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Oct. 13, 2025 08:15-10:02 - CSPAN

01:46:54

LIVE Washington Journal

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		War in Gaza.
		The President's speech came just hours after Hamas released its last 20 living Israeli hostages as part of a U.S.-led ceasefire deal.
		During his one-hour five-minute address, President Trump called today's steps towards peace an historic dawn of a new Middle East.
		We're beginning today's Washington Journal by getting your reaction as we also mark day 13 of the federal government shutdown here in the United States.
		And we're taking your phone calls on phone line split as usual by political party.
		Republicans, it's 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		You can send us a text, that number 202-748-8003.
		If you do, please include your name and where you're from, or catch up with us on social media.
		On Twitter, it's at C-SPANWJ on Facebook.
		It's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN.
		Want to take you this morning to the front page of the Jerusalem Post, the October 13th edition, the headline, God bless the peacemaker, and a picture of Donald Trump on the cover of the front page of the Jerusalem Post.
		He began his speech about an hour and 10 minutes ago.
		He addressed the Knesset this morning, and this is some of what he had to say.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, esteemed members of the Knesset, and cherished citizens of Israel, we gather on a day of profound joy, of soaring hope, of renewed faith, and above all, a day to give our deepest thanks to the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
		After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families, and it is glorious.
		28 more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time.
		And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity.
unidentified		That was President Trump this morning, and we're taking your phone calls, getting your reaction as we also talk about the 13th day of the ongoing government shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Phone numbers are on your screen, and we will start in Arkansas.
unidentified		This is Brenda, Lynfer Republicans.
		Brenda, what did you think of the address?
		I thought it was amazing, and I think President Trump will go down in history as the most amazing president we have ever had.
		He has done nothing but everything that's good for our country.
		He works hard.
		He's tireless.
		The man never sleeps.
		And he works for America.
		That's what he's for.
		He's for America.
		He wants America first.
		And he wants the world first.
		As you can see, he wants peace all over the world.
		And I think with this accord, he's proven that.
		So I think we should all be very proud of him.
		It's a ceasefire right now.
		The hostages for the first time in two years.
		Hamas does not hold any living Israeli hostages.
		20 returned this morning ahead of the president's speech.
		He's headed to that peace summit in Egypt.
		Some news about that summit this morning.
		President Trump inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to join him at that peace summit.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He was originally not scheduled to be there.
unidentified		The office of the prime minister of Israel releasing this statement saying that he was, in fact, invited by President Trump to attend today's conference.
		The Prime Minister thanked President Trump for that invitation, but said he will be unable to attend due to time constraints ahead of the start of the holiday there in Israel.
		News this morning and news likely throughout the day as President Trump heads to that peace summit with heads of state of several other countries.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Thomas, Republican out of Florida.
unidentified		You're up next.
		Good morning.
		Yes, this is a great day for America.
		This is a great day for Israel.
		And it's bad news for the Democrat progressive ex-Biden administration, Harris administration, and all the people that were against Trump from the Pope and the higher-up Catholic clergy people that all they did was badmouth Trump, negative comments about Trump.
		He did what these people who claimed to push for peace failed to do.
		He has done what the Biden administration has failed to do.
		He's put peace in the Middle East, and it's a bad day for black liberals.
		It's a bad day for Spanish liberals, Hispanic liberals, and it's a bad day for white liberals.
		The MAGA movement, Trump train is full speed ahead.
		You take a ticket or you get run over.
		That's Thomas in Florida.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Here's a photo from inside the Knesset from the White House pool reporter Dasha Burns of Politico, also the host of Ceasefire here on C-SPAN.
unidentified		The hats that you saw in the audience, the red hats, Trump, the peace president, is what's written on many of those hats being worn by audience members.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Philip out of New York, Democrat.
unidentified		Good morning.
		What'd you think of the speech?
		Yes, hi.
		That was a momentous speech.
		And I'm a conservative living here in New York, where this example of bringing peace to everyone should be thought of in New York City, where out of ignorance,
		the people are about to elect a guy who's pro-terrorist, pro-Hamas, who's friends with his people in Uganda, a country that executes, lawfully executes people for being gay.
		And this should be a wake-up call to everyone that people can live together.
		I go back, I worked as a young man for Humphrey and for McGovern and became more conservative as I've gotten older.
		But this was like the best, you know, he does it in his own style.
		We actually live pretty close to where he grew up.
		And, you know, New Yorkers like Bernie Sanders are sort of different.
		They're funny, they're abrasive sometimes.
		But this should be a lesson to all of us that we can all live together.
		I think the future, if the Gazans really accept the goodness and the money that's going to come from the Arab community and from the world community, it can be a different world.
		And I'm sorry for being so emotional, but it's a great moment in history for everyone.
		And we have to reject hate.
		We have to reject MTPU.
		We have to reject Mandami.
		And we have to come together as human beings.
		I'm an old guy.
		Life is short.
		And we should lose a good love.
		All right.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Philip in New York.
		This is John out of Louisiana, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		I have to say that last caller was just beautiful.
		That was fantastic.
		One thing that I've learned from this is how could for over 50 years we were doing the same thing and expecting different results.
		And every legacy media think tank just agreed with that.
		And when Trump brought up new and completely different ways of thinking, everyone expelled, I mean, expelled it.
		They just made fun of him.
		Steve Winkoff, he's a real estate guy.
		He doesn't have any experience.
		He doesn't know how to do this.
		Well, Jim Baker didn't have any experience in the political world, and he was one of the best Secretaries of State we ever had.
		We need to stop doing the same thing that fails over and over and learn from this.
		Embrace new ideas.
		John, you mentioned Steve Witkoff.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He was there in the Knesset today with President Trump, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, there, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but Special Envoy Steve Witkoff with this post before the president's speech as Israeli captives were being, hostages, were being released, and as some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were leaving jails in Israel and being released as well.
unidentified		This is what Steve Witkoff wrote, I wondered if I would ever see this day.
		It's deeply gratifying to know that so many families will finally have their loved ones home.
		Today, 20 families are spared the unbearable pain of not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.
		But even in this moment of relief and happiness, my heart aches for those whose loved ones will not return alive.
		Bringing their bodies home is a must and an act of dignity and honors their memory forever.
		I can't help but feel the presence of my son Andrew at this moment, and I'm profoundly grateful for the indomitable spirit of President Trump.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This day would not have been possible without him.
unidentified		U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
		This is Rob, Democrat out of Pennsylvania.
		Good morning.
		Yeah, you know what?
		I think Kamala would have done a better job.
		I think that when you look at what's happening in Gaza, the place is absolutely devastated.
		Hamas had no choice but to surrender.
		I mean, they completely massacred their leadership in Qatar.
		I think the Qataris knew they were in on it.
		They dropped a dime on those people.
		He's getting too much credit for this, and I'm just tired of seeing his face on TV.
		He's destroying our economy.
		He's destroying health care.
		You're in a shutdown, and he's illegally laying people off.
		It's just horrible.
		Anyway, that's all I have to say.
		Bye now.
		That's Rob in Pennsylvania on how this deal came together.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Some reporting on that from the Wall Street Journal today.
unidentified		A squeeze play forced Hamas to accept this deal is the headline.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When Hamas's leader first saw President Trump's plan for peace in Gaza, which demanded his group disarm with few concrete steps to make sure Israel would end the war, his immediate reaction was no.
unidentified		But the story notes, two days later, Hamas came back to Arab mediators with a yes.
unidentified		The deal hadn't changed, but the pressure on Hamas had.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Egypt and Qatar told the prime minister that the agreement was his last chance to end the war.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		According to officials the Wall Street Journal talked to, they pressed Hamas to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability, giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting.
unidentified		The next day, joined by Turkey, they warned him that if Hamas didn't approve a plan, it would be stripped of all political and diplomatic cover.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Qatar and Turkey would no longer host the group's political leadership, and Egypt would stop pressing for Hamas to have a say in Gaza's post-war governments.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It was enough for Hamas to agree to release all the hostages and the peace plan to move forward.
unidentified		This is Jamie out of Garden City, Missouri.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		To the caller in New York, I send my love to you, the man who was weeping as a Catholic, to my Jewish brothers and sisters.
		I just send my love to you for peace and your loved ones coming home.
		To the families of Church of the Holy Family in Gaza who are taking care of elderly and disabled at the Church of the Holy Family, I pray you are well.
		No one talks about what really happened.
		Why didn't Netanyahu create peace?
		I don't know.
		To the Democrat caller, I would like for him to read section 21, page 2141 of Schumer's resolution, who wanted to give our health care to illegal.
		If you can read, it's there in black and white, and it would be on the burden of the taxpayer.
		I love my president.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Jamie in Missouri.
unidentified		Dawood is in Detroit, Independent.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I really do hope that this peace deal sticks, but I feel like our president was really a national disgrace during that speech.
		She literally pointed out Maryam Adelson and talked about literally $60 million that she gave the access of going into the White House and Trump flipping and recognizing the golden heights that the entire national community, including the United Nations, says is illegally occupied land that Israel is occupying of Syria.
		And just in the past couple of days with the so-called ceasefire deal, Israel has been bombing Lebanon.
		And I don't think that Netanyahu is a good player, an Oz player.
		He needs to keep war, to keep out of jail and to keep his far-right political coalition.
		So I hope that the peace deal sticks, but I think it's highly unlikely that there can be peace in that region, especially since Netanyahu is the leadership of that country.
		That's Daouood in Detroit.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You're seeing live shots of hostage square as it's known as in central Tel Aviv.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The celebrations on the release of the hostages have been going on all morning for hours since the news began to come in that first it was seven and then another 13 hostages, the last 20 living hostages released this morning ahead of President Trump's address.
unidentified		The president is headed to Egypt for that peace summit With world leaders.
		Keir Starmer of Great Britain is one of those leaders that's there.
		Keir Starmer writing this on X very early this morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Today is the first crucial phase in ending the war in the Middle East.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Now we must deliver lasting peace and secure a future for the whole region.
unidentified		The U.K. is providing additional humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza, and we will lead efforts to accelerate its reconstruction.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The headline from the front page of the Washington Times this morning, even Democrats praise Trump's triumph, quoting two United States senators, Democrats, Mark Kelly, Arizona Democrat, calling the agreement a big deal in his Sunday show interview on CBS's Face the Nation, saying I think it's fair to give him credit for this.
unidentified		And also Senator Jonathan Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the Democrat, saying that how can't we all celebrate this thing?
unidentified		This is a huge development, and the terrible, awful war is going to come to an end.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Some notes from Democrats on the president's accomplishments overseas this morning.
unidentified		We're taking your phone calls here on the Washington Journal and also focusing on day 13 of the government shutdown.
		The House and Senate not in today.
		The Senate is expected to be back tomorrow and hold yet another vote on that continuing resolution that has failed a half dozen times to achieve the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate and to continue to fund the government into November.
		They'll try again tomorrow.
		That agreement has come up about five or six votes shy every time it has come up of the 60 votes needed.
		We'll see what happens tomorrow.
		This is Jalen in Evanston, Illinois.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You're next.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for having me.
		Well, first off, I'd like to say, as someone who is a progressive Democrat, who some of the callers did not like hearing from this morning, I think this is a great thing for Trump.
		I think this is one of things that we can congratulate and support him on 100%.
		But the one issue that I have with President Trump in his speech this morning was how he pairs into our former presidents and how the eight wars in eight months, six, whatever, sorry to say he ended, that is making us a laughing stock around the world.
		We were listening, if you heard people around, they were laughing at him.
		And this is around people who support this man.
		I think this is a great accomplishment for him, but I think the way that he goes around things, how he talks about things is destructive and not right.
		But I think this is a good thing for President Trump and for our country.
		But hopefully, Netanyahu can still hold his word to what he says.
		I doubt that will happen, but we'll see what happens in the future.
		Thank you.
		That's Jalen in Illinois.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Raul out of Florida, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You are next.
unidentified		Hello, good morning.
		How's everything?
		Doing well, Raul, what's your thoughts on the speech this morning?
		Yeah, by far the best speech the president has made on peace.
		He's a peace, he's a loving president.
		He is a president for the people, for peace.
		Like I just said, the last Connor, I applaud him for thanking President for what he did.
		A couple of callers back said that Tamala would have done a lot better.
		I don't think so.
		But I mean, we just got to go forward with peace in the United States, peace in the Middle East, and peace without the world.
		And God bless our president, which I love.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Raul, are you hopeful that this peace deal comes together, that this moves beyond a ceasefire to a peace deal?
unidentified		The summit's happening today in Egypt.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We lost Raul.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is John out of California, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Oh, good morning.
		Thank you for cease.
		I tuned in late to that, and I saw him talking about deals.
		I don't like Donald Trump as a person, as a president.
		I don't care for him at all.
		He is the president of the United States.
		And when he says we are going to do this and we are going to do that, we are not Israel.
		We are the United States of America.
		And I am happy for the Gazan people that they are getting to go home, but they're going home to a pile of concrete.
		And it's not peaceful for them.
		They don't know where they're going to be with this peace deal that's made with the Arab countries and that.
		You know, I mean, all I heard in his speech is what we're going to build, what we're going to do, what we're going to do to profit.
		I didn't hear any sympathy for all the suffering that went on for those innocent people, unarmed people.
		You know, this man is attacking our country, Donald Trump.
		He is dismantling our country's services, all kinds of things.
		I just drove across the country on an RV, and I wanted to see a couple of the parks and visit some things that are closed because of what he's doing.
		You know, Netanyahu should never be at the peace summit.
		He is guilty of this whole thing, and he could have stopped it himself.
		I think it was set up, and now they're taking credit for doing something that could have been stopped a long time ago.
		I'm really, really just ashamed that this man is representing our country.
		You know, I am up.
		You know, my wife says, you know, yeah, he's making deals.
		That's what he says.
		I'm making deals.
		We've seen this before.
		We've seen this before in history, where things like this happen.
		And people that have gone through it and done it don't talk like he talks.
		He's a businessman, and all he cares about is the money.
		I'm ashamed of this person.
		Thank you for listening to me.
		And I hope that, you know, for the people that are having their 20 people that came back, good.
		And I hope Hamas is dismantled.
		And I hope that, you know, there is some sort of structure where the people in Gaza can have some dignity and get back to their life.
		They're men, women, and children that are innocent of all of this stuff.
		We're not Israel.
		He needs to come home and take care of our country and care about our people.
		And he surely has exhibited that he does not.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		John, in California, and you mentioned Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, offering warm words for President Trump ahead of President Trump's address.
		Also, members of the Knesset interrupting and applauding much of what President Trump had to say, although there was one interruption that was not for an applause line.
		This, the reporting from the New York Times, two left-wing lawmakers belonging to a joint Palestinian-Israeli political party were escorted out of the Knesset for displaying signs that said recognize Palestine during President Trump's speech.
		Security quickly surrounding them and removing them from the chamber when they interrupted President Trump.
unidentified		Here's that moment.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I mean, I know some negotiators that are so good, but you wouldn't have had peace in the Middle East.
		You would be in World War III right now with some of these guys.
		Everybody loves Steve and they respect him and they somehow can relate to him.
		I've known him for many years and I've seen it over, over and over again.
unidentified		Please expel this Knesset member.
		Please expel this Knesset member.
		Please expel Knesset member Kassif out of the hall.
		Please expel him immediately.
		Sorry for that, Mr. President.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		That was very efficient.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The president from earlier today, again, it was about an hour and five minute speech.
unidentified		If you want to watch it, you can watch it in its entirety on our website.
unidentified		It's up already at c-span.org.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Time for just one or two more calls here.
unidentified		A shorter Washington Journal this morning will end as usual at 10 a.m., starting a little bit later this morning in the wake of the president's address overseas.
		And we're showing you live shots as well from Hostage Square, as it's known as in Tel Aviv.
		Live pictures of celebrations for the release of the final 20 living Israeli hostages.
		This is Duane in Michigan.
		Democrat, good morning.
		Yes, amen to the man from California.
		And you do know that Netanyahu let these people be massacred, don't you?
		You do know that he let that happen.
		He let his own people be massacred.
		And not one word has been said about 70,000 Palestinians.
		You know that they destroyed 16 hospitals that was in Gaza.
		Destroyed every one of them.
		There's not a single hospital left.
		You know, they dug up the dead.
		They dug up the dead.
		This deal will never hold.
		You think they're going to give up the West Bank?
		They already sold the Golan Heights.
		This is a joke, and Fat Downey is a joke.
		That's Dwayne in Michigan.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Pat, Pennsylvania, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I just want to say I will not be wordy that I agree with all the people that have said this.
		I'm a Republican, but I'm also an American first and believe in the two-party system.
		If Donald Trump had said the first 15 minutes of his speech, he would have been, I thought, oh my Lord, he changed.
		He's a good president.
		He knows what to say.
		For the next almost hour, he did nothing but talk about things that did not involve the Palestinian and the Jewish people.
		Today is a day of mourning for the sadness and sorrow that has gone on in that world.
		And I, for one thing, thank God that it's over with.
		I thank Donald Trump for having his involvement.
		I did not need to know and lead his family.
		I thank God that he gave credit to the other Americans that had something to do with this.
		And I thank you for listening to my call.
		This president is not my president, nor never will he be.
		Thank you.
		That's Pat in Pennsylvania, our last caller in this first segment of the Washington Journal.
		Stick around.
		Plenty more to talk about this morning, including in our 9 a.m. hour.
		We'll be live aboard the battleship New Jersey outside of Philadelphia to mark the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The ship is now a museum and memorial.
unidentified		We'll be talking to one of the directors of the museum about the Navy and America's founding.
unidentified		But first, after the break, Cliff Young from the polling company Ipsos joins us for a closer look at public sentiment on the ongoing government shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll be right back.
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		Washington Journal continues.
		Cliff Young is back with us now.
		He oversees polling and society trend data for Ipsos Public Affairs and joins us today with new data on how Americans are viewing the ongoing government shutdown in day 13 now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Cliff Young, what did you find?
unidentified		Who are Americans blaming for the impasse that we continue to find ourselves in?
		Well, it's really a pocket on all their houses, right?
		Whether it be Donald Trump, whether it be the Republicans, whether it be the Democrats, about two-thirds of Americans say each of them is responsible or have a large degree of responsibility for the shutdown.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Now, you know, if we were to force it, we were to force choice that we were to force Americans or respondents to rank order, we'd find that the Republicans are a little bit more responsible than Democrats.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		But overall, there's a lot, a large degree of consternation and critique of what's going on today.
unidentified		How worried are Americans, outside of maybe federal workers, that this shutdown is going to impact them specifically?
unidentified		Yeah, there's always worry, right?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		And we're in a moment right now of heightened uncertainty, lots of trepidation about what's going to happen, especially with tariffs, looking at inflation, the pocketbooks, right?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		This all sort of goes into this overall worry.
unidentified		About 49% of Americans are worried that their benefits like Social Security will be stopped or discontinued for a time.
unidentified		And that's at historic levels, right?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		We found similar numbers in the past when we've had shutdowns.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		So shutdowns writ large kind of reinforce Americans' sense of uncertainty and fear about the president.
unidentified		The president has threatened and has started to carry out additional layoffs in the federal government during the shutdown.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Here's the headline from the Washington Times.
unidentified		Trump turns up the pressure with 4,000 federal layoffs.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The layoffs coming in places like the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce, and others.
unidentified		What has been Americans' reaction to additional federal government job cuts during the shutdown?
		Did you poll on that?
		Yes, we did.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		And what we found at the beginning of the year, there was much more gusto for it, right?
unidentified		Much more support for cuts for making the government more efficient.
unidentified		That's tapered off a bit.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		And so when we compare our poll today with the poll, let's say, polls at the beginning of the year, it's declined in support.
		And so looking at questions, widespread layoffs, only about a third of Americans are in favor of it today.
		40% of them were in favor of it in March and April.
		More specifically, even Republicans who really supported it at the beginning of the year, they were in the 70s in terms of their support.
		That's fallen to 62%.
		Still a majority are in favor of it, but you don't have the same sort of, once again, energy behind that sort of initiative or policy orientation.
unidentified		If the shutdown goes another 13 days, what are you going to be watching for in your next set of polling on this?
unidentified		Same numbers.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		To what extent, you know, what is the blame game?
unidentified		Who's responsible?
unidentified		Because that'll force an eventual end to the shutdown.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		One would think, politically speaking, right, the side that really feels like they're being pressured, especially politically from a public opinion perspective, might cave a bit or might seed a bit.
unidentified		We also have numbers on a relative degree of worry.
unidentified		If those worry numbers go up, kind of whether those support numbers go down.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Typically, there's not much support for government shutdown.
		Those are extreme sort of groups and individuals that actually support it.
		But we'll be looking at relative optimism on the one hand and to what extent responsibility shifts over time.
unidentified		Phone numbers for folks to call in.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We've got a special line for federal workers.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		2027 48-8003 is that number.
unidentified		Otherwise, phone numbers for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, as usual.
unidentified		We've got Cliff Young for about another 20 minutes here this morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We just finished watching the president's speech at the Knesset.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Probably a bit too early for you to have polling numbers on that.
unidentified		But as somebody who studies public opinion, what are you going to be asking people in the wake of this speech, in the wake of this ceasefire and attempted peace deal?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, we'll be doing two things, right?
unidentified		First and foremost, it's a significant event.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		It's one of those events which we can say a priori before knowing anything else.
		It is qualitatively different than your average sort of a foreign policy event, right?
		The question is what impact will it have?
		Now, some of the questions we're going to ask will be questions around the event itself, favorability towards it, feelings towards it, whether they think there's a long-term solution, it's kind of like that, let's say, cluster of questions.
unidentified		We'll also be looking at his numbers.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Does it improve President Trump's numbers, his approval numbers over time?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Where are they right now?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		They're in the mid to low 40s.
unidentified		They've been hovering there.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Polls bounce around a bit, but if you take the average of all the polls out there, not just Ipsus, but all of us, he's around 43%, 44%, 42%.
unidentified		That's a pretty good place relative to where he was in 2017.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Obviously, there's a lot of doubts or uncertainty relative to tariffs and the inflationary, potential inflationary aspect of tariffs in Q4 and next year.
		But right now, he's in a fairly good place.
		I will be looking at his foreign policy numbers, his national security numbers.
		If we see a bump in the short to medium term, we'll see a bump there.
unidentified		And just one last point, not taking, let's say, a peace deal, but a significant foreign policy event in the last little bit.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		We can think of Obama, Obama's administration, and killing Osama bin Battladen.
unidentified		That had a significant impact on his numbers when it came to national security.
		We'll be looking for the same sort of thing with this peace deal.
		During his 65-minute address to the Knesset, President Trump talked about a lot of different things, but he mentioned the war in Ukraine and saying on Russia and the Ukrainian war, we'll get a deal done.
		Does his ability to make progress here, a ceasefire, and now a potential path to a full-on peace deal when it comes to Gaza and Israel, do you think that will impact public sentiment for the ability to end a different war, Ukraine and Russia?
		Yeah, I think that there's a potential positive halo effect.
		He seems like he's in his element when he's talking about deals.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		He feels very comfortable.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		He was comfortable speaking about it.
unidentified		He knows how to do it, at least in a different context.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		He had good effect in this specific case.
		Again, it would be a significant event to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
		But then again, foreign policy, national security are not the number one issue or number two or even number three issues here in the United States today.
		Americans are worried about domestic issues.
		So while on the margins I could see a positive impact, he reinforces maybe his image as a deal maker, as a leader.
		That doesn't necessarily translate into significantly higher approval ratings, at least at this point, looking forward.
unidentified		On issues Americans are most worried about, what's the number one concern right now?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		The number one concern, at least by our polling, Ipsus polling, is political extremism.
unidentified		By the way, that predates the Charlie Kirk assassination.
		Americans were already worried about that.
		That historically had been a Democratic issue.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		It's increasingly an independent and Republican issue as well.
		They define it differently.
		Obviously, Republicans define it right now as political extremism, political violence.
		Democrats define it more as Trump being authoritarian.
		So there's a differential definition of it, but that's the number one issue today.
		And number two, it's the economy and cost of living.
		Americans still are worried about that.
		And in third place is immigration.
unidentified		And that obviously is the Republican bailiwick, Trump's bailiwick.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		That's what he won in 2016.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		And he's ridden that wave ever since.
unidentified		A lot more to dig into from the numbers, but let me try to get you some calls.
		Share the last 10 minutes or so with you.
		This is Skip out of Michigan, Republican.
		You're on with Cliff Young of Ipsos.
		Sir, Mr. Young, I'd like to know what program you're using in polling.
		If you're going to be taking many calls or anything out of New York or California or the East, it's going to be a lot different from the heartland, from the Midwest.
		I'd like to know it because you can hear through the C-SPAN how partisan the Democrats are.
		They would hate Trump on a sunny day saying we don't like sun.
		You know, I will.
		Skip, got your point.
		So the question's on methodology.
		Yeah, we want to represent America.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		And so that means we include New York, California, Florida, Texas, and all the states in between.
unidentified		Different polling firms use different ways of getting to people.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Some telephone, some knock on the door.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		In our case at Ipsos, our primary methodology is first knocking on the door, sending snail mail, and recruiting you to a panel and talking with you over time.
unidentified		We know where you live.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		In other words, you're not a bot, right?
unidentified		And that's super important.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		That's important for the robustness and quality of the information.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		But all pollsters want a representative sample of the population, making sure we have the correct number of Democrats, the correct number of Republicans, and the correct number of all those in between.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Virginia out of California, Independent.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		You're on with Cliff Young of Ixos.
		Oh, yes.
		Hi.
		I just had a concern about keeping this man in power.
		He's not fit to be president of the United States and my feelings and heart.
		And I just wish that we could impeach him.
		And hopefully that'll follow through at some point within these next three years.
		Sooner the better.
		Thank you.
		Cliff Young on appetite for impeachment.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's fairly low, but we haven't asked that question as of late.
		I'm sure if we were to ask it, you'd have a high proportion of Democrats saying yes.
		You know, overall, you know, Democrats are worried that he is authoritarian in nature or in tendency.
		He breaks rules.
		He thwarts convention.
unidentified		It seems like the caller sort of represents that thread.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What have you found in polling on the deployments of National Guard to U.S. cities?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Well, first and foremost, Americans are afraid or worried about crime, right?
		I'm not worried about crime in my city, but I'm worried about crime in your city.
		So it's a proximity issue.
		The closer I am to something, the less I'm worried.
		So if I'm living far away from big cities, I think big cities are much more dangerous than they actually are.
unidentified		And so we have to keep that in mind, right?
unidentified		There's this proximity issue.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Overall, Americans are not in favor of the deployment of National Guard troops.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		If you look at, independent of how we ask the question, it varies.
unidentified		Support varies from 20% to 30% or so.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Now, when you peel away the onion and you look at party, like party identification or party persuasion, a super majority of Republicans are in favor of it, and only a slight minority of Democrats.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		So really, it's a tale of two worlds, a tale of two Americas, but ultimately kind of broad-based fear of crime.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That proximity issue, does it help explain why people really don't like Congress, but people generally re-elect their congressperson?
unidentified		Yes.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		I mean, there are questions that we've repeated over the last 70 years, that is the polling industry, exactly referring to your congressman or woman versus the other.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		I always love my congressperson.
unidentified		Always.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		They're awesome.
		I know them.
		They live down the street.
		You know, John or Jane was a baker before they became a congressperson, right?
		But I don't trust yours.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To Fred, in New Orleans, this is the Republican line.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Fred, you're on with Cliff Young.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, Clifford.
		Since it appears that the crux of this whole shutdown issue is regular order and the Congress passing 12 appropriations bills.
		And this happens year in and year out.
		Is there any recommendations or any thoughts that you might have that would incentivize Congress to get these appropriations bills done by October 1st so that there is no possibility of a shutdown?
		Thank you all.
		Listen online.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		I just think it's all about incentives.
		Is there a consequence for shutting the government down?
		And the consequence would be political.
		Will you risk not being re-elected?
		And the answer is no.
		So right now, the system itself doesn't have a lot of incentives to course correct.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The Washington Post editorial board last week made the point that they didn't think shutdowns were painful enough that the incentives aren't there for members of Congress to avoid a shutdown, so therefore it becomes a political tool that they've made sure that Social Security checks still go out.
		We've found a way to pay military paychecks this month.
		Many of the essential functions go on, and so relatively few Americans are actually impacted by a shutdown.
		Have you found, in terms of that polling about people being impacted by the shutdown, that those numbers are increasing and you expect them to increase as we go for a few more days or weeks?
unidentified		Yeah, I don't think they're, you know, in the past, we found basically that they were flatlined over the course of time.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Relative fear, the same level, relative optimism, the same level.
		Who they blame basically stays the same.
		Ultimately, this is an issue that worries people.
		It's one more layer of worry, but they are focused on so many other things than this issue specifically.
		There probably won't be a lot of pain felt by politicians.
		And definitely, it's a difficult thing to run on when you have other more important things to run on, like immigration or making ends meet, as just two examples.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dan is next out of Buffalo.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My question is, why has nobody pointed a finger at the insurance industry itself?
		The Democrats are saying they're holding up for the health care.
		The Republicans are saying, let's make that work through and we'll figure it out.
		But why does the insurance company, why do the insurance companies have to double the premiums if the health care bill doesn't hold?
		Nobody's holding a gun to their head.
		So that's my question.
		Thank you.
		Let's poll the American people about their attitudes about the insurance industry, the for-profit insurance industry.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Cliff Young.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Well, they have middling numbers.
		They're not the best industry.
		They're not the worst industry.
		They're somewhere in the middle.
		We and others have polled on them over the course of time.
		I have to understand that.
		When we think of the ACA, Obamacare, as, let's say, a grand consensus, or what I mean by that is the point where public opinion agreed, where you got a majority of individuals.
		It was in this option, the option of having private sector insurance companies, insurance market.
		That's what Americans were willing to tolerate.
		And by the way, the polling hasn't changed much since then.
		So there's not a lot of support for basically a publicly run health care system.
		There isn't much support for just having it completely open, free and fair, laissez-faire, let's say.
		It's something in the middle, and obviously there's externalities or negative consequences any way you organize yourself.
unidentified		You mentioned the best industries and the worst industries.
		What are some of the best industries in the mind of the public?
		And what are some of the worst?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Technology.
		I mean, technology.
		So people love their smartphones, right?
		They love their AI now, right?
		They love how technology makes the world go.
		And the more complicated industries are extraction industries, right?
		Those industries that take from the ground and have environmental consequences.
		They tend to have a more negative one.
		Or industries that, or industries that produce products that have some sort of harmful effect on individuals, let's say like tobacco and others.
		And so there are certain industries that have very negative views by people and others which have very positive.
		And once again, insurance falls somewhere in between.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		President Trump has vowed to make good on 100% tariffs on China, China threatening retaliation.
unidentified		How does the American public view the fight over tariffs?
unidentified		I think that this specific back and forth with China is a lot of noise.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		It doesn't mean they're not paying attention.
		But generally speaking, they're worried.
		They see tariffs as inflationary in nature.
		And we've already seen behavior being sort of curbed, right?
		They're stockpiling.
		People are downsizing a bit at the household level.
		And so there's this fear.
		And when you talk to economists, whether at associations or banks, they're saying the real impact, we should wait for Q4 and the beginning of next year.
		But overall, from a public opinion standpoint, people are worried about this.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Time for just one or two more phone calls here with Cliff Young of Ipsos polling.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		By the way, all these polls that we've talked about, where can people find those if they want to see them for themselves?
unidentified		Just our website, www.ipsos.com.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Andrew here waiting in Kingsport, Tennessee.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Republican, go ahead.
unidentified		Yes.
		I think that this shutdown is just a Democratic thing because that's the only thing they could fight with.
		They were just objecting to the way that insurance was run, but I don't even know anybody who has Obamacare.
		I don't even know anybody at that point in the middle states.
		I mean, it's maybe just on the East Coast where Obama was.
		I'm not sure.
		And I think that everybody that objects to President Trump is a Democrat because, I mean, he's the best president we've ever had.
		He's doing the best any president has ever done.
		And he's going around the world.
		He was shot at.
		He had his ear shot off.
		And all he did was stand up and fight, fight, fight, you know.
		And, you know, he's got the most courage, and he's the best thing that happened to America.
		He's a businessman.
		He didn't have politics.
		And, you know, I don't think he's fighting for any politics.
		He's just fighting for peace and people.
		And he's the only president that's ever brought God to the surface in the White House.
		That's Andrea in Tennessee.
		Cliff Young, what do you want to pick up on?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Well, it's just, when you look at the data, it's amazing, especially when you're looking at immigration or looking at crime as just the government shutdown.
		It's as if we live in two different worlds.
		We have the Democratic world, we have the Republican world that see the issues as completely different.
		And I think this caller just represents the red thread, the Republican thread of that view.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Last call for Cliff Young.
		This is Billy in Crockett, Texas.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning, Cecend.
		I would like to say that what we're doing now does not really represent us because we're the world's leader.
		We're America.
		And we have different presidents that have problems at times.
		But at this time, America will win because we're a nation of God.
		And C-SPAN is a nation of God.
		Thank you very much.
		God bless you all.
		That's Billy in Texas.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Cliff Young, final minute or so here.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What do you want to pick up on?
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Well, we're ending on a positive note with a caller.
		I think that's important.
		We often talk about polarization and division, but we also find in our polling over time, there are certain things that unite us, right?
		We do hold fundamental values in unison.
		We believe in freedom and fairness as Americans.
		We believe in civility.
		We believe in responsibility.
		So there are the whole core of foundational values that a super majority, that is 95% of Americans actually agree on.
		And sometimes, you know, when things get trying, we have to reflect back a bit and understand there are some things that unite us.
		The last thing I would point out, in those sort of values that unite, we all like our mother, and so, or most of us, there's a couple percent that don't.
		And so I like the fact that the call ended like he did.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Cliff Young is with Ipsos Public Affairs, the polling and societal trends.
unidentified		President there, always appreciate your time and your insights.
cliff young ▲ ● ▼		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we're going to keep going with your phone calls here in this morning's Washington Journal.
		Phone lines are open for you to talk about the government shutdown, President Trump's speech this morning in Israel, or any public policy issue that you want to talk about.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Independence, 202-748-8002 and a line for federal workers, 202-748-8003.
		As you're calling in this morning, let's head to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
unidentified		We are joined at the White House by Deanna Narozi of Politico White House reporter there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Deanna, good morning to you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Can you explain where President Trump is headed for the rest of this very busy day in the Middle East and what's next on his schedule after that 65-minute speech, the Knesset?
unidentified		Good morning.
		And yes, he just arrived in Israel this morning and he's already leaving.
		So he arrived, he met with the hostage families.
		Of course, 20 alive hostages were released and he met with their families and there was this big celebration that happened.
		He gave that very long speech at the Knesset and he's already leaving to go to Egypt where around 20 leaders will be there from the region and also from France, Canada.
		UN Secretary General will be there and I think that will be a way for him to further celebrate the hostage release but also maybe speak to more peace in the region as he hopes that more parts of the peace plan will be ironed out.
		And some news this morning during the president's trip we found out that he had invited Benjamin Netanyahu to join him at that peace summit and a statement from the prime minister's office saying that he appreciated the invite but due to timing and the holiday he couldn't make it.
		What do you read from that or were you able to find out anything more since that happened this morning?
		I thought that was a little surprising because that is such a grand invitation but I mean we don't really know is it a timing issue or does the Israeli prime minister not feel like it's the right time to go there?
		I think that it would be a great opportunity for him to see some of these world leaders that maybe he doesn't get along with as much but I mean I'm not really sure exactly why he's not going there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's your read on and what is the White House saying about their expectations for the next steps here the completion of the first phase of the ceasefire and then moving into the peace plan itself?
unidentified		All the White House has been messaging from the president and from officials is that they're very positive about the rest of the peace plan.
		Trump told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that the war is over and that he's very confident that the ceasefire will hold.
		But I think personally and I think anyone looking at this conflict can question if this 20-point peace plan will hold.
		He'll have to put pressure on Israel and Hamas and it'll be very difficult to de-radicalize Gaza as the peace plan calls for.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Were you surprised that President Trump brought up in that speech Ukraine and Russia saying that we'll get a deal done when it comes to the war in Ukraine?
unidentified		I'm sorry, what was the question?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Were you surprised that the president brought up Ukraine and Russia in his speech saying that we will get the deal done in Ukraine?
unidentified		Yes, he did.
		And he called to Steve Witkoff, one of his lead negotiators, to get this done.
		And hopefully after the Middle East peace plan, he does turn his attention to Ukraine and Russia.
		He mentioned sending Tomahawks potentially to Ukraine, but he said that he'll have to talk to President Putin about that.
		I think that is obviously a war that he wants to end, but it has been very difficult.
		I hope he puts more pressure on Putin.
		I hope that there is more action after this peace deal is done.
		And then finally, turning to domestic politics and the shutdown, day 13.
		The House and Senate are not in today.
		We're expecting another Senate vote tomorrow.
		But what are you hearing anything new out of the White House on this 13th day of the government shutdown?
		The signals that I've been having is that the White House is not very eager to just bow down to the Democrats and get the government open to get the Democrats' points across.
		From the conversations that I've had over the past few days, I think that they've dug their heels into the sand, and so have the Democrats.
		And they've been very eager to hear messaging from Chuck Schumer that every day this shutdown gets better for us, that quote that he made on Thursday.
		And I think that the White House is taking key actions.
		President Trump announced on Saturday that he's going to direct Pete Hegstaff to pay out those military salaries on Wednesday.
		That was something that I think the White House was a little nervous about, but that's their solution.
		But otherwise, I think they're just waiting to see what's next and to see if the Democrats will fold.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		In terms of what's next for federal workers, the president announcing some 4,000 additional layoffs when it comes to the federal government.
unidentified		Are you expecting more layoffs this week?
		We'll just have to see.
		That first round did go out on Friday, and there were several thousand rifts that were taking place.
		Trump had indicated that there could be more.
		I think we'll just have to see on that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Deanna Narosi is Politico's White House reporter joining us from the grounds of the White House this morning.
unidentified		We appreciate your time.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Thanks for the help keeping track of a lot of things going on when it comes to the president's schedule.
unidentified		Thank you so much.
		And President Trump is getting set to leave Israel, meeting on the tarmac next to Air Force One with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu one last time before he's set to go to Egypt and participate in that peace summit.
		Live pictures there.
		We'll watch as we take your phone calls.
		This is Gene in Tennessee.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, hello.
		Yeah, I want to say, I don't think Trump has done anything.
		His own country is over here going through a shutdown.
		And he's over there with dictators, really, trying to get them straightened up.
		He needs to get back over here in the United States and straighten us up.
		People are losing their jobs.
		People are hungry.
		People are afraid of losing their health care and stuff.
		So, you know, he don't deserve no peace prize.
		He hasn't done anything.
		He's ignoring his own country.
		And over there trying to straighten up them, I always hear you straighten up your own back door before you do somebody else's.
		Okay?
		He needs to get his behind back over here in the United States and straighten us up.
		Because we're going through a lot of turmoil.
		That's Gene in the volunteer state.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is John in the Buckeye State out of Dayton, Republican.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		I'd like to say good morning to you.
		I'd like to say good morning to the listening audience.
		Happy 250 years for the Republic.
		Long live the Republic.
		What we have witnessed is wonderful.
		The president was over in Israel spreading peace, talking peace.
		And the people here in other places are just contrary.
		Oh, they got bad things to say about it.
		But I want you to know that us, the true patriots, we appreciate this president.
		And I want to thank you for referring to him or giving him his proper title.
		That's President Trump.
		And I hear so many of the people say Trump this, Trump this, this commonality.
		No, the man is doing good service, not only him, but his team, but his team.
		And he has also mentioned that he's going to do peace in the Caribbean.
		He talked about the new development that he's going to be doing with Cuba and the other countries in the Caribbean.
		And also, he's doing good here.
		Yes, I'm happy for those cities in which now are having a moment of peace, a moment of peace because of President Trump.
		I could go on and on because this is just wonderful and I love it.
		And I love more.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		John, I got your point.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We've got a few people waiting to get in here.
unidentified		This is Mark out of Damascus, Maryland.
		Independent, good morning.
		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		I appreciate the time you're giving me.
		I'd like to point out that I do not appreciate the fact that C-SPAN has been calling this Gaza crisis a war.
		It is not a war.
		It has been declared a genocide by all of the genocide scholars, by the United Nations, by the International Criminal Court, who has a war now, by the way, for Netanyahu and two of his thugs, at least, Ben Geveer and Smotrich.
		The International Court of Justice wants Netanyahu to appear.
		This is a genocide.
		This was not a war.
		Everyone is pretending that this moment of peace will last.
		However, President Trump holds the veto power in the United Nations.
		If he really wanted peace, he would grant the Palestinian people statehood and stop withholding that statehood with his veto power in the United Nations.
		He refuses to do that.
		The entire world is backing statehood for the Palestinian people.
		Only the United Nations is holding that veto power over the heads of the rest of the world.
		We've seen that the rest of the world has been protesting.
		All over the world, people are marching and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people.
		But the only way that they're going to get that is if they get statehood.
		Netanyahu is a criminal, and Trump has supported him with 70% of the money that has been used for this war.
		Now, if Trump wants peace, he needs to give them statehood now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Got your point.
		That's Mark.
		This is Barbara in Philly, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		Okay, so the Republican budget that they want to put out, it will take Medicaid coverage from at least about 16 million people and increase the subsidies on the ACA, which is Obamacare, I'd like to tell that lady, making it impossible for another 4 to 5 million people afford coverage by the end of 2026.
		If people want to go back to private insurance, here's what Obamacare did for them.
		It eliminated caps.
		CAPS was when you had insurance policy, even from your work.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And Barbara, Barbara, got your point.
		Running a little short on time.
		Just before we go here, as Air Force One gets set to depart, did you watch that speech this morning?
		And any thoughts on the peace deal?
unidentified		No, I did not.
		And I agree with that man that just spoke.
		Everything he said is true.
		They are killing those poor Palestinian people.
		And Netanyahu is a war criminal.
		I agree.
		That's Barbara in Pennsylvania, our last caller in this segment of the Washington Journal.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Stick around.
unidentified		In our final 45 minutes today, we'll be live aboard the battleship New Jersey outside of Philadelphia to mark the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The ship is now a museum and memorial.
unidentified		We'll be talking with one of the museum directors about the battleship and the role that the U.S. Navy played in the story of America's founding.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		conversation right after the break.
unidentified		Friday on C-SPAN's Ceasefire, Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore and Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt sit down together with host Dasha Burns.
		Ceasefire, Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
		America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment.
		From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America.
		Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can.
		America 250.
		Over a year of historic moments.
		Only on the C-SPAN Networks.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		Philip Taubman and his brother William have written what the publisher Norton is calling McNamara at War, a new history.
		The introduction to this full-life biography of former Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara says the following: quote, In McNamara at War, Philip and William Taubman examine McNamara's life of personal contradiction, unquote.
		It's a portrait of a man at war with himself, according to the authors.
		It's riven with melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty, and profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam before it was too late.
		That's according to the authors.
		William Taubman, seven years older than his brother at 83, is an emeritus political science professor from Amherst College.
		Brother Phil spent 30 years with the New York Times and is an author of several books.
unidentified		Authors Philip and William Taubman with their book, McNamara at War, a new history, on this episode of BookNotes Plus, with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes Plus is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app.
		Washington Journal continues.
		On October 13th, 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the construction of the first American naval force ever since.
		This day has been considered the U.S. Navy's birthday.
		And joining us now to discuss the Navy's 250th, it's Ryan Szymansky.
		He's on board the USS New Jersey, where he serves as Deputy Executive Director of the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And Mr. Symansky, on this semi-quincentennial, start by explaining what the American colonists were going up against when they decided 250 years ago to take on the British Navy.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		It was a wild decision, honestly.
		The United States goes into the revolution with no naval power at all, not a single armed warship in the colonies that belong to the colonies.
		The Royal Navy, on the other hand, was the largest and most powerful Navy in the world, with just under 1,000 combat ships able to deploy around the world.
		These are all sailing warships, so they don't need fuel.
		They can stay on station for years at a time.
		And the one saving grace for the United States in this war is that the Royal Navy does have global commitments, so they can't concentrate all several hundred of those ships in colonial waters.
		They have to be dispersed around the world.
		And so you can thrive with the sort of hit-and-run attacks that the colonies were able to pull off during that war, both on land and at sea.
unidentified		What were the ships that the Americans were, the colonists, were putting in the water in 1775?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Obviously, a far cry from the battleship that you're sitting on today.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		The colonies didn't have any warships, but they did have some very, very fast merchant vessels that were used to transport perishable goods.
		So things like fruit coming out of the Caribbean.
		Obviously, that's going to spoil very quickly unless you've got a fast sailing ship.
		And the colonies did have, because the North American continent had a lot of lumber, they did have a very thriving shipbuilding industry and some very capable shipbuilders there.
		And so they were building these fast ships.
		And by taking some cannons from wherever you can get them, taking them out of British forts that you might have taken over, taking them from the French who might be willing to sell them to you because they're no friends of the British at this time.
		And you put them on these fast ships and you can then use them essentially to raid British commerce, steal more goods off of British ships.
		They can then sell to fund future U.S. warships.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And what was the contribution by the end of the Revolutionary War of the U.S. Navy?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What were their biggest victories and biggest failures?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, that's a big question.
		The United States, or what would become the United States Navy, the Continental Navy, was able to keep American supply lines open so that Washington's Army and the civilian population was still able to get goods from Europe and other countries that produce finished products that they weren't able to get in the colonies.
		And at the same time, they were able to raid British shipping to the point that the British Army wasn't able to get all of the supplies that they needed to be able to march out of the cities like New York and Charleston where they were occupying and into the countryside where the colonists were.
		And so they weren't able to project the power to actually defeat the American rebels at that time.
		And that allowed the rebellion to continue to a victory.
unidentified		It's the 250th birthday of the United States Navy, and we're taking your phone calls.
unidentified		Special lines here for you to call in.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		A special line for current and former members of the Navy, 202-748-8000.
unidentified		All other current and former military, 202748-8001.
unidentified		And then all other viewers, 202-748-8002.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Symansky is joining us from the Battleship New Jersey outside of Philadelphia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What should we know about the Battleship New Jersey?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Battleship New Jersey was laid down in 1940.
		The United States has not even entered World War II yet, and we're still in the middle of the Great Depression.
		So from the very day that her keel is laid, this ship starts to serve her country by putting Americans back to work.
		She's launched on December 7th, 1942, which is part of a national celebration where the United States launches on that weekend more ships than were lost at the attack on Pearl Harbor one year earlier.
		She gets into the fight in 1943 and will serve through the end of World War II.
		And then she's brought back again to fight in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and the later years of the Cold War under the Reagan administration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		She's an Iowa-class battleship.
unidentified		What does that mean?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		So, because it's so expensive to design and build these ships, they build them in batches.
		The Iowa-class was a class of four completed battleships that were all designed to look identical.
		They built them all from the same plans.
		So, battleship number 61 was USS Iowa.
		62 is New Jersey, where we are today.
		63 was the battleship Missouri, where the Japanese would sign the instrument of surrender.
		And battleship 64 was Wisconsin, which is very famous for her service during the Gulf War.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Battleships named after states.
		Why is that?
		When did that tradition start?
		And are there other traditions when it comes to the naming of U.S. Navy ships?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, yeah, the Navy has always had naming conventions for its ships.
		Nowadays, the Secretary of the Navy gets to present the names.
		He asks a group of folks in the Navy Department called Naval History and Heritage Command, and he says, Hey, I want to name this ship after a person.
		Can you give me a list of famous people?
		Or I want to name it after a very successful former ship.
		Can you give me a name, a list of names of those ships that aren't currently in service?
		And so, Naval History and Heritage Command presents him with a list.
		He picks his favorites.
		And typically, the conventions are true for certain types of ships.
		So, for battleships, the convention has always been to name them after states.
		There was one, battleship number five, USS Kearsarge, which was named after a famous Civil War-era warship.
		But the other ones were all named after states with smaller ships named after smaller communities.
		So, cruisers, which is the next size down, would be named after cities.
		Destroyers, the next size down from that, are named for naval heroes, people essentially.
		Submarines was fun during World War II.
		They were all named after fish.
		Nowadays, those conventions have changed with aircraft carriers often named after political heroes, usually presidents.
		You see, destroyers still named after heroes.
		Cruisers tend to be named after battles.
		And the battleship names, since state names, there aren't any battleships anymore to get the state names, those go towards the submarines, which are the new ship, the new premier anti-warship ship of the Navy.
		They can sink other ships better than anyone else.
unidentified		The New Jersey has another moniker.
		It's America's Most Decorated Battleship.
		Explain.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		So, Battleship New Jersey fought in 19 separate campaigns and battles throughout her various career.
		And that is more battles than any other battleship that was ever built anywhere in the world.
		And in fact, it's more battles than any ship currently afloat today.
		So, even though she's not in active service, even though she doesn't sail anywhere, she is still the most decorated ship afloat.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		For folks trying to understand the evolution of naval tactics and strategy, why don't we have battleships anymore?
unidentified		Why don't we send the New Jersey into a fight?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		That's a fantastic question.
		New Jersey was a massively expensive ship to build and to operate.
		In the 1980s, they calculated that it cost a million dollars a day to operate a single battleship, and that's not adjusted for inflation.
		That was great during World War II.
		We had an all-draft military.
		We could throw as many bodies at the ship as we needed to man her.
		Nowadays, we have an all-volunteer military, so there are fewer members of the armed forces.
		So, you can't put as many people on a single ship.
		Likewise, battleships are designed to carry large guns.
		They can shoot over 20 miles and to have heavy armor to take hits from enemy guns.
		Well, we don't really use guns for surface combat anymore.
		We've got missiles that can shoot hundreds or even thousands of miles.
		And armor doesn't really do as much against missiles.
		So having an armored ship or a gunship doesn't make sense in the modern Navy.
		Plus, you don't want a single large, expensive ship carrying all of your missiles.
		If that ship gets taken out, that's all the ammunition that your fleet had to throw back at the enemy.
		So the modern Navy uses something called distributed lethality, where they distribute its missiles to a bunch of smaller, faster ships that are harder to hit.
		And if, God forbid, one does get damaged, now we've lost a quarter of our missiles instead of all of the missiles.
unidentified		Ryan Szymansky, joining us this morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Where are you specifically on the New Jersey right now?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		This is one of my favorite spaces on the battleship.
		We're in a room called the Combat Engagement Center.
		It was installed in 1982 in the space that had originally been the Admiral's Cabin.
		So this is where Admirals like Halsey and Spruance lived when they served on this battleship in 1982.
		Or excuse me, during World War II.
		In the 1980s, the battleship was old, obsolete, had old radios, things like that.
		So she didn't make a good flagship for admirals to command an entire fleet.
		So they got rid of that entire room and they brought in all of the Star Wars-looking equipment that's in here now.
		So this space now controls all of the modern radars and all of the modern missile systems that were grafted onto this ancient battleship in the 1980s.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And we're taking viewer calls this morning on 250 years of the United States Navy.
unidentified		It's the Navy's birthday today.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Special line for current and former members of the Navy, other military members, and all others as well.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll put those numbers on your screen as we hear from Sean in California, former military.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		Good morning, John.
		How's everyone doing?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Doing well.
unidentified		This is a wonderful day for me.
		This is something that still holds dearly to my heart.
		My father and uncle fought in the Korean War.
		They were on the USSR Klondike.
		And I can remember as a child how honored it was to see our family members come home that were still with us because sometimes we may have lost family members during that time.
		And I just think that I have a long line of military, actually every branch.
		And I would just say thank you, thank you, thank you to our fallen soldiers.
		I thank my father and my uncle, my father, Frank James Docker, and my uncle, Donald Buchanan.
		And I would like to thank you very much for being on here this morning.
		It still holds touch to my heart.
		One of my favorite songs is the National Anthem.
		My question is to you.
		Where in the future are we seeing our Navy going?
		I would like to see more of our Americans go into the Navy.
		The Navy really wasn't a branch that was really talked a lot about back then, but our boys on that water, they took care of business.
		So where is our Navy part of the military branch probably going in the future?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Sean, thanks for the question.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Szymanski, before you answer, I'll show this op-ed from today's Washington Post, Stephen Flynn on the Navy's 250th calling for a celebration with a shipbuilding revival for the United States Navy.
unidentified		Where do you see the Navy going in the future?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		That's a fantastic question, Sean.
		Thanks for coming on and asking.
		Thank you for your family service.
		So, the Navy was the largest, the American Navy was the largest one in the world from about 1943, 1944, up until the early 20 teens when the Chinese Navy surpassed us in size.
		One place where the Navy needs to go in the future is to a larger fighting force so that we can deploy more ships than the Chinese.
		The other thing that the Navy is going to do more of in the future is produce more unmanned craft so that we're not putting as many Americans in risk when we go into combat zone.
		So, I could easily see the Navy growing in size over the next couple of decades and a lot of that growth coming from unmanned vessels and aircraft.
unidentified		One place where we have more ships than the Chinese is in the area of aircraft carriers.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We have 11 aircraft carriers, the Chinese have three.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why do we need eight more aircraft carriers than our next closest naval rival?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, that's also a great question.
		So, we have 11 aircraft carriers, but for every three aircraft carriers that we have, there's only one that can be actively deployed because one will be undergoing training and one will be undergoing maintenance.
		So, 11 aircraft carriers really only means three or four that can be deployed somewhere in the world.
		China exclusively deploys its warships in the Pacific Ocean.
		The United States deploys its warships worldwide.
		And so, while we do have four deployable aircraft carriers at any time, some of them are in the Indian Ocean, some of them are in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic.
		So, the Chinese have more aircraft carriers than we have deployed in the Pacific at any given time.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Szymansky joining us from the USS New Jersey outside of Philadelphia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		He's in the navigation bridge there.
unidentified		We'll show you some more shots from inside the USS New Jersey as we take a call from Alicia out of Ohio.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		I am a Navy vet, and I am so excited to see on the news this morning that it's the 250th birthday of the Navy.
		And so, please tell the Navy, well, tell that Viet that I can't believe she's that old, but also like tell Old Ironsides that I said what's up, he's always loved and never forgotten.
		Ryan Szyansky, Old Ironsides.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's that?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, Old Ironsides is the nickname of USS Constitution.
		She is the oldest commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy and the only commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy that has sunk an enemy warship.
		Constitution was built in 1797 as one of the first six frigates for the United States Navy.
		So, the U.S. had the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War.
		In between the Revolutionary War and the signing of the Constitution and George Washington's presidency, all of the surviving Continental ships are transferred back to civilian use to be used as merchant ships again.
		And so, in the 1790s, early 1800s, when American trade starts to get preyed upon by pirates and during the naval combat that's happening in Europe because of the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolution, the U.S. Navy has no way of protecting its trade.
		And so, President Washington commissions the building of six new frigates.
		Constitution is one of them.
		And because of her service during the War of 1812, where she wins a number of battles against British warships, she has been preserved today, just like Battleship New Jersey, as a museum ship that the public can come out and visit.
		But unlike New Jersey, she is still an active Navy vessel with a Navy crew.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When it comes to the 250th of the Navy, what's happening at the New Jersey today?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Today, the battleship has free admission, so visitors in the Camden, Philadelphia area can come on board and visit us for free.
		We also have active Navy ships tied up alongside of us and all around us.
		So if you want to see both an older historic vessel like Battleship New Jersey or a modern frontline state-of-the-art warship, you can come on board and get free tours of either.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Why is the New Jersey in Camden?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		By an act of Congress, when New Jersey was taken out of naval service and they decided that she was historic enough to be turned into a museum ship, they decided that she was going to be placed somewhere in the territorial waters of her home state, the state of New Jersey.
		And so several cities in and around New Jersey submitted applications to the Navy that they were the perfect home site for this vessel.
		And it ended up being the city of Camden that submitted the winning application to get the ship.
		One of the reasons why Camden's application was so successful is because Camden is right across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
		And the battleship was not only built in Philadelphia in the 1940s, but she also spent some of her career here being fixed up and repaired at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
		So she has a big history with this part of the world.
		And we know that at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, there is a dry dock that's big enough to repair this ship.
		So the Navy looked at Camden as being a good long-term steward of its historical asset because we have the ability to repair her here much more easily than other places in New Jersey.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Back to phone calls in that line for current and former Navy.
unidentified		This is Elvin out of Oakland, California on this 250th birthday of the Navy.
		Go ahead.
		Yes, I used to be on the Midway from 85 to 88 out of Yokofu, Japan.
		And that's a big carrier.
		She was designed like a Montana-class battleship.
		And she's a museum, San Diego.
		Now, please go take a look at her.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Thoughts, Ryan Szymansky, on the Midway carrier?
unidentified		When did that serve?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, Midway is one of my favorite aircraft carriers.
		She is also saved as a museum ship.
		If you go to San Diego, you can take a tour of her, too.
		By size, she's probably the largest museum ship anywhere in the world.
		Midway was commissioned in October 1945, right as World War II was ending, and she served continuously straight up through the Gulf War and wasn't decommissioned until the late 90s or early 2000s.
		And last year, she celebrated her 20th year as a museum.
		So really fantastic ship to go and visit, because not only do you get to walk around a ship like you do here on Battleship, New Jersey, but they also have a number of historic aircraft in the ship's hangar and on the flight deck that you can see.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Everett waiting on that line for former military out of Colorado.
		Everett, good morning.
		You're on with Ryan Somansky.
unidentified		Thanks for taking my call.
		Ryan, thank you very much for doing what you do as far as relaying the history of all the battleships and different type of Navy ships.
		And as a U.S. Army National Guardsman, I luckily wasn't deployed on beaches and everything like an invasion.
		But the bombardment type of reason for the battleships, of course, I am from western Colorado, so I was interested in the battleship Colorado.
		And I've been on Iowa and I've been on the Whiskey, Kentucky.
		And thank you, and I wish the very best to all the servicemen, especially today for the Navy.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Szymansky, what do you want to pick up on from that?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, I love the battleship Colorado as well.
		I'm from Maryland originally, and so my home state battleship, BB-46, USS Maryland, is a Colorado-class battleship.
		Colorado was BB-45.
		USS Colorado was built in 1920, right after World War I, and she was the most modern ship in the fleet when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
		A much smaller battleship than New Jersey.
		Because she was 20 years older, she still had 16-inch guns.
		She had eight 16-inch guns, and the U.S. Navy used her basically like a siege engine throughout World War II.
		They would take her and the other older, they call them slow battleships, because they weren't as fast as the modern fast battleships like the Iowa class.
		So the fast battleships go with the aircraft carriers and hunt Japanese carriers.
		The slow battleships serve as siege engines and would make a ring around the Japanese islands that we're trying to capture and just bombard those beaches.
		Our 16-inch guns and Colorado 16-inch guns can fire projectiles that weigh more than one ton.
		And so when they hit the ground and explode, they make a hole that's about 50 feet wide and 30 feet deep.
		So very similar to a swimming pool.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You talked about two very famous admirals.
		I think you named Admiral Halsey and Spruance as serving on board the USS New Jersey.
		On this 250th birthday of the Navy, if there was a Mount Rushmore for naval admirals, who are the four faces that would be on that Mount Rushmore?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, that is a fantastic question.
		I think you would definitely have to have John Paul Jones.
		He's considered by many to be the father of the American Navy.
		So he would probably be the first head on there.
		From World War II, I love Admiral Halsey.
		I love Admiral Spruance, but you'd probably have to pick Admiral Chester Nimitz as the person that you would represent from that war.
		He led the Pacific Fleet throughout and was Halsey and Spruance's boss.
		Stephen Decatur would be one of my picks.
		During the War of 1812, he was probably the most successful of the American admirals.
		There weren't admirals yet, Commodores of the American Commodores.
		And then George Dewey, who sailed on the cruiser Olympia, which is a museum ship in Philadelphia, he was the admiral that won the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.
		And that was really when the U.S. Navy transitions from being an old colonial wooden Navy to a modern, imperial, worldwide transiting steel, steam-powered Navy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned John Paul Jones.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When and why did he say I have not yet begun to fight?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		John Paul Jones is probably the most famous American captain from the Revolutionary War.
		He served on a number of ships.
		His most famous was Bonham Richard, which was a merchant ship that the French gave to the United States because Ben Franklin asked them for it.
		So he named her in French, Poor Richard, after Ben Franklin's Poor Richards Almanac.
		And he fought a successful frigate engagement with the British warship HMS Serapis.
		Now, Serapis was a purpose-built warship defending an English convoy in the English Channel.
		And John Paul Jones took the fight from the American coast to the coast of England and fights this battle with Serapis.
		And Bonham Richard, his ship, is literally sinking under him.
		It's not a purpose-built warship at all.
		The old guns that the French gave him, some of them are exploding because they aren't modern enough anymore.
		And so the captain of Serapis sees that Bonham Richard's flag has been shot away and he asks, Are you surrendering?
		And John Paul Jones says, No, I have not yet begun to fight.
		And his crew eventually is able to overpower Serapis as Bonham Richard sinks out from under him.
		His crew actually all goes from his ship over to this British ship and takes it over.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		As we show our viewers some of the gun turrets of the USS New Jersey, in your naval history, there, fast forward about four score and seven or eight years, to another famous quote by a member of the Navy: Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What was the story?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, Admiral Farragut, who if we could add a fifth head on Mount Rushmore, would definitely be the guy there.
		He's the first American to earn the rank of admiral.
		And he served during the American Civil War, and he was tasked with capturing Mobile Bay.
		The problem is, Mobile Bay is defended by fixed fortifications and what were then called torpedoes, what we would now call sea mines.
		So they're stationary powder charges in the water.
		You can't see them because they're underwater.
		And when an American ship would sail under them, they would explode, sinking the ship.
		So, conventional wisdom held that sailing ships could not defeat fixed fortifications.
		Sailing ships are dependent on the wind, and because the wind is moving them, their guns are less accurate than the fixed fortifications of land.
		And plus, those mines are going to destroy any ships that sail under them.
		Farragut's ships might have been wooden and they might have carried sails for the most part, but they had steam engines.
		So he was able to sail straight into Mobile Bay, Alabama, past the Confederate fortifications, through the minefield, and get behind the Confederate fortifications, and then they weren't doing any good because their guns were fixed.
		They were only pointing to seaward.
		So, by being really that first person who was bold enough to say, Hey, conventional wisdom says that ships can't beat forts, but I'm going to take my whole fleet through there.
		And he does lose ships to those mines.
		USS Tecumseh, an ironclad monitor, is sunk.
		He still sails straight through that, defeats the Confederate ironclad, defeats the fortifications, and captures the city, which essentially shuts down Confederate river-borne commerce and cuts off the Eastern Confederacy from the West, Texas, and those sorts of states where a lot of the goods needed for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia were coming from.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Just about 15 minutes left with Ryan Szymansky this morning on the 250th birthday of the United States Navy.
		This is Samuel on that line for former military out of South Pasadena, California.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		Good morning.
		Yes, I wanted to talk to you about this because I was on the Jersey in 1983 when we left San Diego for Lebanon.
		And that's when they bombed the Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
		We got there, we unloaded, we were 20 miles off the coast, and we shot those 16-inch guns.
		Put a lot of holes out there, about 30-foot circle, about 20 to 30-foot deep.
		And I went with a crew of eight other sailors, and we were there just to go and get the bodies, rescue the bodies and everything from the Marine, the barracks there.
		But there were also 12 Navy SEALs on that ship, too.
		And they took their zodiacs out there because a little bit outside of Beirut, there was a little place there where a lot of people, innocent people, were there where the Navy SHIALs came in and they secured the area, killing the enemy and bringing out the innocent.
		I remember taking that ship from San Diego to Lebanon.
		We went through the Panama Canal, 972 feet long, USS New Jersey, BB-62 battle bombardment, and 105 feet wide.
		And we were scraping going through that Panama Canal because that Panama Canal wasn't that wide, but that ship barely made it through there.
		I love USS New Jersey.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		How does it feel seeing the New Jersey today in some of these shots on the 250th birthday?
unidentified		Man, I got tears in my eyes because I was so happy to hear the name, the USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, BB-63.
		And it was great.
		That's a great ship.
		I just wish that ship was docked in San Diego so I can see it.
		But I'm in California now.
		I go down to the harbor now, and I see the USS Iowa, and I look at other ships down there and everything.
		But happy birthday, the 250-year anniversary of the United States Navy.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Samuel, thanks for the call from California.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Szymansky, what do you want to add?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Samuel, thank you so much for serving.
		Glad to find another Battleship New Jersey crew member.
		We've got some of your shipmates on board today giving tours of the ships.
		If you remember Commander Mike Holmes, I think he was a lieutenant when he served on board with you in 1983 and 1984.
		The Lebanese Civil War was actually the last time that Battleship New Jersey fired her guns in anger.
		She stays in commission for almost a decade after that, but that was the last war that she actually fired her guns in.
		And it was all to support the Marines ashore.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Out of Texas on that line for former Navy, this is Andrew.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		I was on the battleship New Jersey during the Korean War.
		Me and my younger brother did the Korean War on New Jersey.
		We just had a reunion down in Canada here a couple of months ago.
		And I was the only sailor there that served during the Korean War.
		And there was only one man there that served on it during World War II.
		Andrew, what are you feeling today seeing the New Jersey on this birthday of the Navy?
		Well, I was feeling, I wish I was back to 18 years old so I could go back and do it all over again.
		I'm 98 years old now, a retired Navy chief, master diver, and I enjoyed my cruises on the New Jersey and a lot of other ships.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Andrew, thanks for the memories.
		Thanks for your service.
		Ryan Szymansky, he mentions the Korean War.
		It's the 250th birthday of the Navy, but we are 75 years since the Inshan landings of the Korean War.
		What was the Navy's role there and what was the importance of those landings?
unidentified		Again, if you're holding tickets for the new 10 o'clock tour.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		The Navy had a number of jobs during the Korean War.
		They conducted amphibious operations just like World War II, such as the landings at Incheon.
		They evacuated American troops when they were being overrun by the Chinese, like during the Battle of the Chosein Reservoir.
		And they provided a lot of the supplies coming overland from or coming over the sea from either the United States or Japan, who is our allies, to help keep the troops ashore supplied.
		Probably the most offensive, combat-oriented thing that the Navy does during the war is provide gunfire support.
		Because Korea is a peninsula, there's a lot of shore area where the U.S. Navy can operate alongside of, and a ship like Battleship New Jersey, whose guns can fire over 20 miles inland, can basically hit every major city and rail line on the peninsula.
		So, between the battleships covering the stuff close into shore and the aircraft coming off of the aircraft carriers, they can bombard and interdict stuff happening further inland.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The role of the Navy today, come back to that question, in an era in which B-2 bombers can fly 37 hours and have a mission where they can attack a target halfway around the world and fly back and be refueled along the way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What is the significance, the importance of the Navy today in this era of drones and long-flight aircraft bombers?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Oh, that is a fantastic question.
		Aircraft are very capable strike assets.
		They can fly just about anywhere in the world.
		Ships can only go about two-thirds of the surface of the earth, but aircraft can cover it all.
		But they can't control territory at the end of the day.
		They fly over, they do their thing very, very quickly, and then they leave.
		So, to be able to control territory, whether you're defending your allies, such as the U.S. Navy does during the Houthi drone attacks very recently, or liberating continents like the U.S. Navy does transporting troops ashore during World War II, you need to be able to get troops on the shore.
		And that usually means the Army and the Marine Corps and not strictly the Navy.
		But how are those troops going to get there?
		Planes can carry some paratroopers, but most of our military is not parachute-trained, and it's way too many guys to be able to deploy from aircraft.
		So it takes large troop ships to be able to get those guys overseas where they need to go.
		And those troop ships have got to be protected by combatant vessels, warships like the Battleship New Jersey, so that they're not picked off by enemy aircraft.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		As we continue our tour of the New Jersey, we're going to show the captain's quarters on the battleship.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Talk us through some of what a captain's life is like if you're in command of the New Jersey.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		I've gotten the chance to speak to two of the battleship's 19 commanding officers, and they've both said a lot of the same things.
		It's very lonely at the top.
		You have sole responsibility for the ship.
		The buck stops there.
		If something happens to the ship, that's the person who gets all of the blame for it.
		But if something good happens, they're not the person who gets all the credit for it because the credit rightly goes to the full ship's crew.
		So it is a very, very tough job for someone like that to be in command.
		And battleships are very remote places to command from.
		You're out in the middle of the ocean.
		You may or may not be operating with other ships.
		So oftentimes, there is nobody else to, no admirals or anyone else to help you with your command decisions.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Just a few minutes left with Ryan Szymansky aboard the battleship New Jersey for C-SPAN viewers.
		We're going to be heading to a press conference a little after 10 a.m.
		That's what we're expecting with the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
		So that's what you'll see if you stick around here.
		But we hope you keep calling in in that time.
unidentified		And we have Laura out of Spokane, former military.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You're on the air.
unidentified		Good morning.
		It's good to see you.
		I am very glad to be a part of this.
		But the reason why I called is that my great-great-great-grandfather was Captain Jabez West of the Black Prince, and that was one of the first privateer ships commissioned by Benjamin Franklin.
		And there's very little to do with it, except that they had to, they were very successful and they did add on a Black Princess.
		But can you tell me more regarding my grandfather's adventures as a privateer for the country, trying to be country?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Ryan Szymansky, something you can pick up on?
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, absolutely.
		The U.S. Navy during the really the first half of its 250-year existence was a really, really small force.
		The United States wasn't a particularly rich country, and we weren't using the money that the government raised to put into the military in any big way.
		Certainly nothing like the military spending that we have today.
		So the military was supplemented by militias and privateers.
		So the Army, you just call up a bunch of citizen militia to come out and serve alongside the actual active duty Army.
		For the Navy, since there were so few ships, they would call on privateers.
		And so Congress would issue what are called letters of marque and reprisal, which basically, I'm going to use the term pirate here, but I don't mean it in the negative swashbuckling way.
		It basically authorizes civilians to be state-sponsored pirates and go out and raid enemy ships.
		So let's say during the Revolution, we're fighting Great Britain, and so the United States hands out literally hundreds of letters of marque to private merchant captains so they can take their ships and take British ships, take British merchant ships.
		And so Black Prince was one of hundreds and hundreds of these that swarmed the oceans, and some of them ended up being full-sized, almost equivalent to actual military ships, and some of them were very small and fast, like we think of more when we think of pirate ships.
		But honestly, ships like that do just as much or more for the early United States through the War of 1812, the quasi-war with France, the Revolutionary War, than the actual small Navy that we had.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Some more shots of the USS New Jersey for you on this overcast day.
		It's the 250th birthday of the United States Navy.
		This is David, former Navy out of Texas.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Appreciate you taking my call.
		I retired from the Navy in 1983, served on four different aircraft carriers.
		And 68-69, we stood off the New Jersey and watched her shell Vietnam.
		And it was extremely impressive.
		Even though we were a quarter to a half a mile away, the sound would just reverberate through the ship.
		And it just lit up the sky.
		It was quite impressive.
		And that boat was about the same size as the Intrepid.
		And three of the four carriers that I served on still had the old wooden decks.
		So it was quite an interesting time to be in the Navy.
		Man, thank you for recognizing our military today.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		David, thanks for the call.
		Thanks for your memories.
		Ryan Szymansky, the Navy during the Vietnam era.
ryan szimanski ▲ ● ▼		That was a time when Battleship New Jersey was the only battleship anywhere in the world in active duty.
		She only spends a couple of months, less than a year, off the coast of Vietnam before she's taken out of service.
		And they say the reason for that was the Vietnamese would not come to the Paris peace talks unless the U.S. took New Jersey off the gun line because she had been so effective during her deployment over there.
		Much of the bombardment, much of the support of troops ashore was being handled by the aircraft carriers.
		And the aircraft carriers are rightly the dominant naval weapon nowadays.
		However, Vietnam had the most sophisticated anti-aircraft protection of any country in the world at that time.
		And so we were losing aircraft left, right, and center being shot down, which resulted in pilots being lost or captured.
		And so the Navy got the bright idea: hey, this didn't happen to us nearly as much in Korea in World War II.
		Let's bring back a battleship because the battleship shells can't be shot down.
		Anti-aircraft protection doesn't save you from a battleship bombarding you.

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