C-SPAN’s Washington Journal (02/12/2026) pits Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) against Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) over DHS funding gridlock, with Flood warning of a shutdown due to partisan standoffs and Peters pushing the Stop Excessive Force in Immigration Act amid ICE’s masked raids and deaths like Renee Goode’s. Meanwhile, callers clash on Epstein file redactions—Democrats demand full disclosure, Republicans accuse them of hypocrisy—and debate voter ID laws, cartel threats, and sonic weapon fears, while a judge forces $16B unfreezing for the Gateway Tunnel Project. The episode underscores deepening distrust in law enforcement transparency and political accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
Participants
Main
m
mike flood
rep/r13:44
p
pedro echevarria
cspan28:01
s
scott peters
rep/d12:59
Appearances
b
becca balint
rep/d00:46
e
elissa slotkin
sen/d01:34
j
jim jordan
rep/r02:00
p
pam bondi
admin03:07
p
pramila jayapal
rep/d01:02
Clips
d
don bacon
rep/r00:03
j
jamie raskin
rep/d00:02
m
mark kelly
sen/d00:18
r
ro khanna
rep/d00:02
t
thomas massie
rep/r00:28
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Speaker
Time
Text
Epstein Files Hearing Dominates00:15:13
unidentified
During a shutdown with funds from the Republican tax and spending law, which was passed last summer.
And on C-SPAN 3 at 9 a.m. Eastern, Minnesota's Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott will testify to the Senate Homeland Security Committee regarding immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota.
Watch live coverage of all these events, also on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and at c-SPAN.org.
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Coming out this morning on Washington Journal, along with your calls and comments live, we'll talk about Friday's deadline on DHS funding, housing affordability, and the Epstein investigation.
First with Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood, and then with California Democratic Congressman Scott Peters.
In her appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi spent most of the hearing defending the Justice Department's handling of the release of the Epstein files, pushing back against Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican for the handling of those files.
She also refused several attempts by Democrats to engage with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse who were in the hearing room.
We'll show you portions of the hearing, and you can respond to the Attorney General's appearance yesterday on the following lines.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
And Independents, 2027-8002.
You can also text us your thoughts this morning at 202-748-8003 and post on our social media sites.
That's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN.
And on X, it's at C-SPANWJ.
The hearing yesterday in front of the House Judiciary Committee was labeled as one that takes a look at general oversight, though the one topic that emerged from that hearing was that about the Epstein files.
The Washington Times capturing a headline of many of the papers today.
Bondi confirms active Epstein inquiries is the headline.
But in the write-up of it, it says that when it comes to her appearance yesterday, the Attorney General defended her department's release of millions of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein, saying President Trump's signing of the legislation forcing disclosure makes him the most transparent president in history.
Ms. Bondi said errors in redacting the names of potential Epstein conspirators and in failing to redact the names of victims were minimal, given the volume of information and the 30-day deadline set by the law.
In fact, it took about twice that time to release the 3 million files published so far, adding, we did the best we could.
That's the write-up from yesterday.
You can still see this hearing, by the way, on our app at C-SPAN Now and our website at c-span.org.
From her opening testimony yesterday, here is the Attorney General Pam Bondi on the Epstein files.
To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law.
We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims.
And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it.
All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today.
I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so.
I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster.
If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you.
I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.
The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
Again, that was from yesterday, that full hearing available to you on our several platforms, 202748-8001 for Republicans, 202748-8000 for Democrats and Independents, 2027, 80002.
If you want to comment on the Attorney General's appearance yesterday talking about the Epstein files, the Wall Street Journal adds, when it comes to yesterday, saying her appearance Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee got off to a tense start when Democrats blasted the department's redactions of material and the release of Epstein files, which revealed photos and intimate details about numerous victims while keeping some of the prominent names secret.
That's from the Wall Street Journal.
It was an exchange yesterday with Washington State Democrat Pramila Jayapaul, directly referencing victims who were in the audience during the exchange.
It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done.
What a massive cover-up this has been and continues to be.
Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files the center of his political campaign because he thought it would benefit him.
Then you got into office, Attorney General, claimed to have a client list on the firm say that there was no list.
Your deputy, Todd Blanch, met alone.
minimum security prison and now you continue the cover-up and I wish that you would turn around to the survivors who are standing right behind you and on a human level.
Okay, but strictly to the Attorney General's performance yesterday on this, or at least her testimony, what did you elaborate on that, please?
unidentified
She's disgusting, and she's covering up for Trump.
She works for Trump.
She does not work for the American people.
And she is a terrible Attorney General.
And all she's doing is protecting Trump and the Republicans.
GOT stands for Guardians of Pedophiles.
And I'm really disgusted the fact that these poor girls and that there's not been more justification for their crimes that were committed against them.
Caller, when it comes to the Attorney General, make your final comments and then we'll go on.
unidentified
I think it's just she's making a mockery of the Department of Justice.
She's making a United States Department of Justice look like it has only one motive, and that is the political advancement of Donald Trump's retribution and agenda, which is counter-American in every single aspect of her purpose.
Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions, upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys, and keeping Americans safe.
The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law.
Murders are down nationwide by 20%.
D.C. violent crime is down by 28%.
The federal surge in D.C. resulted in 8,000 arrests, the seizure of 800 illegal guns, and the recovery of 16 missing kids.
The Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in the pipe bomb investigation.
And they've arrested six of the FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitives in just one year.
Of course, they arrested narco-terrorist Nicholas Maduro, and they seize a record number of drugs flowing into this country.
Trump Justice Department put an end to targeting Americans for their beliefs.
Attorney General Bondi rescinded Attorney General Garland's anti-parent memorandum.
Department of Justice ended the practices of using the FACE Act to target pro-life Americans.
They've refused to tolerate attacks on places of worship and investigations of traditional Catholics that we saw in the previous administration.
On her first day, Attorney General Bondi disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force that was pressuring social media companies to censor Americans.
And the Trump Justice Department has ended law affairs.
The Wall Street Journal adds to the mix when it comes to reporting on the hearing yesterday, saying most Republicans rallied to the Attorney General's defense, saying she was working to correct the Justice Department that her Democratic predecessors had wielded as a weapon against Mr. Trump and his supporters.
Quote, thank you for returning the DOJ back to its core focus, which is on the rule of law.
That was Representative Brandon Gill, Republican of Texas.
Let's hear from Ingrid Ingrid in Colorado, Independent Line, the Attorney General appearing yesterday talking about the Epstein files.
Ingrid, go ahead.
unidentified
Yes, hi.
I would like to know why she never turned and looked at the victims of those perpetrators, no matter who they were, that their names were redacted and the victims' names were released.
They did it backwards.
What happened?
And they also asked her how many of those perpetrators have they.
Are they actively investigating?
The number is zero.
Oh, she brought up how great of a border policy they have and other issues to deflect.
The Washington Post adding, when it comes to those victims that the caller had mentioned, that more than a dozen of Jeffrey Epstein's victims were at the hearing and, when prompted by a Democratic lawmaker, raised their hands to indicate that they had never spoken to representatives of Bondi's Justice Department.
That's part of the reporting that came out yesterday.
Ed up next, Republican line.
He's in Ohio.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Good morning, you and all your callers.
You know, Trump, over 16 years ago, or longer than that, he was one of the first that just got away from Epstein.
He called the FBI.
He told him what this guy's underage.
At Key Largo years ago, when he was there as a guest of big party, he had people working there, all ages of women.
There was thousands of people one of his big key largos.
And then, okay, he had some, okay, people from 30s, whatever, handing out drinks.
All right, there's all ages.
Then he saw Epstein trying to get some of those people that were working the party to go over to whatever.
He kicked them out, kicked them out of the party, discontinued.
Now, back to this thing from yesterday.
This was 16 years ago.
Yesterday, she couldn't answer any questions.
When you watch the Democrats, as usual, they put up these hearings.
Every time they set up the question, they make accusations.
Half of them aren't even questions.
And when they do, wherever she goes, they answer, they set up yes or no.
That's it.
All these lies, these accusations blatantly cut her off, cut her.
She can't give a yes or no.
That's something that's a lie about.
She tried to explain a little.
Even when she got her time and it went to another Republican, they'd give her time.
It just is never ending with that part.
It's all a show.
There were people taking selfies there.
If you saw at the end of it, all these selfies on the Democrat side, some of these women they brought in, all holding up their things, laughing, smiling, taking selfies together.
All of the Democrats.
You saw the accusation.
Now, all these people, she's done a great job the whole country, not just this.
You know, all these just illegals.
It's only cities and states that are not following the laws, that sanctuary states and cities.
There's 100 times more deported in Texas than Minnesota.
Matt Crawley, Matthew Crawley from Facebook, just posting.
Democrats have yet to explain how any of this lowers the cost of eggs.
And then A.G. Bondi is a horror show.
What country am I living in?
Lying, distortion, redaction, hocus-pocus, and hypocrisy.
Oath is not transparency.
When will the circus end?
And the victims get justice.
That is Patrick from Nashville, Tennessee.
You can text us if you wish.
Your thoughts at 202-748-8003.
And if you want to post on our social media sites, you can do that too.
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Republican Line in Pennsylvania.
Patrick, you're next up.
unidentified
Thank God that I changed political parties from Democrat to Republican.
The complete lack of civility, the complete destruction of our Constitution Bill of Rights.
You have one congressman after another literally threatening, threatening political representatives who are Republicans with wait until we get into office.
It's going to be the revenge tour.
You have a Democratic Hispanic congresswoman threatening representatives in the American people.
You have Swalwell, who repeat, he threatened everybody, Republicans, before the president was even elected.
Well, you're going a little too far in the sense that we're showing you a hearing that we air as many hearings that we do and asking people to engage on that.
And you have your chance to say whatever you wish on it.
Let me ask you this in a follow-up then, as far as you called it brilliant, and particularly when it comes to the Epstein files, how did the Attorney General do there?
unidentified
She's done a magnificent job.
She's going by the foundation of the law.
She's conducting herself with a flawless direction.
It is above and beyond above and aboard what she has done in the past.
And people need to act civilly.
I mean, what you see from Democrats is if this is, if Democrats get back into office, we are in big trouble as a nation.
If you had not the chance to watch it live yesterday, our app, if you want to download it, you can watch it there, our website too.
If you want to see the comments of the Attorney General going back and forth with various legislators, one of the exchanges that took place yesterday was with Representative Becca Ballant, a Democrat from Vermont.
They exchanged barbs according to this write-up during the contentious hearing following a question about senior Trump officials ties to Epstein.
The hearing included several explosive moments, including one in which Ballant pushed Bondi on the alleged ties that a number of senior Trump administration officials have to the Epstein files.
There were many of these during the exchange, but here's a portion of that exchange with the Attorney General and the Democratic legislator from Vermont.
I was curious if you, Congresswoman, asked Bill Clinton that.
Didn't see one tweet.
Not one.
I didn't see one tweet when Joe Biden was in office about Bill Clinton.
Didn't ask Merritt Garland anything about Epstein, not once, when he was also, I want the record to reflect that, you know, with this anti-Semitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution condemning.
Again, that was before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday.
This is a viewer in Virginia.
I've not had any good thoughts about the last four attorney generals.
The president was an idiot for campaigning on Epstein and deserves bad publicity for Democrats can throw at him.
And then Dean from Indiana saying no congressperson can possibly review 3 million documents, but the Dems did nothing with these files.
Were they in power?
Why?
And then adding the statement, Clinton and other Dems with an exclamation point.
Natasha is Pennsylvanian Democrats lying.
Hello, go ahead.
unidentified
Hey, good morning.
I just want to say quickly that what we saw yesterday was a lot of childish actions.
But, you know, in my own opinion, she came with daggers and she could not wait to throw them.
And I believe that Raskin was correct in giving his introductory comments because I've never seen her sane when she's supposed to be answering questions.
She's just like a child.
She has to throw away, I guess she throws tantrums probably in her office.
But I do know that what I saw yesterday, those young women who were there, the survivors and the family members of survivors, to me, they were owed a lot more respect than what they got from her and her entourage.
Her entourage sons, in fact, they were laughing right behind her.
That was not good diplomacy as far as just, you know, on a human level.
And then I thought that the Amasi was really one that I thought was very powerful.
I have a lot of respect for him.
But I think if people really want to know how hearings and things should be run, take a look at the LBJ movie that's on Netflix right now.
I've read the LBJ papers and I really respect what LBJ did.
And it was contentious at that time also.
But this time it's much different because this person that we have in office has 34 counts on him, shouldn't even be there.
Let's just set the tone right about the hypocrisy.
Let's go back four years when we had Joe Biden.
Nobody wanted to talk about Epstein.
They couldn't use Donald Trump as part of the Ebstein because you and I knew if it had something substantial, they would put it out there to cause him not to win the election.
Now, for the Democrats to come out and put all these survivors behind the Attorney General, where were they at when Merritt Garland was in there?
Okay, Tim in South Carolina finishing off this round of calls.
Thanks for all of you who participated this morning.
The House is coming in at nine o'clock today.
And before then, we will hear from two legislators joining us to talk about various topics later on in the program.
California Democratic Representative Scott Peters, he's a member of the Budget Committee and the New Democrat Coalition.
We'll talk about the pending deadline that's coming up on Department of Homeland Security funding, issues of affordability, and other topics.
But joining us next, Nebraska Republican Mike Flood, member of the Financial Services Committee, on deadlines, affordability, and other related topics.
You'll hear from him next when Washington Journal continues.
unidentified
The fan is as unbiased as you can get.
You are so fair.
I don't know how anybody can say otherwise.
You guys do the most important work for everyone in this country.
I love C-SPAN because I get to hear all the voices.
You bring these divergent viewpoints and you present both sides of an issue and you allow people to make up their own minds.
I absolutely love C-SPAN.
I love to hear both sides.
I've watched C-SPAN every morning and it is unbiased.
And you bring in factual information for the callers to understand where they are in their comments.
This is probably the only place that we can hear honest opinion of Americans across the country.
You guys at C-SPAN are doing such a wonderful job of allowing free exchange of ideas without a lot of interruptions.
Thank you, C-SPAN, for being a light in the dark.
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This is Donald Trump dealing with Senate Democrats.
And I don't think their base is in any mood to do anything.
What's frustrating, though, is under the One Big Beautiful bill, we have funded ICE through 2029.
So really, what we're doing here is we're not paying TSA agents and FEMA and the Coast Guard and all of these other DHS responsibilities, HSI investigators that are looking at child porn.
But I do not think we will have a deal by Friday, and it could go for a couple weeks or even longer.
Well, you know, I think Tom Holman has lowered the temperature in Minnesota in a significant way.
And, you know, like in my home district of Nebraska, our law enforcement provide scene security when an enforcement action is being taken.
And we have not had this kind of combative situation.
In Minnesota, you've got police departments that aren't cooperating with these ICE enforcement officers.
And that's a recipe for kind of a chaotic situation.
In light of the two people that were killed, I think we need full investigation.
Everything needs to be looked at, just like we would any other officer involved shooting, and then determine what would be in the best interest of the agency going forward.
I think the president does want to find common ground with the Democrats.
We were able to find common ground in our branch, but or in our chamber.
You know, I just hate going to the airport, and I go to a lot of airports, and you're going through TSA, and those people that are working at TSA put up with a lot of junk, right?
And on top of it, they're not getting paid.
For God's sakes, like, let's figure this out.
I think that, you know, I would support a two-week clean CR.
I would support a month-long clean CR.
Take whatever time you need to get this done.
This is not, I mean, ICE is still going to function.
This is the Coast Guard.
This is FEMA, TSA agents.
Totally different deal.
unidentified
But the narrative among Democrats is: hey, fight, fight, fight.
And number two, we're going into a negotiation on the USMCA.
Why take the president's leverage out when we're going into the reauthorization of probably the most important trade agreement that we rely on in North America?
And the other thing is, it's not a lawmaking exercise.
Like, I could have voted no to send a message, but there are not the votes to veto it.
So let the president have the leverage he needs to get the USMCA done again.
We all believe in loving our neighbors, yet you are enabling death, destruction of our innocent neighbors like Alex Petri, Rene Good, and Marie Mara Martinez, my fellow Chicagoan, and many vulnerable immigrants.
How can you call yourself a Christian when you let ICE have murderous and unconstitutional dollars any further?
Well, I think that's a little extreme to suggest that anybody that supports enforcing our immigration laws is culpable of murder.
That is the hyperbol that we live with in America today.
Listen, I want the temperature turned down.
I want enforcement to happen, but I want with federal law enforcement agencies to accomplish the goals, the laws that both Republicans and Democrats have written.
So I don't think it's unreasonable to expect state and local officials to work in concert with federal officials.
One of the top issues for Democrats on the ICE demands was targeted enforcement.
Wasn't that the idea going into when ICE was dispatched to various cities across the United States?
unidentified
Absolutely.
And if the governor and the police officers and the sheriffs would have allowed ICE to go into the jails and take those on detainers that are not here legally, we wouldn't have this kind of enforcement.
Tom Holman said it a week before the second tragedy happened.
He said, let us into your jails and all of this gets easier.
These are folks that have already broken the law or are suspected of breaking the law and they're here illegally.
So an ICE officer goes into a secure detention facility, places that individual in custody and removes them into the process of administrative detention.
That's the way it's supposed to work.
But when you don't let people have access to the jails, you end up with the kind of enforcement that you see in Minnesota.
You know, I think we do need to talk about how our immigration system is going to work.
And ironically, the one president, the one political leader in the nation that has the most credibility on that issue is Donald Trump.
And, you know, we have a lot of incredibly hardworking folks that have become naturalized citizens.
One of the greatest things I get to do as a member of Congress is go to the federal district courthouse in Lincoln and see new Americans raise their right hand and get sworn in as naturalized citizens.
It's a beautiful, wonderful process, and they're wonderful citizens.
You know, on the voter ID, he spoke my mind.
And I got a show ID if I get a lot of things, get on a plane.
I don't think that compromises anybody's ability to participate in democracy.
From Larry, Larry is also on our line for Republicans.
North Carolina, go ahead.
unidentified
Yes.
My question is this, Chair.
We have laws on the books that state that it's illegal to hire anybody without a Social Security card.
So instead of us going after all these immigrants in the country and shooting everybody and wasting all the money, why don't we go after the employers who hire these illegal immigrants?
Well, I think there is enforcement against employers.
I know that employers do their very best with E-Verify and systems to detect, but a lot of these illegal aliens, they will have forged documents that when you run them through the E-Verify, they still check out as being legitimate.
Doesn't mean that if you're knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, you should face the consequences for that.
Well, first of all, thank you for asking because the vote on that was 390 to 9.
Housing is not a partisan issue.
Maxine Waters, French Hill, me, Emmanuel Cleaver, we have been working for a year and a half to find out what are the pressure points when we hand out federal money to help states address affordable housing.
How can we take action with low-income tax credits?
How can we get money to cities to offset the cost of infrastructure?
This is a landmark bill that will change our opportunity to build more housing.
One of the things that it does is looking along lines of streamlining regulatory requirements and it would also modernize programs to help people with housing.
Can you elaborate on some of those fronts?
unidentified
Yeah, so HUD administers the Home Partnership Program.
It had a bunch of punishing requirements on environmental reviews, Section 3 requirements on the kind of people you could hire and had the AMI average median income at 80%.
And we moved that to 100.
We exempted some more of those projects from the environmental reviews.
We just really got government out of the way and said, hey, you got to go in there, use the money, build the homes, work on density, work with communities that want to grow affordable homes.
And when you get a 390 vote in the House, you're doing something right.
When you think mobile home, you know, the requirement on the federal side has been that, you know, since these were mobile homes, one of the requirements the federal government has you have to have a chassis so that you can transport it.
unidentified
But the reality is, once it's placed on the foundation, it's not going anywhere.
Well, I didn't call about affordable housing, but it sounds I agree.
Wyndham, Connecticut votes yay on affordable housing.
I do agree with that.
But I'm calling about the DHS bill.
My position is these two officers should be prosecuted.
It sounds like you covered that.
Another thing I would like to see, we get out of dressing these guys up as they're going into Pelusia when they're really going to downtown Minneapolis.
Dress them up as regular officers with a badge.
No more machine guns, don't high-end military-style machine guns.
From Kevin is in New York and Staten Island, Republican line.
unidentified
Good morning, sir.
How are you?
Glad to be on.
I'm all for funding the DHS and funding the government, period, and a lot of its programs.
I'm a former military.
I served overseas.
And my stance is the DHS is a new agency in comparison to before when we were dealing with in the 80s when they were dealing with organized crime groups from Europe.
And there's been laws on the books that if you committed, I think it was in 1992, Ronald Reagan enacted a law.
If you committed six misdemeanors or felony, you automatically did your time and then got deported.
That law people forget about was employed against the Italian HSC and other organized crime groups.
And also, if you've got to remember one thing, they're saying that the DHS is racist.
When you enact a law specifically targeting a group of people, that's racism.
But as far as enforcing laws that are on the books is not racism.
Everybody wants to boast of their ratings during the pre-unemployment areas in New York.
And I'm targeting Mr. Jeffries and Chuck Schumer because they're right now the primary mudslingers.
I live in New York.
I went to Chuck Schumer for some help one time after I gave him a donation for my business, and it fell on deaf ears.
So that just goes to show you the double standard that they have.
And these laws were crafted and supported by Republicans and Democrats.
President Obama enforced immigration policies.
So did President Bill Clinton.
So We have to pivot, make sure that we're doing the best job we can, make sure DHS and ICE have the resources that they need, and then work with communities like Tom Holman has done up in Minnesota to ensure that we're doing it safely, work with the jails, which I think is much safer for the community than the type of enforcement that we've seen in different places and just get through this.
Don't forget, viewers, the House comes in at 9 o'clock today, and we're hearing from one representative, but we will also hear from Representative Scott Peters, a Democrat from California.
Matters concerning the House of Representatives and Congress overall, Representative Mike Flood joining us for this conversation.
Because you serve on financial services and finances overall, I want to get this new information that came out yesterday from CBO saying the budget deficit will reach $1.9 trillion in the fiscal year 2026, 5.8% of GDP.
unidentified
Well, for the first time, the trend is coming down after we pass the one big beautiful bill, I think $360 billion.
And remember, we couldn't deal with mandatory spending.
That was just discretionary spending.
So, or I'm sorry, we could just deal with mandatory spending, not discretionary.
So, that on top of the budget we just passed, I think we are going to a very good place.
Our continuing resolution spent more than what Tom Cole and the Appropriations Committee were able to deliver together with the Senate.
So, you know, Republicans are in office and we are changing the curve, and we're also seeing increased GDP growth, which we're not going to cut spending to get ourselves out of it entirely.
You've got to have spending go down and GDP growth go up.
Would you, as far as cutting spending is concerned, would you go as far back as austerity measures that Congress saw in 2011, or do you think that's too drastic?
Or if cuts have to happen, where do you think that should start?
In 2011, I was cutting a billion dollars out of the state budget in Nebraska as the speaker there, so I can't speak to the ins and outs of the austerity measures.
But, you know, I was in Greece a couple of years ago, and they went through what my number one nightmare is.
And their austerity measures have been brutal, but they're coming out on the better end of it.
I pray to God we never see anything like that in this country.
I think that we are working with the people from Greenland.
The Danish ambassador came into my office.
He's like, We have always said yes to the United States.
We want a partnership.
We want you in Greenland.
We want you in Denmark.
And I think, you know, the president always takes an unconventional path to achieve his goals and ended up at Davos making great progress with Greenland.
And they're wonderful people up there.
And so, as a member of the Greenland Caucus and the Friends of Denmark, I'm delighted that we're in a much better place.
Representative Mike Flood, among many things, the Greenland Caucus, the Financial Services Subcommittee, and Representative and Republican of Nebraska.
Thanks for your time this morning.
Thanks for giving us your time.
Joining us from Capitol Hill to continue the conversation before the House comes in, Representative Scott Peters, Democrat from California, a member of the Energy and Commerce and Budget Committees.
Well, Democrats are asking for a retreat from these incredibly destructive practices we've seen by the Department of Homeland Security, particularly in Minneapolis, but across the country.
One of the things that I did, I just listened to Mr. Flood talk about how these folks are masked up and under threat, but ICE has been funded by the Big Beautiful bill to a level greater than the United States Marines.
They're better funded than the Israeli military.
And that military that we funded, the Republicans funded, has been turned against our own citizens.
And this notion that they have to be masked when they're going around to schools and picking up people, picking up people from their legally required appointments as part of the immigration system.
That's just a different picture than what's really on the ground that we've seen with our own eyes.
And we need to retreat from those practices.
I have a bill called the Stop Excessive Force in Immigration Act.
We've got 100 co-sponsors endorsed by a number of people around the country that would just require those law enforcement officers from Department of Homeland Security to observe the same practices that we'd expect from any local police or sheriff's department.
Proportionate response, de-escalation, no masks, proper identification, always on body cameras, because we know our local police are trained in how to do crowd control.
What we've seen is really an untrained force, a force that's out of control, and a force that's unaccountable.
We want to stop that as part of these negotiations.
We want Republicans to come to the table and help us do that.
And if those things don't emerge as far as to your satisfaction, there's a couple of pathways as far as funding is concerned, whether it be a full year, a stopgap, letting the shutdown happen.
What are you most comfortable with as far as funding is concerned?
And if you want to ask him questions, it's 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats.
And Independents, 202748-8000 to Representative Scott Peters, Democrat from California.
Ricardo joins us.
He's in Philadelphia on our line for Democrats.
You're on with Representative Scott Peters.
Ricardo, go ahead, please.
unidentified
Thank you, Scott Peters, for the work that you're doing on trying to get these agents to take those masks.
I was having a conversation with my son this morning, and he said accountability is the number one reason why these guys should have their masks taken off.
If your face is shown, you're more likely not going to push a 75-year-old lady onto the ground.
Judges don't wear masks, and they're putting away serious, vicious criminals, and they don't wear masks.
And the reason is because of accountability.
Just I want to touch something on the Epstein files really quickly.
I find it very disturbing that Mr. Comer is willing to drag in Hillary Clinton, whose name does not show up once in the Epstein files, but they're not willing to bring in Mr. Nutlick, who's a cabinet secretary, and just lied to the American people, saying he's only seen Epstein once, and he was so disgusted when he walked into his house that he never ever saw him again.
The Epstein files are released.
Now Mr. Nutlick is sitting there saying, oh, well, I did vacation at his house one time.
It was something very quickly.
We just stopped in for lunch with my kids and my wife.
As you see, this is why the interest in the Epstein files is so big.
The lies continue on and on.
So the American public starts to ask, why, what's really going on?
Why are these survivors not getting the justice that they deserve?
In Massachusetts, Independent Line, we'll hear from Martin.
unidentified
Yes, Representative, thank you for coming on the show.
I have a question for you.
I originally wanted to call to find out when campaign promises turn into campaign lies in regards to Abigail Spanberger or Muradani or Cheryl in New Jersey because she did not want to redistrict in Virginia and can't wait in first month in office to redistrict and gerrymander.
So my question is, how do, when I watch the votes on the floor, how is it that I can't get five people to vote?
Everybody has an independent thought when they get into office.
How do you get 214 people consistently to vote in one?
It's almost like they don't even think for themselves that they're being told robotically.
Well, I mean, everyone's got to be responsible for his or her own vote.
And I think I've voted independently of my party a number of times.
But just on redistricting, look, Democrats proposed independent redistricting commissions for every state, nonpartisan.
Let's do it fair across the country.
Not a single Republican voted for that.
The system we have in California, I think, has been really good.
I, as an elected official, have no input into where the districts are drawn.
I had to watch it happen recently in redistricting in California.
It's completely independent, and that's the way it should be.
Now, I think, you know, unfortunately, North Carolina last cycle drew out three Democrats, and then Texas announced it was going to redistrict to get rid of five Democrats.
And so I don't think it's reasonable to, when someone starts this race to the bottom, to think that everyone's not going to participate.
So California responded, Virginia responded.
But now a lot of states are in this game.
I think it's really unfortunate.
And I think that Republicans should join with Democrats on our proposal that we have independent redistricting across the country.
And that would solve the problem.
But they don't want to do that.
They started this fight.
I lament that that's the road we're going down, but I don't see a way that Democrats don't respond to what the Republicans and President Trump have started.
When it comes to votes, Representative, this week we saw votes on the SAVE Act that was introduced by Republicans, also a vote to resend tariffs when it comes to Canada.
Well, the SAVE Act is, you know, I think voter ID is a reasonable idea, but the notion you have to have a passport, the notion that if you're a wife of someone, you've changed your name, you have to bring extra identification to come just to come to vote.
This is really a way to suppress votes.
And if you look at in the swing states over the past few decades how many instances of voter fraud that you've seen, out of millions and millions and millions of votes cast, all the investigations have never shown more than a few hundred cases of voter fraud.
So this is not a problem that we have to deal with.
The problem we have to deal with is getting more people to vote and I think making the democracy even more representative.
So I just don't think that's appropriate at all.
On tariffs, look, I was supportive of President Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was an effort to use our leverage as a country to get American goods, have more access to the 40% of the consumers of the world that were represented in that agreement.
I don't believe that tariffs are a good policy.
I think if you have tariffs, they should be targeted.
And I think that's what we're seeing here.
Since Liberation Day, what we've been liberated from is job creation.
Even though we had 130,000 jobs announced in January, which was revised downward from what we'd expected, but if you account for that, since last April, the whole year, including January, the amount of job creation has been zero.
And the amount of inflation has been much higher.
You can look at the curves from Liberation Day and gone straight up.
I think tariffs are a bad policy generally.
I think free trade results in better prices for consumers.
And one of the things we want to do as new Dems is get rid of these tariffs, which are justified, I think, in a crazy way by President Trump as a national security issue.
It's not a national security issue.
Supreme Court should take care of that.
If they won't do it, Congress should.
And we saw a good bipartisan vote yesterday that this is BS and we should roll back these tariffs and give American consumers a chance to be able to afford everyday life.
The funny thing is, you know, the victims who we ostensibly want to protect were there yesterday saying how awfully they're being treated.
Again, Pam Bonnie asked for this fight.
She said she was going to release everything.
And we've seen this obfuscation continue without any feeling of regret or any kind of apology from Ms. Bondi for the things that these people have been put through.
The person who has been treated well is Jelene Maxwell, who was actually convicted under the Biden administration, put away for 20 years.
And we got this trip from the officials in the Trump administration over there.
And at the end of the trip, she gets a nicer prison setting.
She gets a pet.
She gets special time for her own physical activity.
All this special treatment.
What did she get for that?
Well, what we know is she's not testifying about the truth of what happened.
And I think any reasonable observer would really wonder if the Trump administration wants to see this come out and why they're doing all this to keep it secret.
If they wanted this out, they could get it out, and they're just not doing that.
The New Dems has 115 members of the Democratic caucus.
We consider ourselves more centrist and more interested in getting things done.
And so I'm proud of the affordability agenda.
You know, we want to point out that all the elections have been won recently on affordability, including President Trump's.
I think he's letting us down on housing, on health care, on family care, on energy, on price of groceries.
And so the New Dem Coalition has come up with a plan to work on those things.
I specialize in energy.
And what we're seeing is the Trump administration literally not permitting wind and solar projects that would be cheaper ways to get energy to the American people, subsidizing not new energy sources, but subsidizing the continuation of coal, which is not only dirty, but it's expensive.
We want permits to be issued for all sorts of energy expeditiously.
More energy we get on the grid and the healthier the grid and the more transmission we have, the better that is for consumers.
That's exactly the opposite of the way that the Republicans and the Trump administration are going.
And so we ask people to check out the New Dem affordability agenda.
If you agree with us, let your representatives know you do.
And let's push this through and really address the affordability issues that have driven the concerns of so many American citizens and voters.
If you've called in the last 30 days, you can hold off from doing so today.
We appreciate it.
Make sure you pick the line that best represents you: 202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000.
202-748-8002.
You can always post your thoughts on the various things that you see on this program on our various social sites.
Facebook.com/slash C-SPAN is how you do that.
And on X, it's at C-SPANWJ.
First call in open forum comes from California, Republican Line.
This is Sandy.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Okay, I have about three points to make here.
First of all, on our ICE agents, I want them masks.
I don't want them being threatened and their families.
And if the rhetoric from the Democrats had not been so intense about this, you wouldn't have people going to peaceful protests with guns and using their vehicles to run people over.
So I have a problem with that.
Not that I ever want to see anybody be hurt, killed, or maimed.
That's a big problem I have.
Voter ID: everybody needs to have an ID.
You can't even go to a casino and win money without an ID.
Why should you be allowed to vote without an ID?
I have a problem with that.
So, yeah, I want voter ID.
I live in California.
The amount of money and taxes and everything that they charge us for and gas and everything else, it's really hard to be a retired person in this state.
Trust me.
The other thing I have to say is the way that Pam Bondi was treated yesterday.
She's doing the best she can with what she has to work with.
And I don't like the fact that anybody was taken advantage of or mistreated or hurt in this way, women, children, or men.
But what I like even less is that the previous administrations did nothing, but they're trying to pin this all on the current administration.
Changes in ICE enforcement at the center when it comes to the future of funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Roll call later in the evening yesterday saying lawmakers making no apparent progress towards a deal on an extension of Homeland Security funding.
And the Senate peers set to leave town Thursday, despite the February 13th deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of that agency with both chambers on recess next week.
The impasse means the department might be without a big chunk of its funding until at least the week of February 23rd, unless there's a breakthrough where leadership calls members back to Washington early.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday he wasn't planning on keeping his chamber in town unless an agreement was close.
Quote, as soon as we can strike a deal, we'll vote on it.
Until then, I don't know if there's any point in keeping people around here sitting around doing nothing.
I think it's important that the people at the negotiating table double down, sharpen their pencils, and strike a deal.
Shea up next.
Shea in Florida, Republican line, Pedro.
unidentified
Oh, man, there's so much to go with right now.
I wanted to talk about the ICE agents.
Now, you showed, I've seen it on C-SPAN when I'm watching it, and you're showing about the ICE agents and everything, how they go into those people's houses, going upstairs, they handcuff them, they're walking them out.
I mean, they're not throwing them down on the ground and doing all of that.
I mean, I don't understand why can't they go get who they're getting, and I don't think they believe they had masks on.
The lawmakers don't have masks on.
They've been called.
If Trump tells them to go get them, you know, you got crazy people that'll go and try to intimidate people, but that's just wrong.
And what I could see was happening up in Minnesota.
I saw a cold-blooded murder with that Alex Purdy.
They said 11 days ago, yeah, I saw him.
He kicked the taillight of a car, but he never kicked it out.
And when he was helping that young lady, he had his phone up with his left hand, and he was trying to protect her.
They were throwing her down on the ground.
They grabbed him and threw him down on the ground, face down on the ground, and they shot him nine times in the back.
And how do you think your fellow Republicans have responded to that?
unidentified
I mean, it's ridiculous.
Okay, it's ridiculous.
What the problem is with Republicans and Democrats, I hate parties.
I hate parties.
When the frame was first come out with that, they did that to divide us.
I want to be talking about Pedro what you stand for.
I want to know I'll vote for Republican Democrat Independent.
If you're a good guy and got morals in you, you're a Christian, because Christ said, as much as you do it to the least of minds, you've done it under him.
One of the things that took place yesterday, the New York Times reporting the federal prosecutors in Washington saw it and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders for people.
According to the matters, according to familiar with the matter, said it was remarkable that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, led by Janine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump's, authorized prosecutors to go to a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom served in the military or the nation's spy agencies.
But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on a grand jury in federal district court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump's bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecutions.
It was two of those members, Mark Kelly and Alyssa Slotkin, senators responding to this announcement yesterday.
Again, you can watch more of that that took place on Capitol Hill yesterday.
When it comes to things to watch out for on the networks today, in about 25 minutes from now, Tom Holman in Minneapolis set to hold a press conference.
He's the White House Border Czar, set to hold the press conference to talk about the situation in Minneapolis and where it is to date.
You can see that on C-SPAN 2 starting at 9 o'clock.
You can also view it on our app at C-SPANNO and follow along at c-span.org.
Again, about 25 minutes from now.
Let's go to Joe.
Joe in Virginia, Independent Line.
You're next up.
unidentified
Hello.
Hey, good morning.
And first, I want to thank you guys for having this alternative to the mainstream media.
And my concern, I was doing a little research this morning, that our national debt is 120% of our gross domestic product.
And it seems like we're spending a lot of time in Congress worrying about things that, you know, are never going to get solved.
And I'm wondering what this Congress is going to do about our national debt moving forward.
And I don't see any movement on any of that stuff.
And Jim joins us from Winter Park, Florida, Republican line.
unidentified
Good morning, Pedro.
Good morning.
Who would have loved to have gotten on with Mr. Peters?
I'm 75 years old.
I lived in New York for my first 40 years.
When he started talking about gerrymandering and about what the Republicans are doing, gerrymandering has been going on since way before my lifetime.
And I can tell you that if you could bring up the map of Jerry Nadler's district and watch how it goes up one street, back down and around a couple of streets and back up another street, it's not a square, it's not a rectangle.
It is driven by the people that he wants to vote for him.
And this was in the 70s that I saw this.
So the Republicans are just fighting back against what the Democrats have done forever.
As far as talking about face masks and stuff on our ICE agents, our ICE agents, every one of the things that you show on all of your little clips that you show of ICE being picking up people and stuff, they're wearing vests that say ICE police.
They're wearing a badge next to their gun on their belt.
They have a face mask on, and they're doing it because they are being attacked by other people.
If we're going to take the masks off of the people that are trying to arrest these criminals, I want the masks off the protesters who are in the streets throwing stuff at them, yelling in their ears, taking bullhorns and blowing them off in their face.
Why do they have fit masks on?
What's the reason?
The reason is because they're probably supposed to be at work, and instead they're out in the streets doing this stupid stuff.
Maybe they don't work.
Maybe they're being paid by the people that they're working for.
I got a couple issues I'll run through real quick.
As far as what I keep hearing Republicans say with Obama, they keep saying Obama did this with immigration, Obama did that.
And my issue with that is I think our Democrats, when they have their press conference, they need to be ramming that down their throat.
That one thing he didn't do was have an armed militia kicking indoors, arresting people, dragging them outside.
Now, what the other caller said earlier about those masks, we had an incident here in Baltimore where the ICE agents were there to arrest a lady.
They came in masks.
The people in the neighborhood sit outside.
They thought that lady was being robbed.
So they ended up surrounding the ICE agents, and the ICE agents left.
So they had no idea who those people were.
So that's my issue with the masks.
And if they're getting threats and they got masks on, who's threatening them if you can't see who they are in the first place?
And one more thing I'd like to say: I just can't stand the way the Republicans, with their selective vision, because they talk about Ms. Good that was murdered.
Anyone with clear vision can see her tires and wheels turn sharp to the right, not towards that agent, as they say, trying to ram him.
Okay, Morell in Maryland, when it comes to economic news coming out yesterday, the Wall Street Journal highlights information coming from the federal government saying the U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in January, its strongest growth in more than a year.
It's in a sign that the labor market might be shaking off its recent stagnation.
It also adds that revisions to nearly two years of jobs figures sharply downgraded the earlier reports, particularly for 2025, which saw a paltry 181,000 jobs added for the entire year.
There's more there from the Wall Street Journal if you want to read that.
Let's hear from Ellen.
Ellen in Missouri, Independent Line.
unidentified
Hi, thanks for taking my call.
I got a couple of points.
First one, voter ID.
I'm 65 years old, and I can't buy a lighter in the convenience store without an ID.
So the hubbub about the IDs is ridiculous.
Secondly, the Epstein files, the more Trump tries to hide it, the more people want to see it.
He's so worried about immigrants that are sex offenders and running them out of the country.
Why doesn't he run the high-money, high-power people who are sex offenders out of the country?
Hi, my concern is in Venezuela, when we went there and invaded them and took their president, we used a sonic weapon, which seems to me like is very similar to the Havana syndrome that our CIA agents and some other people have experienced.
So if the president and his administration would send the National Guard and Marines to cities, I fear that he would use this sonic weapon, which he acknowledged that they used against his own people.
So if there were some civil uprising, I mean, he would use that weapon on us.
I'm really disturbed.
I think it's kind of like a crime against humanity to even use that kind of weapon against anybody, similar like if you used chemical warfare.
But yet they used it in Venezuela and acknowledged and admitted they used it.
And now I worry as a citizen that he would use it against us.
The Washington Times highlighting a technology-related story coming out of Texas, which you possibly heard in other places, saying Mexican cartel drones breached the U.S. airspace, according to the Trump administration, leading to the sudden closure of an airspace over El Paso, Texas, Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration reopened the airspace around El Paso International Airport hours after announced a 10-day closure for special security reasons that would have grounded all flights landing and leaving.
It was later Wednesday that the Trump administration tied the spur of decision-making to drones linked to a Mexican cartel.
Quote, cartel drones are being shot down by our military, the Attorney General told Congress.
But several news outlets, including the Associated Press and CBS News, reported that the sudden closure stemmed from the Pentagon's plans to test a laser for use in shooting down drones used by cartels.
Those plans caused friction with the FAA, which wanted to ensure commercial air safety.
I want to talk about the radicalization of the American people.
The way this is like playing out.
Hold on, let me gather myself here.
You kind of caught me off guard.
Just let me get back to the radicalization.
I feel like this country is being divided.
It's been being divided, not just through this presidency, but through Biden's presidency, too.
It started with Biden's presidency with the way he was treating the Republicans.
I'm not a Republican or a Democrat.
I don't subscribe to either because I actually really do see what it's doing.
I see the division.
And then I want to talk about the mask being worn by these ICE agents.
Police officers don't get to wear masks.
They have to identify themselves by their badges and what they look like, just in case they go outside the bounds of the law and need to be held accountable.
You got a lot of these ICENs that were January 6th insurrectionists that have been pardoned and then hired by ICE.
I'm not sure if a lot of these people noticed or not, but that's a fact.
So, yeah, they should have to wear masks.
We're not talking about people who have proper training, who have taken oaths, any of that stuff.
These people were hired on a limb.
There was a girl, a reporter not too long ago who put in an application for ICE.
She was hired within a week, and she only did that just to see if they would hire her.
All her social media posts and everything were anti-Trump and all that stuff.
They didn't check none of that.
They still hired her.
She didn't take the job, of course, but she just wanted to prove that ICE will hire anybody.
Okay, yeah, I just wanted to encourage President Trump to keep going like he's been going because he's making a real mess.
And I would encourage people to watch C-SPAN Washington Journal to also watch C-SPAN 2 and 3, for instance.
I watched C-SPAN 2, no, and 3 yesterday and saw Lekwalecha, the former Polish president, speaking from his time in the Reagan era.
And he said in Polish, which is translated pretty well: if you people don't get a smart president, you're going to have to learn to speak Chinese, friends, or Russian, or maybe both.
Also, I see on C-SPAN 3 today or 2 yesterday was Chuck Codd, who formerly used to do Washington.
Anyway, he did a good talk yesterday with people.
What's more, Maryland governor, stated the state of dress was done recently from Annapolis on that same channel.
And these people are doing a good job.
So there's a lot more going on, everybody, besides Washington Journal.
Watch 2 and 3 also, and you get a lot of broad coverage.
It seems like you're a close follower of the programming on our networks.
And viewers, you can become a close follower as well by keeping track of all the things that we are doing on our various networks, our social media platforms, our access on YouTube and Hulu.
Again, all for your consumption as part of our effort to you to bring you the activities of Washington and Congress.
Billy is in Indiana, Republican line.
Hello, Billy.
unidentified
Go ahead.
Hello.
I like to talk a little bit about the national debt that we have.
And that I'd like to see if anybody knows anything about how much money that we have, how much gold we got in Fort Knox.
Trump administration said that they were going to come out with how much we had, but for some reason, nobody ever mentions it.
And also, it seems like that we have turned into a lawless country.
People don't obey the laws.
If these you can't, if the police pull you over and you resist the police officers, then whatever happens to you is on you.
That's how it's always been.
And for some reason, they don't seem to, we don't seem to have any laws anymore.
People's running stop signs out here where I live here in Indiana.
They run stop signs, they speed.
They run 90 mile an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone.
Nobody gets pulled over.
And it just don't seem like our laws is, you know, we don't have any laws anymore.
Okay, Bill Weber in Indiana, giving his thoughts on this open forum.
You can do the same in the next 10 minutes or so before the House comes in.
The Munich Security Conference is set to take place in the next couple of days, in which foreign policy affairs will be discussed.
One of the stories that the Washington Post highlights is Democrats looking to possibly run in 2028 going as well, saying that it was California Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer are among those set to speak at the prestigious security forum in an effort to articulate an alternative foreign policy to President Trump's aggressive interventionism.
The full slate of speakers not announced.
Cabinet officials and several Republican and Democratic senators will be part of it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio set to lead the U.S. delegation.
And this story adding that Democrats are aiming to demonstrate robust opposition to Trump effectively discarding long-standing international alliances in which he has long been dismissive to assure European nations that they can still depend on the United States once President Trump leaves office.
So look for that to play out at the security conference and information that we'll present to you on this program about that.
One of the exchanges that took place yesterday at that hearing with Pam Bonnie, which you still find on C-SPAN, was that back and forth you had with Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey pressing the Attorney General on the process of redacting the Epstein files and questioned why some information became available.
Yeah, I want to call about the tunnels in New Jersey and New York.
They were proposed back in Trump's first administration, and both governors, Merrick Cuomo and Christie, both brought up the money from the states to build that tunnel.
And they were supposed to contribute money from the federal government under Trump.
He re-nigged on that.
So that project was stopped in Trump's first term.
Biden got in office, and that tunnel was appropriated.
I don't know how he can stop that now.
Here again, the tunnel is taking $16 billion from this current tunnel project, putting a lot of people out of work.
And that tunnel is 115 years old.
There's icicles inside there showing you that there's water leaking in that tunnel.
And that's really a dangerous situation.
So, you know, you want to judge this president not by what he says, but what he does.
CBS reporting that a federal judge ruled the Trump administration needs to unfreeze millions marked for New York and New Jersey's Gateway Tunnel Project by Thursday today.
Construction was halted after the president abruptly froze the $16 billion for the project in October.
Although a judge temporarily blocked his actions, workers are still not back on the job.
A temporary restraining order was issued Friday night to prevent the project shutdown.
A legal battle now playing out while crews figure out if they're going to go back to work.
The House again coming in in just a few minutes.
Let's hear from Judy, Judy in Maryland, Independent Line.
unidentified
Hi.
Well, hello, Pedro.
I've been trying to get you for a long time and I finally got you.
But Pedro, this is my story.
When I heard Donald Tom say, Cease Bay, my friend, I knew that people was going to start attacking you.
But that's not what I wanted to say.
What I want to tell you, I went on a bus trip to the Smithsonian Institute in D.C. because they had the Klan's costume on display.
That's the first thing I went and look for.
When I saw them, they had him on a three-foot platform in a huge circle.
Beautiful colors.
I'm going to have to tell the truth, they were a lot more beautiful.
As I walked around and I walked around it twice, I did not see one name tag.
I did not see a face or anything.
My point is, the government now are hiring people with the same kind of costume, but a different style.
No name tag.
Well, you can't see anything being docked.
How are you going to dock somebody who you don't know who was behind this costume?
You can't do it.
That's impossible.
And when they shot that young man, that petty gentleman, after they shot him, they walked away and went back and robbed him.
Who turns a dead man over after you kill him?
I think that was one of the most pathetic things I have ever witnessed in my life.
And a street of white women in her place in broad daylight in the suburbs, everything has changed.
I just wanted to say that the administration under Trump is like, to me, if it wasn't so serious, it'd be like a comedy of errors.
Every one of them has made major mistakes.
None of them has paid any price for it.
They say people under them.
That's still their responsibility.
And putting masks on agents, what is that?
That's not America.
If you can't show your face and wear a badge, then don't take the job.
If you're scared for your family and what might happen, don't take the job.
There's other jobs.
If you want to take that job, then you put your face out there and you put a badge on and you'd be proud to be what you are, not sneaking around with a mask on like a burglar at night.
Don't forget the Border Czar, the White House Border Czar, Tom Holman, expected to start a press conference just about now.
And if you're interested in seeing the latest and hearing the latest when it comes to activities in Minnesota, especially as the White House presence there, you can go over to our sister network at C-SPAN2 if you want to watch the proceedings there.
Again, other things happening throughout the networks today, particularly as discussions go on when it comes to possible funding issues regarding the Department of Homeland Security.
Stakeholders to C-SPAN 1, our coverage of the House, our C-SPAN 2 networks dedicated to coverage of the Senate.
And you can always follow along at our website at c-span.org and our app at C-SPAN now.
The House of Representatives just set to come in and momentarily from now.
Let's see if we can get one more call in.
Elaine from Minnesota, jump on in.
Have to tell me real fast.
unidentified
Okay, just quickly, I wanted to speak about the meeting that was had with Ms. Bondi yesterday.
So disrespectful, so out of order.
I just want to say the House Representative was so ridiculous, not allowing questions to be asked and answered.
Secondly, I want to talk about immigration.
Again, I can honestly say I'm a Democratic that agreed with immigration.
I thought that we should get a hold to our borders and people who came across of it.
It's ridiculous to blame it on one administration with immigration.