meeks of new york talks about u.s. foreign policy challenges. at 8:30, alabama congressman on covid-19 relief divisions in the republican party, the congressional news of the day. ♪ host: welcome to "washington journal," march the third. the house comes in today to continue work on hr one, the for the people act, a bill that would make significant changes in voting, including automatic voter registration, and some changes to, -- campaign financing. we will give you details on the legislation and for our first hour we will ask you about the current state of voter rights in the united states and if you think those rights need to be expanded, restricted, or perhaps stay the same. if you want to call, here is how you can do so. (202) 748-8000 if you think they

need to be expanded. (202) 748-8001 if you think they need to be restricted. if you think no changes are necessary, give us a call at (202) 748-8002. you can text us your thoughts at (202) 748-8003. post on twitter at c-span w jlr facebook page, facebook.com/c-span. steny hoyer has an op-ed in roll call, you can find it online where he characterizes it this way this week as one of the first actions of the 117 congress, "i'm proud to bring hr one to the floor again, committed to governing for the people as we seek

host: yesterday, debate for and against hr one, laying out principles for the debate was the judiciary committee members on the house floor explaining the voting rights provision in the legislation. [video clip] >> the last election saw changes making it easier for many americans to vote. it also put into stark focus what many of us already knew, deep inequities persist in the democratic system. now comes the backlash to the increase in voter participation. that record turnout, with no credible instance of irregularity, stimulated hundreds of bills and state legislatures to make it harder for americans to vote in the future. we should protect access to the ballot, not restricted.

hr one gives voters choices for how to cast their ballot. the bill has a minimum of 15 days of early voting, minimum standards for the number and location of ballot drop boxes, and a national standard for no excuse absentee voting, improving access for voters with disabilities, addressing challenges based -- facing native american voters living on tribal lands, improving access for uniformed and overseas voters. hr one ends the practice of disenfranchising americans with a prior felony conviction who are no longer incarcerated. it unrigs the drawing of lines by removing politics from the process and creating fairer maps. host: also taking to the floor of the house, the republicans talking about their opposition

to elements of hr one, congressman loudermilk of georgia is speaking out against the idea of "federal lysing" of local elections. -- "federalizing" of local elections. [video clip] >> i rise in opposition to the bill to nationalize these elections where people like the elections supervisor in georgia, who has done a phenomenal job administering our elections, is not as qualified as people here in this room as to how to run an election and more importantly, bureaucrats in washington, d.c., the idea that they appear can administer this election in our county better than our election supervisor can and has is a notion beyond compare. this flies in the face of our founders, especially those at the constitutional convention.

there were arguments against article one section four, the elections clause, because the feeler that was stated was that those in power could use that power to manipulate elections to keep them in power. that one day someone would use this authority to manipulate the elections so they can maintain power. alexander hamilton argued the opposite, saying it is important that institutions of government be able to preserve themselves. but this was a backup. it is a backup at the states had the priority to run their own elections. in fact he said that it should only be used when extraordinary circumstances might render the position necessary for safety. we are not in that extraordinary circumstance and in fact the extraordinary circumstance that will be stated over and over again is how we ran the election under covid in 2020 and many of

those provisions set out in this legislation, including universal mail-in ballots, voter id laws, and mandated ballot harvesting, those were changes mandated illegally that caused a lot of the problems we saw. host: that's just some of the debate that took place -- took place yesterday. the house is coming in again at 9:00 and you can follow in on c-span1. to give you some of those elements highlighted by the legislators it would include automatic voter registration for early absentee mail voting, protecting against voter roll fraud and creating small dollar, not taxpayer-funded financing systems for federal officials and included, a call for constitutional amendments to overturn the ruling on citizens united and prohibiting super pac's from community --

communicating with candidates. also, enhancing resources to stave off foreign threats on elections. comment on the legislation and talk about the larger issue, do you think they need to be expanded, restricted, or stay the same? you can pick your choice on the phone, post on our feet as well. on twitter they say it's a great bill for ending corruption, get rid of the filibuster in the senate or there is no prayer. jim says that the congress has sole authority to set the laws in legislatures and how does hr one not violate that. rick says a person must be able to get to the polls to vote and only u.s. citizens should be allowed. deborah from facebook said expanded vote by mail should be available to anyone. stephanie says expand voting rights. you are up first. good morning.

caller: yes, good morning. how are you this morning? host: fine, go ahead. caller: we are living in a time in 2021 where it should be much easier for people to vote. i remember a time my great grandmother taught me in the 1920's, when they had to throw candy in jars and if they chose the right number, they were able to vote. and this is somehow what the republicans are doing, suppressing the vote. in arizona they want to pick their own electorate. this is what they call fear. they are fearing that we, people of color, have choices now. they don't want us to have choices anymore. so, they are making it much harder. host: there in brooklyn, how hard is it to vote? caller: someplace, it's not as

hard, it's not as hard to vote because in new york city they don't make it as hard as the red states are making it for those african-americans in those southern and western states. host: stephanie in new york, giving us her thoughts. deborah and ohio says restrict voting rights. hello. caller: the reason i say that is i believe that restricted voting rights are more accurate. take a look at the last election , look at ohio and pennsylvania. they are similar, so similar it's unbelievable, we are almost like twins. but in the state of ohio we had absentee voting by absentee ballots that were pre-canvassed. we also had in person voting and we had early voting. what's key is pre-canvassing. if you vote absentee, you can track the ballot online to make

sure it was received. in the state of pennsylvania they had pure chaos. i happened to ask one of your guests earlier, a couple of months ago, how did you ensure that noncitizens did not vote, because noncitizens in the state of pennsylvania have a valid drivers license and a legal residence and signatures associated with that, utility bills, etc., so they look exactly like a privileged citizen. so, i asked the individual, how did you ensure that noncitizens didn't vote and your guest would only say that it's illegal for noncitizens to vote. it is a host: host: privilege to vote. if you make restrictions -- it is a privilege to vote. host: if you make restrictions, do you leave people out of the process? guest: no, you don't leave anyone out when you have the opportunity, if you are a

citizen you always have the opportunity to vote. you are not leaving anyone out. ohio doesn't leave anyone out with these protocols that i described, but you have got to have some kind of obsessed validation. host: ok. that's deborah, there. john, houston, texas, expand voting rights. go ahead. caller: absolutely. i a six generation white male college graduate, they have tried everything in the book to prevent people from voting here in texas. change the laws of the last minute about where you could go to drop off your mail-in ballot at one location in the entire of montgomery county area. for god's sake, that's a huge county and they only had one drop off out in the middle of nowhere. one drop off in the middle of nowhere. mail-in ballot should be

allowed, no matter who you are in your age, you should be allowed to vote by mail. host: what about people like the last caller who expressed concerns over voting accuracy. caller: i don't listen to anyone from ohio, don't ever compare ohio to pennsylvania, please. my god. host: steve from florida who says restrict voting rights. caller: you got to have some sort of process where you restrict between who is not supposed to vote and who is supposed to vote. down here i received two ballots and i got thrown off the voter role. i called in and told them i concerned that this was going to happen and we had a mayoral candidate out here who got homeless people to sign up for mail-in ballots and got arrested for voter fraud out here. host: you're saying you didn't

vote in the last election? caller: i got kicked off the rolls. i had to go back to the voter registration in santa ana and reregister because i had multiple ballots sent to me, so my vote didn't count. the problem as far as the presidential election, i really don't care, but as far as you note what we vote on out here, these initiatives, some of them pass by 53 votes. you have to have some kind of process to determine who is eligible into is not. host: stephen anaheim, california, giving his thought. the brennan center looking at what happens on the state-by-state level, concluding in their report to give you a summary that in conjunction with that report, state voting proposals below, a list of

restrictive and expansive bills we are tracking and as of this year state lawmakers have introduced 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access and 43 states and 704 bills with provisions that expand voting access in a different set of 43 states and if you got on the list, they take a look at some topics like automatic voter registration, absentee voting, disability access, purges, that kind of thing. if you go to the pages of "the atlanta journal-constitution," there's a bill to restrict ballot drop boxes, require more id for absentee voting, and whether they get them past amid those proposals, that protest makes it harder for voters to participate in democracy.

the house wants to impose new voting requirements after losing races in georgia and democrats opposing the legislation says it creates obstacles for voting that will do more to reduce turnout then increase election security. those are state-by-state levels. we have seen efforts in congress in hr one to introduce voting rights expanded, that's the interest of the democrats in the house. you can comment on the state of voting rights in the u.s., if you think they need to expand, not change, or restricted. gettysburg, pennsylvania, saying don't change. hello. caller: i have to show my id and go to a federal building, i have to show my id to get on a plane. i have to show id for so many things in this country. if you are not able to get your butt out of bed on the day of

election and vote, i don't have any mercy for you. get out. host: so you wouldn't incorporate things like mail-in voting? caller: i believe there's so much fraud in mail-in voting. perfect example, i have a friend in georgia and i was with her at her home and every other week she got a ballot mailed to her home and she was totally like why am i getting these ballots mailed to my home. they were coming in the name of the person that used to live there. anybody could pick that up and fill it in because they weren't matching signatures. come on, people. host: let's go to hear from derek in chicago, illinois, expanding voting rights. you're on. caller: yes, the republicans, these people, i understand them. the numbers don't lie. the fact of the matter is they

have been losing the popular vote for a long time. that 2020 election, we had more people in the history of this country that voted in the fact is that they still once again lost the popular vote. instead of just having better policies they would rather throw people off the voting rolls and that's my comment. host: when you talk about having better policies, what would you propose on your own? as far as better policies? caller: i'm saying instead of the republicans coming up with better policies to help just a common man. host: let me rephrase, than. talking about expanding voting rights, what would you like to see as far as expansion is concerned? caller: i would leave in mail-in voting. leave it like it is. it's the first time in the history of this republic that we

had over one hundred and 40 million some people that voted. you know, so i would very much leave it like it is. host: derek in chicago. tom and connecticut says restrict voting rights. go ahead. caller: absolutely restrict. make the election day a national, state, territorial holiday and do it like they do it with the veterans administration with the administration of the vaccines, which i received successfully because it was one day and you show up. i don't believe the statistics. it would be like mail in vaccinations and mail in covid tests. you can't leave it. if you go there, you believe it. host: if you restricted to a

day, what do you do with those americans who live outside the united states or are in the military? caller: you make a national holiday for election day. make it all territorial possessions and have a place where you show your body and you show your picture and you wait. host: but what about those living outside the united states and outside of a territory, what would you do for them? caller: repeat? host: what would you do with those outside the united states or outside a territory? caller: make it a territorial holiday. eliminate national holidays or one national holiday, whatever. election day should be 24 hours. you physically must go there. host: ok, let's go to denise, michigan, expanding voting

rights. go ahead. caller: i think all states should have the same voting rights. i have listened to the supreme court and actually there was an attorney for the gop who said that if you give these people all the rights they want to vote , the republicans would lose. michigan, volunteer to vote, mail and. it's not fraud -- mail in. it's not fraud, it's the way to vote and you get more people participating. host: it's a perfect, accurate system? caller: i'm an election worker. absolutely. the reason these people came in late is because the absentee came in last. in georgia they made a law that people cannot give people water in voting lines. the only time we have problems

is when the voting lines are really long and you watch the people standing in them. i think they should open every school for people to go in and vote. we shouldn't have all of these restrictions on our voting rights. this is a right we have been given. host: that is denise in michigan and she highlights the actions that took place at the supreme court and politico pick set up in a piece writing that several members of the court conservative majority are seeming to search for middleground thursday, "during a nearly two hour long oral argument session, john roberts and brett kavanaugh, amy coney barrett, appeared to be seeking for a way to

host: more of that at politico, if you want to read it there. next up is john in new york, who says to restrict voting rights. good -- go ahead. caller: good morning. restrict voting rights because i know firsthand people, the last election, people had five licenses and went to five different places and voted five times. they were nt for. if you had 10,000 people doing that, voting five times, that's

50,000 votes. there should be better technology in america. we got the brains. we need the technology. i saw voter fraud and it's disgusting. host: what voter fraud did you see? caller: i saw a guy go to five different places. host: how did you manage to see him in those five places? caller: he told me about it. he showed me his five licenses. new york state driver's license, valid id and any voting place and he said he voted five times. he went out and he voted. host: that's john there in new york talking about his views on voting rights. david hawkins has the right up, saying this in his story this morning that hr one would enhance federal support for

voting system security and increase oversight of elections system vendors and upgrade political ad disclosure, requiring all organizations to disclose large donors and host: one of those offering criticism yesterday, kevin mccarthy. [video clip] >> it makes it harder to protect against voter fraud. this bill automatically registers voters from the dmv and other government databases. in most cases it would prevent officials from removing ineligible voters from the rolls can make it harder to verify the

accuracy of voter information. currently, an estimated 24 million voter records across the country appear to be inaccurate or invalid. as we saw during the pandemic, it created chaos and confusion. it doesn't matter if you are a democrat, republican, or independent. everyone has a personal story of your friend, family, or neighbor receiving a ballot they shouldn't have. everyone of those stories erodes the trust of election integrity. yet under hr one, future voters could be dead, illegal immigrants, or registered two or three times. again, the democrats just don't care, as long as they get reelected. host: again, action on hr one continues today with work on the amendment and you can follow along at c-span.org on the

senate side the senate is expected to start the process by taking a look at the covid relief bill. follow along on that on c-span2. other things taking place here, capitol hill, you can capture that and find out what's going on at our website at c-span.org. jersey girl this morning says that the answer of making election day a holiday it is a fantasy where people don't work on holidays. a subset of employers are open on federal holidays. christine richards on facebook says that it needs to be revised, no more gerrymandering, make election day a national holiday and make it easier for absentee voting. a text from kentucky this morning, nolan saying that the opportunity to vote needs to be expanded, election day needs to be a 24 hour holiday and mailing open to those in the military. from bill in pennsylvania, he suggests making fraudulent

voting and extremely punished crime. if you want to text us, it's (202) 748-8003. our twitter feed is that c-span wj. -- is @cspanwj. one of the ideas about making no changes, this is the opinion from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. caller: thank you for calling, i appreciate your program. the woman from ohio who compared pennsylvania to ohio, nothing similar. i'm from allegheny county. in allegheny county we have so many polling places where you walk in, people know you. we know each other. they know you, how are you, how are you. if you have a lot of polling places, then you don't have a lot of the issues. the drop boxes at polling sites should be based on the census.

if you have eczema to people, you have to have x amount of voting opportunities -- if you have x amount of people, you have to have x amount of opportunities. the u.s. mail is a government agency and as legal as any other agency that we have. so, i think republicans are trying to restrict people and it goes back to the old adage, democrats vote in the rain and -- republicans don't vote in the rain and democrats do. host: ok. let's hear from georgia, anne, expand voting rights. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i well, go ahead. caller: i'm 89 years old, voting is very difficult for me. i don't think they should try to make it harder for me to vote. i really enjoy, i live in georgia, we had a lot of drop boxes last time.

there was no problem with the drop boxes. we went to the voting site and we dropped off at the box and didn't have to wait in line for a long time to get in and cast our vote. that was a real treat for us who are older and not as apt to be easy for us to get into the voting place. the biggest problem with the last election was a lot of the disinformation about voting problems that did not exist. before the election happened, i got about four calls from the trump family telling me how safe it was the vote by mail. -- was to vote by mail. then we have trump coming up and saying that all of the vote by mail is a fraud. it's a trumped up scheme to try to cast doubt on the election and on my vote. host: were you able to, were you able to track your vote after you submitted it by mail and

were you concerned about making sure it got to the place it was supposed to? caller: what i did, let me explain this, the ballots that people got through the mail that they did not request, those were not ballots, they were ballot applications so that they could vote by mail. host: but what was your case as far as making sure that once you mailed in your vote, it was accurate and got to the place it needed to. how did you trust that? caller: ok, i didn't mail it. i took, i drove, i had somebody drive me over to the voting location and there was a ballot dropbox. i put my ballot into the dropbox. somebody was standing outside there with the dropbox and i put my ballot in the dropbox like i would have mailed it, but i could not trust the mail because a lot of the mailed ballots didn't get there on time. host: ok. that was powder strings --

powder springs, georgia. you can highlight the experience of your own state, talking about this idea of voting rights and if you think that there are changes, or no changes, perhaps, needed to. perhaps you think they should be expanded, (202) 748-8000. restricted, (202) 748-8001. if you think no changes are necessary it's (202) 748-8002. other ways to reach us as well this morning, this is bruce from ohio, texting. his perspective is to restrict, saying it's very simple, national voter id cards only for legal citizens, solving the issue. from tom, we want to encourage everyone to vote, not to restrict and create barriers, encouraging mail-in votes, adding there's no widespread fraud, busing free for the polls and everyone can decide on going to work or voting. mark malone in new york saying all states should be mail-in

voting, seeing how two or three have been doing it successfully for years. william pace on the facebook page saying that there is id needed for beer, cigarettes, guns, voting should be on the list of things requiring id. other news to let you know about as well during this time, since the house is coming in at 9:00 today, when it comes to work on the covid relief bill, president biden is having a meeting with democrats yesterday talking about passing that in the senate and "the wall street journal" as moderate democrats have discussed specifying the billions and proposed aid used to expand broadband access and lawmakers are looking at changing who is eligible to receive direct payments and host: if you go to "the washington times" this morning,

they took data from the committee on a responsible federal government as mentioned by legislators, saying it includes 100 and 40 million for the bay area rapid transit expansion, san francisco, and in new york, 100 and $35 million for the national endowment of the arts and humanities, for museum and library services. 50 $8 million to multiemployer pension hands -- plans and changing those rules with data from congress.gov and the committee for a responsible federal government on the pages of "the washington times the senate is expected to start work today on the covid relief bill. ron in new york says don't change. go ahead. caller: we have enough laws on the books and they worked well for decades, you know? what we need to do is make sure that state legislatures don't

get to go around and change the process like they did in pennsylvania. we need a real investigation. i watch that mike lindell thing. what a great video. 130 million views he's had and there's proof. he's got a spreadsheet there that shows how many intrusion there were into the voting system, how many votes were saved. give him an hour on your show. host: you are saying states only should make the decisions? caller: is that what the constitution says? i'm a constitutionalist. when it comes to federal elections, like what happened in pa, the legislature there went around rules to extend the date that they could take in these fraudulent vote by mail things. we have laws. our laws have worked fine for years and we need people to

uphold the laws and the people that break them need to be prosecuted heavily. host: albert they are in fort worth says to expand voting rights. go ahead, albert. caller: thank you for taking my call. in texas, i think the caller from houston touched on one of these things, but in texas voter registrations, the deadlines for registration are 30 days prior to election day. like the other caller from texas mentioned, polling stations in some parts of the state have been heavily reduced. so, this state is one state that makes voting difficult because of their registration requirements. and if they wanted to, in this state, if they wanted to have more people voting, then maybe, make the registration requirements easier.

host: while i got you on the line, what you think about the governor's decision to rescind mask and capacity limits in the state? caller: well, i do not agree with that. one of the jobs i have is in retail. we limit the number of people that can actually come in the store. as an employee, we are grateful that people are wearing masks. with this no mask mandate, i asked in all the malls. i do not appreciate him changing the requirements. host: that's albert, they're in fort worth, texas. we showed you the headline from the governor of mississippi also making a similar decision when

it comes to masks. there are reports that despite the statewide decision, the mayor of jackson, mississippi, saying that despite the order that a mask mandate still stay in place in jackson, mississippi. from richie in yorktown heights, new york. he says restrict voting rights. go ahead. caller: how are you, good morning. host: fine, thank you. go ahead. caller: my question to the democrats is how does having election security suppress the vote? by requesting a mail-in ballot, and setting -- instead of mass mail-in ballots, how does that request the vote? request it with id. how does having signature matches suppress the vote? going to the voter poll that you go to anyway, showing a piece of id, how does that suppress the

vote? to me it's a game. most simple laws will give you voter security. it in no way suppresses the vote. that's my question to them. it's very simple. you want a mail-in ballot, rick rested with id. reviewing the ballots? signatures. when you go to the voting poll, show your id. can someone explain to me how these laws suppress the vote? host: it may not answer your question directly, but we will let you hear from a democratic member of congress, carolyn bourdeaux, freshman member from georgia, talking about efforts in her state regarding voting. [video clip] >> after the wrecking break -- record-breaking turnout in november the georgia assembly introduced a number of partisan bills to restrict voter registration and make it more difficult for georgians to vote. similar efforts are being made in states across the country. hr one would codified into law

provisions to protect voters from this systemic effort to restrict the vote. every voice must be heard, every vote must be counted. i would like to highlight my amendment, cosponsored by my many georgia colleagues, countering the threats across the country devoting i ensuring that drop boxes are easily acceptable to all americans no matter where they live, safeguarding access to absentee ballots and promoting registration efforts rather than limiting them. i urge my colleagues to pass hr one to protect the sacred right to vote, ending partisan gerrymandering, enabling free and fair elections. host: if you are interested on the senate side, they might consider the covid relief bill. follow along on c-span2.

gina raimondo of rhode island, the former governor as of yesterday now becoming the commerce secretary in the biden administration. the lieutenant governor is being sworn into that office. and then reuters reporting this morning that the princeton economist has been confirmed as the first black economist to the council of economic advisers. mary, new york, don't change things. go ahead. caller: nothing needs to be changed, everything worked out just fine. you have to have id, for the previous caller suggested that you don't have id for voting, you have to have id. you have to have an id to withdraw money from your own account, let's clear that up first. second of all, everything was going fine with the vote until trump started losing. everything that these people are complaining about, why didn't

they say something at the beginning of the vote? they waited until trump started losing and then they start finding all kinds of discrepancies in the voting system. the voting system has changed because the world has changed. these people make it so political. but if he hadn't had lost, we wouldn't be going through this right now. what do they mean by changing the vote? would they rather have it for caucasians only? is that the restriction? there is no voter fraud. anybody that thinks along them lines, that's because that's the things that they would have done themselves. host: if you are saying that more changes are needed -- no changes are needed, are you saying all african-americans are well represented when it comes to voting? caller: in that aspect, no, we are not. host: do you not think that changes are needed? caller: as far as that goes, we

still need change for us, the scales are still unbalanced. you can see it right now. yes, we do need those changes. in that aspect, yes. but as far as voting mail-in ballots and drop boxes, no, people have to make sure they are safe. some are not willing to risk their lives. host: ok, ok. randy, michigan, go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. i would like to start i thinking you and all the other men and women it takes to bring us this great program. you are doing us a great service. i believe that you should expand the voting rights as much as you can. there's no reason not to let people vote. if we are going to do means testing for voting, what else are going to do it for, driving? you get up there and you are 80 years old, you sure can't drive

is good, should we stop you from driving? it's if you are here in the united states, you can vote and it is the choice of the states as to how they want to do it. thank you, pedro, have a great day, talk to you later. host: marian cushing, oklahoma, go ahead. caller: you have to have a ticket or paperwork that shows you are legal in order to get a drivers license. you have to show your drivers license in order to vote. or you apply for a mail-in ballot. you have to have two people that say you on top of that. for people like me who have

tremors, you cannot sign your name the way you did when you were 20. so, i believe that it's still a good idea to make sure that people are legal here. i have lived in santa ana and i know what it's like to have illegals steal everything you have got every three months until you have to move out of state. thank you. host: other nominations coming into the biden administration, one who won't be is neera tanden , the original choice to head the office of management and budget that they are pulling the nomination to leave it over the results of her tweeting as mentioned by several members of congress.

when it comes to deb haaland, senator collins and sam stein are reporting that susan collins says she is going to support the nomination. that's just part of the nomination process going on. a lot of things happening and in seattle, washington they are saying expand voting rights. hello. caller: that's me, yeah. host: go ahead. caller: yeah, i'm saying expand, expand. they might even try to make it a holiday. these republicans are pathetic. these -- they have to suppress the vote in order to win an election because they can't win on their policies. now i see that the supreme court is going to join them and try to suppress the vote.

look at what they are saying. look at how they are leaning. they are not leaning with everybody being able to vote. host: the story i just read said that cavanaugh, barrett, and the chief justice seemed sympathetic. caller: you know what i mean. i heard that, too. the only thing i know is i'm waiting until the final word comes through, though. and i don't believe the supreme court, they already got in voting rights act. you know what i'm saying? they don't want nobody voting because that's the only way these republicans can win an election. they are mean-spirited, you understand. host: did you have trouble voting when he went to vote? caller: i didn't have no trouble, i voted by mail. but the fact of the matter is, why do you think they don't want people to vote on a holiday or a

saturday? or souls, you know, to service on sundays. why do you think they are, dejoy, why did they have to destroy the post office? they can't win fair and square. they are to mean -- too mean-spirited. host: the fbi director yesterday was talking about the events of january 6. one of the things that came out, one of the stories that came out , the fbi director saying that the riot was inspiration for extremism. you can see the u.s. capitol this morning with razor wire and fencing up and about as we go along. so that will be another topic of today's hearing. this is going to be in front of

the senate homeland security committee. if you want to see more about that information on the january 6 attack, you can watch it on c-span3 and follow along at c-span.org. president biden yesterday saying that he's expecting his administration to have enough vaccines for all americans by the end of may. this is reported in "the washington times," by tom holland junior. merck, who produced at ebola vaccine, will be providing services to package the one shot vaccines and vials and will make the actual vaccine -- the camera -- the president taking to the camera yesterday. [video clip] >> johnson & johnson will begin to operate 20 and in addition they will continue to use the

defense production act to expedite critical materials and vaccine production like equipment, machinery, and supplies. i have also asked of the department of defense to provide daily logistical support to support their efforts and i want to thank johnson & johnson and merck for stepping up and being good corporate citizens during this national crisis. here's what it means, we are now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in america by the end of may. let me say that again, when we came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in america. we rectify that. about three weeks ago we were able to say that we would have enough vaccine supply for adults by the end of july. i'm pleased to announce today that as a consequences of this

stepped up process that i have ordered and just outlined, this country will have enough vaccine supply, i will say it again, for every adult in america by the end of may, by the end of may. that's progress. host: loretta poindexter tweeting out this morning saying that felons can't even vote even though they have done their time for their crimes, but there are many things that can be done if you are talking one person, one vote. this from jim in sarasota, congress should require that these regulations be similar -- similar in all states, sign paper ballots, electing them on a specific date during advertised time frames. from gary in washington state, i believe, saying we have mail-in voting here and i was able to check that it made it and some improvements i think can be moved to the system, like who i voted for, maybe a postcard can

be sent back to me with my choices. this from amy, my job has me working 12 hours per day says -- so physically going somewhere to vote is not an option for me. online voting is an option we have needed for a long time. joe in alabama says that when it comes to voting rights, don't change things. caller: good morning, pedro. this is interesting here, we have gone from the january 6 insurrection where they were counting the votes to where we are today, to a speech that president trump gave on sunday that sounded more like a state of the union speech. host: voting rights are the topic today, what do you think of this idea of expanding them, restricting them, or not

changing them? are you there? host: yes, i'm here. i think the answer to the question is expanding the voting rights, i'm all for it, but make sure that the voting rights are exercised by citizens of the united states. i don't think we are at that point right now. wasn't there someone in "the new york times," who got together a group changing how legislatures of the state, changed by bureaucrats, what he wound up calling it was fortification of

democracy? host: ok, that's joe and alabama . dennis in williamsport, alabama, expand voting rights. hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. i live here in williamsport and i voted by mail and have already applied for my primary ballot. this will be the third time i voted by mail. you have to apply to get your ballot. they just don't send you a ballot. you have to identify yourself with an identification number. i have always voted. i have never missed an election since 1970. this makes it a lot easier. i want to keep right on voting by mail. of course, the gerrymandered republican legislature is already trying to roll back and they passed, by the way, but we have a democratic governor and he will veto that, so there will

be continued mail-in voting. we only have in person early voting in the state of pennsylvania at the voting office. that should be expanded. there's no reason that we shouldn't, as many other states have early voting. that's all i have to say. thank you and have a nice day. host: down in georgia, a viewer says don't change. hello. caller: how are you doing, pedro? host: fine, go ahead. caller: i don't think you need to change it, the mail-in ballot system is just a joke. if people go to walmart or any other chain stores and go shopping, you should be able to go out and go vote. host: ok. that is barry. if you are interested in topics other than voting rights, maybe space policy, there's a story from "the washington post"

highlighting the biden administration saying that when it came to the vias policies they will hold on to two, saying that they announced the artist, the return of astronauts to the lunar surface, and the space force, the sixth branch of the armed services, is a topic at the national press club. you will hear from general john raymond, chief of space operations if you want to see what the future of space force hold under a biden administration, follow along on c-span3 this morning. don't forget, at 9 a.m. the house will come into resume work on hr one and we will go to that coverage when it happens. two guests joining us now on voting rights. lisa is in new jersey, says restricted voting rights. hello, lisa. caller: good morning.

i'm calling in reference to making a comment on this voting issue. there are some people calling in and the saying that voting is legal and we have the right to vote. that's true, we do have the right to vote. but in this case what happened previously with the voting issue is total disgrace, ok? i believe in did some research on my own and um found out that there is one person that is completely subjected to all of this voting fraudulent happenings. and um -- host: who is that person? caller: there is a ghost behind biden who is completely, completely committed to telling

biden what he's doing and what he's not doing and went as far as -- guest: but what does that mean for voting rights? + what -- caller: pardon me? host: what does that mean for voting rights? caller: that it was all illegally done. i think that the next voting issue coming up should be restrictions on that. host: such as what? caller: restrictions on having people voting in perfect -- in person, that's number one. host: you are saying more restrictions? more people restricted from voting in person? caller: no, i didn't say that, ok? they should put restrictions on the fact that, go back to the old times, when people used to go vote, ok? sign their name in person, get into the booth and vote. it's as simple as that and that is legal.

the fact that mailing in and just putting anybody's name on a voting ballot, it's just not american, it really isn't. host: that's lisa in new jersey, rockaway park says expand voting rights. hello. caller: there is something in this house bill that could make the voters votes help -- count more. citizens united, that decision, federal election commission giving people the right to pour millions and millions of dollars into campaigns and these super pac's don't even have to say who these donors are.

now you can see the result of that. the postmaster donated $1 million to the trump campaign. betsy devos, former education commissioner, hundreds of millions of dollars to the candidates. the coke brothers. now, these people are not your average working guy. and they cannot be prosecuted. have you ever heard of an executive going to prison? no. host: how do you believe that rolling back citizens united changes that? caller: i live in new york. if i want to form a super pac or if i just want to make a donation because i'm a millionaire and i want to donate $500,000 to the candidate that is against josh hawley, no i don't live in missouri. -- now i don't live in missouri. i don't live in missouri, i'm in

new york but my money is here. you understand what i'm saying? host: we'll leave you there. lynn, ohio, last call on this. caller: high, good morning. --i am a former poll worker. i really personally do not understand why we are having all this difficulty with the election not being right. i'm from ohio and we have released rituals. i have always voted early since i could because i couldn't vote when i was a poll worker that day at my poll. i believe what has happened, a lot of people have figured out how to be able to get new votes in. host: how would you expand on

voting rights in the u.s.? caller: i would expand it more with having more people and talking to more people and getting them registered. it's really hard to get them registered. i've worked on a couple campaigns. there's a lot of people in this country that are not registered and that's not right. people need to understand what the laws are. host: we will have to leave it there. thank you for calling. all of you, thank you for participating. with the house coming in at 9:00 , two guests and representatives of congress. we will turn to the topic of foreign policy. the house foreign affairs committee chair and u.s. representative gregory meeks. then republican congressman joe -- mo brooks will be here to talk about the hearing with

chris wray on covid relief negotiations. those conversations coming up on washington journal. ♪ >> book tv on c-span has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. saturday, charles koch and charles koch foundation president brian hooks, co-authors of the book will even people offer their thoughts on how to tackle economic and social challenges. pulitzer prize winning author elizabeth kolbert talks about environmental issues, global warming and the human impact on nature. she's the author of several books including, under a white sky, the nature of the future. former new york federal reserve board chair sarah horwitz, author of the book mutualism offers her thoughts on how to build economic sustainability

for workers in the futures. watch book tv on c-span2 this weekend. washington journal continues. host: our first guest of the morning is representative gregory meeks. he is the chair of the foreign affairs committee. we appreciate your time this morning sir. guest: good to be with you. host: hr one being worked on this week, what do you say to those critics about concerns of how it shapes or changes voting in their mind? >> we are making sure everybody has access to make it easier for people to vote. we talk around the world about democracy. the essence of democracy is the individual's right and ability to vote.

so what hr was does is protects the rights to vote by removing barriers to casting a ballot. i know the post for example reconstruction time, what was put in place was banning african-americans for voting like how many jellybeans are in a jar and things that prevented and eliminated folks from having access to ballots. that's not who we should be in 2021. we should be removing the barriers. it ends partisan redistricting so that we can make sure that folks cannot do gerrymandering. this is about equity, it's about fairness, it's about democracy, which is all really important. it's about transparency and

accountability. we saw the last election was not as some of my republican friends, the lies they continue to perpetuate, that it was corruption. we have a court system, many of the judges that were appointed by the past president said there was no corruption. so greater opportunities to vote does not translate into corruption as what some of my republican colleagues are trying to say. it really is democracy. host: there is an editorial in the washington times saying it would strip away power from individual states to determine their election processes and also federalize it. how do you respond to that?

guest: we want to make sure all elections are fair. that's what i heard again during reconstruction. it gives all the powers back to the states. because what they saw was -- it made a difference. once women had the ability to vote, it made a difference. the states decided they were going to come together, change the laws, put restrictions on individuals and women from voting. we can't go back to those bad times of american history. we need to recognize what to place in the past and take the steps forward, which is why we have the fights that we had during the voting rights era in the 1960's. so we should be going forward we should be striving to be a more perfect union.

not going back to the times when we were not. host: turning to the topics regarding foreign affairs. there were reports this morning that base housing of troops in iraq were hit by missiles. do you have anything to add as far as the cause or the impact for this action? guest: i don't have any comments at this time. i do expect it to be brief and talking to the administration in that regard. i know we've got to make sure that we are protecting our troops and interest in the region. i don't want to comment further until i have an update and talk to the administration which i will do as chair of the house foreign affairs committee.

host: when it comes to the decision by the biden administration for the strike in syria, or you informed of that and what did you think of the decision? guest: i'm going to be honest with you, initially when i heard about the strike i wasn't informed and i was upset about that. i immediately got on the phone to the administration because i would not tolerate it under the former president and i don't want that same scenario under the current president. i reminded them that under the war powers resolution, the house foreign affairs committee has jurisdictions and there is direction where they should be informing the committee. my conversation from there was that it would never happen again. and in fact the resolution also says that after a strike of such nature, the administration has $40 to given unclassified

briefing on what took place. and the administration didn't live up to that. within 48 hours, i received an unclassified briefing as required by the war powers resolution explaining why the strike was necessary. from that information, i still have some questions because what's next is a classified briefing from the administration which is now being set up. so i want to make sure that the constitution is adhered to. that i have the responsibility, and it's a tough responsibility, to determine whether to strike or not, to determine whether someone should go to war or not is tough. i'm not going to do mere -- dim your -- demur that to the administration.

i am pleased with the administration's response subsequent to the initial strike in syria and look forward to working very closely with them in the future and any strikes or in moving forward. at this point, it's also important to me as chair of the committee and what we will be looking to do on the committee is not just giving blank checks on the authorization of the utilization of military force. an hour committee be looking, because oftentimes we find that administrations would claim to the 2002 or 2001 authorization that was 20 years ago for a different subject matter.

we want to make sure we fix that and our committee is looking at that so that congress and the executive branch has a responsibility to come to congress in regards to the authorization of the utilization of military force. host: our guest is with us until 8:30. (202) 748-8000 democrats, (202) 748-8001 republicans, (202) 748-8002 independents. when it comes to administration the biden administration released about the death of jamal khashoggi, should a stronger hand be in play towards saudi arabia? >> definitely a stronger hand. i appreciate biden administration releasing the information in regard to the assassination unlike the prior administration. i think that was the right thing

to do. i think it's also the right thing to do to have a different relationship with saudi arabia than what we have had over the past four years. we've got to show what our values are and live by them and make sure that we do not allow individuals or countries who have human rights violations or others whether they are allies or adversaries. we need to confront them. particularly with so-called allies. if you cannot tell your allies what you think, it's important that we also recognize that we are not a perfect nation ourselves. and we've got to have humility when we are talking to individuals. should there be a different relationship with saudi arabia, absolutely. should there be consequences, absolutely. so i'm looking forward to talking to the administration about other holding accountable,

other areas in which we can hold saudi arabia accountable moving forward. host: what should be done as far as accountability? what would you like to see happen? >> one of the things that is important just going along with saudi arabia and the war in yemen where it's a humanitarian crisis. i think the ministration is right. for we look the other way. saying we are not going to -- support saudi arabia in this war in yemen is the right thing to do. not selling weapons to the saudi arabians just as a matter of selling them weapons cetera -- etc. which we have done in the past. prior administration worked around congress not to get approval in that regard.

not standing up and talking about the humanitarian issues that we have with saudi arabia and being upfront about that is the right thing to do. and i think that looking at some areas of where there may be sanctions etc. is important to do. i don't believe sanctions is the be-all and all of everything. it's targeted sanctions to make sure those who have committed bad acts don't get away with it and you don't punish people. but i think we have to look at all of the above. and i understand the administration's position very clearly that nbs will be there for a long period of time and we have to figure out how we change the relationship that we have had but also work to protect the

interests that we have in the region also. so it's not an easy scenario i think it is something that we can do. working with our allies is also really important in my estimation. not doing it alone, making sure we are bringing forward other allies. host: here's maliki in arlington texas. you are on with gregory meeks. go ahead. caller: i left the democratic party over their obsession with daca. i also believe the majority of these people came after the civil war. they have nothing invented in the institution of democracy. that's why you see so much resistance towards democracy. they only came to this country to benefit from institutional white privilege. i would hope to see the biden administration the more aggressive toward israel and put

more pressure on israel to stop building settlements in the west bank and the gaza strip. it's almost as if the democratic party also has an element of zionism inside the party, which is very troubling to me. i did vote for joe biden, i did not vote for hillary clinton last time. i didn't vote for anybody at all. i thought the religious right wouldn't elect trump, but i was actually wrong. i will take your comments. guest: first off, i think that when you look at immigration, the daca individual, most americans agree there should be something done so they can become citizenship. many of them have served in our military. the right thing to do is to make

sure that there is a way that there is a path to citizenship in that regard. i think that's where most americans stand in that regard. in regards to annexation of property in the middle east by israel, i think you have heard, i have stood up and said that i do not want any further annexation. there should not be annexation because i'm a firm believer in a two state solution. and if annexation continues, you do not have the territory and the property in which to come up with a two state solution where you can ultimately get to a real peace in the middle east. so i think many democrats, i'm one of them, have said that -- and have said publicly -- there was a letter that was written by a number of individuals talking

about it on all sides that annexation must stop. so i think that the biden administration is looking at how to move in a way that we can have dialogue and conversations in a multilateral way. not just america alone or america only. that's not away to do foreign policy. that's not diplomacy. i think the biden administration and secretary blinken also understands the value of diplomacy and trying to resolve some of the issues. host: from jamie, independent line in maine. go ahead. caller: good morning sir. i wanted to call this morning because i want americans to understand the need for congressional oversight from the perspective of defense

professionals. we supported a strategy in the middle east of containment that was successful in limiting violence and containing extremism. for decades. before that was violated by the bush administration. and we have seen the consequences of that. 8 million refugees i believe have streamed out of the middle east. and are now 100 25 refugee camps holding the throughout the world. it's a costly expense to manage that. and the security problems have significantly increased as a result. so that kind of oversight is extremely important. guest: i agree. when i think about iraq, then

secretary powell said if you break it, you own it. and i voted against going into iraq. i think more -- war should be the absolute last alternative. diplomacy is much better. that it gets clear you heard from former generals say that it is far more costly to go to war then fund the state department and help diplomacy. finally, i could completely agree with you that it is our responsibility, those of us that are in the house and senate, to oversee the executive branch in that regard and to make sure we utilize our oversight responsibilities, particularly as it pertains to going to war. that's why having these long-standing authorizations for the utilization of luke perry force has to go.

so that the executive branch must no matter who the president is come back to congress so that we as voices of the people in a separate but equal branch of government have our say and what takes place and what should not take place and it's not left just in the hands of the executive. so i agree with the caller. host: on cologne off of twitter asks why was the strike necessary? host: i think there was no question where you see some of the iranian supported malicious have recently made attacks on united states military individuals, killing one individual who was not part of the military but who was an american citizen and others. so we cannot allow them to have these strikes against our

interest and our folks without showing that there is a price to pay. so that's why the strike in the gulf was necessary. there was one american contractor wounded and it was a u.s. servicemember wanted. we cannot allow that. we have to make clear that the united states will protect its folks. host: in florida. dependent line. you are on with our guest. the ahead. caller: morning. i had a question concerning the president's policy on the moneys when he told the gentleman in ukraine that you have six hours

to make a decision because i'm getting on a plane. will this same policy be used in africa when they reject the lgb q's policy on gender? the money is tied to it. what's your feeling on it, representative? guest: i don't think that my feeling is that our dollars for health care and other human rights should not be tied to whether or not the lgbtq or not. it's important and why all elections are important, i think the correct way to move is the way we will take care of individuals who are in need and it should not be based upon their race, their religion or their sexual orientation. i believe that is as far as gregory meeks is concerned, not

a way of showing that we care and that this world which is a much smaller world now that we are going to try to make sure that we save human life. everyone is human. and to protect and make sure that one is not prejudiced toward them because -- i know again, speak for my own living, that as an african-american, for a long time african-americans have been denied certain things simply because of their race. so it would be wrong to deny other individuals simply because of their sexual orientation. host: in england, on our line for others. caller: good morning. is it -- to keep the peace for

foreign policy other things? guest: we live in a much smaller world and it was 10 to 15 years ago. so we've got to figure out how we share this planet collectively. there's issues that we all have to deal with that affect each and every one of us. if there's one thing that has shown that, it's this virus that is going around in the pandemic. it affects us until we wipe it out multilaterally. everyone working collectively together, we are all a threat. same thing with war. so utilization of nuclear weapons or anything of that nature puts us all at jeopardy. so we need to utilize diplomacy, talking to one another, working with one another so that we can have peace. there is greater opportunity with technology to be more

interdependent. we should be able to wipe out famine and if we utilize the technology that we have in the world today so that no one has to go hungry. we should be able to work together to have harmony. this should be the improvements we made on the earth with the technology that we have as opposed to going to war with one another. we need to figure out how we can trade with one another in a more appropriate manner so that it benefits all of us and pushes us up and makes us all have a brighter future. so that tomorrow is better than today and yesterday and war will not get us there. diplomacy and having peace in my estimation is the path to take. host: of viewer off of our texting service says does the committee that you chair had

jurisdiction on international cooperation regarding carbon emissions and climate change? guest: yes. we are going to step up and utilize that absolutely. it is an international affairs issue. it's all around the world. multiple committees will have juristic. clearly the foreign affairs committee does also and it is a way that we need to sit down and talk with other nations and those that may be violating carbon emissions etc. that we can make sure we are in compliance. it didn't help that it was the united states that pulled out of the paris climate accord. it helps that we are back in it so that we can work collectively with others so that we can save our client and make sure we are helping those who are violating emissions and earth is warming.

we've got to work together. our committee defensively has a voice and we will utilize our voice in that regard. host: in california. we will hear from wanda. caller: why do you worry and care what happens in israel when you don't care about chinese slave labor? every phone, tv an article of clothing that you are wearing was made by slaves in china. you are benefiting from slave labor. biden cares about reparations and now you are benefiting from slave labor. guest: i care about everyone around the world. so i care about human rights. i care about making sure that we utilize diplomacy and we are talking and preventing war. i care about fairness.

i care about eliminating poverty all around this world. we should do that working with friends and allies. and we need to call it out. surely i am one who knows of what slavery means and to say that i'm silent anywhere in the world where i see two sure slavery is absolutely a falsehood. i speak out loudly and clearly and want folks and believe it is important for us, for all human beings to speak out. i'm always reminded of words of dr. king when he said we will not remember bad acts of our enemies but the silence of our friends. so this is the responsibility of all of us. every human being as you see or

hear of someone being enslaved whether de facto or danger right -- daja ray -- de jure. host: pete on the democrat line, jump in quick with your question or comment please. caller: here we give way all this money to all these countries but we are worried about such a thing that -- republicans don't see that we need the money over here. so we are paying the taxes. i'm still paying taxes even though this thing is going on with this covid-19. i don't understand where it's going. everything is still the way it was.

2% really isn't much at all. guest: i think that's a job that we need to do better in congress, explained to the american people that the money that we utilize in foreign countries is important to us here at home. it makes us safer. it makes it so that we are able to be more piece here also and we have to do a better job in doing that and that is not many people, when i ask how much money do they think -- i think we are spending 25% or 15%. when i tell them that it's less than 1%, they are shocked by that. but we do have to do a better job and explained to the american people why it is important for us to have a strong diplomatic corps and

strong in regards to helping others help themselves. how that makes us safer at home and helps us economically also, how it helps create jobs for us here in america as well as making life better for those in other areas of the world. host: representative gregory meeks serves the fifth district of new york and the chair of the foreign news committee. joining us now, representative moulton, republican from alabama. also serves on the science, space and technology committee. thank you for joining us. it has been two months. a lot has been discussed about the events of january 6. what do you think about the invents -- events on the capital? let's not rush to judgment. let's wait for judgment.

certainly we know a whole lot more than we did before. today it looks like the evidence is pretty strong that there were militant elements from different groups like proud boys, perhaps boogaloo boys, perhaps oath keepers, go down your list that used the trump rally as a subterfuge for attacking the united states capital. it looks like it was planned well in advance. that's the testimony we are getting in congress from people associated with law enforcement. as such it is pretty clear that the speeches had nothing to do with the attack on the capital on january 6 in as much as the kind of planning that was initiated began many days and even weeks before the speeches. host: christopher wray was asked about these very similar things. i want to play his response and then get your response to that. >> when i look at what happened

on january 6, it appears that right-wing white supremacist groups played an instrumental role in the violence. is that your conclusion also? >> let me answer that this way. i think we are basically saying the same thing. we don't tend to think of violent extremism in terms of right left. that's not a spectrum that we look at. what i will say is it is clear that a large and growing number of the people that we have arrested so far in connection with the sixth or what we would call militia violent extremism. militia violent extremists. and there have been some already who have emerged to i would put in the racially motivated violent extremists pocket. advocating for the superiority of the white race. >> your testimony previously

that you did not see antifa or left-wing groups playing a significant role in the january 6 interaction. >> certainly we are equal opportunity in looking for violent extremism of any ideology. you have not seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to antifa in connection with the sixth. that doesn't mean we are not looking and will continue to look. at the moment we have not seen that. host: what is your reaction to that? guest: i agree with most of it. i think some clarity is important when we talk about white supremacy kind of thing. from what i understand out of a couple hundred arrests, less than 5% have been identified as white supremacist. that is not to say that white supremacy was not a factor in

that. those people should be punished as appropriate under the law. i also carefully listened to his words about black lives matter and antifa. i agree they were not a significant presence in that investigation today. keeping in mind things may change. there is one individual, john sullivan who claims and has participated in black lives matter protests, same thing with fascist anti-, there is some question from those groups, they tend to reject john sullivan. that doesn't mean an individual who engages in violence is disassociated after the fat from the groups he claims he's affiliated with. on that side of course -- i would agree the black lives --

matter wasn't a significant part based on the information i had. host: you were part of the stop the steal effect. in hindsight, would you change anything? guest: we were talking about a rally miles away that was provided by the first amendment. freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom to position the government with your grievance. so that's a different event than what happened at the united states capital. i'm pleased that the rally, hours before the attack on the capital, that it was peaceful in all respects as far as i know. host: one of the underlying themes, he heard the preference -- president talk about joe biden's legitimacy as president. is joe biden the legitimate president in your mind? guest: no biden has been sworn in.

he is the president of the united states. host: you can call and ask questions on (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8002 independents. text us at (202) 748-8003. when it comes to security at the capitol, what has to change to prevent these kind of instances from happening again? guest: one thing about this particular event was the lack of intelligence. if you look at what the capitol police chief testified to in some of these hearings, we didn't have adequate notification that there were these militant groups that had infiltrated the rally and were hell-bent on engaging in violence at the united states capital. so intelligence would have been really beneficial to our law enforcement officers. we could have triggered the national guard earlier.

perhaps the rules of engagement need to be changed with the capitol police officer's so they can be more aggressive in their defense of the noted states capital. if some of the more traditional suicidal violent terrorist groups had been active in taking advantage of what was otherwise supposed to be a peaceful protest, there could have been a significant loss of life. imagine al qaeda. if they had been secreting weapons in the united states capital during this event. from what i understand although the investigations are underway, no one who has been arrested inside the united states capital had firearms of any kind. no one who is arrested inside the united states capital had any traditional weapons of that sort. they did have apparently bats or batons which also if improperly

used couldn't be considered a deadly weapon. i don't want to get too much in the details of what is and is not a weapon. but if you had 20 or 30 al qaeda suicidal types in there, it could have been a horrible scene. i hope we have learned from this and make sure the capitol police has the authority to use the kind of force that is necessary to repeal this kind of attack on the capital in the future. i think that's an important lesson we need to learn. host: is the fencing around the capital still necessary? guest: absolutely not. there are no current threats. it would have been appropriate if we had intelligence that military groups were going to engage in violent attacks on the capital and organized nature. i know of no significant threats right now that are out of the ordinary. on a regular basis congressman

get threatened, senators get threatened with physical bodily harm on the one hand with cash or with murder or death on the other hand. that's a part of being in the united states congress. we frequently have unsubstantiated or reckless threats thrown out there. that is been a constant in my 11 years in office here in the noted states congress. -- united states congress. i have seen nothing that the fence remaining around the capital, particularly given the cost. the cost so far is roughly $500 million. i hope someone will be able to confirm if that is the case. that's half $1 billion. quite frankly, we are not getting a good return on that money and i'm sure those

national guardsmen would much prefer to be back home. i don't see anything out there that would cause me to believe that our capitol police cannot handle it. host: we have calls lined up for you, our first one is from minnesota. this is linda. go ahead. caller: i'm hoping you give me a chance to say what i want to say. mr. brooks, you just said that the crowd was mostly peaceful and i probably will agree with that. but then when you got up on the stand and i'm going to say the quote because i hope i can. guest: say the whole quote, it's two sentences long. caller: today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. guest: you're absolutely wrong. say the whole quote. two sentences. host: representative, let her finish.

caller, go ahead. caller: pedro, i wish you have played it for all of us to hear. i hope that you do play it for all of us. i'm not finished. host: today's the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. are you willing to fight for america. guest: you have also spliced it. host: what is missing? guest: the sentence of the two sentence paragraph begins with, they're about to get into the 2022 and 2024 elections. that puts the context in which the second sentence is talking about and it begins with the phrase as such. so when i'm talking about the 2022 and 2024 elections. whose names are we taking down? names of those congressmen and senators who want to support voter fraud and election theft. and when are we going to kick

their derriere's? in the 2022 and 2024 elections. so say the whole paragraph. host: you are saying that has no influence on what happened on that day then? guest: absolutely. it did not. caller: i want to talk about the covid crisis we are going through. in alabama, they have a tiered system as far as giving out the vaccines distribution and it is one a, one b and one c. they are giving vaccines to teachers, people at walmart and lawyers and such. i'm disabled and i'm on oxygen and i don't know how many of those teachers at walmart can say that if they get this they actually will die. i can say that, if i'm in the lower class of these people that are getting the vaccine and i

just think it's a real mistake for our state to be giving vaccines to people that do deserve it, but i also think i deserve it. i was just wondering if they are ever going to open up the vaccine to disabled people. guest: what is your age? caller: i'm 54. guest: you are pretty close to that magic 65. from what i understand from joe biden's statement, we will have enough vaccines available within the next two months for every adult within the united states of america. hopefully that will play out whether it is pfizer, moderna or johnson & johnson. so just hang in there. i know it has been a tough year plus. host: priority given to teachers, do you think that's appropriate? guest: i'm not going to get into the details of the highest priority based on the medical needs. i have not studied that. it's an executive branch

decision and then at the state level it's a gubernatorial decision as to who gets those kinds of things. but the nuances and the criteria are such detailed, what i've done on the u.s. congress side is help president trump with operation warp speed to ensure we have the money necessary to very quickly get a vaccine together against this deadly illness at significant speed to do this faster than we have done before with any other pandemic of this nature. that's my role is to make sure there's proper funding for it and we did that. host: terry in illinois. republican. good morning. caller: asked the congressman if he felt the president in the white house is our president. i feel he is through theft. and also anything that was set on that stage, i watched the

whole thing. and he said nothing violent like what happened. but i want to talk about christopher wray yesterday. when he was asked what he thought was causing all of this in our country, he sort of dodged the question. one thing i think the fbi is causing a lot of the problems and the congress people is stoking racists constantly. dividing the people up. if you look at sandy hook crisis at the high school, didn't the fbi was notified two times about this young man that wanted to kill people and they did nothing about it? and look how they tried to overthrow an election, overthrow a sitting president and not one person is being charged on anything? they slapped one young man's hands and said don't do it no more. so the deep state is running out country.

and a democrat is destroying our country. host: ok. guest: there are a lot of factors in my judgment that have contributed to january the sixth. it might be voter fraud and election theft which in my opinion was the worst in the history of the red states of america. it might be the adverse financial effects of covid-19, where some governors and mayors have gone to extraordinary lengths to do great damage to the american economy, sacrificing the financial lives of millions of americans. now you have americans who were successful, but now they are destitute. now you have with the democrat party has been doing for about a decade, and that is playing on racial fears, stoking racial animosity in order to garner block votes from minorities. i strongly disagree with the strategy in that regard although i disagree with it, to their

credit, it's been successful. look at what happened in the 2020 elections. host: christine in rhode island. you are on. caller: i just want to know how in the hell did this man get elected. talk about propaganda and line. i just hope our country comes together. i have heard us against them for years now and i'm so sick of it. host: that's christine in rhode island. guest: i got elected the way most people get elected. a vast part of the population chose to send me over others. chose me to represent them in the state legislature over others and just as an aside, no one in the history of the state of alabama has successfully carried the republican banner in general elections more than i have for whatever reason, the

citizens of the state of alabama have seen fit to discern that the job i do for them is what they want done. with respect to the line part, i can't help but note that she hasn't mentioned one false statement i have made so far and my reputation is based primarily on my telling the truth as i know it as best i can and sometimes i have a total lack of diplomatic skill, but nonetheless, the votaries in the state of alabama appreciate having an office holder who will tell the truth whether it be good news or bad news. that's what i've tried to do. host: charles in alexandria, virginia. charles dropped. let's go to dennis in pensacola, florida. dennis in pensacola, florida. hello. we will try william in

sanderson, florida. republican line. good morning. caller: yes sir. i vote republican sometimes and i was going to vote for trump and i was standing in line beside the got with the badge -- guy with the badge before i got in the door. one of our neighbors come up and said all democrats ought to be shot. i've had people come by the house because we are in a small community counting how many democrats voted in our precinct. my wife votes democrat. so y'all pushing yells rhetoric y'all are doing, when are you going to stand up and straighten this stuff out so me and my neighbors ain't shooting each other? guest: i've never advocated violence in the political arena. i don't believe we should engage in violence, we have to have honest and accurate elections. if we don't have honest and

accurate elections, then we no longer have a republic. so we need to do everything we can to implement the suggestions of the commission on federal election reform. there was a report in 2005 that was cochaired by democrat jimmy carter and republican former white house chief of staff james baker and we should be implementing those recommendations. voter id, minimization of mail out ballots because that is where the greatest risk of election fraud occurs. another recommendation was do the things that are necessary to minimize noncitizen voting in american elections, which is becoming a bigger problem. noncitizens are participating in our elections, thereby canceling out the votes of american citizens. american elections ought to be exclusively for the benefit of american citizens. when he talked about those

noncitizens who violate our laws, register to vote and then vote in our elections. the primary opportunity is at the ballot box. that's where the fight has to be. i urge all american citizens to participate in a republic as much as they possibly can because it's our destiny that those citizens are going to control and that also means their lives, their children's lives, their grandchildren's lives. he went and voted, that's a good thing, i hope you cast an educated vote although it's getting harder and harder to be educated about public policy because you see so much false information and propaganda but the fake news media on the internet and the radio. host: will suppose democrats will say hr one offers a remedy. guest: absolutely not. that is the exact opposite by

what the commission on election reform, it does the exact opposite of what is recommended. it eliminates voter id. photo id as an example. that's terrific. that's opening the floodgates for voter fraud. it starts registering people to vote at age 16 and 17. it makes it harder to prevent noncitizens from voting. just go down the list. heritage foundation has a very good report. i sent out a news release yesterday that explains why i'm voting no. it is one of the worst bills in the history of the united states of america. it will undermine our election system like never before. host: walter in new york. independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning to you all. how are you? guest: i'm doing great. how about yourself? caller: still kicking. i have a couple questions.

the first one, on the sixth was totally horrible. guest: i agree. caller: i'm just trying to figure out why all the black lives matter rioting i like to call it, what's the difference on that except for the sixth was totally overboard with that and overboard like scaring little white women from painting their faces yellow. it's not a nice thing. if this is what the new generation has come to, i think it's time for some buddy to stand up and educate them a little bit about their past history and everything else that's going to happen in this country. if we don't stand together as a unit, we are going to lose this country. my father fought and died for this country and it just ain't proper. it's wrong to discriminate against people who believe in their heritage. number one, like the indians do. like the black lives matter and the chinese. everyone has a right to their history.

stop trying to take it away because people will stand up and fight back. guest: i have never had such fear for the history of this country and i'm 66 years old. it's not just the division based on race that democrats promote on a regular basis. it's also the deficit and debt. however we going to pay that back? we don't have the ability to pay that back. what happens when our creditors decide they don't have the ability to loan us more money? are we going to crash like venezuela? for enterprise has generated more wealth than any country and we want to destroy that and replace that with socialism that is a failed model everywhere? unfortunately this united states congress is not up to the task. host: dustin in georgia. democrat line.

caller: how can you state there was voter fraud in the past election when there's been 60 plus cases have been thrown out in court including trump installed judges that have thrown out the cases, to. guest: i very much appreciate you asking that question. i'm a litigator. i have been in litigation in the courtroom for over three decades. you can go to claire's thomases dissenting opinion in a recent opinion. that outlines it to some degree. from a lawyers perspective, if you've got 130,000 illegal ballots in nevada or 27,000 in georgia and the 130 thousand comes from testimony in the united states senate hearing, the 27,000 comes from the attorneys, and itemization of

illegal votes cast in georgia. here's the problem. once you mix those illegal ballots with the legal ballots, it's impossible at that point to undo what's been done. once those fraudulent votes are cast, you can't prove who they were cast for because they are intermingled with all of the legal ballots. as such, you can't prove who benefited, as such you cannot change the election results. it's one thing to say there was no voter fraud. that's absolutely false. there was lots of voter fraud. it's another thing to say who benefited from that voter fraud. in my opinion it was joe biden and the democrats who benefited. they might say the opposite thing. but there was massive voter fraud on the level we have never seen in the history of the united states of america but there's no way to prove it in a court of law because there's no way to prove who the ballot was cast for once it is mingled with all the other ballots.

host: bill barr himself said he didn't see evidence of widespread fraud. guest: that's false. he said he was unaware of any evidence. another reporter dared to ask him but should have asked him, how many reports have you received. no one asked him that. if you in the position he's in aren't receiving the reports from the investigators or if they have not completed their investigations and provide the reports, of course he would say that. i don't disagree with the honesty of what he said. i think that's what he believed at that time. but we have contrary evidence that was developed over the ensuing league -- weeks. when you have an itemization of illegal votes cast in nevada or 27,000 itemized illegal ballots cast in georgia, i would go with that. when dead people are voting and you can prove they are deceased

under social security records. that's pretty compelling evidence. when you have 4000 people in nevada who voted twice, that's pretty compelling evidence. when you have tens of thousands of people who claim they are nevada citizens but don't have nevada addresses. that's pretty compelling evidence is. host: the house is about to come in. since they have a long day of work including hr one and you're part of that, mo brooks. republican of alabama. thanks again. we go to the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., march 3, 2021. i hereby appoint the honorable henry cuellar to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of