CSPAN - Washington Journal Open Forum
Aired: 2026-04-13
Duration: 15:59


=== Accountability in Tennessee Politics (15:13) ===

[00:00:03]  Coming up this morning, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is planning to give a statement to the British House of Commons regarding the situation in the Middle East.
[00:00:10]  This comes after talks between the U.S. and Iran failed to reach a peace agreement over the weekend and President Trump ordered a U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:00:19]  We'll have the British Prime Minister's remarks live at about 10.30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, C-SPAN now, our free mobile app, and online at C-SPAN.org.
[00:00:34]  America marks 250 years, and C-SPAN is there to commemorate every moment.
[00:00:40]  From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the voices shaping our nation's future, we bring you unprecedented all-platform coverage, exploring the stories, sites, and the spirit that make up America.
[00:00:53]  Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can, and proudly supported by our television partners.
[00:01:03]  America 250, over a year of historic moments.
[00:01:07]  C-SPAN, official media partner of America 250.
[00:01:13]  We will begin opening up the phones to open forum to any public policy, any political issue you want to talk about.
[00:01:20]  We can continue to talk about the blockade in Iran, or we can move to some of the domestic politics that have been happening.
[00:01:28]  There's plenty of news with Congress coming back this week after a two-week recess.
[00:01:33]  Again, the Senate's in at 3 p.m. Eastern today.
[00:01:35]  You can watch on C-SPAN too.
[00:01:37]  The House will have a brief pro forma session today and then is back in tomorrow.
[00:01:43]  But plenty of domestic policy issues, including the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
[00:01:50]  We'll see if that gets addressed this week.
[00:01:53]  When it comes to politics in this country, this is one of the stories that broke over the weekend and has had quite a bit of movement.
[00:01:59]  Amid assault claims, Eric Swalwell suspends his campaign.
[00:02:04]  The California Democrats suspending his campaign for California governor two days after reports that a former staffer accused him of sexual assault and multiple other women alleged sexual misconduct as well.
[00:02:15]  Swalwell's abrupt exit from the California governor's race, they write, marks a remarkable downfall for the longtime Congressman who is considered a leading from reports of sexual assault and misconduct continued on Sunday as pressure mounted for Swalwell to also vacate his congressional seat.
[00:02:33]  Several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said Sunday that they could support a motion to expel Swalwell from Congress after Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna promised to force such a vote this week.
[00:02:45]  There's some questions about whether that vote could include pairing an expulsion member with an expulsion member for Congressman Tony Gonzalez, a Republican of Texas.
[00:02:57]  He's being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for having an affair with a staff member who later killed herself.
[00:03:05]  And the situation continues to evolve here on Capitol Hill about how that would play out, what it would mean, one of the rare expulsions of a member of Congress.
[00:03:16]  Congress gets to seat its own members and the House, though rarely kicking a member out after they've been elected by constituents.
[00:03:25]  We'll see again what happens.
[00:03:27]  But it could be that a Democratic and a Republican member of Congress could be kicked out in the same week.
[00:03:32]  A lot going on.
[00:03:34]  I want to give you a chance to talk about it.
[00:03:35]  202748-8000 for Democrats.
[00:03:38]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[00:03:41]  Independents 202-748-8002.
[00:03:44]  Officially open forum for you at this point.
[00:03:47]  Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bill, you're up.
[00:03:50]  Go ahead.
[00:03:52]  Hi.
[00:03:54]  I was listening to the woman talking about negotiating, and I was thinking Frank Luntz is one of the worst people to use to negotiate with.
[00:04:07]  I remember back in the 90s, he's the one that wrote up that word list.
[00:04:13]  All you got to do is, you know, Google word list.
[00:04:17]  Frank Luntz's word list.
[00:04:19]  And he gave a list of negative words for Republicans to call Democrats.
[00:04:29]  Bill, who do you think would be a good negotiator?
[00:04:33]  Bill Richardson.
[00:04:35]  And why Bill Richardson?
[00:04:41]  He's been one of the better negotiators through my lifetime.
[00:04:51]  That's Bill in Pennsylvania.
[00:04:53]  This is Vic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Republican.
[00:04:57]  Vic, go ahead.
[00:04:59]  Yes, I was just calling in because I was thinking a lot of Americans don't understand the situation because they've never actually lived in the Middle East or been a Christian that lived in the Middle East.
[00:05:12]  My family immigrated in 1978 from the Lebanese War.
[00:05:17]  And I can tell you, based on my family's recollections of living in the Middle East, this is much bigger than just a political thing or something Trump's doing.
[00:05:29]  This is basically a fight over religions.
[00:05:32]  And at the end of the day, the religion that won't accept Christianity is no one's ever going to stick up to it.
[00:05:42]  And if they don't, you know, most of Europe's gone.
[00:05:45]  A lot of other nations are starting to collapse.
[00:05:49]  And they'll feel the effects to their bad political choices and allowing unfeathered immigration into European countries 20, 30 years from now when it's taken over.
[00:06:02]  I think Trump's the only person that's willing to stand up and put something in front of the only threat that was left in the Middle East against the entire region and the U.S. in the future.
[00:06:17]  So I think that's part of the reason most people don't understand that you just can't negotiate with Middle Eastern people.
[00:06:25]  They're not honest.
[00:06:27]  Once they're brainwashing, you can't change it.
[00:06:29]  You feel that way about everybody in the Middle East, Vic.
[00:06:31]  Sort of a blanket statement.
[00:06:34]  I don't feel that way about everybody, but I do feel that way about the majority, which is the problem.
[00:06:41]  If you brainwash 70% of the public or 60% of the public, the other 40% have to comply out of fear.
[00:06:50]  And that's what's happened in Iran.
[00:06:52]  I mean, when you kill 7,000 to 15,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 of your own people, someone at some point has to stand up.
[00:07:01]  And if no one ever stands up, I think there was a saying that when good men just sit aside and allow things to happen, I think that's even a big serious thing.
[00:07:12]  If you're talking about people standing up, we saw tens, hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the streets in January.
[00:07:20]  You mentioned that tens of thousands of them were killed for doing that.
[00:07:25]  But was that not them standing up?
[00:07:27]  And we've seen other of these uprisings in the past that have been violently suppressed by the regime.
[00:07:34]  Well, the reason that's happened is the world is not in the majority of saying we're not going to allow this anymore.
[00:07:42]  And you only have one guy that is bold enough to stand up.
[00:07:49]  And even him taking a huge risk against his own midterms and everything else, getting blamed for it.
[00:07:56]  But if they have a nuclear weapon and they're hard-headed and they're never going to negotiate, it's going to reach the shores of the U.S. eventually.
[00:08:05]  My family left Lebanon because the Muslims burnt down my father's store.
[00:08:10]  And thank God they did because it was a great opportunity.
[00:08:13]  We came to America.
[00:08:15]  But, you know, if it comes to the shores of America, it's too late.
[00:08:18]  That's Vic.
[00:08:20]  In Florida to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Forest, Independent.
[00:08:24]  Good morning.
[00:08:25]  Open forum.
[00:08:26]  What's on your mind?
[00:08:27]  Hey, good morning.
[00:08:28]  This is on my mind this morning.
[00:08:29]  I think it comes down to accountability.
[00:08:31]  Accountability has been the biggest problem with our country.
[00:08:34]  We cannot allow people to be held accountable.
[00:08:37]  And that comes down to not only local, state, that comes down to everything.
[00:08:41]  That comes down to how we treat our children.
[00:08:44]  I think the biggest tension that we have right now in America is accountability with not only our presidency, but with law enforcement, with state and local legislation.
[00:08:54]  You know, we have legislation that literally is rewriting America, rewriting the things that we do.
[00:08:59]  I'm 31 years old.
[00:09:01]  I've been an Oak Ridge, Tennessee resident for most of my life.
[00:09:04]  And I look around and I see people that do not have help, literally from our government.
[00:09:09]  And it's basically because of legislation.
[00:09:11]  They're gerrymandering seats in Tennessee, and they are not in the interest of Tennessee.
[00:09:15]  They're interested in themselves.
[00:09:16]  And what's sad is an independent, I feel like we have to have this change.
[00:09:21]  If we don't have the change now, what's going to happen is we have this tension, this political tension, where people think, oh, you're racist.
[00:09:27]  Oh, you're this or that.
[00:09:28]  No, it comes down to accountability.
[00:09:29]  Hold people accountable.
[00:09:31]  And Trump's not being held accountable.
[00:09:33]  People can say that he's trying to do this and this and this and this, but he's not.
[00:09:35]  What it comes down to is, and I can say this because I'm not from Michigan, but I really can convince Senator Slotin.
[00:09:41]  Senator Slockin is leading the way and being the pioneer that we need in our country because we have this tension where it doesn't come down to race.
[00:09:50]  It comes down to accountability.
[00:09:51]  And people are being held accountable.
[00:09:53]  Force, why particularly Alyssa Slotkin come to mind for you?
[00:09:59]  She comes to mind for me because she stands up for the people of Michigan and she stands up.
[00:10:03]  She's a former CIA officer.
[00:10:06]  She is someone who is leading the way and holding people accountable.
[00:10:09]  She's looking at the facts, looking at the numbers, looking at the actual things that are making a difference.
[00:10:14]  And to me personally, even in Tennessee, governability is not.
[00:10:17]  Governability is an interest for himself, not the people of Tennessee and the people of this country.
[00:10:23]  The biggest thing that we're facing, I think, in Tennessee, for my state, for my personal state, is they have used the drug, big pharma and drugs, have abused this country.
[00:10:34]  And we have children that literally, you can look in Tennessee, there's a place called Fentanyl Hills.
[00:10:38]  Fentanyl Hills is because children younger than me, I'm 31 years old, children at 6 and 7 years old are getting access to fentanyl and drugs.
[00:10:46]  And the people who are in office, political office, literally are the ones who are getting money from big pharma.
[00:10:52]  And I'm looking at the facts, looking at the money, I see the money's where the money's flowing.
[00:10:55]  And even Justin Jones, who is a representative in the state of Tennessee, in the capital, has been pushed and pushed and pushed to do the wrong, not to do the wrong things, but for the big farm bill.
[00:11:06]  You know, we want to save agriculture.
[00:11:07]  Agriculture is one of the number one things in Tennessee that used to, used to be a source of wealth for our country.
[00:11:15]  And now there's he signs that say save the farmers.
[00:11:17]  Why?
[00:11:18]  Because of people like Bill Gates, people that are trying to corrupt our country and make it to where the farming industry can't survive because they have bioengineered food.
[00:11:29]  You know, it comes down to simple this, accountability.
[00:11:33]  Hold people accountable.
[00:11:33]  Trump has not been held accountable.
[00:11:35]  There is actual evidence of him being a pedophile and him hurting and raping children since the 1990s.
[00:11:41]  So accountability comes first.
[00:11:44]  Got your point.
[00:11:44]  So that's Forrest.
[00:11:45]  This is Jody in Kentucky.
[00:11:47]  Line for Republicans.
[00:11:49]  Jody, go ahead.
[00:11:50]  Yeah, sure.
[00:11:53]  I'm calling about the Aric Walwell thing.
[00:11:57]  If the Democrats want to prove to the Mark and people that no one's above the law, right here, it's their chance.
[00:12:04]  They got a chance to show us by swedling Congressman Aricua from Congress.
[00:12:12]  Do you think they'll do it?
[00:12:15]  I hope they do.
[00:12:16]  I hope they do if they really take no one's above the law.
[00:12:21]  Because what Aric Huawei done, he should be in the jailhouse.
[00:12:27]  If I did something like that, I'd be under the jailhouse.
[00:12:32]  Because the Democrats got a chance to prove to us, American people, that no one is above the law.
[00:12:39]  You know how they keep saying that no one's above the law?
[00:12:42]  Well, they have a chance to show us that no one's above the law.
[00:12:46]  Will they take it?
[00:12:47]  That's another question.
[00:12:49]  That's Jody in Kentucky on Eric Swalwell.
[00:12:53]  The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal weighing in on his situation as well today.
[00:12:59]  They write the rapid implosion of Eric Swalwell's campaign for California governor is one for the record books, though few will mourn the event, they say.
[00:13:06]  The seven-term Democratic congressman is a leading practitioner of political lawfare and smear tactics, so he is being measured for his own guillotine now.
[00:13:16]  They write, some on the right and left in Congress are now saying they want to hold a vote to expel Mr. Swalwell from the House of Representatives.
[00:13:23]  This is also the wrong standard, they say.
[00:13:26]  He deserves a chance to explain himself while accusations alone shouldn't be enough to drive an elected representative out of office.
[00:13:32]  Republicans would be especially dumb to vote to expel him, given that this is likely to become an expulsion free-for-all that includes members of their own party.
[00:13:41]  They say instead, let Mr. Swalwell endure the punishment by accusation that he has built his career on.
[00:13:47]  Meanwhile, California voters can render their verdict on him on June the 2nd.
[00:13:53]  Back to your calls.
[00:13:54]  This is Darlene, Seattle, Washington Democrat.
[00:13:57]  Good morning.
[00:13:58]  Good morning, John.
[00:14:00]  I just wanted to say that I think we sent some ill chosen people for that meeting with.
[00:14:09]  Sorry about that.
[00:14:10]  I accidentally turned that on.
[00:14:12]  For that meeting with the Iranians.
[00:14:13]  After all, they had all sorts of diplomats.
[00:14:16]  We sent a couple of real estate dealers and JD Vance over there.
[00:14:22]  I mean, that was just a setup.
[00:14:24]  You know, we don't have to.
[00:14:26]  A setup for what, Darling?
[00:14:27]  We heard about how John JD Vance talks about to Greenlanders and our allies and all these people, the disrespect that they show.
[00:14:37]  I think it was just a terrible setup.
[00:14:39]  Don't we have any real diplomats left anymore?
[00:14:43]  I mean, this previous caller talked about chess, checkers, and marbles.
[00:14:49]  And I believe that Trump has lost his.
[00:14:52]  Thank you.
[00:14:53]  Darlene, before you go, you mentioned JD Vance.
[00:14:55]  What are your thoughts about JD Vance being sent to Hungary to campaign with Victor Orban and then Victor Orban losing that election this weekend?
[00:15:07]  We lost Darlene, but it is the topic of many of the wrap-ups on that election.
[00:15:14]  This is the lead from today's New York Times.

=== Orban Concedes Historic Election (00:43) ===

[00:15:16]  Here's how they put it: Prime Minister Victor Orban of Hungary, a lodestar for MAGA culture warriors and right-wing populists in Europe, conceded defeat on Sunday in the general election, breaking the momentum of a global nationalist revival promoted by President Trump.
[00:15:33]  That is the lead graph of their story on the election.
[00:15:36]  As the Associated Press report notes, some 77% of Hungarians, according to the National Election Office, voted in that election, a record in any election in Hungary's post-communist history.
[00:15:51]  They say it marks a key moment for Mr. Orban, the European Union's longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists.