CSPAN - Washington Journal 05/03/2026
Aired: 2026-05-03
Duration: 03:00:59


=== Social Security and Rising Prices (11:40) ===

[00:00:00]  Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, along with your calls and comments live, Republican strategist Rena Shah and Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins will talk about top political news of the week.
[00:00:12]  And Stephen Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations on the latest developments in the Iran conflict.
[00:00:18]  C-SPAN's Washington Journal is next.
[00:00:20]  Join the conversation.
[00:00:34]  This is the Washington Journal for Sunday, May 3rd.
[00:00:37]  Foreign policy and economic policy continue to drive so many headlines.
[00:00:42]  Gas prices keep rising because of the war against Iran, though now the Trump administration claims the conflict is over or at least paused.
[00:00:49]  The Supreme Court issued a major ruling on part of the Voting Rights Act, and the topic of political violence continues to be debated after last weekend's shooting at the White House correspondents dinner.
[00:00:59]  With control of Congress up for grabs this November, we'd love to hear what your top issue is heading into the midterms.
[00:01:06]  Here are the numbers to call if you'd like to weigh in.
[00:01:08]  Democrats, 202-748-8000.
[00:01:11]  Republicans, 202-748-8001.
[00:01:15]  Independents, 202-748-8002.
[00:01:18]  Or you can text us here at C-SPAN, 202-748-8003.
[00:01:22]  And as always, weigh in on social media if you'd prefer.
[00:01:25]  On X at C-SPANWJ or on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN.
[00:01:32]  The war in Iran does continue to be a major topic, and the economic impacts here at home are something that the Trump administration and Republicans and Democrats in Congress continue to face questions about.
[00:01:43]  President Trump was asked specifically about it on Thursday while in the Oval Office signing an executive order.
[00:01:48]  He was asked about the state of the economy, the broader impact of the Big Beautiful bill that he signed into law last year, and how the war is impacting it all.
[00:01:56]  Here's what he said.
[00:01:58]  So the biggest tax cut in history is in the Great Big Beautiful bill.
[00:02:03]  And I think, you know, I see it, I actually see it reported where people are shocked at how much money they're making.
[00:02:08]  They can't believe the refunds that they're making.
[00:02:10]  $5,000, $6,000, $7,890.
[00:02:14]  I saw one last night on television, $11,000 more than she thought she was going to get.
[00:02:20]  And it's no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our seniors, no tax on social, nobody can believe it even.
[00:02:29]  And the numbers are far greater than they thought.
[00:02:32]  People that thought they were going to make an extra $500, turns out they're making an extra $5,000.
[00:02:39]  So it's been really great, yeah, and that's going to carry forward.
[00:02:43]  And look, the country's doing really well.
[00:02:45]  And that's despite a military operation.
[00:02:49]  I don't call it a war.
[00:02:50]  Would you rather have a military operation?
[00:02:54]  So that was President Trump on Thursday, continuing to paint a fairly rosy picture of the economy despite gas prices surging, people still dealing with grocery prices.
[00:03:03]  Earlier this week here in Washington Journal, we spoke with Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon and asked him not only how long he thinks the war will last, but what his message is to Americans who are feeling pain at the pump.
[00:03:15]  Bacon is a Republican who is sometimes critical of President Trump, but has also been fairly supportive of the war.
[00:03:21]  Here's what he told us.
[00:03:23]  I believe it's temporary.
[00:03:24]  First of all, America is producing more energy in history.
[00:03:27]  We're the world's leading energy producer.
[00:03:29]  And so I think once we get ease or the relief at the Harbor Straits, those energy prices are going to go down fairly steadily because the production is there.
[00:03:40]  The supply and demand, the supply will be high, and it will help meet the high demand.
[00:03:47]  And so I think it's a matter of time.
[00:03:49]  But with the straits closed, a certain high percentage of our energy comes through those straits.
[00:03:55]  And I do believe it's temporary.
[00:03:57]  I would ask the American people to consider this.
[00:04:00]  Iran with a nuclear weapon is worse.
[00:04:03]  They threaten Israel, and if they had a missile that could strike New York, they would have used it.
[00:04:10]  That was Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon right here on Washington Journal.
[00:04:15]  Amidst all of this, there was a new Gallup poll that came out over the last couple of days focusing on the economy.
[00:04:21]  On the topic of Americans' top four financial concerns, Gallup had the results of 31% said the high cost of living and inflation.
[00:04:30]  13% of folks said energy costs, oil and gas prices are their top financial concern.
[00:04:35]  Another 13% said the cost of owning or renting a home.
[00:04:38]  And 8% said health care costs.
[00:04:41]  As a reminder, we'd love to hear from you what your top issue is heading into the midterm elections.
[00:04:46]  Is it the economy?
[00:04:47]  Is it the war?
[00:04:48]  Is it something else?
[00:04:49]  Phone numbers right on screen.
[00:04:50]  Democrats 202-748-8,000.
[00:04:53]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[00:04:55]  Independents 202-748-8002.
[00:04:59]  We also heard from a key figure on the economy earlier this week, outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
[00:05:06]  He delivered his final news conference as chair, also explaining he's preparing to stay on the board of governors in a fairly unconventional move.
[00:05:14]  But he talked about why the state of the economy is, in his view, as he sees it.
[00:05:19]  He talked about the impact of tariffs as well as gas prices from the war.
[00:05:22]  Here's what he said.
[00:05:24]  Inflation has moved up recently and is elevated relative to our 2% longer-run goal.
[00:05:30]  Estimates based on the Consumer Price Index and other data indicate that total PCE prices rose 3.5% over the 12 months ending in March, boosted by the significant rise in global oil prices that has resulted from the conflict in the Middle East.
[00:05:47]  Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 3.2% over the 12 months ending in March.
[00:05:55]  This relatively high rate largely reflects the effects of tariffs on prices in the goods sector.
[00:06:00]  Near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen this year, likely because of the substantial rise in oil prices.
[00:06:08]  Most measures of longer-term expectations remain consistent with our 2% inflation goal.
[00:06:15]  Our monetary policy actions are guided by our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people.
[00:06:22]  At today's meeting, the committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.4%.
[00:06:30]  The economic outlook remains highly uncertain, and the conflict in the Middle East has added to this uncertainty.
[00:06:37]  In the near term, higher energy prices will push up overall inflation.
[00:06:41]  Beyond that, the scope and duration of potential effects on the economy remain unclear, as does the future course of the conflict itself.
[00:06:50]  That was outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday explaining the Fed's broader decision to adopt pretty much a wait-and-see approach when it comes to interest rates.
[00:06:59]  Let's start hearing from some of you about your top issue heading into the midterm elections.
[00:07:03]  We have Tom calling in from Dayton, Ohio on the Democratic line.
[00:07:07]  Good morning, Tom.
[00:07:08]  What's on your mind?
[00:07:09]  Good morning.
[00:07:11]  My Republican friends love conspiracy theories, and I've got one for them.
[00:07:18]  The oil industry as a whole put over a billion dollars into Trump's campaign for president.
[00:07:28]  One of the first things he did when he got in office, he canceled an agreement that was keeping Iran from getting any kind of nuclear weapon.
[00:07:42]  Then he used the possibility of Iran getting a nuclear weapon as a pretext to invade Iran.
[00:07:53]  Now his oil buddies are making billions of dollars off the gacked up price of oil.
[00:08:03]  And I wonder if that was kind of an agreement to begin with.
[00:08:10]  Thanks for that, Tom.
[00:08:11]  I pulled up while you were talking about that, this Washington Post piece from yesterday with the headline, Trump is running out of options to contain gas price backlash.
[00:08:20]  It says the rising cost of oil is becoming a major political concern for the White House as the war against Iran drags on.
[00:08:27]  I'll just read these first couple lines.
[00:08:28]  It says gas prices are surging, voter backlash is building, and inside the White House, the options to lower prices at the pump are dwindling.
[00:08:36]  The national average gas price rose to a wartime high of $4.39 on Friday, up more than 30 cents from just a week ago.
[00:08:43]  Analysts warned that prices will continue to rise as long as the Strait of Hormuz is closed to shipping traffic as a stalemate between President Donald Trump and Iran traps oil, petroleum, and other products in the Persian Gulf.
[00:08:55]  So that remains top of mind for the administration.
[00:08:58]  Let's hear now from Bill calling in from Newfield, New Jersey, my home state on the independent line.
[00:09:03]  Good morning, Bill.
[00:09:04]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:09:07]  My top issue is the national debt.
[00:09:11]  We're going around somewhere around $40 trillion.
[00:09:15]  And if I get the right information from the computer, it would cost every American man, woman, and child $1,104,000 to pay off the national debt.
[00:09:30]  So it's completely out of control.
[00:09:32]  My suggestion is that we make everyone pay Social Security.
[00:09:38]  Right now, it stops at $184,500.
[00:09:42]  There's no contributions by the worker or the employer after that.
[00:09:47]  So like the CEO that got killed in New York, he was making $10 million for the insurance company.
[00:09:55]  They could afford to pay that Social Security.
[00:09:57]  And also, you pay 6.2% in Social Security and 1.2% in Medicare.
[00:10:07]  So if they did what I'm suggesting, the amount of money going into Medicare would probably, I mean, going into Medicare and Social Security, would probably quadruple.
[00:10:16]  If they did that, I would suggest that they take the employees' part of their money, put it into Social Security and Medicare.
[00:10:24]  The employer's part would go, the Medicare part would go to Medicare.
[00:10:28]  The Social Security part would go towards the national debt.
[00:10:32]  If we pay that down, we could stop beating people up for money to pay the interest and stuff on national debt.
[00:10:40]  It's completely out of control.
[00:10:41]  And the country's going to go belly up if we continue on that activity the way we're doing it now.
[00:10:48]  We just keep adding more money to the national net every day.
[00:10:50]  And sooner or later, you run out.
[00:10:53]  Bill, I'm curious, Bill, since you called in on the independent line, when you look at how both parties have handled the national debt over recent years, do you feel one party has had a better approach or are you frustrated with them equally?
[00:11:05]  Well, the way I look at it, I'm an independent, but I think, you know, we've changed the wording and meaning of things.
[00:11:12]  Like the word gay, when I was young, gay meant you were happy.
[00:11:15]  Now it means you're homosexual.
[00:11:18]  I would think we should change the wording to instead of the right and the left, we should change it to the right and the wrong because the Democratic Party hasn't made a right decision in the last 10 years.
[00:11:30]  All right, Bill.
[00:11:30]  Thanks a lot.
[00:11:31]  Let's go now to Mark calling in from LaGrange, Georgia on the Democratic line.
[00:11:36]  Good morning, Mark.
[00:11:37]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?

=== Democrats' Chance to Retake Congress (09:35) ===

[00:11:40]  Good morning.
[00:11:40]  I want to talk about what Don Bacon said because he was really kind of hypocritical.
[00:11:47]  He said that the United States is the largest contributor to producing oil.
[00:11:58]  And in the next breath, he said that 20% or that 20% of energy that is coming through the Strait of Hormuz, we depend upon that tremendously.
[00:12:11]  And this is one of the reasons why gas prices are so high here.
[00:12:15]  How can both be true?
[00:12:18]  How can we be the largest producer of energy and have to depend on the energy that's coming through the Strait of Hormuz?
[00:12:26]  And this is what I find about the Republican Party, is that they are so hypocritical.
[00:12:34]  In one breath, they'll say one thing.
[00:12:37]  The next breath, they'll say something entirely different.
[00:12:40]  And I don't understand why the gentleman from C-SPAN who was interviewing him didn't question him there right on the spot to clarify that.
[00:12:52]  Mark, I'd be interested, one, to hear what gas prices are in your part of Georgia.
[00:12:58]  And two, what do you make of the argument that Congressman Bacon and many other Republicans, including the president, have made that they acknowledge the pain at the pump right now, but they say in the long run, it's going to be worthwhile if the U.S. military can help prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?
[00:13:13]  What are your thoughts?
[00:13:16]  Okay, so gas prices here in Georgia, the governor has suspended the gas tax.
[00:13:23]  So our prices are, they just went up 10 cents yesterday.
[00:13:27]  They're up to 351, 379.
[00:13:30]  Depends on what gas station you go to.
[00:13:34]  As far as the pain at the pump, and is it worth it for Iran not to have a nuclear weapon?
[00:13:44]  Well, President Trump said that we destroyed or obliterated their nuclear capabilities.
[00:13:53]  And I happen to be Jewish, and I do not agree with us supporting Israel in the way that we're supporting them.
[00:14:02]  I think it's ridiculous that we were drawn into this war.
[00:14:07]  If Israel wanted to go and attack Iran, go ahead.
[00:14:12]  That's up to them.
[00:14:13]  But to draw us into this conflict is absurd.
[00:14:19]  We don't belong there.
[00:14:23]  Thanks, Mark.
[00:14:23]  Got your point.
[00:14:24]  I wanted to play some recent sound from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer calling out Republicans for what he considers to be their failure to address health care costs and other family needs.
[00:14:36]  This is a good glimpse in how Democrats have been messaging overall on the affordability aspect over the last few weeks.
[00:14:43]  Mr. President, tonight, Senate Republicans showed the American people where they stand.
[00:14:50]  Not for families struggling with the high costs of child care, groceries, gasoline, electricity, but for pumping $140 billion towards rogue agencies.
[00:15:03]  All night long, we gave the Republicans a chance to do the right thing by voting for our amendments.
[00:15:11]  We gave Republicans a chance to vote for an amendment to lower out-of-pocket health care costs.
[00:15:17]  They said no.
[00:15:19]  We gave Republicans a chance to lower child care costs.
[00:15:23]  They said no.
[00:15:24]  We gave Republicans a chance to stop insurance company delays, to protect school meals, to give people a hand at the grocery store.
[00:15:33]  And Republicans said no, no, and no again.
[00:15:37]  What kind of bubble are they living in?
[00:15:40]  How apart are they from people's real needs?
[00:15:43]  And instead, take that money which should have gone to lowering people's costs and giving to an agency that everyone knows needs reform.
[00:15:54]  That was Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor in recent days, kind of a steady drumbeat from Democrats on the topic of affordability.
[00:16:02]  I mentioned a Gallup poll earlier.
[00:16:04]  I wanted to put up another aspect from that Gallup poll from April 28th, talking about the effect of recent price increases on Americans.
[00:16:12]  The poll talked about the most important non-economic issue facing the country.
[00:16:16]  It talked about the effect of recent price increases.
[00:16:18]  And at one point, it said has caused hardship total.
[00:16:21]  55% of people said that.
[00:16:24]  40% said severe hardship.
[00:16:26]  15% said moderate hardship.
[00:16:29]  And that's polling that both parties are paying close attention to.
[00:16:32]  Let's go now to Andrew, another caller from Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, calling in on the independent line.
[00:16:38]  Good morning, Andrew.
[00:16:39]  You're on with us.
[00:16:41]  Hey, good morning.
[00:16:43]  In my opinion, the number one issue or thing of coming up affecting the election is just a general lack of actual leadership in those that we elect from the president and the Congress on down.
[00:16:56]  There's just a stunning lack of leadership in this country right now.
[00:17:00]  And I believe that's at the core root of everything that, like the economy and the war and everything that follows.
[00:17:06]  Expand on that a bit more.
[00:17:07]  Are you saying that people are not, that lawmakers are not focusing on policy enough?
[00:17:12]  Do you think that they need to be working across the aisle more?
[00:17:16]  Both.
[00:17:17]  I think in terms of policy, these days there's clearly a lack of any effort in that regard.
[00:17:23]  We have a president right now that's more of an interior decorator than he is an actual leader, what with his ballroom and his reflecting cool projects.
[00:17:31]  In Congress, there's such a stunning lack of an ability to reach across the aisle and to engage both parties together to come to real solutions that matter.
[00:17:42]  Gas and everything else is expensive right now.
[00:17:44]  I know people are maxing out their credit cards and so forth.
[00:17:47]  And we really need people elected that will actually do the hard work of leading and developing policies that benefit all Americans.
[00:17:56]  You called in on the independent line.
[00:17:58]  I'm curious, not to ask you to prognosticate, but do you think Democrats have a good chance to retake control at least part of Congress this November based on the frustrations and the concerns you're outlining?
[00:18:10]  I absolutely do.
[00:18:11]  And it's not just my opinion.
[00:18:13]  It's in every conversation I have with people in everyday life.
[00:18:18]  I think the GOP is going to get shellacked this November.
[00:18:23]  They're going to be run over like a freight trainer.
[00:18:26]  And as an independent, what would your message be to Republicans if you had the chance to call up President Trump or the Senate Republican leadership and say, hey, focus on X, Y, and Z if you want to get through to Georgia or voters here in Georgia?
[00:18:39]  What I would love to do is show them how much I paid yesterday for gasoline.
[00:18:43]  That'd be one thing.
[00:18:45]  And I would cite historical examples, going back maybe even to the 1980s and show them how Reagan and Tip O'Neill, for example, they worked together.
[00:18:54]  They didn't agree on every single policy issue, but they could sit down and have a discussion and come to terms on different policies for the greater good.
[00:19:02]  I mean, that's really what it's all about: the greater good.
[00:19:04]  And right now, the people elected just don't seem to understand that.
[00:19:09]  Thanks for weighing in, Andrew.
[00:19:10]  Let's go now to John, who's calling in from Johnson City, Tennessee, also on the independent line.
[00:19:15]  Good morning, John.
[00:19:16]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:19:19]  Well, my top issue is addressing hatred.
[00:19:24]  You know, the option to dislike is always available.
[00:19:31]  But it seems every member of the Democrat Party, elected class, and below, They have to hate.
[00:19:44]  And build off on that.
[00:19:45]  Do you feel like it's really increased in recent years, or have you long had these frustrations, especially with official Washington?
[00:19:54]  No, I think it's a repeat, basically, of 2016 to 2020.
[00:20:00]  They're the same tactics, the same tired trying to get him out of office, and to the point that they're now willing to take shots.
[00:20:12]  And I've heard the gentleman a couple of people back said.
[00:20:22]  Oh, you there, John?
[00:20:24]  Yeah, I'm here.
[00:20:25]  I'm sorry.
[00:20:25]  Oh, you're good.
[00:20:27]  You said, were you referring to a previous caller?
[00:20:30]  Yeah, I was referring to about two callers back.
[00:20:35]  He was talking about the Republicans are going to get so shellacked.
[00:20:42]  I don't see that.
[00:20:43]  I see some areas they need to work on, but the Democrats haven't done anything to atone for the horrible stuff they've done.
[00:20:57]  In your part of Tennessee, what would you say is the top issue you and your neighbors are talking about a lot?
[00:21:03]  Is it the economy?
[00:21:04]  Is it the war?
[00:21:05]  Is it something else?
[00:21:08]  No, I'm actually not in Tennessee.
[00:21:11]  I'm in Raleigh, North Carolina.
[00:21:13]  Oh, okay.
[00:21:13]  Sorry about that.
[00:21:14]  Yeah, yes, okay.

=== Trump's Guts on Nuclear Warheads (03:49) ===

[00:21:15]  But definitely, I don't, we're not talking because everybody is so opposed to each other.
[00:21:27]  And that's the problem.
[00:21:29]  That's interesting.
[00:21:30]  One last question for you: since you're in North Carolina, one of the premier battleground states, you have a big U.S. Senate race taking place there.
[00:21:38]  Do you feel that's on people's radar, or building off of what you're saying, are people not paying that closely to it because they're frustrated with politics overall?
[00:21:47]  I think the latter that you put forth is probably more true than not.
[00:21:51]  And that's really unfortunate, too.
[00:21:54]  So we've got a lot of things dragging us down.
[00:21:58]  And I just hope as a people on this Sunday morning, we ain't got to get spiritual, but please try to do better, people.
[00:22:06]  Stop hating.
[00:22:07]  Just dislike someone.
[00:22:09]  It's much healthier.
[00:22:11]  Well, thanks for calling in, John.
[00:22:12]  Appreciate you weighing.
[00:22:13]  And I wanted to play this clip from for folks who have been following some of the big Senate races closely.
[00:22:19]  Graham Plattner, he's the now presumptive Democratic nominee up in Maine, where there's a big U.S. Senate race taking place.
[00:22:27]  He's going to be challenging Republican Senator Susan Collins, who's been in office since the late 1990s.
[00:22:32]  But building off of John's point, Graham Plattner has been trying to tap into not only frustration with kind of the political system, but a lot of economic frustration.
[00:22:42]  And he spoke with Jon Stewart in recent days.
[00:22:45]  And here was part of their exchange.
[00:22:49]  In 1944, FDR puts out the Economic Bill of Rights, which actually, amusingly enough, came out of the first real nationwide polling that was ever done.
[00:23:02]  Oh, wow.
[00:23:02]  In 42 and 43, the administration did a massive polling effort across the country to ask working Americans, what are the things that you need?
[00:23:12]  Now, unsurprisingly, it was, we want security in our housing.
[00:23:17]  We want jobs that matter, that pay us a living wage.
[00:23:21]  We want the ability to collectively bargain and join unions.
[00:23:25]  We want access to health care.
[00:23:26]  We want access to education.
[00:23:29]  1944, FDR puts out the Economic Bill of Rights, which essentially says we as a nation, in order to democratize our economy, we need to provide as rights things like housing, health care, education, collective bargaining, all of it.
[00:23:45]  Right.
[00:23:46]  When he kind of lays it out, he says, and I'm going to paraphrase here, but he essentially says, look, if we do not systemically change and not allow for this consolidation of wealth, we are going to wind up eventually right back where we were in the late 1920s.
[00:24:09]  And even though that this nation defeated fascism on the battlefields abroad, that is going to engender and create fascism here at home.
[00:24:20]  That was Graham Plattner, the now presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine.
[00:24:24]  If you haven't looked into that race closely, it's a really fascinating one.
[00:24:28]  Just in the last few days, sitting governor of Maine, Janet Mills, who was running in that Democratic primary, decided to bow out of that race because she was not able to catch up to Plattner in terms of crowds, in terms of fundraising, and he's been really diving into that economic populist message.
[00:24:44]  Let's go now to Jim, who's calling in from Mart, Texas on the Republican line.
[00:24:48]  Good morning, Jim.
[00:24:49]  You're on with us.
[00:24:49]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:24:53]  Oh, I guess getting this nuclear warhead, make sure the Iranians don't get the nuclear warhead.
[00:25:03]  It's funny.

=== Fascism in American Politics Today (05:22) ===

[00:25:04]  Biden said Iran shouldn't get the nuclear warhead.
[00:25:10]  Obama said it.
[00:25:11]  Clinton said it.
[00:25:14]  Bush said it.
[00:25:15]  They all said it.
[00:25:16]  Now, Trump, he goes along and does something about it.
[00:25:21]  And oh, now it's this most terrible thing that, you know, can't have, because they don't want Trump solving a problem that they didn't have the guts to do anything about.
[00:25:33]  Trump's having the guts to do it.
[00:25:36]  And about these gas prices, I am a rancher and a farmer, and I could care less about the fuel prices because Trump's doing the right thing.
[00:25:49]  It's just like Abraham Lincoln.
[00:25:52]  Abraham Lincoln's, his poll numbers dropped down to 25%.
[00:25:57]  25% during the Civil War.
[00:26:03]  But he didn't care about his poll numbers because he knew he was doing the right thing.
[00:26:09]  He knew he's doing the right thing, just like Trump.
[00:26:12]  Trump's down to like 40%.
[00:26:14]  Last time I looked, he don't care because he's doing the right thing.
[00:26:19]  Jim, I'm interested.
[00:26:20]  You said you're a farmer and a rancher.
[00:26:21]  What do you farm and how reliant is your operation on things like diesel fuel or fertilizer?
[00:26:27]  Everything.
[00:26:28]  Everything.
[00:26:30]  Diesel prices and tractors, farming and ranching, cutting, raking, bailing hay, everything.
[00:26:40]  And you're, despite all that, you're saying you trust the president on this and you're okay with the price increase that you're dealing with in the short term.
[00:26:50]  Oh, even if it's in the long term, this might Trump's doing the right thing as far as a blockade.
[00:26:57]  He's doing an excellent job.
[00:26:59]  Hip Him, Pete Eggsmith.
[00:27:01]  The only ones you hear is a radical lunatic left Democrats.
[00:27:08]  It was okay when Obama was saying doing something.
[00:27:13]  You know, he bombed Libya for eight months, eight months, and they didn't hit a word from the Democrats.
[00:27:20]  Not a word.
[00:27:21]  Trump starts in the first few days.
[00:27:24]  They're already saying, oh, he's a war criminal.
[00:27:27]  He's this or that.
[00:27:28]  It was okay when Obama was bombing people for eight months.
[00:27:33]  It was okay.
[00:27:35]  But when Trump started doing, oh, it's the most horrible thing there ever was.
[00:27:40]  Jim, two follow-up questions for you.
[00:27:42]  What part of Texas is Martin?
[00:27:46]  Central Texas.
[00:27:47]  Central Texas.
[00:27:48]  Okay, I asked personally, my mom lives in Brenham, in between Houston and Austin.
[00:27:52]  But I also asked in the context of our broader conversation about the midterm elections, when you interact with your neighbors, your family, your friends down there, are people at all concerned about the political impact of the war, especially with November's elections coming up?
[00:28:08]  Well, I mean, we would, you know, we would like for it to be over as quick as possible, but we have good Christian Republican people around here.
[00:28:21]  And I mean that and African Americans, too.
[00:28:24]  There's some retired African-American farmers that are not too far from me.
[00:28:29]  And they're just wonderful, wonderful Christian people.
[00:28:32]  And they just can't believe what the Democratic Party has turned into down here in our park.
[00:28:38]  You know, or sorry, go ahead, raise your last point.
[00:28:43]  And JFK, they were great men.
[00:28:48]  All right, Jim.
[00:28:48]  Lunatics.
[00:28:49]  Thanks a lot for weighing in.
[00:28:50]  Got your point on that.
[00:28:52]  I wanted to read a bit more from this Washington Post article I pulled up before about gas prices.
[00:28:56]  Just to put into context this broader conversation we're having.
[00:28:59]  The Post says: as the conflict with Iran stretches into its 10th week, the White House has exhausted many of the policy levers the federal government can use to mitigate surging gas prices, and the options that remain carry other economic and political risks for the president.
[00:29:14]  So far, Trump's administration has cobbled together piecemeal policy tweaks that have lowered prices on the margins.
[00:29:20]  In March, the administration began releasing 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
[00:29:26]  Trump has temporarily waived the Jones Act, a more than 100-year-old law that requires that goods hauled between U.S. ports be moved on U.S.-flagged vessels in an effort to protect the domestic shipping industry.
[00:29:38]  The administration has also lifted environmental rules that prohibit the sales of a higher ethanol gas blend in the summer due to concerns it could worsen smog.
[00:29:46]  And the Treasury Department has temporarily paused some sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
[00:29:51]  So a lot of efforts from the Trump administration to react to gas prices.
[00:29:57]  Let's hear now from TJ, who's calling in from Westchester County on the Democratic line up in New York.
[00:30:02]  Good morning, TJ.
[00:30:03]  You're on with us.
[00:30:04]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:30:07]  Oh, yes.
[00:30:07]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:30:09]  Let me first preface the call by saying I'm a recently retired 30-year veteran New York City high school history teacher.
[00:30:15]  I taught at a vocational high school with a paralegal program.
[00:30:18]  So in addition to teaching American history, civics, economics, and world history, I've also been tasked to teach classes in constitutional law.

=== Ignorance Among the Electorate (04:08) ===

[00:30:26]  So I'm going to start with a big picture and say the number one issue in this country right now is the level of ignorance among the American electorate.
[00:30:34]  And let me just back up a little bit and say that's how we got in this place in the first place with our current administration.
[00:30:40]  And I say this to the voters sincerely, and I say it to the elected Republican representatives that it's a willful ignorance.
[00:30:52]  Let me just back up.
[00:30:54]  As far as the ignorance, January 6th, 2021, I'll give you one example.
[00:30:59]  You got a guy live streaming himself in front of the west part of the Capitol, live streaming himself back to his girlfriend in Oklahoma.
[00:31:07]  And he's saying, honey, can you believe it?
[00:31:09]  I made it all the way to the White House.
[00:31:11]  It was the United States Capitol, not the White House.
[00:31:14]  Okay?
[00:31:15]  And, you know, look, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I quote the Federalist papers like a lot of people quote scripture, evangelicals, especially.
[00:31:24]  And that's why we're in the position we're in.
[00:31:27]  Science and religion, that was decided a long time ago.
[00:31:31]  I can say 100 things right now.
[00:31:32]  You've got RFK with the vaccine.
[00:31:35]  I got family in South Carolina, 1,000 cases of measles.
[00:31:39]  The insanity is just crazy.
[00:31:41]  Now, let me just make two points about the previous callers.
[00:31:43]  As far as the national debt is concerned, Republicans versus Democrats, Democrats may spend a lot of money, but it's on helping people.
[00:31:50]  Iraq war, Operation Iraqi Freedom, don't forget, I had kids in my classroom for 20 years that were victims of that, Syrian refugees.
[00:31:58]  CBO numbers, $10 billion a month, 12 months a year.
[00:32:02]  We weren't there two or three years.
[00:32:04]  We were there for eight years.
[00:32:05]  Plus, Veterans Care, again, I've got family in South Carolina.
[00:32:08]  They're still walking around toothless and bootless from Vietnam, and they're not being treated correctly.
[00:32:14]  The cost of the veterans care is just exponentially going higher and higher.
[00:32:19]  And now here we are in another war.
[00:32:21]  And I would agree with that other chloro.
[00:32:22]  I think he was from New York.
[00:32:23]  Netanyahu bamboozled our president into this.
[00:32:27]  And now it's like the tar baby syndrome from Vietnam.
[00:32:30]  Once you've got your hands on it, you can't get your hands off of it.
[00:32:34]  This is a complete and utter debacle.
[00:32:37]  And it's all because the American people voted for somebody.
[00:32:41]  They should have known from grabbing them by the pee that this person should never be in the Oval Office period full stop.
[00:32:48]  Thanks for all of that, TJ.
[00:32:49]  I have a follow-up question, a bit more on the political side.
[00:32:52]  And I want to just lean into your, obviously, you're frustrated with Republicans.
[00:32:56]  As a Democrat, I don't know if you heard the clip I played a few moments ago from Graham Plattner, the Democratic candidate up in Maine for Senate.
[00:33:03]  I'm curious how you feel about your party right now, because that Maine Senate race has been really interesting.
[00:33:09]  Graham Plattner is a first-time candidate, and he launched his race last year.
[00:33:14]  And the sitting governor, Janet Mills, who was the kind of chosen candidate from Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders, was never able to catch up.
[00:33:22]  Do you share the frustration that primary voters in Maine appear to be exhibiting?
[00:33:28]  Or do you think that speaks of a broader kind of frustration with your party?
[00:33:33]  Well, I hope this doesn't go over the audience head, but this all goes back to gerrymandering.
[00:33:37]  Once gerrymandering began, and both sides are to blame, though I think historically the data supports that Republican states have done it more.
[00:33:45]  And certainly in the current case, let's be honest, Texas and their governor started this, and that's why we're at.
[00:33:51]  But the gerrymandering and the whole electoral college system, I believe, was intended for the right purposes.
[00:33:58]  I remember when we had to teach this, we used to say that there's more uneducated people in the country.
[00:34:05]  So if you have an uneducated person running for office and you have the popular vote, you get an uneducated president.
[00:34:13]  We wanted educated, intelligent people who are informed, and that's how I believe the electoral college system was sort of created that way to sort of not have this mass populism, which we wound up with anyway.
[00:34:26]  And that was a result, that's a result of gerrymandering.
[00:34:29]  Gerrymander has completely wiped out what the electoral college system was intended to prevent.

=== Epstein Files and Clean Hands (11:43) ===

[00:34:35]  All right, TJ.
[00:34:36]  Thanks a lot.
[00:34:37]  Or sorry, go ahead.
[00:34:38]  And listen, yeah, I don't want to, you know, every time I speak to elected representatives and their staff, I don't feel like I'm giving a history lesson.
[00:34:45]  What I really mean is the civics class that I taught, participation in government where seniors who turn 18 get registered to vote at the end of the course.
[00:34:54]  This is really where we're at right now.
[00:34:57]  We have people who, the guy who was talking about the nuclear problem in Iran, please, I mean, history, WMD, what do we need?
[00:35:06]  Colin Powell to go in front of the UN with the yellow cake uranium again.
[00:35:11]  This is nonsense.
[00:35:12]  People make it sound like building a nuclear bomb is putting a furniture set together from IKEA.
[00:35:17]  It takes years, and the hypocrisy is just nonsense.
[00:35:22]  There's no way Iran is going to have a nuclear bomb that's capable of hitting anything in the region, Europe, or the United States in the next five to ten years.
[00:35:33]  And right now, by the way, just follow up on this, the crew members, thousands of crew members in the Gulf, they're eating canned food and trying to fish for tuna because they're starving on these boats right now.
[00:35:46]  This one man and the prime minister of Israel got the whole world in this mess.
[00:35:54]  And right now, I think the whole world needs to look at both of those leaders and say, you did this.
[00:36:00]  Now we have to figure out how to clean up your mess.
[00:36:03]  I can't sum it up any better.
[00:36:05]  Well, thanks for weighing in to you, Jay.
[00:36:06]  I think I wanted to put up this graphic.
[00:36:08]  I've been talking about that Gallup poll a lot, but they touched on a lot of interesting things.
[00:36:11]  And your mention of what you taught in terms of civics and what issues people are engaged on, I thought was relevant for this.
[00:36:18]  Gallup, just in the last couple of days, asked people what the most important non-economic issue facing the country is to them.
[00:36:24]  And you can see it right there on screen.
[00:36:25]  28% say the government and poor leadership.
[00:36:28]  11% say immigration.
[00:36:31]  Strikingly, at least to me, 8% say the war in the Middle East.
[00:36:34]  5% say wars and fears of wars in general, though so many of the callers are touching on the war right now.
[00:36:40]  And 4% say unifying the country, something we also heard from another caller earlier.
[00:36:45]  That's a recent Gallup poll you see there published on April 28th.
[00:36:49]  Let's hear now from Rudy calling in from San Diego, California on the Independent line.
[00:36:54]  Good morning, Rudy.
[00:36:55]  Thanks for waking up with us.
[00:36:56]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:37:00]  Well, I hope they turn blue, the red states turn blue, because we have a disgrace administration.
[00:37:10]  It's ridiculous.
[00:37:11]  We never had this.
[00:37:12]  I am 73 years old, and I have voted Republican before, but this one is terrible.
[00:37:22]  And I believe Trump is covering up the Epstein files.
[00:37:27]  Every time the Epstein files come up, he attacked Venezuela.
[00:37:33]  He did this.
[00:37:36]  He wanted Canada to be the 51 state.
[00:37:39]  He wanted all this stuff because we know there's filthiness in the Epstein files, and he's in it.
[00:37:48]  He's in it.
[00:37:49]  And this green senator that he's not going to support no more, and she was 100% Trumper, she knows a lot of things.
[00:37:59]  And she's been threatened by him.
[00:38:02]  Okay?
[00:38:03]  So there's a lot of cover-up.
[00:38:05]  And the Republicans are embarrassed because they're like little puppies.
[00:38:10]  Whatever he says, they've been down their little legs and they follow him.
[00:38:15]  They don't stand up for the country.
[00:38:17]  They don't stand up for the people.
[00:38:19]  They all, what Trump says, they follow.
[00:38:23]  They're scared of him.
[00:38:24]  And, Rudy, could I ask you how you feel Democrats are handling this moment?
[00:38:31]  Oh, the Democrats you're talking about?
[00:38:34]  Just how do you think they're handling the Trump administration, all the concerns you're laying out that you have?
[00:38:40]  Do you think the Democrats are responding to it effectively?
[00:38:43]  Do you wish that they were focusing on other issues?
[00:38:48]  Well, the Democrats, they have their hands crossed because they control the Senate and the House are the Republicans that control it.
[00:38:57]  So really, they can't, you know, really say, you know, we're going to do this and it's going to pass or whatever because the Republicans will stop it because they'll listen to Trump.
[00:39:10]  Because if Trump really cared about the people, he wouldn't be caring about the ballroom.
[00:39:16]  He wants that ballroom.
[00:39:18]  He wants his name all over the place.
[00:39:20]  That's all he wants when he gets out of the White House.
[00:39:23]  Oh, Trump's ballroom.
[00:39:25]  Trump did this.
[00:39:26]  Trump is a hero.
[00:39:28]  That's all he cares about.
[00:39:30]  That's all.
[00:39:31]  He doesn't care about the people.
[00:39:33]  He cares about his billionaire friends and himself.
[00:39:36]  That's all he cares about.
[00:39:38]  And it's sad.
[00:39:39]  And about Iran going into war, it is ridiculous.
[00:39:43]  He did this because the Epstein files.
[00:39:46]  And he doesn't want the Epstein files to come out because it's going to be an embarrassment to the Republicans that voted for him.
[00:39:54]  They're going to be walking with their heads down when all the filthiness comes out of the Epstein files.
[00:40:01]  All right, Rudy.
[00:40:02]  Thanks for weighing in.
[00:40:03]  I think what's interesting is you were expressing your frustrations with Republicans.
[00:40:07]  I think in the context of the midterms, it's worthwhile to look at how, especially on the campaign side, Republicans are trying to pitch themselves to voters ahead of the midterm elections.
[00:40:17]  Historically, of course, for those who follow elections, the party in power traditionally faces a tougher midterm cycle after they've returned to power.
[00:40:24]  So that's what Republicans are facing right now.
[00:40:26]  There's a House candidate running in Alaska in a race that is rated solidly Republican.
[00:40:32]  His name is Nick Begich.
[00:40:33]  He's a House member.
[00:40:34]  This is an ad that the GOP House Campaign Committee released on his behalf last month, talking about his votes for GOP tax cuts.
[00:40:42]  And it's a glimpse into how Republicans are trying to talk about the economy.
[00:40:46]  Here's that ad: Hardworking Americans power this country.
[00:40:50]  Clocking in early, staying late, doing whatever it takes.
[00:40:54]  Democrats made it harder to get ahead, spiking inflation to 40-year highs.
[00:40:59]  But Nick Begich changed that.
[00:41:01]  Voting for real tax relief that puts more money back in your pocket.
[00:41:06]  No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a double child tax credit.
[00:41:11]  Nick Beggich delivered help for working families.
[00:41:14]  Thank you, Representative Nick Begich.
[00:41:17]  So that's an example of one of these campaign ads that House Republicans are trying to utilize to explain what they've been up to over the last year and a half.
[00:41:25]  And in Begich's case, why he deserves to be re-elected.
[00:41:27]  There's also an interesting Senate race up in Alaska, so it's going to be fascinating to see how that plays out.
[00:41:32]  Let's hear from someone calling in on the Republican line, Johnny phoning in from North Carolina.
[00:41:37]  Good morning, Johnny.
[00:41:38]  You're on with us.
[00:41:38]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:41:41]  Well, I've got some gas, oil prices, and insurance, health insurance.
[00:41:46]  Let me just read something to you here right quick.
[00:41:49]  I looked up Google.
[00:41:50]  Did you know Donald Trump owns all kinds of oil stocks and everything in the oil companies?
[00:41:57]  Not only him, Mike Johnson, Ben Lee, McCartney, Cruz, and Steve Khaliso.
[00:42:03]  Now, if you're looking up, when oil prices go up, the oil companies and the stockholders get rich.
[00:42:11]  Now, you understand what I just said?
[00:42:15]  Okay.
[00:42:16]  Now, Margie Taylor Greene, that's the guy a while ago talking about.
[00:42:22]  She's criticizing Trump, Tom Tillers of North Carolina, but their hands are not clean either.
[00:42:28]  Now, let me give you another example here.
[00:42:30]  What happened to a lady?
[00:42:31]  It went to Smithville Hospital in North Carolina by the big insurance companies.
[00:42:39]  The doctor put her in the hospital because she had a well insurance company, health insurance company, tells her they're not going to cover it because the doctor kept her in the hospital too long.
[00:42:58]  Well, what was that lady supposed to do?
[00:43:00]  She was going up under the doctor's orders.
[00:43:03]  Her temperature was rising up high, blood pressure.
[00:43:06]  Such things like that pisses me off.
[00:43:10]  I mean, say it again, pisses me off.
[00:43:13]  We're Republicans Party.
[00:43:16]  Now, Democrats, you can't say anything.
[00:43:19]  Your cause that the Republicans winning with your stupid ideas.
[00:43:24]  But doc, and people you should go and look up what Mary Trump said about her uncle, Donald Trump, and look up what Trump's ex-wife said about him.
[00:43:35]  So that's all I've got to say.
[00:43:37]  Johnny, if you're still there, can I ask you a follow-up question?
[00:43:41]  Yeah, go ahead.
[00:43:42]  You're in North Carolina.
[00:43:43]  I was talking a few callers ago just about the big U.S. Senate race you guys have there.
[00:43:47]  I'm interested because it sounds like you have some frustrations with the Republican Party, but you called in on the Republican line.
[00:43:53]  So how do you feel the party is being received in your state that gets a lot of attention as a battleground and that has this key U.S. Senate race right now?
[00:44:03]  Well, what I'm going to tell you is Michael Wal, who's running, and Rory Cooper, who was ex-governor.
[00:44:11]  Yep, and Wale is the Republican.
[00:44:13]  Cooper is the Democrat, for people who don't know.
[00:44:15]  Yes.
[00:44:16]  Wally, he got his hands in some oil company stocks, too.
[00:44:22]  Now, Mr. Rory Cooper, his hands is not clean either.
[00:44:26]  He's a Democrat with that cola vap, you know, the COVID.
[00:44:32]  His hands ain't clean either.
[00:44:34]  They're down one of them hands clean.
[00:44:36]  They're dirty, both of them.
[00:44:38]  But if I would vote, I would have to vote for Rory Cooper, even though his hands ain't clean either.
[00:44:45]  That's interesting.
[00:44:47]  People got to realize, don't take my word for it.
[00:44:51]  Hell, look it up on Google and see who gets rich when the oil prices go up.
[00:44:57]  It's the beneficiary, which are the stockholders, and oil companies.
[00:45:02]  I mean, Trump, if you've got a second, let me just something to you.
[00:45:05]  Trump owns or has stocks in Howard Burton, Exxon, Mobile, Octo Petroleum, Phillips 66, and it goes on some other companies too.
[00:45:19]  But reports from 2016 also indicate ownership in companies in the Dakota pipeline.
[00:45:27]  And, you know, he also involved in the fossil fuels.
[00:45:32]  So you feel it's a conflict of interest situation.
[00:45:36]  They get conflict of interest, but you know, like I said, you've got Cavan McCarthy, Steve Casiliso, Kim Cruz, Mike Johnson, Mark Rubin, Mike Lee.
[00:45:47]  And he goes on and on.
[00:45:48]  But you got, these are Republicans.
[00:45:51]  And Benancy, whatever his damn name is out there in West Virginia, to be in there, he has it too stocks.
[00:45:59]  All right, Johnny, thanks so much.
[00:46:00]  And obviously, for people who know, President Trump is a billionaire.
[00:46:04]  It takes a lot to go through his financial dealings and his potential connections.
[00:46:08]  But his team consistently says that he is not playing a direct role in his companies while he's in office.
[00:46:14]  Democrats have scrutinized that for years and apparently will continue to.

=== Office of Price Administration History (04:12) ===

[00:46:19]  In the broader context of the economy and just the impact that the war is having, I thought this CBS piece was interesting.
[00:46:25]  It has the headline, in eight weeks the Iran war has dented the U.S. economy.
[00:46:29]  The damage could linger, economists say.
[00:46:31]  I'll just read a couple lines.
[00:46:32]  In the eight weeks since the Iran war started, the conflict has driven gas prices above $4 a gallon, strained homebuyers, and pushed inflation to its highest level in nearly two years.
[00:46:42]  Even if the war ends soon, Americans are likely to feel the financial sting for months, economists say.
[00:46:46]  Quote, I think the damage has already been done in part because there's no going back on oil prices, at least not anytime in the near future, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told CBS News.
[00:46:57]  The war has disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil supply normally flows.
[00:47:04]  Oil prices have jumped as a result, creating widespread consequences for Americans as they fuel their cars and book travel.
[00:47:10]  As of midday Friday, Brent Crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $105 a barrel, up 44% since before the war started.
[00:47:18]  So that's just a reminder of the broader economic conversation.
[00:47:21]  Let's go now to Louise calling in from Pennsylvania on the Democratic line.
[00:47:25]  Good morning, Louise.
[00:47:26]  You're on with us.
[00:47:27]  What's your top issue heading into the midterms?
[00:47:30]  First of all, is this a toll call?
[00:47:35]  Is this what, sorry?
[00:47:36]  Is this a toll call that I'm the line I'm calling you on?
[00:47:41]  I don't believe so.
[00:47:42]  This is the line to be on Washington Journal.
[00:47:45]  Okay.
[00:47:46]  All right.
[00:47:47]  Well, I wanted to talk about the economy prices at the grocery store.
[00:47:53]  I heard, I don't know anything much more about it, but I heard that during World War II, there was an Office of Price Administration.
[00:48:06]  It was abbreviated the OPA, Office of Price Administration.
[00:48:12]  It was created during World War II to keep people from being cheated on prices when I guess there were shortages.
[00:48:22]  And why don't we have anything like that now?
[00:48:27]  That's an interesting question.
[00:48:29]  I'm looking something up, so I want to hear a bit more while I'm looking that up related to the Office of Price Administration.
[00:48:34]  What's your economic situation right now in terms of what you're comfortable sharing?
[00:48:38]  Are you feeling the pinch because of the war?
[00:48:41]  Are you satisfied with how things are economically?
[00:48:44]  Well, I just was to the grocery store a few days ago, and for a jar of a big jar of Duke's mayonnaise, it was like over $6 for a jar of mayonnaise.
[00:49:03]  The prices are outrageous.
[00:49:05]  I feel that we are being cheated and gouged.
[00:49:10]  And then I heard about this office, this government office that had been created during World War II, the Office of Price Administration, OPA.
[00:49:21]  I believe it was eventually disbanded.
[00:49:26]  Yes, I actually now found some of what we were looking up, and you're right on it.
[00:49:30]  The Office of Price Administration, this is from Wikipedia, but there were a few articles confirming it.
[00:49:35]  It was a U.S. federal agency established in 1941 to control inflation and prevent profiteering during World War II.
[00:49:43]  It functioned by setting price ceilings and rationing essential goods such as gasoline, tires, sugar, and meat to manage shortages.
[00:49:50]  But it wasn't around that long.
[00:49:51]  It says the OPA was abolished on May 29th, 1947.
[00:49:55]  So bit of a history lesson there.
[00:49:56]  It's an interesting point that you raised.
[00:49:58]  Anything else you wanted to mention?
[00:50:00]  No, just that I wish we had some sort of office like that right now.
[00:50:09]  All right, Louise.
[00:50:10]  Okay.
[00:50:10]  Thanks so much.
[00:50:11]  You taught me something.
[00:50:12]  So thanks for that.
[00:50:14]  Let's hear from John now calling in from Florida on the Independent line.
[00:50:18]  Good morning, John.
[00:50:19]  You're on with us.
[00:50:20]  What's your top issue heading into November?
[00:50:23]  Good morning.
[00:50:24]  My top issue would be to keep as many Democrats out of the House and the Senate as possible.
[00:50:30]  They've certainly lost the plot.

=== Midterms and Independent Voters (15:02) ===

[00:50:31]  I've voted for Democrats in the past.
[00:50:33]  I voted for Obama.
[00:50:36]  These Democrats are almost, I associate them with the DSA, which you can look that up is the Democrat Socialists of America.
[00:50:45]  They just put the Congresswoman in New Jersey in.
[00:50:48]  Seems like Bernie Sanders is getting control of the party, as you can see with Janet Mills, who won't even run in the primary.
[00:50:55]  She can't get any backing whatsoever.
[00:50:57]  So the party's taking an incredible lurch to the left.
[00:51:01]  And I just don't see any I mean, the candidate in Maine who's running for the Senate, he's got a Nazi tattoo.
[00:51:08]  And he's talked about white supremacy.
[00:51:10]  And he's also talked about.
[00:51:13]  Hello.
[00:51:14]  Oh, yeah, we're here.
[00:51:15]  You're still on.
[00:51:16]  Oh, sorry.
[00:51:17]  I thought I lost you.
[00:51:18]  Yeah, so we have the guy.
[00:51:21]  We've got the candidate in Maine who's got the Nazi tattoo and talks about white supremacy.
[00:51:25]  Very demeaning to women if you look up some of the comments he's made in the past.
[00:51:30]  But yet you've got Elizabeth Warren who just basically can take credit for the spirit airlines going under, praising the guy.
[00:51:38]  And all the top Democrats' leadership is praising him, including Hakeem Jeffries.
[00:51:42]  You're talking about Graham Plattner, that Maine Senate candidate we played a clip from earlier.
[00:51:47]  Specifically, for people not familiar with his tattoo, he says that it was a tattoo he got while he was serving overseas in the military during a drunken night out with friends.
[00:51:56]  It was a skull and crossbones, but he has repeatedly claimed he is not aware of the connections to it being related to not to a Nazi tattoo.
[00:52:05]  But it's been interesting.
[00:52:06]  He's received a lot of pushback for that.
[00:52:08]  I think to your point, you talked about just Democrats overall, and you compared some of them to socialists.
[00:52:14]  There is a race in New Jersey, and you talked about one New Jersey congressional race, but in the seventh congressional district, there are four Democrats who are vying to challenge the Republican incumbent Tom Kaine Jr.
[00:52:25]  That primary is on June 2nd.
[00:52:27]  And here's an ad from one of the progressives in the race, Democrat Brian Varela.
[00:52:32]  He has been very kind of clear in his feelings about President Trump and his record on immigration.
[00:52:37]  Varela is the son of Colombian immigrants, and he's been focusing a lot on immigration and customs enforcement and detention centers.
[00:52:44]  This is a competitive seat.
[00:52:45]  So to your point, that last caller, this is an example of how Democrats are trying to campaign and, you know, not necessarily trying to reach across the aisle.
[00:52:53]  Here's that ad: What will they remember of this time?
[00:52:57]  So much hatred and fear.
[00:53:00]  They remind me of me.
[00:53:01]  I'm Brian Varela.
[00:53:03]  My parents were Colombian immigrants.
[00:53:05]  Nothing came easy.
[00:53:06]  I worked my way through college and I'm giving something back.
[00:53:09]  I can defeat Tom Kane Jr. and dismantle Trump's ICE, stop for-profit detention centers, end forever wars, and use the savings to reduce cost at home.
[00:53:20]  I'm Brian Varela, and I approve this message for them.
[00:53:25]  So that's in a very competitive congressional seat in New Jersey.
[00:53:28]  Congressman Kane, who people might have seen recently, has been dealing with an undisclosed health issue and has been kind of out of the public eye for a couple of months and has been getting some criticism for his lack of transparency there.
[00:53:39]  But I think it's interesting to see these ads and to see how each side is trying to message, given all the calls that we've been getting about how each party is handling issues.
[00:53:48]  Let's go to another caller on the Republican line, Bruce, calling in from Chicago, Illinois.
[00:53:52]  Good morning, Bruce.
[00:53:53]  You're on with us.
[00:53:55]  How are you doing?
[00:53:56]  I'm just curious.
[00:53:57]  Like, you know what?
[00:53:58]  The Democrats, everybody complains, well, Congress is blocked in this and the Epstein case because they got the majority.
[00:54:05]  I mean, the Democrats were on vacation when they had the majority in the Senate and the House.
[00:54:10]  They didn't investigate anything.
[00:54:12]  And everybody's worried about what Trump owns and all the stocks, and they want to delve into this.
[00:54:17]  How come they never wanted to delve into Nancy Pelosi and all the money she made?
[00:54:22]  And the lady up in Minnesota, what is it, Ilan Omar, goes from worth $30 million to $800,000 or $80,000, whatever she went from.
[00:54:31]  And there's a lot of stuff that could use investigating, and it's not all Donald Trump.
[00:54:36]  It's just so sad to see people in this country so dead set on hating one person.
[00:54:43]  I mean, they indicted the guy twice and for absolutely no reason except some silly lady in New York that said that he misstated a financial statement.
[00:54:53]  I mean, it's crazy what's going on.
[00:54:56]  I'm curious.
[00:54:57]  Actually, I'll pull up just because I was able to just find it.
[00:55:00]  There's a Minnesota Star Tribune article just with the headline.
[00:55:04]  You mentioned Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from Democrat from Minnesota.
[00:55:07]  This was from two weeks ago.
[00:55:08]  The headline says she updates her financial disclosure form, citing accounting error.
[00:55:13]  Omar's office said the latest disclosure proved the Congresswoman is not a millionaire.
[00:55:17]  So her team continues to insist that they're pushing back on that.
[00:55:21]  But are you still on the line?
[00:55:24]  Maybe not.
[00:55:25]  All good.
[00:55:25]  We'll move on.
[00:55:26]  But I think that's an interesting point that you raised.
[00:55:29]  There's been a continued conversation on Capitol Hill, too, about stock trading, and that's something where Nancy Pelosi has gotten some criticisms given her family's wealth.
[00:55:37]  But there appears to be a bipartisan push to ban stock trading for members.
[00:55:41]  And you've seen other California Democrats like Ro Khanna, who represents up in the San Francisco area, pushing for that.
[00:55:49]  Let's hear from Robert calling in on the independent line from Connecticut.
[00:55:53]  Good morning, Robert.
[00:55:54]  You're on with us.
[00:55:54]  What's your top issue heading into November?
[00:55:57]  Good morning.
[00:55:58]  Can you hear me?
[00:55:59]  Loud and clear.
[00:56:00]  Go ahead.
[00:56:01]  Okay, because I'm a veteran with Parkinson's disease.
[00:56:05]  So I say, I set my phone down.
[00:56:07]  I think the key issue is, and I want to get your opinion also: are the independents in these midterms or national elections?
[00:56:17]  Which way will they go?
[00:56:19]  I think they play a key role in the side and the factor because if you can show off, isn't the country split?
[00:56:28]  And what percentages are Democrats and what percentages are Republicans?
[00:56:33]  I think the midterms and national elections are really on the independents.
[00:56:40]  So that was my only comment.
[00:56:42]  No, that's an interesting point.
[00:56:43]  That's something.
[00:56:44]  And we're actually in the next hour, if you keep watching, we're going to have a political roundtable with a Democratic and Republican strategist.
[00:56:50]  We'll definitely touch on independent voters and how both parties are trying to appeal to them.
[00:56:55]  I'm curious, since you're in Connecticut, a fairly blue state, how do you feel the Democrats who are in charge there are doing when it comes to reaching out to independent voters?
[00:57:04]  Do you think they're doing enough?
[00:57:08]  I would say they're trying, but this state, Connecticut has always been a Democratic state with the legislators.
[00:57:17]  They're Democrats, okay?
[00:57:19]  And I don't know the exact fact, but I don't can't even remember when the last time the state legislators were Republicans.
[00:57:28]  So as far as I'm concerned, the Democrats are running the state of Connecticut.
[00:57:33]  Thanks for weighing in, Robert.
[00:57:35]  I've been talking about that Gallup poll a lot.
[00:57:38]  There's one area where they talked about approval or disapproval for President Trump on key issues.
[00:57:43]  And I think this is to that point of outreach to independent voters in terms of disapproval for the president.
[00:57:49]  You could see it there.
[00:57:50]  On the economy, 63% disapprove.
[00:57:53]  On inflation and rising prices, 70% disapprove.
[00:57:56]  Cost of living, 69%.
[00:57:58]  Foreign policy, 59%.
[00:58:00]  Immigration, 55%.
[00:58:02]  That's something a lot of Republicans, especially those working on campaigns, are paying attention to when it comes to outreach for independent or undecided voters.
[00:58:10]  Let's hear, though, from somebody calling in on the Republican line, Paul, calling in from Plantation Florida.
[00:58:15]  Good morning, Paul.
[00:58:16]  You're on with us.
[00:58:18]  Well, I'd just like to make a comment on your last comment.
[00:58:22]  We're a long way from this election.
[00:58:24]  And when this war is over with, and it will be over with, it's going to be completely different.
[00:58:30]  The polls will completely change around.
[00:58:32]  This economy will take a new heading and people will realize it.
[00:58:38]  But the main reason that I call, I've lived long enough to have gone to the ice plant and taken a ice block of ice for the ice box in our home.
[00:58:53]  So that should give you an idea how old I am.
[00:58:57]  The one thing I don't understand about the electorate is the Jewish vote.
[00:59:04]  I've lived my whole life wondering how the Holocaust could have come about.
[00:59:10]  And what I see today pretty much answers the question.
[00:59:16]  We have a Shia nation within two weeks from making an atomic bomb.
[00:59:25]  And Donald Trump intervenes and takes away their ability to develop that atomic bomb.
[00:59:32]  And not a word from the Jewish community of thanks has come forward.
[00:59:39]  The idea that the top administration of Iran can actually tell the top administration of the United States that they have enough material for 11 atom bombs.
[00:59:56]  And for somebody to say there was not an imminent threat is so ridiculous and stupid.
[01:00:03]  I can't believe it.
[01:00:05]  But they're out there shouting this every day.
[01:00:09]  I think, Paul, I was just looking up while you were talking.
[01:00:12]  There's this interesting New York Times piece that came out on April 29th, and it has the headline, quote, excruciating and agonizing, a new reality for Jewish Democrats.
[01:00:22]  And the subheadline is, with Israel increasingly unpopular and anti-Semitism on the rise, Jewish politicians find themselves more and more under attack.
[01:00:30]  I'm curious in the conversations you've been having with folks where you live in Florida, do you sense a frustration with Israel at large because of the war, or is there support in your neck of the woods?
[01:00:46]  You know, the whole subject of Israel, Iran wants to eradicate Israel.
[01:00:54]  And that should be very clear to every Jew in the United States.
[01:00:58]  And now we have Mom Dami in New York.
[01:01:01]  I'm sure he got a lot of Jewish votes.
[01:01:04]  How could that happen?
[01:01:06]  Don't the Jewish people realize that Mom Dami is part of religion that wants to eradicate every Jew on the face of the earth?
[01:01:15]  And you're talking about the New York City Mayor Zoan Mamdani.
[01:01:19]  Thanks, Paul.
[01:01:19]  I'm going to move on to our next caller, Josie, calling in from Indiana, Pennsylvania, on the Democratic line.
[01:01:25]  Good morning, Josie.
[01:01:26]  You're on with us.
[01:01:27]  What's your top issue heading into November?
[01:01:29]  Well, listening to all of these calls that have been coming in, the gentleman who talked about independence, yes, independence will be the key factor in the midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
[01:01:43]  I truly believe that.
[01:01:45]  And because of, as one gentleman pointed out, the corruption on both sides of the aisle, but particularly, particularly at the very top of our government, the corruption for greed and money, that's going to have a profound effect on the election.
[01:02:04]  And the gentleman who was just on, I think they're looking at Netanyahu.
[01:02:12]  Netanyahu has been in power so long in Israel that I believe corruption is a major issue there.
[01:02:21]  People in Israel themselves are upset with Netanyahu.
[01:02:25]  One of the reasons I believe that this gentleman who talked about the war, when it's over, everything will be better.
[01:02:35]  Well, I don't think it'll go back that easily.
[01:02:39]  Nothing ever does go back that easily or that magically.
[01:02:44]  It can turn for the worst magically, but it doesn't turn back to the best of money for gallons of gasoline or whatever.
[01:02:56]  To that point, Josie, I'm interested to get your take because you are in Pennsylvania, a state that gets so much, a commonwealth that gets so much attention politically.
[01:03:03]  Would you say economic issues are hitting folks hard in your neck of the woods?
[01:03:08]  Is it on people's mind?
[01:03:10]  Oh my goodness, yes.
[01:03:12]  I'm in a rural community, a rural county, as a matter of fact.
[01:03:17]  We're relying on a data center to help stimulate the economy within our rural county.
[01:03:25]  It is a major issue.
[01:03:27]  The price of everything, the lack of jobs.
[01:03:30]  Yes, the economy is a very big thing.
[01:03:34]  I do look for Shapiro to continue to do well in the polls here because he's been working at improving the economy.
[01:03:45]  And when you are in Pennsylvania, once you cross the Susquehanna from western Pennsylvania into eastern Pennsylvania, it's a totally different economy.
[01:03:55]  That part of the state has always been the one that has been thriving historically.
[01:04:01]  Going back to when it was settled, the eastern part of Pennsylvania has always been more advanced economically.
[01:04:08]  Here in western Pennsylvania, we are struggling.
[01:04:13]  My county is basically agricultural.
[01:04:15]  It used to be coal mining.
[01:04:17]  And now it's basically agricultural.
[01:04:20]  And as I said, we're relying on a data center to pump up our economy in our county alone.
[01:04:29]  I'm curious because you, sorry to cut you off, but you seem like you follow politics pretty closely.
[01:04:34]  I'm curious, you called in on the Democratic line.
[01:04:36]  When you look at your governor, Josh Shapiro, but then your Democratic senator, John Fetterman, they have been fairly at odds on a lot of issues ranging from the war to different types of economic policy.
[01:04:49]  Which do you think is kind of representing the Democratic Party better in this moment right now?
[01:04:55]  I would say Josh Shapiro is, John, I supported John Fetterman.
[01:05:00]  I have pictures of myself taken with John Fetterman.
[01:05:03]  I worked very hard for him in the primary and then in the general election.
[01:05:07]  And John Fetterman, after that stroke, is not the same John Fetterman.
[01:05:13]  There is something seriously awry with the John Fetterman that I initially knew.
[01:05:21]  I would say Josh Shapiro is a conservative Democrat.
[01:05:24]  I think that's why he has a lot of bipartisan support.
[01:05:29]  He is more conservative in his things.

=== Fetterman's Stroke and Political Shifts (02:53) ===

[01:05:33]  All right, Josie.
[01:05:34]  Oh, sorry, go ahead.
[01:05:35]  Your last point.
[01:05:36]  Before you cut me off, I was a history teacher.
[01:05:40]  And one of the things the Declaration of Independence has at the very end of it with the signers saying that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
[01:05:53]  There is no sacred honor today in this country.
[01:05:56]  People need to look in the mirror and decide what is more important, the collective all or the greed of the few.
[01:06:06]  That's all I'm going to say.
[01:06:07]  Well, thanks for weighing in, and thanks for your work as a teacher.
[01:06:10]  I come from a family of them.
[01:06:11]  Have a good one.
[01:06:12]  Let's hear from Gary calling in from North Carolina on the independent line.
[01:06:16]  Good morning, Gary.
[01:06:17]  You're on with us.
[01:06:19]  Good morning.
[01:06:20]  How you doing?
[01:06:20]  I'm doing great.
[01:06:21]  How are you?
[01:06:22]  I'm doing all right.
[01:06:24]  I just wanted to call in about the midterms.
[01:06:28]  Listening to all these people, though, it's unbelievable how much it's kind of like you can't, the old saying, you can't see the forest for the trees.
[01:06:36]  You know, everybody's caught up in all this small penny-anty stuff.
[01:06:41]  I think the main thing about the midterms, and it's one of the first things Sulsa Gabbard did when she got in, was go down to Puerto Rico and seize those computer voting machines.
[01:06:52]  Then she raided the Atlanta office and did a bunch of stuff out there in Arizona.
[01:06:57]  They got the goods.
[01:06:58]  So there's not going to be any cheating allowed.
[01:07:01]  No computers, no dead people voting, no non-citizens voting.
[01:07:07]  I'm not sure what they're going to actually do.
[01:07:09]  It could be paper ballots.
[01:07:10]  People may have to go down and re-register just to prove who they are.
[01:07:14]  So that's going to happen.
[01:07:16]  And people have to realize, too, that Trump won like 80 or 90% of the counties in this country.
[01:07:23]  The only reason that the Democrats even come close to anything is they control all these big cities.
[01:07:30]  And I'd like to point out, too, I mean, I used to, I come from a strong Democratic family, Roosevelt, Democrats.
[01:07:36]  But when they barred Robert Kennedy Jr. from even getting in to talk about anything in their debates, he's a Kennedy.
[01:07:48]  It's not the Democratic Party anymore.
[01:07:50]  I don't know what they are.
[01:07:51]  I don't know who they stand for.
[01:07:53]  And as far as Republicans go, it was always like controlled opposition.
[01:07:57]  You know, they're all a bunch of crooks.
[01:07:59]  And Trump, no matter what you say about him, I mean, all this stuff about him being greedy and being in the Epstein fouls, he's the one that turned Epstein in down in Palm Beach, you know.
[01:08:11]  And he is a multi-billionaire.
[01:08:13]  What do you mean, greedy?
[01:08:14]  So the whole thing, it's all this orange man bad stuff.
[01:08:18]  All right, Gary.
[01:08:20]  I'm going to cut you off, Gary, but thanks for weighing in.
[01:08:23]  I want to give people a heads up for coming up our conversations.

=== Bridging the Political Divide (03:36) ===

[01:08:27]  We have a few guests who are going to be joining in studio.
[01:08:29]  Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Stephen Cook is going to be here a bit later to weigh in on the war against Iran, something a lot of people have been talking about.
[01:08:38]  But first, we're going to discuss the week that was in politics.
[01:08:41]  Like I said, a political roundtable.
[01:08:42]  Republican strategist Rena Shaw and Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins will be with us.
[01:08:47]  So stay tuned and we'll be right back.
[01:09:03]  Weekends bring you book TV, featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
[01:09:09]  Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
[01:09:11]  Coverage of the San Antonio Book Festival in Texas.
[01:09:15]  Topics include the history of Mexico, the evolution of Latino television in America, and the importance of El Paso as a border city.
[01:09:24]  Timothy Gegline on his book, What Really Matters? On the state of American culture from a conservative and Christian perspective.
[01:09:31]  Former Clinton White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis with his new book, Finding the Third Way, hosts a book party in Washington, D.C. Watch Book TV every weekend on C-SPAN2 and find a schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
[01:09:55]  On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host Brian Lamb, author Craig Fairman has written a new history of the expedition of Lewis and Clark.
[01:10:04]  It's called This Vast Enterprise.
[01:10:06]  In the prologue to his 515-page book, Fairman writes, and I'm quoting, after departing from near St. Louis on May 14, 1804, the Corps of Discovery traveled 8,000 miles to find the most direct and practicable water communications across the continent for the purpose of commerce.
[01:10:28]  The core was Jefferson's idea.
[01:10:30]  Craig Fairman continues in his introduction: When Lewis and Clark returned more than two years later, they did not have a Northwest passage, but they did have an incredible tale.
[01:10:41]  This is Mr. Fairman's third book.
[01:10:44]  A new interview with author Craig Fairman about his book, This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark.
[01:10:50]  Book Notes Plus, with our host Brian Lamb, is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app.
[01:11:00]  Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere.
[01:11:04]  We have to listen so we can govern better.
[01:11:06]  Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
[01:11:08]  You can fight and still be friendly.
[01:11:11]  Bridging the divide in American politics.
[01:11:13]  You know, you may not agree with a Democrat on everything, but you can find areas where you do agree.
[01:11:17]  He's a pretty likable guy as well.
[01:11:18]  Chris Koons and I are actually friends.
[01:11:20]  He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends.
[01:11:23]  A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other.
[01:11:26]  We all don't hate each other.
[01:11:28]  You two actually kind of like each other.
[01:11:30]  These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
[01:11:32]  It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
[01:11:34]  You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
[01:11:37]  He owes my son $10 from a bed.
[01:11:40]  And it's a paid.
[01:11:41]  Fork it over.
[01:11:42]  That's fighting words right there.
[01:11:44]  I'm glad I'm not in charge.
[01:11:45]  I'm thrilled to be on this show with him.
[01:11:47]  There are not shows like this, right?
[01:11:49]  Incentivizing that relationship.
[01:11:52]  Ceasefire, Friday nights on C-SPAN.
[01:11:59]  Washington Journal continues.
[01:12:02]  Welcome back to Washington Journal.

=== Redistricting and Voting Rights Act (10:53) ===

[01:12:03]  We have a political roundtable this hour to talk about so many issues heading into November's midterm elections.
[01:12:08]  You're looking at our two experts on screen.
[01:12:10]  We have Reena Shaw, a Republican strategist, geopolitical strategist, former aide to Congress, former works on presidential campaigns.
[01:12:18]  We also have Michael Starr Hopkins on the Democratic side, founding partner of Northern Star Strategies, worked for several campaigns, including John Delaney's presidential, worked on Capitol Hill as well.
[01:12:29]  Thank you both for being here.
[01:12:31]  There's a lot to talk about.
[01:12:33]  I want to talk about something that actually didn't come up in the first hour.
[01:12:35]  One caller mentioned redistricting and gerrymandering.
[01:12:38]  A lot of folks saw the Supreme Court case over the last couple of days having to do with the Voting Rights Act.
[01:12:44]  I want both of your takes before we dive into it a bit further, but essentially they rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, essentially barring redistricting based on race.
[01:12:53]  Rena, I'm curious just what your takeaway.
[01:12:55]  Were you surprised by this ruling and what do you think the broader political impact will be?
[01:12:59]  I think it's important to keep it short here because for me it is simple enough that this is about really the mechanics of gerrymandering and who's doing what and why.
[01:13:07]  And on a racial level, certainly a lot of people are worried and scared that this turns into representation that is not real representation.
[01:13:14]  But my issue here and why I wasn't surprised is that the Supreme Court is saying we don't like it when anybody gerrymanders essentially.
[01:13:21]  And that is why it's not problematic to me.
[01:13:24]  Now, of course, I've been getting a lot of flack saying you're a woman of color.
[01:13:27]  You know, women couldn't vote until modern times here.
[01:13:30]  You know, I have three small daughters and it's hard to talk about just the fact that American women didn't have the right to vote until recently.
[01:13:36]  And then when we talk about race and how that plays in to who comes to Washington to represent us, I understand what happened in the South, but I'm also saying let's try to be practical here.
[01:13:45]  The court, again, is trying to look at this from that practical level and just saying we don't like racial gerrymandering.
[01:13:52]  We don't like when parties do it and we don't like when it's done for certain purposes.
[01:13:56]  It's something Chief Justice John Roberts has spent decades talking about.
[01:13:59]  It's been interesting reading back, you know, how his thoughts on this.
[01:14:02]  He kind of was forecasting a lot leading up to this decision.
[01:14:05]  What's your take on the Democratic side?
[01:14:07]  Because a lot of Democrats have expressed outrage over this and they're saying this is going to erase representation for a lot of especially black members at the congressional level and lower.
[01:14:15]  It has.
[01:14:15]  I mean, if you look throughout history, we've seen the way that the African-American vote has been watered down, how they've attempted to take away and disenfranchise not just African Americans, but as you said, people of color, women all across the country.
[01:14:30]  And while I think we can all agree that gerrymandering is bad, it's nice to see Democrats rising to the moment and actually being willing to take on this fight.
[01:14:39]  Because look, I think all Democrats agree that we shouldn't have gerrymandering.
[01:14:42]  But if there's gonna be gerrymandering, then Democrats have to finally rise to the moment and be willing to really meet Republicans where they are, which is on the battlefield here.
[01:14:52]  And I think that's really what the story is gonna be about, how Democrats take this on in not just 2026, but especially 2028.
[01:15:00]  One of the callers in the last hour alluded to how Texas kind of kicked off this redistricting conversation last year at the urging of President Trump.
[01:15:07]  Then California responded.
[01:15:08]  We saw what happened in Virginia.
[01:15:09]  Now this.
[01:15:10]  I want to play some sound from President Trump and also Democratic Congresswoman Yvette Clark getting their reactions from both sides to this decision.
[01:15:17]  Then we'll talk about it a bit more.
[01:15:20]  Mr. President, I want to go back to the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act.
[01:15:23]  I know you said you haven't seen any of that.
[01:15:24]  When did it come out just now?
[01:15:25]  No, it came out this morning, but basically very much narrows the Voting Rights Act.
[01:15:30]  Would you consider it a win for a win for Republicans?
[01:15:32]  I love it.
[01:15:33]  But my question is.
[01:15:34]  This is a very good.
[01:15:35]  We can end this news conference.
[01:15:36]  I want to read it.
[01:15:38]  My question to you, Mr. President, is that some Republican governors have not responded in terms of what they're going to do.
[01:15:44]  I guess early voting, for example, and Louisiana.
[01:15:47]  Republican governors want to Republican governors.
[01:15:49]  What about it?
[01:15:49]  Early voting begins Saturday there, for instance.
[01:15:53]  Should they redraw the map in the next couple of years?
[01:15:55]  I would.
[01:15:56]  I mean, it depends.
[01:15:56]  I mean, some states don't need to redraw, and some do.
[01:16:00]  I mean, I know what the concept of the ruling, I just haven't seen the result.
[01:16:05]  Yeah, I would say generally, I would think that they would want to do it.
[01:16:09]  Some are greatly helped, and some, you know, it didn't make much difference.
[01:16:12]  Yeah, I would say they would do that.
[01:16:14]  They have time to do it.
[01:16:15]  Yep.
[01:16:17]  This is an outright power grab.
[01:16:21]  It's about silencing black voices, dismantling majority black districts, and rigging the map so that politicians can choose their voters instead of the other way around.
[01:16:36]  We have seen this before.
[01:16:38]  We know exactly what this leads to.
[01:16:42]  And we will not go back.
[01:16:45]  For years, we've sounded the alarm on the Voting Rights Act as the Voting Rights Act was chipped away piece by piece.
[01:16:55]  Today, the consequences are here and they are dangerous.
[01:17:01]  Let me say this clearly.
[01:17:03]  The legitimacy of this court is in crisis.
[01:17:07]  This is not the court of Third Good Marshall.
[01:17:10]  This is not the court that delivered Brown v. Board of Education.
[01:17:15]  This is not the court that expanded freedom and moved this nation closer to its ideals.
[01:17:21]  This is a court that is turning back its back on that legacy and on the people it is supposed to serve.
[01:17:32]  But we're not powerless and we're not backing down.
[01:17:36]  The Congressional Black Caucus is prepared to take any measure necessary to protect black voters in this country.
[01:17:44]  We are demanding an immediate vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and we will not accept delay, obstruction, or excuses.
[01:17:55]  That was Congresswoman Yvette Clark, a Democrat of New York, obviously President Trump before that.
[01:18:00]  Reena, I'm curious your thoughts on Democrats, and Michael touched on this, that this could essentially come back to bite Republicans who did start this redistricting conversation in this cycle with Texas last year at President Trump's urging.
[01:18:12]  Do you think, especially given the Supreme Court kind of handing a win that Republicans are saying, hey, this could help us, is there a potential for political backlash for Republicans?
[01:18:21]  Without a doubt, there is a real potential that a certain demographic gets fired up.
[01:18:26]  And as you've said, when you look at the black vote, there has been a feeling that they've been left behind sometimes.
[01:18:32]  And loosely, I can tell you, in those conversations I've had with friends, I do believe that these kinds of steps that happen with the president interfering at the state level really erodes the trust in really government in general.
[01:18:45]  And we don't know who it erodes it with, really.
[01:18:47]  We don't have good data on that.
[01:18:48]  I do believe it hits millennials and Gen Z pretty hard, of course.
[01:18:52]  We already have turnout problems with Gen Z.
[01:18:54]  And in general, when we're looking at redistricting, I think Congresswoman Clark's words are important.
[01:19:00]  She definitely was right on a lot of that, but I'm not somebody that believes in fighting fire with fire.
[01:19:06]  Just because Trump did what he did in Texas, which I disagree with, I want to be very clear about that.
[01:19:11]  I disagree what happened in Texas, but I agree with what happened in Virginia.
[01:19:16]  And oh, I'm sorry.
[01:19:18]  I don't agree with what happened in Virginia.
[01:19:20]  I will tell you why.
[01:19:21]  This is really important.
[01:19:22]  2020, myself and a number of conservative activists, we came out and we said we need an independent redistricting commission.
[01:19:28]  So I don't agree with Governor Spanberger saying we need to pass this redistricting reform.
[01:19:36]  We need to have the maps that we're drawing.
[01:19:38]  Why?
[01:19:38]  Why would you do that?
[01:19:39]  Because if Republicans did it, you'd be really angry.
[01:19:41]  We had an independent redistricting commission in Virginia.
[01:19:45]  And why would we supersede that?
[01:19:47]  So I actually spent a lot of time on this going back and forth.
[01:19:50]  I was a yes before I was a no.
[01:19:52]  And I know that's...
[01:19:53]  That'll get politicians in trouble.
[01:19:54]  And that does.
[01:19:55]  And that was not my advice to anybody at the state level, but that was from the heart because I want better maps.
[01:20:00]  I want fair maps.
[01:20:01]  And when either party is rigging the maps, you have a problem.
[01:20:05]  And I believe fire is best fought with water.
[01:20:07]  Michael, build on that point, because Gavin Newsom has led the charge of saying we have to fight fire with fire, and we need to lead this charge.
[01:20:14]  He posted a video after the Virginia vote, and he's on the other coast dealing with what he succeeded with in his state.
[01:20:20]  But do you worry for Democrats that fighting fire with fire, sure, it might satisfy a short-term frustration, but long-term, could the party come to regret it?
[01:20:28]  I mean, the party could in the long term come to regret it.
[01:20:30]  But at this moment, we don't really have the luxury of dealing with long-term problems.
[01:20:35]  We've got to deal with these problems that are directly in front of us.
[01:20:38]  When you've got Louisiana canceling or attempting to cancel an election days before, rather, the early vote has already started, but days before the election itself, you've got President Trump in January 6th and interfering in elections.
[01:20:53]  The African American community, and let me say I don't speak for the monolithic community, but the conversations that I have, there's a lot of fear around the rolling back of rights.
[01:21:04]  And millennials, we're the first generation that's really seeing the rolling back of basic rights, the right to abortion, voting rights, in education, affirmative action being struck down.
[01:21:16]  These programs, which have really helped, at least in some ways, stabilize the black economy as well as attempt to at least meet us halfway.
[01:21:26]  Now with those programs being eroding, the question is, how do we get more black senators then?
[01:21:31]  How do we get more black members of Congress?
[01:21:33]  Because the way that districts have been drawn over decades, it's made it nearly impossible.
[01:21:39]  It gives us a unique opportunity to reject the identity politics that I think you and I always get sort of looped into.
[01:21:45]  I, as a daughter of immigrants from India and Uganda, I genuinely feel that this is a moment where we can just say, logically speaking, we want to prevent politicians from drawing maps to favor one party or the other.
[01:21:56]  That's all this was to me.
[01:21:58]  This wasn't about disenfranchising one particular demographic or another.
[01:22:01]  And of course, my community, meaning immigrants from India, have benefit from the civil rights movement.
[01:22:07]  So what kind of American would I be to say, I want to slap a certain group in the face, right?
[01:22:11]  But I also just think that we do better government and get better government when we come back to the basics.
[01:22:15]  What's really striking, too, in this broader conversation, and it was outlined in the Supreme Court opinion, part of the argument that you just outlined, that race should not be the defining feature for these districts.
[01:22:24]  But on the flip side, people in Louisiana say a third of the population is black.
[01:22:28]  And right now, I think they have six House districts, and two of them are represented by black members, but now one of them has at least been struck down.
[01:22:36]  So it's a tricky conversation there.
[01:22:39]  There's also this notion of confusion for voters because in Louisiana, the governor came out right after this ruling and said, we're going to hold off on the House primaries.
[01:22:46]  We're going to let the Senate primary continue.
[01:22:49]  And just as a voter, how are you supposed to deal with that?
[01:22:52]  I want to pivot, though, to another conversation throughout the last week that's been talked about a lot, which is political violence.

=== Rising Political Violence in DC (14:35) ===

[01:22:57]  The White House correspondence dinner shooting took place.
[01:22:59]  I was at that dinner.
[01:23:00]  I'm not sure if either of you guys were.
[01:23:02]  But thankfully, it could have been a lot worse.
[01:23:05]  But I want to play some sound from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt and then from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and then get both of you to weigh in.
[01:23:13]  We should not live in a country where such constant fear of political violence permeates our society every single day.
[01:23:22]  We can and we should have fierce disagreement in this country.
[01:23:26]  As you all know, we disagree often, myself in this role and all of you in the news media, but those disagreements must remain peaceful.
[01:23:34]  Debating, peaceful protesting, and voting are how we need to settle disagreements, not bullets.
[01:23:40]  Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump.
[01:23:46]  This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party and even some in the media.
[01:23:58]  This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.
[01:24:11]  Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence.
[01:24:23]  The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend.
[01:24:36]  This so-called White House press secretary, who's a disgrace, he's a stone-cold liar, had the nerve to stand up there and read talking points being critical of statements all taken out of context that Democrats have made and didn't have a word to say about anything that MAGA extremists have said or done,
[01:25:01]  including providing aid and comfort to violent insurrectionists here at this Capitol on January 6th who brutally beat police officers.
[01:25:12]  The president then pardoned those violent rioters, many of whom have gone back into communities across the country to reoffend.
[01:25:24]  And as you pointed out, one of whom threatened to kill me.
[01:25:29]  He said, kill the terrorist.
[01:25:32]  Where did that language come from?
[01:25:34]  What Republicans use that language?
[01:25:37]  Why did that pardon mega extremists, violent insurrectionists, choose to use the language of terrorism directed at me when he threatened to kill me at an event?
[01:25:50]  And so how can we take them seriously when they raise these partisan attacks?
[01:25:59]  So Michael, I want to hear your thoughts on this because, you know, sadly, the political violence conversation is not new in the context of this being a roundtable looking ahead to the midterms.
[01:26:09]  Do you think from the Democratic side they are handling this sensitive topic effectively, properly?
[01:26:16]  Is this something that could impact voters come November or is this a very DC issue?
[01:26:21]  I think it's a mix of both, actually.
[01:26:23]  I think this is a DC issue.
[01:26:24]  We obviously focus on this because Congresswoman Giffords was shot.
[01:26:29]  We all, January 6th, we've all been around and experienced shootings that have happened because of political violence.
[01:26:37]  Exactly.
[01:26:38]  And so I think it is uniquely a DC issue.
[01:26:42]  But we grew up in the age of the Timothy McVay bombings in World Trade Center 1 bombing.
[01:26:51]  Political violence has been something that's as old as America itself.
[01:26:55]  And so I think it's something we have to address both in our history and being able to talk about the violence both perpetrated towards, you know, all the way back to Native Americans, African Americans, you know, Latinos throughout the history, violence has been there.
[01:27:09]  But I think that in the last 10 to 20 years, we've seen a real adoption of language and rhetoric, which I think takes advantage of the internet and social media and cable news and really inflames tensions because we all know that donor money, the best way to get small dollar donations is flaming rhetoric, is by saying incendiary things.
[01:27:29]  So then you can send that fundraising email.
[01:27:32]  I'm curious your thoughts from the Republican side because it's striking.
[01:27:36]  I cover the Trump White House daily and they, to Michael's point, they have no issue sending out a mean tweet or blasting somebody.
[01:27:43]  But then Caroline Levitt came out and a lot of them were with the president in Butler, Pennsylvania a couple years ago.
[01:27:48]  Caroline had just given birth then.
[01:27:50]  She was pregnant now at this shooting.
[01:27:52]  And so there's this kind of dual experience where they're not slowing down the dishing out of harsh criticism and kind of sensitive words.
[01:28:00]  But at the same time, they're saying we all need to take a step back.
[01:28:02]  Do you think the Republicans are handling this appropriately, effectively?
[01:28:07]  The Trump administration has never handled this appropriately, the rise in political violence, again, against figures, not just overall.
[01:28:14]  Because obviously a lot of talk gets talked about of hate crimes that go up during a certain time.
[01:28:20]  And, you know, Trump, we've now known him.
[01:28:22]  He's been a political figure for us for a decade now.
[01:28:25]  And what has that really meant?
[01:28:26]  I don't want to make it about a man.
[01:28:28]  I don't think it's that simple.
[01:28:29]  Yes, maybe the shooter that came to the Hilton that night in a very historic fashion, my gosh, to think that Reagan got shot there and that night that President Trump could have this well, just mere feed away.
[01:28:40]  I myself was at that dinner for a few years and just feeling unsafe in big gatherings, I think, is something that has sat with me for a while.
[01:28:52]  It's become part and parcel of American life.
[01:28:54]  And I say that as a political person.
[01:28:56]  So I've been in these big gatherings and just always been hyper-aware that somebody could have a gun.
[01:29:01]  Now, this guy had knives and guns.
[01:29:03]  What his intention was, I'm not fully clear on, so I don't want to speak on.
[01:29:07]  But I want to talk about, again, how this administration has handled the rhetoric, the inflamed rhetoric that they themselves dish out.
[01:29:14]  I think it's very hypocritical, and I think it's unfortunately made its way down to the masses to say, you know what, it's fine.
[01:29:20]  We can be hypocrites.
[01:29:21]  And that is not okay.
[01:29:23]  So what we do with our children at home, I think, is going to become even more important.
[01:29:26]  You know, we're young parents, Michael and I, and I think as friends, we ought to be talking about like, how do we change this?
[01:29:32]  How do we make sure our children don't think this kind of language is acceptable?
[01:29:36]  I have done it in the way of never allowing my young children to watch President Trump talk.
[01:29:41]  Ever.
[01:29:41]  Ever.
[01:29:42]  And I realize that's a big statement.
[01:29:44]  He curses.
[01:29:46]  He speaks ill of other people.
[01:29:48]  That's not okay with me.
[01:29:49]  That's not the way I was raised as a young girl in southern West Virginia.
[01:29:53]  And I come from a state that heavily voted for President Trump both times, three times actually, right?
[01:29:58]  But I just feel that they are being hypocrites.
[01:30:01]  And a lot of members of Congress agree.
[01:30:03]  So at the federal level, nothing can be done.
[01:30:05]  But we as individuals, which is what a lot of conservatives believe, we can help turn the tide on this.
[01:30:10]  And I will say when you talk to Democrats or Republicans behind the scenes, there is a fear of the Trump administration and the Trump apparatus in terms of his ability to turn on social media.
[01:30:20]  If you look at Marjorie Taylor Greene, you look at Tim Brushette.
[01:30:28]  Yeah, there are multiple members.
[01:30:30]  I talked about this in a commercial break.
[01:30:32]  I became the focus of some of that during the Cesar Sayok bombing and ended up on his list because of some of the things that I had said on Fox News and engaged with the president.
[01:30:42]  It is a scary time.
[01:30:44]  And I think that the more it becomes personal, much like everything else in this country, the more people become empathetic and aware of what's going on.
[01:30:52]  And my hope is that we don't have to deal with a national tragedy before we really lower the tension.
[01:30:57]  But I think we all expect that the only way that the tension is really going to get lowered and people will demand more responsible conversations and rhetoric is if something happens.
[01:31:08]  And that's usually the inflection point.
[01:31:10]  You both have worked on Capitol Hill, the Capitol Police tracker of threats against members of Congress is through the roof.
[01:31:17]  And it's a big struggle for resources.
[01:31:19]  It's interesting being at the White House most days and seeing kind of the hardened security perimeter.
[01:31:23]  There's also, and a few callers have weighed in, and to your point about being in large gatherings, there's this conversation now, especially after the shooting, about the ballroom that President Trump wants to build and whether or not that is actually a useful security tool on top of the kind of more frivolous aspect of it that the president talks about.
[01:31:40]  Gallup had actually asked folks about the presidential ballroom, and this poll is really interesting.
[01:31:45]  28% support it, 56% oppose it.
[01:31:49]  And I saw, yeah, this was a Washington Post-ABC poll.
[01:31:52]  Sorry, not Gallup, but from last week.
[01:31:54]  I'm curious on your ends, do you guys see, you know, the president has, of course, focused a lot on his renovation projects at the White House.
[01:32:01]  He talks about it almost on a daily basis.
[01:32:03]  But from a political violence and security perspective, is there an argument now for something like this, or are they connecting kind of a pet project with a current event?
[01:32:14]  I love the question because I think it needs the answer every day of the week.
[01:32:17]  Absolutely not.
[01:32:18]  There's no correlation between the two.
[01:32:20]  This president is going to travel the country and the world with heavy amounts of security.
[01:32:24]  We've seen that for every U.S. president in modern history.
[01:32:27]  Right, exactly.
[01:32:28]  But we're all human.
[01:32:29]  There are going to be missteps.
[01:32:31]  There's going to be lapses.
[01:32:32]  And I remember sitting there waiting to go on air with another network when the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting happened.
[01:32:37]  And I'm from around that area.
[01:32:39]  I knew exactly where he was in the state.
[01:32:41]  And I remember my body feeling a physical reaction to thinking the president had just been assassinated.
[01:32:47]  And then he stood up and did the fist and all that.
[01:32:50]  Look, we can put him in armored vehicles and all of that, which we do.
[01:32:54]  Nothing's going to save the president's life if there is a madman who believes that it is a worthy cause to pick up arms and to go shoot them at them.
[01:33:04]  You know, it's the kind of thing that nothing can solve for.
[01:33:07]  And I also think I was a young Hill staffer when there was a security breach during President Obama's time.
[01:33:13]  A couple during a state dinner made it in without an invitation, shook his hand.
[01:33:17]  That story was resurfacing over the last week, which was.
[01:33:20]  So again, we're all human.
[01:33:22]  A ballroom is not going to protect you.
[01:33:23]  In fact, it's a frivolous use of money at a time when we could be spending that money on other things.
[01:33:28]  We all know this.
[01:33:29]  It's a let-theme cake moment.
[01:33:31]  But they're doing it because they want to distract.
[01:33:34]  This administration thrives and this president thrives every time the American people are distracted.
[01:33:39]  Do you agree?
[01:33:40]  I do.
[01:33:40]  I think it actually goes to a broader point and a point which Republicans are really going to have to deal with, and it's the economy.
[01:33:46]  You're seeing Republicans really come out and push back.
[01:33:49]  Republican voters push back against the spending of this money for a couple reasons.
[01:33:53]  One, because when you look at the auditing, you're seeing that amounts, you know, one of the ballroom floor prices was supposed to be around $3 million and the contract is $14 million.
[01:34:04]  Pricing for piping is triple the amount and it's going towards people who have donated to the campaign, who are now contractors.
[01:34:10]  And so the American people aren't stupid.
[01:34:12]  They know when funds are being spent irresponsibly.
[01:34:16]  And when you look at a billion or $2 billion being spent every day on top of that with Iran, you're really starting to see a coalescence among Republicans of distrust among the economic factors.
[01:34:29]  Republicans are supposed to be the fiscally responsible ones.
[01:34:33]  That's always been the message.
[01:34:35]  And so now when Republicans start to lose that, and you're seeing it in the polling, everything becomes fair game.
[01:34:40]  Excellent point because my how far we've come from the drain the swamp moment, right?
[01:34:44]  This is a perfect encapsulation of how very swampy this town can be.
[01:34:49]  And I think building on this conversation, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has stood out to me because he is not the biggest fan of the president, but he also is kind of a tried and true Republican.
[01:34:58]  On the ballroom specifically, he has introduced legislation saying after this correspondence dinner shooting, the ballroom should be built, but it should not, taxpayer dollars should have no role in it.
[01:35:08]  And there have been some Republicans who have said, now we need taxpayer funding for it.
[01:35:11]  The president and his team, to your point, claim they have all these donors, but there's not a lot of transparency.
[01:35:15]  So an interesting conversation, kind of in light of the dinner.
[01:35:19]  We have a caller on the line, Paul from Florida, called in on the Republican line.
[01:35:23]  Paul, you're on the air with us.
[01:35:24]  Do you have a question for our guests as it relates to the midterms or the topics we've been talking about?
[01:35:29]  Yeah, I do.
[01:35:30]  It's really a shame that you couldn't have picked a Republican and a Democrat to be on your panel.
[01:35:37]  It's really a shame that you got two people there that are just pro-Democrats and anti-Republican.
[01:35:44]  You got a guy saying that he knows that Trump is selling pipe and it's going to his donors.
[01:35:50]  I'd like to know his proof on where he gets his information because it's easy to say things, but when you say things that aren't true, people hear it and they believe it.
[01:36:01]  And that's what's happening in our country.
[01:36:03]  You know, when Republicans say we're going to fight like hell, see, they want to go out and do violence.
[01:36:10]  But when Democrats say we're going to fight like hell, oh no, we mean that we're going to go and fight like hell for the election.
[01:36:16]  You know what?
[01:36:17]  You guys just twist things the way you want to hear it, and it's really sad.
[01:36:22]  Here, Paul, I'm going to interject.
[01:36:24]  I want you to stay on the line so both Rena and Michael can respond.
[01:36:26]  Rita, let's go to you first because his criticism is that you've not always been a fan of President Trump.
[01:36:31]  If people look on your ex-profile, you say you were the first never Trump voter back in 2016.
[01:36:35]  Explain your argument to Paul about why you still feel you're a Republican and representative of the party in a sense.
[01:36:41]  Yeah, I've been a Republican voter my entire life since I was 18.
[01:36:44]  And it's not from where I was raised.
[01:36:46]  I'm again hail from West Virginia.
[01:36:48]  It's not because my parents told me to be.
[01:36:50]  I love the party of limited government.
[01:36:52]  I thought we were the party of limited government.
[01:36:54]  Abram Lincoln is my favorite U.S. president.
[01:36:57]  My time on Capitol Hill with two Republican members of Congress taught me that we can do better from the federal level.
[01:37:02]  We can give some, again, responsibilities back to the states, and we can handle some things here.
[01:37:07]  I still have that mentality.
[01:37:09]  My objection to President Trump when he came up as a candidate in 2016 was not unusual.
[01:37:15]  Many people around the country and in Washington, D.C. were concerned about President Trump.
[01:37:20]  He had run under the Reform Party before.
[01:37:22]  I felt that he was somebody that just wanted the limelight.
[01:37:25]  People might forget that Texas Senator Ted Cruz made a very public showing at the convention of not wanting to latch on to the Trump movement at the time.

=== Reflecting Pool and National Unity (15:54) ===

[01:37:32]  And I was part of that.
[01:37:33]  My delegate seat was part of all of that.
[01:37:36]  I had a lot of old school Republicans who backed me when I opposed President Trump on Fox News Network for the first time.
[01:37:42]  And I was the first elected delegate in the country to do so because my family left a dictator in Uganda.
[01:37:48]  We know what it's like when any kind of politician wants to become a king, have king-like duties and responsibilities.
[01:37:55]  And that's what I felt was coming.
[01:37:56]  But more than anything, I did not feel that Donald Trump in the year 2015 or 2016 was a conservative.
[01:38:02]  And I have been proven right now.
[01:38:05]  Again, this is somebody that has bloated our national deficit, has shown no care for it, continues to misspend our taxpayer dollar.
[01:38:12]  So I can't get behind that.
[01:38:14]  Now, do I wish for the success of him?
[01:38:16]  This president, who is all of ours, yes, I do.
[01:38:19]  And I have not unfairly painted him as a politically violent person.
[01:38:22]  There's montages of clips that show him in his own words.
[01:38:26]  And so I am just using fact and history, and I'm using the litmus touch that we always have for Republicans: limited federal spending, limited government principles.
[01:38:36]  Michael, do you want to respond to Paul?
[01:38:38]  Yeah, I mean, I think Paul is correct in that for far too long, Democrats and Republicans have spun up the news, have spun up facts.
[01:38:46]  And so there is a real mistrust among Americans about what's real, what's true.
[01:38:51]  And that is having a devastating effect, not just on the government, but on the country, because we're starting to see neighbors as adversaries and family members not as friends anymore, but as foes just because of party affiliation.
[01:39:06]  So to Paul, I would say first, I vote as a Democrat, but I'm an American first.
[01:39:12]  And party labels.
[01:39:13]  This is not something you hear a lot of Democrats say right now.
[01:39:15]  It is.
[01:39:15]  Because the president has latched onto that.
[01:39:17]  He has.
[01:39:18]  And I think to the detriment of the country as a whole, because we are all Americans first.
[01:39:24]  Party, the Democratic Party aligns with a lot of my values, but there are a lot of Democrats that I can't stand.
[01:39:31]  The Republican Party has bills and has positions that I appreciate and I agree with, but there are a lot of Republicans I can't stand.
[01:39:39]  That's called being an American.
[01:39:41]  That's called living in a democracy.
[01:39:43]  And so I would say to Paul, in terms of looking at the facts about the ballroom, just to get back to a specific question, you can go look at FEC.gov and check where money is being spent, who it's being given to.
[01:39:58]  Unfortunately, the president and his administration have been doing no-bid contracts.
[01:40:03]  So you can also go look at Department of Transportation.
[01:40:06]  You can go look in the archives.
[01:40:08]  All of that information has to be federally filed and given.
[01:40:12]  And so I would say to Paul and to everyone else, go actually do the legwork.
[01:40:17]  Don't rely on reporters.
[01:40:18]  Don't rely on pundits or people like us to do the work for you.
[01:40:23]  Go out and do the research and call out your representative or call out anyone else who you think is misrepresenting the facts.
[01:40:30]  But if I may, and I must add to your point, you bring up excellent points, is that so much of this is transparent in this town.
[01:40:36]  And that's why I was actually supportive of Doge's efforts.
[01:40:38]  And I know they hurt a lot of people, but a job is not guaranteed to anybody and certainly not on the taxpayer dime.
[01:40:44]  I agreed with the Doge efforts, again, the Department of Government Efficiency that Douglas.
[01:40:48]  Daddy Musk was leading.
[01:40:49]  Yeah, that didn't fully materialize because I said there is so much misexpenditure and all these big federal government contracting firms that literally are getting paid what you don't get in the real private sector.
[01:41:04]  So this is a time where I think we can pull back the curtain on things, but just because somebody criticizes a Republican or a Democrat doesn't mean they're pro the other party.
[01:41:13]  Let's hear from another caller.
[01:41:14]  Howard is calling in from Indianapolis on the Democratic line.
[01:41:17]  Good morning, Howard.
[01:41:17]  You're on with our guests.
[01:41:19]  Good morning.
[01:41:20]  Hope you can hear me okay.
[01:41:22]  We can, loud and clear.
[01:41:23]  Great.
[01:41:24]  Yeah, I am very frustrated by our politics.
[01:41:28]  I'm hopeful that the Democrats can prevail as it seems like that is likely to happen in the House.
[01:41:37]  The hope is that it can happen in the Senate.
[01:41:40]  I'm 70 years old, and I really just don't understand the politics that exist today.
[01:41:46]  I don't understand how we can put up with someone like Donald Trump, who is a liar, who is a convicted criminal, who is a sexual abuser.
[01:41:56]  And we have a party that's co-opted his lies and pushed him.
[01:42:00]  I mean, the Republican Party, in my view, is a lost cause.
[01:42:04]  They should not exist because they have helped this insurrectionist president continue to wield his incompetent leadership through this country.
[01:42:17]  I just don't understand how this happens today.
[01:42:20]  There should be no, I think sometimes we try to play the both sides issue.
[01:42:26]  This is not a both sides issue.
[01:42:28]  We have a corrupt, incompetent leader that the Republican Party is helping.
[01:42:34]  And that, to me, that's much different than, you know, the Democrats are not perfect and they make mistakes here.
[01:42:43]  The Democrat Party is doing far more to advance the American aspirations as set forth in our preamble of our Constitution than the Republicans by far.
[01:42:54]  It's not even questionable.
[01:42:55]  I think Biden, for example, was a very effective president, but he was allowed to be demonized by all these falsehoods by a corrupt political movement known as Donald Trump MAGA and the Republican Party.
[01:43:10]  So I think there's got to be a real battle in Democratic posturing against this corrupt regime.
[01:43:17]  Thank you, Howard.
[01:43:18]  I want to have Rena weigh in just because his comment about the Republican Party is a lost cause at this point.
[01:43:24]  You are a Republican who has frustrations with President Trump and the hold he has over the party.
[01:43:30]  Do you feel your party is a lost cause?
[01:43:33]  No, I don't.
[01:43:34]  We have in this country told ourselves we have a multi-party system here for years.
[01:43:39]  We don't.
[01:43:40]  We have a duopoly.
[01:43:41]  It needs to be broken.
[01:43:42]  And unfortunately, in this town, you do have to pick a side.
[01:43:44]  Now, am I more center-right?
[01:43:46]  Absolutely.
[01:43:46]  You can hear it in my voice and my policy views.
[01:43:48]  Am I more of an independent?
[01:43:50]  Probably.
[01:43:51]  Like the vast majority of Americans, like a growing number of Americans who are disenchanted, cannot believe that our politics have gotten so bad that both sides don't even sit with each other anymore, don't respect one another, demonize each other here in this town.
[01:44:05]  But I know across this country, there are great Americans everywhere that do sit with one another and do try to listen to each other.
[01:44:11]  So don't give up hope just because one party is sick right now, right?
[01:44:13]  Just because a patient is on life support, do you just take it off and just say we're giving up hope?
[01:44:17]  We put the patient on life support for a reason.
[01:44:19]  And because we have a duopoly, we need to make sure actually that both parties are healthy.
[01:44:24]  And I'm trying to do my part for that, which is why I call it out when Republicans get it right, like I said in Virginia.
[01:44:29]  When they said, don't rig the maps, Governor Spanberger, even if it's temporary, you're doing that.
[01:44:34]  Don't do it.
[01:44:35]  We need to start to see things not as black and white, but with nuance.
[01:44:39]  And we need to understand that the vast majority of Americans deserve political reforms that can make our parties better.
[01:44:44]  Prime of which is, and I don't endeavor to be ageist here, prime of witches term limits.
[01:44:50]  We need to clear the bench for new, fresh leadership in this town on both sides.
[01:44:54]  And I agree with the caller that says it's, who says this is not about both sides.
[01:44:58]  I agree it's not a both sides moment.
[01:45:01]  But how we got here to also answer the caller's question is when parties put winning above everything.
[01:45:06]  That is so detrimental.
[01:45:08]  And that is how we end up with ineffective lawmakers.
[01:45:10]  That's how we end up with ineffective presidents like President Biden.
[01:45:14]  I respect President Biden, the statesman, but he didn't move aside when he needed to.
[01:45:20]  He announced running for reelection when he shouldn't have.
[01:45:23]  He came after a historic moment, the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic.
[01:45:27]  I do believe he did the best he could at first, but I don't believe he was very effective in the end.
[01:45:31]  Because again, we're getting spun up with all of this, let's win above everything else because this other person isn't very likable or can't win either.
[01:45:41]  So we're doing kind of things as business as usual because we don't have good reforms in place to give us better candidates and better government.
[01:45:48]  Michael, let's build off of both the caller's comment and Rena's comment about President Biden because the caller said he was an effective president.
[01:45:54]  She argued he was not.
[01:45:55]  The age conversation is still something that stings for a lot of Democrats.
[01:45:59]  And they're trying to figure out who the leader of their party is going to be moving forward, how age should factor into that, how effectiveness versus ineffectiveness should factor into it.
[01:46:06]  She have more of a flamethrower or policy wonk.
[01:46:09]  What would you say to that caller who just said, I think the Democrats are doing okay right now, but they're trying to figure out life after Biden?
[01:46:16]  Yeah, I mean, it's true.
[01:46:17]  When you look at both parties, they exist on a pendulum.
[01:46:20]  And so you'll see both parties swing to both sides.
[01:46:24]  You saw it with the Clintons on one end and now the party swinging more towards Bernie Sanders, AOC type of representation.
[01:46:32]  But the same could be true with Republicans and swinging from Donald Trump towards more of a Mitt Romney, George W. Bush type of character.
[01:46:41]  What I will say is I think the most detrimental factor we've seen in DC has been money and politics.
[01:46:45]  And I know we bash our head against the wall saying this over and over again.
[01:46:49]  But for those of us that are in the city and get to actually see how it works, we watch members of Congress spend the majority of their time on the phone.
[01:46:58]  calling donors trying to get money.
[01:47:01]  People might not realize they physically leave their Capitol Hill office to go do call time.
[01:47:05]  And if I made my first job on Capitol Hill, what's that?
[01:47:08]  To take my member of Congress across the street.
[01:47:10]  Yep.
[01:47:10]  A grown person.
[01:47:13]  It was not fun.
[01:47:14]  I have watched politicians spend their time not researching the info or not researching the policy, but really trying to decide where the donors are going to be at, where the public's going to be at, and letting that be their guide.
[01:47:29]  And that's the reason why Americans don't trust politicians anymore.
[01:47:33]  I talk about this with my wife all the time.
[01:47:35]  I actually think the candidate who in 2028 comes out and says the country's really broken and I'm not sure how we're going to fix it, but we're going to have to do it all together is going to be the candidate that really has some ill, some goodwill given to him because we're such a fractured country.
[01:47:53]  Things have gotten so bad in terms of just being able to discuss or debate ideas that we're not able to do the basic things anymore, whether it's put forth bills to raise the minimum wage, whether it's deal with inadequacies in our education, our healthcare system.
[01:48:11]  Countries like China are moving forward insanely fast, and we're rolling backwards.
[01:48:19]  And so I think what you're seeing from voters is this really deep fear of why do I not feel like my life is going to get better?
[01:48:25]  And if not my life, is my child's going to get better?
[01:48:28]  And the answer to that is right now, I think you'd say no, no matter what party.
[01:48:31]  You did a good job referencing an op-ed you wrote recently in The Hill that said in 2028, the candidate who admits the system has failed, everyone will win.
[01:48:38]  I think a lot, my first reporting job was in South Bend, Indiana when Pete Buttigiege was mayor.
[01:48:43]  And I think about, as I tracked his rise, he would often say he thought Donald Trump got elevated because people just said, I want to burn everything down.
[01:48:50]  I want to kind of burn it down and then hit from scratch.
[01:48:54]  And that was a message that I saw from voters resonated a good deal.
[01:48:57]  But those frustrations lie within both parties.
[01:48:59]  But Taylor, if I may, truly, it wasn't just about the burn it all down.
[01:49:02]  It was ideas.
[01:49:03]  Trump did have ideas at the time.
[01:49:06]  Very brandable ideas.
[01:49:07]  Physical wall.
[01:49:08]  Build a wall.
[01:49:08]  Yep.
[01:49:09]  Exactly.
[01:49:09]  And people were hungry for that.
[01:49:11]  So you actually made a good point.
[01:49:12]  People are really thirsty for ideas right now.
[01:49:14]  And whoever brings it to them, people are going to be like, wow, this is something different, refreshing.
[01:49:18]  And it's going to change things for the better.
[01:49:20]  I hope it's going to take time.
[01:49:23]  It's a real sad thing because I think you could have seen maybe you and I as members of Congress by now.
[01:49:29]  And now I'm like, absolutely.
[01:49:30]  You don't want to do it.
[01:49:32]  We've seen how it goes.
[01:49:33]  You can't.
[01:49:35]  You can tell the politicians.
[01:49:36]  I think one of the reasons that AOC has done so well and some of the other politicians done so well is when you ask them a question, there's a legitimate pause and thinking about what the answer is rather than this rehearsed response.
[01:49:48]  And recently, I think you've seen AOC kind of regress on that because there's this question of whether she's going to run for president.
[01:49:55]  And so you're starting to see or Senate.
[01:49:58]  You're starting to see a more rehearsed politician.
[01:50:01]  That across the board has been the problem.
[01:50:03]  And so I really hope, whether it's Democrats or Republicans, that the younger generation we're seeing come in is willing to just answer uncomfortable conversations or questions honestly.
[01:50:13]  It's okay to say you don't know the answer.
[01:50:15]  It's okay to say that you disagree with the voter and here's the reasons why.
[01:50:20]  And I think voters are going to really reward that because at least in my lifetime, it feels like politicians have just insulted the voters.
[01:50:28]  They've told them what they should believe.
[01:50:30]  They've lied to them with fancy words, and voters have realized it.
[01:50:35]  And after the market collapse in 2008, I think the country changed.
[01:50:41]  We've seen a big difference between how we deal with corporations and how the American public deals with society as a whole.
[01:50:49]  This idea that we will continue to bail out corporations while Americans lose their homes or while our brave men and women go to Iran or go to other countries and fight in battles that our leader's child won't have to fight.
[01:51:03]  That's a problem.
[01:51:04]  I want to get to one more caller before this segment wraps up.
[01:51:06]  We have Larry, who's been waiting very patiently on the line from Alton, Illinois on the Republican line.
[01:51:11]  Good morning, Larry.
[01:51:11]  You're on with us.
[01:51:12]  What do you have to say to our guests?
[01:51:14]  Well, let's take a look at those what they want to do with those profits from those corporations there, Michael.
[01:51:23]  Just on one thing, just political news of the week, I want to take a look at the reflection pond.
[01:51:29]  Let's see, the last administration had it in for $300 million for three years.
[01:51:38]  And good old Donald Jay, he managed to get it done for $1.5 million in one week as soon as the work starts if it hasn't already.
[01:51:47]  So let's go ahead and take a look at the Federal Reserve building then.
[01:51:51]  So I'm pretty sure the cost overruns, and you got the Tom Tillises out there, and you got the backflipthoons that just want their recesses.
[01:52:03]  This is doing nothing for the American people.
[01:52:06]  Cost overruns comes from politics.
[01:52:10]  But that's just my own little opinion there.
[01:52:13]  I guess I'll listen to you guys.
[01:52:15]  Thanks, Larry.
[01:52:16]  I'll let you guys weigh in.
[01:52:18]  Larry is 100% correct.
[01:52:19]  I think he kind of made my point that whether it's a Democrat or Republican, we shouldn't support bad acts.
[01:52:25]  And so if Democrats are inflating costs so that they can give contracts to donors, that's something that should not just be not allowed, but it should be prosecuted.
[01:52:34]  And the same should be true with, you know, if Republicans do it.
[01:52:37]  At the end of the day, the money that Americans spend on their taxes needs to be spent in ways that's responsible, that we can see the effects of, and makes everyone's life better.
[01:52:49]  Painting the bottom of the reflecting pool blue is not something that makes everyone's life better.
[01:52:53]  I know we're going to have a big party over the summer for the 250th anniversary, but there are people every day, not just here in D.C., but all over the country, struggling to buy insulin, struggling to afford to keep a roof over their house.
[01:53:06]  Those are the people who need the help, not any donors.
[01:53:10]  For people who might not be aware, and we just had it up on screen, there is a photo of the ongoing project at the reflecting pool right by the Lincoln Memorial.
[01:53:16]  You can see it there.
[01:53:17]  President Trump says he's getting it painted a darker blue.
[01:53:20]  He said he wanted it to be turquoise initially, but somebody told him that that would be too Caribbean.

=== Trump's Surgeon General Nominee Change (02:35) ===

[01:53:27]  But it's his latest project and something he spends a lot of time on.
[01:53:30]  Rita, final thoughts, just either in response to that call or kind of putting a bow on.
[01:53:34]  Yeah, I mean, I'm smiling, but I'm crying on the inside.
[01:53:38]  That's just called normal.
[01:53:40]  It just is one of those things that how could we be talking about the bottom of the reflecting pool when, my gosh, this past week in Washington was so eye-opening thanks to people like Vonnie Hari, who's an activist who was really aligned with the Make America Healthy Again movement and her whole crew of fellow moms and Maha activists that called out the pesticides in our food and glyphosate,
[01:54:06]  which is being propped up, its use by members of Congress, Republicans, who want to tell us, and maybe even, I'm going to go out and say it, lie to us, that they are looking after us and our needs.
[01:54:17]  They propped up big industry this week.
[01:54:19]  And thankfully, because of these influencers, because of Congressman Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, we were saved.
[01:54:27]  And as an American mom, I am aghast that this was not the biggest news story this week.
[01:54:34]  So the caller makes a great point.
[01:54:36]  Spending all this bloat, this is part and parcel with how Washington operates.
[01:54:41]  But this past week in news, we really got a sense of, wow, there are members of Congress willing to sell us out, our health, our longevity, all of it, for money that fills their coffers to come back to Congress.
[01:54:55]  We all should be woke to that.
[01:54:57]  To your point, in terms of trying to keep up with all the news, the president pulled his Surgeon General nominee, Casey Means, who was a big kind of figure in the Maha movement, has nominated somebody who's considered a bit more mainstream.
[01:55:07]  So there seems to be some tensions with the political response, though, as your point, there's a big following for the Maha movement.
[01:55:14]  It's a little political, though, in nature, how they're making some changes, but I'm for it.
[01:55:17]  It's much more.
[01:55:18]  If they're more moderate, people.
[01:55:20]  There's so much we could discuss.
[01:55:21]  We'll have to have you both back, but that's Rena Shah, Republican strategist, Michael Starr Hopkins, Democratic strategist.
[01:55:26]  Thank you both.
[01:55:27]  Thank you.
[01:55:27]  Pleasure to have you in studio.
[01:55:28]  Coming up shortly, we hope you'll stick around.
[01:55:30]  We'll be taking your calls, your texts, your social media comments.
[01:55:33]  So weigh in.
[01:55:33]  We're also going to be speaking with Steve Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, to talk about the latest Iran war news, of which there is a lot.
[01:55:42]  So stay with Washington Journal.

=== Democracy Unfiltered on C-SPAN (02:31) ===

[01:56:02]  You're watching C-SPAN.
[01:56:05]  Democracy Unfiltered.
[01:56:10]  C-SPAN brings you democracy unfiltered in real time.
[01:56:14]  Democracy doesn't take sides.
[01:56:16]  Neither does C-SPAN.
[01:56:17]  In a world full of opinions, C-SPAN gives you direct access to the people and institutions that shape our nation.
[01:56:24]  Unfiltered coverage of Congress as laws are debated and decided.
[01:56:28]  Live proceedings from the United States Supreme Court.
[01:56:31]  Presidential speeches, briefings, and historic moments as they happen.
[01:56:36]  No commentary, no spin, no agenda.
[01:56:39]  Just the democratic process presented in full without interruption so you can watch the debates, hear every word, and make up your own mind.
[01:56:48]  C-SPAN's respected nonprofit service has offered Americans unfiltered gabble-to-gabble coverage of their government in action.
[01:56:57]  C-SPAN, bringing your democracy unfiltered.
[01:57:01]  C-SPAN is brought to you by the cable, satellite, and streaming companies that provide C-SPAN as a public service.
[01:57:10]  Tonight, on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A, tour the New York City office and home library of Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling biographer Robert Caro, who's currently working on the final volume of his five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson.
[01:57:24]  Mr. Caro talks about his research and writing process on the LBJ series.
[01:57:29]  Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, immigration reform.
[01:57:35]  He did it all.
[01:57:38]  And then he did Vietnam, which was just horrible.
[01:57:45]  So they say...
[01:57:46]  Is Vietnam the hardest part to write?
[01:57:50]  A good question.
[01:57:54]  Yeah, it's very really depressing.
[01:58:07]  Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling biographer Robert Caro tonight at 8 p.m. 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 podcast.
[01:58:26]  You look back on what you've achieved in your life.
[01:58:29]  What makes you the happiest of what you've achieved so far?
[01:58:31]  This interview is the absolute apex.

=== Middle East Economic Conflicts (14:58) ===

[01:58:34]  Leaders seem to like to wear wigs.
[01:58:36]  How come he didn't have a wig?
[01:58:37]  President Trump said, I made a mistake the first time.
[01:58:40]  I should have given it to you the first time.
[01:58:42]  That isn't what he said.
[01:58:44]  Your first book was called A Time to Kill.
[01:58:46]  How many publishers turned that down?
[01:58:48]  Well, all of them.
[01:58:49]  It's very rare to see Donald Trump laugh.
[01:58:51]  He doesn't like to smile, but he has what they call the stare.
[01:58:54]  How would the stare?
[01:58:55]  When you go to the Oscars, everybody says, oh, there's the author.
[01:58:58]  All the beautiful people go this way.
[01:58:59]  And then they have another little path in the Oscars where the people like I go.
[01:59:03]  So you wrote a book about somebody who lived with wolves.
[01:59:06]  I interviewed a guy who lived with wolves.
[01:59:07]  Yep.
[01:59:08]  And is that safe to do that?
[01:59:09]  Absolutely not.
[01:59:10]  So I know you were not complaining.
[01:59:12]  You were opinionated about the situation.
[01:59:14]  Which is why we love you, David.
[01:59:23]  Washington Journal continues.
[01:59:26]  Welcome back.
[01:59:27]  We're joined now by our next guest, Stephen Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
[01:59:31]  He's here to discuss the latest developments in the Iran war, which continues to evolve every single day.
[01:59:36]  Thanks for being here, Stephen.
[01:59:37]  My pleasure.
[01:59:38]  So many of the calls over the last two hours have been about the war's impact, especially here at home, gas prices, fertilizer costs, and all of that.
[01:59:45]  Let's start off with just kind of your overhead assessment of where things stand right now with this war.
[01:59:50]  I'll give you one word, Taylor.
[01:59:52]  Stalemate.
[01:59:53]  The United States has rejected the Iranian government's recent proposal, which was only slightly more flexible than their previous position.
[02:00:01]  Their previous position was the United States needs to lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz before there can be serious negotiations on the other issues.
[02:00:09]  The Iranians are now saying that they're willing to discuss ways to open the Strait of Hormuz before there can be other discussions of other issues.
[02:00:17]  But the president has rejected that.
[02:00:20]  Meanwhile, the blockade that the United States has laid on the strait is affecting the Iranian economy in a very serious way.
[02:00:27]  This was already an economy that was in desperate shape.
[02:00:29]  The Israeli and American bombing campaign did even more damage to the Iranian economy.
[02:00:35]  So it is clearly starting to pinch.
[02:00:38]  The big question is: who has more time?
[02:00:41]  The United States or the Iranians?
[02:00:44]  Will economic pain force the Iranians to blink or will economic pain force President Trump to blink?
[02:00:51]  So far, no one's willing to move off of their opening positions, basically.
[02:00:57]  And that's why your word of choice was stalemate.
[02:00:59]  Exactly.
[02:01:00]  We've heard a lot from the president on this over the last 24, 36 hours.
[02:01:03]  He posted on Truth Social last evening.
[02:01:06]  He said, I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can't imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to humanity and the world over the last 47 years.
[02:01:17]  Thank you for your attention to this matter, as he always says.
[02:01:19]  I also want to play some sound from him on Friday.
[02:01:22]  He just gave kind of his latest update on the war, and he changes hour by hour on it.
[02:01:26]  But here's what he said about the conflict.
[02:01:28]  So they want to make a deal, but I'm not satisfied with it.
[02:01:32]  So we'll see what happens.
[02:01:34]  Iran wants to make a deal because they have no military left, essentially, and they want to make a deal, but I'm not satisfied with it.
[02:01:47]  Why are you not seeking congressional approval to extend it?
[02:01:50]  Because it's never been sought before.
[02:01:52]  There's been numerous many, many times, and nobody's ever gotten it before.
[02:01:56]  They consider it totally unconstitutional.
[02:01:58]  But we're always in touch with Congress.
[02:02:01]  But nobody's ever sought it before.
[02:02:03]  Nobody's ever asked for it before.
[02:02:06]  It's never been used before.
[02:02:08]  Why should we be different?
[02:02:20]  We have great respect for Pakistan and Islamabad and tremendous respect for the Prime Minister and the Field Marshal.
[02:02:29]  And they're working with us.
[02:02:30]  They continue to work with us.
[02:02:32]  But the trip is a very long one, and we're doing everything in terms of negotiating right now in terms of the negotiation telephonically.
[02:02:43]  They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there.
[02:02:50]  There's tremendous discord.
[02:02:52]  There's tremendous, they're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran.
[02:02:58]  The leadership is very disjointed.
[02:03:01]  It's got two to three groups, maybe four.
[02:03:04]  And it's a very disjointed leadership.
[02:03:07]  And with that being said, they all want to make a deal, but they're all messed up.
[02:03:13]  So that was President Trump on Friday.
[02:03:14]  He weighs in almost on a daily basis on this conflict.
[02:03:17]  There was a lot there.
[02:03:18]  I want to talk first about somebody was asking him about Congress's role in all of this and whether or not there should be congressional approval of this conflict.
[02:03:25]  There was actually a letter that the president sent to Congress this week that got a lot of attention.
[02:03:29]  I just want to read part of it.
[02:03:30]  It says there has been no exchange of fire between the United States and Iran since April 7th.
[02:03:35]  That's when the ceasefire started.
[02:03:37]  And it says the hostilities that began on February 28th have terminated.
[02:03:42]  Can you explain for people who might be confused by the Trump administration saying the war is essentially over while the ceasefire is going on?
[02:03:49]  Right.
[02:03:49]  I think that this is just maneuvering, semantic maneuvering on the part of the president so that he doesn't have to get into a debate with Congress over the war powers resolution and that the Republicans in Congress can continue to fend off Democratic attempts to end funding for the war.
[02:04:05]  This is a constant push-me-pull you between the executive and the legislature, no matter who the president is and no matter who's in control of Congress, which is who has the prerogative to declare war, to pursue hostilities abroad, and those types of issues.
[02:04:20]  So this isn't necessarily unusual.
[02:04:23]  What is unusual is the president saying the war powers resolution does not apply because it's been, hostilities have been terminated and therefore we turn off the clock, which is 60 days.
[02:04:37]  It seems, however, that regardless of what he says, the Republican majorities in both houses of the Congress will prevent the Democrats from trying to defund or stop the war from continuing.
[02:04:50]  Over the last month, especially when I've been sitting in this seat taking calls from people, a lot of people just call in and say, how is the war allowed to happen without Congress weighing in right now?
[02:04:59]  Do you have a simplified answer for that?
[02:05:01]  Well, look, we've seen presidents before go to war or engage in hostilities abroad without the approval of Congress.
[02:05:07]  Let's take another example from the Middle East.
[02:05:10]  President Obama undertook a bombing campaign against Libya.
[02:05:14]  We bombed Libya for seven months in, I believe it was 2012, 2011, 2012, without authorization from Congress.
[02:05:27]  Again, this is a constant struggle between presidents and Congress over who has the prerogative over the use of force abroad.
[02:05:38]  Gas prices continues to be such a sensitive topic for folks.
[02:05:42]  They've been weighing in all morning just across the country.
[02:05:44]  Some people, interestingly, there was a gentleman from Texas, a farmer and a rancher, who told us he doesn't care how high the prices go, even though he relies on diesel fuel.
[02:05:51]  He said this conflict is worth it to me.
[02:05:53]  Other folks saying the economic pinch is too much.
[02:05:56]  I bring it up because kind of adjacent to this, there was this news about OPEC over the last week.
[02:06:00]  And you actually wrote a piece for the Council of Foreign Relations, why the UAE walked out on OPEC and what it means for the cartel.
[02:06:07]  Explain, kind of put it into layman's terms for people why they should pay attention to this and how it plays into the broader oil conversation.
[02:06:13]  Yeah, well, the United Arab Emirates is a significant producer of oil and has been a member of OPEC since the 1960s.
[02:06:21]  The Emiratis have decided that it's no longer in their economic interest to be part of the cartel.
[02:06:27]  They believe that Saudi Arabia has had too much influence over questions of pricing and production and so on and so forth, and they feel that they'll be better off if they can control their own production and pricing separate from the cartel.
[02:06:43]  This also comes at the same time that there's a lot of tension in the relationship between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
[02:06:48]  Going back even before the war in Iran, there was differences between the two Gulf heavyweights over the situation in Yemen, over Sudan, over Israel's recognition of Somaliland, a kind of independent part of Somalia that's been autonomous since 1991.
[02:07:06]  There's been differences over how to handle Islamist movements and their accumulation of political power around the region.
[02:07:12]  So I think you take all of these things together and then differences over the economics of OPEC and then add to it that I think the Emiratis were unhappy with the fact that the Saudis were willing to negotiate with the Iranians throughout the time, or at least take part in negotiations with the Egyptians, the Qataris, and the Pakistanis while the Emiratis were taking most of the fire.
[02:07:37]  The Emiratis faced more missile and drone attacks than even the Israelis during the U.S. That's a lot when you look at their visuals that show the numbers that they've done.
[02:07:44]  And people, everyone's heard about the Strait of Hormuz and they've learned about it, but the UAE is basically on the other side of it.
[02:07:49]  Right.
[02:07:50]  So they've been on the receiving end.
[02:07:51]  The president did weigh in on the OPEC news and he didn't seem surprised by it or frustrated by it.
[02:07:56]  Did you glean anything from that?
[02:07:57]  Well, you know, the Emiratis have been, quote-unquote, studying the issue for a number of years.
[02:08:02]  The Qataris, who are not a major oil producer, left the cartel in 2019.
[02:08:08]  And shortly thereafter, the Emiratis said that they were going to study the issue as well.
[02:08:11]  So this has been on the table.
[02:08:13]  And the fact that there's been so much tension recently between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and there is an economic reason to do it, and there was further tension over the Saudi position and the Emirati position with regard to the war, it seemed like an opportune moment for the Emiratis to break from the cartel.
[02:08:29]  Let's talk a bit about the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:08:31]  My colleagues and I almost joke that it's the center of every story that we're turning every day.
[02:08:35]  But for people who are still catching up with it, and there it is on the map, 20% of the world's oil supply comes through that.
[02:08:41]  And this naval blockade, despite the Trump administration saying the hostilities have been terminated, the U.S. Navy is continuing the blockade.
[02:08:49]  What are you tracking and what stands out to you at this point in the Strait of Hormuz?
[02:08:53]  Well, I think that the U.S. Navy has sealed up the strait.
[02:08:57]  And the position of the administration is if the Iranians aren't going to let ships through, the United States aren't going to let Iranian ships through as well.
[02:09:07]  And what I'm looking at is really not a question of what's happening in the strait.
[02:09:11]  It's a question of what the effect is on the Iranian economy and the Iranian leadership.
[02:09:16]  The president in his statement that you ran just before talked about that there were differences among different factions within Iran.
[02:09:22]  That is believable that there are differences of opinion among hardliners in Iran.
[02:09:27]  I don't believe in this moderates versus hardliners kind of thing that people have talked about for many years.
[02:09:32]  There are people who have presented the hardline case to the West who seem moderate but aren't necessarily, aren't necessarily moderates.
[02:09:40]  And the Iranians have made a very public showing of trying to say we're a united front and there isn't that kind of political divide.
[02:09:45]  Of course, you know, different members of the Iranian leadership such as it is at the moment are having a very hard time communicating, given the fact that if they open a cell phone, they're being tracked and targeted.
[02:09:56]  So they're not very well organized.
[02:09:58]  But I think that they have essentially decided that they can suffer a lot of pain as a result of the blockade.
[02:10:06]  And that's why they think that they have time on their hands.
[02:10:08]  And that's why the president thinks he has time on his hands, that at some point they will capitulate because the economic pain will be too much.
[02:10:16]  But this is a leadership that has inflicted a tremendous amount of pain on the Iranian people, whether it's economic or during the protests in Iran in late December in January.
[02:10:26]  The estimates are that they killed, the regime killed their own citizens anywhere from 7,000 to 30,000 people, is the upward estimate in a matter of days.
[02:10:36]  So it seems like they're prepared to impose a lot more suffering on the Iranian people.
[02:10:43]  But of course, the longer this blockade goes, the Iranian economy is in a slow collapse and will ultimately collapse.
[02:10:52]  And we'll see what happens then.
[02:10:53]  The question is whether the president will feel the pressure of rising gas prices, rising fertilizer prices.
[02:10:58]  And the questions that the American people have is: why did we do this in the first place?
[02:11:02]  And that's a great segue to my next question, which was going to be: the president, when he talks about the Strait of Hormuz, offers two takes on it.
[02:11:08]  He says the U.S. doesn't need it at all to get oil and that it's not having an impact on gas prices.
[02:11:13]  At the same time, this naval blockade is happening because the U.S. feels the need to effectuate an economic grip there.
[02:11:21]  For people who are wondering, does the U.S. rely on the Strait?
[02:11:24]  Is the President correct saying we don't need that?
[02:11:26]  What's your read on it?
[02:11:28]  Well, the answer is yes and no, actually.
[02:11:30]  I mean, like with many things with President Trump, you have to kind of dig deeper into what he is saying.
[02:11:35]  And there is truth to what he is saying here: the United States is the largest producer of oil in the world.
[02:11:41]  So in theory, we don't really need the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:11:44]  But of course, it's a global market.
[02:11:46]  So when Kuwaiti oil, Iraqi oil, Saudi oil, oil from that part of the world, Iranian oil is blockaded and can't get out of that region.
[02:11:58]  There is less oil on the world market.
[02:12:00]  Laws of supply and demand.
[02:12:01]  When a product that demand remains the same or is higher and there's less of supply, prices are going to go up regardless of how much we produce.
[02:12:11]  We would have to produce that much more in order to stabilize global oil prices and gas prices, and we just don't have the capacity to do that.
[02:12:18]  So in theory, we don't need the Strait of Hormuz, but of course we do if we want the economy to be healthy and running and people to be able to drive their cars without paying huge sums for such a global entity.
[02:12:31]  It's interesting hearing the president express his frustrations with the UK, for instance, saying you should be helping more because you rely more on oil directly from the strait.
[02:12:39]  But that conversation is continuing.
[02:12:41]  We have a couple callers who I want to bring in.
[02:12:43]  Lewis or Lois from Salisbury, North Carolina on the Democratic line.
[02:12:47]  Good morning.
[02:12:48]  You're on with our guest.
[02:12:50]  Yes, top of the morning.
[02:12:51]  And it's Lewis.
[02:12:52]  Thank you.
[02:12:53]  Oh, no problem.
[02:12:54]  No problem.
[02:12:55]  See, C-SPAN, I'm getting kind of like, you know, concerned with you guys because y'all be picking people, some of the guests, don't really actually know nothing.
[02:13:05]  But let me explain.
[02:13:08]  The gentleman just said that everybody invades and bombs other nations or countries or whatever.
[02:13:17]  And then he used Barack Obama, President Barack Obama, as part of doing the same thing that Donald Trump is doing today.
[02:13:27]  Now, I want to tell the viewers at C-SPAN, that's a lie.
[02:13:31]  There is a difference.

=== NATO Allies vs. Trump's War (15:45) ===

[02:13:32]  Barack Hussein Obama had NATO with him.
[02:13:38]  We didn't go in alone.
[02:13:40]  Barack Hussein Obama is a good deal maker.
[02:13:44]  He brought the Allies with us.
[02:13:46]  Donald Trump didn't do that.
[02:13:47]  So you got to stop talking about Donald Trump did the same thing Barack Hussein Obama did, and that's a lie.
[02:13:56]  Tell the truth, man.
[02:13:58]  Thank you, Lewis.
[02:13:59]  Do you want to weigh in on that?
[02:14:00]  Yeah, sure.
[02:14:01]  Actually, Lewis, I'm not lying.
[02:14:03]  What happened was with the operation in Libya was actually more similar to the situation in Iran than you'd like to admit.
[02:14:11]  Two important allies of the United States, the British prime minister at the time, David Cameron, and the French prime minister at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, lobbied President Obama to attack Libya over the uprising in Libya and their concerns that many Libyans would cross the Mediterranean and destabilize and destabilize Europe as a result.
[02:14:34]  And after a furious lobbying campaign, the president agreed to do it.
[02:14:38]  It wasn't exactly a NATO operation, although I will say that there was more international cooperation because the British and the French agreed to take part as well.
[02:14:50]  But they couldn't have done the operation without the United States.
[02:14:54]  And they lobbied furiously.
[02:14:55]  And in fact, the then Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, was almost in open insubordination to President Obama because he didn't think it was a wise decision for the United States to undertake this bombing campaign in Libya.
[02:15:08]  So in fact, it was a little bit more similar than Lewis is making on it.
[02:15:13]  And, you know, look, you, one other thing, Lewis, I don't think you should call me a liar.
[02:15:18]  You may disagree with my analysis, but I'm certainly not lying.
[02:15:23]  What do you make of this broader conversation when it comes to America's allies in the context of Iran?
[02:15:28]  A lot of callers who are critical of the war say Israel basically walked the U.S. into this conflict and no one else is in support of it.
[02:15:35]  Is your read that, or are there other countries that are saying maybe we're not publicly expressing as much support, but this is a vested interest for the government?
[02:15:42]  I think after the fact, the countries in the Gulf said, if you were going to start this war, now you need to finish it.
[02:15:49]  You can't leave the Straight of Hormuz, the Iranians in control or partial control of the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:15:54]  You can't leave the Iranians with the capability to attack us at will.
[02:15:58]  But in fact, our Gulf partners, who have lived under the shadow of Iranian threat and the Iranians sowing chaos around the region for decades now, were concerned precisely by this outcome, that the Iranian regime would hold on, it would be weaker, but also more dangerous and more empowered as a result.
[02:16:21]  I think when it comes to the conduct of the Israeli prime minister, who is an incredibly polarizing figure here in the United States as well as in Israel, I think any Israeli prime minister would lobby an American president to help Israel manage the threat that Iran poses to Israel.
[02:16:43]  The Iranians raised a number of armies around Israel, had threatened Israel on any number of occasions, built a nuclear program.
[02:16:55]  The problem is that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied previous presidents to do exactly this, they said they looked at the war plans and said, we're not going to do this.
[02:17:07]  President Trump decided that he was going to do it.
[02:17:10]  So I think it's on President Trump who made that decision.
[02:17:13]  But I think that the expectation that the Israelis, who feel so threatened at an existential level by the Iranian regime, would not implore the United States to help, to go to war with them, to take care of this threat, is, I think, an unrealistic thing.
[02:17:29]  President Trump decided that he would go for it.
[02:17:31]  That was the difference maker.
[02:17:32]  Our next caller is Walt calling in from Indiana on the Republican line.
[02:17:36]  Good morning, Walt.
[02:17:37]  What's on your mind?
[02:17:38]  First, I wanted to say I agree with the man from Texas.
[02:17:41]  This war is worthwhile.
[02:17:43]  The $4 a gallon gasoline is worthwhile.
[02:17:47]  If we keep nuclear-tipped ICVMs out of the hands of the Ayatollahs, my question to Mr. Cook, I'm really impressed with his knowledge and balance presentation on the issues.
[02:18:02]  I was a naval staff officer with a little bit of a specialty in Middle East, and he's really knowledgeable on the money.
[02:18:08]  I was just curious as to what kind of background he had before he has his current position with the Consul on Foreign Relations.
[02:18:18]  Go ahead.
[02:18:18]  Well, thanks for the call.
[02:18:19]  I'm an academic.
[02:18:21]  I have a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.
[02:18:27]  But that is my background.
[02:18:29]  I've long had an interest in the Middle East.
[02:18:31]  I spent most of my adult life studying Arabic.
[02:18:34]  I have Turkish and wrote a dissertation and three other books on the Middle East.
[02:18:42]  It's been an absolutely fascinating and kind of wild ride.
[02:18:47]  For someone of my generation, my career essentially began.
[02:18:52]  I started a fellowship at the Brookings Institution a week before 9-11.
[02:18:57]  Wow.
[02:18:57]  And my career has spanned September 4th, 2001, up into through this now war in Iran.
[02:19:03]  That's crazy.
[02:19:04]  And one of the books that you've written is called The End of Ambition, America's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.
[02:19:09]  So this is a topic you're weighing in on on a daily basis.
[02:19:12]  We have Tim calling in from Wisconsin on the Democratic line.
[02:19:16]  Good morning, Tim.
[02:19:16]  You're on with us.
[02:19:18]  Yes, good morning.
[02:19:20]  I would just like to ask Mr. Cook, you know, this chaos in the Middle East and so on, how is it that Vladimir Putin gets a pass on everything?
[02:19:30]  In the meantime, he's completely gone after the Prime Minister of Britain, Prime Minister of Germany, France, Spain, Italy.
[02:19:39]  I know they didn't help us out, but he didn't inform them on anything.
[02:19:43]  I mean, Putin's the one that caused gas prices to spike in 22 from 279 in February to almost 5 in June, caused inflation in this country.
[02:19:54]  He's been our biggest adversary for years.
[02:19:57]  And now, with this Iran war, you know he's supplying Iran with military hardware.
[02:20:03]  And he's the one that's getting rich on the whole deal because of the oil exports when his economy was starting to collapse.
[02:20:10]  And we could have maybe had a resolution in Ukraine, but now it just boggles my mind how Putin gets a pass on everything.
[02:20:18]  Could you please answer that?
[02:20:20]  Thank you.
[02:20:21]  Well, it's a little bit outside my expertise.
[02:20:24]  I'm a Middle East analyst, but I will say that, you know, it does seem from the outside that the president in the administration has a soft spot for the Russian president.
[02:20:36]  As the caller points out, the president has taken America's traditional allies.
[02:20:43]  He's called British Prime Minister not quite Churchill, and most recently has engaged in a spat with the German Chancellor.
[02:20:51]  So he does seem to have, he does seem to criticize America's traditional allies, but not necessarily Vladimir Putin.
[02:21:00]  I will say this, however, that the United States has provided a significant amount of support for Ukraine in the war that Vladimir Putin started.
[02:21:10]  And that spans a number of administrations now.
[02:21:13]  And the Russians are continuing to have a very, very hard time on the battlefield.
[02:21:18]  And what the Russians are doing with Iran, providing them intelligence and so on and so forth, is essentially payback for what the United States has done.
[02:21:26]  And the Russians have been badly bloodied by their blunder into a conflict with the Ukrainians.
[02:21:32]  I can't answer why the president seems to have a soft spot for the Russian president.
[02:21:37]  And he went to war in the Middle East without essentially consulting America's traditional allies and then expected them to step up and take part in at least patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:21:50]  From their perspective, they would like to have been consulted first before they were asked to commit forces to a major military undertaking.
[02:21:58]  Two points to that.
[02:21:59]  President Trump had a phone call with President Putin a couple of days ago, which was the first time they had spoken in a bit.
[02:22:04]  And it was striking because apparently President Putin and President Trump's telling said, How can I help you with Iran?
[02:22:10]  And President Trump said, Why don't you finish the war against Ukraine?
[02:22:13]  That would help me out.
[02:22:14]  So that was a striking interaction.
[02:22:16]  And then you and the caller talked about Germany.
[02:22:18]  I just want to put this headline from the AP up.
[02:22:20]  Trump says U.S. will reduce the number of troops in Germany, quote, a lot further than withdrawal of 5,000.
[02:22:26]  And this is one of the consequences of the president not being thrilled with our European allies.
[02:22:30]  And the German chancellor has been critical of the war.
[02:22:33]  And then President Trump said, I'm pulling out 5,000 troops.
[02:22:36]  Yeah, it's an interesting term.
[02:22:38]  Turn.
[02:22:39]  The German chancellor was very outspoken during what's called the 12-day war, the Israeli operation in June 2025 that culminated in the American operation, Operation Midnight Hammer, that hit Iran's nuclear facilities.
[02:22:52]  And at the time, the German chancellor had said, We have to admit that Israel is actually doing the work for us.
[02:22:59]  And Iran with nuclear capability is a threat not just to Israel and America's partners in the Gulf, but also in Europe.
[02:23:07]  But the German Chancellor more recently said that the president was being humiliated by the Iranians over this situation.
[02:23:15]  And I think this was a frustration on the part of the Germans over lack of consultation on this and what they see, I think, is a softening of position with regard to Ukraine.
[02:23:26]  It was striking.
[02:23:26]  The chancellor was here in Washington several weeks ago, met with President Trump, and they at least seemed to get along fairly well in that.
[02:23:32]  But now this is going back and forth.
[02:23:34]  Let's hear from Eileen calling in from Patterson, New Jersey on the independent line.
[02:23:38]  Good morning, Eileen.
[02:23:39]  I grew up right next door to you in Garfield, so thanks for calling in for now.
[02:23:44]  Wow.
[02:23:46]  So what I'm saying is just obvious to me, but still, this is very upsetting.
[02:23:51]  The war was a mistake.
[02:23:54]  I mean, and I just, that's all I really can think about.
[02:23:57]  And it's like we're digging ourselves out of a hole that we shouldn't have been in from the first place.
[02:24:03]  And all the ramifications of what we've done, all these different things that people are bringing up.
[02:24:09]  I mean, it's not that the world doesn't realize that Iran is a problem.
[02:24:14]  But I mean, we go into this thing alone, right?
[02:24:16]  I mean, this is obvious to you, I know.
[02:24:19]  I mean, I mean, I don't even know what to say, but so that's it.
[02:24:25]  I mean, I don't see how we accomplish anything.
[02:24:28]  I'm really afraid for the future.
[02:24:30]  And that's basically my comment.
[02:24:32]  Thanks for calling in, Eileen.
[02:24:34]  Let's build off of that and her concerns because a lot of people who are critical of the war say before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was largely operating.
[02:24:43]  They say, yes, there was the nuclear threat from Iran, but it probably wasn't immediate based on certain assessments.
[02:24:51]  So can you make an argument that sides more with the administration about why the war was necessary now?
[02:24:56]  As she was saying, she feels it was not, you know, that it's a problem.
[02:25:00]  Well, I think Eileen raises a number of very, very important issues.
[02:25:03]  As you point out, the Strait of Hormuz, there was freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz before the war.
[02:25:08]  We had bombed Iran's nuclear program, and the president last June said that it was totally obliterated.
[02:25:14]  Over and over again.
[02:25:15]  Over and over again.
[02:25:15]  He said it was totally obliterated.
[02:25:18]  There was, according to the United States and the Israeli government, some intelligence that the Iranians were working to reconstitute their nuclear program, but it certainly wasn't an imminent threat.
[02:25:27]  So one can imagine that this conflict comes to an end where the Iranians have some control, some partial control.
[02:25:34]  They can raise revenue as a result of the conflict, raise revenue from the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:25:40]  Almost putting a toll in.
[02:25:42]  But tolling, that's one of the ideas that has been floated.
[02:25:45]  And you can also imagine that as a result of this, they will work harder to reconstitute their nuclear program and drive towards a nuclear weapon.
[02:25:53]  Look, there has been no Operation Epic Fury on the Korean Peninsula because the North Koreans have nuclear weapons capability.
[02:26:00]  So I think Eileen's concerns are extraordinarily valid.
[02:26:04]  I think the president's view is that he, as a disruptor who had success in Venezuela, had success in Iran previously, can break this regime and that it will solve this problem once and for all.
[02:26:22]  I think I have my own doubts.
[02:26:23]  You were very nice to mention my book, The End of Ambition.
[02:26:27]  There I said, you know, I thought that President Obama's nuclear deal with the Iranians was giving a lifeline to a terrible regime.
[02:26:34]  And I felt that war was not going to be worth it, that the best way to handle the challenges that Iran presents was through deterrence and containment, which neither precluded negotiation with them nor the use of military force.
[02:26:46]  And that as we deterred and contained the Iranians, hopefully the world would turn and the Iranian people would take care of the regime.
[02:26:54]  And we saw that happening in December and January.
[02:26:57]  And in fact, the Iranians have been in open revolt against these rulers since at least 2009.
[02:27:02]  That's taking, but one has to take a much longer view of things.
[02:27:05]  And I think the president saw himself as someone who, again, after Venezuela, could strike this blow against the Iranian regime and change the nature of the Middle East.
[02:27:16]  I'm not sure if it's a good idea.
[02:27:17]  Particularly overnight, too.
[02:27:18]  That's what the president talks openly about that.
[02:27:20]  He says the Venezuela operation was amazing.
[02:27:22]  We didn't lose any troops.
[02:27:23]  And in 24 hours, we had control of this country.
[02:27:25]  And it was clear he said it.
[02:27:27]  He was looking for an Iranian version of Delsi Rodriguez, the leader of Venezuela that the United States is now working with.
[02:27:33]  Who worked for Nicolas Maduro, but now is cooperating with the United States.
[02:27:36]  Exactly.
[02:27:37]  And I think the difference is that Del Codriguez isn't really much of an ideologue.
[02:27:41]  Yes, she is a dedicated leftist, but I think that's because the rightists killed her father and she was out for revenge.
[02:27:47]  Had it been the other way around, she might have been a dedicated rightist.
[02:27:51]  I think when it comes to Iran, you do have true believers.
[02:27:54]  You have ideologues.
[02:27:55]  You have hardliners.
[02:27:57]  One of the kind of pillars of the Iranian regime has been hostility to the United States.
[02:28:02]  So it would be very, very hard for any of these regime leaders, even levels down.
[02:28:06]  After all, the Israelis have killed lots of levels of leadership in Iran.
[02:28:11]  Levels down, it would be very, very hard for them to make this kind of Del Codriguez-like type of accommodation with the United States.
[02:28:18]  I also think it's worth remembering, and I remind myself just in covering it, that in his initial video announcing this operation, President Trump gave a very direct message to the Iranian people and said, here's your chance to take over your government, and kind of indicating that he wanted a citizen uprising that so far hasn't been able to materialize.
[02:28:35]  Well, I think through the last six and a half or seven weeks of this, people have forgotten the fact that in January, the president had essentially said help is on the way.
[02:28:44]  He threatened the Iranian regime.
[02:28:45]  That's how we got here.
[02:28:47]  It wasn't over the nuclear issue.
[02:28:50]  The nuclear issue is something that has come up because it's something that you can negotiate over.
[02:28:55]  And the Iranian people, this mass uprising hasn't materialized yet.
[02:29:01]  It may yet happen, but it hasn't materialized yet.
[02:29:03]  So I think the administration is looking for a way out.
[02:29:06]  And the Iranians are willing to dangle these negotiations over this to ensnare the United States, essentially, in a long, drawn-out negotiation.

=== Iran Nuclear Deal Negotiations (08:26) ===

[02:29:17]  Our next caller is calling in on the Republican line, Sy in Plain View, New York.
[02:29:22]  Good morning, Sai.
[02:29:22]  You're on with our guest.
[02:29:23]  Yes, good morning.
[02:29:25]  I'd like to make a comment about Biden's strategy of don't.
[02:29:33]  That was his favorite line for Iran.
[02:29:38]  And the JCPOA under Obama was a complete failure because The Iranians hid many of the new experiments or labs deep in the mountains.
[02:29:59]  The UN was not allowed to go there and the other places where they were allowed to go, they had to give about two weeks' notice.
[02:30:10]  So the whole thing was ridiculous.
[02:30:12]  Also, an immediate or imminent threat.
[02:30:17]  Are we supposed to wait until the missiles are out of their silos and that they're nuclear tipped?
[02:30:25]  Is that imminent?
[02:30:27]  Or are we supposed to take out Hitler before he starts?
[02:30:31]  That's my comment.
[02:30:32]  Thank you.
[02:30:33]  Want to respond?
[02:30:34]  Well, first I want to say good morning to Sai.
[02:30:36]  I'm also from Plainview, Long Island.
[02:30:38]  It's nice to have a caller from my hometown.
[02:30:40]  Welcome back, people from our neck of the world.
[02:30:42]  I think that, yeah, we've had quite a few from the New York metropolitan area this morning, Taylor.
[02:30:47]  I think what Sy is articulating is a view that is held by, I think, a lot of people, that the JCPOA was inadequate.
[02:30:55]  My own view is that the JCPOA had a hunch at the heart of it, that by the time the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program would sunset 10, 12, 15 years, that there would be a new regime in Iran, a friendlier regime in Iran, or that at least the current regime would want to have better relations with the United States.
[02:31:15]  There was really no evidence of that.
[02:31:20]  And Sy is quite right.
[02:31:21]  There was suspicion, very real suspicion, that the Iranians had hid important parts of their nuclear work and that, in fact, their nuclear work on weaponization had never really ended.
[02:31:32]  I think people forget the fact that the Israelis in a spectacular Mossad operation boosted the entire archive of Iran's nuclear program, which proved that the Iranians had been working on weaponization.
[02:31:45]  This question of imminent that Cy raised, this is something that brings me back to 2002 and 2003.
[02:31:50]  We debated this issue in Washington over the invasion of Iraq, in which the Bush administration made the argument that the Iraqis were an imminent threat to the United States and people around them.
[02:32:01]  I don't think we're ever going to get around that issue.
[02:32:05]  And I think Cy makes a good point.
[02:32:08]  That no one has been able to answer satisfactorily here in Washington.
[02:32:12]  At what point do you have to look at a country and what it's doing as an imminent threat?
[02:32:18]  Is it at that moment when they're loading nuclear tip missiles into their silos, or is it as they're working on it?
[02:32:26]  And I think, like everything else in Washington, there are two very distinct camps on it.
[02:32:31]  Supporters of the president and the operation against Iran would say, you cannot wait until that last minute.
[02:32:38]  Look at North Korea.
[02:32:38]  North Korea remains a threat, and it is an imminent threat.
[02:32:42]  And those who say there are other ways of doing this, perhaps a new diplomatic agreement.
[02:32:48]  At the start of your answer, I was digging for this video from the New York Times that I saw just yesterday that David Sanger, their longtime national security correspondent, put together.
[02:32:54]  But it had a really interesting chart that talked about the Obama-era nuclear deal and how Iran was amassing this nuclear material.
[02:33:02]  And then when the deal was struck, it dropped for a while.
[02:33:05]  But then after President Trump took it away, it started to build back up.
[02:33:08]  But that the Obama-era deal did have a sunset clause, I think, for 2030 initially.
[02:33:13]  So it goes into this debate of whether or not that was enough.
[02:33:16]  As David Sanger said, he goes, the Obama administration bought themselves several years, but they didn't do away with the threat of the US.
[02:33:21]  That's exactly right.
[02:33:22]  That's exactly right.
[02:33:23]  And that was the hunch at the heart of the deal, is that this might be a different regime, or this might be a regime that would moderate its views and have a better relationship with the United States and its neighbors on the other side of the Gulf.
[02:33:34]  One point, President Trump breached the agreement in 2018.
[02:33:40]  It took the Iranians a little bit of time.
[02:33:42]  It wasn't until the next administration where they started ramping up their production of enriched uranium.
[02:33:48]  Another source of debate here in Washington about the wisdom of leaving the JCPOA.
[02:33:56]  But here we are.
[02:33:57]  We can debate this until the sun goes down.
[02:33:59]  You don't have that much time, Taylor.
[02:34:00]  I don't have that much time.
[02:34:02]  But here we are.
[02:34:03]  The United States has engaged in a war with Iran for the last six and a half weeks.
[02:34:08]  With the benefit of hindsight, when you look back at President Biden's term, and that caller mentioned Biden, could the Biden administration have done more knowing that Iran was starting to rebuild in that sense?
[02:34:19]  Well, I think at the beginning of the Biden administration, they did explore different ways in which to get back into the JCPOA.
[02:34:28]  The Iranians didn't seem interested.
[02:34:29]  And one of their arguments was, we had an agreement and the United States breached it.
[02:34:34]  What makes you think that we believe if we strike an agreement with you now four years from now, you won't leave it?
[02:34:41]  Again, they wanted guarantees.
[02:34:42]  They wanted an actual treaty which would never get through, which would never get through the Senate.
[02:34:48]  At the same time, the Biden administration did lay on sanctions on the Iranians.
[02:34:53]  So one of the big criticisms is they did allow the Iranians to sell oil.
[02:34:58]  But of course, Americans are very sensitive to the price of gasoline.
[02:35:02]  And when the price of oil goes up, so does the price of gas.
[02:35:05]  So the president was sort of betwixt and between on that.
[02:35:09]  But there was this inclination to try to get back into the 2018 agreement, which, you know, from my perspective, you know, I was not spun up about it.
[02:35:17]  It's the greatest deal ever.
[02:35:18]  It's the worst deal ever.
[02:35:19]  I thought the internal logic of it, though, was flawed.
[02:35:24]  The Iranians never really expressed an interest in having a better relationship with the United States.
[02:35:28]  What they essentially wanted was sanctions relief.
[02:35:30]  Our next caller is LaRuth, calling in from St. Louis, Missouri on the Democratic line.
[02:35:35]  Good morning, Laruth.
[02:35:36]  You're on with us.
[02:35:40]  LaRuth, are you there?
[02:35:42]  Yes, I'm here.
[02:35:43]  All right, you're on with our guest.
[02:35:44]  What would you like to say?
[02:35:45]  Oh, okay.
[02:35:46]  Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about.
[02:35:48]  I keep hearing everybody talking about Iran shouldn't have nuclear and all that.
[02:35:52]  Well, I don't think any countries in the whole world should have nuclear weapons at all.
[02:35:57]  That's what I want to talk about.
[02:36:00]  Because I don't think on this earth that we need something that will destroy mankind on this earth.
[02:36:06]  That's what I was wondering, why everybody keeps talking about what Iran shouldn't have against the United States, and I think Russia, and I think the North Korea, all of them have it.
[02:36:15]  So I don't think that we should be discussing about what Iran should not have and other countries shouldn't have it either.
[02:36:22]  Thank you.
[02:36:23]  Let's build off of LaRuth's point, Stephen.
[02:36:26]  How would you kind of describe the state of nuclear weaponry around the globe?
[02:36:30]  And is it at a height now?
[02:36:32]  Are we seeing new actors emerge?
[02:36:34]  Or is it the same actors who have been on the stage?
[02:36:36]  It has been generally the same actors who have been on the stage.
[02:36:40]  But as a result of this episode, I think if the regime in Iran survives, I think there'll be an increased effort to the best that they can to reconstitute their program and weaponize.
[02:36:52]  There are countries who have given up their nuclear weapons.
[02:36:55]  Ukraine, South Africa, Kazakhstan.
[02:36:58]  I think the Ukrainians are regretting that decision.
[02:37:01]  And it was based on essentially a gentleman's agreement that the United States and the West would support Ukraine.
[02:37:09]  So unfortunately, I think LaRuth has a great point.
[02:37:13]  Why should we have these weapons that can destroy humanity?
[02:37:16]  And I think no one would, I think everybody would agree that these are terrible weapons.
[02:37:21]  But as long as one country has them, I think there's going to be incentives for others.
[02:37:25]  And when you have a situation like Ukraine where the Ukrainians had given up their weapons and then were left vulnerable to Russian aggression, I think a lot of Ukrainians wish they had that because if you have those nuclear weapons, it's unlikely to be the victim of a war of aggression.
[02:37:38]  Yeah, it's striking to think about that as Ukraine is four plus years into the current war.
[02:37:42]  We have one more call in this segment.

=== Congressional Directory and Independents (14:48) ===

[02:37:44]  Grace is calling in from Cherokee Village, Arkansas on the Independent Line.
[02:37:47]  Good morning, Grace.
[02:37:48]  You're on with us.
[02:37:50]  Yes.
[02:37:53]  I'm a senior.
[02:37:54]  I'm 87 years old.
[02:37:55]  I've been watching C-SPAN since it started.
[02:37:58]  I love C-SPAN.
[02:37:59]  But this guest is like similar to the guests we get on the regular TV channels.
[02:38:05]  I went and looked him up, which I'm learning to do.
[02:38:08]  You know what it says here is Foreign Policy Magazine host Zionist psychopath Stephen A. Cook's deranged argument on why America should keep supporting tyrants' rule in the Arab world.
[02:38:23]  That's what this man is doing there.
[02:38:25]  We get this all over our television.
[02:38:28]  And we don't get it on the internet.
[02:38:31]  The American, I'm an independent.
[02:38:34]  I was a Republican for most of my life, till two years ago.
[02:38:37]  And this is why I'm an independent now, because our American TV media, and sadly now including C-SPAN of all people, has a person like this on to tell us his version of what's going on.
[02:38:56]  Well, Grace, thanks for calling in.
[02:38:58]  We always welcome your insights, so we hope you'll keep watching and calling in.
[02:39:00]  Stephen, would you like to say that?
[02:39:02]  Of course, I'm a huge fan of C-SPAN.
[02:39:04]  I've been watching it for a long time.
[02:39:06]  In fact, some of my high school friends from Plainview, Long Island referred to me as Cookspan because I was a C-SPAN watcher going back to high school.
[02:39:15]  My official bio, my expert bio, is at www.cfr.org, which has my publications, my background, my expertise.
[02:39:26]  It does not say that I'm a deranged Zionist or anything like that.
[02:39:31]  That is a new one.
[02:39:33]  I suspect that the caller was reading something that obviously one of my critics had written.
[02:39:40]  I like to think that what I present is a balanced view of the Middle East based on my expertise, based on the fact that I've lived in the region for extended periods of time, my language study.
[02:39:51]  I'm sorry that she doesn't like my analysis, but I think that the call suggests something that is very important and not really related to the Middle East, but also related to the Middle East, is that there's been a dramatic deterioration of the trust in institutions, including the press in the United States, with the proliferation of channels of information and so on and so forth.
[02:40:14]  And so that, you know, when we go to war in Iraq and the American people are told that, you know, Saddam Hussein is developing nuclear weapons, and that happens to not be true, it leads to the erosion of this trust.
[02:40:32]  I suspect that the caller really doesn't know much about me or read anything that I've written.
[02:40:39]  I encourage her to do so and perhaps you'll gain some insight about the region and learn a little bit more about me and how I approach my work.
[02:40:47]  Definitely.
[02:40:47]  And as a reminder for those who have been watching, this is Stephen Cook, who we've been talking to.
[02:40:51]  He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
[02:40:53]  We mentioned one of his books, The End of Ambition, America's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.
[02:40:58]  He's very easy to look up and research, so people can do a deep dive.
[02:41:01]  But thanks so much for coming in.
[02:41:03]  I really appreciate you talking about this conflict that continues to be a major story.
[02:41:07]  My pleasure.
[02:41:08]  Coming up after the break, we're going to return to the phone lines.
[02:41:10]  We want to hear from you.
[02:41:11]  So as always, look at the numbers on your screen and chime in.
[02:41:14]  We've been talking a lot about the midterm elections, but also about the war in Iran.
[02:41:18]  So we'd love to hear from you right when we're back on Washington Journal.
[02:41:31]  Democracy is always an unfinished creation.
[02:41:35]  Democracy is worth dying for.
[02:41:37]  Democracy belongs to us all.
[02:41:39]  We are here in the sanctuary of democracy.
[02:41:42]  Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies.
[02:41:47]  American democracy is bigger than any one person.
[02:41:49]  Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected.
[02:41:55]  We are still at our core a democracy.
[02:41:58]  This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom.
[02:42:11]  C-SPAN is as unbiased as you can get.
[02:42:15]  You are so fair.
[02:42:17]  I don't know how anybody can say otherwise.
[02:42:19]  You guys do the most important work for everyone in this country.
[02:42:23]  I love C-SPAN because I get to hear all the voices.
[02:42:27]  You bring these divergent viewpoints and you present both sides of an issue and you allow people to make up their minds.
[02:42:33]  I absolutely love C-SPAN.
[02:42:35]  I love to hear both sides.
[02:42:37]  I've watched C-SPAN every morning and it is unbiased.
[02:42:41]  And you bring in factual information for the callers to understand where they are in their comments.
[02:42:47]  This is probably the only place that we can hear honest opinion of Americans across the country.
[02:42:52]  You guys at C-SPAN are doing such a wonderful job of allowing free exchange of ideas without a lot of interruptions.
[02:43:00]  Thank you, C-SPAN, for being a light in the dark.
[02:43:07]  Who's your representative?
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[02:43:10]  Where do you even start?
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[02:43:37]  Washington Journal continues.
[02:43:40]  Welcome back, and we're returning to Open Forum.
[02:43:42]  We'd love to hear from you.
[02:43:43]  We started this morning's show talking about your top issue heading into November's midterm elections.
[02:43:48]  We obviously just talked a lot about the war against Iran.
[02:43:51]  As a reminder, if you want to call in, here are the numbers based on party affiliation.
[02:43:54]  Democrats 202-748-8000.
[02:43:57]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[02:44:00]  Independents 202-748-8002.
[02:44:03]  Or you could text us, 202-748-8003.
[02:44:07]  We have some callers on the line we'd love to get to.
[02:44:08]  Let's go to Larry calling in from Ironwood, Michigan on the Democratic line.
[02:44:12]  Good morning, Larry.
[02:44:13]  What's on your mind?
[02:44:15]  Well, I'm a Democratic representative, Democratic chairman for a couple of different committees, and I've been studying the Republicans now for most of my life.
[02:44:29]  I watched the Republicans, and it just appears to me that the Republicans do nothing but kowtow to President Trump.
[02:44:40]  They have no will of their own to make things right with this war.
[02:44:48]  It's an unconstitutional war, should have never been started.
[02:44:52]  And Mr. Hegseth should be talking to the president on a daily basis, trying to get him to do everything he possibly can to get this war stopped.
[02:45:05]  Larry, a question for you.
[02:45:06]  Just because you're in Michigan, you said you're affiliated with Democratic politics there.
[02:45:10]  Because we were talking about the midterms earlier.
[02:45:12]  How do you feel the Democratic Senate primary in your state is playing out?
[02:45:16]  What stands out to you?
[02:45:20]  I'm very, very optimistic about the midterms here in Michigan.
[02:45:27]  We're working our butts off to elect people that have brains and don't try to run the political world with just brawn.
[02:45:39]  It's not going to work doing this with just brawn.
[02:45:43]  And it's not going to work doing it with just threats either.
[02:45:48]  The Iranians don't take the threats.
[02:45:51]  I've watched them and studied them now for the last 50 years since I was 17 years old.
[02:45:56]  I'm 67 years old now, and I'm a minister.
[02:46:00]  And I think sending our boys over there to be massacred is a sin, and I think the president is responsible for it.
[02:46:09]  Him and his regime and him and his administration are completely and totally unconstitutional.
[02:46:16]  I believe the whole administration is unconstitutional and needs to be impeached and convicted.
[02:46:24]  Period.
[02:46:25]  All right, Larry.
[02:46:26]  Thanks for weighing in.
[02:46:27]  Let's go to Tom now calling in from Illinois on the Republican line.
[02:46:31]  Good morning, Tom.
[02:46:32]  What's on your mind?
[02:46:33]  I'm nearing 70 years old.
[02:46:36]  First off, I want to, before I get cut off, I would really like you guys to have Whitney Webb on there to point out all kinds of stuff.
[02:46:43]  She's one of America's greatest resources for the corruption in Washington.
[02:46:49]  And I'd really like to see that happen.
[02:46:51]  But as far as the president being impeached, we voted for him.
[02:46:54]  I voted for him.
[02:46:55]  I voted for him basically because of no wars.
[02:46:59]  But I've come to find out in my long life that the bankers, the military, the DOD, the Israelis, and the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers run the world.
[02:47:08]  And we are just little pawns.
[02:47:10]  And Whitney Webb and Baron Coleman, Candace Owens, these are people you should have on that show the corruption that's going on in Washington.
[02:47:19]  I'm interested, Tom.
[02:47:20]  You said you voted for President Trump because he campaigned on no more wars, especially no forever wars.
[02:47:25]  How are you feeling right now about the war against Iran?
[02:47:30]  Well, Iran's a trouble, Iran's a troubled state.
[02:47:34]  I mean, they're dangerous.
[02:47:35]  And everybody says that he had to do something.
[02:47:38]  I am so conflicted.
[02:47:40]  I mean, it's just more money out the window.
[02:47:43]  I think that we should protect ourselves from actors like Iran.
[02:47:47]  And let's go back to taking care of America.
[02:47:50]  We're going broke.
[02:47:52]  I mean, that's just how I feel.
[02:47:55]  All right.
[02:47:55]  Thanks for weighing in.
[02:47:57]  Let's hear now from Mark calling in from not too far from where I am in Silver Spring, Maryland on the Democratic line.
[02:48:02]  Good morning, Mark.
[02:48:04]  Good morning.
[02:48:05]  Thank you for the opportunity.
[02:48:08]  I'd like to make four quick points.
[02:48:10]  They'll be quick.
[02:48:11]  Go for it.
[02:48:12]  It's strange that the president flies to Florida every weekend in the gas-guzzling Air Force.
[02:48:20]  One, people pay the gas bills while they're paying increased gas prices for their car.
[02:48:28]  The optics are awful.
[02:48:31]  Point one.
[02:48:32]  Point two, his foreign policy is basically bam-bam, a bam-bam mentality.
[02:48:44]  He thinks he's strong, and at the same time, he just aims and fires, and he has his sidekick, hexes the horrible, doing his bidding.
[02:48:57]  Third is health care.
[02:49:00]  Republicans said about the ACA, it's going to be death panels for grandma.
[02:49:07]  The ACA saved 40,000 lives per year in this country.
[02:49:14]  And now the Republicans are saying, walk the plank, grandma, and take your family with you.
[02:49:22]  Now, what should the president do?
[02:49:25]  Feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the wrecked, and shelter the homeless.
[02:49:33]  Thank you.
[02:49:34]  Thank you, Mark.
[02:49:35]  Appreciate that.
[02:49:36]  If you want to call in, we'd love to hear from you in the remaining minutes of our program.
[02:49:40]  As a reminder, we'll put the phone numbers on screen: Democrats 202-748-8000.
[02:49:45]  Republicans 202-748-8001.
[02:49:48]  And Independents 202-748-8002.
[02:49:51]  We've been talking a lot about the war against Iran, also about the broader impact on the midterm elections this November.
[02:49:57]  Several people have mentioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and he actually spent a couple days this past week testifying on Capitol Hill, largely defending the war in Iran and the lack of congressional approval.
[02:50:08]  Here's an exchange that he had with Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine about that.
[02:50:14]  The War Powers Resolution specifies that a war initiated by a president without congressional approval must be concluded within 60 days.
[02:50:22]  It can be extended by an additional 30 days if, quote, the president determines and certifies to Congress in writing that unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of the U.S. Armed Forces requires the continued use of such armed forces in the course of bringing about a prompt removal of such forces.
[02:50:43]  We're right at the 60-day deadline.
[02:50:45]  Is the president intending to either seek congressional authorization for the war in Iran or send us the legally required certification that he needs an additional 30 days to remove U.S. forces from the war?
[02:51:01]  Just briefly on the previous question, we do know that these are designated terrorist organizations, so we treat them like the al-Qaeda of our hemisphere, just as a note.
[02:51:09]  But that was not the question I asked.
[02:51:12]  I know there's more to that question.
[02:51:13]  I just think it's important for the public to understand that.
[02:51:15]  There's no willy-nilly targeting of drug boats.
[02:51:18]  We know exactly who these people are affiliated with.
[02:51:20]  I was asking about what's on the boats on Iran.
[02:51:23]  Ultimately, I would defer to the White House and White House Council on that.
[02:51:26]  However, we are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire.
[02:51:34]  So you're not in.
[02:51:35]  It's our understanding, just so you know.
[02:51:37]  Okay, well, I do not believe the statute would support that.
[02:51:40]  I think the 60 days runs maybe tomorrow, and it's going to pose a really important legal question for the administration.
[02:51:48]  We have serious constitutional concerns, and we don't want to layer those with additional statutory concerns.
[02:51:54]  I yield back, Mr. Chair.
[02:51:56]  That was Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine questioning Defense Secretary Pete Hegset.
[02:52:01]  The Trump administration calls him the war secretary.
[02:52:03]  Reminder of the phone numbers on your screen to call in for open forum.
[02:52:06]  Let's hear now from Mac, who's calling in from Los Angeles, California on the independent line.
[02:52:11]  Good morning, Mac.
[02:52:12]  You're on with us.
[02:52:13]  Yes, sir.
[02:52:13]  Thank you.
[02:52:14]  I just wanted to let you know I'm a totally independent kind of thinker, neither Republican or Democrat.
[02:52:21]  I try and call it like I see it case by case.
[02:52:24]  Same thing about like, you know, no particular religious affiliation.
[02:52:29]  I did want to comment, and I'll be brief.

=== Impeachment History and Speaker Role (08:26) ===

[02:52:32]  There's a big fuss going on about what our president said a while ago about bombing Iran into the Stone Age.
[02:52:41]  And then he got a lot more flack from a lot of people saying he wanted to destroy an entire civilization, and everybody complained about that.
[02:52:54]  The people on the other side who were fighting now have been complaining about how they hate America for almost 50 years.
[02:53:05]  The people who are running Iran, although not the common people there.
[02:53:09]  And there's one particular country, 500 miles from them, that since 1979, they swore to exterminate.
[02:53:19]  And when the Iranians talked about killing off somebody, attacking America, or exterminating another country, people didn't get very riled up about that.
[02:53:31]  And that is wrong, too.
[02:53:34]  For anybody out there to say that they want to exterminate an entire culture anywhere, well, that's wrong to say.
[02:53:43]  And I think on the part of our president, it may have been an unfortunate comment, but we have to think about the greater danger posed by the attitude people on the other side in this war have to the United States, to Americans, and to our allies elsewhere near them.
[02:54:06]  That's really all I have to say.
[02:54:08]  Mac, since you talked about your independent roots, is it fair to say that right now you're supportive of the ongoing war?
[02:54:16]  Yes, because I think we have to get rid of the problems posed by the current Iranian government.
[02:54:25]  I don't think anybody really wants to or plans to get rid of Iran as a country or the Iranian people.
[02:54:32]  I think the long-term hope of almost all Americans in government would be the war would be concluded in a way where we're safe and other people around Iran are safe.
[02:54:46]  And also the Iranian people would hopefully be safer and happier.
[02:54:52]  All right.
[02:54:53]  Thanks for lying in, Mac.
[02:54:54]  Let's hear now from Thomas calling in from Columbus, Georgia, on the Republican line.
[02:54:58]  Good morning, Thomas.
[02:54:59]  What would you like to say?
[02:55:01]  Good morning.
[02:55:02]  Well, I mean, the gentleman you just had, the independent, he sounded like a nice man.
[02:55:08]  But wanting, everybody wants everybody to be safe, you know.
[02:55:15]  But Irans killed 40,000 of their people this year.
[02:55:24]  They killed that wrestler and the Olympic wrestler.
[02:55:28]  They hung him.
[02:55:32]  I can't hear you.
[02:55:33]  Oh, I wasn't saying anything.
[02:55:35]  You could continue.
[02:55:36]  Well, they killed that wrestler.
[02:55:38]  I mean, they're just Donald Trump is just trying to get Iran into the real world.
[02:55:47]  All they care about is power.
[02:55:50]  If you don't do what they say, they'll kill you.
[02:55:53]  They want to sell their oil and get their money.
[02:55:56]  They want to...
[02:55:56]  Hezbollah, nobody's mentioned Hezbollah.
[02:55:59]  They give money to Hezbollah to fight Israel.
[02:56:04]  I mean, why does everybody hate the Jewish people?
[02:56:08]  I mean, what's wrong?
[02:56:09]  That's a, I can't hear you.
[02:56:12]  Oh, I didn't say anything else.
[02:56:14]  You have any final thoughts?
[02:56:16]  Well, I mean, I think Donald Trump's doing a good job, except I agree with that independent man.
[02:56:24]  He shouldn't have said, he didn't really mean what he said.
[02:56:29]  He should have said it a different way.
[02:56:33]  The way they've struck with Israel and blowing up their ballistic missiles and their war capabilities has really hindered Iran, and that's a good thing.
[02:56:45]  He shouldn't have said, I'm going to blow up the whole country.
[02:56:50]  He should have said that a different way.
[02:56:53]  And one more thing.
[02:56:57]  Can I say one more thing?
[02:56:59]  Oh, yeah, go ahead.
[02:57:00]  Well, the Democrats that called in, like, there was three Democrat calls, and, oh, let's impeach him.
[02:57:10]  Let's impeach.
[02:57:11]  I mean, the Democrats don't like somebody.
[02:57:14]  It doesn't matter whether they're doing right or wrong.
[02:57:18]  They don't like them.
[02:57:20]  They close their mind and, oh, let's impeach them.
[02:57:24]  They're horrible.
[02:57:26]  Instead of working with them, where do you see the Democrats working with the Republicans?
[02:57:33]  All right, Thomas.
[02:57:34]  Thanks so much.
[02:57:35]  Let's hear now from Bill calling in from Mount Arlington, New Jersey on the Independent line.
[02:57:40]  Good morning, Bill.
[02:57:40]  What's on your mind?
[02:57:42]  Hi.
[02:57:43]  I just have a couple of comments.
[02:57:45]  Number one, in looking at our government and our democracy, three men control the entire operation of the government.
[02:57:54]  That's the Speaker of the House, the President, and the leader in the Senate.
[02:57:59]  And that shouldn't be the case.
[02:58:00]  Number two, I don't think that the Speaker of the House or the leader of the Senate should be able to stop a bill from being presented on the floor when a committee that was assigned by each of the bodies was given the task of presenting something.
[02:58:28]  And the third thing, I think that there is a need for a congressional, I'm sorry, for an amendment to the Constitution that disallows the shutdown of the government under any circumstance.
[02:58:43]  That's, you know, it's a terrible way to deal with problems.
[02:58:48]  And then the last thing is that we should stop the pejorative rhetoric when the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate, not the President, I'm sorry, the leader of the Senate, says Democrat or Republican, it's immediately followed by pejorative comments, which serves no purpose.
[02:59:13]  And it's not the way that we, that's not the reason we elected those people.
[02:59:18]  Thank you, Bill.
[02:59:19]  That's all I have to say.
[02:59:20]  You mentioned that DHS shutdown that ended this week after a record 76 days, a lot of frustration on both sides of the aisle about that.
[02:59:27]  Lastly, we'll go to Sheldon calling in from Long Island, New York on the Democratic line.
[02:59:31]  Sheldon, I'm going to ask you to keep it brief.
[02:59:33]  We have about 30 seconds left.
[02:59:34]  So what's on your mind?
[02:59:36]  Wow.
[02:59:37]  Okay.
[02:59:37]  Well, I just wanted to say the gentleman that called in earlier, maybe you should read the history of the United States intervention in Iran as to why the Iranians have a distaste for Americans.
[02:59:47]  And as far as the gentleman talking about working with Donald Trump, what is there to work with?
[02:59:52]  I mean, borrowed money for a tax cut, a war that is destroying American bases, the American taxpayers will have to pay back.
[02:59:59]  I mean, there's nothing for us to agree with Donald Trump with since he's taken over in his second term.
[03:00:11]  I mean, there's more I'd like to say, but it's only 30 seconds.
[03:00:14]  Yeah, I appreciate you keeping it brief, but your points are received.
[03:00:17]  Thank you, Sheldon.
[03:00:18]  And thank you to everyone who called in today.
[03:00:20]  A really good conversation about the midterms, about the Iran war, two things that will continue, and we'll continue discussing it here at C-SPAN.
[03:00:27]  Stick around, though, because ceasefire is up next.
[03:00:46]  Welcome to Ceasefire, where we look to bridge the divide in American politics.
[03:00:51]  I'm Greta Bronner, and for Dasha Burns.
[03:00:53]  Joining me now on either side of the desk, two guests who've agreed to keep the conversation civil, even