Washington Journal Open Forum callers debate the government shutdown, with Lisa demanding TSA pay while politicians wait, and Daryl suggesting Congress salaries suspend until budget resolution. Carol and Jasmine defend military funding against claims Democrats waste money abroad, contrasting Trump's record with alleged Democratic hypocrisy regarding ICE masks. The segment also covers a New York Times investigation into Cesar Chavez's sexual abuse allegations, prompting Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to rename Cesar Chavez Day to Farm Workers Day, while religious and political arguments over Israel and election integrity divide the audience. [Automatically generated summary]
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To Open Forum.
Lisa from North Carolina, Democrat.
You're first.
Good morning, Lisa.
It's Open Forum.
Good morning, C-SPAN.
I'm a flight attendant, so I see the TSA workers all the time.
And it's a real shame that they're not getting their pay that they deserve.
I mean, who wants nobody to be able to work for free?
I think our crooked politicians should not be getting paid while we have the shutdown.
Thank you.
All right, that was Lisa from North Carolina.
Carol from New York, an independent.
You're next.
Good morning, Carol.
Good morning.
I'm calling regarding the military side.
My husband served and unfortunately was no longer with us the year he was retiring.
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.
I don't understand how people are not remembering that.
And as far as President Trump, we need to get off the name and we need to stick with the country's issues.
And yes, they have always been a threat.
My husband almost got bombed while over there serving our country.
And now we're talking about not passing the $2 billion, $200 billion to continue to support our military people.
They're out there on the front lines.
They're dying.
They are fighting for us.
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.
And yes, TSA workers should not be working and not getting paid.
We have all this money in this country.
And it was proven by DOJ how the Democrats were sending money out of the country for years, for years.
And never, ever did anyone have a problem with all of that.
Trump has stood up to what he had promised, and everyone's making money in their 401k accounts while the market was doing good.
We finally got someone to take the initiative to do something about what's going on with our military crew.
We've had military instations all around that country for a reason.
There is no reason why we should not continue to fund them.
Yes, we are using our missiles and we need to replace them.
The Democrats never had any backing of our military.
Never.
We need to really understand.
Yes, people are hungry.
People are starving.
Well, how many people are out there taking our money, like in Minneapolis, but all of that money that's been out there for fraud, that's where we have to catch it.
Let's protect our company.
Let's get those organizations back to business and put our money where we're supposed to be putting it.
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.
So we want to redirect our funds where we need to.
We need to stop the fraud.
So I'm glad they're taking an attack on that.
And then we can put our money where it needs to go.
All right, Carol.
I can take your point there.
Lou from Tampa, Florida, Republican.
You're not just good morning.
It's open forum.
You can talk about anything.
Good morning, Kimberly.
Good morning, America.
I'm Jasmine.
Yep.
Oh, I'm sorry, Jasmine.
I apologize.
You know, Jesus said they do not know what they do, okay?
But, you know, we've got to protect the world.
We're the world policeman.
And, you know, these children are trained to hate America and democracies around the world at such a young age.
And I don't know if that's going to change right away.
It might take another like two generations to do it.
The fanaticism of some of these people, the hardliners in Iran that train these kids.
And we need to come together and support our troops and support our president, and it'll end that much quicker.
And thank you, President Trump, for everything you're doing.
And we've got to come together, and we've got to end this very soon, very soon.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Jasmine.
From Tampa, Florida.
Pat from Florida and Independent.
Good morning, Pat.
It's open for him.
Hi, Justin.
I basically wanted to talk about the war in Iran, which the woman and a couple folk holes was talking about that, you know, there was all this fraud, and that's where we have to fight the money.
We're spending a billion dollars a day on an illegal war.
I grew up in the Vietnam War generation.
Does no one remember that?
I mean, we fought there and basically nothing changed.
All right, Pat from Florida.
Daryl from Palm Bay, Florida.
A lot of Florida callers today.
You are next.
Good morning, Darryl.
You can talk about anything.
It's open forum.
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?
That was it, and thank you very much for taking my call.
All right, that was Daryl.
Richard from South Carolina, a Democrat.
Good morning, Richard.
It's open forum.
Hi, I have two points.
I think one thing that concerns me is that Pete Hegset, who runs our military, actually likes this stuff.
I think he really loves our power.
He likes the fact that we can use it.
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.
He really likes this stuff.
The second point I'd like to make is the Republicans have done a great job.
I don't mean that really, but they have somehow convinced America that Democrats want to see our military lose.
I don't believe that at all.
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.
I don't mind Iran getting kicked around.
I think that they deserve it.
But I don't think we want to see our military lose.
I don't believe that at all.
But they have convinced, the Republicans have convinced that that's the talking line.
And I guess that that's the fault of Americans out there who truly think that's a truthful statement.
That's really all I have to say.
Thank you.
Richard from South Carolina.
Brian from Houston, Texas, a Republican.
Good morning, Brian.
It's open forum.
You can talk about whatever you'd like.
Yeah, no, I just find it funny when it comes to the government funding situation.
The Democrats are saying that they don't want masks of people wearing masks.
Well, for three years, isn't that all they advocated for?
So I say to someone, tell you, Chief, 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.
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.
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.
And yet they're upset at ICE and the way they're operating.
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.
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.
All right, that was Brian from Houston.
Randall from Tennessee, an independent.
Good morning, Randall.
It's open forum.
Good morning, Jasmine.
Thank you.
I'm listening to all these people, boy, you know, what Republicans and Democrats about this situation that billions and billions of dollars would help care who gets the airport is backed up.
But everybody wants to blame it on Biden or Obama.
They are not in the office.
But you won't understand that Trump created this over a Thursday night.
Him and P. Hedge said, drunk, wake up and call the United States.
Another War Based On A Lie00:07:54
Human lives are what we're dealing with here.
They need to stop the madness.
And Mike Johns, he stands there and nods his head for everything Mr. Trump says.
But if Mr. Biden tried this, if you look at him on the film, he's not no every single time.
Look at J.D. Betts and them, and people have lost their lives.
And they set up and miserable with lies.
Stop it.
We take your point there, Randall, from Tennessee.
Another story that percolated this week was a astonishing report from the New York Times on Cesar Chavez.
It says Cesar Chavez, a civil rights icon, is accused of abusing girls for years.
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.
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.
Yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that Cesar Chavez Day would be renamed.
Take a listen here.
This is a difficult day.
The last 48 hours have been very painful, very difficult.
I'm very proud to be standing here today with these remarkable leaders of our city council.
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.
I just have to tell you personally, I grew up as a child admiring the farm worker movement.
I didn't think I was ever going to eat grapes again because my family boycotted grapes.
Sester Chavez, I had the honor of meeting once, and I thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
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.
The fight of the farm workers, their struggle, and their victories inspired all of us.
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.
I also want to share that I've been in touch with the Chavez family and they support our decision to rename this holiday.
That was LA Mayor Karen Bass announcing that Cesar Chavez Day will be changed after that New York Times investigation that was very painful but extremely well done.
Chris from Michigan, a Republican.
Good morning, Chris.
It's open forum.
Good morning.
I just want to, I got a couple things to say.
First, this lady called earlier talking about why we should side with Israel.
The reason why we should side with Israel is because Israel is God's chosen people.
So if we, as soon as we decide to go against Israel, we need to support Israel because if we'll be blessed, if we bless Israel, we will be blessed.
If we curse Israel, we will be cursed.
The Bible says that.
That's why we need to support Israel.
Because those are the people, God's people, and we were once God's people.
We are a Christian nation, so we need to support Israel.
That's why I think we should support them.
Thank you.
Chris from Michigan.
Maria from Silver Spring, Maryland, a Democrat.
Good morning, Maria.
It's open forum.
Good morning.
Another war based on another lie.
25 years ago, it was the boogeyman was, ooh, they got weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction.
Today, the boogeyman is, ooh, they may have a nuclear bomb.
They may be able to get one without an imminent threat.
Imminent threat.
No imminent threat.
And for that guy that was saying that children are trained to hate Americans, so what?
The solution is going to be go and kill elementary girls, school, schoolgirls to train another generation of children to hate Americans.
Seriously, is that the solution?
We're going to fund another expensive war based on nothing, based on a lie.
Come on, people.
Oh, and by the way, that's a new one.
The ICE wearing masks because of COVID.
That is a new one.
They are wearing masks because they are the immigrants, KKK.
John from Western Pennsylvania and Independent.
It's open forum.
Thank you.
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.
The problem is that these funds are being mismanaged.
It's not just in the military or the Department of Defense/slash War, whatever you want to call it.
It's FBI, it's the DOJ.
Look at all the money that Trump and his cohorts are wasting.
It's our money that they're wasting, and they're spending everything frivolously.
So, why would we give a mismanaged DOD more money to mismanage?
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.
That being said, also, the guy who called in about Israel being the chosen people, Israel is a political Zionist state.
It's not the Semitic people of the Bible.
And frankly, all the people that lived in Israel 3,000 years ago, they were of actual Semitic descent.
The folks that live in Israel right now are from Europe.
They were moved into Palestine when World War II ended.
It's just a political movement.
So, I just, you know, and frankly, you know, all these folks quoting the Bible when they call in or 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.
If you were all born in Iran, you would be Shia Muslims, and you'd probably all be part of the IRGC.
You guys are so delusional.
The Bible is just a word.
John, I think we take your point there.
I'm from Dayton, Ohio, a Democrat.
Yes, I think.
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.
And I think that his whole administration has all drank the Kool-Aid.
I think they're all ate up.
So, thank you, and have a good day.
Ken from North Carolina, Independent.
Your next good morning, Ken, it's open for him.
Good morning, America.
And thank you, C-SPAN.
First, let me say I support America's troops.
That's number one.
The greatest threat to America is not a bomb.
Greatest Threat Is Election Theft00:00:49
The greatest threat to America right now is someone trying to take over elections, people.
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.
Now, look, 98% accuracy is what elections in America right now, 98% accurate.
And so, you elected Mr. Trump with a 98% accuracy.