CSPAN - Washington Journal Open Phones
Aired: 2026-03-12
Duration: 10:59


=== The Economy and Borders Issue (10:59) ===

[00:00:00]  Award-winning best-selling author David Graham, whose books include The Lost City of Z, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Wager.
[00:00:09]  He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubenstein.
[00:00:13]  So, what about this fact, about this occurrence, made you think this could be something worth your time?
[00:00:19]  And I started to realize that this odd little old manuscript contained, you know, the seeds of one of the most extraordinary stories of survival and mayhem I had ever come across.
[00:00:30]  Watch America's Book Club with David Graham this Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
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[00:01:09]  Gear up for engagement.
[00:01:13]  Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
[00:01:15]  A quick update before we get to our calls.
[00:01:20]  This is from Axios.
[00:01:21]  Trump will tap oil reserve as Iran war drives up gas prices.
[00:01:27]  It says that the Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump's request to coordinate the release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from its reserves.
[00:01:42]  Consumers are seeing significant price jumps at the pump, and Republicans recognize offsetting that increase is crucial ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
[00:01:55]  Well, that is our topic this morning, and President Trump was at a fulfillment order fulfillment center in Kentucky.
[00:02:02]  Here's a portion where he talks about the economy.
[00:02:05]  A short time ago, under Biden and his allies in Congress, we had a dead, we were dead as a door now.
[00:02:12]  We were a dead country, I'll tell you, and it looked like we weren't going to come back.
[00:02:15]  Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
[00:02:17]  This is the hottest country anywhere in the world.
[00:02:20]  Most powerful military.
[00:02:24]  The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election, all-time.
[00:02:31]  And the typical Americans 401K is up by almost $35,000 since I took office.
[00:02:41]  And in four years, Joe Biden got less than $1 trillion of new investment into the United States.
[00:02:47]  So think of this.
[00:02:49]  $1 trillion over a period of much less over a period of four years.
[00:02:55]  We got $18 trillion.
[00:02:58]  And Jake Paul knows what that means.
[00:03:01]  $18 trillion in 11 months because they haven't calculated the 12th.
[00:03:10]  So we have 18 trillion in 11 months.
[00:03:13]  Say in a year, what difference does it make?
[00:03:16]  Compared to less than substantially less than $1 trillion in four years, you would say they're not doing, they didn't do a good job.
[00:03:26]  Taking your calls this morning, take a look at an MBC poll that was done on March 8th, asking what's the most important issue facing the country and at the top, tied for the top, inflation and cost of living at 26% and threats to democracy at 26%.
[00:03:45]  Then followed by immigration border security is at 13%, jobs and the economy 11%, cost of health care at 7%, and then affordable housing at 6%.
[00:03:59]  Well, here is Democratic Senator, Brian Chatz of Hawaii.
[00:04:03]  He was on the Senate floor yesterday talking about Defense Secretary Pete Hegset's handling of the war.
[00:04:10]  And this one might be the most bizarre.
[00:04:13]  We're going to go on offense, not just on defense.
[00:04:16]  Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.
[00:04:21]  This is from the Secretary of Defense.
[00:04:22]  Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.
[00:04:25]  Violent effect, not politically correct.
[00:04:28]  We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.
[00:04:34]  This is the man overseeing the most powerful military force in the history of the world, spelling out his unique and unlawful theory of action.
[00:04:44]  He finds the Geneva Conventions and our rules of engagement not just logistically inconvenient, but to use his own word, stupid.
[00:04:54]  Stupid.
[00:04:56]  And as we're seeing in real time, there are moral and strategic consequences for the callousness and the sloppiness atop the chain of command.
[00:05:08]  We are taking your calls this morning on your top issue heading into the midterm elections.
[00:05:15]  Michael Ashburn, Virginia, Republican, you're up first.
[00:05:20]  Hi, good morning.
[00:05:20]  How are you?
[00:05:21]  Good.
[00:05:23]  Yeah, I used to, I think I called it here about a couple years ago.
[00:05:29]  And I was a huge Trump supporter.
[00:05:35]  I was behind him 100%.
[00:05:37]  And I can tell you right now that I am 180 on him after this war that he started.
[00:05:46]  I mean, there's been a few things leading up to it, but I think when you add everything up, everything that he ran on, he ran on the Ukraine war.
[00:05:57]  He ran on the Epstein files.
[00:06:00]  He ran on not starting any new wars.
[00:06:02]  And he's just been the complete opposite.
[00:06:06]  But the one thing that I have noticed is that some people that support him will support him unconditionally.
[00:06:16]  And that's fine.
[00:06:18]  They have that right.
[00:06:19]  But I just can't do it anymore.
[00:06:22]  So, Michael, what does that mean for your vote in November?
[00:06:25]  Are you going to vote for a Democrat?
[00:06:30]  I'm going to have to.
[00:06:31]  I never have.
[00:06:33]  I think the only Democrat that I've voted for before was James Webb from Virginia.
[00:06:42]  I thought he was a very decent man.
[00:06:44]  I didn't think he got a fair shot when he was running for president in 2016.
[00:06:51]  I thought he was a very centered Democrat.
[00:06:55]  And unfortunately, that's what I'm going to do.
[00:06:59]  So I've never done it before.
[00:07:01]  So, Michael, I've got a question.
[00:07:03]  I've got a question for you because this is in today's Washington Times.
[00:07:06]  It's a commentary, and it's about Glenn Young.
[00:07:11]  It says, run, Glenn, run.
[00:07:14]  And this commentator is urging the former governor of Virginia, Glenn Young, to run against Mark Warner for his seat in the Senate.
[00:07:25]  What do you think of that?
[00:07:26]  If he were to run, would you vote for him, or would you vote for Mark Warner?
[00:07:31]  What are you thinking as far as Senate in Virginia?
[00:07:35]  I mean, that's tough because I thought that Glenn Young was a good governor for Virginia.
[00:07:42]  I think he did a good job.
[00:07:45]  I don't, the other thing I feel about Glenn Young is he is not somebody that Trump is going to be able to pull around like a cow with a ring in his nose.
[00:07:56]  I think he's a very independent thinker.
[00:08:02]  I don't know if that's 100%, but I don't think he is.
[00:08:08]  I don't think he's a Lindsey Graham type, is what I should say.
[00:08:11]  Lindsey Graham, you can lead that guy to a bowl of crap and he'll eat it.
[00:08:17]  Or Trump.
[00:08:19]  All right, Michael, let's talk to Mitchell next.
[00:08:20]  New Jersey, line for Democrats.
[00:08:22]  Go ahead, Mitchell.
[00:08:25]  Good morning.
[00:08:27]  My issues going into the midterms.
[00:08:30]  Well, my first issue is healthcare.
[00:08:33]  The Trump administration, through their big beautiful bill, has really decimated, and they will be decimating the healthcare system.
[00:08:43]  There are enormous cuts going on in Medicaid, almost a trillion dollars.
[00:08:49]  The spending bill triggers a half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, not Medicaid, Medicare.
[00:08:58]  A lot of people don't realize that because of the pay goal laws that we have in this country.
[00:09:04]  He's not funded an increase in the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
[00:09:11]  So people are going to get knocked off with that.
[00:09:13]  And it's really just a complete decimation of the U.S. health care system, which is really our biggest driver of debt in this country.
[00:09:23]  And to pretend that he's created something is really laughable.
[00:09:30]  My other issue, I think, would be the big issue, actually, is what's going on with immigration.
[00:09:39]  Closing the borders is one thing.
[00:09:41]  Trying to round up every single person who is undocumented in this country for decades is absurd.
[00:09:51]  It can't be done without massive civil rights abuses and without causing tremendous chaos and pain and actually an economic demise of this country too, because we do need immigrants.
[00:10:03]  So I would say those two issues are paramount in my mind.
[00:10:09]  And this is not to say that, you know, the Democrat alternative I'm satisfied with all the time, but this is just, it's got to stop.
[00:10:20]  And we've got to wake up and try to have something more reasonable and more focused on what's really going on in this country.
[00:10:30]  And those are my issues that are moving me.
[00:10:33]  Okay, and Colorado Independent Line, you're on the air.
[00:10:37]  Good morning.
[00:10:38]  Yes.
[00:10:40]  I'm calling the top issue I'm wondering about right now is the casualties in reference to this conflict or war that's going on in the Middle East.
[00:10:56]  I saw on DW News that the