| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Follow live House coverage on C-SPAN, on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at C-SPAN.org. | |
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| We're funded by these television companies and more, including Comcast. | ||
| The flag replacement program got started by a good friend of mine, a Navy vet, who saw the flag at the office that needed to be replaced and said, wouldn't this be great if this was going to be something that we did for anyone? | ||
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| This is one of those great examples of the way we're getting out there. | ||
| Comcast supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | ||
| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll talk about the vote in the House to release the Epstein files with the Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Hughes. | ||
| And Mona Yakubian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies covers U.S.-Saudi relations and this week's investment summit in Washington, D.C. Also, Lauren Harper Pope with the center-left political action committee Welcome PAC discusses the role of moderates in politics and the future of the party. | ||
| Washington Journal starts now. | ||
| This is the Washington Journal for November the 18th. | ||
| Later today, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on legislation that, if approved and signed into law, would require the Justice Department to release all its information related to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The legislation is a bipartisan effort and is expected to get widespread support from Democrats and Republicans, even the president yesterday, saying that he would sign it into law if passed. | ||
| Give us your thoughts on the legislation and the expected vote on the following lines. | ||
|
unidentified
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Democrats, 202-748-8000. | |
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to text us, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| And you can also post on our social media sites. | ||
| That's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Here is the legislation that is going to be considered today, H.R. 4405. | ||
| It says to require the Attorney General to release all documents and records in possession of the Department of Justice related to Jeffrey Epstein and for other purposes. | ||
| Joining us now to explain a little bit more about the vote and what's expected afterward is Siobhan Hughes of the Wall Street Journal, who covers Congress. | ||
| Ms. Hughes, thanks for giving us your time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good to be here. | |
| Walk us through the events of today. | ||
| What do we expect to see happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the focal point for the day is very much the vote on releasing those Epstein files. | |
| But before we get to that point, there is going to be a buildup. | ||
| Early in the morning, you are going to see people like Thomas Massey with the victims for a press conference. | ||
| When it was scheduled, the idea was to put pressure on the House to pass this legislation. | ||
| At this point, with the bill likely to speed through, it's going to be putting pressure on the Senate. | ||
| We also are expected to hear from House Speaker Mike Johnson after Republicans meet this morning. | ||
| That's going to be important because there is an emerging conversation among Republicans about whether the bill needs to be revised, maybe when it hits the Senate, in order to protect the identities of some people whose names might be revealed in these records. | ||
| And then finally, of course, that vote, which I believe, as you've been reporting, is going to be on the so-called suspension calendar, meaning it's going to need two-thirds support to pass. | ||
| And while the expectation is that's likely, it's not a lot yet. | ||
| Before we go a little bit more into what you just said, talk us, what does the actual legislation do? | ||
| I know I explained in the first sentence of what's purpose is, but what will it do? | ||
|
unidentified
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And so the goal is basically to get the Justice Department to release all of these records that have not yet been shared with Congress or publicly. | |
| But the big set of records that Congress wants are something called 302s. | ||
| This is a special terminology for memos related to interviews conducted with witnesses. | ||
| And what Thomas Massey has said, based on his conversations with the victims' lawyers, is that there are at least 20 individuals named in those records whose names would then become public. | ||
| And you would see really the full scope and extent of very high-level and prominent individuals who were caught up in this. | ||
| And that goes back to your initial comments about possible revisions to protect that going forward. | ||
|
unidentified
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That's exactly the point, and that is where the fight is. | |
| And when I did catch up with Thomas Massey last night, he was a bit gobsmacked by that and said something like, if that gets changed in the Senate, they are going to get run over by the same freight train that ran over every Republican but four down in the House. | ||
| The four being a reference, of course, to the four who did sign that discharge petition. | ||
| When it comes to Republicans, will this be a widespread supported bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I was up on the Hill last night and the sense I got was that there was very, very broad support for this bill, that there was really going to be a stampede into the yes column. | |
| That did not mean that there were no reservations, but that on average Republicans were betting they wanted to be on the right side of basically history and MAGA on this one. | ||
| How much of that do you think was influenced by the president himself saying and telling Republicans, go ahead, let's pass this bill? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, the indications are that really that was the major driver here, that initially very few Republicans were willing to go on record saying they were going to support this legislation. | |
| And then after Donald Trump reversed himself over the weekend and said he supported it, you saw the dam break and Republicans en masse indicate their support. | ||
| You talked about the Senate quite a bit in your opening statements. | ||
| Let's focus on that for a bit. | ||
| Let's assume that it passes the House. | ||
| Then what is the pressure exactly on the Senate? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, for a couple of points here, really. | |
| Number one, Democrats have said they plan to mount a full court press to convince John Thune to schedule a vote. | ||
| Don't forget the ball is really in his hands in terms of what comes to the floor. | ||
| But then there is also the pressure of the MAGA base. | ||
| And when you see people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace be willing to stand up and cross President Trump, that tells you they think the power of the MAGA base is so overwhelming that it's going to put political pressure on the Senate as well. | ||
| Has Senator Thune, the majority leader, given indications of where he is on this legislation at its current phase? | ||
|
unidentified
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John Thune has not given indications. | |
| He is somebody who tends to like to leave himself a little bit of room to maneuver. | ||
| But you can bet that the moment he sets foot under that Capitol dome today, that is going to be the first question reporters lob at him. | ||
| If we see the actual effort today and it does pass, when does the Justice Department have to respond, given that if the president signs this in the law? | ||
|
unidentified
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It's very quickly. | |
| My recollection is, I think, 30 days, but there's an asterisk here, but, but, but. | ||
| You remember that President Trump recently announced he would like Pam Bondi to open an investigation into some people caught up in this, and he aimed that at Democrats. | ||
| The hitch here is that if there is an open investigation, that could give the Justice Department cover or a reason to not release the records, and then we would essentially be frozen in place exactly where we are right now. | ||
| And this comes following that meeting that the president had with members of the Justice Department and some members of a member of Congress even talking about these issues. | ||
|
unidentified
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That's right. | |
| He had Lauren Boebert up in the situation room, according to reporting that my newspaper and I believe others did last week to really try to put pressure on her. | ||
| And she did not budge. | ||
| Well, we've talked about a lot of things of the things we've talked about, or maybe even things that we even talked about yet. | ||
| What are you watching for? | ||
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unidentified
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I am watching for the level of support. | |
| I want to be sure that we end up with that two-thirds support, also, by the way, a veto-proof majority. | ||
| I am very much paying attention to what Mike Johnson is going to be saying this morning because it tells you that this might not be a clean drive to the finish line here. | ||
| This conversation around protecting what people like Massey say are other prominent individuals, and then also how John Boone handles this. | ||
| It's pretty clear that President Trump and his Republican allies want to get this off their plates as quickly as possible, but it may not be so easy to land that smoothly and quickly just yet. | ||
| Siobhan Hughes reports on Congress for the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| You can see her writing on this topic at WSJ.com. | ||
| Ms. Hughes, thanks for giving us your time, especially so early in the morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good to be here. | |
| Again, now we invite you into the conversation if you want to comment on that vote today that our guest talked about that press conference at 9 o'clock. | ||
| You can see that also coverage on C-SPAN on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| You can call Lynn 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text your thoughts on today's vote on the release of the Epstein files at 202-748-8003. | ||
| In Illinois, Republican line, this is Kent up first. | ||
| Kent, thanks for waiting. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Give me just a moment before you pull a plug on me this morning, Jesse. | |
| In listening to lady, the question I would ask is this has been on the, you know, this Biden has had this for the last four years. | ||
| Why didn't this stuff happen four years ago? | ||
| And as far as this guy being called a pedophile, I listened to a lot of these ladies that were teenagers back in. | ||
| And the one gal was talking about, she was a senior in height, going to be a senior in high school, but she quit high school because she could make so much money going over to Epstein's house. | ||
| Well, what do you think about the actual vote taking place today? | ||
| Do you want your Republican legislators to support it? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, I don't see any problem at all with that. | |
| And get the light shining somewhere where it needs to be. | ||
| Here, you got a guy that took a bullet to the head for this country. | ||
| He's defamed Iran. | ||
| He's done so many marvelous things for the country. | ||
| And the Democrats just keep fishing for something they hope will implicate him. | ||
| People vote. | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Behan. | ||
| Bayhan in Maryland, Democrats line on today's vote on the release of the Epstein files. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I've been wanting to call you for several months about this issue. | ||
| And really, I have a bone to pick with C-SPAN. | ||
| And I think that a lot of people have a bone to pick with C-SPAN, but every time they mention it to you, you guys shut people down. | ||
| It's this whole idea about showing both sides of a story and how you always have to be egalitarian about people's opinions. | ||
| And it's almost like if I were to say the earth is round and somebody says the earth is flat, that you'd want to hear both opinions about that. | ||
| Would you know that there's the truth about it? | ||
| And I just can't tell you how upset this makes me. | ||
| This whole issue with Epstein triggers me terribly that I almost lose my mind. | ||
| So, what do you think about the vote today? | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, come on. | |
| This is exactly what I'm talking to you about. | ||
| Please then, you have to. | ||
| Pollard, let me explain. | ||
| We cover Congress. | ||
| Congress takes its vote today on the Epstein files. | ||
| You're upset by it, and you called in supposedly on that. | ||
| What do you think about the vote? | ||
| Just tell me your thoughts, please. | ||
|
unidentified
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You are citizens of this country, and you know that child rape is wrong. | |
| Is it so bad for you to stand up for that? | ||
| Okay, let's go to Anthony, Anthony and me in Detroit, Independent Line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think an underreported aspect of the Epstein issue is, you know, to what extent was he involved with the intelligence agencies, whether CIA or Israeli Mossad, because you know the former Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel was visiting his apartment many, many times. | |
| And his girlfriend, Ghisalaine Maxwell, her dad was practically, he got state honors at his funeral in Israel. | ||
| So anyway, that's the underreported issue in it. | ||
| And I'm liking what I'm seeing from Thomas Massey and Marjorie Taylor Green and even Roe Khano, but I can only like it so much. | ||
| You know, if they really want to make a difference, they need to ditch the Republican and the Democrat parties and become independents. | ||
| Charlie is next. | ||
| Charlie in Virginia, Democrats line on today's vote in the House on the Epstein files. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Actually, I just wanted to say I am really disappointed with all of the listeners, all of us in America, who have been taking such a partisan side. | ||
| And for the first time with the Epstein file vote, I think I'm finally having hope that we might be able to come together on something because we have been so politically divided. | ||
| And I just, if I could, if you would endure me once, I wanted to add one note about the Nigeria issue that we have. | ||
| I worked for years in Nigeria, and one thing I know is that hunger increased child recruitment into terrorist organizations, Christian or Muslim, because to them, dying was better than starving to death. | ||
| Okay, that's Charlie there in Virginia. | ||
| Let's hear from Thomas Massey. | ||
| He was a Republican co-sponsor of the legislation that will be voted on today, making those comments earlier this week as far as his expectations are concerned. | ||
| Here he is from Sunday. | ||
|
unidentified
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I think we could have a deluge of Republicans. | |
| There could be 100 or more. | ||
| I'm hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote. | ||
| And, you know, the president's been saying this is a hoax. | ||
|
unidentified
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He's been saying that for months. | |
| Well, he's just now decided to investigate a hoax if it's a hoax. | ||
| And I have another concern about these investigations that he's announced. | ||
| If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can't be released. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files. | |
| I mean, it is extraordinary to hear him demand an investigation and only mention Democrats, only mention his political opponents. | ||
| But you're saying he doesn't really, he may not really even want any investigation. | ||
| He wants to prevent the release. | ||
| Why does he want to prevent this? | ||
|
unidentified
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What is he afraid of? | |
| You know, I've never said that these files will implicate Donald Trump. | ||
| And I really don't think that they will. | ||
| I think he's trying to protect a bunch of rich and powerful friends, billionaires, donors to his campaign, friends in his social circles. | ||
|
unidentified
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And that's my operating theory on why he's trying so hard to keep these files closed. | |
| Again, that was Thomas Massey from Sunday, one of the people that you'll see at the forefront of today's effort in the House when it comes to passing legislation that would require the Justice Department to release all information related to Jeffrey Epstein, 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans and Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| Politico adding that Senate Republicans will not return to Washington until Tuesday evening today when they are expected to discuss next steps. | ||
| The only way for the resolution to pass the Senate this week would be with buy-in from every senator to either speed up a vote or skip one altogether with a vote by unanimous consent, which would let it clear the chamber without a roll call vote. | ||
| Congressional passage and a Trump signature would not be the end of the Epstein saga on Capitol Hill, however. | ||
| Jim Jordan said that he has plans to have the Attorney General Pam Bondi back before his panel, the Department Justice panel, for a rescheduled oversight hearing as soon as possible. | ||
| Questions about the Epstein case are sure to take center stage in any hearing, as they did when Pam Boni recently appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. | ||
| Joe is next in Ohio, Republican line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning from a rainy day in Ohio. | |
| Pedro, I'm really looking forward. | ||
| Sunlight is the best disinfectant. | ||
| I really want to find out more. | ||
| I want all the evidence laid out there, every single bit of evidence. | ||
| I really want to see the evidence. | ||
| I want to see why Democrat Stacey Plaskett was corresponding with a known child trafficker by the name of Jeffrey Epstein during a House Oversight Committee. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein was talking, communicating via text messages to Democrat Stacey Plackett during a House oversight committee of Michael Cohen. | ||
| So, but my gosh, no one wants to talk about that. | ||
| They just want CNN, MSNBC just wants to make up lies and topics about Donald Trump. | ||
| So anyhow, Pedro, I just, I want them released. | ||
| I want, like I said, sunlight's the best disinfectant. | ||
| And this thing stinks deep with Democrats also. | ||
| It goes both ways. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Joy is next in Illinois, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I'd just like to say, number one, the new line by Republicans that 17-year-olds and high school kids being raped and molested by 40-year-old men is okay because they're so close to legal, as Trump's former attorney said not long ago, shows a level of ignorance that is just beyond the pale. | ||
| Number one, these are teenage girls, and let's not forget that these were grown, successful men who could have had women throwing themselves at them and chose to instead groom and use and traffic teenage girls. | ||
| Number two, I do believe that Trump has had a scheme cooked up with the Department of Justice so that they open up investigations to hide the Epstein files. | ||
| And that this is just another display of his to show that, oh, he's going by the will of the people when in fact he has a backroom deal already set. | ||
| Do you think that today's, if these files are released, it's going to answer all the questions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it will answer many, many questions. | |
| I think that there will be a lot of people on both sides implicated in those Epstein files if they haven't erased Donald Trump's name from them completely already. | ||
| Because let's not forget that he had thousands of FBI agents going through those files to find any that had his name in them. | ||
| And what they've done with the files with his name in them is anyone's guess. | ||
| Okay, that's Joy there in Illinois. | ||
| Let's hear from Beth in Chicago, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, I'm calling about this, and I've been thinking about this for a long time. | ||
| He's been wishy-washy on the subject the whole time. | ||
| He ran to go and release the Epstein files, and he didn't release the Epstein files. | ||
| All the Republicans ran to release the files. | ||
| Then, when it came time to release the files, then he was himming and hand about it. | ||
| Okay, and now, as of Friday, he called for an investigation with Pam Bondi. | ||
| Well, if Pam Bondi is doing an investigation, he darn well knows that he's not releasing these files. | ||
| I don't care what he says. | ||
| I don't care about the vote. | ||
| If they're doing an investigation, there's no way these files are coming out. | ||
| Beth in Chicago, line for Democrats. | ||
| You can continue on calling on the line that best suits you. | ||
| One story that came from yesterday about the Epstein files is connected to Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, saying he's the former Harvard University president. | ||
| Larry Summers said that he's stepping back from public commitments after receiving criticism over his correspondence with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Quote, I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. | ||
| I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein. | ||
| He said on Monday, he said stepping back from public commitments was one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me. | ||
| Summers is one of several high-profile people with communications with Epstein's were detailed in more than 20,000 documents lawmakers made public last week. | ||
| Being mentioned in the emails isn't an indication of wrongdoing. | ||
| They nevertheless raise uncomfortable questions over his relationship with the disgraced financier. | ||
| Summers, who is a Harvard University professor, said he would fulfill his teaching obligations. | ||
| More there. | ||
| Politico and other sources writing that story that came out yesterday. | ||
| Grand Forks, North Dakota. | ||
| This is Jim. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Pedro. | |
| Republican line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| Can you hear me, Pedro? | ||
| Yep. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| The thing is, I'm all for the release of this. | ||
| I want to get to get it out in the open. | ||
| I don't really, it doesn't matter to me. | ||
| I support Trump. | ||
| And the thing that's interesting is the emails that were released and discussed on MSNBC. | ||
| MSNBC has spent every day of the week last week on this. | ||
| First of all, I'd never thought about this from the images they show over and over, the loop of film they show of Trump with his arm around Epstein. | ||
| Epstein hated him. | ||
| Epstein hated Trump. | ||
| He tried to warn everybody about him not for him to run. | ||
| And he's a liberal Democrat. | ||
| He's one of you, Democrats. | ||
| He's not one of us. | ||
| I never even thought about that. | ||
| And he was at the Clinton White House about 17 times, I heard. | ||
| Everybody hobnobbed with him, not just Larry Summers, Bill Gates, the prime minister of Australia, was at his island. | ||
| There's going to be a lot of people. | ||
| You Democrats might be in trouble. | ||
| You might see a lot of people. | ||
| A lot of embarrassing things might come out for you, not for Trump. | ||
| And the thing that gets me, can I continue one more few more minutes? | ||
| Not a few more minutes. | ||
| Just make your last statement, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
40 seconds. | |
| In the Bill Clinton days, when I was a younger man, every time Bill Clinton got caught molesting a woman or accusations of rape, he went up in the polls with the soccer moms. | ||
| Women drew closer to him the more he was accused of molestation. | ||
| I never understood that, but probably because he was pro-choice. | ||
| John Kennedy, reading a new book about that, the Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, he had sex in the White House with underage women brought in by Dave Powers and the Secret Service. | ||
| The book says he was. | ||
| Okay, that's Jim there in Grand Forks, North Dakota. | ||
| You heard our guest at the top of the hour references. | ||
| There will be a press conference scheduled at 9 o'clock later on this morning. | ||
| It will feature those key sponsors of the legislation that's being voted on today, Thomas Massey. | ||
| You heard from Marjorie Taylor Green and Roe Conna. | ||
| Plus, along that, they'll be joined by survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. | ||
| They'll discuss their bill, their expected vote. | ||
| You can see all of that happen 9 o'clock on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Follow along on our app at C-SPANNOW, and you can also follow at c-span.org. | ||
| Let's hear from Vicki in Seattle, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| I have two comments. | ||
| My first comment is to these people that are victim blaming the survivors. | ||
| For one thing, the brain doesn't finish developing until about the age of 25. | ||
| And Maxwell and Epstein knew what they were doing. | ||
| They were predators. | ||
| They were the hunters. | ||
| It's like going out in the woods and bringing something down to kill. | ||
| They knew what to look for. | ||
| Women are young girls who were vulnerable and easy to manipulate. | ||
| And my second comment is about all these years of waiting for justice for these young women. | ||
| These men have continued to be perpetrators. | ||
| Just because Epstein's out of business doesn't mean somebody else didn't take it over. | ||
| It's like you bust a drug dealer on the corner. | ||
| There's somebody there five minutes later to take his place. | ||
| And there are a lot more victims because of this that they never did receive justice. | ||
| And I hope they finally get it. | ||
| It's time. | ||
| It's past time. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| You have a good day. | ||
| You heard from Representative Thomas Massey when it comes to the legislation. | ||
| Here's California Democrat Roe Conna on television yesterday why he thinks the president came around to support the legislation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, Thomas Massey and I have been at this five months. | |
| And I think what surprised Washington and beat the establishment is we built an unusual coalition. | ||
| We built a coalition of progressives and MAGA supporters, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, Lauren Bobert, combined with strong progressives like Greg Kazar, Deli Ramirez. | ||
| We built a kind of coalition that said it's time to get rid of the Epstein class and we stand with forgotten Americans. | ||
| The lesson is that that kind of coalition against elite impunity for ordinary Americans can actually move and unite this country. | ||
| That's another face you'll see as the day progresses, particularly as the vote is expected to take place later today. | ||
| Renee in Florida joins us on our line for Democrats. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning, Pedro. | ||
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| I really appreciate C-SPAN. | ||
| I have a few things. | ||
| The first is about C-SPAN and the callers. | ||
| There's a couple callers that we can recognize those voices, just like another voice that used to call all the time. | ||
| And you did squash that. | ||
| But there's a gentleman, and I'll add you that call. | ||
| It seems like every day it gets old hearing that same thing. | ||
| It isn't going to change our minds. | ||
| But I wish you'd squash them like you squashed that other person. | ||
| And to today's vote? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pardon? | |
| And to today's vote on the Epstein files. | ||
| What are your thoughts on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am, I have a list of how for that I am. | |
| But we can talk about Trump's justice system that is corrupt. | ||
| So, yeah, his name's probably been washed off there. | ||
| When you have a lawyer, I found out when my friend got a divorce, when you get a lawyer, that lawyer represents you for the rest of your life. | ||
| And how many of those lawyers represented Trump before he got into office? | ||
| Every last one of them. | ||
| And I've been following this case since Julie Brown at the Herald, the Miami Herald, back at Trump's first term, an Acosta that he put in office. | ||
| And there's something there. | ||
| How corrupt was that? | ||
| And then there is more. | ||
| Heard on a podcast. | ||
| There is more evidence out there. | ||
| And how do you get in touch with your uh senator to um, to or a senator, to let them know about that is? | ||
| It seems like there was a number to call to Washington to call the senator. | ||
| I don't know offhand, but if you search the Senate switchboard on the at the U.s Senate side that they're one, they'll be the ones that patch you through to your respective uh senator. | ||
| If you want to take advantage of that uh, that switchboard number I don't know it offhand you'll have to look it up. | ||
| Uh, let's. | ||
| Uh, we'll see if we can find. | ||
| We'll see if we can find it. | ||
| Let's go to John John in Texas republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, good morning federal. | |
| Thank you for CPAN. | ||
| This is great where Americans can actually call in and say what they think. | ||
| And the last call an example of TDS, if you want to call your senator, google the senator's name. | ||
| You'll say contact. | ||
| He can call a phone number at a local office or Washington Dc. | ||
| It's really simple. | ||
| But let's talk about apes. | ||
| I I agree that files should be released. | ||
| This has been going on way too long. | ||
| Um, this is corruption at its worst. | ||
| Um, but let's remember, even Epstein recognized. | ||
| He said in email that Trump was a dog that didn't bark. | ||
| Okay, the dog that didn't bark, that means Trump didn't do anything. | ||
| And also the girl, poor girl Virginia, who committed suicide. | ||
| She said other people have said it Trump ran 8 off of his Marlaro country club. | ||
| So this is a great example of TDS. | ||
| No matter how many Democrats come out Bill Clinton Larry, some of all the Democrats gonna come out, maybe 90 percent Democrats. | ||
| The news, and you guys are gonna twist it, Trump Trump Trump, Trump. | ||
| This country is going to hell in a handbasket because you guys have TDS and they just pray for the girls. | ||
| Get this taken care of and get this some some some, some solace and not that this happen again. | ||
| Okay okay, John in Texas, uh, the caller had talked about uh, how to contact your senator here's Senate.gov on their website. | ||
| Uh, many ways you can contact, but the Senate switchboard there, the Capital switchboard, if you want to be called and connected with your senator's office. | ||
| By the way 202-224-3121, again 202-224-3121. | ||
| Uh, La Monica in south Carolina, Democrats line that expected vote on the Epstein Files today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
La Monica, good morning, good morning, Pedro. | |
| How are you? | ||
| I'm well. | ||
| Thank you, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Um, what I have to say is, yes, the House voting today on the release of Epstein's files. | |
| I am all for it, let's get it done, and but I question the reason why, all of a sudden, Trump is backing this. | ||
| I wonder if his name has been redacted from some of the files. | ||
| Um, is he trying to protect some of the people that may have some millionaires that may have voted for him that might be in these files? | ||
| So I would like to see how this is going to really play out. | ||
| That's what i'll. | ||
| Thank you okay Lamonica, there in South Carolina, let's hear from the president himself at a ben in the Oval Office yesterday. | ||
| Uh, asked about uh, his now support for today's vote. | ||
| Here's some of those comments. | ||
| I just want to be super clear on your position. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you want to see that pass the Senate? | |
| Would you sign that bill if it gets to your desk? | ||
| Uh, I do want to. | ||
| Here's what I want. | ||
| We have nothing to do with Epstein. | ||
| The Democrats do. | ||
| All of his friends were Democrats. | ||
| You look at this Ried Hoffman, you look at Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, they went to his island all the time, and many others are all Democrats. | ||
| All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I've done on pricing, on affordability, because we brought prices way down, but they're going way lower. | ||
| On energy, on ending eight wars, and another one coming pretty soon, I believe. | ||
| We've done a great job. | ||
| And I hate to see that deflect from the great job we've done. | ||
| So I'm all for it. | ||
| You know, we've already given 50,000 pages. | ||
| You do know that. | ||
| Unfortunately, like with the Kennedy situation, with the Martin Luther King situation, not to put Jeffrey Epstein in the same category, but no matter what we give, it's never enough. | ||
| You know, with Kennedy, we gave everything and it wasn't enough. | ||
| With Martin Luther King, we gave everything and it's never enough. | ||
| We've already given, I believe the number is 50,000 pages, 50,000 pages. | ||
| And it's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans. | ||
| Now, I believe that many of the people that we, some of the people that we mentioned, are being looked at very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| But they were with him all the time. | ||
| I wasn't. | ||
| I wasn't at all. | ||
| And we'll see what happens. | ||
| What I just don't want Epstein to do is detract from the great success of the Republican Party. | ||
| Again, that House vote today, 202-748-8,000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202748-8002. | ||
| Sam is in Massachusetts, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you, Pedro. | ||
| Pedro. | ||
| I've been listening to you for about 20 years. | ||
| And this guy talking about TDS, he has a long way to go before he uses women as his pawn of reasoning in this situation. | ||
| And what bothers me most is that these Republicans, first of all, they live in an echo chamber. | ||
| They're isolated from mainstream society. | ||
| And they have been since the days of conservative talk radio. | ||
| And now we're here with social media, and they're locked in. | ||
| And I just want to remind that guy, Trump is a known con man from New York who has openly told us all multiple times that his favorite prey are you, the man from Texas, you know, who he calls the uneducated. | ||
| Trump's been a Democrat. | ||
| I mean, I don't know what planet I'm on. | ||
| Okay, Paula, but how does that relate to the events of today regarding Jeffrey Epstein? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think, you know, for this guy to call in and just automatically conclude that everything's a hoax, you know, that's the answer that these guys have. | |
| And it relates to this whole mess where, you know, the Epstein files are just the tip of the surface here. | ||
| We have an entire faction of people in this country who openly reject basic reality, whether it's factual reality, whether it's looking into something like the Epstein files impartially just to get to the truth. | ||
| You know, but these guys have been captivated by their Facebook, and they don't have the intellectual honesty or ability to even get through to what's actually going on. | ||
| So all we have to hear for 10 freaking years is everything's a hoax, right? | ||
| Everything's a hoax. | ||
| And I guess I'll end by saying every accusation of this guy is a confession. | ||
| And it's just so easy to see how manipulated and gullible these freaking conservatives are. | ||
| I don't know what that's Sam in Massachusetts. | ||
| Let's hear from Scott, New Jersey, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| I'm well, thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to say the fact. | |
| I think this is one of those situations where the guy was spot on before. | ||
| All out of TDS. | ||
| He's damned if he does it, damned if he doesn't. | ||
| Comes down to it. | ||
| I believe it is that he made it quite clear the reason it is that he didn't want to get involved in this because he didn't want to allow this to come out and steal the spotlight with the media, which is what it is. | ||
| You guys know you're going to do just like you are right now. | ||
| Instead of reporting on other things, this is what you'll talk about. | ||
| He didn't want this to overshadow real accomplishments. | ||
| Now, all of a sudden, he turns around and he says, you know what? | ||
| To hell with it. | ||
| No matter what, you guys are going to keep talking about it. | ||
| So he puts it out there. | ||
| And now all of a sudden, still, oh, no, like he said, conspiracy, the guy just on the phone before, conspiracy. | ||
| No, I'm sure they've wiped his name from it. | ||
| No, it's not going to be everything. | ||
| No, there's still more out there. | ||
| No matter what he does, they've already determined that the guy is guilty of sin. | ||
| Well, Scott, what's the significance then of the House taking up the vote and the Senate possibly doing the same? | ||
|
unidentified
|
When he first came in, when he first came in, he could have, everyone knows the things that Hillary Clinton had done with a private server, with smashing her phone with all of this. | |
| If he wanted to, if he was the king, the dictator, he could have gone after her. | ||
| He showed her and her campaign grace. | ||
| Okay, well, that goes back several years. | ||
| Today deals with the Epstein files and an actual vote. | ||
| What do you think about that actually taking place? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Say that again. | |
| What do you think about an actual vote on the Epstein vowels taking place today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe that it is that these Democrats and Republicans should put their money where their mouth is. | |
| Let it get out there because the reality is, I think it is that you have more congressmen and senators who might be burning in this than Trump himself. | ||
| But I think it'll be interesting to see where it is people choose to vote. | ||
| Okay, let's go to Mark. | ||
| Mark in Illinois, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| All I'd like to say is that at the very start, it was Trump that was in office and the Republicans in the House and the Senate. | ||
| And then Epstein got murdered in his jail cell, I believe. | ||
| And no investigation on that from either the Republicans or the Democrats. | ||
| That was a major thing. | ||
| I think you could find out a whole lot when you find out who murdered him in the jail cell. | ||
| I don't believe he committed suicide. | ||
| Why would the guards be gone? | ||
| And I believe all of them have somebody they're protecting. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| You can keep calling in on the lines. | ||
| The front page of the New York Times today and their news analysis section of Department of Distraction AIDS Trump on Epstein. | ||
| They write this Glenn Thrush thing that it's just 217 minutes elapsed between Mr. Trump's command on Friday morning that the Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, investigate prominent Democrats like Bill Clinton, who were named in documents Congress obtained from Jeffrey Epstein's estate, and Ms. Bondi's announcement that she had referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. | ||
| Earlier demands took days, sometimes weeks, to fulfill. | ||
| Ms. Bondi's statement was a demonstration of Mr. Trump's near-total success in subordinating the Justice Department's post-Watergate independence to his will. | ||
| Friday was a milestone of sorts. | ||
| The department was deployed in effect as an arm of the president's rapid response operation to help him muscle through a damaging news cycle. | ||
| Current and former officials said were there. | ||
| That's the front page of the New York Times if you want to read it for yourself. | ||
| Let's hear from a viewer in Alabama, Independent Line. | ||
| Canada is the name on today's vote on the Epstein files in the House. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Oh, that person's gone. | ||
| We'll go to Richard. | ||
| Richardson, Pennsylvania, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi, Richard. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, hi. | |
| Hey, I agree with everything about Epstein, but I think Epstein's dead, and we got a lot of problems. | ||
| Somebody in our Congress ought to get together and figure out what the hell is going on with our health care system and all the people that are all monopolizing from insurance on to the pharmacies. | ||
| I mean, it's the hospitals, these people make a ton of money, and nobody's ever looking at that. | ||
| And Epstein's dead. | ||
| I realize we know what happened. | ||
| Is it really important that we know who did it? | ||
| We don't seem to care about any of the pedophiles in this country, but that's the people's, we the people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, that's Richard in Pennsylvania, Independent Line. | ||
| We'll finish out this hour with Open Forum. | ||
| If you want to continue to talk about today's vote in the House on Jeffrey Epstein's files or other matters of politics, Open Forum is how you can do that. | ||
| Same lines, 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| Texting throughout the day is 202-748-8003. | ||
| And as always, you can post on the social media sites, facebook.com slash C-SPAN and on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Let's give you the perspective of Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday. | ||
| He was asked about today's pending vote, what he thinks it will accomplish in the long term. | ||
| Here's Speaker Johnson from Sunday. | ||
| They're doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. | ||
| He does not. | ||
| The people have already said the Virginia Jeffrey, whose name was redacted by the little leaked email that the Democrats put out. | ||
| They cherry-picked three emails out of 20,000 documents to try to imply that the president was guilty, but they took her name out. | ||
| Why? | ||
| She's the one who came out and said he had nothing to do with it. | ||
| President Trump has clean hands. | ||
| He's not worried about it. | ||
| I talk to him all the time. | ||
| He has nothing to do with this. | ||
| He's frustrated that they're turning it into a political issue, and it's not surprising because the Democrats have nothing else to talk about. | ||
| What have they accomplished in 10 months? | ||
| Epstein is their entire game plan. | ||
| So we're going to take that weapon out of their hand this week. | ||
| They hit the 218 signature threshold. | ||
| And you know what I did? | ||
| I offered it on the floor to pass by unanimous consent, the discharge petition. | ||
| Guess who objected? | ||
| The Democrats. | ||
| If they were really for transparency, if this is really about helping victims and all that, they would not have stopped the passage of the discharge petition. | ||
| So it'll be on the floor again next week. | ||
| I suspect there'll be lots of votes that we'll just get this done and move it on. | ||
| There's nothing to hide. | ||
| And the Oversight Committee is releasing far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit, ever even anticipated. | ||
| They never even mentioned in the discharge the Epstein estate files. | ||
| And that is the treasure trove of documents that's given us Epstein's flight logs, his personal records, his financial ledgers, his daily calendar. | ||
| None of that was anticipated. | ||
| So the discharge is totally moot. | ||
| It is a political exercise, and we're going to dispense with that this week. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday talking about today's vote. | ||
| You can again comment on that or other things during this open forum portion of the program from Lake Charles, Louisiana. | ||
| Melissa joins us, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, Pedro. | ||
| So thanks so much for having this discussion today. | ||
| I really have to agree with the wonderful gentleman from Texas who laid out quite a few facts about this Epstein situation. | ||
| And I agree with him that Democrats are going to be in for a big surprise because I think Trump just played chess with them when they're only capable of checkers. | ||
| These are all Democrats involved. | ||
| Every name that has been on this list throughout the years has been a Democrat and they still are. | ||
| I've yet to hear one Republican name. | ||
| And I've followed this situation since like 2009. | ||
| Also, and God bless the victims. | ||
| I hope that they're doing well on their journey to healing. | ||
| I watched the approximately two hours that y'all had on C-STAN where they were at the Capitol with several representatives and they were speaking at the microphone. | ||
| Multiples of them spoke at the microphone. | ||
| No names were mentioned. | ||
| And these are the victims or survivors, however you want to refer to that. | ||
| And these are women in their 40s now. | ||
| I mean, these are middle-aged women at this point. | ||
| They could have told us some names, but yet no names were spoken of that day. | ||
| So I hope one day that there can be a cure for TDS. | ||
| We need to work towards that. | ||
| But I want to co-sign everything that gentleman from Texas and Mike Johnson just said. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Melissa, there in Louisiana. | ||
| Some of those women appeared in a public service announcement from the anti-trafficking group World Without Exploitation. | ||
| Here's that PSA. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I suffered so much pain. | |
| So much pain. | ||
| So much pain. | ||
| I suffered so much pain. | ||
| I was 14 years old. | ||
| I was 16 years old. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was 16. | |
| 17. | ||
| 14 years old. | ||
| This is me. | ||
| When I met Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| This is me. | ||
| When I met Jeffrey Epstein, there are about a thousand of us. | ||
| It's time to bring the secrets out of the shadows. | ||
| It's time to shine a light into the darkness. | ||
| That group, by the way, of World Without Exploitation, also is putting billboards up when it comes to demands to release the Epstein files. | ||
| This is from the website Philly Voice saying that the banner that was located near exit 37 in Ven Salem, Pennsylvania reads, Courage is Contagious. | ||
| Release all of the Epstein files. | ||
| It's part of a national advocacy campaign from the group. | ||
| Unveiled the billboard and others in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina this week. | ||
| We'll go to Walter next. | ||
| Walter's in North Carolina, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello there, young man. | |
| As a former psychotherapist, it really disheartens me to see all these women who've been abused by these perverts and all this stuff not come out. | ||
| And I also am somewhat flabbergasted by the fact that during the previous administration, they had all this information. | ||
| Why did they not come out with that? | ||
| That answer has not been ever been established, and I just don't understand it. | ||
| But I sure appreciate what you guys do, but it is disheartening. | ||
| Thank you now. | ||
| From Anthony in Michigan, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hey, good morning, Pedro, and kudos to you because you are sitting there taking in incoming from a lot of twisted people. | ||
| I'm glad that this is finally coming to a head, but I believe that it's already been washed. | ||
| If these people are willing to go this far for Donald Trump, then there's no way that Pam Bondi wouldn't already have destroyed information on Donald Trump. | ||
| But I want to say this. | ||
| This is a pointless conversation because these people are beyond the pale. | ||
| These Trump supporters or followers, they are brainwashed beyond reason. | ||
| It doesn't matter to them about pedophilia or the little girls or they don't care about that. | ||
| They worship a God of the God of the air. | ||
| Evangelicals and all of that, that's beyond Jesus Christ. | ||
| This is Satan at work. | ||
| So anyway, God bless you, Pedro, and have a great day. | ||
| We'll hear from Jerry in Virginia, Republican Line on this open forum. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I'll change the subject. | ||
| I'm going to go back to the Democrats blaming Donald Trump for high prices. | ||
| How can they do that? | ||
| I'll remind them, we are still under Joe Biden's 2023 budget. | ||
| Congress did not even pass a budget last year. | ||
| Donald Trump's first budget hasn't even been written yet. | ||
| We are still under Joe Biden's 2023 budget. | ||
| Everything that Donald Trump has spent was already approved by the Biden administration. | ||
| If that's the case, how do you think that the president's going to actually lower prices like he promised? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he already has. | |
| A lot of things have already came back down. | ||
| And one thing people are complaining so much about, price of bananas, I buy bananas every week. | ||
| They're 47 cents a pound. | ||
| They go from 45 to 47 and back. | ||
| What's the problem there? | ||
| Gasoline. | ||
| Look how much gasoline has came down. | ||
| Turkey's 25% that lower than last year. | ||
| Everything has come down. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Kat is in New Jersey. | ||
| Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Good morning, Pedro. | ||
| I was at an event this past weekend to support survivors and to bring attention to human trafficking and to promote fair trade. | ||
| And I usually try to stay very neutral on political issues and just stick to the topic. | ||
| But I had an opportunity to speak to a woman who is a survivor advocate who's very involved in the human trafficking movement. | ||
| And I asked her, because her opinion was important to me, how she felt about releasing the files. | ||
| And what she said to me was, you know, the victims' names so many times are put out there, and they're the ones that are put in the spotlight, and they're the ones that are exposed. | ||
| But we don't expose the names of those who have committed these crimes. | ||
| So she was in support of calling attention to this. | ||
| So I guess in summation, you know, let's not make this about politics. | ||
| Let's just keep our eye on the ball here and realize that these are real people whose lives have been overturned. | ||
| And I appreciate you calling attention to the PSA that the survivors have put out there. | ||
| And forgive me if I missed this, but if you haven't done so already, it would be wonderful to have somebody like a survivor advocate who's entrenched in the trafficking movement on your show just to call more attention to the real issue here and get us out of the mess of all the politics. | ||
| Thanks so much for taking my call. | ||
| Thank you for calling. | ||
| Thank you for the suggestion. | ||
| Let's go to Marsha. | ||
| Marsha in Washington, D.C., Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I just want to mention that I think it's really comical and awful that our Congress has totally lost control. | ||
| And I'm not even going to get into it. | ||
| They're having a vote today. | ||
| I don't trust any of it. | ||
| I don't trust the administration. | ||
| I don't trust Trump. | ||
| You know what my stand is. | ||
| But I also think what's amusing is that today is the day that Jim Jones convinced his cult to drink the poison. | ||
| And actually, that's what I called for. | ||
| The irony of what has happened historically and what's happening today is just outrageous. | ||
| And that's it. | ||
| John is joining us in Oklahoma. | ||
| Republican line on this open forum. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes, I'm a registered Republican. | ||
| I was able to vote against Trump probably twice as many times as most everybody else. | ||
| If they're unprepared for this, you know, it was a good ride, but it's over. | ||
| I think Trump is on the way out soon. | ||
| He's like a cornered rabbit animal, fight or flight, adrenaline. | ||
| He's what they call a waffle now. | ||
| He's flip-flopping everything about it. | ||
| And there's something psychologically wrong with him, is my opinion. | ||
| Of course, I'm not a medical doctor, but it's going to be fun to watch. | ||
| That's about all I got to say for right now. | ||
| That's John in Oklahoma, the Associated Press reporting this morning that the Justice Department engaged in a, quote, disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps in the process of securing an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey. | ||
| That was, according to a federal judge ruling that on Monday, directing prosecutors to provide defense lawyers with all grand jury materials from the case. | ||
| Those problems, wrote Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, include, quote, fundamental misstatements of the law by a prosecutor to the grand jury that indicted Comey in September, the use of potentially privileged communications during the investigation, and unexplained irregularities in the transcript of the grand jury proceedings. | ||
| Quote, the court recognizes that the relief sought by the defense is rarely granted, he wrote. | ||
| However, the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding. | ||
| More to that from yesterday's news that came out there. | ||
| That's the Associated Press headline. | ||
| We'll hear from Jack next. | ||
| Jack, Independent Line in Ohio. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Good morning, Pedro. | ||
| In my opinion, I believe that no real truth is going to really come out and really be revealed. | ||
| I think everything is going to be redacted. | ||
| I think this is pretty much a repeat of what was going on in Rome when they had fornications, when they had molestation going on. | ||
| We pretty much, you know, this is today's Rome. | ||
| And it's not an issue of Democrat or Republican. | ||
| It's just all the corruption that's going on in Washington. | ||
| And unless we come together and stand up against it, it's going to become the norm. | ||
| And there's my opinion. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Line for Democrats. | ||
| This is from Brooklyn, New York. | ||
| Debbie, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I'm just giving a thought about why Biden didn't release the files during his administration. | ||
| Glay Maxwell had an appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. | ||
| And that was only the Supreme Court decided not to take up the case. | ||
| I think it was in September. | ||
| So sometimes when the case is still ongoing with appeals, that the information is not released. | ||
| And I hope that doesn't happen again with Trump asking Pam Bondi to start an investigation into the files because that might be his way of stopping the files from coming to light. | ||
| Also, if Trump was a witness to any of the crimes, if he saw the, if he hung out in Epstein's house and saw the young girls going in and out, I mean, if you're a witness to, I believe by law, you have to report the crime. | ||
| And one last thing: the Access Hollywood tape, when he said he would grab women by their private parts, after that, I don't understand how any woman or any man who loves women could ever vote for a person who said that out of his own mouth. | ||
| And I don't want to hear locker room talk. | ||
| That was pretty disgusting. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Debbie, there in New York, some of those victims, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's, will be part of a press conference later on today. | ||
| We told you about this, but it's at 9 o'clock. | ||
| That press conference will feature the main co-sponsors of the legislation that will be voted on later today. | ||
| Representative Thomas Massey, Republican of New York, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, and California Democrat RoCanna will be part of that press conference on the Epstein files, the pending vote. | ||
| See you that on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| And you can follow along on our app and our website, too. | ||
| Let's go to John. | ||
| John in Arlington, Virginia, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, since the president decided that it was okay for the House to pass legislation asking for the release of the files, he can do that himself. | |
| He doesn't need legislation. | ||
| Once he announced that decision, the question should be: why don't you just release those files? | ||
| On the other hand, I'm sorry about the last lady. | ||
| The Democrats still had the option of releasing those files if they felt there was something seriously wrong with either the behavior of Trump or some other Republican or something like that, and they failed to do it. | ||
| So I don't know whether it's a thing of just a problem of powerful people being involved. | ||
| I'm not going to guess why what didn't happen. | ||
| But both sides clearly had the option of releasing the files, and Trump can still do it, and they're not doing it. | ||
| Let's hear from Eric. | ||
| Eric joins us from Maryland on our line for independence. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro, and thank you for taking my call. | |
| I support the Congress's meeting to release the Epstein, Epstein files. | ||
| I think that old saying, we know only the shadow knows where evil lurks. | ||
| And for America to come together to support our children is so critical. | ||
| It goes beyond Democrat to Republican. | ||
| We're all parents, and we all care about our children. | ||
| But I would just like to say, we're having our white march moment. | ||
| I don't know if any of you remember that they had a child prostitution ring scandal in Belgium, and a quarter of a million people marched on Brussels when it was revealed that they had their version of an Epstein guy. | ||
| And he kept a stable just outside of Buchel. | ||
| And behind a hidden wall, he had children. | ||
| And after dragging him through the courts and putting him in jail, he never revealed that he still had children locked in that house. | ||
| And when the cops went out there, they didn't see the children because they didn't know they were hidden behind that wall. | ||
| And those children starved to death. | ||
| So regardless of what side you're on in the political realm, we need to protect our children. | ||
| So thank you, C-SPAN, for providing the only real intelligent radio on the airways. | ||
| Really appreciate you guys. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Eric and Marilyn there, just to give you the highlights of what's being voted on today. | ||
| It's the Epstein Files Transparency Act, as it's known, requires the Department of Justice to publicly release within 30 days all unclassified records related to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Personal information of alleged victims or information that could jeopardize active federal investigations would be withheld. | ||
| The Department of Justice will be required to justify to Congress any withheld information or redactions. | ||
| One more call on this open forum. | ||
| This will be from Maine, Democrats line. | ||
| This is Jerry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| I'm a very, I started listening to C-SPAN when Mr. Trump became president. | ||
| After his State of the Union address, he shook hands with all the judges. | ||
| When he came up to Mr. Roberts, John Roberts, to shake hands with him, he said, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me. | ||
| As we go on, the big, beautiful bill, the unknown. | ||
| We don't know what he said for the 17 Republicans to change their mind on the no vote to yes. | ||
| The unknown, when he had his cabinet meeting and he turned to Pam Bondi, they still talking about the Epstein file. | ||
| And now that this is up, it doesn't make any difference from the party of Republican-Democrat or the two presidents fighting or him now. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Jerry there in Maine on this open forum and the previous calls. | ||
| Thank you for those, all of you who participated. | ||
| Coming up on the program, we'll have a discussion about the role that moderate Democrats play in current politics. | ||
| That will be with Lauren Harper Pope of the organization Welcome PAC. | ||
| But up next, the Saudi Crown Prince meets with the president and business leaders over the next couple of days. | ||
| We'll hear from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mona Yakubian, on the meeting and the current relationship the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia. | ||
| That discussion up next on Washington Journal. | ||
|
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| The Saudi Crown Prince will be in Washington over the next couple of days, meeting with President Trump and others and here to talk about that meeting and the larger implications. | ||
| Mona Yacubian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, she is their Middle East Program Director and Senior Advisor, Ms. Yacubian. | ||
| Thanks for giving us your time. | ||
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| How would you describe as far as the significance of these meetings over the next couple of days? | ||
| Well, I think, number one, it marks a remarkable comeback for the Saudi Crown Prince, who, following the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018, had become somewhat of a pariah. | ||
| U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the Crown Prince was aware of, if not ordered, that killing. | ||
| And so to see him now come to Washington and be welcomed with an Oval Offit office visit, black tie dinner, a big U.S.-Saudi investment conference tomorrow at the Kennedy Center. | ||
| I think that really underscores just how significant a comeback story this is for the Saudi Crown Prince. | ||
| More broadly, I think it marks a real deepening of bilateral U.S.-Saudi ties. | ||
| How would you describe the current relationship between this, our country, and theirs? | ||
| Well, I think it's one, as I said, of sort of strong shared interests. | ||
| President Trump has prioritized relations with Saudi Arabia. | ||
| It was the first stop on his first major foreign trip during his second administration. | ||
| During that trip, all kinds of deals announced, $600 billion announced in economic deals, also weapons sales. | ||
| And so I think you're seeing a real deepening of ties across several realms, in particular, the security and defense area, as well as economic and commercial ties, with a particular focus, I think, on artificial intelligence and critical minerals. | ||
| Over the last couple of days in reading about these meetings, the term normalization between the two countries has come up. | ||
| What's the significance of that given the current relationship we have? | ||
| Well, again, I'm not sure I'd call it normalization because we've always maintained diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia. | ||
| As I said, I think it's more of a deepening and a strengthening of the bilateral relationship. | ||
| One that's, I think, the administration is looking to expand out not just to the official level, but again, to include U.S. private sector corporations to build out economic and trade deals. | ||
| I think that's really how I would describe this. | ||
| Again, our guest with us until 8:30. | ||
| And if you have questions about today's meetings between the president and the Saudi Crown Prince, you can call and give us your thoughts on the lines: 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| Independence 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us thoughts too at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Ms. Yacubian, your colleague Michael Ratney at the CSIS has a piece today in the New York Times. | ||
| He writes this about the Crown Prince, and I want to get your thoughts on it as well, saying Prince Mohammed has made advances once thought unimaginable, including defanging the religious police and eliminating most of the laws once oppressed the lives of Saudi women. | ||
| Talk about that and what he's doing inside his own country. | ||
| Well, I think you're seeing a remarkable transformation inside Saudi Arabia, a real opening socially, where, again, a lot of the very strict conditions that had governed everyday interactions have really been relaxed. | ||
| For example, women who weren't allowed to drive even before now are able to drive. | ||
| A lot of the guardianship laws that had governed how women are treated and kind of the freedoms they have, those too have been lifted. | ||
| And so I think he's also referring to this kind of broad opening where there is a welcoming of the arts and culture, sports and entertainment, things that really, I think, as he rightly notes, even as recently as five years ago, would have been unimaginable. | ||
| That said, though, it is important, I think, to note that political repression does remain a real challenge in Saudi Arabia. | ||
| So you've had this kind of interesting contradiction of social opening, but kind of maintaining, I think the country has maintained a very strict hold on expression and political freedoms. | ||
| How would you elaborate that? | ||
| How would you give us an example? | ||
| Well, I think you're seeing things like people not able to express their views, for example, on social media, running the risk of being arrested for saying anything that might be deemed critical of the monarchy. | ||
| There are also questions about the judicial sector, that it's rather opaque. | ||
| It's not clear how the rule of law works. | ||
| And you're seeing Saudi Arabia on track to have a record number of executions this year. | ||
| On the topic of human rights, to what degree do you think will be addressed by the president during these next two days? | ||
| I mean, I don't think human rights is going to be high on the list. | ||
| This is an administration, the Trump administration, that really has not prioritized human rights or democracy promotion. | ||
| Again, I think the focus is really going to be economic and security. | ||
| Let's hear from Samuel. | ||
| Samuel in California, on our line for Republicans, for Mona Yacubian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Thank you for taking my call, Pedro. | ||
| This is for Mona. | ||
| I was telling her that that's a great honor to have the Crown Prince come to the White House to see President Trump. | ||
| He invited him there, and I'm going to tell you why, because he invested $600 billion and he invested $600 billion for the United States, and they're going to help us in everything. | ||
| And I think he's a great person. | ||
| And for Mona, thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Mr. McCumian, any response? | ||
| Well, I don't have any response to the latter half of the message, but I can say that, look, the $600 billion is indeed, I think, a highlight of the trip. | ||
| But I will also note, it's one thing to announce $600 billion in deals. | ||
| It's another entirely to actually see them implemented and brought to fruition. | ||
| So I think we might see more MOUs and other kinds of things come into play during this trip. | ||
| But, you know, I think it's a wait and see in terms of whether the $600 billion as promoted actually become a concrete reality in terms of deals and investment. | ||
| One of the storylines over the last few days is that according to the president, they're going to sell F-35 jet fighters to Saudi Arabia. | ||
| Yeah, that's a huge, I think, deal. | ||
| I mean, this is something that countries in the region have long sought. | ||
| The president yesterday signaled that he is moving forward with that deal, but it still has hurdles that it will still have to cross. | ||
| It certainly will need to have congressional approval. | ||
| And as well, there may be all kinds of restrictions and other things placed on the use of the jets. | ||
| And so I think time will tell as to whether in fact there is an actual transfer of that sort of stealth technology. | ||
| Those are, of course, the most sophisticated U.S. fighter jets. | ||
| And the only country in the region right now that has them is Israel. | ||
| And so we'll have to see whether or not this deal actually gets over the finish line. | ||
| Would you say that Saudi Arabia is still primarily a petroleum-based country? | ||
| That's their main export. | ||
| Or are they changing because of what's happening with petroleum worldwide? | ||
| Well, Saudi Arabia certainly relies heavily on hydrocarbons. | ||
| But in fact, I think a key priority is to diversify its economy. | ||
| Saudi Arabia understands full well the need to be prepared for a post-oil Middle East. | ||
| And I think that's actually what's really driving a lot of what we're seeing, a desire to expand their economy well beyond the oil sector. | ||
| I think that's what accounts for the focus on artificial intelligence in particular, as well as broader deals, tourism, entertainment, looking to build out major real estate projects and so forth. | ||
| This is all part of what I would argue is even an existential imperative for Saudi Arabia to diversify its economy. | ||
| Is that the Crown Prince driving that? | ||
| And if so, how are others within his country reacting to that diversification? | ||
| Yes, I think the Crown Prince is a chief architect of this. | ||
| He sees and understands well that Saudi Arabia's future lies in the ability to expand and engage economically well beyond the oil sector. | ||
| And I think it's been met with a lot of support in his country. | ||
| Again, part of what we talked about earlier on, this expansion into entertainment, opening up the economy, tourism, all of that is part of an effort really to build out and diversify the economy. | ||
| It has, I think, given, you know, sort of new life to Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And this is something that, by all accounts, is widely supported across the population. | ||
| Mohammed bin Saman is the Crown Prince. | ||
| We know him by name. | ||
| We see him on television. | ||
| Tell us about him. | ||
| What should people know about him? | ||
| What makes him tick, so to speak? | ||
| Well, he's, first of all, I think what's really notable is his age. | ||
| He's only 40 years old. | ||
| And so this is someone who is really going to define the future of Saudi Arabia, likely for decades to come. | ||
| He is a bold decision maker. | ||
| He is extremely engaging. | ||
| He has enormous vision and ambition for Saudi Arabia. | ||
| I think what's also important to note about him, though, is that he appears to also be someone, a leader that is learning. | ||
| And so when he first became Crown Prince back in 2015, he came out, I think, in some ways, some would say, recklessly in terms of some of the decision-making that he took, whether it was getting involved in the war in Yemen, playing a much more aggressive role in the region. | ||
| What we see now, I think, is someone that's more deliberate in their thinking and in their decision-making. | ||
| And I think that accounts for where and how he has steered Saudi Arabia to the position that it's in, where it is a leader in the Middle East. | ||
| Arguably, Saudi Arabia is the center of gravity of an emerging order in the Middle East. | ||
| And of course, as embodied by this visit, that he has won essentially an oval office visit with the President of the United States and a major formal black tie dinner and investments and so forth. | ||
| All of this, I think, is a testament to his ability to navigate his country and find a way forward for it. | ||
| 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans and Independents, 202748-8002. | ||
| If you want to ask our guests questions about the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince over the next couple of days, you can also text us at 202-748-8002. | ||
| To that last point, Mezzi Koubi, and it was the Washington Post, Jason Rezian, he himself being held as a hostage in Iran. | ||
| He wrote this about today's visit, and he says this, because you referenced it earlier, saying the horrific Jamal Khashoggi episode provided an opportunity for the United States to clip MBS's wings, and by doing so, perhaps even alter the course of the Saudi secession drama. | ||
| We missed our opportunity then, and by welcoming the Crown Prince to Washington this week, we will entrench him in power even further. | ||
| We will be dealing with this decision's fallout for a long time. | ||
| What do you think of that assessment? | ||
| Well, I think he, you know, again, points to exactly the critiques that I referenced in the beginning, that the human rights organizations, democracy promotion groups have really raised their concern about welcoming the Crown Prince given Saudi Arabia's human rights record. | ||
| But of course, as I think we know, you know, foreign policy is really at times a weighing of trade-offs. | ||
| And again, I think we understand, or certainly it's clear, that Saudi Arabia is a growing regional power. | ||
| And there are clearly shared interests between the United States and Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And I think that in some ways really sort of underscores the decisions taken in terms of the invitation to the Crown Prince to visit Washington. | ||
| It's always going to be tough. | ||
| It's always going to be a trade-off, I think, when you look at foreign policy, especially in that part of the world where human rights and some of the values that we hold don't always align. | ||
| And yet it is also a region that is in many ways critical to U.S. national security interests. | ||
| If this is a strengthening relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and you talk about other parts of the world, what does it mean, say, for the current events going on in Gaza? | ||
| Well, I think the current events going on in Gaza really have had an impact on what had been a driving dynamic in U.S.-Saudi relations, which is the U.S. seeking to broker normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would be an enormous diplomatic achievement if it occurs. | ||
| Because of the events in Gaza, certainly after October 7th and the ensuing conflict there, the prospects for Saudi-Israeli normalization, I think, are far less. | ||
| So that is not going to feature in this current visit. | ||
| We will not see, as far as I can tell, an announcement of even greater movement toward a deepening or an opening of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. | ||
| And that is really because of all that has happened in Gaza over the past couple of years. | ||
| There's a viewer who asked, this is Steve from Tampa, Florida, who asked the question, do you believe that Saudi Arabia eventually become part of the Abraham Accords? | ||
| I think it's certainly possible, but a lot will have to change. | ||
| In particular, I think from the Saudi perspective, they are talking about the need for a credible path to Palestinian statehood. | ||
| So much more progress is going to have to be made on that front. | ||
| I think they're looking closely at the 20-point ceasefire and day after agreement that the Trump administration negotiated and which was just passed by the United Nations Security Council to see that there is progress on the ground towards establishing Palestinian governance and security. | ||
| In the absence of progress in those directions, I don't think we will see a normalization. | ||
| However, the opposite is also true. | ||
| If there's progress made on Gaza, if there is a shift in Israel's position with respect to a Palestinian state, I think that could well open the way for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. | ||
| And since you mentioned, I want to get your thoughts real quick. | ||
| I know it's not the particular topic of this subject, but that UN decision yesterday when it comes to Gaza, where do you think that, how do you think that falls going forward? | ||
| Well, I think it's an enormous achievement for the Trump administration to have this plan now enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution. | ||
| It gives it the legitimacy, I think, that's needed to attract the kind of international support necessary for the plan to move forward. | ||
| Let's go to Tracy in Florida. | ||
| Democrats line, you're on with Mona Yacubian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Mona. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I just wanted to comment that in this discussion about progress in the Middle East and the success of what's going on, I can't help but ignore the fact that it seems like so much of it has to do with financial interests on the part of the Trump administration or really the Trump family. | ||
| And a lot of what he's been able to accomplish with the Saudis inherently has to do with business dealings that most of us, you know, most Americans may have nothing, are not aware of. | ||
| And that does worry me. | ||
| It does seem like we're seeing a new world order of sorts based on financial interests. | ||
| And that is extremely concerning. | ||
| And so it makes me kind of, you know, the legitimacy of a lot of these, you know, these negotiations worries me because, again, I think about following the money. | ||
| Thank you so much for taking my call. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I mean, I think you raise a very important question that has come up, which is kind of an unprecedented level of the mixing of U.S. official positions and stances with the Trump family's personal business interests and raising real questions about whether there are real conflict of interest concerns. | ||
| As noted, the Trump organization, the president's family's business, does indeed have ties to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf more broadly. | ||
| We know that there are even deals, as we speak, being discussed, real estate deals and so forth being considered. | ||
| And in addition, certainly after the first Trump administration and before the current one, we know that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has had the benefit of investments from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, among other things. | ||
| So absolutely, those ties are there, and I think they bear close watching. | ||
| You talked about the first Trump administration. | ||
| We're talking about the second one. | ||
| What was the relationship with Saudi Arabia during the Biden administration? | ||
| How would you characterize that and where the president has to go from there going forward? | ||
| Well, I think the relationship with Saudi Arabia during the Biden administration was much more troubled, maybe even tortured, because of the Jamal Khashoggi killing. | ||
| President Biden, when he was on the campaign trail before being elected, called MBS a pariah and sort of vowed to isolate the country. | ||
| And yet, U.S. interests really began to dictate how the Biden administration engaged with Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And viewers may recall the visit of President Biden to Saudi Arabia in July of 2022, the famous fist bump, where the president deigned to shake the hand of Mohammed bin Salman and instead offered a fist bump. | ||
| And this trip was taken in the quest to keep oil prices low. | ||
| It wasn't actually successful. | ||
| That said, over time, the Biden administration, I think because of this vision of brokering normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, having Saudi Arabia enter the Abraham Accords, the Biden administration began to shift its positioning on Saudi Arabia and began to actually deepen its diplomatic engagement, albeit quietly, to see if it could actually broker that normalization, | ||
| which would have been a crowning diplomatic achievement for the administration. | ||
| And so that was sort of where things were left off when President Trump came into his second term. | ||
| And we saw that the president did, has sort of tried to deepen, as I noted, the ties with Saudi Arabia, but again, between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but again, because of the conflict in Gaza, that has really strained the ability to move that agenda item forward. | ||
| We'll hear from Mike. | ||
| Mike joins us from Florida, Republican line. | ||
| Mike, you're on with our guests. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I wish X was working. | ||
| But my question is: we're so worried about the Trumps' business dealings, but where was all this worry when the Bidens were selling their influence? | ||
| The Trumps have actual businesses. | ||
| The Bidens have nothing. | ||
| And they raked in millions and millions of dollars. | ||
| Okay, that's Mike in Florida. | ||
| Mr. Cubian? | ||
| I mean, I'm not sure I have a response to that. | ||
| I think there's certainly concerns about President Biden's son, Bo and his dealings with Ukraine. | ||
| These are issues. | ||
| These are concerns. | ||
| I mean, I think it's important that the kind of the firewall between government business and family interests are maintained, regardless of administration, regardless of Republican or Democrat. | ||
| It's a key issue that bears watching. | ||
| We were talking about the F-35 deal earlier. | ||
| It's the president's former vice president, Mike Pence, making comments in London about that. | ||
| And he said, this, I have concerns about the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia or any nation that could not assure the United States that the technology and the great advancements that we've made with the F-35 don't fall into the hands of nations that are hostile to our interests. | ||
| He said in an television, saying that the president, he was confident that the president would make a decision that protected American interest. | ||
| Yeah, this is a big concern that in selling the F-35s to Saudi Arabia, it risks the transfer of that very sophisticated technology to China. | ||
| This is an issue that apparently was raised within the Pentagon. | ||
| I suspect it's an issue that will come up again when the deal has to go before the Congress for approval. | ||
| It's a huge issue. | ||
| Those who are advocates for the deal, however, say that, in fact, this is an important way to sort of keep Saudi Arabia on the U.S. side in this growing rivalry between the United States and China around the world, but in particular in the Middle East. | ||
| Where are the next steps? | ||
| What are the next steps, so to speak, after the meetings of today and tomorrow? | ||
| Our next steps for the United States and for Saudi Arabia. | ||
| Let's first see kind of what deliverables are actually announced. | ||
| I mean, we've talked about an F-35 sale. | ||
| That may be on the table. | ||
| I think one thing we haven't talked about, which will be interesting to see, is whether there is a defense agreement along the lines of what was provided to Qatar via an executive order just last month. | ||
| I think that's kind of where we'll have to see. | ||
| Is there some sort of a mutual defense agreement, not a treaty, but an agreement announced between the United States and Saudi Arabia? | ||
| And then I think we'll also have to see what happens in particular following the U.S.-Saudi investment summit that is due to take place tomorrow. | ||
| What kinds of MOUs, what kinds of follow-up trade and economic deals are announced as a result of that. | ||
| And so I think that's, we'll have to wait and see what deliverables are announced before we know what the next steps are. | ||
| Our guest is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. | ||
| You can see their work at the website csis.org. | ||
| Mona Yakubian joining us, their Middle East Program Director and Senior Advisor. | ||
| Thanks for your time today. | ||
| Thank you for having me. | ||
| Coming up, a discussion on politics, particularly where moderate Democrats and their role in the current state of politics. | ||
| That's a discussion with Welcome Pack's Lauren Harper-Pope, and that will be next on Washington Journal. | ||
|
unidentified
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When people cook with love for you, it is great, but you know, you know, the dry turkey in Thanksgiving is unnegotiable. | |
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| This is outrageous. | ||
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This is a kangaroo quarrel. | |
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| Washington Journal continues. | ||
| For a discussion, taking a look at the Democratic Party, in particular, where moderates staying in that, Lauren Harper Pope of the organization Welcome PAC joins us on Washington Journal. | ||
| She is their co-founder, and thanks for giving us your time. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Welcome PAC. | ||
| How would you describe it to other people? | ||
| So we affirm ourselves as Welcome, right? | ||
| We have a few organizations, Welcome Party, Welcome Democracy Institute, Welcome PAC. | ||
| And we essentially do what we call strengthening centrist faction for the Democratic Party, right? | ||
| So in the same way that the progressive faction has been incredibly robust, has been incredibly coherent across different organizations and different elected officials and partners, we're trying to do the same centrist, same strengthening for the faction for the centrist faction of our party. | ||
| How would you describe centrist in this case? | ||
| Right. | ||
| So a lot of people are like, well, moderates and centrists, they don't believe in anything, right? | ||
| And we find that to be completely, unabashedly just not true, right? | ||
| So centrism has its own vision, has its own values, right? | ||
| It is not necessarily just the non-extremes. | ||
| It's people who are uniquely, independently nuanced within their own politics, right? | ||
| So we have leaders like Marie Glisson-Camp Perez in Washington State and Jared and Golden in Maine and Adam Gray in California, Christopher McDonald Ribbon in Michigan. | ||
| These are leaders who are championing place-based politics, right? | ||
| The people who are championing the interests and the special interests and specifics of their district instead of necessarily party priorities, right? | ||
| And so when it comes to their vision for centrism, it's like, hey, how do we create a Democratic Party that feels welcoming, right? | ||
| That's the reason why we started Welcome, right? | ||
| We intended originally to start Welcome as a way to welcome in moderate Republicans and independent voters, but increasingly now we're finding that we have to create a more welcoming Democratic Party for Democrats, right? | ||
| I live in South Carolina, a more conservative Democrat on my side, and it feels increasingly distancing from me as a conservative Democratic voter to be within a Democratic Party like ours. | ||
| Do you think that the current state of politics, particularly when the Democratic Party favors progressives over centrist? | ||
| Oh, 100%. | ||
| And it's not necessarily inherently like anyone's fault, right? | ||
| It was a lot of just like kind of mistakes along the way, to be quite honest, right? | ||
| So when you even think about polling, right? | ||
| We have some friends at Searchlight Institute doing a lot of great polling about where voters actually are. | ||
| Because over the past several years, elected leaders, particularly in Congress, they've been taking polling from interest groups, right? | ||
| So their polling has been biased. | ||
| They're saying, oh, voters care, voters think this about immigration or voters think this about climate, whereas that wasn't necessarily where voters actually were. | ||
| And so they're feeling like they're being influenced by where voters actually are on issues, but they're getting false information, apparently, essentially. | ||
| The Real Clear Politics folks put some averages together when it comes to favorability of the Democratic Party overall. | ||
| And they say when it comes to the unfavorables, it's 58%, favorable, 34%. | ||
| When you hear those numbers, do you agree with them, disagree with them, to what degree? | ||
| Oh, I mean, yeah, I think the Democratic Party brand is in the gutters at this point, right? | ||
| It's terrible to think about where the party has transitioned, right? | ||
| So we put out a report recently called Deciding to Win, authored by Simon Basilon. | ||
| And essentially, he was saying, looking at the Democratic Party platform in 2012 versus where it was in 2024, there was a decrease in the use of words like veterans, middle class, fathers, responsibility, work, economy. | ||
| And there was an increase in words like hate and justice and Latino and LGBTQ and climate. | ||
| And it's like, how do we just disconnect so far from where the party was in the Obama era, in the original Obama era, or in 2012, where they were focused on the economy. | ||
| They were focused on building a middle class. | ||
| And now the Democratic Party has shifted so far into identity politics, it's become so distant from where the median voter is. | ||
| Elaborate on that. | ||
| What happened specifically on that front? | ||
| Well, like I said, so you're including so many perspectives from the progressive faction, right? | ||
| So when you build something like the progressive faction has, they have been incredibly robust and specific about where they want the party to go, right? | ||
| Like I said, leading into identity politics, leaning into climate, leaning into abortion, leaning into democracy, right? | ||
| And those are not necessarily inherently bad things. | ||
| But when you look at where, again, where the median voter is, the work of welcome, we try to really emphasize, like, we don't want to moderate the party to where the median DC voter is. | ||
| or the median, you know, like, again, climate group is. | ||
| We want to moderate the party to where the median American voter is. | ||
| We want to be able to win over voters in Montana and Ohio and Iowa again. | ||
| We want to be able to have U.S. Senate wins in places like this. | ||
| These states are basically lost, right? | ||
| After we lost Joe Manchin in West Virginia, we're not getting that back, right? | ||
| And people were so dissatisfied with Joe Manchin's leadership. | ||
| It's like, well, would you rather have him or the current Republican, right? | ||
| You at least had someone who was willing to caucus with Democrats. | ||
| Whereas when you create a party that has a brand that is so, again, far from the median voter, your perception of the people, voters' perception of the brand is that you're all progressives, right? | ||
| One of our friends, Rue Teixeira at the Liberal Patriot, he was writing recently about how voters still know who's running the big tent, right? | ||
| You know, the Democratic Party has become a big tent that's welcoming to Mamdani in the same way that it's welcoming, it was welcoming to Manchin in the past, but it's more welcome to a Momdani than it is to a Manchin now, or it is to a Jared Golden now, right? | ||
| And so when that becomes the reality, that's a problem, right? | ||
| And so, you know, like I said, Rui was like, they still know who's running the tent. | ||
| When even when you welcome in the Jared Goldens and the Rugles and Kim Perez and the Adam Grays, you still know who's running the show at the end of the day, and that's the problem. | ||
| Our guest is with us, and if you want to ask her questions, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us too at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You mentioned the New York City mayor's race, the result. | ||
| What did it illustrate for you as a centrist about that victory that he gained in New York? | ||
| Totally. | ||
| I mean, we also have to think about candidate quality, right? | ||
| Andrew Cuomo was not a great candidate to put up as the establishment centrist regular Democratic candidate in that race. | ||
| Like that was just poor selection, right? | ||
| In the same way that we had some poor selection even with Clinton versus Trump in 2016. | ||
| Like we could have done better in terms of our talent pool, right? | ||
| And so when it comes down to specifics, like, yeah, of course, a Momdani's going to beat a Cuomo, like, obviously. | ||
| But again, not to downplay Momdani's strengths, right? | ||
| He's incredibly charismatic. | ||
| He's incredibly personable. | ||
| He's able to, he even talked about, speaking of moderation, he was even able to moderate his stances on things like saying like, you know, defund the police, right? | ||
| Or saying like he's going to hire, you know, keep the same police chief, right? | ||
| So you see some of the extremes, like even Trump. | ||
| Trump moderated in his campaign last cycle talking about, you know, he's not going to ban all abortions, things like that. | ||
| And so when you think about moderation, it's less about, you know, again, like not being for anything. | ||
| It's about moderating your stances so that you can meet voters' needs, so that you can meet people where they are ideologically. | ||
| When you go out to recruit people to run for Congress or you're trying to make this case to Democrats overall, what's the strategy for your organization? | ||
| How do you go about doing that? | ||
| Totally. | ||
| So this is something that we deeply enjoy doing. | ||
| We love talking to candidates. | ||
| We love seeing where people are on issues. | ||
| Our organizations talk to over 75 candidates for the 2026 cycle already, people across the country. | ||
| We work in all the states across the country. | ||
| And this past cycle, we supported a slate of nine candidates called the win-the-middle slate, right? | ||
| So we are supporting people who we think can actually, like I said, win the ideological middle. | ||
| And so they were places like Whitney Fox in Florida, who was running against Anna Paulina Luna, Rebecca Cook in Wisconsin, and Janelle Selson in Pennsylvania running against Scott Perry. | ||
| And when we look for candidates, we don't have a questionnaire. | ||
| We don't have a thing that people have to fill out and fit our needs and everything. | ||
| But when we talk to people, we want to actually understand where they are on issues. | ||
| And we want to understand how do you differentiate from the Democratic Party? | ||
| We only work in Trump-won districts. | ||
| So welcome's only in the places that Trump won. | ||
| And if we're going to be in those places, you have to be able to appeal to Republican voters, right? | ||
| The math is not going to math if you're just trying to pick up Democratic wins, right? | ||
| Or a Democratic coalition. | ||
| So when it comes to welcome candidates, we're like, hey, how do you differentiate from the party? | ||
| How do you differentiate from the party brand that's become so toxic? | ||
| How do you champion place-based politics? | ||
| How do you effectively depolarize your district by being a centrist, you know, a centrist Democratic candidate who can win over Republican independent voters and again, even conservative Democratic voters in your district to be able to build a truly winning coalition? | ||
| And so we look for those people who are able to be nuanced in their moderation, right? | ||
| The people who are running in like Shannon Bird in Colorado and like I said, Rebecca Cook in Wisconsin. | ||
| These are places where, again, Republicans are currently in power, right? | ||
| So how do we build a coalition that can earn trust among these moderate Republicans, regular Republicans, independent voters, and everyone across the coalition? | ||
| If they take that track, can they get the money to support them? | ||
| Can they get the infrastructure to support them if they take that centrist track? | ||
| Totally. | ||
| So that is, again, that is a very big thrust of what Wellcome does, right? | ||
| So we build a community of centrists, right? | ||
| So these are not just the people who are working on your campaigns. | ||
| These are the donors, right? | ||
| These are the media influencers, right? | ||
| So these are the people who are willing to contribute to your campaign to talk about your campaign. | ||
| Maddie Glasius talks about welcome candidates often, right? | ||
| And he has an incredibly robust subscriber list. | ||
| And they're giving, you know, whether high dollar or low dollar donations to these centrist candidates to incentivize them to say, hey, we want to incentivize you to be a depolarizer. | ||
| We want to incentivize you to be able to win over Republicans and independent voters to ensure that not only so that Congress can actually be representative, right? | ||
| Let's hear from our callers. | ||
| This is Janet. | ||
| Janet joins us from New York, Line for Democrats. | ||
| You're on with Lauren Harper-Pope of Welcome Pack. | ||
| She is their co-founder. | ||
| Janet in New York, thanks for calling. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I wanted to, I love what she's saying. | ||
| And I love that. | ||
| I love that she's trying to implement the type of, hold on, I'm getting on my iPhone. | ||
| So anyway, so I'm going to. | ||
| Caller, let me invite you. | ||
| Go ahead, go ahead, please. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm a librarian. | |
| I run a political discussion group once a month at my library. | ||
| We have half Democrats, half Republicans. | ||
| And I have learned, I was a pretty opinionated Democrat, and now I've learned to listen to other people, respect their opinion. | ||
| And we bring it into the center all the time. | ||
| We constantly talk about facts, facts, facts. | ||
| And by the end of the hour, two and a half hours, actually, it becomes people are loving each other, friends with each other. | ||
| And it's just, I think it's as much about an open attitude as it is about listening. | ||
| So that's all I wanted to say. | ||
| Janet in New York, thanks. | ||
| Your response. | ||
| Oh, 100%. | ||
| I mean, if you don't listen to voters, then you don't know what they believe and what they value, right? | ||
| In the same way that you look at polls, you also have to listen to people's hearts and their fears and their concerns. | ||
| And so I deeply agree with that, Brian. | ||
| How much does this depend on the goal that you want to see to things that she does on the granular level, having these groups meeting together and talking about these issues? | ||
| I mean, when it comes to just, like, groups in general? | ||
| Well, just the effort on the small scale to achieve the bigger goal that you're seeking as far as more cooperation or at least more understanding between, say, centrists and progressives. | ||
| Oh, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that we try to emphasize at Wellcome is we're not always necessarily trying to change people's minds. | ||
| Like, I think one of the biggest thrusts of progressivism is that it tries to persuade people to where they are, whereas we just try to recalibrate the Democratic Party to where voters actually are, right? | ||
| And so when it comes to progressives versus centrists, like again, like there's like we coexist, right? | ||
| We live within the same party. | ||
| We have a lot of the same values and share a lot of the same concerns. | ||
| It's just a matter of the manner in which we go about it. | ||
| And so when it comes to centrism, again, it's much more about, again, like meeting people where they are ideologically and being willing to moderate on issues and also having the courage to be able to talk about things that are uncomfortable. | ||
| In the Democratic Party right now, so many Democrats are afraid of saying, I don't think that men should play women's sports. | ||
| A lot of Democrats are not willing to say that I am a pro-life Democrat. | ||
| I'm a pro-life Democrat. | ||
| And so when you talk about the issues, it's like people are just unwilling and afraid to talk about where they are authentically. | ||
| And when you have a lack of authenticity, like that truly comes across to voters, right? | ||
| They're like, I don't know where you are, right? | ||
| One of the biggest problems with the Harris campaign last cycle was that she went from being a centrist visionary prosecutor, very moderate person in California state to being the most or second most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate. | ||
| So there was a transition there, right? | ||
| So because she became incredibly more progressive. | ||
| And then when she was running for president in 2019, again, she took a lot of progressive stances. | ||
| And then when she was running in 2024, she was trying to moderate those stances, but she wasn't necessarily explicitly talking about where she was willing to moderate from her, even her own past positions, right? | ||
| And so when we talk about the party, we have to talk about our willingness to evolve, right? | ||
| Like people are talking about, how do we save the party? | ||
| We don't need to save this current brand of the Democratic Party. | ||
| This brand is not great. | ||
| We need to evolve the party to be willing to change, to be willing to say, hey, I've made mistakes. | ||
| I've said things that I don't believe anymore. | ||
| How do we become not the party of hypocrites, but the party of evolution? | ||
| How do we change our talking points to say like, hey, I believe firmly in this position. | ||
| And if you disagree with me, that's okay too. | ||
| This is Max. | ||
| Max joins us from Maryland. | ||
| You're on with our guests. | ||
| Good morning, Max. | ||
| Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| So I'm an independent. | ||
| I'm in my 60s. | ||
| And I think the first vote I cast was for Carter. | ||
| And I was a Democrat pretty much until 2016. | ||
| And the reason why I quit being a Democrat is because Democrats to me no longer represent a real agenda, but basically at that point, they were not Trump, right? | ||
| There's a and that's pretty, and that's still kind of where the Democrats are in my mind. | ||
| You don't have a lot of policies. | ||
| You don't support real health care reform, which would require universal health care. | ||
| You don't, you blindly support Israel, even though they commit war crimes. | ||
| You claim the high road all the time. | ||
| You want to help with welfare and all this stuff, which is great, but you rarely do anything about it. | ||
| And I think, you know, the ACA worked for a little while, but it's terrible. | ||
| It needs to be scrapped. | ||
| Our whole healthcare system based on profit will never work. | ||
| And Democrats will not admit that. | ||
| There's too many of them that are comfortable with their really good health care. | ||
| And basically, you put a lot out for the guests to respond to a little response. | ||
| I think where he's coming from is essentially that Democrats, like he's saying, they're just not Trump, right? | ||
| And I think that one of the biggest problems with the Democratic coalition and in its current state is that it's become kind of lazy, right? | ||
| We have a ton of safe seat Democrats, right? | ||
| The number of competitive districts over the past 20 or even 10 years has shrunk dramatically, right? | ||
| So when you have largely Democrats who are in D plus 30, D plus 20, D plus 50 even districts, you're going to become a party that is more self-interested in the liberal voters that are within your party, right? | ||
| So when you think about the base, the Democratic base has become essentially the college-educated white base of voters, right? | ||
| Democratic base, they used to be like, oh, it's black voters, Hispanic voters. | ||
| And it's like, no, it's not there anymore, right? | ||
| Because most black and Hispanic voters are moderate to conservative voters. | ||
| And so when you think about where you are positioning yourselves, like last cycle, right after the election, our friends at Morin Common, they put out a report about what voters perceive Democrats' priorities to be, right? | ||
| Democrats, I mean, voters perceive Democrats' priorities to be abortion and democracy and climate and LGBTQ issues, right? | ||
| And what their Democrats' actual priorities last cycle were actually, abortion was one of them, but they were also, it was also inflation and healthcare, right? | ||
| And so when you think about what we're like he was talking about, what Democrats actually stand for versus the perception of them, like, yeah, the perception's off, right? | ||
| And voters perceived Republicans' priorities to be inflation, immigration, and the economy. | ||
| And what were Republicans' priorities? | ||
| Inflation, immigration, and the economy, right? | ||
| And that's actually, that's also what voters were prioritizing too. | ||
| So when you think about, again, the disconnect, it's like we don't, Democrats, you know, obviously we represent an incredibly broad swath of interests. | ||
| But when it comes to priorities, we have to encourage voters to understand like we do care about the same issues that you care about. | ||
| Christine joins us from Michigan and Christine is on our line for Republicans. | ||
| You're on with Lauren Harper Pope. | ||
| Hello, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Frederick. | |
| I was just calling because when I first started tuning in, I heard her talking about the Mandami that was mayor-elect in New York and how everyone is against him. | ||
| And it reminds me of after 9-11 when they put the Muslim ban in effect. | ||
| And Muslims are, for the most part, you know, they are good people. | ||
| And just to be against him because he's a Muslim. | ||
| And liberal, I wish you would bring out the fact that liberal means a generous person. | ||
| And that is what I am. | ||
| And I just, since Herbert Bush, I have not voted for a Republican. | ||
| I have never changed my affiliation, but and like when they did a wave with Robez's wave, that hurt so many people. | ||
| And they say they're pro-life, but all those children are getting killed in Gaza. | ||
| And that's why Marjorie Taylor Green, you know, she came out with the Democrats to put a stop to that because it is wrong. | ||
| Okay, Christine there in Michigan. | ||
| Yeah, I think one of the, she brought up the word liberal, and one of the things that we emphasize a lot at Wellcome is, you know, liberal democracy means being willing to have nuance and differences in perspectives, right? | ||
| And one of the biggest problems I think with the progressive faction is that a lot of progressive interests are illiberal, right? | ||
| They don't want the nuance. | ||
| They want to have purity tests. | ||
| They want to ensure that you're hardline and absolute on every issue, right? | ||
| Whether that's climate or immigration or whatever. | ||
| So when it comes to the issues in general, like one of the one of the, again, one of the biggest things that we try to cultivate within centrist faction work is that you're willing to be nuanced in your perspective. | ||
| Necessarily that you're focusing on the issues that voters are prioritizing, which you should, but you're also willing to moderate on the issues that are becoming so absolute, right? | ||
| Whether it's again, like climate or the immigration, like you don't necessarily have to say, you know, you are a proponent of the farthest and most extreme position. | ||
| You can come to the center on the issue and still be, you know, care about the issue and be values, have the values for the issue, but you're not necessarily the extreme in the issue itself. | ||
| What did you think about the eight Democrats who decided to join with Republicans to reopen government? | ||
| Are there lessons there? | ||
| Totally. | ||
| So those eight Democrats, they are welcome people, right? | ||
| They are blue dogs and new dims and people who are part of the centrist faction. | ||
| And I think it's incredibly important to champion those Democrats because while I understand where Democrats were coming from when they were, you know, trying to keep the government shut down to combat Republicans, Democrats are not in a position to actually wield real power right now. | ||
| Like they don't have the ability to go toe-to-toe with Republicans because Republicans will go all the way with you, right? | ||
| And so I think when it comes to those Democrats who want to reopen the government, they were like, people are hurting right now. | ||
| Like federal employees are not getting paid. | ||
| Air traffic controllers, TSA, like they're not getting paid. | ||
| Snap benefits are not going out. | ||
| Like we're not going to hold the government hostage just because we're trying to prove a point to Republicans who are not going to get our point anyway, right? | ||
| Like the Republicans are not going to come over to our side. | ||
| They hold their line and they're not going to concede. | ||
| So in order to, again, continue to protect people, we're going to disperse, you know, reopen the government, disperse this money so that people can have what they need versus, again, just trying to make a point. | ||
| Listen, Dorothy. | ||
| Dorothy is in Baltimore. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| You know what? | ||
| I haven't donated to the Democratic Party for a while, but I'm getting ready to donate to yours. | ||
| I'm going to tell you why I say that. | ||
| The Democratic Party, people don't know the reason why their polls are so low is because they won all those races is because just what you just said. | ||
| Democrats fight for the wrong things and they don't even stand up for the right things. | ||
| And I'll tell you what I'm saying. | ||
| When we say college forgiveness, well, the opposition will say, well, we don't want our tax monies to go there. | ||
| But I pay taxes. | ||
| College students work and they pay taxes. | ||
| And those taxes are used to help care the elderly that don't want them to get any kind of relief. | ||
| College students work. | ||
| Their parents work. | ||
| Their grandparents work and many of their families work. | ||
| So they pay taxes. | ||
| Medicaid, the Republicans will say, we want to give Medicaid to able-bodied people. | ||
| Look up able-bodied. | ||
| Able-bodied people aren't sick. | ||
| Teenagers sitting in the basement or young people sitting in the basement planning gates, they're not sick. | ||
| They're not even using it. | ||
| But the cuts will go to the people that need it. | ||
| Pregnancy, I mean, abortion in nine months. | ||
| Who would allow anybody to have abortion in nine months when a baby is fully born and ready to go? | ||
| Democrats will not say, no, we don't believe in that. | ||
| Boys and men in the bathroom, no, we don't believe. | ||
| I'd call the police if I'm able to bathroom where I was to go to security. | ||
| We don't believe in that, but they won't say no. | ||
| They will not say no. | ||
| They talk about things that, like you say, the LGBTQ rights. | ||
| Well, they have rights, but we don't have, we shouldn't be so involved in people's intimate partners. | ||
| You have to be straight. | ||
| You don't need to be in my intimate relationship. | ||
| I don't need to be in. | ||
| Their laws are legal. | ||
| We shouldn't be talking about that. | ||
| We should be talking about the things you are saying about how to make all people's lives right. | ||
| And that's it. | ||
| And none of that other stuff. | ||
| And we should answer questions. | ||
| No, we don't believe in abortion in nine months. | ||
| That's insane. | ||
| But they won't say it. | ||
| I'm talking about elective officials. | ||
| All right, Dorothy, thank you for the call. | ||
| We'll let our guests respond. | ||
| Well, thank you, Dorothy. | ||
| That was really sweet of you to say. | ||
| So thank you so much. | ||
| And we appreciate your support. | ||
| But yeah, when it comes to the point she was making, like, yeah, it's really sad that we don't prioritize and we don't have courage to talk about things that are authentic to us, right? | ||
| We are, you know, again, willing to go to bat for, you know, like she mentioned, you know, any identity caucus, but we don't necessarily go to bat for the American, the median American. | ||
| And I think that's a big flaw. | ||
| And I was going to say something, I forgot I was about to say, but yeah, I just think, you know, generally speaking, you know, we have to be, you know, willing to be a big tent, right? | ||
| And the being of the big tent is, again, oh, that's what I'm talking about: depolarizing courage. | ||
| So, one of the one that I wrote on Welcome Stack a few months ago, but like Democrats, they always talk about being courageous and fighting, but we're not willing to operate in the depolarizing type of courage that I think is so in like what Dorothy was mentioning, so incumbent upon us to operate in, right? | ||
| So, like, one of the big things that they're saying, like, oh, Democrats do have courage, right? | ||
| Like, Representative Al Green was, you know, shouting at Trump at his address to Congress earlier this year, but that's not depolarizing courage. | ||
| That's polarizing courage, right? | ||
| Like, anybody who is fired up and mad can do that, right? | ||
| But it takes a very nuanced and methodical and intentional approach to actually be a depolarizer, right? | ||
| It takes courage and wisdom to be able to discern what fights are worth picking, right? | ||
| What battles are worth fighting over, right? | ||
| And so when Democrats die on every hill, that's why we get our approval ratings in the gutters, right? | ||
| When we are not willing to go to bat for the right fights, that's a big problem. | ||
| Well, your past career includes several stints of working for Beto O'Rourke in Texas. | ||
| What did you learn from that? | ||
| And what do you apply to what you do now? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, I deeply love Betto. | ||
| I think he's a beautiful human, and I love his passion. | ||
| And I think that's something that, you know, to people's points about centrism, you know, people, centrists lack passion. | ||
| And I'm like, well, I don't know about you, but I have a lot of passion. | ||
| And there's a lot of people who are in Congress and in leadership who do have passion. | ||
| Like I mentioned, all the, you know, the blue dogs and the folks who are even a majority Democrats, like they have a lot of passion and they bring that passion to the right battles. | ||
| Like I think that I think that, again, Betto, you know, he might be more progressive than I am ideologically now, but I think when it comes to like, how do you bring a zeal? | ||
| How do you bring an authenticity? | ||
| How do you bring a passion? | ||
| Like Betto is an incredible playbook for that. | ||
| From Fisk, Fisk joins us in California Independent Line. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Ms. Pope. | |
| I'm interested to see why you would want to identify as a Democrat right now. | ||
| Because as a Democrat, the history of the party will really be communism. | ||
| It will be nothing more than communism. | ||
| And it won't be something that's for the people. | ||
| It will be something that's against the people. | ||
| And I'd also like to just point out about the Epstein situations and about what happened down there on the island. | ||
| These were not little girls involved in sex parties. | ||
| This was elites engaging in satanic sex trafficking and sacrifice. | ||
| And they were sacrificing little girls down there on that island. | ||
| Fisk in California. | ||
| Lots of points there, Fisk. | ||
| But yeah, I think his first point about, you know, why do you identify as a Democrat, I think a lot of people have that problem right now. | ||
| Like I said, a lot of a lot of increasingly, particularly even young voters, they're identifying as independent voters, right? | ||
| And so when it comes to young voters, minority voters, people don't want to identify with a party right now because of the polarization that's present within those parties. | ||
| And again, like when we talk about your willingness to be a big tent, you have to be as willing to, again, welcome in a Mandani as you are a Joe Manchin. | ||
| And when you're not willing to do that, it shows and it makes people want to draw to the center, which again, people are at the center, but they don't want to identify with a party. | ||
| I talked to Dee Dequo at Stanford last year on our podcast, Depolarizers, and one of the things that she mentioned was: the parties are very weak, right? | ||
| They are only represented by the people who claim to be part of their faction or part of their party, but they don't necessarily have actually robust infrastructures to Make a clear case for what they believe and what they don't believe all the time, right? | ||
| Because they're just basically a sum of all their parts, right? | ||
| So, anybody who says I'm a Democrat, whether you're in California or Texas, like they're a part of the party and that's what makes it robust, obviously. | ||
| But when it comes to why you identify, it's important, I think, to be part of a party so that you can bring nuance within that party, right? | ||
| If you, if I identify as a Democratic voter and I say that I'm pro-life, I'm gonna need some representation in that, right? | ||
| And so, when you, again, people are talking about like how do we win over black voters, Hispanic voters, et cetera, you have to be representative of their interests, right? | ||
| And when it comes to, it's not necessarily just about the abortion issue, but it's about all issues across the board. | ||
| And when you're not willing to show and permit that independent-mindedness and that nuance within your party, people are going to assume that all of you are absolutionists on everything and you're all progressives, right? | ||
| When you don't have representation that's not progressive, people are going to feel like you don't actually have representation for them. | ||
| A quick response because to the point you just met, this is Mark in St. Louis. | ||
| He says, why not start a new party if that's the case? | ||
| I don't know if America is in the structure to do a new party right now. | ||
| Maybe one day. | ||
| I just don't know if it's viable right now. | ||
| So sorry, Mark. | ||
| I think we got to work with what we got right now. | ||
| And then if that doesn't work, we'll talk after that, Mark. | ||
| As far as you're involved in this cycle, to what extent, how much money you're putting in? | ||
| Tell us a little bit about that. | ||
| Yeah, so our first cycle, we supported Adam Frisch, who's running as Lauren Bobert, and then Will Rollins, who ran as Ken Calvert, and we did about $2 million that cycle. | ||
| This past cycle in 2024, again, we represented or we supported a slate of nine centrist Democrats running across the country. | ||
| And we did about $12 million last cycle. | ||
| So I'm not sure, obviously, what we're going to do this cycle in 2026, hopefully lots of money and lots of support. | ||
| But when it comes to, again, like welcome as a community, right? | ||
| When we talk about what we're doing, like we want to encourage people to feel like they have a home, right? | ||
| Party politics is all about a sense of belonging, right? | ||
| And when you don't cultivate a sense of belonging in your politics, people are not going to feel seen. | ||
| They're not going to feel heard. | ||
| They're not going to feel valued. | ||
| People want you to actually want to earn their vote. | ||
| And so when Democrats make a concerted effort to win over the votes of people in South Carolina who are conservative Democrats, they're going to win more people, right? | ||
| Because it's not just about how do we win in California? | ||
| How do we win in New York? | ||
| It's like, no, how do we win in states that we used to have a U.S. senator in, right? | ||
| Like Ohio, right? | ||
| We're not necessarily on track right now to regain Senate seats in Democratic places or in former places that we had a Democrat because the party is still not always evolving in the direction in which it's supposed to, right? | ||
| Again, like even when it comes to 2025 elections, I think Spanberger and Cheryl did an excellent job of truly championing this, you know, we need to be talking about affordability when you talk about inflation in the economy. | ||
| And they were, they actually had incredible centrist backgrounds in Congress, right? | ||
| So they both slipped districts from red to blue in 2018. | ||
| They both have federal law enforcement and military backgrounds. | ||
| And they also were rated as like most bipartisan members of Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. | ||
| And so they have those centrist credentials, which help them to have a reputation of being a centrist, right? | ||
| But when we look forward, we're going to have to be able or be willing to have the courage to talk about the other issues too, right? | ||
| Once we regain ground on the economy and we've already regained ground among voters on healthcare, we're going to have to talk about those other cultural issues that we have lost trust with. | ||
| Because once you get into government, once you get into power, voters are going to look at your governance, right? | ||
| Joe Biden was elected to be a centrist president and he governed as a progressive president, right? | ||
| And so when you look at the lawmaking that he did, it's like you don't necessarily just want to put someone in power that you think is going to turn face on you or do an about face on you. | ||
| So you want to be able to elect people that you think are going to actually carry those centrist values and governance. | ||
| Lauren Harper Pope of Welcome Pack. | ||
| Welcome.Team is the website. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Just a few minutes from now, a press conference featuring Thomas Massey, Rochana, and Marjorie Taylor Greene taking a look at the legislation that will be voted on later on today when it comes to the Epstein files. | ||
| And we'll take you to that press conference and show you a little bit of that now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Today is the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class. | |
| We're here to stand with forgotten and abandoned Americans against an Epstein class that had no regard for the rules or the laws. | ||
| Look, this is one of the most horrific and disgusting corruption scandals in our country's history. | ||
| You had Jeffrey Epstein who literally set up an island of rape, a rape island. | ||
| And you had rich and powerful men, some of the richest people in the world, who thought that they could hang out with bankers, buy off politicians, and abuse and rape America's girls with no consequence. | ||
| Because survivors spoke up, because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out. | ||
| And when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. | ||
| How did we allow this to happen? | ||
| There should be no buildings named after people in this Epstein class. | ||
| There should be no scholarships named after them. | ||
| They shouldn't be enjoying the perks of being affiliated with corporations or universities or writing op-eds or being lionized. | ||
| And many of the survivors will tell you some of these people still are celebrated in our society. | ||
| That's disgusting. | ||
| There needs to be accountability. | ||
| I want to recognize first and foremost the survivors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They are the ones who made today possible. | |
| Many of you had forgotten about this issue. | ||
| And frankly, for decades, we have not done enough about this issue. | ||
| And it's only because of their advocacy, them coming here to the Capitol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They showed up here time and again and on September 3rd that the country started to pay attention. | |
| And I also want to thank the courage of two of my colleagues in particular. | ||
| Both of them have suffered, as you know, extraordinary political consequences for what they did. | ||
| One, my colleague, Congressman Thomas Massey. | ||
| This would not have been possible if he hadn't led the discharge petition that got 218 signatures and is going to force a vote in the House of Representatives. | ||
| And this would not have certainly been possible if it were not for the courage of Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| She signed the petition, and I would keep texting Thomas. | ||
| Is she going to drop off? | ||
| Is she going to drop off? | ||
| Because there was so much pressure against us, so much attacks against her. | ||
| But she stood with the survivors. | ||
| For Thomas or me, this has never been political. | ||
| This is not about questions of Trump or Biden. | ||
| This is a question of doing the right thing for survivors. | ||
| We're going to get a vote today. | ||
| I expect an overwhelming vote in the House of Representatives. | ||
| And I don't want the DC swamp playing any games. | ||
| They need to pass this in the Senate. | ||
| And they should not amend it. | ||
| President Trump has said he would sign the Epstein Transparency Act. | ||
| It's going to get overwhelming support in the House. | ||
| It should go straight to the Senate and it should be signed. | ||
| No amendments, no adding loopholes. | ||
| Justice is long overdue. | ||
| And I want to hand it over to my colleague, Representative Thomas Massey. | ||
| Thank you, Rob. | ||
| I want to start by thanking the survivors. | ||
| I mean, they're giving everybody hope in this country. | ||
| There are survivors of other sex crimes in this country wondering if they should come forward. | ||
| They're clouded with shame and concerned that law enforcement will do nothing. | ||
| And these survivors have stepped forth, taking that same risk, worried that they will be defamed themselves. | ||
| They have been defamed for stepping forward. | ||
| But we're going to get justice for them. | ||
| That's going to happen today in the People's House. | ||
| The founders set up our government with three branches and two branches of Congress. | ||
| And I don't think it's any coincidence that this fight is being started and it's being won in the House of Representatives. | ||
| That's the press conference leading up to the vote later today in the House on legislation that, if it's signed by the president, passed in the House and the Senate would release all information related to Jeffrey Epstein from the Justice Department. | ||
| Again, stay with C-SPAN. | ||
| And as that day goes on in the House, you can watch the rest of that press conference, which will feature survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. | ||
| That will be on our sister channel, C-SPAN2, and you can watch it there. | ||
| Always, you can watch it on the app or the website. | ||
| Open Forum, if you want to talk about that legislation for today or other matters of politics, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| If you want to participate in Open Forum, we will go until 10 o'clock. | ||
| You can always post on our social media sites. | ||
| That's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN. | ||
| And as always, on X at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| Anthony is in Florida. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| Anthony, you're on this open forum. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I just want to talk a little bit about your previous guest. | ||
| As a Democrat or as a liberal voter, I've seen the Overton window shift very far to the right in my lifetime. | ||
| And so people like Ms. Pope help to bring that window further to the right by constantly moving to the fluid center. | ||
| So I wish he was still here because I would love to know who the primary voters or excuse me, who the primary donors are for Welcome Pact, because I have the suspicion it is the very wealthy billionaires who so desperately do not want to be taxed fairly. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Brandon is next. | ||
| Brandon in California, Republican line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Pedro, how are you doing? | |
| All right, thank you. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
First of all, I want to say appreciate Lauren for coming out today. | |
| She gave us a lot of information that we needed. | ||
| I did have a question for her. | ||
| I guess I'll just say it overall. | ||
| As a Democrat, or as a Republican, or any political party, is it possible that maybe what we just went through with the shutdowns is probably a preview of what we might go through next year? | ||
| And if so, why do we still have to continue to deal with that? | ||
| Why can't we just come up with solutions now? | ||
| Why keep kicking the can? | ||
| And the second thing, and like I said, appreciate you, Pedro. | ||
| Appreciate Lauren. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Brandon there in California of the shutdown. | ||
| This is from USA Today. | ||
| The CBS News and YouGov poll, when it comes to who won, so to speak, conducted between the 13th and 14th, said that 55% of Americans believe President Donald Trump and Republicans got more of what they wanted from negotiations that ended the shutdown. | ||
| And only 6% said the Democrats came out on top. | ||
| 24% said neither party was victorious. | ||
| That coming out of the shutdown, one of those discussions coming out of the shutdown was enhanced subsidies from the ACA. | ||
| This is from the politics section of the Washington Times. | ||
| It quotes Senator Bill Cassidy, his proposals for what health care should look like, at least an aspect of it, saying that Mr. Cassidy is hoping Democrats will entertain his alternative instead. | ||
| He wants to take the money the government would spend on enhanced subsidies were extended $23 billion in 2026 and $350 billion over 10 years and use it to pre-fund health savings accounts or HSAs. | ||
| This adding that HSAs are tax-exempt accounts paired with high-deductible health insurance plans. | ||
| The consumer can use money from the account for co-pays and deductibles, prescription drug costs, and other out-of-pocket health expenses. | ||
| More there from Washington Times this morning. | ||
| Jay is next. | ||
| He's in Richmond, Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
| Jay in Richmond, Virginia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Oh, hi. | ||
| Hi. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I was calling in reference to the Epstein terrible situation there. | ||
| And my question is this: and maybe someone in that arena could help me. | ||
| I am 74 years old. | ||
| I was in college and I was raped by a man, and I reported to him right away. | ||
| I don't understand why these ladies did not report that right away. | ||
| You can tell when you are being violated, and they waited all this time. | ||
| I just, I just really, God bless them, and I'll pray for them, but I just don't understand. | ||
| Maybe someone can answer it for me. | ||
| Why did you wait so long to tell the abuser? | ||
| You are a woman, a child of God. | ||
| You know when you get abused. | ||
| You know it. | ||
| So why sit there and allow it to happen? | ||
| Mark and the Bronx, Republican line, you're next. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, good morning. | |
| Maybe it wasn't the jacuzzi. | ||
| So I want to describe this word, right? | ||
| Hoax. | ||
| Hoaxed, hoaxing, hoaxes, right? | ||
| To trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous. | ||
| Vernon. | ||
| Vernon in Ohio, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'd like to know something. | |
| I want to know what happened to people how I got their food stamps. | ||
| What do you mean by that, Vernon? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, they said they were going to put the rest on our food stamp card. | |
| They haven't did it yet. | ||
| And I'm 77 years old. | ||
| They only sent me $17. | ||
| And they claimed last week they were going to pull them all on there. | ||
| Have you contacted those there in Youngstown that deal with these things? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I can't get to. | |
| Don't nobody answer the office at the welfare office. | ||
| Nobody answered it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Vernon, there in Ohio. | ||
| Omar in California, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hey, how are you doing, C-SPAN? | ||
| Thank you for taking my call to Megaphone America. | ||
| C-SPAN got to stay strong. | ||
| They're attacking C-SPAN with this administration going after the press. | ||
| You know, the truth is the truth. | ||
| You can't decide what you like to be the truth. | ||
| That's not right. | ||
| I'm an old paper boy. | ||
| They used to make me read the paper. | ||
| They used to make me do my homework. | ||
| But I was making that money. | ||
| But I got replaced by the machines. | ||
| The newspaper stands took me out. | ||
| So, you know, with all this new stuff happening, you know, we got to keep the press strong. | ||
| If a spaceship lands in back of you, I want you to say something about it. | ||
| You know, these people are eroding the rights of American citizens. | ||
| And every day something's getting stripped. | ||
| And money is a big influence. | ||
| You know, being broke and not being able to barely survive shouldn't be a reason to be took advantage of. | ||
| Okay, Omar there in California. | ||
| The previous caller had asked about food stamps, the SNAP program. | ||
| This is from USA Today from a couple of days ago saying the nearly 42 million low-income Americans on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will have to reapply for benefits under a planned overhaul of the program in an effort to cut down on, quote, fraud. | ||
| That from the Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, saying that she's saying that SNAP, meant to be a nutrition lifeline for financially struggling households, was among the first priorities she targeted for review, cited concerns about eligibility and oversight in an interview with Newsmax, quote, make sure that everyone's taking a taxpayer-funded benefit, though, food stamps, that they are literally vulnerable and they can't survive without it. | ||
| The nation's largest nutrition assistance program was a flashpoint during the 43-day government shutdown, leading to unprecedented disruptions in payments and a litany of court rulings. | ||
| A spending package that ended the shutdown restored full funding to the USDA, which oversees SNAP, after benefits were paused for the first time in the program's history on November the 1st. | ||
| More there if you want to read about that, the status of SNAP. | ||
| Let's hear from Debbie. | ||
| Debbie joins us from Maryland, Republican line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm calling about Jeffrey Epstein. | |
| Well, he's gone. | ||
| And all these kids that came over the border, it seems to me the 35,000 kids that they can't find right now is more important than Jeffrey Epstein being dead. | ||
| These girls that were assaulted by the Epsteins, should they not go to a psychiatrist or something? | ||
| Because he's already dead. | ||
| There's nothing else they can do. | ||
| And these kids that are out now from coming over the border and lost, I think that's more important to the Americans. | ||
| I'm worried about it. | ||
| Okay, that's Debbie and Maryland. | ||
| That press conference that we showed you earlier featuring survivors of abuse from Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Some of them speaking. | ||
| We'll go to that for just a bit. | ||
| Protect the children, all children. | ||
| You protect all of us equally. | ||
| Thank you very much for your time. | ||
| Following that, Lisa Phillips will be the next survivor. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| My name is Lisa Phillips. | ||
| It's an honor to stand here again for something America is finally united on. | ||
| The immediate release of the entire Epstein files. | ||
| In a divided nation, this is one demand we all share. | ||
| Last time I stood here, I made a promise to all survivors watching. | ||
| If those in power refused to release the truth, we would start uncovering it ourselves. | ||
| For anyone who doubted that, that moment has already arrived. | ||
| Since that day, more survivors across the country and around the world have reached out, texts, emails, DMs, first-hand accounts, and evidence. | ||
| Many are women who were abused or trafficked through the international modeling pipeline Epstein built, promising visas, apartments, opportunities, futures, while exploiting their dreams for abuse. | ||
| Most are still terrified to speak publicly because the men involved are powerful. | ||
| They're connected, and as we know, they're protected. | ||
| For too long, survivors have watched others speak for us. | ||
| And while we are grateful for our allies in Congress on both sides, we've realized something. | ||
| This fight belongs to us. | ||
| We lived it, and we know the truth. | ||
| And we will not wait quietly for institutions to decide when we're allowed to speak. | ||
| The survivors now coming forward have entrusted us with their stories. | ||
| We are sharing that information with the proper authorities, and when it can safely be made public, it will be. | ||
| So today, we are launching something historic. | ||
| The first national survivor-led political movement in America. | ||
| Nonpartisan, laser-focused on exposing the systems, the loopholes, power structures, and silencing mechanisms that have protected predators for far too long. | ||
| Again, some of those survivors speaking as part of the press conference, you can continue watching it on C-SPAN 2 if you wish. | ||
| You can also follow along on our app at C-SPANNOW on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Let's hear from John. | ||
| John in Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm calling in because regarding this Epstein issue, I'm just perplexed at why Donald Trump is the one that resurrected this because during the past four years under the Biden administration, no one talked about it. | |
| And suddenly, when Trump came into office, he said he's going to release the files, you know, all these secrets that the government was holding, including Epstein, and pushed his DOJ to bring this up and was talking Epstein files. | ||
| Epstein files is all over the media, right-wing, mainstream, you name it. | ||
| He brought this back up. | ||
| And this is the reason why it is getting the attention it is right now, because during the past four years under the previous administration, no one talked about it. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| It was dead silence. | ||
| And of course, Trump had more than enough ammunition in terms of what he could criticize the Biden administration on to get that voting capital. | ||
| Why did he bring this up? | ||
| I mean, is there something that he was, if there was something that he was hiding, why would he bring up this issue and bring this to the spotlight and then suddenly say there's nothing there? | ||
| You know, this is all a left-wing hoax and there's nothing to this scandal. | ||
| I'm just completely perplexed at why he brought this up in the first place. | ||
| Any thoughts? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| This is Ms. Ann. | ||
| Ms. Shannon in New York. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Bear with me, please. | ||
| This is my first time calling in. | ||
| Two points. | ||
| For the woman that just called in that stated that why didn't these women come forward when they were attacked? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| When they were, you know, the survivors of Epstein, they were children. | ||
| So a lot of them were children, young women. | ||
| And these were powerful people that were, you know, attacking them. | ||
| So, I mean, that was such a crazy thing to come on and say. | ||
| And just one more thing for the Democratic centrist that came in and that came on your guest. | ||
| I really like what she had to say because there was a caller that called in that indicated that Democrats, not all of us believe that everyone should be on SNAP. | ||
| We believe that people who need it should be on it. | ||
| We don't all believe that boys should play in girls' sports. | ||
| We don't all believe that everyone should have an abortion, especially in the ninth month. | ||
| And people, the Democrats don't say that. | ||
| When they're running for office, they don't indicate or say what a lot of us believe. | ||
| They just stick to these ultra-progressive views. | ||
| And this is why we're in the position that we're in today. | ||
| And yeah, that's all I have to say. | ||
| Let's go to Arthur. | ||
| Arthur joins us from Texas, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| This is before the shutdown started. | ||
| They're complaining about terrorists. | ||
| Well, one day, 6-Pan was interviewing Schumer, and he said that he had supported terrorists back in 21, then he denied about it and just changed the question. | ||
| I'd like to know why he didn't come out and say that he believed in terrorists. | ||
| And then now it cuts to, you know, they've seen files that seem like they're worried more about them than they really are about the American people. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mary, up next, Mary in Michigan, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Pedro. | ||
| I've noticed that there's quite a divide in the callers today. | ||
| And overwhelmingly, I think this triggers something in females. | ||
| And this has really bothered me the last couple of weeks when you get people that bend over backwards to explain behavior by mostly white men, rich white men's behavior or whatever. | ||
| And through the years, it's been Catholic priests, the Boy Scouts. | ||
| Enough is enough. | ||
| And also, what really bothers me is I'll bring up Bill Clinton. | ||
| Now, whatever he did in his past or whatever, there's a big difference between a 15-year-old girl and somebody that is a consenting adult. | ||
| And the same with, may he rest in peace, President Kennedy. | ||
| There's a big difference in his behavior. | ||
| And I'm not saying it was good or bad or whatever, but those were consenting adults. | ||
| When you try to justify something that was done to young girls below the age of 18, it's a bridge too far. | ||
| And I believe the majority of women and if the men that have wives, daughters, granddaughters, look in the mirror and say that you would not be screaming from the rooftops today if that happened to somebody in your family. | ||
| And you don't have to look too far for this kind of behavior. | ||
| That goes, unfortunately, has been swept under the rug for too long, and there's too many victims out there. | ||
| And I think it's just a bridge too far for people to. | ||
| And when they vote today, it really bothers me that people, they won't vote yes or no. | ||
| They just don't vote. | ||
| If you're a congressperson today, you stand up and you vote. | ||
| And you own that vote next. | ||
| That vote won't be in the House today. | ||
| I'll expect it later on in the afternoon, later on today. | ||
| Stay close to C-SPAN and watch for that. | ||
| From Florida, Democrats line. | ||
| Darlene next. | ||
| Darlene from Florida. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for taking my call. | |
| Wonderful. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I'm calling in regards to the Epstein Files Transparency Act that they're talking about. | ||
| I find that really hypocritical because if you read what it states, it says unclassified. | ||
| That's the key word, unclassified. | ||
| So while they're debating on voting and now Trump is saying, oh, sure, yeah, open it up, let them all see everything. | ||
| In the interim, you have Bundy and the rest of the government back there scrambling to remove anybody's names from different countries, and of course, including Trump and his allies. | ||
| They're hiding their names. | ||
| They're making everything classified. | ||
| I just think it's a joke. | ||
| And the people who do not vote to have it open, I just cannot believe that they would say no to vote to have these open. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here's part of the text of the legislation that's going to be voted on today, not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this act. | ||
| The Attorney General shall, subject to subsection B, make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office that relate to Jeffrey Epstein, including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters, Delaine Maxwell, flight logs, or travel records, | ||
| including but not limited to manifest itineraries, pilot records, and customs and immigration documentation for any aircraft vessel or vehicle owned, operated, or used by Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| It goes on from there. | ||
| You can find it at Congress.gov. | ||
| That legislation that will be voted on later on today, H.R. 4405 is what you're looking for. | ||
| Talk about that during this open forum or other issues of politics if you wish. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| 202-748-8001 for Republicans and Independents. | ||
| 202748-8002. | ||
| This is from Shelby, North Carolina. | ||
| William is next. | ||
| Independent line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, young man. | |
| How are you? | ||
| I'm well, thank you. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, sir. | |
| As Christ the Almighty was resurrected, so were we. | ||
| First, I'd like to say that this nation spiritually is as Egypt, Sodom, Gomorrah, and Babylon. | ||
| Man worships himself. | ||
| This is the most antichrist nation, the youngest nation that was built on bloodshed, lies, false religion, not applying the Sharia law that Moses commanded the people, the true ones, that the Almighty gave him. | ||
| That is the way of law and order, the peace. | ||
| And the way y'all have blasphemed his holy name, our Lord, our King, Yeshua, my friend, y'all have blasphemed. | ||
| Y'all make a mockery. | ||
| Y'all are still dead in your works. | ||
| You worship yourself, and that is not right. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Lawrence is in Arkansas Republican line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, Pedro. | |
| I just have to say, this is probably one of the greatest political hypocrisy moments ever. | ||
| I mean, let's just think for a second. | ||
| Five years ago, if you were to mention the name Jeffrey Epstein, people would scream at you as a conspiracy theorist. | ||
| Oh, Pizzagate. | ||
| Oh, QAnon. | ||
| Oh, you're crazy. | ||
| Nobody would talk about it. | ||
| All the Republicans and everybody were trying to say we need to get to the bottom of it. | ||
| And Democrats said it was a conspiracy theory. | ||
| And then all of a sudden, when it comes politically, I don't know, useful for them, they try to say they want the Epstein files because they want to implicate Trump. | ||
| Then what do we find out? | ||
| Not only was Trump not talking to Jeffrey Epstein, but many prominent Democrats were in communication with Jeffrey Epstein many years after he had already been prosecuted. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein found out that Donald Trump turned him in. | ||
| That's why he got mad about him. | ||
| So every mention of Trump in these emails is Jeffrey Epstein hating Donald Trump. | ||
| Donald Trump never communicated with Epstein. | ||
| Larry Summers was asking for relationship advice. | ||
| Stacey Askett was telling him thanks for telling her how good he looked on TV. | ||
| Michael Wolf was asking for relationship advice and asking him how he could hang Trump. | ||
| So this is the biggest political hypocrisy I've ever seen. | ||
| And Donald Trump walked him right into it. | ||
| He lit a bonfire at the bottom of the cliff, walked the Democrats to the edge of it, and they jumped off freely. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Let's hear from Barbara. | ||
| Barbara in Los Angeles, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| I just, well, I'm just surprised that Donald Trump is approving this. | ||
| What they did, they're taking his name out. | ||
| Bombing them. | ||
| Okay, Barbara in Los Angeles again. | ||
| It's Open Forum. | ||
| Today's vote on the Epstein files being part of Open Forum. | ||
| If you want to comment on that, 202748-8000 for Democrats, Republicans, 202748-8001 in Independence. | ||
| 202748-8,000 today, 8,002 for independence. | ||
| It was earlier today that Wall Street Journal Congressional Reporter Siobhan Hughes joined us to talk about today's House vote, some of the details there when it comes to what's being voted on. | ||
| Here are the updates. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The focal point for the day is very much the vote on releasing those Epstein files. | |
| But before we get to that point, there is going to be a build-up. | ||
| Early in the morning, you are going to see people like Thomas Massey with the victims for a press conference. | ||
| When it was scheduled, the idea was to put pressure on the House to pass this legislation. | ||
| At this point, with the bill likely to speed through, it's going to be putting pressure on the Senate. | ||
| We also are expected to hear from House Speaker Mike Johnson after Republicans meet this morning. | ||
| That's going to be important because there is an emerging conversation among Republicans about whether the bill needs to be revised, maybe when it hits the Senate, in order to protect the identities of some people whose names might be revealed in these records. | ||
| And then finally, of course, that vote, which I believe, as you've been reporting, is going to be on the so-called suspension calendar, meaning it's going to need two-thirds support to pass. | ||
| And while the expectation is that's likely, it's not a lock yet. | ||
| Before we go a little bit more into what you just said, talk us, what does the actual legislation do? | ||
| I know I explained in the first sentence of what its purpose is, but what will it do? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so the goal is basically to get the Justice Department to release all of these records that have not yet been shared with Congress or publicly. | |
| But the big set of records that Congress wants are something called 302s. | ||
| This is a special terminology for memos related to interviews conducted with witnesses. | ||
| And what Thomas Massey has said, based on his conversations with the victims' lawyers, is that there are at least 20 individuals named in those records whose names would then become public. | ||
| And you would see really the full scope and extent of very high-level and prominent individuals who were caught up in this. | ||
| And that goes back to your initial comments about possible revisions to protect that going forward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's exactly the point, and that is where the fight is. | |
| And when I did catch up with Thomas Massey last night, he was a bit gobsmacked by that and said something like, if that gets changed in the Senate, they are going to get run over by the same freight train that ran over every Republican but four down in the House. | ||
| The four being a reference, of course, to the four who did sign that discharge petition. | ||
| When it comes to Republicans, will this be a widespread supported bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I was up on the Hill last night, and the sense I got was that there was very, very broad support for this bill, that there was really going to be a stampede into the yes column. | |
| That did not mean that there were no reservations, but that on average, Republicans were betting they wanted to be on the right side of basically history and MAGA on this one. | ||
| How much of that do you think was influenced by the president himself saying and telling Republicans, go ahead, let's pass this bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the indications are that really that was the major driver here, that initially very few Republicans were willing to go on record saying they were going to support this legislation. | |
| And then after Donald Trump reversed himself over the weekend and said he supported it, you saw the dam break and Republicans en masse indicate their support. | ||
| You talked about the Senate quite a bit in your opening statements. | ||
| Let's focus on that for a bit. | ||
| Let's assume that it passes the House. | ||
| Then what is the pressure exactly on the Senate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, for a couple of points here, really. | |
| Number one, Democrats have said they plan to mount a full court press to convince John Thune to schedule a vote. | ||
| Don't forget the ball is really in his hands in terms of what comes to the floor. | ||
| But then there is also the pressure of the MAGA base. | ||
| And when you see people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, Nancy Mace be willing to stand up and cross President Trump, that tells you they think the power of the MAGA base is so overwhelming that it's going to put political pressure on the Senate as well. | ||
| Has Senator Thun, the majority leader, given indications of where he is on this legislation at its current phase? | ||
|
unidentified
|
John Thune has not given indications. | |
| He is somebody who tends to like to leave himself a little bit of room to maneuver, but you can bet that the moment he sets foot under that Capitol dome today, that is going to be the first question reporters lob at him. | ||
| If we see the actual effort today and it does pass, when does the Justice Department have to respond, given that if the president signs this in the law? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's very quickly. | |
| My recollection is, I think, 30 days, but there's an asterisk here, but, but, but. | ||
| You remember that President Trump recently announced he would like Pam Bondi to open an investigation into some people caught up in this, and he aimed that at Democrats. | ||
| The hitch here is that if there is an open investigation, that could give the Justice Department cover or a reason to not release the records, and then we would essentially be frozen in place exactly where we are right now. | ||
| And this comes following that meeting that the president had with members of the Justice Department and some members of a member of Congress even talking about these issues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| He had Lauren Bobert up in the situation room, according to reporting that my newspaper and I believe others did last week to really try to put pressure on her, and she did not budge. | ||
| Well, we've talked about a lot of things of the things we've talked about, or maybe even things that we even talked about yet. | ||
| What are you watching for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm watching for the level of support. | |
| I want to be sure that we end up with that two-thirds support, also, by the way, a veto-proof majority. | ||
| I am very much paying attention to what Mike Johnson is going to be saying this morning, because it tells you that this might not be a clean drive to the finish line here. | ||
| This conversation around protecting what people like Massey says are other prominent individuals, and then also how John Boone handles this. | ||
| It's pretty clear that President Trump and his Republican allies want to get this off their plates as quickly as possible, but it may not be so easy to land that smoothly and quickly just yet. | ||
| That interview from earlier today, you heard her talk about the reaction or expected reaction from Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| Axios picking up that story in a story that was posted a little while ago saying that House Speaker Johnson is reversing course, throwing his support behind a petition to compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The move is a remarkable pivot for Johnson, who had urged Republicans to reject the effort. | ||
| President Trump's last-minute public endorsement made resistance untenable. | ||
| He announced his support during a Republican conference meeting Tuesday morning. | ||
| This morning, a source according to the room told Axios, and the vote to compel the release of the Epstein files is expected to receive unanimous Republican backing, according to multiple GOP members. | ||
| So there's the status. | ||
| You can follow along on C-SPAN as that plays out throughout the day. | ||
| It's open forum: 202-748-8,000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Maxwell in Las Vegas, Republican line, thanks for waiting. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think this whole situation is crazy. | |
| Because didn't Pam Bondi say she had these Epstein files on her desk a while ago, right? | ||
| And then there wasn't no files. | ||
| So they already lied. | ||
| So the whole situation is just absurd. | ||
| If she already had the files, they're just going to be the people that have anything commit any crime against children is going to be redacted and taken out. | ||
| If this was me, me and my job, and I told somebody, yeah, I have the paperwork ready for you. | ||
| Yeah, boss. | ||
| And then my boss came to me and said, you got that paperwork? | ||
| And I said, what paperwork? | ||
| What are you talking about? | ||
| I'd probably be fired if you get my drift here. | ||
| Let's go to Matt. | ||
| Matt in Ohio, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Pedro. | ||
| This is really elementary. | ||
| This is the same thing like when Trump said he's going to release his taxes. | ||
| Oh, I can't release them because they're under audit. | ||
| What's going to happen is this will pass the House. | ||
| It'll pass the Senate and Trump will sign it. | ||
| And then Pam Bondi will say, well, we can't release them. | ||
| It's under investigation. | ||
| We're investigating these Democrats. | ||
| So it'll just get held up, just like his taxes did. | ||
| One other thing for Republicans who always say, well, Biden had it for four years. | ||
| Why didn't he do anything then? | ||
| Same thing. | ||
| It was under investigation. | ||
| They couldn't release him. | ||
| Thanks a lot. | ||
| From Frank. | ||
| Frank in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I would like to talk about the snap cards. | ||
| Number one, do we have an association that checks on who is using it illegally? | ||
| Number two, how come they can buy anything? | ||
| They can buy sushi, they can buy lobster in a can, all types of pastries. | ||
| Why can't we have essential foods being bought? | ||
| We have our famous politicians in Massachusetts that want them to buy everything. | ||
| And their photo ID should be on the card. | ||
| One of the politicians says it's not good to degrade them. | ||
| They're getting all of this food for nothing from us taxpayers. | ||
| There's a lot of fraud going on with the snap cards. | ||
| Plus, when they go pick up food at the food stations, they'll go like from Newton Mass to Watertown Mass and fill up their trunks. | ||
| They should have a photo ID so we could control how much is going out. | ||
| The government doesn't care. | ||
| They're not paying for it. | ||
| Us taxpayers are. | ||
| Those people that are on snapcards, you get it free. | ||
| And that's what the taxpayers are pissed off about. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let's hear from James, James, and Louisiana, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I hope you guys vote this morning. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Yeah, I want you to try to vote why, you know, you got to go vote this morning. | ||
| You know, not right, you know. | ||
| What you do been doing and all that. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Rooney. | ||
| Rooney in South Carolina Democrats line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Rooney in South Carolina. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, can you hear me? | |
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I would just want to say that during the Biden administration, wasn't some of the Epstein files sealed to the point to where they couldn't open up anything? | |
| And then there were some times when Trump came in that some of the people like Kash Patel, even Trump himself, was talking about the files, files, files. | ||
| And now that he's been back into office, didn't he get a thousand FBI agents to go through those files and redact his name out? | ||
| So are we really going to get the true release of all the files with the unredacted name, or is it still going to be a cover? | ||
| Let's go next to Will. | ||
| Will is in Atlanta, independent line on this open forum. | ||
| Hello, Will. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This thing is really terrific. | |
| We know that America is a promised land into which all nations flow. | ||
| And we also know that our father, our king, if you can read Thomas Paine's common sense, we know that the deity who is holy and perfect is the king of America. | ||
| He is going to rectify all of this corruption by getting rid of the demons. | ||
| We were founded as a repentant Christian nation where nobody sodomizes their kids, but the whole rest of the world is filled with cults who do that, and they're coming in on us. | ||
| So Ezekiel 39 says that all the demons are going to be gone from the promised land, the land of unwalled villages, which is the United States of America incontrovertible by all ten signs. | ||
| So this Epstein thing will facilitate this happening. | ||
| We need to get rid of all the demons in our government that have been usurping us. | ||
| Michael in Florida, Republican line, you're next up. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello? | |
| You're on. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah, yeah. | |
| I just, with this Jeffrey Epstein files, you know, you got a lot of these Democrats who wanted to let all these people come in over the border. | ||
| And what they're doing is all these girls that were being sex trafficked. | ||
| I mean, you're talking about hundreds of thousands of kids. | ||
| I mean, it's such a hypocritical thing. | ||
| I mean, that they're trying to say that Trump's protecting people when they're the ones that weren't protecting these little kids because they kept the gates open. | ||
| I mean, it's just ridiculous. | ||
| You know, and Trump, by the way, is so much smarter than these Democrats. | ||
| He runs circles around them. | ||
| He's going to expose them for every single little thing that they do. | ||
| He didn't think he didn't have this planned. | ||
| He wants them to shoot themselves in the ankle. | ||
| I can't even imagine all the ones that are going to be involved in this. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Everyone, get ready for the big show. | ||
| From Sally on this open forum, the House about coming in in 15 minutes. | ||
| This is Sally in California, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Thank you for taking my call this morning. | ||
| I don't understand why everybody's so upset about SNAP and saying that people are getting it illegally and frauding. | ||
| It's $4.50 a month your tax dollars go towards feeding someone else. | ||
| It's not a lot of money. | ||
| I don't know why everybody's such an uproar about it. | ||
| Everybody reapplies every year. | ||
| That's the law. | ||
| And my second point is: if Trump isn't in that list, isn't in the file, why hasn't he just released it and cleared his name? | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Sally in California, The Washington Post reporting that David Richardson, the head of FEMA on Monday, resigned as the acting head, sorry, of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ending a brief tenure leading an agency that the Trump administration has publicly expressed a desire to dismantle. | ||
| Richardson, who's spent about six months as the acting head of the nation's disaster response agency, has kept a low profile and is known for often being inaccessible, including during the early hours of the flood disaster in Texas over the 4th of July weekend. | ||
| In recent months, five current agency employees at Richardson spent little time in daily operations meetings and shrank away from the role, one that typically demands the administrator be easily reachable. | ||
| The staffers, like others interviewed for this story in previous coverage, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. | ||
| That's the Washington Post. | ||
| You can read it there. | ||
| Let's hear from Richard. | ||
| Richard in Chicago, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Yeah, the United States needs to invade Venezuela and Colombia and seize the production fields, the cocaine production fields of Colombia, and then legalize it. | ||
| And once the production fields are under American control, it should be used by American companies to distribute to countries worldwide and make the United States money. | ||
| That's my comment. | ||
| In Oregon, we'll be joined by Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Robert, on our line for Republicans. | |
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| The reason I was calling concerns the presentation by your earlier guest that was seeking a middle ground for Democratic candidates in Republican districts. | ||
| I'm a Republican. | ||
| I am also in Maxine Dexter's third congressional district. | ||
| And there's slim to no chance at all that a Republican could be elected here. | ||
| I consider myself very immoderate, and I split my ticket. | ||
| And she doesn't have time for that. | ||
| She's extreme. | ||
| So I wish that the efforts that were brought to the fore by your prior caller, or prior guest, would also extend to her own party. | ||
| And it invites the question, is the concern here to ultimately get power away from Republican conservative, you know, allegedly right-wing candidates and install a good Democratic moderate. | ||
| Why not just, in general, seek the political middle with all candidates, including Democrats. | ||
| I would hope that her group would also be just fine with primaring some of the incredibly left-wing Democrats like Maxine Dexter, who is my, you know, is my representative in Congress. | ||
| She could care less what I think. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, Robert there in Oregon in the lead up to today's vote on the Epstein files. | ||
| It was yesterday that the House Minority Leader gave his thoughts on the pending vote and what possibly could occur once if it should go to the Senate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Here is Hakeem Jeffries from yesterday. | |
| Well, I think it's going to be important for Senate Republicans to follow the lead of what is going to be a strongly bipartisan vote in the House. | ||
| Obviously led by Representative Massey and by Rowe. | ||
| And I'm thankful for the leadership of both of them. | ||
| But it's going to be strongly bipartisan in the House, and it probably will be a veto-proof number, certainly, given the fact that Donald Trump has just caved once again, spectacularly and publicly, and now wants to pretend, lie to the American people that Donald Trump all along has been interested in the Epstein files released. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Literally, just a few days ago, you summoned Lauren Boebert to the situation room to try to continue the Jeffrey Epstein cover-up. | ||
| From Napa, California, Democrats Line, this is Rhonda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Two things. | ||
| One thing is to begrudge poor people food from their mouths at pennies a day is really shocking to me because we have a president that is eating through millions of dollars worth of food in that White House as he entertains these kind of strange people from around the world, including that man that's coming today. | ||
| Number two, I'm a sexual assault survivor. | ||
| Every time since 2015 that this Epstein stuff is spoken about, us women out here that have gone through this are feeling like we're being punched in the face over and over again. | ||
| That's why these girls won't back down. | ||
| That's why women won't back down. | ||
| We really need to be treated with respect and we need to be honored. | ||
| We're the women that gave birth to these men. | ||
| Anyways, love, peace, love God, all those things, and I hope my country can heal from all this. | ||
| Have a good day, everybody. | ||
| Rhonda there in California, we will hear from Patrick. | ||
| He is in Alabama, Republican line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| Money talks, buddy. | ||
| That billionaire dinner at the White House, AI donors, a few of them names that was on that list, they was at that dinner. | ||
| They're not going to squeal on them. | ||
| But callers say nothing can be done about these victims. | ||
| They can file a lawsuit against Epstein's estate, just like what's going on with O.J. Simpson right now. | ||
| Prediction, the same as the Hollywood film makers and Liz Chaney got caught preparing a woman to lie about Trump attacking Secret Service His Court at J6. | ||
| One of these women is going to claim abuse on Trump to get rich. | ||
| Now, the damns in the social media just done a cover-up on the worst kind of pedophile you can have. | ||
| That's a dad and his own daughter. | ||
| A judge in Florida last year sentenced a lady five years in prison for selling Ashley Biden's diary to a reporter. | ||
| You can research Ashley Biden's diary. | ||
| By the way, a reporter that was on a Tucker Carlson show, he was around at the time of Epstein's court cases. | ||
| He said a bunch of them girls confessed to getting paid $300 to $500 each date on the island. | ||
| That's what they say the judges are not going to release. | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Holly, Holly in Washington, D.C., Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| Also circulating on the Hill is a resolution to declare that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. | ||
| And with these Epstein problem, it is so outrageous the fact that people were engaged in pedophilia that it's distracting from the fact of why he was taping and getting records on these people to blackmail them and Epstein's connections to Israel. | ||
| His connections through Ghillain Maxwell, whose father was a noted Mossad asset, and how they could get control over people, both Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| And hopefully this bill now has 20 co-sponsors. | ||
| Hopefully these people will be brave enough to just declare the obvious that this is a genocide that's being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Holly in Washington, D.C., here's some other things that are happening in and around Capitol Hill for you to keep aware of. | ||
| This morning, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Phil Swagel, will testify before a House Budget Committee on the operations of his agency. | ||
| We'll have live coverage of that starting at 10.15. | ||
| That will be on C-SPAN2, our app at C-SPANNOW and C-SPAN.org. | ||
| The oversight and supervision of banks, the topic of a forum featuring Federal Reserve Board Governor Michael Barr. | ||
| That will be at 10.30 this morning. | ||
| That will be on our other channel, C-SPAN3, as well as the app as the .org. | ||
| And then later on this afternoon, a Capitol Hill hearing on chatbots powered by artificial intelligence. | ||
| Medical and industry experts will testify on the risk and safeguards are in place and how users, particularly children and teens, can stay safe while using these AI chatbots. | ||
| A lot there to learn about at 2 o'clock this afternoon on C-SPAN 3, C-SPANNOW, and our website at c-span.org. | ||
| Katya from Indiana, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Thank you, Pedro, for having me on. | ||
| So in the course of a nation, when those that we entrusted in our government to lead us choose and pick to protect those that are criminals or those that are victims for the supposed security of the nation, that nation is no longer valid, in my opinion. | ||
| And it is time for a constitutional convention where we, as the people, re-relate the laws and give the power back to the people rather than corrupt politicians. | ||
| And with that, I thank you for your time. | ||
| This is on our Independent Line. | ||
| We will hear from Ken. | ||
| Ken in New Hampshire. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you? | |
| Fine, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yeah, so here's my thought. | ||
| I have voted for both sides in the past, from Dole to Obama. | ||
| I'd say I'm definitely an independent now. | ||
| But what I would say is, I think we should put a little bit less fault on the representatives we have and take ownership for the faults of not taking time to research our candidates and pick wisely. | ||
| If we don't think about who we're voting for and pick wisely as to who we want in there, we will find ourselves continually in a polarized situation like we're in now. | ||
| And I commend those that have come across the aisles. | ||
| I know a lot of people see it as leaving their sides or a lack of loyalty, but that's how problems have always been fixed. | ||
| From all the way back with McCain to Tip O'Neill, people have come across the aisle at some point or another and realized, you know, what's good for the people, what's good for the Americans that voted for us, might mean that I have to give a little. | ||
| And that's what negotiation is. | ||
| I hope we can get back to that. | ||
| Do you think that the Democrats who supported reopening the government, do you give them support as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, well, we have both Hassan and Shaheen, both governors here in New Hampshire, former governors. | |
| They know what it is to govern. | ||
| I know that people feel like they gave in and they sold out their party, but I don't think that's the case. | ||
| I think they really were trying to find a solution to getting stuff for everybody. | ||
| And at their point, and to include Angus King, it's like it's the best they could do. | ||
| And there's a lot of emotion right now and a lot of loyalty and a lot of anger out there. | ||
| But that's not going to get us anywhere forward. | ||
| That's just going to keep dividing people. | ||
| And I think, yeah, I do think that them doing what they did moved us in a forward direction. | ||
| Do you think those statewide supported that decision or not? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's mixed. | |
| I hear a lot of people that aren't happy with them doing what they did. | ||
| But just the other night at the I think it was at one of the conventions for the Democrats, Senator Shaheen got really angry at one of her own opponents. | ||
| And I listen to that and I say, you know, why is her own party going after her so hard when she has probably 40 years. | ||
| Gotcha, gotcha. | ||
| Sorry about that. | ||
| That's the end of the program. | ||
| We'll take it to the House of Representatives. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The chair lays before the communication from the speaker. |