more than 7 million ukrainians who have been displaced from their homes as a result of the russian invasion. at 7:00 a.m. on c-span two liz truss takes questions for the first time since becoming the uk's new prime minister. then at 10:00 a.m. the senate is back to consider appellate court nominations. everything streams alive -- live on that c-span app which is free to download on your mobile device. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more including wow. >> the world change. today fast reliable internet connection is someone no one can do without so well is there for our customers through speed reliability, value and choice. it all starts with great internet. wow. supports c-span as a public service along with these other

television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> up next next, we are joined y "the hill's" editor-in-chief, thanks for waiting to finish it up its work. guest: thanks for having me on. the house has to do its business. host: you're on this morning to talk about what's ahead in the fall for congress, but i want to start on the midterm elections, so when we went into the summer for the democrats, and it was inflation, gas prices, the president's approval ratings in the tank, as we end the summer, the democrats get a couple of key legislative wins over the summer. they get a couple of wins in elections, including the new york special election, and the president's favoritability ratings go up. do you think that makes any less likely a red wave in terms of the house in the election? guest: yeah, i mean, you have to think that things are getting better for democrats.

i mean, really, the last year, starting with the u.s. withdrawal in afghanistan, that was, that began a spiral for the president and his party that lasted up until a month ago, the baby infant formula, you mentioned inflation hitting record highs and gas prices, all that kind of stuff. so but then they've had a few wins, and they have some moment momentum. they won a couple of special elections that were deemed bellwethers. i think it makes more of a difference in the senate than the house. certainly the house shouldn't be privately said, hey, we can't be overconfident we're going to win the house, but history does favor republicans flipping the house. but the senate is a different story. republicans are already blaming each other. mitch mcconnell and donald trump going at it like they have over the last year, there's tension between rick scott, who heads the campaign committee, and mitch mcconnell, who openly has

said that their candidates may not be the best. they have been struggling, and republicans are defend ago lot more seats in the senate, they have to run the table. they have to win key races and win most of them, if not all of them, to take back the senate. it's very interesting times. look pretty cut and dried. i thought three months ago the house was definitely gone, the senate was going to go to the republicans. now it's a different story. host: with the election season ahead, it's always this time of year for congress, the things they have to get done and the things they want to get done. what kind of pressure does this put on the democratic leaders, particularly in the house, to get done, and with chuck schumer in the senate, to get done before the midterm election? guest: some of the pressure was relieved when they passed the inflation reduction act and the message wars have begun on that

bill, which was supported by democrats and, of course, by all republicans. anyway, i do think that they have a lot of other things that they want to get done, they want to protect gay marriage in the wake of the supreme court decision on abortion. that's something that the question is, can they get to 60, will enough republicans support that legislation. it remains to be seen. i think if they had to vote, they would be voting on it, but they do want to vote on that. there's legislation that would change after the january 6 riot, how the electoral count to verify the vice president cannot overturn a presidential election. that has the support of some democrats and republicans. but bill, it all comes down to senate floor time. the house can move multiple bills in a week. the senate really can only do one or two things at most, and they're focusing on nominations, both in committee and the floor. they take time.

why are they focusing on nominations? they want to give president biden his team, but also they know nominations could be a lot more difficult if mitch mcconnell is the majority leader, so they don't want to get as -- so they want to get as many nominations done before the election as they can. that's why they have, on the schedule, the senate could be back for two weeks in october. schumer, charles schumer, majority leader, could change his mind on that, because usually in october all members are home campaigning. but in the senate, not every senator is up, so they could come back to do some unfinished work. but you're right, the most important thing is must pass legislation and that means funding the government by october 1. then the question is, what is in that bill other than the government? that's the big question. host: one potential landmine, if you will, or holdups or things that could be attached to the spending bill that could really grind it to a halt? guest: the first one is permitting reform. this is a bill that was looked

to be promised to joe manchin in supporting the inflation reduction act. if legislation is not supported by environmentalists and certainly a key committee chair on the environment in the house has said he wants to block that bill, and he says, listen, inflation reduction act is in law. this permitting bill, which he opposes, is not in law. that could be a real problem, because progressives could band together and potentially vote it down. it's a problem for leadership. do i think there will be a shut down? no, i don't think it's in anyone's interest on either side. aisle to have a shutdown, but there's going to be drama until they get that bill passed. host: we'd like to hear your calls and comments, bob cusack of "the hill" is with us. 202-748-8000 is the line for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8002 for independents

and others. what's ahead this fall for the january 6 committee? guest: they want to have at least another hearing. i don't believe they've announced when that hearing will be. now, this was interesting, because before the august recess, there were suggestions from members on that panel that they would be wrapped up by the august recess, but they've had new witnesses, apparently, new information has come to light. so i think they're at least going to have one more. we'll see if it's in primetime again. but that investigation really has to wrap up and will wrap up at the end of this congress, and certainly if republicans, as expected, as they are favored, to win the house this january 6 panel will not exist in the next congress. they know that, and that's why they're looking to wrap up their work in a final report, and we've seen some interesting tension between the january 6 committee and the department of justice and the big question is,

of course, will the department of justice indict president trump and others in his orbit? clearly, the january 6 commission is pressuring, and i think it's pretty certain that they're going to recommend something along those lines. so i think they want to make a closing argument in the fall when everybody is back from vacation and probably have one last primetime hearing, but we shall see. host: where do things stand on the defense authorization bill? that has passed the house, correct? is there a holdup on the senate side for that? guest: yeah, it's always tough to pass a bill of that legislation in the senate, because of senate rules and procedures. that's another one that's thorny. sometimes they will take other must-pass legislation, like the defense authorization bill and spending bill and potentially wrap it up in one big bill, when there's a will, there's a way to get things done quickly.

so that's at the top of mind, too, of legislators and leadership's priorities, because that is considered a must-pass bill. but when you get into defense and various policies, amendments that you brought up by one senator, that can also slow down the process, and floor time is so precious in the senate, and it's certainly precious in the senate this fall, because chuck schumer has been very adamant in saying i'm not going to give you a time table, because he's still trying to put the puzzle together. host: one of the lead pieces in "the hill" is by your reporter, max greenwood, seven races that could determine control of the house. as you've seen these races evolve and get being tighter, closer to election day, which ones out there, what are you following the most? guest: i think you watch virginia. i've traveled around virginia, it's my home state, and you have congress woman luria, congress

woman spanberger, these are democrats who won in tough races, in tough territory for democrats, and certainly they're targeted. along texas, you have a number of contests where you have texas republicans running latino and latina candidates, and republicans are saying, hey, we've got the most minority candidates than we've ever had, and they've made a conscious effort on that, and they think some of these republicans can win, and so that they are going to have a more diverse class of 2023 should they win. the thing is, with democrats, big picture is you've had over 30 of them announce their retirement, and it's really hard for incumbents usually win, and nonincumbents, it's hard to get to congress. any time you have an incouple bunt announce retirement, especially in a purple district,

that's almost a loss for the party that is retiring. host: lots to get into. let's get to callers as well. we'll go first to melissa in lookfield, iowa, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. my question is, why do you -- why did "the hill" decide to run certain articles about things and not others? referring to the hunter biden laptop. why did you guys choose to not publish that story and everything when it was true? and it is true. and still don't come out in the paper and say anything that it was true. guest: well, we have written about hunter biden as far as the laptop that emerged before the election. there were a lot of questions about it, and i think it was valid to look into it, but it was unclear where it was coming from, especially after recent

events in 2016 with the email controversy, you want to be responsible in what you publish. we interviewed the -- perhaps the next chairman of the oversight committee, james comber from kentucky. and if the house does flip, he told our reporter, and we published it, that hunter biden is going to be a big part of his oversight plan. so hunter biden is one that you're going to be -- he potentially could be subpoenaed. the department of justice is investigating hunter biden right now. i suspect there's going to be more news in the new year about hunter biden. host: engineer friday new jersey, democrats line, good morning. caller: hi. i am a registered democrat, and i have a couple of real big concerns. i think it's going to hurt us in the long term. you got all these guys that don't want to debate the

republican candidates, and that's going to be a big mistake. it's not going to look good. what is it that they're afraid of? that's concerning to me. the other concern i have is you've got biden. now, biden, clearly there's something not right with him. he's not 100%. the fact that you're all hiding it, all the news media and everything is scary, because it has a lot to do with the next election. people can see it. they can see it's being hidden, and it's going to affect long term. there's more coming out about biden, hunter biden. so the concern is that even -- all the relationships, china and all that, biden is involved in that, and he's definitely compromised. host: bob cusack, you want to comment on the report about john fetterman and mehmet oz, the

republican candidate, in that senate race in pennsylvania? guest: that race has gotten pretty nasty. oz is behind, and republicans are nervous about it. fetterman has had some major health issues, and he says he's recovering from it. oz and fetterman have gone back and forth over his health, and fetterman has said it's not appropriate for him to comment on his health. this is where we're headed. i agree, you should debate. usually the news that comes out of the debate is significant, but doesn't change a race. there are exceptions to that rule. but if you're constantly dodging debates, and we've seen that with candidates in the past, that does not look good. and i think fetterman will debate. i think there's going to be pressure for him to debate. he hasn't debated yet, but we just had labor day, and this is when the season gets going. i anticipate you're going to see a debate or debates. now, that's an interesting dance that they have. you know, the candidate that is

winning usually doesn't want that many debates. and the candidate is going for six, seven, eight debates, that candidate is usually losing and need to make up ground. host: tell us about the streaming channel "the hill" has launch and had how you plan to use it during election season. guest: it's called hill tv, and we have a morning show, daily morning show that's popular called "rising," where we've interviewed members of congress. we've also been bought by nextstar, which is a large media company that has about 200 local stations around the country, as well as a 24/7 news cable operation that is just getting going. we're looking at all types of ways we can show our content on those stations and news nation, and it's just another way to produce news in video form. if we have a big interview, we write it up, and you can read it

on thehill.com. there was an article that streaming has taken over cable. that doesn't mean cable is not going to be around. it's a very strong presence, obviously, but more and more, especially the younger audience, is embracing streaming, so that's why we're doing it. we have a plan for other shows. host: let's hear from groveton, georgia, democrats line. you're on with bob cusack, go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. by the way, i read "the hill" every day, alook with a lot of other publications. i love "the hill." it's where i get, quickly get all the news of the world, and i really appreciate it. my comment to you is that i hear a lot of times callers call in, and i have to say it's especially republicans that seem so angry. they're just so angry. and i wanted to just relay a conversation i had with a relative of mine that we all

grew up the same way, and we haa conversation. we have basically the same morals, you know, brought our children up the same way and everything. and we got on the subject of politics. he's a very big trumper. and i'm obviously a democrat. but we still get along great. and i said, i laughed, and i said, well, you know, i think you trumpers are patriots. do you think i'm a patriot? and there was dead silence on the phone. now, this is an intelligent person who is basically telling somebody that he loves that i'm not a patriot. and he felt it was ok to do that. and i just -- it sort of sent chills down my spine thinking, oh, my goodness, even in our family, that they really feel that way. in my mind, you know how you feel, you think, wow, would they put me in jail if they got power

or something? even though i love him. to me, that is why this whole maga thing is scary to me. thank you, bye. guest: yeah, i've heard other stories like this from people, whether it's family or friends. you know, used to be you didn't talk about politics around the dinner room table. and now you do. and politics has gotten certainly more polarizing. it's not like it was always kumbaya. it's also gotten more violent in recent years, not to say there hasn't been violence decadessing with with assassinations, but we saw with january 6. we've skein steve scalise shot on the baseball field, gabby giffords. both thankfully made it through those very difficult situations. it's a very polarizing time in politics. we've seen a number of presidential candidates say

they're going to unite the country, and i have to say, on both sides of the aisle, that has not happened. we're a very divided country, and i think that's going to remain the case. it used to be after elections people would say, ok, one side won, one side lost, let's go and work for the country. now that's not the case. it's really looking at the next election. you don't see the kind of conciliatory remarks from the losing side that you used to. host: your calls and comments welcome for bob cusack. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001, republicans. all others, 202-748-8002. bob cusack, over the years, "the hill" is note for being a news outlet, but you daily have opinions from all sorts of people, both from the printed edition, and currently online. you can't log onto the hill.com without seeing an opinion piece there. why is opinion so much a big part of what you present

editorial at "the hill"? guest: yeah, we attract and solicit pieces on both sides of the aisle. whether that's members of congress or former members of congress, members of the administration. we've had obama, and i believe biden write op-eds for us. it's interesting to see what people want to weigh in with. sometimes some of those opinion pieces do quite well, and they're quite insightful. we have a team of great editors f. you're going to make a claim, you'll see in our opinion pieces, we link to the proof of that. so we're fact checking these opinion pieces, and i think that makes us more thorough, i would say, than others. and if we don't like a piece, then we don't accept it. so it's not like we take every piece. we actually reject a lot of them. that's an important part of seeing the voices, whether it's a columnist like juan williams on the left, or we have on the

right, john fury, who used to be a top communications person on capitol hill. he's also a columnist, along with many, many others. host: let's hear from arnold on the independent line in lafayette, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i'm just trying to figure out why people are so ignorant of what's going on in our country. the commies had taken over the democrat party. and in the republican party, you have what are called rinos. those are commies. back in the 1950's, there was a guy named mccarthy. he said there's commies in our government. well, prior to j.f.k.'s trip to dallas, he gave a short speech, and in that short speech he said there's commies in my party. and they killed him. so since j.f.k., i was a democrat back then, and i started looking and weighing

things, and i figured it out. democrats are nothing but commies. host: what do you think that's causing that sort of language on the right, calling people commies or fascists from the left, enter into our political dialogue so prominently these days? guest: part of it, we're definitely in election season, even though it never ends, but it certainly ramps up in the summer before an election. urn, we've seen divisions in both parties, really. i mean, you've seen bernie sanders is not happy with the inflation reduction act. did he vote for it? yes. but he was very unhappy. really wanted to pass a bill that cost roughly $6 trillion to $10 trillion, then he agreed to $3.5 trillion, and then it kept whittled down because you hear joe manchin. you hear the term rin os, republicans in name only, and you've seen a number of republicans who have crossed donald trump, especially on

impeaching him on the second time. but most of those members, including liz cheney, lost their primary. not all of them. so there's a real battle for the soul of the republican and democrat party. polls show there's a yearning for a third party. i do believe that if we have a rematch, which is a long way to go, of trump versus biden, i think you're going to see a third party emerge, because polls show that most people don't want either one of them to run, and there's concern about trump's legal cases and him running, which i fully expect him to run, and whether joe biden runs. he's 80 years old. some people are saying maybe we should turn the page. he'll turn 80 later this year. that's something to watch. but both parties are fighting with one another, and i think that has something to do with it. host: who do you think is in the queue if the likelihood of a republican takeover of the house happens, who's in the queue? who's next in line for

democratic leadership? will that leadership at the top change? guest: in the house? host: yeah. guest: i think nancy pelosi, to get the votes, promised that this would be her last as far as leadership. now, what if they defy the odds and keep the lower chamber? maybe she has a case to say, listen, maybe i should stay on for a couple more years. but i think you got to look at someone like congressman jeffries, who is in leadership now. that are questions about steny hoyer and jim clyburn. democrats want to move up. will there be three more positions or will there be a race? will hoyer and clyburn be challenged? i do think there's some up and coming members to watch, like congress person jayapal. those stories haven't yet emerged. everyone is waiting for the election, but they'll be

positioning themselves between now and the election on both sides for leadership contests to see, hey, can i count on your vote if i run for this position? that's a big, big storyline, and that really blows up. that's a big post-election story. it's less of a preelection story. but once they're back for the lame duck session, and remember, there could be a runoff in georgia. the senate could be in the balance at that time. there's a lot going on actually after the election. you can argue there's more going on after the election than there is before the election. host: let's hear from gordon next up, kansas city, missouri, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i live in kansas city, kansas, but it doesn't matter. mr. cusack, explain to me what joe biden meant during the debate with president trump that the democrats had put together the biggest voter fraud

organization anybody had ever heard of. what demean by that? thank you. -- what did he mean by that? thank you. guest: i don't remember that line in the debate, but certainly has been something that's been discussed a lot between the parties on voter fraud. but at the same time, if you look at the proof, you look at trump's department of homeland security, the last election was the most secure in history, that's something that's going to be ongoing. and i think that's another element that used to be, people used to accept the results of elections and move on. and listen, democrats did it too. they were not happy when gore lost to bush, and there were some protests back then, and, of course, the larger protest, january 6, without a doubt was based upon the belief of people that there was voter fraud and it led to a deadly day.

host: let's hear from florida, democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling from a public library, where i work. a couple of weeks ago there were a gentleman in line, he requested a d.v.d. that was only promoted on trump's channel. another lady that was in the line next to him kind of jumped in and says you know they're not going to have that here in a public facility. and this is something that they don't want the public to know about, and i guess it was based on voter fraud, so i won't give the title of the item. but i work in a place where people can openly and freely express to me their opinions about their political decisions or choices, and i'm having to

stand there and hear it and be offended and not say anything, because i do work in a public forum. so i just hope that we can get back to a place where we can respect each other and not force other opinions on the public. thank you. host: bob cusack, any thoughts? guest: i'm a big fan of the first amendment as well. i do think that in the rough discourse of politics over the last decade, there has been some concern. there's been concern about what you can say and obviously what politicians say matter, and sometimes they put their foot in their mouth. but i do think that, it's been talked about how some comedians have been gone off. i think it is the first amendment is a great thing, and it has limits, of course, but you can't say anything anywhere,

but it that's why it's the first amendment, and i do think that some people have a good point about saying that it has been attacked in recent years. host: back to congress and the potential of a republican takeover. jim jordan told a business group last week, cleveland.com reported that he expects that the republicans will roll out some sort of plan for their agenda. do you have any inkling of what would be in the plan for a potential republican takeover of the u.s. house? something like a contract with america from 1994. guest: the house republicans are going to roll that out. some republicans, not so much. mitch mcconnell says this is a midterm referendum basically on joe biden. house republicans are saying, no, we want to lay out what we're going to do if we have. so there's tension between mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy, the republican leader. we've been poking around on that. i think the central themes you're going to see in that document is to make the trump

tax law permanent under the rules that passed that legislation. they're going to have to renew it, and there are certain parts that are expiring. i think one of the big questions is, are they going to try to repeal obamacare? that's been an ongoing fight. back in the early days of the obama administration, it's not stopped. now, of course, they're not going to be able to repeal obamacare, even if they have the house and the senate, because joe biden would veto it. but that doesn't mean that the house republicans, especially incoming class, at least some of them are going to want votes and say, i want to get rid of that. but this is going to be a broad, broad plan, and we haven't seen anything leak out yet, but you're going to see something this fall that i think is going to be -- well, certainly being polished. they have to make sure it's not controversial. rick scott laid out an agenda, senate republican campaign

chair, mitch mcconnell did not like that agenda and made clear it was not his agenda. agendas can get a little tricky. host: what about the conflict between rick scott and mitch mcconnell? guest: as the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell has always had a big role in the campaign arm it's not like he doesn't know, and rick scott, a lot of people thinking he might run for president in 2024, there's concern that it's been about scott as opposed to winning the senate. but at the same time, he was picked, and he has the right to run the committee as he wants. usually there's more coordination, let's say, between mitch mcconnell and rick scott. certainly that has led to tension between the two men, and that is just something you don't see very often, at least out in the open. sometimes it happens between a campaign chair, and sometimes the campaign chair is fired. it's not going to come to that,

but it's rare for this tension to surface so publicly. host: a call or for more before we let you go. new york is next, matthew on the democrats line. caller: good morning, gentlemen. host: good morning. caller: quick question. was joe biden fairly and duly elected as president of these united states? guest: yes. caller: now, there's a lot of people on the right, sir, that will not answer that question completely. they say yes, he was president, yes, he's president, but he was not duly and fairly elected. i don't think you can really conflate the two sides like you were saying earlier about the scalise shooting at the ballgame. if you remember correctly, sir, on the floor, congress condemned the shooter as being out of his mind, he should be sentenced to the highest -- ok. but how many on the right are

condemning the january 6 insurrection? i'm hearing nary a peep, sir, and i think that you have a real problem with that, in that you can't conflate the two parties. thank you. guest: well, after the january 6 riot, roughly to 60 to 65% of republicans voted to overturn arizona and pennsylvania. right then and there -- that was after the riot. the numbers would have been bigger had they voted before the riot, i'm sure, and we saw the numbers go down in the senate after the riot. without that, a lot of republicans will not accept that joe biden is president, or they will say he is president but not say he was fairly elected. now, remember, you have dozens and dozens of trump-appointed judges who looked at legal cases from trump's team and said this

doesn't fly. now we are seeing investigations of rudy giuliani and others in his orbit that could be charged with what they were saying and the claims they were making post-election. that is one to watch, and i agree, january 6 was an event that was unprecedented. host: bob cubesat, editor in-- bob cusack, editor >> c-span's washington journal every day we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day and will discuss policy issues that impact you. wednesday morning, we discussed the water crisis in mississippi and other dis-investments and majority black cities.

victoria coat talks about president biden's foreign policy record. watch washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning on c-span or on c-span now our free mobile app. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments and tweets. >> coming up wednesday on c-span, president biden and first lady jill biden host former president barack obama and former first lady michelle obama for the unveiling of their official white house portraits live at 1:30 p.m. eastern. then at 3:00 p.m. the un security council meets to discuss or than 7 million ukrainians who have been displaced from their homes as a result of the russian invasion. at 7:00 a.m. on c-span 2, liz truss takes questions for the first time since becoming the uk's new prime minister.

at 10:00 a.m. the senate is back to consider appellate court nominations. everything also streams live on the c-span now video app which is free to download on your mobile device. >> >> c-span shop.org is c-span's store. shop products, apparel, books, home depot or, -- home to core. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> next international inspectors brief that you and security counsel on their findings of a ukrainian power plants. the agency found repeated schelling's has caused damage to the plants requiring the use of a lower voltage reserve line.