sarah longwell on efforts by her group to oppose a future trunk candidacy. she will also talk about the groups -- to highlight his role on the attack on the january -- on january 6 attack on the capital. >> tonight. take the most -- harriet hageman has received the most votes in this primary. this primary election is over. ♪ host: it is the washington journal for august 17 and that was wyoming republican liz cheney, critic of former president trump conceding to hear it hagman. -- harriet hageman. in our next hour, your thoughts on the defeat of representative liz cheney in her primary race

and what it means for the state of politics as you see it today. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you wish, you can text us at (202) 748-8003. you can post on facebook and on twitter. you can also follow the show on instagram. results coming in. it was declared last night that representative -- challenger harriet hageman won the race. taking a look at the statistics, it was harriet hageman well in the lead with at the time of this calculation 113,000 plus votes cast, giving her 66 percent of those voting for her compared to liz cheney, who received 49,300 votes, 28 point 9% percentage of people supporting her in thhote -- in

that primary race. you can see the speech he gave on c-span. here's a portion from representative liz cheney yesterday she talked about the concession and what it meant as far as her efforts against president trump. >> we must be clear eyed about the threat we face and what is required to defeat it. i have said since january 6 that i will do whatever it takes to ensure donald trump is never again anywhere near the oval office, and i mean it. this is a fight for all of us together. and i am a conservative republican. i believe in the principles and ideals on which my party was founded. i love its history and what our party has stood for, but i love my country more.

so i ask you tonight to join me as we leave here let us resolve that we will stand together, republicans, democrats, and independents, against those who would destroy our republic. they are angry and determined, but they have not seen anything like the power of americans united in defense of our constitution and committed to the cause of freedom. there is no greater power on this earth, and with god's help we will prevail. host: you can see more of the speech on our website and our app. for his part, the former president posted on his truth social platform about yesterday's results, saying congratulations to harriet hageman on a great and decisive win in wyoming. this is a wonderful result for america and a rebuke of political hacks and thugs. liz cheney should be ashamed of

herself went the way she acted and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions toward others. now she can disappear into the depths of political oblivion, where i'm sure she will be happier than she is now. thank you, wyoming. that is from the president's truth social platform. they report she is going in the coming weeks, according to a spokesman can't to launch organization to educate the american people about the ongoing threat to our republic and mobilize a unified effort to oppose president trump's campaign for president. a new group will serve as our primary lytic vehicle as she considers whether to run for president in 2024 does not have an official name yet. cheney also referenced the gettysburg address in her concession speech. we will talk about this for the next hour. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 .

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. this is margaret in kansas, republican line. you are a first. -- up first. caller: hello. i'm a democrat. my finger must have hit the wrong button. host: i will put you there. if you can call in, call in if you wish to try to get back on the right line. this is alan, our line for democrats. caller: good morning. i will try to be brief. it will not be easy. anyone who underestimates the stupidity of the american electorate deserves everything that they get. not only for liz cheney losing

but for the obedience to trump. just a few things about trump. the muslim ban. host: let's go back to rep. cheney:. what do you think about the results yesterday? caller: the results are disappointing. this woman was for the truth. it is so obvious what happened, not only with the -- with what was brought to florida but how do you not see the truth? the man is -- trump is like -- and i commend her. i think she lost her vote, but it was for principal and most of these republicans do not have a clue. host: daniel in kentucky, independent line.

you are next up. caller: i -- first of all, i support liz cheney and hope she can bounce back even better than what she did from this. however, this is just a sign that the republican party is in trouble. there is a big division about those who put the country over everything else and then there is a -- then there are the ones who put trump over everyone else. hopefully by the time all the just settles those that were favoring the former guy will be showing how badly they fell. maybe the republican party might be able to realize how badly they messed up and get back on track.

however -- i really hope liz cheney is one of the leaders of that new republican party. host: julie from woodbridge, virginia, democrat line. caller: as a lifelong democrat, i grew up in a family of conservative republicans and i am so sad. i would have voted for liz cheney if she were to have run for something, but i also want to comment on other callers about what is going on with republicans. i think there is the boyfriend who cheated on me kind of mentality where they just cannot admit to themselves that he is that bad so they continue to support him because that is the decision they made.

on the other side, i blame fox news and right-leaning platforms for pushing it. they know better. trump is trump. he will never not be trump. but for anyone who pushes out his stuff, they are intentionally deceiving people out there, the people who listen to nothing else. host: as far as your personal support for liz cheney, is it because you agree with her principles were because she is against president trump? caller: she is principled person. i was pacific support her just because our country needs more people like her, whatever your policy choices. host: that is truly in woodbridge, virginia. challenger harriet hageman, who won last night, also went before cameras after the projected votes came in in her favor.

she talked about what she sees as far as her race ahead and also referenced current politics involving liz cheney. here is harriet hageman from yesterday. >> wyoming has spoken. wyoming has spoken on behalf of everyone across this great country who believes of the american dream, who believes in liberty and recognizes our right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equal protection, and due process comes through god. and the government cannot take that away. wyoming has spoken on behalf of everyone who understands our government is a government by and for the people.

and that we can and do engage when we participate and hold elected officials accountable for their actions. wyoming has spoken on behalf of everyone concerned that the game is becoming more and more rigged against us. while it may not be easy, we can dislodge entrenched politicians who believe they are above the people they are supposed to represent. host: wyoming news yesterday on their website highlights what faces harriet hageman ahead. again, your thoughts on rep. cheney's defeat yesterday. caller: i watched the election

last night and i'm glad that cheney got her comeuppance and got beat. this is our legacy. she will be probably nobody to be reckoned with in the future. her legacy is dead. the january 6 committee will probably be disbanded after this , so i am glad to see that. everybody in the democrat party is so afraid of trump they can't hardly stand it. host: do you think representative cheney might run for president and what you think the results would be? caller: she will never get the presidency. she wont make it past the primaries. she has not got presidential character. host: that is glenn in texas. there are 10 house republicans who voted to impeach president trump years ago. cnn highlights their various

statuses as far as reelections and the like. four of those announcing retirement. that is at the gonzalez of ohio, adam kinzinger, and fred upton. as far as those who lost races come a a representative of south carolina, michigan, and washington state. representative liz cheney joining that list now as of yesterday, which leaves two winning their races, dan newhouse of washington state in the fourth district and of california and the 21st district. from california, this is our line for democrats. caller: good morning. i think the cheney defeat says more about the gop than cheney.

the rhetoric that has been coming from all the winners is very anti-american. i think the gop is looking to destroy our democracy to keep power forever, and that is what the gop stands for today. host: how does that relate to rep. cheney's race? caller: cheney stood for traditional republican democratic values. support the fbi, the president is not a king. the gop today says donald trump is king and they want to defund the fbi. that is just two points of the difference between cheney and her opponent. host: hal in massachusetts. caller: the left-wing media

cannot even keep up with its own talking points. this is darth vader's daughter. dick cheney was running the bush administration? it is ridiculous, with the left is doing. we used to have a time in this country when there was compromise. donald trump never had the traditional honeymoon period. host: talk about the race of rep. cheney:. what do you think of the results from yesterday? ? caller: let the people decide, unlike the democratic party that uses superdelegates. it is we the people. this country is throwing everything at a former president. his poll numbers are higher than they ever were. that is the message. we were told in the 1990's it was about the economy, stupid, when we had a president that had potentially raped women. what happened to that talking

point? host: as far as representative cheney is concerned, she says she is going to try to keep the former president out of effort -- out of office what you think of that effort? caller: it is up to the people of the country. it is we the people. the people spoke yesterday, and now that was the message sent to this country. evidently, people still want to donald trump. let the people decide. host: continue calling in on the numbers. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. feel free to text us at (202) 748-8003. joining is now, a reporter from politico who covers congress talking about results from yesterday. thank you for joining us. aside from the numbers we saw

against rep. cheney, what are the takeaways from the results? guest: congresswoman cheney looked beyond this election in terms of her palooka future. she is launching a new put a call vehicle. it is not clear exactly what it will be for yet, but it is striking that she has not ruled out a presidential bid, so that might be the next thing >>. try to see what she does next -- the next thing, trying to see what she does next. the bottom line is congresswoman cheney is not going anywhere. host: as for the store you wrote on this as far as keeping her megaphone, she will still say -- stay on the january 6 committee for as long as she is in office. what you think yesterday does as far as her role in the committee and the impact it has? guest: it does not look like it

will change her role in the committee. she still has this high-profile she will use through her role as vice chair of the committee. the committee has made it clear they want to stay through the end of this congress. the deadline they see is january. they have more hearings in september. they have another report coming. this will continue to be a platform for cheney to try to deny a path for the former president to return to power. host: one of the stories highlighted the fact that her previous primary she won by an astounding number as far as republican backing. is this all strickler connected to her statement about president trump -- strictly connected to her statement about president trump? guest: the former president did endorse her challenger, harriet

hageman, who emerged victorious last night. we saw house republican leadership stand against cheney as well. leader kevin mccarthy endorsed against cheney. not only did we see a lot of donor money goat -- -- we even saw advertising firms just because of this involvement with house republican leadership's -- leadership. host: your colleague in a similar story talked about how mark meadows eventually had a role in harriet hageman running. a lot of people in the background working for this moment. guest: that is for sure. you cannot help but notice that a lot of these people were also targets of investigations by the january 6 committee. this is where we have the whole

confluence of different ideologies and parts of the party here. host: we showed folks at home the 10 republicans who voted against -- who voted for impeachment of president trump, only two standing right now. what does that do as far as the president's track record when it comes to endorsements? guest: it shows the former president trump, despite having a mixed bag when it comes to overall endorsement records, still has a strong hand when it comes to house primaries. something like the endorsement of the former president kenji and up turn out. it shows how the republican party in many ways is still hung up on the result of the 2020 election. what happened in many primaries was that it became a referendum over the 2020 election, whether members voted to certify or not.

in washington state, congresswoman lost to a challenger who campaigned on making it a referendum on the 2020 election certification. for that matter, a vote to impeach the former president. as these members who voted to impeach trump and who voted to certify the election face the public view, we could see this new wave of house republicans coming in that do deny the result of the 2020 election and do strongly support former president trump. host: you talked about this committee she is forming that we will supposedly get information on in the coming weeks. what could be the strength or liabilities if she decides to go further, even possibly making a run for 2024 herself? >> the main pathway here --

guest: the main pathway here for her is less to gain the republican presidential nomination. as we saw last night, she had roughly a third or so of the primary vote in wyoming, which could show how it would be as a general election republican presidential candidate. she could end up being a spoiler against trump if he decides to run or some sort of trump person. congresswoman cheney has made it clear she does not want to see trump in office again. while she may not win the primerica she could be damaging enough that trump that another candidate could emerge. host: as far as the republican party as a whole, do you think there is a lane for a spoiler candidate in it? guest: there is not a lane for a spoiler candidate to win the nomination. look what happened in the 2020 primary.

-- in the 2016 primary. trump beat a field of candidates and managed to get the general election, whereas here cheney simply by being part of the primary debate stage could angle to be someone who is damaging to the former president. we have seen how she delivers damaging revelations against the former president on the january 6 committee and we might expect to see that in a primary election against president trump. host: you can see his work at politico.com. thank you for your time and analysis this morning. alaska holding also a primary. here are the results from that. the anchorage daily news reports in a race largely seen as a referendum on former president

trump, u.s. senator lisa murkowski was narrowly leading. challenger kelly -- kelly tshibaka had 47% of votes -- 41 percent of votes counted. under alaska's new voting laws that he limited partners that eliminated parts in primaries, sing the top four will advance to a range choice general election. and the anchorage daily news takes a look at the house races and says with the most complete in alaska's special u.s. house race, the first ranked choice election, a democrat was leading sarah palin in early returns with most first-place votes with the winner will not be known until the last ballots are counted this month. again, representative cheney's

race, she conceded defeat to harriet hageman yesterday. thanks for waiting. caller: thank you for taking my call. a lot of bad things came out of the 1930's in this country. there is a movement called technocracy. if you read patrick would -- wood's books, he explains the evolution of the movement in the country and it was backed by the rockefellers. who the democratic party embrace. host: tell me how that relates to rep. cheney's race. caller: this type of philosophy or ideology has dominated for decades in this country. people are finally standing up to it. some people call the republicans

that go along with that neocons, like dick cheney. they have been systematically rejected by the republican party and there are many also in the democratic party who used to and continue to embrace this philosophy, who most people do not agree with. anyone who is in the council on foreign relations is probably not great for the populist people. host: from fort lauderdale, republican line, this is jim. caller: good morning. liz cheney is a tragic figure. first, she allowed herself to become the captive puppy dog of the democrat party. and allowed them to teacher any trick they wanted her to perform.

unknowingly, she blew up the whole purpose of the january 6 committee when they inadvertently absolved donald trump of any responsibility for january 6. let me explain. at the end of donald trump's speech, he said, march peacefully. what was brought up by the general six committee is immediately after that speech he wanted to go to the capital. as a matter of fact, he wanted to go. he became angry at the secret service people because they prevented him from going. host: that was highlighted. how does that rep -- refer to representative cheney? caller: what would have happened of donald trump had gone to the capitol building? they would have had to protect

him. how many secret service and other people would have been needed to protect the president of the united states with such a big crowd around? hundreds. if he had gone to the capitol as he wanted to do, this would have never happened. host: that is jim in florida. this is jimmy and avon park, democrat line. -- in avon park, democrat line. caller: good morning, c-span. god bless america. blessed trump. he has been against the democrats. he has been against the republicans. now he is against america. lock him up. host: as far as representative cheney's election, what you think of the results from that? caller: it is tragic.

they teach us we get the government we deserve. host: when you say it is tragic, what you mean by that? caller: that one third of america believes the big lie and supports it with their money, dark money. free speech tv and tom hartman. host: as far as representative cheney is concerned, how does this refer to her? caller: cheney -- imagine that she stood up for the truth where others were unable. thank you, sir. host: that is jimmy in florida.

you can call in for the next half hour on the defeat of representative liz cheney yesterday. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text. you can do that at (202) 748-8003. if you want, you can post on our facebook page and twitter feed. allie in bristow, virginia, you are on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. cheney's loss is bittersweet. it is bitter because she is a republican that stood for low taxes. sweet for me is the same way donald trump lost is the same way if he chooses to run again they are going to lose.

they are going to lose. that is the sweet spot. host: how do you get that from the results of yesterday? caller: a lot of people know the truth. they know the truth. they voted against her because they have a relationship with donald trump. he is using them and they are using him. when people say they are stupid -- they are not stupid. they are just biased. that is my take on it. host: giving us his thoughts. it was during her concession speech yesterday that rep. cheney talked about conceding to harriet hageman and reference news of recent days regarding the fbi and mar-a-lago, giving her perspective on that in context of her speech. here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> to believe donald trump's

election lies cut you must believe that dozens of federal and state courts that ruled against him, including many judges he appointed, were all corrupted unbiased, that all matter of crazy conspiracy theories stole our election from us and that donald trump actually remains president today. as of last week, you must also believe that 30 career fbi agent who have spent their lives working to serve our country abandoned their honor and oath and went to mar-a-lago not to perform a lawful search or address a national security threat but instead with a secret plan to fake -- plant fake, incriminating documents in boxes they took. this is another insidious live. donald trump knows that forcing these conspiracies will provoke violence and threats of violence. this happened on january 6 and is happening again. it is entirely foreseeable that

violence was split further, yet he and others continue purposely to feed the danger. today our federal law enforcement is being threatened. a federal judge is being threatened. fresh threats of violence are arriving everywhere. despite knowing all of this, donald trump recently released the names of the fbi agent involved in the search. that was purposeful and malicious. no patriotic american should excuse these threats or be intimidated by them. our great nation must not be ruled by a mob provoked over social media. host: a viewer says liz cheney won the respect of millions of americans. another viewer saying that it represent americans' rejection of the january 6 committee. if you want to tweet us your thoughts, text is available to

you. hello. caller: i notice that cheney, who lost significantly has an extreme amount of hubris. most people who lose reflect on what they did not get or did not understand. her voters rejected her soundly and have been all along. if she thinks democrats will support her in her bid to become president, she is being naive. they will support anybody that goes against trump. so i believe she is being delusional in her hatred of trump. trump has a unique ability to have people flip over the rock and find the toads that go up

and then voters react. voters spoke and she is not listening to the voters. host: do you think there is a segment of the republican party that would support her if she decided to run for anything further, say president in 2024? caller: absolutely not. host: why? caller: because she betrayed the republican voters. host: how so? caller: because she wants against the republican voters' choice. host: can you explain that? caller: first, most people did not necessarily believe that the 2020 election was won by fraud because of trump. they believe because of what they watched and all the shenanigans that happened afterwards. she goes on with this bit about the judges. they never had standing evidence shown. you cannot show evidence before

it happens. the timeline is too short. most judges did not want to touch a political event like that was a 10 foot pole. you cannot blame them. she talks about how people are going after a judge and fails to recognize that some assassin already tried to kill cavanaugh. to her -- so her perspective is skewed and republicans will not support her. she is nothing but a democratic tool and she is foolish and thinking that we will support her. host: this is in kentucky. hello. caller: i think liz cheney is a great american and donald trump is horrible. i do not see how he got where he is and i think it is terrible, what he did to the fbi agents. i am 80 years old. my father was in fbi agent and

the fbi is different today than it was then. host: back to her original statement, what makes liz cheney a great american in your mind? caller: for one thing, she cherry picks things. she is against trump but like abortion. i like her stance on abortion. i think it is correct. i think liz cheney should be president of the united states. that is all i have to say. host: i referenced this in the conversation we had about the background leading to harriet hageman running against her. you can see the story yesterday at politico's website, saying last july republican harriet hageman drove to meet with a major donor who wanted her to wage a primary campaign. when she arrived for the

breakfast meeting the following morning, she was greeted by a surprise guest, mark meadows. she had heard from an array of people urging her to take on cheney but meadows was dialing up the pitch and putting her on the phone with jim jordan, another trump ally who reinforced the point. after leaving the breakfast got meadows calls trump and encouraged him to meet with the soon to be candidate, according to a person familiar with the discussion, the story adding that the ellis trip -- episode illustrates former president trump's all-encompassing role in the effort to oust cheney, which culminated in a defeat with the -- for the congresswoman. trump vetted and interviewed cheney's perspective challenge with a degree of care not seen in other signature races. once they settled on the pick, they cleared the field of primary rivals and formed a group trend tv ads storing the former president's son.

you can see that at politico.com. for minneapolis, democrats line. caller: the reason why i think that she lost was because she decided to go against the guy who deserved -- who did not deserve her support anymore. at the same time, her losing, at least she will show you how to lose. i am pretty sure she will not go and try to burn down the country or turn everybody against everybody. donald trump learned that himself but he does not know how to lose. she is like any other politician. when you think about trump, he never held office before president.

he walked in getting the highest seat in the land. because he never had any -- he never went through the steps of being a president or any other kind of politician. that is the reason why he is so bitter and angry and he is going to find out the way he is doing things now, he is setting the country on fire and the country is full of shenanigans. america is about to get a wake-up call. host: this is joe in illinois, independent line. caller: i want to comment listening to your callers. i will get to liz cheney and a second, but i grew up in the late 1960's, early 1970's. everyone was against the man. the black kids called the man. the white kids called it the

establishment. and everybody was against it. now you get -- you finally get a president that is not a politician and he is popular. host: and how this relates to representative cheney? caller: all the democrats, the basic principle of democracy and democratic government is the majority rules. the majority of wyoming went for trump. they wanted a nonconforming, non-politician. hello? host: you're on. go ahead. finish your point. caller: ok, i am sorry. the delay got me. i saw your lips moving. but the fact is that the majority of the people of wyoming voted for president trump. the majority of the people of

wyoming elected -- elected liz cheney also. once she decided to go against their pick for president, she lost the support of the people of wyoming. it is as simple as that. you do not have to like donald trump to see what he did -- anybody who says i hate trump, if you -- what did he ever do that was so terrible that you hate him? they cannot come up with anything. host: kathy texting us that representative cheney committed political suicide and she decided to bring former president trump down. sad because she voted with his policies 80% of the time. what was she thinking? have a good retirement, liz. william from connecticut says

does the representative losing turn the genuine six committee into a lame-duck? these are some of the ways you can communicate with us this morning. if you want to text, (202) 748-8003 is how you do that. from helen, republican line. caller: the people did speak and did vote for harriet hageman, not cheney. that is democracy. what the democrats do not seem to be understanding is their agenda has attached itself to strange elements that are distasteful to the majority of people, not just republicans. i read a good article in the economist last month. the title of it is, the democrats need to wake up and start -- stop pandering to the extremes. i agree with their observations. we have inflation, which may or may not be due to government. we have a president whose

foreign policies have got other countries saber rattling at us. it seems like things are not going well. host: how does this relate to rep. cheney? caller: cheney, like other democrats, will lose the election because they tend to pander to extremist factions within their extreme faction, hoping that will give them mass appeal. her challenging on this insurrectionist and so forth, most people, regardless of whether republican or democrat, see that as may be a riot, but insurrection to overturn the government? cheney is really out there on the edge with the french elements. most people are in the middle. that is with the article is trying to say. host: in california, the washington post in their analysis of yesterday's race

says rep. cheney has built a staunchly conservative voting record over nearly six years in congress with the president was in office she voted with him more than 90% of the time. her family is republican royalty in wyoming. that history has made her a strange alley to democrats coming who admire her antitrust division. thousands of democratic and independent voters into the gop primary along with moderate republicans who might previously have tried away from liz cheney. it was harriet hageman on fox news yesterday after finding out about her victory in the race who gave some of her reaction, including what she heard from rep. cheney. >> did liz cheney call you and congratulate you? >> i have not had an opportunity to visit with her. we have been wrapped up in the stuff associated with what is going on downstairs cut with our

watch party. we have several hundred people downstairs ready to celebrate, who have been celebrating. i have not been able to even look at my phone, so i do not know if she has called or not. i do not have anything to report on that. >> did you happen to hear that part of her speech was a continued vow to make sure donald trump never steps foot in the white house after what happened on january 6, which was i guess not surprising, that she said that? but your reaction tonight? >> i have not had an opportunity to see or hear what she has to say because i have been focused on what is going on here. it does not surprise me that she would revert to the same old talking points because that is in large part look on her defeated. she is not focusing on wyoming. she is still focusing on an obsession about president trump.

the citizens of wyoming and voters of wyoming sent a loud message tonight. we have spoken to him and that is not what we are interested in in terms of our loan congressional representative. wyoming is entitled to have a representative that represents our interests and addresses are issues. that is not liz cheney, and the fact that that is where she is tonight demonstrates she is not listening to wyoming now and has not for some time. that is why we needed to replace her. host: that is harriet hageman yesterday on fox news. offer twitter, when it comes to representative cheney, she is going to bask in all the attention she gets. we may see a live primetime speech for her. another viewer saying liz cheney showed trump how it is done. she conceded with class and honor. in south carolina, republican line, we will hear from steve. caller: i will stay on topic

here. i think liz wanted to achieve martyrdom. i think she wanted to lose. logic will always dictate that if you campaign like she did you are not going to win. a few callers alluded to this. trump was an outsider. how dare a not bought and paid for d.c. inside a run for president and actually win? summary pat -- republicans -- some republicans have been see the ever sense and all democrats have. they stick together like a mafia. i have not heard all of her speeches, but if i am campaigning to win and my whole campaign centers around anti-trump, really? how about the border, inflation? how about the people on social security that does not include a price increase for fuel and food? i could have got a travel agent

to organize better. if everybody's message is anti-trump, they are going to lose. you have to have a better message. i am a republican. i would not wish that kind of raid on any kind of former president. it was a predawn raid with people in body armor. where they really expecting armed resistance? host: rhonda in north carolina, democrats line. caller: can you hear me? i want to say i support liz cheney and i support her 100% with the january 6 hearings. i do believe the people that are against her cut that are against the january 6 hearings and support trump and his trump called are victims of the fake

news from fox news. i believe what she is doing is standing up for the constitution, which is all -- what all representatives should be doing. when you have 130 police officers injured on january 6, some of them died, and then you have trump agreeing to have mike pence hanged -- host: do you support her politics or just her anti-trump stance? caller: i support her politics and integrity to uphold the constitution versus standing up and supporting a trump people, disloyal person that has no regard for the constitution and no respect for law and order. i would advise all people to read michael cohen's book, which describes trump's traits from back in the 1970's and 1980's. i believe he is the antichrist and trying to destroy this

country and wants to be an authoritarian. host: paul in south carolina independent line. >> i think it is rich the liberals are supporting liz cheney. they are the most on honorable -- unhonorable family in america. that war and all the money he made -- she has to be tied to that. i am not a trump supporter, but the trump family can hold a candle. host: do you think the losses because of her family history or her stance on trump? caller: i do not like chaney's -- cheneys. i never had. she is just about politics, like

somebody said. this was her way of getting back at trump because he is not a politician. it is all about politics and you see what that did to her. host: a couple of related stories, this one of the january 6 committee, democrats looking for information from the inspector general of the homeland security department, saying the chairwoman of the oversight committee and of the home unsecured committee sent a letter to the homeland security inspector general demanding his office comply with a request for documents and transcribed interviews. although you have refused to produce documents unblocked employees from appearing, your obstruction to the investigation is not acceptable. your justifications appear to reflect the fund mental was understanding of congress authority and your duties as inspector general. it is the latest of element surrounding the messing -- missing text messages sent and

received by secret service agents and later erased. it is unclear what the deleted messages said but congressional panels are scrutinizing what agents were saying and doing as president trump insisted on joining his supporters after mom violence began that day. that is in the new york times. if you go to the washington times, taking a look at the events involving mar-a-lago, reporting the federal judge who approved a search warrant for former president trump's mar-a-lago estate has scheduled a thursday hearing to unseal the affidavit used to justify the fbi search. the judge set a hearing for media outlets and other groups to make their case for publicly releasing the affidavit. the justice department has opposed the release and will argue against the disclosure while the search warrant and other documents have been released. esther trump and allies have demanded the justice department released the affidavit most details reasons the warrant was

granted. thomas in pennsylvania, democrat line. you are on. caller: good morning. i wanted to say that liz cheney to me as a stand up american. she stood for democracy. it was not about party to me with her actions. she stood for democracy. she went against the odds. she could easily have followed the trump train and tried to ride that out to be reelected and she did not. to me, that is the type of leader that we need cut whether you are a democrat or republican. i admire her and stand with her because of that. host: on our independent line in new orleans, hello. caller: good morning. first, her legacy will be want to be remembered. when you have a man -- he is

going to be remembered for the things he has not stood up for. constitutionally, she is a scholar. her legacy will be remembered in a good way. host: how would you describe her legacy? caller: i love her for one reason, she stands up for what is truthful. sometimes when you stand up for the truth you stand alone. when you stand up for a lie, you throw a lot of stuff around to make the lie looks good. the republican party went from being a defender of truth and rule of law to get some of the most is are people that have represented this country. donald trump found out how to bring about politicians who will give up anything, the integrity that they have -- they do not

stand for the people. they stand for the sign -- same mindset the donald trump had. america went from electing the first black president. we were on a path we thought was one of the best paths, inclusive of a person regardless of race, and now we are on a path to where we are divided. it is just -- this is not the america i fought for. i do not see how we can -- i know we defend ourselves, but how can we say this is a country -- the bar of justice never bends. in history, liz cheney will be remembered for standing up for democracy, for being forthright and truthful and not being politically ambitious. host: let's hear from mike in

north carolina, republican line. you are next up. caller: each of them that tried to impeach trump are not going to make it. it is so ridiculous to hear the democrats glorify liz cheney and her stance on trump. if you go back even on c-span and listen to how the democrats condemned her dad and her record herself on her conservativism, but the only reason they are glorifying liz cheney is because she is on this january 6 non-select committee and that is the main reason why. she is not worried about getting a job. there is cnn commit msnbc, or she can be on "the view" with the rest of them liberals. it is crazy, the way she is doing. i want to say the lichen project is dead -- lincoln project is

dead and her incorporating lincoln is like hitler's incorporating the pope. host: a journalist talks about his article on amazon and washington post owner jeff bezos and his influence over the news industry. you can see that live on c-span at 12:30. you can also watch in on our c-span now app and follow along on our website. gene in michigan, democrats line. caller: i wanted to say first i was against dick cheney going into iraq and called in every 30 days to say it would result in death, destruction, and chaos, which it did. i did not agree with liz cheney voting 90% of the time was donald trump, but i do admire her for standing up for truth

and telling the people the truth about donald trump, whom i consider an enemy of the state and of the word of god. he is a liar, a deceiver, a lover of chaos, full of pride. i feel those who follow him do not have a spiritual background because they would know what the word of god says and donald trump is definitely an opposition to it. host: one more call from north carolina, independent line. caller: i am going to stay independent here. a lot of people are calling him a liar and deceiver and even using the word stuff. i want to compliment you for asking what kind of stuff. i appreciate you trying to get these

i appreciate that. host: the representative race yesterday, what do you think? caller: i think it is a problem they are having. it was proven and moved on. they are playing it out in positives. host: are you saying her losses related to her family or her position on donald trump? caller: i think it is a family issue. i think it is her personal family grievances. she is defending the constitution. half the people saying that can't explain it. that is why i have to move on. host: ok. that is gary there in north carolina.

i appreciate all of you who participated. our first guest is jeron smith. talking about efforts to reduce crime. we will talk about some of what he is advocating for. we will hear from sure along well. >> sharon longwell. and issues related to january 6. those conversations coming up on "washington journal". ♪ clark's nobody thought this was going to happen. i'm thankful that it finally happened because it was supposed to be this bastion of

enlightenment and three -- freethinking. an open society there were massive executions they would execute liberals and freethinkers and everybody was scared as they came to paris. >> author of the book taking paris on germany's for your brutal occupation of paris. watch on q&a sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can look at all of our podcasts on our new c-span now app. >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source.

no matter where you are from our where you stand on the issues. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, here or anywhere that matters america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the house january 6 committee hearing investigating the attack on the capital. go to c-span.org/january 6 to watch the latest videos of the hearings, briefings, and our coverage on the attack and subsequent investigation since january 6, 2021. we will also have reactions from mental -- members of congress. go to c-span.org/january 6 for a fast and easy way to watch when you can't see it life.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us this morning ja'ron smith. he served in the trump administration also a senior fellow with the senior organization right on crime. the topic is violent crime can restart with your background particularly with the administration and the things you have done. guest: my background is growing up in low income communities and experiencing firsthand. i also spent four years in the trump administration working on carpet revitalization and that included negotiating a law and helping the president think that are how we can reform police departments throughout the country to help and encourage them to have the right infrastructure they need to do

their job. host: remind people what that is. guest: it's a bipartisan legislation that improved armor federal prison system. it took focus away from just walking individuals up but looking at the person's individual criminology and seeing if we can assign incentives to keep them from going back to prison. it focused on public safety because it was reducing the time that people would come back to present by encouraging to become responsible citizens. also it rolls back walls around the three strike role, the discrepancy between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. essentially, supported by law enforcement as well as community groups and great bipartisan achievement.

husk of what is right on crime? guest: in organization part of the policy foundation that focused on conservative solutions and reform in our criminal justice system in a way that helps with public safety. so we took a nuanced approach at the state level as well as federal. host: you talked about solutions but before we talk about some of those propose visions what you think are the root causes? guest: thought of different things that are happening throughout america. some of those because you have a number of individuals who have grown up with a lot of different trauma. police officers are kind of dealing with the thought issues outside of five that crime and i am sure have to ink the pandemic and individuals being indoors and a lot of children not participating in school has

contributed to the increase of five current that we are looking at a 50 year increase we are not at the numbers in the early 90's when i grew up but certainly almost like 40%. host: when it comes to those principles you are advocating for one of the things he focus on his properly funded the police what is that me to you? guest: mouse departments are funded with fees and fines when i say fund the police is the infrastructure that is not necessarily tied for pulling people over for traffic stops or collecting fees. we want them to be able to focus on crime and violent crime in particular, it is also a rallying cry because if you can remember during 2020 the huge movement to defend the police almost 80% of most communities

don't want police departments and including low income areas read almost 70% of them want police departments. it's going to take some funding there so we think it should be appropriated funded. host: do you have a sense how much a police department depends on those fines and fees? guest: it is substantial. it is a big weight of the making money. maybe some localities have cut their police but just as a result of defund the police movement. it is extremely important that localities fund departments fully and help them become a 21st-century police department. host: some arc complaining

things like social worker mental health cases do you think there is a role for that is verifying nine between the day-to-day fighting of crime to helping the larger issues of crime? host: -- guest: let's not play around with her but is because obviously public safety is at hand. that is what we are speaking to. it is very nuanced, very comprehensive. we realize there are solutions as a result of five that crime. funding so social aspects of it but i think you have to have buckets of funding to fund the police first and foremost. recruitment has been an issue for a number of years. retention of police officers is also an issue if you look at the mental health of some of these officers and what they don't with on a daily basis they make it really hard to have it both his show up in where they are

needed most self-funded the policed is one of the most important aspects that we talk about. host: if you want to join us in asking questions (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8000 democrats. independents (202) 748-8002 and you can text at (202) 748-8003. the second part, expand on that. guest: i think that will help us kind of get a good understanding of what our coalition is standing for. not having such overdependence on fines and fees but a proper reading the proper resources for the police department. the second against having police focus on crime prevention. too many times police officers

spent most of their times focusing on traffic tickets. focusing on mental health for individuals or even homelessness which is why we want to maybe think about other ways of creating co-responder services or social services that can help. it is really focused on policy. focus deterrence that can essentially be used don't look up individuals who come from five communities who want to be leaders and curbing the violence in their on communities. providing other social services, you know, looking at ways that we can convene the community and build the trust within the community. all of these things are very to solve for violence in communities.

small long-term policies, that would be like the first step back. legislation that focuses on other things. we can salt -- so fun that comes in the country. we have things we are doing. places like boston, these are areas where crime has gone down in the same. that five and crime has risen across other places in the country. people like my old colleague alex johnson who was freed under the trump administration or folks like the american conservatives union. individuals like rate on crime are all focused on curbing the violence and police leaders. we are confidently trying to

expand the compilation and also expended on the grassroot level so we can have a great coalition of individuals on the top on the bottom that are changing their communities. host: who is financially backing you? esco we have a lot of individuals who are looking to invest in this. there is no one particular group behind it but i would say like organizations like stand together, metro prosperity have been great leaders. host: our first call is from nathan. go ahead. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i am a firm believer that parenting plays a huge part starts at the beginning and assess the basis of what happens to the person. i would like to hear what adjustments has to say about that. guest: thank you so much for your question. i think you are entirely right but however not everyone is

allowed, or had families to defendant -- depend on. if you look at the foster care system there is a direct correlation to individuals in the prison system. so yes having a family is a very important thing and having an upbringing but i think as a community we need to build infrastructure on following those who may have lost a parent to death or are may be struggling with addiction or parents that may have been to present the huge coalition -- correlation we need to think differently on how we are creating community so less children fall through the cracks. host: the idea of creating a community does that fall within the four principles? guest: when you look at evidence-based policy and community leaders that is some

of the nuanced approaches that convert -- if you have more kids and its core programs or summer programs that also shows two curve five vets. it is one of our principles. host: florida, independent line, frank hello. caller: hello. i saw firsthand were a police department -- with our police department was like and i found out you're not going to confront of racist there grew up with that in his life, although of his life because if you become a policeman he is not going to change. the idea is not to make a racist a better person once he is a policeman the idea is not to hire them to begin with.

you're not going to confront of racist. that was pushed on them from family values. and you are not going to change somebody you just to get them out of there and not even hire them to the can with. host: thank you, color. guest: i can see where you are coming from i think the issue we are focusing on is the rise in violent crime. i think regardless of what permission -- profession you weren't you will have people from different backgrounds. i in a culture of love and shredded each people the human aspect that we all share in how we can bring our different background together to find some common ground and how we can live peacefully her in society. in a time of racist ideology.

as far as the police departments themselves how do you think they do have policing bed apple so they don't cause problems? host: no one hates of that cop authentic good cop. most bullies departments are looking to weed out bad apples but that is why it is important that we have funding for proper training. we also want to create systems for if you have about apple they can't jump from one police department to another. having two diligence, that is what one police departments are saying. that is a view out there and i think that's where we can find common ground with people on both sides. host: the oversight police department for departments that have issues. guest: i think there is stuff that can be leveraged. i think both butch trump and biden administration view

executive orders to figure out a way that we can deal with four cups with four backgrounds. i think that could be a leverage of infrastructure to kind of now. host: let's go to samuel in california. on the independent light, go ahead please. caller: yes, said we need a new district attorney here district attorney's are backed by george soros. this man is terrible he has heard the police department and he has heard a lot of people and we need time to build laws and everything. for indeed the top down or the bottle up to get rid of these people and the people in their that are very serious about cleaning up this problem with the police and everything just like charles barkley said i like to travel around the united states and travel around the

world and i keep my family at home and i want them protected by the police. we need more police. and we also need a new president, thank you. guest: thank you so much for your question, sir and i think that is why our principal around evidence-based policy is extremely important. we don't want legislators that just make decisions about policy change in their locality without choosing evidence and has protected. so looking at what worked around the turn boston is going to be extremely important because many times believe it or not violent crime is in a small part of any locality and we know for the final background is coming from. being able to have resources immobilize -- and mobilize police officers's is important

you need police officers to do that. you also want to be able to build relationships with that community because they can tell you about crime before it happens. that is maybe what you are saying in your locality and what we are saying is like the evidence-based solutions focused on ways to reduce private crime and we should follow that more closely probably in a vacuum are making policy just because they make good political sense. host: president biden introduced up plan of his own to higher and to train 100,000 police officers over the course of five years. $15 billion for accelerating just in -- justice system reform bill. what you think about those ideas coming from this administration? guest: i think there is a lot of things in common with the trump

administration as it relates to funding police and creating training and bringing the police and the community together. those aspects, i can agree with. host: what aspects with and to agree with? guest: i'm not really sure i mean i think background checks are good but we have to be careful in how we do african policy because you don't want to penalize lawful gun owners as well because most people who own guns are abiding by the law but you want to protect our individuals who have mental health issues. host: i want to show you a little bet from the president in june. the president made a case for and is a little bit i want you to listen to it and then respond to it. pres. biden: we provide ever service members the most lethal

weapons on earth to present -- protect america we also require them to receive significant training before they are allowed to use these buffets we require mental health assessments and extended background checks on them we make sure they know how to lock up and store the weapons responsibly. to do all that these are commonsense requirements. we all require the same commonsense measures. makes no sense. assault weapons need to be banned. they were banned. i led the play in 1994. in that 10 years it was lost, mass shootings went down. the law expired in 2004 and they are allowed to be sold again. mass shootings tripled.

i am determined to be in these weapons again. 30 rounds. [applause] i'm not going to stop until we do it. we should have soft -- safe storage laws. personal liability for not locking up your guns. this scene -- the shooter at sandy hook came from a home fold with assault weapons. the weapons he used to kill his mother and then killed 20 in the set first-graders if you have a weapon you have a responsibility to secure it and keep it under lock and key. host: case made by the president, what do you think? guest: one thing i think of is that what makes the individual commits some of these crimes in

the first place? i think that is the real underlying issue the so many individuals have stepped up and started committing these crimes in the first place of what is going on in our society? what can we do around mental health? i talked earlier about crime prevention and individuals growing up with trauma, trauma throughout the country has been on the rise and we haven't done enough about investigating that. i think regardless of how they commit the crimes these will find a way to commit these crimes if you look at how many crimes were committed by a hammer or a knife. my thing is i don't want any of these crimes to happen in the first place and i think we need to commit to more infrastructure around those pieces so we have less people to look to do harm to people. >> e we heard from kathy

wisconsin, independent line, hello. >> thank you for this sweet conversation. in the early 2000's there was a department of justice grant program and it sounds just exactly like what you are talking about was the evidence face? was it great? i worked at the committee myself and these are the kinds of initiatives that actually correct community. we've responded -- sponsored churches and also one how much of the ending? can you speak to intergenerational program on the city's home and how awesome that is? thank you. guest: think you so much for your question i don't know any background on him that i can think generally should be able to work hand in close. when i worked in the white house

i was on the architect and suing everybody but they looked at four buckets of funding state communities, economic development, education and workforce, and high school there safer communities that have opportunities it leads to public safety. a lot of the federal programs that we have don't work together. they work -- it is hard to navigate and not to mention the dollars that go into communities. i.e. vegan and every -- infrastructure for new opportunities so we can advocate all these different programs and they make more sense to individuals on the local level it is just to me we are throwing a whole bunch of money out there but not really solving the issue for underserved communities.

the number one think we need to solve in order to have economic development is to focus on public safety first and that is why i am willing this campaign to bring right-center organizations together to advocate for these principals to solve for the crime. entrepreneurship and create thriving communities all throughout the country but let's be intentional about it. host: in alabama we will hear next from james. caller: i notice you are concentrating on one side of the issue but not concentrating on the other cited the issue. you are talking about violent crime on one side and not on the others. when you look at violent crime if you would go back to

louisiana state patrol and look at mr. ronald greene's case you see things from the other side also. i'm just wondering what you think about both sides. thank you. guest: just to be clear, i think pilots on either side is wrong. we want our police department to be fair and treat everyone with respect. i have been on both sides of these issues. i certainly have been profiled in my on personal life so i know how it feels as a black man in america to feel like someone is following you or you are doing something wrong but also low-income communities where i have seen violence happen and people want police. there is a way for verve we can bring our best and brightest that individuals like myself and every black american can feel

safe in a matter what community they walked in from the poly side and the community side. that is an approach we are trying to bring forward with these principles. also protecting public safety. host: what do you think of the term systematic racism? >> there are systems that have been in place for decades like if you look at redlining that created two different cities the black side and avoid side. some things like that are systemic but in our criminal justice system to me some parts of the system are more economic so if you look at low-income barriers you may have some increased crying -- crime. because they think they might be ups in crime or something like that. i don't like to take constructs.

certainly our country has a history to deal with and we are trying to make that opportunity now with ideas and solutions verda not just talking about the problem. host: so you think the problem that exists in police departments would you think? guest: what have police tend to recruit or from the neighborhoods they are policing? the trust is not there specifically in the black communities and sometimes the budget is not there for police to do the due diligence they need to do to invest in those communities. i think there is work that needs to be done. i wouldn't want to put a blinken approach on all police departments because they are all different. we have different -- 18,000 different police department throughout the country and some have done better than having diversity. host: what do you propose about

police unions? he described it as police unions protecting bad cops. host: -- guest: i don't see it that way. after talking to some of the unions they are trying to create a better system. they are doing their best to protect their officers and protect communities. you have to understand the job of reacting in a violent situation is a very heroic job that not everyone signed up to do because let's be honest you don't get paid a lot of money to put your life on the line and risk it for someone else. i think that unions do a good job of trying to protect those individuals however they are also on the front lines to figure out how ways how we can talk reform. host: greg is in florida.

caller: i have one thing about these assault weapons. i know they are not rely called assault weapons or semi automatic but you were able to slip the clifford beckenham and shoot another 30 rounds and another 30 rounds. so you have those weapons on the street how come the police do not have a say in not having those. they have 400 police officers down at you faulty and there was one guy in there with one gun and there was 400 police officers but not one of them would take the chance to go when there and take him out because they are afraid of that weapon. they now body armor and shield will not stop that weapon. so why do they allow it? that's my question. guest: let me say that these tragic situations like the one in you faulty -- you faulty

--uvalde because i have children of my own. again, i go back to the individuals involved. what are we doing on crime prevention to stop these types of individuals from diwali -- developing and getting as far. they created a system in early warning system that helps flag some of these issues before it happens. i think we need to put a lot more investment into these early warning systems to figure out a way to work police officers to keep the community safe. host: alexis on the independent line. caller: there has been so many shootings with the ar-15.

the pain and suffering these people have gone through for how many years now? if you think we are not doing anything about it you talk about sandy promises that law or is that something developed in hopes of it becoming law? you kind of danced around background checks because this i don't know what the law says, the name of it is. but the background checks need to be solid. oscar thinks. guest: there is additional funding for early warning signs and the off promise for advocates for that. they have invested more money into early warning signs. i think background checks are important so i don't want to skirt around that.

but i also want you to know that it is important that we look at other aspects around criminology and floyd individuals create crime in the first place. investing into infrastructure around mental help and better infrastructure around youth so they don't grow up and commit some of these heinous acts. i think that is several issues in society and some are focused on evidence-based solutions related to five in crime. some solutions are very much about bringing the community together and creating infrastructure around children and individuals and having police officers focus their time on crime prevention and on solving these further crimes. host: you mentioned some communities doing this in dallas. in some cases how do you attribute these happenings at once? guest: we need to allow for

these police officers to spend more time on solving violent crime and how they happen in the first place. it is almost more work that needs to be done. that was an example if you are looking at carjacking or something that is going around in washington, d.c. or new orleans or the things happening in opposite ways. i had the opportunity to do a panel with anton lackey and then came out and try to reform his community by working with police officers to solve for further crime and it worked really well there. i think the team went to develop a closer relationship and it allows police to suffer violent crimes and murders and getting that crime done. host: how do you think technology has changed policing? traffic bus and other incidents,

how do you think it has changed policing? guest: it has put accountability out there. i can tell you as an african-american sometimes when you heard stories about policeman and community interaction people did not always believe what was happening. so it put some accountability out there. we are trying to prevent violent crime sometimes in the community people know who the violent people are but they are scared. maybe some people think that telling might put them in a bad place because there is no trust with the police. let's bring the police and community together and see these issues. dallas, miami they showed the way to do this is by creating the communal relationships and building trust with the police officers. host: jim in north carolina, hi.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i ask if your guest can clarify the term police union you. you have the police associations of but never a union. justice fine on your show on your show two days ago about the definition of a policing and can you clarify? guest: i think the definition is just most people think of a union for collective bargaining of rank-and-file. in this case we are talking about associations that rally behind all police officers and make sure there are basic rights and that officers are protected. house cut democratic line, darrell op in illinois hello. >> yes, how long. actually police associations

bargain and once somebody goes out and is accused of misconduct they try to save his job they did the same thing you just did with a different name. on the issue of childhood violence and economic deprivation and mental illness germany, italy, france, and canada have just as much mentally ill people and childhood trauma and economic issues and they don't have easy access to because that's what they don't have the mass shootings. anyone that doesn't acknowledge that is an idiot. guest: what i would say to that is they still have violent crime. i remember some of these countries they have masked stabbings as a result of individuals with those mental illness. i think we need to suffer these

issues and think about new infrastructure for individuals and try to figure out a better way to prevent crime in the first place. host: president biden in relation to the january 6 attack sent out a tweet and i want to get your response he said this, young fashion but i don't think that's letting a mom -- mob that attacks police officers prokop. what you think about that? to i was not expecting to speak to january 6 so much for to me it was the day my children were born. interesting time in our country but for me i have a healthy respect for law enforcement and as i said when i worked in the trump administration i believe in peaceful protest server there is january 6 or the protest during george floyd it'll has to

be peaceful attacking law enforcement is not the way to do it. host: do you think it makes it harder for people to consider going into police work? guest: certainly it does. police do a lot. they put their life on the line to protect people and i'm thankful for the capitol police. i know a lot of them. some of them are good friends of mine when january 6 happened the first thing i did was reach out to capitol police officers that i know to see if they work a. mental health is also a big thing. the trump administration we did a lot of work around police mental health and there was an executive order. one of the most important pieces of resources was for instruction infrastructure and mental health and retention of police officers. host: republican line illinois. caller: good morning.

i am a retired first lieutenant with the police department. i am a city boy born and raised. i survived one of the biggest come about us, toughest neighborhoods. i agree we need good screening, follow-up with training, that is most important for retention but right now the store is swinging like crazy. the city of chicago was so bad that the a lot of people don't even want to go visit. the mayor is just turning her head to the crime. there was over 400 not street gangs when i retired in 140,000. who knows what as far as rifles or concern? we do need to work together community policing does work and we should work together. i believe in crime prevention and in how to anticipate an issue and prevented.

i will tell you that i took my lessons learned to vietnam. that is what help me on the street. i have worn two uniforms one for my country and one for community. accused, mr. smith. guest: evidence-based policy that works in other countries can be used in other cities in chicago. beautiful city, i love chicago. allow for what the community years there but people know that there is alternatives for doing crime for those individuals that don't want to participate swiftly work with the community to remove those individuals and bring down the heavy front of the law on one of those entering the tools that has been away at has worked in boston it can work

in other cities but i think we need to take that nuanced approach. i would love to kind of continue to work with those leaders to solve violent crime. host: we have talked about prince of all. where do you think the -- host: -- guest: that is a lot of really good ideas under each bucket what we would like to do is kind of convene was some of these leaders because chicago, different than cleveland. i don't believe we could have a blanket approach to solving these issues but i think that we can collectively work together and develop a strategy based on solutions that are in all of those different from france to get there but specifics will come later after convening with the community leaders and

convening for some of the crust of leaders and figure out how it works with different communities. ja'ron smith. right on crime.com. website thank you for your time today. tesco we will have a discussion with sarah longwell next. we will talk about the results of those cheney race yesterday. that conversation coming up on "washington journal". ♪ cracks sign for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen. but tv every sunday on c-span2 for any time online at book tv.org. television for serious readers.

live sunday, september 4 on in-depth. steven hayward will be our guest to talk about leadership, ronald reagan's hey. about the scholars who change the course of conservative politics in america. join in the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. enter -- in-depth with steven hayward on book tv on c-span2. at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office here many of those conversations during season two of the podcast presidential recordings. they are part private conversations and 100%

unfiltered. >> the main thing is my heart goes out to those people but the best of intentions are overzealous because are sure you know there's a hard time of -- [indiscernible] cracks season two on the sea spend on multiple offer where ever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: executive director she also serves as the cofounder of defendant democracy together. welcome to c-span. can you give a brief organization -- explanation of those organizations? guest: it is the broad umbrella

of the organization. one of them we want -- punched shirley after january 6. we saw pushback against those republicans who have gone forth people who voted against certifying elections some of who participated in january 6. we wanted to know there is accountability for the deflator -- behavior and it wasn't until the recent january 6 committee really got underway so we have been very engaged in trying to amplify the results and their findings. the report was told. there are lots of disaffected republicans all recall them there are many independent sort of pro-democracy.

there is of robusta micro c space that has crept up over the last six years so it is really people across the political stress -- spectrum but mostly they are disaffected republicans who want to see a change away from the trumpism that has dominated for the last six years. host: of key figure in the january 6 investigation. talk about her defeat yesterday to harriet hagerman. guest: it's sad but not at all unexpected. she is a number of for four who voted for its treatment hatred to tell the truth about january 6 she was one of the most prominent of long with adam kinzinger and the fact is they have already told the boy. they believe that light. that was one of the most pro-trump in terms of voting

record. it was going to be very difficult for her to survive politically being as vocal as she has been but she has been very clear to put the conference to touche and above whatever that meant for her politically and i couldn't respect her more and the way she handled herself. i have watched every republican for the vast majority of them cower in the face of trump over the last six years. they totally adopt his lies, refused to pushback on them so watching her courageously stand up and say this is all alike, you know, he's lying to you and caused an attack on the transferral -- peaceful transfer of power. they are thing it out with the january 6 committee you know with a lot of republican voices

people who work for him, that has just been the closest we have come to really getting at the truth and getting some form of accountability. if you want to ask her a question republicans (202) 748-8001. democrat (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002 you can also text is that (202) 748-8003. i want to play a little bit of liz cheney's speech from last night and then we will get your comments on it. [video clip] >> we must be very clear eyed about the threat we face and what is required to defeat it. i have said since january 6 that i will do whatever it takes to ensure that donald trump is never again anywhere in the oval office and i mean it. [applause] this is a fight for all of us

together. i am a conservative republican. i believe deeply in the principles and the ideals and love of its history and i love what our party has stood for but i love my country more. [applause] so i ask you tonight to join me as we leave here let us resolve that we will stand together, republicans, democrats, and republicans against those who would destroy our republic. they are angry and they are determined but they have not seen anything like the power of americans united in the defense of our constitution and committed to the cause of freedom. there is no greater power on this earth and with god's help we will prevail. host: sarah longwell that is representative liz cheney what is your opinion?

guest: she sounds like a person who is not at the end of their story but the beginning of the story. i think that what we have seen from liz cheney over the last many months has been a national historical figure being forced and i think she intends to see this thing through regardless of what it means for her political career and, but got no wishes going to do i do know she's going to start an organization or run for president and continue on very large stage making this case but i think she has been extremely clear about what she wants to do and are very much supported and that is she wants to keep donald trump from being president ever again, to keep them away from the white house. because he has -- is an existential crest -- threat to democracy. dr. mark republicans who try to

stand up to trump and a slump away there were a lot of people who were tired rather than challenge him. she sounds defiant, like someone who has a mission and i am excited to see what she does next. host: our first call is from new jersey, walter. you're on with our guest. caller: good morning. i am a former firm public and i'm a democrat now but i had to leave the republican party because the republican party has the -- has been hijacked by pictures all these people that believe in all these conspiracy theories and that said that that's what you hear about it's

not about the republican party anymore. host: you hard in the statement when she talked about kind of the once greatness of the republican party and she is speaking in the's chance because the party has really changed. he has change the kind of candidate that was attracted to running in the cycle and as a result, the people that are running for office for governor, senator, whether it is dark mustering out in pennsylvania or kari lake or whether it's herschel walker in georgia the republicans that are running now are sort of these many trumps and they are running on the other action line. the idea that the election was stolen. that is how they won their

primary so i agree in essence with the caller that the republican party that i came not been, though one of ronald reagan is just not there anymore . it is not a party of ideas that has become in a political organization oriented around if not just a single man, it's not just trump himself it's also trump's vibe, has temperament which all these other candidates have now adopted. the conspiracy theories, it's really fundamentally changed with the parties looks like, what it stands for and i think for people who were conservative because they believed in free markets and limited government and american leadership in the world, that is not what it stands for anymore. host: does all of a sudden because trump is president -- are these crimes that you saw leading up to that moment? guest: i think it's a little bit

of both. donald trump seized on that element there was already existent but then there was a dissatisfaction was sort of the republican establishment. a lot of people looking for a new populace direction probably able to kind of seize on that and even though in 2016 was obviously some people he won, there was a big field of republicans of the kind of slipped the vote and left trump all about. at that point there was a constituency beforehand put it was off entire party. what happened over the course of the time when he was president of the united states as he continued to change the party from there. he brought a lot of new people in, people who had not been engaged for people who for attracted to his constantly

fighting with people and his way of doing things. so the party just really is different. estoppels around ideas is built around all right now they're out of lies but just the idea of you have to go on sort of not just be the democrats at all costs but, i don't know. it's just -- it's nothing like it was. it is built on election lies and corruption and so i think what happened is he lost focus first. i talked to his voters all the time and there is an expression of the appetite increases when you are eating and i think trump caused voters to crave his competitive style of politics and when i talk to voters

republican voters, trump voters they are not interested in the mitt romney's anymore. they want people in trumps mold that sort of fighting conspiratorial sort of almost an entertainment mode. host: let's go to patrick in massachusetts, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a republican, i did vote for george bush. looking back on that, i think he was a horrible president. got us into some terrible conflicts, and i find that trump things has done thing -- trump has done things in massachusetts that they said he would never do -- he built the wall, started to help bring business back, there

is so much more to say but i am at work right now, and i wish you the best. i think it is deep state, that it is deep state. bush was part of, he continued the policies and obama was deep state and trump aide's deep state. -- trump hates deep state. i think that's why a lot of people don't like trump. thank you. host: ms. longwell? guest: donald trump did not build the wall. that is not a thing that happened. i hear that a lot from republican voters. where people who voted for bush, they voted for mitt romney, they sort of regret that because that is not the way they wanted the party to go. it's like i was just saying -- the caller sounds like so many of the voters in my focus groups and i think it represents well the shift in the party, where

there is an idea that there is a deep state that is working against trump, the fbi that just executed the search at mar-a-lago for top-secret documents that trump was keeping there, that was done by the head of the fbi, who was appointed by trump. i always find it a little bit amusing, i guess, when so many republican voters look at all the people that trump himself appointed and then call them the deep state and people out to get trump. i sibley don't think that's true. -- simply don't think that is true. host: do you think the search at mar-a-lago will be a galvanizing force amongst republicans? guest: it is absolutely too soon to say. there is a temporary rally around trump effect we are seeing at the moment, but it will be entirely dependent on what trump was doing with those documents. there's a ton we don't know yet

and i don't want to speculate. one thing we do know, trump is absolutely a national security threat. he was keeping top-secret documents totally unsecure at his home. he was not supposed to have them, which is why the fbi went to go get them back. but the question is, did they go to get the documents back because he was not supposed to have them, or was he doing something with the documents he absolutely should not have been doing? it will depend on that whether or not this has a big effect on how people feel about trump or not. host: this is jay in mississippi, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span. i would like to make a comment there to ms. sarah. they need to bring on the libertarian party or something like that, because in the republican party, [inaudible]

now, i will tell you what makes america great. they are not republicans, they are democrats. millions of conservative democrats now support donald trump, and i am proud to be one of them. now, they refer to him as 45 -- how about 45 and 47, twice impeached? you will go down in the record books. host: jay in mississippi. guest: well, i don't think we need to join the libertarian party, but the caller is making a point about what i think change in the republican party, per--many people previously identified as democrats, maybe they were union members that were economically

democrats, but then a lot of those people, they are culturally more maga and have moved white, working-class voters to support donald trump. that is a big part of his base. they find the message that he is selling, the cultural grievance, the idea that he was going to build a wall, which again is false, he cannot do that -- they find that appealing. he has been able to put together a pretty large coalition of voters. look, he was defeated by 7 million votes, so i want to be very clear that he lost the last election. the majority of people in this country did not vote for him, but he still got a lot of votes. there's no doubt there are a lot of people in this country who find his message appealing, and it seems to not matter to them that he inspired an attack on the peaceful transfer of power,

that he is a national security threat -- things that i find -- and the republican party i knew growing up would absolutely find appalling. these are the same voters who thought hillary clinton should be locked up for mishandling classified documents. and that was mishandling documents -- donald trump took the documents. he stole the documents. i think there's not a lot of consistency here in applying standards that have been applied to other politicians to donald trump. host: your organization, the accountability project, has released an ad campaign between the first round of january 6 earrings and the next. what's the goal of the campaign? guest: the january 6 hearings were having an impact on getting us toward truth, but also on republican voters. i do a lot of focus groups, and prior to the january 6 hearings,

any time i asked to they wanted to see run in 2024, half of the group would say they wanted to see trump run again in 2024. after the hearings, we would see groups where no people wanted trump to run again in 2024, or one or two people. hearings, it is less they are breaking through and more they are seeping in. the voters who liked trump, they are too worried that he had too much baggage and could not win again. they were starting to think about other candidates. there's a lot of people -- i just did a focus group in florida and unsurprisingly, everybody but one person wanted ron desantis over donald trump, and ron desantis is very popular in the focus groups and seems to be the number one alternative to donald trump. but what the january 6 committee was doing was highlighting for people what trump had done, and

i think it was making a difference. right now, in the summer months in august, where the hearings are off, because they will resume again in september, we wanted to make it stick and continue to highlight the january 6 committee, because they are important, an they are starting to help republicans -- because there were so many republicans testifying against trump. not just liz cheney, but every person they heard started to diminish people's enthusiasm for trump running again. and it's important that trump be defeated, that he not be a candidate again, that he not be president again. anything we can do to amplify the findings of the january 6 committee and help voters. host: featuring a republican named bill.

[video clip] >> i don't know how to put this into words. trump lying about the election to me is unforgivable. he absolutely played a part in inciting the riots. he definitely prompted the crowd to march up to the capitol. they saw they were doing what he wanted them to do, protesting and invading the capitol building. americans deserve to know what happened on january 6 and what led up to it. host: where do you imagine these ads are being targeted? guest: we are running them in eight states. they are the states that are most likely to have this argument, where we have seen a lot of audits of the 2020 election, where the big lie was caused. state legislatures who signed either alternative electors were fought against -- or fought against certifying the

election. that fight is certainly not over and there are still candidates on the ballot. there are a lot of people who have been republicans their whole lives, people just like me, but who find trump and his lies to be appalling. we have built a real community of those people. one of the things we have to do is to film testimonials talking about why they can't support donald trump, what they think about january 6, and for a lot of people, there are a lot of republicans for whom january 6 caused them to leave the party forever. those people, the ads that were running are just regular republican voters telling the story about what january 6 meant to them, how it impacted their feelings about being republicans, how damaging the lies were. look, there were better messengers than me or any other person -- these were people from

pennsylvania, arizona, and georgia who have always supported the republican party and they can't do it anymore because of january 6. telling ghost stories, we hope it creates a structure for other republicans who are also deeply uncomfortable about what happened on january 6 so they do not support candidates who continue to lie about the election. that includes trump and people like kari lake, doug mastery auto -- doug mastriano, and so many other candidates on the ballot in november. host: let's hear from our next caller, democrat line. caller: yeah, i like what you are doing, but you should go all the way back to number one, as far as the $1 million, he blew that. companies went through bankruptcy. he filed bankruptcy six times and his workers -- i would love to see a series of commercials like that. do you know what that is telling

me? management. he cannot manage anything. are you doing commercials like that? i think you would pull a lot of gop people if you consistently ran those commercials. host: that's ronald in new york. guest: yeah, it sounds to me like what the caller is saying, and i completely agree with this, was that trump was unfit from the very beginning. frankly, there were lots of republicans who agreed with me on that point, but many of them decided to get on board once trump won the republican nomination and then later, when he won the presidency. there were so many people who argued because of his life in the private sector, how corrupt he was, the lies he told in the media, his, how shall we say -- unconventional romantic life -- all these issues, he was unfit

to be commander in chief and have his finger on our nuclear button. clearly, we know from the documents in mar-a-lago, he cannot keep ossified and talk -- classified and top-secret information secure. i think a lot of people decided to make peace with that or they cared about other things more. but for me, there has never been a moment i have stopped thinking he was unfit. we have run many ads about his unfitness over the years, but right now, our focus is not on looking back, it is on looking forward and trying to ensure that donald trump does not become president again. so the ads we are running is about amplifying the findings of the january 6 committee, because all of our research showed, it was having some impact on republican voters feeling like maybe they wanted to move on from trump. that's what we want to do. host: this is from ed in akron,

ohio, republican line. go ahead. caller: yeah, i think people are just tired of the government spending, you know? they spend, spend, spend. giving the money to whoever we gave it to to get to china, maybe we wouldn't have the virus -- and now the green deal, the green deal -- they keep pushing that. the january 6 committee is, i don't think, investigating january 6. trump was not responsible for the security of the capitol building, somebody else was. someone got shot who shot their head through a window and no one is talking about that. it has been trump, trump, trump as long as it has been going. whether he built a wall or he didn't build a wall, the border was closed. he did not stand up and say the border was closed, but the

people coming across it -- that's a lie. our president today says, well, i didn't know they was going there. you think the department of injustice is going to go after somebody, a former president, and not talk to the current president about it? i don't think so. host: ed in ohio. guest: again, the republican callers sound an awful lot like the people i hear and there -- in the focus groups. what's dangerous for democracy, you can hear in the callers and the voters the complete collapse in faith of many of our institutions. they think elections are rigged and found she and people are the deep state, -- and fauci and people are the deep state, and fauci was somehow involved -- these things are nonsense. but there is a reason people

believe them, and it is because donald trump has amplified these kinds of lies. we've never had a president do this before. being president is a very big deal. people trust the president of the united states. when the president lies all the time, voters come to believe many of those lies. there is a reason 70% of the republican party believes the election was stolen, despite it being definitively disproven over and over and over again. the reason that people believe it is because donald trump tells them that it is true, and because the other republicans are such cowards and are so afraid of donald trump and afraid of his voters, they too refused to tell voters the truth about the election. as a result, you have people who believe things that aren't true. look, i am so pathetic to republicans who are frustrated with got -- sympathetic to

republicans who are frustrated with government spending, the national debt, those are things that made me a republican in the first place. donald trump was a big spender. he did nothing to reduce the debt or the deficit. i hear from voters oftentimes this mistake -- there wasn't world peace. we were still in afghanistan. donald trump and mike pompeo made a deal with the taliban and wanted to pull us out of afghanistan. there were a bunch of people who stopped him from doing it, then joe biden did it. people believe a lot of things about trump that just aren't so, and that's why we are running the ads we are doing. host: let me turn you back to mar-a-lago just a second. this is a suite from kevin mccarthy about the events of the last week or so. he writes i have watch the department of justice region intolerable state of weaponization,

when we take back the house, we will follow the facts and leave no stone unturned. attorney general garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar. if the house falls back in republican hands, what do you see happening in light of tweets like this, the management of the house under republican hands? guest: they will launch lots of investigations. they will launch an investigation into hunter biden, probably make good on these threats -- kevin mccarthy's position there is absurd. the responsible thing to do is to say, we don't know. we don't know yet. let's wait and see. the fbi took those documents and like i said before, we have so little information right now about why and what is going on, but also again, these are the people who wanted to lock up hillary clinton for mishandling classified documents. trump has stolen and taken

classified documents, that the government was saying give us these back, and he refused. that's all we know. that's all we know at this moment, trump is a national security threat, much worse than hillary clinton when it comes to classified documents and far worse than mishandled them. the fact that kevin mccarthy is threatening merrick garland without waiting to see what the fbi and department of justice is pursuing here is, to me, an example of how irresponsible the party is these days, but also, it's because they know the voters, their voters believe in the deep state. they know, that's why they are talking about defunding the fbi, despite being furious with the democrats over there defund the police discussion, and rightfully so.

defunding the police is an extremely silly idea, but so is the defunding the fbi. this was a lawfully executed warrant, signed by a judge, so kevin mccarthy, like the rest of us, should wait and see what is going on. host: from carol, west virginia, independent line. good morning. you are next for sarah longwell. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i am disgusted with both parties. all we have heard is trump, trump, trump. every president that has ever been elected has baggage. if everybody thinks none of them don't lie, i have some oceanfront property on the top of a mountain. every president lies. it's just on who spins the story the best. has there been election interference in the past? yes. it's called cleanup the voter rolls and make sure everybody is

legal can vote. it's been happening for years. and it's ok to protest or disagree with how an election turns out. if i'm not mistaken, there were five democrats that stood in the house and wanted the election results changed when donald trump was president. the only difference was, they didn't get a senator to go along with it. that's the only difference. now, as far as the rhetoric goes, there's rhetoric on both sides. don't call out one side -- i have heard some democrats make statements that could insight the blm riots. if we want to blame trump for january 6, we need to look in that mirror and blame those in

office that also incited the blm riots. host: i will leave it there, carol. let our guest respond to it. guest: this is a comment that i see from a lot of voters, where it is sort of, their answer is to say, what about. what about this other thing? i agree. i agree, people during the black lives matter protests where it got violent and things got lit on fire, those people should be prosecuted. destruction of property? they should be prosecuted. just like the people who attacked the capitol should be prosecuted. and if you believe, as it sounds like the caller just did, that inciting that kind of violence is a problem, i don't understand the resistance to holding trump accountable for his incitement. but i do think there is something -- i hear something in these voters that i hear a lot

in the focus groups that really worries me, a kind of idea that everybody lies. that every politician lies, and all those lies are equal. that has created a perverse sense of how we think about morality, and the morality that we apply, the standards we apply to politicians. of course, there are politicians trying to get elected, so they say things that are spin -- sure. i agree there are lies that people tell and it is not good to tell lies. i think the proportion of lies from donald trump, the kind of lies he is telling, you are right. the caller's right, there have been some democrats who in different elections objected, a

small number of democrats here and there have objected the way i believe 160 -- i cannot remember the exact number of republicans, but it was certainly over 100 that objected to the certification of the election. the proportions are different. and we came very close in 2022 something this country has never seen before, the ultimate slate of electors overturning the will of the people, throwing out people's votes, republicans, senators and congressmen, refusing to certify. threats against the vice president, mike pence, doing his duty to certify. that is not both sides. that is not a both sides equivalent. we have never seen that in our lifetime. it was so gob smacking to hear voters say this is the same thing. there is a reason to be

concerned when any protest gets violent. like i said, people should be prosecuted, but it is categorically different from trying to overturn an election. overturning election, it's a different animal. that was the goal, and that was trump's goal. trump's goal, like a dictator, was to stay in power, despite losing. to waive that away, all politicians do this, all politicians lie, that is not true. that is just not true. nobody has done the kinds of things we have seen donald trump do, certainly not in my lifetime. i think people were trying to rationalize it and explain it away are missing just how dangerous it is for our country. host: who characterizes the republican party that you would like to see? guest: oh, liz cheney. liz cheney and adam kinzinger have put the country over party,

they have stood up for the constitution, they have told the truth in the state of immense pressure, and look -- i don't even agree with liz cheney on certain policy positions. it's not that she and i are 100% in alignment, but she is one of the only people besides adam kinzinger and a couple others who have stood up and said, this isn't true. i am not going to let you get away with it. i will say, before donald trump came down that escalator, i thought people like elise stefanik, nikki haley, marco rubio would be the future of the republican party. we would have a fiscally conservative, socially moderate party. that is what i hope the party would turn into, and instead it turned into a populist nationalist movement that morphed overtime into a cult of personality around donald trump.

host: from illinois, independent line. tom is next. hi, tom. caller: yeah, i am from [inaudible] i think some of the stuff you said, you said you were a never-trumper. he had so much against him when he came into office. he had the republicans that were against him and the democrats that were against him, and people know that the way our government was going, when they said build the wall, lock up hillary clinton, hillary away with way more -- she was busting up computers with hammers and blackberries. nobody did anything. nobody holds any of these people accountable except donald trump. right off the bat, the russian collusion and dirty dossier from hillary clinton. that was all lies.

that was not under donald trump, even when it was proved to be false. proved to be a lie. he spoke his whole time as president -- the first impeachment. a total lie. second impeachment, total lie. in the end, january 6? total freaking live, because -- freaking lie, because if i was him and these people supposedly joined the party to try and change things, which he did -- he did. we never would've had the vaccine if he was not in there. if ayden was in there, it would have taken six years to get -- if biden was in there, it would have taken six years to get the vaccine. and we never would have had an investigation into where the virus came from. host: we will leave it there. guest: literally, none of that is true. the first impeachment was about donald trump leveraging

zelenskyy, the president of ukraine, withholding weapons from him until he agreed to investigate his political rival, is likely political rival, joe biden. prior to that, there was the mueller report, which was filled, 400 pages, multiple accounts where trump obstructed justice, they simply did not pursue it, because they felt like, you know, there is a law against prosecuting sitting presidents, rules against that, so they didn't do it. and the second impeachment, which, seven republican senators voted for and 10 house members voted for, was because trump lied about the election and those lies -- this is what the january 6 committee has found -- donald trump was trying to go to

the capitol himself. he sent the mob to the capital. they try to overturn an election by breaking in and attacking the peaceful transfer of power. if you can look at all that, i understand, you have been lied to. you and many of these other callers have been lied to by donald trump and elected officials. i understand that you didn't like things the -- the way things were going in the country, but none of it justifies supporting a president who lies all the time, was impeached twice for things that he did, and instigated an attack on the peaceful transition of power. those are things that happened in third world countries. this is not because we have a deep state. what is happening right now, it is an attempt to have some accountability for a president who was totally unaccountable to the rule of law. host: our line for democrats.

ron in michigan, hi. caller: boy, i have been listening to you for the last 10 minutes, and -- i am a registered democrat, however, based on your knowledge, i have a very, very good accountability of what you have done. you have taught me to look at the republican party in a very careful way. if trump runs or any of his officials run, i will not be voting for them. however, i would like to see cheney run. i think she is a very intelligent young lady, just like you. you have laid down a myriad of facts that should be accountable to all the people in our country, because i am afraid of what goes through, if trump's people get in there, i think our

democratic process is having a real situation that we are going to have to deal with. the second thing is, garlands -- i wish the people would leave him alone. the guy's intelligence, he is calculating, and will come up with what is necessary to point out the facts of what trump has done in the past four years. for the democrats and republicans, leave him alone. he is a very intelligent man. all i can say is, thank you for what you have done this morning. you have laid out the facts. i have taught school for 32 years and done exactly what you have done, laid out the facts to all my students and say, you make a decision. take both sides of the issue and make up your own mind. thank you very much. host: our viewer from illinois. guest: i appreciate that, thank you. your point about merrick garland and leaving him alone, again, i want to go back to this idea of

the fact that there is so much we don't know. we should not make political predictions about the impact of this and why kevin mccarthy should not be threatening investigations. merrick garland has only told us he approved the search and they had grounds to do so, and called on trump, said they were going to unseal the warrants. that's all we have heard from merrick garland. i am going to withhold judgment from the time being until we know more, and i assume we will know more soon about what trump was doing with the documents and why the fbi felt it was necessary to go get them back, but we have at minimum then given that information, these were highly classified, top-secret documents that should not have been unsecured in a house, and trump could have shown them to whoever he wanted. that is a national security

threat, something the government, the united states takes very seriously, and i would ask all the callers who have called in talking about the deep state to think about whether or not a president of the united states should have highly classified information sitting in boxes in his basement, that only when the fbi asked, a lock was put on. anybody, well, not anybody, but lots of people could have had access to. that's not how we treat national security secrets in this country. host: sarah longwell with the republican accountability project, their executive director. as far as your campaign is concerned, how do you know if you are successful? guest: if we are successful, donald trump will not be president of the united states again. this is not the last campaign we will run. we are trying to amplify the findings of the january 6 committee, but we will continue to do whatever we can to ensure

that somebody as dangerous to the rule of law, somebody who has told lies about our elections, who has poisoned the minds of many of his voters around things like the deep state and elections being stolen , we are going to try to ensure he is not president again. that is how we will know if we are successful. host: the website is accountability.gop. sarah longwell, thanks for your time today. we will do open forum until 10:00. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. we will take your calls when washington journal continues. ♪ >> nobody really thought this

was ever going to happen, that paris would succumb to the nazis. it was unthinkable when it finally happened, because the city of lights was supposed to be this bastian of enlightenment and freethinking. an open society. when the nazis got into poland, in warsaw, there were mass executions. it was terrible. the executed liberals, freethinkers, and everybody was scared as they came towards paris that is what was going to happen in paris as well. >> martin duggard on the taking of paris and the liberation by american and french forces in 1944. watch on q&a, sunday night at 8:00 eastern. >> there are a lot of places to

get political information. but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine, bringing the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon, and the state department, as well as congress. we also have statements from the united nations and foreign leaders all on c-span now, our 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. follow c-span.org/ukraine. >> "washington journal" continues. host: you can participate in open forum via text, (202) 748-8003. here is from "the washington journal" about the signing yesterday, the bill that deals with climate issues and tax issues as well. it's available on our website, c-span.org. here is a portion from yesterday. [video clip] >> i know there are those today that hold a dark and disparaging view of this country. i am not one of them. i believe in the promise of america. i believe in the future of this country. i believe in the very soul of this nation, and most of all, i believe in you, the american people. i believe at my core there isn't a single thing this country

cannot do when we put our minds to it. just remember who we are. we are the united states of america. this is nothing beyond our, nothing beyond our capacity. that is why so many foreign countries decided to invest in and make chips in america. billions of dollars for the best. we have to believe in ourselves again. now, i am going to take action that i have been looking forward to doing for 18 months and sign this. [applause] [inaudible] all right.

ok. here we go -- [applause] host: that was from yesterday. you can still find it on our c-span now app. the new york times takes a look at a portion of what was signed yesterday when it looks at stock buybacks. share repurchases, or stock buybacks, are politically divisive. some view it as an irresponsible way to bump up share prices and divert cash from investment and operation. it goes on to say that the government will raise $74 billion over nine years from the tax, which becomes enforced at the start of next year. the hope is that it will encourage corporate management to invest in expanding their businesses and hiring workers,

lifting the broader economy. it is not a given, however, that either of those outcomes will occur. ben schneider, equity analyst at goldman sachs, acknowledges that banks have not changed their forecast for how many shares companies will repurpose this year or next. you can find that on the app, c-span now, and our c-span website. texas, our democrat line, you are starting us off on our open forum. caller: good morning. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: the problem that happened in this country, we have given away or -- our skilled jobs. we used to have community training, and community rec centers -- the kids have nowhere to go. and the veterans need to be placed in skilled jobs with the training that they have, and to

be able to do the jobs that are in every community. these are some of the problems. with the trump issue that we have, we have a problem because people just want to believe in doing others wrong. and if we are to solidify our democratic process, we need to make sure that things that have happened come to the forefront. if merrick garland has done what he is supposed to do, this will host: never happen again. host:republican line. this is any in fairfax, california. caller: good morning. last time i called in, i got a comment from the following caller that i was too heavy, but i wanted to briefly mention the abortion issue.

i kind of don't think that forcing people to not be able to access abortion is may be the way to go, but at least it has the conversation started. i am very much against abortion and i hope you know many young people out there listening realize the abortion pill is also a form of abortion. it has a psychological, i believe, and spiritual effect on women to have abortions, so i think it is a topical issue, although there are a lot of other good issues you are talking about. host: linda in spring, texas, independent line. hello. caller: hello, how are you? thank you for taking my call. first of all, i want to say, until america becomes the place where we recognize that people have the right to dissent, that we are a country where we don't want to win by all means or any means, i should

say, necessary, we are going to be where we are. i am deathly afraid of this whole trump engine, because i don't think these people have a conscience. when you don't have a conscience to me, you don't have a soul. i will call all of the trumpettes soulless individuals who need to fall on their knees, pray and ask for forgiveness for wanting to win at all costs. thank you. host: looking at how certain states are responding to higher prices for certain items by the means of sale tax holidays. they write that this year, 20 states have lowered the sales tax for at least a few days, up from 18 last year. tennessee, connecticut, and florida expanded their offerings in 2022 and gretchen whitmer

proposed extending the tax holiday on school supplies. in new jersey, they are not charging any sales tax during its holiday, but there are limits on the retail value of items that qualify in the majority of states. that's from "the wall street journal," if you want to read it there. in massachusetts, the democrat line. this is robert. caller: hi, everybody. i want to get it through the trump supporters minds, this election is about our democracy. donald trump planned the january 6 insurrection. i am telling you people, he is an embodiment of evil. i do not understand the trump supporters. he has lied over 30,000 times, and we democrats, who are the

higher number, will not let donald trump or anybody in that party take over our democracy as a dictator. he is evil, and you trumpers need to smarten up, because you people are dangerous to our country. host: don in michigan, republican line. you are next. caller: yes, hello? host: you are on. caller: well, i am not very good at this off the cuff, and i have not had time to write any of this down, but someone was complaining about how many times trump has gone broke? how many times has biden had a job where he could possibly go broke? never. the man is not clever enough to be our president. [inaudible] donald trump since the 1970's,

but he did no harm to our country. look at what has happened to our country in the last two years with biden. it's unbelievable. they talk about how the republicans are so bad, but democrats love kennedy. he got us into vietnam, the war we are still paying for. he got us into the cuban war, which we are still paying for. he arranged to have the president of south vietnam murdered, which got us into the war really deep, we couldn't get back out. he got the -- oh, who was it? anyway -- host: what point are you making, tying this to kennedy? caller: the point is, the democrats have had some real stinkers in there too. bill clinton got us into iraq.

most people don't know this, read his book and you will find out he got us into the war in iraq. host: let's hear from laura, our independent line, from florida. hello. caller: yes, i want to say both parties need to wake up. we need to know who funds these organizations and guests to bring on, like sarah longwell with the republican accountability project. you know she is funded by the democrats and the globalists and george soros. the lies she is perpetrating are really just just so the globalists agenda, george soros and the democrats are part of the globalist agenda. and was your life better under joe biden or better under trump? my life was way better under trump? i cannot believe that the disintegration of our country has happened in 18

months. i was appalled at sarah, the lies she perpetrated, and then to sit there and accused trump applying -- wow. the hypocrisy. it knows no end. host: laura from florida, speaking after the signing of the inflation reduction act yesterday was senator joe manchin, the democrat from west virginia. he spoke to reporters about the legislation. [video clip] >> this is a great deal, because it is a balanced deal. my father used to say, the road to success is always under construction. this one has a few more potholes than most and took a lot to get there, but we ended up with a balance bill, and let me tell you about the energy security -- you cannot be a superpower of the world and not be the superpower of the world if you aren't self-sufficient with your energy, being energy independent. that means you have to have a viable fossil fuel

industry, and invest into the future. that's what we are doing. we are investing for clean energy of the future by making sure we have the power we need today. the name i came up with, the inflation reduction act -- tell me another time that we have basically taken down debt, provided more energy, raise the --, which we should, lower the prices of your home, which we should, and if we can do that, if we can get the changes that needed to be made -- right now, the united states of america takes longer than most countries to permit something and get built today. whether it is a pipeline or transmission line for clean energy, wherever it may be, you need to get through those hurdles and meet the challenges.

we have worked everywhere we can , and i have heard my friends, my republican friends -- i mean this -- in any other atmosphere, this would be a partisan bill. host: rudy giuliani arrived at an atlanta courthouse today to investigate claims that the -- attempted to overturn the election in georgia. he told reporters he would not talk about his testimony. they report the federal government will impose deeper cuts on the drought stricken colorado river, reducing water delivery to arizona by 1/5 starting in january. the bureau of reclamation announced urgent action as the water levels in the two largest

reservoirs continue to drop. arizona will lose 592 thousand acre-feet of its river allocation in 2023, 20 1% of its usual delivery, an increase of 80,000 acre-feet from the 20 cuts. axios -- 2022 cuts. axios has also cleared the -- reported on the clearing of the wafer hearing aids being offered over-the-counter. let's hear from chris in alabama, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span, good morning, pedro. good morning, my fellow citizens. i have a few comments about what i am saying and hearing. my fellow citizens, we have a problem in this nation, and the problem is we are too divided. we have forgotten our basic and

core values. our basic and core values are to protect and defend our nation against all enemies, foreign as well as domestic. to that point, i say to you, the former president of the united states, donald trump, did not incite a riot at the capitol. he did not urge his supporters to calm and overturn election -- to come and overturn the election. what happened on january 6 is the same thing that happened to donald trump when he got raided by the fbi, for lack of a better term. what happened on january 6 was a message to any politician in america, that nowhere in this constitution in the united states does it say we should not be able to replace you before november. if donald trump decides to run this time in 2024, he is going

to win in a landslide that you people are not going to believe. as a result, we will waste billions of more dollars investigating the other side, when we all know what really happened. people, it's time to wake up. host: we will go to anthony in maryland, democrat line. anthony in maryland? one more time for anthony in maryland, democrat line. we will go to tim, tim is in massachusetts, independent line. hello. caller: hello, pedro. how are you doing this morning? host: fine, thank you. how about yourself? caller: i'm fine. pedro, i would like to use my time to talk about this month what we have been hearing from many callers as a theme, both from the democrats and republicans, that there is an issue going on and we can't seem to get anything done, and we are running in circles.

the main issue is, we did not have a correct number of members appointed to congress, or elected to congress. we need to improve that number. there actually is a congressional amendment that was passed in 1789 and approved by 11 out of the 12 states at the time, but not all of them, that would rearrange and increase the numbers of representatives to something that we could more equally represent all of the groups in the united states of america. host: what do you think that number is? caller: well, based on population, i would think under individual could represent 200 to 250,000 people nowadays and still be able to maintain a personal relationship with many

of them. i think the intent of the founders was, if you did not know someone in congress, that you could know someone who knew someone in congress or reach someone in that sense. we have gone away from that in the united states congress as the house of the people. it needs to be increased to -- i wouldn't say that as many as a couple of thousand members. even if it was proposed in this amendment, when madison proposed it, it was 30,000 per member. host: do you think that is manageable as far as the daily workload of congress, what they have to do, etc. caller: certainly, in the new digital age. not everybody needs to be physically present. that is possible. the real burden would be upon the voters, the number of people they would have to vote in and elect. a possible change to that amendment would be

representative of the number of registered voters, instead of the actual population itself, which would also hopefully induce people to go get registered. host: pat in texas -- sorry, tim and maryland, i am sorry about that, giving us his thoughts. pat in texas, republican line. caller: yeah, it's pat in texas, and i'm calling about the border. host: ok. caller: ok, who is in charge of -- host: homeland security -- alejandra mayorkas? caller: he needs to get his ass down here, because we have had hundreds of people flowing through that border. never stop thinking about the future. if you think because you are a

democrat you are just going to let them walk in here anytime they want to and stay and do what they want, you are going to be living in a third world country. i don't care what you think you are doing now, you better think about the future. you will be living in a third world country, live like they do in haiti, in venezuela, china. good lord, people. put on your thinking caps for a change. host: pat, how did you arrive at the 2 million figure? caller: i'm sorry? host: how did you arrive at the 2 million figure you cited? caller: well, i've been watching tv -- good heavens. why don't you watch tv once in a while? the fox news channel are the only ones who will give you any kind of figure that is coming across this border. host: how did they arrive at the 2 million figure? let me ask you that.

caller: the border patrol. the border patrol is down there, they are taking care of everything. they know what's coming across, how many are coming across, and from how many countries. i'm sorry, i didn't hear that. host: i did not have a follow-up question. i was waiting for you to finish. caller: i'm just so frustrated, irritated, and the democrats are just -- host: we will have to stop you there because of language. gaylord, california, democrat line. caller: i listen to people giving history about vietnam and everything. for one, it was eisenhower who got us into vietnam. prior to that, he got us into overthrowing iran in 1953. and the chiquita banana international through company --

fruit company, he allowed the cia to overthrow guatemala, the prime minister down there. i am amazed that the republicans don't know history. eisenhower was a republican, and he gave the famous speech at the end once he knew he got used by prescott bush and the oil companies. he gave his famous military industrial complex speech. if you look at america for 245 years, we have been at peace 15 years? the majority of wars are started by republicans, you know? host: you brought up iran. attempts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with iran are heating up. iran is seeking guarantees that they will be compensated if a future u.s. president pulls out of the pack. european union officials sent the u.s. and iran what they call

the final text of a revised host: teresa in illinois, republican line. caller: i would like to say, for us to tone it down. any type of toning down. several callers back told us republican trumpers to be on our knees, that is uncalled for. i do not know why people do not like trump. i do not care why you do not like trump. have more respect. i remember growing up, my mother says, you do not want things done to you or said to you that you do not want done to yourself. host: teresa in illinois finishing off this half hour and program of "washington journal." another edition of "washington journal" comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. we will see