♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, july 10. democrats discussed president biden's candidacy. reporting indicates efforts to

push him off the ticket may be losing steam. the president said repeatedly he is staying in the race. give us a call this half-hour to share your thoughts on that. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send a text at (202) 748-8003. include your first name and city and state. we are on social media. facebook.com/cspan and x at @cspanwj. welcome to the washington journal. the wall street journal headline says this. bid to get president to quit campaign is in flux. lawmakers see no clear path for seeking alternative nominee in an effort by some democrats to seek an alternative to president biden faced

uncertainty with frustrated lawmakers struggling for a path forward after the president said he was dead set against stepping aside. the senate majority leader chuck schumer was asked about whether he still stands by president biden as the democratic nominee. [video] >> are you confident president biden has what it takes to win and serve the next four years? >> i am with joe. >> [inaudible] there might be a challenge at the convention. if there is, is there the ability to -- >> as i said before, i'm with joe. host: here is what the washington post is saying. the headline is hill democrats split on biden.

there was a rising tide of resignations from some, enthusiasm from others, and despair and anger from more. that the president will remain the top of the ticket and be there nominee in november. hill democrats were holding their breath ahead of a rare thursday news conference. the first time since the debate that the president plans to entertain freewheeling questions from the press. we will be covering that here on c-span. watch our network for information about that. there was senator bennet. he called yesterday, the senator from colorado. he was the first democratic senator to publicly warn trump is on track to win the election and he was interviewed by cnn yesterday. [video] >> senator jon tester and sherrod brown said you nothing

president biden can win. is that true? >> it is true i said that behind closed doors. you guys know asked if i said it and that's what i said. i figure i should say publicly. >> bloody think he can't w -- why do you think he can't win? >> this races on a worrisome trajectory. joe biden was up nine points up the last time he was running. this is the first time in 20 years republican president has been up in this part of the campaign. donald trump is on track i think to win the election. maybe win by a landslide and take with him the senate and the house. for me this is not a question of polling or politics. it's a moral question about the future of our country. i think it is critically important for us to come to

grips with what we face, that together we put this country on the path of electing donald trump again. >> you're worried that you are going to lose both chambers of congress? >> i think we could lose the whole thing. host: we will go to michael in florida on the line for democrats. caller: the thing about all this going on with biden, it's a funny thing. the news media and outlets and papers and everybody else get a lot of numbers when they start blowing stuff up. they love it. they heated up and they just keep doing it. this guy will beat him. he will come back and beat the piece of crap trump. trump is no good. he will be no good if he's there again. i love my democracy and my freedoms. i like my ability to assemble with union members and vote on things really.

this guy will take everything away from us. i'm not -- host: you think president biden is the best democrat to beat former president trump? caller: he's the only democrat that can beat former trump. the only one. yes, i do. host: why do you think that? caller: he beat him before. nobody said he could do it. he knows what he's doing. this little episode he had, everybody has bad days. if you don't think you have a bad day you are crazy. i'm 74. i have bad days. everybody has a bad day. the man knows what he's doing. look at his record. look at the record for the last four years. look what he's done for this country. you have got to be kidding me. people put that guy back in, trump, there is something wrong with the country. it has nothing to do with anything else.

host: another michael in north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. i hope you had a great fourth of july. host: i did. thanks. how has it been going? what are you thinking about these days? caller: i'm thinking about the economy. i think president biden should down. i do think you should run, not because of the age may some mental problems. host: you told me before you did not want to vote even though you are a republican. you did not want to vote for mr. trump. is there a democrat you would prefer voting for over president biden? caller: well, i don't know if anybody that could do a better job than president biden. i think he's made a big mistake

in the debate by not giving him enough hot fluids. it sounded like he had a bad cold and he didn't feel well. he came to north carolina and lit a fire in the crowd. i was like wow. that's strange. less than 24 hours be a totally different voice, totally different spirit. i wish it didn't come to this. it is like when george w. had the dwi come out before his election year in 2000, just before the election. this is happening just before this election. like his and him and said, it's good for newspapers and media polls and people watching television and buying newspapers and stuff like that. it is not good for the country. the reason why is because he was

up there for so long in the debate and so many people watched. it will be hard to get it out of their minds this late in the campaign. i don't have any solutions. i can't vote for harris. i don't want to do that. host: why is that? caller: she had these three czar positions and nothing, but -- came of it. with the border. she was also the czar for something else. i don't member if it was the chips industry. we did get the chip package passed in the house and senate. maybe there were two other things she was in charge of and i can't remember. from what i have been told and what has been reported is that -- i couldn't vote for her.

it's just experience and stuff like that. she does not have much experience even after being vice president for four years. host: we will talk to you in about a month, michael. caller: bye-bye. host: marion in georgia on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i don't understand how everybody seems to think one person, the president, is making all of the -- he makes the final decision but all of the input he gets his from qualified staff they have around them. even if biden is slower on the intake, which he is -- he is old and we all saw it. that is fact. that doesn't mean when he does put it all together that he will not come out with some -- a wise decision. my suggestion is to -- for biden

to maybe step down and let harris get in and he would be a special advisor to kamala harris. that way he would be in the administration but kamala being younger would be able to be the messaging the democrats need. host: the previous caller was expressing reservations about vice president kamala harris, saying she did accomplish enough as vice president. what are your thoughts on that? caller: that is why if biden was a special advisor to kamala, and also we could run on the fact that she would be the first female president, the first black female president, and we would have biden in the administration. that would alleviate fears for the people that are worried

about just having kamala. that would be my take. host: former president trump held a rally and he discussed vice president harris, attacking her. [video] >> whatever else could be said about crooked joe biden, you have to give him credit for one brilliant decision. probably the smartest decision he's ever made. he picked kamala harris as his vice president. [booing] it was brilliant. it was an insurance policy. maybe the best insurance policy i have ever seen, marco. if joe had picked someone halfway confident, they would have -- competent, they would have bounced him from office years ago. she has no chance. as vice president, kamala harris

was given two jobs. two very important jobs actually. first she was put in charge of the was border security at the border -- u.s. border security. she never showed up. she never went there once. the worst border in the history of the world. not just in the number of years. we had the best border in the history. she has the worst in the history of the world. she was sent to europe to deter russia from attacking ukraine. how did that work out? not too good. host: if you want to watch the full rally, you can do so on c-span.org. tim in mountain home, arkansas. republican. caller: good morning, mimi. i want you to have a show just solely on why a convicted criminal can run for president. we in arkansas can't vote if

you're a convicted felon. you can't be hired as a custodian at our children's elementary school with a felony conviction. it would be great if you get of episode where we can discuss and explain this systemic flaw in the election system. how this has been allowed to happen. it's incredibly stupid. it looks like a joke to the rest of the world. i amphibious. i have been up -- i am furious. i voted for trump the first time. then i found out about the porn star anna faris. -- and i am furious. the entire presidency was a fraud. he's a convicted fraud. he's running for president? i don't get how this --i want to pull my hair out. host: what do think about president biden? caller: he's one of the best

presidents we ever had. look at what he's done in the last three years. he cleaned up the mess that the big orange elephant in the room left him. this is ridiculous. i never voted for a democrat but i did for biden last time around, because i was furious about the trump fraud prices since he -- presidency. host: you think he should stay on the ticket? caller: of course. you know what? he has a beautiful, particulate vice president who will be the next president of the united states, a black woman. all the racists in this country need to back off. leave the lady alone. she's got where she's got because of her intellect. all these people criticize everybody, what's going on the government, you get up there and try to run the country. see what you can do. it is not just one man in

control of the world. that is nonsense. we have organized crime running our congress basically. the kingpin is down there and mar-a-lago. -- in mar-a-lago. i better calm down. i have blood pressure problems. host: kathleen, mississippi, democrat. good morning. kathleen, are you there? caller: hello. i'm the same way. leave biden in. they tried to make biden a dictator for the day but the one of mar-a-lago will be a dictator forever. -- in mar-a-lago will be a dictator for. ever. does anyone think we will have roe v. wade again?

does anybody think we will have the biggest increase hunter biden? that we will have childcare under 45? does anybody think we will survive this? we won't. our children won't. let biden go. host: kathleen, do you think that president biden is the best democrat to beat former president trump? that is what the argument is among democrats that he's -- some believe he's not the best one to beat the former president. caller: biden has more experience. he has more experience. the people in place need to stay in place. we can't fight the world and they are taking us down. roe v. wade, climate change.

the world is burning up. we live in the south. ain't nothing going on. biden put out an infrastructure program. if you don't live here, you don't know nothing. it is like red states don't exist. they do what they want. we are left with nothing. yeah. he said we are woke. yeah, we are woke. november 5, 2024, vote like your life depends on it because it really does. you don't live in the south. host: this is axios with the headline biden rebels in congress see the revolt crumbling. house democrats had a come to

jesus meeting on president biden's path forward. sling district, kratz held what sources described as a desponding gathering with actual tears. it's says the block of battleground house democrats is one of the last firm pockets of a rapidly disintegrating movement on capitol hill to get biden off the ticket. one shellshocked lawmaker would offer only one word to characterize it. intense. here is patsy in boston, independent. caller: good morning. i just wanted to call. i'm 80 years old. i have been politically active, my god, for 40 years. i don't believe the people really hear what's going on. the easy thing for me is to say

what about the cabinet? look at the cabinet heads as opposed to the cabinet 45 has. the president is the head. then he has a cabinet. these people are all qualified. that's all i'm saying. host: tyrone, a republican in minden, illinois. caller: good morning, mimi. i look at it over the last three years and see what biden's health has been failing. my father died of dementia. it is clear he has it. he's made a lot of big mistakes being our president. as far as when we had the head of the military in the hospital, the commander-in-chief, never told the white house. i think that was really bad.

i think he should have been fired for that. that is not honorable. that is what we need to do to run the country. sorry. i can't believe biden's policies. his policies are poor and weak. our economy has been a really bad shape because of the policies they are running. most important here. c-span ran a thing about whether democrats should like biden or not as far as he was healthy enough to be our president. what about republicans? right now, you know, he's my president. i still honor him but i fear nuclear war. we've never had a period where nuclear war was such a threat in my lifetime. people need to understand we

need to take a look at our house, our senate, our supreme court, all of them. there should be an age limit of 75. i think that needs to be on the ballot. i think there are certain things that we elect people that are making decisions for the macon people to decide -- the american people should decide. host: the 75 limit would take out former president trump as well. is there a republican that you would support instead of him? caller: yeah. i would go with -- was the lady that was running? host: nikki haley? caller: i would vote for nikki haley in a heartbeat. host: donald in grand blanc, michigan. caller: good morning, mimi. good morning c-span, the people

watching. biden's debate was not a good debate but biden's policies for the last three and have years have been great. when trump -- republicans always say they had to give -- good economy under president trump. when he left the stock market was crashed. we had food lines. toilet paper lines. he couldn't give it away. for the last three years president biden has got the chip act passed, creating jobs. the infrastructure built creating jobs -- bill creating jobs. there was a bridge in ohio that borders kentucky. it was in disarray for years. he got that bridge fixed.

the infrastructure built. when -- bill. when people of ohio vote in november, river that bridge on the border of kentucky and ohio. another thing. the debate -- i don't see none of the pundits talking about it. president trump talks to putin. what does he talk to putin about? i don't hear the media talking about that. they just talk about biden's terrible debate. they don't talk about a former president talking to one of the world leaders who is destroying ukraine and wants to destroy america. what is he talking to putin about? host: jay in riverdale, maryland.

independent. caller: good morning, mimi. this is jay. i'm part of the avid c-span watchers because of the crazy 88's. host: why 88, j? ay? caller: we were fans of the kyl bill murray. that is where the --kill bill m ovie. it has a nice ring to it. host: go ahead. caller: all of these jim crow era black people voting for biden saying how good his record is, top four. number four. the black farmers. he promised during the campaign he would take care of the black farmers that had faced discrimination under president trump. he gave all that money to the farmers behind the tariffs to china.

black farmers got 1% of 1% of that money. he left them high and dry. you should have jon voight -- john boyd on to say what he not supporting by this time. the vaccine mandate. you still have people across the country that still don't have their jobs. that is a dictator move with that mandate. number three. gaza. 15,000 children, babies have been killed in gaza indirectly because of president biden. anybody that has a basketball arena in your area, imagine 15,000 people dead, children dead in that arena. lastly, the number one reason why biden should not be reelected, world war iii.

all of you in the gulf states, florida, mississippi, louisiana, alabama, guess what? you have russian nuclear submarines less than 100 miles off your coast. why are they there? because of the ukraine war. host: just wrapping up, is you and your group of avid c-span watchers supporting former president trump? caller: no. he is a racist. that add he put it on the central park five. one of those members is now on the new york city council. the best democrat that can beat trump, the dnc would never allow him to have the nomination. host: it was that? caller: bernie sanders. bernie sanders would wipe the floor with drop.

but because like former represented ford saying in his interview on fox, the democrats go on the 5, he said his platform did not agree with the platform that -- of the dnc. bernie sanders would wipe the floor with him. host: republican line. aurora, indiana. robert. caller: i have never heard of such -- i'm 87 years old. these people calling in. i don't know where they are coming from. during that debate the one thing that took out of it was when trump stood there and looked biden in the face. i don't have to be here. he said i should be out doing what i want to do but i'm here because you are destroying this country. people, we have got to wake up.

trump is not a racist. trump is trying to save america. my dad fought in world war ii in the pacific. my uncle fought in the battle of the bulge. i work with -- they were captured. our troops got in the night before he was supposed to be executed the next day. i worked with these guys. if they came back down and see what these democrats are doing, they would go back to their graves. i have been sick of hearing that trump is a atheist or whatever. he's not. he's trying to save this country. he's got family. he's got grandchildren. through the hell do they think they are? you are sick. host: that will be our last call for this segment. we will continue our conversation about democratic party division about president

biden's political future with mychael schnell, a reporter for the help. later, a deep dive into the history of presidents and candidates who have been less than forthcoming about their medical conditions. that conversation is with dr. jacob appel, a professor at new york's icahn school of medicine. we will be right back. ♪ >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided coverage of the halls of congress. from the house and senate floors, to congressional hearings, party briefings and c-span gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span. your unfiltered view of

government. >> c-span's campaign 2024 takes you live to milwaukee for our coverage of the republican national convention. tune in on monday as delegates from across the country gather to select the republican nominee for president. watch as they lay out priorities for the next four years and their party's vision for the future. the republican national convention live monday on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. c-span. your unfiltered view of the convention. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, find anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events featuring markers that guide you to interesting highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on the select video.

the tool may sit easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's point of interest. that's points of interest -- c-span's points of interest. >> c-span now. live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics. all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling for c-span's tv networks and radio, plus a variety of compelling podcastss. c-span now is avail at the apple store and google play. scan the qr code to download it for free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-spannow. c-span now, your front row seat

to washington anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. we are joined by the hill congressional reporter mychael schnell. democrats met behind closed doors yesterday to talk about biden's reelection. what happened? ? caller: there was a divided that caucus meeting, their weekly meeting. this was the focus on president biden. some said biden he should step aside and some said we should sit with him. sources say it was pretty lopsided in favor of the folks that believe biden should stay on the ticket. most, if not all of the people who spoke against biden where the people we had already heard c publicly criticize him. there were no new detractors in

the meeting. there were some disagreements. no unity, no decision on how to traverse the trail going forward. biden definitely having more than less support in that meeting. it seems to be different in the senate caucus meeting. sources tell my colleagues the majority of democrats in that meeting said president biden cannot win against trump in november. they did not say that biden should be removed from the top of the ticket, which is important. an interesting caveat projecting about president biden's chances but not that there should be a change at the top of the ticket. whether or not that changes remains to be seen. democrats have consistently said the election is the most important in modern history. that democracy is on the line. the government is on the line. it is interesting to think they will back a candidate who they are openly saying will lose against trump. interesting to see how this dynamics play over the coming days. host: where does that leave us?

has it fizzed out on the house side? caller: i wouldn't say it has fizzed out. biden can't have good hours and bad hours. that is how quickly things are moving and changing up on capitol hill. he had that house democratic caucus meeting where the majority said they would support biden, including jerry nadler who had previously thought biden should withdraw. we saw mikey shall become the seventh health republican to publicly call on biden to withdraw from the race. this is still a moving target. i spoke to a house democrat who believes biden should step aside, has not come up publicly. they said the lawmaker -- others think biden should step aside and are watching to see the polls coming out of postdebate. if surveys and the data show democrats are going to lose the

house with president biden at the top of the ticket, expect more log makers -- lawmakers to go public. we heard from -- not a good sign for democrats. keep an eye on the numbers that come out in the coming days to see if there is a change in terms of control of the house and had democratic lawmakers react to that. host: is that what you are watching for? i we waiting for more polls to commit? -- are we waiting for more polls to come out? caller: president biden has been adamant he's not leaving the race. he says he is the nominee, believes he's the best person to be donald trump and he will be on the ballot in november. at this stage because president biden has the most delegates and is the presumptive nominee there is not a way to get him off the ticket unless he voluntarily takes himself off. what folks are saying is that some veteran members of the

party, figures like president obama, former speaker nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, if they see president biden is having a real effect on down ballot races and whether or not democrats will control any lever next year, the wisdom and belief as those veteran lawmakers and figures will walk to the white house until president biden it is time to pack it up and hang his hat up after an impressive three and have years of legislative accomplishments. that will depend on what the data says. senate is a foregone conclusion that is going to republicans. there is a real possibility former president trump wins the white house in november. if that is correct, the only firewall left is the house to prevent this trifecta and full control of republicans in washington. democrats do not want to see that trifecta happen. republicans are talking about changes that would make. democrats will be watching

closely to see if biden affects the down ballot races. they mentioned even though we are two weeks out from the debate we still have not seen great postdebate polling. it is difficult to poll during the july for holiday. -- july 4 holiday. the lawmakers are watching and waiting to see what the numbers say if they need to react differently to the drama. host: the numbers being watched, the fundraising numbers. caller: that is always part of this. what are the big donors going to do? president biden has done a good job of fundraising. he's got millions of dollars. $100 million in the debate for the camp -- in the bank for the campaign but you need to turbocharge advertising efforts and turbocharge the get out the vote efforts. money will be a real factor here. if the money stops, it's question will help biden can continue -- how -- it's

questionable to help biden can continue the campaign. host: if you have questions for mychael schnell, our lines are democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. talk about the role of the congressional black caucus and the congressional hispanic caucus in this decision. caller: they have been huge -- guest: they have been huge. those two caucuses within the greater democratic caucus have always been central keep our players. by sheer numbers, large blocks in the group. if you have support from the black and hispanic caucuses, you have support of a large number of democrats. black caucus and hispanic caucus have come out strongly for president biden. it is something the biden campaign is well aware of. back in 2020, congressman jim

clyburn, a longtime member of the congressional black congress endorsed biden before the south carolina primary when his campaign was lagging that hat -- lagging. that helped him wrap up the democratic party in his favor. we are seeing the black caucus hold the line for president biden as we hear the whispers behind-the-scenes with questions about his viability at the top of the ticket. there may be people questioning whether not biden should be the nominee and whether or not he's the strong is person to lead the ticket but those whispers are being drowned out by this very large public full-court press by the congressional black caucus and the hispanic caucus which is key for president biden. host: if president biden were to step aside, are the conversations about who would replace him? is it a done deal that it would be vice president harris? caller: conventional wisdom would tell you it would be vice president kamala harris, the

number two in the administration. there are key questions about where the campaign's warchest, the financial warchest can go if president biden steps down. campaign finance focusing would be easier to transfer the vice president harris since it is the biden-harris campaign. if voters were donating. democrats have a large bench, a young bench. there is michigan governor gretchen whitmer, california governor gavin newsom, governor josh shapiro of pennsylvania, illinois governor jb pritzker. there would be a robust conversation with all those names about the ticket if harris goes to the number one spot. if kamala harris stays number two, who will be the number one? that's a lot of ground to cover with a large bench of democrats. i note the majority of people who will be floated as potential successors to biden or to join harris on the ticket have been

fully behind the president saying that it went to entertain any conversations about moving him out. he's the nominee and the best person to take on trump in november. host: let's start with cal in new york city, daca. -- democrat. caller: i want to respond to your guest's previous comment just now. did sickens me the whole idea -- it sickens me the whole idea of calling for youngblood, leaders that can set a new course. i hate to tell people but we had that guy and his name was barack hussein obama. he was there for eight years. we blew that. that has put us in the position we are in now. host: what do you mean we blew that? caller: i think we assumed barack obama was going to get into the white house and he would solve the world's problems through the essence of his

coolness. we would not have to support him. we would not have to lobby for him. we would not have to coerce a strong congressional support for him. we did not push him to be more assertive in his policies and how he often gave into the conservative elements. how he brought back -- instead of framing and new blood he brought in the old order. he brought back biden and hillary and rahm emanuel and john kerry. host: what do you think about what's going on now? caller: right now it is bigger than biden and his age. it is this whole mindset of the democratic party that goes back to clinton. the idea of let's just support the flawed, lame, ineffective candidate and ignore the

hypocrisies and the flaws. this goes back to gennifer flowers before clinton was even nominated. somehow we have banded the idea of an authentic youthful candidate. host: you would have been in favor of a different candidate for the democratic nominee? caller: not among these names. it is the same mindset, the same lazy name recognition. oh, i've heard of him or her. it is not any devotion to the candidate and the policies. it is admittedly just a desire to beat trump. host: any comment? guest: it's an interesting argument about turning the page on joe biden. i spoke to congress in dean phillips yesterday, democrat from minnesota who ran that failed primary campaign against president biden. it was his first time commenting

since the concerns about president biden after the debate. one of his points was president biden's too old. he sent a great job but when need to turn the page and have a new generation of leadership. dean phillips said i tried to have this conversation a year ago, eight months ago. i wanted to have this conversation. that is why i ran. the democratic party completely shut it down. host: why do you think that is? guest: some people did not take dean phillips's candidacy seriously. some folks thought president biden was the best person to take on trump in november. he frequently cites easily person who has beaten donald trump. that's true. it is something the biden campaign has really run with. also, the incumbent clearly wanted to run. if the incumbent wants to run, it is tough to say to the incumbent you shouldn't run. democrats right now are trying to have the conversation that dean phillips and others try to

have a year ago, that the party shunned and china quickly -- shut out quickly. performance before the election -- four months of for the election it is difficult to have a talk now. host: ted in cleveland. caller: good morning. real quick. i'm trying to understand where people think raising taxes is going to somehow help the middle class. i'll never understand that. the wealthy didn't get there by being dumb. they are smart. all that he was hurt the middle class. i left many thousands of dollars in my 401(k). the bonuses, after 27 years,

they have shrunk. this is thanks not to the entire democratic party but anyone with a sick liberal attitude. that is the way i see joe biden. thank you. host: one of the argument former president trump makes is that you were better off during his presidency economically. is that true for you? caller: definitely. five or six years ago, i remember the bonus that we got was about $700. last quarter, it was $70. joe biden stays in, the next quarter it will be seven dollars. host: let's get a comment. guest: the economy has been the number one issue -- has been the second.

james cargill said it is the economy, stupid. that commit to news -- continues to ring true. the economy has been doing pretty well under biden. the inflation rate is coming down. it hasn't been translating to voters. the numbers of the -- the economic numbers and not jiving with the polls which says the economy is doing well with low approval of president biden's handling of the economy despite the different numbers showing the economy is doing pretty decent right now. it is interesting to see how both candidates message the economy. it is a key issue in every election, but especially this one. host: crystal, a democrat in pennsylvania. caller: good morning . i am a black woman. i'm a black muslim woman. i can tell you that biden will never get my support. i could never support someone

who supported -- the debate turned me off even further. i am not a trump supporter. i think he's a racist. he will never get my support. for the first time -- i'm 65 -- for the first time i'm voting is an independent. both parties have actually lost me. i'm just sitting here watching the two what i call peoples -- "evils" fight each other out. thank you very much. host: when you say you're going independent, which candidate are you voting for? caller: i have decided. right now i will stick with jill stein. if you hate me as a muslim, why should i support you? i will go along with jill stein,

whether she wins or loses. i don't care. biden will never get my support and neither will trump. you guys have a good day. thank you so much. host: she's in a swing state. guest: that is very significant for a number of reasons. her opinion of the selection is the lesser of two evils. they are not allowed to really by the electorate. folks are deciding who would be better off between these two options. they wish they had someone else. this message is something rfk junior has been pushing, saying nobody likes trump. biden has a low approval rating. haven't you think about an alternative like me? that's essentially a toss away vote. it will take away from biden or trump, likely biden. this election is so close.

all these polls and surveys, the national and battleground states show them within striking distance of one another. a lot of times within the margin of error. voters like crystal who will vote independent because they can't decide or they don't like biden or trump, they won't cast a ballot for either of them, that can be harmful for either of the two candidates. that is peeling away support from them. we talked about this election being so close. both sides needs as much support as they can get. we talk about third-party candidate and independent candidate. we live in a country that has two parties. the system is not conducive to a third-party. a vote for rk junior or jill stein may be a vote for the candidate but they have no opportunity and no chance of actually winning. no path to victory. it will just for either biden or trump. host: waynesville, north carolina.

claudia? caller: hello. i have been listening. i really just tuned in. i have heard some people talking about taxes. i hope that's ok for me to broach the topic. people are talking about whether they were better off or worse off when biden was in office or trump. i was better off with trump in office. i don't understand all the logistics of it but it is my understanding that inflation is a form of taxation in all the products we buy and whether taxes are raised or not, as long as inflation keeps getting worse it is a taxation on the american people. i wonder if you can speak to that.

guest: it's an interesting question. i am in no way an economist. that was not my strong suit in college in terms of my economics classes. back to the conversation, the economy is a key issue and folks are really concerned about it. they are concerned about prices at the grocery store and the gas pump, the amount of money in their bank account and their 401(k). this is going to continue to be a dominating issue in the lead up to november. biden and trump have to hone in on the economy. clearly voters are concerned. host: i want to ask about the senate side. senator mark warner of virginia tried to convene a meeting earlier this week with fellow democrats. what happened? guest: he had this plan to convene a meeting of senate democrats to talk about urging president biden to step aside. as things often do in washington, news leaked out. there were reports that they would be meeting on monday

night. congress -- the senate returned on monday. that meeting did not come to fruition because the meeting has leaked. senator warner's folks says it defeats the purpose because we cannot have it in private anymore. it is still meaningful because it's revealing cracks within the democratic party and congressional democrats. especially someone like mark warner and virginia, a key state and the election. he's the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. his voice matters and is significant. first we have mark warner, then a statement from patty murray who is a member of democratic leadership in the senate pro tem. her saying biden needs to show more enthusiasm on the campaign trail, prove he can handle being at the top of the ticket, and then have that senate democrats have the lunch yesterday were a

number of them said president biden cannot beat trump in november. these are part of a bigger picture of these real deep concerns the democrats in the senate have with president biden. the caveat is that the president said he's not going anywhere. he has been defiant he will remain at the top of the ticket. if he does not remove himself there is not a mechanism to remove him. the democrats either have to raise the pressure and increase their voices or fall in line and hope and pray and do with the canned that biden comes out victorious in november and down ballot democrats do as well. host: richard and arizona, democrat -- in arizona, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i love president biden. he is bold and generous. father time caught up with him. i read an interesting op-ed by michael moore. it's almost a form of elder abuse, pushing him to do this when he's obviously not well. there's a big three that can push them out.

obama, clyburn and pelosi. i wanted out if the guest agrees with me on that. -- i want to know if the guest agrees with me. guest: i disagree on the first part on elder abuse. president biden has been asked in every which way during that interview with george stephanopoulos during his times of being asked. he is saying he was to remain in the race and he truly believes he's the best person to beat donald trump. there are plenty of people that would be happy for him to step aside. democrats have a large bench that they can call upon. his decision. the second thing, pelosi, obama and clyburn to watch. absolutely. those are people that are well respected within the democratic party, veteran figures and the party. people who president biden really does respect. i think of those three in addition to other people like senate majority leader chuck

schumer and hakim jeffries, maybe steny hoyer a longtime member of the democratic leadership, if they say we will lose the white house, lose the senate and the house with you with the top of the ticket, if you care about the party and about liberal policies, we need somebody else. that could happen if the data shows democrats are heading down that direction. there's a key question of president biden will listen to those folks. pso duggan right now about wanting to -- he is so dug in about remaining in the race. i don't know if he would listen and heed the advice because he so dug in. host: nancy pelosi was on morning joe. it says pelosi says it is up to the president to decide if he's going to run. we are encouraging them to make that decision because time is

running short. do you want him to run? she said, i want him to do what he decides to do. guest: that is not a stunning endorsement by any stretch of the imagination. i spoke with nancy pelosi yesterday. she said i always support the president. she says i'm not making a statement. she is completely deferring to president biden. if she thought he was the best person to win and had full confidence, i don't think it would be difficult for nancy pelosi to give a sterling endorsement of president biden. that is not what she's doing here. that is a complete crack in the democratic support, leaving an opening for her to come back and essentially say i think president biden should step aside. it is what she is not saying. it is not a stunning endorsement, which is what you would respect from somebody like nancy pelosi. that is extremely significant in

the grand scheme of things. host: marianne in ohio, independent. caller: how are you? host: good. caller: i am calling because, first of, as far as president biden's cage, he is too old. p was too old for years ago. i felt like he was kind of shoved down our throats and we didn't really have a choice. i did not vote for him in the primaries. i am totally against trump. totally. i will tell you what. i grew up in the 1950's. gary idea like. -- very idealic. we had a pedophile in our neighborhood. i was one of his victims. eight years ago, when that access hollywood clip came out about trump talking about

grabbing women and it was his right to do it, this man was born into incredible wealth and privilege. he just objectifies women. maybe you can help me about the jeffrey epstein that was released, his flight log and trump was on it. that i don't know anything about. i was damaged with anxiety and depression for years. it wasn't until i got to a group of other women who had the same experience that i got well. i remember sitting beside a woman who had been raped by her father and brother as a baby. then they would throw her against the wall. they added violent on top of violence on top of violence. i thought he's never going to get well.

i went on to be a social worker and work with women like this. trump is so bad for this country. he is so bad for women. and there is a documentary on netflix right now called "donald trump: the american dream" and i highly recommend everybody watch it. . and trump is a racist. i mean, he was charged with his father for not renting to black people in queens when he was young. host: let's get a response. anything on that as far as support from women? >> i think that it's clear that president biden has five. he has very high disapproval rating. he has vulnerability on issues like immigration and the situation at the southern border. there are plenty of democrats even who have their qualms with him. with democratic party leaders and the biting campaign are really banking on is just a hatred and disapproval of biden, the hatred and disapproval of trump outweighs those concerns

about biden. right? we have seen the biden campaign campaign a number of times saying that donald trump would do x, y, z if you are back in the white house, leaning into that criminal conviction, the different indictment sees facing. the democratic party wants to show if you cannot cast a vote for joe biden, cast a vote against donald trump. that's something we saw in 2020 and that's something i think we are going to see now. host: mychael schnell congressional reporter for the hill, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. host: more it of your calls in open form. start calling in now. later, we will take a deep dive into the history of presidents and candidates on their medical conditions. that conversation with dr. jacob appel, a professor at new york's

icon school of medicine. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 4:15 p.m. eastern, michael dukakis, along with current and former governors, take a retrospective look at his political career. watch historic convention speeches featuring notable remarks by presidential nominees and other political figures from the past several decades. vice president george a w bush accepted his party's nomination at the convention in new orleans, calling for a kinder, gentler nation. >> read my lips. >> and at 9:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, historians examine the contributions and legacy of first lady pat nixon at a conference hosted by the

richard nixon presidential library and museum. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ >> the c-span bookshelf podcast makes it easy for you to listen to all c-span's podcast that feature nonfiction books in one place. each week, we are making it convenient for you to listen to multiple episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing history, biographies, current events and culture from our senator programs about books. listen to c-span's bookshelf podcast feed today. find it on the free c-span now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts. and on our website,

c-span.org,/podcasts. >> the house will be in order. >> this year, see celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we've been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government, taking you to where the policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. it is open forum. we are taking your calls. but before we do, here is president biden announcing new nato aid for ukraine during a speech yesterday commemorating nato's 75th anniversary. pres. biden: united states, germany to netherlands, provide

ukraine with equipment for five additional air defense systems. in the coming months, united states and our partners plant to provide ukraine with dozens of tactical air defense systems. united states will make sure that what we export critical defense interceptors, ukraine goes to the front of the line. [applause] they will get this assistance before anyone else gets it. all told, ukraine will see hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, helping protect ukrainian cities against russian missiles. ukrainian troops facing their attacks on the front lines. make no mistake, russia is failing in this war. more than three years into putin's war, his losses are staggering. nearly one million russians,

many of them young people, have left russia because they no longer see a future in russia. and kyiv, remember fellows and ladies, it was supposed to fall in five days, remember? it is still standing 2.5 years later and will continue to stand. [applause] all the allies new that before this war, putin thought nader would break. today -- nato would break. today, nato is stronger than it's ever been in his history. before this war began, ukraine is a free country. today it is still a free country . with ukraine remaining a free and independent country. russia will not prevail! ukraine will prevail. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, this is a pivotal moment for europe, for

the transatlantic community, and i might add, for the world. let's remember the fact that nato remains the board of a global security did not happen by accident. it wasn't inevitable. again and again in critical moments, we chose unity over disunity, progress over retreat, freedom over tyranny, hope over fear. again and again, we stood behind our shared vision of a peaceful and prosperous transatlantic community. here at this summit, we've got to proclaim nato is ready and able to secure that vision today and well into the future. [applause] host: that was yesterday at the nato summit happening here in washington. also on axios, biden awards medal of freedom to nato chief youngs a stoltenberg. as you know, he is stepping down and will be replaced. if you would like to see that,

that's on axios.com. we will go to your calls now, to ruby in detroit, langford democrats. hi, ruby. caller: thanks so much for taking michael. i do enjoy and preach -- my call. i do enjoy and appreciate this opportunity and thank you for the opportunity. as a democrat, well, i'm not a registered democrat but i vote with the democrats. i am 100% joe biden and the democrat party -- 100% behind joe biden and the democrat party. i think joe biden has done a great job over his presidency, no one can really deny that. he is old. but you know, his body might be so young and agile, but there's nothing wrong with his mind and his policies i think are great. i'm 78 years old myself and so down with all this ageism and controversy against older people. we still can accomplish great things. i want to say that i will vote for him because of what he has

done. but also because he has an administration. he's not going to be running the country by himself. there are a lot of great people who are going to be working with him. i appreciate the job is done. my second point that i would like to quickly make is i am 100% against donald trump and the agenda of the republicans. i think that they are really out to roll this country back to a time when a lot of us, women, people of color, we had much fewer rights and it was not so great in america for us in previous times. so, i don't even know how trump can even be running for president. with 34 felony convictions. so, i am not going to vote for him and i hope everybody will get behind biden and vote him

and the democrats into full power, in the presidency, in the senate, and the house. thank you. host: john, a republican in new york. caller: not a republican. i worry about the jacobian social -- dracion social autocracy from the democrats and the inflation it's caused and the week dollars there are. i worry about the supreme court and the way its rulings are. i don't know what more to say. i just don't see having a government, it's just an inflationary government. it's not real. it's not standing up to its principles on either side. biden has not done that. he should be leaving this country because it's not what is done in the past -- a leading this country, because it's not what he's done in the past. but just the medicaid, the

housing and everything and the inflation it's caused upon the people on the hardships it's caused. you think it's making this country freer? you are losing your freedoms every day. all right, bye. host: john mentioned that the supreme court briefly. this is in today's washington post. what's the headline? democratic lawmakers to see criminal investigation of clarence thomas. two democratic u.s. senators announced tuesday that they are seeking a criminal investigation of supreme court justice clarence thomas over gifts of travel alone for recreational vehicle and other benefits he received from wealthy benefactors. senator sheldon whitehouse, a democrat of rhode island, and ron wyden, a democrat of oregon, said they sent a letter to attorney general merrick garland last week requesting he appoint a special counsel to probe whether thomas violated ethics, false statement, and tax laws. and we will watch that if there's any new developments on that at and talk to sarah,

independent, washington, d.c. caller: thank you for taking michael. i just. wanted to -- taking my call i just wanted to comment a little bit about president biden's age and trump stage. i understand they are both old. i do not understand why everyone is making a big deal out of president biden's age. he is doing a great job. i did not vote for him but he's doing a great job. and i will vote for him next time. i think this is gas lighting that they saying he is not well. i know what happened at the debate but that does not mean that he has not done a great

job. and trump has had issue with his speech, at times. i just don't understand why everybody is harping on an older person that is doing a great job. in a test -- in the past, people use to give reference to older people. now, older people are being put to pasture just because they are older. regardless of whether they are doing well or not. and that's a bad thing to have as part of a governing principle. host: sarah, you said that you did not vote for president biden the last time. did you vote for former president trump? caller: no, i did not. i voted independent. host: ok. ron, a democrat in warren, ohio. hi, ron. caller: hi. my thing is i don't see how a man who does not pay federal

income tax can run for president. he doesn't pay any federal income tax and he wants everybody else to pay it and he wants to increase it on us minorities. host: all right. let's take a look at what senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was asked about president biden's leadership abilities in light of foreign threats and the nato summit. >> our adversaries are watching videos of the president just like we are. they see the same things we do. should we have an sinew -- a situation today where leaders like xi jinping, vladimir putin, kim jong-un are becoming more aggressive, testing the boundaries more openly because of the weakness they see here in this administration? >> well, with regard to the

administration, that's a good question to ask the next group. before recent times, it was pretty obvious to any observers that we had big power competition from china and russia. a great ally for them in iran. and iran funding the proxies. i mean, this is clearly the most angriest period since right before world war ii. so completely unrelated to who happens to be in the white house at the moment, we need to step up. and a good time to emphasize that is while nato is celebrating its 75th anniversary washington. -- anniversary right here in washington. we need to make it clear that we are behind nato. there are allies in the indo pacific that are here as well. every democratic country in the world is together against this coterie of authoritarians.

and what a great time to emphasize that we are altogether -- all together. i had a similar conversation yesterday with the president of latvia. i mean, they are right up next to the russians. majority leader and i and some others met with canadian prime minister. with all due respect to our canadian friends, they are a long way from meeting the 2% mark, but i a whole lot of the other of nato members have. now we have 23. i think everybody who elects our government realizes we are all in this together. host: back to the phone lines with the dean in indiana, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling in to really complain about the way you ended the last segment with the call from ohio by the female. she just went and rambled on and

on and on. i know you had a button you could push and shut that down. you know, somehow, and up biden's support for women. my goodness, i did not think you handled that well at all. i do think you guys try to do a good job but that one got away from you. host: thanks. in wilson north carolina, independent. caller: good morning, c-span. i just want to, well, first of all, is jesse still there? the moderator for c-span? host: i believe he does come in sometimes over the weekends. i'm not totally sure, to be honest, kenny. caller: he was one of the best. and i don't know. i love c-span and i really liked it in the days of don lam. i think c-span held a responsibility of not letting certain groups come up here.

and these groups, their response about russia, the nra, they have not been there lately. but they found out russia was funneling money into them. you guys have had them appear -- the cato institute, you guys have had them appear. -- up here. you will question them and they will come on their and over talk c-span moderators. and spread junk to people. so, that i wanted to say. and also, you know, you have not had any shows, every show you have is on joe biden. every day. and i notice when the supreme court made those crazy decisions , you know, you might have had a little bit on it so you could say we did it, but it wasn't like this. everything that seems to hurt the democratic party or that's a

good for america it seem like you guys just don't have it up there. the things that really matter. trump is a felon. he is running. why don't you have a show on what is wrong with the constitution? we are in trying times now. c-span could do so much to help america out. but you keep things stirred up by putting these things on and on everyday about joe biden and keeping stuff up like this. you say nothing about donald trump and he is 10 times worse, more of a threat. and you are trying to make it look like biden is the big threat. the media i think is controlled by foreign entities in this country. most of the media. and i think it has kind of leaked into c-span. i heard that y'all changed the people at the head of your organization. but it's scary. and the media is really giving this country away.

you guys going to wake up one day and c-span is not going to be the same c-span. and you have a responsibility to the american people to tell people or two facts checked people -- to fact-check people. we are in the ai times now. you can fact-check them right away. y'all guys, that's the only thing. and i wish you would switch over and start to look at trump just like you do biden. host: all right, we got that, kenny. david is a republican in florida. hi, david. caller:hi. good morning. as far as the last caller, that was completely ridiculous, too. "washington journal" doesn't have a responsibility, a grand responsibility. they are an entertainment show basically where people call. and the last segment you had on

with the woman from ohio, like the guy from muncie, indiana pointed out, that caller is delusional if she thinks that donald trump, you know, grabbing women, adult women is any different than bill clinton having multiple affairs or joe biden showering with his daughter are any different. she is delusional but she suffers from the female trump hatred syndrome. your segment yesterday though on nato was extremely well done. and that was about the fact that, in my opinion, nato is way too big. nato has brought too many countries into alliance. and that is going to lead us,

but then nobody will be worried about who's grabbing who. thank you. host: terry, new jersey, independent line. hi, terry. caller: good morning. i am listening to everyone in disbelief. anyhow, just bear with me. i agree with the gentleman from north carolina. florida, i've got nothing to say. anyhow, i have a request, i don't have a question. i've heard plenty of people say or ask for you to do a segment on the 2025 plan of trump's. i believe that's a great idea. i believe that you should do a three hour, ok, a three hour segment. i watch you faithfully. i am watching you now. but anyhow, i think that you should also add in that segment that you should show all the clips of trump speaking and how

he feels about things, including nato. and i think that you should refresh everyone's memory on where this man is coming from. and i appreciate your time. women have very long memories and i am sure that you agree with that. i think you need to refresh all the men and all the women out there exactly where this gentleman stands before they do vote for him and our country. he says nothing but bad. and i'm in disbelief. i am just in disbelief how this man talks about our country and how he fights every lawsuit that is against him. if he is so innocent, why isn't he in a courtroom on the stand defending himself? questions, i know, i am sorry. but i really believe you had so

many requests for this 2025 plan but i think you shouldn't interject everything that this man is about. and i thank you for your time. host: all right, terry. and this is the website for that is project2025.org. you can read it on their website. you can find out more about it and even get updates on that project. in pittsburgh, democrat. good morning. doris, are you? doris, are you there? and oscar, north carolina, republican. caller: yes. i am an 87-year-old military retiree and a 20 or postal service retiree, see mark say i spent most of my life in government. i believe that this trump during

schmidt syndrome is getting -- during syndrome -- and arrangement syndrome is getting to a point where it's pump crazy. if somebody says they would vote for biden in a coma. during trump's years as president, i know things was mighty pleasant for me. i was driving around on gas less than two dollars a gallon, i was buying a dozen eggs for $.98, now i am paying four dollars for those. i think trump was a darn good president. and i think the one that we've got right now, i don't even know if he will be around on election day. but still, if you call people the trump people cultist, give me a glass of his lemonade and i would just go on and be happy. host: when you were filling up gas for $.98 a gallon, was that during the covid shutdown? caller: i am sorry, ma'am? host: when you were filling up

gas for $.98 a gallon, was that during the covid shutdown? caller: well, during the covid shutdown, i was having a little trouble. i lost my wife in 2021 to covid. and at the same time, i had contacted covid also. because i was not showing any symptoms. i did not go to the hospital. i was put on house arrest, more or less. and my wife was admitted to the hospital and she passed away in two days. two i cannot be there with her -- i could not be there with her. i do not believe that was trump's fault. i don't blame him. i don't believe it was biden's fault. i think it was dr. fauci's passover in china. host: all right, -- pets over in china. host: all right. let's talk to democrat in maryland. caller: good morning. i was going to respond to the gentleman that was calling i think from north carolina i

believe or florida, i'm not sure which one. he was talking about how c-span needed to have something on about trump and that kind of thing. i wanted to respond to him by saying i have been a c-span junkie for over 15 years now and you all do great program. i have noticed that because cable fees have gone down and people have dumped cable, you all have let just a slither of fair central advertising in. my suggestion is, and i've opened up my pocketbook, all those who are c-span, c-spaners, open up your pocketbook and donate money and that's the way we keep this great, great program going, the programming. and keep out ads and keep everything central and keep our thoughts out there for the public to hear. that's one of the great ways to do it. open up your pocketbook. you don't have to call in and criticize all the time, open up your pocketbook and since he

spends the money. thank you very much -- send c-span some money. thank you very much. host: thank you. david, independent line. caller: i have to agree with the lady from new jersey. i think we should expose a little bit more of the donald trump side of the coin. because i have watched his campaign rallies. and he has made some horrible faux pas's. he went absolutely brain-dead a few times. and he talked about electric boats and sharks and crazy, crazy stuff. and i think just to be fair, i think that we, because if you talk to people, they don't show that sort of stuff like on fox 5 or those, the right-wing media. it is more or less like someone with a cell phone at a rally. and that's how you see it.

i just think it would be fair to expose that, too. i think it would also be fair to have a complete discussion on project 2025. because i read bullet points on it. it's huge. and it is frightening. if you ask me. and i think every american, democrat, republican, independent should have a good, close look because it is definitely frightening. that's my spiel. have a good day. host: all right, david. coming up next, a conversation with dr. jacob appel.he is a professor at new york's icahn school of medicine and he studied the history of presidential illnesses and the role of the white house physician. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington live and on-demand.

keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaign and more from the role of politics more at your fingertips. you can stay current with the do latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling podcastss. c-span now is available in the apple store and google play. scan the qr code to download it for free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-span now. your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. ♪ >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress, from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row

seat to how issues are debated and decided, with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ♪ if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, you can find and anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on slick videos. this timeline tool -- select videos. this timeline tool makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. ♪ [gavel smash] > the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrates

45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." we are joined now by dr. jacob appel, he is icahn school of medicine at mount sinai medical education and psychiatry professor. welcome. dr. appel: thank you for having me. host: can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got interested in researching presidential illnesses? dr. appel: sure. so, i am a psychiatrist by training but a lot of my work is medical history. many years ago, and 11th grade, we had to solve a historical question and mine was the question of whether or not warren harding father an

illegitimate child. i've been obsessed with the question of presidential health ever since. host: what does the history of president and ex-president -- presidents and presidential candidates and their doctors, what does that tell us about the presidents' fitness for office, and obviously this question now surrounding president biden? dr. appel: what i can emphasize is we will weather know whether a particular president is healthy enough for office at the time. we learned this many. years past defect. people who have seemed very healthy -- past the fact. people who have seemed very healthy at the time -- franklin roosevelt, widely viewed as are most successful, and with a long history of deception by the white house, which is not necessarily bad. because any information we learn about the president's health,

form governments learn about the president's health. the president may be afraid to share information with their doctor. host: can you give a certain historical example of when the president has been very ill and nobody knew about it? dr. appel: sure. this dates back to the early 19th century. james madison in 1813 severed -- suffered from fever. the -- he overtly told congress why he couldn't meet with them, that his watch was broken. franklin pierce. there are more well-known cases. there is the secret surgery that grover cleveland had. there is woodrow wilson's -- in 1919 that left him highly debilitated. franklin roosevelt's with polio.

ronald reagan suffered with alzheimer's through the end of his term. host: what's your assessment right now, dr., about president biden's cognitive health and the conversation surrounding that? dr. appel: sure. so like all other issues, i should not be diagnosing someone i have not evaluated, so i cannot say anything directly about president biden's health. not just because it would be unethical or unscientific, but there's no way really to know. people see one debate and forget that many candidates have said many unfortunate things during debates during very bad debate performances. humphrey in 1976, he could not name a third department he planned to eliminate. biting -- biting, i would say -- biden, i would say the same of mitch mcconnell early last year.

we simply cannot judge information from one appearance. or is it his public persona? some presidential candidates have seemed to in public make themselves look sicker than they were or outside policies. for example, dwight eisenhower wanted the soviets to think he was not fully cognitively intact or might even be cognitively off balance to make their retaliation stronger. host: what's your assessment of how this situation has been handled i the white house -- by the white house? >> i am not a politician or political commentator. but i do think it's important that we all remember that no matter what the white house shares with us about the president's health, its goals political. it's goes not transparent -- it's goal is not transparency about the president's health. voters, i would urge you to tuneup anything -- tune out

anything you hear from the white house or any political sources about the president's health. they simply don't know. host: and we are talking to dr. jacob appel about the history of presidents and their health issues. you can give us a call on our line by party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independent substack -- independents, (202) 748-8002. you can start calling in now. do you think that the white house physician, dr. kevin o'connor, needs to be more forthcoming about the president's health? dr. appel: so, i will be candid, i have no idea how forthcoming he's been, nor do any of us. host: do you think you should go in front of cameras and answer questions from reporters? dr. appel: not necessarily. i think the primary job of dr. o'connor is to be the white house and president's doctor,

to be a physician the president can trust. guarantees confidentiality between the president and his physician. the mistake is to believe the job of that physician has a second duty to serve the public in some broader way. the public can create other mechanisms to do that and they've done that through mechanisms like the 25th amendment but that's not the responsibility of the white house. some white house physicians have been very public. ronald reagan, travail, john kennedy's white house physician was a household name. dr. o'connor was chosen to be very much a behind the scenes doctor. host: there's been a lot of discussion about cognitive tests. president biden was asked about that in an abc interview last friday. he says he was never told to get a cognitive test by his physician. i want to play you a portion and

then get your response. pres. biden: i have medical doctors trial me everywhere, every president does. medical doctors from all over the road shadow me everywhere i go. i have an ongoing assessment of what i am doing and they don't hesitate to tell me if they think there is something wrong. >> have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation? pres. biden: i get a full neurological test every day. there with me. and i've had the full physical. you know, i've gone to walter reed for my physical. i mean, yes. >> i know your doctor said he consulted with a neurologist. i guess i am asking a slightly different question. have you had the specific cognitive test? have you had a neurologist specialist do an examination? pres. biden: no, no one said i had to. host: what do you make of that? dr. appel: president biden is alluding to two different

phenomena. there is a formal cognitive test. there are cognitive psychological testing that would give us a very good sense of the president's cognition. that is not standard care in any 81-year-old. something more basic like moca i believe donald trump said he just had don't really tell you much about higher order functioning. at the same time, i want to point out the job of the president is so fundamentally different from any other job that the skills that you need and cognitive skills you need are going to be very different from any other job. host: do you think that both candidates should be given a cognitive test just in general? dr. appel: i would actually suggest that neither candidate should be given a cognitive test. for their own medical care, i strongly endorse that.

any information they share will be politicized. and if the results suggested the president or his opponent are cognitively intact, people who don't agree will challenge it. and if they say he's cognitively unwell, people who don't agree with that will challenge it. if it comes to political games, i always tell people you should vote for the candidate you believe expresses your values, expresses the policy you believe in. the health of the president is something secondary because you will never either know or probably understand that information to go through the details. what do we do with facts like barack obama smoked a small number of cigarettes over a certain number of years? or john mccain set he considered suicide while he was in a prison in vietnam? those are talks for a specialist, let alone an average rotor. host: i think it's important to the average voter the health of the president and if they are going to be around or if there

is something that is going to happen to them. how do we, if we don't have a medical background, obviously we cannot assess, we cannot, you know, do it personally, so how do we sort through the information that we are given? dr. appel: sure. one of the challenges is that you know that somebody's health today is often not very prognostic. looking back to 1940 as an excellent example, franklin roosevelt was in terrible. physical shape by then. his opponent, much younger, much thinner. people would not vote for him not just based on what they knew, but based on the actual facts. before the next term was up, he was dead of a massive heart attack and roosevelt served part of another term. it's really hard to predict how the president's health is going to play out or his opponent based on a long shot at the moment. bike in 1976 -- back in 1976,

people were saying ronald reagan was too old to serve as president. he was president 12 years later. in 1992, people were saying george bush were tooled, 1996, bob dole were too old to serve and all them out bid the sentences they were projected to have -- outlived the senses -- sentences they were projected to have. the prognosis is are probably a lot better. host: as you know, there are confidentiality laws, hip allows. a white house physician -- hepa laws. a white house physician may not be able to disclose to the public a health issue that might be very important for the public to know. do you think that should be changed in the case of presidents. dr. appel: absolutely not. i think the danger of doing that is done the president will no

longer trust his physician or her physician. and then the president won't get the care they need, even for something as minor. given the trade-off of putting the president's health at risk, knowing more information about the president's health, i would rather keep the present healthy and fit for office. host: let's talk to callers and start with bob in san diego, democrat. good morning. caller: yes. i was just listening to him and he's talking about being the personal, keeping your stuff personal. well, trump did not even keep any logs in his presidency, that's why you didn't find out how many times a doctor came to the white house. and when you get fox news, they for three days, three solid days on biden and had some kind of parkinson's disease dr. coming in, neurosurgeon. you know, at least it's listed.

you guys can look this up for trump followers that don't believe me, just google it. he didn't have logs. at least biden is being honest, you know. and yeah, i am a total democrat. if you don't want to listen to me. but i'll tell you, you know, and yes he's having some problems in that debate, but at least he was answering truthfully. trump did not say one truthful sentence. he didn't even try to answer any question. it was all deflection, just like his defense. all of his defenses are deflection. he's never professed his innocence. if the man was innocent, show us. shell is the facts. it's just -- show us the fact. it's just, it's really upsetting to see this kind of stuff. it goes on and on everyday. biden is incompetent. no, he isn't. the guy has done a lot for the country and gas prices, saudi arabia suppressed -- host: we are not going to get on gas prices. dr. appel, do you want to

respond to anything there? dr. appel: sure. i will just say your collar is onto something in the sense that health issues from my perspective are a distraction. whatever you feel about them is what voters should be talking about. we look at trump's track record when he ran for office, we now know he had his doctor sign a letter that he or his staff had dictated. is very possible joe biden has done the same thing, i cannot speculate to that. i will say that your caller and people out there should not be worried so much about health of either candidate. they should be worried about the issues they actually care about. host: dr., we have got this on x. would dr. appel agree that a physical disability would have a far less affect on the president's ability to run our country can a mental disability. we know other presidents have had disabilities.

they will mostly physical. dr. appel: sure. so i think how severe of a physical and how severe of a cognitive limitation. woodrow wilson was so impaired, he could only get out of his bed with a chair. he also had some cognitive disabilities. ronald reagan struggled with the debates as early as 1984. by the time he spoke after his meeting with gorbachev, his aides were very concerned about his cognitive abilities. many people in hindsight really don't think the policies he implemented were shaped by his cognitive condition. obviously, there is some threshold beyond which one probably cannot do the job. but exactly what that threshold is is very hard to pinpoint. host: terry in los angeles, independent line. you are next. caller: hi.

yes. i think that the hepa laws need to stay in place. i understand the public's need to know. when we start digging into the health issues of all candidates, some things have to and should remain private. let's look at it. the former president has also has issues. he is 78 years old. but we are all just more or less focused on the fact that joe biden is 81. they have been bringing up things that really are not relative here. i agree with the last caller, we need to stay focused on the issues rather than his health care. ronald reagan was said to have alzheimer's. so, we all know about this. i think at this point, we have to look at the quality of people that are surrounding these people, what their current policies are in place, who they have that's going to be next in

line for them. because you don't know, the average age right now, both of them have surpassed it when you look at what the average lifespan of a person is in the united states. host: i take it you agree with that? dr. appel: yes but i will add it's important to remember two things about that lifespan. your lifespan once you reach the age of these individuals are is actually much higher. both of them are much more likely than not to be alive the next four years of their term. even the people out there who care about the president's health, focusing on the specific health and not the ages very important. i think we have a bias in our society against older people and it's very important to remember that there are many out there who are much older than 78 or 81 who can do a fantastic job at what they do. harry blackmun served at older ages and they did a phenomenal job.

few people doubted their cognitive ability. host: i wonder if you support this idea of an upper age limit for presidents? dr. appel: i definitely don't. it would undermine the democratic process. we want people to make decisions about who they want to leave their country and we don't want arbitrary rules, particularly rules that are going to be overinclusive and underinclusive. there are 90-year-olds i would be thrilled. to run the country. the arm people my age who i would never want to let anywhere near the white house, including me. host: jerry in new jersey, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a critical care registered nurse, 30 years. and in 2021, we all in the hospital where i work, a 350 bed hospital, we also biden declined. and as the last year went by, every medical staff in the hospital knew that biden was

deteriorating. but they kept saying it's just cheapfakes and all of that. i was just wondering, now, physically, that's not important. but the cognitive, his brain and what he says with the word salad and all those things that show his mental decline. how can you say that that's not important? dr. appel: the history is we don't know the extent. joe biden is experiencing normal aging. a lot of people, as they get older. you put anybody on a stage like that under the lights in a high-pressure situation, they would struggle. i don't think i could do what either president biden or former president trump had done, speaking on stage and speaking in public. i am certainly sure my elderly

parents would not do that even though they are cognitively intact. i think the question is not whether or not the president is older at 81 then he was at 77 or shows signs of age. i think any observer without a medical background would say he looks older. past presidents, barack obama and abraham lincoln, aged substantially. really hard job for anyone. the real question is whether or not either candidate has dropped below the line where they can do the job. that's the question we cannot answer. host: george in california, line for democrats. good morning. caller: my name is george. host: yes, go right ahead, george. caller: yes. i am a physician, physician for more than 50 years. and i have been watching, i am a democrat. i have been watching president biden for many, many years. he does have a gate disorder, there's no doubt about it.

his cognition is fine but he does have a gait disorder, probably from neuropathy. host: ok. dr. appel: do you note -- host: do you know anything? dr. appel: i will defer to the observation of the caller. i am not an expert in gait but i could not on either,. unless i set down in a room with him and offered formal testing, i wouldn't know. host: could you tell us a little bit about parkinson's disease? could parkinson's affect cognition? could it be the cause of that gait disorder, as the color mentioned? dr. appel: sure. parkinson's disease for some people can have a significant cognitive, or psychological and psychiatric effects and certainly cause a shuffling gait and a range of other symptoms. i will add, there are many other

parkinsonian syndromes that are not parkinson's disease. saying someone does have parkinson's disease -- not have parkinson's disease does not tulsa they have parkinsonioan syndromes. there are numerous other expeditions for the president that are really hard to not less you have done a formal test, and often a formative lab and imaging. to my knowledge, i don't even know if that's been done, let alone have access. host: rick in nashville, republican line. hi, rick. caller: hey, good morning. how are you? so, do you know of any other president in the history that has had this kind of issue? and if so, what did they do about it? thank you. dr. appel: i think the question, this kind of issue, a

president that is seen by some to be impaired, what can be done about it legally, not medically. in the old days, there is a cause for removing the president if people think he's unfit. that would be his cabin and officers and the vice president. there is no nonpolitical mechanism for doing this. numerous efforts have been made with the different panels of physicians and nonpartisan experts to evaluate the president over the last 30, 40 years. they were recently proposed when donald trump was president by nancy pelosi and others. they are, in my opinion, doomed to fail. because produced in a tunnel that politicians in our country that are subdivided can agree is impartial, and then actually following the advice of that individual is extraordinarily -- if they decided the president was unfit for office, i would imagine if they did not agree with that verdict, [

indiscernible] they will continue to fight for the president's removal. host: francis in ocala, florida. good morning, francis. caller: good morning. i just wanted to comment. i think that what's good for one president is good for the other. biden did not have a great debate because of his mental status. i did not see anything wrong with his mental status. he answered. he thought before he spoke. but trump did not answer questions, he avoided the questions. what's good for one should be good for the other. that's all i have to say. host: let's talk to gary in st. louis, missouri, independent line. caller: hello. this is gary from st. louis. and, you know, people talk about the mental declined but what about the ethical decline? trump was sued many times before

he ever ran for office and he declared bankruptcy many times. he cheated on all three of his wives. his family had a foundation supposedly for veterans, but none of that money went to veterans. so, when we talk about decline, the most important thing for a president is to be an honest, upright person. and trump has demonstrated for decades that he is not that. so why do we not talk about the ethical decline of a person running for president? host: all right. your comment? dr. appel: the last few callers have demonstrated why the issues are so hard to negotiate. on the one hand, people of different political vanish points see very different things. one caller sees a president who is ill, another a president who simply took a long time to answer questions, they said was being thoughtful. and we see how quickly questions of medical care and ability shift into questions of

politics. a number of your cars who have started talking about health care, but have shifted talking about policies, suggested that it's virtually impossible for the electorate or american people to meaningfully distinguish between the two. host: let's get brian in in oakland, california. hi, brian. caller: good morning. anchor for taking my call. i would like to propose something i don't hear anyone saying. . i believe joe biden was faking this cold. i believe these people are cons and i believe that he was just simply faking so that the next morning, he woke up, he was fine. he only cuffed for the first 15 seconds of the thing. that's all i have to say. god bless you all. god bless america. thank you, ma'am. host: last comment? dr. appel: sure. i think overall what we should take away from today is that americans are deeply divided about the president's health,

like any other issue. but any decision we make today will have to -- cautious in changing policy because of their particular situation. we really want to try to assume we stay to those who see the president's health directly. host: psychology professor at host: more phone calls after the break for open forum on this, any other tong on your mind. you can call, 202-748-8000, republicans 202-748-8001, and 202-748-8002 for independence. plus we will hear from brad sherman of california with his thoughts on yesterday's meeting about president biden.

>> american history repeating saturday on c-span 2 exploring people that tell the american story. 4:15 michael dukakis with current and former governors look at his political career. at 7:00 p.m. watch historic convention speeches fearing notable remarks by nominees and others from the past several decades. vice president george h.w. bush accepted his party's nomination at the 1988 convention. >> read my lips. no more taxes many

>> at 9:30 p.m. on the presidency historians examine the contribution and legacy of pat nixon hosted by the richard nixon pressure library. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturday on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on the program guide or watch online at c-span.org/history. >> c-span campaign 2024 takes you live to milwaukee for our coverage of the republican national convention. tune in monday as delegates gather to elect their republican nominee and lay out the priority for the next four years an vision. the republican national convention live monday on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org.

c-span your unfilter the view of the contention. -- convention. >> "washington journal" continuation. host: we are back. we will start attacking calls shortly. we want to update you news, of course jim inhofe known for climate and infrastructure stances dies at age 89. here is a, one of his more memorable moments on the senate floor from february of 2015. >> mr. president, i'm reminiscent with the snow on the ground five years ago and i say mr. president was not here at that time and you don't have the advantage of knowing the story behind this and the story behind this is that is when they first started the hysteria on global warm being and happened to be another snowstorm unprecedented

and settle a record. there's a charming family of six i say to my friend in the chair that built this and their picture is here and that happens to be my daughter and family. at that time it got a lot of attention, actually got a lot of fat attention and in case we have forgotten because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record i ask the chair you know what this is? it is from outside here so it is very cold out, verien season able. host: that was a snowball on the senate floor from 2015. we will go to the phones now, john in chantilly, virginia. democrat. caller: i want to make sure that it is so sad to see people who

are claiming they have seen joe biden and his illness. the media is involved. when i watch the press in the white house, who are really accusing that the staffs are hiding something when they don't know what the facts are. they are saying there are eight times doctors show up when the facts show that the doctor who visits the president he saw him three times and the other five times even the president wasn't there. the reason i'm calling does anyone, is anyone saying about donald trump's mental? let's be real. who is running the country? it is joe biden. it is despicable people claiming

they have a nurse for 50 years and you judge it by seeing someone. this president is going to do what he feeds to do and -- what he needs to do and if he cannot he will let america know. he doesn't have to lie about his condition. he will tell people. he is a honest and stkaoepblt -- decent man. this is election is not about joe biden or donald trump. it is about america and donald trump. people need to understand that. i'm sorry to say this, but keep your opinions to yourself because you are not a doctor and you don't see joe biden's condition in total. host: this is on foxnews.com trump challenges biden to golf match and he will give one million to charity if he loses.

from georgia the republican line, is it rek? caller: yes. ah, ah, ah, we saved america. that made america great again. host: kneel -- neil from florida, independent line. caller: i want to say that it seems like everybody is deflecting from the issues. so far, biden and trump don't debate issues, they just debate character. and i think there's a third candidate, r.f.k., and r.f.k. is better suited. he seems to be on the issues and about issues, not character flaws or health issues. even though everybody should be healthy when it comes to the issue of carrying the nuclear

football. for me, i believe that we should be looking at all aspects of a person who will be representing us all around the world. host: sorry to cut you off but are there specific policies that you like about r.f.k. jr.? caller: yes. restrictions on wall street so they can't buy out people while they are waiting on a loan and what they get paid and that is way out of whack. and he seems to be more on top of that. i don't know the specifics because i work all the time to barely stay afloat. so i don't know. host: let's go to minnesota, democrats, papi. caller: good morning. i'm 100% in support of the

president and he came out of retirement after his son had passed away. then he came out and beat donald trump fair and square. right now our president is dealing with a global situation because we are in a bad someplace. i don't want to say it but we are in a bad place and he has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, he is done good for our economy. and anybody who believes that a dictator wanna be to elect as president you are making a serious mistake. this country is about the people and donald trump is all about donald trump. he would never pay that million dollars out if he lost that golf match. thank you very much. y'all have a very nice day. host: clara, murfreesboro, tennessee. caller: i would like to say

something about protesters. i think that we should be allowed to protest, it is one of our rights. but i think if you are going to protest any issue there shouldn't be any weapons and i view sticks as a weapon. so if you want to carry a sign carry it with your hands. you shouldn't be wearing a mask and under to circumstances should children be allowed to be brought to a protest to march. we recently had a group in nashville and a lot of people were considered because it was a neo-nazi type of protesters and they were complaining they should not be wearing masks. i agree. no one should be wearing masks. when they start to block public access to buildings and roads that's not a protest that. is a riot. that is the issue that concerns me. host: tell us more about the protest. what were they protesting, what

were their issues? caller: well, it was a neo-nazi, i think some type of patriot group. and i watched a little bit of it on the local news. and they seem to be peacefully marching but some of the black people were saying they should not be allowed to do that. i don't agree with their philosophy but i disagree with a lot of protesters on the left side also. i just think that protesting in general is -- we have a right and i want that right to be preserved. but i think there's ways of doing it. and in our country you are free to protest so why do you have to wear a mask. host: newark, new jersey, under line. caller: hi.

thank you for taking my call. [inaudible] i know -- et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, many, many things in life, many things. biden stumbled because he was shocked at the answers that trump was giving.

i know from experience. host: ok, james. catherine in tuscaloosa, alabama, democrat. caller: i want to see if anybody else has it problem. -- has this problem. during the doctor's video my audio was cut off. i heard a few. i turned to other channels and had audio. this happens from time to time when i'm watching c-span. i was wondering if anybody else has that problem, muted, turned off or i figure it is accidental but it is really bothersome. host: terry in cleveland, tennessee, republican. good morning. caller: i'm terry, and i have been trying to keep up with who is supposed to be running this

year against trump? obama? jill? or biden? because he is not doing anything and he is not going to be able to do anything the next four years. i'm 69 years old. i shouldn't have to be working, but i have to work two different jobs just to make ends meet. and that ain't right. thank you. host: let's talk to joe next, baltimore, independent line. good morning. host: good morning, love the show. got a couple comments about the debate. i saw the debate on tv first and i thought a lot of the same things a lot of people were thinking, boy, joe biden looks rough and almost painful to watch. then i listened to it on c-span later on the radio, it is like nixon and kennedy and what i

heard on the radio is different than what i perceived. his voice was rough but without seeing things what i heard is a man who was answering the questions and was, you know, doing a strong job for the most part. there were a couple of times that he stumbled in the beginning and i kept waiting for them to show up on the radio. but my mind changed based on what i heard. the other thing is away heard so much about joe biden's age the last week and debate performance. at the same time with these things about donald trump and epstein and what they did to a 13-year-old girl and, you know, there's all of these new documents with him from the insteen files released by that right hand desantis in florida.

i don't know why everybody talks about joe biden being old we, forgive me for the language it sounds like donald trump might be a rapest and pedophile. caller: i want to make a couple comments, one about inflation and the economy and another about immigration. inflation. the president is not in charge of interest rates. he doesn't control the monetary policy of the united states. it is the federal reserve. they have a dual mandate one being fell employment and other -- being full employment and price stability. we inflation goes to 9% the fed acted. they have controlled inflation, now it is down to 3%. unemployment, 4% you can find a job what. is worse than higher prices is

not finding a job. in 1979 paul volcker was the fed chair and we had back to back recessions, mass layoffs. you can find a job. it is not joe biden's fault. then you had wars in ukraine, israel and hamas situation. you have major flare-ups in the world. all of this stuff, it is really difficult to manage. joe biden is doing a great job for 81. he is moving every day. i don't know why everybody is beating him up. we need him because he promotes the concept of freedom, our constitution, preserving, protecting the constitution. what is free for all of us as

americans. and on immigration give me your tired, poor, hudson manied masses yearning to breathe free. do you people come out on monday and call people animals and vermin and poisoning our blood. that is so wrong. get right, america. don't you have any conviction? host: all right, steve. we will pause on our phone calls and get back to them. but we will speak to representative brad sherman a democrat of california. he is on the foreign affairs committee and ranking member much the financial services subcommittee on capital markets. can you talk to us about what happened at that closed don't remember meeting of the democratic caucus and what you discussed? guest: we were united that one individual showed himself to be totally unfit to be president

during that debate and that was donald trump. he lied 30 times. he has proposed rounding up 10 million people who live in our society putting them into the deportation camps. he should not be president. we also focused on what is the best way to make sure donald trump is the best way and there was a range of those who thought as some of your callers had, that joe biden perform well in the debate in general and would be a very strong nominee over to the other side of people thinking the devil will get you going in another direction. i'm looking forward to tomorrow's press conference to see whether biden is able to erase the disgrace from our minds of what we saw at the debate on june 26 and 27. we will see how long that press conference is.

because we know on september 10 there will be another debate and that will be after our convention and i think all the delegates at that convention want to feel confident we biden faces trump again for 90 minutes, live, unedited, and when he faces him that he will do a good job and put this debate thing to rest. i think that the delegates need reassurance and whether it is this press conference or something else that comes up in the next week or so i think biden will show us that he can do 90 minutes at 9:00 p.m. host: i want to read what you posted on x. you said biden did a very good job in the 22 minute revenue with stephanopoulous but most of the questions are about his capability. we feed an extended live interview that focuses on where

he plans it lead us the next four years. he had a bad night, trumps -- trump has led a bad life. host: what are you recommending? guest: this press conference may be exactly what i'm recommending. tough questions on national and international policy live broadcast. host: are you totally in on joe biden? do you think there's another democrat that could do better against former president trump? guest: has biden has said we might have 50 democrats that could beat donald trump but he is our nominee if he can erase or displace from our minds the performance in the first debate and one way to do that is to perform well in the press conference he has tomorrow. i don't know if that is a 10 minute press conference or 90 minutes but the closer it comes

to showing us with he can do in the september 10 date the better i will feel t. is quite possible that exactly what i was asking for or something very close what i was asking for will be provided tomorrow. host: do you think president biden should take a cognitive test or hand over any medical records as some republicans are calling for? guest: i think he is handed over a lot of records. donald trump on the other hand, he gets some doctor who is a true believer of a trumps terror it write a letter saying examples in freight helmet. i think a cognitive test strikes me at least to some as demeaning for a president and if the president takes that i wouldn't find him wrong in his decision. i think the best cognitive test

is stand up for an extended period of time live to tough questions about our nation and we may see that tomorrow. host: i want to turn to foreign policy sings you are on the -- sense you are on the foreign affairs summit. "new york times" is reporting that russia is unlikely to take any more ukrainian territory. what does that mean for u.s. policy going forward given that it looks like this war is at a standstill? guest: ukraine wants chance next year to retake some of its territory, we will see whether all of nato will reunite behind that. right now we are trying to provide ukraine with the ability to defend itself. and no matter what one article may say, he has said he wants

additional areas. that is how this started he was trying to conquer all of ukraine. host: you are the top democratic on markets and powell testifies today. secretary yellin did yesterday. what are you expecting on movement of interest rates? guest: first keep in mind we have had some very economic management over the last two years. we have seen the sharpest decline in the inflation rate than at any time this century and we have been able to maintain that with an historical low employment rate. so, i know that the reporting and polling shows people are not satisfied with the economy. economists will tell you it is a good economy. everybody watches powell every

day to get a hint as to what interest rates will be reduced. he gave a bit of a hint before the senate yesterday. i also want to talk to him about a host of banking regulations. we have a system where people can be conned into wiring down payments on a house to the wrong account and the fed oversees the wire transfer system that needs to be improved so you know who you are wiring the money to. we will want to talk about the basel three proposal that appears to have been withdrawn and is being rewritten which would cause a substantial deregulation of banks. i want to make sure our banking regulations encourage banks to loan money locally, to local

businesses. too many of our bank regulations push banks toward buying billion dollar bonds on wall street and that means the local business has a hard time getting a loan. host: representative brad sherman democrat of california, thank you for joining us. guest: thank you. host: we will go back to your calls. since we were talking about financial and the fed reserve chair i want you to know for your schedule today. right after this program on c-span 3 secretaries powell testifying on the semiannual poison -- monetary report. that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. it is on c-span now, app and

c-span.org. now karen in florida, a republican. caller: the thing is i watched the trial in new york and was say astounded at the adult film star. her hatred for him is shocking. i think she hated him not because he had sex with her because he didn't. he is wealthy and attractive and i'm sure people get after him like crazy. i think he was tempted in getting a divorce from the first wife. he didn't kill the baby though. host: he wasn't getting a divorce at the time. he was married to melania. host: i know that. but he didn't cheat on her. he didn't have sex with an adult film star.

she wanted on his tv show and when i heard the hatred, he didn't have sex with her. that is what she wanted. the other thing is i believe donald trump repented for cheating on his first wife and the harm he created. host: what do you base that on? remember, he was asked -- do you remember that time he was asked have you ever asked god for forgiveness and he said no because i don't do anything wrong? caller: i don't recall. i never heard that. his son didn't speak it him for over a year and i think he learned a great deal from that. but i'm sure women are throwing themselves at him. he is very wealthy. but i believe he loves this country and he loves people. joe biden has been in office,

he's never held a job. what about his affair with jill when his wife was killed in that accident? somebody ought to be questioning that. he's lined his pockets all the time he is in office. he called for the death of babies up to birth and afterwards. to me, you are really a sick person to do something like that. but anyway, joe biden has serious problems and he's allowed all of it war and done nothing for the average middle class or poor middle class, the whole thing with the climate change is a hoax. all of this is to come up a way to get money from china. how much money -- where is the accountability for the money

spent in ukraine? that should have been stopped right away. he is given moan -- money to zelenskyy and zelenskyy gives a cook back to biden. host: let's talk to isaiah in cincinnati, ohio, democrat. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: that last caller messed me up. but my opinion is right here. we are talking about trump, and trump talked so much, he said that [inaudible] if he was to run for president. he said he would stop the war if he made president. he said all he is going about is

him, him, him. you going to step on the news and say that, my son, my brother, my husband, wherever, with putin all he has to do is say so. why he have to become president to talk about putin. you think about making america great again why do you have to be president to tell putin to stop bombing ukraine. they talk joe biden, joe biden. that ain't right. all he got to do is sit back and listen to the man and trump will tell you everything you need to though about him.

the things he said ain't for the people of america, ain't about nothing but him. he doesn't care about family. it is obvious. only thing president trump carry about is trump. host: garry a republican. caller: this has been a cover-up by the democratic party, the white house and staff, for the last three years and it has come out and it is not going to go away. they keep trying to sweep it under the rug but the rug is not coming up. host: i'm sorry, the cover-up being about president biden's health? caller: right, his china -- decline. and the white house briefings are a joke. they are all denying it but it is right out in the open that he

cannot make it through another four years mentally or maybe physically. and it is sad for this nation that it is happening this way because we are in a dire shape. we are in three wars, when you start funding a country and giving them arms and money and stuff like that, you are in the war with them. we were fine with the past president and the withdrawal from afghanistan and leaving americans behind. it is building up. there's more to it. so think about it, america. host: let's talk to katherine next, new hampshire, end line. caller: good morning. i'm calling to respond to one of your previous callers, probably about 15 minutes ago. she was calling from alabama and she questioned the fact that at

times, including this morning, when a guest is talking or you are talking or there is print i especially notice this with print. we get pixelated. we go to the black cast saying it not available, the sound goes away. i have been seeing it for several years. it is not constant. but it does exist. i'm in new hampshire and she is in alabama. and i wondered if it is happening because it seems to become more prevalent now that we are into this really caustic political -- host: i think, katherine, it might be the cable providers, there might be an issue with their signal. i'm pretty sure it is not coming

from other side. caller: my first taught, going -- my first thought going back a few years, i thought the weather, someplace where ever along the line there was bad weather. but like i said, it has been going n for a few years. it just happened when you were talking and you got pixelated, then it was cleared, then the block screen comcast -- black screen comcast saying not available and whoever is doing it -- and it could be across the country -- but it was like in our face. host: katherine, sorry that is happening on your side, but we will, along with our programming, up next we have congressmen pat fallon to talk

about why committee republicans want to hear from the white house physician dr. kevin o'connor. that is next. >> book tv every sunday on c-span 2 features leading authors. at 9:00 p.m. rough town back publisher karl webber and other contributors share their book, why books still matter when at the discuss the importance of the written word and free speech. then writer and activist offers an alternative view of grit and resilience in a world of overlap ing ideas. watch book tv every sunday on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on your television

line. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of washington. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor motion and hearings from the congress. white house, court, campaign and more from politics all at your fingertips. being stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling for c-span tv and radio. some podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. scan the code to download it or visit c-span.org/c-span now. c-span now your front row seat to washington any time, anywhere.

>> american history tv saturday on c-span 2 exploring the people an events that tell the american story. at 4:15 p.m. michael due cans with current and former governors take a retrospective look at his political career. 7:00 watch american history steve hick convention speeches with notable remarks by presidential nominees and others from the past several decades. this week vice president george h.w. bush accepted his party's nam nation at the 1988 convention calling for a kinder gentler nation. >> read my lips. >> at 9:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency hitches examine the contribution and legacy of pat nixon hosted by the nixon library.

watch american history tv saturdays on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online at c-span.org/history. >> the c-span book shelf podcast makes it easy to listen to all of c-span's podcasts of books so you can discover new authors and ideas. we make it easy to listen discussing history, concern events and culture from our signature programs about books after words, book photos plus and q&a. listen to the book shelf podcast feed today. it is in all of our podcasts on the free c-span now mobile video app. on our web site

c-span.org/podcast. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back now and joined by representative pat fallon republican of texas member of the armed services committee and oversight and accountability committee. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me on. host: yurtaykin the divisions within the democratic party on president biden's ability to be the nominee. guest: from this perch as a conservative republican from texas there's a part of me to be honest, it is fascinating but on a more serious note i believe this is the largest and greatest cover-up we've seen in american history. my prediction is six months from now when he is no longer president there will be staffers that write tell all books explaining how bad things were. we will see. but i think it is very interesting to see the divide.

it appears right now that joe biden will be the horse they will ride in on and if that is the case we have a potential to see a landslide victory akin to obama in 2008 or even h.w. bush in 1988. host: you serve on the house oversight committee. james comber requested that president biden's physician and for a transcribed interview about mr. biden's medical evaluation. why is that? guest: clearly we are concerned. the debate performance is one of the most abysmal debate pepss we have ever seen and arguably the worst for a candidate and they are trying to sell it as a one off. we have seen this for the last 3 1/2 years. there are serious cognitive issues with president biden.

if there are not any i think the first thing is to take a cognitive test. president trump did that and ronnie jackson was one of the physicians and president trump passed with flying colors. why is merit garland withholding the audiotapes that the special council made when he interviewed joe biden? i think it is because they are so bad the american people would be aghast. there are ways to mitigate this if -- they are saying there is know fire and we are seeing the smoke. show us there is no fire. host: you mentioned president trump having taken a cognitive test several years ago. would you recommend that he take one today? and would it be the same test that you are recommending for president biden? guest: i think president trump would be the first one to say i will do it now, come on, joe, let's go because we can see

president trump is robust. it is a word that a lot use. he has the energy of a person 40 years his junior. you saw that with the debates. host: do you be there should be an upper limit on presidential candidates? guest: that is interesting because i think the founding fathers didn't have many concerns because they didn't live as long then. some of them made to their 80's but most people are doing that now. i remember john wooden he was in 90's. so everybody ages differently. there could be something that we might consider as far as cognitive ability but you would hope the american people could sniff that out on election. host: we will tack your calls for reserve factual -- for reserve factual left hand. democrats 202-748-8000,

republicans 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. representative fallon, in the "new york post" congressman comber has also called on dr. ocon authorize to hands over documents about his dealings with. president's younger brother james biden. can you explain what is going on this? guest: that is interesting. no, i can't explain it because i'm not sure of the connection but i will fine out when i see the chairman later. host: you serve on the armed services committee and the nato summit is under way currently in washington. there are reports that some nato country leaders and other western leaders are very concerned about the possibility of former president trump becoming president again, especially in late of what he has said about nato. what are your thoughts on that?

guest: i think the ones that are months ago concerned are the countries that don't want to pay, don't want to invest 2% of their g.d.p. in defense which we agreed to nearly a decade ago. president trump is right in so much there are nation that have been tree loading particularly germany. they have plenty of wealth to invest. the fact that finland has more artillery pieces that germany with 85 million with one of the most powerful economies is stark and chilling and very telling. so, speaking for hopefully the future separation, 45 and 47. he is not saying he doesn't support nato. he wants nato members to support nato. i personally believe nato has been a successful alliance and

if countries like germany, italy, canada, spain and others were making good on their commitments i don't think there would have been a russian invasion of ukraine. we will never know but that would have acted as a deterrent if we were speaking with our words. i think you are seeing that now. one last point on that it is interesting to note that any nato country that orders either ukraine or russia are all spending more than 2% on their defense because they are right next to the threat and unfortunately as you move further away you see the spending decline. that is something we need to remedy. host: you did vote against the $60 billion defense supplemental for ukraine. explain that, and in light of your comments really in support of nato and what nato has been able to do. guest: i think it is an extreme position to do nothing to help

ukraine unless vladimir putin went. that is not something i advocate for and my voting record will show that. but i also think it is a true position to give another state. i understand it is president zelenskyy to ask for as much as he can get. our job is to determine how much he needs. i have voted yes on some appropriations for ukraine and no. more times i voted no tan yes because we need nato to give them enough to fend off the invasion but not break the bank because we can't pay our own bills so there needs to be a fine line and i think ukraine has what it needs now. host: congressman, we will start taking calls but i want to ask you about what former president trump said saying that he could end the war between russia and ukraine in one day. president zelenskyy was asked about that and he said if he has

a plan we need to know it now. what is your reaction to that? guest: i think what president trump is saying in that is -- and i haven't talked to him specifically about ukraine recently -- the way i read that he is saying i can get this thing solved whether it actually happens in 24 hours is to be seen. i think it is more in i think get it solved quickly. he does have a relationship with putin and zelenskyy because one thing, vladimir putin didn't embark on any new pill tear in four years. he did under george bush, barack obama and biden so a respect and fear. host: would that plan include ukraine giving up the land russia has attend would you support that? guest: thanks for that question. what does peace look like. i think we need to be realistic

because i have stared at that map and getting open briefs and classified ones. from my perspective it seems like we have to be realistic. what russia wants right now is he will take peace but he wants all the land he has stolen. that is a first bargaining position, that won't be what the peace looks like. but in the same breath coin i don't think will ever get all the territory stolen from them back. i think that hopefully we can get more of their black sea coastline back and there need to be security guarantees from the west as well. i don't think russia's security guarantees mean were. but peace is not going -- there won't be a full victory. i would love to see that for ukraine, i just don't see it being possible. let's talk about what actual peace can look like. host: pat is in maryland, democrat. good morning.

caller: good morning. one question for the congressmember. i know this is politics. i know this is the year for our election of a new president. why do they folk in on a 78 year-old and 81-year-old. as age we know brains are different. why are they focusing on making president biden, not a former trump who wants to be called president, who they call president and we only have one president in the united states at a time. so, can you please tell me what would be the difference in his ability for a pan in government 350 plus years and trump for maybe eight. guest: there's a lot to unpack there but maybe first of all it is very respectful to call any

former president, president. that is their title. if i address jimmy carter i would say mr. president. as far as age goes, we are not really talking about joe biden's age but his ability and he doesn't have that. he has lacked that for several years. whether or not my case in point when i mentioned john wooden the former ucla coach in his 90's he was very acute. so we want to focus on talent, ability, skill set. what was the other thing you talked about? host: we will move on because we have a lot of callers, mississippi. independent line. caller: how are you doing, sir? guest: good how are you. caller: you were talking about mr. gar and his investigations. were you in office we mr. barr

was over the f.b.i. and they found no conclusion -- i mean no association with russia for president trump. but they also -- mr. miller said it was possible 10 crimes that he did not respond to. so, i'm trying -- hello. host: go ahead. we are listening. caller: when y'all keep saying deep state and all of this about corruption in that office but yet still those 10 charges that miller said possibly were crimes but then you say, you all say we are going after biden because of suspension. so, i'm saying how can you say this administration is corrupt

we you have 10 crimes -- hello? host: yes, we have your point. go ahead, congressman. guest: i was sworn in during 2021. what he was talking about is prior to me getting to washington in 2020. but i recall the russian influence accusations of president trump and they found no evidence at all that there was any kind of russian collusion and a large swath of the media kept reporting on it as if it were fact and it wasn't succeed want to talk about corruption, they never found corruption in the administration. host: you recall democrats were looking for the unredacted mueller report that mr. barr never released. this is a democrat from california. caller: i want to say donald

trump could probably stop the war with one day because he started it in one day. he asked putin to start it so he could hurt america and joe biden. where were you january 6? did you run like or what do you think about january 6? because me donald trump should be in jail so how could you talk about joe biden's mind he is losing it when we saw it criminal. he should be in jail. host: all right. your thoughts on january 6. guest: first i think what the caller said is ridiculous that donald trump asked vladimir putin to invade ukraine. that is obscene and not worthy of comment. january 6's i was there and i was one of the last members to leave the chamber that day. i had a club in my hand that was

up side down. we didn't know what was on the other side of the wall. i have said repeatedly to anyone that asks that i do not condone political violence in think form and anybody in that capitol that day that was smashing things and hurting people needs to face justice. the fact is when i asked director of the f.b.i. he said the vast majority of folks that entered the capitol didn't break anything or hurt anybody. those were his words, not mine so that seems more leak trespassing where you get a ticket and pay a couple hundred dollars fine, not thrown in the gulag. so i don't previous of things like gentlemen george floyd was killed and damage was unfortunately we saw that, the country fall victim to.

we have political and legal redress. host: the caller was asking about present's role? guest: i think president trump said go to the capitol peacefully and let your voice be heard. he did not condone nor did he want nor did it serve any purpose to have folks get out of hand. that is a riot, not insurrectionment host: andy in michigan, independent line. good morning. caller: two quick questions. first, about the visits to the white house. do you know if the white house was occupied by the president at that time? was he there when the doctor visited? the second one on inflation and that's the one i'm really concerned about. i will use an example in

michigan that i see happening. five years ago as i worked at krogers as a bagger or carson -- cashier i was making eight or nine dollars at the most. now i'm making 15 and 20 do you think bony will go up? the grocer won't take the loss. they will lay people off or raise the price so what president will tell any vendor what prices to charge so i don't know why we argue about inflation when we can't control prices. guest: that's what we are trying to find out is what the expert on parkinson's was doing in the white house. was he trying to diagnose president biden? was he talking to his physician about how to treat parkinson's.

does he suffer from it. if he is a private citizen that is his business but if you are the president it is everybody's business. as to inflation you can talk to any serious economist and they will say the main drivers of inflation are government spending and we have seen record numbers of spending and deficits. it is unfortunate we are seeing 1.5 trillion adding to a $35 trillion debt. that drivers prices up. we have 40-year high inflation and real wages going down so people might be making more but purchasing power is less. so the question i would ask if i was president trump when he has the next debate with joe biden is are you better off today than four years ago. if you are go with joe biden, if not go for me and we will go in a different direction. host: carey in sioux falls, south dakota, republican. caller: good morning. first i want to say thank you

for being there and clear eyed. it is great to have a sane voice. i'm disappointed when i stop here to see what people are saying so many are democrat. i do not think there should be a difference between democrat and republican. we should all have the correct way of thinking but they identify as democrats and come in with really loosy goosey talking points usually attacking trump with no meaning or thought behind it. they are angry, they are not sure why, they get lost in the weeds. it is all about foolish little things. i would also like to point out they seem to have a very narrow view of the world and if you look at the numbers of viewership, four million are on the major tv channels, 420 million are on the podcasts out

in the world. we are looking at the 90% or whatever that are realizing what the worlds is -- what the world is saying the world watches from the outside see the truth. host: i'm afraid we won't be able to get a response from congressman fallon, republican of texas, armed services and oversight and accountability member. thanks for joining us. guest: thank you. god bless. host: that is it for "washington journal." see you again tomorrow morning 7:00 a.m. eastern. we will take you to the house about to gavel in. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker.