| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Eastern on C-SPAN. | |
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| We're an open forum now, and we're going to be taking your calls shortly. | ||
| But a few things for your schedule later today. | ||
| Right after this program, right about 10 a.m. Eastern, we're going to have former U.S. defense officials discussing the future of drone warfare, focusing on the Replicator initiative, which was launched in 2023. | ||
| It aims to produce large quantities of unmanned drone systems in a short timeframe. | ||
| That's live from the Brookings Institution right after this program here on C-SPAN. | ||
| And later this evening, we'll have a discussion about the future of U.S. foreign policy in Eastern Europe in light of the Russia-Ukraine war. | ||
| It's a conversation with retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council during the first Trump administration. | ||
| That event is from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and that will be live at 6:30 p.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Both of those programs are on our app, C-SPANNow and online at c-span.org. | ||
| Richard in Kansas, Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Richard. | ||
| Yes, ma'am. | ||
| I think it was Rockefeller that said, none are so enslaved as those that think they're free. | ||
| And it's certainly true. | ||
| Our elected officials aren't running this country. | ||
| It's the administrative bureaucracy because they know all they got to do is wait a couple of years and then they do whatever they want to do. | ||
| Until we clean out that mess, nothing's going to change. | ||
| Now, the guy that you had on there with the voting thing, he knows as well as anybody that knows anything about computer code. | ||
| If you don't see the source code, what's going on in those machines, you cannot verify anything. | ||
| Now, this has been proven over and over and over, but the courts, they don't want to get involved in political things. | ||
| They want to stick with the law. | ||
| And I've heard many, many times that's a political question. | ||
| We don't deal with that. | ||
| Now, back in 1975, there was a book written, Vote Scam, The Stealing of America. | ||
| It was about voter fraud in Florida. | ||
| Janet Reno was the attorney general at the time. | ||
| They brought the complaint to the federal government. | ||
| Who do you think ran that investigation? | ||
| Bill Barr, Robert Mueller. | ||
| You can look it up. | ||
| You can get the book, Vote Scam, and you will see all the letters and everything that were sent to Bob Barr and Mahler. | ||
| So, Richard, I've got a question for you as far as it doesn't seem like you trust elections very much. | ||
| Do you still vote over there in Kansas? | ||
| No, I do not. | ||
| It's a waste of my time. | ||
| Just because you don't think that it would be an accurate count? | ||
| No, I know it's not. | ||
| Especially when it comes to tax issues and things like that. | ||
| If you cannot see the source code in those machines, you cannot verify the election. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Here's Mike Maybrook, New York, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I have a question about, I haven't heard this on the regular media too much, that the United States government is paying the health insurance for people in the Israeli Army. | ||
| Where did you hear that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I heard it on the radio yesterday, a local station here in New York. | |
| And the host said, yes, it's true. | ||
| Okay, let's look that up for you and see if we can find anything about that, Mike. | ||
| Bobby in Gorham, Maine, Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I'm sorry that I missed the opportunity to speak with your guest. | ||
| My point was going to be about mail-in voting. | ||
| I'm 71 years old. | ||
| The law changing the voting age from 21 to 18 occurred the year that I turned 18. | ||
| And I have never missed voting in an election since that time. | ||
| However, I've never used a mail-in voting ballot until Donald Trump was running for office the first time. | ||
| During that campaign, he mentioned repeatedly how much he loved the mail-in vote and how he used it almost every time he voted in an election. | ||
| So that's my point. | ||
| Thank you again for taking my call. | ||
| All right. | ||
| All right, Bobby. | ||
| And for our previous caller, here's a fact check from Reuters. | ||
| The benefits for soldiers serving in Israeli military not included in U.S. spending bill. | ||
| That's in Reuters. | ||
| If you'd like to take a look at the details there. | ||
| This is Ken in Spokane, Washington, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| I just wanted to say that I don't really trust the mail-in voting myself. | ||
| Here in Washington, it's a mandatory. | ||
| Back in the 2000s, we had Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi running for governor. | ||
| And of course, Christine won it the first time around. | ||
| And then the second time they ran, Dino Rossi won it. | ||
| And she had a recount, and he won again. | ||
| She had another recount. | ||
| And oh, all of a sudden, there were boxes of ballots and other things found in two different areas. | ||
| And of course, then she won. | ||
| And then, yeah, so I really don't trust them anymore. | ||
| I hate to say that, but I don't feel my vote is being counted truly here in Spokane or in Washington. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And here is Joseph in Evans, Georgia, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I'd like to mention that Tim Scott was one of the most respected lawmakers coming out of South Carolina until he introduced opportunity zones in 1985. | ||
| I was chairman for three counties in Georgia, introducing enterprise zones, whereby businesses would open up their business in impoverished areas. | ||
| So here we come. | ||
| Here comes Tim Scott looking for some publicity, and he changes the name from Enterprise Zones to Opportunity Zones. | ||
| And I was really disillusioned with Tim Scott at that point. | ||
| The second point I'd like to make is I was also chairman of the Department of Social Services in Charleston, South Carolina. | ||
| And there was a tremendous bill that was passed and signed by Bill Putin. | ||
| Of the things that I respect him for. | ||
| Two things. | ||
| With a stroke of the pen, President Obama gutted the Welfare Reform Act. | ||
| I just don't understand how our lawmakers could be so effective in changing laws. | ||
| All right, Joseph. | ||
| And this is The Hill. | ||
| A Texas Democrat abruptly leaves DNC call after being warned she's committing a felony. | ||
| Take a look. | ||
| This is what that moment looked like. | ||
| Look, I've been really buoyed by the conversations I've had with Democratic governors throughout this country and all of our Democratic elected officials. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sorry, I have to leave. | |
| They said it's a felony for me to do this. | ||
| Apparently, I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom. | ||
| Well, you told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom. | ||
| No, hang on. | ||
| Bye, everybody. | ||
| I've got to go. | ||
| Hey, that is outrageous. | ||
| First of all, let me tell you something. | ||
| Representative Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There you go. | |
| That is outrageous. | ||
| What they're trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a black woman. | ||
| And that is outrageous. | ||
| And I hope everybody took note of that. | ||
| The fact that she can't even let her voice be heard is freaking outrageous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is. | |
| And this is what we're fighting for here. | ||
| This is ultimately what this is about. | ||
| What we just witnessed, them trying to shut her down and say it's illegal for her to be in the bathroom and on this call. | ||
| This is the lengths that they're going to in Texas to try to bring about a system so unjust and so unjustifiable that they are going to try to silence those leaders from being heard and speaking out. | ||
| Well, joining us now is a reporter to talk about those redistricting battles in California and Texas. | ||
| Shia Kappas is with Politico. | ||
| She's a politics reporter and Illinois playbook author there. | ||
| Shia, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| Can you just start with explaining that situation we just saw with Ms. Collier? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you have Texas on the edge. | |
| They were voting yesterday to pass these maps after being held up for more than two weeks. | ||
| The Republicans were frustrated. | ||
| They really wanted these maps, the legislation for these maps to go through. | ||
| I was surprised that they went to such lengths because there were enough Democrats on the floor to get the bill passed, whether she was in the bathroom or not. | ||
| But they were frustrated. | ||
| They wanted to get it over with. | ||
| They were pushing the Democrats to follow all the rules, adhere to being in custody with which Governor Abbott ordered. | ||
| And so she was forced to go in the bathroom. | ||
| Crazy. | ||
| I mean, it was pretty crazy. | ||
| And there's some lawmakers sleeping there. | ||
| Why are they doing that? | ||
| Why are they sleeping in the House? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They did not want to be forced out in or out with law enforcement. | |
| That's what Republicans ordered law enforcement to escort them everywhere. | ||
| And they did not want to have to be, you know, bound to that. | ||
| So a few of them stayed on the floor on their own accord, including Gene Wu, who's the minority leader, along with Collier and I think one or two others. | ||
| And they were trying to make a point. | ||
| Look, you know, we come here on our own volition. | ||
| We are going to do this on our own terms as a way to protest what Republicans were doing to force them to, you know, stay in line. | ||
| It goes to what's been happening for more than two weeks where law enforcement was, they were hanging out in front of their homes, the Democrats' homes in Texas while the Democrats were in Illinois. | ||
| They were calling their homes. | ||
| Democrats felt that it was a form of harassment to some extent. | ||
| So it's just a continuation that's been going on for more than two weeks. | ||
| And Sochia, where do things stand right now with the redistricting and what's the timeline? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, now Republicans have approved this bill in Texas. | |
| And immediately we've got to look now at what's happening in California because today the California Assembly is going to vote on three measures that will also look at redistricting, giving Democrats potentially five Democratic seats to counter, as you've been discussing, the five seats that Republicans want in Texas. | ||
| And that's going to be a whole other drama because Republicans in California are opposing it similarly to how Democrats are opposing it in Texas, calling it a power grab. | ||
| And when are we expecting a vote in California on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
California's vote could actually come today. | |
| I don't know if it might be extended because I'm not sure how long debate goes. | ||
| I'm not in California right now. | ||
| But they are expecting that legislation to pass. | ||
| It's three bills. | ||
| And then the timeline needs to move really fast because if you want to change the boundaries of your congressional district, you have to do it before March when petitions go out for candidates to file for these positions. | ||
| And so that's in March. | ||
| The lines have to be drawn by the end of December so candidates know what they're running for. | ||
| You have to send out these, there has to be a vote from voters to decide whether they want to do this. | ||
| So that has to happen before the maps are drawn. | ||
| And you have to send the ballots out to people 30 days before that happens. | ||
| And then if you're a military person overseas, those ballots need to be sent out 45 days ahead. | ||
| So we're looking at September is when these ballots need to go out. | ||
| And here we are, August. | ||
| So it's a very accelerated schedule to move everything along really quickly. | ||
| Politico has done polling that shows Californians are overwhelmingly supportive of redrawing these maps. | ||
| Of course, because it's a Democratic state and they are opposed to Donald Trump, who initiated this whole, you know, this whole battle by urging Texas Democrats in a Zoom call, I believe, to vote to change the districts in their state. | ||
| Okay, so we talked about Texas, we talked about California. | ||
| What's happening in Illinois? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Illinois is, they are starting their own redistricting commission, which is a little bit different because they are only focusing on state legislative maps. | |
| And the logic is, and this commission is run by familiar names, Rayla Hood, Bill Daly. | ||
| Rayla Hood is a Republican, Bill Daly is a Democrat. | ||
| They both happen to work in the Obama administration, and they want to redraw more fairly how state legislative maps are drawn. | ||
| And then in turn, the logic is that state legislators would more fairly draw congressional maps when the next time comes around to draw those maps in 2030. | ||
| There's already some opposition to it. | ||
| It's going to be a lot of public hearings and a lot of talk, but that's how it's happening in Illinois. | ||
| And if I can say, speaking of Obama, he is now getting involved in all of this too. | ||
| A few weeks ago, he had a meeting with the Texas Democrats, encouraging them, praising them. | ||
| They were down. | ||
| They knew that it was futile, that the Republicans in Texas would have control of this whole process. | ||
| Obama said, Look, you had the baton for the first lap, and now we're passing it to Gavin Newsom. | ||
| And now Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are going to pass their own maps, ideally for Democrats, that would add the five seats that Republicans in Texas are to counter the Republicans in Texas, adding five seats. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And just to make it a little bit more complicated, the California legislation does have a trigger that says if Texas does not pass these five seats, then we won't do it either. | ||
| Is there a possibility Abbott might not sign this legislation? | ||
| Maybe. | ||
| It might be that it would take Donald Trump to say, look, Texas, let's back off, and then California will back off. | ||
| I don't know if that would happen. | ||
| We're guessing at this point. | ||
| Well, we'll be watching it. | ||
| Shia Kapas, politics reporter and Illinois playbook author at Politico. | ||
| You can find her work at politico.com. | ||
| Thanks so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| And we will get back to your calls. | ||
| Just a few things. | ||
| If you're interested in this topic, the Texas Senate Redistricting Committee will be meeting today to debate those newly redrawn congressional maps. | ||
| That's happening at 10 a.m. | ||
| This morning, you can watch that on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| That's live from Austin. | ||
| And then later this evening, the Texas Senate may vote on congressional redistricting in the state. | ||
| You can watch that Texas Senate session live at 8 p.m. also on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Then there's two events happening at noon on the West Coast. | ||
| The California State Assembly meets in a special session to consider a redistricting plan that would redraw five of California's nine Republican districts to be more favorable for Democrats in future elections. | ||
| That's live at noon Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| And at the same time, the California Senate will have a special session that will be live on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| So you can watch all of that when you're interested. | ||
| And this is now Roderick calling us from Canada on the Independent line. | ||
| Good morning, Roderick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| I'm calling about the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to make some suggestions for potential coverage on your guys's end. | ||
| Main concern I have is that there's far too little focus on NATO's role following 1997, extensively working inside Ukraine, | ||
| attempting to drag that country into NATO, despite there never being a formal referendum or plebiscite conducted within Ukraine asking citizens if they would like their country to join NATO or not. | ||
| One of the pivotal events that occurred was in August of 2008, NATO's annual conference with Bucharest, Romania that year. | ||
| And at the end of the conference, as they always do, they issued a communique. | ||
| And when I say they mean the leaders of every member country of NATO signed on to this Commune that announced that NATO will become a member, pardon me, that Ukraine will become a member of NATO. | ||
| And it's important to restate that this was all of the member countries' leaders, all of NATO's member countries' leaders, announcing arbitrarily that NATO will become a member. | ||
| Am I rephrasing that right? | ||
| That Ukraine will become a member of NATO. | ||
| And this is at a time that NATO had been active within Ukraine following 1987 when the NATO-Ukraine Council was formed. | ||
| Every single year, 1997 to 2008, NATO conducted its own internal polls asking a small sampling, a relatively small sampling of voters across Ukraine if they were in favor of their country joining NATO opposed. | ||
| And Roderick, I'm just curious what you think. | ||
| Do you think Ukraine should join NATO? | ||
|
unidentified
|
My view is that there should be no attempt by NATO's member countries to accept Ukraine today, and there should be an announcement by NATO's member country leaders that they were wrong to have arbitrarily announced that Ukraine will join NATO in 2008, which eventually led to the conflict that's currently raging. | |
| And I suggest, I urge diplomatically to you guys near quality coverage, please try to interview a professor such as Dr. Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia or Dr. John Mersheimer at the University of Chicago. | ||
| They're both very well versed in economics and foreign policy. | ||
| They have views, much as I do, that we, the West, should not have been attempting to drag Ukraine into NATO. | ||
| Roderick will let the touchdowns. | ||
| Did you, sorry to cut you off, did you catch our interview with George Beebe on Saturday? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did not. | |
| I'll go back and look at that. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, definitely look at that because I think you'll find a good discussion about NATO and kind of Russia's view of NATO's actions. | ||
| I think you'll find that interesting. | ||
| Joe. | ||
| Sorry. | ||
| Joe in New Orleans, Louisiana. | ||
| I think we lost that one. | ||
| David, Barrington, Massachusetts, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, yes, I'm here. | |
| I'm calling about the early voting, the people going around collecting paper ballots. | ||
| One of the people called earlier said about the nursing home, people going into the nursing home and collecting early voting. | ||
| I had an election worker come in and to get me to vote early. | ||
| I told her I was a Republican and I was voting for Donald Trump. | ||
| And she wanted me to vote early because that's the regulations in the state. | ||
| And it's allowed by state law. | ||
| And the presidential election is really run by a coherence of state laws. | ||
| And the regulation is in Massachusetts. | ||
| Early voting is legal and encouraged, actually. | ||
| I told her I wanted to vote on Election Day because the Constitution specifies the first Tuesday after the first Monday. | ||
| And David, are you able to get to the polls on your own without any problems? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I arranged it with a nursing home, and some people here made arrangements for me to go to the polls on Election Day. | |
| I got there in the afternoon. | ||
| They had some other things to do in the morning, but I did get there, and I got to vote on Election Day like I wanted to. | ||
| And the nursing home arranged it for me. | ||
| All right, David. | ||
| And some news for you, some political news for you. | ||
| This is from the Texas Tribune. | ||
| U.S. Representative Chip Roy and Paxton aide turned foe to run for Texas Attorney General. | ||
| It'll be the first test of whether Roy's, at times, frosty relationship with President Trump and his turn against Paxton can withstand scrutiny in a statewide primary. | ||
| And he did post just now on X. | ||
| He says this, Texas has a long and proud tradition of rising to defend our homes, our freedom, and our communities. | ||
| I'm running for Attorney General to carry on that legacy, unafraid to fight, unafraid to win, and unafraid to defend Texas at every turn. | ||
| That's Chip Roy running for, announcing his run for Attorney General of Texas. | ||
| Robert Norman, Illinois, Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, everyone. | |
| Paxton aid turned off. | ||
| Robert, you got to turn down your TV. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's okay. | |
| Just second. | ||
| Sorry. | ||
| It's okay. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
About the D.C., the military in D.C. and in California. | |
| Yep. | ||
| We are in an insurrection in those two states. | ||
| Just because Trump has not called for insurrection does not mean that we are not in an insurrection state. | ||
| If you look at the qualifications of the law concerning insurrection, it is an insurrection. | ||
| He hasn't just called for insurrection. | ||
| Number two, it's voting as far as the Texas issue with the voting and the redistricting. | ||
| That shows a lot on the people of Texas. | ||
| Of course, Texas had the long history of slavery and Juneteenth and not telling people. | ||
| And I'm starting to look at not so more as the representative, but as the people who vote the representative in the power of the lacking of morality, values, and traditions that affects the whole entire country. | ||
| Plus, right now, it looks like we are a racist, discriminatory country going back to the 1930s instead of 1960. | ||
| It's really concerning. | ||
| Okay, got those two points. | ||
| Merle in Far Rockaway, New York, Independent Line. | ||
| You're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for taking my call. | |
| I'm calling because a caller asked the last guest if Russia allowed voting by mail. | ||
| And I was hoping that you would Google that for him because Putin signed a law allowing voting by mail and internet. | ||
| So Russia certainly does have voting by mail and internet since 2000. | ||
| And that's what I wanted to say about that. | ||
| And I wanted to say that I enjoy watching you and what you do when you run there. | ||
| And I wish that you would run for something. | ||
| I'm not running for office, Meryl. | ||
| I'm happy right here at C-SPAN. | ||
| Adele, Manchester Township, Democrat in New Jersey. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Does C-SPAN have any updated information on the children that were kidnapped from Ukraine and taken to Russia? | ||
| Their condition, whether or not they will be returned to Ukraine, that whole topic seems to have been silenced by everyone. | ||
| And please bring it up to the fore that something has to be done. | ||
| They have to be brought back to Ukraine. | ||
| They have to be brought back to their families, their mothers, their brothers, their sisters, whoever. | ||
| Yeah, so this has been brought up. | ||
| You remember President Trump delivered a letter from First Lady Melania Trump to Putin about those children. | ||
| And then there is a letter from First Lady of Ukraine that was given to President Trump about those children. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Will this be discussed in terms of the next meeting? | ||
| As far as you could tell. | ||
| All right. | ||
| We'll watch that. | ||
| Erin in Marion, Michigan, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Mimi. | |
| Uh-oh, Erin, you do not have a good connection. | ||
| Try again. | ||
| No, we do not have a good connection. | ||
| Sorry, Erin. | ||
| Try to call another time. | ||
| Teresa, Phoenix, Arizona, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| This is my first time calling. | ||
| I'm here with my sister, Melinda. | ||
| I am from Texas. | ||
| I have left the Republican Party because of the treatment of people by the Republican Party. | ||
| The fact that President Trump can call up and say, change everything because this is what I want. | ||
| I want to throw this election. | ||
| Well, he accused the American public of throwing an election. | ||
| He is guilty. | ||
| All right, Teresa, I got to cut you off right there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today, a discussion about the future of U.S. foreign policy in Eastern Europe in light of the Russia-Ukraine war with retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vinman, who served on the National Security Council during the first Trump administration. | |
| This follows President Trump's separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate a possible end to the war. | ||
| Hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, watch live at 6.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| And past president nominal. | ||
| Why are you doing this? | ||
| This is outrageous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a tangoro cause. | |
| This fall. |