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let me give you my view of what happened january 6th. it was a violet insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election. >> and senate gop leader mitch mcconnell's remarks are playing out throughout the media this morning and we're going to talk about it and hear from you on "the washington journal." good morning. we want to hear from republicans only for this first segment. was january 6th, 2021, an insurrection or a protest in your view? 202 is the area code for all of our numbers. 748-8000 if you live in the east and central time zones. 202-748-8001 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones. you can try text, 202-748-8003,

include your first name and city, if you would. and you can participate in the conversation about january 6th via social media. just remember cspanwj is the handle for a lot of the social media sites. we'll take the calls in a couple minutes. republicans only for this first segment. earn a rebuke by mcconnell. the rebukes by mr. mcconnell and added to a small but forceful chorus of gop lawmakers who have decried the action that the republican national committee took on friday when it officially rebuked ms. cheney and mr. kinzinger and accusing them of, quote, persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in

legitimate, political discourse. that's the front page of the "new york times." on the inside part of this article on the jump, representative kevin mccarthy of ocalifornia, the house minority leader defended on tuesday telling a cnn reporter that it was meant to condemn the house committee's targeting of conservatives who were no where near washington on january 6th and had nothing to do with either the attack or the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election. the censure pushed by allies of former president donald trump was just over one page long but it has sent republicans into turmoil exposing the party while underscoring how it is guilty to mr. trump continues to define everything it does. it has disrupted efforts by congressional republicans to turn the page from january 6th and focus on what they see as the failings of president biden and the democratic party in an election year.

202 is the area code. 748-800 if you live in the east and central time zone and are a republican. 202-748-8001 for those of you in the mountain and specific time zones and you can send a text to 202-748-8003. again, republicans only. we want to know if you think january 6th was an insurrection or a protest. now, the chairwoman of the republican party, rona mcdaniel wrote an op-ed in town hall and here it is. this is what she had to say about the resolution passed by the rnc. the media is distorting republican censure of cheney and kinzinger. if corporate news media wants to know why americans don't trust it any more they should look no further than the patently false

coverage of the resolution adopted by the national committee the censure reps. let me be abundantly clear as she writes, as chairman of the rnc, i have repeatedly condemned the violence that occurred at the capitol on january 6th and do so again today. the events of that day are deeply personal to me and our team as the fbi found a bomb outside of rnc headquarters that afternoon and i will never forget what it felt like to know that my staff was in immediate danger. violence has no place in our political discourse, period. and those who engaged in violence on january 6th and committed crimes should be held accountable with due process by the appropriate law enforcement authorities and prosecutors. we're going to begin taking your calls now. republicans only for this first segment. joe in georgia. insurrection or protest in your view? >> caller: peter, it was a

protest. i love c-span been with the network 30 years. i'm a strong trump supporter and i think the democrats, i think it was just an ordinary protest and i think the republicans are being treated very unfairly, peter. >> what do you think about breaking into the capitol, though, and what mitch mcconnell had to say? >> caller: i think mcconnell ought to be fired. i think we need to fire these career politicians who have been in washington so long. we need new leadership and i'm working hard for a new governor best governor in georgia history and i'm fired up. vernon jones who was running against purdue and kemp really exciting race in georgia and he pulled out and endorsed david purdue and purdue is a close friend of trump. i think david purdue will be elected and i think he'll be the best virginia in history along with youngkin in virginia. i'm fired up. i'm working hard for david

purdue. i think he'll be the best governor in georgia history. >> this is ann a republican in manchester, kentucky. what do you make of what your senator had to say yesterday, ann? >> caller: i do not agree with him. i think that it was just a protest. maybe there was some plants, people that were planted and maybe a few bad actors. but it was just a protest. and do i think anybody in their right mind voted for the president that is in office now? no. >> bill, orange park, florida, protest or insurrection, bill? >> caller: well, i think -- he is not going to be living in kentucky any more. i think liz cheney and kinzinger ought to be rootrouted of congr.

they are the insurrectionist. >> back to rhonda mcdaniel, chairman of the republican national committee. op-ed in town hall. the awful events of that day do not justify cheney or kinzinger enabling a partisan committee whose real purpose at the cost of potentially ruining innocent people's lives. from the outset, the committee has lacked the legitimacy of past bipartisan efforts investigating events of national importance. for starters, republican leadership was not allowed to freely appoint a single republican to the committee, instead cheney and kinzinger were hand picked by nancy pelosi. the january 6th committee predictably vastly exceeded its original purpose and morphed into something else entirely investigating republicans who had nuthing to dawith january

6th with the apparent offense of being republican. under the committee's approach almost anything related to the 2020 election is within the scope of its jurisdiction to include harassing citizens who were not even in washington, d.c., that day. gary, finley, ohio. what's your impression of january 6th, gary? >> caller: thank you very much for letting me talk. i was very shocked by the behavior of that incident that day. it was an insurrection. there was people hurt. you know, protests just have the sign and give your opinion about certain issue. this turned into a real messy situation. you had five people killed. many people injured, a lot of lives were threatened and the people who even, didn't do anything. they trespassed on government property and they should be held accountable for this. that's how i feel about it. good republicans, bad republicans, as well as bad democrats and good democrats.

but this situation should have never happened and the united states of america to the world and the people who have been arrested should be accounted for and they have nothing but they trespassed. it is an insurrection. a lot of damage done to the white house and i mean to capitol hill. they should pay for it themselves. that's my opinion. >> gary, have you been a longtime republican? >> caller: no, i was a democrat for a long time. my parents are democrats. but a gas station i worked at in high school a very strong conservative and i learned a lot from him but i have mixed emotions and you need to get our country going back again. i have been kind of in between, but i believe that republican party, you have a right to be what you want to be and as ronald reagan said, government

is not the remedy, it's the problem. and might not say the same words, but i belong, but i belong to the lincoln project, you know. and there's no excuse to be in washington hearing a gun, threatening your fellow constituents. that's ridiculous. >> thank you for calling in this morning. david's a republican in mansfield, texas. david, what did you think about leader mcconnell had to say and do you think it's a protest, insurrection? what do you think about january 6th? >> i believe it was an insurrection and i agree, i agree with mcconnell and cheney and the other young man. have people trying to do civil rights, i mean, civil war and i believe that's what these types of republicans were trying to do. these are not the ronald reagan republicans that i grew up with in texas.

i disagree people thinking this was a protest he will be the republican party -- >> thank you for calling in, sir. mcdaniel chairman of the committee. liz cheney and adam kinzinger are cheapening the events of january 6th by participating in nancy pelosi's partisan committee. the senate has already completed one investigation into january 6th and there are multiple ongoing active law enforcement investigations into what happened that day. these are the correct avenue for investigation. i firmly believe that we are the big tent party and that disagreement amongst republicans is welcome and can make us stronger. but what cheney and kinzinger

are engaged in goes much further than any policy disagreement. these two have permitted their party affiliation to be weaponized to allow the democrats gross overreach and abuse of their power. sandra, port st. lucy, florida, good morning to you, sandra. >> caller: good morning. i'm calling in to say that i've been a republican since i registered to vote in the 19, well, i it was about '65 and i'm very sad about the insurrection and i feel that representative cheney and kinzinger actually are saving the republican party and probably democracy in the usa. >> chris is in headford, massachusetts, sorry about that, chris. >> caller: no problem, good morning. i'm a reagan democrat turned

republican of long standing. i am very much disappointed in the rnc and i backed mcconnell entirelien on this. i think the republican party in general is in jeopardy without addressing the trump leadership in this insurrection. i think they need to separate, we need to separate from trump in order to succeed in the upcoming elections. i think it will -- without doing that, the elections are in jeopardy in terms of the republican success. >> here's "wall street journal" mcconnell faults rnc on censure is the headline and that's what we're talking about this morning. what leader mcconnell to say yesterday about january 6th calling it an insurrection. and in "the washington post"

earlier we read rhonda mcdaniel on townhall.com and here's more information from "washington post." in calls with some allies mcdaniel said she was in an impossible spot because if she had not supported the resolution, she would have drawn the ire of trump and his allies according to the people who spoke with her. and she said her members overwhelmingly supported it. she also told others privately that she had taken a political bullet for house minority leader kevin mccarthy by changing the resolution from an original draft that said mccarthy should expel cheney and kinzinger from the house gop conference. next call james in laport, indiana. good morning. january 6th insurrection or protest? >> caller: to me it was an all-out assault on the life-long republican and what i watched that day was just embarrassing.

>> thanks for calling in. wording about january 6th sparks uproar and clean-up effort is their headline. coming up in about 15 minutes we're going to be talking with two members of congress. we're going to talk with earl blumenhour in a few minutes. long-time democrat from oregon. nancy mace republican from south carolina. she'll also be on. connie in illinois. good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> what's your reaction to january 6th and what mitch mcconnell had to say? >> caller: mitch is trying to hang on to his job. by going along with the democrats. it was not an insurrection. trump asked for 20 to 30 troops

to be there to protect the capitol for the 5th and the 6th. nancy pelosi said it's not necessary. it's not needed. so where's the insurrection coming in at? those pictures that you showed. you see the hard hats, the people in the hard hats that are pushing, pushing, pushing their way. that is antifa. there was a black kid running around carrying a rope, that's antifa right there. the kid running around carrying a rope with a bull horn, that was black lives matter. >> that's connie in illinois. this is jason in sivilo, texas.

jason, what do you think? >> caller: i tend, the investigation is so partisan, it's hard to say what i would think. but i do lean with what i saw on one of your show on c-span in the senate where they talked to the fbi. the fbi was accused of being a provocter and they said, no, this wasn't an insurrection and we didn't know preplanning on it. bad actors in it and that's where my stance is on that. >> what do you think about what mitch mcconnell had to say yesterday? >> i think he's been around for so long and quite frankly he needs to call for a better treatment on the prisoners and backing republican more so that are --

>> we're having a little trouble hearing you there, jason. we'll have to cut you off. in "the hill" publication this morning is this story. trump tightens grip rnc. donald trump and allies are strengthening their hold amid a growing riff in the party between those who back the former president's election fraud claims and those who are hoping to move on. the rnc vote to censure two gop trump critics exposed the extent to which trump's most fervent supporters have consolidated party in the party's highest echelon. now some republicans fear the former president's influence over the rnc could hamper efforts to recapture congress in this year's mid term elections and take back the white house in 2024. this article goes on to say that while the gop has sought to make the mid term elections a referendum on president biden

economic inflation and a host of other challenges, republicans also find themselves tethered to trump who remains intensely focused on relitigating the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath including the attack on the capitol. quote, any time we're talking about anything other than what joe biden and the democrats are doing, it's a mistake. and the rnc needs to be the unifying force to remind republicans of that, said one gop donor. censoring members of your own party, that's not what they're supposed to be doing. next call is john right here in washington, d.c. john, good morning. what do you think? insurrection or protest? >> caller: well, i've been a tour guide in d.c. for about five years. i've been in the downtown, maul area, capitol area and i was down there january 5th, the night before.

>> john, i apologize, you faded away from me. so i'm going to have to move on. i apologize. omar in lacrosse, virginia. hi, omar. >> caller: hi. good morning. i would just like to say that cheney and the other guy, they are doing the right thing. they're standing up and doing what's right. all these other republicans that are scared to stand up against donald trump, i mean, that's foolish. you see when you go against him how he acts. so, if you say something wrong, he's going to treat you that way. so why don't they just wise up and get rid of him. i mean, because that was, that was, i mean, what they did at the capitol, that was wrong. you know, if they were to call any of those republicans, they would have hurt them, too. that's what they have to realize. those people were out to get all of them. >> apologize.

i thought you had finished. carrie is in wisconsin. carrie, as a republican, was january 6th an insurrection or protest? >> caller: i definitely think it was both. there were definitely insurrectionists there. the people who were violent. anybody who you see on these visuals even pushing others or hitting people or breaking things or breaking in, absolutely insurrectionists. folks who were just outside protesting and maybe i'm wrong, but i saw video there were some people who when they came into the capitol, it had already been broken into or whatever and they walked in and opened doors and they were inside ropes and taking pictures like tourists. so, i know some of those people have gotten, you know, convicted of trespassing or something like that. so there were protesters there

that absolutely. this is what i believe. that absolutely did not mean to go to the extreme of using violence and an insurrection to overturn the election, but certainly the far right crazies who i wish we had a break down of how many groups like proud boys and i can't even remember the names of some of the others. what percentage -- >> carrie, if you've been watching this morning, we read from ronna mcdaniel's op-ed and listened to mitch mcconnell. what do you think of their comments? carrie? >> caller: yes, i just tuned in so i just heard the last few people commenting. >> sorry about that. well, sue in whiting, new jersey, text in. i believe january 6th was a protest that got out of hand, however, there definitely was an extremist element that seemed

hell bent on causing chaos. it's unfortunate former president trump didn't seem to grasp the proper way. john, please go ahead. >> caller: yeah, i think this was a protest. if it was an insurrection, it would have went a totally different way. so i think that the media needs to, if they want to call it an insurrection, it would be a failed insurrection. the thing that i don't understand is why c-span isn't covering what happened back in january when the department of interior was taken over by environmentalists which are liberals and that was an insurrection in that building. but we don't hear that in the news and that is the problem with the news today. i would recommend to people if they can get a hold of it on fox nation, watch the tucker carlson special that he did a four-part series on january 6th showing how fbi agents were involved in

this and why won't nancy pelosi release the records of what she did on january 6th? she's in charge of this committee. she was in charge of security that day. but she will not release anything to the committee of what she did. and the capitol police are to blame. if you watch the videos on good news channels, you'll see them taking the gates down and directing people into the capitol. these are things that need to be looked in to because it's a conspiracy, not an insurrection. thank you. >> helen, long beach, california. good morning to you. what do you think? >> caller: i don't think it's an insurrection. i don't think it's a protest. i think it's the democrats and congress favorite fetish. they cannot stop january 6th. the reason is it is a sense of security for them because they're terrified of losing power, their political power. because surveys taken prior to

the elections before even trump was elected were showing more people were going republican than democrat. this has been a big smear campaign from the get go. very divisive and very dangerous. my concern is those people who got caught up in the moment and i do believe possibly of provocteres there who got caught up in the moment are not persecuted on this fetish. these people, not calculated insurrection, there was no motive, there was just -- they just got caught up in a lot of excitement. it wasn't correct. there should be consequences. but this should not be politicized. this is their lives. so, anyway, i just wish that this feud in congress would end, they would stop this divisiveness and put it down. for just once nancy pelosi and

all the other buddies of hers, put down this fetish. leave it alone. let the facts stand. >> that's helen in long beach, california. mike in orlando, florida, text in. it was an insurrection. donald trump is a insurrection, donald trump is a cancer on the republican party, we need more reagan/mccain republicans to survive. lead editorial this morning in "the wall street journal," canada's trucker protest. a majority of canadians don't support the ottawa protests according to polls but a recent survey found that a majority favors lifting restrictions, suggesting the trudeau mandate, which went into effect on january 15th, was a political miscalculation. by energizing a significant part of the electorate until now less present in public discourse, he has set off a backlash, deepened canadian polarization, and raised the stakes in a showdown

with the truckers. they conclude, the lesson for the covid-19 police is that when you've lost even canadians, arguably the most law-abiding people on the planet, you've lost the political plot. time to adopt a new strategy more tolerant of the need to return to life, not dominated by pandemic fear and government commands. back to your calls on whether january 6th was an insurrection or a protest. carla, wayne city, illinois. please go ahead. >> yeah, i don't believe it is either one. i believe that nancy pelosi has her hands in it. i think that if they're going to do a committee after they've already done investigations on it, that nancy pelosi should be called in to testify. her part in it. and every officer that was involved should be called in for their part in it.

the cia, the fbi. and that -- was it ray epps, there epps that they've had on there and nothing's happened to him. where did he go? where did he disappear to? there's coverup. there's way too much coverup. >> so you see involvement by government agents? >> oh, i believe there's government agents involved in it. definitely. >> rickenberg, arizona, hi. >> i think it was just people protesting their free rights. the fact that these people were arrested, as far as i know, the most, uh, they're being prosecuted for is trespass. why are these people still in jail after a year? why aren't they having their due rights processed? i mean, a trespass is a

misdemeanor. yet they spent over a year in jail, prison. treated like dirt. and they're americans. yet we have all these people come in, not tested for covid, not vaccinated, and yet we're still wearing masks. they're starting to take them off now because people are upset and the democrats, the only reason they're taking the masks off now, because they're worried about the 2022 -- or 20 -- yeah, the upcoming election. so anyway, thank you, c-span, and i think that if anybody wants to be free in this country you need to look at it and see it for what it was, it was a protest. the people that busted in weren't trump supporters. they're not wearing maga. they're black. they're antifa, blm, and honestly, i think the fbi had informants in there.

>> that's inger in wickenberg, arizona. stacey abrams apologized for going maskless while taking a photo with schoolchildren. she followed safety protocols but removed her mask to read to children and mistakenly left it off. quote, i followed the protocols, i told the kids i'm taking my mask off because i'm reading to kids who are listening remotely as well and we were socially distanced. the kids were socially distanced from me. in the excitement after i finished, because it was so much fun working with these kids, i took a picture and that was a mistake. that's in "the hill" newspaper this morning. john is in bonita springs, florida.

john, insurrection or protest? >> i would have to say good morning. good morning to you, first of all. i would say protest because if we go back into 2020, the summer of love, jenny durkin, washington had about 25 fires. the whole building was, uh, you know, they had to lockdown president trump and throw him into some secret place when they came out to do that picture afterwards at the church. that whole 2020 summer of love, there was, uh, what, $35 billion worth of damage, 200 people killed including police officers. what kind of insurrection, uh, where nobody is arrested for any firearms, the building is standing, there was a broken window or two. let's talk about why the protest was going on. the protest was going on because of five states that stopped counting their ballots in the middle of the night at 11:00 at night and then happened to come back online at 6:00 with a different -- joe biden being the -- uh, in front at that

point. that's what the protest was about. if this is an insurrection, they would still own the building. what kind of insurrection where nothing happens? that's all i would like to say. thank you very much. >> that's john in florida. and this is steve in sierra vista, arizona. steve, what do you think? >> hey, how are you doing? >> how are you? >> my opinion is that it wasn't an insurrection, it was a major protest, because if you feel as i do then you need to call in c-span. it started when hilary got away with, you know, murder, practically, and then pelosi ripped up the speech on the state of the union right in front of everybody. you know, it's the country looking at the democrats like they're trying to be our rulers, not leaders or voted in people. and, um, then when biden became president, because america was sure that trump had it in the bag, you know, his rhetoric is

what knocked him off the table. but, uh, when that happened, america felt betrayed, totally, by the whole process. and the democrats had a target on them at that point for all their bad dealings and things, the covering up or the -- you know, the, umm, the biden's son affairs and stuff like that, burisma money and all of -- >> tell you what, before we go any further down the road, let's say thank you to steve and to all our callers this morning. coming up, we're going to talk with two members of congress, earl blumenauer, democrat from oregon. after that, na nancy mace, a republican, first termer from

california. thanks for joining us on "washington journal." we'll be right back. at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. here many of those conversations on c-span's new podcast. presidential recordings. >> season 1 focuses on the presidency of lyndon johnson. you'll hear about the 1964 civil rights act. the 1964 presidential campaign. the gulf of tonkin incident. the march on selma. and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson's secretaries knew because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact they were the ones who made sure that the conversations were taped as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and theirs. >> you'll also hear some blunt talk. >> jim. >> yes, sir. >> i want to report of the number of people assigned to kennedy and me the day he died,

the number assigned to me now. if mine are not less, i want them less right quick. if i can't ever go to the bathroom, i won't go, i promise i won't go anywhere, i'll just stay right behind these black gates. >> presidential recordings. find it on the c-span now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪♪ ♪♪ el washington journal continues. host: joining us on the washington journal is representative earl blumenauer, longtime member of congress from oregon, democrat.

he wor ks"washington journal" continues. >> joining us on "washington journal," representative earl blumenauer. congressman, we want to start with where we left off this morning. did you see what mitch mcconnell had to say yesterday about january 6th? >> i did. >> what's your reaction as a democrat? >> i did indeed, and it is a welcome response to have republican leadership repudiating this effort at denial. he was forthright. i thought it's consistent with some of the concerns he had after the insurrection. but i was pleased that he came forward. two courageous republicans should not be penalized for telling the truth and standing up for the constitution and their principles. >> where were you on january 6th, 2021? >> well, we had phased entry

into the chamber because of covid protocol. and i was scheduled to be on the floor. i was moving towards the floor when all the madness occurred. and so i was able to go back to my office and be secure. it was very unsettling, watching what happened outside my window. the chaos in the halls. i went out early that morning and sort of walked the crowd. it was very obvious that something awful was going to happen. it was unsettling and disturbing. >> you've been around in washington since your first election in 1996. what's changed for the worst up on capitol hill? >> well, we had -- when i first came, there were some real problems. we had newt gingrich kind of leading a charge and wanting to sort of burn the place down.

and things were tense and unpleasant. the first press conference i participated in was trying to return civility. and that's been a constant challenge. but what's happened is we've moved further and further into the extreme. the action on the outside coupled with some people who are literally in denial. we saw them encouraging the insurrection. and that -- as bad as it was earlier, nothing like this has ever been approached. >> your hometown of portland, oregon saw some protests last summer. what's your take on those? >> yeah, it's brutal. and we were caught between extremes. we had white supremacists who wanted to shake things up. we had some anarchists who tried to hijack the black lives matter for their own purposes. and then we had a number of -- we had the vast majority of peaceful protesters caught in the middle with people who

wanted violence and disruption. it was extraordinarily difficult and jarring. and it's taking a while to try and return to normal. it was a very hard and unpleasant experience. >> so the city is not quite back to normal at this point? >> it's not. there are scars that linger. and then when you have the overlay of the covid crisis, which has been extraordinarily disruptive, then you've had problems with homelessness. it is still a struggle to get our balance. >> earl blumenauer works on strayed issues. he's chair of the trade subcommittee of the ways and means committee. so we want to talk a little bit about trade. there's a little article in "the washington post" this morning that the u.s. trade deficit record high in 2021, $859 billion. what's your take?

>> well, what that represents is people trying to reconnect with supply chains that have been dramatically disrupted. there are a number of goods that come from overseas that we haven't been able to get access to. and what you're seeing here is an effort to try and do that. there are other disruptions that are going to take a while. we continue to be strong in the goods -- rather, in services. but i think that this is an aberration that is going to quiet a little bit going forward. the legislation that we enacted, getting tough on some of the chinese efforts to exploit some of the loopholes in our tax laws like the de minimis provision that's allowed them to send 2 million packages a day into the united states, not paying tariffs, not being inspected, getting under an artificial $800

limit, our legislation would help correct that. and it's a step towards strengthening american business. >> are we too reliant on china when it comes to manufactured products? >> i think we have not been tough enough in terms of the dealing with china. the trump trade agreement was supposed to a number of chinese actions, most notably was not fulfilled, a promise to purchase american agricultural products. and we still haven't stopped them from stealing our intellectual property, cutting corners, forced labor. these are unnecessary advantages that the chinese take advantage of. and i think, as we did with our legislation, it's important to draw a line and enforce it. >> do you support president biden's diplomatic censure of the olympics? >> yes. >> the competes act. are you a supporter? and what does it do?

it gives $52 billion to the u.s. semiconductor industry but what does it do and how in your view does it make u.s. manufacturing stronger? >> well, we have an opportunity here to strengthen the chip manufacturing. this is very important, and my state in oregon, one of the major businesses is intel and its research and chip manufacturing. and there are other companies that are involved. the united states being able to invest in helping us to strengthen our supply chains for chips and technology is important. the rest of the country is doing -- the rest of the world is doing it. the chinese have lavish support for their efforts. and i think it's overdue. but we've balanced it, as i mentioned, by taking a stronger stand against some of the chinese practices that give them an unfair advantage. i mean, they went into the wto 20 years ago. we still don't have a

procurement agreement with them that allows the united states businesses to compete for business in china even though chinese businesses can compete in the united states. i think that's outrageous and we ought to enforce the provisions and not let them get away with it. >> politico this morning has an article about mask mandates. and it says, mask mandates, contact tracing, are going away. and a lot of the blue states are getting rid of these mask mandates. do you support that, is it time? >> i think we're reaching a point where it's entirely appropriate to relax it. americans have responded. in my state, they were amazingly vigilant. we've had better performance than many other states to try and be sensitive to the needs of protecting their families and others by using the mask mandates and getting vaccinated. i mean, the crisis that we have

is largely one of unvaccinated people who don't respect the mask mandate. those who do have a much lower rate of infection and hospitalization. but i think it's largely units course with the most recent variant. people have done a good job of observing it. and i think it is entirely appropriate to start relaxing it. >> congressman blumenauer, a lot of the political talk so far this year has been about the strength of the republicans in the coming midterms. an article in "the hill" this morning about the senate democrats. but it says, senate democrats shift strategy after progressive agenda falters. what's the talk in your caucus? >> well, i think it's important to be able to deal with the realities in the senate. having a massive, sweeping proposal is not in the cards. i think that's clear. being able to take the items

that are very important and very popular and focus on them is i think a reasonable countermeasure. the good news is that what we are proposing is widely supported by the american public. dealing with early childhood education, being able to -- what we've already done with infrastructure, being able to go forward, being able to deal with some of the environmental provisions that are broadly popular with the public. if we are able to take some of these individual elements and move it forward, some is better than nothing. it's already the most sweeping set of enactments that we've ever seen, and it's working. we have had this last year the largest increase in employment in any administration in history. almost half a million new jobs last month. so these programs are working. they are popular. i think it's appropriate to be

more targeted, so it adjusts to the realities in the senate. >> we've put a lot of topics on the table. let's take some calls. david is in madison heights, michigan on our democrats line. you're on with congressman earl blumenauer. >> caller: hi, thank you very much for taking my call. i'm very surprised as a democrat that you let me call in. in the last three days you had republicans call in only. since the beginning of the year, that was your eighth republican call-in only. and only one democrat, and unfortunately no independent. but i just want to say to the congressman, great job, keep up the great work. we need to get rid of these republicans. they're nothing but a stain on america. you had a caller with the gop only calling in, and a woman caller said that it was not trump supporters that breached

and broke into our capitol. really? come on, man. keep up the good work. let's get rid of these republicans left and right. and change your name to fox-span. >> that's david in madison heights, michigan. we won't make you respond to that, congressman. >> well, let me just say, i was there. as i mentioned, i was out in the crowd. we saw the aftermath. those weren't protesters. those were insurrectionists. and it was definitely a trump crowd. and that's been validated by some of the republican leadership who were there on the ground and responded. >> next call is donald. donald is a democrat in burlington, new jersey. donald, what would you like to say to congressman blumenauer? >> caller: good morning, congressman. i can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like in the capitol that day.

i'm calling because i feel that there's a lot of hate right now going on in the congress, the senate, and especially with fans of a certain television network, fox, and that's because it is no longer about facts. it's about opinions. and these people just read a teleprompter and they believe every word they say. and because of that, people have started to get more and more hateful and they don't want to cooperate. if you listen to the calls, they say, we've got to get rid of pelosi, we've got to get rid of whoever. we need to work together. as far as masks are concerned, they work. i had a republican that i heard call yesterday. he said that it worked. so again, we need to work together. that's really all i have to say. please stop watching fox. >> i think your caller is right in terms of opportunities to work together. that's one of the reasons i'm encouraged about being able to take some of the more popular elements that have been advanced with the president's agenda, be

able to deal with them on an individual basis. there are a wide range of areas that don't have to be fiercely partisan divide. you're going to have a guest here, nancy mace, a republican from south carolina, who i am working with on cannabis legalization. this is an area that doesn't have to be partisan. it's an area we can come together, a needed area of reform. there are a host of things that i think we can focus a little more intensely on things we agree on, like standing up to china. these are areas that i think if we're spending more time working together, we can move around this and not be focused on the extreme and the loud. >> adam kinzinger was quoted on cnn saying he was fearful of a civil war in america. do you agree with that? >> there are some who i think are fomenting that. basically adam's experience, i can see why he would say that. he's been treated shabbily by

the republicans and he's been on the receiving end of vitriol that is unimaginable. i've worked with him on a variety of things like dealing with immigrants, iraqi and afghan immigrants whose lives were at risk because they worked with us. i found him to be thoughtful and independent. i don't think we're on the verge of a civil war. but this is not a good time in our country. and again, why i want to be able to for us to find things we can work together on to have some progress and change the course. >> congressman, has redistricting lent itself to more extreme elements in both parties? >> the way it has been pursued too often is that it definitely caters to the more extreme voices. when you have districts drawn to be entirely republican or entirely democratic with extreme gerrymandering it tends to squeeze out folks in the middle

and promote the loudest voices, particularly what we've seen in the republican party, that have been designed to sort of embrace the trumpian elements, where people are at risk. again, very thoughtful republicans, they don't -- i don't always agree with them but i appreciate who they are and how they -- somebody like tom rice being a target? my word. it's just kind of really unsettling, what's happened to drive these people out of the republican party. >> roy is a republican in acworth, georgia. good morning, roy. >> caller: good morning. i just have a question. after the 2016 election, there were several democratic congress men that challenged the election. it was allowed to run its course because they didn't have a senator to go along with their challenge. biden denied it, they could not

send it back to the legislatures in the state. this time, there were several congressmen that were willing to come forward and challenge the election. in addition to that, they had several senators that were going to support it. the difference between 2016 and 2020, it did not run its course because of the supposedly insurrection but trump had told all the people that listened to him, let's go to the capitol and encourage your congressmen to do the right thing. that's when everything fell apart. they did not want the challenge to go forward. and so yeah, there were people in there to upset that, to try to interfere with that. and there were people from antifa and black lives matter, that started that. and there were policemen that did not try to stop it. and so, yeah, they were very successful in stopping the challenge to the election. >> all right, we got the point, i think, ray.

congressman? >> your caller is flat out wrong. this was not antifa and black lives matter. i was there, i saw them. and it's clear there was an unlawful effort to try and stop the election. the fact is the claims that had been made and litigated by trump supporters of irregularities, there was i think 62 legal challenges. they were all dismissed except for one on a minor case. there's no question that joe biden won the election and there's no question that the procedure that followed was open, transparent, and fair. >> michael, beacon, new york, democrat. good morning. >> caller: yes, how are you doing? hey, i have a comment and a question. the january 6th committee is doing a fantastic job.

they're exposing the coup that trump led. the biggest problem that we have is that fox, whatever the right wing, they don't report this. so how, sir, are we going to get the truth to america? because until this country lives with truth, we will always be divided. and this nontruth has been coming from the republican party since the days of newt gingrich and it has not stopped. how do we get the truth exposed to the people? because they're not getting the truth. they're getting lies. >> all right, michael, thank you. congressman? >> that is indeed a challenge. fox news is the most -- one of the most extreme examples. it's interesting that people who get their information from fox news actually know less about what's going on in the world

than people that don't listen to the news at all. there are alternatives. i think c-span provides a service both in terms of what's happened in congress and allowing opportunities like this for people to air their views. but you have public broadcasting, npr, pbs. there are a number of local news outlets. people can get the information if they want it. part of the problem is what's happened with social media that has taken an outsized influence and it's distorting. what's happening, for example, with the investigation on capitol hill, which is very thorough. it's slow-going, it's not exciting theater. but we're finding out from their efforts about the extraordinary steps that donald trump took to try and overturn the election, right down to the fact that he's violating the law by material he

takes out of the white house and is illegally having access to it. but things are coming out. the truth is going to come forward. the committee is doing a good job. there are a few courageous republicans that are dismissive, quite critical of what's going on. and i think it's going to build, between now and certainly the election. but the record will be clear for people who have any sort of independent judgment. that's not everybody. but it's enough, i think, to make a difference in terms of a reset, both in terms of politics and public policy. in the end, the american public i think will support a balanced, reasonable approach, hold trump and his acolytes accountable, and then be able to move on for what's good for america. >> congressman blumenauer, the

house yesterday passed another short term continuing resolution to fund the government through march 11th. is there any prospect that regular order on appropriations bills will return? >> yes. and i will just say that there's been significant progress towards an omnibus spending bill that would be reset to the current level, the new level of funding, rather than freezing it in the past. continuing resolutions are awful in terms of restricting what can be done, making it very -- for example, we just passed a major infrastructure bill on a bipartisan basis which would put $550 billion to be available to rebuild and renew america, everything from roads and bridges to broadband. until we get the new budget top line numbers approved, we can't get access to it. but there's remarkable progress

that's being made. i credit rosa delauro in the house and her republican colleagues who are working hard to try and get that. every indication is there's a great deal of progress that's been made, because america needs to have access to this money according to the higher levels of spending that will make a difference. and i think we're getting very close to it. i hope, i hope, we reach a point where at some point we actually do the budget process without having to resort to these continuing resolutions, which are very, very disruptive. >> lost call for congressman blumenauer comes from paul in fulsome, louisiana. independent line. good morning, paul. >> caller: good morning, how are you doing? >> good morning. >> please go ahead. >> caller: i would love to have a discussion, a deep discussion with this guy, this representative earl. but i would like to ask you one question. i sell automation, i sell to

chemical plants, refineries, the energy sector. and, you know, let's just get specific. y'all -- you say you have these great agendas that the people want and you can't get through congress because of republicans. that is such nonsense. i want to ask you an intelligent question and see if i can get an intelligent answer. i know probably about 2,000 engineers that i've called on over the last 20 years. there's not one, one, who says that with these electric cars that biden is doing and cutting -- you know, basically cutting our own throats with the energy sector, not renewing the leases offshore, the colonial pipeline, all these pipelines being shut down, and he's opening up russia -- >> hey, paul, what's your

question? >> caller: how do you charge an electric car? with what? what do you charge it with, where do you get your energy source? >> thank you, sir, we got it. >> i think this is a very good question and i'm glad your caller raised it. what we're seeing now is an explosion in renewable energy. it is now cheaper to have wind and solar than coal. you're seeing opportunities to be able in battery technology, wind and solar, that we're able to meet the nation's energy supply over the course of the next ten years with less reliance on fossil fuels that's poisoning the planet's atmosphere and leading to climate change and global warming. louisiana is the worst example of being pounded by climate change. they're losing their shoreline. they've had extreme weather events. louisiana needs a reset. and i hope that with these policies, we'll be able to invest in alternative energy and

environmental restoration and broadband that louisiana needs desperately. >> for those who are meeting you for the first time, how long have you been wearing the bicycle pin? >> well, i started a bicycle program in portland. and i've been advertising with the bike pin now for over 25 years in congress. every day. i give away thousands of them every year. it's good to have your brand promoted. >> earl blumenauer, longtime democrat from oregon, as always, we appreciate you coming on "the washington journal." >> i enjoyed the visit. coming up, nancy mace, republican from south carolina. she'll be here in about a half an hour. we'll take calls for her as well on all these topics that we discussed with congressman blumenauer. i want to show you this headline first. 31 million americans to bet on super bowl, gambling group estimates.

it says here that a record 31.5 million americans plan to bet on this year's super bowl, according to estimates released tuesday by the gambling industry's national trade group, the american gaming association. forecasts that over $7.6 billion will be wagered on pro football's championship game. both the amount of people planning to bet, up 35%, and the estimated amount being bet, up 75%, are new records. betters include casual wagers, entry into office pools, and bets placed with illegal bookmakers. if you've had your television on, you've seen some ads for the new online apps where you can bet online. 30 states now have access. about 100 million americans have access to online gambling.

we want to get your views on this expanded online gambling, particularly when it comes to sports betting. you can see the lines there. we'll be taking your calls in just a minute. but if you support or oppose expanded online gambling, 202-748-8000 if you support it. 202-748-8001 if you're opposed to it. we'll begin taking those calls in just a minute. c-span offers a variety of podcasts that have something for every listener. weekdays, "washington today" gives you the latest from the nation's capitol. every week, "book notes plus" has in-depth interviews with writers about their latest works. while "the weekly" uses audio from our immense archive to look at how issues of the day developed over years. our occasional series "talking with" features extensive conversations with historians

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full schedule on your program guide or watch online any time at c-span.org/history. "washington journal" continues. >> 31 million americans to bet on the super bowl according to the american gaming association. this is because of expanded online gambling abilities. of course the casinos, there's about a thousand casinos in the united states. 30 states have legal betting at this point. we want to get your viewpoint on this expanded online gambling. 202-748-8000 if you support expanded online gambling. if you're opposed to it, 202-748-8001 is the one for you to call in on. there is a group called stop predatory gambling, which is

opposed to it. here is their public service announcement. >> gambling wasn't even recognized as a problem until 1980 when it was deemed an impulse control disorder. the american community caught up in 2013 and recognized it as an addictive product as we discussed today. 2018 was the game changer when the murphy case was decided. from a noncynical perspective, i would suggest that we are right now at the time for the surgeon general and national institute of health to get involved. we'll also tell you that there have been efforts to fund studies, as mark mentioned at the beginning, about this being a public harm issue. four other countries have looked at public harm and commercialized gambling and have found with independent research that approximately 16% of the general public is harmed on an

annual basis by commercialized gambling. we've never had an independent study from a public health perspective in america. there have been proposals and the gambling establishment has shot them down. if the numbers are consistent in america, and one would suggest they would be larger because of the growth of online betting in america and media attention, if they're even just 16%, we're talking upwards of 55 million people a year in america being harmed. when that becomes the public health model, the surgeon general, national institutes of health, the cdc, will be required to get involved. >> and that was stop predatory gambling, a group opposed to the expansion of online gambling. matt, mount airy, maryland, what

do you think about this? maryland just expanded its online offering. >> i'm happy about the online gambling stuff, i can gamble with my friends, ten bucks here, ten bucks there, i don't have a lot of money to bet a lot. they should have red flag laws like they have with guns for family members to get registered so they can't gamble anymore because gamble does ruin people's lives. there should be a registry and all the agencies should have to follow it so if there's an issue, they can be flagged and help people before it goes too far. >> wouldn't it be like trying to stop somebody from going into a bar if they drank too much? >> so i'm actually an alcoholic and i think if you're an alcoholic, i think they should put a stamp on your license where you just can't get alcohol anymore. that's fine with me. there's problems with people in society, it's only like 5%, i happen to be one of them, with alcohol, i have to go to aa and i can't drink anything.

a stamp on my license that says you can't get alcohol would actually be a lot easier than all this other shit. me, i would be happy to resist temptation. >> that's matt in mount airy, maryland. this is amin in temple, texas. what do you think about expanded gambling, amin? >> caller: i oppose it because times are so hard now, a lot of people can't afford to do that. but what i go for is boards. my father has been doing boards for a long time, where you get a number for one price and if your number is hit at the end of the game, then you're lucky enough to win. but i don't support all this online and every other kind of thing, because a lot of times you lose your money on that. the boards, i say keep them. >> now, when you say boards, do you mean where you go and pick numbers like the pick 3 or the

pick 4 thing? >> caller: no, what you do is, there's boards -- this is local. you have boards that are square, like a square diamond box, with little things on it, and what you do is, you buy the board. you can't see the number because the numbers are on the board and they have been picked for the board, like 7 and 0 and 7 and 7. >> oh, like the office pool thing. >> caller: yes. those things, the most you spend is about 10 or $20, you get a chance to win a couple of hundred. but those are fairer than online and all these other big people. they are out to get your money. now, if you can afford them, do them. but for everybody else, i say, it's best for you to just get a

local street board or church board, because everybody does it. thank you. >> thank you for calling in. american gaming association estimates that gambling has an economic impact of about $260 billion in this country. about 1.8 million jobs. there's about a thousand casinos in the country, physical casinos in the country, and now of course all the betting apps. chuck in syracuse, new york, what do you think about online gambling expansion? >> caller: i strongly oppose it. we have quite a few casinos in central new york. a lot of them have sports betting. but if you've ever been to atlantic city, outside of the marina district, outside the boardwalk, the city is a dump. it's a third world garbage hole. and new york state keeps adding casinos so you can get to your car and go to one in 20 minutes. why add it online?

it makes no sense, it's like having a heroin delivery service. you're just making it easier for people who can't afford to go to the casinos to waste their money and now new york state is creating more government agencies to deal with the addictions because they keep spending more and more tax money and they have to come up with new schemes. terrible idea. now joe biden's giving away crack pipes for free. what is going on? >> from "the new york times" in january, quote, new york launched mobile betting last week. betters in three states, including ohio, should be able to start placing wagers this year. while florida continues to iron out legal wrinkles, efforts by lawmakers in georgia, north carolina, and massachusetts are expected to heat up and the matter could finally go before california voters by the end of the year. north carolina democratic governor roy cooper was asked

about efforts to legalize sports betting. and here's -- in north carolina. and here's what he had to say. >> it's here whether we like it or not. and the issue is, will north carolina try to be on the cutting edge for the technology jobs and other employment that it will create, and plus be able to get state taxpayers their cut. or are we just going to let it happen all around us. and, you know, i think it's time for us to step up and do it. the legislation that is being considered, you know, i think probably there needs to be more state tax dollars involved in this, a bigger cut for the people. and it's complicated. but i think there needs to be a free and open debate. we need to do what's best for

the people of north carolina. and i support the move toward it. clearly there are people that get addicted and it causes some significant harm to families. but i think that is probably already happening. and we need to make sure that people can get the treatment that they need. and i think it's time for north carolina to step up and do this. >> that was north carolina's governor, roy cooper, a democrat. 202 is the area code. if you support expanded online gambling, 748-8000 is the number to call. if you're opposed, 202-748-8001. steven texts in, i am really opposed to online gambling. too many people will be worse off financially, weapon the ones that get addicted to it.

greg in gunnison, colorado, what do you think of it? >> caller: yes, i would strongly oppose any kind of gambling, not just online. americans right now are in a bad situation with this covid. and it really kind of makes me laugh when you hear all these people call in about the economy, the economy, mostly republicans, but they have money to gamble. and they're gambling on stupid american ball games called baseball, football, and basketball. right now, real sports are happening in the olympics. and all anybody wants to talk about is the super bowl. guess what, folks, life is a big enough gamble by itself, you don't need to be spending your money on it. thank you. >> americans love to put a little action on their favorite sports teams and states love the

extra tax revenue from legal gambling. this is an article in "forbes." currently there are about 30 states where sports betting is now legal including 18 that allow online sports wagering. that means more than 100 million americans can place a legal wager where they live. the legalization of sports wagering has spread across the country since 2018, when the supreme court overturned the professional and amateur sports protection act. paspa had effectively made sports betting illegal except in nevada and a few other states. after the ban was struck down, states have been allowed to legalize sports betting, launch their own programs. the industry has been on fire and growing rapidly. the market has grown from 19 states to 32 and washington, dc in the last 12 months. david, stanton, virginia, what do you think? >> caller: yes, i am opposed to gambling.

i personally have lost maybe a quarter of a million dollars gambling in casinos and video poker when i lived in louisiana. it was legalized. and my whole financial situation changed immediately after i got addicted to gambling. as far as sports gambling, i really haven't participated that much in it, but because it's so easy to access it online, i would warn people to stay away. that's just my comment. thank you for taking my call. >> david, how did your addiction play out? >> caller: well, i started playing video poker. in louisiana they had -- every bar, almost every bar had three video poker machines. there was also truck stops, offtrack betting, where they would have 50 video poker machines. and then there were also a couple of casinos in and around

new orleans. and so it started out as just kind of fun. it ended up where i got dependent upon it for money. i was spending at least maybe 3 to $700 a week, you know, which i earned a pretty good salary at that point in time, but, you know, it would just overwhelm your life, just like any other addiction. alcohol, drugs, whatever. i think it's clear that people who have done it for a while would probably have the same perspective. >> david, do you think that the casinos in vegas or maryland or wherever, should be dismantled, be declared illegal? >> i'll tell you what, if it was only vegas and new jersey, i don't think it would be so widespread, you could go there

for a few days, maybe have fun and go back home. but when it became in your own neighborhood, within 100 miles away, it was very, very difficult to avoid it. >> thank you, sir, for sharing your situation with us. this is from harry in mount lebanon, pennsylvania, a text message. online gambling, i support it. i used to handicap college basketball games and made a fair sum of money. but i quit. the work of analyzing the games robbed the joy of watching them. be advised. next call is from edna in rural valley, pennsylvania. edna, what do you think about the expansion of online gambling? >> caller: i see it in my own tiny little community here. it's terrible, because the seniors just get addicted and they're just throwing all their money away. they live in -- i wouldn't even say poverty, but hard times, and yet they go and spend money, money, money in these machines

that are everywhere. and you can't avoid it. these older folks, they're just destroying the end of their life. and i will not participate. i've been encouraged to do that several times, oh, come on, we're going to go down to, what, the gas station, and run the machines, or go up to wherever, and use the machines. and they do, and they don't have anything left. they're borrowing money to spend money. >> edna -- >> caller: it's a terrible thing for the seniors. >> pennsylvania is one of the states that has the highest tax revenue from gambling. do you think that's a benefit to the state? >> caller: of course not. of course not. it's raping your seniors so that you can -- whatever. that question doesn't even resonate with me, i'm sorry. it just doesn't. >> thank you for calling in.

ken is in sun city, arizona. ken, what do you think about expansion of online gambling? >> caller: i think it's a good idea. it's been around for a while. people are going to gamble no matter what. i have to disagree with the previous caller, the lady. what i think is terrible is these televangelists, saying send me money. i'm a senior citizen, i've been retired over 20 years. and i gamble, i go down to the casino and i play poker. and i'll tell you, i go maybe once every six months to sit down, because you sit for a long period of time, it's just not my forte. i used to gamble in pool, wasn't a whole lot of money, but i used to supplement my income by

playing pool, because i was a fair pool player. >> have you ever bet on a professional sport? >> caller: yes, i have. i used to -- i was a denver bronco fan and i bet on the super bowl when john elway was the quarterback, and of course he won two of them. i don't bet on them all the time. but if i finally had a few extra bucks and my family's taken care of and my savings, i got money in the savings account and stuff, i don't mind plopping down 5, $10. but i'll buy some lottery tickets, i'll buy maybe once a month, a couple of times a month, a lottery ticket. but i realize that's a 3 million chance to one that i'll win. so i know it. but i enjoy it, it's an enjoyment. as long as due it in moderation, i don't see no harm in it.

these people who seem to think that gambling is bring the prostitution, that's what they said in arizona about our casino, oh, the prostitutes will be walking up and down the street, drugs are going to be everywhere. and nothing like that ever happened. that's really ludicrous, i don't know where they come up with these ideas. >> ken, are you one of the 31.5 million americans who may bet on this year's super bowl? >> caller: no, i'm not going to bet on this year's super bowl. even though i do have a favorite player, vaughn miller, he was a denver bronco outside linebacker and i really like his play. he plays for the los angeles rams. i think the rams are going to win. they're kind of an underdog. but i've always bet on the underdog, they're long shots.

>> thank you for calling in. "arizona republic," an op-ed by elvia diaz, the sporting bets mechanism is a complicated web designed precisely to get sports fans hooked on gambling while a few operators enjoy most of the riches. almost nothing or very little is going to arizona state coffers to fund residents' needs. michael, gillespie, illinois, what do you think about expanded online gambling, michael? >> caller: hello? >> michael, what do you think about expanded online gambling? >> caller: well, gambling's been going on for thousands of years. and no one's going to stop it. and i used to go to casinos a lot because i never did before. but after about 2 1/2 years, i'm $2,000 ahead and i'll stay away. i'll bet a little bit on the super bowl.

but not an extravagant amount, like ten bucks, when i'm with friends. but i think that it should be expanded, hey, this is america. if somebody's going to make money, they're going to try to do anything they can and we're going to be the recipients of their profits. >> so michael -- >> caller: thank you very much to c-span. >> michael, you can pull out your phone now and go to a sports app and bet. what do you think about that? >> caller: oh, he can, but i'm not going to. i'll let other people do whatever they want. >> wesley, crawfordsville, indiana. what do you think? >> caller: definitely opposed to it. i know too many people who have lost everything they had, and they started out with good things. relationships, housing. they've lost everything. and i know nine people that way.

and you can't -- once you start gambling, if you can't control it, you're going to lose everything. i thank you. >> jennifer's in park ersberg, west virginia. jennifer, your thoughts.parkerst virginia, your thoughts. >> caller: i'm kind of in the middle, understand people want to gamble and there's a place for that if that's what you want to do but i think there's serious education that has to happen especially in apps, for instance in my state of west virginia, if you play online poker or cable games, even the ones that have live dealers, it's reported through your taxes as slots. and so, in west virginia, you cannot take the win/loss statement that you do on your federal taxes and so if you show a huge win, despite the fact

that that win probably didn't happen, it didn't pan out that way, or maybe your year on average wasn't a win, you still have to report all that winning quote-unquote on your taxes, so i think this is the first year west virginians are going to be dealing with this on the state level tax so i think these apps could do a lot better job of informing the consumer on, you know, how this works. i think that, you know, west virginians i know and i've spoken to quite a few of them have no idea how this all works. >> so jennifer, have you downloaded a sports betting app? >> caller: i actually have several on my phone. i'm a passive user. i'm a steelers fan and so every once in a while i'll put five or

$10 on the steelers to win, but aside from that, gambling is not my thing, but i understand it is for other people and, you know, if you don't live near atlantic city like a previous caller mentioned or, you know, you don't have the where with all to fly to vegas but still want to bet, who are we to say you can't do that just because you don't live in proximity to an actual betting location in person. but at the same time, you know, we just need better education and information and these apps could do a lot better job of educating the user as they're playing, you know, when they have a reportable event that will cause a problem on their taxes, they should be alerted that that happens. and of course, you said, you asked a previous caller if this is beneficial to the state and of course it is, because west

virginia is going to have a windfall this year because of the tax situation that a lot of people are going to find themselves in. >> but they also have physical casinos. do you think those physical casinos contribute positively to the west virginia economy? >> well, i mean, we have three i think, three or four. yeah. those actually, those physical locations do at least employ people. the problem with these apps is, you know, they're mostly computer-based and so there's not a whole lot of back end employment on them. >> thank you for calling in, thank you for sharing your perspective with us. nick, ann arbor, michigan. >> caller: can you hear me? great. i call on the support line

because i only support the online gambling because of your question, because i agree, only because of covid that people should be given opportunity to gamble online instead of going to casino, but i am extremely opposed to gambling overall and have family and kids to support. my parents both have deceased now, 68, on going 69 years old. my father was compulsive gambler, he gambled on everybody, was age earner, my mother had smaller wage and she was the one able to hold the household and we didn't go bankrupt, but my father, he had other vices also. gambling is a vice. and on the other hand, we cannot avoid gambling in our lives. when we go out in the morning, we maybe hit by another, we take risks, when we drive, we take a risk that some idiot will hit us and kill us, and the other risk

that we have to gamble, because if we don't, it's worse, is the stock market, because look at what's happened today. you have a savings account, you get a lousy interest rate like 1, 2%, ridiculous and inflation is 7% so you lose 5% every year. >> nick, thank you, we'll leave it there. we appreciate you calling in sharing your perspective. coming up in just a minute, representative nancy mace, republican from south carolina will be taking your calls and talking about some of the issues in congress. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction bookers at 4:20 p.m. eastern, discussion with calm imist, heritage foundation

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online, i didn't go out for new years and still got covid-19 for a second time and after being fully vaccinated. it's very frustrating. i was sick for a couple of weeks actually, and symptomatic long after i tested negative for covid-19. i hate this illness. >> how severe were your symptoms? >> one of the days i was sick, once again, i had a blood oxygen level that dropped below 90 and got to 85 this time, first time i got sick down to 87 and of course your blood oxygen levels fluctuate as my mine did but for about 36 hours it was really uncomfortable when that was happening. we don't know why, i wish we had more information, more science, more studies to understand why certain people react a certain way or have a harder or more difficult time with covid-19. it's very frustrating, it ripped through my entire family and i

read somewhere too that 66% of omicron cases were people that had covid-19 previously. so i just wish we knew more about this illness and how to treat it prophylactically, treat it better when you have the illness. i wasn't able to get monoclonal antibodies when i was struggling to breathe in my state. i just wish we had more resources to deal with this illness for everybody. >> so, given your personal experience and the fact that you have two school-aged children, what do you think of mask mandates? >> i am not a fan of mandates, period, whether talking about masks or vaccinations. me, as a mom, and as a parent, i know moms and dads out there want to make healthcare decisions for their kids. i'll tell you, when delta was surging in south carolina and omicron was surging, i demanded my kids wear masks at school and that was my decision, fortunately, and then when there are no spikes, i don't want them

to be masked up at school, you know, one of my kids has had covid twice now, he's built up, i imagine, some immunity to it. everyone in our family has had it but i don't want the masks to be a distraction from their learning or interaction socially with other kids. it's been a real struggle i will tell you, for our family any covid-19. at some point, our school had to go virtual at the beginning of the year because omicron was ripping through the community, teachers were getting it, students were getting it, we didn't have enough operation to operate the school and that set my kids back a month, only going virtual two months so it's very frustrating as parents but i want to make sure parents have the ability to make healthcare decisions for their kids, period. that's where we should be and you're seeing different leaders across the country now say masks shouldn't be required, we should get some sense of normalcy back and that's a great first step is turning back those sorts of

mandates. we should be able to make healthcare decisions for ourselves and for our kids too. >> well, i'm sure you saw this, but i want to play a little bit of mitch mcconnell from yesterday talking about january 6th, get your reaction to it. >> what happened january the 6th, we all saw what happened. it was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. that's what it was. >> nancy mace, we asked our viewers this morning, our gop viewers if they thought it was an insurrection or protest, what's your take? >> well it's really going to be up to the justice department and the four federal agencies investigating january 6th, that's where those charges will come into play. there have been 10 committees in

the house and senate also investigating january 6th and then they have the select committee, special committee investigating it on top of that so at the end of the day, today so far over 700 arrests have been made of individuals during that day and i was very vocal about how i felt going through that, just over a year ago, and, you know, i want to let the process work its way through the court system and be adjudicated really there. i want us, also, too, as a country, not just democrats but republicans too to gather. we need to look forward. we need to understand why we have so much political division in this country. we've had violence in our country on the left and the right over the last two years. we saw it in my hometown of charleston in may of 2020, had violent riots and destruction of businesses one night during that year. but as a nation, we need to look

forward and come together and remember why our nation is so great. remember why freedom and democracy is worth preserving because we have one of the freest, greatest democracies in the world and can raise our family in an amazing country and prosper and we got to work together moving forward and all this looking back and being vitreolic on social media, attacking people, the american ex-peerpt is all about debating philosophy and ideas and at the end of the day, being able to agree to disagree. violence is not okay for the left or right, it's not okay for one side to do it and not the other. i'll tell you, i've been a victim of threats both from far right and far left. i have 10 cameras at my home,

inside and out today because my house of spray painted last summer. i had my car keyed the year before that in campaign mode and running for south carolina's first congressional district. i see, and as many other americans do and congress alike, see how this trickles down into our communities, into our neighborhoods, into our work, into even our schools. i -- my kids have been blocked on social media, my friends i disagree with them because their mom is a republican so i've seen it personally trickle down into my life and seen how it's affected all of us, but as a nation, we have got to stop the name calling, got to stop some of this rhetoric and got to look forward together and understand that both sides have made mistakes and that there's been violence and that we got to move forward as a nation. >> well, that said, what do you think about your party's sensor of liz cheney and adam

kinzinger. >> i didn't read the censure i've been very focused on my district, things i got to work on legislatively, i just passed a bill out of oversight committee last week. had an amendment passed out of committee also attached to a bill last week, it was a historic animal farming bill. we never banned any type of animal farming as an amendment or bill passed out of florida house, that was historic moment last week so again, i want to, this question was asked of me yesterday and i'm about unifying my party and bringing people together and, you know, we need to accept that we have member that is have different ideas, that have different approaches to different issues, i'm one of those. i march to the beat of my own drum because that's my district. i promise to be an independent voice and that i would work with anyone who was willing to work with me and i promised, even as a fiscal conservative that i would reach across the aisle and work with others and that's where my focus is, that's where

i believe all of our focus should be. we were elected to do a job, we weren't elected to trend on twitter. we were elected to work for the people and i think that we -- that's where our -- that's where we should all be focusing our efforts regardless of your political affiliation today. >> earl blumenheur was here earlier saying he was working with you on cannabis reform bill. >> yes, in november, it's gotten a lot of accolade, endorsed by conservative groups like americans for prosperity, veterans and law enforcement groups, also enforced by norml, it deschedules cannabis off schedule 1 which allows us to research it. we shouldn't be scheduling cannabis as a schedule one drug like opioids or heroine, it's not anywhere near the same thing and ought to be able to study it if it is as good as people say

it is for medical purposes we should be able to research it thoroughly and make recommendations through there, but also the state reform act recognizes the right of every state in the country and all but three states have some form of cannabis reform in their state, so my home state is south carolina, we made cbd and hemp legal, florida has medical cannabis, of course places like california and colorado have full adult use and this bill recognizes the states rights that we're going to recognize the laws of every state to make their decisions on what they want to do, whether it's cbd or full adult use so i tried to also bring republicans and democrats together. there's something for everyone in here. there's funding for small businesses and community policing. there's funding to ensure that kids are educated on drugs and how bad they are, there's incentives for states not to sell cannabis to anyone under

the age of 21. there is a prohibition against marketing and advertising to children. there are protections for veterans with ptsd, we all know veteran suicide is through the roof. veterans shouldn't be discriminated when trying to seek employment because they're using cannabis and quite frankly, doctors at the va should be able to prescribe it to them if the doctor, qualifying medical physician determines they need it. so there's something for everyone in here, also expungement and release saying the nonviolent offenders would get release, doesn't include hard offenders and duis as well, so i tried to be bipartisan in the approach and recognize that there are certain rights of states and this is one of them. >> nancy mace, first female

graduate from the citadel military college. you're being primaried, aren't you? >> i have both a primary and general election this year. >> and your primary opponent is more supportive of president trump is that a fair description? >> well, i don't know that it actually is. i actually worked for president trump in 2016, i travelled across and worked in seven different states to help him get elected in 2016. one of my opponents was not there early on and i was. i agreed with him on policies, i think under his administration and we had operation warp speed, one of the reasons we had the vaccine so soon was because of those policies. we had low taxes. because of the low taxes, the tax cut and see jobs cut, we had some of the lowest unemployment for african americans, black and

brown, women, latino americans and let's not forget the bipartisan first step back signed into law in 2018. the one bill i had signed into law as a state lawmaker before coming to congress was a prison reform bill. i looked at the first step act president trump signed into law and saw some provisions in there. one was prohibiting pregnant women from being restrained during labor and delivery and i thought how barbaric is that, still going on in our prison system. come to find out in south carolina, it was a policy and along with bryan sterling, head of our south carolina corrections department, he and i worked together to ban and prohibit it and had that signed into law in 2020. so i would say idea logically, very much so the fiscal conservative is the policy i've worked on. i did a lot of civil rights work and we know president trump is

very involved in pardoning nonviolent crimes and i met some of those people so i don't know that i would go that far but i would certainly say my policies very much align, and you see that in my work. and i'm a child and product of the reagan era and also said as a conservative it's incumbent upon us to reach across the aisle and work with others and i tried my best to do that and you see that in my work as both a state lawmaker and now in congress. it's important we have bold and pragmatic voices, i also call a spade a spade as people know and if you throw a punch my way or lie about my record i'll hit back and clarify that and speak the truth and i think that's what the american people want, i know that's what my constituents want, what everyone in south carolina wants from their representative. >> let's take calls, steven from shelbiville in indiana, you're up with congresswoman nancy mace. >> good morning, ma'am. >> good morning, how are you?

>> caller: i'm fine, i'm tell you, impressed. i did research on you to try to find something about you, ma'am, i agree with everything you were saying. i'm democrat and you are very impressive woman. everything you went through, high school drop-out, got over that and what happened you as a youngster, let me talk about that -- but i'm just very impressed. i really just, loss of words. i hope you succeed in everything you do because you're a true, good american, hon. >> thank you, i appreciate the comment. you know, i believe in second chances. i've been given a lot of second chances and as you mentioned earlier i was raped when i was in high school when i was 16 and didn't last long in high school i dropped out shortly thereafter and my dad's a retired general, my mom's a school teacher at the time and said if you stop going to school you got to start going to work and learned very tough

lessons during very tough times and learned about the value of hard work, i became a waitress at the waffle house on the side of the interstate in ladson, south carolina and learned tough lessons there during tough times and i believe that's why i'm so passionate about the things i'm fighting for, things for the american people, for the american worker, things i think most of us can't agree on. at the end of the day, goals are the same, approach may be different but at the end of day, we want a better life for our kids, better wages, want to work and retire and prosper in the greatest country in the world and preserve those things so those tough lessons and then i went on, to get my high school diploma, went on to the citadel becoming the first female to graduate from there in 1999, learned the value of having courage, speaking up for myself but also giving a voice to the voiceless and speaking up for you gets no matter the consequences and having confidence too because if we as

humans don't believe in ourselves then nobody is going to believe in us and that's true in business, true when managing colleagues at work, true when trying to propose legislation and true when trying to put your kids to bed at night and trying to convince them that you hey it's 9:00 at night and they need their rest before going to school the next day so i try to bring those life lessons because i've had as much failure as i've had success in life. and recognizing that, and acknowledging that, i feel the pain of many americans when they are struggling. i've been there, done that, gotten the t-shirt multiple times over and the struggle is real and i get that, and i'm going to work hard like i promise to do and not going to tow anybody's line but those i serve. thank you for your call. >> edward, new jersey, independent line. >> caller: thank you, one i would like to say thank you for shining a light on prison situations, that does affect

many people's lives and keep putting efforts toward that but my question is now that we have this personal freedom of choice and legitimate personal discourse for myself and family, will we be able to have the same level of dissent, if i don't want my child to participate in or support -- >> thank you, i'm not sure i understand the question, per se, there was a lot in there, but i would say that i think we all -- the temperature in this country, the rhetoric, it needs to be dialed back and that's true on both sides the aisle. words have consequences. i've learned that in my first year since my swearing in. violence and violent rioting is never the answer no matter the issue. peaceful protests are. the first amendment is. i don't believe in censorship. you want to hear what the other side is saying, especially if they're saying it out loud.

you want to to know where their perspective is and so i hope that our discourse going forward is not violent, and that goes for both republicans and democrats. we need to focus on solutions. there's bashing on both sides of the aisle, but when you look at inflation, it was 7% last year, wages went up by 3%, it did not keep up with inflation. gas is up almost 50%. if you like steak, going to cost you 25% more, heating and cooling your house is up significantly this year over the last year. these things affect the american people. so what are we going to do about it? raising taxes in greater spending is one of the root causes, that and printing money by the federal reserve are some of the root causes of inflation in this country, and so we're really, because we're distracted by these shiny objects on twitter and who threw the last punch, we are not focusing on the american people. we are not looking at hey, how do we balance the budget, why

are we continuing with the continuing resolutions, why aren't we looking at balancing the budget for example, the government shut down so many businesses large and small through the pandemic, businesses had to make tough decisions and spending cuts, had to look at that and the federal government kept churning along taking record revenues and spending more and more and more putting us further into debt, our children into debt. you know, we're not solution-focused right now and that is a problem. it's a problem across every sector of government, whether we're talking about healthcare, because those costs are sky rocketing, whether we're talking about jobs and the economy, taxes, covid-19, i mean all of this is keeping us from serving the american people and doing what's right. >> dana, canton, ohio, republican, you're on with congresswoman nancy mace. >> good morning, nancy. we were just talking about mandates. >> mm-hmm. >> do you think mandates like everybody is saying, like a communist thing, you know, we're going to mandate you to do this,

mandate you to do that, and if they get away with it now, what can we do to stop mandates? >> i do agree it's a slippery slope and i stated earlier in the show too, i agree with you, i do not agree with mask mandates or vaccine mandates and i'm someone fully vaccinated and had covid-19 twice already. we should be able to make those decisions for ourselves. but the other thing you're talking about, vaccine passport for example, certain states have them, new york, hawaii, they don't have voter id. it's hypocritical, you got to show a vaccine card to have a cup of coffee in a coffee shop but you don't to be a citizen who votes in this country. that doesn't make sense to me. when it comes to vaccine passports as well, states, even county governments are the ones who will dike ate vaccine requirements, not the federal

government and certainly, it's never been done for businesses over a certain size. it's never been done before and not constitutional. and then, when you come to mask mandates, that should be a decision again, a personal decision. i made the decision that as a mom, when my kids are going to school and different very much high spikes in certain variants like delta and omicron, kids wear a mask to school but i don't want them doing that when it's not, at the same time, went through omicron, the whole family, stayed home and still got it so i share those frustrations with every parent as well. i also want us to follow the science, a couple of months ago i was criticized for mentioning natural immunity, well there are still studies coming out more and more saying we should take natural immunity into consideration, shouldn't just be people who are vaccinated so i would like our policy makers like all of us to look at all the science and make the best decision, not political decision, for political points, but follow science, follow studies and let's get real about this. >> three minutes left, nancy in

midlothian, virginia, go ahead, democrat. >> yes, good morning. i'd like to know if the young lady can state that president biden is the president. >> yeah, thank you for your call. i say to that back, after the election in 2020, so, you know, again, i think looking past is not going to help the bharken people. we all need to be looking forward. we have a crisis at our southern border right now. we had over 2 million illegal immigrants cross our border and were apprehended, those are the ones we know about. we have cases of fentanyl from china coming across the southern border at historic levels that could and is killing americans each and every day. there is china is on our heels, not to mention ukraine and russia and nato issues that are going on in eastern europe. we have inflation, we have an

inflation crisis on our hands where wages cannot keep up with the price or cost of inflation. we have real issues facer our country and if we continue to relitigate these issues of the past in 2020, we are not doing right by the american people and i would challenge everyone watching this morning to think about what is going to get us, get our country through this crisis? is it going to be this division? is it going to be fighting with each other, scoring political points on social media, or is it going to be solution-focused, finding answers, and working together to get us out of this mess? and i would gather and i would hope that you all would say the latter, and if that's the case, and you agree, then let's start acting like it. >> in our remaining minute, does relitigating 2020 hurt your party's chance of taking the house? >> i think it hurts both parties but make no mistake, i do think republicans are going to have a sweep in the 2022 cycle. is it going to be a vast mandate

of the republican agenda? i think that's to be determined, or a mandate again, when the house right now, pelosi, is a very slim majority. that is not a mandate on socialism and build back better, that is a mandate to build back census and work together so i think time will tell this election cycle but i do believe it will be a republican sweep. but i think it will be with republicans who have ideas and solutions and policies to the crises that our nation is facing? >> have you been watching the beijing olympics and should they have been held there? >> i have watched a little bit of it, there are some south carolina residents participating in the beijing olympics. i agree with the diplomatic boycott but it didn't go far enough, i wish we weren't having the olympics if beijing, it's china's way of sugar coating the soft diplomacy, when we all know they have major human rights atrocities we're turning a blind

eye too. >> nancy mace, first term republican from charleston, south carolina, as always, appreciate you coming on the washington journal and talking to our callers happen -- >> download c-span new mobile app and stay up to date with the day's government events from key congressional hearings to supreme court arguments, even our live interactive program, washington journal where we hear your voices everyday. c-span now has you covered. download the app today for free. book tv, every sunday on c-span 2 features leading authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. at 4:25 p.m. eastern, a discussion about the u.s. election system with national review columnist john fund and the heritage foundatio.

at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, connecticut democratic state senator will haskell on his book "100,000 first bosses" talking about his path to becoming a state senator at age 22 and legislation he worked on in office. interviewed by milennial action project president and ceo. watch book tv, every sunday on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online, anytime, at book tv.org.