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Aug. 9, 2025 10:01-13:06 - CSPAN

03:04:56

Washington This Week

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Main

tammy thueringer

cspan 40:20

Appearances

benjamin netanyahu

isr 00:48

donald j trump

admin 02:02

gavin newsom

d 01:02

Clips

al green

rep/d 00:06

ann johnson

00:19

bill hemmer

fox 00:20

patty murray

sen/d 00:08

peter doocy

fox 00:22

sean duffy

admin 00:04

Callers

jimmy in texas

callers 00:24

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		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 about the Trump administration and other political news of the day.
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tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		This is Washington Journal for Saturday, August 9th.
		Yesterday, President Trump announced he'll meet with Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday after the Russian president proposed a land swap with Ukraine could bring an end to the fighting between the two countries.
		Also, this week, the fight over Texas redistricting efforts continued with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pushing to remove more than a dozen Democratic state lawmakers who left the state in an effort to block redistricting bills.
		And President Trump's reciprocal tariffs went into effect Thursday, increasing import taxes on dozens of U.S. trading partners.
		Those are just a few of the stories C-SPAN has been following.
		And for the first hour of today's program, we're asking you, what's your top news story of the week?
		Here are the lines.
		Republicans 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		You can text your comments to 202-748-8003.
		Be sure to include your name and city.
		You can also post a question or comment on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ.
		Good morning, and thank you for being with us.
		We'll get to your calls in just a few moments, but wanted to start with one of those stories just mentioned, and that is President Trump expected to meet with Vladimir Putin next week.
		The headline in the Wall Street Journal.
		Putin tells U.S. he'll halt war in exchange for Eastern Ukraine.
		The article says Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the Trump administration this past week with a sweeping proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine, demanding major territorial concessions by Kyiv and a push for global recognition of its claims in exchange for a halt to the fighting, according to European and Ukrainian officials.
		European officials expressed serious reservations about the proposal, which would require Ukraine to hand over its eastern region, known as Donbass, without Russia committing to much other than to stop fighting.
		The offer, which Putin conveyed Wednesday to U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, set off a diplomatic scramble to get further clarity on details of the proposal.
		President Trump on social media said that he would meet with Putin next Friday in Alaska.
		He didn't provide additional information about the meeting.
		Yesterday at the White House, President Trump was asked about the delay in reaching a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
		He also spoke about the upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin.
		Here's a clip from that event.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		As you know, we've been working on a lot of these deals.
		We've closed every single one of them all throughout the world.
		And that's the last of them.
		And they're losing, Peter, about six, maybe even 7,000 soldiers every single week.
		Russia, as you know, lost almost 25,000 over the last month and a half.
		And Ukraine lost just a small number, fewer.
		A lot of people are dying.
		And I think we're getting very close.
		And we're going to be announcing later on we're going to have a meeting with Russia.
		We'll start off with Russia.
		And we'll announce a location.
		I think the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons.
		But we'll be announcing that a little bit later.
		I just don't want to do it now because of the importance of what we just did.
peter doocy ▲ ● ▼		I completely understand this.
		Just a follow-up.
		Are you surprised that Zelensky hasn't figured out by now, in years of war, how to deal with you and to deal with Putin without needing permission to make concessions from his parliament or from a national referendum?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, he's going out and getting what he needs.
		You know, he's not authorized to do certain things.
		I said, well, you're going to have to get it fast because, you know, we're getting very close to a deal.
		And he's doing that.
		And he's working with the European nations and they're terrific people, terrific leaders, NATO.
		And as you know, I became very friendly with them.
		They agreed to go from 2% to 5%, 2% that they didn't pay to 5% that they've already paid.
		That's trillions of dollars.
		So, you know, we're working together very closely.
		But no, in all fairness to President Zelensky, he's getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something done.
		But I'll be meeting very shortly with President Putin.
		It would have been sooner, but I guess there's security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make.
		Otherwise, I'd do it much quicker.
		He would too.
		He'd like to meet as soon as possible.
		I agree with it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		President Trump there talking about Ukrainian President Zelensky.
		This is a new headline from just a few hours ago in the Wall Street Journal, or in the New York Times.
		Zelensky rejects Trump's suggestion that Ukraine swap territory with Russia.
		It says that President Vladimir Zelensky, Ukraine on Saturday, flatly rejected President Trump's proposal that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia could include, quote, some swapping of territories, a plan that would, in effect, mean ceding land to Moscow.
		It says that Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers, Mr. Zelensky said in a video address from his office in Kyiv several hours after Mr. Trump's remarks, which appear to overlook Ukraine's role in negotiation.
		Any decision made against us, any decision made without Ukraine, are the same or at the same time decisions against peace, Mr. Zelensky said.
		They will bring nothing.
		These are dead decisions.
		They will never work.
		That is one of the stories C-SPAN has been following for the first hour.
		We're asking you, what's your top news story of the week?
		The lines there on your screen, Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		We will start with Diane, who's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Diane.
unidentified		Thank you.
		And Ukraine is at the top of my mind.
		Trump, he sees himself as a master negotiator.
		Well, how he does that, he gives everything away to Putin.
		That brings him to the table, and then they're going to negotiate Putin and Trump.
		What about Zelensky?
		Why isn't he there?
		And, you know, he's working for this Nobel Peace Prize.
		Well, that's not, that's not negotiating.
		That's not bringing peace.
		That's just paying Putin off with land in Ukraine.
		And I'm saying we need to compare this to a personal experience.
		If someone, say you're sitting in your home, suddenly Putin crashes into your home, tortures you, rapes your wife, kidnaps your kids, and then trashes your home.
		Oh, no, no.
		Wait, he'll take everything out of it of value, then he'll trash your home and then throw a firebomb in your house on the way back out.
		And then you're supposed to, with the authorities, negotiate with him that he can have some of your property, maybe part of a few ruins in your house.
		I mean, how would we feel if someone did that to us?
		And there's just, I just find it astounding that Trump thinks people are that stupid.
		Ukraine is being forced into something totally, I will say, illegal and unfair.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Diane in Michigan.
		John is in Connecticut, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jane Wall John.
unidentified		My top story is the peace treaty that President Trump made with Azerbaijan in Armenia yesterday.
		I mean, that's fantastic.
		He's done many more since he's been in office.
		And it was historic yesterday because both presidents were very happy and pleased that a sitting president did this after many years of prior administrations weren't able to do this.
		So I think the people should be proud.
		And I think President Trump is doing a good job.
		We're only eight months into his presidency.
		Let's give the man a chance.
		That's what I have to say today.
		Thank you, C-SPAN.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was John in Connecticut.
		Cheryl in Alexandria, Virginia, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Cheryl.
unidentified		Good morning, and I thank you for allowing me to speak.
		My issue with the president and this administration is the fact that why aren't we dealing with domestic issues?
		I am so sick of talking about foreign issues in this country.
		We need to clean our own kitchen before we go out and try to address the rest of the world's issues.
		And also, as an African-American woman, I am sick and tired of people not paying attention to our needs.
		I'm hearing anti-sematic, I'm hearing immigration issues, but right now, the African-American community who has been in this country for 500 years and never have had reparation for the ills that have done to us.
		So, why don't we switch the subjects to domestic issues, worry about the poor people of this country, worry about the senior citizens of this country, worried about the children of this country.
		So, I'm totally disgusted with this administration.
		And we need to become more educated.
		I know you have folks online that are from all over the country, but by God, what is going on with people not having common sense and not getting the history of this country?
		And I love America.
		That's why I'm calling.
		But we must deal with the ills that are going on in this country.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Cheryl, what's your biggest domestic issue you'd like to see the Trump administration focus on?
unidentified		Would I like the Trump administration to stop focus on these Nazi situations, these Nazi tactics that we've been dealing with since I guess the 1930s,
		when the Nazis came to power here in actually in America, they do have a Nazi power that has been in America since, I think, the 1920s, maybe before then.
		But folks, please read.
		Reading is fundamental.
		Learn and educate yourself.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Cheryl in Virginia.
		Tony is in Kansas City, Missouri, on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Tony.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for giving me time.
		You see, I'm just so worried about President Trump believing that he can get peace in Ukraine by capitulation.
		How can you get a peace without the principal party participating in peace talk?
		Nobody gave him the authority to negotiate for Ukraine.
		Ukraine is a sovereign nation.
		Zelensky is supposed to be there sitting with Putin face to face.
		Okay?
		What I'm saying is this.
		All he's doing is trying to give away the rest of Ukraine to Russia.
		He knows what Russia is planning.
		Everybody knows the Mr. Putin, what he wants to do.
		Okay?
		Another thing I'm talking about is domestic problems.
		There are so much problem domestically.
		The price of groceries are way, way up.
		A bag of tips calls deducts.
		Okay?
		When Mr. Biden was in power, everybody said that with Trump coming, that things would go down.
		Things are not going down.
		Things are getting tougher for poor people than any time.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Tony in Missouri.
		Let's hear from John in Concord, California, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, America.
		Good morning, C-SPAN.
		I'd say my top story is the Ukraine crisis, or war, really, with Russia, or vice versa.
		I think that the peace talks coming up in Alaska as a first step.
		This is a very complicated war, and I'm glad that this is taking place.
		At least it's a step forward.
		So that's my biggest story for this week.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was John in California.
		Randy is in Columbus, Ohio, and Independent.
		Good morning, Randy.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My biggest complaint or gripe or anything about the whole United States, the United States being the police of the world is, is we keep forgetting that when our people came here, the Europeans, et cetera,
		all they did was steal, push, rape, kill, murder children, and the whole nine yards of taking this country is to want to cry out against other people doing what they're doing when everybody needs to start taking care of themselves.
		The United States did not give the opportunity to the native peoples of this land to advance.
		They pushed them on the reservations, and they still have not helped them.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Randy in Ohio.
		Another story from this week is, this is the headline from the Washington Post.
		Texas Attorney General sues to remove 13 absent Democrats from office.
		The article says that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state's high court Friday to expel 13 Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas this week in an effort to prevent the GOP-controlled legislature from redrawing congressional district maps to create five new safe seats for Republicans.
		It says Paxton's office said in a news release that he was focusing on 13 of the more than 50 Democrats who left the state because they had made, quote, indiscriminating, I'm sorry, incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return to the Texas Capitol.
		Democrats called the lawsuits baseless, saying Republicans are trying to undermine the will of the voters by removing them from office.
		It was earlier this week that members of the Texas, those House Democrats from Texas, spoke at a news conference in Sacramento.
		This was yesterday, about Governor Abbott's threats to remove them from office.
		Here's a clip from that event.
unidentified		I mean, it just follows the long line of threats, right?
		I mean, we can tell they're desperate.
		I mean, they are throwing everything at us that they can.
		The loss of leadership, the financial ruin, the threats that they are putting out into their group.
		And then, of course, my colleague here, they have filed litigation to try to vacate seats.
		They are trying to overturn the will of the electorate before a time as said, because they are afraid of the voters.
ann johnson ▲ ● ▼		Not only do they want to take out five congressional seats and steal them, they now want to take out the representatives that are actually standing up against them attempting to rig the next election cycle.
ann johnson ▲ ● ▼		Duly elected representatives out of Texas that have elected us to be here today to break quorum per our Constitution because we know that the majority has gone off the rails.
unidentified		I'm State Representative Gina Enochus and I'm one of the legislators in Texas who is facing a threat by our Attorney General to be removed.
		You should know just two days ago I checked in with my office.
		We had had 700 calls on this bill proposing a new map that hadn't even, it hasn't even been out a week for the public to see.
		Four were opposed.
		The rest were all in support of my breaking quorum.
		I'm doing exactly what my constituents want, and it is shameful for any, for our governor or for our attorney general to try to remove a duly elected representative of the people from office, but it is in keeping with what is happening in this grander scheme of this of these Trump maps to try to rig the 2026 midterms.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Your top news story of the week is our topic for the first hour of today's program.
		If you'd like to weigh in on and let us know your top story, you can do so.
		The lines, Republicans 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		Thomas is in Long Island, New York, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Thomas.
unidentified		Oh, good morning.
		See, I'm a man of prayer and a heel.
		I have special gifts.
		I pray for the United States and that we stay together as one nation and we try to pass things in a nonpartisan method.
		And we shouldn't have any red tape.
		That's from every avenue in the United States, Dan.
		And that the people stay together and love each other.
		Thank you very much, man.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Thomas in New York.
		Kathleen is in Chicago, Illinois, on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Kathleen.
unidentified		Okay, I got two topsters real quick.
		Is it hypocritical for the Republicans, especially in Texas, to be worried about the Democrats fleeing Texas because they don't want to stay there and give them the votes to get rid of their seats?
		So why isn't the Republicans?
		Why aren't the governors of all of the states sending out the FBI because didn't the Congress that's supposed to be guarding 50 states, didn't they leave on a recess a week or two ahead of time because they didn't want to do the Epstein file?
		Now that's more important because they haven't even done the work that they're getting paid for.
		They left a week or two ahead of time before their August break.
		You can pull that up on your machine.
		So Republicans, I think they do stuff in your face and think people are stupid.
		You know, and the other topic is: how is it that it's okay for this president to almost let a pedicide go?
		I thought he was a president of law and order.
		Here they are.
		This woman and this man is dead, but she misused children, and he's going to give her a pride because she made a deal that she wouldn't implicate him.
		I mean, what kind of mess is going on?
		Nothing else pertaining to the American people to help this country.
		It's all about him, just like it was in his first term.
		But I can't get any Republicans talking about sitting the FBI after the Democrats because they left Texas.
		But nothing about leaving 50 states because they didn't want to deal with Epstein.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Kathleen in Illinois.
		Michael is calling from Massachusetts on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Michael.
unidentified		How are you doing?
		Yes, I'm a Republican, and I don't understand what is going on.
		I voted for Trump three times.
		I don't say what is going on with my party.
		All right.
		The stuff that he's doing is going to hurt everybody.
		It's going to hurt the people.
		I got family in the South.
		He's cutting Medicaid.
		He's putting tariffs on.
		What is wrong with these people?
		I don't understand it.
		Are they drinking the Kool-Aid?
		Mid times, I want the Democrats to win.
		And I don't like all apology the Democrats support, but they could put a stop to what he's doing.
		What he's doing, he's destroying America.
		And these people are still sitting up there saying, I root for this.
		I root for Terror, everything to go up.
		I root for my Medicaid to get taken away from me.
		I root for snack benefits.
		And we know in the South, a lot of those people that voted for him get that type of programs.
		And they're out there rooting for this.
		So can you just tell me what is wrong with these people?
		I mean, I never see nothing like it.
		I mean, he told us he wasn't going to touch these benefits.
		He said he wasn't going to touch Medicaid.
		And he's sitting up there bragging about this big, beautiful bill.
		And he knows he's holding his own supporters.
		So can you just tell me what is wrong with these people?
		Are they drinking a Kool-Aid?
		Are they mentally ill?
		Because you don't root for somebody that's going to hurt you.
		Okay.
		You don't root for somebody.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		My name is Michael in Massachusetts.
		Miriam is calling from Texas on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Miriam.
unidentified		Yes, I'm worried about several things, mostly our democracy.
		I live in south of Texas on the Rio Grande Valley, and our congressperson, I'm worried that he's going to be taken away.
		And I mean, I'm really, really worried.
		Like, where is our representation?
		Who's going to represent us?
		We don't want a Republican representing us.
		They're taking everything away from us.
		The Democrats are the ones that are fighting for education, for health care.
		I mean, where are we going?
		And then I'm worried about our prices.
		Everything is so expensive.
		I am kind of like a middle-class person.
		I'm rich.
		I earn like $80,000.
		But I mean, and I only have one person to take care of, and I'm feeling it already.
		Imagine for a family here down in Texas that is living on a minimum wage and they're having to buy all these groceries.
		I mean, it's getting really, really expensive.
		The property taxes, everything is getting so high.
		And then the third thing that I'm worried about is our democracy because I'm hearing that Trump wants to occupy Washington, D.C. He's already sending in the troops.
		I mean, I'm worried about, in general, I'm just worried about our nation and our democracy.
		Please, people, right?
		Please, please start waking up.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Miriam in Texas.
		Matt is calling from Florida on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Matt.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you.
		You hear a lot of talk about why Ukraine's not at the table for the negotiations.
		And I guess it all kind of comes down to the fact that seemingly they aren't supplying enough of the military force to be able to have a seat at the table.
		I see that as a problem.
		And, you know, there's been a big push for Europe to put more money into NATO and expand their armies.
		And then you compile all this stuff with tariffs and sanctions that the U.S. does.
		And this is kind of an example of how we're really stressing our reserve currency.
		And it's a topic which you hear every once in a while come up.
		But we're using up all of our cards and resources, it seems like, as this world power to be able to, you know, push our influence.
		And the other side of it, you hear a lot about what about is you know, we always refer back to prior wars or prior countries creating all how that justifies the atrocities that are taking place inside of Ukraine.
		It's an odd situation that it's almost too much to keep up in the news right now.
		And this is, for better or for worse, if you voted for Trump or if you didn't vote for Trump, like you had to have known him coming in here, the entire Constitution was going to get stressed.
		And that's exactly what we're seeing.
		It's a scary moment.
		I don't feel like we should be poking corners at every single status, kind of quo way of doing things and trying to break it.
		Conservatism gets a bad name, but there is nothing conservative about what this president is doing or what we've seen over the past 16 years.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Matt in Florida.
		James is in Hickory Flat, Mississippi, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you doing today?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Doing well, James.
jimmy in texas ▲ ● ▼		We have a president that is doing everything in his power to get things done.
unidentified		And he has all these people following him around that ain't wanting to get nothing done.
		The whole Democratic Party, the Communist Party, is at hand.
		All we have to do is reach out there and talk to them.
		They are in Washington, D.C. like picks on a dog.
		We need to get rid of a bunch of the communists that are in there.
jimmy in texas ▲ ● ▼		And our new prison that we got down in Florida is the greatest thing that we could have done.
unidentified		They don't want us to put people back in the country where they belong.
jimmy in texas ▲ ● ▼		They would rather put them in their kitchen and set them at their table and let them eat their food.
unidentified		We don't need any help from anybody else.
unidentified		We got plenty of communists right here.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was James in Mississippi.
		Joyce is calling from Pennsylvania on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Joyce.
unidentified		Morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Joyce.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		I just have a comment to make.
		I want to know what is wrong with the people of the United States.
		Has everyone lost their mind?
		They can't see through this man.
		They think he's doing everything for them.
		He's not doing a thing for them.
		He doesn't care about them.
		It's all about him.
		I say when he shows his taxes, then we can talk.
		But other than that, we need to get rid of him, impeach him.
		He's tearing our country apart.
		And I don't understand the people of this country.
		Why are they letting this happen?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Joyce in Pennsylvania.
		And just a reminder for our callers: if you're on the line or plan on calling in, make sure that your television is down in the background.
		It can impact what you're hearing.
		There's a little bit of a delay.
		A story from just yesterday, this is the headline in the Associated Press website, suspected gunman and police officer dead in shooting near the CDC in Emory University, police say,
		says that a man opened fire outside the headquarters of the U.S. Center for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday, leaving bullet marks in windows across the sprawling campus and killing a police officer before he was found dead in a nearby building.
		Authorities said, says the attack, which unfolded near neighboring Emory University, prompted a massive law enforcement response to one of the nation's most prominent public health institutions, but no one else was reported to be injured.
		Goes on to say at least four CDC buildings were hit.
		Director Susan Monarez said in a post on X: Images shared by employees showed multiple agency buildings with bullet-pocked windows underscoring the breadth of the damage to a site where thousands of scientists and staff work on critical disease.
		Research says the gunman was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the CDC campus and died at the scene.
		Atlanta Police Chief Darren Scheierbaum said.
		He added that we do not know at this time whether that was from an officer or self-inflicted.
		Susan Monera is the director of the CDC, issuing a statement after yesterday's event.
		It says, We at the CDC are heartbroken by today's attack on our Rorbel campus, which remains on lockdown as authorities investigate the shooting.
		A courageous local law enforcement officer gave their life, and another was injured after a gunman opened fire on at least four CDC buildings.
		DeKalb County Police, CDC Security, and Emory University responded immediately and decisively, helping to prevent further harm to our staff and community.
		Our top priority is the safety and well-being of everyone at the CDC.
		We are actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to fully investigate the shooter and this tragic crime.
		We are deeply grateful to Governor Kemp, Georgia residents, and the American people for standing with us during this difficult time.
		Just about 30 minutes left in this first hour asking your top news story of the week.
		Let's hear from Patrick in Florida on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Patrick.
unidentified		Yeah, my top news story is our relationship with Israel.
		One C-SPAN includes never talked much about Huckabee's ties to the Israeli toll takers, you know, the illegal settlers that burn out Palestinians.
		My Speaker of the House, Johnson, went over to Israel to an illegal settlement, all smiles on his face.
		My knowledge, the IDF didn't put one troop for the USA in Iran or Afghanistan or Iraq.
		We lost 300 Marines for Israel and Beirut.
		And guess what, taxpayers?
		You're going to rebuild Gaza.
		Don't depend on the Israeli taxpayers to do that.
		And one last thing: I noticed you didn't mention that Huzog, the Defense Department guy, was reposting these sermons or whatever from this pastor he knows saying American women should be denied the right to vote.
		Well, he certainly got what you voted for.
		Thanks for taking my call.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Patrick in Florida.
		Randy is in Hager City, Wisconsin, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Randy.
unidentified		And a little bit morning, C-SPAN.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		A couple things.
		Number one, I'm a 76-year-old colored guy.
		And Medicare.
		If you are a United States citizen, you will not lose your Medicare.
		The people that are losing their Medicare are the illegals in here that have signed up for it.
		That's the only ones that are losing their Medicare.
		So if you're a United States citizen, you all know that I am.
		I'm not losing mine.
		They have nothing worse has ever been said about it.
		Now, I'd like to speak a little bit about Israel and Palestine.
		As soon as Hamas is gone and the Palestinian people will be free, they took the Hamas in to run their country.
		And look what happened.
		They had nothing but attacked Israel.
		So I hope they get them out of there.
		Palestinian people will be rebuilt.
		They will have food.
		They'll rebuild that whole country and hopefully maybe even put them in the United Nations because the Palestinian people have suffered, suffered, suffered.
		And simply because of the bad choices they make to run their country.
		Israel is not an enemy of Israel or Palestine.
		They got to live together over there.
		Israel gave them that land many years ago to live there to have peace.
		And look what happened.
		They got Iran come in there and set up their own government, and it was just nothing more than to take out Israel.
		So.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Randy in Wisconsin.
		Tad is calling from Harrisville, Rhode Island, on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Tad.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		The top story for me this week was where the Democratic legislators fled Texas to go to other parts because of what's happening down there with the legislature and their gerrymandering and all this.
		It should be abundantly clear to everyone in this country that we have two separate nations that have nothing in common.
		The fellow from James, from Mississippi, calling us Democrats communists.
		I had a friend back in 2016 from Texas that told me and said, if Hillary gets elected, there's going to be a civil war.
		Well, I believe we have two separate nations that should go their own way.
		Okay?
		This is not going to work.
		Right now, the Democrats are going to be doing the same gerrymandering as the Republicans.
		We have lost the rule of law.
		We have lost the respect for the Constitution.
		And I got a call this week from the Democratic Senate campaign committee, and obviously they want money.
		And I told them: unless you are talking about secession, please don't call me anymore.
		It's time that we separate these two countries that have absolutely nothing in common and go our separate ways.
		And I want to thank you for your time.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Tad in Rhode Island.
		Tad talking about the Texas redistricting efforts.
		This is another headline from this past week from Politico.
		Trump says he's ordering a new census.
		It says President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was ordering a quote new and highly accurate census, saying it would be based on the information gained from the presidential election of 2024.
		It says, quote, people who are in our country illegally will not be counted in the census.
		He wrote in the True Social Post announcing the move.
		It says the census is a constitutionally mandated count of every person in the United States every 10 years, which was last conducted in 2020.
		A full census has never been conducted mid-decade in this manner, nor has one ever excluded non-citizens from the count.
		It goes on to say census are immensely important to American governance.
		Each count determines how many House seats in every state gets through a process called apportionment, and the results of the census help direct billions of dollars in federal, state, and local funding.
		Trump says Trump has been trying to include a citizenship question on the census since his first term, though the Supreme Court struck the effort down on procedural grounds in 2019.
		Apportionment numbers have also historically included people residing in the United States regardless of their immigration status.
		Back to your calls, asking for your top news story of the week.
		Jason is in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, line for independence.
		Good morning, Jason.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you so much for taking my call.
		The biggest issue of the week, I think, is education because we're coming up on back to school season.
		And I'm a teacher, middle school teacher, and I just wanted to say I'm so thankful for C-SPAN and the C-SPAN classroom resources.
		I use them all the time, and I'm looking forward to using them in the upcoming year with my students.
		I also wanted to say I'm excited for the ceasefire program that you're going to have in the fall.
		I'm sure I'll be able to use that in my classroom as well.
		And if you ever need, if the host ever needs a break, I would be happy to step in because who's more qualified than a middle school teacher to deal with conflict?
		So I would just like to say thanks for all the resources and have a great day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jason, what do you teach?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		What's the subject?
unidentified		I teach eighth-grade social studies, which is American history and civics.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		How long have you been a teacher?
unidentified		Oh, 25 years.
		So it's been a while, and C-SPAN's been there for a long time with me.
		So I really appreciate it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Now, this Jason in Pennsylvania.
		Cindy is in Norwalk, Connecticut, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Cindy.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		My top story of the week is the peace agreement between that we helped broker between Armenia and as I can't say it, as Erbitan.
		They've been fighting for 30 years, and it was a brutal conflict.
		And also, you know, I feel like the foreign policy is going well.
		There was a peace agreement between the Congo and Rwanda, but, you know, just crickets on all that because we don't want to give our president any credit for anything.
		But that's my top story.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Cindy, what do you think about President Trump getting ready to meet with President Putin this week?
unidentified		Hopeful, but guarded, guardedly hopeful.
		You know, it's a breakthrough, and I hope for success because the war needs to end.
		Ukraine is devastated, and so many, they've lost so many people.
		And I just hope that there can be a resolution.
		So we all should be hopeful for that.
		Despite your political leanings, you know, we should be for each other.
		And I know our country is very divided, but there are some good things happening.
		So take heart.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Cindy in Connecticut.
		Sharon is in Dade City, Florida.
		Line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Sharon.
unidentified		My concern this week, I've got many concerns, but I'll stick to a couple, is Trump going after his opponents, anyone who challenges him either politically or legally.
		In particular, Letitia James and Adam Schiff.
		He's going to start investigating them.
		But he committed crimes.
		He was charged and found guilty.
		And he's duped his followers into believing that because he's kind of risen from the ashes and got elected again, that he's something special.
		But in actuality, it all boils down to we have two-tiered justice system in this country, one for the rich and powerful, and then one for everybody else.
		And that's where the problem is.
		You know, we've seen it time and time again with people like O.J. Simpson and people getting away with pretty heinous crimes.
		But anyway, That's one thing.
		So, you know, anyone that challenges him, he's going after, and that's very scary, an authoritarian move to get rid of any kind of press.
		We've seen that.
		Anybody legally that's going after him, anybody in our judicial system that goes after him, judges, attorneys, anybody like that.
		So anyway, this is not what a lawful country looks like.
		It's more like a banana republic.
		And then my other thing is more of a comment.
		I would like to hear reporters when they speak to these lawmakers, especially Republicans who voted on this in the positive, why they believe that billionaires need a huge tax break at the expense of the working class, because it's going to add to our deficit.
		So those are my two concerns that I really wanted to address.
		But thank you and have a good day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Sharon in Florida a couple callers earlier talking about Gaza and the latest with Israel.
		This is a headline from earlier this morning on the Hills website.
		Trump gives Israel tactic green light on Gaza takeover.
		It says that President Trump is giving a tactic green light for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take over the Gaza Strip, framing the move as an Israeli-owned decision amid a global outcry and a growing call in the U.S. to rein in Netanyahu.
		It says Trump has committed to taking the lead on humanitarian aid distribution in the Strip amid famine-like conditions for a population enduring a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
		It says, but he refrained from criticizing Israel's plan to escalate the war by expanding its military control of the Gaza Strip, even as international allies speak out against the operation.
		Quote, I know that we are now trying to get people fed as far as the rest of it.
		I can't really say.
		That's going to be pretty much up to Israel, Trump said earlier this week when asked about Netanyahu's plan.
		Netanyahu's decision, approved in a security cabinet vote overnight between Thursday and Friday, is worsening, deep divisions in Israeli society, pitting the military against the government, and isolating Israel from European and Arab Gulf partners.
		Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Fox News on Thursday ahead of that cabinet meeting.
		Vote, here is a clip from that interview.
bill hemmer ▲ ● ▼		Will Israel take control of all of Gaza?
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		We intend to in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance.
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		That is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.
bill hemmer ▲ ● ▼		That's what we want to do.
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas.
bill hemmer ▲ ● ▼		And you were in the Gaza Strip today.
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		You met Palestinians who are fighting Hamas because finally they see that they have a future.
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		They can rid themselves of this awful tyranny that not only holds our hostages, but holds 2 million Palestinians in Gaza hostage.
unidentified		That's got to end.
bill hemmer ▲ ● ▼		Are you saying today that you will take control of the entire 26-mile Gaza Strip as it was 20 years ago to this month in 2005?
bill hemmer ▲ ● ▼		Well, we don't want to keep it.
unidentified		We want to have a security perimeter.
		We don't want to govern it.
		We don't want to be there as a governing body.
benjamin netanyahu ▲ ● ▼		We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		About 15 minutes left in the first hour of today's Washington Journal asking what's your top news story of the week.
		Let's hear from Jim, who's calling from Texas on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Jim.
		Jim, are you there?
unidentified		Yes.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jim.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yes, I'm here.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jim, you're on the air.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		My comment is that as a longtime voter, I've been a Republican and I've been a Democrat, and now I'm an Independent.
		I see the current administration taking advantage of the situation with false news and false programs.
		Basically, I learned a long time ago that liars figured figures lie at times.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Jim in Texas.
		Steve is in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Steve.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I just think that Trump is doing a great job.
		I think the Democrats are just a bunch of whiners because they're throwing a little tantrum because they don't get their way.
		And I guess the number one thing is Hillary Clinton, he will never be president.
		Thank God.
		That's all I got.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jim, what's your top news story this week?
unidentified		Top news story?
		It's probably Israel.
		That's the only thing that's doing anything.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Steve in Indiana.
		Eva is in Mississippi on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Eva.
unidentified		You know, Warny.
		I was speaking.
		I wanted to tell you that he's my top thing this week is President Trump.
		He's broken the federal system.
		He's taken all the VA hospitals.
		He stripped them of their union.
		There's no more union.
		There's job insecurity.
		He's also taken money from the VA hospital.
		The soldiers are not going to the hospital.
		The veterans are not going.
		My husband hadn't been with two times this year.
		And they canceled his appointment.
		He took the vans from the people that had transportation going to the hospital.
		He took their funds.
		He took the funds from the VA hospital that he gave.
		They have transportation.
		He took that and left them stranded at work.
		So what we have here to fight this big lie to send people down, and people are happy that people are living in the situation that they are.
		And one thing I have to say: people know that everyone don't get Medicare.
		If you come in this country, they've been here long enough.
		They know they don't get welfare.
		This lies has to stop.
		It has to stop.
		He had broken the federal system all the way down.
		People are scared on their job.
		They can't even speak to each other on these federal jobs.
		So somebody needs to do something.
		My granddaughter called me.
		She works for them.
		They can't even talk to each other.
		They are being listened to on these jobs.
		We are in Russia.
		I don't know who don't know it.
		But the president has the keys to everything.
		And they're turning over to him and they're laughing.
		But these are human.
		You know what?
		I'm going to say one thing.
		They know how to do it because they did it to the blacks.
		So they got a book, how to do it.
		They sold us, they moved us all up and down the coast, and they sent us away here that they didn't want.
		They bought us here and then they sent us.
		So they got a book, how to do it.
		So everybody's happy that these people are living in Florida in these camps and don't know where your people are at.
		That is us.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Eva in Mississippi.
		Karma is in Florida on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Karma.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have sort of a little parable I'd like to put out there for people.
		I have Republican friends, Independent friends, and we all talk about things like normal people without calling each other names.
		And we all basically want the same things.
		Now, you take red ants and black ants and you put them in a jar.
		And at first, they're kind of scared of each other.
		But then they start getting along and they start working and building their little communities and start living happy together.
		But then along comes their leader, somebody that controls the jar.
		And they pick it up and they shake it real hard and they put it back down.
		And then all the ants inside, the reds and the blacks, now they're angry and upset and they start killing each other and attacking.
		And they don't know why.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Carmel, let me ask you this.
		Our topic right now is your top news story of the week.
		What's caught your eye?
unidentified		Well, you take Alligator Alcatraz, for example.
		So far, it's cost to Florida taxpayers like $500 million.
		They say it's going to cost that much every year to run.
		And honest to God, they're not putting anybody in there.
		8% so far has been confirmed as criminals.
		All the rest have been farm workers, motel workers, you know, regular working people.
		And they pulled over a young man the other day and had it on the news.
		He was telling them he was an American citizen.
		He had his driver's license.
		He was born here.
		He was Mexican-American.
		And the cops kept telling him, no, no, you're an amigo.
		You're going down.
		They shocked him, threw him on the ground, handcuffed him, arrested him, took him away.
		Didn't release him until the next day.
		And those same cops were caught on the scene saying to one another, I think we ought to just start shooting some people.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Carmen.
		Let's go to Joe in Tampa, Florida, on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Joe.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		How are you?
		So good show.
		My top news story for the week is the 401k restructuring.
		There's an executive order that was put out that said you can now invest on non-traditional assets, for example, real estate, possibly taking advantage of the AI boom that's happening right now.
		But that's not just that.
		The passage of the Genius Act is obviously going to disrupt the financial community.
		If you remember in the 1930s, during or after the Great Depression is where all these Security Exchange Commission laws were passed, but now it appears that 100 years later, we're almost at the same juncture.
		So with the Juniors Act, the AI executive order, and the executive order to change the investment purposes for your 401k is sure to change the financial status of a lot of people.
		So I want folks to be educated on some of these changes.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Joe in Florida.
		Linda is in Maryland, online for Democrats.
		Good morning, Linda.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My story is almost every story where the president addresses the press.
		He has become so vulgar and disrespectful, it's hard to treat him or think of him like a president.
		And he's, I think, the main reason for all of the hatred is separation in America today.
		Everybody has a right to want what they want, and everybody has a right to vote for and work for what they want.
		But no one has a right to disrespect each other and create hate.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Linda in Maryland.
		Another story from this week.
		Trump's new tariffs go into effect as U.S. economy shows sign of strain.
		That's the headline from the Associated Press.
		The article says, President Donald Trump began imposing higher import taxes on dozens of countries.
		Thursday, just as the economic fallout of his months-long tariff threats has begun to cause visible damage to the U.S. economy.
		It says, just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10% or higher.
		Products from the EU, Japan, and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam, and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%.
		Trump also expects the EU, Japan, and South Korea to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into the United States.
		The article goes on to say that despite the uncertainty, the White House is confident that the onset of its tariffs will provide clarity about the paths for the world's largest economy.
		Now that companies understand the direction of the U.S. is heading, the Republican administration believes it can ramp up new investments and jumpstart hiring in ways that can rebalance America as a manufacturing power.
		Just about just a few minutes left in this first hour, hearing your top news story of the week.
		Michael is in Delray Beach, Florida, line for Democrats.
		Hi, Michael.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'm just, I got to talk about these hate crimes that are going on.
		They're really bothering me.
		You know, I'm so disgusted within my party right now.
		Ever since I, you know, just listening to the fake, I have to call it fake news myself because every time I put it on, all I hear is Epstein, Empstein.
		Trump did this, Trump did that.
		They don't talk about anything.
		It's like they have nothing to say.
		It's like they have to find themselves.
		I don't understand what's going on with them.
		I just tell all my fellow Democrats, just watch Newsmax or Fox for one day.
		And believe me, you will never ever watch these fake news stations again.
		All they do is spill lies.
		They spill hatred.
		And this world's going downhill.
		There's 80-year-old men getting kicked in the face for crying out loud.
		Think about it.
		It's really getting bad.
		We need people that are in there that are going to start telling the truth.
		And that's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Michael in Florida.
		Rob is in New York.
		He's on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Rob.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'd like to introduce a little bit of levity here, if I might, because I think the top news story of the week was really funny.
		And it was watching the President of the United States walking around on the roof of the White House.
		I don't know why.
		I don't know what the point was.
		I don't think it was fake.
		I don't think it was rigged.
		And perhaps, just perhaps he had seen the new edition of Superman.
		Thank you for taking my call.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Rob in New York.
		And our last call in this first hour is Stan, who's calling from Tennessee on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Stan.
unidentified		Good morning, Tammy.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		My biggest news story this week is not a story that many people are aware of, but let me preface my comment by saying I remember back in the day when I was in school, I had more than one teacher or professor or instructor tell me, we're going to tell you what to think, but hopefully we're going to teach you how to think.
		Let's fast forward to Linda McMahon, Department of Secretary, Secretary of Education, formerly in charge or helped run the WWE organization.
		I was Googling Linda McMahon, and apparently there's a lawsuit filed in October 24 accusing Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon of knowingly allowing a WWE employee to sexually exploit ringboys, teenagers who helped set up WW rings.
		Now, between Epstein and Linda McMahon and WWE, I'm disgusted.
		Where is the morality of this country?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Stan in Tennessee.
		Our last call for this first hour.
		Later this morning on Washington Journal, National Park Conservation Association, Government Affairs Deputy Vice President Emily Douse will join us to discuss the impact of the Great American Outdoors Act in the future of national parks.
		But next, after the break, we'll talk with Center for the National Interest President Paul Saunders about President Trump's deadline for Russia and Ukraine to reach a ceasefire agreement and related news.
		We'll be right back.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I see you interviewed the other night.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I watched it about two o'clock in the morning.
unidentified		There was a little thing called C-SPAN, which I don't know how many people were watching.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Don't worry, you were in prime time too, but they happened to have a little rera.
patty murray ▲ ● ▼		Do you really think that we don't remember what just happened last week?
patty murray ▲ ● ▼		Thank goodness for C-SPAN, and we all should review the tape.
unidentified		Everyone wonders when they're watching C-SPAN what the conversations are on the floor.
al green ▲ ● ▼		I'm about to read to you something that was published by C-SPAN.
sean duffy ▲ ● ▼		There's a lot of things that Congress fights about that they disagree on.
unidentified		We can all watch that on C-SPAN.
		Millions of people across the country tuned into C-SPAN.
		That was a make-the-C-SPAN moment.
		If you watch on C-SPAN, you're going to see me physically across the aisle every day, just trying to build relationships and try to understand their perspective and find common ground.
		And welcome for to everybody watching at home.
		We know C-SPAN covers this a lot as well.
		We appreciate that.
		And one can only hope that he's able to watch C-SPAN on a black and white television set in his prison cell.
		This is being carried live by C-SPAN.
		It's being watched not only in this country, it's being watched around the world right now.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Mike said before, I happened to listen to him, he was on C-SPAN 1.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		That's a big upgrade, right?
unidentified		America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment.
		From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America.
		Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can.
		America 250.
		Over a year of historic moments.
		Only on the C-SPAN networks.
al green ▲ ● ▼		And past President Donald.
peter doocy ▲ ● ▼		Why are you doing this?
peter doocy ▲ ● ▼		This is outrageous.
unidentified		This is a kangaroo farm.
		This fall, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity.
		Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins.
		Join Political Playbook Chief Correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns as host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue to find common ground.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		ceasefire this fall on the network that doesn't take sides only on c-span washington journal continues Joining us now to discuss President Trump's push for Russia and Ukraine to reach a ceasefire agreement and his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is Paul Saunders.
		He's the president of the Center for the National Interest.
		Paul, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Why don't you start by telling our audience about your organization, the mission, who you work with, how you're funded?
unidentified		Sure, you bet.
		So the Center for the National Interest is 31 years old.
		We were founded in 1994 by former President Richard Nixon, as a matter of fact.
		And the mission of the center is to promote realistic or realism in American foreign policy by which we mean kind of a pragmatic, strategic, result-oriented approach to American foreign policy.
		And, you know, founded by Nixon, but certainly nonpartisan as an organization as we pursue that mission.
		We also publish a really terrific website, The National Interest, which I would encourage everyone to read.
		Lots of good analysis there.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And you have a background in foreign policy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Talk a little bit about that.
unidentified		You bet.
		So I have worked for more than 30 years at this point on the Soviet Union and then on Russia, and also do a lot of work on energy of really all kinds, climate, and certainly broader international security, geopolitical technology questions.
		So many changes happening in the world now.
		Try to stay on top of as much of it as I can.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Wanted to ask you about this headline in Axios.
		Trump says he'll meet with Putin in Alaska next Friday.
		Your reaction and your expectations for the meeting.
unidentified		Well, my expectations are limited.
		The issue of the war in Ukraine is a very complicated one.
		And, you know, obviously the president of Ukraine won't be there.
		European leaders won't be there.
		And they have an important role both in supporting Ukraine financially and militarily, but also their sanctions on Russia.
		They're holding a lot of the seized Russian assets.
		So not everyone is there, which I think imposes certain constraints.
		Secondly, it's a very complicated conflict, and it's not apparent yet that the two parties, I mean, Russia and Ukraine, are really ready for a peace.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		The headline in the Wall Street Journal we showed earlier in the program is Putin will halt war if he gets eastern Ukraine.
		He tells U.S., is that a possible concession that could be approved?
		What is the U.S. looking for when it comes to a ceasefire agreement?
unidentified		Well, the Ukrainian president, President Zelensky, has already rejected this idea publicly.
		Doesn't mean that Ukraine might not ultimately do something like that in the end, but certainly at this point, Ukraine has rejected that.
		And it's pretty tough, I think, for a Ukrainian.
		One wouldn't expect any Ukrainian government to agree to something like that in advance.
		I guess that's perhaps the most important thing.
		But even at the end of the process, it would be challenging for the Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian people, I'm sure, to swallow.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our topic for the next 40 minutes or so is the Russia-Ukraine war ceasefire efforts.
		Our guest is Paul Saunders.
		He's president of the Center for the National Interest.
		If you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now the lines.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And Independents, 2027-8002.
		Paul, another piece of news coming out of the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire efforts was yesterday was a deadline that President Trump had imposed for Russia to come to an agreement or face economic sanctions.
		The U.S. has already imposed extensive sanctions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
		What have they looked like?
		How could other sanctions be different?
unidentified		Well, the sanctions so far are really wide-ranging.
		Some of them are on individuals and companies and just ban those individuals from travel to the U.S. or from having assets here.
		Others affect their ability to use the U.S. banking system or to have access to technology from the United States.
		And in their totality, they're certainly very tough for Russia, especially because we've done them together with the Europeans.
		And before Russia invaded Ukraine, European trade with Russia was actually 10 times greater than American trade with Russia.
		So the European sanctions initially were most consequential.
		what President Trump has talked about and actually has done is to increase U.S. tariffs on India in order to try to persuade India to buy less Russian oil because Russia derives a lot of its tax revenue from oil sales and that brings in cash for Russia to fund the war.
		I'm a little uncertain that that's going to make a big difference for Putin if you think through the chain of logic, kind of asking Americans to pay more for things that they buy from India so that they buy less from India so that India feels pressure to buy less Russian oil so that Russia maybe has a little bit less money from India until Russia finds someone else to buy the oil.
		I'm not sure.
		I'm not sure.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		India is the second largest purchaser of oil from Russia.
		Only China buys more from them.
		Why hasn't the U.S. taken the same approach and added those kinds of secondary tariffs to China?
unidentified		Well, I think we're already engaged in a pretty complicated trade war with China in which China has restricted critical mineral exports to the United States that the United States really wants and needs for defense industry, energy industry, auto industry, all kinds of other parts of our economy, anything involving a lot of electronics.
unidentified		The administration, I think, is really trying to work out that trade conflict already and I think correctly, you know, not adding another difficult element to that.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We have callers waiting to talk with you.
		We'll start with Scott, who's calling from Sherwood, Arkansas, Line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Scott.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		Mr. Saunders, I'm wondering if you were able to explain to the audience the five or six peace initiatives President Trump has already had.
		Well, sure.
		I mean, I think President Trump certainly considers himself to be someone who is working really hard for peace around the world.
		And I think in fairness, he's tried to push for that in a number of cases.
		He just had the presidents of, or I should say the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House actually quite recently after helping to broker an agreement there.
		Of course, rather more controversial, I think, for many, you know, the role in the Israel-Gaza discussions.
		But certainly the President has been trying to push for peace there.
		And he also has tried to play this brokering role in a number of other cases, you know, sometimes to greater effect, sometimes lesser.
		But it's clearly something that the President, I think, feels strongly about and is eager to try to do around the world.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Edward in Keyport, New Jersey, line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Edward.
unidentified		Hello.
		So I'm confused by like a double standard.
		I'm thinking like, how come it's like when black and brown people are fighting for their freedom, they got to do it with two grains of rice and two bullets, like the Afghans and the Vietnamese beat both superpowers with like virtually nothing.
		And Ukrainians, like the white people, are fighting for their freedom.
		They need a trillion dollars of hardware, and they're walking their dogs in the park and getting their pensions paid.
		It just doesn't make any sense to me.
		How come Ukraine just doesn't buckle up and just make an insurgency and mobilize the entire country?
		If they're at war, why aren't they mobilized and fighting?
		And I support Ukraine, and I hope that they grind the Russians to death.
		Thank you.
		Well, first of all, I think the Ukrainians are certainly mobilized and have been fighting quite hard and have suffered pretty high casualties to the question of why does the United States kind of invest more time, energy, and resources in one conflict rather than another.
		Look, I think there are a lot of different reasons for that.
		Some of them are strategic calculations that our leaders make.
		And in the case of Ukraine, I think you've seen a real debate, actually.
		The Biden administration certainly viewing it as kind of more strategically important to the United States than President Trump and many officials in his administration have.
		So that's one question.
		Certainly, there's also a domestic political dimension to many of these conflicts.
		So I think there are a lot of factors that contribute to decisions like that.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our guest is Paul Saunders.
		He's president of the Center for the National Interest.
		And our discussion is focused on President Trump's push for Russia and Ukraine to reach a ceasefire agreement, as well as President Trump's upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
		If you'd like to ask Paul a question, the lines, Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8002.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		You can also send us a text at 202-748-8003.
		And Jimbo in Bakersfield did just that.
		He sent this question in, could Mr. Saunders explain what purpose President Trump's meeting with President Putin could possibly serve in regards to negotiating a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine?
		Wouldn't Ukraine need to be there?
		What can happen if President Zelensky isn't there?
		Can anything actually come out of this meeting?
unidentified		I think something certainly can come out of the meeting.
		It's not possible to reach any kind of a final settlement to the meeting without all of the parties being involved, and that certainly would have to include Ukraine.
		I think it's most helpful to think about the diplomatic process that's underway as kind of a long and complicated process with multiple stages.
		And each of those stages may focus more on one or another set of the parties or some of the other external players, like the United States and our European allies.
		I'm not sure that it really is necessary or frankly even makes sense for every single party to be at every meeting.
		There are 20-some different governments in NATO.
		NATO is supporting Ukraine.
		We put every NATO government into a meeting.
		I'm not sure it would be a useful meeting.
		There would be too many people there.
		So just as a practical matter, I don't have a problem with different meetings having various constellations of the participants.
		I think the key question is: can President Trump reach an understanding with President Putin, which is something that Ukraine and also our European allies would ultimately be able to accept?
		And that's something we don't know yet.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Ted is in Raymond, New Hampshire on the line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ted.
unidentified		Yes, come on, huh?
unidentified		Yes.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Ted, are you there?
		Ted, I apologize.
		I think we had a bad connection.
		Go ahead and give us a call back.
		We'll go to Marilyn, who is in Leavenworth, Kansas, Line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Marilyn.
unidentified		Good morning.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Marilyn.
unidentified		Go ahead.
unidentified		Okay, I need to turn my phone down, I think.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We also lost Maryland again.
		Again, a reminder to our audience: make sure that television is turned down.
		Once you are on hold, it can interfere with the comments you're trying to make.
		Let's hear from Mike in Lancaster, California, Line for Independence.
		Hi, Mike.
unidentified		Hi.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Mike.
unidentified		Yes, can you hear me?
		Yes.
		Okay.
		I'm calling about Donald Trump and where he's taking this country.
		Donald Trump never had to work a day in his life.
		He was always given money.
		And he had numerous wives that always gave him money.
		There was a program on CNN depicting the life of his grandfather or his great-grandfather.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Mike?
		Mike, our topic for this portion of the program is talking about the Russia-Ukraine war ceasefire efforts.
		Do you have a question for our guest on that?
unidentified		Well, I would like to see Ukraine win the war against Russia.
		Putin he's a dictator.
		He's against everything that this country stands for.
		Ukraine, they're doing their best to stand up to him, losing a lot of people.
		But without our help, he's not going to win this war against Russia.
		Well, I think the caller raises several different issues there in his comment.
		Certainly, American help has been really central so far for Ukraine in having been able to fight the war that it's fought, and that's money, it's weapons.
		It's also something that most of us don't really see most of the time, which is intelligence support and targeting data for the weapon systems that we provide.
		So that's quite important.
		I think there has been a lot of assistance so far.
		I think the question that clearly the administration is trying to grapple with is how long can Ukraine keep fighting?
		How long can the United States keep supporting Ukraine in the way that it has been?
		And what other challenges does America face?
		And I think from their perspective, they see risks in decline, at least many in the administration see risks in declining stocks of these key weapon systems, especially some of the missile defense and air defense systems that we can't really replace at the rate that we have been providing them to Ukraine and also, for that matter, to Israel.
		And they see some pressure to try to wind down these conflicts so that the United States can have sufficient resources for contingencies that might happen in other places, you know, first and foremost in East Asia.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Mark in Canton, Ohio is on the line for Republicans.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for having this guest.
		I'm not sure where your expertise extends, sir, but I wanted to ask you a question.
		Recent polling, 80% of the Ukrainian people are in favor of ceding territory to Russia.
		Previously, that number was 20% supported that position.
		80% support that position now.
		My question is, is Zelensky currently very unpopular in his own country, and is he in danger of being deposed?
		That's my question.
		No, thank you for the question.
		Look, it's hard for any wartime leader, I think, to maintain support for a conflict like that.
		And certainly the Ukrainian government, including President Zelensky, I think it does face more domestic pressure than it did at the beginning of the war.
		At the same time, you know, public support for any settlement ultimately is going to come down to what exactly is the deal.
		And I don't think that's something that we know yet.
		I certainly don't see any risks at this time that Zelensky would be kind of prematurely removed from office.
		So in response to that question, no, I don't see that risk at this time.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Barb in Long Grove, Illinois sent this in via text.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Considering all possible factors, would Mr. Saunders predict an end to the Russia-Ukraine war in the near future?
unidentified		I'm a little bit of a skeptic that the war will end soon.
		And I'm very sorry to say that because I think it's really a horrific war for Ukraine.
		I think the fundamental challenge with negotiating a settlement to any war is that you need to have both sides at the same time in a place where they feel kind of enough pressure that they need to negotiate,
		but also sufficiently confident that they feel that they don't have to give away things or won't be pressed to give away things that they're unwilling to give.
		And in this particular case, I think the Russians are probably a little bit too confident, really, to feel pressure to make the kinds of concessions that would be needed to make a deal.
		And conversely, the Ukrainians are perhaps not quite confident enough really to get into a conversation like that because they fear they may be pressed to give away territory or other concessions that they're not willing to give away.
		So I'm not an optimist.
		That said, President Trump is really capable of pulling surprises out of his hat.
		President Putin also at times has kind of shown an ability to do dramatic things.
		Who knows?
		But I'm not optimistic.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Roger is in Lenore, North Carolina, on the line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Roger.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, my question is, you know, I'm a student of history, and I wonder if the guests, do you see any parallels between now and pre-World War II, where they gave Hitler what he wanted, his land, you know, Neville Chamberlain appeasement, peace in our time.
		I think Putin, what he's going to do, he gets this land, he's not going to stop.
		He's just going to continue.
		He took Crimea.
		Now he's wanting this eastern part of Ukraine, and he is not going to stop.
		And I wonder if you see any parallels between what's going on now and what happened in Nazi Germany, sir.
		Thank you for the question.
		You know, I think this is a situation that has generated a big debate, actually, about are we in a pre-World War II situation in the way that the caller has described?
		Or conversely, might we actually be in a pre-World War I situation in which some of the governments involved kind of stumble into a large and costly war with one another that most of them, if not all of them, really don't want.
		And I think there are certain parallels from history that one could look to in both of those cases, really.
		For my money, I think the Russian economy has been really very severely damaged.
		The Russian military has been severely damaged.
		And I don't think that the Russian military in the near term, by which I mean the next few years, is in a position really to go looking for other enemies.
		I don't think they can afford to do that.
		I don't think that that military is in a condition to do that.
		Several years from now, if there's a peace agreement and Russia has several years to recover, perhaps that could change.
		But I don't see really a near-term risk like that unless the Russian leadership feels backed into a corner to such an extent that something that risky looks better than the alternative.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Phil in Minnesota, line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Phil.
unidentified		Good morning.
		You know, I lived five years in Russia, and I've been all over Ukraine.
		And it just seems to me that the only logical solution is to divide the country along the lines of the Dnieper River.
		Because everything west of the Dnieper, Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian language is dominant, and everything east of the Dnieper River, Russian language and Russian culture is dominant and fast-track both of these nations into the European Union.
		Because I think this is the only logical solution.
		And our president talks about the mineral deals.
		Well, you're never going to get them because they're in the Donbass.
		And the Ukrainians aren't going to get the Donbass back.
		I've been in blue constants and Dones many times.
		I think the only thing to do is just to divide the country along the Dnieper East Coast to Russia, the West Coast of Ukraine, make it a UN protectorate for about 15 to 20 years.
		And I think that's a good long-term solution.
		I think I understand what the caller is driving at.
		I guess I would not really put myself in the camp of those who want to try to divide up somebody else's country.
		So I probably wouldn't reach immediately for that solution, but certainly anything that the parties are willing to agree to along those lines I'd support.
		As far as the European Union is concerned, of course, Ukraine is already somewhat on that track.
		I don't really envision Russia getting onto that track, setting aside the question of whether the European Union would offer something like that to Russia.
		There are also some really just enormous sort of legal, regulatory, trade, other kinds of questions that they would have to negotiate.
		And in the past, when Russia and the EU tried to do things like that, it didn't really work very well.
		The EU has historically taken a position that anybody who wants to join the EU needs to sign up to all of the EU's existing rules.
		And I think the Russians have generally taken the view that their country is so big that they should be able to play a role in setting the rules, which the EU hasn't welcomed.
		So I'm not sure that that element of it could succeed anytime soon.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		The caller suggesting dividing Ukraine, President Putin suggesting or proposing this week a land swap could help end the fighting there.
		You pointed out that President Zelensky has already said no to that idea.
		If it were to go ahead, if he were to change your mind and this was the agreement to end fighting, what could that possibly look like?
unidentified		Well, It's very difficult to know from publicly available reports what really has been discussed so far.
		Russia controls varying shares of these four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine where the war has been underway, plus also Crimea.
		It's, I think, fairly clear that Russia expects to maintain control of Crimea.
		There's been some discussion, speculation, I think would be a better word, perhaps.
		Might Ukraine be willing to give up some of the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that are not yet under Russian control, possibly in exchange for some areas further south, you know, that Russia does control now.
		Look, I think anything is possible if the two sides are willing to agree to it.
		In the case of this conflict, there are a number of other variables, however, in addition to just who owns which piece of land.
		And one of the big ones that the Russian side has been pushing relates to the size and composition of the Ukrainian military and what kinds of weapon systems are they permitted to have in the future,
		and in particular, what range of weapon systems should Ukraine have or not have, systems that can reach deep into Russia.
		So I think for Ukraine and also for the United States and certainly for our European allies, that's also a really important question.
		And I can sort of imagine a case that one could make that having a slightly smaller Ukraine that's in a much stronger position to defend itself might be better than having a slightly larger Ukraine that isn't in a good position to defend itself.
		But we'll see.
		There are so many elements of this dispute, and it's not obvious yet where the conversation is really headed.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Don is in Michigan on the line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Don.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		Ask our guests to talk about the treaty we signed with Ukraine when they gave up their nuclear weapons, that we would protect them from aggression.
		Well, this was really not a treaty, actually, just to be clear.
		It was a political agreement.
		And certainly, you know, the United States and Russia and the UK, if I remember correctly, actually kind of did make a commitment to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity, which obviously the Russians violated.
		But to be clear, that was not a binding treaty commitment by the United States.
		I think one could legitimately view it as a moral commitment by the United States, but not a legally binding commitment.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Kathleen is in Georgetown, Delaware, Line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Kathleen.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Everybody's heard the saying, birds of a feather flock together.
		And it kind of seems like that Donald Trump favors people like Putin and Kim Jong-un and Zi and all these birds of a feather.
		He has it in for Zelensky and always has ever since way back when he ran and tried to get Zelensky to become to conspiracy lie for him to win the election.
		And Zelensky refused to do it.
		And Trump has hated him ever since then.
		And they held the meetings in, I don't know if it was Qatar or Turkey somewhere, with Putin and Trump.
		Zelensky was not invited to the table.
		He was the outsider looking in.
		And nobody was letting him know.
		Nobody knew what agreements were being made or discussed or anything about it.
		He was on the outside.
		They were making all the arrangements and going to hand him what they decided.
		So now, here we are again.
		All of a sudden, now, Trump threatens Putin with the oil.
		Oh, wow, he's coming to the table real, real fast.
		But they're coming to Alaska.
		Putin and Trump.
		Where's Zelensky?
		Zelensky's still over there, looking 90 years old now, the poor man he's been fighting so hard for would keep his country safe and everything.
		And they're going to come to some kind of agreement.
		And the way they're already talking, the Russians are going to get so much of the land that they want or they took or they're going to get this and they're going to get that.
		Nobody has heard a word yet, I know I haven't, about what is Zelensky going to gain.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Kathleen, we'll get a response from Paul.
unidentified		Look, I think that, as I tried to say earlier, we have a multi-step.
		The best case scenario for this negotiation, if it succeeds, is that it will be a long, drawn-out process with multiple meetings, and some of them will perhaps be Trump and Putin.
		Others might be Trump and Putin and Zelensky or Putin and Zelensky.
		Some of them need to involve our European allies, I think, in different ways because there are things that the Europeans would have to agree to for all of this to work out.
		So I don't think the fact that Zelensky is not at any particular meeting is necessarily a big problem.
		The key issue is for Zelensky's and Ukraine's kind of interests and needs to be accounted for during the process.
		And I think that will have to happen.
		And without that happening, then Ukraine doesn't agree and there's no deal.
		I think the challenge for Zelensky, of course, is that Ukraine relies on the United States for a lot of assistance, less now directly for the weapons, because the U.S. will be selling the weapons into Europe and Europe will be transferring the weapons to Ukraine.
		but certainly still to a very large extent relying on the U.S. for satellite intelligence and targeting to make these weapons useful.
		And the government of the United States certainly has every right as a sovereign country to decide what it wants to support and for how long and under what conditions and with what goals.
		So I think it is very important to have in having a successful sustainable agreement to have Ukraine as a part of the process.
		But I think we should also remember that U.S. interests are not identical to Ukraine's and those aren't identical to the Europeans.
		And certainly there's great distance between those three and Russia's and all four parties are going to be looking to their own interests and that's what they should do.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Ron is in San Diego, California on the line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ron.
unidentified		Hello, good morning.
		I just have a quick question for your guest there, Mr. Saunders.
		My question is, what is NATO's purpose of expanding all the way eastward to Ukraine?
		Why is it necessary?
		And finally, how does it benefit the U.S.?
		And thank you for C-STAN.
		Thank you for the question.
		I will say in full disclosure here, I have been a skeptic for a long time of Ukraine joining NATO.
		I thought that was probably a mistake.
		And I think that discussion is part of the reason that we're in the situation that we're in now, because certainly that was something to which Russia was quite opposed and stated that opposition over and over again.
		Where the alliance is concerned, certainly I think historically the view has been that the alliance contributes a great deal to American security.
		I think it does.
		I think that's still true today by helping the United States to maintain peace and stability in Europe by providing the United States with bases, by providing the United States with diplomatic and other kinds of support from its allies in other situations that are important to us.
		So I think the alliance has a lot of value for America.
		I think the question of, you know, does NATO need to be larger than it already is, I think is a different question.
		And on that one, I think I'd prefer to leave it the size that it is.
		I think it's big enough.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We have one last call for you.
		It is Christina in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Line for Democrats.
		Hi, Christina.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How you doing?
		Ukraine, what I want to let this young man know, I don't know where his history is, but he needs to go back to 1994.
		Ukraine had more weapons than anyone.
		They told everybody to reduce their weapons.
		And when they reduced the weapons, Russia had to dismember Ukraine's weapons because they couldn't dismember some of them.
		And it was made that they never missed Ukraine.
		All don't supposed to protect Ukraine.
		Russia, Germany, UK, and some more.
		Russia, all of us protect them.
		Y'all need to Google stuff before you start discussing.
		That was in 1994.
		And one more thing I want to say about the student loans.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Christina, we'll leave it there because our topic is Ukraine and Russia.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Paul, I'll give you a chance to.
unidentified		I think the caller is talking about the Budapest Memorandum, which came up a little bit earlier.
		And the United States did sign the Budapest Memorandum along with Russia and Ukraine and others as Ukraine was giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for American help.
		And this was, by the way, part of the process of the United States and Russia signing the START Treaty, a nuclear arms control treaty, which we kind of needed an answer on Ukraine's possession of those weapons.
		Look, I think there's kind of a mythology, frankly, that's grown up around the idea that if Ukraine had been able to keep the nuclear weapons that it had during the Soviet era, subsequent history would have been better.
		And I'm not sure that that's really the case because Ukraine actually didn't have the launch codes, the control systems to operate those weapons, which are run out of Moscow at the time.
		And frankly, I think if Ukraine had tried to keep the weapons, Ukraine would not have had as much American support as it did and might have been invaded by Russia sooner.
		Secondly, I think that the United States and Russia made a political and I would add moral commitment to respect Ukraine's sovereignty.
		Russia violated that.
		The United States, I would argue, has taken pretty substantial steps actually to uphold that commitment by providing Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in military equipment.
		And also, again, this intelligence and targeting data.
		So I appreciate the caller's frustration.
		And I think many of us are very frustrated to be in this situation and to see Ukraine facing the just enormous challenges that it's facing because of Russia's decision to invade.
		Unfortunately, this is one of those situations in life that is kind of easy to be upset about and somewhat harder to get out of.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our guest, Paul Saunders, is president of the Center for the National Interest.
		You can find the organization online at cftni.org.
		Paul, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
unidentified		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		This week marked the five-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act.
		Next on Washington Journal, we'll talk with National Park Conservation Association Government Affairs Deputy Vice President Emily Douse about the impact the legislation has had in the future of the National Park Service.
		I'll be right back.
unidentified		Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
		At 2.15 p.m. Eastern, Carol Mosley Braun talks about her political life as the first African-American woman senator, presidential candidate, and ambassador in her book, Trailblazer.
		Book TV commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with several author conversations.
		Beginning at 3.15 p.m. Eastern, Ari Hota looks back at the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective.
		Then at 4 p.m. Eastern, A.J. Boehm recalls the challenges that President Harry Truman faced during his first four months in office.
		Max Hasting explores World War II from the personal point of view, using detailed stories of the lives of everyday people as they struggle to survive at 5.45 p.m. Eastern.
		And at 6.45 p.m. Eastern, Susan Southard examines the impact the atomic bombing of Nagasaki had on the city and its people.
		We also continue our celebration of America's 250th with author conversations on the American Revolution.
		At 10 p.m. Eastern, Andrew Roberts looks back at the reign of King George III and argues that he has been misunderstood in his book, The Last King of America.
		Then, historian Harlow Giles Unger, author of First Founding Father, recounts the efforts of Richard Henry Lee in the Revolutionary War, from his call for independence from Britain in the Second Continental Congress to his exploits on the battlefield.
		And National Constitution Center president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen talks about how the founding fathers thought about virtue and were influenced by classical writers in his book, The Pursuit of Happiness.
		Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
		American History TV, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
		This weekend, as the nation begins to celebrate its semi-quincentennial, American History TV begins a year-long series, America 250, on the American Revolution and its impact on the country.
		We'll take a walking tour of historic sites in Philadelphia, hosted by the Museum of the American Revolution.
		And we'll continue exploring America's founding with a walking tour of Boston's Freedom Trail, featuring stops at the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old State House, Fanyel Hall, and the Old North Church.
		Exploring the American story.
		Watch American History TV every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
		Washington Journal continues.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Joining us now to discuss the impact of the Great American Outdoors Act in the future of the National Park Service is National Park Conservation Association Government Affairs Deputy Vice President Emily Douse.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Emily, thank you for being with us.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll start.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll talk about the parks in just a minute, but remind our audience about your organization, the mission, how you work with, and your connection to the park system.
unidentified		Yeah, sure.
		So NPCA, National Parks Conservation Association, was started right after the park service as the voice of the national parks.
		We are an advocacy, national advocacy organization, nonpartisan, to protect our national parks.
		So whether it's in our regional offices on the ground, whether it's in the courts or it's here in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill, we fight for our national parks and ensure that they are protected for future generations.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And when we are talking about the national park system, wanted to share some statistics about it.
		In addition to the major ones we may hear about, you know, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, it's actually 433 units.
		That includes monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks and sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.
		It manages more than 85 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
		Its budget for fiscal year 2025 was $3.1 billion.
		That's just discretionary funding.
		And that allowed them to host 332 million visitors in 2024.
		And that's up from 237 million just a few years before that in 2020.
		When we hear those statistics and what all is included, what kind of infrastructure does that include?
unidentified		Yeah, sure.
		The National Park Service has nearly as much infrastructure as the Department of Defense, so second only to the Department of Defense.
		So that includes visitor centers, that includes wastewater and drinking water systems, that includes trails and bridges and roads.
		So all the infrastructure you would think about in a town or a city is in our national parks.
		It's also employee housing.
		So it's just the whole gamut of different types of infrastructure.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And as I mentioned, this week marked the five-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act.
		B wanted to share what that legislation did.
		It established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund.
		It provided $1.9 billion annually for the last five years to address a maintenance backlog, and it permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million per year.
		Bea, explain what the Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund is.
unidentified		Sure, it's a fund that was established to address maintenance needs in our national parks, our national forests, our wildlife refuges, and other public lands to address all those different maintenance needs of those infrastructure needs that we just discussed.
		And so it's, as you mentioned, $9.5 billion.
		But the maintenance backlog is $22 billion.
		So that's just a small portion of what is really needed to address our maintenance needs in our national parks and forests and refuges.
		And so that funding has taken care of hundreds of projects throughout the country in every state and nearly every territory here in the District of Columbia to help with the visitor experience and visitor access in our public lands.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our guest is Emily Douse.
		She is the Government Affairs Deputy Vice President for the National Parks Conservation Association.
		Our discussion for the next 35 minutes or so is the impact of the Great American Outdoors Act as well as the future of the National Park Service.
		If you have a question or comment for Emily, you can start calling in now.
		The lines for this segment are regional.
		So if you are in the eastern or central time zone, your line is 202-748-8000.
		If you are in the Mountain or Pacific time zone, it's 202-748-8001.
		And if you have recently visited a national park, there's a line for you, and that is 202-748-8002.
		And a reminder, you can also send us a text, 202-748-8003.
		Emily, you talked about the amount of money that the National Park Service has seen over the past five years for some of these repairs, as well as what more is needed.
		What kind of repairs have been done and what impact has it had on local economies and job creation?
unidentified		Yeah, sure.
		So some examples throughout the country, the bathhouses in Hot Springs National Park are being restored.
		Campgrounds in Yosemite National Park are being restored.
		Roads and bridges all over the country.
		Yellowstone, for example, the Great Land Loop Road is getting restored.
		So lots of really large projects, but also some smaller projects throughout the country.
		Some of these smaller parks and these smaller units, you know, just a couple of hundred thousand dollars goes a long way.
		So Harry Truman site in Missouri is getting some restoration on the home there, whether it's the siding or the porch is getting some really great work done.
		And so it goes from small projects to really large projects.
		Here in Washington, D.C., the George Washington Memorial Parkway is getting a huge restoration after years of potholes.
		I've driven on it many times.
		So that's a really great investment too.
		Thomas Jefferson Memorial has also gotten cleaned up.
		The dome was looking pretty rough, but it's been cleaned up.
		So some really wonderful projects all over the country that hopefully visitors are really seeing the impacts of this great funding.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And the funding was for five years.
		That is a provision that is set to expire.
		Another piece of legislation, the America the Beautiful Act, has been introduced to help fill that gap.
		That legislation would reauthorize the legacy restoration fund through 2033.
		It increases the maintenance backlog funding from $1.9 billion to $2 billion a year.
		It also requires additional reporting to Congress on efforts to reduce the maintenance backlogs.
		If passed, or I'm sorry, what is your organization's reaction to that piece of legislation?
unidentified		We are thrilled.
		This was such a successful five years of maintenance funding for our parks and other public lands and this and we're seeing the differences.
		So this is a bipartisan bill on the Senate side that's been introduced in April that will provide, like you said, eight more years of funding, $2 billion a year for all of these different places.
		And so we are thrilled to have this and we hope that we can work with the administration.
		The administration is supportive of this.
		They signed the original bill five years ago and they have expressed their support and we hope we can get this across the finish line as national parks are just something that everyone can agree on to take care of these places.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We have callers waiting to talk with you.
		We'll start with Mark who's in Las Vegas, Nevada.
		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Hi, Emily.
		Hey, I wanted to mention that the videos that were up a minute ago are implicitly pointing out something else, which is that people are being hired to do the work.
		So this money is going into the private economy.
		This is a good thing.
		This spending is created by Congress, and people who call in and then complain that their tax money is being wasted don't get it.
		Their taxes don't pay for this.
		Congress creates the money.
		It goes out.
		Congress could create all the money you need to do all the projects you need.
		And anybody complaining about this really has a very short-sighted view of how the federal monetary system works.
		So I think it's very important for people to realize that it's only Congress standing in the way of you getting all the money you need and the president, unfortunately.
		Thank you.
		Thank you for that.
		Very good comment.
		Yes, it is Congress, but what's really great is this Senate bill is bipartisan.
		The previous bill, the Great American Outdoors Act, passed with huge bipartisan support, both in the House and in the Senate.
		So it's just a process.
		And so we're getting through the process.
		The bill's been introduced on the Senate side.
		And it will make its way through committee action.
		And then we'll hopefully get it passed very soon.
		But like I said, the Trump administration is supportive of the maintenance needs in our national parks and public lands.
		So we really think this is something that we can all agree on and get across the finish line.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Rebecca is in Frankfurt, Kentucky, on the line for recently visited a national park.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Rebecca.
unidentified		I recently went to Red River Gorge, and I hadn't been up there quite a few years.
		We used to go a lot.
		The difference I saw this time, I'm 84 now, and I don't hike anymore, but I'm very familiar with the Red River Gorge.
		I have been in the past 40 years.
		That's when the children were little and all.
		When I went this time, the whole family went.
		The bathrooms do not be taken care of except for volunteers.
		The trails are not being checked for safety.
		This was taken away just recently.
		Taken away, not building up.
		The trails are not being checked for safety like they have been.
		That's volunteers.
		They're asking for volunteers.
		The people around there are really sad about it.
		The Red River Gorge is, and they couldn't, businesses couldn't go in there.
		And this time there were four little businesses, you know, like overnight stay for $300, things like that, massages.
		I don't know.
		We didn't go to any of them.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Rebecca, we'll get a response from Emily.
unidentified		Yes, thank you for sharing that.
		I know it's really disheartening to hear that.
		Unfortunately, since January, there's been a loss of 24% of our national park permanent staff.
		This equates to about 4,000 people that have been lost indiscriminate cuts from retirements or buyouts from the administration to encourage them to leave.
		And then the overhanging reduction in force that we're anticipating may happen as well.
		So the Park Service staff are working so hard and they want folks to have really great experiences, but unfortunately they're very understaffed right now.
		And that's on top of 20% cut over since 2010.
		So our park staff are overworked and trying to do so many jobs to make sure both that the visitors are having a great experience, but also that the resources are protected, both cultural, historical, and natural resources.
		So I encourage you to reach out to your members of Congress to make sure that they're aware of this.
		And then also the administration that these indiscriminate cuts must stop and the hiring freeze must be lifted so that park personnel can be restored to help with the experiences and the protection of the resources.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Sean is in Milton, Florida, on the line for recently visited and national park.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Sean.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Hey, I'm a regular visitor to Fort Pickens and Gulf Island National Seashore, and I've noticed since January that there's been an increase in the amount of trash that has been present in the park that has not been picked up by what is resulting, I think, from the big cuts in staffing, as well as no maintenance to the nature trail that goes through the center of the park.
		And you do see some effect on the wildlife that is in the park by their injuries from fishing lines and from trash and other things.
		It's very obvious and it's unfortunate.
		I wish you guys luck with getting some of this funding back from what we pay in order to enter the parks.
		Yeah, thank you for that.
		Again, disheartening story.
		We're hearing these all over the country from our members and from the public about just how devastating these cuts of the staff have been to the experience of our national parks.
		And some people aren't even seeing behind the scenes impacts and expected impacts to the natural and cultural resources.
		So thank you for that and please share those experiences with your member of Congress.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned that the current maintenance backlog for the National Park Service is about $23 billion.
		We're hearing from callers who are seeing a decline in what's the status of parks.
		How could a continued decline impact a potential backlog down the road?
unidentified		Yes.
		So part of the reason this backlog is quite large is because the infrastructure is old and they're highly visited.
		And so it takes a toll just like it does at your home.
		If you don't do upkeep, it starts to decline.
		Also the lack of investment from Congress.
		We have been fighting for decades to make sure that Congress is providing the necessary funding to take care of these places.
		So these staffing cuts that are occurring right now will have an impact.
		Staff have to, by a secretarial order by Secretary Bergham, have to prioritize visitor experience.
		But what does that mean for the maintenance of parks?
		That kind of gets put to the side.
		The day-to-day maintenance gets put to the side.
		These larger projects, as far as we know, are continuing to go forward because a lot of that is funded to help with contractors to do some of that work.
		Local folks are employed to do some of this work, but it's the managers of those contracts and also just the day-to-day maintenance that is taking a back seat.
		So we are very concerned about that over the long term.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jane is calling from Augusta, Maine.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Jane.
unidentified		Hello, this is Jane.
		I'm a registered licensed dietician.
		I'm giving my 30-day call.
		I enjoy C-SPAN quite a bit.
		Actually, near my house, I have, I know that you have different kinds of monuments.
		Your association supports different monuments.
		We have, I know in Maryland, they have one devotee for Clara Barton, RN, and her grandfather's house is sort of near my house in Windsor, Maine.
		Well, anyways, I know that Trump is talking a lot about the Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
		And relating to the National Park Service and your organization, there used to be something called the National Park Service Wellness Challenge.
		It was more of a collaborative sort of aspect.
		And I know that the callers have recently been talking about physical structure, staffing at the national parks.
		But I was wondering about how your association is working, not so much with the physical and staffing needs, but the overall program about like promoting wellness or looking at a plan for that that is aspects that are not as competitive as other sports things.
		Because after all, the president keeps asking the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, why aren't people healthier yet?
		So how is your organization working on this?
		Thank you very much.
		Yeah, thank you for the question.
		I am not familiar with that program, but of course we are supportive of making sure people are enjoying our national parks for their health.
		During the pandemic, as everyone is well aware, people were flocking to our public lands and outdoor spaces to get both exercise, but just also for mental breaks as well.
		And so that is super important.
		And I think that's a really great idea to connect those interests from the Trump administration on health and wellness in the need to protect these places and make sure the trails are in good shape and the visitors continue to have a great experience so that they'll go and exercise and enjoy these places.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Christina is in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Christina.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Yeah, I just, I was saying, I was listening to Emily earlier, and she started out being so happy and enthusiastic about getting all this money, billions of dollars.
		And then when the calls started coming in saying how bad the parks are, she never once went back to the money to say, oh, yeah, we're going to use the money to fix the parks.
		You know, why isn't that top of her agenda?
		So there's two things here.
		One is that there is a great bipartisan opportunity here to address the maintenance needs in our national parks.
		But the other issue is, is that we are experiencing the Park Service has experienced a drastic decline in staffing.
		And so yes, while we're very excited about the opportunity to talk about the maintenance needs of our national parks, we are concerned about the workforce as well.
		And so there's two things here that we are working on.
		And when we think we can work with the Trump administration and Congress to talk about the maintenance needs and this great America the Beautiful Act that's working its way through the Senate to also talk about the workforce needs and the people that we need on the ground to go beyond just the maintenance needs, but the education and the facility cleaning and the trail maintenance and beyond.
		So it's twofold here.
		Some great opportunities, but also several concerns.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And talking about the proposed America the Beautiful Act legislation, you mentioned that the Great America, or the Great American Outdoor Act, which that would build on, did pass with bipartisan support.
		It did, however, have 25 no votes in the Senate when it passed in 2020.
		What were some of the opposition to the legislation at that time?
		And why is the pending legislation different?
unidentified		Sure.
		So a variety of reasons why someone may not have voted for that bill in the original bill.
		One was some people were opposed to the other part of the bill called the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which sets aside money to take up land that is in need of protection for visitor access or experiences.
		So there might be what's called an in-holding in a particular national park that's kind of surrounded by the park, but it's privately owned.
		So if a private owner would like to sell that land, then it provides the opportunity for the Park Service to purchase that land or the federal government to purchase that land with this funding.
		The other been just the price tag.
		I mean, it is the parks need a lot of money to restore these places.
		And it is a big price tag, but the return on investment for the money that is spent is great.
		I mean, it's one for every $1 that's invested, we have $15 back in the local economy for our national parks.
		So that's a great investment.
		And the argument that we always make is, why wouldn't you want to invest in our national parks?
		They're bringing so much to the local economies and to the American people and international visitors that come to our parks.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		National parks are one of those rare topics that enjoy bipartisan support.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		When it comes to this legislation, it's only been introduced in the Senate, but what are you hearing from members of Congress about its prospects?
unidentified		Yeah, thanks.
		We have high hopes and good indication from both the Senate and the House.
		The House is working on their companion legislation right now, so we hope to see that introduced soon.
		And it's bipartisan.
		So we do think that we can get something through.
		And with America 250, right around the corner here, it's a great opportunity to talk about our national parks, but tell America's stories all over the country about how we were established and why we were established and all the different good and bad stories that we need to highlight to tell that American story.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Mark is in New York.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		Yes, I was wondering one thing is, do you think that the American people are kind of messy when it comes to cleaning up the parks, that they make messes themselves?
		Number one.
		The other thing I was wondering is do you think you might want to hire Native Americans since the United States took their land and that parks are all Native Americans land?
		Great questions.
		Thank you so much.
		As far as Americans and visitors to our national parks making messes, you know, they love these places.
		And so I wouldn't argue that they are making messes on purpose.
		However, if a trash can is overflowing, they may, you know, don't have another place to put that trash or don't think to take it out with them.
		So they are just maybe adding to that pile, though it's next to the trash can.
		Bathrooms, if you have to use a restroom, you have to use it.
		So it just is, you know, they're good caretakers, but it also takes a lot of staff to make sure that that trash is taken out, the bathrooms are cleaned, the trails are maintained.
		So I hope Americans and international visitors will continue to be good stewards of our national parks and our public lands.
		And the other question on Native Americans and hiring.
		Yes, there are opportunities for the direct hiring of Native Americans to take care of and steward these places.
		There is a hiring freeze right now, though, so that is of concern.
		But certainly the National Park Service is very good about working with all stewards of our national parks.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Christina is calling from Illinois.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Christina.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have a question about Donald Trump's statement to drill, baby, drill in our national parks.
		They're our national parks.
		They do not belong to the oil companies.
		There's plenty of other places to drill for oil.
		What is going on with that?
		Yeah, thank you for highlighting that issue.
		Yes, that is a priority of this administration is to, you know, energy dominance and to drill in our public lands and outside of them.
		We are watching that very closely and also commenting on that and pushing back on those proposals.
		We want to ensure that our national parks are protected from energy development and that those proposals do not move forward, whether it's in a national monument or in any of the national parks.
		So we are very engaged with Congress and educating them on those different proposals and the administration to push back on any development, energy development that's happening in our public lands.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Talking about both the Great American Outdoors Act and the America, the Beautiful Act that provides funding for maintenance backlog, that is in addition to the annual discretionary budget.
		President Trump's 2026 budget calls for a cut of more than a billion dollars to the National Park Service, which if enacted, that would be the largest cut in the Park Service's 109-year history.
		What are the potential impacts of a level of cuts like that to just the day-to-day operations that that money goes to?
unidentified		That would be devastating to our national parks.
		If we calculated looking at the national parks, the 433 different national park units, that would essentially cut 350 national park units in their budgets with that size of a cut.
		A lot of the funding for national parks in that discretionary budget goes to operations.
		So that is very, very concerning.
		The House Appropriations Committee came out with their bill.
		Unfortunately, fortunately, they did not go as far as President Trump and the administration, but they did still call for a $176 million cut to operations.
		So we are very discouraged by that proposal.
		On the Senate side, however, big bipartisan support in the Appropriations Committee to at least level fund funding for this next fiscal year.
		And we are very supportive of that.
		And it also provides some provisions in there to push back on the staffing cuts as well as proposal by the administration to let states take over some of our national parks, which are our national treasures.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Leonard is in Massachusetts.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Leonard.
unidentified		Good morning.
		You know, I was thinking back in history when Roosevelt created the CCCs for kids, but have something in that nature for kids to get out of the big cities and to work and learn about the forests and to help out.
		And also, I know years ago they used to have two ads on TV, which were beautiful.
		One was with smoke in the bear on fires and the other one was the Indian crossing the stream with all the trash in there.
		And those would be two ads that would be beautiful on the air to help people to think about those things.
		So I just great suggestions.
		As far as the CCC is in helping to restore these places, there are groups out there that are working on the ground that support youth engagement in particular in helping to restore these places.
		And we want to ensure that they continue to get the funding needed so that they can do the work on the ground.
		There's also, as part of the Great American Outdoors Act, there's a thing called the maintenance action teams.
		These are smaller projects that are happening in largely the smaller parks where they're training young people how to be carpenters or masons to help restore some of these places.
		So they're teaching these young people the trade so that they can do this work moving forward.
		And so that's such a great program and something that the Trump administration is very supportive, which we're glad to see and we want to continue to support that.
		And they're addressing some of these smaller projects, these very detailed, historically significant places.
		So we're hoping that that's an opportunity.
		As far as the ads, yes, more ads about how wonderful these places are and the importance of them.
		It's a great idea.
		And I do remember those ads as well.
		So thank you for highlighting those.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jerry is calling from New Jersey.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Jerry.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have a question.
		The big, beautiful bill has made it where in order to get Medicaid, you need to do, if you're eligible and able to work, you are either doing 20 hours of voluntary service or 20 hours of work.
		Do you think this could be helpful to you for those people to get off the dime or to be able to collect Medicaid to be working in these state parks to help clean up and do this stuff?
		There's plenty of people out there and they want to collect Medicaid and they're required to do something.
		So do you think this would be helpful and someplace for them to go to be able to do that to collect Medicaid?
		Very interesting idea.
		You know, the Park Service very much depends on volunteers to help with maintenance needs in our parks and to help educate visitors.
		Volunteer services is quite large in the National Park Service.
		So I do welcome you to reach out to your local national park and see if there's opportunities.
		Part of the issue here is that managing volunteers takes staff time.
		And with, as I've mentioned, the reduction in staff, 24% since January, and that's 4,000 people, it's hard for these remaining Park Service staff to have the time to manage volunteers.
		They would love to.
		So just be mindful of that and encourage, we are very much encouraging the administration to lift that hiring free so they can bring back the Park Service employees that are so necessary for these types of programs and to stop further cuts through a reduction in forests that is looming.
		So I think it's a great idea and please reach out to your local park.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		I want to go back to something you touched on just a few minutes ago, and that is that President Trump's budget proposal also proposes turning over some national park sites to states.
		Where does your organization stand on that?
		And wouldn't that help alleviate the strain that we're seeing at this time?
unidentified		So, a couple of things here.
		One is these places were established because of their national significance.
		They help tell America's story.
		They're not just Texas stories or Nebraska stories.
		They're national stories.
		And so, you know, Emmett Till in Mississippi, that's a story that should be told to everyone, and everybody should have the resources to learn about Emmett Till and that horrible tragedy.
		Flight 93 from September 11th, that's a national story of some heroic efforts during that time.
		So, no, we disagree with giving back or even giving the states the opportunity to take these places.
		National parks are so revered, and they get resources from the federal government.
		And states also are having trouble with their budgets.
		So, we do not agree with that idea of allowing states to take over these national treasures.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We have one last call for you: Kent calling from Illinois.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kent.
unidentified		Hi.
		If you go west of the Mississippi, it seems like there's nothing but national parks, areas taken off, any kind of exploration for natural resources, and they keep adding more.
		When Clinton was president, he decided the Escalante staircase needed to be taken off and put into the government so that nothing could be done there insofar as recovering gas and oil.
		And we can't have everything become national parks west of the Mississippi and take all that area and say, okay, we can't do anything because this is a national treasure.
		Well, national treasures in the eye of the beholder.
		My idea of a national treasures would be worth $37 trillion in debt.
		Is it more important to just keep spending money on the national parks?
		That's nice.
		I've been through Yosemite and all those, and I look around and I said, man, these places are huge.
		But every time you go down the road, something else is a national park or something taken off of the, so that the government says, well, nobody can do anything on here and take pictures of the trees.
		And that there's two different schools that thought about our national parks and how much money do we need to spend on them.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Kent, we'll get a response from Emily.
unidentified		Yeah, Ken, thank you for the question.
		We would argue that these places are very popular for protecting, and it has been proven over and over that people want to protect these places for their generation and future generations.
		So I can understand where people come from as far as continuing to protect these places, but they are treasures and unique and with a lot of public support.
		I appreciate the concern, but we are supportive of protecting different landscapes and stories throughout the country.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Emily Douse is the Government Affairs Deputy Vice President for the National Parks Conservation Association.
		You can find the organization online at npca.org.
		Emily, thank you so much for your time this morning.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We are wrapping up today's Washington Journal with open form.
		You can start calling in now.
		The lines there on your screens, Republicans 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		And as we head to break, we want to share this headline from the New York Times.
		James A. Lovell, Jr., commander of Apollo 13, is dead at 97.
		From the obituary in the New York Times, it says James A. Lovell Jr., the commander of the three-man Apollo 13 spacecraft that survived a near-catastrophic explosion as it approached the moon on April 1970 before safely returning to Earth in an extraordinary rescue operation, died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois.
		He was 97.
		Captain Lovell, a former Navy test pilot, flew for some 715 hours in space, the most of any astronaut in the pioneering Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs forged by the United States as it vied with the Soviet Union to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
		He took part in two Gemini missions that orbited Earth and was one of three astronauts aboard Apollo 8, the first space flight to orbit the moon, before he was chosen by NASA for Apollo 13.
		He became something of a pop culture figure when he was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie Apollo 13, which drew on Captain Lovell's book, Lost Moon, The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13.
		The praise, Houston, We Have a Problem, Mr. Hanks' version of Captain Lovell's call to NASA ground control when an explosion rocketed the ship, became part of the American lexicon, a wiry way of signaling that something was amiss.
		During a 1999 interview for NASA's oral history program, Lovell talked about how Apollo 13's mission got on to the big screen.
unidentified		What kind of impact did that adventure, and I use that word advisedly, have on you personally?
		I don't worry about crisis any longer.
		I mean, seriously, I mean, I look at them.
		I say to myself, whenever I have a problem with something like that or I'm in trouble with someone or somebody's sick or something like that, I say, I could have been gone back in 1970.
		I'm still here.
		I'm still breathing.
		So I don't worry about crisis.
		What caused you to write the perilous voyage of Apollo 13?
		After we got back on the carrier, the three of us, Swikert, Hayes, and myself, and we looked at each other and we dusted ourselves off and, hey, we're still alive.
		And we said, you know, this flight has got a lot of adventure to it.
		Even before the explosion, you know, things happened that were entirely different on this flight.
		We ought to put this down on paper.
		We ought to write something about it.
		So we all vowed that we would write something on paper.
		I was sitting at my desk, this is about two months after we started, and I got a call from our agent.
		And he said, are you sitting down?
		And I said, yes, and I thought maybe the book publisher was going to back out of this whole project.
		And he said, we just sold your book to the movies.
		I said, we haven't written it yet.
		Isn't that illegal?
		And he said, no, it's done all the time.
		What they actually sold was an option to do the story to Imagine Entertainment, which was Ron Howard's company.
		And what turned the option, of course, into a finished product was the lead actor Tom Hanks.
		He was a closet astronaut.
		The guy is a space enthusiast.
		When he heard through his agent that Ron Howard had an option to do a story on Apollo 13, which he knew about, and I didn't realize that, he lobbied for the job.
		And when Universal heard that Ron Howard had Tom Hanks, who had just gotten the Oscar for the movie Philadelphia, I think it was at that time, they decided to do the movie.
		And that's how it got started.
		And what did your wife say when you said, guess who's going to play me in the movie?
		Couldn't believe it.
		Actually, when I had an interview with Ron Howard after he bought the option, and this was before Hanks, anybody aboard, we went out there for about five hours to talk over the story about Apollo 13.
		At the end, when I was about ready to leave, he said, Who would you like to play your part?
		And I don't know much about actors or actresses, but I had seen the movie Dances with Wolves about six or eight months before, and I said, Kevin Costner.
		And Hanks never lets me forget that I said that.
		Washington Journal continues.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		The full interview is on C-SPAN's video library.
		You can watch it as well as other events featuring James Lovell online at c-span.org.
		For the duration of today's program, we are in open form.
		If there's a public policy issue you'd like to discuss, you can go ahead and give us a call.
		We will start with Michael, who's calling from New Hampshire on the line for independence.
		Hi, Michael.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Thank you for C-SPAN.
		I'm calling again to inform, I don't think most of Americans realize that the United States actually played a very minor role in the Atlantic African slave trade.
		The first people to enslave Africans were Africans.
		Warring tribes would clash, and the victors would hold the losers as their slaves and work them as their slaves.
		And this went on for hundreds of years before the first European ever showed up on the Alps on the coast of Africa.
		In the early 1500s, the Europeans were landing outside of Africa on the west side of Africa, and the Africans wanted to trade with the Europeans.
		And what they did is they reduced their fellow Africans that they held in slavery as a trading commodity.
		And this began the Atlantic African slave trade.
		And about 9 million poor souls were sent to the New World.
		5 million went to the Caribbean islands.
		3.2 million went to Brazil.
		And 310,000, that's 310,000 to the United States.
		That's about 3% of the total.
		I'm not trying to condone what went on in the United States, and I'm not trying to trivialize what went on in the United States.
		I'm just trying to put it in its proper perspective.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Michael in New Hampshire.
		Ted is in Louisville, Texas, on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Ted.
unidentified		I consider C-SPAN a joke because it's nothing but liberal.
		That's it.
		Bye.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Ted.
		Jim is in Missouri, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Toddy, out of curiosity, I looked up the definition of a pathological liar as opposed to a compulsive liar.
		And it seems that Trump checks both boxes.
		And the third box of being delusional, where you actually believe your own lies, I'd say that's where we are.
		The damage done to the credibility of the United States, far-reaching.
		His latest firing of the labor statistics gal, I don't like the numbers.
		So we're going to find somebody that will tell me different numbers.
		This is untenable.
		The last term that Trump was in there, I believe it was the Washington Post, counted over 30,000 lies that Trump told.
		Now that it's owned by Bezos, they're not counting the lies anymore.
		I hope somebody out there is still keeping track of it, but I do not believe a word that comes out of Trump's mouth.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Jim in Missouri.
		Also, Jim in Florida, line for independence.
		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Just wanted to make a little statement about the guy talking about we need to go ahead and open up the parks for taking the oil or whatever.
		It took billions of years to produce that.
		It'll only take them a couple months or maybe a year to destroy it.
		It doesn't make any sense.
		That's about it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Jim in Florida.
		Linda is calling from Maryland on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Linda.
unidentified		Yes, I live about 15 minutes from one of the nicest parks in Maryland.
		It's James Island State Park.
		The people there do a wonderful job.
		They even have community volunteers.
		And I just thank God that I remember in 2020 that our president and former president at that time donated his whole salary to different parks each month to help them in the United States of America because he liked doing that,
		help keeping them up, knowing that families could go and enjoy themselves and bring visitors into the state, their communities.
		And I just thank God that a president like Donald Trump would do something like that.
		And he gives the other things too.
		Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.
		And turn your radio, Dane, or TV.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, Linda, for letting people know that.
		That was Linda in Maryland.
		Sandra is in North Carolina on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Sandra.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm calling because we already have work requirements for many of our safety net programs.
		And the idea that Medicaid and food stamps is full of able-bodied adults is a myth.
		Only 8%, less than 8% of fit, able-bodied with no dependent people fit profile, you know, not working, that they're able-bodied and they don't work and receive these benefits.
		So chasing this tiny group risk cutting care for millions of people.
		And now it sounds like we're going to risk putting them into or forcing them into slave labor, according to that older lady that called a little bit ago.
		Have a good day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Sandra in North Carolina.
		This is a headline from the Wall Street Journal.
		Yesterday, Trump removes Billy Long as head of the IRS.
		The article says that President Trump removed former Congressman Billy Long as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service after less than two months on the job.
		It says Long is being replaced on an interim basis by Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.
		A senior White House official said Besant is the latest leader of the Federal Bureau that has gone through a series of commissioners since the start of Trump's second term.
		Long was sworn in as the commissioner in June.
		Long said Trump is appointing him as ambassador of Iceland.
		Quote, I am thrilled to answer this call to service and deeply committed to advancing his bold agenda.
		Long said on X, Exciting Times Ahead.
		Long, a one-time auctioneer who represented southwestern Missouri in the House for 12 years, was confirmed by the Senate along party lines.
		He was the sixth IRS commissioner this year after several interim heads, and he was set to remain in office until November 2027.
		About 20 minutes left in today's program.
		We are in open forum.
		Let's hear from Chris in Louisville, Kentucky, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Chris.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Doing well, Chris.
unidentified		I was calling because I don't watch C-SPAN so much anymore because all of the ignorance out here spewed.
		And I'm speaking specifically to the guy who was saying, talking about, or trying to talk about Africans owning slaves and committing slavery, which they did.
		But the difference that people don't understand, those who haven't studied, don't understand, is that Africans are humane people.
		So even doing war or even doing confligrations, can't get the word out, that the guy was talking about, that what Africans would do when they captured slaves, I mean, I'm sorry, when they captured war enemies, when they captured people different from them, they would make them indentured slaves before they were going to get, at some point, get their freedom back.
		And the easiest way to explain this for ignorant people who don't understand, on Africa, there are more than two to three hundred languages spoken on the continent because even when people were captured during slavery, I mean, I'm sorry, doing war with other tribes, they were allowed to keep their language.
		They were allowed to keep their institutions.
		They were allowed to keep the things that were important to their lives.
		But when they brought them to America, what's the first thing they did?
		They stripped them of their language.
		The barbaric Europeans who don't know anything about being civilized people.
		And I'm speaking now, and I'm going to end.
		And speaking now, America is becoming a failed state, and Africa is on the rise all over the continent.
		All you have to do is do some study, and you'll see.
		That's why all this crazy white supremacy and white supremacy is very much a misnomer or contradiction of terms.
		So how can someone or how can people think they're superior and spend so much time and energy on people that they think are inferior?
		Let us deal with them equally and you'll see that America is on the downside and Africa's on the rise.
		Thank you very much.
		And don't talk about what you don't know, please.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Chris in Kentucky.
		Ann is calling from Coos Bay, Oregon on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Ann.
unidentified		Good morning, Tammy.
unidentified		Are you there?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I am.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		Okay.
		I just wanted to say why don't Democrats do something good for America instead of just bashing Trump and Republicans?
		And they just don't do anything.
		They're always, you know, filled with hate and violence and everything.
		It's just, it's not right.
		They need to do things for Americans.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Ann in Oregon.
		Michael is calling from New Jersey on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Michael.
unidentified		Good morning, and thank you for C-SPAN.
		So, I also wanted to kind of correct the record on the earlier caller who was talking about the origins of slavery.
		Yes, human beings have been enslaving other human beings for thousands of years, but the Atlantic slave trade specifically and the African slave trade was pretty much put in place by Portugal.
		And it was like the co-invention of the African slave trade and capitalism itself that kind of led to the, along with the conditions that the previous caller said, that led to kind of like the situation that we're in today.
		And I do think we're still kind of dealing with that.
		So that's all I have for today.
		Thanks.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Michael in New Jersey.
		Susan is calling from Wooster, Massachusetts, line four, Republicans.
		Good morning, Susan.
unidentified		Hi, Tammy.
unidentified		How are you?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Dame all Susan.
unidentified		I just want to say about Bill Barney the Crumb.
		He worked with Fannie Willis.
		I think if you look at your website, whatever you do, he worked with Fannie Willis to get Trump on charges.
		Are you kidding me?
		He worked with her.
		This is Bill Barr.
		I don't know if you know this, Timmy.
		There's going to be so many indictments, and I am so happy.
		It's going to be like Christmas to me when these rotten Democrat crooks from Jack Reed, he's going down.
		Clapper and Dapper are going down.
		Hillary Clinton, who Trump should have put her fan in here the first time, but he gave her a break.
		Not now.
		They are really going after all these crooks and did this to Trump.
		It's unbelievable.
		From Democrats, you cry and whine like you're going to do.
		But they all belong in prison, including Obama.
		He's the one that started this wholeness in 2016, even before Trump was president.
		You know, you're Messiah.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Denise in Los Angeles, California, on the line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Denise.
unidentified		Good morning.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Denise?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Denise, are you there?
unidentified		Oh, it's Denise, honey.
unidentified		Good morning.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		I'm so sorry.
		Venice.
		Okay.
unidentified		Okay, sweetie Howard.
		Good morning to you.
		I want to tell you, you are doing such a wonderful job.
		Thank you for what you do for us and how you.
		I just want to express myself.
		I want to say, please, you know, beautiful people, read my honey's book, Express Yourself.
		I'm hoping to come on C-SPAN one day.
		Well, he could talk about his book, Express Yourself.
		And it's on amazon.com.
		But he is, he talks about everything, you know, what's going on in the world right now and why is it how it is.
		And we just want to spread love instead of hatred.
		But my honey, he is a legend.
		His name is Mr. Charles Wright from the song Express Yourself in Loveland.
		And he just wants to send love and he wants everyone to follow their spirit and just be lovable people.
		Stop all this hatred.
		We got to come together.
		You know, I don't want to get emotional, but we got to come together.
		We got to come together and we got to love one another.
		But please read my honey's book, Express Yourself.
		And I'm hoping that he can come on C-SPAN and he can talk about his book about what's going on in the world right now.
		He even wrote a book called Up from Where We Come From.
		I just want to just tell everyone to just stop it, please.
		Stop the hatred.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Venice in California.
		This is a headline in this morning's Wall Street Journal.
		UCLA says Trump seeks $1 billion, says the Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from UCLA.
		The university said Friday, as the two sides negotiate over allegations that the school tolerated anti-Semitism and employed diversity practices the White House objects to.
		University of California President James Milliken strongly criticized the proposed figure.
		Quote, a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country's greatest public university system, as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians, Milliken said.
		The request is far higher than the amounts agreed to so far by universities in President Trump's campaign to remake higher education.
		In a document viewed by the Wall Street Journal, the administration asked UCLA for $1 billion to, quote, eliminate identity-based preferences for hiring, admission, and scholarships.
		The proposal asked the school to revise its campus protest policy and prohibit demonstrations that disrupt academic activities.
		It was yesterday at a press conference with lawmakers that Governor Gavin Newsom responded to a question about that $1 billion settlement request.
		Here's a clip from that event.
unidentified		To settle with the Trump administration, are you taking any actions to fight this?
gavin newsom ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, well, Sue, I mean, this is a separate topic, but it's not necessarily disconnected from this topic.
		Donald Trump today is trying to silence academic freedom.
		He's attacking one of the most important public institutions in the United States of America, one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the world, one of the great research institutions in this country.
		One of the reasons California is the tenth pole of the U.S. economy.
		One of the reasons we have more scientists, engineers, more Nobel laureates than any other state in this nation.
		He has threatened us through extortion with a billion-dollar fine unless we do his bidding.
		So as long as I'm governor, I will stand tall and push back against that.
		And I believe every member of California legislature feels the same way.
		We will not be complicit in this kind of attack on academic freedom on this extraordinary public institution.
		We are not like some of those other institutions that have followed a different path.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		It's a little over 10 minutes left in today's Washington Journal.
		We are in open form.
		Let's hear from Jill calling from Pennsylvania for Independence.
		Good morning, Jill.
unidentified		Good morning.
		As an independent small business owner, I just want to say that I think small businesses are suffering under these tariffs.
		When the president starts to celebrate how much money they have collected as a result of the tariffs, it's on the grades of small businesses, the very backbone of our economy that's crushed under the weight of the policies that favor political wins over real-world consequences.
		Thank you so much.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jill, what kind of small business do you own?
unidentified		I own a stained glass studio, and I also help other small businesses who are trying to grow.
		And with the uncertainty around tariffs, with it changing all the time, we can't plan.
		And it makes it very hard to hire.
		It makes it very hard to understand our cash flow, which ultimately really cripples small businesses.
		It's devastating what's happening out there.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jill, how has your business been impacted so far?
unidentified		So far, I help other businesses grow.
		I've had three businesses that are looking at cash flow that are going to be severely impacted in the third quarter.
		So they're starting to think about laying off people at this point.
		And I'll be honest, there are one or two businesses that are going to fly high with this.
		But honestly, I feel like we're going to be at the grains of so many small businesses.
		We're in a step change.
		We are in a step change between artificial intelligence, automation, control with immigration, and it's funneling and having direct impact to all the small businesses that are really trying to figure it all out.
		And with any step change, there's going to be huge changes, and small businesses are resilient.
		But right now, the uncertainty and this change, it's almost too much for businesses.
		I think we've got to just slow it down a little bit and really remember that small businesses are the ones that provide jobs to a lot of people.
		I think we have to listen to what's happening out there.
		It's real.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Jill in Pennsylvania.
		Jim is in Chicago, Illinois, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My name's Jim, and I'm a very happy man.
		I'm 82 years old.
		And my secret is I stay away from all Democrats.
		I have no Democrat friends at all.
		Have a blessed day.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Jim in Illinois.
		Stephen is in Maryland on the line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Stephen.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, I just wanted to talk about the gerrymandering debate that we're having right now.
		You know, I applaud Texas Democrats for all the work they're doing in opposing their state legislature in the way that they want to gerrymander the state.
		But I just fear that Democratic governors that want to retaliate and do the same thing in our states, I fear that it's just going to ignite a fight that we're going to lose.
		There are more Republican state legislatures across the country, so they can squeeze out more House seats if we go into a gerrymandering battle with them.
		So I just want to warn other Democrats that I don't think this is the way to solve this issue.
		I think we have to find other ways to win the gerrymandering fight.
		I think gerrymandering our own states is not the solution.
		Thanks so much for all you do.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Stephen in Maryland.
		Also in Maryland is Mike calling on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Oh, yes.
		Good morning, Kimball.
		Yes, I agree totally with the gentleman from Missouri.
		He mentioned compulsive and pathological.
		And also, I just wish the media would ask the president to prove his statements that he makes, any of them, just any of them.
		And also, I go back to what I said over a year ago.
		I do believe the president is a white supremacist and a domestic terrorist.
		Have a great day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Mike in Maryland.
		This is a headline that was in today's New York Times.
		It says, GOP considering changes in Senate rules to quicken confirmation.
		The article says that Senate Republicans are actively exploring unilateral changes in Senate rules to speed confirmations of President Trump of Trump administration nominees in the fall after they failed to break stiff Democratic resistance to executive branch picks before leaving on their August recess.
		The senior Republicans say that talks are ongoing and the changes in confirmation procedure are likely in order to overcome Democratic insistence on holding formal roll call votes on every executive branch nominee.
		That requirement has slowed approval of President Trump's picks for scores of top executive branch jobs.
		The article goes on to say that among the changes under consideration are shortening the time required between a procedural vote and a final vote on a nominee, eliminating some procedural votes, and allowing groups of nominees to be confirmed as a block.
		Republicans would also like to reduce the approximately 1,200 executive branch positions subject to confirmation after Democrats forced recorded votes on lower-level nominees who have traditionally been confirmed by voice vote or by unanimous consent.
		Back to your calls.
		Let's talk with Diane from Arkansas on the line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Diane.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I'll just like to touch on a couple of topics across the board.
		One thing with the cut with the federal government and the parks, I love the national parks and the state parks, but we've got to cut money.
		We've got so much debt.
		It's just unreal.
		I know on the state level, we get retired couples to stay in the parks for free in a campsite, and they run the collection booths, and they kind of oversee the parks for their fee for living there during the year.
		I think the federal government could do something like that.
		Also, I live in Arkansas.
		Now, all of our national parks are very important.
		But Central High School is a national park in Arkansas.
		Now, the nine for the civil rights, that's very important to never forget that.
		But that's an active school.
		Nobody tours that school.
		They have a national park set up across the street from the school with all that information.
		Okay.
		So some places like Vicksburg, that's a drive-through tour.
		You know, we need to rethink things.
		Where we can cut, we need to cut.
		As far as the Medicaid and cutting people off of things, I worked for 38 years of my life.
		I had to go on disability.
		I have to pay my Medicare B because I have equity.
		I have to pay a copay for the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay.
		And I worked all my life.
		If you're able to work, you need to work.
		And if you're not working, you need to be cut off.
		And as far as the tariff, you know, it's awful.
		And people are going to hurt.
		And it's awful that it's hurting the small businesses because they're the only people that's making any jobs now.
		But every politician for the last 40 years has kicked it down the road.
		And we've got to make the tariffs more fair.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Diane in Arkansas.
		Kenny is in Tennessee on the line for independence.
		Good morning, Kenny.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for your show, but just one example of how these tariffs are going to affect the lower class people, the working class people.
		My neighbor bought a pair of work boots at Walmart two weeks ago down here, Brahma brand.
		It's a cheaper brand, but it's, you know, what a lot of people can afford to get by on.
		And went back two weeks later the other day, and the price of those boots were $79.
		That's how bad that's $50-something dollars that's going to, that's got to come out of a working man's pocket.
		I'm just thank you for your time.
		Bye.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Kenny in Tennessee.
		And our last call for today's program is Amy in Maryland, Line for Republicans.
		Hi, Amy.
unidentified		Hi, how are you?
		Yes, I'm just calling about the financial issues under Trump.
		So I feel that, you know, some people's experiences with tariffs are very negative.
		And we have to, you know, hopefully he and the people, you know, that are governing and over that financial situation will be able to make it so that the consumers don't have to hurt with the tariffs.
		You know, rising prices, they hit our pockets and our wallets.
		And some people are in family situations.
		So it really brings them damage.
		But I was very surprised because yesterday I opened up my savings plan from work.
		And most of the time, I don't even read that because it's like a three-month statement.
		And I think it's a 457 C or B or something like that.
		But the gains are enormous.
		Like, I couldn't even believe it.
		I got almost like a 9% gain and I got a 14% gain.
		And I mean, frankly, it's thousands and thousands of dollars that I made in just one short quarter.
		And I didn't read the one from the three months before, but some kind of way the money is going to funnel back into the American economy.
		So, you know, hopefully that can help people.
		Like, I think there are saving plans out here that do benefit from Trump's financial policies.
		And maybe, you know, your company or something can find one for you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Amy and Marilyn.
		Our last call for today's program.
		That's where we are wrapping it up today.
		We'll be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern, 4 a.m. Pacific, for another edition.
		Until then, enjoy your Saturday.
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 about the Trump administration and other political news of the day.
		First, with the nation's executive editor, John Nichols, then with Washington Examiner columnist Jeremiah Poff.
		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.
		Next, President Trump hosts an event at the White House in honor of Purple Heart Day.
		Then, Texas Democratic State Representative James Tellarico, who, along with several other Democratic legislators, has fled the state, speaks about Texas Republicans' attempt to gerrymander more congressional seats.
		And later, more from the Lone Star State.
		A Texas Senate committee here is public testimony on the proposed map that will redraw congressional districts.
		And past president nominee.
peter doocy ▲ ● ▼		Why are you doing this?
peter doocy ▲ ● ▼		This is outrageous.
unidentified		This is a kangaroo quarter.
		This fall, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity.
		Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins.
		Join Political Playbook Chief Correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns as host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue to find common ground.
		Ceasefire.

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