CSPAN - Washington Journal 03/20/2026
Aired: 2026-03-20
Duration: 03:00:48


=== Pentagon Funding Chaos (15:28) ===

[00:00:00]  Robertson will talk about the impact of the partial government shutdown on air travel and airport personnel.
[00:00:05]  And then Congressman Mike Haradopoulos on the U.S.-Israeli combat operations against Iran, Department of Homeland Security funding, and Congressional News of the Day.
[00:00:15]  Also, author and journalist Human Majd discusses U.S.-Israeli combat operations and President Trump's desire to see regime change in Iran.
[00:00:24]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal is next.
[00:00:26]  Join the conversation.
[00:00:38]  This is Washington Journal for Friday, March 20th, day 21 of the war in Iran.
[00:00:44]  U.S. and Israeli forces continued their air assault on that country.
[00:00:49]  Iran and Israel exchanged strikes overnight.
[00:00:52]  And here in the U.S., the Pentagon has asked for an additional $200 billion to fund the war.
[00:00:58]  This morning, we want to hear from you.
[00:01:01]  Do you support or oppose the $200 billion funding request for the Pentagon to support the war in Iran?
[00:01:10]  Here's how you join in on the conversation.
[00:01:12]  Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000.
[00:01:18]  Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001.
[00:01:24]  Independents, your line is 202-748-8002.
[00:01:29]  And our current and former military can call in on 202-748-8003.
[00:01:37]  You can also reach us by text message at the same number, 202-748-8003.
[00:01:44]  Include your first name, city, and state.
[00:01:47]  You can also reach us on Facebook at facebook.com forward slash C-SPAN or on X at the handle C-SPANWJ.
[00:01:57]  We start this morning with the Pentagon.
[00:01:58]  The Pentagon has requested $200 billion of an additional funding to fund the war in Iran to the White House.
[00:02:05]  It's unclear when that will go to lawmakers, but last week, officials told lawmakers that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion to fund.
[00:02:17]  Now, in a Washington Post article that broke the news of that $200 billion figure, the title there is Pentagon Seeks More Than $200 billion in a budget request for Iran War.
[00:02:29]  It says that that number would far surpass the cost of the administration's massive airstrike campaign to date and instead seek to urgently increase production of critical weaponry expended as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck thousands of targets over the past three weeks, according to people familiar with that matter who confirm that the Department, that the Defense Department is seeking packages of that size.
[00:02:54]  They go on to say that it remains unclear how much the White House will ultimately ask congressional lawmakers to approve.
[00:03:00]  Some White House officials do not think the Pentagon's request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress, the senior administration official said.
[00:03:08]  The Pentagon has floated several different proposed funding requests over the past two weeks, according to the official and three other people familiar with the matter.
[00:03:16]  Yesterday, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about the figure.
[00:03:22]  Take a listen to his answer.
[00:03:24]  As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously.
[00:03:29]  It takes money to kill bad guys.
[00:03:33]  So we're going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is, everything's refilled, and not just refilled, but above and beyond.
[00:03:48]  I mean, President Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military in his first term.
[00:03:51]  Didn't think he'd use it as dynamically in his second, but he had.
[00:03:54]  So thank goodness he did that.
[00:03:56]  And an investment like this is meant to say, hey, we'll replace anything that was spent.
[00:04:00]  And now that we're reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom and cutting deals like our great deputy secretaries here is doing, long lead times on exquisite munitions.
[00:04:09]  We're going to be refilled faster than anyone imagined.
[00:04:13]  And I think, you know, we're also still dealing with the environment that Joe Biden created, which was depleting those stockholds and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine.
[00:04:25]  Which is when you, every time we reach back and look at any sort of a challenge we have, it goes back to, well, send it to Ukraine.
[00:04:32]  Ultimately, we think this should be these munitions are better spent in our own interests at this point.
[00:04:38]  And this kind of funding bill is going to ensure that we're properly funded going forward.
[00:04:43]  So that was Defense Secretary Pete Heckseth talking about that $200 billion figure.
[00:04:48]  Now that figure landed with a bit of surprise on Capitol Hill.
[00:04:53]  I turn now to a political article.
[00:04:55]  The headline is, Republicans balk at going it alone on Iran war funding.
[00:05:00]  Key lawmakers doubt budget reconciliation is a viable path for a $200 billion Pentagon infusion.
[00:05:07]  From Politico, it says that congressional Republicans are confronting serious doubts.
[00:05:11]  They can pass Iran war funding on their own, especially as a potential price tag balloons into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
[00:05:19]  The alternative, relying on a handful of Democrats to push it through the Senate, doesn't look any more likely as Middle East hostilities expand, energy prices rise, and more Democratic lawmakers dig in against an unpopular war.
[00:05:32]  I'll read a quote from Roger Wicker.
[00:05:34]  It says, it's such a contortion to make things fit in reconciliation.
[00:05:38]  There's probably a preference for regular order, Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker said in an interview.
[00:05:45]  Now, of course, Democrats were pretty critical of that number on Capitol Hill yesterday.
[00:05:50]  I'll read you some tweets from Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester.
[00:05:54]  It says, Pete Hegseth just asked Congress for $200 billion for their vague and reckless war in Iran.
[00:06:01]  For context, that could pay every dollar of every Delaware's health care bill for 20 years.
[00:06:06]  It's a massive investment, and they still can't say how that would make us safer.
[00:06:12]  Another Democrat, Republican Jim McGovern, says, in just 19 days, Trump has already wasted $25 billion on his reckless war of choice with Iran.
[00:06:22]  That's enough to fund the State Department for half a year.
[00:06:25]  He chooses bombs over diplomacy, disgusting, and just plain stupid.
[00:06:30]  Yesterday on the Senate floor, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer talked about that figure, basically being incredibly critical of it.
[00:06:39]  Take a listen.
[00:06:40]  Donald Trump promised an easy and quick war with Iran.
[00:06:46]  He promised overwhelming victory.
[00:06:49]  Three weeks later in Iran, just the opposite of what Trump promised is happening.
[00:06:56]  Last night, a stunning report in the Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon has reportedly discussed with the White House requesting $200 billion, $200 billion from Congress to bankroll Donald Trump's war with Iran.
[00:07:15]  $200 billion so Donald Trump can go to war with Iran is preposterous, unacceptable.
[00:07:22]  Even a fraction of that is unacceptable for a war without a plan, without a goal, without the support of the American people.
[00:07:32]  Let's be very clear.
[00:07:34]  If Trump wants $200 billion, that means he believes we might be in a war with Iran for a very, very long time.
[00:07:44]  $200 billion is more than what we spent even at the height of the war in Iraq.
[00:07:50]  It's more than we have spent altogether in Ukraine.
[00:07:55]  It's an indefensible number.
[00:07:58]  One of the most wasteful and unthought-out budget requests I have ever heard in my time in the Senate.
[00:08:09]  For $200 billion, we could lower health care premiums for tens of millions of Americans.
[00:08:15]  For $200 billion, we could educate a generation and unleash the immense potential of our students.
[00:08:21]  For $200 billion, we could cut hunger in this country in half or more for many years.
[00:08:28]  For $200 billion, we could invest in jobs and science and manufacturing.
[00:08:33]  We could begin fixing our power grid.
[00:08:37]  But instead, instead, the Trump administration reportedly wants $200 billion to go to war with Iran.
[00:08:45]  It is unacceptable.
[00:08:46]  It is ridiculous.
[00:08:48]  It is beyond the pale.
[00:08:52]  Such a large amount of money for a war that no one knows the goal, no one knows the conclusion, no one knows the path that changes.
[00:09:02]  Trump changes all of these things, the goal, the path, the cost every day.
[00:09:09]  And he wants us to spend all this money?
[00:09:13]  That was some Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reacting to that $200 billion figure.
[00:09:19]  Let's turn to some of your phone calls.
[00:09:21]  Remember, the question is whether you would support or oppose that $200 billion figure that the Pentagon has requested of the White House for funding that would eventually theoretically go to lawmakers.
[00:09:33]  Bruce from Texas, a Democrat.
[00:09:36]  You're first, Bruce.
[00:09:37]  Good morning.
[00:09:38]  Good morning, ma'am.
[00:09:41]  Good morning, America.
[00:09:43]  Chaos, chaos, chaos.
[00:09:46]  Just to give you an idea, I go back a long time.
[00:09:51]  I'm a U.S. military veteran and things.
[00:09:55]  And I seen the deal during the Bush War, and the Secretary of Defense came on TV, said, well, this ain't about all.
[00:10:04]  This is about freedom.
[00:10:07]  Well, here we go.
[00:10:09]  Here we go.
[00:10:10]  Chaos, chaos, chaos.
[00:10:13]  So let me ask you, Bruce, would you support or do you support or oppose the $200 billion funding request from the Pentagon?
[00:10:21]  I support a strong military, but how we unleash that military.
[00:10:27]  Do I have any love for the pariah state of Iran?
[00:10:31]  I lived my whole lifetime with Iran bombing this and Iran bombing that and 9-11 and all the kinds of meat grinder of the life.
[00:10:43]  Okay, so, you know, if they approve this, I mean, here it is.
[00:10:52]  Okay, we've already approved a trillion dollars in the package.
[00:10:56]  Now we've got to have another $200 billion.
[00:10:59]  Now, if the U.S. military needs $200 billion, okay, for a strong military, because we need a strong military, that's a given, okay?
[00:11:09]  But for us to give an additional $200 billion so that Donald can put it in his pocket, I'm sorry.
[00:11:19]  I can't do that.
[00:11:20]  I mean, you might as well take your money and put it in a pile and burn it.
[00:11:24]  All right, Bruce, you mentioned a $1.5 trillion number.
[00:11:28]  I turn again to a political article.
[00:11:30]  It says Trump calls for a record $1.5 trillion defense budget, a 50% jump.
[00:11:36]  The president offered few details in his true social post other than to say the money would pay for his, quote, dream military.
[00:11:44]  If I scroll down, this was published January 1st of this year.
[00:11:47]  I mean, January 7th of this year.
[00:11:50]  And it says that President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared he would ask Congress for a $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, a massive $500 billion increase from this year's budget.
[00:12:02]  The huge boost likely reflects how expansive some of Trump's military ambitions are from the Golden Dome air defense effort to call to his call for a new battleship design.
[00:12:14]  Neither of those programs could be fully funded under current spending levels, just so people have some context of some requests that have come before.
[00:12:22]  Marilyn from Washington, a Republican.
[00:12:27]  You're next.
[00:12:28]  Good morning, Marilyn.
[00:12:29]  The question is: do you support or oppose the $200 billion funding request from the Pentagon to support the Iran war?
[00:12:38]  I support the funding of our current Iran war.
[00:12:42]  I support putting money into the Pentagon.
[00:12:45]  This is a dangerous world, and we need to be prepared for the future as well.
[00:12:51]  So, and what we need, we need a larger Navy, we need more investment in our Space Force capabilities, weapons.
[00:13:03]  So, everything costs money.
[00:13:04]  We can't get away from that.
[00:13:06]  And I think back to the 60s when we were developing our space program, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
[00:13:14]  And at that time, there was a lot of hue and cry from the Senate and the House of Representatives and the American public.
[00:13:22]  Why are we spending all this money?
[00:13:24]  This is a waste of money.
[00:13:26]  And so it seems to me that, yes, things are expensive.
[00:13:32]  The defense of our nation, using all of our armed forces of the Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, these things do cost money.
[00:13:43]  And I do support our war in Iran.
[00:13:46]  I would like it to continue probably till the end of May.
[00:13:50]  And those are my thoughts.
[00:13:52]  All right, Marilyn from Washington.
[00:13:55]  Cal from Oklahoma, Democrat.
[00:13:57]  Good morning, Cal.
[00:13:58]  Same question for you.
[00:14:00]  Do you support that $200 billion figure that the Pentagon may request from lawmakers to fund the Iran war?
[00:14:07]  I do not.
[00:14:08]  My background is 32 years of military service, retired as a colonel, and served three years at the Pentagon and three years overseas.
[00:14:18]  So I've had some first-hand experience and perhaps some of the spending activities that go on in the Puzzle Palace.
[00:14:27]  A couple three other points, if I may.
[00:14:30]  The Department of Defense has already received more than a trillion dollars for the current fiscal year, which is a very significant increase.
[00:14:41]  Second, we spend more as a country on defense than the next 20 countries combined.
[00:14:52]  So I don't believe money is the problem.
[00:14:58]  Policy is the problem.
[00:15:00]  This was a war triggered by a president that gives me great pause in many areas and subjects, but this one especially.
[00:15:10]  He also is a man who's never worn the uniform a day in his life.
[00:15:17]  So those factors tell me that this was ill thought out, and now we're just adding to it if the Congress rolls over and just provides more money.

=== Policy Over Money (16:23) ===

[00:15:28]  It's a mistake, and I hope Cooler Heads will prevail.
[00:15:33]  All right, that was Cal from Oklahoma.
[00:15:34]  I want to turn now to a Guardian article.
[00:15:38]  It says, the headline here is: the war on Iran costs the U.S. $12.7 billion by day.
[00:15:44]  Six, here's how it's been spent in charts.
[00:15:47]  Now, the total is likely to exceed $18 billion in counting.
[00:15:51]  Where are Americans' war dollars going?
[00:15:53]  Where are America's war dollars going in a war that was never declared in the first place?
[00:16:00]  Now, if you scroll a bit, bear with me here.
[00:16:04]  It has some interesting graphics on it.
[00:16:07]  It says on February the 28th at 1:15 a.m., the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury the same day a Tomahawk missile hit the Shiraj Taipei Elementary School, killing 175 people.
[00:16:20]  If you just keep scrolling, the graphics come up.
[00:16:23]  A single Tomahawk missile costs about $3.5 million.
[00:16:28]  If you keep scrolling, six days into the war, the U.S. has used over 300 Tomahawk missiles, according to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
[00:16:37]  Total cost $1.2 billion.
[00:16:41]  So, here is a good article that gives a visual description of how some of that money is being used.
[00:16:47]  Of course, as we know that they are requesting an additional $200 billion, perhaps.
[00:16:53]  Hamilton from Pennsylvania, Independent.
[00:16:55]  You are next.
[00:16:56]  Good morning, Hamilton.
[00:16:58]  Hey, good morning.
[00:17:00]  My pleasure to speak to a beautiful Jazz and American people again this morning.
[00:17:05]  Hey, $200 billion and a super absorbing amount that the American people are going to have to pay.
[00:17:16]  He didn't, Mr. Trump didn't go before the American people and asked them about this war just like he didn't ask them about if they wanted to be tariffs.
[00:17:26]  It's like he's using the American people to fund his projects without asking.
[00:17:34]  And I feel that that is kind of out of the way that it should work.
[00:17:39]  It should be that the American people who you are asking to fund you, you should ask them about their opinion.
[00:17:46]  That's just my thought on it.
[00:17:48]  Maybe somebody has another, but hey, all the best to everybody.
[00:17:52]  Hamilton from Pennsylvania.
[00:17:54]  Jerry from Maine, a Republican.
[00:17:57]  You are next.
[00:17:58]  Good morning, Jerry.
[00:18:00]  Good morning.
[00:18:00]  How are you doing?
[00:18:01]  I'm doing well.
[00:18:02]  How are you?
[00:18:03]  I'm great.
[00:18:04]  Thank you.
[00:18:05]  I think the Democrats seem to forget that these people are hell-bent on destroying Israel.
[00:18:12]  They call them the devil, I believe, and they call America the Satan.
[00:18:17]  And every morning they get up for a forced prayer and buzzers and whatever, put the carpet down, and they pray for the death of Israel, the destruction, and death of America.
[00:18:32]  So these people have been around.
[00:18:33]  They've been a problem for a long time.
[00:18:36]  And we just can't allow it to happen.
[00:18:39]  And I don't know why the Democrats don't understand it, but they're hell-bent on destroying America.
[00:18:45]  Obama has spent billions giving Iraq these weapons, the money for the weapons, and so has Biden.
[00:18:55]  Biden has spent billions freeing up money for Iraq, and they basically just built tunnels with it and nuclear weapons.
[00:19:04]  And I like to ask my Democrat friends, what would happen if they detonated nuclear dirty bomb, just one, somewhere in the country.
[00:19:14]  And I know it's not going to be more than one, but they would detonate bombs.
[00:19:18]  And what would happen from that nuclear fallout?
[00:19:21]  We have to take care of these.
[00:19:23]  And I wish my Democrat friends would stop allowing legals to come in.
[00:19:28]  We have to clean up their mess, the voting problem.
[00:19:32]  And it's just a matter of cleaning up their mess.
[00:19:35]  And I, just the way it has to be.
[00:19:37]  And I just wish it, I wish they would come and see the light and the truth of what's going on in the world.
[00:19:43]  Thank you.
[00:19:45]  That was Jerry from Maine.
[00:19:46]  Sandra from Brooklyn, New York, a Democrat.
[00:19:49]  Good morning, Sandra.
[00:19:51]  Yes, good morning.
[00:19:52]  How are you?
[00:19:53]  I'm doing well.
[00:19:54]  So let me ask you the question: Do you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion budget request for Democrats?
[00:20:00]  I oppose it.
[00:20:01]  Okay.
[00:20:01]  I oppose it very much so.
[00:20:03]  You know, they're spending, according to them, $1 billion a day.
[00:20:09]  I mean, I'm surprised nobody has Corporate audit for that kind of money.
[00:20:15]  And now they want an additional $200 billion.
[00:20:20]  We would not be in this position right now if Trump had done what he's supposed to do, which was go to Congress.
[00:20:29]  Not only that, when you're negotiating with someone, and I think they were negotiating with Iran, what did Israel do?
[00:20:36]  What did they do?
[00:20:38]  They bombed while we were in negotiation.
[00:20:41]  That's what they do.
[00:20:43]  Well, those strikes were U.S. and Israel joint together.
[00:20:49]  So they struck at the same time, basically.
[00:20:51]  But keep going.
[00:20:53]  Can you say that again, please?
[00:20:55]  I said those strikes, you're talking about the latest negotiations and then the strikes in February?
[00:21:01]  Yes.
[00:21:02]  Yeah, those were U.S. and Israel joint military campaigns.
[00:21:05]  No, no, but what I'm saying is at the point of time when they were negotiating, Israel did the first strike.
[00:21:12]  And then, according to them, now, then the United States struck behind them.
[00:21:18]  So that's the whole thing.
[00:21:20]  Why would Israel strike?
[00:21:21]  But they were in agreement to make those strikes.
[00:21:24]  It was a U.S. and Israel joint campaign.
[00:21:27]  I do understand what you're saying.
[00:21:28]  I'm just saying, just for clarity's sake, it was a U.S. and Israel joint campaign to strike at the same time.
[00:21:33]  And to get across this.
[00:21:35]  According to what they said, the United States said, they didn't know that Israel was going to strike at that particular time.
[00:21:42]  Are you talking about the strike on the oil fields?
[00:21:44]  Because that is what the president said over the last two days is that he didn't know that Israel were going to strike the Iranian oil fields, which people have questioned, of course.
[00:21:56]  But the initial strikes in February, those were a U.S. and Israel joint-led campaign, and they continue to be.
[00:22:03]  You know what?
[00:22:04]  Then what they need to do is clarify, because according to what I heard, it was Israel that did the striking, and the United States didn't know they were going to strike at that particular time.
[00:22:16]  And so, therefore, whatever the case may be, the money that they're talking about, no.
[00:22:23]  I don't think it should be funded, and I believe that they really should investigate and audit why are we putting up $1 billion a day.
[00:22:32]  All right, Sandra from New York.
[00:22:34]  Avery from Atlanta, Georgia, an independent.
[00:22:37]  You're next.
[00:22:38]  Good morning, Avery.
[00:22:40]  Good morning.
[00:22:41]  All right.
[00:22:42]  Do you need me to repeat the question or you got it?
[00:22:45]  I oppose.
[00:22:46]  Okay.
[00:22:46]  I want you to look up how much money is spent on the military compared to how much is spent on disability research.
[00:22:54]  No more should be spent on the military than is spent on disability research.
[00:23:02]  Avery from Atlanta, Georgia.
[00:23:04]  Bradley from Clear Fork, West Virginia, a Republican.
[00:23:09]  Good morning, Bradley.
[00:23:11]  Good morning.
[00:23:12]  Good morning.
[00:23:14]  I am a Vietnam veteran, and it really galls me when I hear a previous military person from Washington jack his jaws, run his mouth on that they should not be in this war.
[00:23:29]  This war should be supported.
[00:23:30]  He needs to wake up.
[00:23:32]  He probably pulled duty in Hawaii.
[00:23:34]  That just galls me.
[00:23:35]  You know, I'm a Vietnam veteran.
[00:23:37]  You know, we have to support America.
[00:23:40]  If they had a bomb that would reach here and it would hit in Washington, I'm sure he would change his mind real quick.
[00:23:48]  You know, you spend all this money going over.
[00:23:50]  Look what they're getting, all these artillery places and all these places are blowing up the boats, the ships, and everything else.
[00:23:58]  You think that they're building theirself up to be a pretty boy?
[00:24:02]  They're building theirself up to destroy Israel and America.
[00:24:06]  Now, I have a second thing.
[00:24:09]  I got a crow to pick with you.
[00:24:10]  About a month ago or more, and I hope you don't cut me off.
[00:24:15]  I called in on the deal of Biden supporting the border runners to go through the VA.
[00:24:22]  You jerk up a newspaper, and it's a two-year process, and tell me that the newspaper says that Biden did not do this.
[00:24:31]  I talked to a gentleman in D.C. that was a veterans, Vietnam Veterans Organization secretary, and he told me that definitely, and I believe him before I believe those Democrat newspapers that you got, that he was trying to run the Border Runners through the Veterans Administration, and you veterans cannot even get care or help.
[00:24:54]  You know, it's a shame that.
[00:24:56]  Can you tell me, can you respond?
[00:24:58]  Can you, sorry, not to interrupt you, can you just remind me exactly what you're talking about?
[00:25:04]  Biden, back before the election, I heard it on TV, was going to run the Border Runners, the people coming in here illegal, through the Veterans Administration for medical treatment.
[00:25:17]  You reach down after I talk, and I couldn't come back on you, and you pull up a newspaper from a two-year article, two years, and tell me that the paper there.
[00:25:28]  All right, so I'm just going to Google again.
[00:25:31]  You say it's Biden Border Runners VA.
[00:25:35]  Is that what the I'm sorry?
[00:25:38]  I believe the Vietnam Veterans Organization before I believe that newspaper.
[00:25:44]  Okay.
[00:25:44]  This is fake.
[00:25:45]  Well, I can have my edit, I mean, my producers in the back go look for it.
[00:25:50]  It seems like something that they may be able to look a little bit more deeply in the back than I can up here.
[00:25:57]  But I will go look for it.
[00:25:58]  And if we find a good article, I will certainly read it on here.
[00:26:02]  All right.
[00:26:02]  Thank you, Bradley.
[00:26:04]  Anthony from Dallas, Texas, a Democrat.
[00:26:06]  You're next.
[00:26:08]  Yeah, good morning.
[00:26:09]  Good morning.
[00:26:12]  The Congress really needs to reject any request from the Pentagon for any further financing of this war.
[00:26:23]  It's an illegal war in the first place.
[00:26:24]  They didn't even ask permission to conduct the war, to start the war, and now they're asking for more money for the war.
[00:26:32]  That doesn't even make sense.
[00:26:33]  Also, we need to pay attention to, like a little more thoroughly, pay attention to what's happening in the Iran war.
[00:26:40]  Israel is bombing hospitals, and the hospitals have been put on stand on pause because they're afraid they're going to get bombed, get hit by drone strikes and missile strikes.
[00:26:53]  Yeah, so I mean, yeah, this is a terrible war.
[00:26:56]  I don't know if you all actually showed the Marine getting thrown out of, you probably did show that on C-SPAN, the Marine getting thrown out of the Senate hearing where he was saying no more wars.
[00:27:07]  We don't want to fight any wars for Israel.
[00:27:10]  This war is basically for Israel.
[00:27:11]  I remember Israel.
[00:27:13]  All right, Anthony, I think we get your point there.
[00:27:16]  Jim from Hudson, Florida, Republican.
[00:27:20]  You're next.
[00:27:20]  Good morning, Jim.
[00:27:22]  Good morning.
[00:27:23]  I have a couple of things I'd like to say.
[00:27:25]  First of all, we have countries who don't like us, like China, Russia.
[00:27:29]  Can I just ask you at the top of your comments?
[00:27:31]  I'll let you continue.
[00:27:31]  But do you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion funding request for the war?
[00:27:37]  I support it from the standpoint of that we need to keep our armed forces strong, okay?
[00:27:43]  Okay.
[00:27:45]  But like I say, China and Russia and North Korea don't like us, but they don't like us for economic reasons.
[00:27:52]  We can work that out.
[00:27:54]  But Iran hates us from a religious standpoint.
[00:27:57]  So if you don't believe that they can develop a bomb to send it over here, then we're doing something foolish.
[00:28:05]  But if you do believe that they could do that, then this is a worthwhile adventure trying to stop them because every woman in the United States could think about how these women over there feel and how they have to live.
[00:28:20]  One woman, she showed her something on her wrist a little bit and they arrested her.
[00:28:26]  How would any woman in the United States like to live like that?
[00:28:30]  So whatever we do to prevent them from even ever coming over here and occupying us in any way or having any influence over what we do, every woman in the United States should say, God, whatever money they need, please put it to use and stop what they're doing.
[00:28:48]  And I appreciate you taking my call.
[00:28:50]  All right.
[00:28:51]  Hunting from Florida.
[00:28:52]  Laura from Massachusetts, an independent.
[00:28:54]  You are next.
[00:28:55]  Good morning, Laura.
[00:28:56]  Hi, good morning.
[00:28:58]  Well, to answer your question, I absolutely oppose this war.
[00:29:03]  I think it's just absolutely horrific what's going on in the world right now.
[00:29:10]  We have a narcissist president and his buddy in Israel that think they're going to blow everybody up and they're going to have some kind of peace in the Middle East.
[00:29:19]  It doesn't work that way.
[00:29:21]  There's no negotiations.
[00:29:23]  They've gotten rid of all their diplomats.
[00:29:25]  They call themselves, what, the War Defense Department now or something.
[00:29:29]  Like, they don't want peace.
[00:29:31]  They just want to keep making, you know, making billions of dollars off the war industry, which is, you know, I believe Trump's sons are heavily invested in drones.
[00:29:44]  You know, I mean, people are making money off of this.
[00:29:46]  Money off of blowing up children, you know, little babies.
[00:29:50]  They did this in Gaza.
[00:29:52]  They killed like 60,000 people, but that wasn't enough.
[00:29:56]  And now they're going all over the place, and now they're going to Iran, which is such an extremely large country.
[00:30:02]  Such, you know, most of the population is very educated.
[00:30:06]  They're smart people.
[00:30:07]  We're not getting half the proper news that we should be getting on, you know, from the corporate media.
[00:30:15]  And the whole thing is just ugly.
[00:30:17]  You know, I mean, Netanyahu, he wants a war.
[00:30:21]  He wants to go bomb everybody in the Middle East.
[00:30:23]  Well, let him do it on his own.
[00:30:25]  He doesn't need to pull our troops in there.
[00:30:27]  He doesn't need any more of our money.
[00:30:29]  He doesn't need any more of our arms.
[00:30:32]  All right, Laura.
[00:30:34]  I think we get your point there.
[00:30:35]  Thank you for calling in.
[00:30:37]  Herbert from Georgia, a Democrat.
[00:30:40]  You're next.
[00:30:41]  Good morning, Herbert.
[00:30:44]  I agree with the same caller.
[00:30:46]  Metanahu is racist.
[00:30:49]  He's racist, and he's been hating Iran for the last 40 years.
[00:30:53]  He's racist against the Palestinians.
[00:30:55]  He's racist against Muslims.
[00:30:58]  Now, have you had a person who is a leader?
[00:31:04]  If you had a leader that is congenial, who's a kind person, just like Nelson Mandela, who would run Israel, it'd be perfect.
[00:31:14]  You got to remember now.
[00:31:16]  The first king was Saul in Jerusalem, and God had to remove him because of his evil ways.
[00:31:22]  Metanahu ain't no good.
[00:31:25]  I mean, look at it.
[00:31:26]  I understand racism because I'm a black person.
[00:31:29]  You could tell he hates those Palestinians.
[00:31:33]  Look what he did to God.
[00:31:34]  He ain't got no heart.
[00:31:35]  They got no spiritual heart at all.
[00:31:39]  And Trump following him and everything else.
[00:31:43]  And I believe.
[00:31:44]  And see, this war is spiritual.
[00:31:48]  And if people don't understand this war, it's spiritual.

=== Death To America (15:10) ===

[00:31:51]  You better believe it's a whole different thing now.
[00:31:54]  It's a whole different ballgame.
[00:31:57]  All right, Herbert.
[00:31:58]  I think we take your point there.
[00:31:59]  Chuck from Texas, calling in on the former military line.
[00:32:05]  Good morning, Chuck.
[00:32:07]  Hi, good morning, ma'am.
[00:32:09]  It's very good to get in there to talk to you.
[00:32:12]  I'm retired military, and I agree with the caller, Colonel Scott from Oklahoma.
[00:32:19]  He had a very good point.
[00:32:21]  And thank you, Colonel, for your military service.
[00:32:26]  And there was another military guy that called in shortly after him from West Virginia, and he was so rude with his comments.
[00:32:36]  And that's just a little bit too emotional for me.
[00:32:41]  You know, calm down, you know.
[00:32:43]  But anyway, this war is really out of line.
[00:32:51]  I'm former military.
[00:32:52]  War is no joke.
[00:32:55]  And excuse me, I'm a little bit nervous, but I don't support this.
[00:33:06]  And the last time I checked, you know, using a bomb could be anybody.
[00:33:13]  Timothy McVeigh wasn't from Iran, you know, and why blame Iranian, you know, for trying to protect themselves.
[00:33:27]  The United States never has to go after somebody.
[00:33:32]  We could protect ourselves.
[00:33:35]  And everybody, nobody else in the entire world is worried about Iran getting a bomb except the United States and Israel.
[00:33:45]  Where's everybody else?
[00:33:46]  How come everybody else isn't scared?
[00:33:49]  Just like two nations.
[00:33:51]  I mean, come on.
[00:33:54]  Okay, Chuck from Texas.
[00:33:56]  Holly from Washington, D.C., an independent.
[00:34:00]  You are next.
[00:34:00]  Good morning, Holling.
[00:34:01]  Do you support or oppose the $200 billion funding request from the Pentagon for the Iran war?
[00:34:09]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:34:11]  I oppose it.
[00:34:13]  And I'm calling in because I wanted to go back to things from a couple days ago.
[00:34:20]  Whoever was the host repeated an inaccuracy, a piece of misinformation that was said a few days before that by your guest, James Jacobi, and that is that Iran had threatened to wiel off the map.
[00:34:34]  This is oftentimes misquoted from, I believe, from Ahmed Dinejad.
[00:34:42]  And what he actually said was that just as the Soviet Union had ceased to exist, which it did, that in the future Israel would cease to exist.
[00:34:55]  And so that's not a destruction of the people.
[00:34:58]  The Russians still exist.
[00:34:59]  All those countries that compose the Soviet Union still exist.
[00:35:03]  Just that political entity doesn't exist.
[00:35:06]  Now, Israel, by definition, is a Jewish supremacist state.
[00:35:11]  And if you realize that there are people who are asking for a single democratic state where Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights, you have to understand that according to the Zionist definition, that would constitute the end of Israel as they see it.
[00:35:34]  That's what I wanted to say.
[00:35:35]  Thank you.
[00:35:37]  Calling from Washington, D.C. George from Ohio, a Republican.
[00:35:41]  Your next good morning, George, do you support or oppose the $200 billion funding request to fund the war in Iran?
[00:35:49]  I do oppose it.
[00:35:52]  It's very confusing.
[00:35:53]  I thought that the president was running to end wars, and he spent a lot of time bragging about all the wars that he's ended.
[00:36:03]  I don't understand why we are there or what got us into this war.
[00:36:13]  For a country, the blue and white state that we're not allowed to talk about, we're not even allowed to criticize them.
[00:36:20]  They get free health care, they get free education, but we get to pay for it.
[00:36:25]  The second point is: why are we calling people who disagree with the war, why are we calling them weak?
[00:36:34]  That doesn't make any, that doesn't make much sense to me.
[00:36:37]  And the third and final point is: I was watching this the Japanese prime minister's visit yesterday, and I thought it was bizarre that Miriam Adelson was there.
[00:36:54]  Why does that country get unrestricted access to the White House?
[00:37:00]  And those are my points.
[00:37:04]  George from Ohio.
[00:37:06]  I want to take a listen to President Trump yesterday, who he was also asked about the $200 billion funding question, but he was also asked about whether or not he would put troops on the ground in Iran.
[00:37:19]  Take a listen here.
[00:37:21]  Do you intend to lift sanctions on Iranian oil, and do you intend to potentially put U.S. troops or more troops in the region?
[00:37:28]  No, I'm not putting troops anywhere.
[00:37:32]  If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you.
[00:37:34]  But I'm not putting troops.
[00:37:36]  And we will do whatever is necessary to keep the price as low.
[00:37:41]  I actually thought when I did this, look, the Dow just hit 50,000 a couple of weeks ago.
[00:37:47]  They said that couldn't happen for four years.
[00:37:49]  It wouldn't happen in my term.
[00:37:51]  It's such an outrageous thing because I said it would happen.
[00:37:54]  I didn't know it was going to happen that fast, but it just hit 50,000.
[00:37:58]  And we did that in one year, not four.
[00:38:01]  SP had just hit 7,000.
[00:38:04]  They said that was even more impossible than the Dow hitting 50.
[00:38:08]  And we did that in one year.
[00:38:09]  So it was all done.
[00:38:10]  Everything was going great.
[00:38:12]  The economy was great.
[00:38:13]  Oil prices were very low.
[00:38:15]  Gasoline was dropping to, I mean, we had $1.99, $1.85.
[00:38:20]  We had great everything.
[00:38:22]  And I saw what was happening in Iran, and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it.
[00:38:29]  And I actually thought the numbers would be worse.
[00:38:31]  I thought that it would go up more than it did.
[00:38:35]  But we're doing this excursion, and when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world.
[00:38:40]  And the Prime Minister agrees with me on this.
[00:38:43]  She considers it to be terrible what Iran did.
[00:38:45]  I think every country does, just about every country does.
[00:38:48]  Iran is a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world.
[00:38:52]  And everybody agrees with me.
[00:38:54]  I think virtually every country agrees with me on that.
[00:38:58]  So I wanted to put out that fire.
[00:39:01]  And I said, you know, if we do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit.
[00:39:06]  I thought it would be worse, much worse, actually.
[00:39:09]  I thought there was a chance it could be much worse.
[00:39:11]  It's not bad.
[00:39:12]  And it's going to be over with pretty soon.
[00:39:13]  We've obliterated their Navy.
[00:39:15]  We've obliterated their just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership.
[00:39:21]  Their Navy's gone, their Air Force is gone, their anti-aircraft equipment is gone.
[00:39:25]  We're flying wherever we want, Pete.
[00:39:28]  We have nobody even shooting at us.
[00:39:31]  They have, I mean, and as you know, their leadership is gone.
[00:39:36]  Their leaders are gone.
[00:39:38]  They pick new leaders, they're gone.
[00:39:40]  They pick new leaders, they're gone.
[00:39:42]  And now they're looking for new leaders again.
[00:39:44]  So there was President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office talking about whether or not he would put boots on the ground.
[00:39:49]  He said he's not considering it, but he wouldn't tell the press if he would.
[00:39:53]  And also talking about oil prices.
[00:39:55]  Our question this morning is whether or not you oppose a $200 billion funding request from the Pentagon to fund the Iran war.
[00:40:03]  Stephen from West Palm Beach, Florida, an independent.
[00:40:07]  Good morning.
[00:40:09]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:40:10]  I don't agree with the current approach to fund the Iraq war, but I do in other places such as Cuba.
[00:40:20]  I would love to see Cuba overturned, but from an ICE approach, you know, Isaac Hall approach, and I think that approach would be more appropriate to support the stability of the GOP's numbers and other areas.
[00:40:38]  I mean, I even talked to a young person and I said, you know, it's you registered selective service, and they don't even know what it is.
[00:40:46]  I said, it's a law.
[00:40:48]  And I said, the draft might come back.
[00:40:49]  Maybe even know what that was.
[00:40:50]  So I had to educate them.
[00:40:53]  It's a sad story.
[00:40:54]  I looked at, I'm registered since 18 and veteran, but it's sad to see this.
[00:41:03]  And if the draft comes back, these young people will be going.
[00:41:07]  And they don't realize what's going on.
[00:41:11]  And it's so important to get out there and vote this for the House and Senate elections.
[00:41:16]  So I just want to thank you for your service.
[00:41:18]  And, you know, everybody get out and vote for whomever it may be.
[00:41:24]  Thank you.
[00:41:26]  Stephen from West Palm Beach.
[00:41:28]  Kathleen from Williamsburg, Virginia, a Democrat.
[00:41:31]  Good morning, Kathleen.
[00:41:32]  Do you support or oppose the $200 billion budget request?
[00:41:37]  Because it has no strings attached.
[00:41:40]  They couldn't come to us and tell us about the war, but they want to take $200,000 with no strings attached.
[00:41:47]  $200 billion.
[00:41:48]  He's been talking about Biden and these planes full of cash and all this stuff.
[00:41:53]  I'd like to know the cost, how much we have given Israel.
[00:41:58]  You know, just how much have we given Israel?
[00:42:02]  And by the way, the Marines are already on the ground in Kirk Island.
[00:42:05]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:42:10]  I don't believe the Marines are already on the way.
[00:42:14]  I mean, excuse me, already on the ground in Carg Island.
[00:42:17]  Obviously, we know that there were some strikes in Carg Island, but there have been multiple reports about Marines heading towards that area.
[00:42:26]  Robert from Hampton, Georgia, calling on the former military line.
[00:42:31]  Good morning, Robert.
[00:42:33]  Yes, good morning.
[00:42:34]  Hi.
[00:42:35]  Yes, I oppose this.
[00:42:37]  The $200 billion, ACA for the people, that $200 billion could go with the ACA subsidies.
[00:42:45]  Okay.
[00:42:46]  Excuse me.
[00:42:47]  Also, all my actors and veterans know this.
[00:42:51]  We do not want to go to war.
[00:42:52]  We always train to be prepared to go to war.
[00:42:55]  Okay.
[00:42:56]  And also, too, a little history lesson for my MAGA people.
[00:43:00]  Two days, 1948, when we put the Jews in Israel.
[00:43:06]  Okay?
[00:43:06]  They've been in war ever since 1953, when the CIA and UK overthrew Iran.
[00:43:14]  Okay.
[00:43:15]  Now, death to America.
[00:43:18]  That means that a death to the American government, not the American people.
[00:43:24]  They love the American people.
[00:43:26]  Okay?
[00:43:26]  Now, take that, and then I leave that alone.
[00:43:31]  All right, Robert from Georgia.
[00:43:32]  Joe from Virginia, an independent.
[00:43:36]  Good morning, Joe.
[00:43:38]  Good morning, and thank you for having this show.
[00:43:40]  I really appreciate the non-biased news.
[00:43:44]  But anyway, yeah, I'm pretty much opposed to $200 billion, and there's a couple reasons.
[00:43:49]  One, you know, as we go, we're borrowing that money and just adding to the national debt that our kids are going to somehow somehow have to pay that back.
[00:44:00]  They're going to suffer for our thriftiness.
[00:44:03]  And we just kind of keep going into debt for stuff that we shouldn't even be involved in.
[00:44:09]  And this is like, really?
[00:44:13]  And, you know, I was listening to Trump talk yesterday about how everybody was supporting the war and the Dow had hit 50 and all this stuff.
[00:44:24]  And, you know, I kind of watch that every day, and it's been plummeting for a week now.
[00:44:28]  So I don't know what he's talking about.
[00:44:30]  But anyway, everybody should get out and vote and certainly vote in the primaries.
[00:44:35]  Thanks for taking my call.
[00:44:36]  Joe from Virginia.
[00:44:38]  Jeffrey from Washington, D.C., an independent.
[00:44:41]  Good morning, Jeffrey.
[00:44:43]  Good morning.
[00:44:44]  I do not support the $200 million funding.
[00:44:48]  We should not, Congress, I think some Republicans are going to jump on this bandwagon and will not give him a single penny for the war or the Department of the War, the $51.5 trillion.
[00:45:06]  And you know what?
[00:45:06]  The president doesn't realize this, but he got caught up in his own game, like how he restricted funding for lunches for the school children, for the poor and needy, cutting out the health care for millions of people.
[00:45:20]  Now he doesn't, he realizes that, he doesn't realize that he has to come back for funding.
[00:45:26]  And I do not support it.
[00:45:28]  The Democrats are on a surge.
[00:45:32]  And I think if they get the House and the Senate, it's all over for Donald J. Trump.
[00:45:37]  That's my opinion.
[00:45:38]  Thank you.
[00:45:39]  All right, Jeffrey from Washington, D.C., Joyce from Texas, a Republican.
[00:45:42]  Good morning, Joyce.
[00:45:45]  First, let me say, I'm a 93-year-old black American, not African American.
[00:45:52]  And for this situation, I'm for what's right.
[00:45:56]  And this person that was just on, he said it'll be over for Trump if Democrats get in.
[00:46:05]  I just would just say to America, and especially Democrats, get rid of your hatred.
[00:46:11]  I'm 93 years old, and I've never witnessed the hatred in this nation today that I'm witnessing today.
[00:46:18]  And most of it is a direct hatred of Donald John Trump.
[00:46:24]  Trump is not our problem.
[00:46:26]  We are our problem.
[00:46:27]  Let me tell you about the.
[00:46:29]  They want to kill us.
[00:46:31]  They have been saying death to the West for years, and they are saying it today.
[00:46:36]  And they are not saying death to Trump.
[00:46:40]  They are saying death to America.
[00:46:42]  And they will kill us.
[00:46:45]  They will kill our babies.
[00:46:46]  They don't care.
[00:46:47]  Well, let me ask you, Joyce.
[00:46:48]  So with that context in mind, do you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion budget request?
[00:46:55]  That know more than I know.
[00:46:57]  I don't know what's going on, a lot of what's going on.

=== Hatred Of The West (06:04) ===

[00:47:02]  I am in accord with people that know more than I know.
[00:47:07]  And see, and I don't have the hatred.
[00:47:09]  So this is where I am.
[00:47:10]  I guess you would say that I'm neutral.
[00:47:13]  I am for whatever is right for America.
[00:47:18]  And it's just too much hatred in America.
[00:47:21]  And let me say to the Democrats, there's only one Democrat today that's talking with common sense, and that's Don.
[00:47:30]  That's John Setterman.
[00:47:32]  And you, Democrats, you are isolating yourselves from him.
[00:47:36]  But listen to what he's saying.
[00:47:38]  He's making more sense than all of you Democrats put together.
[00:47:42]  Get rid of this hatred in America.
[00:47:45]  We are being destroyed.
[00:47:47]  We have all these illegals in here killing our children, raping our little children.
[00:47:52]  And we are here supporting the East.
[00:47:56]  Get rid of the hatred of Trump because everything is done to keep him from being president.
[00:48:01]  But I want to ask Democrats, who is the president today?
[00:48:04]  You even tried to kill him to keep him from being president.
[00:48:09]  You kept him off the ballot and all this foolishness.
[00:48:12]  But, and let me say again, I am a 93-year-old black senior citizen, and I deal with common sense.
[00:48:20]  And common sense tells me, get rid of this hatred.
[00:48:23]  All right, Joyce, I think we take your point there.
[00:48:26]  Thank you for calling in.
[00:48:27]  Constance from Tennessee, calling in on the former military line.
[00:48:32]  Good morning, Constance.
[00:48:34]  Grand Rising, thank you so much for having me on the show this morning.
[00:48:37]  All right, let me ask you, do you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion budget request for Iran?
[00:48:44]  I absolutely oppose it.
[00:48:45]  I think that it's actually insane to have this type of budget request on the table when we are in our own country struggling right now to afford the basic necessities.
[00:48:53]  We can't afford housing.
[00:48:55]  We can't afford gas.
[00:48:56]  We cannot afford food.
[00:48:57]  And I don't understand why our political leadership continues to take our tax dollars that we need at home to afford our own interests and our own livelihoods and keeps it overseas.
[00:49:07]  And it's crazy because we are the ones who are funding all of this because they're using taxpayer dollars to fund these crazy wars.
[00:49:13]  Let's not forget, Biden funded the war.
[00:49:15]  So you have had two presidents now coming in back to back, spending billions of dollars of war into war while we got starving kids right here in Tennessee.
[00:49:23]  While we got elderly people right now that can't afford their health care, while we got homeless people right now outside that cannot find affordable housing to live in.
[00:49:30]  We got working class homeless in America.
[00:49:32]  We are a developed country and yet we cannot address our homeless and housing crisis.
[00:49:36]  No, this is poor spending of our money.
[00:49:38]  There are better ways to spend tax dollars.
[00:49:39]  And I am tired as a former person who served in the Afghanistan war twice and went overseas and gave my life for this country to come home to a same country that will call me niggas, kill me in the streets and hang me, take my tax dollars, spend it on wars I do not support, nor want to be a part of, and then turn around and tell me to my face when I go to my local and state and federal government and say, hey, I can't afford my food.
[00:49:58]  Can you help with that?
[00:49:59]  And tell me that to my face.
[00:50:01]  They can do nothing about it while they waste my money overseas.
[00:50:04]  Appreciate your time.
[00:50:06]  Constance from Tennessee, calling on the foreign military line.
[00:50:09]  Mary from Michigan, an independent.
[00:50:12]  You're next.
[00:50:13]  Good morning, Mary.
[00:50:15]  Hi, Jasmine.
[00:50:16]  Good morning.
[00:50:18]  I'm a retired nurse from northern Michigan, and we've been dealing with an ice storm up here.
[00:50:25]  I haven't had the internet or power for four days.
[00:50:28]  So this is, I'm totally lost in what's going on in the world.
[00:50:34]  You know, it's such a shock not to have the power and the internet at the same time.
[00:50:39]  But being a retired nurse, I'm just horrified at how my tax paying dollars are going to bombing schools and everything else.
[00:50:52]  I had a teacher who was my history teacher, and he fought in World War II.
[00:51:00]  Him and his brother had fake birth certificates at 16 and 17, and they snuck into World War II and fought for two years.
[00:51:08]  And then he went back and fought in Korea.
[00:51:13]  And he used to laugh and say, this is what I'm going to say.
[00:51:17]  Said that he wished the Pentagon had to have a bake sale to pay for bombs because we were always having bake sales for new books is what he used to say.
[00:51:28]  And I can't believe, and I, about a month ago, I was thinking all these cuts to the VA, you know, nurses, psychologists, just the VA is being cut so much.
[00:51:40]  And I remember thinking, we don't have any more active wars.
[00:51:43]  We don't have any more whatever.
[00:51:46]  Eventually, wouldn't it be nice that we don't need the VA as much?
[00:51:50]  I mean, our Vietnam veterans...
[00:51:52]  So, Mary, let me ask you, with that context in mind, would you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion request for Iran and the war in Iran?
[00:52:04]  Oh, man, I pose it.
[00:52:06]  I just, you know, and it's kind of funny because we have like a no kings, whatever going on in the 28th.
[00:52:17]  And I've got a couple friends that were in my mom's book club, and I mean these ladies are in their 90s.
[00:52:24]  And they want a ride to the, and I think it's going to be an anti-war rally, but I remember going with my mother in the mid-60s in a little red wagon, and I just turned 66 on Monday in the middle of a nightstorm.
[00:52:41]  And we thank you.
[00:52:42]  I can't believe I made it.
[00:52:43]  But we lived in Flint, Michigan.
[00:52:47]  My dad was an auto worker.
[00:52:49]  And we went, she took us, three of us kids, in a little red wagon with her housewife girlfriends.
[00:52:58]  And we went to anti-war rallies because I had two uncles and or sorry, I had three uncles in Vietnam at the same time.

=== Air Traffic Control Issues (13:13) ===

[00:53:07]  And I didn't know it, but later in life, I ended up with a brother-in-law who was in Vietnam too.
[00:53:13]  And so I thought, if we come full circle, so I was saying to my sister, I wish I had that little red wagon to take my mom's pass, but to take these ladies, they want to go to this rally so bad, but they can't, you know, they can't drive.
[00:53:29]  Mary, can we take your point there, Joe?
[00:53:31]  Thank you for calling in.
[00:53:32]  Richard from Pennsylvania, a Republican.
[00:53:35]  Good morning, Richard.
[00:53:39]  Yes, I definitely oppose the $200 billion budget.
[00:53:44]  I've been a Republican for 60-some years.
[00:53:49]  I've been around.
[00:53:50]  I was in the Vietnam War.
[00:53:52]  I was through the Suez Canal three times.
[00:53:55]  I know the area well.
[00:53:57]  We were almost caught in the 1967 Six-Day War going through the canal.
[00:54:05]  This is a hotbed.
[00:54:07]  And to gang up against one another in that area and to become part of that is just disastrous for the United States.
[00:54:14]  I really feel, knowing the area, that this is all about oil.
[00:54:22]  It's really not so much about nuclear.
[00:54:24]  It's all about oil.
[00:54:25]  It's all about controlling oil.
[00:54:28]  President Trump is making a big mistake.
[00:54:30]  He thinks he can control the entire region.
[00:54:33]  He thinks he can control anything having to do with this side of the world, but he's going way too far.
[00:54:41]  There's a $1.5 trillion budget right now for defense.
[00:54:45]  If they can't handle it within $1.5 trillion, it's the largest it's ever been.
[00:54:50]  It's very, very well equipped.
[00:54:52]  And I think we certainly shouldn't be going on adventures or excursions, as he said.
[00:54:58]  And as I said, I've been over there.
[00:55:00]  I've been around for a long time.
[00:55:02]  I've seen what's going on.
[00:55:04]  This alliance with the right-wing part of Israel, and I'm for Israel.
[00:55:09]  The right-wing part of Israel is just very, very bad for the U.S. and bad for the world, too.
[00:55:16]  And we can see that some other countries in the Middle East that we now have a fairly good relationship with could easily go the other direction.
[00:55:24]  This is affecting the whole world, what's going on in that area.
[00:55:28]  And it just goes tit for tat back and forth.
[00:55:32]  Persia, Iran is not going to go away.
[00:55:38]  They are not going to be able to stand up militarily.
[00:55:40]  But on the other hand, this is a country with 90 million people, and it has a long, long history.
[00:55:46]  And by the way, it's not all radical.
[00:55:49]  Most people in Iran are very fearful about the war.
[00:55:54]  I know the area will.
[00:55:55]  So that's my comment.
[00:55:58]  All right, Richard from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Republican.
[00:56:01]  Faye from Missouri, an independent.
[00:56:05]  Good morning, Faye.
[00:56:07]  Hi, good morning, Chief Band.
[00:56:08]  Good morning.
[00:56:09]  I do oppose the war.
[00:56:12]  Every time Republicans are in control, this is just what they do.
[00:56:18]  They add on to the deficit every time.
[00:56:22]  Every time, leaving us with our grandchildren, our great-great-grandchildren, and our great-great-great-great-grandchildren with this deficit.
[00:56:33]  This is what's going to kill America, is our deficit.
[00:56:38]  It is.
[00:56:39]  It's going to kill our deficit.
[00:56:41]  The Republicans have never, ever balanced the deficit at all.
[00:56:47]  They talk a good talk, but they don't want it.
[00:56:50]  And I oppose this war very much so.
[00:56:53]  This is going to kill us.
[00:56:54]  We're going right down in a hellhole with this deficit.
[00:56:58]  And we better think about this.
[00:57:00]  This is serious stuff, y'all.
[00:57:02]  We are going to go right down in a hellhole.
[00:57:05]  I think we take your point there, Faye from Missouri.
[00:57:08]  DeAndre from Baltimore, Maryland, a Republican.
[00:57:13]  Good morning.
[00:57:14]  Do you oppose or support the $200 billion funding request from the Pentagon?
[00:57:19]  Good morning, Seasman.
[00:57:20]  I 100% oppose it.
[00:57:23]  I've opposed this entire thing from the beginning.
[00:57:27]  And since we have no reason to be at war with Iran, they've been a signatory to the non-nuclear proliferation treaty since 1967.
[00:57:35]  They abided by the statutes of the IAEA.
[00:57:38]  And, you know, they weren't making nukes.
[00:57:40]  They're not a threat to us.
[00:57:41]  Iranians are very, very cool people.
[00:57:44]  And there's a lot of misinformation out there.
[00:57:48]  And I think it's important for Americans to really stand up and oppose this because this isn't what we want.
[00:57:55]  Israel is over there.
[00:57:56]  It's becoming very a burden for us, in my opinion.
[00:58:00]  We just need to let them figure that out on their own.
[00:58:02]  I think it's time for us to pull out the Middle East and just make a deal.
[00:58:05]  Gas prices are going up.
[00:58:07]  Just make a deal with Iran.
[00:58:08]  Let's just make a deal.
[00:58:09]  We could be partners.
[00:58:10]  We could be allies.
[00:58:11]  But this is not going in the right direction.
[00:58:13]  And American soldiers should not be dying for Israel.
[00:58:16]  And Israel bombed USS Liberty on June 8th, 1967.
[00:58:20]  So that's one thing to think about.
[00:58:21]  Thank you.
[00:58:23]  All right, DeAndre from Maryland.
[00:58:25]  Now, I want to take a listen to yesterday when Republican, I mean, excuse me, when Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from California, asked Tulsi Gabbard, who is a director of the National Intelligence, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe about Iran's nuclear capabilities and how President Trump uses intelligent community assessments.
[00:58:43]  Take a listen here.
[00:58:44]  Director Gabbard, last year you testified that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
[00:58:49]  Do you stand by that statement?
[00:58:52]  Yes or no?
[00:58:54]  Context matters with that.
[00:58:56]  Iran had all of the time.
[00:58:58]  I reclaim my time.
[00:59:00]  Mr. Chairman, I reclaim my time.
[00:59:03]  It's an easy answer.
[00:59:05]  You either stand by what you said last year or not.
[00:59:07]  It is a serious question that requires the subject.
[00:59:10]  Director Gabbard, I reclaim my time.
[00:59:12]  I reclaim my time.
[00:59:16]  Did you, when President Trump was asked about your testimony, he said you were wrong.
[00:59:22]  Were you lying or not?
[00:59:26]  I stand by the intelligence community's complete assessment.
[00:59:29]  Director Ratcliffe, when it came to the director's testimony, she said that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon last spring in Congress.
[00:59:41]  And so the Supreme Leader has not authorized the nuclear weapons program.
[00:59:46]  Do you agree with what she said or not?
[00:59:49]  Yes or no?
[00:59:50]  The director's right here.
[00:59:51]  She can speak for herself.
[00:59:52]  Oh, so I thought this was an intelligence community briefing.
[00:59:59]  Let's move on.
[01:00:00]  Trump also said he didn't care what you thought or said.
[01:00:04]  Should he care about what you have to say when it comes to intelligence?
[01:00:09]  I continue to provide the President with the intelligence community's assessments on all matters.
[01:00:15]  So let me just kind of get this straight.
[01:00:18]  The Department, you said that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon last year.
[01:00:25]  President Trump said he didn't care what you thought, and you were wrong.
[01:00:30]  They engaged in Operation Midnight Hammer.
[01:00:33]  He then says it was obliterated.
[01:00:35]  We hear later reports that in open source reporting that it was only set back by a few months.
[01:00:43]  Then at the beginning of this war, he said that they were weeks away.
[01:00:48]  I just want to kind of get a sense of were they weeks away of achieving a nuclear weapon?
[01:00:56]  Yes or no?
[01:00:58]  Congressman, this is a serious matter, and you've made some very serious mischaracterizations.
[01:01:03]  Yes or no?
[01:01:04]  Were they weeks away?
[01:01:05]  Yes, there are no service to you and the American people to answer this question.
[01:01:08]  I'm claiming my time.
[01:01:12]  The American people need to know if this was an imminent threat or not.
[01:01:16]  If they're weeks away or not.
[01:01:18]  If they're months away or not.
[01:01:20]  None of this dodging.
[01:01:22]  Were they an imminent threat?
[01:01:25]  Yesterday, you said that only the president, only person who can determine what is an imminent threat is the president of the United States.
[01:01:36]  Do you stand by that statement?
[01:01:38]  Yes, I do.
[01:01:40]  Director Ratcliffe, do you agree with that assessment?
[01:01:44]  That the president is the only person that can determine if something is an imminent threat or not.
[01:01:50]  The president's commander-in-chief gets to make a decision about what's an imminent threat.
[01:01:54]  The intelligence community, well, the intelligence is not a good idea.
[01:01:56]  Reclaim my time, reclaim my time.
[01:01:58]  Intelligence community is my body of intelligence.
[01:02:02]  The reason why is that if the president can determine and ignore what you're doing, why do you guys even have a job?
[01:02:09]  Why do you even advise them?
[01:02:11]  So you're saying tomorrow the president of the United States can say China is an imminent threat.
[01:02:17]  And then he can take his own, no matter what the intelligence says, he can take his own action.
[01:02:22]  So that's what you're basically saying.
[01:02:25]  There was a hearing yesterday with some of the president's intelligence community and national security team before Congress there.
[01:02:32]  Ron from New Hampshire, an independent.
[01:02:35]  Good morning, Ron.
[01:02:36]  Tell me, do you oppose or support the funding request from the Pentagon on Iran, $200 billion?
[01:02:45]  You know how many times Iran has attacked the U.S. unprovoked during this century?
[01:02:52]  Zero.
[01:02:53]  Zero times.
[01:02:55]  The only time they attack us is in retaliation, and they do it in kind.
[01:03:00]  This is a completely illegal war.
[01:03:03]  Congress never said he could do this.
[01:03:06]  And you know what happens when you kill somebody illegally?
[01:03:09]  It's murder.
[01:03:10]  He's murdered those people, and they're going to retaliate, and they're going to retaliate in kind.
[01:03:16]  He killed their leaders.
[01:03:17]  Guess who they're going to kill?
[01:03:19]  At least that's a great silver lining of this thing.
[01:03:24]  We obviously don't condone violence or threats against the president or any person in office here.
[01:03:31]  Dwayne from Michigan, a Democrat.
[01:03:35]  Good morning, Duane.
[01:03:37]  Let me ask you: do you support or oppose the Pentagon's $200 billion budget request for Iran?
[01:03:44]  They should not receive one penny.
[01:03:47]  The reoccurring theme here with the Republicans is they're all fear-mongers and liars.
[01:03:53]  Bottom line, it's all fear.
[01:03:55]  They're coming to get you.
[01:03:56]  They're going to do this.
[01:03:58]  Just like the gentleman just said.
[01:04:00]  And one more comment: Trump calls Newsome new scum.
[01:04:05]  Donnie's old scum.
[01:04:07]  Good old, old scum.
[01:04:08]  Oh, you cut me off, didn't you?
[01:04:11]  No, you're still on, but I think we take your point there.
[01:04:14]  Bob from Michigan, a Republican.
[01:04:20]  Good morning, Bob.
[01:04:21]  Hi.
[01:04:22]  Is this me?
[01:04:22]  This is you?
[01:04:23]  Okay, yeah, I just don't know what I've heard over the last few minutes here at C-SPAN.
[01:04:30]  I'm not sure exactly why you interspersed the grilling of Christy Noam for a few minutes, quite a few minutes, while we're talking about the budgeting for this war.
[01:04:41]  Oh, that was Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who was talking about the intelligence which would have supported the president's reasoning for these strikes.
[01:04:56]  Stand what the grilling was for.
[01:04:59]  Understand what the tape was about.
[01:05:01]  I'm going to make my comment now.
[01:05:04]  The only reason you played that tape was to distract people from what we're talking about here.
[01:05:10]  You have me calling in on how to budget for this war.
[01:05:14]  Well, I actually played that tape, Bob, just to jump in really quickly.
[01:05:17]  I played that tape because the caller before that tape talked about the reasoning for the war, and they spoke about the reasoning in that tape.
[01:05:24]  But we've got about 20 seconds left.
[01:05:25]  I just want you to answer the question.
[01:05:28]  And if you have a comment additional about whether you're not support or oppose the Pentagon $200 billion budget request for Iran, well, it seems to me that you're allowing other people to speak a little bit longer than just answering the question.
[01:05:41]  I'm going to add a little bit more while I speak, please.
[01:05:44]  Well, we're coming up on the break here, but I'm going to give you 20 seconds.
[01:05:47]  So go ahead.
[01:05:48]  Let me give you, I'll tell you what I think.
[01:05:49]  I think the war is fine.
[01:05:51]  Money for it.
[01:05:51]  We work in a fiat currency economy.
[01:05:53]  It won't matter.
[01:05:54]  Once we own the world and the world's economy, we can set the price on anything.
[01:05:59]  It doesn't matter how many zeros are on the end of it.
[01:06:02]  Once this war is over, we will be able to continue our Fiat Kurds economy in the realm of the way the American dollar is supposed to be spent and underspooning the world.
[01:06:12]  We're the main currency in the world, and we shall remain so.
[01:06:16]  Thank you very much.
[01:06:17]  That's all I've got to say.
[01:06:18]  Goodbye.
[01:06:18]  All right, Bob from Michigan.

=== Reuters Transportation Report (03:01) ===

[01:06:20]  Later, Florida freshman Republican Mike Herodopoulos discusses congressional news of the day, including U.S.-Israeli combat operations against Iran and the impasse over the Department of Homeland Security funding.
[01:06:33]  But first, the partial government shutdown at Holam Security is causing long lines and delays at some U.S. airports as TSA officers go without pay.
[01:06:42]  Joining us next to discuss the impact on travelers is Reuters transportation reporter David Shepardson.
[01:06:57]  Today on C-SPAN's Ceasefire, a bipartisan conversation on the Iran conflict featuring Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy and Vermont Democratic Senator Peter Welch, joined by our host Dasha Burns.
[01:07:10]  They'll also discuss continuing the partial Homeland Security Department shutdown and Senate action on the Trump-backed voting bill, the Save America Act.
[01:07:17]  Watch Ceasefire today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
[01:07:27]  Sunday, on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A, three-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times photographer Doug Mills reflects on decades covering American politics.
[01:07:37]  He talks about photographing multiple presidents, including the 1992 Clinton Gore campaign, President George W. Bush on 9-11, and capturing the attempted assassination of President Trump in 2024, which earned him his third Pulitzer Prize.
[01:07:53]  I've listened to his speech on the campaign hundreds of times, and I knew that when he said something about a chart, I thought, wow, the chart.
[01:08:03]  The chart's typically at the end of the speech.
[01:08:05]  And that registered right away with me.
[01:08:07]  And so then when he gestured over towards the chart, that's when the shots rang out.
[01:08:12]  And when he was gesturing, I was, you know, not as close as we are, but maybe four or five feet back.
[01:08:17]  And I had my lens on him.
[01:08:19]  I was trying to get something of he and the flag.
[01:08:21]  And then when he gestured to the rights and the shots rang out, I was actually taking pictures.
[01:08:25]  And then I just kept my finger on the shutter as soon as I heard the bullets.
[01:08:29]  Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Doug Mills, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q ⁇ A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:08:45]  In a divided media world, one place brings Americans together.
[01:08:49]  According to a new MAGIT research report, nearly 90 million Americans turn to C-SPAN, and they're almost perfectly balanced.
[01:08:56]  28% conservative, 27% liberal or progressive, 41% moderate.
[01:09:02]  Republicans watching Democrats, Democrats watching Republicans, moderates watching all sides.
[01:09:08]  Because C-SPAN viewers want the facts straight from the source.
[01:09:13]  No commentary, no agenda, just democracy.
[01:09:16]  Unfiltered every day on the C-SPAN networks.

=== Divided Media Landscape (15:05) ===

[01:09:21]  Washington Journal continues.
[01:09:24]  Welcome back.
[01:09:25]  Joining us a talk about DHS funding and all of the transportation issues coming out of that is Reuters Transportation Reporter David Shepardson.
[01:09:33]  Welcome to the program this morning.
[01:09:35]  Thanks for having me.
[01:09:36]  All right.
[01:09:36]  It's the 35th day of a partial shutdown.
[01:09:38]  We know the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 35 days.
[01:09:42]  Talk about how it has affected air travel, especially now as folks are going into spring break.
[01:09:49]  So really since last Sunday, we've seen these sporadic, really long lines.
[01:09:53]  It started with like New Orleans and Atlanta and Houston, Hobby, where some of the lines were out the door all the way to parking garages near the airport.
[01:10:03]  So in some airports, we've seen 20, 30, even 40% of TSA officers calling in sick, not showing up for work.
[01:10:10]  Part of that's because on weekends, kids are in school.
[01:10:14]  They've got to find daycare.
[01:10:15]  And some people can't afford to even pay for that daycare on the weekends.
[01:10:20]  So the TSA, about 50,000 TSA officers missed their first full paycheck a week ago today.
[01:10:26]  And they're due to miss their next full paycheck a week from, I think, March 27th.
[01:10:32]  So people are struggling.
[01:10:34]  Airports have food banks.
[01:10:36]  They're offering free meals and gift cards.
[01:10:38]  And it's really a very difficult situation, especially for people who already went through this last fall during the 43-day shutdown.
[01:10:46]  So the hardest part, I think, for both the airlines and passengers is you don't know which airport is going to be subject to long lines.
[01:10:52]  And so that leads to a lot of uncertainty.
[01:10:54]  Now nationally, since Sunday, about 10% of TSA officers are not showing up for work.
[01:11:00]  That's about five times the normal number.
[01:11:02]  But again, some airports are different and you don't really know from day to day.
[01:11:06]  And the only advice I give people is you're going to have to get to the airport early.
[01:11:10]  Some airports do offer some real-time monitoring.
[01:11:13]  CNN has done a good job collitting 15 of those.
[01:11:17]  So check the website and give yourself extra time and be nice to people, especially the TSA officers.
[01:11:23]  Now, Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, he issued a stark warning yesterday.
[01:11:28]  Let's watch.
[01:11:30]  And on average, it was only double the average call-out rate.
[01:11:33]  So what I'm seeing is it's getting worse day by day.
[01:11:36]  And we have to think about the TSA worker.
[01:11:39]  These are not highly paid individuals.
[01:11:41]  They start off at about $45,000 to $55,000.
[01:11:44]  But living in D.C. and Atlanta and New York, they live in very expensive communities.
[01:11:50]  So it's really challenging for them.
[01:11:52]  And so I saw this with the FAA and our air traffic controllers.
[01:11:56]  The TSA agents missed a partial payment.
[01:11:58]  Last Friday, they missed a full payment.
[01:12:00]  As we get into next week, Becky, and they're about to miss another payment, this is going to look like child's play what's happening right now.
[01:12:08]  You're going to see small airports, I believe, shut down.
[01:12:10]  You're going to see extensive lines.
[01:12:13]  And air travel is going to almost come to a grid hold, stop.
[01:12:20]  What's your reaction to that?
[01:12:22]  So that would really be unprecedented.
[01:12:24]  Now, first of all, during that 43-day government shutdown, we didn't see that.
[01:12:28]  But I do think that over time, about 6% of TSA officers had not been showing up until about a week ago.
[01:12:35]  That's risen to about 10%.
[01:12:37]  And I think the Secretary raises a serious concern that if that number goes up higher, then it could potentially force the closure of small airports, not big airports.
[01:12:48]  And here's the reason.
[01:12:49]  So if you have Atlanta or Chicago, right, we've all been to those airports probably.
[01:12:53]  You've got many, many airport checkpoints.
[01:12:54]  So even if you had 40, 50% call-out rates, you could still have a couple of checkpoints or reduced from 10 to 2 checkpoints, right?
[01:13:04]  So those airports are not really in danger of closing.
[01:13:07]  The small airport, with a single checkpoint with far fewer TSA officers on duty, if you saw a very high number of those individuals call out, you could potentially see it close.
[01:13:18]  That would be unprecedented.
[01:13:19]  This is the second official to make this warning.
[01:13:21]  And airlines are very nervous about that, about people saying, I'm not going to book that trip, not going to go away.
[01:13:28]  And we really don't know.
[01:13:29]  A lot really depends on does this number stay at 10% or does it rise dramatically?
[01:13:34]  And I mean, just 10% of folks aren't showing up, but upwards of 300 people, I've talked to TSA representatives who say it's actually most likely way more than that, have actually quit during this shutdown.
[01:13:49]  Others are obviously calling out, as we said, but what about air traffic controllers?
[01:13:53]  What has been their presence during the shutdown?
[01:13:56]  Because we know during the last shutdown, a lot of the focus at the end was on them.
[01:14:01]  So in this case, Congress passed a separate bill to fund the Transportation Department, the FAA.
[01:14:07]  So they are getting paid during this shutdown, unlike the last one.
[01:14:11]  And I think the difference was with air traffic control, when people called out and some towers really were struggling, the FAA had to slow traffic down drastically.
[01:14:21]  And you point out that the FAA took this unprecedented action of announcing mandatory up to 10% flight cuts at these 40 major airports.
[01:14:31]  So I think the difference here is people go to the airport.
[01:14:33]  There's no concern that their flight's not going to take off because there is air traffic control.
[01:14:37]  The danger is the concern is I'm going to be in a three-hour line, I'm going to miss my flight, and will the airlines have another seat for me?
[01:14:44]  So it's a different level of concern, but there's not the concern that my airport's going to shut down completely like we had the first time.
[01:14:51]  Now I want to invite more of our callers to join in on this conversation.
[01:14:55]  We're talking about travel woes because of the partial shutdown that's now on its 35th day.
[01:15:01]  Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000.
[01:15:05]  Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001.
[01:15:10]  Independents, your line is 202-748-8002.
[01:15:16]  You can also reach us by text message at 202-748-8003.
[01:15:21]  Now, David, you wrote yesterday about the close call between that national NTSB in Newark between FedEx and Alaska airline jets.
[01:15:33]  Is this incident at all related to the pain that we're seeing because of the shutdown?
[01:15:42]  I don't think so, but I do think it speaks again to the stress the system's under.
[01:15:46]  Now, there are serious issues with air traffic control.
[01:15:49]  So if we back up, last summer, after the DC, the mid-air collision between the American Airlines regional jet and Army helicopter that killed 67 people just outside Reagan Airport here in D.C., Congress approved $12.5 billion to address air traffic control.
[01:16:05]  They've got two issues.
[01:16:06]  One is the technology is woefully out of date.
[01:16:09]  We need to new cloud computing.
[01:16:11]  We need to get rid of copper and just replace much of the old technology, not to mention just the facilities are bad, right?
[01:16:18]  There's bad heating, no air conditioning, elevators don't work, and 60-year-old towers and radar systems that should have been replaced years ago.
[01:16:25]  On the other side is a systemic, more than two-decade-long shortage of air traffic controllers.
[01:16:31]  In many places, air traffic controllers are working mandatory overtime, six-day work weeks.
[01:16:36]  They are significantly overstressed.
[01:16:39]  And this administration and the last administration have tried to ramp up the hiring.
[01:16:43]  So there's really an effort to address air traffic control, both from a technology and a people standpoint.
[01:16:49]  We don't know what happened in this incident in Newark.
[01:16:52]  All we know is that a controller cleared two planes to land at intersecting runways and then, as you mentioned, asked the Alaska plane to do a go-around, which means to abort the landing and go around.
[01:17:03]  And these two planes appear to have like crossed each other at about 300 feet, a vertical separation, which is a pretty small amount.
[01:17:10]  So there have been a lot of near-miss incidents in recent years that have raised questions about the stress of the system.
[01:17:16]  But we don't, but this, so far, this is not, it doesn't appear this is related to the shutdown per se.
[01:17:20]  And just my last question about shutdown before we take some phone calls here is, you know, you talked about the ways in which airlines and airports themselves have tried to help bridge the gap between the funding.
[01:17:32]  Some airports have set up food pantries.
[01:17:34]  Have you spoken to some of the people affected like TSA officers and agents?
[01:17:40]  And if so, what are they saying?
[01:17:42]  Well, they're really struggling.
[01:17:43]  Some are taking second jobs.
[01:17:44]  Some are driving for Uber or DoorDash and, you know, making hard choices.
[01:17:49]  Do I pay for my Kids Little League bills?
[01:17:52]  Do I, you know, what about my rent?
[01:17:54]  You know, how do I put food on the table?
[01:17:56]  And it's just, you know, regardless of your political views, this is like a 95-5% issue.
[01:18:02]  Almost no one thinks people should be required to work and not get paid.
[01:18:06]  And obviously, both political parties have made rival offers to get TSA agents paid.
[01:18:12]  And the airlines and others say, hey, in the future, let's end this.
[01:18:15]  No more making the airline industry and travelers the political football of these shutdowns.
[01:18:21]  But the reality is, it doesn't appear that's going to happen because this is the only sort of leverage point both sides see.
[01:18:28]  Absent TSA, would they ever get a deal on DHS?
[01:18:32]  And so certainly at this point, there's no indication that either side is willing to put down the TSA and air traffic controllers as a weapon in future shutdowns.
[01:18:43]  And we could be back here no matter when this gets resolved, September 30th.
[01:18:47]  We're now only about six months away from the next government funding bill that will end, and we could be right back in the same place that we are right now.
[01:18:55]  Rhonda from New Jersey, a Democrat.
[01:18:58]  Your first.
[01:18:59]  Good morning, Rhonda.
[01:19:00]  Hi.
[01:19:01]  Good morning.
[01:19:02]  Good morning, America.
[01:19:05]  You know, I'm very, very traumatized by the way the Donald Trump administration is destroying our country.
[01:19:18]  I'm terrified.
[01:19:19]  Everyone is.
[01:19:21]  I'm so nervous.
[01:19:23]  We don't even have the proper people in our government, our intelligence officers, because he fired 40% of the force, and we're at war because of Netanyahu, a criminal.
[01:19:42]  Rhonda, I wonder if you have a statement or a question about the transportation problems because of the shutdown.
[01:19:53]  Okay, why are we being blackmailed?
[01:19:56]  Okay, that we have to let Nazi freaking ICE terrorize our communities in order to fund the TSA.
[01:20:06]  This is ridiculous.
[01:20:07]  This man should be impeached and he should be thrown out of office right now.
[01:20:11]  And we all know it.
[01:20:13]  We all know it.
[01:20:14]  All right, that was Rhonda.
[01:20:15]  Well, I think that this call speaks to the sort of very strong feelings that a lot of Democrats in Congress have too about ICE funding, right?
[01:20:23]  That's why the shutdown's gone on for 35 days.
[01:20:26]  Democrats are not willing to yield on their concerns about ICE enforcement.
[01:20:31]  Republicans want the entire Department of Homeland Security funded.
[01:20:34]  And you've seen a bunch of different efforts, I think seven, eight, ten this week, last week, from Democrats say, hey, let's pass a standalone bill to just fund TSA, get them out of the line of this dispute.
[01:20:45]  Republicans say, no, let's fund DHS for two weeks.
[01:20:49]  All of it, let's make a deal.
[01:20:50]  So neither side have yet agreed on the right way forward to make a deal, both on TSA funding and DHS as a whole.
[01:20:59]  All right.
[01:21:00]  Alfaria from Florida, a Democrat.
[01:21:02]  Tell me if I pronounce your name wrong.
[01:21:05]  Your next name?
[01:21:05]  You hear me?
[01:21:06]  Yep.
[01:21:07]  I hope you're hearing me clear.
[01:21:08]  I feel the lady that was on that person was so hard to get it to y'all lying when you were on the other subject.
[01:21:14]  But I worked in the airline business and also the school system.
[01:21:19]  It's against the law to leave your kid home to cover the whole thing to make it short.
[01:21:28]  If you don't have a job, no pay any job, you can't function with the normal things in life was paying bills and being able to get to work and everything else.
[01:21:40]  But the thing is, what America has, Democratic and Republicans, and I feel we should be standing up across the nation against this war stuff.
[01:21:53]  The side of France, Trump has taken money from the side of France and the other, this Israeli man and Putin is using him to take America down.
[01:22:03]  And start a deposition, what about all of them take a lie to take the test on the Esteem thing?
[01:22:09]  I've been trying to get through.
[01:22:10]  Why don't they take danger depositions?
[01:22:12]  Take a lie to take the test.
[01:22:13]  All right, I'm going to redirect you just as I did the previous caller.
[01:22:16]  Do you have a comment or question about the airline industry, which I know you said that you are a part of?
[01:22:23]  Hello?
[01:22:24]  I can hear you.
[01:22:25]  You're on the line.
[01:22:26]  Yes.
[01:22:26]  Why don't they take a lie to take their danger and let rich people got that point there?
[01:22:32]  Mary from Washington, an independent.
[01:22:36]  Good morning, Mary.
[01:22:37]  We're talking about the DHS shutdown and transportation.
[01:22:40]  Do you have a comment or question for David?
[01:22:45]  I don't know if the people know that President Trump had lifted tariffs on the Russian oil because it's not, it doesn't have to come out of the area.
[01:22:56]  And so can you hear me?
[01:22:58]  Yep, we can hear you.
[01:23:00]  Oh, okay.
[01:23:01]  And the other thing is, I would agree to if they have somebody that's military for the $200 billion, if they would shut this all down.
[01:23:13]  Yes.
[01:23:13]  All right.
[01:23:14]  I wonder, just to Mary's point, though, she talked about fuel.
[01:23:17]  Fuel is rising because of the Iran war.
[01:23:19]  Does that mean higher airfare for people who are traveling?
[01:23:23]  And will travel be impacted because of it?
[01:23:26]  Yes, and yes, in the short term.
[01:23:27]  It depends on how long it lasts.
[01:23:28]  Obviously, if we saw oil prices snap back, jet fuel is extremely, is much higher now than sort of the price of oil as a whole.
[01:23:36]  So the airlines are already starting to feel some significant cost pressure.
[01:23:41]  And you've already seen some price increases adopted by airlines.
[01:23:45]  There's been talk about fuel surcharges you could see if this goes on, especially for cross-country flights, transcontinental flights, and so on.
[01:23:53]  And so, yes, on top of all the other problems, most airlines don't hedge their oil prices.
[01:23:58]  They're really at the whim of oil prices.
[01:24:01]  And if these higher oil prices continue for months to come, this is going to be felt by travelers.
[01:24:08]  And it's going to be one between by paying for higher gas on your rental car or for your driving.
[01:24:13]  It's also going to hit you if you are buying airplane tickets.
[01:24:17]  All right, Michael from Michigan, a Democrat.
[01:24:20]  Good morning, Michael.
[01:24:21]  Yeah, good morning.
[01:24:22]  I'm calling in regards to the topic that you're on right now.

=== Airport Security Strain (13:30) ===

[01:24:26]  I'm a former TSA employee.
[01:24:28]  I'm retired from there.
[01:24:30]  Also, I can understand the fact that they are quitting.
[01:24:34]  You have to have money to live, and your bill collectors typically can only wait so long.
[01:24:40]  I think lastly, if you would take that $200 billion request and spend it and do the cutoff bill for the TSA and Coast Guard, we would get that out of the way.
[01:24:50]  You can deal with ICE later.
[01:24:51]  Anyway, thank you for the show and for you.
[01:24:53]  Yes, and that's my comment.
[01:24:54]  Thank you.
[01:24:57]  You raise a great point, right?
[01:24:58]  People have to get paid.
[01:25:00]  They can't.
[01:25:00]  And they're being, you know, and they're still shut up for work.
[01:25:03]  They've got to pay for parking.
[01:25:05]  They've got to pay for gas for their cars and, you know, food just to get to work on top of child care and other expenses.
[01:25:12]  So it's, and remember, as you know, that we asked TSA workers for seven, six weeks last fall to do this as well.
[01:25:20]  So this is the second time.
[01:25:22]  And, you know, one of the other really critical issues is this summer is going to be one of the biggest tourist events in the United States in many years.
[01:25:29]  The World Cup.
[01:25:30]  You're going to have thousands of people all over the world coming.
[01:25:32]  It's going to put a lot of strain on airports.
[01:25:34]  Airlines are adding flights.
[01:25:36]  And so obviously losing 360 people puts more strain on the system.
[01:25:42]  If it goes on longer, I would assume you'd see more TSA officers opt to go work somewhere else.
[01:25:47]  All right.
[01:25:48]  One tweet that we got while we've been talking, it says, hi, several airports use private crew for TSA work, such as Atlantic City Airport, for example.
[01:25:58]  Is there a push to go that route?
[01:26:01]  Are there pros and cons?
[01:26:02]  Thanks from Brame.
[01:26:04]  So after the September 11th attacks, Congress made it mandatory that federal government employees handle airport security operations.
[01:26:12]  There are some airports that have been allowed to have private forces, and there are some people in Congress, like Senator Mike Lee, who said, hey, it's time to privatize TSA, get the government out of that process.
[01:26:26]  This has raised calls and say we need a dedicated funding stream for TSA that wouldn't be subject to the wills of government shutdowns.
[01:26:34]  But more people have suggested the answer is allowing TSA, like some other government employees, use like the Airway Trust Fund or some existing source of money to ensure that they're paid during shutdowns.
[01:26:48]  But there are some people in Congress who have talked about doing that.
[01:26:52]  And I think you're going to have that debate once we get through that shutdown again.
[01:26:56]  Rex from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a Republican.
[01:27:00]  Good morning, Rex.
[01:27:03]  Thank you, C-SPAN.
[01:27:05]  And I had a question for David.
[01:27:06]  That last tweet kind of took a little bit of theme out of my question.
[01:27:11]  When I was traveling back in the day in the airports, the security was pretty lax.
[01:27:19]  You could walk out and watch your family take off and the security was just going through a metal detector.
[01:27:27]  And then after 9-11, when TSA, the government, had the TSA formed, the airlines were paying that security cost before 9-11.
[01:27:39]  So are they passing that along?
[01:27:41]  And airline costs have gone up substantially, as we know.
[01:27:45]  And would it be a good idea for the airlines to pay for the security that TSA is doing right now?
[01:27:53]  Just wanted to get your thoughts on that.
[01:27:55]  Thank you.
[01:27:56]  So you're right.
[01:27:57]  There is a passenger facility charge, a security charge that each passenger pays that goes toward the costs of paying for TSA and airport security.
[01:28:06]  And you're right that post 9-11, we saw a couple really significant changes.
[01:28:10]  One, you can't just go to the gate.
[01:28:11]  Like everybody used to be able to go through the security checkpoint and go, you know, as you said, wave, see your family as they left.
[01:28:17]  And you can't bring liquids, as we all know, above three ounces.
[01:28:20]  The only change that's happened is you can now wear your shoes, which was a change that the Trump administration made last year, although there is some question about whether they went through all the security procedures necessary and the Inspector General had a report.
[01:28:32]  So again, I think this debate is going to go on if Congress doesn't have the political will to take TSA out of the shutdown.
[01:28:41]  And again, it really depends on what happens from here, right?
[01:28:44]  Does Congress make a deal this weekend, or do we have a real meltdown at airports where air travel stops to function properly?
[01:28:52]  And does that force Congress's hand?
[01:28:54]  Because in some ways, that's really what happened in the last shutdown when we saw these major cuts.
[01:28:58]  And we saw Halloween when we saw places where upwards of 30, 40 percent of controllers didn't show up.
[01:29:03]  And there were places like New York where the system almost came to a grinding halt because of so many controllers not showing up.
[01:29:12]  Will that happen again here?
[01:29:13]  And is Congress going to do anything or are we just going to continue the same Groundhog Day mentality of every shutdown?
[01:29:19]  Yeah, and the Senate will be working over the weekend to see if they can figure out some more negotiations.
[01:29:25]  So negotiations seem like they have restarted in kind.
[01:29:28]  Obviously, the White House has offered concessions in an attempt to end this shutdown.
[01:29:34]  Where do the discussions stand now?
[01:29:37]  What were the concessions that the White House was willing to make?
[01:29:41]  And are they close enough to the Democratic demands?
[01:29:45]  So it doesn't feel like now they are, right?
[01:29:48]  So there was a basket of concessions and some additional comments made by Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who is likely to get confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary, only using judicial warrants, so not an administrative warrant, except in rare circumstances.
[01:30:03]  That was a big concern.
[01:30:04]  You know, body cameras, identifying ICE officers during raids, because many Democrats said it was basically massed people who are not identified were taking people off the street.
[01:30:20]  So the question is, is that enough, right?
[01:30:23]  And then Democrats want more safeguards on ICE and ensure that what happened in Minneapolis and the confrontation doesn't happen again.
[01:30:30]  And I do think part of this is last fall, Democrats had this 43-day shutdown, and all they got was a vote on a health care bill that didn't pass.
[01:30:39]  So nothing got done in terms of the Obamacare subsidies.
[01:30:43]  So, you know, I think Democrats want to show that they got some real concessions from the administration on ICE, but Republicans, you know, they want to say we're funding everything.
[01:30:55]  We're not going to be willing to sort of toss ICE or other parts of Homeland Security overboard in exchange just for funding TSA.
[01:31:01]  And I do think the reality is if TSA got funded, would there be the political will on both sides to reach agreement on ICE?
[01:31:09]  Because there's so much anger on both sides.
[01:31:11]  And certainly Democrats feel like the administration has been pretty unwilling to meet most of their demands throughout the last year.
[01:31:21]  Mike from North Carolina Independent.
[01:31:24]  You are next.
[01:31:25]  Good morning, Mike.
[01:31:26]  Hello, good morning.
[01:31:28]  My question is: all these TSA workers and people like me that has to work for basically nothing for people that suffer.
[01:31:36]  Well, Trump's made $150 million off cryptocurrency.
[01:31:40]  Him and his family are such great patriots.
[01:31:42]  Why are they not having TSA?
[01:31:44]  Why can they not put some money back in to pay the TSA workers to work people and get to where they need to go?
[01:31:50]  Trump is the one that started this during war.
[01:31:53]  The American people didn't.
[01:31:54]  Why do we suffer?
[01:31:55]  And Trump's getting rich off of what?
[01:31:57]  He's getting filthy rich off the American people, robbing us blind, going to bankrupt us.
[01:32:03]  That's pretty responsible.
[01:32:05]  The caller does raise the interesting point that during the last shutdown, there were some private donors who helped fund the military pay temporarily.
[01:32:12]  We haven't seen this now.
[01:32:13]  And it is also worth noting there is a disparity between sworn police, sworn law enforcement officers are getting paid.
[01:32:21]  So, for example, TSA, the air marshals, right, the people you don't realize are on planes for protection in the event of someone tried to, you know, commit some untoward act of the plane.
[01:32:31]  Those TSA air marshals are getting paid.
[01:32:34]  The 50,000 airport security officers are not getting paid.
[01:32:38]  So there is definitely, and Secret Service agents and other sworn officers are getting paid.
[01:32:44]  So there's a disparity between the law enforcement and TSA.
[01:32:48]  And the caller raises this point: well, in the prior shutdown, we did find ways to pay certain classes of people and not certain classes of employees.
[01:32:56]  And for whatever reason, TSA itself is not getting paid this time.
[01:33:00]  Albert from Mississippi, a Democrat.
[01:33:02]  You are next.
[01:33:03]  Good morning, Albert.
[01:33:05]  Good morning.
[01:33:06]  My question on my statement is: in 2011, Congress set up, established the Aviation Transportation Security Act of 2021, which also included TSA.
[01:33:21]  TSA is authorized to collect, right now, it's $5 per ticket passenger, $11 for round trips.
[01:33:34]  One way is $5.60, and the other way is $11.
[01:33:39]  Congress in 2018 diverted $3 billion from that fund to pay for deficits.
[01:33:50]  That fund was established.
[01:33:54]  The airline security fee was established to service was the fee is instrumental in funding all aspects of aviation passenger security from background background investigations,
[01:34:12]  training, salaries, benefits for federal security screeners, law enforcement personnel, TSA pre-checks, known crewma programs, the marshal services.
[01:34:27]  All right, Albert, I'm going to let David get in here.
[01:34:30]  Two points.
[01:34:31]  One, you're absolutely right.
[01:34:32]  All this money is being collected.
[01:34:34]  You know, all Congress would have to do is simply say you can tap into that money during a shutdown to pay TSA officers.
[01:34:40]  The callers also correct that money has been tapped by Congress for other uses.
[01:34:44]  And speaking of fees, early during this shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security announced on a Saturday night that they were going to suspend TSA PreCheck, which is a program used by over 20 million Americans.
[01:34:55]  Well, the White House freaked out, and guess what?
[01:34:58]  It didn't happen.
[01:34:58]  Like within by the next morning, by 6 a.m. on Sunday, they had reversed course.
[01:35:02]  Now, the administration did suspend briefly another fee-funded program called Global Entry, which helps to make it easier to get back in the United States after a foreign trip.
[01:35:12]  But again, that program got reopened last week, too.
[01:35:15]  So the caller raises good questions: like, you know, regardless of what side you're on, there's a lot of, there is some discretion on the part of Congress and administration to decide which of these programs are going to be continued and which are not.
[01:35:26]  And it does go to the fact that in shutdowns, both sides are trying to pressure one another into moving and making a deal.
[01:35:34]  Administration's tried several ways, but so far, Democrats have been able to push back and say, oh, it's not our fault because we're trying to fund TSA.
[01:35:41]  And, you know, you're the ones not willing to just do a standalone bill.
[01:35:45]  All right, Michael from Bowie, Maryland, Bowie, Maryland, excuse me, an independent.
[01:35:51]  Michael, you've got about 20 seconds.
[01:35:52]  Do you have a question or comment for David?
[01:35:55]  Hey, good morning.
[01:35:57]  I would just like to add, I work for DHS.
[01:36:00]  And my department within DHS, we went from about 1,200 people to about 300.
[01:36:05]  A lot of people took the fork in the road to DRIP, DRIP 2.0.
[01:36:09]  And so, but I never really, you know, TSA is really important, but also the work that we do on the terrorism side is really important.
[01:36:16]  And so with the funding cuts and all the people leaving, we have collateral duties everywhere.
[01:36:22]  And some people are doing three, four jobs.
[01:36:25]  You know, I just feel like my department specifically, we just never hear about the impact to national security and what we do as far as terrorism and how we've been cut.
[01:36:36]  And then the back-to-back shutdowns with this backlog we're still dealing with from the October shutdown.
[01:36:43]  And so just very concerning.
[01:36:45]  Great points all around.
[01:36:47]  Number one, there's a hiring freeze, right?
[01:36:50]  Since President Trump took office, he's basically suspended hiring except for some key areas like immigration enforcement.
[01:36:56]  There were thousands of federal employees who took the fork in the road.
[01:36:58]  There's a lot of pressure and stress on federal agencies that have fewer employees that are being asked to do more work.
[01:37:06]  And again, it's the second government shutdown.
[01:37:08]  So we're talking about between the first one, this is like 88 days where employees have not gotten paid.
[01:37:14]  So there's a lot of stress in the federal workforce.
[01:37:16]  And if you're the TSA officers, what do you have to do?
[01:37:19]  You have to be focused every day, make sure there's no threats, there's nothing coming across that metal detector, and not worried about paying your bills or putting gas in the gas tank.
[01:37:29]  So it's a really tough time.
[01:37:31]  And just again, remember, be nice to the TSA officers, say thank you, realize that they're working for free as you're going on your vacation or wherever you're going.
[01:37:40]  All right, David Shepardson, Transportation Reporter Reuters, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
[01:37:46]  Thank you, Jasmine.
[01:37:47]  And later in the program, Florida Republican Mike Haradopoulos joins us to discuss the Defense Department's request for more money for Iran and other topics.

=== TSA Officer Challenges (03:37) ===

[01:37:56]  But first, it's open forum.
[01:37:59]  Start calling in now.
[01:38:00]  Your phone lines.
[01:38:01]  Democrats, you're at 202-748-8000.
[01:38:05]  Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001.
[01:38:10]  Independents, your line is 202-748-8002.
[01:38:15]  We'll be right.
[01:38:21]  We have Yankton, South Dakota.
[01:38:23]  Hello?
[01:38:24]  Yes, sir.
[01:38:24]  Yeah, Case Man, go ahead.
[01:38:26]  Saturday on C-SPAN.
[01:38:28]  In honor of our Founders Day on March 19th, revisit a special presentation on the origins of C-SPAN and the mission that changed political television, bringing live gabble-to-gabble coverage of Congress directly into the homes of Americans with a conversation between C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, former co-CEO Susan Swain, and current CEO Sam Feist.
[01:38:47]  Hear reflections on five decades of coverage, including many of the network's most memorable interviews and C-SPAN's continued role in delivering democracy unfiltered in the years to come.
[01:38:58]  Watch the C-SPAN story Saturday at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN or online at C-SPAN.org.
[01:39:05]  c-span bringing you democracy unfiltered book tv every sunday on c-span 2 features leading authors discussing their latest non-fiction books Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
[01:39:23]  At 10 a.m. Eastern, best-selling author Peter Schweizer explains why he believes that foreign powers and American elites are using mass migration as a political weapon.
[01:39:33]  Then at 3:45 p.m. Eastern, historian Chris Entz chronicles the lives of cowgirl stunt women who took leading roles in early and mid-20th century Hollywood Westerns.
[01:39:43]  Also at 7 p.m. on America's Book Club, host David Rubenstein sits down with author David Grant to discuss his best-selling narrative nonfiction books like Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager.
[01:39:54]  And at 9 p.m., Harvard University professor Cass Sunstein delves into separation of powers and why he believes it's essential to liberty and law.
[01:40:03]  Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule in your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
[01:40:17]  Washington Journal continues.
[01:40:20]  Welcome back.
[01:40:20]  This is Open Forum where you can talk about any public policy or political issue on your mind this morning.
[01:40:27]  Before we begin, I have some programming notes for you.
[01:40:29]  Today, former Czech Ambassador to Israel and National Security Advisor Tomash Poyar joins the Hudson Institute for a conversation on Europe's role in the Iran war.
[01:40:40]  This comes after a number of European leaders have rejected direct involvement in the U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, though the United Kingdom is leading a coalition for some to get involved.
[01:40:55]  Watch live coverage at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app and c-span.org.
[01:41:03]  Also, this week on C-SPAN's ceasefire, we hear from Vermont Senator Peter Welch and Louisiana Senator John Kennedy.
[01:41:12]  They join host Dasha Burns for a bipartisan dialogue on the Iran war, the Homeland Security Department's partial shutdown, and Senate action on the Trump-backed voter ID bill, the Save America Act.
[01:41:25]  You can watch that tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN.
[01:41:32]  Now to open forum.

=== Stopping Political Madness (09:30) ===

[01:41:34]  Lisa from North Carolina, Democrat.
[01:41:38]  You're first.
[01:41:39]  Good morning, Lisa.
[01:41:40]  It's Open Forum.
[01:41:41]  Good morning, C-SPAN.
[01:41:43]  I'm a flight attendant, so I see the TSA workers all the time.
[01:41:48]  And it's a real shame that they're not getting their pay that they deserve.
[01:41:52]  I mean, who wants nobody to be able to work for free?
[01:41:56]  I think our crooked politicians should not be getting paid while we have the shutdown.
[01:42:04]  Thank you.
[01:42:06]  All right, that was Lisa from North Carolina.
[01:42:08]  Carol from New York, an independent.
[01:42:11]  You're next.
[01:42:11]  Good morning, Carol.
[01:42:13]  Good morning.
[01:42:14]  I'm calling regarding the military side.
[01:42:17]  My husband served and unfortunately was no longer with us the year he was retiring.
[01:42:23]  And he served in all these Iran, Kuwait, Africa, all of these recent wars that we've had, and after 9-11, after we were attacked.
[01:42:32]  I don't understand how people are not remembering that.
[01:42:34]  And as far as President Trump, we need to get off the name and we need to stick with the country's issues.
[01:42:41]  And yes, they have always been a threat.
[01:42:43]  My husband almost got bombed while over there serving our country.
[01:42:46]  And now we're talking about not passing the $2 billion, $200 billion to continue to support our military people.
[01:42:52]  They're out there on the front lines.
[01:42:55]  They're dying.
[01:42:56]  They are fighting for us.
[01:42:58]  And now when we're in that, because of decisions other people made, regardless of what the fact was, we don't want to support them anymore.
[01:43:05]  And yes, TSA workers should not be working and not getting paid.
[01:43:09]  We have all this money in this country.
[01:43:12]  And it was proven by DOJ how the Democrats were sending money out of the country for years, for years.
[01:43:20]  And never, ever did anyone have a problem with all of that.
[01:43:23]  Trump has stood up to what he had promised, and everyone's making money in their 401k accounts while the market was doing good.
[01:43:31]  We finally got someone to take the initiative to do something about what's going on with our military crew.
[01:43:38]  We've had military instations all around that country for a reason.
[01:43:43]  There is no reason why we should not continue to fund them.
[01:43:47]  Yes, we are using our missiles and we need to replace them.
[01:43:50]  The Democrats never had any backing of our military.
[01:43:55]  Never.
[01:43:56]  We need to really understand.
[01:43:58]  Yes, people are hungry.
[01:43:59]  People are starving.
[01:44:00]  Well, how many people are out there taking our money, like in Minneapolis?
[01:44:05]  But all of that money that's been out there for fraud, that's where we have to catch it.
[01:44:09]  Let's protect our company.
[01:44:11]  Let's get those organizations back to business and put our money where we're supposed to be putting it.
[01:44:17]  And a lot of these Democrats, senators, or whoever are working with these countries that are allowing these illegal immigrants to be here and take our money is really what's going on.
[01:44:28]  So we want to redirect our funds where we need to.
[01:44:31]  We need to stop the fraud.
[01:44:32]  So I'm glad they're taking an attack on that.
[01:44:35]  And then we can put our money where it needs to go.
[01:44:38]  All right, Carol.
[01:44:39]  Take your point there.
[01:44:41]  Lou from Tampa, Florida, Republican.
[01:44:45]  You are not.
[01:44:46]  Good morning.
[01:44:46]  It's open forum.
[01:44:47]  You can talk about anything.
[01:44:50]  Good morning, Kimberly.
[01:44:50]  Good morning, America.
[01:44:51]  I'm Jasmine.
[01:44:53]  Yep.
[01:44:54]  Oh, I'm sorry, Jasmine.
[01:44:55]  I apologize.
[01:44:57]  You know, Jesus said they do not know what they do, okay?
[01:45:02]  But, you know, we've got to protect the world.
[01:45:05]  We're the world policeman.
[01:45:07]  And, you know, these children are trained to hate America and democracies around the world at such a young age.
[01:45:21]  And I don't know if that's going to change right away.
[01:45:24]  It might take another like two generations to do it.
[01:45:28]  The fanaticism of some of these people, the hardliners in Iran that train these kids.
[01:45:36]  And we need to come together and support our troops and support our president, and it'll end that much quicker.
[01:45:44]  And thank you, President Trump, for everything you're doing.
[01:45:47]  And we've got to come together, and we've got to end this very soon, very soon.
[01:45:53]  Thank you very much.
[01:45:54]  Thank you very much, Jasmine.
[01:45:56]  Lou from Tampa, Florida.
[01:45:58]  Pat from Florida and Independent.
[01:46:02]  Good morning, Pat.
[01:46:03]  It's open forum.
[01:46:05]  Hi, Justin.
[01:46:09]  I basically wanted to talk about the war in Iran, which women and a couple phone calls was talking about, You know, there was all this fraud, and that's where we have to fight the money.
[01:46:25]  We're spending a billion dollars a day on an illegal war.
[01:46:32]  I grew up in the Vietnam War generation.
[01:46:37]  Does no one remember that?
[01:46:40]  I mean, we fought there, and basically nothing changed.
[01:46:48]  All right, from Florida.
[01:46:50]  Darryl from Palm Bay, Florida.
[01:46:52]  A lot of Florida callers today.
[01:46:55]  You are next.
[01:46:56]  Good morning, Darrell.
[01:46:58]  You can talk about anything.
[01:46:59]  It's open forum.
[01:47:01]  Well, what if the Congress and the House, their pay got suspended, and they had to get in session until they handled this budget situation?
[01:47:22]  That was it, and thank you very much for taking my call.
[01:47:25]  All right, that was Daryl.
[01:47:27]  Richard from South Carolina, a Democrat.
[01:47:32]  Good morning, Richard.
[01:47:33]  It's open forum.
[01:47:35]  Hi, I have two points.
[01:47:36]  I think one thing that concerns me is that Pete Hegset, who runs our military, actually likes this stuff.
[01:47:48]  I think he really loves our power.
[01:47:51]  He likes the fact that we can use it.
[01:47:55]  And if you listen to his words, I think he's not the kind of balanced person who should be in charge of the military.
[01:48:04]  He really likes this stuff.
[01:48:05]  The second point I'd like to make is the Republicans have done a great job.
[01:48:11]  I don't mean that really, but they have somehow convinced America that Democrats want to see our military lose.
[01:48:22]  I don't believe that at all.
[01:48:23]  I don't think they like what they see, but they get a lot of Americans, I guess the MACA group out there believing that we really want to see us lose.
[01:48:35]  I don't mind Iran getting kicked around.
[01:48:39]  I think that they deserve it.
[01:48:41]  But I don't think we want to see our military lose.
[01:48:46]  I don't believe that at all.
[01:48:47]  But they have convinced, the Republicans have convinced that that's the talking line.
[01:48:53]  And I guess that's the fault of Americans out there who truly think that's a truthful statement.
[01:49:00]  That's really all I have to say.
[01:49:02]  Thank you.
[01:49:04]  Richard from South Carolina.
[01:49:05]  Brian from Houston, Texas, a Republican.
[01:49:08]  Good morning, Brian.
[01:49:09]  It's open forum.
[01:49:10]  You can talk about whatever you'd like.
[01:49:12]  Yeah.
[01:49:14]  No, I just find it funny when it comes to the government funding situation.
[01:49:18]  The Democrats are saying that they don't want masks, people wearing masks.
[01:49:23]  Well, for three years, isn't that all they advocated for?
[01:49:27]  So I say to someone tell you in cheek, the government should change their position and say the reason why the ICE officers are wearing masks is to prevent the spread of COVID, and that's what they're trying to protect against.
[01:49:39]  So then the Democrats would have zero arguments because that's all they wanted for years was to keep people masked, keep people locked in their house.
[01:49:46]  Remember when they had squads going through Minnesota with the National Guard telling people to get back in their homes because they simply could not be outside.
[01:49:56]  And yet they're upset at ICE and the way they're operating.
[01:49:59]  I'm not saying everything ICE is doing is perfect and they've certainly made a lot of mistakes, but the administration should just change their position, say they're wearing masks to prevent COVID and prevent communicable diseases.
[01:50:13]  And then the Democrats would just lose their mind going just in a spiral of wait, well, that's what we wanted for years, but now we don't want it because it's not our side proposing it.
[01:50:24]  All right, that was Brian from Houston.
[01:50:26]  Randall from Tennessee, an independent.
[01:50:29]  Good morning, Randall.
[01:50:30]  It's open for him.
[01:50:32]  Good morning, Jasmine.
[01:50:33]  Thank you.
[01:50:35]  I'm listening to all these people, boys and old Republicans and Democrats, about this situation that billions and billions of dollars with healthcare, food, gas, the airport is backed up.
[01:50:51]  But everybody wants to blame it on Biden or Obama.
[01:50:56]  They are not in the office.
[01:50:59]  But you want to understand that Trump created this over a Thursday night.

=== Cesar Chavez Legacy (03:11) ===

[01:51:04]  Him and P. Head said, drunk, wake up and call the United States.
[01:51:10]  Human lives are what we're dealing with here.
[01:51:13]  They need to stop the madness.
[01:51:15]  And Mike Johnson, he stands there and nods his head for everything Mr. Trump says.
[01:51:23]  But if Mr. Biden tried this, if you look at him on the film, he's not no every single time.
[01:51:31]  There are look at JD Berkeley and them and people have lost their lives and they set up as miserable with lies.
[01:51:38]  Stop it.
[01:51:39]  We take your point there, Randall from Tennessee.
[01:51:41]  Another story that percolated this week was an astonishing report from the New York Times on Cesar Chavez.
[01:51:50]  It says Cesar Chavez, a civil rights icon, is accused of abusing girls for years.
[01:51:54]  An investigation by the New York Times found extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement.
[01:52:04]  This investigation was done over five years, Manny Fernandez, the writer, said, and it goes into the multiple women who have come forward and say that they were abused by Cesar Chavez, including as young girls.
[01:52:20]  Yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that Cesar Chavez Day would be renamed.
[01:52:27]  Take a listen here.
[01:52:28]  This is a difficult day.
[01:52:30]  The last 48 hours have been very painful, very difficult.
[01:52:36]  I'm very proud to be standing here today with these remarkable leaders of our city council.
[01:52:44]  We're all here to honor the generations of farm workers and organizers who have fought for civil rights and advanced the labor movement for decades.
[01:52:54]  I just have to tell you personally, I grew up as a child admiring the farm worker movement.
[01:53:02]  I didn't think I was ever going to eat grapes again because my family boycotted grapes.
[01:53:06]  Sester Chavez, I had the honor of meeting once, and I thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
[01:53:13]  When I think about the leadership and when I heard the painful news from the sister that I admire so much, Dolores Huerta, my heart broke for what she went through.
[01:53:27]  The fight of the farm workers, their struggle, and their victories inspired all of us.
[01:53:33]  That's why, on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, I'm proud to introduce and sign a proclamation today to rename the last Monday of March as Farm Workers Day.
[01:53:46]  I also want to share that I've been in touch with the Chavez family and they support our decision to rename this holiday.
[01:53:54]  That was LA Mayor Karen Bass announcing that Cesar Chavez Day will be changed after that New York Times investigation.
[01:54:04]  That was very painful, but extremely well done.
[01:54:07]  Chris from Michigan, a Republican.
[01:54:10]  Good morning, Chris.
[01:54:11]  It's open for him.
[01:54:13]  Morning.
[01:54:14]  I just want to, I got a couple things to say.

=== Election Integrity Claims (05:58) ===

[01:54:16]  First, this lady called earlier talking about why we should side with Israel.
[01:54:23]  The reason why we should side with Israel is because Israel is God's chosen people.
[01:54:30]  So as soon as we decide to go against Israel, we need to support Israel because we'll be blessed.
[01:54:38]  If we bless Israel, we will be blessed.
[01:54:41]  If we curse Israel, we will be cursed.
[01:54:44]  The Bible says that.
[01:54:46]  That's why we need to support Israel.
[01:54:49]  Because those are the people, God's people, and we were once God's people.
[01:54:54]  We are a Christian nation.
[01:54:56]  So we need to support Israel.
[01:54:59]  That's why I think we should support them.
[01:55:01]  Thank you.
[01:55:03]  Chris from Michigan.
[01:55:04]  Maria from Silver Spring, Maryland, a Democrat.
[01:55:09]  Good morning, Maria.
[01:55:10]  It's open forum.
[01:55:12]  Good morning.
[01:55:13]  Another war based on another lie.
[01:55:17]  25 years ago, it was the boogeyman was, oh, they got weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction.
[01:55:24]  Today, the boogeyman is, oh, they may have a nuclear bomb.
[01:55:28]  They may be able to get one without an imminent threat.
[01:55:34]  Imminent threat.
[01:55:35]  No imminent threat.
[01:55:37]  And for that guy that was saying that children are trained to hate Americans, so what?
[01:55:43]  The solution is going to be go and kill elementary girls, schools, schoolgirls to train another generation of children to hate Americans.
[01:55:52]  Seriously, is that the solution?
[01:55:55]  We're going to fund another expensive war based on nothing, based on a lie.
[01:56:01]  Come on, people.
[01:56:03]  Oh, and by the way, that's a new one.
[01:56:05]  The ICE wearing masks because of COVID.
[01:56:09]  That is a new one.
[01:56:11]  They are wearing masks because they are the immigrants, KKK.
[01:56:16]  John from Western Pennsylvania and Independent.
[01:56:22]  It's open forum.
[01:56:24]  Thank you.
[01:56:25]  Yeah, I mean, the one lady that was calling maybe five or six calls back, she was talking about how we need to support our troops and pay for our troops, no matter what the decision is.
[01:56:35]  The problem is that these funds are being mismanaged.
[01:56:38]  It's not just in the military or the Department of Defense/slash War, whatever you want to call it.
[01:56:44]  It's FBI.
[01:56:45]  It's the DOJ.
[01:56:46]  Look at all the money that Trump and his cohorts are wasting.
[01:56:50]  It's our money that they're wasting.
[01:56:53]  And they're spending everything frivolously.
[01:56:56]  So why would we give a mismanaged DOD more money to mismanage?
[01:57:01]  It's just going to be another blank check later on after they spend all this money on whatever it is that they're doing out there.
[01:57:09]  That being said, also the guy who called in about Israel being the chosen people, Israel is a political Zionist state.
[01:57:16]  It's not the Semitic people of the Bible.
[01:57:20]  And frankly, all the people that lived in Israel 3,000 years ago, they were of actual Semitic descent.
[01:57:26]  The folks that live in Israel right now are from Europe.
[01:57:31]  They were moved into Palestine when World War II ended.
[01:57:37]  It's just a political movement.
[01:57:39]  So I just, you know, and frankly, you know, all these folks quoting the Bible when they call in, they're saying that we need to go into endless wars for people, a political state run in the ground by Benjamin Netanyahu because of the Bible.
[01:57:55]  If you were all born in Iran, you would be Shia Muslims, and you'd probably all be part of the IRGC.
[01:58:01]  You guys are so delusional.
[01:58:04]  The Bible is just a word.
[01:58:06]  John, I think we take your point there.
[01:58:07]  I'm from Dayton, Ohio, a Democrat.
[01:58:13]  Yes, I think.
[01:58:16]  Yes, I was wanting to see if one day you guys could do a thing on all the money that Trump's spending on everything, and then to see how much money that his family has earned just since he's got back into the White House.
[01:58:34]  And I think that his whole administration has all drank the Kool-Aid.
[01:58:39]  I think they're all laid up.
[01:58:41]  So, thank you and have a good day.
[01:58:44]  Ken from North Carolina Independent.
[01:58:47]  Your next good morning, Ken, it's open for him.
[01:58:51]  Good morning, America, and thank you, C-SPAN.
[01:58:55]  First, let me say I support America's troops.
[01:58:58]  That's number one.
[01:59:00]  The greatest threat to America is not a bomb.
[01:59:04]  The greatest threat to America right now is someone trying to take over elections, people.
[01:59:17]  Look out for the scam that says we got a voting system that's so corrupt in this country that we need to make all kinds of adjustments.
[01:59:33]  Now, look, 98% accuracy is what elections in America right now, 98% accurate.
[01:59:45]  And so you elected Mr. Trump with a 98% accuracy.
[01:59:50]  Now, all of a sudden, there's all this talk about elections might be false.
[01:59:59]  And this, who is the person who comes up with the claim that elections all of a sudden are corrupt?
[02:00:08]  It can't be the same guy who just said or said on the phone, please give me votes.

=== Congressional War Debate (02:59) ===

[02:00:15]  It can't be him.
[02:00:16]  It can't be the same guy who led a group of people or inspired a group of people to charge the United States Capitol.
[02:00:27]  It can't be that guy.
[02:00:29]  All right, Ken, I'm going to have to cut you off so we can go to break later.
[02:00:34]  Iranian-American author Human Majid, the author of Minister Without Portfolio, Memoir of a Reluctant Exile, discusses the U.S.-Israeli operations in Iran.
[02:00:46]  But next, Florida Republican Mike Haradopoulos discusses U.S.-Israeli combat operations against Iran, the impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding, and congressional news of the day.
[02:01:12]  American History TV, Saturdays on C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
[02:01:19]  As the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, join American History TV for our series, America 250, and discover the ideas and defining moments of the American story.
[02:01:30]  This week at 9 a.m. Eastern, we'll take you live to the historic Ford's Theater here in Washington, D.C. for a day-long discussion on the life, political career, and legacy of President Abraham Lincoln.
[02:01:41]  And then at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, White House Historical Association President Stuart McLaurin reflects on the life and legacy of President James Monroe as part of More Perfect's In Pursuit Project, highlighting the leadership of America's presidents and first ladies.
[02:01:56]  And at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures in History, Gonzaga professor Robert Donnelly explains why he believes that President Jimmy Carter's role in ending the Cold War has largely been overlooked.
[02:02:07]  Exploring the American story, watch American History TV.
[02:02:11]  Saturday is on C-SPAN too.
[02:02:12]  And find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
[02:02:25]  Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series.
[02:02:30]  Sunday, with our guest Hall of Fame baseball player and best-selling author Cal Ripken Jr., who has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books, including The Only Way I Know, Get in the Game, and a series of children's books.
[02:02:44]  He joins our host, civic leader, best-selling author, and owner of the Baltimore Orioles, David Rubinstein.
[02:02:52]  I thought writing kids' books were a good way to broach certain subjects that might have been tough when you're kids or whatever else in the backdrop of a travel team, travel baseball team, because we all worry about things as kids, and it was a way to communicate a good message through books.
[02:03:09]  So I just enjoyed the process.
[02:03:11]  Watch America's Book Club with Cal Ripken Jr.

=== Radical Transparency Needed (15:39) ===

[02:03:14]  Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
[02:03:19]  Only on C-SPAN.
[02:03:26]  Washington Journal continues.
[02:03:29]  Joining us this morning to talk about the war in Iran and DHS funding is Congressman from Florida, Mike Haradopoulos of the Financial Services Committee, a member there.
[02:03:39]  Good morning.
[02:03:40]  Thanks so much for being with us.
[02:03:41]  My pleasure.
[02:03:41]  Great to see you.
[02:03:42]  All right, let's dive right in.
[02:03:44]  You support the U.S.-Israeli combat operations in Iran.
[02:03:47]  Tell us why.
[02:03:48]  Well, I think most importantly, it's a threat of Iran.
[02:03:50]  As you know, we've tried very much since literally 1979 to try to handle this situation.
[02:03:56]  And as you know, they have lied consistently.
[02:03:59]  When Barack Obama tried to work with them back in 2015, we even helped them out economically.
[02:04:03]  They lied again about their nuclear ambitions.
[02:04:06]  And now we realize once again, even though we knocked out much of their bunkers and so forth last year, they continued this effort to acquire a nuclear weapon.
[02:04:15]  And as we're seeing over and over now during this conflict, they're not just shooting at Israelis and Americans.
[02:04:21]  They're indiscriminately firing at all of their neighbors at places like hotels.
[02:04:25]  I mean, your thing is really, I mean, evil is the only way to put it.
[02:04:29]  These have been people who killed tens of thousands of their own people.
[02:04:32]  If they're willing to kill their own citizens, you can only imagine what they would do to the rest of the world with a nuclear weapon.
[02:04:38]  Well, there's obviously questions about whether or not they were actually able to, as Trump said, have a nuclear weapon in two weeks.
[02:04:46]  Tulsi Gabbard testified yesterday, basically saying that it was their intention to do so.
[02:04:54]  The president has given a timeframe of four to six weeks for these strikes to continue.
[02:05:00]  We're almost at the end of week three.
[02:05:02]  How long do you believe that this operation is going to continue to last?
[02:05:06]  Well, I don't know all the ins and outs.
[02:05:07]  I think we're all working with that.
[02:05:08]  I mean, the good news is we have absolute air superiority at this time.
[02:05:12]  We've knocked out so many of their missiles.
[02:05:14]  The number of missiles they can fire has been dramatically reduced.
[02:05:17]  I see between 90 and 95 percent fewer missiles than what started this conflict.
[02:05:21]  We have put their navy down in the bottom of the ocean.
[02:05:24]  And of course, their ability to project power has been radically reduced as well.
[02:05:29]  And so we're going to have to see how this kind of plays out.
[02:05:31]  They are now almost like a rat in the corner, just indiscriminately firing at civilian targets.
[02:05:37]  Again, just shows the evil of this organization.
[02:05:40]  And if you're in the leadership, your days are numbered.
[02:05:43]  I hope this will end quickly.
[02:05:44]  We all do.
[02:05:45]  My own son is in the military, and we think about him and his friends and know how challenging this is.
[02:05:51]  We do not want to put boots on the ground, obviously, in Iran either.
[02:05:54]  We're optimistic that we can put such a hurt on Iran that they never go after these again.
[02:06:00]  I think the real issue here was, as Mark Arubio put it, well, these folks are trying to create such a strong conventional force with drones and ballistic missiles that they could create a nuclear weapon in time and, of course, not just dominate that region, but potentially with intercontinental ballistic missiles threaten the entire world.
[02:06:18]  Now, there have been some questions about how much information Congress is getting.
[02:06:22]  Punchbowl has reported that the Senate and House GOP committee chairs have shown no urgency in getting public testimony from senior administration officials on the war, even as questions about its goals and its costs and its motives continue to mount.
[02:06:37]  Democrats are now demanding hearings from public hearings from Hag Seth, Department of Defense Secretary Rubio, who is over at the State Department.
[02:06:47]  Are you guys being adequately briefed and would you support public testimony from these two?
[02:06:52]  Well, I think there should be a complete debrief of what's going on.
[02:06:54]  No doubt about it.
[02:06:55]  We're a very transparent society and we think all the information is needed, not only for the cost of the war, but the justification for it.
[02:07:01]  I think the justification is clear.
[02:07:03]  Again, you see the evil of this country is they're killing their own citizens.
[02:07:06]  I mean, just you saw a couple of days ago, one of their star wrestlers is put to death.
[02:07:10]  Now these young ladies who play soccer for them coming from Australia could be at risk.
[02:07:14]  This is a real challenging situation.
[02:07:17]  And again, I think it's a real telling sign is not just the United States and Israel are conducting these activities, but look at all of Iran's neighbors.
[02:07:24]  They're taking the side of the U.S. and of Israel.
[02:07:28]  Many of those countries have been longtime enemies of Israel.
[02:07:30]  And so I think it's a positive sign that people have had enough of Iran, that their own neighbors are saying, we're going to side with the United States to try to take out this regime because they've caused so much havoc in the area.
[02:07:40]  But to your general question, absolutely.
[02:07:42]  We need to have these hearings.
[02:07:43]  People need to know exactly what we did, how we accomplished the mission, much like we told what happened so successfully in Venezuela.
[02:07:50]  Now, something that Tulsi Gabbard said this week when she was testifying on Capitol Hill, she said after those June 2025 U.S. strikes with B-2 bombers that hit Iran's nuclear facilities, she said, quote, there have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.
[02:08:07]  Obviously, we know that there is, you know, Democrats have been highly critical of this.
[02:08:12]  If the conflict becomes protracted or U.S. costs or casualties increase, will there be more oversight needed on how the Department of Defense and the President are doing these strikes?
[02:08:28]  That's a fair question.
[02:08:29]  I'm glad you asked it because we do deserve to know.
[02:08:31]  Again, I consider, of course, the Congress an eco-branch with the executive branch, and we work in concert with them on most matters.
[02:08:38]  And I think they need to show this was our plan.
[02:08:41]  This is how we carried out our plan.
[02:08:42]  And these are the objectives we met.
[02:08:44]  We saw that very successfully in Venezuela.
[02:08:47]  I think we're going to see the same in Iran.
[02:08:48]  I mean, it's really telling, isn't it, that the entire ability for Iran to defend themselves has been radically reduced.
[02:08:55]  And all they're doing now is trying to do almost like terrorist activities, trying to shut down this trade of Hormuz, where approximately 20% of the oil comes in.
[02:09:02]  But absolutely, we should have a full debrief of what happened.
[02:09:05]  And if we feel like the whole story was not told, I think we need to be more aggressive about that.
[02:09:09]  But they did have a meeting with a gang of eight, as you know.
[02:09:12]  And that means Republicans and Democrats telling what the intentions of our efforts there in Iran would be and hopefully what we would define success as.
[02:09:20]  Let's shift to the cost of war because you are on the Financial Services Committee.
[02:09:25]  Multiple places, including the Times, have reported that the cost of the war has grown, exceeding $11 billion in the first week alone.
[02:09:33]  I believe it was six days that they told lawmakers.
[02:09:36]  The Post now reports that the Pentagon has asked the White House, who eventually will ask lawmakers to approve $200 billion in additional funds for the Iran war.
[02:09:48]  Would you support that number?
[02:09:50]  Well, first of all, let's find out what the number is.
[02:09:52]  I mean, the number is high, there's no doubt.
[02:09:54]  And we never want to have to spend money like this, but this is how you keep the world safe.
[02:09:59]  Iran is a real threat.
[02:10:00]  Their own neighbors recognize it.
[02:10:01]  We recognize it.
[02:10:02]  And these dollars are significant.
[02:10:04]  I'm not sure what the total cost would be.
[02:10:05]  But let's also look long-term.
[02:10:07]  The reason why we have so many assets in that region is because of the threat of Iran.
[02:10:12]  We have all these bases that we have to spend money on, national defense, help out allies like Israel in its efforts.
[02:10:18]  If Iran is finally neutralized, we don't have to spend as much money long-term in places like Iran.
[02:10:23]  That's a good thing.
[02:10:24]  And this hotbed in our entire lifetime has been the Middle East.
[02:10:27]  And if you can take out the head of the snake, because remember, it's Iran who fuels all of the terrorist activities.
[02:10:33]  They are a state sponsor of terrorism.
[02:10:36]  You knock that group out, and it creates a lot less spending needed in the future.
[02:10:40]  But to your point, I'm not sure what that number will be.
[02:10:42]  Were you surprised to hear that number, $200 billion?
[02:10:45]  I think I was because, as you just mentioned, they said the first few days is $11 billion.
[02:10:48]  How would it be 20 times more, right?
[02:10:50]  But that said, remember, in places like Minnesota, they found really at least $10 billion in fraud.
[02:10:56]  We're seeing much the same in the hospice fraud in California.
[02:10:59]  This is why we need to be so aggressive in being more transparent with all spending, not just military spending.
[02:11:05]  But I'm a person who believes in equal access to this transparency.
[02:11:08]  Defense Department and Health and Human Services programs should all have more transparency because we've seen a lot of fraud across the board in the government.
[02:11:16]  And that's why Rick Scott and I have a bill that says every dollar we spend should be put online, and not just how much is spent, but who gets the money.
[02:11:23]  Yeah.
[02:11:23]  And just who gets the money?
[02:11:25]  The President earlier this year proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for the upcoming fiscal year, saying it would give him his dream military.
[02:11:34]  Of course, that would be a 50% increase above current levels.
[02:11:38]  If that $200 billion is what actually comes in, Pete Hagsett said it could go higher, it could go lower, but if that number is what actually comes in to lawmakers, should that count towards that $1.5 trillion that the President has asked for?
[02:11:52]  I mean, these are huge numbers, right?
[02:11:54]  They are.
[02:11:54]  And I think we're so early in the process.
[02:11:56]  You know, we're going to pass the budget hopefully this fall.
[02:11:59]  And I'd love to see a bipartisan budget.
[02:12:01]  This is what we should do more of in Washington, D.C.
[02:12:04]  But as you also know, in the Biden years, we spent a heck of a lot of money because of the Ukraine situation, the tragedy what happened on October 7th in Israel, et cetera.
[02:12:12]  We used a lot of our ammunition, so to speak, our stockpile, helping out Ukraine in their conflict with Russia.
[02:12:18]  So we're rebuilding our military.
[02:12:20]  And as you know, China is spending trillions of dollars on their military, trying to dominate that region.
[02:12:25]  We need to take care of that threat.
[02:12:27]  And of course, I chair the Space Committee, as you know, Jasmine.
[02:12:30]  And that is another interest of ours because that is such an important part of our military mission because that's our eyes and ears around the world, GPS technology, etc.
[02:12:39]  Two more questions before we turn to some phone calls.
[02:12:42]  We talked a little bit about the debt and deficit the last time that you were here, Congressman.
[02:12:49]  Should additional war funding be paid by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget as an offset?
[02:12:55]  Where would that money come from?
[02:12:57]  And I know you said that you hoped that the budget will be bipartisan, but would this new funding go through regular appropriations or should it just go by party line?
[02:13:07]  Well, look, I think we should have regular negotiations.
[02:13:10]  I mean, as you know, with a big fight we're having with the Department of Homeland Security, we passed this budget in the House and they're fighting about it in the Senate.
[02:13:16]  And that's why our agents at the airport aren't getting paid.
[02:13:20]  We need to do this better.
[02:13:21]  And that's why, again, I call for transparency.
[02:13:23]  And as far as where the cuts would come from, the good news is we realize there is a lot of fraud in this system, and we can aggressively go out to that.
[02:13:29]  Remember, the U.S. government doesn't spend cash and sending it to the US.
[02:13:32]  Is there $1.5 trillion of fraud in this country?
[02:13:35]  I think that I've seen as high as 10 to 15 percent of our entire budget is fraud.
[02:13:38]  So that would really put a dent in it.
[02:13:40]  The other good news is that our economy is stronger than it was a year ago.
[02:13:44]  We're looking at a situation where the long-term growth for America is better because that means a bigger pie means that even with the same tax rate, the same amount of money would actually increase instead of decrease.
[02:13:56]  All right, I want to ask you one last question before we get to some calls.
[02:13:58]  But in an interview yesterday with an Orlando outlet, I mean, excuse me, yesterday, last week, you said, I do not support the idea that we're going to put boots on the ground, let alone nation-build.
[02:14:10]  We have challenges here at home.
[02:14:12]  That's where our focus needs to be.
[02:14:14]  Yesterday, the president said that he would not deploy boots on the ground, but if he did, he wouldn't tell the press.
[02:14:20]  But ABC is now reporting that the Pentagon's decision to send the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a 2,200 troop force to the Middle East, has raised questions about whether the Iranian conflicts could involve U.S. ground troops.
[02:14:33]  Where are you on this?
[02:14:34]  And for the American people who are watching, where is this all headed?
[02:14:38]  Obviously, they're hearing these, whether or not these Marines going into the Middle East.
[02:14:44]  Where is this all going?
[02:14:45]  Well, first, I stand by my comment.
[02:14:47]  I mean, none of us want boots on the ground in Iran.
[02:14:49]  We want to win this conflict.
[02:14:50]  And the good news, as we mentioned before, is that we have absolute air superiority.
[02:14:54]  We can send our slow bombers, so to speak, over Iran now because there's no anti-missile threat for the most part.
[02:15:00]  And we have dominated and we have knocked out a lot of their command and control structure.
[02:15:04]  Their ability to project has also been radically reduced, which is a great thing.
[02:15:08]  I do not support boots on the ground.
[02:15:09]  I don't think anyone does.
[02:15:11]  And what the president, I think, of course, is doing right now is what any smart business person would do, let alone elected leader, would do, and that's to have as many options as possible.
[02:15:19]  But we're all optimistic that we can keep, we can win this conflict, take away the ability for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
[02:15:26]  And hopefully the Iranian people, not United States, but the Iranian people, say enough is enough, considering the fact that women don't have any rights in Iran, as you know, whether it be what they wear, let alone when they testify in court, or their rights in a marriage.
[02:15:38]  And so let's hope this is a new day for Iran and that they can get back to where they were in 1979 as far as rights for individuals as opposed to where they've been for the last 47 years.
[02:15:49]  Would you consider the military taking over Karg Island, obviously that oil island that the president struck, which produces 90% of the oil for Iran, if the military were to go there, would you consider that boots on the ground?
[02:16:02]  I think that people would see that as an occupation of a vital economic interest.
[02:16:05]  I think I've always considered boots on the ground as a history teacher is literally where we would occupy an entire country.
[02:16:12]  Like we did after World War II in Japan, right?
[02:16:14]  And so we all have a horrible taste in our mouth of what happened in Iraq.
[02:16:18]  And I'm sure our current leadership has learned a lot of lessons for that.
[02:16:22]  But we know 20% of all the oil in the world comes from that area.
[02:16:26]  And interesting enough, it's actually China that relies more on that oil than we do.
[02:16:30]  And Japan.
[02:16:31]  And Japan, correct.
[02:16:32]  The other good news is that we're producing a heck of a lot more oil here in the United States.
[02:16:36]  And now we have a friend, or at least a person we can work with in Venezuela to produce a lot more oil so we're less dependent upon this part of the world.
[02:16:45]  David from Texas, a Republican.
[02:16:48]  You're first.
[02:16:49]  Good morning, David.
[02:16:51]  Good morning.
[02:16:52]  I have a few things I'd like to get clarified.
[02:16:55]  Why can't our elected officials have a debate and care more about the American people than they do the immigrants and everything?
[02:17:05]  And why is it that Republicans would rather rewrite history than to actually do something about it?
[02:17:14]  The Hormuz Straits, where are our spinesweepers?
[02:17:19]  They were sent from the Middle East back to the United States.
[02:17:24]  And England asked the president, can we help?
[02:17:27]  He told him no.
[02:17:29]  We've got it under control.
[02:17:32]  Well, now they want help from everybody.
[02:17:35]  You know, let's debate.
[02:17:37]  Let's get together.
[02:17:39]  You know, the ICE people are being funded.
[02:17:43]  That was taken care of in July.
[02:17:46]  It's nobody's fault, but the Republicans, I believe, because they won't do something about ICE.
[02:17:54]  So we're not paying TSA and the American people are standing in line at the airport three, four hours.
[02:18:01]  Get your stuff straight.
[02:18:02]  Sorry, David.
[02:18:03]  Let me get the congressman an opportunity to respond there because he mentioned about four different topics.
[02:18:08]  I'll do the last one.
[02:18:09]  I'll try to keep up with David here.
[02:18:11]  First of all, remember, we have funded ICE all the way till 2029, where we have already put in the budget, which I thought would be the most common sense thing that Democrats and I have talked about.
[02:18:20]  And that is let's have body cameras for ICE agents.
[02:18:23]  We need to understand what they face, especially when local law enforcement does not support them like we saw in that tragedy in Minneapolis.
[02:18:30]  The second thing is I do think they need more training because they're confronting things they're not used to.
[02:18:34]  Usually when ICE comes in, local law enforcement supports them and they take out these bad guys or gals who committed a crime beyond, of course, coming into the country illegally, but once here committing a crime.
[02:18:44]  There's actually a website called wowworstoftheworst.dhs.gov and it outlines the people who came here illegally and the crimes that they committed.

=== Budget Resolution Talks (12:26) ===

[02:18:54]  In my home state, there's over 2,500 such individuals in Florida.
[02:18:58]  But we have funded DHS in the House, as you know.
[02:19:01]  They're fighting about it right now in the Senate.
[02:19:03]  And I feel bad for these folks at the airport who are doing the job and not getting paid.
[02:19:08]  I hope we can work something out.
[02:19:09]  But again, if the fight is over ICE, hey, that debate already happened.
[02:19:12]  We funded it till 2029.
[02:19:14]  Let's all get together and agree that people who do a job should be paid for it, especially those who are protecting our homeland.
[02:19:20]  And I want to put a compromise that the White House sent over to Democrats this week as they're negotiating with the Senate Democrats released a letter basically detailing what changes that they would be willing to concede to Democrats.
[02:19:37]  That includes body cameras, an expansion of the use of body cameras for federal agents, limit of enforcement in certain sensitive locations, including hospitals and schools, greater oversight of DHS detention facilities.
[02:19:49]  This week we saw Mark Wayne Mullen, who is the nominee for a DHS, basically saying that they would only use judicial warrants and not administrative warrants, something that the Democrats said that they wanted.
[02:20:00]  Of course, that was not in this proposal.
[02:20:02]  But they still seem far apart from what Democrats want.
[02:20:05]  Democrats have said after this letter of sent that this is not enough.
[02:20:10]  So where do you see the ability for Republicans and Democrats to compromise to reopen all of the government and fund the TSA agents and the Coast Guard and all the folks?
[02:20:21]  I mean, Jasmine, you did a great job.
[02:20:23]  That's the White House trying to work with Democrats, conceding all of these points, saying we're willing to work with you on all of these.
[02:20:29]  But it's not exactly what Democrats have asked.
[02:20:32]  I've seen in my brief time here in Congress, it seemed like it's never enough for the Democrats.
[02:20:37]  And sometimes when you try to work with them, I think they're more concerned about the politics of it all.
[02:20:43]  My goal was to keep the TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA funded, especially when you have a national tragedy like we might have in Florida with hurricanes.
[02:20:50]  We saw, of course, those terrible floods in North Carolina.
[02:20:53]  We saw the fires in California, let alone Hawaii.
[02:20:56]  I mean, let's fund the government.
[02:20:57]  And I'm happy to have, David brought up a great point.
[02:20:59]  Let's have a debate.
[02:21:00]  I love debate, and I think that's the kind of thing we need to do more of.
[02:21:03]  But when you just say it's never enough, seems to be the answer from Democrats too often.
[02:21:08]  And even on the most common sense things, we had a vote the other day saying basically, if a person commits fraud, should they be kicked out of the country?
[02:21:15]  Well, hell yeah, they should be.
[02:21:17]  And so it's come to this case where I think they're more worried about losing a Democrat primary sometimes than they are trying to just solve a problem.
[02:21:24]  The White House is willing to compromise.
[02:21:26]  It seems like it's never enough for the Democrats, at least from the way I see it.
[02:21:29]  And all I can do is what all I can do is what all I can do, which meaning we passed the budget in the House.
[02:21:34]  The Senate, as you know, needs 60 votes to get that full funding.
[02:21:37]  I hope that they can work out a deal.
[02:21:39]  Of all people, it's John Fetterman from Pennsylvania.
[02:21:42]  It seems to be the guy who's trying to find that middle ground, which is always appreciated in my book.
[02:21:46]  All right, Bob from Arkansas, a Republican.
[02:21:51]  You're next.
[02:21:52]  Go ahead, Bob.
[02:21:53]  Thank you.
[02:21:54]  I'd just like to make a comment about what Trump did over in Iran.
[02:22:03]  I think he presented a nuclear Pearl Harbor.
[02:22:08]  If you talk about the cost, what would be the cost to replace LA or New York?
[02:22:20]  Okay, that was Bob.
[02:22:21]  I wonder if you respond to that.
[02:22:22]  Yeah, Bob from Arkansas, I'm actually a University of Arkansas graduate.
[02:22:25]  We're just talking about before we got on the show today.
[02:22:27]  And Go Hogs had a big win last night against Hawaii.
[02:22:30]  I'm optimistic they can do well.
[02:22:31]  But that said, Bob, I think that's where the president eventually sided.
[02:22:35]  He said, look, this is a real threat.
[02:22:37]  And even remember, the guy from Iran who basically gave us a lot of information about what was going on.
[02:22:41]  He said, yeah, they were trying to acquire a nuclear weapon.
[02:22:44]  And the way they would try to get it is by having so many drones and so many ballistic missiles that they would have a defense ring strong enough where they would not be harmed like they were last year.
[02:22:54]  Look, I just think that Iran has really telegraphed who they are.
[02:22:58]  They're killing their own citizens.
[02:23:00]  They're indiscriminately firing at hotels and public places like the Nazis did against the British in World War II.
[02:23:08]  This is an evil regime.
[02:23:10]  And the quicker they're gone, the better.
[02:23:12]  And the people of Iran hopefully will eventually make their own decision about the future of their country.
[02:23:17]  But we wanted to take away that real threat.
[02:23:19]  And that's what the president chose to do.
[02:23:21]  And as you and I talked about, Jasmine, we need to have a full debriefing of what happened and why and find out what was accurate.
[02:23:27]  Because remember, whether we Hillary Clinton or George W. Bush, some of the stories that came out with Iraq proved to be inaccurate.
[02:23:34]  And so that's the frustration where we need to elevate our transparency in this country to gain the trust back of the people.
[02:23:41]  And I think that's just common sense.
[02:23:42]  But I do think I act aside with Bob from Arkansas.
[02:23:45]  I think this was a preemptive move to make sure they never acquired that nuclear weapon to terrorize the world.
[02:23:51]  And so, you know, a result of this, obviously, has been over the last few days is that Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, prompting an Iranian retaliatory strikes on the Qatar side of that same gas hub and a missile barrage on Vredaya.
[02:24:07]  The oil field is shared by Iran-Qatar, the biggest in the world.
[02:24:11]  From your state, the Daytona Beach News Journal reports that Florida gas prices on Tuesday jumped an average of 13.2 cents overnight with regular gas topping $4 a gallon in parts of the state.
[02:24:23]  I wonder, what's your response to Americans who say that the cost is becoming too much because of the war?
[02:24:30]  And do you have concerns about the impact on U.S. oil and gas prices?
[02:24:37]  Of course I do.
[02:24:37]  I mean, it's a real hard thing because, again, we went through four years of high inflation under Joe Biden.
[02:24:43]  As you remember, it reached over 9%.
[02:24:45]  I also want to make sure people remember just a few years ago when the Biden, during 2022, gas prices adjusted for inflation were over $150.
[02:24:54]  And the same thing happened when Barack Obama was president.
[02:24:56]  Gas prices, I think, got to $147 per barrel adjusted for inflation.
[02:25:01]  And that was over a longer period.
[02:25:02]  Now they say that if it goes to late April, the barrels could be $180.
[02:25:06]  Again, I don't disagree at all.
[02:25:08]  And that's why we're optimistic this conflict could end soon.
[02:25:11]  But the other thing we're doing, unlike in the previous administrations, we're becoming more self-reliant on our own energy needs.
[02:25:17]  That's why we've opened up opportunities with shale production, why we're working more closely with places like Venezuela to use their heavier crude to get those prices down and looking for more opportunities and having an all-in energy solution.
[02:25:31]  Because again, we need to be less reliant in general on the Middle East.
[02:25:34]  But I think if we can end this conflict quickly, we'll get those prices down.
[02:25:38]  Right now, before I went on the show, I think they're about $93, $94 a barrel.
[02:25:43]  The average this year was between $72 and $85 a barrel.
[02:25:46]  So it's up.
[02:25:47]  But we're optimistic it will come back down.
[02:25:48]  And it's still a heck of a lot less than it was during the Biden years and the Obama years.
[02:25:52]  Have you heard from your constituents that they're concerned about paying $4 a gallon again?
[02:25:56]  Well, you don't have to hear from the constituents.
[02:25:57]  I'm concerned about it, too.
[02:25:58]  And this is an everyday issue.
[02:26:00]  And again, this is hopefully an aberration.
[02:26:02]  And once we end this conflict, we can reduce those prices down to the levels they're at just a month or so ago.
[02:26:09]  That's our goal.
[02:26:10]  But the other part of this is not just what's happening in the Middle East.
[02:26:12]  We need to become energy independent.
[02:26:14]  We all learned during COVID that we became too dependent on other parts of the world.
[02:26:19]  And that's why we're seeing these new investments be made here in America.
[02:26:22]  And the other good news is that since President Trump has come back into office, I think around $17 trillion in foreign investment has come into America.
[02:26:30]  So we've become more independent on things like, let's just say, computer chips, for example.
[02:26:35]  Bruce from Kingston, New York, a Democrat.
[02:26:38]  You're next.
[02:26:38]  Good morning, Bruce.
[02:26:40]  Yeah, good morning.
[02:26:43]  Hello, C-SPAN fans and the rest of America.
[02:26:47]  I'd like to point out, I don't want to get involved in the Republican sales talk, but the fact of the matter is the only people who are blowing up the world is Putin, Netanyahu, and now Trump.
[02:27:02]  And with American financing behind the bombs that are coming down, we're also paying for Israeli destruction and the machine that just took care of Gaza and is now turning Lebanon, southern Lebanon into another Gaza.
[02:27:20]  I watched the BBC report live last night with a reporter dodging problems coming down, was walking through southern Lebanon that looked like, and she literally said, this feels like Armageddon.
[02:27:34]  Now, that's what basically is really going on.
[02:27:37]  If we destroy the state of Iran, which is what Israel really wants, to break it down like Gaza and essentially create a no man's land, we're going to have 93 million people who are across the Middle East going to be very angry.
[02:27:52]  And that's going to be for the next 50 years.
[02:27:54]  In the meantime, we're letting Russia refinancing Russia with all right, Bruce.
[02:28:00]  I'm going to let the Congressman.
[02:28:01]  We're coming up on some time.
[02:28:02]  I'll let the Congressman respond to that.
[02:28:04]  Well, look, we all went in this conflict as quickly as possible.
[02:28:07]  We all also remember it happened just a couple years ago on October 7th, and that was funded by Iran.
[02:28:13]  They are the state sponsor of terrorism in my entire lifetime.
[02:28:18]  And again, I can't stress enough.
[02:28:20]  Look what they do to their own people.
[02:28:21]  If these are their own citizens, you could only imagine what they might do to the rest of the world and how they're, again, they're bombing places that could be their friends.
[02:28:29]  And again, it's very telling that all the nations that surround Iran have had enough of Iran, that they're siding with the United States and Israel, who had been a longtime enemy of theirs.
[02:28:38]  And so I think Bruce's point is well taken.
[02:28:41]  We hate to have these conflicts around the world, but when you confront evil, it's not easy.
[02:28:45]  And as we all learn, as again, a history teacher myself, when you don't confront evil, you have situations like Nazi Germany.
[02:28:52]  Remember, Chamberlain appeased the Nazis, and I don't know, 200 million people died in the process.
[02:28:58]  Doug from Las Vegas, Nevada, a Republican.
[02:29:02]  You're next.
[02:29:02]  Good morning, Doug.
[02:29:04]  Hello.
[02:29:04]  Hey, I'm glad you're talking about all these money issues and stuff because I really don't care about this war.
[02:29:12]  That's just a blip on the screen.
[02:29:15]  I'm more concerned with the continuing resolutions that our Congress and our Senate use to not do their jobs.
[02:29:25]  Well, I don't use vow.
[02:29:29]  I don't know if this guy, what his personal politics are, but I know anybody who goes to sit in the Senate or the Congress and votes for continuing resolutions are voting for something that just gives something to cover their butt and not do their job.
[02:29:48]  If they can't do the budget without continuing resolutions, I ran a budget my whole life.
[02:29:55]  I worked poor my whole life.
[02:29:58]  I can retire now because I saved my money.
[02:30:01]  Y'all don't know how to make a budget, I don't think.
[02:30:04]  That's why you use CRs.
[02:30:06]  I hate the elected officials in these big groups that will not do their job.
[02:30:14]  Their main job is to make a budget.
[02:30:17]  They haven't done that for years.
[02:30:19]  All right, Doug, I think we get your point.
[02:30:20]  Let's have the Congressman respond.
[02:30:21]  Well, good question.
[02:30:22]  Remember, they've not passed a normal budget since 1997.
[02:30:26]  As Zeg may or may not know, a new member of Congress, I came from Florida, where we actually balanced budgets.
[02:30:31]  When I was leader of the Senate, we had a budget shortfall, so whatever we did, we spent less.
[02:30:34]  We didn't raise taxes when people could least afford it.
[02:30:37]  But the good news for, if you don't know this, everything except DHS no longer has a continuing resolution.
[02:30:43]  This is the last piece of the pie, and I think that's a positive step.
[02:30:47]  We no longer have to live in what a Republican would say, the Biden budgets.
[02:30:50]  These are our budgets now.
[02:30:52]  We've reduced the amount of spending, you know, in the big, beautiful bill by about $1.5 trillion.
[02:30:56]  And the last piece of the pie, Doug, is this last debate about DHS funding, which Jasmine and I are talking about.
[02:31:03]  My number one long-term goal we talked about last time, Jasmine, is to have a balanced budget amendment.
[02:31:07]  It makes elected officials make the tough decisions.
[02:31:10]  And I'm glad to see we're moving away from continual resolutions so that the election results decide the future of the country, not what happened in prior administrations.
[02:31:19]  All right, Congressman, we've got to leave it there.

=== Founders Day Support (02:36) ===

[02:31:20]  Thank you so much for joining us, Congressman Mike Hardopoulos of the Financial Services and Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee Chair.
[02:31:28]  Thanks so much, Rabbi.
[02:31:29]  Great to see you.
[02:31:30]  Thank you.
[02:31:30]  All right.
[02:31:31]  And next, author and journalist Human Majid discusses U.S.-Israeli combat operations against Iran and President Trump's desire to see regime change in the country.
[02:31:53]  Today on C-SPAN Ceasefire, a bipartisan conversation on the Iran conflict featuring Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy and Vermont Democratic Senator Peter Welch, joined by our host, Dasha Burns.
[02:32:05]  They'll also discuss continuing the partial Homeland Security Department shutdown and Senate action on the Trump-backed voting bill, the Save America Act.
[02:32:13]  Watch Ceasefire today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
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[02:33:32]  Washington Journal continues.
[02:33:36]  Welcome back.
[02:33:37]  Joining us now to talk about the U.S.-Israeli operation in Iran is Human Majid, author of Minister Without Portfolio, memoir of a Rakaltan exile, an author and journalist.
[02:33:51]  Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
[02:33:54]  My pleasure.
[02:33:55]  Thank you for having me.

=== Inside Iranian Protests (12:33) ===

[02:33:57]  So first, just give us what your thoughts are on what's unfolding in Iran, your home country.
[02:34:04]  Well, I mean, what's unfolding is what we see from the videos and the statements and the cell phone videos that we see on social media and on the nightly news channels everywhere is bombing.
[02:34:17]  I mean, the missiles are landing on people's heads.
[02:34:20]  Buildings are being flattened.
[02:34:22]  People are being killed.
[02:34:24]  It's a war.
[02:34:24]  It's an actual war.
[02:34:25]  I know President Trump calls it an excursion, but it's, I think he meant incursion, but it doesn't matter.
[02:34:33]  It's a war.
[02:34:34]  Pete Hekseth calls it a war.
[02:34:35]  He's the Secretary of War.
[02:34:37]  I think the Iranians consider it a war.
[02:34:39]  And when they're being bombed and killed in some cases, in many cases, actually, I think well over 2,000 at this point, dead Iranians, civilians.
[02:34:51]  So yeah, it's a war.
[02:34:52]  That's what's happening.
[02:34:53]  People are making do with what they can.
[02:34:56]  They're, you know, going shopping.
[02:34:58]  When I say shopping, shopping for food, basically.
[02:35:00]  They are trying to live their lives as best they can.
[02:35:04]  And in the big cities, I mean, today is Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year.
[02:35:07]  So it's a very important day.
[02:35:09]  Excuse me.
[02:35:10]  It also happens to be Eid, which for Muslims is a holy day.
[02:35:15]  It's a celebration of the last day of Ramadan.
[02:35:18]  So a double holiday in Iran, in a way.
[02:35:22]  And both are supposed to be celebratory, but they're not really.
[02:35:24]  People are going through the motions.
[02:35:27]  They're doing what you normally do on Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
[02:35:31]  But it's not a happy occasion.
[02:35:34]  So that's what's happening on the ground.
[02:35:35]  The people that I am able to communicate with my family inside Iran, yeah, they're all worried.
[02:35:40]  They're all sad.
[02:35:41]  They don't know what's next.
[02:35:43]  They don't know how long this war is going to go on.
[02:35:47]  They definitely believe the Iranian system is going to resist for as long as it can.
[02:35:55]  And the question is, how long will President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu decide to prolong this war and continue to bomb?
[02:36:02]  Because they, you know, military targets, I'm not sure there are a whole lot left, as President Trump himself says.
[02:36:08]  So what's next?
[02:36:09]  Is it troops on the ground, which Iranians are worried about?
[02:36:13]  Is it bombing civilian sites, infrastructure, for example?
[02:36:17]  So that's what's going on right now as we speak.
[02:36:21]  And as in, you know, Iran is seven and a half hours ahead of us time zone.
[02:36:25]  They're approaching their evening.
[02:36:28]  And more bombs and more missiles.
[02:36:30]  You mentioned the system itself.
[02:36:32]  You wrote in the intercept earlier this month.
[02:36:35]  The headline is the regime change president who won't or can't actually change any regimes.
[02:36:41]  You said the Iran war shows that Trump is loving his military interventions, but they are never what he claims them to be.
[02:36:48]  You call it regime adjustments.
[02:36:51]  Explain what you mean.
[02:36:53]  Well, I think that's what, I mean, based on what President Trump himself has said, basically, it seems his preference is not to go through a complete regime change, partly even if that's something that he may fantasize about that could happen organically without the U.S. doing very much.
[02:37:08]  I think he understands that a real regime change means putting boots on the ground.
[02:37:13]  And then a real regime change to go from a completely different, from this regime to a completely different regime, has to mean that there is someone ready to take over.
[02:37:23]  I know that President Trump and this administration is not talking about an Iraq-style regime change where someone like Paul Bremer becomes the pro-consul and runs the country as an American.
[02:37:33]  So that's out of the question.
[02:37:35]  So it seems that his preference is an adjustment of the regime to be something more to his liking, sort of like Venezuela.
[02:37:42]  And he's actually said that.
[02:37:44]  And that's a regime adjustment.
[02:37:45]  It's not a regime change.
[02:37:46]  The military in Venezuela is still the same military.
[02:37:48]  The vice president is now the president, is the same person who was the vice president.
[02:37:54]  And, you know, the U.S. has good relations now with Venezuela.
[02:37:57]  Sanctions are being lifted.
[02:37:59]  I think that is the preference for was the preference, at least for Iran.
[02:38:03]  It's kind of hitting sort of a bit of a roadblock here because, you know, Iran hasn't, you know, obliged by having someone come up and say, listen, I'll take over.
[02:38:14]  I'll be the person to, you know, or be the person to deal with President Trump and we will just keep the regime as it is, but we won't do this, that, and the other that President Trump doesn't like or doesn't want.
[02:38:25]  So that doesn't appear to be at all the goal at this point.
[02:38:28]  And saying to people who are being bombed, you should, you know, you should take over the government is unrealistic.
[02:38:34]  And I think the administration knows that's unrealistic.
[02:38:38]  I mean, to that point, I know you said that the Iranians that you talked to, including your family member, are scared specifically about whether or not boots will end up on the ground there.
[02:38:49]  The Washington Post had this interesting article earlier this week.
[02:38:52]  The headline is: Israel urges Iranians to revolt, but privately assesses they'll be, quote, slaughtered.
[02:38:59]  Israeli officials told U.S. counterparts they hope for an uprising, even though it would lead to a massacre, according to a State Department cable reviewed by the Post.
[02:39:09]  Do people in Iran feel that taking to the streets as President Trump have asked them to take over their country now that the leaders of the IRGC are being kind of taken out one by one?
[02:39:25]  Do they believe that that is a real possibility?
[02:39:27]  It's a real reality for them right now.
[02:39:29]  Not at this time.
[02:39:30]  No, not at this time.
[02:39:32]  Inside Iran, people do understand, people do believe that the regime needs to change.
[02:39:37]  When I say change, it doesn't necessarily mean a drastic change, like the Shah's son coming and taking over, but it needs to reform itself or it needs to change.
[02:39:47]  I mean, people have been protesting.
[02:39:48]  We know that.
[02:39:49]  That was in January, huge protests, but that was before there was a war.
[02:39:53]  And people were going out and they were, you know, it started out as economic protests because people couldn't make ends meet with the economy the way it is, which is partly or largely because of sanctions and the collapse of the Iranian currency, the real, and partly because of corruption and other mismanagement of the government.
[02:40:14]  So the protests started like that and turned into like, well, no, we want the regime to change.
[02:40:19]  So there's no question that there are many, many people in Iran who are deeply unsatisfied.
[02:40:24]  But at times of war, you know, they're not going out.
[02:40:28]  First of all, as you pointed out, the very cynical view of the Israeli government saying, go out and do this, but we know you're all going to get slaughtered, which I think people in Iran believe that they'll get slaughtered.
[02:40:40]  I mean, they see, you know, inside Iran, you see a very strong security presence on the streets for many reasons.
[02:40:47]  One being to prevent an uprising, if it was ever to occur, and also because they believe there are spies inside Iran, which they're right, there are, because otherwise, how is Israel taking out these top leaders in Iran without having deep intelligence inside Iran?
[02:41:08]  So the security presence is very strong in Iran.
[02:41:12]  The loyalty of the troops and the shock troops and the basij and the IRGC has not been challenged at all.
[02:41:19]  They are loyal to the system so far, at least.
[02:41:22]  We have to see if there's a ground invasion that might change.
[02:41:25]  But right now, there's no fracturing in the leadership.
[02:41:27]  And as each general or leader has been assassinated, he's been replaced almost immediately.
[02:41:34]  So they have a deep bench.
[02:41:36]  And right now, we're not seeing anything that would indicate that a revolution, let's call it a revolution, is possible.
[02:41:44]  And I don't think the Iranians inside Iran believe that it's possible.
[02:41:46]  They may desire it, or at least some portion of the population may desire a radical change.
[02:41:52]  Some would, I'm sure, even welcome the Shah's son to come in and take over.
[02:41:58]  But the Shah's son doesn't really have a ground operation inside Iran, like Khomeini did in 1979.
[02:42:03]  He had every single mosque in the country, Khomeini did.
[02:42:06]  The Reza Pahlavi doesn't really have that in Iran.
[02:42:10]  He has an organization outside Iran in Washington, but that's it.
[02:42:15]  And then there's the MEK, who have an organization in Albania and in exile and some members inside Iran who can cause trouble.
[02:42:26]  They've assassinated people before, scientists over the years.
[02:42:30]  But again, they have no strength inside Iran and they are actually not particularly well liked, partly because they sided with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
[02:42:41]  So there's, you know, Iranians sitting in Iran are, you know, that's why some of them did indeed welcome military strikes, because they're like, well, the only thing that's going to help us get rid of this regime is a war or at least military strikes.
[02:42:58]  But as time has gone on and now we're in the third week and we're about to go into the fourth week of the war, I think even those people who originally welcomed some military strikes to, you know, we saw that there were some celebrations by some people, both outside and inside Iran when the supreme leader was killed, for example, and some of the top generals were killed.
[02:43:18]  But as time has gone on and people see the death toll and they see the destruction, they see some of their cultural heritage sites being damaged, some major cultural heritage sites being damaged, I think, you know, that sentiment has dissipated.
[02:43:33]  And, you know, we've seen it from witnesses on the ground.
[02:43:36]  Financial Times newspaper has someone inside Iran who's reported about that, about how people who initially welcomed perhaps some change in Iran at the leadership level, at least, if not a total regime change, are now kind of desperate.
[02:43:52]  It's like, well, this is not what we wanted.
[02:43:54]  We did not want you bombing our streets and killing people.
[02:43:58]  So, yeah, I think that there isn't any sentiment that people could rise up and take over the government.
[02:44:06]  I mean, you kind of have to imagine if you're being bombed and missiles are falling on your head, that people tell you to go take over the government.
[02:44:15]  It's like, well, how?
[02:44:16]  What are we supposed to do?
[02:44:17]  Even if we are able to destroy this regime by sheer numbers of people going out on the street and the regime collapses, then what?
[02:44:26]  I mean, most people would have to ask, then what?
[02:44:28]  Who's going to take over?
[02:44:30]  Who's going to be the person to lead the country, form a government and get things back to normal for people?
[02:44:37]  Because it's definitely not normal now.
[02:44:40]  Speaking of government, your family has had previous ties or has had ties to previous governments in Iran.
[02:44:46]  Can you elaborate on that?
[02:44:48]  And just, you know, I know we talked a bit about the reaction of people on the ground there, but what is the mindset of Iranian officials inside Iran right now?
[02:44:57]  Well, it's defiance.
[02:44:59]  The mindset of Iranian officials inside Iran is absolute defiance.
[02:45:02]  Yeah, my family, like many other Iranian families, my father was an ambassador under the Shah in the 70s.
[02:45:11]  His career in the foreign office was from the 1950s through the revolution in 1979.
[02:45:17]  I had an uncle who was a deputy prime minister under the Shah, and also another ambassador as well.
[02:45:23]  And then after the revolution, like many families in Iran, because the revolution was very popular, some members of my family on one side of my family were for the revolution, were pro the revolution.
[02:45:36]  You know, over the years, some of them have perhaps regretted it.
[02:45:40]  Some of them are still for a republic and not for a Shah and maintain that.
[02:45:47]  Some of them are very religious.
[02:45:50]  But yeah, like many Iranians, we have family on all sides of the political spectrum, all the way from communist to right-wing, extreme right-wing people.
[02:46:02]  And that's not unusual when you have a country that has gone through a major, major revolution, a complete turning upside down 2,500 years of monarchy and what people are adjusted to in terms of just thinking that's it.
[02:46:16]  Iran always has a king.
[02:46:17]  It's always had a king for 2,500 years.
[02:46:19]  I mean, how could we change that for the people who are still monarchists and want a monarchy to return?
[02:46:24]  So, yeah, but inside Iran, I mean, the defiance by the regime leadership right now is pretty clear.

=== Underestimated Regional Threats (05:09) ===

[02:46:31]  They said after the 12-day war in June of 2025, the last time Iran was attacked, that, you know, we held restraint here.
[02:46:41]  We didn't go crazy.
[02:46:43]  I mean, he fired some missiles into Israel, fired some missiles on an American base in Qatar, and then the war stopped.
[02:46:50]  There was a ceasefire.
[02:46:50]  But they did say if we're ever attacked again, this is going to be a regional war.
[02:46:54]  We're going to go after everybody.
[02:46:56]  Anybody, American bases in the region, that's where they launched their war against us.
[02:47:00]  We're going to go after those.
[02:47:02]  And they have.
[02:47:03]  So when President Trump says, you know, nobody knew they were going to do that or hit Qatar or hit Bahrain, well, they said it very publicly.
[02:47:10]  The supreme leader of Iran at the time, the now deceased supreme leader, actually wrote it on February 1, I believe, or the beginning of February on Twitter, that if we're attacked again, it's a regional war.
[02:47:21]  And that's what they've delivered, because I think the leadership considers this war existential.
[02:47:27]  And, you know, in an existential war, you go all out and do whatever you can to have the upper hand, if not to win the war, because Iran knows it can't win a traditional war against the United States or even Israel.
[02:47:41]  Militarily, both countries are so far more powerful, so more superior, so far superior to Iran's military prowess that they can't win a traditional war.
[02:47:53]  But what they can do is they can cause a lot of pain.
[02:47:56]  So they're causing that pain in the hope that they have the upper hand at the end of the war, whenever that end comes.
[02:48:03]  And that's what they're illustrating and that's what they're saying publicly.
[02:48:08]  You know, the Straits of Hormoz, which is the, yeah, everybody's talking about the ships aren't going through because of the threats of a missile attack by Iran.
[02:48:15]  They're not actually, they haven't mined it yet.
[02:48:17]  They haven't done anything yet.
[02:48:19]  But the ships don't want to traverse the oil-carrying ships, don't want to traverse the Straits because of the danger that a missile will hit.
[02:48:27]  A couple of ships have been hit in the last three weeks.
[02:48:30]  So there's this bottleneck at the Straits of Hormoz, and Iran intends to keep that.
[02:48:36]  So I think they're trying to do their best to extend how they can resist this onslaught from Israel and from the United States so that at some point one or the other or both get tired of this war and realize that they can't change the regime and the regime is not going to give up.
[02:49:00]  It views this as an existential war.
[02:49:03]  And so then They hope that President Trump will feel the pain, and the Persian Gulf Arabs are feeling the pain, and they will put pressure on the U.S. and on Israel to end this war so that they don't continue to get attacked.
[02:49:19]  I want to ask you quickly before we turn to some phone calls, because obviously the President and the Department of Defense have touted just what a military success they believe these strikes to be, that they have really rendered Iran unable to fire off most of their missiles.
[02:49:37]  90% say they say they're firing less than the start of the war, have struck over 100 of their Navy vessels and kind of those statistics like that.
[02:49:48]  But to your point, Iran is still able to strike, I mean, to launch missiles every once in a while.
[02:49:54]  They obviously have control of the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:49:57]  Do you believe that the President underestimated Iran's capacity in this way, not in the maybe traditional military way, as you said, but in their ability to kind of wreak chaos in the Middle East?
[02:50:11]  I believe so.
[02:50:11]  I mean, I don't believe the intelligence agencies inside the United States or even the Mossad may have, I don't believe they underestimated, but they've known that this could happen.
[02:50:24]  As I said, Iran telegraphed it that this is what we're going to do.
[02:50:29]  We knew that they had all these missiles, that they had built all these launchers and missiles underground.
[02:50:37]  I think, yes, I think at the end of the day, when President Trump made the decision, when he said he had this feeling that this is the right time to do this, that he probably ignored those intelligence briefings that said, yeah, this is what could happen.
[02:50:53]  Iran could close the Straits of Hormuz.
[02:50:56]  They could retaliate against the Emirates.
[02:51:00]  They could hit Qatar.
[02:51:01]  They could hit Bahrain.
[02:51:03]  So I doubt very much that the intelligence agencies were telling President Trump that, no, no, everything's going to be fine, two, three days, and we're done.
[02:51:14]  I'm sure they gave him all those alternatives that could happen, but he chose, yeah, he chose to underestimate, to believe that the power of the United States, the incredible military power of the United States, and having just done this in Venezuela, would prevail.
[02:51:32]  And all those warnings understood, but he didn't think, obviously, he didn't think that this was going to come to what it is today.

=== Escalation And Costs (09:07) ===

[02:51:41]  All right, let's take some phone calls really quickly.
[02:51:43]  Craig from Iowa and Independent, you're next.
[02:51:47]  Good morning.
[02:51:49]  First off, I want to say I love the platform that Washington Journal provides the people.
[02:51:54]  I love to hear the cross-messaging from everybody in the United States that participates.
[02:51:59]  Now, here's my point: I'm against the spending.
[02:52:05]  I like to always say: the only thing worse than a tax and spend Democrat is they don't tax and still spend Republicans like Trump.
[02:52:16]  How are we going to pay for all of this additional money?
[02:52:20]  We got a $1 trillion budget this fiscal year.
[02:52:24]  We've got a projected request for $1.5 trillion in defense spending in the 2027 budget.
[02:52:31]  And now we're going for $200 billion for supplemental spending.
[02:52:38]  Now, once we open this door, this door is wide open.
[02:52:42]  It will continue.
[02:52:43]  Trust me.
[02:52:45]  One thing that I think of is when Trump came into office, Elon Musk started the Doge program.
[02:52:53]  Who is one of the few entities in Washington that he didn't touch?
[02:52:58]  That was defense spending.
[02:53:01]  They had nothing to do with defense spending.
[02:53:03]  And in my opinion, that's one of the biggest areas of fraud spending, overspending, and waste and abuse than any other department in our government.
[02:53:14]  All right, Craig, I'm going to let Human get into this.
[02:53:17]  Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, he's right.
[02:53:20]  Craig's right.
[02:53:22]  The cost is huge.
[02:53:23]  There's also human costs.
[02:53:26]  If you don't care about Iranians dying in this war, you should actually care about Americans dying in this war, which was a war of choice.
[02:53:33]  When we have wars of choice and Americans die, I think the families and the American public deserve to know why they died.
[02:53:42]  Now, the cost of the war, yeah, it's incredibly high.
[02:53:46]  You know, an F-35 fighter jet didn't, it sort of crash-landed, and the pilot is apparently safe yesterday.
[02:53:54]  And it was hit apparently by fire inside Iran, from inside Iran when it was flying over Iran.
[02:54:00]  Which would be the first time that that's happened in this conference.
[02:54:02]  Yes, and CNN confirmed this, and the plane is an $80 million plane.
[02:54:07]  Is it a loss?
[02:54:08]  I don't know.
[02:54:08]  Can they repair the plane?
[02:54:10]  I have no idea, but we've lost other planes.
[02:54:13]  We've lost tanker refueling jets that cost, I think, anywhere from 30 to 40 million each.
[02:54:21]  So all this money, yes, there's 200 million additional money, but it's going to keep going depending on what we do.
[02:54:26]  And then the human cost is going to keep going up because, as I said, if there's a ground invasion, or even if it's not an invasion, if the United States wants to open, let's say, clear the Straits of Hormoz so that ships can pass, the United States would have to station troops on the southern border of Iran near the strait so that they could eliminate any threat that emerges from Iran.
[02:54:50]  Well, that means they would be sitting ducks for the Iranian army, Iranian military.
[02:54:54]  So the cost is going to be massive.
[02:54:57]  And yeah, as far as Americans are concerned, I mean, you know, your gas bill is up.
[02:55:01]  Obviously, we know that.
[02:55:03]  And, you know, inflation is probably going to go up and food prices are going to go up.
[02:55:07]  I mean, where do truckers in this country, you know, buy their gas to move, you know, perishables across the country?
[02:55:16]  Yeah, those prices are going to go up if the war continues.
[02:55:20]  And I don't think, you know, the government is wrong when it says if the war ends, things will go back down.
[02:55:24]  Yeah, but it will take a very long time.
[02:55:28]  I don't remember when gas prices suddenly went from, let's say, $4 a gallon to $2 a gallon.
[02:55:33]  It doesn't happen overnight.
[02:55:34]  It takes a long time.
[02:55:35]  So in the meantime, Americans are going to pay the price of this war of choice.
[02:55:40]  And we call it the Defense Department.
[02:55:43]  They changed it to the War Department, which is very appropriate because that's what we're doing.
[02:55:47]  We're going to war.
[02:55:49]  We're not defending America.
[02:55:50]  We're going to war.
[02:55:52]  All right.
[02:55:52]  Brenda from Buffalo, New York, a Democrat.
[02:55:56]  Hi.
[02:55:58]  I just want to know.
[02:55:59]  Trump's first year, he traveled the world making deals, threatening that we won't do trade with countries and the tariffs.
[02:56:11]  And Venezuela, he took out Maduro, but the person that's running it now was the vice president, whose guest is bad.
[02:56:20]  But Iran has not built any nuclear bombs.
[02:56:24]  And 47 years, they've been threatening us.
[02:56:28]  I mean, no, they haven't.
[02:56:30]  They've been doing their own thing.
[02:56:32]  And Obama, he returned the money that was their money that we were holding for them and made it deal that they will never make nuclear bombs.
[02:56:42]  And they have it.
[02:56:44]  I just don't understand.
[02:56:46]  I mean, what's the defeat with Iran?
[02:56:50]  And now Trump is next.
[02:56:51]  And he needs to stop.
[02:56:53]  And he needs to come back to America and work here.
[02:56:58]  And ICE and Border Patrol.
[02:57:00]  All right, I'm going to let Human get in there and answer that part of the question, Brenda.
[02:57:04]  Go ahead.
[02:57:04]  Sure.
[02:57:04]  I mean, you know, Brenda's right.
[02:57:06]  I mean, President Obama did make a deal with Iran, which was working.
[02:57:11]  Everybody agrees that it was working, except for Donald Trump and some other Republicans who believe, even if it was working, that it wouldn't work for the long term because it had sunset provisions where, you know, 10 years and 15 years later, Iran would be free to do whatever it wanted.
[02:57:26]  But, you know, 10 years, 15 years later, you could make another deal or extend the deal.
[02:57:31]  But if it was working at the time and there was no chance that Iran could build a bomb secretly or openly, President Trump chose to tear it up partly, I think, you know, it's my opinion, because it was Obama's deal and he wanted a better deal, as he says.
[02:57:48]  As he said, he wants a better deal.
[02:57:50]  He was going to make a better deal.
[02:57:52]  But he never really pursued a better deal.
[02:57:54]  He did the opposite.
[02:57:56]  Iran was negotiating in the second term anyway.
[02:57:59]  Iran was negotiating with him when we bombed them in June, right in the middle of negotiations, and did it again in the middle of negotiations in February.
[02:58:10]  So it doesn't appear that he really wanted to make a deal that would prevent Iran from ever building a nuclear weapon.
[02:58:18]  And Iran had, as far as I know, and according to all the reports in the media, Iran had presented a proposed deal that would have been much better than the deal for America than the deal that Obama was able to make in 2015 and 16.
[02:58:38]  So, you know, it's confusing why the president chose to go to war right when he was presented with options that would have been easier and would have cost a lot less in both human terms and in terms of financial terms.
[02:58:53]  So yeah, it's puzzling why wars of choice are puzzling, always puzzling.
[02:59:00]  Why do we go to war?
[02:59:01]  Venezuela, I don't know if Del Crudiguez is worse than Madura, but I don't think President Trump cares about that.
[02:59:09]  He certainly doesn't appear to care about it.
[02:59:11]  He said on Iran, he said many times he'd be happy to work with someone from inside the regime.
[02:59:16]  So yeah, it's bewildering.
[02:59:21]  All right.
[02:59:22]  Quickly, Human, what else are you watching for in the next two weeks or so?
[02:59:28]  Well, I'm watching for an escalation.
[02:59:30]  I think Iran is unlikely to escalate or be able to escalate much further than it already has by bombing, for example, sending missiles into Saudi Arabia or hitting the gas field in Qatar yesterday, which President Trump, which was in reaction to Israel hitting Iran's gas field, Iran's share of that gas field and natural gas field.
[02:59:53]  And President Trump, as we know yesterday, said that that wasn't going to happen anymore.
[02:59:58]  He sounded like he didn't like the idea that Israel had done that and Iran's reaction to that.
[03:00:05]  So I doubt there'll be escalation on that level, but the escalation from the United States, I think, you know, how does Trump get out of this war if he wants to get out of this war?
[03:00:16]  As I said, we're going into the fourth week, next week, and four weeks of war when it was supposed to be a few days and easy in, easy out.
[03:00:24]  You know, it's not happening.
[03:00:27]  So somebody has to come up with an off-ramp.
[03:00:29]  The off-ram could be President Trump.
[03:00:31]  Okay, we're running out of time, so we've got to leave it there.
[03:00:33]  Human Majid, author of Minister Without Portfolio, Memoir of a Reluctant Exile.
[03:00:38]  Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
[03:00:40]  My pleasure.
[03:00:41]  Thank you, Jasmine.
[03:00:42]  And that's all for Washington Journal.
[03:00:43]  Another edition comes at you tomorrow at 7 a.m.
[03:00:46]  Thanks for listening.