his group's research on pandemic unemployment fraud. a doctor from the university of maryland discusses her research on covid vaccine booster shots. watch c-span's washington journal. every day from 7:00 to 10:00. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. >> washington journal continues. host: we want to welcome back mona charen, author, syndicated columnist, thanks for being with us. guest: my pleasure. host: i want to begin with this headline from the economist that looks at the president's agenda. after a quick start, joe biden's legislative agenda hitting a brick wall in part because of party factionalism and the filibuster that could imperil his democratic ambitions. your response. is that a fair headline? guest: there have been a few --

of bipartisanship. in the past week, we saw the practically inanimate -- practically unanimous adoption of juneteenth as a holiday. that was unexpected national unity, which was unusual. we have seen a bipartisan group of senators get together to talk about a compromise on infrastructure. we don't know where that is going to go, but that is a possibility also of bipartisanship. and regarding voting rights, that has been a little bit more difficult. senator joe manchin, the one who has most prominently said he opposes changing filibuster rules -- although it is understood in washington that he actually speaks for a great many democratic senator. he is sort of the front man.

anyway, he has said he is against changing the filibuster but he did come out with his own voting rights bill as an alternative to -- it immediately got the attention of stacey abrams, voting activist. unfortunately it was shut down by mitch mcconnell. host: there is also this headline following the summit that took place in geneva, switzerland. the bar was pretty low for the president meeting with vladimir putin dan asking the question when and how we will know whether or not that summit was a success. what is your timeframe? what will be your measurement in terms of whether or not relations between the u.s. and russia have approved -- have improved? guest: my stance is not so much that we ought to be about improving relations with russia.

over the last several decades, each administration seems to have come into office hoping to improve relations with putin only to be disappointed. i think our goal should be clarity, to make very clear to putin where we stand on some of his destructive and undermining efforts vis-a-vis the west. whether it is about hacking mother voting, interfering in our election, and further about his maligned influence around the world. supporting dictators and extremists. attempting to undermine the whole world really come it's undermine people's confidence in information. he is a multi prong threat.

the best that we can do, it seems, is to be very clear about our position and not give him any more attention than necessary. but, just set clear boundaries. i think president biden did that. i was pleased that there was no joint press conference. though i was a little confused about one aspect, president biden, in one -- in what was otherwise a pitch perfect meeting, he did make a statement that was a little odd. she said we gave putin 16 segments of our u.s. economy where if there is any hacking, that would be a serious problem. 16 realms of agriculture and water. i thought well, what's the message there?

if you attack or hack anything other than those 16, it's not a problem for us? i thought that was a strange way to put it. host: our guest is mona charen. we are splitting our phone lines between democrats, republicans and independents. you can also join us on twitter or facebook. policy editor for the relatively new website the bulwark.com. where does the name come from? what is the mission of this site? guest: the name comes from the idea that that seem to have been -- among republicans and on the right generally and that we wanted to stand and be a bulwark against that decline. that we still stand for the traditional virtues, we believe in civility and persuasion in

the political world's, that we are not partisans of one side or another, but rather we uphold the highest traditions of journalism and of the search for truth. host: mona charen also a former senior fellow at the ethics and policy center, a regular commentator on capital gang, and worked in the reagan white house as speechwriter for former first lady nancy reagan. there is a new pullout conducted by the hill.com that says 30% of self identified republican voters believe donald trump will be reinstated as president later this year. what is your reaction? guest: polls have to be taken

with a grain of salt because you don't know how much is signaling. when people -- people, especially republicans, have a great deal of distrust for pollsters and are inclined to mess with them. if they sense that this is a pro-or anti-trump, they want to signal they are pro-trump. a screw you pollster. there is that possibility, but the other thing is that -- so, we do not know if it is 30%, but there is a significant percentage, no doubt about it, of the republican party that is getting disinformation from the right wing infotainment networks. being fed a lot of propaganda and a lot of lies. so, if your diet consists of only those sites, you might very

well believe some crazy stuff. we have seen that in not just this poll, but many polls. the number of republicans who think there might be some truth to the cuban on conspiracy -- q anon conspiracy. republicans showing they believe former president trump did win the 2020 election, it goes on and on. host: mona charen. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8000 -- (202) 748-8001 for republicans. you can send a text message to (202) 748-8003. another story getting a lot of attention, the president was asked last week, the headline from the new york times, " targeting biden, catholic bishops advance a plan that would deny the second catholic

president communing because of his views on abortion." your comment. guest: i am not a catholic. this is somewhat of an internal catholic matter, but i would say it does reflect the divisions we find in all of american society. regis i -- we just saw a vote in the baptist convention where the sides were pitted against one another. politics has inserted itself into every nook and cranny of american life. our religious institutions are no exception. i would note that the catholic church also has a strong stance against capital punishment. i have not seen a big push to

deny communion to people who are for the death penalty. as an outsider, it is interesting to see that the pope opposes this move. it will be interesting to watch how this goes. from what i understand, the decision of communion falls to the local bishop. that is in the parish or whatever that biden attends. if the local bishop chooses to withhold communion, i believe the pope can overrule him. the church is very hierarchical, but the divisions within the catholic church, along with many other churches and religious organizations in the u.s., are deep. host: you are a multi platform journalists, including your podcast "egg to differ."

guest: it is a weekly pot cast -- podcast, we call it centerleft to center-right. i am host, we have linda chavez on the center-right, me, david linger, william gholston. every week we have a guest. the guests have been outstanding. they bring tremendous intellectual that halliday -- intellectual vitality. we discuss the issues of the weekend the issues of our time with civility, information, without shouting, without curse words, and it is a great hour. it drops friday's and you can get it on any platform. we have a lot of other podcasts at the bulwark, including

charlie -- we also have others that are behind a pay wall. so, if you -- you can join for a very small amount of >> c-span's washington journal. every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. coming up monday morning a white house and national political correspondent for real clear politics, susan crabtree, previews the week ahead at the white house. a hale senior staff writer talks about the week ahead in congress. the ceo of lexis-nexis discusses his group's research on pandemic unemployment fraud. a doctor from the university of maryland discusses her research

on covid vaccine booster shots. watch c-span's washington journal live on c-span 7:00 eastern. join with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweet. -- and tweets. >> i remain of the view that the worst arguments made for the lockdown were the initial ones. they said we had to protect hospitals from an overflow. who would need to be forced to avoid behavior that might result in hospitalization at a time when hospitals released staff to help you. then there was the argument [indiscernible] what if they predicted 30 million? ask yourself the question, what amount of force from government would have meant anything at that point? >> tonight on q and day -- q&a

john tamny on the impact of the pandemic lockdown on the economy. you can also listen as a podcast. find it wherever you get your podcasts. >> u.s. ambassador to linda thomas-greenfield, testified on u.s. diplomacy at the u.n., discussing the chinese influence on the global stage, protecting women and girls, and humanitarian rights issues. this runs four hours. . the committee on foreign affairs is called into order and without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess on tom