people who are overzealous, but as i am sure you know, if i could have spent a little more time being a politician and less time being president, i would have kicked their butts out. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: we have with us this morning, senior political reporters susan milligan and fox news national reporter paul steinhauser. they will be discussing campaign 2022 the news of the leak. welcome to you both -- of the week. welcome to you both.

paul, can you give us the latest on the fbi's search of president trump's home in florida, and where do we go from here? paul: so many questions remain as to the fbi search and what are the next steps? what does the justice department do next? this was the story that dominated the world of politics this week. as we start this new week, it remains the top story. what are the next steps by the justice department? republicans in congress, many of whom have stood by the president in the last week, and what does the biden administration say as they tried to keep a distance

from this justice department investigation into the former president? host: we consider this almost the end of primary season. where do you think of the race stands for control of the u.s. house and the senate? do you think democrats have any chance of expanding their majority in the senate, and do they have any chance of keeping control in the house? paul: -- susan: it is turning more competitive than any of us had anticipated. president biden's approval ratings are still low, but there has been a lot of factors here. it is possible for the democrats to expand the majority a little bit. they will -- you will have to un

-superglue my jaw from the floor if they win back a majority in the house. it is partly the abortion decision. the democrats are feeling more -- they are a little more motivated and a little more likely to get out. host: we want to get to your calls and a moan it -- in a moment. you can start calling in now. democrats, your line is (202) 748-8000. republicans, dial (202) 748-8001. independents, your line is (202) 748-8002.

you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. you can also find us on instagram @c-spanwj. there were 10 house republicans who voted to impeach former president trump after january 6. of those 10 republicans, 2 won their primaries. 3 loss to their primaries. -- 3 lost their primaries. 4 are retiring. there are democrats now encouraging democratic voters in wyoming to switch so they can though in the republican

primary for liz cheney -- vote in the republican primary for liz cheney. >> you might be surprised that i am supporting liz cheney, but principal must always come before politics, and nobody has shown more honor, integrity and courage then she. patriots will put it all on the line to protect our country, and liz cheney has done that. it is far more imported than any policy differences -- important than any policy differences we may have. host: paul, i want to start with you. the fact that of those 10, at most 3 of them are returning to progress and there could be 7, if not 8, who are no longer in the house after the end of this

year. what do you think that says about the republican party and trump's influence still on the party? paul: donald trump is hands down the most popular, and the most powerful politician in the republican party. it is still very muchdonald trump's party -- very much donald trump's party. he has been on a roll lately. arizona, michigan, some very high-profile gubernatorial primaries. the trump -- politicians trump was backing, those candidatesw on -- the politicians trump was backing, those candidates won.

liz cheney is trying to get a fourth term in the u.s. house. she has been reaching out to wyoming democrats, hoping they will cross the party line and vote for her. there are not many democrats in wyoming. while that strategy will probably work, there are not enough democrats to help liz cheney win coming up in 2 days as she faces a number of primary challengers, including one who used to be a supporter of hers, who is now endorsed by the former president. cheney has made it clear. if you listen to her language in sunday talk show appearances and elsewhere, she is asked about her father, former vice president dick cheney. she would love to win reelection, by making sure

donald trump never returns to the white house is more important. it is as if she is getting ready for another battle, which many think is a bid for a republican presidential candidate in 2024. host: what do you make of it that so many of those republicans who spoke out against trump -- 4 of them said " i am not even going to try again." what does that say about partisanship and america? do you think there is any chance liz cheney will prevail with the help of democrats? susan: there are not that many democrats in wyoming. trump is not an ideological leader. he is more of a personality leader. the problem is if you are a republican running in a a

primary, you cannot separate yourself from him, or you will not win your primary. there are definitely republicans who are with him, and there are some who are trying to stay on his good side, but you look at these races in arizona and maryland, although to be clear in maryland democrats helped the trump-backed republican win the primary because they thought he would be easier to defeat in november. trump is very much so still in control of the party. you're seeing potential challengers try to be careful about -- ron desantis is a great example, someone who decried the fbi search of number president trump's -- former president

trump's property in florida. host: before we go to calls, on the other cited the political spectrum, ill hunt omar barely -- ilhan omar barely won her primary. what does that tell us about the state of politics on the democratic side? susan: progressive women are becoming a more dominant part of the democratic party, but they are not taking over the party as much as republicans would like to have a lot of the american public think. i was watching the special election in minnesota have more, because that ended up being close. that makes democrats think

abortion is working in their favor. i think that is where a lot of the party is moving, but it is find that, that wing of the party is not taking over the party. host: let's go do some calls on the democratic line. we have georgia from gonzales, louisiana. what question do you have? caller: i want to know why no one has brought up why he had souvenirs with the presidential seal on it? i want to know why no one talked about that. susan -- host: susan, do you have more information about that? susan: it is such small potatoes

compared to the january 6 investigation, compared to what happened with the documents, sensitive documents down in mar-a-lago. i hear you. i have never been in a situation like this where it wouldn't be a huge story. there -- host: our next caller is joel from mountain home on the republican line. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. happy weekend to you. sorry you have to work today. i only have about 4 things i want to discuss with you. i think it was a shame that they keep picking on president trump. with 6 years now, they have gone after this man.

he was impeached twice. he told us during the campaign that they are. only coming after him, but they are -- they are not only coming after him, but they are coming after us. good prices are up, housing prices are up, and when president joe biden took office, he signed 18 executive orders, and i don't even think he knew what he was signing. back to dick cheney --he is the one who got us into the war in iraq. there were no weapons of mass distraction there. hiary deleted -- hilary deleted her emails, and nothing has been done about that. the news people, they hid the information on hunter biden.

that was not even brought up during the campaign, but now they still have not rated his house or put him in leg irons -- raided his house or put him in leg irons. we are controlled by the communists. host: paul, that color brought up that it seems that -- caller brought up that it seems that there is not enough acknowledgment of the good things that president trump did. what is your take on that? susan: you hear -- paul: you hear that a lot. i was just down in texas covering cpac. that is what you hear from any on the right, many who are devoted supporters of the former president, and they feel he has been wronged and is continuing to be wronged by this fbi raid

on mar-a-lago. the likelihood that the president will make another stab at the white house in 2024. that color is not a lone voice. there are many on the right who feel like he does. you can take issue with many of the things he said and the factual islet he of them, -- sexuality of them -- and the factuality of them. host: our next caller is from new jersey on the independent line. caller: i would like our guests to address the issues of overrun crime, especially in democrat-run cities.

they are releasing violent criminals on bail, who go on to do what violent criminals do, which is harm, murder, rob, assault innocent people. i would like them to address how this could also affect the upcoming elections, and instead of trying to impeach president trump the fourth or fifth time for nothing, they should be addressing and looking into this , incentive -- instead of a sham january 6 court. liz cheney is better because

donald trump correctly called her a war profiteer. paul: crime -- susan: crime is a big issue. probably 2 of the biggest vulnerabilities the democrats have this fall are crime and inflation. i think that is an issue. you would expect a mayor handle it more than members of congress, but there has definitely been frustration with that. we will see what happens as we get closer to election day. paul: in new york, the gubernatorial race there, it is traditionally a blue state. lee's eldon, the republican nominee there, is talking about cashless bail, getting rid of

the new prosecutor in new york city. crime is front and center in some very prominent races. republicans have been good at saying every democrat wants to defund the police. that is obviously not the case, but it is an argument the republicans have been making. it sounds like it is sticking with that caller just now. host: our next caller is lou from florida. caller: good morning. how are you? paul: good morning. caller: i have a comment first. that is delusional.

the power of the people, i think we can agree is wielded by the president. if you can identify the word autocorrect for me, it would be very -- autocrat for me, it would be very helpful because i feel like that is where we are going with democrats. paul: i am not sure if he is describing the former president or the current administration, so i am not sure what he meant by that. there has been a lot of talk, and there will continue to be some about the powers of the federal government and whether they are too strong and whether this country is moving towards autocracy. host: next step we have dee in spokane, washington on the republican mine. caller: hello -- the republican

line. caller: i was thinking about this when we left afghanistan. that was a good move, that they should have gone directly to our own border. we can protect ukraine and everyplace else, but our own border is unprotected. the is just -- the situation is just getting worse. host: that caller just mentioned the pullout from afghanistan. tomorrow marks 1 year since the fall of kabul to the taliban. susan, can you talk a little bit about that and how that has been one of the things the news has criticized president biden's administration? susan: typically, a president

will be punished more for his or her performance on domestic issues. in this particular case, it is almost to the day that president biden's numbers began to plummet, after that disastrous pullout from afghanistan. it is not that people wanted to stay there. we have been there 20 years. of course, the pullout itself was just chaotic. i think he is still recovering from that, a little bit. things that happened since -- that is when things started to go downhill for him. i am not saying he is not in control, but it contributes to that impression. paul: this president, president

biden head favorable approval ratings for the first -- had favorable approval ratings for the first six months he was in the white house. that was the start of a steep decline. we are starting to see has numbers rebound a little bit, but if you look at the averages, he will have 30% approval, and disapproval in the 50's. that is lower than president trump. the presidential approval rating is such a key parameter. host: next up, we have take in -- tay in houston, texas. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i want to address the gentleman about trump. trump, and i could be wrong about it -- trump is only president in modern history who left the economy better than wearing -- when he entered. he left office with far less jobs than when he came in. obama had 3 potential pandemics. he do not fire scientists. trump spent his whole time during this pandemic fighting science. the economy fell. whose fault is that?

i see all of these people, -- trump has done nothing for this country other than make us sick and broke. his supporters -- nobody is scared of civil war. they lost in 1865, they lost in 2020, and they lost on january 6. i support liz cheney 110%. host: there is a lot of rhetoric we have heard this week about civil war and whether attacks on trump amount to dividing the country. how do you think that will impact elections this year?

paul: there is a lot to unpack -- susan: there is a lot to impact. i'm conscious of the apocalyptic language we are hearing out there. in eastern europe -- i do not throw those words around. i want us to be careful about that. i think that the search -- we do not even know if it was an investigation -- the search of his home, i do not know what impact it will have. republicans rallied around him very weekly. if it turns -- very quickly. if it turns out we find he had documents that could endanger the united states, that could be

a problem. we do not know whether the justice department -- they may have just wanted the documents back. they cited a possible violation of the espionage act, but that does not mean they think he is a spy. it just means they reserve the possibility that someone violated an aspect of the espionage act. theft could rile up the base -- that could rile up the base, for it could get others to come out and say " this is terrifying that a former president has sensitive documents." i want to be careful about enabling elements of the country

, because i think it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. host: i want to ask you something the caller mentioned about pandemic response. is that something that could be a weakness for president trump, if he decides to run in 2024, or is that something drummed up by his opponents? paul: his response to the pandemic was the reason he lost the 2020 presidential election. that is crystal clear. the issue of the pandemic has receded. it was still a major issue in 2021. we are more than halfway through 2022. it is not the top issue on the minds of americans anymore. it is inflation. if he runs again in 2024, and it sure looks like he is serious about that,, will it be used against him? of course it will.

it will not be an issue at the top of the minds of most americans. the economy was flattened by the pandemic, the worst pandemic this globe has seen in a century, and now it is rebounding. as the biden administration tries to tout on a daily basis -- wages are soaring. all of that is getting trumped by inflation that is the worst in 40 years. desk prices are receding. -- gas prices are receding. if those continue to go down, and inflation overall starts to slowly reseed, it will be less of -- reced it will be less of an issuee -- slowly recede, it

will be less of an issue. host: our next caller is on the democratic line. caller: i have a question about the midterms, and i want both of your guests to answer this question. how serious of a problem is gerrymandering? i think that the politicians now are picking the voters, and the voters are not picking them. i want both of your guests to answer that question. host: susan, do you want to go first? susan: that is a factor in a lot of states. there have been a number of races that have been decided by

very few votes. i hope people are not discouraged. it is also one of the reasons there is a limited number girl party can pick up in any given cycle, because there are fewer genuinely competitive districts than there used to be. things change. we saw the speaker of the house, however many years ago -- a district do you do not think can flip, can certainly flip. host: paul, anything you want to add? paul: when i started covering politics, there were maybe 60 congressional house seats in play every election. now we are down to maybe 20, 25,

and why? because of redistricting,. gerrymandering both parties are at fault here -- because of redistricting, gerrymandering. both parties are at fault here. s nonpartisan commission -- nonpartisan commissions are the ones who write the new districts, who draw the new districts every 10 years, so there is hope for those who would like to see this become a nonpartisan issue. host: our next caller on the republican line is gail in tallahassee, florida. caller: paul, this question is for you. you are the perfect person for this, because you are very familiar with the investigative journalist catherine harris, and

she used to work for fox news. she posted a tweet that was talking about documents that she held up, and they referred to crossfire hurricane, and it was kind of insinuating that the fbi may be have gone in they are for these documents, because it could possibly indicate something against of the fbi. i was wondering what your thoughts were on that. it indicated corruption in the fbi is what i am trying to say. paul: i am a campaign reporter. i am not familiar with this information she was talking about. i cannot talk directly about that. in the near week since the fbi

raided mar-a-lago, you have heard some republicans in congress talking about defunding the fbi. the fbi's status, trump and the fbi, has -- the republican party has been known as the law & order party, but this is a party now where we have got to the point where some are calling for the defunding of the fbi. host: our next caller is might on the independent line in spring, texas. caller: good morning. my question/comment is the country seems to be pushed to 2 extremes.

i try to listen to all sides. i listen to radio shows and everything in between. there is not a whole lot in between. it seems like this extremism to the right and the left is being fueled by the media. people who have radio shows who just want high ratings, and the only way they will get high ratings and numbers of listeners is by going to the extreme. speaking moderately and truth -- c-span is kind of an exception. speaking the truth and presenting facts, that is not how it is happening. it seems like the media has a

role in driving the country to these 2 extremes. one thing i would say to the republicans, i am an independent. i have been a conservative voter in the past. republicans, why not find a good conservative candidate that we can support, elect, and who can govern the country responsibly? ask yourself, if president biden ir former president -- or former president obama had done half of the things former president trump has done, what would you be saying? what would you be thinking? i listen to lies being spoken on the air. they're talking about " if the fbi when did these papers, why didn't they just asked for

them?" the fbi recovered some documents back in june, 15 boxes and mr. trump without some highly classified documents. they tried subpoenas, they tried negotiation, consent, none of that worked. the only way to recover these highly classified documents was through a search warrant. i see it on the media -- they are whipping up people into a frenzy with actual lies. ever since the reagan administration, the fairness doctrine was canceled, and some things the clinton administration did with the media as well. it seems like we are being polarized into these 2 extremes by the media. host: we will let susan respond to that. paul: nobody hates -- susan: nobody hates the media

more than reporters! even when they are talking about basic news -- i am old enough to remember when the news was half an hour with walter cronkite. now they are trying to keep you from clicking to another cable channel. it is a constant effort -- everything is in crisis mode. i always tell people if the media is biased in a way, they are biased towards conflict. i think you are right about it. they keep people wound up. even regular mainstream news is

biased towards conflict. it is not even about an ideological divide. you could not find 2 more opposite people when it came to their outlooks, but they were genuinely friends, and they work together on the hill. i want to believe that we can get back to that. it is not a function of where you are on the political spectrum. it is your ability to accept the other person and work from there. paul: i would just add one. thing -- add one thing. social media has dramatically changed this country and polarized people who never spoke out about politics. now everyone has a platform on

social media. that is a dramatic difference from the present-day, and even going back just a decade and a half ago. host: our next caller is lydia from birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. i would like to say, i am really concerned about our democracy and freedoms in america right now. the raid said that -- the fbi the said domestic terrorists are what we need to worry about. i am a black person. i live in birmingham, alabama, and crime is very bad here. we are a red state with governor

kay ivey, but what i am really concerned about is because we fought for rights in this country. that is the fbi. as a black person, do you think i can get away with some of the things this man did? in america, we have laws. he is not above the law, no more than my black brothers are. we have to follow the law, and the republican party, they are saying defund the fbi! i have law enforcement in my family! america, wake up!

host: let's get some thoughts from paul on that color. paul: a very passionate -- on that caller. paul: a very passionate caller there. we have seen the voting laws, voting access laws in many states since the 2020 election become stricter, many of these are republican-led states. many feel that these new, restrictive laws are directed towards minorities, making it harder for minorities to vote. host: next up on the republican line is ron in pennsylvania. caller: it took me 5 years when

i moved here to say at! host: go ahead with your question or comment. caller: you said a really bad word a while back -- it was the 2020 peaceful demonstrations. i do not know why you never hear anything, nothing about it, not anything anywhere. it is all trump, trump, trump, trump. they are saying republicans are so bad. before trump got into office, they have those proceedings ready to go to impeach him before he even got into the white house. he has been on his -- they have been n bi -- they have been on

his butt every day since. democrats must like paying more for gas and food. he does not want to help us. our border is wide open. we have all of these people coming across the border. we are threatened by russia, china who are into hoots, and china is -- in cahoots, and china is buying up land here. susan: -- paul: let's start with government spending. the first major spending bill came under the trump administration. they were passed by both republicans and democratss in congress and signed by then president trump.

the biden administration has continued that. the democrat only bill, the covid relief package plan, but there was a bipartisan bill, republicans supported as well. i'm talking about the infrastructure package. republicans blamed these spending bills for the inflation. economists debate that. i am not an economist so i will not say what is right or wrong. border security is a huge issue . it is an issue that president trump road to the white house in 2016. we have seen a huge influx in undocumented migrants crossing the border. republicans blamed the white

house for this issue. host: next we have jay from columbus, ohio on the independent line. caller: this is for paul or for whoever. i do not consider myself independent, democrat, or any of that really. what i will say is i usually vote for whoever the best candidate is. ever since trump came on the scene, there has been nothing but chaos in this country. all of these trump supporters keep talking about civil war, civil war, civil war. no one is scared of civil war, but you want to talk about violence ? what about the violence the republican party is always

promoting? everyone wants to talk about what president trump did for this country. what did he do other than bring chaos to this country? he doesn't know the first thing about politics. he cannot even quote the bible right! how can people support this guy when one minute he is talking about supporting the police, and the next minute he has nothing but negatives to say about the police? how can you guys really support trump when you know all he does is lie? it is prison that he tells nothing but lies. how can you -- it is proven that he tells nothing but lies? host: susan, what is your response to this caller? susan: trump is not so much of a

positive diet. he is not -- positive diet. he is not -- a positive guy. he is not ideological. a great example of this is abortion. now that might end up working against him in the midterm -- one thing i noticed about him in the 2016 campaign is people felt like they were not being heard, and they thought that he spoke to them. is more about that than " he has this plan for the border." it has more to do with his personality appeal, for want of a better expression. it is -- there are definitely

callers like we had earlier in the show who are passionate about president trump. host: let's watch a couple of campaign ads from both sides of the aisle. first we will look at an ad evidence kansas talking about biden facing low approval ratings. http://twitter.com/cspanwj --[video clip] >> why is greg while -- why it is greg stanton making everything worse? stanton bail them out and left you holding the bill. now liberals want to spend even more. call greg stanton and tell him no more spending because you cannot afford his liberal

agenda. host: now we have an ad from the house majority packet targeting house republicans on abortion. [video clip] >> for washington republicans it is all about control -- control of our bodies , control of our rights, and control of congress. we have to stop them. republicans supported punishing women traveling for abortion care. if republicans win, they will ban all abortions in every state. control is at stake. vote democratic. host: we are going to get to some more collars, but susan -- callers, but the party in power usually loses seats at the midterms.

do you think the -- susan: there -- democratic candidates are running well ahead of biden. there are numbers for some reason do not seem to be quite aligned with president biden. the generic ballot, which is really vague, it is " would you rather have republicans or democrats in congress?" we should not get too excited about it. the interesting thing here is the swing. monmouth university polls showed

the democrats up. it was a 14 point swing. it does not mean that will translate into every congressional districts, or enough congressional districts, but democrats are not suffering as they historically would be at this point. the other thing is that again, republicans should be in a better position their. -- position there but, they did a bad job recruiting. they have candidates in pennsylvania, georgia, and ohio who have not been terribly strong candidates. john fetterman, the democratic candidate in pennsylvania had a rally for the first time in 3

months, and he is pulling ahead of limit awes -- ahead of his opponent oz by double digits. they are tinting the landscape -- changing the landscape. host: let's go to another caller, jury on the democratic line in martin, north dakota. -- jerry on the democratic line in martin, north dakota. caller: let's forget about party. no man can stand up there by himself. he lied and he stole twice. when he gave 15 boxes back and kept the rest, what do you think

will happen? i have a lotto friends who are trumpers, but they said they cannot vote for him. everywhere he goes, it is a disaster. as far as inflation goes, do you remember the last one? they had cars lined up for miles trying to get gas. at least we can buy it now. the one before that, i was pretty young, and i remember my mom saying " money didn't matter. you need stamps in order to buy stuff>" -- to buy stuff." i am not seeing anyone in my area lived any differently than they did before. trump has got to go. he has lied and lied and has caused nothing but chaos and hate. paul: i am old enough to

remember those gas lines from the 1970's when i was a boy. that aside, what is remarkable -- we have been here for most 50 minutes, and it all comes back to trump,, trump, trump. dear remember the 20 -- do you remember the 201 midterms8 --do you remember the 2018 midterm? we were not talking about former president obama. we are still in uncharted water s. host: we have carol caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. i wanted to talk about here in texas, some of the campaigns that are running into one of

them in particular is beto o'rourke. i wanted to hear your thoughts on how you think he is going to do against greg abbott. i see the local media being very biased toward greg abbott. of course, everybody knows we had the shooting in uvalde, we had the same thing happened five years ago in santa fe. this is not something we haven't seen before. i think a lot of republicans -- i have talked to a lot of republicans in texas who are switching to go with vito -- beto because they have seen this before with governor greg abbott. nothing has changed, nothing is done. the only other thing i wanted to say is, and we have seen this

before, where people have gone up and started hating the federal government, hit the government and rhetoric coming out of my own republicans. the government and after what has happened with the search warrant, we have seen this before. it leads to things that have been like in clinton's terms for you had the attack on the federal building. so i hope everybody tones down the rhetoric and we talk about real things. host: some quick thoughts. guest: texas is an interesting race, texas has been changing politically. latinos in texas are actually a little more conservative, because texas has attracted a lot of business. so businesses and voters have a more liberal state, that makes the environment become a little more possible for democrats. beto o'rourke has narrowed the gap.

with uvalde and the power grid breakdown, but it is still texas. but he has narrowed the gap. it is still texas. host: our guests this morning are senior politics reporter susan milligan and fox news national political reporter paul steinhauser, thank you both for joining us this morning. later on washington journal, robert daly discusses china retaliation after speaker pelosi's trip to taiwan and its impact on u.s. china relations. up next, we returned to our opening question, tell us which party you trust on crime and law and order issues. you can start calling in now. ♪ >> live sunday, september 4 on

in-depth, uc berkeley governmental studies scholar stephen hayward will be our guest to talk about leadership from a rug in reagan's political career and the american conservative movement. he is the author of several books, including two volumes in the age of reagan series, greatness and patriotism is not enough about these scholars who changed the course of conservative politics in america. joining the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets. in-depth with stephen hayward live sunday, september 4 at noon eastern on c-span2. >> c-span shop.org is c-span's online store. browse through an latest collection of product, payroll, books, home to core and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support nonprofit operations.

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no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: police, crime, analyte law and order issues were in the news this week as we learned about the fbi search of former president trump's home in florida. we also saw democrats take a pause on policing legislation over intraparty dispute about accountability language. our question to you is, what party do you trust most on these law & order issues? i will go over the lines one more time. democrats dial (202) 748-8000