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host: good morning and welcome to "washington journal." president joe biden is in asia meeting with american allies as he works to shore up u.s. relations around the world. this is the united states faces trouble in several spots around the globe, including the war between russia and ukraine, missile threats in north korea, potentially expanding nato, increased investments from south korea, and european allies coming to the u.s.'s aid in the baby formula shortage. are you confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy? if your answer is yes you are confident, we want to hear from you at (202)-748-8000. if your answer is no you are not

confident, your number is (202)-748-8001. you can always text us at (202)-748-8003 and we are always reading on social on facebook at facebook.com/c-span and twitter @cspanwj and on instagram @ cspanwj. biotin is taking his -- biden is taking his tour of asia trying to bolster allies. he was joined by the south korean president at boson air force base -- osan air force base. he spoke about the alliance. here is a portion of what he had

to say. [video clip] >> great to be here with the president. we had a great state dinner and thank you to all of you, every one of you. you are the front-line of everything we are concerned about. you represent the commitment of our two countries and the strength of the alliance. our alliance is formed through shared sacrifices of the korean war and seven decades later, thanks to you, the republic of korea is strong, thriving, innovating democracy and our lives grow stronger every day because of y'all. today, korean-american forces stamp sentinel -- stand

sentinel. it is as important as it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. deterring threats and underwriting stability is as vital today not only for the peninsula, but the world. that is what the president and i spent the last few days talking about. host: nbc news has an article that sums up with a thing president biden is trying to do with his first presidential trip to asia. i will read a couple of paragraphs. president joe biden began his first trip to asia since he took office amid his lowest domestic approval numbers as he looks to make strides in countering china's saber rattling in the indo pacific. he will spend two days in south

korea where he will showcase new investments in the u.s. by some of the country's top companies, including hyundai's plans to open a plant in georgia. he will then fly to tokyo for a meeting aimed at checking china's increasing military might. the war in ukraine looms, where he will press the indian president to take firm position against russia and the u.s. hoping the global response might deter china from moving on taiwan. that is from nbc news. biden making his first presidential trip to asia. well, on saturday, president biden held a news conference with the south korean president on joint policy toward ukraine and u.s. policy toward south korea and this korean peninsula.

here is what president biden had to say. [video clip] >> i want to thank the people of korea further strong support for the people of ukraine. pugin's war against -- putin's war against ukraine is attacking the universal principles of sovereignty and integrity. the republic of korea and the united states are standing together, part of a global response with allies and partners around the world, to condemn russia's flagrant violation of international law and to hold russia accountable and support the people of ukraine. tomorrow, the president and i will be visiting with the korean-american troops who are serving side-by-side even today, decades after our troops first fought valiantly together, to preserve korea. it is emblematic of our strength and continuing strength and in

the durability of our alliance and our readiness to take on all threats together. today, the president and i committed to strengthening our close engagement and work together to take on challenges of regional security, including addressing the threat posed by the democratic people's republic of korea by strengthening our deterrence posture and working toward denuclearization of the korean peninsula. promoting stability across the taiwan straits as well and freedom of navigation including in the south china sea and beyond. host: our question this morning, are you confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy? call in now. bob calling from mechanicsville, new york and bob says no.

good morning. caller: it is actually john. host: sorry about that. go ahead, john. caller: are you there? host: i am here. caller: thank you. i am very worried. i am worried because -- i will start with afghanistan. it was chaos and it is frightening but with the ukraine , i don't think biden played much of a role. i think the europeans woke up, especially germany, and they did not want to repeat 1939 with hitler annexing places like austria and czechoslovakia. they decided to act decisively. and i don't think joe biden had to do that much. i think the europeans behind the

back doors to the initiative. the other foreign policy is with mexico. this border fiasco, it is abject failure. i am really concerned about that because the consequences have yet to be determined. down the road with 150 nations walking across our border our security, i believe in the future, is going to be compromised. host: outside the mexico situation which is been going on the last 20 years, what changes would you ask president biden to make in foreign policy right now? caller: well, what i would do is he is going the right direction but incrementally. i would ask him to take a tougher posture with china and he is acting more aggressive.

but the damage has been done. he has been determined to be feckless and been pushed around by china and he is trying to make up for it and that can be dangerous. i suppose at this point it is better to act them to be timid. but the damage is already done. i think we need a president -- we should have had a president -- that acted in a bold way and done it sooner. he has been compromised by china. most of the people in this country are realizing that and hopefully, this is not going to get worse. host: let's go to bill calling from milton, delaware. good morning. caller: good morning.

on the liberal media the nato expansion was due divided? that had nothing to do with what joe biden is doing. he has brought the country down morally, gas prices. nato expanded because of what russia has done. host: nato has not expanded yet. they have not voted to include any other countries. it is a potential expansion, but keep going. caller: you are correct. they have not done it yet, but it is not because of joe biden, it is because of their fear of russia. i've the member when the liberals said trump was going to crash the economy and start world war ii and they were off by one president, and that is joe biden. host: what do you think president biden should be doing differently on foreign policy? caller: i think, that is difficult to say. i am not a foreign policy

expert, but there is nothing going on in the country or around the world he has done that benefited us as a country or the world. he is pushing the transgender issue where we want to destroy penises all little boys and girls instead of dealing with the economy, or drilling for oil or shale or whatever it takes for gas prices to go down. host: but we are specifically talking foreign policy. president biden has not said anything about those issues during his trip to asia. is there anything he should be doing on foreign policy that he is not? caller: he should be stepping down and allowing somebody who come put two sentences together because he is not a leader in this country. host: let's go to jim calling

from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on board. i think that hit he took from afghanistan will haunt him and his administration. i have been there over six tours. the images are damaging and the question in my mind is, what type of advice is he getting? or, does he have the personality to listen to good advice? i just don't understand. it was like a slow moving train wreck. again, to the afghanistan fiasco, it did not happen overnight, over a week, over a month, it happened over four or five month time.

i don't know how he is going to make up this lost ground. and with the upcoming congressional elections that will tell what kind of job he is doing and what people think of him and his administration. host: what do you think president biden should be doing with foreign policy he either is or is not doing right now? caller: i think he needs to take a 100 degree course correction. tried to have the best minds around him, listen to good advisors, and work on his poise and tact and imagery. if he is not listening, he really needs to listen. host: give us specifics. you said he needs to take a course correction. a course correction on what? a course correction on ukraine? a course correction on the korean peninsula?

a course correction on russia? caller: his demeanor. i have never seen a president not answer press questions. he turns his back and walks away and i am not sure how effective that is. host: as a former white house reporter, i can tell you all presidents do that. he is not the first to do that. caller: with the repetition? host: yes. [laughs] caller: i will take your word on it. i don't know. i think he was wounded so much by the afghanistan situation, i just don't think he is going to catch up. just like a student who does poorly their first year and they have to make a herculean effort to catch up. i don't know if he is going to be able to do it.

i like the man, i respect the man, but i think he has to have better counsel or change his thought process in dealing with issues. host: let's go to davine calling from clear oaks, california. caller: thank you for having me on. host: go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: thank you for having me on. president biden is in cognitive decline and when it comes to any policy, foreign as well as domestic, he needs to stay home. the people that are running the show are the ones pulling the strings. the man cannot put together two sentences. the world is laughing at us. we are hurting in america and it is all about a big cover-up in

ukraine with welfare from our country while americans are hurting badly right now. host: what makes you think president biden is in cognitive decline? caller: it is kind of obvious. the man gets lost walking from the limousine to the white house. you got the easter bunny running around directing him where to go. it is obvious. i have worked in health care 30 years and i have seen mental decline. to me it is just obvious. this is senior abuse at the highest level. host: you also said congress is sending welfare to ukraine. do you think the united states should stop supporting the ukrainian fight against russia? caller: that is between russia and ukraine. i am an army daughter, army mom,

and i am tired of sending our men and women and children over to fight wars for other countries. this whole hunter biden cover-up, get a prosecutor fired bs is too much to ignore. there is more going on in ukraine that has to do with a cover up for the biden family than it does helping the ukrainians. if nancy pelosi can walk around in stilettos in a war zone, and you can hold the concert in a war zone, i am thinking maybe it is not as bad as they say it is. i understand people are dying and i understand what war is, but this is not our fight. host: all right. there are people who agree with that position, including republican senator rand paul who came to the senate floor on thursday and spoke against the

$40 billion aid package to ukraine. here is what senator rand paul of kentucky had to say. [video clip] >> those senators who voted to give $40 billion to ukraine say it is in our national security interest. i wonder if americans across our country would agree if they have been shown and asked to pay for it? if the supporters had been honest with americans, they could have instituted a ukraine war tax. i am sure it would have been popular. by my calculation, each income taxpayer in our country would have to pay $500 to support this $40 billion which, by some accounts, is a down payment and need to be replenished in four months. $500 tax to every income taxpayer. but that is not the way things are done in washington. what we do is say, put on my

tab. we do not want to be honest we just add it to the debt. we could have taken the $40 billion from elsewhere in the budget. we could have said, we spent $77 0 billion on the military and that is more than the next eight countries combined. we could've taken it out of the military budget. if it is in the national security interest, maybe we can use the military budget. but we don't want them to know there is a punishment for this. we don't want to take it from somewhere else where somebody else is getting rich off this money. what we do is we borrow it. put it on my tab. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about their confidence in president biden's handling of foreign policy. here is one text that says, no confidence whatsoever. biden only went to south korea to find out about ships

taiwan will not be sending once china overpowers them. we should have made them here. he is leading from behind, especially when he seeks energy sources from other countries. another text says, i have total confidence. the whole world is not laughing at him. a tweet that says, after four years of republican love letters to dictators around the world the usa is trying to repair the damage. another tweet that says, biden is reactive, not proactive, and he wants to sign a treaty that will give the world health organization control of americans. no, he cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of the american people. another tweet that says, as usual, the biden administration will be behind as they continue to judge their actions on how it plays politically domestically before making decisions. one final tweet that says, president biden is handling foreign policy like all the

other presidents. once again, we would like to know if you are confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy. if your answer is yes, we want to hear from you at (202)-748-8000. if your answer is no, your number is (202)-748-8001. keep in mind we are reading your texts as well, so text us at (202)-748-8003. let's go back to our phone lines and talk to cj: from california. good morning --talk to cj calling from california. caller: you have the rapist traitor in the white house for four years sucking up to putin. and you have the nazi american goons calling in today spouting the garbage they hear on their

fascist radio programs. i am not getting too much intelligence conversations from the callers, but that is what you expect with a question like this. eye and so glad a person with a world history experience at the national level is facing putin right now, evil dictator. biden is rallying europe behind us. essentially all of the nazi american goons calling your show today are completely ignorant of the world history the last 40 years. the united states is the indispensable nation in holding the atlantic alliance together and i am so glad that president biden is in the white house leading the charge of the free world against an evil dictator.

these nazi american goons somehow think -- i find it appalling. host: sharizad calling from cincinnati, ohio. caller: good morning. host: good morning. you are on, go ahead. caller: ok. i am very disgusted with how biden's handling foreign policy and i have to agree with that other woman who said he is in decline. anybody who has lived in america and have the medical system we have and the diet we have, they are going to have problems. he is old and he should not have been in there. we need a younger person. here is what i called about. my taxes this year were $245,000

and if i knew biden was going to send my money to ukraine, i would not pay a dime. all this government does is cry about what they don't have, what they can't do for small businesses, what they can't do to help people get land. they can't do anything but they got money to send to some other white people in another foreign country and black people in america are doing without everyday and still paying taxes to support this country. no, i do not think he knows what he is doing and, this is hard to say, but i do not think trump would have sent them $200 billion. host: barney calling from florida. caller: i am confident in what biden is doing great host: why are you confident? caller: these people need to get

educated about history. when hitler was conquering the world he was already sinking ships over the coast of the united states. putin got the same mindset. if we sit back and listen to these morons talking about amanda decline -- talking about the man in decline. thank you for letting me share that. host: scott calling from old orchard beach, maine. caller: i have two things to say. i don't like the w.h.o. control and the u.s. and telling the

united states how to react during the next pandemic. also, he is not running the freedom of navigation act in the black sea where russians are blocking ukrainian ships from getting wheat past. i think we are going to have a weak shortage and biden should be running the freedom of navigation act through the black sea so we can come out of ukraine. ukraine is the second most producer of wheat in the world. host: let's go to leon calling from edison, new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning jesse. how are you doing? host: i'm fine. go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. go ahead. caller: can you hear me now?

host: yes, go ahead. i think we lost leon. lewis is calling from new jersey. caller: jesse, you're looking well. i guess i am one of the stupid, ignorant nazis. trump had putin in check. he took over korea under obama and now moved into ukraine under biden. all those folks talking about history, they forget the liberals in europe allowed hitler to make those moves. i don't know if you watched the press conference this morning, biden is not in control. he was reading his answers somebody was typing in. he is a bad leader and $40 billion, all this money is going to the defense contractors the

turnaround and finance all the democrats and republicans reelections. host: speaking of biden and the press conference, yesterday into in a press conference, he announced major new investments in u.s. manufacturing and clean energy initiatives. here is what president biden had to say yesterday in south korea. [video clip] >> it is great to be here to announce more than $10 billion in new investments in american manufacturing. $5 billion for advanced automotive technology and the $5.5 billion new plant near savannah, georgia will create millions of new jobs. the new facility should be rolling out the latest electric

vehicles and batteries to power them by 2025. the workers in georgia who will build these plants and manufacture the steel and technology will offer economic opportunity for a lot of americans. i want to thank my friends in georgia for how they have been fighting for georgia for this clean energy investment. these investments are part of a trend. manufacturing jobs are coming back to america. even before these investments, by administration created 545,000 new manufacturing jobs. thanks to hyundai, we are accelerating this on the road.

we are shooting for the all electric future. we are setting an ambitious standard to boost fuel economy standards. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about their confidence in president biden's handling of foreign policy one tweet that says, i have zero confidence in everything biden does. another tweet that says, whatever happened to politics stopped at the water's edge? another tradition destroyed. a tweet that says, biden is leading the free world and supporting democracy which are allies and friends desire after the previous administration. another truth is says, foreign policy is based on military strength. between permanent wars and the adopted need to crush the russian economy all of our resources are wasted across the ocean.

another tweet that says, why wouldn't i be? he is getting two crucial nations to join nato. he has russia on the ropes and getting europe off russian oil. this is stuff trump campaigned about. this is truly making america great again. one final tweet that says, president biden, good job all around, including foreign policy. handled with humility and no bluster. the way the world likes it. on monday we are going to hear more about nato membership. ambassadors to the u.s. from finland and sweden will discuss their bid to become members of nato live at the brookings institution monday at 2:00 p.m. you can watch it here on c-span, on c-span now, or anytime online at c-span.org.

on thursday, the senate armed services committee considers the nomination of general christopher chamoli to be supreme allied commander for europe. you can watch that live beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern here on c-span, on c-span now, our free mobile video app, and you can always watch it online at c-span.org. we want to know if you are confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy. let's talk to sylvia, calling from coachella, california. good morning. are you there? caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can. go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: good morning.

i admire president biden's efforts in foreign policy, beginning with bringing us home out of afghanistan. that brought my grandson home, robert montenegro, who battled it afghanistan. we could not be there more than 20 years and the loss, financial loss, what did we gain with afghanistan? what did we bring home but flag draped caskets? we should be proud we are no longer there. now, we need one more step, which is to declare the end of the war with north korea. we have a 38 parallel. president biden was inches from the 38 parallel. let's suck it up and be clear in ending the war with north korea. if we do not do that, north

korea will forever be preparing for the next battle with united states. that is not necessary. president biden is trying very hard to extend the hand of political diplomacy to these countries, for battered countries -- war battered countries. let's look at the proposal for the grand meeting in los angeles, california in june of this year. if it does take place, that will be, i say, one of the crowning moments for president biden. we must develop political diplomacy with all of the americas, north hemisphere, south hemisphere, all of the island nations in the caribbean

beginning with cuba. and president biden could win the nobel peace prize if he lifted the embargo on cuba. since 1959 no. there is a better way but he is trying. even if he stutters and there are individuals who think he has problems, well, tried being president. furthermore, if indeed president biden has some difficulty perhaps in speaking, consider this, he represents millions of americans who have physical handicaps. host: speaking of afghanistan, america's withdrawal from afghanistan was the topic of the recent worldwide press hearing in the senate armed services committee. i want to bring you a portion of that hearing where they talked about the withdrawal from

afghanistan. [video clip] >> director, you submitted the 2022 director of national intelligence annual threat assessment. on afghanistan the report says the taliban takeover threatens u.s. interests that 500,000 refugees could go into surrounding nations and the taliban will expand safe havens. madam director, given these assessments in your office's annual threat assessment, which uss the chaotic --would you assess the chaotic withdrawal left us more susceptible to terrorist attacks? >> thank you, senator. i agreed with what the general

indicated earlier about the threat that we are seeing from al qaeda and isis-k which is we see isis-k as the more discerning threat. we do not assess they have the capability to affect external attacks directed from afghanistan toward the united states at this stage, but they could build that capability over time and they have the intent to do so. with al qaeda, we are not seeing as much of a threat and that does not mean it could not grow over time, and that is something we are monitoring. host: we want to know if you are confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy. jerry -- jeremy calling from oklahoma. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm great. go ahead. caller: i am just very

disappointed in the administration. i am not going to say biden because i am sure he does not have a clue of what is going on, but i am very disappointed. he should not have brought anybody out of afghanistan. the war was not over. you have to win a war and show strength. it is ridiculous. a country has to show strength. what is going on in the ukraine right now should have never happened. if we were showing strength, it would not have happened. the fact we are showing such weakness is the reason why it did happen. now, all the money going over there is not going where it is supposed to go. most of the people getting help are getting that from donations from christian groups. most of the money that came over there they were buying packages and these people coming 2 america --coming to america,

they did not even open the packages. it is a big mess and on of the money is going where it is supposed to go. thank god there are people donated to ukraine. it is a big mess. host: what should president biden be doing on foreign policy that he is not doing now? caller: he should not have tore down the border wall. we paid for that. it was expensive and it is a fence. it is really important. host: which part of the fence did president biden order torn down? caller: i don't know if he torn it down but he stopped building it and let people come over the border. it is not racism. and all these idiots want to blame it on bs.

this has nothing to do with racism. there are bad people in the world that want to cause us harm and he is ignoring it. host: outside of mexico, what other foreign policy changes do you want president biden to make? caller: just about everything he has done is the opposite of what he should have done. i mean, the money for ukraine, you think it is really going to help? or is it just going into his pocket? nothing he has done -- we would be better off if our enemy was calling the shots. i think he is in bed with them or used to be. i do not know what he is doing because as an administration -- his administration is in charge and he is doing what they tell him. host: dennis calling from california. caller: good morning. two points i want to make.

biden is doing very good at foreign policy. he is doing what he should do and that is trying to create relationships. people should understand america does not have that many people to put that many boots on the ground and this is not the america of 1941 where everybody is rushing to get into the military. that goes over into my second point. all of the border bashing? americans should keep in mind that mexico is your neighbor and have about if mexico and south america were to create -- could we handle them chanting in san diego "death to america? "

they want to come to america for opportunity. it has gotten to the point where this anti-immigration has become partyline baloney and we should really understand -- and when i say "we" i mean americans as a whole -- we came to this hemisphere. this is there hemisphere and to bash them, 99% of it like the previous caller who said it is not the president or it is not race, it is baloney. they don't like it because they are people of color. the bash about them bringing crime and drugs is baloney. they are usually here to work hard and do quite well. for those that are complaining that the majority of poor whites

are being affected, i can agree but that is on them. host: sarah calling from michigan. caller: hi. i am getting a kick out of listening to the gentleman who says the word "nazi." come on, this is america. she would not be so great if the people who came here and created her did not exist. hello? host: you are on. caller: i'm sorry. anyways, i love the comments but we are allowed to have our own opinion to say what we want. it is like saying all democrats are pedophiles. we all know that is not true, but the divisiveness being portrayed is called psychological warfare. it is behavioral science. they take away trust and morals of every institution in your society to change cultural norms

. this is what countries do to take down their people. there is a plan in place and we are not included. if you wonder why there is lack of confidence in our government, it is supposed to be that way. there is no two sides, there is one. one massive criminal organization that wants their future a certain way and once again, you are not included. war is business. politics is business. host: let me jump in. we are specifically talking about foreign policy. what do you think -- how do you think president biden is doing on handling foreign policy? caller: i am going to say i don't think our government has done well in any area. when you talk about iraq or afghanistan, that went on 20 years. those poor people had their countries of alliterative by both sides --they

have their country obliterated by both sides. in vietnam, ever personnel comes back sick or poisoned and that woman stated something -- i am not even sure. the immigrants cannot come here because if resources are so small, it is incredible how they think we cannot grow our own weight. -- wheat. they are trying to make us depend on everybody else. the people who have the money are running the show. get the script. host: we go to sam calling from arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. how are you doing? host: i'm doing fine. go ahead. caller: i think the biden foreign policy is a failure and unfortunately, a disaster.

afghanistan, of course, the withdrawal was a disaster. russia is whooping us in the iran nuclear deal. we are getting into a war with russia and ukraine is not a nato member. everybody says, oh, we are trying to save democracy in the ukraine but the democracy in the ukraine does not exist. the media does not want to talk about how president zelenskyy banned his main rivals in the ukraine. biden is also discussing tariffs against china to help our economy. our borders are open and he is fighting to lift title 42.

god knows who is crossing the borders right now. unfortunately, like the caller you had before, we will find out in a few years. also, biden is begging opec for energy and our phone calls are not being answered by those nations. you know, you ask what he needs to be doing. well, i will be honest, just like the ukrainian situation, besides sending weapons to the ukraine he should be talking on a peaceful solution also. we can chew gum and walk at the same time on that. also, he needs to get tough with china. he needs to be talking to china about taiwan. taiwan is being threatened every day and he needs to be looking

at where did covid really come from? host: let's go to stephen calling from indianapolis, indiana. good morning. caller: jesse, jesse, jesse, i am an old vietnam vet. i don't believe -- i take that back, i do. i have been listening to republicans for years and i have to wonder what in the hell they are drinking. i would not want any. you hear these guys talking about the way biden withdrew from afghanistan. they don't realize the contract to withdraw from afghanistan was signed by trump. biden could not do anything other than withdraw. trump brought the military and left the base with no one there. at the same time, they wanted --

13 marines was killed during the pullout. i was in the marine corps and i served in vietnam. 13 marines being killed because an individual walked up among the people, afghanistan and the marines, and set off a bomb, how in the hell? i don't like trump but i could not fault trump for that. in the united states, i could walk into any international airport and killed 13 people by setting off a bomb. i mean, where are these people coming from? this is nothing to do with the president or the withdrawal from afghanistan. on top of that, these people

talking about, oh, if trump had been in office, we would not be having this war in europe. no, russia would not have to worry about fighting for that land because trump would have given it to him. without any -- just give it to them because trump is that kind of person. host: on thursday, president biden met in the rose garden here in washington, d.c. with the leaders of finland and sweden. he spoke about the resurgence of nato in europe. here's what president biden had to say. [video clip] >> today, i am proud to welcome and offer the strong support of the united states for the applications of two great democracies and two close,

highly capable partners to join the strongest, most powerful defensive alliance in the history of the world. two proud, independent countries exercising their sovereign rights all states possess to decide their own security. president and prime minister, it is a great honor to have you here at the white house as finland and sweden begin the process of joining nato. it was out of the wreckage of world war ii that nato was formed and in seven decades that followed, nato has proved an indispensable alliance, committed to a europe whole, free and at peace. but in recent years doubts began to arise. was nato still relevant? was it still effective?

is it still needed in the 21st century world? today there is no question, nato is relevant, it is effective, and it is more needed now than ever. host: we want to know if you are confident in president biden's handling of foreign policy. let's talk to mike calling from virginia. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i don't think it is up to any administration to carry foreign policy. there are established rules they follow. i think the ukraine war is not necessary. it could have been solved diplomatically. are you listening to me? host: we can hear you. caller: i think they kept pushing putin to start that war because they wanted to weaken russia.

they just cut our job. budget cuts because of the ukraine issues. i support biden domestically and i have confidence but foreign policy i have no confidence. the ukraine war was not necessary. mohamed al salman is a thug. i do not want to hear about human rights, sovereignty and democracy. if mexico joined the russia alliance, do you think we would stand around and do nothing? no. foreign policy i think he is a failure, but domestically he is doing a great job. host: let's go to amber colin

from mckees rocks -- calling from mckees rock, pennsylvania. caller: to the previous vietnam vet and all others i want to thank them for our service. i was going to say i agree about what he is saying about afghanistan. it was trump and his administration that withdrew quickly and made the deal with the taliban, not the afghan government, the taliban to quickly leave. any veteran knows when we leave, we leave some people behind to do the post and that is when the guy came in and blew up the other 13 marines. may they rest in peace. they will never be forgotten. at the same time, we have to realize he made the deal with the taliban.

it was part of the deal. we did not make the deal with the afghan government. for ukraine for the people saying we should not send money, if we do not help our allies now and we allow putin to take over ukraine, he had tax a nato nation -- he attacks a nato nation and that is our blood. we have to join them. we will send our brothers and sisters and family back over there to fight. i would rather send the cash now out of the trillion dollar defense budget to protect the world right now they on go over for another deployment. host: jeff calling from woodbridge, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i would like to have issue with the lady that called in from

california at 7:15 saying the ukraine war -- the russia war is not our fight. it is our fight. you think putin is going to stop it ukraine? you don't think he is a threat to world peace and security? it is our fight and i am glad what president trump is doing. i admit it is light. they got started late but i support him and that is it. host: joe calling from tucson, arizona. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. thank you for what you do on "washington journal" and c-span. couple of comments. to the one lady that called earlier and said her son came home, i am glad, ma'am, but have a talk with the family members of the 13 members that did not come home.

please don't tell me joe biden did a good job. he stopped our drilling on day one. he could have stopped the withdrawal from afghanistan on day one. to the callers that want to call people names, nazis and other names, ma'am, sir, we are all american concerned citizens. please do not call me names. we all love america, we just have different versions of how it should be run. jesse, i encourage you to hang up on people who want to throw stones and call each other names . it does not work. it is not going to get any solutions done. no, joe biden is a failure. i voted for donald trump and i will again if he runs again. he is confident.

he was concerned about america which we all should be. thank you very much. host: we would like to thank all of our callers calling in for the first segment of the day. coming up next, we turn our attention to the rise in covid cases across the country with vanderbilt university infectious disease professor dr. william schaffner. later, cook political report's jessica taylor will discuss the primary season so far and key senate and governor races to watch in the fall midterm elections. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house is not in session, but the senate will meet starting tuesday. senators are expected to debate domestic terrorism legislation following the mass shooting in buffalo, among other issues.

on wednesday, at 10:00 a.m. eastern, live on the c-span now app and c-span.org, the u.s. special envoy for iran testifies before the senate foreign relations committee about negotiations over potential nuclear agreement between the united states and iran. then at 11:00 a.m. eastern 100 n c-span, the house energy and commerce committee hears from f.d.a. officials and heads of leading baby formula manufacturers on the baby formula shortage. and on thursday, at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span, the senate armed services committee holds a hearing for the reappointment of general christopher as the supreme allied commander of europe for nato. watch this week live on the c-span networks, or on c-span now, our free mobile video app. also head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on demand any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government.

>> in 1997, sovereignty over hong kong was passed from the united kingdom to the people's republic of china. tonight on q&a, a former bbc reporter and author of "indelible city," talks about the history of british rule in hong kong and the crackdown by the chinese government on demonstrations opposing their authority. >> when hong kong was handed back in 18997, it had a relatively free press. people could protest. there was freedom of expression, freedom of religious belief, free bomb of association. is and the last couple of years, china has brought in this national security legislation, and that has really changed all of these things. the things that made hong kong hong kong one by one, they're kind of being dismantled. >> her book "indelible city," tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on

c-span's "q&a." listen to it and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government, our news letter recaps the day for you, from the halls of congress to daily press briefings, to remarks from the president. scan the q.r. code at the right bottom to sign up for this email and stay up to date on everything happening in washington each day. subscribe today using the q.r. code or visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe any time. >> "washington journal" continues. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with vanderbilt university infectious disease dr. william schaffner affects her dr. william schaffner , who -- we are back with venable university infectious

disease professor dr. william , schaffner , who will discuss the rise in covid cases. the new york times has a graphic that shows an uptick in new reported cases of covid over the last 90 days. can you tell us what is driving this recent uptick of covid cases? guest: two things are actually driving this increase in cases that we are sitting across the country. the first has to do with the virus. the virus, omicron and its subvariants are so very contagious. they are spreading constantly and they have the capacity to actually infect people who are previously vaccinated as well as people who previously had the infection itself.

the vast majority of these cases are very, very mild, but nonetheless, this virus can keep spreading from person to person. that is causing case numbers to rise. that is virus. the other thing has to do with us, because we are taking of our masks and going out to restaurants and bars and religious services. we are out and about. we are providing more opportunities for this virus to spread. so it is a combination of what the virus is doing and what we are doing and we are seeing an increase in cases. hospitalizations are increasing slightly vast majority of people still being hospitalized with covid related illness are people who are unfortunately unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and then also some older people, people who are

frail, immune compromised who never were able to respond, ever able to take advantage of the vaccine. so most of the new cases we are seeing continue to be mild. host: are we seeing these cases in specific parts of the country? where are we seeing the uptick? guest: they started mostly in the northeast and then have spread across the country. this increase in cases is happening everywhere. i am in tennessee and we have seen an increase in cases an uptick in hospitalizations, simply because the highly contagious viruses are just about everywhere. we are and under vaccinated state here in tennessee, particularly in our rule areas

-- rural areas. host: what are the demographics of the people who are getting the cases? are we seeing it in the older population, anger population, children? is it more men or women or do we have that kind of information? guest: we do and it is spread throughout demographic weight. children are affected -- spread throughout demographically. children are infected. it is spreading among the entire population we are not done with this iris. i am -- with this virus. we have moved from the highly

pandemic part of this outbreak, where health care systems were extraordinarily strapped -- stressed to what we are in health calling endemic. we are learning to live with it in a chronic fashion. host: let me take a couple seconds to remind our viewers they can take part in this conversation. we are going to open up regional lines. that means if you're in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your telephone number is going to be (202) 748-8001. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social

media and facebook. with all of eight advancements in testing for covid, many people went out and bought home tests -- with all of the advancements in testing for covid, any people went out and bought home tests or had them sent home from school. we think the number reported for covid is underreported because of the number of people using home tests and not getting tested by government agencies? guest: that is exactly what is happening. initially testing was only available in specific laboratories in specific locations. therefore every test results, whether positive or negative was funneled into state health departments, so we had a very accurate report of how many people were tested, where they

were, and what test results were. the home tests have shown us that is no longer the case, because people, as you say, are testing at home and they are not reported in a central database. that is one of the reasons that the cdc is focused more on hospitalizations. of course that is the most severe disease that impacts the stress on the health care system the most, so it has the greatest public health impact. so the hospitalization data continues to be much more accurate than the testing data, but the information we have, if you squint at it, don't count each and every number, you can get a general pattern of what is happening across the country. host: how confident are you in

the accuracy of home tests, because i will tell you that my primary physician when i went to her earlier, she was like, you can use a home test but it won't tell you anything nick be positive or negative. that he will have to get a pcr tests. how accurate -- how confident are you? guest: it has to have its limitations. the home tests are useful. however, we have to recognize they don't have the precision that the pcr tests. after what some of us may think of as an exposure and want to find out if we are positive, if we test two early with the home -- if we test two early with the home test -- if we test too

early with the home test, wait three or four days and test because then it is much more likely to be positive. your physician is correct. the pcr tests is the more definitive test that we have. it will test positive earlier. even that test has a limitation. a lot of people would like to test when they think they are now better and covered in woodlike research -- would like reassurance. the test could stay positive for quite a while after weight recovered. we discovered this with the home tests also. why is that? because we still have remnants of the in and around our nose and throat. we don't recommend testing to

make sure we are all clear after we have recovered, because the test can be falsely positive. host: you brought up earlier that we might still be in a pandemic but switching to an end emmett. can you -- an endemic. can you explain the difference between two now that the hospitalizations are wrote to the low or if we are still in a pandemic? guest: a pandemic is a global academic -- global epidemic. that happens when a new agent highly contagious appears on the globe and spreads around the world. since we are all susceptible at that point, it is a new agent and not experience with it and it will infect a lot of people

and make many sick. that stresses the health care system. we have been through that phase. this infectious agent works its way through the population and we are vaccinating at the same time, so gradually were and more of us become protected, at least for a period of time and the virus has often a harder time getting around. at that point we transition from pandemic to what we call endemic . that is a circumstance where the virus isn't causing nearly as much damage, fewer people hospitalized, thank goodness, but it still can circulate in our population. it won't disappear. it will always be there smoldering. covid, in particular, isn't nearly as seasonal as influenza and we will have to try to figure out how to contain this

virus, live with it, have a truce with it, as i like to say. once again, it doesn't impact those who are most vulnerable in our population, immune compromised, older and frail, underlying illnesses, and it doesn't stress the health care system the way it did. that will be an ongoing struggle and we will have to work on how to do that, because the virus is not going to go away. it won't disappear. it will be with us for the foreseeable future and yes, future i define in terms of years. we are going to have to learn how to build with it in the best possible way. host: we have a question from our social media followers that want to know about what do you think about next steps? do you think this country should bring back mask mandates for

indoors in this country? guest: i think mandates for masking are unlikely to be well received and i speak with a certain certainty about at because -- about that because i live in tennessee and that would be accepted. but recommendations for massacring is another matter and that has happened in some parts of the country where there is a lot of the spread, particularly so those who are older, frail, with underlying illnesses of any age, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes is so very common in people with diabetes should be careful and everyone who is immune compromised. those folks, yes, put on your mask when you go indoors to any kind of group event, even right now, be doubly cautious period

know you are vaccinated, i hope you are and hope you are up-to-date with your vaccinations come and put on the mask, particularly an n95 or k 95 mask. that is like the belt and suspenders approach, particularly for those people at high risk of getting severe disease. host: i am glad you mentioned the n95 mask. we have a social media follower who has a question about those masks. she wants to know -- why the government and medical community are not recommending n95 masks only? does it matter what kind of mask you where? is any mask better than no mask? guest: we are not going to talk about mandates. let's put those aside. about recommendations, any mask

is better than no mask. however, let's recognize that things have changed. when covid first hit, it wasn't nearly as contagious as it is now. omicron is very contagious. so back then a year ago, we were wearing surgical masks and cloth masks. they are still better than nothing, but with this extraordinarily contagious omicron variant, we are recommending, particularly for those folks in the high-risk groups, find yourself an n95 or kate n95 mask -- kn95 mask and use those and wear them correctly. a word about that. they have to fit nicely around the nose, cheeks, and 10. the first thing i am told is when everybody fit checks and

that they are doing that, who is taking more orc of breathing because all of the breathing is going through the mask out and in. it is not sneaking around the edges because the n95 and kn95 really seal it much better than a surgical or cough mask. it they are important because we now have this highly contagious on the kern that is out there. -- contagious omicron that is out there. host: liz from new jersey, go ahead. caller: thank you, dr., for your work. i have watched you on various

shows on covid. i am living in new jersey, most densely populated in the union, and i have been keeping tabs on the amount of people infected in my state as well as hospitalizations and deaths. i am concerned that right now the political decision seems to be mandate nothing and basically living with covid because it will be us living with covid infections, multiple infections during the year. i also think it is subjecting americans to the real possibility of a lot of folks picking up a disability from a long covid situation at some point. personally i have worked very

diligently to stay out of crowds , limited my contacts for the last two years. i have not had an infection of covid. i am masking. what is your opinion? are we living in a world where we are just going to more or less give up and allow ourselves to be infected? guest: thank you for your kind words. you are describing difficulty we are having in moving from pandemic to endemic. exactly how are we going to manage that? we have a number of interventions we can use in order to protect ourselves. let's start with vaccines. vaccines are fundamental. each virus is different. let me give you a comparison.

measles used to infect every child, put many children into the hospital and we developed measles vaccine and give it to our children and that is such a splendid vaccine that once you have a complete vaccination series, two doses, you are protected for life and essentially we have eliminated measles from large geographic areas of the world, the united states included. unfortunately, covid is a different sort of virus. when it infects you, it does produce some sort of protection, but it doesn't last nearly as long as the measles vaccine. so off vaccines -- so while vaccines are fundamental, they don't have the duration of

protection that we would ideally like. so we are still working on how to update that vaccine, the wavy update influenza vaccines, and how often we need to receive it. hang in with us as the medical and vaccine scientists and public health people work that out. i think what you suggested that we will have to periodically be revaccinated is likely the case. the interval we don't know. so we have vaccines and other interventions. we do have the mask and caution about getting into large groups, particularly indoors, particularly in the wintertime and particularly among people who are high risk because of age or underlying illness or immune compromised.

we are going to have to adjust to this new normal. it won't be as carefree as it was before covid, i'm afraid. hang in there with us as we get better and better. and of course on the treatment side, once you get sick we have monoclonal antibodies, antiviral drugs. we heard so much about how to get you out of the hospital functional. he mentioned long covid, another matter of great interest. we are now trying to figure out how is it that this virus actually causes long covid and how can we help patients who have its own leave their symptoms, and how can we prevent it in the future? remember, covid is new and we are still learning so much about it. we are much better now than we

were a year and a half or two years ago. a year from now and two years from now we will meet better able to cope with this virus. hang in there with us. medical science from the laboratory and bedside in in public health is working on this nonstop. host: on wednesday at the cdc director was asked during the covid briefing about whether americans should rethink their summer food -- plans in view of the covid cases. it is what dr. rachel wilensky had to say. [video clip] >> areas of increased infection and hospitalization in the north east and the eastern quarter as well as the upper midwest. what we have seen with different ways of infections have demonstrated that this travels across the country and has the

potential to travel across the country. the important thing to recognize is that we have the tools to prevent it. we would ask you to wisely use these tools. we have always said, put your mask aside when infection rates are low and pick it up when infection rates are higher. we know we have vaccines and boosters and treatments. we know people can use test before they gather so they can work towards making sure they can have an environment that is a safer environment. we would ask people to engage in all of the activities they want to engage in but to do so wisely and when you are up to date with vaccines and when you are tested and when you have a high infection rate in your area to put your mask on when you gather. host: is that guidance clear enough for americans? do you think she should have been clearer about what we should expect to do and what we

should be doing as we get in to the summer occasion modes? guest: i think dr. wilensky and i are harmonizing, seeing the same song with different note, but we are in harmony. she is saying basically be cautious. reno that when you travel you will be in crowds. where the masks on the plane, bus, train, while you are the airport or train station and the like. she said something further. before you gather with your relatives, one of the things you might do is use some home tests we talked about and let's make sure everybody who gathers to have that picnic is indeed testing negative. you can do that before weddings and other family gatherings also. it is an additional step you can take to reassure everyone you

are doing the best you can to make whatever union you are having for whatever reason as safe as possible for everyone, the older folks who attend, the young children, those who have diabetes, let's test ourselves to make sure that when we get together we are not exposing any of our loved ones to the infection. host: let's talk to laurel who is calling from wallingford, connecticut. caller: i think you may have asked -- already answered my question. will beget covid vaccines annually like me do it for influenza? guest: we may well do that. it hasn't quite been decided, but my little crystal ball says that this fall we will see a

covid vaccine 2.0, a new, updated covid vaccine, one that is similar to the old one with an additional component that covers omicron better and we may well be recommended to get another booster symptom is for. so i can see the public health campaign already, it is the fall, it is time to get vaccinated. get your flu shot and one arm and get your updated covid booster and another. that hasn't been decided yet, but i will bet we hear something like that this fall. host: let's talk to linda who is calling from cromwell, connecticut. caller: inc. you for being on today. i have a couple of questions. one, i've had four shots.

the first one and the last one i had no reaction, not even a sore arm. the middle two i had a strong reaction, small -- a sore arm and a side effect, i felt like i was hit by a bus. i wonder if the ones i had no reaction to actually worked. i mostly concerned because around here in connecticut are positivity is up to 14%. most people aren't masking, even though the cdc is not recommending, they are just not doing it. i go to the gym and pool every date for my health and no one in the gym is masking. of course i can't mask in the pool so i take it off to swim and put it back on. i also have to travel by bus and train next month and have a hospital procedure, so i am concerned to make sure that i am protected. one thing i have to say about

the masks, i have a small face so i have gaps, i can't do anything about it. could i put some special kind of tape around the gapped areas to make sure i am not having airflow from the bottom sides and breathing the mask itself? mostly i just want to make sure i am protected. i don't know any way to find out because the first and last i even have a reaction, not even a sore arm. which surprises me. thank you. guest: rest assured those that scenes were working. it is interesting with vaccines, particularly with this one. you don't necessarily have the same kind of local reaction or general sense of well-being that is the same after each one of

the inoculations. don't ask me exactly why that is paired don't know. sometimes you can have a very mild reaction and the next time you get hit a little harder by your proverbial bus, as you said, but the vaccine was working. i think tammy rest assured about that. -- i think you can rest reassured about that. people have larger and smaller faces, for sure. try to fit that as closely as possible. i've heard of people trying to tape it on. i have never tried that. it must be very cumbersome and i think i would try to just fix it on as well as you can rather than trying to use the tape. but you sound as though you like

to experiment but you might try to see if it works for you. host: let's talk to dale who is calling from riverdale, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am listening to you on the radio. i am a huge fan of c-span and listen almost every day and it is most interesting. my question, the most important one is, what can the doctor tell me about the development of the spray vaccine i read about a couple days ago that actually come according to the article, it works in a different way from the shot, and that it blocks the virus from ever getting in the body rather than going after the virus when it is in the body or do you know anything about that? guest: you are really

up-to-date. there is no doubt about it. you are inflicting the innovation, curiosity, and hard work of vaccine scientists, not only here in the u.s. but around the world people are still trying to make better vaccines. here is a note on the spray vaccine. if you could spray onto the mucous membranes of our nose and back behind our nose and in our throat, a protective layer, so that it, as you said, fans -- offends -- fends off the virus so that it couldn't enter our body and attack it. if you could prevent the virus from entering, that would be even better, and maybe we could

use both vaccines to give us double protection. it is still early days with the nasal spray vaccine, so let's all cross our fingers that that line of research continues to mature and we might have an additional layer of protection in the future. host: speaking of being asked and -- vaxed and lucy, a viewer has a question -- vaxed and boosted, if we are -- if i go in, will i infect someone? guest: the vaccines are designed in preventing getting seriously ill and hospitalizations.

if you are up-to-date with the current recommendations on the vaccine, you are really very securely protected against getting serious disease. let's pause for a moment. there are people who are immune compromised, older people who are frail and whose immune systems don't work as well, despite getting vaccinated, they may not be able to respond as appropriately to the vaccine, but by and large, vaccines to keep you up of the hospital. however, this omicron variant is so contagious, even if we are well vaccinated, it can infect us and we can transmit the virus, spread it, to others. so although we are protected against severe disease, we could still be factors that give the

virus to other persons. if we get infected, although we are vaccinated, we are likely to get either no symptoms or mild symptoms, akin to a bad cold. you can see it is a halfway vaccine. the vaccine protects against the most severe type of illness but still is not perfect in preventing mild infections. that is part of the struggle. host: i will tell you that we are getting a lot of questions about this so i am going to ask it now and have you explain to us. one of our social media followers wants to know what is going on with the monkeypox? before you respond, even president biden was asked about this and i will show you a clip of president biden responding to the monkeypox virus story from

this morning in south korea. [video clip] >>t have your health advisors told you your level of concern should be about monkeypox? pres. biden: they haven't told me the level of exposure but they are working on it hard to figure out what to do an 80 vaccine that might be available for it. if it were to spread, there could be consequences. that is all they told me. host: there is a story out of new york this weekend, where we have a new york city resident who tested positive for the virus that causes monkeypox, and the story continues to say that there has been a positive case in massachusetts on may 18 and so far the world health organization has identified about 80 cases globally and roughly 50 more suspected cases.

explain to us what the monkeypox virus is and should we get worried now? guest: don't get worried. here is monkeypox 101. we all remember dimly another virus, smallpox. you get a smallpox vaccine that got rid of smallpox. when that happened, we covered that in west and central africa, there was a similar aziz called monkeypox -- eight similar disease called -- a similar disease called monkeypox. it causes a rash, nausea, vomiting, feeling poorly and high fever. this virus is not spread readily . did i say that? not spread readily rate it requires close personal contact

in order to be spread and it generally spreads very slowly. very different from covid. so we have this virus that is occasional spread in west and central africa, and apparently someone from those countries went to europe and brought the virus with them or somebody from europe went to several -- central africa and brought it back. and in a chain, one after the other, it now had a series of small bursts of cases in europe, someone across the atlantic must've gotten on an airplane, and we have a group of cases in canada and in the u.s., as you have just said, a case in massachusetts, one come in only have one in new york.

public health is investigating all of these cases, finding out the close personal contact, putting those folks under observation, and should they become ill, they are being isolated and being treated just as quickly as possible. i think we will have more cases, because people were already affected. we are looking hard and will find a few more cases, but i think public health is getting this under control in europe, canada, and also here in the united states. this is not going to explode. take a deep breath. what it does remind us of is whether it's covid or in this case monkeypox, we live in a very small and shrinking globe. we are all each other's neighbors and the virus that occurs in someplace exotic can

potentially be in our backyard in a short period of time. what is the lesson? we need to maintain a strong public health system that can pick this up quickly and is able to respond. the response to monkeypox is a good example of public health working at its best. host: let's talk to tom, who is calling from illinois. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call, the bastion of free speech. i would like to ask the doctor, i work into school district where the unvaccinated get tested every day in the unvaccinated don't. i would know -- i would like to

know what scientifically -- how would they do that, send people to work on the vaccines don't work and they have to get tested -- don't have to get tested and i do. i am concerned with the politicization of these viruses and people making money on them. i would like to see more of the medical community, their input has been not the governmental communities like you are, but the non-government medical communities. as we know, the pharmaceutical companies are paying for the cdc , and wife are these doctors the

ones that are setting the bar for what we need to do? host: go ahead and respond before we run out of time. guest: several things. first, i obviously don't know the details in thinking of how your program is working, but there was a time when we were vaccinating many people and providing testing for people who are unvaccinated. if got a point, because with omicron, that strategy is not as helpful as it was with delta. a couple of reassurances, the pharmaceutical companies do not pay for cdc, you and i paid the cdc. it is a federal agency. it continues to be, despite the fact that it has had a somewhat battered reputation recently, i

believe it continues to be the finest look health agency in the world and i think everybody i know there, and i have lots of friends there, they are working hard on behalf of the american people. host: let's talk to janice who is: from colorado springs, colorado. -- who is calling from colorado springs, colorado. i think we lost janice. i will give you the last word, dr. schaffner. guest: we are saying that covid is going to be with us for a time. we are still learning more. when covid first appeared, i like to say, we opened up our textbooks on covid and there was nothing there, because it was new.

we have learned so much in the last year and a half or two and we are still learning more. that will enable us to do even better in the future. we all have to do our homework. c-span watchers and listeners do their homework. they keep up with the current recommendations. select all keep ourselves vaccinated, keep ourselves up-to-date, persuade our friends to be vaccinated, and when there is a recommendation to put your mask back on because there is virus spread, let's do that once again, and recognize people wearing masks out and about have a good reason to do that. don't give them a hard time. they are doing the best to protect themselves and their families. we are all into this together. we will talk about this as things evolve, and they will, going into the future. be safe, everybody out there.

. we -- host: we would like to thank dr. schaffner. thank you for coming on with us and sharing your wisdom. guest: always a rush -- pleasure. thank you. host: we will go to jessica taylor who is here to discuss the primary season so far and government and senate races to watch and senate races to watch in default midterm elections. next, we are going to open form segment where you can call and talk about the most important political topics on your mind. if you see the numbers on screen. we are waiting on your calls. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ >> weekends bring you book tv,

featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. a journalist with his book about the history of the american right-wing since the early 20th century and mainstream conservatives that culminated in election of president trump. and mark esper shares his book on his time in serving on the trump administration. he is interviewed by natural investment chairman. watch on book tv and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online, anytime at book tv.org. >> at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. here many of those on c-span's new podcast, presidential recordings. >> season one focuses on the

presidency of lyndon johnson. you'll hear about the 1964 civil rights act, the campaign, and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson secretary's new, because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact, they were the ones who made sure the conversations were taped, as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and there's. -- theirs. >> i want a number of people reported assigned to kennedy the day he was killed. i want it right quick. if i can't go to the bathroom, i won't go and i will state right behind these dates. >> present -- these gates. >> presidential recordings,

wherever you get your podcasts. host: -- >> after months of closed door investigations, the house january 6 committee is set to go public. starting june 9, tune in as committee members question key witnesses about what transpired and why during the assault on the u.s. capitol. watch live coverage for getting thursday, june 9 on c-span, c-span now, our free video app, or anytime online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are now in our open form segment. that means viewers can call in and talk about your most important political topic of the

day. the lines are now open. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents, your line is (202) 748-8002. you could always text us at (202) 748-8003 we are always reading on social media on twitter@cspanwj and on facebook, facebook.com/c-span. before we get into the open form segment calls, we are going to go to a story in the hill newspaper about congressional action going on next week in the u.s. capitol. republican can saying they are lining up against a domestic terrorism bill coming up in the senate. senate republicans lining up against a house passed bill that would authorize special offices within the government to investigate and monitor domestic terrorism, whichbeing pushed in the wake of a racist shooting

in buffalo that left 10 people dead. the gop comparison proposal would set up offices in the department of homeland security, department of justice, and the fbi's yes domestic terrorism to the disinformation board of the biden administration. it sounds terrible, senator josh hawley predicting it won't get 10 public and's and in the senate. -- 10 republicans in the senate. he referred to the law passed after september 11, 2000 one attack that expanded the government's power to monitor phones and email conversations and collect bank records good senate majority leader says -- records. the senate majority leader says he will bring it up. the bill passed the house to

22-203 and a mostly partyline vote -- 222-203 in a mostly partyline vote. that will be coming up this week, the bill from the house that would set up a government office to investigate and monitor domestic terrorism. we want to know what is your most important political topic you want to talk about. let's start with brad calling from georgia on the republican line. caller: it is great to talk to you again. host: go ahead, brad. caller: abortion has sucked the oxygen out of the room, covid is ever lingering, but i wanted to talk about the structure built, a $1.2 trillion and how that bill was structured and where the money has gone, and as

someone who works in public infrastructure, maybe we should have read it before we passed it . there was guidance given to the states that they should point their own infrastructures ours -- czars. my state of georgia did not. most of the funding was structured in the form of grants and aimed at disenfranchised or forgotten communities to rebuild if the structure, which sounds good, except they didn't have the infrastructure to begin with. so most of that money was not for building new infrastructure, it was to rebuild existing infrastructure. here in the south and areas outside of savannah, where growth has occurred because of poor expansion and other things, repaving roads doesn't help if he didn't have the roads to begin with. i hate to burn up my phone call

for 30 days to suggest a topic, but i hope you don't wait 30 days to get somebody on who can address this and speak to it. host: 's go to donald, who is calling from scott depot on the independent line. caller: as for joe biden's foreign policy, i assure you china and russia both have videos of hunter biden and compromising positions. the man is compromised 10 ways from sunday that is all i have to say. host: let's go to linda who is calling from missouri on the republican line. caller: i am on a topic that probably isn't relevant to many people but it is relevant to me. i live in a community with mostly people who are retired

and living on fairly fixed incomes. i am a little better off because i worked for a fortune 500 company as an executive and was salaried and had a 401(k). i am extremely worried about the economy right now and certainly worried about the senior population with inflation. i wish that you could do a segment on seniors, particularly in these trying times, supply issues and thenftion and the economy and how it is affecting the seniors and the little money they do get, because the race that we got through social security was totally eaten up by the inflation issue. that is really all had to say. host: let's talk to johnny who is calling from upper mongrel,

maryland -- upper mongrel -- upper marlboro, maryland. caller: stephen bannon took all the money that the republicans were complaining about for the wall. another thing is, they took this woman and made her first lady of the united states, and she is a russian citizen. host: let's go to paul, who is: from reston, virginia on the independent -- who is calling from reston, virginia. caller: i am calling regarding the abortion issue, which my basic position on it is, and i

am addressing this primarily toward the voters, the voters in my view shouldn't be trying to impose their personal religious and philosophical beliefs on pregnant women. pregnant women should be able to make their own choice and there shouldn't be laws imposed by other people on those pregnant women. thank you. host: let's talk to janice, who is calling from colorado springs, colorado on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i would like to know why we are letting all these people in from all over the world, going to every state, and they are not vaccinated, including children. what does that mean for the safety of the americans in this

country? where is their brains? i am very upset. think about that, all of these people coming to this country and going to every state you can name, and are they vaccinated? no. sorry. host: let's talk to stephen who is calling from williamsburg, pennsylvania on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am great. go ahead. caller: i think a lot of the issues right now boils down to education in general. it seems it always gets pushed back, crt notwithstanding, early education could solve our problems right now. it is the most overlooked, underfunded, the hallmarks of how people get their information and form opinions.

i think the education really is under look. especially teachers, who said were the heroes of the pandemic, but they are still paying out of pocket for their own school districts. my father just retired from the school district as a worker and he said that with the gaps in funding and lack of education for missing a year with covid, education has fallen behind for a lot of people and also social skills that they don't teach in the books. i think education is one of the weakest issues we are facing as a nation and that leads to access to education, especially for the poor communities, just getting more impatient to more people -- getting more information to more people so that they can understand. host: i want to remind you that tomorrow, on monday, ambassadors

to the united states from finland and sweden will discuss their country's ids to become members of nato come alive at the bookings institution. you can watch it here on c-span, on c-span now, which is our free mobile video app, or you can watch anytime online at time, online at c-span.org. -- c-span.org. on thursday, the committee will consider the nomination of christopher. the supreme allied commander for europe. once again, you can watch this nomination hearing live, beginning at 9:30 a.m. eastern, on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. i want to bring a story to you

from abc news, which is talking about what the biden administration is doing right now to alleviate the nations baby formula shortage. here is what abc news is saying this morning. the biden administration took several steps saturday to try to alleviate the nationwide baby formula shortage. the white house announced the first batch of imported baby formula under operation fly formula will arrive in the united states on sunday. military aircraft will transport the shipment of three formula brands, equivalent to 1.5 million eight ounce bottles from an airbase in germany to indiana. the shipment includes alpha amino, alpha amino june you gerber ha. all of which are hypoallergenic

formulas for children with cow, milk and protein allergies. additional flights will be announced in the coming days. president joe biden also signed legislation aimed at improving access to baby formula for low income families. coming out of abc news, military flights with baby formula imported from europe should be arriving in the united states today. baby formula should be back on sale in some stores, soon. we want to know what your most important political topic is today. let's talk to george, who is calling from hawaii. on the republican line. george, good morning. guest: good, jesse. i think you're doing a great job and you have grown from when you first started as a host here at washington journal. i like you. host: thank you. guest: you bet. i think putting in some kind of

mechanisms to make our elected officials govern more than just become political and attempting to line their pockets with taxpayer money and make insider stock training -- training to become millionaires and 60 year -- have 60 year careers in politics. i think maybe voters ought to be allowed to vote yes on enacting term limits on politicians. that would be good. maybe give them 1, 2 or three maximum terms. somehow, change washington, d.c. to where people want -- who want to govern will go there. somehow, they tweaked our

government somehow. and put some kind of mechanism in their where people can enact term limits on politicians. i think they would watch over us better and govern us better. host: let's talk to eric, calling from louisiana on the democratic line. eric, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to talk to you about president joe biden. he's doing an excellent job. i think -- is better than the shots that we are getting now. it is about time most people that don't have this, you know, this injection should get it. or, if the spray comes in sooner, they should get the spray.

and use it, because i have heard on c-span, on the tv that the spray is better than the injection we get. i want to say, again, i hope that joe biden gets another term. he's doing an excellent job. will have been waiting for a president like him for a long time. host: let's talk to gerald, who is calling from lynn war -- lenore, north carolina, on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello. i'd like to speak against the biden administration. they have done a poor job of governing and is responsible for the current crisis in terms of our economy and foreign relations. personally, our economic

problems are due to mismanagement. it is due to bidens choices in domestic production. secondly, -- they would refuse to bump our overall prices. our other issues, in terms of ukraine, the disaster we had in afghanistan, i am in afghanistan veteran, who encouraged our enemies, including putin, in their attempts to conquer ukraine. host: let's talk to dale, who is calling from columbus, ohio, on

the democrat line. dale, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say thank you. i just want to say, i am so amazed about the republican party, due to the fact that you have a man who has not held any government positions, such as donald trump. you see him on national television, agreeing with in, all of the interests and everything, saying russia -- he agreed with pruden. putin is a baby killer. -- putin. putin is a baby killer. you see how he attacks people in ukraine. it is amazing. he says he will grab women by their private parts and yet these people still support him. he says he will bring all these pittance's back to the united states. but not one time would he bring

his back to the united states because he can get so much more money. it is amazing what these republicans do. i cannot believe that people believe this man. he said, in the chaos he has created, since eisenhower, they have never had this. and he is still on the outside, talking about of madness. and they still support this man. i can't believe this. i am appalled about everything. he said it is going to be rigged, this election. if he does not win this election, here he goes, again. they rigged it. the judges and everybody have checked it out and he still says it. one more thing. if he becomes the nominee for the republican party, this next term, for president, if he does

not win, he will come up with the same mess again and say they did it to us again, they rigged us. thank you. let's -- host: let's talk to johnny ann. caller: good morning. my grandson is named jesse and he lives in the ukraine. so, please play for the ukrainian people. remember america when they said that -- was better? it was $.25 a gallon, then what happens? you people who have a little bit of snow on the east coast or are stuck on the freeway all night long, can somebody call in and tell me if you own an electric car?

i am a defendant from the 51 survivors of the mayflower -- descendant from the 51 survivors of the mayflower. god's people stand for life. host: let's go to fred, who is calling from seattle, washington, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks. i'm 64 years old. i had a question about monkeypox. i have a smallpox vaccine as a kid. i looked on the internet and could not find an answer, i wanted to know if an expert could tell me if i am immune to monkeypox with the smallpox vaccine. thanks. host: maybe we can have an expert on monkeypox later on on the show. let's talk to ruth, who is calling from sun city center, florida, on the republican line. ruth, good morning. caller: good morning, jesse.

i would ask that c-span have an unbiased program where you bring someone in to educate the people about the world health organization that starts on may 22 where in the united states is going to agree to seed our health care decisions -- cede our health care conditions -- decisions to the world health organization, regarding the pandemic, whatever, anything to do with health. i think the people in the country need to understand what that summa is all about. and no one is really talking about it, yet. so, we would appreciate if you would air a program on this summit that is going to be held. host: ruth, you said no one had heard about this.

where did you find your information about this? caller: i heard about it, i was on the internet, looking at the world health organization. as far as what they were recommending on the virus, the new virus. i saw that they were going to be holding a summit and that that the united states has submitted amendments that will allow the world health organization to direct, i think it is 191 nations. they will be making the decisions as to what the protocols will be, any new virus that is affecting the world. host: i think it was -- it would take an act of congress for the united states to be able to do that. that sounds like a treaty. caller: it apparently has to do,

something about the regulations -- i think you need to get somebody on your program that can explain to the american people exactly what that is being discussed at the summit. but, everybody is aware of it. host: michael is calling from stamford, connecticut, on the independent line. caller: good morning, jesse. i have a couple of things to talk about. one is all of these people want to go after hunter biden. he is not president. i mean, why is everybody saying he's into this, he's into that, he is getting paid all this money? how about the trump kids? what were they up to? they were making billions and billions of dollars overseas. trump's daughter got how many patents from china, while he was

in there? thank god trump is not around anymore. this whole abortion stuff that's going on, the state that want to abandon it can get rid of it right away -- and get rid of it right away are the poorest states in the union. once they get rid of abortion, they have these kids they can't afford to have right now. they will be bankrupt. these states that are holier than thou, it will be worse than it ever possibly could be. you are going to sue somebody for getting an abortion for $10,000, who is getting this money? where is it coming from? is the state going to give it to you, is the person getting the abortion going to give it to you? i don't get it. host: let's go to richard, who is calling from san francisco, california, on the democrat line.

good morning. caller: wow, i got in. good morning, everybody. there is a lot of things to talk about. i guess i will focus on gas prices. you know, i lifted up, -- looked it up, it takes $.26 to manufacture a gallon of gas. and about $.67 to get it to the gas station. so, why are gas prices seven dollars? this is absolute greed beyond greed. especially with the pandemic and what's happening in ukraine. we are not depending on russian oil. if you think about the trillions of dollars that we have given in subsidies to the gas companies, that is tax. that is our money.

and gas prices are fueling the inflation. everything comes up with transportation. i don't know what the democrats and biden are going to do. they may have to do price controls on gas. host: unfortunately, we are having to stop there so we can get to our next segments. thank you to all of our callers who called in for our open forum segment. up next, jessica taylor will be here to discuss the primary season so far and key senate races to watch in the fall midterm elections. stick with us. we will be back with jessica taylor in just a moment. ♪ >> in 1997, sovereignty over hong kong was passed from the united kingdom to the people's republic of china. tonight, on q and a, a former

bbc reporter and author of indelible city talks about the history of british rule in hong kong and the crackdown of the chinese government on demonstrations opposing their authority. >> when hong kong was handed back in 1997, it had a relatively free press. people could protest. there was freedom of expression, freedom of religious belief, freedom of association. in the last couple of years, china has brought in this national security legislation and that has really changed all of these things. the things that made hong kong hong kong, one by one, they have been dismantled. >> indelible city, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and a. you can listen to q and all of our podcasts on the c-span app. -- the free c-span app.

>> this week on the c-span networks, the house is not in session but the senate will meet, starting tuesday. senators are expected to debate domestic terrorism legislation, following the mass shooting in buffalo, among other issues, on wednesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, live on the c-span now app and c-span.org. the special envoy for iran testifies before the relations committee about a potential nuclear agreement between the united states and iran. then, the house energy and commerce committee hears from fda officials on the baby formula shortage. on thursday and 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span, the senate armed services committee holds a confirmation hearing for the reappointment of general christopher chamoli as the supreme allied commander of europe for nato. watch this week on our c-span networks or our free mobile

video app. head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to strive -- stream video live or on-demand, at any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> there are a lot of places to get political -- 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. what happens here or here or here, or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with jessica taylor, who is the cook political reports senate and governor's editor. she is here with us this morning to discuss the primary season

and the key senate and gubernatorial races to watch for the fall midterm election. jessica, good morning. guest: good morning. host: let's jump into what is the biggest news out there. what is the biggest news in the gop race? guest: we don't have a winner yet because there are absentee ballots out. it is almost like it is november 2020 again. you have dr. minute awes -- dr. oz, a celebrity tv doctor and trumps endorsed candidate, he is ahead by 1000 votes. there is less than 1/10 of a percent separating him from david mccormick. the fight now seems to be over -- they are counting some of these ballots, whether more ballots could be brought in, because mccormick's campaign is arguing there was a judicial contest last year where they

allowed undated ballots to be counted. they had to arrive by election day, by the time the polls closed. we are not talking about one thought arrived a week later. the dates of the ballot on the envelope, those would be campaign -- counted. mccormick is doing better in the absentee ballots and that is where he hopes to make up the difference. regardless, i think we will get a fight over that. they will bring in the judges and courts again. we are also headed for a likely recount. automatically, if the second-place finisher calls fred, if it is within .5 percentage points, there is an automatic recount. it looks like we are headed that way too. host: do you think we will see a continuing counting of votes and a recount of the votes after that continuing counting finishes? guest: they will finish counting the absentee ballots that would

be allowed. you have trump and oz, trump saying oz should have declared victory when the other ballots were going to favor mccormick. we will continue fighting over which absentee ballots should be counted. it certainly looks like even if those are or are not counted, it will be within the statute of a recount too. host: if there is a recount, it sounds pretty certain there will be a recount, when would it start? who is doing the counting itself and how long will it take for them to get it complete? guest: i'm not sure they have come out and said that specifically, yet. we will get more information in the coming weeks. next week is when we would begin doing that. is that going to be delayed by the other ballots in the court decisions? a lot of this is up in the air. it would be conducted by the

state. i think, again, you are going to have the same sort of posturing you saw on both sides in 2020. this really does feel like deja vu. i'm sure, for pennsylvania reporters, especially. host: what would happen if dr. oz declared victory? would that make a difference in any of the proceedings that are going on? guest: i don't think the court recognizes that. he is trying to get the public on his side, really. he is doing it in a very trump he and -- trumpian way. he was doing better in early ballots and absent -- van absentee ballots because that is -- than absentee ballots and that is not surprising. a lot of trump voters are skeptical because of what happened in 2020. we expect to dr. oz to get a better election day bump. the mccormick voters could have

sent their votes in ahead of time. host: is either one of them crying fraud in this election? guest: i don't think we have gotten there yet but we could. it centers on whether the court will allow these undated ballots to be counted. that, i think is the big question, that is still outstanding. host: that is on the gop side. what does the democratic side in pennsylvania look like for the senate race? guest: that was a runway by john fetterman. he was the more progressive candidate in the field. he has campaigned as a populist. he had -- he backed bernie sanders but has toned down on that. he was a front runner all the way through. took attacks from his opponents, including congressman conor lamb , who is the more moderate, establishment choice. but, he won very easily. they are raring to go. one of the arguments you heard

dr. oz make on the other side is we need to make someone in their -- get someone in there who can run against federman. i think pennsylvania is the democrats best chance to flip an open seat. they have pat toomey retiring. it is one of two states that republicans hold that is the only open seat. the other is ron johnson in wisconsin, where joe biden carried it with a republican incumbent. it is prime pickup there. john fetterman has raised a lot of money. he has been recovering in the hospital from a stroke. we wish him well. it seems like he is getting better and there was no permanent damage. but, i think he is probably raring to go back out to the campaign trail and know who his opponent is going to be. host: what does a recount on the republican side mean for john fetterman's campaign? does that give him a chance to

jump out ahead and get a head start in the general race? guest: it does. he will point to continued republican infighting. is that going to turn on some voters? this will be a close contest. i think there were some democrats early on who were worried about john fetterman, feeling he was maybe too liberal for the state. i have heard a little more optimism from democrats. the bottom line is this will still be a tough seat for democrats to take because of where the president's numbers are in pennsylvania and where the economy is. the republicans i talked to, mccormick is more the establishment type choice. he is a military veteran who served in the gulf war. first in desert storm. ron starr went to west point and served in the second was -- bush administration's treasury department. he has the resume you would want paid both of them moved back to the state. mccormick grew up in the

pittsburgh area and left for college in the military. then, he was in connecticut and new york for finance. oz went to medical school in the university of pennsylvania. his wife is from the philadelphia suburbs. he has moved there. i think democrats and john fetterman are going to use the accusations. in the long run, i think this is going to be -- provided by where republicans and democrats are, overall. host: before we start talking about the pennsylvania governors rice -- race, i want to remind viewers they can take part in the conversation, when we talk about upcoming primaries in several states. but, if you want to take part of this conversation -- in this conversation, we will open up our regular lines. democrats, you can call (202) 748-8000.

republicans, your line is (202) 748-8001. independents, you can call (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always reading on social media, on twitter, at c-span wj, and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. let's turn to the pennsylvania governors race. can you preview the november race between shapiro and mas triano and why have you moved this race to recently lean democrat? guest: the pennsylvania governors primary got overshadowed by the high spending on the senate side. you saw the efforts to block doug mas triano. he was the leading voice in the state, claiming there was fraud in the 2020 election, trying to

do an arizona file audit in pennsylvania. there was scrabbling because he is someone that has latched onto conspiracy theories and is someone from the far right and has barely raised any money but has a following among maga faithful. he was already on track to win before president trump weighed in, endorsing him. he won easily. this is who shapiro and democrats wanted to win. so much so that shapiro was taking his own money and running ads for mastriano. we have seen this in other races, the missouri senate in 2012, where they are trying to pump up the weaker candidate to win. that is what happened. pennsylvania is a place where it will be crucial to the 2024 elections. the governor gets to a point,

the secretary, doug has not said who he would appoint. it is widely believed it would be someone who is willing to turn over the results if trump runs again and loses the state. there is a lot at stake. shapiro is talking about abortion rights. it is becoming a bigger issue after the supreme court decision. we will get the final decision likely at the end of june. mastriano has wanted to abolish abortion, even in cases of rape and incense. and so, he is someone who, even in republicans eyes, they were apoplectic that he could get the nomination. they believed he could drive down legislative candidates -- drag down legislative candidates. the senate nominee campaign with them but if someone they see is too far to the right and so that's why we sort of moved this race from the talk up now that

we know who the candidates are. mastery anna was by far the weakest republican. the attorney general josh schapiro has the slight edge there. host: let's talk about the leaked supreme court decision that would possibly overturn roe v. wade if issued as we saw. how was that playing in the primary elections that have happened and will happen this week? guest: because primaries played to the basis of each party -- bases of each party. most americans are somewhere in the middle. but they are not for abolishing without exception like life, health and instances of rape. i think this will play more and governors raises because the

decision as it stands -- if the leaked position stands, the question would be kicked back to the states so when you see it playing in states where their democratic governors and republican legislators in places like pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. in the primaries you federal republicans really talk about measures that they have to curb abortion grade we are seeing brian kemp in georgia expected to easily win his primary for governor which is not something that seemed possible a year ago over david perdue. so you are seeing it come up but when the swing states, how it will play in the general election but i don't think it's going to do it can energize the democratic states and when used to look at the enthusiasm gap

dinner republicans and democrats , i still don't think it's going to supplant the key issues we see at the top of polling. and that's inflation, the economy, gas prices. host: let's jump into it. what's the latest on the primary between david perdue and governor brian kemp? guest: perdue is kind of limping into the finish. a very brutal story yesterday in the new york times where they talked about how lackluster he had been and really thought perdue, a one term senator lost the runoff to jon ossoff great questions about how much effort he was putting in that campaign. and now really you have people who are supportive of perdue in the past, he really seems to think the trump endorsement would be a silver bullet and because trump are repeatedly targeted brian kemp because he

did not overturn the results of the -- the legitimate results of the georgia election. brian kemp is trumps enemy number one. if he could have any incumbent lose and the rest of the people he's endorsed lose, he would take that for brian kemp. that does not look like it's going to happen. he had a very strong state legislative session. they've campaigned aggressively. in the debates they had a few weeks ago, perdue wanted to rehash the 2020 election. i think voters are ready to move on on that. a very conservative governor in their eyes, polling also shows he would be the stronger opponent in his rematch with stacey abrams from 2018. brian kemp has raised a lot of

money and at this point it looks like he is going to win without needing a runoff. you have to win a majority over 50% of the vote or you go to a runoff. it certainly looks like he is on pace to do that from all the polling we've seen because the trajectory is he can keep climbing. a recent poll had, about 60% while perdue is 30% or lower. host: we will bring some of our viewers into the conversation. we want to hear from you about the primary races that have happened in are going to happen over the next few weeks in america. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. independents 202-748-8002. you can always text us at 202-748-8003. jessica we have a question from

one of our social media followers who wants to know whether something in washington will affect the primary races? how much are you factoring the hearings on the january 6 into your political calculations. guest: the fact that there will be on tv and people are saying things that could pop i just don't know. i'm very skeptical of how much of an impact it could have. we will see what comes out and if there's some sort of bombshell, never say never. i think the vast majority of americans are the ones who are more likely to turn out and vote in these midterm elections. they are voting on pocketbook issues. you can see something abstract happening in washington. they are more worried about when they go to the grocery store,

that their bill is higher and they can find things they need, a baby formula, the gas is just skyrocketing. the white house is pointing to a lot of abstract economic indicators. if you are not feeling that yourself, it's very hard to translate that. guest: we will start calling from keyport, new jersey on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is about the pennsylvania primary. if dr. oz emerges victorious, is there any indication is dual citizenship? be an issue in the general? thank you. guest: i absolutely think you are going to see fetterman bring this up and democrats bring this up. his republican opponents have brought it up so i think the

caller is exactly right, this is an issue and one we have not seen pop up, but there are photos with erdogan. he has said he recently kept their citizenship and traveled back there because his mother has alzheimer's, but again having voted there there are a lot of questions that will certainly come up. a question about security clearance and how that would work. guest: let's talk to tony calling from new jersey on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello, yes. i was curious, i love your narrative how you talk about and say the republicans are going to try and steal the election and get people in their. your narrative is wonderful but i do remember stacey abrams to this day still hasn't conceded she lost and sad for some reason there was racism and i was wondering if -- will be taken

away from the washington post for their lies about donald trump? everything they said about him was lies. everything was a lie. and then everything about hillary was true. you people should quit lying to the people and start telling the truth about what's going on. i really appreciate you guys and your narratives and your one-sided race baiting all day. host: you can respond to him. guest: you are seeing republicans making the an issue. abrams gave a speech that was not a concession and you have democrats continue to say she felt and feels like that was stolen from her. i think facts are facts when we look at the 2020 election that it was not stolen in the 2018 election result. a good year for democrats,

abrams came closer than certainly anyone has in recent history. i also think the georgia election this year, given that it is a far different and less hospitable climate than abrams had run in an 2018, that that's good to be a tough race for her. governor kemp having survived this primary and come out largely unscathed is certainly a boon to him. host: let's stick with georgia and talk about how former president trump endorsements are showing up in these primaries. you said earlier's endorsement of david perdue does not seem to be helping him and his race against governor brian kemp. how are trumps endorsements in other republican primaries surviving or maybe succeeding in these days? host: he has had -- guest: he has had a mixed record for

certain and it depends on the type of race it is. the first one at the beginning in ohio where he was able to lift j.d. vance who was mired in a distant third place to win. but this is a state where you do not have to get a majority of the vote. he was in the 30's with that. and in georgia also we will have the senate primary there. that's more of a foregone conclusion than the governor's race. trump has backed former georgia football star herschel walker in one of the rare places where you have trump and mitch mcconnell on the same page. mcconnell's team also endorsed walker there and he is against a first term democratic senator raphael warnock. it's tougher in governors races i'm finding. he endorsed -- late as an attempt to save face.

he also endorsed in an open governors in nebraska he endorsed a rancher named charles who had multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and groping against him. a sort of proxy fight between trump candidate and an outgoing term limited governor who backed university of nebraska board member who ended up winning the three-way race and then the most bizarre endorsements i think trump has made. he's only endorsed against two sitting governors. one is in kansas and the other was in idaho against a candidate who is not really done anything to anger trump there were questions about election integrity, but someone got in his ear and encouraged him to endorse the lieutenant governor in the state.

she is someone who tried to sort of take the reins, tried to implement banning mask mandates when little was out of state when little would come back he would reverse those. he simply left it up to localities. so little handily won that. both the incumbent governors trump is endorsed against our on their way to winning their primaries. one has won and the other all but surely will is what it looks like on tuesday. host: you have a possible raphael warnock herschel walker match up in november slated as a tossup. why? guest: we saw how close georgia was in 2020. a very close race and i think it's going to be that way again. he has an incredible amount of

money, both he and mark kelly who were some of the most prodigious fundraisers in 2020, they won special elections to complete terms. both have to run again just a few years later for a full term. republicans really believe warnock has a voting record and he didn't have that before. he is a pastor of the legendary civil rights church, ebenezer that was martin luther king jr.'s church. and walker is someone who -- football obsessed is anybody. there's a lot of nostalgia there. walker is running a very cautious campaign. he has not participated in any of the primary debates and has a lot of baggage that his republican opponents have tried to make stick. it hasn't really stuck with primary voters. he's been upfront about mental health challenges he's faced,

but those have led to allegations of abuse and threats against his ex-wife. other domestic incidents. there've certainly been questions raised about some of his businesses. he's misrepresented some of his educational credentials. a story out this weekend that he was the chief promoter for and how it tried to take advantage in that for-profit sense. there were a lot of things there and that's what is republican opponents have said. they are using the things democrats will use against him in the fall. it didn't really stick with the republican primary voters, but it could very much in the general election. but he so much of a beloved star there, how much does it matter? host: i want to go to our georgia voter next we will show a couple of ads from that race and just a second. talk to robert out of atlanta on

the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. maybe you are going to show the ads i'm talking about, but i'm sort of shocked at some of what i call horrific political messaging and advertising here. for example there is an ad for camp where he shown -- with dr. fauci because of his opinion on masks and vaccines. there is one running for office, the ad shows him in full military gear carrying what looks like all kinds of weaponry with the tagline something like the lines of take america back. that's not exactly what it says. i find that sort of horrific and challenging and kind of threatening. it's unfortunate the republican party has been sort of co-opted by this authoritarian thought

process, supported extensively. i don't think there's any question. the replacement theory forecast and all of that. xenophobia and hatred. that's my comment. i find it very unfortunate. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i'm not sure about the specific ad he's talking about but we are seeing in republican primaries, primaries and general for both parties appealed to the base we are seeing a lot of this rhetoric in some republican ads and i think overall this is a very favorable climate for republicans. one of the most favorable in years. when i'm looking at the senate map overall in the governor tory ones to a lesser extent, it comes down to climate versus candidates for me. the climate is something that's clearly benefiting republicans but have they gotten weaker

candidates in some of these races. vance could be in ohio. pennsylvania, we sought with cassie barnett who barely spent any money. there were a lot of worries about her. again i've heard some about dr. oz. ultimately the environment still makes a tossup race. but you have staring down primaries in missouri for instance with a former governor was forced to resign over a sex scandal is running again and republicans very much worry he could tornado -- torpedo a winnable race. you have candidates across the board that could make races that should not be that hard harder. we are seeing a rise in some of this in advertising certainly. host: let's look at a couple of the ads out of georgia.

the first one from the national republican senatorial committee, this is an at eye -- and then an ad from sender raphael warnock himself. this is the republican ad. [video clip] >> you probably know by now you can all expect to pay more at the pump over the next few months. >> 4.7 nine dollars here in midtown and these prices keep on rising. some people say they can barely afford to drive to work grade >> joe biden and raphael warnock say that they are fighting the problem. >> i've used every tool available to address the price increases and it's working. >> we hold these companies accountable and that's something i'm determined to do. >> but joe biden and raphael warnock are the problem. he agreed to cancel oil and gas production, voted to cancel fracking, voted to cancel the keystone pipeline. it's time to cancel joe biden and raphael warnock.

host: that was the ad from the national republican senatorial committee. now here's the ad from senator raphael warnock. [video clip] >> i, dad, senator, a pastor. but a magician, i am not. in just a year in the senate did i think i could fix washington? of course not. but every day i focused on what i could do for our state, creating jobs, fixing infrastructure. expanding health care. i approve this message because that's not managing, it's doing the job for door -- for georgia. guest: it's very clear that an rsc is the messages about gas, inflation and very much these pocketbook issues you talked about earlier.

and for democrats, warnock is in this situation typically when they run for reelection they have six years they can point to grade at this point he only has been there for about a year and a half and so he is saying there are more things i want to do and he is clearly very affable, even some republicans admitted in the 2020 race that he's cast -- but he is charismatic. you see that come across in those ads. you do see some democrats in these swing states. there's four democrat seats that are the most vulnerable. nevada i would put her first. warnock as second. mark kelly in arizona as third and then fourth down a little bit more distantly back because of the primary there that really doesn't have a clear republican running, maggie hassan in new hampshire.

with the brakes on gas taxes they proposed with some of the pandemic arab border restrictions. you are seeing them try to do these things that they are arguing. it's a 50-50 senate, hard to get things done. warnock is making the case there. you voted for me before and i need another six years. host: let's talk to david calling from watertown, south dakota and the republican line. good morning. are you there? caller: good morning. this lady -- can you hear me? host: we can, go ahead. caller: this lady seems to be pretty astute. i live in south dakota and we have a problem, we have two

rino's, they are absolutely totally worthless republican senators. since 2016, john thune, neither one of them never defended donald trump. how do we get those senators who were just there to collect a paycheck? guest: joan thune is the one that's up for reelection this year. he actually wavered on whether he was going to seek reelection. he is very high in republican leadership. so he did not vote to challenge the results on january 6, he's been critical trump after that. trump butter statement back then urging kristi noem to primary

him, that did not happen. there's not been a major primary challenger that's emerged for him. the primary process if you want to replace a republican with another republican is where that comes up. despite trump saying that there does not seem to be much of a recruitment effort to try and get a challenger, a viable challenger other than the one who passed on it. host: talk about what's going on in alabama. you say in your article earlier that that's where the real drama may be. guest: it seemed like georgia would be the focus early on but that sort of fizzled. i'm watching alabama because there's two fascinating races there. richard shelby is retiring, a longtime leader in the senate

appropriations chair. this is a race where trump weighed in early backing congressman mo brooks who was the earliest voice probably in the house urging for challenging the results on january 6. trump-endorsed him. there are two other candidates who have gotten in bed one led the alabama business council, the former chief of staff to shelby so she has shelby support and a super pac tied to mcconnell is backing her. you have mike durrant who was an army helicopter pilot who was shot down in somalia, kept as a pow for several days in that story is sort of behind the hollywood movie black hawk down. we have all of them running, alabama is a runoff state. trump with do it -- withdrew his endorsement a couple months ago when it looked like brooks was

fading. he is not raised a lot of money, not running a vigorous campaign. durrant has been largely self funding his race. both have dominated the airwaves. the interesting thing happened under the radar when brooks, trump pulled his endorsement of brooks, the negative ads from either candidates against brooks stopped. there were some questions about things he said in the past. bread is sort of painted is the insider and the choice of the washington establishment. they all have challenges. trump is not endorsed yet again and this. all the sources i talked to an alabama agree britt is going to finish first but below that threshold.

durrant is spent a lot of this money. brooks perhaps sneaking in there. if it's britt versus durrant that can be a close primary and we could see trump weigh in on that. whoever wins the republican nomination in the fall. governor kay ivey is seeking a second full term. this is a governor trump did not endorse against but he has sort of been irked by her at times. there was an issue where he wanted to hold a campaign rally at the battlefield park there, not allowed to because it was a political event. trump holds grudges. she also said the unvaccinated at the state they were the ones to blame. she has two opponents. blanchard is a former trump --

who had been running in the senate race. seemed like trump might have endorsed her. he did not. you have 10 james who is a real estate developer. iv is going to finish first. whether she can win outright or not, but if she falls below that 50% things are interesting in a runoff perhaps. she's been out there touting her conservative credentials. even her opponents ads, james says in one ad kay ivey is a nice lady she has funny ads but here's what you shouldn't vote for her. host: let's see if we can squeeze one more call in from cypress, texas on the democrat line. a quick comment or question in for us. caller: it's going to be quick. i have a funny feeling this

woman doesn't know what she's talking about. it's not a pocketbook issue. if it was a pocketbook issue republicans wouldn't vote for another republican effort -- ever. they were against health care, social security. the president didn't respond to covid in time. when 100,000 people died. how could you call that a pocketbook issue when republicans are doing everything to get nothing to no one. mcconnell got into office by saying i'm not giving anything to no one. host: go ahead and respond. guest: the polling shows that's what's resonating with voters, democrats even acknowledge resonating with voters. we see these elections come in waves. 2020 was sort of a mixture. 2020 -- the midterms end up being a referendum on the incumbent president and this usually is a backlash that happens to president obama,

trump, and happen to bill clinton in 1994. george w. bush was a little bit different because his first midterm election was 2002 right in the wake of september 11. but he got his backlash in the 2006 midterms. democrats are making the same arguments those callers did, when you look at biden's approval ratings even where he is fallen as among democrats and especially independence. democrats have to bring back into the fold and hope that they turn out in november. host: we would like to thank jessica, of senate and governor's editor at the cook political report for coming on with us this morning and talking us through the primaries in the gubernatorial and senate elections. thanks for your time this morning. we would like to thank all of our guests and viewers and all of our callers and social media followers for another great washington journal today.

make sure you continue to wash her hands and stay safe everyone. we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022]

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