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>> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government, taking you to where policy is debated and decided with the support of american cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. host: we like to take a look at we can congress. i want to start not necessarily on capitol hill, but certainly on a topic involving a member of congress. the democratic senator of new jersey, his trial begins today. what if the trial about. remind folks why he got involved

in this, his second trial as people may remember. >> the first one happened around 2015, 2060i believe. it took so long from initially breaking the news. essentially, the indictment involved him receiving gifts for colluding with foreign governments. this is all somewhat related to we assume a halal meat organization and him giving special privileges to certain companies. his wife is getting wrangled into this, so it is going to be very interesting. it all starts this week. host: the federal district court in manhattan is where it will be. you mentioned the story

originally about the investigation. guest: october 2022. it was very unclear what was going on, but big news was this is happening once again because we know that is under investigation and almost like the tribe of several years earlier. some of his colleagues are already calling for his resignation. we are not clear if he's going to continue along this path of seeking reelection. it's going to be very interesting. host: one of his biggest critics is john fetterman. guest: is very consistent. he just doesn't think this is appropriate, he should step down. i will add that bob menendez did step down as foreign affairs chair, which makes this indictment even more

interesting, because he was the chair of foreign affairs committee and senate. host: this taking place in new york, coming back here to capitol hill and sort of the week ahead business-wise on the legislative calendar. we saw the end of last week, the senate passing their versions of the faa authorization and then finding time for the house to take that up this week. is that said to be smooth sailing for the building the house? guest: at this point, yes. we've probably gone through our most contentious period of the house which was again passing that ukraine a on national security funding. i think it will eventually pass the house. host: the other issue on foreign policy is what we talk a lot about last, the biden administration pausing offensive weapons to israel. members on both sides of the

issue who strongly disagree, is there a legislative track that you are looking out for to either demonstrate or force the biden administration's hand? guest: here's the interesting thing. there's been some letters coming from republican leadership. it has strictly been a bunch of letters so far but the biden administration is asking for more aid to ukraine so i'm wondering if there is going to be some battle or negotiation there, some kind of exchange to see whether or not they are going to allow these weapons to go forward. host: it was late thursday that we learned that the republican of florida freshman said he was going to file impeachment articles against joe biden. what is going to come of that, if anything? guest: i've spoken to republicans and democrats and a lot of people said they weren't

taking it as serious. we don't know if she's going to push this motion, it would force a vote within two legislative days. it's not clear that's going to happen but we do know he is drafting legislation. host: for about the next 20 minutes or so, so go ahead and start calling in with your questions and comments about the week ahead in washington. this weekly segment that we do in congress is in session. the house expected to return tomorrow at new eastern, the senate in the 3:00 p.m. hour and of course, you can watch both on c-span and c-span c-span 2. other legislation for congress

breaks for the august recess and the campaign trails and everything involved with an guest: election year. guest:i spoke to chairman thompson a wild ago and he said that the legislation would probably be out of committee by memorial day. this is something that they have to take out. we are going to meet the extension later in the year. along with the defense reauthorization, and of course, we will probably need to fund the government once again. host: it is an october to october fiscal year. how far along are they? we saw how far behind they were by the time they passed

legislation to fund the government through the rest of 2024. >> i do hear often that this is speaker johnson -- one thing that he really wants to get done was avoid an omnibus. not sure how much legislature they have between now and september 30. host: looking at speaker johnson's job security amid a potential ouster from republicans who disagree with him. has that been put to bed? what is your estimation of where johnson stands right now? guest: marjorie taylor greene did not have the votes to move forward with this. i do not see any appetite to

push forward another resolution, however, she did kind of throw out this idea. she throughout this idea that former president trump did say maybe this would happen sometime down the line. if he is not reelected in the coming year, whether republicans are a majority were not. host: if who is not reelected? guest: speaker johnson, sorry. host: when it comes to facing -- facing the motion to vacate in congress, could marjorie taylor greene offer another of these? is there a limit on how many a member of congress can offer, and can she do it in the same way and everything sort of shuts down and wait for that to happen? guest: she can offer as many as

she likes thanks to the rules package republicans put forward. so yes, she can. when they were getting last week, thomas massie set i can't promise that it won't happen again, but what i will promise is you don't have to worry about it next week, but you can take a week off. host: (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independent, (202) 748-8002. staying on marjorie taylor greene for a minute more, one of the things she called for as she was criticizing speaker johnson before this vote was a vote to special counsel jack smith's office with investigating donald trump. wherever that stand and how much support is there in the republican caucus guest: they

just don't have the votes to defund an entire investigation against a former president. host: in terms of who we found out our johnson's biggest critics, obviously marjorie taylor greene leading this, any other surprising votes that join them in their effort last week when they came to trying to out speaker johnson? we could imagine that this is all political and that they needed to go back to this district and say i certainly didn't vote to save this far right republican. it was more democrats who didn't go along with their party leader. host: when is the next time members are going to head home?

guest: it is one more week in may that they have an entire week off host: who is probably going to get the most of your full after what happened here? guest: i think nancy mace is in for a tough reelection. many people believe kevin mccarthy is behind her opponent, but then there's a very interesting election right here in virginia, facing a maga republican. bob good would say that he is extremely conservative, however he did not support former president trump during his primary. he backed ron desantis and i

think these interparty battles, and keeping an eye on these interparty battles. host: there's always one race that sneaks out every election cycle that nobody had on their radar. has there been a surprise so far? guest: a democrat from new york. his opponent was backed by a

pack, a jewish funded pac. the sentiment there is that because of his views against funding israel, there is this ever to oust him. but what i can tell you is that he focuses his attention on a primary trying to win back the house. it is kind of a distraction for them. host: is the campaign committee playing in this race? guest: i think people are going to be very safe, especially members of congress who are probably not going to talk about the race or not going to pick a side, which is again very interesting as well.

host: why is the trial taking place in manhattan, is the question> guest: that's a great question, i'm not clear. the federal district of new york are the people that actually -- this is ralph and washington, d.c., independent. caller: i didn't vote for trump, and i wouldn't vote for hillary, but this time i am voting for trump. jack smith, special counsel authority did not exist. by what authority does he become god?

i could charge anybody with any crime i've decided i want to skew them for and bring criminal charges. guest: we seen this in cases with president biden with the documents case and also with trump in various situations. pretty sure he has the authority to do what he is doing by the attorney general. host: we mentioned that the house and senate don't come in officially until tomorrow, but

key congressional hearings that you will be watching for are back in town on tuesday, wednesday or thursday this week. guest: key congressional hearings. that's a good question. the judiciary, i'm not aware of a hearing is going on this week but i'm pretty sure the judiciary has something coming but is escaping me right now. host: there is a question whether presence of universities are going to be back on capitol hill anytime soon. guest: not that i know of, unless the schedule has changed recently. i'm very curious now that school is over or ending how that turns out. there's going to be a clear distinction about student protesters and people who come from the outside to actually protest on college campuses toward the end of graduation

time. host: our first hour today we spent asking viewers whether they had protested and whether it had made a difference. have you ever covered a protest, and if so how does one cover a protest? host: i guess very carefully. i did cover the 2020 black lives matter protest. host: where did you go? guest:

i think there is a clear distinction of people who come there to protest and people who come to cause strife. i remember someone specifically driving water bottles from a volunteer just to throw in the crowd and it didn't sit like they were there with the cause. i think playing those things out while you are in the crowd is very important. host: two followup questions. you were the pool reporter when donald trump walked across the street to the church and held up the bible? guest: yes. host: did you follow him for that famous walk where police cleared the protesters out? guest: i have a very famous pool report that talks about people

doubled over. the gas that was in the air. so yeah. host: what do you remember from that walk, and were you able to talk and ask the president questions at all? guest: no, we weren't, actually. the white house press corps was told to move across the lawn, going to the church. i was not clear as a pool reporter where we were going. i just thought it was odd that the president was walking outside of the white house, and when we eventually got there there was a gaggle out there -- i think ivana trump was there and a couple other people, and he made the speech, and i just covered it, you know, exactly what we were doing. the biggest thing i remember was the smell of the area and how quickly they pulled protesters

away, because again, the day before i was on the other side covering that. host: were you able to talk to protesters that day? what happened after that photo shoot -- there is the image of the president holding of the bible at st. john's church, remember that famous photo. what happened after that photo is taken from your perspective? guest: i go back and said white house, remember.protesters don't come back immediately. they didn't come back until -- i don't remember us actually coming back until after i was gone. but yeah, it was -- i didn't get a chance -- it was a big controversy because i wrote in my pool report gas, and there was a big debate about whether or not -- it was definitely a gas, right, but whether or not it was toxic -- i was working for buzzfeed at the time.

months later the secret service came out and said, well, yeah, they did dispense this can but i think it was some pepper, but not anything -- either way, the stench was very prominent. you know, free people running while they are covering the president -- for people running while they were covering the president can even cameramen were exhausted at the environment. host: june 1, 2020, coming up on the four-year anniversary of that walk and photo. you mentioned you knew some people were there to legitimately protest and you feel like knew there were other people there to cause violence. how do you choose who to interview when you are trying to cover protest? and do you try to interview both types of people and get their voices in? what was that like the day before? guest: we interview everyone. i remember the defund the police

effort when i was put on assignment and the assignment was go find out if people understand what the meaning of "defund the police" is, because it wasn't clear what at that point what people meant. it was interesting because different people had a different ideas. some people have no idea, some people had scholarly answers about how they wanted to approach this. so yes, obviously talking to everyone, including the graffiti poster, and understanding why. host: short on time -- that me get you some calls. apologize for making them wait. lancy, thanks for waiting.

>> that part isn't for you all, but -- [indiscernible] [laughter] >> stand by for music to begin the event. ♪