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NATO's Future Uncertain
00:05:49
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| The former president with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. | |
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| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Amy Howe with SCOTUS Blog previews oral argument in the Supreme Court case challenging President Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook. | |
| We'll also talk about House Democrats' efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam, the role of ICE, Trump foreign policy goals, and other news of the day. | |
| First with Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Robin Kelly, and later with Tennessee Republican Congressman Matt Van Epps. | |
| Washington Journal starts now. | |
| Good morning. | |
| It's Wednesday, January 21st. | |
| President Trump has just landed in Switzerland, where he'll take the stage at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. | |
| We'll bring you live coverage of his speech once that gets underway. | |
| The visit comes amid renewed tensions over President Trump's desire to acquire Greenland from NATO ally Denmark. | |
| The president has not ruled out the use of military force and has announced tariffs of 10% against eight European countries opposing U.S. control of the island. | |
| This morning, we're getting your views on the president's upcoming speech in Davos. | |
| What should his message be to world leaders? | |
| And how do you think the Greenland debate affects America's role in the world? | |
| Here's how to reach us. | |
| Democrats 202748-8000. | |
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | |
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | |
| You can also send a text to 202-748-8003. | |
| Include your first name and your city-state. | |
| And you can reach us on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ. | |
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | |
| Yesterday, President Trump was asked about the future of the NATO alliance, and this is what he said. | |
| Mr. President, are you committed to keeping the U.S. in NATO? | |
| I've had such a good relationship. | |
| I've made it so much better, so much stronger. | |
| It's so good now. | |
| NATO is so much stronger now. | |
| I don't agree with a lot of the things they've done, but that was done before I got there. | |
| I think NATO's been good. | |
| Sometimes it's overrated, sometimes it's not, but we have a strong NATO. | |
| When I came here, we had a weak NATO. | |
| We had a NATO at 2%, and they weren't paying. | |
| You had a nothing NATO. | |
| NATO's, whether you like it or not, it's only as good as we are. | |
| If NATO doesn't have us, NATO is not very strong. | |
| I think something's going to happen that's going to be very good for everybody. | |
| Nobody's done more for NATO than I have, as I said before. | |
| In every way, getting them to go up to 5% of GDP was something that nobody thought was possible and pay. | |
| At 2%, they weren't paying. | |
| At 5%, they are paying. | |
| And they're buying a lot of things from us and they're giving them, I guess, to Ukraine. | |
| That's up to them, but they're giving them to whoever they're giving them to. | |
| But they're buying a lot. | |
| I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very happy. | |
| But we need it for security purposes. | |
| We need it for national security and even world security. | |
| It's very important. | |
| That was yesterday at the White House press briefing. | |
| And this is the Associated Press. | |
| Trump's Greenland threats spark outrage from EU and TESS long-time NATO alliance. | |
| It says that President Trump's pledge to provoke a sweeping tariff fight with Europe to get his way in taking control of Greenland has left many of America's closest allies warning of a rupture with Washington, capable of shattering the NATO alliance that had once seemed unshakable. | |
| It says the European Union's top official on Tuesday called Trump's planned new tariffs on eight of its countries over Greenland a, quote, mistake, and questioned Trump's trustworthiness. | |
| And Governor Gavin Newsom also had a response to that. | |
| He is in Davos, and here's his exchange with Sky News business correspondent in Davos. | |
| Just, I can't take this complicity. | |
| People rolling over. | |
| I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders. | |
| I mean, handing out crowns and handing out, I mean, this is pathetic. | |
| Nobel Prizes that are being given away. | |
| I mean, it's just pathetic. | |
| And I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world stage. | |
|
T-Rex Diplomacy
00:05:57
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| I mean, at least from an American perspective. | |
| It's embarrassing. | |
| So what should Europe? | |
| You should decide. | |
| The Europeans should decide for themselves what to do. | |
| But one thing they can't do is what they've been doing and they've been playing. | |
| This guy is playing folks for fools. | |
| And it's embarrassing. | |
| Europeans think this is diplomacy. | |
| I mean, this will also be a problem. | |
| Oh, this is diplomacy with Donald Trump? | |
| He's a T-Rex. | |
| You mate with him or he devours you. | |
| One or the other. | |
| No, the Europeans could be if they continue down this path in the process. | |
| They need to stand tall, stand firm, stand united. | |
| Everybody's talking behind his back. | |
| They're laughing. | |
| And meanwhile, they're sucking up to him. | |
| It's embarrassing. | |
| I mean, this is your modeling behavior for our kids, generations of folks. | |
| This is not diplomacy. | |
| This is stupidity. | |
| Does this end with military solutions? | |
| I don't know. | |
| I mean, it just knows what happens in that respect. | |
| But with Donald Trump, you saw what happened in Maduro. | |
| You've seen what's happening on American streets. | |
| You saw what happened in the state of California. | |
| We put 700 active duty Marines. | |
| He didn't send them overseas. | |
| Last year, he sent them to American City, the second largest city in the United States of America. | |
| He's got 1,500 active folks, members of the military, on call near Minneapolis. | |
| This guy is at a police state. | |
| You got a guy dressed up in SS. | |
| You're making him dangerous? | |
| You've seen this guy, Greg Bavino? | |
| We've seen what's happening with ICE and secret police and mass men, people disappearing. | |
| Wake up. | |
| Where the hell has everybody been? | |
| That is California's governor, Gavin Newsom, in Switzerland. | |
| President Trump has arrived, his airplane there on the screen, waiting for him to disembark there and head over to his speech in Davos. | |
| He was delayed, so we're not quite sure of the timing on that speech, but we are standing by as soon as we find out. | |
| And definitely as soon as that gets underway, you'll see live coverage on the C-SPAN networks. | |
| Josephine in Livingston, New Jersey, Independent Line. | |
| Good morning, Josephine. | |
| Good morning. | |
| I'm so, so, so saddened by what I'm seeing. | |
| But the president of our country, I mean, in my lifetime, I never, never imagined that anyone would act like he did. | |
| I think of Eisenhower when he was the first head of NATO. | |
| I think of people who represented our country with dignity. | |
| He does not. | |
| He does not. | |
| He is so shaming us. | |
| Why do you think they are now making red hats over there saying, make America go away to represent MACA? | |
| Don't you get it? | |
| He's so humiliating our country, it's not even to be loud. | |
| And believe me, they're going to shame him. | |
| I'm telling you, take my word for it. | |
| He didn't think Davos was important. | |
| Well, now he's going to find out because the world has got his attention and they now know what he stands for. | |
| He's become the official dictator of the world. | |
| Thank you. | |
| And there is President Trump. | |
| We'll see if he is going to be giving, it doesn't look like he's going to be giving any remarks, but that is live. | |
| That's a live look there of Zurich, Switzerland, heading over to the helicopter to take him to Davos. | |
| Tyrone in New York, Line for Democrats. | |
| Good morning, Tyrone. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | |
| This is what happens when you put a bull in the China shop. | |
| We knew that Trump was going to be someone that did not have any respect for the laws of the Constitution of our country. | |
| We already saw it when he generated an attack on our capital. | |
| So for him to do what he's doing now, it should be no surprise to a lot of his supporters, a lot of his non-supporters, and the people that didn't participate in the path that this country takes, the non-voters. | |
| So when we disregard what happens in this country and think that it's not going to affect us and what happens with us, maybe it won't initially, but keep ignoring this man. | |
| And believe me, somebody's out there that's worse than him. | |
| And if we don't decide to get involved with what's going on in this country, which a lot of us do, but why we have to wait till our back is against the wall to say, you know what, let's stand up. | |
| Let's stand up against this authoritarian ideology that is running through this country. | |
| Stand up in what way, Tyrone? | |
| What do you suggest? | |
| Stand up and getting involved with the voting apparatus of this country, get involved with the path that pay attention to the people that we're putting in this office thinking that they're only going to serve one purpose. | |
| They serve many purposes. | |
| And then when we say that we want to see this government tore down, we want to see this government, because there are people in this country that actually believe that tearing down the government is going to make this country great again. | |
| And when they come up with this ideology, what it does is leave us defenseless against what we need as a growing country. | |
| This country is only 250 years old. | |
| I said only because it's a baby. | |
| We haven't got out of our pull-ups yet. | |
| We don't know what's coming down the road for us and how we can make this country better for all Americans. | |
| All right, Tyrone. | |
| Let's talk to Edward now in West Virginia, Independent Line. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | |
| I'll be 91 years old tomorrow. | |
| Happy birthday. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I'm an independent. | |
| I like a lot of things that President Trump's done. | |
|
Making Deals Not Aggressions
00:14:31
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| The border. | |
| I can go through it all. | |
| And I'm with him and what he's doing in Minnesota. | |
| But this thing about Greenland, it's stupid. | |
| Here we are with Russia invading Ukraine because they think they need it to protect themselves. | |
| We got a president who is personally trying to stop that stuff. | |
| Now he's thought, well, that was a good idea. | |
| I'll go over and take Greenland. | |
| It's like he's taking over Ukraine. | |
| So he's about 80% right on most things. | |
| But he's done an H on this one. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| All right. | |
| And let's hear from European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen. | |
| She addressed President Trump's attempts to acquire Greenland with tariff threats during remarks in Davos yesterday. | |
| When it comes to the security of the Arctic region, Europe is fully committed. | |
| And we share the objectives of the United States in this regard. | |
| For instance, our EU member, Finland, one of the newest NATO members, is selling its first icebreakers to the United States. | |
| And this shows that we have the capability right here in the ice, so to speak. | |
| It shows that our northern NATO members have Arctic-ready forces right now. | |
| And above all, that Arctic security can only be achieved together. | |
| And this is why the proposed additional tariffs are a mistake, especially between long-standing allies. | |
| The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July. | |
| And in politics, as in business, a deal is a deal. | |
| And when friends shake hands, it must mean something. | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, we consider the people of the United States not just our allies, but our friends. | |
| And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape. | |
| So our response will be unflinching, united, and proportional. | |
| That was European Commission President van der Leyen talking about making a proportional response to President Trump and his imposition of tariffs against European countries. | |
| Here is Theodore, Republican in Livonia, Michigan. | |
| You're on the air, Theodore. | |
| Good morning. | |
| How are you? | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | |
| I'm just curious: who would the United States of America rather have in office than President Trump? | |
| Who could do a better job? | |
| There isn't anyone. | |
| The callers call in and say, oh, he's selling the oil to other countries. | |
| He's selling the oil to other countries. | |
| Well, that's so the United States can make some money. | |
| That's so we can help pay down our debt. | |
| So what do you think, Theodore, about this trip to Davos? | |
| What do you want President Trump to say to world leaders? | |
| In regards to Greenland? | |
| Greenland and other things. | |
| But yeah, let's start with Greenland. | |
| Well, I don't think these countries can run the affairs of their own countries. | |
| Like President Trump said, if we don't do something about Greenland, China or Russia will come in there. | |
| Greenland's in a strategic point on the globe. | |
| Denmark's a Sithi country. | |
| It's a Sithi country. | |
| And Greenland is considered part of NATO. | |
| So, if Russia or NATO? | |
| Yes. | |
| NATO. | |
| Yes. | |
| Who's NATO? | |
| Who is NATO? | |
| They can't even pay their own bills. | |
| They need the United States to pay for everything. | |
| They don't contribute nothing. | |
| They didn't contribute anything until President Trump came into office and made them pay. | |
| So would you like to see NATO go away? | |
| Do you think that it's not really doing anything? | |
| I'd like to see them live up to their reputation and their expectations. | |
| Okay. | |
| Sylvia in Alexandria, Virginia, Democrat, you're on the air. | |
| Hi there. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | |
| I'm just calling to say how sad I am what's going on in the world right now and how scary it is too. | |
| And I'm really upset with the Republicans because, especially in the House and the Senate, because if they can't see what is going on and how this particular president is destroying our country, then I'm obviously nothing we say or do can change that. | |
| How do you think the president is destroying the country? | |
| Going into another country and saying, I want to take you over. | |
| I want you, just like Putin does. | |
| Come on now. | |
| I mean, they allowed us to have bases. | |
| If we wanted more bases there, they would gladly give them to us. | |
| It's not like we need to be aggressors. | |
| It's not like we have to own them. | |
| What is that? | |
| The people who live there and who and traditions that they've had with their own, you know, with Denmark, that's who they have been aligned with. | |
| And for our president to come in and say, I want you to be with us just because I want you. | |
| Yes. | |
| I mean, yes, there's probably minerals in the ground and there's other things. | |
| But I don't think it's for safety at all. | |
| I just think it's for money and greed. | |
| And that is what this president shows. | |
| Let's go to Greg on the Republican line in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. | |
| Good morning, Greg. | |
| Good morning, Ms. Gurges. | |
| A couple comments. | |
| I wish there was some mechanism that C-SPAN would have. | |
| For example, that last lady who called, I'd love to have a conversation with her. | |
| I don't know that you could work that out in some way. | |
| I'm a longtime viewer of C-SPAN since Brian Lamb era. | |
| I used to watch it religiously. | |
| I can't anymore. | |
| I'm watching, obviously, today. | |
| I do it occasionally, but I hear so much garbage about people. | |
| You could have put what happened in the first term about NATO and living up to 2%. | |
| Run all of those calls, and they would sound exactly like the calls you're getting from the people who have yet to give Donald J. Trump any credit for anything. | |
| Anything. | |
| So, Greg, you said you. | |
| Let me finish my. | |
| Let me finish. | |
| No, hold on. | |
| But you said you wanted to talk to the caller ahead before you. | |
| So what do you want to say to her? | |
| I would say she's wrong. | |
| She is wrong. | |
| Let's talk about why you think this. | |
| Doesn't anybody believe that the president of the United States knows more than you do, Ms. Gurges, or I do about this situation? | |
| Why don't you talk about the 1951 agreement that the United States has with Greenland? | |
| This is just deja vu all over again. | |
| Greg, tell us about the 1951 agreement. | |
| Go ahead. | |
| The 51 agreement that allows the United States to have lots of presence in Greenland. | |
| It is the basis for why he is doing what he's doing, in my opinion. | |
| Plus, this but the United States does have, I mean, you're right, they already have that. | |
| But the question is, the question is: do you think that it should be acquired by the United States? | |
| I think Donald J. Trump, how long does it do? | |
| People have to watch him. | |
| He is used to doing making deals. | |
| And if you make deals, you never go in. | |
| You go in high and eventually work something out, which is what he has done every day of his both terms of his presidency. | |
| So do you think? | |
| So, Greg, Greg, let's talk about this. | |
| Do you think that this is just a deal-making ploy that he actually doesn't want to acquire Greenland? | |
| He just wants to get to extract more from Denmark. | |
| Tell me what you think he's thinking. | |
| His bottom line is he wants more involvement there to protect the United States and NATO from China and Russia. | |
| So, not necessarily to own it. | |
| Let me, you asked me a question. | |
| Let me answer. | |
| If he can own it, sure, if they're willing, but I don't think they're going to be willing, but that's not his ultimate goal. | |
| Pay attention to what he has done in his six-plus years as president. | |
| Let's not, doesn't anybody, if somebody is mostly successful, wouldn't you, the next time that person does something, give that person the benefit of the doubt? | |
| Not a lot of people, not a lot of people. | |
| Finally, my point: because you got other callers, I'm sure, and I've called in a bunch of times and never got in. | |
| I don't want to bother people. | |
| One more thing: two things: rotate independent to the top of the list. | |
| Most of your callers self-identify and also put in the comment line: 202-737-3-220. | |
| People who can't get in can call there and leave messages. | |
| I've left a bunch. | |
| All right, Greg. | |
| Appreciate you interacting so much with us. | |
| And this is Chris, Independent, Louisiana. | |
| You're on the air, Chris. | |
| Good morning. | |
| First time caller here from Louisiana. | |
| I'm a conservative independent. | |
| That's how I identify myself. | |
| I have been doing everything possible to support some of the big initiatives that came from the Trump administration. | |
| And I have been debating myself mostly for many months and have come to the final conclusion that I have to skip ship with President Trump and encourage the conservative independents that we need to make efforts to move in the direction of asking our vice president to step up and Mike Johnson, | |
| who is from my hometown right here, that we've got to control and do whatever necessary to seek Trump's removal from power as he has effectively demonstrated without any doubt that he has lost his ability health-wise to lead the country. | |
| What leads you to that conclusion, Chris? | |
| It's accumulated efforts on my part to make sense that he was doing some good and that good needed to be done at this point in the history of our country. | |
| And the border, the LGBT movement, the DEI, those things had to be corrected. | |
| They had gone way too far. | |
| And so his work, I do appreciate to address those things. | |
| But his mental health is just too alarming. | |
| It is a major concern. | |
| Why do you think he's got mental health issues? | |
| Like, what did is there something in particular that leads you to that? | |
| He's been unhinged for, he's been, this is his personality that has been unhinged for many years. | |
| It's nothing new, but it has progressed. | |
| I've observed that it's getting worse. | |
| He is too much of a strongman. | |
| He has got nobody in his administration that is showing any indication that we are trying to balance the effect of Donald J. Trump. | |
| And he's gotten to the point to where I think that it's gone beyond a healthy thing for the interests of our nation. | |
| So conservatives, he is not a conservative. | |
| He never was, but he was a disruptor, and that's why I supported him. | |
| And it's time for a new generation of conservatives to come up with a more balanced approach. | |
| And is there somebody in particular you like? | |
| You mentioned the vice president. | |
| Well, the vice president is in position, and he would be effectively the first person to be looked at. | |
| But is that who you would choose? | |
| At this point, yes, just because he is our vice president, duly elected, and there is a responsibility there that can be followed through the Constitution. | |
| Got it. | |
| Fred, in California, Democrat, you're on the air, Fred. | |
| I'm just concerned. | |
| I'm really concerned. | |
| What is wrong with our Congress? | |
| Where's our Congress at? | |
| How is it that they're not getting no kind of control or no kind of understanding from this man? | |
| This is crazy. | |
| He is going over to another country to talk about what they got going on in their country or to talk about he's going to take over their country. | |
|
Worries Over There
00:15:23
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| I don't understand how so many people and these people that you got calling, I don't understand it. | |
| How so many people don't understand and don't see division, don't see how they don't get that. | |
| They're like, this dude is dividing everything that America stands for and what American people stand for. | |
| Like, it is crazy. | |
| Like, what? | |
| Explain that, Fred. | |
| Dividing in what way? | |
| Dividing our country, Father, is like our country, like America, the blacks, the police against each other, ICE against each other. | |
| Like he's worried about something over there. | |
| And all these other states, he prided himself on America first, America agenda, America first. | |
| And right now, America is looking at this man going over there talking about he wants to acquire a whole nother area. | |
| That is crazy. | |
| And we got military over there. | |
| We got friends over there. | |
| We got allies over there. | |
| It's like this guy just don't understand. | |
| Like, we got what we want. | |
| Like, why would you want to agitate and irk people like he's doing? | |
| All right, Fred. | |
| And this is the front page of the Wall Street Journal. | |
| It says, tariff turmoil returns, rattling the markets. | |
| Greenland dispute president's warning sends stocks, bonds, and the dollar down. | |
| It says trade turmoil is back on Wall Street. | |
| Stocks slumped on Tuesday after President Trump stepped up his campaign to take over Greenland and threatened new restrictions on trade with Europe. | |
| He said that he threatened that new restrictions on trade with Europe should he not get his way. | |
| The NASDAQ composite slid 2.4% in its worst day since October. | |
| The U.S. dollar retreated. | |
| The yield on the 10-year Treasury's key gauge of borrowing costs climbed to its highest level since August. | |
| Gold, seen as a haven asset during times of geopolitical or economic uncertainty, soared to records. | |
| That's at the Wall Street Journal. | |
| And we'll talk to Caleb next in Silver Spring, Maryland, Republican line. | |
| Hi, Caleb. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | |
| I'm just sometimes I'm out of words with this administration. | |
| As a Republican, it's very disheartening to see all establishments in this government in this country being destroyed and dismantled. | |
| And I think a lot of it is because of the Epstein files. | |
| This coming midterms, I will be voting Democrat because I'm just sick and tired of it. | |
| Greenland matters to NATO because of the strategic location, not ownership. | |
| We already have many, many bases in Greenland. | |
| And to say we need to acquire the country is ludicrous because Greenland gets free health care and education from Denmark. | |
| If the U.S. buys it, Greenland will no longer have that because the United States government can't even do that for its own citizens here. | |
| And so how are we promising to do more and better for other people that we're not even doing for our own people now? | |
| So it just doesn't make sense. | |
| I think all of this is just a hoax and a distraction from the Epstein files. | |
| I say, whether it be Democrat, Republican, Independent, whoever is on the Epstein file, release it and let them be exposed and let the country move forward. | |
| And Caleb, when you said you're going to be voting Democrat in the next election, had you voted Republican in this past election? | |
| Yes. | |
| And, you know, a lot of the things I thought was going to be good for the country based on the promises and everything that was said during the election. | |
| But words and action are two different things. | |
| You know, when somebody promises you something but does something different, that is when you need to start thinking for your own self and say, you know what, next time, rather than the words, I'm going to look at the action. | |
| And this administration, in terms of action, keeps on giving each and every day what this country doesn't need, what this country doesn't want. | |
| I know they say they have a mandate from the voters. | |
| We voted for the country to be more prosperous, not for the country to be turned into a Gustavo. | |
| All right, Caleb. | |
| And let's hear from President Trump. | |
| He was at the White House yesterday. | |
| A reporter asked him about Greenland, and he talked about Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize. | |
| You told Norway's Prime Minister that you not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. | |
| Did you feel less obligated to think purely of peace? | |
| Well, I lost a lot of respect for Norway. | |
| And I believe, and I believe very strongly, that Norway controls the Nobel Prize. | |
| But you have to understand, I settled eight wars. | |
| I've had every one of those wars. | |
| Every participant wrote, I didn't ask him to do it. | |
| They sent in strong recommendations, you know, they make recommendations for that. | |
| But I settled eight wars. | |
| No president's probably ever settled one war. | |
| I don't know. | |
| Think of it. | |
| I did eight. | |
| The reason I do it is because it's easy for me to do. | |
| And I didn't do it for a Nobel Prize. | |
| I did it because I'm saving a lot of lives. | |
| I'm trying to settle the final one. | |
| I'm trying to do Russia-Ukraine. | |
| And when Russia's ready, Ukraine's not. | |
| When Ukraine's ready, Russia's done. | |
| But they're losing 25,000 people a month on average. | |
| And I'm trying to get that one done. | |
| But I feel that Norway has tremendous control over who gets the Nobel Prize, despite what they say. | |
| How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland? | |
| You'll find out. | |
| President Trump, yesterday at the White House, when he was asked how far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland, he said, you'll find out. | |
| And we are taking your calls. | |
| Here's Edward, South Haven, Michigan, Democrat. | |
| Hi, Edward. | |
| You're on the air. | |
| Hey, thank you. | |
| Hey, I really got to compliment your last couple. | |
| You know, Caleb, Fred, and Chris Callers, they're two Republicans and a Democrat, I believe. | |
| America's finally waking up and realizing what Trump is doing. | |
| And it's just nuts. | |
| Most of my Republican friends, I call them ignorant. | |
| And, you know, the definition of ignorant in the book is lacking accurate information. | |
| We have been lacking accurate information the first Trump presidency and now after the 30 days in office, I knew we are already in a dictatorship. | |
| And that one guy, the guy from Livonia, across the state from me here, I think his name was Theodore. | |
| He said, who else could be president? | |
| Can name a better president. | |
| And I think you could pick any sixth trader in America would be a better president. | |
| The guy, I think it was maybe Chris, who recognized the mental health of Trump. | |
| You know, being so narcissistic. | |
| I was born and raised in Long Island, so I'm a native New Yorker, and everybody knows the Trump family. | |
| And they're not part of the Trump family, all their bankruptcies, how they treat people. | |
| And I'm just worried for our grandkids and their kids. | |
| All right, Ed. | |
| And Caller mentioned the 1951 agreement. | |
| So in case you're wondering about that, here is history.com. | |
| The Cold War agreement that opened Greenland to the U.S. military in 1951. | |
| The U.S. and Denmark signed a mutual defense pact directed by NATO that remains in effect. | |
| And it says this, in 1951, the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement granted the U.S. the right to expand its military presence in Greenland far beyond World War II levels. | |
| The largest addition was the construction of Thule Air Base. | |
| It's now called Pacific Space Base in Greenland's frozen north, which was manned by more than 10,000 U.S. troops at the height of the Cold War. | |
| So that base is still there in existence. | |
| And this is Steve, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Republican. | |
| Hi, Steve. | |
| Good morning, ma'am. | |
| I just wanted to say that, you know, there's still so much division here, but the Greenland, the Greenland offer or whatever, you know, I don't know what that entails. | |
| But if you look through the history of it, how many times different presidents have offered to buy that thing or tried to purchase it? | |
| And it is national defense and it is Western Hemisphere priorities that Mr. Trump is trying to put across. | |
| And, you know, I'm prior military, military strong, inflation's down. | |
| My gas is 205 a pump. | |
| I don't know. | |
| That's the kind of things I measure stuff on. | |
| And with all that said, His mental health, the guys from here, there, and everywhere at his age, and as aggressive as he is, I don't see any problems. | |
| I mean, if you want to, you want to see, like this guy was talking about, he's going to vote Democrat. | |
| Well, Virginia is going to bump every tax they got up third day she's in office over there. | |
| So you get your good, you get your bad, but high taxes is not where I want to be, and that's why I stay conservative, vote Republican. | |
| So, Steve, JD Bands, and Rubio for the next term. | |
| And, Steve, you mentioned Greenland for national security. | |
| And since you're former military, you might have an opinion on this. | |
| Do we have enough presence in Greenland, do you think, to address those national security concerns, or is there a reason in your mind to acquire Greenland? | |
| Well, I think there's besides the defense advantage we have there at Greenland and being able to maximize it, build it up even more, the minerals and the different things that we need to stay competitive with the Chinese, right? | |
| With the rare minerals and all that other stuff. | |
| I can't even say it this morning. | |
| But yeah, we got to stay competitive. | |
| And, you know, everybody talks about progressive people. | |
| If you ask me, all these ideas are progressive. | |
| And why don't we go in that offense? | |
| Why don't we be progressive that way and be aggressive when it comes to our national defense and our rare minimals and be competitive that way? | |
| Because it's going to be a competitive world the next hundred years, you know? | |
| All right. | |
| Let's talk to Ted next. | |
| Independent, Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| Go ahead, Ted. | |
| Yeah, man. | |
| No taxes, right? | |
| But then you turn around and elect Trump, who puts on a tariff on everything under the sun, taxes us all. | |
| Those are taxes, man. | |
| Don't you get it? | |
| I'm, you know, host, I'm struck here because we've had, what, five, six, seven Republicans in a row all calling in, most of which are acting like they're surprised that any of this is happening. | |
| And, you know, the line has been crossed. | |
| You know, one guy said it was Greenland. | |
| The other guy's telling us Democrats are going to tax us when we have tariffs everywhere. | |
| I don't know what to do anymore because it's like we have half a nation of people who don't even know why we fought World War II. | |
| You know, we have a guy calling in telling us that NATO's not paying their dues. | |
| NATO is to our benefit because we are a world superpower, okay? | |
| But we're not anymore because we elected a village idiot COD man. | |
| Okay. | |
| And overnight in a year, he's tariffed us all so we pay more on everything. | |
| We get paid less. | |
| We made the world hate us to the point where now the EU is thinking of bypassing us in favor of China. | |
| And where we are lowered to the likes of Putin. | |
| And we have some guy from the military in here calling and telling me about division when he's going in and stomping over, you know, everything my ancestors fought for in World War II to secure our world dominance. | |
| It's like we have a bunch of idiots running around who are captivated by the internet and can't even discern their own news, can't discern their own information. | |
| So, Ted, wait, let's get back to the suffering. | |
| Let's get back to what you were saying about allies. | |
| And do you think that we still need allies? | |
| Do we still need NATO? | |
| Or does the world go into spheres of influence? | |
| We take care of the Western Hemisphere. | |
| China takes care of the Pacific. | |
| Russia takes care of Eastern Europe. | |
| What do you think? | |
| In a sane world, we'd have allies and we'd rest upon our laurels of winning World War II and dominating the world to provide us with the lives that we've had so these freaking morons can call in and tell us about division and taxes and then turn around and do the same thing. | |
| All right, Ted. | |
| Let's hear actually from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. | |
| So he was in, or he's still in Davos. | |
| He was speaking yesterday and he talked about the threats to the rules-based order coming from the great powers. | |
| Take a look. | |
| Today I will talk about a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality where geopolitics, where the large main power geopolitics is submitted to no limits, no constraints. | |
|
Randy's Vision for Global Order
00:05:28
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| On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries, especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. | |
| They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the various states. | |
| The power of the less power starts with honesty. | |
| It seems that every day we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must. | |
| And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself. | |
| And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. | |
| Well, it won't. | |
| That's Canada's Prime Minister speaking yesterday about a new rules-based order. | |
| And he got a standing ovation. | |
| Here's the New York Times. | |
| Canada flexes on global stage with an eye to its own survival. | |
| Prime Minister Mark Carney got a standing ovation in Davos for starkly describing the end of Pax Americana. | |
| He is looking for new allies to help his country survive it. | |
| That's at the New York Times if you'd like to read the full article. | |
| It's Dr. Randy in Oklahoma, Democrat. | |
| Hi, Randy. | |
| Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | |
| How are you today? | |
| It's a beautiful day. | |
| I heard a guy talking about accurate information and people not getting accurate information. | |
| Boy, he's so right. | |
| We heard about the Russian pollution. | |
| That was all inaccurate information. | |
| The dossier was all inaccurate information. | |
| The laptop was all inaccurate information. | |
| It was pumped out there by you guys. | |
| And I include you with the media because you're as distorted as they are by your programming and your call selection. | |
| But I'm infuriated that all this accurate or inaccurate information that you guys shared goes unchallenged. | |
| So Randy bring us to today to the speech in Davos and what's happening with Greenland. | |
| What are your thoughts on that? | |
| Well, is this open line or is this specific to Greenland? | |
| No, this is specific. | |
| This is not open forum yet. | |
| Yeah, that's coming later in the program, though. | |
| Okay, well, thank you for letting me know. | |
| So as far as Greenland goes, oh man, I don't think you could get to be a bigger Democratic MAGA guy than me. | |
| I just don't. | |
| I can't imagine a creature more MAGA than me being a Democrat. | |
| And Greenland is part of that Make America Great. | |
| It's America. | |
| It's not Make the United States Great. | |
| It's a broader vision for world peace. | |
| We're not. | |
| I hate the way Trump did this. | |
| It seems like he just stirred up Hornet's Nest when he could have done this a little more diplomatically. | |
| And Trump's not known for being a diplomat or Democrat, but he could have done it a better way. | |
| A lot of things, he did it the way he did it, and it's worked out great. | |
| I hope this works out great as well. | |
| We don't need a 51st state or a 52nd state. | |
| What we need are wait. | |
| So, Randy, you want Greenland to be a state? | |
| I think that if, and I'm no expert, no, I do not want Greenland to be a state. | |
| I do not want Canada to be a state. | |
| I do not want Venezuela to be a state. | |
| But I want them all to be part of Make America, North America, the American continent, great again. | |
| Got it. | |
| And with that, we will end this segment, but there's more to come. | |
| President Trump does address the World Economic Forum later this morning, and we'll show you his comments live. | |
| We're expecting that at about 8.30. | |
| So stay with us for that. | |
|
Sunday With Christopher Buckley
00:03:51
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|
| And that will be live coverage. | |
| But before that, we'll chat with two members of Congress, and we'll get an update on the Supreme Court. | |
| And we'll take your calls for Open Forum. | |
| The numbers are on your screen. | |
| Democrats are on 202-748-8000. | |
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | |
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | |
| We'll be right back. | |
| Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series. | |
| Sunday with our guest, Christopher Buckley, best-selling satirical author and son of conservative writer William F. Buckley. | |
| He has written more than a dozen books, including The White House Mess, Thank You for Not Smoking, Florence of Arabia, and The Deeply Personal, Losing Mum and Pup. | |
| He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein. | |
| You have written 20 books, many of them satires. | |
| Satire is a lost art a bit. | |
| I don't see that many satirists that are best-selling authors. | |
| There are. | |
| Carl Hyatt, Dave Barry, although they might be more classified as humorists. | |
| A difference between a satire and a humorist, you would say, is hundreds of thousands of sales. | |
| Watch America's Book Club with Christopher Buckley Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. | |
| Only on C-SPAM. | |
| Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere. | |
| We have to listen so we can govern better. | |
| Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility. | |
| You can fight and still be friendly. | |
| Bridging the divide in American politics. | |
| You know, you may not agree with a Democrat on everything, but you can find areas where you do agree. | |
| He's a pretty likable guy as well. | |
| Chris Kins and I are actually friends. | |
| He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends. | |
| A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other. | |
| We all don't hate each other. | |
| You two actually kind of like each other. | |
| These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose. | |
| It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about. | |
| You guys did agree to the civility, all right? | |
| He owes my son $10 from a bet. | |
| Fork it over. | |
| That's fighting words right now. | |
| I'm glad I'm not in charge. | |
| I'm thrilled to be on the show with him. | |
| There are not shows like this, right? | |
| Incentivizing that relationship. | |
| Ceasefire, Friday nights on C-SPAN. | |
| So you interviewed the other night. | |
| I watched it about two o'clock in the morning. | |
| There was a little thing called C-SPAN, which I don't know how many people were watching. | |
| Don't worry, you were in primetime too, but they happened to have a little re-run. | |
| Do you really think that we don't remember what just happened last week? | |
| Thank goodness for C-SPAN, and we all should review the tape. | |
| Everyone wonders when they're watching C-SPAN what the conversations are on the floor. | |
| I'm about to read to you something that was published by C-SPAN. | |
| There's a lot of things that Congress fights about, that they disagree on. | |
| We can all watch that on C-SPAN. | |
| Millions of people across the country tuned into C-SPAN. | |
| Thank you! | |
| Jesus! | |
| That was a made-for-C-SPAN moment. | |
|
Court's Decision on Cause
00:07:25
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| If you watch on C-SPAN, you're going to see me physically across the aisle every day, just trying to build relationships and try to understand their perspective and find common ground. | |
| And welcome aboard to everybody watching at home. | |
| We know C-SPAN covers this live as well. | |
| We appreciate that. | |
| And one can only hope that he's able to watch C-SPAN on a black and white television set in his prison cell. | |
| This is being carried live by C-SPAN. | |
| It is being watched not only in this country, but it's being watched around the world right now. | |
| Mike said before, I happened to listen to him, he was on C-SPAN 1. | |
| That's a big upgrade, right? | |
| Washington Journal continues. | |
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | |
| We're in open forum, and I am looking forward to taking your calls. | |
| But before we get to your calls, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in Trump v. Cook. | |
| And here to explain it for us is Amy Howe. | |
| She is co-founder and reporter at SCOTUS Blog. | |
| Amy, welcome to the program. | |
| Thanks for having me. | |
| So explain this case to us. | |
| What's going on? | |
| So this is a case involving President Trump's effort to fire Lisa Cook, who's a member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, for allegations of mortgage fraud. | |
| And these are allegations that she has hotly disputed for allegations of mortgage fraud that took place before she became a member of the fed's board. | |
| Cook went to federal court in Washington, D.C. to challenge his effort to fire her, and the lower courts ruled in her favor. | |
| So President Trump, the Trump administration, came to the Supreme Court asking the justices to pause the lower court's orders and allow him effectively to fire Cook while her challenge to her firing proceeds through the court system. | |
| The Supreme Court said, well, actually, we're not going to do that right now. | |
| Instead, we're going to hear argument on your request to be able to fire Cook and to put the lower court's order on hold. | |
| So it's a little bit of an unusual procedural posture. | |
| Usually the Supreme Court is hearing what we call the merits of the case, whether the lower court decision was right or wrong. | |
| But instead, this comes to the court on its, what we call its emergency docket or its interim docket. | |
| And so technically, the only question before the court is whether or not to pause the lower court's order by U.S. District Judge Gia Cobb in Washington, D.C. | |
| But the merits of the firing are sort of inextricably bound up with that. | |
| So let's talk about the merits of the firing. | |
| You mentioned it was an allegation of mortgage fraud, which means in this case that she was claiming two primary residences, which obviously you can't have. | |
| Is that true? | |
| I mean, did she claim two residences as her primary residents? | |
| So she has hotly contested it in it. | |
| It's really not before the Supreme Court, and there have been news reports that would really undermine those allegations. | |
| And so part of what is before the court is whether or not she is entitled to what's known as due process notice and a hearing before Trump could fire her. | |
| The Trump administration says that she's not. | |
| And so the Trump administration is making the case that just the allegation is cause and the president can fire Fed board governors for cause. | |
| And yeah, that he can fire them for cause and he says federal courts shouldn't be able to weigh in on a president's determination that he has cause to fire a member of the Fed's board of governors. | |
| And Lisa Cook says, well, you know, that would effectively, you know, drive a loophole through the exception to the idea that they can only be removed for cause because the president could just say, I'm removing you for cause, and no one could review it. | |
| So this is the Fed is an independent agency. | |
| Yes. | |
| What has the Supreme Court said previously about the president's ability to fire members of independent agencies? | |
| Yes, so since the Trump administration started just the second term, just about a year ago, on its emergency docket, the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to fire the heads of other independent multi-member agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board. | |
| And in December, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Rebecca Slaughter, who's a member of the Federal Trade Commission. | |
| The President argues that a federal law that only allows him to remove members of the Federal Trade Commission effectively for cause violates the constitutional separation of powers. | |
| The Supreme Court hasn't issued its decision in that case yet, but it seemed after the oral argument that they were likely to rule that that law does violate the separation of powers. | |
| But in an earlier decision when it allowed the Trump administration to fire some of these heads of independent agencies on its emergency docket, it suggested that the Fed is different, that it's unique and that it might be different in terms of the president's ability to fire members of the Fed without cause. | |
| And if this were to go through, if President Trump was allowed to remove Lisa Cook, does that mean that he now has carte blanche to remove any of the Fed governors as long as there's any kind of allegation? | |
| I think that's really one of the interesting questions that's before the court today because obviously he is arguing that he has cause to remove her, but what the court says about whether or not courts can review this president's efforts to remove someone for cause will sort of say a lot about what it means to be for cause. | |
| And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is expected to be in the courtroom today. | |
| How significant is that? | |
| It's really interesting because certainly members of the Trump administration were at the Supreme Court argument in November involving the tariffs. | |
| But this is really, I think, sort of a show of support for Lisa Cook in a way that the presence of, say, the Commerce Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury necessarily wasn't quite as personal in the tariffs argument. | |
| So it's significant. | |
| The court still has a couple of decisions that need to be released. | |
| One of them is about tariffs. | |
| Do you have any ideas to when that could come out? | |
| There's no way to know when it's going to come out. | |
| The Supreme Court, after the arguments today, enters what we call its winter recess. | |
| It's not scheduled to release any opinions until February 20th. | |
| It could certainly decide to release opinions before then. | |
| It's done so before in, say, the case involving the efforts by Colorado to remove President Trump from the ballot back in 2024. | |
| But there's no way to know until the Supreme Court is actually handing out the opinion that says the tariffs case, when the opinion is actually coming out. | |