"the dancer and the devil: stalin, pavlova, and the road to the great pandemic," on the history of bioweapon's used by russia and china. then facebook comments, text messages, calls, and tweets. "washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning and welcome. president joe biden is going to texas today after the mass of 19 children and two teachers as funerals are just ending for the 10 people killed in a supermarket shooting in buffalo, new york also this month. 1500 people have been killed and more than 270 mass shootings since 2009. many people around the world seemed to be pointing out that mass gun deaths seem to be an

overwhelmingly american thing and questioning why. our question for you is around american exceptionalism and mass shootings. why does this seem to be happening in the u.s. again and again? we will open regional lines for the conversation. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, we want to hear from you. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, your numbers going to be (202) 748-8001. we are going to open special lines for texas and york residence. if you live in texas or new york, we want to hear from you. keep in mind you can always text us. we are always reading on social media on facebook, on twitter,

and you can follow us on facebook. the mass shootings in uvalde, texas this past week have people around not only the united states but around the world questioning why these mass gun deaths continue to happen in the united states. we are going to start on the senate floor, where democratic senator chris murthy of connecticut had this to say. >> it is not inevitable. these kids were not unlucky. this only happens in this country and nowhere else. nowhere else to little kids go to school thinking they might be shot that day. nowhere else to parents have to talk to their kids as i have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes in case a

bad man entered that building. nowhere does that happen except in the united states of america and it is a choice. it is our choice to let it continue. what are we doing? in sandy hook, elementary school after those kids came back into those classrooms, they had to adopt a practice in which there would be a safe word kids would say if they started to get thoughts in their brain about what they saw that day, if they started to get nightmares during the day reliving stepping over their classmates' bodies as they tried to flee the school. in one classroom, that word was monkey. over and over, kids would stand

up and yell, monkey, and a teacher or professional would have to go over to the kid and talk to them about what they had seen cannot work them through their issues. sandy hook will never be the same. this community and texas will never be the same. why are we here if not to try to make sure few were schools and communities go through what sandy hook has gone through, what uvalde is going through? our heart is breaking for these families. every ounce of love and thoughts and prayers we can send we are sending. but i am here on this floor to beg, to get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues, find a path forward here.

host: a columnist talks about how this seems to be happening here in the united states when it does not seem to happen as much in other countries around the world. i want to read from his calling to you. he says, the u.s. has by far more mass shootings than any other country in the world, in part because we have more guns and weaker gun laws than other countries. other countries, take england or australia for instance, lawmakers responded to the horror of mass shootings by passing laws that limited the ability of people to obtain weapons of war. after a horrific mass shooting in 1996, australia responded by increasing permitting rules and banning semi automatic weapons, among other reforms. there has been only one mass shooting there in the past two decades. america could do that if we were

truly exceptional. that comes from a columnist in the st. louis post-dispatch. every town for gun research has a chart that shows how gun homicides happen in the united states more than in other countries. i will bring that chart to you. you see gun homicides per one hundred thousand residents. the united states by far leads the world. no one else is close when it comes to gun homicides per 100,000 residents. that comes from every town for gun research. we want to know why you think these mass shooting deaths happen in the united states more than other countries around the world. let's start with buffalo, new york. good morning. go ahead. caller: i am from buffalo, new

york where they had a mass shooting. if you look at the guy's name, his first name was peyton. and then his last name. in a spiritual sense, people who have gone through things spiritually and god has done something that this is a wake-up call. repent. then i will take you back as my own. sometimes you have to suffer and go through a change.

although it is a heart-wrenching thing for communities like that even with the children in texas, it is a wake-up call. some people do not get it until they see something extreme done and then they have a heart. host: let's talk to chuck, who is calling from charleston, west virginia. caller: when this first happened in uvalde, i was listening to the usual conservative talk radio hosts pointing fingers, saying that this is happening because we took god in prayer out of schools. that is no different than any other western industrialized country, so that cannot be it. they say kids are watching violent movies and playing violent video games. that does not make us different

from any other industrialized society around the world where kids are doing the same thing. the united states has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. right now, that is 120 guns, legally owned, for every 100 citizens. the next highest on the list is the falkland islands, and they have half the rate of gun ownership per capita that we do. look at our neighbor to the north, canada. it is a similar country to ours. they teach students the same thing in schools. they all speak english. it is a similar culture, yet the rate of gun homicide in the united states is six times higher than in canada. what is it that canada is doing right? the only thing i can think is how easy guns are to get in this country.

the kid in uvalde, texas, he bought his two guns legally. for all practical purposes, he was a responsible, legal gun owner until he started killing people. you just -- what it comes down to is we have resigned ourselves to being completely immersed in gun culture. we celebrate gun culture. we even have politicians who send out christmas cards and all of them are holding guns. it is absolutely nuts. host: john is calling from livingston, new york. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i could say a lot of things about the subject matter, but -- hello? host: you're on the air. go ahead. caller: hello? host: john, you are on the air. go ahead. caller: i am sorry. i pressed the wrong button. basically, what is going on in this country is a continuation of what started on the movie screen 100 years ago and people have latched onto it and taken it in as part of their culture, as if it has been here for a million years, which it has not, the cowboy and all that other nonsense. it has transformed itself from cowboy to warrior. we do not call serviceman soldiers anymore. we call them warriors. how can you be a peacemaker and

warrior at the same time? i tried to reach the offices of ted cruz, of kevin mccarthy, and i know these people are out to lunch. the only people you can speak to , the sincere people like the gentleman who was just on from connecticut, chris murphy. we have to work hard. we have to do something to get this mentality across to people that it is not working. i could say more, but i will stop for now. thank you. semper fi. host: yesterday, former president donald trump spoke at the national rifle association convention in houston and emphasized mental health, not

gun control much to combat the mass shootings in the united states. here is what he had to say. >> as always in the wake of these tragedies, the various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place, absolutely nothing. ever since columbine, we have been inflicted by a contagion of school shootings carried out by violent and disturbed young men. we do not yet know enough about this week's killing. we know there are many things we must do. we need to drastically change our approach to mental health. there are so many warning signs almost all of these disfigured mind share the same profile.

when people see something on social media or in school, they need to say something. teachers, parents, school officials, and community members need to be recognizing and addressing these alarm bells promptly and aggressively. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about american exceptionalism and mass shooting in the united states. here is one tweet that says, no other country has a second amendment that people use to claim citizens have the right to own assault weapons, even though the amendment does not say that. another tweet says, as long as there are lunatics with or without guns, we better start looking at offensive measures to defend ourselves. guns are a means, not the cause. people be confused. another tweet says no exceptional country would allow weapons of mass destruction to

be sold everyday citizens. another tweet says, many want to normalize mass shootings and accept that we may eventually be a victim of this occurrence. the policy is not to prevent shootings in general, just the casualties and deaths that come with it. one final tweet says, we decided we were exceptional and no rule could apply to us that applies to the rest of the world and we now suffer for it. once we understood that exceptionality to be the idea we could always take an idea and improve on it. we want to know why you think mass shootings happen in the united states more than anywhere else in the world. the new york times has a chart that talks about mass shootings from 1998 through 2019. in the chart, you can see over

100 mass shootings in the united states, with the next closest country being france with only eight. germany with five, canada with four, and finland with three. the united states had 101 between 1998 and 2019. why is this happening in the united states more than other countries around the world? what do you think? chris is calling from auburn, maine. good morning. caller: you started with a question about american exceptionalism so i decided to look up the word. one of the definitions is deviates from the norm. i grew up in england. yesterday, you were asking a similar question. some of the reasons that came up were videogames, racism, mental health problems, being out of

school and movies or they are bullies. every country on the planet has all of those things but there is only one thing every country on the planet does not have, and that is 1.2 guns for every man, woman, and child in the country. there are about 390 million guns in the u.s., going up every year as the nra pushes the gun lobby to make more money. we have such a staggering volume of guns. the idea that an 18-year-old can buy an assault rifle and armor is a deviation from the norm because in no other country can that happen. if you take away guns, people could do mass killing's with a knife or car or bat. you know what does not happen in other countries? mass killing's with a knife, car, or bat. it is an absurd argument. when you think about what the

constitution says, the concept of the second amendment was clear. it is the only place where the word appears. the words are a ralph -- a well regulated militia. anything that anybody who knows anything about the writing of the constitution is the precursor words are the most important and that matches when you read the federalist papers where they talk about the need to have substantial regulation and use of guns and malicious so states can defend themselves from other states. a well regulated alicia is necessary. it is incredible to think about the idea that what we need is good guys with guns. if you look at any situation where cops confront somebody

with guns, most of the mist despite the fact that cops are highly trained. imagine a situation where a cop goes into a school and teachers are armed. how does anybody know who the shooter is? host: let's go to greg, who is calling from tennessee. good morning. caller: i think our country is exceptional probably because of our way of life and the fact that our government is so good to us and really care about us. they would not use propaganda on us. we can think back as far as sandy hook or the boston bombing or the nightclub in florida or columbine or aurora. the list goes on and on. there is one thing in common in

all of these they never show any blood or guts or nothing. it is all drills. they run drills that day and put it up just like it really happened. host: are you saying you do not think the mass shootings that you named were real? caller: i say 95% of them are not real. host: you know you are complete we wrong on that. people are losing their children, their mothers, their fathers, brothers and sisters. caller: the sandy hook kids, they sang at the super bowl one year. they showed the pictures. they showed up at the super bowl and got to sing one year. host: you're completely wrong. these people are really dying and really being shot by guns. i know you are complete wrong. let's go to kenny, calling from

watertown, new york. caller: good morning, sir. everybody gets up and goes to work every day. they deal with a bunch of idiots and stress. you get home from work, you would rather be relaxing somewhere to take a break from the stress. picture a nine-year-old kid. he's picked on and bullied and he goes home. the parents are working to try to make ends meet. the kid has nobody to talk to, so he walks over to a videogame, grand theft auto. the object of the game is to steal cars. yet the object of shooting a person or letting him go. the object of the game is to drive down the street and shoot and kill pedestrians all you want and shoot cops. this is the object of these videogames. at the age of 16, after four or five years of getting picked on and bullied, that kid has had

enough. he is ready to snap and he has virtually trained to walk through and kill people. he is told what tactical gear to wear and what weapons are best to kill people. the object of the games are teaching kids. parents get these videogames for these kids and they snap. host: where are the 16-year-old getting weapons? it should not matter because you should not be able to get a gun to kill people at 16, should you? caller: why teach a kid at 9, 8 years old when parents are not watching them to go out and have someone teach them what guns can kill and how to do it? host: how do we keep those kids from getting the guns where they can shoot people? caller: the parent has to be there until the age of 21, no matter what. host: so you think parents should be responsible for the actions of their children up to age 21? caller: i was an avid hunter and

trapper at the age of eight. i was taught gun safety, respect, and respect for human life. these games are showing people, no more hunting cannot go out and kill somebody. you are stressed out, go home and start shooting people. what you think you start to teach these children? host: randy is calling from alabama. good morning. caller: good morning. the difference in these countries and other countries -- over here you spank a kid and you go to jail. that ain't the way our country is supposed to run. you put god back and stuff and moms back in houses and not working. men are not supposed to be competing with women for jobs. the woman is supposed to raise

the kids and the man is supposed to provide and things would be like they was. the way they keep going, i got guns. i bought guns all my life. i have hunted since i was eight years old and ain't never killed nobody with a gun. have a good day. host: mark is calling from uvalde, texas. caller: good morning. host: tell us what you are seeing current what is going on in uvalde today. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: one of the little girls is my relative, my uncle's great-granddaughter. host: tell us what you think should be done to keep this from happening again.

do us a favor and turn your television down and tell us what you think should be done. to keep this type of tragedy from happening again. caller: they keep saying you need to have more background checks. they did a background check. maybe if you make them wait three months and check them out a little better, check them out more thorough. it was too easy to go in and get that gun and to do what he did. host: what would you say to people like our previous caller who say these mass shootings are fake and some type of drill meant to fool the american people? what would you say to callers who insist these things are not real? host: this that happened right

here is not real? they are crazy. the person that said that. , he must be mentally ill. if you sing this did not happen. -- if he is saying that did not happen. that way you said? host: that is what i said. he said not only did the shooting in uvalde might be fake but other shootings like the shootings in aurora, colorado and sandy hook, he says those did not happen. caller: this guy, is he from mars or where is he from? does he live here in america? host: yes. what should we do to stop these type of mass killings in the united states? caller: you have to start somewhere. i saw ted cruz at the memorial

and went up to him and told him one of the relatives -- one of the victims was related to me, and he was out there at the memorial. then he goes over -- goes out there to the nra convention and says the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. he has not been watching the news or where has he been? host: what did senator cruz say to you when you told him one of the people killed was a relative of yours? caller: i don't know. he hugged me and said i am sorry but -- and then -- then they go to the nra and they are not

trying to -- he did not say he was going to try to do anything. he did not say we are going to try to do something about this. i guess because he needs their help. he needs their money to keep supporting him, i guess. host: thanks for calling, mark. as mark pointed out, texas senator ted cruz appeared at the nra convention friday. his theory is that it is the american culture driving mass shootings, not guns. here is what he had to say at the nra convention friday. [video clip] >> tragedies like the event of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing.

looking at broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, social media bullying, violent online content, desensitizing the act of murder in videogames. chronic isolation. prescription drug and opioid abuse and the collective effects on the psyche of young americans is both complicated and multifaceted. it is a lot easier to moralize about guns and shriek about those you disagree with politically. it has never been about guns. host: let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about america and mass

shootings. here is one tweet that says we lead the world in school shootings. that is exceptional. more guns than people in this country, also exceptional. another tweet says ban ar-15's. melt them down. build bridges with them. another tweet says the usa's exceptional allowing all citizens to keep buying guns. one tweet says as long as there are lunatics with or without guns we better look at measures to defend ourselves. guns are a mean, -- means, not the cause. the associated press wrote about these countries seemingly decisions to get used to death. i want to read a little what she wrote. as the nation marked one million

deaths from covid-19 last year -- last week, the milestones book ended by mass shootings that killed people simply living their lives, grocery shopping, going to church, or attending the fourth grade. the number, once unthinkable, is now and irreversible reality of the united states like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year. americans tomorrow -- always tolerated high rates of death and suffering, especially among certain segments of society. the sheer number of deaths from printable causes and apparent exception -- preventable causes -- hazmat death -- has mass death become acceptable in the united states of america? let's go back to our phone lines and talk about denise calling from california. caller: i was not born in the

u.s. this is the only place, no matter where you are from, if you were car you're going to make it. we need to return to basic. the basic, to put god back in schools, love of the country back in schools, and also citizens. we have drugs everywhere. we all are the reason what is happening. we have the media showing sex and fights and lies sometimes. you have a president that even if you do not like him you have to respect the presidency and for four years they went crazy.

we have to respect the president seen a matter who the person is. you have guns -- videos and the heads of the kids. we have murders and fathers in jail. we have kids raising themselves and no sense of mutual respect. they do not know what life is. host: i have heard several people this morning talk about god and family and churches and homes. don't you think the guns are the biggest problem? caller: well, a gun is a problem, but everything -- you can kill with everything. host: you can't kill 19 people

with a knife. caller: you can use a knife. you can use a car. you can use whatever you want to kill people. is a lack of morals. we are not united. this is no longer united states of america. you have officials that want to gain power, pitting one guessing other -- against the other. people want to get empower and they are pitting one against another -- in power and there pitting one against another. you have blacks killing blacks in chicago nothing is being done . you have people stealing. they kill you for anything, for a watch. what happens when they put them in jail?

they release them because they want social justice. host: there are more mass shootings in other cities than chicago. there are more mass shootings and other cities than chicago. how do you explain that? caller: we have shootings in chicago every night and we are not talking? about it -- we are not talking about it. we need to stop and love each other. we need to be one america and love each other and take care of our kids -- politicians want to get power. host: since the caller brought it up, there is a chart from cbs news that shows where the largest mass shootings in the

united states happened. the largest mass shootings in the united states between 2018 and may 24th, 2022, the largest mass shootings happened in el paso, texas, followed by odessa, texas my followed by uvalde, texas. the numbers keep going on. the largest mass shooting that happened in chicago was on march 14, 2021 and july 21, 2021. 15 people were killed and injured. the largest shootings seems to happen in a cities other than to cargo even though chicago keeps getting brought up. charles, good morning. caller: i do not even know how to say all this. why can't we treat guns like we

do cars? i had to take a driver's test. i have a license. my car has a vin number. if i sell my car to another person, the vin number goes to the next person. why can't we do that with guns? if everybody in america -- have a buyback, but if you want to own a gun you need to secure it. you need to learn how to use it and when not to and be responsible. if you sell a gun, it is registered to you like a car. it goes to the next person and it is registered to that person. they get stolen, you have to report it. i agree the guns do not kill, the people do. for this kid, there would be red

flags everywhere all over the place looking at kids like this. that is one of the major problems. there is no accountability. most gun owners are law-abiding citizens, not mass shooters. that is the cancer in the population. that is a way we could get some of this under control and kill the iron highways and get guns out of hands that should not be in it. navy instead of the good guys having the guns, how about the good guy have the gun and not

let the bag i have the gun? -- bag i have begun. -- bad guy have the gun? caller: i have been sick all week. i have been listening to these people calling and blaming everything on this planet for guns, what these people are out here doing. i got so frustrated, i lost my train of thought. all i can say is all we are asking for, not try to take your guns, pass laws of age limits. not only was this man able to buy a rifle like that, why would someone let him by the armor? -- buy the armor? what you need to buy the armor for? people call in talking about god. the bible -- i was raised to

believe in the bible. you're supposed to read your bible and pray to yourself, not walk around boasting about what you believe or don't believe and pushing it on everyone else. stop pushing god in everything. you are using it to make yourself feel good. host: let's go to texas. caller: how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: i will address the point about passing laws to take guns out of the hands of people who do not obey laws. you can pass any laws you want, like the laws they passed against drugs, and you still have drug problems and states. you pass laws, you tie the hands

of the honest citizen who by constitutional right can bear mac arms. -- bear arms. criminals break laws. they will find guns somewhere. someone will sell them guns. we are right next to mexico. you will have a huge black market, even worse than the guns we have here now. host: are you saying we should get used to this and not do anything? caller: no, that was a very weird take on what i said. what i said is laws have no effect on people who do not obey the laws in the first place. yes, we should do something. how about putting veterans who volunteer to protect schools and be capable people to be vetted and take care of and patrol schools around the nation?

why don't we try that instead of taking away people's constitutional rights? host: they have tried having police and resource officers in school before and it did not seem to work. caller: i do not believe that. i think you are misinformed. i stepped away for a little bit, but you seem to only put forth the view that our only alternative to fix this is to pass laws that take guns away from law-abiding citizens and i reject that. host: what is the solution? caller: there were more times in the history of this country were we had more guns and less crime. it has been a deterioration of the respect of people one to another. i do not have a solution. i think the solution is piecemeal.

let's get armed guards in our schools and work on getting mental health for people, increase our education because our education is terrible and people do not have a future because they do not have the skills to manage life because of a horrible public school system. we need a school system by a voucher where you pick where you go to school and that creates competition and schools become better. host: paul is calling from texas. are you there? ? roy is calling from greensboro, north carolina. good morning. caller: thank you. that last caller could not have been more wrong about everything. there have never been more guns

in this country than there are now in this country. we are exceptional in the way we are going under mass psychosis with being able to pass off on believable lies as truth. the ar-15 is many times more deadly than the tommy guns of the 1930's. we outlaw them and it worked. people say it is not automatic. when somebody tries to man's plain to you the difference between automatic and semi automatic, stop them right there. ar stands for armor light. any slob can carry around with 200 rounds of ammunition and shoot them off in five minutes. that is a fact. the nra is expert at ignoring

the general issues here and like the last caller said, no serious advocate has talked about taking away all the guns for everybody. every country has done it their own way. canada has plenty of guns, a lot of hunters, but they dealt with it. you have to go through an fbi check to get a concealed weapon. that is one thing to do, but there is no reason to have these military rifles in the public during peacetime. people do not understand that these gun finishes get an adrenaline effect from carrying a concealed deadly weapon. i have known people who had got in fights with people and were afraid so they got a gun, borrowed it from somebody else. how did that make you feel? i felt powerful, but my heart

was pounding all the time. there is an adrenaline effect. adrenaline is the worst drug in the world and it is addictive. these guys, they are addicted to this adrenaline rush they get from carrying around a deadly weapon among everybody. host: axios has a chart that shows in 2020 for the first time firearms were the leading cause of death for kids one and older. it used to be motor vehicles, but in 2020 deaths per 100,000 children by cause for the first time came by firearm. i want to bring to you an editorial from the wall street journal where they talk about what is going on with weapons in the united states.

the reason there are more demands than solutions is because the problem of how to stop mass shootings by disturbed young men is one of the hardest in a democratic society. the modern welfare state rights checks, but not much else. today's young killers are not motivated by deprivation. they are typically from middle-class families with access to smartphones and xbox is p the deficit is social and spiritual. the rise in family dysfunction and decline of mediating institutions have consequences. this cultural erosion will take years to repair, but a start would be to admit that it plays a role in the increasing violence. that is an editorial from the wall street journal. let's go to our phone lines and talk to paul, calling from massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning.

i remember australia took eight to nine months to a year to pass benny ar-15's and these type of weapons. new zealand took three days. the solution is to ban these weapons. it is time to grid of them. here are a couple solutions in addition. i was wondering if there's any way to disable an active shooter's gun with some kind of technology. that would be interesting, to be able to stop them in the process , and bullets. let's get ammunition regulated as they do in switzerland. you have to sign it out at a police station and count the number of bullets you are taking out, what you are going to use them for, and when you're going to return the ones you do not use. i am tired of arguments about knives and cars killing people.

we are not exceptional. the fellow from maine, the fellow that just called from north carolina, correct. i am at my limit. no more. it is insane, these second amendment rights arguments. the supreme court needs to revisit this and hit this hard because it is a real make -- well regulated militia only they could have these kind of weapons. host: last week, senator ted cruz from texas had an interview with news from the united kingdom and their u.s. correspondent on the shootings in uvalde, texas and why they happen in america. [video clip] >> there are 19 sets of parents who are never going to get to kiss their child good night again. >> is this the moment to reform gun laws?

>> it is easy to go to politics. >> it is important. it is the heart of the issue. >> that is where the media likes to go. >> proposals from democrats and the media when some violent psychopath murders people. >> a violent psychopath who is able to get a weapon so easily, an 18-year-old with two ar-15's. >> if you want to stop violent crime, the proposals the democrats have, none would have stopped this. >> why does this only happen in your country? why is this american exceptionalism so awful? >> i am sorry you think american exceptionalism is awful. >> i think this aspect of it. i just want to understand why you do not think guns are the problem. it is just an american problem. >> why is america the only

country that faces this? >> you cannot answer that. why is it? >> why is it people come from all over the world to america? it is the freest, safest country on earth. >> let's go back to our phone lines and talk to don from california. >> one of the reason car debts were outpaced by gun deaths is nobody was driving anywhere. you want to say that when you are spouting those statistics. blaming the weapon a monster uses instead of a monster is childlike and simplistic. do you know what really contributes the most to children dying? do you think it was the gun he was carrying?

no, it was the open doors he walked through, that he went in through on the outside. he went in an open door into the classroom. if outside doors had been locked, he could have had any kind of gun and not done anything. host: you do not think he would be able to shoot through the door? caller: do you think it is a movie? and ar-15 is a .22. it is a tiny bullet. do you think you can blow a door off its hinges with a tiny bullet? host: with one bullet, no, but with multiple bullets, yes. caller: he could stand there for five minutes and shoot at the door and maybe get that door open. by then, everybody is inside with their door locked and you need another five or 10 minutes to get through another door. start thinking instead of just blaming the gun. the ar-15 is over 60 years old. it has been in our country for store -- for sale in stores for 60 years.

just now, it is becoming something you can wave over your head and say we have angered the gun gods and they are all going to mass murder us. france has more murders by actual machine guns than america. why is that? host: where are you getting that statistic? where did you get the statistic about france having more deaths by machine guns? caller: from the -- whatever those people were. they were killed with actual machine guns got that nightclub in france where people were massacred with actual machine guns. and ar-15 is not an actual machine gun. it is a semi automatic rifle. how come you're not talking about the west virginia woman who shot a mast shooter who was

holding in ar-15 and trying to shoot into a graduation crowd? you guys have an agenda and your agenda is you think if you get rid of the ar-15 that somehow the gods will be happy and everything will be hunky-dory and monsters will go back underground. the monsters are here. they are going to do it. in france, they mowed them down with trucks, too. host: sherman is calling from austin, texas. go ahead. caller: the problem today is the public and the publicity. i myself started back long years ago. the problem did not just start right now. can you still hear me? host: yes. caller: i feel if republicans

and democrats could start back over in 1940 a lot of this problem we have today would not exist. instead you want to arm the teachers and police officers at schools. what good is that going to do? they had a movie. the guy put chains on the door. they let him remove the chains. they talk about locking the doors. it is a fire hazard. these kids these days, the next two generations, that is the only way the world is going to change. host: eugene is calling from new york. good morning. caller: i cannot believe the lunacy of this question, of people. they don't know the answer, not one person. i do not hear a person say kill

the second amendment. guns do not kill, people kill. baloney. guns kill. supposing we had just guns for the military and police. would we have mass shootings? we would not. why do we have a second amendment. we had it when we were stealing the country from the mineta -- from the native americans. we do not have that anymore. we do need -- do not need guns other than the military and police. host: dennis is calling from washington. good morning. go ahead. caller: i want to dispute the graph you put up about where mass killings were. i believe 60 people were called

at the -- killed at the mgm. what happened? host: what do you mean? caller: i want to dispute your graph because 60 people were killed at the mgm in 2017, which is clearly the biggest mass shooting. host: we can show the graph again. it is for 2018 to 2022, so it is correct. caller: that is irrelevant. i am a gun owner. i do not have any problem with background checks. anybody that think that is the solution is crazy because the guy in new york -- new york has a red flag law and the guy in new york should not have had a

gun. host: is there a solution? caller: i do not see a solution because people want to say, ok, if you're 18 years old we are going to ban you from having a rifle because you're not mature enough but you are mature enough to vote, mature enough to decide whether you want to have an abortion. i do not believe there is a solution. there are 300 million guns in this country and there are people that -- i have not even pointed a gun at a person. i never would. i grew up in nebraska. my parents taught me how to hunt. when i was 12 years old, my father gave me a .22. he taught me how to be safe with a gun. host: susan is calling from

california. good morning. caller: good morning. when i was 18 or 19, someone broke into my house. he kicked in the windows cut toward down the screens, and was chanting. i shot him. the police did not arrest me. they took him and arrested him. i am alive today because my husband gave me a gun before he went in the field. host: let's go to debby, calling from youngstown, ohio. go ahead. caller: with these guns, all these guns, are they necessary?

it is ok to have something to protect yourself and your home, but carrying them around like the wild wild west. how can an 18-year-old get a gun but can't buy cigarettes and liquor at 18 years but can't buy cigarettes and liquor at 18 years old? i'm just concerned with the laws of a certain age and why there are so many guns out there. i'm just confused, you know? every time i turn around, it is too much. black-market, i guess you can purchase guns anywhere right now. i think they are not doing a lot of checking. it is kind of scary. you can hit somebody's car and they could pull out a gun and shoot you or you get into a confrontation with someone. host: that's go to romney who is

calling from houston, texas. good morning. romney, are you there -- ronnie, are you there? caller: yes, i am here. host: go ahead. caller: the axios graph that you showed was aged 0-19. if you change it to 0-17, you will see it will drop underneath under vehicle -- motor vehicle. motor vehicles are the number one cause of death for children, it is not weapons. the other thing, if you took civics in high school, you know why the second amendment is there. it is for the public to protect themselves from the government, that is it. the active militia is out there, but at the end of the day, this is something that in a free

society, you have to live with. we just have to do a better job of securing children. you can secure people in a bank, why can't you secure children in a building? host: jeff is calling from davenport, iowa. caller: yes, can you hear me? host: go ahead, jack. caller: jonathan swift had an absurd suggestion in his essay "a modest suggestion." this two modest suggestionss. give tax breaks to people that want to buy bullet-proof vests so they can send their kids to school so they can go to school wearing bullet-proof vests. the second one is even more hideous, required dna testing and fingerprints so that medical people can identify the dead bodies of their children faster

after they've been slaughtered. host: we would like to thank all of our callers, viewers, and social media callers for a great conversation. coming up next on washington journal, republican strategist brendan -- and bree maxwell discussed campaign 2022, biden presently can -- presidency, and the political news of the day. and later, discussing "the dancer and the devil" about the history of bio weapons used by russia and china. stick with us, we will be right back. announcer: tonight on q&a, author of "you don't belong here" tells a story of three women who reported on the vietnam war during a time when covering war was a male-nominee profession.

>> there was no embedding like we have now, no military censorship. it was probably the first and last uncensored american war. it was for women, i guess, because it was only because of this lack of codification, this openness that women could get through what has been the biggest barrier that you were not allowed on the field. announcer: elizabeth becker with her book "you don't belong here," on q&a. weekends bring you book tv, featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. new york times national

political correspondents recap at 2020 election with the book "this will not pass: trump, biden, and the balance for america's future." then, the washington times talking about the book where she argues that democrats have used the pandemic to strip americans of their liberties. at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. hear many of those conversations on c-span's new podcast "presidential recordings." >> season one focuses on lyndon johnson. you will hear about the 1963 civil rights act, the march on selma, and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were

being recorded. >> certainly, johnson's secretaries knew because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact, they were the ones you made sure that the conversations were taped as jonathan would signal to them through an open door between his office and there's. >> you will also hear some blunt talk. >> i want a report on the number of people who signed --if i can ever go to the bathroom, i won't go. i'll stay right behind you. announcer: presidential recordings, on the c-span now mobile app forever your digger podcast --or wherever you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: we are back with republican strategist brendan buck and democratic strategist

bre maxwell who are here with us this morning to discuss campaign 2022, the biden presidency, and the political news of the day. good morning. guest: good morning. host: we just had a robust discussion here on washington journal about what has been happening in the united states and the possibility of gun laws for any type of gun control coming up this year. my first question to both of you, do you expect gun control to be an issue in the midterm elections? guest: certainly more than it was over the past week. look, i don't think that democrats have a whole lot to work on in the senate other than something like this, so i think this is going to be something that takes up a lot of their time, something does not going to just fade from the news particularly quickly, so i think

it is going to be part of the conversation. do i think it is going to be a deciding factor in the election? probably not. this election is still going to be about inflation, the economy, and gas prices. that is what people are most concerned about. after the ruling regarding abortion in the supreme court, there was a lot of talk but that was going to be the issue, showing the election is going to be about economic issues. but that doesn't mean that this can't motivate people, to add a new dimension and dynamic. i certainly think that is the case and this is going to be a conversation we will be having for several weeks, not just several days. host: what do you think? guest: i have to agree. i do believe that this will be a hot topic for the midterms, but do i think it is going to be a deciding factor, no. the topic in the deciding factor world will mainly be about ration and gas prices going

forward, but i do believe that gun control will be a hot topic issue because at this point, we've got to stop with thoughts and prayers. we have to have some type of action. do i believe that we should have gun control or we are taking away guns? no. but you i believe that we should have -- people should be able to have assault rifles in their homes? i don't believe that. we have to figure out what is going to happen after the midterms and i think the deciding factor of what happens after the midterms, do i think that it is going to be an immediate source of action? no. but i do believe that the hot topic of gun control right now will force a lot of people to come to the polls whether it is for gun control or against gun control, but it will be something that drives people have to to go and vote. host: i want to read a paragraph from the new york times on how your respective artie's before the shooting were dealing with guns when it comes to the midterm elections. here is what the new york times has to say.

since january, fewer than 2000 asked for democratic candidates and their aligned group to mention guns or combating gun violence tuesday. more than 100 television ads from a publican candidate have used guns as talking points or motives for the year. guns are being shown fired or brandished or are not displayed as candidates praise the second amendment, going to block gun control legislation or something identifying the selves as pro-gun. so, first of all, how should your party take advantage of this moment right now when we have discussions about guns in the united states? guest: there's a few things going on. one, you have a lot of republican primaries taking place, and that is an issue where republicans are trying to demonstrate their credentials on the second amendment, so that is

kind of a primary season thing. i don't know that you will see a ton of that going into the general election. we are also a party that is much more focused on cultural issues than policy issues. there is a strong strain in the party that believes that fighting culture wars is the way to win elections, is the way to rile up orders, is the way to tell them that someone is trying to change their way of life and the elected is not just to is in office, but whether you are going to be able to continue holding guns or whatever it may be. it is a way to turn out republican voters to alligator the election the people, -- elevate the election to people. host: your party is not talking about guns as much in campaign commercials as the republican party. do you see that changing anytime soon? guest: absolutely. going forward for a lot of our

primaries coming up, we will see more commercials, more radio ads, more candidates, talking about guns and what they want to do as far as the second amendment going forward. i believe in the second amendment but i also believe people should be able to protect themselves, but i also believe we should not have certain types of guns out on the street. yes, i do think a lot of politicians and candidates going forward we'll talk more about guns, gun control, gun legislation and ways to figure out how to protect people going to the grocery stores and everyday citizens. host: let me take a second to remind viewers that they can take part in this conversation. we are going to open up regular lines. that means democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, you can call (202) 748-8002.

remember, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always reading on social media and twitter @c-spanwj and facebook.com/c-span. before we move on to other political topics in the 2022 midterms, we have to acknowledge the nra convention that is going on in texas right now. what is going to be the role of the nra when it comes to the midterm elections? i will start with you, brendan. guest: the nra is sort of a hollow shell of what it once was. the media is a talking point, for democrats, the nra is a pretty weak organization. they have run into a lot of financial issues, mismanagement issues. i worked in leadership for many years and i can't even think of a single timer anybody mentioned

the nra doing something. i think much more is made of this that is reality in terms of covering. certainly, there are a lot of proud nra members and it is a large community that people care about but as an organization, a political entity, i think they are as weak as ever. but there is a large contingency of gun owners that support the republican party, and that is always going to be a concern for members of congress. i think it differentiates the people out there, the voters, the nra i don't think is really much of a factor. host: what do you think, bre? guest: the nra will have to have a levelheaded person to be there figurehead, someone who can compromise from both sides of the aisle. not just a hothead figurehead who will be someone who is like, you can't take our guns. it has to be someone who can be middle-of-the-road, that can

compromise, back and help with legislation, help with gun control policy going forward. but at the previous speaker said, they are a talking point. i see them as a talking point, i see them as a major talking point that a lot of voters the forward to. i think what the nra needs going forward is a levelheaded, middle-of-the-road person who can work on compromises from both sides of the aisle when it comes to gun control legislation. host: let's move on to talking about the 2022 elections in general. 13 states have had primaries so far. what do the primaries tell us about the direction of your party. what have you learned about the 13 primaries the democratic party? guest: well, it has been interesting. what i have realized what is

going to be a hotbed and a hot topic of fury we have faith edwards running for governor and senator warnock back on the ballot as well. we also have a lot democrats running for governor in a lot of states across the country. what is happening in the democrats are motivated, they are galvanized, and they want to make sure that we can keep moving the country forward. but what i've also realized as far as the republican side, they have voting in high numbers as well. democrats, we have to make sure that we are getting the message out to our people, to our voters, to middle-of-the-road voters. two republicans and independents alike, we are trying to make sure that we are moving the country forward and at this point, i believe we are doing a great job. i am looking forward to the rest of the primaries we have going for the general election. host: what have we learned about

the republican party through the primaries we have seen so far? guest: it is interesting to look after the lens of donald trump at control of the party. i still think that he is a very central figure, very powerful in terms of endorsement, but probably less powerful than maybe a year ago, or certainly two years ago. somewhat frequently, republicans who were endorsed by donald trump are losing. i think george is a great example. brian kemp was the incumbent governor, challenged by david perdue, basically on the premise that he had donald trump's backing and then brian kemp didn't do enough to overturn the election. david purdue got trapped by close to 50% and even the secretary of state in georgia, who is most famously the person who challenged donald trump,

that the election was not rigged in georgia, he was able to fend off a conservative challenger. i think it is really interesting, maybe not that people are over donald trump in the republican party, but particularly around the issue of the 2020 election and the election being stolen and rigged in all of that, i don't think people want to hear about it. this is still a party that i think will follow donald trump if he tries to run for the nomination, but it is not a party that wants to litigate the 2020 election. host: we have a clip year of former president trump speaking at a rally last night to sit or the republican he has endorsed to challenge representative liz cheney in the 2022 republican primary. we want to play this for you and

then get your reaction. trump: and there is no rino in america who has thrown in her lot with the radical left more than liz cheney. she has gone crazy. now i get it. i have been hearing all the stories for years. in fact, the democrats use her statements all the time in their campaign literature, and in their speeches. they say republican liz cheney and then they go with the worst sentence ever, and it gives them little credibility, but people are not buying the act based on the polls. she is at a level that nobody has seen yet. don't let those democrats vote for you. you have got a crazy system here. you know what that means, right? don't let them do what they did

in another state last week. don't let them do it because the democrats -- by the way, the lieutenant governor of georgia, we just had a great primary victory today, nicely endorsed candidate. you know that, right? and herschel walker. in texas, we were 33-0. we swept last week. swept arkansas. we have a great new governor to take place very soon in arkansas, right? host: brendan, i want you to react to former president trump because he still think that has endorsement has power in the republican party. guest: is a funny thing where i think he pads his numbers by offering endorsements to people who don't have any challengers.

there were house members in texas were running unopposed in the primaries and he endorsed them and he counts that as a win, very powerful. he obviously is obsessed with liz cheney, and she is the one person above all who has been challenging him, calling out his lies on the election. she has not made it easy on herself politically. some of the things that she has done, really poking leadership in the eye. credit to her for not caring about her political portions, but very bad policies for her. is a very conservative state. this is the one person that he has most latched onto. but there are some things going for liz cheney that could be beneficial. there are several candidates

running. donald trump is trying to clear the field, so there is just one opponent, but there's actually several running in wyoming. it is sort of an open primary system where you can have democrats, and vote in the republican primary. for all of the fighting going on between the two of them and for a conservative state where donald trump is very popular, i still think she has a decent chance at winning which is remarkable, especially given that what she thinks is right politics. host: the republican may or may not have a former president trump problem. the democratic party may or may not have a president biden problem. here is a story that i want to bring to you and get you to react to. the newspaper says president

biden's approval hit a new low on monday. of course, 57% of reddish or voters disapprove of how biden has handled the presidency with 40% saying they strongly disapprove, and 17% saying they somewhat disapprove. is this midterm election about joe biden and this far more -- guest: i think so, and it really depends on who you are talking to them who you are asking. with a lot of millennials and a lot of young people and a lot of people who have college debt, student loan debt, they are upset because they don't see their student loans being wiped out as the president stated that he would do when he gets to office. i know he stated that he would get rid of 10,000, at one point he said 50,000, but a lot of people are upset because they have this data and it is keeping them from doing things such as purchasing a home or getting the credit where it needs to be.

they are spending most of the salary from their job on student loan debt, and they want to make sure that they have great careers going into the future, so that they can live how they want to live and how they deserve to live. right now, student loan debt is crippling a lot of young people's lives. not only back, people are suffering with high gas prices and ration, not realizing that the pandemic caused a lot of these issues. we have supply chain issues going on, and we have high demand for gas, high demand for things such as groceries, but the problem is that we have a low supply. i believe the people need to just take some time to do some research on what is going on, and they will realize that the biden administration is doing everything that they can to help get the country back on track. host: let's get some of our viewers into this conversation. we will start with jim who is calling from annapolis,

maryland. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say i hope people will google chief justice earl warren for his view on the second amendment right to bear arms, and look at former justice john paul stevens proposal to repeal the second amendment. the whole rationale for the right of every individual american to have a right to own and use a gun is a relatively new one. it is championed by the same justices who claim to support a so-called right to life, but it seems they support a right to life for kids who haven't been born yet, for the 17 kids in texas who were born six or eight years ago. these folks seem way less concerned and some of your callers seem way less concerned with their right to live through an attack. in the most liberal state for gun ownership, no background checks, open carry is so easy for any idiot to get one and use

one to kill. the problem is the current view of the second amendment is wrong. it doesn't provide for an individual right to own and bear arms. there are more guns in the united states now than human beings. host: are democrats going to litigate the second amendment in the midterm election? guest: i agree with the caller, i agree with some of the things the caller said. just a few weeks ago, we were arguing about abortion and the right to preserve life, but we just had 21 people that were murdered and killed last week in texas due to guns, so it is a situation of, how do we tackle this problem? thoughts and prayers are not going to get us through. i agree with them, and if you want a gun, people should be able to have a gun, just not assault rifles but guns should only be used to protect you, not to just randomly go out and kill people.

i don't even believe in open carry. it should only be something that you have in your home you're carrying to protect you, not to just willy-nilly be out shooting and killing people because you are upset with someone. but i do agree with the caller and the fact that like i just said, a few weeks ago, we were fussing and fighting about abortion and how the supreme court wants to get rid of abortion to preserve life, but they are not doing what we need to do to preserve the life of the people who just passed away in texas the other week. host: brendan, what do you think? guest: i think the caller is demonstrating your real tension that exists in the democratic party and certainly with leaders on capitol hill. you have a party that wants to go really far on guns, but wants to litigate the entire basis of the second amendment. they want to outlaw particular types of guns. and the subject they can work on is much smaller than that, and i think they know that. at this moment, they are trying

to do whatever they can do to advance this mission. but it may be deflating for some democrats. not just republicans who propose some of these more modest background checks or other things. several democratic senators vote against these things as well. the funny thing here, maybe it is not funny, the political dynamic to watch is whether you have some issues that can motivate democrats, could give them some turnout because they care a lot about the issue of nuns, but they can also be deflated by what their leaders do in the senate just based on the political reality. one of the issues that democrats are running on, and their voters are not fired up when it comes to student loans. they want to see them doing more. they obviously have republican voters were very enthusiastic about voting, but some of the president's core supporters just feel like he hasn't been there

for them and leads to a really apathetic voter base. if you are a democrat, you have to be worried that guns are another issue where you get motivated, you want to see action by your leader, and they are just not able to do it and that has a negative impact on turnout. host: let's go back to the phone lines to talk to stephen who was calling from alexandria, indiana. stephen, good morning. caller: good morning. our biggest problem right now is we have a lawless country. our country has become, with all the crime that we have going on in the country, everyone is scared because they are not prosecuting anybody for any crimes. they are living criminals go,

felonies, people have got 19 felonies and they are being put back lose on the street. they are only doing a small percentage of time when they do get it, then they are back on the streets. everybody is really pretty scared in the united states. you see these big cities like chicago and all of the heavy crime that is going on, and the people is scared, is what it amounts to. i lived in a small town, but i am not far from chicago. eventually, it is going to get here. it is going to be all over the united states. these democratic cities like chicago that have this heavy crime, no one is being prosecuted. our prisons are just full of people. they should have never took away the death penalty and it has

just become a lawless country is what it amounts to. host: you want to talk to that one first, brendan? guest: it is a really important political concept to be having this discussion. crime is actually a really high concern for voter turnout. in the last several years, violent crime in cities has been rising significant and a lot of people are concerned about it. when you have the context of taking away guns, that is where you find people who think they need a gun for their own self protection. the system that is supposed to be keeping them safe is not working. but you have got to keep in mind that there are people who fear for their own safety, that their biggest reason for wanting to own a gun and they are going to react very harshly to the proposals that would limit that.

guest: i think the caller also brought up a very important aspect of the fact that our prisons are overcrowded. yes, prisons are absolutely overcrowded. we have people in prison right now who shouldn't be there. that is one issue that we do have. that is a states issue, and we have to get down to the states to figure out what are we doing to combat the crime that we have in some of our areas? just like in south carolina last week, my best friend's niece was shot and killed. a few days before that in south carolina, there were three or four murders for some young people. we have to figure out, what are the towns and counties and states doing to combat these

issues with crime? we have to figure out how to get some of these guns off the streets in the hands of our young people because what is happening now is there are a lot of young people who are dying to guns and gun issues. we have to get down to the meat of it in our state, get with our political leaders and our states to figure out how can we combat crime in some of their areas? i do agree that people are scared. people have a right to be scared because crime is all over the place and we have to figure out how to tackle these issues. host: let's look at some specific data when it comes to crimes. a study between 2010 and 2020, overall violent crime has gone up 12%, and with murder and manslaughter going up, 26%. they did point out that the second-highest increase among cities of available data came from three indiana cities,

jasper, shall and warsaw, indiana, and they pointed out of the top three cities in the highest crime rates in the united states were detroit, michigan, memphis, tennessee, and milwaukee, wisconsin. the three highest crime rates per capita in the united states came from michigan, tennessee and wisconsin. let's go back to the phone lines and talk to ronald was calling from troy, new york good morning. are you there? caller: good morning. excuse me, i've got a bit of a cold. i'm calling in looking for an answer for the problem. the ar-15's. eh> host: go ahead. caller: good morning. host: we can hear you, go ahead. caller: ok. i was calling in about the

problem with the guns. it is so easy to do. they put an electronic device in front and when anybody goes out to a city or a school or a courthouse, the device would be disarmed on the buildings, it would be disarmed. no more school shootings. also, the parents would carry ar-15's and other guns. it is so easy. that is my answer to the problem, solve. host: you want to answer that, bre? guest: i think he raises a very great point. right now, no one has the answer to how we can combat these

crimes that we have going on. i think the caller raises a good point. guest: i appreciate not accepting the world we live in right now. one of the challenges that everybody appreciates is that there are millions of guns everywhere right now, and the idea that you could necessarily just bring them all back -- a huge logistical challenge, i imagine. hopefully, we can to a place where there are technologies that make this better. a lot of cities are trying to implement new technologies in locations where guns are being fired quicker, so we have to use whatever tools we get. there is not one simple issue. anybody who thinks that there is is misinformed.

i think we have to look for as many different approaches as we can. host:, and wisdom says that the president's party does not normally do well in midterms, and the hill newspaper has a story that shows that congressional democrats are not looking great so far. congressional democrats are changing republicans in battleground district by eight points, according to internal polling from the democratic congressional campaign committee. the polling conducted in april shows generic republicans leading generic democrats 47%-30 9%. how did democrats turn this around, and can democrats turn this around? guest: i believe we can turn it around, and it is not too late. one, it has to be messaging. i think what gets to the meat of everything is the messaging that

you are putting out. if they are not hearing your message on the radio, they are seeing it on tv, they are seeing it on the boards, people pay attention to what you say. people pay attention to your actions. i think if democrats can work on a messaging standpoint, we will be fine going through these primaries. what i also think is if we spent a little more time going against their publican party as opposed to going against progressives and the party like we have been doing, we will probably ok. at this point, we need to figure out how we can keep majority going forward and move forward because right now as you said, we are trailing behind republicans in so many aspects. i have had many conversations with people who are trying to figure out whether they even want to vote going for the midterms this year. we have some things to work on,

but i think we will also be fine going toward the general once we can figure out our exact messaging point to get us going over the hill. host: and how do republicans take advantage of this democratic polling saying that people seem to prefer republicans to democrats when it comes to these battleground congressional races? guest: is getting late to change that dynamic. i don't know that there is much of anything that happens at this point that is going to save democrats. you have persistent inflation, gas prices that are incredibly high. elections are typically only about one or two things. every paul tells you that that is what this is about. there is very little joe biden can do about it. you have a lot of people with a lot of frustration and this is their first chance to take it out. they are going to take it out on the president's party which historically, almost always happens the president's party

and their first midterm election almost always loses a lot of seeds. that is likely to happen again here. again, it is not just republicans who are eager to come out and vote. the other challenge democrats have is you have a very democratic base. democrats are fighting with each other. the president is being bolder. they have been told that there are issues that are fundamental to the country like voting rights and then they just walk away from them. they are feeling higher gas prices in general, they are turned off by the woke progressiveness with this current democratic policy, and then you have to engaged republicans and pressed, grants, that is a recipe for a rally. republicans only need like five seats in the house to take the majority. i don't know what could save democrats at this point, it is very unlikely. host: let's go back to the phone

lines and talk to john who was calling from nashville, tennessee. caller: i'm from nashville, and i've got the democrat strategist a question. why not change the age of 18 to 21 when it comes to selling guns? i'm 64 years old and they let us drink at 18 and then they changed that lofted 21. why don't they change the lofted 21? number two, why don't they say that if you carry a gun, the gun gets stolen, in nashville, the gun gets stolen, the person who owns that gun that got stolen will be prosecuted. that is two strategies that democrats can go on and that is 21 of age. 21. start with that.

not five different legislations because legislation is slow. one thing at a time. host: go ahead and jump in. guest: i absolutely agree with the caller, this is stuff that i've been thinking about lately. let's change the age of 18 to 21, and if you're gone is found used in the event of a crime, whether you did it or not, you will also be prosecuted with the criminal who used the gun as well. i absolutely agree with that and i believe that a something that democrats and republicans alike should look at moving forward and i believe all states should look at something like this, so yes, i agree with moving the age. maturity changes from 18 to 21 as well. it doesn't change as much, but it changes on a certain trajectory, so i believe that we should change the age from 18 to 21. if i can go into the military and use a gun at age 18, it just

shouldn't be a situation where you are 18 years old being able to purchase a gun. yes, i agree with you. host: what do you think, brendan? guest: i think it is a conversation that will be had. i find it unlikely that democrats are going to go along with it. you are able to serve your country and there are a lot of people who are going to reject the idea that you can't have responsible gun ownership because i think most gun owners are responsible. now, maybe we can get to a place where we have a conversation about assault rifles, whether somebody at 19 years old is responsible enough to have something like that. i understand that people are probably going to want to talk about this, but i have a hard time seeing even joe manchin or jon tester democratic senators doing anything that meaningfully limits the number of or the age

at which somebody can purchase a firearm. host: i want to turn the focus a little bit to wisconsin. i want to play for you and ad that supports a gop-u.s. senate candidates. they put up the advertisement supporting ron johnson. i want you to see it and react to it. here is the ad. >> the d.c. liberal spending sprees out of control, jacking up inflation on wisconsin families, wiping out wage gains, and making it harder for families to make ends meet. gas, groceries, everything costs more. senator ron is fighting back, voting against the liberal inflationary spending and demanding accountability for washington's waste and fraud. keep fighting to stop the reckless spending that is killing us with inflation. host: what does that tell us about the campaign in wisconsin and around the nation? host: people talk about a lot of

different issues every campaign, but what are the issues they are talking about on television? that is where they are spending their money, and the resources you have any campaign to get the message out, what that tells you is that polling shows the most important issue is inflation, spending, gas prices. those things are just devastating right now. ron johnson has been all over the map, talking about the conspiracy theories and all kinds of stuff. ron johnson is not a particularly disciplined messenger. people coming into the city trying to help him run know that there is really just one issue you need to hammer. that is inflation. all across the country, it is something that democrats don't have an answer for. they don't have an answer in the short term, and they certainly don't have a good explanation for how we got to this situation, and republicans are going to provide voters over and over again that trillions of dollars were spent in washington

adding to the situation. it is not just that we had covid and got inflation, there were actions taken by congress, partially by democrats that have contributed to this. we are going to see republicans everywhere talking about it. host: in wisconsin, democrat lieutenant governor barnes is running the democratic primary to unseat ron johnson. the primaries on august 9 and i want to show you the ad that is running in wisconsin and your reaction to it here is the ad. >> most centers couldn't take the cost of a gallon of milk. or how much b has gone up this year. but i am not like most centers or any of the other millionaires running for senate. i know how hard you work. and i know that by bringing manufacturing home, we create jobs and lower costs. you want to change washington, you have got to change the people in there.

host: what does that tell us about what is going on in wisconsin and was going on with the democratic party in these campaigns around the nation? guest: what the mandela barnes ad is showing us is that people are suffering in this country. they are suffering from the price of milk, from the price of eggs, the price of chicken, the price of gas, the price of everything. but the ron johnson ad invoked fear in the american people. a lot of times, people vote off of fear. but if you're going to do an ad, you should also tell the truth. ron johnson said the biden administration are the reason why we haven't ration, the reason why we are driving up inflation, which is not even true. the fact of the matter is he's not telling the truth about why we haven't ration and where inflation came from. a lot of this has to do with the covid-19 pandemic. in order to get people to see

things your way and to vote for you, you have to either invoke fear or get to the topic of the issue. that is able to group's talk about the things we are facing right now. if we could just tackle inflation and get gas prices back to where it was, things would be fine. but just sitting here and saying that the biden administration is the cause of it, it is no reason to think that the biden administration is sitting there saying let's raise inflation for all americans and that is going to get us to win in the general. no, that is not what is happening. they are working to figure out how we can tackle inflation, tackle gas prices. if he was able to do a truthful add ron johnson was just invoking fear in people. host: brendan, i want to give you a chance to react to the mandela barnes ad as well. guest: i mean, it shows that they realize that inflation is the top issue as well.

he is trying to convey that he cares about it more than ron johnson does, and that sounds nice, but i don't know that that is necessarily going to move anyone. typically in an election, you want to be able to go on the offense, you want to say why the other side is doing something bad, and here it feels like democrats are just on the defense. they are having to say yes, i know things are really bad right now, but i will be better for it. i guess that is the best they can do, i just don't know if it is going to change the dynamic here. there isn't anything they can do in the short-term term to make inflation go away. i can't predict the future, but i would be very surprised if inflation is not an issue for five months now -- from now when people are voting. you are probably going to have to shake things up a little more than that to change the dynamic of the election. host: thomas, good morning. caller: good morning.

president biden, e is the reason that we got high gas prices, high inflation. if donald trump was in there, you all would be blaming trump. if somebody steals my weapon, i am not charged. i don't know where you all got that from, i've been in law enforcement 27 years. whoever said that, if somebody comes to my house and steals my gun, i get charged, that is 100% wrong. i've never known anybody to get charged for having their weapons stolen. i think you're going to see the biggest wave in november, north carolina, gas prices, it is going to be the biggest red wave we have ever seen. host: jump in their first, bre. guest: no one said that if someone steals your gun you would get charged. we are saying that that is what should happen. we are saying that is what you happen going forward.

yes, if donald trump was in the presidency, he would get blamed for high gas plate -- prices and inflation. the difference is trump probably wouldn't explain how we were in the situation that we were in. he would probably place the blame elsewhere and with the biden administration, they are putting the responsibility of high gas prices and ration, trying to figure out how we can work together to make sure that we can tackle these issues so that americans, their pocketbook can feel a whole lot better. host: brendan? guest: midterms come down to enthusiasm. you don't have a presidential election, how do you convince voters to still go out? it is very clear in general that republicans are ready to come out. they are frustrated. the first election in the midterm after a president is elected is usually pretty bad as a referendum on them and this is a referendum on joe biden.

there are a lot of problems that you expect -- joe biden came into office promising to make things better, to make things normal again, to have competent government, and i just don't think people feel that. they see more and more problems piling up, and they were promised something different. a lot of frustration building with huge republican turnout and i don't any way to really change that. host:host: let's go back to the phone lines and talk to michigan on the independent line. caller: good morning. first off, i would like to thank c-span for what they are doing, allowing people to vent which probably helps some people not commit violence just because they can vent like that. going back to some of these killings, it is more of a set of priorities see a. it is going to be a generational

thing going forward. we are talking 20 years or more. it has to do with early education and getting people to get in touch with themselves and their behavior. we got to keep them doing that at a young age. they are trying to understand their securities, it will make them file little bit more secure, less insecure so that they don't feel threatened by the environment around themselves. that is just my perception, so thank you. host: brendan, i will let you take that one first. guest: sure. no question, we have big societal issues that are

contributing to some of the problems we've i think that if we just say a particular gun bill is going to solve all of our problems, we are fooling ourselves. but it is not easy to solve. we do need to confront some societal issues. one of the best ways -- it everything. i think we have to have a real serious conversation with ourselves about what kind of country we have and how we are nurturing our young people and why so any young people in this country are lashing out in such terrible, tragic ways. host: bre? guest: i think it it's down to what type of country do we want to leave our young people? what do we want to leave for our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews? what type of world do we want to leave for them when we are gone?

i believe that is what we should be fighting for and those are the issues that we should be looking for the truth of the matter is some of the things that we are fighting for now is going to affect than a whole lot more than it will affect us. some of the things we are fighting for is just petty banter. i think it gets back to the meat of the issue. what type of world, what type of country do we want to leave for everyone to live in it when we are no longer here, when we are no longer able to fight these issues? that is what is going to bring people out to the polls. that is going to be the driving factor, as well as gas prices, inflation, pocketbook issues. host: let's talk to larry who was calling from houston, texas. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i agree. the midterms are really big, but we all know that a first-term president always loses midterms. as first off like guns and the

second amendment, we don't need guns on the street. i've been to places especially ar-15 and stuff like that. but these people at the second amendment stuff, they don't even know what it really means. you know, they are all about a militia. every state has a militia because every state has a national guard. other than -- well, it is not a state -- d.c.. 247 years ago, things changed. things change. host: go ahead and respond. guest: first, thank you for your service. i appreciate the service you have been able to give to this country. i agree with you in aspects of

we don't need certain guns on the street. we don't need ar-15's, we don't need assault rifles those things are not necessary. you don't need those items to protect yourself. i appreciate you and your service to this country. host: brendan? guest: certainly i don't think anybody thinks we should have ar-15's walking the streets of this country, and the challenge that i think democrats are running into is that we have a population in this country that doesn't support a lot of gun restrictions. there is a lot of places that hopefully, we can find some ways where that way of life, that lifestyle can coexist with some rational restrictions on things like ar-15's, where there may be uses for them, but probably not to the scale to which they are available. we need to figure out something

there, and there is a lot of passion in this and i just don't think we can overlook that there are a lot of people out there who just don't see this as a problem or at least they see the right to gun ownership not just as a constitutional issue, but a cultural one something they have always lived with for generations. host: let's see if we can squeeze one more collar in from what you should, wisconsin on the republican line. -- waukesha, wisconsin. caller: good morning to all of you. i just wanted to say that i am 68 years old and i have never seen the country go down so asked, so low in my lifetime. i live in wisconsin and i saw the ads for ron johnson. ron johnson is the finest senator wisconsin has ever had, and i think there is going to be a massive, massive red wave not only here in wisconsin, nationally. i look forward to it and that is

my comment and thank you. host: i will let you jump in first. guest: looked, republicans are confident. they have the wind in their sails, and that is a challenge for democrats. you have republicans who are really motivated, and you have people who potentially went to the democratic party in recent years. we lost a lot of voters, particularly suburbs, educated voters that gave democrats a chance. it is not working out, whether it is incompetent government, covid has not gone away in the way that a lot of people hope it would, and now you have new problems that are actually probably much more tangibly worse for voters. it was really annoying to have donald trump tweeting that thing, and he did some really bad stuff that i think upset a lot of people, but inflation

touches everybody every single day and it is just one of those really, really potent issues that you can't explain away. you just have people who are frustrated and who are going to take it out and i going to takei agree. there's going to be a big red wave this november. guest: i agree the republicans are motivated. they are very enthused to get out to the polls and vote across this country. i think it's going to be a red wave, but i also believe the blue wave is going to overcome that red wave. democrats are going to do fine and we are going to win elections across the country. democrats are not blaming donald trump for the gas prices and the inflation we currently have. we realize what the issue is and where it came from and we are working on ways to fix it. so donald trump is not even in the equation for the issues we

are dealing with right now. what donald trump is doing is blaming democrats for what we are dealing with right now. democrats are taking the time to figure out how we can overcome these issues so we can get americans back to where they need to be. i believe the blue wave will overcome the red wave and republicans are motivated. they are very enthused. i saw how republicans are ready and they are out voting at the polls. i also believe democrats are doing the same thing and they will do the same thing going towards the genital -- going towards the general. host: we would like to thank bre maxwell and brendan buck for walking us through midterms 2020. thank you so much for your time this morning. still ahead on washington journal, we will have john o'neill and sarah wynne here to discuss their new book, the dancer and the devil.

stalin, pavlova and the road to the great pandemic about the history of bioweapon's used by russia and china. first we will go to our open forum segment where you can call in and talk about your political topic of the day. the numbers are on your screen. stick with us. we will be right back. >> after months of closed-door investigations, the house january 6 committee is set to go public. starting june 9, to an then as committee members question key witnesses about what transpired and why during the assault on the u.s. capitol. watch our live coverage beginning thursday, june 9 on c-span. c-span, your unfiltered view of

government. >> c-span's weekly podcast brings you over 40 years of audio recordings from our video library. comparing the events of the past to today. on this episode. >> that's how bill clinton was greeted when he arrived at the vietnam veterans memorial in washington, d.c. on 5/31/1933. hail to the chief, applause and booze and jeers and people yelling draft dodger. bill clinton's first memorial day as president. that's what we remember in this episode of c-span's the weekly.

c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the court, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for tv networks and c-span radio plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now, your front row seat to washington. anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with our open foam -- open forum segment where

you can talk about your most important political topic of the day. we are going to open up our regular lines. that means democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. we are on social media. we want to bring you up to date to a couple of things you can see here on c-span later on this week. on tuesday the u.s. department of state's special envoy for iran and others will testify about negotiations with iran and whether they see a path forward towards a nuclear deal with tehran. watch the senate foreign relations committee hearing on this topic at 9:30 p.m. on

c-span -- 9:30 a.m. on c-span, our free mobile app and anytime online at c-span.org. and on tuesday, the secretary of the army will discuss u.s. defensive strategy including deterring and defending against threats to the u.s. and its allies. that will be on life at 1:30 p.m. on c-span, c-span now and of course you can watch it online. -- that will be on live at 1:30 p.m. on c-span, c-span now and

of course you can watch it online anytime at c-span.org. once again we will go to our open forum segment. tell us what your most important political topic of the day is. jenna is calling from leland, north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm going to dovetail off of the comments from the last segment talking about gun control. i listened to both sides. i have voted both sides in the past. i'm a single mother. with the second amendment i believe we have unalienable rights to defend ourselves and i feel that we need to be humane and dealing with one another. i look at what the democrats are proposing with gun control laws and trying to get rid of guns. if we look at china, they established gun control in 1935,

over 20 million political dissidents were unable to defend themselves and they were rounded up and exterminated. if we look at other countries like mexico, it has the amount of cartels. they have gun control and people aren't able to defend themselves. if we look at chicago and new york and some of these other cities or states that have gun control, that is where excessive crime is. how is it that we take the guns from the people, there are still going to be violent acts. it's not the guns creating the issues. it's the individuals that have a psychological and spiritual defect and i just hope we can come together collectively as a country and try to come together and not just take our rights away work together to try to solve this in a peaceful and resilient manner. host: wes is calling from spartanburg, north carolina on the democrat line. good morning.

caller: i would like to dovetail like the last caller did but the horse is out the barn. gun manufacturers have pumped out over 350 million guns into the populace. any loser, anybody who has a problem. a lot of these people -- it's all men. there is no women doing this. you don't see women mass shooting people. i will stop with that. it's too late. we've done lost that battle. on trying to at least put some regulation to it. so it's over. host: let's go to billy calling from anderson, indiana on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was going to talk about the school. schools should always have at least two people on guard. one of them teachers could have had a gun. it would have stopped this guy.

another thing is you guys are calling him white, he isn't even white. i don't care what color the guy -- it would have been that the -- that shot these poor little kids. how come there wasn't a standout? one man and all these cops couldn't get in that school? and a mother goes in then gets her little babies which i would have done the same thing. host: i don't know where you heard the shooter was white. i know it hasn't been on this show. caller: well i heard it on fox news. cnn was talking about he was white. host: ok. matthew is calling from westwood, new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you. three quick points regarding the

mr. biden and the upcoming elections. number one, the border is knowingly, biden and harris are knowingly letting fentanyl come in which has killed over 140,000 americans and they are knowingly putting these drugs come across by refusing to close it. number two, inflation to the ladies point earlier, it is mr. biden's fault because stopping oil production which he did has increased gas prices and grocery prices obviously because the truckers have to pay more and they pass those costs along. and last, thank you for letting me speak. the crime issue, the democrats insanity of releasing violent

criminals without bail called no cash or low cash bail, obviously these criminals go on to victimize more innocent people because that's what violent criminals do. host: linda is calling from chicago on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. and i wanted to talk about pro-life and to say that you won't pass laws to protect the lives of the children that are already here. and you want to talk about pro-life. the gas companies made billions in profit. profit means that they paid everybody and that's how much they put in their profits. so it's price gouging. immigration, american people want $15 an hour and also

unions. and this is the answer to that problem that they send all these people over in immigration. host: and joe is calling from alabama on the republican line. caller: i want to talk about the shooting. that kid didn't get those guns until he was 18. i don't think he was so much obsessed with guns all his life. the video games have a lot to do with it. he planted a 10-year-old kid in front of a tea set -- tv set and watch video games and shooting people and killing them, it desensitizes them. i heard yesterday on the news

that he was obsessed with that videogame called call of duty. i've never seen it, but you can't -- when you've got a kid whose brain is developing, you can't let them watch things like that. no worse than if you put a kid in front of a porno movie at that age. it would do something to their brain. that's my take on the whole thing. there's got to be a reason that 18-year-old kid was bloodthirsty enough to kill innocent little kids. host: joel is calling from eagle, idaho on the independent line. good morning. caller: i've been thinking about this whole shooting situation, and i taught high school back in

the 60's. back then you didn't have teachers sleeping with students, he didn't have a permissive attitude in school. there was accountability. we didn't teach revisionist concepts. we had the flag in school, we had god, community and family. and if you google something on the internet and inquire about have there ever been shootings in catholic grade schools or high schools, the answer is there's never been one. there was a shooting at gonzaga university in 1971. some guy shot four people. but there's never been a school shooting at a catholic school. why? maybe these clowns that are running the naa should spend a year in catholic schools and see what they do differently. maybe we should put the nuns in charge of public schools. and on a different topic, here

is a news flash for your democratic cats. you shouldn't pay $100,000 for a degree in gender studies. listen to micro of dirty jobs, there is plenty of jobs out there that don't require a college degree. host: diane is calling from barberton, ohio on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. what i wanted to say is number one, the woman from illinois is correct. and when it comes to the oil, we could never get the gas together for at least another two years in this country because that pipeline did not come to the people of the united states. that pipeline went to europe. number two, high last month called in and everything i said came true. there's another republican who was trying to get rid of social

security, medicare and medicaid. -- the idea of abortion. my family were abused. we were brought up in a children's home. and every last one of us have said one time or another, we wish we wouldn't have been born. because how many people have been hurt, killed and maimed. i'm almost 70 and i still remember those things. you cannot tell me abortion is not needed in the united states. now. we need to get the democrats all the time in order because of the fact that we know what is needed . not these republicans. because all they care about is money. host: harvey calling from dallas texas on the republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. my issue is regarding trust, integrity and honesty. whether it applies to politics, a marriage or any other relationship. i think that in general, i speak for myself. i have lost trust in our system. we have weaponized our government. talking about what's coming up with the panel on the quote insurrection for january 6. the biggest insurrection was the takedown or attempted takedown of this government. as a retired physician, we have weaponized medicine through dr. fauci and the covid. and now we are weaponizing the court system. in effect, we are taking down our own government. my philosophy is experience, facts over wishful thinking.

host: rena is calling from calumet city, illinois on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i listen to all these colors and most of these collars are like my mom's age. they are so outdated about a lot of things. first of all, the integrity of a lot of this country is based on the family. which they intentionally destroyed the african-american family through slavery and up until now. i'm not saying we don't have our problems with other things, too. but when you look at the situation of mass shootings, 90% of those mass shootings are from white kids. and what are they doing in their homes. their teaching hatred, they are teaching them to not teach the truth about history because history will repeat itself if you do not deal with the past. so stop blaming chicago for anything that had ends in your

state, because you guys are supposed to control your kids. what are you doing in your homes to control your kids? host: donna is calling from allegany, new york on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. we need to talk about the elephant in the room. our government was almost taken over january 6. the people that have tried to do this are the ones that went to the guns and they are armed. they have shown themselves in state capitals and they have busted into our congress. which is everyone. they want to disenfranchise people of the right to vote. and the democratic party better come out and start telling the truth of what's going on in this country and stop trying to play

nice with these guys. host: sean is calling from clarksville, tennessee on the democrat line. caller: good morning. first i would like to say that i really don't think that gun control is going to solve any problems. it's just too easy to obtain a weapon illegally. if i may offer a solution to all these school shootings. i think entrance control is definitely the key. one way into the school, make sure you have armed guards at the front with metal machines. definitely x-ray machines for backpacks. it will take the students a lot longer to get to class. but well worth the price. go ahead and lock all exterior doors. they can only be opened remotely in case of evacuation. have hourly tours. armed security guards in the school.

i think the key is entrance control. host: all right. coming up next, writers john o'neill and sarah wynne will talk about their new book, the dancer and the devil. stalin, pavlova and the road to the great pandemic about the history of bioweapon's use by russia and china. stick with us. we will be right back. >> tonight on q&a journalist elizabeth becker tells the story of three women who reported on the vietnam war during a time when covering war was a male dominated profession. >> there was no embedding like we have now. there was no military censorship so it was probably the first and last uncensored american war.

it was for women a gift. because it was only because of this lack of codification that women could get through what had been the biggest barrier as a war correspondent that you were not allowed on the field. >> you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now radio lab. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine. we also have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders all on the c-span networks, the c-span now

free mobile app and c-span.org/ukraine. our web resource page where you can watch the latest videos on demand and follow tweets from journalists on the ground. >> on tuesday, former treasury secretary lawrence summers discusses the biden administration's attempts to curb inflation. >> tuesday, secretary of the army discusses u.s. defense strategy including deterring and defending against threats to the u.s. and our allies. watch live at 1:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now or anytime online at c-span.org.

tuesday the state department's special envoy for iran testify about negotiations with iran and whether they see a path forward toward a nuclear deal. watch this senate foreign relations committee hearing at 9:30 p.m. on c-span, c-span now or anytime online at c-span.org. >> c-span shop.org is c-span's online store. browse through products, books, apparel, home decor and accessories. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with john o'neill and sarah wynne. co-authors of the new book, the

dancer and the devil. we are so happy to have you with us this morning. can you tell us how this book came about? why did you write this book and why now? guest: on this memorial day, i would like to remember my friends at the naval academy and a lot of other friends who gave their life in service of our country. we wrote this book for three reasons. we wanted to commemorate the people whom stalin, putin and xi tried to obliterate from history. pavlova. china's first nobel prize winner who died in prison in china and a slew of people that putin has killed. the second reason we wrote the book is to tell people about two

wolves that are loose in the world. that is prudent and xi jinping. -- putin and xi jinping. my father told me many times how they had tried so hard in the 1930's to tell people about stalin and how they could have avoided the slaughter that occurred in europe but nobody listened. we wrote the book in the hope that people will listen to who they really are and how they regard to human life and to alert people to the weapons they actually have, which are bioweapon's and creative diseases. these pose as most of the -- as much of a threat to all of us as nuclear weapons. those are the three primary reasons we wrote the book. host: in the book you talk about

laboratory one. can you tell us where that is and why stalin established it? guest: it was created in 1921 by stalin to execute poisonings. it was really the first by war lab. went on to kill in a pavlova, the short story writer maxim gorky, the ambassador and many other people we reference in the book. guest: stalin killed perhaps 20 million and people would disappear, but there people who can't simply disappear. they are too prominent. at the same time, you don't want the public dislike for having killed them. so you stage what are called natural deaths or stage

suicides. you get them and simulate a natural disease like respiratory disease. stalin used anthrax or heart failure. stalin used potassium. or a stage suicide. recently in the ukraine seven different oligarchs have supposedly committed suicide, the last three with their entire families. those weren't suicides. those were murderers. those were people who were dissenting against putin so they murdered them in a way that was deniable. host: we are talking about bioweapon's. i want to be sure everyone knows what we are talking about. can you tell us what a bioweapon is? guest: a bioweapon is simply an organic as opposed to an inorganic poison in the case of

stalin, anthrax was a bioweapon that he favored. also smallpox and a variety of other diseases. with anthrax, you took a little breath of it. these are bacterial spores that would get in your lungs and stimulate pneumonia. people would take a breath of them from a napkin as likely happened to pavlova. you were diagnosed as having pneumonia. you actually had anthrax in your lungs. but the pathology of the time was not sufficient to show the difference. likewise karate is an almost indestructible poison that was used to simulate heart failure. stalin had an entire massive set of biolab's beginning at a place called serotonin and in a project called the anthrax anti-plague project.

in 1939, he summoned the head of that project, abram berlin into moscow. berlin began coughing at the hotel. the doctor said you've got pneumonic plague. you have a disease we haven't seen in moscow in years. everyone that saw him died because in that case it was not only communicable but untreatable. a bioweapon is simply engineering a disease to hurt people on a retail level. mostly in the past these have always been traditional diseases like smallpox, plague, anthrax. now the harbor with crispin is you can manufacture viruses. so you can take a virus and adapt or change that.

the covid-19 virus, 96.2% was for my bat, 3.8% of it has never been found naturally in nature. claims have been made that it in evolution. no one has ever found that natural virus anywhere in nature at all. you have the horror of bioweapon's as stalin had them. manufactured by the horror that you can actually adapt genes. mankind now has the capacity to kill itself. guest: as we discussed, this stalinist marxist ideology has spread to north korea and china. it poses an incredible threat. we spent four years researching

this book. the russian army spends one of every five days in full hazmat suits. the only reason they would do that would be to be prepared for a chemical or biological attack they would release. we think it's important that the threat of biological weapons is equally as important. host: some of our viewers may not know who and a pavlova was and how she died. can you tell us who she was? what did you find out about how she died? >> we fell in love with her in the course of researching her. she was the world's most beautiful gifted ballerina and she traveled the world astoundingly 400,000 miles in the days before air travel. she went to 44 different countries. she was most famous for dying swan.

she traveled 44 countries, often introducing ballet for the first time. she was killed in paris by a gang that stalin created, a poison lab. she ate her food at the ritz in paris and set i've been poisoned by the food i ate in paris. it would be another 60 plus years before the game was discovered. people thought she couldn't have been poisoned. they even alleged that she had stood in the rain briefly or something like that. so they treated her symptoms instead of poisoning and she did died. 37 biographies have written about her and no one has alleged that we were killed by his talent -- she was killed by stalin. host: you have conclusive evidence that she was killed by stalin? guest: the evidence we have is

that in 1927, stalin caused an article to be written in the soviet press that alleged that she was an enemy of the soviet people. he invited her to return to russia before that. she refused to return. he confiscated her entire trust she had set up to eight orphans in russia. -- traveled throughout europe trying to get european countries not to allow in a pavlova to perform there. they laughed at her and they did that directly at stalin's request. in late 1930, and a pavlova told everyone she was under a sword of damocles. she asked her friends to pray for her.

we have many different instances in the book of other people being poisoned with anthrax by the group set up in paris by stalin. stalin sent to paris the greatest poison are in the world . he sent him to paris specifically for the purpose of wiping people out. he pretended to be a fishmonger, but his job was to poison people. so many people died exactly as pavlova did. pavlova boarded a train after eating at the ritz hotel. the first thing she said was that i have been poisoned in paris. her lungs slowly filled up with water. she kept telling people she was poison. but who on earth would poison the most loved ballerina in the world. as she died, she called for swan

costume. her group went forward the next night defying stalin in the hague. they danced, putting a light on each place on the stage where she was to dance because no one in the world. take her place. i could try that case 100 times. i wouldn't lose a single time. i would win every single time on the case of whether stalin directed the poisoning of pavlova. stalin was consumed with ballet. he had a box in the bolshoi that overlooked the stage. in 1924 a composer showed the old ballets of russia, the nutcracker and swan lake. he immediately was consigned by stalin to an insane asylum and then killed.

stalin regarded ballet as integral to his total control of message and history. guest: who in the world would want to kill a beautiful ballerina that inspired millions. stalin believed in a doctrine called cultural hegemony. to control man, he believed you had to control everything about man. even the words that were used. he said by 1939 -- 19 35, the lord god will not be used in russia. he believed you had to control the theater and the arts. ballet was the ultimate symbol of artistic freedom and stalin couldn't stand for. host: we are going to open up regional lines. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones,

(202) 748-8001. you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always on social media on twitter and facebook. we have now talked about the past. i want you to draw a line to the present and how current russian president vladimir putin is developing and possibly getting ready to use bioweapon's. guest: it's very important. putin's grandfather was stalin's cook and taster. stalin was himself poisoned as the book goes into in 1953. putin's father was an actual exterminator. his job was to shoot people in

the back of the head who were politically unreliable. so when putin talks about denazification of the ukraine, he's a clip -- chip off the old kgb blog. his ideology is human life has no value. he says stalin is a great man who was simply misunderstood and the dissolution of the soviet union was history's greatest tragedy. that explains exactly why he has pursued the ukraine. it also explains why the ukraine versus so fiercely. they lost four to 8 million people to stalin. all of their musicians were killed in 1931. they were all executed and thrown in a mass grave. likewise in china, xi jinping has said that stalin is a great man. but you can't be a good communist if you don't believe in stalin. he believes the total control over human life is important.

so the methodology of boast -- of both of them is very little value for human life. the purge of the chinese communist party which has lost a third of its members in the past nine years. it was exactly the same methodology stalin used the consolidate power. host: are you concerned that putin will use bioweapon's if the war in ukraine drags on? guest: i think it's a very real threat. in a presidential debate in 2012. his army was being criticized but he said you know nothing about our biological capabilities. we hear about the threat of nuclear war. someone can cough in kansas and all of a sudden there is smallpox in kansas. the russians have been vaccinated against smallpox.

we saw how covid-19 took down the world. as we discussed, there are bio war labs in russia and china are working on much more dangerous things than covid-19. so i believe it's a very real threat and it's one of the reasons we wrote the book, to educate people. guest: in 1977, the chinese had preserved a flu from 1955 called the chinese flew at that time. it went all over the world and in 77, exactly the same fluke showed up again and killed over a million people in the world. i got it. you may have gotten it. it was in 1970 seven. many virologists said this can't be, it's impossible because the flu bug from 77 was exactly the same as the flu bug and 55. the chinese have to have preserved this in a lab. they said not us, we don't know

anything about it. what are you talking about. in 1944, citing the exact sources, the head of the chinese virology program said yes, i'm sorry. the truth is we were conducting vaccine tests with our army and it just got loose and that's how the 1977 virus went all over the world. so it's happened before over and over again. there are journals in russia where the people who worked on the bioweapon's program life about what's called the bioweapon's chernobyl in 1979. which killed over a thousand people from a leak of anthrax. they laugh about how they were required to shoot stray dogs and how people tried to pretend it wasn't a leak out of their own bioweapon's lab. it's a great danger to the world

and there is a chance of these people using it. these are people who don't regard to life is important. it's the ideology that's important and the state is important and we are all just servants of the state. guest: putin is definitely a son of stalin. his mentor actually when he took power was asked who is prudent in his response -- prudent -- prudent -- putin. he died of heart attack when he didn't have any prior coronary problems. host: since you just mentioned the asian flu of 1977, do you think that covid-19 was developed as a biological weapon knowing what you know? guest: i do. i don't think it was

intentionally released. i think the release of covid-19 was an accident. but covid-19 is rather clearly manufactured virus to me. the evidence for it is almost overwhelming. the covid virus comes from a bad location 1100 miles from wuhan china in the himalayas. that's the only place in the world that anything like covid has been discovered. we went to wuhan and was taken to the wuhan virology lab in 2015. we know that because their articles but recites that it was taken there. the horseshoe bat with a particular virus. when the virus appeared in 2019, it was in slightly different form. about 3.8% of it was different. wuhan is a huge military bioweapon's lab.

my opinion is that the bat virus that was taken in 2015 to wuhan from 1100 miles away that wasn't somebody munching in a laboratory, it was ridiculous that a bat flew 1100 miles. that virus was altered and inadvertently released probably in the course of vaccine tests. host: before you respond, i want to read this from the office of the director of national intelligence. this is the statement from them about what they said in 2020 one. we the intelligence community judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon. most agencies also assess with low confidence that sars covid who probably was not genetically engineered. two agencies believe there was not significant -- sufficient evidence either way.

chinese officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of covid-19 emerged. are they wrong? guest: they are wrong. guest: they are partly wrong. we think the release of the virus was inadvertent. we don't believe they intentionally released the virus. guest: john and i are both lawyers and we wrote the last part of the book much like we would be arguing a legal brief. i think it's a pretty slamdunk case. knowing they were doing research on this bat that carries the virus, we know that dr. lee who was the whistleblower who said there is this strange virus showing up in wuhan. he was killed shortly thereafter. he died of covid-19 at the age of 35 in wonderful health.

all of the initial evidence was destroyed. the who was not allowed to research it until a year after the release. everyone on the board was elected by the chinese government. and they still have not been allowed to research this secret military lab that worked in conjunction with the wuhan virology lab that we discussed. the evidence is quite overwhelming that it was manufactured in a lab. guest: all the early blood samples were immediately destroyed. so you're never going to find those. they were all destroyed. my experience as a lawyer is when people destroy evidence, there's only one reason to destroy evidence. and that's because the evidence

is so much worse than the fact of destruction. you have the appearance of this in the military lab and then you have them destroying stuff, the doctor who discovers it is charged with releasing state secrets and then dies very quickly. i'm happy to try it to any jury. of course the government will not allow it to ever be tried anywhere. host: david is calling from glasgow, kentucky. good morning. caller: this is really amazing that they have worked to get all of this history. evidently john mccain was right. he said you look into the eyes of a killer when you look at putin. from all this, he's the most

dangerous man in the world. we have had a u.s. president that has held up a front still does to some extent. i wonder, can prudent kill anyone at any time, any place -- putin kill anyone at anytime, anyplace in the world? doesn't putin tell the church what to believe and do over there? guest: that's what he does. the russian orthodox church lost everybody in soviet times. there were 127,000 priests killed 1926 to 1928. it has been thrown out of the international orthodox church because it's a kgb front. they give services on how wonderful it is to be killing the ukrainians.

it's a kgb church. it's not a christian church. putin is a guy who said that stalin and lenin should be canonized as christian saints. this is stalin who killed 127,000 priests and stalin who said the very words of god will be gone -- word god will be gone from the soviet union. in terms of his ability to kill people, he has a unit called 29155. it first got exposed in 2018. when a videotape of them -- they poisoned two people in england and a videotape happened to catch who they are amazingly. people found them on facebook

where they idiotically were posting. the british secret police were able to track them back and they killed 14 people in england alone. so he kills people all over the world. host: it is calling from danbury, connecticut. caller: thanks for taking my call. given the new threats are either enhanced versions of old viruses or possibly even completely new, have you taken a look at what we should do -- are we actually pursuing avenues to ward off this threat? guest: we were terribly prepared as the covid virus shows up.

we were losing hundreds of people a day. we are very badly prepared. we had done a few things. we prohibited enhancing experiences by our own pharmaceutical companies. pharma was insanely enhancing viruses to make them more communicable in laboratories on the theory they would never escape. we have at least prohibited that but we were terribly unprepared. we went through four years of agony of writing the book precisely because it all begins with people knowing the truth. these are not people whose eyes you can look in who are nice guys.

the bioweapon's present a terrible threat to humanity. guest: it's also been difficult to get this story out. we spoke with several big houses in new york who said we are interested in the stalin and pavlova story, but we don't want to talk about prudent -- putin and xi jinping. we thought this is the full story, it needs to be told. also surprisingly in the course of researching it, i operated at different website unrelated to the book and i noticed i was getting hits from wuhan and shanghai while i was doing this research. we have six and 50 endnotes and my ip address must have been flagged. i opened the manuscript to work on it and i noticed it had been

opened at 4:00 a.m.. i was asleep and i was the only one with access to it. they turned my computer over to a forensic expert. gave him my password. then shortly thereafter i opened the manuscript to work on it and all previous versions had been deleted. and i would save them by date. the last years of manuscripts were gone. our expert was able to determine that the breach happened in the cloud, not in my wi-fi system. i think that's a real threat. they clearly were trying to suppress this message and it's a message the world needs to know about. guest: the book is heavily annotated with 650 footnotes. if you buy it on kindle, you can

actually flash and it will take you right to the source. and it's heavily documented. some of the information that led us along the way were from people in russia and china. i didn't find it because none of it is in any computer anywhere. guest: i saved the manuscript on a flash drive. otherwise we would have lost a year's work. guest: i think the u.s. government, and particularly the nih has the early emails say if people learn about this, they will be antiscience or they will hate china. i don't hate china. i think it's one of the great civilizations on earth. i'm certainly not antiscience. but science is about truth. i think we got committed to tell a story and pretend as we did with hitler's. pretending he was going to make

the trains run on time. host: charlie is calling from roslyn heights, new york. caller: i'm enjoying this conversation. i found out the truth is very complex. i feel like these two people are really bashing stalin and if what they are saying is true, they should be bashing him. at the same time, stalin played a very important part in getting rid of nazism and hitler's. as a patriotic american, i'm happy for that. how did they feel about that? guest: i think you are right. first of all, i do think stalin's role is a little overplayed. remember, stalin signed a treaty with hitler's dividing poland. stalin initially accommodated hitler's invasion and

destruction of friends. -- france. then he had the soviet union completely unprepared in the early days of the second world war when the soviet union lost millions of troops and almost lost the war. i do think stalin's order to hold fast was integral to being able to hold off hitler's in time that with other aid, hitler's could be beaten. so i think stalin deserves credit for that. there is good and bad as you say in everybody. it wasn't necessary to kill 20 million russians to accomplish that. it wasn't necessary to purge all the people, all the early bolsheviks in order to accomplish that. or to purge his own army, which left him unprepared. so there is some good, but there is a great deal of bad i'm afraid with stalin. more than with almost anyone in the 20th century.

guest: there is a campaign underway in russia to rehabilitate stalin and make him more like a hero. putin believes he is a great man who just ran into some difficulties. i have a hard time finding anything great about stalin. after researching this book, i think he would have a hard time finding a more evil man. guest: it's interesting because stalin started in a seminary. his mother was a wonderful woman by all accounts. his father was a terrible abusive drunk. she got him into a seminary. he will have to look at the dancer and the devil for the whole story, but he went south bad. became a police informer. he killed his bolshevik comrades. he had birthday parties where they would stage the death of his closest friends, i mean imitate them how they had died. make fun of them as they died. it's very hard to have this as a

guy you would really love. his daughter tells the story of his death when he was poisoned in 1953. we have learned only in later years through molotov's biography and work by professor jonathan brent of yale that stalin was poisoned with warfare and. stomach poison that caused him to bleed out on his stomach. so as he died he suddenly became conscious and began waving his hands and screaming. his daughter says it was as if the angel of death was coming to collect him. i have >> if you would like to see photographs or other information is collected, i invite you to visit our website. thank you so much for having us on. host: i would also like to thank all of our guests and all of our viewers, all of our social media followers for another great washington journal. have a great sunday, everyone.

continue to wash her hands and stay safe. we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. ♪ announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and maureen wooding -- and more including cox. access to affordable internet in the connected to compete program. bridging the digital divide one connected and engaged student at a time. bringing us closer. cox supports c-span as a public service along wit