CSPAN - Washington Journal 08/30/2025

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Aug. 30, 2025 07:00-10:03 - CSPAN

03:02:47

Washington Journal 08/30/2025

Participants

Main

kimberly adams

cspan 42:44

Appearances

amy klobuchar

sen/d 01:19

brian lamb

cspan 00:46

dr tom frieden

01:42

jason riley

00:32

jd vance

admin 02:12

mike johnson

rep/r 00:34

robert f kennedy-jr

admin 01:17

Clips

dana bash

cnn 00:18

greg abbot

00:27

john berman

cnn 00:08

julie kelly

00:27

paul harvey

00:02

rep jim guest

00:04

Callers

denise in florida

callers 00:18

steve in ohio

callers 01:14

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		On C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then the president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker, Vincent Vernuccio, talks about the Trump administration's approach to labor-related issues.
		And the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future, Shondell Newsom, on the state of small-scale enterprise in the U.S. Washington Journal is next.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Saturday, August 30th, 2025.
		We're looking for your top story of the week this hour.
		There was news just last night that another court ruled President Trump's sweeping tariffs don't pass legal muster.
		And earlier in the week, there were multiple firings and resignations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
		And there is continued grieving in Minnesota following the church shooting there this week as well.
		What's your top news story of the week?
		Our phone lines for Republicans, 202-748-8001, for Democrats, 202-748-8000, and for Independents, 202-748-8002.
		If you'd like to text us, that number is 202-748-80003.
		Please be sure to include your name and where you're writing in from.
		We're also on social media at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ.
		Now, for coverage on the latest regarding those tariffs and that court ruling, let's look at the front page of the Wall Street Journal, which has the headline, Appeals Court Nixes Tariffs.
		The decision is the latest blow to a central prong of Trump's economic agenda.
		A federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration's signature tariffs late Friday, finding that the president had gone too far in his use of emergency powers to rewrite U.S. trade policy.
		The decision is the biggest blow yet to one of the signature policies of Trump's second term.
		The judges, however, allowed the tariffs to remain in place through mid-October to allow the parties to ask the Supreme Court to take up the appeal.
		The levies voided by the decision include the baseline tariffs of 10% on virtually all countries, steeper tariffs on countries the administration considers bad actors on trade, and an additional set of tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico.
		In other news that we were following this week, as I mentioned at the top of the show, the continued responses to the terrible shooting in Minnesota, here's coverage from KARE in Minnesota that Vice President Vance spoke on the Minneapolis shooting, saying that we have a mental health crisis in the United States.
		Wednesday's mass shooting at a church where Catholic students were attending Mass in Minneapolis was the latest in a long list of attacks targeting students.
		And Vice President Vance made those comments while visiting a steel fabrication facility in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where to tout President Trump's one big beautiful bill.
		And it was while he was there that he discussed that Catholic church shooting in Minneapolis.
jd vance ▲ ● ▼		And that's Vice President J.D. Van. Who really has a very big heart for children, obviously as a mother herself, she put out a statement earlier today that I think is really worth taking a look at because this happens too much in our country.
		And if you look, we really do have, I think, a mental health crisis in the United States of America.
		We take way more psychiatric medication than any other nation on earth.
		And I think it's time for us to start asking some very hard questions about the root causes of this violence.
		And I'm going to be part of that.
		And the first lady and the president are going to be part of that.
		But that's going to be an American conversation that we're going to have together.
		But before we have that conversation, if you are the praying type, I would ask you to join me in prayer.
		I'm just going to say a prayer for the two little kids who lost their lives yesterday.
		And this is a prayer we say a lot in my church, and I've always found it very meaningful.
		It's very short.
		But eternal rest grants unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
		May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
		Amen.
		Thank you all.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, Senator Amy Klobuchar also made comments related to the shooting in Minneapolis.
		That's Minnesota's senator.
		She's a Democrat, and she shared the details about one of the daughters of one of her former staffers who was at that church yesterday morning.
amy klobuchar ▲ ● ▼		My former employees was with me a long time.
		She said I could use her name, Caden Island.
		Her daughter, Cora, was in there.
		She was one of the older kids.
		This is a pre-K through eighth grade school.
		Loved school in the neighborhood, beloved school with all the parents, and that church is right there next to it.
		So the kids were in the mass and they were packed in there.
		And so this girl, seventh, eighth grade, literally watched her friends, some of her best friends, be shot, one in the neck, one in the stomach.
		And when they were running out, when they finally got out, she was the one, this child, who had to tell one of her friend's dads that the friend had been shot.
		And in, of course, the chaos that would ensue in any place when there's a mass shooting like this.
		And the other information that I got from the mayor and others were, of course, consistent with what you've heard.
		This was a man, a madman, acting alone, somehow knows about this ceremony.
		All those facts will come out, standing outside of this mass and shooting one by one by one these kids down as they're praying in the church.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		That story, one of several we've been following this week here on C-SPAN, but we're looking for your top news story of the week.
		Once again, our phone lines.
		For Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And for Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Let's start with Vincent in Tulsa, Oklahoma on our line for Republicans.
unidentified		Good morning, Vincent.
		Good morning.
		How are you doing, Kim?
		Pretty good.
		I'm pretty much below the poverty line.
		I just don't want my Medicaid to leave as fast as I think it should.
		I know I'm in Oklahoma.
		Maybe Stick, he's a governor here.
		Maybe he can do something about it.
		I don't want to hear about hospitals closing, really.
		And I voted for Nichols.
		He's the mayor of Tulsa, and he's a Democrat, but I just want to see how good he can do.
		And other than that, I don't really have a top story.
		I just want my Medicaid to leave as fast as it is.
		I'm below poverty.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Next up is Melvin in Richmond, Virginia, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Melvin.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
unidentified		How are you today?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Doing well, thank you.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		Kimberly, may you live long and prosper, as a Vulcan once said.
		Now, to my subject, as always, is economics.
		Of course, Trump, that's his main goal, is to try to get as much money put in his pocket from the American people.
		You know, if you look at the things that he really cares about, it's getting money.
		And of course, the main thing is with these tariffs that this judge had put a hold on temporarily.
		I'll be interested to see, because like everything, once he goes to the courts, it's going to go up to the Supreme Court, and we'll see exactly how they do.
		He seems to have every faction of the government in his pocket.
		With the only exception, of course, is the Federal Reserve.
		And of course, also my second big story of the week was the trial that is going on with the Fed governor, Lisa Cook, an African-American woman, a woman who was appointed by a Democrat.
		Trump wants to get control of the Fed.
		He couldn't do it by working on Powell.
		So now he's going down the line and they're investigating anyone who was appointed by a Democrat.
		And they just happened to find some what I would consider minor discrepancies on a mortgage application that she did for a second home, where she stated that the home was her primary residence, which of course is an era.
		But Trump doesn't give you any due process rights.
		If he doesn't like you, he fires you.
		And so I'm concerned about anything that has to do with finance with him because that is his whole game.
		He is kind of like a mob boss where he is instituting these tariffs, you know, and strong not only countries, but he's also strong arming companies like what he's doing with Intel, where now all of a sudden America owns 10% of that.
		So anything that has to do with finance, he's trying to get as much money he can put.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Melvin, because you mentioned the Lisa Cook story, I want to give our audience a bit more detail on that story that you're referencing here from CNBC's reporting that this is a story from just yesterday, that the fate of Fed Governor Lisa Cook is still up in the air after a court hearing on Trump's firing bid.
		A court hearing in Washington, D.C. ended without a judge ruling on a request by the Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook to temporarily bar President Donald Trump from firing her.
		Trump pointed to suggestions that Cook committed mortgage fraud when he said he would remove her from the Fed, which sets interest rates that he wants cut.
		Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bull Pulte made a second criminal referral to the Justice Department against Cook, the first black woman to serve on the board.
		Next up is our caller, James, from Rome, Georgia, on our line for independence.
		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		I agree with everything the Lance Carlis said about Trump.
		It's all about money.
		What we've discovered is that he has bought $100 million worth of bonds from the Treasury Department since he left.
		Since he got into office the day he got in office, he started buying.
		And this directly affects how he governs this country, how he rules this country.
		He has moved $450 billion worth of gold to secret locations.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		James, I want you to finish your point, but I do want to give folks a bit more context on that bond purchase that you were referencing.
		There's a story in Reuters with the headline, as you mentioned, Trump buys more than $100 million in bonds since inauguration disclosure shows.
		Again, this is reporting from Reuters that the U.S. President Donald Trump has bought more than $100 million in company, state, and municipal bonds since taking office in January, according to new disclosures which shed further light on the vast holdings of America's billionaire president.
		The forms posted online Tuesday, and this story is from August the 20th, show the Republican former real estate mogul made more than 600 financial purchases since January 21st, the day after he was inaugurated for his second term in the White House.
		Please continue with your point, James.
unidentified		And the reason why I'm saying this, he has moved $450 billion worth of gold to secret locations out of Fort Knox to people.
unidentified		That's our goal and money.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, James, where are you hearing that about the gold purchases?
		That one I'm not able to find so quickly.
		Can you tell me where you heard that?
unidentified		I've got secret information.
		This is what I'm talking about, that this has been done.
		It was secretly moved.
		Whistleblower.
		And I can't go into the details of how I found this out.
		But what he's going to do, he's going to trade this cryptocurrency, these mimic coins.
		And he's backing this up with our gold from Fort Knox.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And when he leaves office, James, I'm not able to verify that bit, but you want to wrap up your larger point?
unidentified		Yeah, I want to wrap up my larger point.
		And what he is going to do, and Republicans are going to go for it, is he's going to use racism.
		That's the most important motivator behind the Republican Party, and it's always been.
		Ronald Reagan's motto was make America great again.
		And this is just a racist he wanted all these states, and you have a lot of these people who are still alive.
		Racism is the most important motivator for Republican and white people in this country.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Joe is in LAJ, Georgia, on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Joe.
unidentified		Kimberly, I love C-SPAN.
		I've been calling you a great network for 30 years.
		Y'all do a great job.
		I just want to say that the big issue for me is Trump going after crime.
		He wants to make Americans safe.
		I think he's the best president in history.
		I'm a stock market guy, and the stock market's breaking every record.
		So I think Trump is the greatest leader in history.
		And I live in LAJ, Georgia, and we meet at Boo's BBQ and talk about how great he is because, in my opinion, he's number one.
		And I love his attack on crime.
		He wants to make America safe for all citizens.
		And I think he is the greatest leader in the history of the world and keep up the great work on Z-SPAN.
		Y'all do a super job.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Donald is in South Bend, Indiana, on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Donald.
unidentified		Yeah, I'll be real quick.
		My biggest story this week is what's happening with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and at the CDC.
		I urge everybody out there, this is not a partisan issue, people.
		I urge everybody out there to call your senators and your representatives and say this Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to be fired.
		He's going to kill people with his policy, you know, especially in relation to the CDC.
		That's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you for your call, Donald.
		A little bit more information on that from the Associated Press regarding those firings.
		This is a story.
		The CDC gets a new acting director as leadership turmoil leaves the agency reeling, saying that the nation's top public health agency was left reeling Thursday as the White House worked to expel the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director and replace her with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s current deputy.
		The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as Kennedy tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research.
		Two administration officials said Jim O'Neill, the second in command at the Department of Health and Human Services, would support Susan Menares, a longtime government scientist.
		O'Neill, a former investment executive who also served at the Federal Health Department under President George W. Bush, does not have a medical background.
		The officials who confirmed the change requested anonymity to discuss personnel decisions before a public announcement.
		Back to your calls on your top news story of the week.
		Matt is in Bath, New York, on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Matt.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		The two guys that said Trump's all about the money, where were they when the Biden crime family was raking it in?
		Anyways, that's not my story of the week.
		It's J.D. Pritzker mimicking Chuck E. Schumer with how safe it is.
		It's last week, Chuck Schumer talked about how he's out around the monuments at 6 a.m. and everything's fine and he feels safe.
		And then this week, Pritzker is out at 6 o'clock in the morning along the lakefront.
		People are running and he feels so safe.
		There's only one problem with both of them stories.
		First of all, at 6 a.m., everybody knows that the crime doers, the near-do-wells, that's when they're all back in bed after a long night of creating crime.
		And that's why a lot of police departments have early morning raids because they know that their subjects are going to be home in bed.
		But on top of that, I'm sure Chuck didn't go out anywhere without his security detail.
		And I'd like to see Chuck take a walk in the Rosemont section, I think they called it, D.C., the worst part, by himself at night and claim the same thing.
		And as far as Pritzker goes, I'd like to see him take a walk through the south side of Chicago by himself.
		They're both hypocrites.
		They think people are stupid.
		And it's just ridiculous that they put that out there.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		One of the stories that Matt was referencing there is also in CBS News that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says sending military troops to Chicago would be an invasion by the Trump administration.
		Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker told CBS News that the Trump administration has not communicated with his state on a reported plan to send military forces to Chicago, calling the idea an invasion and arguing President Trump has other aims aside from cracking down on crime.
		Asked about a possible military deployment to America's third largest city, which was recently reported by the Washington Post, Pritzker told CBS News, it's clear that in secret they're planning this.
		Well, it's an invasion with U.S. troops, if they, in fact, do that.
		Roseanne is in San Diego, California on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Roseanne.
unidentified		Hi.
		I have several important stories or top stories for this week, but I'm going to go with the guy who called in earlier and talked about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., how he's actually waging a war on science.
		It's really terrible.
denise in florida ▲ ● ▼		And they're putting businessmen and RFK Jr., who is ideologue in charge of the nation's medical establishments, people that don't have any knowledge about science or medicine.
unidentified		And they're going to tell us that the COVID virus vaccine doesn't need to be given and doesn't need to be reviewed by experts and blah, blah, blah.
unidentified		So my biggest, it's not just RFK Jr., even though he's the worst.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Roseanne, if I can pause you for a moment, I want you to stay on the line so you can give your other story.
		But I want to play a little clip of a press event in Texas where Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy addressed some of those firings at the CDC and his concerns overall with the agency.
		And he made these comments on Thursday.
robert f kennedy-jr ▲ ● ▼		I would say this, that, first of all, I will confirm that we let go of Susan Minares yesterday.
		I'm not going to talk about personnel issues, but the CDC is an agency that is very troubled for a very long time.
		And anybody who lives through the COVID pandemic and saw all of these bizarre recommendations that were not science-based, all the misinformation understands that the CDC has on its website today among the top 10 medical innovations' greatest medical accomplishments in history was abortion.
		This is one of the greatest medical accomplishments because it keeps small families.
		Go to the website, look at it.
		Fluoridation, giving kids a toxin and vaccines.
		There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self-esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it's always been.
		I'm very confident in the political staff that we have down there now that they're going to be able to accomplish that and ensure the competent functionality of that agency.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Back to Roseanne in San Diego, California on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Roseanne.
unidentified		Everything he just said is a lie.
		He's not a scientist.
		He doesn't know what he's talking about.
		He's being influenced by people who are not scientists or doctors.
		Medical researchers are very highly educated and experienced.
		He doesn't know what he's talking about.
		He's ruining the CDC.
		He's not making it better.
		And he lied about saying that the CDC says abortion is one of the top scientific findings of the last, you know, how many years.
		Abortion has been around for 100 years, for one thing.
		Nobody discovered it the way you discover a virus or a vaccine.
		And what they actually noted is contraception that is helping in family planning.
		Abortion has nothing to do with that, nothing.
		So how he came up with that is really disgusting.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And you had another news story as well, Roseanne?
unidentified		Pardon me?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		You had another news story as well?
unidentified		Oh, yeah, I was just going to say about Pritzker or Trump, you know, invading a United States state, which is illegal under the Constitution.
		And, you know, he's just, Kennedy is destroying science and Trump is destroying democracy.
		And that's where we're at.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Betty is in Blacksburg, South Carolina on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Betty.
unidentified		Yeah, the only person that's come on this morning was that man, Georgie, that told the truth.
unidentified		If you let the Democrats, if a Demcrat comes back in President Bent, they'll bring every one of those illegals back right back in here.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And Betty, what's your top news story of the week?
unidentified		That's my top story.
		It's the lies.
		I never heard the like of lies on this program in my lifetime.
		And I know they're lying.
		I don't call to tell lies.
		I call to tell the truth what I see with my own eyes.
		And those little kids that got killed, I blame the Democrats because they keep on this protesting and they lying like a black dog.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Paul in England, in the United Kingdom on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Paul.
unidentified		Hi, Kimberly.
		Congratulations to all the TV companies all over the world, and America included, 415 years of film as well and radio.
		And my topic is: good luck to Donald Trump when it comes to this country as well, England, and future governments, future presence will make us proud as well, and friends as well.
		That's all I can say.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Angela in Conawingo, Maryland, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Angela.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'll give you the article you could pull up for my top news story this week.
		It's an NPR article under the title, Whistleblower says Trump officials copied millions of social security numbers.
		And in it is a written complaint by a whistleblower.
		You could actually click on the whistleblower complaint in there.
		It's 18 pages.
		And it's basically how these Doge officials violated numerous federal laws in accessing our data and storing our data.
		Currently, there's no oversight by the Social Security Administration of who's even accessing it and the current place it's stored.
		There's no tracking.
		There's no security oversight, cybersecurity oversight.
		They lied about having read-only access to the judge for that one injunction when there was an injunction.
		These are the move fast and break things tech bros, and I really don't see Republicans holding them accountable.
		Maybe if the Democrats get in there, they'll do some, they'll hold them accountable for what they've done.
		And I knew this was going to happen.
		I was worried about this from the day they barnstormed that building.
		Did you find the article, Kimberly?
		I did.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Here it is on, as you mentioned, NPR's website.
		Whistleblower says Trump officials copied millions of social security numbers.
		And a whistleblower says that a former senior Doge official now at the Social Security Administration copied the social security numbers, names, and birthdays of over 300 million Americans to a private section of the agency's cloud.
		That private cloud environment is accessible by other former Doge employees at the SSA and is lacking adequate security, the whistleblower claims, potentially putting an enormous amount of private information at risk to being revealed and possibly used by identity thieves.
		Okay.
		Next up is Nell in Jamestown, New York on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Nell.
unidentified		Yeah, it's my top story with what took place this past week regarding the killings in Minnesota.
		I feel like we need to have a frank national discussion regarding this whole philosophy of transgenderism and how it's impacting our society.
		I feel like it's a transemic.
		And until we come face to face with what is going on in schools regarding this gender ideology,
		I think we'll continue to see a lot of children be confused, be taken advantage of, be abused by those who are more interested in advancing this ideology rather than taking care of the well-being of children.
		I also feel like we see this being advanced through individuals like Kathy Hochl of New York, Nancy Pelosi, who want to make this a national agenda.
		And this will not only affect children adversely, but make our education system more of an ideological system rather than a system that develops children academically and in ways that foster the well-being of our society.
		So that would be my major news story of the time I pray for those dear people who have suffered so greatly because of what has taken place.
		And parents need not affirm this ridiculous notion of a delusional world of boys becoming girls and girls becoming boys.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's acknowledge God's design for a bit more context on what you're talking about regarding the Minneapolis shooter.
		This is from Time magazine.
		It's a headline, What We Do and Don't Know So Far About the Minneapolis shooter.
		And among the details that we have is that this person identified, has been identified by federal officials as a transgender woman.
		Westman was born as Robert Paul Westman on June 17th, 2002, according to court documents Time Reviewed.
		Westman's mother applied for their name to be changed to Robin M. Westman in 2019 in Dakota County, and a court granted the change in 2020.
		According to the court document, Westman, a minor at the time, identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.
		But a translation of part of Westman's notebooks by the New York Post Diana Nerozi offered a more complicated view of Westman's sexual and gender identity.
		Quote, I don't want to dress girly all the time, but I guess sometimes I really like it.
		I know I am not a woman, but I definitely don't feel like a man.
		Condemnation of transgender identity has been on the rise under President Trump, and many conservative and far-right personalities have latched onto Westman's transgender identity as a springboard for more attacks.
		Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, posted on X, quote, if they are willing to destroy themselves and how God made them, then they are willing to destroy others, and we saw that happen today, end quote.
		Right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer went as far as suggesting that, quote, parents need to start coming together to advocate for trans kids to not be allowed to attend classes in public schools.
		Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, however, quickly pushed back against any attempts to use the shooting as a means to demonize the transgender community, saying anyone who is doing so has, quote, lost their sense of common humanity.
		Next up is Donald in Raleigh, North Carolina on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Donald.
unidentified		Hey, how are you doing, Kevin?
		Feeling well.
		I want to know if you guys know anything about China, India, and Russia trying to form a new world order.
		Have you heard anything about that?
		I just heard a tip of it early this morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I have heard a bit of that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to look up an article for you while you continue your comment.
unidentified		That's what I just wanted to get the full information on that because that's a scary thing with Trump in command because I don't think he's qualified to handle a real situation.
unidentified		He can't even handle the Ukraine Russia situation.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So I'll read a bit here from a story that is in The Guardian with the headline, India's Modi to meet Xi and Putin on first China trip in seven years as Trump as U.S. tariffs bite.
		The Prime Minister's four-day trip, which includes a Japan visit, comes as Delhi seeks to diversify trade and bolster ties with Beijing.
		The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will land in China this weekend for his first visit in seven years, a trip that puts him in the company of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the Russian President Vladimir Putin, just as India's ties with Washington have soured.
		Modi's visit to Tianjin for a regional security summit comes days after the U.S. doubled tariffs on Indian exports to 50 percent, citing New Delhi's refusal to stop buying Russian oil.
		The ROE has upended years of deepening cooperation between India and the U.S., built on technology and a shared determination to counter Beijing's global ambitions.
		It has also forced India to aggressively look elsewhere to diversify its trade.
		That was the story that Donald was referencing.
		Let's hear now from Linda in Orange, Connecticut on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Linda.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How has everyone today?
		Kimberly, I wanted to call and let you know that one of the previous callers who cited this story regarding President Trump buying $100 million in Treasury bonds is cited in Business Insider and several other financial publications.
		And it is true.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Linda, I was able to find the article about the purchases of Treasury and municipal and company bonds, but the other story that the caller mentioned about Trump pulling gold out of Fort Knox and using it for personal reasons was a story I was saying I wasn't able to verify.
unidentified		That confused.
		It's federal treasury bonds.
		It's not gold.
		But the primary thing that I was calling about is I don't see why it matters why a mass shooting was done by a transgender.
		We just have hundreds and hundreds of mass shootings to look at in this country.
		The gender doesn't really matter.
		It's normally a white male.
		But there's been shootings by mass shootings.
		That's the issue.
		We can't go into churches, malls, and until we just, I feel like we have to stand on the list in Washington, D.C. when Congress is in session and just demand that this stop laws being written.
		There's been several attempts over the years, but it's not the transgender.
		It's the fact that we have mass shootings.
		And I think we're getting poured away from the subject itself by focusing on the transgender of this one shooter and not the problem of the mass murders in our country itself.
		And that's what I called this thing.
		Have a good one.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Ray in Pleasantview, Tennessee on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ray.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes.
		First of all, I want to say that during the Reagan administration, they talked Ronald Reagan into closing all these institutions for the insane.
		And that is the reason why we're having all this turmoil in the country.
		You need to get back to putting people in these institutions that are not able to control themselves.
		And when we do that, we'll see a decline in this craziness.
		Next thing is the majority of the people voted for what Donald Trump is doing.
		So he is trying to put people in position that will take out the people that are not doing the job.
		The bureaucracies are so full of people that just have no job.
		They're there, they're drawing a paycheck, and he's putting the right people in position for the people that voted for him, for the majority of the people of this country that wanted what he's doing to be in good working order.
		And so the Democrats need to quit being some paranoid and take a pill and let things work because it's working for the American people.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Next up is Josie.
		And Waterlit New York on our line for Democrats.
		But Josie, how do you say the name of your town?
unidentified		Water Valit.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Water Valit.
		Thank you.
		Go ahead.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
unidentified		You look lovely today.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you turn down the volume on your TV and then go ahead with your top news story of the week?
unidentified		Most definitely.
		I'm sorry.
		I'm just first I want to pour out my heart to those people who lost their children.
		There's so much talk about other criminals coming in here, and I know they are.
		What about the criminals that are already in our country that are doing horrendous things?
		And also him talking with Trump talking with Putin.
		I was watching how they were watching the C-SPAN and seeing how people in Ukraine are being just children are being killed and just all this and all these tariffs making enemies with people that we have good relationships with like Canada.
		All these things and it's all affecting prices here.
		Some agendas he has, I do agree with.
		I'm not even sure.
		I voted Republican before.
		I'm listed Democrat.
		It's just everything, I feel like everybody's like flying blind like a bat.
		But even worse than that, a bat flying in the sun.
		I just wish people would see things what they really are.
		You can't just fire people.
		He's just firing everybody.
		And there's so much crime in in our country already, with including whatever's coming in.
		They don't speak nothing about that.
		I mean, it's so scary.
		I live in a little small town, and even here, there's crime.
		And it's just getting worse.
		And as far as all these tariffs and everything, the food prices are insane.
		Every time you get a vegetable or whatever, it's always like rotten.
		Something's got to be done.
		I don't know what because I've never been political.
		Just recently, I started watching your show this last year.
		I just see such a change.
		People did not fear Hitler.
		They did not fear Mussolini, all these people, Castro.
		I don't want our country to become a communistic country.
		That's my main concern.
		Not for myself.
		I'm a senior citizen.
		I'm disabled.
		But what about the future?
		I know one thing.
		I don't want my grandchildren who happen to be, which is irrelevant, well, it is very relevant, who happen to be mixed.
		Puerto Rican, I have grandchildren that are half black.
		I don't want them to be hurt.
		All right?
		I think that everybody should be able to live in peace.
		I have my Christian beliefs, and I'm not going to change that.
		But I still don't want to stand in judgment on anybody that's not my job.
		I just want you to have a blessed day.
		And that's all I have to say.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Chas in Wisconsin on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Chas.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'd say the top story of the week that you guys have missed is, and as conservatives, we're not taught, you're missing the point when we're bringing up that the shooter is transgender.
		Most transgender kids, one, they're on all those hormones that are changing the makeup of their body to help them identify better, but they're also prescribed a ton of medication because they have anxiety, depression.
		All these prescriptions have very terrible side effects.
		And I think as you know, we can all agree that the human mind doesn't fully develop until 25.
		We hear about it all the time.
		So what are these medications doing to the mind that isn't even fully developed yet and giving these people these radical thoughts and these suicidal thoughts that, you know, why don't you have a topic about the over-prescription of the country?
		And, you know, this isn't the first trans shooter.
		And then we always have to tiptoe around that.
		These people are mentally ill.
		This is an illness that you're not comfortable in your own body.
		That's a problem.
		We can't just say, oh, that's okay.
		You know, you can feel that way.
		No.
		These people need real help, not coddling.
		Okay?
		So I would really appreciate C-SPAN producers.
		Why don't you have a topic on the over-prescription of these children that is destroying their lives?
		And then it's affecting us.
		By the way, I'm in Wisconsin.
		We had a Madison shooter, had gender dysphoria, shot up a Christian school.
		Tennessee, transgender, shot up a Christian school, shooting up children.
		This isn't like, you know, in the inner cities where the gangbangers are shooting up the gangbangers.
		And that's terrible, too.
		But you guys are more.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I would like to read you a USA Today op-ed that presents a counter perspective and then get your response to that if you don't mind.
		So, this is the headline: No, there is not an epidemic of shootings by trans people.
		In the immediate aftermath of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting on August 27th, a familiar narrative appeared on social media.
		The suspect, some high-profile accounts began posting, was transgender.
		This happens almost every time there is a school shooting in America.
		Commentators and politicians with huge social media followings peddle conspiracy theory that the attacker is trans and that claim is quickly debunked.
		This time, however, the claim was correct.
		The shooter who killed two children and injured 18 more was indeed transgender.
		Cue the outrage, right-wing commentators, congresspeople, and influencers seized on a now two-year-old narrative that America is witnessing an epidemic of violence from the trans community.
		That is not true.
		Americans who identify as transgender do not attack and kill people at a disproportionate rate.
		And according to several experts on extremism and mass shootings interviewed by USA Today, there's no evidence gender identity had any influence on Robin Westman's decision to shoot children at a Catholic school.
		Rather, the evidence the attacker left behind indicates a deep interest in mass shooters and mass shootings, suggesting involvement in an internet subculture that obsesses over these attacks, and that has become known as nihilistic violent extremism.
		Your thoughts on that, Chas?
unidentified		You let me have thoughts because you've hung up on me before without letting me have a rebuttal to something like that.
		You're putting words in my mouth.
		Fine.
		If you don't want to say that it's because they're transgender, they're on prescription drugs that are warping your mind completely.
		You're missing the point.
		I'm telling you to do stories on the over-prescription of these drugs.
		We've seen it before with the opioid epidemic where doctors, doctors were running their offices in the middle of the night giving these people these opioids, but yet we're not going to see a connection with this.
		I'm not saying if you don't want to blame transgenderism on it, fine.
		But it's the prescription drugs that are warping these kids' minds.
		Okay?
		And if you don't think that having an issue with your, you know, whether it's being conflicted if you're a boy or a girl is a mental illness, then you're mentally ill, Kimberly, because.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Nadia is in Houghton, Michigan on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Nadia.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My news story of the weekend.
		I appreciate you putting on the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council last night in regards to the recent bombings in Kyiv and the continued war of aggression by Russia in Ukraine.
		I thank you for highlighting the fact that this is definitely a war of aggression, legal and unprovoked.
		And I appreciate the fact that you had the entire UN Emergency Council on C-SPAN and being able to speak about what is happening in Ukraine.
		I am appalled that over and over the UN Security Council is calling for an immediate ceasefire.
		And yet, our administration allowed an indicted war criminal to come onto the United States soil.
		While I agree, as the UN Security Council and President Zelensky, we are all hopeful that there will be peace in Ukraine, and we are hopeful for the efforts of Trump.
		We also want there to be realistic truths in the fact that this is Russia's war of aggression and that Putin is a war criminal and that we need to start speaking the truth.
		That Russia, by its actions, is not showing any declaration of peace in Ukraine.
		The opposite, showing genocide and war crimes over and over again.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		As Nadia mentioned, you can find the full coverage of that UN Security Council emergency meeting on our website, cspan.org.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We also had it on this morning, and it is available for you to view there.
unidentified		All right.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Deborah in New York on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Deborah.
unidentified		Yes, hi.
		I do think that the shooting, which really these shootings don't really, it's almost like a passing news story.
		But the one thing I do want to say is the previous caller that talked about the shootings talked about, oh, these people are on these drugs, and that's transforming them.
		But the one common denominator between all of these shooters, we know exactly what it is.
		It's their access to guns.
		So this shooter that says he wants to get rid of the prescription drugs for these people and that they shouldn't be on drugs, how about we go for the obvious thing?
		Curtail these guns that should only be used in wars.
		I'm not saying to stop everybody from having guns, but to having more sufficient regulations that don't allow somebody to walk around the corner and pick up an AK-47 and go and do whatever they want with it.
		That's really all I have to say.
		Thank you so much.
		Have a good day.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Bruce is in Spartanburg, South Carolina on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Bruce.
unidentified		Good morning, ma'am.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What's your top news story of the week?
unidentified		Yes, the shooting.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Please go ahead.
unidentified		Do you have thoughts on it that you'd like to expand upon?
		Yes.
		I was in Minneapolis picking up a rare motorcycle at the week before July 1st, whatever that is.
		And I passed through Minneapolis and I saw the church.
		I was pulling a trailer and I rolled down the window and I prayed.
		I didn't know who was in there.
		I backed the trailer up some more.
		I didn't like the angle.
		And I prayed again, and I went on my venue.
		Those children are in heaven, man.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kyle is in Laurel, Maryland, on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kyle.
unidentified		Hello, can you hear me?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I can hear you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What's your top news story of the week?
unidentified		My top story.
unidentified		My top news story of the week is how Israel bombed Hansbury recently, not once, not twice, but there's new video showing that they bombed him four times, twice with a double-tack strike, a double-tap strike, which was followed by additional strikes in Gospel.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Robin is in Elm City, North Carolina on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Robin.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		I just wanted to tell these men or women maybe that are calling in saying this medication is messing up their minds.
		I was married to a transgender man who never came out until after 15 years of marriage.
		And he was so incredibly frustrated all the time.
		He was preoccupied all the time.
		It was as though, you know, I didn't know him almost.
		And then finally, after he came out, that explained why he was so insanely jealous.
		That explained why he was so frustrated and mad all the time.
		And he was really mean to people, especially me.
		So I think the transgender community is fine.
		The people that need to stop worrying about them is the people that are worrying about them.
		What do you need to worry about these people for?
		Let them live.
		Accept it.
		Love it.
		And definitely medicate it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Michael is in Essex, Connecticut on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Michael.
unidentified		You know, it's so absurd to hear people talking about transgender being the problem with this shooting or any of these shootings.
		It's just so absurd to hear that drugs are the problem.
		There are a lot of issues and a lot of problems, but there's one issue.
		Take a look at the shooters that we are always dealing with.
		They are always male.
		They are always white.
		But there's one other thing that everyone's afraid to talk about, and you need to.
		They're virtually always Christian.
		And especially this latest one was a graduate of this Catholic school.
		And by the way, in Minneapolis, just a couple of months ago, that other shooter who went and shot the elected officials in Minnesota, well, that other shooter was a Christian minister.
		The issue we have in this country, and no one wants to talk about it because people would rather drop to their knees and pray instead.
		Well, the issue is we're jamming nonsense into the heads of children who don't yet know how to read or do math, but we're telling them to believe in the ridiculousness of what is preached out of the Bible, and it's dangerous.
		A book that is filled with slavery, with violence, and we're jamming this into our children.
		So why would we be shocked when someone who's a graduate of the very school that was just shot up went and did the shooting, and that a minister went and did the shooting the last time around, and that the shooter over in Pennsylvania, I believe it was, who shut up the synagogue was another Christian white male who shot a bunch of Jewish people at the synagogue.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So I'm trying to find a reference to the man who's accused of shooting those Minnesota state reps being a minister.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Where did you see that?
unidentified		Well, that was public knowledge.
		He was a minister.
		He ran around preaching all over the place.
		Go check it out and you'll see it.
		But very important, and we need to take this seriously.
		We won't as a nation because people would rather pray to fix it rather than stop teaching our children nonsense.
		And if you want to teach them religion and any religion for that matter, wait until they're old enough to understand it.
		And I promise you, they'll reject it.
		And we won't have these problems that we're having.
		But religion is at the heart of every one of these shootings.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Bob is in Baldwinville, Massachusetts on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Bob.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Well, I had another topic I was going to talk about, but after Connecticut, I got to say, wow.
		I like that they call most people that do mass shootings white people.
		If they would at least categorize some of the shootings that happened in the intercities as they really are mass shootings, then you would find out that most mass shootings are from black people because black people kill more people in this country than any other race.
		They are 14% of the population.
		They do 57% of the killing.
		Another thing I'd like to say is: I love the tariff stuff that Trump's slowing down.
		If everybody in the world would step back and think for one second, we are 4% of the global population.
		We consume 56% of the world's product.
		Think about it for a minute.
		We are 4% of the population.
		We consume 56% of everything made.
		We run the show.
		If we don't want to buy your joke, you have to find somebody that can buy it.
		And there are a whole lot of buyers, okay?
		We suck up 56% of everything made in the world.
		So have a nice day.
		Bye.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Stuart is in Tacoma Park, Maryland, on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Stuart.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		First of all, black people are not the major murderers in this country.
steve in ohio ▲ ● ▼		But if we look at all the wars that the United States and white people have been involved with from the Civil War all the way, no one is a greater murderer than white people.
steve in ohio ▲ ● ▼		But my top story is the U.S. government and State Department denying visas to the Palestinians to come over here to the U.N.
unidentified		And that is, to me, a very, I guess, I don't know if you saw that or have you seen that, Kimberly?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I'm looking for it right now.
unidentified		But please continue.
		Deny visas to Palestinian officials.
		So we have several countries now that have decided they want to recognize Palestine.
		I believe France and I don't know a couple of others.
steve in ohio ▲ ● ▼		And because we're trying to, you know, solve this mass slaughter of innocent people.
		And I just want to say to the so-called right-wing religious group that somehow they can justify their belief in God, but at the same time, they can also see and accept what's going on to the children and dying people that are being blown up, like the gentleman said, hospitals being blown up.
		Over 160 journalists have been murdered.
		And Netanyahu, of course, is a war criminal, and he's allowed to come over here along with, I guess, Putin, the red carpet.
unidentified		So this is what this country has come to.
		And it doesn't seem to be any end.
		But what I will say is that America will pay.
		It will pay for what has happened and is happening to those Palestinian people.
		They are going to pay.
		The other, I think the top story is that the administration is removing, I think, $40, $400 and some billion dollars of aid.
		I know you might remember when they took food or aid away from you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Stuart, just very quickly, because we're just about out of time for this segment, I'll point out a story in the Associated Press about the first story that you mentioned: that the United States revokes visas of the Palestinian President and other officials ahead of the UN General Assembly.
		And this was a story from yesterday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month's annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, a step the Palestinian Authority decried as against international law.
		The other story that you're referencing, Stuart, about the aid cuts is covered here in the Washington Post.
		that Trump tries a new TAC to axe funds, move targets for $5 billion in global aid.
		President Donald Trump said he will cancel nearly $5 billion in congressionally appropriated funding for U.S. international assistance and diplomacy, setting up a fresh confrontation in the White House's attempt to wrest constitutional spending power away from lawmakers.
		The Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday called the move an attempt to undermine the law.
		One last caller before we have to go for this segment.
		Rachel is in Houston, Texas.
		Go ahead, Rachel, on our line for Republicans.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Yesterday, there were two cases of tuberculosis in a Texas high school.
		That there is this chaos going on at the CDC is one of my top stories for this week.
		And it's part of a bigger problem because I was reading that the World Health Organization is warning that cuts to health care might make TB surge.
		And I was also reading that some pharmacies are refusing to give COVID vaccines.
		This is a crisis.
		This is frightening.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		Well, thanks to all of our callers this hour.
		Later on, joining us will be to join us to discuss the state of small businesses in the United States.
		We'll have Shondell Newsom, the co-chair of the Small Businesses, Small Business for America's Future.
		But up next on this Labor Day weekend, we'll take a look at the Trump administration's policies directly affecting workers with the Institute for the American Workers, Vincent Vernuccio.
		be right back.
unidentified		Have been watching C-SPAN Washington Journal for over 10 years now.
		This is a great format that C-SPAN offers.
		You're doing a great job.
		I enjoy hearing everybody's opinion.
		I'm a huge C-SPAN fan.
		I listen every morning on the way to work.
		I think C-SPAN should be required viewing for all three branches of government.
		First of all, if you say hello, C-SPAN, and how you all covered these hearings.
		Thank you, everyone at C-SPAN, for allowing this interaction with everyday citizens.
		It's an amazing show to get real opinions from real people.
		Appreciate you guys' non-biased coverage.
		I love politics, and I love C-SPAN because I get to hear all the voices.
		You and C-SPAN show the truth.
		Back to the universe for C-SPAN.
		It's the one essential news network.
		Next week on the C-SPAN Networks, the House and Senate are in session.
		Both chambers must pass legislation to extend funding past September 30th to avoid a government shutdown.
		The House continues to work on legislation to fund energy and water projects for next year.
		The Senate will work on 2026 defense programs and policy legislation.
		On Wednesday, Nigel Farage, a member of the British Parliament, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on how European online censorship laws, specifically the UK's Online Safety Act and the European Union's Digital Services Act, threaten Americans' rights to speak freely online in the United States.
		And on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on President Trump's healthcare agenda.
		And Stephen Myron, President Trump's nominee to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, testifies at his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing.
		Watch live next week on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app.
		Also, head over to C-SPAN.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime.
		C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
		Washington Journal continues.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back for a discussion this Labor Day weekend on the Trump administration's approach to labor-related issues and workers.
		We're joined now by Vincent Vernuccio, who is the president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker.
		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Hey, Kiberley, thank you again for having me on.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And for those who are not familiar, what is the Institute for the American Worker?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you talk a bit about your organization, your point of view, and how you're funded?
unidentified		Sure.
		So we are a 501c3 nonprofit, and we educate about the benefits of championing the American worker.
		We believe that the individual American worker should be at the center of labor law, and we want to modernize labor law to get rid of the one-size-fits-all outdated policies of the past.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, and then once again, I know you said you're a 501c3, but can you talk about how you're funded, where your donations can mostly come from?
unidentified		Sure, we have various donations from all over the country, from individuals, foundations, and others.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right, in a broad sense, how would you characterize the Trump administration's approach to workers in the United States?
unidentified		Trump administration is very much pro-worker.
		We saw that from the first Trump administration to this one.
		They are putting workers and taxpayers first.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you give some specific examples of policies the administration has pushed forward to do that?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		Well, we've got some great nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.
		Scott Meyer and James Murphy are waiting a hearing and confirmation on the Senate.
		We've got Crystal Carey at the National Labor Relations Board, who is nominated for general counsel.
		As far as concrete policies, we're seeing putting taxpayer first ratcheting back.
		Some of the one-size-fits-all collective bargaining in the federal government.
		At the Department of Labor, we're seeing a lot of various programs that are putting individual workers first.
		The Deputy Secretary Keith Serling had a great op-ed on independent contracting several weeks ago.
		So we are very excited to see both regulatory and regulations and policy coming out of this administration from the National Labor Relations Board to the Department of Labor to OPM and others.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, you mentioned the National Labor Relations Board, which is currently without a quorum.
		And so, as you mentioned, some folks are waiting for nominations.
		But also, there was news just this past week that, well, I guess it was a little bit earlier, that a federal appellate court has found the structure of the NLRB to be unconstitutional.
		And obviously, there's likely to be an appeal of that, but this is in a case related to Tesla as well as, I believe, a maritime company.
		Can you talk a bit about that case and what you see as the future of the NLRB?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		It is very interesting.
		And, you know, this may be the opening to start to really think federal labor law within the United States.
		So essentially, there are two issues at play.
		This case deals with the first, which is that judges at the NLRB, these administrative law judges or ALJs, have no removal, are really insulated.
		And that, because they are making these, you know, really core decisions, is unconstitutional.
		The other issue that was not decided in this case, but is out there and could have a very sweeping effect, is that effectively you have these judges, you have the NLRB imposing penalties and forcing things on both companies, unions, and workers, but there's no jury and there's no jury trial.
		And there is really difficult recourse.
		So the two major issues in front of the constitutionality of the NLRB are first removal, which was decided and which was decided against the NLRB in this Fifth Circuit case, but also that fundamental right to a jury trial.
		Now, the combination of those two, you know, likely will have to go up to the Supreme Court, but if the Supreme Court finds that this fundamental structure of the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, then Congress may have to act.
		And if Congress has to act, then we're seeing an opening of the National Labor Relations Act, you know, federal labor law that deals with most private sector employees in the workplace.
		And, you know, that could mean that there could be some serious rethinking of what I believe is very outdated laws that stem really just from the Industrial Revolution almost 100 years ago.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		There's a headline in the New York Times, and this has been widely reported, that the year will end with 300,000 fewer federal workers, according to a Trump official.
		And this reduction would be the largest single-year decline in civilian federal employment since World War II.
		And this is going on to say that there will be some 300,000 fewer federal workers on the government payroll by the end of December than there were in January, according to the Trump administration's top human resources official.
		That amounts to a loss of about one in eight federal civilian workers and would be the biggest, the largest single-year reduction since World War II.
		But in an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, Scott Cooper, painted the coming few months as a period of relative stability after a time of tremendous upheaval.
		What do you think of those estimates and how it may show up for Americans?
unidentified		Well, you have to go back.
		The Trump administration offered very generous buyout terms at the start of his administration.
		And tens of thousands of federal employees took advantage of those buyout terms.
		The president is trying to right-size the federal government.
		Now, first, I've been there, I've been laid off, it is extraordinarily stressful, and my heart goes out to federal employees that are now looking for new employment.
		I'm sure they will find it.
		There's a lot of talented federal employees out there.
		A lot of them are still working for the government.
		But the Trump administration is right-sizing the federal government, making sure that it is more responsive, efficient, and effective for taxpayers.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now then also earlier this week the Trump administration ended federal sector collective bargaining for several agencies.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Why do you think the administration is doing this?
unidentified		Well the Civil Service Reform Act, the federal law dealing with federal collective bargaining is clear and it's actually both very specific and it's also very vague.
		It is very specific in the fact that the president has the ability to determine which agencies deal with national defense.
		And if the president determines that an agency is dealing with national defense, national security, and that is part of the mission, then he has the ability according to federal law to say that the federal government for expediency is not going to collectively bargain with those agencies.
		Now that's the specifics.
		The vagueness is that the law does not define national defense at all.
		So it really is the prerogative and what the president determines is national security.
		And that's where this is coming from.
		You know, I know that there are a lot of cases and the Trump administration, in my opinion, will absolutely prevail because the law is very clear on the president's ability to determine which agencies deal with national security.
		And if they do deal with national security, he can say, well, we need to be responsive to the taxpayer.
		We need to be responsive to the security of the country.
		And therefore, we are not going to collectively bargain with those departments and agencies.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now then, there was a reaction from the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelly, who said this latest executive order is another clear example of retaliation against federal employee union members who have bravely stood up against his anti-worker, anti-American plan to dismantle the federal government.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of their assessment and how these cuts might affect the services that Americans receive?
unidentified		Well, it's really telling that he's talking about standing up to the president.
		Remember, these are federal employees.
		President Trump, through the Office of Personnel Management, has also issued another regulation after an executive order, the Schedule Policy Career.
		And this actually goes to the heart of the kind of criticism and almost veiled threat that was just laid down by the unions.
		This essentially says that federal employees in decision-making capacity, so we're not talking about all career federal employees, but federal employees that can throw sand in the gear of lawfully enacted policies by the administration.
		It's not just this administration, it's future administrations as well, could be removed if they are not doing their job, if they're not doing their job simply because they are doing other things and they're prioritizing other things than what they are ordered to do, or as you just heard from that union leader, if they disagree with the lawful policies of the president.
		So it is really interesting that the unions are essentially putting it in writing and justifying the regulations put out by this administration to make sure that the chief executive has the ability to run the government as the American citizens elected him to do.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Another union leader this week, the AFL-CIO's president Liz Schuler, released a video which in part highlighted, excuse me, what she says is the Trump administration's actions against federal employees and how unions are fighting back.
unidentified		When this administration fired federal workers who have made up our civil service for decades, disproportionately hurting black workers and communities of color, cutting the programs so many working families depend on, telling our educators, don't talk about Harriet Tubman and the Tuskegee Airmen in our schools.
		Our teachers, our civil servants, our members all over this country stood up and said, hell no.
		And when this administration came for immigrant workers, when our brothers and sisters who have contributed to this country, contributed to our communities, were snatched off the streets, disappeared, and detained in for-profit prisons without charges or due process, we rallied around them.
		We trained an entire grassroots army of union activists, organizers, and members so we could exercise our constitutional rights and fight for their release and keep them here with their families where they belong.
		That ability to take on power, to create and build power of our own, it's what unions do.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are your thoughts on that assessment?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And in particular, why shouldn't federal workers have the same rights to organize as, say, folks in the private sector?
unidentified		Well, first, federal employees can still join unions.
		Even in the agencies that deal with national offense that are no longer collective bargaining, they can still band together and they can still work together advocating policies and voicing their concerns.
		So there is absolutely no curtailment on that.
		They still have those same abilities, those same rights that are protected under the First Amendment.
		What the schedule policy career and what the Trump administration has done is said that in agencies that need quick responses for national security, that there is not collective bargaining.
		And there is a difference between the right to join a union, the right to band together, the right to air what you believe in, and forcing the government to collectively bargain.
		Essentially, in those agencies dealing with national security, that is what we are talking about here.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We're going to be taking your calls with questions for Vincent Vernuccio just in just a little bit.
		Our line for Republicans is 202-748-8001.
		For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And for Independents, 202748-8002.
		Now, Vincent, in that clip that we just heard from the president of the AFL-CIO, she also mentioned immigrant workers.
		And there have been several stories highlighting how the Trump administration's immigration and deportation strategies may be negatively impacting the U.S. workforce overall.
		What are your thoughts on that assessment?
unidentified		You know, I'll tell you, I am a labor guy.
		I am not a specialist on immigration, so I would not want to get over my skis there.
		So probably not the best qualified to talk about it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So let's look at some, well, actually, let's take a call from Ralph.
		Ralph in Manoa, New York on our line for Democrats.
		Go ahead, Ralph.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		I'm a UAW worker from upstate New York.
		And the guest mentioned the two nominees for the National Labor Relations Board, but these are management type people.
		They're not going to give workers a fair shake.
		And there's two important NLRB rulings under the Biden administration, which was a pro-worker board.
		It was Amazon Company Services, and that happened to do with captive audience meetings where the employer can force workers to go in the meetings and browbeat them against voting for their local union.
		The other one was the CERMAX Construction Materials, and that would streamline union elections.
		The two nominees to their board that your guests say they're management people, and the fear is that they're going to reverse these two pro-worker decisions.
		So on Monday, we will march on Labor Day to celebrate the dignity of work and the value of workers, but there will be a dark cloud hanging over workers on Labor Day with the Trump administration assault on the American working men and women.
		And I thank you for your time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Ralph's assessment of the Trump administration's actions are quite different than yours.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What are your thoughts, Vincent?
unidentified		Absolutely.
		Well, let's talk about both of those decisions, and then I'll talk about some legislation in Congress that is looking to address at least one of those.
		So first, what he called captive audience meetings, I like to call it really employer meetings on unionizations or emus, if you will.
		Essentially, these are all staff meetings, just like safety meetings, all hands meetings where employees are paid for their time and the employer is able to talk to their employees about what they think about unionization.
		In a lot of cases, this is the only time that employees do hear the employer's point of view.
		So those employer meetings on unionization, those EMUs are extremely important for employees to hear both sides of the story and make an informed decision.
		The other case that the caller was calling about, you know, he called it union elections.
		That's not exactly what the ruling said.
		I'm sorry to say I have to correct the caller a little bit.
		Essentially, what the NLRB under the Biden-appointed board said in Cemex is that if a employer runs afoul of labor law, and there's a lot of really minutiae issues that they could run afoul from and a lot of times not even know they're running afoul, that employers, excuse me, the employees could have a vote on unionization.
		They could vote no and vote against the unionization.
		And then the NLRB could actually come in, pull the rug out from under those workers and say, well, you know, a majority of you guys signed cards, so we're just going to negate your vote, negate your Democratic voice and say we're going to recognize this union anyway and recognize them essentially by card check, which is a very unreliable process for determining unionization, can lead to intimidation and coercion.
		That's why there's legislation in Congress by Representative Allen of Georgia that directly addresses and tries to guarantee and guarantees the secret ballot in unionization election.
		And that legislation is the Employee Rights Act.
		The Secret Ballot Protection Act in the Employee Rights Act is only one piece.
		It also guarantees workers the ability to fully opt out of union representation and frankly gives unions the ability to say that they don't have to represent workers not paying them.
		One of their chief issues in right to work states, it has privacy protections for workers so workers can decide what piece of personal information is given over to unions, whether it's a cell phone, an email address, a home address.
		Right now, all that information is given over to the unions, whether private sector workers want it or not.
		It protects the ability of workers to be independent contractors and decide if they want to work for themselves.
		It also protects small businesses and their ability to work as a subcontractor, as a franchisor, and run their business as they wish and have employees work directly for them.
		It allows equal representation for all employees.
		So collective bargaining agreements can't favor one group of employees from another.
		It gives employees, workers, and employers, essentially Freedom from Union Violence Act, from union violence.
		There's actually a Supreme Court case that says that unions are exempt from RICO, from racketeering if they're doing violence in the term of furtherance of union objectives.
		And there's several other issues in the Employee Rights Act as well that I'd love to talk about.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		The Institute for the American Worker has a backgrounder on the Employee Rights Act on their website, if4aw.org, that gets into the details of that legislation that you were just talking about.
		Let's hear from Joe in Bowling Green, Ohio on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Joe.
unidentified		Hi.
		Your guest says he's pro-worker, but he wants an NLRB that can't enforce regulations, that he wants futures that can't collectively bargain.
		He sounds basically just sounds like a front man for the Trump administration.
		I'm hoping that you guys will have some actual pro-worker people on.
		He sounds hypocritical, basically.
		He claims to be for workers.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Did you have a question for Vincent Bernuccio?
unidentified		Yes.
		How is it that you want to enforce people to be independent contractors when independent contractors don't get benefits?
		They don't get health insurance.
		They don't have retirement, you know, because they're being forced to compete with other independent contractors.
		How can you claim to be pro-worker when you're trying to take away the benefits of being an employee?
		No, that is an absolutely great question.
		And I'm not.
		There's actually legislation that I think is fantastic.
		There's both House and Senate version.
		House version by Representative Kevin Kiley, the Modern Worker Security Act.
		And there's companion legislation, a little bit different wording, but the Unlocking Benefits for Workers Act by the chair of the Senate Health Committee, that's the Senate Labor Committee, that would allow independent contractors to get benefits from their clients, the people that they are working with.
		Unfortunately, now, if a company wanted to allow independent contractors to buy into their benefits, buy into their 401k, their health insurance, or give it to them as part of a retainer package, it would actually be used as a ding against them in employment status.
		So from both the client and the contractor perspective, it unfortunately is extraordinarily risky.
		And I agree with you.
		Independent contractors should have access to those type of benefits.
		I've been an independent contractor.
		It was great.
		The flexibility, the ability to earn, work with who I wanted when I wanted.
		But the main problem that I ran into is that getting health insurance, getting benefits was incredibly difficult and incredibly expensive.
		That's why legislation like the Modern Worker Security Act, the Unlocking Benefits for Workers Act is incredibly important at that level.
		And at the state level, you see states like Utah, Tennessee, Alabama providing for portable benefits, state legislation.
		And I think that is going to go a long way.
		The flexibility and the freedom to work for yourself as an independent contractor is fantastic, but something has to be done to give them legal clarity, and that is another piece of legislation also housed in the Employer Rights Act, the Modern Worker Empowerment Act in both the House and the Senate, and also the ability to get benefits such as that Modern Workers Security Act and the Unlocking Benefits for Workers Act in the Senate.
		So I really do appreciate the question.
		I do agree with you on the benefits issue.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		A bit of polling, just to add some context to our conversation.
		This is from Gallup, showing that in terms of Americans' views towards labor unions, 68% of Americans overall approve of labor unions.
		That is 90% among Democrats, 69% approval rating among Independents, and a 41% approval rating among Republicans.
		Back to the calls.
		Thomas is in Blakeslee, Pennsylvania, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Thomas.
unidentified		Thank you for taking my call.
		I want to talk about FEMA is a perfect example of getting rid of federal employees when we need them.
		Why would you break down FEMA slowly, little by little, in the middle of a hurricane season?
		The man who's even running for, who runs FEMA at this moment, didn't even know there was such a phrase called hurricane season.
		He didn't even know that.
		But here again, as far as the Trump's administration policy towards U.S. workers, is a flush.
		So I want to know whether you think of them getting rid of people who are experts and experienced in qualifications because the people who need FEMA can't get it anymore.
		They've got to fend for themselves.
		You either have to beg the administration, people are paying their fair share of taxes, federal taxes, and can't get the money to help their communities.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Vincent, your thoughts on the caller's point?
unidentified		Sure.
		Well, once again, I am not a disaster expert.
		I am not a FEMA expert.
		Once again, I would not want to get over my skis there, except that, you know, the Trump administration, I believe, is right-sizing the federal government.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay, next up is Bobby in Warncliffe, West Virginia, on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Bobby.
unidentified		Yes, let me first say that I'm a United Mine Worker of America, and my local is 1440 located out of Mate 1, West Virginia, where the mine massacre happened in the 1920s.
		And what I would like to say is the company that I worked for was A.T. Massey Coal Company.
		Now, A.T. Massey Coal Company at one time was very labor-friendly for us and was a union.
		And we made A.T. Massey.
		And A.T. Massey decided to branch off and have non-union assets.
		And when we were up for negotiations for a contract, at one time we had no income coming in at all.
		You know, we just had to suffer maybe 90 days or six months trying to get a contract.
		But with this non-union operations, we had to come up with a plan.
		And we'd had a convention up in Pittsburgh back in the early 80s.
paul harvey ▲ ● ▼		I attended it as a delegate.
unidentified		And we came back with a selective strike fund, which would feed the families of these strikers until we would get a contract.
unidentified		But while we were doing that, and we selectively struck mining operations.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I really appreciate your sharing that history with us, but I'm wondering if you have a question for our guest, Vincent Vernuccio, regarding labor unions today.
unidentified		Yes, yes.
		My question to you is: we've got strike replacement legislation.
		The companies use their strategies.
		And what can we do?
		The Trump administration is not very labor oriented.
		That's proven by the appointment he made to the Labor Department.
		But my question to you, sir, is what can we do?
		Because we're worried about our health care and our pensions under this administration.
		And, you know, that's a lot of stress, and that's not real good on an individual.
		So could you answer that for me?
		Sure.
		Well, first, you know, with the collective bargaining negotiations, with uncertainty, I do know how stressful that could be.
		So I am sorry that you are under that stress and there is a cloud of uncertainty.
		Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the strike legislation you're referring to.
		I don't know if that's something in West Virginia or federally.
		So, you know, without more details, I would hesitate to really give an opinion because, unfortunately, I'm just not familiar with the legislation you're referring to.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's look at some data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about union membership in the United States today with the BLS finding that about 9.9% of Americans were in a union in 2024.
		That represents about 14.3 million wage and salary workers.
		And union membership in comparison back in 1983, a little over 40 years ago, was 20% with 17.7 million members.
		What do you think of those latest numbers and what's behind the decline?
unidentified		The numbers are bad for union membership, and you've been seeing them decline year by year by year.
		There are some blips, but both from a percentage standpoint and a raw number standpoint, you are seeing the union membership decline for the last several decades.
		And I think it's really indicative that the unions have not changed their business model.
		They were great in the 1930s and their business model in the 1930s for recruiting workers was on point.
		But unfortunately, the one-size-fits-all adversarial model of collective bargaining that was essentially born in the Industrial Revolution a century ago is not working for modern workers today.
		And while poll after poll does show that Americans have a favorable view of unions, when that question is delved into is, well, would you want a union at their workplace?
		Those responses and that favorability actually drops quite a bit.
		So I would like to see stronger unions across the country, but I would like to see those unions act as professional service organizations that is giving up essentially the government crutches that prop them up now with compulsion, with one-size-fits-all collective bargaining, and have those unions act like professional service organizations that really cater to individual workers instead of one-size-fits-all.
		And frankly, that's how I think they can stem their decline and really make a comeback.
		And that's why the policies in things like the Employee Rights Act and things that the Trump administration did during his first term, and we're waiting to see what happens again in this term, could be really powerful and assist unions.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Nancy in Austin, Texas on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Nancy.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I was first expecting to not like this gentleman when he came on, but I actually like him quite a bit.
		I live in Texas, and where we have right to work state, you can be fired for any reason.
		And while I may not like it, I have been laid off before.
		I still believe in that because it gave me the opportunity to go find someone who did appreciate me.
		Or I still have the opportunity in this country to start my own business.
		A lot of countries don't have that.
		We don't want to lose that people.
		We don't want to lose it where there's only big mega corporations who don't have any allegiance to our country that are in business or, you know, working for government.
		Those are the only options.
		That's how you get something you really don't want.
		I did call initially because of someone who mentioned two things.
		One man who mentioned FEMA, I would suggest that he go look and see what happened in North Carolina to see how they were not there and who helped them.
		They were not there actually helping the people forever.
		Who actually helped them were other people, other citizens, other states who the people came over and helped, brought tons of stuff.
		Don't you remember the big flood in North Carolina, excuse me, in Louisiana also?
		How individuals who were trying to bring things into the people were stopped by the government at the border, weren't allowed to come in.
		So I don't, FEMA's not that old of an organization.
		I would rather that go away and let the people who actually do something help individuals that need them in other states.
		That's how things get done.
		People helping people.
		I don't want to see everything run by government.
		I would ask for this gentleman.
		It's actually something I think that you all were showing as a side, ma'am, talking about illegal aliens.
		You've had someone on there talking about them.
		You know, it's actually against the law for someone to be in our country illegally.
dana bash ▲ ● ▼		And I would say for the viewers, you should look up and see how much of your money has been spent giving them free housing, free education, free medical care, actually free food, all on your dime, while our country is $37 trillion in debt.
unidentified		And I guess that would end it.
		And I say, thank you, sir, for being on here.
		Goodbye.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And any responses to some of Nancy's comments?
unidentified		Sure.
		Well, thank you.
		I appreciate it.
		And I want to go back to the beginning of the comment.
		We were talking about Texas and right to work.
		Let's talk about what right to work is.
		First of all, right to work does not have anything to do with a worker's ability to hold a job or at-will employment.
		That's a separate issue.
		What right to work means is that a union, it's a union representing private sector workers now, because pretty much all public sector workers have this right thanks to a Supreme Court decision called Janice versus ASME.
		But in the private sector, the majority of states that are right to work simply means that a union can't get a worker fired for not paying them.
		And that's it.
		It doesn't affect at-will employment, doesn't affect collective bargaining any way, any other way, except for saying that a union can't go to an employer and say, this person is not paying us, therefore they should lose their job.
		In fact, there is a great article in the Wall Street Journal, I believe it was last printed online last night, of a Stanford graduate student that is saying that because he does not want to support the politics of a union that has organized the graduate students at his college, that the university is now looking for him to lose his job.
		And the union wants the university to actually fire him because he refuses to pay the union.
		So, that really is the heart of what we're talking about when we're talking about right to work.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, this was a commentary in the Wall Street Journal that you're correct was published yesterday.
		It says, Stanford Graduate Student Union tries to stifle dissent.
		The university may fire me because I won't pay dues to a labor organization whose views I find repugnant.
		This is by a student named John Hartley, who says, I'm working as a teaching assistant while studying for a doctorate in economics at Stanford, but a campus union is trying to get me fired.
		The Stanford Graduate Workers Union wants my head on a plate because I refuse to sign a membership form and to pay dues.
		I won't fund an organization whose values and tactics I don't support.
		Similar unions across the country are using their bargaining power not to improve working conditions, but to coerce ideological conformity.
		This isn't solidarity, it's suppression.
		Shame on Stanford for going along with it.
		Next up is Tim in Charlotte, North Carolina, on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Tim.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		How are you?
		I'm going to try to be brief as I can.
		Most people on here don't know that administrative law judges are really kind of like federal judges.
		They're elected.
		They decide social security cases.
		They do a lot of stuff.
		But one thing they don't understand is most of them are Democrats.
		Number two, the flooding that happened in North Carolina is a great example of how incompetent FEMA is, and especially under Biden.
		I mean, there were two or three other incidents that happened that FEMA is really a joke, and it's mainly run by Democrats.
		And third, and finally, it just seems like on C-SPAN here, you guys really seem to have swung.
		I've been watching, I don't watch that much anymore, but I remember when Brian Lamb was on there in the 80s and the 90s, and it just seems like you guys have swung to the left.
		And it seems like if you count the callers, it seems like there's more Democrats every time I watch it.
		And it just gets worse and worse.
		And I mean, I'm really a true independent, but I would never vote for a Democrat.
		And it just is astonishing to me the way these people call up here and they don't understand how the system is run or who it's run by.
		And it is mainly Democrats.
		There are some Republicans that run this, but it's mainly run by Democrats.
		And that's why the government, in itself, with the Republicans, too, is so messed up.
		And it needs to have a total overhaul of the system.
		But the lady kind of stole my thunder about North Carolina.
		What's his name?
		Went up there, good Samaritan's purse.
		The guy from Charlotte went in there and put a lot of money in.
		Billy Graham's son, he went in there and saved a lot of people because FEMA is so incompetent and so corrupt.
		And unions are too.
		And people don't realize how corrupt unions are.
		I mean, look at Jimmy Hoffa, what happened to him.
		That's a great analogy of what unions are.
		And yes, it does protect workers to a certain extent.
		But like you just said about Stanford, look how they use the money to hold you hostage.
		And when you do go on strike, look what happens.
		But anyway, thanks.
		Have a good day.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Any thoughts on Tim's comments there?
unidentified		I think there was a lot there, and obviously we want to make sure that both sides are always heard.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Michael is in Hartford, Connecticut, on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Michael.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm disappointed with this president, the people who vote for him.
		The union is a great organization.
		Looking at the last 40 years when Reagan destroyed the F-Craft Control Union.
		Ever since then, the union is declining.
		You need check and balance.
		Look at our pension is we're losing our pension now.
		They want you to set up a 401k.
		They want you, your wages is falling in the last two, three decades of wages.
		Now corporate America is getting too big, too powerful, and now the workers is taking the beating.
		It will be a day where I won't want to have a middle class.
		You're going to have the rich and poor.
		How you build this country?
		A strong union with check and balance.
		And then you have a standard living, a great wages, benefits.
		Now, look at it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, Michael, we're just about out of time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Did you have a question for Vincent?
unidentified		Yes, my question is, since he's destroying the civic, the federal workers, and he's saying that he's going to use a national security for the union bargain people.
unidentified		That's another way to destroy a union.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I think referring to President Trump's using those powers that you were describing earlier, Vincent.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		But do you have any follow-up thoughts on that?
unidentified		Sure, once again, they could still have a union.
		The difference is that there is not mandated collective bargaining at those agencies that deal with national security.
		And the president is absolutely in the right there under the law, which gives him the authority to say which agencies are dealing with the national security and saying that, you know, because of the national security issue, they have to be able to be flexible and they have to be able to respond timely.
		And therefore, they do not have to be mandated to collectively bargain.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, thank you so much for your time and sharing your expertise.
		Vincent Fernuccio, who is the president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker.
		Really appreciate your time this morning.
unidentified		Hey, thank you again for having me on.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And later, we're going to hear from Shondell Newsom about the state of small businesses in the United States.
		Shondell Newsom is the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future.
		But up next, we're going to have open forum.
		So you can start calling in now.
		Our line for Republicans is 202-748-8001.
		For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		And for Independents, 202-748-8002.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Sunday night on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley, author of The Affirmative Action Myth, argues that the racial preference policies of the 1960s and 70s have had an overall negative impact on the success of black Americans.
		There are racial differences in America, in our society, cultural differences, ethnic differences.
jason riley ▲ ● ▼		But when it comes to public policy and how the government treats us, treats the population, no, it should not be picking winners and losers based on race or treating people differently based on race.
unidentified		It's been a disaster.
jason riley ▲ ● ▼		Whether the effort was under Jim Crow to elevate whites or the effort was under racial preferences to elevate non-whites, it's been a disaster.
unidentified		You know, people like to say that diversity is our strength in America, but I disagree.
jason riley ▲ ● ▼		Our real strength in this country has been to overcome our racial and ethnic differences and focus on what unites us as a country.
unidentified		That has been the strength of America.
		Jason Riley with his book, The Affirmative Action Myth.
		Sunday night at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app.
		Next week.
		On the C-SPAN networks, the House and Senate are in session.
		Both chambers must pass legislation to extend funding past September 30th to avoid a government shutdown.
		The House continues to work on legislation to fund energy and water projects for next year.
		The Senate will work on 2026 defense programs and policy legislation.
		On Wednesday, Nigel Farage, a member of the British Parliament, testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on how European online censorship laws, specifically the UK's Online Safety Act and the European Union's Digital Services Act, threaten Americans' rights to speak freely online in the United States.
		And on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on President Trump's health care agenda.
		And Stephen Myron, President Trump's nominee to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, testifies at his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing.
		Watch live next week on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app.
		Also, head over to C-SPAN.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime.
		C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered.
		Washington Journal continues.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		We're in open form, ready to take your calls on your thoughts on the news this week.
		But to get us going, I want to give the latest update on the redistricting fight that is happening all over the country.
		Here's a story from the Associated Press on Missouri being the next to answer Trump's call for redrawn maps that boost the GOP in 2026.
		Republican Governor Mike Kehoe said Friday that he is calling Missouri lawmakers into a special session to redraw the state's U.S. House districts as part of a growing national battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an edge in next year's congressional elections.
		Kehoe made the announcement just hours after Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a new congressional voting map designed to help Republicans gain five more seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
		It marked a win for President Donald Trump, who has been urging Republican-led states to reshape district lines to give the party a better shot at retaining control of the House.
		Missouri is the third state to pursue an unusual mid-decade redistricting for partisan advantage.
		Republican-led Texas took up the task first, but was quickly countered by Democratic-led California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is asking voters to approve a map aimed at giving his party five more seats.
		Looking for more on just that story from the New York Times Abbott, this is from the New York Times covering the Texas case in particular, that Abbott signs a gerrymandered map as the Texas GOP moves further right.
		After that bruising redistricting fight, Governor Greg Abbott signed a new congressional map into law, but the Republican-led legislature, newly emboldened, has not stopped there.
		The redistricting push has triggered a scramble in other states controlled by Democrats and Republicans to redraw their U.S. House maps ahead of the 2026 midterms as President Trump pushes to maintain control of Congress with methods far outside of the political norm.
		Now, here's Texas Governor Greg Abbott yesterday, just before signing that state's new redistricting map into law, which is designed to give Republicans those five seats currently held by Democrats.
unidentified		This is Governor Greg Abbott.
greg abbot ▲ ● ▼		I'm about to sign the law that creates the one big, beautiful map that ensures fair representation in the United States Congress for Texans.
		I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Speaker Burroughs, Senator King, Representative Todd Hunter, Representative Cody Vesut, and all of the legislature who stayed in the Capitol and got this law to my desk.
		Texas is now more red in the United States Congress.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And now we're in open forum, ready for your calls on whatever is of interest to you in the news today, starting with Todd in Jupiter, Florida on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Todd.
unidentified		Hello.
		Good morning.
		Thank you for having me on.
		Speaking of elections, I'd like to say something that no one in the media, including C-SPAN, has said, which is that Donald Trump was said to be the first man ever to win all seven swing states.
		The most unpopular man in America is said to have won all seven swing states.
		And Donald Trump himself admitted on camera four times that Elon Musk hacked the election in Pennsylvania.
		And if you did a hand recount of the seven swing states, you know, Kamala Harris never should have conceded.
		She should have demanded a hand recount of the seven swing states.
		As far as Greg Abbott goes, he's a Nazi.
		I mean, he told the cops to stand down in Uvalde in the massacre that happened there.
		He's a disgrace.
		Trump is an illegitimate president.
		He's a serial child rapist.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		There hasn't been any evidence that the 2024 election was stolen or that the president did not win through the normal process.
		Let's hear from Penny in Brooklyn, New York on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Penny.
unidentified		Yes, I just wanted to correct something about North Carolina.
unidentified		If people just Google it, they got substantial help from the government.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Can you turn down the volume on your TV, Penny, and then you can continue your comment?
unidentified		When Trump put that out, it took off.
		That's not true, number one.
		As far as unions, all they have to do is check to know that for the same job, if you don't have a union, your benefits are not as good.
		Your salary is not as good.
		Your job protection is not there.
		So that's all I wanted to say.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Stephanie in Portsmouth, Virginia on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Stephanie.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I love your nails.
		They were gorgeous this morning.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
unidentified		Just wanted to say that first.
		I wanted to point out, make a point with the Republican caller that called in.
		He's absolutely correct.
julie kelly ▲ ● ▼		President Trump won all seven swing states.
unidentified		He is a very, very popular president.
julie kelly ▲ ● ▼		And, you know, it's interesting how everyone's calling out gerrymandering when it's been going on for the longest time.
unidentified		Governor Abbott, I believe, said it best.
unidentified		It's being fair.
julie kelly ▲ ● ▼		It's redrawing the lines in accordance with who is moving where.
unidentified		So if a state is red and people are moving to a red state, guess what?
		The lines need to be drawn.
		If a state is blue or vice versa.
julie kelly ▲ ● ▼		So, you know, in all fairness, it's all about making sure that lines are drawn appropriately and representing the people of the state.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Earlier, a caller made reference to Elon Musk and hacking the election.
		I want to point out this story from the Associated Press, a fact check saying election officials knocked down Starlink vote-rigging conspiracy theories.
		This is a story from back in November of last year, shortly after the election.
		And it says, as president-elect the time, Donald Trump begins filling key posts in his second administration, social media users are pushing false claims that the 2024 election was rigged in his favor.
		One such narrative claims that billionaire Elon Musk facilitated the alleged fraud with his internet service provider Starlink, manipulating the vote count through election equipment such as ballot tabulators.
		Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk SpaceX company, uses satellites to offer high-speed internet, even in remote areas.
		Some rural counties use the technology during the 2024 race to access their electronic poll books.
		But these claims, the claim is that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk used Starlink to steal the 2024 election for Donald Trump.
		These claims are unfounded.
		Election officials, including from multiple swing states, told the Associated Press that their voting equipment doesn't use Starlink and is not even connected to the Internet.
		States have additional security measures to ensure that the count is accurate, according to the experts.
		Election officials and security agencies have reported no significant issues with the 2024 race.
		Gladys is in Chicago, Illinois, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Gladys.
unidentified		Hello.
		I'm calling because I'm trying to find out if the big, beautiful bill had anything to do with my $14,000 plus change, $1.8 home health saving.
		Sorry, I'm nervous.
		My retirement account, did they take the money's gone out of my retirement account, to make a long story short?
		I've called United Healthcare.
		They seem to know nothing about me having it.
		I've tried every way I could to get information on my health savings account.
		That's what I'm trying to say.
		But I know as of December 31st or March 31st, 2026, the money will be gone without any notice or anything.
		They just took it out of my account.
		And if anyone knows anything about health savings accounts being eliminated if you are retired, could you please say it on this forum so that I could get more information?
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So there are some changes to HSA programs under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but not to the extent that they would remove the funds from your account, Gladys.
		But I hope you're able to get the information that you need to resolve that.
		Next up is Kelly in Denison, Ohio on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Kelly.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		Hey, I have three quick points.
		One of them you can look up.
		It's in September and October.
		This is for Republican, Democrat, and Independent.
		That you're having, the Congress is having people in over Jeffrey Epstein, starting with Bill Barr.
		That's in the beginning of September.
		Could you get the schedule for September and October and when you're going to show that on your and my second point is the country, our country, when we fought the English, would we rather be speaking English?
		Then we fought the French.
		Would we rather be speaking French?
		Then we fought the Spanish.
		Would we rather be speaking Spanish?
		I am so happy to be an American.
		Third point is C-SPAN.
		Last Thursday or Friday, Nimi was on, and a caller from California was early in the morning.
		I want you to look it up.
		And he was given the history of the Democratic Party.
		And it was horrible.
		And when he was done, Nimi said that the Southern Democrats became the Republican Northerners.
		I demand an apology or her to be fired.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So, related to the point that you were making on Epstein, there is a story in The Hill that Johnson, House Speaker Mike Johnson, says there will probably be a vote on the Epstein files.
		And this was in a series of interviews that the House Speaker gave on Friday about several topics, including whether or not there would be more done on the Epstein files.
		Let's listen to him on CNN.
unidentified		So the discharge petition from Thomas Massey and RoConna, I hope I'm using the right word, will ripen soon.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		Well, no, I don't.
		I guess it would if they get the right signature.
		If they get the signature.
robert f kennedy-jr ▲ ● ▼		It's an absolute point.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		It's not even necessary.
unidentified		You don't think it's going to happen?
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		There may be a floor vote of one measure or another.
		We have our own resolutions to do all this, but I don't, it's sort of not necessary at the point because the administration is already doing this.
		They're turning it over.
unidentified		So I don't think that Congressman Conna and Massey think that yet, at least from what I've heard.
john berman ▲ ● ▼		And I don't know that the 218 people that they think they have as signatories of that think that either if they do get the signatures, will you allow that to come to a vote on the floor?
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		We might not even wait for that.
		We have our own resolutions to affect this same thing.
		But the process is playing out as it should.
		And very soon, the American people will have that information and they should have had it all along.
		That's my view.
unidentified		But you can't guarantee there'll be a vote on the discharge petition.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		There probably will be a vote of some sense, but we've got to get everybody collected again and get built consensus around that.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And back to your calls and open forum.
		Mike is in Plymouth, Massachusetts on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Good morning.
		This is Mike.
		How are you today?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good, thank you.
unidentified		Yeah, it's lovely here in Massachusetts today.
		But last week, you had a gentleman on from the Heritage Foundation, and he looked right at the TV and said that, and warned America that Social Security would go bankrupt.
		And I wanted to challenge him bad, but I couldn't get in and couldn't call in on him.
		What I've heard is that there's enough money coming in that even after 2030, Social Security will be able to pay out at 80%.
		So it requires a correction in order to cover the other 20%.
		I mean, my mortgage went up $500 because my insurance went up and my taxes went up.
		That required a correction.
		It's simple as that.
		So does Social Security.
		It requires the Republican Party to make that correction because they're in power.
		And they simply refuse to do it.
		They'd rather see it go away.
		It'll never go away because it'll be funded at 80%.
		And to tell the American public that it's going to go bankrupt is to frighten an enormous amount of the population.
		That's my point.
		And I wish I could have gotten in to talk to the guy from the Heritage Foundation.
		But thank you for listening.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		To back up some of what Mike was saying, here's a story in Axios: that Social Security recipients are set to face an $18,000 benefit cut in just seven years.
		And as Mike said, this doesn't mean that Social Security would be exactly bankrupt, but retirees are facing the prospect of substantial Social Security cuts in just seven years, sooner than projected, due to the big beautiful bill per analysis out Thursday from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
		The new analysis projects a 24% cut to benefits by late 2032, which is equal to about an $18,000 benefit cut for a dual-earning couple who both retire in 2033.
		They also might experience reduced health care access per the analysis due to an 11% cut in Medicare hospital payments.
		The percentages would grow over time as the population ages and fewer young Americans are paying into the system.
		And so related to the bankrupt idea, how this works, the Social Security Trust Fund is effectively the money the federal government takes in from Social Security taxes.
		For decades, the system took in more in taxes than it paid out.
		The Treasury Department then invested the surplus.
		But in 2021, it started tapping reserves to keep paying benefits.
		Once those reserves are depleted, the benefits would be pay as you go, paying out money as taxes come in.
		That trust fund would then be depleted in the 2030s.
		That the trust fund would be depleted in the 2030s has been long known.
		Back to your calls for open forum.
		Andy is in Kentucky on our line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Andy.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		And I want to thank y'all for what y'all do.
		And the big, beautiful bill that just passed, it's going to help everybody in America if you just give it time.
		And Mr. Trump is doing a wonderful job.
		He needs a lot of prayer.
		His cabinet needs a lot of prayer because everything that he goes to do, these judges on a lower level is like going after him.
		That should be stopped.
		I tell you, our nation needs prayer right now.
		And I thank the Lord for Mr. Trump.
		I thank the Lord for what he's doing.
		And Mike Johnson, as Speaker of the House, that man is phenomenal.
		I thank the Lord for him.
		And, of course, you know, we got a Senate race coming up next year.
		And, you know, maybe invite some of them on there to speak and thank some of the candidates.
		And I think that would be great.
		I know who I'm going to go with.
		I'm going to go with Congressman Andy Barr.
		I feel like he's the most qualified person to be going into the Senate role.
		He stands for Israel.
		He's not for the two-stake solution.
		And he's also for term limits, too.
		I tell you, Andy Barr would be great.
		And also, we need to stand for Israel.
		We need to pray for Israel.
		And then I thank the Lord that also that Mr. Trump took the security away from Kamala Harris, the vice president.
		They're supposed to only receive it for six months after they leave office.
		Well, under that auto pin that Mr. Biden, or that somebody was doing it for Mr. Biden because the man was not well, they extended her security, which that was wrong.
		And I pray that Congressman Comer, that's over the committee to finding out what's going on, that they need to go.
		Everybody that knew about Biden not being fit, they need to prosecute them people and they need to make sure they pay dearly because they knew that Mr. Biden was not fit to be president.
		His wife knew and everybody around and they need to go after them big time.
		And y'all doing a great job.
		Continue.
		And thank y'all for what y'all do.
		Y'all have a blessed day.
		And hey, the weather down here in Kentucky is beautiful too today.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Stephen is in Wilmington, Illinois on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Stephen.
unidentified		Yeah, that guy from Kentucky talking about prayer.
		Well, I've always said that if God is real and he answers prayers, why doesn't he answer the prayers of children being raped by clergy in his name?
		Which brings us to the other thing about the trans shooter.
		When you've got Sunday school teachers telling young children they face eternal damnation to hell if they sin, and that sinks into these gay and trans kids.
		Even before they know what it's about, they're facing that kind of horror.
		And so, yeah, and that guy that called earlier from Connecticut hit it on the head.
		Religion is the problem.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay, next up is Carrie in Cincinnati, Ohio, and our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Carrie.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, Kimberly.
		Yeah, my name's Carrie, and I'm going to preface this by saying that I spent 20 years in the Navy.
		A lot of that time I spent in the Middle East, including the multinational force in Beirut, Lebanon.
		And the thing that bothers me and it's on my mind that's really sad is people being complicit about what's going on in the Gaza Strip, them people being starved, them people being massacred, and also what's going on in Ukraine.
		To me, that should be the top thing on anybody's mind.
		Why are we allowing these countries to do what they're doing over the people?
		And I'm a Christian myself, but I mean, you talk about being a Christian in Israel.
		I get all that.
		But what about what's going on?
		What about all the people that are dying over there for no reason at all?
		It's not the Palestinians, it's the government.
		Hamas.
		But why should everybody has to suffer there?
		Doesn't make sense to me.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		William is in Wadsworth, Ohio, on our line for Republicans.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, William.
unidentified		Good morning, Kimberly.
		I'm calling to object to RFK's firing of the CDC doctors and also cutting the funding for the MRI mRNA vaccines.
		It's like banning robots from building cars and having them be made by hand by pizza delivery drivers.
		That's it.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		One of the reactions to the firing of the CDC director came from the previous director, Dr. Tom Frieden, who served under President Obama.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		He made these comments on ABC on Thursday.
dr tom frieden ▲ ● ▼		The CDC director has never been fired before.
		It is absolutely in the authority of the White House and HHS to set policy.
		What's not in their authority is to determine truth.
		And that's what they're trying to do.
		What we're seeing is the really spread of inaccurate, false, unscientific beliefs and statements that are being used not just to change recommendations, but that could deny life-saving vaccines to half of the children in this country.
		A program called the Vaccines for Children program has prevented more than a million deaths of American kids over the last 30 years, and it's very much at risk today.
unidentified		Well, and Doctor, we saw dozens of CDC workers walk out today.
		I'm curious, have you spoken with any of your former colleagues at the CDC?
		And also, I mean, if so, what are you hearing from them?
dr tom frieden ▲ ● ▼		I haven't spoken directly.
		What I do know, the four high-level officials who resigned in protest, I know all of them.
		I have worked with all of them.
		They're all lifelong scientists dedicated to protecting Americans.
		This isn't about Democratic or Republican administrations, and it's certainly not about being on board with making America healthier.
		But you don't make America healthier by ending our programs to stop violence, to stop cancer, to stop heart disease and stroke, to stop tobacco use.
		And that is what this administration has done.
		60 years of vaccine policy are being reversed in six months.
		And although there's been discussion of transparency, we've seen just the opposite, with decisions being announced on social media as opposed to being rigorously debated in the open with open recommendations for what doctors should give their patients.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Back to your calls for open forum.
		Catherine is in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Catherine.
unidentified		Good morning.
		One thing I wanted to comment on: Trump said that that lady was fired because she wasn't aligned to his mission.
		What is his mission to kill another million Americans?
		That is what he did the last time.
		But the second thing I wanted to say, I have three things.
		One about Biden and.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Catherine, can you turn down your volume on your TV and then go ahead with your points?
unidentified		One of the other things I wanted to say was how brainwashed these people are, the Trump people are, about Biden's incompetence.
		If you look at what Biden accomplished in his four years as compared to what Trump accomplished or says he's going to accomplish, I think more people have been killed in the Ukraine since he took over than had been killed before, and there's been certainly more bombings.
		And the other thing I wanted to say is how easily brainwashed these Republican people are about these ICE people going after criminals.
		They're not going after criminals.
		I didn't see it on the news.
		I saw it on a podcast that they went after firefighters in the state of Washington who were fighting the largest fire in the history of the state.
		And they were arresting them.
		And then, of course, then they said about the strawberry pickers and the men that were working at Home Depot.
		I think Trump is so confused and so erratic about what's going on.
		It's appalling.
		But the other thing about the crime, they're putting the National Guard in these cities.
		Boston is the safest city in the United States, and he's sending National Guard there.
		Why doesn't he send it to New Orleans, which is the murder capital of the United States?
		It had the highest number of homicides last year.
		Oh, I think Houston might have beat them by a little bit.
		But they're both Republican places, and he's not sending the National Guard into either one of them.
		So thank you very much.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Catherine, thank you for your call.
		Let's hear from Gary in New Rochelle, New York on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Gary.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		Good morning.
		I have really two things.
		Although this has been a good open forum, I really have enjoyed listening to a lot of the comments.
		First, I'd like to say that it's unconstitutional to change the maps midstream.
		That's supposed to be something done every 10 years with the census.
		It's being done strictly on Trump's orders for states to change the maps so that he can hold on to more power instead of every 10 years.
		And the second thing I wanted to mention with all the calls this morning, I'd like Christians and Catholics.
		I grew up Catholic, and frankly, I've tried to live most of my life by what Christ talked about.
		And I'm not really very that religious.
		I mean, I get together with groups of three or four people.
		I don't go to an organized church because I don't like what goes on there.
		The gentleman before mentioned about how they damn people all the time.
		It just is ridiculous.
		But I think that Christians and Catholics should all go back and start reading the New Testament instead of trying to, you know, use the Old Testament.
		Listen to what Christ said, not what people around are saying that he said, because they're not saying what he said.
		Read it yourself.
		Jesus would be going into these marketplaces and these corporate headquarters, and he'd be flipping the tables like crazy.
		So thank you very much for taking my call and have a nice weekend.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Pete is in Pennsylvania on our line for Democrats.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Pete.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		Yeah, this is really a message to the MAGA and the Trump movement.
		But I mean, you should really be embarrassed.
		I mean, I have to go to the hospital because I've got whiplash.
		You know, I need a neck brace from all the whiplash and chaos that's going on.
		Don't you people enjoy just some quiet stability?
		I mean, the Kennedy thing this week.
		Anybody that has these amount of court cases, there's something wrong going on.
		And then the Ukraine, how about the genocide in Gaza?
		What is he doing about it?
		They seem to be sitting on their hands, right?
		The Ashley Babbitt thing is appalling to me that somebody that stormed the Capitol is now going to get a state funeral.
		I mean, I don't know.
		You people need to read.
		I'm not saying the Democrats are so wonderful, but this kind of chaos is going to tear everything apart.
		And I just see it's going to get worse because he's going to keep pushing the boundaries like a child in a playpen.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Next up is Lynn in Wilson, North Carolina on our line for independence.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Lynn.
unidentified		Good morning.
		You know, it's a sad day in America.
		When I first went back in the military back in the early 70s, we had a study on military education.
		They had Okruch sitting there saying that we would bury you.
		We would not fire a shot.
		I laughed at that guy.
		I was so proud to be American then.
		I said, yeah, you try to sucker.
		We're too smart for that.
		But they have did that.
		And what they have did, they started it way back there.
		And we got a free system.
		We got an open media.
		And what has happened, ma'am, is we have allowed them.
		And Ceaseman, I love you, but you have been complacent in this too.
		You have let these people come on.
		And I'm not saying that they are straight from Russia, but Russia is using these people, these foundations, and money is what's pushing it.
		And all these people have, these Heritage Foundations, all these people you guys let come on.
		And I'm not talking about lately.
		I'm talking about years, you know, in the past years.
		Every day, Heritage Foundation.
		And they come on and they spill all the garbage.
		And people start to believe that.
		And then they have did it.
		And then they started getting people into our lawmakers, you know, the Congress and everything.
		They started voting people in there.
		And I'm not saying the people are communists, but they got those communist ideas.
		And they started promoting Putin's stuff.
		And right now, I see from the Ukraine war how far we have moved since Biden.
		And everything looked like it's going pro-Russia in the United States.
		I want the people to look at that.
		I want the people to just, I want you specialists, Eastman, to look at it.
		Everything is going pro-Russia right before our eyes.
		And we're sitting here wondering how we got here.
		The Democrats are very complacent because they should have known who they was working with.
		Let me finish right quick, ma'am.
		Mark Arubio.
		Now, I knew this guy was a snake from the beginning.
		He's a Cuban.
		A lot of Cubans are into our politics.
		These guys, a lot of them came over here.
		We let them come over here.
		All of them.
		He's of Cuban descent, ma'am.
		And look at his background.
		Now, these things are worked from generations.
		And it's not just the person that's right there.
		It's the people that have been pushed into our politics ever since the daggone 60s and 50s.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		We're going to get to a couple more folks.
		Let's hear from Joe in Carrollton, Kentucky, on our line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Joe.
unidentified		Good morning.
		This is Joe from Carroll, Kentucky.
		I'm just wondering: has anybody gone and looked to see if we still have a Constitution?
		Before, you might want to check on this, ma'am.
		Before they can redistrict, aren't we supposed to have a census?
		And I don't understand that.
		And I know there's still going to be gerrymandering, but I think they have to do a census before they can redistrict.
		That's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Brittany is in Dallas, Texas, on our line for independence.
		Good morning, Brittany.
unidentified		Hi.
		Jesus Christ told me to say that the fear that darkness can put into light has nothing on the fear that light will put into darkness.
		So the correct thing to do is to never give up on what is pure.
		Have a good day, and don't forget to pray.
		Even a hair trigger of faith will work.
		But muster seed is too big.
		Amen.
		Hallelujah.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, thank you to everybody who called in for our open forum.
		Next, joining us will be the Shondell Newsom, who is the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future.
		He's going to join us to discuss the state of small business in the United States.
		We'll be right back.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Historian Jay Winning first appeared on the Book Notes television program 24 years ago to discuss his book, April 1865.
		It became a number one New York Times bestseller, reportedly read by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and many others.
		It's the narrative story of the Civil War.
		For his latest book, Winnick stepped back four years in history to look at how the Civil War began.
		This time, the book is titled 1861, The Lost Peace.
		Northerners had little regard for the strength or determination of the South, writes Winnick.
		Lincoln friend John Hay said the Southern Army was nothing more than a vast mob.
		The New York Tribune said it differently.
		Jeff Davis and company will be swinging from the battlements at Washington by the 4th of July.
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		Washington Journal continues.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		We're joined now by Shondell Newsome, who is the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future.
		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
unidentified		Thank you so much, Kimberly.
unidentified		It's always a pleasure to come talk to you about small businesses.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, tell us about your organization, Small Business for America's Future.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What kinds of small businesses do you represent?
unidentified		You know, we represent the real small businesses, the small businesses that are Main Street employers.
		You know, we came together several years ago when we realized that small businesses did not have a voice on Capitol Hill.
		And, you know, most small businesses are always misrepresented because folks try to lump us in with business community as a whole.
		We have some very, very special small business owners across the nation.
		We help on every level of government to assist small businesses to create economic opportunities.
		And just as a point of reference, most small business owners are like us.
		We have a family-owned small business.
		And we live in our communities.
		We drive in our communities.
		We take our school in our community.
		We take our kids to school in our community.
		So it's really the mainstream individual that walks down the street just like the normal person.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And how many businesses are in your organization?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Where are they?
unidentified		Wow, we've grown so much.
unidentified		I believe we've almost reached close to 20,000 small businesses across the nation that either participate or participate in our many activities and our many, many forums.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, then you're a small business owner yourself.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Tell us about your business and your first business.
unidentified		Well, you know, we're going to be approaching 20 years next year.
		We're a family-owned business.
		The name of our company is Some New Marketing.
		It's a play on our name of Newsome.
		My daughter is our CEO.
		I'm the founder and visionary.
		My wife is our CFO.
		My niece is our chief operations officer.
		And recently, my granddaughter got promoted.
		So we have a true family-owned business.
		We have about 12 to 15 employees at any given time.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What is the state of small business in the United States right now?
unidentified		You know, small businesses are struggling with a lot of things, mainly the mention of tariffs and even tariffs that are impacting their businesses.
		But many things that we've always dealt with.
		We've always dealt with health care.
		We've always battled with the tax codes.
		We've always battled with access to capital and many different things.
		But today, it's getting worse because we just can't take any more on our plate.
		You know, we as small business owners really have very little margins for error, right, or for uncertainty.
		So the challenge for us as business owners is with that small margin, we don't need the government to help us to fail.
		Most small businesses fail within their first three to five years without any help from some of the uncertainty and some of the tariffs and different things that happen.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to look at some statistics about small businesses in America overall that comes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, different organization, but pointing out that there are 33 million small businesses in the United States and 99.9% of businesses in the United States are called small businesses and 46% of Americans employed by these small businesses and then 33% of them were launched with less than $5,000.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do these numbers tell us about the landscape for small businesses right now?
unidentified		Well, first and foremost, understand that small businesses should always have a voice because when you say 46% of Americans are employed by small businesses, but it always seems to be the group that wants to have a voice and speak for all of us.
		Also, think about that.
		99.9% are small businesses.
		And we start from meager earnings.
		We start from our savings.
		We start from our 401ks.
		But here's the powerful part.
		The return on investment of a small business can release like this.
		We put money right back into the local neighborhoods.
		We go to our churches, we go to our movie theaters, we go to our dry cleaners, we go to our grocery stores, we donate to our soccer clubs.
		So while we are always overlooked sometimes, people don't realize the impact that we have in our local communities.
		And I'll finish on this point.
		After every major economic crisis, the recovery is well known that the recovery is all about small business and the return on investment with small businesses.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, you mentioned tariffs earlier, and in March, you surveyed businesses, small businesses, and found that 78% of small business owners said that they were very or somewhat concerned about the potential impact of tariffs on small businesses.
		Looking more into those details from your survey, 68% very concerned, 10% somewhat concerned, 10% not too concerned, 8% not at all concerned, and 4% unsure or too early to tell.
		That was back in March.
		What are you hearing from small business owners now?
unidentified		We're hearing right now that they're feeling the impact.
		We have a few examples of small business.
		There's a coffee small business that has to import coffee from different places around the country.
		And, you know, right here in Arizona, right in my neighboring state, and they found increases already happening to their businesses.
		So it really is hitting them right in the heart right now.
		It's not a thing that is now speculation.
		It's a reality to a lot of our small business owners.
		And we feel bad when we hear these stories that they're being hit with these tariffs.
		There's a woman who has a chicken and waffle type spot.
		Those across the country are very, very popular places.
		And she wanted to expand in some of the stores with her seasonings.
		And she couldn't expand.
		She had to halt that expansion because of the increase of the spices that she has to get from around the world.
		And so those are the things that folks on Capitol Hill have to hear about.
		They have to understand that when you impact somebody's business like that, you're impacting our local communities and hitting the heart of the American people.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What recourse do these small business owners have against tariffs?
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Is there anything they can do to kind of insulate themselves from this?
unidentified		It's very difficult and really, really not much insulation.
		Like we run on very, very thin margins, especially when you talk about food and beverage and you talk about people who have to get supplies, small construction firms that have to order supplies to comply with some of their contracts that they have.
		It's very, very difficult as a small business owner.
		We personally, last year, you know, right at the start of the year, we started off.
		We won three contracts.
		Those contracts have recently been pulled.
		And we won.
		We actually won the bid for contracts, and they got pulled because of some of the costs, the rising costs of the supplies that have to make these projects go.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, Vice President JD Vance was in Wisconsin this week talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the passage of the President's Tax Immigration and Spending Bill, and talking about how this would help small businesses.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to listen to a portion of that.
jd vance ▲ ● ▼		Are not going to have to pay taxes on those overtime hours.
		That's going to help the workers and consequently the business right here in this facility.
		But also, you heard Secretary Bergham talk about this earlier.
		When a plant like this makes a big investment, we want to make that pay in the tax code.
		We don't want to penalize them for investing in American workers and American production.
		And the working families tax cut, you know what it does?
		It completely accelerates depreciation so that when they make a big investment, when they buy a big amount, when they buy a big new facility or they buy a big new piece of equipment, they can immediately benefit from that in the tax code.
		And it's such a reversal from what we've had in this country for 40, 50 years, where we would penalize companies in the tax code for building and making in the United States of America.
		Under President Trump's leadership, we're rewarding companies in the tax code for building and making right here at home.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		What do you think the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will mean for small businesses?
		I'll note here that as is reported in the Washington Times, Mr. Vance avoided using the name Big Beautiful Bill.
		Instead, he referred to it as the Working Families Tax Cut, which is new language that he's using.
		But what do you think, Mr. Newsom, about what this legislation or this new law means for small businesses?
unidentified		Well, look, I think just like the other small business owners, it's going to cause, it's already causing a lot of not only uncertainty, but real issues that are happening right now.
		I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a transportation company, and many of the things that already are happening with this bill is causing issues with his company where he may have to close his doors.
		It's causing, even with the tax codes, right, there's so much complication.
		So, Kimberly, we can't always afford to pay a large CPA firm to figure out all of those things.
		If you think about the average small business owner, you know, if I learn how, if I know how to repair cars, you know, I want to fix cars for people in my neighborhood.
		I want to do the auto repair.
		I don't want to become all of a sudden a tax expert in learning something new and working on those things.
		Those are the things that bother us.
		Those are the things that take us away from providing a great service in our community.
		So many times when people like Vice President Vance are talking, they're talking about their friends.
		They're not talking about the average person.
		They're not coming in our neighborhoods and asking us those questions and asking us how it impacts us.
		Just based on our membership and our folks who we talk to across the country, many of them are feeling the pain, the real pain of all of these different moves that take us away from providing this in our communities.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		We'll be taking your questions for Shondell Newsom, who is the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future.
		Our line for Republicans, 202748, 8001.
		For Democrats, 202748-8000.
		And for Independents, 202748-8002.
		Before we get to calls, I want to ask you about immigration.
		Obviously, the Trump administration has been promoting its immigration raids all over the country.
		And I wonder how you see the small businesses of America being affected by Trump's immigration policies.
unidentified		Well, I know for a fact that many of our businesses that employ folks from any country are feeling the brunt of it.
		They've expressed their concern with whether it's customers.
		Some businesses have closed.
		A lot of small businesses have closed.
		Recently, we had our local swap meet closed down for a long period of time, affecting thousands of small businesses right here in Las Vegas.
		And so, you know, just the fear of people coming around and invading your privacy.
		And let's just put it out on the floor.
		That is totally unconstitutional for anyone to put fear into people by taking them off the streets, taking them out of their schools, taking them out of their out off their jobs.
		So, you know, it's causing a big issue.
		And some of my friends, I partner with a lot of Hispanic firms, and they're feeling the brunt of some of the businesses, some of the rules around immigration.
		Folks are in fear, and they're scared.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I should correct myself.
		We're actually going to do regional phone lines for this segment.
		For Eastern and Central time zones, please call 202-748-8000.
		And for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, 202-748-8001.
		And we actually have a special line for small business owners.
		That line is 202748-8002.
		And we have a small business owner on the line, Joseph, who's in Leonardtown, Maryland.
		Good morning, Joseph.
unidentified		Hey, good morning, everybody.
		So blessed, all of us.
		And to be in the USA, not to be funny.
		We are in the USA.
		That's an amazing thing.
		I was owning a business since 1990.
		I was forced into owning a business.
		I got a felony at the age of 18, and I couldn't really get any kind of real jobs.
		I got into an entrapment where cops kept begging me for drugs, and I sold them drugs.
		Being an entrepreneur, I've always been into making money since I was in kindergarten, literally carrying groceries.
		And so, anyway, I started the business in 1990.
		I did carpet cleaning and roofing and stuff like that.
		And in 1990, there were tons of people coming into the DMV that were literally getting my jobs.
		And it was impossible.
		Then coronavirus wrote around 2019.
		I literally lost my contracts.
		And being a guy that looks like me, my God, I can't even survive.
		I've been calling President Trump, asking for help.
		I can't walk in and get any sympathy.
		And I think this is my whole point of the statement, ma'am and sir.
		When you see a white person walk into a store, do not assume that person is rich.
		I am a poor white person.
		My family's from New York.
		They even fought to end slavery.
		You can look it up.
		This white person doesn't get any benefits.
		I can't get a job.
		I can't start a business.
		I can't get a loan, Mr. Small Business Guy.
		I get hate when I walk in.
		And it's crazy because as a small business, I've owned a business for 30 years.
		I have nothing anymore.
		My wife calls me names.
		My kids think I'm trash.
		I am a hustler in the United States of America that's not getting up yet.
		So I don't know who it's gotten better for.
		For me, it is getting worse.
		I can't use my little bit of cash at the Check-filt.
		I'm unbanked.
		I have had my bank accounts closed down.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Now, Joseph, before we get Mr. Newsom's response, I'm wondering what you think of some of these policies that the Trump administration has been pushing that they talk about supporting small business owners.
unidentified		I'm glad you asked, ma'am.
		I have called.
		I don't check none of the boxes for them, evidently.
		I'm not anybody's friend.
		I'm not the right or wrong color.
		I'm the wrong and right sex.
		I don't see where it's helped.
		I see that they've helped their friends.
		And I voted for Trump.
		And I voted for Angela also, Brooks.
		Perplexes people.
		I don't see anything good from none of that.
		I see that they're in a technocracy.
		I see that they're closing down on everything.
		They're making people more violent against each other.
		I don't see it coming together perfectly.
		I like what Trump says.
		Like when he says he's going to make America great, he's going to do this.
		He's going to do this.
		But the math seems to be sweeping those middle people under the rug.
rep jim guest ▲ ● ▼		And it just seems like the two-party system is not really for the working man.
unidentified		And by the way, last thing I'll say, the founders did not believe we should have a two-party system.
		They thought that was the worst thing in the world.
		And that's why I'm running for office.
		And I'll shut up.
		My name is Joe Webb, and I'm in Maryland.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Newsom.
unidentified		Well, thank you, Joe.
		You know, I believe in a lot of things that you talked about.
		Here's the thing about Small Business for America's Future.
		If you take a look even at our website and you look at our co-chairs and the makeup of our membership, you see America.
		You see every age group.
		You see every ethnicity.
		You see this is who small businesses are.
		Remember what Kimberly started out as, 99.9% of America's businesses are small businesses.
		So when you look at us, this is who we are.
		And we believe in American democracy.
		We believe that everybody should have the unalienable right for the pursuit of happiness.
		We believe that every business owner, especially small businesses, because we make up most of the businesses, that we should have that opportunity to pursue happiness.
		So I'll tell you what, this is not from my organizations.
		This is from me personally, Shondell.
		I'll pray for you because I pray that you have that opportunity to pursue happiness like this country was designed to do.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Kevin is in Ashburn, Virginia, and is also a small business owner.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Kevin.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm also a CPA, and I just want to mention that you should make a distinction between the big beautiful bill and the tariffs.
		Those the tariffs certainly would have an impact on those who have to import their cost of goods, et cetera, from various nations that are subject to the tariffs.
		Whereas the tax code changes probably do benefit most businesses.
		And so I just want to kind of make sure that this distinction is made.
		And then also, I'm always pretty much a sole practitioner as a CPA for years, and I've worked with small businesses all the time.
		And you mentioned earlier that it's difficult to afford a CPA, but most small practitioners charge very reasonable rates.
		They try to keep the cost down, and the benefits will outweigh the cost for most small businesses that I've dealt with.
		So I think there ought to perhaps be some effort to inform your members that it might be to their advantage to seek out ways to maybe work together to perhaps have seminars to help them understand the tax code so you can reach a larger group,
		or maybe you could produce materials for them to understand the code, working with other professions, professionals.
		And I think, you know, that's pretty much what I wanted to say.
		I have some other comments on the earlier topic before you switch to the small business, but I'll stay on topic and we'll discuss those.
		Sure.
		So I'll tell you that, you know, when it comes down to tariffs, first of all, let's say, let's state who pays for tariffs, right?
		That's the American people.
		We pay.
		Look, the average American don't even know what a tariff is.
		And so the challenge is that they don't have time to think about those things.
		But they pay for it.
		We pay.
		The average American small businesses, everybody pay taxes because those costs of goods and everything are passed on to the consumer and to small businesses.
		So and maybe a little bit of what you're talking about when it comes to the tax code.
		I pay a CPA.
		I've been paying a CPA for 19 years.
		But, you know, the challenge is that the more complex the tax code becomes, the more challenging it becomes for our small business owners.
		And look, my CPA, I love her to death.
		I've loved her because she's always done an awesome job of helping us understand the tax code.
		In fact, we do many seminars and workshops and things like that.
		But you have to admit, it should not be so complex for small businesses that we have to divert from our regular normal business operations to figure out a whole new tax code.
		That's not fair to the average small business owner.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Alfred is in Washington, D.C., and is another small business owner.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Alfred.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How is everybody this morning?
		Good.
		I'm the president.
		I'm the president of the D.C. Black Business Task Force here in Washington.
		We are an organization of black small businesses.
		What Mr. Newton is talking about is talking about communities and how communities are economically based with small businesses.
		Here in Washington, black businesses, only we have 47% of the population, but only 20% of the small businesses.
		That means that our communities are economically deprived from having that small business being the economic engine in our community.
		One of the reasons is Washington, D.C. does not have a vehicle, an NDE program, in order to help formulate contracts from the district government.
		That means that 90% of all the businesses in D.C. are owned by somebody who does not look like us.
		In your opinion, Mr. Newton, do you think it is in the climate that we find ourselves in, small businesses find themselves in, and more importantly, black businesses, with the climbing of DEI and the attacks on NBE, that D.C. still should pursue some type of vehicle in which black businesses can gain more interest into the government contract,
		and which will also, what you're talking about, fuel our communities where we're able to hire and achieve a greater economic satisfaction within our communities to stop the poverty.
		Poverty in D.C. is almost 33% of everybody in D.C.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		So Alfred.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Let's let Mr. Newsom respond to some of those points he raised.
unidentified		So, you know, we're a black-owned business, you know, to make no mistake about it.
		And this is the last day for, you know, a Black Business Month celebration, which is great, you know.
		And here's what I'll tell you, just speaking from, again, my personal experience, is we are undercapitalized, right?
		We're undercapitalized for a number of reasons.
		We don't have generational wealth.
		And just in the state of Nevada, there are 26,000 black-owned firms where less than 1,000 of us have two or more employees.
		So when you talk about unemployment, you talk about poverty and things like that.
		We fortunately, my father grew up, we grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
		He brought a Brownstone, he became a landlord and really turned the tide for our family, which changed our mindset.
		And then I became a business owner.
		He became my first investor.
		And 19 years ago, we did that.
		And today, we're flourishing as a business.
		What I will encourage you on is that remember the history of black folks, the history of African Americans is resiliency.
		We've come through the middle passage.
		We've come through reconstruction.
		We've come through civil rights.
		I feel like today, this is just another one of those hurdles, one of those opportunities for us.
		And I'll finish with this.
		Remember the quote from Dr. King, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.
		And this is another one of those times where we are challenged.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Nancy is in Atlanta, Georgia.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Nancy.
unidentified		Good morning.
		And I'm so glad you're on, Mr. Newson.
		I've been dying to ask someone with some business sense this question.
		First of all, the 99% that is owned by small businesses, it's got to include franchises.
		And my area, especially, there are no black or white small business owners.
		Franchise owners are certainly considered small business owners, but it seems to me that you can't buy into a franchise and build wealth in this country if you are actually an American citizen.
		And I would be very interested in, and I think that's where so much of the capital that goes that could go to a smaller businesses, to the true small business.
		I do not consider large franchises a small business as such.
		But I would be interested to hear why can't Americans, black or white, have a franchise in this country?
		Thank you.
		Well, you know, fortunately, I spend a lot of time with the SBA, and there are opportunities with franchises.
		If you go to SBA.gov, they actually have a very special program and a very special organization that helps small business owners create and develop franchises.
		So those resources do exist, and hopefully they're not going to be cut in some government Doge type situation.
		We pray that all of those programs stay in place.
		So if I were you, I would talk to your congressperson and make sure that they don't cut these programs, but there are programs that exist to help you build and develop a franchise from the ground up.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		I want to read some more stats from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce related to what Nancy was talking about in terms of the number of employees and the size of the businesses that are counted as small businesses.
		Here it says that 45.9% of Americans are employed by small business, and that translates to about 61.6 million Americans employed by a small business.
		The majority of small businesses, 82%, operate without employees.
		So that's usually sole proprietorships and things like this.
		And those small employers who hire staff employ nearly half of American workforce.
		Leading industries for small businesses include professional and business services, financial activities, and wholesale and retail trade, boasting 3.5 to over 7 million businesses within each sector.
		Let's hear from Andrew in Red Bank, New Jersey, who's a small business owner.
		Hello, Andrew.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		Good morning.
		Yeah, I want to just put a little bit of rational speak on the topic.
		There are plenty of small business owners of all different colors starting businesses with or without capital.
		Starting a business is entirely an intellectual pursuit.
		You don't have to have money.
		You just need to understand whatever your business is.
		I am really kind of shocked that America has come to this point where people seem to think that the only way you can get wealthy is by YouTubing or whatever else.
		There are plenty of opportunities out there for anybody, any color.
		I have a religious affiliation that's definitely a minority.
		And I don't need any assistance for my business.
		I figured out what a good business was and I started it.
		And just about anybody can if they think it through.
		Thank you very much.
		Absolutely.
		No, that is true.
		But here's the thing.
		There are some companies and some businesses that want to pursue things that require capital.
		And, you know, whether you're opening a restaurant or starting a construction firm, equipment costs a lot of money or you're doing a medical practice.
		You know, there are others that, like my company, being more on the consultation side, didn't need as much capital.
		But I've seen where some have needed it.
		And so in this case, yes, you know, some people don't need as much, but I think others may need some help.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Lorenzo is in Florida and is also a small business owner.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Lorenzo.
unidentified		Yes.
		I'm a small business owner, my wife and I.
		And we've been in business for 19 years.
		And we just have a hard time generating capital.
		For all the years we've been in business, we have been unable to generate capital.
		And therefore, we basically fund everything that we have in our jobs out of our pockets.
		And it really, you know, really holds down our capabilities to move forward.
		So where is the, you know, the health that is being presented that we fund small businesses?
		Well, you know, you're very, that's very familiar to a lot of our members and a lot of small business owners.
		Let me just tell you, the Minority Business Development Agency, which under the previous administration became a department under the Department of Commerce, basically is one of those areas that focus on access to capital, not only to minority businesses, but very small businesses.
		So again, it boils down to having understanding what's available.
		If you go to MBDA or Minority Business Development Agency, I don't know if it's.org, but if you Google them, you'll see that they'll talk about how to access capital.
		But that is a major problem with small businesses in particular, is access to capital.
		And we're working on different ways, whether CDFIs, private investors, and things like that, to assist people with that same challenge.
		But I also will tell you that the biggest thing when it comes down to businesses that have been in business as long as ours is acquiring new customers and retaining current customers and building loyalty.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Back to that U.S. Chamber of Commerce data about small businesses relates to what our caller was just saying.
		The biggest headwinds small businesses face: 42% of small businesses fail due to a lack of market demand.
		38% of small businesses fail due to a lack of capital, as our caller was just saying.
		We have a question that we received via text by Steve in Tampa, Florida, who says, Does Mr. Newsom agree that the Trump administration's focus on reducing interest rates will help small businesses?
unidentified		You know, I haven't seen anything that has really helped small businesses in reducing interest rates.
		I haven't seen that happen.
		So I would say until it happens, then we'll see how that impacts us.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Well, I believe Steve is referencing the president's push for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates as something that might be helpful to small business owners if those interest rates were to go down.
unidentified		If those interest rates were to go down, is the big thing.
		Right now, it's kind of like, okay, I'm going to hit with these tariffs.
		And here, right now, I'm going to hit right now is what we're focusing on.
		Is right now our small businesses are hurting with that.
		So we can't do those type of things where we're looking at what's going to happen.
		It's what's happening right now to our small business owners.
		They're focused on, you know, are the cost of goods going up?
		Are the cost of materials going up?
		Do we now have to pass on costs to our customers where our customers might be leaving?
		So I love the fact that there's this anticipation of relief.
		But until that happens, we really can't focus on that.
		We've got to focus on what's happening to us today because our doors are closing on small businesses today.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Bill is in Florida.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Bill.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My question is: certain states have requirements that you have to provide health insurance for employees working over a certain number of hours.
		Do you think that a national health plan would help the creation of small businesses if they did not have to provide health insurance as startups?
		That's my question.
		Thank you.
		Well, you know, one of the things I'll tell you about small business owners, because we walk in the same door as our employees, we know their families, we know their kids.
		We actually do want to provide health insurance.
		We want to provide health care, but it has to be affordable or it has to work for the small business owner.
		And we would love for our leaders to look at how can we, as small business owners, have the ability to provide affordable health care to all of our employees.
		We are not against providing those.
		And as far as startups go, I think, you know, it's all based on whether they're going to have employees or not.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Jim is in Winter Park, Florida.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Jim.
unidentified		Good morning, Mr. Newsom.
		I have a question because you made a statement earlier about immigrants.
		There was a question about immigration policy and what Trump is doing.
		And you made a statement that they deserve rights and they have rights and they have the ability to, and they help these small businesses.
		I'm against that.
		I don't believe that.
		These people are in this country illegally, the ones that he's trying to remove.
		And I'm going to make a statement.
		I'm going to ask you to answer it honestly.
		I don't want you to tap dance around it.
		On Thursday morning in Orlando, here where I live, they announced the Orange County School District, which is our school district, had planned on about a 3,000 child reduction in this year's people going to school.
		And it has now been shown that it is about 7,000.
		And through the roles of the children that aren't there anymore, they know that it's pretty much people aren't sending their kids to school because they're worried about immigration.
		So we have a lot, and we are not a big state that has a lot of illegal immigrants in it, not like Texas, not like Nevada, all the big ones, California.
		And they made a statement that because they lost 7,000 students, it was going to cost them $25 million in money that they had planned on having for the school.
		Now, we are one school district in the whole United States, and my school district is going to lose $25 million because 7,000 kids are not in school.
		Take that out to the massive amount of people that are in the schools in the other states.
		Now, you tell me, are these people costing taxpayers, me, a homeowner that has to pay property tax that pays for the schools?
		Are they costing me money?
		Yes or no?
		I don't want a statement.
		I want to know: do you believe that I should be paying tax money for children that are not American citizens in the United States?
		Thank you.
		Well, I don't tap dance, but I'm going to tell you the truth.
		This is a country of immigrants, right?
		This is the funny thing.
		You know, I remember years ago growing up in New York City, in my classroom, when there were, you know, 30 students, probably 25 or so were from different countries and different places in my neighborhood sitting right to the left of me.
		People were from Belize.
		On the other side, people were from Jamaica.
		So we're in a country of immigrants, right?
		And let's face it, like at the end of the day, nobody should be brought into this country if they're creating crimes and doing things like that.
		That's not what we're talking about.
		When Kimberly and I talked about it earlier, we were talking about immigration and immigration and everything.
		And what I thought this country was about was about a due process.
		And so if you're taking people illegally out of the country and then trying to figure it out and sort it out, I don't think that's fair to anyone.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		Just because we're just about out of time for this segment, what do you think of the caller's point about the cost to taxpayers for educating folks who might be here undocumented or any other costs associated with immigration?
unidentified		I think when it comes down to paying taxes, I think some, again, I think some of the folks who maybe targeted our taxpaying citizens, I don't know.
		I don't think that we should pay for anybody who's illegal.
		You know, that's not what I see happening throughout the country.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, that is all the time that we have for today.
		Thank you so much, Shondell Newsome, who is the co-chair of Small Business for America's Future.
		Thanks again for your time and expertise.
unidentified		Thank you, Kimberly.
unidentified		It's always a pleasure.
kimberly adams ▲ ● ▼		And thank you to everyone who called into Washington Journal today.
		We're going to be back with another edition of the show starting at 7 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning.
		We hope that you'll join us and have a great day.
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