CSPAN - Washington Journal 02/25/2026
Aired: 2026-02-25
Duration: 02:01:58


=== State Of The Union Highlights (03:00) ===

[00:00:00]  For their annual issues conference, where they'll discuss issues the party will focus on for the year.
[00:00:05]  The theme for 2026 is fighting for an affordable America, as Democrats plan to focus on an affordability agenda.
[00:00:11]  From Leesburg, Virginia, watch live at 1:45 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3.
[00:00:17]  C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, and online at c-span.org.
[00:00:27]  Democracy.
[00:00:28]  It isn't just an idea, it's a process.
[00:00:31]  A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles.
[00:00:39]  It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted.
[00:00:44]  Democracy in real time.
[00:00:47]  This is your government at work.
[00:00:49]  This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered.
[00:00:58]  Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, along with your calls and comments live, we're getting your reaction to President Trump's State of the Union address, along with analysis and discussion from Wisconsin Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary Committees, Virginia Democratic Congressman Suhasu Ramanyam, ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee, New York Democratic Congressman Tim Kennedy of the Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs Committees,
[00:01:26]  and Wisconsin Republican Congressman Tony Weed, member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
[00:01:31]  Washington Journal is next.
[00:01:33]  Join the conversation.
[00:01:36]  reasons I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our union is strong.
[00:01:51]  President Trump used his first State of the Union speech in his second term, the longest such speech in modern history, to highlight his view of the economy, discuss some foreign policy concerns, and at times call out Democrats over issues such as immigration.
[00:02:06]  In the next two hours, we'll show you highlights from the speech, talk to legislators for their reaction, and mostly hear from you on your reaction to last night's State of the Union speech by President Trump.
[00:02:18]  Here's how you can call us this morning, Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202-748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002.
[00:02:34]  You can text us your thoughts about last night's speech at 202-748-8003.
[00:02:40]  If you want to post on our social media sites, you can do that too at facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and also on X at C-SPANWJ.
[00:02:51]  The president last night using his speech largely to talk about economic issues.
[00:02:56]  Here's how some of the papers across the United States captured last night's speech and their headlines.

=== President's Economic Claims (15:17) ===

[00:03:00]  The Dallas Morning News picking up on an Associated Press story, but here is the headline: Trump touts turnaround.
[00:03:06]  The subhead, president aims to convince wary Americans that the economy is stronger than many believe.
[00:03:13]  The Chicago Sun-Times, state of defiance, highlighting some of those Democrats who did not attend this speech last night, around 70 Democrats deciding not to do so.
[00:03:24]  The subhead says, six Illinois Democrats boycott address.
[00:03:27]  One walks out as the president declared the quote golden age during the State of the Union.
[00:03:32]  And the New York Post playing off the men's USA gold team being part of the activity last night.
[00:03:40]  Their headline, Trump wins gold.
[00:03:42]  Again, the economy, a major driving force of last night's speech.
[00:03:47]  Here's a portion of the president talking about what he sees are the accomplishments in his first year.
[00:03:54]  For decades before I came along, we had the exact opposite.
[00:03:59]  From trade to health care, from energy to immigration, everything was stolen and rigged in order to drain the wealth out of the productive, hardworking people who make our country great, who make our country run.
[00:04:12]  Under Biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond, it reached a breaking point with the Green News scam, opened borders for everyone.
[00:04:23]  They poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions.
[00:04:28]  They were murderers, 11,888 murders.
[00:04:32]  They came into our country.
[00:04:33]  You allowed that to happen.
[00:04:35]  And record-setting inflation that cost the typical family $34,000 in just a speck of time.
[00:04:43]  Now, the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word affordability, a word.
[00:04:52]  They just used it.
[00:04:53]  Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure.
[00:05:04]  You caused that problem.
[00:05:06]  You caused that problem.
[00:05:23]  They knew their statements were a lie.
[00:05:25]  They knew it.
[00:05:26]  They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie.
[00:05:30]  Their policies created the high prices.
[00:05:33]  Our policies are rapidly ending them.
[00:05:36]  We are doing really well.
[00:05:39]  Those prices are plummeting downward.
[00:05:49]  The price of eggs is down 60 percent, Madam Secretary.
[00:05:55]  Thank you.
[00:05:56]  The cost of chicken, butter, fruit, hotels, automobiles, rent is lower today than when I took office by a lot.
[00:06:04]  And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly.
[00:06:09]  Just hold on a little while.
[00:06:10]  We're getting it down.
[00:06:12]  And soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago.
[00:06:21]  That's a portion of the president from last night.
[00:06:23]  You can still watch the speech on our app at C-SPANNOW, our website at c-span.org, your reaction to it during this time.
[00:06:30]  The House coming in at 9 o'clock today.
[00:06:32]  And we'll take your reaction till then.
[00:06:34]  202-748-8001 for Republicans.
[00:06:37]  202-748-8,000 for Democrats.
[00:06:40]  Independents, 202-748-8002.
[00:06:43]  The Wall Street Journal this morning highlighting the analysis of last night's speech, adding, while the inflation has cooled, they cite, U.S. economic growth slowed at the end of last year.
[00:06:57]  The economy created only 181,000 jobs in all of 2025, though job gains rebounded in January.
[00:07:04]  Let's hear from Vicki, Vicki in Seattle, starting us off on our line for independence on last night's State of the Union speech.
[00:07:11]  Vicki, go ahead.
[00:07:13]  Thank you for taking my call, Pedro.
[00:07:16]  I just want to say, and I mean this in all sincerity, this man is mentally unfit to be president.
[00:07:21]  He doesn't live.
[00:07:23]  Everything comes out of some weird thing in his head, but he is not living in reality, honestly.
[00:07:31]  He needs to be impeached.
[00:07:32]  Well, when it comes to the speech last night specifically, what was your reaction to that?
[00:07:40]  It is.
[00:07:40]  It's like listening to he's mentally, he doesn't even know what he's talking about.
[00:07:46]  He's just making up stuff out of hand.
[00:07:49]  I live in the real world.
[00:07:50]  Prices are up.
[00:07:52]  I don't live in his world where whatever he wants it to be, he just makes it up and throws it out there and expects everyone to believe him.
[00:07:59]  He is a pathological liar.
[00:08:01]  He is a narcissist, and he has severe mental problems.
[00:08:05]  Okay, okay, okay.
[00:08:06]  We will go to Veronica in Florida, Republican line on last night's State of the Union speech.
[00:08:11]  Hello.
[00:08:12]  Yes, thank you for taking my call.
[00:08:15]  I'm calling to say that these people who are denigrating our president are crazy.
[00:08:24]  First of all, for the speech, he showed that Democrats are not for the American people.
[00:08:32]  And also for Governor Spanberger, who was the person that spoke after the speech to give the Democrat highlights, the woman who ran as a moderate to a very short time after she became governor became a truly progressive woman.
[00:08:54]  She raised taxes on everything.
[00:08:57]  So what does that mean as far as the speech and the response she gave last night specifically?
[00:09:04]  She's talking about affordability.
[00:09:06]  How can you talk about affordability when you raise taxes on everything?
[00:09:12]  When you tell people that President Trump talked about the immigration that Democrats put illegals over citizens, she put into effect that they are not going to cooperate with ICE.
[00:09:27]  How can you do that?
[00:09:29]  Okay.
[00:09:30]  How can you do that?
[00:09:31]  Roxanne in Maine, Democrats line.
[00:09:34]  You're next up.
[00:09:34]  Go ahead.
[00:09:36]  Good morning.
[00:09:37]  Actually, I watched bits and pieces because I know Donald Trump has no humility.
[00:09:46]  And as I'm watching this, the repeat, repeat of what I've done, what I've done, what I've done, what I've done, repeat over and over again.
[00:09:56]  And you know what?
[00:09:57]  I understand there's some wonderful things that he has done.
[00:10:00]  I'm not going to criticize the man because of some good things that he's done.
[00:10:05]  But our economy is in the toilet.
[00:10:09]  I don't care what anybody says.
[00:10:11]  Gas hasn't gone down.
[00:10:13]  Grocery prices are still through the roof.
[00:10:17]  And if not going higher, they're going to go 3% higher in 2026.
[00:10:24]  That's a given.
[00:10:25]  And everybody's talking about this.
[00:10:28]  I don't understand what he means because what he does, he repeats, repeats.
[00:10:34]  That's part of a psychological thing to do that.
[00:10:37]  He was taught that many years ago.
[00:10:39]  That isn't the point of a State of the Union speech to tout an accomplishments of an administration.
[00:10:43]  So every president by virtue does that?
[00:10:47]  Well, the thing is, is that they do honor what they do, and I understand that.
[00:10:54]  But the thing is, is that I don't need to hear it over and over and over again.
[00:10:59]  This is his job.
[00:11:01]  He's supposed to take care of things, and he's supposed to be taking care of the people, not the Middle East.
[00:11:06]  Take care of the United States.
[00:11:08]  We are hungry.
[00:11:10]  We are hungry.
[00:11:12]  Okay.
[00:11:13]  And this is what I wanted to point out about this.
[00:11:16]  He needs to respect our country, not what's going on in the Middle East and other countries.
[00:11:24]  Focus on us.
[00:11:26]  And it has to do with the tariffs.
[00:11:29]  Taxes are going to go through the roof.
[00:11:31]  And don't listen to what he has to say because everything is going to go sky high.
[00:11:37]  Okay.
[00:11:38]  Okay.
[00:11:38]  Let's go to Mike.
[00:11:39]  Mike on our line for independence in Ohio reacting to the State of the Union speech.
[00:11:43]  Mike, good morning.
[00:11:45]  Good morning, Pedro.
[00:11:47]  Listen, there's going to be a lot of fluctuation as far as our economy goes because we've been sold out since NAFTA, which means no American factory taking applications.
[00:11:58]  People don't realize Trump is not a politician.
[00:12:01]  We have a two-party system that's created the mess that we're in right now.
[00:12:04]  We still have a lot of old rhinos in the Congress and in the House that are still for the old Democratic guard.
[00:12:14]  I mean, they're both working the same.
[00:12:16]  Trump is not a politician.
[00:12:18]  He's a businessman.
[00:12:19]  He is bringing trillions of dollars back into our country to restructure it, which we've been sold out by them people that are sitting there on their butts doing nothing.
[00:12:29]  The Democratic Party has shown us their true face.
[00:12:32]  They want to destroy America, bring in a whole new generation of illegals, and that way we can be a one-world order position.
[00:12:43]  People wake up.
[00:12:44]  So do you think the president presented too rosy of an opinion of the economy last night?
[00:12:49]  The commies is doing freight right here in Norwalk, Ohio.
[00:12:54]  We're out in the middle of BFE.
[00:12:56]  I mean, come on.
[00:12:57]  What does that mean?
[00:12:58]  Well, what does that mean?
[00:12:59]  And how has the economy improved there?
[00:13:02]  Well, for one thing, prices are coming down.
[00:13:05]  Gas, food, and everything else.
[00:13:07]  The further you live from a refinery, the more you're going to pay for gas.
[00:13:11]  Anybody with a brain would know that.
[00:13:13]  Food processing, if you live further from a proof shop.
[00:13:17]  I'm sorry, I can't.
[00:13:19]  No, it's okay.
[00:13:20]  We got your point there, Mike in Ohio.
[00:13:22]  The Wall Street Journal has a snapshot of the first year of the president's accomplishments on the economy.
[00:13:29]  Economic growth is one of those things they highlight under a category of acceptable.
[00:13:33]  They give it.
[00:13:34]  The economy has managed to keep growing despite hiring slowdowns, but the pace has slowed.
[00:13:39]  Gross domestic product in 2025 expanded from 2.2%, measured from the fourth quarter of the prior year, down from 2.4% in 2024, and at the slowest pace since 2022.
[00:13:50]  That is hardly the, quote, new golden age the president promised on the campaign trail, but it is also better than what many anticipated after last spring's tariff rollout, where economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected growth of just 0.8% last year.
[00:14:06]  Sarah is up next in California, Independent Line.
[00:14:10]  Go ahead.
[00:14:12]  Hi there.
[00:14:14]  So I just want to say that coming from both sides, I don't think the Republicans are happy in the way that the immigration thing was handled in Minnesota.
[00:14:23]  Two Americans are dead.
[00:14:25]  I don't think that the Democrats are happy in the speech that was given afterwards and the response of just vote.
[00:14:31]  I think in the big picture, all of us Americans have seen some of the Epstein files that have been given to us.
[00:14:37]  I think there needs to be accountability on both sides.
[00:14:40]  And I think that us as American people need to open our eyes and see who's actually running the government.
[00:14:45]  And all these little things that they're throwing at us, whether it's immigration issues, whether it's trans issues, whatever the hell it is, is taking away from the big picture that the people who are running us don't have our best interests at heart.
[00:14:56]  Well, how does that relate specifically to last night's speech?
[00:14:59]  Give an example.
[00:15:01]  Because I feel like everything was just, I don't know, the answers were very subpar, just to make whatever party that you affiliate with happy.
[00:15:11]  And I don't think any questions were answered.
[00:15:13]  I think it was, trust me, the economy is great.
[00:15:16]  Things are going to be great when it comes to the Democratic speech.
[00:15:20]  Just go vote.
[00:15:20]  We can make a change.
[00:15:22]  No, give it to me.
[00:15:23]  Tell me how us as a people can make a difference.
[00:15:25]  Because right now it seems that everybody who's in power is full of it.
[00:15:29]  Sarah in California giving her response to last night's State of the Union.
[00:15:33]  You can do the same.
[00:15:34]  You can give us a call on the lines, reach out to us and post if you want on our various social media sites.
[00:15:40]  In fact, if you go to the social media sites, when it comes to the length of the president's speech, we hinted this morning that it was the longest when it comes to technical state of the unions.
[00:15:48]  There's a history.
[00:15:50]  An hour, a minute, an hour and 47 minutes, 107 minutes total.
[00:15:55]  Back in 2025, that was 99 plus minutes, 78 plus in 2020.
[00:16:01]  It goes all the way back and including an average length of a State of the Union speech, 78 minutes or 79 minutes plus.
[00:16:10]  Can see that for yourself when it comes to the length there.
[00:16:13]  And always watch the speeches from last night on our app and the website too.
[00:16:19]  Mark is next.
[00:16:20]  Minnesota Independent Line.
[00:16:22]  Hello, Mark.
[00:16:24]  Good morning, Pedro.
[00:16:25]  Thanks for taking my call.
[00:16:28]  I love C-SPAN, and I hate C-SPAN for the same reason.
[00:16:33]  You let people say anything and you don't push back.
[00:16:39]  But I would like to ask an independent question.
[00:16:43]  Is C-SPAN going to do a fact check on Donald Trump's speech last night?
[00:16:49]  As an independent, I'd like to know the facts.
[00:16:53]  Well, tell me what the portions of the speech last night caused you concern.
[00:16:59]  Well, just about everything.
[00:17:01]  I mean, talking about the economy being great.
[00:17:05]  I mean, obviously he doesn't go shopping, you know, just all of it.
[00:17:13]  Well, what's the difference in the economy versus what the president talked about and what you're seeing there in Minnesota?
[00:17:20]  Well, prices aren't down, Pedro.
[00:17:22]  I mean, gas prices are the same as they were when Biden was in in Minnesota.
[00:17:29]  My coffee hasn't come down since he took off tariffs.
[00:17:33]  Coffee went up to 20 bucks for two pounds, and it's still 20 bucks for two pounds.
[00:17:40]  And that's the cheap coffee that I buy.
[00:17:43]  So I just want to know if C-SPAN, as an independent arbiter, is going to do a fact check on his speech.
[00:17:52]  Well, we've already highlighted some of what others have reported on when it comes to matters of the economy, giving their assessment.
[00:17:58]  So we'll let it stand at that.
[00:18:00]  Again, you can call in and make your comments when it comes to last night's speech.
[00:18:05]  Give your thoughts, give your impressions.
[00:18:07]  We've invited legislators to join us throughout the morning to do the same.
[00:18:11]  The House coming in at 9 o'clock today.
[00:18:13]  We'll hear from four legislators before it's done.
[00:18:15]  Representative Glenn Grothman, Republican of Wisconsin.

=== Labor Shortage Highlight Needed (04:50) ===

[00:18:18]  He serves on the Oversight and Government Reform and Judiciary Committees joining us from Capitol Hill.
[00:18:23]  Representative Grothman, good morning.
[00:18:25]  Good morning.
[00:18:26]  What was your impression of last night's address?
[00:18:29]  I thought it was the best speech we heard of Donald Trump.
[00:18:32]  You know, it was at least the sixth time we gathered in that chamber to hear him speak.
[00:18:36]  Of course, given his performance in the first five years, you would say in some ways it was a very easy speech to write.
[00:18:44]  He's had tremendous successes at the border.
[00:18:48]  What he has plans for as far as getting medical costs under control, you know, he's not somebody influenced by campaign contributions.
[00:18:56]  He's standing up to the health insurance companies.
[00:19:00]  He's standing up to the prescription drug companies.
[00:19:03]  He cited American heroes, both 100-year-olds who had fought in World War II.
[00:19:09]  He was able to highlight and give a little bit of notice to some people who had lost loved ones, particularly due to the horrific illegal immigration.
[00:19:23]  So I thought it was a great speech.
[00:19:25]  I thought it was his best speech.
[00:19:26]  And everybody else I talked to last night felt the same way.
[00:19:29]  Representative Grothman, when it comes to the economy and how we characterize it, a golden age, to what degree do you agree with that sentiment?
[00:19:37]  I think it's great.
[00:19:38]  I think it's certainly better than it was a few years ago.
[00:19:41]  We still have a situation in which we have an employee shortage, relatively easy to find jobs.
[00:19:51]  The inflation, you know, we haven't had a decrease after the big cost increases of the Biden economy, but inflation recently is down considerably.
[00:20:03]  I know gas prices have been the lowest.
[00:20:05]  It's been a long time, at least in my district.
[00:20:08]  So I felt the economy was good and it's going to get better, particularly as the deregulation hits and energy costs, the lower energy costs ripple through the economy.
[00:20:19]  You've probably seen polling over the last couple of days leading up to the State of the Union charting the president's performance on the economy.
[00:20:27]  The last one, this one from the post in ABC News saying 57% of Americans disapproved of that handling of the economy.
[00:20:34]  Do you think that's a messaging issue as far as what the administration wants to tell it and how Americans are receiving that?
[00:20:40]  Like I said, I think we have to lay out that the things that people are disappointed in are very difficult to undo, say the inflation of the Biden years.
[00:20:48]  And that's got to be explained to people.
[00:20:50]  I think we can do a better job of highlighting the labor shortage and how much money is available out there for people who want to work.
[00:20:58]  I'll tell you, I've spoke several times with Walmart, for example.
[00:21:02]  Now, they only hire the best, but you've got truck drivers for Walmart now making $140,000 a year.
[00:21:08]  That's pretty good, right?
[00:21:11]  To your home state of Wisconsin, talk a little bit about what people are telling you there, and particularly when it comes to the tariffs.
[00:21:18]  The president addressed the tariffs, particularly the Supreme Court ruling.
[00:21:22]  His economy, or at least his plans for the economy, built on tariffs.
[00:21:26]  What do you think of the future of tariffs and how does that affect the people in your state?
[00:21:30]  Well, we'll see.
[00:21:31]  To be honest, I think President Trump is the best president of my lifetime.
[00:21:37]  You know, we don't agree on 100% of everything.
[00:21:40]  I'm not as big a fan of the tariffs as President Trump.
[00:21:44]  Nevertheless, it hasn't resulted in the huge problems that some people were predicting.
[00:21:50]  Talk a little bit about, well, this message that's delivered last night, do you think, how does that assist when it comes to midterms?
[00:21:58]  Do you think this is going to be something that should continue?
[00:22:01]  I think it's good because it was such a positive speech that if he sticks with that, it will help us get another two or three points we may need to hold on to our majority.
[00:22:13]  And of course, the Democrats last night, they weren't speaking, but their performance, their refusal to stand up for lines that anybody should have stood up for, I think that says a little bit about them as well.
[00:22:29]  When he talked about dealing with a transgender issue, again, kind of sitting down.
[00:22:36]  So I think for people who are really paying close attention last night, I think their kind of their anti-Trump childishness, the refusal to stand up at times where they should have stand up, I think it will hurt the Democrats.
[00:22:52]  On some other things going on currently in light of this speech, how long do you think before there's a resolve in the partial funding stopping at DHS?
[00:23:02]  It could take a while because the Democrats just planned simply don't want to fund ICE.

=== Democrats And The Welfare System (03:32) ===

[00:23:09]  You know, we went through this thing a couple years ago where so many Democrats wanted to defund the police.
[00:23:14]  Well, if you want to have any immigration law at all, ICE is the people who enforce it.
[00:23:19]  And the Democrats really don't want immigration laws.
[00:23:22]  It goes back to a couple presidential campaigns ago when they promised free medical care for all illegals coming here, which they had under Joe Biden.
[00:23:33]  But It continues to be a problem, and that if the Democrats don't want to fund ICE and they don't want to, it sends the message all around the world that we are enforcing immigration laws.
[00:23:47]  And as Donald Trump pointed out, as soon as you get a different president or even a different congress in there, I think the Democrats are going to want to go back to the days in which you get three million, maybe four million illegals coming here every year, which would be horrific.
[00:24:03]  But that really is their goal.
[00:24:04]  They're one world government type of people who don't know why I need a board at all.
[00:24:08]  Representative Grothman, you are on the oversight committee in attendance last night.
[00:24:13]  Several members of the guests that were invited, victims of Jeffrey Epstein.
[00:24:18]  Your committee's investigating that.
[00:24:20]  What more do you think needs to be done on this front?
[00:24:23]  Well, we want to look in.
[00:24:24]  I think one of the things we ought to be doing is looking for other people who can give us more information.
[00:24:31]  You know, I'm going to be present, I intend on Friday when we depose President Clinton.
[00:24:36]  I don't think he's the most honest person in the world, so I don't expect to get a lot of breaking news out of him.
[00:24:42]  But perhaps some of the other characters who are around Epstein Island, the other characters who staffed Jeffrey Epstein's airplane, will be more forthcoming and tell us a little bit more that's out there.
[00:24:53]  You know, we've heard of a lot of famous people who've already been caught in this net.
[00:25:00]  We know who the problems are.
[00:25:02]  But I think there are a lot of people I'd like to yet know.
[00:25:06]  I do think that perhaps early on some of those files disappeared.
[00:25:11]  But, you know, it says something about the elite of this country, and it seems largely we're dealing with liberal elite, though not exclusively.
[00:25:23]  Their sexual worries are very different than that of the average American.
[00:25:27]  When you say disappear, can you elaborate on that?
[00:25:30]  Well, I think early on, some I think early on, and I'm saying going back over 10 years ago, I think when they went into Jeffrey Epstein's, I can't remember what it was, apartment or offices or whatever, I think things were left unattended for a while and that was wrong.
[00:25:52]  And before we let you go, back to your deposition of President Clinton, which you highlighted, you said you didn't think you were going to get a whole lot out of it.
[00:25:58]  I'm paraphrasing, why is that?
[00:25:59]  Can you elaborate on that?
[00:26:01]  Because I think he and his wife are known liars, right?
[00:26:04]  I mean, they both lie so much, and it's been demonstrable.
[00:26:07]  I mean, are all of a sudden they're going to start telling the truth just because it's a congressional committee.
[00:26:13]  And so, before we let you go, I know I promised that, but what's the next best step the administration should take after last night?
[00:26:19]  Well, I think we have to continue to clamp down on excessive government spending.
[00:26:24]  I was glad that we're going to be looking into more of the spending abuses that's been assigned to Vice President Vance.
[00:26:32]  I also hope they look at the welfare because, of course, our welfare system is almost designed to keep the man out of the family, so many fatherless homes.

=== Clamp Down on Excessive Spending (03:27) ===

[00:26:41]  It's not an accident that that's happening.
[00:26:44]  It's happening because that's the way our welfare system is built up.
[00:26:47]  And I hope President Trump or Vice President Vance lead the charge and restructure that welfare system so we stop penalizing married couples.
[00:26:59]  Representative Glenn Grothman, Republican at Wisconsin.
[00:27:02]  He serves on the Oversight and Government Forum, Judiciary, and Budget Committees.
[00:27:06]  Representative Grothman, thanks for your time this morning.
[00:27:09]  Thank you very much.
[00:27:10]  Back to your calls on the State of the Union in Pennsylvania Democrats line.
[00:27:15]  Martha is next.
[00:27:16]  Thanks for waiting.
[00:27:17]  Go ahead.
[00:27:18]  Hey, good morning, Pedro.
[00:27:21]  Let me fact-check something Donald Trump said last night.
[00:27:25]  I wasn't going to, I didn't want to watch his speech, but just out of curiosity, I tuned in for a couple minutes, and I tuned in right at the right time.
[00:27:35]  He was talking about prescription drug prices.
[00:27:38]  He said he was going to lower prescription drug prices by 300 to 500%.
[00:27:44]  And he said no one else could do it, but he's going to do it.
[00:27:48]  Then he gave the example of a couple spending $4,000 a month on fertility drugs.
[00:27:56]  And because of his reduction, they were only going to pay $400 a month.
[00:28:02]  So, Pedro, that is a 90% reduction in price.
[00:28:09]  I don't know why his staff continues to let him say that he's going to reduce prices by 300, 500, even 1,000% when that is mathematically impossible.
[00:28:23]  I don't know why they let him continue to make a fool out of himself.
[00:28:27]  Maybe his staff doesn't know how to do math.
[00:28:31]  But if you pay $4,000 for a prescription drug and it gets cut down to $400, that is a 90% reduction.
[00:28:43]  Maybe Donald Trump relies on the fact that his own supporters don't know any better, and they'll believe him when he says he can reduce drug prices by 300, 500.
[00:28:56]  And at one time, he even said he was going to reduce prices by 1,000%.
[00:29:02]  Okay.
[00:29:02]  Martha there in Pennsylvania.
[00:29:04]  Well, the Washington Examiner in the lead up to the State of the Union posted this on their website, a profile of Ross Worthington, who they describe as the speechwriter behind the state of the union, saying that the chief speechwriter has spent weeks huddled with other top aides drafting and redrafting the state of the union speech.
[00:29:25]  But Worthington does it from behind the scenes in a White House where Mr. Trump is acknowledged as his own best communicator, throwing out social media posts around the clock, delivering speeches largely off the cuff, or even highlighting the lighting during interviews.
[00:29:37]  There are no prizes for claiming credit for putting words in the president's mouth.
[00:29:40]  But it also highlights that the 37-year-old speechwriter monitors the president's troop social fee for useful nuggets, runs a, quote, double-blind fact-checking process to scrutinize key elements, liaises with other top officials, including the deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, and domestic policy chief Vince Healy, while deciphering the president's own feedback in form of notes scribbled on computer printouts.
[00:30:03]  There's more there if you want to see some of the behind-the-scenes work behind the last night's speech.

=== Jim's Ashamed Comment (14:22) ===

[00:30:09]  This is Sam, Republican Line, Mississippi.
[00:30:12]  Go ahead.
[00:30:14]  Good morning.
[00:30:14]  How are you doing, Pedro?
[00:30:15]  I'm well, thank you.
[00:30:16]  Go ahead.
[00:30:17]  Yeah, I thought the speech was great.
[00:30:20]  And the main reason why I thought it was great was because he really called out the Democrats on a lot of issues that a lot of Americans agree with him on.
[00:30:29]  You know, and I guess one of the biggest examples is asking everybody to stand up who are for the American people as opposed to illegal immigrants.
[00:30:38]  And you saw all the Democrats sitting on their rears, and they just but and then the Nancy Pelosi thing with the legislation about them being able to invest in stocks behind, I guess, insider trading type situations.
[00:30:55]  He called her out on that.
[00:30:56]  So to me, the speech was good, but it was entertaining too.
[00:30:59]  And then calling them crazy, which I thought was, I mean, it's not typical presidential type language that you use.
[00:31:06]  But we're talking about Donald Trump, and I thought it was hilarious.
[00:31:12]  But he had a lot of good points in the speech, and I agree with him on a lot of stuff.
[00:31:17]  But I think the biggest thing is just calling Democrats out on.
[00:31:20]  And then you have Omar and that other lady from Michigan, you act like idiots the whole time, talking the whole time.
[00:31:27]  And he just basically didn't acknowledge him because how idiot of a person or people they are.
[00:31:37]  And then Al Green doing his deal with the blacks aren't apes or something like that.
[00:31:43]  That's just ridiculous.
[00:31:44]  So that's part of the reason why I tuned into the speech because I was wanting to see Democrats would react to what he was saying.
[00:31:51]  And they were right on the money doing what they were doing.
[00:31:55]  Sam in Mississippi, he highlights what several reports from this morning highlighted from last night's speech during about an hour in the president asking people to stand when it comes to this idea of sanctuary cities.
[00:32:07]  Here's a portion of that from yesterday.
[00:32:10]  If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.
[00:32:15]  The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.
[00:34:13]  Isn't that a shame?
[00:34:14]  You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.
[00:34:18]  You should be ashamed of yourself.
[00:34:20]  That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.
[00:34:38]  They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country.
[00:34:43]  And you should be ashamed of yourself.
[00:34:49]  There's some of that interaction.
[00:34:50]  You can see a whole lot more when you watch that speech from last night.
[00:34:54]  And if you choose to watch the whole speech, you can do it on our app at C-SPANNOW and our website at c-span.org.
[00:35:00]  In Maryland, Independent Line, let's hear from Ron.
[00:35:04]  Hey, good morning.
[00:35:05]  Good morning, C-SPAN.
[00:35:06]  Good morning.
[00:35:07]  I think that your Democratic party should replay that every single election, because that right there is the reason why they lost.
[00:35:20]  Specifically, just immigration.
[00:35:23]  And the fact that they didn't say it when you're talking about letting in murderers and rapists and all types of people unvetted, that's why you lost.
[00:35:34]  And unfortunately, I'm going to go off my little notes here.
[00:35:38]  Unfortunately, they're going down the same path.
[00:35:40]  When you're talking about Newsom and the face of the Democratic Party now is AOC and Newsom, here they go again.
[00:35:48]  So hopefully they will learn from what you all just played as far as the applause.
[00:35:54]  And that was genuine applause.
[00:35:56]  Okay.
[00:35:56]  And thank you, Donald Trump, for doing that.
[00:35:58]  Now, I am not a Trump supporter.
[00:36:00]  I think that speech last night was actually probably one of the best speeches that he's given.
[00:36:06]  But I do have some concerns, though.
[00:36:09]  Until we can get the true results from that Epstein file, whether it's in his favor or not in his favor, I'm truly concerned.
[00:36:19]  When he was walking in, you had people applauding and shaking his hand.
[00:36:25]  And if his name, well, we know his name is in the Epstein file, but if he is found to have done some criminal things towards those females and males, then history will go down to show these people shaking his hand and applauding a criminal and somebody that's probably, I don't know, could possibly be quite an evil person.
[00:36:46]  Another concern that I have here is his net worth.
[00:36:49]  When he talks about, you know, prices have gone down.
[00:36:52]  One thing that has definitely not gone down, Donald Trump, we know that he listens.
[00:36:56]  I think he called in, what, last week or over the weekend.
[00:36:59]  But one thing that has not gone down is his net worth.
[00:37:02]  Just a couple of days ago, I actually read that he signed a deal with some place in Australia to build a $1 billion hotel.
[00:37:12]  So those are just some concerns I have.
[00:37:14]  I think overall, if I would say, give him a great right now, I should give him a C.
[00:37:20]  He is right.
[00:37:22]  Okay, that's Ron there in Maryland.
[00:37:25]  Another viewer, this is Audrey in Philadelphia, who texts us this morning.
[00:37:29]  Say, I'm not a Trump fan, but I thought the speech was good.
[00:37:31]  Disappointed.
[00:37:32]  It started with the usual bluster and belligerence, but he was mainly coherent and on point.
[00:37:36]  The pressure has now come on Congress to enact the legislation he asked for.
[00:37:40]  I noticed he avoided ICE, Epstein, and Iran, and he still told quite a few lies.
[00:37:45]  Overall, a B-plus.
[00:37:47]  That's independent Audrey in Philadelphia.
[00:37:50]  Carolyn joins us from Missouri, Democrats line.
[00:37:56]  Yes, I watched the program last night.
[00:37:59]  I watched the State of the Union.
[00:38:02]  And I just have a couple of questions about it because I want to know what stores do Republicans shop at.
[00:38:10]  I'd like to know what prices are they being given?
[00:38:13]  Because I tell you, I'm paying out the yin-yang for everything.
[00:38:18]  I'm 71 years old, and I was hoping that he spoke on the fraud, saying more, because he's been using the mortgage fraud thing against other people.
[00:38:32]  I have a mortgage fraud claim where my property was stolen from me seven years ago when Trump was in office.
[00:38:40]  I didn't get any help from him.
[00:38:42]  I wrote to the DOJ, the FBI.
[00:38:44]  I still have not gotten any help from the banks to anyone who has not reached out about the fraud that was perpetrated on the blacks, where their properties were being stolen.
[00:38:59]  I was looking for a little bit more, but he's not capable of giving us anything more.
[00:39:04]  It's not in him.
[00:39:06]  He goes over in Iran and threaten those people and tell us that he's going to protect them.
[00:39:12]  But he sends a militia out on American streets to kill American people.
[00:39:18]  He didn't talk about that.
[00:39:20]  He didn't help us at all last night.
[00:39:22]  Okay.
[00:39:23]  Carolyn there in Missouri, this is she referenced the fraud, and another viewer referenced it too, saying that the president officially declared a, quote, war on fraud during the address.
[00:39:34]  He named the Vice President JD Vance as the leader of the task force to fight fraud.
[00:39:38]  The president claimed Somali fraud is up to $19 billion in Minnesota, greater than previously reported.
[00:39:43]  He said it was a kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of the nation.
[00:39:47]  And the president also suggesting that the efforts to tackle fraud could be used to balance the federal government's budget.
[00:39:53]  This adding that the U.S. national debt more than $38 trillion.
[00:39:57]  Republican line, this is Peter in Arizona.
[00:40:00]  Go ahead.
[00:40:02]  Good morning.
[00:40:02]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:40:04]  I was just looking at an overall view of the president's speech.
[00:40:10]  I'm a fan of President Trump.
[00:40:13]  That was a very good speech.
[00:40:14]  What I see out of it is, yeah, there's positive and negatives.
[00:40:18]  We'll be talking about them for weeks.
[00:40:20]  But if anybody looks at the overall view of the speech, everybody stood up and applauded for when we honored the veterans and for when we talked about the resurgence of God in this country.
[00:40:38]  So, God and honor is the unifying force for America, for the future.
[00:40:47]  That's a little bit of food for thought there.
[00:40:49]  Okay.
[00:40:49]  Thank you.
[00:40:50]  That's Peter there in Arizona.
[00:40:51]  The Washington Post highlights some of the medals that he awarded last night, saying this, in place of new policies, the president announced honors, including a presidential medal of freedom for U.S. hockey goalie Connor Hullybuck, a medal of honor for Chief Warrant Officer Erica Slover, a pilot in the raid to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, another medal of honor for a 100-year-old Navy fighter pilot Royce Williams, a Legion of Merit for Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskin,
[00:41:19]  and a Purple Heart for National Guard Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf, who was wounded in the November attack and the National Guard personnel in Washington.
[00:41:27]  Al is next.
[00:41:28]  Al is in Minnesota, Independent Line.
[00:41:33]  Hello.
[00:41:35]  Well, what I saw was wickedness, vile, and evil coming out of Donald Trump.
[00:41:45]  How he likes to divide people, and here we go again with the immigration.
[00:41:52]  We all have due process in this country, even the ones that are migrated here.
[00:41:59]  And this grift that this administration is doing is going to be all accounted for.
[00:42:11]  It's not going to happen now in three years, within the next three years.
[00:42:16]  But after that, everyone that's stealing from this government and our tax money is going to be accounted for.
[00:42:29]  And there's a blue wave coming.
[00:42:32]  So just, you know, want to see people get on the right side of history on this because we all know he's authoritarian.
[00:42:40]  And this authoritarian is our first election in authoritarian country.
[00:42:46]  Okay.
[00:42:47]  Jim in Georgia.
[00:42:48]  Democrats line.
[00:42:49]  You're next up.
[00:42:52]  Jim in Roswell, Georgia.
[00:42:54]  Hello.
[00:42:57]  One more time for Jim.
[00:43:00]  Okay.
[00:43:01]  Let's go to Gordon.
[00:43:02]  Gordon is in Florida.
[00:43:04]  Republican line, you're next.
[00:43:07]  Hey, thanks for taking my call.
[00:43:09]  Listen, tonight's State of the Union counted the taxpayer protection, yet they continued to ignore the $2 trillion, that's $2 million debt bubble that threatened to crash the dollar, the one big, beautiful bill fixed.
[00:43:22]  As a Florida conservative and a constitutional advocate, I demand that the lawmakers move beyond the one big, beautiful bill borrowing caps and address the fundamental structural failure of the credit markets, the lack of bankruptcy for the student loans, which Glenn Grossman and Ralph Norman's H.R. 4563 from the 116th would have corrected.
[00:43:41]  That would be a remarkable discipline to force the Department of Dead to stop lending, okay?
[00:43:47]  And if anyone was to Google the Middleman Elimination Act by Gordon in Florida, you don't even need my full name.
[00:43:54]  Middleman Elimination Act by Gordon in Florida.
[00:43:56]  Glenn Grossman and Ralph Norman.
[00:43:58]  Okay, well, back to the speech.
[00:44:00]  Exactly.
[00:44:00]  What did you get from it before we move on?
[00:44:04]  What I got from it is Donald Trump wants bankruptcy for himself, but he doesn't want it for the free market.
[00:44:09]  And a lot of things he's done, I like as a conservative, but he's a Christian and he broke the golden rule.
[00:44:14]  Bankruptcy for me, but not as a college student.
[00:44:16]  That'd be like taking guns from the police officers.
[00:44:19]  More guys is less crime.
[00:44:20]  More bankruptcy defense for students is less irresponsible lending using my tax dollar.
[00:44:25]  If Glenn Grossman and I.
[00:44:27]  Okay, You made that point.
[00:44:29]  Let's go to Matt in Iowa, Independent Line.

=== Matt In Iowa On Gas Prices (02:18) ===

[00:44:31]  Hello.
[00:44:32]  Yes, Pedro.
[00:44:33]  I just want to ask you: do you remember what he said in Iowa about the gas prices, what they were?
[00:44:39]  I don't have total recall on that, so why don't you tell us?
[00:44:43]  He said it was $1.85.
[00:44:44]  I'm going to let you know that the average gas price in Iowa is $248.
[00:44:50]  Last month in January, it was $2.49.
[00:44:54]  When he was here in Iowa, in the Des Moines area, it was 255.
[00:44:59]  This guy, Pedro, all the red...
[00:45:01]  So how does that relate to yesterday's speech, please?
[00:45:05]  How does it relate?
[00:45:07]  Lyon telling the American people that Iowa, the gas where he was at, was $1.85.
[00:45:12]  Well, that was last week as far as last night.
[00:45:15]  Specifically, how does it relate to the state of the U.S.?
[00:45:17]  Right now, it's still up to $2.49 in Iowa.
[00:45:21]  That's the average gas price.
[00:45:23]  And he said that last night, that it was $1.85.
[00:45:27]  The other thing is, being a president, how can anybody, in their wildest dreams, a past, a present or future president that says and does everything that he can do no wrong or say no wrong?
[00:45:43]  Are you kidding me?
[00:45:44]  If Washington or Lincoln was standing in front of me and said that, I'd say, get out of my way, buddy.
[00:45:50]  Okay, Matt in Iowa joining us again.
[00:45:53]  We've got about 15 minutes till the top of the hour.
[00:45:55]  The show goes to 9 today because the House is coming in at 9 o'clock.
[00:45:59]  And we have members of Congress joining us throughout the morning to give their perspective.
[00:46:03]  Representative Suha Subramanium, the Democrat from Virginia, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee ranking member, also a member of the Science, Space and Technology Committee joining us from Capitol Hill.
[00:46:15]  Representative, good morning.
[00:46:17]  Good morning.
[00:46:18]  What were your impressions of last night's address?
[00:46:21]  I'm not surprised.
[00:46:22]  The president was trying to paint a picture of an America where costs have been lowered.
[00:46:28]  It's a golden age, and it's an economy and a country generally that's working for everyone.
[00:46:33]  But that's not the case.
[00:46:35]  That's not what's happening right now.
[00:46:36]  Because of the president's policies on things like tariffs, we've seen rising costs for a lot of Americans.
[00:46:42]  We've seen a lot of Americans not feel included in this economy.
[00:46:45]  We've seen their health care taken away from them, their benefits taken away from them.

=== Holding The President Accountable (07:18) ===

[00:46:50]  And so I represent Virginia, and we didn't see anything about federal workers or contractors.
[00:46:56]  And instead, what we saw was more lies from the president.
[00:46:59]  So certainly we're going to hold him to task here in Congress.
[00:47:02]  But I think the American people probably weren't surprised by the lies, but we're surprised that he didn't even acknowledge some of the pain that I hear about every day.
[00:47:10]  Well, as far as your fellow Democrats, did you, and let me ask you this, did you actually attend the speech?
[00:47:15]  Because many of your fellow Democrats did not.
[00:47:19]  I was there.
[00:47:19]  Yes, I attended the entire speech.
[00:47:21]  And other Democrats feel the same anger that I feel.
[00:47:25]  And they had different ways of showing it.
[00:47:27]  And I think all of them were valid.
[00:47:29]  Some went out and protested or were at rallies outside.
[00:47:33]  Others were in the gallery but wanted to be more vocal.
[00:47:37]  I was silently listening to the speech.
[00:47:40]  I clapped when it was appropriate to clap, but there's not a lot to clap about when it came to his policies.
[00:47:45]  And particularly that point where he asked people to stand when it comes to the topic of sanctuary cities.
[00:47:50]  What was your position and what did you think of that technique during the speech itself?
[00:47:56]  I think the president's goal was to try to humiliate Democrats, try to corner them on certain issues, try to isolate them in some ways.
[00:48:05]  There's a lot of spiking the football and reminding the people that he's completely in charge of Congress too.
[00:48:12]  And Republicans certainly were getting up and clapping for everything he said because they see it as their job to do nothing but support this president, even when it undermines policies that they believe and even if it undermines the American people.
[00:48:24]  So certainly I wasn't going to get up and clap for everything the president was going to say about things.
[00:48:28]  And so you stayed seated, is that the case?
[00:48:31]  Yes, I stayed seated.
[00:48:32]  He did, because you serve on matters of military and foreign affairs, things like that, one of the things he did briefly talk about was Iran saying that he preferred a diplomatic solution when it comes to resolves in that country.
[00:48:45]  What did you think of that and where's your thinking as far as what he said and what you think he believes?
[00:48:50]  I think a diplomatic solution should be the top priority.
[00:48:54]  In the end, a protracted war, a kinetic attack on Iran comes with a lot of risks.
[00:49:01]  And so what we'd like to see is Iran come to the table with us and come up with a new nuclear deal.
[00:49:08]  Remember, we had one 10 years ago, but then the president himself scuttled it.
[00:49:12]  And so now he's back at the table trying to fix a mistake that he made about a decade ago.
[00:49:18]  But certainly if Iran's going to come to the table, we want to make sure that they have no path forward for a nuclear program.
[00:49:24]  So in that sense, I did agree with that.
[00:49:25]  He did reference this idea that the program was obliterated, but then still expressed concerns.
[00:49:31]  You've been maybe briefed on these matters.
[00:49:33]  What's the state of play when it comes to the current Iran's nuclear program?
[00:49:38]  It's hard to trust this administration and what they tell us because remember they did tell us that the program was obliterated, but then they're also telling us now that it's not obliterated, that it's coming back.
[00:49:49]  They're a week away from building another nuclear bomb, or at least being able to do so.
[00:49:54]  And so, you know, we're at a point where we're not sure what to trust anymore.
[00:49:58]  What we're going to do is just make sure that if there's going to be any sort of warfare that we want to be included.
[00:50:06]  Congress needs to be briefed regularly.
[00:50:08]  We need to make sure that we respect Congress's war powers.
[00:50:12]  But what we don't want is for the president to unilaterally go in to Iran and do so without exhausting every diplomatic option possible.
[00:50:20]  On the matters of security, I wanted to get your thoughts on the current partial shutdown of DHS.
[00:50:25]  Democrats want to tie this to reforms in ICE.
[00:50:27]  How long do you think that's going to stand?
[00:50:30]  Well, we've been very clear that we just want ICE to operate with the same sort of guidelines and guardrails as normal law enforcement.
[00:50:40]  You know, they're coming up with these extrajudicial warrants.
[00:50:43]  They're acting like a paramilitary.
[00:50:44]  They're killing American citizens and terrorizing communities.
[00:50:48]  And so we just want reasonable solutions that I think even a lot of Republicans agree with.
[00:50:52]  I don't know what the holdup is at this point.
[00:50:54]  We've been very clear about what we want, and Republicans simply don't want to negotiate with us.
[00:50:59]  What I'd like to see in the interim is us at least fund other parts of DHS like FEMA and TSA.
[00:51:04]  It hurts my constituents in Northern Virginia to have to go without pay and work at those agencies.
[00:51:10]  So at least try to solve part of this while we have the conversation about ICE and their tactics.
[00:51:17]  We had one of your colleagues, Representative Grothman from Wisconsin on he serves with you on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
[00:51:23]  He's your ranking member.
[00:51:24]  He talked about those upcoming depositions when it comes to President Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
[00:51:29]  He didn't seem that he was going to get a lot from the president as far as information is concerned when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein.
[00:51:35]  What's your expectations?
[00:51:38]  I have the same expectation.
[00:51:39]  I don't think we're going to get much from the Clintons.
[00:51:42]  This is mostly a political stunt.
[00:51:45]  Bill Clinton was in the files, though.
[00:51:48]  I will say there's a couple pictures with him there.
[00:51:50]  And Epstein did visit the White House.
[00:51:52]  And Clinton did take his plane.
[00:51:55]  I don't think we're going to get much, if anything, from Hillary Clinton, but they have actually wanted a public hearing.
[00:52:01]  They wanted to state their case as to why this is a political attack.
[00:52:04]  And I say let them have that.
[00:52:06]  We'll do those depositions, but there's many others that we want to do that have been denied.
[00:52:10]  And we certainly want the DOJ to release the 2.5 million files that they're withholding.
[00:52:15]  That's the bottom line.
[00:52:16]  It's hard to do an investigation when the evidence is being covered up by this administration.
[00:52:22]  That deposition reportedly going to take place in Chappaqua, New York.
[00:52:25]  What's the process look like?
[00:52:26]  Can you give us some details of what exactly is going to happen when the depositions do occur?
[00:52:31]  Yeah, we're going to have Bill Clinton one day and Hillary Clinton the next day.
[00:52:35]  And we'll have the opportunity to ask questions.
[00:52:38]  It's optional, so members don't have to go from the oversight committee.
[00:52:42]  But I know many from the Democratic side will be there and will be asking questions.
[00:52:47]  And they won't be softballs.
[00:52:48]  We'll be asking hard questions.
[00:52:50]  We want to know everything that the Clintons know, particularly Bill Clinton.
[00:52:54]  But we expect to not get much, honestly, from them because they weren't a central figure in the Epstein case and Epstein's world.
[00:53:02]  But they were in the files, and so we want to hear from them.
[00:53:05]  Jeffrey Epstein, some of those victims in the audience last night, including some guest of yours.
[00:53:10]  Can you tell us who you invited?
[00:53:12]  Yeah, I invited Skye Roberts and his wife, Amanda Roberts.
[00:53:15]  So Skye is the brother of Virginia Juffray.
[00:53:18]  She was one of the most key whistleblowers and wrote a memoir about her time being trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.
[00:53:28]  And so, you know, Virginia took her own life, unfortunately, and Skye and Amanda are trying to carry on her bravery and courage, and they certainly have.
[00:53:36]  And all the victims who were there last night were very disappointed by what they heard from the president and his lack of acknowledgement that he has covered up this entire investigation despite promising that he wouldn't.
[00:53:49]  So I'm glad they were there.
[00:53:50]  I'm glad they got to see the president.
[00:53:52]  And he certainly didn't acknowledge them, though.
[00:53:54]  I was going to ask if they shared impressions with you about the speech afterward.
[00:53:58]  Yeah, they were not impressed in any way.
[00:54:01]  I think they weren't surprised that the president ignored them.
[00:54:04]  Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, had ignored them the week before.

=== Donald's Promises Unfulfilled (15:42) ===

[00:54:08]  The president wants this to go away, but the reality is it's not going to go away.
[00:54:12]  We're going to continue to find evidence from other sources.
[00:54:15]  In the UK, they're arresting the former Prince Andrew.
[00:54:19]  That hadn't happened in 400 years.
[00:54:21]  Royalty getting arrested.
[00:54:22]  Also, Peter Mendelson.
[00:54:24]  All over Europe, there's accountability, but there's none of that accountability in the United States because of this administration.
[00:54:31]  Before we let you go, your newly minted governor, Abigail Spanberger, giving the response to the State of the Union.
[00:54:36]  What were your impressions of her response?
[00:54:40]  Governor Spanberger hit her home ride.
[00:54:42]  I mean, she was spot on.
[00:54:43]  She talked about the realities of what's happening in places like Virginia, where people are seeing high housing costs, where people are seeing a lack of access to health care.
[00:54:54]  And so she had a plan and she put forward her vision and she's implementing that vision in Virginia right now in Richmond.
[00:55:01]  And so I think she's the future of our party.
[00:55:04]  She's someone who gets the solutions and she unites our party.
[00:55:08]  So I think people are really impressed by her speech and we're looking forward to more from her.
[00:55:11]  Virginia Democrat Suhas Subramanian joining us for this conversation, Impressions from last night's State of the Union address.
[00:55:18]  To Representative, thank you for your time this morning.
[00:55:21]  Thank you.
[00:55:22]  Again, the House coming in at 9 o'clock, and we'll hear from two more legislators before it's done.
[00:55:27]  California, this is Infresno, Tom on our Independent Line.
[00:55:30]  Thanks for waiting.
[00:55:31]  Go ahead.
[00:55:33]  Good morning, America, and good morning to you, C-SPAN listeners.
[00:55:37]  I'm an independent voter.
[00:55:40]  I didn't vote for Donald Trump, nor did I vote for Joe Biden.
[00:55:44]  The problem of it is I'm an 72-year-old African-American male.
[00:55:49]  In this country, I am the highest unemployed.
[00:55:53]  I don't have health insurance.
[00:55:57]  I don't get very much on Social Security because Ronald Reagan came along and killed affirmative action.
[00:56:05]  There is 300 million white people in America, maybe 38 million African Americans.
[00:56:15]  I wake up every morning and I see someone trying to divide this country.
[00:56:20]  America's Christmas Addicts, first African American to die in the colonial wars.
[00:56:26]  And we never hear about that.
[00:56:27]  Tuskegee Irmin.
[00:56:28]  Okay, but how does that relate to last night's speech, please?
[00:56:32]  Well, he didn't, he didn't, he didn't address the people that he serves.
[00:56:37]  I'm an African American.
[00:56:39]  I'm an American citizen.
[00:56:41]  He's my president, right or wrong, good or bad, whether I voted for him or not.
[00:56:46]  I assume that he serves the people of this country.
[00:56:49]  I'm one of those people.
[00:56:51]  And when you specifically carve out or deny certain people the right to survive in this country, jobs, 17,000 truck drivers can't read and write.
[00:57:05]  What about all the young African-American, young men coming out of high school that can't find employment?
[00:57:13]  It's not that a foreigner is taking a job from us.
[00:57:17]  He's the president.
[00:57:19]  He shouldn't be denying us a job.
[00:57:21]  He should be supporting African Americans because we have served this country honorably since we came over here in slave ships.
[00:57:30]  Okay, Sandra is next in Florida Democrats line.
[00:57:32]  Good morning.
[00:57:35]  Good morning.
[00:57:36]  You kind of stole my thunder with speaking to the congressman about the Epstein situation.
[00:57:44]  It was no surprise to me that the president never spoke of or recognized the Epstein victims in attendance.
[00:57:51]  He could have asked Congress to stand up and support them, the thousand women that have come forward to report crimes against women and sex trafficking.
[00:58:05]  And if he has Vice President Vance as a person in charge of fraud, he needs to come to Florida first and investigate what's going on in Florida with the Hope Florida scandal, Corey Mills.
[00:58:21]  There's so many things today in the Orlando Sentinel.
[00:58:24]  There's a Ponzi scheme crypto person that's been identified.
[00:58:29]  So that's all I have to say.
[00:58:32]  Let's go to Rose.
[00:58:33]  Rose is in Pennsylvania, Republican line.
[00:58:39]  Oh, good morning.
[00:58:39]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:58:42]  A couple of points.
[00:58:44]  First, I think it's a great thing to have JD Vance overseeing the fraud investigations throughout the U.S. What would be a terrific win for our country is if they could get any of this money back, use it to pay down the debt.
[00:59:01]  A point that the president also brought up was perhaps in the future, no income tax.
[00:59:10]  I haven't heard anybody talk about that or pick up on that point from his speech last night.
[00:59:20]  It has been proposed before that a flat sales tax throughout the U.S. would be able to support our budget.
[00:59:31]  That's something, good food for thought.
[00:59:35]  I'd like to address some of the folks they called in.
[00:59:39]  One was earlier that talks about how to stopping these wars around the world help the U.S. I'm a retired federal employee.
[00:59:52]  I did budgets and contracts for 40 years for Department of Defense.
[00:59:57]  When you look at the budget, they have a huge budget, the biggest of the nine that make up the whole U.S. budget each year.
[01:00:07]  When we are not at war, we're not spending money and giving money to all these other countries and buying equipment and ammunition quite mentioning the human cost.
[01:00:23]  Gotcha.
[01:00:23]  Gotcha, Rose.
[01:00:24]  Gotcha.
[01:00:24]  Let's go to Bonnie.
[01:00:25]  Bonnie in Indiana, Independent Line, State of the Union speech last night, your reaction to it.
[01:00:29]  Go ahead.
[01:00:30]  Yes, I very much liked it.
[01:00:34]  I liked that it honored the military, above all, and also the U.S. men's hockey team, and that it honored God.
[01:00:45]  And I felt like, other than the snarky remarks that President Trump made toward the Democrats, I thought it was a unifying speech.
[01:00:55]  And I felt like, you know, it was probably his best speech that I've heard.
[01:01:01]  I am a Trump supporter.
[01:01:03]  I'm a white, educated, independent female, registered nurse.
[01:01:09]  I could talk to you about the health care.
[01:01:11]  I think that a benefit to the people versus the insurance companies would be a great thing.
[01:01:22]  Any kind of drug price reduction would be wonderful.
[01:01:29]  I just thought it was a very promising speech.
[01:01:34]  I love that it honored Marco Rubio.
[01:01:39]  And the last thing I'd like to say is that if people in blue states and sanctuary cities don't like their taxes, and this is why we left England in the first place, because we didn't want to be taxed.
[01:01:54]  This is a very good point.
[01:01:55]  Okay.
[01:01:57]  That's Bonnie there in Indiana.
[01:01:58]  One hour down, one hour to go.
[01:02:00]  When it comes to the reaction to the State of the Union speech, you can continue on and share yours on the phone lines.
[01:02:07]  202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8,000 for Democrats.
[01:02:14]  Independents, 202-748-8002.
[01:02:18]  Text us your thoughts, 202-748-8003.
[01:02:22]  If you want, you can also post on our social media sites.
[01:02:25]  That's facebook.com slash C-SPAN and also on X at C-SPANWJ.
[01:02:30]  Some of those legislators from last night leadership positions making their thoughts known about last night's speech.
[01:02:37]  Chuck Schumer putting out a statement, the first line of which reads, the State of the Union address revealed Donald Trump is in a state of delusion, going on to say that the president painted a delusional portrait of America that is hardly any working American would recognize.
[01:02:52]  This is from Senate Leader Thun saying that over the past year, President Trump and Republicans and Congress have worked together to get our country moving again and deliver real results for working families in South Dakota and across our nation.
[01:03:08]  That is a tweet or a text from a viewer, but this is Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader, saying this.
[01:03:16]  That was a masterclass from POTUS.
[01:03:18]  His message was crystal clear to the American people.
[01:03:20]  Your country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous than it was just one year ago.
[01:03:25]  To the world, America is back.
[01:03:27]  And I'll find Leader Jeffries there as well and show it to you as we go along in this final hour before the House comes in.
[01:03:35]  Get your thoughts on these matters too.
[01:03:37]  David, starting us off on this second hour in Wisconsin, Republican line.
[01:03:42]  Hi.
[01:03:44]  Hello, Pedro.
[01:03:45]  Again, thanks for taking my call.
[01:03:46]  I didn't think I was going to even get through.
[01:03:49]  You know, again, with the State of the Union address, I thought it was great.
[01:03:55]  The issue was really the standing.
[01:03:57]  I always just dislike it, whether it's Republican or Democrat being in there and standing up and clapping.
[01:04:03]  Just talk about it, show some more visuals out there.
[01:04:08]  You know, I hear these people calling in today about the cost of goods and service.
[01:04:13]  I'm a finance guy, so I look at all that stuff and I watch a lot of different financial stations out there.
[01:04:19]  And again, to bring it in perspective, when they talk about the inflation indexes out there, those are general inflation indexes that also include your high-end products like planes and yachts and stuff.
[01:04:31]  But if you look at what Strategus puts out there, and you might want to look it up, is they hone it down directly to what they call the Common Man Inflation Index.
[01:04:41]  And during the Biden years, I'm in the actually small business area, so I saw this majorly on our businesses.
[01:04:49]  But that index was 35% over four years.
[01:04:53]  That's basically over 9% a year.
[01:04:55]  And that's the thing I kept saying because, again, being a finance guy and in economics, I was looking at these all the time, these numbers, and I'm like, how can we only be at 21% with Biden?
[01:05:06]  This does not make any sense.
[01:05:08]  And prices have come down.
[01:05:09]  That guy that was in Ohio that you had on Iowa earlier saying that their prices of gas is at 185.
[01:05:16]  Ours was up here.
[01:05:18]  It was the EAE85 gas or whatever that stuff is.
[01:05:22]  But our prices have been as low as 209.
[01:05:24]  Right now it's at 226.
[01:05:26]  So our prices are low.
[01:05:27]  Our price has come down on all the groceries.
[01:05:31]  Again, beef prices are still up there, but we know why that all happened.
[01:05:35]  And then you just hear all this stuff out there that these Democrats on your line keep coming in and saying, I mean, even that guy that you brought in from the Democrat from Virginia, I watched that Abigail Spanberger's afterwards, and she said three questions.
[01:05:52]  One is about cost or, you know, the affordability.
[01:05:57]  Well, again, 35% for the everyday low-income to middle-income person, inflation.
[01:06:03]  You can't bring inflation down.
[01:06:05]  In 250 years, we have had only nine years of deflation.
[01:06:11]  Okay.
[01:06:12]  So again, use these numbers in your head, Pedro.
[01:06:14]  Okay, okay.
[01:06:15]  Okay, David there in Wisconsin.
[01:06:17]  He mentioned the governor of Virginia, Democrat from Virginia, Governor Abigail Spanberger giving the response to the State of the Union.
[01:06:24]  Here's a portion from yesterday.
[01:06:26]  And let me ask you, the American people watching at home, three questions.
[01:06:32]  Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?
[01:06:38]  Is the president working to keep Americans safe both at home and abroad?
[01:06:44]  Is the president working for you?
[01:06:47]  As I campaigned for governor last year, I traveled to every corner of Virginia and I heard the same pressing concern everywhere.
[01:06:56]  Costs are too high in housing, health care, energy, and child care.
[01:07:02]  And I know these same conversations are being had all across this country.
[01:07:09]  Because since this president took office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs.
[01:07:21]  Small businesses have suffered, farmers have suffered, some losing entire markets.
[01:07:26]  Every day, Americans are paying the price.
[01:07:30]  And even though the Supreme Court struck these tariffs down four days ago, the damage to us, the American people, has already been done.
[01:07:40]  Meanwhile, the president is planning for new tariffs, another massive tax hike on you and your family.
[01:07:48]  And Republicans in Congress, they remain unwilling to assert their constitutional authority to stop him.
[01:07:55]  They're making your life harder.
[01:07:57]  They're making your life more expensive.
[01:08:00]  They're even making it more difficult to see a doctor.
[01:08:04]  Rural health clinics in Virginia and across the country are already closing their doors thanks to the so-called One Big Beautiful bill, championed by the President and Republicans in Congress.
[01:08:17]  And tonight, the President celebrated this law, the one threatening rural hospitals, stripping health care for millions of Americans and driving up costs in energy and housing, all while cutting food programs for hungry kids.
[01:08:32]  But here in Virginia, I am working with our state legislature to lower costs and make the Commonwealth more affordable.
[01:08:44]  And it's not just me.
[01:08:46]  Democrats across the country are laser focused on affordability in our nation's capital and in state capitals and communities across America.
[01:08:55]  In the most innovative and exceptional nation in the history of the world, Americans deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing the problems that keep them up at night.
[01:09:07]  Problems that dictate where you live, whether you can afford to start a business, or whether you have to skip a prescription in order to buy groceries.
[01:09:17]  So I'll ask again, is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?
[01:09:25]  We all know the answer is no.
[01:09:29]  A portion of Governor Abigail Spamberger's response to the State of the Union address last night, you can also see that on our website and our app.
[01:09:39]  Here is the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' reaction on X. Yesterday, Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one of his presidency.
[01:09:47]  It's now day 401.
[01:09:49]  Is your life more affordable?

=== Sandy's Tax Complaint (02:20) ===

[01:09:51]  Sandy, lying for Democrats.
[01:09:53]  Sandy joins us from California.
[01:09:55]  Good morning.
[01:09:55]  Go ahead.
[01:09:57]  Good morning, Pedro.
[01:09:59]  I watched last night his speech, and it was what I expected it to be.
[01:10:05]  It was Donald Trump acting like a game show host, master of ceremonies.
[01:10:16]  You know, he wants to put more tariffs on people.
[01:10:19]  Well, you know, claiming that the tariffs are being paid for by foreign countries is just a flat-out lie.
[01:10:31]  It is a tax on the American people.
[01:10:34]  So, folks, he wants to tax you twice.
[01:10:37]  He wants to tax your income through the IRS income system, and he wants to tax all the goods and services that you use.
[01:10:50]  Immigration, he uses as a wedge to divide Americans.
[01:10:57]  That's what I heard last night.
[01:10:59]  I heard division.
[01:11:01]  I heard him talking about how he had brought immigration under control.
[01:11:09]  No, he hasn't.
[01:11:10]  He hasn't done that because there's no immigration bill.
[01:11:15]  There was an immigration bill during the campaign that he specifically asked Republicans not to bring to the floor of the Senate for a vote because he wanted to use it as an issue in the campaign.
[01:11:32]  ICE?
[01:11:35]  Yeah, having militarized, a militarized federal police force, creating a police state of America.
[01:11:53]  People who have not the adequate training, who are just being pulled off the street in order to serve as these agents and then giving them high-powered weaponry.
[01:12:08]  Iran.
[01:12:09]  Okay.

=== Why Groceries Are Expensive (03:12) ===

[01:12:11]  Thank you, Sandy.
[01:12:12]  Let's go to James.
[01:12:13]  James in Virginia, Independent Line.
[01:12:15]  Hi.
[01:12:16]  Hey, good morning, Pedro.
[01:12:18]  The president mentioned last night fraud, but I was reading that he's suing the IRS for $10 billion.
[01:12:26]  That's the people's money.
[01:12:28]  That is not IRS.
[01:12:29]  And I'm sure IRS, the head person appointed by him, is going to settle and give him a whole lot of money.
[01:12:36]  Again, if that's not fraud, then what is fraud?
[01:12:40]  So that's my comment about yesterday's Senate and Union address.
[01:12:45]  Thank you.
[01:12:46]  Republican line.
[01:12:47]  This is from Washington, D.C. We'll hear from Nina.
[01:12:51]  Yes, good morning.
[01:12:53]  So I can't say it was a state of the union.
[01:12:56]  I would rather have had a bad bunny show again because yesterday was just another South Sat in and another load of inaccuracies.
[01:13:06]  It's important to hope for his voters.
[01:13:09]  Well, aren't you, as a Republican, as a Republican, are you one of his voters?
[01:13:14]  No, actually, I didn't vote for him.
[01:13:17]  Are you a Republican, though?
[01:13:20]  No.
[01:13:20]  Okay.
[01:13:21]  You're going to have to call in on the right line, and we'll give it to you as far as the lines that you should call in.
[01:13:26]  And we all ask that you pick the best one that represents you.
[01:13:29]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[01:13:32]  Democrats 202-748-8000.
[01:13:35]  Independents 202-748-8002.
[01:13:39]  Pick the best line that represents you.
[01:13:41]  And if you've called in the last 30 days, if you can hold off from doing so today, we appreciate it.
[01:13:46]  On our line for Republicans, Atlanta, this is Harry.
[01:13:48]  Hello.
[01:13:50]  Hello, good morning.
[01:13:51]  I just want to say a little word on why the groceries are so high at the grocery stores and not so affordable.
[01:14:00]  One big word, Mother Nature.
[01:14:04]  Over the past couple of years, we've had heavy drought across the nation.
[01:14:10]  And speaking to as far as beef, cattle ranchers had to call their herds because of that drought.
[01:14:17]  Grass was not available for these big herds.
[01:14:21]  And it was too expensive for them to purchase feed for these large herds.
[01:14:27]  So what they did was to call the herds.
[01:14:29]  So what does that how does that relate to last night's speech, please?
[01:14:34]  Affordability.
[01:14:36]  Affordability for your food.
[01:14:38]  Okay.
[01:14:39]  Cattle, these cattle ranchers, if you talk to one, will tell you that it's going to take anywhere up to two years, two years or more for them to get their herds back up to where they were before these droughts.
[01:14:55]  Same with vegetables.
[01:14:56]  If you don't have water on your vegetables, they're not going to grow.
[01:14:59]  So that's why at store right now, we're paying these higher prices until the cattle herds come back up to snuff.
[01:15:11]  And hopefully this year we've had some decent rain that the vegetable grows, corn and so forth, will get that back up to snuff and the vegetable prices should come down.

=== Food Prices Rising (02:04) ===

[01:15:24]  Okay.
[01:15:24]  Harry there in Atlanta.
[01:15:26]  One of the things the Wall Street Journal this morning takes a look at when it comes to the economy in the first year of President Trump's second term, the topic of manufacturing.
[01:15:36]  They give it the category of needs improvement, saying that manufacturing employment fell for eight straight months after the president announces sweeping global tariffs.
[01:15:44]  The levies helped some companies by sheltering them from foreign competition, but they also hurt by creating uncertainty and by raising the cost of production.
[01:15:51]  Supply chains are often highly global, and many machines and materials U.S. manufacturers use come from abroad and adding, despite weak employment, however, manufacturing production rose 2.6% on the year, according to the Federal Reserve, and jobs also edged higher in January.
[01:16:10]  Carl is next.
[01:16:11]  Carl from Vermont, Democrats line, your reaction to last night's State of the Union speech.
[01:16:18]  I just caught it on recording.
[01:16:22]  Bunch of lies.
[01:16:25]  Full of lies.
[01:16:28]  He was lying right through his teeth.
[01:16:30]  He said the border was secure.
[01:16:32]  No, it's not.
[01:16:34]  It wasn't even secure during Biden's Obamas.
[01:16:40]  It was not secure.
[01:16:42]  It's not secure.
[01:16:43]  Food prices have been going up.
[01:16:45]  Terrorists have shot down a tariff bill, which I'm glad about.
[01:16:50]  And healthcare is non-existent.
[01:16:56]  Healthcare has non-existent.
[01:16:57]  Everything is non-existent.
[01:16:59]  I mean, like, all he does is sit at a desk, do absolutely nothing.
[01:17:06]  And he wants us to, he's like the next, he's the next Kim Jun.
[01:17:10]  Basically, he's the next Kim Jun.
[01:17:13]  Sarah up next in California Republican line.
[01:17:18]  Hi.
[01:17:19]  Good morning.
[01:17:20]  Thank you, C-SPAN.
[01:17:21]  I love to hear both sides.
[01:17:23]  We all need to speak to each other and get back to some normalcy.
[01:17:27]  And we're always going to think different.

=== Border Town Realities (03:29) ===

[01:17:29]  But I loved everything about it.
[01:17:32]  I think that living in California right by the border, if you live by a border town, you 100% 200% see the difference.
[01:17:42]  And just the way that he brought in our American fellow American heroes, it's trying to, and the U.S. Olympic gold medalists, those guys were awesome, is just uplifting.
[01:17:59]  It's like, if you do not see what has happened within one year, one year, to all the American people, like we all just need to realize everything's not going to be agreed upon.
[01:18:12]  But I thought it was amazing.
[01:18:14]  I'm seeing egg prices go down.
[01:18:16]  I'm seeing the border secure living on a border town.
[01:18:19]  I'm witnessing it with my own eyes.
[01:18:21]  I don't do social media.
[01:18:22]  So thank you guys.
[01:18:24]  I loved it.
[01:18:25]  Okay.
[01:18:26]  Sarah there in California, she mentioning the U.S. men's hockey team that became part of the festivities of last night, the speech of the association.
[01:18:38]  They coming in, we're in the balcony there.
[01:18:42]  There's some shots of them taken with our cameras from last night.
[01:18:46]  We'll let you look at a little bit of that as we hear from Braden.
[01:18:51]  Braden, who joins us from Washington State.
[01:18:54]  Lines for Democrats, Line for Democrats on last night's State of the Union speech.
[01:19:01]  So the moment that Republicans are going to try to bring the most attention to from last night is when Trump said, quote, if you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.
[01:19:11]  The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens, end quote.
[01:19:17]  Democrats did not stand up, which of course is causing outrage, and I'm sure Fox News is going to play that on repeat all day.
[01:19:25]  Here's the thing, though.
[01:19:26]  American citizens and undocumented immigrants have protections under the Constitution.
[01:19:32]  Let me repeat that for the country.
[01:19:34]  American citizens and undocumented immigrants have protections under the Constitution.
[01:19:39]  The Supreme Court has ruled that many constitutional rights extend to all people within the country's jurisdiction, regardless of immigration status.
[01:19:48]  Whether you think it should be that way or not, that is what the Constitution says.
[01:19:53]  So for the president to say that American citizens should be protected and illegal aliens should not is actually contradictory to the Constitution.
[01:20:01]  How so?
[01:20:01]  In simple terms?
[01:20:06]  Where in the Constitution does it say that?
[01:20:10]  Oh, I am referencing Supreme Court rulings like that undocumented immigrants have First Amendment rights.
[01:20:24]  They have the right to due process.
[01:20:28]  They have the right.
[01:20:30]  There's all sorts of rights the Supreme Court has guaranteed to undocumented immigrants.
[01:20:36]  Like, for example, the Supreme Court often cites language saying all persons.
[01:20:41]  It doesn't say all American citizens.
[01:20:45]  So in my opinion, the Democrats that stayed seated, they sided with the Constitution.
[01:20:51]  The President and the Republican legislatures did not.
[01:20:53]  And that's not just me saying that.
[01:20:55]  The Supreme Court has said the same.
[01:20:57]  That's it from me, Pedro.

=== Jeff's Stand Against Racism (04:26) ===

[01:20:59]  Thank you.
[01:20:59]  Braden in Washington state there.
[01:21:01]  Let's go to Jeff.
[01:21:02]  Jeff in Wisconsin, Republican line.
[01:21:04]  Hello.
[01:21:06]  Well, that guy kind of just stole my thunder about the Democrats when they were sitting there on their hands when he asked if you're for the American people.
[01:21:16]  And all the Republicans stood up and clapped, and the Democrats just sat there.
[01:21:22]  They didn't do a damn thing.
[01:21:24]  They didn't stand up.
[01:21:25]  I think the only one that stood up was Fetterman.
[01:21:28]  It's about time someone gets some balls for the Democratic Party.
[01:21:32]  You know, I mean, they acted like little children.
[01:21:36]  It was kind of funny.
[01:21:37]  What I don't get is why do they have to get up and down and clap?
[01:21:41]  And why can't they just listen to the damn speech and just get the speech over and done with instead of this up and down stuff?
[01:21:51]  Boy, their knees got to be hurting today, I tell you.
[01:21:54]  That's all I got to say.
[01:21:55]  Okay, Jeff in Wisconsin, one person in the chamber yesterday who stood up, but stood up the protest, the president's speech, Texas Democrat Representative Al Green.
[01:22:06]  He removed from the House chamber at the second consecutive presidential address to Congress on Tuesday.
[01:22:12]  He was escorted out by House personnel after holding up a sign in the center aisle reading, black people aren't apes.
[01:22:18]  As the president entered the chamber ahead of the address to Congress, here's that happening from yesterday.
[01:22:24]  It is indeed a turnaround for the ages, and we will never go back to
[01:22:54]  where we were just a very short time ago.
[01:22:56]  We're not going back.
[01:22:58]  Today our border is secure.
[01:23:06]  As you know, the president has depicted a former president and first lady as apes.
[01:23:18]  The behavior has been declared racist by a good many people.
[01:23:24]  But I don't think the president has really received a message that is unacceptable.
[01:23:29]  He seems to think that he can do these dastardly things with impunity.
[01:23:36]  Tonight, I wanted him to have a person confront him and let him know that black people aren't apes, that black people are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior.
[01:23:49]  I don't speak for everybody, but I speak for people of goodwill who understand that if you tolerate this kind of behavior, you perpetuate it.
[01:23:58]  I refuse to tolerate this level of hate that the president is in fact putting into policy.
[01:24:06]  We must take a stand against this level of invidious discrimination.
[01:24:15]  I wanted him to know and I wanted him to see it and hear it up close.
[01:24:20]  But judging from the expression on his face, he got the message.
[01:24:25]  He saw it.
[01:24:26]  He got the message.
[01:24:28]  And I hope that others will let him have a similar message so that he will discontinue this behavior.
[01:24:35]  Now, there are people who believe that I should not take a stand such as this.
[01:24:43]  There are others who have taken stands, and they too have been vilified.
[01:24:48]  Dr. King went to jail for taking a stand.
[01:24:51]  Rosa Parks went to jail for taking a stand.
[01:24:54]  Sometimes you have to take a stand.
[01:24:56]  Rosa Parks was alone when she was arrested in a racist southern town, but she was there.
[01:25:04]  There are times when it is on some issues better to stand alone than not stand at all.
[01:25:12]  Representative Al Green, being escorted out of the chamber yesterday, some of his comments that he made afterward to our C-SPAN cameras, all that is part of the State of the Union address.
[01:25:21]  You can see that full address on our app and our website.

=== Taking a Stand (15:30) ===

[01:25:25]  We're getting reaction to the State of the Union from members of Congress, Representative Tim Kennedy, Democrat from New York, member of the Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs Committees, serves the 26th District of New York.
[01:25:36]  Representative Kennedy, good morning.
[01:25:38]  Morning, Pedro.
[01:25:40]  What was the takeaway from last night?
[01:25:42]  Well, unfortunately, it was exactly what we expected.
[01:25:45]  More division, more hate, more lies from the President of the United States in a time where we are looking for unifying our country and moving our country forward.
[01:26:00]  This president continued his consistent lies to the American people.
[01:26:06]  And it's unfortunate that my Congressional Republican colleagues just totally embraced all of that hate.
[01:26:15]  And so, you know, we're looking for better days ahead.
[01:26:18]  You know, when we're talking about what the American people are suffering through right now, this affordability crisis brought on by President Trump and Congressional Republicans' failed policies over the last year.
[01:26:32]  I believe this president totally missed the mark in this speech last night.
[01:26:37]  How would you identify some of the lies or what lie specifically stands out according to your mind?
[01:26:44]  Well, I mean, the president stood there in front of the world last night and said that the cost of living across this great nation is becoming more affordable.
[01:26:56]  Everyone knows that's just not true.
[01:26:57]  The cost of groceries have gone up.
[01:27:00]  The cost of utilities have gone up.
[01:27:02]  The cost of rent and housing has gone up.
[01:27:05]  The cost of health care has skyrocketed.
[01:27:08]  And then the president doubled down on his tariffs that have driven up costs for the American people.
[01:27:15]  Trump's tariff tax that was just ruled unconstitutional by his own hand-picked Supreme Court justices.
[01:27:23]  And then what does he do?
[01:27:24]  He puts in new tariffs just to inflict more financial pain upon the American people.
[01:27:32]  And then he tries to tell the American people, while he's kicking millions of people off of their health insurance and kicking millions of people off of nutritional assistance, that their lives are better, that their health care is better.
[01:27:46]  It's just totally unfounded and preposterous.
[01:27:50]  And the American people are smarter than what this president thinks they are.
[01:27:55]  He thinks the American people bought his nonsense last night.
[01:27:59]  And I have news for him.
[01:28:01]  They certainly did not.
[01:28:02]  When you were in the chamber, there was that portion where the president asked those standing up when it comes to this idea of sanctuary cities and immigration, what was your position and how did you react to that?
[01:28:13]  The president thought that this was theater last night.
[01:28:17]  To him it was.
[01:28:17]  This was a show for him.
[01:28:19]  Stand up, sit down.
[01:28:20]  One of your callers was just mentioning the Republicans, you know, they couldn't help themselves jumping out of their seat, hanging on every word that he said.
[01:28:30]  It was embarrassing to watch what the Republicans were doing left and right.
[01:28:35]  I mean, I had colleagues of mine on the other side of the aisle last night telling me how tired their legs were from standing up and sitting down.
[01:28:42]  It was outrageous.
[01:28:44]  The bottom line is the American people are hurting right now.
[01:28:48]  And they are hurting.
[01:28:49]  They're having difficulty paying the bills.
[01:28:51]  They're having difficulty putting food on the table.
[01:28:53]  And they're having difficulty affording health care because it's been decimated by this president and congressional Republicans.
[01:29:01]  And what did they do last night?
[01:29:02]  They took a victory lap for the chaos and the dysfunction that they have perpetuated upon the American people.
[01:29:10]  And so we weren't going to participate in this president's performative nonsense.
[01:29:16]  Do you think there's potential political damage from that video of Democrats not standing up?
[01:29:20]  Do you think that plays out going into midterms as well?
[01:29:23]  They're going to try to make it political.
[01:29:25]  They're going to try to make it theatrical.
[01:29:27]  They're going to try to tell that is the story for the American people.
[01:29:32]  The American people are smarter than what Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to sell to them right now.
[01:29:39]  People know firsthand that working families in this country that are struggling to pay the bills are dealing with an affordability crisis that is of generational proportions.
[01:29:53]  At the same time, billionaires in this country, because of the failed policies of Trump and congressional Republicans, are making out just fine.
[01:30:02]  So there is a huge divide between working class citizens in this country and the billionaire class.
[01:30:08]  And it's Donald Trump and Republicans that are supporting the billionaires and the super ultra wealthy in this country.
[01:30:15]  And it's Democrats that are standing up for working families.
[01:30:19]  Some of the cities that you serve are Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Amherst.
[01:30:22]  You're part of something called the Northern Border Caucus.
[01:30:25]  Take that and talk about what the president said last night when it comes to tariffs.
[01:30:29]  You mentioned the Supreme Court decision, but when it comes to the future of tariff policy, particularly, how does that affect for those you serve?
[01:30:36]  Well, first of all, these Trump tariffs are inflicting more financial pain across the United States.
[01:30:44]  Over $250 billion has been taken illegally out of the pockets of consumers in this country because of these illegal tariffs that the Supreme Court have just ruled unconstitutional.
[01:30:57]  Again, what does Donald Trump do?
[01:30:59]  He doubles down and he puts more tariffs on the American people.
[01:31:05]  The bottom line is this.
[01:31:06]  Whether you're on a northern border like myself or in the interior of the United States, East Coast, West Coast, the Trump tariffs have inflicted financial pain and have driven up the cost of living across the board.
[01:31:21]  And the bottom line is, while the Supreme Court has ruled them unconstitutional, he ought to listen to his own hand-picked Supreme Court.
[01:31:29]  You've got to listen to the American people rescind these tariffs that are hurting the public here in the United States, that are hurting our relationships with our greatest allies and trading partners across the globe,
[01:31:41]  that are saying that these tariffs are hurting the relationships that have been built by generations of Americans and by administration after administration for over 100 years that have dealt with the economy across the globe.
[01:31:59]  in order to create prosperity for the American people.
[01:32:03]  The tariffs are hurting the people in this country and this president ought to rescind them entirely right now.
[01:32:09]  I imagine being on the border of Canada, that gives you a certain aspect as well.
[01:32:13]  Yeah, yeah, in the Buffalo and Western New York region, I have four bridges into Canada in my district and we are hurt uniquely.
[01:32:21]  There are tens of thousands of jobs that are supported in the United States by our Canadian partners.
[01:32:27]  You know, there's $1.3 trillion worth of goods and services that cross the Canadian border.
[01:32:32]  It's the largest border, continuous border in the entire world, 5,000 miles between the United States and Canada.
[01:32:40]  Our greatest ally, our greatest trade partner.
[01:32:43]  And what does this president do?
[01:32:45]  He attacks them.
[01:32:46]  He attacks them with tariffs.
[01:32:47]  He attacks them with his hateful, divisive, negative rhetoric.
[01:32:52]  And he has driven Canadians away from visiting our country, coming over to the Western New York region, coming into the interior of the United States, going to Florida, going to California, going to the great tourist destinations.
[01:33:07]  They're making decisions.
[01:33:09]  Our great friends and neighbors in Canada, we love you.
[01:33:12]  We want you to come visit our great country.
[01:33:14]  We are your friends.
[01:33:16]  We are your partners.
[01:33:17]  And we are your allies.
[01:33:18]  So don't listen to this president in the negativity because you've got a hell of a lot more friends here in the United States than you have people like Donald Trump trying to drive a wedge between us.
[01:33:29]  Before we let you go, you are a member of the Homeland Security Committee.
[01:33:32]  What is your perspective on some type of resolve happening between Democrats and Republicans getting partial funding back to Homeland Security?
[01:33:41]  Well, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans would rather shut down TSA, shut down the Coast Guard, and shut down FEMA rather than make accountability measures to an out-of-control agency, ICE, that's killed two American citizens and has terrorized thousands of others across this country.
[01:34:05]  They have invaded our cities and they have hurt the American people with their unconstitutional actions that have violated civil rights.
[01:34:15]  They have violated human rights.
[01:34:17]  They have violated constitutional rights across the board.
[01:34:21]  And we want simple accountability measures.
[01:34:24]  And until they provide those accountability measures, we are standing with the American people and saying that the people deserve better than what this administration is giving them.
[01:34:35]  Representative Tim Kennedy, Democrat from New York, serves the 26th district of the state.
[01:34:39]  Thanks for your time this morning.
[01:34:41]  Always a pleasure.
[01:34:41]  Thank you, Pedro.
[01:34:43]  We have less than a half hour to go before the House comes in at nine o'clock.
[01:34:47]  We'll have a visit from one more member.
[01:34:48]  Before that's done, we'll continue to hear from you on reaction to the president's State of the Union speech.
[01:34:54]  North Dakota, Independent Lying, this is Matthew.
[01:34:57]  Thanks for waiting.
[01:34:58]  Go ahead.
[01:34:59]  Hi.
[01:35:00]  Hello.
[01:35:00]  Thank you, C-SPAN, for everything you're doing.
[01:35:02]  I've always tuned into the State of the Union address, and I never really cared who the president was.
[01:35:07]  I just like to keep into politics.
[01:35:10]  And I do pride myself on being independent, but I can't sit by and not choose a side anymore after this president.
[01:35:19]  I just, I mean, I support the office.
[01:35:23]  I support the Democratic process, but I do not support this man.
[01:35:26]  He does not represent us.
[01:35:28]  I'm a blue-collar worker.
[01:35:29]  I'm raising four kids.
[01:35:31]  I'm buying a house right now.
[01:35:33]  And this guy is not what we stand for, especially after the Epstein files.
[01:35:39]  After all that, this guy has lost all credibility in my view.
[01:35:44]  In my view, I did watch the State of the Union dress because I always do.
[01:35:48]  And it's always been a facade.
[01:35:49]  It's always been a show.
[01:35:51]  And I think he did a really good job of dividing people.
[01:35:54]  That's what he's been doing.
[01:35:56]  He's been dividing this country into MAGA Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Independent Party.
[01:36:03]  We are losing this country by division.
[01:36:07]  That's kind of like where I'm at, what I have to say.
[01:36:10]  Eric joins us next.
[01:36:11]  Eric is in Ohio, Republican line.
[01:36:15]  Hey, man, good morning.
[01:36:16]  Well, another gold medal performance of two hours of lies again, but this time to deflect from shielding his pedophile sex trafficking buddy, Jeffrey Epstein, which he thinks is funny.
[01:36:29]  We had this, you know, criminally insane cult of personality in our face for 10 years.
[01:36:33]  That's 10 years.
[01:36:35]  The people around the world are wondering, you know, what the hell happened here and what the hell we were thinking.
[01:36:41]  I really believe, and not to be uncouth, but if he defecated in his hands and said it was talking.
[01:36:46]  Okay, we're going to go to Eve.
[01:36:48]  Eve in Miami, Democrats lying.
[01:36:50]  You're next up.
[01:36:51]  Hello.
[01:36:52]  Hello.
[01:36:53]  Hi.
[01:36:55]  Hi.
[01:36:55]  You're on.
[01:36:56]  Go ahead.
[01:36:57]  Hi, how are you?
[01:36:59]  I'm a Democrat.
[01:37:00]  And I have friends that are Republicans that I still speak with.
[01:37:04]  And there are friends that are Democrats that I don't speak with because they feel that I have betrayed the Democrat Party.
[01:37:16]  I am 60 years old and I've never seen this division.
[01:37:20]  And when I look back and use common sense, this division did not exist prior to Obama.
[01:37:28]  It started then.
[01:37:29]  Okay?
[01:37:30]  I will always be a Democrat.
[01:37:32]  I disagree with the way the Democrats are acting.
[01:37:36]  I'm embarrassed to send my Democrats.
[01:37:39]  It's sad.
[01:37:41]  And how does that relate to last night's caller?
[01:37:44]  How does that relate to last night's State of the Union, particularly as 70 or so Democrats did not even attend the address?
[01:37:50]  The Democrats sat down.
[01:37:52]  They didn't do anything.
[01:37:54]  In the contrary, Ilyan is screaming like a black, like a fishwoman.
[01:38:02]  No quorum, no education.
[01:38:06]  Our country has gone to the dogs.
[01:38:09]  We are nothing anymore.
[01:38:10]  It's sad.
[01:38:11]  It's sad.
[01:38:12]  You go then sit home if you have to come and make a spectacle and stupidity of yourself like that.
[01:38:18]  And this racist thing that they're throwing as soon as somebody opens their mouth is because you're racist is to intimidate people.
[01:38:25]  I'm a mixed person, and nobody's going to intimidate me.
[01:38:28]  I'm a human being, whether I was black, blue, or green.
[01:38:32]  That needs to stop.
[01:38:33]  The division is.
[01:38:35]  Okay, let's go to Sam.
[01:38:36]  Sam in Boston, Republican line.
[01:38:40]  Good morning.
[01:38:40]  I just wanted to point out the general structure of that speech, which was pointing out how everything was terrible.
[01:38:51]  And we're 400 days into this, blaming it on the Democrats and then division.
[01:38:59]  And aside from that, I just listened to these people calling it.
[01:39:04]  But as a Republican, what did you think of your president and what he spelled out last night specifically?
[01:39:10]  Called in on the independent line.
[01:39:12]  I think Republicans are terrible.
[01:39:14]  Okay, we're going to stop you there again.
[01:39:16]  Callers, I'll ask you to pay attention to the lines as we go on the course of the program.
[01:39:20]  It gives everybody a chance to make sure they're best represented.
[01:39:23]  As you're calling in before the House comes in at 9 o'clock, as promised, one more member of Congress to join us to give their perspective.
[01:39:31]  Representative Tony Weed, Republican of Wisconsin, a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the Agriculture and Small Business Committee.
[01:39:39]  Representative, good morning.
[01:39:41]  Hey, good morning.
[01:39:42]  A golden age is how the president described it.
[01:39:45]  Would you agree with that totally?
[01:39:46]  Are there places where you may disagree?
[01:39:48]  How would you parse that?
[01:39:50]  Oh, we are at a golden age.
[01:39:51]  I think President Trump delivered an amazing State of the Union, certainly my favorite State of the Union address, and really talked about the victories of our country and bringing it back.
[01:40:01]  You know, whether that's safer communities because we now have a border.
[01:40:06]  Certainly during the last administration, over 20 million people that came across our border.
[01:40:10]  And we saw what that brings with crime and drugs.
[01:40:13]  And look, I mean, overdose deaths are way down.
[01:40:16]  Crime is way down.
[01:40:18]  Having a border works.
[01:40:20]  And also putting more money back into people's pockets.
[01:40:23]  And right now, with people doing their tax returns, people are seeing more money in their pockets.
[01:40:28]  Increased child care tax credit.
[01:40:31]  We have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.
[01:40:36]  And then also, if you buy an American car, you can actually deduct the interest.
[01:40:41]  Look, the economy is booming.
[01:40:43]  It's going to continue to boom.
[01:40:44]  We have a president that is focused on doing what is best for everyday Americans.
[01:40:50]  I thought it was an amazing speech.
[01:40:52]  It's been a historic 13 months, and I'm very proud of our president.

=== Putting More Money Back (15:09) ===

[01:40:55]  When it comes to the matters of the economy, some people highlight the fact that you mentioned jobs, 181,000 jobs created in 2025, even though that number's bumped up.
[01:41:07]  What do you see in what people are analyzing as far as what the economy is versus what the president says it is?
[01:41:14]  So I think we've added a lot of jobs.
[01:41:16]  I mean, reports show over 600,000.
[01:41:18]  And I think something to really keep in mind is that we're not adding government jobs.
[01:41:22]  We have less people working for our government.
[01:41:24]  Our government is completely bloated.
[01:41:26]  All of the jobs are coming in the private sector.
[01:41:29]  It's time that we reindustrialize our great country and really ignite our manufacturing base.
[01:41:36]  And that's what the president is focused on.
[01:41:38]  That's what House Republicans are focused on is incentivizing manufacturers to bring products and make them right here in the United States.
[01:41:47]  We're focused on Americans working in the private sector, and we're focused on higher-paying jobs.
[01:41:52]  And again, I think we're moving in the right direction.
[01:41:55]  When it comes to how people are receiving it, there were polls leading up, and we referenced this with your fellow Republican earlier of this program, Glenn Grothman, about polling showing not so satisfactory marks when it comes to the president and the handling of the economy.
[01:42:08]  With midterms looming, do you think there's better messaging that needs to be done by the party?
[01:42:13]  Well, it takes time.
[01:42:14]  I think it was a total disaster during the Biden administration.
[01:42:17]  We saw 40-year record highs in inflation.
[01:42:20]  Inflation is a tax that hurts the poor and the middle class more than anybody.
[01:42:25]  And here we now have inflation that is drastically reduced in the 2% range.
[01:42:30]  I mean, that is amazing.
[01:42:31]  Just look at the price of fuel.
[01:42:34]  It's cut in half.
[01:42:35]  You know, in my hometown in northeastern Wisconsin, we're under $2.50 a gallon.
[01:42:41]  That is money back.
[01:42:42]  into people's pockets.
[01:42:44]  We're just getting started.
[01:42:45]  It's only been 13 months, but it's been an historic 13 months.
[01:42:49]  And again, this economy is going to continue to roar.
[01:42:51]  I mean, another thing to look at is the stock market, your 401ks, your savings accounts, through your employer.
[01:42:58]  I mean, at record highs.
[01:42:59]  So we're going to continue to focus on the economy and do what's right for everyday Americans.
[01:43:04]  Representative Web, the President highlighted the Supreme Court's decision last night when it comes to tariffs.
[01:43:10]  What did you think of that decision, particularly as you serve on the Agriculture Committee?
[01:43:15]  And I suppose that's one of those industries that really get impacted by such a thing.
[01:43:19]  Well, look, tariffs, we're getting, you know, we're the ones on the raw end of the deal with other countries that have been charging us outrageous tariffs.
[01:43:28]  And if you look in the agriculture industry in particular and dairy, Canada is taking advantage of us.
[01:43:34]  The president is using tariffs as a way, I call them smart tariffs, to really negotiate free and fair trade.
[01:43:40]  Use it as leverage for the economy so that we have more exports.
[01:43:44]  I think that's really important.
[01:43:46]  But that's not to mention also the geopolitical, using it as a way to reduce and end wars, over seven wars, using tariffs as leverage.
[01:43:55]  So again, I think he's doing the right thing, utilizing different tools to be able to use those tariffs, again, as leverage, to do what's best for our country and to grow our economy and make us safer and more secure.
[01:44:08]  What did you think of the Supreme Court's decision on tariffs?
[01:44:10]  They disagreed on some of those fronts when it comes to how the president used that IEPA as it's known.
[01:44:15]  Well, look, I don't agree.
[01:44:17]  I think, you know, that's their decision.
[01:44:19]  I think it was the wrong decision.
[01:44:20]  I think it brings more uncertainty.
[01:44:22]  We need certainty right now.
[01:44:23]  The president is working towards certainty with negotiating these trade deals around the world.
[01:44:29]  And I think it's unfortunate.
[01:44:31]  But again, I think there are other tools.
[01:44:33]  Tariffs, again, can be used as a great tool.
[01:44:35]  The president's using them, again, to grow our economy, to do what's right for our country, rather than paying for other countries to industrialize.
[01:44:44]  We need to get our manufacturing base on fire here and to really grow it.
[01:44:49]  And that's exactly what he's doing.
[01:44:51]  What do you think about the potential for Congress to codify some of these things and put it into law, which some have said the Congress should do from the get-go?
[01:44:59]  Yeah, well, I'd be in favor of that.
[01:45:01]  Unfortunately, Congress moves slow with a very slim majority.
[01:45:05]  That's why I believe that the president's doing the right thing and utilizing the tools at his disposal, again, in order to do what's right for our country.
[01:45:13]  When it comes to matters of, we've been asking Republicans and Democrats along the line as far as this partial shutdown when it comes to the Department of Homeland Security.
[01:45:22]  Democrats saying that the president won't change certain things when it comes to ICE.
[01:45:25]  Republicans saying it's those things that keeping funding going.
[01:45:29]  What's the resolve in your mind?
[01:45:31]  Well, I think it's just purely political.
[01:45:34]  I think it's that radical far-left ideology of the Democrat Party for members of Congress to try to win primary elections and to win elections.
[01:45:43]  I think it's absolutely ridiculous that they would not pay our great TSA agents, which keep us safe, you know, for those that are flying, to not fund FEMA, not to pay our Coast Guard.
[01:45:54]  I don't know why these far-left Democrats continue to hold the great people that are in those agencies and those agencies hostage for their own political gain.
[01:46:05]  Immigration and custom enforcement has been doing a great job over the years.
[01:46:09]  If you look at the Obama administration, that same agency, ICE, Immigration, Custom Enforcement, deported millions of people without incident, without protest.
[01:46:19]  I don't know what's changed.
[01:46:20]  Your background includes operating gas stations and operating several Little Caesars restaurants.
[01:46:27]  As far as the president's economic program going forward, what would you say to the small business person like yourself who's looking for the president to make changes in the following three years?
[01:46:37]  Well, if I was in business, I would be excited.
[01:46:39]  I was excited when I had my small business during the first Trump administration, just looking at the tax policy.
[01:46:45]  But right now, there's hope.
[01:46:46]  There's hope for small businesses.
[01:46:48]  We want people to earn more.
[01:46:49]  We want businesses to do better.
[01:46:51]  That is the engine of our economy.
[01:46:53]  But with the great tax policy, but also reducing regulations so that the government gets out of the way, lets job creators do what they need to do and to really grow our economy.
[01:47:04]  So we're doing all the right things.
[01:47:05]  We have the right policies.
[01:47:07]  And I'm looking forward to keeping this momentum throughout this next year.
[01:47:10]  Wisconsin Republican Tony We joining us as far as reaction to the State of the Union representative.
[01:47:16]  Thanks for your time.
[01:47:17]  Thank you.
[01:47:18]  Some of you commenting on our social media sites and texting us.
[01:47:22]  A viewer texts us.
[01:47:23]  This is Lois in Palm Beach saying that Donald Trump's State of the Union was disrespectful to all Americans, lies, lies in defiance, pathetic, and too difficult to watch.
[01:47:32]  Anything but unifying vote blue in the midterms.
[01:47:37]  And then this is Ed in Hilton Head, South Carolina, saying, I was very pleased with the speech as a reminder to America of the awful incompetence the Democrats demonstrated the past four years they were in charge.
[01:47:48]  I was also pleased to hear Republican plans is underway to correct the disastrous Biden term.
[01:47:52]  I do not want to go back.
[01:47:54]  Again, texting us, you can do that 202748-8003.
[01:47:59]  Dale up next, joining us in Virginia, line for Republicans.
[01:48:03]  Go ahead.
[01:48:05]  Yes, sir.
[01:48:06]  This is Bill.
[01:48:07]  And I just want to say I think Trump did an outstanding job with his speech.
[01:48:11]  I mean, first of all, he said, why are we here?
[01:48:14]  We're here because of the last four years of the Biden or the Autopen or whatever the heck the administration was letting in all these illegals, all these immigrants into America.
[01:48:27]  And then now we're trying to clean it up or he's trying to clean it up.
[01:48:31]  And I lived, I'm a retired middle-class person, and I lived through the Biden area in retail.
[01:48:40]  And I can tell you that through the four years of the Biden administration, every single week in the retail outlets, we had massive price increases due to the policies and things that the Democrats had.
[01:48:55]  And last night showed just exactly how the Democrats and where they stand, they stand with illegal immigrants and not the American people.
[01:49:05]  And unfortunately, it's not the Democratic Party that it used to be many years ago as I was growing up.
[01:49:13]  They don't care about American citizens.
[01:49:16]  And to me, anybody that votes for a Democrat now is it's an un-American act.
[01:49:22]  Ian in Pennsylvania, Democrats line.
[01:49:25]  Hello.
[01:49:27]  Hi, yes.
[01:49:28]  I'm a left-wing Democrat, background in government.
[01:49:33]  And at one point, I was paid to work for the Obama campaign.
[01:49:39]  With all that stated, I believe Trump absolutely dominated the night with a patriotic performance, and the Democratic boycott backfired.
[01:49:49]  However, during that patriotic performance, his comments pertaining to Iran, I think, are being overlooked by everyone commenting on the speech.
[01:50:05]  We have massive military assets in Iran, and the president stated he wanted peace, but that Iran would not have a nuclear mission.
[01:50:19]  The president also said he wanted more diplomacy to take place.
[01:50:21]  Do you think that's true?
[01:50:25]  I believe the president wants a peace deal so he could state he got something that no one ever else did, and that was dismantling of a nuclear program and to do it peacefully.
[01:50:41]  I do not see a way that will happen forward of dismantling the nuclear program.
[01:50:48]  I'm curious.
[01:50:50]  I'm curious, as a Democrat, why do you give the president so much deference?
[01:50:55]  Regarding last night's performance.
[01:50:57]  Overall, and last night's performance.
[01:51:00]  Well, I did not plan on watching it, but hey, I watched it as I saw it.
[01:51:09]  And he had carte blanche at a joint session.
[01:51:15]  He had the U.S. men's hockey team came out.
[01:51:19]  He had USA chance.
[01:51:20]  He was honoring and respecting those through Purple Hearts and those who passed.
[01:51:28]  And it was, and whoever on his team kept him on track and on message.
[01:51:35]  Bravo to them.
[01:51:36]  Okay.
[01:51:37]  Grace is next in Florida, Independent Line.
[01:51:39]  Hello.
[01:51:41]  Hi.
[01:51:41]  Hi.
[01:51:42]  This is Grace.
[01:51:43]  How are you?
[01:51:44]  Fine.
[01:51:44]  Thank you.
[01:51:46]  I was calling in.
[01:51:47]  I'm actually kind of glad that the last person called this a performance because that's exactly what I got out of it.
[01:51:54]  When you took away all the glitter and glitz, there was absolutely no substance to this.
[01:52:02]  I hate the fact that we can't prove the lies.
[01:52:06]  There was nobody there saying this is a lie.
[01:52:09]  This is a lie.
[01:52:10]  Families are still struggling with high prices, rising rents, shrinking paychecks.
[01:52:16]  The stock market, you know, that's great that it's a lower stock market.
[01:52:21]  That doesn't pay the grocery bills.
[01:52:24]  You know, they're saying America is safer, yet crime, fentanyl, broken borders remain unresolved.
[01:52:31]  And while the president spoke about unity, his leadership keeps dividing Americans, calling them name, shifting the blame, and dismissing disagreement instead of fixing problems.
[01:52:44]  You know, it's really sad that a leader causes more divide than he does in unity.
[01:52:53]  And for anybody to say that this is not the worst we've ever seen, they're not paying attention.
[01:52:59]  Okay, Grace, there in Florida, many Democrats decided to not attend last night's address instead of attending things outside or events outside of the Capitol on the National Mall and speaking against the president.
[01:53:13]  One of those people, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut.
[01:53:18]  Okay, so I am not at the State of the Union speech tonight because Donald Trump is making a mockery of this great institution and he doesn't deserve an audience.
[01:53:30]  I'm not at the State of the Union speech tonight because these are not normal times and Democrats have to stop behaving normally.
[01:53:40]  And I'm not at the State of the Union speech tonight because you're not going to hear about the state of the Union.
[01:53:47]  You are going to hear lie after lie.
[01:53:49]  You are going to hear attack after attack.
[01:53:52]  You are going to see grandstanding.
[01:53:55]  The true state of the union is this.
[01:53:58]  This union is in crisis right now.
[01:54:01]  Our cities are under attack by lawless law enforcement.
[01:54:07]  Our democracy is wilting under ceaseless attack from a president who wants to be a despot.
[01:54:15]  Millions of Americans are losing their health care because the president has chosen corruption to pad the pockets of his billionaire friends instead of helping average Americans.
[01:54:26]  You're not going to hear any of that in that speech tonight.
[01:54:30]  But by being here for the people's state of the union, you are going to hear the real story of America, a story of an America that is under siege, but a story of America that is not going to take it, that is going to fight back and is going to reclaim this country for everything that is good and right about the United States of America.
[01:54:52]  By the way, those events, too, are available if you want to see what Democrats said during the State of the Union address.
[01:54:57]  Our website, our app is where you can find that.
[01:54:59]  Rob in California, Republican Lying.
[01:55:02]  Good morning.
[01:55:03]  Good morning.
[01:55:04]  You know, Goebbels said in Germany, if you tell a lie long enough, people start to believe it.
[01:55:11]  You know, the Democrats have been lying.
[01:55:14]  If you can pull up every actual truthful situation that they claim against Trump, they're the liars.
[01:55:21]  Number one, AOC, the Health Care Act, had an expiration date on it because that's how they voted it in.
[01:55:30]  The Democrats voted it in at midnight, and that's how that came in.
[01:55:35]  And it had an expiration date, and it didn't get extended.
[01:55:38]  Trump didn't shut it off.
[01:55:40]  They just had a failure design on their health care.
[01:55:45]  Okay, how does that relate to last night's speech, please?
[01:55:48]  It relates to the attacks that I'm seeing last night and this morning on Trump.
[01:55:53]  You know, the gal that was opposition afterwards in her speech said she wasn't going to raise taxes, the Democratic governor.
[01:56:02]  And she raised the taxes immediately after she got into office.

=== Attacks On Trump's Legacy (05:53) ===

[01:56:05]  I live out here in California.
[01:56:07]  It's totally Democratic run.
[01:56:09]  Hey, we got people living underneath the bridges all the way from Northern California to Southern California.
[01:56:15]  Newsom and the government in this state has bankrupted California.
[01:56:21]  They're going after the billionaires and they're moving out and going to Florida.
[01:56:26]  Campbell's soup shut.
[01:56:27]  All the companies are leaving California like fast, okay?
[01:56:33]  Because it's totally Democratic run.
[01:56:36]  Trump went in and shut the border down like he said he was going to do.
[01:56:40]  Trump shut off seven wars and has the peace.
[01:56:43]  I wish they'd show that peace meeting with all those people, how they respected Trump over there in Gaza.
[01:56:50]  Okay.
[01:56:51]  Don't give Trump any credit.
[01:56:52]  Okay, Robin, California.
[01:56:53]  Again, last night's speech, Elaine, Ohio, Democrats lying.
[01:56:57]  Go ahead.
[01:56:58]  Your response to it.
[01:56:59]  Yes, I think this speech was a reality show.
[01:57:03]  He's very good at making people think a certain way.
[01:57:09]  When I walk into the grocery store, are you still there?
[01:57:15]  No, you're still on.
[01:57:16]  Keep going.
[01:57:17]  Okay.
[01:57:18]  When I walk into the grocery store, I pay more money than I did when Biden was in office.
[01:57:25]  So I can tell by what's going out of my pocket and money.
[01:57:32]  And when you tell me that gas is 50% lower or eggs are 50% lower, when I go in the grocery store and buy ground beef, that's $10 more.
[01:57:46]  So it's not affecting the millionaires and billionaires, but it's affecting the I'm retired.
[01:57:56]  I'm 70 years old.
[01:57:58]  It affects me.
[01:57:59]  Every dime that I have to pay, $10 more for a beef.
[01:58:05]  And the reality shows last night, I had to turn it off.
[01:58:10]  I mean, I watched about 30 or 45 minutes of it, but it wasn't talking about things that was going to help me.
[01:58:20]  Okay.
[01:58:21]  Thank you.
[01:58:21]  Elaine in Ohio.
[01:58:22]  Let's hear from in Alabama on our independent line.
[01:58:25]  This is Kevin.
[01:58:28]  Ah, Kevin's gone.
[01:58:30]  Let's go to Robert.
[01:58:31]  Robert in North Carolina, Republican line.
[01:58:34]  You're next up.
[01:58:34]  Go ahead.
[01:58:36]  Hey, I think President Trump is doing a great job.
[01:58:39]  He is for the American people.
[01:58:42]  The Democrats, they want to protect the Iranians and the Mexican cartels, and they're worried about them way more than they are the American people.
[01:58:51]  And I just hope that he keeps up.
[01:58:54]  Well, what exactly were your impressions of last night's speech?
[01:58:57]  I thought he told it like it was, and he was telling the things that he plans to do, and everything he said was for the American people.
[01:59:06]  It wasn't for foreigners and the criminals that's out here on the streets robbing and killing people.
[01:59:13]  He's trying to make America great.
[01:59:16]  Okay.
[01:59:17]  Robert there in North Carolina, the House again, scheduled to come in at nine o'clock.
[01:59:21]  We will go to the House when they do come in.
[01:59:24]  Take your calls up until then.
[01:59:26]  Richard in Richmond, Virginia, where the governor of Virginia gave the address last night, the Democratic response, the line for Democrats.
[01:59:34]  Richard, go ahead.
[01:59:36]  Yes, sir.
[01:59:37]  I watched it, Mr. In last night.
[01:59:39]  I'm a disabled veteran.
[01:59:41]  And what I got out of his speech last night with this same old rhetoric, cover-up, he hollering economists, Iran.
[01:59:51]  He wanted to say he was stopping all wars.
[01:59:53]  He's like, he's trying to stop wars.
[01:59:55]  Everything he said last night didn't make sense to me.
[01:59:58]  It's like he just distracted.
[02:00:02]  He's not talking about real issues that Americans are facing.
[02:00:05]  The economy, immigration.
[02:00:09]  He's killing American people.
[02:00:12]  I didn't hear him talk about ICE, this and that.
[02:00:15]  He only talked about his rhetoric to me.
[02:00:18]  What he wants, the billionaires.
[02:00:20]  Everything you do is for billionaires.
[02:00:21]  It's not for the American people.
[02:00:23]  The American people don't want wars.
[02:00:25]  He wants to make our allies, enemies.
[02:00:30]  He wants to tariff everybody.
[02:00:31]  And the tariffs ain't hurting nobody but the American people.
[02:00:34]  I guess he didn't finish math in school.
[02:00:35]  He understands mathematics.
[02:00:37]  The American people want to ban all the tariffs.
[02:00:41]  Okay.
[02:00:41]  Maria in Connecticut, Republican line.
[02:00:43]  The House just about to come in, Maria.
[02:00:45]  So jump on in.
[02:00:47]  Yes.
[02:00:47]  Thank you very much for taking my call.
[02:00:50]  I just wanted to let you know that in Connecticut, the prices are very high because it's run by a Democratic party.
[02:00:58]  All the states where our Democrats, the prices are not going down.
[02:01:04]  The Democrats are keeping the prices up and they're talking about affordability.
[02:01:11]  How about under Biden?
[02:01:13]  And I believe the speech last night, the president gave, it was an amazing speech.
[02:01:19]  I have one question about the tariffs.
[02:01:23]  I saw in the news that Federal Express and other companies are suing Trump because of the tariffs.
[02:01:31]  I would like to know us as consumers, because the prices were increased after the tariffs, wherever I was going to buy something in the stores, I was told that the prices are high because of the tariffs.
[02:01:46]  Now, if the tariffs are coming down, can we sue the stores which are increasing the prices because of the tariffs, since the tariffs are illegal?