c-span.org. >> watch video on demand anytime online at c-span.org and try our points of interest feature, a timeline that uses markers to quickly guide you highlights of key coverage. use points of interest at anytime on c-span.org. today senate lawmakers are expected to consider several judicial and executive nominations, votes will be held on nominees throughout the day and also the senate will recess for a briefing on artificial intelligence. live now to the senate floor here on c-span2, also online at c-span.org and on our app, c-span now. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the guest chaplain,

reverend asriel mclain, from little union baptist church from shreveport, louisiana, the chaplain: let us pray. o lord, how excellent is your name. in the mighty name of jesus, we praise you for this land of the free and home of the brave. lord, bless the united states senate and its leadership on both sides of the aisle. remind us that your amazing grace is indeed non-partisan. use these servants of freedom to represent all the nation from sea to shining sea. bless their families, staffs, and constituents back home. bless us all with the vision to see what is right and the power and strength to do what is right. help us not to forget the savior's words that the

greatest among us will be servants of all. inspire us all to heed the words of the eighth century prophet amos, when we read, "let justice run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." we pray in your merciful name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, june 13, 2023. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable raphael warnock, a senator from the state of georgia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. nomination, department of state, elizabeth allen, of new york, to be under secretary for public diplomacy. mr. cassidy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the distinguished senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: mr. president, it's my privilege now to speak to the

pastor from my home state who gave the prayer today. the reverend asriel maclaine of shreveport, he earned his master divinty degree, and has been a pastor minuterring -- ministering to others. he is the son of mildred and oliver mccain and the former pastor of the historic little union baptist church which was the epicenter of the civil rights movement in shreveport. i learned of the courage of his father and of that congregation in the face of oppression in making sure that make marlt inn -- that martin luther king was able to march and the courage that his father showed

and the -- congregation showed was remarkable. reverend maclaine spent much of his life to reserve the rights of the history in louisiana. he is a messenger of proud faith. he is a proud father, grandfather and one of five siblings. clifford is here with him today. he is accompanied by his son david and grandson jaden. it is a plesh tiewr to have -- it is a pleasure to have reverend maclaine here with us today mclain here with us today.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader.

mr. schumer: mr. president, a.i., artificial intelligence is unlike any innovation that has previously come to the attention of congress. in a few years this technology will usher in dramatic changes to the workplace, the classroom, our living rooms, to virtually every corner of life and it's already starting to happen. maximizing a.i.'s defendants and mitigating its potential and very real risks will require bipartisan cooperation, focus and speed from the u.s. congress. today the u.s. senate is taking an important step in intensifying focus on a.i. by holding the first all-senators briefing solely dedicated to a.i. there will be more meetings so congress can take appropriate action. these briefings are vital because elected representatives in 2023 cannot afford to be in

the dark about how a.i. works and how it will reshape our world and is already reshaping our world. today's briefing will focus on the state of a.i. as it stands today, its capabilities, it's limitations, it's tall engs, we will -- we will hear from the head m.i.t. faculty member. he's the head of a.i. at m.i.t. it's pretty good stuff. people should come. next month our second and third briefings will focus on where a.i. is headed in the near future and a.i.'s application to security. i urge every senator to join the briefings. a.i. is a topic we should not ignore and should be treated with the same as civil liabilities because a.i. will impact all of these issues and many others. the possibilities of a.i. should

excite every one of us if used correctly. a.i. could help with national security, scientific research and so many other fields. like we did in chips and science, congress should look for ways to promote innovation in a.i. so that american companies can lead the way. but the tomorrow a.i. developers have made clear congress must play a role in safeguarding against a.i.'s many potential risks. they said it to us directly through congressional testimony. we must therefore strike a balance, promote innovation and growth on one hand while mitigating a.i.'s risks on the other. that will take a lot of bipartisan cooperation and these briefings will help us move closer to that goal. now, -- well, finally, i want to thank my colleagues for the good work they've done on the issue and i want to especially thank senators round, heinrich, and young for making the senate briefings possible.

now, the republican tax plan that's over there in the house. while democrats have spent the last two years lowering energy costs, lowering the price of prescription drugs, bringing manufacturing jobs to our shores, republicans are doubling down on what they do best, pushing tax giveaways to large corporations and the ultra wealthy. a few years ago, the trump gop tax cuts proved to be a dud for our economy and a political loser for the republican party. we all remember 2017, they said this is going to help us win the election and by 2018, they couldn't even bring it up because we democrats had made clear to the american people that this wasn't aimed at the working class or or middle class it was aimed at the very rich. this morning the gop house ways

an means committee will have a sweeping array of tax giva heways that will help the wealthy leaving ordinary families in the lurch. this latest tax scam feels like a bad rerun where the biggest winners are giant companies, big oil mr. polluters and the -- big oil polluters and the highest incomes. forecasters say this new republican proposal would increase the deficit by another trillion dollars. again, their proposal, over in the house, increases the deficit by another trillion dollars by objective forecasters. now, these are the same republicans who just pushed our country to the brink of catastrophic default in the name of fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction and now the same republicans want to blow another trillion dollar hole into the deficit.

what hypocrisy, what hypocrisy, what hypocrisy, what hypocrisy. first they say we've got to default if we don't deal with the deficit and then they propose to blow a hole in the deficit by another trillion dollars so they can help the very, very most elite in the country. of course, republicans only care about the deficit when it suits them. when the deficit gets in the way, republicans preach the fantasy that their tax cuts will somehow pay for themselves and that the benefits will magically trickle down to the rest of the country. facts are stubborn, the economic reality of the past few decades show that the republican trickle-down claims is not working. i remember all of these right wingers, "wall street journal" editorial page, cut taxes and the deficit will go down. it didn't happen. especially when you cut taxes on

a rarefied few at the top of the income scale. so it doesn't work. with we all saw what happened the last time republicans pushed tax cuts for the very elite, the top, top end of the economic end of america in 2017. there was no historic wave of trickle down. instead the trump tax cuts translated to huge profits for shareholders, record trillions of dollars in corporate stock buybacks. we saw the vast majority of americans reject these republican policies when they went to the ballot box. we saw republicans afraid to talk about it as we got closer to elections in 2018. if republicans want to help working and middle-class families, if they want to lower the deficit as they claimed for years, they will stop pushing this flawed tax package. i yield the floor.

test:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: since president biden took office, consumer prices have risen more than 16%. american families are paying 20% more to put food on the table than they did in january 2021, and 36% more on energy. but over more than two years of washington democrats' runaway inflation, president biden's top advisers have refused to even admit that there's a problem, let alone that their policies are driving it. in early 2021, after senate

democrats helped ram through the administration's reckless taxing-and-spending spree, one top white house adviser insisted that any inflationary effect would be, quote, transitory, end quote. much deeper into the administration's inflationary spiral, the same adviser insifsed that inflation would be, quote -- insisted that ininflation would be, quote, growing half as fast a year from now, end quote. another prediction overcome by the harsh, painful consequence of washington democrats' reckless spending. and another instance where jared bernstein, president biden's choice to serve as chair of the council of economic advisors, was simply dead wrong on

economic advice. dead wrong. mr. president, the cea was designed to produce objective, empirical economic analysis. with the rarest of exceptions, it's been led by a seasoned economist with a ph.d. in the field. that streak would end with mr. bernstein. the nominee the senate will consider this week can more accurately claim expertise in partisan warfare than economics. he's been labeled in the press as president biden's man on the left. and in his open words, mr. bernstein's long record of progressive fantasies speaks for

itself. for example, he said we should not kid ourselves into thinking that we could pay for medicare for all and a jobs guarantee solely by taxing the rich. the nominee has called abortion, quote, at its core an economic issue. he urged democrats to, quote, take the new -- the green new deal seriously. and last year he praised a nearly $80 billion plan to expand irs enforcement as one of his favorite parts of president biden's so-called inflation reduction act. what a staggering, staggering lack of awareness of the way his party's policies have hurt working families across our country. so, mr. president, the american people cannot afford jared

bernstein as the wheel of cea -- at the wheel of cea. now, on another matter, this week nato secretary general stoltenberg is in washington at an important time for transatlantic alliance. the secretary general deserves tremendous credit for his tireless efforts over nearly a decade at the helm. he's helped major allies wake up to the growing threats from isis, putin's rawsh, and the people's -- putin's russia and the people's republic of china. he has skillfully managed disagreements among people who share values but sometimes have very different views. he's pressed allies to meet their pledges to spend more on collective defense, to modernize their militaries, and to cribility more to the collective

security of the alliance. i just met with him along with some of my colleagues this morning. i'm encouraged by the progress the alliance is making to become, quote, fit for purpose, end quote. but more work remains to be done. at the summit next week i hope to see allies agree to set 2% as the floor for defense spending, not an aspiration. let me say that again -- 2% as a floor for defense spending, not an aspiration. threats we face require sustained european investments in modernizing their militaries and expanding their defense industrial bases. not merely a short-term infusion of emergency funds. we'll need greater coherence among nato allies about how to

confront the real and growing threat china poses to our collective security. and after seeing finland join the alliance this spring, i know the senate hopes and expects to see sweden become a nato ally by the vilnius summit. i believe sweden's leaders understand and respect turkey's national security interest, and i know it is in nato's interests to welcome this modern, high-tech economy into the alliance. when secretary general stoltenberg spoke to a joint session of congress in 2019, he reminded fuss of the way president truman saw nato's purpose at its founding back in 1949. here's what president truman had to say, we hope to create a shield against aggression and the fear of aggression, a bulwark which will permit us to

get on with the real business of government and society, the business of achieving a fuller and happier life for all of our citizens. i think we can safely say, mr. president, by and large, nato has fulfilled that lofty objective. but we can only continue to do so if allies take seriously their obligations to invest in the hard power that has underwritten western peace and prosperity for more than 70 years. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

via social media and more. the "miami herald" front page at "miami herald".com says this cases. trump case will be historic even by miami standards. we'll get into preparations miami ends going to in in a .

first to the 37 counts facing the former president comes the charges he will hear today in that miami courtroom. there are seven areas of charges. the first 31 counts deal with woeful retention of defense information. this applies to the former president only and it is allegedly for storing 31 documents at mar-a-lago. also conspiracy to obstruct justice applies to the president and his aid, walt nauta holding the doctor about also applying to the presint and walt nauta. and corruptly concealing a document or record. this pertains to the trump-pence walt nauta attempts to hide boxes of classified documents from the attorneys. concealing a document in a federal investigation. they are accused of the continued possession of the documents at mar-a-lago. they are also charging that the former president created a

scheme to hide the continued possession of materials from the fbi and from the grand jury. of the 37 counts less one deals with false statements and misrepresentation. again these expected in a courtroom in miami this afternoon shortly after 3 p.m. eastern. this is from "politico", the headline trump heads to miami for his arraignment and the story what kind of circus will follow? donald trump and his aides are eager to show come have a show of support and force for his first court appearance in miami on tuesday on charges related to the retention of classified documents and efforts to obstruct justice. but they are stressing to don't want it to get out of hand. before departing for florida the former president spent monday morning at his club house in new jersey where he spoke with aids and met with a congressional ally. trump and his team of advisors and attorneys plan to spend monday night at his resort in miami preparing for his court appearance and tried to bolster

his legal team. they were unaware of pro-trump rallies planned around his courthouse appearance appeared d amplified calls for supporters to quote protest peacefully. the mayor of miami held a news conference yesterday about preparations the city is making for the arraignment today. >> we want to ensure the public that we've only begun preparations for the event tomorrow. we are joined here by the chief of police, chief morale is, who has ample talk about what our plan for security is for tomorrow to make sure everyone has a right to peacefully express themselves and exercise their constitutional right and obvious to any peaceful manner. in our city, we obviously belief in the constitution come believe people should have the right to express themselves, but we also believe in law and order. and we know that, i would hope that tomorrow would be peaceful. we encourage people to be

peaceful in them demonstrating how they feel and were going to have the adequate forces necessary to ensure that. there may be dependent on the crowd size some road closures of people live in the downtown area should expect additional traffic and should prepare for that. it's not in our initial plan. we're going to take step-by-step a level that the chief explained how we'll make that determination as to what roads are close, and when they are closed. but the commuters should expect the possibility of some disruption. we are prepared for a variety of different size crowds and obviously crowd size it depend on a friday vicious, include but not limited to the weather. we have the ability to increase our capacity if necessary. our fire department come fire chief i spoke to in right before this press conference and he has

assured me also there will be an increase of fire rescue level preparedness, including ems services, and what he would consider a number of on-duty personnel that are both at the task and command level. we are happy to be joined by our partners from miami-dade county, thank you so much for being here. here. we have at some level overlapping jurisdiction and we are working not just within but it's safe to say working with partners are law enforcement partners at all levels to make sure we're communicating, to make sure we are prepared, to make sure we're sharing information and ultimately to ensure that tomorrow goes off without any hitch. >> host: spending this first hour here in "washington journal" to hear from you on the federal charges facing former president trump today. sometime after 3:00 in miami front page one of two stories by susan come the chief washington correspondent. trump gathers new legal team to

fight felonies. former president plans to plead not guilty and returned to jersey. the former president huddled monday with the legal team at his resort ahead of his tuesday afternoon arraignment on more than three dozen federal charges related to unlawful possession of classified documents. he landed in miami monday afternoon and headed straight to the nearby resort where he interviewed lawyers to represent him in what he calls a gratis witch hunt quote of all time. mr. trump is a first president to face felony federal charges. legal experts warn if he is convicted of just one of the 37 counts, the 76-year-old could be sentenced up to 20 years. mr. trump shook up his legal team last week and announced he was parting ways with attorneys jim trusty and john rally for were not admitted to the florida bar mr. trump said he would be represented by todd blanche and a law firm to be named later. the former president has little time to secure a new legal team. he must report to the federal

courthouse in miami at 3 p.m. today. u.s. marshals are expected to take him into custody and fingerprint him. let's get your calls and go first to her democrat's line in texas here bruce, go ahead. >> caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. >> host: you bet. >> caller: what i want refer to was when i was working, now i'm retired, i was highly minted in a first top-secret clearances, and they wanted to know everything about everything about my entire lifetime. my mom and dad was, we just don't talk about it. we don't bring any paper in. we don't bring any flash drives in or out. know this, if you lose a package, then they are going to hold you until they find that

package with extreme prejudice. and if i was to do something like this, they would throw me in a hole and throw away the key. and oh, you might as well throw them out the door, your rights. i mean, they kind of stuff i worked on, we just don't talk about it. >> host: and during, bruce, during your work experience, did you ever know anyone to have been charged for taking either intentionally or accidentally documents that, classified document that they weren't supposed to take out from that facility? >> caller: well, i seen a a fe man go to jail for 25 years. if you steal, where i'm coming from, the law is the law. and politics is politics.

i get it. there's one side on one side, other set on the other side. all feel they are bright but just because they think they are right don't make it right. >> host: thanks for your view. we'll go to our republican line and pete is an appleton wisconsin. go ahead. >> caller: yeah, i know this isn't going to go over very good, but but i don't thinke presidents or anybody ought to be able to take documents like that out of the white house were out of anywhere. i don't think they need to take them home. i don't think you need to take them to any kind of library. it's u.s. government property. it was for their eyes only when they were in office. that step ought to stay right there in washington, d.c. locked up somewhere, nobody should get access to it. but that's just my opinion. and i know all these presidents, they take them and to do whatever, but i don't know. i think donald trump or anybody

would be smart enough to know that something like this could happen. i mean, this is just, you know, it is what it is, but i don't think they ought to be allowed to take those things anywhere but that's just my opinion. >> host: all right. you ricky in philadelphia, democrat's line. >> caller: yes. good morning, sir. >> host: good morning. >> caller: i thought about the situation with donald trump, turning himself in florida -- pretty much a sad day but like one thing that i know is no one is above the law. there's a whole lot of people, getting locked up because come because they took, you know, top-secret documents. different time.

like i said, you know, it's a sad day, but in my opinion no one. >> host: no one above the law. trump did, did broke the law and he has so much evidence, evidence on him, you know, for him taking documents, withholding information from the federal government. and hopefully the republican party realized that, you know, and different direction instead trump. >> host: a call from philadelphia. a quick update here, a story in the "washington post" about that huge collapse of i-95 which will affect commuters up and down the east coast in washington to new york and boston. i-95 drivers face months of delays after that portion of 95 fill in. the northbound portion and a

huge fire and the death of the driver we now understand. the bridge carried about 160,000 vehicles a day. signs of the collapse were visible as far away as columbia, maryland, when northbound highway messages warned of the closure ahead. reporting from the "washington post" this morning. giving your views on the arraignment coming up today on the 37 counts against former president donald trump or he will be arraigned in a miami courtroom this afternoon sometime after 3 p.m. eastern. the the lines to use our 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 is the democrat's line. and for independents and all others, 202-748-8000 is a democrats like i apologize and 202-748-8002 is the line for independents and all others. former national security adviser during the trump administration john bolton was on fox, and

spoke about the nature of the documents concern in this case. here he is. >> but but i do know what kinf documents were put in front of the president during my time. i'm sure during the entire four years of his term, and they did go absolute the most important secrets that the united states has, directly affecting nationals gertie, directly affecting the lives and safety of our service members and our civilian population. if he has anything like what the complaint come with the indictment alleges and, of course, the government will have to prove it, then he has committed very serious crimes. this is a devastating indictment. i speak as an alumnus of the justice department myself because not only is a powerful, it's very narrowly taylor. he didn't throw up against once you would stick. this is a rifle shot and a think it's, it should be the end of donald trump's political career. >> host: some comments on

question via twitter. i would like to know how many republicans who work in the building behind you that go to mar-a-lago new trump had these national security documents including our nuclear secrets and never said a word? this one says when lawmakers break the law there is no law and order. rebecca says why do the republicans believe every lie egt tells? and from -- did he come have access to the documents that trump was keeping and storage? what if someone you'd information contained in them? the trunk of a system for government agent employees for freedom of information act and what about the people, what about the people? good day for you mac trump? florida is up next. nick on the republican line. go ahead. >> caller: yes before i get to my initial comment the first caller, the word is bedded, not vented. you would think a national security spy type guy would know that there is i just want to

clear that up. the word is bedded, not vented. secondly, it's amazing to listen to people with their platitudes and their talking points. donald trump broke the law, no one is above the law. i'm sure will want to listen to that for the next hour. the problem is what c-span fails to understand is, is there are legal precedents is in legal cases out there that seem to make it that donald trump actually didn't do anything wrong because of the president's and secretaries of state have also done this. and it's very, very interesting that all of this came out on the same day that congressional leadership was given mmo that the fbi did not want to turn over detailing whistleblower

allegations against joe biden, hunter biden, jim biden and other members of the biden family taking kickbacks and bribes for policy decisions. it's funny how c-span doesn't comment on that. c-span doesn't question that. c-span doesn't look into that. maybe a good question for c-span2 have on their program is, when about a year ago when the fbi actually was at mar-a-lago before the raid and they went in, looked at the documents and all they said to donald trump was, do me a favor, put a lock on the doors. just put a padlock and locked them up. even the secret service is at mar-a-lago protecting the grounds. why didn't the fbi make a big stink about the documents then? at another question that c-span could ask, if this got to the

point where they were demanding the documents back and trump and his organization refuses to give the documents back, why can't we see the e-mail chain or the communication chain showing that justice was demanding the documents back and the trump administration, and maybe former president trump and sell, were not giving the documents back? perhaps that might be something to look into, but since joe biden is president and he's owned by china and the sea and c-span stands for china, we will probably not going to ask those questions, are we? do you think one day you might get red to that? >> host: on to brooklyn and steffy on the democrat's line talking about the arraignment today of the former president. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. the gentleman that you spoke

just a little while ago, you know, these republicans have so much grievances. they are such angry people. and they hop on joe biden's family, with china, but they don't hop on the trump family with the saudi arabia family and how much money they have got from them and how much money trump is still getting from them. i believe trump gave information to the king of saudi arabia, because he is still getting money with that liv golf. trump is a crook. that's the way he is. that's the way he always will be. he is like a child with the grievances. he don't own up to anything each person ever we do in life, there's a consequence behind each action that we do.

it is taught to us as children and as growing up as adults, ass consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: at the end of last week president biden published an op-ed in "the wall street journal" touting his economic record. it was not exactly new material. the president's well known for attempting to put a rosy spin on his economic record. but i still have to marvel every time the president claims that he's building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and working to give families, quote, more breathing room. because if there's one thing that can be said about the biden presidency is that american families have lost a lot of their breathing room. the inflation crisis is costing american families $880 this month. let me repeat that, mr. president. the inflation crisis that the president helped create is

costing american families $880 this month. $880 for just one month. meanwhile, real wages have declined for 26 consecutive months under president biden. 26 consecutive months. two-plus years. so it's no surprise that in a poll last month, 49% of americans reported that their personal financial situation is getting worse. or that in another poll 61% said recent price increases caused financial hardship for them or their household. mr. president, let's be very clear. this is not a random situation that happened to occur on the president's watch. the president bears direct responsibility for this inflation crisis, which was set off in large part thanks to the bloated big government american rescue plan spending spree that democrats and the president

forced through shortly after the president came to office. you don't have to take my word on that. here's what one former obama advisor had to say on the subject and i'm quoting, the $1.9 trillion rescue plan passed in the early days of the biden administration will go down as an extraordinary policies misbeing take. end -- mistake. will go down in history as an extraordinary policy mistake. as another former obama advisor noted, and i quote again, the original sin was an oversized american rescue plan. end quote. and contrary to what he's suggesting in his op-ed, the president has done exactly nothing to bring down inflation since. indeed, he's continued to pursue the same kind of big government, big spending policies that

helped land us in this mess in the first place and so it's frankly staggering to me that the president continues to have the audacity to say things like hardworking families are reaping the rewards of his policies. hardworking families are certainly reaping something from the president's policies, but it isn't rewards. but, as i said earlier, the president is well known for trying to put a rosy spin on his economic record. he trots out some of his favorite misleading statistics in this op-ed. since he took office, he claims, the economy has created more than 13 million jobs. well, that sounds pretty good, right? until you realize that the vast majority of those jobs weren't newly created but are rather just jobs that were naturally added back after the pandemic. currently, we are just 3.7 million jobs above where we

were pre-pandemic. hardly the historic job boon that the president portrays. the president also mentions that gasoline prices are down from their peak in june of 2022. but he neghts to mention that gas prices are up 50% from where they were when he took office. then, of course, the president brings up one of his favorite claims that he reduced the deficit by 1.7 trldz over the first -- $1.7 trillion over the first two years. here's how the fact checker from "the washington post" says this claim is highly misleading. the president arrives at this highly misleading statistic by comparing that to the fiscal 2020 deficit, which was large,

as a result of the covid pandemic. a much more appropriate comparison would be to compare the 2022 budget deficit to what the congressional budget office predicted it would be before the president's rescue plan spending spree was enacted. that tells a far different story. the reality is the post points out, and i quote, is that the data shows the deficit picture has worsened under biden. end quote. the worst fact checker column recently awarded president biden a, quote, bottomless pinocchio for his deficit reduction claims, a rating the column gives for and i quote false or misleading statements repeated so often that they become a form of propaganda, end quote. mr. president, i can't close

without mentioning the president's staggering claim that he, again, fought so hard to bring democrats and republicans in congress together to compromise on the budget and prevent a catastrophic default, end quote. as i've already highlighted, the president is fairly well known for revisionist history, but this statement, this statement might take the cake. can the president possibly think that people have already forgotten that he spent months refusing to negotiate on a debt ceiling agreement and only came to the table at the last minute? credit to the president for eventually recognizing the divided government requires compromise, but to suggest that he set out from the outset to forge a compromise between democrats and republicans is to skate the line between revisionist history and outright

falsehood. after two years of painful price hikes at the gas pump and grocery store, i think few americans would recognize the positive picture that the president paints in his op-ed. unfortunately, it's clear from the president's column that he plans to continue to pursue policies that will further undermine the economic well-being of the american people. so much -- so much for giving american families more breathing room. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

miami mayor about preparations that they're making as well and hear from you shortly. via phone, social media and more. more. the "miami herald" front page at miami herald.com says of this. we've had some sensational cases. trump's case will be historic even by miami standards. we'll get into some of the preparations miami's going through in a moment. first to the 37 counts facing the former president. the charges he wanted to do in that miami courtroom. there are seven areas of charges. the first 31 counts deal with woeful retention of defense information. it applies to the former president only and it is allegedly for storing 31 documents at mar-a-lago. also conspiracy to obstruct

justice applies to the president and his aid walt nauta, withholding a document per record also applied to the president and walt nauta. and corruptly concealing a document or record. this pertains to the trump and walt mata attempts to hide boxes of classified documents from the attorneys. concealing a document in a federal investigation. they are accused of the continued possession of the document at mar-a-lago. also charging the former president created a scheme to hide the continued possession of those materials from the fbi and from the grand jury. and of the 37 counts the last one deals with false statements and misrepresentation. again these expected in a courtroom in miami this afternoon shortly after 3 p.m. eastern. this is from "politico", the headline trump heads to miami for his arraignment and the story what kind of circus will follow? donald trump and his aides are eager to show come have a show

of support and force for his first court appearance in miami on tuesday. on charges related to the retention of classified documents and efforts to obstruct justice. but there's just he didn't it to get out of hand. before departing for florida former president spent monday morning at his clubhouse in new jersey were spoke with aids and met with a congressional ally. trump and his team have advisors and attorneys plan to spend monday night at his golf resort in miami preparing for his court appearance and trying to bolster his legal team. they were unaware of pro-trump rallies planned around his codis appearance in that provide calls for supporters to quote protest peacefully. the mayor of miami francis juarez held a news conference yesterday about preparations the city is making for the arraignment today. >> we want to ensure the public that we party begun preparations for the event tomorrow. we are joined here by the chief of police chief moralities, who

has and will talk about what our plan for security is for tomorrow to make sure everyone has a right to peacefully express themselves and exercise their constitutional rights and of this do in a peaceful manner in our city, we obviously believe in the constitution, believe people should have the right to express themselves but we also believe in law and order and we know and we hope that tomorrow would be peaceful. we encourage people to be peaceful and then demonstrating how they feel and were going to have the adequate forces necessary to ensure that. there may be dependent on the crowd size some road closures of people live in the downtown area should expect additional traffic and should prepare for that. it's not in our initial plant. initially we are going to take a step by step and i will let the chief explained how we will make the determination as to what roger close, how dare close in

when they are closed. but the commuter should expect the possibility of some disruption. we are prepared for a variety of different size crowds and obvious he crowd size this event on a variety of issues including but not limited to the weather. we have the ability to increase our capacity if necessary. our fire department, fire chief, spoke to him right before this press conference and he has assured me also that there will be an increased fire rescue level of preparedness, including ems services and what you would consider a number of on-duty personnel that are both at the task and command level. we are happy to be joined by our partners from miami-dade county. thank you so much for being here. obviously we have at some level overlapping jurisdiction, and we're working not just within

that it's safe to say we are working with partners, law enforcement partners at all levels to make sure we are committed getting, to make sure we prepared, , to make sure we e sharing information and ultimately to ensure that tomorrow goes off without any hitch. >> host: spending this first hour here on "washington journal" to hear from you on the federal charges facing former president trump today. sometime after 3:00 in miami. front page, one of two stories by the chief washington correspondent this morning trump gathers new legal team to fight felonies. former president plans to plead not guilty and return new jersey. the former president huddled with his legal team at his route resort at of this tuesday afternoon arraignment on more than three dozen federal charges related to unlawful possession of classified documents. the land in miami monday afternoon and headed straight to the nearby resort where he interviewed lawyers to represent him in what he calls the greatest witch hunt quote of all time. mr. trump is a first president to face felony federal charges.

legal experts warn that if he's convicted of one of the 37 counts the 76-year-old could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison. mr. trump shook up his legal team last week and announced he was parting ways with attorneys jim trusty and john rally for not admitted to the florida bar. mr. trump said he would be represented by tom plant and a law firm to be named later. the former president has little time to secure a new legal team turkey must report to the federal courthouse in miami at . u.s. marshals are expected to take them into custody and fingerprint him. let's get your calls and go first two are democrat's line in edinburg texas. bruce, go ahead. >> caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. >> host: you bet. >> caller: what i want to refer to was when i was working, now i'm retired, i was highly

vented in first, top-secret clearances. and they wanted to know everything about everything about my entire lifetime, who my mom, dad was. we just don't talk about it. we don't bring any paper in. we don't bring any flash drives in or out. know this, if you lose a package, then they are going to hold you until they find that package with extreme prejudice. and if i was to do something like this, they would throw me in the hole and throw away the key, and oh, you might as well throw them out the door. i mean, the kind of stuff i worked on, we just don't talk about it. >> host: and during your work

experience, did you ever know anyone to have been charged for taking either intentionally or accidentally documents that, classified documents that they were not supposed to take out from that facility? >> caller: well, i seen five men go to jail for 25 years, so. if you steal where i'm coming from, the law is the law. and politics is politics. i get it. one side on one side, the other side is on an other side. they all feel that they are right, but just because they think they are right don't make it right. >> host: thanks for your view. we will go to our republican line and pete is an appleton, wisconsin. go ahead. >> caller: yeah, i know this isn't going to go over very good, but but i don't thinke president or anybody ought to be able to take documents like that out of the white house or out of

anywhere. i don't think they need to take them home. i don't think they need to take them to any kind of library. that's a u.s. government property. it was for their eyes only when they were in office. that stuff ought to in washington, d.c. locked up somewhere, and nobody should get access to it. but that's just my opinion. i know all these presidents, they take them and they do whatever, but i don't know. i think donald trump or anybody would be smart enough to know that something like this could happen. i mean, this is just, you know, it is what it is but i don't think they ought to be allowed to take those things anywhere but that's just my opinion. >> host: on to ricky in philadelphia, democrat's line. >> caller: yes, good morning. >> host: good morning, okay. i'm calling about the situation

with the donald trump, turning himself in florida. pretty much -- celebrated but a sad day. one thing that i know is no one is above the law. there's a whole lot of people get him locked up because, because he took top-secret documents. like i said, you know, it's a sad day, but in my opinion, no one above the law. trump did, did broke the law and they have so much evidence on him, you know, for him taking documents, withholding information from the federal government.

and hopefully the republican party realize that, you know, and go a different direction instead of trump. >> host: a call from philadelphia. just a quick update here, , a story in the "washington post" about that huge collapse of i-95 which will affect commuters up and down the east coast washington to new york and boston. i-95 drivers face months of delays after that portion of 955 felt in the northbound portion and a huge fire and the death of the driver we now understand. the bridge carry about 160,000 vehicles a day. signs of the widespread effects of the clouds were visible as far away as columbia, maryland, where northbound highway messages ward of the closure ahead. that reporting from the "washington post" this morning. getting your views on the arraignment coming up today on the 37 counts against former president donald trump or he will be arraigned in a miami

courtroom this afternoon sometime after 3 p.m. eastern. the lines to use our 202-748-8001 for the republican line. 202-748-8002 is a democrat's line and for independents and all others -- 202-748-8000 is a democrat's line, i apologize and 202-748-8002 is the line for independents and all others. former national security adviser during the trump administration john bolton was on fox and spoke about the nature of the documents concern in this case. here he is. >> but i do know what kinds of documents put in front of the president during my time. i'm sure during the entire four years of his term. and they did go to absolute the most important secrets that the united states has come directly affecting national security, directly affecting the lives and safety of our service members and our civilian population. if he has anything like what the

complaint, the indictment alleges and, of course, the government will have to prove it, , then he has committed very serious crimes. this is a devastating indictment. i speak as an alumnus of the justice department myself, because not only is a powerful, it's very narrowly tailored. they didn't throw everything up against the wall to see what would stick. this really is a rifle shot at a think it should be the end of donald trump's political career. >> host: comments on a question via twitter. i would like to know how many republicans who work in the building behind you that go to mar-a-lago new trump had these national security documents including our nuclear secrets and never said a word? this one says when lawmakers break the law there is no law and order. rebecca says why do the republicans believe every lie he tells? and did the government have access to the documents that trump was keeping and storage? what if someone needed

information contained in them? that trump have a system for government agency employees to freedom of information act then and what about the people, what about the people, could they for you mac trump? delray beach, florida, is up next. nick on the republican line. go ahead. >> caller: yes good morning. if i get to my initial comment the first caller, the word is vetted, not invented. you would think a national security spy type guy would know that so i just wanted to clear that up. the word is vetted, not vented. secondly, it's amazing to listen to people with their platitudes and their talking points. donald trump broke the law, no one is above the law. i'm sure we will have to listen to all that for the next hour. the problem is what c-span fails to understand is, is there are legal precedents and legal cases

out there that seem to make it that donald trump actually didn't do anything wrong because of the president's and secretaries of state have also done this. and it's very, very interesting that all of this came out on the same day that congressional leadership was given a memo that the fbi did not want to turn over detailing whistleblower allegation against joe biden, hunter biden, jim biden and other members of the biden family taking kickbacks and bribes for policy decisions. it's funny how c-span doesn't comment on that. c-span doesn't question that. c-span doesn't look into that. maybe a good question for c-span2 have on their program is, when about a year ago when

the fbi actually was at mar-a-lago before the raid and they went in, look at the documents and all they said to donald trump was, do me a favor, put a lock on the doors to just put a padlock and lock them up. even though secret service is at mar-a-lago protecting the grounds. why didn't the fbi make a big stink about the documents then? and another question that c-span could ask, if this document -- got to the point where they were demanding the documents back and trump and his organization refuse to give the documents back, why can't we see the e-mail chain or the gamification chain showing that justice was demanding the documents back and the trump administration, and maybe former president trump himself, were not giving the documents back?

perhaps that might be something to look into, but since joe biden is president and he's owned by china and the c in c-span stands for china, we are probably not going to be asking this question is are we? do you think one day we might get around to that? >> host: brooklyn, stephanie, democrat's line talking about the indictment today, the arraignment today of the former president. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. the amanda juice, gentleman tu spoke a little while ago, these republicans have so much grievances. they are such angry people. they hop on joe biden's family, with china, but they don't harp on the trump family with the saudi arabia family and how much money they have got from them and how much money trump is still getting from them. i believe trump gave information

to the king of saudi arabia, because he still getting money without liv golf. trump is a crock. that's the way he is. that's the way he always will be -- crook. he's like a child with grievances. you know, he don't own up to anything. each person whatever we do in life, it's a consequence behind each action that we do. it's taught to us as children and as growing up as adults, but trump don't seem to get that because he just doesn't care. he's a man who thinks he's above the law. he's all about himself, but like i said, the republicans harp on china with the biden's. let's harp on trump was saudi arabia and russia thank you. >> host: new york senator and

senate majority leader chuck schumer who was on the floor of the senate yesterday spoke about the indictment against the former president. >> madam president, last friday the department of justice announced donald trump had been indicted on 37 counts related to his mishandling of classified documents. one only has to listen to the statements from former trump national security adviser john bolton and trump's former attorney general to know just how serious this indictment is. as i said before, no one is above the law, including donald trump. this case must be allowed to play out through the legal process without outside political or ideological interference. i encourage both supporters and critics of donald trump to maintain the peace and let the justice system do its work. >> host: from the "daily beast" this morning, headline trump advisors quietly worry

courthouse protests could be a disaster. donald trump prepares for his arraignment on tuesday his advisers are quietly expressing some concerns the protein trump protesters assembly in front of the courthouse are not helping the former presidents case. those closest to the ex-president pointed to a rally organized by the trump adoring activist lower limit of a book by longtime trump à la roger stone as an event that could go very wrong. quote inside this event is going to be a disaster, a a trump confident told the "daily beast." there will be people that come out and don't want to be peaceful. all the things that are wrong with mar-a-lago show up. you get lunatics, after a closed-door advisor express reservations about the gathering quote i would hope it's not a protest this trump advisor told the "daily beast" ." i've never heard of anyone ction. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent that we start the vote now. the presiding officer: also without objection. the question occurs on the

nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

vote: vote:

the presiding officer: ed -- the yeas are 66, the nays are 33. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 25, hernan d. vera of california, to be united states district judge for the central district of california, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived.

the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of hernan d. vera of california to be united states district judge for the central district of california shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the motion is agreed to. the yeas are 51. the nays are 48. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, hernan d. vera of california to be united states district judge for the ?fl district of california. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate earlier they confirmed elizabeth out into the under-secretary of state for public diplomacy. later expect a recess for senators to attend a briefing on artificial intelligence. right now the sin is in recess for thr weekly party lunches. when they return they are pected to vote to limit debate on chairman of the council of

economic advisers. you can watch live coverage on c-span2 also one minus c-span.org and with our app c-span now. >> after his arena in miami former president trump be speaking in bedminster, new jersey, tonight. watch live coverage from the trump national golf club at 8:15 p.m. eastern on on the c-span networks including c-span now are free mobile video app and online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we're just getting started building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it mos