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July 5, 2025 10:01-13:06 - CSPAN

03:04:57

Washington This Week

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kimberly adams

cspan 36:15

Appearances

deborah arnie arnesen

02:54

donald j trump

admin 02:32

hakeem jeffries

rep/d 02:16

jerome powell

01:21

mike johnson

rep/r 01:26

Clips

@geo motion

00:08

donald j trump [ai]

admin 00:01

larry pinkney

00:28

Callers

charles in louisiana

callers 00:13

dustin in ohio

callers 00:06

sam in tennessee

callers 00:11

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		And public policy from Washington and across the country.
		Coming up Sunday morning, we'll talk with syndicated columnist Cal Thomas about Trump administration policies and the state of U.S. politics.
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kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Saturday, July 5th, 2025.
		President Trump has signed his key policy bill into law.
		The new law touches on many of the major political debates of the moment.
		And this Independence Day weekend, we want to hear from you.
		What's the most important issue facing America?
		We're doing regional phone lines this morning.
		If you're in the eastern or central time zones, call 202-748-8000.
		If you're in the mountain or Pacific time zones, call 202-748-8001.
		If you'd like to text us, that number is 202-748-8003.
		And we're also on social media at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ.
		Now, President Trump signed that piece of legislation while at a celebration at the White House for the 4th of July and made remarks just before signing.
		Let's listen to some of those comments.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		This act, we have officially made the Trump tax cuts permanent.
		That's the largest tax cut in the history of our country, added to substantial other cuts, which is going to, you're going to see like a rocket ship.
		You know, we're setting all sorts of economic records right now.
donald j trump [ai] ▲ ● ▼		And that's before this kicks in.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		After this kicks in, our country is going to be a rocket ship economically, and we've delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.
		And that's why when you hear things like that, this is the most pop, it's the biggest bill of its kind ever done by far.
		But we are going to have a situation.
		We are going to have something where people are going to realize the level of success and popularity of this bill.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Again, our question this morning: what's the most important issue facing America?
		Throughout the show today, we're going to hear from journalists and talk show radio hosts from across the country to get a sense of the mood of the nation.
		There's been some recent polling on how Americans feel about the state of the country and the democracy from YouGov in particular, finding that more Americans think the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis than think the U.S. is in a democracy.
		A new YouGov survey finds that majorities of Americans feel the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis, believe the U.S. is a much more politically divided than it was five years ago, and are concerned about white supremacist extremism.
		A majority, 56% of Americans, agree that the United States is in a constitutional crisis, but Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to agree with this statement, 82% versus 26%.
		Only half, 50% of Americans, agree that the United States is in a democracy.
		28% disagree, and 22% are not sure.
		Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. is a democracy, but the partisan gap is much larger on whether the U.S. is a dictatorship.
		24% of Americans, including 35% of Democrats and 7% of Republicans, agree that it is.
		Now, let's get to your calls on the question: what's the most important issue facing America?
		Darrell is in Columbus, Georgia.
		Good morning, Darrell.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you this morning?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Fine, thank you.
unidentified		Good, thank you.
		Yes, the most the problem that we got right now is I hate to admit it, but it's just the blatant racism that's taking this country apart.
		And our president, he's the one that's, you know, he's striking, you know, he's fanning the flames.
		I'll give you a couple examples.
		You know, you got this mass deportation.
		I mean, a lot of people don't mind, that don't mind mass deportation, but the way they're doing it with the mass agents and all that, and the people that they're targeting.
		They're targeting the brown people.
		And I got a feeling it's going to lead to some black people.
		But it's not anybody that's of any other color, no white, no white people, that you're seeing visibly being mass deportated.
		Then you got people like Stephen Miller in the White House.
		He's making statements like they only want 100 million people in this country total.
		And the statement that he made is that he wants them all to look like him.
		You know, that's a dog whistle.
		That's just sad that we're in that type of situation.
		And then you got these alleged Alcatraz and all that.
		That's just inhumane.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Darrell, later in the show, we are going to hear from one talk show radio host in Florida as we do a roundup of people of check-ins from around the nation.
		But you mentioned the immigration enforcement and the increase.
		The New York Times has a map breaking down the ICE arrests since Trump took office, breaking it down by state.
		And it's clear here that the highest number of arrests have been in Texas with more than 20,000 ICE arrests there.
		In California, more than almost 6,000.
		And in Florida, more than 9,000 arrests in ICE arrests since Trump took office.
		Let's hear from Ron in San Clemente, California.
		Good morning, Ron.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		And happy, well, lamented, happy 4th of July for everybody in our country.
		Things aren't as jolly as they should be, of course.
		But the thing that you're asking the question is, what's the most terrible thing that's going on in our country?
		And I think it's the media.
		I think the media doesn't know how to ask questions anymore.
		I think what happens with the media is they'll ask a sitting congressman or senator a question with three possible different subject matter.
		That is bad, bad interviewing.
		You can't ask a guest three questions and give them a choice of how to answer it.
		And they come back with dog whistles, they come back with straw man argument, they come back with red herrings.
		It's ridiculous.
		And we have to listen to this week in, week out.
		Tomorrow will be the Sunday morning talk shows.
		And again, they don't ask a direct question.
		It's real simple.
		I'll give you a good, very good example.
		And that is, everyone talks about Gaza.
		Great.
		All right, watch this.
		If you ask a congressperson, are 60,000 lives of Palestinians equal to 1,300 Israelis?
		And when does that stop?
		In other words, how many Palestinians have to die to make it equal for the 1,300 Israelis that passed away?
		One question!
		That's it.
		And you know what?
		They don't ever ask that and they don't follow up.
		And when the guy doesn't answer the question properly, what do you do?
		They just dodgeball it and go on to the next question.
		This is very bad interviewing, very bad information for the country.
		And we need to start straightening out the people that are asking these questions on television.
		And that starts with you guys at C-SPAN2.
		You have to set the standard high.
		And when you ask a question, you ask a one question.
		You don't ask three.
		Anyway, thanks so much for everything.
		I'm wishing you the best for our country.
		It's too bad we have a vile and vulgar and very despicable human being that's president.
		But we've had those before.
		So we can live through this one.
		But you know what?
		It's going to be very bad.
		And we're going to have to live through it.
		But anyway, all the best to all Americans.
		Luckily, I served three.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We're going to go ahead and move on to our first guest who's going to give us a check-in from Jacksonville, Florida.
		Ed Dean is a talk show host at WBOB Radio.
		Good morning, Ed.
unidentified		Kimberly, you would be great for talk radio.
		Wow, I feel like I'm listening to my own show here.
		You would be good.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you very much, and thank you for joining us so early in the morning.
		We've already had folks calling in with questions about a big story in Florida, which we'll get to about that alligator Alcatraz as it's being called.
		But first, you've joined us previous 4th of July's weekends to reflect on the state of the nation.
		So today we're asking specifically, what's the most important issue facing America?
		What do you think?
unidentified		Well, I think it's going to have to be the economy.
		Yeah, immigration is still there, but it's going to have to deal with the economy.
		You've got to see a problem a little bit with some of the tariffs that have been hitting with the back pocket.
		You've got inflation kind of back up a little bit.
		I think with the tax cuts that just got signed into law yesterday, it may take a few months, but you might see a positiveness move towards in the economy.
		I think that's what it is right now.
		You've got all sorts of sectors.
		People don't like the immigration side.
		It just may just like the individual, which is always on both sides.
		Who's in the White House?
		I still think it's the economy right now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, earlier, or I should say earlier this week, President Trump toured the new detention facility in Florida, which is being called Alligator Alcatraz.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What message do you think he's trying to send with his tour and with the setup of this facility?
unidentified		Well, maybe it's, I say this politely because you could have done this anywhere.
		Is it needed?
		Yeah, for detention centers, it is.
		They put it there.
		It was mostly based on the issue of cost or other areas that maybe homestead or camp landing, military sites that were already in place.
		Really, no other extra cost to the taxpayer building it up, but they decided to do it here.
		I think there's some political optics, but I think people like it.
		I think what the optics show, crime is still a top issue.
		They want to get these individuals that are in the country, the worst of the worst, put them in, get in the detention center, and move them out.
		I think that's what the message is.
		Could have been done anywhere else.
		It could have been done anywhere, but this is what they chose.
		And of course, it's like I said, it's a lot of it.
		It's a lot of it's based on politics the way it is, but a lot of people like it and a lot of people support it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of the folks who are comparing this detention center to the internment camps from World War II?
unidentified		That's garbage.
		I don't know how do you come up with that?
		This is about those of the worst of the worst criminals that are going to be held in detention centers away from the normal public, put them in, process them, and deport them.
		That's how I look at it.
		I don't know how you come up with a concentration camp.
		If you're going to use that argument, you can use that argument for any other prison inside the U.S.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, there's a story here in thehill.com highlighting the fact that Trump says there will be temporary passes for migrant and hotel, migrant farm and hotel workers.
		I'll read a little bit of this.
		President Trump said that there will be a temporary pass issued for migrants working at farms and in the hospitality industry to allow employers to have more control after the administration sent mixed messages about exceptions in its mass deportation efforts.
		Trump was asked on Fox News Sunday, Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo about his recent remarks suggesting the administration will ease up on the deportation of people working at farms and hotels.
		I don't back away.
		He said, what I do have, I cherish our farmers.
		When we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working, you heard these comments that he made.
		What are your thoughts about Trump being flexible about immigration when it comes to these particular industries?
unidentified		Florida is a huge agriculture industry, as you know.
		So does the hospitality.
		When he talks about the worst of the worst, I think a lot of people say, hey, I get that.
		Whether you agree with it or not, and I think for a lot of your viewers, Kimberly, it's just follow me now.
		It's inevitable.
		This is going to happen, whether you agree with it or not.
		There's always been this conversation, even among the Republicans, about having a pathway to citizenship or a pathway to legal status here.
		I think this, yes, maybe it does benefit the farming industry, but there's a lot of anger, I guess, going in the MAGA movement.
		Conservatives are like, wait a second, how is it if you're going to allow this temporary pass to happen, then what industry could be next?
		Now you're going to pick winners and losers.
		Either you're here illegally or you're not.
		We understand the argument.
		The worst of the worst, get up in the front of the line, deport those.
		But then what does this send a message here?
		I understand that, again, this may have to go in front of a court of law, that again, if you look at the individual, look at their status.
		Have they been a benefit to society?
		They're not living off the government doll, then there might be a pass.
		But this has really angered a lot of people by saying, Well, wait a second.
		This is what Democrats offered, a little more lighter version.
		But then again, if you're going to offer it to farmers and those in the hospitality industry, who are you going to offer a temporary pass to next?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, the tour of Alligator Alcatraz, as it's being called, this detention center, was one of the first appearances or the first appearance with Ron DeSantis that President Trump has made.
		There's a story here in Politico that Trump makes up with DeSantis at this location, saying, You'll always be my friend.
		How would you describe the way that that relationship between Trump and Ron DeSantis has changed since President Trump has come into office?
unidentified		You know, it's a good question because before he said that, he was asked the question by a reporter: Hey, how do you rate the governor and your relationship?
		He says, Oh, it's a 10.
		And then Trump says, Well, maybe it's a 9.9, a little bit of wounds still there.
		Yeah, there's some, I still think there's probably some bad blood within the Trump White House versus some of the team DeSantis.
		And I think he's had that with other people.
		They considered it was non-loyal to run against Trump as well.
		On the surface, everything seems to be there.
		I mean, DeSantis' wife, Casey, who may or may not run for governor, plays golf with the president.
		So there's something still there.
		Superficial.
		I take it from at his word.
		I take it from what he said.
		Let's see how it goes from there.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are your thoughts on the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the major tax and spending legislation that President Trump signed into law just yesterday?
unidentified		Kimberly, I'm a former economics reporter.
		I love the idea of extending the Trump tax cuts.
		What they should have done was put that in a separate bill, then deal with no tax on tips and no tax and social security benefits, and dealing with overtime.
		That's gone.
		I'm sorry.
		It doesn't happen.
		These are campaign promises.
		I think the Republicans have better explained this: how you decided to go along with the Senate version that they all complained about two days beforehand, and they voted practically the same thing.
		So the tax on tips, no, it's a deduction out.
		The overtime on the tax, that's a deduction.
		And they all end in 2028.
		The no tax on Social Security benefits has been elevated until given more of a tax deduction.
		All of this ends in 2028.
		I think there, and there is still pork barrel spending here.
		And I think in some cases, if Trump had not been president, this had been Biden, I think a lot of conservatives would have been against this bill.
		The tax extensions, the tax increase does not happen until January.
		I would have sat back and said, Hey, I'm in a restaurant.
		You advertise the steak.
		You give me the steak.
		It's not the way you brought it out to me, the way I ordered it.
		Send it back until you bring it to me the way I've talked about it or the way I want it.
		That bill doesn't do this.
		I like many parts of the bill, but I would have sent it back, get it done right.
		I don't know why they rushed this bill through.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Ed Dean, you have the number one statewide radio talk show in Florida.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tell people how they can catch it.
unidentified		Thank you.
		So, we're syndicated all throughout Florida.
		Our main station is the great talk radio, WBOB, AMN FM.
		We're heard 6-9 Monday through Friday, and you can listen to your app as well at wbob.com.
		Download, it's free, wbob.com, 6-9, Monday through Friday, Eastern Time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much to Ed Dean.
		Thank you, Kimberly.
		Jacksonville, Florida.
		Now, let's get back to your calls on what is the most important issue facing America.
		We're going to hear now from Gene in Louisville, Kentucky.
		Good morning, Gene.
unidentified		Yes, the most important issue is UofL is doing a Tuskegee experiment.
		They test it on black people.
		And there's other universities that got the cure for cancer and everything like that.
		And they're doing tests and they're giving pills.
		My aunt had spontaneous combustion.
		She came in with breast cancer.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Gene, where are you getting this information?
unidentified		My aunt, my aunt came in with breast cancer.
unidentified		And the cure for cancer is on CNBC.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's hear from Mike in Round Hill, Virginia.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Hello.
		Okay, hi.
		Thanks.
		Thanks, thanks.
		So, yeah, the previous car mentioned spontaneous combustion.
		Okay, I just got totally sidetracked.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So our question is, what's the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you.
		All right, well, I think that the most significant issue is a general lack of courage to have difficult conversations.
		You know, your guest just mentioned how he surprised that everything got signed so quickly.
		And I think it has a little bit to do with folks being afraid to stand up and have difficult conversations with folks within their own party to stand up against the statements or demands of the president.
		A lot of people are afraid of their goals and their own personal economic backlash.
		If they do stand up, I think it's important for everyone to remember and to truly wrap their mind around the reality that people are programmable.
		That you didn't make up the English language.
		I didn't make up the English language.
		Whatever language anybody speaks, it was given to us.
		One of the best ways to understand this concept.
		And when you understand that people are programmable, and that you can program yourself.
		And that is the beauty of that information, of that knowledge.
		And intelligence are not the same thing.
		So this idea of people are programmable, but you can program yourself all falls sort of into the same category of what Christ Jesus said in that of heaven is within you.
		And that you have the power.
		We have the power to understand.
		So I think that's just what we're looking at is a lack of courage, difficult conversations, and people need to remember that we are all vulnerable.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Your line is breaking up quite a bit, but I think we have your general idea.
		And a similar idea is echoed by syndicated columnist Ian Hallworth, who writes in the Washington Examiner, true patriotism is not blind.
		It doesn't ignore slavery or segregation or Japanese internment or the long list of scars that mark our history.
		But the existence of scars does not mean the body is rotten.
		It means it has healed, it has grown stronger, and it has learned.
		America's greatness has nothing to do with perfection, but everything to do with our ability to acknowledge the imperfection of human existence and to strive to improve the pursuit of happiness as it is written in the Declaration of Independence.
		Like all countries, the United States of America is flawed, but no other nation in human history has done more to expand liberty, both domestically and internationally, than the U.S.
		That should surely count for something.
		Another columnist in USA Today, Rex Hupke, says, we can love this country and loathe the people in charge.
		We can be simultaneously proud of this country and embarrassed of the things being done in its name.
		So my patriotism this 4th of July week is to loudly declare that MyAmerica doesn't stand for masked federal agents grabbing migrant children and mothers and fathers off the streets and whisking them away without due process.
		My America is welcoming, just, and decent.
		And no two-bit con artist president is going to take away my belief that these un-American actions can and will be stopped.
		Those are two opinions on the issues facing America and what it means to be patriotic this 4th of July weekend.
		And our question again, what's the most important issue facing America?
		Ken is in Prophetstown, Illinois.
		Kent, excuse me, is in Prophetstown, Illinois.
		Good morning, Kent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I think the most important thing, there'll probably be a spiritual revival coming next, but there's going to be so much money.
		The country is going to be awash in money that Trump is going to collect from these countries that we've been subsidizing and taking care of for the last however many years.
		They take a month-long vacation in these countries in Europe, and we're supposed to subsidize that and let them feed off our country's wealth to subsidize their vacations.
		Your first caller this morning kind of tickled me.
		He bemoaned the fact that they're rounding up brown-skinned people, illegal immigrants.
		I might have missed it, but were there white-skinned people crossing the border?
		I didn't see them.
		If you go back to Obama and just listen to the things he talked about, the browning of America by 2035 or something like that, and the cancel culture, where do people, don't they remember the cancel culture come out with these were old white men that made these laws?
		We don't have to obey those laws anymore, and this culture must be canceled.
		There's a lot of fellows like myself that did three tours in Vietnam because we like the culture in this country.
		My brothers over there that were brown, you think I looked at brown?
		That's all something that the Liberats, they just come up with to divide us, to make us hate one another.
		And the idea that somehow it's going to be bad when we get illegal immigrants and terrorists out of this country, and then it's their country, how did it get to be theirs?
		My relatives, uncles, and aunts, and everybody fought the Japanese and the Germans.
		This is my damn country.
		Keep the language clean, please, Kent, but go ahead.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kent, go ahead.
unidentified		I'm still here.
		I just, the idea that somehow or other our country is on a bad picture, can you imagine being in on an enemy of the United States this morning?
		Can you imagine the terror that's in the heart of the guy that's leading China, whose country is going down the sewer as we speak?
		Tune into what's going on in China.
		They've been just stealing, raping our country, taking all the benefits that people over here have lived and worked for and taking them back to China.
		And Trump is the only one who's saying the party's over, boys.
		We got a big, strong sheriff.
		And no longer will the United States be the floor mat for the rest of the world.
		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear now from Lisa in Alexandria, Virginia.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Lisa.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I think the most important issue is the fact that for four years we had undocumented illegal immigrants crossing our border and we don't know who they are, if they're terrorists and what's going on with them because we don't even know who they are.
		And I'm so glad that President Trump is, you know, he's looking at, he came in with a storm.
		Sometimes you have to, you know, as a parent, you got to come in your house, people throwing a party.
		You got to say, hey, get up, get out.
		And then you got to slow down and see, you know, are your parents here?
		So I think he's doing the right thing in people saying a mixed message, but you got to slow down and say, you know, let's not throw the baby out with the handbasket.
		Let's figure out, you know, farmers need workers.
		They're letting the H1B1 visa people come in.
		You know, you got to figure out what's going on, who's who in this country.
		And, you know, I feel sorry for people that might get sent to Alphatraz, Alligator, or whatever.
		But, you know, you come here and you're undocumented.
		You've broken and entered.
		There's no due process when you've been here for almost four years.
		And I'm just glad we're bringing some order to this, and that's the most important issue.
		Let's look and see who these people are before they start doing another 9-11.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Homer in Kansas City, Missouri.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Homer.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		Last time you chastised me for complaining about the education of some of the Republicans.
		I will throw forward exhibit A and Exhibit B. What do you think is the most important issue facing America, Homer?
		Well, we have a fascist that's in the White House, and it's obvious.
		And it's like, okay, I think this happened earlier in the 20th century where you have to paint an enemy.
		And now it's the brown people that are the enemy.
		And they are the ones that can the Magna Carta.
		How many, what, what, Magna Carta?
		What are we talking?
		A few centuries?
		And it's just asunder, tossed asunder because of this person we have in the White House who is a self-proclaimed violator of women and convicted with a businessman with six bankruptcies to almost match his deferments.
		That's what I have to say, Kimberly.
		And I'm sorry, because I like you.
		I really do.
		And you're like, besides John, probably one of my favorites.
		And you know what, America?
		You better wrap your hand around what's going on.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Beverly in Columbia, Missouri.
		Good morning, Beverly.
unidentified		Hello?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, good morning, Beverly.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		I believe it's employment.
unidentified		It seems like most of the people that I see around me are people with gray hair or white hair.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And the people that I see.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Beverly?
unidentified		Yes?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you please turn down the volume on your TV and then you can continue your point?
unidentified		Okay.
		I I was saying that I was concerned about the employment Because most of the people I see around me are white-haired or gray-haired, and they're older people.
		And the younger people, they have a hard time getting a job because they don't make enough money.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Next up is Pat in Tennessee.
		Good morning, Pat.
unidentified		Hi, thank you for taking my call.
		I only have one thing to say.
		It breaks my heart to hear them talk about God leading them and God this and God that.
		That is so hurtful to me.
		I wish they would leave God out of the politics.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Pat, who are you talking about?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Who is they?
unidentified		Well, Mike Johnson the other day, I mean, I'm a Republican.
		I die hard Republican.
		But this year has changed me.
		I will never vote for another Republican.
		I don't care if Donald Duck is running against them.
		I'd vote against them.
		But they have just, they have put religion in the forefront of everything like God's leading them and all these gold statues of Trump out here that all these people have.
		I mean, gosh, read your Bible.
		Understand who God is.
		He is not guiding these people.
		He's not telling them how to mistreat people.
		He's just not.
		That's all I had to say.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		A text message that we received from Bird in, I believe that's Virginia.
		Currently, the past four years, mass migration of the millions of low-skilled immigrants from around the world into the United States is our greatest challenge.
		Just the fact that so many people crossed our border illegally and unvetted will lead to us in the long term to will lead to U.S. in the long term to incalculable consequences on a large variety of issues.
		Now, other news that is going on this morning that we should mention, the death toll has now reached 24 in Texas as a result of the Guadalupe River floods.
		Here's a story from Texas Public Radio.
		The search continues for more than 20 girls who are still missing.
		I'll read a bit of this story from Texas Public Radio.
		Rescuers raced against the clock overnight in their frantic search for more than 20 missing girls from a private Christian camp and anyone else who may have survived the deadly, unprecedented and catastrophic floods when the Guadalupe River burst its banks in Kerr County.
		The floods claimed at least 24 lives.
		Forecasters warned more rain was coming to the region, nicknamed Flash Flood Alley.
		Additional rainfall may only worsen a mass casualty event that swept away entire buildings and sent cars swirling through the gray and brown waters.
		The state deployed hundreds of search and rescue personnel and more than a dozen helicopters into the inundated region with a focus on boys and girls summer camps, parks, and low-lying subdivisions.
		On Friday evening, General Thomas Sousler, commander of the Texas Military Department, reported 237 people were rescued.
		All right, back to your calls on the most important issue facing America.
		Let's hear now from Matt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
		Good morning, Matt.
unidentified		Hey, Kimberly.
		Morning.
		It's easy for me.
		It's healthcare.
		In this country now, it's food, shelter, and health care.
		If you don't have those three things, you're in a world of hurt.
		And this big, beautiful disaster is taking away Medicaid coverage from millions of allegedly able-bodied single adults.
		Now, if you listen to Speaker Johnson arrested these MAGAs out there, you know, the talking point is they're taking it away from the 29-year-old man sitting in his parents' basement playing video games.
		Well, guess what?
		If that's your child, right?
		If that's your 29-year-old son, or maybe your 29-year-old daughter sitting in your basement playing video games, because maybe they're between jobs, maybe they're having a bad divorce.
		Look at it.
		Microsoft just laid off 9,000 employees.
		So, you know, to say this ridiculous talking point, I don't care if I have a kid in my basement, 35 years old, playing video games.
		I want them to have health care coverage under Medicaid, if that's all they can afford.
		What kind of a civilized society are we, Kimberly?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The Washington Post has some coverage of how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would affect health care coverage among those changes, those cuts to Medicaid.
		And here's a bit of a description.
		While many seniors in particular rely on Medicare to cover their medical expenses, the federal health insurance program doesn't cover long-term care.
		This means many older adults end up turning to Medicaid, the government health insurer for the poor, which covers more than 60% of the nation's nursing home residents.
		The legislation's deep cuts to Medicaid could force some nursing homes to shutter or scale back services, making it harder for seniors to find a spot in a facility.
		That is Washington Post coverage of one of the potential impacts of the legislation that was just passed into law.
		Let's hear now from John in Denellen, Florida.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Morning, how are we today?
		My biggest, how was the question framed again?
		Kimberly, sorry, I was.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What's the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		I would say the most important issue we have facing America today is the realignments of the political parties.
		I think when you look at the Republican Party, which used to be the big, rich country boy club party, they have President Trump has actually shifted this party into the working class, middle-class party of America with a giant tent of brown and minority people and everybody.
		And the Democrat Party, I think, is being realigned as the ultra-rich party that actually is becoming socialist when you see those guys like Mad Monty in New York running for office, and you got AOC, who seems to be emerging as the leader of the party.
		It seems like the Democrats have actually becoming the rich socialist elite type party.
		And I think it's interesting because they both had flip-flop like that.
		So for me, the biggest issue we need to face in America is getting rid of the Democrat Party.
		They're no longer your grandma, grandma, boomers party.
		They are now a hardcore, lefty socialist party that is hell-bent on the destruction of the United States and America as we all know it.
		So I think it'd be best if everybody kind of wakes up to that reality and we move forward with that in mind.
		And I appreciate it.
		Have a good day, everybody.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Mike is in Reston, Virginia.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		Good morning, everyone.
		We are in an unusual time.
		The threat to the United States, the biggest issue is democracy and our freedom.
		We have a wannabe dictator in this country.
		He threatens universities.
		He threatens laws.
		He threatens cabinets.
		He threatens senators if they disagree with him.
		Just look at Session.
		His first senator that endorsed him.
		Without him, he would never have become president.
		Because he disagreed with him.
		He fired him in public.
		He humiliated him.
		He thinks he owns the government.
		He worked with Musk, and then they cut everybody off and do all things, and then they turn on each other.
		The guy thinks he owns the government.
		Musk did a lot of wrong things, but the president doesn't act this way.
		I'll cut your contract.
		There is laws, the regulation when you do contract with the government.
		It's not up to Trump to do these things.
		So I don't know what we're going to do.
		I do not feel safe.
		He weaponized the DOJ.
		I heard they are prioritizing denaturalization.
		I've been here 50 years.
		I never felt scared like this time.
		I came legally everything else.
		And people keep looking.
		This is what they want them to do, looking at undocumented migrants and looking at socialists.
		Without unemployment, without Social Security, without Medicare, without Medicaid, people could not live anymore.
		We had soup kitchen in the 30s.
		So we are living in.
		I don't know how we're going to fix the system.
		The system is not working.
		The checks and balances are not working.
		The Supreme Court is a rubber stamp for him.
		The Senate is a rubber stamp for him.
		The Congress, where is the balance?
		Where are the checks?
		I don't know how we're going to modify the system.
		We have to have guardrail to protect us against another wannabe if we ever going to have another election.
		So the Democrats have been sleeping at the wheel since Reagan with the wood economics and tax cut and taking everything from people.
		I mean, people complain about undocumented, yet at Car Wash, you don't see anybody white working, even blacks working.
		You see mostly undocumented worker people who are minority.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Mike, I think we understand your point.
		I want to get to a counterpoint from Carlos in Columbia, South Carolina, who says, the polarization is my concern.
		The people who claim that we are in a dictatorship feel that way because the voters have control to the Republicans in the House, the Senate, and the President.
		So they are not able to have any control.
		The pendulum is actually going towards the middle, not the right.
		Trump ran on the same issues as Democrats from the past.
		Obama, Clinton, and Democrats ran on immigration and waste, fraud, and abuse.
		Trump is an old school Democrat that is swaying the right to the middle.
		Juanita is in Cincinnati, Ohio.
		Good morning, Juanita.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimley.
		How are you?
		There are three things I want to say.
		First of all, I want to salute the lady who called about God.
		Mike Johnson and that crowd.
		God has nothing to do with any of this mess.
		I don't know what God he worships, but I don't think God has anything to do with this mess right now.
		Secondly, the second thing, I think, is the economy.
		And what I want to remind my senior brethren, I'm 74, read your Medicare.
		Read your Medicaid.
		Read how much Medicare is going to cover you if you get really sick and you have to go to a nursing home and you're there past 61 days.
		Who's going to pay for that?
		The kids, you need your stuff.
		And then, thirdly, and I think what bothers me most of all is I hear African Americans sitting on that hill saying, Oh, these undocumented immigrants, brothers and sisters, who documented us when we were brought here?
		The Dutch, the English, the French, the Portuguese?
		Who documented our coming here?
		Stop being hypocritical.
		You may not like your people.
		Fine, that's your business and your problem.
		But don't take this high vote or suppose high vote.
		Treat your people like human beings, send them home if they need to go home.
		But before you get on this immigrant train, remember the ships we came on, and they're still finding their bodies in the ocean.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Jim in Wildwood, Florida.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		So much covered.
		The last woman that called in, again, the 14th Amendment documented you, the people there, and it wasn't meant for all these illegal immigrants.
		I can't believe all the Democrats and the socialist way they think of the federal government.
		It was never supposed to be this big.
		You know, I started out just south of Detroit in the industrial Midwest.
		I lived in the Virginia area, just outside of DC for a while.
		And I've been around.
		Some of these people need to get out of their basement.
		Someone talking about their 35-year-old kid living in the basement on Medicaid or Medicare and can't get work.
		He needs to get work, like the one man saying, I was in construction for a while in the DC area.
		All the people there, like I said, Americans don't want to work because they're on the government dole.
		And back to the number one thing for me is immigration.
		In 1986, both sides, they've been ripping this country off, both sides, the Democrats and Republicans.
		It's got to stop.
		We can't have an invasion by all of the world.
		The people that are on the dole from the federal government live it to the states.
		That's the way it's supposed to be.
		The Federalist Papers, the states are supposed to have the power, and then the DC is supposed to have some control over the big pictures.
		But all these socialist Democrats that want the big government is their God and their savior from here on out.
		All the fraud and abuse and all these H-1 visas and these.
		When we lived in San Diego for a while, we used to say when you showed up at a school carnival in a heavily immigrant population area, they had a little booth that said, just give us some numbers and your name and we'll give you a green card.
		That's how hard it is.
		And that's how confusing all the waste, fraud, and abuse from Medicaid, Medicare, and the immigration policy.
		But the immigration policy has got to stop.
		These people got to know they can't come here.
		And the 14th Amendment, again, what they say, it was meant to afford the free slaves, not for someone just to show up here on vacation, drop a baby, and become an American citizen, go back to Mexico and start collecting chips and wick and all this other stuff that the government provides for them.
		The God is now for the Democratic federal government.
		It's unbelievable in this country.
		Thank you for my time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Sandra is in Gastonia, North Carolina.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Sandra.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		I think the most important issue facing America is the hate that comes from the top.
		People in this country don't realize or don't remember that when the so-called discovery of America, there were people already living here, people of color.
		And unfortunately, these people were destroyed and are continuing to be destroyed.
		This country is a country of people coming for freedom, people of immigrants.
		The people brought other people of color here to build this country.
		The hate that is coming from the top, people are talking about, you know, getting all of this money.
		I am a retired clinical social worker working in a Department of Social Services.
		You have to be 300 to at least 200 to 300% below the poverty level to even come in the door to get assistance.
		Not to mention that assistance does not help you.
		People keep thinking you get all this money and all these benefits.
		This is a total myth, basically a total lie.
		It is so unfortunate that you hear politicians talk about God.
		God tells us we are each other's keepers.
		We take care of each other.
		That's all he asked us to do.
		The Lord does not look at the color of your skin, where you came from.
		Yes, there are laws, there are immigration laws that people should follow.
		You should not come to the country illegally.
		But when you have someone at the top and the minions that all they're thinking about is hate and cruelty, remember God said the last will be first.
		Okay?
		So think about what you are doing.
		You hear these people keep continuing to talk about, you know, the elites, the Democratic parties, the elites, and the social.
		Who is more elite than Donald Trump and Elon Musk?
		All these rich guys.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to hear from a couple more folks.
		Let's hear from John in New Jersey.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		All right.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I think the most important issue facing America now is for all of us to decide exactly how much and how many things we as citizens disagree on while still being able to function as a country.
		The callers here are an example.
		I don't know how many of them are American citizens, but we obviously disagree about a lot of stuff.
		And if we don't hang together, we're going to hang separately.
		As an aside, I think I read somewhere where it's actually illegal to hire an illegal alien, but I can't remember ever hearing about an employer getting taken to court for hiring an illegal alien.
		Thank you.
		Bye.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you to everybody who's called in so far.
		Callers on the line, please stay with us.
		We're going to hear from another check-in from across the country that we're doing this entire show.
		And so we'll get back to your calls in just a little bit.
		But now we're going to chat with Arnie Arnenson, who is a syndicated talk show host in Concord, New Hampshire.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I love you, John, your last caller, about what's going to be the velcro that holds us together, because I think that's, if you want to know what the greatest challenge is, that's the greatest challenge.
		Can we find each other, or are we going to separate and segregate and not be able to find not only the country that we recognize, but the leader that we need?
		Thanks, John.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Last year, when you joined us around this time of year, around the Independence Day holiday, you had a lot of thoughts about the state of the Democratic Party.
		It was just days after then-President Biden's performance in that presidential debate that eventually led to him stepping down from the race.
		How do you think the Democratic Party has changed since then?
unidentified		So I was prepared to talk about what my radio audience and how they're sort of evolving on their response to the election.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		And in some ways, maybe it's also a message about the Democratic Party.
unidentified		And I think the Democratic Party was just in despair after the election.
		I mean, they saw Joe Biden fall apart during that debate with Trump.
		Then Kamala Harris steps in real quickly.
		And then, did we have time to figure out who we were, who she was?
		Could she separate herself from Joe Biden?
		She clearly could not.
		And Donald Trump had been campaigning for four years.
		You know that.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		So I think they were shocked by the election and not quite sure what it was they needed to do.
		And now, unfortunately, we're experiencing what I call dread.
		So it was initially despair at the election, and now we're living with the dread of this onslaught of the attack on everything that we value.
		Whether it's your ability to go to a doctor when you're sick, whether it's how to deal with the climate crisis, whether it's how we educate our children, whether it's the war on higher education, whether it's the war on the media that disagrees with Donald Trump.
		And they're like overwhelmed with the tsunami of attacks.
unidentified		But the problem is, is that they knew this because they kept talking about something called Project 2025.
		Remember that?
		I heard that a lot in 2024.
		Well, if they had read the 900 pages of Project 2025, and if Donald Trump did get elected, which he did, then they knew exactly what he was going to do.
		Exactly.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		So the fact that they were not prepared, the fact that they didn't have a message, the fact that they didn't understand they needed to leave Washington, they needed to go to little local Rotaries and Lions Clubs and chambers of commerce and talk about what was happening, and that they had to have a message that wasn't, we're going to go back to the way it was.
unidentified		People don't want it.
		That's why they elected Donald Trump.
		They want to know, how do you fight now and what does our future look like?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		And darn it, if they don't leave Washington and get out there, I am furious.
unidentified		And frankly, we need new leaders.
unidentified		That's part of the problem.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		The problem isn't just with the Democrats, but Donald Trump was able to weaponize what the problem was, which was the rise of the billionaires, the rise of the oligarchs, the rise of the corporations.
unidentified		Well, now they own government, and they have the perfect person in power named Donald Trump.
		Donald Trump ran on revenge and hate.
		And the problem is, now he has the power to fulfill it.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		And the Democratic Party was, in some ways, I think they didn't quite imagine what could happen.
unidentified		I could.
unidentified		I could.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		And I got to ask the question, if I could, what happened to them?
unidentified		Were they consultant-driven?
		Were they billionaire-driven?
		Were they money-driven?
		Were they afraid of losing their seat?
		Why do you have a seat if you're not going to find your voice?
		Why are you elected if you're not going to protect us?
		And the problem is the Democrats have talked a lot, but they haven't always been able to deliver on the things they talk about.
		Well, Donald Trump is delivering on the things he talked about.
		And we're going to lose our country.
		We're going to lose our liberties.
		We're not going to be able to fight the climate crisis.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		We're not going to be able to take our kids to the doctor when we're sick.
unidentified		We're not going to be able to educate people.
		We're going to have a public education system that disappears in front of us.
		Because of vouchers, what are we doing?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		We're re-segregating public education, everyone.
unidentified		We're re-segregating it.
		That's exactly what we're doing.
		And we're using public dollars to give rich people the ability to send their kid to some damn prep school.
		That's not America.
		That's not America.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We'll try to keep the language clean here.
unidentified		I'm sorry.
unidentified		I'm sorry.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		That's okay.
		There's a story here in Fox News that follows on some New York Times reporting that Democrats take a page from the conservative playbook with the new Project 2029 saying that a group of leading Democratic Party thinkers is beginning to collaborate on a policy agenda for their eventual presidential nominee in the 2028 election cycle.
		It's an obvious play on the notorious Project 2025, the more than 900-page policy blueprint assembled by the Conservative Powerhouse, the Heritage Foundation think tank for the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee.
		You mentioned Project 2025 and how the Democrats apparently did not, in your opinion, prepare adequately for it.
		What do you think of this idea of a Project 2029?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		Well, let me just remind everyone that the Heritage Foundation has been putting out one of these projects since 1980.
unidentified		They're good at this.
		They've been doing it every four or five years since 1980.
		They also have an echo chamber.
		They also have a social media chamber.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		They have radio stations around the country.
unidentified		This didn't just happen, Project 2025, out of the blue.
		They've been building for this.
		They've been reinforcing it.
		They have a message system and an echo chamber system.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		So the idea that you can somehow do something called Project 2029 and pull it out for the first time ever and make it successful, they cannot.
unidentified		They cannot.
		It doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a policy agenda.
		Absolutely.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		But a policy agenda called Project 2029 will not resonate with the American people unless you take it to where they are.
unidentified		You show the consequences of the Big Beautiful Bill.
		You show what happened, what we need to do, and what is the path to fix it.
		You can call it whatever you want, but the problem is the Project 2025, I mean, that's what the Big Beautiful Bill is.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		Russ Voigt, who's the head of Office of Management and Budget, he was the head.
unidentified		He wrote Project 2025, practically.
unidentified		And where was he?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		He was the one to make sure the Big Beautiful Bill basically delivered on everything that was in Project 2025.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		So you can call it something, but understand they have an underpinning, the Republicans and MA, for doing this.
unidentified		We don't.
unidentified		And then the question is, what's your delivery system?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		They have a delivery system so they can connect the dots between what they write and what they say.
unidentified		What is the delivery system for the Democratic Party?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		What can they do to reinforce local media?
unidentified		What can they do to reinforce local radio?
		What can they do to enforce, frankly, people being able to talk to each other in settings?
		And my biggest point is go to where Republicans are.
		Go to where it's uncomfortable.
		Because frankly, where it's uncomfortable, those are the people that are going to be hurt the most.
		Go into rural America, where people voted overwhelmingly for Trump and are going to lose their hospitals.
		They're going to lose their hospitals.
		And they don't think, oh, but I'm not on Medicaid.
		But their rural hospital depends on Medicaid to stay open.
		So even if you have health insurance and your wife is pregnant and you have to go to the hospital, if the hospital isn't there because it was shut down because of the Medicaid cuts, it didn't matter who you voted for.
		It didn't matter what kind of health insurance you have.
		Now you have to travel 50 miles to make sure she delivers safely because your hospital was shut.
		Those are the consequences.
		They don't have Republican or Democratic names on it.
		The consequences of Project 2025, the consequences of the big beautiful bill, is that you will be harmed in your community, your business, your health, your school.
		And they never asked your party.
		All they did was hurt you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, you mentioned that you think Democrats need to go into rural areas, but this week, New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zorhan Mamdani officially secured his nomination.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Do you think that that provides any kind of roadmap for Democrats elsewhere in the country?
unidentified		He did exactly what I'm saying.
		Where did he go?
		He went into Chinatown.
		He went all over the city.
		He didn't, he, in a way, New York is a microcosm of America.
		It is lots of diverse communities.
		It's a lot of people with different views, whether you're on Staten Island, the Bronx, or Brooklyn.
		What Zoron did so effectively is he went to where people are.
		He talked to them about their challenges.
		He talked about exactly the challenges of New York City, or the challenges of Iowa, the challenges of Tennessee.
		Guess what?
		They can't afford a place to live.
		That's true across the country.
		He recognized that.
		They can't afford child care.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		How can you pay $300 or $400 for child care and expect people to be able to go to work, or that an employer can pay not only enough for you, but enough to cover for your kid to be safe?
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		What Zoron did is exactly what I am saying.
unidentified		He did it in New York City.
		Now we have to do it in America.
		You can't sit back and assume people will believe you and will trust you.
		You know what Zoron did?
		By showing up everywhere in New York City, by talking to them, by hearing them, by listening to them, he created something really important for government.
		And what's that word?
		That word is trust.
		He created trust.
		They liked him.
		They saw him.
		They trusted him.
		Well, do me a favor, Democratic Party.
		Figure out a way to talk to people, to see them, to make them trust you because you're worthy of that trust.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Your show is The Attitude with Arnie Arneson on the Pacifica Network and WHN Radio.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		How can people hear you?
unidentified		I'm on WNHNFM.org radio.
unidentified		We stream live with my show at noon and at 7.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		We podcast on Apple Podcast and we're heard on stations like WBAI at 1 o'clock every day, KPFT early in the morning, which is a big station in Houston, Texas.
unidentified		And then we're like fairy dust.
		We show up in Hawaii, we show up in West Virginia, we show up in New York.
		We've been giving this show away on the Pacifica network for over 15 years.
		I ran for governor.
		I ran for Congress.
		I was a fellow at Harvard.
		I didn't do those things because I wanted to have a name and a title.
		I did it because I loved my country.
		I really love my country now, and I've never been so afraid.
deborah arnie arnesen ▲ ● ▼		So, yes, your caller John said, What's the velcro that's going to hold us together?
unidentified		Right now, Donald Trump is working the divide.
unidentified		We need to get beyond that if we're going to have an America we recognize.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you very much for your time this morning.
		And again, our question for our callers is: What is the most important issue facing America?
		And we have regional phone lines for this today: 202-748-8000 if you're in the Eastern or Central time zone, 202-748-8001 if you're in the Mountain or Pacific time zones.
		Charlotte says on Facebook: Economic inequality and access to health care is critical.
		We are neglecting important issues like what the regular American is facing is an oligarchy and authoritarianism take over by the 1% while the 99% are struggling to survive.
		And let's hear from Terry in Lafayette, Indiana.
		Good morning, Terry.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Getting rid of the Democrats.
		Biden committed treason by letting all them people in.
		He should be charged with it, whether he gets on house arrest or whatever.
		I shouldn't be mean to the old man, but that's treason.
		He should be prosecuted.
		And all them millions of people was let in.
		It's against the law.
		It's against our Constitution.
		He should be prosecuted.
		Why not?
		I don't understand.
		It just drives me.
		All the other things.
		The Doge had four different things they were looking into, and it said that all the corruption of those four different sites they were looking into, 92% was Democrats.
		Another one was 93% Democrats.
		The other one was 95% Democrats, and the other one was 98% Democrats.
		A criminal cheating our government, our taxpayers, it's just disgusting.
		They need to be just torn apart.
		They shouldn't be having no Democratic Party.
		It's ridiculous.
		It's communist.
		They're going to ruin this country.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Next up is Steve in Princeton, West Virginia.
		Good morning, Steve.
unidentified		Good morning.
		You know, I've sat here and listened to a lot of these people, and the biggest problem facing America is the destruction of the fabric of America.
		Now, the lady from New Hampshire that was on, she is mad because the misfits in America are struggling.
		They, you know, all this stuff about Medicaid and their kids staying in the basement.
		Well, I'll tell you right now, I have a 40-year-old that will not work.
		His wife takes care of him.
		He scored 132 on his IQ when he was seven years old.
		He went to college for seven years.
		He was taught that the American system is terrible.
		It causes problems.
		It's not the answer to problems.
		It's the cause of problems.
		And it's twisted.
		Now you have all these misfits.
		They tell girls that they don't have to get married and their kids don't have to have a father.
		And you see this mess everywhere you go.
		Now, I'm going to tell you something about these illegals.
		You need to go to North Carolina.
		Now, we are not talking about Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California.
		We are talking about North Carolina, the interior of America.
		The illegals down there are so thick you can't stir them.
		50% of the people you see out will be illegals.
		The girls have five or six kids.
		They don't have a wedding ring on.
		They're living off government benefits for those kids.
		The man with them does not have a wedding ring on.
		And this is not America.
		This is not what made America great.
		They are taking America apart piece by piece.
		That is what's the biggest problem.
		And then they raise a bunch of hoodlums that they don't have a father.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think we get your idea.
		Speaking of the nature of America and American history, President Trump took, this is a story in the Des Moines Register, that President Trump took a victory lap at Iowa State Fairgrounds during the America 250th anniversary kickoff.
		President Donald Trump returned to Des Moines for the first time since winning the Iowa caucuses en route to the White House, kicking off the one-year countdown to the United States 250th birthday celebration.
		Now, President Trump was in Des Moines, Iowa, and kicked off that celebration.
		Let's listen to some of the comments he made at that time.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Exactly one year from tomorrow, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding with a birthday party, the likes of which you have never seen before.
		Two years ago, I came to Iowa and promised that the festivities would begin right here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
		And tonight, here I am.
		Okay, promises count.
		Every one of our national park battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250.
		And I even think we're going to have a UFC fight.
		Does anybody watch UFC, the great day in the world?
		We're going to have a UFC fight.
		We're going to have a UFC fight.
unidentified		Think of this on the grounds of the White House.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		We have a lot of land there.
		We're going to build a little.
		We're not.
		Dana's going to do it.
		Dana's great.
		One of a kind.
		We're going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20,000, 25,000 people.
		And we're going to do that as part of 250 also.
		We're going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events, but the UFC fight's going to be a big deal too.
		And to fund improvements and enhanced experiences across the park system, for this anniversary, I've just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans.
		And we're going to do that.
		The national parks will be about America first.
		We're going to take it America first for the national parks.
		And these are just a few of the many programs, initiatives, celebrations that will renew for our national pride.
		We're going to have great pride.
		I think we do have great pride.
		I think we have more pride and more spirit in our country right now than we've had in 50 years.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The president mentioned national pride at a high level, but recent polling shows the opposite.
		This is polling from Gallup saying that American pride slips to a new low.
		Pride among Democrats tumbles while independents also hit a new low, more than offsetting the increase among Republicans.
		A record low, 58% of U.S. adults say they are extremely or very proud to be an American, down nine percentage points from last year and five points below the prior low from 2020.
		The 41 percent who are extremely proud is not statistically different from the lows of 38 percent in 2022 and 39 percent in 2023, indicating most of the change this year is attributable to a decline in the percentage of those who are very proud.
		These findings are from a June 2nd to the 19th Gallup poll conducted before the U.S. military action in Iran.
		It's unknown whether Americans' national pride has been affected by that action.
		In addition to the 58% of U.S. adults who are extremely or very proud, 19% say they are moderately proud, 11% only a little proud, and 9% not at all proud.
		The combined 20% on the lower end of the pride scale essentially ties the record of 21% measured in 2020.
		Until 2018, less than 10% of adults had consistently said they had little or no national pride.
		And that is polling from Gallup.
		Back to your calls on the most important issue facing America.
		John is in Tampa, Florida.
		Good morning, John.
		Until 2018.
		Can you please turn down the volume on your television, John, and then please go ahead.
		All right, we're going to try to come back to you.
		Let's hear from Jason in Benton, Arkansas.
		Good morning, Jason.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning to everybody listening to C-SPAN and Washington C-SPAN.
		I think the biggest issue, and it's been this way for a long time in America, is the fact that we're still trying to fight a two-party system with the same two-party system.
		You go to the polls to vote for your president, and all you've heard about from the media and through the debates is that there's only a Democratic candidate and there's only a Republican candidate, but yet you're shocked when you get to the polls and you see your ballot because you see five or six other names on there and you're like, where in the world do these people come from?
		I mean, I feel like the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
		We're kind of seeing a change in that.
		Donald Trump is a rhino because he went as a Republican candidate, but the MAGA party is its own party now, I really feel.
		I feel like we've got the Democratic Party, we've got the Republican Party, and we've got the party of Trump.
		But you've got other parties out there like the Libertarian Party who need to be heard.
		If they're going to be put on the ballot, the American people need to hear what they have to say so the American people really do have a true and fair choice.
		That's what I feel like the biggest problem in America is right now is we're being misled by the media.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Evie is in Cedar Lake, Indiana.
		Good morning.
		Is your name Evie or Ev?
unidentified		Ev.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Ev.
		Good morning, Ev.
		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Well, I just been watching C-SPAN.
		Any time of the day, you turn it on between the Democrats and C-SPAN.
		I've been watching nothing more than the most comedy in politics.
		It's almost a joke, David.
		I think they got actors going on there.
		They look like half-big ditchy drugs trying to tell America what's happening.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay, let's hear from Anthony in Arizona.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Anthony.
unidentified		Good morning, teammate.
		The most significant thing facing America really boils down to we hear you, we see you, we are you, and we need you.
		And those are actually how our body and our mind compartmentalizes things.
		I recently returned from a trip abroad prior for the VE Day.
		I went to England and I went to Germany, Berlin.
		And the significance of that is the last great war we fought, England is the only thing that separated us from having any ability to change the outcome of World War II.
		They stood up.
		And that falls back to if someone says, if they're a politician and they see you in the back, and then they tell you to speak, and then they say, I can't hear you.
		So they see you, but they have to hear you.
		And then they have to recognize that they are you.
		We are you and we need you.
		So when we have individuals who just step back and say, I only want to watch FS1, I mean Formula One, that's all that matters to me.
		You're in a conversation with them and all they keep coming back.
		Oh, none of that matters because all I care about is being able to watch Formula One.
		That is not compartmentalization.
		That is just stepping away from what we need to do as a nation and recognize that when we stand up for one, we stand up for all.
		So that's the most important issue facing America.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Jeffrey is in Columbus, Mississippi.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Jeffrey.
unidentified		Yes.
		Yes, my most important issue that's facing America today is not giving it to lies, not giving it to people that are saying things and not doing the right things that they are saying.
		We need to be the kind of country that is willing to look out for each other, not just for the look what's in the in the White House, not just what looking in the governor house, but we need to be looking out for all American people, white man, black man.
		It doesn't matter what your race is.
		We need to be the kind of people that will look out for each other, not just for someone just looking out for the rich.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Jessica is in Kernersville, North Carolina.
		Good morning, Jessica.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My mama is watching this, so I want to say good morning to her as well.
		I think the number one issue facing America right now is the hatred that's coming from the top of our government.
		There's no way that we can work together and make anything happen.
		We have people who are being ripped apart from their families.
		We talk about the importance of mental health care in this nation, and we're getting ready to decimate the system that affords people the opportunity to receive those types of services.
		And it's hard for me to believe that this is about us taking care of America when we are taking away the resources that are needed for the least of us.
		I don't want to pay for that.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		David is in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, David.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		Go ahead.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, please, David.
unidentified		Sure.
unidentified		All right.
dustin in ohio ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think the biggest problem we're facing our country is lack of truth.
unidentified		We just get lied to again and again and again.
sam in tennessee ▲ ● ▼		Our representatives and congresspersons, they lie to us about the bills that they're passing, about what they mean, what they don't mean, all to just get their own agenda.
unidentified		Our media doesn't tell us the truth.
		It's always slanted either a hard right or a hard left.
		It doesn't matter which side you're on.
		You can't tell what the actual truth is.
		And then the second thing that goes with that is we've built this culture of entitlement where we have a new generation coming up that just feels entitled to everything.
		And it's not like, you know, the days of my parents or when I was younger, where if you want something, you work for it.
		Now it's, I'm just entitled to that.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, for the rest of our callers on the line, please stay with us.
		We're going to be coming back to hear your thoughts on the most important issue facing America.
		But we're going to continue our check-in with folks across the nation, including radio host and radio talk show host John Anthony, who hosts the Black and White Radio Show at WDTK, The Answer Radio.
		And you're joining us, I believe, from Tampa, Florida today.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes.
		Good morning.
		Thank you so much for having me.
		We decided to get away.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, I can understand that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America in your view?
unidentified		I think, David, the last caller get it square on truth, the battle for truth.
		We don't know what truth is anymore.
		And that's one of the things that I really try to, that's one of the things that I do on my, both my Monday through Friday show and my weekend show, is bring people together from all different various backgrounds.
		And we have a conversation about what truth is.
		I do believe it.
		I mean, when you look at how we're defining certain things, and then, you know, for the last four years, we were told to trust the science about certain things.
		And then, but their science, not science, but their science.
		Truth is so elusive in today's world.
		And we have to get back to the ability to speak truth.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, yesterday, the president signed into law the One Big Beautiful bill.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Your reaction to that legislation and what it took for Republicans to pass it.
unidentified		Yeah, well, as someone who once served as an Illinois state representative in the Republican House, getting bills like that through, I'm sure there was a lot of capital spent.
		Again, another thing about this bill, listen, did I agree with everything about this bill?
		No, I tend to lean on Congressman Tip Roy's side as it related to this, but I understood the importance of a bill like this getting done.
		You hear people talking about they're going to decimate mental health.
		Mental health has been decimated many years ago.
		Trust me, I know that personally as someone who's fought for it for years.
		I didn't agree with every aspect of this bill.
		I thought the House bill had a better version, especially as it related to seniors and Social Security.
		I think, again, a lot of people are not speaking the truth.
		And what President Trump's going to have to do is go out there and speak the truth to the American people, just how much this bill will truly impact them.
		As it relates to Medicaid, so many people are saying people are going to lose Medicaid, seniors.
		That's a lie.
		Again, can we just have an honest conversation about things that are monumental in our lives?
		And I think President Trump is up to the task to him and his team to make that happen.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The Congressional Budget Office has said that millions of people could potentially lose access to their insurance over the next decade.
		This is where that narrative comes from.
		Why do you think that's a lie?
unidentified		Well, we both know that how the CDO measures bills of this nature.
		First of all, I think President Trump said it best.
		No one's talking about the growth, the growth that is going to come from this bill.
		The Congressional Budget Office has always been, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, a very hacked type of organization as it relates to how they score on the bills.
		I don't think they took everything into consideration.
		When you look at what Jerome Powell is doing and his inability to make crucial decisions to cut the rates at a time when it's needed the most, I really do believe the Congressional Budget Office didn't do enough.
		How should I say this?
		I don't think the Congressional Budget Office, their take on this big one, big beautiful bill, I thought it was off.
		I don't think it was the right take.
		I do believe what President Trump has said about this one big beautiful bill.
		And as far as the growth aspect of this, no one's talking about that.
		We are going to see, we've already seen investment in this country like we've never seen before.
		I believe President Trump said $10 to $11 trillion has already come in.
		A lot of people had issues with the tariffs.
		Well, President Trump proved them wrong on that again.
		So I think I'm one of those people.
		I wouldn't, I still trust President Trump.
		You know, they don't call him Tefron Don for a reason.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are your listeners telling you about this legislation and their thoughts on it?
unidentified		Well, it's a mixed bag.
		You know, it depends on where they get their source of information from.
		If they get it from the media, a lot of people are worried and concerned.
		I actually had a friend last night text me, even my own wife said, well, President Trump's going to cut this in this bill.
		And I had to go into the bill.
		I actually read the bill last night to prepare for this interview.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All 99 plus pages?
unidentified		There's 870 pages, I believe, is the number of actual pages that actually have content in it.
		And I read it.
		When I was a state legislature, I actually was one of those people who actually read what I was actually voting for because I did want to know what was in it before we passed it.
		So I did read it.
		And there's a lot of misinformation that you see across going out in the media.
		I'm telling you, this bill is a first step.
		I wish we can go through.
		I've said this on my show.
		I wish we can go through the normal budgeting process to get things like this done.
		But unfortunately, the politics of it will not allow that to happen.
		And I understand why it had to be done this way.
		But this is a major important step to get this country right because for the last four years, what was happening to this country has been detrimental to everybody's life.
		And I believe this is a step to fix what's been ailing the country for years.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned that you served as a state representative and you often host state representatives on your show, Detroit's Morning Answer.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are some of the political issues that are coming up on your show with the folks who listen to you and who come on your show that maybe other folks across the country might not know about?
unidentified		You know, it's really not even about one of the things, I don't know why this has been such a hot topic, but the, oh, I know why, but the girls, the boys playing in girls' sports in Michigan has been a huge thing.
		Even the legislative body has taken on this charge to go in to fight, especially in the education system.
		That's education, people, parents having good quality education for their kids has been another hot topic.
		A lot of people aren't really talking about what's happening in Washington, especially in Detroit and Chicago.
		When you look at Chicago, the immigration invasion that happened there, people like Blexit, Chicago Flip Red, Chicago Red, they are taking the fight to the Brandon Johnson administrations and things of that nature, like the fight has never been taken.
		So these are some of the things that a lot of people are calling into Detroit's Morning Answer and Black and Right on a consistent basis, discuss it.
		It's not so much.
		People aren't worried about the one big future bill.
		They're worried about what's happening to them locally and how they're feeling, especially education and immigration.
		Those are like two of the I would say, if I had to rank them, immigration, education, and then this trans issue that's happening across the country.
		People, again, when we go back to that word truth, you can have your ability to believe something, but we can't have an opposite of view of what you're trying to ram down or throw.
		People are upset, they're frustrated, and they're flustered.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		How and when can people catch your show?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Sure.
unidentified		I'm on every Monday through Friday, 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time, that's theanswidetroit.com.
		And then I'm on Black and Right.
		I'm on Facebook as Black and Right.
		I come on Saturdays, Central Time, 4 to 7 p.m.
		And I also wrote my first book, Letters to John Boy, about my son's suicide.
		Happened four years ago.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Very sorry about your son.
		And thank you very much for joining us this morning and for sharing your thoughts on the most important issues facing America.
		We're going to now go back to our callers with your thoughts on that same question, starting with Charles in Sterling, Colorado.
		Good morning, Charles.
unidentified		Yes, thank you.
		One Anthony that you just had on the program exhibits quite a few theories and very down-to-earth.
		We've let politicians get away with way too much.
		There needs to be term limits.
		This system was not set up by our founders for people to be 80-some years old, still hanging around telling other people what they need to do.
		They need to have term limits and they need to get their time spent, get their ideas exhibited, and then turn around and go home and pursue their own ways of life.
		And we can't have people, we can't, the United States cannot be the world's protector and the world's contributor to everything.
		When you come into the United States, you need to be able to contribute something to the country.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is John in Tampa, Florida.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		You know, I do want to say something about what your latest guest just said.
		There's not enough truth.
		There's always two different, there's always three aspects.
		You have one person's truth, the other person's truth, and the actual truth.
		But my biggest thing about what's facing America is a lack of education and how it's been systematically broken down when you have school teachers going from, you know, 10 or 15 students to one teacher to almost 30.
		The public education system has just been so dismantled that people don't know how to think for themselves because they've not been taught to do the research, to look up this information for themselves than they believe what's coming on the media, which goes back to the truth.
		You hear it from the Democrats, you hear it from the Republicans, but it's always biased.
		And it's just really unfortunate that we can't get a down the middle what is actually in something versus someone's thoughts and opinions.
		And I feel like that is a big detriment to people truly knowing and believing where they stand because they always listen to whatever side they feel like they're leaning towards.
		So you always get a little bit of bias in that information.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		John, where do you go to get information for yourself?
unidentified		I do my best to go to the actual source.
		Like if for the big beautiful bill, I haven't had a chance to read it all, but I go to the actual bill.
		I'll look at the websites that post the bill, and I try to read my information directly from there as much as I can.
		And sometimes I feel like for some of the news stories, like it's hard to get the actual source of information.
		So we're still relying on the media to tell us what's happening.
		And unfortunately, sometimes it's biased as well.
		So I just, I feel it's not easy.
		We don't have an easy time to get the real information directly from where it came from.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Tom in Springhill, Florida.
		Good morning, Tom.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		The most important issue I'm looking at, and it revolves around that New York City primary showing the face of the Democrat Party.
		People talk about information.
		You see the face of the Democrat Party from that Democrat primary.
		They put a Marxist, anti-American to go for the government, to be the mayor of New York City.
		You see what the Democrat Party is all about.
		It is no longer the party of the people.
		It is no longer the party of the working class, the American people.
		It is the party of Marxism.
		It is the party of anti-American.
		They did everything they could to stop this bill.
		They did everything they could to push for illegal immigration.
		The Democrat Party is no longer the party of America.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Brandon is in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
		Good morning, Brandon.
unidentified		And good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I'm fine, thank you.
		Your phone line is sounding a little challenging to hear, but go ahead.
		Let's see if it works.
unidentified		Okay, how about that?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		That's a little bit better.
		Go ahead.
		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		I think as you said earlier about term limits, people have to realize that if you don't win, you no longer have a job.
		So I think people stop really working for people as your congressmen, senators, because they're trying to keep their jobs.
		Because, again, when you look at whoever's winning, those are the ones that's who you jump on.
		You jump on the winning people.
		And I think that that's the biggest problem: people forget to work with the people.
		They're working more so for themselves because they're looking for a job.
		I mean, they're looking to keep their jobs.
		So I think that's our biggest thing.
		We start limiting people, trying to get more younger people in, we'll have a better America.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Ricardo in Laredo, Texas.
		Good morning, Ricardo.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		All the people that have been speaking this morning, they have a good point.
		But my experience has been that after the Great Depression, they offered the New Deal, and the head of households, the government got money on their behalf and put it in trusts.
		And we used to have a republic, which is the people of the title holders of the government.
		And now they talk about just democracy, which is kind of excluding the people.
		The people before me, they said, how do you get information in a place where supposedly we fund the internet and we have the best information around the world?
		Our Congress, the People's Congress, it should be not the Congress of the Library of Congress.
		We have all the information and all the how everything came about, and we can't find it on the Internet.
		The most important thing is God, because like an old man, we all lie, and he doesn't, and all this has been prophesied.
		He said that when the new land that he would give to make sure that they would treat everybody with dignity, that we make festivities where there's an equality of jobs, because otherwise things tend to grow.
		And the difference between the has and the have-nots grows.
		And like somebody that collects trash, that's a very important job.
		And somebody that makes laws is making laws and making money off of these laws because they have contracts and the disparity of earnings, you know, it's huge.
		When we vote, it's a vow and we put a man.
		But then Samuel says, like, if you put a king, this is the way he will be in our Declaration of Independence.
		We have all the things that King George was putting on the colonies to take away their liberties and power.
		It was supposed to be a land of liberty.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think that's a great idea there.
		Ricardo, let's go to Peter in Rutland, Vermont.
		Good morning, Peter.
unidentified		Thank you very much.
unidentified		This big, beautiful bill, Trump talked about no tax on tips.
charles in louisiana ▲ ● ▼		Now, citizens out there, you need to understand if your monies rely on tips, you must pay into the system, into the social security system.
unidentified		Comes time when you're 65 years old, you draw Social Security.
		It would be less money if you had not paid into the system.
		You must pay into the system.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Gary is in Fletcher, North Carolina.
		Good morning, Gary.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		Good morning.
		I just see people kind of being selective.
		And we've gotten into this bad habit of using words for convenience.
		We say hate where everything, you know, we have a political difference or a different ideology in something.
		If we disagree with the person, we say they hate.
		It's because they're hateful thinking.
		And everybody's going to do what they can to survive.
		If you, people talk about white supremacy and things and people being taken advantage of.
		If you were to go to an African nation, you're going to have rich people taking advantage of poor people.
		You're going to see impoverished people.
		You're going to see rich people.
		You're going to see that even in a rich community where the poor, there's millions and millions of poor whites compared to rich.
		But we only want to see what we want to see.
		And inconveniently, we'll put words like hate or name people in a certain category that disagree with how they make their money and how they want to live their lives.
		And so to kind of deny them, we shame them with names.
		But we can see all the social ills in countries of the same color as we're experiencing here.
		But we always limit our history to just the bad things we want to see.
		And we limit, you know, our enemies.
		And most of everybody's, it's about money.
		Well, why can't you give?
		Why can't you help?
		We need to get together.
		The poor people are the most generous people in the world.
		The people without money are spending it for us.
		And they don't really have a grasp of where it develops.
		And I think that's one of the divides.
		The doers and the movers and the shakers, you know, like within my community, have a different attitude than the people that don't.
		And everybody's just generous with other people's money.
		And it's always about money.
		Like, I don't know, wealth is materialism.
		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tino is in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Tino.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		My thought has to do with what I believe is the parallel between what did happen in around 1964 when LBJ.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tino, can you please turn down the volume on your television and then continue your point?
unidentified		Yes.
		Oh, boy.
		Yeah.
		My concern is the potential parallel of what happened with LBJ in 1964 and around then when he used his powers that he had from the Senate and as the president to push through a bunch of controversial things,
		all important, and then he and then he started literally a war of all sorts for the next 50 years.
		And this divided the country, divided everybody.
		And now I see we're starting the same thing.
		And I think I'd like to see people that are really knowledgeable look at the parallels between the use of power and what happened on the Republican side as a mirror image of what happened before.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thanks to everyone who keeps calling in talking about the most important issue facing America.
		We're going to continue our check-in with folks who have the pulse of this question across the country.
		Now we're joined by Susan Demas, who's the CEO and executive editor of Lincoln Square Media.
		She's in Lansing, Michigan.
		Welcome to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You've joined us previous 4th of July to discuss how the nation is feeling.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America today in 2025?
unidentified		I think the most important issue is what this country is going to look like in terms of our government.
unidentified		Are we going to continue with a democracy or are we going to have more of a model of autocratic rule like we see in Hungary?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now then, can you tell us a bit about Lincoln Square media, the types of stories that you focus on and how you approach them?
unidentified		Yes.
		Well, we're very focused on what is going on in all facets of our government.
		We've been covering the budget bill that's been making its way, the attacks on Iran.
		But it's always with a focus of what's important to Americans and what's important to our democracy.
		And so we really enjoy hearing from people all across the country.
		I happen to be in Michigan, and so I certainly have a special affinity for our stories here.
		But we really enjoy talking with journalists and folks from every corner of the country and even beyond.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		One topic that you touched on this week was the $16 million settlement between Paramount and President Trump.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Remind us of the stakes in that case and what you think that settlement means for President Trump's influence over the media.
unidentified		So I've been a journalist for almost 25 years, and I've worked in mainstream media, nonprofit media, and now independent media.
		And I never really expected to see settlements like with Paramount and ABC, where the cases, according to lawyers, and I want to clarify that I am not a lawyer, but the legal issues seemed pretty cut and dry.
		And there really was nothing for those media companies to fear other than retribution from the president, which is very heavy-handed.
		Certainly there's a lot of tension between all presidential administrations and the media.
		We have very different jobs, but this is a very overt use of power by an administration to try and control and silence parts of the media.
		And rather than fight for the First Amendment, a lot of these corporations have decided that it is easier to appease the president so that they can go through with mergers like Paramount is hoping to do a skydance.
		And so there are really big implications for those of us who do work in the media who do believe in journalism because these corporations that own so much of the media have other bigger business interests at stake.
		And that sometimes comes in contrast with what we're trying to do with informing the public.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What's your reaction to the passage and signing into law this week of one of the president's key signature policy ideas, which is the one big beautiful bill?
unidentified		So the bill is massive.
		And I understand how a lot of people are just learning all the different provisions, especially because it's gone through a number of changes in the Senate.
		And, you know, the president wanted to win, and that seems to be the emphasis of a lot of the coverage.
		But, you know, the details are very damaging to a lot of his base.
		People in rural areas will be particularly impacted by these health care cuts, and that's a story that we've been following a lot.
		That will result in likely the closure of many rural hospitals.
		And so that affects people who are not on Medicaid, just the entire healthcare system.
		This massive increase of funding for ICE, I think, is something that has only gotten attention probably within the last week.
		I mean, right now, we've seen these big raids going on, but now when you have a budget of upwards of $175 billion, that's just an enormous amount of money that will be used, a million dollars to be essentially a private police force.
		And that will be impacting so many of our communities.
		And so I think it'll be very interesting to see how this goes down with a lot of Trump's voters because these are not necessarily the priorities that people had.
		You know, there's a big threat of recession on the horizon.
		Prices are not going down.
		And I do feel like that is going to be a primary issue over the next few months and going into the midterms.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Going back to the topic of immigration, there's a story here in Michigan Advance that the Michigan Attorney General has joined states to sue the Trump administration for sharing health data with ICE.
		Now, you've covered Michigan politics for years and recently interviewed the state's Attorney General, Dana Nessel, who has been at the forefront of some of these legal challenges coming from states against the Trump agenda.
		What are some of the cases that Michigan is involved in?
		I see that this is one of them.
unidentified		Right.
		Yes.
		And I was the founding editor of the Michigan Advance and a big fan of the reporting that they do.
		I think that Michigan's Attorney General is one of the faces of the legal opposition to Trump.
		You know, obviously Attorneys General in California and New York as well.
		But the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is part of at least 18 actions against Trump, joining with other Democratic Attorneys General on all sorts of issues, ranging from the OMB hiring freeze, funding freeze, all the actions the Doge was taking, many of the immigration orders, and so on.
		Dana Nessel is extremely outspoken.
		She's progressive and she sees herself as being a legal bulwark against a lot of this government overreach in her mind.
		And for Michigan in particular, I think we have a lot to lose in terms of Trump's economic policy because we are still so tied to the auto industry.
		And so these tariffs with various countries, particularly Canada, could be detrimental to the Michigan economy much more than others because parts go back and forth as you're building a car over the border.
		And if they are subject to these taxes, these tariffs, it's going to be astronomically expensive for these companies to produce the vehicles and for those of us to buy them.
		Still in Michigan, there is a point of pride in buying domestic.
		And these tariffs are making it very difficult to do that.
		It's actually going to be cheaper to buy vehicles from Japan.
		And I think that that's a really interesting dynamic to watch for because President Trump did win Michigan for a second time in 2024.
		And I see a lot of uncertainty from both the business community that supported him and working class voters.
		He did peel off a lot of voters in the working class and in the unions.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has faced a lot of controversy for her relationship with President Trump.
		There's a story here in Politico.
		Whitmer defends her working relationship with Trump, puts service above self.
		The Michigan governor, widely considered a contender for 2028, shared her disagreements with Trump's policies while backing her outreach to the White House.
		Can you describe that relationship and how you think that might affect her potential aspirations for 2028?
unidentified		Well, I've been covering Gretchen Whitmer since she was in our state house 20 years ago.
		And I have to say there is a marked difference in her relationship with President Trump during this administration than during his first administration when they fought hard over COVID funding and a lot of issues.
		And at one point, he is the one who gave her that nickname, that woman from Michigan, that she has helped ride to her national profile.
		And so I think for a lot of people, both in the wider Democratic Party, but in Michigan, I think it's been a little disorienting to see that she's been so willing to work with President Trump this term.
		And of course, he did win Michigan again, but he won Michigan in 2016.
		This is not the first time that's happened.
		And so I think there are a lot of people who are questioning what exactly her strategy is.
		Clearly, as governor of Michigan, she feels that it's beneficial to have a positive working relationship with the president over issues like disaster funding.
		She does have a split legislature to deal with with the Republican House, and the Speaker at least claims to be very close to President Trump.
		And so she does have a lot of domestic, you know, a lot of issues to worry about in Michigan.
		But because she is considered to be, you know, still a top presidential contender in 2028, I think a lot of people in the political realm are questioning the wisdom of this because the Democratic base that makes up the primary electorate certainly has not been enamored with her performance and with her being so much closer with Trump.
		And to your point, bringing up Dana Nessel, the state's attorney general, she's been openly critical of that.
		And the two of them have worked together hand in glove previous to this.
		So there's a lot of discontent out there.
		And I think that's going to be interesting for her to navigate if Gretchen Whitmer does decide to run for president.
		And one interpretation could be that that is off the table now.
		That is not something that she's pursuing.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you for the check-in from Lansing, Michigan.
		Susan Demas is a CEO and executive editor of Lincoln Square Media.
		Appreciate your time this morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Back to your calls on the most important issue facing America.
		Again, we have regional phone lines today.
		If you're in the Eastern or Central time zones, please call 202-748-8000 in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, 202-748-8001.
		Let's go to Betty in Lubbock, Texas.
		Good morning, Betty.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And make sure to turn down the volume on your TV.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Please go ahead.
unidentified		I was just saying, like to say that everyone has their own opinion.
unidentified		I just don't understand how people are.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Daddy, we need you to turn down the volume on your TV, and then you can finish your point.
unidentified		Okay.
		All right.
		Well, I'm saying that Trump, he has created so much chaos between everybody, and you're looking at the little people that he's deporting back to their state.
		Can you hear me?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, we can hear you.
unidentified		And he's got his hand in everything.
		Look at the money that he has accumulated since he's been in office.
		I can't understand why he's got so much going on in his personal life with getting money, selling different things that he's got on the market, and trying to make other people look bad for being in our country.
		These people have worked hard and done things that maybe he don't appreciate.
		But look at his track record.
		He's a felon in the White House.
		And all he's trying to do is build up himself.
		And then looking at people are not looking at what he's doing.
		He's creating chaos.
		And every time you want to ask him a question about his project or what he's going to do for the American people, we don't see anything that he's really doing.
		All he's doing is getting prisoned.
		What in the world is he doing trying to put people in the crocodile-infested area?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Chris in Naperville, Illinois.
		Good morning, Chris.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		All due respect to your previous guest, Susan Demis.
		She was completely wrong on a number of points.
		She said the economy is looking towards a recession.
		The economy is strong and resilient.
		We just had a great job to report.
		She also said that prices are not coming down.
		Susan gas is the lowest level in four years, and inflation is at 2.4%, one of the lowest levels in the last four years.
		So quite frankly, Susan either has no idea what she's talking about, or she's just one of the leftist media cheerleaders supporting the Democratic Party.
		And that brings me to my point.
		You know, we have two parties.
		One is normal, and the other has gone completely insane.
		And if you don't believe me, just look at the things that the Democrats have supported the last several years from eliminating filibuster, defunding police, packing the Supreme Court, federalizing state elections, wanting boys to play girls' sports, forcing DEI on us, and then opening our borders.
		So is it any wonder why the GOP controls the White House, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the majority of governorships?
		The Democrats are leaderless, powerless, idealist, and clueless.
		Just look to the New York City mayor race where they elected a communist to be mayor of New York City.
		God bless Donald Trump.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Timothy in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Timothy.
unidentified		Yes, hello.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America, Timothy?
unidentified		Bigotry and racism.
unidentified		Can you hear me?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I can hear you.
unidentified		Yes, bigotry and racism is what's plaguing America.
		We refuse to accept the truth that's what's plaguing America.
		How are we going to talk about Joe Biden like this?
		As if this man did absolutely nothing.
		And Joe Biden governed this country way better than Donald Trump.
		How you let these people come on TV say a lie after lie after lie like Donald Trump is the best president we ever had and he is the worst one.
		He led the insurrection.
		People died.
		Bigotry and racism is the problem in America.
		All you MAGA people, you the one that hate the truth.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Pamela is in Northport, Florida.
		Good morning, Pamela.
unidentified		Hello, how are you?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Fine, thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Well, personally, my heart breaks over what America has become.
		We're isolated.
		We're hated.
		We're a laughingstock.
		And worst of all, we're the most prejudiced and racist country in the world right now.
		We're not what we once were.
		We were a land of opportunity.
		We're becoming poorer.
		We were a land of promise.
		We have left our children with a debt that they'll never be able to repay.
		Our health, which is once the envy of the world, now it's our very health care system threatened sickness and disease because of what they're doing.
		America is lost, and it only promises worse.
		As our president and his cabinet continue to destroy her, my father, who was once a veteran, would be so agonized over all the current events.
		His service meant so much to him if he too loved this country.
		Now, this country has even turned their heads on the men and women who loved us enough to get their very all.
		We should all be ashamed of what we have become.
		Trump, his allies, his cabinet, they're destroying what this country actually means.
		This 4th of July, I'm very despondent.
		I love my country, but it saddens me to what it's becoming.
		We are so full of hate.
		There is so much racism.
		And Trump spreads this.
		He spreads this.
		And I too agree with the woman who called earlier.
		Don't pray over people losing benefits.
		Don't pray over children not being able to be fed.
		That's not what Christ taught us.
		That's not what the king, who is king overall, taught us.
		And I don't believe we should have a king.
		I believe in democracy, and I think it should stand.
		And I thank you very much for taking my call.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Zhuao is in Manchester, Connecticut.
		Good morning, Zhuao.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
		What's important, the most important issue is the Democrat Party to begin with.
		It is a disgusting sanctuary of anti-Americans.
		They have a whole section of them called the Squad, I think, or Ilan Homar and others like her who hate America.
		That's just all there is to it.
		If we could get rid of Democrats, that would be a good place to start.
		As far as the tariffs, Democrats forget that their president, the Auto Penn president,
		kept every single one of the tariffs that Trump had put in place during his first administration and had every single intention of extending those tariffs.
		And no one is asking the Democrats who are criticizing Trump for having those tariffs, what is the alternative?
		The United States imports something like 77% of all the necessary items for society to work.
		Our military depends on materials made in China, okay?
		Our worst enemy, and we depend on them.
		How do you like that?
		And they don't say that.
		Together with that is that the reason why the tariffs are being in place is to bring manufacturing back to the United States.
		What's wrong with that?
		I think there is a price to pay for that, but that's the reality.
		And finally, the chaos, the chaos.
		The only people who are creating the chaos are the people who are breaking the law.
		The Democrats, in other words, the Democrats, the hate America, open borders Democrats who attack ICE Asians while trying to deport illegal aliens.
		That's where the chaos is.
		They are the kings.
		They are the ones who are disrespecting the law and acting on their own will.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to follow up on some of the points you raised about tariffs in particular and point to an article in CNBC about some of the latest news regarding the trade war with Trump saying that the U.S. has struck a deal with Vietnam that imposes a 20% tariff on its imports, that this agreement includes the 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods as well as a 40% trans shipping tariff.
		Trump said he announced the deal days before a deadline pairing back his reciprocal tariffs is set to expire, sending U.S. duties on imports from dozens of countries soaring.
		And this deal was something that President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
		And Vietnam also agreed that goods would be hit with a 40% tariff rate if they originated in another country and were transferred to Vietnam for final shipment to the United States.
		That's what's referenced in regards to trans shipping.
		Now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell was speaking on Tuesday at the European Central Bank retreat and commented on the state of inflation in the United States as well as the ongoing tariffs.
jerome powell ▲ ● ▼		I guess I would start, if I may, by saying that the U.S. economy is in a pretty good position.
		Inflation has come down close to 2%.
		We're at 2.3 headline, 2.7 core.
		The unemployment rate is at 4.2%, so we're healthy overall.
		If you look, ignore the tariffs for a second, inflation is behaving pretty much exactly as we have expected and hoped that it would.
		We haven't seen effects much yet from tariffs, and we didn't expect to by now.
		We've always said that the timing, amount, and persistence of the inflation would be highly uncertain, and it certainly improved that.
		So we're watching.
		We expect to see over the summer some readings, higher readings, but we're prepared to learn that it can be higher or lower or later or sooner than we'd expected.
unidentified		But Chair, would the Fed have cut more by now if it weren't for the tariffs?
jerome powell ▲ ● ▼		So I do think that I think that's right.
		In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.
		So we didn't overreact.
		In fact, we didn't react at all.
		We're simply taking some time.
		As long as the U.S. economy is in solid shape, we think the prudent thing to do is to wait and learn more and see what those effects might be.
		And again, they haven't really shown up.
		And, you know, so for now, we're waiting.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, more news on the ongoing trade war, this reporting from CNN that Trump says he is about to raise tariffs as high as 70 percent on some countries.
		On April 9th, President Donald Trump gave the world a three-month window to negotiate trade deals with the United States or face higher reciprocal tariffs with just five days remaining.
		And this story was from Friday, so yesterday, so now it's four days remaining.
		With just a few days remaining in that tariff moratorium, the White House is expected to begin delivering a message to a dozen or so countries.
		Time is up, and here's your new tariff rate.
		Trump early Friday at Joint Base Andrews told reporters that he would notify 10 to 12 nations a day over the course of the next five days, detailing their new tariffs in letters that the White House would begin sending out on Friday.
		In most cases, the new rates would go into effect August 1st, Trump said.
		They'll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs, but they're going to be starting to go out sometime tomorrow, which would be today, Trump said.
		We've done the final form, and it's basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs.
		That reporting again from CNN.
		Now, back to your ideas and your thoughts on the most important issue facing America.
		Susan is in Worcester, Massachusetts.
		Good morning, Susan.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		First of all, I'd like to say to the Democrats: Trump is the most powerful president we've ever had.
		You people don't know how to deal with them because you don't have brains.
		You don't have issues.
		You don't have nothing but hate.
		You blame Trump for hate.
		Well, he got assassinated, almost assassinated twice.
		Leftists.
		Do you know what I'm talking about?
		And Kimberly, I'd like you to do one thing for me.
		Brad Clint just got a document out.
		Who started all this back in 2016?
		It was Barack Obama.
		So we want to have Barack Obama on the witness stand along with Biden, Maiaca, Christopher Wray, all the ones that were involved with stopping President Trump's agenda back in 2016.
		And finally, we're going to see some action.
		And you Democrats can cry all you want.
		But this is the first time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And Susan, what do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Legal immigration.
		Another thing, they come over here.
		As soon as they cross the line, they're illegal.
		They're illegally here.
		Do you know what I mean?
		And you Democrats cry for them.
		Would you take them in your host, Democrats, like Barack Obama when they were on his land?
		He told them to get out.
		Stop with all this.
		It's so much hypocrisy from the Democrats.
		And all they do is cry and whine because they have nothing.
		And I looked at all the candidates that's going to be running.
		A monkey could beat all of them.
		That's how stupid these Democrats really are.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay, I think we've got the idea.
		Let's hear from Kathy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
		Good morning, Kathy.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I wanted to say I think the most important issue facing us is the tragic and chaotic loss of our remaining natural world and our country.
		But listening to the lady that just spoke before me, I think also what's important is our sense of togetherness and kindness.
		And several times I've told people who I know, I just remember people being nicer when I was younger.
		And I just don't understand what's been happening.
		It just doesn't seem like we value things properly anymore.
		And I guess that's all I really want to say.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Christina is in Daquan, Illinois.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And good morning, Christina.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I feel that the issue that is affecting the United States the most is the division.
		We use words like us and them.
		We paint people as right or wrong, black or white.
		You know, in the Constitution and the preamble, the first word is we, not us, not them.
		And I think we need to get back to we, the people.
		Thank you.
		Have a good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Cindy is in Richmond, Kentucky.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Cindy.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
		One of my biggest issues is I've learned that if there's a disease, you go after the source.
		If there's a gang, you go after the source, the gang leader.
		Why are we not going after the companies that are hiring the illegal immigrants?
		Why are we not hearing anybody?
		I have no idea who is hiring these illegal immigrants.
		And then also, I come from Florida, and there are three manufacturing companies that are moving out of Florida.
		One is Coca-Cola, one is Jabil, and I can't remember the name of the other one.
		Jabil, J-A-B-I-L, manufactures electronic circuits, and they are moving out of Florida, and they are moving out of the United States because Florida is becoming way too expensive under the Republican regime and the tariffs.
		So that's my opinion.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Oscar in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
		Good morning, Oscar.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
		I'm an 88-year-old military retiree and Postal Service retiree, 45 years of government work.
		And I think the biggest problem with our country today is the division between the parties.
		It's hatred, pure and simple hatred.
		It's just like two gangs, street gangs, trying to fight it out.
		They don't care what happened to the United States.
		They just want a little victory over the other party.
		And I believe it was the infamous Rodney King that said, why can't we all just get along?
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Brian is in Folsom, Pennsylvania.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Brian.
unidentified		Good morning.
		People bring up a lot of good points, but I think the biggest point is the size and scope of our federal government has gone too long.
		And their arm has reached every aspect of our lives.
		Therefore, it's causing a great debt.
		So to me, the debt is the biggest problem.
		And if we just took in a lot of illegal aliens or immigrants, whatever you want to call them, they are illegal.
		If we have, say, 360 million people and our debt is 36 trillion, well, that's about $100,000 per person.
		And right now, I ain't got $100,000 to kick out to pay off the debt.
		And most Americans don't.
		So the debt is the biggest problem.
		One other thing, that woman was on earlier from New Hampshire, she talked about hospitals closing in rural areas and things.
		These things have been going on for much, much longer, okay?
		So it's not just the present federal administration's problem.
		These things have been going on for a long time.
		But I appreciate what you're doing there.
		The debt of the United States is our biggest problem by before I let you go, Brian.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The recent bill that President Trump signed into law yesterday, there are differing accounts of how much it would add to the debt and deficit, but there are numbers as high as close to $3 trillion that it might add to the debt.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are your thoughts on that?
unidentified		Well, first off, that is possible.
		You know, that is, it's very possible.
		But again, it's the federal government under Trump or under Biden or under Obama or under the bushes that creates this through Congress.
		And, you know, they want to appease certain branches of or certain people, you know, whether they're from the Midwest or from the East Coast or from the West Coast or from the central USA.
		They want to appease them.
		The farmers have to be appeased.
		So this is what it is.
		The federal government has become too big under both Republicans and Democrats.
		Now, personally, I do prefer the Republicans, but that's just my choice.
		And I'm going to stick to that choice for, although as a child, I registered Democrat.
		And, you know, I think I'm a fair person.
		But what the Democrats have done recently with gender and all this, they're out of whack.
		They're just, they're not right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Charles in Pennsylvania.
		Good morning, Charles.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Make sure you turn down the volume on your TV and then go ahead.
unidentified		Yes, it's off.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Great.
larry pinkney ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, the reason I'm calling I would say that the bitterness between or in Congress is probably to me, but the main reason I was calling, I wish that I had been able to talk to that Susan because whether it was about the brand new bill or tariffs in every subject, it was all negative,
unidentified		and she never mentioned anything at all.
		What was good about the bill in every one of the subjects?
		And I'd like to have been called just after she was a Democrat.
		That's all I've got to say.
		Thank you.
		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kenny is in Dunlap, Tennessee.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kenny.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for the work y'all do.
		I love C-SPAN.
		I watch it about every morning.
		I think one of the important issues facing America is the fact that the media does not fact check whether it's a Democrat or Republican when they give the false statement.
		I think y'all should fact check them every time.
		Anybody that says something wrong, you know it's wrong, fact-check them.
		Let's get the facts out there.
		The facts just ain't getting out there like they need to.
		Thank you very much.
		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kendra is in Richmond, Virginia.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kendra.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I guess my most important issue facing America right now is the division, the division of the left and the right and the media causing Trump derange syndrome.
		Congress finally was able to pass the big, beautiful bill after he after we kept hearing from the left how horrible the bill is.
		Going forward, regarding any bills we have in the future, if someone in Congress or a senator gets on TV and opposes a bill, it should be required that they reference pages and sections of the bill that is of concern to them.
		In other words, stop with the talking points.
		It is not the job of the American people to read and comb through 900 pages of a bill, and the American people shouldn't settle for what Congress or what the media claims is terrible about a bill.
		All the talking points for months and months about how horrible the bill is, but where was the proof?
		And what I mean by proof is they should have referenced pages and sections where the American people could read the information for themselves.
		For example, if you are saying senior citizens and disabled American citizens, and I repeat, American citizens, will lose Medicare and Medicaid, please point out the page and section that references this so we can read it for ourselves.
		On July 3rd, C-SPAN did not air the Washington Journal that morning because they decided to air Hakeem Jeffries' speech.
		I think his speech was eight hours long, but all he did was keep repeating the same talking points for several hours.
		The entire speech was a waste of time and could have been summed up in about 30 minutes.
		He should have spent that eight hours referencing pages and sections of the bill that would have been more valuable for the American people to hear.
		My request for Congress and senators on the left and right side, Democrats and Republicans, stop getting on TV to complain about a bill and start providing proof of what's in the bill.
		Thank you.
		Have a great day.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday, moments before the passage of that bill, spoke about the legislation and how he said it would boost the economic outlook across America.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		For everyday Americans, this means real positive change that they can feel and they will feel much more when this bill is done.
		Families back home will have real relief, an average of $10,000 in their pockets, thanks to the largest working and middle-class tax cut in the history of this great nation.
		That's what we're doing today.
		You've got hardworking Americans like our waiters and our bellhops and our hairstylists.
		They're going to keep 100% of their tips and overtime pay.
		That is money they earned.
		It does not belong to the government.
		It belongs to them, and they deserve to keep it.
		Small businesses that want to build and expand new factories, you know what they could do now?
		They can write off 100% of their investment.
		That will have us a lot in our building.
		Young families who want to buy a home will be able to, thanks to historic savings that will put our country on a stronger financial footing.
		Pregnant women, children, seniors, single mothers, the disabled, and the low-income Americans among us receiving Medicaid and SNAP will have the peace of mind of knowing that we've made these safety nets stronger with our reforms.
		See, when Republicans are in charge, we bring common sense.
		We're going to make sure that Americans who do need and deserve those critical programs won't have to compete against people who can work but choose not to do so.
		That's not right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We are going to get back to your calls on the most important issue facing America in just a bit, so callers stay on the line.
		We're going to continue our check-in with academics and experts and journalists all over the country.
		We're joined now by Mitch Kokai, who is a senior political analyst at the California Journal, excuse me, at the Carolina Journal.
		Sorry about that, because you're joining us from Raleigh, North Carolina.
		Welcome to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Well, thanks for having me and thanks for putting me on the correct coast.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So there we are in Raleigh, North Carolina.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you see as the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Well, your viewers have pointed out a number of good important issues.
		I would even take an even larger perspective, and that is the lack of general understanding of how the government operates and how the government works.
		I think a lot of the debates that we're hearing about what's happening on Capitol Hill and the White House and the discussions among Congress and among the President and among the Supreme Court probably would be better served if people had a better understanding of how those various branches of government work together, the checks and balances that each have on them and what the separation of powers actually calls for.
		I think one of the major stories that we've seen in North Carolina that we might get into is the pending departure of U.S. Senator Tom Tillis.
		And regardless of what you think about Tom Tillis's policy choices, one of the things that has helped him draw quite a bit of fire among folks on his own side, on the Republican side, is his willingness to stand up for the role of Congress.
		And I think if people had a better understanding of what Congress's role is in our federal government, perhaps they'd still disagree with Tom Tillis on issues, but might stand by him on the idea of standing forth for the role of Congress and its important role in checking the executive branch.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So let's stay on that topic of the Senator Tom Tillis bowing out of the race.
		Here's a story about that from the Carolina Journal that Democrats eye North Carolina's Senate seat after Tillis bows out and that the surprise announcement from U.S. Senator Tom Tillis that he will not seek reelection in 2026 has not only shaken North Carolina politics, but has also reshaped the National Democratic Party's strategic map.
		The Democratic National Committee is now moving swiftly to capitalize on what it sees as one of its best Senate pickup opportunities in the country.
		Can you give us a bit of the sort of landscape of what North Carolina politics look like right now?
unidentified		Sure, this was already going to be one of the most hotly contested, if not the most hotly contested Senate seats in the 2026 cycle.
		And Democrats were already looking at this as a potential pickup, even when Tom Tillis looked as if he was going to be running for a third term.
		That's because Tom Tillis's popularity in North Carolina is not particularly high.
		My organization, the John Locke Foundation and its Carolina Journal, put out a poll in May that put his popularity or favorability at about 26 percent, just 44 percent among fellow Republicans and 18 percent among independents.
		So he was already looking at a tough situation.
		Democrats are trying to recruit former Governor Roy Cooper, who has won six statewide elections to run in this race.
		And if Cooper got in, that would make it a very hotly contested race had it been Tillis versus Cooper.
		Even without Roy Cooper, I think the Democrats think this is going to be potentially a pretty good pickup for them.
		For Republicans, now that Tillis is out, I think he did them a favor by deciding to do this now at the end of June, getting into July, to give Republicans the chance to rally around another alternative candidate.
		But still, they won't be defending the seat with an incumbent.
		They will have a new face running, just as the Democrats will.
		And so having an open race for this seat makes it a really hot contest and one that's going to draw quite a bit of attention, quite a bit of money.
		And as you see such close margins in the Senate between the Republicans and Democrats, this is one seat that everyone will want to have.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, the issue that prompted in this, in many estimates, Tom Tillis's resignation or his announcement that he's not going to run again was the feature in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act related to Medicaid.
		There's a story here in Axios that hundreds of thousands in North Carolina are at risk of losing health care coverage.
		Do you agree with that analysis?
		And what other provisions of this new law do you think might affect North Carolina the most?
unidentified		Well, I think North Carolinians are going to be affected by many parts of this bill because it is one big bill that deals with a lot of what Congress has been talking about for years.
		Much of it's going to impact North Carolina.
		Probably the biggest positive impact will be the extension of the 2017 tax cuts.
		Had that not happened in this bill, that would have been a major blow to the gut for the American economy, including the North Carolina economy.
		But back to Medicaid, this certainly is an issue, and that is the issue that Tom Tillis talked about, about why he was voting against the bill, why he was standing against Donald Trump on that issue.
		An interesting piece of the Medicaid debate in North Carolina is that for years and years after Medicaid expansion was part of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, Republicans who run the North Carolina General Assembly did not want to expand Medicaid.
		They really only expanded Medicaid after having gone through years of having different parties in charge of both the White House and Congress and seeing that, okay, it doesn't look as if the U.S. government is going to back away from that 90% federal match for the expansion population.
		So they felt comfortable expanding Medicaid, which has now added 600,000-plus people to the North Carolina Medicaid roles.
		But I think one of the things that was interesting was when North Carolina expanded Medicaid, part of the law says that if that 90% federal match ever went away, so does Medicaid expansion.
		So one of the things that could happen is that Medicaid expansion could go away.
		The 600,000 plus people who were added to the roles because of Medicaid expansion could go away unless our state legislature does something about it.
		One of the things that we saw with our General Assembly is that they left town, left Raleigh at the end of June without finishing a state budget.
		And even as they were dealing with their budget issues, one of the things they did not address was the potential of having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to deal with this Medicaid issue.
		One of the reasons that the top legislators said was, well, they talk about lots of things in Washington, D.C. and hardly ever get anything done.
		So let's wait until they actually decide what to do before we decide what we have to do.
		So one of the big issues that will be playing out in the coming weeks and months in North Carolina and in the halls of our General Assembly is what, if anything, does the state need to do to deal with the impacts on Medicaid or in other ways of the One Big Beautiful Bill?
		We know that our state has a law that says if there's no new state budget in place when the new budget year starts on July 1st, that the old budget remains in place.
		We don't need continuing resolutions.
		So the old budget's in place.
		There doesn't have to be a deal between our state, House, and Senate, but I think both sides would like to come up with a deal.
		And one of the things that will probably be in their consideration is what, if anything, do they have to do about Medicaid because of what's coming down from the federal government?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		This is a situation that just about every state is going to have to deal with now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are some of the solutions that are on the table in terms of either closing that gap or figuring out what to do with the people who might lose insurance as a result?
unidentified		Well, I could tell you the short, flippant answer is there aren't any ideas on the table because they really haven't been talking about it.
		But my guess is they're either going to be talking about scaling back the expansion population or adding money at the state level to pay for the expansion.
		One of the things that was done when North Carolina expanded because of that 90% federal match was rather than cover the 10% state match in terms of just general taxpayer funding, there were assessments made against hospitals.
		And the idea was the hospitals will pay this funding, but then that will be money that the hospitals will use to help draw down federal money, so it'll be sort of a wash, and that the general North Carolina taxpayer wasn't going to have to foot the bill for Medicaid expansion.
		Now, if the general taxpayer is going to have to cover more of that burden, that's less money that can go to public schools, that can go to health and human services, to cover the prison system.
		That's going to be a major item for our state legislators to have to deal with.
		And as I said, going into their budget discussions, they didn't really talk about it.
		They said, well, we'll cross that bridge when we reach it because they weren't sure that the federal government would do anything about Medicaid.
		But I'm guessing that that is going to be a major topic of discussion when our General Assembly comes back to town.
		One of the things that's important to note for people who don't follow North Carolina politics is Republicans control both the state House and the state Senate.
		We have a Democrat in the governor's mansion.
		But even though Republicans control both legislative chambers, they have very different priorities about what to do with the state budget.
		And one of the things that blocked them from coming up with a budget deal was different ideas about what to do on taxes.
		Our state Senate is much more aggressive on cutting tax rates.
		Our House, much less so.
		And so as they come up with a discussion, if they do about what to do about Medicaid, it'll probably also entail what to do about the future of tax cuts and current tax rates in North Carolina.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned earlier about the potential Democratic candidates for Senator Tom Tillis's seat.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		But Steve in Tampa, Florida wants to know who might be the Republican candidates for that seat.
unidentified		It's a little bit wide open at this point because there was no particular successor that you looked at and said, okay, this is the most likely person to fill in.
		One of the names we've been hearing is the president's daughter-in-law, Laura Trump.
		She is a Wilmington North Carolina native, went to North Carolina State University.
		She and her family live in Florida.
		And so if she wanted to be a candidate, she would have to move to North Carolina by about the middle of September to qualify as a candidate for that North Carolina race.
		Her name's been mentioned.
		Also, another person with close ties to the Trump administration, Michael Watley, who's been big in the Republican National Committee circles before he went to take a major job with the National Republicans.
		He was the chairman of the state Republican Party.
		Plus, probably about five different members of our North Carolina U.S. House delegation have been mentioned, including some first-term incumbents like Brad Knott and Pat Harrington.
		We've also heard Greg Murphy, Tim Moore, who's a new member of our congressional delegation, but for 10 years was our state House Speaker.
		Richard Hudson, who's had some major roles in the Republican House ranks on the federal level, but has been a longtime member of our congressional delegation.
		They've all been mentioned.
		Another name is Dan Bishop, who was a longtime congressman, well known in Washington circles as being among the conservatives.
		He left Congress to run for state attorney general, lost that race, but has been a major official in the Office of Budget and Management during the new Trump term.
		So all of those names have been floated out there, and I'm guessing Republicans will try to see if there's going to be an endorsement from Donald Trump, and if not, then they'll try to rally around who would be the most likely person to be able to defend this seat now that Tom Tillis has decided he's not going to run again.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you very much.
		Mitch Coke is with the John Locke Foundation and also a senior political analyst at the Carolina Journal.
		I appreciate your time this morning.
unidentified		Thanks so much.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And now we'll get back to your calls on the most important issue facing America.
		Once again, our regional phone lines for folks in the Eastern and Central time zones, 202-748-8000.
		For the Mountain and Pacific time zones, 202-748-8001.
		And of course, you can text us at 202-748-8003.
		Let's hear now from Max in California.
		Good morning, Max.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		One of the most important and devastating things that I believe is happening in America right now is that a lot of people are extremely uninformed.
		One of the most interesting things I think that comes to mind is that a lot of people keep repeating this line about a Trump derangement, some sort of derangement.
		And that really baffles me because if you ask these same people 10, 12 years ago if they would vote for a felon, for a president, to run the most important government country on the planet, they would have all said no.
		So from my perspective, the derangement is coming from the people that are claiming that there is some sort of derangement.
		The same people repeated that an election was stolen in 2020.
		Where's that evidence that all of those people claimed that they had?
		They didn't.
		It was a big lie.
		So that's one of the craziest divides I think were happening.
		And it's all been represented by the leader of this country.
		We've never had in history a president that's been this divisive.
		And I think if these same people knew the history of other good countries that have became or become dictatorships, authoritarian kingships, those types of bad falls off cliffs, if they knew the history of the different nations that that's happened to, they would be able to recognize that that's what's happening in this country.
		That the first thing that begins is you start discrediting the media.
		Second, you start discrediting the reporting agencies.
		Third, you start discrediting the enforcement agencies.
		And that's exactly what's going on.
		So that's the biggest issue for me in America.
		And the division between Americans is just so wrong, and it's so misrepresented and misguided by the leader of this country.
		Those are my main points.
		And I really think that America needs to stop and think and realize we're all Americans.
		We've been divided.
		We've been played.
		We've been pitted against each other by the leader of this country right now.
		And I think we as Americans need to step above that, hold hands, somehow reach across the aisles and take care of each other because we're all in this together for the long run.
		This isn't just a four-year or eight-year type of thing.
		This is going to last, the repercussions are going to last us for a very long time.
		So those are my main points.
		And again, I really wish people could understand the other nations that once were good nations that became bad nations, dictatorships, authoritarian.
		Watch how it happened.
		Learn how it happened because you will recognize what is happening to you right now.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think we've got that point.
		Let's hear from Carol in Winslow, Illinois.
		Good morning, Carol.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		The violations of the Constitution are not being enforced.
		And I have no faith at all in the Supreme Court or any justice system anymore because they're appointed by Trump.
		And he has led us into higher costs with these tariffs.
		My coffee went up from $16 and something to $19 and the same.
		Gas is very high here.
		It's not cheap.
		It's $348 or $352 in Illinois.
		In Wisconsin, it's $348, $9.
		And I realize that even though they're not going to cut Medicaid, that does not mean they won't raise the price to where it's unaffordable for people to pay for Medicare.
		And I hope that we can get together because this America is losing its Constitution and freedom.
		I hate to see a civil war, but I'm all for it.
		Thank you for taking my call.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		David is in Larchmont, New York.
		Good morning, David.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I see the biggest threat as the threat of political violence.
		Recently, we had the assassination of State Representative Melissa Hortman in Minnesota.
		And there have been other instances that are similar to that.
		And I see the cause of this, or part of the cause of this, is the lack of leadership from our president.
		He pardoned the people who attacked the Capitol, some who were just aimless and went there anyway, but others who had the intent of creating violence and stopping the constitutional process of the Electoral College.
		So this is scary stuff, and I haven't seen the President take leadership on this at all.
		And it's deeply frightful and saddening that he hasn't.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Tom in Homestead, Florida.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Tom.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I think the most important issue facing America today is the price of homes and homelessness and affordable housing, basically.
		Things like that.
		Not just Medicare, Medicaid, stuff like that.
		And able people that are able to work, that can afford to get back on their feet and work.
		I'm disabled, and I try my best to get back and work.
		Right now, I'm facing homelessness because I lost my home on a legal battle, but I'm not concerned about that.
		I'm just concerned about making it with the rest of my life, and I hope the best for everybody else.
		That's my condition.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Are you concerned about losing Medicaid yourself?
unidentified		Well, at one point, I didn't have it, but I worked for it.
		When I was 16 years old, I paid my taxes.
		Nobody told me to go pay my taxes.
		I did it.
		It was just a common thing to do.
		And as a 16-year-old kid and still in school working part-time job, I went and paid my taxes and kept paying my taxes.
		I worked along the way.
		And that's it.
		I'm to the point now where I've earned my ability to have my benefits.
		But I still want to keep on working.
		I'm disabled, but I still want to keep on working.
		I don't want to quit.
		And nothing's going to make me quit.
		Not any kind of democracy, not any kind of racism, anything going on in the nation.
		It's one person, individual, that's got to believe in themselves to try to make it.
		And regardless of what's happening, you got to have faith and just keep moving.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you for your call.
		Tom mentioned Medicaid and the potential impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
		Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday criticizing that piece of legislation over the changes to Medicaid and other programs.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		This bill represents the largest cut to health care in American history.
		It's an all-out assault on the health care of the American people, an assault on Medicaid, an assault on Medicare, an assault on the children's health insurance program, an assault on the Affordable Care Act, an assault on Planned Parenthood and the health care of women all across the United States of America.
		An unprecedented assault on the American people and their health care.
		Almost $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.
		This runs directly contrary to what President Trump indicated in January, which was that he was going to love and cherish Medicaid.
		Nothing about this bill loves and cherishes Medicaid.
		It guts Medicaid.
		It guts Medicaid in a way that's going to hurt children, hurt families, hurt seniors, hurt people with disabilities, hurt women, hurt everyday Americans.
		Hospitals will close, including all throughout rural America, Mr. Speaker.
		Nursing homes will shut down.
		By some estimates, one in four nursing homes will close as a result of this one big, ugly bill.
		And community-based health clinics, which are the lifelines in neighborhood after neighborhood, all across this country, in urban America, in rural America, in suburban America, in small-town America, in the heartland of America, will not be able to operate.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And back to your calls, the most important issue facing America.
		Bernie is in Napa, California.
		Good morning, Bernie.
unidentified		Good morning.
		To me, the biggest issue that we're facing in our country is the corruption in regards to the politicians that become politicians, and maybe with the intent to do something good for our country, but ultimately to become millionaires because of all the inside information that is accumulated when you're in politics, because you know everything so far in advance.
		I think that that's the biggest problem that the first term That Trump had.
		He had enemies on both sides because of the exposure that I'm sure that the corruption within our system that affects Americans on the second term, he went right direct into Doge, pointing out all these abuses and all these nonprofits that politicians create so that they can skim off money back into their pockets.
		You know, the reality is, I think that if you're going to be a politician, I think that your financial papers and financial activities have to be made public and not only yourself, but also your family, because many of these politicians will give information to their families who purchase land and these things and invest in stocks way in advance and really manipulate and use their positions in order to become millionaires at the expense of Americans.
		And forget politics to me, it's just corruption.
		I've had many situations where I've needed to do things and get things passed, and it always cost money, or if you needed money, you had to give kickbacks and all these things.
		So in reality, that's why I think Trump is hated because he's a guy who is not taking any money and he's willing to expose the corruption, which I think as Americans, we need to clean it up.
		And that's, I think, is the biggest problem.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Diane is in Spencer, Iowa.
		Good morning, Diane.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Income inequality has been, always will be, the main issue.
		The difference now is those with all the money, all the power, and all the resources have convinced those without that, have that, is caused by others like them.
		And so instead of putting the focus on the people who have all the money, the power, and the resources, tell me how people with no money, no power, no resources can do anything to influence the way things are in this world.
		Everything else is used as an excuse to isolate the money, the power, and the resources for those that have it to get more of it.
		And it's always been like that.
		It'll always be like that.
		And it's sad that people that are all struggling together blame each other when the people to blame are the ones that are putting them in that position.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Diane, what do you think it would take to change that?
unidentified		Well, somehow we need to break the power struggles.
		They got the money, they got the power and the resources.
		And then that's how they consolidate it all.
		It's because they make all the laws to isolate and concentrate all that power, money, and resources for themselves and that at the expense of everybody else.
		It's always been like that, always.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		We are going to continue our check-in with folks around the country on the most important issue facing America, as well as the pulse of the nation, with Dean Obadala, who is the host of the Dean Obadalla Show on Sirius XM Progress.
		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Thank you.
unidentified		Thanks very much for having me.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So tell us a bit about your show, the topics you approach in your audience.
unidentified		Sure.
		I mean, look, it's a progressive show.
		I don't hide that unapologetically.
		It's a pro-Democratic Party, pro-progressive values show.
		We take calls like you do all the time from listeners.
		We tackle the big issues.
		My goal every day is to make you smarter and hopefully make you laugh at the same time.
		At the same time, though, we're going through, I think, the most challenging times that we have as Americans.
		This 4th of July was unlike any other in the way I view where we stand as a nation.
		And I hear that from my callers all the time.
		There's this sense of, are we going to lose our republic, our freedom, our self-determination as a people?
		So it's, you know, you try to be upbeat.
		Try to be optimistic as much as possible, but we're balancing it with, I think, a very dark time for our nation, for those who believe in our Constitution and believe in freedoms that I think many of us took for granted for many, many years.
		And now we know we must stand up and fight for them.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So then, what's your reaction to the piece of legislation the president signed into law yesterday, the one big, beautiful bill?
unidentified		I think it's completely on brand for the GOP.
		It's giving the wealthy a tax cut at the expense of the working class and the working poor in our nation.
		It's the idea of taking 16 million people's health insurance away between Medicaid and ACA subsidies, pushing 2 million people off SNAP, which are essentially food stamps, when 40% of the people on SNAP are children.
		They're taking food out of the mouths of children to give a tax cut to the wealthy.
		And that's the truth.
		That's not spin.
		That's the reality.
		It's going to even hurt Trump supporters.
		And they don't care because their donors want that a tax cut.
		And to me, Kimberly, the worst part is this is going to add $3 trillion to the deficit, right?
		So they could have added a little bit more to the deficit, given their tax cuts to the wealthy, as much as I'm opposed to it, without hurting working class Americans, without taking Medicaid away from people.
		Kimberly, I had people on my show this week crying, literally crying, because they have a sister or a brother who's disabled and relies on Medicaid and might not have the benefits anymore.
		They're not sure where they're going to go.
		They're fearful of losing ACA and not having coverage for a pre-existing condition that won't get covered anywhere else.
		So this is a cruel bill, it is a mean bill.
		It's to help the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.
		As your caller said, I was listening to them.
		I wish on the right and the left, and I'm not being naive, but working class people could unite and take our power back from the wealthy and elite that run this country for the benefit of big corporations and the benefit of the wealthy donors.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So how do you think Democrats should respond?
unidentified		Well, I think, look, they're limited in what they can do.
		And that's not an excuse.
		That's the reality.
		Hakeem Jeffries making a record-breaking speech on the floor of the House.
		Again, I'll share my listeners.
		We're excited by it.
		They love it.
		Yes, it's performative, but we need that.
		We need our spirits to be lifted at times, like Corey Booker did in the Senate.
		We can't control legislation being the minority.
		We can't even subpoena witnesses being the minority in the House and the Senate.
		But Democrats need an affirmative message going forward and not just opposing Donald Trump.
		That's part of it.
		Don't get me wrong.
		Protecting our freedoms, very important.
		But fighting for the working class.
		The Democratic Party is the party of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, CHIP.
		The Republican Party is the priority of tax cuts for the wealthy and the January 6th terrorist attack.
		That's how I view the two different parties.
		It's up to us now to define who we are.
		Because Kimberly, I hear people in the media, not you, of course, some say the Democratic Party has an identity crisis.
		We don't.
		We have a leadership crisis.
		The Democratic base, we know what we're about.
		Our values have not changed at all.
		We're still fighting for the vulnerable, fighting for the working class.
		We need leaders who are going to fight every day for us and for those values.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So this conflict has come to the forefront in the recent New York City primary race, where we had Zorhan Mamdani securing that nomination, but Democratic leadership here in Washington, not necessarily being the most effervescent with their support.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think that tells us about the party and potential roadmaps for candidates moving forward?
unidentified		One thing I want to say, taking a quick step back, all the Democrats in the primary, Andrew Cuomo to Zoran, were running very much against Trump.
		Everyone was saying, we're going to stand up to Trump.
		So I want everyone to know this wasn't any of the main candidates saying, oh, we're going to find common ground with Trump.
		No, we're going to fight Trump.
		So first of all, you had everyone being a fighter.
		That's what the Democratic base wants.
		Within the base, yes, there's a difference of opinion of is what's progressive, what's moderate, what's a corporate Democrat, what's an establishment Democrat, who's going to fight for the working class.
		Zorin ran a laser-focused campaign, and I live in Manhattan, a laser-focused campaign on one thing, affordability.
		New York's really expensive.
		And younger people came out in general.
		It looks like record numbers overall, so eclipsing 2021 Democratic primary because he talked about what mattered to them.
		Their milestones in their lives have all been delayed because they can't afford rent.
		They can't afford to dream of even having a child for some of them, owning a house of their own or owning an apartment here in New York City.
		The idea of mass transit keeps going up.
		Child care becomes the second biggest cost after rent.
		It is painful.
		His campaign was on affordability.
		The Democratic leadership can learn from that.
		We have to be the party of the working class.
		That's our roots.
		That's our DNA as a party.
		I think for some, the leadership, they've lost that because again, it's the corruption of legal donations at mammoth levels so that they have to go to Wall Street and get money.
		They have to compromise.
		If we get big money out of politics, it would be better for us on the left and the right, to be honest, because then they have to listen to us, the working class, the rank and file, not the wealthy donor class.
		And that affects both parties.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		On turning to issues on the Middle East, President Trump all week has been pushing a 60-day ceasefire deal between Iran and Hamas that both sides, excuse me, between Israel and Hamas, that both sides have now accepted.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What's your view on the role that he's taken in the region and including the recent strikes on Iran?
unidentified		Well, I mean, there are two different things.
		I mean, for the Middle East, for me, I'm a Palestinian heritage.
		My dad's a Palestinian immigrant, although my family is not in Gaza, in the West Bank.
		So it's not a political issue.
		It's a personal issue.
		You know, it's very painful for me to see the killing and the destruction of Palestinian life and infrastructure.
		The October 7th terrorist act, horrific.
		The response since then, though, has been indefensible.
		There are clearly war crimes because Netanyahu has been charged with war crimes by The Hague, and he should stand for trial.
		And if he's innocent, he will not be convicted.
		But for me, a ceasefire, we needed a long time ago.
		Benjamin Netanyahu had an agenda where even Congressman Gerald Nadler from New York has talked about Netanyahu was standing in the way of a ceasefire deal.
		It keeps him in power.
		So I hope there's a ceasefire.
		I hope the people of Gaza can dream of a better life.
		There could be peace there.
		I hope for the Israeli people, there's peace as well.
		That's a bigger issue.
		You know, regarding Iran and the strikes, Donald Trump, once again, lied.
		He's a serial liar.
		He said, we obliterated the program.
		Nobody in their right mind, nobody thought one bombing run ends a program spread around the nation.
		It set it back a little bit.
		Maybe in this time of setting it back, there could be a negotiation for some kind of deal to ensure Iran doesn't get a nuclear program, or at least delays it until they're more responsible.
		At the same time, it helps the Iranian people, lift sanctions, and makes them a player in the Middle East.
		Because oddly enough, you've got Saudi Arabia and the Gulf nations who now want to work with Iran.
		They were much more antagonistic years ago.
		They want it to be like their own EU through the Middle East.
		And that's good for everyone.
		Economic incentive really mainstreams a lot of people.
		So is Trump able to do that?
		I don't know.
		I've never seen him, except for the book, The Art of the Deal.
		I haven't seen too many deals, to be blunt.
		So we'll see if anything goes forward there.
		But I'm so thankful that the ceasefire starts.
		The people, the Palestinian people in Gaza, have been the ones who've been suffering, deserve this.
		And I wish the media would cover what's going on in the West Bank.
		It's horrific with the taking of land.
		My family's land has been in the family for generations.
		And the Israeli settlers, with the support of the Israeli military, are on the edge of literally taking my family's land now in 2025.
		This is not 1948, in 2025, because they're viewed as inferior because of their religious faith.
		I wish that would get more coverage in America because I think it's anti-American and it's despicable.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned that issue should deserve more coverage.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What other issues do you think are the top issues facing America right now?
unidentified		Well, it's interesting listening to your listeners, your callers, because I learned from people who called my show.
		Even you had someone on the right and the left both talk about big money in politics, and the other person deemed it as corruption, looking, but he was pro-Trump.
		The corruption is the legalized bribery, and they're both in the same.
		I think there's such a chance there's nothing we can do in this generation, except one protect our Constitution.
		We've got to do that.
		Get big money out of politics.
		And that deserves more coverage.
		It barely gets the coverage.
		It's a cancer in a democratic republic.
		It is making the elected officials not listen to us.
		They don't have to listen to us because we can't give them massive amounts of money.
		It is legal to give someone $50 million for the super PAC.
		If you're an elected official and you listen to me and all I can give you is a vote, the same as you listen to someone who gave you $50 million, you're an idiot.
		Of course you should listen to the people who give you $50 million.
		And that's the problem.
		Of course they are.
		So I think to me, big money in politics and gerrymandering to make our nation more of a democracy, we have to bring democracy back to the United States of America.
		And Donald Trump and the MAGA party are chipping away at that daily.
		It's deeply concerning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Dean Obadalla, who is host of the Dean Obadalla Show on Sirius XM Progress, also has a Substack newsletter, The Dean's Report.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you so much for joining us from New York City.
unidentified		Thanks for having me, Kimberly.
unidentified		Have a great day.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You too.
		Let's get back to a couple more callers before we have to end the show today.
		Victor is in Modesto, California.
		Victor, what is the most important issue facing America today?
unidentified		The biggest issue in America today is integrity.
		Growing up, I used to hear the slogan, true justice and the American way.
		There is no more truth.
		There is no more justice.
		The United States of America has become the chaotic states of America.
		Until people turn back to what we used to be, a religious nation, this world or this United States, as they call it, will never be united.
		And I think that's what the biggest problem is.
		I mean, people have their opinions, and there's all these distractions, illegal aliens, so on and so forth.
		But we all realize, and they talk about the budget, but they never talk about the two census wars that we got involved in.
		How did that affect the budget?
		Why don't they talk about that?
		That's part of the problem, too.
		We meddle in too many things.
		That's none of our business.
		And that's just my opinion.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Victor, what do you think of President Trump's recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities?
unidentified		Well, when you say you're not going to do something, and then you do it anyway, and not go about it legally like you were supposed to through the Congress, I have a lot of issues with it.
unidentified		Trump is just a microcosm of what the whole problem is in this country.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Dennis is in Wisconsin.
		Good morning, Dennis.
unidentified		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think is the most important issue facing America?
unidentified		Well, you know, there's a laundry list here, but beginning first and foremost is a disingenuous, non-existent force of state.
		You know, Trump never would remain in office the first time except for a billion dollars worth of free advertising.
		The media across the board, who's going to benefit more from these tax cuts than every single person working in the media.
		And they, you know, they're playing the American people like a bunch of pimps.
		They treat us like chattel.
		And, you know, the reason we are where we are right now is because of the corporate fascist media in this country, the Wall Street Journal.
		All the technology that has been dry gulched in the past 20 years here.
		Going back to the Axel Vector engine, which the Wall Street Journal slammed because they self-promoted their product.
		An engine that puts out three times more power, costs $250, a quarter of the cost to produce.
		China's been building this since 2011, and we're not.
		These engines should have, could have changed the world, could have.
		You know, in 2007, we could have been out of debt with China.
		In three years, we could have dumped our V8s into a container.
		China was still buying our metal.
		A hundred-horse AVAC engine would have driven my Dodge Dakota with 300-foot-pounded torque.
		I would have had to make up for the weight differential because it only would have weighed 100 pounds.
		It would have gotten 60 miles to a gallon any fuel on the fly.
		And I could have welded a toolbox underneath the hood.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You're saying that we're falling behind China in terms of technology.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And that's the biggest thing.
unidentified		We have a corporate fascist media that is protectionist towards, you know, crony capitalism here.
unidentified		2014, excuse me, the electronic spleen.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think we've got the idea, Dennis.
		So let's hear from Sharon in Oregon.
		Good morning, Sharon.
unidentified		Oh, hello.
		Have a good morning.
		I wanted to say, actually, the man before me and the woman before Mr. Obadalla were quite right.
		It is about the corporations making money.
		And the reason why none of the media really gave us the true facts on the Big Beautiful Bill was because I told my husband, Jake Tapper, all those guys, they really benefit off the Big Beautiful Bill.
		But what I really came to talk about is something that you can do.
		One of the things, I'm kind of emotional, I'm sorry, but one of the things that bothers me is when I hear people say really terrible things about the other party, or especially Democrats, even this morning, I heard a person say, We've got to get rid of the Democrats.
		They've got to go.
		They need to leave the country.
		We're a two-party country.
		We're for everybody.
		And as soon as somebody, even if I were to say something really derogatory about the other party and just calling them terrible names or something, or telling them they ought to be gone, or demonizing them, you guys should hang up.
		That should be a self-censorship on your part because it only adds to the terrible viciousness that's going on in our country.
		Talk about the issues.
		Talk about facts or whatever.
		But as soon as the demonization and the words and the name calling start, no matter who it is, you guys should hang up on them because that's what's killing our country.
		All right.
		Thank you for listening.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you for calling.
		Alexis is in Wilmington, North Carolina.
		Good morning, Alexis.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		I think the biggest problem is greed, greed over integrity.
		Yesterday or day before yesterday, when that vote went through, it was clear that people don't care about their fellow people.
		All these people that are going to lose their health care, which is going to cause a real effect overall to their subsistence, and that's all it is, is subsistence if they're on Medicare, Medicaid.
		They're struggling to get by.
		These are the bottom of the barrel.
		Only because of greed and the lack of integrity, like the other caller mentioned, is what's fueling this discord.
		Trump is leading the band, but it's the individual person.
		How were they raised?
		All those Republicans.
		And I do take my head off to the center of North Carolina.
		I can't think of his name right now.
		Tom Tillis.
		Thank you very much.
		That voted against this bill.
		He put his integrity first.
		He knows the ramifications of what's going to happen to all these people.
		He stood up for people on Medicaid prior.
		And I don't care how much money he's made off these backdoor deals.
		He stood up and relinquished his career in order to protect his integrity.
		And that's what we need: more people that have a soul of self-respect.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tom is in Ohio.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Tom.
unidentified		Hello.
		I'm glad to finally get on here, but my biggest issue is people.
		I've been in the military two times.
		I grew up in the 40s and the 50s.
		I consider myself a half-decent man yet.
		If a person calls me a liar, we're going to go to battle right now.
		No hesitation.
		They better be all proofing or we're going at it.
		And these guys just call everybody a liar all the time.
		That's one of the main words comes out of these guys' mouths all the time.
		And who's the most of them doing it?
		The guy that wants to run for president as a Democrat.
		The guy you just had on the television a little bit ago calling people liars and call me a liar and see what happens.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		We're going to end it there.
		Thank you to everyone who called in on today's edition of Washington Journal.
		We're going to be back with another show tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern.
		Hope you have a good rest of your holiday weekend.
unidentified		C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country.
		Coming up Sunday morning, we'll talk with syndicated columnist Cal Thomas about Trump administration policies and the state of U.S. politics.
		Then Amanda Littman with the group Run for Something discusses efforts to help elect young progressives to public office and the state of the Democratic Party.
		C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
		Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Sunday morning on C-SPAN.
		C-SPAN now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org.
@geo motion ▲ ● ▼		Next, President Donald Trump hosts a signing ceremony at the White House for the GOP tax and spending cuts legislation passed by Congress.
unidentified		Then, from George Washington's Mount Vernon, a naturalization ceremony in which nearly 100 people take the oath of citizenship.
		And later, the National Archives celebrates July 4th with musical performances, speeches, and a reading of the Declaration of Independence by reenactors portraying founders from the American Revolutionary period.
		From the beginning, C-SPAN was there for every word of debate, every vote.
		C-SPAN was there, giving you around-the-clock coverage through all-nighters into the early morning hours with record-breaking back-to-back votes in the Senate.
		We're going to press on until victory is won.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		I yield back.
unidentified		And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries giving the longest House speech ever.
unidentified		Only on C-SPAN could you witness the full story unfold, unfiltered, in real time.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		The yeas are 218, the nays are 214.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		The motion is adopted.
unidentified		And we're sort of celebrating like the biggest bill of its kind ever signed.

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