announcer: president biden travels to virginia today. we will have the president and the candidates' remarks when they get underway. it is set for 7:30 p.m. eastern right here on c-span. story of the week. the olympics getting underway in tokyo this morning. usa today with the headline, the covid olympics begin. a moment of joy and relief in tokyo is cloaked with fear and uncertainty.

writing is sports columnist christine brennan, the ones postpone, much discussed, long-awaited, olympics are finally upon us. they did not begin until friday's opening ceremony but we already know they will forever be known as the covid olympics. the other story is kind of where we began yesterday, the decision by nancy pelosi to prohibit two republican members on the select committee for the january 6 investigation, jim banks and jim jordan. the republican leader pulling all five republicans from the panel. the one remaining republican is liz cheney. the headline from the washington times this morning, pelosi: trump obsessed republicans will derail the january 6 to probe.

a tweet here from politico, speaker pelosi is weighing new ways to beef up the bipartisan credibility of the january 6 pro after mccarthy and republicans walked out on it. she is considering adding adam kinzinger and hiring the republican as an outside advisor. here's what she had to say yesterday. speaker pelosi: the select committee is bipartisan and it has a quorum. it will do the job it is out to do. that is to investigate the causes of what happened on january 6. to find out who paid for it, who message to get those people here for the assault on the capital.

over 100 people or injured, some died. i will never forget the trauma it caused not only for our members but our staff and people who work in the capitol. some of you were here that day as well. you can attest to the fact that it was not all love, hugs, and kisses. as you know, the committee is bipartisan. staff is being hired to do the job. we are there to get the truth, not get trump. trump seems to be what the other side is obsessed with. as legislation allows, two of

the five people were appointed and they made statements in taking action that i think would impact the integrity of the committee. the work of the committee. this is deadly serious. this is about our constitution. it is about our country. it is being mischaracterized at the expense of finding the truth. i am very pleased, the response be received across the country on this subject. i'm very pleased with the leadership of our chairman, the other members on the committee who have experienced their

calling card. it is my responsibility as speaker of the house to make sure we get to the truth of this and we will not let their antics stand in the way of our coverae january 6 attack continues this weekend. sunday we will show you a presentation with interviews with members of the house who were there that day. views from the house comes out sunday. the committee itself, the select committee is having their first meeting on tuesday, live on c-span three. it will also stream live at c-span.org. you can follow it live on the c-span radio app. washington journal, your top

news story of the week, (202) 748-8000 if you're a democrat. (202) 748-8001, for republicans. (202) 748-8002, independents and others. a check on the vaccine. vaccine count across the country , the numbers here at the centers for disease control and prevention saying thursday about 187.2 million people have received at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine. across the country, fully vaccinated, nearly 49%. let's go to your calls. this is carlos. caller: could you hear me? host: yes we can. caller: top news story is the covid-19 vaccination rollout.

i have personally not been infected with covid-19. people i have known, people who i do know who have been vaccinated, healthy people have had to report to the cdc, over 400,000 people. to have this constant push into take these vaccinations in the midst of a pandemic that has been 20 months. it is astonishing, the fear that is leading the people to take these vaccines without questioning the corporations that are not held liable for any type of reaction that is adverse.

for a virus initially that had a 99 point 9% recovery rate. host: mark in schenectady. caller: my top news story is the potential passing of the infrastructure bill. what that might lead to is no one has explained to me how congress is going to pay for it. how are we going to pay for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. if they try to raise taxes i will be very unhappy. they consistently bring up the idea of taxing the rich. i don't want that. i get my job from a wealthy person. stop taxing them, please. the infrastructure bill has not passed yet. they are trying to get some republicans over to vote with the democrats.

they have not explained how they will pay for it. they will run a huge deficit. host: chuck schumer yesterday talking about the failure to move forward on the legislation. they will bring it up again. here's what senator schumer said. >> my colleagues on both side of the aisle should be assured i have intentions of passing both packages. a budget resolution with reconciliation structures before we leave for the august recess. i laid out that precise schedule at the end of june and intend to stick with it. a new report by the chief report -- someone who served as an economic advisor to senator mccain concluded both major infrastructure proposals are essential to maximize our economic potential. not just one, both.

together, they would give a massive boost to the economy, increased productivity, and reduce income inequality. the senate will keep working on infrastructure in order to achieve these goals. host: let's go to port st. lucie, florida. host: my top news story -- caller: my top news story is a comment made by former president trump. it is a beautiful word, disinformation. that's what he did with this covid virus the last year. why is there not a massive class-action lawsuit against him by relatives of people who died from the virus? thank you. host: mark in arkansas.

republican line. caller: the top story this week was the exchange that happened between senator rand paul and dr. fauci. i don't understand what the technical definition is but if they were modifying an animal virus in a way that it would have been affecting people, that was a horrible idea. these people have to be held accountable if they were doing that. host: was this the first that you had heard of the issue? caller: i had heard the term. i don't know that technically meets the definition. i never heard dr. fauci deny that is what they were doing, modifying a virus that could affect people and giving it the capability to affect people. that is entirely too dangerous no matter how necessary the researches. host: thanks for that.

i direct your attention to a piece in the washington post. they write about that conflict between dr. fauci and rand paul this week. hearing we covered, you can find that at c-span.org. we would like to hear about your top news stories of the week. this is robert in massachusetts, democrats line. caller: good morning. i hope you show that tape between dr. fauci and rand paul. dr. fauci really blasted rand paul and called him a liar, basically. the other is donald trump's campaign manager. the trouble he is in and the things you have done will get donald trump, his children, wife

, mccarthy, remember donald trump said i have a bigger crowd than obama? where did all that money go? millions and millions of dollars. one last thing. mitch mcconnell's wife work side-by-side with donald trump for four years. mitch mcconnell's wife is a shipping tycoon out of china. he is a senator. she was very close to mr. trump. thank you very much. host: back to our previous car that asked about the conversation, argument between senator rand paul and dr. fauci. this is not the first time the two have had disagreements in a hearing, this was the latest.

it happened on tuesday. this is only part of a hearing of dr. fauci, rachelle wolinsky and others testifying before the senate committee. here it is. >> knowing it is a crime to lie to congress, do you wish to retract your statement of may 11 where you claim they never funded research in wuhan? >> i have never lied. senator paul, i have never lied before the congress. i do not retract that statement. this paper you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain of function. let me finish. >> you take an animal virus, you are saying that is not gain of function? >> you do not know what you're

talking about, quite frankly. i want to say that officially. you do not know what you are talking about. could i answer the question? >> this is your definition that you guys wrote. it says the scientific research that increases the transmissibility among animals is gain of function. they took animal viruses and they increase their transmissibility to humans. how you could say that is not gain of future -- function. you are trying to obscure responsibility from 4 million people dying around the world. >> now you are getting into something -- the point you are

>> this was not the pairs first public fight on the matter and men came prepared to do battle but their clash was all heat and no light. they got bogged down in a debate over whether the researchers in wuhan qualify as gain of function research and i will when you washington post.com if you want to read that article, that opinion piece this morning. your top news story of the week. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001. let's go to shelley in newcastle. >> thank you for taking my call. the first thing is going back

with these masks again it's just more than people can even happen. at this dr. fauci has lied so many times and changed his story so, i don't think the man knows the truth. does he need to be penalized and does he need to go to jail? the question i want to at why haven't the republicans? i'm talking real republicans, why haven't they started impeachment proceedings with this president? they have our country turned completely upside down. host: we will go to miller in maryland. -- i'm sorry we will go to -- i'm losing them all here. we will go to lynn in atlanta, georgia.

sorry about that. (202) 748-8000 is the line to call. i seem to have hung up on all the colors. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents and others. your host is at fault here. i just hung up on a bunch of you and i apologize. wall street journal this morning and their headline, republicans warn of battle over debt ceiling. top set republicans say the gop may line up against any effort to raise the government's borrowing limit this year adding to the uncertainty surrounding how congress will address the issue after the limit is reinstated next month. minority whip john through said wednesday that democratic plans to advance president biden's for -- for bank trillion dollar -- 4

trillion dollar agenda could cause republicans to oppose the debt limit increase. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell made these comments earlier. they write that congress suspended the debt limit for two years in 2019 as part of a broader agreement on overall spending levels brokered by then treasury secretary steven mnuchin and house speaker nancy pelosi. that suspension is set to expire july 31. the limit will be reinstated at roughly $28.5 trillion and the government will no longer be cap -- tap bond markets to raise cash to pay its bills. the senate minority whip, here's what he said yesterday on the floor. >> the crisis spending is for just that. a crisis. at least it should be. unfortunately, democrats have never met a temporary government dollar that they didn't want to keep spending. temporary government programs aren't really a thing for my friends across the aisle.

and so as the crisis was waning and our economy was rebounding, democrats bound on the crisis democrats doubled down -- democrats doubled down on the crisis spending and passed a massive covid relief bill filled with unnecessary handouts. hundreds of billions of dollars for state governments. the majority of whom were doing just fine without it. in fact, they had many running surpluses. schools had barely made a dead -- dent in the billions of dollars they had already been given. republicans and at least one liberal economist said the massive spending plan could over stimulate the economy. the democrats did not listen. and so it is no surprise that the flood of unnecessary dollars is currently helping to boost inflation. here's the kicker, after flooding the economy with unnecessary money, democrats are planning to double down. that's right, despite passing a largely unnecessary $1.9