Washington Journal Open Phones examines post-assassination attempt reactions, featuring Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch confirming Secret Service success in stopping a breach at the Washington Hilton. Viewers debate whether President Trump's rhetoric or Democratic hate speech fuels polarization, with polls showing 76% of Democrats versus 51% of Republicans blaming public displays of hate for societal violence. Calls range from demands for a bipartisan commission to address social media and mental health to accusations that political leaders exploit division for electoral gain, ultimately highlighting fears that current instability discourages potential candidates, particularly women, from seeking office. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
|
Time
Text
House Leader on Political Violence00:02:50
Today on the C-SPAN networks.
The U.S. House returns later today at 2 p.m. Eastern.
Members will consider several tax-related bills, including legislation to extend tax relief for individuals impacted by federally declared disasters.
The bill is named after the late California Republican Congressman Doug Lamaltha, who died in January.
The House will also take up legislation to raise the retirement age for U.S. Capitol police officers to 65.
The Senate's also back today at 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lawmakers will vote later in the day to advance President Trump's nomination of Robert Zicata to be ATF director.
Watch live coverage of the House on C-SPAN, the Senate on C-SPAN 2.
And all of our congressional coverage is available on our free video app, C-SPANNO, and our website, c-span.org.
Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
We will get to your calls shortly, but first take a look at what President Trump said.
He was interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes.
This is what he said about political violence.
Also at the dinner last night was your Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
His sister, Carrie Kennedy, was there.
They've both witnessed their father and their uncle be assassinated.
Erica Kirk was there.
The House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, was there.
Political violence has touched so many people in that room.
Is there something that you as president can do?
What can be done to change the trajectory?
You know, you go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years.
It's always been there.
People are assassinated.
People are injured.
People are hurt.
And I'm not sure that it's any more now than there was.
I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous.
I really think it's very dangerous to the country.
That was the president yesterday on 60 Minutes.
And we are taking your calls this morning.
Take a look at this poll from PRI, and this is what it asked.
So it says this, two-thirds of Americans, 67%, believe political leaders' failure to condemn violent rhetoric contributes a lot to violent actions in society.
So here are the top lines.
It says, majorities of Americans also believe that false or misleading information generated by AI at 64% and public displays of hate symbols at 61% contribute a lot to violent actions in society, while smaller majorities believe easy access to guns and harsh and violent political language are also drivers.
Polls Link Rhetoric to Society00:14:41
That's at 53%.
While 51% of Republicans believe public displays of hate symbols contribute a lot to violence, 76% of Democrats do.
Fewer than half of Republicans, that's at 46%, believe that harsh and violent political language contributes a lot to violence in society.
White evangelical Protestants are the only group of religious Americans in which a minority, 47%, share that view.
We'll look more at that poll this morning.
We'll take a call first from Timothy in Vermont.
Democrat, you're on the air.
Yes.
All right.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Regarding political violence, I mean, from what I can ascertain, this administration has done whatever they can do to pretty much divide and conquer.
It's funny.
I remember.
So I'm from Burlington, Vermont, and the minute it preceded Bernie, and this is relevant.
I'm not digressing.
And Bernie won that election in Burlington by 10 votes, 1980.
But anyway, a guy I went to high school with, his name is Doug Killery.
Ironically, that's the truth.
Mayor Gordon Pauquet was mayor of Burlington.
And Doug popped a few shots up at this bar called Nectars, where the mayor was having breakfast.
And Doug didn't like Mayor Gordon Pauquet for whatever reason.
But all I'm saying is that the divide and conquered concept is very much alive and well.
And the polarity is beyond polarizing.
So and what do you think needs to be done about it?
I try to have a normal discourse with my friends.
I mean, I'm a left-leaning Democrat.
My grandfather was mayor of St. Albans, which is north about 50 miles of...
I've always been a Democrat.
All right.
Always.
Well, Timothy, let's hear what other people think.
Here's David in Riverside, California, Republican.
Go ahead, David.
Good morning, Mimi, and good morning, America.
The guy at the correspondence dinner trying to kill Trump or his cabinet members is a good example.
There are a lot of people in America who do not understand why we're at war with Iran.
We need more education.
Some people think President Trump is the enemy or the Jews.
No, my friend, you just don't understand what's at stake.
We dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
That was 80 years ago.
And nobody really remembers it.
But the same nuclear bombs that were dropped still exist.
And much more powerful ones called thermonuclear bombs, which are 500 to 1,000 times stronger than the ones dropped on Japan.
President Trump is trying to protect us from that.
But I don't think people understand the risk.
We've lost 15 men in the war against Iran.
One nuclear explosion, you lose 100,000 people.
And that's with regular nuclear bombs.
Iran will use them.
They want to kill large numbers of people.
And they're civilians.
They're not in the military.
Just random people dying for no good reason.
And you look at North Korea, they have nuclear weapons.
We can't defeat them on the battlefield.
So getting back to political violence, what do you think needs to be done, David?
I just think people need to realize Trump is not the devil.
You look over at Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, who we just took out, and his son.
So the violence is not just against President Trump.
There's violence against Democrats as well.
Well, the studies have shown that most political violence, if you listen to polls, it's about four to one liberals, radical liberals over conservatives.
So this is really a liberal problem.
They tend to shoot before we do.
We'd rather have a discussion like Charlie Kirk did.
Susan, Council Bluffs, Iowa Independent Line, you're on the air, Susan.
Hi.
I would like to say that I believe political violence stems from the current president.
The way he talks every day or posts on social media, you know, it's constantly, you know, demeaning former presidents constantly about Obama and Michelle Obama as ape or going after Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe, even though this man is going through stage four cancer treatment.
It's constant demeaning.
He won't even put their picture up In the White House.
And he's always going after everybody.
It's retaliation against universities, libraries, anybody that he can sue because he's all about power, wealth, gold, retaliation.
And so then, Susan, what do you think needs to be done about it?
Well, I would like to see the 25th Amendment, but he needs to stop posting.
He needs to say, it starts at the top, and also others in his administration.
They are constantly demeaning the former President Biden.
You know, with everything that he posts, just like 60 Minutes, who's to blame?
The Democrats.
He blamed the Democrats.
He needs to stop.
And everybody that calls up, they blame the Democrats for everything.
Well, I'm an independent, but, you know, I'm just so tired of the division in this country and the hatred that exists.
But it starts at the top, like with any organization, even where I worked years ago, it starts at the top.
That person sets the tone.
And I don't consider him a patriot because a patriot would bring the country together, not constantly demean and sue anybody who doesn't agree with him.
All right, Susan.
And this is from Pew Research.
This is a poll.
As far as the source of this, it says 77% of Republicans say left-wing extremism is a major problem in the country.
Far fewer, 27%, say this about right-wing extremism.
On the other side, Democrats' views are nearly the reverse.
76% say right-wing extremism is a major problem, while 32% say left-wing extremism is a major problem.
About half of both Republicans, 49% and Democrats, 47%, say extremism from those without clear political views is a major problem.
This is pewresearch.org.
Well, Representative Roe Conna, Democrat of California, was on NBC's Meet the Press.
Here's what he had to say.
I do want to start by getting your reaction to the events that unfolded here overnight in Washington.
And everyone's so grateful to the Secret Service for keeping us safe.
It was absolutely horrific.
I'm so relieved that the President, the First Lady, every administration official, and all the guests are safe.
I appreciate law enforcement and particularly the Secret Service agent who was shot and hope he makes a full recovery.
But as you know, Christian, this is an event that is actually the symbol of an open, free society.
And to see journalists like you and others ducking under tables was just horrifying.
We need a bipartisan national commission for political violence in this country.
I heard Senator Tillis speak.
We should look at social media.
We should look at mental health issues.
We should look at language, but we need to do something to bring the temperature down.
Well, let me ask you about what happens next in terms of this investigation.
Do you have confidence in the Secret Service and the FBI as they carry out this investigation, Congressman?
On this issue, I do.
I heard Acting Attorney General Blanche, as you know, we've had disagreements on the Epstein files, but I do believe that he's going to do everything to have a thorough investigation.
I appreciate what law enforcement did to make sure that the breach was not more than a few feet.
We look at whether there needs to be even more security in the future.
I mean, I've gone to those events.
It's always struck me as a bit odd that the metal detectors are before the ballroom as opposed to before the hotel.
Maybe there will be some things that need to be fixed, but I do believe he will do a thorough job on this.
That was Representative Rocano.
We're taking your calls.
What do you think needs to be done about political violence in the U.S.?
John, a Republican in Shiner, Texas, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
The first thing we do, we all need to realize that we're all the same.
This is, the Constitution says we the people.
And it is we the people.
It's not we half of the people, not the other half.
It's all of us together.
And the reason we're divided is because the politicians, specifically, I'm a Republican, specifically the Democrats, want to use it.
Alinsky has a model.
And Hillary Clinton did her thesis on Alinsky, which basically seek and divide the people.
Sorry, I'm walking this morning.
But the reality is that Obama started this with, you know, we hope we cleaned out guns and Bible.
Hillary said she can smell the people from Walmart.
And everything Trump does is bad.
Let me tell you what would happen if we had a nuclear bomb.
Before I say this, 60 Minutes confirmed that Iran had enough bomb, enough nuclear material to make 10 nuclear bombs.
What would happen if the work goes up?
No, no, no.
We need to check that, John.
You said that CBS confirmed that they are able to create a bomb currently?
Yes, they have.
Well, they could do it within two months.
They have it.
It reached 60%.
This was in 60 minutes.
So yes, we're saved by our internet.
We do know that they have nuclear material at 60%.
That's not enough for a bomb.
So you're saying that it would be in two months that they would have a weapon?
It would take two months to get it to 80%, which make a nuclear bomb.
What would happen if it's like Houston?
Yeah.
Okay, 90%, okay?
Okay, so anyway.
We're not going to get off on Iran.
So let's go back to violence.
You said initially that it's we, as far as the people, need to understand that we're all the same.
But then you said it was the politicians.
So do you think it's a matter of us here, the common people, the citizens, just kind of coming together and understanding, as you said, that we're all the same.
We're all in this together.
Or do you think it needs to come from politicians?
Well, I think politicians need to quit trying.
Politicians win.
All they care about is winning elections and how they win elections.
If everything was, if we were all hunky-dory, if we got along kumbaya, we wouldn't need politicians.
They wouldn't be able to, what would they run on?
What would they try to win on?
They can't say, okay, we're all happy together.
We're one people.
We're all getting along.
Well, why would a politician want?
What would their campaign be?
They have to divide us to win, okay, you're the bad guy, you're the good guy.
You're the bad guy, you're the good guy.
And that's how they win.
And some of the stuff these people call in and say, it's absolutely, I mean, Trump is a pitiful.
He raped kids.
I see all the time on Facebook.
Trump raped kids.
No, he didn't.
But these people believe it.
And for some strange reason, I don't understand why, that I think that people have just lost sense of reality.
And the reason they hate Trump so much is because he showed the complete incompetence and corruption of the government.
And he stopped the gravy train.
Remember, he said last night, it's true.
Every person has tried to change things has been assassinated.
Martin Luther King tried to change things.
He was assassinated.
John F. Kennedy tried to change things.
He was assassinated.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated because of the Civil War.
Everybody who tries to change the reality or the status quo gets attacked.
Okay.
All right.
And we need to understand that we are the people.
Yep.
We've got that, John.
Thank you very much.
And Jeff, Indianapolis, Democrat, good morning to you.
Yes, and I believe a lot of this, a lot of this got started right when Trump decided he was going to run for president.
Now, a lot of people think that that decision was made in 2011 at the same White House cross-functional dinner when Obama made some jokes while Trump was sitting there.
And Trump is part of the reason why we have so much division in this country.
The MAGA influencers and the MAGA supporters of Trump can sit up here all day long and try to deny it.
But why is Trump up at 4 o'clock in the morning putting posts on True Social, attacking Democrats in the media?
He constantly does this all the time.
He is in no way trying to bring this country together.
And if any MAGA person comes on here and tries to say that, they're lying.
Because we have the evidence.
He's not trying to bring this country together.
He is totally, constantly trying to keep us divided with all the rhetoric that he posts and he says every day.
So Jeff.
He's members criticizing Democrats, criticizing everybody.
So Jeff, do you believe that there's a role for us as citizens in bringing the country together and ending the political violence?
Yeah, but a lot of these people are not trying to do it.
All you got to do is go on X and look at all the MA influencers and what they post about Obama.
He should be in prison.
He should be executed.
This is what they say.
They're not trying to do it.
No way.
Let's hear from Patrick in Reading, Massachusetts Independent Line.
Good morning, Patrick.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
I wanted to call to you talking about the rhetoric.
Caller Blames Trump for Division00:04:03
I was listening to your show back probably a couple of months ago.
It was the Sunday morning when the U.S. hockey, men's hockey team won the gold.
And I saw, I listened to a caller that called in and said that Trump should be under the ground.
And I'm very surprised that you allowed that call to go across the airwaves.
Can you explain why you would allow that?
So, Patrick, I can tell you for sure I wasn't the host on that time because I've not hosted on Sunday morning.
So I can't give you an answer.
We do always say we don't advocate, we don't allow for anybody to advocate for violence.
Your station allowed that to go through.
You have a time delay, and I just couldn't understand.
I mean, that right there showing that where some of...
Patrick, sometimes we're not able to catch it, even with the delay.
And I'm sure you've heard you've heard the F-word go over the air.
We're sometimes not able to catch it fast enough.
Yeah, but I'm being told, Patrick, hold on, hold on.
I'm being told that Pedro was hosting, that he ended the call after that.
But I guess your point is we should have tried to go back and delete it.
We didn't catch it in time, but the call was ended.
So that's, I hope that answers your question.
Terry, Canton, North Carolina, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
Number one, it looks like the FPLC has done their job very well to divide this country.
The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Exactly.
And why is that?
Well, they were paying hate groups to divide this country.
Actually, they're going on and profiting from what they just did.
Number two, we can go back to the Obama administration.
You can ask Ann Coulter what it was like to go on to a college campus and give a speech there.
Her life was threatened multiple times under the Obama administration.
And under the Obama administration, Americans, white Americans, were targeted as white supremacs.
Joe Biden got up and made a speech saying that white people were the problem in this country.
White people generally or white supremacists.
Well, you tell me what's the difference.
How many white supremacists out there hanging people today?
How many crosses have you seen burnt in front of somebody's house compared to a Democrat out there calling me a Nazi, calling me a white supremacist, calling me a racist?
Terry, I got a question for you.
I got a question for you.
Can you answer this?
So this is on one of the polls.
And this is the question.
So tell me if you agree with this.
Quote, because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.
Do you agree or disagree with that?
That sounds exactly like a Democrat talking point right there.
No, no, no.
I'm asking you.
This was a poll.
So on that poll, this is how it came out.
77% disagree.
20% agree with that.
I'm interested to see if you were asked that question, where would you be on that?
If you'd like to answer that question, clearly the caller did not want to answer that question.
Charles in Mississippi, Democrat, good morning to you.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good.
Look, on the issue of political violence in the U.S., I do have to agree with the previous caller, one of the previous callers, and lay this at the foot of Donald Trump.
Citizens Must Stop the Violence00:14:48
We have never seen such an outline of an amount of political violence as we have in any other presidency, except his.
His toner, his choice of words, his condescending reactions to news people, you know, and his overall tone has contributed greatly to this violence.
But as for the incident on Saturday, if I might just comment on that, after viewing the tape of that incident, I'm kind of leaning more and more inclined to believe that this is a kind of a wag the dog moment.
You think it was fake?
Well, look, it's almost impossible for me to believe that you have the sitting president, vice president, and the speaker of the house, I think, was present at the time, the three most powerful people in the United States, I mean, in the world, per se.
And here comes a lone gunman who has a weapon concealed, but visibly you could see that it's some sort of weapon, sprints past security, who should have had some sort of petition there to not allow someone to come in that easily, sprints past security and didn't get shot.
He was not shot.
He fires a shot that hits a person in the vest.
And, you know, it's just seemed, it may not have been staged, but it just seems funny.
Listen, your poll numbers are tanking.
You got to change the narrative some kind of way.
So this is a golden opportunity to stop talking about Iran and the Epstein files and all of the other things that are dragging his numbers down.
Now, here's what will happen, in my opinion.
Trump will come out and sound more congenial.
He'll soften his rhetoric and he'll try to appear to be a more kinder, gentler president in hopes that it'll turn around those numbers that are dragging him and the Republican Party down.
So Charles, going back to what needs to be done about the rhetoric, you lay this at President Trump's feet.
What about what the other callers said was that President Obama was very divisive and said things like, you know, these people cling to their God and their guns.
Well, he didn't lie in that respect.
President Obama, look, he was marked from day one, first of all, by being a black president.
He had folks not riding, but protesting that.
I've worked with persons who were greatly offended by his having been elected.
These are white workers that were greatly offended by him being elected president.
So he was in a hot seat from day one.
I don't think that he could divide the country anymore.
I thought, from my perspective, that he did more to try to bring the country together.
His rhetoric was not one that would divide.
He often talked about us all being Americans.
All right, Charles.
Let's hear from the acting attorney general.
He was on ABC's this week, and he talked about political violence and efforts to keep federal officials safe.
Finally, you know, this is the third attempt on President Trump in the last two years.
We've seen members of Congress targeted.
We've seen other government officials targeted.
How would you describe the threat environment right now and what more needs to be done to keep us all safe?
It's a great question.
There have been threats against leadership for a very long time, years and years and years.
That's not new.
There is something unique about the threats against President Trump and his cabinet that is disgusting and it shouldn't be happening.
On the other hand, that's why we have great law enforcement.
That's why we have DHS and our intelligence community and the FBI and all of our other partners that are working every day to stop those threats before they happen.
And we've seen that exposed publicly a lot, like you just said.
But you also have a lot of times when we foil attempts, whether it's terrorist or whether it's domestic terrorists or Iran or other nation states that are threatening us.
And so it's a fight.
It's something that has kept all of us busy for a long time.
And we are at a crunch time right now with security and keeping all of us safe.
And we will continue to do that and to work hard and identify threats and stop them.
And the rhetoric that is out there on social media is one of the reasons for it.
And so we monitor that very carefully as you would expect us to.
And we'll keep doing that.
And we've got a couple of comments on Facebook.
Diane says, the United States is a violent country.
It seems to be part of our culture.
That means we need culture change.
And that's not easy.
Bob says, people keep saying both sides need to refrain from the rhetoric, but it's only one side calling Trump Hitler and his supporters Nazis.
And Diane Patterson says, what needs to be done is actually jailing people, thugs, for violence they cause on someone else.
No more slapping the hand and telling them to behave, actually making them account for their crap.
And Jeannie says, violence has always been at the center of America.
The difference now is that instead of being inflicted on the people, the people are aiming at the lawmakers.
We're getting your thoughts this morning on what needs to be done about political violence in the U.S. on the Republican line, El Dorado, Arkansas.
Stanley, you're on the air.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you for taking my call.
I listen to y'all a lot in the mornings while I'm drinking my coffee.
And it's some of the people on here are really hilarious, the things they have to say.
And I notice a lot of them.
I'm not being racist.
A lot of them are mostly black or colored on the Democrat side.
If you'll just sit back and let this man do his job, you'll find out that everything's going to stop these wars.
And he's not racist at all.
He's just a very concerned man that loves his country just like I do.
A lot of people do.
And if the Democrats get back into control, we will be under socialist rules.
That's what that's their goal, Bernie Sanders, AOC.
That's what they want.
They want one party rule.
They want it.
So, Stanley, when you say just sit back and let him do what he needs to do, I mean, did you feel that way under President Biden?
In other words, if you were wanting to say, look, this is wrong, I feel like the country's going in the wrong direction, and then Democrats said to you, Stanley, just let him do what he needs to do.
He's the president.
How would you have reacted?
I never did trust Biden.
I don't think he was legally elected.
I went to bed that night at 1 o'clock.
Trump had a little over 10 million vote lead.
I said, well, we got this.
I got up the next morning at 5:30 or 6, turned on TV, and Joe Biden had won by 10, 11, 12 million.
I said, this is a big joke.
They had it on there for several hours.
People in Georgia and everywhere voting geeky.
All right, Stanley.
Alexander in Brooklyn, New York, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking the call.
The last call just makes the point of everything that is wrong with this country.
The talking points that he just said are literally what Trump said about the election, which is denying, creating hatred, creating a false sense that things are being stolen from you.
And then you get January 6th.
And even on this program, despite the fact that they saw it live on television, they will tell you that it didn't happen or that it wasn't as bad as it was.
The problem with this country isn't the politicians, it's us.
We are all losers in this country.
You cannot have a democracy when more than 50% of the people in this country read at a level that is below a sixth grade level.
You can't have a democracy when the obesity rate, when the diabetes rate is astronomically through the roof, when you have 1.5 guns per man, woman, and child in this country.
Okay, so Alexander, Alexander, tell me what you think is a solution.
Is it education?
Is that the issue?
Do you think, you know, you mentioned gun ownership?
It's everything.
Everything is every this problem cannot be tackled by saying that it's simply politicians.
Trump is just an end result of the failures of everything that is wrong with this country.
You can't have a democracy if you don't have education.
The gun lobbyists are pouring billions of dollars into making more guns in this country.
You have people saying that we need the Second Amendment.
You have Congress people, you have the President of the United States on Easter Sunday saying that we have to exterminate a whole people.
And on that very day, you had all of these politicians in his party saying that he can say what he wants, that he's a politician, that he's just playing hardball.
And when situations like this happen, then people will say we have to stop.
You'll have people on this program say, well, this president called Obama and put him as a monkey.
The person next to them, when they come on, they completely dismiss what was just said.
People are literally talking over the people that are talking behind them, and nobody is listening to what the other person has to say.
So you have to tackle this from so many angles that the reality is that we are just a morally, financially, spiritually corrupt nation.
So, Alexander.
Do you know what it will take?
Alexander, let me ask you your honest opinion.
Do you think this program, where we allow people from all over the country to come on and give their opinions and talk about things, do you think that that's helping?
I honestly don't because, I mean, I do.
Yesterday on Ceasefire, you had two people come on, and I'm sorry if I forget their names, but one of them said, you know, when Newt Ginrich came on, he said the only way Republicans can win is if they can create division.
Because if they keep agreeing with Democrats, they will never have control of the House.
Now you amplify that with the algorithm that we have across all of these social media platforms, and it's creating more division.
I understand that you have a broad base of people that call from the full spectrum, but if you hear the talking points that everybody is saying, it is filtered through social media.
So no matter how much information you throw at people to try to get them to come and see the other side, you simply can't because everybody is stuck in their own silos.
Well, Alexander.
Yeah, we appreciate you following the program carefully and watching our programs.
Here's Robert Marina Del Rey, California, Independent Line.
Good morning.
I want to make a point that seems not to be made on this show or anywhere else in the media.
Although widely discussed, realized acts of political violence in the United States are rare and constitute about 1% of all hate crimes.
That's something no one talks about.
No one defines what political violence is.
Are you telling me that the political violence of 1968, when Robert Kennedy was murdered and Martin Luther King is murdered, and the violence in the streets and all the things and the riots that were going on in the cities compares to today?
The only reason why we're talking about this is because Donald Trump has been a target of three, now three assassination attempts.
The murder of Charles Kirk.
That's what's happening.
This is not a widespread issue that everyone's trying to make it out to be.
Secondly, as far as Trump's polling numbers, they don't matter.
He's a lame duck.
He can't run again.
He's constitutionally barred from running.
Nobody brings that point up.
And sometimes I just think you guys look for a topic that's controversial enough that will draw people to call the show or to just draw a controversy.
It's kind of like talk radio.
So what would you have rather we be talking about this morning?
Well, I'd rather must be talking about hard, hard issues like affordability in the United States or the how are we going to pay for Medicare and Medicaid or the future of Social Security.
Well, to be fair, Robert, we do talk a lot about that.
But you're interrupting me.
Let me finish.
You could say whatever you want and you can hang up on me.
The fact of the matter is that the hardcore issues in the United States aren't discussed because neither party has a solution and both of them have created the problems that we have.
That's what you're not saying.
That's what C-SPAN should do as a non-partisan, objective third party.
Okay, Robert.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Here is Jamie Raskin.
He's a Democrat from Maryland.
He was on CBS's Face the Nation talking about this topic of political violence.
The president, I want to make sure that I recognize what he said because we don't hear him speak this way very often.
He said, I asked all Americans to recommit with their hearts to resolve our difference peacefully.
And he talked about being unified with members of the press.
President Calls for Peaceful Unity00:02:42
Yes.
Well, that certainly is a new message from him.
That's great.
He had called the press, of course, the enemy of the people, and he's been engaged in a lot of lawsuits against your profession.
Well, yes, we are going into this politically charged midterm season.
There's going to be campaigning around the country with lawmakers out there.
I mean, does something change?
He said this.
Does something change?
Does democratic language need to change as well?
We have said all along that we need every politician in the country, every leader in the country, every citizen in the country denouncing political violence across the board, regardless of where it's coming from.
So, you know, I find this a welcome change in rhetoric, but what happened last week?
They brought a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose whole purpose is to investigate violent right-wing extremism in the country, and now they're prosecuting them for having used undercover agents, which, of course, the FBI uses and the government uses all the time.
Well, understood.
And there is across party lines some political violence, way too much of it right now.
And actually, Speaker Amerita Pelosi on this program said to me recently that she thought the threat or the concern about violence or threats to your family is what is hurting recruitment of people to run for office, particularly mothers, particularly women.
Are you seeing that?
That people are afraid to even join public life because of this?
Sure.
Anybody who's thinking about running for office undoubtedly thinks about that.
Anybody who's thinking about running for president undoubtedly thinks about that.
And those people have the most protection with the Secret Service, and other people don't have the same kind of protection.
So look, we've got to rediscover the great American tradition of nonviolence.
And Dr. King and the civilizing movements that have always opposed violence versus the violent groups that have used violence historically, beginning with the Ku Kux Klan, in order to terrorize other people.
So our topic this morning is what needs to be done about political violence in the U.S.
We will continue that topic.
So if you're on the line, please do stay on the line.
We will get to your call shortly.
We're just going to pause and speak to our C-SPAN Westminster correspondent because the four-day tour of the U.S. by King Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, starts today.
Peter Knowles, welcome to the program.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Peter, we're just talking about, as you probably heard, political violence in the U.S. given the events of this weekend.
Royal Visit Amidst Tensions00:05:24
And want to just ask you first about the decision to move forward with this royal visit and reaction from the UK.
I don't think there was any surprise that the visit was going to continue.
Presidents and kings are used their entire lives to facing a threat of violence.
It comes in different forms and different places, but it would have been astonishing if the visit had been called off.
But sure, like everything else that happened in the States, the attempted assassination yesterday really is quite shocking and has made the headlines ever since.
So what would you say is the palace's goal for this visit?
What are they trying to accomplish by coming to the United States?
The calm goals of it, the ones that assume that politics carries on like it always has, would be to emphasise cultural and historical links, trade links, security and intelligence links.
But I think that doesn't really do justice to what's needed here so far as the UK is concerned, which is that after a few weeks of rapidly deteriorating relations,
there's a keenly felt need to rebuild a relationship, a good relationship, and it's hoped that the King, who has a good and friendly relationship with President Trump, may be able to help.
But the differences between the two governments have been really acute and appear to be deepening almost by the day with the latest pronouncements from Washington.
Well, let me ask you about the role of King Charles as head of state, not head of government.
So how much interaction, how much coordination is there on this trip between the King and the Prime Minister Kirster?
A huge amount.
I mean, the trip goes ahead because Downing Street, the Prime Minister, has asked for it and the King is doing as the government wishes.
The government will be heavily involved in writing speeches, but then the King won't say anything that he doesn't want to say.
So this is a close working relationship.
And bear in mind that the King has a weekly audit private audience with the Prime Minister, which never gets written up.
Then there are close relations.
So they are harnessed together.
But the King's role as head of state, it isn't just titular.
There are some important implications.
For one thing, and this is worth bearing in mind, as President Trump and Pete Hegseth have been pretty rude about the UK's armed forces, bear in mind that the King is the Royal Navy.
It's the Royal Air Force.
The clue is in the title.
So this touches upon the King quite closely.
And how are the British people feeling about this visit?
Well, it's certainly captured the attention since the events at the correspondence dinner for sure.
Before that, a lot of interest in how the King will cope with the stresses of the relationship.
In terms of the 250th anniversary, which is what this is meant to be all about, well, that's not yet really captured the public imagination here in the UK.
The soccer World Cup is first and foremost in people's minds and the preparations and some of the difficulties and the preparations for that.
And finally, I want to ask you about Prince Harry.
He does live in the United States.
The king is not expected to visit his son while he's here in America.
What are your thoughts on that?
What do you think is behind that?
Well, I think everybody is aware.
Is there a family that doesn't have strained relationships?
There's probably not.
And there's a very long cultural, historical precedent for this.
If you go back to Shakespeare, then the difficulties that Henry IV had with his son, also called Harry, who became Henry V. Well, there is like strange cultural precedents for these difficulties.
But no, they're not expected to meet in what is quite a short visit.
But yes, that of course will get noticed.
Gun Violence Targets Youth00:06:59
All right, that's Peter Knowles, C-SPAN Westminster correspondent.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
Thank you.
And you'll hear more about the royal visit later in our program, but we will get back to our topic this morning for the next 15, 20 minutes on political violence.
And what do you think needs to be done to solve that issue?
This is Brent in New Iberia, Louisiana.
Republican, good morning.
Morning.
I think all they have to do is just stop lying.
You know, mostly the media.
Like just two examples, like the congressman in Minnesota, Hortman.
She voted with the Republicans about adult immigrants and a Democrat went and killed her.
The other one was Ferguson, Missouri, and hands up, don't shoot.
There was never a hands up, don't shoot, but the Congress came out and showed hands up, don't shoot.
The NFL came out and showed, so all we got to do is just stop lying.
Tell the truth.
So that shooting was June 14th, 2025.
It was Minnesota lawmakers, the state house speaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband were killed in their home.
State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were wounded.
And here is Ron in New Hampshire, Independent Line.
Good morning, Ron.
Yes, Mimi.
Thank you for taking my call.
The political violence that I'm most concerned about is, for example, the more than 100 girls who were killed in that school in Iran.
And all the rest of the people were killed in Iran.
And the people who were killed by American bombs in Palestine, Palestine, more than 10,000 people killed innocent people.
So Ron, I understand your concern.
We're focused on political violence against political leaders and lawmakers and politicians here in this country.
Your thoughts on that?
Sure, sure.
Let's talk about that.
We're at war, okay?
Those bombs that killed those girls, that was illegal.
This war is illegal, okay?
Iran, under international law, has a right to attack the U.S. to defend themselves.
And the commander-in-chief and all the other commanders and anybody who takes their orders are all legitimate targets under international law.
So Anybody who thinks that it's, you know, oh my goodness, we're getting shot at.
Okay, but we're at war.
He started war with Iran.
Iran is more than capable.
But, Ron, the people that are doing this are, by and large, American citizens.
So this is not a question of the victims of these wars coming and targeting our politicians.
No, they're doing it because of the war.
Okay.
They're doing it because of the war.
And you feel that that's justified?
No, I don't want violence at all.
But like what I said last time I called up, and I got admonished for this for saying, you know, a silver lining of this whole war would be if all of these war-mongering dictators ended up assassinating each other, you know?
Jonathan, Grand Prairie, Texas, Democrat, you're on the air.
Good morning, Mimi, and thank you for taking my call.
Really appreciate it.
My comment is what needs to happen with the political violence is the man at the top of the ticket.
Donald Trump has been spewing violent rhetoric ever since he took the White House, even before.
And people are surprised as to why we're having all these issues with this political violence.
And fortunately, the gentleman who called from El Dorado, Arkansas, he make a correction.
We don't say colored anymore.
We say African American or black.
I'm African-American.
My wife is Filipino.
We're college educated.
We've traveled the world and raised two kids successfully.
My point to that is a lot of times I think people, like the gentleman from New York said, it's about education, lack thereof.
You have a lot of people that call.
They attack C-SPAN.
You can tell that their mentality is very narrow because they haven't been anywhere.
They haven't experienced things outside of the United States.
We are in a very dark time in this country.
There is a lot of violence, gun violence, racist rhetoric.
And what you're seeing is this being outplayed.
Donald Trump is not the problem.
Just like the gentleman from New York said, the problem is people who vote for people like Donald Trump, they know that this man is corrupt.
The violence will continue as long as you have people spewing that and reinforcing that and making it and normalizing the violence.
Mimi, thank you for taking...
When you say normalizing the violence, what do you mean by that, Jonathan?
Well, I mean, they just brush it aside.
It's like it's no big deal.
You know, they're not passing comprehensive gun legislation to ban assault rifles and to ban these weapons and to have background checks and laws to help keep that in check.
And also, the other thing that we're seeing is people are simply just not teaching their children right from wrong anymore and not being, you know, going out and just screaming at everybody.
You know, when I grew up, my parents said, hey, if there's a conflict, you talk it out.
You know, you don't use violence.
And that's the key.
And the bottom line is, once again, I still go back to a lot of the people that call on this show.
And I know for a fact that you folks who host this show hear all kind of crazy talk from crazy people.
That guy from Arkansas is completely wrong.
He doesn't understand where he's at, evidently.
But I just feel that right now we need to have leaders.
Yep.
Can I ask you how old you are?
I am 64 years old.
My wife was 66.
She retired at 55.
And like I said, we've done quite well in our careers.
Okay, so this is what I want to show you, though, Jonathan.
And that is about people under 30.
So we were talking about, you know, is there at any point that you think that violence could be justified?
And 20% said that that's possible.
But it says that for those over 30, it says, sorry, under 30, that that is a higher level.
And that those over a certain age, you know, I think it was 50, that was considered never an option.
So, what do you make of that?
Well, I think social media, you know, like the gentleman said about the algorithms, that's how they track.
When you're scrolling through social media and you're looking at all these various stories, they hunt in on who's looking at what.
So, it's no wonder that the people under 30 feel that violence is justifiable.
I think that's a big part of it.
And also, the part of it is also parenting as well.
Media Fails to Unite Nation00:10:30
All right.
And here it is.
It says, While very strong majorities of Americans over the age of 50 completely disagree that violent and harsh actions may justify political outcomes, such sentiments are less widely shared among younger Americans, especially those who are under 30.
And that's at PRRPRRI.org.
And Ronald is next in North Carolina, Republican.
Hi, Ronald.
Hey, good morning.
I was calling in.
I heard that guy talking about Trump was corrupt and all that stuff, but the Republican and all.
And we've got the most corrupt Democrat Party I've ever seen in my life, the way they've done our country.
Calling Trump Nazis and all that stuff.
That's where the trouble is beginning.
Is that all you wanted to say, Ronald?
Well, I kept my sound down.
I wasn't sure if anybody could hear me, but.
Yes, yes, we heard you.
You can keep going if there's more.
You know, I think our country would be better off if they could flush out all the Democrats out of the House and start over again.
That's what's wrong with our country.
Thank you.
Well, we do have an election every two years for the entire House.
And that is your time to vote.
This is more from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch from ABC's This Week Yesterday.
You know, you look at last night and you see the president, the vice president, the Secretary of State, the Speaker of the House.
I'm not sure the Senate President Pro Tem was there, but you've got the entire presidential line of succession right there, all in the same room.
Is it safe to have an event like that at a hotel like the Washington Hilton?
Well, listen, I have two responses to that, George.
One, the system worked.
Law enforcement and the Secret Service protected all of us.
The man barely got past the perimeter.
And so when you have a perimeter designed to keep people safe like President Trump, and it works, that's something that should be applauded.
Secondly, as President Trump said, we are not going to stop doing what we're doing.
We're not going to stop living.
We're not going to stop being out there.
President Trump is going to continue communicating with the American people in public.
And the fact that the vice president and other leadership were there last night in one room is why we had such a robust security surrounding the place, inside the place, and it's why we are all safe.
And so this was tragic.
It was a night that none of us will forget for a very long time.
But do not forget that the system worked.
The Secret Service kept us safe.
And that man was quickly apprehended and subdued minutes, seconds after he tried to breach the perimeter.
Everything in place for the visit of King Charles this week?
Sorry, can you repeat that, George?
Is everything in place for the visit of King Charles this week?
Yes, so look, I think that we expect that the suspect will be charged tomorrow morning in federal court with two counts: assault of a federal officer and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.
We're going to continue to investigate, and it'll just be a complaint tomorrow, and indictment will be will be coming in the coming days or weeks and go from there.
And here is David Sherman, Texas, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Political violence is really a byproduct of the anger that we have in our country.
I've never seen it so divided as we are in our current situation.
It's sad because before we are Republicans and before we're Democrats, we're Americans.
And I believe that the problem is not the what, but it's the how.
I believe in a lot of things Donald Trump is wanting to aspire to accomplish.
But how he's going about it is what's causing the problems.
And I believe it's what's causing the division in our country.
Okay.
Can you give me an example?
Well, let's use immigration.
His statement was he was going to take the violent.
And I emphasize violent criminals out.
But when you take people that have been here peacefully for 30 years and you run them through a process without questioning, without a formal process by which they can stay, or they can at least give a reason as to why they're here and just start moving them along, regardless of whether they're violent or not, that's the how that's the problem.
We all think immigration is an issue and has to be corrected.
Do you think that that's also the case with the war in Iran?
That a lot of people agree that they should not get a nuclear weapon, but do you disagree with the how of how the president is doing that?
Absolutely.
It would have been great if he would, and I'm not saying telegraph, I'm saying inform of what his plans are so that he could take everybody's input and come up with a collective decision as to what we're doing.
The support we have for what is going on isn't just in this country or lack of support.
It's worldwide.
If we'd have just let people know what is going on, what the end game is, and gather everyone's input, I think we would have had a much more unified effort on Iran, all of us.
All right.
Let's talk to Scott.
Hutchinson, Kansas Democrat, you're on the air, Scott.
Thank you, Mimi, for taking my call this morning.
On your topic, there's a lot of thought.
But first of all, there's a quote from Admiral Rickover from the U.S. Navy: that great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
And for years and years and years in our political system, we attack our opponents.
They don't talk about, here's what I'm running for, here's what I want to do, here's my ideas to fix whatever's wrong.
Instead, they tear down their opponent.
And so half the public thinks that the guy that got elected was terrible because that's what they've been hearing from the opponent for such a long time.
Negative advertisements, tearing down the opponent instead of building yourself up with the ideas of what they're running for.
And I think political violence stems from everybody who lost an election, thinks the other person is terrible, and it's just accumulated.
And it's been going on for a long time.
Negative ads instead of positive ads.
Now, that's not the only reason that we have political violence, but some people just don't know.
They don't know that they don't know.
And it's hard to combat.
You know, if you call somebody ignorant, they think they're being insulted when actually what you're saying is you just don't know.
And there's a lot of that going on in our society today.
You know, I understand how a Republican would be offended by being called a Nazi, but I also understand how a Democrat would be offended when they're called a libtard.
There's been so many.
Let's hear from Joe, Charlotte, North Carolina, Independent Line.
You're on the air.
Well, good morning.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
The topic that you have is an important one.
However, you know, it's kind of confusing when we see how it's covered in the mainstream media.
Political violence is very similar to other types of violence.
And unfortunately, when an incident occurs, the political violence is raised to the top when it occurs against our president.
The difficult thing is, if you look at the way the mainstream media has covered this event, if you look at what 60 Minutes did last evening, when President Trump was good enough to come on, they just lambasted him with reading to him the manifesto of the criminal that tried to kill people at the event.
Why would they do that when the President of the United States went on to try to calm the American people about political violence?
Look at the way they're covering it on other medias.
C-SPAN is pretty balanced in terms of their coverage.
But even when you showed this morning with George Stephanophoulos criticizing the acting attorney general about what they did when law enforcement really reacted in a pretty spectacular fashion.
But unfortunately, they always focus on the negative of the situation versus trying to have been a little more balanced.
I was struck by a statistic which about a month ago they showed the mainstream media.
If you look at all of their comments about our administration and our president, 98% has been negative.
That's unbelievable.
98% has been negative, and only 2% positive.
Now, you would have thinked they'd at least be 75, 25, 60, 40.
I mean, this administration has done some really good things.
So, Joe, I'm not sure about that.
I need to look into that statistic because I don't know how they're determining positive, negative.
You know what I mean?
Well, this, I understand what you're saying.
This was done by a media outlet that was supposed to be bipartisan, and they said they looked at the mainstream media for the nightly news.