| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Senate Actions Debate
00:07:20
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unidentified
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the National Security Agency, Chief of the Central Security Service, and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command. | |
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| Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, along with your calls and comments live, we'll discuss the federal criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Trump administration foreign policy actions regarding Venezuela, Greenland, and Iran. | ||
| First, with Republican Tennessee Congressman John Rose, a member of the Financial Services Committee, and later with Democratic Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen, a member of the Armed Services Committee. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal is next. | ||
| Join the conversation. | ||
| This is The Washington Journal for January 15th. | ||
| The Senate on Wednesday blocked an effort to force President Trump to get congressional approval for any future actions in Venezuela. | ||
| This was done in part by President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on several Republicans to change their vote to stop the legislation from going to a full vote in the Senate. | ||
| And in the end, it took a tiebreaking vote from the vice president to seal the deal. | ||
| We'll show you what happened and get your comments on this effort in the Senate to limit the president's actions in Venezuela. | ||
| Here's how you can call and let us know your thoughts. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us your thoughts on this act in the Senate to limit the president's powers in Venezuela at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You can post on our Facebook page at facebook.com slash C-SPAN. | ||
| And on X, you can do that too. | ||
| C-SPANWJ. | ||
| The Washington Times writes up this effort in the Senate yesterday saying that the procedural vote to defeat the resolution was successful after Mr. Trump and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, made personal appeals to the five GOP senators who voted with Democrats last week to advance it. | ||
| Two of them, Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, changed their positions. | ||
| That created a 50-50 tie that the Vice President then JD Vance broke in the administration's favor. | ||
| This took place yesterday. | ||
| And just to show you some of those people, it was Senators Hawley and Young yesterday who switched their vote to block the war powers resolution from going forward. | ||
| And then several Republicans also joining along with the Democrats saying that that war powers resolution should go forward in the Senate, even though it didn't. | ||
| That's Senator Collins of Maine, Senator Murkowski of Alaska, and Senator Rand Paul of Indiana. | ||
| Axios follows up with the Republicans that were of Kentucky. | ||
| Axios followed up with the senators that were talked to by the president and the Secretary of State. | ||
| This is how they write it, saying that it was Senators Hawley and Young who ultimately decided to support the procedural move to block the vote, despite voting for that resolution last week. | ||
| Senator Young, Axios Reports, was promised that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would appear before the Foreign Relations Committee at a public hearing after next week's recess and assured that the administration would come to Congress first if the U.S. military forces were needed in Venezuela. | ||
| He then cited talks with Marco Rubio as influential in his decision, quote, to have the Secretary of State be at my disposal, really. | ||
| I mean countless phone conversations and text exchange. | ||
| It was very reassuring to me, he told reporters. | ||
| Again, this took place yesterday. | ||
| We'll show you some of the portions of the debate as we go along. | ||
| But if you want to comment on this effort in the Senate to stop a process, the president getting Congress to authorize more action in Venezuela, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 2027 88002. | ||
| And as always, you can post on our social media sites if you want to give your thoughts there, too. | ||
| Maryland, up first. | ||
| This is Jim, Independent Line on the Senate's actions yesterday, particularly the actions of Republicans. | ||
| Jim, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi. | |
| What do you mean by Senate actions? | ||
| I had some stuff to say about Venezuela, but what Senate actions particularly are we talking about? | ||
| Well, if you were listening to the top, the Senate voted down a process to get the president to get more authorization from Congress in Venezuela. | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh. | |
| Ah, geez. | ||
| Yeah, you know, with Venezuela, I mean, that's terrible. | ||
| Like, okay, so a lot of the stuff, it's on its face. | ||
| You know, there's a version of this that's good. | ||
| You know, it sounds like I've only ever heard that Maduro was a bad guy. | ||
| I don't particularly want to be in other countries' business, but I've only ever heard that he was a bad guy. | ||
| And it was a clean operation, it sounded like. | ||
| And if it ended there and we just walked over there and said, hey, you're being bad, and we got rid of them and then we left. | ||
| It didn't do anything. | ||
| You know, that'd be great. | ||
| But, you know, first it was, oh, the drug dealers. | ||
| And then it's, oh, China and Russia would be getting the oil in Venezuela if we didn't. | ||
| So now we have to go after Venezuela. | ||
| Okay, so for all that said, what do you think about this idea of the president going to Congress for any further action in Venezuela? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, I think he should, because it's not just Venezuela. | |
| Like what we heard after that is, oh, now we have to go after Greenland because Russia and China, well, it's like you replaced the word Venezuela with the word Greenland. | ||
| Okay, Paul is in Republican line. | ||
| Paul, what do you think about the Senate's actions yesterday? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, yes. | |
| Regarding this, I think it's important to make sure that Donald Trump aware of presidents to go to Congress to see any more further action, I think. | ||
| So that's right. | ||
| I think what the landing does. | ||
| I think so, so, so rather, yeah, so why is it important specifically then? | ||
| Well, basically, you can't just go evade a country and just dump it on his own, can he? | ||
| He's got to ask Congress to authorize and to make it authorize and make it official. | ||
|
Stopping Non-Existent Hostilities
00:04:13
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unidentified
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I think that's fun of you, anyway. | |
| It was yesterday in the Senate that the Idaho Republican Senator Jim Risch made the case against moving forward with the resolution. | ||
| Here's part of his argument from yesterday. | ||
| What we are debating is trying to stop something that is not happening. | ||
| Let me say that again. | ||
| The objective of this resolution is to stop something that is not happening. | ||
| The resolution is relatively short, three pages long. | ||
| It's full of the usual whereas, wherefores, et cetera, et cetera. | ||
| But this is the operative language. | ||
| Very clear. | ||
| Congress hereby directs the president to terminate, terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela. | ||
| That's what we're voting on today. | ||
| We are attempting to direct the president to terminate the use of the United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela. | ||
| Only Congress could dream this up. | ||
| Now, I know there's a lot of people here that think this is a very powerful institution, and it is indeed. | ||
| But even this institution cannot stop something that isn't happening. | ||
| And that's exactly what the resolution directs the president to do. | ||
| Currently, there are no U.S. forces engaged in hostilities in Venezuela. | ||
| The president did authorize actions that were limited in scope, shortened duration, and done to protect U.S. interests and citizens. | ||
| The operation only saw 200 troops, and they were inside Venezuela on Venezuela soil for less than two hours. | ||
| Those troops engaged with some unfortunate Cuban guards who are no longer with us for 27 minutes. | ||
| That's what this was made up of. | ||
| It was incredibly brief, targeted, and very successful. | ||
| The War Powers Act requires the President to submit a report to Congress within 48 hours of, quote, introducing U.S. forces into hostilities. | ||
| The President did that. | ||
| If U.S. troops stay in hostilities, the President is required to submit reports to Congress periodically, is the word used. | ||
| Sadly, the War Powers Act never required the President to submit a report to Congress when hostilities ended. | ||
| It should have been in the bill. | ||
| It wasn't. | ||
| For this reason, I sent a letter to the President asking him to confirm that there are no U.S. forces engaged in hostilities in Venezuela. | ||
| Now, I knew that. | ||
| You all knew that. | ||
| You were all in the briefing when we got it. | ||
| However, since this was raised and people were trying to stop something that isn't happening, I asked the President of the United States to confirm that it's not happening. | ||
| And obviously, they responded, the administration responded, and said clearly that there are no hostilities and no troops in Venezuela. | ||
| I submit for the record both both my letter to the president and the response confirming the operation has ended. | ||
| It's over. | ||
| There's no troops there. | ||
| There is nothing to terminate. | ||
| There are no U.S. forces in hostilities. | ||
| Thanks to the effort of some Republicans, an effort to get the president to get more authorization from Congress in the Senate dies yesterday. | ||
| You heard Senator Risch there Punch Bowl saying that it was Secretary of State Rubio emphasizing no troops on the ground in a letter that was sent to the Foreign Relations Chair James Rich Wednesday. | ||
| It echoed arguments by the Majority Leader John Thune and the GOP whip John Barroso and appeared successful in swaying Holly and Young who had been hearing from the President himself, Senate leadership, and top administration officials on the issue. | ||
| You can talk about this action in the Senate yesterday on the lines. | ||
| 2027 88,000 for Democrats, 748-8,000, 1 for Republicans. | ||
|
David's Take on War Powers
00:09:55
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| Independents, 748, 8,000,2, all starting with a 202 area code. | ||
| Independent Line in Ocean City, New Jersey. | ||
| This is Ed. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hello. | |
| Yes, Ed O'Donnell. | ||
| The problems in Venezuela, Iran, all over the world are what happens when nations do not practice the Quaker position of absolute pacifism. | ||
| Absolute pacifism is the solution. | ||
| And you take the money that's being spent on militarism, you could have a guaranteed job, guaranteed place to live for everybody. | ||
| Pacifism is the answer. | ||
| Larry in Illinois, Republican line, you're next up. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Pedro. | |
| This would be scary if it wasn't so disgusting because we've got half the United States Senate more than willing to turn Greenland, Latin South America, Over to China, Russia. | ||
| This has got to think this stuff. | ||
| I don't really know what to say about this. | ||
|
unidentified
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Everybody watching has got to know that this was so bad. | |
| We were so close. | ||
| Well, let's step back a little bit when it's specifically in Venezuela for the president wanting more getting permission from Congress. | ||
| What do you think about that move? | ||
| Should that happen? | ||
| That was a law enforcement operation down there. | ||
|
unidentified
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They just needed the military to get a sorry ass out. | |
| But what's going on? | ||
| So just to follow up on that, as far as future actions, if they happen in Venezuela, should the president go to Congress for those future actions? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, let's see. | |
| Let's see. | ||
| Because future actions, let's go back to past actions because these same people, whenever Bush took us into Afghanistan, when it was another country that did what they did, got us in there for 20 years and nobody said a damn word. | ||
| That's what's going on, Pedro. | ||
| Sure, I appreciate the history, but as far as future actions, what do you think as far as the president going to Congress for more permission? | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't think the legislature or the justice, oh, I can't even think right now. | |
| But we know what the Supreme Court's getting ready to do to Trump. | ||
| They're going to rein in the executive branch. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| That's Larry in Illinois. | ||
| It was Senator Hawley on Fox News this morning talking about the lead up to why he changed his mind on moving forward with that war powers resolution. | ||
| Here's a bit of what he had to say. | ||
| This has always been about ground troops. | ||
| Will ground troops into Venezuela occupying Venezuela. | ||
| That's not something that I think I would want to do. | ||
| And listen, I talked to the president. | ||
| I talked to the Secretary of State. | ||
| I talked to the Department of Justice. | ||
| I thank the administration for all of their outreach. | ||
| And what the Secretary of State said to me very clearly is, we're not doing that. | ||
| We don't have ground troops in Venezuela. | ||
| This is not another Iraq. | ||
| We're not going to occupy Venezuela. | ||
| And you know what? | ||
| That's good enough for me. | ||
| Again, Senator Hawley on Fox News, The Washington Times, following up when it comes to the perspective of Democrats saying they said the measure is needed to prevent Mr. Trump from unilaterally following through on his threats to take further military action against Venezuela if the interim leaders do not cooperate with U.S. efforts to stop drug trafficking and rebuild its oil infrastructure in the country. | ||
| That's the Washington Times. | ||
| Let's hear from Clay. | ||
| Clay in Georgia, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Clay in Georgia. | ||
| Let me push the button first. | ||
| That helps. | ||
| Clay in Georgia, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, how you doing, Pedro? | |
| Go ahead. | ||
| You know, one thing I can't understand. | ||
| We have a Constitution. | ||
| We have three branches of government. | ||
| President Trump, he'll do things first, okay? | ||
| Like he ended up that part of the White House down. | ||
| He does things first. | ||
| And then that's when he decided that the only way he can go any further, he will go to Congress. | ||
| There's no way possibly he should have done it in the first place. | ||
| A lot of things that he's doing now, he should go to Congress in the first place. | ||
| He does not, he doesn't believe in the Constitution. | ||
| It's just that simple. | ||
| He do what he wants to do. | ||
| Clay in Georgia, Robert in Florida, Republican line, you're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
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You want to call? | |
| I think Trump is doing a good job. | ||
| This guy's a big drug dealer. | ||
| All the drugs he's putting on this country is killing the American people. | ||
| Democrats don't understand that. | ||
| He's protecting us for climate lab. | ||
| But what about the idea of getting permission from Congress for any future action? | ||
| Would you agree with that or not? | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't have to do that. | |
| That's okay, but I think he's doing the right thing. | ||
| That guy doesn't care about us. | ||
| That country doesn't care about us. | ||
| They're killing all the people over here. | ||
| And as far as Minnesota, they're arriving, let the officers do their job. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| We'll go leave it at that. | ||
| This all, the actions of the Senate yesterday sets the stage for today. | ||
| The Associated Press reporting that the president set to meet today at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Karina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won the 2024 elections, rejected them by President Maduro before the United States captured him in that military raid less than two weeks after the U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial. | ||
| The president will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. | ||
| Machado already having dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country. | ||
| So look for that to take place later on today. | ||
| Follow along on our main channels. | ||
| You can also follow along on our app at C-SPANNOW. | ||
| And you can always also access the website too at c-span.org on this idea of the stop, the stopping of a legislation or a resolution to have the president get more permission from Congress or get permission from Congress for future actions in Venezuela. | ||
| We'll hear from David, Democrats line. | ||
| He's in Michigan. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| David in Michigan. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| One more time for David. | ||
| David, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| Okay, you're on. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah, Pedro. | |
| I just picked up the news here. | ||
| I would like to just mention that maybe the president needs to review the procedures and the war powers problems. | ||
| He needs to follow the letter of the law. | ||
| It's found in the Constitution. | ||
| It'd be good reading for him for probably no more than 20 minutes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's David there in Michigan. | ||
| Again, call us on the lines. | ||
| They all start with a 202 area code. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| We mentioned Senator Paul, who was on the floor of the Senate yesterday in support of passage of the war powers resolution. | ||
| Here's some of the case he makes from yesterday. | ||
| But the position of the administration and probably the position of other presidential administrations, because this isn't really and shouldn't be Republican versus Democrat. | ||
| This should be legislative prerogative versus presidential prerogative, and it should be about the Constitution. | ||
| The Constitution specifically, thoughtfully vested the power of initiating war and declaring war to Congress. | ||
| They talked about it. | ||
| They talked about it in the Constitutional Convention. | ||
| They wrote about it in the Federalist Papers. | ||
| And from Hamilton to Jefferson, the spectrum of our founding fathers concluded they didn't want the president to have this power. | ||
| They said the initiation, the declaration of war, shall be vested by the Constitution in the legislature. | ||
| So what we have is an elaborate song and dance. | ||
| They know that declaration of war resides here. | ||
| They know initiation of war. | ||
| So they argue first that it's not war, it's a drug bust. | ||
| But then they say, well, internationally, people say it probably is a war. | ||
| So in case you think it's a war, we're going to tell you that it's not really a war because we won't know if it's a war until it's over. | ||
| We don't know, you know, we'll tell you more about, we'll know when the war is over, whether it actually was a war and whether we should have voted to initiate war when the war is over, depending on how many people die. | ||
| And then they say, well, we're going to look at the scope, extent, and duration of the war, but since we don't know what that is, we're going to guess based on what the policymakers say. | ||
| And they say right now they're not going back in, so we don't have to vote on whether or not we're going to war with Venezuela. | ||
| This to me is an absurdity. | ||
| It is logic that runs in circles, and it doesn't get us any closer to where we need to be. | ||
| Again, Senator Paul, one of many senators speaking out on this war powers resolution, you can view it on our website, our app, and those are the main places that you can view it. | ||
|
Senate Rolls Over
00:06:13
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| One of the viewers this morning, Ashley DeStefano, aligning herself with Senator Paul, saying loved him during the 2016 election. | ||
| So glad to know he's still fighting the good fight. | ||
| When it comes to the tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance yesterday, Nola Hopkins on Facebook saying thank you, Vice President. | ||
| Sean Riley also saying once again the Senate rolls over and shows Trump their softer side. | ||
| I'm not surprised considering the makeup of the House and Senate. | ||
| But after all the tough talk and a couple of phone calls from Daddy, the Senate gives up their responsibility and authorization authority to the military and the American people. | ||
| I may not be surprised, but once again, I am thoroughly disappointed with this government. | ||
| And then Karen Thomas from our Facebook page saying, I'm so glad that the bill was defeated. | ||
| Democrats do not give a damn about the United States of America or the American people. | ||
| Republicans that voted with the Democrats, I will remember when it's time to vote, Republicans need to stand together with President Trump and America. | ||
| Again, Facebook is one way you can post there. | ||
| Facebook.com/slash C-SPAN is how you do that. | ||
| Republican line from Wisconsin. | ||
| This is James. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| As far as the who should be able to tell who how to go in and take care of our foreign affairs, that's the president's job. | ||
| He is the commander-in-chief. | ||
| He should have no problem going in and doing what he wants to do when it comes to taking care of our foreign affairs and making sure that we have a secured state of being. | ||
| I think that the legislators, as far as this particular vote was concerned, I think it worked out just fine and that they should be able to do more domestic things as far as the Congress is concerned and let the president handle our foreign affairs. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Philip, also on our line for Republicans. | ||
| He's in California. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| How are you doing today, sir? | ||
| Fine, thank you. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| On the topic of discussion, I believe that Donald Trump is doing a good job. | ||
| I support him fully, and I think that this is a president that we've been needing for a long time now. | ||
| He's somebody that we're proud to have in office and represents us fully. | ||
| Democrats, they're mad, but it's okay. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| Everybody's having their opinion. | ||
| But I think he's doing a good job. | ||
| And, you know, I'm proud. | ||
| I'm a veteran myself. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| Like, if I got to go back to the service to do whatever that needs to be done, hey, that's fine. | ||
| I got kids and everything. | ||
| And I went to war. | ||
| And I believe that he's doing the right things for us. | ||
| So with that experience, do you think then the president should go to Congress for more authorization if he takes future action in Venezuela or other places? | ||
|
unidentified
|
If he needs to, yes. | |
| But I think he's doing fine even without the permission because he's doing what they may be scared to do. | ||
| And there's a lot of corruption in the government right now. | ||
| So, I mean, he's doing fine. | ||
| We need to get the drugs off the street because I've lived in places where drugs is rampant. | ||
| Like, I used to walk to the store and there'd be people doing drugs, spent them right there, and I'd be walking with my kids. | ||
| I was glad that he did what he did, and he started shooting boats and stuff like that, because now it's harder for people to get drugs. | ||
| I had to move out of the city I lived in because drugs were so crazy that I just had to get out of there. | ||
| One of the people giving comment on yesterday's actions, the Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer. | ||
| Americans tonight are wondering how they're going to pay their bills. | ||
| And Republicans in the Senate abdicated their responsibility and said, if you want to go to war in South America, go ahead. | ||
| How does that look? | ||
| The bottom line is, Senate Republicans continually continually, Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump, no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional, no matter the potential cost of American lives. | ||
| And what happened here is such a glaring contrast. | ||
| On the one hand, this afternoon, we went to the floor and asked to extend the tax credits by three years, and they blocked that. | ||
| But here, they go along with the president who is defying what the Constitution requires and is reckless, really, in my judgment. | ||
| And the chances of us getting into an endless war are even greater because when the Republicans rubber stamp everything he does, the constraints go away. | ||
| One more call on this topic. | ||
| This will be from Joanna in California, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| The topic of Venezuela and the war powers. | ||
| So if I'm not mistaken, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 10, the Congress shall have power to declare war, grant letters of marquee and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. | ||
| Now, if I'm not mistaken, that's the Constitution gives Congress the power. | ||
| Now, there's a lot going on with Venezuela. | ||
| I don't think it's about the crude, personally. | ||
| I think it's about something called Colton. | ||
| Colton is an earth element. | ||
| It goes with electronics and phones. | ||
| And a company named Vulcan wants that earth element. | ||
| And one of the main one of the partners of that company is Donald Trump Jr. | ||
| So there's a lot going on behind the scenes here, folks. | ||
| Well, when it goes back to Congress itself, then what do you think about, in light of everything you said, what do you think about the specific actions of yesterday in the Senate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, no. | |
| Well, you know what? | ||
| I have to be honest. | ||
| I took a little bit of a break. | ||