| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Immigration and deportation policies. | ||
| Would you say they're too strict, not strict enough, or about right? | ||
| No, I think they're about right. | ||
| They're focusing on those criminal, illegal aliens. | ||
| They're showing that they're willing to go get them, especially when you're also dealing with many localities and states that refuse to offer their assistance. | ||
| But I think the American people spoke pretty loudly in 2024 that they wanted the criminal, illegal aliens out of our country. | ||
| They should not find safe harbor here. | ||
| And I think that's where their focus has clearly been. | ||
| Should it concern the Trump administration, just simply looking at the polling numbers when it comes to the Trump administration's deportation program specifically? | ||
| This is from the CBS poll that was in the field about a week and a half ago. | ||
| It's 49% of Americans who approve of the Trump administration's program to deport illegal immigrants. | ||
| That number was 59% back in February of this year. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, it's not surprising. | ||
| Obviously, you have many folks in the legacy media that are just choosing to focus on negative. | ||
| They're focusing on the protests. | ||
| I think that shapes general opinion. | ||
| But I think, again, Donald Trump made it very clear in 2024 what he was planning to do. | ||
| The American people overwhelmingly supported that by sending him back to the White House, and now they see it in action. | ||
| If the media focus too much on the negative, what can the administration do to focus on the positive and what is the positive? | ||
| Well, I think they just need to keep out there and highlighting some of the horrific records of some of the people that they are sweeping up in these raids and deporting. | ||
| And if they continue to do that, I think people at home will get the point that a lot of folks who are charged with very serious crimes and violent crimes, assault on women, assaults on children, are the ones that are being caught up in this. | ||
| This is not about just the folks that maybe some on the left would like to focus on. | ||
| Let's focus on the actual records of those who are being detained and deported. | ||
| When it comes to what the media chooses to focus on, let me switch topics then. | ||
| We noted that you worked on strategic communication for the Trump 2020 campaign. | ||
| What would be the strategic message that you would advise the Trump administration right now on to avoid having another week of the Epstein files dominating the news cycle? | ||
| Well, I'm not sure there's anything they can do that would change that narrative right now. | ||
| And I think, you know, what they have to continue to do, I think, is just continue to push out messages, highlight the positive things that are going on, whether it's with the economy, with immigration, trade deals, and such. | ||
| You know, when I look at the polling, I see that, you know, the president's approval is rock solid, has hardly changed at all amongst Republicans, even though some and many do have questions about the handling of the Epstein case. | ||
| Just continue, it's an issue that's important to them, but not the most important to them. | ||
| And so continue to focus on those things that are the most important, which is the economy, immigration, strong trade, and then obviously, you know, what we're dealing with in terms of national security, foreign relations, and the wars that are going on overseas. | ||
| And yet, when President Trump has been asked about this a couple of times, he has chosen to focus on, or at least try to point the media towards 2016, the 2016 campaign, accusing Barack Obama of treason when it comes to the 2016 campaign. | ||
| Is that the thing he should be focusing on? | ||
| Well, I think from a base standpoint, I think that's obviously something that they want to get out there. | ||
| They want to get that narrative out there. | ||
| I think it's important for history to tell that story correctly and for us to understand what's going on or what went on back there in the late days of 2016 and 2017. | ||
| The question is going to be, is I don't think anything is going to change people's interest in, say, the Epstein case, much like they want to know more about the JFK assassination or MLK. | ||
| These are things that are just continuing. | ||
| They're always going to be of interest. | ||
| It's not a distraction. | ||
| It's just something else to put into that communications channel. | ||
| How big of an issue do you think this is going to be for congressional Republicans as they head home to the August recess and speak to their constituents back home? | ||
| I think they'll hear about it at home. | ||
| But, you know, I think there's a lot of things you're going to hear about when you do these things. | ||
| I think from the congressional Republicans, they're going to continue to call for answers. | ||
| They're going to continue to want more information out, but they're also going to talk about the historic tax cuts that were contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| They're going to talk about immigration. | ||
| They're going to talk about what we still need to do moving forward. | ||
| So it will just be one of those narratives. | ||
| I don't think it's the defining narrative that Republicans are going to have to deal with when they're home for the next month. | ||
| How much do you think most Americans know about the One Big Beautiful Bill, about what's actually in this piece of legislation? | ||
| Probably not a lot. | ||
| I mean, I think they know that it continues the Trump tax cuts. | ||
| It contains the promises that the president made on no tax on tips and Social Security and those kinds of things. | ||
| But once you get beyond most of those top lines, I don't think there's probably a lot of information out there. | ||
| And that's fine because I think most people just want to know, are my taxes going to go up? | ||
| No. | ||
| Are people who are on Social Security or receiving tips going to get a tax break? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Those kinds of things are very important, but it's also a challenge for Republicans because I was obviously there in 2017 in the White House and then moving over to the campaign when the original tax cuts and jobs acts were passed by Congress. | ||
| That cut people's taxes. | ||
| They lowered their withholding rates. | ||
| So people immediately saw more money in their paychecks and lower tax bills. | ||
| Continuing something that's already in existence is a lot more difficult to do just because people don't see the tangible benefit right away in their paychecks or in their taxes because you're convincing them they didn't go up rather than they are coming down. | ||
| Mark Lauder is our guest in this segment of the Washington Journal with us for about the next 35 minutes or so. | ||
| You can go ahead and start calling in with your questions, comments for him. | ||
| Democrats, it's 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Mark Lauder is a co-host at Newsmax's Wake Up America. | ||
| What are you going to be talking about tomorrow on Wake Up America? | ||
| Well, I have people will continue to talk about the president's trip over to Scotland. | ||
| He's meeting with the head of the EU this afternoon or tonight, our time. | ||
| And so we'll follow that. | ||
| Also, we've got the Senate working through the budget packages. | ||
| They hope to get at least three appropriations bills approved before they go out for their August recess. | ||
| So I think that will probably be a big focus as we head into tomorrow and in the new week. | ||
| What does the president need to do while he's overseas on this particular trip? | ||
| Well, I think obviously meeting with the head of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, with the head of the EU, continuing to nail down the details of those trade deals and what's coming up with tariffs, because that day is coming on August 1st, which is Friday of this week. | ||
| So I think you will see him really try to solidify the framework that they've already got agreed with the UK and then obviously push forward with more information about what can be done with the European Union. | ||
| Is it possible or do you think what would be the result of Donald Trump pushing off the tariff date once again? | ||
| And how big of an issue is it for the White House, this Taco Trump term that gets applied when it comes to tariffs that he'll chicken out and boot the date down the road once again? | ||
| Well, I mean, I don't think that's just kind of politics the way it is these days. | ||
| Everybody has a nickname. | ||
| Everybody tries to give a nickname to somebody else. | ||
| I think ultimately what the president is hopeful for is getting new deals negotiated. | ||
| And so maybe, and I don't know this, but maybe he will delay tariffs on certain countries that we're working with and trying to get that finalized trade deal. | ||
| Or maybe he's done with them trying to string him along and he's going to let them go into place and see if that gets them to the table. | ||
| Ultimately, all of my experiences with the president over the course of the last eight to 10 years nearly, it's always about what can he do? | ||
| What steps can he take to give himself the maximum leverage in any negotiation? | ||
| And obviously, in this case, he wants the best deal for America. | ||
| So what does he think is going to bring the other side to the table and make them agree with his terms? | ||
| A few of the issues that are likely to come up this week, Mr. Lauder here to take your questions and your comments about them. | ||
| And as we said, he's with us for about another half hour. | ||
| This is James Upfirst out of Rome, Georgia on the phones, line for Democrats. | ||
| James, you're on with Mark Lautter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, this immigration system basically, it's not an immigration system what you're doing, Deporting. | |
| Basically what it is, it's a white supremacist system that you're implementing back again, this DEI and stuff. | ||
| White women were the biggest receivers of affirmative action in the United States. | ||
| And what is actually going on, you know, these visa overstays, most of these people from Europe, Russia, we have a lot of Russians here. | ||
| Israelis, we have a lot of actually Caucasian people here. | ||
| You're not deporting them. | ||
| You're not going in their communities and getting them just because their skin is white. | ||
| When they come over here, that privilege. | ||
| But when they're in Russia, Ukraine, and these different places, they're fighting and they're killing each other. | ||
| But when they come to the United States, this is the reason why you change their race to white. | ||
| It's then because all you people group up, all you all look the same. | ||
| You're not profile is over here illegal. | ||
| But people with dark skin, brown skin, or whatever, you can just look at them. | ||
| Black people, it was a time over here when we were citizens where we couldn't go in certain buildings, stores, communities. | ||
| Hey, James, I got your point. | ||
| You bring up a lot of issues. | ||
| Mark Lauder, let me let you jump in. | ||
| Yeah, well, I mean, first and foremost, I don't think the enforcement of the immigration policy is racist. | ||
| It's based on who is here illegally inside our country and then rounding up those violent criminal offenders and getting them out of the country first. | ||
| I know that they're also working on visa overstays, and that's something that they want to tackle and address. | ||
| But right now, the most critical need is to get the criminal illegal alien out of our population, and then we can have those broader talks. | ||
| And if they get those that are on visa overstays as well, they're rounding them up too. | ||
| So if the priority is to get the violent criminal offenders out, what happens to the people who are not violent criminal offenders who get rounded up in some of these raids? | ||
| Should simply being in the country illegally be enough to get you deported and in this process? | ||
| Well, yes, simply put, yes. | ||
| Because if you do not round up, if you do not, if you allow anyone who comes into our country illegally to stay, you have created an incentive for people to come into our country illegally and stay. | ||
| Providing that disincentive that if you are harboring a criminal illegal alien, if you are part of that group, when that person gets rounded up, you will go to, even if you are not a criminal illegal alien, it provides, again, a disincentive. | ||
| And I think that's one of the reasons why we have seen the illegal border crossings plummet to the lowest level in modern history under President Trump because people know that you can't just run up at the border like you could under Joe Biden, find a border customs official and turn yourself in, get a free plane ticket or bus ride into the U.S. and a court date 10 years from now that you're never going to go to, you're going to be sent back home immediately. | ||
| This is James in Perry Hall, Maryland, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're next with Mark Lauder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Go ahead, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| The gentleman just spoke on the fact that this immigration policy is having place. | ||
| It's more of a Gestapo policy than immigration. | ||
| They had plenty of opportunities over the years, especially this past administration, to get a bill. | ||
| But for some reason, Republicans want something to run on. | ||
| Donald Trump put a stop to it, and everybody listened. | ||
| Everybody fell in line. | ||
| The biggest problem with America is Donald Trump. | ||
| Another problem with America, it's a white supremacist mentality, but that we, as a country, consider to continue to push. | ||
| I mean, let's be honest. | ||
| The only problem for Republicans and certain Caucasian people in this country, they don't want to be the minority. | ||
| That's James Mark Lauder. | ||
| Well, obviously, I think, you know, one of the foundations of the America First policies, the principles that are espoused by the president and supported by so many else, is that everyone in America legally who is here gets equal opportunity to pursue that American dream. | ||
| There's nothing in it about color. | ||
| There's nothing in it about gender. | ||
| It's we want everyone to have the opportunity to succeed and to achieve that American dream. | ||
| And, you know, I get it. | ||
| You know, Democrats have been running on racism for a very long time. | ||
| But I think when you look at the results of the 2024 election and you see the historic growth that Donald Trump and Republicans received from communities of color, from traditional Democrat communities, they realize that they want that equal opportunity. | ||
| And that's why I think so many people are gravitating to it because it's not a politics of grievance. | ||
| It's not a politics of going backwards in time. | ||
| It's what can we do to make the future great for everyone and give everyone that equal opportunity to succeed. | ||
| Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. | ||
| This is Richard Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For Mark, he made a couple of comments about the big beautiful bill. | |
| And I want to add a couple of things because I got a UBS press release. | ||
| I have funds with them about a couple more items. | ||
| And one of them, car loans interest will be deductible. | ||
| And so will a certain amount of charitable contributions in which you don't have to itemize. | ||
| So that might be additions to people's paycheck that they hadn't accounted for. | ||
| Also, on illegal immigration, there's a Fox News story out there last night that the cartels are dropping fentanyl across the border and somebody's got to be there to receive it. | ||
| And that's even more incentives to, you know, get illegal immigrants out of the country. | ||
| And Because they are not, you know. | ||
| Fentanyl is a big problem down here. | ||
| It may not be such a big problem in the Northeast. | ||
| It's a big problem down here. | ||
| That's Richard. | ||
| Mr. Lauder. | ||
| No, absolutely. | ||
| And I'll tell you, fentanyl is a big problem everywhere. | ||
| And that's one of the reasons why we've got to get serious about securing our southern border, but also getting tough with China because they are the main supplier of that. | ||
| They route it through Mexico through those cartels. | ||
| And I think that's one of the great benefits of the president's programs on immigration, on securing the border, is has nothing to do with immigration. | ||
| It has to do with protecting the lives of so many people. | ||
| I mean, I think there's probably not very few people in America that don't know someone who's been directly affected or their family has been directly affected by the fentanyl crisis. | ||
| And great points about the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| Those will definitely, especially on the auto loans for American-made automobiles. | ||
| That'll be something that will be very positive. | ||
| It might take a while for people to figure it out, but once they do, I think it's going to be great not only for, say, middle-class Americans, but also for the auto industry and all of the jobs that are related to not just the manufacture of the vehicle, but all the parts and components that go into it. | ||
| Let me say on fiscal policy for a second, a column in today's Washington Post by Ramesh Poneru, no liberal columnist, certainly. | ||
| His headline of his piece is the attacks on Jerome Powell make no sense. | ||
| He ends his piece by writing this. | ||
| If you were trying to force the Trump administration's line when it comes to Jerome Powell to make some kind of sense, it would be that it's trying to hedge its bets politically. | ||
| Take credit for a strong economy if it materializes, blame Powell if it doesn't. | ||
| But that's a difficult strategy to execute. | ||
| The message from Trump is instead just self-contradictory. | ||
| He's giving us a gangbusters economy that desperately needs stimulation by the Federal Reserve. | ||
| What are your thoughts on this Jerome Powell issue for Donald Trump? | ||
| And did you watch their interaction on that tour on Friday? | ||
| I did. | ||
| It was classic Donald Trump and very entertaining to watch. | ||
| I'm going to disagree with that post, the columnist, just because President Trump's not going to wait around. | ||
| And then if the economy is not going gangbusters next year and Republicans are on the ballot in the midterms and be able to say, well, it's not my fault. | ||
| It's Jerome Powell's fault. | ||
| By setting this narrative now that we need these rate cuts, putting pressure on the Fed and the Federal Reserve Chairman to lower rates, which is something that many economists believe needs to happen, by making that case now, you're obviously setting up that narrative if he doesn't do it, that you've got that person that you can point to come midterm time next year. | ||
| But also, if he is successful in getting the Fed to lower rates, maybe as early as this week when they next meet, then all of a sudden you start to realize that he's going to be able to talk about the fact that they're doing it at his urging, and it just reinforces that narrative from a political standpoint, particularly, that because of him, the economy is booming right now. | ||
| Do you think Jerome Powell needs to go? | ||
| I think he's missed the mark on almost everything. | ||
| And when he was cutting rates last fall, when inflation was much higher, it was clear he was trying to put his thumb on the electoral scales prior to that election. | ||
| His term is up in May. | ||
| I do believe the president, through his focus on the, as it's been referred to, the Taj Mahal on the mall, the Fed Reserve building and the cost overruns, he set up a case to fire the Fed chair for cause, which he's allowed to do. | ||
| It also removes a lot of the legal uncertainty around it. | ||
| But as the president has consistently said, he has no plans to do so right now. | ||
| We'll see if that holds true. | ||
| Let me give you another columnist, Jason Willick. | ||
| His column today focuses on a different Trump administration appointee, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. | ||
| Time for Trump to tell Bondi that you're fired. | ||
| Jason Willick saying that in regards to her handling of the Epstein files, what are your thoughts on how she's handled the Epstein files? | ||
| Well, first off, as a disclaimer, obviously, I know Pam very well. | ||
| I've been friends with her for a very long time, and I've been critical of the Department of Justice's handling of the Epstein files, even when it goes back as far as having the binders full of information that went to the White House and those kinds of things. | ||
| That's just feeding that narrative. | ||
| But I know that the president has full support for Pam Bondi. | ||
| He's voiced it over and over again. | ||
| She is a tenacious lawyer and will always do what she thinks is right by the law and what the requirements of the jobs are. | ||
| And everyone serves at the pleasure of the president. | ||
| And so as long as he has confidence in her, I have confidence in her to do that job as well. | ||
| Does somebody need to come out and say that we overpromised about what's in here? | ||
| And that's on us when it comes to what was said about the Epstein files on the campaign trail and where we are today. | ||
| Well, in traditional political times, I would agree with you and say yes. | ||
| But in Trump times, I would say no, because given what we currently face in terms of the opposition from the media and other things, any kind of act of contrition will be just used to try to sow division and chaos. | ||
| It's not Trump's way to ever say that something went badly or wrong. | ||
| So I would doubt that she would do that. | ||
| And if she did, all it would do is drive a week worth of headlines about how she's differing from President Trump or she admits a mistake. | ||
| I think that would probably be a bad strategic decision. | ||
| Is it fair to say, though, that this has gone badly and wrong at this point? | ||
| I don't think it's gone as well as they would have liked it to. | ||
| I don't think there's any question about that. | ||
| But again, I think as I look at those Republican support numbers and some of the polling, it's still right there, 90%, 92%, historic highs. | ||
| While, yes, the MAGA base and many people want more information, I think that they are happy with the other things that the president's doing in terms of the inflation, the economy, and immigration. | ||
| And so it's not affecting his support right now. | ||
| So I think it's just another one of those undercurrents in the news cycle that you have to live through when you're in the White House. | ||
| Julie is in North Smithfield, Rhode Island. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mark. | |
| It's a pleasure to speak with you. | ||
| I watch you every morning on the news apps. | ||
| I wanted to say you, thank you. | ||
| I wanted to say something. | ||
| You know, the Epstein thing, yes, it has to be investigated, but it's just a ploy. | ||
| This is being pushed by the left. | ||
| It's not being pushed by the Republicans, in my opinion. | ||
| I think that this Gabbard thing that came out with all of the crap that Obama and Joe and all those people on the left did to Trump is a disgrace to this country. | ||
| It's an absolute, utter disgrace. | ||
| And I am so peeved off about the whole thing. | ||
| That's why I voted for Trump the first time, the second time, and the third time. | ||
| And he's going to make this country better than it's ever been. | ||
| He already has. | ||
| He already has. | ||
| And I also remarked not that long back, you lost your father. | ||
| And I just recently lost my mother. | ||
| And I know that feeling. | ||
| So God bless you and God bless this country. | ||
| Thank you, Mark. | ||
| Mr. Lauder. | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
| And thank you for the kind wishes for my late father. | ||
| But I know he's with my mom now, so he's in a better place. | ||
| You know, when it comes to what the president has been doing, I agree. | ||
| Obviously, I think the Epstein files is something right now that Democrats and the left are seizing on because it's the only thing they have to seize on. | ||
| They're trying to sow that chaos. | ||
| When it comes to the release from Tulsi Gabber, the director of national intelligence, I was on the campaign in 2016. | ||
| I was in the White House in 2017 as a special assistant to the president. | ||
| That entire narrative consumed those early days of the Trump administration. | ||
| And to realize that this was information that was being basically pushed out, even though there was a lot of question marks around it in the intelligence community, low confidence in the intelligence community, is something that we should never allow to have happen, regardless of the politics of the president of the United States. | ||
| We can't have that kind of narrative. | ||
| But I will also say very clearly, and I've said it on the air many times before, I do not believe that Barack Obama can be criminally charged for any of this. | ||
| I actually believe the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity as it related to President Trump covers him. | ||
| And even if he did it for malicious reasons or for political reasons, him ordering a telegraph community assessment update report, whatever, is still fully within the confines of the presidential powers. | ||
| And the one thing I think we have to remember, and this is really more for the MAGA Republican community, is that whenever we start getting into presidential motives, what was behind this, well, that's going to come back and haunt you later because when Democrats eventually someday probably will get back into power again, they will do the exact same thing. | ||
| So we need to make sure that we, you know, if it's Clapper, if it's Brennan, if it's Comey, they don't have that immunity. | ||
| And if you can prove it, let them go to court. | ||
| But I do believe when it comes to President Obama, the Supreme Court would pretty much rule that that's within his authorities. | ||
| On whether you can prove it or what you can prove, Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact checker, writes this today. | ||
| Gabbard has a problem. | ||
| How can she discover new evidence that somehow eluded four previous investigations? | ||
| A 2019 report released by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a 2019 Justice Department Inspector General report, a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee issued in 2020 by a GOP-controlled Senate, and a 2023 report released by Special Counsel John Durham, appointed in Trump's first term. | ||
| All told, the previous reports add up to about 2,500 pages of dense prose compared with the, as he describes it, thin gruel of emails and meeting agendas released by Tulsi Gabbard. | ||
| Well, I think first and foremost, you know, it's easy to write a report when you don't have all of the facts and whether they didn't look for them, whether they ignored them. | ||
| And the one thing I think is very important on a lot of these bipartisan things is that, you know, Republicans are going to have to negotiate with Democrats on what goes in, what goes out. | ||
| The classified sections of the Mueller report do contain a lot of references. | ||
| And, you know, it's much like we talk about with the legacy media. | ||
| They get to pick and choose the facts they want to include to come up with their own narrative. | ||
| And I think in many of these cases, you had the exact same thing going on. | ||
| And by putting this information out there, putting out the actual facts, the receipts, so to say, allows the American people to read it for themselves, see if they agree with that conclusion, disagree with that conclusion. | ||
| But the only way you can make that informed decision is to have that information out there. | ||
| Less than 15 minutes left with Mark Lauder, the co-host of Newsmax Wake Up America. | ||
| You'll be able to see him tomorrow morning on Wake Up America. | ||
| And he's with you this morning on the Washington Journal. | ||
| This is John in Hillsboro, New Jersey. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| My question to you is, what exactly is this great, big, beautiful bill going to do for our national debt? | ||
| And the second question is, what exactly is it going to do to help the average person? | ||
| I mean, somebody, the average person, the person that's struggling, making $80,000, $90,000 a year, which you're struggling now making that much. | ||
| All right, that's my question. | ||
| Well, your first question first, obviously, it depends on the national debt. | ||
| It depends on who you are believing. | ||
| The Congressional Budget Office, which is rarely right, has estimated that it would increase the national debt over the course of 10 years. | ||
| The administration, many other economists say, well, they don't fully take into account economic growth, and they have much lower growth projections than what the administration thinks is going to happen, and also what we saw after the original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed back in 2017. | ||
| So they believe that the debt will actually become lower because of this bill. | ||
| And when it comes to what it does for the average American, well, first off, we have to remember it nearly doubled the standard deduction, which most people use at home, which is something that will continue. | ||
| It also increased, again, the child tax credit, which helps families with children to be able to save even more money. | ||
| And then when you look at some of the other, it continues the tax cuts, it keeps those going, doesn't let them expire, which would have amounted to be the largest tax increase in history. | ||
| And then when you look at some of the other elements like the auto loans that we mentioned earlier, some of the things that are also designed for small businesses, allowing them to depreciate investments they make in their country, that's going to be good not only for small businesses, it's going to allow them to hire more. | ||
| And when they are making those capital investments that they can now fully depreciate, it also means they're buying that material or that construction from someone else, which will help, again, further juice the economy through jobs and increased manufacturing. | ||
| Up to Maine, Sanford, Maine. | ||
| This is Debbie Independent. | ||
| Debbie, thanks for waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My representative is Susan Collins, Senator. | ||
| And I saw her in one of the meetings questioning Kash Patel. | ||
| And Maine is not the state that it was. | ||
| I mean, she was asking him for help. | ||
| We have, I mean, you can't believe the property that the Chinese nationalists have bought up, the sex trafficking. | ||
| And when you look at Epstein, I mean, he was a despicable, evil, evil man. | ||
| But when you look at what Biden did, opening up the border and losing 300 kids, and then he sets up a hotline and 65,000 of these little minors, these kids that are being trafficked, they're in cannabis farms, and nobody picked up to help these poor little helpless kids. | ||
| When you look at these Trump-deranged Democrats, it's pretty pathetic. | ||
| I mean, it's just, it's maddening on what this last administration did opening up this border. | ||
| And if it wouldn't have happened, if you'd left everything in place, we wouldn't be talking about this. | ||
| Thank you for your time. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| That's Debbie. | ||
| Yeah, thank you, obviously. | ||
| You know, it's one of the untold success stories that needs to probably be told more is what they are doing to protect children and get them out of these sex trafficking networks, which is really one of the major drivers of the illegal immigration. | ||
| I keep going back. | ||
| I remember during the first term, you know, when the Democrats, when the left, when the media were all up in arms about so-called kids in cages, yet Joe Biden lost 320,000, I believe, children, lost communication with them over the course of his four years. | ||
| And I saw Tom Holman, we were talking to him earlier. | ||
| That's actually a focus, and they are going back and finding a lot of these children, which were lost in the system under Joe Biden. | ||
| In some cases, it was just bad government reporting and that they are fine. | ||
| But in other cases, there were literally dozens, if not hundreds, of kids all assigned to one address that doesn't even exist. | ||
| It's because they've actually been put into sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and it's just a horrific thing that needs to stop. | ||
| Out of Florida, this is Sandy, Lynn for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Trump's position on illegal immigration includes people overstaying and violating their visas, like students and tourists and others. | ||
| I understand Melania Trump did that. | ||
| Can you comment on that and how should that be handled? | ||
| Well, I'm not so sure about the First Lady's response, although the one thing I will tell you is that the First Lady, you know, she reserves her comments for the president, and she's definitely very influential on so many things, especially as it relates to children and those kinds of things. | ||
| But it is something, it is a problem that has to be addressed when we have these visa overstays. | ||
| And it's something that I know the federal government is focused on. | ||
| Right now, their big focus is on the criminal illegal element. | ||
| But once we get there, and I think the message is getting out that if you're on a visa overstay and you somehow get into police custody or you need some sort of government assistance, ICE is going to be there to find out and what we can do to get you back home. | ||
| And as I understand it, Melania Trump received a green card, I think it was circa 2001, and became a U.S. citizen. | ||
| 2006, I believe, was the year that she became a citizen, just for the dates for that caller. | ||
| Any further thoughts on Melania Trump, or we can go to Eddie in Massachusetts The First Lady is obviously just such a hopeful role model. | ||
| She's so intelligent, so full of grace. | ||
| I think she's going to go down as one of the best First Ladies we've had because she embodies that strength of America. | ||
| She came here legally, and so she shows that we are a country that's welcoming of legal immigration, and we want everyone to succeed. | ||
| Eddie is in Massachusetts, Republican. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You're on with Mark Lauder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'm glad that we can stop using the word racist. | ||
| My mother and sisters came to America in their 20s. | ||
| Hello? | ||
| We're listening to you, Eddie. | ||
| They came to America in the 20s. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I think I'm an apartment in New York and they did housework. | ||
| My father also came from Europe in the 20s, did some farm work, and put his brothers, got an apartment in New York, did paping. | ||
| That's what immigrants do. | ||
| They're not racist. | ||
| They came with legal and they did manual work. | ||
| People calling racists terrible. | ||
| But the biggest problem today is the housing. | ||
| How to house the 10, 20, 30 million people over the decades. | ||
| Nancy Pelosi started with the savings of loans. | ||
| That was a CSGO. | ||
| Building shiny houses out of the servers. | ||
| Immigrants don't have cause to get there. | ||
| And then the subprime, that costs us hundreds of billions of dollars. | ||
| That also was the problem. | ||
| So the problem is government. | ||
| And you had on a congressman this morning from California who was evicted from a news conference one time, arrested. | ||
| He said 10% are only criminals. | ||
| Well, because he's a lawyer, doesn't he know? | ||
| That coming here illegal is a crime. | ||
| 100% illegals are criminals. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Eddie in Massachusetts. | ||
| He references a clip from Senator Alex Padilla from a congressional hearing from last week, but not one that you would saw when we were playing with you, Mr. Lauder. | ||
| But go ahead. | ||
| No, I mean, obviously, you know, I think he mentioned a lot of things in there. | ||
| Obviously, we've talked about immigration a lot and enforcement, and we are a country of immigrants. | ||
| I remember, I think it was like last year or so at this time, I realized that, you know, when you look at what happened in the last four years, Joe Biden allowed more people into our country illegally than every person who came through Ellis Island during what was called the Great Migration back in the late 1890s, 1880s, all the way through the early 1940s and 50s. | ||
| Everyone that came through signed the book. | ||
| That was legal immigration at the time. | ||
| And Joe Biden allowed more people into our country illegally during four years than what happened in more than 50 years legally. | ||
| And when you think about all of the great immigrant communities that came to America through that great migration through Ellis Island, you have to wonder now what's going to be the long-term impact decades from now of what Joe Biden did in just four years. | ||
| Time for just a couple more calls here with Mark Lauder. | ||
| This is Terry in Eugene, Oregon. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
| Thanks for waiting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I'd like to start my comment. | ||
| I have two of them with a quote from James A. Baldwin: I can't believe what you say because I see what you do. | ||
| You had made the comment at the beginning of this segment about the illegal, the rounding up of illegals. | ||
| And let me tell you something. | ||
| What I'm seeing in this country right now is not the America that I've grown up in and love so dearly. | ||
| You have masked, unidentified people grabbing legal citizens off the country and talking about their $30,000 bonus because somebody, you can endure the smell of the urine from the person that they're terrorizing. | ||
| This is not what the people signed up for. | ||
| The whole administration runs on hatred, white nationalists, greed, lies, and this country has turned into divided hatred between those that want the principles and the incredible. | ||
| Well, Terry, I think we got your point. | ||
| Mark Lauder, let you jump in. | ||
| Well, I mean, obviously, you know, we live in a free country, and I think you have every right to be wrong because that's not what the America First policies are about. | ||
| It's not about hatred. | ||
| It's not about racism. | ||
| It's about providing a country that's built on those America First policies, which, yes, puts the needs of our country first and Americans, whether it's on the economy, whether it's on immigration, and in so many other ways, foreign policy. | ||
| I think that's what the American people largely voted for. | ||
| You know, when you saw the 24 campaign, you know, it was, and go back really the last 10 plus years, Republicans, Donald Trump, and others have been running on a policy platform where the Democrats have just been anti-Trump. | ||
| That's all they've run on for the last 10 years. | ||
| And I think that's why they find themselves with the lowest approval rating as a party in the last 30 plus years. | ||
| It's because people don't think they stand for anything except anti-Trump, and that's not going to get you elected and not make your life better. | ||
| I think this is what you're referring to. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal with this front page story yesterday on its polling, a new survey finding that 63% of voters hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, the highest share in journal polls dating to 1990 and 30 points higher than the 33% who hold a favorable view. | ||
| What does that mean for next November? | ||
| Well, I think it's going to be a question that Democrats, I think, are still struggling with. | ||
| You know, look, I remember the day, I remember, you know, obviously Bill Clinton running on policy, even Barack Obama running on a lot of policy. | ||
| I may not have agreed with it, but they did run on policy. | ||
| They put it out there and the American people voted for them. | ||
| What you're not seeing is you're just seeing anti-Trump, anti-immigration raids. | ||
| You see a lot of divisive rhetoric, but you don't see a lot of substance behind it. | ||
| And when you do see substance, like the socialist mayor nominee of New York City, Zoharon Mamdani, government-run grocery stores, I mean, these are the things that the Democrats now, that's where the energy of their party is. | ||
| It's not the party of working-class Americans any longer. | ||
| And I think that's one of the reasons why Donald Trump has been so successful in growing his support is because he's attracting new people. | ||
| And I don't think people are leaving the Democrat Party. | ||
| I think the Democrat Party is leaving the people. | ||
| Mark Lauder is a co-host of Newsmax's Wake Up America. | ||
| You can see him there tomorrow and throughout the week. | ||
| And we always appreciate you stopping by. | ||
| The Washington Journal, thanks for coming on a Sunday. | ||
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| Coming up in about 30 minutes this morning, it's Greg Sargent, staff writer for The New Republic. | ||
| We'll talk about the Democratic agenda, what's in store for Democrats headed into the midterm elections. | ||
| But up next, it's our open forum. | ||
| Any public policy issue, any political issue that you want to talk about, now's your time to call in. | ||
| Phone numbers are on your screen. | ||
| Go ahead and start dialing, and we will get to your calls right after the break. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Weekends bring you Book TV, featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. | |
| Book TV continues the celebration of America's 250th with author conversations on the American Revolution. | ||
| Contributors to the book Waging War in America, 1775 to 1783, discuss the operational challenges that American, British, French, and German military forces face during the conflict. | ||
| U.S. Marine Corps Major General Jason Bohm explores the origins of the Marine Corps, including the formation of the Continental Marines during the American Revolution, in his book, Washington's Marines. | ||
| Rick Atkinson shares his book, The Fate of the Day, examining the middle years of the Revolutionary War, from the 1777 capture of Fort Ticonderoga to the 1780 siege of Charleston. | ||
| Also this weekend, how did the like button become so ubiquitous? | ||
| Author Martin Reeves explores the origins of the thumbs up symbol and how it changed the internet with his book, Like, The Button That Changed the World. | ||
| Martha Blanding broke a color barrier at California's Disneyland, becoming the park's first black official tour guide in 1971. | ||
| She tells the story of her 50-year career with the Walt Disney Company and of social and cultural change in her book, Groundbreaking Magic. | ||
| Watch book TV every weekend on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. | ||
| In a nation divided, a rare moment of unity. | ||
| This fall, C-SPAN presents Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins in a town where partisan fighting prevails. | ||
| One table, two leaders, one goal, to find common ground. | ||
| This fall, Ceasefire, on the network that doesn't take sides, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core, a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| It's about 8.50 on the East Coast time for our open forum. | ||
| Any public policy issue, any political issue that you want to talk about, now is the time when we let you lead this program. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats to call in. | ||
| Republicans, it's 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| And we will get right to the calls. | ||
| Margot in the Hoosier State Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, how are you doing, John? | |
| I'm doing well. | ||
| I had a comment for the last guest, which was, I wanted to know how a convicted felon married to an immigrant with an anchor baby is going after criminals and immigrants and anchor babies. | ||
| And the other thing that I had to say was that, I'm sorry, I missed my thought because I really had wanted to speak with him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I wanted to know how he obtained an Einstein visa. | |
| What was his wife's contribution to acquire an Einstein visa? | ||
| That's all I had to say. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| That's Margot in Indiana to the Lone Star State. | ||
| This is Danny in Port, Arkansas. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, it's actually Port of Ramses, Texas. | |
| Porta Rancis. | ||
| Sorry about that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's okay. | |
| Yes, I think our government, our ISIS and so forth is doing a wonderful job. | ||
| And, you know, when you do something illegal in this country, you get arrested for it. | ||
| And people who come legally, I welcome them. | ||
| We live close to the border, and people who don't live close to the border don't understand the amount of crime that it has brought. | ||
| And one day it is going to come back and haulness. | ||
| Biden let more people in this country in four years than the country did legally in 50 years. |