Host good morning. It is saturday, march 16, 2024. The house passed a bill this week that has the potential to band tiktok in the United States, but the legislation faces a tougher time in the senate. Increasing tensions between top u. S. Democrats and israels leadership first into the open with a speech from Chuck Schumer calling for a change in leadership amid the ongoing conflict in gaza. We want to hear your top new story of the week. 202 7488000. Republicans on 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. If you would like to text us that number is 202 7488003. Please be sure to include ynd where you are writing from. On social media facebook. Com cspan or on x cspanwj. That tiktok legislation passed with bipartisan support in the house. Republican Mike Gallagher who cosponsored the bill to regulate the app and is the chair of the flex committee on the u. S. China competition defended the legislation on the house floor. Tiktok is a threat to our national security, because it is owned by bytedance which does the bidding of the party in china. We know this because chinese law requires it. This bill forces tiktok to break party. It does not apply to american companies. It only applies to companies subject to the control of foreign adversaries defined by congress. It says nothing about election interference and cannot be turned against any American Social media platform. It does not impact websites in general. The only impacted sites are those associated with foreign adversary apps, like tiktok. It can never be used to penalize individuals. The text prohibits that. It cannot be used to censor speech. It takes no position at all on the content of speech. Only foreign adversary control. Foreign adversary control of what is becoming the dominant News Platform for americans under 30. This is a commonsense measure to protect our national security. I urge my colleagues to support this critical Bipartisan Legislation. Host that Bipartisan Legislation did indeed pass the house and awaits the senate. The bill would either require tiktok to be divested from its parent company, bytedance, or be removed from u. S. App stores. Some of the other top news stories that we are including the tommy willis news that she will not be disqualified in the trump case p also special cou hill talking about his investigationbidens retention of documents. As we mentioned earlier, the tensions between President Biden and israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Schumer speech on the floor in the senate. The ongoing unrest in haiti. Another story that broke yesterday comes from the National Association of realtors, which agreed to slash commissions to settle ongoing lawsuits. The National Association of realtors will pay 418 million in damages several rules that housing experts say will drive down housing costs. American homeowners could see a significant drop in selling their homes after the real estate trade group agreed to a landmark deal that will eliminate a bedrock of the industry the standard 6 sales commission. The National Association of realtors, a powerful organization that has set the guidelines for home sales for decades, has agreed to settle a series of lawsuits by paying 418 Million Dollars in damages and eliminating its rules on commissions. Legal counsel for nar approve the agreement friday morning. The New York Times obtained a copy of the signed document. The deal, which lawyers anticipate will be filed within weeks and still needs the federal courts approval, within a multitude of legal claims from home w rules forced them to pay excessive fees. Lets start with your calls. Iris in michigan on our independent line. Iris, what is your top new story of the week . Caller i think that the biggest story of the week is our government has talked about what is going on in the rest of the world while we see the United States of america declining with so many people on the streets and so much confusion of children knowing what their place is and interfering in the business of other countries while ours seems to be further apart. People are getting further from one another, they dont talk to one another. There is confusion about what our government is even about. And this whole thing with the election is throwing everything here into such chaos. People are not even speaking to one another, and its really sad to watch our country fall apart. And not knowing what direction we are taking. Its very depressing. Thank you. Host thank you for your call. We are looking for your top new story this morning. The numbers, for democrats 202 7488000. Republicans at 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Another one of those top new stories that we were following this week on cspan was e xspecial counsel robert hurt testifying before the house judicial committee. He conducted the yearlong probe and President Joe Biden handling classified documents that ultimately absolve the president of legal culpability. He faced questions on tuesday from the House Judiciary Committee. He was previously nominated by thenPresident Donald Trump as the u. S. District of maryland. He wrote last month that he wouldnt recommend charges against President Biden despite uncovering evidence that by then willfully retained classified material. He said that a potential jury would likely find joe biden to be a sympathetic wellmeaning elderly man with a poor memory. We have clips of him defending his decision to include questions about President Bidens memory and mental acuity in the court. [video clip] let me say a few words about that. My task was to determine if the president disclosed National Defense information willfully. I could not make that determination without assessing the president s state of mind. For that reason i had to consider the president s memory and mental state and how a jury would likely perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial. These are the types of issues that the prosecutors analyze every day. Because these issues were important to my ultimate decision i had to include a discussion of them in my report to the attorney general. The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue. We interviewed p ask him about his recorded statement. I just found all the classified stuff downstairs. He toldt remember saying that to his ghostwriter. He said he didnt remember finding any classified material after his vice presidency in his home. He didnt remember anything about how classified documents about afghanistan made their way into his garage. My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president s memory was necessary and accurate and fair. Most importantly, what i wrote is what i believe the evidence shows and what i expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation, nor did i disparage the president unfairly. I explained to the attorney general my decisions and the reasonor that is what i was required to do. Host we will hear from bernard in harker heights, texas. Go ahead, bernard. Caller hello, kimberly. Thank you for taking my call. I think my number one new story of the week is how President Trump has no support from any of his former Leadership Team or cabinet members in his first administration. He has literally no support from any of them. Yesterday he said he would not endorse President Trump for president. Even his own former Vice President would not endorse President Trump for president. That is a telling sign of his candidacy and how he lacks support from any of his former Leadership Team or cabinet members. That is my number one new story. Host what bernard was mentioning from cnbc that former Vice President mike pence will not endorse trump in 2024. Saying former Vice President mike pence said friday he wouldnt endorse his former boss for president in the 2020 four election. He revealed the decision d an interview on fox news. I will not be endorsing donald trump this year. The announcement came assecured enough delegates this week to clinch the nomination. Trump is securing and articulating an agenda at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on in our four years, said mike pence. As i watched his candidacy unfold ive seen him walking away from our commitment to confront the national debt. I have seen him shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life. Next up Worcester Massachusetts on our independent line. What is your top new story . Caller good morning, cspan. My topic is haiti. Ever since i was a young kid growing up in new york, i had a lot of haitian friends. The problem with haiti they dont have Natural Resources. 40 years ago 90 of haiti was covered with trees. Now less than 2 because people have to cut down trees to sell and they have mudslides. Only 50 of the haitian people can read and write. We talk about people coming to america and making money and sending it back to their country. There are 130,000 haitians in south florida. You go to florida, the treasure coast, the west coast, the haitians are doing good. In fort lauderdale, they have businesses. 140,000 haitians in the new York New Jersey area. Massachusetts has haitians. Why is the country poor . I want to see them raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage in haiti is six dollars per day, 10 hours per day. That is a day. There are the people every time someone comes by and tries to do the right thing for haiti, outside forces intervene and make matters worse. A guy wrote a book called talks, outside forces have to do why haiti is suffering. Weind our business as a country and let people find their own solutions. Host i would like to give our audience more information about what is going on in haiti so everyone can be on the same page. This is from nbc news. In haiti, a Police Officer turned gangster is trying to seize control of the country. His forces have laid siege to spailbrea is nhe insists it is because his mom operated a Fried Chicken stand in portauprince but critics say its a moniker that he earned after multiple massacres in the Nations Capital in 20182020, that according to the United Nations, left does instead many of whom were burned alive when their homes were deliberately torched. Moving on, his forces have laid siege to haitis Main International airport and traded fire with troops and sparked a jailbreak from the National Penitentiary area in portauprince and freed almost 4000 gang members. A team of marines have been dispatched to shore up security at the u. S. Embassy. From secretary of state antony blinken, speaking to reporters on wednesday on u. S. And regional efforts to stabilize haiti. [video clip] sec. Blinken on haiti, you know that this has been a long unfolding story. The heart of the story is the suffering of the haitian people. We want to see that brought to an end. That requires a few things. It requires a more stable political system so that the country can function and function democratically. We need to see a transition toelections, to a clear return to a democratic path. We need humanitarian assistance, Development Assistance so the economy can be built up and people can have an opportunity. Fundamentally, we need to see security because its rd to do either of the first two things in an environment that you have right now in haiti. Profound insecurity that is being driven largely by the action of gangs who control big parts of the capital city and critical infrastructure, etc. We have been working on all of these fronts, as you know. The United Nations endorsed some months ago a Multinational Security support mission to help the Haitian Police regain control of security. As we are putting that together, and kenya stepped up to say that it would lead the mission we brought together other countries that will contribute to the mission. We ourselves are contributing significant resources. In parallel, we have been trying with caribbean countries, other interested countries, to help patients get back on a better political path. Host harold is in livingston, tennessee on our line for democrats. What is your top new story of the week . Me d more about legislation ouei t aulsobowe as hi lcan conversation on what is being proposed up there with both sides. Host thank you harold. Paul in franklinville, new jersey on our line for democrats. What is your top new story . Caller well, originally i was going to speak about the soviet union. I guess i have some personal history of concern for ukraine and the war thats being fought on the borders there and our need to assist. Its personal for me because i was an officer in vietnam with another border. We were on the border with cambodia. Prior to my being wounded there i was wounded by a russian weapon. An rpg seven blew through my left side the day before. Host what is your top new story this week . Caller russian weapons. It dates all the way back to vietnam in that an officer i knew whose body i found of the day before was also hit by a russian rpg 7 that was identified carried by the north vietnamese. Predominantly host you would probably be interested that shortly we will be hearing from someone who will be talking about the ongoing Russian Election thats happening this weekend. Stay tuned for that. Thats go to david in northfield, new jersey on our independent line. Good morning, david. Caller good morning. Excellent show today. Host great. What is your top new story . Caller my top new story is if you take the different news stories on all of the different news stations and social media you will find that there is a lot of division in this country. I think that that is a news story in itself, if you compile them together. I think that too many people are arguing. There is too much partisanship. We need more bipartisanship. Host thank you, david. Hagers bill wisconsin on our republican line. Good morning, randy. Caller thank you for taking my call. President biden taking documents out of the skiff. When he was a senator. He had a right mind then. Host are you still there . Caller yes, maam. Host sorry, we lost you for a moment. Caller President Biden outside of the skiff when he was a senator. And hid them. [indiscernible] i dont think he knew how much he had. [ernible] host randy it seems we cant g up. I want to bring back some tape. The Top Democrats on the oversight committee, raskin from maryland was in the special counsel with hur detailing the differences between bidens mishandling of documents compared to that of former President Trump. [video clip] special counsel hur emphasizes that President Bidens conduct contrasts sharply with that of former President Trump. Hur observes unlike President Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment against mr. Trump if proven would clearly establish willfulness and serious aggravating factors. He sets forth these details. Most notably after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, trump allegedly did the opposite. According to indictments he not only refused to return the documents for months but obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and lie about it. He returned only a portion of subpoenaed documents and deliberately withheld biden trump did not alert the National Archives or doj of the documents, nor did he turn over all of the classified materials in his possession. He didnt sit down for a voluntary interview with the special counsel and never consented to a search of his home. On the contrary, trump suggested that his attorney hide or destroy evidence requested by the fbi and grand jury. Trump instructed his aide to move boxes of classified documents to hide them from the fbi. Trump tried to delete incriminating security tapes footage from maralago. He got his attorney to provide a false certification saying that he had produced all the documents in his possession. He did not. Given that this report is so damming and the contrast between biden and trump, its hard for me to see why our colleagues think that this hearing advances their flailing and embarrassing quest to impeach the president of the United States. Host cassie from hanover massachusetts on the line for democrats. What is your top new story . Caller so, it came out yesterday. Good morning. Jared kushners Real Estate Firm is closing three real estate deals that could be valued or worth more than 1 billion. Two pieces of land are governmentowned in albania and the balkans, i believe. They were, at least in part, a result of relation to the during the Prior Administration when he was in a government role. Again, hunter biden was never in government. It is quite a different story. Thats the top new story for me this whost thank you, kathy. John in Dearborn Heights michigan on the line for independents. Goo