c-span is your unfiltered view of the government. including media come. the world change in an instant. we never slow down. we look at the haydn's administration pandemic and mental health policies. usa today james bovard talking

about covid mandates. the biden administrations order and -- border policy. the washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to the journal. we will begin our conversation with your thoughts on the so-called freedom convoy in canada. truckers stopping travel and millions of dollars in trade to canada over covid restrictions. president biden calling on his canadian counterparts to stop the blockade. if you support (202) 748-8000 if

you oppose (202) 748-8001 you can also text us with your thoughts (202) 748-8003 and you can go to facebook or send us a tweet. we will get your thoughts on these convoys. here is the washington post, freedom convoy shuts down the third of border crossing. u.s. officials urge canada to get control of this spiraling crisis. justin trudeau faces questions in parliament. here is what he has to say. >> mr. speak that we have recognized this for over a week that this siege is unacceptable. the impact on small businesses,

manufacturers. the supply chain are ongoing. whether it be barricades at the borders or the siege in ottawa, we have to do everything we can to ended. what would really help is for the conservative partner -- party to stop blocking our economy and go home. >> the prime minister of canada this week. president biden is facing his own trucker threat. that is the habit -- headline. biden facing a threat of supply chain disruption. the department of homeland security warned partners that a protest similar to canada that

would disrupt the super bowl or the state of the union address. they also note that the protested canada created a huge problem for justin trudeau and could provide plans for a similar protest in washington dc next month. there is a march for freedom convoy and 2022. that is from "the hill". it requires travelers to be fully vaccinated to cross the border. it went into effect after canada's mandate went into effect. he -- president biden acknowledged that these restrictions are having an impact on the american psyche.

>> mr. president we have seen numerous governments rollback indoor masked requirements getting ahead of the federal government. >> it is hard to say whether they are wrong. the science is saying that masks work. there is only one governor drawing back immediately, and some are at the end of february and set a time limit. and i assume that is if the omicron variant continues to die out and there is a relationship between the number of cases you have in your community in the deed to wear masks. >> leaders bowing to the political pressures? >> omicron in the variance have had a profound impact on the psyche of the american people.

i committed that i would follow the science. science as performed by the cdc and i think it is premature, it is a tough call. host: president biden in his interview. that will air on super bowl sunday when according to the homeland security department we could see our own convoys trying to disrupt the super bowl as well as the state of the union and march. we are asking you if you support or oppose these convoys? from california. caller: it is ridiculous. it hurts the economy and if they

do it at the super bowl, it is ridiculous. there are going to be tons of family and they -- people down there and they will jam that up. it is a safety issue. it is like, what do we do? how do we stop it? send the police down? it is ridiculous. host: the white house secretary, jen psaki was asked about this. here's what she had to say. >> does the president have an opinion about this trucker action in canada? it is affecting the border crossing and could it have some impact on the u.s. economy? >> we are watching this very closely and because as you have

touched on here, the bridge is linked to you than i did states and accounts for 25% of trade between the countries. it causes a rest of the supply chains to the auto industry. it causes delays to auto production. we are in close contact, we have been doing a great deal of work on this. we are in very close contact and coordination with the protection team and are canadian team. we are monitoring the auto companies with what the impact of the auto parts could be. we are also tracking what damages to exports of apple pop -- admiral -- admiral --

agricultural products could be. there is still a lengthy delay that is lengthening these trucks from being able to get through. they are looking to work with private stakeholders for alternative ways of processing. are there workers that need to get across the bridge? the workers that go to the ambassador bridge, they are being detoured to the tunnel and are able to move past. we are working very closely with

the dhs, canadian officials to alleviate the impact. >> does the president have an opinion on the action? >> we support peaceful protest but we have concern when those protests turn violent and we think it is important for everyone to understand what the impact of this blockage is on workers, the supply change -- chain. host: the concern with the protest turning violent. that is the concern of the michigan governor, she is concerned about that happening on the u.s.-canadian border. do you support or oppose these convoys? caller: i would say that i do support these truckers and i

think what we are seeing is a working-class uprising and i find it really odd that progressives are not supporting it. no one wants to support these working-class people. we need to listen to these people and allow ourselves to get back to the of normalcy. host: greg in and candidate, you support. caller: i think it is proof that the elites, such as whatever that thing in canada is have decided that they know better than anyone else. for the last two years, they have told us you have to do this, you have to do that.

do you have any appreciation for the effect that had economically on those two countries but there has been all kinds of titter over the past two weeks. one other point, the governor of michigan is concerned about the possibility of something. what evidence supports that? c-span should not be supporting the speculation. host: i want you to respond to the washington post editorial. they write the protest triggering event was the canadian government vaccine

mandate crossing into the country from the united states. requirements were already in place for canadian residents as well as federal employees and railway workers. 90% of canadian truckers are vaccinated. given those facts, there has been an enormous uprising against the government and they write that the irony is that the pandemic restrictions has contributed to a covid death rate that is one of the lowest in the world. by crippling a major capital, converting jobs they have served beyond legitimate protest into

the realm of thuggery. caller: why don't you make me the host? you spent more time on my call reading the washington post. you could have said the washington post and an editorial and i could've told you at the washington post said. you could have saved 45 seconds of my time. host: greg it is a conversation and i am asking you to respond. caller: my response is, it is cracked. two years of disruption compared to two weeks. you tell me, these people, these elites are worried that they overplayed their hand and they will suffer the consequences. host: we will go to mike in maryland. caller: i can help you answer

that question. it is not the responsibility of the government to see how far a protest goes. it is not just the pandemic restrictions, i would expect there are a lot of things that led up to this. you did not hear all of this concern with occupy washington, occupy wall street. all of them have their reasons for doing things. now you will hear there are swastikas on the side of trucks. all this nonsense will happen because that is where they turn to.

they are trying to be heard, provide the government with the position that if you want to wear masks. if you support vaccinations, fine. everyone does not have to be mandated to do everything. our kids are being emotionally destroyed. they have lost two years of their lives. enough is enough. people can make their own decisions. we do not need the federal government to make decisions for us anymore. i wholeheartedly support this. host: this is one of our viewers sending us attacks. i support the convoy the irony is that when they support the

shutdown, but when people shut down and protest it is bad. now, from the hill the independent drivers association is saying that we would like leaders in d.c. to take action on the concerns of truck drivers such as retention of drivers, government overreach, if the u.s. sees the same thing happen here as in canada, it is because they have been failing truckers for too long. caller: i have posted for one point.

i don't think the trucker should have a quan void i think the american people should speak up. we have a voice. you can write your congressman. you can write your senator. what the administration has done in the past year is more than any domestic terrorism. we all need to speak up. not just truckers. we need to voice our opinion. host: karen from virginia. do you support? caller: when this started two years ago we should've all gotten in the street. those truckers are coming here. fear equals control.

if they can scare you enough you will believe what they say and it is all about control. they want to control all of us and everything that they do. people need to wake up and start taking their lives back. how much longer will this go on? it is not that they are not vaccinated they are tired of following along like lambs. i cairn terrier you -- i guarantee you they would jump off the bridge. people need to wake up and get to their own lives and stop listening to these channels talking about covid. stop watching the news. host: we go to louisiana. caller: good morning.

i support this principle, the truckers convoy. beyond that, you can lay it at the doorstep of dr. fauci who has become a political hack. i do not think he has seen the clinical patient and 25 years. granted, covid-19 was deadly but the variant was somewhat exaggerated form of the flu and everybody was so upset. and what behind this principle is everybody being shut in. they should've had a panel of prestigious medical school deans get together and explain this to

the public instead of rely on one man who said if you don't believe in me, you don't believe in science. host: we will go to illinois next. and you oppose, why do you oppose the convoy? caller: good morning. i oppose that the first amendment that lock kids are legal. we are all entitled to civil demonstration but to create blockades and effect things economically is not in service of that first amendment. host: speaking of the economic impact. as canadians block deliveries, and from cnbc's reporting, the

general motors board, toyota have been forced to cut production at several plants and canada due to lack of parts caused by the delivery delays. 20% of trade happens on just that one bridge and it is stopping 300 million in commerce per day, these protest from going back and forth between the u.s. and canada. stephen from illinois. caller: i support the convoys. it is our freedom to protest and our first amendment right to protest and they are doing it non-violently. everything is right about it.

inflation has skyrocketed. joe biden has increased gas prices. my heating bill has gone up $130 last month. i think he is doing a bad job. i voted democrat, i am not going to vote for him due to the crime wave that we have. it is just sad that our nation is like this and it is going down the tubes so fast. host: we have a call from arizona. why do you support the convoys? caller: i'm a first time caller

and have been listening to you for 30 years. before i get to the point of the subject i want to make a point about the technicalities of the point of the program. i noticed about four months ago, the caller volume was less than the hosts and the people you had on there and the moderator. i constantly had to adjust my volume to hear the callers and then turn it down when other people were speaking. i just wanted to throw that out. host: you can talk to your cable provider about that. caller: it could be that? i don't know how that could be.

i have been watching it for 25, 30 years. i never had that problem before. let me get to the point. the covid-19 restrictions and whether it is political and democrat or republican. i will make two points. the first one is that what is happening here lately, only in the last 10 years because i think it is change. in the last 10 years, i believe the democratic party with covid and other things have become fascists and i say that because what is fascism and what is freedom? fascism is they want to control what you think, what you do and

how you do it. freedom is live and let live. there are problems with that. it has to be regulated. but the republican party at this point is live and let live. respect other people's freedoms and more importantly, their opinions. where the democratic party these days, you must think the way we think. you must think the way we want you to. you must do what we say. that is why i say the democratic party is gradually become more and more fascist. host: mark, you may be interested in this headline. it is on the banner page of the drudge report.

it shows that global freedoms have hit an old -- all time low. the score hit a five out of 10. it was also the biggest annual decline since 2010. 6.4% of the world lived in a full democracy last year, with under a third of authoritarian world with a large percentage of those in china. it did not start with the pandemic but it has compounded a negative trend. the coronavirus led to an unprecedenteded withdraw into authoritarian regimes. mark, what do you have to add to that? caller: i get back to my point

that it is marxist, it sounds alarmist. this marxist strain is flowing around our world in academia from their ideology it cancels people. it wants to censor people. they want to tell you how to think and what is permissible to think. at the same time, they are imposing restrictions and laws on people. host: you are a republican, do you think that's why the convoy resonates with you? caller: i suspect they have, 40, 50% among the truckers even

though they have to go to work every day. on the other hand, it is about fascism and freedom. host: this is politicos headline, it galvanizing the right wing worldwide. that is their reporting. from the associated press, a report that conservative premier, dog -- doug ford asked the convoy to freeze donations to the protest. he has called the convoy and occupation.

canadian officials previously got gofundme to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise money for the protest. let's hear from kenneth in new york. do you support the convoy? caller: the last poll we had was misguided. on january 6, they were all people crying freedom. more and more people talk about freedom and you never hear them talk about responsibility. the big issue in masking and not

masking is exploited by politicians. people don't get the simple connection. if they do not wear our mask -- where mask, the virus they don't seem to get that connection, that we have to wear the masks to defeat the virus so the economy can rebound so we can have jobs and no inflation. it is a matter of public health and civic duty. people do not host: understand what civic duty means. host:do support the new york governor? caller: i think she is bending to the politics of the situation.

i do not think mario cuomo would've done that. he would have said stay the course. in 1953i was drafted into the army and they sent me to korea. they did not ask me whether i wanted to go. they sent me and i had to fight for my life and fight the people's liberation army. they did not ask me, i could not say i want my freedom. no. i had to go because it was my civic duty. all of my comrades over there fought. some of them died because it was their civic duty. people do not understand that. freedom to impose their beliefs to other people. freedom, religious freedom is freedom to impose your beliefs on someone else. that is what has come to. host: let us listen to your

governor. she is renouncing that she is going to start -- some of these pandemic restrictions. these restrictions prompting freedom convoys that we are talking about this morning. here she is. >> i have been talking to everybody. everybody from dr. fauci and health care workers -- other national leaders in our neighboring states. i've talked to elected officials , health care leaders, hospital ceos, business leaders to many businesses over the last few days as well as educators, superintendents, parents, everyone i could think of got a phone call from me to ask them out they feel about where we are and where we are going.

consulting with all of them has given be the data and the on the ground view from the people that are most effective. that is how i make the best decisions. we had a mask requirement for businesses, it was an emergency temporary measure taken -- too much ago. we say it is the right decision to lift the mandate for indoor businesses in that counties, cities and businesses make their own decision about what they want to do with regard to masks and vaccine requirements. given the declining cases, we feel comfortable to lift them in effect tomorrow. we want to think all of the businesses and the county leaders and the health departments in places as far away as syria county who did the right thing to help us get through this.

i think this has made a big difference. patrons of businesses have been given the comfort to know that they were safe when they went into businesses when they saw those numbers. the numbers are coming down and it is time to adapt. the governor of new york. host: the cdc -- places like new york easing up on restrictions, here is what she had to say. >> the last cdc recommendation was that there should be indoor masking in public settings where transmission is substantial or high according to cdc data. appears to be the entire country where community transmission is high. is that still the recommendation? and furthermore, you also recommended there be universal

masking in schools. is that a recommendation that you stand by? are states willing to lift mandates in schools? >> we certainly understand the need to be flexible. we want to ensure the public health officials that we are -- as we have discussed cases and hospitalizations are falling. this is encouraging. this leads us to look at all of our guidance based on the latest data and the science, and what we know about the virus. we also look, of course, to our hospitalizations. look at the hospitalizations as a barometer. those decisions can be made on a local level. we at cdc will keep the public informed about our guidance. host: the director of the cdc.

-- these mask restrictions or mandates. are you ready for that? and are you in support of the protests we are seeing on the u.s., canadian border over: restrictions? bob, and tyler, texas. you oppose that. caller: -- our enemy is trying to eliminate us. what better way than to restrict the real supply of shelves and restrict our transportation? and then to go to the mask and these mandates. none of them are following our law. the legislature is supposed to make -- and then the judges are supposed to -- the executives,

the governor, the president, the commissioners are supposed to enforce laws. tuesday in texas, the commissioners court and the lawyer for the court were served papers for violating their oath of office and the bond that is covering them. i am sorry, i get excited. were not following the law. our commissioners, sheriff have violated their oafs by instituting mandates that are not properly made by our elected bodies, our legislature, and our senates.

they may be removed from office just for that until they satisfy the bond that they violated. host: mike in pasadena, texas. he also opposes convoys. why do oppose them? caller: i think it plays into, i do not like to go democrat republican -- i think some of those people have it a little bit backwards. especially the ones that want to talk about fascism and all of that tyranny. democrats, i am -- democrats have always worked for the poor and blue-collar class. all of a sudden trump gets in

there and everybody lose their -- loses their mind. i do not understand how so many people can be enthralled with a rich kid that was given everything in his life. he tried to run for president and then finally stumbled into it because of a tv show. these people think he is a tv star who can do no wrong. i hate to say it, those people who climbed all over the capital and made us look bad, they should be -- it would've been a bloodbath. they should have opened up on those people. they had no business doing what they were doing. about the canadian thing. that plays into the covid deal, into the inflation, into the republicans game about making biden look bad.

-- that is what republicans crave. host: for those of you who are interested, liz cheney served on the select committee investigating the january 6 attacks. she is writing in today's wall street journal an opinion piece. she says it will not be political and the people will see that when they hold hearings. we are focused on facts not rhetoric. we move on to coral in sacramento. you oppose? caller: two reasons why. it is going to take a few seconds now. i need to bring up my ipad. 1777 -- mandates, fact-check

george washington. the reasons why. -- as a teenager strongly believed in the effectiveness of inoculation and then it goes on to say, continental army fighting the british had to get mandated inoculated. they did. secondly, -- since the second world war.

i got my polio shot as a young kid. i joined the air force in 1956. i retired in 1990. i was first in line to get my vaccinations. -- appeared until trump got on the scene. -- since then. when i was 19 i was a crew chief on ab 47. 1958, -- air force base. we had 247's with atomic bombs. i did 290 day tours. trip was 12 days old and after i saw on tv where he was tearing

up his presidential papers -- he is still 12 years old. host: in raleigh north carolina. you support convoys tell us why. caller: gary's way i support them. it is time for us to get moving. it is time for us to get back to being free people. i am vaccinated, my whole family is vaccinated. we followed the science. you just read an article in the post about the vaccination rate in canada and when our president was telling us to drink clorox and not wear a mask and don't worry, this is going to go away in a few months. justin trudeau wooded mandates. they have the lowest death rate

in the world. they did the right thing. the people that don't want to get vaccinated are never going to get vaccinated. it is time to let them go. it is time to start working on the people who followed the science and continue to work on making treatments for us so that we can continue to protect ourselves from this virus. we got ships sitting in the ocean that we cannot unload. we have food running on the dock. we have to let the people that do not want to get vaccinated go. you get covid, you go to a covid hospital. let us take chris christie as an example. he followed trump. he went to that trump -- heacock covid. what did chris christie say after he got covid?

he got vaccinated. he decided to start following the science and two weeks ago he is coming out saying it is time to let trope go. it is time to let the ignorant people go. we got rid of that ignorant man who -- why we lost so many people. it is the ignorant people who do not want to wear a mask and do not want to get vaccinated who are causing the problems. why do i need to wear a mask? i am vaccinated. everything the science says we needed to do and it is time to get back. host: match, and west virginia. you support the convoys. caller: i do support it. i also understand where they are coming from. it is my opinion.

people do not know how to advocate within the court system. suffice to say to take it back a few decades -- when we call we expressed frustration. -- whether it is like the free state of seattle -- whatever the population was doing in that city. -- or if it is attacking the capital and you are a 40-year-old who supports trump. everyone is attacking the outside of the buildings because they have basically removed us -- our civics from our children's curriculum. people do not grasp that concept. the average person graduating high school cannot read on a 12 grade level. i could be fact checked on that

but i would say it is a large majority. when they have to make an educated choice, they do not have their education to make a proper decision. then we see the expression through frustration. the protest, i have no problem with that. when we start destroying the outside of the buildings out of frustration because we never got the education to represent ourselves within the building, and we rely on the science. i'm sure that was an educated caller who called in. they do not understand what they are reading. that is my opinion. host: jim, and wake forest. you are opposing these protests on the border. caller: yes. it is basically hypocrisy. they want to go ahead -- they

are stepping on a lot of people's freedoms. the masks and the shots, if you don't want to get them. -- why are you taking up space in the hospitals for someone who needs it? you are hurting the economy, hurting others, you are putting a strain on the poor nurses and health care, individuals who are afraid to be teachers and go to school. their freedom is causing so much grief for other people. i agree with some of the other people who have called in that they are basically uneducated and think they are privileged. military personnel who did not want to get the shot, as soon as they went into the military they got tons of shots. it is to the point where it is ridiculous hypocrisy.

those bridges are designed to go ahead and have traffic move across them and not just sit on top of them. there -- there are so many issues being brought in here. do i have a right to go across to my neighbor and if you believe in what the bible says? then let's go ahead and act like we are christian. i agree that this country is being taken down i outside sources, -- china, iran. they would love to see this. biden should move the military and national guard. -- you will have finds. trudeau on the others should say we are going to go ahead and clear the bridge. if you do not want to -- we will put military in the trucks to move them and go from there.

it is time to stop playing games with these people and we need to get back on track to common sense. host: we go to charlie in florida. what do you say on this? caller: i support anyone's right to protest but like the last caller said, i hope it does not turn violent or have a problem with the bridge collapsed. have no right to shut down the highway. some people are trying to get to work, medical issues, all sorts of things. they have no right to shut down the highway. that is just common sense. they are trying to make joe biden look bad, causing other problems for him. it is to the point of ridiculousness. -- you got rid of the -- who was in the white house who did nothing to help anyone else but himself.

look up the record on donald trump. he did not help anyone. host: we will leave it there. remi, in brooklyn opposing the convoys. caller: i'm bringing some attention here to see an influx of dust coming in from long beach. we are having to handle on the side. out of the port of baltimore to canada. it is right now a little bit unnerving. we are seeing many trucks that we would normally see here because they are being held up at the bridge. when this thing settles out there will be an influx coming in here to pick up and drop off cargo. what i am trying to bring out here is, we really do not have

very many options here. rather than let canada do what it has to do in order to open up trade to come in here -- along with the other ports. they are being affected by this. that is my comments about this. host: pam in california. you oppose. your thoughts? caller: yes i do. i am a 79-year-old woman, currently a cancer patient, so i have been in and out of the hospital and understand it. i fully support these truckers. it is about time people in this country and as well as canada take back their lives. they keep saying, the science, the science. show me what the science is.

they speak with whatever they want. we need to get to life and we need to learn how to -- i feel so sorry for my grandchildren who are 10 years old and 14 years old. i have a problem, a medical problem, i have my vaccine but my family does not. i have seen my grandchildren at least twice a week and have through this whole thing. this scare tactic, this fear mongering constantly if you do not do it you are a bad person, are we supposed to now mask up every time we get a cold or flu epidemic from now on? are we going to have a little bit of the life and learn how to deal with these things? host: heard the point. we will go to michael who is in michigan who supports the

freedom convoys. caller: i am from detroit. host: what do you think about the impact on your state and your city? caller: i supported even though i just got laid off this morning because of this. host: what do you do? caller: i work on an assembly line for universal. we make parts for chrysler. they just said we are laid off until further notice. i do not know how long this thing here is going to last. but what i am trying to understand is i am listening to your show and listening to these republicans talk about how they support and all this other stuff but when -- everybody got mad at him. when these people rated the white house, that was ok.

i am trying to figure out how did that work. i do not understand. i am listening for not catching on to what people are saying about this. of course you should mask up. of course you should take the math desk -- of course you should take the vaccination. this is the difference with the way we are living now. it does not have to do with democrat or republican. host: you support the protests over the covid restrictions? caller: you have a right to protest. you have that right. this is america. host: ok. chris in kansas. who opposes. caller: i am fighting over this. -- it is kind of ridiculous. they are holding up traffic and

making their look like fools, dancing around like monkeys. what are they going to prove? host: california. larry in california. go ahead. caller: i am enjoying your show. this is one of the first times i have watched c-span. i am in full support of the truckers convoy. it is civil disobedience at its finest. it is no difference -- it is no different from a sit in. i have endured many civil disobedience. people have a right to protest. i am listening to people talking and how they are making this about donald trump. the bottom line is this is america. this country was founded on

descent and having an opposing view. people have science on both sides. just like the climate change issue. we will get through it. as the caller say you have a right to be vaccinated. if you have been vaccinated, you do not have to worry. the woman who had cancer, decided to vaccinated. this information they told people in the beginning of this if you get vaccinated you are free to move about the country. but that was not true. now they are blaming the unvaccinated. the people in canada are saying this is enough. the science is all over the place. the reality is there are a lot of questions about the science and vaccines. i would like to know -- why field tissue, wide graphite

oxide -- where are they trying to hide? why are they trying to prevent people from seeing what is in it? if it is transparent, do not hide. host: reports are from the homeland security department, local police departments that there could be copycats or similar convoys here in the u.s. this is from the hill reporting. potentially planning to block roadways in the u.s. in protest of among other things mandates. the convoys will potentially start and callous formula -- will potentially start california. -- for the first of march. vincent in virginia. you support. caller: i support the vaccines, and i support protests.

the gentleman that mentioned -- i am a republican pretty much, -- but yet they did not get upset when the people that protested the riots -- my point is that if you want to get vaccinated, get vaccinated. you have the right to go to any hospital. if you do not want to get vaccinated or where, when you get covid do not go to a hospital. go -- stay home. hopefully you will not die, but if you do you have no one to blame but yourself. that is the way i feel. host: we will leave the conversation therefore now. coming up next, we will talk to joe grogan. he is the former truck domestic policy advisor. later on, james bovard discusses

the changing politics over mandates. ♪announcer: a british historian, in the introduction to his most recent book, "the last king of america," an opus on king george iii says, "the portrait of a heartless, absolute sovereign is repeated almost every single day in america's print and online media. hardly a day passes in the united states without some reference to george iii where he is still held up as an equal opportunities hated figure, a bogeyman attacked in the same

measure by democrats and republicans alike." andrew roberts, over the past 30 years, has written major histories about napoleon, churchill and world war ii. announcer: british historian andrew roberts on book notes plus, available on the c-span now app or wherever you get your podcast. s. ♪

announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is joe grogan, former director of the white house domestic policy council under president trump, here to talk about the pandemic and where we are with it. let's begin with the numbers and that we are seeing. the who says that covid cases have fallen over the last week, including a 50% drop in the united states, while deaths globally have declined to 7%. what is happening and what should be the response from the government? guest: thank you for having me. and thanks for c-span, i have been a fan for many years and it is always a pleasure to be on. i do not think people should be terribly surprised by the numbers coming down as quickly as they are. i have been more focused on the epidemic here in the u.s., but

they mirror the way it is behaving internationally with a big spike and now it is coming down pretty quickly and i think it is one of the reasons why you see democratic governors, and others, leading on the issue and it is time to drop the masks. host: what should happen, though, if we do not have masks and we are going about the way that we were before the pandemic? how do you control the virus, or do you just not? guest: the first thing you have to do, and i think the administration made a big mistake here, is you have to be humble and recognize the virus is extremely tricky. it could mutate and combat. -- come back. but the administration needs to get its credibility back, be open and transparent about what is going on, and it needs to transition to a nonemergency

posture and try to get americans back to normalcy. normalcy does not mean annoying emerging threats -- ignoring emerging threats or we may not need to put restrictions on. it certainly doesn't mean that we do not need continued innovation with therapies and new vaccines at that are more durable than the ones we have which is a big problem with the current batches of vaccines. and a better testing. the fda is doing a pretty terrible job, to be perfectly honest, in approving antigen test's over the rapid tests right now. i have not gotten my free test yet. the premises around me are out of antigen tests. that's a supply issue. the demand is there. and i am lucky enough i can go and buy one, but they are not available. and the administration needs to look at its approval standards

for antigen tests and get more on the market. host: the failure of testing, having it accessible and inexpensive date back to former president trump. what was happening on this effort in that administration? guest: we had a big shortfall in testing. the united states was not prepared for this pandemic, there is no question about it. we have a big problem in this country in having adequate testing infrastructure, the way we pay for tests is antiquated. we do not put enough emphasis upon research and development for diagnostic tests. and we underfund a lot of different areas of research. we were scrambling to get more supplies in the white house. and we took a lot of criticism from the biden administration during the campaign, and before that, from democrats for not

being able to snap our fingers and create more testing, which is why it is so disturbing that the biden administration a year into their tenure has done so little to increase the testing supply. and this government purchasing, you know, goldberg -- that they patched together is a little bit too late. they should have been focused on that from the beginning, as they promised they would. host: when you are serving as director of the domestic policy council, what were the challenges in getting testing in place? guest: our infrastructure was, as i said, was not there. but even before that, the first problem was we did not know exactly what we were dealing with with the virus and we did not have a reliable test developed. it has been widely reported and i think the benefit of this new question, one thing we should have been doing is having more

conversations with industry earlier on and that fda should have opened the spigot to companies producing tests more quickly. they waited too long to bring tests to the market and the cdc, which still has huge problems in dealing with this current pandemic, and in meeting new threats, they had a big problem in developing the tests. if i could go back to january, february, march, frankly i would've advocated the nih get every single research institution getting money to turn on their labs and look for this. we should have pulled the plug on fda requirements and had companies notified. and we should have had companies coming in in january saying, we need you desperately to develop tests. the reimbursement was a big problem and still is today. cms, the center for medicare and

medicaid services, which sets pricing for diagnostics, was not paying enough and did not incentivize to do tests. it took time to figure out what was going on there. but i would say that this is a real opportunity for bipartisan investigation and reform. diagnostics should be a big part of the public health response for future pandemics. and it should be a daily feature for lives moving forward. i should be able to get my four children tested for any emerging illness in my own home. and covid has shown us that is possible, but we will need private industry to step up. and we will need a major government effort here, including fundamental reforms in the fda and the way we reimburse for tests. host: why were the restrictions in place and why does there need

to be an overhaul or reform of the way that the fda operates? guest: it goes back to the obama administration. there was a scare from a virus called zika, which produced birth defects for babies in pregnant women, and we were very concerned about it. a number of companies developed tests and they were concerned that the tests were not working well. the fda stepped in and instead, you need to come to the fda for preapproval, even though they were frequently elaborate. -- only laboratory developed tests, not previously subject to fda regulation. so the fda said it's legal to sell these when a public health emergency is declared. so when there was a public health emergency declared for covid, it basically said all tests need to come in for preapproval. and the fda was too slow to

relinquish that power and understand it was restricting supply. we should have been having doctors and researchers developing tests all around the country and developing different methods for identifying the virus. subsequently, though trump administration told -- pulled the fda's authority for regulating the tests, but the biden administration has put it back in place. it's not just for laboratory developed tests, antigen tests are subject to approval to standards that are not scientifically valid. the new process that the administration unveiled to create fanfare is identifying problems with it because what they are doing is comparing it to a pcr tests, a more sophisticated laboratory test, which is great for identifying with more certainty that somebody has had a covid.

it frequently also identifies people who are no longer infectious. what we need to do is get people who are infectious out of circulation, that is why the rapid antigen tests is what we need, getting people to use them a couple times a week would be ideal. my children are taking them, you know, at school in order to be able to stay in school. but i am frequently out of them or going around trying to find new ones. i only have two left and i will go out this afternoon to find more. host: what do you think about the pricing? the antigen test you are talking about, if you have to pay for them they are about $20. and then you have got, if you need a rapid test result in 24 hours and you need to go to a testing site, it can cost almost $200 or $300. guest: it can cost more.

there is no question, i think that it basically is supply and demand. i hate to say it, if we had more supply of the rapid antigen tests the prices would come down . in certain parts of the world tests are cheaper because countries are focusing on increasing the supply of high-quality antigen tests. the rapid pcr tests, the more sophisticated lab tests, they are not cheap to run. you need technical people to round them. it is a problem -- run them. it is a problem and testing companies are at war with one another and of the administration has done a poor job of arbitrating or figuring out what is adequate reimbursement in helping to resolve the dispute. and i am worried a lot of these companies that have floated into the market to provide testing are going to leave the market and if we get hit again, they will not come back because they

jumped in thinking the government will reimburse us for costs and we will make a profit. some are doing well, but some are actually getting killed because it is not easy or cheap to run those sophisticated lab tests. but i am a big believer in the inexpensive antigen test. if the fda would approve more of them, prices would come down dramatically. and for those who cannot afford $10, eight dollars on a regular basis, there should be government assistance to help and we should be able to provide money for schools, including religious schools and private schools, and provide more testing. host: joe grogan is now a fellow at the health center for policy and economics. the former director of the white house domestic policy council under president trump. he can answer your questions about the government's response to the pandemic. dean, good morning.

an independent. caller: i am calling to find out how the guest differentiates between what the protesters are doing and what the residents in sodom and gomorrah did. some wanted to spread disease in the name of freedom. and that is crazy. it's light yelling fire in a crowded theater. we know that masks work. that's my question into a weight his political stance. guest: i oldies -- always appreciate a question that references sodom and gomorrah, but if the democratic governors who are currently leading the charge across or throughout the country to loosen the mask mandates, it's not right wing crazy people, not truck drivers, it's democratic governors who are saying this has gone too

far. my understanding, and this has been reported, that they went to the administration asking for help here and they got nothing. so, the the head of the administration on the google issue. i think one thing -- on this critical issue. i think here in washington, d.c., if i want to get a beer at a local bar, i have to show a driver's license and proof i was vaccinated. my vaccination card shows i was vaccinated last spring. there is no physician on the planet who will say that it has any scientific validity at this point. i was boosted in december, but that is not on my card because cvs handed me a new one when i was vaccinated. i was infected in january. and that is not on the card i am showing when i go to get something to eat. so i have to show my drivers license and proof of something

totally invalid in order to eat here in washington, which is 96% democrat. so many residents, so many people who work in the biden administration, and it is bizarre that everybody in d.c. is engaged in this, where they are showing proof of nothing in order to have the privilege of eating. i have seen a poor older gentleman get refused service because he did not have a drivers license, and it is insane. of course people are going to react, like with the truck driver protest because people are angry about being lied to and angry about having to be subjected to these infringements on their liberties. host: ross in california sends a text, "covid is the new flu. everybody will get it.

some of us will be asymptomatic and never know. that is life. we have the right to choose and assume the risk." guest: one other thing to keep in mind is these vaccines, the pfizer vaccine and moderna vaccine, were not studied to reduce infection. that's a really important point that gets lost. the administration has glossed over this in their messaging and have allowed the media did misrepresent the reality of the vaccines. they were never studied to reduce infections, they were studied to reduce hospitalization, serious illness and death. in that, they are extremely effective. extremely effective, particularly for the vulnerable, you should be getting vaccinated. but they do not reduce infections.

as a matter of fact, the best data we got, and unfortunately we do not have good data on this, is it may reduce infections by 30%. that's well below what tony fauci you said before the vaccines were approved woul be acceptabled in approving a vaccine. he said it would have to be over 50% effective in ordered to be approved. it is well over 50% effective in reducing hospitalizations, serious illness and death in those that are vulnerable. but it is not particularly effective in reducing infections, which is why when i was -- when i got my double shots, then boosted, i was subsequently infected with omicron in january. i think it was omicron. i assume it was. i felt bad for a couple days. two of my children were also infected. but i do not think the administration is building credibility when they misrepresent that this is about

reducing infections. it's not. frankly, you -- a lot of leading researchers know this. i'm in a group, the covid collaborative, a bipartisan group of people looking for common sense solutions, democrats and republicans, people who served in the obama, clinton and bush administrations. one of the key focus areas that keeps coming up is we need vaccines that reduce infections or prevent infections and transmissibility. everybody knows this, yet the administration allows the misconception to go out there. they have lost credibility and it is a shame. host: a democratic caller from virginia is next. caller: good morning. mr. grogan, you are a well spoken guy and you make your arguments very well. all the anger you say is

justified, i could not agree more. we should put it behind us. a couple of quick questions. how angry were you when working for donald trump that he was willing to tell the truth to bob woodward, who i am guessing you are not a fan of, and then he kept that from the public for, you know, for some really key months throughout that february, march and april? he did not take it seriously until after he left office, really, and he kept complaining that the cupboards were bare, obama left of the cupboards bare. that was three years into his administration. could you at least be like a normal dude, man up, and take responsibility for the guy who

you worked under. my guess is your parents are proud of you, you are a bright dude, but man, the harm that administration did and still continues to do to this day -- um. host: we will get a response. joe grogan? guest: i can hear the passion in the caller's voice and i understand that he is angry. i think that there is plenty of opportunity for criticism in the response. i can tell you that, you know, we were overwhelmed by a pathogen that could not be identified. at first. and it was very confusing. we were not prepared at the center for disease control and at the fda for this. and we have spent billions of dollars as a country, after

september 11, to be prepared for a pandemic. the obama administration today pandemic response. i would argue it was completely worthless. you know what word does not appear in the plan, masks. and we do not have enough masks in the stockpile. the fda was not ready. we bill warp speed from scratch to start up and get going. and here we are into the biden administration a year. they won the election, friendly, based upon covid. they said they would get it shut down. not only have they not increase to testing or shut it down, a year into this we do not have any serious reform plan for the cdc, which is not set up to deal with infectious diseases or another pandemic. i hate to say it, but five or 10 years from now, we will be looking back at covid and saying, that was nothing compared to what we are dealing with now. take a moment and think about what happened -- what will

happen when a government cooks up a nasty bioweapon. it is laid out how to do that and how vulnerable our society is. we are not prepared for that or for a worse virus than covid to hit. it is a real tragedy. the administration right now does not have an nih director or a confirmed fda commissioner. they have not nominated anybody for nih. their hhs secretary is in california and nobody knows what he is doing, and they are head of the office of scientific technology and policy in the white house resigned this week because he was abusive to the staff, particularly to women. this is not an administration set up to succeed in fighting covid or the next pandemic. host: why isn't the cdc prepared? guest: they are not in the disease control business. they are not in the business of

fighting infectious diseases. they have gotten over the years larded up with all sorts of tasks, and congress is responsible for this. they study chronic diseases, which are important that america fights, like obesity, but that is not what the cdc should be doing. they give that responsibility to nih. in the obama administration, they had a cdc director who was focused on obesity for eight years, not on infectious disease fighting. they need to go back to whether core mission should be, why the place was founded, disease control. go and get the word prevention off of the title and get focused on what it should really be doing. it has a terrible data management system. nobody knows the public health data reporting out of cdc, it is atrocious.

they do not have the focus to be watching for the next emerging disease threat an clampingd it down when it hits -- and clamping it down when it hits. i was hoping they would get a bipartisan look at it in the new administration into the first thing they did was load it up with money and tasks that are not important to covid, and i am not optimistic about their ability to confront the next problem that we get. host: in connecticut, a republican. good morning. caller: i understand that this is a highly meditative virus -- mutative virus and its mutation is accelerating. how do we make sure it stays at the top of the president's agenda? i think last year there was a bit of mission accomplished. but i think that there is a good chance that we are going to have another three or four waves under the this administration so how do we keep this top of mind?

i think that the vaccine is not our fault it is your fault because you did not get vaccinated. guest: but the virus mutates. it mutates a lot. it mutates a lot. and you need to be careful of that it is going to not mutate or develop into something more deadly than omicron. we need to be on guard for that. we cannot be paranoid about it or be living in our basements. i think the administration will stay focused on it. i hope that they will. i agree they made a terrible miscalculation in basically saying last summer that the end was in sight, then kamala harris admitted in a classic d.c. gaffe that they did not anticipate

omicron and delta's emergence, which is a terrible lack of focus if that is true from the leadership team. we have to be on guard. but what i am worried about are there a a lot of other problems in health care that we are not focusing on. we are too laser focused on covid with shutdowns. we are causing mental health problems upon our young people. overdoses are shooting through the roof. 100,000 year-over-year in the 12 months ending in june. the cdc is protecting another 20% increase in overdoses come up across the board -- up for african-americans, who are now outpacing whites. 100,000 people now is a catastrophic amount of human beings that are overdosing and we are also -- and that is only the tip of the iceberg because we have a dependency problem,

which you can witness in americans with the homeless encampments where there is all this drug use going on. you see it in the labor force participation rate. and we set policies in place in fighting covid that could not be designed any better, any better than to produce mental anxiety in our young people and create behavioral problems and create addiction problems. and the data continues to emerge about lingering mental health issues, from people with substance abuse problems. this is going to haunt the united states for decades. this is going to be studied for 100 years about -- about what we just did to young people shutting down schools and the policies we put in place that poured gasoline on the addiction prices. host: bob in ohio, democratic

caller. caller: good morning. listen, i had covid in 2019 in november. i got it from a dentist that filled my tooth and it was not on the radar then, not until december until two people in oregon got it. when did the trump administration find out about covid? what month? i did not hear nothing of it until january of 2020, and at that time i had already had it for close to a year and i did not know it. and i had no way of knowing it. one other thing, you are saying obama did not do anything, but he went to africa, or his administration went, and they pretty much cured ebola and you never really got recognition for

that. you keep saying about this or that, but i believe that donald trump was the worst person in the world for covid. he probably caused 600,000 americans to die. what would be your answer on that? guest: the administration did an excellent job in fighting ebola, no question. we have tremendous technical experience in fighting infectious diseases overseas. a lot of that expertise was built in fighting hiv in and throughout the beginning of the 1980's and 1990's, where i started my work in public health. i do not know about your particular story and when people in the united states were getting infected with what the earliest infection was. and if it is possible you were infected in november.

we started to see reports in december and january, but it is important to remember that you see a lot of reports about mysterious illnesses when you are in the white house. we have a surveillance network, and in the health and human services building you can walk into a situation room with screens from all over the world with various diseases and mysterious illnesses that people are infected with. and ebola is frequently on there, as well as other viruses that pop up. so you are watching a whole series of different viruses emerge at different times. covid was not the first one i was focused on in the white house, we were having daily calls long before covid on measles, if you recall the big measles outbreak because people were not getting their children vaccinated. there was another mysterious

illness that was causing paralysis in young people, we were focused on that at one point. so the nationals agreed council is looking at these diseases, health and human services is looking at these all the time, but it really became clear that covid wasn't something to watch in january -- was something to watch in january, i would say mid-january. it became clear that we had a problem. and a big problem with it was the behavior of the country around china.north korea shut down their border . the vietnamese shut down a lot of transit. you saw the chinese, also, basically quarantining wuhan and restricting travel. so people were -- the behavior of people in the area was irrational, frankly, compared to the official report that it was well under control. host: lynn ardo -- leonardo in

alaska, independent. caller: good morning. i wanted to bring up, talking about supply and demand, what's needed further tests you mentioned -- for the tests you mentioned, that we need -- to activate the detection of the viruses. that's not available. so, you know, a lot of it. having more companies that compete for that rare element are definitely not creating more opportunity to distributed the tests. it's creating more scarce resources. i just wanted to kind of point

that out with supply and demand. host: any thoughts? guest: it certainly did expose shortcomings in our supply chain in the united states. we are way too dependent upon foreign producers of essential medicines and ingredients that go into them. and to your point, the reagents necessary further testing. so that is another thing that congress should be focused on, is on shoring more of this stuff permanently and not doing it with mandates, not doing it with a typical washington, d.c. response. if we incentivize it with economic tax credits, with tax cuts. if we incentivize it with employment for educating scientists, employing scientists, we could bring a lot of this technology and capability back to the united states. but unfortunately we will be

dependent upon foreign producers for far too long. host: anne in tennessee, a republican. caller: i wavered between whether fauci knew what it was or was totally ignorant. i cannot believe he was ignorant knowing how much he was involved in that lab. and that university, that professor arrested coming back from china who had an assistant who was caught trying to leave america with an unknown substance. we need to realize that china is our enemy. and they are killing us with covid and with all of the -- they are sending. but president trump got to work, warp speed and got three vaccines. he had companies retool what they were making to make the ventilators we need.

and biden declared that people had to take a test or they could not go back to work, but we did not have tests. in october he said, we will not order tests. so where is he going to get the tests made? his good friend in china gave him a contract for $1.3 billion, so they sent us covid then they make money off of giving it to us. this has been so lopsided, so convoluted and so stupid. he said he was going to fix it and more have died since he has been in their. and he has torn the country apart with telling people to stay-at-home and not work by now you go to the grocery store and you cannot find anything that you need. host: your response? guest: before i became the domestic policy advisor in the west wing, i was at the office of management and budget, which

is on the white house complex. i was the associate director for health. it's called the pad. it is probably the most powerful health-care position that nobody knows about. you compiled the budget, you approve the regulations that hhs puts out and you tee up for discussion any type of spending on a health care issue you think has policy concerns. the obama administration, to its credit, shut down gain of function research with tax dollars pending a review because there was a scare with gian of function research -- gain of function research, as the lady mentioned. they were concerned about a manipulated virus escaping and causing a pandemic. nih restarted it and i was never notified about it. i never knew about nih funding

gain of research funding out of a chinese lab until i left the white house, and after the trump administration was over. i left in may of 2020. that is exactly the type of decision that should have been teed up for discussion among policymakers. we have a lot of bashing of the so-called little is asian of science and -- politicization of science and politicians getting too involved. there's no way that that research should have been restarted without a policy discussion in the white house. moreover, the particular grant that's still being investigated with eco-health and what happened in the lab but should have undergone continuous scrutiny. as to the scientific question about whether or not this particular pathogen, covid, escaped from a lab or not, i

think it is a legitimate question that needs to continue to be investigated. and it is worth mentioning in the beginning of the pandemic, anybody who raised that question was insulted and shouted down and told to shut up. and there's emerging evidence that many people were coerced. scientists are coming out now, saying i was concerned about it being a manipulated virus but i was told not to discuss it. that is chilling. and we need to make sure that never ever happens again. host: teresa in hayward, california, a democratic caller. caller: good morning, how are you? i'm calling because mr. grogan needs to tell everybody that he was a lobbyist for -- medical before he was plucked by the

trump administration to come to do his job. every time he says i think, it is him purveying a thought. he does not talk about schooling, he does not talk about him being able to make those determinations because that is the medical side. everybody listening to this, do not ask him about health staff because he does not really know what he is talking about. at the same time, he's a glorified purveyor to tried to get congress to buy something from him, so the trump administration picked him up. that is what is going on. host: let's give him a chance to respond. guest: i've had a number of different positions in washington. i've been a civil servant in health and human services, a political appointee in the trump administration and it was a political appointee in the george w. bush administration.

i started my work in public health working with hiv policy. i spent two years at the fda as a special assistant to the commissioner. and i was very privileged to work at biopharmaceutical companies. one out of thousand oaks california, and another where i was at the washington, d.c. office and i worked there for five years. gilead transformed hiv treatment and aids in this country. there are many people alive today because of the research and development of gilead. i am make no apologies for any job i have ever had or the way i have conducted myself in those jobs. i'm proud of the places i worked and the way i performed in them. host: lee republican from new york. caller: i was concerned because dr. fauci is being investigated and they are coming up with

emails. and there was a disturbing video i saw several weeks ago. it was dr. fauci speaking with the nih director. on the upper left-hand corner was the date, 2017. fauci said, people have stopped taking their insulin and flu vaccination, and we have to make it more infectious so that by 2019 there will be a flu epidemic. and around september of 2019, the chinese doctors were concerned about a virus. and around march of 2020, they recognized it as covid-19. now, when you make a vaccine infectious, i do not know how they go about doing it.

incidentally, i saw the video twice in the same day on american news, and it was removed. now they are taking one america news off of directv, revoking their license. so i would like her, -- like your comment. guest: i have to confess, i have not seen that video, nor do i know about it or a conversation between francis collins and dr. fauci about making that infectious. host: let's end with what you are watching for next in the pandemic response? . guest: i would like them to follow the signs, be transparent and figure out an offramp to get americans back to normal life. as i said before, i think that by laser focusing on covid and a number of the shutdown policies put in place, we have created a

bunch of public health problems that were not anticipated, but should have been. the addiction crisis is a crisis of proportions at this point. we need to make it a national priority. the mental health crisis needs to be a priority. our young people need to be in schools and they need to be learning. and i am very worried the administration is not set up to pivot to those issues. and we need more bipartisanship to focus on increased innovation to address our addiction crisis, and prevent it from occurring in the first instance. and addressing our emerging mental health crisis for young people, and for adults who have been affected negatively by not being able to work, losing their jobs, economic incentives put in place not to work, having schools shut down, places of worship shut down.

just because they start to open up again does not mean the trauma goes away. we'll be dealing with this for a long time and the administration, i would hope, should begin to focus on it and reach out to republicans for help and bipartisan solutions for us to move forward. host: thank you for the conversation this morning. we appreciate it. guest: pleasure to be here. host: we will take a break and when we come back we will continue talking about the pandemic and the changing politics. "usa today" opinion columnist james bovard will join us for that conversation and it then we will talk about the border with julian resendiz, correspondent for borderreport.com. we'll be right back. ♪ announcer: tv, every sunday on

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announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is "usa today" opinion columnist james bovard here to talk about the covid-19 response, the testing and politics. talk about the so-called freedom convoys along the u.s.-canada border. what is behind the sentiment and rationale for blockading the trade and traffic? guest: people have to recognize that the government of canada blockaded those people's lives at first. the prime minister was basically trying to throw everybody out of work who refused to get the vaccination and of these people have responded, um, peacefully, mostly. and they are trying to make their point that the governor --

government cannot treat them like adults. and that is a sentiment that used to be widely supported, but for some reason the last couple years people forgot that individuals should have choices in their own lives. host: what do you think is happening at this stage of the pandemic? even blue state governors are saying it is time to lift the mask mandates, that we get to the point where children do not have to wear masks in schools or in public. guest: i have been impressed with how fast science has progressed in the last couple weeks. the politicians have been saying, to follow the signs and data, but they did not tell us it was polling data. that has shown that people have lost patience with these government approaches, which have been command and control,

and have failed to prevent covid. but we must act like the policymakers are wise and sacrosanct. people are fed up with this. people have sacrificed their freedom, in many cases their health, and the politicians misled them. and the bearcats misled them. host: what do you think of the mandates that were put in place for the vaccine? guest: i think that they are a travesty. i think they are a huge a violation of american freedom. if you look at how these mandates are working out, it shows the absurdity of president biden's issuing and mandate for all health care workers to be vaccinated. you know, the problem with these policymakers saying that they are following the science was they have chosen to ignore natural immunity. again, we have had over 70 million people who have gotten covid, almost more than 69

million of them recovered. if you look at other cdc data that said only about one out of four cases are reported or diagnosed, that would be over 150 million americans who have had covid, almost 149 million surviving, but they have ignored natural immunity, the immunity that people have after they have the infection and recover. so with the health care mandate you had tens of thousands of nurses an other health care workers fired becaused they were not willing to get the injection. and there was a shortage of health care workers. so the cdc said it was ok for hospitals to bring in covid infected nurses who had fevers and stuff like that, as long as they had been vaccinated. the vaccine did not work, it did not keep them safe, but it was ok to have them creating -- it's like the politicians want people

to see vaccines as a holy water. and as long as it is not splashed around, it does not matter if people get sick. host: what should have been done then, if you disagree with mandating vaccines? guest: basic honesty would have been great the entire pandemic. you had president trump, president biden, both making false statements. a lo of the troublet goes back to the fda -- lot of trouble goes back to the fda, whose motto has been we have nothing to hide for more than 75 years. the fda rushed through pfizer's vaccine application and are have been lawsuits trying to get access to the data that these admitted to the fda. the fda has said it will take them 75 years to fully release the information that they used

to rush through the authorization of the vaccine. this is a joke. but there are so many jokes at every level in the pandemic. for instance, some might be offended by this, but i want to make it clear that following the california covid safety guidelines -- the nfc playoffs a couple weeks ago, governor newsom was there. he's had one of the most strictest mandates in the country, kids have to wear them around the clock, indoor places you have got to have them. but governor newsom and the mayors were photographed not wearing masks at the football game, so governor newsom was challenged with it afterwards and he said it was not a problem because i had my face mask in my hand. he did not give us studies that show masks in your hand prevent

covid transmission, but this is a standard of evidence, the standard of nonsense that politicians have been getting away with. host: we want to take your calls and thoughts on the politics of the pandemic response from the federal government over the last two years. our guest is "usa today" opinion columnist james bovard discusses sing the issue with us today. you can text us at 202-748-8003. testing is something you have been critical about. the biden administration and trump administration. you wrote in one of your pieces, "at the start of the pandemic in 2020, president trump ludicrously proclaimed that anybody who wants a test, can get a test. that was baloney.

despite promises in the meantime, it is still malarkey today. germany permits sales of more than 60 tests. germans can purchase tests for a dollar, while many americans cannot find or purchase a test at any price. " what happened? guest: the fda blocked the development and sales of the rapid diagnos tests in this country. it was a good example of the failure of the command and control in the entire pandemic. i got a call from my dermatologist, he said, ok, you have got to have a negative covid test before coming in. and i say, where my supposed to get a negative covid test? he said, the postal service will be sending them. that is great, i have an appointment in three days and i will trust the postal service? the county government was proud

to be passing out free covid tests, so i went down to the public library and i thought i would step in, stepped out, but it turned out that there was a line wrapping twice around the corners of the building. it was a bitter cold day on a friday afternoon and you had all of these people waiting in line to get a free covid test. and it was something that brought the memory from when i would travel to the east bloc and see long lines of east germans waiting to get there rations -- their rations. what struck me was the people in line had no idea that they were stuck in line, squeezing through a small room to get there covid test with a bunch of other people who might be contagious. people did not realize that the reason that they could not go to cvs to buy a test for a dollar was because of the fda, which

was located a few miles away from where they were waiting in line. there have been summoning government failures and snafus, and the politicians have not been held to account at all. and it is like although these false statements -- all these false statements have been swept under the rug. there has been so much collateral damage from the pandemic. i mean, the attorney general bill barr, he had a great line about the effect of the lockdowns. he said it was comparable to the big as a violation of civil liberties since the end of slavery. people should not forget the businesses and lives destroyed in 2020 when politicians shut down everything, promising they would achieve zero covid. 70 billion plus cases later, zero covid and they destroyed all that. host: thomas from texas, an

independent, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. you said you had to stand in line for hours, now you know how it feels when we have to vote like that. you have a blockade in canada, don't you know there is food and groceries on those trucks? is somebody going to pay the farmers or stores? as far as the masks in schools. we have had thousands of school shootings. parents and show up for that. when it comes to the masks they do. host: your response? guest: it is understandable that parents are raising holy hell about these mask mandates in schools. it is amazing to see how the teachers unions have come out as basically enemies of parents, not enemies of the kids, by

insisting -- in california, the unions were insisting that the kids get vaccinated by the teacher didn't have to. and, you know, this is -- um, there has been such a huge loss in educational opportunities the last couple opportunities. but it has woken a lot of people up that they cannot trust the political system. there has been an increase in homeschooling good maybe that is the only solution. host: sheldon, new york, democratic caller. caller: a lot of things that james bovard said i would take issue with, but the reason for the mandate is to prevent the

proliferation of mutations. the only way you can do that is to have as many people as possible vaccinated. any gaps permit mutations to arise. that is the problem. mr. bovard and other anti-vax mandate or's do not have any other answer. guest: i am not anti-vax. i am anti-mandate, but the judgment makes a point about the danger of variants. , but a leaky vaccine, the promise is to prevent the virus,

but it fails. it is a great example about how the bureaucratic current gaps have proliferated because biden bet his presidency on the efficacy of those vaccines, but the cdc stopped counting right through infections, that is infections that occurred after people had had both shots. it was like the cdc intentionally unfolded americans to how these vaccines were performing, not as effective as the cdc said in july, biden promised if people got the vaccine, they would not get covid. that was bs. then you had the cdc admit there are breakthrough infections. now, and a number of states, you

have had more people dying of covid who are fully vaccinated than unvaccinated. yet, you still have politicians acting like vaccine salesman and pretending the vaccines will be potassium to keep -- panacea to keep everyone safe. host: virginia, miriam, a republican. caller: i will be quick. i was not an anti-vaxxer. i went a year ago to get my vaccination. i had a severe reaction. they had to put two fb pens in the, three shots of benadryl and sent me to the hospital. i was told i could not take my second shot. i wanted to get the vaccination, had an adverse reaction, but on

my shot card, i am not a complete person. anti-vaxxers are against me because i was willing to take the vaccine and the factors -- vaxxers say i have not fulfilled my duty. i think all of the misinformation starting fire chief saying masks do not work early on has created a cloud of mistrust. i agree with everything that your person on the show today has been saying. i do not think we are getting the truth there. host: we will take your point. guest: i am sorry you had the adverse reaction. there have been a a lot of people who have had adverse reactions.

a fundamental question is someone has had the virus and recovered, they have natural immunity. it does not make sense to force them to get the shot. there have been a number of studies that have showed that people who had covid and recovered have better protection than people who have gotten vaccines. yet, you have policy makers who have chosen to ignore natural immunity. it was clear early on that biden kept talking about the number of shots in arms. " we have had 100 million shots." it sounded like the soviet union bringing about steel output, but it was not any good measure. the fda and cdc do not seem interested in facts which would

undercut the official narrative. host: what about her comments about distrust. take a look at this poll by ap. 48% have a great deal of confidence in the scientific community. a 30 point gap since 2018. federal izzys -- guest: federal agencies have made a lot of calls and statements. the cdc started out by sending out misleading tests to diagnose covid. you have had the fda stonewalling tests that would have been widely available, would have saved a lot of lives, especially with omicron, because people could not find tests. biden was warned repeatedly but

chose to ignore the warnings. there is a huge question as far as where did this buyers come from? you have folks like dr. fauci covering up any investigation into whether it came from a lab. instead, you have it was a fluke of nature. there are lot of federal records on the virus and the response which i think would be incriminating to quite a few officials. host: judy, baltimore, democratic caller. caller: i wanted to say that this was always a new virus. i thought dr. fauci has been amazing throughout. if you listen carefully, he pretty much always said based on

the information i have in front of me now, this is what i am saying. this may change. i hear that mosque, and all the time, that he said masks do not work. what i heard was we need to reserve masks for hospitals and health care workers. my husband, who is a hyper heart react -- hypochondriac, purchased his own n95's right away. i was hearing they were reserving masks for health workers. throughout this pandemic, people have been volatile. i do not understand it. i do not understand what the big deal is about wearing a mask, unless you are asthmatic or where glasses, but sometimes i forget to take might mask off when i get in diving car. it is not that big of a deal. little kids are going to have

trouble wearing it. i do not like the comment about teachers. it was that teachers do not care about children. teachers are there because they care. everybody needs to take everything down a notch and not used such volatile language. working through this. we are fighting each other peers that each other. . we should be fighting this virus. there are going to be missteps. guest: the caller is from baltimore. i wonder if she works for cdc or some other agency. she is talking about dr. fauci's credibility. he made false statements about that wuhan lab in congressional testimony. rand paul has talked about investigating him for perjury.

the caller sent to take it down a notch. it was the bureaucrats who destroyed everybody's freedom. for people defending politicians, there are bureaucrats saying private citizens should take it down a notch, you should have but about that before you destroyed freedom. as far as the idea that mosques are not that big of a problem, i have only had one day i had to wear a mask the entire day. that was when i was in court for jury selection. it was a farce. you have the government pouring all this money to improve ventilation systems to decrease risk. 100 people stepped in a courtroom, almost no ventilation. at the start of the day, the judge said, is there anyone here

who might have trouble trusting the testimony of police? i raised my hand. i have written about how montgomery county covered up a brutal killing for usa today. i still had to sit there for 8 hours wearing a mask. host: steve, san jose, california, republican. caller: there is so many questions and so little time. i have been skeptical of dr. fauci from the beginning. why was he doing research and funding the will hand lab? -- wuhan lab? they are enemies, want to destroy the united states.

they are shipping fentanyl precursors into mexico. dr. fauci is no good. may pose a question. -- let me pose a qustion. we should switch our concern about the mrna vaccine destroying our immune system. there has been no talk about this. israel has some of the highest vaccine rates in the world. yet, they are having a lot of big time problems with deaths. host: james bovard? guest: fauci is interesting. it is fascinating how the media

turns him into a saint. fauci a few months ago was hissy. he said if someone criticizes me, they are attacking science, because i am science incarnate. this question on the data for the vaccine is you have fauci and others pushing for vaccines for kids under the age of five. the fda had some data. it showed that two trucks failed to give protection -- two shots failed to give protection, but the fda appears to be moving forward based on the idea that they will add a third shot. they have no data on safety.

yet, they are rubberstamping these vaccines. the pattern is that kids have a very high survival rate from covid. yet, we have no idea how much long-term damage these vaccines might have for somebody younger. there are stories about how it destroys menstrual cycles. they say, it is only a few days difference in your cycle, but what else is it doing? if it is throwing in that wrench, what others are going to find? host: pennsylvania, raymond, independent. caller: mr. bovard, i want to congratulate you. it is wonderful to hear someone speak the truth as opposed to some kind of political agenda.

my question is, what is the latest information that we have on the fact of how many americans died of covid as opposed to those who died with covid? i cannot find any information. guest: excellent question. i think the government govern the government numbers are saying 900,000 covid deaths. you had the cdc chief saying a lot of those are people who died with covid but not from covid, but this is typical about how these numbers are often bogus. it is almost as if the government did not want accurate data, but they do not get accurate data for a lot of things. there are so many fundamental

questions. as far as the health data, a number of important combinations -- countries like britain and israel have much better data as far as exposure. something the media does not report is that a number of states in the u.s. have had more fatalities among the fully vaccinated then among the unvaccinated. but you have biden saying it is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. this is bs. host: "usa today" opinion columnist, james bovard, thanks for the conversation. we will take a break. when we come back, and on the ground update on the situation along the u.s.-mexico border. we will talk with julian resendiz. ♪

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shop anytime at c-span -- this is continued migration from central america. we have seen a spike in haitian families coming to the border, as well as a love of mexican families. they come either to the mexican side or crossing the american side. host: what is the apprehension rate? guest: -- the rio grande valley is always number one, followed by the rio center close to south

texas. it has two do with migrant routes. south texas is the shortest from guatemala. el paso is prone to migration from mexico primarily. host: what is happening -- are these people coming into the border, are they turning themselves in and claiming asylum? or are they trying to sneak across the border? guest: the situation varies. in south texas, a lot are giving themselves up and requesting asylum. here in el paso, we have in lot of single adults trying to avoid capture and get in to the country. whenever they are apprehended in el paso, most likely, it will be

returned to mexico by public health order. we will try to cross again. host: that cdc title 42 health order reads because of the 1944 law that allows the government to bar noncitizens for health reasons. the health reasons being now the pandemic, correct? guest: correct. the order has been extended through at least april. host: for those that are apprehended. , how quickly are they deported? are they deported back to their home country? guest: here in el paso, the return rate is fast. once an individual is apprehended, the expulsion typically happens quickly, sometimes within hours.

it is coming to have flights from el paso to originating countries. -- they are infrequent. host: they are mostly going back to mexico? guest: mostly. very often, they attempted to cross again. host: how many times? guest: some migrants from the mexican side where the migrants look for refuge after being expelled. some have told me they have attempted crossing up to 10 times. host: and being caught the majority of those times? guest: that is correct. being sent back to mexico, chilling for a day or two, and

trying again. host: i want to play a least a phonic talking -- elise stefanik talking about the biden administration's policy on the southern border and saying it is causing a fentanyl crisis. >> host republicans are here to discuss the fentanyl crisis, which open border policies and soft on crime agenda has worsened. drug overdoses due to fentanyl are now the leading cause of death or americans 18-25. in f -- fy21, over 11,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized. this is killing our children. as a new mother, this loss of life is unconscionable.

every day, we are abusing lights to fentanyl well house democrats look the other way. just last week, speaker pelosi and others showed they were not serious about this when they locked our legislation that would permanently classify fentanyl as a schedule one drug. we are demanding that speaker pelosi and other democrats take immediate and permanent action to stop this crisis. this starts by securing our border and empowering law-enforcement officers by ensuring they have the tools they need to keep these drugs off the streets. host: is there a crisis at the border? guest: that depends on who you talk to. most of the drugs in apostle are seized at ports of entry. -- in el paso

there are -- in between parts of and bite people who enter illegally, the majority are seized at ports of entry. we have the migration races and the drug cartel crisis. just yesterday, i wrote that mexican police as they were looking for drugs and weapons along the border, fentanyl is a cost-effective method that cartels have turned to in the past couple of years. that is one reason you have increased trafficking of fentanyl into the u.s. host: what is cost effective about it? guest: drugs such as heroin require time to grow. synthetic drugs can be

manufactured in a lab 24/7 as long as you have the chemicals. host: who is doing the producing? guest: it is happening in asia, coming to mexico, imported into the u.s. because of drug cartels. in some cases, they put it together in labs in mexico and bring it to the u.s. host: how are they getting across the border? what mechanisms are they using? guest: synthetic drugs are easy to carry and seal. -- ocnce -- conceal. with fentanyl, we are talking about pills. a person can carry a couple of

pounds of fentanyl and he crosses the border. host: how do they conceal it? guest: sometimes they carry it on their person, sometimes in their car, a glove compartment or a hidden compartment. some seizures have been both ways -- concealed in a person's body or clothing or in a vehicle. host: we have seen on the journal when we visited the order that homeland security has dogs that can sniff for drugs. they have got cars, trucks that pass to sensors that allow them to scan x-ray machines. are those types of tools working to catch fentanyl? guest: those tools are being used.

i am a frequent border concert myself. it is infrequent that i get pulled over for secondary inspection, which is -- host: you are a frequent crosser. what do you have to show to get across? guest: my u.s. passport. seldom am i referred for more in-depth screening. it is a quick process. host: describe what it is like if you are apprehended and then while you are waiting to see if your claim of a silent -- of asylum will be approved, what is

it like for those people? or do they go? do they stay in el paso? guest: we have a processing center here. it is a fairly recent facility. they have a reception area, a screening area. they interview the person or the family, classify them. typically, the weight in that detention center, processing center for a number of days until they are either issued a notice to appear and released to one of the community groups or sent to a detention center. host: i think we just lost your

volume, what were you saying at the end? try again. could you try again to answer the question? guest: i could not hear the question, i was having trouble hearing. host: we were talking about the border crossing. i wanted you to finish your thought. we could not hear you at the end. guest: there are processing centers, one was here in el paso . families and individuals who are qualifying are sent to be processed. after that they are released into the community. we have a detention center here in el paso. we have another center in new mexico, about an hour away. host: let's listen to homeland secretaries -- homeland

secretary mayorkas talk about the guidelines with immigration agents. sec. mayorkas: i issued new immigration enforcement guidelines. in most guidelines -- those guidelines i articulated what i thought was an important principle. we would not dedicate our resources to apprehend individuals who have been here in this country for many years, who have been contributing members of our communities. unlawful presence in the united states alone will not be a basis for immigration. rather, we will ask for kate -- allocate our resources on those individuals who present a public current safety threat. the threat to national security,

or a threat to our border security. that is a very important principle. [applause] it is not just a matter of the appropriate allocation of limited resources. it is a matter of justice and integrity as well. host: what should border agents, immigration officials tell you about the resources they need at the border? guest: i think we are talking about different things. it is the arrival of citizens from central america and from the interior of mexico. it is to be 11-12 undocumented immigrants already in the united

states. these are people in the country without authorization or up to a couple of decades. that is what you was referring to in his soundbite right there. removing people who have been here for a long time. when he was talking about is those who have committed crimes. host: to my question then, what are border agents telling you about the resources that they need in order to reduce illegal immigration? he was here accompanying a political figure. they want to do the jobs they were hired to do.

to apprehend and remove people who come into the country illegally. they also want more technology. they are needed at the ports of entry. we are talking about technology at the border. we are speaking about drug sniffing dogs a while ago. now there is some technology where they have robots that could do some of the same jobs drug sniffing dogs could do through technology. through a person, vehicle that is carrying drugs. host: what about the wall? what do border agents tell you about the wall? guest: the border wall here in the sector and other parts of the country, what border control agents have told me, the border

wall is a tool that allows them to manage illegal border crossings. when there is a physical barrier or take some time to go to the other side of the wall. that allows them to help the individual. as bopp -- as far as the border wall being a tool, it is one of the tools that they use. host: you could follow his reporting if you go to borderreport.com we want to thank you for the update from el paso, texas this morning. we appreciate it. guest: my pleasure, thank you. host: we will go to open forum where you could talk about any public policy issue that is on your mind this morning. talking about pandemic responses. the economy, which is making the

front pages of the newspaper this morning with record inflation. all of that is on the table this morning. start dialing in. stan in connecticut, a democratic caller. good morning. caller: thank you for listening. host: go ahead. caller: i think may or just -- sec. mayorkas is misleading the public. i'm a democrat for decades and i have lost interest in the party. we cannot have an administration who openly violates federal law. just in connecticut we had four high school students overdose on fentanyl. two died, one was 13. this administration and our state senators do not want to address it. we call them, we talk to them, they do not return calls.

sentinel -- fentanyl is killing americans. i believe in migration. my family came from poland and came from italy. we are in the land of opportunity. not criminality. the client at the border, we have to have mandates on masks, our kids have to have mandates on mass. police, fire, schoolteacher have to have vaccinations. these people that come across the border illegally do not have to? a plane just landed last week in westchester airport at 2:00 in the morning. no identification on them. i can't fly a plane without having identification. i cannot go places without a past work. we are now having our country divided.

host: understood, we will go to james in wisconsin. caller: good morning. i like to comment on illegal immigration. the biden administration has totally made america more vulnerable to attacks, covid-19 and other problems. they live right out front to what they are doing. they are not doing nothing. they are bringing people across the border and letting them run all over the usa. it is simple why they are doing that. they want them to be voting for democrats in the coming election. there is nothing that by the administration does that america believed. take it from the information at the border, the use of covid-19

as an election tool. the departure, it is an embarrassment to this country. host: we are an open forum, what the policy on your mind? caller: you have not had anybody on your condone from take the babies from parents down at the border. you constantly bring people to talk about these people along the border. you did all the talking. thank you. have a good day. host: ray in michigan, republican. caller: how are you? i want to talk to you about the border crossing.

i have to show proper identification, passport to get into mexico. seeing how the government does not like to protect the united states anymore, why don't we hold mexico accountable for all the people they are letting their country to get to us? we are protected on our northern border. we have to show identification to get into canada. why doesn't work the same way with mexico? canada protects us. why doesn't mexico do something? host: front page of the newspaper this morning, inflation rate hit 40 year record. the wall street journal this morning on this same story,

average monthly price squeeze, $276. the average u.s. household is begging an additional 276 dollars a month because inflation is rising at a fastest rate in 40 years. included cars, gasoline, furniture, groceries. the related headline is the federal reserve weighs a larger rate rays as early as march. if you're interested in those stories, "wall street journal." caller: good morning. i was shocked to see you have somebody on here that addresses the border situation. very short amount of time given to him. it would be much better to get -- i believe the gentleman's name is art acevedo, the border

patrol spokesperson. the guys in the trenches, so to speak. surprised to hear him bring up the law, which he did not until he was specifically asked about it. he made the comment about how they are putting holding facilities there in that area. you never brought up everything going out for multiple states privately. i don't begin anybody in america is really against immigration. it is illegal immigration. you cannot fix one problem with one aspect. yes, we need the wall, we need high-tech. a good combination of stuff. it totally shocks me that we put more emphasis on the ukrainian border then we do our own border. host: sylvia in virginia, a

republican. caller: thank you for having me. we had a trucker that lives near us. they had to part the 18 wheeler in a farm, bulky he and his wife had covid, they would not let her get out of the truck. he died. it was really sad. unless you have someone close to you that died, you don't really realize the impact of what you need to do and be vaccinated with covid. thank you. host: president biden sat down with lester holt yesterday. it will air on super bowl sunday. nbc releasing clips of it last night. one of them of the discussion lester holt had with the president about governors in blue states giving up on mass mandates.

here is conversation. >> in recent days we have seen numerous governors from blue states rollback indoor vast requirements. dispensed -- essentially getting ahead of the federal government. all those governors wrong? president biden: the science is saying now that masks work, masks take a different. i think there is only one governor drawn back immediately. most are somewhere in the end of february, march, they will set a time limit. i assume it has something to do and whether the omicron variant continues to drive. the relationship between the number of cases you have in your community and leading to wear masks. >> leaders bound to be political? president biden: omicron and all the variants have affected the psyche of the american people. >> are you afraid some people

are -- some cities are moving too quickly? president biden: i committed that i would follow the science. the science has put forward by the cdc. i think it is probably premature but it is a tough call. host: jerry in huntington beach, california, democratic caller. caller: ukraine. it looks like we are going ahead and getting involved in another war. these things putin is asking for seeing very reasonable to me. he wants -- does not want ukraine to have weapons in his backyard from nato. when all it is said and done,

when they love ukraine and we fire back with our weapons, it will be like when he says your point, their village. we cannot seem to stop this potential war nonsense we get involved and, in this country. host: u.k. prime minister boris johnson with the nato secretary-general held a news conference yesterday. you can find it on our website, c-span.org. caller: good morning, thank you. i would like to address illegal immigration. i do not believe any politician or the media have addressed the why illegal immigration is happening? this has been going on for decades. i offer quick points right here.

one, all of these people coming into the country illegal. likely excess labor from those countries. the last thing we need or wanted in central america or mexico is a revolution. excess people from those countries is easier than spending money to stop revolutions in these countries. the second point is labor. many of them are going into driving and the cost of labor. the last point, i will make it quick is our annual rate is replacement. most years it has been a negative annual growth rate. you limo immigration -- illegal

immigration is necessary to extend the population. they have been lying for the past 40 or 50 years. host: on the northern border, that freedom convoy taking place today the bridges that connect united states and canada. the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau faced questions about the so-called freedom convoy in his parliament earlier this week. >> mr. speaker, we recognize this for over a week. this siege is unacceptable. the impact on small businesses. on the supply chain, it is ongoing.

we have to do everything we can together at every level of government to edit. what would really help is for the conservative party to tell it supporters to stop blocking our economy and go home. host: canadian prime minister speaking in french with english translation. what is on your mind? caller: thanks for taking my call. i have two comments. i'm about ready to cry. i can't believe how are country has changed. i believe people have a right to speak out peacefully when things are wrong. wrong is right, right is wrong. the one thing that is really serious is we are being told to follow science. the people who have to have the

science, the doctors who treat people, the scientist to study it, other people who are actually doing it, not just in the university, these people are being told to shut up. they are doing things that they believe are right. i listen to a woman that called in today who said as she had gotten the vaccine -- the people that like vaccines, the people that don't like vaccines. i'm not anti-that -- anti-vaccine but the woman has a right to be accepted no matter what she does. telling people they can't feed their children, have a job, there is something very wrong. i hope we could come together. i pray for our country. host: in cleveland, democratically -- democratic caller. caller: i just wanted to say

this. i miss president trump, first of all. he was the best leader we ever had. everyone looked up to him. joe biden, i don't know he is coming are going. if i had a wife, older children, and they said dad, husband, you should run for president, you need to take it easy. all the trouble he has caused. he is worried about canada. our of the ships is still out there in california? they can't unload? we have nothing, the federal trade wants to up the interest rate. who's paying for all these illegals coming over here.

i feel i was born and raised in the usa. i shouldn't have to give up any of my hard-earned money to the government to give it away on illegals. caller: the call on immigration, the u.s. policies in the past -- i believe in the legal immigration. i think a lot of this with the pandemic, he is the cause of what we are experiencing with inflation. i think people follow the science, we would probably be out of this pandemic. people are so worried about their personal freedom, we

forget about other people's freedoms. i cannot comprehend this mindset . we are the united states of america, not the separate states of america. we seem to have forgotten that. i cannot comprehend. a lot of talk about the border and immigration, some of the stuff does not make any sense to me. host: thanks for calling in. george in georgia, republican, good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: i'm well. caller: i look talk about the economy. when you go to walmart you pay

all of its costs including its corporate tax. the first thing biden did was doubled the corporate tax. when you buy from walmart, you pay their corporate tax. that is a part of the drive. every company in this company is passing inflation down to its consumer. corporate tax is just a sneaky federal income tax. i don't know why politicians is not talking about what is really yours. caller: two things.

the one in mexico, i don't know if you seen border control but a lot of drugs come in that way. the canadian border, i live on the canadian border. that the bridge you see on tv, our expressways are backed up 18 miles. it is people sitting on the other side in canada blocking the bridges. the bridge in detroit has been closed for a week. this is affecting our home, our town where we live. this has to stop. host: what you think the solution is? caller: i don't know. if you live in this little town and you have trucks backed up 18 miles on what expressway as far as the eye could see, we can't get to and from the expressway.

we just want to go home. host: you're saying it is just the canadians doing this? caller: yes, they have it blocked on their side. it is all over vaccine mandates. they are supposed to get back to canada. the same people that are doing the same people -- it is over vaccine mandates. host: an independent in maryland, good morning to you. caller: thanks for c-span.

i have in this country the last 25 years. i believe the immigration in this country is a cause of the politics. they are not able to find a job. a taxi driver, maybe after five or six years of college. host: wayne, a republican, we will go to you. caller: thank you for taking my call. there are so many bad things, i

feel like china has the white house in their back pocket. hello, thank you for taking my call. host: we hurt you, we will leave it there and let you know what is happening in washington today. the atlantic council is holding an event on russia and ukraine. you could get the free c-span radio app. that is happening in washington today. that does it for today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> as tensions along the russia and ukraine border remain high concerns that this could cause new affect and a migration crisis in europe. the atlantic council will hear about that today at 12: 30 p.m. eastern on c-span, online on c-span.org or you could watch full coverage on c-span now. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. sponsored by these television companies and more. >> cox is committed to providing affordable internet. cox, bringing us closer. >> cox support c-span as a

public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> either through official processes or by force, aaron thompson at the city university of new york and author of "smashing statues." talks about monuments and current debates over what to be taken down. >> after the death of george floyd, millions of americans march to protest racial disparities, black lives matter, often these rallies focus on monuments. meeting points for showing who was honored in america, whose lives matter.

>> erin thompson with her book "smashing statues." you could listen to "q&a." on our c-span radio app. >> reporter: the senate commerce committee -- >> the senate commerce committee heard the confirmation of -- this was the second hearing before the end of last year. questions were raised about her involvement in a streaming service call lowcast. this would give democrats a 3-2 majority at the apices. . >> good morning. we are here today to consider the nomination to be

commissioner of the federal communications commission. thank you for appearing again before the committee. and for your continued commitment to serve. many members over member has already appeared before the committee she hasn't graciously come back to answer questions and communicate with members. i think it shows the kind of transparent and open process that she would have as commissioner of the scc. it is a step most people would not do. but i think it speaks highly of her and the weight she believes in conducting herself. thank you very much for that. i want to also thank members for again addressing these issues. we all know their important issues there the commission is