insulted. | ||
| And MSC and CNN showed very little of this parade. | ||
| Every now and then they showed a clip. | ||
| And when they did, they looked like they were sucking lemons. | ||
| This is a celebration. | ||
| Can we not just leave, stop whining about Trump's tie and his face and his weight? | ||
| But I just thought it was wonderful. | ||
| And God bless America. | ||
| And for Pete's sakes, let's get all together. | ||
| Let's work together and work to get this country going. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| You're wonderful. | ||
| That was Annette in Alabama. | ||
| Jim in Pennsylvania, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| I just wanted to say that I wasn't a Trump man, but I am beginning to become one. | ||
| After seeing what he's been doing for the country, it is a little bit hard-handed, but that's what I think the country needs about now because we have been such wimps here and abroad. | ||
| And everybody got what everybody else wanted except us. | ||
| And the American public was getting it. | ||
| So this parade they gave yesterday was fabulous to all of us guys and girls who served and died. | ||
| And it wasn't about the president. | ||
| He's doing as good a job as he can. | ||
| This world is in bad shape, and the man is doing the best he can. | ||
| I'm not going to go any further on any of the subjects, but I just want to say thank you for your time. | ||
| And God bless Trump and God bless America. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Jim in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Christine in Rhode Island, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Christine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Oh, my God. | ||
| I got so much to say, but I'm going to make it short and sweet. | ||
| First of all, I would like to thank every branch of our military, which is wonderful, that keeps us safe at night and put their lives on the line. | ||
| A lot of them never came home. | ||
| I feel like that money that was spent in just displaying, they know what we have. | ||
| We don't need to display it. | ||
| We had people that die in these tanks and all of this show that was going on. | ||
| The money could have been used for the people that are in the military. | ||
| Give them, they don't, for housing. | ||
| Get the money to them. | ||
| You want to do something great for the military? | ||
| Give the money to the families in them. | ||
| We have a lot of people that go to war. | ||
| They come back. | ||
| Of course, war is horrible. | ||
| But then again, we have Israel And the other country fighting against each other, and we're here fighting against each other. | ||
| That's why I stopped calling way back, because I just couldn't take the rhetoric and the lies and the political propaganda. | ||
| And just to listen, how hateful that we were against each other. | ||
| We're people. | ||
| You're in the United States. | ||
| We're all together. | ||
| If you're not here legally, I understand. | ||
| But people are trying to stay here legally and live a good life. | ||
| So don't disrespect everyone. | ||
| As far as I'm not even going there, I gave up on that because he's the president and it is what it is. | ||
| And oh, by the way, Georgia, I agree everything you said. | ||
| So everybody have a great day and thank you for America's warriors, not Trump's warriors. | ||
| That was Christine in Rhode Island. | ||
| We're about halfway through today's, or the first hour of today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We're asking you your thoughts and reaction to two stories that we have been following. | ||
| That is two lawmakers in Minnesota who were shot, as well as the Army celebrating its 250th anniversary with the parade in D.C. Do want to note another ongoing story. | ||
| This is the headline from the Wall Street Journal, Israel and Iran. | ||
| Trade fire is Trump says conflict should end. | ||
| It says the Israeli Air Force struck storage and missile launch infrastructure in western Iran on Sunday morning. | ||
| Israel's military said as attacks in Iran entered a third day, President Trump said on Saturday that the unfolding conflict between Israel and Iran should end. | ||
| In a social media post, Trump said he'd spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about it and that Putin quote feels, as I do, this war in Israel-Iran should end. | ||
| But one Israel official, one Israel official, said that even Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamani, is not, quote, is, quote, not off limits from targeting as Israel proceeds with its intensive air campaign in Iran, which has turned, which in turn has launched its own retaliatory strikes. | ||
| The comments offered further indication that Israel's attacks are aimed not only at Iran's nuclear program, but also at hobbling the regime politically and militarily. | ||
| It says Israel began striking Iran early Friday morning and has faced two nights of Iranian missile and drone attacks. | ||
| President Trump did post a couple times yesterday on Truth Social about the attacks. | ||
| Just earlier, or it was just a little after midnight Eastern time, he posted that the U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran tonight. | ||
| It says, if we are attacked in any way, shape, or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. armed forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. | ||
| However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel and end this bloody conflict. | ||
| That's just another story that we are following here at C-SPAN. | ||
| And we want to get back to your calls on our focus for this first hour. | ||
| Let's hear from Carmen in Queens, New York, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Carmen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I'm calling as someone who used to be a Democrat my entire life and then switched over in 2020 to Republican. | ||
| I see here that people are calling because they definitely are haters of Trump, and everything that they think or do is driven by that hatred. | ||
| Now, as far as your topic, which had to do with the parade, I thought it was wonderful. | ||
| I think that everyone involved, as far as the service members were concerned, thought it was wonderful. | ||
| Many were interviewed and thought the same. | ||
| And that was a parade to celebrate their 250th anniversary. | ||
| This country has never done that, and I think we should, as other countries do. | ||
| As far as the other topic, which was the murders in Minnesota, I can't believe no one's even mentioning this. | ||
| The person who committed the murder, the alleged murderer who they're looking for, appears to have been someone that was appointed into a position by Governor Waltz, and he's someone who had the No Kings flyers in his car. | ||
| And he apparently was a Democrat supporter. | ||
| Now, these riots, someone said that there was, or they called them protests, but there were riots, said that there was no violence. | ||
| There is tons of violence that's being reported online where police are being attacked. | ||
| People are throwing bricks off the top of condos in Los Angeles. | ||
| I mean, this is ridiculous over their hatred for one man. | ||
| And as for the bill that someone said was not even read, this is something that Democrats have done routinely for years. | ||
| And they should think about the Bill Back Better, I think it was, or the other bill that they had. | ||
| They gave them 24 hours over a thousand pages. | ||
| This is enough already. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Carmen in New York. | ||
| Randy in Kokomo, Indiana, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Randy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Yes, I wanted to start out and say a happy Father's Day to all the fathers in our great nation. | ||
| As far as I am an ex-veteran, Army, and as far as the parade yesterday, I thought it was great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have never been shown any appreciation for what we have done for this country. | |
| Until 10 years ago, I've never been thanked for my service. | ||
| And as far as President Trump, I think President Trump is doing a good job. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Some things I don't like about him, but he's got to clean up the mess that this last administration has created for our country. | |
| As far as the immigrants coming in, I have no problem with immigrants coming in, but they should be vetted like they did back in the 40s and the 30s and the 20s through Ellis Island or somewhere like that because they're bringing in diseases and drugs and everything else into our country. | ||
| We had eradicated a bunch of diseases, but now they're back. | ||
| And as far as the shooting yesterday, I feel bad for the state senator and the congresswoman. | ||
| This should not have never happened in this great nation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are a country of one, not a country of division, but the last administration has divided us so much that we cannot even get along with each other. | |
| I think that we need to sit down and think about that. | ||
| We accepted Mr. Biden as our president four years ago. | ||
| Why can't you accept Mr. Trump as our president now? | ||
| That was Randy in Indiana. | ||
| Kevin, San Antonio, Texas, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Kevin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Yeah, Donald Trump is a draft doctor, okay? | ||
| When his name was called, he didn't go there. | ||
| Okay, for him to sit back and act like he supports the military when people put their lives on line so he could sit back and talk all this myth, you know, he wasn't there. | ||
| You know what I'm saying? | ||
| He's a hypocrite. | ||
| It's all about TV with him. | ||
| This guy that put his light online, his life online, and he, you know, come like he supports the military. | ||
| It got the card. | ||
| Thought about, you know, TV effectively. | ||
| That was Kevin in Texas. | ||
| Elvin in Zanesville, Ohio, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Elvin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, young lady. | |
| I'm a combat veteran. | ||
| I served in Vietnam. | ||
| And the parade, I tell you, I had chills and goosebumps. | ||
| That had nothing to do with Trump's birthday. | ||
| That was showing the strength of our military, and that is a great recruiting tool. | ||
| Now, the guy that just called in and called Trump a draft dodger, is he not aware that Joe Biden never served a day, that Joe Biden had deferments, that Joe Biden was a draft dodger. | ||
| And the other thing, the other morning, there was a guy on there taking questions who was anti-Trump, no doubt, said that governor or whatever he was was there in attendance to ask questions. | ||
| No, that is false. | ||
| He was not even there. | ||
| He barged in, and he had no ID on him saying who he was. | ||
| He barged in on that meeting with Christy Noam. | ||
| And the right thing was done there 100%. | ||
| But yes, I am a proud Republican. | ||
| I voted for Donald Trump three times. | ||
| I think he's doing an excellent job. | ||
| Excellent job. | ||
| But so many lies from a Democrat. | ||
| So many lies. | ||
| Go back to when they said that the Republicans wanted to ban books, but they didn't say what type of books. | ||
| No, I would vote for Donald Trump again if it came to that. | ||
| But that parade, I tell you, I could watch that time and time again, having been a veteran, and it had nothing to do with the birthday. | ||
| It was a recruiting tool showing the strength of our military, which was awesome. | ||
| Hey, young lady, keep up the good work. | ||
| That was Elvin in Ohio, and Elvin mentioning that he could watch the parade over and over again. | ||
| If you want to watch it again, or you missed it the first time and you want to watch it, you can find it on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Let's hear from Harry in Norcross, Georgia, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Harry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, C-SPAN. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| For me, this was all like deja vu all over again. | ||
| And I'll say this as fast as I can. | ||
| On the bicentennial in 1976, I was trying to make a living playing music in Los Angeles. | ||
| A bunch of my friends from Massachusetts came out on the bicentennial and drove me down to San Diego for the day. | ||
| We stayed overnight at the Whittier Hotel, you know, which is Richard Nixon, sort of, well, pictures of him all over the place. | ||
| But anyway, as we were leaving and heading back down farther to San Diego, we saw the President Nixon's car coming out of his Whittier compound. | ||
| But anyway, I went down. | ||
| We spent a great day in San Diego. | ||
| And, you know, Nixon having had to resign. | ||
| I'm looking forward now to Donald Trump having to resign because he has broken more laws than Richard Nixon ever had. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, anyway, I still have a little tattoo on my chest from that day in San Diego. | |
| And now, here we are 50 years later. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you, C-SPAN. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| That was Harry in Georgia. | ||
| The parade yesterday happening in D.C. | ||
| It was across the country that counter protests were happening. | ||
| This is from the Associated Press. | ||
| It says masses of demonstrators packed into streets, parks, and plazas across the United States on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump marching through downtowns and small towns, blaring anti-authority and chants and mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights. | ||
| It says that organizers of the No Kings demonstration said millions had marched in hundreds of events. | ||
| Governors across the U.S. had urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers' gatherings. | ||
| C-SPAN covered one of the events. | ||
| It was in Philadelphia. | ||
| It was there that Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin spoke to the crowd. | ||
| Here are some of his remarks. | ||
| My friends, the people are winning all over America. | ||
| The bullies are on the run. | ||
| We ran Elon Musk out of town. | ||
| And Musk now says that Trump should be impeached. | ||
| And Trump says that Musk should be investigated for his tens of billions of dollars in federal contracts. | ||
| And for once, they're both right. | ||
| My friends, fascism will not be the end of American democracy. | ||
| American democracy will be the end of fascism. | ||
| We will stand up for democracy and human rights and freedom all over the world. | ||
| We will stand with President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine against Putin's filthy, bloodthirsty invasion. | ||
| We will stand with the people of Greenland, the people of Europe and Africa, the people of Canada and Mexico for our common right to trade with each other, to respect each other, to travel and migrate and seek asylum without fear and without terror. | ||
| We are the ones fighting against terror and tyranny today. | ||
| And I look at you today, Philadelphia, and I know we are winning. | ||
| We are winning. | ||
| I will leave you with the words of the great Tom Payne, who my son Tommy was named after. | ||
| And Tom Payne got to this beautiful city in 1774, two years before the American Revolution. | ||
| He fell in love with your city and he fell in love with this land. | ||
| He said, if America lives up to its values and its ideals, it will become, he said, an asylum to humanity. | ||
| Just about 15 minutes left in this first hour of Washington Journal, hearing your thoughts and getting your reaction to a couple stories. | ||
| We've been following the Minnesota lawmakers who were shot, as well as the Army celebrating its 250th anniversary, marked by a parade in D.C., as well as counter-protests against President Trump across the country. | ||
| Taking your calls and also getting reaction on social media. | ||
| We have some text coming in. | ||
| Barb in Long Grove, Illinois says the shooting and assassinations of the two Minnesota lawmakers was very tragic and overshadowed any other public events, including the Army anniversary parade taking place yesterday. | ||
| Sue B. in Whiting, New Jersey said, I watched some of the military parade yesterday. | ||
| It was actually good to see the faces of the men and women in uniform who serve and protect, smiling and enjoying the day. | ||
| It was a lot of money to spend. | ||
| Then again, it was nice to see camaraderie and patriotism on display. | ||
| I'm proud of our military. | ||
| And Mike in Woodbury, Minnesota says the murders of Minnesota, the murders in Minnesota were tragic and sad. | ||
| Trump's military parade in D.C. was, in a word, boring. | ||
| And Chris in Elgin, Illinois said, the very idea of our government wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a military parade while veterans are all but abandoned by the same government is shameful and sickening. | ||
| This was nothing more than a vanity exercise for a draft dodging narcissist and did nothing for veterans. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| Let's talk with Jesse in Maryland, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Jesse. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Are you there, Jesse? | ||
| Having a hard time hearing you. | ||
| Can you get closer to your phone? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hold on. | |
| Let me fix that for you right now. | ||
| Let me see. | ||
| Is it better? | ||
| No, still having a hard time. | ||
| Do you want to try it one more time? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you hear me there? | |
| No, why don't you go ahead and try to give us a call back, Jesse? | ||
| Maybe we'll get a better connection. | ||
| We'll go to Rudy in Ohio, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Rudy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Morning. | |
| Yeah, that last guy, Democrat Vraskins, he ought to be investigated. | ||
| Him and a couple of these other congressmen stirring up these riots. | ||
| But yeah, the parade. | ||
| Good morning, Rudy. | ||
| Yeah, the parade, it might have cost a lot of money, but how much did the Miller Mueller report cost? | ||
| That costs like $45 million, $50 million. | ||
| Don't hear anybody complaining about wasting tax money on the Mueller report. | ||
| And as far as these people getting shot up in Minnesota, well, I don't hear nobody saying that guy worked for Walls, worked for Governor Walls, all these, he was a political appointee, a Democrat, political appointee. | ||
| Why doesn't these news news agencies and MSBC? | ||
| They don't want to mention the fact that the guy's a Democrat. | ||
| You know? | ||
| It's amazing to watch this on TV unfold. | ||
| I watched TV about all day yesterday, and nobody, once the fact got out that he's a Democrat, they never even talked about it no more. | ||
| You know, it's really sick to watch these people lie, lie, lie, you know. | ||
| And, yeah, the parade, you know, so it costs a few bucks. | ||
| Who cares? | ||
| I mean, they spend that much money on investigating Trump and peaching Trump. | ||
| Nobody really cares about that. | ||
| Why wasn't Joe Biden in peace? | ||
| I mean, you know, we could have done that too. | ||
| And we could still go after a lot of these Democrats lying about taking people off Medicaid. | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
| You know, all they're doing is kicking off the illegals. | ||
| You know, the people shouldn't be on it to begin with. | ||
| That was Rudy in Ohio. | ||
| Bill, also in Ohio, lying for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Wow. | ||
| Lie, lie, lie. | ||
| We know about lies. | ||
| And yeah, that parade was boring. | ||
| Did you show the clip of Marco Rubio? | ||
| He looked like he was really enjoying himself. | ||
| And it was an education for Trump. | ||
| We definitely needed that because he actually thought we had military in the Civil War with airplanes. | ||
| So good for that. | ||
| And I guess we need no investigation into this murder in Minneapolis because these guys watch TV and they know everything already. | ||
| So it's just pathetic. | ||
| So uneducated voters, keep letting them call in and talk because it's a good laugh. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Bill in Ohio. | ||
| Shirley in Connecticut, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Shirley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning, America. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I am so sorry about how Republicans have short memories. | ||
| This president himself had said about a wonderful patriot that was a war hero, was a war hero in the Republican Party. | ||
| He has disparaged him. | ||
| And if you disparage one of our military personnel, you disparage them all. | ||
| And the thought is that McCain was such a good man, and he looked down on him, and then he tried to take medals from other of our military personnel. | ||
| And this man cares nothing about the military because he himself has fired the help that the military veterans have at the veteran hospitals. | ||
| He's doing all he can to take money away from Americans, not to give back or not to honor any of them. | ||
| So my thinking is that why our Republicans have short memories on this man's true feelings. | ||
| And then the other thing, he's consulting our enemy, Putin, about a war in Iraq when he himself, as Putin has stated, is not listening to our president about stopping the war that he has started. | ||
| They have forgotten that this man has no morals. | ||
| You know, he has no respect for our allies, and he has all the respect for all our enemies. | ||
| So he has no regard for our military at all. | ||
| And I'm ashamed because as Americans, we have been conservatives. | ||
| We walk with a big stick, but we walk quietly, and we do things in a quiet manner. | ||
| But this man wants to show the world that he has power over America, and he has divided us unrelentlessly by disparaging all our people from other countries that come here to make America great, the melting pot of the world. | ||
| And he has attacked children in schools, parents at work, people going to try to get their citizenship by keeping their appointments at the immigration office. | ||
| And he has gotten our military involved against Americans in the streets of California. | ||
| This man has no regard for patriotism or Americans. | ||
| He loved our enemies and hate our allies, and he loved Putin and hated Americans. | ||
| That was Shirley in Connecticut. | ||
| Judith, in Richmond, Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Judith. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| And I'll say it quickly: in 1975, I worked for the Army Education Center in Chunchang, Korea, in South Korea. | ||
| And when I was there, we had all sorts of indications about going to the border and explained that if you cross the border, you will be illegal and they will shoot you. | ||
| And so my question is, I'm here back in Virginia and in America, and someone has to explain to me what legal and illegal means. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| That was Judith in Virginia. | ||
| This is a headline in this morning's New York Times. | ||
| It says, who were the two Democratic state lawmakers who were shot? | ||
| It says the lawmakers who were shot on Saturday morning in Minnesota were State Representative Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the House, and State Senator John A. Hoffman, a fellow Democrat and longtime lawmaker. | ||
| It says Ms. Hortman, who was assassinated in her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was a lawyer by training and a legislator for about 20 years who served as the Speaker of Minnesota House of Representatives from 2019 to 2025. | ||
| She represented a reliably Democratic district and routinely won re-election by more than 20 percentage points. | ||
| It says that Senator John A. Hoffman has served in the legislature since 2013. | ||
| Before being elected, he served as a member of the Anoik Hennepin School Board for several years. | ||
| It says Mr. Hoffman, 60, was born in Casper, Wyoming, and formally made a living as a marketing and public relations professional. | ||
| He and his wife, Yvette, have a daughter. | ||
| They live in Champlin, a suburb north of Minneapolis. | ||
| His home address was published in his biographical page on the Senate's website. | ||
| Mr. Hoffman chairs the Senate's Human Services Committee. | ||
| He is a fourth-term senator and won his most recent election by 10 percentage points. | ||
| It was yesterday that U.S. Senator Amy Klomishar, a Democrat of Minnesota, spoke to a local Fox News station about the shootings. | ||
| Here are some of that interview. | ||
| She's someone that people respected, whether they were Democrats or Republicans. | ||
| She got stuff done, you know, taught Sunday school, Girl Scout leader, balanced raising kids while being in the legislature. | ||
| We came into politics around the same time, and she was really a leader like no other, the most decent person. | ||
| And of course, Senator Hoffman, who is just hanging in there, he came out of surgery as far as I know, as did his wife. | ||
| He got into politics because his daughter is spina bifida, and he wanted to make sure that people got insurance coverage. | ||
| So these are the most decent, salt of the earth people who got in their jobs because they wanted to do good. | ||
| And so my thoughts are with them and their families and making sure that their legacy, Melissa, who we've lost, will live on and making sure people know what they were about. | ||
| Because now all of a sudden, understandably, we're focused on a lot of other things, but that's number one. | ||
| And then my second is catching this madman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, what can you tell us? | |
| Have you been briefed on potentially the concern beyond that, what we all know? | ||
| Have you heard anything about this manifesto? | ||
| I mean, frankly, not to be callous, but do you know if your name was on that list? | ||
| You know, I am focused. | ||
| They've added law enforcement to most of elected officials, certainly the statewide, more protection today for all of us in Minnesota. | ||
| And whoever is on the list has protection, but I don't know every name on the list, and it's not my concern right now. | ||
| My concern is just making sure that the people of Minnesota follow the advice of law enforcement. | ||
| So there was a shelter in place that's off now, but they have put this suspect's picture out in a big way so people can see if they've seen him. | ||
| To me, that means they're not certain that he's in that perimeter area anymore. | ||
| They probably kept it under wraps for a while for good reason because they were trying to get him there. | ||
| And so that broadens it out. | ||
| It's one of the reasons that both the governor and I have called on people if they can. | ||
| There's, of course, going to be people at these rallies today. | ||
| And sure, it will be peaceful. | ||
| It's not really that. | ||
| But we've called on, particularly with Minnesota, that the less people we can have there, the better it is for law enforcement to be able to focus on finding this killer because he is very dangerous. | ||
| Just a few minutes left. | ||
| Let's talk with JD in Mobile, Alabama, Line for Independence. | ||
| Hi, JD. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My objection to Trump's military parade, it's probably somewhat novel to your callers this morning, but it reveals very clearly a tragic, stark and tragic metaphor of not of American strength, but of America's decline. | ||
| When I compared that military parade yesterday, and I've watched a lot of them on YouTube, that is of in Beijing, the People's Republic of China under dictator Xi Jinping, you see vast legions of precision troops moving in what I would describe as flawless formation, followed by truck after truck of advanced missile systems, including ballistic missiles, hypersonic platforms, | ||
| even nuclear-capable delivery systems rolling by in disciplined grandeur. | ||
| When you look at Moscow, one of Trump's BFFs, Vladimir Putin's forces, parade tanks, mobile launchers, elite military forces choreographed to perfection. | ||
| Another BFF, Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, when his troops march, it's a spectacle unsurpassed of incredible intimidation. | ||
| Though they were evil, when you look at Berlin under the Nazis, it was an extraordinary spectacle. | ||
| So what we saw yesterday, no fault of the troops, we saw a tin-horned dictator, a craven Jody. | ||
| Anybody who's served in the military will know what a Jody is. | ||
| A Jody is, for all who don't know, when the men are in basic training, and females for that matter, specifically males, a Jody is the guy that they teach you to hate who's at home, a coward who didn't go to war. | ||
| He's home with your girls and your wives, and he's dancing with them and enjoying life while you're suffering in the military. | ||
| This was a stark, tragic reminder that America lost the Korean War. | ||
| We lost the Vietnam War. | ||
| We lost the war in Afghanistan. | ||
| It looked thrown together haphazard. | ||
| It made us, they've got to be laughing their heads off in Beijing and Pyongyang. | ||
|
unidentified
|
God bless America. | |
| That was JD in Alabama. | ||
| And our last call for this first hour is Bradley in Northport, Michigan, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Bradley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thank you very much for taking my call. | |
| A sad situation, obviously, in Minnesota. | ||
| However, it plays out. | ||
| It doesn't, I don't know how it will. | ||
| It's what it is. | ||
| But anyway, when I think a lot of this started when Trump first came into the whole situation, anybody that was his opponent, it was termed enemy. | ||
| You were his enemy. | ||
| You weren't an opponent. | ||
| And since that time, he's really drilled down on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
His legion has taken that very seriously. | |
| They intimidate Lisa Murkowski for 10 minutes. | ||
| She spoke out and said why they don't speak in any opposition to these crazy things. | ||
| It's because she's scared. | ||
| She's scared of her own party. | ||
| And they've been threatening in nature for as long as they've been in existence, fairly much. | ||
| January 6th to them is cool to these people and is just very disgusting, disheartening, and I hope it gets corrected very soon. | ||
| We can do it. | ||
| That was Bradley in Michigan. | ||
| Our last call for this first hour. | ||
| Later this morning on Washington Journal, Brookings Institutions, Michael O'Hallen will join us to discuss the 2025 G7 summit, including the state of relations among the countries and challenges for the group. | ||
| But next, Washington Examiner Magazine executive editor James Antel and the nation's DC Bureau Chief Chris Lehman join us to discuss political news of the day. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| Joining us now to discuss political news of the day is Jim Antel, executive editor of Washington Examiner Magazine, and Chris Lehman, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Nation. | ||
| Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us this morning. | ||
| Thanks for having us. | ||
| There's a lot going on, a lot to talk about. | ||
| We'll start by getting your reaction to the parade celebrating the 50th anniversary or 250th anniversary of the Army yesterday, as well as the counter-protests taking place across the country. | ||
| Jim, we'll start with you. | ||
| Sure, I mean, I was really interested by a couple of polls that were taken. | ||
| One that phrased it as an anniversary parade for the U.S. Army, in which case a lot of people were supportive of the parade. | ||
| But then a second poll gave the dollar figure for how much it cost, mentioned that it was also President Donald Trump's birthday, and it was an Army birthday parade, and people didn't like the parade quite so much. | ||
| Now, I suspect people who have intense feelings about it on either side already have intense feelings about the president one way or the other. | ||
| So I don't know that it is a real difference maker politically, but it is a really interesting lesson in how much the wording of a poll can matter very much for what its results will be. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And Chris? | |
| Yes, I think it's noteworthy. | ||
| You know, I am a critic of the current administration, and I think the real story of the day is the No Kings protests across the country, which masked, some people are, you know, these numbers like poll numbers are fungible, but mass one of the largest single-day protests in our history. | ||
| So I think that sort of further develops your point, Jim, that there is this kind of bifurcated split-screen understanding of everything that's going on in the country. | ||
| And I think the parade and the response both dramatize our Polaris condition. | ||
| Another polarized subject was the cause of an event, and that was the shooting in Minnesota of two state lawmakers there. | ||
| One was killed, including, and then her husband as well. | ||
| So two killed, two more injured. | ||
| The search is still underway for the suspect. | ||
| Jim, what's your reaction to that event? | ||
| I mean, obviously, there's a certain amount of political violence going on in the country. | ||
| And, you know, I was somewhat relieved that we didn't see anything quite like that in the DC parade yesterday. | ||
| Obviously, it was happening in the context of a lot of protests going on nationally. | ||
| But in D.C., you would have had a number of people on both sides of the aisle who feel very strongly about the president and certain other things in very close proximity to one another. | ||
| So the potential for things to get ugly was there. | ||
| Didn't really seem that that was the case, however. | ||
| But I mean, when you look at, you know, you always have to be careful with the initial reports on events like this. | ||
| A lot tends not to be borne out when things are looked at later, but there was a fairly long list of elected officials and political leaders that this person, that the suspect allegedly had, that he was planning to target. | ||
| A very frightening, very frightening event. | ||
| I mean, and obviously, as bad as it was, the potential was there for it to be much worse. | ||
| Yeah, I think, you know, I've been covering politics in D.C. for more than 20 years, and that's made me somewhat allergic to political hyperbole. | ||
| But this is a really alarming moment. | ||
| I think our democracy functions on the notion that we can share power and deliberate our political differences peacefully. | ||
| And I agree with Jim that facts are coming out, you know, erratically, and we don't have the full picture yet, but it's already clear that this was a politically motivated assassination. | ||
| The 70 people you mentioned on the shooters manifesto are all Democrats. | ||
| And, you know, I think even calling it politically motivated is a little soft. | ||
| It's ideologically motivated because it also appears the suspect is an ardent Christian nationalist and is aligned with a movement called the New Apostolic Reformation that sees your cultural and political enemies as demons who are fair game. | ||
| And this is and we should also remember this stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. | ||
| We've just seen a week where a U.S. Senator was handcuffed and briefly detained for participating in a press conference. | ||
| We've seen the House Speaker call for the Democratic governor of California to be tarred and feathered. | ||
| We've seen the president refer to that same governor as Gavin Newscum. | ||
| This rhetoric is part of how this administration uses power. | ||
| And one would hope for some introspection at a moment like this. | ||
| But I'm not holding my breath. | ||
| Jim Antel, Washington Examiner Magazine Executive Editor, and Chris Lehman, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Nation, are our guests for the next 50 minutes or so on our discussion of political news of the day. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for them, you can start calling in now the Lions, Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Chris, you mentioned other events happening this week. | ||
| We've also been following the news story out of Los Angeles, the immigration raids and protests there. | ||
| What do those ongoing protests tell us about the state of immigration politics? | ||
| Well, they tell us that this administration is engaged in a sort of campaign of what's called propaganda of the deed. | ||
| They are under the direction of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who was the architect of the immigration policy in the first Trump White House. | ||
| ICE has, and this was documented in a recent Wall Street Journal report, been charged with just turning up at Home Depots as that was a precipitating event in Paramount where these protests sort of began in Los Angeles. | ||
| There was no, you know, warrants or sort of allegation of a criminal activity. | ||
| It was just an unprovoked raid. | ||
| And it also came at the end of a long weekend where ICE agents were targeting immigrants and native-born citizens in schools, in churches, in other workplaces. | ||
| So there was, you know, my view is that this was an act of deliberate provocation. | ||
| The Trump administration wanted animated protests so they could crack down and sort of continue, you know, the immigration issue obviously was a huge part of the successful 2024 reelection campaign. | ||
| So they want to be seen, especially coming into the midterms, as aggressively policing this community, which, you know, again, I think it needs to be underlined. | ||
| There was no criminal activity at the foundation of this. | ||
| So, yeah, propaganda of the deed. | ||
| I think the White House hasn't been happy with the deportation numbers. | ||
| I think they'd like them to be quite a bit higher than they are. | ||
| I think you could say that the interior removals are already happening at a pretty high level, but they've been looking to have record or near-record deportations, and they haven't quite hit those numbers yet. | ||
| So there's been a lot of focus on trying to remove as many people as they can. | ||
| I think the Los Angeles protests reflect that they're going to have some opposition to that in the bluer areas of the country, which will also, to a certain degree, coincide with where they need to do a lot of the removals to hit their targets. | ||
| So, you know, the potential for these protests to spread, I think they've already spread to some other cities, but Los Angeles is clearly sort of the epicenter of all of it. | ||
| You know, I think for the midterm elections, I think the Republicans want to position the Democrats, and the Democrats are to some degree positioning themselves as are they opposed to immigration enforcement broadly, and they want to revive some of the debates of 2020 where you had, in that context, it was the racial justice, the George Floyd protests, | ||
| but there was just the general debate over support for law enforcement or, in the case of how the Democrats are being framed, were they supportive enough of law enforcement? | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We will start with Fred in Polk Nebraska, at line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Fred. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's pretty sad that C-SPAN brings on these political hacks like that Chris, to spew nothing but lies and garbage that comes out of his mouth when he opens it. | |
| I really wish C-SPAN would change the way they do things. | ||
| Thanks, Chris. | ||
| Do you have any response to the criticism? | ||
| Um, I am thankful that he's engaged. | ||
| I did want to briefly just point out to Jim's point that the administration is not meeting its target of 3,000 deportations a day because Trump closed the border and passage into the country has dramatically declined. | ||
| So it's, again, largely a self-made issue. | ||
| Let's hear from Jerry in New Jersey, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Jerry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, guys. | |
| I am a Democrat, but I am truly amazed at how stupid the Democrats have become. | ||
| What makes them think that by rioting and looting and throwing bricks at cops that this is going to influence people to vote for them again? | ||
| I'm a Democrat. | ||
| I can't stand watching it. | ||
| And Mr. Lehman, I got a question for you. | ||
| I know that you got tears for these Minnesota people. | ||
| Where were your tears when President Trump almost got killed? | ||
| You know, this has been going on a while, and the rhetoric on the Democrat side is horrendous when it comes to Trump. | ||
| This No Kings rally, where did that come from? | ||
| I mean, who started that and why? | ||
| The guy's doing his job. | ||
| He's doing what people voted him to do. | ||
| You know, C-SBAN, I'll tell you, it's amazing the people that you put on these shows, and this is every day because I watch it every day. | ||
| And I never seen such anti-Trump, anti-rhetoric. | ||
| You want to talk about toning it down? | ||
| And how about starting to tell the truth or being even keeled on the other guy on the other side to get me? | ||
| Chris, do you have any response? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| To answer the question, the No Kings protests were largely, they were organized by a number of groups, but largely under the direction of a progressive group called Indivisible. | ||
| I don't condone political violence of any kind. | ||
| I was very dismayed and alarmed when there was an attempt on President Trump's life. | ||
| I do think, you know, I do think the larger point to keep in mind here, again, is accepting widespread political violence is a sign of democratic decline. | ||
| And I think everyone should be concerned by that. | ||
| I'm not a Democratic Party partisan. | ||
| I'm very critical of the Democrats. | ||
| And I think we are just in a perilous moment. | ||
| Jim, do you have any reaction to Jerry? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, we are living in a time, we've had a quarter century now of intense political polarization, and rather than reversing itself, it seems to be getting worse. | ||
| And obviously, we have the internet keeps people plugged in all the time, and there are some upsides to that, but there are also clearly downsides. | ||
| And there are people who are in difficult mental health situations. | ||
| There are people who are responding to various forms of political rhetoric. | ||
| And, you know, it's a frightening thing. | ||
| So you are seeing everything from the practice for the congressional baseball game, the assassination attempts on President Trump, the assassinations in Minnesota yesterday, as I mentioned, January 6th, The protests, the riots in Los Angeles and elsewhere. | ||
| It's a very dangerous time. | ||
| It could make the 60s look like a schoolyard brawl. | ||
| Jerry, mentioning the riots, the protests happening in Los Angeles, President Trump has called in both the National Guard, the Marines, or also there. | ||
| ABC News headline notes that Marines have made the first temporary detention in Los Angeles. | ||
| This was something that came up during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. | ||
| It was an exchange between Defense Secretary Pete Hagsteth and Representative RoConna, a Democrat of California. | ||
| I want to play the clip and then get your reaction to it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Senator Baldwin asked you about the legal authority for the Marines in my state. | ||
| I disagree with you. | ||
| I thought, not only do I not want Marines in Iran, I don't want them in California. | ||
| But I don't want to get a gotcha. | ||
| You know, they said what provision your administration since then has filed in the federal district court. | ||
| You're arguing that the Marines should be allowed to defend federal property. | ||
| I disagree with you. | ||
| That's your argument. | ||
| Here's where I hope we can agree. | ||
| Whatever the federal district court decides, will you abide by it? | ||
| Well, this is a pending, this is a charging situation. | ||
| So will you agree, though, that it's not my legal view, it's not your legal view that makes the decision in America. | ||
| It's the federal judiciary. | ||
| If the federal court in California, in the San Francisco, this district judge orders a preliminary injunction, will you agree to abide by the federal courts? | ||
| What I will tell you is my job right now is to ensure the troops that we have in Los Angeles are capable of supporting law enforcement in the U.S. | ||
| Sure, I agree with that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But will you agree with that? | |
| That's fine, but can you just assure us that you'll abide by the decisions of the courts? | ||
| We've always looked at the decisions of the courts. | ||
| Well, the vice president has said that he doesn't believe that the courts should be respected in military matters. | ||
| This is not my lane, but we also recognize that the way in which the judiciary has expanded its powers. | ||
| But can you just give a simple question? | ||
| Okay, let me ask you this. | ||
| Two simple questions. | ||
| You got 30 seconds. | ||
| I'm not trying to trick you. | ||
| I just, I think it would assure the American people. | ||
| Because it shouldn't be RoConna's view of the Constitution. | ||
| It shouldn't be Secretary Hagsteth's. | ||
| It should be the Supreme Court and the federal courts. | ||
| Can you assure the American people on two things? | ||
| You will respect any Supreme Court decision on this matter about whether the Marines are constitutional, and you will respect the district courts when they rule before the Supreme Court rules. | ||
| What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country. | ||
| So you're not willing to say you would respect those decisions. | ||
| What I'm saying is local district judges shouldn't make foreign policy for the United States. | ||
| Those times expire. | ||
| A final court decision on the use of the National Guard in Los Angeles is still up in the air. | ||
| Jim, your response, your reaction to that clip and Secretary Hagsteth's remarks. | ||
| Well, I think in general, the Trump administration is trying to push back on the idea that district courts can set national policy with various injunctions and lower court rulings that they feel are judicial overreach. | ||
| Obviously, a lot of critics of the administration view this as them not abiding by the concept of judicial review of executive actions. | ||
| You know, I think a lot of the problem stems from the fact, though, that Congress, the legislative branch, is not behaving the way that the framers of the Constitution intended. | ||
| So you have the executive branch and the judicial branch are both attempting to both safeguard their powers and also push the envelope on their powers to the greatest degree possible. | ||
| And the way the Constitution was supposed to work is that every branch of government was going to try to protect their prerogatives in that way. | ||
| And the legislature has seemingly decided that it's fine to give up more and more of its powers to the executive and judicial branches. | ||
| And so there's a lot of aspects of oversight of the executive branch that was delegated to Congress. | ||
| And Congress is the branch that has the impeachment power. | ||
| Congress is the branch that has the ability to defund things that the executive branch are doing. | ||
| So if you're going to revert to a system of executive oversight that's only done by the judiciary, which doesn't have those powers, it really fundamentally changes sort of the constitutional design in a way I don't think what was originally anticipated. | ||
| I'm happy to say I'm in complete agreement with the gentleman from the Washington Examiner. | ||
| It is part of the democratic crisis we're living through right now is Congress has abjured its historic role of both executive oversight and as Jim was saying, jealously guarding its own interests in the system. | ||
| And that is another sign of I'm starting to sound like a biblical prophet or something here, of democratic decline. | ||
| I do think anyone concerned about the future of our country should support a robust legislative branch that does execute its own prerogatives and conducts vigorous oversight over the executive. | ||
| Yeah, you know, Congress has the advantage of being elected. | ||
| So, you know, we do have constitutional limitations on the powers of even elected branches of government, but there's a certain degree of small D democratic legitimacy that comes from oversight happening from elected branches of government, from the legislature, which is elected. | ||
| So, you know, the judiciary has legitimate constitutional powers, certainly has legitimate authority, but judges are always vulnerable to the criticism that they are unelected, black-robed people. | ||
| So whether their rulings are right or wrong, they are not being made by an elected branch of government. | ||
| So there is a certain degree of just democratic legitimacy that comes from having the oversight originate in Congress. | ||
| Let's talk with Cal in Oklahoma, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Cal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, you all. | |
| I think that all of us are at vault in the way we treat each other. | ||
| I'm struck by the very first caller who was very critical of one of your guests without giving an example of whatever Chris had to say. | ||
| It was just a personal attack. | ||
| That's so dangerous. | ||
| So it's how we conduct ourselves, one to another. | ||
| If I may, one other example, we have this national intensity about the immigration policy of the current administration, but the reality is the Obama administration actually deported more individuals than the current ones. | ||
| So I was in politics for about 30 years, the military for about 30 years. | ||
| So I have these views for my background on how to treat people and get things done. | ||
| And finally, I'd like to say that it's difficult for someone like me anymore to try to observe congressional hearings because it seems that the goal is to ask a question, both sides of guests that are there and with certain credentials. | ||
| And immediately when the person doesn't play the yes-no game, they're interrupted by the powerful senator or congressperson who either says, I reserve my time or take back my time or you're not answering the question. | ||
| These are all terrible indicators of a democracy that has an inability to remember what democracy is about. | ||
| And a key word there, of course, is listening, which you all have been kind to do to me this morning. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Cal, would you like to, Chris, would you like to respond to that? | ||
| Sure, I mean, thank you, first of all, for your service in both the military and political sphere. | ||
| I think, yeah, it's an important point. | ||
| I do think C-SPAN, at its best, models kind of public deliberation that's essential to advancing understanding and working through what are profound divisions and airing people's views and as the caller said, listening. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, yes, C-SPAN. | |
| Well, and I think, you know, what the caller mentions with regard to congressional hearings speaks to the point I was making earlier is that a lot of members of Congress, you know, so people have decided that what their interest is is not protecting the legislative branch's constitutional powers, but it is individually getting reelected and becoming a lifetime member of Congress, becoming a lobbyist afterwards or entering into some other kind of lucrative business that trades on your congressional service. | ||
| And now, thirdly, and this is what I think the caller is referencing here, is becoming a celebrity or becoming a commentator or becoming a social media star, that just being seen on television and being seen on social media is now a bigger part of what a lot of lawmakers do than legislating itself. | ||
| We've seen this with how Governor Newsom of California has responded to President Trump and the protests that are happening there. | ||
| A lot of what has been written since this began is that, you know, pushing Governor Newsom to maybe the front of the pack for the 2018 nomination, presidential nomination. | ||
| What is the goal other than being maybe having a moment in the spotlight or gaining notoriety? | ||
| What else are members trying to gain from those moments? | ||
| Yeah, no, I think that's a big part of what members of Congress are doing. | ||
| It's interesting to see a governor sort of going out there and having a podcast. | ||
| Now, I think Newsom's original goal with his podcast was to sort of, you know, anytime a political party loses an election, there's a dispute within that party over whether the answer is to pivot to the center or to try to win back the voters that you've lost, or whether it's to double down and say that, well, we didn't really do enough of what we promised we would do, and we have to become more consistent. | ||
| I think Newsom with his podcast originally was trying to reach out to different disaffected voters who maybe had fallen away from the Democrats, particularly working-class voters, maybe who've left the Democrats in the Trump era. | ||
| But I think this confrontation with the Trump administration over immigration and over law enforcement and over the propriety of sending in the National Guard in Los Angeles is going to put him in a very different direction. | ||
| And in terms of winning the Democratic presidential nomination, maybe a more favorable one. | ||
| Chris? | ||
| Yeah, I think I lived in San Francisco when Gavin Newsom first sort of came to prominence, and he was always a very nakedly ambitious human being. | ||
| So I happen to agree with the stance he's taken against the raids in and around L.A. | ||
| And but yeah, you can't rule out sheer political opportunism, especially as Jim was saying. | ||
| He had initially done this sort of feint to the center with his podcast. | ||
| So yeah, I mean, I'm glad he's taking the stand that he is, but I am also a practice cynic. | ||
| Rick, I'm sorry, Ricky from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Line for Independence. | ||
| Hi, Ricky. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Good morning, ma'am, and to the two guests. | ||
| Happy Father's Day and enjoy your day. | ||
| But I got a couple questions. | ||
| Like when everybody talks about Donald Trump with the no King Day, this and that, the bottom line is this here. | ||
| We had our voting him in office. | ||
| We already knew how Donald Trump was in his first term in 2016. | ||
| And when he ran again, he won the election pretty much by a landslide. | ||
| And we at it again, we still complaining. | ||
| We can do all the marching we can, and we can do all the marching we could, but if we don't go, if we don't go out and vote, you know, it'll be the same thing. | ||
| And another thing with the two lawmakers, unfortunately, got murdered in Minnesota. | ||
| I mean, political violence has been going on since 2020. | ||
| If you look at January the 6th, you know, then you get the assassination of Trump and a couple other violence that's going on. | ||
| And this ain't how the Constitution is supposed to work. | ||
| You know, it's supposed to work by helping out the constituent. | ||
| I know I heard the last talk. | ||
| Most of these lawmakers is about being on social media, being on social media, being on TV all the time, like more time in the media, less time helping out the constituents. | ||
| That's on both sides of the party, the Republican and on the Democrat, you know. | ||
| And pretty much that's all I have to say. | ||
| And both of y'all, both of y'all, all three of y'all enjoy y'all day. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Chris? | ||
| Yeah, I think we're all in broad agreement here that there are a lot of perverse incentives in our political system right now that have to do with notoriety in the media, including social media and fundraising, catering to a sort of base that in many instances is steering us away from a conception of the common good. | ||
| It's a major systemic problem. | ||
| I wish I had an easy solution. | ||
| Do you have a solution? | ||
| Yeah, I don't know. | ||
| I mean, there are certainly some changes that have been made in Congress in terms of the power of committee chairmen and how long they can hold office that has to some degree contributed to this. | ||
| Maybe the political parties' control of the fundraising themselves having been mitigated to a certain degree had an impact on this. | ||
| But of course, both of those things had major downsides as well, having all powerful committee chairs that serve forever and having the political parties be able to squelch any kind of dissent within the party. | ||
| So those, you know, those were bad and to some degree anti-democratic things too. | ||
| I think that the thing that we've never really had for such an extended period of time is, generally speaking, in U.S. history, one political party or the other has been dominant for a certain period of time and that there is something approaching a consensus about a lot of major questions. | ||
| And we've now been in an extended period of time where that isn't true, where both major parties are pretty evenly divided, where power is swinging back and forth between the parties on a regular basis, where no matter how narrowly each party wins their election, they try to pursue the entirety of their agenda and implement it within the two-year window before they get voted out again, which is happening with increasing frequency. | ||
| And so, you know, all of that contributes, I think, to a very heated environment. | ||
| Yeah, and I will say, actually, on the question of committee chairmanships, the Republicans are much better than the Democrats. | ||
| They have a basic rule of which they can seek exceptions to, but three terms at the head of a committee and you're out. | ||
| And I do think in a small D Democratic way, that is a healthier model. | ||
| The Democrats have an obvious gerontocracy problem. | ||
| They're fielding, I think, more candidates over the age of 70 than ever in the 2026 cycle. | ||
| And that is, again, I'm sounding like a broken record here, but it's a sign of both small D Democratic and party decline. | ||
| It's an interesting part and parcel of all this is the parties themselves have been hollowed out as kind of fundraising machines. | ||
| And in 2016, the Republicans had a hostile takeover of the party from outside from Donald Trump. | ||
| I think what's interesting looking ahead to 2028 is whether the Democrats would be vulnerable to a similar movement from some social media celebrity. | ||
| Who knows? | ||
| Let's hear from Ron in Michigan, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Ron. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I'd just like to make three comments, one on the No Kings protest, and then one on the military parade, and then finally on the LA protest. | ||
| The No Kings protest, I think the Democrats missed a boat on that one because they should have had a No Queens parade for Kamala Harris because Donald Trump was put in, went through the primaries and won his primaries. | ||
| Kamala Harris didn't have a primary. | ||
| They just put her in. | ||
| And if you remember right, in 2020, she didn't even make it very far in the primary. | ||
| So talk about democracy. | ||
| And then on the military parade, in my opinion, if you can't honor the military, And I mean, the military that defends your right to peacefully protest. | ||
| And again, I don't know what you call democracy, but that's not my definition. | ||
| And then finally, on the LA protest, they keep calling it peacefully, it was peacefully Democrats keep, well, you could show the clips. | ||
| I'm sure you have it on C-SPAN of the young lady that wasn't allowed to get to work to help feed her kids because the protesters shut down the highway and all the looting of the businesses and the throwing of bricks over the overpasses and the throwing of the police cars and the burning car property, burning the American flag, raising the Mexican flag. | ||
| I don't have peaceful. | ||
| You just have common sense to yourself. | ||
| Somebody to come to your home and burn your car, throw a brick through your window. | ||
| Ron, we'll get a response from our guests. | ||
| We're having a hard time hearing you toward the end there. | ||
| Jim, any response for Ron? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, I don't consider burning things and looting and preventing people from going to work to be peaceful protests. | ||
| Obviously, as far as I know, they haven't been lethal protests up to this point, which is a good thing, but that isn't the only good thing. | ||
| And obviously, there is the risk that anytime you do have confrontations with the police, throwing rocks, throwing bottles, beating on car windows and things like that, that you could end up seeing a further escalation of violence. | ||
| But I think those things are violent in and of themselves. | ||
| Yeah, again, I largely agree. | ||
| There is a risk of escalation anytime you pursue violence in expressing dissent. | ||
| And I always want and hope for there to be discipline on the part of protesters. | ||
| Marilyn in Illinois, line four Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Marilyn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning to you. | ||
| You know, there's so much that has been talked about. | ||
| So I want to start by saying, Mr. Lehman, I wish you would shout from the rooftops, from the mountaintops, what you've been saying. | ||
| Because on the other side of the fence, it's tiptoed about. | ||
| They don't want to answer questions. | ||
| They don't say yes or no when they're asked a question. | ||
| They tiptoe around. | ||
| Facts mean nothing to the other side. | ||
| But facts mean a lot to me. | ||
| I'm 82 years old. | ||
| I hope I live to see this administration go down because I have lived through riots before, through a lot of things, but I've never seen my government being destroyed, torn apart, dismantled because of, and I don't, I just think Trump is a front man. | ||
| There are bigger things behind him. | ||
| The Heritage Foundation. | ||
| I believe that what we see is a small part of what is really going down to destroy our country. | ||
| But you know what, folks? | ||
| The people, the people who marched, not the people in Congress. | ||
| They're a small part of what this country is about. | ||
| It's the people that take themselves down to the streets and walk with their children, with walkers, because they're my age. | ||
| And they have a voice. | ||
| And I hope it's big enough and strong enough. | ||
| And Mr. Lehman, you're one of them. | ||
| And you have common sense. | ||
| There is no common sense on the other side. | ||
| They just want power. | ||
| Power to get what they want for themselves. | ||
| It shows it's obvious. | ||
| Marilyn, we'll get a response from our guest. | ||
| Chris. | ||
| Well, thanks for the kind words. | ||
| I guess that evens out the spewing garbage comment from earlier. | ||
| And yeah, as I've continued to say, it's an alarming time. | ||
| You referenced the mobilization of the National Guard in California. | ||
| That was done over the preference of the governor of the state, which is not how the National Guard is legally deployed. | ||
| Same with the Marines on a largely civilian population. | ||
| So, and yeah, there's, to your point, you know, I'm I continue to hold out hope for the other side, even though I do think it's very alarming that things like believing that the 2020 election was rigged is now kind of a litmus test in the Trumpified Republican Party. | ||
| That is a big problem for conducting factual debate. | ||
| This is something that's literally been litigated in like 70 courts, and it should be a settled question. | ||
| So, yeah, these, and to your other points, you know, I'm not sure what I guess I have a more prosaic view of Donald Trump's approach to governance, which is that he's simply not much interested in it at the detail level. | ||
| And so we've already seen in the short time that his administration has come back into power, there was, you know, a month or two where Elon Musk seemed to be driving a lot of actions within the administration. | ||
| And now he's on the outs, and now we're seeing Stephen Miller and his agenda moving front and center. | ||
| And I think what happens is Trump empowers these people to sort of act on his behalf up until a point where he understands it's politically damaging to him. | ||
| And then, as he has done throughout his life, he cuts them loose. | ||
| Jim? | ||
| Yeah, it's going to be interesting. | ||
| I mean, obviously, Musk is on the outs right now. | ||
| Trump is signaling that he's going to pull back in certain areas of the immigration raids to give some relief to the farming sector, the hospitality, restaurant industry, which would effectively exempt pretty large employers of illegal labor. | ||
| So that isn't exactly what Stephen Miller would want. | ||
| So it'll be interesting to see how all that evolves. | ||
| I mean, obviously, an advantage I think the Democrats have heading into the midterm elections is that right now they're the party of the higher propensity voter. | ||
| And things like midterm elections, off-year elections, special elections, that's when those types of voters tend to be the ones that turn out. | ||
| And the Trump campaign in 2024 had a lot of success with lower propensity voters. | ||
| So can they turn those voters out in the midterms? | ||
| And then if they can't, how indicative will the midterm results be of what the 2028 results are going to be? | ||
| We obviously saw Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have very bad midterm elections, but both get re-elected. | ||
| So sometimes it's an indicator, as I think it was the 2006 elections before 2008, but it isn't always. | ||
| To your earlier point, talking about control of power bouncing back and forth between the political parties, you also just mentioned Elon Musk. | ||
| This was a headline in Politico this week. | ||
| Congress finally gets Trump's request to codify Doge cuts to NPR, PBS, foreign aid. | ||
| Doge made a lot of cuts, raised a lot of eyebrows, and there is a midterm election coming up in about 18 months. | ||
| Is pushing forward some of those unpopular, moving forward with some of those more unpopular cuts, like things to foreign aid, codifying them into the budget, the direction that Republicans should go? | ||
| Well, in the context of the federal budget, these are very small cuts. | ||
| And what Musk had talked about is $1 trillion, $2 trillion. | ||
| I think the total number for the rescission package is something like $9.6 billion. | ||
| So it's a pretty small ball. | ||
| I think foreign aid tends not to poll very well, so I don't know that those cuts are actually unpopular. | ||
| Maybe people wouldn't like the substantive implications of them, but in general, people think foreign aid is a much bigger part of the federal budget than it is. | ||
| NPR and public broadcasting in the past, that has had a real constituency. | ||
| So when Republicans have tried to cut that in the past, there has been some backlash to it. | ||
| I'm not sure that the backlash would be quite the same now as it was in the 90s, but there certainly are people who are supportive of that programming. | ||
| I do think the most popular stuff done in public broadcasting could find funding outside of the federal government. | ||
| I don't think Big Bird is going anywhere. | ||
| But yeah, I think it's a real test for Republicans that cutting government spending in the abstract is popular, but whenever you talk about cutting anything specific, there does tend to be, you suddenly find that there are some supporters of some of these programs. | ||
| And Chris, we are a little less than 18 months away from midterms. | ||
| What should Democrats be focused on between now and then to maybe help swing the pendulum back? | ||
| I think they should be, you know, contrary to sort of conventional wisdom, like Trump's immigration moves are not popular in polling. | ||
| And again, I take Jim's point that wording and polling creates a lot of volatility. | ||
| But when you sort of see ICE raids at churches and schools and then subsequent rendition to the Seacott facility in El Salvador, there's a lot of, I think, justified outrage. | ||
| So again, we'll see if Gavin Newsom's trajectory is a path forward for the party. | ||
| Do you think it's no secret that the Democrats have been losing support among the white working class in particular? | ||
| And Trump also made major inroads among black and Latino voters. | ||
| So the Democrats have a lot of work to do. | ||
| And I think a lot of it has to do, you know, an earlier caller mentioned, you know, the Kamala Harris shift of the ticket. | ||
| There is a sense that Democrats engage in a rhetoric about democracy under threat and then don't follow through at a substantive policy level. | ||
| So I think that has damaged their credibility. | ||
| I think they should be much more out in front of these core issues. | ||
| And there's a tendency, you know, we are in that introspective period after a lost election. | ||
| And Democrats are afraid of their own shadow. | ||
| They're very loath to speak out what they affirmatively stand for. | ||
| And again, this is a moment to stand up and be counted. | ||
| So if they do that, if they, you know, I know this will light up the Republican mind, but I actually think, you know, they should follow through on the impeachment resolution that, you know, it won't get support in the House, but it will get the opposition on the record. | ||
| I think they should vote to impeach Christine Noam for, you know, detaining a U.S. Senator. | ||
| That's outrageous behavior on the part of an administration official. | ||
| They have these, you know, they're limited powers because they're in the minority in Congress, but anytime the Republicans are in that position, they go hammer and tongs after the opposition. | ||
| So I know, you know, it's a polarized atmosphere. | ||
| I don't want to continue that sort of death spiral, but vigorous pursuit of the common good is what we send people to Washington to pursue, and Democrats need to step up their game exponentially. | ||
| Let's talk with Robert in Connecticut, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've been listening here, waiting my turn. | ||
| I have a comment and a question. | ||
| My comment is: I was a Marine in Vietnam, infantry, combat, Purple Heart, and after Vietnam, I was on riot control. | ||
| And I just want to let the American people know that we were not trained. | ||
| Here's what happened. | ||
| We were in our full gear in North Carolina. | ||
| We trained to just get on a plane at a C-130 and come out to D.C. and wipe out the Vietnam veterans that were demonstrated against the war. | ||
| So I want to hear people realize Marines are not properly trained for riot control. | ||
| So that's my comment. | ||
| My question for the guests are: could you please tell me historically, maybe in the last 15 years, what happened with the Congress when they don't work together? | ||
| And I'll take my answer offline. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Jim, would you like to start with this one? | ||
| Well, not very much happens when they don't work together. | ||
| What I think has become the new norm is that a party takes power. | ||
| And if they have both the White House and Congress, they try to get as much done through the reconciliation process as they can. | ||
| So that's a budget process that allows them to pass legislation on party-line votes. | ||
| So that's pretty easy to do in the House anyway. | ||
| The House largely does function on a party-line basis, the Senate, because they still have the filibuster rules. | ||
| The minority party can block things. | ||
| The reconciliation process is exempt from the filibuster. | ||
| Now, you can only do that, I think, twice in a legislative session. | ||
| So, you're limited in how often you can go to that well. | ||
| But, what both parties have really started doing is, you know, so we talk about the one big beautiful bill, right? | ||
| So, you try to ram as much of your agenda into this one piece of legislation under the Biden administration was the American Rescue Plan. | ||
| And there are some technicalities about how related to the budget process anything that you include in this has to be, but they are really pushing the envelope each time they do one of these to include more and more things every time. | ||
| So, basically, you get these one or two big pieces of legislation through without much input from the other side, and then maybe you don't accomplish very much for the rest of the time. | ||
| I mean, now, you know, judicial and executive branch appointments are exempt from the filibuster. | ||
| So, you know, you can get your appointees through, and you can pass a couple of big bills through the reconciliation process, but anything else is really difficult. | ||
| Yeah, I'm again in complete agreement with Jim. | ||
| And it's also true that what you get is something that we've seen, you know, the serial effort to just keep the government funded, which is a byproduct of the same thing. | ||
| You have a lot of, you know, I think of legislation as kind of like festivus polls where people just come in and dump all these kinds of ass. | ||
| It was telling in the what's being called the one beautiful bill. | ||
| Marjorie Taylor Greene was informed that there was a provision that no state government was allowed to regulate artificial intelligence under it. | ||
| And she was like, I don't support that, but this was after she voted for it, which is, I think, a distressingly common phenomenon. | ||
| So you do get these big, unwieldy bills that often reflect the wishlists of lobbyists who are putting these things forward and, again, don't do much to advance the common good. | ||
| Let's talk with David in Littleneck, New York, Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, David. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Just a couple of comments first. | ||
| I have to say, I'm in awe of the Democratic National Committee because they hold such power over their constituents and the members of Congress, and they know how to herd them and how to message. | ||
| Secondly, I want to say to Mr. Lehman, was he okay with Majorkis bringing in 11 million illegal people and then saying the border is under control? | ||
| So my question to my other comment is the danger of people viewing all issues through the prism of politics and political viewpoints. | ||
| And this is spreading across society, but mainly in the mainstream media, where 92% of the comments about the current President of the United States are negative. | ||
| And I even see, like last night, as the parade was going on and CNN was commenting on it, the commentators cringing because he dare not say anything unpatriotic. | ||
| So I don't know if this is a mania that's going on in the country or it's this Trump derangement that's going on. | ||
| I hear the people on the phone today feeling it's the end of the world. | ||
| Economy is doing great. | ||
| We have to manage China. | ||
| We're paying them, find their goods, and they're building a military that is going to stand up to us one day. | ||
| So we have to do something about that. | ||
| With $37 trillion in debt, we have to do something. | ||
| Now, I know the current administration is growing that debt, but we have to give them a chance. | ||
| But we don't want to give them a chance. | ||
| We want to go out and do another George Floyd riot mania where all of these people are going to go out there and act up and fight the system. | ||
| And I find it very frightening. | ||
| And I want to say thank you very much to the gentleman. | ||
| But we need to come together, not go apart. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your comments. | ||
| I certainly agree with the need to find broad accord on the direction of our country. | ||
| I think in the Mayorkis comment, there were a great deal of deportations under Biden. | ||
| The border entries did increase, but as an earlier caller noted, Obama was very aggressive on the border. | ||
| There is this perception that's kind of baked in in the political media and elsewhere that Democrats are just soft across the board on the border. | ||
| I'm actually softer than most Democrats on this issue. | ||
| 47 Democrats voted for the Lake and Riley Act, which instituted the sort of draconian measures that we're now seeing play out. | ||
| I think it's important to keep certain facts in mind around the immigration debate. | ||
| Undocumented immigrants don't commit violent crime at a higher rate than the native-born population. | ||
| That's just not empirically borne out. | ||
| Immigrants, as Trump's recent reversals on enforcement indicate, are major contributors to the American economy in service and manufacturing and agriculture. | ||
| And, you know, there was an OMB report last year that estimated their contribution over the next 10 years to our economy is $10 trillion. | ||
| They pay into Social Security without deriving benefits, despite Trump's rhetoric. | ||
| So, you know, when there's talk about an invasion and, you know, this sort of running amok perception that's lately been projected on Los Angeles, I just have to ask, what sort of invaders give you $10 trillion? | ||
| It's not how I'm familiar with the concepts. | ||
| Jim, we'll give you the last 45 seconds or so. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| I mean, voters didn't want that level of illegal immigration, and that had caused public attitudes, I think, on the issue to harden quite a bit. | ||
| I think a lot of what the Trump administration is doing would not be being done and would not have been voted into office were it not what happened under the Biden administration. | ||
| Now, the risk of the Trump administration is, do they then go beyond what voters are willing to tolerate? | ||
| That happened to a certain extent in the first term. | ||
| I think the public has more restrictive attitudes about immigration now than they did in Trump's first term. | ||
| But does that sustain itself as you see the ICE raids and so forth go on all over the country? | ||
| That really remains to be seen. | ||
| Our guest, Jim Antel, Washington, Washington Examiner Magazine executive editor. | ||
| You can find his work online at Washingtonexaminer.com. | ||
| And Chris Lehman, DC Bureau Chief for the Nation. | ||
| You can find him online at thenation.com. | ||
| Thank you both for being with us and spending part of your Father's Day with us. | ||
| We appreciate it. | ||
| Thanks, Hammer. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Next on Washington Journal, Brookings Institutions, Michael O'Hanlon O'Hanlon will join us to discuss the 2025 G7 summit, including the current state of relations among the countries and challenges for the group. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| Joining us now to discuss the 2025 G7 summit is Michael O'Hanlon. | ||
| He is with the Brookings Institution, where he's the Research and Foreign Policy Program Director. | ||
| Michael, welcome back to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Tammy. | |
| Nice to be here. | ||
| Remind our audience about the Brookings Institution, your mission, how you're funded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we work on public policy issues, public policy research organization, more popularly known as a think tank. | |
| We are independent. | ||
| Some people think we lean slightly left, but we got a good mix of Democrats and Republicans, and we're all way too ornery to be told what to think or write, no matter what our politics may be. | ||
| And we have a wide array of funding sources, sometimes philanthropies, organizations that support public policy research, corporations, individuals, not much government money, so we haven't really been affected in the Doge phenomenon yet, at least not much. | ||
| And some foreign support, but almost primarily American support. | ||
| So it's a wide range of funding sources. | ||
| Again, trying to preserve the independence in reality and in appearance. | ||
| And I think we do pretty well with that. | ||
| And I mentioned your title is Research and Foreign Policy Program. | ||
| Director, explain your role at Brookings. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm not really directing people's research too much, but I read their books in manuscript form, my colleagues in the Foreign Policy Program. | |
| We have a person who runs the program, Suzanne Maloney, she's my boss. | ||
| And then a person who runs Brookings, Cece Rouse, who's the president of Brookings for now about a year and a half. | ||
| So I'm a scholar fundamentally. | ||
| I do my own research, but I also do have this privilege of providing advice to people based on their drafts and reactions I have. | ||
| We also organize an anonymous review process whereby scholars from outside of Brookings read the manuscript. | ||
| Their identity is not known to the authors, so they can say whatever they want, whatever they think needs to be said about the book to make it better without worrying about feelings being hurt or relationships being bothered. | ||
| So anyway, it's the supervisory process on the book writing. | ||
| That's this director of research. | ||
| But my main job really is to be a scholar myself. | ||
| And our topic for this segment is looking at a preview of the G7 summit, which starts today. | ||
| But do want to start first with the latest on the Israel and Iran missile strikes and what we're seeing over there. | ||
| Can you bring us up to speed exactly what's happening? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's interesting. | |
| You know, after that big news day a couple days ago when we all learned of the initial strikes, it sort of feels like we're settling into a slug. | ||
| And I don't know that there's been dramatic news in the last 24 hours, at least not that we're seeing. | ||
| Who knows what's actually going on and what kinds of things are still being prepared. | ||
| One of the nuclear sites, Fordo, F-O-R-D-O-W, is built into a mountain. | ||
| And it was not apparently struck the first day, even though it's the place where Iran has been perhaps making most of its highly enriched uranium recently. | ||
| And that's the fuel for a nuclear weapon. | ||
| As far as we know, Iran doesn't have any nuclear weapons, but of course, Israel thought it was getting perilously close, which is why it decided to launch these strikes when President Trump's attempts at negotiations did not bear fruit. | ||
| And so, what's happening with Fordo? | ||
| Is that going to be left untouched? | ||
| Some people have said maybe there have been a few bombs dropped there by now, but there's no reported damage. | ||
| And again, it would be very hard to do any damage with the kinds of weapons that Israel has. | ||
| We have weapons that are more powerful that might be able to get further into the ROC, but I don't know even how well our bombs would work there. | ||
| Raises the possibility of trying to do a limited ground invasion, but that's on Iranian territory on Iranian soil, so pretty dangerous. | ||
| And you would be surprised if that was done on day three, four, five, six, seven, as opposed to day one. | ||
| So I think that Israel is going to make incremental progress day by day, but perhaps not really solve this problem definitively. | ||
| And we'll have to see how it all shakes out. | ||
| This is a headline from Axios. | ||
| It says, Israel urges the U.S. to join war with Iran to eliminate nuclear program. | ||
| What do they want or need from the U.S.? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that has for a long time been the suspicion that if Israel ever started this kind of a conflict on its own, it would be in an effort and a hope to bring the United States in, that no matter what we had said in advance, no matter what our protests had been, our preference for negotiations, that if and when the conflict began, that we would sort of see no purpose in sitting it out because at that point, you might as well try to eliminate the entire Iranian nuclear weapons program. | |
| But that was always a bit of a conjecture that we could be lured into taking part in a war that we ourselves didn't want to be part of. | ||
| On the other hand, in Israel's defense, the idea of the United States taking action has been on the table for 20 years under every president since we discovered these nuclear programs because Iran had a secret program that was discovered during the George W. Bush presidency. | ||
| And ever since then, American presidents have said if Israel, or excuse me, if Iran got close to a bomb, we wouldn't let that happen one way or another. | ||
| So you could see why Israel would have this hope. | ||
| But I don't know that we're going to do it because then all of a sudden now we're belligerents. | ||
| So far, Iran's not attacking us in retaliation, at least as far as I've seen. | ||
| And we'd like to keep it that way. | ||
| And I'm not sure we really believe that our weapons could destroy all of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure anyway. | ||
| And whatever happened during the air campaign, Iran's going to try to rebuild afterwards in all likelihood. | ||
| So I think, you know, it's always hard to predict, but you can see why Israel would hope to lure us in to participation. | ||
| I think that's going to be tough. | ||
| I think it's unlikely. | ||
| And even if we got involved, I'm not sure we could completely destroy the Iranian nuclear program from the air. | ||
| This is likely a topic that will dominate the G7 summit that is starting today. | ||
| Remind us who's going to be at the summit, who isn't going to be there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So G7, it's the big countries of Western Europe. | |
| So France, Germany, UK, Italy, United States, Canada, obviously, and Japan. | ||
| And historically, there have been times where other countries have been part of it or at least been invited to participate and observe. | ||
| You know, Russia in the day before relations fell apart. | ||
| South Korea, not as a G7 member, but as an important industrial and allied partner of the United States and some of the other countries. | ||
| But the core is Japan, Canada, U.S., France, Germany, Italy, U.K. | ||
| And therefore, it's similar to NATO, but it has Japan. | ||
| It no longer has any countries that are not allied with the United States. | ||
| So it is the world's seven most powerful countries in a sense that are allies with each other. | ||
| We no longer have a participant that is a different kind of strategic country because Russia is no longer invited. | ||
| And so the talks have often centered on security, as you mentioned, but also on economics. | ||
| I don't know, with the NATO summit coming up a week after, I don't know that this is going to be the big place where we talk a lot of Ukraine, although I think President Zelensky is coming from Ukraine. | ||
| So there may be some discussion of that. | ||
| And there may be a lot of discussion about trade, given how much everything's up in the air over where the United States is going on its role in the international economic order. | ||
| But I'm not really sure anybody can see a way to a deal on any specific issue. | ||
| So I think they're going to have to look hard to find individual issues where they can agree and maybe do limited communiques on those issues, which apparently is the plan, rather than to do one big kumbaya moment, because I'm not sure kumbaya is going to be sung too much at this summit. | ||
| Our guest for the next 30 minutes or so is Michael O'Hanlon. | ||
| He is the Research and Foreign Policy Program Director at the Berkings Institution. | ||
| If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now the lines. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| And Michael wanted to ask you, it was a headline on the Associated Press. | ||
| It says, as Trump goes to the G7 summit, other world leaders aim to show they're not intimidated. | ||
| The leaders of the other six countries have all visited with President Trump in the Oval Office since he's retaken office. | ||
| What is his relationship like with those other leaders? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's fascinating to see how things are going right now because nobody out of this group is openly fighting with President Trump and or seeking that as a strategy. | |
| And I don't see President Trump attacking any of them particularly. | ||
| There are obviously times where relations have been poor. | ||
| And the previous Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, wound up in an acrimonious relationship with President Trump at about the time Trump was talking, just after inauguration, of having Canada become the 51st state, which, my experience, I don't know any Canadians who would seek that outcome. | ||
| And it's not as if we're in a position to make it happen or to force it to happen. | ||
| And so I think that talk has sort of subsided a little bit, although there's the Golden Dome, you know, air and missile defense concept that's been proposed in recent weeks. | ||
| And President Trump has said to Canada, we can include you in that. | ||
| Either you can become the 51st state and we'll do it for free, although presumably at that point they're paying taxes, so it's not really for free, or we'll charge you for it. | ||
| So there's still a little bit of that kind of banter going on, but for the most part, people are trying to find modus vivendi with each other, at least as best I can tell. | ||
| And the really provocative, really acrimonious, really bitter kinds of back and forths have not been happening that much lately. | ||
| Does that mean that they're done for good? | ||
| I'm not going to say that. | ||
| Does that mean that President Trump's had some success with his tactics and people are trying to meet him halfway? | ||
| Maybe, a little bit of that. | ||
| But as you point out, they're also standing up firmly where they think they have to. | ||
| But they're generally trying to do it in a way that seems to work. | ||
| There's been enough data collected now on how to get along with President Trump, or at least how not to have the relationship fall apart completely, that I think people are sort of feeling their way towards interactions that at least don't result in complete breakdown. | ||
| But, you know, there's no binding deals on long-term strategy for Ukraine, on trade, on investment. | ||
| And so things could still get worse before they get better yet again. | ||
| We have callers waiting to talk with you. | ||
| We will start with Kathleen in Dayton, Ohio, Lineford Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Kathleen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, so appreciate Washington Journal. | |
| I'd like to ask Michael O'Hanlon, well, first I'd like to ask Washington Journal to have more Palestinian guests on, like Zogby and Barghouti and Nora Aracott, and catch the public up with the situation in Gaza right now. | ||
| But my question for Michael O'Hanlon is this. | ||
| How does the fact that Iran has, I'm sorry, Israel has refused to sign the nonproliferation treaty for decades and will not allow international inspections of their nuclear weapons sites. | ||
| And then Iran, the breaking of the deal of the P5 plus 1, why they don't have any faith in negotiations with the U.S., and again, how Israel being unwilling to sign the nonproliferation treaty, which Iran has done. | ||
| I went to the UN site and read letters from other nations who feel a threat from Israel's capability with nuclear weapons. | ||
| So could you talk about that issue and Iran's willingness for years to allow inspectors into their sites? | ||
| And I'd also like to ask Washington Journal to have Scott Ritter on and Hillary and Mann Leverett to talk specifically about Iran. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, thank you, Kathleen. | ||
| I have a little bit more common view with you on the Palestinian issue where I'm concerned about their plight. | ||
| I'm not so critical of Israel in regard to Iran. | ||
| Iran is a country that has threatened Israel's very existence for decades. | ||
| And the nuclear weapons pursuit that Iran has been undertaking therefore has to be taken seriously by Israel as a potential existential threat to the country. | ||
| And of course, Israel is threatened or historically has been threatened by its Arab neighbors as well. | ||
| So when a country is being threatened with its very survival on the line, I have a hard time being overly critical of a nuclear weapons program. | ||
| And I don't think, therefore, that Iran and Israel's pursuits of nuclear capability are symmetrical. | ||
| Iran has had an aggressive attitude towards Israel for decades, ever since 1979, and again has officially repudiated Israel's right even to exist. | ||
| So I think that's the distinction that needs to be kept clearly in mind. | ||
| But I'm all with you on discussing the importance of getting back to greater international focus on the Palestinian cause and ultimately on a discussion about a two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians living together with their own countries. | ||
| I think that's the only place that this can wind up happily and in a stable place for all. | ||
| Brian in Albuquerque, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Brian. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Pleasure to speak with you, sir. | ||
| I'd like to say in that same vein, but I just wanted to hear your comments on how the Israelis basically ignore us. | ||
| You know, multiple presidents have told them to make peace with the Palestinians, work towards a two-state solution, and they just ignore us, basically. | ||
| And then we turn around and give them money. | ||
| You know, six months later, we're giving them $10 billion or whatever. | ||
| I imagine they're going to want an aid package for this war with Iran. | ||
| They're probably just coming in and move in Congress for $50 billion or something. | ||
| And I just find it disgusting how, you know, we don't treat them like adults. | ||
| They're like a petulant child, and we're the adults, and they don't behave the way we would like them to. | ||
| They ignore us, and then they turn around and ask for money, and we give it to them. | ||
| It's ridiculous. | ||
| Well, Brian, I think I share some of your frustration. | ||
| I think that the George H.W. Bush administration back 30-some years ago was really the only American administration in the last 40 years to be willing to put direct pressure on Israel when it felt that Israel was not pursuing either a two-state solution or some other issue where we had a very fundamental and powerful interest that Israel was in fact ignoring. | ||
| And the George H.W. Bush administration didn't push things so far as to threaten any and all American friendship or support for Israel, but it did withhold loan guarantees for housing that Israel wanted to build, I believe, in the disputed West Bank. | ||
| But it was, in any case, a specific form of assistance that the Bush administration, the first Bush administration, was prepared to put on the table. | ||
| And since that time, whether because of our own politics or our deep-rooted support for Israel as a nation, we've been unwilling even to use targeted, limited pressure in an economic way to try to get them back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians, for example. | ||
| So I share a good deal of your frustration. | ||
| You talked a little bit about President Trump's relationships with the other world leaders of the G7. | ||
| Five of the seven countries have elected new leaders since the last summit just last year. | ||
| Is that unusual? | ||
| And what impact, if any, could it have on discussions and how relationships progress or issues progress? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's a great question. | |
| And well, it's not unheard of, but it is a little bit unusual. | ||
| Most of these countries have, like us, terms of leadership where it might be a parliamentary system and there's not a fixed presidential term, but it's usually two, three, four, five, ten years. | ||
| Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany for a decade-ish or longer, longer, for example. | ||
| And then, you know, we've had Japanese prime ministers sometimes last five, six, eight years in office and so on down the line. | ||
| Tony Blair was in office for a long time in Britain at one point. | ||
| Other British prime ministers have lasted many years. | ||
| So when you go down the tradition, maybe Italy tends to have rapid transition most of the time. | ||
| But most of the countries tend to have terms in office for the head of state or head of government anywhere from three to eight, 10 years. | ||
| And so to have five of the seven with turnover in the last 12 months, yes, it's different than the norm. | ||
| And it certainly changes the dynamics. | ||
| Maybe it creates opportunities for better relationships in some cases. | ||
| Because for example, I was a fan of Chancellor Merkel in Germany, but apparently President Trump was not. | ||
| And that relationship probably wasn't going to get better after they had already been together and worked together for so long and not always seen eye to eye. | ||
| So maybe it's just as well. | ||
| And some people have figured out, like I was saying before, maybe how to get along with or at least not have things fall apart with President Trump. | ||
| You push back where you have to, but you look to make common cause where you can, and you avoid big showdowns in the Oval Office or anywhere else if possible. | ||
| That seems to be a bit of a formula that I think people are starting to figure out. | ||
| And the fact that there are some new fresh faces, these are still people who studied how to get along with Trump before they got to power in their respective countries. | ||
| And some of them at least seem to be doing a pretty good job. | ||
| Let's talk with Sean in Tacoma, Washington, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Sean. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| Good morning, Michael. | ||
| Sean. | ||
| My question is, you can see that the Europeans will have to go along to kick Russia out of Ukraine. | ||
| Now, on the other side of that, you can see that Netanyahu is doing everything that he can to stay out of jail. | ||
| That's why I think he started this thing with Iran. | ||
| Now, I haven't heard this commentary or someone speak on it. | ||
| What happens if Putin comes out publicly for Iran? | ||
| What does Donald Trump do? | ||
| Does Donald Trump side with Israel or does he face Russia openly? | ||
| Or does he do what he's always done with Russia and hold back? | ||
| I'll take your answer off there. | ||
| Thanks, Sean. | ||
| Well, I believe that Russia already has criticized Israel's bombing campaign, but I think you're probably referring to even more support than that for Iran from Moscow. | ||
| And I think it's extraordinarily unlikely that Russia would try to use military power in this case. | ||
| But to just play out the hypothesis, it is true, of course, that Russia sent several thousand troops to Syria back in 2015 and kept them there for a number of years to try to prop up Assad in office in Damascus. | ||
| So it's conceivable, I suppose, that that could happen here. | ||
| But at the moment, Iran is not under serious threat of invasion from Israel. | ||
| Some of its top nuclear weapons and military leaders have been killed. | ||
| And so perhaps Russia could come in on the pretext of trying to help protect Hayatollah Khomeini. | ||
| But it's not characteristic of Russia to think that way. | ||
| Russia's interventions in the Middle East have sometimes occurred, but they occur very specifically, opportunistically, and in limited ways that do not run a big risk of superpower war. | ||
| The last time that I think there was really a risk of the superpowers coming into direct contact in the Middle East, it may have been as far back as 1973. | ||
| So I don't think Russia's in a position to do that, and I don't think it wants to. | ||
| Let's talk with Rick in New Jersey, Line for Independence. | ||
| Hi, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, I don't know if this question is somewhat related to the last, but how would this current situation affect Iran's ability to supply Russia with drones? | |
| It's a good question. | ||
| Yeah, thank you. | ||
| It's a good question. | ||
| I think that it could definitely affect Iran's ability because at the moment, Israel seems to be concentrating its fire on nuclear-related facilities and some missile launchers, but there's now been, I think, additional attacks on oil infrastructure, at least to a limited extent, and obviously military and political nuclear leadership. | ||
| So at some point, you could imagine factories being hit. | ||
| And I don't know that Israel is going to seek that kind of target out. | ||
| I don't know that Israel wants to run a risk of Russian retaliation against Israel, going back to not just your question, but the previous one. | ||
| So my guess is Israel will not focus on drone production capability. | ||
| But to the extent this thing metastasizes, you could imagine that Iran's fundamental economic capability to keep all of its factories going could be jeopardized, as well as its transportation infrastructure. | ||
| So I think it's a good question to keep on the table. | ||
| I don't know of any evidence yet that drone production has been reduced. | ||
| You mentioned earlier Angela Merkel, who was the leader of Germany. | ||
| We showed our audience a picture that went viral. | ||
| It was from the 2018 summit. | ||
| It was the last time that Canada hosted very contentious-looking discussion between Merkel and President Trump. | ||
| What happened at that 2018 summit? | ||
| I've seen several headlines talking about how they are trying to avoid a repeat of that summit. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| And I think they will avoid it because people know it's just not productive to escalate fights with Donald Trump. | ||
| And I think Donald Trump also is keeping his eye on things like the stock market and not wanting to have relations with other major economic powers deteriorate so much that, you know, the U.S. economy is at risk. | ||
| And bear in mind, I think President Trump is poised for at least a modest success next week at the NATO summit, week after next, because NATO appears willing to now increase targets for military spending, which will be in partial response to President Trump's threats not to defend them. | ||
| Now, I know this has been very controversial. | ||
| I didn't like the way President Trump used those threats. | ||
| I thought it was dangerous that Vladimir Putin could get the wrong idea and see an opportunity. | ||
| So I'm not sure I agree with the tactics, but the outcome may wind up being okay if other NATO countries do wind up carrying a larger share of the load. | ||
| I don't think President Trump's going to want to jeopardize that accomplishment, which is now poised to happen in The Hague June 24th, 25th. | ||
| I think those are the dates of the NATO summit. | ||
| So I don't expect a blowup because people seem to want to prevent worst-case outcomes. | ||
| They've learned how to put the guardrails on these relationships. | ||
| And we're still bumping into the guardrails. | ||
| There's a little bit of elbowing, certainly. | ||
| But I'd be surprised if anybody really wanted to let things go to the next level. | ||
| So in 2017, 18, this was early in Trump's presidency. | ||
| He seemed to be a little too friendly to Vladimir Putin, which I think he was. | ||
| He seemed to be ignoring NATO and U.S. intelligence on the nature of Russia's behavior and threats. | ||
| At that time, Russia hadn't yet begun the all-out invasion of Ukraine, but it was still just coming off of interfering in our elections in 2016. | ||
| There were a lot of things, however, that President Trump didn't seem to want to hear or acknowledge. | ||
| At this point, I think Trump himself is a little bit more clear-eyed about Russia and Putin, and he may still have a certain affinity towards Putin. | ||
| And by the way, I agree with Trump. | ||
| We have to prevent the U.S.-Russia relationship from completely falling apart. | ||
| But I think President Trump has recognized that Putin really is the perpetrator. | ||
| He's the problem in the Ukraine war and more generally. | ||
| So I think everybody's going to keep the guardrails in a little bit more realistic place this time around compared to 2018. | ||
| Let's hear from Pat in Keyport, New Jersey, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Pat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I have a question about China. | ||
| Is there going to be any concentration, any look at China and the threat it poses to the G7 nations? | ||
| And particularly if they try to take over Taiwan, what will that, are any of our allies in the G7 going to try to reach a common policy with China? | ||
| Thanks, Pat. | ||
| That's a great question. | ||
| I'm really glad you put China on the agenda for the discussion. | ||
| I think that may wind up being one of the more productive areas where the G7 can agree, because the United States may not have the same view towards China as everybody else, but we're all concerned about Chinese economic behavior and the way in which China is now the world's top manufacturing powerhouse, and the world depends on China for a number of things that China can cut off, like rare earth magnets or pharmaceuticals for that matter. | ||
| And also, as you point out, the worst case concern would be that China might attack Taiwan to try to force reunification. | ||
| In that event, most of the G7 countries are probably not going to do that much militarily, but Japan would be crucial because the United States, if we got involved in Taiwan's defense, would need to use bases in Japan. | ||
| And Japan itself may wind up using its own military, at least to patrol and protect its own islands, because there'd be concern that China might attack Okinawa, for example, since there are so many U.S. military facilities on that Japanese island. | ||
| So that would be the key country to watch in the event of war. | ||
| But heaven forbid we have to go there. | ||
| Sue, Grand Rapids, Michigan, line for independence. | ||
| Hi, Sue. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Hey, so what seems clear is that, and I would agree that we have been beating the war drums because we're trying to get our population incentivized in some way to back up whatever military direction President Trump decides to take. | ||
| However, it is clear that the leadership is actually Jewish in its management of the Ukraine war and the new assault on Iran and also the anti-Semitism propaganda that is being promoted in the United States. | ||
| I think we have to be very careful here. | ||
| We are not Israel. | ||
| We are the United States of America and we represent many ethnic populations. | ||
| And I think to try and get us involved in a world war for a militant nation like Israel is a mistake. | ||
| I don't think they have good leadership right now. | ||
| And I would resent that. | ||
| I hope President Trump isn't playing good cop, bad cop with Netanyahu. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, thank you, Sue. | ||
| I don't think the United States wanted to get involved in this war. | ||
| It appears there was a fair amount of conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu last week about what timing would be appropriate if and when Israel undertook this operation on its own. | ||
| The United States has helped Israel protect itself from Iranian retaliation, but has not, to my knowledge, been involved in any of the offensive planning or operations. | ||
| And so I think that's where we are at the moment. | ||
| I'm going to make one additional broader comment, which is that I'm not a supporter politically of President Trump. | ||
| However, I would acknowledge, and I think it's true, that he has been very reluctant to get the United States involved in new wars. | ||
| And that's to his credit. | ||
| And I'm hoping and praying that that continues to be his approach. | ||
| As a result of the airstrikes between Israel and Iran, the ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran have been called off. | ||
| The sixth meeting was supposed to be happening today in Oman, and they've now been suspended. | ||
| Where were, I guess, what was the state of negotiations or the talks? | ||
| How impactful is this that they have, that the meeting is not happening today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it would have been surprising if it did happen. | |
| You know, here you are right in the middle of ongoing military operations and Israel's best friend decides to sit down with Iran and Iran decides to sit down with Israel's best friend. | ||
| I think we were willing to, President Trump said many times since the Israeli operation began that Iran should still do a deal and they still have a lot of their infrastructure left that they should want to keep. | ||
| But President Trump has also said, like his American predecessors, that Iran should not be enriching uranium the way it is. | ||
| And in fact, it appears the Trump administration was hoping to get all of the enrichment capability gone whatsoever, including levels that might be useful in a nuclear power plant. | ||
| And Iran has made that a matter of sovereign prerogative and said there's no way that we're going to give up all of our uranium enrichment capability. | ||
| There was still room to compromise. | ||
| A nuclear bomb needs uranium-235 enriched to 90%. | ||
| A power plant needs it enriched to maybe 3%. | ||
| In nature, it's less than 1%. | ||
| So if you allow Iran to enrich up to 3%, 5% maybe, you could in theory allow Iran to keep all of its nuclear power plant-related interests and still have the technology base that it reserves the right to have a nuclear weapons program someday. | ||
| That would have been the natural place to compromise. | ||
| And that was sort of the old deal. | ||
| But I don't know that the United States wanted to see that outcome because Iran's now revealed that it has greater ambitions. | ||
| It's enriched up to 60%, which is getting close to 90%. | ||
| And so we've said it really should get rid of all of this capability and the uranium that it's already enriched needs to come out as well. | ||
| And that then produced this impasse. | ||
| So that's my understanding from public reports of where we've been in the negotiations. | ||
| Is there room to go back to that compromise? | ||
| Probably. | ||
| But do I think it's likely? | ||
| No. | ||
| Let's hear from Jill in Columbus, Ohio, line from Democrats. | ||
| Hi, Jill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, good morning, and happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. | |
| What I want to talk about is, first of all, Israel. | ||
| Israel has been to the table for a two-state solution. | ||
| It's the Palestinians that have rejected it. | ||
| The last talks, I think, were in 2000, where Yalta Arafat refused the two-state solution. | ||
| And the Palestinians, they don't want Israel to exist either, just like Iran. | ||
| And another thing I want to comment on is China invading Taiwan. | ||
| I'm not sure if Americans realize that if China does do that, we actually use a lot of chips that are manufactured in Taiwan. | ||
| And if that happens, it will actually shut down production, the United States, for any kind of weapons, vehicles, any manufacturing. | ||
| And I don't know, has anybody been speaking up about this? | ||
| What are your thoughts on that? | ||
| Well, Jill, on the semiconductor issue, yes, Congress was very active with the Biden administration to pass this big Chips and Science Act that was designed to try to return some chip manufacturing to the United States. | ||
| And by the way, if you want to postulate a Chinese attack on Taiwan, I'm not sure there is any good outcome that involves a lack of disruption to chip manufacturing and trade, because even if China were to succeed in that operation. | ||
| there could be a lot of damage along the way. | ||
| And it's not clear how China would behave afterwards in terms of exporting the chips. | ||
| So, you know, once that war begins, we're in trouble regardless, which is why I think a lot of chip manufacturing needs to be diversified. | ||
| And we are trying to bring more of it back to the United States. | ||
| On Israel, I mean, you're certainly right that both sides have, you know, stood their ground on certain issues, and the Palestinians have not been enthusiastic about a Jewish state. | ||
| However, Jewish settlements in the West Bank are extraordinarily large at this point. | ||
| And the kind of terms that Israel has been willing to even talk about or speculate about for a two-state solution now would involve sort of a checkerboard of Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank, which is not really a good faith way to allow the Palestinians to pursue their vision of a two-state solution. | ||
| So I'm quite critical of both sides myself. | ||
| A lot going on in the area of foreign policy, foreign affairs. | ||
| What are you going to be keeping an eye on with the situation in the Middle East as well as what's coming in the G7? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we've talked about a lot of the issues I'll be keeping my eye on, and I'm sure many others, including these callers with the excellent questions. | |
| But I think one more big issue is going to be what's our next step on the Ukraine conflict. | ||
| President Trump, I think, has been correct to acknowledge there's more or less a stalemate with some Russian momentum. | ||
| So he's basically said, let's have a ceasefire and allow the front line to stay where it is for the foreseeable future. | ||
| I think that's the correct pragmatic approach, even though in previous cases we've said Russia should completely leave all the occupied and stolen territory it's taken from Ukraine. | ||
| Morally, that's the correct outcome. | ||
| Realistically, it's not going to happen on the battlefield. | ||
| And President Trump has also been correct to observe that it's Putin who's refusing a ceasefire. | ||
| But what's the next step? | ||
| I think we need another American aid package for Ukraine. | ||
| And I think we need to start putting pressure on Putin. | ||
| For example, our European friends who hold about $250 billion in frozen Russian assets could start saying, we're going to start taking $10 billion a month out of that money and confiscating it and giving it to Ukraine as long as Putin won't negotiate. | ||
| And there are steps like that, also tougher enforcement of sanctions. | ||
| Right now, there are a lot of ships that Russia is using to sell oil on the global market that we are not tracking carefully enough to impose restrictions. | ||
| Russia is not supposed to be able to get more than a certain amount of money per barrel of oil, and yet it's evading those controls because of this sort of dark fleet or ghost fleet of additional shipping that the world knows about but hasn't quite cracked down on. | ||
| So those kinds of additional steps I think are going to be needed. | ||
| Because so far President Trump's rhetorically come to Ukraine's side, but he hasn't really backed those words up with action. | ||
| And I think that's the next big step for the United States. | ||
| Our guest, Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings Institution Research and Foreign Policy Program Director. | ||
| You can find his work online at bookings.edu. | ||
| Michael, thank you so much for being with us and spending part of Father's Day with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Tammy. | |
| My pleasure. | ||
| We are wrapping up today's Washington Journal with more of your calls in open form. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| The lines there on your screen, Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| We are in open form for the duration of today's programs, and today's program, the next 15 minutes or so. | ||
| We'll start with Beth in Florida on the Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Beth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I tried to call in on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, and not many people mentioned it this year. | ||
| I got through, but while I was holding on the line, my brain just kind of went dead and I hung up. | ||
| So I'm calling back today to discuss the things that I've seen this weekend. | ||
| Both of my parents were in the Army. | ||
| I was so looking forward to celebrating the Army's 250th birthday for their sake. | ||
| They are both disabled veterans of World War II. | ||
| And my mother was an officer prior to the war starting, and she stayed in after the war was over. | ||
| And she was let go from the Army because she went up for her physical to go to Korea, and she was pregnant with me. | ||
| And she was thrown out. | ||
| But after she got out, she became a member of the DAV. | ||
| She became the first district, female district commander of the DAV here in the 1st District of Florida. | ||
| And she fought for veterans. | ||
| She got disabilities up from 10% to 50% to 100% for some veterans that she had met. | ||
| She fought for the POWs, took their wives to meetings to have them heard. | ||
| She fought for women in the military to be able to stay in once they had children. | ||
| She had a bronze star. | ||
| She was the chief nurse of a field hospital in Italy and Africa. | ||
| She went to war without a gun. | ||
| She sacrificed her body, as did my father. | ||
| He never got overseas because he had an accident that caused a brain trauma to him. | ||
| And I've watched those two people all my life until they passed work for their country, particularly my mother, who worked for veterans. | ||
| And to see that parade yesterday, I wanted so much to be happy and to celebrate, but I couldn't. | ||
| And I was totally destroyed at the end of it when the President of the United States stood there and gave the oath of office to new recruits. | ||
| And two weeks ago, he said he could not uphold the Constitution. | ||
| And yet he is asking them to give their lives to uphold the Constitution. | ||
| I don't know what's happened to my country. | ||
| That was Beth in Florida. | ||
| John in Germantown, Maryland, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Well, I'm a Democrat, and I voted for President Trump, and I think he's the best president we've ever had, quite frankly. | ||
| And my family fought in the Revolutionary War back in 1775. | ||
| And anyway, but I would just like to mention something. | ||
| I had to go to the airport, Reagan National, pick up my daughter yesterday. | ||
| She was coming back from North Carolina, and there were closings on the George Washington Parkway for the parade, which is just fine. | ||
| But, you know, there were protesters, paid protesters. | ||
| No king signs on the, I guess, the over, I don't know which overpasses on bridges going down the other road I had to go to to get to Pentagon Highway or something. | ||
| Anyway, to get to the airport, we had to go around. | ||
| And I thought that was just ridiculous. | ||
| And then when we would see, you know, Army families and veterans and everything else, they were waving their flags and we conquer horn at them. | ||
| And so, yeah, you know, like in celebration. | ||
| But anyway, I would like to know, and maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any protests of any neighbors of Israel or of Iran's, any protest of Israel's targeting of Iran's nuclear facilities. | ||
| Have you? | ||
| I haven't, John. | ||
| It doesn't mean it hasn't happened. | ||
| I just haven't seen anything on that specific angle. | ||
| Let's talk with Madeline in New York, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Madeline. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| And thank God for C-SPAN. | ||
| I really appreciate you. | ||
| Just kind of following up on the talk about the G7 that's coming up. | ||
| I understand the purpose of the G7 is to discuss and resolve global issues. | ||
| What I'm kind of wondering and what I'm afraid of is how can they come together and come to terms on things when many of our allies feel like they're being attacked by the current administration. | ||
| I listened to a speech the other day by Charles Angus. | ||
| He was a former member of Parliament from Canada. | ||
| And he actually referred to Trump as a gangster president. | ||
| And he also mentioned that he felt the president shouldn't be allowed to cross the Canadian border. | ||
| I mean, these are things that I am able to come across online. | ||
| We don't see these things on mainstream media, but our allies are afraid. | ||
| They're upset. | ||
| They're disillusioned. | ||
| And I think the thing that I'm afraid of the most is we can't go it alone. | ||
| You know, I believe that we should encourage jobs and manufacturing, et cetera, here in the United States. | ||
| But I also believe that we have to cooperate with our allies and not bully them. | ||
| So thank you for letting me put my two cents in. | ||
| That was Madeline in New York, and she talked about the G7, which kicks off today. | ||
| Will be happening over the next couple of days. | ||
| Also, coming up, this is a headline from Politico. | ||
| It says tax portion of Senate mega bill expected Monday, tomorrow. | ||
| It says the text of the Senate's GOP tax package won't be out until Monday, according to four people with knowledge of the plans. | ||
| It says the slip timing for the text first reported by Politico earlier this week comes as the Senate Finance Committee is trying to finalize the biggest piece left to resolve in President Donald Trump's mega bill. | ||
| It says that senators are continuing to hash out key items, including the tax provisions and changes to Medicaid. | ||
| The Senate and the Senate finance members held on high-level lawmakers call Friday to brief on the issue. | ||
| Republicans are also waiting on more cost estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office as negotiations proceed. | ||
| It says several blanks are still expected when the text is released Monday, likely for the state and local tax deduction, key Medicaid provisions, and green energy tax credit phase-out. | ||
| The SALT numbers may be absent from the draft bill or slotted at a lower number. | ||
| Also wanted to give you a programming note happening tomorrow as well, Monday, tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Eastern, right here on C-SPAN. | ||
| You'll be able to watch Democratic Representative Yvette Clark as she hosts a town hall in Brooklyn, New York, where she's likely to comment on the GOP tax and spending cuts bill, as well as the upcoming election for New York City Mayor and President Trump's recent deployment of U.S. troops in Los Angeles in response to the ongoing protests over immigration raids. | ||
| Again, you can watch that tomorrow night live here on C-SPAN at 6 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| You can also find it on our free mobile app, C-SPAN Now, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Just a few minutes left in today's program. | ||
| Let's talk with Carl in Connecticut, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Carl. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning from Connecticut. | |
| Thank you so much for taking my call. | ||
| I really appreciate it. | ||
| A quick shout out, Happy Father's Day to Rob Simmons, Tim Ackert, Dan Champagne, and these gentlemen have not only served in our armed services, but they came home and also volunteered to become politicians locally, be mayors, senators, congressmen. | ||
| And these are upstanding people that I just want to say happy Father's Day to. | ||
| I have a quick question for the G7 summit coming up. | ||
| With the placing of increasing focus on authentarian influence and economic manipulation by foreign adversaries, how concerned should Western democracies be about hostile infiltration in our domestic hiring pipelines, particular in critical areas like education, healthcare, and tech? | ||
| As CEO of Best Hire, a company that does vetting for employers, I see gaps, real gaps, in how foreign nationals with hostile affiliations can sometimes bypass standard scrutiny in the light of the revelations in the book Government Gangsters by Kash Patel, which I highly recommend, which outlines internal sabotage and weak institutional guardrails. | ||
| What role would think tanks like Brookings play in advising on the continuous vetting or digital trust frameworks across our sectors? | ||
| Should the G7 address this as part of their economic security agenda? | ||
| Thank you so much for taking my call. | ||
| That was Carl in Connecticut. | ||
| Robert in Caspian, Michigan, lying for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| This is Robert from the fascist town of Caspian, Michigan. | ||
| First of all, I'd like to say my heart really goes out to the two lawmakers that were shot and killed in Minnesota. | ||
| I'm only like 200 miles from that area, and it gets pretty desolate up here in the Northwoods. | ||
| But it is very much of a tragedy. | ||
| We're going into this political, I don't know what to call it anymore. | ||
| You know, it's really getting violent. | ||
| But one other point I'd like to make is just an observation here on this parade. | ||
| When I first started seeing the parade, they marched, they started coming out and seating in the seating arrangements for the vice president and some of the other colleagues that was there. | ||
| The vice president came out with his two children, I believe maybe it was even three. | ||
| You know, they come out one at a time, and, you know, and then all of a sudden President, I shouldn't even say President, Trump and his wife come out. | ||
| But it just kind of struck me funny, but where is their, they have like, he should be like five or six years old by now, or actually older than he should be like 10 or 11 years old. | ||
| Why wasn't he there for the military parade that this guy put on for himself, I believe? | ||
| You know, he's on a big power trip and he doesn't want to listen to nobody. | ||
| But it was also strange that he didn't bring his, you know, him and his wife didn't bring his child out. | ||
| You know, I mean, I don't know that, you know, the vice president brought, you know, their children out to enjoy the date. | ||
| But no, no child for Trump and his wife. | ||
| Anyway, that's all I have to say. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| That was Robert in Michigan. | ||
| John, Johnston, Pennsylvania, line for Democrats. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| Comment about the shooting in Minnesota. | ||
| It wasn't done by an immigrant. | ||
| It was done by an angry white guy with a red mech, a gun in one hand, and a copy of the Second Amendment in the other. | ||
| You know, all the shootings that took place in this country in schools and even the shooter that shot at the president wasn't an immigrant. | ||
| They were angry white guys. | ||
| So we got to keep that in our mind here. | ||
| All you hear from the Republicans is the Raleigh or the Lincoln Raleigh program. | ||
| I think we ought to really consider who's doing the shooting here. | ||
| And also, the parade was a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse, as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| That's my comment for today. | ||
| That was John in Pennsylvania. | ||
| And our last call for today's program, Becky in New Jersey, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Becky. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| I just have a couple comments. | ||
| I want to say happy Father's Day to all. | ||
| And I just have one question. | ||
| How many immigrants are working at all Donald Trump's resorts? | ||
| I've never heard anybody address that question before. | ||
| Thank you so much for your answer. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| That was Becky in New Jersey. | ||
| And our last call for today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We wanted all of the dads out there and father figures a very happy Father's Day on this Sunday. | ||
| We'll be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern and 4 a.m. Pacific with another edition. | ||
| Until then, have a good day. | ||
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum, inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | |
| Coming out Monday morning, the Cato Institute's Alex Narasta talks about ongoing protests over Trump administration deportation policies. | ||
| And then New York Times White House correspondent Luke Broadwater on White House News of the Day and the week ahead. | ||
| And Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute discusses the future of Iran's nuclear program amid Israeli military strikes and pressure by the U.S. to reach a deal. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Monday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Well, up next, the U.S. Army marks its 250th anniversary with a parade through the nation's capital. | ||
| And then Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin joins the No Kings Coalition for its No Kings protest to march and rally in Philadelphia to call attention to what organizers see as the Trump administration's ongoing constitutional violations. | ||
| And later, former Wisconsin Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher joined a discussion to talk about biotechnology and its potential uses. | ||
| Others mention how adversaries like China could create viruses or weaponize the industry. | ||
| On Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi hosts the first Religious Liberty Commission meeting established under an executive order by President Trump. | ||
| Religious professors and experts are expected to testify. |