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Aired: 2026-04-04
Duration: 01:59:58


=== Steel, Tariffs, and Economic Pain (14:56) ===

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[00:01:20]  Welcome back to Washington Journal.
[00:01:21]  Joining us now is Peter Morisi.
[00:01:23]  He's a columnist and an economist.
[00:01:26]  He's here to talk about President Trump's budget requests, the jobs report, and other topics going on.
[00:01:30]  He's a professor emeritus from the University of Maryland.
[00:01:33]  Good morning, Peter.
[00:01:34]  Good morning.
[00:01:34]  Thanks for being here.
[00:01:36]  A lot of economic news to get to.
[00:01:37]  Let's start with the jobs report.
[00:01:39]  The data came out yesterday.
[00:01:41]  People might have seen some headlines.
[00:01:42]  Some quick takeaways.
[00:01:43]  178,000 jobs were added.
[00:01:45]  Unemployment ticked down from 4.4% in February to 4.3% in March, and average hourly earnings increased 0.2%.
[00:01:54]  What stuck out to you?
[00:01:56]  Well, the fact that the economy seems to be in neutral.
[00:01:58]  We had a big number this month that was up, but we had a big number last month that was down.
[00:02:03]  Saul Witten evaluated the entire Trump years so far.
[00:02:08]  And during the first Trump and Biden administrations, the economy pretty steadily created about 135,000 jobs a month.
[00:02:16]  We had COVID, but we made up for it shortly after it.
[00:02:20]  Since President Trump has become president again, it's like about 25,000 jobs a month.
[00:02:25]  And more of those are in health care than anything else.
[00:02:29]  If we subtract health care, then the economy is actually shrinking in terms of jobs.
[00:02:35]  So we're not making good progress that way.
[00:02:38]  Now, granted, we have fewer people that we have to employ because we have fewer Indigenous Americans becoming 18, and we have fewer immigrants because of his deportation policy.
[00:02:49]  But still, to stay even, we should be creating 50 or 60,000 jobs a month on average.
[00:02:53]  So you say to me, well, how can the unemployment rate go down?
[00:02:56]  Well, the answer is, this is a very discouraging job market.
[00:03:00]  25% of the people that are unemployed have been unemployed more than six months, and a lot of people have given up and sat down.
[00:03:07]  The labor force shrunk last month.
[00:03:10]  And we compute unemployment by dividing the number of people that are actively seeking by the labor force, which is the number of people actively seeking plus those that are actually employed.
[00:03:20]  So, you know, the numbers, you have to take them apart to see what is really a rather unfortunate situation.
[00:03:27]  Another point with the numbers, and every time a jobs report comes out, people who follow them might know this, but there's always a revision for the previous month.
[00:03:35]  And so in February, 92,000 job losses were revised again to 133,000, and the January numbers were revised up to 160,000 from the initial point of 130K.
[00:03:47]  The Trump administration was celebrating yesterday's jobs report.
[00:03:50]  Do you think it's fair for them to celebrate it?
[00:03:52]  Or with those revisions is it more liberal?
[00:03:55]  with every president, whether they're Republican or Democratic, whether they're radical or moderate, they celebrate good numbers and they have an alibi for bad ones.
[00:04:04]  It's politics.
[00:04:06]  It's just the way it is.
[00:04:10]  But this administration's economic policy is a scattershot as its strategy for prosecuting the war.
[00:04:20]  Yesterday's budget was terribly discouraging to me.
[00:04:24]  I have been a big advocate for quite some time of spending more on defense.
[00:04:28]  Knowledgeable people in the defense establishment say that in order to meet our commitments in Europe and in Asia and the Middle East, we need to spend 5% in GDP on defense, and this gets us closer to that.
[00:04:43]  I mean, it gets us pretty close.
[00:04:45]  It's basically going to go from about $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, about.
[00:04:50]  But it doesn't make hard choices.
[00:04:52]  We already have a 6% GDP budget deficit.
[00:04:56]  So he basically assumes that the economy is going to grow at 3% instead of 2%, and that makes it go away.
[00:05:01]  Because the cuts he outlined were more political, more ideological than they are large in terms of the money that you save.
[00:05:10]  That does save some money, but not nearly the increase in defense spending.
[00:05:14]  When it comes to the president's budget request, and folks could tick through it, they could see it online, I think it's a reminder, and I try to remind myself, even as somebody who covers the White House and Congress, that it's essentially a wish list from any president to Congress, and Congress will ultimately determine what pans out.
[00:05:30]  When you look at the top lines, especially when it comes to defense spending, do you think this current Congress, which has struggled to do much of anything, will be able to meet the President even halfway of what he's looking for?
[00:05:42]  Oh, I think this present Congress can do that simply because the Republicans will do it through reconciliation.
[00:05:49]  However, what they're unwilling to do, and this president is unwilling to do, is he's as unwilling to cut back on social spending so he can accommodate more defense spending as Kamala Harris would be.
[00:06:02]  No one wants to disappoint people.
[00:06:04]  And we're getting to the point where we're just out of money.
[00:06:08]  You know, we cannot have budget deficits that are 7, 8, 9 percent of GDP without at some point the world's saying halt.
[00:06:15]  Because we basically finance these big deficits by borrowing from abroad.
[00:06:20]  It's a form of printing money.
[00:06:22]  And if you're going to have a bigger defense establishment, then you have to spend less money on something else.
[00:06:29]  And it can't come out of the general administration, the government, because, frankly, that's been screwed down for the last two decades.
[00:06:35]  I mean, you go into government offices, they're using 70s technology at times, floppy disks and so forth.
[00:06:43]  It's really not a good thing.
[00:06:45]  Now, he's cut back on the bureaucracy a lot, and that's nice.
[00:06:48]  But the big ticket items are how much we spend on social programs, how much we spend on Social Security, and things of that nature.
[00:06:55]  You are a weekly columnist in the Washington Times.
[00:06:58]  You wrote a column this week about the war in Iran, and it says, war in Iran poses terrible risks for the global economy.
[00:07:06]  Explain your argument, elaborate.
[00:07:08]  You know, everybody's focused on the price of gasoline and oil.
[00:07:11]  I wish it was only oil that came out of the Persian Gulf.
[00:07:14]  The folks in the Persian Gulf have been doing a very good, solid job of diversifying their economies.
[00:07:21]  20% of the aluminum that we use now in the United States comes out of the Persian Gulf, which means it can't get through the straits.
[00:07:28]  They make a lot of the precursors, the building blocks of chemicals.
[00:07:31]  You don't just go from oil to plastic, but rather they make a lot of precursor items, which then are processed in other countries.
[00:07:40]  Most importantly, Qatar is a huge source of liquefied natural gas.
[00:07:45]  You can say, well, we have all the gas we need.
[00:07:47]  That may be, but do we have all the chips we need?
[00:07:51]  Taiwan and South Korea make about two-thirds of the memory chips and virtually all of the high-end processors.
[00:07:59]  They use helium to cool the chips in the etching process.
[00:08:03]  They get their helium from Qatar.
[00:08:06]  Now, we can say, oh, we don't really have to worry about the helium getting out because we have lots of helium of our own, but we can't supply those countries.
[00:08:15]  And what that means is if they don't get that helium through the straits, we don't get our chips.
[00:08:22]  Now, if we don't get our chips, how much longer do the car factories run in Detroit?
[00:08:27]  Where do we get our computers from?
[00:08:29]  How do we build our data centers and so forth?
[00:08:32]  Another thing, by diversifying their economies, they've become much more prosperous than they would have been than just by selling us oil.
[00:08:42]  We are going to spend 2-3% of GDP building out artificial intelligence over the next few years.
[00:08:49]  It's on a scale of the Transcontinental Railway.
[00:08:51]  It's even bigger.
[00:08:54]  And we need to do that, because if we don't do it, the Chinese will, with terrible consequences for us.
[00:09:00]  So in order to finance this, Apple and Google and all the rest of them, they're using all their profits, but that's not enough.
[00:09:09]  They're borrowing abroad.
[00:09:10]  Well, where is a lot of that money coming from?
[00:09:13]  These wealthy Persian Gulf nations.
[00:09:15]  If they're held hostage to Iran, they won't be able to make those investments.
[00:09:20]  They have $2,3 trillion pledged to back up American artificial intelligence with the expectation that they will participate and profit and so forth.
[00:09:29]  And that's a good thing for them because they've proven to be good business partners.
[00:09:35]  Unfortunately, Donald Trump seems to see the world in terms of where can I build a hotel.
[00:09:42]  You don't hear any justification of the war in terms of these complex interconnections.
[00:09:51]  Globalization is not a simple matter of we sell them steel, they sell us cars.
[00:09:55]  Why don't we sell them steel and why don't we make our own cars?
[00:09:59]  It's much more complex than that.
[00:10:02]  And so we do have a vital national interest in the Middle East.
[00:10:06]  We can't tolerate Iran's grip on the region.
[00:10:11]  And we're going to have to deal with it whether we like it or not.
[00:10:14]  But I don't see a clear plan on him or understanding of how to prosecute the war.
[00:10:20]  I'm curious from the economic perspective.
[00:10:22]  We talk about the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:10:24]  The President almost daily is making comments about whether or not the Strait should be reopened in an effort led by the U.S. or whether our allies should lead that effort, strictly from an economic point, because as you alluded to, this goes broader than oil.
[00:10:37]  I think a fertilizer, for example, for the culture community.
[00:10:41]  Is what the President is outlining and forecasting and asking of our allies from an economic argument, does it make sense to you?
[00:10:47]  Should they be doing more or should the U.S. still lead the charge because of the economic ramifications?
[00:10:54]  I think that we have to lead the charge because we're the only one that has the full range of capabilities.
[00:10:59]  But our capabilities are not infinite.
[00:11:02]  For example, the Europeans have a lot of minesweepers.
[00:11:06]  We don't have a large capacity in that regard.
[00:11:09]  We could use their minesweepers.
[00:11:12]  My feeling is they are not participating because of the tariffs and the way Donald Trump has treated them.
[00:11:18]  And frankly, Trump derangement syndrome.
[00:11:21]  Excuse me.
[00:11:22]  I'll go for it.
[00:11:23]  They didn't give me any water.
[00:11:25]  We'll get you some water.
[00:11:27]  You talk about tariffs.
[00:11:28]  This week was also the one-year mark of Liberation Day.
[00:11:31]  Oh, my goodness.
[00:11:32]  When the President unveiled his sweeping tariff proposal that ultimately made its way to the Supreme Court, they ruled in a way he was upset with.
[00:11:40]  What do you think when you look kind of at the last year?
[00:11:43]  Did what the President was aiming for up until the Supreme Court came in, did it work?
[00:11:47]  Was it effective?
[00:11:48]  Did it backfire?
[00:11:50]  It hasn't been effective at all.
[00:11:51]  I mean, he promised to resurrect manufacturing.
[00:11:53]  The fact is, manufacturing employment continues to plummet.
[00:11:56]  The tariffs are so erratic and poorly structured that you can't make sound investments.
[00:12:01]  I'll give you an example.
[00:12:02]  There are circumstances in which you would want to have a tariff.
[00:12:05]  For example, the Chinese subsidize their exports, so you put a tariff on to offset the subsidies to level the playing field, as an example.
[00:12:13]  Or if you're in an emerging economy, it is very hard to collect an income tax or even a sales tax in those places, and you don't really have much choice but to have tariffs to finance the government.
[00:12:22]  Okay, so we begin with we need some tariffs.
[00:12:26]  When you have tariffs, you should have the highest tariffs on the final product and lower tariffs on the inputs.
[00:12:34]  For example, steel should have a lower tariff than automobiles.
[00:12:38]  Because if you put a 50% tariff on steel and a 25% tariff on automobiles, as Donald Trump has done, then imported cars, even though they're paying 25%, have a great advantage because they paid zero on the steel.
[00:12:52]  Now, he's countered that by trying to compute all the steel that's in every product everywhere and saying, well, you'll have to use pay tariffs on the...
[00:13:00]  That's an insane bureaucratic nightmare.
[00:13:03]  Unfortunately, I have to say this.
[00:13:06]  If I look at the economists that structured this thing, it's kind of like an NFL team that used its first, second, and third round draft choices for linemen and its 13th and 14th and 15th round draft choices for, say, economists or running backs.
[00:13:25]  Well, these are XYZ.
[00:13:27]  I mean, these are that tariff formula when they tabled it, no one understood it.
[00:13:31]  The only economists on the planet that supported it worked at the White House.
[00:13:35]  It made no sense whatsoever.
[00:13:38]  What happened was Donald Trump got up in the morning and said, you know, April 1st is going to be Tariff Liberation Day, or whatever it was.
[00:13:45]  April 2nd.
[00:13:47]  And you guys cook something up.
[00:13:49]  And so, you know, they start scurrying around and they come up with something.
[00:13:53]  But they say the strangest things.
[00:13:57]  Since before the Republic began, there were Republicans probably who would say that taxes raise prices.
[00:14:05]  Tariffs are a tax.
[00:14:07]  And to come to office...
[00:14:08]  Though the president insists that's not the case.
[00:14:10]  Right.
[00:14:11]  That's absurd.
[00:14:14]  Just absurd.
[00:14:16]  So when you live in that kind of economic never-never land, where you make up growth rates to make your budget balance, where you say things are green when they're blue, it's hard to have confidence in the economic policies.
[00:14:28]  Another thing about the Allies, Donald Trump changes his position on how long he's going to stay there, what his objectives are, and so forth, not by the day, but by the hour.
[00:14:40]  If Britain committed to coming and joining us, how do they know that we'll still be there when they arrive?
[00:14:49]  There's no consistency.
[00:14:52]  And I'm not a progressive.
[00:14:53]  I did not support Kamala Harris.

=== Canada's Protectionist History (05:27) ===

[00:14:56]  And I would be equally concerned about her becoming president.
[00:15:00]  But the American people have to start to consider where they get their presidents from, what kind of people that it takes to lead, what kind of understanding of the world they must have.
[00:15:10]  People who are just angry about the social order in the United States, or people who are just angry about imports, or people that are just angry about immigrants, or people who think that immigrants are totally down-throdden and so forth.
[00:15:21]  That doesn't work.
[00:15:23]  We live in a more moderate world.
[00:15:25]  We need more moderate leaders.
[00:15:27]  And we need people that recognize that the American economy, the international system are not robots that you can turn around very quickly.
[00:15:34]  They want like battleships.
[00:15:36]  I want to get to some callers who I'm sure have a ton of questions for you.
[00:15:39]  As a reminder, we're talking to Peter Morizzi.
[00:15:41]  He is a columnist and economist.
[00:15:43]  He writes a weekly column for the Washington Times, Professor Emeritus from the University of Maryland.
[00:15:47]  And if you want to call in and ask him a question, just a reminder of the phone lines.
[00:15:50]  For Republicans, 202-748-8001.
[00:15:54]  For Democrats, 202-748-8000.
[00:15:57]  For Independents, 202-748-8002.
[00:16:00]  And you can text us at 202-748-8003.
[00:16:04]  Let's hear from Ben, who's calling in from State College, Pennsylvania, on the Republican line.
[00:16:08]  Good morning, Ben.
[00:16:09]  You're on with us.
[00:16:10]  What do you want to say or ask our guest?
[00:16:12]  Hi, good morning to you both.
[00:16:14]  Thank you so much for taking my call.
[00:16:16]  Peter, when I was listening this morning, I recognized your name immediately, both from television and I also recall studying some of your publications in my economics class back in college.
[00:16:26]  I was not an economics major, so I'm far from an expert.
[00:16:29]  I apologize in advance for the somewhat simplistic nature of my question.
[00:16:33]  As I said, no expert.
[00:16:34]  I'm just a layperson.
[00:16:38]  I do recall the mention of asymmetry of interests, I believe, between Canada and the United States.
[00:16:46]  Now, as relations with our northern neighbors seem to be in the worst condition they've been, at least in my lifetime, I assume if trade were to cease completely, it would be more harmful to Canada than us.
[00:16:57]  But I'd love to hear a little of some of your expertise on that from someone such as yourself.
[00:17:03]  So, and thank you, and happy Easter to all of those who celebrate.
[00:17:06]  Happy Easter.
[00:17:07]  Just so happens, I was involved in the creation of the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement, and I made my tenure by writing about it back in the day.
[00:17:16]  It is asymmetrical.
[00:17:17]  They depend on us much more than we depend on them.
[00:17:21]  Now, this is an example of Donald Trump seeing something that is wrong and then grossly overreacting, making up facts that don't exist, so forth.
[00:17:32]  Trudeau, the predecessor to the present prime minister, greatly provoked the United States.
[00:17:39]  European nations and Canada have basically run out of people to tax.
[00:17:43]  They've taxed everything under the sun so they can have free health care and all the rest.
[00:17:47]  So they've decided to tax us.
[00:17:50]  And the way they're doing that is they're imposing digital services taxes.
[00:17:54]  They'll create a digital service tax that says, if you sell so much in Canada, you should pay a tax.
[00:17:59]  Well, that's reasonable.
[00:18:00]  But then they want to do it on the basis of your global revenues, not of your revenues in Canada.
[00:18:06]  And the reality is that Canada, France, Italy, most of these countries don't have digital services companies like Meta.
[00:18:13]  So those are really taxes on American companies.
[00:18:15]  Well, they put in place a digital services tax up there.
[00:18:19]  That was basically a tax on U.S. exports because we export digital services.
[00:18:25]  So when you think about it, coming back at them with a tariff is a logical response.
[00:18:33]  They've removed that digital services tax.
[00:18:35]  Now, okay, there was that.
[00:18:36]  Now, the president also accused them of being a source of drugs and immigrants.
[00:18:40]  Now, you might be able to say that about Mexico, and it was useful to get the Mexicans finally focused on doing something about it.
[00:18:48]  But Canada simply, the president has tabled no evidence that the Canadians are culpable.
[00:18:54]  That was a totally outrageous tariff to impose.
[00:18:58]  On the other hand, things have been worse.
[00:19:01]  The prime minister up there behaves in a rather prickish way.
[00:19:05]  He behaves like, you know, throughout the post-war era, we have sought to integrate with the United States.
[00:19:11]  Well, he's old enough to remember the national energy policy and the industrial policies the first Prime Minister Trudeau put in place and many of the protectionist policies that failed that ultimately caused them to sue for free trade.
[00:19:26]  Canada has its own protectionist history.
[00:19:29]  That's not to justify what we're doing now.
[00:19:32]  But unfortunately, both countries have these fits of protectionism that come along every now and then.
[00:19:37]  And when I'd go up there working on the trading rooms, they'd say, how do we know you're not going to do this to us again?
[00:19:43]  I would say, how do we know you're not going to do it to us again?
[00:19:46]  Hopefully, we'll get through the Trump presidency and start to take a more clear-eyed view of our relationship with Canada.
[00:19:52]  And to the extent that it's reasonably symbiotic, and we don't have the kind of gripes with Canada that we do, say, with China.
[00:20:01]  You know, I don't see them pouring lots of electric vehicles here that have benefited from heavy subsidies over the last 30 years.
[00:20:09]  I think it's worth pointing out the President had a phone call with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week, so they were discussing, among other things, the war of the broader economic impact.
[00:20:17]  I want to go to our next caller, John, calling in from Pennsylvania on the Republican line.
[00:20:21]  Good morning, John.
[00:20:22]  You're on with our guest.

=== Kuwait's Energy Colony Status (06:28) ===

[00:20:24]  Thanks, Mr. Morisi.
[00:20:26]  What I was getting to is that, you know, these guys are making these oil companies and corporates.
[00:20:32]  They're making a lot of money on these inflated prices like this oil and everything.
[00:20:37]  You know, I was born in the 60s or probably around my age.
[00:20:40]  You knew that diesel oil was always a lot cheaper.
[00:20:43]  You know, 99 cents, you know, and your grades of gas only went up by maybe 10 or the regular grade was maybe $2, and then the next grade was maybe 10 or 20 cents more.
[00:20:56]  It just seems like nobody wants to show these people what they're making in a quarter.
[00:21:01]  They don't want to shame.
[00:21:02]  You want to dox people.
[00:21:03]  I mean, these are the people you should be doxing.
[00:21:05]  You should be showing how they're taking advantage of the price.
[00:21:09]  Doxing is a strong word.
[00:21:10]  I mean, it isn't like the big oil companies got together in a corner and decided to close the straits of Harmuz to make themselves rich.
[00:21:18]  The reality is the price of diesel is now more expensive than gas.
[00:21:23]  Back in the 60s, it was less expensive.
[00:21:26]  The reason is when you crack a barrel of oil, you basically get a certain amount of gasoline, you get a certain amount of diesel, and you get a certain amount of other stuff.
[00:21:35]  Back in the day when cars got 12 miles to the gallon, we consumed a lot more gasoline than diesel.
[00:21:42]  Those proportions have changed, but the proportions in which it comes out of the barrel haven't changed.
[00:21:48]  So now diesel is dearer.
[00:21:50]  That's just a reality.
[00:21:52]  It's like, you know, why in Southampton did you used to have basically New York City public servants and now you have very rich people?
[00:22:00]  Well, the only reason for that is there's only so much shoreline in Southampton and New York City's got, you know, three times as many people now.
[00:22:06]  So the price got bid up.
[00:22:08]  But it isn't like these people conspired.
[00:22:11]  And so you say, I want to dox them.
[00:22:13]  I understand your frustration.
[00:22:14]  I don't like paying a lot for gasoline any more than you do.
[00:22:19]  But I don't think it's fair to villainize them.
[00:22:23]  They didn't cook up this war and they're not trying to profits here.
[00:22:29]  They're just not.
[00:22:30]  I don't see it as that.
[00:22:32]  But you know, one of the things I really get a kick out of, people have hobby horses.
[00:22:37]  Let's take Liz Warren.
[00:22:39]  Senator Elizabeth Warren.
[00:22:40]  Liz Warren, yes.
[00:22:41]  Liz.
[00:22:42]  Well, she used to be a professor, so I feel like a cool woman.
[00:22:46]  She seems to, whenever anything goes wrong in the economy, whenever anything's expensive, is a monopolist.
[00:22:53]  Like, for example, the grocers are conspiring.
[00:22:57]  Or I was out with a progressive lawyer recently who said that the reason that the cattle herd is smaller and beef is so expensive is because of farm consolidation.
[00:23:09]  We have 700,000 cattle growers in the United States, 700,000.
[00:23:13]  How do you even get them in the same room to conspire?
[00:23:16]  Now, with regard to groceries, within walking distance of my house, I have Safeway, Whole Foods, Harris Tita, and Trader Joe's.
[00:23:25]  Within driving distance, you can add Giant and a few others.
[00:23:29]  That's not a monopoly situation.
[00:23:31]  But, you know, anytime prices go up, I know that with the same assurance that I pull a string and a light goes on, Elizabeth Warren finds the boogeyman of a monopolist lying underneath it.
[00:23:44]  And any time the price of gasoline goes up or the price of diesel is high, somehow or other the people down in Texas who run Exxon and all the rest are conspiring.
[00:23:54]  That's silly.
[00:23:55]  John, if you're still on with us, I just pulled up AAA's website.
[00:23:59]  The national average today is $4.10 a gallon for a gallon of regular.
[00:24:04]  A caller a bit earlier told us that, in his view, he was happy to pay $4 of gas or higher because he thought the war was justified.
[00:24:12]  Do you share those feelings?
[00:24:14]  No, I don't.
[00:24:15]  And I have one more question for Peter.
[00:24:17]  Why do people in Kuwait City don't pay the prices that we do?
[00:24:21]  They're a major player in producing.
[00:24:24]  We're a major player.
[00:24:26]  But who doesn't pay?
[00:24:27]  But listen to me.
[00:24:28]  They get the price of the...
[00:24:28]  I didn't hear what you said.
[00:24:29]  I need you to repeat yourself.
[00:24:31]  Who doesn't pay the same prices we do?
[00:24:32]  Kuwait and Kuwait City, they don't pay these high prices that we're paying.
[00:24:36]  Let these other European countries, these non-producers, let them pay these high prices.
[00:24:41]  We are a major player.
[00:24:42]  We're producing all this oil.
[00:24:45]  I understand we don't have refineries like we used to have.
[00:24:48]  You know, maybe that's what we should start doing.
[00:24:51]  They closed one down here, Marcus Hook.
[00:24:53]  They should have never closed that refinery.
[00:24:55]  They're building some, I don't know, cancer research medical.
[00:24:59]  That's all they do.
[00:25:00]  That's all this country does is into the medical field and nursing and doctors.
[00:25:08]  They're not into producing nothing.
[00:25:10]  It's all service.
[00:25:12]  There's no production in this country.
[00:25:14]  And that's what I'm saying.
[00:25:14]  People in Kuwait City aren't paying.
[00:25:16]  Look at what the prices are in Kuwait City right now for a gallon of gas.
[00:25:19]  Well, they pay it by the leader.
[00:25:21]  But look what they're paying.
[00:25:22]  Well, the government.
[00:25:23]  Hold on, hold on, hold on.
[00:25:25]  In Kuwait, the government owns the oil, and if it wants to give it away, it can.
[00:25:29]  In the United States, we basically pay what we have to pay to keep the oil companies from exporting this stuff.
[00:25:36]  By the way, we do have refineries.
[00:25:38]  You should go visit Texas.
[00:25:39]  And you should go visit Houston and New Orleans and places like that with lots of refineries.
[00:25:43]  And we believe the Trump administration just announced a new project for one potential in Texas.
[00:25:48]  We're building refinery capacity again.
[00:25:51]  But there are states that, you know, I find, you know, I really think that the state of New York ought to have to buy LNG flown in from Kuwait and pay the price for that.
[00:26:04]  The reason is Governor Kumo, when he was in office, banned fracking in New York State.
[00:26:11]  You see, New York State and the southern tier has the edge of the, you know, the Pennsylvania oil fields and the shale fields and so forth in the east.
[00:26:20]  But yet they get to use fracked gas from Texas and from Oklahoma and so forth.
[00:26:26]  They sort of have made the rest of the country an energy colony.
[00:26:29]  Likewise, California, they're still driving out there.
[00:26:32]  They haven't prohibited driving yet.
[00:26:35]  They're making it very, very expensive.
[00:26:38]  You know, it's virtually impossible to drill for oil, and people are shutting down refineries out there because the government is just so hostile to it.
[00:26:44]  But yet they want to consume gasoline.
[00:26:49]  The states do squirrely things.

=== Generational Inefficiency Costs (10:12) ===

[00:26:52]  Oh, here's another one.
[00:26:54]  The state of Maine should no longer, we should ban the sale of computers in the state of Maine.
[00:26:58]  How do you say that, Peter?
[00:26:59]  Well, they have put a ban on new data centers.
[00:27:02]  Now, it isn't like they're not going to use data centers, but they're going to use data centers from my lovely state of Virginia.
[00:27:07]  So I have to pay for the electricity that runs the data center so that they can run, you know, Anthropic or what have you.
[00:27:13]  That's silly.
[00:27:14]  The states shouldn't be doing things like this.
[00:27:17]  They should run the public schools, which they don't do very well.
[00:27:20]  There's a big political debate playing out over those data centers.
[00:27:23]  John, thanks for calling in.
[00:27:24]  I want to go to our next caller, Gary from Fletcher, North Carolina, on the Independent Line.
[00:27:29]  Good morning, Gary.
[00:27:30]  You're on with our guest.
[00:27:33]  Hey, okay.
[00:27:33]  Listen, I got a couple of things for you, Sharon.
[00:27:37]  You said the health care, most of the money's kind of going into Healthcare, but I'm going to say that.
[00:27:45]  The caller said that.
[00:27:48]  Oh, okay.
[00:27:49]  But anyway, we can talk about it anyway.
[00:27:51]  Let's pretend I said it, all right?
[00:27:52]  Because a lot of money is going into healthcare.
[00:27:58]  I don't know if I should have said money or the jobs creating.
[00:28:00]  Oh, the jobs.
[00:28:01]  Yes, they are.
[00:28:03]  Okay.
[00:28:04]  Okay.
[00:28:04]  Well, I just had eight guys that nobody knows about just fix my roof.
[00:28:09]  Okay, so that's one thing, but I want to get off that right away.
[00:28:13]  There is that market, too.
[00:28:18]  Also, like you're an expert on this, and one Italian to another.
[00:28:24]  Let's argue like we argue.
[00:28:27]  I kind of knew right away where this conversation was going to go when you opened up with, well, we got a president now that cares more about opening hotels.
[00:28:36]  So I hope you can hide your derangement a little.
[00:28:40]  No, no, wait, wait.
[00:28:41]  Wait a minute.
[00:28:42]  I'm a conservative, and there's things that Trump does that I do support.
[00:28:47]  But I mean, his warp strategy is totally irrational.
[00:28:52]  I mean, it changes from hour to hour.
[00:28:54]  His economic and tariff policy is irrational.
[00:28:58]  He makes up facts to suit his circumstances.
[00:29:03]  I'm not deranged for observing that.
[00:29:06]  Okay, then you, but you also said that's how politicians work.
[00:29:10]  You also said.
[00:29:11]  Oh, well, I was talking about the numbers.
[00:29:12]  I mean, you get up in the morning, you're president of the United States, there's a big economic number.
[00:29:16]  You're going to put a spin on it because you have allies in Congress that have to run for office in the fall.
[00:29:22]  That's just the nature of politics, and we have to accept that.
[00:29:25]  But, you know, some things you've got to take with a grain of salt.
[00:29:28]  It's like campaign promises.
[00:29:30]  I mean, you know, everybody who runs for president is going to fix the railroads.
[00:29:35]  Well, the railroads took a couple of generations to break, and they're going to take a couple of generations to get fixed.
[00:29:40]  They're actually getting better.
[00:29:41]  I mean, the passenger lines, the people that are running Amtrak these days aren't doing a better job.
[00:29:47]  But we know they're not going to be able to deliver on that.
[00:29:52]  We know that.
[00:29:54]  You're not giving me a chance to talk.
[00:29:56]  I'll ask you a question.
[00:29:57]  We're at war right now.
[00:29:59]  Okay.
[00:30:00]  We're at war right now, and we watch on TV all these guys missing limbs and everything every day.
[00:30:06]  Hopefully, this war is going to stop that.
[00:30:09]  At least somebody has to make an effort.
[00:30:12]  And I think the decision to do what we did, we should at least let it play out as Americans.
[00:30:18]  And we should judge it after it's over.
[00:30:21]  We got headaches right now.
[00:30:24]  They popped out with some weapons that we weren't expecting.
[00:30:27]  We need to really stick together on that.
[00:30:30]  And going back as far as the market goes, people are being paid to be parents these days.
[00:30:36]  They're being paid to be citizens these days by having children.
[00:30:40]  And these numbers are coming up.
[00:30:41]  And we're being a technological country.
[00:30:46]  We have to have a system that educates people to make these chips and things we're talking about.
[00:30:51]  Not everybody's going to need their lawns mowed and stuff.
[00:30:54]  I think there should have been a little more foresight into some of these decisions that we make.
[00:31:01]  And people afraid to be deported or having children, that's not a loving way to start a family.
[00:31:08]  They're having children out of fear.
[00:31:11]  And it's one of those things that are not talked about.
[00:31:13]  And it's ugly to talk about.
[00:31:15]  You can't rate or decide who's having children for love and who's having children for financial reasons or afraid to be deported.
[00:31:24]  But none of those things are what we're used to.
[00:31:26]  And I don't know.
[00:31:28]  We're just in a lot of stuff.
[00:31:30]  And I'm going to get off and listen to your comments.
[00:31:34]  Thank you.
[00:31:34]  Thank you, Gary.
[00:31:36]  There is a lot going by.
[00:31:37]  I mean, there's no two ways about it.
[00:31:39]  With regard to immigration, We do need immigrants, and we need more than we've been getting, but we need different immigrants.
[00:31:49]  The reason is not everybody in the United States is prepared to do everything that needs to be done.
[00:31:54]  I'll give you a good example.
[00:31:56]  About 20% of the technology jobs are done by immigrants, and 40% of those that require a doctoral degree, my level of education, are done by immigrants.
[00:32:06]  We can't get around that.
[00:32:08]  So we need an immigration system that welcomes and has an adequate quota for people to do stuff like that.
[00:32:14]  The other thing is, is you try to get a native American-born citizen to work in a meatpacking plant in Kansas or Nebraska.
[00:32:22]  You can't do it.
[00:32:24]  Those places are full of immigrants.
[00:32:26]  Why?
[00:32:27]  It's kind of the price they pay to get into the country.
[00:32:29]  I'm not saying it's fair.
[00:32:32]  Maybe we should cut up our own chicken.
[00:32:34]  But the reality is, in order to get meat cutters, we have to have immigrants.
[00:32:37]  The same thing goes with picking lettuce.
[00:32:40]  Now, part of that is arbitrage.
[00:32:43]  As mean as those circumstances are, and as modest as the livings that they make earn, they're much better than where they came from.
[00:32:52]  So they do it as a first stepping stone to get up the ladder.
[00:32:56]  It reminds me of the stories my dad told me about living in a tenement in New York City where three families crowded together.
[00:33:06]  And within the space of a generation, we had a doctor, a lawyer, an economist, a dentist, an electrical engineer, and so forth.
[00:33:13]  They basically used that to climb the ladder.
[00:33:17]  They saw it in generational terms.
[00:33:20]  And, you know, we need to run immigration that way.
[00:33:24]  The Canadians do a very good job of that.
[00:33:27]  And I think we'd do well to learn something from the Canadians as opposed to accusing them of running fentanyl in the United States.
[00:33:33]  Let's go to our next caller, Jim, calling in from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, on the Democratic line.
[00:33:38]  Good morning, Jim.
[00:33:38]  What's your question for our guests?
[00:33:40]  Good morning.
[00:33:40]  Good morning, gentlemen.
[00:33:42]  I have a question for the guest that drives me crazy because nobody can answer it for me.
[00:33:48]  Okay, I'm almost 80 years old.
[00:33:50]  I've been around for a while.
[00:33:52]  And I can remember, in the good old days, as I call them, back in the 50s and 60s, that we had plenty of money.
[00:34:01]  I mean, you didn't have schools and cities and everybody saying, well, we're broke.
[00:34:06]  We need a levy.
[00:34:07]  We need to raise taxes.
[00:34:09]  Yet the wealthy paid a lot more taxes back then.
[00:34:12]  So, what happened?
[00:34:13]  Where'd the money go?
[00:34:15]  That's my question.
[00:34:16]  I appreciate an answer.
[00:34:17]  Thank you.
[00:34:18]  By the way, I'm pretty close to 80 myself.
[00:34:21]  I was born in 1948.
[00:34:23]  So I remember the 50s as well.
[00:34:26]  In fact, I can tell you where I was the day the Dodgers finally won the World Series in 1955.
[00:34:32]  I know exactly where I was when Johnny Podras shut down the Yankees.
[00:34:36]  In any case, we did a lot less through the government and we did a lot more for ourselves.
[00:34:43]  That's one thing.
[00:34:44]  The other thing is that we had a much smaller elderly population relative to the working population because people had more babies.
[00:34:52]  Now we have a much bigger social security burden because the ratio of people over the age of 67 to those under 67 is much bigger than it used to be.
[00:35:02]  And we provide a terribly expensive and large income security net.
[00:35:07]  You know, we just don't let people get into financial trouble in the United States too much.
[00:35:13]  We bail them out.
[00:35:15]  We need to revisit that.
[00:35:17]  We need to ask ourselves, should people be more self-reliant, especially if we're going to spend what we need to spend on defense.
[00:35:24]  And we really do.
[00:35:27]  Now, maybe the defense establishment can be more efficient.
[00:35:30]  The other thing is that people have gotten used to a little bit of being inefficient.
[00:35:34]  You know, the government doesn't run with quite the precision it did when we were kids, and it really should.
[00:35:41]  We expect too much from the schools.
[00:35:42]  We expect them to be social workers as well as educators.
[00:35:46]  And I don't know that that's reasonable.
[00:35:49]  We expect too much from the state.
[00:35:51]  And that's what's costing us so much money.
[00:35:54]  Where were you for that dodger scan?
[00:35:56]  I went to a parochial school where Joe Torrey, who managed the New York Yankees, they have a sister.
[00:36:02]  Frank and Joe have a sister, who was my third grade nun.
[00:36:07]  And I lived on one side of Liberty Avenue, and the school, it was a Catholic school, was about 15 blocks away on the other side.
[00:36:15]  In between there and where it was kind of an industrial area, you know, garages, machine shops, things like that.
[00:36:23]  And what I did after school was everybody was listening to the game on the radio.
[00:36:28]  So what I would do is walk, and everybody knew me.
[00:36:31]  Everybody, I was always a gregarious person.
[00:36:34]  And even then, they would have told you I was going to end up on television today.
[00:36:39]  But I would walk, I would stop in the machine shop and everybody would be listening to the game.
[00:36:45]  And during the commercial, then I would walk to the mechanics shop where they fixed cars and I'd listen to the game.
[00:36:51]  So I was basically in one of those shops.
[00:36:54]  I can't tell you which one it was, but I was there.
[00:36:58]  That's a great story.
[00:36:59]  Let's go now to Leo or Leo from Fort Myers Beach, Florida, on the Republican line.
[00:37:04]  Good morning.

=== GDP Focus and Vital Interests (06:45) ===

[00:37:05]  You're on with our guest.
[00:37:07]  Yes, I'm a graduate of the University of Maryland in Economics, so I have a natural affinity for Professor Morici.
[00:37:14]  I have a book out on the global economy.
[00:37:16]  I would think you'd hate me.
[00:37:19]  I have a book out on the global economy in which I state that my contribution to the world has been my work as an American diplomat and as an American businessman in building the global economy.
[00:37:31]  When Trump with his tariffs came out, everybody said, well, that's an attack on the global economy.
[00:37:38]  I said, well, no, the global economy is too entrenched for any one man or any one nation to thwart.
[00:37:45]  And I think President Trump has learned that the tariffs, he's beating a wall with his tariffs and they're not doing exactly what he wants them to do.
[00:37:54]  So I would appreciate any comment Professor Morici would have on that.
[00:37:58]  Well, I think that that's true.
[00:38:00]  I think that if you disassemble the system, which he's done his best to try to do, and you don't have another system to put in its place, resourceful people around the world will come up with solutions.
[00:38:11]  And they're moving in that direction.
[00:38:14]  For example, the Europeans are negotiating a lot of trade agreements with people around the world as a substitute for what goes on in the WTO.
[00:38:23]  That's a good thing.
[00:38:24]  The Canadians are trying to do the same thing and so forth.
[00:38:27]  The British would like to.
[00:38:29]  My feeling is they'll create a new system and the question is whether we'll be allowed in.
[00:38:35]  They can't really keep us out because there's still things that we do in America that no one else can quite do.
[00:38:42]  For example, the Europeans really don't know how to do artificial intelligence.
[00:38:48]  They don't know how to do software very well.
[00:38:51]  That's not absolute.
[00:38:53]  The Brits have some very good chip designers and software developers.
[00:38:56]  But by and large, the European economy is expert about diesel engines and we're expert about electrons.
[00:39:05]  And the future is electric, not diesel.
[00:39:07]  Now, one of the things that really dismays me about Donald Trump and dismayed me about Joe Biden is Joe Biden was against fossil fuels and all for solar and wind and so forth.
[00:39:18]  The Donald's the opposite.
[00:39:20]  Well, the reality is we need to just let the system play itself out and develop both sets of sources and let the market decide.
[00:39:28]  And what's very disconcerting is that every four years we get a radical shift in policy.
[00:39:33]  You watch, the Democrats are coming back and they're going to start unwinding everything that Trump did.
[00:39:39]  And the Republicans are going to sit over there in Congress in the minority and twist their guts.
[00:39:43]  And then they'll get back in because that doesn't work.
[00:39:46]  One of the things the Chinese have done, and is responsible for their success, is they've been very consistent in their policies.
[00:39:54]  They set a goal, they focus and focus and focus and focus.
[00:39:59]  We used to be that way.
[00:40:00]  We need to be that way again.
[00:40:02]  You know, the Transcontinental Railway did not get built by people changing policy from week to week.
[00:40:09]  It got built by people setting a goal, staying focused, and saying, one way or another, we're going to get this done.
[00:40:16]  It's like that with the Gulf War.
[00:40:17]  We absolutely cannot afford to let the Iranians, these terrible terrorists, have this kind of stranglehold on that part of the world.
[00:40:25]  And we have to recognize that we have vital interests there and that only we really can lead to get them out of there.
[00:40:32]  I have to say that some of the things the Europeans are saying and doing in this context is kind of cowardly.
[00:40:41]  You know, they depend on the Middle East even more than we do, but yet they don't want to risk themselves because it's Donald Trump.
[00:40:49]  That's silly.
[00:40:50]  I mean, if your house is on fire and a fireman shows up, you don't throw him out because you don't like his mother.
[00:41:00]  You'll leave it there.
[00:41:02]  We've got time for one more call in this segment.
[00:41:04]  Kevin calling in from New Durham, New Hampshire on the independent line.
[00:41:08]  Good morning, Kevin.
[00:41:08]  What do you want to ask our guest?
[00:41:11]  Hi, Peter.
[00:41:12]  How are you doing?
[00:41:12]  I had two things I'd like to bring up and hear your comments on.
[00:41:18]  One is to do with a gross domestic product.
[00:41:23]  I know gross domestic product is a product of the productivity of our population.
[00:41:30]  So in regards to immigration, I see that as an influx of population to help our Jeep gross domestic product.
[00:41:41]  Or our citizens have to be more productive to increase that, to compensate.
[00:41:47]  The second thing I wanted to bring up was on oil in particular.
[00:41:53]  I looked at the known oil reserves for all the countries of easily accessible oil.
[00:42:02]  And then I looked up the billions of barrels of oil that we use per day and did some math.
[00:42:11]  And with those numbers, it looks like less than 50 years before we use all those oil reserves at the current rate.
[00:42:21]  And our country has one of the lowest oil reserves known for easily accessible.
[00:42:28]  And if our country's oil reserves supplied the whole world, it would be gone in two years.
[00:42:36]  I'd like to hear your comment.
[00:42:38]  Final thoughts?
[00:42:39]  Well, my feeling is that we're probably not going to be using oil for anything other than plastics 50 years from now, any more than we used to heat with wood.
[00:42:46]  If we still heated with wood, the country would have no forest left at all because there's so many more of us.
[00:42:52]  We're going to go to a digital future fueled by electricity that will be generated through hydrogen, perhaps if we manage to conquer the fusion problem.
[00:43:04]  We're certainly efficient with nuclear power and through electric and through solar and wind and so forth.
[00:43:12]  That's going to happen.
[00:43:14]  And Donald Trump can't change that as much as he might like to.
[00:43:18]  What he's doing is he's reacting to the extreme policies of Joe Biden.
[00:43:22]  I mean, Liz Warren never saw a grocer she didn't thought was conspiring or an oil man she didn't hate.
[00:43:30]  And there was a lot of that in this administration, in his administration.
[00:43:34]  And in a lot of ways, Donald Trump is a reaction to that.
[00:43:37]  As I said, the pendulum has to stop swinging so widely in both directions.
[00:43:42]  We need to set our goals, be consistent about applying the means we have, and accomplish what we need to do.

=== Kissinger Tapes and Polarization (03:04) ===

[00:43:51]  Peter Morizzi, clearly a well-known economics professor from the University of Maryland, based on some of the callers' input, also writes a weekly column for the Washington Times.
[00:43:59]  Thanks so much for coming in.
[00:44:00]  It's been a real pleasure, and I wish you good luck in this job.
[00:44:03]  Thank you.
[00:44:03]  It's fun so far.
[00:44:05]  Later on in the show, we're going to be hearing from Fox News National Political Reporter Paul Steinhauser.
[00:44:10]  We'll be talking everything about the 2026 midterm elections, how the war is potentially influencing voters, of course, the economy.
[00:44:17]  But first, right after the break, we'll continue open forum.
[00:44:20]  Please call in the numbers on your screen.
[00:44:22]  Republicans, 8,001, Democrats, 8,000, Independents, 8,002.
[00:44:27]  And we'll be right back.
[00:44:40]  On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb, author and editor Tom Wells opens his 600-page book titled The Kissinger Tapes this way: quote: Henry Kissinger is one of the most polarizing figures in recent American history.
[00:44:56]  He's hailed by many as a master in the art of diplomacy and real politique.
[00:45:02]  Tom Wells, who has a PhD in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, writes this, quote, many critics consider his diplomacy overhyped and some condemn him for committing war crimes, close quote.
[00:45:16]  Mr. Wells' book is subtitled Inside Henry Kissinger's Secretly Recorded Phone Conversations.
[00:45:23]  These recordings cover years 1969 through August of 1974, the end of the Nixon presidency.
[00:45:32]  A new interview with author and editor Tom Wells about his book, The Kissinger Tapes, inside his secretly recorded phone conversations.
[00:45:40]  Book Notes Plus with our host Brian Lamb is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app.
[00:45:52]  Watch America's Book Club, C-SPAN's bold original series, Sunday, with our guest best-selling author, Arthur Brooks, who has written 13 books about finding purpose, connection, and cultivating lasting joy.
[00:46:07]  His books include Love Your Enemies, Build the Life You Want with co-author Oprah Winfrey and his latest The Happiness Files.
[00:46:15]  He joins our host, renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein.
[00:46:19]  So what's the key to having a happy marriage?
[00:46:21]  The answer is not passionate love, but what we call in my business companionate love.
[00:46:26]  Companionate love, which is best friendship.
[00:46:28]  You know, I told my kids that, who are now, you know, two of my kids are young married, and my son Carlos said, companionate love, that's not hot.
[00:46:38]  And I said, well, trust me, it's got some hotness to it.
[00:46:41]  Watch America's Book Club with Arthur Brooks, Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
[00:46:49]  Only on C-SPAN.

=== Companionate Love in Marriage (15:16) ===

[00:46:56]  Washington Journal continues.
[00:46:59]  Welcome back to Washington Journal.
[00:47:00]  We've been ticking through the biggest political stories of the week, and one of them that got a lot of attention was President Trump dismissing his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, the second member of his cabinet in his second term to be pushed out.
[00:47:12]  The president made the news official on Truth Social, writing, Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and a loyal friend who faithfully served as my attorney general over the past year.
[00:47:22]  Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in crime across our country with murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.
[00:47:32]  We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector to be announced at a date in the near future.
[00:47:39]  And our Deputy Attorney General and a very talented and respected legal mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as acting attorney general.
[00:47:48]  Bondi did post her own statement on X where responding to the president's announcement.
[00:47:53]  She wrote in part: Over the next month, I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about and where I will continue fighting for President Trump in this administration.
[00:48:07]  Leading President Trump's historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime and easily the most consequential first year of the Department of Justice in American history.
[00:48:18]  She said, since February 2025, we have secured the lowest murder rate in 125 years, secured first ever terrorism convictions against members of Antifa, shattered domestic and transnational gangs across the country, taken custody of more than 90 key cartel figures, and won 24 favorable rulings at the Supreme Court.
[00:48:36]  I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to make America safe again.
[00:48:41]  The acting attorney general is now Todd Blanche, a name you might recall.
[00:48:45]  He served as one of President Trump's personal attorneys when the president was out of office and facing a list of legal convictions.
[00:48:53]  Blanche is now in this acting capacity as the Attorney General.
[00:48:57]  We'll have to see if the president decides to dominate someone else or push him forward.
[00:49:01]  A reminder: it's open forum.
[00:49:02]  We're going to hear from some more callers now.
[00:49:05]  Michael is calling in from Colorado on the Democratic line.
[00:49:08]  Good morning, Michael.
[00:49:09]  Do you have thoughts on Pam Bondi or another topic?
[00:49:12]  Yeah, I missed on the last one.
[00:49:14]  I'd like to give some information about the oil consumption and whatnot.
[00:49:23]  If I can't, yeah, I went to college back in Maryland.
[00:49:28]  And anyhow, the Red Sea oil pipeline in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, they were pumping 10.2 million barrels.
[00:49:50]  And now they're only doing 3.2.
[00:49:52]  And I think that's an excellent place to pick up on it.
[00:49:56]  And they haven't really come up to the capacity.
[00:50:02]  And another thing is an oil magnet from North American Blue Energy back in March 9.
[00:50:13]  He exported a billion barrels of Venezuelan crude for delivery into China.
[00:50:20]  Yeah, so it's crazy how these people are running around and making money.
[00:50:27]  And 88% of crude oil in the U.S. requires comes from North America.
[00:50:36]  Thank you for that, Michael.
[00:50:37]  And to build on your point, President Trump has been talking a lot recently about our new relationship with Venezuela after the U.S. captured, ousted President Nicolas Maduro.
[00:50:47]  And President Trump has indicated that the U.S. has already been tapping into Venezuela's oil reserves.
[00:50:53]  And again, the president in that address, you could see him on screen from earlier this week.
[00:50:57]  He indicated that in his view, the U.S. does not need to get oil from the Middle East, specifically the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:51:03]  Critics of his say that is not accurate, and that's part of why we're dealing with higher gas prices here.
[00:51:08]  And I just looked up in Colorado right now where you were calling from.
[00:51:11]  According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gasoline right now is $3.83.
[00:51:17]  Let's hear now from Bob calling in from hometown, Illinois, on the Republican line.
[00:51:21]  Good morning, Bob.
[00:51:22]  What's on your mind?
[00:51:23]  Good morning.
[00:51:24]  Love C span two topics, if I might.
[00:51:26]  First of all, how dumb, how silly we are as a country to allow 500 Chinese companies to ship people over and be born and get birth certificates and bring their family in 18 years.
[00:51:40]  And we sell them farmland next to a military basis.
[00:51:44]  That's pretty silly.
[00:51:45]  And a second topic is blue states, particularly blue state governors with blood on their hands.
[00:51:52]  Those two people in Minnesota would never have been murdered if there wasn't a Sanctuary State and Sanctuary City.
[00:51:58]  They would have been home safe.
[00:51:59]  But thanks to the blue state governor, now Spamberger, letting people out.
[00:52:05]  The first day she overturned the policy that they were helping by take immigrants.
[00:52:13]  Now they're not doing that.
[00:52:14]  California and here in Illinois, Pittsburgh, our governor walks around with a GoPro saying how safe is walks are, but he's got six armed servicemen with him filming them.
[00:52:27]  And I'd like to see him downtown tonight when the teenagers gather to cause havoc in our city.
[00:52:35]  Thank you.
[00:52:36]  Bob, I'm curious if you're still on the line.
[00:52:38]  What do you think about President Trump's new Homeland Security Secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen?
[00:52:43]  Because in many ways, we were just talking about Pam Bondi being pushed out.
[00:52:46]  The first cabinet member this term was Christy Noam, the Homeland Security Secretary.
[00:52:51]  She was pushed out largely after the chaos we saw in Minnesota.
[00:52:54]  So how are you feeling about Secretary Mullen and the administration's approach now to immigration?
[00:53:00]  I think he's going to do a terrific job and help President Trump and the administration.
[00:53:06]  And we've got to get the independents and some Democrats to vote for us in November because we can't allow this country to go back into control of Democrats or be a third world country again, all over.
[00:53:17]  Thanks so much, Bob.
[00:53:18]  We'll be talking about the midterm elections a lot coming up with our next guests.
[00:53:22]  Let's go to Michael calling in from Louisiana on the independent line.
[00:53:26]  Good morning, Michael.
[00:53:27]  You're on.
[00:53:27]  What's on your mind?
[00:53:29]  Well, good morning.
[00:53:31]  I wanted to really comment on a few things.
[00:53:34]  Your guest, Mr. Professor Morisi, I agreed with that philosophy he's had for years and years now, that both sides keep, I guess, spinning their wheels and not cooperating or compromising.
[00:53:54]  And each time the new one gets in, the new regime gets in, it reverses the things the other regime did.
[00:54:01]  And it's really creating so much havoc.
[00:54:05]  And the people of America do seem to be frustrated, as shown in the elections year to year.
[00:54:15]  Also, during this time, you know, with the things going on and our spiritual leaders trying to voice their voices be heard on peace.
[00:54:32]  And, you know, when you look at the money we spend on defense and nuclear weapons, it's just crazy.
[00:54:42]  The world has to come to a better place and provide peace, compromise peace throughout so none of these things will continue to happen.
[00:54:54]  Michael, I'm curious what you think about the president's budget proposal he released yesterday where he wants to up the country's defense spending to $1.5 trillion.
[00:55:03]  He argues it's in part because of the ongoing war and the overall threat environment globally.
[00:55:09]  What do you think about that based on what you were just saying?
[00:55:12]  Again, absolutely.
[00:55:14]  Why?
[00:55:15]  Instead of encouraging other countries to come to the table and speak of peace and not continue all the countries that are putting out these immense budgets for weapons and defense to use that money for other means that each country needs for the poor and the sick instead of using it for war, for war machines.
[00:55:45]  Something's got to be done.
[00:55:47]  And Trump, I don't like a lot of things he does.
[00:55:50]  He does do some good things that are overwhelmed by many of the bad things.
[00:55:55]  The things he says, for instance, people like it.
[00:55:58]  It's like entertaining, right?
[00:55:59]  But it's crazy some of the things he comes up with.
[00:56:02]  But absolutely, let's get all the countries.
[00:56:05]  He's the leader.
[00:56:07]  He's the leader.
[00:56:07]  Our young people are looking at our leaders and seeing what they're doing.
[00:56:12]  Let's show the world we can lead and not produce, spend all our money on weapons, spend all our money on the things that matter, health care and providing the necessities for all the poor and the people who don't have enough to even eat.
[00:56:35]  That's my philosophy on that.
[00:56:38]  Thank you, Michael.
[00:56:39]  Got your point.
[00:56:40]  Let's go to Doug calling in from Fairfax, South Dakota on the Democratic line.
[00:56:44]  Good morning, Doug.
[00:56:45]  What's on your mind?
[00:56:47]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:56:48]  You mentioned my governor.
[00:56:49]  I want to talk about the war, but you mentioned old Christie.
[00:56:52]  She didn't get fired.
[00:56:53]  She's still down there working for the government.
[00:56:55]  She probably got her credit card in hand, too, spending money.
[00:56:58]  And I wonder if Vance is going to actually investigate her about that quarter billion she blew off.
[00:57:03]  But on this war, this is Israel's war.
[00:57:06]  Benjamin, he's been complaining about it.
[00:57:09]  Iran forever.
[00:57:10]  And they got him knocked down pretty hard and heavy right now.
[00:57:13]  And Trump, he just followed it right in there.
[00:57:16]  You know, I thought Biden was bad about Benjamin and tell him how high to jump and he'd do it.
[00:57:21]  Well, I think Trump come along.
[00:57:22]  He's jumped a lot higher, even though he's got bone spurs.
[00:57:26]  And there is one thing I got to say.
[00:57:28]  I got to bring this up about Christie.
[00:57:30]  I do agree that Donald should be on one of our monuments, but I think instead of Mount Rushmore, he should be on Crazy Horse.
[00:57:37]  And I think he'd be real fitting right underneath the horse's tail.
[00:57:41]  But I think it might be insulting to the horse.
[00:57:43]  But this is Israel's war, and we're fighting it for them.
[00:57:46]  I wonder if they're going to pay us back for all this that we're doing for them over there.
[00:57:50]  We already give them, I don't know how much, their GDP, our GDP, what we spend to our debt or whatever, 126%.
[00:57:59]  If you look up Israel, it's like 67% of their GDP or whatever.
[00:58:04]  So they're not near as far, but we still give them $3 billion for them to pay our politicians off every year.
[00:58:11]  So I don't know.
[00:58:12]  But you're doing a fine job, buddy.
[00:58:14]  Appreciate that, Doug.
[00:58:15]  I have a question for you, and I'll point out, Christy Noam, to your point, she's not out of the Trump administration.
[00:58:20]  Her new title is Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, and she's been continuing to travel abroad in that position.
[00:58:27]  On the war, though, I'm curious, since you're calling in from South Dakota, of course, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is from your state, and he has largely been supportive of the war so far and the president's approach.
[00:58:38]  What do you feel?
[00:58:40]  How do you feel about that?
[00:58:41]  And how is he being received in your home state?
[00:58:45]  I think a lot of people, there's a lot of Republicans up here like Trump.
[00:58:49]  I'm kind of a minority, actually, being a Democrat.
[00:58:53]  But there's things, actually, I agree with Trump on some of the stuff.
[00:58:56]  We spend way too much, but we need to collect money.
[00:58:58]  But soon he's in the pocket of Donald.
[00:59:02]  He does what Donald does.
[00:59:03]  He followed McConnell around all his life there.
[00:59:07]  And I was always worried about McConnell making a sudden stop and he'd find himself stuck somewhere.
[00:59:12]  But I don't know.
[00:59:13]  It is a crazy world and it's getting crazier, is all I got to say.
[00:59:16]  I'm old.
[00:59:17]  I'm getting pretty old and ancient, so I've seen a lot of this stupid stuff.
[00:59:21]  And we're actually fighting Israel's war.
[00:59:23]  I mean, it goes back in history.
[00:59:25]  And look at this, look at the West Bank.
[00:59:27]  I've been wanting to say something about the West Bank, too.
[00:59:29]  The way they keep stealing the land in the West Bank, and they're actually attacking Christians over there, pushing them out of their land over there.
[00:59:37]  I mean, you should guys bring that topic up.
[00:59:40]  That's rigid causes this war right there.
[00:59:43]  But you guys have a good day.
[00:59:44]  Thanks so much, Doug.
[00:59:45]  You too.
[00:59:45]  Let's hear from Carolyn now, calling in from Wilmington, Illinois, on the Republican line.
[00:59:50]  Good morning, Carolyn.
[00:59:51]  You're on.
[00:59:51]  Are you focused on the war or another topic?
[00:59:54]  Good morning.
[00:59:56]  Well, I'm focused now on two topics.
[00:59:59]  Actually, not topics.
[01:00:01]  First off, I want to tell you this is the first time I've seen you on, and I'm really enjoying your show.
[01:00:09]  Oh, thank you.
[01:00:10]  Appreciate that.
[01:00:11]  You and Jazzman are the best.
[01:00:13]  You're the two newest ones, right?
[01:00:15]  It's a great team here.
[01:00:16]  Yeah, we started recently.
[01:00:18]  Appreciate that.
[01:00:18]  What's on your mind, though, politically?
[01:00:21]  Well, nothing really, except for your last caller.
[01:00:28]  I hope he's still listening.
[01:00:30]  Thank you very much.
[01:00:31]  I got a lot of giggles.
[01:00:35]  How are you feeling about the war?
[01:00:37]  We're on day 35 or 36 of it.
[01:00:42]  I feel like our country needs it.
[01:00:49]  Yeah.
[01:00:50]  Got it.
[01:00:50]  Well, thanks for calling in, Carolyn.
[01:00:52]  Let's move on to David calling in from Flemington, New Jersey, on the Independent line.
[01:00:57]  Good morning, David.
[01:00:58]  What's on your mind?
[01:01:00]  Good morning.
[01:01:00]  Thank you.
[01:01:01]  Yes, we were in Manhattan last Sunday at Town Hall listening to a concert presented by an Israeli chamber group.
[01:01:10]  And I have to say, it was the first time I really felt frightened that something might happen while we were at the performance.
[01:01:17]  There were protesters outside, and the signs were pretty irrational.
[01:01:24]  They were signs that were saying, you know, you can't hide Israel's atrocities behind music.
[01:01:31]  And I mean, it was just ludicrous what the signs were.
[01:01:35]  Nobody's hiding anything, Jewish or non-Jewish, Israeli or non-Israeli.
[01:01:42]  Nobody's hiding anything behind art or music.
[01:01:47]  The other thing that comes very clear, though, from two callers back: only scratch the surface a little in this country and be perceived as our government doing anything to help Jews.
[01:02:00]  And this was proven during World War II when the U.S. would not bomb the railroads leading to the concentration camps and the public would not go for us entering the war.

=== Anti-Semitism and Accountability (10:06) ===

[01:02:12]  And Roosevelt was very careful never to frame it as saving Jews.
[01:02:17]  But the way the anti-Semites just pour out of the woodwork whenever there's anything involving Jews or Israel, and that's not to endorse Netanyahu in any way, but overwhelmingly, this is a racist and anti-Semitic country, and it is not a Judeo-Christian country.
[01:02:36]  1% of it is Jewish, and it is loaded with anti-Semitism.
[01:02:41]  And it's horrible to see C-SPAN used as a tool for people to express their anti-Semitism and to show no discernment between being Jewish and being Israeli or being Jewish and being Zionist.
[01:02:54]  And it's really quite wearying.
[01:02:56]  And thank you for taking my call.
[01:02:58]  Thank you, David.
[01:02:59]  A follow-up question, if I could.
[01:03:00]  What more would you like to see from congressional leaders and from the Trump administration when it comes to combating anti-Semitism?
[01:03:07]  It's, of course, a topic that a lot of lawmakers and policy leaders weigh in on regularly.
[01:03:11]  Do you think they're talking too much with little action?
[01:03:17]  Well, I'm in this, well, my legislative district includes Tom Cain Jr. in Congress, and he has sponsored legislation to make expressions of anti-Semitism a crime.
[01:03:37]  I think he was helpful in throwing out Rutgers president, though I was very disappointed.
[01:03:43]  A professor near here named Anna Kaiserman at Raradon Valley Community College was targeted by the college administration and forbidden to play Jewish music at a concert.
[01:03:56]  She was attacked for standing up against anti-Semitic groups on the community college campus after October 7th.
[01:04:04]  She was fired.
[01:04:06]  I tried to work with Andrews Wicker in the 16th Legislative District, Mitchell Drewless, and Roy Freiman in the state.
[01:04:13]  I had multiple calls to Tom Caine Jr., and Raridan Valley Community College threw her out.
[01:04:21]  They trumped up charges against her, and I couldn't get any support for her.
[01:04:27]  I can't, at the local level, even combat anti-Semitism.
[01:04:31]  I don't know at the national level.
[01:04:34]  I'm not convinced that Trump's actions against the Ivy League schools are right, targeting protesters who are anti-Israel, because many Jews, in fact, are anti-the current Israeli government.
[01:04:49]  But anti-Semitism is going nowhere in this country.
[01:04:52]  It's a disease.
[01:04:54]  Brandeis is studying it as a disease, but it's like a chronic disease.
[01:04:59]  And the anti-Semites, and your callers show this.
[01:05:02]  They just need the slightest excuse involving Israel to broadbrush every Jew as evil.
[01:05:10]  And what the government can do, I'm not sure.
[01:05:13]  Anti-Semitic acts in America are through the roof.
[01:05:16]  Well, David, thank you.
[01:05:17]  We appreciate you calling in.
[01:05:18]  And that's the whole point of Open Forum is to hear from everybody kind of on all sides of these sensitive issues.
[01:05:24]  Let's hear now from Carlton calling in from Orlando, Florida on the Democratic line.
[01:05:29]  Good morning, Carlton.
[01:05:30]  What's on your mind today?
[01:05:32]  Good morning.
[01:05:33]  Three-time caller, I grew up with C-SPAN.
[01:05:37]  Appreciate that.
[01:05:38]  What political stories are you watching?
[01:05:41]  Well, I want to make one comment first.
[01:05:44]  I think C-SPAN used need to do more fact-checking on when they call in and make erroneously lies, uneducated lies, whatever.
[01:05:56]  But my topic is, I've seen this playbook before.
[01:06:04]  I don't seen it three times.
[01:06:08]  We get into a war and we make all kinds of excuses while we're in the war.
[01:06:14]  And next thing you know, we can't get out of the war.
[01:06:18]  So I've seen this playbook before.
[01:06:21]  And we know Trump went to war for some reason.
[01:06:25]  We just don't know why.
[01:06:27]  Got your point.
[01:06:28]  Thank you, Carlton.
[01:06:30]  Let's hear from Sandy calling in from Hickory, North Carolina on the Republican line.
[01:06:34]  Good morning, Sandy.
[01:06:35]  What do you have to say?
[01:06:37]  Yes, I have a comment tonight.
[01:06:40]  I fully support the president because what happened when Pearl Harbor happened?
[01:06:48]  We got caught with our pants down, didn't we?
[01:06:51]  What happened with the Twin Towers?
[01:06:54]  We got caught with our pants down.
[01:06:57]  So I'm sure the president knows a lot more.
[01:07:01]  And for people to berate the man, talk down about the man, I was raised in an era when whoever you voted for or didn't vote for for president, you respected him for the office he held.
[01:07:21]  And I think that divided we fall, who started it.
[01:07:28]  I mean, seriously, Democrats, Republicans, whoever, we need to act united in this front.
[01:07:37]  We need to stay united.
[01:07:40]  We need to pray for this company, for this country.
[01:07:44]  We need to pray for our president.
[01:07:47]  Thank you for that, Sandy.
[01:07:48]  Appreciate you weighing in.
[01:07:50]  Edward, calling in from Burbank, California on the independent line.
[01:07:54]  Good morning, Edward.
[01:07:54]  What's on your mind?
[01:07:56]  Yeah, can you hear me okay?
[01:07:57]  I can, loud and clear.
[01:07:59]  Yeah, okay, so I'm an independent.
[01:08:01]  I've never joined either of the two major parties.
[01:08:04]  I find them to be pretty much of a version of a two-party control of party apparatus on both sides.
[01:08:14]  So that's my opinion on that.
[01:08:15]  I think Trump was fact-tecked in the first administration over 30,000 falsehoods or exaggerations and stuff like that.
[01:08:24]  The war and all these other foreign adventures he's in are distractions from the Epstein files to get people to rally around the flag and kind of put the Epstein in the background.
[01:08:34]  His claims that drug boats in the Pacific were coming from Venezuela is interesting because Venezuela doesn't even have a coastline with the Pacific.
[01:08:42]  He's really become a puppet of Netanyahu.
[01:08:44]  The mass destruction things in Iraq turned out to be false.
[01:08:49]  The imminent attack by nuclear weapons from Iran is probably false.
[01:08:54]  If he really wants to be the tough guy he claims to be, why doesn't he do to Putin what he did to Maduro?
[01:09:00]  Putin has thousands of nuclear weapons.
[01:09:02]  Why doesn't he do that to the North Korean dictator?
[01:09:05]  Capture him and put him in jail.
[01:09:07]  And the final thing is, let's remember, Trump is a convicted felon.
[01:09:12]  He was convicted in the court in New York or wherever that was as a convicted felon.
[01:09:18]  So we're really headed down a path.
[01:09:20]  He wants to name everything after himself.
[01:09:22]  He wants to run the government as if it were his private business.
[01:09:25]  And he and his family are making tons of money using their political influence to make money.
[01:09:30]  So we've really gone down a path which is terrible.
[01:09:35]  We're headed towards a one-party system, which is the Trump Party, and everything's being named after him.
[01:09:40]  So that's my opinion.
[01:09:41]  I find that the country is in terrible shape right now.
[01:09:45]  Thanks for weighing in, Edward.
[01:09:47]  Let's go to Kathleen from Chicago, Illinois, calling in on the Democratic line.
[01:09:51]  Good morning, Kathleen.
[01:09:52]  What's on your mind?
[01:09:53]  I am so glad you're here because you seem to let people get their thoughts out.
[01:09:58]  That's the goal.
[01:10:00]  Listen to me.
[01:10:00]  Go along with me.
[01:10:02]  This is something that the American people need to hear.
[01:10:06]  Iran, as they say, been a threat to the United States for 47 years.
[01:10:11]  Now, you can go in your archive and pull it up.
[01:10:15]  Before Trump was running for president and President Obama was running, he told the American people, don't vote for Obama because Obama is going to start a war with Iran.
[01:10:26]  And he don't know how to negotiate.
[01:10:28]  I know how to negotiate.
[01:10:30]  So don't vote for him because you shouldn't start a war with Iran.
[01:10:34]  And that's in the archive.
[01:10:35]  Then when he ran against Hillary, he did the same thing.
[01:10:40]  Don't vote for Hillary because she's going to get in there and start a war with Iran.
[01:10:45]  But Iran has been a threat for 47 years.
[01:10:48]  Then when he got in for four years, he was there for four years, mind you.
[01:10:54]  Did he start a rad on Iran?
[01:10:56]  If Iran was so dangerous, and he tore up the agreement that Obama had with Iran.
[01:11:03]  But when he got in there, like he's in there now, did he start there?
[01:11:07]  No, sir.
[01:11:08]  So when did Iran become an unthreat while he was in there?
[01:11:13]  Then when he lies to Joe Biden, don't vote for Biden and Kamada because they're going to get in there and started war.
[01:11:20]  We shouldn't go to war with Iran.
[01:11:22]  Let me tell you why he's going to war with Iran.
[01:11:25]  I know a guy before said he don't know why.
[01:11:27]  This is why.
[01:11:28]  When Clinton and his wife set for deficitions in February, the last days in February, when Clinton talked that Friday, Trump that Saturday morning started dropping bombs on Iran.
[01:11:46]  Why?
[01:11:47]  If it wasn't from the Epstein files, Trump wouldn't have started this war.
[01:11:52]  He wouldn't have started it because he had a time when he was in that style.
[01:11:57]  People, this man is there for one thing and one thing only to keep from being held accountable.
[01:12:04]  And it's sad that we got to lose our loved ones for somebody who don't even want his kids to go.
[01:12:10]  They asked him why don't he send one of his kids?
[01:12:13]  He said his child was too tall to go to war, but he's willing to send your kids.

=== Approval Ratings and War Fatigue (14:59) ===

[01:12:18]  And another thing, and thank you for letting me get this out.
[01:12:20]  I definitely wanted to get that out.
[01:12:22]  He stood up there yesterday and said, America first, but yet he says he wants $1.something trillion dollars to keep this war going.
[01:12:32]  Why, if he done decimated Iran, why would he need all this money?
[01:12:37]  Then people was talking about Medicare and Medicaid and child care.
[01:12:43]  Oh, those are scams.
[01:12:45]  Those are little scams.
[01:12:48]  Thank you so much, Kathleen.
[01:12:49]  You touched on a lot there, and it's actually a good segue to our next guest we're going to be speaking with after the break.
[01:12:54]  We're going to be talking with Fox News National Political Reporter Paul Steinhauser about the 2026 political landscape, the midterms, and the impact of everything you just mentioned, Kathleen, politically and on the election.
[01:13:07]  So stay with Washington Journal.
[01:13:08]  We'll be right back.
[01:13:16]  Sunday night on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A.
[01:13:19]  The Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum's Jennifer Lavasser discusses the history of the 135 mission space shuttle program and takes us on a tour of the space shuttle orbiter.
[01:13:30]  There are well over 20,000 tiles on this vehicle, and about 80% of them are original to Discovery's very first flight in 1984.
[01:13:39]  So some of this evidence goes all the way back to 1984.
[01:13:42]  And it's really, and it's one of the funniest things about being the curator is sometimes people will look and say, well, it looks really dirty.
[01:13:48]  Why don't you clean it?
[01:13:49]  That's not dirt.
[01:13:50]  That's the evidence of all the hard work that happened.
[01:13:53]  The Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum's Jennifer Levasser.
[01:13:57]  Sunday night at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to QA and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
[01:14:11]  Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere.
[01:14:14]  We have to listen so we can govern better.
[01:14:16]  Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
[01:14:19]  You can fight and still be friendly.
[01:14:22]  Bridging the divide in American politics.
[01:14:24]  You know, you may not agree with La Docron in everything, but you can find areas where you do agree.
[01:14:28]  He's a pretty likable guy as well.
[01:14:29]  Chris Kins and I are actually friends.
[01:14:31]  He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends.
[01:14:34]  A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other.
[01:14:37]  We all don't hate each other.
[01:14:38]  You two actually kind of like each other.
[01:14:40]  These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
[01:14:43]  It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
[01:14:45]  You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
[01:14:48]  He owes my son $10 from a bad person.
[01:14:52]  Don't fork it over.
[01:14:53]  That's fighting words right now.
[01:14:55]  Glad I'm not in charge of it.
[01:14:56]  I'm thrilled to be on the show with him.
[01:14:58]  There are not shows like this, right?
[01:15:00]  Incentivizing that relationship.
[01:15:02]  Ceasefire Friday nights on C-SPAN.
[01:15:10]  In a divided media world, one place brings Americans together.
[01:15:14]  According to a new MAGA research report, nearly 90 million Americans turn to C-SPAN, and they're almost perfectly balanced.
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[01:15:27]  Republicans watching Democrats, Democrats watching Republicans, moderates watching all sides.
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[01:15:45]  Washington Journal continues.
[01:15:49]  Our next guest, the great and intrepid Paul Steinhauser, national political reporter for Fox News, based in the very important presidential state of New Hampshire, but he hits the road all the time for Fox.
[01:16:00]  Paul, great to have you.
[01:16:02]  Hey, Taylor, thanks for inviting me on.
[01:16:04]  I'm happy to join you guys.
[01:16:06]  Yeah, so a lot to talk about.
[01:16:07]  There's obviously, we've talked a lot about policy this morning, a lot of callers weighing in about the Iran and the broader economic impact.
[01:16:14]  But there's, of course, as is always the case in Washington, a political impact, and we are in a midterm election year.
[01:16:20]  I want to put on screen a Fox News poll that was actually out earlier this week looking at the president's approval rating.
[01:16:27]  The most recent national poll from your outlet has President Trump at 41% approval and 59% disapproval.
[01:16:35]  And there was one part that I wanted to read out.
[01:16:37]  It said the president's negative 18-point margin was up from 14 points in the previous Fox News poll, which was conducted February 28th through March 2nd as the strikes against Iran began.
[01:16:48]  From your perch, as somebody who's tracking just the national political implications of all of this, what impact do you think the war is having as we're approaching the six-week mark of it?
[01:16:58]  It's obviously not helpful to the president and his party.
[01:17:01]  And we've seen a deterioration just in the last two or three weeks, like because of the war, obviously.
[01:17:07]  And not just at our poll, right?
[01:17:09]  We're kind of right in the middle.
[01:17:10]  Other national surveys, some of them have the president a little higher, others have them a little lower, below 40%, some in the mid to upper 30s.
[01:17:19]  And obviously, the war is taking its toll.
[01:17:21]  Where are we seeing the deterioration?
[01:17:22]  It's really not with Democrats or independents.
[01:17:25]  They were already giving the president a big thumbs down.
[01:17:27]  The deterioration, this new edging down for the president, is coming from Republicans, mostly non-MAGA Republicans.
[01:17:35]  But that is troublesome.
[01:17:36]  Obviously, we care a lot about the presidential approval rating all the time in a midterm cycle because it's one of those key barometers, as you well know, Taylor, that kind of dictates whether the president's party will do well or won't do well in the midterm elections.
[01:17:50]  Broadly speaking, like you said, a presidential approval rating is pretty broad.
[01:17:54]  There's another poll we've been looking at from Gallup that zooms in on a specific policy issue, healthcare, and it found that health care remains the top domestic concern for voters.
[01:18:04]  How would you say, as you've been tracking all these campaigns, especially at the congressional level, Republicans are handling the topic of health care?
[01:18:11]  Because it is something that President Trump will comment on every now and again and urge Congress to do away with the Affordable Care Act.
[01:18:18]  But beyond that, the president hasn't offered necessarily a whole lot.
[01:18:21]  Some on prescription drug pricing, but what are your thoughts?
[01:18:24]  Yeah, he has emphasized prescription drug prices now.
[01:18:27]  He's helped lower them, and he's touted that quite often.
[01:18:30]  Remember, though, a couple months ago, we had the huge political fight in Washington that many in the nation were watching over those Obamacare subsidies and whether they would be extended or not.
[01:18:39]  Obviously, they weren't.
[01:18:41]  And it's a healthcare is an issue that's put the Republicans on defense.
[01:18:44]  It's definitely given the Democrats more ammunition.
[01:18:46]  And it kind of folds into this larger, broader affordability cost of living argument that the Democrats have really been using.
[01:18:55]  Remember, inflation was the issue, one of the key issues that boosted Donald Trump and the Republicans in the 2024 elections.
[01:19:01]  They won back the White House, the Senate.
[01:19:03]  They held their own in the House.
[01:19:06]  But it's been used against them ever since.
[01:19:08]  And in the 14 or 15 months now that Trump has been back in the White House, the president and his second administration, the Democrats have been laser focused on affordability.
[01:19:17]  And that includes health care prices, cost of your insurance, for sure.
[01:19:21]  That's part of it.
[01:19:22]  Red.
[01:19:22]  I mean, it's so much more.
[01:19:23]  And now, obviously, gas prices back in the news because of the war.
[01:19:27]  And that's boosted Democrats to in these special elections, in the off-year elections last year.
[01:19:34]  They've overperformed.
[01:19:36]  They flipped some red seats.
[01:19:38]  And it's given them a lot of confidence going into the midterms.
[01:19:41]  Republicans say the off-year elections and these specials are not a good barometer of things to come.
[01:19:45]  And they point to past examples.
[01:19:47]  I guess we'll find out who's right come November.
[01:19:50]  There was a really interesting moment earlier this week.
[01:19:53]  President Trump was hosting an Easter lunch at the White House.
[01:19:57]  It was not open to members of the press, but the White House has its own camera team, and they were filming the president's remarks.
[01:20:03]  And the White House started to release clips from it.
[01:20:05]  But then ultimately, after publishing the full event online, they took it down.
[01:20:09]  But there was something the president said.
[01:20:11]  It seemed he was speaking pretty candidly.
[01:20:12]  And I want to put this headline up from NBC where he said it's, quote, not possible for the U.S. to pay for Medicaid, Medicare, and daycare.
[01:20:20]  And the president said, we're fighting wars, quote, we have to take care of one thing, military protection.
[01:20:27]  You talk about each party trying to seize on different moments.
[01:20:30]  Democrats quickly jumped on that.
[01:20:32]  The White House started to play defense and say the president's remarks were taken out of context.
[01:20:37]  We're in war.
[01:20:38]  So that's what he was referring to.
[01:20:39]  How complicating does it make?
[01:20:42]  How complicated does it make for congressional Republicans when the president is captured on camera saying something like that amid this broader discussion of health care?
[01:20:50]  It obviously, Taylor, does them no favors, right?
[01:20:52]  Because the Democrats, one of their arguments to voters is, look, the president and congressional Republicans are spending all this money on the war.
[01:21:00]  They want to spend more money now.
[01:21:01]  They're asking for millions and millions, billions more to fight this war when we need this money to help with cost of living, to help with health care insurance for millions and millions of Americans who don't have it.
[01:21:13]  So yeah, obviously it puts the Republicans on defense.
[01:21:17]  And these midterms are creeping up, right?
[01:21:19]  The primary is already underway.
[01:21:20]  Texas, North Carolina kick off the primary calendar in March.
[01:21:23]  And next month in May, a slew of primaries into June, into July, and things are definitely heating up.
[01:21:32]  So those kind of comments, not helpful.
[01:21:34]  I want to talk to you in a minute about the races to watch in April.
[01:21:37]  I know you're hitting the road back on the trail next week, but I want to jump in to hear from some callers and to see if they have questions for you.
[01:21:43]  Again, we're talking to Paul Steinhauser, the national political reporter for Fox News.
[01:21:47]  Let's hear from Mia, who's calling not far from me, Upper Marlboro, Maryland on the independent line.
[01:21:53]  Mia, you're on.
[01:21:54]  You're on with our guest.
[01:21:56]  I am so happy at some of the things he's been saying because they are totally true.
[01:22:01]  We are listening to this song and dance trying to justify the war in Iran.
[01:22:06]  And we know that this is not a war that is for Americans.
[01:22:09]  It is because we have too many Israeli interests in our government.
[01:22:13]  Affordability and us turning our own economy around should be the forefront of everything.
[01:22:19]  Why?
[01:22:20]  Because us regular Americans are paying our taxes, right?
[01:22:24]  And they should be going to areas of this country that are fixing everything, building the middle class, and making sure that affordability is something that all Americans have access to in every different sector from groceries to gas, so forth and so on.
[01:22:39]  I called in last month and asked you guys how you felt about being a propaganda machine for this war when we know that over 70% of Americans do not agree with this war and it's our sons and daughters that are going to die in it.
[01:22:50]  So again, just really happy to hear somebody on the show with you that is talking about those real issues and talking about how this war is unjustified, not to mention all the people that we're killing over there, innocent people, right?
[01:23:04]  And it's never, we're never fighting wars that are actually for us.
[01:23:09]  In fact, we shouldn't be fighting wars at all.
[01:23:10]  We should be working on the infrastructure of our country and our tax dollars going to things that are going to help the working class get into the middle class and growing the middle class.
[01:23:20]  Thanks so much, Mia.
[01:23:21]  Paul, I want to expand on Mia's point.
[01:23:23]  She called in on the independent line, both on the war, but also more broadly, just political and economic policy news.
[01:23:30]  How do you think both parties in the campaign sense are handling appealing to independent voters who maybe voted for Trump at one point, maybe voted for a Democrat in between?
[01:23:41]  What has stood out to you?
[01:23:43]  Oh, absolutely.
[01:23:44]  I mean, independents are going to be so crucial come November and even before when the early voting begins.
[01:23:49]  Listen, midterm elections are often base elections, so both sides are going to have to get their bases out.
[01:23:54]  That is crucial.
[01:23:55]  But at the same time, those independents, those moderates in the middle, are going to be the ones that dictate some of these key races for Senate, key races for House and for governor.
[01:24:04]  And you're going to see plenty of messaging towards them.
[01:24:07]  And specifically on the war, when you look at the polling on the war, this is different than past wars because in the past, a lot of wars started out with majority approval, majority support by Americans.
[01:24:22]  This one did not.
[01:24:24]  Most polls had support underwater in negative territory.
[01:24:29]  And we've seen that support edging down even further in the last couple of weeks in the most recent polls.
[01:24:34]  When you do the partisan breakdown, obviously Democrats dead set against it.
[01:24:38]  Independents, a majority, a solid majority against.
[01:24:41]  But Republicans still overall supportive of this war.
[01:24:44]  There's been some deterioration in the polls, but overall supportive of this president and this war.
[01:24:51]  Let's hear from a Democrat.
[01:24:52]  John is calling in from Germantown, Maryland.
[01:24:54]  Good morning, John.
[01:24:55]  You're on with our guest.
[01:24:57]  Yeah, hi.
[01:24:58]  Thanks for taking my call.
[01:25:01]  And I look at the election and it's not too far off, really.
[01:25:09]  But I think we should have done this 47 years ago.
[01:25:16]  You know, Iran has been a thorn in the side of the world for 47 years.
[01:25:26]  They've been running a protection racket with the Bank of England and their insurers for tankers for more than 47 years.
[01:25:36]  They've been destabilizing the area.
[01:25:39]  After World War II, the borders were drawn up so that people in the Middle East would always be fighting.
[01:25:49]  And Israel is basically our only ally that we can count on over there.
[01:25:58]  And I don't know if anybody reads the Bible anymore, but, you know, there's clear evidence that God is on Israel's side.
[01:26:09]  And anybody that goes against them, it's going against God.
[01:26:13]  Thanks so much, John.
[01:26:14]  Appreciate you weighing in.
[01:26:16]  Let's hear from Pat calling in on the Republican line from Keyport, New Jersey.
[01:26:20]  Good morning, Pat.
[01:26:21]  You're on with our guest, Paul.
[01:26:22]  Do you have a question for him?
[01:26:24]  Yes, thank you.
[01:26:25]  Paul, how important is the president's approval rating in these midterms when due to self-sorting, a combination of self-sorting, gerrymandering, most of the congressional races, we know the same party is going to hold the seat from one election to the next.
[01:26:43]  So how important is it?
[01:26:44]  Thank you.
[01:26:46]  Yeah, the presidential approval rating is very important in any midterm.
[01:26:51]  And it's a number we look at pretty closely.
[01:26:53]  And when presidents are not doing well in a midterm election year, think George Bush, George W. Bush in 2006.
[01:26:59]  Think then President Obama in 10 and 14 and Trump in 18, right?
[01:27:05]  Their president's party does not do well.
[01:27:08]  We had a little bit of an anomaly back in 2022.
[01:27:10]  Then President Biden's approval rating, nothing to brag about at all.
[01:27:15]  But Democrats did well in the midterms.
[01:27:17]  They held their own.

=== Midterm Election Margins (09:49) ===

[01:27:18]  Why?
[01:27:18]  Because the Supreme Court, just about just a little over four months before the midterm elections, overturned Roe v. Wade, and that made abortion a humongous issue, obviously, in those midterms.
[01:27:30]  And that made a big difference.
[01:27:32]  But yeah, overall, the president's approval rating is a key indicator.
[01:27:36]  And we spend a lot of time looking at it.
[01:27:38]  Why?
[01:27:38]  Because the opposition party almost always makes those midterms a referendum on the president and his party and what they've done.
[01:27:45]  And that's what we're seeing right now, obviously.
[01:27:49]  Thank you, Pat.
[01:27:50]  Paul, I want to talk to you about an interview you had, I believe, this week with Congresswoman Susan Del Benny, who is the chair of the Driple C, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
[01:28:00]  First, I want to play this very short ad that the DCCC released in the context of the Iran war and the economic impact.
[01:28:07]  Then I'll ask you about it afterward.
[01:28:17]  That was the ad, quick and easy.
[01:28:18]  You could see at the end of it, it said D.C. Republicans did that, referring to higher gas prices.
[01:28:23]  What did you hear from the Congresswoman in terms of the campaign strategy to try to, in many ways, politicize this war, despite the fact that it's still ongoing and to try to be sensitive to the fact that our own troops are in harm's way?
[01:28:37]  Yeah, nowadays, though, let's be honest, everything is political, right?
[01:28:41]  And people, so many people wear those jerseys 24-7.
[01:28:44]  I'm old enough to remember the old days that when elections were over, kind of the partisanship didn't, to a degree, fade away.
[01:28:50]  That is not the case now.
[01:28:51]  And everything becomes fair game for partisan attacks.
[01:28:55]  I had a chance to interview the D-Trip chair about a week ago when I was down in Washington, D.C., and after that ad had just come out.
[01:29:03]  And my source is telling me that I expected the Driple C, which is the Democrats House Campaign Committee, to put out similar stuff in the future.
[01:29:12]  Listen, affordability has been a key issue for Democrats, as we talked about, since day one of this Trump administration.
[01:29:19]  And the president over the last year, when pushing back on affordability, often pointed to gas prices.
[01:29:25]  And you know what?
[01:29:26]  Gas prices were down.
[01:29:28]  I think a lot of us who fill up our cars at the pumps notice that.
[01:29:32]  But since the start of this war, that's all changed.
[01:29:35]  And this is, I guess, just more ammunition, more political ammunition for Democrats as they make their affordability argument to voters going forward.
[01:29:42]  The economy is still the key issue.
[01:29:45]  It's been that way for a long time.
[01:29:46]  And I don't think we're going to see a change in this midterm cycle.
[01:29:49]  And Democrats are capitalizing.
[01:29:51]  It would almost be political malpractice if they didn't.
[01:29:54]  So expect to see more of that going forward, not just from them, but also in the senate races and in the governor's races going forward.
[01:30:01]  Yeah, there's a whole lot going on.
[01:30:03]  Let's hear from George, who's calling in from Yonkers, New York on the independent line.
[01:30:07]  Good morning, George.
[01:30:08]  What's on your mind?
[01:30:12]  George, are you there?
[01:30:15]  All right, let's try a gentleman named Luke calling in from Falls Church, Virginia on the Republican line.
[01:30:20]  Hey there, Luke.
[01:30:21]  You're on with our guest.
[01:30:22]  Do you have a question for him?
[01:30:24]  Oh, hey, how's it going?
[01:30:25]  I didn't really have much of a question.
[01:30:27]  Just a comment.
[01:30:27]  Thanks for taking my call.
[01:30:29]  Yeah, overall, I think it's really hard to, I guess, interpret and healthily discuss any political events/slash wars in an objective manner because of who is president.
[01:30:40]  You know, I think if you like Trump, you're going to support the war.
[01:30:42]  If you're against him, you're going to automatically be biased towards not in favor of the war.
[01:30:49]  Same thing.
[01:30:50]  Like, if it was Obama who's president and you like Obama, you're going to be for the war.
[01:30:54]  If you don't like him, you're going to automatically be against it.
[01:30:56]  And I think it's hard to discuss these topics in a very objective manner because we're just living in very polarizing times.
[01:31:04]  That's pretty much it.
[01:31:05]  Thank you.
[01:31:06]  Thank you, Luke.
[01:31:06]  Paul, let's expand on his point a bit.
[01:31:08]  And I want to put on screen some upcoming races to watch in April that I know you're covering very closely.
[01:31:13]  But the first one especially links to what that caller was just saying.
[01:31:17]  On April 7th, there's a special election in Georgia in the 14th congressional district.
[01:31:22]  This is in the race to replace Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned and turned a very sharp critic of President Trump, broke with him for many reasons, and she's been very critical of the war despite being such a big supporter.
[01:31:35]  What are you tracking in terms of the potential fracturing of the president's coalition?
[01:31:40]  Is it minute?
[01:31:41]  Is it notable as you're looking at some of these key races?
[01:31:44]  Yeah, and why does all this matter?
[01:31:46]  Why do these special elections matter?
[01:31:47]  Because right now it's 218 to 214.
[01:31:49]  The Republicans with a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House.
[01:31:53]  Three seats vacant.
[01:31:54]  One of them, you just mentioned that one in northwest Georgia.
[01:31:58]  Georgia 14 is the district.
[01:32:00]  It starts in the exurbs of Atlanta, goes up to the northwest corner of the state, the borders Alabama and Tennessee to the north.
[01:32:07]  This is a Trump district, let's be honest, a very red district.
[01:32:10]  The president won it.
[01:32:11]  He carried this district by 37 points back in the 2024 election.
[01:32:17]  But here we are now in what's probably going to be a very low turnout election.
[01:32:21]  Democrats are emboldened, obviously.
[01:32:24]  They feel they have the wind at their back.
[01:32:27]  And in the first round of voting, where you had about 17 candidates, Taylor, 17, 12 of them Republicans, one of the two Democrats in the race actually came out in first place.
[01:32:37]  Didn't crack 50%.
[01:32:38]  That's why we're having this runoff on Tuesday.
[01:32:42]  But that's giving the Democrats hope.
[01:32:43]  The candidate on the Democrat side is a retired Brigadier General.
[01:32:47]  He's a cattle farmer who lives, obviously, in the district.
[01:32:50]  And Democrats, even if they don't win, I think you're going to see them bragging.
[01:32:54]  If they keep the margins tight, if they keep their margins down to maybe the teens or 10 points, they're going to say this is another victory for them.
[01:33:03]  Similar to what we saw in Tennessee, that special election, I was down there for that one as well near Nashville, that the Republicans kept the seat, but it was a very red seat and they didn't win it by a heck of a lot.
[01:33:14]  The Democrats pointed to the tightening margins there as more evidence that they're on the rise.
[01:33:20]  So stay tuned for what happens on Tuesday.
[01:33:22]  I don't think you're going to see the Democrats flip this seat, but we'll be looking at the margins.
[01:33:27]  Yeah, these special elections are always interesting for us political nerds to try to read the tea leaves from.
[01:33:32]  I'm curious, especially, a lot of Americans are familiar with who Marjorie Taylor Greene is, and her break with the president has been so public and in so many ways surprising.
[01:33:42]  I saw her on the 2024 campaign trail at multiple Donald Trump rallies.
[01:33:46]  Do you think, and as you've been traveling the country, have you been observing that members of the president's base are taking seriously if somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene is breaking with the president?
[01:33:57]  Or as that last caller alluded to, is the loyalty to the president still strong?
[01:34:02]  And if somebody breaks off, that's their loss and something they have to deal with and it doesn't really have an impact on the president's base.
[01:34:09]  Overall, you know, Donald Trump's base is still with him.
[01:34:13]  There's no question, right, about that.
[01:34:16]  They're very loyal to this president.
[01:34:18]  And you're not going to see much deterioration with MAGA Republicans.
[01:34:22]  But there have been some noticeable breakaways, obviously.
[01:34:25]  And we also think we look at Thomas Massey in Kentucky, who's now facing a primary challenge by a fellow Republican who's been backed by the president.
[01:34:34]  So what we look at, especially, is among non-MAGA Republicans, how much deterioration there is going forward, whether they maybe won't vote for Democrats in November, but maybe they sit it out.
[01:34:46]  And that's a key.
[01:34:48]  You know, when it comes to Donald Trump, He's done a lot to shake up the political system that we once knew.
[01:34:55]  And he really did an amazing job.
[01:34:57]  I think whether you like him or detest him, you will agree.
[01:35:00]  He's done an amazing job broadening the Republican electorate.
[01:35:03]  And he's made this Republican Party, he's included now in its base a lot of populist, and he's made it a populist party and has put a lot of working class people in the base of the party, which has been remarkable.
[01:35:14]  The flip side to that, though, is, Taylor, we've seen really what we used to know turn on its head.
[01:35:20]  It was the Democrats who used to be the low-propensity voters.
[01:35:23]  They would show up in presidential election years, but Democrats wouldn't always vote in the midterms.
[01:35:28]  Now it's just the opposite.
[01:35:29]  It's those MAGA Republicans.
[01:35:30]  It's those working class Republicans who are going to vote for Donald Trump in a presidential election year.
[01:35:35]  But when he's not on the ballot and he is not on the ballot this year, we'll see if they show up or not.
[01:35:42]  And that's a problem for Republicans going forward.
[01:35:45]  It's a great point.
[01:35:46]  I think toward the end of last year, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, made a very public comment that she was going to have Donald Trump travel every week of this year as if he was on the general election ballot.
[01:35:58]  But then the war with Iran started, and he's not made so many of those trips recently.
[01:36:01]  So I think that's something interesting to track.
[01:36:04]  That is a great point.
[01:36:05]  And I was writing a lot about that late last year and early this year.
[01:36:08]  And yeah, we did see once or twice Trump on the trail.
[01:36:12]  And then obviously because of the war and maybe some other factors, he has not been out there.
[01:36:17]  But when I've interviewed the NRSC chair, the NRCC chair, when I've talked to the gang of the Republican National Committee, Joe Gruder's the chair, they had all been saying at the end of last year and early this year that they needed Donald Trump on the trail.
[01:36:31]  Now, we'll see.
[01:36:32]  Maybe he will be come the summer and the fall when most voters are going to really start paying attention to the midterms.
[01:36:38]  Right now, it's mostly you and I and a lot of insiders, but we'll see how active he is.
[01:36:43]  And the party is really hoping that he's out there to get these MAGA voters to the polls in November.
[01:36:48]  Let's hear from some more callers.
[01:36:50]  Leon is calling in from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the independent line.
[01:36:53]  Good morning, Leon.
[01:36:54]  You're on with our guest.
[01:36:56]  Good morning.
[01:36:57]  I am an independent, sometimes in the past, a Republican, sometimes a Democrat.
[01:37:02]  I think that the discussion about the politics is interesting, but almost irrelevant.

=== The Economy Defines the Midterms (15:40) ===

[01:37:07]  When the public votes and they pull that curtain on the voting booth, it's the economy.
[01:37:12]  It always has been the economy and probably always will be the economy.
[01:37:17]  The last election, I believe, was driven by two things.
[01:37:20]  One was the inflation, which was caused by Democrat spending trillions of dollars or appropriating trillions of dollars during the pandemic, which could only lead to inflation.
[01:37:34]  The second issue was the open border.
[01:37:36]  No one has ever been able to explain the open border to me, Republican or Democrat.
[01:37:41]  Both parties were guilty.
[01:37:43]  It's inexplicable.
[01:37:44]  And I don't speak against immigrants.
[01:37:46]  Everyone in my family is an immigrant within three generations, including this generation through marriage.
[01:37:53]  So I'm pro-immigration, pro-legal immigration, without any understanding of why the border was left open the way that it was.
[01:38:02]  That really upset a good number of the population.
[01:38:05]  But it's always the economy first.
[01:38:07]  Other issues, such as abortion and so on, they disappear once they pull the curtain.
[01:38:13]  The other issue is healthcare.
[01:38:15]  Health care in this country is not dictated by the president of either party.
[01:38:21]  It is in the hands of Congress.
[01:38:23]  And Congress is owned by the lobbyists who represent the powers in health care.
[01:38:31]  The power in health care in the United States is the insurance industry.
[01:38:36]  They profit the most from it.
[01:38:38]  If we look abroad at other industrialized nations, Japan, France, Germany, they spend a fraction of their economy on health care compared to us with equal outcomes, equal outcomes.
[01:38:54]  Why don't we simply look at what they do best and do it ourselves?
[01:38:57]  We know what they do best.
[01:38:59]  However, we do not address it.
[01:39:01]  The whole concept of public payment for health care is a Bismarck idea, which came from Europe originally and is a wonderful idea.
[01:39:10]  And I believe that when the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written back in the 1700s, they would have considered the issue of the line of the public welfare to include health care, but then it didn't for good reason.
[01:39:23]  Healthcare was probably more harmful than good.
[01:39:26]  But at any rate, here we are today.
[01:39:29]  Once again, the midterms will be based on the economy.
[01:39:34]  Then we have the issue of freedom of speech.
[01:39:36]  Having spent 50 years in academia, I can tell you that freedom of speech was more limited by the left than by the right.
[01:39:44]  The left are the ones who threatened anyone who said anything other than that which they wanted to hear.
[01:39:51]  The right never imposed on my freedom of speech.
[01:39:55]  And I am a liberal.
[01:39:57]  I am a civil libertarian, but I am also an economic conservative.
[01:40:04]  So I wasn't concerned about suppressing racist ideas.
[01:40:10]  I am an anti-racist.
[01:40:12]  I believe that every American citizen is equal, no matter what his or her color or religion is.
[01:40:18]  Leon, if you don't mind, I'm going to jump in.
[01:40:20]  You've raised a lot of interesting points, and I want Paul to comment specifically on Leon's take that the economy, you know, you go back to that old Bill Clinton quote, it's the economy stupid, that the economy will end up defining the midterms.
[01:40:33]  I know we're so many months out, and who knows what the war against Iran will look like, but do you feel like either party, from your coverage, is still resorting to the economy when it comes down to the nitty-gritty?
[01:40:45]  Economy is still number one.
[01:40:46]  Just about every poll will indicate that, that it's the top issue for American voters.
[01:40:51]  And yeah, I mean, we talked about this earlier.
[01:40:53]  The economy was, and specifically inflation.
[01:40:57]  And your viewer just there from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pointed it out exactly that it was inflation that helped boost Trump and the Republican system sweeping victories in 2024.
[01:41:07]  But as we've talked about, it's the economy, inflation, cost of living, affordability, whatever term you want to use.
[01:41:13]  It's really helped the Democrats to overperform and flip some key seats in special elections, off-year elections since then.
[01:41:21]  He did bring up immigration as well, though.
[01:41:24]  Remember, immigration was another key issue for Republicans in 2024, and they really hammered the Biden administration on the border.
[01:41:31]  And it was definitely a winning issue for Trump and Republicans.
[01:41:35]  What has happened since then, though, is it's an issue that was a winner for them.
[01:41:39]  Now may be a liability to a degree because of this unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration, the deportation efforts by this administration.
[01:41:48]  We saw what happened obviously in Minnesota earlier this year.
[01:41:52]  And it's turned an issue that was definitely a plus for them into an issue that still energizes their base, no doubt about that.
[01:41:58]  But with Democrats and with independents, it can be a problem for Republicans.
[01:42:03]  Paul, maybe the president is watching.
[01:42:05]  He just actually posted on Truth Social about the economy, tying in yesterday's jobs report and tariff, something we were watching earlier.
[01:42:12]  I want to read his post in full.
[01:42:13]  He said, not only were the jobs numbers great yesterday, 178,000 new jobs, but the trade deficit was down 55%, the biggest drop in history.
[01:42:23]  Thank you, Mr. Tariff, all of this, and simultaneously getting rid of a nuclear Iran MAGA, make America great again.
[01:42:31]  What do you think about, you know, the president weighs in on things all the time, but what do you think about that framing, especially when I look back at the last three hours, the amount of calls we've gotten from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents talking about the war, talking about the economic impact.
[01:42:46]  There's a divide there.
[01:42:47]  What sticks out to you about the president's framing in that post?
[01:42:51]  You know, first of all, it would be political malpractice if he didn't tell the job numbers because they were very good numbers.
[01:42:58]  So he and his administration were smart to do that.
[01:43:00]  And they also started that instantly yesterday when those numbers came in.
[01:43:04]  So that was right on the money.
[01:43:06]  That was the right political message from this administration and from this president.
[01:43:10]  To tie it to the war, though, yeah, that helps make his argument.
[01:43:15]  And the White House has been saying for a while that once the fighting ends, the gas prices are going to come right back down.
[01:43:23]  We'll see.
[01:43:24]  I think at the end of the day, gas prices are going to be the key here.
[01:43:27]  And if they stay high into the summer, maybe even into the fall, if the Iranians continue to bottleneck and prevent a lot of these ships from getting through the Strait of Hormuz, that's going to be a big political problem for this president and especially for Republicans who are up for re-election as they defend their slim majorities in the House and the Senate.
[01:43:48]  I will say one other thing.
[01:43:49]  We've been talking so much about the president's poll numbers.
[01:43:52]  Democrats don't have a lot to brag about either when it comes to their brand, how people perceive them, because we saw poll after poll last year and into this year show the Democratic brand really cratering.
[01:44:03]  And if you look at some polls and when they ask who would do better on the economy or whatever issue you want, Democrats or Republicans, it's not like Democrats are way ahead of Republicans here.
[01:44:14]  Often when it comes to midterms, they're just the alternative, right?
[01:44:17]  They're not Trump.
[01:44:18]  They're against Trump.
[01:44:19]  And maybe that's enough for the midterms, but that probably will not be enough in 2028 when we have a race to succeed Trump in the White House.
[01:44:26]  To that point, Paul, I think it was several weeks ago, about a month ago, you spoke with David McIntosh, who is the president of the political group Club for Growth, about his group's message to President Trump's base and how the MAGA movement at large is hoping to appeal to voters in the midterm elections.
[01:44:42]  We played that Driple C ad about gas prices before.
[01:44:45]  I want to play a clip about what David McIntosh told you.
[01:44:48]  This was several weeks ago, but here was his argument.
[01:44:51]  One, we're going to work with President Trump on that.
[01:44:54]  So they know he wants them to vote.
[01:44:57]  He wants them to come out.
[01:44:58]  He needs them so he can keep going.
[01:45:00]  And then we're going to draw that contrast.
[01:45:02]  Republicans have a plan that will help make things more affordable.
[01:45:06]  It'll keep cutting taxes.
[01:45:07]  They'll see the benefits and we'll tell them we're going to keep going.
[01:45:12]  But the bigger message is going to be you can't let the Democrats back in because they'll shut everything down.
[01:45:18]  It'll be back to the Biden days, high inflation, higher taxes, fewer jobs.
[01:45:24]  That's what's at stake.
[01:45:25]  And our job is to tell the voters, we need you to vote because it makes all the difference.
[01:45:30]  Paul, do you think that message will be enough, especially in kind of the economic and geopolitical news that has played out in the weeks since you did that interview?
[01:45:40]  I can't say if it'll be enough.
[01:45:42]  I mean, we'll find out for sure come November.
[01:45:44]  But that is the key here for Republicans.
[01:45:47]  Club for Growth, obviously, a very deep-pocketed group that spends generously in Republican primaries and in the general.
[01:45:56]  They broke with the president at one time when he was out of office, but now they're firm supporters of President Trump.
[01:46:02]  And you'll see plenty of their ads across the country.
[01:46:05]  But this is the message, and we were talking about this earlier.
[01:46:07]  MAGA voters are now low propensity.
[01:46:09]  The Republican base is now a low-propensity base.
[01:46:12]  And to do well in November, they got to make sure that these MAGA voters, these other Republicans, get to the polls.
[01:46:17]  And one way to do that is to frame this, even though he's not on the ballot, to frame the midterms as a referendum on Donald Trump and his agenda.
[01:46:25]  And if you support what he's doing, you need to get out there and vote.
[01:46:28]  You're going to hear that message over and over and over this summer and this fall as Republicans try their best to get their voters to vote.
[01:46:36]  Let's hear from someone calling in on the Democratic line.
[01:46:38]  This is Bruce calling in from Kingston, New York.
[01:46:41]  Bruce, we only have a couple minutes, so if you could keep your remarks a bit briefer, but do you have a comment or a question for Paul?
[01:46:47]  Yeah, I'll try to keep it under.
[01:46:49]  Let's see here.
[01:46:50]  Well, thanks, Paul.
[01:46:51]  I think your journalism and your analytical skills are great.
[01:46:54]  I love the format today.
[01:46:56]  It's very friendly.
[01:46:56]  So let me just get to my points.
[01:46:58]  Number one, the billionaires should be paying for this war.
[01:47:01]  It's for them.
[01:47:02]  Number two, I think that the shock doctrine is being used here in the 2025 agenda by Trump, essentially to bankrupt the middle class and put all the burden on essentially the taxes.
[01:47:17]  National Security has become Protect the Rich, which is Trump Families Incorporated.
[01:47:23]  And, you know, frankly, I do believe that when you start calling it a populist movement or a faux populist movement, that takes shock doctrine until it becomes Fox doctrine, where you're really talking to a group of people with an inverted message.
[01:47:42]  This is what they call inverted totalitarianism.
[01:47:45]  And essentially, it's, again, it comes down to Milton Friedman's shock doctrine, where you essentially get rid of all entitlements and give all the money to the government class, or in this case, the billionaire class.
[01:47:59]  I'll keep it short there.
[01:48:01]  I don't mean to insult you as a Fox News person.
[01:48:04]  I don't have much respect for Fox News in general.
[01:48:07]  But I'm very delighted to see you the way you are presenting yourself today.
[01:48:11]  I think you're a credit to mother country, okay?
[01:48:16]  And I'll hang up and listen to you.
[01:48:18]  Thanks, Bruce.
[01:48:19]  Paul, do you want to respond to some of the points he made?
[01:48:22]  Well, first, I'll say that when I was a little boy, my uncle Bobby lived in Kingston, New York, so I have fond memories of Kingston, New York.
[01:48:28]  Listen, Democrats, and they'll acknowledge this.
[01:48:31]  Democrats have mission number one is to win back working-class voters that used to be the bread and butter, the base of their party for generations and generations.
[01:48:43]  And Trump, whether you agree with him or not, whether you think regardless, you know, he has been successful in grabbing a lot of those voters who used to cast ballots for Democrats in his elections to come to his side.
[01:48:58]  And that's going to be a top issue for Democrats in 2026 and 2028 going forward is winning back those voters with messaging that is attractive to working class voters.
[01:49:08]  So stay tuned.
[01:49:09]  We'll see how successful they are.
[01:49:11]  Right now, though, the political climate obviously favors the Democrats.
[01:49:16]  It always favors the party out of power in the midterms.
[01:49:19]  So Republicans are facing those traditional political headwinds as they try to defend their majorities.
[01:49:24]  2028 is going to be a different beast, though.
[01:49:26]  And we're already seeing some of the early moves in 2028 start.
[01:49:30]  And the next presidential election, it'll be a full blast once these midterms are over.
[01:49:35]  So buckle up because once we hit November, the 2028 presidential campaign begins.
[01:49:41]  Paul, I want to try to sneak in one more call, Lewis from Garden City, New York on the Republican line.
[01:49:46]  Lewis, we only have about a minute, so if you could make your point or question briefly, I'd appreciate that.
[01:49:50]  Yeah, my question and my point is this.
[01:49:53]  I'm an 80-year-old combat veteran.
[01:49:55]  First, no one over 6'4 or under 5'7 has ever been since the Korean War been inducted into the military.
[01:50:04]  So Trump's saying his son can't go is true.
[01:50:07]  He's 6'7.
[01:50:09]  Here's my point.
[01:50:11]  No one is mentioning Hitler in the 30s.
[01:50:16]  We learned when I was growing up, if someone had done something to Hitler like they did to this Ayatollah, we would have saved 6 million Jews.
[01:50:25]  We would have saved the Poles.
[01:50:26]  We would have saved 25 million Russians that died, nearly a million Americans that died.
[01:50:33]  And then Truman stopped, we called MacArthur from Korea going in to Korea to stop the Chinese from taking over Korea.
[01:50:46]  No one mentions that.
[01:50:47]  The Ayatollahs, the dictatorship, the theocratic policies they have are horrendous.
[01:50:55]  They kill their people and they and they you get my point.
[01:51:01]  This is a good thing that Trump is doing.
[01:51:04]  Everybody who's against this war, most everybody shouldn't say that.
[01:51:09]  The Democrats, they hate Trump first and they dislike America for sure.
[01:51:16]  They don't have any common sense.
[01:51:18]  Thanks so much, Lewis.
[01:51:19]  I'm going to cut in just so Paul could offer some final thoughts specifically on the war and what you'll be tracking in about 30 seconds if you could, Paul.
[01:51:27]  Well, I think the viewer there does make a point.
[01:51:29]  I mean, and most Americans, the vast majority of Americans are not fans of the Iranian regime.
[01:51:34]  And the vast majority of Americans will give credit to our military because the operation to date has been extremely successful in obliterating Iran's military capacity.
[01:51:45]  No doubt about that.
[01:51:47]  That's where the agreement ends, though, obviously, on this war, and polling bears that out.
[01:51:52]  Going forward, yeah, I mean, the president will declare victory in this war, but I think a key is when do those, when does the Strait of Hormuz reopen?
[01:52:02]  When do the ships start getting through?
[01:52:05]  When does the price of crude come down?
[01:52:07]  And that obviously will reflect what happens at our gas pumps.
[01:52:11]  And that's going to be a key indicator.
[01:52:12]  I'm a campaign guy, and that's gas prices, inflation, key issues going forward in the midterms.
[01:52:19]  Thanks so much, Paul.
[01:52:20]  Paul Steinhauser, National Political Reporter with Fox News, safe travels on the trail.
[01:52:24]  A few people mentioned it.
[01:52:25]  The Artemis II moon mission is continuing.
[01:52:28]  You can watch our coverage of it today.
[01:52:30]  There will be another update at 5.30 Eastern Time from NASA officials as those brave astronauts continue their journey to the moon.
[01:52:37]  That's it for today's Washington Journal.
[01:52:39]  Thank you so much for joining us.
[01:52:41]  The great program Ceasefire is up next.

=== SNAP Errors and Food Insecurity (07:11) ===

[01:52:47]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum, inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country.
[01:52:58]  Coming up Sunday morning, Republican strategist Chris Johnson and Democratic strategist Lucy Caldwell join us to talk about Campaign 2026, the political impact of the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, and the political news of the week.
[01:53:12]  Then, Brookings Institution Foreign Policy Fellow Asla Eidentoshbosh will join us to talk about the latest on the Iran conflict, including the U.S. effort to open the Strait of Hormuz.
[01:53:22]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
[01:53:24]  Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Sunday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org.
[01:53:34]  Our coverage of the Artemis II mission continues Saturday with another update from NASA officials as the astronauts continue their voyage around the moon.
[01:53:42]  You can watch that news conference live at 5.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
[01:53:55]  This year, as we mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, C-SPAN's Student Cam documentary competition invited students to create short films exploring themes from American history, the rights and freedoms rooted in this founding document, and pressing issues of today, from the economy and immigration to criminal justice, education, and healthcare.
[01:54:19]  Nearly 4,000 students from 38 states and Washington, D.C. took part in this year's competition.
[01:54:25]  Throughout this month, we're proud to showcase our top 21 winners.
[01:54:30]  This year's second prize high school central winner is Adelaide Brown, a 12th grader from Jinx High School in Jinx, Oklahoma, where C-SPAN is available through Cox Communications.
[01:54:40]  Her winning documentary is titled Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
[01:54:45]  Is that possible on an empty stomach?
[01:54:47]  About food insecurity.
[01:54:51]  I spent August talking to and listening to my constituents, like I hope my Republican colleagues did too.
[01:54:57]  And you know what I heard the most?
[01:54:59]  That they are scared out of their minds about the impact of Republicans' big ugly bill, particularly on how we'll make hunger worse in this country.
[01:55:07]  That's not how our country was started, and that's just not who we are as a people.
[01:55:12]  This new year means changes for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
[01:55:17]  New federal laws could make it harder for some people to qualify for benefits, and new state rules will reduce what SNAP recipients can buy at the grocery store.
[01:55:26]  We are now approaching the longest shutdown in American history.
[01:55:30]  Democrats World.
[01:55:32]  The most famous line in the Declaration of Independence is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
[01:55:38]  However, I would argue that under our current administration, these are not possible.
[01:55:42]  After all, how are we supposed to live and pursue happiness if we don't have reliable access to food?
[01:55:47]  Millions of Americans struggle with food insecurity, and many more are at risk of becoming food insecure.
[01:55:52]  So if we have these unalienable rights, why doesn't the government help those who are struggling to truly pursue them?
[01:56:00]  I'm Michelle Bromson.
[01:56:01]  I'm the COO of Hunger Free Oklahoma.
[01:56:04]  So food insecurity actually has a very proper definition by the USDA.
[01:56:09]  A person who doesn't know where a meal is coming from in a fairly long period of time, so months or a year.
[01:56:15]  A lot of people experience it, only at certain times of the year.
[01:56:18]  The difference between hunger and food insecurity is that hunger would be ongoing, an ongoing issue of not knowing where your food's coming from.
[01:56:27]  My name is Liz Wright.
[01:56:29]  I am one of seven board members here at the Jinx Food Bank.
[01:56:32]  Our average is 217 families, which is a little over 700 people.
[01:56:37]  We are seeing a lot more families coming and needing food.
[01:56:41]  One thing that is just really tough is that the minimum wage has stayed stagnant, but the cost of food and other goods is going up.
[01:56:48]  We have a lot of families that are the working poor.
[01:56:51]  They just can't get ahead, have multiple jobs.
[01:56:54]  Even when I go to the grocery store, I'm shocked at how much things have gone up even in the last six months.
[01:57:02]  We actually have almost as many food insecure Americans as we did at the height of the Great Recession.
[01:57:08]  We are kind of on the cusp of a major program change, probably the biggest shift we've had in the program since its founding.
[01:57:15]  The controversial One Big Beautiful bill was passed in July of 2025.
[01:57:20]  With it came cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the SNAP program.
[01:57:24]  The opposition's main argument for the cuts to the SNAP program is to help mitigate high error rates around the country, the national average being 10.93% in the year of 2024.
[01:57:36]  We are finally creating real accountability incentives for states with high payment error.
[01:57:40]  And we are protecting the hardworking American taxpayer who has been footing a $100 billion annual SNAP bill that increased by close to 70% in five years.
[01:57:49]  The issues with the Big Beautiful bill that are really going to be very, very problematic for Oklahomans is the cost shifting, which means the state's money doesn't go as far.
[01:58:00]  So the state's not going to probably put in more money.
[01:58:04]  They're going to put in the same amount of money and we get matched way less.
[01:58:08]  That's just Oklahoma, which only has 4 million people.
[01:58:12]  We have about 700,000 people on SNAP, but just imagine what that is across the nation where there's 40 million people on SNAP.
[01:58:21]  The quote, one big beautiful bill that was passed by Republicans in July has already begun to hurt Americans.
[01:58:28]  Americans are feeling the high food costs, higher rents, more expensive health care, child care, and energy costs.
[01:58:35]  The other thing that is worse is the sharing of the cost of the benefits, which has not ever happened before.
[01:58:43]  That's a big problem.
[01:58:44]  Depending on your error rate, you could pay nothing if your error rate's under 6%.
[01:58:48]  You could pay 15% of benefits that are distributed if your error rate's over 10%.
[01:58:55]  Right now, Oklahoma's is 10.8%, so we're in that 15% coverage area, and that equates to $270 million.
[01:59:06]  Oklahoma, even though we pay our taxes to the federal government, that money will no longer be used for benefits to feed our most vulnerable neighbors.
[01:59:14]  It will be instead shifted to the state that will have to pick up a surprise bill of $270 million.
[01:59:22]  Now that doesn't start immediately, but it's coming.
[01:59:25]  It's coming like a freight train.
[01:59:27]  It breaks my heart to see people as pawns in a political war.
[01:59:32]  Just, you know, this is not what America is about.
[01:59:36]  We're there to take care of each other.
[01:59:38]  It's not practical.
[01:59:39]  I think it benefits one group more than the other, than the rest of the country.
[01:59:44]  Food should be a human right.
[01:59:46]  I believe that the Declaration of Independence is an important document in help leading the next movement to solving the food crisis in this country.
[01:59:53]  I feel as though with enough pushback we can restore the SNAP program to not only how it was or but better.