Washington Journal Open Forum hosts debate civility while callers address the February 13th DHS funding expiration causing TSA delays and discuss Israel's war through a Book of Esther lens. Guests analyze Bruce "Maui" Ohr's claims on Iran's nuclear proximity, rising oil prices nearing $150, and alleged Chinese invasion plans for Taiwan in 2027. The segment concludes by urging the passage of the Save America Act and highlighting upcoming hearings on birthright citizenship and NYC terrorism investigations following recent anti-Islam protests. [Automatically generated summary]
Believe in yourself, apply yourself, and be the best you can be.
This is Sugar Bear.
This is our American story.
Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere.
We have to listen so we can govern better.
Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
You can fight and still be friendly.
Bridging the divide in American politics.
You know, you may not agree with La Dokran on everything, but you can find areas where you do agree.
He's a pretty likable guy as well.
Chris Kins and I are actually friends.
He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends.
A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other.
We all don't hate each other.
You two actually kind of like each other.
These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
He owes my son $10 from a bad person.
I never paid for it.
Don't fork it over.
That's fighting words right now.
I'm glad I'm not in charge.
I'm thrilled to be on the show with him.
There are not shows like this, right?
Incentivizing that relationship.
Ceasefire, Friday nights on C-SPAN.
Welcome back.
We're now in an open forum where you can call in about any public policy or political issue on your mind.
I'm going to start this segment off with some programming notes.
Today, government officials and tech leaders meet for a cybersecurity summit to discuss President Trump's new national cyber strategy, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, and supply chains.
You can watch that live at 3.45 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
And then just after that, at 4.30 p.m., the president will address House Republicans during their annual retreat held at one of the president's golf resorts in Doral, Florida.
You can watch his remarks there live at 4.30 Eastern on C-SPAN.
So we started this morning talking about Iran, but other things facing the nation today includes how major airports are grappling with hours-long security wait times.
Excuse me.
I turned to an NBC news article.
The headline is, Major airports grapple with hours-long security wait times and TSA staffing shortages amid partial government shutdown.
It includes William P. H. Hobby Airport in Houston was experiencing wait times of nearly three hours Sunday, federal officials said.
If you just scroll down just a little bit, it goes on to say that travel at major U.S. airports turned into a nightmare Sunday with up to three hour security wait times and a shortage of TSA workers at the start of spring break travel amid the partial government shutdown.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Lauren Biz said travelers are facing missed flights and massive delays.
She blamed the chaos on Congressional Democrats' refusal to fund DHS, which led to the partial shutdown.
That quote says, These political stunts force patriotic officers who protect our skies from serious threats to work without pay.
She said in a statement, these frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.
DHA's funding expired February 13th, with lawmakers locking horns over ICE and customs and border protection policies after federal agents killed two Americans in Minneapolis.
Democrats are seeking reforms to rein in those agencies, but Republicans have argued that changes were already made in response to the killings.
White House Watching Gas Price Messaging00:14:40
All right, let's turn to some of your phone calls.
Linda from Missouri, a Democrat.
It's open forum.
Good morning, Linda.
Yes, good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
I'm calling I want First Iran.
I think Israel should fight their own war.
This is the first president that he can reel in like that because Donald Trump is so weak, and all you got to do is give him a compliment, and he will do anything.
And for as a draft, if that comes, then none of my kids would be going, that's for sure.
I would send them somewhere else before I would put them there because Barron should be number one up for the draft.
And then spending all of our money on wars and all these other things and want to redo buildings and putting your face all over the place when we have citizens out here that are suffering.
This man needs to go.
He needs to be in a nursing home somewhere because he has serious issues.
All right, that was Linda from Missouri.
Stacy from North Dakota, a Republican.
Good morning, Stacey.
It's open forum.
Thank you.
I'm a believer who sees everything through a Bible worldview.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 says that what happened before will happen again.
And the parallels to the Bible book of Esther are just amazing.
It's like it's repeating again what happened in Babylon, which is what Iran and also called Persia.
There was an edict of death to the Jews.
Now, the Queen was a Jewish woman, and there was nothing she could do to stop that edict, but she could provide a pathway for them to defend themselves.
And they were victorious in defeating the people that wanted to kill them.
And then there's a celebration called Purim.
And this right now is a season of Purim.
And there's another person who is also trying to give a pathway to the people who, you know, there's edict death to Israel, death to America.
And the people there are Persians.
They're not Arab.
They're not Muslim.
And they're just tired of being oppressed.
And now our president is trying to do the same thing that the Queen did and give them a path for self-preservation to restore their heritage.
All right, Stacey from North Dakota.
Alan from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Democrat.
You're next.
Good morning, Alan.
It's open forum.
You can talk about whatever.
Good morning, Jasmine.
You had a gentleman to call in to say that the military signs up to die.
Now, I am a 79-year-old Vietnam combat veteran.
Okay.
I was with the first CAB, first of the 12 airborne unit.
We were the first helicopter assault team to arrive in Vietnam.
Excuse me.
Now, we don't sign up to die.
We sign up to protect this country.
And this is sickening.
This man is sick.
Didn't you people see it?
I got a lot to say, but that's it.
Let me go.
Alan from North Carolina.
Phil from Long Island, an independent.
Good morning, Phil.
It's open forum.
Good morning.
How are you?
You know, I'd like to thank your last caller for his service to our country, and I appreciate what he had to say.
You know, if we go back to the 70s, right, how many hundreds of millions of billions of dollars have we spent in the Middle East to stabilize that region?
And with a state like Iran continually funding terrorist organizations to destabilize the region, when is enough enough?
All right, pay now or pay later.
So at some point, we had it, and I'm sorry it took this long.
We had to do what we had to do.
Now, we should be getting in and out of it as quick as possible.
But if you go back a couple years ago, there was a guy named Maui, and he was Biden's Iran.
He was the envoy for Iran.
And he was talking about back then, a few years ago, that Iran was close to being six months away from being nuclear weapons.
And he said, and you can go back on the BBC and check his interview with this guy, Stephen Secure, all right?
And he said we would have to have boots on the ground.
And that was under the Biden administration two years ago.
And what did they do?
They took away his clearance and they ran him out.
Okay.
We got a lot of big issues going on there.
Marvelous clean house all at once.
Okay.
Osar.
Alright, Phil, I'm going to move on from you because we have a guest ready.
It's Naomi Lin, a White House reporter with the Washington Examiner.
Naomi, good morning.
Morning.
Thanks for being with us.
All right.
Everyone's talking about Iran this morning.
Let's get into the latest.
Obviously, we know that the Iran Assembly of Experts has named a new supreme leader.
How is the White House reacting to that this morning?
From what I'm hearing is that they're sort of seeing that this is Iran sort of doubling down after the assassination of the Supreme Leader.
You know, it's not a change in direction, and I think we'll get that confirmed when we hear him speak for the first time later today.
And I think we're going to have to be watching that closely because obviously the president last week indicated that that wouldn't be acceptable and that there would be a sort of a doubling down on the U.S. side in terms of the strikes they're conducting against Iran, not only in country but around sort of their proxies around the world.
And so that's what I'm also watching.
What is the other interesting thing that's unfolding too is this idea of the human cost and the economic cost of the war.
We're seeing sort of confirmation that the seventh US service member who was sort of injured in a strike in Saudi Arabia on March 1st finally sort of succumbed to his injuries.
And then we're also sort of seeing the industry side and the oil side of this with the stock market sort of the future stock market sort of indicating that it will be a turbulent day on Wall Street just with the oil prices and the way that sort of traders will sort of factor that into their decisions.
And so I think it's going to be Iran, Iran, Iran.
We're going to hear Trump sort of speak to that later today.
He's going to be addressing sort of House Republicans in Florida at their issues conference.
And I think that they'll sort of be discussing whether, you know, if there's a political impact to this as well.
Obviously midterms, the cost of living concerns are high on the agenda and the affordability argument that the Trump administration has said that they're countering.
But we're going to see the backlash, I think, from the Iran and the way that that sort of interacts.
I want to ask you a little bit more about the political backlash in a second, but the president has given a lot of interviews this weekend.
We know he talked to the ABC News, Times of Israel.
I wonder, are there any plans for a more formal press Conference from the president.
I know we'll see him speaking in Daral later on today, but a press conference focused specifically on answering questions about Iran and the rationale.
Well, let's hope because I think there are a lot of sort of questions that need to be raised.
I think the likelihood, though, is that we'll sort of hear him speak sort of more informally with reporters on the plane when he returns to Washington, D.C. later this afternoon.
And I think to your point, I mean, there are interesting things that came out of the reporting with the Times of Israel when he sort of said, or and also with the ABC interview, about whether he wasn't, you know, it sort of depends on the relationship between Israel and the U.S. when there's an off-ramp to this fighting, because I think that's something that we're sort of watching as well.
Because the aims and sort of the objectives of this operation have been vague and we don't really know what will be considered a success.
You know, they sort of say that we'll see it when we know it, or we'll know it when we see it.
And I think that we need to sort of drill down on that.
And so hopefully we get a chance to sort of ask the president directly because obviously we know in this administration what the president says is usually we need to hear it straight from the horse's mouth as opposed to his aides.
Right, the president said to the Times of Israel earlier that it would be both him and Netanyahu who make the decision of when the war ends, although he then said that he would be kind of the driver in that decision.
In an interview with ABC over the weekend, the president basically brushed off concerns about any softening within the MAGA base over these Iranian strikes.
What are you hearing from White House officials on that?
And has there been any effort to reach out to bigger names within the MAGA base like Tucker Carlson, like Megan Kelly, who have so far voiced opposition to strikes in Iran?
I mean when we talk to sort of aides in the building behind me, they sort of say, you know, they downplay it very similar to the president.
They echo the idea that, you know, there isn't division.
I mean, the idea that this agenda that they're pursuing in Iran is America first, despite the idea of the Tucker Carlsons of the world, the Megan Kelly's of the world, saying that it's not, that we don't want to be drawn into another Middle East war.
But then sort of the numbers are also sort of interesting too.
There is polling that is a little bit split in terms of whether the MAGA base is still with him.
Obviously, there are die-hard supporters that are always with Trump.
But this idea that he's putting sort of another foreign war above the ideas of the issues that hit sort of his supporters in their hip pocket is really coming to the fore.
I mean, we've obviously seen the likes of Representative or former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sort of speak to that as well.
And I think that we're going to need to see a little bit more outreach from the White House if they want to keep this sort of wide universe and coalition that he brought together in his elections if they can see and drum up that support before the all-important midterms in November.
Another part of that political message is of course oil prices, gas prices.
The president has touted in recent weeks before the strikes about how well his administration was doing with bringing down the amount of gas prices across the country.
Now we're seeing them rise.
I wonder what are you watching for the messaging of how the White House addresses a spike in gas prices because of the Iranian conflict?
I mean we've already seen a hint of that from the president himself.
He took to social media and said you know it's a very small price to pay for this you know this overwhelming sort of you know the importance of this mission that they're doing in Iran.
And I think this idea of sort of downplaying it has never really been successful both for Democratic and Republican presidents in the past.
We saw that with former President Joe Biden when he sort of tried to minimize concerns about the economy and so I think you know that the Trump administration the president has been encouraged by Republicans around them to really sort of you know try to be empathetic when people are sort of talking about you know the cost of living and how it affects them.
But we're sort of seeing that even though he kind of sort of dabbles in that sometimes he hasn't really leaned in and I think that you'll sort of hear allies around the White House try to really amplify that concern in the coming week.
I mean we're seeing he's expected to be in Kentucky and Ohio later this week to talk about Trump RX, this idea of sort of helping minimize the cost of health care.
And so maybe we'll see a little bit more economic messaging come into that.
But again we saw sort of last Friday with sort of a lower than expected jobs report, this idea that the economy might be on the back burner as this Iran war plays out.
But I mean it's not going to go away and particularly as you sort of said with the oil prices, it's going to come back to the fore and they really need to address it if they want to do their best in November.
That trip is interesting also because it is Congressman Tom Massey's district, obviously major Trump foe who he has been behind primarying to get him out of Congress.
My last question for you here Naomi is what else are you watching for this week when it comes to the White House?
So something that I'm watching for which might not be on everyone's radar is that this Saturday is actually the one year anniversary from that sort of not unprecedented because presidents have addressed the Justice Department in the past, but it's been one year since Trump went to the Justice Department and sort of really I guess upended this idea that DOJ should be independent of the White House.
And so I'm really interested in watching sort of, you know, obviously that's not going to be on the headlines this week, but I'm sort of doing my own reporting this week about, you know, how that has changed in the past year, the way that Trump has really used the Justice Department to go after his political opponents after claims that they did the same to him, you know, while he was out of office and even during his first administration.
So that's something that I'm watching that might not be on everyone's radar.
All right, Naomi Lynn, a White House reporter for the Washington Examiner, thank you so much for coming on and chatting this morning.
Thanks for having me.
And now back to Open Forum where you can talk about any public policy or political issue on your mind this morning.
Jason from Baltimore and Independent, you're next.
Good morning, Jason.
Hey, good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
I have a question, or we'd love to get some thoughts about President Trump's aggressive foreign policy and if there's a bigger game afoot regarding China and what I've heard of alleged plans for them to invade Taiwan in 2027.
I have a lot of friends in the military community, and what they talk about, it doesn't get mentioned on mainstream news, is China's aggressive buildup that they are, if not at peer level militarily,
exceeded the U.S. and if President Trump is using incursions like Iran or Venezuela and Nicaragua as ways to show he's not afraid to take on challenges using these smaller conflicts or incursions as examples of that.
I'll take the answer off the air.
Thank you.
All right.
There's Jason from Baltimore.
One thing and just a quick search that I found is a Time article from March 6th.
The headline is, the Iran war has distracted and depleted the U.S. military, but it may have also saved Taiwan.
Domestic Focus Over Foreign Wars00:06:55
It goes on to say, at first blush, Thursday's opening of China's National People's Congress in PC looked ominous for Taiwan.
Taking the podium in Beijing's cavernous Great Hall of the People, Premier Lee Kuang unveiled a 7% bump on defense spending while using a strident language for self-ruling islands over which China claims dominion.
While vowing the People's Liberation Army would accelerate the development of advanced combat capabilities, Lee said China would resolutely crack down on separatist activities in Taiwan, a noted upgrade of last year's promise to simply oppose them.
If you scroll a little bit further down, it says that given that the ongoing war has depleted stocks of sophisticated weapons systems vital to defend the island, nerves were already jangling in Taiwan as well as Ukraine and indeed Washington.
Questions about U.S. weapons reserves were raised during a closed briefing between senior Trump officials and members of Congress on Tuesday.
Sources said, With U.S. military depleted and distracted by a conflict on the other side of the globe, observers worried that China's strongman, Xi Jinping, may never have a better opportunity on the democratic island of 23 million, whose reunification he's called a great trend of history.
The fear is that Trump's transactional bearing and embrace of might of right doctrine, both in his own actions and influence regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine, could be interpreted as a green light by Xi.
That's an article from Time.
You may go look at it if it is of interest to you.
And of course, the president will be heading to China at the end of this month, his first visit in his second term.
Kenneth from Newark, Delaware, a Democrat.
You're next.
Good morning, Kenneth.
It's open forum.
Yes.
My concern is this president continues to think that things going on around the world is more important than things going on here in America.
We need to do something better to understand where Congress is going to play a major role in the influence of this president to be able to make him understand he needs to work at policies here in America and leave the world stage because he is not prepared for it.
Thank you.
Well, the president will be speaking to Congressional Republicans later on today at Dural, Miami, in Dural, Miami, for their conference.
And so we may perhaps hear more about domestic policies there.
Christian from Phoenix, a Republican, you're next.
Good morning, Christian.
Good morning.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
I just want to quote Secretary of the War Pete Hexep.
Quote: Yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed.
Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.
Now, this is not a mission-accomplished situation.
This is simply a reality check, end quote.
So, I want to first congratulate the president for taking out the unit in Iran who tried to assassinate him.
Secondly, God protect our service members, military families, police, law enforcement, firefighters, first responders, every U.S. citizen and our allies, because this is just simply a reality check.
And then also, the people who love our country, we're not concerned about our gas prices going up for a week or a month.
It will be well worth it, folks.
We're taking out an evil, evil people who just have to be taken out.
It is what it is.
And then, lastly, Republicans in the U.S. House, in the U.S. Senate, if you don't pass the Save America Act, that act which protects our ability to have a fair election, you're going to have big problems come November.
So, you better drop everything you're doing and pass that law and get it on Trump's desk and sign it.
We're not playing games.
Thank you so much, everybody.
Have a blessed day.
All right, that was Christian from Phoenix.
He mentioned at the end Save America Act.
I'll point to the president's to social on it from March 8th.
It said, Great job by hardworking Scott Presler on Fox and Friends talking about using the filibuster or talking filibuster in order to pass the Save America Act, an 88% issue with all voters.
It must be done immediately.
It supersedes everything, must go to the front of the line.
I, as president, will not sign other bills until this is passed in not the watered-down version.
Go for the gold.
Must show voter ID, proof of citizenship, no mail-in ballot except for military, illness, disability, travel, no men and women's sports, no transgender mutilizations for children, do not fail.
Signed by President J. Trump there.
Pete from Chicago, a Democrat.
You're next.
Good morning, Pete.
Hey, how are you, Jasmine?
I'm good.
How are you, Pete?
Good morning.
Good.
Good morning.
Listen, I want to suggest you have a guest on Wendy Sherman.
She was the undersecretary of the Barack Obama administration, and she was in on the deal that they cut during his term.
They had inspectors on the ground, and when Trump came in, he mixed the deal, and there were no more inspectors.
In fact, when we were in Iraq, Scott Ritter, the Atomic Energy Agency, was on the ground.
Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plain, were in Iraq.
There were no weapons of mass destruction, and they were proven to be right.
A barrel of oil is $102 a barrel.
By the end of the week, it'll be $150 a barrel.
Where are we going here?
The military-industrial complex, the energy and oil industries?
They're all going to make money.
What's going to happen to the people here?
They're going to have to pay for all this.
And I think that the Americans should stand up out here, fight for your rights, fight to vote.
And I want everybody to have a good day.
Thank you.
All right, that was Pete from Chicago.
Max Rose on War Powers Resolution00:01:31
C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country.
Coming up Tuesday morning, Vote Vet Senior Advisor and former Representative Max Rose will talk about Congress's role in military operations and the need for a war powers resolution.
And then Washington Post reporter Olivia George on the long-delayed installation over the weekend of a plaque honoring law enforcement's response to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
Also, author Peter Schweitzer will talk about his book, The Invisible Coup.
C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Tuesday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org.
Tuesday, a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee will hold a hearing on birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants and tourists.
This, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral argument in a case challenging President Trump's executive order denying automatic citizenship to infants born in the U.S. if their parents are living here illegally or temporarily.
Watch that hearing live at 2.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-SPAN.org.
New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch briefed reporters on an FBI terrorism investigation after an anti-Islam protest broke out at the mayor's residence over the weekend and two improvised explosive devices were detonated.