CSPAN - Washington Journal Open Forum
Aired: 2026-03-23
Duration: 30:59


=== Staying Informed Is Essential (04:58) ===

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[00:00:27]  Gear up for engagement.
[00:00:32]  It's open forum, and we'll go straight to calls to hear straight from you.
[00:00:36]  This is Sarah in New York, Republican.
[00:00:38]  You're on the air.
[00:00:40]  So I've been listening, and honestly, Kenny had the most educated comment today.
[00:00:49]  We are all under political occupation, and Jared Kushner is running the foreign policy of our country.
[00:00:57]  And right now, Israel is taking land in the West Bank.
[00:01:02]  What does that have to do with keeping them safe?
[00:01:05]  So I agree with Kenny's comment this morning.
[00:01:10]  And Romney said that Trump was a dangerous man, and he wanted to be a dictator.
[00:01:15]  And he destroys everything he touches.
[00:01:18]  In New Jersey, he destroyed the casinos.
[00:01:20]  He didn't want to pay the plumbers and the electricians because he doesn't think they're worthy of anything.
[00:01:25]  And they still support him.
[00:01:27]  And I hear these older ladies call, they watch Fox News all day long.
[00:01:32]  And when you watch that all day, you're going to become brainwashed because it's just like the people in Jonestown.
[00:01:39]  They just basically.
[00:01:40]  So, Sarah, let me ask you, since you're a Republican, who did you support in the last election?
[00:01:47]  I didn't vote for anyone.
[00:01:48]  I'm a Romney Republican.
[00:01:50]  I think Romney would have made a very good president.
[00:01:53]  And now you have Trump trying to make a gold coin with his picture on it.
[00:01:58]  He went after Kent because he disagreed with what he said.
[00:02:03]  He's trying to be a dictator, and there's no way to stop him now.
[00:02:06]  And we are all in trouble.
[00:02:08]  He cut Social Security.
[00:02:10]  These older people are getting less in their Social Security check.
[00:02:14]  He's never been for the people.
[00:02:16]  He's always been for himself.
[00:02:20]  And this is Jane in Louisiana, Democrat.
[00:02:24]  Good morning, Jane.
[00:02:25]  Good morning.
[00:02:26]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:02:29]  I'm in Louisiana, and people in Louisiana need to know something because I bet you it hasn't been advertised hardly very much.
[00:02:39]  About 10 years ago, we had the Deepwater Horizon catastrophic drilling accident.
[00:02:47]  15 years ago.
[00:02:48]  Wasn't that 2010?
[00:02:51]  Or something like that.
[00:02:52]  I wasn't exactly sure what the number of, you get confused between when was Katrina and when was Deepwater and things like that.
[00:03:00]  But anyway, tore up the entire Gulf Coast and just ruined everything.
[00:03:09]  And I know it's probably been, you know, all that dispersant is just, you know, made all sorts of strange things growing in the bottom of the Gulf.
[00:03:17]  But be that as it may.
[00:03:20]  This administration, in its infinite wisdom, appointing weird people to different jobs, has a Secretary of Energy has thought it would be okay to give BP another chance at polluting the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:03:41]  They have been given the contract to go ahead and start drilling something called the ultra deep water oil well.
[00:03:53]  Now, they couldn't, they didn't have the ability to correct the one at 5,000 feet, which was where the deep water horizon was.
[00:04:02]  And Ultra Deep is going to be at 6,000 or between 5,000 and 6,000.
[00:04:08]  And they are still apparently going to count on any of the types of situations to save in case of an awful thing happening again, is to just spread dispersant on the water.
[00:04:25]  And because they've never really had to deal with that deep type of drilling and what would happen again.
[00:04:36]  And certainly, well, we can give it to the same people that couldn't figure out how to fix that deep water horizon, much less add another thousand feet.
[00:04:47]  And you remember the True Social post saying that President Trump saying that there were negotiations ongoing and that he has directed the military to postpone any attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure.

=== Deep Water Drilling Risks (06:03) ===

[00:05:03]  We do have a response from Iran on that.
[00:05:06]  This is from the Mir news agency.
[00:05:08]  It's considered semi-official news agency from Tehran, and it says this.
[00:05:15]  The Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected the U.S. President's claims that there are talks ongoing with Iran saying that Trump aims to buy time for U.S. military plans and reduce energy prices.
[00:05:32]  It says, this is the quote: There are initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, and our response to all of them is clear.
[00:05:42]  We are not the party that started this war, and all these requests should be referred to Washington.
[00:05:50]  And here is Patricia, North Carolina independent, sorry, North Dakota independent line.
[00:05:55]  Go ahead, Patricia.
[00:05:57]  Good morning.
[00:05:58]  I have a situation with our IDs.
[00:06:05]  I just don't feel that they're adequate.
[00:06:08]  Like, Mexico has a fingerprint on their voter ID.
[00:06:12]  And how are they verified?
[00:06:16]  I keep hearing people have fake IDs.
[00:06:21]  And then on these shows, people are counterfeiting IDs, giving out green cards, IDs, all kinds of things.
[00:06:29]  So how do we actually verify when you show your ID, they should be running through a scanner and have a tip or something?
[00:06:38]  You mean for voting, Patricia?
[00:06:40]  Adequate.
[00:06:40]  For voting?
[00:06:41]  Are you talking about for voting?
[00:06:44]  Yeah, so you you don't think that a picture ID like come to show your ID they don't scan it or anything Whereas you go to the airport, they can scan it or something.
[00:06:54]  But when you go to vote, it just doesn't seem adequate to me.
[00:07:00]  All right.
[00:07:00]  And here's Catherine, Burlington, North Carolina, Republican line.
[00:07:06]  Catherine, good morning.
[00:07:08]  Good morning.
[00:07:10]  I have called in to say I really think now is not the time to back off Iran.
[00:07:15]  I think we need to decimate them and plow them into the sand.
[00:07:19]  I am tired of their lies.
[00:07:21]  I remember when the hostages were taken back in the 70s.
[00:07:26]  I remember that very well.
[00:07:28]  Had a friend over there working for Western Electric that barely got out.
[00:07:33]  I know what these people are capable of.
[00:07:36]  And the only way to stop them is to ruin their government to where there is not one man standing in their political circle.
[00:07:46]  And that is my opinion.
[00:07:48]  And I have a lot of people that agree with me.
[00:07:52]  And Dawn in Pennsylvania, line for Democrats, you're on the air.
[00:07:57]  Hi, is this Mimi?
[00:07:59]  Yes, hi.
[00:08:02]  Okay, I only have two comments.
[00:08:06]  I think we can all agree that President Trump is crazy.
[00:08:13]  He does some crazy things.
[00:08:15]  So maybe he should get really crazy and take the cap off of Social Security.
[00:08:23]  And my other comment is I think everybody, every politician should watch The Chosen.
[00:08:32]  Thank you.
[00:08:34]  This is Jason, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Independent Line.
[00:08:37]  Hi, Jason.
[00:08:39]  Hi, Mimi.
[00:08:40]  Good morning.
[00:08:40]  Good morning, C-STAN.
[00:08:41]  Good morning, America.
[00:08:42]  Long time viewer been watching since the Brian Lamb days.
[00:08:46]  This might get a little long.
[00:08:47]  Hopefully, you give me time that you've given other people.
[00:08:50]  I just want to talk about Mark Wayne Mullen, starting with that, a man who went to college for a year and then had to leave to take over family business due to illness.
[00:08:58]  But during that time, he basically focused on becoming an MMA fighter and had a radio talk show about upkeep, home upkeep.
[00:09:06]  Now he's the only senator out there without at least a bachelor degree, self-admitted there will never be the smartest man in any room.
[00:09:13]  And he's up to be the head of the third largest department in the U.S. government with 260,000 employees because Trump likes the way he looks on TV.
[00:09:21]  These are the same credentials for Pete Hagsepp.
[00:09:24]  I'm not saying that a college degree is a prerequisite for success, but more is needed to run a department that equals the 90th largest city in the United States, considering the anger issues this man has.
[00:09:34]  But not a surprise from Trump, whose biggest claim to fame was a reality TV show.
[00:09:39]  And he likes to go on hunches.
[00:09:41]  But a hunch is why the U.S. is in Iran right now.
[00:09:44]  And this hunch came from the same man who's bankrupted several companies, a man who has trash-talked the U.S. intelligence agency, a man who has destroyed relationships with long-lasting allies after he decided to dismantle our international diplomatic expertise and replace it with real estate tycoons and their zero-sum mindset.
[00:10:05]  Now this baseball hat-wearing clown is disrespecting the first heroes coming back in coffins and lying to Americans about another country using Tomahawk missiles to target a school, which was such a whopper that his Louisiana protector had to come apologize for the military's error.
[00:10:22]  So now show some courage is what's being told to all the oil tanker captains in the Gulf by Trump and his glamour boy fool at the Pentagon, who's so brigadash docious about war and making us unsafe with his childish video game snippets that the same tough guy can't even handle questions from real reporters and now doesn't even want photos of him being shown because some are unflattering.
[00:10:47]  Everyone agrees that something had to be done in that region, but it's really worrisome that this administration is the one doing so, that they are the most inept group of sycopaths following the corrupt, self-named, stable genius who sealed his school records, which makes his intellect lower than Bush 2's C average.

=== Trump's Impulsive Actions (15:10) ===

[00:11:06]  Trump's low intellect and need to be in the spotlight while hiding some Epstein truth has led him to push away his allies over the Greenland distraction.
[00:11:15]  Now his stupid childish comments, like what he said to both Irish and Japan dignitaries, has the world rolling their eyes at America once again.
[00:11:22]  All right, Jason, got it.
[00:11:24]  And this, we mentioned earlier today about Borders Art Tom Homan confirming that ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports starting today.
[00:11:35]  Here is that portion on CNN's State of the Union from yesterday.
[00:11:39]  Are ICE agents even remotely trained to handle security at airports?
[00:11:46]  ICE agents have received a high level of training.
[00:11:50]  And, you know, the ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already.
[00:11:54]  They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigation on smuggling airports.
[00:11:58]  But, you know, there's, I mean, there's got TSA agents covering exits, you know, people that enter through the exits.
[00:12:06]  You know, certainly a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit, makes people don't go through those exits, enter an airport through the exits.
[00:12:15]  And stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines.
[00:12:22]  So wherever we can provide extra security, I don't see an ICE agent looking at an x-ray machine because they're not trained in that.
[00:12:30]  There are certain parts of security that TSA is doing that we can move them off those jobs and put them into specialized jobs, help move those lines.
[00:12:38]  Okay, that was going to be my next question.
[00:12:39]  So what you're saying is when you move ICE into airports, they are going to be just around the exits and the exteriors.
[00:12:46]  They're not going to be helping people get through the lines and screening people's bags.
[00:12:53]  Those discussions are going on now.
[00:12:56]  I'm not an expert at TSA, so that's why I'm talking to the TSA administrator and the ICE director, find out where we can fit in.
[00:13:02]  We have a plan by the end of today where we're sending what airports we're starting with and where we're sending them.
[00:13:08]  But that's the discussion we're having right now.
[00:13:11]  I ended discussions to do the show, and I'll be back having those discussions when I finish.
[00:13:15]  So it's a work in progress, but we will be at the airports tomorrow helping TSA move those lines along.
[00:13:23]  And that is today.
[00:13:25]  ICE agents are expected in U.S. airports.
[00:13:27]  It's not clear which airports or how many agents will be deployed, but we will watch that for you.
[00:13:32]  The other thing happening today is oral arguments at the Supreme Court.
[00:13:35]  So here's the front page of USA Today.
[00:13:37]  Justices take up mail-in ballots.
[00:13:40]  Trump and GOP seek to limit grace period.
[00:13:43]  It says the Supreme Court will weigh the Republican Party's effort to limit mail-in voting when it hears a case March 23rd, that's today, with broad implications for the upcoming midterms that addresses whether absentee ballots must be received and not just postmarked by Election Day.
[00:14:01]  So we will have live coverage of those oral arguments today.
[00:14:05]  That starts right after this program at 10 a.m.
[00:14:08]  Again, it's going to decide whether federal statutes can preempt state laws that allow mail-in ballots mailed in by Election Day to be received and counted by officials after voting day.
[00:14:22]  And that is right here on C-SPAN.
[00:14:24]  You can also watch it on our app, C-SPANNOW and online at c-span.org.
[00:14:28]  The other thing happening this morning on C-SPAN 2 is British Prime Minister Kirst Starmer.
[00:14:34]  He will be facing questions on the conflict in Iran and the wider Middle East, along with the UK's economic security.
[00:14:40]  In testimony before the House of Commons Liaison Committee, we have live coverage of that at 10.30 on C-SPAN 2.
[00:14:48]  And here's Thomas in Silver Spring, Maryland, Independent Line.
[00:14:52]  Good morning.
[00:14:54]  Yes, good morning.
[00:14:56]  This is about Iran.
[00:14:58]  I'm not hearing this comment made, and I think it needs to be opened into the debate.
[00:15:08]  The reports have been that there have been at least 10,000 people were murdered, up to 30,000.
[00:15:16]  It seems to me that there's a place to argue for, and I'm not a Trump supporter, argue for that these are issues of crimes against humanity.
[00:15:29]  And that's not being argued.
[00:15:31]  And the Iranian people asked for our help.
[00:15:36]  And they asked for our help because they have lived under this oppression for 40 years.
[00:15:45]  They're tired of it and they're dying.
[00:15:49]  That kind of argument about crimes against humanity needs to be made.
[00:15:56]  And Iranian people are arguing this is similar to the Nazi regime during World War II.
[00:16:05]  Thank you.
[00:16:07]  Tina in North Carolina, Line for Democrats.
[00:16:10]  You're on open forum.
[00:16:12]  Yes, what I wanted to say.
[00:16:15]  I get so tired of people talking about the voting is fraud.
[00:16:19]  The voting, you be trained.
[00:16:21]  I do that.
[00:16:22]  You be trained to do that voting.
[00:16:26]  You're on open forum.
[00:16:28]  You get trained to do the voting.
[00:16:31]  And cannot nobody change your vote.
[00:16:34]  You put it in yourself and you're penciling it.
[00:16:37]  They took the machine away that you could automatically put it in.
[00:16:41]  You penciling it yourself and you putting it in there and someone is there to watch you put your paper into that machine.
[00:16:52]  Every time somebody that don't win, that they want to win, they say fraud.
[00:16:56]  Y'all don't do that.
[00:16:58]  You know that's been over.
[00:17:00]  Didn't know about his fraud, but Trump.
[00:17:02]  He was the only one that had Putin helping him.
[00:17:06]  You get this is Donna, South Carolina, Republican line.
[00:17:10]  You're on open forum, Donna.
[00:17:13]  Yes.
[00:17:14]  Hi.
[00:17:14]  I just have a couple things that I wanted to say.
[00:17:17]  Number one, I am a Trump supporter.
[00:17:19]  However, I don't agree with 100% of what he says.
[00:17:22]  I do thank him for going into Iran.
[00:17:24]  I think that he is being weak by giving a five-day.
[00:17:28]  I also think he's weak against Putin.
[00:17:32]  We need to finish Iran.
[00:17:34]  Iranian people want it.
[00:17:35]  We need to just take them out and just be done with it.
[00:17:39]  They have never honored anything they said for years.
[00:17:42]  And now we're going to talk with them again.
[00:17:44]  Nonsense.
[00:17:46]  And as for TSA being in the airports, I think that's fantastic.
[00:17:50]  I think they should be there at all times.
[00:17:52]  And I love Tom Hooman.
[00:17:54]  That is all I have to say.
[00:17:55]  Thank you and have a blessed day, everybody.
[00:17:57]  Yeah, I said airports.
[00:17:58]  TSA is already at airports, but I understood what you're saying.
[00:18:02]  Greg in Richfield, Wisconsin, Independent Line.
[00:18:05]  Good morning, Greg.
[00:18:07]  Good morning to all.
[00:18:09]  Some interesting comments, both from the Republican and the Independent.
[00:18:14]  The deaths in Iran are unforgivable.
[00:18:20]  What's happening with the TSA is also unforgivable.
[00:18:25]  I wish that everybody would try to get along because we're all human beings.
[00:18:33]  Let's not forget that fact.
[00:18:36]  Thank you.
[00:18:38]  Deborah, Montgomery, Alabama, Line for Democrats.
[00:18:41]  Go right ahead.
[00:18:43]  Hey, good morning.
[00:18:45]  I just have two quick things.
[00:18:48]  They keep talking about voter fraud, and I'm curious about the voter fraud.
[00:18:53]  The Republicans started the things with the stop the steal.
[00:18:57]  So they created this voter fraud thing.
[00:18:59]  However, Republicans are in control of everything.
[00:19:02]  So I'm curious, how can Republicans be in control with all of this voter fraud that's supposed to be going on on the other side, so to speak?
[00:19:12]  And on the Iran war, I just have one thing to say.
[00:19:16]  There were 77 million of Republicans that voted for Donald Trump.
[00:19:20]  Donald Trump started this war.
[00:19:22]  He did not go to Congress for permission.
[00:19:24]  I mean, and consult with Congress about starting the war.
[00:19:28]  So personally, for all of those in favor of this war, I think that the 77 million that supported him, you should go and all of your immediate family members should go and fight this war for Donald Trump and leave everybody else out of it.
[00:19:44]  Now, not to say that Iran is a good, those people that's running are good people.
[00:19:49]  That is not what I'm saying.
[00:19:51]  But nobody was consulted with this war.
[00:19:53]  This is Donald Trump's war.
[00:19:55]  And I think Donald Trump and his supporters should fight this war.
[00:19:59]  And that's all I would like to say.
[00:20:00]  You all have a great day.
[00:20:02]  Let's hear from Tiny Republican in Texas.
[00:20:04]  Go right ahead.
[00:20:06]  Good morning.
[00:20:07]  Yes.
[00:20:08]  The Iran war, it was necessary.
[00:20:12]  Not only for the United States, but for the entire world.
[00:20:16]  You have people that wants to destroy other people because of their religious belief or whatever they believe on.
[00:20:25]  And they want to control that.
[00:20:27]  And President Trump was right in what he's doing, because I believe the word tell me we have to pray for Israel, regardless of what's going on over there.
[00:20:38]  It is not up to Iran to want to enslave an entire nation because you don't believe in their belief.
[00:20:47]  And whether you want to believe it or not, this is a spiritual war.
[00:20:51]  It's not a war because they want to control, just like that mayor in New York.
[00:20:57]  And they will lie, cheat, and steal.
[00:21:00]  Anytime you are willing to put bombs on your own children, they don't mind blowing up their own people in order to get over on America.
[00:21:12]  And our president is doing a wonderful job.
[00:21:16]  And for people saying they don't understand, get in your word and read, and you will understand what is actually going on here.
[00:21:25]  Thank you.
[00:21:26]  And this is Freddie in Snellville, Georgia, Independent Lion.
[00:21:31]  Go ahead, Freddie.
[00:21:33]  Yes, good morning.
[00:21:36]  I am calling about the Iranian war that the U.S. started with Israel.
[00:21:42]  I think this is just an illegal act, and Congress is failing to do their job in preventing this president from getting us into potentially World War III.
[00:21:52]  Those people out there that support this kind of murder and slaughter are really a danger to our country and totally unpatriotic and has turned on the country to allow a president to do the things that he's doing.
[00:22:05]  Our congressperson, any congressperson that votes to support this $200 billion request from Trump is also betraying our country when the country can't even run because it saw a shutdown.
[00:22:17]  People having to wait for hours and hours at the airport.
[00:22:20]  And the airport workers or the TSA people not being able to be paid, but they're asking for $200 billion to continue to kill people.
[00:22:29]  Yes, the U.S. and Israel are the aggressors in this war.
[00:22:33]  They've killed thousands of Iranians who had nothing to do with this war.
[00:22:37]  They did not initiate this war.
[00:22:39]  The U.S. and Israel initiated this war, and it's going to take thousands of dead Americans for the Americans to finally come to their senses to find the courage and the strength to fight this government and make it stop warring all over the world and now in the Middle East, destroying it, running up gas prices from $3.55 to $5 a gallon here in Snellville, Georgia.
[00:23:04]  Sorry, Freddie, and we're in open forum.
[00:23:06]  The numbers are on your screen.
[00:23:08]  Democrats are on 202748-8000.
[00:23:10]  It's 202-748-8001 for Republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents.
[00:23:17]  Regarding ICE deployment in airports, the New York Times reporting that agents have begun to deploy at U.S. airports.
[00:23:25]  You can see a picture here.
[00:23:26]  This is from the Atlanta International Airport with ICE agents there.
[00:23:32]  And the article does say that Newark, Liberty International Airport, that agents were there.
[00:23:39]  It says President Trump has characterized ICE deployment in part as a threat aimed at pressuring congressional Democrats to agree to a deal to fund the Homeland Security Department, which includes the TSA.
[00:23:54]  So that is there.
[00:23:56]  And yesterday, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, was on the Senate floor and he talked about President Trump sending ICE to various airports around the country.
[00:24:11]  ICE agents who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they've gone, lurking at our airports, that's asking for trouble.
[00:24:20]  And it will certainly make the chaos at the airports even worse.
[00:24:24]  No one has any faith in ICE agents.
[00:24:26]  They haven't received training.
[00:24:27]  They don't know what it is to be a TSA person and do what you need to do there.
[00:24:37]  And the real problem here is they have no plan for using these ICE agents.
[00:24:43]  Trump says send them there, they send them there, and Holman says they're still drawing up plans with less than a day's notice.
[00:24:49]  What is this?
[00:24:50]  We know what it is.
[00:24:52]  It's another impulsive action by Donald Trump.
[00:24:56]  Some idea pops into his head and he announces it.
[00:25:01]  And then the people working for him, a few of whom do have some degree of talent and ability, not many, underlings, they have to rush to try and implement what they know is an idiotic plan.
[00:25:17]  In this case, it's a plan that has no planning.
[00:25:25]  It's another impulsive action from Donald Trump.
[00:25:29]  When he acts impulsively, there's usually trouble.
[00:25:33]  Whenever Donald Trump acts impulsively with no follow-through, there's trouble.
[00:25:38]  ICE agents will be asked to do things they are not trained to do.
[00:25:43]  They don't know how to perform core TSA screening functions.
[00:25:48]  Travelers will be on edge with federal agents looking over their shoulders.
[00:25:55]  All they will do is worsen the situation at airports, which are already on edge.
[00:26:00]  So I have an idea for Donald Trump.
[00:26:03]  Instead of sending ICE agents to harass travelers at airports, why doesn't Trump get his act together and agree to pay the TSA workers and get the Senate Republicans to do so?

=== Senate Rules Explained (04:43) ===

[00:26:16]  And we're hearing from you on Open Forum.
[00:26:19]  Kevin is up next, Staten Island.
[00:26:22]  Democrat, go ahead, Kevin.
[00:26:24]  Yes, good morning, C-SPAN.
[00:26:29]  I would like to encourage your viewers to consider reading a book written by a two-time Medal of Honor winner, a Marine, a Marine general.
[00:26:39]  His name was Smedley Butler.
[00:26:41]  The book was written in the 30s.
[00:26:42]  It's called Wars a Racket.
[00:26:45]  And he's arguing that modern wars are primarily served profit interests of big business at the expense of ordinary people.
[00:26:56]  And I think that's exactly what's happening in Iran.
[00:26:59]  Gas prices are escalating.
[00:27:01]  They're only going to go up higher.
[00:27:04]  Howard Burton and these other for-profit companies are going to make billions at the expense of the American people.
[00:27:12]  And that's all I have to say.
[00:27:15]  And good morning to the C-SPAN audience.
[00:27:19]  John Ashburn, Virginia, Republican, you're on the air.
[00:27:24]  Hi.
[00:27:24]  Well, I'm more of an independent these days.
[00:27:28]  I kind of like the Republicans the way they used to be before the president was elected.
[00:27:32]  But my question is this.
[00:27:34]  There was a colloquy yesterday by Senator Kennedy, who had unanimous consent to talk about a motion he wanted to put into the record.
[00:27:42]  And I know the Senate is a very curious place.
[00:27:45]  But his idea, kind of going to last caller, was to actually have the senators vote to hold back their own paychecks until the TSA agents would be paid.
[00:27:56]  And he sought recognition from the chair who was the presiding officer.
[00:28:01]  And the chair then had to talk to the parliamentarian.
[00:28:03]  The parliamentarian then whispered something in there and said, he can't be recognized because somebody objected, his unanimous consent, somebody objected, sent it's got to stop.
[00:28:12]  And then another senator also said he heard nobody object.
[00:28:15]  Nobody was recognized to object.
[00:28:18]  They talked again for a little bit, and then they said, but the presiding officer heard, made an objection.
[00:28:25]  So the understanding Senator Kennedy got was that somebody can object without being heard by the presiding officer, to which two members of the Senate got up and said, how can somebody be recognized if they're not heard?
[00:28:40]  And this went back and forth for a while until it was ruled out of order yet again.
[00:28:46]  And the understanding he got was that even though nobody was recognized and nobody did it, that somebody can object who's not there.
[00:28:56]  So the rules of the Senate are very strange sometimes.
[00:28:59]  And I wish somebody could explain, at least to the American people, how someone can object under unanimous consent and not be present.
[00:29:08]  And you were watching all this, John, on C-SPAN 2?
[00:29:12]  I was watching that on C-SPAN 2.
[00:29:14]  It was fascinating because Senator Kennedy got madder and madder because he could not get an answer.
[00:29:20]  So it was kind of funny, but it was also kind of silly.
[00:29:25]  All right.
[00:29:25]  Let's go to Rush New York Independent Line.
[00:29:28]  Barbara, good morning.
[00:29:31]  Good morning.
[00:29:32]  I just wanted to talk a little bit about voter ID and clarify for some people that you can actually, in several states, register to vote without actually, in that process, be a U.S. citizen.
[00:29:53]  Once you obtain a driver's license in several of these states, then you can go register, simply show that driver's license and a utility bill and register to vote.
[00:30:08]  That driver's license doesn't affirm you're a U.S. citizen.
[00:30:13]  Just a point I wanted to make.
[00:30:15]  All right.
[00:30:16]  And Leanna, Pennsylvania Democrat, go ahead.
[00:30:19]  Hi, yes.
[00:30:20]  I just have a couple of comments on Venezuela, because what I see here is the government goes in for whatever reason there may be, and then they say, okay, we take out who's ever there, and we'll put, you know, somebody else, like Daisy, whoever, whatever her name is, and the people will be better off.
[00:30:43]  Well, looking at Venezuela, I don't see how the people are better off.
[00:30:46]  They're just the same.
[00:30:49]  It's just we're negotiating.
[00:30:52]  But the people, they're not better.
[00:30:54]  Then in Cuba, they're saying we're going to go in.
[00:30:58]  And the same thing happened.