host: good morning it's saturday

february 24th. as the war enters its third year republicans are blocking additional aid while russia continues its assault that is one of several big stories but we want to know, what's your top news story of the week? our phone lines for republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002 you can text at (202) 748-8003 and on facebook facebook.com/cspan. some of the other stories were following is the second anniversary of the war uaine

and the latest on the alabama ivf ruling that has caused issues in the gop primary. also news of an fbi iormant involved in the hunter biden investigation has been charg with lying. another type of testimony from joe biden brother and joe biden weighing executive action on the border. here is a story in the wall street journal with the stunning photo from the front lines with the soldier preparing artillery shells. will the u.s. abandon ukraine?

america's waning commitment. support for ukraine has become a divisive partisan issue and a part of the right has admiration for boone. --putin. republican leadership has been blocking legislation that would authorize financing for ukraine. the results and cut off has caused a shortage in artillery shells. we also mention the story of the alabama ivf ruling.

here's a story in the washington post, words of support for ivf with donald trump speaking out. they voiced support for ivf treatment distancing themselves from the supreme court ruling. the alabama courts decision that frozen embryos should be considered children and people can be held liable for destroying them was met with silence from republican officeholders but many republican politicians have embraced ivf that have been used by thousands of families.

including donald trump you addressed this ruling at a campaign event in south carolina saying he supports women having access to ivf. [video clip] >> like the overwhelming support of americans i support ivf for all of the couples who are having a baby. some people need help. that is common sense, we want to help women. i am calling on the alabama legislature to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of ivf in alabama. the republican party should be

on the side of mothers, fathers and their babies. and ivf is an important part of that in our republican party will be with you in the quest for the ultimate joy in life which is to have a baby. if we can help we will help. host: we will be covering the results of the south carolina primary. it will be on c-span, c-span now and online at c-span.org. starting with patrick in pittsburgh. caller: my top story is the ukrainian war. just imagine you are living in toronto and missiles are being

shot into your community. this is what the ukrainians were doing and russian enclaves. this war has no legitimacy. the russian federation reached out to negotiate and the ukrainians are nazis. hundreds and billions of our dollars we could be providing reparations to our people of color. we are allowing the industrial military complex to get our country into financial ruin.

in saudi arabia they are creating a new city. we could have built new cities with the amount of wars. we need to end these wars, they have no legitimacy. not one person in ukraine should have died and now 700,000 people are dead. host: let's hear from ed on the republican line. caller: that guy from pennsylvania is forgetting who caused this, it's biden. when trump was in office my savings grew to 200,000. host: what is your top news

story? caller: that have my savings is gone. host: we will have a tax segment coming up that may pertain to you. let's go to rob on our democratic line. caller: i have been following the arrest of the fbi informant in the hunter biden case. this is highly unusual that they would charge an informant with lying in this informant was the basis for the impeachment.

there is no evidence of a bribe and this guy smirnov has been rearrested. host: let me give the body's information about that story. from axios, russian intelligence is involved with the hunter biden story. providing false information on hunter biden. alexander smirnov admitted that russian intelligence was involved in passing a story per the government's memorandum. prosecutors argued against this release saying he was peddling

lies that could impact the election. a federal judge ruled that smirnov should be released on personal recognizance. this testimony was originally used in the biden hearing. jim jordan is brushing aside the indictment arguing the sources arrest does not change the facts in the case against the president. caller: the latest i heard was they had released smirnov.

he was re-arrested a second time. russia is a dangerous country. they manufacture misinformation, they invaded ukraine. they want to expand into eastern europe. host: just to add a little information, we have some tape from jim jordan talking more about this case. [video clip] >> it is what it is but it doesn't change the fundamental facts that hunter biden is put on the board of barista and they

said he's not qualified to be on the board. in dubai, the executives at burisma asked if they could help in ukraine and hunter biden made a call to his dad and then they go to ukraine to release tax money. it doesn't change regardless of what the sources. host: one of several stories we are following. let's hear from mark in clifton park new york. caller: good morning c-span. the biggest story of the week is

the southern border and illegal immigration there are illegal aliens that could be dangerous. there are illegal aliens crossing the border that cross asylum that have ylum cases postponed for years and it is unknown if the illegal aliens are dangerous there needs to be a reinstatement of the remaining mexico story. while people want to claim asylum they must remain in mexico it is dangerous we need to seal the border and know who was coming in. host: president biden is claiming new executive actions to address the migrants they are

considering a string of new executive actions in an effort to curb migration of the southern border. the proposals under consideration would represent proposals that could put the president at odds with constituencies including barring migrants seeking asylum between ports of interest and tying those two would trigger that would only come in after a certain amount of illegal crossings took place. let's hear from randall in saint

ignatius michigan. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. the top story for me was the secretary-general of nato stating the f-16s are on their way and the suggestion that those f-16s could be used inside russia. we are now approaching a redline with russia. are these f-16s going to mean taking a difference to penetrate the area that russia has acquired. that very well could be the powder keg that ignit a much

broader conflict. a year ago i got through and expressed concern about the lack of transparency of the underlying facts that triggered russia going in and they said that russia invaded ukraine. on the surface that's correct but there is a set of facts and the lack of transparency and when you get down to the core of the issue of what's going on in the world and the relationship between ukraine and israel. host: you don't think russia invaded ukraine? caller: i'm talking about the causation of why they went in.

host: let's now hear from chuck in new jersey on the republican line. caller: good morning. i can go every single topic the southern border he was to do an executive action all people have to do is look at the numbers and the numbers stoped by and you see it on tv every night. god forbid something happens. we could have another 9/11 and this guy who is lost on stage he is not running our country.

this is elder abuse. this guy doesn't know where he is or what he is doing. host: there are others who agree with you when it comes to your perspective on the border. mike johnson said the president suddenly seems interested in trying to make a change using the legal authority he claimed did not exist. americas will not be full by election-year equipment nor will they forget that he created this catastrophe and has refused to use his executive power. let's hear from rochelle. caller: i'm just going to

start. donald trump had the nerve to reject nato here are some facts from wikipedia. host: what were your other top news stories other than nato. caller: he did not pay his bills so what's the big idea and where is the house during this time for ukraine? we pay them a hundred and 75,000 a year not to take breaks and god bless ukraine. one last comment everyone is

talking about borders. trump really nailed it. he put kids in cages when he was in office my thing about biden is at least he is knowledgeable and he has ethics. i have a memory lapse but i'm only 49 years old. host: let's hear from josephine in new jersey on the independent line. caller: the two year war in

ukraine has been going on and mike johnson run away on a vacation. the european world disgraced the republicans. if you think ukraine started the war, that's really sick. putin told you he was going to invade ukraine. he will invade georgia and poland. 71% of the republican support putin. it's a disgrace.

host: cpac is going on now and you can watch coverage if you're interested. let's hear from robin from cleveland. i watch cpac where there talking about ending democracy. the republican party a danger to the country. host: what is your story of the week? caller: the republican party is a danger to america and the world. they are saying the quiet part out loud and you have the republicans saying were not a democracy. they want minority rule which is

apartheid. if people don't wake up and go down these rabbit holes of conspiracy theories our country is going to be in trouble. the republican party is pro-putin. host: let's hear from rory on the republican line. caller: the border. every state may be a border state but from what i see the southern border will be overrun. they are saying there are too many of them.

and they have had some shootings in texas that cnn will not report and in california the governor is foreseeing all of the aliens come in. the chinese are going door-to-door begging for money. people have to change. host: rory mentioned the border issue there was a statement from the congressional hispanic caucus responding to the news saying we understand how frustrating it is that republicans blocked the funding

requested by biden but it's unbelievable that the white house would prevent migrants from seeking asylum and use the same methods as former president trump. vulnerable populations have sought asylum since world war ii. let's hear from ed and ocean city new jersey. caller: the top story is all warriors at any point in time there's a certain side.

the vast majority of young people are against all wars. host: how could they deploy that strategy in ukraine? caller: we have to stop sending arms and declare ourselves a pacifist nation. host: let's hear from david in taxes on the republican line. caller: good grief. these countries have declared pacifism have done so because of america's umbrella.

the united states is providing all of the means to keep the seas open. i just listen to c-span yesterday when they made their comments about russia and you got to poland and lithuania and latvia that were occupied by germany in russia the idea that you could have pacifism defies all logic from the dog of man. the informant who was arrested

that's unbelievable as anything. this stuff is all open the box they have all showed what's really going on with that. hand written notes from his meetings with obama and biden. the idea that after the dossier the investigative committee was after that for a year and it was so redacted you could not get anything from it. host: how does that relate to the smirnov case? caller: they have lied about so

many things for the past eight years. hillary clinton's campaign was charged with election interference. host: let's hear from robin in washington on the independent line. caller: there were two topics for me russia's invasion of ukraine. if we didn't intend to commit to ukraine. that if they gave up their nukes we would protect them we should have renegotiated it.

it's embarrassing to our allies. as far as the executive action is not just one president responsible for this crisis. it's unconstitutional there allowing so many people to be trafficked over the border to be trafficked and abused. there is no excuse for them they need to do their job and do it 50 years ago. 1942 was a long time ago. we haven't done a thing. host: sherry and livingston, tennessee.

jerry in tennessee. caller: women are not gonna have enough rights to tie their shoes and they're defending a man convicted of sexual assault. the money was there to defend our border but the house -- but the thing with women, is pitiful . donald trump is been convicted with sexual assault but that could be your wife or daughter that he had done that to.

you say you're against abortion but russia is killing ukrainian children. they are trying to defend their country. i don't know what the russians have all of republican party. if donald trump comes back in their we will need to move to another country. host: jerry mentioned that alabama supreme court ruling and we have the text of that decision from chief justice tom parker.

that fertilized eggs could be considered babies. the people of alabama have declared that the unborn human life is sacred and each human being from the moment of conception is made in the image of. l three bridges of government are subject to constitutio mandates to treat each life with reference and carving out these people just because of their size. let's hear from greg on our democratic line. caller: my top story is how did so many americans get so

misinformed about so many things? just this morning one caller said ukraine is a nazi state and another caller said ukraine is a conspiracy with israel. both of those things can't be right. i know they are not getting their information from c-span because you provide good information but i wish she would ask these people when they state their claims where did they get their information because i'm not seeing it. host: evelyn on the republican line. caller: two things, the ukraine anniversary.

under obama pollutant took crimea and then with this administration pollutant win putin went in. i'm tired of my tax dollars going into you endless wars. and biden making executive orders on the border. i think it is a disgrace. we are a sovereign nation with laws and it is a disgrace we are

being inundated at the border. now in georgia a young woman was murdered. it will continue until we do something about immigration laws and shut the border down. we need to deport those who enter illegally because the majority of those claims are bogus. when castro emptied out the jails and they came into florida in the 80's. host: on facebook jerry says

biden holding onto an executive order. razor water and floating barriers, he wants an open border. joe is on the republican line. caller: there was a 23-year-old nursing student who was killed by an illegal. everybody is accusing trump saying e. jean carroll was raped .

nobody talks about tara reid who was raped by biden. host: we have darrell next. caller: he has been found guilty and he is a crook in this family as a current. host: what's your top news story of the week? caller: ukraine. they need our assistance. host: mike in st. louis. caller: we need to start a mass deportation i get all of these illegal immigrants out of here.

biden is giving him a sedative succumb here and so biden is guilty of treason and extortion. he gave iran money and waiting for kickbacks. joe biden used executive orders so they could see new wire transactions. joe biden knows what he is doing. he is a slick, harness. he should not be allowed to hire and fire the doj. we have the bank records and bank statements. his family was enriched.

hunter biden was paying so biden 40,000 a month. that is kickback money. he is loading the country with the legal immigrants because they will vote for him. you have millions of people voting for the democrats. when is a republican prosecutor going to stand up? host: another comment from facebook, the alabama court ling on ivf. urts should have no say on this matter. families should be able to use embryos without legal repercussions. stephen is on the independent

line. caller: i have a couple of things. bidenomics he talks about middle out. inflation has cost me 60%. my new water bill went up from $50 to $100. i am a senior citizen and my insurance went up to $800. we are fighting in syria, iraq, yemen, ukraine, somalia. we spend trillions of dollars over there.

congress has the power of the purse. how can joe biden relieve 1.3 billion of college debt. how can you get a hold of your congressperson? i have been trying for three years to get a hold of a congressperson just to talk. it is impossible. we are senior citizens. and now that gas is three 3.50. wake up america.

host: let's hear from sean in columbia, maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call. my big story is on fani willis. i find it very rich that someone investigating voter fraud is committing fraud and nobody gets up and speaks about it. it takes other networks to find this news. it will be interesting to see what this judge does. host: i'm trying to find one of the articles about that new

story recently breaking about fani willis. they reject trump claims that cell phone data under because her testimony. they are pushing back on allegations from donald trump that cell phone data suggest the relationship between fani willis and her prosecutor started to the type they both testified to. they responded to an earlier motion by the lead attorney set the phone records do not prove anything relevant and should not be considered whether willis should be disqualified. they filed a motion alleging

cell phone data showed that wade made several visits to where wi llis lived. they have been accused of engaging in a romantic relationship's prior before she selected him to investigate trump. they testified whether her office should be disqualified. now let's hear from you on your top news stories of the week. henry for michigan. caller: let me see if i can clarify a couple of things

because we need some truth behind the republican lies. they are the party of russia now and i will prove what i am saying. mike johnson, what happened between the border in the funding of ukraine? the senate passed a bill about the border and in that bill there was funding for ukraine, taiwan and israel and they sent it to the house and mike johnson said we want these separated. we don't want the border bill mixed in with the funding bill. the senate then passed a bill

with funding for ukraine, israel and taiwan and mike johnson said, we don't want to fund this. it is because donald trump and vladimir putin have told them they don't want this border bill because it hurts biden and they don't want the funding because it thwarts pollutants efforts in ukraine. the truck people submitted information about cell phone pings. that area has all kinds of places and mr. wade could've been anywhere in that area.

this is not proof that he was with fani willis. they are trying anything they can to smear that women. the trump people lie. look at his witness that was arrested for being a russian agent. host: more from that cnn article. the records do nothing more to demonstrate that special prosecutors wade telephone was in a multi-mile area where several homes and restaurants were located they do not prove the content of the communication

and do not prove the special prosecutor was that in a particular location or address or tt ey were ever in the same place at the same time. caller: i'm glad you said that. they tried to smear, obfuscate but this putin, trump and mike johnson thing. look at how jim jordan said the guy was rearrested but it does not alleviate the other facts they have. they don't have any facts. host: let's hear from marty in new mexico on the republican line. caller: i just wanted to say

that someone always goes on vacation calling out the others for going on vacation. host: who were you talking about? caller: i'm talking about president biden calling out the house for going on vacation when he's always on vacation. host: and what is your top news story? caller: now they're trying to put putin and shrub together again. we had four years of peace and no wars with president trump and putin was petrified of president trump.

i don't support kamala harris. all of these cable news channels constantly putting her down and that she should be replaced with gavin newsom or michelle obama. vice president harris deserves respect and they don't need to be talking about people who can replace her. they don't need to be disrespecting her.

when she was done talking everyone in the room had a big smile on their face and they like her. they may not agree with her politically but give her a chance. wasn't she the attorney general of california for several years? host: i believe so. caller: she is absolutely qualified to be president. nikki haley has been bad mouthing vice president harris for 10 months. and now what is she doing? she is banking on democrats to be president trump and a stock going to happen.

it's not gonna happen. joe biden opened up the floodgates and look at what we have now. host: you did bring up nikki haley and i wanted to play a clip of her speaking earlier in south carolina defending her decision to stay in the race. [video clip] >> 70% of the country does not want a biden/trump rematch. as a country we have never seen such dissatisfaction with the

leading candidates. we have never had so many americans mired in pessimism. we have the chance to restore their faith. leadingi know what donald trumps saying. he wants an election with them opponents but that is not with the voters are saying. donald trump lost 49% of the vote in iowa and a new hampshire he lost 46% of the vote. what is that say as an incumbent who lost half of his party? that spells disaster. they have the right to keep speaking out. host: you can follow the results of the gop primary here on c-span and on our website.

let's hear from bernard in new york on the republican line. caller: good morning c-span. my subject is the decay of america and i start with the transgender movement out of nazi germany. i am 87 years old and i was in the marine corps. i could not believe that my beautiful america we have people mutilating children. host: let's hear from gary on the democratic line. caller: there have been three

generations of tax cheats in the trumps. jim sorted was ward by the fbi that this guy could not be trusted. they spewed their lives on fox. it was all lies and they should be held accountable and be investigated. host: rob is in new york what's your top news stories? caller: mine is the rise of christian nationalism and why i find it troublesome. they provide us belief in the

constitution but i suggest they read it. the presidential oath of office is an article to and does not contain the words, so help me god. article six of the constitution says there shall be no religious test to hold office of public trust. the first amendment says the government shall not be involved in the establishment of religion and it might be good to know that thomas jefferson when he was our ambassador in paris poach is one of the first copies of the koran ever brought to the united states and its in the

library of congress. i suggest these people render unto caesar what is caesar. host: that's all the time we have for calls in the segment but coming up we will hear from the tax foundation's economist eric cade york discussing tax filing and the tax season. as we mark the two-year anniversary of russia's invasion we will have ryan evans the host of the podcast " war on the rocks" for our spotlight on podcast segment. we will be right back. ♪ be up-to-date in the latest in

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>> two years ago, democracy faced its greatest threat since the civil war, and today our democracy remains unbound and unbroken. >> thursday, march 7, 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 8:00 p.m. eastern with our preview program followed by president biden's state of the union speech, then the republican response. 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, 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this. it looks like this, where americans can see democracy at

work, where citizens are truly informed a republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are, because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by erica york, a senior economist and research director for tax policy at the tax foundation. can you tell us what your organization doesn't how you get your funding? guest: tax foundation is a five nonprofit. our mission is to provide data and analysis on tax policy at

all levels of government, and we believe that the tax system should be simple, neutral, transparent, and stable. host: tell us a couple of basics about the upcoming tax season, the filing deadlines, the extensions, when states generally start asking residents to file. guest: the deadline for filing and paying federal taxes this year is april 15. that's also the deadline for filing an extension. as the irs will tell you, filing for an extension to file your return is not an extension for paying your estimated tax payment that is due. the april 15 deadline is the deadline for paying your federal taxes. most states follow that same federal tax deadline is april 15, so i handful of states have later deadlines. the best way to see with the deadline is in any given state is to check the department of revenue website and they will say plainly what your state deadline is.

host: the irs announced new tax brackets for taxpayers. what will those changes mean for most americans? guest: every year the irs updates about 60 provisions in the tax code to adjust them for inflation. the taxes we are filing now covers tax year 2023 and we saw a relatively large inflation adjustment of about 7%. that is things like the size of the standard deduction, thresholds where various tax rates kick in. that protects taxpayers from having to pay taxes on their cost-of-living adjustments they received to their income. if you got a raise to keep you at the same level of income after accounting for inflation, the irs, because of tax laws that congress enacted, adjusted the tax system so the inflationary adjustment in your income doesn't face a higher tax rate than it would otherwise.

host: what are other changes the irs made? you mentioned there are several that they have to make each year. guest: the refund ability cap on the tax credit, the threshold for earned income tax credit, the tax brackets, the standard deduction, various thresholds were different tax rates kick in for different purposes. the limits on the section 199a deduction are adjusted for inflation, the state tax exemption is adjusted for inflation, various provisions like that through the tax code. all of them are for the idea of not taxing taxpayers on inflationary increases in their income. host: the house passed a bipartisan package on taxes that seemed to fall apart when it got to the senate. what is included, and what are the hopes for that moving forward? the house passed tax package has

several important components. the main ones are restoring g toxic standards -- tax extenders in washington. it's usually everyone or two years and every one or two years congress extends them for another short time. congress has not done that for several years so there is a handful of tax policies that are sitting there unaddressed and expired. the idea with this package would be to retroactively restore those. these are things like deductions for r&d costs, what companies pay scientists for innovative work, investments in machinery and equipment, other types of capital investment. retroactively restoring those and extending them through the end of next year. on the individual side, it would make changes to the child tax

credit, particularly inflation adjusting the maximum credit amount and refundability cap, and households with multiple children so that the overall effect would be lower income households and lower income households with multiple children with -- would see a greater benefit. in all it adds up to 78 billion dollars of tax cuts and they would be paid for entirely by flying back a covid era tax credit that has seen a spike in fraudulent claims. clawing back on those fraudulent claims would pay for these tax cuts that would blast at 32020 five. it's not a permanent solution to any of the tax policies that have uncertainty associated with them, but it would provide

greater tax deductions for investment and a larger tax credit for the next couple of years. host: we will do our phone lines a little differently for this segment to keep it on tax-minded things. if your income is under $50,000 call us at (202) 748-8000. if your income is between $51,000 and $100,000 a year, (202) 748-8001. if it is over $100,000 a year and you have a question for erica, (202) 748-8002. before we get to calls, erica, i want to get your thoughts on this idea being pushed by democrats that there needs to be more funding for the irs, particularly to increase enforcement on people in higher income brackets who are accused of evading taxes. in an interview with cnbc the irs commissioner spoke about the efforts that his agency is

taking to ensure wealthy americans are meeting their tax obligations. here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> when i look at our tax cap, the amount of money owed versus what is paid, for millionaires and billionaires who either don't file or underreport their incomes, that is $150 billion. there is plenty -- >> per year? >> yes. there is plenty of work to be done. in doing that work not only are we going to help the united states' financial situation, but we are going to build trust. we are just focusing on middle and low income. the opposite that we are zeroing in on taxpayers, again, those who have the means to hire accountants and lawyers, that's great. especially if they help them reach an accurate and complete return. within those taxpayers, there

are certain taxpayers who are inappropriately shielding their income. we have evidence of it. now we need to go in and do a better job of identifying it and collecting it. that will benefit all americans at all income levels. if you are high income and you are doing the rules the way you are supposed to and the irs is not monitoring your competitors who are not doing what they are supposed to, that's not fair either. host: what are your thoughts on his justifications? guest: if you look at the irs budget for roughly the past decade, in real terms it has either stayed flat or fallen a bit. at the same time, the u.s. population has grown and the tax code has not gotten much simpler. in some cases it has gotten more complex, especially for small business taxes. i think there's an argument to be made that the irs needs stable funding, especially over a long period of time rather

than an annual appropriation that is uncertain as far as enabling the irs to plan its budget over a long time. if you look at the results of that drop in irs funding it has been a reduction in the irs workforce and a lot of that has been concentrated in auditors who have the skills needed to do these complex audits. i think that the criticism of the funding that we saw pass in the inflation reduction act for the irs was a large focus on enforcement, which you can think is coming in after the fact and cleaning up rather than focusing on service and guidance for taxpayers to help them on the front end to encourage voluntary compliance. both of those are complementary. if you can encourage taxpayers on the front end with guidance and support for knowing how to

pay their taxes, especially when we are talking about complex areas of taxes like partnership returns, that can help on the front end rather than having to audit on the back end. it also speaks to a larger issue outside of the irs. that is how congress has crafted the tax code right now. it's a highly complex tax code, which makes it difficult. it is not transparent. it makes it difficult to know what taxpayers should owe. it creates loopholes. if we had a simpler tax code the front end compliance voluntarily and paying with ao would be simpler for the irs to do. host: an article saying that the irs expects to collect hundreds of billions of dollars more in unpaidaxes thanks to the additional funding that the agency does have. tax revenues are expected to rise by as much as 561 billion

dollars from 2024 to 2034 thanks to stepped-up enforcement made possible with money from the democrats inflationary reduction act which became law iaugust of 2022. erica, before we get to the calls, i want to talk about tax returns that are more simple. this year, the irs introduced a new way for some taxpayers to directly file their taxes with the federal government. can you talk a little about that program and its benefits and drawbacks? guest: that program is available in select states and will only be available for taxpayers who have very, very simple tax returns. if you have anything outside of basically wage income and claiming a couple of standard credits, like taking the standard deductions and the child tax credit, anything beyond that the tool is not available for you.

this is essentially a pilot program that the irs is testing out using funding from the inflation reduction act provided for that purpose to see the feasibility of an irs direct file program that would let taxpayers, rather than going through a tax accountant or private sector software, to directly with the irs file a simple tax return. we will see how well that works out. the big question is whether the irs would be able to extend that for more complicated returns. host: erica york with the tax foundation. if you have questions for her, incomes under $50,000 is (202) 748-8000. for incomes between 50,000 -- $51,000 -- i got those mixed up. we will put those on your

screen. on the line for $51,000 to $100,000, hello, jim. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have to tell you that you look much too young to be a senior, but that is another issue. what i wanted to ask you about is that i heard in the past some talk about a national sales tax. as a tax on consumption, you would think that that would have a -- two things -- actually three things. you would think that that would have a beneficial benefit to our national savings so that spe nding is discouraged as a tax on consumption and savings would be encouraged, as opposed to the second point being as an income tax that is almost encouraging spending.

i think that shows in the fact that we are a very consumptive society. the third thing is, you think that any politician would have a -- not a consensus, but a mandate to run, for example, on a national sales tax or some other way of taxing. what do you think -- four things, i guess -- how would a national sales tax rate play out? it is not the same as what canada has -- host: i'm going to pause you there and see if i can get erica to respond to the idea of a national consumptive tax or sales tax. guest: the caller had it exactly right that under the income tax system we have in the u.s.

today, it discourages saving. when you earn your income you have the choice to immediately spend it somewhere or put it in some sort of a savings account. if you immediately consume it, you don't face anymore income taxes. maybe sales taxes at the state or local level but not another layer of federal income tax. in a savings occur at any return faces another layer of income tax. the tax system today discourages saving by placing a higher burden on income that is saved. if you move to a consumptive tax, whether it is a value added tax, inflow/outflow tax, there are lots of different flavors, but it would remove the additional layer of tax on savings so the choice to either immediately spend your income or saved to spend later, there would be no difference in the tax burden that you would face. i think if we moved to a system like that and got rid of that

we would see an increase in savings and investment and it would be economically beneficial. there are lots of studies that look at simulations of this, and they find gains in economic output and income. i think it would be beneficial. i think that the next question on if a candidate ran with a plan for this, we have seen that come up in past presidential debates. whether it is ideas of a flat tax, national sales tax, there have been debates about that. i think with the income tax system we have today there are a lot of advantages that are created for various groups, various industries. we have tax policies for education. tax policies for housing. tax policies for green energy

investment. if you move to a consumption tax you get rid of all of those special preferences in the tax code, so that creates a political hurdle moving from income to consumption tax, because it involves cleaning up preferences that people are interested in. host: let's hear from zach in baltimore, maryland on the line with incomes over $100,000. caller: good morning. i am a recent new homeowner and i have been considering the mortgage interest tax deduction. i think that stuff like that is a great way to help people who don't have a lot of money. we don't offer that kind of thing for rent or other living expenses. it is not something that you can choose to spend, it is just part of your life. i think programs like the child tax credit that until recently -- i guess during covid -- but

were recently was discontinued, that's another great way to subsidize americans who are struggling. i would love to see us doing more of that kind of stuff. thank you. guest: the tax code contains lots of credits and deductions for various types of economic activity. it still does have a child tax credit that was greatly expanded during the covid economic downturn. that expansion went away, but we do have the child tax credit of about $2000 maximum per child. it is refundable up to $1600. that means for household who do not have $2000 of income tax liability to offset, they can receive up to 1600 of the credit as a check back from the government. there is the earned income tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit, energy tax

credit, a host of things. the trade-off with adding a tax credit, tax deduction, or an activity that is economically beneficial or that lawmakers want to subsidize is that it adds to the complexity of the tax code. you're talking about the filing system with the irs. the more complicated that your return is come the harder for the irs to do that. there is no database for third-party information where the irs can verify these things. it requires more work on the part of the taxpayer to document their qualifying expenses or whatever it may be, the activity that qualifies. it makes the tax code more complex and it makes the tax filing process more of a headache for people the more things that we run through the tax system. host: freehold, new jersey on the line for folks with incomes between $51,000 and $100,000.

caller: i would like to talk about the tax bracket at the first two levels for single people. i would like for the host to apologize to the 87-year-old veteran who was cut off brutally talking about childhood mental health. host: i'm not sure what you are referencing, but if you could ask your question. caller: in the past you would say thank you for your service to the 87-year-old veteran. on the first two tax brackets for single people for erica, it looks like the rate was $11,600 and it is a 12% bracket. is that correct? guest: for 2023, i believe that the 10% rate is on the first of $11,000 of income and the 12% rate kicks in about that. for 2024, i think 11,000 $600 is

right for the first bracket. i don't have each bracket memorized. host: the first 10% of income for $11,600 or less for 2024 and 12% for incomes over $11,600. guest: that's right. the first $11,600 faces the 10% rate. the next dollar faces the 12% rate. that doesn't apply to all of the income you earned in the 10% bracket, it is only a marginal change just on the next dollar of income and the income within the next bracket threshold that faces the next tax rate. host: ok. let's hear from barbara in florence, alabama for those with incomes under $50,000. caller: yes.

i am 89 and still trying to work. i've been at this company for 37 years and i have cut back to part-time. i made $8,000 last year at my job. i took out $20,000 out of a 401(k) which took me 10 years to save a little at a time due to inflation. that is ok. i knew that i had to pay tax on that. because of that i was thrown into a higher tax bracket and was charged 2/3 of my social security for the year. i have never heard of that. i know that is the law, but does anyone think that that's right? you are punished for still trying to work. guest: the social security tax bracket has not been inflation since 1993. that is one reason why more people are falling under the higher brackets. i think that especially given

the inflation that we've seen over the past several years, lawmakershould revisit that and inflation-adjusted where the tax rates are osocial security kicks in. host: next, indianapoli indiana on the line for those making under $50,000, go ahead jerry. caller: hi, erica. i was wondering for individuals we have an alternative minimum tax. yet, i read about major corporations paying zero tax because they have so many deductions. why is the alternative minimum tax not applied to corporations? with that h -- would that help to resolve our budget problems? also, i am interested in modern monetary theory and i wonder what are your thoughts about whether they get really matters.

guest: i think that the individual alternative minimum tax is poor tax policy. earlier i talked about the principles that we analyze tax policy through, simplicity, neutrality. it is not simple and transparent to have two tax systems for individuals or businesses. basically you have calculated your regular tax liability and now we will add back something and take away other things and see what your tax burden is under this parallel system. whichever is higher you have to pay. rather than doing something like that, which is complex and inefficient, lawmakers should have the tax code they want to have. if they want to limit itemized deductions they should do that directly rather than coming in with a second tax system and clawing those back. as far as the corporations in a given year who might have zero dollars in tax liability, that is typically for reasons that

lawmakers have enacted in the tax code. it could be deductions or investments that theyare making in the united states . if a business in a given year makes a large investment like expanding a factory and buying machinery to put in that factory and they have a big capx from their taxable income, that can reduce their taxable income in some cases to zero. that isn't a loophole, that is an economic reality that they made an investment that year. there are tax credits for research and development, for green energy investment that can zero out tax liability in some cases. there are provisions like net operating losses that help to smooth appropriation tax liability over time so that if they had a big loss during a downturn they can carry that forward and offset taxable income during good times. that is a good thing, because it protects the tax system from

companies with uneven earnings patterns. those provisions were designed for good reason, to improve economic incentives for investing in the united states. it may mean that any given year a corporation doesn't have tax liability, similar to provisions at the individual income tax code that provides tax credits for various activities or households that reduce tax liability. rather than using minimum tax mechanisms to layer on top of the tax preferences created, if we do not like the tax preferences we should directly address them. host: i believe that some of the issues that you raised were up for potential consideration in the legislation, the tax legislation, that passed in the house? guest: that's right. the tax legislation would restore 100% deductions for machinery/equipment investments.

now that has phased down to 60% being deducted immediately and the rest over time. it would restore and mediate deductions for research and development expenses and restore a larger deducti f business interest costs. those have all changed in recen years. companies can still deduct those and stretch it out ome. these provisions say you can dect it all immediately when you make that expense to match up with the cash flow that a rporation actually sees. host: that was the tax relief for american famiesnd workers act of 2024. we had details owh would have been included on your screen. ro in illinois, for the line of folks making over $100,000 a year. caller: good morning, erica. how are you this morning? guest: good morning. good. thanks. caller: i have a question. i have an unusual situation. i am a professor by day and i

have one daughter who is two years old. how old should she be before i turn my farm over to her? guest: i don't have a good answer for you. i would say if it is a tax-related question talk to your cpa about implications or an attorney. i don't have any experience with that or direct practical tax implications. host: thomas in springfield, massachusetts on the line for folks making between $5,100 and 100 k. caller: my question deals with talking about policy with the irs. several years ago during covid my wife and i converted traditional ira to roth. during covid, irs tax returns

ended up getting stuck, so i made a bunch of calls and finally got through. the gentleman convinced me, try to set yourself up with an ip pin number, identity protection pin number. i did that and it took several months. and yet they do a bunch of things. long story short, that wasn't the problem but now i have an ip pin number for my wife and myself. now that we are getting elderly we want to opt out of the program because you have to go through the irs website and you need an id me website number, pin number. the irs will not allow me, now that i have an ip pin number to opt out of the program. i am thinking that my wife has some medical issues. i have some myself.

host: what is your question for erica? caller: how can i opt out of the identity protection pin number? the irs is telling me that there is no way to do that. host: i will let erica see if you have any insight onto that. i don't know if that is in your wheelhouse. guest: that is not in my wheelhouse. i would say to talk to the irs about it. potentially try to get in contact with a taxpayer advocate service. per irs policy, they might not be able to change that. host: we have the irs tax policy advocate on this program recently. discussing a number of issues with the service, including that act long due -- back log due to covid that the caller was mentioning and how caught up the agency is currently. [video clip]

>> three or four years the irs was struggling. like everyone else at the beginning of 2021 covid was spiking the irs shut down their facilities. as a result the returns were piling up and it took the irs two to three years to get out of the challenges that covid caused with respect to the workload. last year, the irs closed out the year almost even with respect to the returns that have been filed. the papers and electronic returns were processed, payments were made, but they have areas they need to improve.telephone service . there was a period of time, 2020-20 21, only 11% of calls were being answered by the irs because taxpayers were calling more often, three times as much as previous years. it was a real struggle for taxpayers and irs folks. what we are looking at currently, knock on wood, is

that this filing season will be a little more smooth. we are seeing electronic returns being filed inc. paid fairly promptly. things -- being filed being paid fairly promptly. host: what have you seen in terms of your research in regards to how well the irs has been catching up to some of the customer service issues? guest: like the taxpayer advocate mentioned, the backlog has mostly been cleared, the irs has been answering the phone more, but i think that there are more problems on the horizon. one reason that i think that is the irs and the strategic operating plan last year where it filled out how it will use the increased funding from the inflation reduction act noted that it is going to burn through the additional funding for taxpayer service within four years. that was last year that they said that. it points to not enough funding for the services that most

directly affect taxpayers and make sure that they can get a hold of someone at the rs -- at the irs to help them with their tax situation when they do. more focus on taxpayer service and ensuring stable funding for that is going to be crucial. right now, the irs itself has said in the strategic operating plan that it doesn't have enough to do that. it is burning through that fairly quickly. we have some filing season statistics for the first three weeks of this year's tax filing season. the irs said they received about 35.7 million returns and they have processed about 35.5 million returns. they are quickly processing the returns they are receiving this year. they also noted that visits to the irs website are up quite a bit compared to last year and hopefully people are able to use the irs website and find the answers that they need in a quick way to get their returns

filed without having to wait on assistance from the irs. host: jay and waldorf, maryland on the line for folks making over 51,000. caller: in the previous hour the person said that they had 18,000 andrew having trouble. you, the host, or whoever the host was, all you have to do is say i can't contact my congressman? the white house, 202-456-1111. my tax question is, you have trillions of dollars in tax savings overseas. corporations don't pay income taxes. this should be anyone who is listening, whether it is trump or biden, you want the president to address that as a top priority. closing down payments, getting money from these people for withholding trillions of dollars of taxes, this affects the

deficit and everything. that should not be. instead of going after smalltime marijuana busts or whatever, you should be spending a lot of time going after these people who have the top saving, 20 or 30 places, switzerland. end of comment. thank you for being on the show. bye. guest: prior to the 2017 tax laws the u.s. had a corporate tax rate of 35%, which was far out of step with the rest of the world. it was one of the highest in the world, while other nations had lowered their corporate tax rate to on average the 20% range. the u.s. retained its high tax rate directly affecting incentives for profit shifting, making it attractive to shift profit out of the jurisdiction with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world to a jurisdiction with a lower corporate tax rate.

the 2017 tax reform law reduced the federal corporate tax rate to 21%. when you factor in the average of state and local corporate taxes the u.s. rate now is at th e average. that significantly reduced incentive to shift profit out of the u.s. moving forward. companies have set up in many cases quite complex structures for those assets and profits that have been shifted out of the u.s. to remain there. i don't think there is any way to bring all of that that was shifted in the past back to the united states decides some very draconian capital controls, which is not something that i think the u.s. should pursue. what we have done is for profit shifting incentives moving forward, those have been significantly improved as well as other reforms the u.s.-made

to its international tax system to prevent that profit shifting and base erosion. you do see the signs of the legacies of profit shifting that occurred in the past, but the u.s. is in a better position now as far as the profit shifting issue goes. host: we have a question from x. what are your thoughts when someone mentions concepts such as a nate income tax or universal basic income? gut: this is the idea of using the tax system to provide income to folks who don't have it or in some cases to increase their income above what it is with something like the negative income tax rate idea or universal basic income idea. i don't think that there would be political will in the u.s. to do something like that. we have seen some argue that the temporary expansion of the child tax credit during the pandemic

was somewhat of an experiment with the universal child benefit. during the pandemic the tax credit was expanded to provide up to $3600 or $3000 for older children to any household with a child regardless of their income level, regardless of their tax liability. it was a very expensive program to do that. doing it on a permanent basis would run in the trillions of dollars over the budget window. i think that that is another hurdle. they are concerned about work incentive effects and how you structure programs like that. i think a good alternative is what we have in the tax code now, an earned income tax credit. that faces in with the earned income providing an incentive to enter the labor force and increase your hours worked when you are getting an additional tax credit with your additional work. programs like that help bring

people into the labor force and increase their income by matching what they are earning within additional tax credit. host: jin in minneapolis, minnesota -- good morning, joe. caller: i am wondering, if you think a consumption tax, wouldn't that be a heavier burden for the lower incomes since they spend more of their income and aren't able to save as the upper incomes do? what are your thoughts on a wealth tax? i know dole brought that out in one election cycle. what are your thoughts on that, please? guest: the answer on a consumption tax is that it depends. there are a lot of design options that you can use to offset the regressive impact of a consumption tax.

at tax foundation we have done simulations and studies looking at how you can reform the u.s. tax system towards a consumption tax and if you use tax credit or a large exemption or combination of both. you can have a progressively structured consumption tax. it is in the design. moving to a consumption tax would increase economic growth. it would be leading to increased productivity, increased work. there is the economic benefit. depending on how you structure it, it could maintain the income taxes we have now. as far as the wealth tax, i think that those are generally poor tax policies. if we go back to the principles of stability and neutrality, transparency, and simplicity, a wealth tax fails on all fronts. it is very difficult and complex to administer wealth tax. it creates really weird

incentives as far as the types of investments that people were pursue -- would pursue. if you convert it an equivalent income tax it places a higher income tax on low return investments than high return investments which could incentivize risky investing which isn't something that you want a tax system to do. the complexity and administerability that wealth taxes create is why we have seen many nations abandon their attempts to tax wealth. we see a lot of consumption taxes. they can make up for the regressive impact of a consumption tax with other design options. tax credit or spending programs that offset that impact. host: douglas in los angeles, california for the folks making under 50 k. caller: i am an 89-year-old vet.

i have been in a couple of conflicts. when i was a youngster, the tax situation was in chaos. it is now 90 years later almost and it is still in chaos. i don't think they have the ability to correct the problem. i'm hoping maybe ai will. that's all. goodbye. host: what do you think of ai as a solution for our tax problems? guest: maybe. i think he is right that we haven't seen the tax system get simpler over time. even weathering many attempts at reform, looking at the 1980's, 2000's, 2017. they have made changes and improvements on the edges of the tax system, but the changes have typically been layered on past changes.

we don't have a tax system that looks like it was designed on purpose. we have a tax system designed piece by piece and sometimes the pieces are conflicting and that is why we have such a complex tax system today. the tax code spans many thousands of pages and there are regulations and guidance that are thousands more pages on top of that. maybe improved technology is a solution, but the solution ultimately has to come through congress enacting better tax laws. that's the root of the complex tax system we have today. host: barbara is in upper marlboro, maryland on the line making under $50,000. caller: the consumption taxes, does that mean that i pay my mortgage, i pay a huge amount of tax on that. when i go to the grocery store, i pay more taxes on that. when i put my money in my savings account, i don't pay taxes on that? is that the way that works?

guest: roughly, yes. essentially it depends on how it is designed. when you see a value added tax, that is what most other countries have. the united states is an outlier. the only that doesn't have a value added tax. the way that that is structured is akin to a sales tax. you can think of it as a sales tax on anything that you would purchase, a good or a service. a value added tax is collected along the supply chain instead of at the final retail sales point. income that is saved with not immediately face tax, it would only face tax when consumed. you see across different countries, sectors that are excluded. sometimes education, health care, or housing might be excluded from a consumption tax. better than adding exclusions to

a consumption tax base, which we have been talking quite a lot about with income taxes where the complexity arises is when you create special preferences for different activities. it is better to offset the impact through a tax credit, a direct tax credit, for households that you want to offset the tax burden of something for. there are trade-offs with any tax policy, but the advantage of a consumption tax is that it tends to be simpler than issues that arise under an income tax both for the people paying it and for the government agency administering it. it improves economic incentives so that we see higher economic growth and higher income. host: that is all the time we have for now. erica york, senior economist and research manager for federal tax policy at the tax foundation. thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: coming up, we will have with us ryan evans, the host of the podcast war on the rocks to

talk about the two-year anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine and the latest in that conflict. that will be for our spotlight on podcast series later in our program. we will return to our original questions what is your top new story of the week? the phone numbers are on your screen and you can start calling now. we will be right back. ♪ >> today, watched c-span's campaign 2020 for live coverage of the south carolina gop presidential primary, unfiltered and uninterrupted, beginning with the simulcast of south carolina educational television coverage hearing from local political analysts, experts, and panelists. we will bring your primary results as they come in.

candidate speeches. we will get your reaction on social media and by taking your calls. watch live coverage of south carolina's gop presidential primary today at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org /campaign2024. c-spanyour unfiltered view of politics. >> the yeas are 214 p the resolution is adopted. >> alejandra mayorkas is the second cabinet member in history to be impeached by the house. follow the process as house impeachment manager led by homeland security mitty chair mark green deliver the two articles of impeachment to the senate refusing to comply with immigration laws and breaching the public trust. president pro tempore present

-- will provide over the the trial. next week on c-span2, c-span now, and onlinet c-span.org. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage you can find it anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting, newsworthy highlights. the points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. the timeline tool makes it easy to quickly get an idea what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spe a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this. it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. when citizens are truly informed

a republic thrives. get informed on c-span, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are looking for your top new story of the week. some of the stories we have been following here at c-span include the fact that today is the second anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine, starting that were the. -- that war there. additionally the ivf ruling in alabama and the fallout. the south carolina goprimary, which you will be able to follo on c-span starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we will have le coverage of those results on c-span.org. another story is about the ex

-fbi informant charged in the case related to th congressional investigation of hunter biden and james biden, the brother of president bid, testified before congress this week. the border, president biden is reportedly weighing new executive actions on how to deal with the border crisis. going back to the issue of ukraine, this week president biden announced more than 500 new sanctions on russia after the death of the political dissident alexei navalny. here is a story from politico. biden follow through on a promise to further punish prudent one week after opposition leader alexei navalny died in prison. biden on friday announced 500 new sanctions on russia and its were -- and it's war machine. two years -- the american people and people around the world understand the stakes of the fight extend far beyond

ukraine, biden said. if putin doesn't pay the price for his death and destruction he will keep going and the cost to the united states along with our nato allies and partners in europe will rise. on friday by then did make additional remarks on the two-year anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine. here are those comments. [video clip] pres. biden: two years ago shortly before dawn russian troops marched across the border in ukraine and putin believed he could easily bend the will and break the resolve of free people in ukraine. that he could roll into ukraine and rollover them. two years later, he remains wrong. he didn't do that. kyiv is still standing. ukraine is still free. the people of ukraine remain unbound and unbroken in the face of putin's vigorous onslaught. this is due to the sheer bravery and sacrifice, but also do to us. remember, the united states pull

together a coalition of more than 50 nations to support ukraine. we unified and expanded nato. we can't walk away now. that is what putin is betting on that we will walk away. so, i will be speaking to folks from some of the heads of the european union and nato today. that is why i've announcing more than 500 new sanctions in response -- [applause] in response to putin's brutal war of conquest. in response to alexei navalny's death. make no mistake, putin is responsible for alexi's death. i met with his wife and daughter in california, where his daughter attends college. alexi was an incredibly courageous man and his family is incredibly courageous as well. i assured them that his legacy will continue to live around the world and we in the united states will ensure that putin

pays a price for his aggression abroad and at home. [applause] let me be clear, the house of representatives must pass the bipartisan security bill. it provides urgent funding for ukraine. it passed overwhelmingly in the senate and there is no question, none, that if the speaker called for a vote in the house it would pass easily today. instead, they went on vacation. look, folks, all kidding aside, history is watching and the clock is ticking. ukrainian soldiers and civilians are dying. russia is taking ukrainian territory for the first time in many months. here in america the speaker gave the house a two week vacation. they have to come back and get this done. failing to support ukraine in

this critical moment will never be forgotten in history. it will have impact for decades to come. host: now, to your calls. tyrone in illinois on our republican line. what is your top new story of the week? caller: i think the biggest topics are the ones we aren't talking about. i would like to know the secret service, the secret documents. how many documents are still out there that the government has not recovered? i think that that would be important to the american people to know. host: document related to what issue? caller: like they found in biden 's place and trump's place. they haven't come out and said if all documents have been recovered. if not, i think that the american people need to know that. i think that's important. i think the insider trading that was talked about a while back that you hear nothing about anymore. i would like to know how many

democrats and republicans made money off the green deal. insider trading knowing about the stuff ahead of time. i think that those are some of the main issues that we need to talk about. also, credit card debt right now. how come credit card companies can charge up to 20% or more on credit card debt? i think our government -- democrats and republicans both come in the house and senate, need to start doing their job or should be fired and start anew. host: next up is max in washington, d.c. on our independent line. caller: hi. i think my top issue for the week is the gop primary in south carolina. a really big distinction to how the party is going to move forward with foreign policy issues, including ukraine, which you talked about a lot on the show. i think there is a different vision between nikki haley and

donald trump and we are going to see which one they go with today. host: in just a couple of minutes we will actually have a reporter from south carolina joining us with an update on the primary. now, let's hear from tina in carmichael, florida on our independent line. caller: yes, my top news story of the week, and it should be everybody's top story, is what is happening in gaza. there were two things this week that i would like to address. one is the call from michigan that people write in cease fire on gaza. i think that that's a brilliant idea. it needs to be carried over to every state. south carolina. think about the children who are dying. this is a genocide. we are on the wrong side of history. it is our taxpayers money that is being sent. the bombs are from us.

it is not about hamas shouldn't be alive or extinguished. this is not antisemitism. this is straight up humanitarian and humanity. these are children and innocents who are dying. it is in our name that it is being committed. the other is us voting no on the cease-fire. one day our children will ask us, what side were you on? host: at the united nations? caller: yes, at the united nations. they will ask what has happened and we will say we voted no. host: one last call before we get to the news about south carolina. robert in massachusetts on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: i believe that the top story has got to be mike johnson -- host: let's go to gavin jackson

with the south carolina public radio and the host of the south carolina lead podcast. it is a big day in south carolina today. guest: it is. thank you for having us back on washington journal. host: what is it like? guest: we have great weather which means folks will be happy to go to the polls. it won't be like iowa in january. that was difficult. in south carolina we have great weather down here. in south carolina, we have great weather down here. we have been crisscrossing the state, really barnstorming here. trump had a big rally yesterday, and he addressed the crowd of conservatives in columbia. obviously donald trump has more things going for him in the state of course is popularity this year, and he has not had to work as hard. he had crowds out, and of course nikki haley is still fundraising.

that is something she is still going to be doing today, beyond south carolina, into super tuesday. i think she set the tone in tuesday, regardless of what happens today, she is still going on. host: what kind of timeline are you expecting today? guest: early voting is two weeks, and the numbers have been pretty strong. it is hard to say. people are motivated for sure, so i cannot put a number on it. with good weather in early voting, it should be pretty good, i was a. host: given how nikki haley has been doing in the polling, what is she making to the voters about the race and how long she will stay in? guest: she's trying to fix expectations, she's trying to close that gap. we saw her come in third place in iowa, she closed that gap to 11 points in new hampshire. she wants to get that closer

here in south carolina. she's on average 30 points on average behind donald trump in her home state, which is very much trump country. yes she has a big advantage because it is her home state, beta still trunk country. from to talk to folks, people who do not know her, and really being that alternative to trump. we've been talking over and over again about general likability, and that is her message, especially into the future, right? we see donald trump in his first criminal court trial. if she sticks around through march, and who knows, every voter has cast their vote, we will see how the campaign shifts, because we will have an ongoing court trial with donald trump in court, joe biden will be campaigning, nikki haley will be doing the same thing, she could be on cable news

every day. host: i just pulled up the real clear politics website to look at the latest polling in south carolina, and some of the latest polling is showing trump, the average 60%, just under 61%, and haley just at 37.5%. that is quite a gap. how are the voters responding? guest: yeah. and i think it goes back to her having that money. the money is critical. there is still support and enthusiasm. people are still showing up. you will see these numbers and say this is a campaign of desperation, but people are still responding to her, people are giving her millions of dollars, she raised 11.5 million dollars in january alone, which is more than donald trump, which is a big deal when you think of a somewhat incumbent running this race. .2 poll numbers in november we are hypothetical matchups have

her beating joe biden consistently compared to donald trump, which her campaign manager said the other day is what democrats want to happen, they want her to run against donald trump, because democrats can be donald trump. host: what policies are resonating with south carolina and his primary echo guest: south carolina is such a military state. when they match up, the world war ii aircraft carrier, hammering home the message of military strength, being a proud country, more than a year she has been campaigning. of course her husband is serving overseas to he was be butt of a donald trump joke recently, going back to september, how donald trump is banking on his popularity, which he has a track record in his favor, but a

question about what is resonating to continue talking about foreign policy issues. you heard from your callers talking about gaza, ukraine, the second anniversary of the invasion by russia. she has talked about that since the beginning, right after she announced last february. it is a matter of talking about how america is stronger by helping out its allies across the world, not demonizing, like she points out, how donald trump did that, by undermining nato, by mocking her husband's military service. she is extrapolating that brought her to the military, to america's stands in the world. i think that is resonating somewhat. i think it is important to note there are people paying attention, people who hear the voice of donald trump and think it is just, you know, luster, but she is really capitalizing on it. he really gave her a lot of oxygen. host: south carolina does not

have some traditional party registration, and republicans hold an open primary. what does this mean for independents and democrats who did not vote in the democratic primary? how much might they influence this race today? guest: yeah. that is a good question, too, in terms of who we can see turnouts, because we did have the first in the nation democratic primary on february 3. you have the incumbent running with joe biden, expected of course he would easily win, and he did with 96% of the vote. there are a lot of democrats still left who could vote. you have half $1 million on general elections, but you can see a lot of them turn turnout for nikki haley. just depends, because we heard her talking about the idea in alabama, the big red meat issue for the conservative base, not such a big issue for democrats, or moderates, perhaps, they might have to look past some of those things. it could be campaign bluster

where she is throwing red meat to reinforce her base. they know she's a moderate, other groups say she is a liberal, which nikki haley says is not true. she said she would say maga before maga was a thing. there's that nikki haley, so maybe folks did not know, but i think it is a matter of her reaching out to folks to she's fine with wherever support comes from, and that is something they are hoping to capitalize on tonight. i will say, you know, new hampshire, of course, that is a different story than south carolina. we do not have the undeclared independents as they do in new hampshire. and again, the state of south carolina, it is trump country, and it will be hard to close like that. host: thank you so much, gavin jackson, for that update on the south carolina primary. he is the host of the south carolina lede podcast.

thank you so much. guest: thanks pete i will see you tonight. host: that is right, we will have covered tonight on c-span of the south carolina gop primary results. he will start at 7:00 p.m. tonight come on c-span, c-span now, hours free mobile video app, and online at c-span.org. now let's go to jack in acworth, georgia on our democratic line. go ahead, jack. caller: hello? host: yes, jack, you can give us the top news story of the week, for the primary. caller: yeah. that is my top news story. if any of the masses want an ironfisted authoritarian as the leader of the country, and it is not the same for the majority, a lot of people in russia want an ironfisted leader, in venezuela, they want an ironfisted leader. it is scary.

you go back to germany in 1930, a lot of people voted for an ironfisted leader. we seem to be going down the same path, and the scary thing is that this is what the masses want. so nikki haley and joe biden can, you know, argue intelligently, all the reasons for democracy at all this stuff, but a large fraction of our population, 50% or even more, want to have an ironfisted authoritarian. and i don't know what were going to do about that except we are just going to have to live with it like other countries have. it tends to make the country goes viral down. so i think that is the big story of the week of the week is the south carolina voters. host: ok, jack, i think we got your idea. let's hear from dominic from georgia on our republican line. go ahead, dominic. caller: the big issues today has to do with the border. biden wanted to pass --

host: bipartisan senate legislation on the border. caller: right. the way i understand, it would allow 5000 a day before everything is done. that is 5000. at least that is 5000 today, where is that 5000 going to go tomorrow, and where is that 5000 going to go in 365 days? next year, what will happen? 5000 is every city and small town in the united states. this is on top of the problem we have now. we have seven or 8 million people, we are going to do this? this is not a compromise. if the republicans agreed to this, it is a surrender. we want to stop it and clear at what we've got now before we even think about anymore people coming in. host: duane is in jamaica, new york on our independent line.

good morning, duane. caller: hi. good morning. i don't see the outrage where donald trump was at a black conservative meeting or whatever that was, and he claimed, stated that black people like him because of the mugshot and sneakers. where is the outrage? when biden made the comment on charlamagne tha god's program that if you don't vote for him, you're not black -- i don't see the outrage at all. i don't know what to say anymore. this country is going to the dogs, it is clearly going to the dogs, and thank you for listening to my comments. host: a little bit more information on that from "the washington post," trump says black voters like him more because of his indictments and mugshots. the gop candidate tells a group of black conservatives, i being indicted for you, the black population, which is in "the washington post."

former president donald trump decided to appeal to black in south carolina buyer repeatedly citing his charges and comparing them to the justice system and minorities in america. "a lot of people said that's why the black people like me, because they've been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they view me as i being this terminated against. maybe there's something to it," he said right after talking about the charges. he also cited about his mugshot in georgia, taken last summer after he was charged with trying to overturn the state's election results come as a reason black voters would gravitate toward him in november. trump said he saw black americans wearing mugshots on their t-shirts. next up, in st. petersburg, florida on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to make a comparison

between smirnov smearing hunter biden, and that is evidence this week, and compare that to come and i call that russian interference, because obviously he was being promoted by a russian team of bad guys. so if you look at what happened when comey came up the last month before the election and brought up hillary's emails again, i kind of compare it to that, because, to me, this is the republicans trying to keep the malarkey alive, you know, right before the election. they know it is not true, but they want to keep it alive so it will cause doubt and suspicion in americans' minds. that's all i have. host: jaclyn is in pennsylvania on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm calling about how people

stop issue is immigration, which i find crazy. the top issue for everyone in this country should be corporate gouging. these corporations are gouging us, and it is ridiculous. president biden should make that front and center of his campaign, corporate gouging. prices are too high, and if they continue this way, everyone will be homeless. thank you so much. host: last call from west columbia, south carolina, on our democratic line. tom, are you going to be purchased meeting in the primary today? caller: yes, ma'am. i just got back from voting, as a matter of fact. host: what was it like? caller: well my polling place is a small church about a mile away from my home. but i wanted to tell you about what i experienced. we had about 10 people in line, and we had a nice conversation amongst the most best.

let me say that i very reluctantly voted for nikki haley, and i did not want to vote for her, but i sure did not want to vote for donald trump. and i will tell you real quickly why i voted for nikki haley. host: ok. caller: one of the folks in line said, when we were talking, said if you vote for nikki, you are still voting for the lesser of the two evils. so i said, yeah. i guess i will come of over one of the two evils but at least she is the lesser of it. ,i take my vote to be very sacred. host: tom, you are calling on the democrat line, but he voted today on the gop primary. did you get any pushback from folks? caller: no i did not. i did not vote in the democratic

primary. i voted for nikki haley, and i wanted to say why. i know she's not perfect. she's done some things. she raised the price on a gallon of gas, a tax on gas. host: tom will, you still vote for nikki haley and the general election coming up in november? caller: i doubt it very seriously. i hope that we have some other folks who i can choose from in november, but i did not want to waste my vote and vote for someone. i know nikki doesn't have any chance, but at least she's there. host: that's all the time we got for this segment right now. thank you so much, tom, from

dating us and what it is like at the polls in south carolina. really appreciate it. that's all we have to the top news story of the week. next, we will hear from ryan evans, who is the host of the podcast war on the rocks for our spotlight on podcast conversations, and he will join us to discuss the latest in the russia ukraine conflict as we mark the two-year anniversary of russia's invasion. that is coming up. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday on "q&a," patty davis shares her book "dear mom and dad," anymore written to her late parents, ronald and nancy reagan. she talks about being in the spotlight after her father entered politics in the 1960's, her complicated relationship with her mother, and the reagan's handling of the aids a beginning.

patty: there are people who think that my father did not care about gay people, or that he was homophobic, which is not true. i went to bring in some other aspects of people in his administration who were homophobic and did not want him to address the aids issue and who successfully for a while cap things from him because, you know, one of my father's laws, and we all have flaws, is that he delegated things to other people and believed what they told him, so when rock hudson died, nobody could keep from him the severity of aids, you know, his friend just died from it, and that was the turning point. >> patty davis with her book "dear mom and dad," saturday on c-span's q&a. you can listen to "q&a" and all of our podcasts on our free c-span app.

>> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of four proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the work, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, all from your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. scan the qr code to download it for free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-spannow. c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> a healthy democracy does not just look like this, it looks like this, where americans can see democracy at work. where citizens are truly

informed, a republic thrives. get informed, straight from the source, on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are doing now by ryan evans, ceo of metamorphic media and host of the podcast war on the rocks. welcome. guest: thank you for having me. host: tell us a little bit about your podcast, war on the rocks. what is it about, and how did you get it going? guest: it is a podcast on strategy, defense, and foreign affairs. i started it over 10 years ago. our first episode was around summer 2013, and we have been going strong ever since. host: tell us about how the war in ukraine has affected the

coverage you do on the podcast. guest: we've been having a lot of longer form conversations on ukraine, especially with michael kaufman, i think it is safe to say the premier expert on the war. host: how do you find experts for the podcast? guest: in my case, he has been writing for us for years. we are also an online magazine. people submit articles to us, try to go to conferences, meet people as well. host: i want to talk about this biden announcement yesterday of new sanctions against russia. do you think these sanctions will have any teeth or be more effective than the previous sanctions they had? guest: it depends on what you mean by "effective."

these seem to be punishing president putin for the death of alexei navalny. sanctions are meant to change behavior or stop people from doing something they might otherwise be able to do, and i don't have much hope these sanctions will change russia's course in any meaningful way. host: here's president biden talking about the sanctions and the two-year anniversary just yesterday. [video clip] pres. biden: remember, the united states put together a coalition of more than 50 nations for ukraine. unified and expanded nato. we can't walk away now. that is what putin is betting on to he's betting that we're going to walk away. some of the folks, some of the heads of the european union and nato today, that's why am announcing more than 500 new sanctions. [applause]

in response to putin's conflict, in response to electing navalny's death, because, make no mistake, putin is responsible for electing of only's death. -- for electing navalny's death. i spoke with his wife and daughter. alexei was an incredibly courageous man, and his family as courageous as well, and we will ensure that putin pays the price for his aggression abroad and his aggression at home. host: brian, can you give us a status update? where do things stand in the conflict right now? guest: sure. just a comment on president biden's remarks real quick, why didn't he announce these same sanctions two years ago when russia invaded ukraine from every compass direction except for the left? i think that president biden has been too slow, to halting, too

indecisive in some ways about ramping up punishment for russia over the last two years. but to answer your question, unfortunately things are not in a good place for ukraine. it petered out with very little in the way of practical results. ukraine lost a lot of men, they have a lot of trained soldiers as well. and, you know, russia incurred its own losses, but these affected ukraine strategically more, i think. so now russia has taken a cut in what was a brutal battle both for russian forces and ukrainian forces. now ukraine's best hope this year is to defend and not loose too much territory the rest of this year, to rebuild his offensive capacity for hopefully next year. host: "the new york times" is reporting the loss is not a strategic significant setback, and russian gains in eastern

ukraine not necessarily cause a collapse of lives in a moscow cannot necessarily follow up with a major offensive. what say you on how significant that particular loss is? guest: we discussed this in our recent podcast, which will come up today around lunchtime. it was three sides by russian held territory. if the loss of the city itself in major strategic defeat? there's nothing special about that city compared to other major cities, but i think about the losses that ukraine has seen inflicted on it, its ability to generate manpower. it is not just about lines on a map, it is about the army, it is also about defensive lines in depth. where russian built these defensive lines last year, ukraine is not have these defensive fortifications in depth, so is frontline is a lot

more brittle, unfortunately. host: talk about this ongoing delay and u.s. congressional approval for additional funding to ukraine. how is that affecting the situation on the ground there, particularly when it comes to weaponry? guest: it is catastrophic. ukraine is shell hungry. they lack all sorts of munitions and supplies that would be provided for, but especially artillery. russia enjoys a major artillery advantage in this point of the war. and so congress' inability to pass this law and the unwillingness of some republicans to support it has been catastrophic. host: what is your view on the division within the republican party over this issue in particular, and not just ukraine but also the larger, almost isolationist shift amongst some factions of the party? guest: i'm not sure i would call

it isolationist, but i do think the growing hostility in parts of the party, particularly those who are big supporters of donald trump, the former president, i would call it animus against european against nato countries, and this is a narrative that has built over time. i think it's important to remember the prominent role ukraine president zelenskyy plate in former president trump's first impeachment, and that certainly plays a role in the politics. host: early in the month, president trump pretty famously made comments about nato. [video clip] mr. trump: is the same thing with nato, i got them to pay. nato was busted until i came along. they said if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us? i said absolutely not. they could not the answer. you see more money pour into

secretary general stoltenberg, he was my biggest fan, i don't know if he is anymore, he said all these people would come in, make a speech, and leave and that was it. they all owed money did i came in and made a speech and said you have to pay up. they asked me that question. one of the big countries said sir, if we don't pay and we are attacked by russia, will you protect us? i said you did not pay, you are delinquent, he said yes. let's say that happens. no, i would not protect you, in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever they want. you've got to pay. you got to pay your bills. in the money came flowing in. host: ryan, what was your response when you are those comments? guest: a few different things. one, i think president trump has always just characterized what it means to pay. it is not a protection racket. what our european nato allies have had trouble doing, as well as canada, this spending as much

on their defense budgets as they have politically committed to do. there was a commitment made at the summit years ago to spend at least 2% of gdp on their defense budgets, and there are still quite a few nato allies who have madonna. the way trump with speak about this is that they owed us money and had to pay us money to keep nato going, and that is not how nato works. even though his remarks i think were deplorable in many ways, is that europe needs to start taking its own defense more seriously, if nothing else, we are more focused on the indo pacific. if the worst happens and we are embroiled in a war with china, europe might be left on its own to deal with its own security for some time, and they need to take commitments to spend more seriously. in some ways, i agree with trump. i have been making this argument way before people were taking trump seriously as a candidate.

president obama complained about this. pretty much every american president has had a problem with low defense spending, but president trump has made it a more acute political issue. host: we will be hearing more from former president trump today. he is scheduled to speak at the cpac summit, and we will be caring that on c-span as well as any comments that come after the outcome of the south carolina gop primary later on this evening. if you all have questions for ryan right now, you can call (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and (202) 748-8002 for independents. let's take a call from william in pennsylvania on our republican line. go ahead, william. caller: yes. i keep hearing the word "democracy" in ukraine. is a democracy where you don't get to vote for a new president this year?

or is it democracy where you kill american journalists over there and cover it up? what part of democracy do you call that. and some nato members are a dictatorship. hungary is a dictatorship, but a person who is not even in they know is not. explain that to me, buddy. thank you. guest: thanks for calling income of william. i never said anyone in nato was a dictatorship. ukraine has not killed any american journalists and covered it up, that is not true. there is political corruption and, beta is a democracy could they have suspended elections after this major war because there is not a safe way to have elections. this is not a serious conversation in ukraine. i'm sure ukrainians would love to hold a election if russia would stop its war. host: 315 thousand russian

soldiers have died or been wounded in the fighting so far, in addition to naval ship losses, russia has lost a tanker in the war, and russia is also spending massive amounts of money on the war. the official said it was around $211 billion spent so far. what is this doing to russia and the willingness of the russian government to continue this? guest: russia has fully mobilized into a war economy. it is spending a german is about money and manpower on this war, but i don't think this changes russia's ability to stay in the fight, and it certainly does not change vladimir putin's conviction to waging this war. while russia has certainly incurred enormous costs, police and russia are not particularly affected by this. they can still go to nice parties and nice restaurants, and, you know, putin has a lock on defense in russia could i do

not think there are obstacles, unfortunately, and continuing this war. host: all right, let's hear from ken in arkansas on our democratic line. go ahead. caller: yes. thank you for taking my call. i'm wondering why they has not been going to them -- the aid has not been going to them? i think trump and putin is about the same. i think when trump goes to trials, 91 felonies, i think he will be guilty on some of them. thank you. guest: i'm not sure what the question is there. i don't have any opinion on president trump rosie legal problems. that is not an issue i am an expert on. host: he did bring up what is holding up the aid. maybe you would talk more about some of the debates happening in congress? guest: sure. happy to. there is a security supplemental

package that has passed the senate is under consideration in the house. it is not just ukraine but also for israel and other things, money that might go to the subgrade industrial base in the united states, for example, so a large part of it is for ukraine, but it is not all ukraine good because of the politics in the republican party now, speaker johnson in the house has said that we could only pass a law on border security first before we consider these things, so these things are in limbo right now, and they are sort of being pushed off to the right as we face a potential government shutdown. i don't think i'm even if we get a vote on the security supplemental, if someone is able to force a vote for a speaker johnson agrees to bring it to the floor, this will not affect the function of the u.s. government. this might not hit before and the house until sometime in early, mid march. host: what does this mean in

practical application of what will happen in the conflict on the ground? guest: it really hurts ukraine's ability to defend itself, continue to wage war, and stay in the fight. it is really catastrophic. ukraine is on the defensive but it is on the defensive was not enough equipment and not enough munitions. host: ok. next up is pat in new jersey on our republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. ukraine was invaded 10 years ago by russia. they seized crimea. they went into some russian-speaking areas. they were occupying them. what was done before two years ago, in the first eight years? did anyone pay attention? guest: that's a great question. people were definitely paying attention. it was a huge story at the time. president obama was in office, and a lot of people criticized him for not acting more forcefully gives russia. i think he handled it reasonably well. russia did take crimea, which

was a tragedy. although they did not really have to fight to do this. they were able to get a significant portion of the ukrainian forces stationed in crimea defect. what we did do is nato increased exercises and training for ukrainian forces, beginning back in late 2014, early 2015, if i remember correctly, and the u.s. and other countries started selling more arms to ukraine as well. we could definitely go back and say we could have handled this differently or should have handled this differently, but it was hard to know at the time where this was heading. host: next that, bob in maryland on our independent line. what is your question, bob? caller: yeah. the u.s. and europe wanted ukraine to give up its nuclear stock higher in exchange --

stockpile in order for protecting the nation come invaded by russia or whatever, and they did not really fulfill their promise, or if a day, they are dragging, you know, support and other aids, to deliver the aids to ukraine. i also wanted to say also for trump and people like trump, hey, if they want to get u.s. allies to pay more for u.s. to protect them, instead they should let those who are able to go nuclear. i'm from south korea originally. i came from south korea a long time ago as an immigrant, a legal immigrant, and i'm really worried about what happens to ukraine. host: bob, let's get ryan evans

to respond to some of those. guest: a lot of great questions. the history a little complicated, but it is important to understand the when the cold war ended and the soviet union had collapsed, ukraine was part of the soviet union, so there were substantial soviet nuclear forces still in ukraine, but ukraine had become an independent country. this was happening elsewhere, too, so there was a negotiations process about what to do with these soviet nuclear forces, which we did not really what scattered everywhere. so ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, although ukraine had, arguably, no ability to operate as nuclear weapons, because it is not like moscow headed over the keys and the codes and all the access. these were just nuclear forces that they had stationed there, and they were something sign called the budapest memorandum that said if ukraine give up these nuclear weapons, there would be security

guarantees, but there was no enforcement mechanism for this, so it was out of a toothless agreement, which i think is unfortunate, of course, in retrospect. ukraine also had of the time the fourth largest army in the world, and it let that -- that was ukraine's decision to let that capacity and capability sort of go fallow and decrease in size over time. it is safe to say there's a lot of mistakes made in the post-cold war period, and the particulars of how this was handled was perhaps one of them. i'm not going to get into whether south korea or japan, for that matter, might have nuclear weapons one day. it really important topic, we'll have time to dig in today. host: ryan is calling in. caller: kimberly, thanks a lot for taking my phone call. ryan, thank you for what you do, focusing on the foreign policy of our country. and, you know, the thing that bothers, i think, me most about

all that is the false flag attack on china. china makes more cars than we do. they develop more technology than we do. if they want to invest in the united state build plans to offer us jobs here in the united states, and we just kind of told them no. we don't want to be involved because you are our competitor. so, you know, little attacks on taiwan for whatever, it sounds good on paper, beta certainly not the real deal. ryan, let me hear what you have to say about that. guest: i guess i disagree with the characterization. the people of china is a pretty vicious dictatorship, and not only is a depressing its own people, but it is also attempting to coerce and even violently sees territory

that belongs to our triage, which is the philippines, for example, so china's very aggressive and assertive with its neighbors. he continues to threaten taiwan, which is a vibrant democracy, not too far off the coast of mainland china. we are certainly not entangled with china. i would never advocate we completely cut ties economically, but i think it is smart -- and this is a bipartisan issue, to be fair. democrats and republicans have looked very carefully at how we should and should not be economically entangled with china, particularly when it comes to supply chain reliance for certain issues and high technology things like micro causes. host: owings mills, maryland, democratic line. go ahead. caller: i want to ask you two things. do you think joe biden is looking weak as far as the ukraine situation,? another question is, it is about the iran deal, if i can can i go

you're talking about ukraine, but i wanted to know from you, do you think we should have stayed in the iran deal under obama? because i think it was a good deal, and i think it played a big part of what has happened today. can you answer those two questions for me? guest: sure. great questions. i definitely think we should have remained in the iran nuclear deal. i think the cracks of the deal often pointed out that iran continued to be a bad actor, that it continues to do terrible things in the middle east and at home, and that is true, but this is a deal meant to stop iran from getting nuclear weapons can and if you can imagine how poorly behaved iran is now, imagine what iran will be like with nuclear weapons. unfortunately, this is where we are heading, and this is largely due to president trump's decision to withdraw from the deal, and those in washington, the foundation for defense of democracy with a pretty relentless propaganda campaign.

with your first question, yes, unfortunately, i think president biden is looking weak on ukraine. the biden administration from the outset did not understand how long this war could last. and seemed more concerned with preventing the worst consequences of ukrainian victory then balancing against the risks of ukrainian defeat over time. and, unfortunately, we are in a bad place, and now republican support for ukraine is slowly collapsing, and it is not a good place for any of us to be in. host: nelson is in michigan on the republican line. good morning, milton. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. that guys seems to be pretty knowledgeable, but i have a few questions. how many countries belong to nato? and is ukraine part of nato? host: ok.

well, there are 31 -- sorry, how many members are there in nato? and we do know that ukraine is not currently part of nato. guest: yes, there are over 30 countries in nato. most recently fenlon joined, and sweden is about to join. sweden and hungary came to an agreement, and hungry will now support sweden's entrance into nato. ukraine is not a member and probably never will be. host: next we have brian on or independent line. go ahead. caller: hello. i wanted to see if there is any resemblance in zelenskyy's death and epstein's death? guest: do you mean navalny? caller: yes. don't you think it is similar in every way? guest: if you are asking about

alexei navalny, the russian dissident who died in prison, i guess they both died in prison, but the two cases have no other reason was otherwise. host: just a reminder, republican can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats at (202) 748-8000. and independents line, (202) 748-8002. i do want to follow up with that, with you, ryan, on the death of russian dissident alexei navalny. can you gauge what type of opposition to putin remains in russia and whether he is stronger or weaker than when this whole conflict started? guest: i don't think there's any meaningful political opposition in russia right now, and by "meaningful," i mean that poses any real threat to putin. unfortunately, he has ramped up russian oppressive apparatus to such a degree where it is impossible, really, to opposed

putin in a way that would actually change russia or oust putin. i think what navalny did his he provided a model for how people can build opposition structures in russia, and hope we we will one day again be in a position where there can be a democratic opposition in russia, but i don't think it will happen anytime soon, unfortunately. host: it seems that the economic consequences of the war are also not really causing too much of an uprising. i want to point to a quote here from hassan malik, al macro strategist, from a purely economicpoint, russia has consle room to continue waging war. the war is being fought largely on ukrainian land, such that the direct impact on russian capacity and households have been comparatively limited. can you respond to that, in terms of how much the russian people are feeling the effects

of this conflict? guest: people who are not rich in russia are definitely feeling the effects of this conflict. the ruble is worth far less, and it has definitely economically hurt people's quality of life in russia, but they are not the people who have a say over the future of russia. it has affected a lot of russian families. russia has taken a lot of immense casualties in this war and continues to, but it does not change the politics and what is essentially a dictatorship. host: earlier this week, the deputy chairman of the russian security council, dmitry medvedev, signaled russia will not be satisfied occupying the four ukrainian regions, that they want maybe to again try to capture the capital. do you anticipate that and think they will have success? guest: i think it is possible could i would not painted what medvedev says.

-- possible. i would not pay much attention to what medvedev says. he is a drunk who makes comments generated to create controversy and attention. when he says does not signal what putin is planning to do. russia has not moderated its aims in this war, which is regime change in kyiv, and taking large parts of ukraine and corporate them it's russia. the parts of ukraine have been clean for over a year and a half now. host: charlotte is in aurora, illinois. go at it with your question, charlotte. caller: yes, i think biden show shut at all entrances into the united states immediately, not just the southern border, the northern border -- host: are you talking about for ukrainians or immigration in general? caller: immigration. host: we are talking about ukraine right now. did you have a question for ryan?

caller: well, once the republicans decide to give ukraine the money they need to fight the war, then we will be back to normal again. but considering the politics in the united states right now, we are not going to get that money. host: ok, thank you, charlotte. guest: well, i do think it is worth remembering that there was a deal on the table that had been negotiated in the senate, that linked aid to israel, ukraine, and border security, and actually the biden administration and democrats made some pretty large concessions on border security. and these were all linked to the package, and it was designed that way. former president trump decided to scuttle that, to keep the border security issue alive for him politically, as he is running for reelection. we could have had more money for more security, and we could have had more border reinforcement, but unfortunately, that is not the world we are living anymore. host: marise is in michigan on

or independent line. go ahead. caller: i'm calling because i have a big disc with gentleman doing the talking -- disagreement with the german doing the talking. -- the gentleman doing the talking. they have no enforcement anything. it is the case of a bad deal being worthless, and this guy is saying it should have been kept. why would you want to keep something that is useless and then pretend it was good? host: we are going to keep it focused on ukraine here. brian, did you want to respond briefly yucca guest: it did have enforcement mechanisms. i guess we will agree to disagree on that one. host: steve is in maryland on

our democratic line. caller: my question is, how do you win a war in the 21st century without air superiority? if we would have stayed in afghanistan, i think nothing of this would have come from china and/or russia, because we were right in their backyard. but my biggest concern is, how do you win a war in the 21st century without air superiority, which ukraine has none of yucca guest: that is a very good question, and russia does not have it either, it should be set. that is where the reasons this war has dragged on for so long, because neither side is able to get an sustain air superiority, and that is why in many ways this are symbols world war i, this is such an artillery heavy fight, and it shows that air superiority is important. host: keith is in indiana on a

republican line. caller: good morning. my question is, of course, talking about ukraine, why hasn't ukraine inflicted damage on russia inside their borders, and why would you say ukraine would never be a part of nato? guest: happy to answer both of those. ukraine does launch attacks on russian soil. most of them are sabotage campaigns. a steel plant exploded yesterday. i'm sure that had something to do with ukrainian special operations forces. but the united states continues to impose restrictions on how ukraine can use u.s. weapons provided to ukraine for attacks on russian soil, and i think those restrictions are a major mistake and they should be lifted. what was your second question again? host: why do you think ukraine will never be a part of nato? guest: yeah. i think that the idea that,

allowing ukraine to have a pathogen nato does not give us much to negotiate in the conflict against russia, and it might create a massive insecurity. at the end of the day, you cannot let a country in tomato that has real disputes with its neighbors. that is one of the rules. it is hard to see a path out of this war with russia where ukraine does not continue to how territorial disputes with russia. there are two may practical and strategic hurdles. it is a comes again issue. a lot of people -- it is a, located issue. a lot of people disagree with me on this. host: speaking of the biden administration and nato, the current nato chief, the term of john stoltenberg end in october, and the outgoing dutch minister is poiseto become the new head of nato.

here's a story about that in politico, that biden paves the way for mark rutte, to take over the job later this year, biden's support is likely to sway more allies to get on board with r utte's nomination, after months of jockeying, the official was granted anonymity to back support. it is a tumultuous time in transatlantic politics, ends in october, and i want to go to a tweet you wrote about this, that rutte stood in the way of increased dutch defense spending, now poised to leave the alliance at its great moment of peril and 30 years, what a joke. say more. guest: yeah.

i think it is important for the next secretary-general to be serious on defense spending. rutte led the netherlands for many years and the client to increase defense spending since 2014. i think this is the wrong message to send europe. if you have a secretary-general trying to get nato members to do more and he himself declined to do more when he was head of government, i think that is hypocritical. host: all right. let's hear from charles in louisville, kentucky on or independent line. good morning, charles. caller: good morning. it is my understanding that elon musk designed a defensive weapon to actually block russia from bombing, like nuclear, ukraine. can you going to talk about, after that had happened, he felt

so powerful, elon musk did, that he gave it to the government. can you go into who has the power right now? guest: to be honest, i have never heard anything about this before. i have never heard anything about this. host: i will point to an article from reuters, fairbury 19th them about star link come up one of elon musk's -- february 19, about starlink, one of elon musk's companies. ukraine has asked elon musk's spacex aerospace company to prevent russia from using is star link, the government minister was quoted as saying on monday. they have been vital to communications. starling says it does not a business of any kind with russia's government for

military. can you talk a little bit about some of the new technology being deployed in this conflict and the role that it is playing? guest: starlink has played a critical role in ukrainian communication, command-and-control, and targeting. i was in southern ukraine on a research trip two octobers ago, and we were driving along not too far from the front, next to some very large artillery pieces, there was a starling terminal and someone using the terminal to spot a drone -- if i a drone. so starlink has played a critical role. there's a claim that russia is now in position and using starling terminals. i have no way of assessing that. i know elon musk has shown some sympathy to russia's cause or russia's position in this war, so it is possible, but i have no idea. this war has been a showcase for a lot of more emerging

technologies, such as increase of drones in the which ukraine is making an even larger investment in this year. it is hard for me to accept that these new technologies can replace or obviate the need for military cap abilities. host: mark is in florida our democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning, folks. ryan, thank you for your dedication of a right just because, according to this old marine, american marine. i just would ask you if you can explain to the viewers the significant economic strength of ukraine that the russians tried to capitalize on, their gas, oil, whatever their resources are, and do americans watching this once you realize we have people right now, what marines call people, american soldiers in poland? it is not a significant fighting

force, but it is to let them know once they step foot into poland, so the significance of nato. i actually voted for bush, sr., but not a republican sense. thank you for your brilliance. guest: thanks for calling entered i don't know about brilliance, but semper fi. ukraine has very rich agricultural land. it has massive port cities like odessa and areas around there. it is a valuable place. eastern ukraine has industrial facilities but has been moving west since 2014, since russia's initial invasion of the country. so ukraine is very economically valuable for russia, and this is part of for over 10 years now. one of the major priorities of this administration is supporting ukraine without

triggering a war involving nato territory. if russia crosses the line or fires into nato territory, there would be consequences. russia has been successfully deterred. there was a missile fired into poland and there was a lot of communication over that. in some ways, it has worked. it has also made us overly cautious because we are worried will upset the deterrence regime. we have erred on the side of being too cautious on that issue. caller: good morning. i want to commend you all. you are giving a lot of good information on what is going on. ukraine, we need to support them as americans. we are the world leaders. we are a nation of god.

there is nothing that ukraine is doing wrong. ukraine is doing the right thing. when this thing started we had republican saying russia would take over. but they have not because america. america as the nations of the world behind it. that is why we will win in the end. that is the reality of it. i want to commend c-span for putting this information out and the host that you have come a you are speaking really well. thank you. host: i wonder if you can talk a little bit about as the united states has pulled back in its financial support for ukraine, how other european allies have responded. guest: thanks to the caller for his kind words. europe -- the eu just passed a $50 billion package which is significant.

now other european countries are starting to step up to provide more for ukraine without the u.s. taking the lead on those issues. the czech republic has spearheaded an effort to acquire and give a lot more artillery to ukraine which should be commended. france and finland are moving to 24 hour shifts. all of this is very important. we really have to have a hard conversation on why did it take two years for this activity to start happening from europe independently at high-volume. europe needs to be doing a lot more to continue to support ukraine, not just in military support but for the direct budget support that western countries have provided to keep ukraine running as a country come in to keep the ukrainian government running. ukraine has taken such an economic hit due to the war that it is difficult to pay its own bills. the eu needs to move into the lead position when it comes to this support. i was happy to see the $50 billion aid package passed. there needs to be more.

host: oakland, california. independent light. -- independent line. caller: i was enlisted in 1957 in korea. i would like your evaluation of how you see military leadership at this point and how you see the morale of our troops at this point. host: as you answer that, could you share a little bit about your own background? guest: i was never in the military. i was a civil servant for the department of defense over 10 years ago now which is some days hard to believe. i was deployed to afghanistan as a civilian, a civil servant. i went out with british and danish forces in southern afghanistan to help the military better understand the population there. it was a very frustrating war. a very pressing war.

i learned quite a lot. shortly after i got back to the u.s., i started in iraq. i am fortunate to have spent a lot of time with senior military leadership. i had the service chiefs for the army, air force, current service leaders of the army air force and marine corps. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i have not yet done a podcast with the chief of operations but i hope to sit down with her in the not-too-distant future. i am impressed by this crop of military leadership. americans should be confident. they understand the hard choices to be made. they understand the stakes and they are working to do the right thing. i spent a lot of time with people much further down the chain of command in the military. it is hard to make broad generalizations about the morale of the entire force when you have such a large military.

i consulate in highly motivated officers who are very dedicated and very enthusiastic about serving their country. host: that is a good place to end with ryan evans, ceo of metamorphic media and the host of the war on iraq podcast. thank you for your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: and thank you to all of the callers who weighed in with their thoughts. that is all the time we have. we will go to live kutcher -- live coverage of the principles first summit which is focused on center-right politics and will feature speakers critical to former president trump and his candidacy. the panel right now focuses on confronting authoritarian folks abroad with fiona hill. we will go to that now. >>