[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 committed dissenters to create wi-fi enabled sites so students from low income families can get the tools to be ready for anything. comcast support c-span is a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row c2 democracy. coming up on "washington journal ," your chance to grade president biden's first 100 days

in office. and at 8:00 a.m., and then car mark discusses the first 100 days of the -- elaine kamarck discusses the first 100 days of the biden administration. ♪ host: good morning on this friday, april 30. we're going to mark president biden's first 100 days. what is your grade you would give the president? according to an abc washington poll recently done, 52% of you approve of his job. when you break down performance by issue, 64% approve of his handling of the pandemic, 58% like the idea of raising corporate taxes, 52% agree with his proposal on infrastructure, but only 37% approve of his handling of immigration.

we want to know your grade this morning. if you are a republican, dial (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. send your grade in a text with your first name, city, and state at (202) 748-8003. or included in a tweet using @cspanwj, and you can also posted on facebook. your grade for president biden on his first one hundred days. the "washington post" asked opinion writers what would be there grade for the president. they broke it down by issue. jennifer rubin gave the president an a-when it comes to presidential leadership. look at james homan's grade for the president on bipartisanship. he said he gets a b.

when it comes to unity, gary abernethy gave him a c-. he says biden's recognizes republicans only as one would acknowledge shoulder lint. the relief package rivals the new deal, and there have been strict party line votes. a package twists the definition of infrastructure beyond recognition. here is the president from his inauguration address promising unity. [video clip] pres. biden: this, bringing america together, uniting our people, uniting our nation, and i ask every american to join me in this cause. [applause] uniting to fight the foes we face, anger, resentment, and hatred, asked -- extremism,

lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness. with unity, we can do great things, important things. we can right wrongs we could put people to work in the good jobs. we can teach our children in safe schools. we can overcome the deadly virus. we can reward work and rebuild the middle class and make health care secure for all. we can live a racial justice. and we can make america once again a leading force for good in the world. i know, speaking of unity, it can sound like a fullest fantasy these days to some. i know the forces that divide us are deep, and they are real. but i also know they are not new. our history has been a constant struggle between the american ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality of racism, nativism,

fear, demonization have long torn us apart. the battle is perennial and victory never assured. great depression, world war, 9/11. struggles, sacrifices come and setbacks, our better angels have always prevailed. in each of these moments, enough of us, enough of us, have come together to carry all of us forward. and we can do that now. history, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity. we can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. we can treat each other with dignity and respect. we can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. without unity, there is no

peace, on the goodness and impurity, no progress, only exhausting outrage. no nation, only a state of chaos. this is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward. host: president biden from january 20 after being sworn into office that day. we are asking you, 100 days later, what grade would you give him? begin dialing in now. phone numbers on your screen. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, took issue with president biden's call for unity recently. here is what he said. [video clip] >> like my fellow kentuckians watching at home, i will be curious how the president can't square his rhetoric with the administration's actions over the past 100 days. in january, many americans hoped

they could take the incoming president at his word. after a year of beating back a historic pandemic and grappling with civil unrest, president biden pledged he would be "the president for all americans." intending to repair, restore, and heal. the american people elected a 50/50 senate, a closely divided house, and a president who preached moderation. he promised with his whole soul, he was committed to uniting our people. many hoped his administration would reflect that promise. but the first 100 days have left much to be desired. over a few short months, the biden administration seems to have given up on sowing actual unity in favor of the liberal base covered with a hefty coat of false advertising.

the so-called american rescue plan, directing less than 10% of vaccines and pending -- pandemic health care, market it a covid-19 relief measure. after sending sums of money to state governments whose revenues have already rebounded in declaring war on the consensus that welfare spending should actually be linked to work, or take hr-1, a sweeping effort by democrats for a bipartisan takeover of all 50 state voting laws. after republican won the white house and the white house in 2016, this was billed as a massive overhaul for a broken office. now and nearly identical plan is instead marketed as a modest dose of preventative agreements. it is still the same takeover. it has always been. and now we have and the multitrillion dollar plan of

liberal social engineering that would decimate entire industries and spend only a small fraction on roads and bridges. [video clip] the minority leader from wednesday. joel in spring, texas, a. you are up first. what grade do you give president biden? caller: not a passing grade, greta, and good morning to you. host: why not? caller: well, the spending he is reposing. our national debt is approaching $30 trillion. we do not have the money. we are about to, very possibly, lose the reserve currency status that the world uses. when that happens in our interest rates go up for outstanding treasury bonds, we

are out of luck. i am not a neurologist, but it does not take one to be able to see that there is some mental deficiency on the part of the man. i do not take pleasure in saying that. i am a member of the loyal minority. but we got trouble. host: joel, on the spending and the economy, how do you square what you have said with headlines like this this morning -- wall street journal, u.s. economy bounces back near its peak. that is "wall street journal." then you have "the new york times come to economic search in the united states lifts hoped for the year as people aim to spend. caller: that does not mitigate the effect we are approaching $30 million in debt. yes, we have got a barely result

-- a very resilient economy. and donald trump was hard to like, and a lot of people just could not do it, even members of my own family. said this guy is bombastic and is an up erisman, and we do not want him. -- is an embarrassment, and we do not want him. he was not my favorite choice in the primaries. i was a ted cruz guy. host: joel, would you give -- caller: i have no argument with "the wall street journal" or "the new york times" on the economy. host: so what grade would you give president biden on the economy? does he deserve any credit? caller: no. what has he done? i have not heard anybody postulate what he has done to actually increase or benefit the economy, no. he gives nothing. he gets a zero.

it is not even a 50. it is like zero. and i have been watching since 1979, the first day that this program came on. and let me say just two things. please go back to the way that it was when you have two people discussing something that have diametrical positions on that. they do not have to argue and attacks, just arguing. but we are going to get a lot more out of it, certainly. and jesse the other day, that guy needs to start watching -- [inaudible] do not involve himself. he fancies himself a journalism

professor or he is from mississippi or this, that, and the other. y'all have made every attempt to never evolve -- involve yourselves, and he seems not to. i like him and do not mean to just call some of the but i did. host: joel, we take that feedback. i cannot agree more with you about the roundtable point that you made. it is something that we try to do. we reach out to lawmakers and ask them to sit across the table from somebody that they disagree with. and we also very much enjoyed that kind of conversation. ted, you are next, you are a democrat in new york. what grade do you give president biden? caller: you know, i give him an a, mostly because, you know, trump was just an f. biden is a clear a.

he is trying to do the right thing, trying to be a government worker, trying to be an employee for the government, instead of being this guy that is on the tv after hour after hour for four years. trump was running a tv show. he was an egomaniac. you know, you have got to give it to biden. he is a normal human being trying to run the government. i am a fiscal conservative, even though i am a democrat, and i am a pro-second amendment, oddly, even though i am a democrat. so i hate being labeled by my sons on the right. you know, i do not know why everybody on the right and conservatives are worried about people being taxed who make more than $400,000 a year. i am not worried about a guy who makes over $400,000 a year. they have throwaway money.

they throw away their money on this and that and the other things. and to go back to former tax rates into say, oh -- business people will always invest to make money, regardless of the tax rate. you know, we need -- we are 30 trillion dollars in debt, but that ain't biden's fault. remember, clinton -- i do not know exactly how the clinton administration did it, but there were a lot less in debt than we were, but they were turning that aircraft carrier finance around. they were lowering the debt, the national deficit. host: heard your point, and we want some other voices, as well. here is a text from california that says i would give biden an f. too progressive, overspending, not working with members across

the aisle. brad, you are an independent in kentucky. what is your grade for the president? caller: i would give president biden an f. those around him are probably giving him an a. he is covering -- governing exactly how i figured he would from what i saw in his career and the campaign. i think he is sort of a shell, and those around him, who are some of the worst intentioned people in government, have pushed him into the nomination over the infringement of democratic voters in that primary and those caucasus. from the nomination, they have pushed him into the white house, and he is there now -- not that i can verify that because no one is allowed to go to d.c., i suppose. so they want him there because he is a pushover. he will not do anything.

and you can see that in the policies they have enacted. host: which ones? caller: biden bombed syria. ok, he is saying he is ending wars. they said they are against guns and going to do gun control, but he just did billions of arms sales to saudi arabia. he is a pushover, a joke. he is said. host: president biden on the campaign trail promised quite a few things before he became president. in his first 100 days, look at the list. covid-19 response and economic recovery is one of the things he promised. a new foreign palma -- policy, new approach to immigration. guns and policing was also on his list. climate change, call for national unity, and cabinet appointee diversity. how do you think he did on those promises in these first 100 days? what grade would you give him on that? the "washington times" front

page this morning, president biden takes a hard left in his first 100 days. the gop has been unable to block his agenda. michael in new kensington, pennsylvania, republican. hi. caller: good morning. yes, i would give him a d or maybe an e. [laughs] that he has certainly not done anything to engender my support. i do not believe he is uniting this country. and i think he is dividing this country. and as i think the media has divided this country. the problem with the polarization is the media's fault. they have continually harped on everything trump did and said that he was a divider, polarizing, racist, this and that and the other thing. and i did not see any of that in him.

i heard his speech when he was inaugurated, and he said a lot of good things. and he wanted to be president for all americans, and i think he demonstrated that in some of the policies that he promoted that were for blacks, helped employment for blacks and education for blacks and all kind of things. and other minorities, women and hispanics. and i think that he has -- biden has divided this country. he has not promoted independence, individualism. and some of the american values that i think trump was trying to restore. that is my take on it. host: let's go to anna in chicago, democratic caller. caller: good morning, greta.

i give president biden double-a. he is also. all republicans do is complain, complain, complain. trump spent too much money. if not, biden could do all the things he wanted to do. host: why do you give him a double-a? what has he done to deserve that? caller: he has big plans, and i believe in him. he would not want to spend money if he could not afford it. so now we have a real president, presidential figure. so i am proud of him. thank you. host: jt in kentucky, texas, says he gives him an a+ for the first 100 days. republicans helping him will never happen. tax breaks for the rich would be the only thing they would help

with. if he wants to help the working people, he has to forget about republican help. bobby in alabama, a republican. what is your grade? caller: hi, i think he is a zero. i just don't understand -- i can't understand why the people think he doing such a great job when he had not done anything. he is more like a puppet than a president. i have never saw anything -- i would have never dreamed we would have a leader in this country that is so ignorant. host: bobby, when it comes to his promises of addressing climate change, the associated press put together a list of issues that the president promised to work on if he was elected to office. and one of them is climate change. they say that he has completed four of his seven promises when

it comes to climate change, take executive action to reduce greenhouse gas emission, check, rejoin paris climate accord, check, curbing fluorocarbon's, and the world's climate summit. all of those get a check. others like making infrastructure investments is incomplete, take steps to conserve 30% of u.s. lands and water by 2030, and he still has not done emission reductions reductions from the shipping industry. here is president biden at the virtual global climate summit last week, help from washington. his goal of cutting u.s. carbon emissions in half by 2030. [video clip] pres. biden: i talked to the

experts and see the potential for a more prosperous and equitable future. the signs are unmistakable. the science is undeniable. and the cost of an action keeps mounting. united states is not waiting. we are resolving to take action. not only our federal government but our cities and states, all across our country, small businesses, large businesses, large corporations, american workers in every field. i see an opportunity to create millions of good paying, middle-class union jobs. i see line workers laying thousands of miles of transmission lines for clean, modern, resilient grids. i see workers capping hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells that need to be cleaned up and abandoned coal mines that need to be reclaimed, putting a stop to the methane leaks and protecting the health of our communities. i see autoworkers building the next generation of electric

vehicles and electricians installing nationwide with 500,000 charging stations along our highways. i see the engineers and the construction workers building new carbon capture and green hydrogen plants to forge cleaner steel and cement and produce clean power. i see farmers deploying cutting-edge tools to make soil over our heartland, the next frontier in the carbon innovation. by maintaining those investments in putting this people to work, the united states sets out on the road to cutting greenhouse gases in half, in half, by the end of this decade. that is where we are headed in this nation, and that is what we can do if we take action to build an economy that is not only more prosperous but healthier, fair, and cleaner for the entire planet. you know, these steps can set

america on a path of net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050. [video clip] president biden talking about his plan to cut u.s. carbon emissions. what grade would you give him on climate change. the new republic has this headline showing that president biden is not doing well on this issue with progressives. biden's 100 day honeymoon with the climate left is coming to an end, and they read that the infrastructure proposal, which has not passed, is drastically smaller than at least $10 trillion of domestic spending many experts estimate would be needed to start dealing with the climate crisis. earlier this month on "washington journal," a louisiana congressman and ranking member of the select committee on the climate crisis, republican, responded to president biden's goals on climate change. [video clip] >> sure, absolutely, but some of

the efforts to intentionally scale back -- [inaudible] as a big mistake. let me explain, there is one country in the world that has reduced emissions more than the next 12 emissions reducing countries combined. one country in the world that has reduced emissions more than the next 12 emissions reducing countries combined. it is the united states. we are the global leader in reducing emissions. this is a trend continuing under the obama administration, under the trump administration, and hopefully continues today. when you are a leader, is it time to do a 180? or do you do careful looking at how you have led the world in these strategies? this white house strategy is not trickling down, they are doing a 180. that will be a mistake.

the paris climate records actually resulted in an increase in global emissions. folks believe it results in a decrease. you will have a net increase in global emissions over the paris climate accords. one ton of emissions the u.s. has reduced, china has increased. under the paris climate accords, they will continue increasing by 2030. why would you celebrate signing onto an agreement that is supposed to be reducing emissions supposed to be addressing our global climate issues, and the agreement actually goes on the opposite direction? it is nothing to celebrate. host: the louisiana congressman on the "washington journal," critical of the president on clement change paired what grade would you give him on that issue and others? ray in massachusetts, democratic caller. caller: hi, glad to get you

guys. i want to say a couple things real quick. first thing is that republicans put out this attack on january 6. donald trump gave them an a for that, getting everything riled up. everybody talks about it costing too much, $1.5 trillion. this country, we making more than $6 trillion per year annually. there is no reason why to trillion dollars cannot build our country back. host: so what is your great for the president? caller: migrate is an -- my grade is an a. i am watching you. a couple of you guys are real, real republican. you guys have a great day. host: all right, ray.

this is from greg in cleveland, ohio, his text, i give president biden a b because he is trying to deal with the economy and pandemic. typical republican red bottle, deficit -- republican rebuttal about the deficit and immigration. that is played out. next call, republican. good morning. what grade would you give president biden? caller: a double-f. host: why? caller: i do not feel that he is the president. i think he reads well, but he is not the president. host: you need to turn down your television. can you mute it real quick? you have got to mute that television real quick. caller: ok. host: so you were saying you're going to give him a double-f,

because? caller: he is not the president. i would like to know who is running our country. he is not in charge. someone else is in charge. and i do not think it is a vice president harris. host: well, why do you think that? caller: well, that is my belief. he has a hollow ring to everything he says. and to say i see this, i see that -- how can he see anything? he is not involved. host: ok. ron in indiana, democratic caller. good morning to you. your turn to give us your grade for president biden. caller: thank you very much. i give him an a+. after the mess he had to pick up, got to connect the dots,

factor in the pollution, you know, forest fires, glaciers. money is not the object. what would you rather do, live or die? i don't know, when you take the cars and two-cycle engines, things that really because the pollution, you know, the airplanes and jets, you got problems. i think he has done a great job. since the war on poverty got screwed up back in the 1960's because of the war, you have got to remember that we're supposed to be trading in the weapons for -- being positive about the whole thing. he is doing a fine job, a lot better job than the republicans want him to do. host: ok.

wilhelmina from georgia since us a text with an a-grade for the president, saying that biden is trying to reach across the aisle but no one is extending a hand on the others. republicans are just angry because he won the election, and there's nothing they can do about it. biden is working to get the economy back on track. give him credit for the first 100 days. when it comes to the economy, associated press attract his promises from the campaign. they say he has kept four out of five. extend paws on student loan payments, complete. ok'd the economic pandemic relief, the trillion dollar package, he gets a check on that. completed u.s. supply chain review for vulnerabilities in the key sectors. an increasing in corporate taxes, they say -- taking steps to strengthen buy american

measures, he gets a check on that. president biden spoke about infrastructure investments, the need for them and jobs. [video clip] pres. biden: 15% of georgia households do not have internet at all. we are going to change that. this infrastructure projects will create millions of good paying jobs just installing it. we also know that 2 million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic. 2 million, because too often they had to choose between whether or not they could get care for their child and their families or go to work. in the 21st century, infrastructure is not just steel and concrete. it is people. and it is time we start paying people who come to our homes and care for people that love them and are going to take care of them. [tears and applause] you know, a lot of people talk

about climate but forget to mention the most important word. i made a promise when i was down here running that i would immediately rejoin the paris climate accord on day one, which we did, and i would have, in the first 100 days, a climate summit here in america, involved -- inviting all the world's polluters and images, including the biggest nations in the world, and they came. everyone from russia, china, the european union, india, all of them. and you know what came across? every single one of those countries, whether they are going to meet their obligations or not, they are finally understanding that taking care of saving the planet is going to create millions of good paying jobs. millions of good paying jobs. we are going to put engineers and construction workers, electricians, electrical workers, building efficient buildings and homes.

we are going to install 500,000 charging stations along the highways we are going to rebuild. and there is no reasons why the blades for wood mill turbines cannot be built in pittsburgh instead of beijing. there is no reason american workers cannot lead the world in the production of american vehicles and the batteries that propel them. we can do what we need to do and saving the planet and create millions of good paying jobs. [video clip] present -- host: president biden from his drive and rally in georgia yesterday. republicans take issue with the president's first 100 days, including senator kennedy of louisiana. he responded to what the president had to say at wednesday night's joint address. [video clip] >> president biden clearly believes that government made america great, and i think government can keep us great.

and senator scott, with whom i agree, believes that the president could not the more wrong. what made america great and what will ensure our future, ordinary people, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. that is really the difference today between democrats and republicans. democrats put all their faith in government. republicans put their faith in people. i was disappointed in president biden's speech. it is clear to me that he could have done his speech in about 30 seconds. he could have walked up and said "i am president biden, thank you for watching, here is my message, i want all of you to send every bit of your money and freedom to washington. thank you for watching." and that is his philosophy, and i don't agree with it. and i have been very

disappointed in his first 100 days. he is a modest man, but based on his record, he has much to be modest about. he has had a very radical agenda. and i do not think it is supported by the american people. host: senator john kennedy, republican of louisiana, giving the president a low grade for his performance in 100 days. what is your grade? eddie in rogers, ohio, republican. caller: i would have to give him an f. because the things he has not done. he has not addressed the border. and infrastructure and these covid plans and stuffy put out. sure, they were good in some ways, but 90% of that stuff went for other things besides what they was named for. like the covid plan, it was only 9%. then they talk about the infrastructure, and i think i heard the other day it is only 13% going to infrastructure. the rest of it must be just

wasted money. and this race thing going on right now, all you ever hear them talk about is how anybody who supported trump is a racist and everything. not everybody is racist. this country ain't made on resistant -- on racism. this country is made on the people who live here, the people who worked and done everything else and did not need the government to tell them how to do it and when to do it. it just -- they have to get their dang priorities straight here and figure out the people are the ones that tell the government what they need, not the government telling the people what they got to do and what they need. host: all right. rick is an independent in providence, kentucky. good morning to you. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: what is your grade for president biden? caller: two promises he has

kept, he promised to shut down the energy industry in this country, and he is well on his way to doing that. he promised to open the borders and fled the country with illegals, and he is well on his way to doing that. but there is one thing i would like to know, all the democrats only washington, the white house, everybody at the white house, the house and the senate, the old saying, if you follow the money, you will get to the end of the trail. i would like to know there investments, whether it is kickbacks or however they do it, what is all these democrats' investments in the solar power and windmill companies? host: ok, ricky, what do you like -- is there anything you like about what president biden has done in his first 100 days? caller: not really, because i believe the plan is to move him out of there as quickly as he

can and put harris in and let her be the president from then on. and as far as harris goes, i think that is the main reason the democrats want to take cuomo out, so he cannot challenge her for the nomination in 2024. host: ok. vicki in minnesota, democraticer call. caller: good morning, i give president biden an a, and i want to thank him for putting columnists -- calmness over this country and over me. i do not know if i would have been able to watch tv anymore with president trump. the things i am hoping he follows through on is taxing the higher bracket. it was disappointing when trump released all that, their money. and also there and -- the environment. i am excited about what he wants for the environment. if everybody remembers back to that first month when everything

was closed down during covid, do not know if it was your station or another that had a documentary on all the huge cities throughout the world and how their air became clean. they showed before-and-after pictures. one month of the earth taking a break, birds started coming back to the city and they saw animals and th -- in the city they had never seen. i hope he sticks to the environment thing. i am just grateful to have a normal man. i heard some republicans talking, it is kind of like they are not really listening to the speeches. a lot of times people are so for trump, and i ask about some of the speeches trump has given, and they do not remember. so before you come on here and give your opinion, really listen to what some of our politicians are saying. greta, thank you, and have a good day. host: you, too. bob in connecticut, an

independent, with this -- first 100 days, f on immigration and corporate taxes, a b for the pandemic, and c- for american jobs plan, which he says is a joke. when it comes to the pandemic and health care, this is what the president has promised, and he has met five of eight of those promises. he has completed mandating masks on federal property, rejoining the world health organization, supporting 100 mass vaccination centers, vaccinating 100 million americans, and deploying mobile vaccination clinics. 100 million americans went to 200 million plus in his first 100 days. here is the president talking about the administration's progress in vaccinating americans. [video clip] pres. biden: it has been 100 days since i first sat at my desk in the oval office and went to work with you, the american people. i want to thank you, thank the

american people, because i think we have gotten a lot done. i promised, even before i was sworn in, that i would get my first 100 days 100 million covid vaccine shots in people's arms. we have lost over 550,000 americans. but we have delivered over 220 million covid shots in the first 100 days. we have vastly expanded access. we have got 100 million doses of vaccines, enough for every single american. and we have done it that getting vaccines to some 40,000 pharmacies across the country, 700 community centers. and now, now everyone over the age of 16 is not eligible to get vaccinated right away. so please do it. get vaccinated now. now, now, now. host: president biden from that rally in georgia this week. danny in laurel, maryland,

republican. what grade do you give him? caller: good morning. i give him an f-, because, number one, he is stoking racial division in america. first he called the georgia law jim crow part two. and in his speech, he said we were systematically a racist country, and this is not true. and he stopped building on the border, the wall. he will not fix that. basically, he's just making these huge laws because he needs a legacy for himself. because he probably will not be around in four years, so he wants america to look back at him as the fdr of the 21st century. that is why he is coming out with these massive laws, because he cannot show anything for his time in the senate so he wants to show something for his time as president. so i give him an f-. i hope the republicans can, you

know, unify and do something. thank you. host: gail in arcadia, florida, independent. caller: hello? host: good morning. your turn to give the president a grade for his first 100 days. caller: i would give him an f. host: tell us why. caller: he gave his speech the other day, and i think the american people graded him then because they did not watch. you people, the media, you, yourself, always fawn over him. you never talk about him or debate like you did trump. you guys are just always fawning over him like he is just so great. you cannot be honest with the american people, but the american people are being honest with you when they do not watch what he has said. i do not know how much more plain it can be to you people. host: all right. tina in kansas city, missouri, democratic caller.

hi, tina. good morning. your grade? caller: i would give him an a. host: specifically, what has he done to deserve an a? caller: i like what he is doing with the economy and the pandemic. he came in and got to work. i am tired of hearing the republicans say, well, trump, he got the warp speed going, yes, but if he would have just shown on tv and let people know that he actually, him and his wife, actually took, you know, the medicine for the coronavirus, if he would have shown that leadership and not let people think it was going to hurt them, that would have done a lot for americans. so i was waiting for that, because we lost a lot of lives. so the pandemic alone right there was the main thing that we

needed, for someone to come in there and just get to work. americans needed someone to stop the bleeding, stop the hurt, start the healing. and joe biden, they may talk about -- i voted for him all the way through, so make no mistake about it who i wanted. i wanted someone -- they tried to use that against him, like he has been there forever and he is not making decisions. no, we knew who we wanted, the one with the most experience who could lift us up after this, from this pit of hell we was in. so i give him an a, a plus, plus, plus. host: are you still there? we lost tina. we will go to bill in new jersey, a republican. caller: hi, how you doing? i give him four f's, right across the board. why? host: for what issues?

caller: everything, really. he is getting all these stimulus packages together, and all this money will be spent. democrats cannot be this stupid. [inaudible] when you is everything up, my gas and electric went up. we are going to pay for that. we do not make $200,000 a year, so we're still going to pay for all this crap. he talks pollution. what is he going to build, a wall into space? [indiscernible] -- from coming over to our country? the winds blow west to east. we are getting those chemicals in the united states, right or wrong. host: how do you respond to

steve in ohio, who says i'm listening to your calls this morning and several callers sounded like democrat haters, and that seemed to be their reason for the low grades given to biden. he is acting presidential. no shouting, no name calling, no arrogant, hostile tweets, just doing his job. i give him a b+. caller: i give him four f's, right across the board. what he is doing in this country is disgraceful. you may say i am being racial or whatever, i am not. democrats have been doing this stuff to the poor people for 70 years, promising a free block of cheese for their vote. that is all this is about. host: all right. a call from hazel park, michigan, independent. caller: my name is ernest, and i

was kind of wondering, why do those republicans always talk about money? i just don't understand. i worked my butt off and make money, but i do not make the big issue about money all the time. i just can't understand it. and the way he, mr. biden, was doing it, i think he is a good job. he is a natural born man that went through a lot of tragedies in his life, and he overcame them. and i just cannot see the republicans defeating him to the point of knocking him down like they are doing. i was a liberal a long time, and i just can't understand why -- i just don't understand why. this is ernest. host: ok, ernest, what do you think of his immigration proposals? how is he doing on that issue? caller: well, i tell you what,

he is doing a good job on that. i think he is giving everybody a fair chance. but as far as letting all the illegals in here, i do not believe on that either, but you have got to let people be people. you cannot judge them. you cannot tell them to get out of the country, because they are here. you have got to give them a chance. got to give them a chance. host: ok, i will leave it there. on immigration, the associated press says the president has completed seven of his 17 promises. he sent congress an immigration bill. he revise the deportation criteria. took steps to re-night separated migrant families, and did president trump's travel ban, stop deportations for certain groups, halted border wall construction, and reversed a rule for immigrants. he signed several executive

orders related to these issues. during his first news conference, president biden was asked about the ongoing issue of unaccompanied minors at the border. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> you blamed the last administration, but is your messaging and they sang these children will be allowed to stay in this country and work their way through this process encouraging families to come? pres. biden: look, the idea that i am going to say, which i would never do, if an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, we're just going to let them starve to death and stand the other side, no previous administration did that either, except trump. i am not going to do it. not going to do it. that is why i have asked the vice president of the united states yesterday to be the lead person on dealing with focusing

on the fundamental reasons why people leave honduras, guatemala, and el salvador in the first place. it is because of earthquakes, floods, because of lack of food, because of gang violence, because of a whole range of things that when i was vice president had the same obligation to deal with unaccompanied children, i was able to slow it up significantly by working with heads of states in those communities to do things like, in one of the major cities, people were leaving because they cannot walk in the streets because their kids were getting two or shot from gang violence. well, what i was able to do was not give money to the head of state because some are corrupt, but i was able to say, ok, you need lighting in the streets to change things? i will put the lighting in. we got a contractor. we got the lighting. we paid directly the contractor, did not go through the government. and violent crime significantly

was reduced in that city. fewer people sought to leave. two hurricanes occurred, and instead of us going down and helping in a major way that people would not have a reason to want to leave in the first place because they did not have housing or water or sustenance, we did nothing. we are going to do a lot in our administration. we are going to be spending that $700 million plus a year to change the life and circumstances of why people leave in the first place. host: president biden from his first news conference of his administration, talking about his immigration approach on the border. republicans come in march, went to the border to highlight with the president was doing on immigration. here is republican leader kevin mccarthy from that day. [video clip] >> the security of our nation and our border is the responsibility of our president.

i came down here because i heard of the crisis. it is more than a crisis. this is a human heartbreak. the sad part about all this, it did not have to happen. this crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration. there is no other way to claim it, a biden border crisis. every part of what we set and talked to, we learned more about what has created it. congressman gimenez talked to a family from honduras, asked how long they have been traveling. 22 days. just in the coincidence of the actions taken by president biden , why people think they can come here and break the law. we went through a new facility that was built just more than a year ago, built with the capacity they thought they could never meet, 1040 people to be

processed. today wrote that record, beyond capacity today. they are having to build into the parking lot a makeshift facility. even though the u.s. congress just passed a $1.9 trillion bill, not one dollar in there to help them. it is taking away the operation costs for the border to be protected. but for all these children unaccompanied sitting in there, there is 120 border agents that are now not on the border protecting them. a surge is coming. host: the republican leader from california, kevin mccarthy, at the border in march. what grade would you give president biden on immigration? that issue and others is our conversation this morning in the president's first 100 days.

don in michigan, democratic caller. caller: good morning. on immigration, i give biden a b. host: explain. caller: but the problem with immigration, it has been a problem for decades. and the republicans and the democrats don't want to fix the problem because it is an issue that the republicans embark on every two years and every four years. and as the one senator you just had on -- host: kevin mccarthy, republican leader in the house. caller: right, kevin mccarthy. when donald trump was in office, all they did was separate. we had the same problems of immigrants at the border. all he did was push them in mexico, babies shipped off to

become probably prostitutes or whatever, and so the problem was never fixed. it is still there. so i give biden a b for trying to help at the border. host: ok. caller: we need to go to those countries, like he was saying come and see what the problem is in their country so we can help them solve the problem. host: we have a tweet that says she would also give the president a b+. she says i am shocked, honestly, not a fan of his immigration moves in some foreign policies, but mystically, he has exceeded my expectations for the most part. robert in kentucky, republican. good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning? host: i am doing fine. caller: i give him five f's.

anybody who has got a heart and knows anything about the lord and everything, he would go down there on that border, him and harris both, and they would do something. they would do something, but they don't want to do it because biden ain't the president. harris and all of them is. and i feel sorry for the old fellow. i kind of feel sorry for him. i had an uncle same way, he has got that alzheimer's. he knows his days are limited and harris is going to be in their. i am going to tell you something, if they do not do something down on the border, the good lord is going to do something to them. you can't do people like that. host: ok, robert. stephanie in the michigan texting to say the first 100 is a very presidential and a relief from what we have seen the last four years. we have a crisis in this country, and he is up to the crisis. his acts are very fdrish, and we

will solve these problems and bring all americans into the picture. brian in massachusetts, democratice callr. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. you guys have been very fair, aside from what other people say . i have been hearing a lot of people from kentucky. don't they know that the kentucky derby is tomorrow, i believe? and with biden, i would give him a c+ to a b-. i do not know too much -- the border is screwed up. what are you going to do? we are a country of immigrants. but at least he is not on twitter saying bad things and insulting everybody everyday. like the former president was, just causing more division. he would not let him in there

until he was inaugurated to switch over for the peaceful transfer of power, so he was already a month behind anyway. it is 100 days, you know, he has not even got his feet wet. the country is in such such turl if he did something with the pandemic when it started except for hiding about it and lying about it and downplaying it, he would have been a hero. it is his own fault that he is not president. host: i'm going to leave it there. it is 8:00 a.m. on the east coast. when we come back, we will continue the conversation about president biden's first 100 days and we will take your comments on that. we are also going to put it in historical perspective. we will talk with elaine kamarck

of the brookings institution about why what -- why 100 days was adopted as the gauge of the start. we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv on c-span2 has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. saturday, duke university professor chris bail talks about his book, how to make platforms less polarizing. sunday, our live conversation with a historian and ronald reagan biographer. sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, cindy mccain talks about her life with her late husband senator john mccain in her book. she is interviewed by joseph lieberman.

watch book tv this weekend on c-span2. >> sunday night on q&a, investigative journalist lawrence roberts talks about his book which examines the spring offensive when tens of thousands of anti-vietnam war protesters including veterans came to washington, dc in an effort to shut down the federal government. >> the story is a much larger one. it is a story about how we as a nation, as a people, as individuals dealt with one of those emergencies in american democracy. and does the justice system deliver justice. do people stick by their principles or are they caught obama -- caught up in their own self-preservation. it is a story between the clash and the battle of a president, richard nixon, who confronts a

social movement in the streets just as he is getting reelected. what constitutional lines did you cross in an effort to stay in power. >> investigative journalist lawrence roberts on c-span's q&a. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we continue our conversation with elaine kamarck , a senior fellow at brookings institution. she is also the author of the book "why presidents fail and how they can succeed again." why do we measure the president's first 100 days? when did that begin? guest: it began with franklin roosevelt who took office in 1933, the height of the great depression. a country that was in terrible

shape. if you think we are in bad shape today, it is nowhere near the shape we were in in 1933. roosevelt did two things more on that first hundred days that have gone down in history. he submitted an passed an enormous amount of legislation and relief bills for a country that was really hurting. the second thing he did was he gave people help rhetorically through his fireside chats. he explained what was happening to them and what he was doing to fix it. and the combination made for quite a spectacular start to a presidency, which is why ever since journalists, scholars, the public have sort of taken the 100 day mark as a chance to say how is he doing. host: what happens after that 100 day mark and does it make a difference? guest: sometimes yes and sometimes no. bill clinton had a particularly

bad 100 days. he had trouble with his appointments. he flip-flopped on the military. he stumbled around in his first hundred days and yet, he was the first president since franklin roosevelt to be elected for a second full term. he straightened himself out. other presidents in their first hundred days, and i am thinking of jimmy carter and donald trump, you see the problems that are going to bring them down eventually. in donald trump's first 100 days, we saw this chaos that characterized his presidency. this inability to focus the on presidential behavior. going to the cea in front of the wall of heroes -- going to the cia in front of the wall of heroes and talking about his crowd, it struck a bad note with many people in the public.

you can go either way. you can have a bad first hundred days and recoup. you can have a bad first hundred days and it can show problems that never go away in the rest of your presidency. host: past presidents continued fdr's strategy of the first 100 days of going big? guest: some have and some have not. ronald reagan did and ronald reagan is usually counted as the modern president who most resembled fdr in his first hundred days. ironically, his going big was not increasing the welfare safety. it was a big turn around and a shrinking of the welfare state. like fdr, reagan had a big vision and it was a rollback of much of the new deal and he had the personality and the communication skills to inspire

people and move people. reagan really did have a very good first hundred days. probably the best hotel biden. host: why do you write biden -- why do you rank biden's as one of the best? guest: he had a crisis and he addressed the crisis head-on by skillfully expanding the supply of vaccines and getting vaccines into people's arms. that is his biggest achievement to date. we are more than 200 million vaccinated. we are doing better than just about any country in the world. that is a big deal. obviously, a lot of things will flow from that including opening up the economy and a better economy and growth. if united states gets to 6% growth this year, it will be astonishing because we have not

seen that kind of growth in a long time. so far, so good. he has started this presidency on exactly the right foot. he has the wind at his back so let's see if it continues. host: we are taking your comments, your questions about president biden's first 100 days this morning. if you want to put them in historical perspective, we want to hear that from you as well. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. text us at (202) 748-8003. we will read those as well. you can also send us a tweet or go to facebook.com/c-span. elaine kamarck, does it matter

if you have the congress in your party or not? does that make a difference for your first 100 days and the size of your majority? guest: absolutely. one of the things that has not been repeated since with one exception, lyndon johnson, is the fact that in those first hundred days franklin roosevelt had an enormous congressional majority over 300 seats in the house. the humorist will rodgers said back then, they don't pass legislation in washington anymore. they just wave at it as it goes by. that is how quickly they were passing legislation. obviously, having a congress of your party really does help. but also having the legislation ready to go and thought out even before you take office helps a lot. inevitably what happens to presidents is that their

popularity does wayne overtime -- does wane over time. host: who did not have their priorities thought out? guest: i would say there were several. jimmy carter had a very hard first 100 days and he had a hard presidency. part of that was that he clashed from the get-go with congress. congress was still very much a liberal new deal congress. jimmy carter was a precursor of what we saw with bill clinton as the new democrats. he was a democrat and he was liberal on racial issues, but he was concerned about balanced budgets, spending, etc. those clashes came pretty early on in the quarter 1 -- carter 100 days.

host: let's hear from joe in ohio, independent. caller: i think biden is doing about a b+. he is doing exactly what trump did the first hundred days considering trump had a full congress and senate so he had everything passed that the democrats did not want. congress was basically doing whatever trump wanted. he is not out there shaking hands with any dictators and he does not have any nepotism going on. i think he is doing a pretty good job. host: elaine kamarck, what about that comparison of president biden having the majority in the house and the senate just as president trump did? guest: i think that biden is definitely taking advantage of

it. trump's big legislative achievement was the tax bill that happened a little bit after his first 100 days, but he was ready with that. where trump had trouble early on was he had vowed to repeal obama care and to replace it with something better. the replacement with something better never happened. what happened to trump early on was he failed to repeal obama care which was one of his major achievements and part of the reason was he did not develop during his transition nor did he ever develop during his presidency an alternative. it is hard to take something away from the american people when you do not have something to offer them in return. i think that was a problem that we saw early on. host: can your first 100 days

successes or failures dictate what happens in that midterm election that is just two years away after you take office? guest: no. first of all, president almost -- presidents almost always lose seats in their midterm election after they have been elected. that always happens. certain voters who came to vote for the president not come out to vote for the -- do not come out to vote for the midterm congressional candidate. it is really apples and oranges when you are looking at midterms. what you can say is that the midterms, the hundred days creates an impression of confidence in the job. if it is correct, it follows through to the next two years and helps you in the midterms. but there is no real one-on-one

relationship. it is too early. host: dave, maryland, republican. welcome to the conversation. caller: thanks for having me. from a historical perspective, history is in the eye of the beholder. in terms of the first 100 days, the guest is saying that biden is doing great because of xyz, leveraging his majority in the senate. i think they are not focused in on some of the major events that are occurring that the media is not covering. we talk about the crisis at the border. the media is not down there. the typical congress people who focus at the border, they are not clacking -- quacking about the border.

as regards -- with regards to the -- they're not covering the effects of ascending -- extending on employment benefits or adding additional benefits to unemployment. if the media went around and started interviewing real business owners, the people who actually employ somebody, what they are going to see is that these businesses are having an incredible difficulty getting employees back to work because of these benefits. if the media starts covering supply chains and look at how the price increases has dramatically occurred with price increases, that is the real story. host: back to your point, elaine kamarck, what about the role of the media?

guest: it is hard to judge. i take the gentleman's point about the border. with the overwhelming issue of covid and getting out of the pandemic, that is the issue number one. it would far supersede what is going on at the border. to go to the border, the vice president is going to guatemala. the vice president has been on zoom phone calls with the leaders of guatemala talking through what they can do to stop this flow of refugees. they are going through the root causes. that has been covered. but nothing is being covered right now as much as shots in people's arms and where is covid going and when can we open up because that makes the difference. as to the stimulus package and the rescue package, remember

that these benefits do run out. they will run out in the fall. the enhanced unemployment runs out. part of this is also the ppp plan which has allowed small businesses to keep people on the payroll. many times the people they are keeping on the payroll are making a lot more money than they would with unemployment insurance. i don't think this is a disaster. i think it is something that has been needed and i think the growth numbers in the economy, the 1.6% growth in the first quarter are showing that this is working. between the growth numbers and the stock market, the economic outlook is growthy. especially compared to europe. europe is actually in the session. europe is going backwards. they have not enacted these

rescue packages. the rescue package, the cares act that was passed by trump, and the second one, they are both needed and smart economics and will get us back before the rest of the world gets back. host: vicki in new york, democratic caller. caller: thanks for having me. i agree with much of what has been said this morning. my issue is with biden and the previous caller, this immigration issue. i cannot take it. hello? host: on that point, let me show you a headline. "biden's first 100 days has run smoothly." this caller brings up what is happening at the southern border.

guest: the southern border has been a crisis since obama. the first, we saw children showing up at the border was obama. i think his first big test -- i think her first big test as vice president will be the policy -- the diplomacy and aid for the people coming to the border. if she can do something about that in the next four months, they can slow the number of people arriving at the border. the second thing that they are doing that is really important, and i was amazed that other presidents did not do it, is that they called on the federal workers to volunteer to go down to the border and help adjudicate and process the people arriving. one of the reasons we see these

horrendous pictures from the border is that they don't have the personnel to process them and to figure out who is legally eligible for asylum and who is not. they are beefing up personnel at the border. they have to beef it up a not -- a lot. i hope the cabinet secretaries are going back to the white house with a mission to tell their employees, if you can figure out how to do this, and especially if you are a spanish speaker, we need you down at the border for four months. we will pay you your salary, but we need you at the border. it is a two-pronged problem. stop the flow from those countries and get enough people at the border so that the people who do not qualify for asylum are instantly sent back as opposed to sitting in these detention centers.

what is going on is a desperate situation of these countries plus a lot of misinformation. lot -- not everyone is eligible for asylum. most of the people arriving are not eligible for asylum. the sooner that message gets out, the sooner they are told that and they return home, the better the crisis at the border is going to be and you will not see these horrendous pictures that we have seen both in the obama, the trump, and in the biden presidency. host: we are talking about the history of the first 100 days of a presidency. sticking with that, when poli tico says there is a summer curse, what are they referring to? guest: something always goes wrong in the summer, in that first year. president's always have with them the unknown and no matter

how thought-out their plans are. one of the worst curtsies is probably john f. kennedy who, during his hundred days, there was the bay of pigs invasion. it was a horrible mess. it failed. there was not an uprising of people wanting to go out castro. it was a big embarrassment. over that summer, what happened over that summer? negotiations and relationships with russia broke down. i guy named khrushchev was the head of state in the soviet union at the time. he took john kennedy's measure based on the bay of pigs and said this guy is not up to the job, i can roll him. and what happened is that he put

missiles in cuba leading to the cuban missile crisis. there are some bad things that can happen in that first summer, particularly if a president is a bit inexperienced as kennedy was when he came into office. host: john in ohio, republican. good morning. caller: yes, i would like to make a couple of points about the vaccine. i remember watching c-span back when trump's press secretary was on and one of the reporters asked the question why won't trump lit biden -- let biden in on the transition for this vaccine play -- vaccine thing. she pulled out a playbook and said all he has to do is read this playbook. biden and everybody else has been patting themselves on the

back about how they put together this -- the vaccine for people. and then in february, biden holds up this book and says this is our playbook, like he put it together. but really warp speed and trump had just put together. i remember watching on c-span where they had walmart and all these different pharmacies where they were going to help with the distribution. they don't give trump no credit. host: what i want to do with john's comments is talk about communication. not the vaccine policy, but how key is communication in the first 100 days? guest: first, let's separate the vaccine question into two buckets. trump deserves credit for the

development of the vaccine. operation warp speed was a senate policy that was designed to protect pharmaceutical companies for going into the research to develop the vaccine and protect them against losses. that was a stunning success and the trump administration deserves a lot of credit for it. the second issue is once you've got the vaccine, do you have enough and how do you get it into people's arms? there the trump administration did not do so well. i have read that playbook. the playbook consists of very vague guidance to states. saying things like, use your pharmacies, develop big centers. it does not have any specifics. that had to be done by the states and it took them a long time to get up to speed. finally, the critical question

is february, right after the transition, what is the supply of vaccines. the supply was too low. what biden did was enact -- use the defense production act to make sure that the pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers have the raw materials and machinery to ramp up the supply of vaccine. we are just a couple of months away, 100 days away from inauguration day, we have a surplus of vaccines. that would not have happened without the early biden actions. i think there are two different issues here. one is the development of the vaccine, which i think you can absolutely congratulate trump and his administration on. the other is the distribution of the vaccine, which is where i think biden has done a good job and i think the public is giving him a lot of credit for it. host: scott, california,

democratic caller. caller: i am over half a century, enough to retire, and a lifelong republican wear for the last four years -- where for the last four years, i have been in leadership. i find myself seeing bipartisan. in a way, they work together. we need more of that. if the right would stop banging his head against the wall, we might start working together like that. where biden is concerned, he has plenty of decades on the. for all -- plenty of decades on me. for all he has done so far, i cannot do that, not that smart.

host: i want to talk about bipartisanship. scott was talking about that. in the first 100 days, what president has spurred bipartisanship? guest: ironically, the ability to spur bipartisanship is as much personality as it is politics. one of the ironies is that even though ronald reagan was trying to undo much of the democratic new deal and a lot of democrats were outraged at reagan, he actually developed a great relationship with skip o'neill who was the democratic speaker of the house. and reagan managed to do many things that were bipartisan. perhaps the most important was the big social security deal of 1983, which is the reason people

like our caller are still able to get social security. that is one of the ironies is that bipartisanship is as much a personality trait, if anything else. i think it is very hard to be bipartisan in a nation that is as polarized as we are. in a congress where people actually still maintain against all evidence that the election was stolen, i think it is hard to do that. i also think that if anybody can do it, it is joe biden. he is the first president we have had since lyndon johnson who is as steeped in the senate and in the congress and in government and i think that he also has the personality. he is not combative, as one of the earlier collier said. he does not wake up in the morning and tweet nasty things about people.

he is just a very nice man and i think most of the country sees that. if anybody can do it, he can do it. that is not saying it can be done. but if anybody can do it, it will be joe biden. he has a lot of things in front of him to try to make some bipartisan deals on, including the two big pieces of legislation that he has announced in his first hundred days. host: how did president obama's first hundred days go? guest: president obama's first hundred days went fairly smoothly. remember, obama's first hundred days were really focused on the great recession. he had to do a relief bill. in hindsight, there are people who think that he did not go big enough, that he prolonged the

recession longer than it needed to be by not going big enough. he held it to under $1 trillion . it was good, but in retrospect, people think he should have gone bigger. you can see that reflected in biden's presidency. biden is simply going big. he may not end up with everything he has asked for, but he is going big early on. some of that is a reflection on the fact that when the president he served held back, that may have been a mistake. host: terry in tennessee, republican. caller: in the first hundred

d's== -- first hundred days, obama never got out of his first hundred days. they treated him like a kid with gloves on. host: let's take that point. guest: he did get out of the first hundred days because by 2010 we have lost control of congress. the first hundred days he passed a massive relief package. in the first two years, he passed a new healthcare law which we still have with us, the affordable care act. in 2010, he lost the congress in part because the country was still in a recession. in part, because the country was still afraid of this new healthcare law. big pieces of the country did not like it very much. he really had to do things

differently. frankly from 2010 on, he never did control the congress and he had many fewer options. his hundred days did end, but not because he wanted to. host: bernie in louisville, kentucky, democratic caller. caller: hi. i love this history lesson we are getting. we are talking about the president's first hundred days. i'm not going to give president biden a letter grade. i will go with pass/fail. i think he has passed. can you think of some president that has had a rough first 100 days? it seems like all of them have had a fairly successful in their first hundred. can you name a president that has had a rough go at it? and say hello to my old friend

ej and i'm still mad at him for not coming to my derby party. guest: i will name four presidents who had a rough hundred days. jimmy carter, as i spoke about before. jimmy carter had a rough hundred days with the democratic congress and that persisted throughout his presidency. bill clinton had a rough hundred days. he nominated two attorney generals in a row that had the same tax problems. he really had a tough hundred days there and he had this flip-flop on the military and people were saying during his hundred days, wow, this guy does not know what he is doing. trump had a rough hundred days. he brought some people up for nomination who really were not fit to be nominated and he showed us this weird habit of

talking always about himself, sometimes about some pretty trivial issues instead of focusing on the work of the president. he did not really sound like a president and never did. probably the worst hundred days was jack kennedy. in those first hundred days jack kennedy approved and they carried out the bay of pigs invasion, which was a disaster that echoed through the rest of his presidency. if we were to give a prize for the worst hundred days, it would have to be kennedy. host: david, saint petersburg, florida, an independent. caller: this is david in st. pete. i would have to disagree with you as far as biden's first hundred days. we are going to pay dearly for the executive orders he has passed and the money that they freely spend.

he totally told us that anybody that writes executive orders, more than five, is a dictatorship. and here he goes and he's got well over 30. i am an independent. i was going to go democrat this next couple of years, see how biden did. but i have a 15-year-old son who has to pay for all that spending and that is my take on it. guest: there are certainly people who are worried about this and they are worried about not just spending, but inflation. the question is as follows. if the spending is done properly , it can create growth and therefore, growth creates taxes and taxes gets rid of deficits. the fact that the spending he has proposed is on infrastructure is probably the

smartest way to pour money into an economy because it creates jobs and then it creates economic growth. airports, fast rail, good roads, all these sorts of things. we will see. the theory behind the infrastructure spending bill is that it will create growth and if you create big growth in an economy, growth creates taxes, taxes help you get rid of the deficit. the jury is still out on that. i think your worries are shared by some democrats as well as republicans. we are going to have to see. i suspect that what will happen in the congress is that a lot of the elements of this bill will be looked at with and i -- an eye towards will this in the future bring us back more than it is costing us.

that is the key to good government spending, no matter where. does it create something better that helps you make the deficits worthwhile and helps you pay off the deficits. host: carol, royal oak, michigan, republican. caller: hi, elaine. i want to question what biden did at the border. just in march, 172,000 of covid and chickenpox infected illegals into our country. what? that was absolutely horrid. he had no reason to roll back the trump border rule, which was keeping them in mexico until their turn for a hearing. he did that out of spice -- despite -- spite and he is a

spiteful person. the democrats don't know this because they live and breathe cnn and msnbc who never talk about the border, never support -- never talk about supporting illegal tariffs on this country. host: i want to talk about the impact of a crises on the president's first 100 days. guest: it is a crisis at the border, there is no doubt about it. those people know about it. it is being covered. it is being addressed. there have been some covid coming in and chickenpox and things like that, but that is why people are being detained at the border. they are not into the general population. let's face it, in texas the covid rates are going down, they are not going up. it is hard to argue that somehow this is having an impact on covid rates. covid rates are dropping

precipitously in almost every state in the country. i don't think that the two are necessarily related. and i do think that the border crisis is being covered. it is getting a lot of attention. i think there is a lot of other issues out there including, and importantly including the ongoing vaccination situation in the united states and then the threats we are facing from around the world in places like india where covid is rampant and is a very serious problem. we've got a big international crisis still with the pandemic. we've got to make sure that we don't fall into a second round of this, the way other countries have. there is a lot going on in the world and the border is certainly one crisis that three

presidents, this is the third president that has had to address this. i think biden is doing what he should do at the border. i don't know if that will work. we will see. host: adele in springfield, illinois. democratic caller. caller: good morning, greta. host: good morning. caller: i had a comment. get your vaccine, you don't have to worry about covid. it is simple. my question is it seems the artificial 100 days is the new mandate that a president has. but after that 100 days, it seems like legislation is harder to pass because the following year, you have an election year. people don't want to take either sides of an important policy. it is harder for legislation to

pass because it seems like after the hundred days, you have another small short window. on that basis, it goes to congress, it goes through committees, and so forth. is there any major legislation that could be passed with biden given that you have manchin and you also have this new thing that they have done with -- what is this thing that they passed with reconciliation? host: i want to leave it there and give us the historical perspective on after the first 100 days, can you pass major legislation? guest: the big example there is roosevelt. most of the big successful legislation of the new deal was passed after the first 100 days. the social security act, which we all still live under and almost all of us liked very

much, social security was passed in 1935, two years after the first hundred days. yes, the first hundred days is an artificial marker. president's go on -- presidents go on to accomplish a lot. ronald reagan did as well as fdr and lyndon johnson passed an enormous amount of legislation in his first short-term. presidents do go on to be successful. it is somewhat of an artificial marker. the way to look at it is it does not determine success or failure. sometimes when you look back historically, presidents who had a hard time in the first hundred days simply learned, changed, and did better. that was the case with bill clinton. other presidents encountered problems in the first hundred

days that eventually doomed their presidency. that can be said of jimmy carter who never did manage to put together the left wing of his party and the center of his party. he had a huge primary challenge from ted kennedy. he was a one term president. trump in his hundred days, we saw the chaos he brought to the management of the presidency and that, more than anything else, doomed his presidency. it is not the be-all and the end all, but you can see where problems emerge in those hundred days. host: you can read more about the first 100 days, when did we start caring about them, and why do they matter. go to the brookings website. elaine kamarck is a senior fellow there. she is also the author of "why

presidents fail and how they can succeed again." thank you for the conversation. guest: thank you and thanks to the callers who had some good conversations. host: absolutely. we are going to continue with your grading of president biden in the first 100 days. here is a text from john who writes, i grade my president an a-. great leadership, trustworthy, but i hope he is not taking the notion of making d.c. a state and i hope that measures at the border are coming. we will take your calls and your grades. we will also take your tax -- texts, your posts, and your twitter posts as well. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend, saturday, at 8:00

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taking place, it is 10 or 20 or 30 different things taking place simultaneously. it is the ubiquity of technology in all of our lives, in every sector, in domestic policy applications as well as national defense. there is a long chapter of military applications of ai. i think that is the unusual aspect of this period and what makes it difficult to deal with. there is so much change taking place on a widespread scale in a short period of time and we are all struggling to deal with it. >> darrell west, saturday at 6:30 p.m. on c-span. ♪

>> "washington journal" continues. host: president biden has completed his first 100 days in office. what grade would you give him for his job performance? look how members of congress are reacting. a democrat tweeted out, "expanded support for business loans programs including many that i had the leisure of visiting in the first 100 days of the biden administration, we have seen kindness, ideals this nation stands for."

mary scam in, "during his first 100 days, the president signed the bankruptcy extension act into law, keeping families in their homes allowing small businesses to thrive, and helping our country." republican congresswoman elise stefanik, "president biden has reached more china and has alienated half of the country by governing as the most far-left country -- far-left president in history." "biden's first 100 days have been the most tragic millions which ever carried out on the american people. biden fails to live up to his promises and shows no sign of changing course." it is your turn to leisure grade for the president. robert in new jersey, democratic caller. caller: how are you doing?

i would say a b+. i would've liked to seen more progressive action. i understand how difficult it is with joe manchin and the filibuster. it annoys me that republicans don't seem to know how much more productive and cheaper it is to address problems at their root than to clean up the mess. the tax credit to prevent children to get -- prevent children from getting in poverty and the first place is not only more productive. it seems like a shortsighted mindset to me. that is my thoughts. host: before you go, you said he would have liked him to take more progressive action. a headline this morning reads, "biden takes hard left turn in

his first 100 days." what else would you have wanted him -- what else would you want him to have done? caller: i understand that you have to get the bill passed. i was not totally satisfied with the way he was bending over and allowing these moderates to control his administration. i would like to see some more spine in that area. host: what are some top issues beyond the covid bill? caller: as far as the climate goes, i was satisfied with what he said at the summit. i think we need to start working on a plan to revamp our energy system completely because we only have so much time and things are getting worse. i don't like when a president does things like this just to look good. i want to see something done and

i want to improve the future for me and my children and my potential grandchildren because we only have so much time before things are going to start becoming irreparable. host: ian, falls church, virginia, independent. caller: good morning. expanding on your previous caller, i would give biden a b - . part of the crisis on the border is we are seeing one of the largest mass migrations of people as a result of climate change around the world. you are going to be seeing refugees from all over the place as a byproduct of the crisis. if i was to give biden a better grade, i would like to see more concerted efforts to the energy grid and holding the 100 companies responsible for 70% of the pollution to the fire, having them be more comfortable instead of putting it all on us,

the consumers. host: here is steve in lexington, kentucky with the text "i would rate b -. he needs to move the ball forward on marijuana legalization and fix the student debt problem." lee in new york, a republican. what is your grade? caller: my grade would be f on all accounts. one of the things is the immigration thing. if vice president harris goes to guatemala, that does not solve the problem. we have been giving these countries money for years. it was only when mexico was told that we would put a tariff on imports that some kind of regulation occurred. a honduran refugee said that the governments are so corrupt, they are the ones taking all the money. the second thing is the fossil

fuel, the end of fossil fuel. environmental -- an environmental study said that 600 and 38,000 acres of land -- 638,000 acres of land would be have -- would have to be used for turbines. these things have a shelf life and they have to be replaced. i am running out of steam. host: one of the first things the president did when he got into office was take action on immigration. in february, he signed executive orders. listen to what he had to say. [video clip] pres. biden: i want to make it clear. there is a lot of talk about the executive orders i have signed. i am not making law, i am illuminating that policy. i am taking on issues that 99% of them, the last president

issued them and they were counterproductive to our security and counterproductive to us as a country, particularly on the area of immigration. this is about how america is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system. with the first action today, we are going to work on the shame of the previous administration that literally ripped arms -- rick children -- ripped children from the arms of the border. the second action addresses the root causes of the migration to our southern border. the third order i'm going to sign is a review of the previous administrations harmful and

counterproductive immigration policies across the board. [end video clip] host: president biden back in february talking about his executive actions on immigration. when it comes to that issue, what grade you give him? overall, how has he done in the first 100 days? in alabama, we will go to you next. good morning to you. horace in alabama, good morning. caller: good morning. what i wanted to speak on was the george foreman deal, if i may. host: george floyd? caller: the george foreman deal where they were trying to make a new law as to the way george foreman was treated. can i speak on it? host: we are listening. caller: i know it was on a

different program than yours, but i was watching a program where the police had stopped a black young man and in place of this young man doing as george foreman headed -- as george foreman had did -- host: it is george floyd. caller: i'm sorry. they asked him to get in the car , they opened the door for him, he got in the car. there was no problem as far as the police was concerned. but people tried to take advantage of the police, which i am not a policeman and would

never want to be one. they do have their bad parts as well as good parts. but if you are stopped and then interrogated, what you need to do is abide by the rules and regulations that the police has the go by. host: president biden and democrats in the house and senate are working on police reform legislation including legislation that was named after george floyd. here is president biden reiterating his call for changes in police practicing. [video clip] pres. biden: my fellow americans, we have to come together to heal the soul of this nation. it was nearly a year ago before her father's funeral when i spoke to george floyd's young daughter. i was kneeling down to talk to her.

i could look her in the eye. she looked at me and said, "my daddy changed the world." as to the conviction of george floyd's murderer, we can see how right she was, if we have the courage to act in congress. we have all seen the knee of justice on black americans. now is our opportunity to make some real progress. the vast majority of men and women wearing a uniform and a badge serve our communities and they serve them honorably. i know that. [applause] i know they want to help meet this moment as well.

my fellow americans, we have to come togetherwe have to come too build trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. root out systemic racism in our judicial system. and past police reform. host: the house is coming in for a short performer session.