Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240704

Yesterday President Biden was in brownsville, texas. Trump made the chaos on the border a campaign issue. We want to hear your thoughts about this. Our phone lines for democrats 202 7488000, for republicans 202 7488001, for independents 202 7488002 we have a special line set up for border states that 202 7488003 you can use that mind to text us with your first name, city, state and you can also reach us on social media at facebook on facebook. Com cspan and x at cspanwj. Congress passes a shortterm spending measure. The shutdown would have started this weekend if it had not passed. They extended the funding for federal agencies into march keying up another scramble with another shutdown deadline a week away. This stopgap passed on thursday evening and the funding deadline was pushed until march 8 and march 22. Lets get back to our topic which is the border in those visits as i mentioned President Biden was in brownsville. [video clip] the speaker of the house needs to put this on the floor, unrestricted it would pass. The majority of democrats and republicans support this legislation. They said dont do it to benefit the incumbent. We need to act. You need to show some spine and pass a bipartisan, conservative leaders supported this Border Security bill. Lets remember who we work for, the American People. This is what i would say to mr. Trump. Stop telling members to block this legislation. We can do it together. You when i know it is the toughest Border Security bill this country has ever seen so instead of playing politics lets get together and get it done. We work for the American People not the democratic or Republican Party. We are the United States of america. Think about that. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we work together. Host that was the president in brownsville, texas. Here is donald trump and eagle pass blaming the problems at the border on the Biden Administration. [video clip] the United States as being overrun by the biden migrant crime. Every time you hear my current crime you know where that comes from. Allowing millions and millions of people to come, up to 18 million by the time he gets out of Office Office because the bit risk we have is nine months, thats quite a bit of time. 1700 these are the people coming into our country and they are coming from jails, prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums and these terrorists are being led into our country. Host host we will take your cas for democrats 202 7488000, for republicans 202 7488001 that was speaker johnson and he did mention hr to you and as a reminder of the provisioninr to to su construction of the border wall, topper screening for asylumseekers, mandating employers to check employees legal status. Lets talk to jay and woodlawn, tennessee. Caller mr. Biden and mr. Schumer have no intention of stopping this, the more that come over the more they are happy. If they wanted to solve the problem they wouldve changed the bill. 5000 a day is not stopping the crisis. The more money they are asking for is for more people to process them and all that is just keeping the numbers coming through and with amnesty they can get citizenship. They do not want to stop the crisis. If they went back to what prompted it and make them stay in mexico and if they are Asylum Seekers they can be checked out and vetted. Host do you want to see more officials at the border screening for asylum . Caller their goal in doing that is to bring more into the u. S. I am all for that but in a controlled manner. Host but President Biden is asking for the funding so they can process Asylum Seekers . Caller how do we know who these people are coming over . We dont. That is why we have officers being beat up and young women killed and raped. You need to go back to a controlled system to where we know who and why you are coming to the u. S. , what your purposes. Host lets talk to diane in ann arbor, michigan. Caller the gentleman before me had an abundance of time and i would like to equal privilege. The wall, it prohibits wildlife from accessing the river for a water source. Also, i would like to plead to cspan to give equal time to both sides. I have notice that there are guests, the deputy chief of staff and project 2025. Host we only have 15 minutes left on the border so can we stick with that topic . Caller cspan is not giving equal time. I have not seen a response to it specifically 2025 and on your website it feature truck. Mp. I dont feel an equal response time. Host anything on the border you would like to mention . Caller it was at the photos of trump and by dine. Caller dennis, on the democratic line. Caller iran all over canada in america and every report of injury and i never went across the border. They have an electronic log. We do more business with mexico and Central America than we do with china. I am not making that up. We get a lot of stuff from mexico. A lot of your produce, bananas, i have a shirt on from nicaragua. We have refugees, they called them aliens. They are immigrants. That is my opinion. I have been retired for 14 years. Ive been all over the United States. I endorse joe biden. Host lets talk to jeffrey in broadway. Caller good morning. I want to talk about this bill that they crafted in congress. It has nothing to do with aliens crossing the border. Pull it up and read it. Host the Bipartisan Senate bill . Caller it was not bipartisan there was only one republican senator trying to push it on everybody but read the bill. It allowed more people into the country faster and more money for ngos to process people faster. Tax money paying ngos to transfer these people. And now there is a phone app it when they go through a port of entry they can show that on their cell phone they come straight through. It is crazy. Host vicky sent us on faceboo this issue is something trump has chaiod. Bin ramped up to the border because he is starting to lose support. Lets take a look at what House Minority leader said criticizing the republican hrtwo bill saying solving the crisis takes a lot more. [video clip] hrt to assign a serious proposal and they have demonstrated they are unserious about addressing challenges on the border, fixing our broken immigration system. We have made clear repeatedly that we should deal decisively with the challenges of the border and fix our broken immigration system in a manner that is bipartisan, comprehensive and recognizes there are things that need to be done in terms of dreamers, farmworkers as well as making sure there is a safe, secure and humane border. Host rate is next in york, pennsylvania. Caller i have heard them talk about the immigration system but is not really broken. Its just unenforced. We are not enforcing our laws. Joe biden says something about this bipartisan law would be the most effective Immigration Law ever. There is something called hr2 by the house of representatives and they have not acted on it. Hakeem jeffries said is not a serious proposal. I think the bipartisan law wouldve permitted 5000 more migrants a day, thus not a litation, thus not control. Is happened as soon as biden came in the office. Host richard is necks from louisville, kentucky. Caller i heard Mitch Mcconnell is going to step down as a leader of the republicans incident. He needs to step down now he is in antitrump are calling himself a conservative republican. Host what do you think about the border . Caller you had said something about legal entry into this country. What joe biden did, 9 Million People came straight across the border. How legal was that . Im asking them at cspan. Host i would ask you, would you be in favor of expanding Legal Immigration . The pathways to apply to come to the United States, which you expand that or would you limit it . Caller i would shut it down completely until we find out who is here now. Remain in mexico, did you not hear what johnson said . Trump had it cut down by 75 . What is wrong with you people . All you want to do is let people come in. They are kicking people out of Nursing Homes in new york and their screaming bloody murder. This is what you voted for. Host roland and glenn burnie, maryland. Caller youre giving everybody a whole lot of time. You always cupping off. Tting me off. Caller biden is a serious unlike President Trump. He only passed the trump tax cuts. Biden passed all of these bipartisan bills. Host getting back to the border. Caller you need a bipartisan bill to solve the problem. Not just extreme measures and bills the republicans put up. They did that because they knew the democrats would not support it. Biden in the democrats, the bill that the senate has does not solve the border but the republicans dont want to solve this problem once and for all. Did you notice we dont have enough farmworkers . We can solve this problem and possible law that would allow those workers to come over legally and then they go back. Host we go to robert on the independent line. Caller a people of call since i got over the line and you dont have time. Host do you feel like you dont have enough time to make your point . Why dont you give it a try . Caller there is no doubt we need to close the border all donald trump is telling people they are criminals. Look at him, he paid for eight abortions hes committed rape and he is a thief. All these idiots want to vote for them. Host we can talk about trump at another time but what about the border . Caller it needs to be fixed and joe biden didnt do it. But we dont need two people one thats too old and the other is as crooked as a snake. Host out of the two who do you think would be better . Caller i dont think either one of them can. Donald trump is not going to stop ilLegal Immigration. They need to get mexico to stop them at their border. Biden host they and fort payne, alabama. Caller that is not the first time donald trump went to the border. The illegals are standing in groups. I have no family left and i see illegal people standing in groups. They hand the debit cards, money. I worked like a man all of my life. I get a letter in the mail theyre not gonna pay my medicare anymore. Theyre committed take out a hundred 74 out of my social security. That is not fair. Thats not the america i grew up in. We give all these illegal people freestyle. Stuff. They need to load every one of them up and send them back where they come from and then sealed the border off and let them come back in until they come in the right way. You have a great day. Host that is our last call for this segment but much more to come because of next we will have a conversation about Border Security and all the other big debates over foreignmade and spending. We will be joined by democratic congressman rep Brad Schneider a member of the ways and means committees and later we will have rep John Rutherford, a member of the Appropriations Committee. Says 1979 in partnership with the cable industry cspan has completed coverage. Cspan gives you a front row seat with no commentary, no interruptions completely unfiltered. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Two years ago democracy faced his biggest threat since the civil war. But today our democracy remains on and unbroken. Biden delivers a state of the Union Address. Then the republican response. We will get your reaction by taking your phone calls, texts and social media posts. You can watch online at cspan. Org. Cspan now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of whats happening in washington live and ondemand. Keep up with live streams of floor proceedings, white house events, the courts and were from the world of politics. You can stay current with the current episodes of washington journal. Cspan now is available at the apple store and google play. Visit our website at cspan. Org cspan now. Cspan now your front row seat to washington. A healthy democracy doesnt just look like this, it looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. Informed, straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. The opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Host we are joined by rep Brad Schneider a member of Foreign Affairs and ways and means committees. This start with the funding. There is a shortterm continuing resolution that was signed yesterday and it push things offer a week, two weeks. Whats the problem with passing an actual budget. Guest we are six months into the fiscal year and this should have passed before september. In June Mccarthy cut a deal with biotin initiative Going Forward to march. In many way it looks like the republicans are unwilling to support yes is an answer. It looks like there is progress towards that agreement. Host what are the policy issues standing in the way . Guest is the poison bills that the extremist of the Republican Party have put in there. It is very little to do with the funding and operations of the government and messaging to the extreme base in the Republican Party. Host do you think speakers also will have to work with democrats to get the votes needed . Guest absolutely. Any legislation that will stand the test of time is something thats going to bring people together in the senate. Democrats have consistently said we are willing to work with you to find Common Ground is see where we can work together. Host would you be in favor of a continuing resolution until the end of the fiscal year that would trigger a 1 cut . Guest congress should be passing spending bills. Here we are, still arguing and speaker johnson being held over a barrel by his own conference. Host i wanted turned to foreign, the war in gaza a chaotic a delivery turns deadly, over 100 gazans were killed. Can you explain if there are any differences between you and biden . Guest what happened in gaza was a tragedy but it was precipitated by an attack on israel by hamas. 30 trucks came in the gaza carrying food aid in these trucks were rust and you can see there is video rushing the trucks before they could provide an orderly distribution of f ood. We have to wait for judgment on this event but we know what is happening in gaza is a tragedy and i wrote a letter to President Biden commending him for the work he is doing and bringing the parties together. They talked about a truce during ramadan for an exchange of hostages. Hamas continues to hold onto hostages but the hope is they can create a path to a longterm ceasefire and replace gaza with Israeli Government. Israel has been working to release hostages and remove hamas from his reign of terror. Israel has been working with the u. S. , egypt and hamas leadership but the folks in gaza are not willing to agree to anything that would open the door for that pause in aid. Host you can enjoy our conversation with a representative Brad Schneider democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001 independents 202 7488002. You are in israel last week, what it you see . Guest i went with them group of congress and we visited the border. We saw the impact of october 7 and we spoke to the families of hostages and victims of the attacks and went to the hospitals to hear their stories we also spoke to groups in israel that are doing what they can to begin recovering. The attack on october 7 so 1200 people who were killed and burned. We have to understand how israel is recovering and we talk to people that this word comes to a quick and. Understanding as long as hamas remains in power neither palestinians or israelis will have the peace that the world wants him to reach. Host its estimated 30,000 palestinians have died. Candy is israelis do more to protect civilians . Guest its difficult to have no civilian casualties. But you have to do all you can. Host has israel done enough . Guest they have change the approach they are taken from the beginning of the war two was a much slower into the city. They have not gone into rafah. There is one million civilians living in this area before that final push takes place weve got to find a way to get those civilians to safety which is why those conversations are so important to get a pause during ramadan to allow relief to go in and civilians to get to safety. It is prudent that we get there and hamas needs to agree to release hostages. Host i want to ask you about the michigan primary. Uncommitted got over 100,000 votes. Are you concerned about the american arab population in the younger population. Guest President Biden has to win this election. We know that if trump wins it will be a threat to democracy. Its a threat to the world order. In 2012 there was a large uncommitted vote in michigan. Its not monolithic, people vote uncommitted for various reasons. Its important we listen to these people. There is room within the Democratic Party and we will have people disagree on issues. See continue to be a beacon for the world and the democrats are seeking to lead in the republicans are seeking to bring us back to a different era. Host first up we have a democrat from illinois. Caller good morning. Is israel doing enough . They killed 30,000 palestinians. They killed a hundred starving people yesterday. Youve taken 20,000 by aipak how can we believe you when you say you care about palestinian life and biden is doing his best when you both take money from aipac to continue a genocide . Guest it was a tragedy that so many people are starving in gaza. It is unclear, the trucks were being swarmed by dozens of people desperate for food and then that context the trucks were moving forward. We have to wait and see what the facts are the other night. There was an explosion in the hospital courtyard but in the light of day after investigation it was determined that this was a missile from islamic forces. I continue to meet with people in my districts and i have a meeting with in the mom from a mosque in our district to talk about this issue. We have to seek a path of peace. I have always been committed to a piece between israel and palestine. Hamas has to be defeated in the palestinians have to have hope for a future. They have to sit at the table to negotiate that piece. Host on the republican line in florida, henrietta. Caller good morning. I know you are talking about israel. I am a stock supporter of israel and the palestinians voted for what they got and that is very sad. They hate israel. In america, we got exactly what we deserve. You talked about the rulesbased order after world war ii. Europe has not participated in the dollar amounts that they should be with respect to ukraine. Do americans have six week vacation . Do we have pensions . Do americans have 35 hour work weeks . Make europe pay more. This is absolutely ridiculous. In addition to that, why did you not vote for hr2 . Guest lets start with ukraine. His fighting for its independence. I think the Ukrainian Ambassador said the last 30 years of independence are the longer period of independence theyve had in 300 years. The United States has led the effort to help ukrainians but they are taking that fight to the russians on their own. Europe has been our partner in that. When you talk about paying their share, European Countries have provided more assistance in aid dollar for dollar than the United States. Neither one is sufficient. If we fail to do so, the essential aid package for ukraine, israel is so important. If putin is able to take ukraine, the money we spent so far will be a fraction of what we need to pay in the future. Russia will be threatening our nato allies. We need to make sure ukraine is successful as a retains its independence in European Countries are doing more than they need to do and thats a fair argument and we continue to work with our allies to do that. We are a country of immigrants but we need to secure our border. We need immigrants to come into our country coming in from legal channels and coming in to help us grow our economy and ensure our future. We have a crisis at the border to address and democrats are working to address that. We had a built in the senate that was announced 48 hours before republicans caved that deal. Host is there something about hr2 that made you vote against it . Guest it doesnt resolve the border crisis our Immigration Laws, has been 30 years since weve modified them if they dont reflect the situation we are facing. We have to deal with the root causes of migration. Lets make it safe for them to stay in the countries they are from. I have been working on this since i came from congress. It cant be one of the other it has to be together. Host lets talk to tom from iming. Wyoming. Caller what did not one credit vote to keep senator mccarthy as speaker . Guest why did mccarthy refuse to even consider working with the democrats . We said it to the lead up to the september votes and immediately after in the hours between matt gaetz to vacate the chair and the actual vote. Lets find a way to create Common Ground to move forward and he had no interest. After 209 democrats voted to keep the government open, leader mccarthy said the republicans democrats rather refuse to work with us. I am hopeful speaker johnson will work with us. He has been talked about regular order and bringing bills to the florida vote. I want to make sure we keep the government in the house operating. Theres a lot of work she does not want to work with democrats. Caller my question is, how many palestinians were shot by idf forces . Every one of those people are dancing around us including lieutenant warner. How many palestinians are getting shot . This war needs to end. The democrats in particular, joe biden needs to call for a ceasefire from netanyahu and the fact that he has not and we are still supporting them with weapons or even talking about this is unbelievable after attacking a civilian convoy. We should all be disgusted and looking at ourselves in the mirror and you should be ashamed of yourself. Guest i suggest you look at the videos of what happened. You see thousands of people rushing these trucks. These are people who are starving without access to food and israel is doing all it can to get the food in. We dont know if anybody was shot by israelis but it doesnt change the fact that hundreds were injured and the citizens of northern gaza need this food. I want this war to come to an end. Hamas is firing rockets at israel. They started this war. We need to try and find a way to bring the pause and release hostages so we can get on track to in this war. Hamas has to release the hostages and they control whether this goes on or not. Caller the girl named blake riley and a twoyearold baby was shot by a venezuelan and a person from el salvador and not one word from joe biden. He texted 47 times when george floyd was killed and allowed the burning of cities. If this had been an Assault Rifle democrats would have been all over the place. But this was in the legal immigrant who killed a beautiful Nursing Student. Lets talk about laken riley. There have been thousands of people at eulogies. I am sad you dont revert policies back to trout policies when we had a border that was protected. Its just so sad. Guest i will extend my condolences to her family, this is a horrible tragedy. Every person who was murdered we should grieve and mourn. We need to make sure we are doing all we can to make sure those citizens are safe in their communities and homes and that includes addressing assault weapons and also address the security in our communities and make sure we know he was coming in this country. Who has stayed beyond their visa. We offer to work with republicans. We have to find a way to work together, republicans and democrats to get comprehensive reform. Host are there any trump era border policies you would be in favor of reinstating . Guest we have to work with the countries of people are passing through. The laws are out of date, our Immigration Laws are broken. We cant have 10,000 people coming to the border a day. The sun a situation that is acceptable. Senate democrats, republicans worked hard to come up with a compromise. It took months in the making in only after 48 hours, it was undone. We saw the same thing in 2013 with Bipartisan Legislation where Speaker Boehner did not bring it to the floor. We need the political will to make sure our immigration is up to the challenge of the 21stcentury and we can continue to open our doors to the immigrants who want to come here to want to do it in an orderly fashion. Host chandler from maine. Caller i just wanted to see we had a congressman yesterday and i am having a hard time figuring out the difference between his in your response. It sounds like you support the same thing but you say and in a nice way. Host with israel you mean . Caller the border, everything at this point. Ive been watching the washington journal and they all sound the same. The democrats are nice about everything but they were revert to whatever the republicans wanted. Im having a hard time figuring out where you really position yourself on the political scale . Are you a conservative, a socialist . Guest first off, take you for your service. Im a father of a navy veteran. I appreciate the observation. Many of the things we are fighting for his quality jobs for our communities and our kids are getting a good education. There is a lot of overlap. Being a moderate is the style and not a decision. I believe in a womans right to support control over her own body. I believe we should be investing in education and everyone should have the chance to achieve their dreams. The world looks to us and we are uniquely positioned to convene people together rep whether its bringing countries together in the fight against russia working with countries the middle east to find a path to end this war and ultimately pursue peace between palestinians and israelis. Union the United States has felt that leadership role from my lifetime. Republicans have other positions but where we have Common Ground, we have to come together and make compromises. I may not get up 100 of what i want and they may not want get 100 what they want to forget most of what we want together, we can best legislation that will lift up the nation, things like immigration, infrastructure and the investment and jobs act. Helping veterans and making a huge difference for them across the country. These were bipartisan evers in the last congress that made a difference. If you listen closely, you will hear the differences but you are right, there is a lot of overlap where we should be able to work together. Host huntsville, alabama, independent line. Caller good morning. The likud party in israel is not americas friend. Since 2000, they dragged bush and cheney into a race war against the persians. Benjamin netanyahu was in control of that. We got convinced to get into a race war in iraq. In 2015, the attack in douma and the look Food Coalition was inciting palestinian children in the west bank. Thats one of 1000 attacks. This is been going on for 30 years. They didnt just start yesterday. Today, likud is back in control and we are at it again, fighting a race war in the middle east on behalf of likud. They are as people is evil people get and they are the ku klux klan with better weapons. Host lets get a response. Guest israel is a democracy the same way the United States is. Its a parliamentary democracy and they have more parties than we have. We have two main parties we can talk about what the implications are. We talked about funding bills. In israel, there are many parties in likud is one party. There is blue and white and they will argue and fight amongst themselves. Israel is a Jewish Democratic state as a democracy. It will have messy elections and messy fights the same we we have here. Israel has always sought to achieve peace. In 1948 when the british left, the United Nations established a partition, jews living in what was palestine created the state of israel and the arabs rejected it. In 19 67, the offers for peace were known but there is no recognition of israel and no peace with israel. I will not defend the likud party. Israel has its own elections and will decide what to do. Posted a show there was an election today, netanyahu would probably be soundly defeated. Thats for the israelis to decide. Its in the United States interest to pursue peace in the region and thats why we celebrated the Abraham Accords and help founded in congress, bicameral accords which im one of the cochairs of because we believe the middle east will be better if the People Living in the middle east belong to the same land and find a way to live on that land together in peace. Host ellen from quincy, massachusetts, democrat. Caller good morning, i have been watching this whole thing with israel and gaza. I sympathize with the israeli people about the 1200 people that were slaughtered and tortured and earned. 30,000 people versus 1200. 30,000 Palestinian Civilians killed. I know that the terrorist groups are embedded with the palestinians but that doesnt mean its ok to kill the people that they are using for shields. All kinds of humanitarian laws and national and International Humanitarian laws have been broken here. I dont want my tax dollars going to support magic benjamin netanyahu. He is horrible. He is a dictator basically in a democracy just like if we elect trump. Host congressman, what do you think of the Democratic Party and what they need to do . Guest ive said many times that every civilian death is a tragedy. The numbers coming out of gaza are not confirmed but we know civilians are dying. We also know they are dying in a battle between israel and hamas fighters. Its estimated 10,000 of those killed in gaza are hamas fighters. Hamas is hiding behind human shields. They are embedded in the civilian communities and thats why its important we work to bring this war to an end. President biden and secretary blinken in the head of the cia, have been to israel and arab countries to paris and doha trying to get to a place where we can open up the space and release the hostages. 130 hostages are still in gaza held by hamas. We need to get relief into the starving palestinians can get food and water in medicine and to a place where people can go back to their committees and start rebuilding. We need to give palestinians and israelis both hope for peace. Its not an either or but as long as hamas is in power and raining terror over gaza and threatening to annihilate israel and kill jews, peace will be harder to reach if not impossible. Thats why to feeding hamas, reforming the palestinian authority, moving forward to give palestinians an israeli hopes is what the United States has to be engaged in doing. It wont happen it would just let hamas stay in power. Host representative brad snyder, thank you for joining us today. In about 30 minutes, we will talk to republican John Rutherford of florida, a member of the Appropriations Committee. We will talk about the new deadlines for lawmakers to finish and pass key spending bills before the next potential Government Shutdown. First, its open form, your chance to weigh in on any political or Public Policy topic on your mind this morning. You can start calling in now, democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001 an independents 202 7488002. We will be right back. Today watch cspans 2024 campaign trail, a weekly roundup of cspans campaign coverage, providing a onestop shop to discover what the candidates are saying for voters along with firsthand accounts purple from political reporters, fitted poll numbers, fundraising data and campaign ads. Watch cspans 2024 campaign trail today at 7 p. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org or download as a podcast on cspan now, our free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. At 7 p. M. Eastern on saturday, we continue with the series free to choose. Its titled who protects the worker. At 8 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, Texas Womens University history professor cecily vander talks about the federal government efforts to explore and control the American West in the early 1800s through the civil war. At 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, former polish president like will at that l ech walesas support of poland and the solidarity movement. Also at 10 30 p. M. Eastern on Historic Campaign speeches, the 2000 eight Campaign Speech by democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton at a rally in clout in california. Followed by a 2016 super tuesday speech by republican president ial candidate in florida senator marco rubio in miami. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2 and find a full schedule on yo pgram guide her watch online anytime at cspan. Or histor announcer a healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the nations capitol, to wherever you are. The opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back to open for him. Before we start taking calls to be reiterate the tragedy in gaza, scores killed after desperate gathers at food trucks. Accounts of stampede and is really gunfire with conflicting accounts of what triggered that and how over 100 people were killed, about 700 injured. The state Department Address those conflicting reports yesterday about that incident, here is a portion. [video clip] i want to express the United Statesdeepest condolences to the families of those who died. Far too many innocent palestinians have been killed over the course of this conflict , not just today, but over the past nearly five months. When you think about todays tragedy, its especially heartbreaking to consider how many of those families affected will be burying loved ones not for the first time. Im sure many of those affected have buried multiple loved ones over the conflict. When it comes to establishing facts on the ground, we are urgently seeking Additional Information on exactly what took place. We have been in touch with Israeli Government since early this morning and understand an investigation is underway. We will monitor that investigation closely and pressing for answers. This tragic event also underscores the importance of expanding and sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance into gaza in response to the dire humanitarian situation including through a potential temporary ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. If there is anything todays incident makes clear it is just how desperate the situation on the ground is. People need more food, they need more water, they need medicine and other humanitarian goods and they needed now. We continue to make clear in all of our discussions with the government of israel that all possible measures must be taken to allow the entry of more assistance into gaza through his many points of access is possible and enable safe and secure distribution of that aid throughout gaza. As we have said before, the best way to alleviate the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian People is to reach an agreement for a temporary ceasefire that would get hostages out, enable more aid to come in and allow that aid move everywhere inside gaza. Host that was the state Department Spokesperson matthew miller. Happening right now is Alexey Navalnys funeral and burial. Here is the New York Times thats happening as we speak in moscow. Lets go to tom in san jose, california, democrat. Caller good morning. I just wanted to vent about the Supreme Court. Clarence thomas his wife texted mark meadows stating the election was stolen. And that he needed to stop mike pence from certifying the election or the leftists will destroy our country. I remember anita hill telling congress under oath what clarence thomas, what a perv he was. He took lavish trips and a billionaire is dime and then you have Brett Kavanaugh and his testimony and how he drank beer and partied and you have amy barrett, member of some White Conservative group wants to turn our nation into a conservative nation. Then you have alito who took lavish trips also on a billionaires dime. Then youve got neil gorsuch who was put in office by stealing it from garland. Then youve got the Supreme Court recent decision to stall trumps trial for trying to take over an election and steal the election. This is proof that our Supreme Court is just onesided and crooked. I cannot stand it. It just disturbs me. They are bought and paid for. We will not have any justice from the Supreme Court. Thats my belief. Is that ok . Host yep, west virginia, republican, good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Host can you your tv . I can hear in the background. Caller how about now . Host yes. Caller first of all, america has forgotten 9 11. Look what a few men did and killed how many, over 3000. We the people coming in from china, our enemies, military [indiscernible] people dont leave china for no reason. You take thousands and thousands of enemies coming into america and when it starts, how many hundreds of thousands are they going to kill . We are in for a rough time. If you take history, any nation or war, they put people, their troops behind enemy lines before they attack. All i can say is is that bidens border policy wants to stop people coming in after 5000. That is not securing the border. Securing the border is no one coming across the border. Host we got it. Lets go to tony and jackson, mississippi, independent line. Caller jackson, michigan, home of the Republican Party but im not republican. I was born and im a black person and proud to be one. I do think we need to come together and reason together. I am a pastor of a church and the minister of the gospel and i love everybody. We have to start loving each other and doing what the scripture has said. We need to reason together, respect one another, common things, youth in our education to make talking points is not going to work. We have to reach out for the people and touch their hearts. We need to touch them from our hearts. Singing, being joyful, just like the mexicans, they have aperiod where they rejoice and go back to work. For our work to be complete, we need to get some action going so we can relax in the lord, relax in our country. We are a country of the lord. We believe in god but we dont know how we believe in him. We say that god is this or that but god is simply a spirit who is revealed in the earth, revealed in nature, revealed in each of us. Host steve in san jose, california, republican, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I know it, you know it and the world knows it. If all the migrants in mexico were to don trump tshirts that the border would be sealed. If they came across with trump tshirts, there would not be one of them that would make it across. My second point is that how shall we say it is a lie that biden is concerned about the border. He has filed suit against the orange barrier that runs along the texas border in the river. He has filed suit about the Railroad Cars in the barbed wire. He filed suit regarding everything that texas is doing to prevent the illegals. My third point is, as far as democrats, every democrat should have on file and iq test above 50. Host wilson, north carolina, independent line. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Id like to make a couple of points if i can. Number one, this thing about the border. Im tired of hearing. Its something we brought upon ourselves. We have to stabilize those countries especially venezuela. Until we started putting the cia down there and destabilizing that country and we spend no money with their neighbors to the south but look at the money were spending in israel and the money were are spending in other countries helping out the russians and everything. The main point i wanted to make is that israel, the thing about israel is pitiful. The news media and even cspan, dont cut me off now, im just telling the truth and you can put me off if you want to. Cspan refused to have any conversations about israel. You cut people off and it was a dirty little secret. Israel has been doing things to these people for years and years. They control the water and they are under occupation so thats with this thing is about. No one wanted to do anything about it. When these people finally rolled up and did something im not saying what they did was right but after you beat a dog so hard and so long, he will rise up against you. I think thats what is happening now. We are out here now and everything is pointing out to us. This netanyahu guy like people say, we should have never dealt with him. Most of this was started by republicans. Republicans were the one. Host we are listening. Caller republicans was the one that praised him when he came over here and booed obama when obama gave the state of the union speech. This has been something thats been brewing up. Israel has the most advanced Intelligence Agency in the world. You mean to tell me that they didnt know that they was coming over that border . Theyve got cameras up there looking at whats going on so you cant tell me they didnt know this was about to happen. Net and you netanyahu wanted this to happen. Host also yesterday, secretary of defense boston testified in front of a house panel. We have a portion of that for you. This is an Exchange Republican jim banks and the secretary. [video clip] yes or no, did you tell yourself not to inform the president . I never told anyone not to inform the president , the white house or anyone else about my hospitalization. So the 30 day review summary lays a lot of blame at the feet of your staff. It seems that would appear correct . For the break the process . You told us that you are responsible but the 30 day review seems to blame your staff. The 30 day review pointed out that there were some missteps but there was never any ill intent or an intent to obfuscate. One year ago, you told me in this hearing room that you had no regrets about what happened in afghanistan. Do you regret what happened here . I have said we didnt get this right. We put measures in place to ensure that the notification process has improved Going Forward. Mr. Secretary, who will be held accountable . This embarrassment . I take full responsibility and we put measures in place to address the shortcomings. Are you surprised the president didnt call for your resignation . Im surprised but are you . The president has expressed full faith and confidence in me. So youre not surprised he didnt call for your resignation. Is it typical the president would go three days without talking to his secretary of defense . Is that typical . Is that a regular posture . Do you usually go days without talking to the commanderinchief . It can happen it depends whether the president is on travel or i am on travel. There is time we go days without direct mitigation. The big issue for me here is either the president is that aloof or you are irrelevant. Which one is it, mr. Secretary . The president would go three days without knowing his secretary of defense is not on the job. Host you can watch that full hearing on our website, cspan. Org. Lets go back to the phones now. New york state, democrat. Caller hi there, good morning and thank you for all youre doing thank you for cspan. I want to contrast a couple of tragedies that befell to young people recently. First, the Nursing Student who was killed by a criminal and criminals come from all nationalities in all walks of life sadly and republicans especially trump, is trying to exploit that tragedy with his xenophobia. Then we have a Nonbinary Youth in oklahoma was brutally murdered by peers in a School Bathroom and no one in school helped that young person. That was a direct result of the hatred and scapegoating that happens with vulnerable youth by bigots. Thank you so much. Host john is next in turtle creek, pennsylvania, republican. Caller thanks for taking my call. Wanted to call to make a comment. I love to watch this part of cspan. If i dont catch it in the morning because im at work, i will watch repeats in the afternoon. I love to hear the opinions of americans. It worries me right now where we are at with whats going on over in israel. Some of the people that call in are so sympathetic to the palestinians and seem to forget what happened on 9 11. They were out in the streets burning or flags and screaming death to america because they were so happy for what happened in new york. I just wanted to make that point and try to bring up some history. I want to enlighten some people that the palestinians have been thrown out of countries since jesus walked to the earth. They go into a country and try to take over the government. Thats why they are stuck in gaza. Nobody will take them because they have already taken them and they dont want the problems they bring. Im still sympathetic. As a christian or anybody thats stuck in a war zone and people are dying. You have to realize who the Palestinian People are. Thanks for taking my call. Host houston, texas, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. I have a few points. To the point of israel to start, the first thing i thought of was in agreement with the previous caller that mentioned the intelligence capabilities of israel. Also the military capabilities of israel. I have been a big supporter of them defending themselves against a true invasion against russia. Why are we need to send money to a very Capable Military such as israel and not from the get go advising them to fight surgically in the way the United States has for the last couple of decades . I am 33 years old. The war has been my childhood, and adolescence in my adulthood. I am versed at basically how the United States fight. Why have we decided to poison ourselves against each other by standing idly by with our thumbs under her leg realizing when israel will get to the program. To the point of immigration, i feel we have the answers to get immigration under control. Im wondering when republicans are going to stand with democrats and fund a process of the judges, the lawyers and the officers all in connection to ensure the legal expedited immigration of those coming to our country. We have to stabilize the country with people coming for decades long before i was born. We are now dealing with the chickens are coming home to roost as a result of that. I wanted to have those questions answered. Im wondering when people will get it together that its possible we can be for all of these points and be more reasonable about it without the blame and the xenophobia when it comes to this. Democrats need to get their message straight. Host we are out of time for this part of open forum but we will have another more time later in the program for open form and for your calls on various topics. Up next, congress averted a partial Government Shutdown but the hardware continues for lawmakers to finish and pass key spending bills before the next deadline. We will talk about that and more with republican John Rutherford of florida, a member of the Appropriations Committee. Stay with us. Since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, cspan has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress, from the house and senate floors, to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. Cspan gives you a front row seat of how issues are debated and decided. With no interruption and completely unfiltered. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Two years ago, democracy faced its biggest challenge since the civil war and today, democracy is undoubted unbroken. Thursday, President Biden delivers the annual state of the Union Address during a joint session of congress to outline his priorities for the country. Watch our live coverage beginning at 8 p. M. Eastern with their Preview Program followed by President Bidens state of the union speech and then the republican response and we will get your reaction by taking your phone calls, texts and social media comments. Watch the state of the Union Address live thursday, march 7 at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. Now cspan now is a mobile app showing you what is happening in washington live and ondemand. Keep up with floor proceedings and hearings from the u. S. Congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. You can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for cspans tv networks and cspan radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. Cspan now is available at the apple store and google play. Download it for free today. Cspan now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. Announcer a healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the nations capitol, to wherever you are. The opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back. We are joined by representative John Rutherford the Appropriations Committee member and the republican from florida. Welcome. Guest good to be with you again. Host the house passed acr yesterday. How did you vote and why . Guest i voted yes on the cr mainly because is only one thing i hate more than a cr and thats a Government Shutdown. Thats what was looming, partial Government Shutdown. What this cr does is push back the march 1 date to march 8 and the march 15 date to march 22. We have to have an extra week in there because we have a republican strategy retreat in between there. What this does, the reason we did this is because we didnt want Speaker Pelosi or our members to say heres the bill and vote on it. We have a rule, 72 hours we look at bills before we have to vote on them. This will give us the 72 hour requirement that we impose on ourselves so we can literally read this before we vote on it. Host what are the policy issues that are the sticking points . Whats standing in the way of getting this done . Guest thats part of the issue for this cr. Its the fact that i know what the bills look like when they left appropriations in the house but then they go to conference with the senate. I know speaker johnson has been working very hard with the senate on not just the dollars but also the policy riders and those sorts of things. We really dont know what the bill looks like yet. Some of the topline numbers are the same so thats good. Everything thats in the bill we dont know yet and thats why we have to read it and thats why we needed those three days. Host you mentioned the three days on the first deadline now is march 8 which is in a week. Do you have enough time to get this done . Guest we will be back next week. I think we will get in sunday and they will give us the language. We will get it done next week. Host would you be in favor of another continuing resolution if you dont get it done and extending that to the end of the year . Guest weve got a get it done. I think we will. I think there is enough consensus now that we will bring these six bills to the floor. Those of the six we will bring and we will do the next six later so we are looking at two many omnibusif you will. Host your collie, representative crenshaw said a gop delay at the border would be unethical. I will play you a portion of his interview on news nation and you can respond. [video clip] they say we will do it but when trump gets in because he needs it to be as bad a problem as possible for his election and thats why we didnt want to act on it now. Get on the bus with us. What do you say to them . I say thats an unethical stance to take. I am not willing to let intensive thousands or hundreds of thousands of more Illegal Immigrants just to own biden. That is a bad stance to take. We can put things into law the force bidens hand. There is another talking point i will not accept which is he needs the authority he has the of 30 needs. Biden rescinded all of trumps executive orders and put new ones in and screwed this up a lot. Another thing that is also true is you still need new laws. Thats why we passed hr two. Under trump, he still couldnt do what he needed to do because he needed changes in law. Eventually, the way he fix the problem was to deal with a foreign country. Good on him for the initiative and i appreciated what trump did but in the end, he had to rely on mexico doing it for us. Congress needs to act. We actually do need new laws and we cant just throw our hands up and say biden will follow the law. If we make the laws clear enough, he has to follow them and Immigration Law is too vague. People dont read Immigration Law. Its a complicated subject and we have to work on. I keep asking her leadership to do that. Host your reaction to that . Guest i agree with what he just said. I think it is irresponsible to wait until the next president is in office to address the border issue. The real issue is that this president has had the authority, to change the policy at the border, enforce the law. I just want this administration to enforce the Immigration Laws that already exist. Host specifically, what should he do . Guest number one, they should do away with this alternative, not the extension but the parole they are abusing. 1. 5 Million People have been paroled into this country. They have to stop. They reinstituted catch and release. They need to stop that. There is a lot of things that this administration has the authority to do today. They dont need any additional laws. Congressman crenshaw is right. We need to change some of the laws like we need to e verify across the country but thats not the issue with the border now. Host would you have been in favor of bringing to about the Senate Bipartisan deal worked out over four months . Guest that deal was horrible. Everybody that looked at that deal said you are making Illegal Immigrants legal. It did nothing to stop people from coming in. There were no controls. The biggest problem this administration has now is they are not vetting people properly that are coming through. I had a murder in my district in florida of a gentleman who came through and said his name was fernandez, used a fake name and a fake date of birth that made him a juvenile. That qualified him for catch and release under this administrations policy. They couldnt prove who he was. They had no idea who this guy was and you know what they did . They put him on a plane and sent him to jacksonville. He went up killing mr. Cuellar in jacksonville. Hes now doing 60 years in Florida State prison for that murder. I have had this conversation with secretary mayorkas. Their default policy is when they cant figure out who you are, they let you in on thats why this 1. 5 Million People are on parole. Host if youve got a comment or question for representative John Rutherford of florida, you can call us our lives by party. Democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001 an independents 202 7488002. I want to ask you about the tragedy in gaza with over 100 palestinians killed waiting for food aid. Guest i understand the need for israel to route hamas out of gaza. The leadership of hamas has to change. There is not going to be any peace in the region without a change there. At the same time, i feel for the palestinians who were also living under this hamas rule in gaza. They are being killed as a result of october 7 and what this hamas leadership did to israelis and others who were visiting in israel. Host is there anything about President Bidens policy toward israel that needs to be changed . Guest i think they need to look at this issue of the west bank, the settlements going in there. I agree with the president on that. I agree we have two, i voted for the supplemental, the israeli supplemental that the house passed. I voted for that because we have to keep their Missile Defense systems fully loaded and we need to replenish the military stocks that we have provided them. That is why i fully support israel. Host lets talk to callers, michael in belmar, new jersey, democrat. Caller good morning, cspan and thank you project michael. Congressman, the one thing you said about the change in hamas, its not a government, they will not change any leadership in hamas. My one point was you brought up nancy pelosi at the beginning of the conversation. I find it amazing you would even bring her up when youre leadership in the house is sewn up. You had mccarthy and was a joke. Johnson is a marionette with strings being pulled by you know who. For you to even bring up Nancy Pelosis name, woman who actually did legislation when she was there. Is comical i just had to bring that up because ive been waiting for somebody to talk to and for one of you to bring up her name and insult her like that. Guest i was just referring to Nancy Pelosis statement on obamacare that we have to pass this and find out whats in it. We will not do that. Speaker johnson is not going to do that. We are actually going to read bills before we pass them. Host i know you dont agree with Nancy Pelosis policies but would you consider her an effective legislator . Guest i think she was very effective. Host another michael in imperial beach, california, democrat. Caller good morning. Very simple question are you guys actually banning books in florida and what is the justification for that . Thank you for that. Guest they are banning books in schools that are not ageappropriate. I think everyone would agree that there are some books that dont need to be in our elementary schools, for example. I think they are looking at that. School boards, all school board should be looking at the materials being presented to the children they are responsible for. Some of the books ive seen that are being banned are really pretty atrocious. I dont think anyone would disagree that they should not be in an host host elementary school, for example. Lets talk to richard on republican line in kansas . Richard . Maybe richards not there. Sorry. Caller olethya, kansas. We are certainly ignorant about a lot of things out here but we are not stupid. We can see whats going on. Number one, it always mi there . Host you are, go ahead. Caller we may be ignorant out here but we are not stupid. When we see things come is pretty easy to figure out whats going on. Lets stop with all the democrat republican stuff. Lets start looking at what the administrative bureaucracy is doing. Thats why passing more laws, i dont know why we are under the assumption we need to keep passing more laws. How about we enforce the laws and then we wont need to keep passing new laws. Host like what, richard . Caller the border. Thats the point i was getting at here. We can stop this overnight. If trump was as successful as he was, there could even be more. Its like the other caller said, just put trump tshirts and everybody in mexico and you will see how quick that border closes. Guest you are absolutely right. We dont need a bunch of laws. I tell folks all the time that i think the two things that are threatening american democracy more than anything else is two things executive order from the president and executive rulemaking by these executive agencies where they are literally going around congress. We have the Congressional Review Act but thats to slow and perfunctory. What we really need and we pass the rains act. Its rules from the executive in need of scrutiny. That tells you what the rains act is about. We have to stop allowing these executive agencies to legislate through the rulemaking process. The president from legislating through the executive order. Guest just looking it up, it up, look like trump issued 894 executive orders executive actions, 220 were executive orders. Guest , i disagree with that too. Stop them all. If you want something pass, go through the congress. Host new jersey, independent, high mike. Caller i would like to ask the representative if he can comment on the cpac convention and how your party allows such public extremism. Guest i didnt go to the cpac. Mainly because i dont agree with some of the tactics of some of the members that do go down there. I am with you. I am not a name and i dont like throwing bombs and calling people names and that sort of thing. Guest who was at cpac that you feel was too extreme . Caller pretty much everybody even going down to the ones they had in the background and using the word die. The first speaker said he wanted to overthrow democracy and they want to do it on january 6 and they are going to do it again. Is winning that important to your party . You would take these extremists under your wing . Silence is complicity in all the republicans are complicit in allowing these hateful, adversarial people to exist. Guest i would encourage you to follow the rutherford roundup. You can go to rutherford. Gov and follow me and follow me nci speak out on some of this. Im a member of the bipartisan working group. We are working across thats one of the said things come a lot of people dont realize that there are a lot of members working across the aisle with each other to get things done. You just dont hear about it. Host it doesnt seem like youre being that effective. Guest no, we are not because they still vote party lines, everybody votes party lines. Host wayne is next in harrisburg, pennsylvania, democrat. Caller this is what i want to talk about. Im talking about the funding that you fun for the wars. You are always talking about 1 . We need help in america. For white and black people. When are you going to do something for us . Youve been in congress for a long time. You should know the answers. You are an older person and you should know and joe biden, he needs to go and im a democrat. I wouldnt even vote for neither one of them. Im going to go independent now. I will vote for cornell west and see what happens. I dont care who becomes president. Guest we just passed a bill that had some relief in there, tax relief for businesses but also has some very good relief for families with the child tax credit. It is not, as some have portrayed it, a guaranteed minimum income. It has a work requirement built into it. Nobody is going to give up their job to get a few dollars the following year. Those allegations we are trying to look out for families. Host robert is a democrat in texas, good morning area caller [inaudible] [indiscernible] everyone said that bill will never live. Host what bill . Guest caller the bill for the border, the border bill. Guest the bipartisan bill that came out of the senate . Caller yes, you said the bill wasnt any good. Why is it they will not put it up for a vote . The republicans said it wasnt worth nothing. Cant they put it up for a vote . Guest the majority of the Senate Republicans didnt even like that bill. I think everyone that vetted that bill after they actually so the language was really aghast at what the bill proposes and the way it was going to allow people to come into our country. There was nothing in there to stop people. It was all to speed up the processing of people and quit calling them illegal and make them legal. Thats why i was opposed to it. Host on the independent line, georgia, good morning. Caller good morning. My questions this why do we argue so much . We are all human and we all got voted in. Nobody yesterday when the secretary talked about what about our border . Thats our border. He is part of the defense. They are all coming from mexico. Why in the world are we not talking about not one question was about our border. It was all about russia and all about china but nothing about our particular border. None of the people in our state got killed. That girl got killed by illegals. We are going to put him in jail. We are going to support him while hes in jail. Everybody coming over gets 1000. Weve got people in the United States were starving to death. Please explain it to me. Guest i am for holding all of these Illegal Immigrants accountable when they come here and commit a crime. We put them in jail, we prosecute them, then we put them in prison. They do their time and then we deport them. I can tell you in jacksonville, florida when i was sheriff, i started at 287 g program and thats a section in the Immigration Law that allows state and local Law Enforcement to work with ice and use their database when you talk to someone whos is an illegal alien our community. Once they are in jail, we prosecute them to the fullest and we actually put a detainer on them forice. Because of that program, we can actually start deportation proceedings. We cannot deport them but weekend start that process and expedite getting them out of the country. We deported thousands when i was sheriff. Host lets talk to fred in brookville, florida, republican. Caller yes, you are talking about the word banning books. You are not banning the books. You are reading books. Its like a movie. Guest right. Caller rrating movies and then you gotta gp movie. Everybody thinks you are banning all the books in florida. Thats not the way to use that word. Guest thats a great point. Thanks for pointing that out. You are actually right. Host anything else . Caller yeah, there was a gentleman talking about the border. Trump went to the border on texas. Biden went to the brownsville, texas where there was very few people coming across brownsville. Why didnt biden choose to go to eagle pass, texas where the real problem is . People have to understand that when we let these illegals in and not check them, you dont know who youre living in. Look at all the people thats been killed by these people. I dont want my grandchildren, my wife, my family have to go through this and worry about getting killed. I wont even let my wife go out at night because im scared to death. Most of the time i wont let her go by herself anywhere. Guest i will tell you if you look at the numbers of illegals coming across and brownsville and eagle pass, they are both down significantly because of what Governor Abbott has done by putting up barriers. This whole argument that walls done work. Walls are just a barrier. And impediment. They are not they dont keep out. Its just an impediment to them coming in. But, when they come in now in texas, they go to jail if they work their way through that barrier. The numbers are down in both places, actually. Yes, if you look back over the last month, thats why Governor Abbott went to eagle pass and shut the entire park down because it was being used by c. B. P. To bring in thousands and thousands of illegal aliens every day. Host one more call. A republican in worcester, massachusetts. Good morning. Caller thank you so much. I first would like to compliment representative rutherford for being succinct in his answers and not bloviating like 99 of your guests do. I also would like to say the only immigration process that should be going on right now are those that have been waiting in line for years and years and years. And thousands of dollars to wait in line and come here legally. Shut the damn border down. And stop this insanity. Thank you so much. Guest thank you. That truly is the sad thing here is the people who are trying to immigrate legally are being hampered by all of this attention thats going to the Illegal Immigrants who are crossing our border. So youre right about that. I was against the surge where the Biden Administration took uscis personnel and sent them to the border. Took additional federal agents and sent them to the border. The surge did nothing to stop people. They simply processed them more quickly. I have this very conversation with secretary mayorkas because they had a six pillar plan, they called it, for when they lifted title 42. And guess what . Maybe i read those six pillars. Not one of them would stop somebody from coming across that rio grande river. Not one. It was all about processing. Host we do have laws about Asylum Seekers. Do you think that people should not be able to seek asylum when they get here . Guest if they come in illegally, no. If they come through a port of entry, absolutely. Host you have a very long career in Law Enforcement. I wanted to ask you about your priorities when it comes to Law Enforcement. Guest listen, when you look at whats going on today with the number of Police Officers, not just the number of Police Officers being shot and injured or killed, but the number that are actually being ambushed. That number is up about 30 . So i have a bill, its called protect and serve, which will make it an additional 10year federal crime for those who specifically attack the police through an ambush or a kidnapping. If a kidnap or kill a police offer, they are looking at a life sentence. My message to the bad guys is, if you want to target us, the police, we are going to target you. Host thats representative john ruster ford, a republican. Florida, member of the Appropriations Committee. Congressman, thanks so much. And good luck with those bills next week. Guest thank you. Host after the break, ill speak with legendary consumer advocate and corporate critic and four time president ial candidate, raffle nader, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this week. And more of your calls in open forum. Your chance to weigh in on any political or policy topic on your mind. Start calling in now. Numbers are on your screen. Well be right back. Today, watch cspans 2024 campaign trail. A weekly roundup of cspans campaign coverage, provide ago one stop shop to discover what the candidates across the country are saying to voters. Along with firsthand accounts from political reporters, updated poll numbers, fundraising data, and campaign ads. Watch cspans 2024 campaign trail. Today, at 7 00 eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org, our download as a podcast on cspan now, our free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. American history tv, saturdays on cspan2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. At 7 p. M. Eastern, we continue with the series, free to choose, coproduced by Nobel Prize Winning economy mis economists. Who protects the worker. On lectures and history, texas womans University History professor talks about the federal governments efforts to explore and control the American West from the early 1800s through the civil war. At 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, former polish president lech walesa gives a speech marking the 113th anniversary of Ronald Reagans birth, his leggacy, and support of poland and the solidarity movement. Also at 10 30 on Historic Campaign speeches, first a 2008 Campaign Speech by democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton, at a rally at c state california state university. Followed by a 2016 super tuesday speech by republican president ial candidate and florida senator, marco rubio in miami. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2, and find a full schedule on your program guide, or watch online any time at cspan. Org slash history. A healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source, on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Because the opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host we are in open forum. You can go ahead and call in about whatevers on your mind. Politics wise this morning. This is politico with the headline, tlaib, representative rashida tlaib, declines to say whether shell back biden in november. And it says this, that representative tlaib of michigan urged michigan voters to look at the, quote, whole ballot in november, rather than stay home and protest of president joe bidens handling of the israelhamas war. While declining to say if she would back the president in the general election. We have a portion of her remarks to show you about the success of that uncommitted effort. I love michigan. As you can see not only making water human rights, but now even with movement of saying, look, dont stay home. Use your democracy to Say Something to the president. Use it as a way to voice your opinion. And show them where you are right now in regards to support. We are not going to go into the back yards of other states and tell them what to do. I think what is so beautiful about our country is every community is different. Every community is going to decide how to use our democracy. I always tell people, you show up for marches, protests, you call your members of congress, city, local resolutions. Use the ballot box to speak at truth. Its important for folks to understand. I am incredibly, incredibly scared of a second term of trump. I think its really important to emphasize this. Right now our democracy is at stake. Im asking the president and i think many of us are saying, change course. You are threatening literally our democracy. Please. Understand, listen to u. Not only to michigan, but so many people, the majority of americans are supporting a ceasefire. This is not something that, again, should just be dont worry about it, well keep going. I think its a very, very clear. This is better than any polls, any way to what are folks thinking about right now. Again, when i talk to folks that voted this way in our community, they said, rashida, i would have stayed home. But now i felt like i had an option. A way to speak my truth, my core values. I think its incredibly powerful. Im going to see, again, what makes our country straight grate is that we use that ballot box to Say Something to the people in power, including those that are supposed to represent us. Host representative tlaib of michigan. Our first call from michigan, adrian, on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I felt compelled to call today because its just i just see in our culture what is happening as a result of all the fear that is being thrown out there to the public. And i went and had my haircut the other day, and the hairdresser said, oh, dont let my daughter go outside. What the man just said he doesnt let his wife go out without him. And i live in a small town, and there is very, very little crime, if any. Ive never been assaulted. People are so afraid that if they go outside they are going to be assaulted or it really, really is frightening to me that this is happening. I see it in a lot of places. I just want to say that we live i live in a community thats probably half mexican american, and we live together peacefully. And we have a beautiful community. All of this fear is being created and its destroying our culture, if you like. Host a republican in louisiana, good morning. Caller how you doing. Host good. Caller ok. Off and on listening to your show. I have to tell you, theres a lot of people out there that are so uninformed. You can tell they listen to the fake news every day, which doesnt really report the news. They do not report the news. They are a joke now. They are low on the totem poll in public opinion. Less than 10 believe the news media now. The people that call in to your show are so, just, misinformed. Host give me an example. Be specific. Whats an example of something people are misinformed about. Caller lets just say this. When trump was president , we had pretty good deals. Everything was going we didnt have wars. Biden gets in, we are in two wars, probably three or four, maybe world war iii. He doesnt know what hes doing. Joe biden is not the president. Its obama or somebody behind him. He is not the president. He doesnt if you read the hur report, if you read, if the news media puts out the hur report, which is supposed to be opened to the public host it is opened to the public and its on our website as well. Caller did you read it . Host i didnt read all 400 pages, no. Caller there are literally hundreds and hundreds of felonies that hur specified that biden did. And they let him off because hes basically senile. Thats the truth. But hes already committed these atrocities. Hes going to get a free pass. Free pass. Host ok. Hendersonville, north carolina, independent. Caller good morning. I saw a top story on a program. The top story is the nonbinary child murdered due to the injuries while in a bathroom at school. That child was born as a female and identified as nonbinary, but forced to use the female bathroom. And was subsequently beaten to death. Tell me how are they protecting children when children die . The programming note for you, you guys you like to prevent callers from you allow your guest to insult the people that watch the show. It makes me want to stop watching. Host go ahead. Caller yeah. Recently there was a guest on from the cpac that spoke on antitrans issues. I as a transgender woman was insulted by the things he was allowed to say on your show. Yet when a caller calls in and says something against him, they are cut off. Hes protected. Why dont you protect the people that watch this show . Thats really all that host i understand that you are offended by his opinions. Its different when a caller calls in and says you are an idiot. Or call them names. I just tell people, look. Lets not do personal attacks on the guest. Stick to the actual policies. Talk about the Public Policy involved. I hope that clarifies things. James in waldorf, maryland, democrat, good. Good morning. Caller good morning. Nice show you have on. The people who get their information from trump, it seems like they dont understand logic. I used to be a republican. Now the Republican Party they are just super soft. By soft i mean no backbone. Very hypocritical. Every stance on every subject seems to be hypocritical. The border has turned into something of a terrible word. The border, the board, the border, oh, these poor immigrant families trying to migrate and become americans are horrible, horrible people. Shut down the border. It seems like trump has made the Republican Party a faction of how he thinks and how he believes. There is no independent thought that comes from the Republican Party. If i think Something Different from what trump says, then im vilified. Not only am i vilified. If i agree with 20 of what he says and if i say one thing thats not in line with him, im a dog. Its insane to where the way that we carry on and the way that the Republican Party is just being controlled not only controlled. The last caller said the information that he gets or that people get or receive, if i remember correctly, information that we get is all from fake news. And the media. He just mention add report that publicly known thats full of falsehoods that just doesnt line up. I dont understand how the Republican Party has formed into what it is now. Host jerry next in long beach, washington. Republican. Hi. Caller good morning. I want to just tell everybody about myself first. Im a big corporation, i was recruited for about three or four years. I know how to ask a question and follow up a question if they dont answer the question. That first democrat you had on, you had two key areas that you didnt follow up on. One had to do with that poison pill thing. You asked him, he danced around it. You should have said could he be more specific. It was the same thing with the border bill that came out. He said, look, too extreme. What do you mean . I love your show. I love cspan. But i ask you to be a journalist and do more followup. You do a great job on callers like us. That person host you know, jerry, i hear you. But i cant force somebody to answer a question. We do our best. Caller you cant force them. But you can show us that you are trying by following up the question. Thats all im asking. If they dont answer the question, then we all see that. Thats very obvious he doesnt know what hes talking about. I still love your show. Ill keep calling in. Thank you very much. Host we will pause here to speak to a guest. On the line. Please stay on the line, well get back to open forum after we talk to ralph nader, who is a consumer advocate and former president ial candidate. Mr. Nader, welcome to the program. Guest thank you very much. Host you celebrated your 90th birthday earlier this week, happy birthday. How did you celebrate . Guest thank you. By working. Justice in the country for everybody regardless of their political labels. Host mr. Nader, in addition to writing books, you have got a publication called capitol hill citizen. I have it here. We can discuss whats in it. Its print only. Im curious before we talk about the actual contnt in it, why only print . Why not go digital . Guest because we have very good experience with print only. People tell us that they love to hold the newspaper in their own hand. No distractions. No diversions. No ads. No clutter. And we rather have a serious audience than a larger audience that just scrolls through it. Our experience online like so many other people has not been good when we put out our reports and other materials because theres too much clutter. Its overload. So we are working on this. And the citizen. Com this newspaper has a letters to the editor which have interesting elaborations about why they like a print newspaper. They are going to capitol citizen and ordering copies for libraries and their discussion group. There is no newspaper like this. Seven editions have come out. This one can be obtained by donation of 5 or more and go to capitol hill citizen. Com. Youll get it mailed immediately. First class. If you want more copies, you can order more copies for a donation of 5 or more. The lead article im privileged to write is on congress as a weapons of mass destruction. Host i have that here. The headline is this collectively congress is a weapons of mass destruction. What do you mean . Guest although there are some really good people in congress, collectively as a body its a gridlock and its up for sale or rent to all the Campaign Finance money thats coming in that cspan has covered events for. The first destruction of a democracy itself, congress is supposed to represent we the people. Not supposed to represent the corporations like the oil and gas and banking and insurance and other corporations who pump money through their packs p. A. C. s into both parties coffers. Its destruction of peace. The elaboration of wars of empire without being declared, just pumping money. The destruction of iraq has took over a million lives and pulverized that society. They over reacted in afghanistan and destroyed so much of that country. Libya. Supported the war on yemen. It keeps going. The congress has clearly destroyed the progressive tax system t filling it with endless complexity loopholes for special interest to avoid and evade taxes. They have even destroyed medicare and medicaid by turning it over to Health Insurance contractors. Not just administer the programs, but actually to have gouging policies that deny benefits and put people in Narrow Networks and other subversions of the original concept of medicare for the elderly of the government program. And also they have destroyed their own capacity to function. They defunded the office of Technology Assessment, starting in 1995, where they have eliminated the Technical Advice on things like military technology, food technology, a. I. All kinds of other technologies that they need impartial advice for. People ought to realize this. They have destroyed our freedom of contract by letting these companies tie us up in this fine print that many people cant even read when they go into the credit economy or sign a landlords lease, or whatever. Very, very onesided. Host mr. Nader, what needs to happen . How do you fix congress . Guest excellent question. One is, this is whats written up in the capitol citizen. People back home have got to summon with their own agenda members of congress to town meetings back home. Which i believe would be covered by cspan. Now in its 45th year. There is a lot of left, right support for a living wage, for cracking down on corporate crooks, breaking up big monopolies, getting rid of government waste and corruption. Changing the tax system. If people get petitions, my guess is 500 clearly written signatures on petitions to a member of the house would bring the representative to the town meeting in your area. 1,000 would bring senators, sometimes less, back to your town meeting. Where you present the agenda. And they listen to you. And go back with the instructions of we, the people. The purpose of the capitol citizen is to create these kinds of capitol hill citizens back home. The constitution starts with we the people, not we the congress or we the corporation. We are appealing to conservative and liberal families who have common interests back home where they live, work, and raise their families. All this divide and rule stuff by the two major parties for their own advantage begins to dissipate because these families want the same thing. They want good schools, they want good public services, good roads, bridges, public transit. Clean air. Clean water. Thats what this capitol citizen. Com is about. Host i want to ask you about the president tkepbgs election election happening this year. Polling showing there are a lot of people not happy with the two major candidates who are likely going to be facing off again. Is this the year for a Third Party Candidate given your history of having run several times for president as a Third Party Candidate . Guest i think every year is a year for more voices and choices for the voters in this country. Poll after poll shows over 60 of the people want a viable third party. The problem is that they find themselves at election time unable to vote for a third party because thecies democrat with winner take all electoral college, kwerry manneddering gerrymandering, draws them into feeling only one of two candidates can win, republican or democrat. I look over the history of third parties, the first party against slavery was a Liberty Party in 1840. The small parties for the womens right to vote. And decades after that. The farmer party. And the workers party. And the peoples party. So many things we accept today, the social security, unemployment tax, progressive tax, 40hour week, ability to form unions all started with third parties. Before they were picked up by a major party. Even though third parties never won a national election. Host speaking of third party guest the capitol citizen gives a voice to these people. Host speaking of third raert, r. F. K. Jr. Has said he will not bow out of the 2024 race, even if polling shows he would be a potential spoiler for President Biden. You were criticized back in 2000 for being a spoiler for guest mimi, spoiler is a bigoted word when its directed only to third parties. Look, we all have a right, equal, under the constitution to run for public office. Local, state, and national. Therefore we are all trying to get votes from one another. Therefore we are either all spoilers of one another or none of us are spoilers. I reject that phrase spoilers. I think that good ideas come from small candidates. For example, there is not going to be any president ial debates because the Republican National committee has pulled out and trump doesnt want it. So that leaves a vacuum. No president ial debates . Heres my idea. There are six states that are swing states, nevada, arizona, georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. The major cities in those states could invite the candidates for president ial debates. Who doesnt want a debate in their city . The chamber of commerce, unions, civic groups, town hall they all want president ial debates because all the Media Coverage they get. So i have written to the mayors of these cities and asked them why dont you appoint a multisupported Citizens Committee inviting the candidates, the two president ial debates, after the conventions are over. I got a response from the mayor of milwaukee, hes considering it. But the league of women voters, urban league, unions, the neighborhood groups they all want to get together. That way we can have questions asked regionally, questions often never asked by the choreographed president ial debates. That idea does not come from the two major parties. It comes from the grace roots grassroots. And thats why we want people to read our effort here in journalism which sort of compliments cspan. Cspan covers the official proceedings of congress. Floor debates and committees. I was a supporter of brian lamb way back when he started this wonderful institution. And the capitol citizen covers unofficial journalism. Most people dont know congress, they are not printing any hearings anymore. The libraries are not getting printed hearings of Committee Reports anymore. Nobodys doing anything about that. Go to capitol citizen dotcom. Get your copies. Spread the word. And reassert yourself because they work for you, people. Members of congress all 535, work for you. And you got to make sure they work on your behalf and not on behalf of a few hundred giant corporations that turned capitol hill into a pile of campaign cash. Host mr. Nader, if we can go back to the president ial election. Age is a factor for both candidates. President biden and President Trump. Youre 90 years old now. Whats your view on how old is too old to serve as president . Guest depends on the person, doesnt it . It depends on the person. Some people have infirmities that are not their fault. Some people have a lucky choice of parents and have good genes. Some people dont take care of themselves and it affects their mental and physical performance. It shouldnt be just on the number of years people have, it should be on whether they are functioning. Not just in terms of cognitive capacity, but in terms of whether they are telling the truth. Whether they stand for the people. Whether they want to give voice to the people. Whether they want to have a real democratic society. And not a phraouing to acy where the plutocracy where the few decide for many. Host mr. Nader, you have been a consumer advocate for a long time. I wonder whats the one accomplishment that you are most proud of. Guest in congress . Host just overall over the course of your career. Guest well, one the freedom of information act, which is only enforced by people using it. Its not enforced by the government to get government information, files, nursing home reports, meat and poultry inspection reports. Just to give a few mundane things. Auto safety. That was done back in 1965. Look how Fast Congress in less than a year they had hearings i started out with zero support in congress to regulate the Auto Companies for safety, sphraougs control, and fuel efficiency within nine months or so after hearings in the senate and house and wonderful Media Coverage, they passed the auto and Highway Safety laws which have saved over three million lives and countlessly more injuries in the u. S. And lifted up auto safety and other countries abroad who want the to sell cars in this country wanted to sell cars in this country. They dont do that anymore. They work three days a week and large recesses. They dont have the capacity, congressman pascrell from new jersey has written about this. Congress has stripped its capacity to monitor the executive branch. To hold adequate hearings. Have adequate staff. To build up the office of Technology Assessment and the Government Accountability office and the committee staffs. List all the things you want this country to become and ask yourself how many of them have to go through congress . They are either blocked by congress or facilitated. Congress is the great gateway to the good life in america. Thats the way the constitution arranged it. Congress has given up its authority to the executive branch. For example, they let trump defy over 120 subpoenas. Other president s defied subpoenas, but not that many. Thats an impeachable offense. Under our founders. They fought that the information function of congress was one of its most important authorities. Congress has got to be made to wake up and it can be done by summons by the people back home to town meetings of their own making with the media there, reporter the agenda of the people, and a lot of left, right support. Its not divide and rule here. Host all right. Ralph nader, consumer advocate and former president ial candidate. His publication is called capitol hill citizen. Mr. Nader, thanks so much. Hope you had a good 90th birthday. Guest thank you very much. Thanks cspan, and brian lamb of all. Give him my best. Host will do. Go back to open forum now and take your calls. Thomas a republican in raleigh, north carolina. Good morning. Caller the question i have for you is everyone thats saying that basically russias going to attack poland if we allow them to defeat ukraine, my question to you is, what in the world would russia attack poland when polands never been a part of russia, ukraine was, and poland is part of nato. If they attack poland they are starting world war iii which is a nuclear war. Why are we allowing the democrats, the congressman you had on earlier, and a lot of other people, to say if we dont send money to poland to ukraine, then russia will attack poland. Start world war iii which we all know is not true. Host all right. Talk to alexandria, virginia. Hi, aaron. Caller hi. So good hearing ralph nader. Happy 90th to him. Two things i hope i get a little bit of time. I decided to use my 30 day call to get some information, or more information about the gentleman who was on earlier in the week who was talking about the influx of migrants from china and the threat that china poses. I think that we are it was successful from russia to sort of embed themselves in our political discourse and create division. Weve we see that evidently even with the callers here on cspan how we are one american against the other. The second thing that i wanted to bring up, look, if you have that persons name. Host its miles yu. Caller it was great hearing from him. I believe hes a trump cabinet. It was great hearing from him. The second thing, it sort of took me off topic. Listening to callers coming in on the cspan audience, we are fortunate enough to be able to have this discourse where there are real people who have the ability to talk and listen to people from the other political spectrum. What i dont like, i constantly hear people calling in attacking the cspan host, i want to say what you guys cant say. Ill do it for you. Number one, this is their chosen profession and they do a great job at it. Number two, they are really not concerned in you doing the job for them. This is a discourse. Open forum where we can talk to guests that they bring on. It is not their job to ask all the questions you want them to ask. Their job is to create a forum with respectful discourse. I hope that the rest of the callers remain vigilant in doing that so we can keep this forum open. I greatly appreciate you guys. Ill be calling you guys on the first of the month instead of randomly so i make sure i get in. Thanks. Host thanks. Lea in virginia. Republican. Good morning. Caller hi, good morning. Host go ahead. Caller i feel like everything going on in the country right now our current president , biden in office, this country has gotten to be a joke. The people no longer feel they have a voice. The government is having the voice and speaking out for the people and not allowing us people to make the decision. I just feel like to be quite frank that a lot of people in this country are probably really truly upset whats going on if they were sincere and trump won biden won last election, you can see all over the news its kind of taken a turn to where trump is potentially going to win in office. One way or the other. I just feel like the people of the United States are in a uproar. At some point there has to be some change or i feel like the people will march on washington or protest and there could be a war within our country. Its gotten to be bad. Host lynn in silver spring, maryland. Democrat. Good morning. Caller thank you very much. Thank you for cspan. Do you still have the capitol hill citizen paper with you. Guest yes, i do. Host do you happen to have a phone number for them. Im not online and i would advise everybody to read the printed word. If you read online all the time, you eventually lose your ability to read printed text. Host you know what, dont have a phone number. I will get it for you, ok. Well have one of our producers find a phone number. Caller ok. All right. I appreciate it. There is a rally this weekend at the israeli embassy, a propalestinian rally, especially focused on the people in jaffa. Bless your heart. I appreciate all you do. Host johnny in granite falls, washington, independent. Caller yes, good morning. I wanted to say first of all i think i want to echo the man who said you guys do a wonderful job. I especially like you as a moderator. You do a very good job handling calls. I had two points. My call was actually generated by a man who called earlier. Kind of being insulting to people who disagree with trump. And saying that we need an i. Q. Test and things like that. I think that he should take a look at who donald trump is. When i haerd him last week compare himself to navalny who is being buried as we speak, i was appalled. This man was a national hero. And for donald trump to compare himself to that man is just outrageous. The second point is, listening to nader while i was online waiting on the phone, it was really nice to hear from him again. I was one of the people who voted for him in 2000. I am i call on the independent line because i consider myself a nonpartisan. I think the two parties have way too much power. Thats why im not affiliated with a party. I never have been. I wanted to make that comment after hearing him speak. And again i would just like to say to the man who called earlier about donald trump and people who disagree with him, hes a terrible tern. And he really needs to be september away from the white house kept away from the white house. Thanks. Host do i have that phone number for the capitol hill citizen for the caller that just asked about it. Its 2026567660 if you are not online and would like to order a copy. If you are online its capitol hill citizen dotcom. Barbara next in raleigh, north carolina. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host good. Caller i have been for years trying to get a call through. I couldnt believe it. Then i said, well, it must be fate that im calling and say what i think. I respect all the people who have called in before for their opinions. One of the things that i continually find when i listen to them, a lot of them, and when i talk to folks around the community, is that they really dont know what kind of government we have, really. And they dont appreciate it. And if they love this former president so much, then they should all get tickets with him and go to russia and understand what hes trying to do. We cannot afford to have him back in the white house. He is nothing but a cult leader. And hes got all the people around him for the most part hes got them transformed into believing he is the leader of all leaders. And the others who arent transformed are doing it out of greed, money, and power. They think is power. Its unfortunate. I hope that segues me into saying i hope that our schools will go back to teaching civics so that we will have people who grow up to be adults to understand what our pub republic is about and republic is about and the system it is we use to govern our republic. I found in listening to the farmer guy, he doesnt even know what our system is. He doesnt have an understanding of it. I doubt hes ever read the constitution of our country. Host all right, barbara. Staying in north carolina, to advance north carolina, republican. Marcy, good morning. Caller yes. Thanks for taking my call. As i was listening to congressman ruster ford rutherford, i just heard the uni party speaking. All these people that are calling and blasting democrats and republicans. They are all the same. You hadtkaeurpbt remember what the number 70 to 80 of the representatives yesterday actually voted for what they say they stand for. There is a famous democrat statement that says, i love it when republicans in the majority, nothing changes. But republicans get the blame for it. Yesterday the majority of republicans voted to fund what they say they are against. So the house has the power of the purse. If they are so against this stuff, why do they continue to fund it . Host all right. Lets talk to temple hills, maryland, republicans. Caller yes. You deserve respect. I have heard some callers earlier. I think you have a nice program. And you deserve better. They were asking about questions to go in more details. I think they are doing a good job. We all deserve respect. And i like your show. And i wanted to wish nader a happy 90th birthday. And im an oldfashioned republican. Im still registered. I have family members that want me to change from republican. But im an old miss the oldfashioned debates we had and i wanted to let you and donald trump needs to know that he came from immigrants and we all deserve better. Host have you decided who you are going to vote for in november . Caller i would be voting for joe biden. And i dont appreciate the trials that i have a half sister thats 82, briefly, and you know, she doesnt like either candidate. And i just know the basic information from Donald Trumps history. And my dad was a federal agent. And he testified a small fraction of the watergate. And there is a newspaper article in my i believe my sister has it out in new mexico. I just miss the old republican debates. I wish you and your staff the best. Wanted to make sure nader got his happy birthday. Host appreciate that. Programming note for you. Cong up in about 15 minutes, at 10 a. M. Eastern, house policy advocates discuss the future of the Affordable Care act. And the differences between the initial goals of the act and how it has been implemented. Hosted by the American Enterprise institute. Watch that discussion live at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan right here. Cspan now, our free mobile video app, or online at cspan. Org. Thats going to be right after a very quick house pro forma session at 10 a. M. Eastern. Well roll right into that discussion about the Affordable Care act. Lou in world, oregon. Democrat. Caller great to hear ralph nader and wish him a happy birthday. Im in oregon. Im someone when i moved here to go to reed college was one of the state secretary organizers with the Public Interest research group. Oregon and vermont were the two states that first started out with those. Started by ralph nader. Three things i want to agree with ralph on he mentioned and disagree with the fourth. Depending on time constraints. In terms of grassroots organizing and initiatives, in oregon some of us have formed Portland Gray panthers. In connection in succession to aurbburg. The gray panthers were started by maggie kuhn, someone ralph nader met and supported. We have three out of oregon becoming state by state projects. One of them is creating a campaign to have a postage stamp made for maggie kuhn. Shes not famous like Gloria Steiner or maxine waters. She started the panthers. Two, we are organizing and getting endorsements as far away from washington d. C. For the walmart boycott to end gun violence. Three specific demands in connection with that. To Push Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And in three, there is a project we have been doing with local elected officials and candidates, called the Civic Engagement project. If people might be interested in either of those in other states, the Contact Number is 5032222974 in portland. What i want to disagree with ralph nader on, hell be the first one to say this is the right to disagree, hell agree with the process. Which is about the idea of spoilers. He said that he thinks that spoiler is not a useful term. I disagree completely with that. I am someone that voted for ralph nader in 2000. I dont regret it based on what state i was in. In the current election, there is a clear choice between biden and trump. For organizers in oregon and many other places were totally for bidenharris 2024. Thank you. Host dianne huntingtonburg, indiana. Independent line. Caller yes. Hello. Thank you for all you do. I love your channel. I wanted to say i am an independent because i only vote on policies. And President Trump has wonderful policies. Everything. I loved everything he did. And biden is wrecking the country. The main issue is the illegals coming in. They should come in legal. Host all right. Anything else . Caller yes. Thank you for everything you do. Host i wanted to ask you about what you just said about that you want the immigrants to come in legally. President trump during his administration cut down on Legal Immigration. What some critics are saying is, when you close down or limit Legal Immigration, people are going to come in illegally. What do you think about that specifically about Legal Immigration . Caller President Biden, with the stroke of a pen, executive order, he can shut the board you are down you now. We have a mess. Over 10 million illegals. 150 countries. They are not all good. There is a lot of bad in there. There is a lot of good and a lot of bad. Im very upset about this child trafficking. Human trafficking. The cartels. The fentanyl. He shouldnt blame the house. The house passed a bill 10 months ago it went flat. On the desk. They had a good bill passed. Host got it. Gary in newport, connecticut, republican. Caller thats kentucky. Host im so sorry. It says kentucky in front of me. Caller make it in a nutshell. Close the border. Build the wall. No biden 24. And please, elect nikki haley as president. Host tell me why you like nikki haley, gary. Caller because shes young. Experienced. We dont have anybody in the white house that could do that job. Right now. Elected or not elected. Shes young, experienced, these guys are too old. Host do you think former President Trump is also too old . Caller yeah. I think they are too old. I think there ought to be a limit on how old you have to be before you can run. I think it should be, 70. Host how old are you, gary . Caller 70. Host ok. Minnesota, independent. Caller hi. Host go ahead. Caller a few weeks ago i was amazed at the Media Coverage. Do you remember when the press secretary came out early, it was like a very Early Morning press conference, unusually. Host tell me about it. Caller well, they were talking about joe bidens cognitive ability. And all the media shut down that thing. I checked cspan. Fox. Cnn. Everyone kind of put blocked it out. They did a news blackout on those first few minutes. They only came back to joe biden, to the press conference when they were talking not about his cognitive ability. It was after that they went into different line of questioning. But it was obvious to me that there was a news blackout on that, including cspan. I would have thought cspan would cover a News Conference at the white house. Host you know, we would never do an intentional blackout. You know that, right . At cspan. Caller i dont know that. I trust you and say, yes. I am so distrustful of anything i see on tv. Host what do you like . Whats the media you like to consume . Caller i like alex jones and info wars. I think thats the most relevant news source i can think of. Host do you think hes the most trustworthy news source is alex jones info wars . Caller yes. Host what else, peter . What else do you look at . Caller i watch the mainstream media. And its like william burrow said when you read the New York Times, you have to read between the lines. You have to sneak all this propaganda with a grain of salt. I think host rick in gulf breeze, florida, democrat. Caller well, i was wondering when you guys would finally get to me. I dont know what planet these people are living on. Its over. Democracy is dying in slow motion. We are sitting here and watching it. I have asked time and time again. In march of 2020, then the cares act, trump and Steve Mnuchin took 500 billion of the taxpayers money. To this day we dont know where that money went. How much of our money went to the Heritage Foundation for their project 2025 . How much of our money would stop the border to cause as much chaos for this biden as they could cause. The problem at the border is not that its an open border. The problem at the border is the republicans. How much of our money gets down there to incentivize human traffickers to cause chaos at our border. Host where are you getting this, rick . The u. S. Government funding went to the cartels to incentivize them to cross the border . Caller when trump signed the cares act in march of 2020, he wouldnt sign it unless he got 500 billion to give to different organizations that he wanted to give to. There was a lot of contentious debate back and forth in congress as to whether or not they were going to let him have that money to give to Different Companies that he wanted to give to. Finally congress and nancy pelosi said, ok. Well go ahead and do that. We are going to assign an Inspector General to see how that moneys spent. A week after that, trump fired that Inspector General and told him that he was not to report to congress how trump spent that money. He was to report to congress what trump wanted him to report to congress as to how he spent that money. And then in the press conference when asked who would oversee the spending of that 500 billion, donald trump said he would oversee it. Steve in a mnuchin, secretary of the trerbry, was asked by a member of congress what happened to that money . He laughed and said it was a secret. Where did our money go . Its not surprising to me that donald trump still has power. Look what 500 billion can buy. Host all right. We got your point. Anna in emerald isle, north carolina, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. That caller, oh, my goodness, that blew me away. I just when trump was in office we had the best economy for everyone in america. And i dont understand why such visceral against this man. We the border was secure. And people dont realize just how many people have really come into this country. Millions and millions of illegals. And i dont i have nothing against immigration. I love it. And everybody has an opportunity. But you got to do it the legal way. We cant sustain this. Look at the major cities with all the crime. Plus that child in georgia, it broke my heart. We have got to do better as america. We got to get our economy back. And i just feel under this democratic rule that we have just crumbled. And we have never been more divisive. Ever. And we all got to come together. And make our country make America Great again. Thats exactly what Donald Trumps going to do. I thank you for taking my call. Host line for the democrats, granite city, illinois. Jean. Caller gene. Caller yes, how you doing today . Im calling, i did want to say if congress would do their part, and do their work, and start putting bills on the floor, they got a lot of bills that say they have, but they are not putting them on the floor, to a vote. Then some of the action will get going. Also you take care of the Senior Citizens and retirees they promise they are going to do. Your show is real good. I love your topic. You all do your Research Real good. Host i appreciate that, gene. Thats the time that we have got. Well take you over to the house for a very quick pro forma session. We will see you again tomorrow morning at 7 a. M. Eastern here on the washington journal. Thanks for watching. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap. Org] the speaker pro tempore the house will beed in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the s