be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. washington journal is next. ♪ host: the week ahead in the u.s. senate will bring senators back to washington to take up the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill passed by the house 219-212 saturday morning. in number of those republican senators are in orlando, florida, attending or speaking at the annual conservative political action conference, an event that culminates later today with the first public address by former president trump since the inauguration. it is sunday, february 28, 2021 come out day of the month. welcome to washington journal. we will ask about the former president.

should he run again in 2024? the lines for republicans, it is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000 for independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us, include your name and where you are texting from. (202) 748-8003. on twitter, we are @cspanwj. and facebook.com/c-span, if you want to leave a post there. the event taking place in orlando, this is the reporting of the orlando sentinel. trump-pence cannot wait to hear what the ex-president has to say. -- trump fans cannot wait to hear with the ex-president has to say. he writes that anticipation for donald trump's sunday speech was palpable at sea spec -- at cpac as attendees were hopeful he would shed light on his clinical future.

charlene daniel green and her husband drove from pennsylvania. the couple hopes to get involved in conservative activism but she said she was discouraged that trump has not spoken out since the january 6. very eager to hear what his plans are for the future. is he going to run in 2024? is he putting together a super pac? is he putting together a different social media platform? i think that is what most people are interested in finding out. what does the future hold for donald trump and how does that impact us? she balked at the idea of him running for president, saying, i would say leading from other ways would be the best thing. our opening question for you this morning, should former president trump run in 2024? (202) 748-8001 for republicans. kratz, (202) 748-8000 -- democrats, (202) 748-8000.

independents, (202) 748-8002. this is from the hill. cpac fires the starting gun on 2024. a right that auditions for the 2024 nomination have begun and several big names are trying out for the role of the future donald trump. there is one problem. the former president may not be ready to cede the stage tune under study. trump will get the keynote speech this afternoon at the conservative political action conference, which this year is being held in orlando, florida. the conference began in urgent -- in earnest friday. it will be his most high-profile public engagement after leaving office after being impeached for a second time. he is widely expected to win a straw poll conducted among cpac attendees earlier sunday. trump has said nothing definite about running again, but even his detractors acknowledge he would be the strong favorite for the gop nomination, even as the skeptics are not meant he would -- adamant he would lose the

general election. the we can set the tone -- weekend set the tone by the president's son. [video clip] >> have you seen liz cheney's poll numbers? listen, the one thing i will savor liz cheney is i am sure she has a lot of bipartisan support. if there is one thing she and joe biden definitely want to do, it is bomb the middle east. everything else is a disaster. everything else is just rino policy is, the kind of policies that put the republican party in a position where they needed a donald trump. seriously. liz cheney and her politics are only slightly left -- less popular than her father is at a quail hunt. what?

fact checkers, please have at it. true. right? listen, like i said, liz cheney hates donald trump and his policies because her family has a long history of really fire. -- friendly fire. but she also hates them because she is kind to an establishment that has not -- do nothing but fail us. you have heard the rhetoric from them the last couple weeks and now you have seen that change quickly. if there is one thing the republican party has been really good at over the last few decades, it is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. they have caved to every special interest. they have caved to corporate america. they have caved and bowed to the radical left that hates their

guts, hates their values, and hates their freedoms. lincoln project liz, as i like to call her, is the leader of that field movement. if we want to go back to losing, if we want to go back to an america last policy, we should be following that, but i do not and i do not think anyone in this room does either. host: donald trump, jr. speaking friday evening at cpac. the former president speaking this afternoon, 3:40 p.m. eastern we will have live coverage. this first segment come about his plans for 2024. michael says, in terms of president trump running again, so tired of the daily drama. i will for him again -- vote for him again, says james on facebook. absolutely not, since this one. the former president will not

run in 2024. he will be a convicted felon. billionaires on the media and we know where that stands. not very patriotic. robin is on our democrat line in north south carolina. caller: yes. don from junior's -- donald trump, jr.'s speech, he looks like he was high. the speech today is going to be filled with lies. it is going to be so far from reality that it is not even going to be believable. really, donald trump is the best thing that could have ever happened for the democratic party because now the democratic party knows what we have to lose. we have to lose democracy. these people do not believe in democracy. you are not going to see nothing from donald trump other than what we saw for the last four years, grievance, lies, deception, deceit, dishonor,

distrust. just a bottom of the barrel individual that has pulled out the biggest crime ever perpetrated against a clinical party. host: let's hear from john in philadelphia, republican line -- political party. host: let's hear from john in philadelphia, republican line. caller: the answer is no purity should not run. the whole trump family should get out of politics and go back to selling and business, doing what they do. we had enough of the apprentice. i think baseball this afternoon will be a lot better than listening to the apprentice again deny everything, the faked election, no masks, this, that. he has had family members that have caught the pandemic because of his rhetoric. thank you, and have a good day. host: another in philadelphia, marvin, this time on the

independent line. caller: i think -- i would like the country to pull together, be one again. i hope the republicans -- host: to metairie, louisiana, clay, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. whether donald trump runs again or not is questionable. he probably should not, but if someone like donald trump does not run again, i think a lot of republicans, and i'm a lifelong republican, would probably stay home. george will and bill kristol in the lincoln project and all that , that is the past of the republican party. host: who do you think is the future, if it is not president

trump? someone like president trump, who would that be? who do you think that could be? caller: well, they are floating out the name of governor ron desantis in florida and the possibility of nikki haley, but, again, i do not really know enough about nikki haley except her experience. probably someone along those lines. my point is the old republican party is dead. host: we will go to pawtucket, connecticut next up and hear from rhonda, democrat line. caller: i think the conversation should also take into consideration the legal and criminal charges that could possibly be facing the former president. also that the former president, his house, he will be close to

-- health. you will be close to 80 -- he will be close to 80 in year 2024. we do not know how that is going to play out. what the media is doing is trying to project more viewership and so forth, but donald trump has a lot of swords hanging over his head, so to speak. we just do not know what is going to take place, not to mention the findings of the insurrection. host: let's hear from the independent line next, from eric. your thoughts on president trump running again in 2024? caller: my thoughts are i really support donald trump. i think he did a great job as president. i do think the media, people step back and look at what they did and what they are still doing to protect the biden administration is really a

travesty for our country. i do not think he should run. i think you should -- he should enjoy his retirement. for donald trump, that will probably be something in business. i think he is a very powerful person. the midterms are going to really tell the story, and i think today, after the speech he gives, i think you're going to see a little butt kissing from people who thought he was going to lose all support after january 6 and that is not the case. you're going to see a lot of people who worry about the midterms as well as what is going to happen in 2024, being nicer to mr. trump. host: you are on our independent line, eric. you see the republican party is largely the party of president trump.

there is not much in your view much chance that the president will split off and form his own independent party, as has been rumored early on. >> i am independent, but i do think what would happen is that would just ensure -- it would split the republican vote. you would have people that went either way. i think he would beat the republican nominee. however, it would ensure that neither the republican party nor the independent party -- you would have a ross perot situation. i would hope that we do not -- i would love to see a viable independent candidate. i just think it would split the republicans in half and make them unwinnable. host: we mentioned the straw poll done at every annual cpac of potential nominees for the next president will election year, in this case 2024. one of those being mentioned is mike pompeo, who had been

mentioned early in the trump administration as a potential senate candidate in the state of kansas. mike pompeo spoke at cpac yesterday. this is the headline. they say the potential 2024 presidential candidate and former secretary of state made clear which lane he is taking a major the republican party's reckoning in the post trump era. [video clip] >> we drew a redline with the syrians gas children and women. we told them do not do that again. president trump ordered 70 plus beautiful, american-made tomahawk missiles to let them know we were not going to allow them to kill women and children. america first takes real courage . it takes a secretary of state to walk into a room and tell it

like it is and a president who will have his back. we had that. speaking of that, i hear president biden saying america is back. back to what? back to apologizing when iranians tell our soldiers to take to their knees at gunpoint? back to president biden telling the pipeline -- back to all things -- back to supporting a pipeline in europe that will put european jobs -- this is not what we want to go back to any time at all. we certainly do not want to go back to letting china have trade deals that kill our jobs. we cannot afford it. it is not the right thing. we do not have to do it. we must be bold and put america

first. host: send us a text if you want, (202) 748-8003. this one from mike in orlando, where cpac is happening. yes, trump needs to run for president in 20 don't before. he lost by 3 million in 2016. he will lose by 14 million in 2024. please keep running again and again. this one says the idea that trump could end up as president again is proof there is something wrong with united states of america. david says trump won support from republican voters because he was unqualified. only qualified candidates should be promoted -- permitted to run. bill says if they had sense at cpac they would boom off the stage. next is amy in georgia. caller: of course he should not run again. i really want to say that this weekend has been wild at sea spec.

donald trump speaking at cpac, you and the media are making the same mistake you made in 2016. you are giving him free airtime. he is a dangerous clown. his republican accomplices are right along with him. you let him set the narrative. the republican party is a party that no longer believes in the rule of law. or democracy, or our constitution, but you're are still giving them an opportunity to set the narrative. you have to do better. we are in trouble here. our democracy is hanging on a thread and you are still giving these people free airtime to spread disinformation. we cannot afford that. do better. host: i appreciate your comments. c-span exists to cover all sorts of political views, all

political gatherings and escutcheon's public policy. we are joint next by matt schlapp, who runs the conservative political action conference. guest: great to be with you. host: aside from your locale difference this year, what is the biggest difference between this year's cpac and years passed? -- years passet -- past? guest: we are still dealing with chinese corona. a year ago there were reports around a single case of corona at cpac and we thought we would have to get through the rest of the year or maybe the rest of the summer and this virus is an insidious virus that seems to take twists and turns. it is almost impossible to control. the cases are way down. i had a long talk with dr. ben

carson last night. a lot of good news. i cannot believe a year later it is still affecting our congress. the big difference is donald trump won in this election -- lost but republicans one son last time -- won so much last time. a 50-50 senate, yet the president is going to come as a former. this whole question about should he run again or not hangs over the party. it is a great story to cover for journalists. it has the base of the party very excited. host: define the relationship between your organization and the american conservative union and the republican party itself. guest: we are conservatives. it is the american conservative union. i would say most of the people

here are probably register republicans, but i think the one shift in politics is our two major parties have been weekend because of the laws they passed. outside organizations on the left are so well-funded, much more well-funded than organizations on the right. these outside organizations play a large role. what i would say to my republican friends, especially in washington, d.c. -- i am not sure i'm any of those friends left, but maybe i can say there are some. -- i have any of those friends left, but maybe i can say there are some pure and you have the republican party, which plays an important role and does financing. you have conservatives, who are the largest minority bloc in the country. most of them are republicans. then you have these new, independent-minded voters, the make america great again are, america first voters. a lot of them are republican as well, but not all of them.

we can stretch our wings a bit, we are a coalition that is ever expanding. some republicans are saying we do not like these new voters much. they make us uncomfortable. we are not sure we want them to be with us. that attitude is great for the other side because that means we will never win the presidency again, never put another conservative on the supreme court. socialism will take over the country. host: here is a poll from politico and i think it came out friday. they say 53% of republican voters would vote for former president trump in the 2024 primary if it were held today. a usa today poll finds 46% would abandon the gop and joined the trump party if the former president decided to create one. guest: this is perilous for the republican party and those leaders trying to ostracize

president trump at his supporters. it is a big country. you get to have your views. there are republicans who do not like donald trump. in this primaries, they do not have to vote for him. why would you turn is voters and supporters -- turn out his voters and supporters? that is insanity, political suicide. i try to be honest. cooler heads need to prevail here. when you're in a coalition, you do not agree with everybody in that coalition. my guess is at work you do not agree with everybody you work at -- work with, but you find a common purpose. i run the american conservative union. i am not sure we need the work conservative anymore. we are people who think the country is a great place, not perfect, could be improved, but we do not want to scrap it. we do not think it is so racist and terrible you would not want to pledge allegiance to the flag or sing our national anthem or not wear a pair of tennis shoes that have the flag on it.

those folks that still love the country and adhere to the constitution, they are on our side. they are not going to agree with us on every republican platform issue we articulated through the years but who cares? we will still win and save the country. host: what about conservatives like liz cheney, mitt romney, who have come out against what the events leading up to the january 6 attack, they continue to talk since the election about alleged fraud in the election, the hoax of the election? how do those folks who are conservative fit into the picture at cpac? guest: you have to your terms right. it was the russia hoax. there are so many. it was the russia hoax and the question of illegal votes in the election. if our coalition was a big church, these voices would not fill up half a pew. mitt romney is one person.

i think he has his own reasons. he is a love them and leave them kind of trump supporter. he was offered trump when he needed endorsement in the republican part -- primary to become the senator for utah, said wonderful things about the president, tried to be his secretary of state at one point. when he got that position, he started again criticizing the president. liz cheney is a friend of mine. i have a lot of respect for her. i think she is listening to her conscience. i just think she is terribly wrong about her approach, and i think people in wyoming agree she is terribly wrong about her approach. if she is just being honest that she does not like trump and his policies, i think honesty is a good thing. other leaders might feel the same way about that donald trump is not their cup of tea. if they want to be honest about it, i have no issue with that. they are a tiny percentage of the party. we will have our straw poll here not everybody here is a strong supporter. the overwhelming majority of them are, but there is this

other question. you started with mike pompeo. first you know -- kristi noem is speaking, been -- ben carson. there are a lot of names floated about for 2024, and they are all here. almost every one of them are here and it will be interesting to see how they perform as well. host: matt schlapp with us until about 7:40 five eastern, head of the american conservative union and the orchestrator of cpac every year. this year it is in orlando. let's go to brenda on our republican line. caller: good morning, america. i want to voice my opinion. when president donald trump was president, he did a lot of good things for america. when it comes time to see and hear tonight on cpac, i really cannot wait to hear what he has to say. all i'm saying to america is

please listen and learn. host: matt schlapp, any thoughts? guest: brenda, i agree. there is this disgusting cancer in our society called cancel culture. our theme is called america on canceled --uncanceled. even during this conference, we have this attempt to try to mischaracterize us. i wish we could call a halt to this. everybody should be able to speak their mind on twitter politically. everybody should be able to speak politically on facebook, to come on your network -- and you allow them to appearance c-span might be the only thing left that has this american continuity of allowing people freedom of political speech. host: you said somebody was trying to shut you down. guest: how many hours do you have on your show? everything has been said about this conference. i hate to regurgitate their

attack that somehow we were inspired by nazi is him -- naziism. cpac did not trend on twitter yesterday, but our stage did because somebody thought prominent democrats were saying our stage was a nazi symbol. it is a symbol no jew who works with us ever saw. they canceled donald trump and now we are on canceling him -- uncanceling him. i am not a domestic terrorist. i am an american, and i am the person who believes in the constitution. if that approach can be silenced, we do not have a country anymore. host: let's hear from jack, independent line. caller: i am thinking over a period of time 2024 is a long

way away. over a period of time, because of donald trump's legal problems, the vast majority of people in the population will move away because they do not believe in the person who has so many -- even if there is a criminal or it is proven he asked on -- has done bank fraud, i would think over a period of time people are going to say that is not who i want to support. i want to support someone -- i have always liked chris christie. and governor kasich. those two i always thought were good. those are my thoughts. guest: this is a valid point. one of the things that cancel culture does, and this cancel culture is coming over lovingly from the left, is -- is coming overwhelmingly from the left, is seize every means of power to

destroy someone. they use legal means. you see this persecution by prosecution. we saw that with general flynn, which was a real miscarriage of justice. you are going to see that in the state of new york with donald trump and his children. as americans, we all have to ask ourselves. there are a lot of banana republics that prosecute everybody who leaves office and put them in jail. in some cases, it is valid. i'm not saying in every case that is wrong, what we cannot make being a republican illegal. if we do, we are really going to fracture. i would love -- my favorite president is abraham lincoln. i want to keep this union together. i want to keep america together. we cannot stay together if the c-span ethic of allowing people to talk, both sides, all sides, not advocating violence, not saying everything is appropriate, but when it comes to political speech, we have to allow them the full freedom in

the constitution or people will feel disparity. they will pull back. they might do some things that are even worse. let's allow everyone to talk and stop trying to silence people who speak at cpac. host: -- falsehoods about 2020 election loom large. when you've had multiple stages, letting people speak is one thing. is it dangerous if people continue to question the results of the election of 2020? guest: the response would be, was it dangerous when the democrat said there was russian collusion? we spent four years talking about it.

50% of the american people thought it was real. i am not saying cnn should be taken off the air. i do think journalists should do their jobs. you know how you figure out if something is true or not true? you look at the evidence. that is the thing that is most discouraging about most journalists in this country. they do not have any curiosity to look at the evidence. there is election fraud in every election. now we have to read that there is no election fraud. that is what we are told. it is like 50 cases in the whole country. all of this is untrue. election fraud occurs when one side has the ability to control the ballot. they flout the law on ballot security. the reason there were so many illegal ballots is because we

had 50% of the country vote by mail. no democracy on the planet earth has done that before. but we did it. we did it because democrats had a clear plan to try to get as many illegal ballots in the count as possible. the number one driver is that we mailed ballots to people who did not ask for ballots. we mailed ballots to people who were dead. we mailed ballots to people who had moved to the state -- moved from the state. everybody was so worried about catching chinese corona, which is a real virus and a genuine concern. you still have to go through an orderly process. ask for the ballots, verify who you are, tell them your new address, only get one ballot. all of that changed in 2020.

when i hit the ground in nevada and looked at the evidence, i thought i would find a couple thousand examples. i did not think it would come close to switching the outcome. from our research, we found three times as many votes as would switch the outcome. the number one driver in georgia, philadelphia, they did not check the signatures of the ballots that were mailed. host: four months -- guest: let me just finish this. in 2020, the kick out rate in these localities was less than 1%. that is a massive amount of ballots that should not be under the count. the democrats knew that once they were in the count, there was nothing these judges would do to pull them back out. host: are you saying that joe biden was not legally elected? guest: he was sworn in as

president. he is my president. the reason why we are talking so much about the election, not to change that back, but to make sure both sides should be able to agree with -- you should only vote in this country if you are legally allowed to vote. you should be registered to vote. you should have to show an id to prove that you are the person. if you vote by mail, you have to request the ballot and you have to sign it and somebody has to verify your signature. finally, you vote once. if we do those things, no one will question the election ever again. host: let's hear from david on the independent line in middletown, new jersey. caller: good morning, c-span, the best channel on television. host: good morning. caller: i am a 97 year young world war ii vet.

i agree with what you're guest has been saying -- what you're guest -- your guest has been saying. i have never seen our country the way it is today. they called my generation the greatest generation. the first three words to the preamble of the constitution -- "we the people." that is what makes our country the greatest country in the world. we look out for each other. we took care of each other. our country today is polarized. it is amazing people can talk to each other. we have always had differences

but we have always been able to compromise and settle our differences. nobody wants to compromise today. it is my way or no way. host: david, thank you for calling, and thank you for your service. guest: 97 years, wow! that is inspired saying -- inspiring. i used to have a lot of friends in washington, d.c., who were democrats. i used to have a lot of friends in washington, d.c., who were more liberal or moderate republicans. when i put a trump flock on my front lawn -- flag on my front lawn, the cops were called on me for putting up my trump sign. the mayor tweeted at me for putting up my trump sign. city officials harassed me for

putting up my trump sign. is this the same country i used to live in? on a washington, d.c., i would go to social events and there would be half republicans and half democrats. somehow, because i am a domestic terrorist or a racist court -- racist, or being a conservative, folks think you are a nazi. i am not going to put up with that because that is not american. i will put back when people say these things about me. i hate the idea of racism. the left calls the right that on a regular basis. there are factors on my side, too. we have our conference, we do not highlight those people. we have -- the first amendment applies to all of us.

it applies to hollywood. maybe we could learn some manners and be a lot nicer to each other along the way. host: i have to ask you about the statues. the donald trump statue that has been seen at cpac. the golden statue was the talk of cpac. it was made in mexico. tell us about the statute. guest: believe it or not, cpac has a lot of different experiences going on at the same time. i focus on the media aspect. and then there is an exhibit hall. i cannot even tell you. i have no idea what that statute is. i saw pictures of it under the press. i do not know what the intent is but that is part of the first amendment. the person who was running the booth wanted to have a big gold statue of donald trump.

go for it, my friend. host: what security measures are in place this year to keep sacha baron cohen and from attending? guest: sasha baron cohen is a liar. the people who came to cpac were stunned doubles. -- stunt doubles. in the movie, my family says i look great. those were stunt doubles who interrupted the proceedings so they could make some money. i guess i should be complement to that cpac has become such a big thing that -- compliment to that cpac has become such a big thing. once again, it is america. all kinds of interesting things

are going to happen. i hope that we have the ability to have a final day of the conference, the president has the ability to speak. let me say one final thing. will the social media companies allow this content to be freely streamed? all of these companies used to be backstage with us and they wanted to help us use their platforms. now they seem to be against us. now they seem to want to throttle and block us. will they play all of today's events? i hope they will. let both sides speak. host: we will have the former president speech -- president's speech. 3:40 p.m. eastern. democrats line. caller: if you google the term countries with the highest

standard of living, brings up several surveys. the countries with the highest standard of living have a high socialist component. you will not go bankrupt if you cannot pay your medical bills. income equality -- income inequality is not a thing. the united states comes in at number 17. guest: i would love to address this. those surveys never take into account the social services we have in this country, which are growing and growing. you have to put that into the count. what you have found with the scandinavian countries, several of them made lurches toward socialism and found there is no

way to pay for. margaret thatcher said, the problem with socialism, it works until they run out of other people's money. you get a ruling elite that have the power. what we are seeing in america is a version of that. you have a ruling elite that governs hollywood, social media. c-span not included, but almost everything else included kurt when they try to cancel you, you are done. look at the hollywood actress that was cut out for being a republican. that is part of socialism. socialism is not about just economics. socialism is about the very basic concept -- does god give you your rights or does government give you your rights?

at this conference, we remind everybody that we hold these truths. god gives us our rights. they are in us at our inception. when you understand that, a free people can come together and give government certain rights. the problem with socialism, you start with the premise that the government is the ultimate referee. it has the power and has to make everything fair. i love that people think there is someplace where this works. socialism has never worked anywhere for any people. it creates human misery. what makes us happy? what rewards us for hard work? if you ask those kinds of questions, you will find free economies and free societies work very well. host: let's get one more call for matt schlapp. caller: i would love for

president trump -- i am a native american from a drive -- from a tribe from north carolina. i would like to say to all of your, cracked and minority -- democrats and minority callers -- i hope that from cpac, you would think about the minorities , in particular. that you would diversify your coalition. host: appreciate that. guest: it is a great challenge and we are committed to that. i do not have all of the facts and figures because we have so many speakers are today. excuse me, during this conference. i talked to three or four black

candidates running for congress. they are doing this because they feel donald trump told them they were welcome. we wrap all of these questions of voting in racial wrapping paper. the republican party lead on changing laws and having civil rights of voting in our country. today, we are told that because of voter suppression, the republican party are trying to keep minorities from voting. this journal meant is -- this general and is demonstrative of what the exit polls will show you. higher numbers of blacks, hispanics, lgbtq americans voted for trump more than anybody thought possible. this is history being made.

his policies work for them and they felt welcome. we have a lot more to do to feel like that is the case. the republican party used to be the party of so many of these people. maybe by our actions, we checked them away -- chase them away. if you look at our list of speakers, i think it is impressively diverse. but we are going to do even better. host: matt schlapp joining us from cpac this year in orlando. guest: thank you for the good work that you do. host: we will have our coverage resuming this morning from cpac at 10:00 eastern. we will continue with your calls on the topic of whether president trump should run again in 2024.

one of those mentioned by matt schlapp is kristi noem. "noem slams covid shutdowns and defense south dakota's record at cpac." >> let me be clear. covid did not crush the economy. government crushed the economy. [applause] and then, just as quickly, government turned around and said it was the savior. the treasury department cannot print money fast enough. for those of you who don't know, south dakota is the only state in america that never ordered a single business or church to close. [applause]

we never instituted a shelter-in-place order. we never mandated that people wear a mask. [cheers and applause] we never even defined what an essential business is. i do not believe governors have the authority to tell you your business is nonessential. south dakota schools are no different than schools everywhere else. we approach the pandemic differently. from the earliest days of the pandemic, our priority was students. when it was time to go back to school in the fall, we put our kids in classrooms.

teachers, administrators, parents, and students themselves were of one mind. the best way to do that was in the classroom. [applause] in south dakota, i provided all of the information we had to our people. i trusted them to make the best decisions for themselves, for their families, and their community. we never focused on the case numbers. we kept our eye on hospital capacity. dr. fauci told me on my worst days, i would have 10,000 patients in the hospital. on our worst day, we had a little over 600. [applause] i do not know if you agree with me, but dr. fauci is wrong a lot. [cheers and applause]

host: this is the new york times this morning, political memo from maggie haberman. most presidents leave the white house and adopt low profiles. donald trump is returning to the national stage with a prominent appearance at a conservative conference on sunday. some comments on twitter. andy says, i feel like trump's time in politics has come and gone. he will be even more irrelevant in four years. 45 is still inexperienced to be president. all who ran in 2016 should stay away, too, since they could not beat someone completely ignorant

of government and no one who worked in the 45 it administration either. louisiana, democrats sign. caller: good morning. the main point i would like to make is this whole situation that took place january 6 was like a coup. the issue that our election was a fraud was the main reason that occurred. we are seeing the same thing being portrayed here at cpac. talking about the election. going back to the very beginning when president trump was elected. he came into office saying how the election was a fraud. this idea was perpetrated throughout his presidency up until now. the reason that occurred on

january 6 was due to this. i am afraid we are looking at a civil war to erupt in this country. that is something we will have to deal with because all of the people in the republican party, this is a total division. host: we will go to the republican line. miami, 40, bonnie. -- florida, bonnie. caller: thank you to cpac and thank you to c-span for truly being democratic. i think the woman who came on earlier was completely confused and is living in the upside down world.

c-span is democratic because everyone has a right to speak and everyone has a right to voice their opinion, and i am for trump. i want to say thank you to everyone. kristi noem gives me goosebumps. she is such a great leader. i live in florida and i was thinking about moving. i think i am staying put. lots of people are moving here, and i wonder why they want to live in florida. i want to say thank you to all of the republican leaders and the ones who stood up for trump. it is scary right now. he is standing up for the american man, the everyday person. he is not standing up for corporations. he is not a globalist who wants to put other countries first.

the powerful elite to make more money off the everyday back of the everyday man. host: this is from the washington times. one guest who was not there is the former vice president mike pence. former vice president mike pence on saturday joined other world leaders in calling for nations to forge a new friendship and breakdown historic barriers to peace as the globe pulls free from the ravages of the pandemic. it is now time to look ahead and begin building a better tomorrow. "every day, we are one day closer to putting a long night of coronavirus behind us. a bright new day is dawning." in cleveland, let's hear from

jennifer. independent line. caller: nice to hear from mike pence. i am sure that what took place on january 6, that was a lot on his shoulders. he will always have a special place in my heart. i think the republicans have a lot of good candidates on their side. i think a lot of that is geared toward donald trump. i am skeptical of his entire candidacy and presidency. i am pleasantly surprised in his leadership. he was not against any american people. he was against the media or the infomercial for the democratic

party. that is what the media is. c-span, you guys do a great job of being professional. i think if trump does not run in 2024, there are lots of leaders i feel would be better for our country. on the democrats side, i do not believe joe biden was fairly chosen. he seems very opportunistic. there are no leaders on the democrats side that i even like at all. they dislike a lot of people. republicans do, too.

it is not like republicans are against anybody. host: the house minority leader kevin mccarthy is focused on 2022 and retaking the house. he spoke this weekend at cpac. >> we got closer to anybody -- than anybody thought we would get pared they said we would lose -- thought we would get. they said we would lose 20 seats. you know why we won? president trump worked on all of these races. let me give you a little secret. i want you to tell your friends, especially your liberal friends. this is the first time since 1994 that no republican and comment -- that no republican incumbent lost.

what happened, even when president trump was sick with covid, he called me and said, we have to keep doing this. he would do rallies over the phone for each district. it would turn out the votes. election day, the voters said -- >> these two gentlemen will not like me saying this. i think we have a great chance to get the majority back. >> we are five seats away. i will bet my house. >> your personal house? >> don't tell my wife.

listen, do you want to retire nancy pelosi? do you want to end the socialism in this country? win the house, five seats. this is the smallest the majority -- smallest majority the democrats have had in 100 years. host: the minority leader betting his house. kevin mccarthy says he will bet his own home. next up is nancy in pennsylvania. democrats line. caller: good morning. as far as what the question is, what i want to see him running again? what i want to see the dictatorship in the division start all over again? would i want to hear what is good for president trump and what he doesn't feel he i want t,

teamwork. i want to see the government back to what i remember. even in the obama era, how about the kennedy era. what can you do for your country, not what i can do for the leader who thinks he is superior. host: we will get one more call on the topic and hear from david in texas. republican line. caller: i think trump should run. i hope he will win.

i would like to see a show on the 1864 election. there was a lot of talk about how if they could have military voting during the civil war and there wasn't any problem with that. that is such a misunderstanding. there were three blue states that were democrat-controlled. they didn't allow the troops. this was state-by-state. the corruption was rampant on both sides. there were northern democrats. it was rife with corruption. also, the platform that general mcclellan, they called the peace party.

he said he wasn't going to go by that. the platform is only two or three paragraphs. i looked at half of them. host: i don't know we would do it, i know we have covered that topic over on american history tv on c-span3. you can go to our website and google that information. thanks for calling in with the idea. we will take a short break and back. we will ask about the performance of president biden so far, one month into his presidency. just a bit later on, professor eddie claude will be with us.

>> our coverage of the conservative political action conference continues today at 10:15 a.m. speakers include ray kudlow, hans von speak out ski, match lap, former president donald trump. watch the seep -- cpac conference today. listen live on the c-span radio app. >> book tv on c-span two has topped nonfiction books and authors every weekend. tonight, nationally syndicated radio host on his book fish out of water, the search for the meaning of life. he is interviewed by the claremont institute.

then at 10:00 eastern, there has been an increase of sexual assault in europe due to immigration. at 11:05 p.m. eastern, james patterson and matt evers men talk about their book walk in my combat boots, a profile of men and women fought in u.s. wars going back to vietnam. watch book tv tonight. >> monday night on the communicators, tech reporters talk about the issues facing the telecommunication industry, including net neutrality. >> this is an issue that was divisive between democrats and republicans during the trump administration. it overruled.

now, the by demonstration has decided to step back from that and allow states to go ahead with their own individual net neutrality rules. we will see if the federal government does an act net neutrality rules. that makes the landscape really bizarre. >> watch the communicators monday night on c-span two. >> tuesday, christopher wray testifies before the senate judiciary committee regarding the security and planning in advance of and during the attack on the capital on january 6. watch our live coverage at 10:00 eastern. you can listen live on the c-span radio app. >> washington journal continues. host: we are six weeks into the

joe biden presidency. we are asking you about his approval rating. do you approve or disapprove of the job so far. if you approve, (202) 748-8000, disapprove, (202) 748-8001. we will get to your calls shortly. the approval polls are tracked and we have a representation of that. this is from fivethirtyeight.com. the overall approval rating so far of the president is 54 .4%, disapproval 38.3%. gallup has been doing approval ratings for many years. they broaden that out with a number of other surveys. this is there american satisfaction level. they write about satisfaction improved after a recent decline.

27% are satisfied with the way things are going in the u.s., double the percentage in january. this increases a three month the client that saw satisfaction dropped to one of its lowest levels error. satisfaction which had been at 28% at the time of the election fell in the ensuing months as infections surged and donald trump and his allies disputed the victory, culminating in the riots on capitol hill. the 11% satisfied was for above the all-time low registered in october 2008 during the financial crisis. that is from gallup. (202) 748-8000 if you approve of the job so far of president biden. (202) 748-8001 if you disapprove. tell us why. another vaccine is now added to the mix after getting approval

early on friday. the fda cleared it on saturday. this is the headline from the new york times. the authorization will bring millions more doses within days. let's hear your thoughts on president biden and the biden administration today. hamburg, pennsylvania. welcome. caller: i like what he's doing so far. it's been a month, he hasn't had a lot of time to change anything. some people say he is ruining the country. that is impossible. people say they love trump policies.

i don't think they were in place long enough for people to get the effect. what i want people to remember is there was a movement going on this summer, when people stood together in unity for the sake of everybody. we haven't seen that. it was historic numbers. it was historic in diversity. that is why trump lost. i'm getting tired of my representative in pennsylvania taking this through the court. they know. they sat through the court hearings. they know how it works. now they are trying to change the constitution. host: to donna in st. louis. caller: good morning. biden is doing a pretty good job

considering the mess he was left with. i have two things to say. first of all, if trump and the republicans could pass a $2 trillion tax cut for the richest 1%, they should be able to vote for the almost $2 trillion for those who have suffered the last year because of covid. 78% of the country is for it. let's see if they show their true colors again, representing the rich. are they going to look out for the average person? they should compromise on the minimum wage. it is way too low. this could be their only chance to raise it. maybe get it down to $10. people are suffering. $7.25 and a mom wage, people are living in poverty if that's all they are earning in america.

secondly, the governor of south dakota, they don't have many people there. it didn't sound like she cared about the teachers at all. the government didn't shut the economy down. all of the millions of people not going out and shopping because they were scared we might get covid and die, now we are starting to see more confidence about it because so many people are getting vaccinated. now, you will see it come back to life. we are less fearful of going out. thanks to dr. fauci. goodbye. host: thank you. we go to hattiesburg, pennsylvania. mike, go ahead. caller: i want to let you know that over the months and years that i have watched c-span, you are probably the fairest people to allow calls to speak.

thank you for that. i disapprove of course of joe biden's actions so far. shutting down all of the jobs without having jobs in place, just speaks a volume of what is happening. there is no real plan. it's all theory. just like unemployment. raising the minimal wage. it is not for a few more years. he will be out of office by the time it is raised. look at unemployment for all types of people. see where it stands where trump was. what he does tells a ton about

our country. defenses down on the border. it worked. whether it was good or indifferent, it worked. why would you stop something that works. i don't want to take up too much time. i call him off enough. i want to thank you for allowing people to talk. host: on that been a mom wage, this is the politico headline. biden encourages the senate to take quit action. they write this:

let's hear from the president who made those comments overnight, saturday. here is president biden after the passage. >> if we act now decisively and quickly, we can finally get ahead of this virus. we can get our economy moving again. the people of this country have suffered for too long. we need to relieve that suffering. the american rescue plan does that, it relieves the suffering. it is time to act. host: we are joined by the white

house correspondent for politico. good morning. welcome to washington journal. guest: thanks for having me. host: with the president setting the marker for the speed of action he wants taken, what will his role be in terms of negotiations with the senate as they try to move this measure through? guest: it will be what it's been the last few weeks, he will be calling senators and urging them to support this. he will be on capitol hill caulking to house democrats. he will be pushing publicly and privately for them to support this, get this done before march 14 before the jobless benefits expire. host: how is -- important is joe mansion in all this? -- joe mansion in all this? guest: he has turned into a very pivotal player in the last month

or so. they have pullout this minimal wage increase. joe biden will be under pressure this week from many democrats to figure out what the path forward is for that minimum wage. as you indicated, senator manchin said he would not support it. he thinks it is too much. he would be interested in something lower. the president has to figure out how to get senator manchin and one other democratic senator of arizona on board with that increase. it's looking like this is going to move out of the bill. he will have to figure out what path forward with the modem wage. host: where does the nomination stand right now? guest: that's a great question. it looks not promising.

what we are hearing is senator murkowski of alaska is going to meet with her tomorrow to talk about things. we don't know where she stands yet. she has not announced what her vote will be. the senate is 50-50. we know that senator manchin is a to her. she is going to have to pick up some republican support. we will look at this meeting scheduled for monday and see what happens. many people don't think this will go through in the white house will have to come up with another name and start the process over. host: a lot was made of his friendship with the likes of mitch mcconnell. are there allies on the reit -- republican side for resident biden that could serve him well in this discussion about covid relief and other legislation he wants to get done? guest: president biden served in

the senate for over three decades. he does know a lot of the centers. he knows the members of the house. and he was in the senate, he tried to come up with bipartisan deals. it was a different time. it's been a lot of years since he was there. there are a lot of new people. things are a little bit more extreme than they were before. they are more progressive and more conservative. it has been tough for him. you will see several of these nominations going through with very little republican support. you may see this with no republican support. it hasn't helped him much. he's hoping it will help them down the road with infrastructure and immigration. i don't think he will give up on that. he has been talking to members of congress and republican local officials. we haven't seen the support as

much as some people would have expected. host: what is the president's schedule in the week ahead? guest: we have mentioned the nominations and try to push those through, both the president and vice president will speak virtually to the house democrats tuesday and wednesday. that will be key. they are talking about policy issues. they will talk about the relief package. they will talk about the minimum wage. house democrats will push them on how this will get through separately. there will be other issues. the president hasn't said what his next priority is. all the pope -- focuses been on this covid relief package. what will be the next thing he wants to push through? would be infrastructure, immigration? will it be climate change? what is next?

host: you can follow her reporting on twitter. we appreciate the update. thank you. we will continue our conversation with you on the president's approval rating. how do you think he is doing? if you approve, (202) 748-8000. disapprove, (202) 748-8001. rick is in maryland -- missouri. you disapprove. tell us why. caller: i think you can summarize it in a nutshell from his speech yesterday. he came out on stage to talk about the $2 trillion package. he spoke for 120 seconds and walked away. i really fear for this country. i don't see the man being

capable of leading and taking on the challenges. i'm very concerned about that. host: hello to lou on the approved line. caller: good morning. i'd -- you had a caller from pennsylvania that said you gave people the longest points to talk and i do appreciate that. as far as the approval line, there wasn't a mediocre line. like the last person said, the thing with joe biden, he lacks a lot, but i think he is trying to make it through his administration. when you spoke to your last person about regarding joe mansion and the senate. the things that -- there is no

way he could ever win presidential policy if it wasn't for the negative aspects and the weight trump lost the election. -- way trump lost election. host: what do you think the factors were in donald trump losing the election? caller: first of all, he has the divisive rhetoric. he talks about the democrats and other people being divisive. he was maybe the most outspoken. there are a lot of divisive people. he spoke like that before and you heard a lot of the democrats say maybe he will be humbled by the presidency, he got more emboldened. he felt he could just do anything. people would read the reports and say that's not what trump was trying to do. there is usually truth to a lot

of rumor. not everything is true, one of the contacts i was speaking with, this was an interesting one, sharing global politics. when jamal khashoggi was murdered, i was trying to explain to family members, my family is split just like everyone, basically i said no matter who was president, it would've been handled differently, but nothing would've come to mbs because of the allies. now with the uae, i think the by demonstrations trying to make excuses. they were going to say they would hold him accountable. now, we are going to hold these other people accountable. the tiger squad it, whatever you

want to call them. what power do they have? they are enforcers for another guy. host: thanks for calling in this morning. joe biden this past week, the 50 millionth vaccine dose. the johnson & johnson vaccine was approved. biden marks 50 million vaccine doses in the first five weeks. this is what the president said at the vaccine jab. >> the question i asked is when will things get back to normal? i answer is always honest and straightforward. i can't give you a day. we will work as hard as we can to make that day, as soon as possible. things are improving. we are going from a mess we inherited to moving in the right direction.

this is not a victory lap. everything is not fixed. we have a long way to go. when everything is back to normal, that depends on all of us. it depends on congress passing the american recovery act. also, for us to remain vigilant, to look out for one another. i have said before. wash your hands, stay socially distanced, wear masks. if the vaccine when it's your turn. when your friend or neighbor is eligible, encourage them to get vaccinated. above all, remember we can do this. this is the united states of america. there is nothing we can't do when we do it together. it is not over yet. we are getting close. host: we are asking you about his job performance so far. we had a call from new york,

talking about the murder of jamal khashoggi. the wall street journal wrote about that. they write: let's hear from jerry in arkansas. caller: this is jerry in arkansas. i am an agriculture farmer. i am a trump man and have been since the first day he said he was going to run. the things he did like building the wall and the pipeline, biden is a dictator. everything is good for the

united states, biden has stopped it. host: do you think donald trump was good for your business? >> absolutely. he was for the american farmer always. he is for the american people and working people. joe biden is for the elite and the wealthy people of the united states. they are controlling him. i am really upset about what's going on in this country, when he can kill 10,000 jobs on a pipeline. where they've got gas and oil, he stopped that. he is killing the economy of the

united states and working people. he is putting them down. host: let's go to ryan in crystal river, florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would just like to say i strongly support president biden. he has done such a good job. the covid relief bill, who else would give all of these millions of dollars. just think of all of those scholarships that boys will be able to get out so they can compete as girls. he has really helped the shareholders for stx. host: this is the headline from this past week. the headline it, pentagon stands

bite serious strikes despite questions about legality. this is the pentagon spokesman after that strike. >> there are two frameworks here. they clearly define the legality of the strike. one is article two, the commander-in-chief has not only the authority but the obligation to protect american forces in combat theaters and operations. clearly, under his constitutional authorities, this was right. second, article 51 of the united nations international law, nations have the right to self-defense. as i said, this was a defensive

strike. it was meant to help protect in the future american forces and coalition partners. given what we knew those structures were used for on the other side of that border, to provide throughput for these groups and their activities inside iraq. it very much was a defensive operation to protect our troops and our coalition partners as well as sending a strong signal about our resolve. host: we are asking you about president biden's job performance. some comments on social media:

we go back to your calls, to michael in virginia beach. go ahead. caller: i am a little undecided. i'm not sure whether i should believe kevin mccarthy and a couple of other people that i heard on your station during cpac yesterday. if mr. mccarthy is telling the truth, let me put it in a

friendlier way, if he is being accurate when he says this new relief bill that was signed saturday morning by the congress, if this relief bill is only supplying less than 9% of that whole $1.9 trillion to covid relief, if that's true, obviously i can't approve of the performance. host: you are breaking up on us. rob is next on the approved line. caller: i'm not far from where they are innovating the truman library. truman had that famous saying

the buck stops here. i think biden is doing that. he is saying the buck stops here and he will deliver what he ran on. i think that's important. that affects a broader amount of american people as opposed to the narrow base that trump promised everything to. that was never going to help america as a whole. joe biden is running on policies that will help the country, not just his base. the approval ratings show that. people can disapprove, but his approval ratings are way higher than trump in his entire four years. i just want to tell you and interesting story. yesterday, a girl in my neighborhood was helping me get my dog who ran away. we talked about her parents. her mother is single.

she said my mother works three jobs. it broke my heart when she said that. her mother has very little time to spend with her daughter because the minimum wages so low and she is probably working three minimum wage jobs. we need to continue to get americans a livable wage, not a starvation wage. thank you for taking my call. host: following the weather disasters in texas, the president was in houston on friday. this is the texas tribune and their headline, texas voters like the covid-19 response better than his overall performance.

in south carolina, this is tim. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i disapprove of joe biden shutting down the pipeline because it cost somata jobs. it's going to make gasoline more expensive. it's going to keep us from being energy independent. it is his policies that are going to kill this country. if you think about it, several years ago when we had the obama administration, they had to pay

back donations from large corporations to shut down the pipeline. they are paying it back again. they're not worried about people on the bottom. i president helped keep money in my pocket. this president is going to kill the economy and take money out. i appreciate you taking my call. host: wanda up next in virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? i have one comment to make. i disapprove of -- no longer than he has been in office, between him and nancy pelosi, they have so much hatred for donald trump. it seems like they can't get past trying to drug up stuff and do their jobs. that's all i have to say.

thank you. host: some comments on social media: this is the washington post this morning. they say:

in california, we hear from linda. hello there. caller: how are you doing? i approve. for the short time he has been there, it's nice not to have drama every day. if he doesn't answer a lot of questions, at least haas not lying -- he is not lying. as far as taxes go, i am a senior. i have not for years broken even on my taxes. last year i paid $4000.

trump only paid $750. that's pretty upsetting when you are on a fixed income. that is hard to take. as far as minimal wage goes, it was ok when we had to pay for his parades and mar-a-lago every weekend, we can't help people who are making $7.25. host: in terms of taxes, do you hope the by demonstration provides some tax relief for people your income level? caller: when obama was there, i was breaking even every year. until last year, i was $4000. that's on a fixed income. host: with that because of change that happened in the 2017 tax law. caller: i think so. there was stuff we couldn't write off anymore. then the rich got it.

people like us, we have to struggle for it. host: we are here every day until 10:00 eastern. at 10:00, we will join cpac, their last day of the event in orlando. we will have that live for you, culminate with their keynote speaker, donald trump expected this afternoon at 3:40 eastern. this is a reuters piece:

melba is in alabama on the disapprove line. hello there. caller: thank you for taking my call. i appreciate this. i have been observing how socialism gets started. do you remember the railway train that was built i japan in 1942? there were 50,000 pows that were used in an humane treatment. this was very bad. it's when pearl harbor was bombed. the country was trying to take over a lot of countries.

they were people that died because they did not have food, they did not have medicine. it was bad over there. remember hitler's? he buried them because they had been used in the gas chamber. this is what socialism is. we have to be very careful when we vote this time. socialism is not good, the new let one person take over the whole thing and try to get the whole country for themselves. china is not for us. remember it very big lee. host: lincoln city, oregon. caller: i am very pleased with the professionalism and expertise of joe biden's

appointees so far. also the speed with which he addressed the vaccine distributional problems. finally, the speed at getting the covid relief bill to the legislature. i'm very pleased overall. host: do you think it's a big deal, is it important to have the minimum wage increase in that final version. caller: i do. i'm just appalled the idea that they can give tax breaks to the wealthiest in our country and no breaks financially to the poorest. it's just unbelievably unfair. host: this is georgia, our disapprove line. caller: how are you? i disapprove of him, he took all the peoples jobs.

it's just crazy. he don't care about the american people. biden is for himself and nobody else. host: we hear from laura on the approved line. go ahead. caller: overall, i do approve. there are some things that need to be changed. the minimum wage should have come in at $10 instead of $15. take the small increase if you have to to begin with. that would shock a lot of businesses. i hope he would change something where no religious organizations are allowed to get the assistance. it should only go to small and no large corporations. if he made those changes, that

would be a lot better. i look at a lot of the religious organizations that got big amounts last time. the people that run them already have millions of dollars. why didn't they just give their own dollars into their organizations? host: we have 15 more minutes with our topic. (202) 748-8000 if you approve so far. (202) 748-8001 if you disapprove. the president had his first foreign meeting with a foreign head of state. it was done virtually. it was prime minister trudeau from canada. this is the headline: this is what justin trudeau and president biden had to stay. >> we double down on our effort to tackle climate change.

now that the united states is back in the paris agreement, we intend to demonstrate our leadership to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions. canada and the united states are going to work in lockstep to display the seriousness of our commitment home and abroad. to that end, we are launching a high level climate ambition ministerial to align our policies and goals and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. we share an unwavering faith in the capacity of our peoples to meet the challenges of this new age if we lead with our core strengths. host: the reporting of the new york post, the headline governor cuomo report of sexual

harassment, a second woman has accused him of sexual harassment. some response to that from congresswoman stefanik from new york. she renews calls for him to resign. she released her statement yesterday from twitter. let's hear from frank in new york. your thoughts? caller: i've been trying to call since 7:00. i support donald trump again for

president. i also would think south dakota would be a great vice president. that's beside the point. joe biden has been a disappointment for the labor unions. it's a shame that he has killed the keystone. everybody wants to blame donald trump. he is a hard-nosed esso b. he shoots from the hip. he doesn't take any crap. he calls it as he sees it. i think that's what we want in a president. america first. host: we've got feedback there a little bit. to iowa, we hear from dennis.

caller: what i like about joe biden is he doesn't pick people to his cabinet like jeff sessions. why did you pick him? i never heard of biden being divorced multiple times. no wonder trump doesn't like foreigners, they taken for everything he's got. host: columbus, georgia is next. hi there. caller: thank you for taking michael. i disapprove of his performance so far. i wasn't impressed with him in the debate, when he has taken office, the stroke of the pen getting rid of all the jobs. something that sticks with me is

when he finishes his talks, he takes no questions. that's troubling to me. that's when you can find out where he stands. the truth of the matter is the last time he would say something. host: do you think that should be the standard? president trump was on television a lot. do you think president trump set a new standard for the way we should be here -- interacting with the press? caller: i do. you heard stuff from both media sources. you could gauge the truths of the matter bite when he was confronting the people asking questions. he didn't shy away. when biden is getting interviewed by these different

people, they throw softball questions. trump didn't shy away from a fight. host: let's hear from heaven in san antonio. -- kevin incentive. caller: joe biden is not about himself. he is about the american people. he takes the job seriously. donald trump only worked for himself. host: kevin calling from texas. an article about the energy issues in texas. this is from the washington

i will read this bit more:

you can read more at the washington post. in florida, teresa on the this approve alignment. go ahead. caller: thank you for having me. i disapprove 100% and his policies. i've been listening all morning to the call-in. i cannot believe how stupid some of our american people are. the man has dementia, can't get a straight sentence out. he is a socialist. i disapprove 100%. host: jason in north carolina. caller: i would like to say i

approve that joe biden is destroying this country. i approve that donald trump be our next president. that would be very nice. host: this is the weekly look at joe biden's weekly approval. overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way joe biden is handling his job as president? previously, the latest reporting through february 25th. that was thursday. the approval is 57%, disapproval at 37%. we are continuing with your calls for the next 15 or 20 moons. (202) 748-8000 if you approve so far, (202) 748-8001 if you disapprove. wayne is in indiana. did morning. caller: they need to put him in

an old folks home. he doesn't know where he's at. i don't think he's very safe for himself. since he has been in, our gas went from $2.12 up to $2.99. there is something wrong with this guy. you don't think of russia or china. you think of the united states of america. nobody gave us any trouble. you've got to have a man with backbone. i do not trust the man. host: in terms of the gas prices going up, you talked about that, is that a result of joe biden coming in or the increased demand with people driving more with covid restrictions being lifted? caller: he is putting the money

in his pocket. why would you shut everything off? now we'll have to buy oil from other countries when we had our own here. that's what the united states of america should be. host: here are some comments from social

let's hear from mark in massachusetts. go ahead. caller: hello. i don't know if everybody remembers the obama agenda and how bad it was. nobody made any living. we had no jobs or anything. then donald trump comes along and reverses all of obama's

agenda and we have the best four years of our lives. we are coming back to when biden is taking everything away from us. we are going backwards again. we will never get it back if we do not wake up and vote in 2022 for our republican representatives so that we can get back to where trump had us established. host: david is in georgia on the approve line. caller: i approve of mr. biden. he is trying to bring the country together. he is doing everything to please everybody. you can't please everybody. the best thing he could have done about the pipeline, what

can you do about it? as far as our interest in other countries, we are energy independent already. we don't need their oil. we don't need anything they have. you we can't get that off your mind. if that person still talking to you. i just can't see what people are talking about. they don't allow anybody a chance. we have an honest man in the white house, but we don't want that. going back to the time of the crucifixion of christ. we didn't want it. this is what it's come to now.

we need right. forget about your rights. we have to many rights in the country. i don't know what we are going to do. it's going down the drain. host: thank you. in south carolina, audrey is next up. caller: thank you for having me. i have liked his performance so far. this is the first time i'm able to sleep in four years and not be petrified of what i will wake up to the next day. on the press conference that they have every day and for people to -- keeping up and informed with the pandemic and the pandemic press conference they have every day, i approve of what he is doing. thank you for having me. host: let me ask you, do you literally sleep better? were you having trouble sleeping during the trump presidency? caller: yes i did.

every day, every night i would go to bed with president trump on my mind and wake up in the morning with president trump on my mind, not knowing what would happen to our country. host: you don't have that anymore? prof. hogarth: i am it -- caller: i am at peace. i am literally at peace now. we will hear from a mere next in los angeles. caller: good morning, how are you? i approve abide in so far. he's not as entertaining has trump but i think he's doing fine. i have a question for you. earlier you made a comment and said do you think it should be the new standard for a president to answer questions at a press conference, you are in journalism, what do you mean? , what are you talking about? host: i didn't mean at a press conference. i meant the frequency in which president trump, i think anybody would agree that the amount of

television and media opportunities was unsurpassed in the trump administration in terms of his availability and his media events. my intent to ask that was, he set a new standard in that. should we expect presidential appearances that not that he should answer questions but i was asking the terms of the frequency of those events that donald trump used to have. caller: i got you. i think the new standard is kim kardashian. people are thick -- people are used to to seeing more questions and more talking. i approve of him so far. host: fair question, i appreciate that. thank you for all of your calls this segment as well. more ahead here on washington journal. next up we will joined by princeton university professor who will be with us to talk about his book "begin again:

james baldwin's america and it's urgent lessons for our own." >> listen to c-span's podcast "the weekly, u.s. china relations with china editor for the economist who offers a warning about possible conflict between china and taiwan in the future. >> if china decides in the next five years for even further out that it once to reincorporate taiwan into the people's republic by force that is the kind of challenge that is going to be transformative to say the least in geopolitics and it could lead to military confrontation between the u.s. and china. it's probably the lowest -- the most likely vector between either u.s. and china for a military conflict. >> find "the weekly" where you

get your podcast. >> american history tv on c-span three. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. today on "reel america" we mark the 80th anniversary of the uso with three films including a film called "uso, 30 years of service." hosted by bob hope and a defense department film documenting a trip to vietnam by sammy davis junior. at 6:00 p.m. on american artifacts the author of 18 tiny deaths, the untold story of the invention of modern forensics shows several grime scenes -- crime scenes and tells the story of the man who constructed the dioramas in the 1940's and pioneered the science of crime scene investigation. at 8:00 p.m. on "the presidency"

a discussion on elizabeth powell, george washington poss political confidant and a surviving letter that provides a glimpse into her role as washington's confidant. explore the american story. watch american history tv, today on c-span three. >> tonight on q and a, eric armstrong dunbar, history professor at rutgers university talks about her book on the life and exploits of underground railroad conductor and union army spy harriet tubman. >> we know she made at least 13 trips to and from the eastern shore of maryland. that is one thing that people either don't know or get confused. tubman was not running all over the south emancipating people. she made specific targeted trips

to the state of maryland to rescue her family and her friends. we know that she touched the lives of many and emancipated 60 to 70 people on at least 13 trips. >> erica armstrong dunbar tonight on c-span's q&a. >> visit c-span's new online store to check out the new c-span products. with the 117th congress in session we are taking preorders for the congressional directory. every c-span shop purchase help support our nonprofit operations. shop today at c-span shop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: as black history month draws to a close we welcome back to washington journal professor eddie glaude, the

african-american studies chair at princeton university and the author of the new book “begin again: james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own.” professor, good morning. prof. glaude: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. who was james baldwin? prof. glaude: he was the world's greatest literary artist. he is in many ways the most insightful critic we have ever produced when it comes to the question of race and democracy. the inheritor of rap mogul -- he grabbed emerson by the collar and pulled him across the railroad tracks. as insightful about democracy as alexis to tocqueville. the contradiction that sits at the heart of the tragic experiment is race. he is one of our greatest writers we have ever produced. >> is he, is this the first book you have written about him? prof. glaude: yes it's the first book i've written about him. all of my books have been in

some ways and engagement with baldwin. even the more academic or scholarly books i have been in conversation with them in such a way that it has allowed me to reread the american practice traditionally in light of questions around identity and history and agency that animate baldwin's work and african-american letters. this is the first book i have written on him, but he has always been my muse. host: the subtitle is "the urgent lessons for our own." part of what you write in your book is this "this will demand a new american story, different symbols, and robust policies to repair what we have done. i don't know yet what this has looked like -- what this will look like and my understanding of our history is that we will fail trying. but i do know that each element is important to any effort to begin again.

-- a presidential election alone will not satisfy their hunger. a moral reckoning is upon us and we have to decide once and for all whether or not we will truly be a multiracial democracy." there is an interesting phrase, restless ghost, were you alluding to? prof. glaude: our contradiction around this belief that white people ought to matter more than others has left a pile of bodies in its wake. there are so many lives that have been lost, so many dreams that have been bashed because we organize this society in such a way that we believe that certain people ought to be valued more than others and disadvantage should be distributed accordingly. those ghosts haunt. i come out of the south, i am a black southerner.

we have this view that if folks don't die right they haunt. you think that moment where desmond ward who won the national board of look -- national book award for her book and she has a moment in the paperback edition where she describes a tree of ghosts, the tree of the dead, all of these people who did not die right and continue to haunt area because we have to absolving contradiction -- we have not resolved that contradiction it overshadows everything we do. it haunts, literally in some ways. host: do you think james baldwin was as appreciated then as he is today? the things he was saying in his writing been, where they as appreciated and understood as well as they are today? caller: in sums -- prof. glaude: in some circles,

yes. i think his genius was widely recognized. there was a series of assumptions made about the later work because the politics changed. baldwin at the height of his power according to some critics and scholars, this was right before the run-up to the civil rights movement if you think about the sermon mount -- the sermon on the mount and the notes of the native son. talking about the black person struggle in its first iteration. kings march on washington, you get classics. people did not want to hear that criticism, here his prophetic critique post assassination of king and the context of reaganism. by the time cancer ravaged his body many folks were reading him as the old man who had gone bad and they wanted to hear his prophecy.

host: you have obviously done a rod of -- a lot of research and study, want to talk about his unfinished menu strip prior to his death. what was that about? prof. glaude: it was supposed to be an autobiography of sorts organized around the death of medgar evers and malcolm x and martin luther king jr.. it was supposed to be a retrospective of what has happened in the country but is new from his vantage point. it was in some ways a warning, on account of who was lost and why. a journey that is so distinctly american, given baldwin's beginnings. he was born in august of 1924 in the ghettos of harlem. he makes his way to paris to

paris and becomes this extraordinary writer and witness of the black freedom movement. it was this summarizing account. that manuscript that was transcribed became the basis of my own -- of the critically acclaimed film. host: the professor is with us until 10:00 eastern this morning joining us to talk about his book and other issues. (202) 748-8001 the lime to use for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. all others, (202) 748-8002. i think when you and i spoke last year book was about to be published or was coming out at that time. a year that saw a great deal of racial unrest and violence in the u.s.. if you had to add an addendum to your book or some observations

on what has happened in the past year and the election of the biden administration, how would you address that? prof. glaude: the u.k. addition of the book came out in january. i wrote in the presses that addition, i pray that we don't treat -- the fantasy of donald trump with his belief that america must be a white nation -- i don't want us to hold onto the viewer believe this fantasy that somehow the election of the biden harris administration resolve the matter, that we ought to -- that their election puts a grateful republic back. i heard the last collar, eye color in the last hour say she was sleeping well. i'm happy about that but she must understand we are still in a moment of crisis. the forces that are at work, they saw us in cpac and we are seeing it across the country.

there are those that are insisting on america being and remaining a nation overdetermined by this belief that white people ought to matter more than others. we are confronting the new redeemers and we have to address them directly before actually going to move forward. >> let me ask you about specifics of the biden administration. late last month biden white house aims to advance racial equity with executive actions. we saw this past week that a house subcommittee considering the issue of reparations for slavery, are these the right steps? prof. glaude: in part. i think reparations is a complicated conversation to have. if we are going to tell the truth about what we have done, the truth becomes the precondition for reconciliation and reconciliation becomes the basis for repair.

repair involves deliberate policies to address the delivery policies that have introduced racial equality. i have been traveling all over black history month by zoom and one of the things i have been saying is that we have to understand that racial inequality is not a happenstance. it's the result of deliberate policy. of course there was slavery and jim crow. when we think about the emergence of the middle class it happened in a post-world war ii era where you saw government engaging and deliberate policy initiatives that lead to in some places the ownership within the country. african-americans were systematically cut out from that, cut out in terms of fha loans and the g.i. bill. even those who own homes, our homes were devalued because of redlining. you think about this in relation to labor markets and extended segregated schools who have

access to the princeton's, harvard's, yale's, and the oldness, -- ole miss. in other words, racial injustice, racial inequality in the united states is not a mistake in any sense that somebody -- it just randomly happened. people chose to do this. if we are going to respond we have to respond deliberately with policy. that is a long-winded answer to the question of reparations. i continue to think about student loan debt, that will disproportionately impact black folks. when need to think about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. that will disproportionately impact whack or brown voters. it is one thing to do symbolic things with executive action but we need policy from the boater lights -- from the john lewis voter rights act, the george floyd criminal justice act, policy, that can be

long-standing and transformational. host: do you think this presidency and congress are a moment to get that done? prof. glaude: we as a nation or in a moment where we can get this done. politicians inevitably disappoint. they are only as good as our demands of them. we need to keep pushing. we need to keep working hard, to respond to the crisis we face as a nation. we cannot allow ourselves to go back to normal, or what we have conceived of as normal. we have a chance, the moment of precious develops to a moment of possibility. host: i want to get to our collars. we do want to play the comments of james baldwin, c-span covered this event in 1986 the year before he died, one of the regular press briefings -- speeches at the national press club. let's listen to james baldwin in

1986. mr. baldwin: i want to establish a modest proposal, white history week. [laughter] [applause] the answer to these questions is not to be found in me, but in that history which produce these questions. it is late in the day to be talking about race relations, what are you talking about? as long as we have race relations, how can they deteriorate? i am not a race and neither are you. [applause] we are talking about the life and death of this country. and one of the things, i'm not joking when i talk about white history week. one of the things that most afflicts the country is that white people don't know who they are or where they come from. that's what you think i'm a problem. i am not the problem, your

history is. as long as you pretend you don't know your history you will be the prisoner of it. there is no question if you're liberating me if you can't liberate yourselves. we are in this together. and, finally, when white people, quote unquote white people talk about progress with race relations with black people, all they can mean by the word progress is how quickly and thoroughly i become white. i don't want to become white, i want to grow up, and so should you. thank you. host: that's james baldwin, the writer, james baldwin, in 1986. our guest has written a book about james baldwin. “begin again: james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own.” what did you hear in that -- in those brief comments by james baldwin? prof. glaude: it hit the heart, in some ways it's a synopsis of this entire idea.

the synopsis of his writing is a radical inversion. the problem of race in this country is not a problem with our of black people, it's the opposite. it's this problem centered around that we organize the country based on what i have called the value gap. it's a leaved that white people ought to be valued more than others. that valuation determines the distribution of advantage and disadvantage. baldwin is saying in that moment , race relations is actually a reflection of this sense that the problem is us, the problem is not us, it never has been. problem is the idea of blackness and what it has unleashed on the world and in the world. until we tell ourselves of the truth and leave out these categories that free us and trap us and bind our feet, we will find ourselves on this racial hamster wheel over and over

again. he said i am not the n word, i have never been, why do you need that word. until we figure out that we will find ourselves in this moment grappling with race over and over. the problem is not us. host: is interesting in those comments he talks about using white history week and he gets laughter from the audience. he always had that quality of being able to shock and in some ways humor people. prof. glaude: there is always a range of emotions that defines baldwin. from rage to humor to love. even when he is at his most biting in terms of his criticism it is always saturated with love.

there is this insistence that this nation, we are so intent on living in never never land forever, just lost boys and girls who refuse to grow up area what is so distinctive about never never land is the people that live there don't want to be responsible or accountable for anyone. baldwin is demanding in this moment, and that moment in 1986 and in our moment, i want to demand that we grow the hell up and finally imagine, this is something the modern world has never seen and that is actually building a multiracial democracy , what would that look like? host: our first color is barbara in oklahoma city. caller: i'm so glad that we get to speak here. i just love mr. baldwin. he is so awesome. i want to speak on the fact

that, yes, this is horrible, we had someone in there for five years that spoke so terribly against black people, against all minorities, but most black. we have 165 laws they are trying to get in that suppress voting right now and people talk about these immigrants, why have we never had a show on the fact that this man had to pay 25 million to immigrants that he hides from every day and not one time have i heard c-span say anything about that. he also had to pay for the university that was in a university, a total scam. you don't talk about those things about him. these republicans call in every day and talk about how much they hate, how much they fear the democrats and the democrats are the ones, we don't have this fear for you.

i love my brothers and sisters all. i'm so thankful for people like you that get up here and try to educate people. this is horrible to be shot in the back with a knee on the neck. these things should not pass. we should stop it right now and thank you so much, c-span, or letting this man get on here and talk. host: barbara in oklahoma. professor? prof. glaude: i appreciate her passion. it is that a motion, that depth of concern that sets the stage for us to be otherwise, for us to finally break the back of this. every time a new america is about to be born in this country , every time a new america is about to be born the umbilical cord of white supremacy is

wrapped around the baby's neck choking the life out. barbara's passion and commitment joined with others, we can become better midwives and finally give birth to a new way of being together, that is our task in this moment. host: this is derek in lakeland, minnesota. caller: good morning, c-span and america. i have been watching you on morning joe for years now, and i don't know what is up with the bubble in princeton. i do know that princeton use to sell -- i want to stick with what baldwin just said in that clip that you read. he said he was not a race. i am not a race. i don't know why you are so abscessed with skin color. it boggles the mind. we are a multiracial democracy. look at the united kingdom. there is lots of multiracial democracies.

i think it's disgusting. mostly of the things that you say, it's not very happy and it's not love. thank you. prof. glaude: i completely disagree. i'm saying it out of love. it's precisely because you hold whiteness as normal as transparent that you think that it's not functional. baldwin is trying to make an argument and i'm trying to make a claim that these politically moral positions have tangible effects, and your denial of that fact allows you to live in a country that has enormous inequality and it allows you to presume a certain kind of innocence. i will not allow you to try to place it on me. your ugliness is yours and yours alone. don't try to place it on me. in fact i'm trying to help you see you and it's your refusal to see that fact that has in some ways help to produce this country and brought us to this moment.

don't try to put that on me, that see you. host: robert is next up in aurora, indiana. caller: mr. glaude, i have good colored friends that i worship the ground they walk on. they are good, hard-working, honest people. you are educated. you are successful, and yet you want to run people down. this character you are talking about, all you do is write the books that mean nothing. working together, loving one another, taking care of our country, our children that are hungry and homeless, that's what we need. we don't need this racism crap. prof. glaude: i would agree with that. we don't need this racism crap. we need to take care of all of

our children, all of our children. we need to ensure that full are making -- if they are working 40 hours a week they are making a living wage. we need to ensure that people have health care and every community is safe and secure. your dam right we need that. i'm not colored, these are your friends. i think we also need to be honest with ourselves. let's understand what is really holding us back in this country. greed and racism is holding us back. greed and in some ways this insistence, this insistence on the superiority of certain human beings. we have to finally uproot this at some point. i'm not colored and neither are your friends. host: let me ask you about the pandemic itself. the pandemic has struck communities of color much harder than other communities. what do you think will be the

long-term effect? prof. glaude: as of late, just imagine, during the obama administration we could not have a conversation -- it could not break through mainstream political discourse. look where we are, we are talking about aca. we know that our health care system is broken, covid-19 has revealed it. we see where all the illness is located. the virus has metastasized and expanded fissures in our society. it's not simply over 500,000 americans have died and black and brown and native people are disproportionately represented in that group, poor, black and brown and native and white people are disproportionately represented in that group, poor people. i think it's important for us to understand that what covid has revealed is how broken our public infrastructure of health and care actually is. we are spending as much money as

we are spending trying to respond to the crisis because we have not put in place the kind of infrastructure care, to echo heather mcgee because we are afraid we are going to be giving out stuff to undeserving people and that usually maps onto poor and black and brown. it reveals the contradictions at the heart of the country. we have the courage and fortitude to respond in time. host: why do you think there is not enough unity and commonality between porky -- rural poor people as well as in similar economic conditions, why over the course of history have those two populations completely seemingly different political outlooks on things. prof. glaude: that's a wonderful question. there have been moments of extraordinary fusion in politics. we saw in reconstruction come

away some moments in the mid-20th century. for the most part, race has been , the late stuart hall, british cultural studies professor used to say that race is the modality through which classes experienced in the united states. not always but most of the time. at the moment you have the free soil party, you have abolitionists, and those don't come together in interesting sorts of ways. it has everything to do with your proximity to whiteness or blackness and how this racial hierarchy always interrupts possibilities of solidarity. we are in our current moment, let's hope we can finally break the back of this racial ideology that keeps us so separated. host: next up is maria in atlanta. caller: good morning, professor.

i really have no respect for america. how can i have respect for a country that is fighting over $1400 to give somebody? how can i have respect for a country with minimum wage of seven dollars, no free health care, no free education but they're the greatest country, which they are not. i refused to vote or pledge. you can't live in peace in this country. i'm so done with america. america will send your blood pressure up. living in america is almost like a domestic violence situation. host: how old are you? do you mind telling us? caller: i am 59 years old. i have worked three jobs. america, this is one greedy country that does not care for people. people that phot, they have continued to complain. i have not voted since president

obama. they get rich off my vote, they get health care off of my vote, while me and others continue to struggle. host: thanks for your call. your comments? prof. glaude: i think we need to understand that this conclusion makes sense. i don't want to urge folks not to vote. i don't want to assume that you ought to throw your hands up and give up on the possibility that this country could be otherwise, that have to understand it. we have to understand why she is drawing those conclusions. what does it mean the richest country in the history of a world that we want to pay people $7.25 an hour? the richest country in the history of the world, that we can't even enter into a social contract which says that if you get sick we got you. it makes sense that people are

losing faith because the american ideal is in trouble. the question for us or the task for us is to give voice to a much more just conception of who we take ourselves to be if we are going to convince her otherwise, convince her to be engaged in a different sort of way. we have to make the claim, we can't tinker around the edges. there are so many who are disaffected who don't think that this country is working on their behalf but it is working for the rich and treating everyone else poorly. we have to understand that because we produced, the country has produced that voice. host: in a similar vein i want to read a comment on twitter from diana who writes that "when i worked as a nanny i found out my job was excluded from labor laws and protections based on racism when drafting these laws, domestic workers were deliberately left out. this legacy must end, all

workers deserve a fair and decent wage." prof. glaude: that goes back to my earlier point about how any discussion of reparations or repair has to be delivered and targeted. their explicit exclude -- explicit conclusion that had everything to do with who occupied that particular side of the labor market and had everything to do with keeping black full cat of those benefits. we need to understand that racial inequality is not simply the result of happenstance. it is the result of policy and it will require policy to remedy. host: let's hear from lynn in arizona. good morning. caller: thank you, good morning, professor eddie. i'm so glad that you are on. i follow you as well. i think the problem is when trump got elected i needed to understand what the greed is.

i felt like my experience uniquely qualified me. i grew up in the beltway, maryland. my father was an army colonel, my parents are buried at arlington national cemetery and now i live in rural arizona. when i grew up in the 70's we were a middle-class black family but we were in a school with four white children that lived in trailer parks and there was this resentment, me and my girlfriend were the only two black kids in the class. there was this underlying resentment that we felt, even as children at five years old that we were not supposed to be doing better than the white people that we lived amongst. there was a serious resentment. i think that is what is happening today, that we are not acknowledging poor white people that are struggling just as much as any other race of people out there.

when i started to do my research, the fear of demographic change, that somehow if the minorities become the majority, then white people are going to be put on the back of the bus, that kind of notion that they are ratcheting up in people. i think the bigger issue is we have to do a better job of acknowledging there are some very poor white people out there that are struggling. i think a lot of times their grievances, while we talk about the disparities amongst african-americans and native americans which i see clearly. i have not experienced native american experiences until i came to arizona. they still live on reservations, i was shocked. the bottom line, i feel like it is the grievance of they were made to feel guilty for feeling poor, whole members of the black community, the welfare queen. there were blacks -- there were

whites on welfare that were made to feel bad about it and hide it. they put their poor people in the backwoods trailer parks and act like they don't exist and then talk about black people. it is that denial that there are poor people of all races in this country that we need to address. it is greed. host: thank you, we appreciate that. prof. glaude: i think she has spoken such a fresh word this morning. take a look at what reverend barber and reverend harris are doing with the poor people's campaign. air speaking directly to your point. they are trying to organize across race, across regions and really understand the depth of poverty in this country and what that means. in focusing on poverty we cannot lose sight of how race intersects with poverty and interesting sorts of ways. we have to ask ourselves that question and grapple with it. you are absolutely right that

greed combined with this value gap has produced the country we live in and now we have a body of literature built, whether it is charles murray's work on the white poor or hillbilly elegy, now there is an attribution of a tangle of pathology to white poor folks that they don't have the values to succeed. all of this is in the service of an economic system that continues to extract on behalf of the top 1% and allows and in some ways stokes this sense of gait coding for others. it seems to me that she has hit the point head-on. we need to understand that she is absolutely right in this regard. host: she mentioned a phrase, a fear of demographic change. i wanted to ask you about that. certainly in 2016, maybe less so

in 2020, certainly a small portion of african-american voters supported donald trump because of his tougher immigration stance. that broader fear of demographic change, how does that tie in? how do we resolve that? prof. glaude: i would say, let me be clear, white folk don't have a monopoly on greed. nativism has been a feature of american politics for generations. we have to be clear that just because folk are black or brown or native peoples or whoever that we don't want to treat them as if they are a homogenous blog -- blob by virtue of their ethnicity or their race that we hold all of them over the same political positions. we don't want to do that. part of what we have to do is really interrogate the ways in which these demographic shifts are bringing pressure on a certain section of american life , that some view this country as

a white nation in the vein of old europe and some are worried about competitive pressures in an already contracted economy where these migrant workers will depress wages that they come in and work for less although no data seems to suggest that will impact black voters in specific ways. we have to understand that at the heart of it all it's kind of selfish and that we are experiencing, at the same time that we are experiencing the global pandemic of covid-19, at the same time that we are experiencing a racial reckoning we are suffering from an epidemic of selfishness where over the last 40 years we have been transformed citizens and communities with others to individual self interested persons and competitions and rivalries with others. there is no robust conception of public good. liberty has become a simile -- simile for selfishness. people don't want to wear a mask or think about america in a broader sense in being open to

immigrant communities. we used to buy out -- even prior to this administration with the obama administration, separation of children and parents. exporting, ridding the country, obama was called the porter in chief for a reason. selfishness has overwhelmed the land it seems to me. we have a lot of work to do, so much work. >> we will go to roy in austin, texas. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i just wanted to touch on something, i'm glad you clarified yourself when you said the last four years. i'm 57 years old and this has been going on for many more years than the last four so quit blaming donald trump because it's been going on before he was ever around. the reason i called was you brought up about the house bill

for reparations. i have a distinct problem. i know my history and i know where i came from. my mother's a genealogist so i have a clear clue on where i'm from. nobody in my family has ever owned a slave. i have a real problem with them wanting to do -- i think back we did reparations for the native americans, how is that working out? we have reservations at or below poverty. the people that were here before we got here we treat like a doormat. but we never hear about that. host: we will get a response. prof. glaude: we do hear about it. depends on who or what you are listening to. i would agree with you that this is not a donald trump story only. donald trump is the exaggerated form, he is a caricature of what we experienced in our politics

for generation. i think this is the logical conclusion of reaganism and donald trump is a caricatured version of it. a b list reality show actor. all of which means that both of them use the phrase making america great again which is about exploiting white fears and white resentment and white grievance. let's be clear, just because your family didn't own slaves does not mean that you did not benefit from a slaveholding society. let's be clear, we need to be honest with ourselves. just because your family did not own slaves does not mean that you did not benefit from a society that is organized along the lines that white people ought to be valued more than others. you are 59 years old, what school did you go to? did you experience a segregated school? did your parents experience a segregated school? in texas?

how were state taxes distributed in texas? did you benefit from a system that tracked black folk? let's be honest, grow up, america. my lord. >> here is buffalo, new york, tosha. caller: good morning. to the previous collar, i just want to state to him, your tax dollars go to israel, did your family have anything to do with the holocaust? my question, good morning, dr. glaude. my comment is that this is the last one of -- black history month and white media for the most part, they love celebrating dr. martin luther king and his i have a dream speech which is fine, but my question is, why don't they show the totality of

dr. king where he started speaking on reparations and economic justice for black people. why do they deliberately leave that out and celebrate the i have a dream speech? thank you. i will take my answer off the air. prof. glaude: thank you for that question. it's not just mainstream media. it's these celebrations across the country, even within black communities that tended to reduce king to a caricatured version of the markup -- march on washington. we make him into a santa claus figure who loves us as opposed to understanding that the march on washington was about a march for jobs and economic justice. king was arguing for the equivalent of a $15 minimum wage in terms of real dollars. dr. king has often been used, we have picked his bones clean over

the time he has been dead. the right and the left and among black leaders. everyone trying to use dr. king's experience as a way to authorize their political voice. he was murdered organizing among garbage workers in april of 1968. we do know that he was talking about the triple evils of militarism and materialism and racism in his last work, where do we go from here. he was organizing the poor people's campaign to engage in extraordinary nonviolent action to bring the nation to attention , top to bring the nation's attention to the fact that poor people across the country, not just black poor people. he was organizing in appalachia and the borderlands and the rio grande. that poverty threatened the foundations of the country as well.

king is often invoked as a rearguard action, detained radical politics in this country and in order to do that we must in some ways kill him over and over again. in 1963 and not look at the entire arc of his witness in his life sacrifice. host: some people are seeing a fictionalized version of malcolm x in the movie one night in miami. what is malcolm x's legacy in terms of his influence on the discussion today on race relations? prof. glaude: malcolm is a complicated figure. you see on award-winning biography. there is a sense in which there is still a lot of interest in malcolm. there is a kind of truth telling, willingness to say explicitly what is the problem and challenge white america and racism directly. we know that the last few days, the last 300 plus days of his

life he has been trying to figure out how to speak to the complex issues of race in this country. we see them work searching through the economic systems and that he is trying to speak to a broader international politics. i think your question is a wonderful one. and to what we might think of as -- a beginning point for us to understand the complex ways in which black people have responded to the reality of white supremacy in the united states. there is a long tradition that includes a range of folks. i think malcolm is a point of entry into that. host: we will go to florida calling next. caller: this guy you have on here and baldwin, it say --

he joked about white history week, if we had a white history month all hell would break loose, but we can have an all black history month. they don't even teach to the first slave owner was. it was a black man who owned white slaves. do i get preparation for that? no. i didn't buy any slaves, you didn't buy any slaves. he wasn't a slave. host: the word is reparations. we will go to edward in new jersey on the independent line. caller: thank. the first time i saw james baldwin speakeasy spoke on the power of a black smile and the man is an american treasure. i want to ask how dumb and dangerous it is to use socialism as fear mongering. they used it in the 20's against women wanting to vote and they use it in the 50's and 60's and it got martin luther king killed and conservative media is

pushing philmont -- fear mongering. social justice is real and satanic pedophiles are not. you can take it from there, thank you. prof. glaude: thank you. our shorthand to in some ways short-circuit critical thinking, we can just use the shorthand of socialism and that can demonize a whole host of positions to keep people from leading -- listening to the particulars. i'm against obama care, but i'm for the aca. obama's name attached to something they disagree with. i think you're absolutely right. my thinking is we don't need to return to the-isms of the early 20th century or 19th century. we need to imagine a different way of being together moving forward for the 21st century and elements of socialism will be a part of that. we know that we cannot keep doing the same thing over and over.

that's the definition of insanity. we have to do what i think you did, name the problem for what it is. host: a columnist with the wall street journal, jason riley, had a piece earlier this month, progressives put the racial equity squeeze on biden. he writes in that and i want to get to your response to what he had to say. he said if history is any guide, what blacks most need from the government is to get out of the way -- is for it to get out of the way, stop forcing black children to attend failing schools by denying them school choice, stop increasing the minimum wage and pricing young black adults out of jobs. stop implementing occupational licensing regulations that prevent black entrepreneurs from starting a business and stop pretending policing is a bigger problem than violent crime in poor black neighborhoods. prof. glaude: i don't know what to do with that. that argument is in such bad faith because it does not match up with the data.

all of those were the tropes of the last 40 years. reaganism has proven itself to be bankrupt. there is nothing about that that matches with anything that is consistent with reality. i am so sick of people lying, and those lies, we have to bear the burden of them. that is a live. and he knows it. and he knows it. and i can respond in a reasoned and deliberately -- away, but that's alive. we know that policing in this country is saturated with racial bias. we know the reason why america has never decided, we know the reason why america has refused to educate all of its children. we are clear about that and we know the barriers to black folks being entrepreneurs. there are regulatory barriers

but we also know there are issues with regards to racially biased banking. we know this, stop lying. i get so angry, because we are right back where we always have been. the country feels like it's going to hell. anyway. host: a couple more calls. we hear from denise in florida on the democrats line. guest: good morning. as a -- caller: good morning, as a black woman who is 53 years old i frustrated with america. i agree with everything you have been saying. every time i elevate i get knocked down. if you are outspoken in this country, if you bring to white people's attention how they treat blacks at work they will find a way to blackball you. even though i have more education than a lot of the

people that were in leadership positions they would not promote you, if they don't feel comfortable around you as a black person if you are not wide enough they are not going to promote you. they are going to try to get rid of you or make you frustrated to leave. i totally agree with you and america is greedy. it's all about greed. i don't understand about the $15 per hour when these companies are millionaires and billionaires. it's like slavery. the greed part, they will go as far as not to pay american workers because it costs too much to run a company or to have human resources in america outsource their work. because they are greedy. when is enough enough? prof. glaude: yeah, i mean look, we have to figure out how to be together differently.

notes of the native son -- it's a really fascinating piece. he assumes the narrating voice of a white person. he says in effect that lacked people have to make themselves blank in order to wash away their guilt as if the preconditions for entree into american society is to leave the particularities of who we are at the door, but we can't be our full selves in these moments. my passion in the last answer was a reflection of my full self and i know some people are thinking he is full of rage and he is a princeton professor, how can he be angry? what does it mean to bring the fullness of who we are to the table? and have that contribute to the lateness of the cut -- the greatness of the country. it seems to me that we have to figure out how to be together

differently. we are mysteries to each other, we don't know each other. stereotypes that do all the work, assumptions about who we are do all the work. if we are going to get past it we have to be honest and true and try to respond to the crisis of scale. >> attacks from new jersey who says "how do you believe we can have a more truly integrated societal fabric." things like the rooney rule have not yielded better results, those who benefit from white privileges claim from reverse racism. thanks to speaking rutgers university, camden. i think heather -- prof. glaude: i think heather mcgee's book speaks to this. she uses the metaphor a public swimming pools. it used to be the case that white children all over the country had access to public pools and they could swim and enjoy their summers. the moment in which we integrated those pools, we tell

the story of swimming in one pool and all the kids jumped out and emptied the pools while he was in it. now all of these pools were emptied out. before we integrate, before we extend the benefits of the country to everyone they will take the benefits away from everyone. that's zero-sum game is devastating. it has devastated and it continues to devastate who we are. we have to do different and act different. host: the butler, indiana next up is walter. caller: i was born and raised in new york, city and i had friends in harlem. i did not find the racism you are speaking of, i know it's out there. i got to serve in the united states military and i shared campaigns with black, brown, latino, everybody. here is an idea from a white man. you guys came here and you did

not come here voluntarily so you could never replace that or fix that. it's never going to go away. get rid of all of the abortion clinics in black neighborhoods. force the dads to stay with the wife instead of splitting them up because the government says that you can only give assistance if there is a single woman, which destroys it. teach the children to pulled her pants up, stop selling drugs, stop thinking that the world owes them something, and raise their bar as individuals. there is white trash all over the place, same as there is bad black people. walter, i'm going to let you go there. you have any comments you would like to make? guest: donald was just a symptom. he was just an indication of the rot at the heart of the nation. we have heard a lot of the discourse, the assumptions today. that takes us to the heart of the problem.

we have to dare to be otherwise. we have to begin again. that is going to require an honest confrontation with those ghosts we began with. i hope we can grow up. host: eddie glaude's book, james baldwin's america and its urgent lessons for our own. but you could join us this morning. thanks for being here. guest: thank you for having me. take care and be safe. host: that will do it for the program. we are going to take you live to orlando. the cpac event is underway and they are hearing from david mcintosh. we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. david: first we have to make promises, talk straight to the american people, tell them what be -- what we believe in. and then fight for them. you might not win every battle, but at least try to win every battle. and finally, keep our promises. when they know we will