tom's take on 2022 as we get closer to the midterm elections. and a harvard tells us what we have learned at tuesday's congressional hearing on ufos. it is wednesday, may 18th, 2022, after several midterm primaries. in pennsylvania, deck mastery and will be the gop nominee, but the gop senate nomination has yet to be determined. madison cawthorn lost his bid for reelection. we will talk about others contests and more this morning. as we do, we want to hear your reaction.

give us a call -- democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001 independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. if you do, include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. good wednesday morning. you can start calling in now. last night, the biggest headlines coming from pennsylvania. we take you there first to that undecided race, the republican senate primary. the latest from the associated press, dr. oz at 31.3%. his challenger, dave mccormick at 31.3%.

95 percent of votes counted in that primary. it is pat toomey's see that they are competing for. you see kathy barnett gaining some momentum toward the end of the race, 24.8%.but the race between awes and mccormick likely to go to a recount. we wait for the final 5% of votes to be counted. whoever wins, will face the democratic nominee who won with 59% of the vote yesterday. conor lamb, democratic congressman from pennsylvania took 26.4%. malcolm piñata taking 10% in that race, but it is john federman, the democratic nominee

who had a health scare toward the end of that campaign and spent primary day in the hospital recovering from a heart condition. we take you to the other big race from pennsylvania, the governor's race. deck mastery and -- doug mastriano winning the republican nomination. his biggest competition is our letter -- is lou barletta. doug mastriano will take on josh schapiro, pennsylvania's's attorney general, in the general election. heat was running unopposed and will be the democratic nominee. last night, this is doug mastriano at his victory party, talking about the race and the general election. >> they like to call people who

stand on the constitution far right end extreme. that is not true. their party, which the media advocates for, they have gone extreme. they are the ones that set back policies and killed so many. that is extreme forcing kids to mask up, forcing health-care workers to lose their job without getting a jab. it is extreme when you shut down half the small businesses in our state. our view for pennsylvania is one of hope and freedom that people come here and walk as they see fit, not as some media hack sees fit. we are going to restore the dream to pennsylvania, a place you want to live. we will be the most prosperous state in the nation, open up our

energy sector like never before. we will go from number three in the nation energy producer to number one that will bring jobs and be a marvel to watch. josh shapiro is backed by dark money, unions, corruption. they think they can win this by throwing $20 million or $30 million around, but the people of pennsylvania, we do not consent. host: doug mastriano last night at his victory party. the republican nominee for governor in pennsylvania in november. taking your calls this morning after primary day in five different states. pennsylvania probably got the most attention but more to talk about. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

independents, (202) 748-8002. we start pittsburgh. this is james, and independent. what did you think last night? caller: we do not vote in primaries. [inaudible] they president lincoln on april 14, 1865 and put the confederacy back together. we are dealing with reality. we are not dealing with, i do not want you to disconnect me, but do not think 9/11 was not an inside job. host: we stick to the primaries and campaign 2022. we want to get thoughts from viewers around the country on those races. we starting primary season.

several more primaries coming up within the next week. may 24, alabama, arkansas, texas, georgia having runoffs. some races in north carolina getting a lot of attention yesterday. i want to take you to north carolina's jp senate primary. ted budd beating pat mccrory and mark walker. ted budd winning handily. he is also a trump-endorsed candidate. the other election in north carolina that got a lot of attention -- madison cawthorn, antiestablishment, youngest member of congress, he is now the second incumbent to lose his

reelection bid in 2022, following david mckinley. madison cawthorn loses to check edwards. 33.4% for check edwards to madison cawthorn's 31.9%. in north carolina, you win with 30% plus one. so that is enough for check edwards to carry the seat -- ch uck edwards to carry the seat. that is getting a lot of attention. a lot of scandals in recent weeks being reported in that race. madison cawthorn saying he is going to overcome it all and when. -- win.

i want to get the process of campaign 20 primaries after the key races. mitchell in new jersey, line four democrats, what did you think? caller: a couple of thoughts. one, it is disturbing to see such a lack of issues and policies and positions by candidates on both sides. i understand that primary races are not going to have the substance of a general, but it is alarming. what i am seeing on the republican side is who can out trump. in order to get trumpet support, the lit must test seems to be that you have to believe in what

is an objective life that the election was stolen. that to me is a dangerous position, because you have an entire portion of the country buying into this. it is completely toxic to our democracy and our survival as a nation. i am not saying that republicans have to agree with democrats. i know we are going to disagree on taxes, abortion, gun rights, but to have the fundamental issue the -- issue be a false, nonsensical, proven in the courts lie -- host: do you think the media focused too much on donald trump's endorsements?

obviously, that is a big part of the storylines in these republican primaries. caller: i do. the media goes towards the horserace. then it devolves into who is going to beat who, but it is never about substance. the media has been doing this forever, but in this instance, it has gone a step too far. it is -- if the sole purpose of gaining comps endorsement -- if you are the sole purpose is to gain trump's endorsement -- to determine whether this light can

metastasize, then we have a serious issue. host: do you think democrats get caught up in that if it is a bernie sanders endorsed candidate or an alexandria ocasio-cortez-endorsed candidate? caller: not to this degree. the problem in the democratic party is that we get caught up on the label. aoc spat out green new deal, progressive, whatever. joe manchin is conservative. but without policies behind those labels, you become the label. certainly, the democratic party is guilty of that. host: these candidates have six months to get beyond the label and into substantive issues.

it is the height of primary season this may and june. we are in the heart of it, getting your comments on the issue of trump's endorsements and what that means in races. the hill wraps up their take away, saying trump's endorsement power remains in question after last night, noting that his preferred candidate won in north carolina but also that madison cawthorn lost his race last night. it was doug mastriano, a trumpeter's candidate, who won and dr. oz waiting to see what happens in that primary in pennsylvania. in idaho, comes endorsed candidate for the governorship

was defeated by brad little. well the former head been endorsed in several other races, there were several across last night that he played in. it will take a few more weeks to see how those endorsements have played out. rory is, california, republican line. caller: good morning. everything is certainly going more red from blue. even in california, there is talk of going purple because they are not taking care of american citizens. on the border, who want to take the stuff that biden left but leave and stop people. we have had way too many immigrants. to completely block the border

from anybody new coming in and do whatever extreme things necessary to do it. things have hurt too much for too long. they are trying to help aliens at the expense of american citizens. host: (202) 748-8000 for democrats as we wrap up last night's primaries. republicans, (202) 748-8001. s, -- independents, (202) 748-8002. john said amendment winning the democratic gubernatorial primary in pennsylvania -- john federman winning john federman underwent a successful pacemaker implanted surgery on tuesday, the day of

the primary. he completed the procedure, a spokesperson said yesterday that the procedure began yesterday afternoon and he was released around dinnertime, given the all clear, saying it was successful. doctors say he is resting and recovering well. he had surgery to remove a blood over the weekend. he had the pacemaker surgery on tuesday, that addressed some of the underlying causes of the stroke, specifically atrial defibrillation. that from nbc philadelphia yesterday. it was last night, just before midnight, that conor lamb, who was running against john federman, sent out this tweet conceding the race, saying i

entered this saying i believed that democrats needed a real debate. i am proud of my campaign. i respect voters decision and congratulate john on his victory. at john federman's victory yesterday, it was his wife who spoke. >> you may have noticed i am not john federman. [laughter] the next senator of our great state. before i get started, i would like to take a moment to -- [inaudible] my husband, john federman [inaudible] john had a little hiccup on friday while we were on the road campaigning. thank god he is on his way to a full recovery.

we are grateful to the staff at penn medical for going above and beyond to support our family. john also wants to thank every single one of you. during one of the [inaudible] of our lives and this election, you made sure we felt supported and loved. there's nothing john likes more than being on the campaign trail. the time off has been hard on him. on friday, i noticed something was off. he did not want to go to the hospital, but i insisted, and as usual, i was right. god i made him go because -- i am glad i made him go because doctors were able to act quickly and john is going to be back on his feet. the second reason is i now have

one more thing i get to hold over him. i saved his life, right? i will never let him live that down. host: the baby sylvania john federman -- the second lady of pennsylvania at john federman's victory party. a shorter phone segment then usual, only until 7:30 because we will be joined by sylvia garcia at the bottom of the hour, but we are setting aside this first half to get your reaction to yesterday's primary. it was pennsylvania that got the most attention, but we want to hear which ones you interested in. this is joe, line for democrats. caller: i am glad to see that

people of north carolina have at least some sense and were able to knock madison cawthorn out of his seat. that man, i cannot believe he won in the first place. glad he was a one term guy. after the scandals, it is good to see you can have those scandals happen -- even though we had four years of trump scandals and that did not seem to do too much to his base, even though it was a close race, he was able to get kicked out. ted budd, most pro-trump candidates and of any of the primary reasons that are being decided from the past few days. i am very worried. north carolina has been between the bathroom bills and the health care bills, it is

worrying to me that the most pro-trump candidate was the one who took the republican race last night. he owns a gun store, so that cannot be good for gun regulation. that is all i have two say. host: a lot of folks in somewhere else. are you from north carolina? caller: no, but my family ties for a there for many years. i was in north carolina in the charlottesville rally happened. it is unfortunate that we have so much family history there, because i would like to stop supporting the industry there. i do not stand had any of the local politicians or what their

representatives to congress stand for. [indiscernible] host: joe in d.c. . on twitter, no -- knows congressional districts, senate races like the back of his hand. to follow the official north carolina results, chuck evans with 33.4%. it only takes 30% plus one to win in north carolina. it was senator thom tillis who was supporting chuck edwards over madison cawthorn in the republican senator with this statement yesterday, just keep amanda terkel -- republicans

chose edwards because he is the embodiment of mountain values that will fight for him every day in congress, honor, integrity. i have no doubt he will win in november. i cannot wait to work with him and hold the biden harris administration accountable for its failed policies. another report -- headlines brought attention to hawthorne, but the real thing that probably cost him renomination is that he was ignoring the district in pursuit of celebrity. one more tweet -- madison cawthorn is the second house number to bruce denomination in 2022, along david mckinley of west virginia was redistricted.

getting your reaction this morning, tom, ohio, democrat. caller: this is a crazy old, 86-year-old tennessean. host: 86 is not that old. caller: my thoughts on politics is they are all crooks. just look at ohio. our crooks here, because of redistricting, any you have got crooks, politicians creates a give-a-ment. i am 86, on social security insurance capital out in august or september. i have to sign up for medicare

and social security knows i have insurance, but they automatically started taking the $170 out of my nose. last month and this month. then the scam calls, a shame. host: on the primary question, we focus on ohio last week. what do you think tim ryan's chances are against j.d. vance for that open u.s. senate seat? caller: if i vote, i will vote for ryan. at least he is a decent human being. i cannot say that for j.d. vance, the hillbilly elegy. i am hillbilly. i get disgusted. i am going to lose my temper.

host: did you read that book? caller: hello, no. i would not waste my time. host: this is calvin in the tar heel state, independent. caller: what -- when i saw that primary yesterday, i saw that it has gotten to the point where people do not want to accept right and wrong when it is right in your face. they would rather put up racists, white supremacists instead of people fighting for the country. it is not about republicans, democrats, independents, is about the right people to survive. just like the shooting in buffalo, all of that stuff is

because of white supremacy. if you allow them to keep on cheating and stealing elections, you've got the race with dr. oz last night, you look at copthorne and how they keep changing the rules. they say that we have to wait until the end, it is that matter -- people have to realize at the end, when they count the votes, that is what is going to cap. -- to count. host: you mentioned the shooting in buffalo. the president was there yesterday, saying we will not win. the headline, president announces racist conspiracy theory. >> what happened here is simple,

straightforward, terrorism. domestic terrorism. violence inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious raised for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group. the hate that. the media, politics, the internet has radicalized and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced by the other, by people who do not look like them and are therefore perverse and lesser beings. i reject the lie. i called on all americans to reject the lie. and i condemn those who spread

the life for power, political gain, and for-profit. [applause] that is what it is. host: by yesterday. -- president biden yesterday. a few minutes left in this segment. (202) 748-8000 for. republicans, c-span.org. --guest: (202) 748-8001 -- centrist democrats encouraged by the d&c. if that does not show the clear divide between the base and the ones they say they have, i do not know what else will. this is rick, florida, independent. what did you think of the

primaries? caller: each has the country is evenly divided. for -- it will probably be close in all the races. like the color said, they keep changing the rules, what they changed the rules in the presidential election. they changed it because of convey. on most every state tried to get the rules changed right before the election when there was not time to properly debate it. host: in 2022, which race are you most interested in? caller: pennsylvania. it is so close where they are going to have that is not really going to be decided. they will have two do more on

that election between the doctor and mccormick. host: go to a tenant. -- that c ould go to a recount. very tight. that was probably the most closely watched race that was not called last night. the associated press keeping track of that race, separated by .2% at last check. that will do it for this first segment this morning. we will be tucking an open forum about some of these races last night, but up next, sylvia garcia to talk about the future of abortion rights and gun violence prevention. later, we will be joined by newsmax tv host tom basile to

discuss the campaign 2022 and the races that have yet to be cited. we will be right back. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2 features authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. at 9:00 p.m. eastern, a journalist with his book about the history of the american right wing and the populist challenge to mainstream conservativism. at 10:00 p.m. eastern, mark esper shares his book sacred oath on his time serving in the trumpet administration. he is interviewed by parnell. find a full schedule and your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org.

>> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to the invasion of ukraine, bringing the latest from the president, is the pentagon, as well as congress and international perspectives -- all on the c-span networks, the freight mobile app, and at c-span.org/ukraine. you can follow the latest tweets from journalists on the round at c-span.org/ukraine. >> washington journal continues. host: congresswoman sylvia garcia now. she is a democrat from texas. i want to start with that failed effort by congressional democrats to codify roe v. wade

into federal law. texas is one of those states with a trigger law. explain what happens in texas if the supreme court were to overturn roe v. wade. guest: people need to remember that rugby laid -- remember that roe v. wade still is the law of the land. women still have the freedom to choose. texas regrettably has led the way in this arena. we have already been living a much closer to life without roe v. wade, because the abortion law that texas passed last year is so horrific that it almost criminalizes abortion and totally takes away the decision for a woman to make her own personal decision. the law also included a

provision that if roe v. wade were overturned that within 30 days of the decision, another portion triggers -- it has nothing to do with guns -- but it is called a trigger law because this action triggers another provision, which essentially criminalizes abortion and especially for medical providers, that if anyone aids and embeds -- and abets in this procedure, they will be subject to felony charges and potential jail time. that is what is at stake. with the supreme court doing what we think it is going to do, we will be criminalizing abortion and criminalizing medical care. this is something people need to

realize that it is more than just roe v. wade, it is the criminalization of abortion. host: you mentioned texas is leading the way on these laws. what is it about texas this issue that texas is leading the way? guest: it is similar to the national problem. a recent gallup poll says that 80% of the public wants access to abortion and thinks roe v. wade should be protected. summarily, in texas, is about 65% to 70% in my own district. we did a survey. the votes were 72% for protecting access to abortion. they are not listening to the public. they are listening to the base, their own views, and the plan

they have had for decades. the problem is that we need a change in government that will listen to the public and to judicial precedent. host: on that bill to codify roe v. wade that passed the house but was not able to overcome the filibuster in the senate, it was your colleague henry cuellar who was the only democrat against that bill in the house. what are your thoughts on his stance on this issue? is this something that democrats should shun other democrats over? guest: i have known mr. cuellar for a long time. he is catholic like i am. we just have different views.

i am a former judge. i believe in the rule of all and settled law and more importantly in women's decisions. this personally affects me, my nieces, my grandchildren. it is personal to a woman about a woman's personal freedom. freedom does not come to us wrapped up in pink or baby blue. freedom is for everybody. it has enough sex. women should have the same freedom that men do. i do not see any instance where anyone is suggesting that we control men's bodies. are we going to start forcing them to have that sector mise because we -- to have vasectomie s because we want to do

something about the potential of men raping or assaulting someone? we needed to make sure that this issue is about women's personal, private decisions. it is her right and the government should not interfere. if anyone should tell her what to do, it is the people she chooses to advise her, like her doctor, her family, a person of faith. for me, my priest. greece position when that different from mine, but i respect it, because that is what pro-choice is about, respecting people's decisions. i am catholic, i am unabashedly pro-choice. host: sylvia garcia with us until the top of the hour. (202) 748-8000, democrats.

(202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002,s --independents. president biden in buffalo yesterday calling white supremacy a poison and calling for an assault weapons ban. in this congress, do you see any appetite to take up the idea of an assault weapons ban? guest: i do not think it is a question of our appetite. i think the public is demanding it. people are tired of hearing of the incidents. they are happening too often. what happened in buffalo was horrific, but so were other incidents. my heart breaks when i hear the

audio of one of the relatives of one of the victims, saying, we are tired, angry. many people i have talked to, even in texas, are tired. i know how to shoot a rifle, a shotgun. i own a 410 in case i have an intruder, but it is only for that purpose. handgun in my view are not for hunting or protection. they are for killing. we need to do something about making sure that bad guys do not their hands on handguns. when you can make sure that these weapons do not get in the hands of bad guys and sometimes bad women. -- we need to make sure that these weapons do not

get into the hands of bad guys and sometimes bad women. i have been hunting, but you do not take a handgun to hunt. it is meant to shoot many people quickly. i support a ban because people want action. we stood up on the floor for those victims of buffalo. one of my colleagues said, but what are we going to do? it is time to do something. i am glad the president is putting that on the table. we need to rally around it and the public needs to show this is something they demand. bob, tennessee, republican line. caller: the second amendment,

trying to understand what it means. as far as babies go, i do not see how women could be so heartless and murder an innocent child. you act like life do not matter that you are worried about a gun killing somebody. it is not the gun, it is the video behind it, just like you women. host: that is bob tennessee. congresswoman? guest: to me, what is important is a woman's freedom. we have to protect that. it has been settled law for 50 years. we have to keep in mind that roe v. wade is restrictive. people cannot get an abortion on demand as you are trying to suggest good is just in the first trimester. any abortion in the later months

, when there is more of a permission of the navy, those mostly do not happen. we need to look at the rights of the mother and exceptions for rape and incensed -- incensed. -- incest. this is coupled law. the woman needs to make that private decision after consulting with her doctor or man or woman of the cloth. host: ape, virginia. caller: --host: abe, virginia. caller: when people send people to congress, we are sending you there to represent us, not to preach to us, not to tell us what to do good in this specific

instance of abortion -- guest: take your time. caller: in this specific content congress, you are not to tell us what is and is not a woman's right, if you take that as a right, the voice of the fathers are not being considered. you mentioned the fathers. number two, talking about gun rights, that is in the constitution. it is not for you as a representative to decide how to fine-tune the constitution -- the rights given by the constitution to tell us moralistic late what we are supposed to have and not have.

guest: on the first point, you may have missed what i said, consulting with her family. her family would include the husband or partner or whoever she was involved with. but the bottom line is the ultimate choice has two be placed on the freedom to choose, on the woman. it is her body, her personal, private decision. i have seen some women and talked to some who are devastated in making the decision. it is not a quick decision. they have to search their hearts, soul, conscience. we have to respect that.

i did say family and i think it is important that the woman consult with who -- with her support, whoever it is. this is a hard decision. there is a right to bear's in the constitution, but also other rights -- to bear arms in the constitution but also other rights. reset parameters. free speech is in the constitution, but we do not let someone walk into a theater and say something that would incite violence. there are parameters around all of our rights in the constitution. assault weapons is probably not what the founding fathers were thinking about. they were talking about the militia and how to prepare themselves in case we had the

english or someone coming to invade us that we would have a right to defend ourselves, like i have a shotgun in my house to defend my property. it is something we need to keep in mind that we have rights embedded in the constitution, but we have always set parameters. if someone challenges that, it would go to the supreme court. host: a question from twitter, great about the 410, but what about your power grid in texas? rates are sky high and it is not even summer yet. any solutions? guest: it will require changing government. our governor has failed us in this regard. he miserably failed us last year.

we are not even in the full heat of the summer and last weekend, we got messages to start raising our thermostats to 78 to conserve energy. the governor appoints people for the board that manages the grid. he has a light of say in what goes on there -- has a lot of say in what goes on there. it is time for us to consider joining the national grid, time of rs is to have people in those offices that are about serving the consumers, because we are not getting in a lot of detail. i used to be a state senator. we looked at these issues. there was a study made with

recommendations to weatherize our grid, to make updates. they have failed to do that because they do not want the increased costs to the people that own the generators and help us produce electricity. it is mixed priorities. they should be about making sure they are working for the consumers and not the contractors. host: arlington, virginia, line for democrats. this is jason. caller: full disclosure, i do not like much about texas, but i love you. you have got the best music in the country, but somehow it does not get out into the culture as far as civil rights discourse, but that is beside the point.

i am from buffalo originally, six blocks walking from that supermarket. i appreciate anything you, your colleagues, anything you can do to not just reach across the aisle, but put a good croak around people's next and get them to realize that this country is way too good to be this too stupid. six bullets are enough to protect your home. you do not need 90. peace out and god bless you, congresswoman. guest: i know that you hurt a lot. i am so sorry about what happened.

we want to make sure it does not happen again. as i said earlier, people are tired, want to see action. it is important to keep in mind that this is all about hate. it was planned, based on race. it was a young man who had very, very different views. unfortunately, hate crimes are on an increase. white supremacy is on an increase. i sit on the judiciary committee and recall when the fbi director came in and testified. we know it when we see it. we need to do something to find a way to bring people together and address some of these

issues, not just guns but this epidemic of hate. we need -- we have and to do. host: you mentioned your work on the judiciary committee. last week, you joined arms -- armed services as well. guest: i have been working on a bill with jackie speier. it is the nsa again act -- the vanessa gilland -- guillen act. she was a young soldier murdered at fort hood by another soldier. there were allegations that were looked at. they were true, she was sexually harassed. it was a toxic environment at

fort hood. we made changes in that act last year to make sure that complaints and allegations of sexual assault are out of the chain of command to ensure that the soldier making the complaints can do that without fear of retribution or disciplinary action. we made of changes. during that process, i set in on many armed services committee meetings, went to fort hood several times. as even jackie speier said, almost getting better attendance and some of the committee members. some of the requests -- there

was a vacancy, they asked if i wanted to serve. i said yes. it is an honor to serve on a committee that will be about making sure that all our soldiers in all of our armed forces in our installations across the globe that they receive the protection and resources, the salary that they deserve. it is about making sure i can follow on the work i was doing on the act but also to make sure i was protecting the people who protect us,. our soldiers host: this is a way, colorado, independent. caller: i am a registered libertarian. one issue big on my mind is immigration, not just in terms

of people coming in but the backlog. you mentioned your role in the armed services committee. there is a book called blowback. one of the root causes of these uneven migration patterns has to do with military intervention throughout the decades, around the world, as well as covert operations by the cia and other government actors. do you think we need to do to reassess our interventionist role in the world as a way to tackle immigration? guest: to be honest, i have never heard that. in terms of what causes migration. people have been looking at

migration patterns for many years. it is not a new problem. it does not matter who is in the white house, there will always be issues they did to immigration, but i have never heard anything that it could be related to any intervention around the world. but i have only been on the committee one week. let me get my feet on the ground and i will look at that. i certainly am open to any suggestions that would help on the immigration issue. we may have to revisit this question. host: mary, louisiana, line for democrats. caller: i am hauling [indiscernible] host: mary, turn your television

down. caller: calling -- i am calling about women getting abortions, we have the right. it is our body. to them, i want to say, who do they think they are when we have to cite for our rights -- we have to fight for our right? we are going to take something from the men. host: congresswoman? guest: it is a hard decision to make, whether or not to be a parent. it is hard particularly in today's world. when a woman becomes pregnant, it is important that we recognize that she is carrying.

it is her personal, private decision. we need to respect that. i am catholic. i am pro-choice. if i had gotten pregnant, i probably would not have had an abortion, but that is what i would decide. those are decisions that we make. it is important that we protect the freedom to control your own body and make your own personal medical care decisions with no interference by the government. ask yourselves this, if they can tell women what they can do with their bodies, what is next? that is the key question today and maybe a topic for when i return to talk to y'all on this program. host: sylvia garcia, democrat

from texas, thank you for your time. coming we will talk campaign 2022 with newsmax tv host tom basile. later, avi loeb will join us to discuss what we learned at yesterday's congressional hearing on ufos. for the next half hour, it is our open forum. any public policy issue, political issue you want to talk about, phone lines, the numbers are on your screen. start calling in now and we will be right back. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. live at 9:00 a.m. eastern on

american history tv and "washington journal" will mark the 100th anniversary of the lincoln memorial with skald -- scholar harold full third. he will join us to talk about the democratic ideas memorial has come to represent. at 2:00 p.m., "campaign of the century" where he re-examines the 1960 presidential campaign between richard nixon and john kennedy and the outcome of that election. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online any time at c-span.org/history. >> there are a lot of places to get political information. but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or

where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere, america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: for the next 30 minutes we turn the reins to you. it is our open forum. what political issue do you want to talk about? what state issue, especially after five states held midterm primaries including pennsylvania. let us know what you think. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

you are up first. caller: the first thing i want to ask you people on c-span, why don't you ever ask any hardcore questions? tell the people the real truth about the civil war. tell the people that abraham lincoln was a black man. after they assassinated him, they took the portraits down in the basement. host: that is michael. in petersburg. this is dora in alaska, democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling because i am definitely against abortion. host: we are hearing you through your phone so you can stop listening to your tv and go ahead with your comment. caller: ok. i am calling because i am against abortion.

what about the baby's rights? when we were born, our parents did not abort us and we are here today. in the united states, we need to stand up for the babies because the babies have a right to be here in our nation -- and our nation needs to go. look at ukraine how the war is starting over there. we have to think about our nation. they are talking about woman's rights. what about our nation's rights? host: that is dora in alaska. this is gary in virginia, good morning. . go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for the forum.

i want everyone to call the white house and tell president biden to convert all of our buses and trucks. 40% of our crude goes to commercial uses and if we do this, that would free up 40% more crude for gasoline and jet fuel, which is exorbitant right now. this will bring the price of gasoline way down. it is produced locally. we do not need refineries, which are dangerous and dirty places. vast improvements in air quality. asthma alerts drop by over 50% in four or five years after metro switched over to natural gas. the buses used to look like they were burning trash down in d.c at the bus depot. host: what is the price of a gallon of gas in virginia?

caller: $4.25. host: what does that mean for you as you try to navigate these price increases? caller: i was talking to my wife about it the other day and i was spending $30 a week on gasoline. but now i am spending $36 a week on gasoline. but i'm retired so i do not do a lot of driving. that is my social life, doctors and so forth. host: thanks for the call from sterling, virginia. the price of gas in your area is lower than the national average. it is about $4.57 nationwide according to aaa. the west coast right now along with illinois and new york state with the highest gas prices in the country. gas prices at aaa.com if you

want to check out the gas map. this is charles in the constitution state, independent. good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i wonder why the v.a. thinks they are throwing guns away because of mental health issues. they were just sitting ducks out here. they get killed because the psychiatrist takes the weapons away. i do not understand that. host: that is charles in connecticut. this is john in virginia. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i was just wondering if you -- i have been watching for a few years. it just seems like the democratic and liberal callers are always so mad or so bitter or so upset about everything as opposed to the independent or

the republican callers. it is almost everyone on the liberal line is auditioning to get on "the view." i don't know if trump got them that way or what gets them mad but it seems like if they would calm down and take things in stride, people might listen to them instead of screaming. i cannot stand either side screaming wake up. host: what do you take from the callers? what do you learn from listening to this program? is it helpful? caller: i learned very little. i watch for entertainment because i am fascinated at all the different views from across the country. and you can tell which ones listen to fox. you can tell which ones listen to cnn. i watch all the channels and i try to get an opinion, form an opinion, but most people, it seems like they watch the news, whatever channel it is for 5 minutes monday and they take that as gospel and they believe it.

i do not understand why the liberals -- i did not like nancy pelosi. but i do not wake up every morning hating her. i just do not understand why trump drives people crazy. he actually did a good job if anybody would sit down and analyze it. yes, he is a narcissist. yes, he can get on your nerves. he is obnoxious, but he is a good president. for summary, can we even try to admit that? host: that is john in virginia. this is marie in greenville, mississippi on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to make an observation. i was watching some of the senate races that were going on last night and the one in pennsylvania and it was amazing to me that one state vote with approximately 400 plus people and they are still counting way

until this morning. they are continuing to count. during the presidential election across the country, 80 million votes had to be counted and donald trump thought that the election should have been called at 10:00 that night. because it was not called when he was ahead, then all of a sudden he started claiming the election was being stolen. but pennsylvania is still counting, which is normal and that is fine. but the point is they are still counting from 400,000 votes up until this morning but they were supposed to call the election for 80 million votes across the country by 10:00 the night of the presidential race. to the man that was just from virginia, i just wanted to say about his comment, he saying -- he is saying that people are angry. people call in on this form to get their frustration out here than pick up a mess weapon and kill people. thank you and have a good day. host: on vote counting in

pennsylvania, it is the senate gop primary in pennsylvania that is the one that is still too close to call. around 1.3 million votes cast at this point. men met all -- dr. oz at 41.3%. dave mccormick, the tv personality at 41.3%. as of monday, the department of state had about 171,000 republican voters who applied for mail-in ballots. by the time 2:00 a.m. yesterday morning, the mail-in ballots, about 117,000 had been counted. plenty more ballots to go through. it is almost certain that the senate race will trigger a recount, required if the margin of the state race in pennsylvania at 0.5% or less.

reporting from "penalized -- penn live." this is michael in california on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: john, is it? host: yes. caller: i called on easter. i was the last caller on the segment and you asked me a question about the constitution, about the creator. i thought on my feet and i mentioned the theory of evolution. that was stupid of me because that is many years in the future from when they wrote the constitution. with this abortion issue, i would have to think that religious minorities is really affecting our politics. i just want to talk about something different. the cost of fuel. as a child, diesel is always cheaper than gasoline by quite a bit and it still should be. it is because of the refining

process when you go with crude grade oils, when you start refining the first, you get diesel. the second fuel is kerosene. the third fuel is gasoline. that is my diesel was always cheaper because of the refining process and i think that is what congress should investigate is why diesel is so much more expensive than the other feels. host: what do you drive? caller: i used to be a commercial driver for 30 years. i am retired. i have a 1997 explorer and a 1998 ranger. because of the job i have, i have an aversion to driving because they are too many stupid drivers. when i started driving commercially, there was not that cell phone that everyone paying attention to. host: a 1997, 1998, would you consider getting an electric car?

what are your thoughts on going electric? caller: for me, it would be great for the environment. but the thing is, the expenses. the two vehicles i have are paid for. i did not want the expense of a car payment because i'm just on social security and i could not afford it. i just spent $16,000 on a new ac and heater. that is why i have an aversion to driving a new vehicle, the payment. host: good to chat with you. this is sandra from clearwater, florida, democrat. good morning. caller: yes. my concern is why is there so much going on with people in the world today. if you do not want a child, give it to somebody else instead of have an abortion.

there are plenty of people out there who want a kid. why take a life when you can give a life back? you have to answer to god for that. host: first for his next, dealt in florida, republican -- christopher is next, deltona, florida, republican. caller: good morning. host: where is dell tilde -- deltona? caller: about 40 miles north of daytona. i was curious about the same day that michael sussman trial started. is there any correlation? host: this is the first time more than 50 years that u.s. officials have provided public testimony for the issue of ufos. it was a hearing that we covered on c-span. it got a lot of attention and we

will be talking about a little bit later in our program today in the 9:00 our. stick around for that discussion. to give you a flavor of what we talked about, this is the deputy of naval intelligence talking about the various categories that these ufos or uap, unidentified aerial phenomena, is the term that is used. these are the five categories that these uap's fall into as intelligence officials try to understand these things. [video clip] >> in many cases, that is all that a report may include and in many other cases, we have far less than this. as we detailed in both the unclassified and classified assessments released last june,

this often limited amount of high-quality data and reporting hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions about the nature or intent of uap's. if incidents are resolved, they likely fall into one of five categories. airborne quarter, natural atmospheric phenomena, u.s. industry development of programs , foreign adversary systems, or the other bin that allows for the possibility of scientific discovery. we stand by those initial results. since the release of that report, the uap task force has grown to contain approximately 400 reports. the stigma has been reduced. we have made progress in resolving the character of a limited number of uap encounters. let me show you another video and image taken years apart in different areas.

in this video, u.s. navy personnel recorded what appears to be triangles, some flashing, recorded several years ago off the coast of the united states. this was recorded while the u.s. navy ship appeared a number of small unmanned aerial systems in the area. the video was taken through nightvision goggles with a single lens camera. these remained unresolved for several years. several years later and off of a different coast, u.s. navy personnel again in a swarm of unmanned aerial system and again through my vision goggles --

nightvision goggles recorded this image. but this time, they also observed unmanned aerial systems nearby and were reasonably confident that these triangles correlate to unmanned aerial systems in the area. the triangular appearance as a result of light passing through the nightvision goggles and being recorded by an slr camera. i do not mean to suggest that everything that we observed is identifiable. but, this is a great example of how it takes considerable effort to understand what we are seeing. [end video clip] host: that is a bit of yesterday's hearing on uap's. we will be talking more about that hearing in the 9:00 hour today. 10 minutes left in the open forum, letting you lead the discussion. henry in texas, independent. caller: i am what you would

describe as an anarchist. we have a problem with these conservatives claiming to be conservative but we are moving toward fascism at a very high rate, alter nationalism -- ultra nationalism, that kind of thing. what do you think we should do about those fascist characteristics of what conservatives think they are nowadays? host: the point of this program is to get your thoughts and hear from you and stay out of the way as much as possible. this is matt in virginia my democrat. -- in virginia, democrat. good morning. caller: the republican party is heading in a fascist direction. during the primary today, it looks like they did not nominate their most fascist elements but there are definitely members of

their party as well as newspeople like tucker carlson who push fascist and xenophobic things that cause crazy people in buffalo to go shoot up people. we have to reckon with that as a society. wars have consequences. you have freedom of speech but how you use it can have consequences. i want to talk about roe v. wade. i would like people to think about the consequences of what roe v. wade being tossed out means. it is not the right to an abortion. it is the right to privacy for our bodies. for those anti-vaxxers, will that mean that we can force you to have vaccinations? the courts have fought against it but now that we are saying you do not have a right to privacy, can the government force you to take whatever you want -- they want? for those who believe in sexual economy, does that mean you will lose gay-rights and freedoms like contraception? really think about what does this mean.

it is not just about abortion. it is other things along the way. host: that is matt in virginia. the first point you brought up in the call, a column on this from the editorial board of "the wall street journal." this is what they deserve editorial board right. -- editorial board writes. "the latest example is the attempt to limp political opponents for the murderous rampage in buffalo -- attempt to blame political opponents for the murderous rampage in buffalo. chuck schumer used the moment to blame democratic party's recently unveiled and tested election campaign theme maga republicans. when a deranged black man ran

down grandmothers in a parade, the media turned away from that story. they claimed america is at risk of losing its democracy as it did on tuesday." if you want to read more, that is from "the wall street journal" in today's paper. this is bernie. good morning. caller: i only have two questions. i want to say what exactly can the doj do about the committee subpoenas that have been sent out? two, is there a time limit on subpoenas? host: to your second question, and i do not know the answer to your first question but on the second question, people say there is a time limit on this entire investigation.

questioning whether republicans would keep the january 6 committee going if they took over the house seems very likely that they will in november, at least if you look at the latest polling and the state of the midterm elections for members of the house in that closely divided house, the very closely divided senate as well. that is the ticking clock that people talk about for the committee, the election and when republicans, if they officially take over congress and the house in january of 2023. caller: all i can say is people, you better get out and vote. host: that is ernie in florida. this is brent in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. two issues regarding roe v. wade and it has been touched on by some previous callers. i would like to ask your

insight. if you don't want to, i understand. in this draft opinion, which sort of bewilders me when the justice said that there is -- that the constitution makes no mention of abortion. when the framers of the constitution were putting the document together, abortion was probably the furthest thing from their mind. they probably did not understand the concept of abortion. right there, that beholders me. -- that bewilders me. this is not about abortion. it is about privacy. at one time in this country not long ago, interracial marriage in many states was unlawful. there is nothing in the constitution about interracial marriage either. the same thing with same-sex marriage. the other thing, do you want to offer anything on that?

i do not mean to interrupt the. host: not the spot for my opinion on this. what you bring up in terms of the constitution is a debate that happens a lot in this country when it comes to constitutional law. is the constitution a living breathing document? should it change with the times? is it a dead document? is it a document that was written at that time and should not be changed? this is the subject of a lot of constitutional debate. caller: i hear your point and it is a valid point. the other aspect is these confirmation hearings. to me, i saw one commentator say they are basically just a parlor game because all of these potential justices said that they respected the concept of prcedent. roe v. wade was a precedent that had already been accepted. every one of them said that they respected the president but now

they are saying that president does not count, that it is irrelevant. i think it is very relevant. these confirmation hearings to me are just a joke. they say what they think the senators want to hear just so they will get the appointment to the supreme court in my opinion. host: thanks for the call. this is jan in arkansas on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hi. how are you? host: i am doing well. go ahead. caller: i wanted to touch bases on roe v. wade. people are talking about the abortion but they are not considering the people that are being killed by people, the police. the bible said god shall not -- dow shall not kill -- thou shall

not kill. be concerned about the gun violence. no republican wants to touch base about the guns. as long as you are black, they do not care. if you are right for the people, your mind has to be right and your heart has to be right and if your heart is not right, god is not pleased with none of that. at the end of the day, god has the final say so. host: this is victor, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i would like to suggest that everything that everyone is saying, we need to have a term limit for every elected official. what do you think about that? host: what is a fair term limit? how long should a member of congress serve? caller: i beg your pardon? host: how long do you think a

member of congress should serve? caller: they can be elected is three times or five times i would suggest because they have two years. the senate has their 60 year but three times -- has their sixth year but three times they can be reelected. if someone is serving under my plan, not that i know. host: that is victor, his thoughts on term limits. this is jim a in atlanta, georgia -- this is jimmy in atlanta, georgia. caller: it has been a long time since i have done this. i just wanted to say something to answer one of the callers. he was saying why liberals and democrats are so emotional. i have to speak to that and tell

them it is because republicans keep backing people to say things like someone is trying to replace european descendants, white people. that is ridiculous because the europeans are behind africans and asians but there are still billions of people and god placed us all here and no one is going to replace european and their descendants. that is not going to happen. when republicans stop backing people that say those kinds of things, they may see -- maybe independents and democrats would not be so upset. asia is not going anywhere, africa is not going anywhere, white people are not going anywhere. host: this is dorothy in michigan on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. about abortion, i would like to

see planned parenthood give out birth control pills so these women do not have to go through that and i think that the men should also be mindful of birth control. to think about will this be a pregnancy or will it not because it takes two of them. the other thing i would like to mention is i had heard on the news about that shooting that this 18-year-old had been going to school for a week with helmets and armor. i would think that the parents should have had something to do with that and the principal and

the teachers, they should consider that there is something wrong and suspect something is going on before the shooting ever took place. host: johnstown, pennsylvania, rick, independent. good morning. caller: how are you doing? i just have some questions maybe somebody can answer. if i remember correctly during the pandemic, there were barges full of oil in the gulf of texas or the gulf of mexico. did we ever use that oil up? the second thing is is oil being transferred since the pipeline shut down? is oil being transferred by train throughout the united states? host: there are a lot of

pipelines in the united states that move oil and other products through the country. you are talking about the keystone excel pipeline, the one that would run from canada. that is just one of many pipelines in the united states. caller: is it true that there are trains with tanks like that transferring oil? host: tanker trains are another way to move oil around this country, yes. it may be time for us to bring back one of those folks who studies the market and reports on the oil industry in this country to do a one on one on how we move oil and other energy products around the country. we have done those segments before but it is something we can bring up and do a get. this is john in north carolina,

democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: i'm doing well. caller: the reason why this abortion thing is so hot right now is because these old white men all got together and said they were reading that book, i forgot the name of it. it is saying that the only reason why we can keep this together unless we have all white babies more, this is what is going on. they got together and said we will do this because we do not want to be replaced or whatever, which is garbage. host: who is they? caller: all these old white politicians. host: ok. that is john in north carolina. this is cece in south carolina, independent. good morning. caller: what i want to say about roe v. wade, i studied this.

is not about black, white, it is about the constitution. it is about that we have a right , people fought for these rights that we have right now, and we are just letting people take them away from us every day of our life. if a certain killer has a problem with a different color, that is all about race. that is in the constitution too. that is what i think. host: that is cece in south carolina. a note on the abortion issue, the hearing today on abortion access in the united states back before the house judiciary committee and we will be airing that on c-span3 and c-span.org and the free c-span now video app at tonight like a.m. eastern this morning.

testimony including from abortion providers in alabama. that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern. also at 10:00 a.m. today on c-span on the flagship network, we will be showing the internal revenue service and government account ability office testimony on taxpayer fairness in this country coming off of tax day in this country, a hearing on how the irs treats taxpayers based on their levels of income. that is here on c-span today at 10:00 a.m.. that is where we will be going out of this program. this is donna in cheswick, pennsylvania, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am doing well. caller: i have a question. i do not remember all of the amendment but i understand the right to carry a weapon. it seems like to me they are picking and choosing what they

want. for example, freedom of speech, freedom of press, they are canceling a lot of the children's school books, which is wrong. when the democrats want to push for gun control, which i think should happen because i am jewish and i fear for my life. i used to go to the tree of life synagogue. but i understand the constitution. i understand that one of them is the right to bear arms. these congressmen say they are praying for you. then need more gun control laws. that is like the 10 commandments when it comes to, well we do not want this, you cannot commit murder, you cannot have another person's or spouse or daughter, that is rape. it is like they are picking and choosing. host: that is donna in

pennsylvania. our last caller in this segment. after the break, we will be joined by newsmax tv host tom basile. we will be talking more about campaign 2022 and later today, harvard scientist avi loeb to discuss the congressional hearing on ufos yesterday. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span's the weekly podcast brings you recordings from our video library comparing the events of the past to today. he is the longest-serving republican in the u.s. senate history, but his legacy was more than longevity. he was a close friend with ted kennedy, the odd couple. on this episode we will explore that side of orrin hatch's senate legacy. >> i remember when the senior

senator for massachusetts and i sat down together and we were from two opposite pools in many respects although he does not realize that he is more conservative than he thinks. he thinks i may be a lot more liberal than i think. when they get together, people around here say if they can get together, anybody can. >> find "the weekly" on c-span now, the free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from congress, white house events, the court, campaigns, and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and scheduling information for c-span tv networks and c-span radio plus podcasts.

c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> "washington journal" continues. host: next, tom basile joins us from newsmax headquarters in new york, joining us to talk about campaign 2022 after a couple of primaries. let's start in the keystone state. what did we learn about the states of the 2022 electorate from doug mastery on a's victory last night and the senate race that is still undecided? guest: the senate race that is still in automatic recount territory, the thing to know about that race, there is a lot of paper. i spoke to the secretary of state's office. as of yesterday, there were still 60,000 or 50,000 ballots

that had yet to be received, the mail-in ballots. this is still anybody's ballgame between oz and mccormick. we know from talking to the mccormick camp that they have a pretty significant absentee ballot chase program to court those mail-in voters. while oz his upper right now, it could change over the next -- is up right now, it could change over the next few days. the big story of the night when it comes to the senate race was kathy barnett. she underperformed where some of her polling was but if you look at three key counties in the is there part of the state where oz is doing very well and those were the areas around philadelphia where he needed to do well, lancaster and

montgomery, that is where kathy barnett is ahead in those three counties that ultimately could make up the difference. i think that she took more votes away from oz. it shows you tha and we saw this in ohio as well. when you have two campaigns, we are spending a lot of money. $60 million was spent on the race in pennsylvania so far. two campaigns that are in and in and nobody really breaks out. usually voters start looking for an alternative because there is a level of they are not quite comfortable with the two front runners. we saw that in ohio. we saw that with kathy barnett. and that is really what has upended this race and the reason why i think we are in this situation that we are in where we still do not have a winner.

doug mastriano, a lot of folks are nervous about this. a lot of money came into lou bar letta's race late in the game. i talked to folks in the game. shapiro is the attorney general of the state. he is daily popular. -- fairly popular. pennsylvania is a swing state. it is a very purple state. there are concerns about mastriano's electability. you have been following this long time. anything can happen, particularly when there is a lot of enthusiasm on one side. we are seeing a lot of enthusiasm on the republican side going into november. host: one of the threads we are following through these republican parties as we go through the heart of primary season is the power of a donald trump endorsement. their wrap up of last night's

primary, this is how "the hill" put it appeared trump's endorsement power remains in question. noting madison cawthorn, trump-endorsed candidate, a lot of contention in that race, losing his bid for reelection, becoming the second congressmen in the cycle to lose their bid for reelection in a primary. what is your take on the power of a trump-endorsed and right now in the republican party? guest: it clearly makes a difference and clearly matters. we have to be fair about a lot of the races he has gotten involved with. a lot of those candidates either had token oppositions or they were ahead before he endorsed or they were expected to win. in the cases where there have been marginal races, it is a boost. it does make a difference. i think there is a narrative on both the left and the right that trump has a stranglehold on

republican primary voters. if you look at the most competitive races, i did not think that the numbers bear that out at the moment. take a look at ohio. j.d. vance did go because of trump's endorsement. he went from fourth to first and the won the primary. 65% of the republican primary voters did not vote for the trump backed candidate. we are seeing that right now in the state of pennsylvania. in idaho, we saw trump's candidate for lieutenant governor lose. i have been on the ground at some of these states talking directly to primary voters and what they are saying to me is, we supported president trump, but this is our senate seat or this is our governor's race and we will be discerning. i think you are seeing a thread of independent decision-making within the republican party, if you really drill down into the numbers in some of these more competitive races where trump

does make a difference, people do factor that in. but it is not the only consideration that is a factor into who they are pulling the lever for on election day. host: tom basile as our guest. you made fame on newsmax tv. he is here to take your calls this morning as well. phone lines split as usual, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. he will be with us until little bit past the top of the hour. we talked about narratives on the left and right. one of the narratives we are seeing on the left is the term ultra maga republicans, the ultra mega agenda. your column for "the washington

times," the ultra maga mirage. guest: i always point out how extraordinary the left side of the aisle and particularly the far left message discipline really is. think about this. you've got inflation, rising crime, the border, a looming recession, the dow jones has had its worst losing streak in over 20 years. food prices rising at a higher rate than at any time since 1981. it is one thing after another. they decided that they were going to latch onto this it is the extreme wing of the republican party's fault narrative and everybody bought into it. that level of message discipline , i think as a political communicator, is really extraordinary. i do not think that it works. i do not think it is terribly

effective. i think that they are really struggling at this point to motivate even their base, given the performance of the president thus far and some of the numbers we have seen. just to be fair, and i want to be balanced about this, the republicans have their own messaging problem. i think people have figured out whether they are talking about it or not, that they have very serious concerns about this administration. republicans have been very focused on an antibiotic message. -- anti--biden message. what they have not managed to do is really as a whole coalesce around a simple, consistent message that is a proactive, positive alternative vision for

leadership in washington going into november. there is no contract with america so far on the republican side. you've got messaging problems on both sides of the aisle. you've got the democrats really cowotowing to their hard left base, playing the blame game. i think the polls are showing this. i do not think they have any patience. i do not think they are buying it. but republicans are not making the cell yet. -- making the sell yet. they will need to get their act together in these remaining months of the campaign. host: getting tom basile's analysis a day after a handful of primaries in several key states and several callers waiting for you. this is kevin first in san

antonio, texas on the line for independents. caller: greetings. i am a 60-year-old man. i have been watching television for 50 years. this newsmax network should be called nazi max network. you are so one-sided, such propaganda. you are just as bad as fascist fox network. you preach nothing but lies. host: we got your point. tom basile, do you want to talk about newsmax? how long have you been there? guest: i have been here two years. before that, i was at sirius xm radio. i feel very blessed to work at a network where i have some wonderful colleagues. i disagree with the gentleman from texas. i think that we try very hard to

present a very factual view of the news. we are a right-leaning network, but this is also in my view a right-leaning country. anybody who watches my show knows that i ask tough questions of republicans because i do not think that there should be any free rides in politics. particularly in this day and age , people do not want drama. they are looking for solutions and answers. and if they are looking for government, they deserve a more substantive conversation than the one we have been having in this country. i think that my leadership at newsmax agrees with that. host: "america right now" is the program on newsmax. check out his column in "the washington times."

this is greg on the line for republicans. good morning. your next -- you are next. caller: good morning. a pleasure to be on. i want to give an honest analysis and let the people decide the narrative on abortion. the progressive say -- progressives say it is about a woman's right to her body. science has progressed so far that we can see that there is another life inside them. what is happening is we actually have one gender in america wanting to be empowered to the point of taking life. i believe in empowerment and everything but i do not know that anyone should be empowered to take a life. because of science, we know that is the case. i hope that we at least face it and they should say what they want directly. i hope that at least in the debate, they can do that and not cover it with one body.

there are two bodies there. thank you all. host: thanks for the call. tom basile with a recent column on this topic, "democratic outrage has little to do with women's rights." guest: i agree with what he is saying. what is really important here is first of all, a general acknowledgment that for many americans this is far more nuanced an issue. i am pro-life. i am very public about the fact that i am pro-life. i'm a devout catholic. i believe that this is an issue of a living human being and the rights of a living human being. i believe that an unborn child could have more rights -- should have more rights than your average house cap. one other thing that is very curious as we are talking about the election is that the democrats have pivoted so far left on this issue at a time when they could say, we have

been saying that it should be safe, legal, and rare for 25 years and that is going to be our mantra going into a new debate at a state level over abortion restrictions. when you take a look at the women's health protection act, every democrat in the senate but one voted for it last week. it is a radical departure on the issue from where the party was and it is not -- it does not comports with the polling data on where americans believe, where they are on this issue with respect to late-term abortion, with respect to parental notification, with respect to taxpayer funding of abortion. it is really curious that the democratic party has not just gone all in on abortion rights,

but taking it to an extreme level -- if you and i were having this conversation even five or 10 years ago, we would never be having the type of discussion about a bill like the women's health protection act, which the party is clearly behind. that is really curious. i think it has to do with trying to preserve the issue politically for them and it is about trying to motivate their base voters ultimately, come november because they see there is an enthusiasm deficit and they do not have a strategy to close that gap with the republicans right now. host: about 10 minutes left with tom basile of newsmax tv. this is barbara out of virginia on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning.

i would like to ask, there was a primary last night for the republican party. i did not hear them hollering and screaming about voter fraud. can mr. tom relates to that? host: mr. basile? guest: i am not sure what the question is. do you want to clarify? host: i think we lost the caller. concerns about voter fraud in these primaries especially coming off of what we heard coming into the 2020 election. guest: let's take a look at the one that has not been called yet and that is pennsylvania. as we said at the beginning, pennsylvania is not a universal male in-state. there is a process for requesting an absentee ballot.

it is no excuse absentee balloting. i agree with that because i do not think it is the government's business to know why i cannot show up to the polls. they have a very good system and there was an issue in lancaster county yesterday where the coats on the ballots were not correct -- the codes on the ballots were not correct. they will have to hand count those ballots. there were several thousand of them. so far, we have not heard about any other irregularities. a lot of good reforms have been made to help ensure greater confidence in the outcomes in a number of state. there are a couple of dozen states that have made very subtle changes to either ballot

handling or ballot requesting or sufficient regulations that will help instill a greater sense of confidence in the process and that is where we need to get to. we certainly hope that we can ensure that going forward. host: this is dominique in georgia on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for c-span. first of all, i was listening to that caller about the newsmax being one-sided. that is laughable. when i look at msnbc and cnn, it is a roundtable of liberals. you never hear a really strong conservative voice on those channels. i listen to fox. they always have a liberal or

two on their panels. that was laughable. as far as the republican message goes, it should be not that these things all work that the democrats want to do. government is the problem. these welfare programs, we have so many programs. trucks going out. no one knows how much money is going out, where it is going, or how much people are going. the entire welfare system, to see if we can clear the air. host: we will take the point and give tom basile a change to -- a chance to weigh in. guest: thank you for that point. you have a point. when you take a look at 50 years of statistics with respect to welfare policy, i would hope

that republicans and democrats would come together and say what has worked, what has not worked, and what can we reform because -- i how do we truly empower people and not lock them in cycles of dependency? that -- the american dream is not being locked into generational governmental dependency. that is my personal feeling. my personal philosophy area s. we need to do a lot of soul-searching. the calls of government, -- they just did an audit on the enhanced unemployment benefits. the covid aid. $150 billion in fraud in waste and abuse.

this is money that the government gave out to people that didn't deserve it. i think a lot of americans -- when you look at confidence in our institutions, continuing to decline, a lot of americans, even if they don't articulate it like we do on this program, they are waking up to the fact that government is not necessarily they solution -- the solution. you need to rein in the size and the scope of government. you need to evaluate whether the welfare programming is is effective. the other thing is, on the democratic side, we are hearing some troubling messaging about things like universal basic income which would take our welfare programs and put them on steroids. that is a very real conversation that is starting to bubble up on

the left. in america, again, the democratic party has to make a decision. is that the direction they're going to go, or are they going to pivot back towards the middle , to where we were in the 1990's? host: a couple more calls. this is tom in michigan. democrat. caller: thank you for your analysis and narrative. i appreciate that. i am very concerned about trump and his mental well-being. i think he has unfit. i think he is a malignant sociopath, and the altar right really needs to wake up and see just what he is. also, president biden did a brilliant job in buffalo and on the floor. speaking about hate, guns, and people with access to guns.

so on, and so forth. i think people need to be licensed. thank you very much. have a good day. guest: i think there was a study that came out not long ago that showed that americans are kind of looking for a new generation of leadership. i think -- i'm not sure what that means in terms of trump. people will tell you what they know what he is going to do in 2024. i think they are lying. that is a decision that will be made further down the road. people do have concerns with the fact that, look, we have crooks who are -- this is not an ageist comment, because we have folks who are seniors, who are even older than they president or nancy pelosi who are very dynamic.

but i think that you are going to start to see a new generation of leadership starting to bubble up. the question is what kind of leaders will they be? in the democratic party, are they going to be in a more socialist wing of the party, and in the republican party, how do they hold onto the voter coalition? if somebody is too far to the right to a national election -- i think we are going to start to see that. i think people already, not just for the same names, they are ready for dynamism in our national politics. we will see what happens over the next couple of years. we have a pretty important pivot point in our national politics. host: we have only a minute or two left. i want to ask you about the

media environment in arc country. looking at your background, your 2017 book half cell -- the media war in iraq, what were you doing in iraq, and what was the media war in iraq, and how does that relate to what's going on now? caller: i was an advisor to the coalition government. i was in the department of defense during the bush administration, and i was in baghdad in 2003 and 2004. i dealt a lot with the foreign press. the editorial filter. we were trying to tell the story of what was going on on the ground, and what men and women were doing, and what the civil affairs folks were doing. the strategy to start to build democratic institutions interact, and the day-to-day pitch battle that we had with the new york times and a lot of

the press. that is 2003, 2004. that was pre-facebook, so the environment, in terms of the polarization of the media and people going into their silos is only gotten worse. i think social media has, in many respects, and this is my personal opinion and not my network opinion, it has been pretty much a very divisive, very dangerous tool. it has been used to inflame and divide americans, and i think we need a far more substantive and balanced discussion in this country about the real challenges we face. the gentleman from georgia was talking about welfare policy, and this is trillions of

dollars. it also gets to the heart of some of the critical issues we are facing in america cities. in the underserved communities. in the minority communities. we have to be able to have a legitimate discussion about that if we are going to improve lives and help people climb the economic ladder and actually live the american dream. what should be the goal for everyone who's involved in this process? host: we will have that discussion down the road. tom is the host of newsmax tv. you can also read his columns at the washington times. guest: a real pleasure. thank host: you for having me. host:less than an hour left, and in our next half hour, we will be joined by a harvard scientists to talk about what we learned at yesterday's hearing on u.s. -- ufos. we will talk about that it stick around for that discussion after

the break. >> at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. your any of those conversations on c-span's new podcast, presidential recordings. >> the season focuses on president lyndon johnson. you'll hear about the 1964 civil rights act and the gulf of tonkin incident. the march on selma and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> johnson secretaries knew because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations, and in fact, they were the ones who made sure that the conversations were taped. they would signal through an open door between his office and there's. >> you will hear some blunt talk. >> i want to report on the number of people that were assigned to kennedy the day he

died in the #to me now, and if they were on my list i want them move right quick. i promise you, i won't going where. i will stay behind these black gates. >> presidential recordings, on c-span now's mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-span brings unit unfiltered view of government. our news letter recaps the day, from the halls of congress to press briefings to the remarks from the president. scan the qr code to sign up for this email and stay up-to-date on everything happening in washington each day. subscribe today using a qr code or visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe any time. >> washington journal continues. host: the professor of science at harvard and the galileo

initiative joins us. he is the author of the first signs of intelligent life beyond earth. good morning. before we get to the historic hearing yesterday on ufos or uap's as they are known now, can you start with your view on extraterrestrial life? do you believe that there is alien life out there? guest: it would be arrogant to believe otherwise because we now know that about half of the sun-like stars with planets the size of the earth with the same separation, most of the stars are near the sun, so we send out equipment and space and we have five spacecraft with -- which are exiting the solar system. if you imagine the world of scientists like our einstein, they could live on another planet, years ago, [indiscernible]

even with chemical propulsion. whether we live in such reality or not, it is not a philosophical question. we just need to look through her windows and check. we must be open-minded. we tend to be attached to our ego and believe we are the center of the world. we are the pinnacle of creation. we are privileged. but very often, it is a different message. we now know that we are not the defenders of the universe. we also know that the earth system is not unique or special. therefore, it is only natural for us to check her neighbors. -- four neighbors. host: and the check for neighbors was the subject of a congressional hearing. the unidentified aerial phenomena on is what we are referring to, what many folk referred to as ufos. i want to give you a flavor of the hearing. this is 45 seconds from the hearing. the u.s. naval intelligence

director scott bray spoke about how they are investigated. >> are often limited amounts of high-quality data that hamper firm conclusions for the nature or intent of a uap. i report that if these events are resolved, they will likely fall into one of five explanatory categories. airborne clutter, national -- natural atmospheric phenomenon, develop metal programs, foreign adversary systems or an other been that allows for difficult cases and the possibility of surprise and scientific discovery. we stand by those initial results. since the release of this report, the database has now grown to contain approximately 400 reports. the stigma has been reduced. host: this was the first time in more than 50 years that u.s. officials have provided

testimony for public consumption about the investigation into the ufos and uap's. why are we having this hearing now. guest: i think we have the technology to detect things beyond any reasonable doubt and much higher quality than in the past. we also of course have the ability to produce objects in the sky that we didn't have before. there is some confusion about that. my most important take away is that the government is discussing unidentified objects seriously. we wish to understand that nature. it is, of course, the duty of scientists to assist the government in that quest. we identify the unidentified and removed the term uap from our lexicon. if we want to find out what these are, there are two possible interpretations beyond the technological object. either, they are human made, or they are made by an extraterrestrial civilization.

or technological. in the first case, the government wishes to know which technologies are used by other nations, obviously, and in the second case which technologies were developed by extraterrestrial civilizations. obviously, the tool -- two witnesses at the congressional hearing were discussing this as a threat to national security. that is a joke description. it has two aspects. one is to protect our military personnel and the second is the security of our nation. from that perspective, obviously, reports by military staff members are of primary importance for the first task. it is based on military training. that is with the second objective. they need to know what the vast majority of these objects are.

they must attend to data with a compromise quality that was obtained by instruments like fighter jets. we saw a few blurry videos during the hearing, and they are of no significant quality. however, the task of finding this is quite different it is complementary to that. scientists do not need to explain most of the report. even if only one object is affecting the technology, or is among the many objects that are human made, it would represent the most consequential discovery in human history. it would have huge significance for future, and it would resemble the first visit to kindergarten when you realize there is a smarter kid on the block. in order to figure this out, scientists must have access to the highest quality data, such

as high-resolution images with objects, showing the waiver made on an exoplanet. why? or a maneuver at the fraction of a speed of light that we cannot produce without technology. or a set of buttons that demonstrate a technological specification like the iphone 100. scientists are not concerned with just assets, national assets or military assets. extraterrestrial equipment might not it here to national borders. in the same way that a biker navigates down the sidewalk doesn't care which of the possible pavement breaks is occupied by a small colony of ants. >> you are with us until the bond of the hour. about 20 mormons. call in with your questions. the phone lines are split.

regionally, this morning. (202) 748-8000 for eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 four mountain or pacific time zones. the professor is offering his thoughts about the hearing over upa's, the first and have a century. he also posts at medium.com if you want to read those online as well, or you can call into -- call in and ask. you are the head of the gaal leo initiative. -- galileo initiative. guest: a year ago, when the director of national intelligence deliver the report to congress, a few billionaires came to my home and offered me $2 million, and to me, it was very unusual because i served for nine years at harvard. i was the longest-serving chair. i am familiar with fundraising,

and it takes a lot of time and you very often don't get anything. we were not doing just any fundraising. people said here is the money. go with no strings attached. i decided to establish a project after processing nasa as to whether they might be interested. i didn't get a reply. so, i established in july of 2021, and by now, we had 100 scientists, and as we speak, the first system is being assembled on the roof of the harvard observatory. once it starts operating, with a dissection within the company, we would be able to make copies of it, and it is really cemented in a geographic location. it is monitoring the sky in the visible band in the infrared band, in the radio band. it is recording audio from the sky, and all of this data would

be fed to computer systems that reuse a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and mid-teen -- machine learning algorithm that we see. it is a fishing expedition. we don't assume in advance what we would find, and even if we only find the objects. so be it. it is the duty of scientists to clear up the phone. otherwise, the public is left to speculate, and the government is really not a scientific organization. fundamentally, you don't -- you can't ask military people or politicians to figure out the nature of these physical objects. host: we don't get to chat about ufos very often. as expected, plenty of calls free. nelson is in florida. you are on with the professor. caller: good morning.

morning, professor. thank you for taking my call. i have to admit that i find this conversation humorous. the government of the united states has a lot of problems to deal with. open borders, crime, and the list goes on and on. here they are. were trying to determine whether or not there a little green martians flying around the skies of the world. there is no indication, there have never been any little green martians that have been captured falling out of the sky and fallen into the middle of the street. your statement that you are not the center all of the universe is a little humorous, so with all due respect, you cannot pinpoint where the center of the universe is. caller: i will stop you there and get the professor and opportunity to weigh in. what do you think? guest: from the point of view of

the government, it is not humorous at all. there are objects in the sky that are endangering the safety of military personnel. the question is whether these objects were used by other nations. we need to figure it out. that is part of our national security or intelligence agencies. we have a duty to figure out the nature of these objects. it is not unusual at all. we have to figure it out. it doesn't have to be human made, and so be it. it is not whether these nations are being developed we didn't know about. if it is natural, again, so be it. we will understand a new phenomenon. that is not humorous. it is a serious matter because it will reveal something to us. as long as the data is reliable, as long as it is not just functioning with a distinction. with respect to whether we

should worry about what goes on to be on the earth, i would like to remind the caller that the reason we are right now in the united states of america is because america is where we discovered this. they were discovered as a result of expiration. as a result of open-minded this in a new world. for us to claim that all we care about is what we find on this rock that was formed around the sun is very narrowminded because we now know that the sign of the observable universe is 10 times bigger than the size of this rock. it is the highest priority of figuring out what is going on on this rock. i would say, we are missing the big show out there. astronomers have been trying to figure out what is going on far away. and i should tell you that after a century of trying to figure out what most of the universe is

made of, we still don't know. ? matter -- there is six times more matter we don't know than the matter we are made of, just to show you how ignorant you are. sitting at home and saying we have no neighbors, you know, is not the right to approach -- right approach. we should search for them. it is natural to operate as a result of curiosity. that is how children operate, and if we want to subscribe to the type of intelligence, then we better be curious about our environment and use evidence to guide us. for centuries ago, just to finish the point, for centuries ago, most people were convinced that the sun moved around the earth. it was obvious. it moved in the sky. how dare you say anything different? we are the center of the world. galileo was put on house arrest

because of otherwise printed today, he would be canceled on social media. but if you were to ask geographers if the earth was the center of the space mission to mars, they would never get to their destination because they felt mars moves around the earth. host: tucson arizona, you are on. >> good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a believer, but i've been doing the math, and i would like some bit to go on, with the nearest star or place that could support life, with so many light years away. it would take a thousand years. >> it would take more than that.

the nearest star is four light-years away. alpha centauri. most stars in our own galaxy, the milky way galaxy, they are tens of thousands of light years away. just to give an example, with the types of rockets we have used so far, it would take 50,000 years to reach the nearest star. that is the time that has elapsed is the first humans left africa. so it is a long journey. however, the good news is it is much shorter than the lifetime of the sun, the lifetime of stars in the age of the universe. most stars formed billions of years before the sun. there was plenty of time for rockets to reach us from the edge of the milky way galaxy with the standard propulsion scheme that we currently use. the senders may not be around, but such equipment, technological equipment, could be eponymous.

it should be operated by official intelligence because the travel time is so long that you can't have equipment waiting for guidance from the senders. so the senders may not be around. they may have died. both civilizations that existed may not be around anymore, but with archaeology, you may find relics they left behind. in this case, it could be intelligence relics that are eponymous. they are pursuing some goal that the center had. i should say, the reason that i started working on these about five years ago is because the very first to objects that we discovered over the past decade from outside the solar system were very weird. the first recorded one was in 2017. i wrote a book about it. extraterrestrial. it didn't look like any comet or asteroid that we had seen before.

it was very anomalous. it pushed away from the sun by some mysterious force. it didn't have a commentary. and then, the second object was actually discovered in 2014 by the government censors. it was a meteor that landed near papa new guinea. based on the fireball created, we can say, it was made of material stronger than iron. in the coming months, we are planning to go just poop the ocean floor for the fragments that were left from that first interstellar meteor. i would say, the first object that we witnessed, from outside of the solar system, it didn't look like the objects that we are commonly seeing within our solar system. it is like having a guest, and realizing that the guest that you have is at home. they don't look like the family members. that is intriguing. i'm not saying it is necessarily artificial in origin. one of these objects or both,

but i think, let's say it's intriguing, and the government, it is interested in figuring out the nature of these objects in the sky. let's just find as much evidence as possible about them. host: time for a couple more calls. susan in fort myers florida, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am an avid believer in ufos. that is what i'm going to continue to call them. first of all, i think it is human arrogance and politics to think that we understand the universe. i don't have a -- but you can't even imagine what infinity is. personally, i am not afraid of extraterrestrials. it is -- if they can achieve what they do, they can put us down in a heartbeat. in fact, i am 70 nine years old,

by the way, and i used it to hate religious class, and if i wanted to get out of it, all i had to do was tell the nun that we are microbes in someone else's toilets old -- toilet bowl. i was thrown out of class. i have a girlfriend who saw extraterrestrial -- a cigar shaped object. it was two times in her lifetime, and she grew up in michigan. the question i have is, what is going on on our planet with all of our lolling -- lousy politics and hatred and more. they are presenting those and watching us. guest: i want to emphasize that the subject can be the subject of a scientific method. we can try and figure out the

nature of such objects by connecting better data. that's what we should do. modern science is able to observe and identify that. we should be guided by evidence, rather than that. a lot of people have emotion and arguments, why we should do this or that? my point is, we should be agnostic. we should get as much data as possible. exploring the unknown is a spiritual quest. you cannot argue against it because we haven't found anything so far. i should say that if we find another sophisticated object, we could learn from that. it is not a bad thing to realize that there is a smarter kid on the block. we can inform technologies that

would take millions of years to develop. but, at first, we should be humble, and it is sufficiently advanced in a scientific culture, and it could be a possibility for religious texts for guys. that is why if we have an issue discussing it, it is the technology gap that is very big. it might even look like magic to us, what we see, because just imagine coming to new york city, and seeing gadgets out there. a cave dweller would go home to speak with their family or make it a myth. they would never be able to reverse engineer these gadgets and not like a cave dweller's operate is a technological gap that is huge in the other

civilization might look to us with approximations to what we do in the past. so my point is, some people feel threatened by this, but some people have an issue with having a smarter kid on the block, and i say, let's be modest. let's just explore the world like a kid does without options -- without prejudice. just based on evidence, let's try to get the best evidence we have with the best interpretation that we can present. >> we have more calls, and as you mentioned, the galileo project, your work, has its own twitter handle and galileo project one. if viewers want to follow along and see that work they discuss. this is dave and new york. morning. >> good morning. the statement that you made about expiration and how europeans came to america, but

that didn't turn out so good. now for the inhabitants. it was a differential from europeans when they came to the native americans. i would just like to say that when you speak about the universe and how fast it is, with significant technological advancement of any kind, alien race, that would be so extreme, and you should be careful what you wish for. but also, you should be technologically advanced writ i don't think they would be hiding. i think of the obvious, and another they would be fearful of anything like that. >> right. what we call ordinary are things that we are used to seeing, like birds. but once you dig deeper into ordinary things, only in 1903, humans were able to fly with the

first flight of the wright brothers. so, even ordinary things like birds are very difficult for us to replicate. it took a long time before we could be like birds naturally. it is a cycle of convention, what we call ordinary nick story. everything we see with our naked eye, we already saw. in order to see other things, you have to develop instrumentation. it goes without saying that if we want to find that, we have to invest billions of dollars in accelerator and particle collider that we produce. you can't just walk down the street at no cost. anything beyond what we are already familiar with requires effort. we can't just sit home and say we don't see anything, therefore doesn't exist. we need to investigate. obviously, we find new things.

i agree with you that the expedition to america did not lead to good fortune, as for the population, and here, we are allowed to judge the outcome, whether we are right or not. it is whether we are responsible and figuring out the reality we live in. if you just imagine what the reality is, if you live in the metaverse, if you live in this literal reality, you'd be happy. it would flatter your ego. he would not be threatened, and you would be happy, but you would not probably relate to the actual reality that surrounds you. it would never reach mars because they get the wrong idea. my point is that we learn about the human body and we develop those vaccines. we found knowledge of the virus that is attacking her body.

in much the same way, we need to know about the neighborhood that we live in. it is a matter of being responsible and adapting to whatever reality surrounds us. we can believe in whatever we want, and there is no such discussion about this in the possibility that there is something outside of her homes, but it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, just like the ostrich approach of not looking and thinking that reality changes, that is not the case. reality is whatever it is, if we want to adapt to it, long-term future, to be responsible and react to the reality as it comes, then we need to know as much as possible about reality, and that includes checking what we are now objects are doing, what their natures. and of course the first priority

is national security, and that job will not matter if the subject surreal. we to figure what they are, but even more important, what does it mean? we currently don't have an organization that represents that. we haven't decided how to behave under circumstances where we find a stranger in our backyard. >> following along on twitter with this conversation. folks are typing in. this is what a grandma writes on twitter. politics has become so poisonous and it merited. how about more science like this guy? he is so refreshing, and thanks for the segment. our time is running short, but i want to get this in on washington. we have been waiting for a while. what is your question for the professor? caller: what i was wondering -- i know he is an astrophysicist,

but what about the millions of years before humans became involved or technologically what we think is superior. what if there is another civilization 2 million years before us? what if we are seeing, basically, the fairytale. and that, sacked for -- and that, except for their technology, could be up to one million, and who knows? they are ahead of us. guest: that is an interesting possibility. imagine them existing a million years ago, or a billion years ago. geological activity would have mixed. we would be on the surface of the earth. you won't find anything on the surface necessarily, but we haven't found any evidence of a

previous civilization on earth. one thing to keep us modest is that recorded human history is only 10,000 years old. we don't know exactly what happened before them. it is only one million. let's be modest. we just arrived at the end. how dare we think that this is about us. we are not the main actors. let's try and find other actors and asked them what the play is about. host: he is the professor of science at harvard astronomy, and the author of a book called extraterrestrial, verse lines of light be hundred. we appreciate your time. thank you so much. guest: thank you for having me. host: 20 minutes left, and in that time, we will turn the phone lines back over to you. it is our open forum. any public policy or open issues, you can do so until 10:00. democrats are on (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independence. (202) 748-8002. go ahead and call and now we will be back. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two. it features leading authors discussing their nonfiction books. at 9 p.m., matthew is with his book, the ride, the history of the right-wing in the early 20th century. and a challenge to maintain -- mainstream conservatism which culminates in the election of president trump. and afterwards, former secretary of defense mark esper shares his book see growth on his time serving in the trump administration. he is joined by retired marine corps general and national industrial chairman arnold. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find the full schedule on your full guide

online anytime at book tv.org. >> listen to c-span radio with our free mobile app c-span now. get complete access to what is happening in washington, were everywhere. livestream's of floor proceedings and hearings from u.s. congress. white house events, campaigns, and more. plus, analysis of the world of politics with our informative podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. downloaded for free, today. c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anywhere, anytime. >> washington journal continues. host: 20 minutes left in our program. in 20 minutes, we'll be taking c-span viewers over to a hearing on taxpayer fairness. that is before the house ways and means subcommittee. we will hear from the government

accountability office and officials from the internal revenue service for how taxpayers are based on their income. you can watch that at c-span.org and for c-span doubts video app. if you're looking for other offerings on c-span3, a hearing on abortion access in the united states before the house judiciary committee, with testimonies from an abortion provider from alabama. you can watch live coverage at 10 a.m. on c-span3 and c-span.org and on the free c-span now at. later this afternoon, on the c-span network, a homeland security official from the department will testify government efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. that is from a house homeland security subcommittee hearing. see -- c-span now is preview up. a lot of offerings. stay with us throughout the day. for the next 17 minutes or so,

the phone lines we are. it is our open forum. democrats, republicans and independents can calling. james is out of fort worth, texas. democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for the great service c-span provides. very quickly, extraterrestrial baloney. millions of years before we came to the surface. physical description of both heights. some are short, some are tall. they are perfectly physically suited for life at the bottom of the sea. large eyes, no external sexual organs. great skin. i don't think they came from outer space. i think they're just the first ones. thank you for letting me share my opinion. host: okeechobee, florida. republican. caller: good morning. this is a quick call. this is in reference to the host you have on -- not the coast but

the guest you had before this guy. that gentleman there, he said he was from york. he asked a question about why does somebody need six bullets and a gun? something about gun whatever. my question to this gentleman is why do the police need have a dozen guns if they have experience and eight took these tests. they have to know how to shoot people and they have a dozen cops with over 100 bullets. somebody needs to explain that one because if you keep talking about weapons and all of that stuff, and the thing of it is, if there is a cop, that means a half a dozen people will shoot one man. were going to need a whole lot more than six bullets. host: nancy in vermont. good morning. >> good morning.

i would just like to mention the replacement theory that people are upset about. i feel that we need to get behind candidates that are for the planet. you can have all of the guns you want, and all of the haiti want, but this planet is not going to survive unless we do something very quickly, and that's all i want to say. get behind politicians that are for cleaning up the planet. never mind the hate and the light -- violence. it's not going to take you anywhere. we have to save the planet. host: president biden was in buffalo in the wake of the shooting. the headline from the wall street journal -- biden says people will not win. the president denounces recent conspiracy theories after visiting the site of the mass shooting. if you missed his remarks, you can watch it on our website at c-span.org.

you can watch those remarks in their entirety. largo, florida. independent. are you with us? stay by your phone and turn your tv down while you're waiting on the phone. this is dennis in toledo, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning p i like to ask republicans [inaudible] like donald trump. he does not obey his marriage vows. that is my question we had host: eric in maryland. caller: can you hear me? thank you for c-span. i just want to say to all of the republicans out there that think that russian collusion started under the democrats. it did not. republicans at the white house, the senate, and congress and you

know, it was all controlled by republicans. donald trump shot himself in the foot by firing james comey which happened to be a republican. the report, the mueller report, which is republican, it all had to do with the republicans. donald trump's people were talking to russians. he just happen to get caught. the democrats didn't take over until two years later. you know, they made a mistake, saying they were going to wait for the report. moeller was not a republican. he wasn't going to do anything to hurt his party. host: that is eric. this is illinois. good morning. are you with us? caller: can you hear me?

yes. i just want to say, my brother-in-law is a farmer in illinois, and he just called me and he is spending a thousand dollars a week in fuel. this is one little farmer, just for one tractor. and i just can't fathom how much money it is going to cost the farmers to farm. i really believe, and this is jimmy carter. stop buying cast for a few days. shot the trunk, and i was a truck driver for 22 years. everybody shut it down. biden will give the idea that this country needs fuel, and we can open up our ground again. thank you so much. host: fuel prices to baby formula shortages. this is the headline. nestle said it will buy extra formula from switzerland, and the netherlands. they look to a salary deliveries

with severe shortages across the united states. that is with this charge. it states for shortages. the states in the darkest red are montana, delaware, montana. ended district of columbia, there is at least 50% stock out for baby formula. that is starting on the week of may 1. those states, and most of this shortages around the country, and one more story on that aspect from washington post. the congress, democrats in congress are proposing a $28 million bill as part of a broader push to stop depleted -- stock pleated shelves of formless. this spending measure would pump more funding into food and drug

mistress. it would safeguard against future disruptions. it remains unclear largely earmarked for federal inspections. we are running low on baby formula. with that front, that is the last of our program. but charlotte out of south carolina, good morning. caller: i am a concerned libertarian republican. host: can you call in on the proper line then? the way this program works is that people do try to stick to their proper lines. lines for democrats, lies for republicans, lines for independence. people get upset if they feel that others are abusing the lines. we will go to monty in georgia. independent. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. allow me to speak. i am originally in buffalo. i lost a cousin.

there was a massacre, and i lost a cousin. host: i'm sorry. caller: it is a terrible thing. we spend too much time divided, democrat, republican. we are -- we the people, with the united states and what they stand for, and i will end with this. a question for the democrats, republicans, independence, and we can do a show on this, what is the american dollar backed by. our economy, we talk about the

economy and things like that. anyone can call into c-span and say what backs the american dollar? it would be a help for anyone in the united states. thank you. host: thank you for the call. george is in hillsboro, ohio. democrat. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. in 1973, i was bailing hay with a [indiscernible] there was a saucer, a metallic saucer 50 feet in diameter. it was hovering over my home, and i was 50 yards from it. the bottom rotated. it was kind of like a gyro. there was a circular part of it at the bottom, rotating like a gyro. so, it was on a gyro system.

it was magnetic, obviously. it had a class stone. i worked for a while, and we kind of took off really fast. they jetted off really fast. it was out by the barn a few days later. i walked up to it, and it glowed kind of orange colored, and then it went through the meadow, and he was always silent. not a sound. host: are you a believer? caller: yes. i have had 10 siding since then. host: 10? caller: yes. one sent out a scream with a kind of thing i couldn't understand. host: what is it that you've had

so many more sightings than anyone else? caller: i don't know. i hesitate. i have no idea. maybe i'm marked or something. maybe they marked me and hovered over my truck. i got out of my truck and a light went on me. i got home two hours late. i don't know why. this was on kessler road here hillsboro. i drive home late at night, three nights have followed me. in a field. host: that was georgian hillsboro. a day after that congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena. a hearing you can watch on your website at c-span.org print we have just a few minutes away from the end of the program, and we will be taking you over to a hearing on taxpayer fairness.

it is coming up in five minutes. it is a hearing before the meeting today with the government accountability office. it would be looking at the taxpayer initiative. perhaps filing in their as they prepare to get underway. we will be taking phone calls. this is cornelius in alexandria, louisiana. good morning. caller: hey, john. i think that guy needs to set up a livestream and then he'd have evidence. but i want to talk about officers week, and we need to thank all of our police officers and stuff. we have to be african-american, and i believe in what they call constitutional care.

each citizen needs to carry a gun to defend themselves. if all of those citizens that have funds, they could have taken down a target which was the white man full of hate and everything. but god bless you, and god bless c-span. i really enjoy c-span. that guy get -- needs to get cameras on a live feed if they're coming around 10 times. host: if it's happening that often, i am with you. raising glendale, arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. [indiscernible] host: it's only a few pennies. we are not that much. we think we are a pretty good deal. caller: i appreciate that. that is the greatest segue i've ever seen. thank you and i'll talk to you

next time. host: kentucky, republican. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. how are you? i'm just calling in. we could take money that they're spending for bills in congress, for the things that they make no sense. like money for the study of quails and hills that really just wouldn't matter. and they just help with baby formula shortage. it would -- their mothers suffering where i live. the shelves are empty, and the coal miners, they are out of jobs. i mean, there is nobody wanting

coal, and as bad as we need gas for gas prices, you think that coal mining would be bowman. that's booming. it has gotten bad. but if they would take money from different things, people would be able to afford things. host: thanks for the call. 28 million dollars that democrats are hoping to inject into the fda in an effort to help address the baby formula shortage this is jake and california. good morning. caller: how are you? i would like to suggest to our government that the reason that they have oil, that they're not pumping, or reason, we should cool the leases off, and they should not be able to use that land, and secondly, about the whole abortion issue, it is

tempting because men don't have rights either way. i personally have been on the side of both. wanting to have a baby with someone or not whining to have a baby with somebody, and either way, the man does not have a choice. host: this is out of ohio. good morning. caller: i have a suggestion about the baby formula. people should ask their doctor about the formula. if someone announces 14 ounces of water, and tablespoons of syrup. host: i'm sure we should note that anything you should do like that, we should run by a doctor first. but what are your thoughts on the ability to address the shortage? caller: yes. i think my grandmother used it

for my mother and my mother for me. host: this is stephanie in florida. good morning. caller: i'm just really worried. my . . there have been a continuous campaign to try to continually say that all this stuff is happening because of democrats and i'm not really feeling that. what i do realize is there's an effort from -- like mcconnell's interests and his pact that he's made with the rest of his republicans, they do not want anything that biden is doing to succeed. and so they're doing all of this negative propaganda and trying to say he's responsible for things that has nothing to do with any kind of stuff that

biden or anybody else is doing other than being a real national -- this is an international problem with the stuff that's going on in terms of all of the backlog and things that are happening. this has nothing to do with a president. the real problem is they are not going along with things that have been proposed and the people who put the president in there that were expecting some things and they really have done everything they could and continuing to do to slow down and to stop anything positive for the people. host: got your point. last caller in today's "washington journal" -- but if you didn't get in today, we'll of course be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. 4:00 a.m. pacific. we'll take you up to capitol hill and the house ways and

means subcommittee. an oversight subcommittee hearing on the taxpayer fairness. that's getting under way in just a moment 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]