| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Elise Labbitt, founder of the Cosmopolitic Substack newsletter, about peace efforts in Gaza and President Trump's role. | |
| Then Joel Payne with the nonprofit group Move On covers the government shutdown and the No Kings protests. | ||
| And former Arizona Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth with the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance talks about efforts by the White House to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| This is the Washington Journal for October the 14th. | ||
| The site of Israeli hostages reuniting with loved ones are images that are being seen around the world as the signing of a Gaza ceasefire deal led by President Trump took place yesterday. | ||
| The action produced praise by Republicans and Democrats alike in the United States. | ||
| Some questioning how long this peace will last. | ||
| The president arrived back in Washington earlier today, day 14 of the partial government shutdown. | ||
| Standoff with no apparent end in sight. | ||
| You can comment on either of these events on the phone lines this morning. | ||
| Here's how you can do that. | ||
| 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you are a federal worker and you want to comment on the government shutdown, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can use that same number to text us either about these efforts of peace in Gaza or the shutdown at 202-748-8003. | ||
| And as always, you can post on Facebook and on X. | ||
| The New York Times providing a timeline of the latest when it comes to those hostage exchanges, a key factor of the deal that was signed yesterday by the president and others' leaders. | ||
| They highlight that Hamas freeing those 20 living hostages in Gaza, expecting to turn over the bodies of 28 others. | ||
| Israel saying they released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, expected to release the bodies of 360 Palestinians. | ||
| Of all the elements of the hostage exchange, the only element left to be done is that exchange of deceased hostages and prisoners, saying that Hamas returns the bodies of the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for the remains of Palestinian detainees. | ||
| When it comes to the future in Gaza and aid going into the region, the New York Times highlighting that the deal for called for lifting restrictions on the delivery of desperately needed food, medicine, and other relief. | ||
| It also called for the Rafah crossing in Egypt to open. | ||
| When that timeline takes a look at the New York Times, the broad agreement of Israel and Hamas signing off on that humanitarian conditions deal done. | ||
| Still yet to be done, the start of additional aid entering the Gaza and that reopening of the Rafah crossing as well there. | ||
| That's the latest when it comes to the elements of the deal. | ||
| Again, you can comment on these efforts on peace. | ||
| You can also comment on the government shutdown. | ||
| If you want to give us a phone call that we'll show you on the lines, if you've done so and called us in the last 30 days, if you want to hold off from doing that today, you can do that. | ||
| You can always post on our Facebook page and on X. Again, we'll talk about that for the first half hour this morning. | ||
| Plenty of action and developments taking place when it comes to Israel and the signing of that deal yesterday. | ||
| Part of the president's day while in the Middle East was addressing the Israeli Knesset, talking about elements of the peace deal. | ||
| And here's a portion of that from yesterday. | ||
| There was getting to be a period of time over the last few months. | ||
| You know, the world wanted peace and Israel wanted peace. | ||
| Everybody did. | ||
| Everybody did. | ||
| And what a victory it's been, right? | ||
| What a victory it's been. | ||
| If you would have gone on for three, four more years, keep fighting, fighting, fighting, it was getting bad. | ||
| It was getting heated. | ||
| The timing of this is brilliant. | ||
| And I said, Bibi, you're going to be remembered for this far more than if you kept this thing going, going, going, kill, kill, kill. | ||
| It would not be the same. | ||
| And I just want to congratulate you for having the courage to say, that's it. | ||
| We've won. | ||
| And now let's enjoy our lives and let's rebuild Israel and make it stronger and bigger and better than it's ever been before. | ||
| You're going to do that. | ||
| Took a lot of guts. | ||
| And the choice for Palestinians could not be more clear. | ||
| This is their chance to turn forever from the path of terror and violence. | ||
| It's been extreme. | ||
| To exile the wicked forces of hate that are in their midst. | ||
| And I think that's going to happen. | ||
| I've met some people over the last couple of months that want to see it happen very much. | ||
| And after tremendous pain and death and hardship, now is the time to concentrate on building their people up instead of trying to tear Israel down. | ||
| We don't want that to happen again. | ||
| And the total focus of Gazans must be on restoring the fundamentals of stability, safety, dignity, and economic development so they can finally have the better life that their children really do deserve after all these decades of horror. | ||
| That's the president from the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem yesterday. | ||
| One of the responses to the president's effort overall came from former President Joe Biden on X posting this, saying, I am deeply grateful and relieved that this day has come for the last living 20 hostages who have been through unimaginable hell and are finally reunited with their families and loved ones and for the civilians in Gaza who have experienced immeasurable loss and will finally get the chance to rebuild their lives. | ||
| The road to this deal was not easy. | ||
| My administration worked relentlessly to bring hostages home to get relief to Palestinian civilians and to end the war. | ||
| I commend President Trump and his team for their work to get a renewed ceasefire deal over the finish line. | ||
| Now with the backing of the United States and the world, the Middle East is on a path to peace, I hope, endures and a future for Israelis and Palestinians alike with equal measures of peace, dignity, and safety. | ||
| That's Joe Biden there, the former president of the United States, giving his thoughts. | ||
| Also former President Bill Clinton on X as well, giving his perspective on the efforts going on in the Middle East and also the role of the president, saying in part this, saying, I'm grateful that a ceasefire deal has taken hold, that the last 20 living hostages have been freed and that desperately needed has begun to flow into Gaza. | ||
| President Trump and his administration, Qatar and other regional actors, deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached. | ||
| Again, you can comment on that coming on the government shutdown. | ||
| This is Will in Maryland starting us off. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Cease Man. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| It's as if a genocide didn't happen. | ||
| Is it that the end justifies the means? | ||
| Here we are founding Trump. | ||
| And I don't expect nothing, Yahoo, to keep the peace. | ||
| He never has. | ||
| Apartheid is still in place. | ||
| And homes in the West Bank are still being bulldozed. | ||
| This peace agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on. | ||
| And Donald Trump should never be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Anthony in Detroit, Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
| Hello, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| I agree with the last caller. | ||
| I think it's so disturbing how beholden all of our politicians are with Israel. | ||
| You can count them on one hand, the ones who aren't bribed by APAC. | ||
| And then Trump, he shouted out Miriam Adelson. | ||
| I mean, what a sick, sick part of his speech that was. | ||
| I mean, Israel, there's no coming back in the eyes of probably most Americans. | ||
| I don't think they have a favorable viewpoint for most Americans anymore. | ||
| If that's the case, Caller, how do you explain the last 24 hours? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that Americans aren't, it doesn't matter what they did now. | |
| We won't forget what they did for the last two years. | ||
| I mean, everyone's saying they killed 60,000. | ||
| I think that's an undercount by at least half. | ||
| I think you should double that number. | ||
| You'd probably be closer to the number. | ||
| So you don't come back from that even after a peace agreement. | ||
| There's no forgiveness for that. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We'll hear from Timothy. | ||
| Timothy in North Carolina, Independent Line, you're next. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| It ain't no peace owners. | ||
| The only peace is through Jesus Christ. | ||
| And we are cursed people and a cursed nation because our heart has departed from Jesus' world. | ||
| Well, how does that apply to that? | ||
| Hold on, caller. | ||
| How does that apply to the events of yesterday specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
America and our president took the civil rights from us, sir, and shutting down the government because you want to oppress the poor people. | |
| How is that peace in America? | ||
| We got the Klan hating us still to the day. | ||
| How is that peace in America, sir? | ||
| Okay, that's Timothy in North Carolina. | ||
| Again, he talks tangently about the shutdown that is going on to day 14 here in the United States. | ||
| You can comment on that too, as well as the events of the Middle East. | ||
| Do that on the phone lines. | ||
| Again, the numbers 202748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8,000 for Democrats. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002 for Independents. | ||
| If you want to text us your thoughts, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| When it comes to the shutdown, politico reporting this morning, when it comes to the latest efforts in the Senate to pass that House continuing resolution, the short-term funding bill, political reporting this morning, it's on Capitol Hill, that Senate Republicans said they would no longer allow Democrats to keep calling up their own stopgap spending bill, funding the government through the end of October, forcing votes only on the GOP-led alternative. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson is continuing to keep the House out of session this week, and he argues that Democrats will bear the consequences of closed agencies and most federal workers continuing to miss paychecks. | ||
| It quotes Senator Kevin Kramer, the Republican from North Dakota, about that shift in strategy, saying, I kind of think when they're down to a binary choice, they are most likely to vote yes. | ||
| But he acknowledged that the obvious immediate leverage point would have been troop pay, adding, if anything was going to be an inflection point, it was that because it's, quote, compelling reason to open the damn government. | ||
| That's from Politico this morning when it comes to the latest in the shutdown. | ||
| Here is Tina. | ||
| Tina is from Florida, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, how are you? | ||
| I just wanted to chime in. | ||
| I cannot believe that we can get eight countries all settled in, but our Democrats cannot open their minds enough to join the Republicans to get this, our country back up. | ||
| How is America the number one country in the world with the most of everything? | ||
| I don't care whether you like the president or not personally. | ||
| You'll never meet him. | ||
| You do have freedom of speech because of plenty of other presidents that people did not like. | ||
| You are an American citizen. | ||
| You are in the number one country. | ||
| You support whoever is in office. | ||
| I did not like the Biden administration, but I would not carry on like the fool just did, saying that the president of the United States who brought peace to the Gaza Strip doesn't deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. | ||
| Who do you think deserves it? | ||
| Iris. | ||
| Go ahead and finish your thought, Caller. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sorry, I am completely offended over this. | |
| I'm calling from a hospital bed, and that meant so much to me to say this is asinine, people. | ||
| Stop segregating yourself. | ||
| Stop putting yourself in a box. | ||
| Stop claiming that you're one thing or another. | ||
| Join together just like the Russians, the Jews, the Middle East. | ||
| Get your butt out of your, you know, and carry on and do what you're supposed to do as an American citizen and represent our country. | ||
| You stand behind the man who just spent days and days and hours and years doing nothing but to clean up somebody else's mess. | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Iris. | ||
| Iris is in Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Pedro. | |
| I wonder sometimes if I'm alive and watching everything that's going on in this world, it doesn't seem like people can live under those conditions in rubble. | ||
| You think that they would run as fast as they can, crawl, do anything they could to get away from circumstances like that. | ||
| You can't live there. | ||
| They don't eat when they're passed out food. | ||
| Everything is rubble. | ||
| How do you live in conditions like that? | ||
| We're seeing it, but it's hard to believe that people stick around to stay in a place like that. | ||
| We've never seen it pushed in our face like this of looking at absolute ruin of this earth and hearing about people killing one another and people still stick around if you had to crawl, if they had to get into their tunnels themselves to escape what is on the ground. | ||
| This is not human. | ||
| You see the pictures of these connections. | ||
| The people that were held prisoner by the folks in Israel, they get dropped off in one way. | ||
| People are running up to them in buses where they're sitting in seats and they come out live walking out a door and then they release these folks that were taken from one section of the world and they're delivered in international Red Cross ambulances. | ||
| We don't know if they're alive or dead when they're loaded on and they're introduced back to their families and friends under different circumstances than healthy looking guys jumping off a bus. | ||
| That's Iris there. | ||
| You're seeing some of the reunions taking place, those courtesy of those video feeds from the Gaza and our surrounding area. | ||
| We're showing you that as part of the events that took place yesterday, including the president's visit. | ||
| Again, flying out Sunday, coming back early this morning. | ||
| Diana, next in New York's Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi. | ||
| My name is Diana Jones, and I just want to say that I am truly sorry for all the poor things that are happening in the world. | ||
| The main reason I'm calling is for people on disability. | ||
| I don't hear anything about this. | ||
| The people that are disability are, they go to their doctors. | ||
| They have to make sure that they can keep their program, that they deserve to be there. | ||
| What do these poor people do that only make $1,000 a month and actually live? | ||
| I hear everybody talk about everything on there, but I don't hear anything saying what is happening to these poor people. | ||
| I'm one of them. | ||
| Okay, so, but I'll ask you to either comment on the topics that we've opened up this morning as far as the events there in the Middle East or the current state of the shutdown. | ||
| If you could apply your thoughts to that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, the current state of the shutdown is totally ridiculous. | |
| I do believe it's Democrats. | ||
| I do believe it's Schumer. | ||
| I believe it's a darn sin because it's putting a stop on all these efforts to try to help people. | ||
| And I hope when they do help people, they do put into prospect the people that are on disability living on $1,000 a month and need help, and they're having money taken away from them and from their food stamps. | ||
| Okay, so that's Diana there in New York, the president traveling aboard Air Force One, also talking about domestic issues, specifically the state of the shutdown. | ||
| Here are his comments from yesterday. | ||
| So, President Trump, what's harder? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Peace in the Middle East or ending a government shutdown? | |
| Well, I think the hardest is this. | ||
| This has been going on for 3,000 years. | ||
| The shutdown has only been for 10 days. | ||
| So I think the shutdown, it's gotten to be almost customary, but we're taking care of it. | ||
| We've got the military paid in full. | ||
| And we're doing a lot of things. | ||
| We're ending some programs that we don't want. | ||
| They happen to be Democrat-sponsored programs. | ||
| But we're ending some programs that we never wanted. | ||
| And we're probably not going to allow them to come back. | ||
| I think they made a mistake. | ||
| I think they made a big mistake. | ||
| This is really a Schumer shutdown because he's become sort of irrelevant and he wants to make himself relevant again. | ||
| That was yesterday. | ||
| Politico also adding that when it comes to the shutdown, according to two people granted an anonymity to share details about private discussions, some members of the House GOP leadership circle are having early informal conversations with officials from the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and the Domestic Policy Council to develop a framework for a deal as they await the president's buy. | ||
| And members of the House Republican leadership have discussed imposing minimum out-of-pocket premium payments for ACA enrollees. | ||
| According to one of the people familiar with those internal conversations, ultimately, whatever they come up with has to be something not only Democrats can accept, but also Republicans who are sharply divided over whether to extend the credits at all. | ||
| Some GOP lawmakers say the subsidies are fueling waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| Others see the political peril and letting them lapse, causing premiums to skyrocket and millions to lose health insurance. | ||
| Howard's on our independent line on these Gaza peace efforts, also the 14th day of the government shutdown. | ||
| Howard, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe that what he has done in the Middle East is incredibly successful as the world always looks at the United States as being one of the greatest nations in the world. | |
| As for Donald, doing what he's done over there is fantastic. | ||
| The picture of all the representatives from all the countries show that he has them on board. | ||
| And he is probably one of the most famous businessmen I have ever known. | ||
| The man is a businessman because he runs the government as a businessman. | ||
| And all the businessmen are looking up to him from other countries and building his name so that he will be popular forever. | ||
| What he has done here in the United States, that's another story because I believe most of us are stupid. | ||
| 80% of the American public is not intelligent. | ||
| And what he has done as a businessman is to prove that because all of the people who are in government at high positions do not want to lose their jobs, are very happy doing what they have to because they need the money as well. | ||
| And so if you've been elected as an officer in Congress or the Senate, you cannot lose your job because you need to live up to that standard of making $100,000 to $300,000 a year. | ||
| And if that's the case, he knows everybody who has been in the Senate and the Congress and government, what they have done to make their money outside of their salaries. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And if we have you, gotcha point, Howard. | ||
| Let's go to Inez in Sterling, Virginia, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I wanted to say that the peace deal is pretty amazing. | ||
| I do hope that it lasts. | ||
| Regarding the government shutdown, I do think it's interesting to note that the Republicans have been gutting the government and getting rid of it. | ||
| And now people want to open it up. | ||
| I mean, for what? | ||
| It's been gutted. | ||
| You know, I don't think the Republicans are into opening up any type of government because they've just spent months decimating it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| The Washington Post actually this morning and their paper talks about some of those initial layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those being reversed. | ||
| This is by Lena Sun and others writing that officials have reversed more than half of the 1,300 layoff notices that were sent to members of the CDC, sparing personnel who were leading the response to measles outbreaks in the United States and an Ebola outbreak abroad. | ||
| But details emerged about the other health officials who lost their jobs, including analysts responsible for monitoring and protecting the United States from biological, chemical, and nuclear threats, according to current and former officials. | ||
| Dozens of fired staff members at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a federal health agency, included individuals with top secret clearance who work with intelligence agencies on biodefense issues such as pandemics and weaponized pathogens, said a former Department of Health and human services official who had been in contact with those who were dismissed. | ||
| You can find more reporting there at the Washington Post. | ||
| We'll go to Paul next. | ||
| Paul's in Maryland, Republican line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning. | |
| And I appreciate the playing of the president's audio yesterday concerning the shutdown and getting rid of programs that quote-unquote Republicans don't like. | ||
| According to news reports, one of the biggest offices hit this past weekend was that office within the Department of Education that deals with special education and disabilities. | ||
| And as a Republican, the Republican history of supporting disability policies, whether it's the ADA being funded by George W. Bush, reforms to IDA, I'm sorry, the ADA, George H.W. Bush, and IDEA reform, voter rights and accessibility for people with disabilities. | ||
| When did Republicans decide that they don't support disability right? | ||
| And the second point I wanted to make is that the speaker, I agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene on this. | ||
| And the speaker has been saying, well, we did our job. | ||
| We passed the CR. | ||
| The CR is nothing but a statement that Congress didn't do its job on time. | ||
| And we have, You know, we have conference committees on three appropriation bills right now that could reopen the hearts of the government with funding levels that are not Biden era levels because the Republicans can control the Republicans control the Appropriations Committee. | ||
| Why would they not want to put those committee reports on the floor that would open up part of the government? | ||
| Okay, Paul there in Maryland giving us a call about the shutdown. | ||
| We showed you a video earlier there from the leaders that were gathered together to sign elements of the peace deal. | ||
| That's the video we showed you earlier. | ||
| The photograph of the same event, this time with those sitting down, including the Egyptian president, front page of the Washington Times, features that as their main photograph talking about the events of yesterday. | ||
| And if you were to pull out and show the headline of the paper from the Washington Times, there's the picture from the Washington Times of that event that took place yesterday. | ||
| Here's the headline from it. | ||
| It's dawn of a new Middle East is how they characterized the events of yesterday to show you some other headlines. | ||
| This is the Wall Street Journal this morning. | ||
| Trump Hales, quote, new Middle East. | ||
| And then the New York Times. | ||
| Hostages and prisoners freed with Gaza's path unclear. | ||
| There's a photograph similar to events we've been showing you when it comes to those reunions that are taking place after the events of yesterday. | ||
| Let's hear from Sarah as we look at some of that video that we're getting in from other sources. | ||
| This is Sarah in Texas Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| I heard a couple of callers mention, discuss people with disabilities and the impact the shutdown has on them. | ||
| And another consequence is that Medicare is no longer covering telehealth visits for people on Medicare. | ||
| And that impacts people with disabilities and compromised people, people who live far away. | ||
| People who had telehealth visits are now being changed over to in-person visits if they can go. | ||
| They really need to get the government open and get the funding to continue telehealth visits and subsidies. | ||
| Okay, that's Sarah there in Houston, Texas. | ||
| Let's hear from Eve. | ||
| Eve is in Michigan. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Eve. | |
| Good morning, Pedro. | ||
| This is the first time I've called in 10 months, I do believe, because I usually try to get a call in every 30 days, but no way calling on what is happening in this country at this time. | ||
| It is an abomination as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| And while everybody is praising Donald Trump for going over and broken peace deal, what kind of peace deal is it after you have went and ruined and took people land and just tore up the land? | ||
| Nah, who, however, you want to say, he should be brought up on charges of criminal and genocide because what they did to the Guard of the Strip is completely annihilated like that. | ||
| That is completely crazy. | ||
| The Jews that's over there now are not supposed to be in that particular position. | ||
| Just like everybody said before, the United States and Europe decided to put those people there. | ||
| The people that's supposed to be there are the Palestinians. | ||
| And I don't understand all of this hoopla about the fact that they're out free. | ||
| Yeah, there are some free people there, but there are thousands and thousands of people that are killed. | ||
| kids, women, pregnant women. | ||
| I cannot, I just cannot. | ||
| It is just, it is amazing. | ||
| I can't, you know what? | ||
| Really, I cannot even turn the TV on sometime and I won't even watch because what they did to those people was beyond measures, beyond measures. | ||
| And it just makes me sick. | ||
| And Donald Trump will never ever get the peace, a peace, get the Nobel Peace Surprise for what? | ||
| Okay, one more call. | ||
| This will be Tia in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| My name is Pauling, and I want to say that I'm not Republican or Democrat. | ||
| I'm an American. | ||
| And I think that's what we've lost sight of. | ||
| And where the Bookman shutdown is not a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. | ||
| It's an American problem. | ||
| And it is because of the representatives that we've put in Congress why there is a shutdown. | ||
| The Republicans want the Democrats to concede and the Democrats want the Republicans to concede. | ||
| How about we do what is best for all of America? | ||
| Well, if that's the case and you want the best, then what should be done between the two sides? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is not the best for America when only one side gets what they want. | |
| It is the best when we come to the table and we make an agreement that serves all the people of America. | ||
| What should that agreement look like? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think we need to look at what is on the table, what needs to be done. | |
| Call, you had a little bit of interference there. | ||
| Go ahead and finish your thought. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Americans need and a government shutdown where we fire everyone and people are not getting their benefits and they're not getting paid and they're working without an income is not what's best for America. | |
| I don't need to be in Congress to tell them what to do. | ||
| If you don't know what to do, then you probably need to give up your position. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Tia and Maryland finishing off this half hour. | ||
| We'll have more time during the course of the show today to get your thoughts either on the events of the government shutdown or what's happening in the Middle East. | ||
| We'll continue on on those two fronts. | ||
| Joining us later, Joel Payne of the organization Move On. | ||
| He will talk about the progressive viewpoint of the shutdown. | ||
| Also, there's participation in the No Kings rally that's set for Saturday. | ||
| But up next, Cosmopolitics Elise Labitt on the peace deal in Gaza and what happens next. | ||
| Those conversations coming up on Washington Journal. | ||
| So you interviewed the other night. | ||
| I watched it about two o'clock in the morning. | ||
| There was a little thing called C-SPAN, which I don't know how many people were watching. | ||
| Don't worry, you were in prime time too, but they happen to have a little rerun. | ||
| Do you really think that we don't remember what just happened last week? | ||
| Thank goodness for C-SPAN, and we all should review the tape. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everyone wonders when they're watching C-SPAN what the conversations are on the floor. | |
| I'm about to read to you something that was published by C-SPAN. | ||
| There's a lot of things that Congress fights about, that they disagree on. | ||
| We can all watch that on C-SPAN. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Millions of people across the country tuned into C-SPAN. | |
| That was a make-for-C-SPAN moment. | ||
| If you watch on C-SPAN, you're going to see me physically across the aisle every day, just trying to build relationships and try to understand their perspective and find common ground. | ||
| And welcome for to everybody watching at home. | ||
| We know C-SPAN covers this a lot as well. | ||
| We appreciate that. | ||
| And one can only hope that he's able to watch C-SPAN on a black and white television set in his prison cell. | ||
| This is being carried live by C-SPAN. | ||
| It's being watched not only in this country, but it's being watched around the world right now. | ||
| Mike said before I happened to listen to him, he was on C-SPAN one. | ||
| That's a big upgrade, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment. | |
| From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America. | ||
| Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can. | ||
| America 250. | ||
| Over a year of historic moments. | ||
| only on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| This is Elise Labbitt joining us of the Cosmopolitics Substack, which looks at foreign policy. | ||
| She serves as the founder and global affairs journalist, also an adjunct professor at American University, the School of International Service. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good to be with you. | |
| Last 24 hours in Gaza. | ||
| How do we get here? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| Well, I think, you know, it started two years ago. | ||
| We just came up on the two-year anniversary, and there have been fits and starts trying to achieve a ceasefire. | ||
| I think President Biden tried a few times, wasn't really able to, you know, keep it, keep it holding. | ||
| I think what President Trump did was really two things. | ||
| Take advantage of his relationships in the region, whether it's Gulf states, whether his really good relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also this new kind of security battlefield you have that over the last couple of years, | ||
| Israel has really decimated, I won't say defeated, all of Iran's proxies in the region, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and even that strike with Iran, with the United States on Iran's nuclear program. | ||
| I think all of that gave way for President Trump to really push the Israelis to take a ceasefire in ways that haven't been possible before. | ||
| And Hamas was facing a lot of political disaffection on the ground there. | ||
| They're running out of weapons. | ||
| And those hostages, those poor hostages, were becoming more of a liability, I think, than really a leverage point. | ||
| You had written in the lead up to what we saw yesterday that the president had to be flattered into engagement. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
President Trump, only you can do this. | |
| You're the only one that can make it happen. | ||
| And it turns out that, you know, it is true that I think President Trump's, let's call it unique, untraditional way of diplomacy, of leveraging those relationships, was really able to push it through. | ||
| But, you know, President Trump does fancy himself as a deal maker, as a statesman and a diplomat. | ||
| And I think coaxing him, and he had this meeting at the United Nations with dozens of leaders in the region, and he called it the most important meeting he ever had. | ||
| So I think, you know, not just flattery, but really telling him that he's the only one that can do it. | ||
| And we know he really loves to hear that and fancies himself that way. | ||
| Is there a sense of the unconventional way that the president goes about a lot of things that apply to what we see now as far as the end result of the Gaza peace deal? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think one of the things about President Trump is he does not, you know, for better or worse, people like it, people hate it, but he doesn't follow, you know, the traditional, in this case, diplomatic playbook. | |
| So he can press Israel and also say, I'm pro-Israel. | ||
| He can walk away from the table. | ||
| He doesn't mind using the leverages of American prestige and power. | ||
| I think one of the criticisms of President Biden not being able to get this deal done was that he wasn't really willing to push Netanyahu with ways that was really ready to use American power. | ||
| And I think President Trump not only said to Netanyahu, I'm willing to make you look good, but I'm also willing to make you look bad. | ||
| And I think he understood that if Netanyahu had his back against the corner, that he was going to do this. | ||
| And that's exactly what he did. | ||
| Callers, if you want to ask questions about the events in Gaza the last 24 hours, 202-748-8000, one for Republicans, Democrats, 202-748-8,000. | ||
| Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| And you can talk with Elise Labbitt of the Cosmopolitics Substack. | ||
| What is that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Cosmopolitics is a newsletter on foreign policy. | |
| I like to say it's the insider's guide to your world and the people that run it. | ||
| I was a correspondent at CNN with your CEO, Sam Feis, covering the State Department for about 20 years. | ||
| So I covered seven secretaries of state, several administrations from President Clinton to Bush to Obama and now Trump and Biden. | ||
| And so I feel like I really try to bring not just the global affairs, but how it affects domestic politics and all the people involved. | ||
| So you've probably seen this idea of peace happen a lot over the years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was at Camp David in 2000. | |
| And I think that's really the closest in my, you know, that they've ever gotten. | ||
| And I think largely the peace plan that President Clinton put forward, he put it forward right before he left at Taba. | ||
| That's really the peace plan that is still on the table. | ||
| That's really the only, you know, the parameters of the land might change. | ||
| But I think that whether there is going to be this vaulted two-state solution is very unclear. | ||
| President Trump's plan makes a vague mention of it, a pathway to a Palestinian state, but a lot has to happen, and we'll talk about that. | ||
| But, you know, most experts, most diplomats and former diplomats say a two-state solution where Palestinians are living in a separate state than Israel is really the only way to bring peace and security to the region. | ||
| The president alluded to that on the way back from Egypt yesterday. | ||
| Show you a little bit of what he had to say and get your response to it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You said that everybody is unified over your plan, but we heard from President Sisi calling for a two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state. | |
| I'm talking about something very much different. | ||
| We're talking about rebuilding Gaza. | ||
| I'm not talking about single state or double state or two state. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're talking about the rebuilding of Gaza. | |
| Well, it's the right ahead for governing Gaza because a lot of people like the one-state solution. | ||
| Some people like the two-state solutions. | ||
| We'll have to see. | ||
| I haven't commented on that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How do you see bridging that capital? | |
| Because you have the Arab countries being very clear. | ||
| That's what I think is right, but I'd be in coordination with other states and other countries. | ||
| So he alluded to it and other things when it comes to the plan itself, where do you take away from that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I take away that President Trump is the first president in modern history, well, since this conflict has been going on, to not talk about a two, to not really say that the U.S. is for a two-state solution. | |
| And the U.S. is the only state that doesn't really think that. | ||
| There might be one or two small states that don't. | ||
| But if you look at what happened at the United Nations last month, Pedro, you know, close to 200 states have endorsed, if not recognized, the Palestinian state, which I think is really symbolic and doesn't really mean much, but the idea of a Palestinian state. | ||
| And that's, you know, a lot has to happen before that. | ||
| And when he talks about rebuilding Gaza, that's really the main thing. | ||
| But when we talk about rebuilding Gaza, It's not just about the reconstruction and the reconstruction. | ||
| You see those pictures. | ||
| It's monumental. | ||
| It's the project of decades, but it's about governance, too. | ||
| Because Palestinians don't have good governance, whether it's in Gaza. | ||
| We saw that Hamas already started to reassert control over Gaza and start killing its rivals. | ||
| But in the West Bank, too, the Palestinian Authority is not seen as a real legitimate government. | ||
| There needs to be elections. | ||
| The international community is really going to have to help the Palestinians build governance. | ||
| And that's a major part of the plan, too. | ||
| So all that, I think, really needs to happen before they talk about a Palestinian state. | ||
| We have some calls lined up for you. | ||
| We'll hear from Mark. | ||
| Mark joins us on our Line for Democrats from Maryland with Elise Labbitt of Cosmopolitics. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Mark. | |
| I guess hi, can you hear me? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So my question is, you know, it seems like there's a lot of just hoopla and just kind of like the scene of Israel kind of coming away the winner and maybe both sides needing to come away as the winner. | ||
| But it also seems like this could have ended a lot sooner had the U.S. just not send as much armaments. | ||
| You know, like why wasn't more steps taken to end the war sooner just by not sending armaments to Israel? | ||
| Well, that's the question that a lot of people ask, Mark. | ||
| But the thing is, the arms that U.S. sends Israel aren't necessarily for the Palestinians, and that's a major problem. | ||
| There are export controls that really govern the use of these weapons. | ||
| It's also for Iran. | ||
| And for many years, Israel has been in this neighborhood where you have all these Iranian proxies that are hitting Israel. | ||
| There could have been more of a conditional aid. | ||
| And I think President Biden tried it for a minute and said, I'm not going to send some major bombs and then ended up sending them. | ||
| Some lawmakers on the Democratic side did try to pass a resolution that conditioned U.S. aid to Israel. | ||
| They never did that. | ||
| If you notice, President Trump did not do that. | ||
| I think he used a lot more political muscle in this sense, but also helping Israel militarily against Iran to make it feel stronger in the region. | ||
| And I think Hamas has been defeated to the point where even the Israeli military said, you know, we're not really getting our bang from the buck by continuing this war. | ||
| So that is a question that a lot of people have asked. | ||
| A lot of things in President Trump's plan were on the table under President Biden. | ||
| The truth of the matter is that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not want to make a deal with President Biden. | ||
| He did not respect him. | ||
| I mean, he respected him as a U.S. leader, but he thought he would get a better deal with President Trump, I think. | ||
| From Guy. | ||
| Guy is in Oklahoma, line for independence. | ||
| Hello, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Guy. | |
| Hey, good morning, Pedro. | ||
| You look very sharp as usual. | ||
| Elise, thank you for coming on the show today. | ||
| I have a couple of things I want to throw out there, and it's going to sound crazy. | ||
| The first thing I want to say is Trump fulfilled a prophecy in 2017 when he moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. | ||
| And he also did something the news never talked about. | ||
| It was called the Trump-Jerusalem Declaration, where he officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. | ||
| And biblical prophecy says that for Christ to come back, Jerusalem has to be the capital. | ||
| And, you know, going back to the New Testament, Jerusalem is mentioned 699 times in the New Testament more than any other word. | ||
| It's the focal point of the Bible. | ||
| Anyway, so he fulfilled the prophecy by making Jerusalem the capital in 2017. | ||
| Now, the current prophecy that we've been watching recently goes back to Zepaniah, a prophet, not Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, but Zepaniah 3,000 years ago. | ||
| And in the Old Testament, there's drawings, there's illustrations and pictures. | ||
| And Zepaniah drew a map of the current modern-day Middle East. | ||
| And remember, back when he drew it, it was Persia ruled under King Cyrus. | ||
| There was no Jordan, Egypt, Israel, nothing. | ||
| And he drew a map back then with all the current day countries. | ||
| And it even had the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza. | ||
| And his prophecy was that the Philistines, the current modern-day Palestines, would flee Gaza and Judah would take over. | ||
| Okay, so I don't know about the actual Bible part, but I will say, Guy, that I was in Jerusalem in 2017 or 18 when they moved, forgive me for not remembering the year, but when President Trump moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capital, this is something that no, every president in history promised to do it. | ||
| President Trump is the one who did it. | ||
| And then, you know, when I was there, there were all these signs, Zion for Trump, right? | ||
| And when you talk about Zionists, that's a very, that's a whole nother show. | ||
| But Zionists for Trump is really evangelicals for Trump. | ||
| And that's why I think a lot, there's a long history of evangelical support for Israel because of the Jews know, because of, you know, they're waiting for the rapture and for, you know, this whole idea that Christ would be reborn in Jerusalem. | ||
| And so it's not crazy. | ||
| I don't know if it's actually related. | ||
| However, that's the real connection. | ||
| And Trump did recognize Jerusalem as the capital. | ||
| He gave the Golan Heights to Israel. | ||
| And his mind declared that that was Israeli. | ||
| And so I think that's one of the reasons that President Trump has so much legitimacy in Israel and especially with Prime Minister Netanyahu to be able to get this deal done. | ||
| How's that? | ||
| Some of the elements of the plan, the first one requiring Gaza to be initially governed by a temporary committee of technocrats. | ||
| It also calls for Hamas and allied factions to give up role in governing Gaza, a temporary international stabilization force organized by the United States. | ||
| There's a lot there. | ||
| What's going to be the hardest one to hurdle? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think all of the pageantry of the last couple of days and what was going on yesterday really belied the fact that a lot still needs to be worked out. | |
| And President, it's in President Trump's plan, as you said. | ||
| He made kind of mention of those bullet points, but none of that has been worked out. | ||
| There's no detail on that yet. | ||
| And there's this committee of peace. | ||
| Who knows who's going to be on it? | ||
| President Trump is chairing it. | ||
| But, you know, that governance, who's going to run Gaza? | ||
| How is Hamas ready to disarm? | ||
| Who's going to disarm them? | ||
| What countries are sending troops? | ||
| All of this needs to be worked out. | ||
| And then again, this whole idea of who is going to run Gaza is key because otherwise a lot of it falls apart. | ||
| You really need that. | ||
| You know, the Israelis, for better or worse, are the stronger power. | ||
| They don't have to really do anything except move back their troops, allow Aiden. | ||
| The Palestinians have a much larger project ahead of them, and that's really going to take the international community to help them. | ||
| And I will say, one of the concerns, I think, and especially hearing President Trump declare that the war is over, the war is not over. | ||
| This was phase one. | ||
| The Israelis see it as a hostage exchange. | ||
| Those were Palestinian prisoners. | ||
| I won't say all of them committed crimes against Israel, but a lot of them were in jail committed for at least, you know, 250 of them were serving life sentences. | ||
| So these are, this was an exchange of prisoners for hostages. | ||
| And as far as Israel is concerned, that's the price they had to pay to get their hostages back. | ||
| You haven't seen anyone in Israel say the war is over, we're done fighting, we're not going after Hamas anymore. | ||
| So so much of that, and that stabilization force to disarm Hamas and secure Gaza is going to be really important. | ||
| What's the likelihood that the president stays as engaged in these after effects than the lead-up of what we saw? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that's not his strong suit. | |
| And he's already kind of declared the war is over, and he said that it's going to hold. | ||
| And I'm going back and I'm going to meet with President Zelensky this week. | ||
| So, you know, he wants to keep going on other things. | ||
| That's the real problem. | ||
| And I'll go back to the first question that you asked me about the flattery. | ||
| That's what the international community is going to have to do with President Trump: really continue to coax him into only you can do this, only you can do this. | ||
| If he's not willing to put pressure on the Israelis to live up to their side of the deal and to push the international community to commit resources, troops, mentoring, training, it could all fall apart. | ||
| It's very shaky. | ||
| Elise Labbitt joining us for this conversation. | ||
| Let's hear from John. | ||
| John joins us from New York and Syracuse. | ||
| This is Long Our Line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, John. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| So I don't understand why Trump is over there. | ||
| He ran as the America first president. | ||
| We have an economy that's not doing well. | ||
| We have a government shutdown. | ||
| We have floods and no flood insurance program. | ||
| Christopher Hitchens, who you had on C-SPAN many different times, talked about a lot of these issues and the role that Israel and religion influences the United States. | ||
| I don't understand this. | ||
| For 100,000 years, human beings have roamed the earth. | ||
| Jesus has been around for 2,000 years. | ||
| Israel goes back 5,000 years, perhaps. | ||
| And for 97,000 years, there was no concern of religion. | ||
| Now, all of a sudden, after 97,000 years, this country gets formed and everybody revolves around Israel. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Our economy is bad. | ||
| We have a government shutdown. | ||
| Why is an America first president over there when all this other stuff is happening here? | ||
| Makes no sense. | ||
| This Israel obsession is bad for America. | ||
| John in New York. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, that's a question a lot of people ask: what is this tie that Israel and the U.S. have? | |
| Some people say it's, you know, the donors, APAC. | ||
| Some people say it's the Jewish vote. | ||
| Some people say it's this evangelical tie, similar values and interests. | ||
| I don't really know what that tie is, but I will say a lot of people have said, why is President Trump doing this? | ||
| I think he sees, and there have been other presidents, President Biden said, I'm a Zionist. | ||
| I think President Trump is very, as we've said, transactional. | ||
| If you remember his first trip to the region, he sees the Gulf states and the U.S. position in the region with the Arabs as integral to the U.S. investment, to creating money, jobs, those type of things. | ||
| And I think that he also fancies himself as a deal maker and peacemaker and wants the Nobel Peace Prize. | ||
| That's the side. | ||
| But when you try to tie it to what's going on here at home, I think he sees solving this and his peace plan for the region, which is Israel's normalization. | ||
| I think he feels like the U.S. is going to really capitalize on that. | ||
| And I will say, there's a huge reconstruction plan that's going to be going on in Gaza. | ||
| I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of U.S. companies, and there was that video, which was kind of a farce about the Riviera of the Middle East. | ||
| But when you talk about rebuilding Gaza, you can rest assured Jared Kushner was over there in the region with his deal making. | ||
| Those countries are investing in Jared Kushner's fund. | ||
| They're also going to be investing in Gaza. | ||
| And I think that's what that's about. | ||
| And that all depends on sustained security there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
100%. | |
| Let's hear Mary. | ||
| Mary is in Texas Democrats line. | ||
| Hi, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| They didn't ever get all of the hostages back. | ||
| They only got 20. | ||
| How many more they got left over there that they hadn't got? | ||
| How is the war over and all the hostages are not back? | ||
| Trump is not doing anything but trying to use a mind game. | ||
| And those people are much smarter than he thinks he is, than he think they are. | ||
| Because if you don't have all the hostages back and Israel haven't put down their weapons, our mas haven't put down their weapons, we're still in that role. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Okay, so there were 20 hostages that are alive that were alive, and all living hostages, Mary, are back. | ||
| It is true there are 20, I think, 28 deceased hostages. | ||
| Hamas has only given back two or four, four bodies, and they've identified two this morning. | ||
| This is a problem. | ||
| They promised that they would give back all those bodies. | ||
| I think that part of the problem is that Hamas doesn't know where they are, that there are other groups, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist and militia groups on the ground that have some of those hostages, and they're trying to find their remains. | ||
| Now, this could be that Israel says, if they don't want to abide by this agreement now that the hostages are home, and that's an open question, they could say, well, this is a, you know, you already hear the foreign minister and the defense minister say this is a violation. | ||
| So it is true that they don't have all the hostages. | ||
| They have all the living hostages. | ||
| How did Cutter factor into all this? | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is really the, Cutter was really the wild card here. | |
| Okay, so this relationship between the U.S. and President, between Cutter and President Trump has really been growing. | ||
| And you remember when he went out there to the region, they gave him this plane, this new Air Force one. | ||
| So that relationship has been building. | ||
| They have a very big air base, which is very important in the region. | ||
| But what really happened was this is where Hamas's political leadership lives. | ||
| They also had this similar role with the Taliban, if you remember, that the Taliban leadership was there. | ||
| And they fancy themselves as these like troublespots mediator. | ||
| So, and this was at the request of both the United States and Israel over the years that Hamas leadership, they would be there as a kind of a mediator to be able to pass messages and such. | ||
| What happened was Israel went after the political leadership, tried to assassinate them in Qatar. | ||
| This was the first time that they didn't go after Iran or a terrorist state or a terrorist organization in one of Iran's proxies. | ||
| They went after Hamas in a U.S. in the nation of a U.S. ally. | ||
| And no one really knows if President Trump knew about it before. | ||
| He says he didn't, but a lot of people are skeptical. | ||
| However, he was furious and used it to his advantage to be able to say to Israel: the Arabs were furious. | ||
| They were all worried that Israel is, you know, it's not Iran that's the big threat anymore in the region. | ||
| Israel is the threat. | ||
| They're coming after us next. | ||
| And that was a real moment, I think. | ||
| President Trump, in a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, had him call the emir of Qatar and apologize. | ||
| And I think that was really one of the cogs in the wheel that was able to get massaged for them to make the deal. | ||
| So Qatar was really important here. | ||
| A sidebar question then. | ||
| We just heard this week that there's going to be land for a Qatari Air Force facility in Idaho, granted by the president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This relationship is going to continue to build. | |
| Qatar is a problematic country. | ||
| They do make a lot of investments around the United States, even here in Washington, as you know. | ||
| However, they do support the Muslim Brotherhood, which is Hamas's kind of parent organization, an Islamic political and terrorist organization. | ||
| And if you remember, a couple of years ago, there was this blockade by the Gulf states because they felt that they were supporting terrorist groups. | ||
| So it's a very controversial country. | ||
| They have gotten back into the relationship with the Arabs with all of this going on. | ||
| But it's a fascinating relationship that continues to build under President Trump. | ||
| I will say, whether it's Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, his son, there are a lot of private businesses going on between the Trump ecosystem and people in Qatar. | ||
| One more call. | ||
| This will be from Sonia. | ||
| Sonia's in D.C., Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, can you hear me? | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Going back to what you said about the international community, my first question is: why over the last two years, why haven't countries like Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, nobody said, you know, hey, Gaza, we'll shelter your kids, your pregnant women. | ||
| It's surprising to me that these big Muslim nations extended no help to the Palestinians. | ||
| And to this day, I'm sure you know the border between Egypt that Egypt built, between them and Gaza, is eight kilometers wide. | ||
| And closed. | ||
| Why don't Muslim nations want Palestinians? | ||
| That's a really complicated question, Sonia, but I'll take a stab at it. | ||
| First of all, everyone says that they care about the Palestinians, and these countries have used the Palestinian cause over decades, whether it's to not to rule their people heavy-handedly or to go against Israel. | ||
| So there's that, that the Palestinians are really the stepchild of the region. | ||
| Countries like Jordan and Lebanon have taken on a lot of refugees. | ||
| However, the Palestinians, by and large, don't want to leave. | ||
| And so even if some do want to leave, there's this perception that by taking them in, you're kind of endorsing their displacement and what was originally called the Nakba, and that they're afraid that they won't be able to come back. | ||
| And so particularly Egypt has been really adamant that we're not taking them because you're never going to take them back. | ||
| And this is your way of emptying Gaza of the Palestinians. | ||
| And so it's been, you know, it's an excuse, it's political, but it's a very complicated and legitimate question because these people have really been suffering. | ||
| But, you know, even now they're going home. | ||
| And you had a caller in the first half hour say, why would anybody want to live there now? | ||
| You know, just like Israel is tied to their land, to the Palestinians, this is their land. | ||
| And even if it's in rubble, it's their land. | ||
| And that's why, you know, they're living in such squalor, but they still consider themselves this land. | ||
| And that's why they continue to fight for that two-state solution. | ||
| How can people find your substack? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's at cosmopolitics.news. | |
| You can find it on Substack or just cosmopolitics.news. | ||
| We do interviews, we do live, we do a weekly roundup on Thursday afternoons with a friend of mine who is actually, you know, I'm more in the center and kind of a journalist, but she's very conservative and we kind of debate the issues. | ||
| So Substack has a lot of wonderful writers and things like that, and I've really been enjoying it. | ||
| Elise Labbitt is the founder of it and the global affairs journalist for Cosmopolitics. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks so much. | |
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Later on in the program, we're going to talk about the Trump administration's efforts to reduce prescription drug prices with J.D. Hayworth, former member of Congress and the spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance. | ||
| But up next, move on, Joel Payne on the shutdown and also this weekend's No Kings rally. | ||
| Those conversations coming up on Washington Journal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
High school students join C-SPAN as we celebrate America's 250th anniversary during our 2026 C-SPAN Student Cam Video Documentary Competition. | |
| This year's theme is exploring the American story through the Declaration of Independence. | ||
| We're asking students to create a five to six minute documentary that answers one of two questions. | ||
| What's the Declaration's influence on a key moment from America's 250-year history? | ||
| Or how have its values touched on a contemporary issue that's impacting you or your community? | ||
| We encourage all students to participate, regardless of prior filmmaking experience. | ||
| Consider interviewing topical experts and explore a variety of viewpoints around your chosen issue. | ||
| Students should also include clips of related C-SPAN footage, which are easy to download on our website, studentcam.org. | ||
| C-SPAN Student Cam Competition awards $100,000 in total cash prizes to students and teachers and $5,000 for the grand prize winner. | ||
| Entries must be received before January 20th, 2026. | ||
| For competition rules, tips, or just how to get started, visit our website at studentcam.org. | ||
| And past president, why are you doing this? | ||
| This is outrageous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a candle root for us. | |
| Fridays, C-SPAN presents a rare moment of unity. | ||
| Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins. | ||
| Politico Playbook chief correspondent and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns is host of Ceasefire, bringing two leaders from opposite sides of the island to a dialogue. | ||
| Ceasefire on the network that doesn't take sides. | ||
| Fridays at 7 and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN, official media partner of America 250. | ||
| This Sunday, watch the premiere of C-SPAN's bold new original series, America's Book Club, with our guest, John Grisham, former politician, lawyer, and best-selling author, whose books including A Time to Kill, The Firm, and The Pelican Brief. | ||
| He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader, David Rubinstein. | ||
| We just sold a film much to the firm to Paramount for more money than made in 10 years of praxin law. | ||
| After you heard that, how long after that did you quit the practice alone? | ||
| 15 minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with John Grisham, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| This is Joel Payne joining us. | ||
| He is the chief communications officer for Move On, here to talk about not only the federal shutdown that's ongoing, but upcoming, the No Kings rally. | ||
| Good morning to you. | ||
| Thanks for having me, Peter. | ||
| For people, probably remember this back from early in the year, but remind people about the purpose of the rally. | ||
| So, No Kings, there was a June rally. | ||
| It actually coincided with the military parade that Donald Trump's administration was putting on in D.C. | ||
| That rally had events, over 2,500 events all over the country, big events in Philly, big events in Chicago, but also big events in some small cities as well. | ||
| Well, estimates that we had upwards of 5 million people that came out to peacefully protest that day. | ||
| We decided that was so impactful and it was such a good opportunity to create community. | ||
| We wanted to do it again with a number of coalition partners. | ||
| One of the things that's exciting about No Kings, and by the way, folks can go to nokings.org to get more information, it's really grassroots-led. | ||
| I mean, our organizations are really just there to provide a platform for a lot of these grassroots organizers to have the opportunity to create this community. | ||
| And I think that we're expecting just as good of a turnout as we did in June and obviously prioritizing peaceful protests and the opportunity for people to speak out and be heard. | ||
| Is there an overall theme to this rally versus the one that you had earlier this year? | ||
| I think the theme to the No Kings Day of Action, just like it was in June, was for people to affirm with one voice in unison in America, we have no kings, not now, not ever. | ||
| And the impetus for it is the Trump administration overreach and abuse of power that millions of Americans are seeing. | ||
| A lot of our organizations that are involved are really feeling this through feedback from our members. | ||
| And those members want to create community in their communities. | ||
| They want to know that other people are seeing the same thing that they're seeing and also still believe in the America that they believe in. | ||
| There was a characterization of the rally made by Speaker Johnson just recently. | ||
| And I want to play a little bit of what he had to say about it, or at least how he characterized it and get your response to it. | ||
| But we've heard, and many of you have reported already, this Hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18th. | ||
| The Antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd and the Marxists, they're all going to gather on the mall. | ||
| We've got some House Democrats selling t-shirts for this event. | ||
| It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes, but the Democrats in the Senate have shown that they're afraid of that crowd, that they don't want to bow, that they want to bow to them, bow the knee to them, and they don't want to take incoming from them. | ||
| And so they're willing to hold the American people hostage so that they don't have to face an angry mob that's a big chunk of their base. | ||
| Now, if that's a rumor, they need to come out and clarify that it's not, but that is what we are hearing is their actual motivation, and it is outrageous. | ||
| All this has got to come to an end. | ||
| Mr. Payne, that's the characterization he offers. | ||
| What do you say? | ||
| That is unconscionable that the speaker would say that, particularly because, and he mentioned that there will be a rally this weekend in Washington, D.C. There will also be rallies all over the country. | ||
| In fact, pretty sure that there are a number of rallies in Arkansas, probably some either near or in his district. | ||
| So he should actually talk to his constituents who are going to be participating likely in these rallies about what they think. | ||
| They certainly don't hate America. | ||
| The height of loving America is working to make it better, is critiquing government, is speaking out peacefully and speaking out with your own voice and not allowing the government in power to tell you what you can and can't say. | ||
| So that's incredibly disingenuous and disappointing from the speaker. | ||
| But the only thing he didn't say there was go to nokings.org, learn more information. | ||
| You know, who knows? | ||
| Maybe some of the speaker's constituents want to show up this weekend. | ||
| What about the characterization he made towards the end is that it's progressives like you pushing Democrats on Capitol Hill to act in the way they're doing because they're scared, or at least they want to bend the knee. | ||
| You know, it's interesting. | ||
| What I think is so frustrating probably to someone like Mike Johnson is that a movement like No Kings, you can't really control command and control from Washington, D.C. | ||
| I mean, No Kings is not taking orders from anybody. | ||
| There are no Democrats and certainly no Republicans that this day of action is corresponding to. | ||
| Certainly there will be elected officials. | ||
| Certainly there will be political leaders who will speak there. | ||
| But this is grassroots led. | ||
| There is no coordination at all with any members of Congress. | ||
| In fact, No Kings was announced weeks before the shutdown was even a consideration as it's in its current form. | ||
| So that characterization is untrue. | ||
| And what's also disappointing is it does seem like Republicans have gotten to this place where anyone who disagrees with them, they feel like they want to say that they are not real, that they want to suggest that there's something about their motivations, that they're being compensated in a certain way. | ||
| What I'd say to any Republican is, be my guest. | ||
| I mean, if you want to think that the real anger and frustration that people are feeling in this country is not real, go take it to your voters and see what they think. | ||
| Joel Payne of Move On with Us 202748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Before we take calls, move on. | ||
| I know people probably know moveon.org as it started, but how would you characterize move on? | ||
| What's it about? | ||
| Well, MoveOn's been around for over 25 years. | ||
| It is a grassroots-led organization with millions of members all across the country. | ||
| We actually have members in every congressional district and in all 50 states. | ||
| And what we really do is provide an opportunity for everyday Americans to speak out and to be heard. | ||
| We have our petition platform, which is primarily a way that a lot of our members offer an opinion, whether it's on a cultural issue or a political issue. | ||
| And by the way, I think that there's this thought that all Move On members are kind of coffeehouse liberals. | ||
| Our members actually kind of span the ideological spectrum. | ||
| They span the geographic spectrum. | ||
| And I think there are folks who are concerned about their country and concerned about their community and want to find a way to get involved. | ||
| Is progressive a fair label, though, overall, or how would you define those within it? | ||
| Oh, certainly we align with progressive values. | ||
| But I do think that one of the things that's interesting to me right now is I actually think that the way that people think about politics right now, the kind of left-right continuum, I think is changing. | ||
| You've had just as many people activated by Donald Trump's abuse of power and overreach who would consider themselves traditionally independents or Republicans as they might consider themselves Democrats. | ||
| So, you know, I think that those old labels don't really work. | ||
| And I will tell you, within our membership, there is great ideological diversity. | ||
| Let's hear from some callers. | ||
| We'll start with Jonathan in Philadelphia, Independent Line. | ||
| You're on with Joel Payne of Move On. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I was actually a holdover from the last segment, but I'll try to update my commentary to be relevant to this topic. | ||
| Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of moveon.org. | ||
| The no king seems to be a very poorly constructed message. | ||
| We don't have a kings problem. | ||
| We have a billionaires problem. | ||
| We have massive wealth and income inequality. | ||
| And when you start talking about kings, it gets very confusing because billionaires are not left. | ||
| They are not right. | ||
| They hold power. | ||
| They're not American. | ||
| They're abroad as well. | ||
| And so that would be a much better thing to march behind is no billionaires. | ||
| The other part that worries me a lot about C-SPAN is this use of many think tanks that come on. | ||
| They're all very privileged. | ||
| They're all very biased. | ||
| They're all very wealthy. | ||
| They come on and say, oh, we're just a grassroots organization. | ||
| And that is always patently false. | ||
| And we don't get to see a disclosure of the information or really a CZ on who the gentleman is here that's speaking. | ||
| But it's a very privileged perspective. | ||
| And I would like to see the left in this country get back to fundamentals. | ||
| Fundamentals would be really going back to sort of the civil rights and just an idea of equal protection under the law, a message of economic justice, a message that is anti-war with specific legislative goals and not something, not a slogan like anti-kings. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| You got your point out. | ||
| We invited the guests to come on this program. | ||
| Mr. Payne. | ||
| Yeah, and I believe that the speaker was John there. | ||
| I really appreciate his question. | ||
| I actually don't think we disagree as much as maybe the early premise of his question would suggest. | ||
| We actually think that the frustration with billionaires with power being centralized and a couple wealthy individuals is very important. | ||
| I think that's very much a part of the types of things that people will be protesting peacefully at No Kings this weekend. | ||
| It's not the existence of wealthy people. | ||
| It is the fact that you have a government that has transferred a trillion dollars in wealth from the working class, from people who are economically distressed to the wealthy and the well-connected. | ||
| And that's not what Donald Trump said he was going to do. | ||
| Donald Trump said he was going to level the playing field and he was going to make things better for working Americans. | ||
| And so far, the grade is not coming back good on Donald Trump's promise there. | ||
| From Ralph. | ||
| Ralph, on our line for Democrats, Georgia. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Good morning, sir. | ||
| Here's my question. | ||
| Hey, I'm over 80 years old. | ||
| I marched as a teenager. | ||
| I marched for the right to vote. | ||
| I marched for the right to get jobs. | ||
| I marched for equal opportunity and everything during my time. | ||
| During that time, there were several people that went to jail because people were agitated. | ||
| Some of them marches and some of them went to jail. | ||
| Not that they did anything wrong, but they were there peacefully demonstrating. | ||
| Now, my thing is, if I join your march and I get out there and I get pulled off to the side or someone agitate me or I look at something long wrong, which was happening then, where do your organizations stand in coming to my defense? | ||
| Am I going to have to pay for my own defense? | ||
| Am I going to get broke because I can't afford it? | ||
| Black people that have jobs right now are very much not going to get out there and speak up because they have to go to work. | ||
| That's the reason I wouldn't work for the government before. | ||
| This didn't just start here under Trump. | ||
| It started before. | ||
| It was overt discrimination, covert. | ||
| Now it's over again. | ||
| Mega was there. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Got your point, Ralph. | ||
| I hope Ralph is maybe still with us for a second. | ||
| One, Ralph, thank you so much for just the years and the decades of service you've put into this country in terms of protesting to make it better. | ||
| And I'm sure you peacefully protested. | ||
| And that's actually where I want to start. | ||
| This opportunity with No Kings is a chance for Americans who are frustrated and who are agitated and feeling alienated to peacefully come out in their communities and to protest. | ||
| And I will tell you, our organizations believe firmly that Americans should not feel under threat. | ||
| They should not have their government turned against them. | ||
| They should not have government weaponized against their rights, their basic fundamental freedoms. | ||
| So Ralph, we're fighting for folks like you, the work that you've done all throughout your life and the work that I hope to see you do maybe at a No Kings rally this weekend. | ||
| But I just want to express tons of gratitude for the fact that you were doing that work back then when it was hard. | ||
| And it sounds like you're interested in still doing it right now when it might still be hard. | ||
| When it comes to the shutdown and the call I referenced it previously, what's the move on stance to what's currently going on in Capitol Hill? | ||
| Yeah, I appreciate the question. | ||
| So move on pretty early on, a couple of weeks ahead of the recent government funding cliff. | ||
| We polled our members, and we have millions of members across the country. | ||
| We asked them if there was an opposition that was going to fight Donald Trump's government, what that government was fighting, the funding, the values, what would be the priority to fight on? | ||
| And they said resoundingly the issue of health care. | ||
| Over 90% of our members, 91% in fact, that responded said they think that health care is the line in the sand that Democrats should hold. | ||
| And it's been encouraging that Democrats, the Democratic leadership, Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries, have done that. | ||
| They've held their caucuses together and they have held the line on health care. | ||
| There is a health care emergency in this country. | ||
| I understand this is against the backdrop of a government funding conversation and fight that might feel a little diffuse for the American people, but that health care emergency is not. | ||
| I mean, you have premiums that are going to double, that are going to spike in significant ways for people all across the country. | ||
| By the way, not in, quote, blue America. | ||
| They're going to do it, those premiums are going to spike in parts of the country that are represented by Republicans. | ||
| They should actually have a vested interest in coming together with Democrats to resolve this. | ||
| And our members feel that way. | ||
| It's good to know that there are Democrats in Congress who are fighting for that. | ||
| And I would just say finally, a message that our members want to send to members of Congress is that if they have our back, if they fight for us, we'll have their back and we'll fight for them. | ||
| And so as far as it continuing on, you're okay with the current stance Democrats are taking when it comes to using the CR to make these arguments. | ||
| I don't think anybody, particularly our members, take any solace in the fact that the government is shut down, that there are services that are impacted, that people's livelihoods are being affected. | ||
| But it does seem like there's a solution in hand. | ||
| I mean, you've heard several notable Republicans, everyone from Leader Thune to even Leader Johnson to other notable Republicans, President Trump even, have all acknowledged that something probably should be done related to these health care premium spikes. | ||
| So it just belies the question: why wouldn't you get everybody in a room and come up with a solution attached to this government funding challenge? | ||
| It feels like that's a pretty easy thing to resolve. | ||
| Seems like there's some stubbornness and some hubris that's impacting the process right now. | ||
| And that's not what the American people sent Republicans to Washington D.C. One of the arguments Republicans use is: let's resolve the CR issue clean and then have these discussions. | ||
| Well, here's the challenge with that. | ||
| Republicans have not proved themselves to be trustworthy partners in terms of negotiation and in holding true to their word. | ||
| I mean, Donald Trump has used the rescissions process, which I know can feel a little inside the beltway for a lot of folks who might be watching at home. | ||
| But essentially, Donald Trump is using a process legislatively to go and to pick things out of the budget that he does not agree with that don't align with his agenda. | ||
| And he is using a lower threshold to remove those things from the budget as opposed to what they were approved from the budget for. | ||
| That means that you can't really trust that Donald Trump, that Mike Johnson, that John Thune are going to stick to their word if they say we are going to fund this priority. | ||
| And we think, and our members think it is reasonable and it is laudable that Democrats are fighting on those issues. | ||
| Joel Payne, the chief communications officer for Move On, joining us for this conversation. | ||
| Let's hear from Greg in Washington State, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Joel. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Thanks for talking to me. | ||
| Good to be with you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, I'm from Washington State, and we're taking quite a bit of hits. | |
| We're taking quite a bit of a hit from the funds being withheld that are already designated for us out here. | ||
| And I got a question: as a leader focused on grassroots action, I'm sure you've seen the data, data showing the massive fiscal imbalance where blue states are the net donors and red states are the net recipients of federal taxes. | ||
| Given the escalating political hostility and threats of national divorce coming from the recipient states, I think we have a bold idea out here. | ||
| We want your movement to consider escrow money. | ||
| Escrow the money. | ||
| The question is: does your organization believe a grassroots movement should push blue states to legally explore withholding their net surplus federal tax dollars into a dedicated alimony fund as a form of fiscal leverage and self-defense? | ||
| Is this a nonviolent, effective way to force the negotiation? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Greg, we'll let our guest answer. | ||
| Yeah, well, I appreciate that question. | ||
| I think what Greg is getting at is that you have a government right now that is specifically targeting states that are run by Democratic governors and mayors and that have Democratic local leadership. | ||
| And many of those states are the biggest contributors to the federal budget. | ||
| I mean, states like California, states like Illinois, others that have local Democratic representation seem to be on the wrong side of Donald Trump's agenda. | ||
| And so Donald Trump is looking to weaponize the levers of government against them, restrict services, restrict resources to them. | ||
| I certainly agree with the assertion that that is wrong. | ||
| And I think it's an interesting question to take to our members. | ||
| We have a petition platform that has been going for over 25 years. | ||
| Would encourage Greg and others who support ideas like that, take to that platform, be empowered, use our petition platform to share ideas like that, build that argument with the millions of members and those that we hope to be members in the future. | ||
| And we'd love to learn more about what folks are doing all around the country. | ||
| This is John in California, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi there. | |
| Hi there. | ||
| It's interesting that there has been more bashing of Trump on C-SPAN since this Mideast peace deal has come about than probably in any recent time. | ||
| A guy that can bring peace to the Middle East the way Don Trump has, can close the border in days the way Don Trump has, can pretty well do anything. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe that the Democrats would come over and help us work out something with the health care system. | |
| It is broken. | ||
| It's tragic. | ||
| And people that need it, and I'm a conservative, but I do believe that the government has a responsibility to help people that can't help themselves, especially where health care is concerned. | ||
| But what happens? | ||
| What happens is the same thing with Obamacare. | ||
| When Obamacare was instituted, a lady that I work with was paying $300 a month for her health care and taking care of a disabled husband. | ||
| When Obamacare came into being, her premiums went to $700 a month. | ||
| Her deductible went to $5,000 a month, or $5,000 a year, I'm sorry. | ||
| And she just as well not had any health care. | ||
| Many, many people have been victimized by Obamacare. | ||
| The people that get the subsidies, yeah, that's fine. | ||
| But they were being taken care of before through Medicaid. | ||
| And I do wonder, you mentioned abuse of Trump's powers, abuse of Trump's powers. | ||
| Trump wants these inner city young people to quit killing each other, mostly black. | ||
| Okay, you put a lot out for a guest, so we'll let him respond to that. | ||
| Yeah, I appreciate that. | ||
| And appreciate the caller's questions. | ||
| I understand that the premise there disagrees with maybe our worldview and our members' worldview, but I think it's great that he's engaged. | ||
| And I would just say a couple of things. | ||
| There's some nodes of agreement that we have there. | ||
| He talked about being able to get people in a room and to resolve something. | ||
| I think the Democrats would love if Donald Trump would take that attitude to sit down, to invite Leader Schumer, invite Leader Jeffries in, to come up with a fix to make sure that health care prices and premiums don't spike. | ||
| I think where the caller and I diverge a bit is who has the responsibility. | ||
| I mean, Donald Trump has sold us a bill of goods and has said he is the most powerful president. | ||
| He is all-powerful. | ||
| He can go and do amazing things around the world. | ||
| He can go and help broker a deal in the Middle East. | ||
| If he can do that, why can't he sit down with leaders of Congress and come up with a common sense agreement that can make sure that the American people don't suffer higher health care costs? | ||
| That seems like a reasonable ask for President Trump. | ||
| So I appreciate the caller. | ||
| Appreciate all of their concerns and would encourage them to stay engaged. | ||
| Your website has a map taking a look at at least pinpointing the locations of the No Kings rallies that are set through across the United States. | ||
| A lot of blue dots there. | ||
| What do you attribute that kind of participation to? | ||
| Well, one, and I appreciate you highlighting the map. | ||
| The thing that always jumps out to me about the map is, yeah, you're going to have big activations in big cities, in Washington, D.C., in the New Yorks, in the Chicago's and the L.A.s. | ||
| What was so moving about what happened with No Kings in June is you had medium-sized small cities, small communities, places whether it was Nampa, Idaho, Little Rock, Arkansas, small communities up the Florida panhandle, all throughout the middle of the country, all being activated, all being peacefully activated. | ||
| And I think that that tells a story that this is not a coastal problem. | ||
| This is not a blue state's problem. | ||
| This is not a blue state's concern. | ||
| This is a concern around the country. | ||
| I mean, the American people are very concerned about the overreach and the abusive power of the Trump administration. | ||
| And they want to assert that in America, we have no kings, not now, not ever. | ||
| And to be able to do that and to do so peacefully, I think it's really inspiring and hope folks take advantage of the opportunity to do that this weekend. | ||
| On our line for Democrats from Pennsylvania, Patty. | ||
| Patty identifies as an organizer for one of the No Kings events this week. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, thank you for taking my call. | |
| Good morning, Mr. Payne. | ||
| Hi, Patty. | ||
| It's really cool. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| It's so cool to call in on a joyful note with so much going on. | ||
| Yeah, so I've organized starting from our first, our April 5th hands-off event. | ||
| I was a regional organizer for Women's March back in 2017. | ||
| And now we have our second No Kings. | ||
| And to your point about where these events are taking place, I live in a tiny town in Ruby Red, rural Pennsylvania. | ||
| Geographically, it's like 11,000 square miles with 40,000 people in it and 3,500 dems. | ||
| But the reason I'm calling, I am so excited. | ||
| I want to tell you how grateful I am as an organizer. | ||
| The trainings that you all have provided. | ||
| Last night we had our Move On hosted an ACT training so that my folks are able to understand that protest is part of this, but building community and strategizing and making things happen. | ||
| But the ACLU and Move On and Indivisible, which I'm a co-founder of our group here, all of these different organizations working together is just so uplifting. | ||
| So at the first event in this teeny tiny town of 3,000, we had 350 people. | ||
| I now have probably another, I'm going to have close to 500, maybe a little more. | ||
| But thank you, thank you, thank you so much. | ||
| The Marshalls trainings, the escalation trainings, the ACT trainings. | ||
| Call them provide. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I want to pick up on the training aspect of it. | ||
| Yeah, well, it's just so great to hear from Patty. | ||
| And I promise I didn't ask Patty to call in, Pedro, I promise. | ||
| But I'm so glad to hear that that's been her experience. | ||
| And those are the types of folks that are hosting events all over the country. | ||
| Folks who are activated, who want to do good, who want to see not only their communities, but our country be better. | ||
| She talked about the trainings, the really rigorous steps that we're taking to make sure that these events are as safe as possible, that people can get together and feel like they can be in community and be safe. | ||
| We took tons of steps in our June No Kings activation to make sure that that was the case. | ||
| And we're doing even more this time around. | ||
| We're expecting more events. | ||
| We're expecting new hosts, folks around the country who maybe this is their first time putting an event like this together. | ||
| So we want to make sure they've got the resources, they've got the training to do this responsibly and do it well. | ||
| You know, love that Patty is doing that in her community. | ||
| And look, she mentioned the relative lack of population density there. | ||
| But I guarantee you, when you start putting together these types of peaceful movements, people come out the woodwork because they want to see community. | ||
| That's what we found, not just with No Kings, but through the whole 25-plus year history of MoveOn, is that people want to be activated. | ||
| They want to have the opportunity to talk to like-minded folks who are seeing and feeling the same things that they're feeling. | ||
| So bravo to Patty. | ||
| Thank you for what you're doing and hope that many others are doing that around the country. | ||
| You can find more information about MoveOn and the No Kings rally on the website for MoveOn at moveon.org. | ||
| Joel Payne, the chief communications officer for the organization. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Later on in the program, we will talk about prescription drugs and the cost of prescription drugs with former Republican Representative J.D. Hayworth, who is now with the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance. | ||
| But first, for the next half hour, your thoughts on either the events of the Middle East involving the Gaza peace efforts and the government shutdown day 14. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Federal Workers 202-748-8003. | ||
| We'll take those calls, and Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
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. | |
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Again, later on today, House Republicans are expected to hold a press conference with the latest on the shutdown. | ||
| That will be right after this program at 10 o'clock. | ||
| And you can see the latest comments from Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans on our main channel, C-SPAN, the app C-SPANNOW and C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Also, Democrats holding their own press conference on federal workers, particularly. | ||
| That will be featuring Maryland Senator Chris Van Holland and other Democrats to talk about the decision to lay off federal workers during the government shutdown. | ||
| You can see those comments also on our main channel, C-SPAN. | ||
| Our app is C-SPANNO, and C-SPAN.org is the website. | ||
| You can comment on the concern or the continuing government shutdown. | ||
| Also, the events yesterday in the Middle East concerning Gaza. | ||
| Let's hear from Gwen. | ||
| Gwen in Michigan. | ||
| Democrats line, your first stop. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Gwen in Michigan, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, do you hear me? | |
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thanks, Pedro. | |
| I hate I missed it, Mr. Payne, but I know this conversation is about the government shutdown right now and about Israel. | ||
| And like the other lady earlier had said, there's no peace in the United States, you know, with Trump causing war on the American people. | ||
| That's not peace here. | ||
| And in regards to the government shutdown, I wanted to ask Mr. Payne about a Zoom protest because it picked up a lot of steam with during Kamala Harris campaign. | ||
| We need to have a Zoom protest. | ||
| So people, like the other man, said he didn't want to get out there and get pulled aside, you know, or anything like that, but they can do it peacefully and they can have groups just like they did before. | ||
| So, you know, entertainers, different people, all everybody joining together. | ||
| So that's what I wanted to say, Pedro. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Wendy's in Michigan. | ||
| Andy joins us from Kentucky, Republicans line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| With the government shutdown and all the things with health care and all that going on. | ||
| You know, Dr. Persons you had on before, these are the most negative people that I, it's just sad. | ||
| They're sad people. | ||
| They want to continue and diwaller in their sorrows. | ||
| Why don't they get positive and get out and do something? | ||
| Everyone in America has the opportunity to make something and be something. | ||
| But these people want to be gods and they want to be pro-slavery. | ||
| That's what communism is. | ||
| And I don't understand why they just can't help each other or be positive. | ||
| Say, go out there and do it. | ||
| You can do it. | ||
| I'm from one of the most poor parts of America and the most rural parts of America. | ||
| And we had positive attitudes where I was from. | ||
| Go out there and do it. | ||
| You can do it. | ||
| Don't sit back and wait on somebody else to give it to you or steal it for you. | ||
| Don't do that. | ||
| Go out there and do it. | ||
| And therefore, you become very, or not very wealthy, but you have a very good life. | ||
| Have a good living. | ||
| You own businesses. | ||
| Go out and do something. | ||
| Don't sit back and be negative all of your freaking wives, people. | ||
| Okay, let's go to Mike. | ||
| Mike is in Illinois, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yeah, hello. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, I'm calling the express my disappointment over the Republicans not willing to negotiate with the Democrats over this health care problem and the shutdown. | ||
| They've negotiated with basically the worst people in the world to settle the problem in Israel. | ||
| And they're negotiating with Russia to settle the war in Ukraine. | ||
| Why can't they negotiate with the Democrats to settle our problems here? | ||
| That's my point. | ||
| Okay, that's Mike there in Illinois. | ||
| When it comes to the shutdown, the Wall Street Journal highlights furloughed federal workers who are turning to so-called side hustles as they wait to find out the future of when they can go back to work. | ||
| The story says that one Washington, D.C. user on Rover.com wrote in her profile that she is furloughed and can take care of your pet while the government is shut down. | ||
| Another furloughed worker answered the phone last week asking the callback later. | ||
| She was in the middle of driving for Lyft. | ||
| An energy department employee who left through the deferred resignation offer has been picking up shifts at the front desk of a gym in exchange for discounted membership fees. | ||
| It profiles Brooke Hardison, a USDA worker on furlough. | ||
| She's worked weekends and other days off as a travel agent since 2022, specializing in planning trips for disabled clients before the shutdown. | ||
| The 47-year-old reinvested her earnings from those bookings into the work, including to the purchase of a new camera to improve her YouTube videos offering travel tips. | ||
| More of how some federal workers are keeping themselves busy with side jobs as the shutdown continues. | ||
| Let's go to Natasha in Pennsylvania. | ||
| This is on our line for Democrats. | ||
| Hello there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| Good morning to everybody. | ||
| I just want to say, first of all, I just think that what's going on in Gaza, what's going on with Israel, what's going on with the United States and all of these countries from the UN that have been trying to find peace in the Middle East, what they call the Middle East since, what, 1800s? | ||
| I mean, there's been so many so-called peace talks, and there's been many, many, many contractual disagreements and breakings. | ||
| I don't see the White House regime as peacemakers in any way, shape, or form. | ||
| Otherwise, I agree with the gentleman who said before that if you can't make peace with your own people, something's wrong with your own constituents. | ||
| And I think that when these representatives of the government, because remember, you know, someone keeps saying, well, you know, there are no kings. | ||
| No, there's no kings. | ||
| There's no, you know, there shouldn't be anybody who wants to be a dictator at all or anything like that. | ||
| However, what we have right now is a situation where this man doesn't want to let up the leadership that people put him in. | ||
| I didn't put him in. | ||
| So, you know, I'm not taking that responsibility, but I am taking the responsibility to speak out against what's going on in America. | ||
| I believe that the question is morals and humanity. | ||
| There's a lack of humanitarianism here in America, and we're seeing that headed towards our people. | ||
| I agree that we should have more control over our borders. | ||
| However, if we can't have control over our own individual selves as human beings to do the right thing, how can you control anything else? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's go to Anthony. | ||
| Anthony in New York, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, how are you doing? | |
| Obviously, like Donald Trump, I was a Democrat at one time, but with the craziness that's been going on in this country, we have to vote the other way. | ||
| Donald Trump is a builder. | ||
| He's a futuristic man. | ||
| He's the sower of seeds. | ||
| He is one of the greatest men that has ever lived. | ||
| He is tough. | ||
| He's using vengeance, his God, as we say in religion. | ||
| We are safe with him. | ||
| All the people that talk about him as Hitler, I don't recall Hitler having eight peace accords in the past eight months. | ||
| I don't think that. | ||
| And I would wish everybody would see him for what he is and be thankful he's there being on Social Security. | ||
| It's getting a little tough right now. | ||
| I'd like to see a check in the mail for myself. | ||
| I don't see that, but we love Donald, and everybody should get on board with the American dream of peace for everyone. | ||
| Democrats line is next in California. | ||
| We'll hear from Frank. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing? | |
| I'm going to go ahead. | ||
| Just for the record, I'm a retired federal worker. | ||
| I served the federal government for 28 years. | ||
| And first of all, congratulations on the peace talks, but what about the peace talks in the United States? | ||
| I know a lot of federal workers who are really suffering right now because of the furlough shutdowns. | ||
| I've been through most of them. | ||
| It's not good on families. | ||
| I know, Mr. President, if you're listening, please get your independents, Democrats, Republicans, instead of having these press conferences and doing things, sit in this room and let's talk and let's get this government open. | ||
| That's what we need to do. | ||
| If you can fly across America to settle peace in the Middle East, which is a good thing, let's do it in the United States. | ||
| I know you can do it. | ||
| Let's get this government and let's get these people back to work. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| If you go to Axios this morning, a story there taking a look at the current state of the Republican Party over a couple of different issues. | ||
| The story starting by saying, as the President Basque and his success in the Middle East, hairline fractures with his Republican base are cropping up in a smattering of domestic issues. | ||
| They highlight Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of the president's most loyal and outspoken supporters on Capitol Hill, Representative Greene, along with Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey, has been vocal in calling on the White House to release the Epstein files. | ||
| And Green has seemed to echo Democrats in chiding GOP congressional leaders over the shutdown. | ||
| Quote, I'm carving my own lane, she said last week, adding that she was absolutely disgusted that health insurance costs for millions of Americans would soar if GOP-led Congress didn't extend tax credits. | ||
| Also highlighting Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, telling the New York Times that he disagreed with the president's decision to send Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as part of the president's crackdown on crime. | ||
| He, like scores of Democrats, called it a violation of states' rights. | ||
| Quote, Oklahomans would lose their mind if Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration. | ||
| By the way, Governor Stitt appearing alongside Maryland Governor Wes Moore on our ceasefire program this weekend. | ||
| You can look at our website for more information about that pending conversation. | ||
| Let's go to Andy. | ||
| Andy, on our line for Republicans in Massachusetts, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, the reason we have this shutdown, people forget, is the Democrats want all kinds of insurance to continue under Obamacare for illegal immigrants, which Biden brought in unconstitutionally on our tax dollar. | |
| He used FEMA money and other money from other sources of government to fund this. | ||
| And we are fighting to stop the flow for us taxpayers, retired or unretired workers who pay for all this nonsense when we're the ones that should be getting the insurance and not the illegals. | ||
| So this is on the Democrats. | ||
| And furthermore, the Democrats right now are in Napa Valley in an expensive hotel. | ||
| And I hope it is not from our tax dollars because it's not fair. | ||
| We should not have to fund the illegal immigrants. | ||
| That's not our responsibility. | ||
| President Biden did this illegally, and we should hold it and not let the Democrats win in this cause because they created this problem. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Andy there in Massachusetts reporter Laura Weiss highlighting some of the things that will go on Capitol Hill today. | ||
| House Republicans planning on holding that conference call tomorrow. | ||
| They're not back in session. | ||
| But today, Tuesday, 11.30 this morning, according to multiple sources, the House is still out, but the leadership of the Republicans has been holding calls to coordinate with members of the shutdown. | ||
| House Democrats are expected to come back today to continue on pushing back against the Republicans and the president over the shutdown. | ||
| It was House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| He appeared on MSNBC Monday talking about that latest strategy to use this effort, particularly when it comes to health care concerns. | ||
| Here's a portion of that from yesterday. | ||
| And House Republicans have actually now canceled votes for the third consecutive week because they'd rather keep the government shut down than deal with the cost of living crisis that exists in the United States of America. | ||
| And they certainly have no interest in dealing with the health care crisis that they have created. | ||
| Donald Trump and Republicans spent all of last year promising to lower costs. | ||
| In fact, they said they would lower costs on day one. | ||
| But we know, Katie, that costs haven't gone down. | ||
| They've gone up. | ||
| Inflation is going up. | ||
| The Trump tariffs is making life more expensive for the American people. | ||
| Electricity bills are skyrocketing through the roof. | ||
| Housing costs are through the roof. | ||
| And we know grocery prices continue to go up, not down. | ||
| And now, because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased health care costs. | ||
| What is this shutdown about then? | ||
| Is it about the rising costs of groceries or living, or is it about health care? | ||
| Well, it's about health care, and we've made that very clear. | ||
| And Marjorie Taylor Greene has acknowledged that this clearly is an issue that needs to be addressed with the fierce urgency of now. | ||
| Understand that what Republicans have done throughout the year, largest cut to Medicaid in American history, hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics are closing all throughout the country because of what they did in their one big ugly bill. | ||
| We're facing the largest cut to Medicare, $536 billion in American history, if Congress doesn't act by the end of this year. | ||
| And on top of all that, people are facing these dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles because of the Republicans' continued refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, even though open enrollment starts in just a few weeks. | ||
| Let's go to Carl. | ||
| He's in Oregon. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Thanks for your program. | ||
| It's very, very enlightening. | ||
| I just kind of had a surveillance of the ICE station over in Portland. | ||
| And I'd like to say that it's been a peaceful one. | ||
| You know, I just have to say one thing. | ||
| Unfortunately, it is negative. | ||
| It's about President Trump. | ||
| You know, he was against the Affordable Care Act when he was in office. | ||
| And, you know, if you didn't have Senator McCain vote for that, we wouldn't have had what we have now. | ||
| And I just want you to remember it's these single acts that have hurt people that I hope people remember. | ||
| If that was President Trump having to make the decision on whether we had the original Affordable Care Act, where would we be now? | ||
| That's all I wanted to say. | ||
| And thanks again. | ||
| Up next is Steve in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| My thing about this peace deal, and what we are ignoring the fact is that Hamas hasn't put their arms down. | ||
| I think this was just a deal to get the hostages back. | ||
| And I think Hamas is not going to put their arms down. | ||
| And Israel is going to go back to fighting this war to clean up Hamas. | ||
| The second point I'm making is our democracy is under attack. | ||
| You know, he goes on a peace trip where people are losing jobs and the government is shut down. | ||
| That's not a great example as a world leader. | ||
| And also, I will say this, just the other day I was reading that the Department of Education fired everybody in the special ed department. | ||
| So that is going to affect the special needs kids in our country. | ||
| So that is my viewpoint on that. | ||
| We'll hear next from Tanya. | ||
| Tanya in Maryland. | ||
| Hello, the Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thank you for taking my call. | |
| I'd like to say that the founding fathers of this country has never implemented big government for this country. | ||
| And the people that have come over here, they come from socialist and communist countries. | ||
| So, you know, Trump is actually doing the right thing by shrinking U.S. government. | ||
| I mean, you know, there's 3 million government workers is ridiculous. | ||
| So I'm totally with him in shrinking the government. | ||
| And frankly, I go with what he's doing. | ||
| And I would just like to implore him to continue the mass deportations because these people have come over here illegally. | ||
| The Biden administration actually has dumped on this country. | ||
| And hey, Trump, hold to the line. | ||
| And there's only five votes that's needed to open the five Democrat votes that's needed to open the government. | ||
| But they can't even get five Democrats to vote and open the government to serve the people. | ||
| So what's, you know, but they're blaming it on the Republicans. | ||
| And that's not, it's not, it's not fair. | ||
| It's not right. | ||
| I just don't. | ||
| Trump, keep doing what you're doing, please. | ||
| Up next is Gary, Gary in North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, everybody. | |
| Yeah, I got to go back and remember, you know, Trump has been an issue. | ||
| He ran the whole campaign, runs all the news cycles and everything. | ||
| And the reason why Biden opened the borders up was to thumb his stick his thumb in Trump's eye. | ||
| That was the whole thing. | ||
| But they didn't really see beyond their nose. | ||
| They knew eventually these people would need to be fed. | ||
| They would need to have health care. | ||
| And they knew they would have to have housing. | ||
| And when I see like Hakeem Jeffries get on there and say, oh, we have a housing shortage. | ||
| I start saying, God, you know, like how short-sighted. | ||
| They didn't, they couldn't ask the Republicans or say, hey, you know, we're bringing these people in. | ||
| Start making a plan. | ||
| We got to take care of them. | ||
| You know, they're not technology. | ||
| We're a technology country. | ||
| They're basically laborers. | ||
| And we're kind of getting out of that phase. | ||
| It's going to be a disaster. | ||
| Can you help us? | ||
| And they didn't. | ||
| And now they're coming to the Republicans, asking them, how can you be so unkind? | ||
| They didn't invite their opinion when they were doing this stuff or include them in it. | ||
| And now they want to make them look bad for not keeping up the scam that was scammed. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Good natured brotherhood or whatever to the whole world and trying to make them look bad. | ||
| They created this. | ||
| Anyway, thank you. | ||
| Philip next in Massachusetts, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, this is Phil. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just wanted you to know that somebody called in your line earlier and said that they were no longer accepting telehealth payments for Medicare. | ||
| And I thought that I Googled it and they said they were. | ||
| And I'm still waiting for my clinic to call me back. | ||
| And I wanted you to know that we're getting a 2.9, a 2.8 COLA increase in Social Security. | ||
| I Googled that too. | ||
| And there's some misinformation, but I'm glad to see the peace deal go through and the leaders of the world get together. | ||
| And I hope that Russia and the Ukraine can get together. | ||
| And I just wanted you to know that I call in every 30 days. | ||
| And I want to say thank you to the American people. | ||
| And I'm with the Democrats. | ||
| And I hope they hold out to get this Medicaid increase because I rely on that in Medicare. | ||
| And I hope they hold their ground. | ||
| And I called Richard Neal's office in Springfield and gave him my opinion in his office. | ||
| And that's about all I got to say. | ||
| Did you get a response from Richard Neal's office? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I did in Springfield. | |
| And I gave him my message that I hope they hold their ground and get the $1.5 trillion in costs because the people need it. | ||
| And another thing, Philip, thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Appreciate the call. | ||
| One of the things that you're going to see today later on in the pro or the day from the White House, President Trump posthumously offering, awarding Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was assassinated at that speaking event in Utah, the Medal of Freedom. | ||
| That will be at a ceremony at the White House later today. | ||
| 4 o'clock is where you can see that on the main channel there, our app and the website, if you're interested in checking that out. | ||
| Cindy in Pennsylvania, up next, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, this is Cindy Miller. | |
| I'm calling, and I agree with President Trump, and he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to the Middle East because I know it's not going to last, but he did get the hostages back. | ||
| And as for the shutdown, it's all on Democrats. | ||
| I've worked hard all my life for my, and I'm a poor person. | ||
| I work hard for my money, and they don't deserve my Medicare and stuff. | ||
| I work for it. | ||
| And as for this Affordable Care Act, it's a bunch of crap. | ||
| You don't get Affordable Care Act. | ||
| It's just lies from the Democrats again. | ||
| And right now, why the Democrats are holding on is to get overseas all this money so they can fill up their coffers again. | ||
| They are nothing but liars and they steal from us. | ||
| They've stolen so much money, especially Nancy Plosey. | ||
| It's just, it's awful. | ||
| And it's time. | ||
| President Trump is doing the right thing. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's hear from Kevin in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, I just want to try to understand how when the government is shut down, Scott Messenger and the Donald Trump administration just gave, bailed out Ardechina with $20 billion. | |
| If the government shut down, where did they get the $20 billion from? | ||
| That's all my question. | ||
| That's Kevin there in Maryland. | ||
| One of the other stories besides the shutdown and besides the events and Gaz focuses on the Defense Department at the Pentagon. | ||
| This is the Washington Post, one of the news outlets rejecting a new policy when it comes to media from the Pentagon, saying media across the ideological spectrum said they will not sign the Defense Department's restrictive new press policy by Tuesday afternoon's deadline. | ||
| The Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN said they wouldn't sign it, as did Newsmax and the Washington Times. | ||
| The policy says reporters cannot obtain or solicit any information the Defense Department does not explicitly authorize. | ||
| Any media representative who does not sign by 5 p.m. Tuesday has 24 hours to turn in their media credentials and clear out the Pentagon's facility. | ||
| This adding a statement from a Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that media outlets have, quote, decided to move the goalpost. | ||
| Parnell said the policy doesn't require reporters to agree, but just acknowledged they understand the policy and he criticized reporters for speaking out against it. | ||
| And it goes on from there. | ||
| You can read more about this policy and the reactions from various news outlets at the Washington Post website. | ||
| One more call. | ||
| This is going to be from Maryland. | ||
| It will be from Rachel, Democrats Line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| What I'd like to say is: as far as this peace tree in the Middle East is concerned, who is the identifiable people who are going to sign this treaty representing the Palestinians? | ||
| And of course, we know who it is going to be representing Israel. | ||
| And I would like to also note that we must always keep our mind on not only these diversions, but on the Edge team file to find out what was going on with those poor kids getting molested. | ||
| So that's the two things I want to mention this morning. | ||
| This last call, we have a little bit later in the program on the chance for you to respond to the events of the last 24 hours. | ||
| But first, a discussion taking a look at the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. | ||
| That discussion with former House Representative J.D. Hayworth, a now spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance. | ||
| And that's coming up when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| Our next guest served his state in the halls of Congress as a representative, also now the spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance, J.D. Hayworth, joining us for this discussion. | ||
| Representative Hayworth, Congressman Hayworth, thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Pedro, great to be back on Washington Journal. | |
| It's been more than a minute, so it's great to be with you. | ||
| Well, in your new capacity, I'm interested in seeing when it comes to the overall state of the price of drugs, prescription drugs in the United States, how would you characterize that? | ||
| And what do you say are the causes? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, this is one issue, Pedro. | |
| We have talked so much about polarization in our society. | ||
| It's amazing. | ||
| Based on the poll numbers we are seeing in a poll we conducted a couple of months ago. | ||
| The American people, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, vegetarian across the ideological spectrum, got it right. | ||
| They say the culprit in the huge price increases, it rests with one entity, big pharma. | ||
| And unless and until big pharma and President Trump is on the right track with this, the world yesterday celebrated his ability to negotiate. | ||
| And again, in a nonpartisan manner, President Trump, with his executive order, and I hope that my colleagues on Capitol, my former colleagues on Capitol Hill will follow suit to rein in the high prices of prescription drugs. | ||
| What, just this year alone, we saw a price increase of almost 700 drugs, far eclipsing the rate of inflation. | ||
| The big pharma companies, according to an analysis, make more than twice the profit margins of the other companies' standard average on the S ⁇ P 500. | ||
| So this is a situation where it's not profit, it's profiteering, and the American people get it. | ||
| They know the blame rests with big pharma. | ||
| You highlighted the president's efforts on that, and we'll talk about this in a bit, but you also talked about Congress. | ||
| What could they do, if anything, as far as prices are concerned? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, again, the president proposes and the Congress disposes. | |
| My old committee of jurisdiction, ways and means, carries a major portion of the health care portfolio, if you will. | ||
| In fact, two decades ago, you may recall, I was part of that committee when we moved Medicare into the 21st century, providing the prescription drug benefit. | ||
| That was vital. | ||
| Initially, our system was based obviously on market forces. | ||
| Some other folks got control who had a little different idea of it. | ||
| But again, the issue of rising prices for all Americans has grown to such a level of concern that this is an American issue. | ||
| It's not a partisan issue. | ||
| Specifically in the Congress, three things that can happen to help motivate changes. | ||
| Number one, reining in direct to consumer advertising, because what we have seen, billions spent by big pharma on television ads. | ||
| It's worth noting only two countries in the world allow those types of ads, New Zealand and the United States. | ||
| Think the world of the Kiwis, but I think both of us, certainly the United States, ought to rethink this. | ||
| As Marty McCary over at FDA said a couple of weeks ago, imagine if big pharma took the excess they have, instead of spending it on marketing and ads, actually plowed it into reducing prices. | ||
| So transparency in the process and doing what is necessary to rein in really a model that is anti-competitive, that is anti-free market, that has big pharma playing the tune and sadly the American people having to dance to it. | ||
| Because Pedro, here's the thing. | ||
| On average, as Americans, we pay three times as much as other prescription drug customers in the developed world. | ||
| That's a fundamental problem. | ||
| That's why President Trump moved forward back in late May with his most favored nation bill or his most favored nation executive order, I should say. | ||
| I hope Congress will follow with a bill. | ||
| And it flips the script because during my days in Congress, Pedro, we would extend most favored nation status. | ||
| Basically, with this, the president is saying, hey, let's make the United States the most favored nation and let's make Americans who foot the bill for so much research, let's make Americans first in line in terms of price cuts. | ||
| Discussion on the cost of prescription drugs with J.D. Hayworth. | ||
| If you want to call in and ask him questions, 202748-8000, one for Republicans, Democrats, 202748, 8000, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Representative Hayworth, the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance. | ||
| What is that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance, a bipartisan coalition. | |
| And I know this first ad. | ||
| People across the political spectrum who say, wait a minute, these prices have grown so high that big pharma needs to be reined in. | ||
| Should also notice the 501c4 entity. | ||
| And how do you do that? | ||
| So you appear on programs like this, I suppose, but as far as congressionally or do you have lobbying in Washington, D.C., what fronts do you take on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I can't speak. | |
| I don't know about some of the things you mentioned, but I know the basic concept, having served in Congress for six terms. | ||
| What was that? | ||
| President Reagan said. | ||
| When members on the Hill feel the heat, they see the light. | ||
| And the fact is now, public opinion has reached a critical mass on this issue. | ||
| It's why President Trump took an important first step forward and two of the big pharma companies finally broke that wall of resistance, claiming that the sky was falling. | ||
| There have been important inroads there. | ||
| But again, first, last, and always, it's public opinion. | ||
| To the polling we did this summer, 86% of the American people say they will back a candidate for Congress or the U.S. Senate that understands that big pharma is up to this and that stand up to big pharma. | ||
| Now, just imagine that, Pedro. | ||
| You know, in terms of political mathematics, we call a landslide 60%. | ||
| You're getting close to 90% of the American people saying, give us people in the House and the Senate who will fight big pharma. | ||
| It's more than food for thought for my former colleagues. | ||
| It's a prescription, pardon the pun, for decisive action. | ||
| Congressman, it was last Friday where the AstraZeneca CEO appeared at the White House to talk about their role that they play. | ||
| And they talked about how working with the president, how that could help state economies, local economies. | ||
| I want to play a little bit of what he had to say and get your response to it. | ||
| But it's also a big win for the economy and for taxpayers because it supports rebalancing the cost of innovation across wealthy nations. | ||
| For too long, America has shouldered a disproportionate portion of the world's R ⁇ D cost for breakthrough medicines development. | ||
| That imbalance is not sustainable. | ||
| It had to change. | ||
| And equalization levels the playing field, with wealthy nations contributing their fair share to the cost and the risk associated with biopharmaceuticals R ⁇ D. | ||
| And I would say it's also a big win for state budgets because these Medicaid price reductions will have an immediate impact on Medicaid budgets and provide substantial relief to state budgets. | ||
| So Congressman, when he says deals like this automatically a win for, is that something that you agree with? | ||
| Are there concerns in that or is it devil in the details, so to speak? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I welcome the comments. | |
| And as Eisenhower used to say, and it's sage advice, I'm not going to engage in personalities. | ||
| But let's understand this. | ||
| The challenge is, and the test in Washington and Brussels and other European capitals and in the administrative seats, suites of the big pharma companies, is this. | ||
| You can't always listen to what is said. | ||
| You got to watch what is being done. | ||
| Now, this first step that President Trump took, and now two of the 17 big pharma entities he's reached out to have come along here. | ||
| We heard the CEO of AstraZeneca. | ||
| It is important to note that domestically, all the talk about expanding different manufacturing facilities in the United States, we welcome that, but that could take five to 10 years. | ||
| The growth of Medicaid, well, yes, it's worth noting the reason I call this a step forward in the case of both companies and what the initial step is with President Trump, is that it does primarily deal with Medicaid recipients, and that's a good chunk of the population, and also those who have a direct to consumer link, if you will. | ||
| But what about the people who get their health care through their private employer? | ||
| What about the people who get their health care in terms of the exchanges, setting up insurance that way? | ||
| A lot more people need to be helped. | ||
| I don't want to discount this first step, but as always is the case, there's so much more to be done. | ||
| And taking a look at yesterday on the world stage with President Trump, the message was that, yes, things get done, but in the case of this, largely as we see internationally in other foreign affairs, because we're dealing with international commerce here in this instance, it's a process that unfolds, that evolves. | ||
| And so we look to the White House to continue that hard-nosed negotiating for which President Trump is famous and for which he deserves a lot of credit. | ||
| But a lot more needs to happen and happening. | ||
| And again, Capitol Hill needs to weigh in in a way that unmistakably helps the American consumer rather than being perceived as under the control of big pharma. | ||
| I guess the real danger, bottom line, Pedro, is Right now, big pharma is flooding Washington and Brussels, side of the EU seat, with lobbyists. | ||
| Are we going to see a PR campaign or are we going to see an honest effort to really bring down drug prices? | ||
| Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth for this conversation. | ||
| Let's take some calls. | ||
| This is Bob, Bob in Utah, Democrats lying. | ||
| You're on with our guests, Bob. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mr. Hayward. | |
| You know, I'm glad you talked about the consumer. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Now, we have these tariffs that are coming in, and you know, as well as I know, that the consumer has to pick up that at the end. | ||
| Because when the prices come up, say from China or any other country, the consumer has to make that up. | ||
| So you know the price of drugs are going to come up. | ||
| And I'd like to have you talk straight on this and give the American people an answer. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Bob in Utah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Bob, I thank you for the call and for your observation. | |
| And as we pointed out earlier, big pharma has had basically complete control of pricing. | ||
| I mentioned that as 2024 gave way to 2025, you saw increases on, what, close to 600 medicines or more like 700 medicines that far outpace the rate of inflation. | ||
| Now, here's the challenge. | ||
| You mentioned the international aspect. | ||
| Can't be a situation where quite simply big pharma goes and badgers the EU and Brussels saying, yeah, yeah, we got to raise your prices a little bit. | ||
| The fact is, big pharma, look, I'm all in favor of profits. | ||
| Heck, President Trump understands the concept of profits, but there's a difference between profits and profiteering. | ||
| And the fact is, big pharma can plow its money back into reducing prices for the American people. | ||
| One way again, direct to consumer advertising. | ||
| Pedro, we found out that last month, Big Pharma spent an additional $20 million just on the monthly ad purchases, which took that total to just under $200 million. | ||
| Is that the best expenditure of money? | ||
| I think the American people resoundingly say no. | ||
| We see it in our polling, and Capitol Hill should take note because President Trump and his administration certainly have. | ||
| Our line for independence from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Gene is next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes, good morning, and God bless you, Mr. Hayward. | ||
| I have some amazing news. | ||
| I don't listen. | ||
| I check. | ||
| I have been a senior advocate. | ||
| We just got our Medicare Advantage program to shop when it opens on October 15th. | ||
| I had an amazing decrease in a lot of the different policies to share with people and also our co-pays. | ||
| Some of them are zero. | ||
| So the people that are afraid that when your Medicare Advantage comes out, you're going to be flooded, wrong. | ||
| Checked with some of the brokers. | ||
| A lot of the insurances are going down. | ||
| And already, AstraZeneca, I think Pfizer, and I forget who the third one was. | ||
| We can shop direct. | ||
| I think they call it Trump RX. | ||
| And my pharmacist even told me the prescriptions before the last administration, my most expensive one, went from $400 to $1,800. | ||
| It will go down to $45 a unit. | ||
| So, and as far as the ACA is concerned, we were helping people find private insurance through social groups like Christian Networks. | ||
| They got zero premiums. | ||
| So I don't know where all this is coming from, but for the seniors, you will be surprised. | ||
| Gene, thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Gene certainly put a lot on the plate and food for thought and items for discussion. | |
| Let me obviously limit my comments to what's going on with prescription drugs. | ||
| Certainly, as now that I am a senior on Medicare, I take her advice in terms of checking as we approach the October deadline for what health care we decide on. | ||
| A couple of things you noticed in there, and it's when I was serving with Speaker Gingrich, the historian and Speaker Gingrich said, you know, people often get confused on Medicaid and Medicare. | ||
| And Newt thought that was somewhat by design of government planners in the 1960s to blur the lines. | ||
| I don't in any way fault what is happening with Medicaid recipients and the first innovation coming there, but there are so many more. | ||
| Now, I would point out that so many people who point to another cost savings, perhaps in their case, generics, we have seen the Trump administration move forward through the Federal Trade Commission to end some of the delay tactics being used by big pharma to actually tie up drugs before they can reach the market generically. | ||
| To me, that's more evidence that despite the PR and the happy talk, again, it's not what people are saying, it's what they're doing. | ||
| And that's a good approach with every issue we deal with in Washington and at home. | ||
| Congressman Hayworth, she mentioned that Trump RX website that offers direct sales to the consumer. | ||
| What do you think about that approach? | ||
| Are there concerns about that type of approach? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, again, it was brought up by Gene. | |
| If you listen to Gene, she was talking about really her pharmacist-patient relationship. | ||
| Did you hear her talk about her pharmacist there? | ||
| I think throughout healthcare, what a lot of us say, watch out for, you don't want to violate the sanctity of the physician-patient interaction, ditto, for so many people with the pharmacist and the patient. | ||
| And so, look, perhaps it's a form and function of all the internet commerce. | ||
| We're going to see changes, but we want to make sure we don't sacrifice the pharmacist-patient relationship. | ||
| You had mentioned the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer of America, Pharma, the association associated with drug manufacturers. | ||
| When they responded to the president's efforts, they said this, saying today's announcement, this was back on September 30th, today's announcement does not do enough to address the real drivers of higher prices in the U.S. | ||
| They mentioned pharmacy benefit managers who get big discounts on medicines while charging patients full price. | ||
| Hospitals abuse the 340B program to mark up drug prices 700% or more. | ||
| And addressing these abusive practices would dramatically lower drug prices for U.S. patients. | ||
| How would you respond to that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
As someone who's been around the block a few times on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, I got to tell you, in a sense, I don't blame big pharma for trying to find other, quote, culprits. | |
| Again, the American people get it. | ||
| In our polling, fully 84% of the American people say the blame for these outrageous high prices lasts squarely on the collective shoulders of big pharma, nobody else. | ||
| Anthony joins us from Illinois. | ||
| Democrats line, you're on with our guests. | ||
| Good morning, Anthony. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, how you doing? | |
| Have you all forgotten that Biden initiated the costs on drugs, the lower costs on drugs? | ||
| All Trump is doing is taking over what Biden had already started. | ||
| And if he got re-elected, the same thing would be going on with Biden trying to lower these drug prices. | ||
| So what is all this praise for Trump when this has already been started? | ||
| In 22, Biden initiated this. | ||
| Now all of a sudden, Trump is the only one that's trying to do something for lower costs for drugs. | ||
| That's ridiculous. | ||
| It's been going on. | ||
| Go ahead and finish your thought, Anthony. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Oh, we got you. | ||
| Anthony, we got you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Well, I certainly appreciate Anthony's perspective, but there is a realm of writing called counterfactual, and it's based on two words. | ||
| What if? | ||
| The late, great Bob Dole, in campaigning back in 1996, said something that was edited that was a little deceptive. | ||
| And I say this with all due respect in retrospect for my buddy Dick Morris. | ||
| He was speaking to the American Conservative Union, and he said, I was there, one of how many fighting the fight against Medicare. | ||
| We had a better idea. | ||
| It was called elder care. | ||
| Now, what do you think didn't make it into the cut for the campaign? | ||
| The fact is, when you try to argue something that is not happening because power has been transferred because elections have consequences, it's a very difficult thing to do. | ||
| I appreciate what Anthony has to say. | ||
| Sadly, it got Bob Dole in trouble. | ||
| I know as I had to eclipse in my congressional district in Arizona, we were something like 13 points underwater because I'd go to doors from door to door and people say, what is Dole talking about with Medicare? | ||
| You can't argue what could have been done in history. | ||
| You use history for perspective, but not for a notion of, gee, somebody else deserves the credit. | ||
| The here and now is those who are elected. | ||
| The good news for Anthony and everyone is the American people see this not as a Democrat or Republican issue. | ||
| They see it as an American issue. | ||
| Representative, since you mentioned history as perspective, I wonder from your time as a former legislator, what you think about the current state of the government being shut down over two issues, the ACA subsidies and Medicaid. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Again, and I want to make it very clear. | |
| Here is a historic opportunity for those who have been reticent to come along and reopen the government under the conditions that have been the case heretofore in several instances. | ||
| If the real concern is about Medicaid, you've seen the president take a step forward in prescription drugs on a nonpartisan basis. | ||
| It is an important first step. | ||
| It is not the be-all-end-all. | ||
| But I must say, and again, I'm not here to ruffle feathers or get into partisan arguments. | ||
| The American people very much want to see the government open, and it should be opened under the conditions that have existed in terms of a clean CR. | ||
| That's my opinion. | ||
| I know others may have different opinions, but I think where we are all of almost unanimous mind is that Americans are paying way too much for prescription drugs. | ||
| three times as much on average as drug patients in the rest of the developed world. | ||
| President Trump is on the right track and Republicans, Democrats, and Independents see it when he says, let's put Americans first and America first instead of having taxpayers subsidize research and pay more than the rest of the world. | ||
| Let's take one more call. | ||
| This will be Nancy in Ohio, Republican Line. | ||
| You're on with our guest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| You mentioned ACA and Medicare contributing to the shutdown. | ||
| And I suppose I would agree, but I think the silent majority of Americans that are completely overlooked and neglected are the individuals with private insurance. | ||
| There is no federal cap on overall drug prices for them. | ||
| And I think that our Congress needs to grow a backbone, both Republicans and Democrats, and begin regulating prices. | ||
| They don't have to be long-term. | ||
| They could be every six months or one year. | ||
| But without a cap on prices, we are doomed. | ||
| And the burden falls on people with private insurance or no insurance versus the darlings of the ACA and Medicare. | ||
| And furthermore, there are countries like Germany and France that do regulate those drug prices. | ||
| And you seem to be avoiding that issue. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I'll listen up there. | ||
| Well, Nancy, I sure appreciate your call from Ohio. | ||
| And you mentioned, for example, Germany. | ||
| And you see, for example, in some cases, an asthma inhaler in the United States that sells for hundreds of dollars in terms of prescription costs, costing the equivalent of $9 in Germany. | ||
| I think a lot of us are reticent to impose the heavy hand of government in terms of price controls, yet at the same time, and this is the argument I made to my other conservative colleagues two decades ago about Medicare prescription drugs. | ||
| We are a product of our times. | ||
| The fact is, when the decision was made to invite government into health care, these decisions become expensive decisions, become decisions fraught with great import for every American. | ||
| Nancy correctly mentioned those who have private insurance, those who have employer-financed insurance, those who may have gotten their insurance on the exchanges. | ||
| We can't forget about them. | ||
| That's why the president's first step with these two giants of big pharma are a very important first step, but so much more remains to be done. | ||
| And hard-nosed negotiating by the president and his team will help, but also, as we did initially with prescription drugs, market-based pricing that helps hold those prices down based on what? | ||
| Competition. | ||
| That's vital to the conditions we find medical care and government policy here in what, the 19 or pardon me, the 2020s, the third decade of the 21st century. | ||
| Time is passing, Pedro. | ||
| Time is over for us, Representative J.D. Hayworth, former Representative of Arizona, the spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance, their website, pharmareformalliance.com. | ||
| And Representative Hayworth, thanks for your time today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pedro, a pleasure. | |
| Let's not make it so long a delay in the future, okay? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We'll finish the program again. | ||
| We've been talking to you throughout it with the events of Gaza when it comes to those peace efforts. | ||
| You can comment on that. | ||
| You can comment on day 14 of the government shutdown. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| And Federal Workers, 202-748-8003. | ||
| We'll take those calls when Washington Journal continues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This Sunday, watch the premiere of C-SPAN's bold new original series, America's Book Club, with our guest, John Grisham, former politician, lawyer, and best-selling author, whose books, including A Time to Kill, The Firm, and The Pelican Brief. | |
| He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | ||
| We just sold a filmmaker to the firm to Paramount for more money than made in 10 years of Praxim Law. | ||
|
unidentified
|
After you heard that, how long after that did you quit the practice alone? | |
| 15 minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch America's Book Club with John Grisham, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
| C-SPANshop.org is C-SPAN's online store. | ||
| Browse through our latest collection of C-SPAN products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. | ||
| There's something for every C-SPAN fan, and every purchase helps support our non-profit operations. | ||
| Shop now or anytime at cspanshop.org. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core, a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nonfiction book lovers, C-SPAN has a number of podcasts for you. | |
| Listen to best-selling non-fiction authors and influential interviewers on the Afterwords podcast and on QA. | ||
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| As always, you can also share your thoughts via text 202748-8003. | ||
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| And you can also post on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| This is NPR as of this morning saying the tenuous ceasefire and the two-year Israel-Hamas war was holding Tuesday, even as complex issues remain ahead a day after widespread jubilation over the return of Israel of the last 20 living hostages. | ||
| The list of more immediate questions includes those when Hamas will return to Israel the bodies of the 24 hostages believed to be dead in Gaza, as well as the health conditions of the released hostages and freed Palestinians. | ||
| Only four of the deceased hostages whose release is also part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal brokered by the president were turned over to Israeli authorities on Monday. | ||
| On Tuesday, the Israeli military identified two of them: Gay Luz from Israel and B. Penjashi, a student from Nepal. | ||
| Let's hear from Wilma on the events in Gaza on the government shutdown. | ||
| In New York, Democrats line. | ||
| Wilma, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Praise the Lord. | ||
| I am very happy to see that the peacefire has happened. | ||
| It took so long. | ||
| Many people lost their life and suffer. | ||
| I'm happy to see that. | ||
| On the other hand, I want to talk about the government shutdown. | ||
| It has been a shame for the government to shut down when President Trump is over there helping other nations. | ||
| I'm not talking about the Gaza Strip because I want him to help. | ||
| I'm talking about the people that he is giving money to, how much million dollars to help this other country that they say don't have money. | ||
| And you have people here who is working so hard and cannot get paid for what the work is doing. | ||
| I am very sad to see that the government here is the Republicans, they have the Republicans in the House, they have the Republicans in the Senate, they have the Republicans in the White House, and they're blaming Democrats. | ||
| I want the Democrats to hold on, hold on, hold on, because what the Republicans are doing, taking away things from poor people to give it to the rich people, it is not fair. | ||
| Okay, Wilma there in New York. | ||
| Let's hear from James in California, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning. | |
| I would like to remind everybody the rebuilding of Gaza is going to be an extension of the Marshall Plan. | ||
| For those of you that do not know the Marshall Plan, it's going to, after Europe and the Second World War, when Europe was rebuilt, it was called the Marshall Plan. | ||
| The second point I'd like to make is that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, was elected to reduce the national debt. | ||
| We're trying to reduce $2 trillion, $2 trillion or a trillion $500 million of the budget for this coming year. | ||
| So that is the second point that the president was elected for. | ||
| The third was removal of all illegals in this country. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Have a good day. | ||
| In Ohio, Democrats line, we'll hear from Beverly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Beverly. | ||
| This is, I have so much to say, I don't know what to say first. | ||
| First of all, Netanyahu should not be pardoned. | ||
| He has committed genocide. | ||
| He has committed, he has killed 67,000 people, doctors, nurses, moms, dads, children. | ||
| He has bombed schools, hospitals, homes. | ||
| He has destroyed Palestine. | ||
| He has decimated it. | ||
| And the United States is aiding and abetting because Trump gave the bombs to Netanyahu to kill 67,000 people plus. | ||
| And I am so happy that the hostages have been released. | ||
| I am ecstatic. | ||
| And the 2,000 Palestinians, but Netanyahu must not be pardoned. | ||
| And the United States, because of Trump giving bombs to Netanyahu, is aiding and abetting. | ||
| We need to help Gaza rebuild. | ||
| I agree with the person that talked about the Marshall Plan. | ||
| And we need the government to open up right now. | ||
| President Trump and the Republicans have to talk to the Democrats. | ||
| And I admire the Democrats for not giving in to the Republicans. | ||
| We need those subsidies paid for ACA, and we also need the prescription prices to come down. | ||
| I pay $2,000 for a prescription. | ||
| I mean, I'm going to be paying $2,000. | ||
| I cannot, I don't get that much Social Security. | ||
| I only get $1,100 a month from Social Security. | ||
| That's all. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Beverly in Ohio. | ||
| Let's hear from Dave in Nevada, Independent Line in Las Vegas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
First of all, what's wrong with the media? | |
| We got a criminal in the White House. | ||
| Why don't these people that are calling in? | ||
| This is President Felon Trump. | ||
| And now I hope you don't cut me off because you always cut off people. | ||
| He's a sexual assault. | ||
| Now they got pictures of him with little kids, girls, raping and molesting little people. | ||
| Okay, hold on, hold on. | ||
| I'm going to question that part, but go ahead with the rest of your comment, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my comment is, why doesn't the media bring that out? | |
| I mean, when Joe Biden was in there, they're always talking about Joe Biden did nothing but good for this country. | ||
| We're in a police state. | ||
| Do you know that? | ||
| Do you know what? | ||
| He's rounding up people because of the color of their skin. | ||
| You saw him the other day, his goon squad, the ACE, the ICE, whatever they are, they shot a preacher in the face with pellets. | ||
| He was just protesting. | ||
| Now we can't even protest. | ||
| Trump is out of his mind. | ||
| Why don't people call him what he is? | ||
| If it's okay to be a felon, why don't you call him president felt? | ||
| Why don't you call him president sexual assault Trump? | ||
| Why do you give him a break? | ||
| I'm bad at the media. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's hear from David. | ||
| David, Republican Line, Indiana. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Wow. | ||
| That was interesting. | ||
| I would say I would like to talk about the successful release of the hostages. | ||
| This is a 20-point plan. | ||
| It's going to take a while. | ||
| The gentleman from Ohio was correct regarding something similar to the Marshall Plan. | ||
| How much we contribute to that, I don't know. | ||
| Regarding the ACA, when it first came out, it was based on everybody having to pay in or they're penalized. | ||
| They had to sign up. | ||
| And that mandatory enrollment was taken away. | ||
| It was supposed to be affordable. | ||
| If it's so affordable, why do you have to have, in my case, when I was on Obamacare, and it worked for me, my subsidy was almost $1,000, and that was four years ago. | ||
| So if it's so affordable, why do we have to subsidize it for $1,000? | ||
| $35 billion we pay on that, excuse me, $350 billion a year. | ||
| So there's got to be touch elsewhere. | ||
| The guy talking from Arizona, wherever he was from, speaking about Trump being with adolescents. | ||
| Do you think that perhaps that picture has been released during the Biden administration? | ||
| And lastly, Biden's congratulations letter or text on X. | ||
| He took full credit for it. | ||
| He thanked Trump for renewing his ceasefire. | ||
| I mean, you can't make stuff up. | ||
| Okay, President Biden did post on X when it came to the plan that was signed from the Trump administration. | ||
| You can see that on that page, another person on X as well talking about the Affordable Care Act, saying this is an unacceptable Republican position. | ||
| Even Democrats are saying that Obamacare destroyed the health industry and they voted for it. | ||
| Republicans must have a plan that responsibly builds the off-ramp of Obamacare. | ||
| What is the Republican plan? | ||
| It was the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, yesterday talking about the Affordable Care Act, asking about that question of replacing or repealing and replacing it. | ||
| Here's his response from yesterday. | ||
|
unidentified
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You've been very critical in recent days of Obamacare, and some of your members have called for repealing it. | |
| Do you support repealing Obamacare? | ||
| And what's your health check now? | ||
| We worked on repealing and replacing Obamacare back in 2017. | ||
| I still have PTSD from the experience. | ||
| You remember that John McCain famously did the thumbs down and effectively by a one vote margin, the whole effort was defeated. | ||
| It's a great frustration of mine and has always been a President Trump's. | ||
| And we know that American health care needs dramatic reform. | ||
| Let's just state it simply. | ||
| Obamacare failed the American people. | ||
| It was promised to be a great success to make health care more affordable. | ||
| It's done exactly the opposite. | ||
| And it has been pointed out by everyone that since Obamacare was created in 2010, premiums, the cost of health care have risen exponentially. | ||
| It's skyrocketed to the point where it's no longer affordable for so many Americans. | ||
| And the access to care has been reduced. | ||
| And the quality of care in some regions of the country has been reduced. | ||
| We have to reverse all of that. | ||
| And we have plans to do it. | ||
| The Republican Party is the party that has the plans to fix it. | ||
| Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? | ||
| Many of us are skeptical about that now because the roots are so deep. | ||
| It was really sinister the way, in my view, the way it was created. | ||
| I believe Obamacare was created to implode upon itself, to collapse upon itself. | ||
| I think the people who drafted that, the architects of it, knew that it would not be sustainable because their objective was ultimately a single-payer system. | ||
| They wanted full government control of health care. | ||
| That's a terrifying prospect for those of us who believe in low-cost, high-quality care. | ||
| And so we have lots of ideas on how to fix it, but it is very, very complicated. | ||
| It involves a big percentage of the U.S. economy. | ||
| Healthcare is entwined with somewhere, I think it's 15% of the U.S. economy is the health care system. | ||
| And you can't just rip it out at the roots and start over it. | ||
| It's a very, very complicated series of measures and steps that you have to take to fix it. | ||
| Carl, viewers, my apologies. | ||
| I jumped the gun. | ||
| That was the speaker yesterday. | ||
| The one tweet I just read, or X I just read, came from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, responding to the speaker's comments yesterday. | ||
| I've already read it, so you can read it there. | ||
| But that's some of the exchanges that took place yesterday. | ||
| When it comes to the state of the shutdown, House Republicans set to hold a press conference in about 15 minutes from now. | ||
| So stay on our main channel, C-SPAN, to see that later on. | ||
| There it is as people are getting ready for it. | ||
| And later on in the morning, around 11 o'clock, Democrats holding their own press conference on the shutdown, all of that, and everything else that we take in during the day here in Washington and around it. | ||
| You can find on our main channels. | ||
| You can find on our app at C-SPAN Now, and you can find on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Let's go to Pauline. | ||
| Pauline in Florida, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, good morning, Pedro. | |
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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My name is Pauline, and I'm calling this morning because we need to get our hat together. | |
| First of all, the President, the Congress, and the Senate need to fix the insurance company. | ||
| The insurance is the main problem. | ||
| I'm talking to you about my personal problem. | ||
| My son is going blind. | ||
| And from February, the I Doctor recommending Tabascom Palmer. | ||
| And right now, he has just got the appointment for next year, March. | ||
| Come on. | ||
| The insurance they couldn't give it to me, simple insurance. | ||
| They had to have the board approve it. | ||
| This is, I care. | ||
| I can't do three months to approve it. | ||
| I know when I called yesterday, they said he won't be able to see the doctor until March 10th, next year. | ||
| Come on, talk to me. | ||
| It's all about the insurance. | ||
| Pauline there in Florida giving her perspective. | ||
| Let's go to Sophia. | ||
| Sophia, North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, hi. | |
| Good morning, Pedro. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| A quick shout out to this lady. | ||
| I'll be praying for her blind son. | ||
| That's awful. | ||
| A couple things about Gaza and the situation. | ||
| A couple of my thoughts. | ||
| One, I want to just, of course, thank God for the hostages being released. | ||
| I want to tell the hostages that sometimes people on TV say they'll never be healed. | ||
| They'll be traumatized all their life. | ||
| But I want to tell them with Jesus that they can be healed. | ||
| Don't say that you'll never be healed. | ||
| God can do something miraculous. | ||
| Second, I felt kind of deflated, so happy for the hostages, Pedro. | ||
| And then just kind of deflated when I saw the pictures of Hamas that still are controlling southern and central Gaza. | ||
| And the IDF, I guess, is in the north. | ||
| I just felt so deflated. | ||
| Maybe there's no other way they could have gotten the hostages back. | ||
| I'm just kind of venting because I feel sad about it. | ||
| And I want to give one last, I want to get a shout out to the protesters against Hamas, who are themselves Gaza and Palestinians, who are fighting for democracy and who are being gunned down by Hamas. | ||
| And I wish people would report on that and pray for those families because there is an opposition, but they don't have weapons. | ||
| They don't have the backing of anyone else in the world. | ||
| I just want to give a shout out to people who have the courage to stand up to Hamas and they're being gunned down. | ||
| And I guess it's going to take prayer for all this. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Sophia there in North Carolina. | ||
| Let's hear from Chuck. | ||
| Chuck joins us from Pennsylvania, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning, sir. | |
| Morning, Your Honor. | ||
|
unidentified
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That young lady was just going took away my thunder. | |
| Last night I was watching the news nation with Como, and he showed where the Israelis had left part of Gaza, and the Hamas came in to that area. | ||
|
unidentified
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They had like 10 Palestinians on their knees, and they were behind them, and they shot them all. | |
| So I just think that when they say Israel didn't care about the Palestinians, I'm just saying Hamas shot them and killed them. | ||
| That's all I had to say. | ||
| Let's go to Dorothy, Dorothy and Maryland, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just want to say to everybody that I'm happy about, well, the ceasefire, and people are saying that Hamas is still killing people, so that's not good. | ||
| But I do want to say this about that. | ||
| Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt played a big role in this happening. | ||
| And it's easy to be read on Google. | ||
| And they're the ones that really are talking to Hamas leaders and getting them to do it. | ||
| It wasn't all Trump. | ||
| It wasn't Trump at all, as far as I know. | ||
| It was Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt. | ||
| But I'm going to talk about health care. | ||
| First of all, healthcare, when the Republicans say they're going to cut $850 for Medicaid, and they tell you that they're taking the able-bodied people out. | ||
| If you look up the word able-bodied, which they said, those are healthy people with no illnesses. | ||
| And people sitting in somebody's basement that's young do not go to the doctor because they're not sick. | ||
| So they're cutting $850 billion for Medicaid. | ||
| They're cutting it from the sick, the elderly, and the disabled. | ||
| That's who they're cutting it from because well-body people don't go to the doctor. | ||
| They're not sick. | ||
| What they're going to the doctor for. | ||
| Also, illegals on Medicaid. | ||
| It is in the law that they cannot get health care insurance. | ||
| And it's in the law. | ||
| Because if the Republicans were serious about illegals getting it, all they would have to do is say, well, we're going to extend it for the Americans, and we're going to make it illegal for the illegals to get it. | ||
| That's all they have to say and put that in the law and extend their health care subsidy. | ||
| But the reason why they're not saying it is because it's already illegal to do it. | ||
| They're just doing this because they really want to get rid of health care. | ||
| They have no plan. | ||
| I bet you they have never mentioned one thing of a solution to health costs because it's not health care. | ||
| It's health costs, it's Kelly. | ||
| That's the amount. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Dorothy there in Baltimore. | ||
| It was Democratic Senator Melissa Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts when it comes to the state of the shutdown, the topics of health care, posting yesterday blaming Republicans squarely for the current state of the shutdown. | ||
| Here's that from yesterday. | ||
| So we're all starting to hear from the people who will be affected by the Republican health care cuts. | ||
| It will make basic health care unaffordable. | ||
| We just moved into our first home, and now I'm concerned we won't be able to afford basic services like food, electricity, and heating. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, Jason, you got it right. | |
| The Republicans would rather shut down government than make sure that your health care costs don't go through the roof. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what this fight is all about. | |
| In North Carolina, Merle on our Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes, good morning. | ||
| Ceaseman, this is really, it's really pitiful, and people are not really seeing into this. | ||
| I'm going to give an example. | ||
| If I gave you, if I provided you everything to commit a genocide and give it to you and provide it and give you intelligence on committing the genocide, and after I kill all the people mentally and physically, and then I call it off, and now I'm all of a sudden, I made peace. | ||
| It's a play, and they're really playing the American people. | ||
| There's no win to this situation as far as what happened. | ||
| But I want to also, I want Ceaseman, if you could possibly do a show on what this has cost the American people. | ||
| I personally know that a lot of those bombs that intercept the missus and all that stuff, and a lot of those 2,000 pounders and stuff that take those buildings off the ground, those misses, those bombs are $4,500, $4,5 million apiece. | ||
| Israel has completely destroyed the whole nation and took every building. | ||
| How much did this cost? | ||
| Nobody's talking about this. | ||
| I would like to see y'all do a show on that. | ||
| Also, I would like to see you do more shows. | ||
| You did probably one on the Epstein file. | ||
| You have a dead one on the guy that in charge of deporting people that took that $50,000 bribe. | ||
| I can't believe it. | ||
| I think Trump has made a call to C-SPAN, and you are our last one. | ||
| And now they got you all. | ||
| Well, that's absolutely not. | ||
| I'm going to pause you there and say that's absolutely not true, but please continue. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because you're good at cutting people off. | |
| Well, I just told you that that's absolutely not true, but go ahead with your statement, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, then. | |
| Okay, now I know you don't like the fact check, but I would like for you to fact-check that as far as the cost of this war. | ||
| And I want you to let the people know that you have had a show on the $50,000 that God took. | ||
| I want you to explain why you have it. | ||
| And because a lot of people, I hear a lot of people, they think you're in Trump's pocket. | ||
| You're right there in the White House. | ||
| And all he got to do is come down there and talk to you. | ||
| We're not connected to the White House that way at all, but I'll leave it there. | ||
| Thank you, Color, for calling. | ||
| And I will show you a little bit from the President yesterday speaking at that leaders' conference in Egypt, just before coming back to Washington about the state of the deal and his thoughts on the future of Gaza. | ||
| Here's the President from yesterday. | ||
| This is the day that people across the region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping, and praying for. | ||
| They have done things over the last month that I think were really unthinkable. | ||
| Nobody thought this could happen. | ||
| With the historic agreement we've just signed, those prayers of millions have finally been answered. | ||
| As you know, the hostages have been returned, and further work goes on having to do with the, sadly to say, bodies. | ||
| Together, we've achieved what everybody said was impossible at long last. | ||
| We have peace in the Middle East. | ||
| And it's a very simple expression, peace in the Middle East. | ||
| And we've heard it for many years, but nobody thought it could ever get there. | ||
| And now we're there. | ||
| I want to congratulate everybody sitting in these first few rows and standing behind me. | ||
| I don't know why they chose to stand, but I promise I'll make it short, okay? | ||
| We are not going to keep you standing for long. | ||
| These are great leaders. | ||
| After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over. | ||
| Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment, and other supplies, much of it paid for by people in this room. | ||
| Civilians are returning to their homes. | ||
| The hostages are reuniting. | ||
| I mean, it's beautiful. | ||
| I'm just watching it backstage. | ||
| The level of love and sorrow. | ||
| I've never seen anything like it. | ||
| It's amazing when you see they haven't seen their mother, their father. | ||
| They haven't seen them in such a long time. | ||
| And they lived in a tunnel, a very little tunnel, very deep. | ||
| And the level of love is just incredible. | ||
| It's a beautiful thing to see. | ||
| In one sense, it's so horrible that it could have taken place, but in another sense, it's so beautiful to see a new and beautiful day is rising. | ||
| And now the rebuilding begins. | ||
| The rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part. | ||
| I think we've done a lot of the hardest part because the rest comes together. | ||
| We all know how to rebuild, and we know how to build better than anybody in the world. | ||
| Again, those comments and others from yesterday still available at our app and our website if you want to check them out for yourself. | ||
| We're just minutes away from the Speaker of the House holding a press conference on the shutdown. | ||
| This is a viewer from Ohio, Democrats Lying. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'd like to make a comment, please, about the shutdown and health insurance. | |
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was listening to the gentleman that was your guest, and one of the callers that called in, I believe his name was Anthony, he was telling the truth. | |
| I have an advantage plan that I have had for 15 years. | ||
| It was a wonderful plan. | ||
| And the first of this year, when I got my evidence of coverage, everything has changed. | ||
| I've lost almost all my benefits. | ||
| And Anthony said that President Biden was the one who started the lower prices on pharmaceuticals. | ||
| My copays have been zero copay for the last three years, except for specialty medicines. | ||
| And I was getting very, very, almost $5,000 injections. | ||
| And those shots only cost me like $108 copay. | ||
| And they have gone to $1,000. | ||
| And I can't get them anymore. | ||
| I THINK THAT PEOPLE OUGHT TO GIVE PRESIDENT BIDEN THE, THE... | ||
| OKAY, LET'S GO TO PATTY. | ||
| Patty in Texas, Republican Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Well, I thank you so much for being there and for remaining neutral. | ||
| You are very on the ball, and I really admire that. | ||
| I thank you all for being there so much. | ||
| Okay, so right now, many people that have called in simply do not know the real facts. | ||
| Even the Bible says that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, knowing the real facts. | ||
| Our government is composed of three branches, and the president is only one of them. | ||
| The Senate is the firewall, and it is a law that you have to have 60% of the people to keep the government open in the Senate. | ||
| Listen up, people. | ||
| Mike Johnson wants to open it up, but he cannot because Chuck Schumer has got five people holding out, so we do not have 60%. | ||
| It takes 60% of the Senate to get open, to talk. | ||
| They can't even talk about anything. | ||
| It's almost like Putin will not come to the table and talk. | ||
| He just holds out. | ||
| He wants what he wants. | ||
| He wants what he wants. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's hear from Anna in Massachusetts Independent Line. |