coming up this morning, we look at president biden's poll numbers and the state of his national domestic agenda with josh kraushaar. in fiona hill -- and fiona hill on her new memoir, "there is no thing for you here." "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, october 12, 2021. the house returns at 3:00 p.m. eastern to consider a short-term increase of the debt limit. and president biden get set to hold a virtual meeting this morning with g20 leaders to discuss the future of afghanistan. but we begin with a question about the various challenges facing this country. we want to know what you think the most important problem is in the united states right now. give us a call on phone lines split as usual, by political parties. (202) 748-8001 for republicans.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text, that number (202) 748-8003. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. on facebook, it is facebook.com/cspan. good tuesday morning. start calling in now. the gallup organization regularly tracking this question of the most important problems facing the united states. here is they found in their latest september pulling on this question. 21% of americans believe coronavirus is the most important problem facing the country. 19% saying it is the government or poor leadership, 16% saying economic problems are the biggest problems facing the country, seven percent saying immigration, another 7% saying the idea of unifying the country is a top problem facing the country. there problems president -- mentioned, judicial problems,

the situation in afghanistan, the environment and i'm a change, and the lack of respect for each other, all those issued -- issues in the low to mid single digits in the latest gallup polling. when it comes to which party is best equipped to handle the problems facing the country, that question also asked i the gallup organization in its regular tracking polls. here's the latest on who is best equipped to handle those questions. by a 41% to 38%, u.s. adults say they republican party rather than the democrats party can better handle whatever problems they name as the most important problem facing the country. last year, 47% said the democratic party and 39% said the republican party can better address the problem, back when the pandemic, the government, and race relations were named the top issues.

those identifying the coronavirus as the most important problem widely said the democratic party can better handle it. by contrast, those naming the government as a top problem are more inclined to say that republican can better handle it. this morning, in this first hour of the washington journal, we want to hear from you, what you think the most important problem facing this country is right now. doris is up first out of worcester, ohio. good morning. line for democrats. caller: good morning. i think the most pressing problem is the attempt to suppress the vote in state legislatures across the united states through gerrymandering and limiting access to voting. host: in which party do you think is best equipped to handle that? caller: the democrats. host: if you had a second most pressing problem, what would it be? caller: the thing that scares me

every day is the coronavirus epidemic, so dealing with that and taking care of the second surge of the delta variant is important for me. host: thanks for the call. most important problem facing the country is what we want to hear from you. phillip, independent. caller: good morning. united we stand, divided we fall. i just find that the country is so divided, and it has not taken its time to slowly bring people in to the country and the people that live in the country and politics understand the history and the present issues like employment, race relations, the pandemic -- you name it. we have so many diversified opinions that we are not on the same page as a country. i do not think it is very

difficult to move forward unless we become more unified and together as we go forward in the future. we have serious issues to deal with. host: on the campaign trail, then candidate died in promised to unite the country and talked a lot about that issue, talked about it in his inaugural address. do you think we would be further along on that front almost 10 months into his presidency? caller: the thing is, biden was a nice pill to take, because he had such -- we had such dramatic episodes during the trump administration that we were just looking for something to be little bit calmer, but realistically, most of the people that are in government and many of the authority people that work on our behalf clearly are not in tune with the reality of the average person walking

around in this country, they just are not really, so you can say anything you want to say, but can you find a plan, a method, to actually bring people , the average person, together? i just do not think it is possible -- host: whether we are together or not, do you think things happen,? caller: -- have been calmer? caller: yeah, things are calmer. like, right now, i am feeling more confused about what is not being truthful he told to us, -- truthfully told to us, then we find out there are so many levels of corruption going on. if we could clean up, get a brand-new page, and start all over with trying to understand each other and reason with each other that -- rather than pitting us against each other, i think that would be a possible

first step, in my opinion. host: jim in new york, republican, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. go ahead. caller: my biggest issue -- first, one week comment. the lady talked about suppressing the vote. i do not know how you can say that when there are many precincts that have more votes than actual voters. i do not see how you can see it is suppressing the vote. if anything, more people are voting than are actually on the rules, so something is wrong. but my biggest concern is the suppression of free speech, with censorship with the media and universities and all of that stuff just muzzling any conservative voices. i would say that even includes c-span, who pretend to be unbiased, but they are quicker to promote stories that promote

the left and leave out things like -- just one instance recently, lawyers that were indicted when trump was in office were quickly brought up, and they made points, but when suspects whose mothers get indicted, there is nary a word, nicu suppressing stories that are positive towards us, the right-leaning side, that is very frustrating to me. and i see media muzzling the right hand side and not giving stories, and then you have the big tech and stuff censoring free speech if it does not meet their narrative. so it is looking more like a communist, tyrannical system that just promotes one side. host: who do you trust, then,

who do you think is doing a good job on the issue that you want to see? caller: i used to -- it is hard to find anybody anymore. i go to gateway pundit or stuff, but i cant get to pressbox news anymore. the washington post and the new york times are totally way off the charts. just hard to find any media you can trust anymore, because they are promoting one side over the other. host: jim, hope you keep watching. we gave you a chance to mostly focus on you and your voices. that is what we do three hours a day with the phone-in conversation. david, democrat, your next. caller: good morning. to be honest with you, i think our biggest problem in our country is donald trump. i think, if he was not out there

spilling all that fall stuff to the right, we were -- biden was trying to be real neutral. they keep fighting him. the democrats, we have a problem, because we have manchin and sinema, who are really republicans, and they keep blocking his agenda. it is just a mess. i think if we could get together -- we cannot get together because the far right will not let us. they will not let us come together. and that is donald trump. donald trump is doing all he can to fight biden every step of the way. the other presidents, after they lost, they would mind their own business, but he is still spreading the big lies, and the followers are still following him, and they will not take the coronavirus shot, they will not take the shot, so -- host: you mentioned three individuals fighting biden, as

you describe it. who do you think has done more to hold up president biden's agenda? president trump or joe manchin and kyrsten sinema? caller: that is a good question. i still think it is donald trump, because i think sinema and manchin, with their states voting -- areas they represent being republican, i think they are trying to support trump in an underhand way, so it is just a mess. they will not let our country go forth. host: david in flint, michigan. spending this first hour of the "washington journal" on this tracking poll question gallup asks occasionally. other organizations ask as well. specifically, what is the most important problem facing the country today? coronavirus has topped the list for a long time when it comes to the tracking poll from gallup. today, it is at 21% from gallup,

and government and leadership in this country nearly tied with that at 19%. taking your phone calls online. keep calling in. we noted that the house will be in today at 3:00 p.m. eastern. they are taking up that bill to temporarily lift the debt ceiling to allow the debt ceiling to increase through december and perhaps longer, depending how treasuries able to move the various funds around. but the punch bowl news morning -- newsletter with a rundown of how this vote will go down in the house today. as c-span viewers know, it was passed by the senate late last week after the deal that came together with republicans to overcome a filibuster. the increase, that seal increase passed on a partyline vote.

the punch bowl morning news saying the house today will not actually vote directly on lifting the debt limit. the debt limit is going to be deemed lifted as part of a rule vote that governs debate for the pump for nursing mothers act, the protect older job applicants act, and the family violence prevention and services improvement act, which the house will take up today. in other words, they know one vote will sketch out the debate for all three minor bills, and it will lift the debt ceiling. it is an attempt by being acute by democrats, but it is still a debt ceiling vote. that is a rundown of what is happening in washington. as we noted, president biden will meet virtually with g20 leaders at 8:45 eastern today to discuss coordination with afghanistan.

the president is set to receive intelligence briefings. nancy pelosi is set to receive -- to hold her weekly news conference. at 12:45, nancy pelosi is set to meet with the israeli foreign minister. there is a white house press briefing today. in the house in at 3:00 p.m. today. we are expecting the vote on the debt ceiling lift somewhere around 5:00 p.m. today. dee, ohio. you are next on this question of the most important problem facing the country today. caller: i think our most important problem is our corrupt congress. they are ruling by blackmail, and not one is a good bill or a bad bill. a man called in the other day and said he was going to get $1400 for child credit, and that is more money than i make to live on, period.

also, the $3 billion given to immigrants to pay them to come here. the more that he is going to give them, the more they are going to calm, and we have about 60,000 coming now, and he will not do anything about the wall. host: do you like your member of congress and the house or your senators? do you think they are doing a good job? caller: none of them is doing a good job. biden is not the one ruling anyway. the far left his ruling. the democrats are no good and the republicans are no good. i do not like either one of them. if trump and biden are the best we can do, we are in big trouble. host: who do you vote for when it comes to election day? caller: i am not going to vote. it makes no difference. they are not going to do anything for the country.

i am tired of hearing them say "for the american people." if they do not do it for the country, they are not doing it for their people. and if they let the country fall apart, the people are in trouble, too. host: bradley, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. the lady who was just on, she is raising cain about this and that, she needs to go vote. when you vote, that puts your record in. what i think of the country is when you look at tv, photos, stuff, the big ships coming in with the containers -- no wonder we do not have no jobs here. i bet there are not that many container ships sitting in china and japan and vietnam. i am a vietnam veteran. it makes me sick. general electric -- i just had a refrigerator go bad, and i put a motor in, and that was made in

vietnam. nothing makes me sicker than stuff coming in from other countries. shut the borders down. get tough. host: stick around. at 9:00 a.m. eastern today, here on the "washington journal," some of the issues you bring up we will be talking about with fiona hill. she's a former senior staffer at the national security council. c-span viewers will know her from her testimony during the first impeachment trial of president trump. she is the author of this book, "there is nothing for you here: finding opportunity in the 21 century." stick around for that conversation. misty is next in arkansas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking our calls. i believe our biggest problem is a spiritual problem.

i think we have really kind of spit in our founding fathers eyes with turning away from religion. i am a person of faith. the scripture says god sets them up and takes them down, our leaders. i do not know why joe biden got put in office, if it was to show how good america was before and this is our last chance -- i know most people do not have a spiritual look at things, but i do, and i sincerely believe that sin and turning from god is america's biggest problem. thank you so much for -- host: to the old dominion, in gainesville, virginia. caller: good morning.

i think the biggest problem in this country right now, and for the past several years, is the big money calling the shots in congress. it is the lobbies that decide the agenda of both parties, but i would say mostly the agenda of the republican party is set by big money. democracy was meant to be of, for, and by the people. that is no longer true in america, for a long time. for example, we have been building a messy income inequality in this country. when obama left office, the dollar was sitting at 20,000, now it is at 30,000. where did the wealth go? it did not go to working americans, it went to a handful of corporations and companies, and they are the ones calling the shots in congress. biden is trying to correct that

by investing in the middle class to help them out a little bit in their daily life. why do you think were republicans are blocking it? not a single republican wants to give help to the working people. why? because they work for the corporations and the donors. that is the biggest problem. it is caused by the citizens united act in 2011 in 2012, sponsored by the republicans. there is not a darn thing the republicans do for the sake of the middle class. host: what do you think happens in the coming weeks with president biden's signature bill, the build back better act, and the budget reconciliation we have been talking about. does it get through congress? caller: i think eventually it will make it, but they might water it down because of manchin and sinema. i think they are plain to their

donors, which is also big money. what on earth is wrong with helping the middle class of this country? because of the big tax cut trump gave in 2016. $1.2 trillion of that borrowed money for the people like trump and bezos and gates. the rich are getting that. even that expires in 2025. they do not talk about the debt created by the big tax cuts, but when biden wants to help the middle class, pay for college, babies, childcare, give a leg up to the middle class, every biden -- everybody is screaming " this is socialism!" i think bernie for insisting on it. call it what you like. the middle class of this country has been neglected since reagan times. host: this is brandon in delaware, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing well.

go ahead. caller: i think the biggest problem facing our country, and at large western society in general, irrational fear. as i listen to the callers, i am hearing a lot of blame. people are afraid of the coronavirus. people are afraid of donald trump. people are afraid of this and that -- just a lot of finger-pointing and blame being shifted around. at the end of the day, what people need to realize is love overcomes fear, and there is not enough of that in this country. there is so much hatred towards other people. there is not enough respect for the american people to make their own decisions. a lot of these top-down mandates of the vaccines affecting the military, police, firefighters, teachers across the nation -- i think that is truly an abomination of what this country is founded on, and the fear that has perpetrated through media of all varieties, especially social media and mainstream television, has led to where we are at today and this conundrum.

it will be difficult to crawl out of, but i think it is going to have it to happen at one point, where we come back together as a country. when you look at the quarter, it says "e pluribus unum," "out of many, one." but that has been reversed to be "out of one, many." we are being subverted ideologically in our education system. the gentleman who spoke was absolutely right. the middle class is completely being gutted. until we all come together and stand up for what we believe in and fight fear and tyranny, we will never have liberty again. host: on the idea fighting fear, yesterday, we spent some time talking about fdr and the new deal and how it was received back in the 1930's, fdr saying the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. who do you think could make a statement like that today that

people would listen to, that it would resonate with? is there a leader right now who could call out that fear and make people realize that the fear is bigger than the problems themselves? caller: i think that is such a great point to make there. that is such a profound statement from fdr at a pivotal time in history. i think the one person that could do this is a leader in each individual local community, that stands up and assumes the role of leading his community, just like i do at my local school board meetings and whenever i am at the city council meetings and when i talk to people in public. i try to promote myself as a leader and talk about these type of things, learn more about history, get more educated about the essence of liberty and what this country is actually founded on. stop blaming donald trump. stop being afraid of the coronavirus. stop being afraid ovarians. and stop thinking a big pharma

injection will bring you freedom, because obviously it has not. i think individual members -- tens of thousands of people across the country could give that same message, and it could spread. and hopefully, a national leader could form out of that. we need it bad. both party has no leadership, as far as i am concerned. who is there that we can come to that has that message on either side? it is a question i cannot answer right now. it has to form in the primordial -- like the local primordial use of communities in order to regenerate that. we do not have a leader right now. it is sick. host: this is al, waco, texas, republican. what is the biggest problem facing the country right now? caller: the biggest problem here in texas is immigrants coming across illegally. and it seems to be ongoing. the other thing i think --

biden signed off on the things trump had and stopped the wall, stopped the jobs, stopped big business and jobs and everything else that went with it. everybody can blame -- the biggest problem facing us is leadership. we do not have leadership. we just have somebody up there who, you know, is trying to pass a bill that is going to cost us a lot, and we do not need more money going out. we have already given enough. host: the issues you bring up, poor leadership -- some 90% of those who responded to the latest gallup poll on the biggest problem facing the u.s., 19% said the government and poor leadership is the biggest issue.

you mentioned immigration as well -- 7% in the latest tracking poll, saying that is the biggest issue. we mentioned the issue of climate change -- 4% of those responded said climate change is the biggest issue. and the issue of climate change, the lead story in today's washington post, looking at a new report, new research published monday in the journal of nature and climate change, saying at least 85% of the global population experienced weather events made worse by climate change, the reporting on that story in the washington post this morning, the findings they know, amid a major push to get countries to commit to more ambitious climate goals and of the united nations summit in scotland next month. the united states, -- in the united states, climate disasters have caused more than $100 billion in damage this year alone, according to an analysis

from the washington post and the national oceanic and atmospheric association. yet they note, despite a pledge to halve emissions by the end of this decade, democrats are struggling to pass bills that would provide hundreds of billions of dollars for renewable energy and programs that would help communities adapt to a changing climate. in this, members of native american tribes from across the country came to washington for the first of five days of protests that began yesterday. the rallies are part of the people v. fossil fuels demonstration by a coalition of a group -- also yesterday, some of the graffiti in lafayette park,

white outside -- right outside the white house, a statue of andrew jackson vandalized, that photo from early this morning of the graffiti still there. "expect us" was written at the statue's base. the full chant was "respect us or expect us." back to your phone goals. tom out of massachusetts, independent. caller: hey, big fan. i think the biggest thing facing the country is the sheep that are in denial of facts. this pc wave coming across america. i believe we have this illegitimate president, a stolen

election. it was the crime of the century. evil, racist democrats. patriots think dems are wrong but democrats think we are evil. about fdr, he was the first communist president. and dems build back stolen elections better. host: this is robert in indiana, republican. caller: give me a little time. biden is a problem, and that people put that character in there. i blame the people. we have got to get back with god. this country has complete the forgot his rules. we are looking -- it is all global if you listen to the speeches. -- host: on the issue of global

action, we just talked about climate change and the issue of climate change. are you ok with that being a place where there is global action? we lost robert. leslie in capitol heights, maryland, democrat. caller: how you doing? i want to say something kind of profound. with what is happening the way it is happening nowadays. when i was a young kid, i was told about the people and how they would act in this century. back in the 1900s, there were 2000 ku klux klan members. out of those 2000 ku klux klan members, there were children five years old and up, chanting "satan." they built a 100 foot cross, turned it upside down in a big field in tennessee, and all

those people were chanting "satan," because they were angry with god because they did not win the civil war. so all those people, with all this hate, they have condemned us. they were born without souls. that is why these things are happening nowadays. but it was told to me that these people have been brainwashed and hypnotized, and the only way they can get out of that hypnotism is to pray to jesus to open their eyes so they can see the truth. that is why they vote against their own selves. host: tina in indiana, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. the biggest problem the united states of america is facing right now is joe biden. get joe biden out of office, replace him -- not with kamala. replace him with someone who can

make a decision on their own. again, joe biden is our biggest problem we are facing as americans. thank you. host: nick in florida, independent, good morning. caller: good morning p the biggest problem we have got is incompetence in this administration. i am a retired, disabled army major. yesterday, it was reported that buttigieg, a transportation secretary, says the supplies might take years to straighten out. why? can't you go out and activate the military, even the national guard? every base i've been on has semitruck qualified drivers. hundreds of them. hire them. save christmas and get people supplies, medical and everything else, from the store shelves being empty. where are these four star general sitting warm in their

chairs? host: in terms of supply chain, where have you seen the impacts where you are in florida? we lost nick. mary in montana, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. we have been lifelong democrats, and i am having a hard time trying to decide if i would vote democrat. my biggest concern is the open border. and why president biden cannot come out and tell us his plan for the border, tell the country, what he is doing with it. you do not hear anything from him about the border. host: robert in florida, democrat, good morning.

caller: good morning. about biden, as -- host: robert, are you still with us? caller: you know, he is there to correct everything that was made wrong. and i believe that people that do not want to take this vaccine are foolish. and if you decide to commit suicide, god is not going to accept you as a rightful person. now let's get down to who sold what election. -- who stole what election. when george bush stole the election in 2000 over al gore, you realize that the clean air

situation we may have had -- we could have had a high speed rail. we could have had electric cars. we could have had things that would have helped god's planet. and they do not understand that, if they destroy god's planet, god will destroy them. and i would not want to be in their shoes, because hell is for eternity. host: that is robert in florida. you can keep calling and this morning as we discuss the most important problem facing the u.s. four lines are split as usual, by political party. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as you can see, the last caller was talking about elections, focused now on the events in the wake of the 2020 election specifically the events on capitol hill on january 6. we are joined by chris market.

appreciate you getting up early for us this morning. plenty of movement by the committee to investigate january 6, the select committee in the house. take us through the latest when it comes to all the subpoenas that have been issued and the responses the committee is getting as it moves through its investigation phase. guest: good morning. thanks for having me on. friday, the select committee investigating january 6 issued a statement basically giving the public a little idea of the state of play of four important subpoenas with former senior trump white house officials sta nd, and those include former dod official kashyap patel, former communications director for the

trump administration dance give you know, former trump advisor stephen banning, and mark meadows, former white house chief of staff. they said meadows and patel are engaging with the -- with the committee. they did not mention the communications director, but they did mention that in -- bannon was not entirely complying, and the committee, if necessary, was preparing to make it criminal contempt of congress referral to the department of justice regarding steve bannon's pushback on complying with the subpoena. right now come out of the four, we know scavino, because of reporting from cnn, scavino has been served that subpoena. bannon is not complying. patel and meadows are engaging.

all four of them have been subpoenaed for records and documents. that deadline was last thursday. that is why the statement was issued friday. later this week, all four of them are scheduled to sit for depositions with the select committee. whether or not all four of them will actually sit for those depositions remains to be seen. in addition, there have been over a dozen subpoena sent out to different organizers and participants, organizers of the event that led up to january 6. a couple people who worked on stop the steal. stop the steal has also been subpoenaed, the llc, and in addition, women for america first, organizers for that group have been subpoenaed. they are required -- those

deadlines are in forthcoming weeks for records and documents to testify before the committee. those are forthcoming. host: coming back to the four former trump administration officials, what does engaging with the select committee mean? and what do we know about the specific documents from all four of these folks? guest: it is unclear to the extent of what engaging means, but it seems to be a good sign that they are probably producing those documents that are requested, at least a sliver of those documents. it remains to be seeing the extent of that. what the committee is looking to -- and this goes to their overall charge, examining the facts and circumstances of what led to the january 6 insurrection, what they want to know is who, what, when, how

this event was funded, who had any role in organizing it or collaborating to organize it or execute this plan, what the intent was behind the plan. they are seeking a lot of communications within the white house. also on friday, the white house press secretary confirmed at her press briefing that president biden would not block the first batch of documents from the trump white house that the select committee is seeking, so that is a revelation for sure on that front. however, trump has said he will fight it, so how long this is going to take with regard to the subpoenas and the noncompliance

on a lot of the subpoenas, it could really run out the clock in terms of how long this investigation is going to last, because of the democrats lose the house, than the select committee, you can be sure, is not going to continue in republican hands. host: lastly, you talk about former president trump is going to fight it. if you could dig in a little more about what that then sets up for a push and pull over this issue of executive privilege and is this something that eventually could make it to the supreme court? guest: it very well could. it could be a long, drawnout legal process. the legal system is not built for speed, and midterms are quickly approaching, and there is not a lot of time, so the select committee has obviously

-- they said in summer they would go straight to subpoenas. they have done that. they have issued several subpoenas. that strongly worded statement that, in regards to bannon's noncompliance to the subpoena, they are prepared to move swiftly with a criminal referral -- criminal contempt of congress referral to the department of justice. then the department of justice makes a determination on that, and you go from there. host: chris marquette has been tracking the work of the select committee for rollcall, ro llcall.com. you can see his work and follow his twitter handle, @chris marquette_. thanks for talking with us. back to your phone calls. about 15 minutes left in this first segment of the "washington journal," asking you simply what

is the most important facing the united states. pat, republican, is up next. thanks for waiting. caller: you are welcome. i just watched your january 6 item, and i was observing that those wearing masks were the ones causing all the trouble. i've been to many functions for the republicans and donald trump -- nobody wears masks. so it is a set up. my original statement was that people have no say. a perfect example of something that good americans were just trying to question the vote, and they went there without intention of fighting. but it is obvious it was antifa, because they wear the masks -- host: what evidence have you seen of that? a set up by who? caller: no republicans wear masks. and all the people doing the cans of pepper spray and things,

those that initially broke in and in those films, they were wearing masks. that is to hide their identity -- host: what about these cases that have already made it through the legal system in the courts here in d.c.? these folks who have been charged, some of them have come to plea agreements, some have been sentenced. none of these people have these connections to antifa that you're talking about, as some sort of big set up. caller: but they have not had their day in court either. they have not been given their rights as americans there either. they have not had good representation. they have been put in solitary. they have not been treated as well as antifa in those states where they cause those problems, they were released. it is an unequal justice system, and it is a total set up. there is chaos.

they wanted chaos, they brought chaos out of an orderly assembly of people. and it is working for them. the build back better thing is not a united states purpose or plan, it is the u.n. plan. they have been planning and stating that in their publications. people need to wake up and see the united states is bill back at her, but to build back better, you have to destroy first, which is a total demonic and also communist plan. you can see it all over. host: mike in maryland, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. we really have several problems. as best as i can get to some of them out, i will try to do that. first of all, as relates to your previous caller -- totally wrong. totally not having the right information in front of her.

just the mere fact people can say out of their mouths today, these many months later, that the election was stolen, is sad. and i will tell you something. i do believe there is a leadership problem going on in congress. not just amongst -- it is amongst all branches of the government. the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch. there is a lack of leadership. and where the leadership truly is is in our every, normal communities. that is where the real leadership is. but enough focus is not on the communities at large. so here we are, in america, this great country with military men who are defending this country for our freedom, and we have the audacity to walk around in total ignorance of what is going on in this country.

we are pitted against each other relative to who is a democrat or a republican. that right there is a set up. we cannot even have a conversation about what is true. somebody is telling a lie and somebody is telling the truth. we are all, to some extent, being manipulated by the media. we have been manipulated by the politicians. they are playing us like a harp. now what normally happens when people decide to get it together collectively is when people, innocent people, and up dying. when something happens to a large number of people, and then everybody wants to have a kumb aya moment, crying and all that. we have to be smart enough in this country to stop letting people manipulate us. you know that trump was impeached twice. you know that. you know he has told over 35,000

lives when he was in office. don't you remember that he exonerated several people found guilty of crimes? wake up. no one is against donald trump. we are against donald trump's behavior while he was occupying the office of the presidency. that is the issue right there. he was occupying that office and committing crimes in office. we have to be smart enough to say we are not communist, all these labels they put on us -- we are simply american people. if we do not get it together, c-span and all these other media outlets, you're going to see the country dissolve right in front of your face, and that all of a sudden, you're going to wake up and realize all the stuff we have been doing came to naught. we have to stop doing this. host: about 10 minutes left in

this first segment of the washington journal. taking your phone calls and looking for your posts on social media. here are a few. from our text messaging service, ed saying the crisis our nation is facing his rhetoric has become a substitute for leadership, and no one with stature has emerged to lead us out of the wilderness. this from joseph in michigan -- homelessness is the only problem . cooperation, government not being able to work or agree on just about anything is the biggest problem. working together, we can handle anything. that is william in connecticut. from russ in california, the most important problem facing america, runaway inflation in the economy. if this does not get fixed, all other problems become academic. bob, the mainstream media and big tech are the biggest problem, by censoring stories -- we are in deep trouble. this is bill in georgia, a democrat. what is the most important

problem facing the country? caller: i think probably the way that we are looking at things. i wonder if i am the only person that sees a direct connection between the hour and half meeting that donald trump had with putin and the behavior of donald trump now. to me, attacked the press, attack the -- all the different behaviors being shown by donald trump, i see a direct connection with the hour and a half meeting he had with vladimir putin. host: someone else who may have thoughts on that -- fiona hill. you will remember fiona hill from her testimony during the first trump impeachment, an expert on russia, in the national security council. also wrote a psychological

portrait of putin to try to understand his motivations. she will be joining us in just about an hour, 9:00 eastern, to talk about her new book. the book, "there is nothing for you here: finding opportunity in the 21 century." bill, hope you stick around for that conversation. johnny in massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. a great subject. on your list of percentages, the 3%, remind me which one that was, because i think that is what my comments would the about. host: in terms of most important problem? caller: yeah. host: the low single digits, there was 3% lack of respect for each other was what 3% of respondents said. caller: thanks. i just wanted to remind people that is probably part of our problem in the country.

i just want to make a couple of comments. i will not get into the politics of republican or democrat. i think we are going down the wrong road when we tried to scream out at each other about what this one did or what that one day. it starts locally. the first word i would love to say is "ability. -- "civility. " as a people, we are not listening to each other. we are lashing out, and the anger -- it will ruin us all if we keep going that way. my dad used to say, working class family, try and keep it simple. when there is a problem, just keep it simple, and it will get solved one way or another, whether it is words with your neighbors or whatever. it used the work kate i do not see that anymore. there was a saying i read one

time -- i do not know who said it, but i love it. it said if the people won't lead, the leaders will fall. what i got from that is your honesty, try to lead people thinking this is the right way to go, then listen to the people who disagreed with you, you coudl come to a good solution. maybe i am pacifist or whatever, but all i know is i drive down the street in my town in south boston, if i go down the expressway or whatever, there is so much anger out there. you cannot even make a mistake to try to get yourself to a particular spot that you do not know where -- a city or you do not know where your destination is, and you are looking for help to get there, and people are screaming at you.

i think we have to have a lot more civility in our country. it does not look good. the politics will straighten out if the local people -- and i am talking about, timmy, i put my local city council just as important as the president of the -- to me, i put my local city council just as important as the president of the united states. the bottom is just as important an area for us to try to get things done him a listen other. whether they are republican -- it does not matter about that. it is just the people itself being honest with each other, listening to each other. i remember, as a kid, i got involved after john kennedy was elected, and i remember cruise

ships saying we will bury you without even -- kruschev saying we will bury you without firing even a single shot. that is what stayed with me. i love this country so much. i want to turn it around. i've grandkids now. my family is all local. we stayed in our area because i wanted my kids to grow up with their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, their cousins, and i think that is a big thing to do, because it keeps everybody together and doing what is good for their own family. that just goes on to your neighbors and what have you. i sound like a pacifist, but i am just hoping for our country. host: before you go, yesterday on this program in this hour, we asked the question are america's best days ahead or behind us?

how would you answer that question? caller: i think our best days are ahead of us. to be honest, i think we are at an all-time low in our country. i hope i am wrong, but that is what i see. and i think our best days are ahead of us. host: thanks for the call. just a couple more calls as we ask the most important problem facing the country. emma in new york city, independent, what would you say? caller: i would say -- and i've been on the left of my whole life -- there is a real problem with a liberalism and authoritarianism growing on the left. we are seeing repression of free speech, erosion of due process, a condemnation of anyone who questions either covid restrictions or identity all it takes, ideology. i think people on the left need

to remember the classic american value of liberty. we are really losing sight of that, and we have this sort of obsession with safety incentive the natural american character of valuing risks. i think that is a really big problem. and there was an interesting article in the atlantic about authoritarianism on the left and cancel culture. i think we really need to take this seriously. host: joe, new jersey, democrat. what is the most important problem? caller: i am curious by what the previous caller said, and frankly, i have to say i am really not opposed to cancel culture, considering the fact that have been so much -- and it is a form of kind of retribution , but i have to say that people of color have been canceled continuously. and if a few people lose their

jobs temporarily because they said things that were outrageous , which has happened so much in the history of america, even in the history on the last few years, i do not have a problem with that. see what it's like. on top of that, i want to say the most important issue for our times right now is the fact that our climate is changing, that we have abused it and abused it and abused it, and we need to start working on making it more livable for every living creature. host: greg, alabama, last caller. republican. most important problem facing the country? caller: there are a lot of important problems, but a big one is censorship. if they do not like what people have to say, facebook will shut you down, other outlets will not listen. we have such a divide amongst our media that it keeps the country torn up and divided amongst each other.

and i want to say one thing. when colin kaepernick started taking a knee on the flag, it bothered me not because of what he was doing it for, it bothered me because that flag is our family. it represents the glue that holds this country together. what i coach kids you can talk to your brother all day long, in the house you can wrestle and fight, but let the neighbor come over and whip his butt, you will have a problem. i said if i was on the field with colin kaepernick he would not need my help because he is an athlete, but if they were trying to kick him out because he was an american, i would have his back. we are americans, we are family, that is our family crest. unity is what is missing. the division weighs on the back of those who are censoring us and dividing us continuously

through the media. host: our last color in this first segment of "washington journal. two more hours to go. we will be joined by "the national journal's" josh kra ushaar to talk about the political fallout from president biden's falling poll numbers and what is next in his agenda. and we will talk with fiona hill about her new book "there is nothing for you here." stick around. we will be right back. ♪

>> coming up live today on c-span, a case brought by kentucky's a techie g -- kentucky's attorney general. that is live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. then at 11:30 a.m. nancy pelosi holds her weekly briefing with reporters. at 3:00 the house returns from a scheduled recess to take up a senate-passed bill to extend the debt ceiling until december 3. on c-span two, financial leaders from the international monetary fund, the wto, and world bank talk about the economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic at 1:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch everything online at c-span.org or with our free mobile app, c-span now.

♪ >> get c-span on the go. watch the day's biggest political events live or on-demand anywhere any time on our new mobile video app, c-span now. access top highlights, listen to c-span radio, and discover new podcasts for free. download c-span now today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: josh kraushaar is back with us, political columnist at the national journal where he put pens his against the grain column. it was last weekend against the grain where you dug into president biden's falling polling numbers. how worried should democrats be about those numbers? guest: they should be very worried. his average job approval according to the 538 polling average is 44%.

that is lower than every president at this point in their administration in the last 50 years other than donald trump. it is a double whammy. the president is losing support amongst independents. his average support among independents is in the 30's and most of these polls. you also have an intensity of opposition among republicans and even independents, a deep disapproval from a sizable plurality of voters. you have on top of it a lot of evidence that democrats are disillusioned as well. covid is not going away, or it is taking a while to go away, the economy is facing a lot of headwinds. this white house a couple of months ago thought that they would be running and politicking on a roaring back economy and covid going away. you are seeing the opposite. inflation is a real issue. not only inflation, but some of the after effects of covid will

stock shortages in supplies. stores cutting hours. stores cutting customer surveys. i've talked with some democrats who are starting to use the term malaise in describing the public mood. that is not a good sign. it was attached to jimmy carter's presidency and not one the biden white house wants to repeat. host: the chart of president biden's job approval numbers from january and february through the latest numbers. you can see the trend line going down and underwater starting the end of august, early september. historically, this is not the usual end of the honeymoon phase of a new president. this is something different? guest: polls go up and down and there are certainly -- midterms are over a year away there's plenty of time for the presidency to rebound.

one of the more concerning elements of the polling is that unlike president trump and president obama, who could rely on a rock solid base, 80% or 90% of democrats and republicans during the obama and trump residencies saying that they would support them no matter what. you're not seeing the same degree of support with president biden. he is taking off the left because he is not permissive enough on immigration policies, he hasn't given into the left on everything, he has ticked off the middle because he is trying to pursue trillions of dollars in a spending package and the covid and economy. this is a double whammy. at least with trump and obama they could say we have a base that will show up to the polls no matter what for our parties even though we have a lot of headwinds. biden does not command the same degree of support from his own party, which makes it extra challenging for him. host: midterms are year away, but the off-year elections,

specifically the now close race in virginia is weeks away. how does this play out if terry mcauliffe, the democratic former governor of virginia, if he loses in virginia, a state that president biden won less than a year ago by 10 percentage points over donald trump? guest: that virginia governor's race, which takes place next month, will be a strong bellwether about what the public mood is looking like. democrats thought that this was going to be a walk in the park. that you had a state that voted for president biden by 10 points. it has been trending blue, democrats have won every governors race going back to 2013 and presidential elections to 2008. i think they underestimated the fundamentals, that usually virginia the year after a presidential election, there is a desire to check the party in power.

the virginia governor, biden in the white house, you have a democratic state legislator the last few years, so there is a strong desire to check the party in power. you add on top of that the degree of support biden has in the state. he won well over 50% of the vote last year. his job approval in virginia is in the 40's, underwater. i assume the president will come in for terry mcauliffe.that usually happens in the closing days of a governors race, but i'm not sure if you will give terry mcauliffe that much help. terry mcauliffe himself said that biden may actually give him negative in the state. you need to get democratic votes to the polls. that is a warning sign. you're looking to get enthusiasm up at a time when in past elections that was not a challenge. democrats were flocking to the polls in virginia during the trump era.

it is harder to have democrats showing up for terry mcauliffe in an off-year election. host: if you are to do that, it would be a busy time for him as congress continues to debate in the democratic party in particular continues to debate the build back better agenda, what the final number should be. what is your gut telling you about how longer this will take? does biden get the budget reconciliation bill through the house and senate? guest: usually the notion in washington is something that important is too big to fail. i'm afraid the trillions of dollars in proposed spending that the white house and democratic party are trying to pass may be too big to pass. you have a 50-50 senate. you cannot afford to lose a single democrat. you have two democrats in joe manchin and kyrsten sinema who are functionally independent. these are not partyline voters. their constituencies are to the

middle and to the right. these will not be easy votes to get even with the typical horsetrading that goes on. you look at the house, and pelosi and biden can only afford to lose three house democrats, and you already have a couple on the record who are very wary about the spending levels that democrats are proposing. there are dozens more democrats who say they want to pass something but they know that they are in competitive districts where the political tide is turning against them and are very wary about inflation, government spending, and when they hear that democrats want to pass $3.5 trillion in additional spending on top of covid relief, on top of the bipartisan proposal for infrastructure that costs over $1 trillion. i don't think this will be an easy lift. i don't think there's anything better than a 50-50 chance that democrats get this through even though the incentives suggest they need to get something done to help president biden because his job approval is thinking to

the degree that it is. it's hard to get everyone in line for a consensus proposal. host: chatting politics with one of the smartest minds in politics in washington, longtime political reporter josh kraushaar of the national journal. he writes the against the grain column and has a podcast of the same name.here take your questions. as usual, by political party. kraushaar, as usual, plenty of calls for you. republican, you are up first. caller: biden, he is just not making decisions for running this country. he is just a puppet and everybody knows it. look at the extreme policies he is having. we are going to defund the money

to build the wall down there, we are going to put environmental stuff -- environmental stuff is not going to stop these illegals from coming around. i the institute for immigration studies, it costs american taxpayers last year a half $1 trillion on illegal immigration. as far as the news media goes, the news media needs to cover -- all they are talking about is the january 6 commission. you don't hear anything about biden's son's laptop and art deals. it is not a 50-50 thing, it is more like a 90-10 against conservatives, republicans, and especially donald trump. that is my opinion. host: josh kraushaar. guest: the caller brings up the trump factor in the midterms and in the elections win trump himself is not on the ballot. one of the worrying signals out

of virginia is that mcauliffe has much of his campaign in connecting glenn juncker and president trump. the numbers don't suggest it will be similar to the 2020 election. there is no critical mass of voters who may have voted for joe biden but are now looking for a check, a different approach. juncker in -- connecting glenn juncker into president trump has not worked out the way the democrats hoped. that is worrying for the midterms because the playbook by the democrats, connecting every republican on the ballot to trump and anyone who defends trump's politics, supports trump, voted for trump is tainted by that red flag, it doesn't work in virginia and it will not be a winning issue in wisconsin and pennsylvania, more competitive battleground states. this is one of the many reasons that virginia is a bellwether, a test on whether the trump card

can still work for democrats in attacking republicans, even when trump is not on the ballot. josh kraushaar let's look at -- host: let's look at the republican playbook. one of the headlines in your recent columns, to win back congress republicans must look past trump's turf. guest: the flipside of the democratic pandering to progressives, on the left is the republican party been essentially taken over by trumpists in every state in every part of the country. what we are seeing in the senate and house races that the redder the state the more powerful the trump organizations are within those states. georgia, herschel walker, the star running back for the university of georgia, he is the favorite to be the republican nominee. he has a lot of political baggage, issues of domestic abuse, a lot of republicans are

concerned about his candidacy in the red state but trump endorsed him and that is why he is the heavy favorite. not just georgia, but arizona where an election to nihilist has taken over the republican party and made it harder for republicans to compete against mark kelly. the party is dipping so far to the right it may hamper their chances to win in a favorable state. we are seeing some of the bluer states, virginia is a good example, republicans nominated glenn youngkin, who is a mitt romney-type businessman, in capital equity, markets, the ceo of carlisle cooperative, about as establishment as you get. he won the nomination in a blue state like virginia and is doing well in the general election. chris sununu has not announced his plans. new hampshire is a biden state

but republicans have avoided the trumpist test in that state compared to some of the redder states. you look at the map, the big picture, it may be a good year for republicans, a wave election where it may be easier to win some of the blue-leaning states. it is a good path to the senate for republicans if they go through new hampshire, nevada, virginia could flip and the governor's race. the chances in redder states like a georgia and arizona could be lower because of the candidates they are promoting. host: when is the last time we did not have a wave election? guest: that is a good question. 2004 was the first elections that i covered, the midterms in 2006. almost every election since the bush years has been away. people are dissatisfied with the direction of the country. go all the way back to 2004, the

iraq war, hurricane katrina, the distrust in government being able to do its job. you hear the same complaints, the same discontent almost 20 years later. the public is dissatisfied with both parties, dissatisfied with leadership on both sides. they basically say we will throw you out if you don't do the job well, and that has been the case for the last 15 years. host: the electoral seas, rarely calm. in new jersey, independent, good morning. caller: i wonder if we are getting an accurate picture of the youth demographic and what they will be voting for.i cannot see that the gop can pivot themselves away from their anti-science, anti-environment -- that they will get up talking these 1800s anti-immigration -- i can't see that that will swing. when push comes to serve i think that may motivate people to vote. that is my comment. thanks. guest: yeah.

i wrote a column about this last week. both parties, mainly the leadership of both parties are caught in their own information bubble.republicans , we know that it is about trump and they cannot deny the cult of personality on the republican side for voters. on the democratic side i think that there is a belief that trump is the defining issue for democratic or swing voters. they believe climate change is an important issue but not a voting issue for many voters outside the youngest and most progressive parts of the party. i think there is a bubble that thinks a lot of the progressive messaging, a lot of the progressive priorities that the biden administration is really popular with people in the middle, the people who are the classic swing voters. they kind of blame the opposition as a retrograde trump cult. some of that may be true, the challenge is that a lot of democratic voters want to hear

more about the economy, more about how biden will really deal with some of these supply shortages facing the country, how he will deal with inflation. biden got wage hikes in terms of direct payments as far as child tax credits but inflation has wiped out those gains according to a lot of studies. there is a lot of concern among democrats struggling with their own economic situation, anxious about the state of the country. by talking about issues that political junkies focus on, or political scientists focused on trump, they are missing the issues that are of most concern to their own voters. i think that that is a risk that the party runs heading into the midterms. host: lakeland, florida, peter, independent. caller: i hope that you give me a minute because i think that your host is missing something very big -- i mean, your guest. let's start with virginia.

terry mcauliffe is in trouble. they controlled the house and senate in virginia and he refused to take up right to work legislation. why the hell would any working man in virginia vote for him? let's look at the federal level. the corruption on the democratic side is mind-boggling. they refused to have a vote on medicare in the house. if you refuse to have a vote where the majority of your members say they are for it, you know it's a fraud party. they are just taking the money from the health insurance industry. it will reflect in the midterms. take a look at the public option that biden said that he would do. backed off of that. look at the minimum wage at $15 an hour. those white senators from the northern states made sure that we didn't have a $15 per hour minimum wage, and you want to be rewarded in the midterms? josh, can you address some of these?

guest: i think the caller brings up an interesting point, that democrats are getting it from the left and from the middle and from the right in opposite directions.i think the caller was talking about medicare for all, that the democrats have not pushed what bernie sanders campaigned on. there is good reason for that. they don't think that that is politically popular even though there are some voters, local voters -- vocal voters on the left to want that. you're picking on the left because some democrats over promised on the agenda and what could get past going to the senate, but you are ticking off the middle and right by embracing a lot of the bernie agenda to solve a lot of social problems. biden, i think part of the president's problem and terry mcauliffe's problem in virginia is that you're trying to win everyone over.

i think that democrats will have to choose. do you want to pander to the progressives and get the base excited but may lose a lot of middle-of-the-road voters that decide elections, or do you want to spend your political capital on being more moderate and a sacrifice may be some of the enthusiasm from the base but win over some of the biden voters who may have voted for republicans in the past, maybe moderate in her outlook? that is the question facing democrats across the board. they seem to be not wanting to make a decision, not wanting to make hard choices about their governing agenda and do what it takes to get a majority in congress. host: john podesta former chief of staff under bill clinton now with the center for american progress in d.c., here's his column in usa today. democrats have to unite and find common ground or they risk an electorate that is angry and despondent in november and thereafter, and rightly so.

democrats rain on the promises of addressing challenges that democrats fail to acknowledge. an economy that is worker-centered and supports the middle class. they ran on expanding health care coverage and tackling the climate crisis by shifting to a greener economy. if they don't deliver their majority will be a thing of the past. democrats need to understand if they plan to win the next election, or any election in the near future, they need to show that they can govern. guest: i think john podesta is pretty much on the money. his political guidance has been, mainly for the progressives, to compromise on the scope of the social spending bill from $3.5 trillion closer to the $1.5 trillion that joe manchin and to some extent kyrsten sinema have advocated for. the desta is a number counter. -- john podesta is a number counter. he knows that there are limitations to what democrats

can get through congress, and given the makeup of congress -- the former obama advisor made a comment to the same point. you spend $1.9 trillion on the stimulus, you have a bipartisan one plus trillion dollars, and then the money that trump spent on an emergency basis to deal with covid, the progressives won in a large sense that they are getting public support to this degree of spending that would not have been possible a decade ago. but they seem to want to keep pushing further and further. putting $6 trillion as their opening bid in the social spending package. now 3.5 trillion dollars on top of everything else. i think that they have lost the plot. they won the larger ideological war, but they keep on demanding more and more. it is not blood first, but the

compromise has to be in the direction of the moderates because of the makeup in congress because of joe manchin, kyrsten sinema, and swing state democrats don't have the stomach to vote for that degree of initial spending. host: the wolverine state, good morning. caller: i would like to start by thanking you and your guest for coming on this show, and all of the men and women that it takes to bring us this great program. my question is a long-term one. it is the assault on the voting system. right now i know that it is all in the noise, everyone is shouting at each other, but what do you see in the long term? to me, everything else is important, but if you mess with the base of a pyramid and take that out the whole pyramid falls. to me, voting is our base to this nation. we are always going to disagree on things, but what is your view

on the long-term -- i'm sorry, sir, i'm not going to try to pronounce your name because i will slaughter it and i don't mean any disrespect. thank you for taking my call, john, and i appreciate your show. host: one of the most respectful colors when he calls in each month when he is allowed to do so. one call a month for all of our callers for those who don't know. guest: that is a significant question in our long-term future of our politics. i think that most parties -- both parties have missed the plot. democrats have been trying to champion this voting rights bill , but it doesn't address the fundamental worries that i think are most significant when it comes to protecting democracy. there are a lot of things in the original election bill, extended early voting, taxing

gerrymandering and states, you know, dealing with a lot of voting rules and federal lysing the election system across the board -- federalizing the election system across the board. it didn't have a lot to do with the jurisdiction, who is in charge. i don't think that you should be alarmed yet, but it is something to watch. republicans trying to elect trumpists in key positions, like in georgia. roethlisberger who rejected trump's threats in the aftermath of the 2020 election, he has a primary on his hands against a trump-ist in jodey heights, and i think the trump-endorsed candidate is the heavy favorite to win. you are seeing is trump's power continues to grow even out of office within the party structure, more voters looking to punish republicans that upheld the voting rules.

we still have checks and balances. i think some of the worries have been overstated and what can happen in two years four years, the concern is not so much early voting or how much gerrymandering is affecting good governance, it is really who has jurisdiction and if the state legislature will try to get outside power in republican states or swing states to try to have some issue and try to challenge election results in four years. that is a serious concern worth watching, but one ultimately in the hands of the voters. republicans throw out good republican officials in primaries and elect trump-ist candidates. that is something to watch but it is also a demand-side problem not a supply-side problem. it is republican voters who have gone off of the deep end, so to speak. host: staying on former

president trump and republican candidates, what gop politicians are best navigating the conundrum of not doing what the media wants and condemning trump, which is political poison, well not endorsing the man? guest: i think you can look at virginia, glenn youngkin could be a good example of threading that tough needle. glenn youngkin needs to get republicans, trump voters to show up to vote in an off-year election for governor. that is a necessity. he needs to win over a lot more moderate voters who have totally defected from the republican party over the last five to 10 years. if you look at the polls, this is a very close race. clearly he is having some success in doing so. he is pandering -- he used the word voter integrity on the campaign. when you look under the hood, it is a lot of branding but not a lot of substance. you are seeing a lot of the same

as the redder states. he is using the branding of trump, but what he proposed is voting booths and infrastructure. he is also on vaccines going to be an important issue because of the political popularity of the vaccine mandates. both candidates are pro-vaccine but mcauliffe is running aggressively on that message and glenn youngkin is airing an ad talking the how people should get the vaccine but maintains a steadfast opposition to mandates, to requiring people who do not want to get it to get it as a condition of employment. i think you talked to a lot of republicans, especially in virginia, they think that there is an undercurrent of backlash against the mandate that people may not want to tell a pollster that they don't like it, but it is ultimately an issue driving a lot of voters to the polls and

driving a lot of opposition to president biden in their minds. that will be something to watch that this virginia race will be a big test over whether you can win an election by calling for public health measures like mcauliffe has done for vaccine mandates, or if there is a silent majority of backlash against some of these issues that democrats think our slam dunks but may be more divisive. host: this is barbara import your on -- in port huron. caller: i have a comment. everyone is upset about how president biden is not doing this or that, but he hasn't even been there for a year. he has us back in the u.n. and the paris agreement and everything else. he is doing his job. the house and senate aren't, but he is. i think everyone needs to give him time to clear things up, fix things that are broken, and it hasn't even been a year. guest: i admire the callers optimism.

if by then can get an infrastructure, bipartisan infrastructure bill along with $1.5 trillion in compromised social spending to deal with climate change, deal with one or two big domestic priorities for the democratic party, that would be a big win. it may not help for the midterms as much as they would like, but it would at least give them momentum and something to run on. i think there is no guarantee that will happen. i'm more sanguine about the aspect of joe manchin and the progressives coming together given how far apart they are now and having seen a lot of the ideological divisions within the party. this is not just congress. president biden, as the president and someone who holds a lot of political capital, could have said i want just the bipartisan bill to pass first and we will deal with social spending with the priorities in mind, but we have a big bipartisan bill that is a lot of

money to roads, bridges, broadband's, priority of mine, i ran on this issue, and he could've pocketed a win in the wake of these climate crises and infrastructure crises and floods and hurricanes over the summer. that would have been a big political boost which biden decided not to take. he decided instead to spend his political capital trying to get these two things together and essentially holding hostage, holding the bipartisan bill that passed the senate with 19 republicans in support, and holding it hostage for $3.5 trillion in additional social spending. i think that biden could have said i want both to pass but we are not going to hold my bill hostage. we will deal with them one at a time. i think it would have been tough and he would've had to spend political capital on getting enough progressives on board, but he would've had more republican support in the house and more headway to get that infrastructure legislation

passed. i think you could easily see an alternative scenario where biden lived up to that campaign promise of doing things in a bipartisan measure. getting the 19 republican votes in the senate for infrastructure. putting off social spending for a little bit while you build republican support in the house for that measure. he chose not to deal with it in that way. his choice, his political decision, but now he is facing a lot of headwinds even within his own party getting the agenda passed. host: the equivalent of over a few hundred billion dollars, do you think the budget reconciliation bill is likely to end up, if it does pass, in the $1.5 trillion range that joe manchin put down closer than the $2 trillion or $2.5 trillion range? guest: i think we'll be closer to joe manchin's position than the progressive caucus.

joe manchin holds the leverage. it is not just him, a lot progressives are even more upset with senator kyrsten sinema who has not been as clear in what the final number would be but has been on a policy basis opposed to some of the climate change provisions in the original bill and some of the health care provisions that democrats insist are popular. manchin may be easier to pin down because he put out a letter and he told senator schumer where he stands specifically. sinema is another layer of difficulty. it will be closer to $1.5 trillion. i don't think that it is higher than $2 trillion. i don't see the moderates folding. i don't see them getting much in terms of what they want it to be priced down to. host: connie in havana, illinois. independent. caller: it is nice to talk to you this morning. my concern is with the cabinet

that biden picked. lincoln set in a meeting with the chinese and let them talk about how racist we are. within the afghanistan debacle, we still have americans trapped there. the border is a mess. we have a huge illegal migrant crisis and he is not really being effective. buttigieg is in charge of transportation. we have ships waiting in the ocean. i don't see him anywhere. harris is supposed to be the border czar, i don't see her anywhere. and then he decided that the fbi should investigate parents as if they are domestic terrorists. and then john kerry went to france and told them that biden had no idea that they were negotiating with australia for submarines. his cabinet is very ineffective.

i would like your thoughts, please. thank you. guest: it does look like events have overtaken the white house in a way that they did not anticipate. it's fair to conclude there was a lot of political hubris early on in this administration where the thinking was we passed 1.9 trillion dollars in stimulus and gave direct checks to people who are hurting. there was also the pandemic, we gave the child tax credit as a direct payment in people's checking accounts. they thought that there was no way that the economy would not be roaring and no way that there will be a real inflation risk. obama's former treasury secretary warned about some of the risks that the white house was racing and he was mocked and ignored.it looks like a lot of his projections are coming to fruition.

afghanistan is an example where if the biden white house had to do it over again they would not have withdrawn all of the troops from the country given the chaos, given -- it really showcased the lack of confidence. the lack of credibility from this white house, no matter what you think about the policy itself. that was the gateway drug. afghanistan falling apart, the promises that the administration may did not warm to reality. it did not connect with what was going on in the country. that was the gateway to people may be saying look at afghanistan. biden promised this, we got this. do we trust him on the economy, on the pandemic? there are a lot of issues driving biden's job approval downward, but afghanistan is the disconnect between what the white house was staying at what we could see with their own eyes that fueled the decline and has caused a host of problems for this administration. host: one more call, steve in western mass, republican. caller: good morning.

my question to mr. kraushaar, looking beyond 2022 i think there is almost a consensus there will be a red wave. we could be wrong. looking to 2024 you think that the democrats will run a progressive or moderate for president? and what is the potential, the chances for a party split where the progressives may run their own candidate similar to 1990 two, though ross perot was independent and not progressive, but that sort of scenario. host: you don't think that joe biden runs again? caller: no, i don't. no offense to the guy. god bless him, i just don't think he gets the nomination. i don't think he's confident. i'm sorry. guest: that is a good question. i doubt that there will be a third party of any significance. i think it is more likely that the progressives would take over the infrastructure of the

democratic party along the line of the trumpets taking over the -- trumpists taking over the republican party. if i were to look at my crystal ball three years away, a lifetime in politics, it's more likely that you will have a moderate like an 2016 with the republicans in response to trump also i think the real worry that you have in the primaries is the majority of democratic voters go for the moderate candidates, whether it is terry mcauliffe or adams. carter in louisiana. moderate challeners has easily defeated the progressive candidates. their unwillingness to compromise on the spending bill, i think they hold the left. if there's any split in the democratic party, it's more of a result of progressives taking over the party and nominating someone to the left and there

being a split and defections in the middle of the democrats. host: we will have you on a couple more times before 2024 and you can bring a longer crystal ball. josh kraushaar with the national journal, senior national political columnist, against the grain column if you want to check it out. you can also see him on twitter. thank you so much for the time. up next, as we often like to do during our programs, we will let you lead the discussion. it is our open forum. you can call in with any public policy or political issue that you want to talk about. about 20 minutes to take your phone calls. start calling and now, and we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> you can be a part of the national conversation by

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there is something for every c-span and and every purchase supports our nonprofit operation will stop shop now or at any time at c-spanshop.org. "washington journal" continues. host: it is our open forum. any public policy issue you want to talk about you can do so. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. a rundown of the schedule in washington, d.c., president biden is getting set within the next couple of minutes to hold a virtual meeting with g20 leaders to discuss the future of afghanistan. that is on the president's daily schedule. we are expecting nancy pelosi to hold her news conference at 11:30 a.m. eastern, and a press briefing at the white house for 2:00 p.m.. the house is scheduled to come

in at 3:00 p.m., taking up that debt ceiling legislation that was passed by the senate late last week and vote on that sometime around 5:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch all of the action, gavel-to-gavel, here on c-span. for the next 15 to 20 minutes, your phone calls. we want to hear from you in our open forum. out of martin, north dakota, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. am i on the air? host: yes, ma'am. caller: there are so many things that are wrong. i don't know why they think there is fraud. if anyone thinks there was fraud with republicans, they gerrymandered new poles in the states. they have to realize not everybody likes trump. i think he done a lot of damage

to us. how many times have we ever had a president that attacked his own white house or allowed the butchering of a journalist because he buys stuff. republicans have gotten into trouble. i was a republican for years, but they got into trouble when they started bringing in the tea party. they brought them in for power, and that is still what they are after. host: kirby in liberty, indiana, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to comment on what is going on right now. let's forget what happened in the past. trump is not our president more. the biggest issue is the cargo ships on the west coast, cargo ships on the east coast around georgia tech cannot get unloaded. it seems like nobody wants to do nothing about it. we came back from tennessee and the grocery stores are getting bare.

our gas prices are going through the roof. come on, folks. wake up. thank you, bye. host: nancy, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: i am calling in because on columbus day i heard about a statue of christopher columbus being covered up and possibly looking at tearing it down. he discovered america. we cannot wipe out history, but we are trying. what is the matter with this picture? . i don't understand these statues represent things that happened in the past, not what happened now and not what we did. we should keep history amongst the people that our children know.

christopher columbus is an important part of american history. but it is all of the statues. this is history, we cannot change it, wipe it down and erase it. i think we've gone too far and i'm upset that they are getting their own way. on the nfl icy advertisements on helmets about racist things, yet we are tearing down history and statues. host: who is they? you say they are getting their own way? caller: it is the people fighting that everything that you do is racist. i don't believe that everything we do is racist. everything has to do -- i mean, we are all americans, and that shows me when they tear down a statue of christopher columbus, or are thinking of it, covering

it up on columbus day and people cannot go and see it, this is something that i don't understand that we are going so far. host: feel free to call in on phone lines for republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. on the president's daily schedule today is a virtual meeting with g20 leaders to talk about the future of afghanistan. that is the topic of this story from today's washington times. the u.n. secretary general antonio guterres on monday warned that the afghan economy is at the brink of collapse following the u.s. withdrawal and the uncertain future of the new taliban leaders. the story noting that speaking from the u.n. headquarters the secretary-general urged the international community to take swift action, acknowledging the

challenges of working with an extremist government that continues to break promises of observing human rights. -- the biden administration frozen $10 billion in afghan government reserves held in the u.s. much of the foreign aid earmarked for the fallen government in kabul, half of afghanistan's gdp, also dried up. this topic is being taken up by the president. that meeting is expected to have started a few minutes ago at the white house. rick out of randall towne, maryland, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. for the lady who was talking about christopher columbus, my god. it let you know how ignorant people are when it comes to the facts. first of all, christopher

columbus found a land that had already been lived on and inhabited. he didn't discover anything. let's get that part straight, miss. that is what you don't understand. there are a lot of things going on in american history where the white folks who wrote the history are not telling the truth. i can go all the way up to jesus christ. my whole life i've had to see him as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes. that is the biggest lie. christopher columbus did not discover anything, because the land had been lived on and inhabited long before he got there. host: this is mary in dallas, texas, republican. caller: what i have to say is everybody hollers unity, and if you listen to some of the democrats they holler at unity,

and they turn around and criticize everything the republicans say and whatever else. i just have advice to the democrats, stop taking and judging us and everybody get together and quit hollering for unity when you don't want it. that's it. host: this is hazel, independent. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. caller: i want to know where all of those people went and if they will be transparency about where they took all those people that fast and how they were able to do it so quickly. host: what people are we talking about? caller: all of the immigrants that were on the border. the immigrants that were on the border, where did they all disappear to so quickly? host: hazel, immigration is your

biggest concern right now in this country? caller: it is one of the main ones, yes. host: what are your other concerns? caller: well, i am concerned about all of those things that cannot get unloaded so we can't get supplies, supplies are getting short. host: where are you seeing supply chain issues in louisa, virginia? caller: the grocery stores. they are saying about christmas that the supplies are not going to get here was not what are they going to do about it? host: this is pete in greensboro, north carolina. you are next. caller: things for taking my call, i appreciate it. i am a registered republican, but i try to vote for that candidate or cause or whatever it is. i have two suggestions, very brief. i think that it would be acceptable to most

republicans, democrats, and certainly independents. one thing is term limits for the congress and the senate. i know that they have term limits for the president sitting and for house and congress, but you know that if you get elected it is easy to get reelected. the second thing that i would like to suggest -- host: how long of a term do you think members of the house and senate should serve? caller: i think two terms for a senator and three terms for a congressman or congresswoman -- congressperson. host: do you think members of the house should only serve six years but senators can serve 12? caller: yes. there are reasons for that. if you look at what we pay them, and you look at what we pay them

if they serve only one term, it is incredible. i wish i had that deal, but i never did. host: did you ever run for congress, pete? caller: i have not. host: would you ever run? caller: i am 80 years old. my apologies to trump and biden and ronald reagan, but there is a point. i think they ought to have an age retirement. money get to the second point i would like to make that i think most people with -- most people would agree with. the legislation is written today and we have a couple of huge bills being argued now, the trouble is that these are huge bills. we as a public deserve to be able to see what is coming up in a bill and stick to one subject, or two at the very most. we would be fine.

if you look at everything in this 3.5 and 1.5, you don't know what the hell anything is about. ask any person on the street what is in those bills, they have no idea was that you can ask most people in the capital what it's about and they would have no idea. that is all i have to say and i appreciate c-span and thanks for hearing me. host: jill in columbus, ohio. caller: thank you, so much. my issue right now is i worried about the elections where republican-led states will be changing their electors and somewhat the outcome of the election. that really worries me. i am also concerned about tax cuts to people who are actually working the elections. for the democrats, my piece of advice for them is in the past voting rights legislation's

bills to ensure that elections just don't held and they don't change the electors and make sure the votes are actually counted. and also for the reconciliation bill, i think there should be a moderate. so many republicans who did vote for biden, but they are not liberal, and independents as well, who are concerned more about democracy. i think he should go moderate and try to do his best to get the country back to normal stuff that is my input. host: on the issue of elections, this new story is getting attention this morning. xes has the story. to fulton, georgia election workers have been fired after being accused of shredding hundreds of voter registration applications which prompted the georgi -- axius noting

that it comes month after a panel was appointed to review the election process. georgia republicans over the summer pushed for the state to take over the fulton election division. the applications were received by the elections office within the last couple of weeks. according to the county the employees possibly checked out the applications for processing. instead of processing applications, the employees shredded some of the documents. approximately 300 were destroyed. the director referred the action to the georgia department of state investigation. more for your phone calls and our open forum. just a few more phone calls as we have three or four minutes left. this is tony and missouri. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. my comment is from an italian-american. we don't honor christopher

columbus for his voyage. we honor him for what he did. he was the first explorer to bring the gospel of jesus christ to the new world. he brought the bible with him. that is why we honor columbus. the pilgrims were the first ones to land. their expedition was successful because they brought the bible with them. they brought the gospel of jesus christ which needs to be spread throughout the world. host: lane, wichita, kansas, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. the first caller mary is right, the democrats don't want unity. the caller, where are the illegal southern border immigrants staying and what about the afghans they brought over. and how long will it take us to

pay back, how many years, and what is in the bill? we need to know exactly. so does congress, the house, the senate, the president. they need to read the bill page by page. they need to fire faucher. the last caller was right. christopher columbus brought the gospel in jesus christ, and right now we all need jesus christ. and people who are not working need to get back to work so we can get the united states back great again. we need to stay america. host: on reading bills, have you ever taken the time to read a bill before congress? have you gone to the various committees? have you read any of them? caller: you know what, that is what they are getting paid to do. i don't care if it is next year. take each senator, put them in a room, each congressman, put them in a room, make them read 20 or

50 pages. next one, 50 pages. host: last call dave, florida, democrat. caller: i wanted to bring your attention to the cost of living versus wages. i am in central florida. my rent just went up $153. i thought i should be upset about that, got no negotiation results. but a buddy of mine, one-bedroom bedroom, one bath in tampa, $100 0, going up to $1700. others comment on an $800 increase. the highest i have seen is an

$1100 increase. with inflation, housing is usually the number one cost. they really need to address -- and if they could just cap the inflation of housing relative to wages, we might have a chance. host: what does an extra $150 a month mean for you? caller: i am a musician. i have had two gigs in a year and a half. i have a couple coming up. maybe tenant gigs -- ten gigs. my pension kicks in in january. social security year after that. it is a big deal. $125 they wanted last year up. i got them down to $90. for me, it is an 11% increase.

people with 40% increases, how is that sustainable? by $1472 i am paying now before it goes up would be $2400 a month in 10 years. host: we will be enjoyed by fiona hill to talk about her time in the white house, hurt book entitled there is nothing for you here: finding opportunity in the 21st century. stick around. >> this week. the senate will be out after passing an agreement would lift the debt ceiling through early december. the house will meet today to vote. that u.s. supreme court will

hear oral arguments in several cases throughout the week. you can listen on c-span. among the cases, kentucky's attorney general argues that his office should be able to seek to uphold ban on an abortion procedure that was struck down by a previous federal court. live coverage today at 10:00 a.m. eastern. on wednesday, the new scene -- new c-span now app, the supreme court will hear a case seeking to reinstate the death sentence for the boston marathon bomber that a previous court had vacated. host veterans committee will hear -- will hold a virtual hearing on the recruitment of veterans by domestic extremist herbs. witnesses include veterans and academics who have studied the issue. you can watch our full coverage on c-span now, our new video

app. headed to c-span.org for scheduling information. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ♪ >> download c-span's new mobile app and state up-to-date with live streams from the house and senate floor, keep congressional hearings, white house events, supreme court oral arguments. and washington journal, where we hear your voices every day. download the app for free today. >> washington journal continues. host: fiona hill joins us. she is a former senior staffer. c-span viewers likely to remember her from her testimony for congress during the first impeachment before congress.

she is also the author of the new book. take us back to november 1 of 2019. set a good time at the start of the testimony talking about how you became an american by choice. why did you think that was an important story to tell? caller: it is a reaction --guest: it is a reaction to what has happened behind closed doors. two years ago this month, i was called into closed-door hearings to give a deposition in advance of the actual public testimony. all of those depositions were released to the public, but in the time that i was in there for 10 hours being questioned, it was not just the issues that they were raising that, intention.

it was the way that i and the witnesses were being accused, or credibility, our patriotism was being called into question. people were accusing us, suggesting that we were part of some nefarious gripping of your credits -- unelected bureaucrats who were taking advantage of the public and alienated from the rest of america. ridiculous things. i am an immigrant. i came in 1989 from the u.k. i came from anything but an elite or privileged background. when it came to the public testimony, i decided for the

first time ever to explain who i was in a larger context, where i had come from, why i was in the u.s. there have been attacks on some of my other colleagues, vindman from example who had come from the soviet union. maria ivana fitch, ambassador to ukraine who had been kicked out of her job and had come as an immigrant. like so many people who came from humble origins, works their way up, by joining the military or doing public service after visiting their congressman's office during a high school trip, or people like myself -- immigrants who wanted to give something back i wanted to begin my testimony by saying why i had come to america, why i was so

proud to be an american citizen. as i said in american by choice. to put to rest of this idea that we were part of some bizarre, strange plot against the country we all loved. host: in the wake of your testimony, plenty of coverage of you and your story. one of the news articles called you the improbable fiona hill. the financial times piece from a few months later. what about you is improbable? guest: fort many in u.s., it is an improbable journey to come from the bottom 1% of society to the top. that is part of political problems. the people at the bottom do not see themselves, i mean that socio-economic and also political realm. humble backgrounds, struggling on a day-to-day basis, people do

not see themselves reflected at the very top in any part of society, it in politics, in education. often they might see themselves reflected on the service by somebody who has had a hard bubble background and made it for me, i started off in a coal mining town in the north of england, went very similar to the lehigh valley of pennsylvania or parts of west virginia. i am from a long generation of coal miners. on my mother's side, they worked in factories or shipyards. my granddad on my mom's side worked in the sewers. my family were not upwardly mobile. my dad said most of us spend our time working underground. when i was born, all the coal mines for closing.

in the entire period of my childhood, the economy was disappearing. it was improbable that i would get anywhere in life in terms of an education or a good job. the title of the book, there is nothing for you here, is what my dad said to me as i was leaving school in 1984 against massive unemployment. if i wanted education, any kind of job, it wasn't going to be in a place like this. but i did not think i would end up working in the white house. he was basically saying, there is nothing you ear. you will have to go find something else, especially as a girl, because for women, unappointed rate was even higher. there were very few jobs in my hometown. host: fiona hill with us until 10:00 a.m. eastern, taking your phone calls, as we talked about her new book.

let me get the phone numbers. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you talk about your journey. you write about your concerns about russia and parallels that you see in the world right now. you write, the example of modern russia, which i have studied, offers a cautionary tale for the u.s. at this juncture. russia is america's ghost of christmas future if we cannot adjust course and heal our polarization. how is it the ghost of our christmas future? guest: what we saw in russia -- in 1984 against major warfare

and intermediate new player -- nuclear missiles. the russians and soviets were doing missile testing. so was the u.s. a lot of grandstanding and maneuvering. in 1983, the soviet union misread u.s. intent. that is clear now. documents have been declassified even knowing that, it was evident that there was such international tension. when i went off to study russian, the encouragement of relatives and my family, thinking i might become an interpreter, maybe at one point i might be able to help in some way with negotiations. that was the atmosphere. we were going to blow ourselves up. i entered later into the administration, against the backdrop of russian reactions, a

sophisticated operation that launched to turn our electoral system, that presidential campaign in 2016 on its head. i came out the other side of the time in the ministration and the government at the highest level seeing everything much more concerned about the u.s. in russia in the 1990's, there was a similar polarization. the collapse of the soviet union led to millions losing jobs overnight with very little prospect of a life ahead, because the whole state had collapsed. at the end of the decade of crisis, economic and political, vladimir putin came in as president, saying he was going to fix everything, but we have seen over the last 20 years that putin has entrenched himself in the kremlin, rollback democratic

gains. he gradually kept on amending the russian constitution so that he can stay in power until 2036. he will have been the longest serving leader in russian modern history. the way he did that through olmo -- through all kinds of hallmarks and developments happening in the u.s. right now. polarization is acute. i was just observing you have given up three telephone embers for people who identify themselves politically. i would fall in the independent category, but the number one identification is you a democrat or republican? i am worried the people have lost the sense of themselves as american. the unrepentant, in russia vladimir putin, in russia, came

from no political party. he actually tried to unify the country. so group of russians that he sees as having no political base. he tried to unify the country political divisions, ethnic divisions, all kinds of division, but what putin tries to exploit is divisions in other countries. in 2016, we saw russian operatives pretending to be republicans, pretending to be democrats. pretending to be americans who are either pro-life or let us say racist or not racist. pro-guns, anti-guns. every side of every argument that is sensitive in the u.s.

finds things like a pit us against each other. this is a real dilemma. these divisions are the kinds of things that give us exposure to the outside. polarization has become a national security crisis. someone who does not belong to a political party, someone who came in here in 1989 to come and find opportunity and live a life like everybody else, i am deeply disturbed. the parallels to russian history may be familiar -- they are startling and disturbing. one of the points in writing this book and explaining what i have seen is to try to get people's attention so they can actually see this for themselves and take a long hard look at

what is happening. host: nikki, independent, new york up first. caller: first of all, thank you for your courage and your willingness to be exposed to the threats of people who like to hide the truth rather than seek the truth. it is because of immigrants like yourself and colonel vindman who refused to buckle down and when they saw something going wrong decided it was their patriotic duty to speak out. they have vilified anyone who provides the truth. how would you compare the atmosphere in america today to the atmosphere in germany

pre-world war ii? caller: that is a showing comparison. -- a chilling comparison. it is always a risky comparison. people think of the holocaust, the horrors of world war ii, which seem far-fetched, but those early origins of the devolution of a mono credit authoritarian state in germany in the 1930's involves the perpetration of a big lie about what was happening in elections. there was an awful lot of the german hierarchy, big business, political classes supporting the rise of adolf hitler thinking they could manipulate him and that nothing drastic was going to happen. this guy was looking out for

their interests. there were not a lot of -- to run off a lot of people supported him as a charismatic individual. we were projecting their hopes and their aspirations onto this one person. right now, we are in the danger zone where we have a charismatic leader who people see as the person -- as their personal representative. they react with anger at those who push back. we are in a danger zone. we have seen this in many settings. let us put aside some of the details and atrocities and other things, but the danger to our democracy is very similar and very real.

there are so many things that i would recommend to listeners to go out and read about the early 1930's in germany, where people will see if they come with an objective mind the parallels. i also read about what happened in russia in the 1990's. that was a different system. you also had a very different history. there is always the preponderance in russian political culture to look out for strongman, or woman, -- in the u.s., our presidency has information that -- is emphasized to strongman, which is not the fundamental of the united states. the preamble of the constitution is we the people. this is an anomaly for the u.s. to be so obsessed about a presidential leader and to be eroding the other checks and balances in our system.

there is emphasis on a strong executive and the person of the executive. that is something that is faltering american political culture. host: ohio, republican. caller: i wanted to talk about the economy and what she went through then compared to what we have now. they watched two of the debt level. all they talk about is not paying the bills, lying to us. we want to know why. the country was broke in january. they let the immigrants come across. when the country is broke, now they borrow the money, everything we do is borrow to take care of the immigrants and give money away. we have got people living on the

streets. there is always more money to give away to other countries that there is to take care of our own people. caller: this is a critical debate in congress right now about the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill. we have been debating for quite some time the future of foreign assistance and how we start to think about our internal developments. the caller has put his finger on that big debate about how to redevelop america itself. that is the crux of many of the issues i have outlined in the book. we have already seen skewed socioeconomic situation, inequality, and fairness in the u.s., places like ohio,

michigan, pennsylvania, the old industrial regions of the u.s. being behind in the new economy. the problem is extraordinarily complex to fix. it is actually a big development exercise, rooted in education and figuring out how to give people access to qualifications and new skills. it is rooted in public-private partnerships and how to train a new workforce. it is rooted in community neighborhoods, local, state governments, politics and decision-making. it is not all going to happen on the federal government. we have to bring back some ideas of development. places like ohio, pennsylvania, michigan -- there are some good examples of things people can do to address these questions without necessarily adding to the larger federal debt.

i have seen a lot of great work being done by regional development councils. i talked about some of these in the book. it is an investment in communities and regional governments that we have to focus on. what is happening on the national level is important, that it is bringing things back to our localities. host: this is tom, illinois. caller: i was listening to fiona. she was comparing hiller to donald trump, i guess. -- heckler to -- hitler to donald trump, i guess. the durham report came out. he's got one person that he has

indicted. the whole russia thing is totally false. he was inundated the whole time, his presidential time, as an evil dictator during all this terrible stuff, when he himself said that he had so many things against him -- people bring up impeachment, all this stuff -- that i cannot even imagine. government could really bring stuff against you, which is really, that is where you get into hitler stuff. caller: tom raises some important issues. describing -- the original question was about charismatic personalities. i said, let us put aside the

larger issues that happen in germany after the 1930's. tom raises about the russia case and the molar investigation -- muller investigation. i hope you might read the book, because i lay out some of the issues that you are raising. the russians attacked our democratic system. they wanted to cast a shadow over anybody who would be president, to we can people -- weaken people's faith in our electoral system, but they also promote a massive political action in the u.s. the u.s. has accused president trump of being elected not by voters in the u.s., but by the

russians. that created a massive political crisis. my personal view is that the investigations around the russian intervention should have looked across the word -- across the board. they should not have started with one individual campaign, because i know the russians were also looking to infiltrate the campaigns of many of the principal players who are likely to become the president. he wanted to cast a shadow over every one of them. they definitely had hillary clinton in their crosshairs. and thought she was going to win and they wanted to weaken her. it was true that that then triggered off a massive domestic crisis where our politics are painted by that operation. we did not handle it well. many people played in, doing

exactly with the russians wanted, which was questioning the legitimacy of the person who became president. it was not for the russians did not interfere. they did. but we played into what they wanted to do. at said that clearly at the testimony when i was calling out what was happening around us. we didn't need a thorough investigation. we need to have a clear reckoning about what happened. -- we did need a thorough investigation. whether -- whether the president was legitimately elected. i am afraid that tom is right. there was an awful lot of playing into an influence operation and doing exactly what the russians wanted. host: you talked about how vladimir putin tried to exploit

other countries. you talked about how vladimir putin tried to exploit donald trump specifically, uses kgb trading to influence trump. you talk about how you believe donald trump viewed vladimir putin. caller: both of these things are tied together. it was obvious to me in my time working with trump that it was not about russia, but it was about putin personally. president trump said all the time that for him putin was the ultimate. he admires the power that he exerted, the role he played on the international stage. everyone respects and fears him. he is an unchecked power, at least from the outside that is what it seems. certainly, he doesn't go through party, through parliament.

it is just him and the russian constitution that underpins his influence and his position. across the wall, an impressive figure from the outside. trump admired putin. that tied into how putin was able to manipulate trump. about it what you feel about trump, he is charismatic. i described in the book's appeal. he is also incredibly thin skinned. he is quick to respond to insult , also very susceptible. anybody who follows him by -- on twitter could be retreated if they said something nice about him. putin didn't try to blackmail him, as was suggested.

he was not doing anything for putin, but he was extraordinarily susceptible to outside influence by people who tried to praise him. i saw upfront that putin tried to manipulate trump. i sought in meetings where he tried to push his buttons, pushes commentary in a certain way, but also putin would say things on russian national television presenting economic performance, the stock market when he knew trump was focused on this. on one occasion, trump asked for phone call with putin. he said, he said nice things about me. i want to call and thank him. evident manipulation. for me, it was extraordinary problematic, because trump could be induced to do things on the basis of some unflattering him,

usually on national television. host: brooklyn, allen, democrat. caller: from your perspective as a student of history and of russian culture and politics, how do you see the role of evangelical beliefs fitting into the paradigm of trump playing the strongman? recall specifically interviews with scalia before he died where he talked about the likelihood the will of god is more likely to be manifest in a country when it is led as a monarchy rather than a democracy. we are almost favoring changes in laws that would make a monarchic power more likely to emerge, which seems totally contrary to the american constitutional tradition.

i am wondering if you see any of those strains? how can we address them without seeming to invite backlash or bigotry or accusations of bigotry, talking about the dynamics in an objective way? caller: this is important. it is important to talk about an objective. we all have to respect people's faith, but in the u.s., the objective has been to keep church and state separate, even though the u.s. is founded on judeo-christian principles. in the previous segment, there was a caller talking about the puritans, the pilgrims wanting to worship as they had chosen, having been persecuted in the u.k. there is a long tradition of people of all faiths, all kinds

of backgrounds coming to the u.s. the u.s. was open to all faiths. now we get into something more complicated when one religious strand starts to bleed into politics. in the case of russia, putin has embraced the russian orthodox church. obviously, the communist party did not. they created their own charismatic cults around secretary-general of the communist party, stalin created himself a state religion around his personal interests. stalin had actually been training to be an orthodox priest. he understood how to playing with religion. what putin does is he embraces

the russian orthodox church and gets the support of the church behind him, where a lot of people would be skeptical given his rise through the corridor of the kgb during the soviets. there is a big part to be made about lending religion -- blending religion. about 80% of the russian federation is orthodox. we are starting to see that in u.s. politics. president trump has been anointed as a charismatic personality. he is also a bearer of religion, even though many would say he is a flawed bearer of religion. we have seen many times the prayer breakfast and various meetings in the white house about how there has been

something of a fusion of religion with politics and people talking about the president in religious terms. president biden has found himself in a comfortable position of clashing with the catholic church and certain catholic leaders because of his position on abortion rights. we do see this at all times in the u.s., we have always excluded a fine line between religion and politics. but the u.s. is a country of many religious beliefs, of many denominations. since the very beginning of the establishment of the united states, there were many faiths within the founding fathers themselves. they were not all from one particular religious persuasion. we have to remember that.

having that kind of discussion is an important point. i was brought up in the north of england in a region where the church of many denominations played an important role. i grew up in a family where i had quakers, baptists, presbyterians, methodists. many of my family also married catholics. religious faith always played a part in the debates. my mother volunteered for years at a nondenominational protestant church but also within community service provider. this is part of the discussion. host: 20 minutes left in this discussion. this is alan in mena, independent. -- in maine caller: i love the title of

your book. i love your -- i love that you are talking about strongmen and empires. my alternative title or aspect to the title of your book would be there is nothing here for you to see. i often use that when i talk about an empire and a cop on the beat typically says, nothing here to see. walk along folks. in the case of empire, the unique aspect of our empire is that it is a disguised crony capitalist empire. instead of a single, notable strongman like hitler or putin

or any of the people who are impaired thinkers and ascribe to being an emperor themselves, like trump does, beyond real emperors, what we have in the u.s., we learned on hitler's dime and global's g --o g oebel's dime, when they pulled the nazi troops back and tried to fool the frenchmen that, you have a vichy government, it is still yours, you have gend armes on the street. they were too smart for that. caller: the point about crony capitalism and the empire of many in many respects is a valid

one. american politics has changed since i came to the u.s.. a large part of this is because of citizens united that was argued in front of the supreme court in which big money was collated with free speech, opening the way for super pac's, in which millionaires, billionaires, other representatives of big business or generational money could start to influence politics by supporting candidates at the local, state, national level but without any real accountability. allen is right. we are dealing with a situation in which most americans have no idea who is standing behind various candidates or policies.

this is just a matter of fact. the best political campaigns have been run with small donors, like people listening to c-span running local candidates, but on the national level, so many other candidates for congress and the senate are running on the back of big money that is trying to influence their views. we have also got the results from investigative journalists who have revealed information about how many of our own being the homes of so many shell companies, people hiding money from around the world in the u.s., the cayman islands, the

seashell -- the seychelles. hiding money, not just so they can not pay taxes but can also use it for influence by buying property or politicians. host: oklahoma, coleman, republicans. caller: there has continue to want to focus on trump -- democrats continue to want to focus on trump. he was influenced russia while totally ignoring biden receiving $3 million from mayors' wives of moscow. just like the clinton foundation of the uranium one deal, it receives millions to allow russia to get about 20% of the

u.s. uranium supply. all of these discussions continue to -- trump was a russian agent. the ridiculousness of all the games that were played there by ignoring actual problems of the democrats in their collisions with russia. caller: this -- guest: this is an important point. the caller has just touched on the very problem i was outlining about the way that big money has been able to enter the u.s. from other places, not just u.s. millionaires and billionaires,

but also russian, saudi, coming in and influencing our politics. and into some of our less important institutions. i just would like to say that this is not a partisan issue. this is across the board. that is what worries me about the framing of our discussion. not just here today, for the phone lines coming in from democrats, republicans, independents, not sure how we should be navigating these positions set out by red and blue america. these problems that rep. meeks:s -- that callers are describing are across-the-board. influencing our politics to super pac's, foundations, putting children of all our politicians on the books of different companies, that should

be outlawed across the board. it is not just a problem of democrats or republicans. it is a problem across-the-board for everyone. but the children of key officials should not be on the boards of foreign companies. this not even be on the boards of united states companies without proper scrutiny, because this nepotism, cronyism is perverting u.s. politics. should be having a national discussion. it has been shut down by special interests who are paying for politicians to distort the discussion. that is why many of us are different levels of society should be immobilizing and asking our local scum estate government --, state government why this is happening. it is not a political party issue. it is an issue across-the-board in american politics.

host: sharon, pennsylvania. caller: i would like to agree with the things you said about the autocratic -- autocracy. i washed apocalypse hitler last night. the actions that trump did the whole way through tried to be the autocrat he wanted to be, if you watch those two shows last night, is here went to an t. everyone should see what is going on. i heard it last night on cnn. things are changing in our world and somebody better step up and pay attention. he is a dangerous man. watch hitler and you will find out. caller: part of our problem is that as soon as somebody from the past -- obviously, with such

terrible competitions -- is mentioned, they are immediately shut down. if we look in an objective fashion about what is happening, it is more self-evident are people like myself who have come in to the u.s. who did not necessarily grow up here or who came from other societies that have been torn apart by civil conflict. think about all of the immigrants who have come over the last 20-30 use from europe, where there has been a long history of violence. the way europe has gone through two wars. everybody in their family know somebody who fought there. we relied on the u.s. for saving the day. it were not for u.s. troops, god knows what europe would be like today. we all know that history, we

internalize it. we are now seeing some of things unfold here in the u.s. people like myself are trying to say, hey, i know this is uncomfortable. we do not want to admit that this is happening, but this is where you are. the u.s. is on a dangerous path that it has not been on before. we have had plenty of turmoil. that u.s. is not that new. the u.s. came at the same time as revolutions across europe, trying to cast off emperors and kings. you have the french revolution. immigrants were looking for a better life in which we the people would be able to play a role in our society. we are throwing that way. we are enthralled to political parties that do not necessarily have our interests in mind. they're not making changes in

the way that we are hoping and are in -- we are in real danger of putting everything in the hands of one person, which is the reason we had a revolution in the first place. i am basically hoping people will take a long look at what is happening. to emphasize all of the ideas of who you are and just think about the u.s. and who you want to be and the future that we want for our children and for ourselves. this is the way to get it by focusing on one person and who is that person -- is this the way to get it? our local communities, our states, there is a lot of prospects we have being agents of change. host: 10 minutes left. you mentioned families a minute ago. the dedication in your book is

for alf and dude. -- dune. caller: alf and june are my parents. my dad did not manage to get a full education. he went to the mine at the age of 14, following his father, all of his uncles, great-grandfather. there was never really any other opportunity for my dad. when he joined the coal mines in the late 1940's in -- and in the 1950's, it was a good opportunity, good wages, the communities were vibrant. in the 60's, my dad wanted to emigrate to the u.s., because whole -- because coal mines were recruiting. my dad seriously considered

moving to pennsylvania's lehigh valley, but my grandparents were ill and cannot go with him. he stated to look after his parents. my mother, on the hand, also left school at 16. she went immediately to train to become a midwife. she had a career that she enjoyed very much. she delivered hundreds of babies and told me and my sister came along and she had to leave work to look after us, because there were not many childcare options. but my parents instilled in me a very strong sense of public service and social responsibility. the communities in which we grow up were tightknit, multigenerational. my mother delivered pretty much every kid i grew up with.

when mom was also a school nurse, helping into the community. there is also a strong sense of everybody pulling them together, helping everyone out. my dad's dream had always been to come to the u.s. i fulfilled that later on. i brought with me that desire to get ahead and a desire to be part of a larger community and to help make -- my parents were not municipal people but very much committed to the people around them. (202) 748-8000 --guest: alabama, independent. caller: i am calling about the debt ceiling. i do not understand why americans think we use chinese money or european money and now we owe them, as we are borrowing , which is not it at all.

i am going to let you know about an economic cycle. eventually, it is got to come back to america through taxes. the cycle continues. that is all i have got to say. host: the economic cycle? guest: in a number of these cycles of change, we have got fiscal pressures. we have not even mentioned the pandemic. this has had a huge blow to our economy, as well as the global economy. we have energy crises and shortages. supply and distribution networks that have broken down. we are on the cusp of a new era. this is a time for reflection, because it is a time where we could be thinking about how we focus on our future development.

focus on what we do at home to generate changes in the economy there would not be just about investment from overseas, which will remain important, but how we build up our own states and local economy. we are on the cusp of a major change. it is time for discussion about how we want to structure our economy. host: ashley, north carolina. caller: good morning. the most important thing in our nation currently is the fact that it is october 12 and we still have military men and women in afghanistan that joe biden has blood on his hands. one more thing. i am applauding southwest airlines for the stairs that the

pilots have taken against the mandates. this is americans standing up and saying, my body, my choice. outside of abortion, we determined what health risk we are willing to accept. host: vaccine mandates or afghanistan, which do you want to take up? caller: both of these issues have entered our national conversation. we have to be able to listen on the public health issues to have many discussions as we can to engage in to figure out how we get on top of this pandemic. i come from a family in which public health was -- my father, when he lost his job in the minds -- mines, ended up working in a hospital.

my family experienced infectious disease. like many in america, generations of my family were overextended because my family was so poor that they waited a long time to have children. my grandparents were born in the late 1890's. my grandfather fought world war i. many in my family died from the influenza pandemic in 1918. my family were infected with diseases that could be treated with axes. they were first in line to get vaccines, because they saw with their own eyes -- my mother lost parts of her hearing from measles before the measles vaccine. members of my family were stricken by polio. we were always having these

debates. my family made the decision. public health was not politicized in the same way as it has been here. some of them wanted to thrive, wanted their families to be healthy. for them, vaccine development was our breakthrough. it meant that members of their family did not die from diseases that otherwise would have been preventable. a lot of people have come into the u.s., having these breakthroughs in medicine is a privilege. i am someone who goes out whenever there is an opportunity to have a vaccine to have a vaccine, because i grew up in an environment where that was a question of life or death for you, the community. on afghanistan, we have been in these forever wars since 9/11. there are those who do not believe we should have gone to

afghanistan or iraq in the first instance, but we have to grapple about how we get out. that is also very important. we need to be able to have an objective discussion about all of these issues that are so crucial to the future of the country. the polarization, the politicized nation -- pulling it po --liticization of these issues. host: we are going to take viewers to the supreme court, live oral arguments in an abortion case. kentucky versus women's surgical center. that is where you will be going if you stay here on c-span, but fiona hill, i wanted to ask you to draw on your russia expertise. what do you think president biden should be concerned about as he deals with russia and puti

n? caller: what he had -- guest: what he has to be concerned about is the domestic front. our domestic divisions are what vladimir putin and others will exploit. there are others on the internet pretending to be americans. there are massive ransomware attack's attacking our call infrastructure. these are acts of terrorism, not just criminality. we are always trying to head off this confrontation with russia, but really we have been having a confrontation with them. we create this information, they propagate disinformation. the antidote isn't things we are doing on washington journal, which is allowed americans to

have proper, real-time discussions with each other. -- the antidote is things we are doing on washington journal -- pushing to the extreme abortion, having these conversations about the supreme court. we have to have sensible conversations. i am grateful to have that conversation with you. host: the book, and the other is fiona hill. i do appreciate your time. guest: thanks so much. host: we will be back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we now take you live to the supreme court.