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|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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on Monday, two former Justice Department officials will discuss whether the DOJ has become too politicized in recent years. | |
| Hosted by Georgetown University, watch live at 4 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, and C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Welcome back. | ||
| We are in open form for the duration. | ||
| Today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We will start with LaShana. | ||
| He's calling from Arlington, Texas, on the Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, LaShana. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, how you doing? | |
| Oh, LaShawn, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| How you doing? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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So, I mean, what I tell them about what I'm going through. | |
| LaShawn, go ahead. | ||
| We lost LaShawn. | ||
| We'll go to Deborah, who's calling from Aberdeen, Maryland, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Deborah. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, my comment is that the reason why I think that the president has been able to make decisions is the Supreme Court. | |
| I might be wrong, but it seemed like he has a license to make all types of decisions, whereas it was restrictions per regulations. | ||
| And that is my comment. | ||
| You really don't know what goes behind the scenes, and I'm not a learned person about rules and regulation, but my comment is the fact that the reason why the president hasn't been able to make decisions is because of the Supreme Court. | ||
| And that's all I have to say. | ||
| That was Deborah in Maryland. | ||
| Tom is calling from San Jose, California. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Tom. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi. | |
| You know, what cracks me up is that these people, Republicans call in, or loyalists, Trump loyalists call in, and they're all upset because we won't give Trump a break. | ||
| We have a Trump syndrome or whatever. | ||
| But, you know, you really have to look at the situation. | ||
| We saw the Epstein, we see Epstein videos on TV where he's partying with two child molesters. | ||
| Explain that. | ||
| He asked Russia to find all these emails. | ||
| He's doing all these backroom deals. | ||
| When Obama was president, he constantly harped on the idea that Obama wasn't born here and that he was a Muslim. | ||
| And I remember people sending me emails. | ||
| Don't vote for Obama. | ||
| He's going to, he's a Muslim. | ||
| He's going to turn our country into a Muslim country. | ||
| He's getting rich off of the presidency. | ||
| He lies constantly. | ||
| The East Room, he said he wasn't going to even touch the East Room. | ||
| And he demolished the whole thing. | ||
| I'm getting emails where people are saying, oh, don't worry about it. | ||
| He's not going to touch the East wing of the White House. | ||
| Well, he did. | ||
| You know, he takes away aid from people that need it. | ||
| He's cutting Medicaid. | ||
| People are going to lose their health insurance, and it's going to go sky high. | ||
| I mean, he's doing a lot of things that, you know, we're not supposed to believe that he took documents from the White House when we saw him in his bathroom and we saw all these things. | ||
| You know, they think that we're ignorant, that we don't see all these things. | ||
| You know, the problem is they don't see the reality of who Trump is. | ||
| Ask yourself, what would Jesus do? | ||
| And I'm sure that if you would answer that and say, okay, I'm sure that Trump would treat others like he would like to be treated himself. | ||
| I'm sure. | ||
| That was Tom in California. | ||
| Lewis is calling from Columbus, Georgia, on the line for Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Lewis. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, good morning. | |
| And I'm a disabled veteran from the Air Force. | ||
| And my question is this: why here in this country they say in one voice that nobody is above the law? | ||
| That says no one is above the law. | ||
| So apparently, this president is above the law because he's been convicted of 34 felonies. | ||
| And he's sitting in the White House. | ||
| He's been convicted of people as his own peers and convicted of 34 felonies. | ||
| And where is the courts? | ||
| What are the judges in this country? | ||
| Are they afraid to step up in a plate and do the just thing? | ||
| This president needs to be impeached. | ||
|
unidentified
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And Eli Musk said it once before that this president needs to be impeached. | |
| And people are not talking about that. | ||
| He needs to be impeached. | ||
| That was Lewis in Georgia. | ||
| This headline, this morning's Washington Post: a defiant James pleads not guilty. | ||
| The article saying that New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of mortgage fraud brought by the Justice Department amid President Donald Trump's push to prosecute those who have investigated him. | ||
| James, the highest-ranking Democrat to be indicted as part of Trump's efforts, entered her plea during a brief arraignment in Norfolk federal court. | ||
| U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker set a trial date for January 26, saying he expected the matter to take about five days. | ||
| During it, notes that James' family, James turned to face family members and supporters seated in the courtroom gallery as the hearing concluded, smiling and touching her hand to her chest. | ||
| She emerged from the courthouse afterward, greeted by cheers from dozens of demonstrators who had gathered outside. | ||
| Some carried signs reading, defend democracy and suppression of opposition as a speaker blasted public enemies fight the power. | ||
| Letitia James addressed those supporters outside the courthouse. | ||
| Here is a clip of what she had to say. | ||
| This is not about me. | ||
| This is about all of us. | ||
| And about a justice system which has been weaponized. | ||
| A justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge. | ||
| This justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge and a weapon against those individuals who simply did their job and who stood up for the rule of law. | ||
| And a justice system, which unfortunately is nothing being used as a vehicle of retribution. | ||
| But my faith is strong. | ||
| And my faith is I have this belief in the justice system and the rule of law and I have a belief in America and all of its individuals who have stood with me not only in New York but all across this nation. | ||
| I've heard from just about every jurisdiction in this nation who have said stand up and be tall and never ever cow down or back down or break or bend. | ||
| So there's no fear today. | ||
| No fear. | ||
| Faye is calling from Ithaca, New York, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Faye. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I have a number of things I want to say. | ||
| I'll try to say them very quickly. | ||
| First, I want to thank the guy. | ||
| His name was Tom from California a couple calls ago. | ||
| Everything that he said, I agree with all those points. | ||
| I am so worried about what's happening to our country. | ||
| I'm glued to the news constantly. | ||
| This administration is so dangerous to our country. | ||
| Let me just say a couple things. | ||
| Everything that we need to know is right in front of our eyes. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| President Trump is a pathological liar, and I think he has a lot of mental health issues that are very destructive. | ||
| His body language, you could see a lot through his body language, the way he looks at the camera, the way he shakes hands with certain people like Putin or Netanyahu. | ||
| The other thing is the meanness and the vengeness that he gives towards the media. | ||
| Do you ever see him come on C-SPAN? | ||
| Do you see him on CNN? | ||
| No, they all, his administration, they all run to Fox News. | ||
| There's a reason why they do that because that news organization will allow him to lie. | ||
| The other thing is the Elaine Maxwell Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| I am so incensed about this because this man should have never been president because he is culpable. | ||
| He was his best friend. | ||
| What else does America need to see? | ||
| That was Faye in New York. | ||
| Kinte is calling from Sacramento, California. | ||
| Line for Independence. | ||
| Good morning, Kente. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, what's going on? | |
| Yeah, this is reminiscent of Dr. Martin Luther King saying that the parallels of America and the Roman Empire is frightening because this country is falling just like he said. | ||
| And people, you know, don't want to listen to the prophets that sent them. | ||
| And Rome fell from within. | ||
| And that's exactly what you see happening in America. | ||
| Especially the reason why is because it hasn't treated indigenous people right. | ||
| Black people have been mistreating, and they're the chief cornerstone to build in anything. | ||
| So you're in trouble. | ||
| That was Kinte in California. | ||
| Wanted to share this programming note for you on this week's ceasefire. | ||
| Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons and Oklahoma Republican Senator James Langford sit down with Dasha Burns for a bipartisan dialogue on the top issues facing the country, including the government shutdown and foreign policy changes, challenges facing the Trump administration. | ||
| We'll also talk about top political news of the week with Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha. | ||
| He's a former Senate advisor, senior advisor to Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, and Republican strategist Ron Bonjeen, who served as communications director to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and press secretary to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. | ||
| All that is on this week's ceasefire. | ||
| You can catch it on Friday nights at 7 and 10 p.m. Eastern, and it re-airs Saturday and Sunday mornings here at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| That's coming up after today's Washington Journal. | ||
| Back to your calls. | ||
| We are in open form. | ||
| Let's hear from Deb, who's calling from Virginia, line for Republicans. | ||
| Hi, Deb. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi. | |
| I have a few things to say. | ||
| Right now, it's the Democrat Party's fault. | ||
| The reason why the government is shut down. | ||
| Our government has taken so much from the American people. | ||
| And like with what comes with the health care and stuff, they should have left it alone. | ||
| Don't you remember when the Obamacare first came out? | ||
| It was open. | ||
| You could hear them say that the American people were stupid. | ||
| That's us. | ||
| They were saying that about us for voting for the Obamacare. | ||
| The Democrat Party is to blame for our vagabonds leaving the states. | ||
| I can go back as far as Jimmy Carter giving everything back after our boys filter blood winning stuff. | ||
| And Alyssa James, she is guilty. | ||
| And that's all I have to say, honey. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And that was Deb in Virginia. | ||
| Karen is calling from Silver Spring, Maryland, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Karen. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I think the biggest concern I have today is the lies that are going not only between the Republicans, but the Democrats. | ||
| I am a Democrat, and I don't believe the shutdown is due to the Democrats. | ||
| I would like to see the bill that is proposed by the Democrats that gives the immigrants Medicaid and Medicare. | ||
| That is not true. | ||
| And Johnson, the Speaker of the House, keeps coming up with that idea that the reason that the government is shut down is because we need a bill to pay health care for immigrants, which is not true. | ||
| And I wish we had some sort of documentation that would show the American public what the bill is that they're reaching for health care for immigrants. | ||
| And I just wish the United States was in better order, but it's like a ship sinking. | ||
| Anyway, that is my comment for today. | ||
| But I really would like to know the percentage of immigrants that are paid health care. | ||
| Anyway, have a good day. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That was Karen in Maryland. | ||
| Susan is calling from Wooster, Massachusetts, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Susan. | ||
|
unidentified
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I just want to say I listen to these Democrats. | |
| Robert Kennedy, please get some medication done for these derangement people. | ||
| Trump's arrangement is really something. | ||
| There's plentier than Saturday Night Live. | ||
| But to get to the point, James went after Trump. | ||
| That was her when she was running for in New York. | ||
| We're going to get this guy and everything else. | ||
| Now we're going to get you. | ||
| We're going to get Bragg. | ||
| We're going to get Obama. | ||
| We're going to get Biden. | ||
| You know, Tim, you should be telling the people how many investigations are going on. | ||
| Now we've got Nancy Pelosi, too. | ||
| Would you have the Gateway pundit speak for what they say instead of Washington Post and the New York Times there, the record of toilet paper? | ||
| Let's get Gateway pundit. | ||
| Then you'll know what's going on, and they're going to know what's going on. | ||
| There are so many investigations all around the country to get these Democrats. | ||
| And if we don't do our job, the next time they're going to do the same thing to another Republican. | ||
| And for me, I want this to happen, Trump. | ||
| It should have happened in the first administration. | ||
| They talked you out of it, not indicting Hillary Clinton, this woman. | ||
| And Chelsea Clinton, she was yapping about the ballroom. | ||
| Bill Clinton soiled that White House for two years. | ||
| But Clyde, Hillary Clinton, took all the furniture. | ||
| They had nothing. | ||
| They came in as poppins and they went out as poppins. | ||
| It's unbelievable. | ||
| And they should call the new ballroom the Lewinsky ballroom. | ||
| And all you lip tags wear the blue dresses, okay? | ||
| That was Susan in Massachusetts. | ||
| And we know there's a lot of strong feelings out there, but I think we can all agree that name-calling is not the answer. | ||
| Let's hear from Ken in Grand Junction, Colorado, line for independence. | ||
| Good morning, Ken. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, good morning. | |
| I'm calling about the Major Richard Starr bill that was recently blocked in the Senate by the Republicans. | ||
| It was one of the most bipartisan bills that was not passed that supported combat retired veterans that were injured in combat that would give them their full retirement and their VA benefits. | ||
| It failed in the Senate due to because the Republicans did not want to pass it because they said it was double dipping and both benefits, which it is not because VA benefits compensation is for injuries that you received in combat and your retirement through the DOD is for your time and service. | ||
| But the Republicans failed to recognize that. | ||
| And I just wanted to put that out there. | ||
| And the media has failed to report on that. | ||
| And it's been a myth that Republicans support veterans. | ||
| And so I just wanted to put that out that I hope the media or C-SPAN may do a report on that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Ken, how would that legislation have impacted you? | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm a combat injured Army veteran, served 12 years in the Army, and I was injured in Iraq. | |
| And it would have, I would have received my full retirement benefits also. | ||
| And it would have had a big economical effect on my family. | ||
| So, but it failed. | ||
| The senator from, I believe, Mississippi, Failed to pass it, but um, so but it was the most bipartisan bill with most sponsors, and it fell to pass this year. | ||
| They've been trying to pass it for four or five years, and it fell to pass this year. | ||
| That was Ken in Colorado. | ||
|
unidentified
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C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington to across the country. | |
| Coming up Sunday morning, we'll talk with Republican pollster BJ Martino and Democratic pollster Nancy Zedankowicz on the politics surrounding the government shutdown and Campaign 2026. | ||
| And Brookings Institution's Patricia Kim covers President Trump's trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum and his upcoming meeting with China's Xi Jinping. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Sunday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold new original series. | ||
| Sunday, with our guest, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, only the fifth woman to serve on the high court and author of the book, Listening to the Law. | ||
| She joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | ||
| And what do you hope most people will take away from your book? | ||
| I think what I want them to take away from the book is that they should be proud of the court. | ||
| And I want them to be able, I want them to understand the way the court grapples with the legal questions that matter to the country. | ||
|
unidentified
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Watch America's Book Club with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
| On Monday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson will brief reporters on what will be Day 27 of the government shutdown. | ||
| Other House Republican leaders and Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler will join the speaker to discuss the shutdown's impact. | ||
| Watch live at 10 a.m. Eastern Monday on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at cspan.org. | ||
| Former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussed a potential meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. | ||
| The former ambassador also weighs in on the state of trade relations between the world's largest economies. |