■ñ >> sunday morning, the editor talks about his new book, "america last." then emma waters discusses the implications of alabama's supreme court decision on in vitro fertilization and the role of reproductive issues in campaign 2024. c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern on sunday morning. >> with three days to go until

super tuesday, former president donald trump will speato voters in greensboro, north carolina, live daat 2:0 c-spanow and online at c-span.org. >> congress returns tuesday facing anoereadline of midnight eastern friday to fund the government and avert shutdown. the house is back at noon stn and along with the senate plan to vote on the first two packages of spending bills to fund the government passhelater in the week, memberl vote on requiring the homeland securi department to te to custody immigrants accused of shoplifting. thursday, lawmakers will meet to

hear president biden deler his the senate also returns tuesday at 3:00 eastern to consider several of president biden's executive nominations and vote to reauthorize the law commentangmericans exposed to radiation by the federal gornment. watch live cov c-span, see the n c-span2, and a reminder you can watch all of our congressional coverage with the free c-span app or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfil■/tered view of government. we are funded by these companies and more, including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? no, it is more than that. >> comcast is partnering so low income students can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. comcast supports c-span as a publ service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to

democracy. host: good morning. it is saturday, march second, 20 24. the two leading candidates in the presidential race both visited the u.s.-mexico border delivering very different messages about immigration. in washington this week, mitch mcconnell, the longest-serving party leader in the senate, announced he will step down from his leadership role this fall. we want to hear your top news story of the week. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats at (202) 748-8000. independents at (202) 748-8002. you can text us. that number is (202) 748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you are writing from. on social media, it is facebook

.com/c-span and on x @cspanwj. details coming out of the funeral of russian dissident alexei navalny. a story from the new york times, thousands of people crowded a neighborhood on moscow's outskirts on friday, some bearing flowers chanting "noto war" as they tried to catch a glimpse for alexei navalny. the outpouring turned the opposition leader's last rites into -- it took place under tight monitoring from the russian authorities who arrested hundreds of mourners at memorial sites since mr. navalny died. another story is the latest from the tragedy in gaza when many people tried to reach an aid convoy and many people were killed in that process. another new york times story, a wait for food ended in chaos,

panic, and death. bloodshed at convoy fuels global fervor. president biden said the united states would begin air dropping aid to gaza to relieve suffering . european leaders condemned israel for the deathsf four hungry palestinians as they surrounded the convoy. israeli troops killed more than 100 people and wounded 700 others in a "massacre" as the convoy rolled along a dark road. a version of events that israel defeated. yesterday, president biden announced that he would states , jordan in providing air drops of large amounts of humanitarian assistance to gaza. [video clip] pres. biden: today, we will also discuss the middle east and yesterday's tragic and alarming events in north gaza trying to

get humanitarian assistance in there. and the loss is heartbreaking. people are so desperate. innocent people got caught in a terrible war, unable to feed their families, and you saw the response when they tried to get aid. we need to do more. the united states will do more. in the coming days we will join with our friends in jordan and others providing air drops of additional food and supplies and seek to open other avenues in ukraine including the possibility of a marine partner with large amounts of humanitarian assistance. in addition to expanding deliveries by land, we will insist israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. no excuses. the truth is that aid flowing into gaza is nowhere near enough now, nowhere near enough.

we won't stand by until we get more aid. we should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several. we won't stand by, we won't let up, and we won't pull out, try to pull out every stop that we can to try to get more assistance in. we have been working and hopefully will know shortly, and i know you have been informed, that we are trying to work out s about the hostages being returned. cease-fire in gaza for at least the next six weeks to allow the surge of aid into the entire gaza strip, not just at the south. host: we are looking for your p new story of the week. a few more that we are followg, you can call in at

(202) 748-8000 for democrats. repuics at (202) 748-8001. independents at (202) 748-8002. two of these stories we are following this week includes the biden and trump dueling border visits, that israel is being accused of firing on the civilians in gaza waiting for food. as i mentioned earlier mcconnell stepping down from gop leadership. and the supreme court hearing the trump immunity appeal or announcing that they would hear it. finally the hunter biden deposition in the biden impeachment probe also happened in this busy week. let's go to your calls beginning with sal in new jersey on our republican line. good morning. what is your topic this week? caller: i would like to bring up the point that i think the number one issue in america today is immigration. i wouldn't even call it immigration i would call it

inundation. we are literally being invaded by people who shouldn't be in this country. the other day a woman from egypt and her brother is waiting in line for two or three years. he wants to come to this country legally. he can't come in. are coming into this country illegally who shouldn't be in this country in the first place. another observation. one of the falls of the great roman empire was invaded by barbarians who eventually took over the country and changed their culture, their values, changed their whole system. that is what is happening now. we are coming into this country, people are coming in whodrug ad, rapists, and murderers. host: we got your point. moving on to jeffrey in greensboro, north carolina on the democratic line. what is your top story of the week? caller: thank you for taking

this call. please, allow me to get this out in response to the caller from new jersey. it is very important -- host: can you turn down the volume on your television and please continue your point? caller: can you hear me better? host: yes, thaner: hello? host: we need you to turn down the volume on your tv because we are getting feedback. caller: i'm sorry. i'm sorry about that. i'm trying to find the remote. oh, my g host: we will go to another call first and we will see if we can get you back. brad in texas on the republican line. hello, america. the thing is the immigration is a planned event, is an invasion, and the democrats are supplying the ngo to help illegals come across the border and they are

actually flying them in and are calling them refugees. the democrats have stabbed america in the back. it will come out someday, i just hope it is soon enough. thank you. host: susie in jupiter, florida also on republican line. caller: yes. i am calling also about the immigration system. i don't know why you can't put up on your screen the things that biden has rescinded thatxc were in place when president trump was in office. it's a very simple outline. he just took everything and rescinded it all. i think you should put that up on your screen for people. they don't know. they think this is just something that happened, and it was all soros.

he is the one who is funding most of it. host: i take your point and pivot to some of the comments that former president trump made at the border during his visit. he was criticizing the biden administration for its approach to border security and immigration. that was during his visit to eagle pass, texas. here's a portion of the comments from thursday. [video clip] mr. trump:19 the united states s being overrun by the biden migrant crime. we call it biden'st is long, soe believe it, but every time you hear the term migrant crime you know where that comes from. allowing thousands and thousands, and actually millions and millions of people to come, could be 15 million, 18 million by the time he gets out of office, because hopefully the

biggest risk we have is nine months. that's a long time. a lot of bad things can happen. they always4n say in speeches ad rallies, you take the 10 worst presidents in the history of our country and you add them all up, all of the problems, all of the bs they've done come you can add them all up and it is not as bad as this one man, what he has done to our country. he is destroying we were just te general was saying he can't believe, can't believe what is happening, he can't believe it, so sad. last year half of all ice arrests were criminal aliens charged with 33,000 assaults, three thousand robberies, 6009 hundred burglaries, 7500 weapons crimes -- this is all migrant crime- sex crimes, 1600 kidnappings, 1700 homicides and murderers. these are the people who are coming ils and

they are coming from prisons and they are coming from mental institutions and they are coming from insane asylums and they are terrorists being led into our country and its horrible. host: later today,orr president trump will be campaigning in north carolina and we will have live cere of that on c-span as well as c-span.org and on our free video app c-span now at 2:00 p.m. eastern. now we have jeffrey back in greensboro, north carolina where former president trump will be campaigning on our democratic line. jeffrey, let's go ahead again. caller: thank morning, god bless you. i have to express on that statement that he gave in texas. that is the most absurd situation. i hope that your american audience is actually hearing this, because he is talking about the violence and not

taking accountability for what he did january 6. that is just absurd. and unfortunately the embarrassment of this country. people are actually gravitating to -- that did not exist. i pray deeply for every person who got to endure, if this falls into place the way that it does, this election, the supreme court must do the right thing. believe it shouldn't have even went that far with our judicial system works. i want to be fair and respectful. it works because people in our society is getting justice every day without a question. now it is questionable, because he has indictments and felonies, and there is nothing that seems

to make sense anymore with the justice system, because his name indictment. it is hurting people. host: jeffrey, i think we got your idea. let's go to ryan in orange, massachusetts. what is your top new story of the week? caller: my top new story of the week is two, the supreme court they said about liberals for months that trump wouldn't even be able to have his case heard. that got proven wrong. theborder and he called out bids horrible border policies. for a long heard january 6 was caused by trump. even though he did a speech saying we would march peacefully and patriotically and he offered to send in troops and nancy pelosi denied him. how long will the liberal media deny the fact did not incite the election.

the supreme court will hear it and they will rule in his favor and he will be allowed to runhes screaming at the sky and i'm waiting. host: a little more information about what our caller was discussing. here's a story from axios. the supreme court hands trump a huge win before it even hears his ca iformer president trump n big at the former supreme court even if he ultimately loses. the big picture is that the justices agreed on wednesday to decide if trump enjoys total immunity from prosecution. the timing likely means that the trial over trump's role in january 6 will not begin, much less into, before the election. there is nothing that trump once more in this case and then a delay. if he wins in november and has not been tried before inauguration day, there is a good chance he never will be. this could be game over and election law experttrump's firso

the high court in three weeks and arguments will be late april. that sets the stage for a ruling in late june at the end of the court's term. let's hear from tony in melville, new york on our independent line. good morning, tony. caller: good morning, everybody. first off, i want to say from the river to the sea palestine will be free. the new story i want to focus on is the massacre that took place in occupied palestine, where i believe over 100 hungry palestinians were shot by the ios. i want to bring up too there are demonstrations today. check out shut it down for palestine dot org defined a protest near you. i want to bring up that we were doing talking on my campus the other day, and the police were intimidating us.

they actually threatened to charge us with vandalism, they were trying to get information out of us. i want to say continue the fight. we are really pushing to get a lot more■t accountability. we are pushing for a free, independent palestine. we are pushing for decolonization, land back, etc. host: let's hear from ron in west chesterfield, new hampshire on the democratic line. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. listen, it is really laughable how republicans try to turn everything around the way it isn't. so far, you've had a couple of republicans on this morning who said democrats are flying people in over mexico and stuff, bringing them in. there has been a problem on the mexican border forecades. presidents and presidents have

had problems with border. it is just disingenuous to say his is a biden thing. biden wanted to fix i it was too big of a campaign issue that trump didn't want to lose. the fake emergency on the border is not really an emergency, because we could have taken care of it a couple weeks ago. but yeah, it is just a big campaign issue for republicans. that's all it is. e are thousands of migrants coming across the border when trump was in office. they don't want tell you this stuff. they just want to swit it around and place the blame on democrats. when it comes to januar 6, trump did at. he not called those peopleed had to and sent them to the capital. that is a fact. help ukr lwould, if they give ur

nukes, we should give them their nukes back. host:■ good morning, vanessa. what is your top new story? caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say two things. mitch mcconnell is my top news story. that pss conference that he called was very touching and moving. it was thanks to him that we have the supreme court right noi will always be grateful to m for that and wish him well. also, i would like to i highly recommend it to anyone who has ever considered going. i was there for all four days and it was a fabulous event. host: what struck you the most about cpac, vanessa? caller: i learned so much. i spent most of every day in the

session. the wealth of knowledge, the eakers that were put together, and i saw trump on the last day. it was the closest i've ever been to trump and that was quite a thrill. i learned so much from the experts on the panel. i couldn't the vendors, i got pamphlets and groups from organizations i'd never heard will keep me going for the rest of the year. it was so much. host: thanks for your call. vanessa was talking about the announcement from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. after his announcement on wednesday, mcconnell took the senate floor to reflect on hish. [video clip] sen. mcconnell: my career in the united states senate began amidst the reagan revolution. through this, when i got here, i

was just happy anyone remembered my name. president reagan called me mitch o'donnell. close enough, i thought. my wife elaine and i got married on presiry 6. it is probably not the most romantic thing to admit, but reagan meant a lot to both o us. for 31 years, elaine has been the love of my life and i am eternally grateful to have her by my side. i think back on my first days in the senate with deep appreciation for the time that helped shape my view of the world. i am unconflicted about the good

in our country and the the leader of the free world. it is why i worked so hard to get the national security packagebelieve me, i know the ps within my party at this particular moment in time. i have many faults. politics is not one of them. that said, i believe more strongly than ever that american global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that ronald reagan discussed. as long as i'm drawing breath on this earth, i will defend american exceptionalism. host: another perspective on the mcconnell comes from vox, which

has the headline, how mitch mcconnell broke congress. say goodbye to the gop leader, but not the all-powerful supreme court that is his legacy. the article goes on to say, measured by how many bills he successfully ushered into law, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, who announced wednesday he will step down as the senate republican leaderfk n november, was extraordinarily ineffective. he famously failed to deliver on the gop's promise toct and hard-line republicans refused to pass bipartisan legislation supported by mcconnell. during his time as majority leader, mcconnell's primary legislative accomplishment is the tax law that former president trump signed his first year in office and not much else. mcconnell is likely to be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders in the senate's history for good reason. mcconnell achieved this outcome in two ways. the first was a dramatic escalation in filibusters and

the second is by killing the federal -- filling the federal judiciary with conservatives. his legacy will be lasting. on the filibuster issue, here is a chart looking at the rise in number of filibusters that occurred with marked during senator mcconnell became leader in the senate in particular. let's hear from charles in rockland, georgia on our republican line. good morning, what is your top news story of the week? caller: good morning. host: good morning, charles. go ahead. caller: i would like to say, number one, why are we opening borders? two, there are so many of us homeless veterans. 24 years serving my military, an

ied in the leg, nobody will help. we are going to help another country at the moment. i would like to get an answer to that. host: have you reached out to the v.a. for benefits to try to help with your housing situation, charles? caller: yes, but they keep putting me off to the side and this has been going on for 14 months. yet, we are goio help another country and open our borders up. that is not right. i am not the only veteran who served over 20 years. and lost everything, because i am considered a hindrance because i'm disabled. o, what is the economy going to do to help us veterans? what is the economy going to do to help the homeless citizens throughout the united states

instead of helping another country? because there are so many people living under bridges. i am living in a hotel, which is not economical. it is the only thing that i can do in the meantime. that is my question to president biden. what are you going to do? host: thank you, charles, for your call. dennis in santa ana, california on the independent line. dennis? are you there? hopefully we can get dennis later. let's hear from patrick in grand rapids, micaller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thank you for the wonderful job that you do facilitating these discussions. briefly, i think that the supreme court decision was the most significant one this week. i am not dismissing the others as important. the reason i'm saying that is the others represent outcomes. the supreme court decision is

one that is going to begin to put into motion a lot of new events that will be also seen as outcomes. i'm looking into what will happen in the future more than what has happened. patrick.. a couple of comments omext and social media. top news story of the weekye another continuing resolution. after six nt, no agreement on a budt? totally dysfunctional. th comes from massachusetts, iependent. joseph in fayetteville, north carolina, the top news story of the week meeting in washington, d.c. the president can have a civilized conversation wi a fascist from italy but can't fix the united states gop. let's go back to your phone calls. kevin is in blue ridge, virginia on our republican line. go ahead, kevin. what is your top new story of the week? caller: yes, good morning.

i would like to mention the current invasion on the southern border. i would like to point out that this is not happening by accident. people would just do an internet search, this has been planned foreceswhat is happening curreno the united states is also taking place in europe. you can read. there is a book called the coal argie p it is anist-jewish plan to subvert the christian west. host: let's hear from where president biden was in brownsville, texas making comments about the need for congress to pass the bipartisan deal that the senate has already moved. let's hear from president biden. [video clip]

pres. biden: this figure of the house needs to put this on the floor picks if you put it on the floor unrestricted it would pass. the majority in both houses support this legislation,■j untl someone came along and said, don't do that, it will benefit the incumbent. that is a hell of a way to do business in america for such a serious problem. we need to ask. it is time for the speakers and some of my republican friends in congress blocking the bill to show a little spine. bipartisan. conservative leaders supported this. border security bill. ledger member who we work for, for god's sake. -- let's remember who we work for, for gods sake. we work for the american people. i understand my predecessor predecessors legal past today. set a policy me or i will join n telling congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill.

we can do it together. you and i know it is the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen. instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we get together and get it done. let's room member who the heck we work for,■ the american people. not the democratic or republican party. we work for the american people. let's remember who we are. we are the united states of america. i mean it. there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. nothing when we work together. if all things we should be should work on this. we have a formula to get it done. host: bobby in niagara falls, new york. what is your top story of the week? caller: immigration. the bible says in the beginning thisntry was settled by convicts, over a couple million

pe africa, and stopping undesirables here sent to australia and they took that land over. 54 million natives died to disease and■illings and put on reservations. we need to take that into account. it doesn't solve the present day problem, the same thing to this country. thank you for taking my call, have a great day. host: kurt in mount union, pennsylvania on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to put some things iner earlier, i heard the january 6 riot mentioned. i would like forunderstand thatd three hours and nothing really came of it. on the other hand, we had bl in

riots for months -- blm riots for months that cost millions of dollars and people were killed. another thing to think civiliane military comes from. to say innocent civilians, where do you thinks from? thank you. host: we have derek in virginia on our democratic line. good morning, derek. caller: yes, hello. i feel the southern border is a self-inflicted smokescreen. now, there is an open ended visa in our country that is never talked about. has always been against immigration and health care. 12 years trying to come up with a plan. lobbying and racism is taking our country down.

we keep living in the past. we think we put on a john wayne movie and we are that america. we are not that america anymore. we really need to -- stop being the negative country. god is not going to bless us. we rode with god at one time. no more. host: linda in ellicott city, maryland on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for having this talk and discussion. myrn is with the southern border. can i hear you? host: yes, go ahead, linda. we can hear you fine. caller: great. i think president biden is,

know, what he is doing is about power. it is not about the american people. we had a current immigration system that allows so many legal immigrants to come in this llion year. why is that not enough? with this current system of letting these immigrants come in and giving them, you know, money, stipends for food and what have you know, they are getting benefits that a lot of americans aren't getting. ower and votes. i don't think it is really about the american people. he lives in a little fortress. the white house like a lot of people on capitol hill do. they are not in our shoes.

they don't really have the right perspective. i think we need to help ukraine. i think we need to help israel. we need to put our own mask on first. i've called the white house comment line. 've called the speaker. i've called all the different congressmen and senators, as many as i can. i've even called governor abbott. i think he should be the time person of the year or newsweek person of the year. that is my number one issue. the other issue is the democrat3 love to spend. it money for this, money for that. they try to figure get more money from the taxpayers instead of trying to figure out, do we really need this? maybe we don't need t you know,p

back to immigration. host: i think we got your point on immigration. let's go to christopher in oklahoma on our democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: i'm fine, thanks. caller: i think one of the top stories for me this week was mog to donald trump give a strange speech about how unintelligible language is were coming into our country. he sounds very paranoid about these languages that he described -- i am paraphrasing -- described as languages that no one in the world can comprehend that these people are

speaking these linkages. -- speaking these languages. i know a lot of people think he doesn't■v read, but there is a famous quote by william f burroughs that norman mailer said was one of the only american authors to be genius. it is a quote that language is a virus from outer space. maybe he is reading bill burr house -- bill the presidential , their top new story of thweek, number one, the presidential campaign at the border. number two, nikki haley refusing to concede defeat. number three, congress passing a coinuing resolution stopgap to avoid a partial gornment shutdown. we heard on facebook from laur berman who says, the supreme court comes to* the aid of dold

trump and helps him delay his trial, which is exactly what trump wants. do they have to decide if he has total immunity? disgraceful. joshua lehman, the president of the united states had a physical but not cognitive test, eve though everyone in the world sees his mental issues on full display every day. considering not being charged withri sply because a jury would not find him mentally fit to stand trial. you can send us your comments on social media. wed# at facebook.com/c-span or n x @cspanwj. gilbert in birmingham, alabama. good morning, gilbert. caller thank you for taking my call. i have two top stories. one that happened in palestine. find it ironic and hypocritical stance that the united states is taking against the zionist then yahoo! --

zionist benjamin netanyahu. on one hand you want to support issue. on the other end you want to have an aide drop. you can't put two feet in the same shoe. it isronic. another point that i want to make is, you said 45% of american ciz attribute it themselves to be an independent and republicans and democrats 27-40 five which equals 100%. most don't aspire to the democratic orht it on itself. have a good day . host: los angeles, california on the independent line, good morning, leah. caller: good morning. i am really, one of my top stories of the week is this

genocide in palestine. you know, joe biden has supported -- he said he has unending support for israel and ukraine. ha never heard that man have unending support for ending homelessness, for veterans assistance, for anything to aid american citizens. he had billions upon billions of our tax dollars without our isre for these political wars. how can you put two feet in the same shoe? how are we going to use our tax dollars to go over and bomb with the assistance of american dollars to bomb palestine?

bomb these people, starve them out? joe biden, they have the power to stop this any day. he wants to have a temporary truce so he can bide time to get into office. it is despicable what this man is doing. these peopleerica is going to py valiant price for getting involved in these wars for profit. that is all that this is. i would never vote for joe biden. i wouldn't vote for trump. come on, marion■ williams. anyone outside of these nut cases is who i'm going to be voting for. host: thank you, leah. leah was speaking about this. this has become a big political issue for president biden. this came here is the story fro.

anti-biden uncommitted voters are set to win two delegates in the michigan primary, boosting the protest. that will give the voters a formal voice at the democratic national convention. a protest movement to cast uncommitted votes over president joe biden in the michigan democraticri have won two delege race, gaining traction in the swing states after winning 13% of the total votes compared to biden's 81%. uncommitted voters will have a voice even if a relatively small ■aone, at the democratic nationl convention in august that will be dominated by biden supporters looking to rally the party against donald trump. democrat rashida tilly was outside of the capitol on thursday speaking about the success on that uncommitted movement effort in michigan

earlier this week. >> michigan, you can see it is not only making water■i in human rights, but with the movement saying don't stay home. use our democracy to say something to the president, as a way to voice your opinion. show them where you are right now in regards to support. you know, we are not going to go into the backyards of otherates. what is beautiful about our country is that every community is different and will decide how to use our democracy. i tell people, you show up for marches and protests. you call members of congress, you pass local resolutions. you can use the ballot box to speak that truth. it is important for folks to understand that i am incredibly scared of a second term for trump. i think it's important to emphasize this. now, our democracy is agstake and i'm asking the president and many of us are saying, change

course because you are threatening literally our democracy. understand, listen not only butf americans supporting a cease fire. this is not something that should be, don't worry about it, we will ke going. i think it's very clear. this is better than any polls. king about right now? when i talk to folks who voted this way in our community, we all want to stay home but i felt like i had an option to speak my truth and core values. i think that it's incredibly powerful and i am going to see again what makes our country great is that we use that ballot box to say something to the people who are in power, including those who represent us. host: back to your calls, brooksville, florida, good morning, john. what iyour top news storof hell.

host: hello. caller: i don't want to complain like everybody else. i am a 100% disabled veteran. people are moving here to 400,000 per day. it is crazy. nd gas are going up. it is getting crowded. i'm not going to complain about this. just look out your front door. that's all i want to say. know. host: thank you, john. chris in massachusetts on our independent line. caller: i want to be really quick. come november, it is obvious that the courts have taken something away that should be happening. we have two choices. biden and democracy or trump and

putin and no democracy. those are the two choices we will have. you. bye. host: james in memphis, tennessee on our democratic line. caller: good morning. ho good morning, james. caller: i agree with the last caller. what i want to say is, for the past 16 years the republicans have been obstructionists. they have been obstructionists starting with barack obama. they have been obstructionists in everything that's good for the country and the american people. we have allowed oneu#em above te congress had it in their hands tohange it so people would see no one is above the law. they have allowed one person, o is not a member of congress, who is not in the white house, to call shots on the border,

if we issue aid to ukraine. at is creating jobs in america, becaose weapons have to be made in america. what joe biden is thinking of doing is making sure that doesn't have any american people dying over there. if it seems like american people may be suffering over here from homelessness and other issues, i would rathersurom homs in the united states andle to find somewhere to pull myself up than be fighting a war in a country where i have no idea ere i am or why i'm there. host: another james in nebraska on our republican line. go ahead, james. caller: hello. i think the biggest issue of the week isn't even in the news. the continued lack of resources

for people struggling in this nation, as has been spoken onths clearly a crisis, an epidemic. when you have a rap star, jellyroll, testifying on capitol hill about how bad the issue is. the resources flowing out of this country on a daily basis, and yes, there are arguments to be made on both sides, but with the live with, the fact that anyone in this country goes without shelter, without food, without the resources for mental hlth is an embarrassment. it makes us look as though we are not in any way capable of being the world'sto act so oftee the 1950's. i will flip been waiting to talk, the

continued reference to palestine. palestine is not recognized as a country. it is a people, but say what you will, world war iii has already ■vstarted in my opinion. it will progress very rapidly over the next year. it may be the breaking point of the election. i will flip again real quick. nikki haley not conceding is also probably the biggest news story on the republican sidenior being in the race will keep issues at hand rather than just being trump versus biden. to hear the representative from michigan saying that she is terrified of a donald trump second term, i am terrified of a biden another day in office. the many senile with no sense of reality. every time that head -- watch hm

pat someone on the head, i die a little inside. host: indiana on the democratic line. caller: my top news story is the total farce that is the border issue as a whole. because of this. the border has always been a problem. ■ has been a problem for decades. decades. so, to try to make it a political issue right now is totally silly. because, if you want to solve is pass a legislation and deal with it. the fact of the matter is,bill h sides. you are not going to get everything you want in legislation. if you can come to an agreement on something, that is better

than nothing. then, when a bill wasnegotiatedd trump gets involved and you have no more movement because people on the far right one this as a continuing issue. they don't want to solve the problem. then scapegoats saying criminals are coming in here. you have more crime committed by americans. host: thank you, jeff. greg in south carolina on the independent line. caller: yes, ma'am. i would liket on all the people who call in and say we can't send money to foreign countries because we need it here for our veterans. well, the veterans get disability. i feel for all the disabled veterans because of endless

republican wars, but they get disability and we can do both. the republicans don't have a plan for mental health and social programs for people and veterans and homeless people. if you really want problems, ths are the ones who have social programs. i am an independent, but the republicans had the house, senate, and presidency when donald trump was president and they did not pass a thing about the border. donald trump closed the border down using methods that may be illegal legal, executive order, but that doesn't solve the problem. we need mental health care in this country. we need to come up with a deal to handle the emigrant problem, which they have, but of course trump vetoed. if you want to take care of your veterans, you're homeless, your mental problems, then you will

have to vote for a partyhp that has some actual social programs. that -- i am an independent and don't like either party. i would like to vote for nikki haley this year, but apparently the cult isn't going to have it. host: dave in sacramento, california on the republican line. good morning, david. caller: i want to bring up the fact that we had a secure broke it with a pen. he can fix it with a pen. it is just a big vendetta about biden and trump. he is going to erase everything trump has in place. so, he opened up the border and said we have no laws. then he wants congress to pass a deal. why not close down the borders

and then figure out what kind of bill you want to pass instead of having an open floodgate, you know? i know it is a personal vendetta, because that was his first things got into office wao all of what trump did. it is a common that has been going on for the past few presidencies. it's just a vendetta. host: tracy is in grand rapids, michigan on the democratic line. caller: hi, thank you. i would like to talk about the horrible in the texas panhandle. thousands of cattle and horses have perished in the texas panhandle fires along with pets

and countless wildlife. they are getting worse and out of control. it is always the animals who are suffering. i think that we have to address climate change. the second thing i want to bring up is is now the largest fire in texas history. biden has sent federal help, fema will reimburse texas and oklahoma for cost. he did this without statehood and leaders fight him on every turn. i think that the border wall is horrible in that it also prevents any kind of animal's migration. especially something like this with a horrible forest fire. where are these animal supposed to go? thank you. host: tracy brought up the wildfires in texas. here is more information from npr whoh] has the headline, governor abbott says that texas wildfires may have destroyed up to 500 structures.

this is reporting from the associated press. wildfires may have destroyed as many as 500 structures in the texas panhandle. republican governor abbott said how the largest blaze in state history scorched everything in its path leaving ashes in its wake. texas officials warn that theten forecasted for saturday, elevating worries that fires in the panhandle could spread the more than 1700 square miles already chewed up this week by fast-moving flames. the largest blaze began monday has killed at least two people and left a charred landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle, and burned-out me cause of the fire remains under investigation although strong wind, dry grass, and unseasonabld the flames. mike in ohio on our independent line. good morning. caller: yes, i am actually

calling from lick skillet, ohio. my top news story is for the rest of my. that is mitch mcconnell's and leonard leo's stacked supreme court and their decision-making. one other thing. as far as walking peacefully down to the capital on january 6 , if they had stampeded to the capital, what would have happened? plus, south of the border, immigrantslet's go back a ways. we are getting a lot of blowback. such as ollie north and the culvert operation back then running machine guns down to south america and bringing back cocaine. why do you think we have an immigrant problemwe went down south and around foreign policy, destroying people's lives who didn't have a thing to

do with anything? thank you. host: robert in lynchburg, virginia on our independent line. go ahead, robert. caller: yes, i have a couple of things. mine is about mitch mcconnell and those oldks up there. all of them need to step aside and let younger generations take over and get some new thinking in there. soldier who retired from the military talking about how he cannot get any disability. i am retired military, and i get disability. i'm not homeless. also, people always talking about trump's call for 10,000 national guard foras the commanf the national guard and armed

forces. if he wanted 10,000 troops, he could have it come he is the commander-in-chief. thank you for taking my call. host: frank in staten island, new york on our republican line. go ahead, frank. caller: yeah. my family is italy, came in through ellis island. they came into america the right way. paying taxes for 46 years now. being force-fed these people coming in, criminals. it is a spiteful thing by joe biden. i can't believe i'm even talking about this. the legal way to come to america and illegal come across the border and rape and kill people. i can't figure it out. what are we living on? what kind of brains is running this country? america first. i can't wait until trump gets back and straightens it out.

host: that is all the time for the top news story of the week. we will come back to that question later in the show. next, we will turn oustem in thh michele deitch of the prison and jail innovation lab at the university of texas. waiter, on our -- later on our spotlight on podcast segment we will feature writer and comedian corrine fisher about her podcast without a country. ♪ >> the famous andx>lu men and women who occupy those seats will have a lot to say about the society in which we live today and the solut our times. >> american history tv will air the 10-part series "free to

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c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by michele deitch, a lecturer in prison and jail innovation lab director at the university of texas at austin. good morning. guest: thank youmu host: can you talk about the prison and jail innovation lab? what you all do and how it came about? guest: the prison and jail innovation lab, pjil, is that we work to improve correctional oversight and ensure the safety, health, and dignity of people i custody. we are a bridge between academic research, policy, and practice on those kinds of issues. you can go to pjil.org. host: linkage can you

describe the difference between prison and jail? guest: prisons are state run institutions for people who have been convicted of crimes and sentenced typically for longer than a year. they are operated by the state.. they tend to be in more rural parts of the state. jails are run most typically by counties, by local agencies. they include a number different types of folks. when you hear about people arrested and booked and our pretrial, they are going to jails. people are intended to stay there for a short period of time. a matter of hours or days. usually not more than a year, except in unusual circumstances. host: i'm looking at a chart from the prison policy

initiative breaking down the oer state prisons versus local jails versus federal prisons andthe of incarcerated people being in the state prisons as opposed to local jails. even within the local jails you have a big portion of those folks who are not convicted versus those who are convicted. whereas in the state prisons obviously folks have been convicted with a big chunk being violent offenders versus those cases or public order. can you talk a little bit about the overall number of people within the u.s. jail and prison system and how that compares with the rest of the world? guest: let me make one point about that. although jails h people in them at any given time, because people turn over in jail

all the time you have■a about 10 million people a year passing to the doors of jails. they are kind of underrecognized as a major part of our system. in fact, the number of people in this country who are locked up --roughly 2 million people -- that dwarfs any other country in the world. the u.s. has roughly 25% of the incarcerated population in the world. only about 5% of the overall population.our incarceration ras country is far outpacing any other country. we have roughly 664 people per country -- per 100,000 locked up here. upcountry -- our country relies heavily on incarceration. there are a lot of people everything you year who are

affected by whatour prisons and. host: to get a sense of the global comparison here is another chart from the prison policy initiative looking at global incarceration rates. the united states is literally off the charts compared to some of these other countries with the closest being the united kingdom with 129 people per 100,000 people. the united at 664 people per 100,000 people. what are some of the biggest the state and federal prison systems right now. guest: where to start. an issue that crosses over all institutions is the lack of transparency about what happens inside these places. d jails are some the most opaque institutions in society. we get very little data about what's happening inside them. there is very little opportunity

for effective oversight where an outside party can go in and expect -- inspect and find out ople are being treated. from the information that does come out we know there are a tremendous number of conditions issues. facilities all over the country are understaffed. that is one way of looking at it. they are too many people for the number of staff that exists. these facilities are also overcrowded. many facilities are operating with many vacant positions. the staff that are there are working overtime or just simile staff to supervise everyone adequately. there are people not trained as correctional officers being roped into doing that role to have a warm body in that space. many present agencies are having trouble recruiting. beyond that, and i should

mention the understaffing affects every aspect of life in prisons. it's a huge safety issue. it has affectedqx the delivery f programs and services. deaths and custody is an issue all over the country. people dying from suicide, homicide, overdoses. even natural deaths. sometimes we think those are not evthat is sometimes leading to deaths. mental health. you cannot talk about jails in this country without talking about health. jails have become the largest institutions for people with mental health simply because e not available in our communities. there are environmental issues to think about. how prisons, many facilities in the south have extreme heat issues. they are not air-conditioned. there is a lack c

drinking water in the facilities. many people inside are exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazardous environments and conditions. -- environmental conditions. solitary confinement is a big issue. they goes by many names but there's a lot of people in restrictive housing. they are locked up 23 hours a day in a space the size of a parking space. maybe gettingut up to an hour a day for some kind of exercise or shower. no human contact. host: that istei want to focus e component, the deaths you are referencing. here's an article from nbc news talking about suicide deaths specifically. the bureau of prisons failed to prevent nearly 200 deaths by suicide, i department of justice watchdog finds. the inspector general said numerous operational and managerial deficienciedeaths ref

which were suicides. this is looking specifically at the federal bureau of prisons. the federal prisons, which the department of justice has failed to prevent the deaths of 187 inmates who died by suicide over eight years according to the justice department's watchdog. the report led by the justice department inspector general michael horowitz found accommodation of recurring policy violations and operational failures contribute to inmate suicides. it is se inmate deaths from the 2014 to 2021 fiscal years. henumerous operational and managerial decisions he -- deficiencies crated conditions that contribute to many with proper protocols and resources in place inmate suicides are almost always preventable, experts say.

i want to get reaction to that from you in a moment. first i want to hear from colletteederal prison -- bureau of prisons who spoke about this on the deaths■' and suici federal prison system. here are her comments. [video] >> we worked to combat contraband to reduce homicides and overdoses. this includes drones, monitoring or terminating cellular can indications, and continually monitoring intelligence and gang activity. to harness all of this intelligence we areing a new chief inspector position to identify systemwide patterns and problems, including that that would prevent deaths in custody. on a department to level the deputy attorney general has formed a working group of experts to better prevent suicides. i want to be perfectlyleour empg

and fully staffed institutions and well-trained employees save lives. it is no secret our agency is in crisis as a relates to recruitment and retention. we are aggressivelrecruiting and utilizing incentives to maintain the employees we have. while our efforts over the past year have gleaned results, we are still faced with an inability to compete with the private sector and other law enforcement agencies. as an example, at a federal pron an hour outside of boston a correctional officer recently quit his job for a better offer with better pay. the better offer, working at the local grocery store. on the law enforcement side, an ad running in the new york city subway is advertising city around $130,000 after a few years on the job. in the same amount of time our

the 35% retention bonus would be making about $90,000. the story is the same throughout the country. we need resources to carry out our mission, implement our vision, and reach our goals. host: what is your response to how much of this is really a staffing issue? guest: staffing is absolutely related toshe is right about th. if you don't have enough staff you are not properly supervising people and you may not be observing signs people are at risk. you may not get to them quickly enough if they are attempting suicide. it is not everything. it is not the only explanation. there needs to be appropriate protocols for screening people who come in, making sure people with mental health conditions are not inside prisons or jails morey where they don't belong.

there are very high risks in those settings. putting people in solitary confinement is a huge risk factor. overuse of that kind of setting is very dangerous. how we treat people they are identified as at risk of suicide matters. supervision and staffing absolutely are a crisis. g that needs to be dealt with. people need to be appropriately trained. it is not the only explanation. host: we have special p today. we are doing regional as well as folks who have experienced the prison system. in the eastern■áumber is (202) 748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. ce with the prison or jail system and have comments or questions for michele, (202) 748-8002. you can reach us on social media

or by text. let's start with jean and delroy, ohio, who is in the eastern time zone. go ahead, jean. caller: i wanted her to maybe comment on a case that happened in the atlanta, georgia metro area. a mentally ill man was bitten by bedbugs on a cot with no sheets. you can see the condition online. heinjuries. it was like, i don't know, no big deal. the feeling in our country and the jokes that are made when a younger prisoner or any prisoner is sent to jail, that they will be sexually assaulted regularly. that is part of their punishment. it is a big joke in this country. i would like her to comment on that please. thank host: before you respond,w

more details on that case that the caller was referencing. georgia's fulton county has reached a settlement with the family of the man who died in a bedbug infested cell in the county jail psychiatric ward. that was back in august of 2023. he died in september, three months after being booked into the fulton county jail in atlanta. attorney to represent the family say they reached a settlement. death gained public attention in april after harper released photos of his face and body covered in insects. the was department of justice cited thompson's death when announcing an investigation into jail conditions in fulton county . that was back in august of last year. go ahead, michele. thank you for raising that. that incident, the man of the it was an absolute horror story.

i think it is reflective of very deep-seated problems in the fulton county jail. the lack of supervision and frankly the lack of caring. yeah. just horrible. for the comments people make about sexual assault, that is also thoroughly unacceptable under any circumstances. fortunely in this country there is a changing trend where corrections professionals understand this is et of. we have the prison rape elimination act standard set applies all over the country. it has sought to the way we protect people inside. we identify people who are at risk of being sexually assaulted, those at risk of beingthere are no protocols on o deal with that. that said, there is far too much sexual assault going oone examp.

federal prison in dublin, california hase known as a rape club because of the number of women raped with impunity by staff. thwarden, the chaplain, and many staff have been convicted of raping the women there. i can't imagine the horrors those women have experienced. host: jack in hawaii, the mountain time zone. go ahead, jack. ller: i would like to have two questions i would like to ask michele. i would like to with the conditl salvador and go on youtube a con el salvador. those people that they rounded up down here are coming up here.

we have presidents, not just one. ms 13 people. she knows who they are. host: what is your question for michele related to the prison or jail system specifically? caller: what is her thoughts onú what el salvador is doing to round up all those gang members that are coming across the border. you have any thoughts on that? guest: i would like to respond to one piece of this, the reference to country clubs. anyone who has ever spent time in any prison or jail in america would never describe them as a country club. host: anthony in albany, georgia, and has some experience with the prison system. can you tell us about your experience and your question for michele? caller: i went to prison back in

1999. thim system treated me as if i was guilty before it was proven. my only way back home from jail was to plead guilty. i am 58 right now.ocke the criminal justice system has treated young black men. it is more easier to incarcerate and not rehabilitate them and house them for a lifetime. ,2then you have to worry about

them for their whole life. at 20 years later, i look back and i see president joe biden and the chairman of the judicial committee during 1995 during the clinton administration and he had the agreement with black because of the crack epidemic to justify what was done to us. i'm so broken. i'm so hurt. we are leaving the world behind worse than we found it. it is all because of selfishness. i just wanted to make that comment. i'm glad i got the opportunity to call in. i started watching c-span way back in the early 1980's.

host: thank you so much for sharing that experience. michele, i imagine you have heard stories like that before. guest: absolutely. there are three pieces of what anthony said that are so important. highlighting the incredible racial disparities in our prison system. they are undeniable. they run very deep. another issue has to do with how people do plead guilty in jails. in large part because the conditions are so awful that anything they can do to get out of those conditions leads to them sometimes pleading guilty even if they are not. the third point is the trauma that comes to people who have been incarcerated. it has a lifelong effect on people and affects every part of their lives even after they get out. host: rhonda in jacksonville, north carolina, and also has experience with the prison system. go ahead, rhonda.

caller: i just want to say my bachelors isn't criminal justice and a masters in counseling. i took a job at the prison as a secretaryional officer. i wanted to work with the inmates. what i learnedo or three years. what i learned was the respect that i have for the workers in these prison systems. people on the outside have no idea the long hours and what they do during the day and what they prevent and what they help and what they counsel and what they help these people who -- i worked in a minimum-security. a lot of these peoe would go and work every day. they would come back to the facility.

we were getting the ready to go out into the world after they were released. i think a lot of them were on the last two or three years. these people are human beings. when you are a correctional officer with education, it helps. the training they give for the correctional officers is really good. they put them through the training. you pass the test. if you can go out there -- i had one of the inmates tell me. he said i have been in prison a long time. u were the only officer that's ever treated me like a human being. i said, because you are human being. i'm supposed to treat everybody alike. i am to treat you with respect. i am to treat you to go by the rules. t go by the rules, you get reprimanded. you get written up. they respected me for that. i was black-and-white. i was on the books. i went by what the policy said.

i did not put up with their crap and they learned to respect you. there is a lot of corruption in prisons. if you go when with integrity and you go with character and you go in there with a heart, you can help these people. i feel like i turned their lives around. host: enke for sharing, rhonda. i want to give michele a chance to respond. guest:sp■ i appreciate you so m, rhonda. everything you said is on target. we under appreciate the staff who work in these facilities. i think you have an incredibly hard job and the vast majority are working with integrity and doing what they can under very tough circumstances. one thing people don't realize is how much the interest of the correctionalñfsts of the incarcd people align. everyone wants safer facilities. everyone wants to be treated with respect. and with dignity. we sometimes pose these as

somehow in conflict but it doesn't have to be. experience shows if you treat people like human beings, you will get back that kind of treatment and return. host: we have a question from tom in axaria who wrote in. cathe speaker explain specific corrective actions that actually work to protect prisoners from abuse? why aren't wardens fired for maintaining unsanitary conditions? guest: wow. part of the problem is we don't know what's going on. these are issues that are -- like i said earlier, these are institutions that are opaque. the information does not always come out about how problematic the force is or brutality or poor conditions. when they do come out there is not necessarily the public will to change them, which is a huge mistake. what happens inside these prisons and jails affects all of

us in the community. 95% of people inside our prisons and jails are coming back to our communities. do we want them to be good neighbors when they get out? we want them to be productive citizens and having worked on the issues? or, coming out angry and traumatized and aware shape healthwise -- and in worse shape? it has applications orer they will commit more crimes on the outside. we need to be caring about how to fix these issues on the inside, getting up reformation about what is in fac happening -- getting out more information about what is in fact happening. host: rj in oklahoma. caller:now -- i'm not incarcerad right now. i was a drug addict for years. i fought the system. i got busted in 1994 for credit card fraud.

i got two years. then i got a work release. they did not have it at that time in oklahoma. they sent me to the east sell house block. behind the walls of mcallister. i was with killers and murderers. it was isolated. it was a condemned building. i don't know if this lady has heard about it. they had news teams coming out there. we had a big lawsuit. weeding get any money out of it. it was a four-storythere were 4. i was on the bottom floor. you get your laundry and mop buckets once a week. you took a shower once a week. there was one shower for the whole room. 100 men for one shower. when they would flush the toilet above my cell feces would run down the wall inside myself. i was there seven months waiting to go to work release. then they sent me to work release.

i had a lot of physical problems. i had mus knots. they took me to the doctors over and over. they thought i had malaria. i did not have malaria. i'm one of the lucky ones. that scared me to death. i got up and went back to college and got my masters degree. i was a thapist for 30 years. there are a lot of other things. i gave in. i knew i had to change. a lot of guys get in and they can't do it. they don't want to get educated. they want to chase the high and the easy money. the system is really screwed up. you have to give them education and the system. host: i want to give michele a chance to respond to the points. education is critical. we have got to be providing education and rehabilitative programs inside the facilities. you also raised environment issues i expressed concerns about earlier.

the environmental problems, whether it is sewage issues, lack of clean drinking water, o environment or risks, health hazards are making these places absolutely unlivable. no human being should bel. host: marvin and redford, michigan. -- inme zone. caller: good morning. i have never been to prisons. i wanted to comment on the 100,000. it's off the charts. ■6■ói know a lot of people, trends that have been to prison. you can go to the jails. in michigan, they had a mental

institutrde to help people so ty would knock at a jail. it's a vicious cycle. do you know how much taxes we pay in america? one quick comment i want to make about the border. host: marvin, we will keep it focused on prisons for now. we will have open forum coming up later. go ahead, michele. guest: yeah. the issues you raise are so important. yeah. i think you said the very well. host: patrick in nashville asks, regarding state prisons, what percentage wardens and prison guards are corrupt? are there a couple of prisons you caneference that do everything by the book and have less violence, suicides, paraphernalia, education courses, if you are repeat offenders that return to prisons? in other words, what is a model

prison? guest: i am not sure there are "model prisons," but there are plenty of places that are trying to do things better. really need to lift up those initiatives. there are some amazing initiatives going on in the state of maine, for example. they have had a systemwide culture change. just to give a few examples. they created gardening and food programs. they are treating people very differently. the relationship between staff and incarcerated people is very different from what you see in a typical facility. there are initiatives that are trying to borrow from lessons we learned in europe. in scandinavia, they are getting very different results than us. that has to do with how thho are incarcerated. they try to normalize the environment. they changed the role of the staff as they relate to people

who are incarcerated. rehabilitative. people come out less harmed by the experience. there is a much lower recidivism rate. there are pockets of examples across the country. in washington state,■ñ oregon, north dakota just to name a few. in pennsylvania little scandinavia unit. there are really good things happening there. we need to study them and expand those to systems across the country. host: lance in fort lauderdale, florida. go ahead. caller: good morning. my question a comment has to do with people who are sentenced to life without parole. people we have deemed dangerous that many end up in solitary confinement, which is bad enough.

they are never going to get out. i have a real problem with this from a human point of view. i believe in this country where we value freedom and view it as our birthright, i think the sentence somebody to life in prison with no chance of ever getting out, putting them in a cell the sizable parking space is a violation of the eighth amendment. i can't think of anything that the fines -- defines cruel and unusual punishment. we consider them so dangerous that we keep them in solitary. we only let them out an hour a day anthem this is going to be the existence forever until they die. it cost us a fortune. -- costs us a fortune. i was raised on the idea of justice. people don't like it when peopld they say they want them to suffer. as far as i'm concerned the point is not to seek revenge but

justice. if they are that dangerous, that far gone that we have to put them in a cage forever and not let them out i think it would be far more merciful and far more human to simply execute them. host: any response to that? guest: one in seven people in this country is serving a -- who are incarcerated are serving a life without parole sentence. they are going to die in prison. that is increasing dramatically in recent years. as you point out, there is something very inhumane about that. it's also counterproductive. we know people age out of crime. crime prone years are much younger. we have a very fast-growing elderly population in prison. these are people who are not going to pose a risk to our communities if released. i have been in facilities that

have geriatric boards. pc p machines or in wheelchairs or missing limbs or on crutches. these are nursing homes. we have created. they are some of the most expensive parts of our prison system. they are a prime target. we want to reduce the number of people incarcerated. we have got to find ways to get the elderly out of prison and back to communities wherenot spm and using our very precious resources to lock up people who are not a risk to the community . host: i want to bring up this associated press investigation into the labor coming out of many of the u.s. prisons. it was a big investigation. prisoners in the u.s. are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands. as you go on in this article it says a hidden path to america's dinner tables beginsa former soe

plantation now the country's largest maximum security prison. intricate, invisible webs link the world's largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by u.s. prisoners nationwide, according to a sweeping ap investigation into prison labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products to goods sold on the open■o ócmarket. they are among america's most vulnerable laborers. if they refuse to work some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment, like being sent to solitary confinement. they are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when seriously injured or killed on the job. can you talk a bit about labor in the prison systems? guest: images -- there is so much to say about that. there is exceptions to the 13th them, probation against slavery

13th amendment prohibition against slavery. people who are convicted can be required to work. there are seven states that pay them absolutely zero. the other states pay pennies per hour. the conditions in which they work are extraordinarily dangerous. there are very high rates of injuries and even deaths in these facities.people with mang. all sorts of horrific injuries. as you pointed out in what you read, the osha standards don't apply in prison settings. people who work in these and settings don't get trained and how to use the equipment -- in how to use the equipment. they can be disciplined. they can lose good time, which means they spend more time incarcerated.

they don't make parole. they can be placed in solitary confinement. of course there is the fact that people are making a lot of money off their labor. companies and the prisons themselves. host: jess in ohio and has experience with the criminal justice system. caller: good morning. in my opinion, fro would have ty the criminal system is flawed because of lawyers and judges. the simplet that people can't get representation or cannot even begin to afford a lawyer to argue their case. in my in 1995. i was drunk at a party. fought another drunk guy at a party. somebody had to win and lose. i got prosecuted. the judge i pulled was a ridiculously hard-core judge known for never giving misdemeanors.

brutal to the lawyers. my parents were middle-class. they could afford a lawyer but not really. the lawyer told me with this meta-money you're only going to get this much representation. he also told me that because he had to go before her for future cases he will not barter any kind of favors to get me anything special because he might need it in the future. the whole idea that they all had this relationship and that they work these things out behind closed doors and they play this game just seems to be a bit ridiculous to me given the fact that i was training to be a firefighter at the time. i had never been in trouble before. it was just a fight. the misdemeanor factor was off the table in its entirety. there was no chance. host: michele, i want to give you a chance to weigh in. guest: the issues concerning defense are certainly important.

with indigent defense in this country. we need to make sure there are lawyers who are available to assist people. the vast majority of folks going to the justice system are too poor to afford lawyer --we neede systems are in place and effective. host: antoine and harrisburg, pennsylvania, also has experience with the criminal justice system. caller: good morning, ladies. i just wanted to share an incident that happened to me in 2013. i was incarcerated. i was working outside the prison because i had really good custody level. one time coming -- when you go in and out of the jail you have to comment into a real secure room.

you have to be strip-searched. we was coming in from lunch and in the middle being strip-searched i had an officer verbally and physically abuse me. i thought with this being a very secure room i was able to beat my case because there was cameras everywhere. it turns out once i put my paperwork in started -- all the way up to the warden started protecting this guy. n the cameras did not work. i ended up being called a liar and was put in the this. my question or concern would be

you were speaking about there being something in place for inmates who are sexually assaulted. i have seen nothing because i have called and written everywhere. philadelphia, washington, new york, chicago. all these places that have -- host: let's allow michele to weigh in. what resources are there available for people who have experiences like antoine? guest: i'm sorry for what you experienced. that is thoroughly unacceptable and is far more common than we realize. prisons around the country are supposed to have what is called an prison rape elimination ombudsman. someone thatal assault and investigate these cases. that said, they are not easy to investigate it all.

there is a wall of silence. sometimes cameras really don't work. sometimes they are tampered with. yeah. it is a very serious concern. host: peter in san antonio, texas. what is your question? caller: ms. deitch mentioned the prisons are flooded with mental health patients. what she agree it is because what used to called insane asylums -- i will call the mental institutions -- have enclosed -- been closed and jails and prisons are housing far more metal health patients? does she think that building mental institutions and actually sending these people to them

to be focused on mental health and be treated? if not, they can be housed there. host: this is something you raised earlier. guest: yes. you are correct that back in the 1970's a lot of mental institutions in the country closed down because of horrific conditions inside. the problem was that we did not create a system on the outside in the community to deal with those mental health issues. not everybody needs to be institutionalized. we did not build supports so there is no surprise people started cycling back into behavior that is disruptive in communities. we started criminalizing that behavior. whether it is homelessness or people who are disorderly conduct on the streets. these folks start cycling in and out of jail. dangerous but they

are committing the kinds of nuisance level crimes that get them into the jails over and over and over again. what we arcreating the communits for them. jail and prison are the absolute worst places for people with those kind of issues. do we need to build a new mental health institutions? i know about community-based services. host: the last call will be john in austin, texas. caller: good morning. my question is about alternatives to incarceration. some localities are trying differentñ4 things with first-time offenders or nonviolent offenders. then they come up against the reets with criminals and making us all unsafe. i would like to hear her comment about trying alternatives to incarceration. guest: let me deal with the last

part of your comment, flooding the streets. we have never been safer.■f the crime rates are pretty much historically low with the exception of a little bit of a blip in the last couple of years. actually at historically low crime rates. we are a very sick country. people need to understand that people need to understand that. the vast majority of people who commit crimes don't need to be locked up. prison is not a way to deal with those issues. we need to reserve prison spaces for people we are really and truly afraid of. not just people we are angry at. there are so many ways for folks to get them whatever programs so they are not committing the kinds of crimes that irritate us. host: thank you so much to michele deitch, a lecturer and

prison and jail lab director at the university of texas at the prison and jail innovation lab director at the university of texas at austin. thank you for your time this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up in 30 minutes, we hear from politics and culture writer and comedian corinne fisher, the host of the poas“without a country." first, we will hear more of your calls, text, and social media posts on the question we politih mcconnell stepping down to republican leadership, to hunter biden on capitol hill this week. what is your top news story of the week? the phone numbers on your screen. you can start calling in now. ♪ >> >> next week on the c-span

networks, the house and senate are in, both chambers planned to vote on th■e printer t of federg bills to fund the government before the midnight deadline. water campaign 2024 live covera, super tuesday with 15 states including american samoa, state primaries or caucuses, nominees for reserve chair willn capitol hill to deliver the federal reserve semiannual monetary policy report. first on wednesday before the house financial services committee, then on thursday before the senate banking committee. also on thursday watch as president biden gives the state of the union address before a joint session of congress that outlines his priorities for the country. watch next week,on c-span now, e video app, also head over to c-span.org for scheduling informatn -demand any time.

c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction book. at p.m. looks at research done by scientific agencies in his book ufo. then at 10:0p.m. on afterwords, a journalist shares her burn book, a technology love story, looking at her career coveri the technology industry at its key players. she is interviewed by her associate watch book tv, every sunday on a c-span two, find a schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. >> a healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this.

where americans can see democracy at workcitizens are truly informed and the public thrives. get informed, straight from the source, on c-span, unfiltered, bi word. from the nation's capitol to wherever you are. this is what democracy looks like, powered by cable. washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are looking for your top news story of the week. some of the stories we are following this wee biden and trump dueling border visits. the news about israel being accused of firing on civilians in gaza who are waiting on food. also, mitch mcconnell is planning to step down from gop leadership. the decision by the supreme court of the united states to

hear the appeal on the trump community case. as well as the hunterdepositionn impeachment probe. speaking of mitch mcconnell specifically, we went back into the archives and found one of his first appearances on c-span back at the washington press club salute to congress dinner back january of 1985. here is a clip of that. [video] >> the people of kentucky wanted me to cut out■( wastful spending and i'm bringing a lot of good ideas to washington. for example, take educatn.i havo teach driver education and sex education in the same car. [laughter] [applause] i guess you noticed richard

bigger plans to ride the space shthey are thinking of making a movie out of it. they will call it "the far right stuff." [laughter] tommy robinson. we were talking behind the podium before we came up. we knew he would be the first of the six freshmen to make our comedy debuts tonight. just before tommy started speaking he gathered allixf us together. he said in all seriousness, the bombing begins in five minutes. thank you. host: that was mitch mcconnell back in 1985. let's go to your calls and top news stories of the week. mwbeth on the republican line. caller: hello. host:host: go ahead. caller: yes. i'm an 83-year-old white female that grew up in segregated

texas. i life. i would say thanks. i had someone in the military almost every work, starting with the civil war. my brother-in-law was in the second world war. a second cousin in world war i. vietnam, korea. i had relatives in all those wars. i think is my opinion that they would be appalled the way secretary austin was treated. he took the blame. he had a plan in place. i don't know why his back it in costa rica. he took the blame. i grew up in general administran he was president. my teachers had such respect.

they would walk 100 miles to prd states. they had such respect for members of the government. but they would be appalled the way secretary austin was treated. host: i would to the top news story you are bringing up your, which is that defense secretary lloyd austin was ngress this week about his handling of his recent hospital stay. here is a story from the associated press. wmakersn for a failure of leadership over his secret hospital stay. defense secretary lloyd austin faced pointed bipartisan criticism at a congressional hearing thursday for his failure to promptly notify president joe biden and other u.s. leaders about his hospital stay last month. republicans demanded to know why no one had been disciplined.

members of the house armed lapse as an embarrassment andthe failure of its leadership. they said the fact that biden was kept in the dark about austin not being in command for daysary action even though decision-making authorities had been transferred to the deputy defense secretary. austin insisted there were no gaps in control of the department or the nation's security because, "at all times either i or the deputytary was in a position to conduct the duties of my office." he said changes haven't made to the notification process. janet in portsut ohio, democratic line. good morning. caller: my top story is the supreme court. clarence thomas is being paid ■off the vote -- to vote the way the republicans want him to

vote. who can trust the supreme court? plus, they have made american women second-class citizens they can't even go to a doctor when they needd you are a second-clas citizen sitting there talking to me. i believe the supreme court is now paid off. i don't trust none of them.

host: good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. my top stories the war that is going on inthe embassy was movea over to jerusalem by the last president, donald trump. long as the american embassy was inside of gaza, they were

not able to bomb in gaza. my point is that why is donald trump moving the embassy out of gaza over to jerusem who clear o eliminate the palestinians in the way that he is doing now. as long as the american embassy was in gaza, they were protected and safe from 1948 until donald trump transferred power. host: the embassy was moved on may 14 in 2018. the united states open says the move that has delighted israel

and infuriated palestinians. this was an initiative driven by president donald trump by recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel. it was previously in tel aviv, not gaza. caller: that is when the bombing started also, after the embassy had been changed by donald trump. thank you very much for your time. host: next up is■p in michigan on our democratic line. caller: hi. i want to register my absolute sickness and just discussed with the united states, our new leadership is supporting the war

on gaza by israel that we afund. as they commit for crime after war■o crime, bombing cities, hospitals, killing their own escape hostages, the hostages

that they shot. ■there will be a big investigation about that that they are putting under the rug as they are investigating the next time, they just killed 100 people who were starving to death because of this atrocity that we are letting happen, we are supporting happen. i want to read the last words of aaron busch who protested these atrocities that dad been. "i am an active duty of the u.s. air force and i will no longer be complicit in genocide in them tome act of protest but compared to what people in palestine have been experiencing at the hand of their colonizers,

it is not extreme at all. this is what the ruling class has decided will be normal. free palestine. free palestine." >> i want to provide a bit of information on the story you wereus up. "the air man who set himself on fire grew up in a religious compound, has an anarchist to. less than two weeks before he walked toward the gates of the embassy, he will be a friend talked about the shared identity about what kind of sacrifices were needed to be effective but he mentioned nothing self sacrificial." he texted that "i hope you will understand. this does not even make sense but i feel like i will miss you." minutes later, he set himself on fire. he posted a video online saying that he did not want to be complicit in genocide. he shouted "free palestine" as he burned. republican line. caller: i am calling about the

retirement of the senator and i hear a lot of calls come in. manchin was the senator for west virginia. he gave a story about how he was new to the senate and harry reid said you have to vote party lines. if we look at the votes in this house in the senate and the supreme court the last four or five republicans that filled the other way. nancy pelosi never did. harry reid never did. it is funny that the democrats feel that republicans never vote that way. we have seen nancy pelosi tear donald trump's speech. it is the democrats who always

go partyline. manchin was against that. that is what he said. qvi guess he is retired. he became an independent. good morning, larry. caller: i have a couple of comments to make. host: can you turn down the volume on your tv? then you can continue. larry? caller:■ the comment i have to make is presidential immunity, why couldn't president biden call team six and have them eliminate president trump with no consequences? the other thing is, any american who voted for president trump

for president again is like a chicken voting for colonel sanders. it does not make sense. host: ernest is in georgia on the republican line. good morning. caller: something that has mirrr previous guest who said crime is at an all-time low. i have never been so afraid to go anywhere. there is road rage. there is so much crime that is not reported. i would like to have an advocate other than a liberal view. the problem is not being in jail for life. çgthe problem is they should be executed. what age will you let them out? she is talking aboutdialysis. the government will pay for it and it will cost them more money.

criminals are not being prosecuted like they should. thank you for taking my call. host: we cannot really■5■= knowe crime that goes unreported as ernest was just saying. here is some data from usa facts which is a nonprofit. it says in 2022 the violent crime rate fell for the second consecutive year. the poverty rate increased for the first time sincew 2001, up 6.7%. the increase was due to motor vehicle thefts. as our previous guest was saying, if you look at this chart, you can see that crime people has decreased pretty significantly over the last 20 to 30 years.

in terms of property crimes. violent crimes have decreased to a much lesser■seé rate and thiss according to the source for this data was the federal bureau of investigations. now can go to deborah in marietta, georgia on the democratic line. caller: good morning.with all ro called, i will say something, starting with our government. we have the worst government that is running our country. they are putting these lawsbout what they are doing. we have laws, they don't want science, they are just passing things just to make themselves in a position they want to be. we have judges.

everybod top. we have all chiefs and no indians. just like the guy said about donald trump. it is sad. it is pitiful for people to turn their back on our country the way it did and the way donald trump did. the republican party. anybody who can turn their back on what donald trump and continue to let these things go, it is just pitiful. host: that is your top news caller: yes, everything above. host: thank you. jean is from miami beach, florida on the independent line. caller: i would like to talk about the president's annual medical report. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i am really dismayed

because i am an ol lady. i am not against old people in any way but i could not believe my eyes. the president has deteriorated. the doctors and the people around him and his wife especially, they are all being like the cortiers where their emperor is not wearing any clothes and the little boy says, he is not wearing any clo3, and they just carry on. i think i am not being given a choice. come on. he hasn't got the vigor. i am not saying he doesn't have some memory. but we need a vigorous, strong president.

i am mad at the democratic national congress for not giving us choices. i feel powerless. i do not have a vote. i do not have a choice in local people. miami-dade is the most corrupt place. we never have any decent democrats. host: i would like to add more information regarding the president's physical. news reporting that biden remains fit for duty after the annual physical exam. ■tpresident biden remains fit fr duty and fully effectuate all of his abilities without accommodation. ■the president visited walter reed military medical center on scrutiny of his health coming into the presidential campaign. he is already the oldest president in u.s. history and

will be 86 by the end of a second term if he winds. -- winds. the doctors declared him healthy, vigorous and fit. voters are approaching with misgivings about mr. biden's age, having scrutinized his coughing, slow walking and even a tumble off of his bicycle. james is in tennessee on good m. host: good morning. caller: my top the willis case. i think right now they cannot dismiss or try to make light of why the defendants are really there. they are there because they were trying to offset an election or put their thumb on an election. ■the relationship with someone

she worked with, to me it is of non-importance. ■the parent is getting ready to go somewhere and they tell the oldest child, no company and no parties. they leave. they come back, he has thrown a party and wrecked the hou.row tf of what he has done, they turned to the youngest sister and say she ate the cake out of the fridge raider. -- refrigerator. barbie is calling off of our independent line. caller: probably the split screen of the former president at the border.

the difference of character was such an astonishing difference. it stood out to me as an i always leaned toward biden. to keep an open mind, i watch both channels. it showed me that biden has the better character. host: thank you, barbie. dave is in florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: hi. 6cthat lady nailed it on the he. it is not about age. it is not about anything else. the main thing is the character of thethat is in the white house. al capone look like an altar boy. i think people are finally starting to get sick and tired of all of these gutless puppets

in washington, d.c. who are bought and paid for by the israel lobby. it is not only gaza and the west bank and the middlet that are occupied by these zionist military colonialists. it is also washington, d.c. that has been occupied by the and controlled by them. when you hear these spokesman coming out and continually concocting these ridiculous excuses about israel having a right to defend itself, when is anybody ever going to mention the palestinian's right to defend themselves? how often do you hear that? you never hear that from these people. they all operate out of the same playbook. they are hypocrites who claim to be pro-life yet they unlimited f

thousands of innocent men, women and children in gaza. there is hardly ever any kind of pushback. this little country that we hand taxpayer money to every year is telling us what to do. host: let's hear from in north carolina on the independent line. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think people have had really good comments regarding the moral character of people and the moral compass of capitol hill but most disturbing to me is the supreme court slow walking the charges against the president. it is an election, democracy, a

lot of things are on the line and it is disappointing to see what we are seeing. my parents we i did not because. it is unbelievable that nobody really has the moral character oring that is reasonable and compromises just partisan bulk wrap -- bull crap. host: that is all the time we have now. we will talk politics with a host of a podcast. that will be part of our weekly spotlight on podcasts. back. >> next week on the c-span

networks, the house and senate are in. they plan to vote on the two packages ofpending to fund the government before the midnight deadline. on tuesday watch the campaign 2024 coverage of super tuesday with 15 states casting their votes in primaries for their nominee for president. jerome powell will be on capitol hill to deliver the federal reserve monetary policy report. on wednesday before the house financial services committee. on thursday before the senate banking committee. on thursday watch live coverage as president biden gives the annual state of the union address before a joint session of congress to outline his priorities for the country. watch next week on the c-span network or on c-span now, the free mobile video app. head over to c-span network for scheduling or to watch on any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> two years ago democracy faced the greatest threat with the

civil war and the bruise to our democracy remains unbroken. >> thursday president biden delivers the annual state of the union address during a joint session of congress to outline his priories watch coverage beginning at eight :00 p.m. eastern with the preview program followed by president biden's speech. then an alabama senator will give the republican response and we will get your reaction by taking your phone calls and social media comments. watch the state of the union address on thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, the free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. lovers c-span has the podcast for you. this into authors and influential iert.

on q&a, conversations with nonfiction authors who are making things happen. weekly conversations regularly feature authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. the about books podcast takes you behind-the-scenes on the nonfiction book publishing industry with insider interviews, industry updates afy downloading the free app or wherever you get your podcasts. or on the website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> a healthyt just look like this. it looks like this where americans can see democracy at work, where citizens are truly ■'informed, the republic thrive. get informed straight from the source on c-span, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, from the nation's capital to wherever

you are, get the opinion that matters the most, which is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. host:er who is a writer and host of the podcast "without a country." guest: thank you for having me? host: why that title? guest: so many people feel politically homeless these days and without apolitical party and a country and that is how that was born. host: what do you talk about on your podcast? guest: it started out as we go over the biggest news stories of the week from the perspective of the right and the left using mainstream news sources. we try not to do anything wild but we just want to find the truth in the middle and that is what it is becausehere are a lot more similarities between democrats and republicans.

people seem to be unaware of journalistic integrity. er journalists must abide by. they cannot just be telling lies. we look into that. host: who do you talk to? is it just you? guest: we have had a couple of cohosts. joe derosa when we started the park asked -- started the podcast. he was for the right. we had shanehe was from salt la. he grew up in a mormon area. he recently converted to catholicism. he was extreme left, the most anarchist. that made me look more conservative. then he moved away and i continued to do the show alone, which i really like. i just have to make sure i'm am doing my critical thinking. now i have on different types of

guests sometimes. host: whepolitically? guest: i identify as a liberal gone rogue. except for when news, i just stick to liberal. that is how i am. my views are leftistk that the t of work to sell themselves better, make themselves more ■■mapless of an elite attitude. host: what does being an economic bring to your lens on this? guest: less intelligence. [laughter] podcast was created to be accessible. every i'm finding a word and i go, i don't know what that words -- i don't know what that word means.

a lot of people have these seemingly highbrow discussions about po or at the thanksgiving dinner table. in reality, they don't really know that much. i think it is ok. there is value in saying i do not fully understand that concept. i will look into that more. there is a lot of value in that. there is nohost: with so much h, how do you decide what topics you will do? guest: we will do the heavy hitters. there usually is a main story. i look at the things i don't see people discussing a lot. i kind of go through washington post, new york times, fox news, the hill. sometimes i will go wars. kind of just see what people are talking about. usually on npr there is a topic that is not being discussed and i always offer that as well.

host: who would you say the audience is for your podcast? guest: it is definitely a lot of young women. i'm getting older. they are following me. host: we are both young. 25 to 45-year-old women. that is because i have an og podcast that is extremelypopulaf leak over from that podcast which was a 25 to 45-year-old female democratic -- female demographic. i was on a platform that was notoriously male viewed. it was a misogynistic network but i place my show there on purpose to talk to people that i think would really disagree with me. i don't want to talk in an echo chamber. liberals make.ake that a lot host: what do you get from that? guest: people always think it

would be a lot of venom but it is not a lot of venom. it is a lot of people interested in having even keel discussions. áqi veown away by how calm the mills are. even if they vehemently disagree with me. we work together over the past four years to have civil conversations. i have learned a lot. i think the listeners have leaned into critical thinking and not just going along with whatever their political party is telling them to go along with , really seeking the truth. when i say i want to vote, i truly mean if you want to vote for donald trump, vote for donna jump, not just joe biden. host: some civil discussions here. guest: i'm excited. nothing like a standup comedian doing this at 9:00 in the morning.

host:, (202) 748-8001. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. also we are on facebook and x as well. let's talk about some of your recent episodes. 213, you said that you cover politics for everyday people who do not have time to parse the say more about that. guest: did i say the word parse? that does not sound like me. host: when it comes to misinformation, how do you handle things like that? guest: when ople say something as fake news, we just go through various news sources. even when you read something like fromew york times and compare it to fox news, it is very rarely different

information. when people say fake news, i feel like they mean that certain news sources will hone in on something that is a small detail and blow it out of proportion. cially fox. absolutely obsessed with trans people. considering they are 1% of the population, you would think they are 55% of the population based on how often issues. usually in a pretty trans phobic matters. host: heading into an election, how do you imagine yourself helping your audience navigate some of these things? guest: we will do it together. know. i know of one concern that a lot of people in the news bringing up is social media false information.you can see an exce.

maybe some girl made it in her basement. just a lot of political memes, charts, graphs. people do not know how easy it is to make a chart or a graph pop. it on your instagram. . there is no fact-checking on social media. because that is so often we get the start of a new25 especially on twitter, that started a lot there. elonf fact-checking. just anything goes there nowadays. we will just keep following st updates. host: you are obviously a very funny person. you do it for a living. some of the topics you cover on your podcast are quite serious. your most recent episode, talking about the u.s. embassy. guest: i have jokes about

anything. please take your sensitive blinders off. i want to talk about things seriously and i don't always want to deflect with a joke. our brains, comedians, they just kind of work in a way where if you see an awful joke in your head surrounding a serious issue, i sayalmost to get it out of the way and then we move on with it. we move on. comedians voice the bad thoughts in your head that you are fighting against constantly. we just say them and we will take the heat for you, i have no problem doing that. host: bob is in eagle river, wisconsin on our republican line. caller: i know you have a big following. how come with student loan debt, why don't they do student

loans like a mortgage on your house, 20 years, 30 years, 4%, 5%? how come nobody ever talks about the democrats and when barack obama took $9 trillion, now, it is $34 trillion. we have had three presidents, trump, biden. host: two topics, let's get to them, student loan debt and national debt. caller: i -- corrine: i like how people call in like i have control over the national debt, i don't. as far as studt loans, why they don't do it like a mortgage? i don't know. people have problems with student loan complete relief. i myself had al high number of student loans to pay off and i finally did it. i don't really have a ton of thoughts on -- finally didn't. ally have a ton of thoughts on that, frankly. we cannot agree on anything so we cannot get any movement in

this country. that's the answer. host: washington, d.c. on our democratic line. caller: yes, thank you. good morning, america. i just want to make the african-american societyg on ard us. host: do you have a question? caller: no, i had a comment. i just to make people be more aware of what's going on -- host: we are going to stick with questions for right now. jacob isn new york on our democratic line. go ahead, jacob. caller: hi. can you hear me? host: yes. go ahead. caller: fantastic. my issues about journalists and who pass off as journalism on the news. for them, even c-span, i don't think you guys do a good enough job teasing out conflicts of

interest. this is particularly clear in things like reporting on gaza, for instance, where sometimes, you know, you have obviously biased people talking about things. host: i am going to pull out your point about who counts as a journalist and bias. you are a comedian and talking about the news. corrine: exactly. i think i reflect to most people i am not a journalist i am very clear about that on every episode. think of me as like your office, because that's for the most part when we talk about america, it is just some guy or some w■6an who is talking about politics, and that's how half of this information spreads. everyone thinks they know more than they do. there was a po■nint a couple yes ago when i was just like, quite frankly, for an adult, i don't feel like i know enough about what's going on in my country.

. i am interested, i care, so i am going to start reading the news every week. why not do it together? we are reading the news together. when you talk abou bias, obviously, you are going to lean into things of interest when you are a journalist. but again, there are journalistic standards so you misinformation. you have to issue a retraction. when people say there is a bias, like, dier have different bias if you are comparing al jazeera to the new york times, yeah, there's a different perspective, there ■is diread multiple sources and you will get multiple perspectives. host: when you compel your outlook on the road from before you took on this project where you read the news everyday versus now, how do you think you see things differently? corrine: i just think i have a wider view. i was looking at things from this level and now i am looking at them from a much higher. there is so many different

variables and it's not just rep, independent. it has to do with your level of education, your income, your religious background, where in9■ the country you grew up. we all. see things so differently i think a comedian is a perfect person to know that because we have been to more states than most people. that is actually our job, we are going state-by-state by state. i was in irvine, california the day trump got elected into presidency. went out on stage and she is thinking because we are in california that everyone is going to be upset.a sad day. in my head, i am going this is irvine, california, they are loaded, they are happy trump won. it's not always who you think it's going to be. if you go out with an open perspective and you actually listen to people, you can learn a lot. podcasting has taught me how to listen to people a lot better. host: you are doing a couple shows in d.c. how do you find the crowds here?

corrine: what i will say about d.c. crowds is a little easily offended. that being said, smarter than other cities, so they appreciate more challenging jokes. dark humor could use a little work on. host: ok. jim is in boca raton, florida on our republico; go ahead, jim. caller: yes, good morning, corrine. disclosure, i am a 70-year-old white protestant christian male. she self identified eaie libera. host: liberal gone rogue. corrine: thank you. kimberly is listening. caller:ould like the perspective on feminism specifically. are you familiar with bill maher, if youcorrine: i have me, i went onto his show, we got into a fight, they di't air

it. i've been to his underground bar. caller: yes, i watch that on the internet as well. bill maher put it out a couple weeks ago that he watched the film "barbie," which i will not watch because i have no interest whatsoever. it's a feminist diatribe, as i can understand it. they rail against the male-dominated culture. and then he goes home and checks the board of directors of mattel, the company that produces barbie as a toy. and it turns out that over 50% of their board is female. host: what is the question that you have exactly? caller: well, how does feminism today contend that men are running the society, white male

specifically, heterosexual white males like myself, and also, can she define for me toxic masculinity? host: ok, so those are two distinct things we can get your perspective on. modern feminism and what toxic masculinity is. right, i think he expressed that modern feminism is the stance that men are ruining society. that' absolutely not true, that's not the feminist perspective. to me, the feminist perspective is that more so i would explain n have a bit of a chokehold on society. those are two very different concepts. there is absolutely no arguing that if you are rn specifically straight, white, and male that you just have an easier start. that does not mean that men don't go through challenges. cinly need to be more in touch with their emotions, i think that would be great. toxic masculinity, to me, it's not listening to women, even s

men are unwilling to go and see a female comedian. i am a very successful comedian and you go out into my showroom anit is 90% women. and if you go to see an unknown male it will be a lot more diverse audiences because female partners are so much more willing to check out the interests of their male partners and men are just unwilling to do that. toxic masculinity, that's a pretty large concept that we could talk about for a long time. i don't know that we are going to get it in a blip on c-span. host: jim in bakersfield, california who identifies as an dependent. does she have any comments on why we are stuck with two candidates for president who most americans do not want in the white house? is this how democracy diecorrin. i absolutely agree with him. i think we need more of a selection. i think if constantly we are

going between republican and democrat, we are taking two steps forward and then we take two steps back. democrats and republicans are constantly fighting together issues past. we will get two steps forward with women's reproductive rights and then be like i am going to spend the next four years on doing this. no movement -- undoing this. there's no movement. what is the point? it's embarrassing for a first will nation, quite frankly -- ne frankly. we should have more options. if you vote independent or for some kind of third-party, it is as vote. you kind of cannot deny that right now. we need a stronger third candidate is what we need. host: brenda is in indiana, sylvania on our democratic line. go ahead, brenda. caller: good morning. i was so glad to hear you use the phrase critical thinking early on in your talking. i think one of the biggest problems we have in this country is that too many people are

willing to grab onto a buzzword and believe that explains the whole issue. i think we need more critical thinking. and second, i was very glad whenever you addressed the topic of transgenders. whattransgender conversation iso one-sided, i would like to know why no one talks about the congenital birth defectsm? it is a birth defect, it is researched, it's a condition where a person is born with both male and female body parts, both. host:■ her a chance to respond. corrine: you know what? when i came to washington, d c i did not know that i was going to be talking about hermaphrodites this early in the morning. host: this is c-span. corrine: in my act last night, somehow during crowd,

hermaphrodite did come up so i feel like this is kismet. i don't really have a lot of expertise on the area besides that i once read that jamie lee curtis was born with both male and female parts and that's as far as we can go on there. i feel like that's just not my realm. the other thing she was talking about was critical thinking. i agree, critical thinking is extremely important, so thank you. it is more just like teaching people to read news and not have simply a line with their political ideology or identity politics when we talk about that. read the story. almost like cover where the story, where it's from, just read the words, and then think,t that, what do i think about that? it seems almost like a preschool level exercise but i people juw how they feel about something rather than be like how am i supposed to feel about this? how would my friends want me to

host: dennis is in hamburg, new york on our republican line. go ahead. caller: yes. we had four years of donald trump and three past years with biden. under president trump, like it or not, there was no wars going on in the world, we had a secure border, it was the america first attitude, we were more united. under this administration, for some reason, these far leftists are coming up with ideas to divide our country. borders are, open we don't know w's comingn. our economy is not doing good. i am a working-class american. i go to the grocery stores and i just cannot get over it. i■ñ m people, it's got to be an american first attitude. host: do you have any questions, dennis? caller: yes, what is your perspective on these two presidents and the direction this country is going in? host: thank you. corrine:

questions are. wow, what is my perspective on? i mean, number one, i love that call. like a "south park" character in real life. the main thing that stood out from the initial monologue was that we were more united under president trump. i mean, where you living in the same country? no, we were not, we were at other's throats constantly. every news story was absolutely over-the-top and we were fighting each other nonstop. my perspectives on both candidates? i mean, i just cannot see another four years of donald trump. i am completely open to a republican president, but just not donald trump. and as far as joe biden, like, you know, guy really wanted to be president, he finally i think he's pretty centrist as far as like a democratic president. we have seen in the news that there is a lot less over-the-top

headlines because we have a centrist president. there's a reason why he was able to beat donald trump,nd it's because he's not that democratic, he's not that leftist, you know? host: nancy is in westchester, pennsylvania on our democratic line. caller: hi. corrine: hi. caller: i am calling because i have had something very disturbing happening to me. corrine: oh. caller: and i was hoping that the public via your podcast. corrine: ok. caller: so, what it is■ñjw is it text messages very often, i have a thread of them that i could forward to you if you wanted, "biden is going to use retirement funds to allow moretion, call

this number." or it will say, "biden, breaking news, biden is going to allow illegals to vote." host: if you don't i want to pull a point that you are making and make it a little bit broader, which is that there are so many different messages that people are getting about politics, about what candidates are doing, and are literally hitting them across omit different platforms. text messages, social media, podcasts, s how do you wade through all of this and advise people to parse it all? corrine: number one, i would advise that if you get a text message that you described as mysterious, you don't even know where it's coming from and it says something like, you know, vote," which nobody is using that kind of terminology anymore. you should definitely find out

first and foremost where those text messages are coming from. maybe they are coming from your uncle. we don't really know where they're coming from. if you have news and information and you don't even know the source, that's an important part. sometimes we will even far as to research the journalist who is doing this story. what kind of stories are they known for covering? how do they self identify? because that can review a lot of bias in the reporting as well and i think that's really been super helpful. start there. what's the source? is it reputable? who wrote the article? what kind of viewpoints are they known for having? are they known for reporting in an unbiased manner or do they have some type of agenda? ", "agenda," we all have an agenda, it's life. you have to do work, you cannot just have information coming at you and like i guess that's true. se something is online or written does not mean it's a

fact. even books. anyone can write a book. i wrote a book. should that have beenhost: you s about dialing that number back, you never know when it is a scam. ronnie is insult bill, virginia on our -- is in saltville, on our independent line. caller: i was thinking about all of this on the news demonizing the voters. you know, it's going to be going back with the candidates and stuff bui far when the republicans or democrats just demonize people because of who they vote for. i was wondering what you feel about that? corrine: yeah, i mean, i guess when you say demonize you mean republicans find it on acceptable when someone votes democrat and democrats find it unacceptable when someone votes republican. to a certain extent, i agree. when you say something like rock

the vote, we should really say i am happy if you arecess. i agree. i don't think when most people identify as republican or democrat say anything other than vote for who i am voting for. that's a problem. yes, i agree with that. host: grant is in linco, ne line. go ahead. caller: hello. i was wondering since part of what her show is focusing on hoe with each other more than not, it's just the partnership -- partisanship in d.c. that divides us. if she were in charge of creating a third-party, what type of policies do you think would be most effective in getting majority of americans to vote for someone other than th d honestly, a wet paper bag is more appealing to me than either of the two that are incorrine:'t

question. if i wasto put together a platform i would hope i had more five seconds to think about it. that being said, i think a surprising topic for instance from the past year or so was abortion, right, withhee. i think we thought that many republicans or right-leaning people would be a lot more excited about that, when in reality, it turned out and has turned out to be a huge problem for the republican party. most people want to have the choice to have an abortion or autonomy over their own body. i think starting on something like that, even though it is an extremely hot button issue, we can go like all right, what's the solution? it's not reversing roe v. wade. i think itwe agree so much moret with extreme topic than we thought we did and that's a great place to start. host: jesse is in albuquerque, new mexico on our republican line.

corrine: republicans wake up earlier. caller: good morning. i telling you, i am not a trump republican, let me tell you that, i am a mccain republican. school republicans who actually read the constitution and follow it. i was just going to say, i will say i have to use humor a lot. it's funny, one of my girl students brought in a kanye fore it posted on the wall. i make a a lot of jokes about how i am friends with trump. we joke a lot abouti was just ge you guys seen "to kill a mockingbird," the classic film? remember little cousin dale, he comes in, he has that little country accent, is from louisiana? i just cannot stop thinking of mike johnson is like a grown-up

cousin dale. caricature on that guy. host: ok. corrine: some people say i look like a fatter, less successful sarah michelle gellar, so i hear you. i also like that he referred to it as one of his girl students and then td nothing to do with being a girl so that was pretty cool. host: gary is in dayton, ohio on our democratic line, also up early. 's almost 10:00. caller: hi. i just wanted to find out about, i really loved our tumor, but you got -- i rhumor, but you goe telling dark humor jokes with people i meet but sometimes they just don't get it. i have another thing about donald trump, he is so fixated on how, you know, he always■ likes to say he likes to fire them like a dog.

have you ever fired a dog in your life? how do you go dear write a lettd say please meet me in my office at 4:00 because we are going to have to let you go? corrine: i love this. we have officially reached the open mic portion of the c-span interview. i have never fired a dog but i've never employed a dog. i have a dog, i will start their. my note on dark humor would be like, who are you telling these dark humor jokes to? is it people you just met because that can be frightening for people. you cannot just go into it. host: dennis in san francisco, california on our yes. thank you. good morning. i want to talk about money in politics and politics in rst of all, when we think about -- deals with money, for instance, biden is the number

one recipient since 1990 of aipac, israel aid lobby money. should journalists be asking questions about the contradiction here? biden received, what, over $5 llion? host: was your question about money in politics? caller: could i just add this to it? what of contradictions by politicians. biden was -- how do the palestinians know when the food is coming down and when the bombs coming down? host: those are two big topics, money in politics and gaza conflict. corrine: i mean, i don't think our handling of the gaza conflict was good, i agree. benjamin netanyahu's response in general was way too much, just

way too much. as far as biden being the biggest recipient of aipac funds, i would have to fact-check i can look it up. corrine: i don't know the answer to that. i think that's ok. people will just call up with these really accusatory statements and i go, i mean, i don't know, i got to look that up. if that is true, i would agree,w thoat's alarming. host: allen in fayetteville, north carolina, while i look into that, on our democratic line. caller: yes. goodor caller: mine is more or less a comment. i don't know if people realize what's going on here.