with jim himes and chris stewart. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning from capitol hill, where ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky will address a joint meeting of congress at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. the ukrainian leader is expected to ask lawmakers for more military assistance, including a no-fly zone over ukrainian skies. president biden will address the nation at 11:45 a.m. eastern time and announce an additional $800 million in security assistance. we will begin with your thoughts on this historic moment.

if you are democrat command dial in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us. include your first name, city, and state at (202) 748-8003. post your comments on facebook.com/cspan or send a tweet with the handle @cspanwj. good morning. the ukrainian president recently addressed european leaders. he followed that virtual address up with a talk to the u.k. parliament and then yesterday he was before the canadian parliament, all virtual. he will do the same this morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time in a joint meeting with our congress. watch it right here on c-span, on our website, or get our radio app. you can watch and listen on the

go this morning. we will bring you that right here on c-span. after, if there is time, we will take your reaction to what you heard from the ukrainian president. here is from "the washington post," there reporting on mr. zelensky's speech. it is expected to be equal parts beseeching and defiant, asking to please close the sky above ukraine, putting in that no-fly zone and asking for polish fighter jets to be brought into ukraine for ukrainian pilots. here is what the ukrainian leader had to say to the canadian parliament yesterday. you can expect similar remarks today. >> every night is a horrible night. the russians are shelling from all kinds of artillery, from

tanks. they are hitting civilian infrastructure. they hit buildings. can you imagine that there is a fire starting at a nuclear power plant? that is exactly what happened in our country. each city they are marching through, they are taking down ukrainian flags. can you imagine someone taking down your canadian flags in montreal and other canadian cities? i know you all support ukraine. we have been friends with you, justin, but i would like you to understand and feel this. what we feel every day. we want to live and we want to be victorious. we want to prevail for the sake of life. can you imagine when you call your friends and you ask, please

close the sky? close the airspace. please stop the bombing. how many more missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen? and they expressed their deep concerns about the situation. when we talk to our partners, they said, please, hold on longer. some people i am talking about are trying to avoid escalation. at the same time, in response to our aspiration to become members of nato, we also do not hear a clear answer. sometimes we do not see obvious

things. it is dire straits, but it also allows us to see who our real friends are over the last 20 days and in previous years. host: volodymyr zelensky before the canadian parliament yesterday. he received a standing ovation before and after his remarks from the canadian leaders, who were amassed in parliament to listen to his address. you can find that on our website. also, he was greeted with chants of "glory to ukraine" from the canadian leaders. what do you think about this address this morning? caller: it is going to be important and historic. this is a pivotal time in our history, and world history. ukraine and people -- the

ukrainian people have gone beyond just the ambition of his country to really help the world see that democracy, democratic rule, justice must prevail. we need the nato alliance countries to make a clear assessment of what the likelihood of war with russia is . my assumption based on what i can see, i think it is inevitable that we will end up in war with russia. host: do you see this as a slow creep? caller: i see it as potentially a slow creep that should be avoided. while i hate that we are on the precipice of war, i think the reality will not allow us to avoid that possibility. if that is the case, we should and classified settings among

all the nato nations make a declaration for war and then provide air support ukraine. once we make a decision to go in, we need to go in big and take russia out. the world needs to change. ukraine has made it clear that this world cannot live in competition or compatible with nations that are autocratic or led by dictators. that should just not happen any longer. our world cannot tolerate that. host: do we remain patient? out of london, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky has said peace talks with russia are sounding more realistic but more time is needed. officials have copes the war could end by may. what do you think, remain patient? caller: i think we potentially

are being played. unfortunately, i do not have all the information. there needs to be a clear assessment. my assessment based on where i sit, it is better to do it now while russia is weak then later and then take them out. we must have defense give ability to fully neutralize their nuclear threat. we have made it clear that if they touch one inch of nato ground we will stop them. if that is the case, we must already know we have allied alliances with other nato countries, the ability to neutralize their nuclear capability. if we know we can win that and know the likelihood of war is high, we needed to take them out now. host: let's get to georgia in ohio, independent.

-- george in ohio, independent. caller: zelensky said a last ditch effort. we should have done something before. russia had these troops on the border for months and all they were waiting for is for the olympics to be over with. once they were over with, that is when they made their move. we could have solved that. we did not. the thing that bothers me now is i hear saudi arabia is going to negotiate with russia and china to sell them oil and use their own currency, not dollars like they are supposed to. that is going to cause us to get in battles and maybe want to get in this war. once we do that, if we lose our reserve currency, we are in trouble. the media is not even talking about that. i guess you can say secondhand knowledge -- my late mother was

in a concentration camp. she was from yugoslavia. i saw the scars of her life. i witnessed all that. she was a great mother, but still she was troubled by what happened. she lost her whole family in that war. those people in ukraine are going to have those scars for a long time. blinken announced he would give the jets to ukraine and that is supposed to be secret. you do not go out in public and say that. instead of using that excuse, they said the no-fly zone. at first, they did not mention a no-fly zone. that was a made up story. host: listen to the white house yesterday at the briefing with the white house press secretary. they are asked about what the ukrainian leader is demanding from the west and nato allies. [video clip] >> he is expected to ask for

more assistance. a lot of the u.s. positions on that have not changed. on the aircraft, the pentagon said last week they do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft at this time. is that still the position? >> that continues to be our position. they also said adding aircraft to the ukrainian inventory is not likely to significantly change the effectiveness of the ukrainian air force relative to russian capabilities. the assessment was the transfer of these planes may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in a significant russian reaction. that is the risk assessment that was done. i would note we expect president zelensky to ask for more money. we are in touch with his team on a daily basis, not waiting to hear tomorrow.

what hopefully will be of interest is him is the significant -- to him is the significant amount of security assistance we will be able to detail soon. host: the chicago sun-times notes that he will make his remarks at 9:00 a.m. eastern time virtually. you can watch it right here on c-span, on our website, or download that free c-span video app. then the president will speak at 11:45 a.m. eastern time. he will announce more assistance to ukraine. alongside him will be the secretary of state, the deputy secretary of defense, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. frank in new york, a republican. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can. caller: i want to talk about

something called mutual assured destruction. there was a guy on fox news, one of the only news programs i watch because i think it is an honest program. you have a fellow there by the name of jesse waters that is not too bright. he made the following statement he said, we cannot keep poking putin. we have to remember putin has nuclear weapons. he drops a nuclear bomb, what do we do? obviously he does not understand the concept of mutual assured destruction, which has kept this country and the world safe for over 50 years now. nobody is going to drop a nuclear bomb, including putin. maybe he is a madman. i do not think he is a madman.

i think he is just and people man. -- an evil man. nobody in the world is going to drop a nuclear bomb. jesse waters' question -- what we would do is turn moscow into a parking lot. every general and everybody in moscow understands that. even if putin is crazy, some general will take him out before he can drop a nuclear bomb. this idea of escalating and all of that, we should be escalating. we should get these brave, wonderful people and ukraine every weapon that we have. not only should we give them the airplanes, we should give them the top-quality airplanes that we have. host: ed in baltimore, what do you think? caller: the first casualty of

war -- i am opposed to these people who comment the putin war is unprovoked. since 2007, when putin addressed the munich nato conference, he said that ukraine would be a redline. putin has been for years saying do not militarize, do not make ukraine a nato country. he has been saying this for a long time. the first casualty of war is truth. who is directing the information out of ukraine? to what extent is the cia playing a role in this? the first casualty of war is truth. host: james, georgia, republican. caller: i just got a general

comment. i know that present zelensky says -- has asked for a lot of weapons. if ukraine is at the border of russia and they are already getting bombed, why don't they try to double back and fight in russia? that is my only comment for now. i have not had a chance to tune into everything. host: lawrence, your next. -- you are next. caller: i am retired military. i am listed in 1960 and retired in 1981. one of the things i hear people talk about his support. we give a lot of support to ukraine. one of our biggest problems in america, the u.s. army is

putting a $50,000 bonus for people to enlist in the military. our own people will not enlist in the military but we want to send every -- somebody else's sons and daughters over there to fight. if they are so interested in supporting ukraine, why don't they enlist in the military cannot come up with good ideas so we can support each other? another thing, the gas prices is up. i have not heard nobody say nothing about how great the real estate prices is up and how great the used car prices is up. host: a joint address to congress by a foreign leader has happened many times in u.s. history.

they have historically been an opportunity for lawmakers to hear from internationally respected figures. the gathering became a standard part of foreign leaders' visits to the united states after the end of world war ii. winston churchill, nelson mandela, angela merkel, and queen elizabeth have all addressed congress. the most frequent speakers to congress have been from france and the united kingdom. leaders of mexico and israel have spoken seven times each. today's meeting will take place in the visitor center, not one of the chambers. the joint meeting of the house and senate lawmakers, 9:00 a.m. eastern time on c-span. robert in new jersey, republican. caller: we need a no-fly zone in

ukraine. putin is a coward. if he does something, we can just drop a bomb on putin's house like ronald reagan did when gadhafi shot down a commercial flight and he bragged about it. ronald reagan dropped a bomb directly on gadhafi's house come it killing one of his children, and we never heard from gadhafi again. host: enrico, independent. your thoughts on the ukrainian president's address to congress today? caller: i think that zelensky is feeling out for some help and he is tired of flowery speeches and empty promises. if he comes into the deep water

and heads toward russia and away from nato, we may have to think that one over, what the effect would be in europe and the usa. host: president biden will address the nation at 11:45 a.m. eastern time and announce another $800 million in security assistance for ukraine. the associated press reports altogether biden has authorized $2 billion in security for ukraine since the beginning his administration, making the u.s. by far the largest single donor of security assistance to the country. kyle griffin reports for nbc that the president next week heads to europe to meet with nato and e.u. leaders in brussels to talk about the response to russia's warren ukraine. -- war in ukraine. angela, democratic caller. will you be watching? caller: i will.

two points i want to make. first, i think biden is doing the right thing. he is listening to our military. he is the president of the united states and we elected him to be our president. i think he is doing the right thing. god knows trump would not get him a dime. i do believe putin would use nuclear war. i remember after the cold war i was watching the history channel. we have underground facilities that in the case of a nuclear war the president and some of the military, some top leaders, there is a way they can live in underground caverns with natural lakes. if you have been to virginia, you have seen these things. they have the ability to live down there perfectly fine for decades. putin has the same thing. i am sure he would have a lovely lifestyle until the day he died underground.

he would have no problem starting a nuclear war. the only reason mutually assured destruction worked was because we never got in a war with russia. that is all i wanted to say. host: as you all know, lawmakers are split on this idea of a no-fly zone. some of them have called to send -- have called on the administration to send over polish fighter jets into ukraine. both of those asks are likely to come from the ukrainian leader today. listen to mitch mcconnell yesterday on what lawmakers are likely to hear from the ukrainian leader. [video clip] >> my guess is everything he is going to request is something we ought to be doing. my individual response would be yes. unfortunately, the administration keeps dragging its heels. even when they do the right thing, they do it too late.

the administration needs to get the message and help the ukrainians. we need to do it now. not only us, but our nato allies who seem to be more anxious to help the ukrainians than this administration. >> you are convinced his request -- he is not going to ask for a no-fly zone? >> he already knows that the u.s. is not going to engage directly in ukraine. we are not going to enforce a no-fly zone in ukraine, but there are a lot of weapons that are extremely effective in controlling the air. a good example is the migs the poles were anxious to send to ukraine, which the administration discourage them from doing. host: peter baker of the new

york times tweeting out a new poll by yahoo! news. biden gains a little more support for his handling of russia and ukraine come with 39% of americans approving. pam -- tim in michigan, republican caller. caller: i was going to say i think it is wonderful that we can throw around $800 million, give our money over there to provide help for people who are dying. it is just kind of sad that we don't actually get anything done. we just throw money at it. it is sad we cannot -- that our congress and president cannot get anything done. thank you. host: sidney, independent.

caller: i want to know if your audience knows that we overthrew ukraine in 2014. i see you putting her hand on the button. you do not want to hear the truth. you want to only hear what you say. host: your television is on delay. you were seeing me punch you up so you could speak. caller: what about when we killed the 500,000 children under the age of five and madeleine albright said it was worth killing them? you talk about these bombs and stuff. we have dropped them on everybody, and we have committed war crimes everywhere. in fact, we released a navy seal guy that killed the president

and gave him a get out of jail free, but you do not seem to know that much about your history or wants to know about your history. host: charlie, pennsylvania, republican. >> i think our president is doing a horrible job. they should bring peace to this war. i believe that god should embrace this war and stop this. we should get of -- involved as americans. innocent people are getting killed. i think we should stop putin from fulfilling history and because we are a powerful nation and it could come to an end. biden needs to get out of office. trump all day. may god bless america and these innocent kids getting killed. host: tim in arkansas,

democratic caller. caller: good morning. i would like to tell esther zelensky -- mr. zelensky to tell congress that nato should start amassing troops on the border of ukraine. when we are ready, we will tell mr. putin, 10 days to get back to moscow or we will start a ground war. there will be no nuclear weapons. it will be like world war i, trench warfare, and you have 10 days to get out. you watch. they would be hightailing it back to moscow. host: there are many ukrainian civilian casualties in this war. yesterday, many of you heard two fox journalists were killed as well. this is from usa today. a fox news cameraman and

journalist were killed while reporting with a correspondent outside the capital city, this coming from the fox news media ceo tuesday. if you are wondering what happened to the journalist on the russian tv newscast who held up a sign, this is also from usa today. the russian state television employee who interrupted a live news program by protesting the war in ukraine was fined the equivalent of 200 $70 but could face a harsher penalty under a new law aimed at quelling opposition to the invasion. the reporter was ordered to pay 30,000 rubles on charges of organizing unsanctioned actions for her call to demonstrate against the war. tom in massachusetts. caller: what i wanted to ask

president zelensky and congress is about the possibility of increasing the involvement in a possible peace conference. nuclear war is one of the highest moral issues that we can have to avoid. we want to avoid a nuclear confrontation that could start with small, tactical nuclear weapons and go from there. i think everyone on both sides can agree that that would be a disaster and it might be a way out for russia with other border issues and things that might be discussed because everyone could agree things are getting worse and it is too dangerous to let it go on any further. so would president zelensky intensify a peace conference with china, the u.s., himself, and russia in switzerland or hungary? that is my thought.

host: keep the phone calls rolling in because the conversation continues after a short break. we will be joined by two members of congress. you can ask them questions or deliver comments. first will be a democratic congressman of connecticut and than a republican congressman of utah. we will be right back. >> american history tv,'s -- exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, part three of our eight part series, first ladies in their own words. we will look at the role of the first lady and issues important to them in their own words. this week will feature rosalynn carter. >> in every state -- and every

state i spoke with agreed with me on the importance of cooperating and consulting closely on the issues that concern you and us all my human rights, nuclear nonproliferation, economic development, arms control. i think we have made progress in these areas. >> at 3:00 p.m. eastern, a supreme court nomination hearing begins monday. american history tv looks back at other women nominated and confirmed to the supreme court, including elena kagan and amy coney barrett. watch american history tv saturday on c-span two and find the full schedule on your program guide or online. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us this morning is

congressman jim himes of connecticut, a member of the financial services committee. we have been talking to viewers this first 30 minutes about mr. zelensky's address to all of you coming up at 9:00 a.m. eastern. what do you want to hear from him? guest: i imagine we will hear a version of what we heard a week ago. i think we will hear remarkable defiance. the reality is here we are in week three of the conflict and putin has failed to achieve any of the aims he hopes to get done , so we will hear defiance, pride in his people's stand against the russians, and he will continue asking for more aid. i anticipate they will ask for a no-fly zone, for antiaircraft weaponry. he has been a remarkable leader

since ukraine was attacked by russia. >> where are you on a no-fly zone? guest: i answer this question a lot. a no-fly zone as far as i'm concerned is a nonstarter. the reason -- people think of no-fly zones the way we impose no-fly zones on saddam hussein in iraq. people need to understand we are not going to put pilots into harms way above ukraine until we have taken out and destroyed the antiaircraft assets that russia has in the region. that means for the first couple weeks of a no-fly zone there would be u.s. jets taking out russian military units not just in ukraine but in belarus and russia. antiaircraft capabilities have hundreds of miles of range, so people need to understand a no-fly zone starts with the united states air force bombing russian military units inside russia. if that does not start -- sound

like the start of a war, i do not know what does. everything else is on the table, but a no-fly zone means war with russia. >> what about the polish jets? guest: i think there is a little bit of a difference there between a very united congress and the white house on this issue. i can speak for myself and tell you i think president zelensky should get those aircraft. they are a small part of everything he needs, but he knows what he needs. he asked us last week for them. the department of defense is not there yet. they think that could be escalatory, but i do not think that putin as a war criminal is the one who should call the shots. i think we should give president zelensky what it is he asks for in terms of weapons. host: we are hearing from the ukrainian leaders that the russians in these peace talks

are starting to sound more realistic. what can you tell us? what have you heard about the negotiations? guest: i think that is right and not surprising. estimates are all over the place, but the russians have lost thousands of men. estimates range in terms of fatalities between five and 12,000 actual lives lost. that means more casualties. think about that figure. let's say 6000 or 7000 is the right figure. that is in less than three weeks more troops than the united states lost in iraq and afghanistan over 20 years combined, so this is expensive for vladimir putin, not to mention the devastation on his economy. there is a game in washington to figure out how rationally he is thinking, but you do not look at those results and think you are

winning. is no surprise that his negotiators are probably sobering up a little now. >> you are on the intelligence committee. what can you tell us about president putin's military force? can they sustain this? >> they cannot. it depends on what you mean by sustain. if you mean can they keep doing what they are doing today, lobbing missiles and bombs into unprotected civilian areas and cities, he can do that for a long time. that is a war crime, another thing that complicates negotiations. it is hard to imagine there is a negotiated deal where he gets something after committing the act of brutality of the 21st century. he has enough military to continue devastation on civilian areas. he does not have enough military to lockdown ukraine.

he does not have the military capability to control every city , every inch of land in ukraine. he has set himself up for a expensive conflict in which he achieves no strategic or political end. host: i want to invite our viewers to begin dialing into talk to you. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. text us at (202) 748-8003. . president zelensky has indicated he could accept ukraine and not joining nato. what does that do to the situation? guest: that is one of the russian aims. even though russia -- vladimir putin has committed war crimes and should be prosecuted for those crimes and should not come out of this venture of his

having gained anything, the russians do have security interests. we tend to forget the russians lost 20 million people in world war two, so they have legitimate security aims. he can say, we do not want military placed on our border and we can say, let's talk about that. what they do not get to do is tell other countries who they associate with, what alliances they get to join. they do not get to dictate the terms of other countries sovereign rights. that is a lesson putin needs to learn on the back of this conflict. host: this attack by the russians close to poland, what do you think that was about by the russian president? guest: hard to know. he is clearly trying to send a signal that he can reach any part of ukraine. that is probably a healthy thing for our people to remember. we do not have military on the

ground in ukraine, but it is good for us -- the 82nd airborne is close by in eastern poland. there are a lot of ukrainian military and western ukraine. it is good that the people in western ukraine no that while they do not have a similar situation if russia wants to they can reach out and touch them there in the west of ukraine as well. guest: what role is the u.s. intelligence committee playing in this situation? guest: an important role. there have been long-held relationships between our intelligence community and ukrainian intelligence. they are working side-by-side on what intelligence agencies do. that is another -- we talk about antitank missiles and that sort of thing, but one of the best things we can give ukraine is a

sense for what is happening in the region. when you are being bombed and missiles are coming in, it is hard to know what is really happening. host: scott n california, you are up first. caller: i was listening to the u.n. the other day. the russian investor had a chance to speak. he medially said he was certain that all the rest of the u.n. was predisposed to think one way and not listen to russia or its narrative. they like their narratives. let's say nato listens and in good faith listens to their narrative. that would mean that zelensky is a nazi and has a nazi military

organization. all those troops we are building on the border, those were just for wargames and then there was a bunch of military that showed up. so in good faith if we were to help russia take out all those nazis with the zelensky z on the side and lighten the load so there would be no more russian or ukrainian oppression, we would be doing it in good faith, listening to russia's narrative. host: what is your point? caller: if there needs to be false narrative, perhaps we should speak their language. guest: russia has put out complete nonsense. putin has said this country, run by a jewish president, is somehow run by nazis.

it is so absurd that it is almost embarrassing to imagine the russians would believe this. we russians do not believe this. we are seeing acts of protest inside russia. an actor protest inside russia can get you a jail sentence, and yet russians are standing up and saying, not only do we not believe you, but we are not going to support this router war . what is embarrassing about the russian story is how ridiculous it is, this idea that ukraine was run by drug addicts and stuff. the warsaw -- the world saw russians on the border. there are responses to this information in this country. tucker carlsen is regularly on tv promoting the idea that putin would have us believe. we have a first amendment. the press is free in this

country but in situations like this freedom and democracy are standing against tyranny and authoritarianism. it is important for people like me to maintain clarity, which is we are watching a world historic war crime in action and overtime glenn we putin must be held -- vladimir putin must be held accountable. host: does he continue to lead to the country of russia? guest: this is a problem. every time you have an authoritarian dictator who controls his country through violence, you have a problem. this authoritarian dictator, and contrast to iran today or hit learn in the 1930's, has nuclear weapons, so our activity is constrained. the russian people have a question they need to answer for themselves, which is your economy is being reverted to the

stone age. you are a pariah on the global stage. you get to see what the rest of the world looks like. do you want to choose this path of war crimes and brutality and poverty imposed by a brutal authoritarianism? it will be the russian people who determine what form of government they live under. host: james, independent. you are on with the congressman. caller: thank you, democrats, for using common sense and do not send airplanes or men into ukraine. those republicans, all they are trying to do is wait on biden to make one mistake on this war and then they are going to get back in front of a camera and blame him like they always do.

all they do is play this blame game. guest: here is what i would say to that. i was in the capital on january 6. i was one of the last people out of the chamber when folks that were under the lie of donald trump that the presidential election had been stolen from him attacked the place where i worked, the symbol of our democracy. i appreciate james' complement, but we have to stop thinking about situations like this in terms of political parties. one of the wonderful things, and i probably should not use the term, coming out of this otherwise horrible situation is for the first time in a long time congress is united, united behind the notion that we are going to stand up against tyranny and put together a

combined congress that will stand for democracy and freedom. while i appreciate his complement to my party, my republican friends, i have listened to mitch mcconnell throw mud at the president of the united states that he is not moving fast enough. i would remind my republican friends that their president held up military aid in favor of political favors but we need to leave that behind. one of the reasons i think putin did this invasion is because he thought the west was divided. he thought we had a presidential election in france, new leader in germany. he said, the americans are divided. we need to stop particularly when it comes to foreign policy. when it comes to foreign policy, we need to stop speaking the language of party because history is pointing to us in europe now to defend the democracy that we so love, whether we are republican or

democrats. host: russian debt payments are due and it is uncertain that they can pay, which they are supposed to do in u.s. dollars. >> this is part of the russian economy being brought back into the stone age. whether it is next week or next month, russia will default on his foreign debt. they now no longer have real access to hard currency. the ruble has been destroyed. the stock market has been closed for three weeks. this is an economy sliding into the stone age very rapidly and default is going to be one of the attributes. it is sort of an abstraction for a lot of russians losing their jobs right now. it is up to these russians to think about this leader they have tolerated and how it is possible they have been moved back 50 years in terms of economic gains.

default is not like russian companies are going to be raising a lot of money in the stock markets as long as this war is underway, but it is hard to come back from that. it means when the situation is resolved international lenders to russia, because of their behavior it is going to be more expensive for russia to borrow money. if we were irresponsible borrowers, our mortgage costs would be higher. that is going to be russia's lot for many years to come. caller: yesterday, president zelensky addressed the canadian parliament. one of his requests was that we sanction commercial entities of russia. he has a great point because a company is owned by the russian state.

this is the russian goose that literally lays their golden eggs. it is one of the few companies in russia that produces 40% of the's's world palladium. not only was the goose unsanctioned, but now it is running on steroids because they are paying in junk rubles and getting paid in u.s. dollars. why are we allowing a state owned company to go unsanctioned? host:? congressman? ? guest: at this point, most of the russian companies, and russian companies are often state owned or owned by the oligarchs who have close personal relationships with the kremlin, most of those companies now are sanctioned.

if you wanted to buy russian aluminum or palladium in that case, you would find it difficult, if not impossible, to do it today. there are two hard problems. one, china, which is hungry for energy, is a big consumer of russian products. i expect the chinese, who need commodities and energy, will continue to purchase russian products. this is the really hard one. take germany, for example. half of its natural gas comes from russia. germany does not produce enough energy to satisfy keating's homes and running as industries. we have a lot of work to do as the west. the united states does not need russian oil and congress and the president agreed we would stop importing it, but germany cannot do that overnight in the middle of winter, so europe and the

world have a lot of thinking to do about getting away from energy produced by regimes like russia and getting to a place where they do not get to hold us hostage because they sell so much energy. that means moving to more sustainable energy sources and making sure in moments like this where we cannot make germany fully self-sufficient, having alternatives like liquid natural gas and that sort of thing. host: ann, ohio. caller: i would like to respond to something the senator said about leaving political speech behind. he made several jabs at president trump. whether you like it or not, there are people who are totally in his corner and believe and have seen what has gone on with

the election. that is not over yet, so to state it as if it is overcome it is not over. january 6 was not his fault. he did not know those people. he did not tell them to go there. he did not have any affiliation with the capitol police who did nothing and even waving people to come in. there is so much more that is out there that has not been addressed by the democrats. people know what is going on, what is being covered up and left out of the mainstream media. that is why everybody is watching newsmax. host: let me have the congressman respond to you. guest: unlike the lady from ohio, i was there and saw what happened. i will tell you i did not take several jabs at donald trump because i think in this context it is important for us to be

united. i will restate a fact that i stated earlier in the broadcast, which is that donald trump incited people at a rally south of the white house. his exact words were, you need to go and fight or you will not have a country anymore. i saw the people who were inside the capital looking for people like me who believed some of these people were dangerous, bad people. some of these folks were people who believed donald trump was been truthful when he said the election had been stolen. and, his exact words, if you do not fight like held he will not have a country anymore. i agree that is not over yet. it would appear at 60 plus percent of republicans do not believe that joe biden is a legitimately elected president. i will leave that there and say that is a sign of profound weakness in our democracy. if we get to a place where a significant junk -- amount of

the american people, despite not a shred of evidence, believe that election was illegitimate, we are halfway to no longer having a democracy. if you want to watch newsmax and tucker crossan, you can do that, but understand that entertainment that you are satisfying yourself with is hurting our democracy. i am not here to tell anybody the democrats have all the answers or republicans have no answers, but i am here to tell you if we begin to believe the fundamental structure of our democracy does not work, there is one person who is very happy about that, vladimir putin because the russians and chinese are telling the world today that democracies do not work. regardless of your party, if you are telling americans that our democracy that people have fought and died for for 200 years does not work, go to russia. go to china. see what life is like there and ask yourself whether you are not better off here. host: in connecticut caller:,

republican. caller:-- caller: in connecticut, republican. i think $650 billion of russian money has been frozen. i would suggest $200 billion of that be released immediately for the benefit of the ukrainian people and that for every week this goes on another $100 billion gets released to benefit the ukrainians. i think this would give them tangible benefits immediately and give incentives to the russians to end this. guest: great to hear from a neighbor in danbury and great to hear such a good idea. the gentleman is right. you look at the devastation and ukrainian cities today and you know there will be hundreds of billions of dollars required to

make right the damage the russians are visiting on ukraine now. russians will pay for the damage they are doing. it will be many years before russia gets to enjoy the fruits of whatever export economy it has because they are now on the hook for the reconstruction of this country that they are in the process of destroying. host: russia responded with sanctioning president biden, his son, many folks in the administration, and others, as well as the former secretary of state. your reaction to that move? guest: secretary clinton to the russians for her lifetime achievement award. it is like being on the nixon enemy list. it is one of those things you want to be on because in this case, if you think about it, over my lifetime there have not been world war two like examples of good versus people.

usually foreign policy and these words do not break down in terms of very clear delineations of good versus people. this one does. the russians attacked a vulnerable, blameless country. i think it is a badge of honor to be on vladimir putin's bad list because of the atrocities he has visited on a vulnerable democracy. host: here is the response from hillary clinton. i want to thank the russian academy for this award. caller: good morning, congressman. i am not watching on tv, so i just have the phone to go by. i have three quick points for the congressman and i would be interested to hear which of them he response to. number one, let's assume

president putin is no longer leader of russia. does the congressman have any alternative ideas for the russian leadership that he believes would have different strategic security concerns regarding nato? does the congressman have any view on when sanctions would be lifted? currently, they are reactionary in terms of russia has invaded rather than conditional in terms of if russia stops invading they will be lifted. . are there any -- is there any way to track how the weapons we are given to ukraine are being used and into whose hands they are going? host: i will leave it there because we only have about a

minute and a half left with the congressman. guest: very good questions. who gets to be the russian ruler after vladimir putin? the reason we are fighting this is the folks who get to decide who is going to be the russian ruler are not members of the united states congress. they are the russian people. the point of democracy is that the russians get to choose their own leaders. my hope would be that they would choose a leader who is quite different from vladimir putin. one of the leading opposition figures is in jail, but the russian people get to choose who their leaders are that is the point of a democracy. with respect to sanctions, as soon as russia withdraws from ukraine we will start lifting those sanctions. they will not disappear immediately because we need leverage to make sure the russians help rebuild ukraine, as a previous caller indicated they should. with respect to the weapons, a very, very good question. these are frightening weapons,

antiaircraft weapons. you do not want them in the wrong hands. every time we do this, the american people need to appreciate this. every time we provide weapons into a war zone where you do not records and taking less and names. there is a risk that the weapons could find themselves in the wrong hands. we are doing all we can to track those dangerous weapons. every time you introduce those weapons it is a risk that they could fall into the wrong hands. we appreciate the conversation with you. host: we will take a break and when we come back we will be joined by chris stewart, republican of utah and member of the intelligence committee and continue this discussion on the russia-ukraine conflict ahead of the address by the ukrainian presidents, volodymyr zelensky at 9:00 a.m. eastern time in about one hour. live coverage right here. ♪

>> this year, more than 3000 students from 41 states entered our video documentary competition. they shared how the federal government impacts their lives. here are the 2022 winners. the first prize middle school reader -- middle school winner is aria from mountable california. with a documentary "stigma free nation: pathway to parity." first place high school east coast attend writers from richard montgomery high school and winston churchill high school further documentary " something in the water." the first prize high school central winners are jason and shawn today, 11 and 12 graders

from lake charles, louisiana. further documentary "human's impact on our lives." first prize high school west goes to kimberly and billy, from great falls, montana further documentary titled "american rescue plan: economic boost were bussed?" our grand prize winners are from eastern middle school. >> 3000 students participated in the competition, you guys where the grand prize winners. >> thank you. >> tyler won their first private -- won the first prize. >> we would go to our favorite park every time and along the way we would pass a small church.

it is located in a wooded area next to i-495, the highway that goes around washington, d.c. in the shape of a belt. the doors and windows were boarded up and there were vines growing everywhere. it looked like there'd been a fire a long time ago. we were curious and found out that more than 140 years ago the church called ibsen grove was the center of a bustling african-american community. it had been a school, there had been an adult baseball team with a community meeting hall, dancers and a cemetery. one day we saw an announcement that the capital beltway was being expanded in the area of the church showing that the new highly -- highway lanes would be built on portions of the cemetery, threatening to erase it. ♪ the highways around washington, d.c. are some of the most congested around the country. people can be stuck on them for hours.

the widening was a major victory for larry hogan, who argued that the project is essential for economic element of the region. the interstate highway system took shape in 1956 with the passage of the federal-aid highway act. officials purposely routed the roads through black and brown communities, displacing families and demolishing historic neighborhoods. the national trust for historic preservation calls highways " memorials to racial injustice" and said that architects tended to view black neighborhoods as the path of least resistance. we are now in a moment of racial reckoning. president biden, as part of a $1 trillion plan to improve america's infrastructure pledge to use $20 million to help neighborhoods of color split or splintered bypass projects. >> if they highway was built for the purpose of dividing a white and black neighborhood, or if an

underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly black and puerto rican kids in new york was designed to low for it to pass by, that reflects racism that went into those design choices. >> otori -- historians in the gibson grove community begins when robert and clara gibson bought a five acre plot and land in an area five miles northwest of d.c.. soon other black families joined. >> during this time period when the people who are coming into this area where purchasing the land, this land was segregated, so african-americans were not allowed to live here. they found people who owned properties that were willing to sell lands to african-americans, which is why this become so important because even though they were surrounded by people who did not want them there and

a hostile environment they found a way to make this home. and in this area they had their cemetery and built their church and a lot of people who had different jobs, they were seamstresses and other things as well. >> it was originally part of georgetown, washington, d.c. comes --, we believe that he was working on the aqueduct. >> something happened to the community in the 1950's and 60's. that is when the original construction of the capital beltway took place. physically splitting the gibson grove church from the cemetery. >> do you see these stones right here, that is for the highway. if you follow this carefully -- >> there is another one.

[highway noises] >> as a child i never knew this was here. i really did not because my grandmother did not talk about it. neither one of my grandparents. it was something that really hurt them. just imagine your ancestors buried properly and all of a sudden, the highway department comes by and decides we are just going to pave over them. >> for communities like gibson grove, cemeteries are often all that is left. >> black cemeteries really contained black history. we are re-creating the entire history in one community knowing who was in the cemetery. >> a congressman from virginia wrote a bill that would direct

the national park service to match historic african-american cemeteries. supporters hope that it will be reintroduced this year. >> we need to act now before these are lost to the ravages of time or development. >> we can still see the consequences of those decisions. the segregation that began back there -- back then is still present. the area around gibson grove is overwhelmingly white. i go to school in the east which is 75% minority. the story of the moses start cemetery has a happy ending. scientist, neighbors and academic researchers found -- formed a coalition to fight the highway construction and the state announced it would avoid the cemetery while adding new lanes. without strong federal laws to protect these sites, the threats looms elsewhere. >> congratulations to all of our studentcam winners. the top 21 winning entries will

run c-span starting april 21 and you can watch all of the documentaries anytime online at studentcam.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by congressman chris stewart, republican of utah and a member of the intelligence committee. when the ukrainian president addresses you and your colleagues, what do you expect to hear and what do you want to hear? guest: i am sure we are going to hear a plea for more help, and we should help him. i am so pleased with the bipartisan response. i was listening to jim himes and there is bipartisan support for helping ukraine, and i'm sure we will hear the details of what he most desperately needs. and i think he will take the opportunity to thank the american people and western governments for uniting behind him, and for uniting against

vladimir putin, which i think surprised vladimir putin. it has probably surprised president xi and other tyrants around the world and it has been an inspiring thing to see, zelensky's leadership in the response to that. i also think that he is probably going to ask for things that i myself could not support. it would be a very dangerous idea if he asked us to initiate a no-fly zone. as a former air force power -- pilot i am adamantly opposed to that. so hopefully we can have a conversation where we can agree on things that we can and should help him with. and once again i look forward to thinking him for his leadership -- thanking him for his leadership. he has emerge from a global -- as a global figure. two months ago no one hardly knew he was. and now he is someone that many will remember for a long time. host: as a former pilot, why are you opposed? guest: it is the old analogy,

but i am used to hearing that. you cannot be part -- you cannot be partly pregnant. you are either at war or not. if you initiate no-fly zones and then you put them up -- and you put jets up in the sky, it is more complicated than that. before we would put american aircraft over the contested area over ukraine, we would bomb russian radar sites and russian command-and-control and antiaircraft sites. russian missile sites. before the first american aircraft flew over ukraine we would've already taken out and killed many russian soldiers. and that puts us at war with russia. as well, we are going to fly from bases somewhere in poland or perhaps germany. and when we are launching aircraft from there, let a not going to have a safe haven. he will eventually be forced to attack the bases. i think it would be a very dangerous acceleration in our

engagement with russia and something that we are trying to avoid. the united states does not want to go to war with russia over ukraine, and i do not think we need to. as heartbreaking as it is to see the devastation. we are at 3 million refugees now, and the suffering of the people and devastation of the communities, we want to try and help with that and avoid that as much as we can. i think the most western leaders are very reluctant at this point to actually go to war with russia. host: these polish fighter jets, where'd you come down on that? guest: my first question was when i heard that proposed is how does it really help? and also, to get technical, it did not improve the position of the ukrainian air force or military very much. this on the 29's or 27's, i do

not think they have more air -- pilots than aircraft. in a fighter squadron you have a certain number of pilots matching and that is allocated to a certain number of aircraft. and for us to provide russian mig -- i am sorry, polish mig 29 pilots with f-16's does not help them, they are not qualified to fly the f-16 they are qualified for the mig 29. from a practical point of view and i think the pentagon reach this conclusion it did not change tactically or strategically change the situation. it did not improve the conditions for the ukrainian fighters, and i think that was a primary reason for them backing off on that idea. host: the president at 11:45 is expected to announce an additional 800 million in military assistance to ukraine on top of $2 billion since the

beginning of his administration or in addition to. so, what has the u.s. provided so far? do you think it is enough. what else can be done? guest: it is a good start and honestly we want to be careful. we need to match material and weapons in the support that we give them with what their capacity is to use it. you could hypothetically flood ukraine with weapons that could not be used, because there is only a certain number of freedom fighters and ukrainian military personnel. i think we have match that well. the key is it has to be sustainable. they will expand that ammunition and fire those missiles. there are many of them that have proven very deadly to russian armor. very effective against heavy armored tanks that we thought actually had better self protection than they apparently do. the javelin is very effective against russian armor primarily

because it attacks from a high angle and comes in basically from the top and not from the side. so i think that is one of the keys. it is very clearly one of the things that the russian military is so fearful of. like he is to have it sustainable, not have it be like the russians are right now where they are apparently fighting supply issues and keeping their own army armed and supplied with fuel and the equipment that they need to just fight and live day-to-day. host: what can you tell us about this address that will get underway in 45 minutes. we are covering it live on c-span. what have you been told about how this will unfold today? caller: we have -- guest: we have not been told it -- told a lot. it is downstairs in the auditorium where we can have other classified briefings. i do not think the report is actually classified. i am glad to hear that you are

carrying it. again, i think what we expect was about what i described. i think president zelensky will thank us and ask for more support. i do not know, but i hope i have a chance to engage him in the sense of having a conversation back and forth not just us listening. i kind of anticipate that will not be the case. this is considered an address, not a press conference or roundtable type of conversation. more than anything it will be us having a chance to hear him and then we will have to respond after that through various channels. host: what will come next? guest: as far as with president zelensky? host: or as far as action from congress? guest: we will continue to support, obviously the aid that we have given in the president will make an announcement later on today, $800 billion is a lot of money. and of course he is doing that

with the support of congress. we have been very active in appropriating funds and aid to ukraine including military aid. i think again that process will continue. host: patty, north palm beach, republican. you are up first. go ahead. caller: thank you for talking to me. i am concerned about the polish people having to take in the ukrainians. i can understand why they are. and we know that you want to send the ukrainians money, and yet our southern border has had 2.5 million people making more -- and maybe more coming in and we do not know who they are and yet we are not talking about that anymore. and i wonder what your thoughts on that are? guest: i was actually thinking about that last night is the numbers approaching 3 million ukrainian refugees into poland

and eastern europe. of course they are being dispersed beyond that. and reflecting it was like you said, it is actually more than 2 million people who crossed our southern border in the last year. as you said once again there has been very little consternation about that, and i think we should be concerned about that. i recognize that they are separate issues. but a war in the ukraine is not the same thing as a crisis on our southern border. what if we are going to be a serious nation we have to deal with more than one crisis at a time, and i have encouraged as a republican and someone who were -- supports security on the southern border. by the way, it is a humane catastrophe, the conditions. they are absolutely controlled by cartels. there is human trafficking. there is sexual exploitation of women and children. it is a catastrophe when you see

how people are and the suffering that the people are experiencing on the southern border. we have to be able to deal with both, and i wish our president would engage with republicans on a solution to the southern border because we know we can fix that problem. by in large the previous president fix the problem. we know how to do it, but this president is not interested and that is discouraging to me. host: robert, chesapeake virginia. independent. you are next. caller: good evening. guest: good morning. caller: i do not know if you're familiar with history about manchuria. in 1860, the russians talk manchuria. it used to belong to china. right now is a perfect time to drive a wedge between russia and china.

china has 2 million men in arms. they need to take one million men while russia is tied up, march them back up to manchuria, stake up -- stake out the border where it used to be like 10,000 years -- in the territory of manchuria. and then you do not have to worry about china anymore and it will set russia back to about 1000 years of history, back into the reaches of moscow. host: we will have the congressman respond. guest: if we are going to be a serious nation and a global leader we need to deal with more than one problem or issue at a time. we have benefited if we do not have an alliance between russia and china. president xi is a tyrant like vladimir putin is a kgb thug. neither of them have any interest in western democracies and freedom for their own people and human rights. look at the uighurs in western

china which are except -- which are essentially in concentration camps. the people entire bed, the list goes on. it is not beneficial to u.s. security or global security for china and russian leaders to have an alliance or work together. having said that, i would never support, and i do not think we want the default answer to be let us have china engage with russia. in any kind of military conflict or action. that should always be our last choice whether it is over manchuria or over taiwan. so, hopefully we do not get to that point. but to the caller's more broad point, that is it is true. we are better and our security is more secure if we can prevent russia and china from building an alliance against us. host: what do you know as a member of the intelligence committee and what can you tell

us about china's role in this conflict? guest: it has been ambiguous and they have been uncertain. president xi is certainly watching this, and he is unquestionably having ambitions over taiwan as we all know. bramante the conclusion is not will he invade? the question is now when and how soon. he has watched the world's reaction to this over the last 30 days and it is probably giving him a little bit of pause. does he want to get directly involved with supplying russia? they are talking about it. russia has asked them for aid, just like the ukrainian leadership. ukrainian leadership turned to the west for aid and support. vladimir putin wants to get that same help from china. we originally had indications that china would step up in a pretty meaningful way. i think in the last few weeks they rethought that, and again

they look at the global response, this global reaction, and it is giving them pause. i think they are going to buffer some sanctions, no doubt about that. label provides -- they will provide some of the global financial actions and buffer some of that. whether they engage with military weapons, i do not think so at this point, and i certainly hope that they do not. host: mike in north carolina. republican, good morning. caller: good morning. the main reason you see putin going into ukraine is one thing is weak leadership with the three that we have in there. look at kamala harris how she is embarrassing this country time after time. biden, he does not know where he is at and pelosi is starting to act like biden if you saw her interview yesterday.

but this russian invasion is a godsend to the democrats because the whole focus is on that now and watching this country deteriorate. look at the inflation, the highest in 40 years, unlike the previous caller said, the border is wide open. kamala harris is nowhere to be seen, bring them all in. it is ridiculous. china is sitting there with their mouthwatering waiting for what is going on. host: congressman. guest: i think the caller has a couple of good points. you know, let me respond to them again just broadly. there is no question that vladimir putin, again, a kgb thug a man who has a high risk tolerance especially regarding ukraine, and yet he is also not irrational. that is a question that comes up frequently and the evidences he is not irrational. he might be people and he is

obviously a killer, but he does not want to kill himself and he does not want to destroy his own country. he did not attack ukraine during the previous administration. i think it is clear that he looked at our withdrawal from afghanistan and took certain lessons from that. i think he took lessons about the strength of american leadership at this point, and he took lessons about our commitments to our allies, people in the nations we have been engaged with before. and there is no question in my mind and i think the evidence and the intelligence suggests this as well that he decided now is the time to go. there is one other thing that the caller mentioned that i would like to come back to is i do not think this is actually a godsend for the democrats. i think it is highlighting some of their real weakness is when it comes to the american people, primarily in energy. look, the price of fuel and

energy was going up dramatically in the last year. because this president, the first thing he did when he came to office was to shut down the keystone pipeline. i live in utah the western parts of the nation. he shut down any oil and gas permitting in the entire west. in alaska, off of arcos. and then he goes and green lights the nord stream 2 pipeline, making germany and europe more dependent on russia. look, the democrats can blame the price of fuel and gasoline on vladimir putin, but to do that they have to assume the american people only have the memory of three days. because the amendment -- the american people know that the price of gasoline was going up because of this president's policies. they know that and recognize it, and it is their goal to drive up the price of energy to implement green energy policies. so, i do not think this is helpful to the democrats at all

and it highlights one of their real weakness is and that is american -- weakness is -- weaknesses. something like kids starting their careers already count every dollar and now they have to pay $40 to $100 to fill up their gas tanks. that is harmful for many americans. if you drive around in a limousine and you have not filled up a gas tank in 20 years. and you might not realize it, but for the rest of us it is a challenge and very painful when we go to the pump and have to pay five dollars for a gallon of gasoline. host: we talked to an oil and gas analyst yesterday on the washington journal who pointed out that prices were going up, but the president has not had time to implement his policies, and that the oil and gas companies have stockpiled permits but they are not drilling. and also the pandemic put supply at such low demand that they

stopped their drilling at that time, and it is taking time for them to get back up to the pre-pandemic production. guest: yes. a couple of things on that. one of the main reasons and i work closely with oil and gas executives, especially smaller producers. he has tried to de-monetize them. they have made it difficult to go to financial institutions and to get the funding that they need in order to bring operations back. you know they had these relationships with thanks, but they feel pressure from the regulators, you are working with the carbon, oil, and gas industry we do not like that and banks are responsive from that pressure -- responsive to that pressure. that is one of the challenges we do not talk about much. people often mention the keystone pipeline, but we do not

mention the pressure on financial institutions do not work with the oil and gas industry especially the smaller and medium-sized companies. the other thing is it took a while for us to get to where we were energy in her tent -- energy independent. we can get back to that. american oil and gas producers can do that quickly -- more quickly than other nations can. we can only do it at the federal government allows us to. your point about the permitting, people ask about that. that is very common for oil and gas companies to have permits on parcels that they do not anticipate that they will do exploratory production on for perhaps years. it is not like they get a permit and a week later they are on that parcel of land. it is very normal and common for them to be two or three years down the road as they work through their financial and exploratory plans. that is not evidence at all that there are unused permits in the west that are not being impacted

by again, the president shutting down oil and gas exploration on public lands in the west, alaska, or offshore. host: the viewers can find the conversation with amy meyer jaffe if they are interested in this topic. scott in myrtle beach, south carolina. caller: can you hear me ok? host: we can, go ahead. caller: i am wondering how long are we going to cower to putin. it is really time to stand up. we have our head stuck in the stand -- in the sand. we are trying to keep from offending him or provoking him into a war. is it going to take a pearl harbor to get us to stand up and stand together? forget all of this partisan bickering. guest: as i started out, i think we have been bipartisan on this. jim himes, icam -- a democrat from connecticut was talking to

us and i was talking to a democratic colleague talking about how we can unify to help this fight against vladimir putin. i think one of the real positive things we have witnessed is that there is bipartisan support and i think it is not unanimous, but there is a general consensus that we need to stand together as americans on this. i think that we are confronting vladimir 10. we are doing things that are appropriate. if there was some catastrophe. if you were to do something so aggressive against nato or against the united states, we clearly would have to take a different position than what we have right now. i think as leaders in the western world, our goal should be to avoid more human suffering and conflict and war, and by the way, i am a former air force pilot. i am a defense hawk and for a strong national security.

i also recognize that the united states has to lead in the world. if we do not lead, vladimir putin will or president xi will. we have to lead, but we have to do it thoughtfully and to avoid expanding the military conflict if we can. i think that is a phase we are in. let us do everything we can to support the ukrainian people. unless vladimir putin actually uses tactical nuclear weapons, unless there was a devastating cyber attack on the u.s. that brought our economy to our knees, the situation changes and we have to evaluate what is the appropriate response now. for the phase that we are in right now, the defense that we put forward, i think it is the right response. hopefully, he can convince vladimir putin that it is time to negotiate a settlement. there are some areas where we could have a compromise that would allow him to withdraw forces without making this a

very brutal and violent next couple of months that we are trying to avoid. host: in mississippi. independent. caller: yes. i have a short question to ask you. it really does not deal with ukraine. do you think in the next few months that you all will have a new speaker of the house? guest: i appreciate short questions and i will give you a short answer. i do not know. i have no reason to believe that we will have a new speaker previous to the election. i think most analysts and americans expect and i certainly do that the republicans will take back the house in 2022. i think we will probably take it back in just a red wave with a significant majority. at that point we will have a new speaker.

i think kevin mccarthy will certainly be the new speaker of the house. i have no reason to believe that ms. pelosi would leave her position previous to the election unless she looks at the upcoming election and says this is going to be such a change and the democratic party is going to lose in such a way that perhaps she does not want to be a part of that but she has never indicated that she is leaving. in fact she is probably talking about running once again. i guess we will wait and see. host: before we let you go. ukrainian president zelensky said he could accept not joining nato. is that the first step to peace? guest: i think that is the key to vladimir putin's concerns but that is not the only thing. he has a great tolerance for violence, and he has ambitions in eastern europe to go beyond ukraine. what i think that is one of the first things that vladimir putin wants to hear. at the same time, we cannot compel zelensky to do that and

we should not compel him to say that. they are a free and independent nation. ukrainian people should determine their own future. whatever their leadership decides, that is something we should respect. what we should not allow vladimir putin to come in and compel zelensky or any other future ukrainian leader to say you cannot determine your own future. the ukrainian people want to be associated with the west. they want the freedom and economic prosperity that western alliances can provide. they do not want to be under the thumb of vladimir putin or any other russian leader. as long as we allow them to decide that, that clearly would be something that vladimir putin probably needs to hear. host: we will take a quick break and when we come back we will get your thoughts on the ukrainian president's address to congress. we are 25 minutes out from the beginning of that.

there are the phone lines on your screen, start dialing in. we will have live coverage right here of mr. zelensky's remarks. we will be right back. ♪ >> every sunday on c-span2 booktv features leading authors on their latest nonfiction books. at 10:00 a.m. eastern on afterwords spence ellison talks about his books "25 lives -- 25 lies" which says that progressive policies are purposely misleading the government and destroying the country. at 2:00 p.m. eastern we feature author talks from the 2020 22 savannah book festival in georgia including chen wong with the book "beautiful country" and michael ian black with his book "a better man: a mostly serious

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person who believes that you should say what you mean and mean what you say, and take the consequences. >> and the online video library. we will for -- we will feature lady bird johnson, betty ford, nancy reagan, hillary clinton, laura bush, michelle obama and melania trump. watch first ladies in their own words. watch saturdays at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2 or listen to the series is a podcast on the c-span now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: at the top of the hour ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky will be addressing congress, 9:00 a.m. eastern time and you can watch our coverage on c-span, c-span.org or if you are out and about on your day, watch on our video app, c-span

now. this is a room where the lawmakers are beginning to gather, both house and senate lawmakers, only lawmakers in this room this morning. it is in the capitol visitor center, not one of the chambers and they will hear virtually from mr. zelensky. he has addressed other bodies of government and he started out with european leaders and then he went and addressed virtually the parliaments in the united kingdom, and then yesterday he went before the canadian government and received a standing ovation before and after his remarks. "the washington post" on his address to our congress this morning. it is affected to be equal parts beseeching a defiant "asking the biden demonstration as he had with other allies to close the sky above ukraine." those were the words that he

spoke before the canadian parliament yesterday. take a listen. pres. zel -- [video clip] >> the russians are selling from all kinds of volatility, tanks, they are hitting civilian infrastructure. they are hitting billy things. can -- buildings. can you imagine that there is a fire starting at a nuclear power plant and that is what happened in our country. each city that they are marching through, they are taking down ukrainian flags. can you imagine someone taking down your canadian flags in montreal and other cities. i know that you all support ukraine. we have been friends with you justin, that i would like you to understand, and i would like you to feel this. what we feel every day, we want to live, and we want to be victorious.

we want to prevail for the sake of life. can you imagine when you call your friends and nation, and you ask please close the sky, close the airspace. please stop the bombing, how many more missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen? and they in turn expressed their deep concerns about your civilization. when we talk to our partners and they say please hold on a little longer. some people are talking about trying to avoid escalation. and at the same time in response

to our operation to become a member to -- a member of nato we do not hear a clear answer. sometimes we do not see obvious things. it allowed us to see who our real friends are. over the last 20 days, and as well the eight previous years. [end video clip] host: ukrainian president zelensky to the ukrainian parliament yesterday and from those lawmakers in canada he received chants of glory to ukraine. he is getting set to virtually address lawmakers here in this country in that room on your screen, behind us at capitol hill. the senate and house lawmakers are gathering and we will bring you live coverage on c-span and we are moments away from that. in the meantime, dial in and we will take your thoughts on what you want to hear from the

ukrainian president and what support you think that the u.s. should be giving. after the ukrainian president speaks, president biden is slated to speak at 11:45 a.m. eastern time. he is expected to announce an additional 800 million in military assistance in the associated press reports that is $2 billion in economic aid to the country of ukraine since the biden administration came into office. kyle griffin tweeting out from " the associated press" that the president is to "meet with nato and e.u. leaders in brushes -- in brussels to talk about the response to russia's invasion of ukraine." dennis, we will go to you. hello, sir. caller: donald trump could have take care of this whole thing. those people he told to stand

down and stand by, he would call them up and say step up and come to florida. host: mark robin and mercer island, washington. independent. caller: i have actually watched all of president zelensky's addresses to us, great britain, and canada. and yesterday when he addressed canada, i started to feel like he was -- i do not want to say losing hope because he has been such an inspiration, but we are literally watching his country be bombed apart, and they need additional help and i just wonder if we are doing what we committed to do when they gave up their nuclear weapons and made themselves more vulnerable to autocrats like vladimir putin, and so i hope that he is able to get through to our representatives today and come

up with some creative solutions to help him and his countrymen. host: robin in mercer island. "the telegraph" reporting that the ukrainian president said that peace talks are sounding more realistic but more time is needed. ukrainian officials have raised hopes that the workaday and sooner possibly by may and there are also reports this morning at the ukrainian president said that he could accept not joining nato. that was robin in mercer island, washington. greg in wisconsin, republican. you are next. welcome. caller: trying to take a kind of neutral viewpoints of this whole ukraine-russia thing. with ukraine being historically a part of russia for so many years, president zelensky in my opinion should realize this, and come to some terms with russia

to save his people. he keeps on saying we will fight to the end, what good is that going to do when millions are leaving and millions of men, particularly are going to stay there and be killed if they continue to fight against russia? you should create -- say his country is neutral and surrender to russia in my opinion and keep the united states and nato out of it. host: cary, california. independent. caller: hello. well i am curious about is he really does need extra help for fighting russia. and china actually gets involved , isn't this the hands of a third world war? that is my question. thank you. host: richard, somerset independent -- somerset, pennsylvania. independent. caller: i am wondering about the gasoline shortage, like in case

of emergencies. have they dialed it back up for that? host: you are concerned that as this war continues that gas prices continue going up? caller: yes. i'm wondering say like there is a fire or something and they have to make sure that the fire company gets there without running out of gas and stuff like that. host: jim in west virginia, democratic caller. good morning. caller: good morning. i listen to c-span quite a bit, and i was listening this morning, i just wanted to comment on i think there is a misunderstanding or misinterpretation on behalf of a lot of republicans that are always talking about how tough trump laws and this would not have happened if trump was president. well, first of all the only

corruption i have ever seen more so than any other country in the ukraine was putin and -- in russia. i think that is something that people have to understand. that was the corruption that was in ukraine. it was and russia. host: on facebook, here's one of our viewers writing "i will watch zelensky speak to congress because i feel he deserves to be heard. his country is in turmoil and his people are suffering and we need to hear how to help. i said to the red cross -- i sent money to the red cross and i do not complain about the price of gas. ." roberta on the republican line. i would like to ask a couple of quick things. -- caller: i would like to ask about a couple of things. host: i'm going to move on because you have to turn down that television, it causes

feedback and it is difficult for people to hear. patrick in maryland. democratic caller. caller: thank you for accepting my call. listening this morning, my main concern is the no-fly zone. there is no way that we can do it. the reason why is what the republican congressmen had stated. it would cause and start world war iii. everyone needs to understand that. also, our government, republicans and democrats need to 100% the onboard with what we are doing with ukraine. the last congressman, the republican was talking about bipartisan support that at the same time when you listen to mcconnell he was saying that we are doing too late and not enough, and then c-span did an extra into the question on are we doing enough, too little or

just enough and there was an older man that responded by stating there is no way we can answer that question because we do not know what the final outcome is. unless we know exactly what putin wants to do, then what we are doing is trying to come up with some type of diplomatic solution. and that is what everybody needs to be concerned about. thank you. host: we will leave it there. we want to bring you into the room where lawmakers are taking their seats ahead of an address to congress by the ukrainian president. live coverage here on c-span. [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]

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