momentarily. and live now to the u.s. senate from what we believe will be a brief session. no votes are expected. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., may 31, 2022. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable cory a. booker, a senator from the state of new jersey, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 4:30 p.m.

on friday, june 3, 2022. lawmakers will return for legislative work monday, june 6 and now back to our book tv programming, we join it in progress >> ... of its own momentum but spreads a lot farther than the number one cable network. the stuff that's on social media goes beyond what fox will puton the air and in some cases way beyond what fox will put on the air . these are on sort of social media and mapping the way that spreads but we both know

people who are and we both know it's the main focus of elements of the january 6 investigation. how did all this stuff get out there, get organized? how did people getmotivated to go to washington with these ideas about the election in their heads ? the one course you didn't mention i want to mention is president trump. he was using every platform available to him to trumpet this garbage about a stolen election and very specific conspiracy theories in specific counties in specific states and i don't think there's any level of control on the part of social media companies or restraint on the part of wtelevision networks that can offset the impact of the sitting president of the united states behaving that way so a big test will be what if this happens again next time and if it's not a sitting president saying this te stuff but it's one of a whole bunch of different candidates in the primary saying i want, like iowa has s given people

lots of reasons to question the integrity of the process but that's a meandering answer to your question . the answer is all of the ou above and then some. >> can i ask a quick question? i notice in one of the stories, the follow-up stories kevin mccarthy denied saying thethings you guys reported . you guys having baited the trap you then released the audio nof him saying what he said he didn't say and in your recording of that in one of your pieces, you referred to mccarthys dishonesty and i'm wondering if you had a discussion about using the word dishonesty or any compunction? >> it's a good question given how much the times historically does the labor those questions. in this case there wasn't much of a discussion because the facts were so black and white that he was dishonest with his denial and he was lying so i think i would be

very comfortable saying that and our creditors were comfortable saying that. >> would that have been the case five years ago? >> i think probably not. the expectations have changed . one of the things so revealing about mccarthy's initial denial was we presented them with other comments we were going to attribute to him and he denied specifically having ever said he was going to call trump to resign and on this other piece of the story saying the social media b companies to take down the accounts of some of his members he gave a much more legalistic denial . he never called for the banning of specific lawmakers so to me that's an important tell as to his intent and awareness. this wasn't just some broad brush, i didn't say any of that. he was picking and choosing what he was going to deny. >> all the more reason why it was so shocking the day our story was up and mccarthy in his own words put up a

blistering statement. what was more of a wholesale denial. he didn't do the previous night and which obviously sort of dug a little deeper. >>. >> mister johnson from greektown, longtime listener. >> these are probably get thepaper . >> in past white houses, they've always been these figures, personalities that have emerged in the white house texture and more personality. it's even stephen miller trump, david axelrod. karl rove. there's always tbeen a singular amplified the president's personality and i'm wondering why you think that hasn't happened with the biden white house. has that harmed the white house in some sense. and who do you think is the david axelrod o?

>> your pandering, this is uncanny. we were having aconversation in the car three hours ago about what happened to the celebrity strategist .who came out of the 20/20 election, with cheap $.10 cigars. it's just gone. who came out of 2020 as the architect. like, the sort of bush's brain character of the biden campaign? some of that is about covid-19. was not as visible. the drama and ups and downs were not as visible. part of it speaks to the really close-knit and the be euphemistic about it a very long can your inner circle around july. these people who had been but i would say one thing about this, there really wassomeone who could have claimed a lot of that and that was mike donlon who was basically a recluse . i didn't know a couple

people. mike donlon for sure. jen o'malley dillon. >> he was more the strategist. but i mean, these are characters who in adifferent kind of campaign if nthey were more hungry for the camera themselves . >> what are you saying. >> iset a different kind of campaign or, i didn't say and . >> this is huge cultural shift and part of it is joe biden is so well-known and the immediacy that people feel with candidates now because of social media i think sort of the personalities around the court are somewhat less compelling particularly when there like relatively reclusive. >> is the elephant in the room, donald room and trump doesn't leave much space for anybody else in the'political conversation. he's not president anymore but the coverage of him, it's so intense still and i get why he might run again.

obviously he has a grasp of the party that he led as president still but i think there's just not space for much in the way of reporting generally about the biden administration because the curiosity is still so deep about trump and n trumpism in the political culture more broadly. >> idols also don't think the culture of the biden thing welcomes people stepping out and you know, taking credit even if they're not claiming credit for things. it's not sort of pandemic to that organization. anyway, we're a minute and 57 seconds over. so we better stop because this thing explodes when we're five minutes over. thank you so much. [applause]

>> one last thing. we'd love for you, yeah. because this will not pass. >> i started reading the book out of obligation and i finished it with enthusiasm because it is really, the narrative is so well written and strong. less , at the beginning there are great tidbits, really interesting to read but the larger implications of things are clear and they really do put you in the scene. so these guys are really among the best there is in political journalism and you can see why in this book. if you guys don't buynow i'm really going to be disappointed .

>> on sundays book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors . funding for c-span2 comes from these television companies and moreincluding charter communications . >> broadband is a force for empowerment. that's why charter has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, in communities big and small.charter is connecting us. >> charter communications along with these television companies supports c-span2 as a public service . >> after months of closed-door investigations the house january 6 committee is set to go public