| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Free Epstein. | |
| And New Jersey Democratic Representative Frank Pallone talks about Trump administration health care policy, government spending deadlines, and the congressional news of the day. | ||
| Also, the Conservative Partnership Institute's Rachel Bovart analyzes state of the conservative movement in the U.S. and President Trump's second term so far. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| We have to bring back religion in America, bring it back stronger than ever before as our country grows stronger and stronger. | ||
| This is the Washington Journal for September 9th. | ||
| That was President Trump during remarks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. | ||
| He used the event not only to highlight specific policy and administration actions catering to religious voters, but also, as you heard there, called for restoring the nation's identity as a nation under God and the need to bring back religion to America. | ||
| What do you think about this call by the president when it comes to the status of religion in the United States? | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats to give your thoughts on the line. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, you can call us too, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to react to the president's comments on religion, you want to send us a text to do that. | ||
| You can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can also post on our social media sites. | ||
| That's at facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| This event took place yesterday in Washington, D.C. You can still see it online on our app or our website. | ||
| It was the event that's highlighted by the Hill saying it was on Monday that the president touted his administration's policies to protect and promote religion in the United States, hailing the input from top religious leaders who have molded some of his actions. | ||
| The president in those remarks touted executive orders declaring there are only two genders in the United States, slashing federal funding for schools over transgender education and preventing transgender athletes from playing in women's sports. | ||
| He stressed that he wants to protect religious leaders so they can talk about politics, anti-abortion activists, and prayer in schools. | ||
| It's also reported as part of that. | ||
| It was during those remarks at the Museum of the Bible that the president emphasized the role of faith in national strength. | ||
| Again, you can still see those comments at our app at C-SPANNOW, our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Here's a portion of the president yesterday in Washington, D.C. As president, I will always defend our nation's glorious heritage and we will protect the Judeo-Christian principles of our founding and we will protect them with vigor. | ||
| We have to bring back religion in America, bring it back stronger than ever before as our country grows stronger and stronger. | ||
| Our country is now the hottest nation anywhere in the world. | ||
| One year ago, our country was dead. | ||
| And I say it, one year ago, our country was dead. | ||
| We had leaders from all over the world that talked to me. | ||
| They say, your country's in trouble. | ||
| And I just left the Middle East, King of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, a lot of the big countries. | ||
| And I was with the heads of NATO, the NATO nations. | ||
| All of them. | ||
| Everyone said essentially the same thing. | ||
| That a year ago, your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. | ||
| It's true. | ||
| It's true in every way. | ||
| But to have a great nation, you have to have religion. | ||
| I believe that so strongly. | ||
| There has to be something after we go through all of this. | ||
| And that something is God. | ||
| We go through all of this for a reason. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not easy, Felipe. | |
| Again, those are the comments from the president yesterday when he talked about his ideas of bringing religion back to the United States. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| If you want to react to that, 202-748-8001 for Republicans and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| And you can text us at 202-748-8003. | ||
| This prompted yesterday's event, prompted a couple of responses from other groups. | ||
| This is the group known as Americans United, formerly known or also known as Americans United for the separation of church and state. | ||
| They said it this way, saying, by portraying public schools as hostile, this administration is trying to justify policies that privilege one specific view of religion and marginalize anyone who doesn't conform to those beliefs. | ||
| That isn't freedom, it's exclusion. | ||
| Left unchecked, their agenda would turn every public school into an arena for religious coercion. | ||
| Public schools must be neutral to protect all schools' religious freedoms. | ||
| Here's the reality. | ||
| The First Amendment already protects public school students' religious freedom. | ||
| As Americans United has explained in comments, it submitted to the Commission. | ||
| Students can pray or otherwise engage with their faith as long as it's voluntary, non-disruptive, and student-led. | ||
| Again, the reaction from Americans United about the Religious Liberty Commission. | ||
| It was formed earlier this year. | ||
| And if you go to their website at thejusticedepartment.gov, they highlight some of the reasons for this, saying the Commission will consider the past, present, and future of the religious liberty in the United States, including the exploitation of foundations of religious liberty in America, considering the impact of religious liberty on American society, identifying current threats to domestic religious liberty, developing strategies to preserve and enhance religious liberty protections for future generations, | ||
| and recommending programs to increase awareness and celebrate America's peaceful religious pluralism when it comes to specific topics to be considered by this group. | ||
| The First Amendment rights of pastors, religious leaders, houses of worship, faith-based institutions, and religious speakers. | ||
| Attacks across America on houses of worship of many religions, debanking the religious religious entities. | ||
| The First Amendment, rights of teachers, students, military chaplains, service members, employers, and employees. | ||
| Conscience protections in the health care field and concerning vaccine mandates. | ||
| And parents' authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children, including the right to choose a religious education. | ||
| Just to some of the topics of the Commission itself to the broader issue. | ||
| Again, the President talking about this idea of bringing back religion to America. | ||
| Lindsay, in Indiana, Republican line, you're first up on this topic. | ||
| What do you think of those comments by the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I guess I accidentally caught the Republican line and meant to call it the Democrat line. | |
| Okay, I'm going to put you on hold there, give you a chance to call in and call in on the right line so that you can do that. | ||
| Donald in California, Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead, you're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to say this one thing that God said that he hates the liar. | |
| And I think that the president would be at the top of the list when it comes to what God was talking about when he's talking about people exactly like the president that we have. | ||
| He's talking about bringing back religion to the United States. | ||
| Do you think that he thinks that he can bring back religion to the United States? | ||
| Does he think that it works like that? | ||
| I think that most of those people that you see in that meeting, maybe one or two will ever see the gates of heaven. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| When you say that, can you elaborate on those thoughts when you, as far as exactly what he said about bringing back religion, what was wrong or right with it, in your opinion? | ||
| Oh, he's gone. | ||
| Let's hear from Ruben. | ||
| Ruben, Philadelphia, Democrats line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning, Pedro. | |
| How's everything? | ||
| Fine, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was thinking about how the president is literally telling us to go against the Bible. | |
| And I know he doesn't read the Bible because the Bible tells us, tell your children and your children's children all the way until the next generation anything that you have seen and heard. | ||
| And now he wants to go into Smithsonian and take away things that we have learned and how God has delivered black people from the bondage of slavery. | ||
| But he doesn't want us to teach that, whereas the God is specifically saying in the Bible, Yes, I want you to tell all that has happened to you. | ||
| But what does that go to the larger idea of bringing back religion to the United States? | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
How can this person who's telling us to go against what the Bible is saying emphasize on doing what the Bible is saying? | |
| Because the Bible literally says, tell your children everything. | ||
| And he says, do not tell them this. | ||
| Don't tell them the bad things that have happened. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Ruben there in our line for Democrats. | ||
| Some reaction from members of Congress and public at large when it comes to these statements from yesterday. | ||
| This is Dr. Roger Marshall from yesterday saying, It's easy forgotten that the Biden administration targeted, harassed, and weaponized the government against Christian churches and religious organizations. | ||
| Thanks to President Donald Trump, a new day has dawned in America. | ||
| America has always been and will be and goes on to there. | ||
| From a viewer, this is off of X, who just says the word amen when it comes to reaction to the president's comments. | ||
| Senator Tom Cotton from this yesterday on X from D.C. to Chicago, President Trump continues to make America safer. | ||
| And this goes to the other things that are taking place in the United States. | ||
| From Marlon Stutzman, saying, I thank God we have a president who stands for religious freedom. | ||
| He says, extremely encouraged by the president's announcement that the Department of Education will protect students' rights to pray in school. | ||
| We'll show you those comments when it comes to prayer in schools in just a bit. | ||
| Vicki in Washington State, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for taking my call, Pedro. | |
| What I wanted to say is the hypocrisy of this person talking about bringing out religion when he is shielding pedophiles who abuse children. | ||
| We're not talking and the prophets, everything. | ||
| I find him just totally disgusting for doing this. | ||
| And as for religious freedom, religion is in the heart. | ||
| Whatever you believe, you're allowed to believe. | ||
| I don't think the government has any business sticking its nose into it. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Do you think that the United States makes room for all types of religions that people practice in the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, because it's inside your heart what you believe, whatever God or whatever name you give to God or a higher power or whatever. | |
| That's your personal belief. | ||
| That's as personal as talking to your own conscience. | ||
| That's where your God is, is in your conscience. | ||
| I'm not sure Trump has one, but most people do have one. | ||
| And you don't need the government legislating religion. | ||
| They need to stay out of it. | ||
| There's too much government with this whole maggot thing going on. | ||
| If I may ask, when you say the government legislating religion, what do you mean by that? | ||
| What does that mean to you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm talking about the way they're showing this preferential stuff for certain types of religion, Christian nationalists, and stuff like this. | |
| That scares me. | ||
| I was stationed in Germany from 73 to 75. | ||
| I talked to a lot of people over there about Hitler and how he took over, and they took over everything. | ||
| It terrifies me what's happening in this country right now. | ||
| And you have these people. | ||
| There used to be a Republican Party, but the Republican Party has died for the most part. | ||
| There are a few out there still fighting, but we don't have a Republican Party that we had before. | ||
| I remember that. | ||
| And I used to be a Republican. | ||
| I was in the Army in 72, for God's sake. | ||
| There was a peace march and everything else so going on. | ||
| But now I wouldn't recognize, I don't recognize it anymore. | ||
| I'm an independent. | ||
| I don't like what the person teaches. | ||
| Okay, that's Vicki there. | ||
| When it comes to the Religious Liberty Commission, here are some of the members that are currently on the commission. | ||
| The chair of it is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, first elected as the Lieutenant Governor in 2014, re-elected in 2018 and 2022, spending previously over 40 years in the media as an anchor, television anchor, conservative talk show host, and a radio station owner. | ||
| The vice chair, Dr. Ben Carson, rising from poverty, become one of the most renowned pediatric neurosurgeons in the world. | ||
| He served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump administration. | ||
| Bishop Robert Barron, author, speaker, and theologian. | ||
| The bishop reaches millions of people around the world through his World Word on Fire ministry, a Catholic media nonprofit that produced podcasts. | ||
| Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, member of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America. | ||
| He previously served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop. | ||
| Pastor Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and then Dr. Phil McGraw, a longtime host of the Dr. Phil show and the best-selling author as well. | ||
| That's just some of the members. | ||
| When it comes to that commission that the president spoke in front of yesterday, we made those comments about bringing back religion to the United States and North Carolina Democrats lying. | ||
| This is Grace. | ||
| Grace, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Morning, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you today? | |
| I'm fine, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I'm sitting here listening to the president. | |
| I remember when I can't remember whether he was already president or not, but he was being interviewed on a show, and Christianity came up, and the guy asked him, do you ask for forgiveness? | ||
| And he said, no, I don't do anything wrong to be forgiven for. | ||
| So, you know, how can we believe what he's saying when just about everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie? | ||
| And I guess that only there's certain people that are hearing these lies because I hear them every time. | ||
| I really wanted to believe Trump this time, but Christians don't talk like he does. | ||
| And I am a Christian, and I do believe that everybody has the right to believe what they want to, regardless of religion. | ||
| And I do not agree to this commission that he has organized because he doesn't have all the religions involved. | ||
| So what can we say? | ||
| But anyway, Pedro, thank you for having me. | ||
| Grace, as far as the messenger is one thing, but what about the message itself when he talks about this idea of bringing back religion to America? | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, where does he think religion has gone? | |
| I'm still a Christian. | ||
| I still believe in the Bible. | ||
| I still, you know, have my religion. | ||
| So where does he think the religion has gone? | ||
| People still believe. | ||
| And if they don't, that's their problem. | ||
| I am one of those people that I cannot be the person that is going to come before God when I die and say, you know, I want to believe that everybody was a good person, and I really do. | ||
| But can you tell me where he thinks religion has gone? | ||
| Okay, that's Grace there in North Carolina giving her thoughts this morning. | ||
| Some of you posting on our various social media sites on X. | ||
| This is a viewer saying the golden rule. | ||
| And most of those Ten Commandments are what society has been made of. | ||
| Sadly, the fact that many schools have gone from those rules is why there are many issues today. | ||
| The Religion Youth Service, by the way, to that front has a story that they posted. | ||
| This was on September 8th yesterday, just highlighting the fact that three states are pushing to bring those Ten Commandments back into school, banking on guidance at the Supreme Court, saying that as disputes rage over religion's place in public schools, the Ten Commandments have become a focal point. | ||
| At least a dozen states have considered proposals that would require classrooms to post the biblical laws, and three passed laws mandating their display in 2024-2525 in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. | ||
| All three laws have been at least partially blocked. | ||
| Most recently, Texas law, after federal trial court rulings, but the ongoing cases seemed aimed at overturning a 45-year-old Supreme Court precedent prohibiting the posting of those Ten Commandments in public schools. | ||
| John in Princeton, New Jersey, independent line, the president saying bring religion back to America. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I guess the only thing I can say about that is when I look back at history, I think, well, first I should say that I think the teachings of most religions would form a good framework for deciding how to live, how to live righteously. | |
| However, the list of politicians, kings, presidents, prime ministers have used religion to justify war over and over again by saying those people are evil. | ||
| We ought to wipe them out. | ||
| We're the good guys. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Barb in Long Grove, Illinois texts us, and you can do that at 202-748-8003, by the way. | ||
| She texts this saying the president's agenda to bring back religion in America should observe religious freedom. | ||
| Placing religious curricula in public schools might be violating constitutional rights and should be avoided, she adds. | ||
| You can always text your thoughts, too, at that number, 202-748-8003. | ||
| Let's hear from James in South Carolina, also on our line for independence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Listen, Donald Trump, I don't see how he could even have the nerve to get up there and talk about religion. | ||
| He's the man, don't go to church. | ||
| I'm like a relating it from North Carolina. | ||
| He don't go to church. | ||
| I think I saw an interview where he said he was an atheist. | ||
| And when he was out in front of that group, when they were protesting that he wanted to shoot in the leg, they held the Bible upside down. | ||
| Listen, this commission that he's got together is just a judgment bucket of his weak followers. | ||
| And he knows they're weaker than he is. | ||
| And all this speech about what he went on last night was boost his ego. | ||
| How do comments about religions boost his ego specifically? | ||
| James, are you there? | ||
| Okay, let's go to John. | ||
| John in North Carolina, I believe this is on our line for Republicans. | ||
| John, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Anybody that thinks abortion is the Democrat way to get to heaven, I tell you, I feel sorry for them. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| How does that fall into the president's comments yesterday? | ||
| Well, he's trying to get people back to believing in religion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, it ain't, I mean, I don't care what he does. | |
| The Democrats are going to, they're going to say something bad. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, you tell me this is the one on there that says something good about the president. | |
| You don't hear one. | ||
| Not one. | ||
| And they came to be a Christian. | ||
| I question that. | ||
| I don't see how in the world they could be a Christian act like that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| This is from a viewer. | ||
| This is Esteban in Florida texting us as well, asking the question: where's the representation for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, etc.? | ||
| Again, those comments still available on our website. | ||
| One of the things that the president talked about yesterday, and a specific policy point he talked about, was this idea of prayer when it comes to the topic of prayer in public schools, part of the larger context of the speech on religion. | ||
| Here's the president from yesterday. | ||
| For most of our country's history, the Bible is found in every classroom in the nation. | ||
| Yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda, and some are even punished for their religious beliefs and very, very strongly punished. | ||
| It's ridiculous. | ||
| Joining us this morning is Hannah Allen from Honeygrove, Texas. | ||
| A few years ago, Hannah organized a group of her classmates to pray for an injured peer. | ||
| The school principal declared that Hannah's generous act of love was prohibited from taking place in front of the other students. | ||
| Didn't like it. | ||
| The principal didn't like it. | ||
| Can you imagine? | ||
| But Hannah very strongly stood her ground and she won. | ||
| And Hannah, I just want to thank you for letting the light of your faith shine for all of those to see. | ||
| We really appreciate it. | ||
| And where is Hannah? | ||
| Is Hannah here someplace? | ||
| I think so. | ||
| Hannah, stand up, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you, Hannah. | ||
| I know what you went through. | ||
| I know what you went through. | ||
| It's great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Appreciate it. | |
| To support students like Hannah, I'm pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And it's total protection. | |
| There's a follow-up story in Politico when it comes to those specific statements saying that in a statement to Politico, Savannah Newhouse, the press secretary for the education department, said, quote, the Department of Education looks forward to supporting President Trump's vision to promote religious liberty in our schools across the country. | ||
| The story adding that while religion is not banned in public schools, the Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that state-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the First Amendment during his first term. | ||
| President, the president required local education agencies to conform that their policies did not prevent students from expressing their religious beliefs in order to receive federal funding. | ||
| He also issued new guidance clarifying that students are allowed to organize prayer groups, express their religious beliefs in their assignments, and can read religious texts or pray during non-instructional periods. | ||
| The guidance similar to that 2003 guidance instituted under former President George W. Bush. | ||
| Charles, up next in Alabama, Democrats line. | ||
| The president says that once, at least, calling for bringing back religion to America. | ||
| Charles, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, him and his team that are going to bring back religion. | |
| Oh, man, it's just another distraction from the SB5. | ||
| That's all it is. | ||
| It's the signature that he just signed. | ||
| The signature that allowed us to come out, that's his signature. | ||
| So you know he's going to distract you. | ||
| So that ain't nothing but another distraction. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Josh, Republican line. | ||
| He's in Maryland. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I'm totally on board with bringing faith back into our schools. | ||
| What would our country look like if people just practiced the norms, the Ten Commandments? | ||
| Would we have 350,000 missing kids? | ||
| Would we have so much violence? | ||
| Would we have all this hatred towards each other? | ||
| Keep it simple. | ||
| Keep it coming back. | ||
| Start at the youth. | ||
| Bring it all the way up to the adulthood. | ||
| You'll find out people will change their lives once they've rooted into something bigger than themselves. | ||
| And I know we are about all faiths, but at least he's practicing some good, trying to bring back the good in our youth, in our adolescents, and our adults. | ||
| Our country needs it more now than ever before. | ||
| Do you think there, let me ask you this, do you think currently, especially in public schools, there's a limit on a religious belief or at least expressing religious belief in public schools? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, there is. | |
| Absolutely, 100%. | ||
| Especially in blue states and blue cities. | ||
| What convinces you of that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've witnessed it myself. | |
| I've seen it myself. | ||
| How so? | ||
| And I grew up in blue states and blue cities, and I understand what the culture environment is like. | ||
| It's segregated. | ||
| Places are segregated. | ||
| Unfortunately, that's how it is in America. | ||
| Ricky is joining us from Virginia. | ||
| Ricky, Independent Line. | ||
| Go ahead, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, hi, Pedro. | |
| I, you know, in my opinion, this president is about as religious as I am. | ||
| And that is, well, not at all. | ||
| To me, this is, you know, President Trump has been very convincing in a lot of his ways. | ||
| He's a businessman and he's good at deals, but pretending that he is a religious leader or a religious person is just, it's not believable. | ||
| And I don't think it's believable to America. | ||
| I think this probably is a political move. | ||
| I think his approval ratings are down a little bit and he needs to win. | ||
| And so he's tandering to his base, really. | ||
| And I just don't think America buys it that he's a religious guy. | ||
| I mean, come on, look at the recordings of or people he's had to pay off. | ||
| He doesn't seem like a very religious guy. | ||
| Another reaction from yesterday, this is from the Interfaith Alliance to the president's comments on religion. | ||
| They write this saying, in part, saying this administration is using, quote, religious liberty as a pretext to push one extreme, unpopular Christian nationalist agenda onto all Americans, infringing on fundamental rights and undercutting the promise of our country as a diverse, multi-faith democracy. | ||
| They are exploiting religion as a weapon to target vulnerable minorities, including transgender Americans and immigrants. | ||
| All those who don't conform to their narrow doctrine are targeted. | ||
| That's why so many Americans of diverse faiths and beliefs, including millions of Christians, continue to push back against the White House's extreme agenda. | ||
| The Interfaith Alliance giving their thoughts this morning. | ||
| We're asking you to do the same. | ||
| Brianna joins us from Long Beach, California. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Hello, Brianna. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I just wonder what happened to the separation of church and state. | ||
| I feel like they're trying to manipulate the children from an early age to conform to certain aspects of religion. | ||
| And I feel that could lead, that could actually lead to extreme, like more hostility between communities. | ||
| And I feel like I've noticed it here, even in my community, which is very diverse. | ||
| You can see the hostility already. | ||
| And I feel like this is just going to increase that. | ||
| And I feel like they shouldn't push the blame on others. | ||
| I feel like they should put more funding into institutions and programs and rehabilitation programs and more funding into studies of like behavior to better help the youth instead of giving funding for religion. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Brianna there in Long Beach, California. | ||
| If you're interested in learning more about what the court system and particularly our foundational documents say about it, U.S.Courts.gov offers this, saying the First Amendment has two provisions concerning religion, the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. | ||
| The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from, quote, establishing a religion. | ||
| The precise definition of establishment is unclear. | ||
| Historically, it meant prohibiting state-sponsored churches such as the Church of England. | ||
| Today, what constitutes as, quote, an establishment of religion is often governed under a three-part test set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lemon versus Kurtzman, saying under the Lemon test, government can assist religion only if, one, the primary purpose of the assistance is secular. | ||
| Two, the assistance must neither promote or inhibit religion. | ||
| And three, there is no excessive entanglement between church and state. | ||
| And this also adds that the free exercise clause protects citizens' right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of, quote, public morals or a, quote, compelling governmental interest. | ||
| You can see more there. | ||
| U.S.Courts.gov is the website if you want to find out more and read what the documents of the various foundational documents of the United States say. | ||
| Louis in Florida, Republican line, last call on this topic. | ||
| Louis, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pedro, God bless you. | |
| Thank you, buddy. | ||
| Hey, you know, this talk about, you know, he's getting out the word. | ||
| And we have a lot of people that, you know, if we remember, do not judge lest he be judged. | ||
| And we all fall short of glory. | ||
| It's in the Bible. | ||
| Getting it, the children today have no clue. | ||
| Can't even give you one of the Ten Commandments. | ||
| Just try to get it in your hearts, and then you take it from there. | ||
| You pray for the people because the devil is a divider. | ||
| He is a divider, diversity, and he loves it. | ||
| But if we can't judge Donald Trump, I'm Republican. | ||
| Some things I'm not agree with. | ||
| But getting the word of God, that Jesus Christ out there, hey, let's pray for him. | ||
| I don't remember Biden. | ||
| I'm 59. | ||
| I'm trying to go back to remember presidents that rang up religion, that talked about it, as more as this man. | ||
| So do not judge. | ||
| Pray for him. | ||
| As the Bible says, and God bless everybody in this world, we got to be stronger or the man's going to win. | ||
| The devil's going to win. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's all I got to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Louie in Florida, finishing off this round of phones. | ||
| Thanks for all who participated. | ||
| We will switch over. | ||
| You can continue commenting on the topic of the first half hour or anything else when it comes to politics in open forum. | ||
| Here's how you can call in and be part of it. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| We will do open forum till towards the top of the hour call in now. | ||
| Get your thoughts on various topics of politics. | ||
| Again, you can talk about the previous comments of the president there. | ||
| You may want to talk about the news that occurred yesterday when it comes to the latest concerning Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal picking up that story this morning saying that here's an analysis of the letter bearing Donald Trump's name that was included in a 50th birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal in July reported on the 2003 birthday book and a letter bearing Mr. Trump's name. | ||
| Mr. Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, calling it a fake thing. | ||
| Caroline Levitt, White House press secretary, said Monday in a social media post, I have said all along it's very clear that President Trump did not draw this picture and he did not sign it. | ||
| A copy of the letter was provided Monday in Congress in response to a subpoena from Representative Jim Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, Democrat from California, Rokana, pressed for the release of the book. | ||
| Here's a look at key features. | ||
| You've probably seen the image that's involved there when it comes to what was shown yesterday in the Epstein letter. | ||
| When it comes to the president's signature as a squiggly Donald, mimicking Trump often signs with his full name, but there's often other examples of personal letters he sent with a similar signature and bold serif lettering. | ||
| Here is a copy of what was sent out, the highlight of the signature, the text of what was sent out as part of this birthday book. | ||
| Voice over, there must be more to life than having everything. | ||
| Donald responding, yes, there is, but I won't tell you what it is. | ||
| Jeffrey responding, nor will I, since I have known what it is. | ||
| Donald responding back, saying we have certain things in common, Jeffrey. | ||
| Jeffrey saying, yes, we do, come to think of it. | ||
| Donald saying enigmas never age. | ||
| Have you noticed that? | ||
| Jeffrey responding, as a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you. | ||
| And then Donald, as it's referred to this picture, with saying, a pal is a wonderful thing. | ||
| Happy birthday. | ||
| And may we every day be another wonderful, another wonderful secret. | ||
| Again, that was yesterday that was released. | ||
| You can comment on the release of that, the reaction to it on our lines: 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| In Chicago, Independent Line, this is Martin. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Pedro. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Happy Tuesday. | ||
| I just wanted to comment on the religion thing and why our country is not religious. | ||
| Because way back when, you know, before the Boston Tea Party, that wasn't a one-off. | ||
| That was the straw that broke the Campbell's back. | ||
| Well, anytime there was a tax or anytime that came from the king, they said the same thing. | ||
| That's king's law, king's power comes from God. | ||
| So it's like God made the law. | ||
| They said this about everything. | ||
| And when the people here complained, who'd they complain to? | ||
| They complained to the religious leaders, went to the religious leaders, said, hey, the king's overtaxing us. | ||
| What do we do? | ||
| Religious leaders with a pocket full of money said, King's word is law, comes from God. | ||
| Do what they say. | ||
| That's why we had a revolution in this country. | ||
| That's why we don't have religion in this country. | ||
| We're a secular nation. | ||
| Religion can be used to control the masses. | ||
| Basically, what Donald Trump wants to do is control his party. | ||
| I wish the people would stand up for themselves, but I have no faith in that. | ||
| So anyway, Pedro, good talking to you. | ||
| You're a great host. | ||
| Keep doing your job. | ||
| Martin in Chicago, Independent Line. | ||
| Another person on our Independent Line. | ||
| This is from Indiana, Margaret. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I'm just wanting to know about these religious leaders that are following Trump. | ||
| Because, you know, when you speak of the Bible and you read the verses that Jesus has said about the chapter 19 of Matthew 23 and 24 about the rich man entering into heaven because the camel cannot enter to the eye of a needle. | ||
| Why they don't say that? | ||
| That's what I just wondered why they don't preach that. | ||
| And when Trump was told or asked about his favorite Bible verses, he couldn't say nothing. | ||
| He said all of them. | ||
| How are you going to say all of them when you don't know none of them? | ||
| So that was the easy way out. | ||
| So I was just wondering why these religious leaders don't preach about what Jesus said. | ||
| So that's my comment. | ||
| Margaret there in Indiana. | ||
| The story from the Wall Street Journal mentioned it, but I wanted to show you the text, or at least the ex from Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, saying the latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal proves this entire quote birthday card story is false. | ||
| As I have said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture. | ||
| He did not sign it. | ||
| President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation. | ||
| She finishes by saying, furthermore, the reporter, Joe Palazio, who wrote the hatchet job, reached out for comment at the exact same minute he published his story, giving us no time period to respond, no time to respond. | ||
| This is fake news to perpetrate the Democrat Epstein hoax. | ||
| Again, that's from Caroline Levitt. | ||
| She is set to give the White House press briefing about one o'clock this afternoon. | ||
| You can watch it on our channels. | ||
| You can also look at it from our app at C-SPAN Now, our website at c-span.org, the president with several events on his calendar for today. | ||
| So there may be more comments on this story as it broke yesterday from the White House, the president and the White House staff. | ||
| South Carolina is next, Republican line. | ||
| This is Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| As far as religion, that started when, you know, some of the Republicans and that followers, the Democrats, I believe in Trump, and I believe he's a godless man. | ||
| And I don't understand why everybody talks about that man. | ||
| And do you know the Ten Commandments? | ||
| Love your neighbors. | ||
| And I've went to church all my life. | ||
| And I believe in God. | ||
| And that's the only one I believe in. | ||
| When I have problems or I'm sick, that's the one I call on and always will be. | ||
| And I will always believe in him. | ||
| Whatever he says, I'm going to listen to him because he's coming back. | ||
| And some of these people, what they've done to this man, there's no way that I would do that. | ||
| No way I'll say one bad thing about him. | ||
| No, I wouldn't. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Betty there in South Carolina. | ||
| Let's hear from Franklin in New York, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I just want to say, good morning. | ||
| How are you doing? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just want to say that Levitt, what she is, Carolyn Levitt, that's her name. | |
| Yes, the White House press secretary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She's just saying what the president wanted her to say. | |
| And as far as people call me and say they've been to church, let me tell them one thing. | ||
| Even the devil knows the word of God. | ||
| Even the devil knows the word of God. | ||
| And she can, this last call you had, I don't care how much she went to church, but she haven't learned nothing. | ||
| She was going to church just to go to church. | ||
| And another thing, too, about Trump. | ||
| Even the devil. | ||
| He is. | ||
| He is. | ||
| He tells so many lies. | ||
| How can he say anything about the Bible? | ||
| And I don't understand how these Republicans, I don't know how these Republicans can say they would believe everything that Trump would say. | ||
| And they know he didn't tell lies after lies after lies. | ||
| Look what he's doing to the country. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| David in North Carolina, Republican line on this open forum. | ||
| Hello, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello, you're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, okay. | |
| I wasn't sure. | ||
| Okay, when I went to school in the early 60s, there were many people who can back me up on this, but they had the Ten Commandments up above the teacher's desk on the wall there. | ||
| And when you read, when you see that every day about, you know, just anybody basically knows the Ten Commandments. | ||
| But if you see that and you get out here, you start to do some of this stuff, you know, these Ten Commandments is pretty good. | ||
| It's going to pop up in their mind. | ||
| And the lady a couple minutes ago, thank God for a good godly lady for whoever she may be. | ||
| But I tell you, it's religion will send you nowhere but hell. | ||
| You've got to go through the blood of Jesus Christ. | ||
| And you need to read the Ten Commandments, seek it in, see what God does in your life, and you might see a whole different situation. | ||
| And you, good chance, you're going to go to heaven. | ||
| But in other words, you bust hell wide open. | ||
| But I appreciate you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Democrats lying in Detroit. | ||
| Gigi, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to say that for me, Donald Trump is evil. | |
| He talks about religion, but he doesn't follow the word. | ||
| And that's part of being, especially as a Christian, is obedience to the word of God. | ||
| You know, I've been in church all of my life, and I've learned, and you continue to learn until you die. | ||
| And one of the things that we need to understand is it's not religion, it's being more of a spiritual person because you must worship God in spirit and in truth. | ||
| And I feel that Donald Trump is an enemy of the state, but more importantly, an enemy of the word of God. | ||
| And for me, he's like the false prophet who comes in sheep's clothing, but inwardly is a ravening wolf. | ||
| Now, when I grew up, everything was closed on Sunday because it's a commandment to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. | ||
| But then we have been overtaken by the love of and pursuit of money. | ||
| And we have a president who loves money and is willing to take from poor people to give to the rich, especially in this tax cut bill that he has pursued. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Gigi there in Detroit. | ||
| If you go to the front page of the Los Angeles Times this morning, it talks about one of the actions that came down from the Supreme Court. | ||
| It's their lead story. | ||
| Justices uphold roving patrols by federal staff in Los Angeles saying that the court ruled Monday for the Trump administration and agreed that U.S. immigration agents may stop and detain anyone they suspect is in the U.S. illegally based on little more than working at a car wash, speaking Spanish or having brown skin in a 6-3 vote. | ||
| Justices granted an emergency appeal, lifted a Los Angeles judge's order that barred roving patrols from snatching people off Southern California streets based on how they look, what language they speak, what work they do, or where they happen to be. | ||
| That's in the Los Angeles Times. | ||
| One of those follow-up stories in the Los Angeles Times talks about the Attorney General in the state of California, the top law enforcement official, weighed in, saying that he condemned a decision, which clears the way for immigration agents to stop and question people they suspect. | ||
| Speaking at a news conference in downtown L.A., Rob Banta, said he agreed with claims that the ACLU made in its lawsuit against the Trump administration. | ||
| He called indiscriminate tactics used to make immigration arrest a violation of the Fourth Amendment. | ||
| Those comments came down yesterday when he appeared before reporters and cameras. | ||
| We had a chance to capture that. | ||
| Here's a portion of the Attorney General of California reacting to the Supreme Court yesterday. | ||
| We ought not live in a government or in a nation where the government can seize you because you appear Latino, because you speak Spanish, or because you appear to have a low-wage job. | ||
| And I couldn't agree more. | ||
| We shouldn't live in a country like that. | ||
| And that's what the lower court's decision was about, making sure that we don't live in a country like that. | ||
| And we'll see what happens next. | ||
| This is an emergency petition. | ||
| The U.S. Supreme Court could have stayed out of it and allowed the lower court proceedings to continue, but they decided that they wanted to weigh in. | ||
| I'll also acknowledge that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently said that you can't consider race in college admissions when it could be one factor among many to tackle historical discrimination, to address personal racial discrimination in an applicant's life. | ||
| You can't consider it. | ||
| But you can consider race when in a city like LA, where there are so many Latino Californians lawfully present following the law. | ||
| You can use race as a factor to discriminate potentially against Angelinos and Californians based on race. | ||
| So how they prevent the use of race to tackle discrimination, but allow the use of race to potentially discriminate is disturbing. | ||
| That from yesterday. | ||
| Let's hear from Kim in California and Sacramento, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Well, I have three things that I called in to talk about really quick. | ||
| The number one was the issue that you were just talking about that the Supreme Court put a stamp of approval of racial profiling for Latinos. | ||
| I personally am one. | ||
| My children are. | ||
| And I'm not scared. | ||
| I'm angry. | ||
| And I feel like, you know, I didn't expect much more from a country that is watching a genocide happen in Palestine. | ||
| Why wouldn't we think that they would be brutal and violent towards us here? | ||
| We are the first people they are coming for, but we won't be the last. | ||
| And also, I want to say that this stuff about religion, you know, coming from a pedophile. | ||
| Okay, hold on, August. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Trump. | |
| Go ahead and watch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, and the Epstein files, you know, is a distraction. | |
| You know, it's a distraction. | ||
| Everybody knew that he was friends with them. | ||
| We're making, I'm not saying that what they did, that it shouldn't be looked into, but it shouldn't be the main thing. | ||
| When they give these billionaires this capitalism, they call it a beautiful bill, it will hurt all of us. | ||
| I'm just so disappointed in humanity. | ||
| I can't even really talk about it. | ||
| That's Kim there in Sacramento. | ||
| Let's hear from Chris in Oregon, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I can say the reason why religion is involved is because even in the Bible, it said that we would follow false prophets. | |
| And I believe that this is a bunch of false people, Republicans and Democrats are following a false prophet trying to bring around the end of bringing that Christ back. | ||
| But it isn't the time because we're not supposed to know. | ||
| But they don't want to see it. | ||
| So I guess we'll just have to hold on and wait and see how it ends. | ||
| But it's not going to be good. | ||
| That's Chris in Oregon, one of the people commenting on the Supreme Court's decision when it comes to Los Angeles was the person very involved when it comes to immigration and deportation efforts, Tom Holman, at the White House yesterday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Tom, your reaction, Tom, your reaction to the Supreme Court's decision. | |
| Great decision. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So how will that affect your operations in LA? | |
| We'll continue doing the operations the way we've been doing them. | ||
| I mean, I said from day one, I think the ICE officers, Board of Trilas, is doing the right thing. | ||
| Do you know ICE officers every six months get Fourth Amendment refresher training? | ||
| Every six months. | ||
| So they know the law around the Fourth Amendment. | ||
| Who can they arrest? | ||
| Where they need to arrest, what they need to seize, what they need to detain for questioning. | ||
| They get training all the time. | ||
| And I said from day one, the judge who made that first ruling and stopped it, I don't know how she gets in the officers' heads. | ||
| How does she know if the officers gathered reasonable suspicion? | ||
| She don't know that. | ||
| An officer does that. | ||
| And despite what the media said, mischaracterized me or said, well, reasonable suspicion can be based on looks alone. | ||
| I never said that. | ||
| I said looks are one of many factors you have to consider. | ||
| It's a multitude of factors to establish reasonable suspicion. | ||
| But if an illegal answer, illegal airline has an MS-13 tattoo on his head, that's certainly going to be one of the factors that we consider when we add a bunch of factors together. | ||
| It's a culmination of factors, not one factor, different factors. | ||
| In related news, here's the headline from the Chicago Sun-Times this morning about immigration enforcement actions in Chicago. | ||
| Their banner headline saying Trump's midway blitz, and that's in quotes underway. | ||
| The subhead, feds launched long-promised Chicago deportation operation. | ||
| Government says, governor says it's about, quote, scaring Illinois. | ||
| Again, that is from the Chicago Sun-Times. | ||
| Juanita from Cincinnati Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I have two things, two points I want to make. | ||
| As far as Mr. Holmes is concerned, he's a bloody racist. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| But this comment is directed to the young man who called in from North Carolina, who grew up in the 60s with the Ten Commandments above in his classroom. | ||
| I'd like to remind him, I'm 74. | ||
| I also like to remind him that the last one from North Carolina A ⁇ T who integrated the lunch counters just died this week in his dear state of North Carolina. | ||
| So I guess I must put that young man who called me North Carolina in the same place with those other Bible thumpers who discriminated against those kids. | ||
| Now we're talking about young man and something. | ||
| One was actually in the ROTC of North Carolina A ⁇ T. | ||
| I went to Ohio State. | ||
| My brother went to North Carolina, but he was actually an ROTC student. | ||
| They wanted a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee. | ||
| And then those people had the absolute nerve to try to put God into it. | ||
| You got to be ashamed of yourself. | ||
| Let's hear from Alan. | ||
| Alan is in Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| This is Alan, longtime listener, first time caller. | ||
| I'm calling regarding the Ten Commandments. | ||
| You know, the first thing I want to say is when I was, I'm 70 years old, when I was younger, I would walk into police stations, 10 commandments would be there. | ||
| School, 10 Commandments would be there. | ||
| Courtroom, 10 Commandments would be there. | ||
| Everybody saw it. | ||
| It gave everybody a reference, young and old, on how to live their lives. | ||
| It gave them direction. | ||
| You know, I asked young people, you know what the Ten Commandments are today? | ||
| Many of them say, no. | ||
| What are the Ten Commandments? | ||
| I would share it with them, and they welcome the guidance. | ||
| And finally, you know, is all you have to do is go out on Sunday morning to the soccer fields, the football fields, the baseball fields. | ||
| They're packed. | ||
| When I was younger, the churches were packed. | ||
| I'm not saying that, you know, I'm not a religious fanatic, but for crying out loud, if you go to church, even if you don't want to, just through the process of osmosis, you might pick up some ways to be a good, ethical person and make the world better for humanity that that's my alan there in michigan just to show you one of the other actions of the supreme court yesterday | ||
| This is the Washington Post saying that President Donald Trump can fire a Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission while the Supreme Court considers whether the way in on a lawsuit challenging her dismissal. | ||
| According to the Chief Justice, John Roberts did not offer a reason for the temporary ruling, but it signals that the high court may be inclined to overturn an appeals court decision last week that reaffirmed Rebecca Slaughter's reinstatement. | ||
| The divided appeals court found the president removed slaughter, quote, without cause from the agency that focuses on consumer protection and antitrust issues. | ||
| The statute creating the FTC says commissioners can only be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. | ||
| This adding the response from Rebecca Slaughter saying that, quote, I intend to see this case through to the end. | ||
| She said she had briefly returned to her job at the result of the lower court rulings. | ||
| Quote, in the week I was back at the FTC, it became more clear to me that we desperately need the transparency and accountability Congress intended to have the bipartisan independent agency. | ||
| So the Supreme Court, with many actions yesterday, you can always follow along on these major cases when the Supreme Court hears them on our website at cspan.org. | ||
| We've archived a lot of those cases that you can see as far as the oral arguments are concerned. | ||
| If you're interested in hearing some of the back and forth between the various justices and the attorneys representing the cases that are going before them. | ||
| Again, that's our website at cspan.org. | ||
| Let's hear from Mary. | ||
| Last call from Houston on our line for independence. | ||
| Mary, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm calling about the Bible. | |
| There's more to the Bible than just quoting scriptures or going to church. | ||
| According to 2 Corinthians 4, 4, it says that the God of the system of things has blinded the mind of the unbeliever. | ||
| So if you don't have accurate knowledge of the Bible, you could be one that's blinded. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Mary there in Houston, Texas, Independent Line, finishing off this round of open forum. | ||
| We appreciate those who participated. | ||
| Later on in the program, a member of Congress joining us from Capitol Hill to talk about the various things going on. | ||
| Representative Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey. | ||
| He'll join us later. | ||
| But first up, we will hear from Punch Bowl News is Max Cohen. | ||
| not only with the effort to keep the government funded at the end of September, but also release of more Epstein files and the reaction on Capitol Hill. | ||
| That's coming up when Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Past president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why? | |
| Why are you doing this? | ||
| This is outrageous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a kangaroo. | |
| This fall, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity, Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins. | ||
| Join political playbook chief correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns as host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue to find common ground. | ||
| ceasefire this fall on the network that doesn't take sides only on c-span 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'll cover the 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 year verse for C-SPAN. | ||
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| Shop now or anytime at C-SPANShop.org. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Congress is back, lots to do, and here to give us an update on where Congress is on the various things they have to do is Max Cohen of Punchball News. | ||
| He's their congressional reporter joining us. | ||
| Thanks for giving us your time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Your publication puts out an alert every morning with things to watch. | ||
| And this is how you let off today saying, with just three weeks to go until the government shutdown, leaders in both parties are still trying to figure out where their own positions are on spending for 2026. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So as you mentioned, government funding runs out end of September and Republicans aren't yet on the same page. | ||
| And we asked Democrats where they stood on this funding issue and they said, let us know when Republicans have a proposal. | ||
| So we're in a kind of a stalemate right now. | ||
| It's somewhat normal. | ||
| As the deadline approaches, we'll get some clear answers. | ||
| But essentially where it stands now is we're going to need a continuing resolution, a short-term funding measure. | ||
| The question is, how long will that be? | ||
| Will that be until November or December? | ||
| Or will that be into the early months of 2026? | ||
| And those are the two options as it currently stands. | ||
| What is the value from those participating of either doing it in November or doing it next year? | ||
| Yeah, good question. | ||
| So if you punt it to November, the argument from congressional appropriators, they favor that deadline, is that it gives us a little bit more time to get the appropriations bills done in regular order while still keeping on the focus. | ||
| But if you punt it to the first couple months of 2026, it gives you a lot more time, which might be more realistic. | ||
| However, as we all know, we watch Congress every day. | ||
| They don't do well without a hard deadline. | ||
| So it's kind of that push and pull between do you really focus Congress on getting appropriate done early or do you give them more time, which might be more amenable to the process, but also concurrently might actually make it harder to get a deal because it slips to the back of the agenda list. | ||
| They want more time to pass appropriations bills. | ||
| How many appropriations bills have actually been passed? | ||
| Yeah, right now, none of them passed and signed into law by the president, the Senate, and the House have passed some separate bills, but currently none of them have actually gone to President Trump's desks. | ||
| The closest bill is a military construction VA bill. | ||
| This is largely non-controversial, dealing with veterans affairs issues. | ||
| And that might be going through a conference committee this month. | ||
| But even that hasn't really been kicked off yet because of this stalemate. | ||
| For all the talk of wanting to pass appropriations bills, is there a why that they a why that they haven't done so yet? | ||
| Yeah, I think it's a different composition of the Senate and the House right now. | ||
| Of course, both are controlled by Republicans, but in the Senate, they need 60 votes to clear appropriations bills requiring Democratic support, whereas in the House, they can pass appropriate bills with just all GOP support. | ||
| So the Senate bills will always be, at this point in time, have more funding, because that's what Democrats want, and be more bipartisan. | ||
| In the House, with Speaker Johnson and some more conservative Republicans, they're going to be at lower spending levels, similar to what the White House would want. | ||
| Thank you for the segue, because I want to talk about House Republicans. | ||
| Are they fractured as far as this approach is concerned? | ||
| And if so, what are the blocks to watch, so to speak? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, listen, House Republicans, largely, I'd say, are united on this. | ||
| You have the appropriators, someone like Tom Cole, the chairman of the committee in the House, who was longtime seen as someone of a moderating force, someone who wants to stand up for more government spending in a way for his district. | ||
| But even people like Tom Cole are marking up their appropriations bills at the pretty drastic cuts that President Trump has wanted. | ||
| And they're really at odds with the Senate here who are trying to work. | ||
| Susan Collins and Patty Murray, the top two on the Senate Appropriations Committee, are trying to work at a higher spending threshold. | ||
| So I'm looking at this at Senate versus House. | ||
| When it comes to those thresholds, can you give our viewers a sense of where they stand as far as the House and Senate are? | ||
| I mean, we're looking at tens of billions of dollars more in spending in the Senate, which based on what President Trump and Russ Vote and top administration officials want at the White House is not what they say is necessary to really cut funding and bring what they say is, quote, fiscal sanity back to American politics. | ||
| This is Max Cohen joining us for this conversation when it comes to the work of Congress, when it comes to funding and other issues. | ||
| If you want to ask him questions about the status of it, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8,000 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can also send us a text if you wish at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You had Speaker Johnson on your Punch Bowl News, a new television service that you had offering. | ||
| He talked about various things, but what's the strategy to resolve all these issues, at least where the speaker stands right now? | ||
| Speaker Johnson does not want a government shutdown. | ||
| His strategy has to be start talking with Hakeem Jeffries, start talking with Democrats, and get some sort of agreement in the next couple of weeks to avoid this. | ||
| Johnson is going to push for a short-term continuing resolution. | ||
| That being said, let's go back to March for a minute. | ||
| That's when Democrats ended up passing the Republican continuing resolution, but it also led to a massive revolt from the Democratic base. | ||
| Democrats are going to need some sort of concession from Republicans in order for them to vote for this bill. | ||
| And remember, they do need Democratic votes in the Senate, and House Democrats aren't going to go for this unless there is some sort of promise of, hey, Democrats, you get something in return. | ||
| So that's the really big question I'm watching over the next couple of weeks. | ||
| Is it going to be an extension of these Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies? | ||
| That is one big topic they're discussing right now. | ||
| Democrats say, listen, this is going to expire at the end of 2025. | ||
| We don't want people being kicked off health care. | ||
| So maybe in return for voting for this short-term funding bill, there could also be an extension of these health care tax credits. | ||
| Is the Democratic caucus united on that front? | ||
| Get something to give something in the sense at this stage? | ||
| Yes, I wouldn't say they're united on a given policy issue yet because they're telling us just yesterday, it's too early to say what they want, but they are united on that strategy, which is we're not just going to greenlight a clean CR unless we can get some sort of policy win for our base. | ||
| That's the House side. | ||
| So if that's all going on in the House, the Senate's still dealing with these issues as well. | ||
| Give us the lay of the land where Senator Thune is on getting these things resolved and where Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are at this point. | ||
| Yeah, so Leader Thune said just yesterday he wants a short-term, clean, continuing resolution. | ||
| And he said to reporters he wants it to be as clean as possible. | ||
| So he's already setting up his negotiation standpoint and saying, if Democrats want something, that's not going to fly. | ||
| We just want to kick the can down the road a couple months, give the appropriators more time for a deal. | ||
| But Republicans are already signaling they're not willing to give anything yet. | ||
| Now, of course, that could change. | ||
| It's still early. | ||
| But there does seem to be that dispute here where Democrats say we want something attached to this funding bill. | ||
| Republicans say nothing attached, just the funding. | ||
| And when give something, what do you mean by that? | ||
| That the Republicans don't want to give something. | ||
| Is that just what it is right there? | ||
| Oh, well, I mean, that could be any policy win which Democrats are demanding. | ||
| I mean, also, let's mention rescissions, right? | ||
| This is the process in which the Trump administration has said we're not going to fund certain programs, which Congress has already appropriated money for. | ||
| That's infuriated Democrats. | ||
| They're saying, how can we pass any funding bill if Donald Trump is just going to single out programs, billions of dollars, that they're not going to fund? | ||
| So Democrats also could ask for some sort of promise that Republicans would block a potential resistance package. | ||
| That's not necessarily realistic per se, given Trump is trying to do it even without Congress. | ||
| But those are sort of the conversations when I say give something together. | ||
| And that was on foreign aid, the pocket residue, a lot of reaction on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Let's hear from James. | ||
| James in Pennsylvania, Independent Line, you're on with Max Cohen. | ||
| James, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Hi, Max. | ||
| I wanted to know, Hakeem Jeffries made a statement that we will hold the line for a government shutdown. | ||
| Now, if you know, what are the Democrats going to do? | ||
| Because President Trump laid off a lot of people from the federal government. | ||
| So people don't even have jobs right now. | ||
| So don't you think the Democratic strategy should be to work with Speaker Johnson to get the continuing resolution done? | ||
| And also, just like you said, I agree with you. | ||
| We're going to have some give and take as far as what programs do need to get funded. | ||
| But I hope the Democratic strategy is just not saying, okay, yeah, I think we want to shut down. | ||
| That's not going to work too well for the Democratic Party. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| I think it's a great point the caller made, which is this is a very unique situation in American politics. | ||
| For the past number of decades, it's been Republicans who have been the ones threatening government shutdowns. | ||
| And Democrats as a party, they're the party of more involved government. | ||
| They're the party, by and large, government workers identify with. | ||
| It's a rare position to have Democrats saying we might force a shutdown. | ||
| Now, I'm not sure when it push comes to shove, Democrats may actually force a shutdown, but it is a remarkable kind of commentary on where we stand as a nation right now, where there is such incredible anger among the Democratic base at President Trump and at what his government is doing that the party, for one of the first times that at least I can remember, is saying a shutdown might be preferable to what the government is currently doing. | ||
| But again, I think a government shutdown, by and large, will not be a comfortable position for Democrats to be in because the question I always ask is, let's say we are in a government shutdown, right? | ||
| This might actually be a preferable situation for some Republicans who say the government needs to be pared down anyway. | ||
| Let's reduce it to essential services. | ||
| How do Democrats then negotiate their way out of a government shutdown? | ||
| That's the open question that I have not heard an answer to yet. | ||
| Talk about the timeline. | ||
| In essence, they have what we've heard is the end of September, but it's not really that. | ||
| What's the actual timeline that has to be done in order to resolve this issue? | ||
| Yeah, it's in September, but this can really be fudged if they pass a bill that expires a couple hours after that. | ||
| That's not really a problem. | ||
| The government can go through these measures, which says even if the funding bill is past the deadline, as long as within a couple of hours, nothing actually happens. | ||
| No one's laid off. | ||
| But we're still a ways away, I think, from those conversations. | ||
| And in the past couple of years, let's think back, there were no government shutdowns during Joe Biden's term at all. | ||
| So Washington has not dealt with a government shutdown since 2019 when Trump had that dispute with Schumer and Pelosi over funding for a border wall. | ||
| And we all remember that lasted a very long time. | ||
| So I'm glad you're bringing up the details of the shutdown because this is something this town has not dealt with for six years now, essentially. | ||
| Let me clarify myself. | ||
| An actual days are concerned, because if I understand, they have a break coming up and there are other issues as well. | ||
| So the actual number of days is really short. | ||
| Let me clarify myself there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Exactly. | ||
| Yeah, there are recesses coming up for the Jewish high holidays. | ||
| I think the entire week of September 2020, 22nd, that week is going to be blocked off for a recess. | ||
| So it's actually a much shorter timeline than it appears. | ||
| They return to D.C. that lasts with around four to five days left in September. | ||
| And that's when, really, it's going to be crunch time. | ||
| A viewer asked about the House or he talked a little bit about this, by why House or Senate Democrats would support a continuing resolution without those concessions of Speaker Johnson. | ||
| They need something to get into it, I suppose, is what he's saying. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair. | ||
| But also, I'm still skeptical Democrats when push comes to shove would lead to a shutdown knowing that it would impact many of their voters. | ||
| And also, there's an argument that it could give President Donald Trump even more power to go about his cost-cutting measures, which Democrats have so opposed. | ||
| When it comes to the Senate side, another topic altogether from funding. | ||
| Senator Thune started a process yesterday because he wants more of the president's nominations pushed through the Senate. | ||
| Talk about how we got to this point. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So a number of executive nominations, sub-cabinet nominations are called. | ||
| They're not the top cabinet officials, but they're still important roles in government. | ||
| Democrats have been blocking quick consideration of these nominees. | ||
| In past Senates, it's standard practice for one of these sub-cabinet nominees who have advanced from a committee with bipartisan support, or even sometimes with unanimous support, to be voice voted clear by unanimous consent on the Senate floor. | ||
| This year, because Democrats stand in stark opposition to President Trump, none of that has happened. | ||
| No nominee has passed in that quick manner. | ||
| Democrats are forcing individual votes on each of these sub-cabinet nominees. | ||
| This has really frustrated Republicans. | ||
| They've said, look, this is not normal. | ||
| When President Biden was in office, we allowed a lot of these similar nominees when Biden did it, just to be clear very quickly, Democrats are forcing a vote on every single one. | ||
| And that's led Thune and Senate Republicans to say, if they're going to oppose the nominees in this manner, we're going to tweak the Senate rules to allow us to clear. | ||
| In this instance, Thune teed up 48 nominees to be clear at one time if the rules change is successful, and that would kick in next week. | ||
| As far as the numbers, does he have the numbers to make that change? | ||
| Yes, because what they're going to do is require the nuclear option. | ||
| There's going to be a vote to override the parliamentarian, as we understand it, and that's going to be at a simple majority threshold, will not require any Democrats. | ||
| We'll continue on that topic, but let's hear from Rebecca first. | ||
| Rebecca joins us from Pennsylvania Democrats line. | ||
| Hi, Rebecca. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, good morning. | ||
| My concern with another government shutdown battle like this, every time our government shuts down, it's extremely expensive for us to do. | ||
| Already our government is spending like a drunk sailor after all of Trump's executive orders and doge cuts to food and health. | ||
| It seems to me that at this point, they have already dismantled so much in this administration that perhaps the Republicans should be over working with the Democrats. | ||
| Instead of the Democrats always being the scapegoat, Democrats need to do this. | ||
| Democrats, you know, I just think everything's very imbalanced, and I don't think that our country is going to survive it. | ||
| Okay, Rebecca there in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Thanks for the call. | ||
| Yeah, I think there's a lot of frustration among Democrats in Washington that we hear a lot, that they always have to be the, quote, adults in the room. | ||
| And this played out a lot during the previous Congress when you had the Democratic Senate and the Republican House. | ||
| And even with the Republican House, Democrats needed to deliver votes to pass some of these government funding bills because a lot of House Republicans had a position which I will never vote for a continuing resolution no matter what. | ||
| So even when Republicans controlled the chamber of the House, Democrats had to swoop in and deliver votes. | ||
| That's a dynamic I think might change given President Trump delivered a pretty forceful message saying to his conservative colleagues in the House, I don't care if you don't like a continuing resolution, vote for it anyway. | ||
| I'm president. | ||
| And that's what we saw in March when it was House Republicans who actually carried that government funding vote. | ||
| Max Cohen, you don't speak for Congress. | ||
| I just want to put that out there. | ||
| But the viewer does ask the question, why didn't Congress care about the looming shutdown when they took a month-long break? | ||
| I could speak for Congress in this instant by saying the only sacred thing left in D.C. nowadays, not the only, one of the few sacred things left is August recess. | ||
| And it's very difficult to get members of Congress to not go home for that month when they have district events and fundraising and travel and time of family. | ||
| Viewers at home might not like it. | ||
| I'm not saying whether it's good or bad. | ||
| I'm just saying the fact, which is August recess is sacrosanct for these members. | ||
| This is from Jason from North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
| You're on with Max Cohen of Punch Bowl News. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I was just calling to say that I'm a Democrat and I think they should do the shutdown. | ||
| For years, the Republicans have basically done what they wanted to do, especially this year under Trump. | ||
| And that, you know, he's just real rescission, whatever else. | ||
| So I just wanted to get your... | ||
| Okay, but I'll stop you there only because you're calling on the wrong line, but we got your thought out. | ||
| Mr. Cohen, go ahead and respond. | ||
| I think it's a really interesting encapsulation of where Democrats are right now. | ||
| A lot of the party says we want to fight. | ||
| We want to be the, we almost want to replicate what Republicans did during the Tea Party movement when opposition and shutdowns were the name of the game. | ||
| And I think that color is reflective of a lot of Democrats who look at their party right now and aren't happy with how they're approaching Trump. | ||
| To what degree does that sentiment hold from the last time they supported an effort like this? | ||
| Is this like a leftover resentment of doing that decision? | ||
| Or are there other factors there too? | ||
| I think so. | ||
| I think leftovers that may is a good way to put it. | ||
| People look back to March and say, you just funded the Trump government you're so upset with. | ||
| Why didn't you stay put up more of a fight? | ||
| Why didn't you even force a shutdown? | ||
| I think, you know, regardless of the details of how the shutdown will go, I think a lot of Democratic voters are saying, at least try something. | ||
| At least show us you're willing to disrupt business as usual. | ||
| Back to Senator Thune for a second. | ||
| You talked about his efforts, his decision on nominations. | ||
| There was a reaction on the Senate floor from Senator Schumer about specifically that. | ||
| I want to play that for you, and then we'll get some context from you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| At the end of the last work period, Democrats were working in good faith with Republicans on nomination package to move through this chamber. | ||
| Senator Thune was very involved. | ||
| He seemed very willing to come up with an agreement. | ||
| And then at the last minute, of course, Donald Trump said literally to me, go to hell. | ||
| And the talks fell apart. | ||
| Was there any integrity? | ||
| Was there any backbone? | ||
| Was there any strength to say to Trump, we have an agreement? | ||
| Take a walk, no way. | ||
| And so now, rather than giving those talks another chance, Republicans would rather change how the Senate operates to weaken this chamber's traditional and powerful sense of deliberation. | ||
| And if Republicans go nuclear, the historically bad nominees we've seen so far under Donald Trump will get only worse. | ||
| Let me say that again, because this is the crux of the matter. | ||
| We all know what horrible nominees he puts up. | ||
| As I said before, like with Mr. R-Town, no sense of integrity, no sense of rule of law. | ||
| Just bow down to Trump. | ||
| Well, the kind of people confirmed by this chamber this year have been unprecedentedly bad, beyond the pale. | ||
| Scandal after scandal, expose after exposé. | ||
| Many of them are far worse than any group of nominees we've seen before. | ||
| Trump has made a mockery of the nominations process. | ||
| He lacks any sense of principle. | ||
| He doesn't care if the people he picks are unqualified, if they're liars, if they're corrupt. | ||
| Sometimes it's almost as if the more corrupt, the better, because then Donald Trump will totally control what they do. | ||
| That was a portion of Senator Schumer's statement, some context there as far as where his perspective is on this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| So what Senator Schumer there is referencing is right before the Senate left for its August recess, there was conversations underway between Schumer, Thune, and Trump about how to move a big portion of these nominees, which were held locked by Democrats that would not allow them to be considered quickly in exchange for some concessions by President Trump. | ||
| What that was wasn't necessarily clear because these negotiations were not public. | ||
| But as our understanding, it had to do with restoring some of the funding to some health care programs that Trump had claimed to cut. | ||
| So Democrats working again with the White House and with the Republican leader to say, okay, we'll clear a lot of these sub-cabinet nominees that you really want to get through, some ambassadors too, and you'll give us some more funding. | ||
| Those talks broke down, as Schumer mentioned, and now instead of returning to the table to do the talks, which admittedly would have been difficult given the current political environment, the Republican leadership in the Senate has instead decided, we're just going to change the rules. | ||
| We don't need Trump. | ||
| We don't need Schumer. | ||
| We'll do this entirely within the Republican Conference. | ||
| Of course, Democrats are very frustrated because they felt like they were on the verge of getting something in this negotiation. | ||
| And now what they're seeing now is Thune, you know, overruling the parliamentarian is the plan, saying, Democrats, we don't need you. | ||
| And these nominees get done anyway. | ||
| The idea of changing rules to get nominations, is that just a Republican ideal? | ||
| Have Democrats done it? | ||
| What's history telling us? | ||
| This is a bipartisan thing. | ||
| The Senate operates on precedent, on procedure, on how things have been done in the past, but both sides in the past 10, 15, 20 years have taken steps to allow their own nominees to be accepted and voted on with an easier process. | ||
| Each side will accuse the other of doing it, but then, let's remember, whenever they are in the majority, they also get to benefit. | ||
| If Democrats reclaim the Senate in a number of years and there's a Democratic president, they will be able to benefit from this exact same rule change. | ||
| Max Cohen of Punch Bowl News for this conversation. | ||
| This is Dave. | ||
| Dave joins us from Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Dave. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Max, I'd like to know your thoughts on a resolution and as far as the outstanding problems that we face today in the global economy. | ||
| That's my thought. | ||
| What in your mind, of all everything that we've got with the wars going on, with the emergency global affairs and the tariffs and everything, what stands out in your mind should you think that they should be considered right now that'll sway their procedures as far as waiting long enough to see how this is playing out? | ||
| This is my mind. | ||
| They're waiting to see how these tariffs are going to affect the economy, I think, before they start making any decisions. | ||
| Your thoughts on that, Max. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| It's a good point. | ||
| I'm glad tariffs are brought up because it's an important issue facing the country right now, and it's something which Congress has attempted to push back against Trump on. | ||
| There are a number of disapproval resolutions that would have stopped these tariffs from going into place. | ||
| However, on every occasion this disapproval resolution has come up, whether it's the tariffs on Canada or the EU or other countries, they have been defeated by Republicans who are still standing by President Trump. | ||
| So we've had a small number of Republicans side with Democrats and say, I don't agree with these tariffs, but by and large, Congress has not stepped in and done anything to stop these tariffs from going into effect. | ||
| Just before we go into another topic, when it comes to the nominations process, what's the timeline are we looking at on the Senate side? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So there will be some procedural votes this week on those rules changes. | ||
| And if all goes to plan, all goes to Thune's plan, there will be a vote early next week, which could approve the first large block of these nominees under the new rule change. | ||
| So looking Wednesday of next week is what we're reporting. | ||
| Yesterday, on the House side, the Oversight Committee releasing more files when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| What exactly was released out? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So all these files were subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee, which the oversight committee in a bipartisan vote the other month said we want to subpoena the Epstein estate. | ||
| We want to subpoena Alex Acosta, other key figures in this Epstein scandal. | ||
| So the files we saw yesterday, that birthday book, which has been widely circulated, that came from Jeffrey Epstein's estate. | ||
| So we saw files that his estate had. | ||
| And of course, the birthday book, which I'm sure we'll talk more about, was the most salacious, the most newsworthy of those files. | ||
| But a number of other interviews will also be coming to light. | ||
| And the most remarkable thing about all this, I want to note, is that, again, this is happening under a Republican-controlled House. | ||
| Normally, you don't see a chamber of Congress that's the same party as a sitting president cooperate in this manner in an investigation which could so clearly harm their own party's president. | ||
| But because of the dramatic anger among the Republican base about the handling of the Epstein files, we saw a number of Republicans side with Democrats and say, listen, I'm not sure what the White House wants, but I know my constituents and I want to see more of these files. | ||
| And again, that was not what the White House wanted. | ||
| They did not want these files to come out. | ||
| The two figures at the center of this push, amongst others, I'm sure, is Representative Tom Massey of Kentucky and Roquana of California. | ||
| What is their interest, this bipartisan interest? | ||
| What in their mind is their interest of getting these files out? | ||
| Yeah, Thomas Massey is a fascinating figure, given that he's run afoul of both President Trump and Speaker Johnson in recent months. | ||
| He's charting his own path. | ||
| He sees himself as an anti-establishment politician. | ||
| He's on the libertarian scale of the Republican Party. | ||
| And what he sees happening in his mind is we were promised a lot of transparency about the Jeffrey Epstein files, and the White House has not delivered that transparency. | ||
| As a result, Massey's teaming up with Roe Khanna, one of the most progressive left-wing Democrats in the House, not someone you would automatically assume would be part of a bipartisan resolution, right? | ||
| But Cona and Massey are leading this discharge petition, which is trying to gather enough votes to force the FBI, DOJ, to release all the files. | ||
| That, however, does not have enough votes as we stand because what House Republican leadership has said, they very much want to avoid this discharge petition because they see it as something they cannot control entirely. | ||
| Whereas this House oversight investigation, while it still might be damaging to the president, as we saw yesterday, can be more controlled by leadership. | ||
| They at least have some more insight into it, whereas the discharge petition is out of their hands. | ||
| Let's talk about technicalities of the discharge petition. | ||
| How does it work specifically? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| So you need to get 218 signatures. | ||
| It can be from anyone in Congress, but as long as you reach that 218 threshold, that's a majority of voting members in the House, then this will go to a House vote. | ||
| And theoretically, if you have the signatures and it goes to a vote, that vote will likely pass. | ||
| But it's something that is very rarely used given the majority controls the floor, the majority are Republicans. | ||
| And when Republicans don't want a bill passed, they're usually pretty good at holding their members in and saying, don't sign this petition. | ||
| This is a Democratic-led effort. | ||
| Even though Massey's on it, every other Democrat has signed on. | ||
| And they say, don't work for the other team here. | ||
| That's the argument. | ||
| If 218 is the number, where does the number currently stand? | ||
| I believe, and I'm not 100% up to debate, but I think it's around 214 at the moment. | ||
| I think we have every House Democrat and a small handful of House Republicans. | ||
| I think it's four to five short as we currently stand. | ||
| I only bring that is because today there is a special election in Virginia when it comes to Representative Jerry Conley, who passed away. | ||
| Raul Gorjava, there's a special election there too. | ||
| I imagine the ultimate result of those sways the ultimate number of the discharge petition. | ||
| That's correct. | ||
| As the weeks and months go on and more Democrats come to Congress as a result of those open seats, the math does get better for Democrats. | ||
| But again, it is a House Republican leadership hope that as this oversight committee investigation works its way, they can convince their members to not sign on and maybe even drop off the petition. | ||
| That's still possible, right? | ||
| People can sign and remove their name whenever they want. | ||
| So there could be a way in which this district petition never sees a light of day. | ||
| We've talked a lot, a lot, Max Cohen. | ||
| What other things should our viewers watch for in Congress this week? | ||
| Oh, geez, I mean, I think I'm always someone who is interested in congressional campaigns, and we saw a fascinating announcement today in the Texas Senate Democratic primary. | ||
| James Tallarico, who's a progressive state lawmaker, has just entered the primary. | ||
| He's facing off against Colin Allred, a more establishment candidate who was a 2024 candidate. | ||
| So Texas is going to be a key state to watch in that Senate race in 2026. | ||
| And there's going to be a heated and contested Democratic primary. | ||
| That's what I'm watching. | ||
| Max Cohen reports for Punch Bowl News. | ||
| You can see their work online at PunchBowlNews.com, I believe. | ||
| PunchBowl.news. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thanks, Cohen. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Later on on this program, a discussion of the state of the conservative movement. | ||
| And joining us for that discussion, Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| Up next, though, Representative Frank Pallone, top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, talking about health policies of the Trump administration and other news. | ||
| We'll have that conversation when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thursday morning. | |
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| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
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| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
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|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Washington Journal continues. | |
| Joining us now is Representative Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey. | ||
| He is the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee here to talk about many things going on in Congress. | ||
| Representative Pallone, thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Pedro. | |
| And talking with our previous guests, talking about where Democrats are as far as what they want to keep the government open, let's start with that. | ||
| What would you and your caucus want? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the biggest concern I have is this health care crisis that President Trump has created with his big, ugly bill. | |
| So as far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is to address that, which is, first of all, that we have to have the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act so people don't lose their insurance and also reverse the Medicaid cuts that are so devastating to our hospitals and our health care system. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
| Because when it comes to Affordable Care Act, specifically what is being called for by the Republicans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, right now, for example, in the big, ugly bill, they did not continue the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act for certain categories of Americans. | |
| So, for example, you might be paying $100 a month now for your health insurance because it's subsidized with tax credits, if you will. | ||
| And now it's going to go up to maybe $300 or $400 a month because they didn't continue the subsidies that end at the end of this year. | ||
| And so you could end up having, you know, 10, 15 million Americans who lose their health insurance because they can't afford to pay the difference. | ||
| So if that's one of the things you want at this stage of negotiations, how willing do you think Republicans and specifically leadership is willing to offer that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, first of all, Pedro, you know that there are no negotiations, essentially. | |
| I mean, the Republicans are just, you know, they're fighting amongst themselves over what should be in this spending bill. | ||
| And, you know, they're in charge. | ||
| And at this point, they're not really negotiating with us. | ||
| They're negotiating with themselves. | ||
| And they haven't been able to come up with a plan to avoid a government shutdown themselves. | ||
| I mean, they're in charge, and we have nothing at this stage. | ||
| If that's the case, would you be okay with letting a shutdown happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the bottom line is that certain things have to be done. | |
| And most importantly, the president can't have unlimited power. | ||
| You know, right now, I mean, my concern would be: you know, we passed an appropriations bill, a spending bill, and then he starts with rescissions and takes everything back. | ||
| So there has to be some way to make sure that he's not just going to have unlimited power to do whatever he wants if we pass a bill. | ||
| And that's the pocket rescue when it comes to foreign aid you're talking about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's for foreign aid now, but he can propose it for anything. | |
| He can make more cuts in health care and energy, you know, in whatever he decides, because he takes a position that he can rescind anything. | ||
| And that has to stop. | ||
| I mean, it's a disaster, and it's totally contrary to the Constitution. | ||
| As far as from leadership, the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, what exactly have they offered at this point as far as what's going to be done between now and the deadline that's coming up when it comes to spending? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think Hakeem is taking the same position that I'm articulating, which is that there's a health care crisis and that has to be addressed. | |
| And so the Medicaid cuts have to be reversed, but most important, the Affordable Care Act subsidies or tax credits have to be renewed so people don't lose their health insurance. | ||
| Our guest is with us, and if you want to ask him questions about these and other topics, Representative Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us your questions, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Representative, on the larger issue when it comes to health care, you and all others, I suppose, on Capitol Hill saw the back and forth that went forth that took place between the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | ||
| What did you think of it overall? | ||
| And particularly if you have concerns of what happened, what were those concerns? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is totally unhinged and he doesn't know what he's doing. | |
| He doesn't belong there. | ||
| It should never have been confirmed. | ||
| The biggest concern that I have is this anti-vaccine policy. | ||
| I think that if it were up to him, we wouldn't have any vaccines at all for anything. | ||
| And this idea that a COVID vaccine should only be administered to a limited group of people is outrageous. | ||
| There's no scientific basis for that. | ||
| And everything's been thrown into chaos right now. | ||
| You talk to pharmacists and they'll tell you, we don't know what we're able to give out in terms of COVID vaccines, what we're not able to give out, whether we need a prescription or not. | ||
| And many people now can't find a COVID vaccine, let alone have it for free, which it used to be. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, I mean, this kind of chaos can't continue. | |
| He just basically is an ideologue who's unhinged and really doesn't know what he's doing. | ||
| And he's making our public health system, which was the best in the world, second rate to the point where people have no idea what's good for their health based on what he says. | ||
| Representative Palone, one of the things he did talk about was actions at the CDC, the removal of some people, and one of the reasons that he did it, and he related it to COVID. | ||
| I want to play a little bit from his hearing last week and get your response to it. | ||
| CDC failed their responsibility miserably during COVID when its disastrous nonsensical policies destroyed small businesses, violated civil liberties, closed our schools, caused generational damage in doing so. | ||
| Mass infants with no science and heightened economic inequality. | ||
| And yet all those oppressive and unscientific interventions failed to do anything about the disease itself. | ||
| America is home to 4.2% of the world's population. | ||
| We had nearly 20% of the COVID deaths. | ||
| We literally did worse than any country in the world. | ||
| And the people at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving. | ||
| And that's why we need bold, competent, and creative new leadership at CDC. | ||
| People able and willing to chart a new course. | ||
| Representative, that was his justification as far as the changes he made. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's total nonsense. | |
| He's basically rewriting history. | ||
| You know, President Trump at the time initiated Operation Warp Speed, and the bottom line is it was rather successful in making sure that people got vaccinated, that the vaccines were available, and that they were made widespread and that they were free. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's just the opposite of what Kennedy is saying. | |
| And I really think it's the responsibility of the president to remove him and to say, look, we were highly successful in Operation Warp Speed. | ||
| Of course, there were some problems here and there, but largely successful in preventing more deaths, more people from getting COVID. | ||
| It is exactly the opposite. | ||
| And the President, I think, knows that, but for some reason, he just refuses to acknowledge it and now suggesting that maybe we shouldn't have given out the vaccines. | ||
| That's not what Trump said at the time. | ||
| And he should just get rid of Kennedy because he is just destroying our public health system. | ||
| Holding the position that you do at Energy and Commerce and what it deals with health care, have you had a chance to engage with any of those members of the CDC that have been removed? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, our staff met with them in the last week or so because we are very concerned about where the CDC is going without these people, many of whom have been there for a long time and are highly qualified and make decisions based on science. | |
| My concern is that science is being thrown to the wind with Secretary Kennedy. | ||
| And it's not just with vaccines, it's not just firing people at the CDC, it's also getting rid of vital research on vaccines. | ||
| Where do we go next? | ||
| The next thing he's going to say is that the FDA shouldn't approve certain drugs because he, in his warped sense, doesn't think that those drugs are effective. | ||
| He doesn't know what he's doing, frankly, Pedro. | ||
| Representative Frank Pallone is with us. | ||
| Our first call comes from Jimmy. | ||
| Jimmy is in Massachusetts. | ||
| Jimmy, on our Republican line, you're first up for the guests. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, hi. | |
| Listen, so good morning. | ||
| God bless everybody. | ||
| So my concern is this. | ||
| For the last 20 years, we have all this poison in our food. | ||
| And who's been running the FDA? | ||
| Democrats have just let this go on. | ||
| Career politicians have let them poison us so they can sell us medication. | ||
| There's food in socialist countries that are banned because their health care system doesn't want to pay for it because they know it's going to make people sick. | ||
| But the Democrats let this food poison us and cause heart disease, diabetes, all these bad things. | ||
| And this has gone on for a long time and it's so corrupt. | ||
| Democrats haven't held anybody accountable. | ||
| They haven't done anything about it. | ||
| Another thing is the health care system. | ||
| They flooded it with 15 million people. | ||
| And we know why you brought all those people in. | ||
| Created an invasion so you could rig the censorship. | ||
| You could rig the census, create all these delegates and all these seats. | ||
| This is how you've been stealing the votes from the working class. | ||
| You played a rigor election game with all these illegal aliens, and now they're on our health care system, and the health care system is going to collapse because of you and you letting this happen. | ||
| Okay, Jimmy of Massachusetts. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, the bottom line is for the last 20 years, we've had both Democrat and Republicans presidents and majorities. | |
| So to blame the Democrats for anything over the last 20 years is absurd. | ||
| The bottom line is that the FDA has historically been the gold standard, if you will, for dealing with food, dealing with drugs, dealing with vaccinations. | ||
| Of course, there are always going to be some problems. | ||
| There's no question about that. | ||
| But to just suggest that we throw it all out, and then what are we going to use as the standard? | ||
| In other words, the gentleman still thinks that we should have an FDA, but what does he want to do? | ||
| Put people in there who are quacks and who have no scientific background. | ||
| That's what's happening with Secretary Kennedy. | ||
| He's putting people in there who are predisposed to be anti-vaccine or anti-this or anti-that. | ||
| You know, you shouldn't be working at the FDA with any kind of predisposition about what you think about vaccines or drugs. | ||
| You should base the decisions on science. | ||
| And that is what is becoming increasingly absent now with Secretary Kennedy. | ||
| John is from New Jersey. | ||
| John and Patterson, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Representative Polon. | ||
| My question is about immigration. | ||
| You know, we've seen caravans of people crossing the border, carrying their belongings, and we've seen people just take a flight into the country and never leave. | ||
| So my question is, if immigration, illegal immigration is actually illegal, what do we do about 10 million people here illegally? | ||
| And what do we do specifically about people who've been here for many years and have blended into American society? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look. | |
| I'm sorry, go ahead. | ||
| He's done. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, the bottom line is the immigration system is broken. | |
| We need to change the law, right? | ||
| We certainly need a large number of immigrants coming to this country on a regular basis, but we don't have any basis for them to come here for unskilled jobs, right? | ||
| So a lot of the people come are unskilled, and we need those unskilled people, but they can't come here because immigration law doesn't allow it. | ||
| So what you need to do is change the policy. | ||
| So we have a certain number of people coming every year to do unskilled labor and unskilled jobs, right? | ||
| And they come here legally. | ||
| But for the people that have been here for years, then you put them on a pathway to citizenship. | ||
| If they paid their taxes, they've not gotten trouble with the law, if they're learning English, then they, you know, after so many years, if they've been here for five years or whatever the term is, then they become citizens. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This idea of just throwing everybody out who's here illegally or undocumented, it's a disaster because what it means is we're going to have, we're not going to have the people that we need to actually do the jobs that they're performing, and that's going to hurt the economy. | |
| And people recognize that more every day. | ||
| I don't think people, when they voted for Donald Trump, thought that he was just going to throw everybody out who was here undocumented. | ||
| I think he said he was going to get rid of people who were gangsters, who were repeat felons. | ||
| But that's not what he's doing. | ||
| He's getting rid of everybody who's been here. | ||
| It doesn't matter how long they've been here or whether they've been law-abiding, if you will. | ||
| And that's not what the public wants, and it's not good for our economy, and it sends a very bad message, in my opinion. | ||
| From Mary in Rhode Island, Independent Line, you're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I'd like to ask why the Democrats haven't been able to run on the issue of Medicare for all and stop using your constituents as pawns in this prohibition of Medicare for all. | ||
| You know we want it. | ||
| We've asked for it. | ||
| I've collected many, many signatures for it, written many, many letters to the editor about it and talked to legislators about it. | ||
| I talked to Catherine Clark about it years and years ago, and everybody's for Medicare for all. | ||
| But nobody does anything to get it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mary in Rhode Island. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, first of all, I love Catherine Clark, so I'm glad you mentioned her name. | |
| Look, I believe in Medicare for all. | ||
| But the problem is I think that the Republicans and the people on the right have convinced a lot of members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican, that somehow, you know, that's socialism or not a good thing. | ||
| The bottom line is that our system, our health care system, is broken. | ||
| And it's too complicated. | ||
| It's too expensive. | ||
| If you had Medicare for all, I think we'd have a much better system. | ||
| We wouldn't have to be worried, like I said today, about whether we're going to renew subsidies for the Affordable Care Act because everyone would have coverage. | ||
| But we have to convince people that this is not some ideological issue with socialism, communism, or whatever. | ||
| And it's actually a common sense proposal. | ||
| And I'll continue to push for it. | ||
| On the front of medication and health care, Representative, you have something called the Family Vaccine Protection Act. | ||
| We'll show people some of the highlights from that, but what are you trying to do with this legislation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, look, the bottom line is that we can't continue down this path of what Secretary Kennedy is doing. | |
| It's not clear at all what he's even saying about vaccines for COVID or for measles. | ||
| I mean, people just don't understand. | ||
| The way I get it right now, he's basically said for COVID that pregnant women and children should not have the vaccine, that if you're, unless you're over 65 or have some kind of condition, medical condition, it's not recommended. | ||
| But this all comes from this advisory panel that he has eliminated. | ||
| He fired everybody on the advisory panel that make recommendations for vaccines. | ||
| They, of course, recommended the COVID for almost everybody. | ||
| And now he's fired those people and he's trying to put new people in place. | ||
| I want to go back to the old system where this advisory panel made recommendations to him. | ||
| The people that are on it cannot be fired. | ||
| They have to be scientists. | ||
| They have to be qualified. | ||
| And then we can go back to a situation where there's an objective way of reviewing vaccines rather than just what he decides to do. | ||
| Last week we saw Senator Cassidy express some concerns of the action of the HHA secretary. | ||
| We saw the same from Senator Barrasso. | ||
| When you see Republicans even expressing concerns now, what goes to your mind? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that this is becoming consensus that Kennedy needs to go, that he needs to be fired. | |
| Because I think both Republicans and Democrats now recognize that he doesn't know what he's doing, that he never should have been confirmed from the beginning, and that he's wreaking havoc with our public health system. | ||
| So I do believe, honestly, that at some point soon, the president is going to have to remove him or he's going to have to resign because there's no question that Democrats and Republicans feel that he's really destroying the system. | ||
| Representative Frank Pallone joining us, Democrat from New Jersey. | ||
| He is the ranking member of Energy and Commerce. | ||
| This is Joe in Long Island, Republican line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, how you doing? | |
| How are you to everybody? | ||
| I just want to answer a question. | ||
| I don't understand, well, what's going on in this health care over here? | ||
| Got young children that's got Medicare, and in order for them to get a dentist, now I live in East South Pike, Long Island, which is pretty deep into the island. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I got to go all the way to Nassau, Hempstead, Nassau, which is almost the Queensland, to have these kids get their teeth done because nobody in Suffolk County covers, what do you call it, Medicare for dentists. | |
| And that's pathetic. | ||
| And then my second thing is, I don't understand how people are so confused. | ||
| I watch Kennedy being questioned. | ||
| It goes both ways. | ||
| Both sides do it. | ||
| They don't let the person finish what they want to say. | ||
| Instead of leaving it up to the American people to listen, even if it is BS what they're saying, let the American people judge. | ||
| They don't do that. | ||
| And I think that what happened to this healthcare system, and I really don't feel like I'm stretching it, is when President Biden opened up this border to the millions and millions of people that came in here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A lot of Americans are forgetting. | |
| They got health care. | ||
| They got all this stuff. | ||
| Where did it come from? | ||
| It came from every American's pocket. | ||
| And the thing is, Mr. Pallone, as a Democrat, were you voicing out your opinion about all these people coming into this country illegally? | ||
| Because I didn't hear not one Democrat fight for Americans when this was happening because I knew prices are going to get jacked up all over the place. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And they did. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Okay, Joe, you put a lot out there for the guests. | ||
| We'll let them respond. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think what you were talking about with the young kids and not being able to get their teeth attended to was not Medicare, but probably Medicaid, right? | |
| You know, which is a program for lower income. | ||
| And what we've been trying to do over the years is expand Medicaid so that it covers a lot of things, not just, you know, basic health care, but dental care, eyeglasses, other things. | ||
| But the problem is that the rate, a reimbursement rate for dentists, for example, or doctors, is very low. | ||
| And instead of doing what the Republicans did in the big ugly bill, which is to basically cut Medicaid, we should be expanding it so that more doctors will take it, more dentists are available. | ||
| I've actually worked hard with the community health centers to get more dental clinics. | ||
| And most of the people in the community health centers that we have around the country are Medicaid eligible that use the community health centers. | ||
| So yes, we need to expand those and we need to make it so more doctors will take Medicaid and more dentists will take Medicaid. | ||
| But the answer isn't to cut Medicaid, which is what the Republicans did in the big ugly bill. | ||
| The answer is to expand it and make more people eligible, if you will. | ||
| And also, as I said before, to make sure that the people that sign up for the Affordable Care Act have enough of a tax credit or subsidy so they can afford to pay for it and they don't lose their health insurance. | ||
| Representative Pallone, we saw the House Oversight Committee release the so-called birthday book of Jeff Epstein. | ||
| What was your reaction to that release? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was horrified. | |
| I mean, you know, Donald Trump is an immoral person. | ||
| I mean, we know that. | ||
| He treats women very badly. | ||
| I mean, that sketch, if you will, of the woman's body with his signature was totally outrageous, inappropriate. | ||
| There was another thing in there about a check that was being sent to him by Epstein for, you know, a woman who had been used. | ||
| I mean, this is like disgusting. | ||
| And it just is another reason why he should not be the president of the United States. | ||
| There were questions, at least, from pushback from the White House yesterday saying that it wasn't the drawing and it wasn't his signature. | ||
| Do you buy that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, of course not. | |
| My response to that is if you believe that, then I'm going to sell you a bridge. | ||
| On the same front, though, where are you on this discharge petition from Representatives Conna and Massey? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I've signed it because I do believe that all the Epstein files should be released. | |
| Now, you know, we're getting these piecemeal things because certain material has been given to the House Oversight Committee and the releasing part of it. | ||
| But all these files should be released. | ||
| I mean, the president promised that he would do that, and then all of a sudden he said it's all a hoax, and that's not my signature. | ||
| I mean, he has totally contradicted himself on the Epstein files so many times. | ||
| Just release the files, and that's what the discharge petition does. | ||
| Can you elaborate on what you think is contained in these files that have yet to been released, as opposed to what's already been put out there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I have no idea what's in the files. | |
| I haven't seen them. | ||
| But the bottom line is that, you know, people want to know. | ||
| And he has said repeatedly that he has done nothing wrong. | ||
| Well, already we see that, you know, what's been released yesterday proves how immoral he is. | ||
| But it's not just about him. | ||
| It's just about, you know, the fact of the matter is I think a lot of people believe that many people have been involved with Epstein, you know, who was trafficking in young girls. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And that, you know, this is possible criminal activity on the part of a lot of people that have not been revealed. | |
| Just release the files and then we'll know. | ||
| Edward, joins us next. | ||
| Edward in Jersey City, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I'm so glad to be with you all. | ||
| Mr. Pallone, I'm from Jersey City and there's a lot going on in our state, obviously, as you know. | ||
| As far as the direction of the party goes, the Democrat Party, I voted for Rock Baraka because he's more progressive than any gubernatorial candidate, and that's the direction I wanted to see our state go in. | ||
| But instead, majority of the voters chose another Kennedy. | ||
| And I feel like she represents the status quo of the Democrat Party. | ||
| And then there are no other viable options. | ||
| I'm not beholden to this Democrat Party, who in a sense continues to support or majority voters status for Kennedy, moderate Kennedy. | ||
| On the federal level, Representative Rocana, he more progressive out loud anyhow than a lot of the other members in that party. | ||
| And so, you know, Bernie Sanders' platform back when, you know, the Democrat Party did him wrong, and he is really the most popular candidate, you know, his platform and views across the country. | ||
| We're in this space now with President Trump because Democrats could not win the political race. | ||
| And the most important question is, why? | ||
| Why did you fail to persuade the majority of the voters? | ||
| You know, why? | ||
| And that's because minority voters like what's going on with the war, Palestinians, what's going on with the wealth and inequality gap across the country with black Americans. | ||
| There's so much, but the direction of the party, we are. | ||
| Edward, our guest is approaching the end of time with us, so we'll let him respond to what you put out there. | ||
| Mr. Palone, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I would just say, look, the Democratic Party is a big tent, right? | |
| And I supported Mikey Sherrill in the primary, but I have a lot of respect for Mayor Ross Baraka of Newark. | ||
| The bottom line is Mikey Sheryl's a much better candidate than her Republican opponent, Jack Citarelli. | ||
| Citarelli is basically, you know, a Trumpster at this point. | ||
| Mikey Sherrill has a wonderful background. | ||
| She's been in Congress. | ||
| She's qualified. | ||
| You know, she served honorably for this country, you know, as a helicopter pilot. | ||
| I know her. | ||
| I know that she cares about the average person. | ||
| You know, she wants to address the affordability issue, which is the main issue in New Jersey. | ||
| One of the things she said is that the first thing when she's elected or takes office is that she's going to freeze energy prices, which is such a big issue in New Jersey, where energy prices have gone up at least 20% for a lot of people. | ||
| So she's the best candidate, and I would really urge you to vote for her, even though you voted for Raspberry in the primary. | ||
| There's no question that she's the better candidate over the Republican. | ||
| Let me ask you about one more issue that's specifically to your state representative. | ||
| It was reported last week. | ||
| You're still having back and forth about certain House members when it comes to a fund to replenish beaches in New Jersey. | ||
| Can you give us an update on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, this is another example. | |
| You know, the Trump administration keeps saying that they support infrastructure, but they don't. | ||
| You know, the president wanted to get rid of most of the infrastructure initiatives that were in the bill that we passed in the last Congress, the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| And now he's saying, you know, the Republicans in Congress are saying they want to get rid of any kind of shore protection initiatives, which are important when we're trying to prevent damage from future hurricanes. | ||
| And so, you know, the amount of money for beach repunishment went from like 200 million down to something like 60 million. | ||
| But we're seeing this across the board with all our infrastructure. | ||
| Infrastructure is very important. | ||
| You have to fix your roads. | ||
| You have to have better mass transit. | ||
| You have to have, you know, Army Corps projects to protect us from future storms. | ||
| And again, this is another thing, a situation where the Trump administration has fallen flat and is not supporting these initiatives, which are very important for our economy. | ||
| I'm very concerned, Pedro, about an economic downturn, which I think is already happening with Trump's policies, with his tariffs, with his freezing of funds for infrastructure and so many other things. | ||
| And, you know, if we have an economic downturn, it's going to be a disaster. | ||
| So this is just part of that, Pedro. | ||
| Representative Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey, the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| Thank you for giving us your time today, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Pedro. | |
| Our next guest is Rachel Bovart of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| She's going to talk to us about the state of the conservative movement as she sees it in the United States. | ||
| And we will have that discussion when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thursday morning, watch C-SPAN's live all-day coverage of the commemoration ceremonies marking the 24th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. | |
| Coverage begins at 7 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, and then at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, we'll take you to the remembrance ceremony at the 9-11 Memorial in New York City with Vice President JD Vance in attendance. | ||
| At 9 a.m. Eastern, the observance ceremony from the Pentagon with President Donald Trump. | ||
| And at 9:45 a.m. Eastern, the Flight 93 National Memorial Ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Watch live all-day coverage of the commemoration ceremonies marking the 24th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. | ||
| Thursday morning, beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| And past President Dominic. | ||
| Why are you doing this? | ||
| This is outrageous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a kangaroo. | |
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| Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins. | ||
| Join political playbook chief correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns as host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the aisle into a dialogue to find common ground. | ||
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| America 250. | ||
| Over a year of historic moments. | ||
| Only on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| This is Rachel Bovart of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| She serves as the vice president of programs here to join us to talk about the conservative movement of the United States in the United States. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello, good morning. | ||
| How would you define the current state of the conservative movement? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think the conservative movement is stronger than it's ever been. | |
| You know, I think a lot of the conservatives have found a president that is doing a lot of the things they've wanted to see for the last 30 years. | ||
| You know, I think when you look at Republican politics in America, it's really been governed by this, you know, what conservatives have called a Washington consensus for a very long time. | ||
| So key issues, immigration is a great example, border enforcement, things like this, that the base of the conservative movement and the Republican Party has voters have voted for for 30 years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They haven't seen results in Washington. | |
| And, you know, at best, they've seen nothing. | ||
| At worst, they've seen the opposite of what they voted for. | ||
| And so I think they're finally seeing now a president who is responding to the base of the party on that particular issue and many others. | ||
| So I think the conservative movement is very strong and very happy right now with the initial months of Donald Trump's presidency. | ||
| As far as the Conservative Partnership Institute, how do you describe that to folks and where does it fit within the conservative movement? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we started CPI back in 2017. | |
| Senator Jim DeMint, former senator from South Carolina, was the founding member. | ||
| Obviously, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former chief of staff, is now over with us as a senior partner. | ||
| But the ethos at CPI is really to be a home for the conservative movement here on Capitol Hill, here in Washington. | ||
| We like to say we train, equip, and unify the conservative movement on Capitol Hill. | ||
| So we spend a lot of time just teaching, right, Capitol Hill staff how to do their jobs well, the skills and tactics and training they need to do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We spend a lot of time working on House and Senate procedure, as you may imagine. | |
| But we also are a networking hub, right? | ||
| It's a place for conservative groups. | ||
| The conservative movement is vast and broad and all over the country. | ||
| It's a place where they can come meet with Capitol Hill staff. | ||
| They can come to events. | ||
| We have a lot of thinkers and speakers across the movement at CPI. | ||
| So we really see ourselves as a home and a hub for the conservative movement. | ||
| Talk about this idea. | ||
| You spoke at an event that we took, a lot of the speakers at the event, NATCON, as it's known. | ||
| First of all, what is that event? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The National Conservative Conference. | |
| So this is our fifth year hosting that conference here in Washington, D.C. and various areas around the country. | ||
| It's really, its defining mission is to focus on national conservatism. | ||
| And so the intellectual leader of that movement is Yoram Hazzoni, who is actually a dual Israeli and American citizen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But the idea of national conservatism is the idea of the nation, right, is the best way to develop and help human beings to flourish. | |
| And so the idea of a nation is its sovereignty and its service to its people, that borders matter, that domestic issues should take priority over foreign adventurism and imperialism. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so the movement really started in 2019 as a small conference of academics and thinkers, and it's really taken on a lot of enthusiasm and I think grown into a national movement and also an international movement. | |
| There's international natcons as well in London and Brussels and across the world. | ||
| So again, it's this, it's people say it's a new, the new right, but it really is based on a very old concept that nations matter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, this goes all the way back to the Treaty of Westphalia, right, in 1648. | |
| And so it really is a recapturing of that idea that nations are, their primary mission is to serve their people and their interests. | ||
| Would you say it's equal to this idea of MAGA or is it separate from that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, it's an interesting question because, and this was discussed a lot at this recent conference, a lot of the ideas that were initially discussed at these early NATCON conferences are now in the White House. | |
| You know, and JD Vance, who was an early speaker at a lot of these conferences, is now the vice president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And it was interesting, you know, as we were closing the conference, we pointed out the ideas that people told us in the Republican establishment were too weird to be discussed. | |
| Things like protecting kids from online pornography and social media, that tariffs, you know, could be a tool toward freer and fairer trade and also a tool of American sovereignty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We were told these things are too weird, too unworkable, and now they are considered, you know, they're coming from the White House. | |
| They are mainstream Republican politics. | ||
| So usually you don't live long enough to see that kind of intellectual formation, but I've seen it in the last five years and it's been astonishing. | ||
| Rachel Bovard joins us of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| If you want to ask her questions, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans 202-748-8001 and Independence 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us thoughts, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Like we told you, many of those speakers at that NATCON event still available. | ||
| If you want to watch it at c-span.org, where we hosted several days of the event. | ||
| One of the stories that came out of it was a speech that was given by Senator Eric Schmidt during the conference. | ||
| He said part, and he put out a X on it saying this, our ancestors will be astonished to learn that they were fighting for, quote, a proposition. | ||
| They believed they were forging a nation, a homeland for themselves and their descendants. | ||
| America belongs to us and only us. | ||
| If we disappear, then America, too, will cease to exist. | ||
| Did you hear those comments and how did you react to that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did hear them. | |
| You know, Senator Eric Schmidt is a rising star in the Republican Party, and I think very much the future face of the conservative movement and Republican politics here in Washington. | ||
| And I think he's right on. | ||
| I think America is more than just an idea that can mean anything to anyone at any time. | ||
| It is very much rooted in our founding traditions and in our Judeo-Christian heritage and the heritage of the West. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And that is what I think a lot of the conservative movement is seeking to preserve and seeking to form a base from which we make policy decisions, as opposed to what a lot of us have seen over the last 30, 40 years, which is this commitment to more of a global order, an internationalist order, where we have ideas from around the world governing how we operate here at home. | |
| And that's what the national conservative movement is saying. | ||
| No, no, that's not our conservative heritage at all. | ||
| I know you don't speak for him, but when he says things like America belongs to us and only us, who's the us? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The American citizens. | |
| You know, I think people are trying to impute a lot of things I don't think he said in that speech to that phrase. | ||
| I think he means American citizens. | ||
| Citizenship is a reward. | ||
| It is a cherished ideal that we have, right? | ||
| It's not just something we can give away to anyone that comes here. | ||
| It's something that has meaning and it has a duty on us, right? | ||
| As citizens, we serve the American people and the government serves us, right? | ||
| It's not just this thing that can be given away without any meaning to anyone that comes here. | ||
| It has responsibilities and duties and we have responsibilities to it. | ||
| And would you say that applies to race, all races, all religions, all creeds, that kind of thing? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, of course. | |
| America has always been a home for religious flooring, flourishing, religious freedom. | ||
| You know, and I think a lot of the right are on the right are concerned, actually, that there is a movement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, we see it primarily from the left, but I think it could be anywhere against religious people, right? | |
| Against this idea that if you're religious, that means somehow you're a threat. | ||
| That means you're kooky. | ||
| That means you're weird. | ||
| You know, I'm a Roman Catholic. | ||
| We just saw that shooting at the Annunciation School that it seems to be motivated by anti-Catholic bias. | ||
| That's something we're very concerned about. | ||
| The president spoke a lot about that yesterday at the Museum of the Bible. | ||
| What do you think of those comments and this idea of religion, a more sense of religion in the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I didn't see those comments in particular, but that is something I think we can all agree on, at least as conservatives, right? | |
| We have always believed that, you know, Russell Kirk talked very eloquently about the transcendental moral order. | ||
| That is something that can look different to different religious people, but it's this idea that we serve a higher truth, and there is one truth. | ||
| And that's something that has always animated the conservative movement. | ||
| So I didn't see the comments, but the way you describe them, I probably agree with a lot of them. | ||
| Let's hear from viewers. | ||
| This is Alexander. | ||
| He's in Brooklyn, New York. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| You're on with Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Lord. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I wish I had more time to say everything that I needed to say, but I just find your guests really astounding. | ||
| I'm just a proud conservative. | ||
| Kirk is a man that literally just said not too long ago that the role of women is to be at home and that they shouldn't even have a place in universities because all they should do is just go to college to find a husband. | ||
| You are proud of the conservative movement that has created a situation where we demonize and we dehumanize people because they don't look like you, they don't act like you, they don't have the faith that you do, and you hide behind religion when what you really support is Christian nationalism. | ||
| The only thing that it will say is that I hope you conservatives get everything that you want, which is what you are getting with Project 2025, with JD Vance flipping. | ||
| Now you're so proud of him, who would call your president Hitler, compared him to Hitler. | ||
| And the conservative movement, which started, the current conservative movement, which started under Reagan and amplified during the early parts of the Obama administration with redistricting, destroying civil rights, destroying the voting rights act, Switch Citizens United and everything else. | ||
| I really hope the conservative movement gets everything else that they want because we can then clearly see what you all are about. | ||
| Carl, you put a lot out for the guests, so we'll let her respond. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One of the things I think that he mentioned is this idea of human dignity. | |
| And that's something the conservative movement has always had a lot of thoughts about and was heavily discussed actually at NATCON and what it means to dignify the human person. | ||
| And I spoke, I gave a speech actually about this in relation to transhumanism, right? | ||
| This movement by some on the techno-optimist movement, it can be on the right or the left, that thinks that you can bring AI in to artificially enhance certain human features. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that's against the human dignity of the person. | |
| We've also, you know, he talked about marriage. | ||
| We've also believed that falling marriage rates are detrimental, right, to the human flourishing and to human and to the American society. | ||
| So that's something I think a lot of people on the right, I wouldn't say just limited to conservatives, are concerned about. | ||
| You see new polling saying, you know, that the right prioritizes marriage and the left doesn't. | ||
| I think that's a huge cultural divide that is going to have political effects at some point or another. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think the idea of human dignity has ramifications for our culture, for marriage, for family, for the human person, obviously the pro-life movement. | |
| That's an animating feature of what they focus on. | ||
| So I do think that that really is a focus for the conservative movement and has a lot of policy implications, not just limited to culture, but immigration and all these things. | ||
| He used the term Christian nationalist. | ||
| What do you think about that? | ||
| Yeah, again, as a Roman Catholic, I'm a little bit, I watch the debates on Christian nationalism. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's this idea that Christians really should care about their country and that there is a place for political activity within sort of Protestant churches and things like that. | |
| We hosted a panel discussion with pastors, with Protestant pastors at NATCON to discuss this specifically. | ||
| But I think people have written about it eloquently. | ||
| And I think linking it back to the early conservative movement. | ||
| And so I'd point them to the direction of Russ Vogt. | ||
| He's written a lot about this. | ||
| His Center for Renewing America has as well. | ||
| He mentioned Reagan. | ||
| Is he still a standard bearer in the conservative movement, do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I do. | |
| You know, I think a lot of people, there's a whole generation of conservatives in the conservative movement who were inspired by Ronald Reagan. | ||
| And I think he was one of our greatest presidents. | ||
| Where I think the younger right looks at it is it's become dogma to some extent, right? | ||
| That you cannot question anything Reagan did. | ||
| You know, the Ronald Reagan who imposed tariffs, for instance, and now a lot of the right says, oh, no, tariffs are a bridge too far. | ||
| Well, Ronald Reagan did it and did a lot of things. | ||
| And I think what also happened, too, is Ronald Reagan's political coalition met its moment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It met its time. | |
| Our conditions have changed a little bit. | ||
| And so new approaches and I think new political tactics are necessary. | ||
| But that's not out of step with Reagan. | ||
| It's just how the country is involved and how the conservative movement. | ||
| I'm glad you brought it up. | ||
| Is there a generational sense of what conservatism is between the older conservatives, young conservatives, younger conservatives? | ||
| Is there a generational gap there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, to some extent, I think, you know, there is. | |
| I think, and I don't think it's born out of any animosity. | ||
| I think it's just life experiences. | ||
| I think you have a group of conservatives that came up during the Cold War, and their entire politics was fashioned around the Cold War, taking down Soviet communism. | ||
| Reagan's entire political coalition was built around that goal. | ||
| And now we have a different set of problems. | ||
| We have a Domestic priorities that a lot of younger conservatives feel haven't been met. | ||
| And so how do we address falling marriage rates? | ||
| How do we address high home prices? | ||
| How do we address low employment for younger Americans? | ||
| How do we address the universities being ideological bastions from where we sit of the literal brainwashing factories funded by the federal government? | ||
| How do we address all these problems? | ||
| And the role of the government changes in that calculation. | ||
| And so that's where I think you're seeing a little bit of a generational divide. | ||
| But I think that's normal. | ||
| Here is Marguerite. | ||
| She's in Florida, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| I don't know if you're the right person to answer this, but I've been so curious to ask when I hear Donald Trump and other politicians talk about having religion back in the schools and the homes and so forth. | ||
| But all of them talk about Jesus and, of course, Christianity. | ||
| I get this funny feeling. | ||
| Like, what do they mean? | ||
| Do they want everyone to stop at all other religions, like being Jewish or Muslim, and just have Christianity? | ||
| Because that's what they sound like. | ||
| Margaret in Florida. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, so I think the role of Christianity in America goes back to its founding, right? | |
| And so I think they're referencing America as a Judeo-Christian heritage. | ||
| I don't think they mean it in an exclusive way at all. | ||
| America has always been a place where any religion can come and practice peacefully. | ||
| And that's something, again, that is very much a part of our American heritage. | ||
| I do think that there is, again, going back to what I was saying earlier, this concern that religious people are being identified as somehow a threat to a peaceful America. | ||
| You know, you saw Joe Biden's, our Catholic, former Catholic president's FBI, investigating traditional Latin mass parishes. | ||
| You know, we've seen, again, levels of violence, the Annunciation School shooting, motivated by, or appearing to be motivated by anti-Christian sentiment. | ||
| And so I think that's the concern. | ||
| We want to make it, or I can't speak obviously for everyone, but as I speak for myself, conservatives want to create a place where every religion can flourish peacefully and have their views accepted, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And not be pushed or marginalized or looked on as weird simply because they are professing a Christian faith. | |
| Rachel Bovarda of the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| Sean is next. | ||
| And Sean is in Maryland. | ||
| Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| So I just have a comment and a question. | ||
| One, the question is, during the national convention, the senator clearly said that this country was for Europeans. | ||
| So I want you to be accountable and be responsible for the words and what you all agree with, because you seem to avoid answering the question like the caller from New York asked you. | ||
| Like this is a form of Christian nationalist. | ||
| So what does that mean that this country is for Europeans and Europeans came over here? | ||
| Where does every other diversity, ethnicity play a part? | ||
| You want to try to pretend as if like you are accepting, like you, like it seems like you lack humanity, period. | ||
| And then to the comment about the, you made a comment about how the current administration, like you talk about the violence. | ||
| Like what type of violence follows this current administration? | ||
| We can go back to like things that happened with running over people protesting, all of this, like white nationalists, white supremacy, all the violence that's happening in this country that's being influenced by this current administration that's being influenced by people like your national committee, your quote unquote conservative and Christian nationalist ways. | ||
| Like you don't want to talk about that. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Call her your assault, let her answer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I don't know what he's referring to. | |
| Eric Schmidt did not say this country was only for Europeans. | ||
| That is, I would love to see the quote if that's what he thinks he said, but that is not my recollection of the speech. | ||
| I do think that the point that is being made is that, you know, America is for American citizens, and we've always been welcoming about who can become an American citizen, but that process needs to be gone through. | ||
| That responsibility needs to be taken on. | ||
| Again, American citizenship means something. | ||
| It's not just a chip that can be handed out to people whenever we want. | ||
| We have responsibilities to the country and the country has responsibility to its citizens. | ||
| It means something. | ||
| And so I think that's really what a lot of the nationalist conservative movement is saying, that when you're saying a nation should serve its people, you're talking about its citizens. | ||
| Now, again, America has always been and will remain a welcoming place for anyone that wants to go through that process of becoming a citizen. | ||
| But we've really seen that undermined with waves of illegal immigration, discussions of amnesty. | ||
| Again, we have, as a country, a set of limited resources and priorities that should serve the American citizen first. | ||
| It's a matter of priorities. | ||
| And again, anyone can become a citizen, but you have to go through that process. | ||
| Would you, as far as the current rates of legal immigration, is that something you would advocate for or would you advocate for changes to that rate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, that's an open debate in the Republican Party right now. | |
| You have people, you know, look at just the Senate Republican Conference. | ||
| You have people like Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, who has said, you know, legal immigration is great, illegal immigration is bad. | ||
| And people like Tom Cotton, Senator from Arkansas, who said, illegal immigration is bad and I want less. | ||
| Legal immigration as well. | ||
| And I think that's something that it's a discussion we've had at NATCON. | ||
| I think it divides even the nationalist conservative movement, although I would say the weight or the emphasis is more toward restrictions on legal immigration as well. | ||
| Saying, right now, we are underwater in so many areas. | ||
| Our public schools are overwhelmed. | ||
| No one, I don't think anyone agrees our health care system is flourishing. | ||
| We have strain on our entitlement programs. | ||
| People are not being served well from Medicaid and Medicare. | ||
| We have to fix that for American citizens first before we open up those avenues to additional people in that system. | ||
| And I think, again, it goes back to the question of American citizenship. | ||
| We want people to be paying into that system as well. | ||
| So I think it's a matter of looking at can we care for everyone that wants to come to the United States and then making decisions accordingly. | ||
| When it comes to the current approach the administration is taking on illegal immigration, is that something your institute agrees with or at least advocates for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you know, at CPI, we don't take policy positions. | |
| We're again more of a service organization to the conservative movement. | ||
| But I would say in the conservative movement more broadly, yes. | ||
| I mean, I think people are very happy with what the president is doing on illegal immigration. | ||
| It goes to the point that this always could have been done. | ||
| The executive has always had this authority to literally shut down illegal immigration at the southern border through enforcement, through penalties, through active intra-domestic enforcement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This could always have happened, and it's a policy choice to do so. | |
| And we hope that every Republican and Democrat president going forward does this. | ||
| Let's hear from Benny. | ||
| Benny is in Atlanta Democrats line. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| You know what, though? | ||
| I am a capitalist, okay? | ||
| And she rails about being a conservative. | ||
| And the simple definition of capitalism is where the means of production is probably owned and ran for profit. | ||
| How could you possibly be a campus if you're going to try to get a 15% stake for the government in an American company? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then I just want her to answer that about being a campus. | |
| And then also, I thought conservatism, you were against child molestation. | ||
| You have a complete Republican Party. | ||
| These Christians who are protecting Jeffrey Epstein know the Democrats probably could have done more. | ||
| But we are what we are. | ||
| Does she support everything coming out in Epstein? | ||
| Or is she going to continue to cover up for this child molester, Jeffrey Epstein, and hide this information from the American people? | ||
| A 15% stake in Intel, and you call yourself a conservative? | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| Okay, that's Benny of Atlanta. | ||
| Yeah, that is an area of, I think, robust debate, shall we call it, on the Republican side, because it traditionally hasn't been, I think, within the Republican policy toolkit to say, you know, we're going to take a specific government equity in a company. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we have this debate at NACON with people on either side of it. | |
| But my understanding is, and by the way, I've worked in Washington for over 15 years. | ||
| I saw this happen before in 2008. | ||
| I saw it happen with TARP. | ||
| I saw, you know, this has been with the Lehman Brothers and the bank bailout. | ||
| This has been a tool of policymakers for many, many years. | ||
| It's just unusual to see it from a Republican president. | ||
| However, I think the Trump administration is animated in taking this move by this idea of national sovereignty, right? | ||
| They are saying it is not okay for the U.S. to have no domestic fabricator of chips, right? | ||
| Every other U.S. chip company manufactures in China. | ||
| Does that create a sovereignty problem for us? | ||
| And I think their answer is yes. | ||
| So I don't think, you know, I think there are people that can characterize it as statism. | ||
| And, you know, I think it's worth having that debate, but I don't think they're animated by this idea that somehow the government can make better choices. | ||
| They're animated by this idea that it is important for the United States as a sovereign country and a sovereign economy, able to defend itself from regimes that oppose it, to make critical tools of our economy, which includes chips, here in the United States. | ||
| I think it is worth asking how we got to the point where there's only one domestic fabricator of chips. | ||
| I think that's a series of poor economic choices made by prior policymakers, again, looking at the world as sort of one global marketplace and less about how to create economies that are in service to the nation and the sovereignty. | ||
| Yeah, ask about Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Where are you as far as the call, a bipartisan call for more release and files concerning him? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I have spoken previously about this. | |
| I think in one of my previous NACON speeches, I actually talked about this. | ||
| I do think, you know, as much transparency as possible in this regard is important. | ||
| And I think you're seeing that debate play out in the House right now, as you said, on a bipartisan basis. | ||
| And as far as the call, the recent release of yesterday, the discharge position, are those things you would support? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, CPI doesn't take those kind of positions. | |
| I think as a personal matter, I would like to see a Democratic process play out. | ||
| And we'll see. | ||
| Let's go to Clarence. | ||
| Clarence joins us from South Carolina, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I just want to say good morning. | ||
| You kind of like touch on what conservatism means, but I want to say all the policy, the procedures that go forth that represent the conservatism and Republican, it pretty much says that they are a racist party. | ||
| And I don't want to be associated with people who are racist and a racist party. | ||
| And I think that people need to confront the Republican Party with that. | ||
| Everything that they are saying and doing says that you are racist. | ||
| And that's my comment. | ||
| I don't agree. | ||
| I don't agree at all that the conservative movement is somehow racist in any way. | ||
| I think the American founding, again, and the conservative movement have always been welcome to many religions and many races. | ||
| So I just disagree with the comment. | ||
| Where do you see conservatism going and particularly the influence that the president has on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I think the conservative movement, again, is facing different challenges than it was 30 years ago. | |
| I think we have far less domestic agreement on very key areas, right? | ||
| We don't even agree left and right on what the definition of biological sex is. | ||
| And that's been very, that highlighted in very dramatic ways. | ||
| And so I think there is more of an inward focus now for the conservative movement, highlighting domestic priorities, focusing on economic priorities, culture issues that, you know, I think 30 years ago, again, when there was general agreement, you could say, oh, corporate America, we don't have to worry about corporate America because they're going to serve the market first. | ||
| Well, we've seen that not play out that way, right? | ||
| We've seen major corporations, you know, who, again, should have been focused on making money, take very clear sides in the culture war against conservatives. | ||
| So I think a lot of the institutions that conservatives could ignore before and focus on foreign policy or things like that, that doesn't exist anymore. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have, again, institutions that hate conservatives. | |
| They don't like religious people. | ||
| They don't like people who have traditional cultural views. | ||
| And so I think the movement is now focused on how do we combat that problem, right? | ||
| And so I think there is much more of an inward domestic focus than there has been. | ||
| Conservatism 30 years ago, I think, was very much animated by this neoconservative faction, a very free market libertarian economics, which I would call corporatist, in favor of large corporations and trickle-down economics. | ||
| I don't think that that has a lot of purchase anymore with grassroots conservatives. | ||
| So I think they're very much focused on how do we preserve our traditional way of life here at home. | ||
| And Donald Trump, we see him fighting for a lot of those values. | ||
| How much do you think of the current Republican caucus on the Senate and the House side represents your point of view when it comes to the way you look at conservatism? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I think there is a growing number of members in the House and Senate that see it this way. | |
| You know, we've talked about Eric Schmidt. | ||
| I think, you know, Senator Jim Banks also spoke at NACON. | ||
| Representative Riley Moore in the House. | ||
| These are all members. | ||
| You know, Senator Josh Hawley, a consistent NACOM speaker, has been speaking at multiple NATCOMs. | ||
| You know, I think these are people that recognize the civilizational debate that we are having, that it's not just about the next foreign adventurism. | ||
| It's not just about the next free trade agreement. | ||
| It's really about how do we preserve our traditional way of life. | ||
| And I think it was comfortable and it was easy to be a conservative when all of the institutions sort of left you alone and everybody, the public schools were a place where everybody could just go and be served and hadn't fallen into, I think, a state of disrepair that is unacceptable to a lot of parents. | ||
| And even the health system, I think, has been politicized in many ways. | ||
| These are issues that need to be focused on by conservatives if we are to preserve, again, a place where we can just live our way of life as all Americans, unmolested. | ||
| And I think that's what we're looking for. | ||
| CPI.org is the website for the Conservative Partnership Institute. | ||
| Rachel Bouvard is the vice president of programs for the Institute. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| We'll finish the program with Open Forum. | ||
| And if you want to participate, it's 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Start those calls now. | ||
| We'll take them in open forum when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This fall, C-SPAN invites you on a powerful journey through the stories that define a nation. | |
| From the halls of our nation's most iconic libraries comes America's Book Club, a bold, original series where ideas, history, and democracy meet. | ||
| Hosted by renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein, each week features in-depth conversations with the thinkers shaping our national story. | ||
| Among this season's remarkable guests, John Grisham, master storyteller of the American justice system. | ||
| Justice Amy Coney Barrett, exploring the Constitution, the court, and the role of law in American life. | ||
| Famed chef and global relief entrepreneur Jose Andres, reimagining food. | ||
| Celebrated biographer Walter Isaacson, chronicling history's most remarkable lives. | ||
| The books, the voices, the places that preserve our past and spark the ideas that will shape our future. | ||
| America's Book Club, premiering Sunday nights this fall, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| There are many ways to listen to C-SPAN radio anytime, anywhere. | ||
| In the Washington, D.C. area, listen on 90.1 FM. | ||
| Use our free C-SPAN Now app or go online to c-span.org slash radio on SiriusXM radio on channel 455, the TuneIn app, and on your smart speaker by simply saying play C-SPAN radio. | ||
| Hear our live call-in program, Washington Journal, daily at 7 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| Listen to House and Senate proceedings, committee hearings, news conferences, and other public affairs events live throughout the day. | ||
| And for the best way to hear what's happening in Washington with fast-paced reports, live interviews, and analysis of the day, catch Washington today, weekdays at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| Listen to C-SPAN programs on C-SPAN Radio anytime, anywhere. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| This is Open Forum, and you can participate by calling 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| All we ask is that if you've called in the last 30 days, hold off from doing so today. | ||
| And if you can, pick the party that best represents you there on the phone lines. | ||
| Jenny in Florida, Republican Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're up first. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| Ms. Bovard mentioned that she wanted foreigners to respect our rule of law, the standard process for immigration, and that she had a belief that amnesty programs were unwise. | ||
| In light of that, I was wondering if she believed that this extended to our administration's policy to grant amnesty to white South Africans. | ||
| I'd love to hear what viewers believe. | ||
| And thank you so much, Pedro, and thank you, C-SPAN. | ||
| Jenny there in Florida giving us a call. | ||
| Brett also calling us. | ||
| Brett's from Maryland, a Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning, Brett. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| As far as the former guest host that came on, there is a separation of church and state. | ||
| And what she Christian values are not everybody's values. | ||
| So I was just wondering if she wants a theocracy or democracy. | ||
| Because that's what she's doing when she says Christian values are concerned. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| What do you mean by that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Elaborate on that a bit. | |
| I'm just saying that she's saying Christian values, not everybody's a Christian. | ||
| And I think, you know, nobody should have Christian values is not everybody's standard values. | ||
| So I'm saying that she's talking about Christian values. | ||
| That's not everybody's values. | ||
| We do have a separation of church and state in our Constitution, and that's why they did it. | ||
| Brett. | ||
| Go ahead, Brett. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| No, what were you going to say? | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| I was just letting you finish. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, no, that's my statement. | |
| Brett, there in Maryland. | ||
| Again, open forum, open to you. | ||
| If you want to talk matters of politics, the segment you just seen, other segments that you saw this morning, other matters of politics, too, you can call in on the phone lines. | ||
| In the New York Times today, an op-ed piece by Brandon Johnson. | ||
| He is the Democratic mayor of Chicago. | ||
| We showed you earlier the headlines about those new immigration efforts by the Trump administration in Chicago. | ||
| This is the op-ed. | ||
| The National Guard isn't what my city needs, he writes, and he writes this. | ||
| For much of the last six decades, Chicago's leaders have pursued various, quote, tough-on crime strategies, targeting guns, drugs, and gangs. | ||
| Despite the significant resources devoted to these strategies, sustained reductions in crime proved elusive. | ||
| This is why I push back. | ||
| And people make it seem as though adding an arbitrary number of police officers or armed soldiers will solve the problem. | ||
| If it were that easy, we would have solved the issue of violence a long time ago. | ||
| My administration has managed to make progress in crime reduction with three interconnected strategies, effective and law-abiding policing, violence prevention, and addressing the root causes of crime. | ||
| There's more there if you want to read in the pages of the New York Times that op-ed from Brandon Johnson. | ||
| Let's hear from Spring City, Tennessee. | ||
| That's where Alyssa is. | ||
| Hello, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hello. | |
| Good morning, Teespan at America. | ||
| My issue today is, I mean, really, isn't it illegal for the president to send military into cities, except for Washington, D.C. | ||
| And then another thing is what happens when all these thousands of laid-off or fired workers get done with their eight months or whatever of several day? | ||
| Are they going on on unemployment also? | ||
| Are they already in the rosters as unemployed? | ||
| Trump is just tearing down this country, and I don't know. | ||
| I'm scared. | ||
| It scares me really bad. | ||
| Breck is in Wisconsin, line for Republicans. | ||
| Breck, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I enjoyed listening to the coverage from the conservative woman, Salabar. | |
| Was that her name she was on earlier? | ||
| What was her name? | ||
| Rachel Bovard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Bovard, yeah. | |
| Appreciated her very balanced and comprehensive approach. | ||
| I was surprised by those that called in that seemed to misinterpret so much of what she said, so much of what her organization stands for. | ||
| She basically said that she supports legal immigration and supports our support for our citizens. | ||
| Illegal immigration, she points out some of the pitfalls. | ||
| And some of the callers, they just get so confused. | ||
| They talk in circles. | ||
| I don't understand why they can't just simply say, let's support all legal immigration. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Kevin is up next. | ||
| And Kevin joins us from Maryland Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| I'm fine. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, I was in D.C. over the weekend and I've noticed people on the corners trying to ask for help from the government from this targeted justice situation. | ||
| What's going on with that? | ||
| I would like something from the viewers that if they know anything, that they could basically inform me on what's going on with the government and targeting of our citizens with this weaponized weapon. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You have a good day. | ||
| Independent line, Gene in Florida. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Gene in Florida. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| One more time for Gene. | ||
| Okay, we'll leave it there. | ||
| Again, call the numbers 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| If you are on the line, all we ask is if you turn down your television or mute it so that there's no interference there and just be ready to jump in when your name is called. | ||
| It was the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members meeting earlier this morning. | ||
| Jim Comer, the chair of that, part of that conversation on the release yesterday of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Here is Congressman Comer from earlier today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the Epstein documents are released because I subpoenaed the estate for the documents. | |
| That's why we have the documents. | ||
| So I know the media has been obsessed with the discharge petition. | ||
| The discharge petition didn't even cover the estate. | ||
| This is a serious investigation, just like I said it would be. | ||
| We're going to be transparent. | ||
| I think we got the documents uploaded last night on the computer. | ||
| It takes, you know, a few hours. | ||
| Obviously, when they send out, when I subpoena documents, they send them to the Republicans and the Democrats. | ||
| Of course, you know, the Democrats, they find one thing in there and they promote it and try to get a narrative. | ||
| This investigation is about providing justice and accountability for the victims. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the Democrats, you know, it's really disappointing to see how they've acted. | |
| I mean, Garcia, he's been on the job for about two weeks. | ||
| He's proven to me to just be a real big drama queen because this is all about providing transparency to the American people and justice for the victims. | ||
| It's not about scoring political points. | ||
| So hopefully he'll mature up and get serious about the investigation. | ||
| We've got a lot more documents we expect to get in. | ||
| We're going to bring a lot of people in for depositions. | ||
| So this investigation is moving along very rapidly and hopefully we'll get some answers and some justice very soon. | ||
| That was earlier today. | ||
| It was yesterday that Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, put out on X in response to the documents that were released yesterday, particularly when it comes to the birthday book, saying this latest piece of publishing by the Wall Street Journal proves this entire birthday card story is false. | ||
| As I have said all along, it's very clear that President Trump did not draw this picture and did not sign it. | ||
| The president's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation. | ||
| There is a scheduled White House briefing at 1 o'clock this afternoon featuring the press secretary. | ||
| You may hear more about the release of Jeffrey Epstein documents and other things. | ||
| You can see that on C-SPAN2, our app C-SPANNOWAN at c-span.org. | ||
| Again, that press briefing at 1 o'clock this afternoon. | ||
| Ron in Kentucky, Republican line, you're next up. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Pedro. | |
| Thank you for taking my call, buddy. | ||
| Beautiful Sunday morning here in East Kentucky. | ||
| Just wanted to call in, Pedro, and comment on the first segment you had this morning on Open Forum to Religion. | ||
| Just wanted to say I support President Trump 100%. | ||
| He's right. | ||
| We need to turn back to God in our country and specifically obey Christ. | ||
| Christ is the only way. | ||
| There's only one way to heaven. | ||
| And this country was founded on, excuse me, this country was founded on folks who wanted to worship Christ as they saw fit. | ||
| And that's what we need to get back to. | ||
| And I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching our kids, teaching our people that it's wrong to kill. | ||
| It's wrong to lie. | ||
| Wrong to commit adultery, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. | ||
| I think that would be a good thing. | ||
| I think we need that. | ||
| We're at such a bad place in our country right now. | ||
| We have so much division. | ||
| And God is one. | ||
| God says he is one. | ||
| And I think that's what we need to get back to. | ||
| And I also wanted to comment on the Ipsting issue. | ||
| I am somewhat disappointed in President Trump. | ||
| I wish he would release all of that information. | ||
| I don't believe there's anything damning or convicting for him in that. | ||
| But it's serious. | ||
| It's not a hoax. | ||
| Anytime ladies have, or young women, or anyone who's went through the horrific things that these ladies did, we need to support them and get to the bottom of it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Ron there in Kentucky. | ||
| Let's hear from Patrick in Florida, Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| It seems like the Republicans and so-called conservatives are parading a bunch of ladies in front of the camera saying that Trump is so great. | ||
| I have not heard one of them say he's a criminal. | ||
| And I have not heard one of them say he's done anything wrong. | ||
| So until they start dealing with fact and truth instead of misinformation and propaganda, we're in a world of hurt. | ||
| I watched a commercial where Woody Harrelson told a paper boy his pool would be open and the dress code was optional. | ||
| A paper boy. | ||
| This is where our country is today. | ||
| And I hear people talking about conservative morals. | ||
| Come on, man. | ||
| Gene in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning, C-Span. | ||
| How are you today? | ||
| I'm well, thank you. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I wanted to talk about the war in the Mideast. | |
| That war has been going on a long time. | ||
| Do we need to start another crusade, you know, where all the Christians kill the Muslims? | ||
| Or maybe Great Britain could drop a bomb at Mecca. | ||
| Maybe they'd get the message. | ||
| Or why does Putin getting away with starting a war? | ||
| I mean, World War III, if we had killed Hitler, we'd have never had a World War II. | ||
| You kill the main leader and you won't have a World War. | ||
| Okay, that's Gene Bear in Florida. | ||
| Again, it's open forum. | ||
| We are going till 10 o'clock with minimal stops along the way. | ||
| Get as many calls as you can. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independence 202-748-8002. | ||
| A person associated with immigration matters, Tom Holman, stepping before cameras at the White House. | ||
| Well, best laid plans. | ||
| Audio doesn't seem to have an issue. | ||
| If we get that corrected, we will hear what we can when it comes to Tom Holman. | ||
| Let's hear from, I think I didn't take the call, but South Carolina, is this Jeannie? | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did we take her already? | |
| Jeannie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Am I up? | |
| Yeah, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I just have a comment. | ||
| I just feel like everything's so, you know, either one commenter talked about how things are, you know, until they admit that they've done things wrong. | ||
| I'm like, well, you can say that on both sides. | ||
| I mean, I am totally, I'm a conservative, but I see the wrong in the Republican Party, and I see the wrong with Hillary Clinton and her smashing her thing, but nothing happened to that. | ||
| Of course, she didn't get indicted, but that was wrong, too. | ||
| So I don't understand, everything is so politicized. | ||
| There is wrong on both sides. | ||
| And we have, until we can admit that, there's a problem. | ||
| That there are people who are corrupt on both sides. | ||
| Right is right, wrong is wrong. | ||
| But conservatism and what it used to be when I was a kid, you used to be able to talk to a person who was liberal and not hate them. | ||
| And now it's so crazy. | ||
| It's like I could even talk to you. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Jamie there in South Carolina, as promised, Tom Holman. | ||
| To come back under a legal program. | ||
| For instance, if they have a U.S. citizen child, the U.S. citizen child can petition for them someday if they turn 18. | ||
| Do the right thing and take the CBP home app and do the right thing. | ||
| Come back to this country legally. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So what would you say to the 30-year-old mother that we've spoken to from Mexico, been here 16 years here illegally, but pays her taxes, lives her life here, and as I say, has been enabled by America to be here. | |
| What would you say to her? | ||
| She hasn't left her home for over two weeks now. | ||
| She can't take her own children to school in the neighborhood because she is so frightened of being rounded up by ICE agents. | ||
| Well, bottom line is, I just said we're prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats. | ||
| We're not out sweeping neighborhoods. | ||
| We're not out looking for non-criminals. | ||
| Now, if we run into a non-criminal during these operations, they're absolutely going to be taken in custody because we're not going to do what the last Biden administration did and tell ICE you can't enforce immigration law. | ||
| Let me explain to you why we have the most secure border in the nation's history today. | ||
| It's because of President Trump's executive orders. | ||
| First of all, it's because the men and women of Borbatroy are finally doing their job. | ||
| And one of the reasons we have the most secure border in the nation's history, which gives us the highest national security we've ever had, because now we know who's coming and what's coming and so forth, is because of what ICE is doing. | ||
| We're sending a message to the whole world. | ||
| There are consequences for violating our laws. | ||
| You're asking me to tell ICE, don't enforce the law. | ||
| Should DEA enforce your laws? | ||
| Should FBI enforce your laws? | ||
| Should ATF enforce your laws? | ||
| ICE is going to enforce the laws of what President Trump got elected for, and that's what we're doing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And also, can I just say what? | |
| And again, that's Tom Holman there. | ||
| If you want to see the rest of this conversation he's having with reporters, it's being simulcast on our sister channel, C-SPAN2. | ||
| If you're interested in hearing those comments, you can continue on with us as we take your phone calls. | ||
| Barbara in Tennessee, Democrats line. | ||
| Thank you for waiting. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm just disagreeing with Mr. Folman. | |
| They are taking people. | ||
| They're taking children. | ||
| And they should be allowed to live in America, especially if they've lived here for about 20 or more years and paid their taxes. | ||
| And I just want to say that President Trump is not a Christian, that he doesn't follow Christian principles because he's cutting things. | ||
| Funds in Medicaid, in Medicare, and a lot of rural hospitals are going to be closing because of the cuts in Medicare or Medicaid, I'm sorry. | ||
| And children are going to be starving because of the net benefits. | ||
| And this is not what Christ wants. | ||
| Christ wants us to be compassionate to people. | ||
| And I just don't believe that President Trump has a Christian bone in his body. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Barbara there in Tennessee. | ||
| This is Tracy in the Bronx, New York Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I'm a military retiree, retired Air Force in 2000. | ||
| Since then, it's come to my knowledge that a religion, Wicca, a pagan religion, has been recognized by the military and it's being practiced in the military. | ||
| So when the discussion goes on about religion, I get the sense that our minds, Americans, generally think about Christianity, Judaism, the Muslim religions, but there are maybe even Hinduism, maybe even Buddhism. | ||
| But I'm not sure they understand that witchcraft is also classified as a religion and that it may involve a completely different skill set, a completely different way of thinking. | ||
| And so when we talk about everyone should have a say, maybe some research should be done into what those everyones are going to be saying, who they're going to be saying them to when we're talking about children. | ||
| And we're talking about in age range from toddlers, you know, up to college level. | ||
| So. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Tracy there in New York. | ||
| Let's hear from Vanja in Maryland. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Sister and good morning, America. | |
| So I'm just calling to make a few comments about your previous guest. | ||
| So when she talked about the government's takeover of the intel stocks, 10% of intel stocks, she used a term, statism. | ||
| I think a lot of professors in this country of economy are spitting their hats right now because that's not economic term. | ||
| To be clear, we are talking about government's ownership of the means of production, which is a definition of communism. | ||
| And then when she talks about reasons for that, she's using the example that this country needs to produce more chips as a matter of national security in this country. | ||
| I couldn't agree more, but that's why we had chips and science law that was passed under Biden's administration, and most of the Republicans voted against it. | ||
| And the third thing is she said that we have had examples of similar takeover before. | ||
| I'm sorry we didn't, that was short-term bailout. | ||
| And my car is beeping. | ||
| I have to go. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Amia there in Maryland and giving us a call. | ||
| It was yesterday that House Leader Speaker Jeffries went before cameras, talked about new picks that he is appointing to a new panel looking at January 6th, saying that the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries chose California Representative Eric Swalwell to lead Democrats on a newly formed subcommittee to reinvestigate events surrounding the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. | ||
| He also picked Representatives Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, Jared Moskowitz, Democrat of Florida, to sit on the panel. | ||
| Here's that announcement from yesterday. | ||
| On January 6, 2021, a violent mob incited by Donald Trump viciously attacked the Capitol as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and halt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history. | ||
| The mob brutally attacked and beat police officers, seriously injuring more than 140 brave men and women of law enforcement. | ||
| It was an unprecedented assault on the American way of life, on the rule of law, and on the very fabric of our democracy. | ||
| Donald Trump and House Republicans are now determined to whitewash that day that will always live in infamy. | ||
| House Democrats will not let it happen. | ||
| Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. | ||
| Donald Trump and House Republicans spent all of last year promising to lower the high cost of living in the United States of America. | ||
| In fact, Donald Trump promised that he would lower costs on day one. | ||
| That hasn't happened. | ||
| Why didn't it happen? | ||
| Because on day one, Donald Trump was too busy pardoning hundreds of violent felons who brutally beat police officers on January 6th. | ||
| It's shameful. | ||
| It was shameful then. | ||
| And it will always be shameful. | ||
| And under the leadership of Democrats on this so-called January 6th subcommittee, we will make sure that the American people continue to receive the unfiltered truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. | ||
| You can see more of that announcement on our network, our app, and our .org. | ||
| That was Hakeem Jeffrey from yesterday, John in Massachusetts Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Two sides of the same fascist coin, Democrats and Republicans, the same Democrats and Republicans who were, it's considered government and corporate fascism, the same fascism that funded Hitler on Wall Street with your 13 bloodlines, your Rothschilds, your Rockefellers, your J.P. Morgans. | ||
| It hasn't changed. | ||
| We're just colonizing the Middle East. | ||
| Like you guys said, you're conservatives and your neocons. | ||
| We're going to hit seven countries in five years or five countries in seven years, right? | ||
| It's called colonial imperialism for oil, land, and resources. | ||
| So the guys on Wall Street can make a pretty profit through your central banks who have been funding both sides of the wars for the past hundred and something years. | ||
| So if you think anybody's going to get a fair shake from either party, they're the two sides of the same fascist coin. | ||
| Oh, and besides, your so-called God, Cesare Bourgier from Rome, that is not Jesus. | ||
| Richard in Texas, Republican Line. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I just want to say this. | |
| I've taught history. | ||
| I'm retired now. | ||
| I taught history for nearly 40 years. | ||
| And I listened to C-SPAN. | ||
| And I'm going to tell you, this country has never hated itself so much since the first American Civil War. | ||
| We're divided not by politics. | ||
| We're divided by morality. | ||
| And there's no compromise. | ||
| When you look through history, when a country gets as divided as we are, we will never come together. | ||
| And I hate to say it, but if this was 150 years ago, we would already have had Fort Sumter in our bull run. | ||
| That's where we are now. | ||
| The only reason it hasn't happened is because we have a military that won't allow another civil war. | ||
| But I can guarantee you if you took the military out of the equation and let them sit on the sidelines, this country will be at a civil war within six months. | ||
| That is because history tells me it's the only option. | ||
| Okay, Mike in Pennsylvania, Independent Line, you're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello? | |
| Hi, you're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I have a, I'm just calling in about the immigration policies that are going on with President Trump. | |
| I agree with getting the criminals and the bad people out, but I don't agree with them just going along and gathering up people that are here. | ||
| You know, yeah, there might be illegal, but they're still, they're paying taxes and all that other and all everything else. | ||
| So that's basically my comment for today. | ||
| On 10 o'clock, just after this program ends, on C-SPAN 3, a hearing on how states can administer what's known as SNAP funding. | ||
| That's supplemental nutritional assistance programs. | ||
| You can see that before the House Agriculture Subcommittee, 10 o'clock, C-SPAN 3, our app, C-SPANNOW and the .org, a hearing on children's health. | ||
| That's at 2 o'clock this afternoon on our main channel, C-SPAN 1. | ||
| You'll hear from the acting Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Dorothy Fink. | ||
| She's expected to talk about the health of U.S. children, the negative impacts of poor nutrition and over-prescribing medication. | ||
| This is before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee at 2 o'clock on the various platforms, C-SPAN 3, starting there and the app and the.org. | ||
| And Amy Coney Barrett, Justice of the Supreme Court, talking about her book, making several appearances. | ||
| You can hear her talking about the book, Listening to the Law, Reflections on the Court and the Constitution. | ||
| This will be before the Reagan Foundation Center on Civility and Democracy, 9 o'clock this evening. | ||
| That on C-SPAN2, the app and the.org. | ||
| The House just about to come in. | ||
| We'll hear from DNOhio Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, thank you, C-SPAN, for taking my call. | |
| I have four things I would think I want to talk about. | ||
| Tom Holman, who was just on here, made a comment on C-SPAN during President Trump's first 100 days in office that said that white men should be running this country. | ||
| That was my first comment. | ||
| My second thing is to the people who call in and talk about religion should be taught in school. | ||
| Religion should begin at home. | ||
| And if you train up a child the way he should go, when he gets to school, teachers will not have problem with the behavior or anything else. | ||
| But they learn religion at home. | ||
| If they need to learn the Ten Commandments, teach it at home. | ||
| Hang it up in your house. | ||
| What do you want them to do? | ||
| Hang up the Buddhist, the Koran, Judaism, whatever. | ||
| Dee hate to interrupt, but we're almost out of time. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| My third thing is the lady who was just on here. | ||
| She is a Christian national. | ||
| And I think last Tuesday or three or four days ago, you had on C-SPAN the NATCOM in there. | ||
| And they will tell you exactly what they want. | ||
| They want to run the country and run it the way they want to. | ||
| They want to give you a Catholic doctrine. | ||
| I'm not Catholic, okay? | ||
| So if anybody's interested in what she's really in and do not believe she is a white nationalist, watch C-SPAN, the show that you did about two or three weeks ago. | ||
| And I had a comment about Donald Trump. | ||
| Ask yourself. | ||
| I'm sorry, and I apologize, Dee. | ||
| The House of Representatives is coming in. | ||
| That means it's time for us to go. | ||
| We take you to the house. | ||
| The house will be in order. | ||
| The chair lays before the House a communication from the Speaker. |