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unidentified
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America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment. | |
| From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sights, and spirit that make up America. | ||
| Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can. | ||
| America 250. | ||
| Over a year of historic moments. | ||
| C-SPAN, official media partner of America 250. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
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We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
| This is the Associated Press with the headline, Trump dismisses U.S. intelligence that Saudi Prince was likely aware of the 2018 killing of journalists. | ||
| Of course, that's Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post, that the CIA during the Trump first administration said that he wasn't just aware of it, but ordered the killing. | ||
| This is a portion. | ||
| We're going to go to open forum right after this. | ||
| While you're dialing in on the lines, Democrats are on 202748-8000, Republicans 202-748-8001, and Independents 202748-8002. | ||
| While you're dialing in, we will show you a portion from yesterday from the Oval Office, President Trump responding to a question about that killing. | ||
| As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. | ||
| You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. | ||
| A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. | ||
| Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it. | ||
| And we can leave it at that. | ||
| You don't have to embarrass our guests by asking a question like that. | ||
| Just yes, Mr. President, you allow me to answer. | ||
| You know, I feel painful about, you know, the families of 9-11 in America. | ||
| But, you know, we have to focus on reality. | ||
| Reality, based in CIA documents and based on a lot of documents, that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose, is to destroy this relation, to destroy the American-Saudi relation. | ||
| That's the purpose of 9-11. | ||
| So whoever buying that, that means they are helping Osama bin Laden's purpose of destroying this relation. | ||
| He knows that the strong relation between America and Saudi Arabia is bad for extremism, it's bad for terrorism. | ||
| And we have to approve him wrong and to build our relation and continue developing our relations. | ||
| It's critical in the safety of the world. | ||
| It's critical against extremism and terrorism. | ||
| About the journalists, it's really painful to hear anyone that been losing his life for no real purpose or not in a legal way. | ||
| And it's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. | ||
| We've did all the right steps of investigation, et cetera, in Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. | ||
| And it's painful and it's a huge mistake. | ||
| And we are doing our best that this doesn't happen again. | ||
| It is open forum. | ||
| We are interested to hear what you think of that visit by the Crown Prince. | ||
| Other topics going on today. | ||
| If you'd like to continue to talk about the vote to release the Epstein files, you can. | ||
| We'll talk to Patricia in Statesville, North Carolina. | ||
| Looks like we lost her. | ||
| Michelle in Staten Island, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Michelle. | ||
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unidentified
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Yes, good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| As always, I'd like to say a shout out to your cameramen. | ||
| They're excellent. | ||
| And so I'd like to talk about Epstein files. | ||
| I think that it's a disgrace that the parents of these children are not involved in this. | ||
| Where were they when this was going on? | ||
| Were they getting any mental health? | ||
| Are they getting mental health today? | ||
| Hopefully they are. | ||
| And also, I think, can you lower the TV? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| And also, Germalde, they killed him, and they have the Crown Prince in the White House. | ||
| How do you do that? | ||
| How do you do that? | ||
| That's terrible. | ||
| Well, of course, how you do it, you follow the money. | ||
| It's all about the money. | ||
| His family's making tons of money with these people. | ||
| And I just think it's a disgrace about the children that were molested by Epstein and their parents. | ||
| Where are the parents? | ||
| Yep, we got that, Michelle. | ||
| And some pictures for you. | ||
| This is the front page of the Washington Post of the two men shaking hands here in the Oval Office. | ||
| This is the front page of the New York Times with the arrival of the Crown Prince. | ||
| It says President Trump welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia for a visit to the White House. | ||
| This is his first visit to the United States since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. | ||
| Here is Frank, Walden, New York, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Frank. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hello. | |
| My question is the same as the caller before me, except a little bit different. | ||
| Where were the parents in all this when these children were prostituted to these Epstein and his women? | ||
| I mean, were they prostituted at all? | ||
| It could be a small percentage that were. | ||
| And if so, then, of course, we would be held accountable for statutory rape. | ||
| The other thing is, of all the thousands of young people that were abused back then, how many can come forward and actually identify the people that abused them, especially once the files do come out? | ||
| Because they are unnamed in any files, FBI are not. | ||
| So they really can't say, well, I definitely was abused. | ||
| I mean, we can't know that for sure. | ||
| And the other thing is, will there be prosecutions of those, especially those who are well-known, whether it be a prince or whether it be a congressman or anybody else a millionaire that has money? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here's Lester, Louisiana, Line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Lester. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I've been wondering the same thing about what two of your previous callers asked. | ||
| Where were the parents of those kids? | ||
| You know, I'm sympathizing with these ladies for being in the position they were in, but where were the parents? | ||
| And I'm so sick tired of all the lies that Trump is telling us. | ||
| And how can anybody support this man? | ||
| We have corrupt politicians in Louisiana. | ||
| Scalise, Johnson, and Higgins are the three worst people to govern. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here is Tim in South Carolina, line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Tim. | ||
| You're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I find it very strange that since 2016, all this knowledge was known by the Justice Department. | ||
|
unidentified
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And if the Democrats had anything on Donald Trump, they could have brung it out at any time from that time to now if they wanted to hinder him from being elected. | |
| So now all of a sudden, they're going to bring it out because they're running out of stuff that they can go after Donald Trump. | ||
| Now, for decades, people in Congress has been enriching themselves, and Donald Trump is cleaning it all up. | ||
| So the simple fact is, he's not a politician. | ||
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unidentified
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He's a businessman. | |
| And he's not politically correct and all that kind of stuff. | ||
| But he's doing a wonderful thing for this country. | ||
| Thank you so much for taking my call. | ||
| And here's Howard in Baltimore, Independent. | ||
| Hi, Howard. | ||
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unidentified
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Hey, how are you today? | |
| Good. | ||
| First of all, I'd just like to comment as far as the Crown Prince who came to the White House. | ||
| I'm wondering why didn't anybody ask the Crown Prince why wasn't he wearing a suit like they did when Zelensky came? | ||
| That's number one. | ||
| Secondly, you know, for somebody to sit up here and say that this clown that's in the office is doing a wonderful job, I will honestly say that you have to really look at the economy. | ||
| Everybody is losing. | ||
| The only person that's benefiting is his family and him. | ||
| And if people are so buffoon that they allow somebody to enrich themselves while they are steadily being denied their benefits, I would say something is really wrong with you. | ||
| Wake up, smell the coffee, get rid of this fool out the office, and let's move on and become Americans again. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here's Cal in New York City, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Cal. | ||
| Sorry. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| It's Cal. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
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unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Hello, C-SPAN. | ||
| I'm just watching you slug your way through these calls and more power to you. | ||
| I guess the last time I called in, it was on the 4th of July, and I was sleeping in the same tent that I am now. | ||
| Just mentioning that. | ||
| I remember you, Cal. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi, how are you doing? | |
| Yeah, same tent, same city, same unpredictable state of flux that this country is in. | ||
| And I think I speak for a lot of people who are just, you know, jog-droppingly amazed and disgusted by, you know, the arguments that are coming from all sides that's just so petty and distracting and has absolutely nothing to do with the awful problems that we're facing as far as fixing this country. | ||
| You know, I wish I had seen the interview that you had with Ken Burns about the American Revolution. | ||
| And I was tuning into that on PBS, hoping to get, you know, that kind of warm, fuzzy feeling about our country and its origins and our traditions and our destiny in the world. | ||
| And, you know, and I was so overwhelmed in the first 10 minutes about the history that I didn't know. | ||
| And it seems that in so many ways the country was as much a mess then in its creation as it is now. | ||
| It's just so bewildering. | ||
| I myself feel pretty good about my own life, but there becomes the question of just reaching out to your library and catching up with what's happening in Congress. | ||
| And it's just such a petty struggle for power. | ||
| So, Cal, let's talk about New York City because there was an election since the last time we talked. | ||
| Did you vote? | ||
| How are you feeling about your mayor-elect? | ||
| Are you hopeful? | ||
| Are you disappointed? | ||
| How are you feeling? | ||
|
unidentified
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You know, because of the state of the rest of the country is in, it seems as if people are attracted to people like Mom Donnie simply by the tone and the optimism and the hope. | |
| It's very much of a flashback to the early days of Obama, you know, when he was rising and he entered office on this new like sense of hope. | ||
| But there's just the overwhelming weight of the chaos that he's entering. | ||
| And I guess when he was elected, I had a very solemn conversation with myself. | ||
| You know, you just want that optimism, like, come on, get behind the guy, you know, you know, listen to him and ride along the wave of hope. | ||
| And I guess I had a very solemn conversation with myself. | ||
| And I realized that in a very realistic way, I just don't have the energy for that kind of illusion, you know, that kind of to just pretend to be so desperate with the problems that are weighing down on the city and the country in general that there's this desire to just wish it all away somehow, | ||
| you know, with a fellow like Mandami, that he can just come in and smile and poo-poo Trump and everything else. | ||
| And you want to think that it's all like a bad dream that he could come along and wake us up and carry us away. | ||
| But, you know, these are very realistic problems that have to be handled in very realistic ways. | ||
| And well, I got to move on to other callers, but appreciate you checking in with us. | ||
| James in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Republican, you're on the air, James. | ||
| I'd like to say people are talking against Donald Trump and why he's doing that they don't think is right and all that. | ||
| I'd like for him to be in his spot being a president. | ||
|
unidentified
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You know what I mean? | |
| Because they couldn't do his job. | ||
| They couldn't do his job. | ||
| There'd be too much of a pressure on those people that's talking against Donald Trump. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I think Donald Trump's doing a good job. | ||
| I know he's dealt with trying to get the shutdown open, you know, how the country opened. | ||
| And I think he's doing a wonderful job. | ||
| And he put it fully on food stamps. | ||
| And I don't think it's right for people to down him when he's trying to do something good for the country. | ||
| All right, James. | ||
| Let's talk to Ray on the line for Democrats in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Go ahead, Ray. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, I got a couple of things. | |
| First of all, we'll leave this now to take you to the House live here on C-SPAN. | ||
| The House will be in order. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
| Would you pray with me? |