ones who are there to do public service. like i mentioned in texas, those texas republicans who voted to support their public school districts in their district, they were all targeted for doing so. that's the way gerrymandering punishes people from serving the district. gerrymandering i think really does eliminate much of the sense that this is all about public service in the first place. and for that reason, i do think over, time we are seeing an erosion of the quality and mindset of who runs for office in the first place. because now, it's nothing but this intense, partisan game. and a lot of people who might want to do public service will think of themselves, well, why do i want to enter that crazy world? i will go make a difference through starting a nonprofit or teaching or serving in other ways. because the last thing i would ever want to do is join the circus or worse that politics has become. i do worry that we are seeing a

real problem right now, that politics is so broken that some of the people that should be thinking about doing it never will, for understandable reasons. we needed to make it about public service again to draw real public servants back into making a difference in our country. host: david pepper, author of "pepperspectives," substack newsletter. you can find his writing and subscribed that davidpepper. substack.com. thank you so much for joining us today. "washington journal." thank you to our guest and all of our callers. . we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. enjoy the rest of your saturday. ♪

♪ host: this is washington journal for saturday, june 8. this week world leaders gathered in normandy, france to mark the anniversary of the d-day invasion.

in the federal gun trial of hunter biden began, with jurors hearing testimony from defense witnesses. those are two stories that made headlines this week. to start today's program we want to hear from you. what is your top news story of the week? republicans, you can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . if you would like to text us, you can do so at (202) 748-8003. sure to include your name and city. you can also pose a question or comment on facebook, or on x. in addition to the 80th anniversary of the d-day invasion, and the federal gun trial of hunter biden starting this week, here are some of the other stories have been following. members of the gop responding to former president trump's

prosecution. president trump signing an executive order meeting asylum at the border. and a story focusing on president biden's age and the response to the articles. president biden is still in france. he has several events lined up for today, but yesterday he was at pointe du hoc, speaking about the soldiers who invaded the german-occupied territory 80 years ago today. here are his remarks. press biden you know, we stand today, where we stand was not sacred ground on june 5. but that is what it became on june 6. the rangers who scaled this cliff did not kthey did. history has shown that ordinary americans can do extraordinary things when challenged. there is no better example of that than right here at pointe

du hoc. rangers from every part of america, from homes that did not know wealth and power, they came to a shoreline that none of them would have picked out on a map. he came to a country many of them had never seen, for people they had never met. but they came. they did their job. they fulfilled their mission. and they did their duty. they were part of something greater than themselves. they were americans. i stand here today as the first president to come to pointe du hoc, when none of those 225 men who scaled this cliff on d-day are still alive. none. to tell you, with them gone, the wind we hear coming

off of this ocean will not fade. it will grow louder as we gather here today, not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery on that day, it is to listen to the echoes of their voices, to hear them. because they are summoning us, and they are summoning us now. they ask us, what will we do? they are not asking us to scale these cliffs, but they are asking us to stay true to what america stands for. host: he can watch the rest -- sorry, thaten, not president trump. you can watch the rest of our coverage from the 80th anniversary of the d-day invasion, along with the oral histories and previous commemorations of other d-day events on our website. just go to c-span.org. 7ñone note from the washington post this morning.

headline, world war ii veteran, 10 two, dies on the way to normandie for d-day commemoration. the article says nearly 80 years after bob perretti watched marines raise an american flag during the battle of iwo jima, the 102--- 102-year-old veteran was headed to normandy to commemorate another world war ii assault. but suffered a medical emergency just days before the ceremony in france. he was flown from a ship by helicopter and died at a military hospital in germany. rochester president and ceo richard stewart told the washington post. he enlisted in the navy in 1942, the year after japan attacked pearl harbor. he trained as a radioman for years in new york city and then shipped out to the pacific theater, where he served aboard the uss el dorado and amphibious

force command ship during battles in guam and japan. specifically on okinawa and in iwo jima. hours after president biden spoke in normandy about his generation and what they did there, stewart said the hardest part about leading a nonprofit focused on making sure old or vets get to see memorials and honor them, is realizing how wonderful they are, and then having to grieve their deaths. the article continues to say chris shetty was well killed for -- preschetti was well cared for and got to listen to some of his favorite music, frank sinatra. we are taking your calls on this first hour. let's hear first from joyce in portland, oregon, calling on the republican line.

good morning. caller: i called on the wrong line. i'm not a republican, but i got the numbers mixed up. host: ok, go ahead. caller: i am an independent, but my thing is that i know about the commemoration for world war ii veterans, and this whole country is all mixed up with everything that is going on. it is a good thing for them to remember it. it has been 80 years, and i really don't know what is going to happen to our country, because everybody is going back and forth. i just don't know. everything is just upside down, and i don't understand why people want to tear up their whole country, because one person did not make it as a president. it is just crazy. host: did you watch any of the

commemoration? caller: i enjoyed it very much. i was very proud of our country and our president. how they found all of those veterans at that time and the age they are, anw back and how the people rejoice in seeing them and thanking them , and what they did. none of us would still be here if it was not for them fighting in that war. it is good to commemorate them and give them our very best, because they did wonderful things. they did things that nobody else could do. and it was hard for them. yeah, i really did enjoy it,=x d i was proud of our country was a part of it, and that our men and women were over there. because if they were not, we would not have a country today. host: joyce talking about the

d-day anniversary events for the 80th anniversary of d-day. the commemoration involved members of cgress jumping from a plane, parachuting over normandy. here is some video from one of the members. 30 seconds. host: according to "the washington post," jump was organized by representative michael waltz, a republican of florida, and representative jason crow, democrat of colorado. the bipartisan group included 10

congressmen making the trip to france to pay tributnd allied t. at a defining moment at home and abroad. waltz said, this era of political acrimony and inviting, he believes it is important for americans to see representatives in congress coming together tell her -- together to honor veterans. we will go back to the phones and hear from mel in new york, calling on the independent line. caller: good morning. when i think of this anniversary i cannot help it also consider the remarks made by pete head says. he said, these men who did this remarkable invasion did not come out of a vacuum, but came out of an environment where there was church, family, and an education system that prepared them for that.

and we see these three institutions today being severely destructive to our american ideals. i appreciate what ben shapiro had to say with regard to that time when those 4% illegitimacy. it was 96% belief in god. there was 73% church membership. with that kind of instruction and understanding, it tilt up a will within them to take this kind of sacrifice, which they made, and i just feel we are losing that, a i appreciate those like pete, ben shapiro,

acknowledging what we understood as americans back then. and it needs to be revisited now, because what we are seeing is narcissism. through such things as pride. a pride that is not so much in a country as it is in an inward-focused aspect of sexuality that is destructive to our society. and we need to build up what was very much a part of our american mindset back when that greatest generation made their mark on d-day, 80 years ago. host: in fayetteville, north carolina, calling on the independent line. what is your top news story of the week? caller: they were talking about

the people that fought in world war ii, the greatest generation, and i thought about my father, born in 1910, left school at third grade. couldn't read, but helped the merchant marines. and put extra starting switches on vehicles. i am amazed that people who didn't have true education and grew up in rur mississippi could actually help the war effort like that. and a lot of times people think that all you need is education and you need all of this other stuff. there are people that helped even in vietnam and stuff, mcnamara had all of those people who did not have a lot of education or5> knowledge help te

war effort. i just thought it was amazing. that is all. ho stefan in lexington, kentucky, calling on the democrat line. caller: good morning. it is it stephen, but i appreciate it. i want to talk about clarence thomas real quick, and how unethical he is and all of the money he has been getting from republican take a step back and put things into perspective about d-day. these men t they had no choice. , this whole pride, honor, some of these people did not want to go over there, and they had to. so, america forces things to do -- forces people to do things they don't want to do. i know a lot of these boomers and older generations are prideful about how the past used to be and all of this great stuff we used to do. you guys segregated people in the past. even military people.

people of caller -- of color could not serve with. you guys in the past made bigger mistakes than we did now, then this generation is making. you put this in our history. so, i don't know, man. but clarence thomas, that guy is the most unethical supreme court judge we have. he needs to go away. he is getting all of this money, his wife is causing chaos, it is mind-boggling. host: stephen talking about supreme court justice clarence thomas. in "the wall street journal" today, thomas discloses trips given by donor. it says that justice clarence thomas revised his financial disclosure forms to include two trips he took in 2019 that were paid for by billionaire harlan

crow. the first ijus to the indonesian island of bali. the other was to a private club in california. crow paid for food and lodging thomas said in friday's forms that he had bought -- saw and received guidance from his accountant and ethical counsel as part of a review of prior filings that began last year. the gifts were from crow, inadvertently omitted at the time of filing. the court released financial reports for eht the nine justices. justice alito received an extension to file. let's hear from patty in pennsylvania, calling on the democrat line. good morning, patty. caller: good morning. this did not get a lot of coverage, but pennsylvania republicans cheered at two

january 6 capital police heroes, and the republicans called them cowards. they walked out, they turned their backs to them at the pennsylvania state house chambers. i can only say that one ca these republicans, or their loved ones, meet a first responder, or maybe they need a doctor, and that doctor or first responder just keeps on walking. i think that they are lowlife scum, and whoever raised them must of been trashed. this goes back to d-day. donald trump tried to overflow -- overthrow the u.s. government, and that is the real truth. i'm going to repeat it. he tried to overthrow the u.s.

government. the result of that on capitol hill cost over $2,000,800. i just want to know what donald trump's next crime is going to be. is it going to be democracy? and these guys in world war ii, and all of the other wars, fight for absolutely nothing. thank you. host: larry in illinois, calling on the republican line. good morning, a. what is your top news story of the week? caller:news story of the week, the first one is joe biden on taxpayer dollars flying from france to america to be at her drug-addicted son's trial. on the taxpayer's dollar, to be with her illegitimate, asshole

husband. host: larry, let's watch our language. caller: sorry. i don't know what i'm trying to do. anyway, my favorite saying to the democrats is, oh, come on, man, get over it. that is the quote from their leader. thank you. host: we will go to sandy in columbus, ohio, calling on the democrat line. good morning morning, sandy. caller: yes, good morning. i was very happy and i did watch the entire celebration. you know, america to me is lost about d-day and their history. my father, he was[÷ in world war ii, and he was a sergeant, and stationed in germany. he died in 1975. back, but

i was very proud to see the man on that stage. myer, he died on the cleanup crew in 1946, going over in the cleanup crew in the navy. and it is special to me. i feel like my brother, my uncles, who were both in world war ii and went in the korean war, they are honoring them. i know people, to me they don't seem to care about anything in america except me, me, me, me. and it is getting old. i was very proud of my president over there. with all of those soldiers in different countries, with canada. and it just was a little pride. because my father, he died at 65.

i'm holding his separation record in my hand. i have papers and all. so, i really thank you for bringing that. that could be our top story. i'm looking at your pictures. it is just amazing to me to see, and i'm am very proud. thank you. host: barbara in pennsylvania calling on the independent line. good morning, barbara. is your top news story of the week? caller: yes, i would like to say i am independent,k'■> and i am y proud of when pete hedman said that, and talk so good about the soldiers. what we need is more religion, more respect in this country. and i am also upset with

president biden, because he has lost so many times on the tv. and he also lied about president trump. but those facts were not true. when you hear about president trump, i really feel that since he came down that ladder, the elevator, people were all against him. i appreciate what trump is doing, and when it comes time i'm going to vote for him.

and i do respect this man. i put the flag on memorial day, and now i see that the democrats, i don't know who their name is, but she wants it at half-mast. why? we are celebrating these veterans that went into the service. if it was not for them we would not have a country. thank host: kathleen in iowa calling on the democrat line. good morning, kathleen. what is your top news story of the week? caller: my top story of the week was back to the d-day celebration. i did have to call just to reflect on what some of your

other viewers have shared about this same news story saying that, youare -- that we o continue to celebrate, or we are not the same country, maybe, as the men from the greatest generation, is because of our education system or the fact that we need more religion. i guess i would counter with the fact that i don't inc. -- -- think, in most states with republicans that is where we are cutting, education. that should be concerning to everyone. it is not just about loss of religion, because i think you can be from any religion and treat people well and with respect. this seems like we have gone to a place in our country where we no longer believes in fact. we or take things that

are completely untrue. and just because they are repeated many times, that is what we choose to believe. for example, you know, that trump won the 2020 election. it is not true. da shows it is not true. people continue to believe it. the loss of values is really what is driving us apart. we used to be able to agree on right and wrong. we used to be able to agree on facts, and it did not depend on what side of the hour you were on. it depended on what was true. ll say to the last caller, she was saying she has great pride in our country, and so do i. i have pride and respect for those soldiers who fought in world war ii. those that came home and those that are still left in the battlefields of normandy, and everywhere else in europe. and the fact that trump said those men who died over there were losers and refused to visit

their grave should absolutely discussed the people that are saying that they respect our ey are still going to vote for him. so, reality check, people. he is telling you who he is. believe him. he does not respect our fallen. he does not respect our values. he lies, and you believe it. make a decision about what america you want to live in. thank you. host: in the new york times this morning, this headline, u.k. critics slam sunak for leaving france early. the prime minister, rishi sunak of britain, apologized on friday for leaving early from a d-day commemoration in france, admitting to a major public relations misstep in the heat of a general election campaign. mr. sunak's apology came after criticism with the election less than four weeks away.

let's hear from frank in rochester, new york, calling on. good morning, frank. caller: good money. as far as the d-day celebration goes, rush, of course, played a hung nazi germany in one or two. in turn, they were also guilty for triggering the war itself. we have a neocon problem and our fort -- in our foreign policy establishment. tory newland is still guiding ukraine policy. in antony blinken is a professional zionist. palestine is on fire. we have two wars going on. we don't need professional zionists expanding it into a world war. they have to be repl w with gen, professional diplomats. we have to scale back and offer peace in all of these places in the world. we need peace in ukraine and a cease-fire, and we need someone to take over and try to at least administer this tragedy in

palestine better than the professional zionist, antony blinken. thank you. host: paul in idaho calling on the republican line. good morning, paul. what is your top news story of ek. caller: it would have to be d-day. my grandfather immigrated from sweden in 1991, and he actually graduated from -- hold on. he graduated from west point in 1912. he went to world war i, went to france. he was a horsehe cavalry. he took his horses over on a

ship, and he was responsible for them, and he hauled the cannons and other armament around. he did that for world war i, came back and took care of the horses in the olympics. he was an olympic trainer. basically a hoarse whisper all the way around. he retired after teaching mathematics in west point for a number of years, and then went to the citadel and did the same. when it came time for world war ii to come around, he was hand-picked, even though he was retired from the military and west point and citadel for number of years. he■ oss. in his job in the oss was

mathematical engineering and whatnot, in order to make them in have everything that they need brought to them by ship over to france. talk about a heavy duty job. he was a decorated individual in combat, and also a brilliant mathematician. he was a patriot, even though he had not been to this country for very long. he went through ellis island and graduated from west point, and he was a big part of d-day, but he was behind the scenes. anyway, that was a huge undertaking that it took to get everything over there and to do it stealthily, the way they did it, was just incredible.

was responsible for overlord, and to those men and women -- there was women there too. whatnot, not just medics. host: paul, thank you for sharing those comments about your grandfather. we will go to patrick in new hampshire, calling on the republican line. morning, patrick. what is your top news story of the week? caller: my top news story is, so i■# was watching the news this week and it was about, you know how joe biden says $35 insolent, that is his flagship policy has? --ulin, that is his flagship policy has? host: his work on prescriptions, yes. caller: actually, donald trump introduced that program three

years before joe biden was even in office. it was not a mandatory program, but it was optional. in all of the people that supply insulin, a%çll of the companies, washed the thing, donald trump was in the rose garden with the lady about diabetes. she is a black female with short hair. she says, this is a really big deal, mr. president, thank you. then joe biden comes in and says all of a sudden he is the godsend for insulin. and no one knows that donald trump is the one that came out with at first. it wastrt like antony blinken, who authored the fbi officials to say the laptop was misinformation. that was allied lie by the biden campaign. that is why some people think the last election was stolen. it was not technically stolen, but people feel like we didof t. that is stuff that the public should know before an election,

and literally hours cia and fbi officials are colluding with the biden campaign and democrats to stop everybody from getting the actual truth. joe biden has heard 80% of new hampshire families. we have to stop treating immigrants better than u.s. citizens. these, people. we are the most compassionate people in new hampshire. we will take anybody in, you will give anybody our last $20. we live free or die around here, like, we want everybody to be free, but this open border policy is killing people and it is basically destroying america right now. we cannot afford these cities. they cannot even afford to pay for all of these immigrants, and imagine the people that don't have full-time jobs, they cannot afford, the people below me on the totem pole, below my family on the totem pole financially. i people survive? because i'm having a hard time. i family is having a hard time, so i can only imagine these

people that could use $20 to buy groceries, and now i cannot even go to walmart without spending $300 or $400. donald trump is not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but he have right now under this biden. it is just constant lies too. i watch cnn, msnbc, fox, i watch them all. you watch fox it is one thing, it is, ripon trump constantly. trump is in phoenix, his old -- his whole entire speech, all he talked about was revenge, all he was talking about is getting revenge. no, he is talking about success will be his revenge. we will all have success. every american will have success if trump is reelected. that is why he is leading in all of the polls. consistently leading this past

12 months. he is a convicted felon, and so am i, and i am one of the nicest people in the world. infected felons can become better people, and his alleged crimes were from 16-plus years ago. at some point people got to move on with that and allow the country to just be financiallycn america that are here before these immigrts, can we financially go back to a place where we can survive? host: patrick touching on one of the top news stories of the week that we are talking about is this article "the new york times," house republicans have spent the last 18 months going to use their majority to attack what they claimed was a weaponization of government against conservatives, including the prosecution of former president donald trump. but have made little headway in doing so. the article says, speaker mike johnson on tuesday announced a

three-pronged approach for how republicans on capitol hill would push back against the prosecution of the former president. here are some the comments from that event. >> as leaders coolies said, people have to believe justice is blind. you have to believe there is equal justice under the law in order to maintain a constitutional republic -- public. that is why it is bigger than just president trump. it is bigger than just these cases. it is about our system itself. because of that there is a backlash. president trump hit a fundraising record within 24 hours of the verdict. we did as well, on our fundraising platforms. we raised record amounts of money because people understand what is at stake now. this is not just a contest between two individuals for president. it is about whether we are going to defend the integrity of our sy i you're going to do everything within our scope of responsibility to address it appropriately.

i announced this morning to our conference we are working on a three-pronged approach. you heardy. we are looking at various approaches to what can be done here, through the appropriations process, through the legislative process, through bills we will be advancing through our committees and putting on the floor for passage, and also through oversight. those things will be happening grossly, because we have to do that. because the stakes areand peopln our institutions. that is something that could -- should concern everything one of us. and i think it does. host:(b let's hear from christopher in callicott city, maryland, calling on the republican line. what is your top news story of the week? caller: good morning. the invasion of this country ha been going on. millions of people who come here.

that there is going to be some kind of terrorist action in this country. hese illegal invaders make crimes. people die. he i hear the democrats, who lie every day here, and i hear -- like, the last caller, i believe he was really terrific. we need to take this country back, and donald trump is the man. he has fought for this country. the lies that have been told about him, the fbi, the justice department and all of the stuff they are doing now is an election interference case. i love donald trump. i love this country.

my father went into the army in 1941 as a private. he came out as a lieutenant. growing up, he never talked about his days as a soldier. that is because war is horrific. the israelis are fighting for their existence. if someone tells you they want to kill you, and they don't just say they want to kill jewish people, they want to kill americans, we need to have donald trump back in office. host: mustapha in michigan, calling on the independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my top news story of the week is

black americans escaping the democratic plantation. as a proud army veteran and proud black american whose ancestors built this country i have historically votemo culturg and indoctrination. i have broken those change and i will not vote for the dixiecrat party. i will be brief. lineage makes preparations, and anti-black american hate crime bill, stopping and deporting illegal economic immigrants. and lastly, i would employ -- implore you and your listeners to stop referring to black americans as african-americans. it helps create ethnic side against black americans. some black people were here prior to slavery. and with that, i will take my comment off the air. thank you. host: eric in buffalo, new york,

calling on the democrat line. good morning, eric. what is your top news story of the week? caller: oh god. the first is the alex jones settlement, with the sandy hook families. i guess they settled that he had to liquidate all of his assets and pay them off, and he had dissolve the disinformation network he is on. also thecglaughlin fbi agent, who was in charge of the fbi new york division who got sentenced to prison yesterday. he had to report to prison. oh god. all of these people with the trump hoax and stuff. he was convicted of 12 new yorkers, 34 felonies.

this is a direct result of the mueller report. so was charles mclaughlin's offshoot of the mueller report. he claims that he never served, claims he had bone spurs. i could go on and on. we need to get rid of the disinformation and misinformation in this country. and start recognizing that immigrants, they help support this country. they are not a blight on this country like people are making them out to be. vfour country would go under if. they do the jobs that regular americans don't want to do. and also, shout out to the d.a. veterans, which they should get more recognition, because, god, i cannot imagine storming the

beaches. i was a navy veteran myself, and i am proud to fly my flag. and had doubts when trump was in office of them stealing my valor. i wish we could all get along, and trump has made it legitimate to hate people again. he hates the same people they hate, so i hope we can find a better solution in the future. thank you. host: william in delray beach, florida, calling on the independent line. what is your top news story of the week? caller: good money. my top news story is the commemoration of the d-day landings. two words are in my mind, again. the era as -- of young people being used as cannon fodder is over. if george soros is listening in, then my message to you, george, is the following.

this is the united states of america. it is not the united states of switzerland. it is not the united states of ukraine. and it is certainly not the united states of israel. people are waking up, and this is the generation that will be the one to stop the wars once and for all. free palestine, free alex jones, and let's go brandon. host: in walden, new york, calling on the republican line. morning, james. caller: good morning. what is your first name? host: it is tammy. caller: tammy, can you bring up the -- where all of the democrats are saying trump said he called the servicemen losers. can you bring that up? people that were there said he never said that. and also when the democrats say that we are immigrants, i'm not an immigrant. i was born here in new york. and remember also when they say

that trump had the heel spurs, did biden go into the military? i don't think so. in history the kkk turned into the democratic party because they lost in the civil#@ war. remember, civil rights was because of the republican party. unity etienne johnson did not want to do civil rights, but the republican party force them to do it. so i don't understand why these democrats could love hyden so much. biden is such a racist and a liar, and he is the worst president we ever had. go, trump. i hope he wins. thanks, tammy. host: one of the news stories we were follo t biden's announcemet ofborder.

from "the hill," president biden took long-expected executive action on tuesday that will turn away migrants taking asylum across the southern border illegally. at times when there is a high volume of daily encounters. president biden made that announcement on tuesday at the white house. here are his remarks. pres. biden: frankly, i would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that is the only way to actually get the kind of system we have that is now, broken, fixed. to hire more border patrol agents, more judges. republicans left me no choice. today i am announcing access to bar the asylum-seekers who cross illegally from receiving a sound migrants will be restricted from receipt -- from deceiving asylum -- from receiving asylum unless they seek it through an establishe lawful process.

those who are making an appointment and coming to a point of entry, asylum will still be available. those that choose not to use our legal pathways, they come against the law, they will be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the united states. this action will help us gain control our border, restore order to the process. this ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage. we will carry out this order consistent with all of ours possibilities under international law. every one of them. 'khost: here are more details about president biden's executive action and what it does. it bars migrants from claiming asylum when u.s. officials deem the southern border is overwhelmed. it goes into effect with -- when the number of border encounters at ports of entry had 2500 per day. restrictions would be in effect

until two weeks after the daily encounter numbers are at or below 1500 per day or fewer for at least a week. the executive order does ban exemptions for unaccompanied children. let's hear from terrel in hoeing mills, maryland, calling on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would just like to talk about joe biden. and how he has the strength at 81 years old to get up and defend this country. you know, he is doing a good job of it. but see, the republicans, they don't mention that ronald reagan also had dementia. ronald reagan used to fall asleep. i remember, focus i was a steelworker at the time and i remember when the steelworkers wanted to -- one of ronald reagan -- wanted ronald reagan

to help us. but he did not help us. he believed in free trade, and we wanted him to put tariffs on japanese steel. but they don't remember when ronald reagan used to fall lethey don't remember when ronad reagan legalized 3 million immigrants and let them come into the country. they don't want to remember. anything that joe biden does, the republicans will criticize them because they want to put donald trump back in office. but donald trump is not going to succeed. donald trump failed because he did not protect us from covid. 600,000-something people die. more people died under covid under donald trump than any of our wars. as a matter fact, donald trump said that the covid virus was his war. donald, covid bu. 600,000 of our fellow americans

died under your protection. and according to a bunch of people, you did not protect us. he knew about it. you knew about gain of function research. the main reason i know you knew about gain of function research is because mike pompeo was on maria bartiromo, and maria asked, i know that president obama paused gain of function research with the chinese. she said, mike, who on paused that? mike said, maria, we made some mistakes too. he never answered that question. that is how i know donald trump you knew about gain of function research and he is trying to blame dr. anthony fauci for everything. donald trump don't take credit for anything. he don't know how to man up about things, you know? if you want him to man up about the 2020 election he will tell you somebody else did it.

he will blame it on the farmers up in iowa. he told iowa farmers, i gave you 28 billion dollars and you did not come out to vote for me. he blames everybody but himself. that is all right. god is still in control. host: a follow-up on a question one of our viewers had about former president trump referring to veterans as losers. from the associated press, september 3, 2020 20, this story, a new report details multiple instances of president donald trump making disparaging remarks about members of the u.s. military, who have been captured or killed, including referring to americans -- the american war dead at the american cemetery in france in 2018 as "losers and suckers are co-trump said -- suckers."

a senior defense department official with first-hand knowledge of the events and a senior u.s. marine corps officer who was told about trump's comments confirmed some of the remarks to the associated press, including remarks about the cemetery. also this article from 2003, the headline, trump did call fallen soldiers losers. let's go to in highland park, illinois, calling on the democrat line. it is your top news story of the week? caller: good morning. my top news story is the immigration stor perfect system. the thing in america is perfect. i hear republicans talk about immigrants causing crime and trouble. of course, in any group of people you are going to have some people causing crimes and shootings and murders. but look at the overwhelming

majority of immigrants are peaceful. it is an asset to get immigrants into a country. they want to work. they want to go into technology and electronics. they want to climb on roofs to fix the broken roots. they want to do our landscaping. we should value the immigrants who want to come here. they are hard-working and their debit cash and they are dedicated. and try to analyze everything going on. do not look at news reports of separate incidents where they will see some immigrant causing host: what did youe think of president biden's executive action this week?

caller: i think he is giving in to some of the republican demands, and false news reports that the immigrants are a liability. host: let's hear from janet in dayton, ohio, calling on the independent line. good morning, janet. caller: good morning. i just want to respond to the gentleman who said trump had bone spurs and did not go. he said it not once, not twice, i'm sure it was much or five times. biden did not go because he was a widow. how you compare that is apples to oranges. i cannot understand how people do not get that trump stole from his own charity.

he defrauded students. he cheated on all of his wives. an committed this fraud? they are not reading the evidence? i would like to remind your viewers, how many trump -- people in trump's sphere -- his campaign, his cabinet, his attorneys who went to prison for crimes they committed, or were convicted of crimes they committed -- compare that to how many people were convicted of felonies in biden's sphere. or obama's sphere. just make that comparison. thank you so much. host: let's go to john in johnston, pennsylvania, calling on the democrats line. good morning, john. caller: my top news story is, i did not see any flags upside down at the ceremonies. in the greatest enemy of the truth is not the light, it is

the people who believe the lie. anyone who believes donald trump is the greatest enemy of the truth, you know, the thing about the suckers and losers, i got a letter from paul eaton, who is the retired general -- major general, sorry. he heard him say that. he heard him say were suckers ad losers, an guy really should not ever be president of the united states. you know, it is a shame that people believe this guy. you know, for all of the lies he tells. it is amazing. also, joe biden is the worst president we ever had? what did trump do? how did changing the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem help the average american? i would like to knha of zelens'. if he had been president putin

would have walked over ukraine. in the same thing with israel. he is a friend of netanyahu, who is a d like to say one more thing. i would like to see the democrats, whenever they have their convention, they play the song "coming to america" by neil diamond. to really get all of these republicans, we need immigrants in this country. a lot of people think crime is committed by immigrants. no, most of the mass murders in this country are caused by angry white supremacists with a gun in one hand and a pythe other. all of these mass shootings in schools, they were not by immigrants. they were by angry white guys. that is my comment for today. thank you. host: let's hear from annie -- i'm going to guess on this game -- on this name -- why --, new

york. good morning. first of all, i ws really very upset about the english prime minister leaving 8vearly. one of my pet peeves is when we have people who were first, second -- and people forget that donald trump is second or third generation, you know, from being an immigrant in this country. but my point abt that, when people are from another country and they come in and get in elected office here, just like the woman who was running for president and then dropped out in this country, they are ng enf the history of this country to know what is an important event

that you should st for. because the native people of the country find it very precious to their hearts from history. the other comment i want to make is that blacks in america are not immigrants. this has been paraded around. we are all immigrants. blacks in america are not immigrants. we were brought here. we were enslaved and brought here, and we were enslaved here. we are still reaping the benefit of people thinking we are less than human. everyone -- and this is a segue into reparations. reparations, everyone, many immigrants came to this country and got some kind of money.

some kind of reparations. the japanese being interred in the camps in world war ii, they got reparations. you may not call it reparations, but it was reparations. the jews. many came to this country and were given money to live on. everyone is given money, but somehow the people in congress, or the american people, whoever it is, thinks blacks are not entitled. host: are not entitled. host: got your point. we have one more call. ohio from the republican line. good morning, dolly. dolly, are you there? caller: dale. my name is dale. host: i am sorry, they typed it in wrong. caller: my comment said that he

is -- i am amazedhat he is guilty on all charges and he is receiving money. if you do research on double trump -- on donald trump to say how many lawsuits has he had since 1970. you would be amazed that he has had over 4000 lawsuits. donald trump and his business. it is amazing. he flies around in a $100 million jet and he lives in expensive homes and then all of a sudden these people sent him money. do research and look at everything and just see how many lies and lawsuits, over 4000 lawsuits. and it has been on the line since 1970. donald trump is a crook and i hope that people wake up. i hope you have a nice weekend. host: that is it for the first hour. we will be jne by sean --

kevelighan and we will talk about insurance and the decline of insurance coverage and later we are joined by former ohio democratic chair, david pepper and we will discuss his substack newsletter and the political news of the day. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. watch d-day programming to mark the 80th anniversary of the allied landings in france in

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politics, powered by cable. >> 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@ hil, providing balanced and unfiltered coverage, taking you to where the policies are debated and decided with the support of america's cable companies. 45 years and counting, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back and we are joined by sean kevelighan, the ceo of the insurance information institute and we will be talking about the insurance industry and homeowners coverage. welcome to the program. why don't you start about telling us about the insurance information institute. what is your mission and who do

you work with? guest: we are a 55-year-old not-for-profitves to be a trustf data drivennsights that help consume -- consumers, policymakers, the mediandessiond risk and insurance. as an organization we do research and communication, we do not do direct so we strive to be in information and education source. host: what is covered and not covered under a standard homeowners insurance policy? guest: your home, the structure and everything of that structure will be covered in the homeowners insurance policy. it depends on what you choose to have in terms of coverage and the replacement costs and things like that. but the structure itself and inside contents are protected by the insurance policy. the land is not covered, so things outside the home like a

pool, that will not be covered in the standard policy. host: who is required to have homeowners insurance and is there a minimum amount to be covered? guest: generally getting a mortgage will require you to have homeowners insurance. that is a big driver for most consumers. i would argue that that comes into play probably entirely too late in the process. it is important for consumers to understand the risks happening. insurance allows you to understand that better. arguably, you want to understand it before you fall in love with the house and understand where you are living. we help people better understand that you have to own your own risk. a mortgage will drive you to have homeowners insurance coverage. host: i know it is very dependent on the person, home, location where they are at.

talk a little bit about the factors that go into pressing and the average amount a homeowner might pay? guest: pricing is just variables of risk. the location of th property and what is in the property, the number of bathrooms llit and whn materials are, the roof, all of that gets factored into the variables and there will be a price based on that risk. so the actual cause of theisk is where the price is factored. that will give you the insurance rate. in today's market we are seeing increased climate risks, so losses related to natural catastrophes since the 80's have increased 10 times. we have been paying attention to climate risk for a long time. in fact, if you look in the to thousands we have had nine of --

in 2000's we have had nine of the most expensive 10 years. there is a lot of increased natural catastrophes and people are moving into areas with more risk, states like texas and florida are more prone -- prone to natural catastrophes. texas is prone to every type of natural catastrophe aside from volcanoes. that steak ruin population more than any other in the country, 30% of the new population is in the state of texas. all of those variables get factors and -- factored in and the riyksk gets priced. one of the things that happened through and after covid is inflation. inflation for the industry has been high. we have factored an economic analysisee years and inflation related to homeowners replacement costs went up which is extraordinary. but that has to be factored into

the price of insurance. and so you are seeing a lot of americans having higher insurance rates as a result of inflation, i■÷reased climate risk and where they are living, those are the main factors drivuphost: going back to catasc events, talk about the role that insurance companies play when an event like that happens. guest: insurance■; acts as the financial first responder. when a disaster happens you have first responders making sure that it is ok and what insurance does is it builds the economy, really. it make sure that economic growth can happen, replacing damaged buildings, replacing contents and getting lives back in order is what the industry strives to do. that can take a while but the industry tries to get in there as fast as possible. today's technology allows us to

get in faster with the likes of drones to get the claim paid as fast as possible. really, the financial first responder aspect is a primary emission. host: we are talking with sean kevelighan, the ceo of t insurance institute and including the design -- the decline of coverage and factors impacting the cover -- the company. we want to bring our audience into the stat -- into the discussion. you can start calling it now with the lines being regional the line is 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific, 202-748-8001. and let us talk a little bit more about pricing, who and what areas are seeing this price increase and how much is it going up. guest: i would argue that every

area is seeing price increases as a result of inflation. those replacement costs going up 55%. we are seeing those inflation rates getting back to normal. our prediction to inflation related to casualty insurance is 3.1% and you are trying to get inflation around 2%. it is beginning to get back to normal but it is that high levels of our -- i would argue that everyone is seeing the natural catastrophe and climate risk elements is another driver. where you are living is a big factor. so insurance understands the risk based on location and will factor that into the cost. as we are seeing people migrate into areas that are risky due to natural catastrophes, that will increase the price of insurance as well. we are also seeing people being

impacted by severe convective storms. tornadoes, hail and thunderstorms. 2023 is a record year for the amou o events that happened. i would call that with many headline natural catastrophes, but severe convective storms. we had a lot of them in texas and tennessee, areas of growth in the country. host: who has oversight of insurance prices? what does that look like when a company might decide or look at raising rates? what the insurance industry must do, it is one of the most regulated industries in the world. we have 56 different regulatory jurisdictions in the cou go up the insurance company needs to work directly with the regulator to get those prices approved.

for some states that could be a tougher process and is actually forcing insurers to make tough decisions about not writing insurance. the state of california's regulatory system is antiquated because it does not allow you to model and you cannot price reinsurance into the pricing. if you want an increased rate over(' 7%, you would have to go through a long and tenuous ess to get it approved. that is forcing insurers, we are talking 55% inflation and you cannot increase more than 7% you have to do something to make your business profitable and that will not happen in california. so insurers are needing to make tough decisions. we are seeing hope that they will change their regulation in california, but right now we have some rhetoric that says they will do something and we

have completely. but we are hopeful that they will change things soon. host: talk a little bit more about what is happening in these areas where insurance companies are pulling back on coverage and cap -- like in california because of wildfires. guest: california wildfires are an issue and it is increasing because more people are living in wildfire prone areas. hgoing back to what i was talkig about earlier, the cop -- the problem is much more around the regulatory process. the insurers cannot price the risk in an actuarially sound way with the regulatory process at hand right now. so that is forcing insurers to not be able to do business. overall the insurance industry measures the underiting success based on the combined ratio. the amount of premium taken in versus expenses paid out. right now the combined ratio for

homeowners insurance in the industry overall is 111%. what that basically means is that every dollar brought in for premium the insurance industry is paying out 11 more that is not a sound and profitable way to do and -- business and that is why insurers are trying to get rates into break even which is really what they are striving to do. it is not where they make a lot of profitability. it is a big misnomer that they think premiums are driving profitability. they are collecting the premiums to keep the capital and pay the claims and keep promises. in a state like california that is not just possible. so you are saying insurers who do not want to be making these decisions. california is one of the largest economies in the world. insurance thrives on sustainability and economic growth and they want to be in california but they cannot based on the regulatory process. host: another state having

insurance challenges is louisiana. the louisiana government -- governor jeff landry spoke about the coverage. here are his remarks. [video clip] >> we are experiencing an insurance crisis. the results of back-to-back hurricanes that have decimated our southern coast. the storms have overwhelmed the insurance industry. the delay of getting claims to the process has led to an unprecedented number of lawsuits that clogged the state and federal courts. many insurance companies have left us. those companies have -- those companies that remained raised rates to cover the losses. many homeowners and businesses cannot acquire the insurance in the current environment. leading to mortgage disqualifications, the threat of

losing one's home, business relocations or even business failures. the new insurance commissioner is working tirelessly to find solutions that make louisiana attractive to the insurance market so that more companies will come here. he believes and i agree with him that the deregulatory measures will improve market conditions. there are several i edition -- additional ideas and proposals before you this session to address the insurance prices. i would urge you to listen carefully and read the bills and arrive at solutions that are fair to the consumer and will work with the company is so that they can ensure -- insure our people. host: what are some of the

solutions that would be fair to both consumers and the insurance company and those -- and are those that kind of legislative packages that they are looking at? guest: one thing that i think that the governor might have left out is we call legal system abuse. legal system abuse in the state of louisiana is running rampant and exasperating the problem. they are neighboring states that face the same type of climate related issues that are not the same situation. not florida. florida is in thelegal system as using different methods to really go to litigation as a first resort instead of a last resort. so what happens in louisiana is when a storm hits, when ida hit for example, the insurance industry's combined ratio

because it had to factor in the amount of legal system abuse that would come from the storm went up to 462%. so i mentioned that the industry status would be under 100% as a combined ratio. florida when ian came through, which is the second costliest hurricane behind katrina. ian was catastrophic. florida because of the amount of legal system abuse insurers need to factor litigation costs into its losses. as a result it is hard to do business. the state of louisiana does have legislation and the commissioner understands ways that we need to fix this problem around legal system abuse, getting more transparency. third party litigation funding

allows funders to profit on legislation. there is zero transparency of who is behind the funding. it could be foreign governments and it is hedge funds and there is not any regulation behind it. it is a global mill taiba -- multimillion dollar asset class of■s money. these are the things of what is louisiana and florida's problem and why insurers are decidin not to do business with that amount of abuse. host: let us hear from a caller in florida. newport, florida. caller: go ahead. i had a have had a

couple of hurricanes in my area. and when a hurricane starts coming there -- it is focused in tampa and so a lot of buying goes on and a lot of waste is done by the scares but i understand about being prepared. the second thing is -- my question is why can't we just buy insurance if we have a mortgage of say $50,000 left of our mortgage? why can't we buy $50,000 worst of it -- worth of insurance or just enough to cover what we think a hurricane would mitigate? why do we have to buy insurance for total replacement costs? thank you. guest: so, if you have a mortgage and the mortgage is about the house. so if there is 50 thought others

-- $50,000 left on the mortgage the house still costs what it is to replace, 200 $50,000, let's say. if that gets devastated someone havs to replace that cause. if the consumer does not have the money to replace the cost mortgage provider is stuck with the property and needs to replace it as well. this is a mutual relationship where people need to own their own risk and the risk is protecting your house. hurricanes do come through the state of florida. if you live on the golfecoast al be a hurricane. history provides that. you can look at the tracks dating back to the 19 hundreds. they are everywhere and they hit everywhere, all the way up to new england. it is important to know that you need something to cover it. if you have enough money on hand yourself to cover that then you

can go uninsured. but insurance is a transfer of that risk. so it is important that you understand that it is not necessarily about the amount of mortgage but the amount of property you have. host: there is a growing trend of homeowners just before going homeowners insurance altogether. what is happening and what recourse do homeowners have if they need to file a claim? guest: if a homeowner does decide to go uninsured, they need to understand the financial situation. if that property that they have gets destroyed, they will be forced to replace it themselves. if they cannot afford togk and they do not have insurance, no one will help them replace it. the government and the likes of fema can help. the difference between an insured property and fema is hundreds of thousands of dollars

of difference. through and fema has to help someone recover, you might get 1000 to $5,000. if you have insurance you will have the value of replacing the cost of your property. so, it is a very risky situation, i would say if someone decides to go uninsured and they do not have enough money on hand to help them replace in case catastrophe strikes. host: what has that trend look like? guest: we are seeing more homeowners to not to or have less insurance. we did a study with one of our supporting member companies where we surveyed consumers around homeowners insurance and found that 88% have insurance for their house. 88% is a low number, historically. ly see the take-up rate

for insurance in the 90's. we are seeing it decline. that was a headline when we saw 88%. it is getting more expensive, everything is. consumers and americans are having to make tough choices. owning your risk is a choice you need to take seriously. host: if the homeowner cannot get coverage or cannot afford the coverage that they need, what resources are available and where can they go? guest: so if they cannot afford the coverage, what resources and where can they go? it is a question right now. this is a really different type of discussion that we need to start having around social welfare programs and insurance. because the insurance needs to be priced according to the rk.ta reflection of the risk and not the cause. but if a consumer decides it is

not affordable there are limited resources available. i would argue that is where we get into social welfare programs. and issues. you see this when you talk about affordable housing. if a person cannot necessarily afford the housing but needs it, there are government ways to get support for that. right now we do not have as much of those benefits available for people who cannot afford insurance, unfortunately. again, it is not the insurance company that can provide the affordability, they have to price the risk according to the cause and variables. host: let us hear from harvey in georgia. go ahead. caller: good morning. i recently moved from virginia to georgia and i was insured for 20 years in virginia with usaa. when i moved to georgia and

purchased a 207,000 dollars i was denied insurance from the company because two losses in virginia. the losses were totally beyond my control. and i wondered if there is any recourse? after 20 years at the company and only two claims and the claims were theft, i do not have insurance. guest: i cannot speak to a specific decision-making. what i can say is if a consumer has more claims, it would be identified as increasing risk. insurers do take into account whether or not the consumer has a security system. they do take into account the location and what things you might have to protect it. that gets factored into the price of insurance because what

the insurer is trying to do is work with the consumer to own the risk together. so finding ways to make the consumer more resilient is more important and those are ways to reduce the price of insurance. it is important to make sure that you are taking steps to make sure that you are protecting the property. the insurer will make sure that is reflected in relationship in general. host: nelson. hollywood, california. go ahead. caller: good morning. it is hollywood, florida. host: my apologies. hollywood, florida. caller: i am a retired firefighter. and i went through hurricane andrew in that devastated southeast florida. one of the things that i learned as a result of those e of availe

construction persons who can come and repair or rebuild homes. this led to an influx of fly-by-night individuals who would do shoddy work and would get insurance money but would not be available when the owners needed to call them in order to come and them in order to come and fix work that they had done and left unfinished, etc. my question, sir, is why doesn't the insurance company form and/or develop a closer relationship with the construction industry in such a way where there would be a

higher degree and more personnel available for the reconstruction of damaged and were devastated -- and/or david stated area, and thank you kindly for taking my question. guest: so it is an interesting question how much they can get involved. the insurer wants to get the money to the consumer, so they can make the choice how they want to rebuild. it is a simple supply and demand problem, and it is a problem in florida, unfortunately, where you will see contractors just coming in and trying to get the work. they are not doing great work. there used to be something in florida, it is now reformed, called the assignment of benefits. sometimes the insured did not even understand they were signing over the claim to either a contractor or a lawyer, and

they would take that to litigation almost immediately, which is, again, driving up the legal system of use cost. we want you to understand who their contractors are, ask questions, look at certificates, those kinds of things. the insurance company tries to help inform the consumer, but at some point, the relationship and the decision to rebuild is the consumer's choice. host: robert in tampa, florida. go a, ller: thank you for takiny call. i was just wondering, i bought my home two years ago before the interest rates went up. all of a sudden now, my insurance rate has gone up an extra $900. i have never filed a claim, i have decent credit, and i don't even live on the coast. iif just 25 miles from the coas, but my insurance keeps going up. i just think something needs to be done about that.

i think the ones living on the coast should be the ones dealing with the higher rates because of the flowed zones -- flood zones and things like that, but people who live inland should not see it go up as much as it has been doing. also, my car insurance has gone up in florida. i've never had an accident, i've never been ticketed, i've been driving 25 years, and the car insurance is going up as well. i don't know what the deal is going on. it seems like everyone just wants to raise prices on everything, and the hard-working man out there can't catch a break. host: any response for robert? guest: yes, absolutely. first of all, the increase of insurance, everybody is getting it, i'm getting it, everyone is going up because of the equation we talked about earlier. the insurance industry is trying to catch up to that 55%

replacement costs auto insurance replacement costs are going up significantly. the new technologies are harder to fix and they take specific labor to fix. on top of all of that, during covid, we picked up some pcçrety nasty driving habits as americans, and we did not stop. so the loss ratios for the industry were 50% before covid, and they shot up to 80% during covid.we have seen it coa little bit. the other factor we've been talking about is legal system of abuse. the state of florida is running rampant. state of florida has 70% of all homeowner litigation is in the state of florida. that is a significant problem the state has and that insurers have to factor into pricing. if you are living in that state, it is getting better. we've had legislature a couple s

ago. what happened within a few days, between the legislature was passed and they signed into law, they dump about 280:,000 more cases into the system, so they can get all of those, what we call legalized fraud, from the assignment of benefits. the state has significant problems. the reformers the end, a new insurers have entered into the state of florida since reform was passed. the price of insurance is beginning to go back into a better direction, but unfortunately, in florida and throughout this country, inflation has exasperated the cost of risk, and for that reason, for now at least, and for the next few years, we are going to be seeing higher insurance rates. host: anna in florida, go ahead. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i'm one who checked out a

contractor, made sure he was licensed, and someone. he came to my home and replaced my windows and created $45,000 with of damage in my home. long sry short, i went to filing claim with the insurance company, and something most people are not aware of hist of these contractors have something called general liability, the minimum for having a license. that insurance does not cover my property damage, it covers something that happens to the crew, they break a water line, or something like that. so that is kind of a false statement, that we are not going to cover this. i have been fighting this for over a year now, and we still have not passed the inspection. guest: so, it sounds like, you

know, unfortunately, the contractor made a mistake, and even though sometimes we have licensed professionals, you know, that their work that is done is not up to the way that it should be done. it does sound like an unfortunate situation, and hopefully she involved, potentially get an attorney involved, to make sure they can get the replacement of the property in the right place. st homeowners aware of the iniclicy, what is covered, s not covered, and and also the risk, if they do live in an area like florida that sees a lot of climate-related disasters? guest: one of the things we encourage consumers to do is look at the first page on their policy. it is called the declarations page. it gives you the very basic components of your policy, you know, but it is important to ask

questions. if you go to our website, iii.org, we have a consumer handbook, questions you need to ask when purchasing property. things that will need to come into play when purchasing your insurance. this handbook we've just done in conjunction with the national association of realtors, so realtors now have a tool that they can hand to their customers, that they have not had before, that they can actually educate themselves on insurance, what questions to ask, whether you can get discounts on insurance by making yourself more resilient. in the state of florida, you want to make sure you have those the customer was trying to get, tiedowns for your roof. you want to make sure your roof is in good shape. the roof is the first line of defense for natural catastrophes, right? you want to make sure you have a good roof in place. but you want to make sure those contractors who are knocking on your door and tell you they can replace your roof most of the time are not legitimate and do not need to be replaced.

they will tell you the insurance company will pay them for it. that is another problem we are having in the industry. that's what we are here for at iii, to make sure customers can ask you can look at an issue brief from the state of florida, state alabama, about the homeowner prices, that is what the industry pays us to do. we would love to see more people educate themselves through iii. host: let's hear from lorraine in ithaca, new york. go ahead. caller: good morning. i have two questions. one is, how many private insurance companies are there out there, doing insurance of homes, and have a, you know, merged so that, you know, -- have they merge so that, you know, a lesser number of companies are offering insurance?

that is one question. the other question is, you know, grocery stores make about 2% profit. what is the average amount of profit that insurance company ies make? insurance people i know look like they are doing quite well. i would like those two questions answered. thank you very much. guest: the answer to the first question is the united states insurance industry, homeowners industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world, so there are many, many options. we encourage consumers, in fact we have a shoppers guide for you on our website, if, in fact, you want to look for other insurance. beyond homeowners insurance, you can get excess insurance. you have a lot of options in this country, and you can ask a lot of questions. the second question, insofar as

profitability, we talked earlier about the profitability around homeowners insurance. for underwriting purposes, it is not profitable. the insurers are not charging enough premium to cover the expenses they are talking out -- taking out. we are insurers may profit is around their investments, because insurers keep capital on hand for a very long time, in sync with the regulator, to make sure it is profitable so the promises can be kept. the investment income is where most of the profitability is for the insurance company. it is not usually run underwriting and especially not around homeowners insurance right now. host: you talked about the fact that insurance companies are not charging enough to cover -- there's a premium to cover their losses. . the "new york times" recently did a piece, the headline is the possible collapse of the u.s. home insurance system. is that a possibility? guest: well, i think what is

unfortunate about" article as wo him about two hours on the insurance policy, and he chose to go into crisis mode. i think we've got three of the 56 different jurisdictions in this country in a place where the insurance industry is having trouble, but those troubles are not based on the climate risk and things like that. the troubles in california, as we talked about earlier, or regulatory issues and not being able to price the risk of accordingly. the troubles in florida and louisiana are mostly based on legal. again, neighboring state of florida, louisiana, california, the markets are thriving, the may be increasing, but there's definitely enough insurance available, and they're certainly enough capital on hand. the industry has about $1 trillion in what they call a policyholder surplus. that surplus stays in the

industry, it is on hand to ma kr whatever we are planning to pay out in claims. if you are looking at record years, you are looking at $120 billion for a record year, so you have got a lot of capital in this industry on hand. doomsday approach of the journalist athey "new york times " -- at the "new york times" was not accurate. i wish he had taken some of the data we have provided that interview. host: here is tommy in tennessee. go ahead. caller: i am in north carolina. yes, i have a question about, why doesn't the insurance pay for, like, when you have hail damage, it tear siding up on your house, it tears the vehicles up in your yard, as big as a silver dollar, and doesn't

pay for the roof, and the roof ain't but five years old. guest: if this consumer has homeowners insurance and there is damaged due to hail coming to vehicles or the home, the home, the insurer will check the roof, and the insurer will pay out to make sure those losses are taken care of. i'm not sure the individual's situation. on the auto side of it, as well, if you have comprehensive insurance coverage, which is an optional coverage, but it is important to have, because it will pay for hail, flooding, natural catastrophe type disasters, not just getting into our last call in this segment, we will talk with susan caller: this is very educational. i'm not a homeowner myself, but

the difference between the insurance industry flood maps and the fema flood maps, because there is a difference, and people need to know. and then the seconw+thing is why states, municipalities, allow people over and over again to rebuild and obviously visit the areas. i'm thinking paradise, california, replacing homes that are literally five inches from rising seas and are prone to bad weather, or they are politically powerful enough to get theillioo do sand replenishment and all that. i just wonder at what point do you think states and cities will encourage people and help them with eminent domain, to just get

out of these risky areas? it just seems so stupid to me. thank you for being on. my sister is in the insurance industry, for decades, and set a higher policy level, currently with allianz , the big insurance company out of germany, but things are being on today. guest: these are great questions. the first one about flood maps, we encourage a consumer to ask for flood insurance. it is a separate policy. you can get it through much more private insurance available with flood insurance. her question about the maps is spot on. the maps, government maps are out of date. our opinion is the government, unfortunately, is not a business for insurance. theygenerally do insurance or business well, because politics get involved.

but these maps are generally out of date. the insurer does use their own and different maps. it is a problem with flood insurance, because the take-up rates are entirely too low in this country. where that consumer lives, i'm just visualizing a map we have in our website, i believe it is about 4% of that community takes up flood insurance. so that is a big problem. we encourage people to just ask, even argue for flood insurance. sometimes we find they are saying you don't need it because of the map. i had a situation where somebody told me i did not mean flood insurance because i was on the side of the street that does not flood. flood insurance is a big problem. we need to ask more questions n. the second one about municipalities and rebuilding. this is a big problem. more and more people are living nd we have to take what i would call a collective or communal what is happening and decide to intentionally rebuild in resilient ways.

if we rebuild the way it was done before, the catastrophe is going tocome right back to the same place, especially in the gulf anddo we lessen our ri? because if we lessen our risk, we can potentially less than the price of insurance, but it takes a conscious effort to do all of this as we are rebuilding. the caller once said he went through andrew. after andrew, florida changed its building codes and it is now much more resilient just because of building codes. it is encouraging. it can't control, but it is trying to make sure immunity thing citizens understand we've got to rebuild and change the way we are building. host: sean kevelighan with the

insurance information institute page you can find more information on iii.org and on and @iii.org. thank you so much, sean. te will talk with former ohio democratic party chair david pepper about his substack newsletter "pepperspectives," political news of the day. first, we will turn to our earlier question, your top news story of the week. you can start calling it now. republicans, your line, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-80 3 2. we will be right back. ♪ >> next week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in session.

the house plans to bring a contempt of conflict resolution against attorney general merrick garland for refusing to release audio of the interview between special counsel and president joe biden. the senate will vote on whether to■s to protect access to in vitro fertilization. on thursday, michael whitaker testifies before the senate commerce committee on boeings aircraft manufacturing process and production quality. also on thursday, microsoft vice chair and president brad smith on the company's cybersurity and implications for u.s. policies. watch next week live on the c-span networks or on c-span now, our free mobile video app, will go to c-span.org to watch live or on-demand.

c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ♪ >> tune into c-span's live coverage of the 2024 national political conventions, starting with the republicans' four-day event in milwaukee. next up, because the democrats as they convene in chicago, taking off on august 19. stay connected to c-span for an uninterrupted and unfiltered glimpse of democracy at work. watch the republican and democratic national conventions life this summer on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, and online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics, powered by cable. ♪ >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, c-span has been your primary source for capitol hill,

providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government, the policies debated and decided, all with support america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable>> "washington " continues. host: welcome back. for the next 20 minutes or so, we will be taking your calls on your top news story of the week. here are some of these stories we have been following this week on c-span. the 80th anniversary of the d-day invasion, lawmakers and veterans have been in normandy, france this week. the hunter biden federal gun charge trial started last week, and the gop response to trump's friend if. president biden signed an executive -- to trump's prosecution. president biden signed an executive order about the u.s.-x

go border appear there was a "wall street journal" story about president biden's agend his response with. one of the reporters who worked on the "wall street journal" story was on cnn. here is her explaining her approach to the article. [video clip] >> you noted that some democrats said that he showed his age in several exchanges. not to repeat breonna's law brianna's question, but there are different cameras that can be read different ways, so i'm wondering how you navigated that in your reporting. >> it is fair, that is very tricky terrain, but we focused on three meetings in particular all over the course of the past year, and there were things like mumbling, speaking in such a low

voice that people could only hear every other word or could not understand what he was saying. this overreliance on notecards, using no cards to make what were very obvious points and making them that affected t the convern for it having a loose commander of the details. things like in the ukraine meeting we talked about in january of this year, using no cards to make the point that -- no cards to make the point that ukraine aid needed to be on the table when everybody in that room, by and large, agreed. that was not the question to the question was, how do we do this quickly? host: the headlines from that "wall street journal" article, "behind closed doors, biden shows signs of slipping." "the 81-year-old performed poorly at times." the white house says biden is sharp, in his creek are playing partisan politics. -- and his critic's are

playing partisan politics. let's go to callers. caller: yes, my comment will be the righteous conviction of donald trump. it took them less than one day to convict him on 34 counts. that is quick. but that is how good of a job the prosecution judge did. and that is why the republicans are having such a fit about it, because they know that he is guilty, dead to rights, and they can't stand it. and i would like every republican to join in with me, lock him up! lock him up! [laughs] everybody have a good day. bye. host: let's go to tavares in

athens, georgia. good morning. caller:■d good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing great. how are you? caller: i'm doing wonderful, tammy. i love c-span, immensely. i've got some great news, tammy, you are the top host, you are letting callers get their thoughts out, and we love you. 11 charges of invoices, 11 charges of tax, and 12 charges of detailed business ledgers, that is what mr. trump was convicted out, 34 charges. you can reference ap, donald trump's conviction charges. number two, the cease fire is an effort to silence the campus protests before school starts back in the fall, and it can interfere with the elections. number three, it is not maga gae

american citizens great again, because of the leisure, the convenience, the self-indulgence, we have been able to be sold out by the organizations, the institutes, the businesses, and of course this massive government. number four, the soldiers, the military, our mercenaries, are these male immigrants coming across the border. these guys are infiltrated into the nation to do some harm to the nation when their time is called upon. very quickly before i get to my last point, c-span viewers and callers, greta and susan asked for your donations. i've done my part, guys. i put it on the c-span application, so you can see. just donate five dolla, $10, one dollar, so we can keep c-span relevant and we can keep them solvent, so they don't have

to start advertising and selling us out. my last point, tammy, if i could. rob kennedy, thank you for your service, susan swain, thank you for your service. i think c-span has done us a disservice. the board of directors have brought in someone by the name of sam feist? is that how you say that? host: that is correct. caller: we don't know this guy, but you know who we do know, tammy? we know pedro echevarria, widow peter, they could have promoted something within the c-span organization which does not leave guys like myself to think we are being subverted by bringing in this guy. i don't know mr. feist, but he has been with cnn, and they are a left-leaning organization, so that leads me to thank the c-span organization may start

leaning less. thank you so much, tammy, we love having you here, you do a great job, and i'm so glad to have you part of the family. talk to you in 30 days. host: let's hear from gail in jacksonville, north carolina. what is your top story? caller:■ i have a lot of top stories, but i will try to get to it quickly. first of all, the house speaker, talking about all the jobs we are going to get done and all that come about when you you look at the facts and statistics, the democrats, when they had control of the house, they passed over 300 bills. when they were about because had control of the house of this congress now, they've only passed about 25 bills, because are the -- all they are doing is trying to get biden in trouble for everything. they are doing nothing for the american people. second of all, donald trump, i

have a criminal justice degree, and when i studied the law and criminal justice and i saw what donald trump was doing, i cannot believe the people that support him. he has no integrity or character. he's a racist, tax fraud, stole but you know who i blame for not bringing him to justice? is our own justice system waited two years to evenwhen trump gote republicans let him go so he could not run again. if the republicans would have impeached him, he would not have been able to run for president. that's another thing. i cannot understand how people support donald trump. what he really is is a showman. he is a con artist. an actor. he gets on stage and the other day in arizona he said he was in

texas. he did not even know he was at. then they want to say biden is old. when trump does stuff like that nobody says anything about it. i will tell you one thing about biden. when i found out that when he was a senator in delaware, when his wife got in that car accident and his child parent, d take the bus, the subway two hours a day to go back and forth to his children at night so he could read them a bedtime story. that is the kind of man joe biden is. he has integrity. he has character. he cares about the middle class. he cares about the arrogant people. he does not get on the tv and make all these crazy jokes like trump does. he cares about running the country, trying to help people with the infrastructure bill, the pact act. trhe does so much of the attic d

people that people don't realize it because they watch fox news. if you have anybody that watches fox news, everybody that watches fox news and newsmax, all they do is downgrade biden. they think trump is a queen and king. trump is a psychological unstable people liar -- evil liar that only cares about staying out of prison. that's the only reason he's running for president. the country better wake up, because when covid hit, trump kept dbe equipment from the democratic state -- ppeá3 equipment from the democratic states and people died because of trump. ps a -- he is an evil man and if he gets back in there we are gone. host: good morning, claudia. caller: yes.

my primary news story of the week has two do with the i think many people have about the growing lack of trust in the media. think that the media -- the federal communications commission who used it to monitor the media stated that the media should be able to automatically have the trust of the public. if they don't honor that trust, instead they skew the news. they step on political, religious preference, or any other preference. it is a heinous act against the public. i don't think we honor that anymore. i think we have propagandized opinions.

just like all the calls today. we can tell that no matter what station the person listened to, that is the news they got. that becomes their perspective■. i just think that if we could have trust in the media and if we could have reporting that stated the truth, the facts, like that guy on dragnet, just the truth. we would have calls where we probably had more agreement and less division. i wanted to make one of the final point. i think it is interesting that if the media travels with the president, shouldn't they have a diversity in their opinions? they should not be -- if a

taxpayers -- if the taxpayers are paying for the media to travel the president, why should they choose a liberal or conservative perspective and not just state the facts? that is what i wanted to say. i appreciate it.bye-bye. host: we wanted to bring your attention to this headline from the philadelphia inquirer. the trump vp candidate came to philly and said black families were stronger during the jim crow era. representative byron donalds is in trouble in d.c. the headline talked -- the article talks about the backlash against representative donald. the article says his comments were first reported by the inquirer on tuesday night. the backlash against them has been swift and relentless. so fierce is the vitriol that a spokesperson for former

president trump stressed in an interview on thursday, please make it clear this was not an official trump event. donald has been named as a potential running mate for trump as his search for a vice presidential candidate that would help them increase his popularity of the polls in november. let's hear from gary in connecticut on the independent line. what is your top story? caller: good morning, tammy. i'm calling today to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the attack of the uss liberty, and intelligence gathering ship that was sailing off international waters off the sinai peninsula during the arab-israeli war. the six-day war. during that attack, israeli air and naval forces deliver late and intentionally killed 34 americans d ded over 170

others. even while the american sailors were abandoning the ships they were being machine-gunned in their life boats by israeli torpedo boats. no one pays attention to this anymore. it is a sad case in history. one that belies the fact that israel is a close ally to the united states. it really upsets me. this never comes back into the news and has been covered up all these years. anyone who wishes to learn about this can go online and research it. it is incontrovertible. the israelis had flown over that hours, had identified -- one pilot identified it as an american ship and was told, and this is on tape, hit it anyway. he refused to do so and was later court-marti story is a mae disgrace for this country and should be known to the american public. i hope someone who is a liberty

survivor or a family member will call in and confirmed what i'm saying. you don't have to. there are plenty of books and information online. it is very accurate. i remember when it happened. please remember the liberty. forever those 34 dead americans and the 170 plus that were wounded. thank you. host: this headline from upi. uss liberty attacked off egypt on june 8, 1967. ational waters off egypt was attacked by israeli jet planes and torpedo boats. you can find that article on upi.org. one other note in relation to israel. earlier this week, the house speaker confirmed that israel --

israeli prime minister bennett daniel would adjust the -- benjaminould adjust congress on july 24. rose in tennessee on the republican line. what is your top new story? caller: my top story is addressed in the following podcast series. efget a pad of paper and a pen. right down alpha warriors show and kernel corner -- colonels corner. you will learn about child sex trafficking on behalf of vip pedophiles on both sides of the aisle. and making patents they are using youngblood to keep themselves alive. teach yourself about operation

gladial. thank you for your time. host: gary in connors hill, indiana -- connorsville, indiana. caller: i have something to say. my name is gary seaver. on the voice of the common man. i'm here to take a stand. that previous guest you had on your show with the real estate stuff and the insurance, that spark something in my mind. it was an interesting topic. it reminded me that much more of how americans are getting screwed. some people only have so much income to work with. they get charged like a rich man would. the applications are all over it, what i'm about to say. it's all about oligarchy and these people are saying if you can't get better skilled and get richer, that is too bad for you.

we will penalize you by charging you more than you can afford. it is all about -- it is too bad for you, isn't it? they are basically saying we want nothing but rich people in this country. the common man has no place in society. you are cluttering up our dream. that is what you are saying out there. the applications are all over it . thady from north carolina, she was right about trump. i enjoyed listening to her. a frivolous remark comes out of his mouth every two minutes. i am fed up as all get out. i will start pushing back. who's with me out there? host: president biden is in france after the event celebrating the -- honoring the 80th anniversary of d-day. this is video of himnd french president macron earlier today.

the president and the first lady both participated in a parade procession. later this morning online you can watch president biden and esthey will have a news conferee live at 9:45 a.m. eastern time. for a couple more calls. henry in fort deposition, alabama on the democrat line. good morning, henry. caller: good morning. host: what is your top story? caller: my story is about the house. jim jordan, roy, messy, greene of georgia, green of tennessee. these people have no interest in doing their jobs they were put

intotheir only purpose is to get joe biden through his son. they have no interest in doing the job for the people. one other thing i want to speak of is, why were these $2 billion that the trump cartel was receiving at of saudi arabia? wh■&y -- what did they do in orr to get this money? that is all i have to say. host: james in phoenix, arizona, republican line. good morning, james. caller: good morning.

a couple of comments. the insurance -- homeowners insurance. my rates have gone up. no claims. i've never had a claim in my life, car or homeowners insurance. in the last two years previously what i paid is $1300 more a year than it was the previous two years. it went up $500 or $600 last year and 800 this year -- $800 this year. it is getting unaffordable. the losers and sucker comments, those are cherry picked words. if people listened to the whole statement they would get a better idea of the context of the statements. bloodbath statement was talking about china building cars over in mexico and then bringing them here. it would be a bloodbath to the autoworkers in this country. words are cherry picked by news ornijust like washington post lt

the impeachment begin on trump in 2016. eight years of this has been going on. they have been like to. the new york case on trump, no one brought it up. judge merchan issued letters to trump's team and the prosecutors that there could be basically a mistrial coming because of what is found out on facebook. the comment was, they will find him guilty before the verdict came up. i'm surprised no one touched on that. that whole case was a sham, just like january.just like the docu. all these things. people want fairness. we see the unfairness. new york people about the new york case, enjoy it now because it will probably be appealed and overturned. host: the last call for this

segment, jeanette in austin, texas, democrats want. caller: good morning. janet fletcher dorothy. thank you for having me. i wanted to say -- i have been listening. i voted both ways. i voted for obama, and then i voted r trump. and the basic thing is, we both have to get back to what is integrity. what is honesty. what is straightforward. i think both sides are guilty of that, because i have been away from texas -- austin, texas for over 40 plus years. ok.

we badmouth trump. certainly we do. but the democrats are equally as guilty. i have been away from texas for over 40 years. i was hired on a job after i came back. i was asked that i must leave training because i had two drivers licenses. they have me voting from 2004 to 2018. ok? they have a notary put in place in mining. -- my name. there are crooks on both sides. i just discovered this. i have reported it to apd. i have gone into dps.

i have been patted on the back and walked out and told if i say who i am i'm going to jail. it is worth the time. $h■it is not me. i have to prove who i am. america is falling. america is tumbling. and now, en now in the political arena you have the democrats talking about they are going to blacken the republican eye. he had the republican saying they are going to blacken the democrats' eye. where is the honesty? where is the integrity? host: thank you for your comments. we are out of time for the segment. joining us next is former ohio democratic party chair david pepper. he is going to discuss his substack news tack

"pepperspectives -- newsletter "pepperspectives." we will be right back. ♪ >> in the first week of publication of eric larson's latest book "the demon of unrest," sales put it at the top of the bestseller list. it's about the start of the civil war, with a focus on the five months between abraham lincoln's election and the day of the first shot fired on fort sumter, which is off the coast of charleston, south airline. that was able 12, 1861 -- april 12, 18 621. eric larson writes, "i invite you now to step into the past due at time of fear and dissension." i suspect your sense of dread will be all the more pronounced

in light of today's political discord." >> eric larson on this episode of book note plus. book notes plus is available on the c-span now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ >> sunday on qi day, -- q --, george takei recounts the day he and his family were removed from their home and sent to internment camp following the japanese attack on pearl harbor in 1941. >> my father came out and answered the door. one of the soldiers pointed his bayonet at our father. henry and i were petrified. the other soldiers said get your family out of the house. we stood on the driveway waiting for our mother to come out.

when she finally came out escorted by the soldier that pointed his bayonet at our father, when she came out she had her baby sister in her arms. a huge duffel bag on the other and tears were streaming down her cheeks. that memory is seare >> actor and author george takei sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a at our podcast on the free c-span now have. -- app. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. if you watch washington journal on a regular basis, you may be familiar with our spotlight on podcast segment. we are spending that to include other digital platforms. joining us today for our on substack segment is david pepper,

author of "pepperspectives," the substack newsletter and former chair of the ohio democratic already. david, welcome. guest: really excited to be with you today. host: can you tell us about your newsletter? when you started it and why you started? -- started it? guest: it's an interesting story. a couple of years ago i was active on twitter. i have written some books, both novels and nonfiction. it of newspaper editing in college. i like writing on a regular basis. although i like twitter, those are so short that it wanted to actually add something a little longer. remember when elon musk took over twitter there was a panic he was about to go under. my gosh. i need to figure it had to keep my twitter followers engaged. i better start something different. it's a combination of those

things that led me to start substack a couple of years ago. i do about a daily update. maybe five or six days a week. it's basically "pepperspectives ," my perspectives. a focus on democracy, which is what my books have been about. how is been attacked and undermined. how every american can play a role to lift democracy wherever they are. that is a big theme of substack and my books. i don't know how wide the frame is. i started painting a few years ago. every sunday to relax people i sent out a sunday painting, which are normally scenes that relax me so i figured they would relax other people. a few months ago, i started doing a regular podcast as part of my substack. i will introduce -- interview someone interesting about democracy or something else.

just hearing your callers before i got on here, it's a tough time. it's polarizing. people are fragmented. i focus on some of the tough topics. i also try to focus on positive news, like a young leader making a big difference. or, someone taking on a big challenge and succeeding. some of my podcast interviews try to feature some of the better things happening and not only getting lost in a lot of the negative things happening. host: you can find david's substack at davidpepper. substack.com. "serenity," i think it's very impressive. that is one reason you can subscribe to him and find his work. david, who is your audience? for people who are reading it, what do you want them to take your "pepperspectives?

" guest: one thing is there really is -- my audience is not a bunch of our critics, although some do like the paintings. it's the same audience that sort of read my books. there is a growing group of people very concerned about what is happening to our democracy in this country. one of my big themes in my books is the subversion of democracy, the weakening of democracy is not only about washington, d.c. if we think it is only about washington, d.c., we are missing what is happening states. are seeing a real downgraded democracy. things like gerrymandering, like uncontested races. the look of media really dying so there is no coverage of these places. there's a bigger group of people really concerned about democracy at all the levels, not just washington. all these levels.

one of the prior calls mentioned texas. missouri, tennessee, ohio. the heart of my audience are those people. people who are concerned about democracy. i share things about democracy to them, like a sunday painting that hopefully makes them feel like the one you saw,v "serenity." for the most part that is the heart of the audience. those of the people -- the response from different posts tell me the audience is looking to make sure they understand what is happening to our democracy. not just only d.c. stuff, not just trials in new york, but deeper issues happening in state after state. my audience are looking for ways to make a difference. there's so much to be frustrated about. sometimes it can feel overwhelming. the point of what i write is what can we do about it. what can we do about it where we live?

it is not only about some far-off u.s. senate race. your local school board is a frontline democracy battle. get involved with that one. your state house representative who has not been challenged for years and may be doing things you don't agree with, get someone to run against them. the suppression of voters in your■v area is a concern. help change that. by trying to get people digestible, tangible ways that they can do something that often they are left if you like there is nothing they can do if they are watching the national discussion of democracy. that audience is the democracy army that is growing. i say that is the heart of my audience as well. host: you are the chair of the ohio democratic party from 2015 to 2021. how does that experience influence your writing? guest: it is interesting. i was a lawyer. i would say neither of those two

would make for great writing. lawyers become terrible writers. politics doesn't lend itself to being a good writer. i learned a lot about writing when i wrote my first few novels 10 years ago about storytelling, about character. those have made me a better writer for nonfiction. being the chair, he would be to review the chair of either party. that lived experience informs a lot of what i write about. what i try to write about is not the 30,000 foot d.c. view of what's happening. it is the five foot or 10 foot or 5000 foot level that i saw often in horror and states like ohio. -- in states about ohio. i'm about to put up a substack■& about voter purging in ohio and mistakes ever made.

tens of thousands of voters will be eliminated. the experience -- i ran for city council in cincinnati in 2001. i knew nothing about politics. i entered because i thought of public service. i was physically not partisan. i ran as a democrat but it did not have a big partisan background. i entered without really understanding how that politics can get. i ran for public service. i think that is what should still be about. and when i read for higher offices it was eye-opening about in the wrong hand on broken politics can be. that is a lived experience i try to capture in the books are right on substack. i try to do it through storytelling. if i wrote a book about statehouses 101 or democracy in an academic sense, no one would read it.

i try to inform everything i described to people through real storytelling so the understand how it really affects individual people. that is what i do my books on substack. dean party chair, the real value was the lived experience of seeing up close the best of politics in the right hands. i got to know john glenn for example. he was a real mentor of mine. it also showed me the underbelly of politics that should concern us all. the concerns i heard from some of the callers. there are serious problems in politics. ohio is the most corrupt state inwe are seeing the largest bribery scandal in the history of our state play out right now. we have seen nonstop purging of voters having a worse impact. there is really ugly stuff happening right now in a lot of places. i think we are better off seeing that clearly then only4x watchig d.c. and ignoring the fact it's happening in all the states around the country.

i tried to expose all of that. host: we are talking with david pepper, author of "pepperspectives," substack newsletter. if you have a question for him, you can start calling in now. the lines are, republican, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. an independents, (202) 748-8002 . david, something that is happening in your state that's probably making headlines is ohio senator j.d. vance being vetted as a possible running mate. -- possible running mate for trump? your reaction? david: i'm not surprised at all. mike pence was loyal to donald trump everyday until january 6. he is looking for someone who would have been loyal to him,

including on january 6. why is j.d. vance high up in the rankings of who trump would consider? because i think, unfortunately for ohio and america, j.d. vance has shown he would be willing to support donald trump up to and including what he did on january 6. he's not the only one. tim scott. all of the finalists are saying i would have been better than mike pence. j.d. vance, this is a guy who literally text it to a friend that he thought maybe trump was america's hitler. he said he voted for hillary clinton. it's kind of weird that he is now trump's go to personfj. i think that loyalty is what trump is clearly looking for. i would think that j.d. vance is not only on the list of six or

eight that are being vetted, my guess is he is in the top two or three. i was on a call with a radio host or the other day. the one knock on vance may be that trump does not want anyone else as vp that he would worry would be ambitious enough to try to be president who could take some of the spotlight. i think the loyalty has shown, trump will love. trump may want someone who has no other ambition of their own. maybe he will pick someone a little older because of that. i think vance is clearly up on that list because hewhat trump . he's 100% loyal through everything and has shown every indication he would what mike pence do not want to do back in 2021. host: let's hear from tim in michigan calling on the republican line. good morning, tim. caller: good morning. how are you today?

host: doing great. david: great. caller: good, good. i watch this show pretty much every morning at stuff. and it seems like every time, i am not pking, but every time we get on a topic, it's always about democracy. and how can we ever get back to the republic or make the republic to what it was if we are always talking about democracy and nobody wants to do democracy? the democrats don't, the republicans don't. they are just arguing back and forth about stupid stuff. and the united states in the realm of things which affects all americans, not just lgbtq, blacks, or whatever, america is a melting pot. but we have to have some standard of what america is

about. not just, hey we are going to throw all this in here and throw all the money at it and then we are going to rob all the poor people. that's my point i guess. host: david, do you hava response? david: the first part of his question, i wrote, one of my most shared substacks wased thrf democracy versus republic. í

are elected by the people and that is a democratic republic. , there isn't some you know, dispute between a democracy and a republic once you see it that way. and this is often a point of big debate. mike johnson or mike lee in the senate will say we are not a democracy or a republic. the truth is we are both. to get back to the caller's question. right now when you have, and this is not happening in michigan anymore, but when you have such intense gerrymandering that have these seats are not even contested. you know, 50% or more of the tennessee republicans who kicked out the two justices in 2022, the prior year, they did not have opposition in the general election. that number is even higher for mike johnson in louisiana. that lack of basic elections even happening, gerrymandering guaranteeing most outcomes, that's leading to states and

statehouses that are literally passing laws that are direct opposite of what t people of the state think. a poll the other day showed that florida, 70% of the voters plan on voting yes for reproductive freedom. in ohio, that ends up at 57% at our referendum last november. we have states where the vast majoreedom. and then we have statehouses who are banning abortion, also with no exceptions. to the caller's question, that is neither a republican nor democracy. that is broken. when you have a system of elected representatives who are so disconnected from the people through gerrymandering and uncontested races they are literally voting for things that 20% or 30% or fewer of the voters agree with. that's not democracy, that's just a broken system that we have to fix. a lot of what i talk about, a lot of what we have to do, way

beyond trump versus biden, is fix these broken democracies that are broken at the state level even more than they are the way we see in congress everyday. host: you mentioned gerrymandering. where do things currently stand? where does that issue currently stand in ohio? is it going to be on the ballot again this fall? david: this is, for ohio's democracy, the most important issue on our ballot this year is a ballot initiative that would end gerrymandering in ohio, or at least would fire the politicians. in the last couple years, are politicians in columbus, the republican majority, violated the ohio constitution in a bipartisan, supreme court order seven times to give themselves gerrymandered distri they proved to all of ohio that they are willing to break the

law, break the constitution, break the will of the people of ohio, and violate a bipartisan supreme court to keep themselves in power in gerrymandered districts. they basically showed us they are not worthy of the responsibility of throwing the districts of the states. this ballot initiative would fire them. my sense from hearing both republican and democratic callers of a ballot initiative that says fire politicians from the process and replace it with everyday citizens, five democrats, five republicans, five independents, and they were draw the maps, instead of the politicians, who have all the bison the world, it's a very popular idea. and that will be on the ballot this november. and if it passes, i think it basically means will have -- we will have fair districts going forwards, like other states, and not be stuck with what essentially have been districts

that have guaranteed every member of the statehouse without even worrying about it and guaranteed super majorities that don't reflect the voting patterns of the people of ohio. that will be on the ballot. it's called citizens, not politicians. if you're interested, look it there is so much focus on trump versus biden, and there will on there should be, but on our ballot, way down that ballot will be something that will actually do more to preserve democracy in ohio than even that race will or even a u.s. senate race. it's important and my hope is it passes in november. i will be working hard to making that happen. host: let's hear from john in houston, texas calling on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morns, i would like with your guest there on a couple of points that he made. one, he mentioned

gerrymandering. he applied that it is a procedure that only republicans use and that's not the case. i mean, here in texas, for example, sheila jackson lee, who's been in congress for better part of 20 years, her district was gerrymandered by a republican and ordered to essentially half that seat held -- have that seat held by a black person. and recently, two, in our county government, which was, at the time, majority held by democrats, 3-2, one of the

republican, he lost his position because the democrats, who held majority, they had the power to gerrymander republican's district so that he would lose his position, which he did. which strengthened the hold of the democrats on the county commissioners court. and by doing so, that court is nothing but corruption. i mean, right now, we have the district attorney, who is a democrat, she is on the, well, she has indicted three of the commissioners judge's staff on corruption charges. and she's about ready to indict the judge, a federal democrat,

for corruption. po?aint two, speaking of aborti. what the supreme court did was to bring that back to the states. let me ask your, how many states right now have placed no legal restrictions on abortions? host: we will get an answer from david, john. david: the first one, i don't think i applied that only one side does it. i think gerrymandering is bad no matter who does it. the reform that i just described to you in ohio■v would basically get rid of the politicians from the process and you would have five democrats, five

republicans, five indepdethey wo was in the statehouse. you pointed to your examples, i cannot speak to that specific county's, issues but out argue wherever you have intense gerrymandering, you will have a worse government, higher likelihood of corruption you will have less responsiveness to the people politicians who are out of touch with the people. ountry and there's less places in congress that would do this. it was true that only democrats supported it. but the legislation that's in congress that's part of the new voting rights act legislation and the john lewis bill, this would say wherever you are in america, no gerrymandering. if that ended democratic gerrymandered,. great it would end republican gerrymandering, great. no matter who does it, it corrupts government, it corrupts public service, and it leads to

the kinds of problems i described in states like ohio. democratic states lately, or let's say blue states, have been more eager to reform it then let's say red states. but i agree, it's bad no matter who doesn't. it leads to broken government, program to, and corruption. i make that point in my book. but i also make the point that we have to solve it no matter who does it. the second point is, i don't know the exact answer to your question. what i would say is what the supreme court did in dobbs was it said what used to be a federally protected right and said it is no longer going to be protected federally, we are going to send it back to the states. and they said we are going to let the people in the states decide. one, i don't think we should be getting rid of federally protected rights in the first place. but secondly, the problem with

the dobbs decision, as i've been explaining, most of these states are not the people speaking. because they are so gerrymandered, these statehouses do not reflect the people. statehouses are literally passing abortion vents, no exceptions, leading to that nightmare in texas you saw. leading to that nightmare in ohio where a 10-year-old rape victim was forced to go to they reflect a broken gerrymander statehouses and not the people. when the court said we are sending it back to the states for the people to decide, they were sending it back to broken, nondemocratic states for gerrymandered legislatures to decide, and they pushed the exact opposite of what the people want. and how can we knowwell, every , like ohio, where the people have gone to the ballot, where only in 19 states can you do this, that's the problem, every single time the people have gone to the

ballot, we have overturned these bands and we've actually put into place things like we did in ohio, a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom. the problem withive rights, but just as bad, it sends -- sets up the gerrymandered democracies that are often doing the exact opposite. there's almost no state in the country i think below missouri or south that has the right to reproductive freedom, even though i guarantee you almost, if not everyone of those states, the majority of people in those states which support having abortion access and reproductive freedom, these are basically, these broken, gerrymander statehouses are basically doing the exact opposite of what the people want. and that's the problem. and we have to fix it. host: joe in oklahoma city,. oklahoma is next he's calling on the democrats line. good morning, joe. caller:

-- host: joe, oklahoma city? we will go to susan in birmingham, alabama on the republican line. good morning, susan. caller: good morning. good morning to both of you. david: good morning. caller: i wanted to ask the gentleman in question first. and maybe he doesn't know the answer. to talk to him about what michigan did with gerrymandering. from what i saw, and this is just, you know, i am blind, but from what i saw, looked like they lead a city grid -- laid a city grid over the entire state, and then colored in blocks until they got to, what, 700,000 to created district? even scully's's district in

louisiana or this guy in alabama that has a district that runs 50 miles south of birmingham but 20 miles north with a pencil line running to the city of birmingham, that's gerrymandering. but i was wondering if you know about what michigan did. because it looks fair. david: i really appreciate your question. so michigan, and every state is going to do their own thing. these reforms should be based upon what the state itself wants. michigan had one of the worst gerrymander's over the last decade. in 2011, michigan was terribly gerrymandered in a way that it's a generally blue state, i think we can acknowledge that, just like alabama's generally a red state. if your legislature is red because your state is read, that's not gerrymandering necessarily, that's representation. what's happening in these gerrymandered places is a place like michigan which leans blue

all of a sudden has a very red republican legislature. even though the people themselves were voting democrat. the michigan people got tired of that. i think it was in 2018 that they changed the constitution to just like in ohio, fired the politicians from the process. the politicians have proven they cannot be trusted to draw fair maps as you just described them. they will draw them to favor themselves. they will draw them so they don't have to worry -- they don't have anything to worry about come november. that's what they would. democrats as well. michigan said get rid of the politicians. put everyday citizens across panel, put them in charge of the map drawing process and it will be more fair. and that's exactly what happened. what was interesting, by the way, and for all the colors, when the final map came out about what the citizen group proposed, democrats grumbled it

wasn't good for them, republicans complained it wasn't good for them. my guess is that means it probably was a pretty good map because it meant to side was thrilled with it. would happen? and this is -- what happened? and this is really important. in■ michigan, the year after tht map, at least on the democratic side, they ran in every single district and that's what we should all want. we should all want candidates running in every district so every single election, every politicianeeey are being held accountable. they actually have to win over the voters. they are not guanteed reelection, which is dangerous. you don't want people in power with no accountability, with no check. there were far more candidates running in michigan after that fair map, that means there was more democracy happening. and in the end, democrats wobn by like -- won by like one or two seats which actually reflects how michigan votes.

i'm sure there's ways it can be improved. the ohio system is different. michigan used its owner from. they put citizens in charge. i think their system is far better now, a better democracy and the statehouse of michigan now far better reflects the people of michigan then i did five years ago. one thing people should know, and this kind of gets back to the prior caller's question, is that the first victim of gerrymandering is not necessarily democrats or republicans. it's actually independents. they are locked out completely in a gerrymandered system. in some cases, a bunch of seats could be given to the democrats, most worry about. and once you put but so many democrats and a few districts, that gives the republicans in a red state a far bigger majority but those republican candidates also don't have to worry because their seats are so one-sided. independents are completely

locked out of democracy in this gerrymandered system. every independent in ohio should be voting to change the system this november. the other victim of gerrymandering, and this is happening in many states, texas, alabama, and others, are moderate pumpkins. gerrymanderi republicans. gerrymandering empowers extremists against moderates. it happened in texas. there were a bunch of texas republicans who voted against these private vouchers for schools because they word it would ruin their local public schools. they voted against greg abbott's palmn and they were -- plan and they were primary by more extreme republicans and almost all of them lost in these gerrymandered districts. gerrymandering is not just about one party against the other. it eliminates independents entirely from the conversation. what is done in america for the last 10 years is allowed the more extreme republicans to eliminate the re moderate

republicans. moderate republicans, they should be a multi-partisan effort. moderate republicans, independence, and democrats, at least in red states, have all been victimized by this gerrymandering but modern republicans are victimized more than anybody. they are basically extinct in many states because of gerrymandering. host: let's hear from james in new jersey on the democrat line. good morning. caller: hey, c-span. thank you for taking my call. i love your guest, number one. love him. now, basic thing, i've been in politics since 1956. [indiscernible]

oh, the captain died. the cook can die. as long as we get away. we safe. that's all that matters. they are training me to worship that. my condominium, they give me. [indiscernible] i left it. i cannot worship that sickness that they worship. host: ok, james, we will get a response from david. we are running short on time. david: i was not quite sure what he was asking on politics. i'm sorry. host: we will go to darrell in north carolina on the independent line. good morning, darrell. caller: good morning. first, mr. pepper, thank you for

being willing to discuss thiit r our, for every state. but my question and comment is that i would ask that the term, the terminology used to express one's position, and i understand how hard it is to be nonbiased. but like the issue with abortion, you called the issue reproductive rights. when reproduction has to do with producing babies, not terminating their lives. as a black man who happens to lean more on the conservative side, this is an issue within our communities. and the issue that with it being decided by the supreme court, the supreme court did not make a decision.

but did they not believe that it was wrongly decided, and therefore, decide to put it dece it a state issue? but the main point is, abortion, which is rampant in our society, is not reproduction, or is it? thank you very much. caller: obviously -- david: obviously, it depen on your perspective. but i think if you are a woman in the early stages of pregnancy, year decisions about your health is about your freedom. not to quibble with the caller but i think we are seeing very clearly that's what most americans think. even see donald trump, i mean, sometimes he will celebrate that he was the one who brought to court this issue, dubs. but you also see him thinking this is an issue they will lose on because mostmersonal freedom.

they don't want the politicians to decide intimate health decisions for them. do you remember mehmet oz in pennsylvania? he had momentum in a senate race. and with john mack -- john fetterman, who was literally recovering from a stroke, he lost the debate, for one reason. he said he things abortion should come down to a doctor, a woman, and their local elected official. and that was left at, or responded to horribly -- laughed at or responded to horribly around the country. the point is, i think for most americans, and not everyone is going to agree, for most americans, this is absolutely about freedom. and its about the freedom of that woman and her family and based on the doctor' based on her health -- doctors advice to make a decision based on her health. it's not for politicians to be

in the room as that decisions made. in florida, 70 percent are saying they will vote for reproductive freedom, is because they do disagree with what the caller suggested and they do think it's about their freedom. whether it's democracy, or that level of freedom, i think people are quite defensive about their personal freedoms, beyond even one party. i think this election could very well turn on this type of issue. if people feel like, you know, whatever they think of the two presidential candidates, if they feel like one is directly attacking their personal freedom, beat at the■k right to choose whether to have a child or others, marijuana legalization, something else, i think the candidate who looks like, and right now i would say that's donald trump, that they are a threat to that individual order's freedom, i think that voters going to go the other way, if they see it that way. i think one of the challenges of the biden campaign is to frame this entire campaign about freedom andhe