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tv   Washington Journal Open Phones  CSPAN  March 12, 2022 11:52am-12:22pm EST

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with her book "the second: race and guns in unequal america." and david johnston, author of "the big cheat." at 10:00 p.m. eastern, lauren hubbard, chair of the george bush council of economic advisors talked about his book "the wall and the bridge." he argues government needs to invest more to offset job losses due to technology advances and globalization. he is interviewed by former international monetary fund chief economist kenneth rogoff. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. -- booktv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and we are
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going back to our opening question. we want to know from you, what are your greatest concerns about the russia-ukraine conflict? we are going to open up our regular lines. that means democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, your line is (202) 748-8001. independents, you can call (202) 748-8002. remember, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always reading on social media, come on twitter and facebook. before we get to your calls i want to get back to a little bit where we were talking about earlier with daniel gerstein earlier from the rand corporation. there is a story from cbs news that talks about what is going on with the chernobyl nuclear power plant. i want to bring you that story before we get to our calls. ukraine claimed on friday that
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russian president vladimir putin had ordered the preparation of a terrorist attack on the chernobyl nuclear power plant. the main electric supply to the plant, site of the 1986 explosion and meltdown data traumatized to the world, was cut off on wednesday, with ukrainian authorities blaming russia's invading forces for the blackout and warning that it could lead to nuclear discharge. a ukrainian national emergency services agency said if power to the plants cooling systems -- which keeps spent nuclear fuel safely surrounded by water -- is not insured, it could create a radioactive cloud that would blow over other regions of ukraine, belarus, russia, and europe. belarus, russia, and europe. the u.n.-backed global watchdog agency, the iaea, downplayed concerns of an eminent radioactive release, saying the
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spent fuel was old enough and there was enough water around it in the cooling tanks to prevent a disaster, even without power. the iaea in ukrainian officials said backup diesel generators at the site would also be able to keep vital systems running for two to three days. on thursday russia claimed the power supply cable had then restored by a team of engineers who crossed into ukraine from belarus. but the iaea and ukrainian officials said work to repair the line was ongoing. once again, this comes from cbs news, and their story was ukraine saying russia's prudent ordered a terrorist attack on chernobyl's nuclear plant. what are your top concerns about the russia-ukraine conflict? let's start with donald, who was calling from rome, texas on the democrat line. donald, good morning. caller: yes. host: donald, caller: are you
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there? caller:i am here. host: go ahead, donald. caller: my concern is this, that putin is not going to stop at ukraine. i think that he will go on into poland, and i really think that we as a nation should go ahead and take him out. we have the capability to do that. i think that we need to go ahead and go ahead and take him out. host: all right, let's go to james, who is calling from corvallis, oregon on the republican line. james, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, sir. host: go ahead, james.
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caller: i have a couple of concerns. the first one dealt with what you will -- you were talking about for this segment. a chemical/biological warfare. hello? host: you are still on james, go ahead. caller: i graduated from the united states army chemical school. i spent 15 years in the united states army chemical corps. and i found it quite interesting earlier this week when the undersecretary of the united states spoke out and said united states has chemical bio labs in ukraine. why does the united states have bio labs in ukraine? host: all right, let's go to scotty, who is calling from eden, north carolina. scotty, good morning.
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caller: my concern is, how anybody can have some kind of dealings with -- with the president of russia. and he has got to do with war crimes and all of that stuff, and i don't think he is going to stop there. i think he is going to mess with nato, and that is when a nuclear war will be going on. and you can't deal with russia, because -- i don't know what to say, but -- host: all right, let's go to carol, who is calling from livermore, california on the democrat line. carol, good morning. caller: yes, can you hear me?
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host: we can, go ahead, carol. caller: first of all i think the main concern with, maybe putin does not want to start in nuclear war, but he does not mind retaliating. and he is pushing and pushing and pushing, he is daring somebody to stop him. and he doesn't have to stop because he says he is not going to stop. so what are we supposed to do, just keep gearing up and keep doing sanctions? then another thousand people over there to join the thousand people that are already there in poland and just keep sending personnel over little by little and dribbling it in and not be able to do the job of a serious strike? you know, somebody just said to take him out, but that is not necessarily an option. maybe it is, let him do what he wants to do, just get all of the
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ukrainian people out of there, that them get hosted, get them fostered in the rest of the country. let us fostered them. they might want to still live in ukraine. they want to still be ukrainians, but it is already, like, ruined for them. have to live there, whatever happens good or bad. it's not going to be a good place to live there, under putin or after putin. and so is it selfish for ukraine , for the country of ukraine to insist on resisting, because they know this monster is not going to stop and it is just like sending bodies in to be killed? instead why don't they just give him up? instead of involving the whole world to take a stand against putin. and we know who he is.
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we know who putin is. he has always been the same. he always portray him the same way. we are calling him a war criminal now and we are going to investigate him for being a war criminal. we had trump in the white house for four years. we had trump having two russians in the oval office having a private meeting with nobody around. it's like, who knows what does trump do. we know what he did in public for putin, kissing his butt. host: the washington post did a fact-check on the russian propaganda over the u.s. having bioweapon labs in ukraine and i want to bring a couple of paragraphs from their fact-check that explains what the united states was doing in ukraine so we can get specific information. this, once again, is from the "washington post." here are the specs of truth russian officials
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are using to spread propaganda. the labs were funded by the pentagon's defense threat reduction agency as part of its cooperative or logical engagement program. and the labs do study african swine fever, but with the aim of preventing its spread. at a 2017 conference hosted by the dtra, for instance, a ukrainian official outlined laboratory efforts at improving the diagnosis, surveillance, and prevention of african swine fever in wild boar populations. another official discussed how ukrainian scientists had implemented a program to monitor certain soft takes, which transmit the disease. then a third official presented on efforts to trace tularemia and anthrax in animals such as wellbores. all of those efforts are in line with a statement posted on the website of the u.s. embassy in ukraine -- that the program
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helps ensure ukraine can detect and report out rates caused by dangerous pathogens. the united states in ukraine in 2005 had signed an agreement under the department of defense at no cost to ukraine would assist the ministry of health and making sure that ukrainian labs studying diseases could not used develop -- to develop biological weapons and in better detecting, diagnosing, and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks. the united states has invested approximately $200 million in ukraine since 2005, supporting 46 ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites. the russian charges are unfounded, wrote biological threat expert philippa lentzos. last week a group of experts, including this author, visited the lugar center, by invitation of the georgian government.
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we were given access to all areas of the site, and interviewed staff, and concluded that the center demonstrates significant transparency. our group observed nothing out of the ordinary or that we would not expect to see in a legitimate facility. nevertheless, despite the constant debunking, the russian propaganda that the united states has bioweapon labs in ukraine has taken root, especially on the right, with the invasion of ukraine commence. once again, that was a fact-check from the washington post on the russian propaganda that the u.s. has bio labs in ukraine. let's go to washington, d.c., democrat line. anthony, good morning. caller: yes, sir. wow, yeah. i am glad you picked me up. this is anthony.
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i don't believe that russians have no evidence. but be that as it may, what i am trying to point out in my phone calls, saying what you see about it. first, we have to remember russia's only 100 miles away from the united states. two, what actually are we doing? i know russia had the of attacking us. it would be before 10 became the president, he was at ap press club, and said something very strange. don't forget, america, that we know your military is mightier than ours, but we can pick off four or five of your cities. and my city was one of them. i am not worried because i know we can protect ourselves. what i am worried about, being a democrat, we need to stand up to
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putin. even if we do not go inside the country itself, we need to have all europe heavily, heavily, heavily prepared for whatever putin might decide to do. i know he is nothing but a little boy, sorry to say, but i am sure he will back off if he sees strength. host: let's go to raymond, calling from burlington, vermont on the independent line. raymond, good morning. raymond, are you there? caller: yes, can you hear me? host: yes, go ahead. caller: what we have to do here, there's two things i want to bring people attention stew. the fact that fort dietrich is well documented, which is right up the street, basically, from washington, d.c., as doing bio research for years. it's well-documented that they did do bio weapons research up
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until the 1970's. some of the stuff is still buried out there. the second point, i am asking the audience to look at the labs under you -- under ukraine, and to google gain of function research. that's experimenting with these viruses to see exactly what they do and how they are doing it. even enhancing the viruses to make them available to see what would happen if an attack were to happen. the fact that no one's been watching this and this is so far away in you rain, what's even scarier, some of this has been done in our own backyards, suburban d.c. and other places. it's a cause for concern. though google data function research and the ukraine lab that is set up by front
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companies, and open your eyes as to what is actually going on and the fact that this is being done, even before the war. in a very urbanized area such as the ukraine and eastern europe by both sides. it is scary as heck. host: let's go to tyrone, calling from carthage, illinois on the republican line good morning. caller: good morning. it's great to have a show like this, where people can voice their opinions about what's happening in the world. i would like to see more information on the war crime, what they are going to do about it as far as, are we going to go after prudent before or do we have to wait until the war is over? what kind of tactics are we going to use there? the other thing i am very concerned about, our president not saying more about what our
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offense is against them and what we can do to put the american people more at ease. that's really all i have. thank you so much. host: before we get our next caller, i want to bring a couple of rogue ramming the you. on monday, the un security council will receive a briefing from poland's foreign minister, and the discussions will likely be focused around russia's invasion of ukraine. watch live here on c-span at 10:00 a.m. eastern you can watch it on c-span, online at c-span.org, or watch full coverage on the new c-span video app, c-span now. directly following that on monday at 11:00 a.m., there will be discussion on cyber attacks by russia during the ukraine invasion. that will be a discussion with
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senator mark warner, and -- the chair of the senate intelligence committee, and others. you will be able to watch that at 11:00 a.m. monday, eastern time on c-span two. you can watch it online at c-span.org and watch it at all times on our free c-span video app, c-span now. let's go back to our phone lines and talked to james, calling from central florida on the democrat line. james, good morning. caller: good morning, jesse, how are you doing? host: i'm fine, go ahead, james. caller: i am glad your staff pulled up that information about the chemical warfare somebody called about, the lab in ukraine you just mentioned in 2018, they
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had specialists going and they are terrified that there is a chemical weapon, biological or anything like that. you have a great staff that is working with you to respond to the individual that called in. i appreciate what you guys do. host: let's go to kenny, calling from byron, georgia on the independent line. good morning. caller: yeah. as you watch the conflict unfold, you will see people killing each other. i feel sad about my grandkids, and it makes you wonder about human rights. if we don't evolve to support peace in the world, we will be the planet of the apes. thank you. host: let's go to frank in florida, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are
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you? host: i'm fine. go ahead, frank. caller: i am a retiree, a veteran of the u.s. army, and i will say one thing first of all -- history will repeat it though. just like history teacher was talking about, russia, earlier in the program, russia and china are now allies. they have been on this planet for 4000, 5000 years and they have always been known to be very --. china had numerous wars against one another, the russians have always been very oppressive to their population, and i'm trying to tell you that we better watch ourselves, he prepared for the worst, because things are not getting better. we are having problems in our own country, with congress
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taking care of its own people, and we've got to start to understand that this is not going to end. two years ago, the chinese, in my opinion, sent out x amount of people all over the world, the only time, the only race on this planet where every single people were affected with a virus, killing millions and millions and millions of people. the russians now, being that they are allies, they have always been treacherous. before i and my conversation, the russians, during world war ii and after world war ii, they put them to sleep, and mccarthy wanted to go after the chinese in the korean war, and they stopped him and retired him because he wanted to definitely go after them.
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two generals this country had, they put them away. when they put to sleep and the other they retired. host: let's go to mitch, calling from ohio on the republican line. caller: yes, i wanted to call in and talk about all this stuff going on throughout the world. i think what we need to do at this point, we need to send some special ops people and through nato to get to this guy. if we don't do it, we are going to be in some real trouble. thank you. host: let's go to jeff, calling from connecticut on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling to say that the chemicals they are talking about with russia and ukraine is a total farce. this is just propaganda for them
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to use their chemical and biological weapons on the ukrainian population. what we need to do is bring special operations people in their and have something done to putin and his local thugs, because there is something going on over there that we are not even knowing about, secret bombings, orphanages and everything, when you could see all that live. there are also assassinations. this is crazy in the year 2022, this is happening. that's all i've got to say about that, and i think we should do something to stop this as soon as possible. thank you. host: let's go to baltimore, maryland, the independent line. am i pronouncing your name correct lee? are you there? hello -- all right -- let's go
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to andrew, calling from ingleside, texas on the republican line. andrew, good morning. caller: well, i am a veteran of world war ii, the korean war, and the vietnam war. we didn't target civilian folks taking care of business. this guy putin, who is ram rotting the show over in europe now, someone needs to take that dude out. he's is killing women and children and throwing them in ditches and covering them up with -- it's shameful, how the world is standing by and letting this idiot kill all the people off over there, and it's just
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not right. i helped take care of business in world war ii, korea and vietnam, and we did not target billions, women and children. i would just like to say, thanks for taking my call and i wish the world would step up and stop this idiot. host: let's go to victor, calling from silver spring, maryland on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i hope you guys will carry the trump rally tonight. i will be looking forward to hearing it. my comment is, if you really want to hurt the russians really bad, and i don't understand why the demo rats can't see this -- we need to open up our oil wells, our gas wells, finish building the keystone pipeline,
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but i just don't understand why aoc and the other watermelons just don't understand that oil and gas can be our weapon. the comment about buying an electric car? they cost at least $55,000. how do you charge the battery? a coal generated power plant will charge your electric car. that makes no sense what weber. thank you. host: if you are interested in programming on c-span, you can check out our website, and it will tell you what we have coming up after the show and throughout the rest of the day. coming up next, we will talk about public opinion of the russian invasion of ukraine with the host and producer of the 530 eight politics podcast. he will join us for this week's spotlight on podcast segment in just one moment.
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stick with us, we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on the c-span network, both chambers of commerce are in session. the house votes to revoke russia's trade in response to the ongoing invasion of ukraine and the 15.6 billion dollar coronavirus pandemic relief bill. the senate votes on the confirmation of the white house budget director monday at 10:00 a.m. eastern the chairman of the organization for security and -- the ongoing humanitarian crisis from russia's invasion of ukraine and other issues. tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span state department officials testify before the senate foreign relations committee on the u.s. response to the rise and authoritarianism around the globe. wednesday at 10:00 a.m. on c-span3 senior military and
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pentagon officials discuss activity in europe before the house armed services committee. thursday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.org and the c-span now free video app defense department intelligence leaders testify before the house armed services committee next week live on the c-span network or on c-span now, our mobile video app. head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video, live on demand anytime. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> i am pleased to nominate judge jackson who brings extraordinary qualifications, deep experience and intellect, and a rigorous traditional record to the court. >> i am truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination, and i'm especially grateful for the care that you have taken in discharging or
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constitutional duty in the service of our democracy with all that is going on in the world today. >> president biden nominates judge jackson for the supreme court. if confirmed judge jackson will become the first african-american woman to serve on the nation's highest court. follow this historic process. watch the confirmation hearing starting monday, march 20 first live on c-span, c-span.org, or downloading the free c-span now mobile video app. >> washington journal continues. journal" continues. host: we are back with the host and producer of 530 eight's politics podcast, and he is here with us this morning to discuss the podcast and public opinion as it relates the russia-you

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