louisiana republican garret graves talks about energy prices and the conflict between russia and ukraine. joint the conversation with calls, text messages, tweets. washington journal is next. host: this is march 18. the house is in at 9:00 a.m. eastern today. president biden reportedly said to tell the chinese leader that his country will pay a price if it supports the monetary operation in ukraine. in this first hour, tell us your message to president biden about the invasion of ukraine and the role in assisting ukrainians. host: --(202) 748-8000 is the

number four democrats. (202) 748-8001 four republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text, (202) 748-8003. a couple of polls recently taking a look at the biden administration's handling of ukraine. this is from pew from two days ago. 18% strongly approving, 47% strongly approving, 9% somewhat approving. 80% somewhat disapproving of the administration -- 18% somewhat disapproving of the administration's handling. another paul comes from monmouth

university, saying public opinion is evenly divided -- 46% approving, 48% disapproving, despite bipartisan support for the sanctions, just 18% of republicans gave biden a positive rating. wheat will show you more about the residents call with the chinese leader later on this morning. this first hour devoted to your calls on your message to the president about the russian invasion and the u.s. handling of it. (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002, independents. if you want to text us, (202)

748-8002 --(202) 748-8003. anthony blinken the state department yesterday talked about possible steps he thought he could happen in russia. >> we believe moscow made the setting the stage to abuse a chemical weapon and falsely blame ukraine. many fracturing events and creating false narratives of genocide is a tactic russia has used a four. we believe russia will bring mercenaries from private military groups and foreign countries to ukraine. putin acknowledged as much when he authorized recruitment of additional forces, another indication that his war effort is not going as he hoped. they are also likely to systematically kidnap local

officials and replace them with puppets. this has already begun. a mayor was grabbed off the street several days ago, released yesterday in a prisoner exchange. the mayor of another city in southern ukraine was also kidnapped. this is a scare tactic, depose of local officials, put proxies in their place. host: you can find that full press conference at our website at c-span.org and can also see it courtesy of our c-span now app. yahoo! reporting that the conversation set for later today is the first since november. biden making it clear that china will bear responsibility for any action it takes. also adding that we are concerned that they are considering directly assisting

russia with military equipment. the story adding that china has denied such plans. when it comes to that message from the president, you can call us, text us, post on social media. chris, kentucky, independent line. caller: this is terrible. we have a prosecutor -- using drones in the same way. host: let us go back to the president. when you say hang in there, what you mean by that? caller: just keep what he is doing, sanctions, try to control it the best you can. it is horrible what they are doing -- people losing everything. -- just try to keep it dealing -- doing nothing.

host: let us hear from john, brooklyn, democrats line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think the president is doing it correctly. he has not sent planes, using drones. he is doing a good job. i am not surprised about --. i am surprised at the racial home of -- racial tone of things. they are being oppressed. host: back to the president, do you think that what the president is doing, do you approve? do you think that is good?

do you think things will have to change. caller: i think there's drones are going to be sufficient. we used to have to put in soldiers, but now those drones that switch blades and missile ones, that is going to be sufficient. i did not know that russia is so weak. they do not have sufficient technology, they have to go to china. china is like russia, russia is like china, but any of it is by surprise. host: that is john in new york. you heard him talk about drones. that was part of the announcement from earlier this week from the president when it comes to a.

you can find that announcement at c-span.org. independent line, bill, michigan. about your message to the president when it comes to issues concerning ukraine? caller: if possible, i would ask him if he might reach mr. putin with the idea of lifting all sanctions, including all the sanctions for the work started in exchange for stopping the war. and if he would not agree to that, tell him that congress will decide what to do next. i do not believe he would be happy to know that congress might decide what to do. host: what do you mean by that? caller: congress to decide to take whatever steps necessary to stop, which would be a

declaration of war. host: earlier this week, the house passed it on sanctions package comes to ukraine. yesterday, the house putting on a bill that would strip russia of its trade status. c-span.org is where you can see all that activity in congress, specifically when it comes to ukraine. you can see all of this related activity when it comes to ukraine and help -- and how washington is dealing with it. phone lines one way you can reach us, social media another way. north carolina, democrats, dorky. -- dorthy. caller: i believe our president

is doing an excellent job. a president cannot be reckless. he is taking his time deciding what is best for ukraine. it is terrible what is going on. host: when you say and do what is right, do you mean what is currently going on? how far do you think the president might have to go? how comfortable would you be with help fight the president should go? caller: i really do not want us to go to war with anybody, but i am not a military person. at what they told to do whatever nato can do, but i do not want us to go to war. host: that is dorothy in north carolina. scott in houston saying mr. president, if you will not respond militarily because of

the threat of nuclear escalation, what will stop mr. putin from invading other countries. scott from twitter saying the president is doing about right. as long as ukraine is willing to fight, let us support them the best way we can. it was the senate floor yesterday where john cornyn talking about the current activities of the u.s. and the president's leadership on these things. >> ukrainian troops need more arms, antitank capabilities, and additional aircraft. as president zelenskyy put it, the destiny of ukraine is being decided now. i believe we have a moral

obligation, not necessarily a treaty obligation, but a moral obligation as the leader of the free world to support ukraine and help them defend their sovereignty and people. poland, a member of nato, offered to transfer an enteric fleet of big 29 fighters to ukraine. ukrainian forces already know how to fight those russian aircraft and president zelenskyy assured as they are needed, but the biden administration rejected the offer out of fear that it might provoke putin or might escalate the conflict. winston churchill, another great wartime leader, aptly said, and appeaser is one who feeds a

crocodile hoping it will eat him last. this cannot be the policy of the united states. we cannot appease putin and we cannot afford to be timid in the face of this greatest threat to world peace since world war ii. host: your message to president biden on russia and ukraine. jerry, illinois, independent line. caller: i wanted to say that the united states in particular assists in recalibrating the international security environment in eastern europe that mr. biden remember the concerns of the russian people in contrast to the agenda of mr. putin.

but the concerns of the russian people that world war ii, they lost 20 million people to nazi fascist elements in the west. in order to apply diplomatic ethics to this serious situation, mr. biden needs to exemplify the highest level of ethical diplomacy. as robert mcnamara said after the vietnam war, that we need to empathize with the concerns of our enemies. this means especially the people of russia, we have got legitimate concerns. host: daniel, indiana, independent line. caller: my message to president

biden and help the u.s. is sort of reacting to this conflict is, hear us out, man. i would like to echo what senator cornyn talked about in defending the sovereignty of the ukrainian people. for that to happen, we have to maintain our own sovereignty, especially when it comes to the goods we consume. i like have the president is going to meet with the chinese president in the situation room. here in indiana, we had a major fire where an entire distribution center for walmart was destroyed. a lot of products come from china. if china is going to assist russia, we have to have a hard line with them on the product we consume. that goes to the sovereignty of ukraine.

if we are not sovereign with the goods we are consuming, what good are we doing for ukraine? host: that is daniel in indiana. several sources reporting about an american citizen killed in a russian attack in ukraine. the gentleman was james whitney hill, a 60 seven-year-old minnesota native waiting in a bread line with other people when they were gunned down. it was posted wednesday by his sister on facebook. his body was found by local police. chris, the publican line, new york. -- republican line caller: the way to get stronger against russia is to be self sufficient on our own energy.

i am in favor of bringing russian oil to the u.s., but we must have a game plan. what are we going to do to supplement that? we have to be more energy efficient. host: this is melvin off of twitter, saying, great job so far. thank you for reinvigorating nato and democracy globally. do not let the war hawks push us into an unnecessary war. american patriots support you. another viewer off of twitter saying, state the course. whenever and wherever you can without starting world war iii. daniel saying getting china and iran on outside, it would be a bad thing to get them on the wrong side. putin's war on women and children, he is losing and going

after any target now. the analysis piece in the new york times this morning takes a look at the president and the secretary of state using the term war criminal. they write in part, saying, mr. biden amplified his attacks yesterday, calling him a murderer, a fact. antony blinken chimed in, saying, targeting civilians is a war crime. but this appears to reflect a strategic decision. renting putin as a war criminal supports the administrations case as it helps keep the alliance unified. at least one of those topics will be part of the conversation it that the president and the chinese leader will have at 9:00 eastern. from brooklyn, democrats line,

stephanie. caller: i feel that our president is doing a great job. he is smart, hoping the ukrainian people out. if the gop is not really supporting him, there were 8 congress members that voted against supporting the ukrainians, including giving these weapons out. this president is doing the best he can to prevent world war iii. we cannot just go in there and bomb things. you have to think. the gop wants him to start world war iii. he cannot do that. he has to think about our country as well as the other country. host: ben, connecticut,

independent line. caller: i would ask the president why he put pressure on the ukrainian president at the time to fire the prosecutor who was looking into his son and the $5 billion worth of a that we put into ukraine under the obama administration. i would like to know where that money went before we ship another $15 billion over there for this money laundering scheme. host: mary, iowa, democrats line. caller: as far as i know the president is doing a fine job.

we cannot really know, i guess. host: what would it be the message, then, if you think the president is doing a fine job? caller: i do not give a darn what the president does to ukraine. he is our president, the man who has the say. he can do what he thinks is best. i want him to look at the high price of gasoline for us and health care for our grandchildren. my great grandchild has a four month old and the two-year-old. they are paying over $2000 a month on babysitting. they both have to drive to work. these things are important, too. i would like to cc ben address

them once in a while. host: you heard about that trade bill that would suspend trade relations with russia. 8 republicans voting against that bill, including marjorie taylor green, lauren boebert, thomas massie, dan bishop, and chip roy. voting on that trade bill. you can see that vote on our website at c-span.org if you want to see how some of that debate played out. the wall street journal highlighting the facts, saying, stripping russia of its favored nation status is a largely symbolic step, modest to start with. it is part of the sanctions

regime that the u.s. has suspended -- making russia the u.s.'s 23rd largest trading partner. danny, pensacola, florida. caller: how are you doing? i think the president is doing a good job. some of the republicans should be criticizing him at a time like this. this is a time where our country should come together. i am a vietnam that. during the time i was in the military, we did not talk

against each other because we was united. now it comes to the point where if you are a republican or if you are a democrat --, that is not the way our country should operate. host: you said the president is doing a fine job. what would be your message to him? caller: keith doing what you are doing and do not be told into confrontations with somebody that is going to -- host: that was danny and pensacola, florida. you heard senator cornyn earlier offering his criticisms. the new york times takes a look at that in a story by jonathan wiseman. they quote senator jim risch of idaho, the lead republican on the foreign relations committee.

emerging earlier this week from mr. zelenskyy's address to congress, he said, the video was a direct result of a response by the biden administration that had been too little, too late. john kennedy of louisiana tracing putin's invasion back to the withdrawal of u.s. forces in afghanistan, the failure to attack serious leader after he used chemical weapons. this happened when joe biden was either president or vice president. from california, republican line, john. caller: if i could talk to joe biden today, i would talk to him about how to harden up america and to teach america what is

going to happen in case of a third world war -- how are we going to defend ourselves? how much time are we going to have jacob what can we do in order to harden the homeland and prepare ourselves? joe biden should drill more oil on american soil. this is nonsense that we are paying this much for gas when we have it in the ground beneath us. he should get out of iran deal. most importantly, he should open up about hunter biden. russia has a whole lot of hunter biden and are using it to influence joe biden into making bad decisions, delaying, not acting when people call in and say he is doing the best he can, it makes me sick. he is not doing a good job. host: joe, ohio, independent line.

caller: america has its own problems. we also have to worry about china, taiwan, the pacific. this war should be more of a war of europe. where are the germans, the italians, the french, the british? why aren't date supporting? poland does not need us to approve the transfer of the aircraft. this is their war, on their border. if they want to stop it, let them take the front instead of eyes turning to america. i have my own problems with biden. i think he should be forced to

take a cognitive test to prove he is intellectually capable of running this country. host: when you say it should not be a u.s. issue, why is that? caller: they have been part of nato for the last three decades. it is time for them to step up. host: but we are part of nato as well. does that obligate us to some assistance? caller: if they need it, but we do not have to always be spending our money, putting our peoples lives on the line while they badmouth us. host: you heard a lot about sanctions when it comes to russia, the irs yesterday asking for more help in enforcing those sanctions. the story in the new york times this morning, the irs

commissioner told congressional staff on wednesday that the agency's criminal investigation unit needs to grow 40% over the next five years. that could require congress to invest more than $5 billion in the agency which is trying to oversee a sanctions program and cope with aid tactics. the irs has been involved in investigations related to money laundering by oligarchs, forcing the irs to track and sees property. the agency has helped to take down al capone. it has seen its budget depleted in recent years. let us hear from steve in new jersey, independent line. caller: the irony is

unbelievable. a few years ago, congress used zelenskyy to try to impeach a president. now, impeach fighting or zelenskyy. what irony? host: what do you mean by that? how do you relate the two things? caller: zelenskyy had information. the new york times stated it was true. you have not discussed that, have you? host: i'm asking about what is happening in russia and ukraine. caller: biden is encouraging distant more to.

-- to send more troops. why would he do that? host: how would you answer your own question? caller: because he has information and russia has information because of his activities, throughout the world, and ukraine. host: why do you think 11 fact? caller: who do you think biden would want to die first? zelenskyy or vladimir putin? host: kevin, in chicago, hello. one more time for kevin in chicago. he will go next to willie in north carolina, independent line. caller: hi. what i'm calling about is the

lack of objectivity. can you hear me? host: let's start with your message to the president on russia and ukraine. caller: my message is to be objective and not be so quick to jump down on one side. do not forget the lessons of history. host: how does that apply to mr. biden? caller: you cannot say a person is a war criminal in the middle of a war zone, when you actively have american citizens volunteering to go into a world zone -- war zone to fight. you have people just up as civilians. you do not know who to shoot at. we really do not have a lot to spare, when we look at all that

we have done to build up native. they are not doing their part. in the middle, germany says, -- in my mind, i look at the fact that when you look at the changing map, historically and eastern europe, since world war ii, europe has shrank towards russia three times. when you have someone who is paranoid anyways and you are feeling cornered. his views are twisted and they are naturalist -- nationalistic. host: we spent about a half hour on what your message would be when it comes to russia and ukraine. we will have two members of congress joining us between 8:00

and 9:00. the house had to come in at 9:00 this morning. if you want to call us, you can text as at (202) 748-8003 and post on our social media sites as well. discussing russian claims, you can see that meeting on c-span two and you can also view it on c-span.org, on our app. the president is expected to talk with the chinese leader this morning about a variety of issues, including ukraine. talking about president zelenskyy's speech and the impact it had. here is a portion from yesterday .

>> we understand your position on that. these are the things otherwise. it seems very clear -- let me back up for a second. president biden has done a masterful job managing the situation. in a way that is collaborative, not condescending or dictating, but collaborative. the unity of not only the g7 but the nato alliance has been remarkable to behold. they are all unified on how we go forward and how they are

unified is that we are not going in to ukraine. it is not in article five situation. we are, however, prepared to supply ukraine with very sophisticated equipment, some of which was alluded to yesterday, and some of which the president already announced a couple hours after president zelenskyy's presentation. the leadership of jurisdictions, intelligence, armed services, foreign affairs, appropriate subcommittees and the leadership had a brief thing later in the day on what some of the possibilities are, the upside

and the challenges. host: from williamsburg, virginia. caller: good morning. i think the job that biden is doing, considering he does not have much control over the oligarchs and the corporations -- he is saying whatever they want him to say. because they control the government. they do not really care. we did the same thing with our people. host: so the message to the president would be what? let's go to jack.

north carolina, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. my message is to president biden . for men and women because you have to get the american people. you have to get them all on the same page. we do not want to go against russia. we do not want a possible third world war. that is it. caller: thank you for taking my call. my message to biden would be to go on the offensive. we can all see that vladimir putin has been doing war crimes against ukrainian people, the children crying every day when i watch.

to me, you go to china and say, you go with us against russia, with nato and we take out russia. i do not see russia come after this conflict -- how do you deal with putin and russia? i think you have to take them out. you have to basically leave taiwan alone. host: you have probably heard plenty of concerns about those types of actions when it comes to larger issues of escalation. how do you factor that into what you are suggesting? caller: it is a scary thing. you just hope and pray that everybody is aware of that, going in. the way the world has been right now, this is the world war ii

generation. i look upon this as a fight for freedom. it is about what is right. we are seeing people every day and the murder of the innocent. i am 64 and i and ready to get on a plane and go to ukraine. i will die for democracy. thank you for taking my call. host: democrats line. you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i feel safe going to bed at night that joe biden is my president and i would like to make two comments. one comment is, i hear everything is me, me, me.

we do without this and without that, well the greatest generation during world war ii -- my dad gave 22 years to the navy. they did without. they had ration books. also when it comes to gas, i did not hear anybody complaining about the convoy that came from california to washington dc. they wasted gas, but nobody says anything about that. host: you said you felt safe with president biden at the helm. what is your message to him? caller: i cannot say. my daddy were -- served in world war ii and my brother was in vietnam as a marine. i late husband was in the military. i do not know anything about the military, but just keep doing what he is doing.

at least he has a level head. i feel safe going to bed at night. host: let's hear from florida. caller: how are you? let me just say that as far as how joe biden handled ukraine and the way that he handled afghanistan -- those people are doomed. why don't you ask him to go get those -- host: how does one issue relate to the other? caller: sorry. there was a delay. if he handles afghanistan the same way he handles ukraine -- it is ridiculous. who would do that? he is a puppet president. it shows what a poor job he is

doing. he is a puppet president that has done nothing for this country. host: we have about 15 minutes or so, taking a look at this topic when it comes to ukraine and russia. aside from these issues, particularly next week, when it comes to matters of the supreme court, especially when it comes to the confirmation hearing, how they might respond that senate republicans are making supreme court nominees, a key line of questioning. the subject was first raised publicly.

republicans on the judiciary -- there was immediate pushback from the judiciary chair and president biden's white house who derived the attacks as outrageous. he said, i do not think it is being taken seriously. i am troubled by it because it is so outrageous. mormon it comes to the confirmation hearings themselves and what goes on. we invite you to stay close with a couple ways to watch. you can also download and follow along on our c-span app. we will provide uninterrupted coverage and you can see what they have to say for themselves. let's hear from reggie in

cleveland, ohio. caller: thank you for taking my call. as for president biden, i may not feel 100% right about what he is doing, but i do have full confidence about what she may want to do and challenge putin. i hope he does challenge putin, letting them know what we can do and what we will do. if he does try to aid them more, what he may try to do. but i feel confident in president biden and he has my support. host: baltimore, maryland. democrats line. caller: my message to biden is i

think he should keep the nato alliance alive. i would like the democrats to speak more to the republicans. [indiscernible] the democrats -- hardly none of them held donald trump accountable for what he did. host: ok. joe is next. independent line. you are on. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to thank mr. biden

for being honest with the american people about what is going on and what his policies are directed to do. as opposed to the past president , who did everything to support russia and putin, including denying his own doj, his own intelligence people? then, i want to thank joe biden for not having 13 conversations recorded from the white house with mr. putin. when the reporter brought it up, president trump said, i never did that. the reporter said, yes, sir. 13 calls. host: which reporter reported

that? caller: there were reports from the pillow talk -- 13 calls. let me continue. he denied it ever happened. they said, it is on tape. what he said is, it is none of your business what i talked to putin about. he repeated that quote more than once. host: how does that relate to issues of russia and ukraine, currently? caller: well, putin is attacking ukraine, isn't he? in the past, trump said it was fine. host: how does that relate to today? caller: how does it not? he tried to break up nato at every chance he got. he attacked theresa may. do you remember that? do you remember him attacking the german president? host: i understand, but the

relevancy of today? i'm saying how is it relevant to issues today? caller: he tried to break up nato, president trump. guess who else wants nato broken up? host: let's go to washington dc. hello. your message to president biden on russia and ukraine? caller: [indiscernible] the first casualty of war is the truth. i see a lot of untruth being presented to the american public , and i'm sure the president as well. i urge president biden to remain -- do not get us involved in a

third world war. i was in korea when they said we would be home by christmas. i was in vietnam -- the american people do not know what suffering is until they go through a war. host: go ahead and finish your statement. we will leave you there. one of the other stories of the fight, dealing with a change in leadership and it comes to the white house. the management expert will steer the response for more than a year. in a statement thursday, the highly visible expert on cable devilish -- television has become an advisor with officials praising him for his ability to

speak to a number of audience. faced with withering criticism and confusing messages about when to wear a mask and when to return to work. it has caused some americans to lose faith when it comes to the topic of ukraine. on the senate floor the other day, about ukraine, particularly the topic of legal aid. >> what kind of a do they need and how urgently? they need everything and they need it yesterday. ukrainians are fighting for freedom, and we should be doing more to help. javelins, stingers, drones, coastal defense missiles, machine guns, grenade launchers,

night vision goggles and planes, more and more, faster. i applaud the president for some of what he has done, but they are important weapons that are not yet in ukrainian hands. i also note that it takes time to cross the border, and we should be sending this stuff as fast as possible, not having lawyers debate how many angels can dance on the tip. or debating which weapons should be considered offense if versus defensive. every weapon that we give them is a defensive weapon. it is russia that has invaded the ukraine. these distinctions do not make a of difference to an invading pilot. the answer to the question, what

kind of aid does ukraine need? the answer is more and faster. host: again, that is part of the senate floor. you can see that on our website on c-span.org. democrats line, go ahead. caller: how is it not an attack on nato, if putin says, we are going to invade this country because they might join nato and they are causing a flood of refugees into nato countries, they started in belarus. they invaded poland by sending refugees over the border. that could be considered an invasion. host: the message to the president would be what? caller: read article five and see if that could be interpreted .

to use nuclear weapons, that country could be considered an invasion of nato. it is a violation of nato's sovereignty, for all of the nato countries. host: we will hear from gary in connecticut. caller: good morning, pedro. first, i would like to commend president biden on his handling of ringing nato and europe together in the face of this aggression by russia. i have a thought, from the beginning, putin threatened nuclear weapons at the onset and

i think we need to remind him of the principle of mutually assured destruction and let him know that will -- that still exists. secondly, and very importantly, we would like to see a red cross humanitarian airlift fly to those cities that need medicine, food and so on. only humanitarian supplies. let the russians check the supplies when they land, but should they shoot down those unarmed, red cross type aircraft , then we should be able to respond with our f-22's and f-35's, which the russians do not want to meet up with. you have to call his bluff. i think a berlin type airlift

will call his bluff. host: let's hear from texas. caller: i think that may be biden should pay attention to general milley because millie was the one who said he contacted china and told them what the plans were. i'm not sure kamala harris and jill biden and nancy pelosi are the ones that i want to follow into battle because i'm not sure they are the ones that have the battle plan straight together. i'm thinking others have more information than biden himself. host: last call from democrats line, go ahead. caller: because of biden's maturity and his catholic

perspective and from a political perspective, he is considered an honest broker. if of all of the communities involved in this and how they all intersect with each other. i am so pleased that he is our president. he understands. host: your message to him would be what? caller: thank you for your maturity. keep up the faith. you are doing a great job. inc. you for being a peaceful man, for being an honest broker. host: you mentioned that. we believe that there. thank you. if you are still interested in talking about these issues, two members joining us before the house. he will hear from joe courtney of connecticut, who serves on

the house arms committee. republican congressman of louisiana serves as a top republican on the crisis committee. those conversations coming up on washington journal. ♪ >> the un security council meets this morning to discuss russian claims of biological weapons research labs. watch live on c-span two, online at c-span.org or on our free video at. >> and the dedication of his book, the heart of caring, dr. vonnegut tells his patients, teachers and parents everywhere, thank you for letting me have such a good time, when i go to work.

dr. vonnegut is a pediatrician who graduated from harvard medical school in 1979, after he had been diagnosed at age 25 with severe schizophrenia. he has had four breakdowns in his life but managed to successfully practice pediatrics for close to 40 years. his parents named him after another mark with the last name twain. he writes about patients, current and insurance companies. >> dr. mark vonnegut on this episode of book notes plus. president biden: i am honored to nominee jackson. >> i am truly humbled by the

extraordinary honor of this and i am especially grateful for the care that you have taken, and discharging your constitutional duty, and service of our democracy, with all that is going on in the world today. >> president biden nominates judge brown to succeed justice breyer on the supreme court. if confirmed, jackson would become the first african-american woman to serve on the nation's highest court. watch our live interop -- uninterrupted coverage, starting monday on c-span, c-span.org, or by downloading the free c-span at. -- app. host: our first guest of the morning serves on the house arms service committee and is the chairman of the subcommittee.

thank you for joining us. to that last title, as part of your work on that committee, one of the things you have to do is calculate how things get from various places to ukraine and what goes into the calculations? guest: they have all the programs in the u.s. military. omar bradley once famously said that strategy is for amateurs and logistics is for professionals. as we are talking this morning, the transportation command, the special unit that deals with logistical supplies is working around-the-clock. president biden new military assistance. all of that equipment flows through. the four-star general is highly decorated, and air force pilot.

she is the commander. we get a chance to get briefed by her and this is their finest hour. they are doing outstanding work, getting the equipment into eastern europe. it is going directly into ukraine, but there is ground transportation taking it to various groups because they have to be careful to avoid any russian military attacks. it is moving very fast. that is something people ask me a lot about. but then what? the fact is, we have really highly capable people who are doing the hard work of planning and getting the plane's income and making sure it is getting transport, so it gets to places all the way into eastern ukraine. it is an amazing success. a lot of it is classified, but over time, it will be a

significant story. host: how long before those supplies actually reach their destination? guest: we are talking days. it is somewhat of an overlooked aspect of the command. but that is where the professionals are. host: what do you think about this list? what do you think happens on the ground there? guest: ukraine has become a graveyard. they have done tremendous

damage. in terms of their lack of coronation with ground forces. number one, the volume of it is immensely large. it will also be in the case of much more sophisticated technology. again, i think it is a significant upgrade to efforts, to hit all her -- artillery positions and armored forces. host: the editors take a look at this list as well.

they make this assessment saying, when it comes to equipment, it will help, but it is unfair to ask why it has taken weeks of bombing to make this happen. the latest package reportedly includes the switch plates, but the pentagon should have delivered all those switch blades at the start of the war and then contracted to buy more. as far as getting things there sooner, what do you make of that? guest: 50% higher than any year prior to 2021. again, prior to yesterday's announcement, there was another 300 to 400 million. the last three weeks, being very close, the people have to actually perform the mission.

around the block, the flow is getting in there. they have demonstrated that they are a country that is ready to fight and fight hard. what we saw in terms of the announcement, that is not the end. there are going to be more. they are still under intense review. they had creating a closed airspace, as the president so powerfully requested. host: independence call in at (202) 748-8002.

you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. a similar case came from the court. i want to get your assessment of it. >> ukrainian air force is already know how to drive those aircraft. the biden administration rejected the offer out of fear that it might provoke mr. putin, or in the terms of war, it might escalate. winston churchill, another wartime leader aptly said, and appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping that it will eat him last. this cannot be the policy of the u.s. we cannot afford to be timid. host: that was the senator's

take. what do you think? guest: he is uniting nato anyway that i do not think has been seen since his origin. we have more participation. this is exactly what has happened. he is right that ukrainian pilots are trained. but he leaves out the real logistical questions about where did they fly from? who fuels them? it is highly questionable.

when the polls made the offer -- it was the airbase in germany. that is something that i think our nato allies would view as john naito directly into the airspace, and conflict, where planes would be get -- would get shot down. it has high escalatory risk. there are those in the house that agree with that view. the shipment of shoulder mounted antitank weapons and the seniors that can take low-flying aircraft -- there are discussions about surface-to-air missiles that slovakia has made an offer.

secretary austin made it clear yesterday that it is something that they want to actively pursue to see if they can get that capability inside ukraine. there are a lot of pieces that you have to think through. at this point, the notion that we are appeasing putin, whose military operations have been almost an embarrassment, in terms of how poorly they have been implemented. it has continued to yesterday. i think we have done good work, and terms of bolstering ukraine's defensive. host: joe courtney, democrat from connecticut. go ahead.

>> thank you. i wanted to say, thank you for taking my call and i am looking at the situation that we are looking at right now, and why aren't we looking at attacking russia? why aren't we looking at the border of alaska at this point? we have to think about that they are on the border of ukraine, and they are taking that so why aren't we putting pressure on this end because their military is so depleted at this point, and we are such a power. i want to know, why are we even considering this, and if we are, hopefully it is in secret because we have to keep this. guest: i do not think there is any appetite for invading or

occupying russia. there is clearly appetite for weakening with a variety of tools in the toolbox. we have not talked about economic sanctions. it has reduced the ruble to almost worthless currency value. the economic sanctions were done for cash reserves of russia. they have now been totally locked up and frozen. his own circle of corrupt oligarchs are really feeling the pinch. vladimir putin's speech, this incredibly delusional, nasty, paranoid speech, not at least lashing out at his inner circle. our military assistance and ukraine's heroic defense has stalled russia's, but it has

brought the russian economy to its knees. this is not going to vladimir putin's plan and i think it is important for our alliance to hold firm, to keep getting that assistance, but to actually start a war into the territory of russia? i do not see that on anyone's radar. caller: good morning. i have one question for mr. courtney. if biden is so against russia, why in the world is he trying to make a deal in iran for oil that will only profit russia and china?

he better get his head out of the sand and start protecting america. do you know how many people have come across our southern border? as many as have left ukraine. and we are not being protected. we better get the gas and all going in this country. we will need it until the day jesus christ steps foot in israel. host: that is a lot for our guest to consider. guest: negotiations are unilateral. there are those who blatantly went against the law. the priam administration dropped its support for the sanction regime and it basically went off of -- it went alone, and terms

of trying to disrupt the nuclear program. all we have seen is that they have created more material. right now, what this coalition of countries is trying to negotiate is getting that genie back in the bottle, making sure that the risk of a nuclear armed iran never happens, which i totally agree with you that it should not happen. this is about getting -- this is about nuclear armed iran. host: mark, independent line. caller: after watching the news last night and this war being continually disgusting, civilians being targeted and murdered, i believe what we need

to do, we need a huge military buildup of planes, drones, technology, etc. of american equipment and american soldiers, and have the president shipped all these resources there and called up vladimir and say, what do you want to do? i think -- i do not think politicians realize -- maybe -- i do not know what the pentagon is saying, but it seems like russia's army is not very capable, if all they can do is balm apartment buildings etc., just murdering civilians. they will not even fight the ukrainian army. we have all seen history and we have seen movies like gladiator and we have seen these huge wars that took place where the men, and the soldiers -- women can

fight, if they want, but they would go out to a field and fight. so i think ukraine -- vladimir has to be told that we will protect the people of ukraine. host: if you look at the package signed into law -- guest: half of it was a military nature. about 3 billion to 4 billion is going to naito to respond. it is to do precisely what he said, to boost u.s. presence in the baltic countries, and poland, romania and other allies that are very close to the russian border. the president made it very clear. not one inch of nato territory is going to be left undefended,

and that package, which he signed into law on tuesday. it will accomplish precisely what you are describing, and i would say -- i come from a defense district. there are 15 attack submarines that are there. this budget that he signed has a 6% increase for defense spending. it is higher than the prior administration and it is to strengthen programs like the submarine program, which is definitely a factor, and terms of putin's recapitalization. i am somebody who is very sensitive to vladimir putin's maligned behavior. they are actively involved in

protecting our country and naito from the maligned behavior. host: do you think it will force the u.s. to think about how big the defense budget should be? >> in about a week and a half, the fiscal budget will be released and i think pedro could come down on it and break it down, but my expectation is that particularly based on the budget that was just signed, which had a big increase, but that baseline with some growth will be included in it. there is no question. i think this outrageous, vicious invasion has kind of changed the dynamic of capitol hill and in our country about the fact that we live in a world where we cannot assume that particularly, some of these competitive forces

that are out there like china and russia are not going to be friendly and here for international rule of law which has been closely violated in ukraine. host: what is the real impact of this bill, if it becomes law? it is a profound impact. one of the things that russia fought for after the fall of the union was to get the status. what u.s. is saying is, it is time to remove that privilege trading status with the civilized world, which is what wto consists of. this is the democrats line. caller: my question is, how did the missile launches coming into ukraine presented?

the reason i ask is, if we are focusing on a no-fly zone and defense, has russia changed their strategy to ground to ground? are we providing enough? guest: that is a great look at the maps and we see a description of a bombardment of ukraine, sometimes people visualize that we are talking about the bullet in london. missile strikes primarily. some are coming from artillery. that is where i think the javelins and switchblade will be very effective, in terms of trying to eliminate or reduce the risk. some of the missiles i actually

some of these missiles are being fired from russian airspace. that squeezes another layer of complexity to this no-fly zone. are we saying that nato forces are going to fly into russian airspace to take out those missile launches? the x300's from slovakia, which i mentioned earlier -- that is the best defense for ukraine, in terms of the missile launches. it would be invaluable right now. putin, because of their ground invasion has reverted to a vicious attack on civilian populations. we need to protect these brave

people. host: here is john, republican line. caller: i wanted to talk about declaration of war and the second is more profits. i was talking to a recently retired general. i served in korea myself, in the 80's. we are just a speedbump in korea, as we have always been, so i get the concept of why we are across the world, but here is what the retired general told me. he said we have 34 four star generals in the pentagon today and we have not won a war since world war ii. we took on the world and we saved the world from nazis. we have had in this wars for no other reason than to make profit for the defense industry. eisenhower warned us of a -- of

that. the people in ukraine are good people, but the government is corrupt, as they are anywhere on the planet. why don't we be honest with the people. we are in it for profit, not democracy. guest: particularly his comments about whether the pentagon is top-heavy is a completely legitimate fact. i do think, and my conversations with defense leadership and some of the new team, there is a lot of interest in rebalancing, just the personnel expenses within the pentagon. i would say, if you look at the percentage of gdp that goes into defense spending, back when

general eisenhower made that incredibly powerful speech, it was closer to 10%. we have a much bigger economy, so some may say that is comparing apples to oranges, but i do not think anybody is interested in the u.s. military, and a war in the ukraine. i think the president made every effort to warn vladimir putin about the damage he would do to his own economy and his people, if you took this outrageous step. at this point, the assistance that we are giving to the people of ukraine -- a lot of it is just to the people at a grassroots level. it is about defending their physical safety and defending their sovereignty, which is totally in accord with international rule of law, which is the fundamental goal. our country and allies are

seeking to protect it. host: i want to ask about covid funding. we have seen the white house asking for more. where does it stand as of today? guest: we are trying to find ways to come up with a package that can get 60 votes in the senate, to get more of the vaccines antiviral treatments -- we are not out of the woods yet. we have seen a spike in europe again. knock on wood, it is a less lethal version of covid. for those vaccinated and boosted, they are in a better position to resist. i think the request is totally valid. it fell off the table when we passed the omnibus, but that does not mean that we will stop trying to find a way to get that done. the speaker made that loud and clear.

the chair of the appropriations committee is focused like a laser, trying to get that last piece of the package done. host: you are on with representative courtney. go ahead. caller: i would like to know what intel you have to make all these decisions. it seems for five years, we have listened to vlad bad, but now we are hearing that the u.s. government is bad. where did you get the intel? guest: if there is one success of this whole event, it is that the u.s. intelligence service transparently predicted what putin was going to do. unlike past crises, where the intelligence community was very stingy and unwilling to share what they were learning, i think

they made a really good decision to get it out there to the world so number one, the thought process was going to change, and it has, in terms of recognizing all the wishful thinking. that he could participate in a civilized way in world affairs. it has been demonstrated, as the intelligence community predicted. violating an internationally recognized border, and a way that we have not seen since world war ii. no matter the intelligence, the community were really spot on, in terms of the accuracy of what they were sharing, and they were

very transparent about it. host: representative courtney, thank you for your time. the house is coming in at 9:00 today. you will hear from republican congressman from louisiana, a member of the climate crisis committee. he will talk about russia, ukraine, that conversation coming up. >> the un security council meets this morning to discuss russian claims of biological weapons research labs in ukraine. watch live on c-span2, online at c-span.org or get full coverage on our video at. -- app.

every sunday on c-span2, book tv features author is on their latest nonfiction books. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, talking about his book, 25 lives. he argues democratic party leaders and their progressive policies are purse purposely misleading the american public and destroying the country. he is interviewed by a columnist and television host armstrong williams. at 2:00 p.m. we feature author talks from the 22 savannah book festival. gerard alexander with "volunteers." michael black with his book and margaret coker, the author of "the spymaster of baghdad." watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule

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representatives created a slight committee. it is not a permanent committee. it will be a temporary committee. this is year four that we are and you and it is a committee that has jurisdiction across all sorts of committees because the issue of climate change is so crosscutting. it ultimately is charged with coming up with recommendations on a strategy moving forward on energy, adaptation, and climate that it will form to the various committees like natural resources, commerce, and others. charged with coming up with a climate change strategy for the united states. host: amongst the committee itself, what are the concerns about the issues of ukraine and what it does for energy here in the united states? guest: the consequences on the united states are pretty profound and we can go through a few different categories. the first of which is price. we are seeing a further increase

or a compounding of energy prices on everything from gasoline at the pump to heating and cooling bills at your home. that is first and foremost. there are secondary effects. it affects the delivery, airplanes, virtually everything. just because energy powers are economy. -- our economy. the third one is emissions because we are going to see greater emissions coming out of energy production around the world as a result of what is happening here as people turn to other energy sources. maybe they were receiving natural gas from russia. maybe they had some oil and so they are now turning to coal to backfill that rush of energy -- russian energy that has been cut off. host: speaker pelosi yesterday speaking to that crisis and laying the blame on oil

companies. i want to play what she had to say and get your response. [video clip] rep. pelosi: the white house announced the release of 90 million barrels from the strategic reserve. we call on the industry to boost production and stop wording profits -- stop hoarding profits. oil prices are down. when the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up. when the price of oil goes down, the price of gasoline does not necessarily go down. it is not right and it is not fair. again, we want to say there are 6000 permits out there for people to drill and the industry can drill so they do not need to be updating our initiative to save the problem -- save the planet from the climate crisis. host: representative graves, what do you think about the argument she makes? guest: i will take the gloves

off on this one. this is why we have an energy crisis. it is comments like that that demonstrate a lack of understanding of american and global energy market. we have more production for approved permits in the united states than ever before. to suggest that people are sitting on them. let's go through a few of the actions that this white house did when they first got into office. they signed one of the first executive orders banning new production of oil and gas, banning new leases on public lands. they still have not issued a lease since they have been in office for a new production of oil and gas. you cannot just continue with production. the economy is picking back up from covid. we knew this is going to happen. they proposed and supported legislation to increase costs, royalties, taxes. they wanted to charge up to $10,000 per mile per year for the pipeline. the president said we are going to ban oil and gas.

they have blocked financing through some of these environmental and social justice goals. i am all on board with charting a path forward where america continues to lead. i want to emphasize continues to lead the world in reducing emissions because we have been the world leader. but doing it based on a strategy of america's resources, even the biden administration has clearly stated we are going to have surging demand for oil and gas globally. we have to meet it with cleaner energy resources here while we concurrently work on strategies to promote nuclear and wind and solar and hydro and geothermal and these other opportunities. we will need everything and we will need it cleaner, affordable, reliable and it is concerning seeing comments like that being made, then proposing legislative solutions on these false narratives. we have to take a step back and stick to the facts.

we have the ability to get ourselves out of this quandary but it will take ourselves working together and making sure we are talking about facts and not inventing false narratives. host: representative garret graves with us until 9:00. if you want to ask him questions, (202) 748-8000 democrats, (202) 748-8001 republicans, (202) 748-8002 independents. one of the subjects -- subcommittees you serve on his energy resources. when it comes to conflict overseas, what is the concern for the united states considering some of those things will be used for things like electric vehicles? guest: this is why we really have to take a step back and have a rational strategy moving forward. you are right, russia does have some of the critical minerals that are needed in order to build electric vehicles or to build some of the energy storage , the batteries that electric

vehicles are required to have. we cannot just go out there and say we will move all of the -- move to electric vehicles without thinking through. how will we ensure that we have a supply chain that is secure? a supply comprised of u.s. resources, things we are processing here, resources we are getting from our friends, our nato allies working together with candidate, with central and south america, with our european friends, australia, japan, and others. we have to see through the technology. not just the technology, how will we secure the supply chain? this is something we have been talking about but it is really apparent right now with this ukraine-russia debacle because what has happened over the last year is we have had 151% increase -- 161% increase in our dependency on crude oil. he knew the lever he had over us

was greater. that is why we are seeing the pain at the pump. the frustrating thing is we did not have to become dependent upon the russian supply chain. it was a mistake. we cannot walk into the same trap with electric vehicles without ensuring we have a secure supply chain first. host: the president talking to countries like saudi arabia and venezuela to offset some of the oil that would stop coming from russia. could you accept the short-term influx of those supplies? guest: unfortunately because of the shortsightedness on energy policy, those are the only options available in the short-term but it is important to note if you will make those unfortunate decisions or alternatives right now, you have got to ensure that you concurrently work on a domestic strategy or a u.s. strategy. that way we can ensure that as we are moving forward over the longer-term, we can backfill that with u.s. resources. host: for some calls on the

republican line, west chester, ohio. caller: thank you for taking my call. my concern is the lack of understanding on the american public now of how raw materials get converted into products. i will give you example. plastics come from feedstock. you can make degradable plastic from corn, but it is 10 times the cost. can you imagine every time you go to the store and picking up plastic? you're looking at a raw material that comes from energy produced here in the united states. another example is people are being scared to death over climate. i am a scientist. we have so many -- so much information. it is predicting that the next polarity switch on the sun, which happens every 11 years, will have a much cooler cycle.

one model shows an ice age between 2030 and 2045. people are just not informed and i do not understand why. host: thanks. guest: she made important points. even things like solar panels, battery storage, windmills, they require oil and gas to manufacture those. these folks that are saying we will ban this stuff, there is not technology to replace some of those components. there is a relationship there that we cannot ignore. number two, you bring up a point about what we refer to as climate change that is human influenced and what you refer to as biogenic which is natural changes. a lot of folks focus only on the human impacts and are not

looking at some of the natural cycles. louisiana 60 million years ago we were underwater in the gulf of mexico. it is important to factor all of those things into models. there have certainly been some natural cycles or biogenic changes that do cause some cyclical changes. all of those need to be taken into consideration. we are seeing greenhouse gas concentrations in the environment right now that are way too high. we have been able to demonstrate in the united states that we could reduce emissions more than the next seven emissions-reducing countries combined and we have done this and we have been able to maintain affordable energy in the united states. the major problems, i talked about false narratives and facts. he was natural gas, it has a 41% lower emissions profile than russian gas.

compared to asia, it is 47%. our products being exported result in a global reduction of emissions. last week people were sticking their head in the sand on what is happening globally. for every one ton of emissions we have reduced in the united states, china has increased by four. under the paris accords commitment, they will be increasing another 50% between now and 2030. it is amazing the false narratives, the untrue stories they are being told. then people create policies and laws based on them. we have to stop this. host: john, new jersey, democrats line. caller: good morning. i think you have been on the show before. you carry your arguments very well. i have a couple of thoughts. we subsidized the oil companies at a high rate, which is interesting to me.

pelosi did not articulate very well but oil companies do have to take some of the blame for this. they do cause some of the problems. after all, is a business, an international business. it is a world market. what they do in this country affects the world market, not just the united states and are oil. my one question for you is drilling on federal land is always an argument because that is the american people's land. with the oil only be sold domestically -- would the oil only be sold domestically and? not for international markets? ? have a good day. guest: i appreciate you calling. number one, is there some liability by energy companies? the answer is yes. what is also important to keep in mind is we cannot demonize these folks.

these are the people that will create the solution, that are creating the solutions for a cleaner energy future. they are very integrated into the global supply chain. to cut them off and blame them for things that were done in the 1940's and 50's before we understood the application of releasing emissions is flawed. let's work together to develop the solutions. number two, just to give you one quick stat, louisiana offshore energy production is the second highest revenue stream to the u.s. treasury. these companies are paying billions and billions of dollars just because people in congress have mismanaged those assets and resources. i do not think you blame the energy companies for that. on federal lands, if you are talking about drilling and oil well right in front of yellowstone lodge, not a chance in the world. but we have other lands managed by the bureau of land

management, the u.s. service and others that were supposed to be managed as part of a domestic energy strategy. i am assuming you probably are more sensitive to some of the lands that are used for our recreation and others. i'm a big hiker, climber, i love the outdoors. it is really important to me as well to protect those resources but we have other resources that are designed to become managed and designed to be for energy production. host: was that one of the arguments with the keystone that even some of the supplies would have gone outside of the united states? guest: i think keystone is one of those ones where there has been a lot of misinformation and i did not get into this, but one of the challenges for global energy market is you have heavy oil, sour oil, light oil, suite oil. the different contents of oil

that are used to make different products, certain refineries can only refine a light sweet or a heavy sour. it is not a scenario where you can necessarily just say we are stopping all exporting because we may need to export some of our light sweet crude in order to bring in heavy sour crude from venezuela, russia. because certain products are made from that certain refinery and can only refine the heavy or the light so it is more complex than just saying we will cut it all off. his point about trying to ensure energy security or energy independence once again because we achieve that in 2019 and 2020, it an important objective for the interior secretary. he referred to it as energy dominance and i love that term because we have the resources here in the united states. host: let's hear from patty in atlantic city on the independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.

i wanted to know what your opinion was. it is a little bit off subject but we are talking about oil and oil possibly causing world war iii and my question to you is senator rick scott said on television that he thought that the war was biden's fault and that we should go into, we should have a no-fly zone, which we all know was started world war iii and i wanted to know what your opinion on his comment is and what your opinion is on the no-fly zone. also, please send a message to your colleagues that i do not want world war iii. i do not want our troops to be fighting again. it is very important to me. host: that is patty in new jersey. guest: patty, thanks for calling. let me come out of the gate and

say watching what is happening in ukraine, seeing president zelensky speak to congress is heartbreaking. he made reference to attacks like 9/11 on the united states and basically said that is what is happening in his country and that does tug at our heartstrings and i'm sure it tugs at yours. there is an attack on freedom. i do think that the united states needs to be a royal leader -- a world leader of peace. part of the strategy we can take in doing that is by helping to provide some of the resources that ukraine needs. do i think we are at a point where i can stand up in front of the men and women that we represent and say that we need you or we need your sons and daughters to go? no, i do not think we are and if we can provide resources to help the ukrainians and others help to defend their country. some of the other things we can

be doing is further tightening the news on vladimir putin. let me be clear, new economic sanctions and others and really cutting him off. he is creating a path for russia that is similar to where north korea's. they will build an island. a combination of aggressive and globally coordinated efforts to supply ukraine with the resources they need in cutting off vladimir putin. i did not hear senator scott's comments but in regard to who is at fault, i want to make a point. i do not think it is coincidental that when valley mayor goodman rated crime area it was during the obama administration and independence on russian energy was significant. i do not think that it is a coincidence that we saw a 151% increase in importation of russian crude oil last year. he has more leverage over us. as you know, 41% of natural gas

going into the european union is coming from russia. was this preventable? i think that it was. it probably dates back to a longer-term strategy than just the biden administration and that would include governing officials in the european union. we have the resources here. i talked about ensuring that we secure energy supply chains for renewable energy sources as well as conventional resources. this is something that i personally have met with a number of ambassadors to the european union and have been trying to preach for years now. i think this was preventable but i do not want to suggest that this is something that happened within the last year. i think some of the european leaders made some mistakes in increasing dependence upon russia. i think united states made some mistakes as well. this could have been prevented if there had been a little bit more long-term strategy. we have to make sure we learn from this and we do not continue down this path. host: we saw an omnibus package

that included $16 million of aid to ukraine. we saw a bill in the house yesterday that was stop trade relations with russia. how are you on both of those efforts? guest: the one yesterday in regard to imposing further sanctions, i supported that one and certainly a big advocate of not giving russia any preferential treatment as it pertains to trade in regards to the omnibus bill. it was split up into two different votes and i opposed both. let me say while. the bill was released at 1:30 a.m. 5000 pieces -- 5000 pages spending taxpayer dollars. that is not a way to govern. i will tell you in high school and college, i was one of the best exam grammar's there was. i cannot stand up in front people and say this is good.

we went through thousands of pages, myself and other coworkers, trying to understand what was in the bill. we had hurricane ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in the united states that pounded our state last year. there was zero for them at $7 billion for international disaster aid. i am an advocate of giving aid to ukraine but there was a bunch of a for other countries. we cannot treat americans or discriminate against them and treat citizens of other countries better or differently, especially when we are talking about tax dollars. i am not talking about ukraine but i am talking about the other billions of dollars in aid to other countries. that had a big influence on our boat as well. host: but here from illinois, democrats line. caller: hi. i want to say that first of all, you speak quickly and state a lot of facts that are really hard to fact-check because that is what i do.

i go back and fact-check b ut i cannot slow it down enough to do that. i am baking to inform the american people that it is fair to do a little bit more -- i am thinking to inform the american people that it is fair to do a little bit more fact checking and less talking. recycling is part of the climate that we can personally control, whether we recycle things and whether they go through the recycling process. louisiana, i was appalled. you cannot even recycle glass in new orleans which is more of a progressive area. i am just wondering why that is and it has been so long since we have had recycling. people in illinois are pretty good at it. it has not even touched louisiana. host: thank you.

guest: first of all, my wife often accuses me of not being a great communicator as well and i am sorry about that. if there is anything that i said that you have questions about my feel free to give us a call and i will be happy to go through and provide the site through any number that we mentioned. please call our office and i will get you the information for you to check it out. on new orleans, you are right. they did suspend the recycling program. i apologize. i do not know the latest but i will reach out to the mayor's office. we do not represent the city of new orleans. we are more salt of the southeast and northeast of there -- we are more to the southeast and northeast of there. my hometown, we have a robust recycling program. as you know, one of the things we need to be doing moving forward is helping to find alternatives.

we need to be working to make sure that it is more lucrative to recycle a lot of these materials to keep them out of the landfills and to reuse them. that is something that the republican leader kevin mccarthy has charged us with is looking at recommendations for conservation and environmental initiatives to where we can help to lessen the environmental footprint and create better markets for recycling opportunities like that and reusing opportunities like that. host: this is randy in virginia on the independent line. we have minutes for -- before the house comes in. go ahead quickly. caller: have we emboldened president putin to invade any country that is not nato? recently he told the russian people on the news that they do not define the redline. we define the redline. have we emboldened president putin to use whatever force up

to chemical weapons or nuclear weapons? my second point is why are we still allowing stations like radio sputnik on our airwaves and "russia today?" russia recently banned all-american news. guest: let me take your second one first. that is called the first amendment. we all hear people say things we do not agree with all the time but i will fight to the death for the protection of the first amendment and our right to free speech i think is really important. with that, i want to say it is also important for us to arm ourselves with facts and correct information. if i ever hear any propaganda like that, i will be turning the radio down. i hope you do too. and i hope it is entirely uneconomic in those stations

pumping out false information. i hope they all go bankrupt. you make a very good point on the redline. are we properly sending a message or are we sending a forceful enough message to vladimir putin that we will not tolerate, the global community will not tolerate this type of behavior and aggression? i think it was a mistake for the united states to entirely take off the table military action, whether that is sending drones, aircraft, or others. it is better to make him wonder if we are willing to do it. i am not going back on the comment i made earlier. i do not think it is to the point where we send our men and women. i think we have to keep him wondering. i think it was a mistake for the white house to take that off the table early on. you are exactly right. the global community has got to send a more powerful, cohesive message to russia, to vladimir

putin that this is absolutely something that will not be tolerated and if he continues, we will continue tightening the screws. some of the efforts in seizing assets of oligarchs, seizing some of his hidden assets and putting sanctions on some of the indirect connections to vladimir putin will have to continue to be done. russia is on the cost of faulting on some of their debt and this is hopefully where you see some of this domino effect or cascading of russia deteriorating and we have to continue helping that to happen in order to influence vladimir putin to do the right thing and stop this ridiculousness. host: representative garret graves, republican of louisiana, representative of the climate crisis committee, the reiki member. we are just about to -- the ranking member. we are just about to go into health coverage. we now take