"congressional dish," looking at the inner effects of congressional workings with jen briney. join with your facebook comments, phone calls, text messages and tweets. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is saturday, september 10, 2022. the u.k.'s longest reigning monarch died on thursday. her oldest son, charles, becomes king. there have been calls for a special master and the mar-a-lago probe and a ramp up for elections and covid boosters. what is your top news story of the week? give us a send us a text at

(202)-748-8003. we are on social media at

facebook.com/c-span and you can send us a tweet @cspanwj. welcome to "washington journal." i want to show you the front pages of the three major newspapers. here is "washington journal" showing charles iii vows to carry on her legacy. here is "the washington post." he is greeting mourners outside buckingham palace. "the new york times" also showing the new king. he made remarks yesterday. his first public remarks as king, honoring the legacy of his mother. [video clip] >> we saw abiding love of tradition along with fearless

embrace of progress which makes us great as nations. the affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humor and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. hi pay tribute to my mother's memory and i honor her life of service. i know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you, and i share that sense of loss beyond measure with you all. when the queen came to the throne britain and the world were still coping with the aftermath of the second world

war and still living by the conventions of earlier times. in the course of the last 70 years, we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. the institutions of the state have changed in turn. but through all changes and challenges our nation, and the wider family of realms of whose talents, traditions and achievements i am so inexpressibly proud, have prospered and flourished. our values have remained and must remain constant. host: new king charles iii addressing the world yesterday. we are asking you about your top news story of the week. let's check in with president biden. he gave a speech at the dnc

thursday talking about what is at stake for this coming midterm election. [video clip] pres. biden: 60 days, 60 days from the midterm elections. i want to be crystal clear about what is at stake. you're right to choose is on the ballot. this is a fact. it is not hyperbole. your social security you paid for is on the ballot. look at what they put out. they wanted every year to decide whether or not it continues. your safety of your kids from gun violence is on the ballot. the survival of our planet is on the ballot. your right to vote, even our democracy is on the ballot. are you ready to fight for these things? [applause] we need to do everything we can to get folks organized, mobilized and vote, vote, vote.

i believe america is at an inflection point. one of those moments where everything changes. america has to choose -- are we going to move forward or backward? are we going to build the future or obsess about the past? be a nation of unity and hope and optimism or a nation of division, violence and hatred? i want to be clear up front, not every republican is a maga republican. i know because i work with them in the mainstream republicans, and there are a few of them left, but the extreme set of maga republicans is full of anger, violence, hate and division. that is what their game is an together, democrats, independents and mainstream republicans can choose a different path. host: that was the president speaking at the dnc. look at this article from foxnews.com, super pac launches

ads in key congressional districts. they take aim at reckless spending. what is your top news story of the week? let's get started from clearwater, florida. robert is on the independents line. caller: nice to talk to you. i think inflation should be the most important thing. food prices are skyhigh. you spent taxpayer's money on war and all this other stuff. it has only ruined the country. they have got to vote with their heads. they go to the store and the food is skyhigh. the rent is skyhigh. they cannot afford their rent or electric. he has got to be out of his mind, biden.

if you want to vote for him, go ahead. if you think he is king, but i don't. host: gas prices are coming down. do you think it is trending in the right direction? caller: it will come down more if they get more oil over here in the united states. we don't need other countries for oil. be for real. as far social security, everybody puts into social security. he is scaring people that it will run out. taking another dollar out of social security so it will never run out and everybody at work puts into that. but nobody can survive without food. senior citizens, they should not have to go out and look for food because the prices are so high. the gas is a gimmick. it will go up after november. anybody who is smart, they would

vote republican. not necessarily trump. a different republican, let herschel walker. he is a good guy. host: let's hear from republican conference chairs senator gerard . he criticized the speech biden gave last week in philadelphia and the economic record. [video clip] >> last week, president biden gave a political speech flanked by marines. and then he lied by the american people and said it was a policy speech. if it had been a policy speech, he might have talked about the things keeping americans awake at night as they were about their future and the future of their families. never once did he say anything about prices, inflation, gas, the border, crime, the cartels, fentanyl or our debt. not a single word.

the president shut his eyes to the pain he has caused american people and then he looks down his nose at tens of thousands of americans that go to work and paid her taxes and or being hurt by an economy the president himself undermined. i had the chance to visit the wyoming food bank this last couple of weeks. food banks across the country are really getting hurt by increasing demand. the demands are so high because people are falling farther and farther behind. people are struggling to pay their bills. to keep up, to make ends meet, they have had to cut back on school supplies, back-to-school clothing for their kids. they feel pain every time they go to the gas station or grocery store. the kitchen table is not full of food, it is full of stacks of

bills and an empty checkbook. food prices in the last year are up 13% across the united states. that is the fastest increase in food prices since 1979. we are talking about food that people need every day. we are talking milk, eggs, meat, fruit and vegetables. but for 16 months in a row prices have gone up faster than pay, and that is what people are falling further behind and they feel stressed. republicans want to get down the prices, stop this inflation, and the way to do that is unleashing american energy, cutting washington red tape, and stopping reckless washington spending. host: that was senator john barrasso. here is another view from senate majority leader chuck schumer, democrat. he was also with reporters on

wednesday talking about legislative achievements heading into the midterm election. [video clip] >> democrats are excited. we feel we have strength, we have momentum. my caucus did incredible work back in their home states promoting a slew of major bills we passed. when you pass good legislation, you get good results. it has been a long time since the american people felt washington is capable of doing big things to meet big challenges and meet their needs. it is why we took on big pharma and won. it is why we took on entrenched oil interests and won. and why we are on track to cut carbon emissions by 40%, 40%, by 2030. it is why we took on the nra and beat them by passing the first gun safety light in decades. across the country, our members have been talking about the benefits of the chips and science act and the inflation

reduction act, which became law last month. americans are already seeing the benefits from these accomplishments. the new laws are creating new investments, new jobs, new opportunities for american families and their communities. it allowed america to pivot into the industries of tomorrow and lead the world as opposed to lagging, that so many americans were worried we would do. already a host of companies have announced major investments that will help grow our country into the future, jobs right here in america, not jobs overseas. jobs in industries that have great futures that are not looking at the past. host: what is your top news story of the week? we are taking your calls. let's talk to glenn in texas on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: i was listening to schumer here.

has the democrat done anything good for the american people? i would say no. i will not vote for a democrat. all this yelling and hollering telling the american people what he has done wrong and he tried to blame the republicans for that problem. i have news for joe biden, he is on his way out in the democrat party is looking to be pretty well wrecked in november. host: all right, glenn. let's hear from lacey in bristol, tennessee on the democrat line. caller: am i on? host: you are. what is your top news story of the week? caller: this inflation and biden's peach being political --

speech being political? those people do not care about inflation. all they care about is getting elected. it do not make one bit of sense and that previous caller, what on earth? what is their plan? why don't they tell us what their plan is about inflation. if we turned it over to them right now, what do you think it would be? that is all i have to say. host: danny is next in south carolina on the democrat line. caller: good morning. we got trump out of office and that is all that matters. host: david is in texas, republican line. what is your top news story of the week? caller: well, the putdown of

maga republicans, of which i am one. the vast majority of republicans are trump supporters. i would like to mention the first caller mentioned inflation. you asked, aren't prices going down? i do not watch c-span nearly as much as i used to. it is a mile wide and an inch deep. the reason for the reduction in oil prices is because the world economy is slowing down tremendously. china has major shutdowns, they have over 60 million in shutdowns. the need for oil has come down although it is still going to go up. not to mention one million barrels a day from the u.s. reserve and millions of barrels from other country's reserves being poured out to try to offset the shortage.

that goes away after the election for some strange reason. how did biden pick the day after the election to quit the one million barrels? as far as the republican plan, that's easy. go back to what trump was doing. he had competent cabinet officers that knew something about their jobs. they were not political hacks. host: like who, david? caller: good lord, his commerce secretary, his trade representatives, they were terrific. host: and you do not have confidence in president biden's cabinet? caller: his cabinet is full of nothing but political selections. jennifer granholm? she was a total failure with obamacare. pete buttigieg, a mayor of a failing small community is the transportation secretary and takes a month off for maternity leave? i could go down the list.

they are political appointees. there is hardly anyone with any business experience. the number of people that have business experience in the biden administration, i believe it is an all-time low for cabinets. obama probably had the next lowest. there is something that people have not worked in business and the free market economy to understand what the business of free market economy is. we had boarders that were secure. people point to the numbers in 2018 as being high for borders. they were. people coming across the border dropped tremendously when trump was elected and they stay down for about a year. but once the cartels figured out trump was having a hard time getting anything done, he could not get money for the wall, the numbers began to swell until he was able to get to the court cases -- host: we got the point. this is "the washington post."

it says, nuclear capabilities seized at trump's mar-a-lago. let's go next to dennis in kingsport, tennessee. i got you. caller: hey. it is both the democrats and the republicans that are messing up this country. they are transforming america into big tech. what is big tech? there is nothing there but air. they took all of our jobs and

sent them overseas. now technology fails, what do we get? nothing. it goes under the ground. host: what would you say is your top news story for this week? caller: my mind went blank. my top is our government is taking over america and the american people ain't -- they don't have any dreams anymore. host: tom in hagerstown, maryland on the democrat line. caller: donald trump is the most honest man in the united states. trump university was shut down, that cost what $5 million. his charity in new york was shut down. he had sex with a pornstar

while his wife was pregnant. he is under investigation but he is the most honest man in the united states. thank you very much. host: john is next in reynoldsburg -- donna is next in reynoldsburg, ohio. caller: i will vote democrat or republican. in general, i think the traditional republicans are better with money. we got a high deficit, that's not good. i am not progressive. i will not vote for progressives. they just want to give money away and nobody has any ambition to go out and do anything.

the problem with the republicans is they want to take rights away. i am very pro-choice but i am also pro other rights. the democrats, especially the progressives, don't know about money. the deficit is not good and it is not a good motive to go out and work. work is valuable. why can't we lower our town and quit calling people names and not try to vote for a movie star? try to vote with people that are diligent and know how to produce goods for the american people and tone down the rhetoric. we don't need to hate each other . what about a good marriage? there is compromise. in the past, the old republicans and old democrats, they did not agree with each other's viewpoints. but they compromised and came up

with some inspiring concepts. thank you. host: donna talked about the town. here is "the associated press," and says gloves off, biden embraces tough tone on maga republicans. in recent days, he sharpened his attacks on donald trump and the maga republicans for posing a threat to democracy. he likened the theory to semi-fascism. wondering what your thinking is the top news story this week. you can give us a call. the phone lines are on the screen. let's talk to cora in cordova, tennessee, democrat. caller: hello. i wanted to comment about things that i feel. these republicans, as far as i

am concerned, started attacking joe biden even before he got into office because he was to old. trump is right behind him. they all call each other's names . the main thing i want to talk about, one thing is about united states security. if that was any other president, any other party that had done what this man had done, he would be in jail. that's right. i think about it president obama had done that. the gop has held him up and every wrong, evil thing he has

done. taking babies away from their mothers. i just don't understand why there is so much animosity between each other. what about social security? you talk about republicans and money. first of all, if everybody had an equal chance to make money like some others, the democrats would not have to try to help people. but what are we going to do? starve? host: got it. this is "the washington post. trump justice department split on who should be special master. they are far apart on who should review the documents he is taken.

we will be watching that to see what happens. fran is calling in jacksonville, florida, democrat's line. caller: good morning. i was listening to your other callers and there was one in particular talking about the economy. our economy is surely better than any other in the world and you cannot blame joe biden for what is happening in the world. this economy is a world economy and we are doing better than everyone else. and yet, we are still complaining. my gripe with the republicans is i am retired now, 71 years old. when i was working, i really worked in a den of republicans. whenever we got paid and we would sit around in our lunch room and talk about stuff, and all the republicans were

complaining about the taxes. this was years ago. whether it was a democrat or republican in charge. they feel the money they make, they should keep. the way i see it is, this is the united states of america. we are supposed to care about each other and i was the only one in the room who said, i don't mind paying taxes as long as it goes for the good of the people. but they did everything they could not to pay taxes. now they are talking about the economy. joe biden does not control the gas prices or the food prices. this is really the corporations that do that. but the republicans want the corporations to rule because they have advancements, because they belong to that class of

people and they want the rest of the people to be on the plantations. that is my thoughts. host: charles iii has been formerly proclaimed king today in the u.k. checking in on twitter. jim says, my top news story of the week? come on, c-span producers. what has consumed the media? a 96-year-old woman died. that happens every day. wondering if you feel the same way about the passing of the queen. we are asking your top news story of the week. let's talk to mike in north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. you think you can read anymore democrat propaganda? host: did you have any other

comments? thinking that. patty in atlantic city, new jersey, independent. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i send my condolences to everyone about queen elizabeth. she was a great lady. my biggest story of the week was the article about all of the housekeepers and insurrectionists running for public office in this election coming up. i think people really have to pay attention to who is running for the smaller jobs. school boards, secretary of state, because i was amazed at how many of these people who are

running are very malicious and, frankly, in america, we cannot have that kind -- well, we have the extremism, but that kind would be so dangerous in congress. . it really scares me. people really have to research people who are running in their towns and cities and make sure they don't vote -- they can vote for mainstream republicans or democrats are independents. but people from malicious organizations, these are violent people and i do not want to see them in congress. i thought that was a really big story. host: all right. ed in ocean city, new jersey, democrat. caller: the top story of the week is the total number of homeless people, unemployed people, hungry people and those

suffering mental illness. nbc and the networks spend their time praising a household in england which has done very little to help the poor and the homeless and those at the bottom of society. host: david is next in south carolina, republican. good morning. caller: good morning, america. we want you to search our houses at hilton head. you would see people hurting family. tell the president to search those houses and look what is going on here. they need to boost the food stamp program big time. these people are hurting. these people are getting poorer and poorer everyday in the president is not doing anything about it. host: let's stay in south

carolina, greenville, on the democrat line. caller: good morning. my big headline is investigations. i tell you, i cannot believe how many investigations are going on. and the idea that trump is in the middle of most of them, the biggest being our national secrets found at mar-a-lago about nuclear? everybody is concerned abut anything else going on and they found empty folders showing secrets might be out there somewhere? trump may have shown the paperwork to someone and we are worried about everything else? this should be the most important thing people should talk about, our national security. crazy.

host: let me show you this tweet that we got from jersey girl. she says, i am going with former potus stealing u.s. government property and storing it at a country club in florida. and former potus being under investigation for fraud with his phony save america pac. it is almost a pattern of something. let's talk to jim, calling from franklin, pennsylvania, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. mr. biden had something right in his speech. the coming election is about the soul of america. if america does not turn back to god, the fabric of the society will continue to erode.

the democrat party has promoted abominations, murdering babies, homosexuality, grooming church children for perversion in schools. if we do not walk away from this evil, our country will fail. host: jim mentioned the midterm elections coming up. here is a campaign ad from a prohealth republican congressional leadership fund. this targets democrat kim schrier. [video clip] >> kim schrier never met a spending bill she did not like. she has voted with joe biden 100% of the time. what's worse? she knew it could cause inflation. >> we knew there was a

possibility that this could lead to inflation. >> while prices went up for us, where did the spending go? do projects like luxury resorts. really? we cannot trust kim schrier. host: what is your top news story for this week? we are asking you that question. go ahead and call us or send us a tweet or tweet at us. i do not know the correct term. jane is next in atlanta, georgia on the democrat line. caller: good morning. i believe the world has suffered many ups and downs globally and the american people are going through a lot of upheaval. i believe everything folks have said about what is going on here and now and what we should be doing is valid. however, every once in a while i believe we need some sort of

beacon or light of good behavior and steadfastness. i think we saw it in queen elizabeth ii. for just a week or two could we say, hey, what kind of behavior do we want to display in the united states? right now, the backbiting and fighting between two parties that are no longer even profiling what the beginning of our nation was about and how we have stumbled into all of this crazy backbiting and hateful lying and cheating. i think every once in a while we need someone that shows us we can have the backbone and stand up without flinging mud at each other. host: tomorrow is 9/11 and our

coverage of the commemoration events of that day will start tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. c-span "washington journal" will take your calls live on air commemorating that day. then the director of more in common u.s. will talk about attitudes toward the terrorist attacks and their mission. be sure to be watching that tomorrow on the anniversary of 9/11. we are taking your calls about what is your top news story of the week? connie is next on the independent line in highland, california. caller: how are you? host: good. caller: i am thinking about everything going on in my country. i am almost 85 years old and have seen a lot of changes. that person that talked about children in cages, what do you think of those people crossing the border? children drowning, people drowning?

why doesn't the president visit the border? also, the two states having all those problems with the water. why doesn't he talk to them, to the officials in charge of the state, and see what is going on with our own country? yet he is going to england to the services, which is all right, but he should pay attention to our country first. all the homeless people, my gosh, you see them everywhere. all of these people that are still crossing and all that riot ing that went on. i am with the lady that talked a little while ago. both parties are so divided, just fighting each other. when you pass away you do not take anything, so be good to each other and think about that. thank you and you have a good day. god bless you. host: have a good day, connie.

vince is next on the republican line, lancaster, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say very quickly that we have had some things going on here. it seems like america has been forgotten about. not to bash fox news and a couple of other ones, but they would rather put the blue and yellow then the red, white and blue. we are talking about england and tomorrow we are supposed to commemorate the heroes and remember what happened at 9/11. it seems like we are dragging our butts to celebrate america. the two parties have got to come together or it will never work. i think that starts with the media. i do not care what side you are on. we have got to start thinking of america and getting our country back together. it is us and us only.

thank you and have a great day. host: here is an article on the front page of "the washington post." the headline says, gop backs away from strict laws on abortions. they failed to pass the most extreme restrictions after roe backlash. an aggressive push to push antiabortion measures is faltering in some state legislatures and on capitol hill. the latest indication that many americans are balking at extreme restrictions being imposed since the fall of roe v. wade. in south carolina, republicans failed to pass in your total abortion ban during an extended session thursday night. unable to agree on whether to include exceptions for rape and incest. in west virginia, a recent special session over similar legislation ended in gridlock. at the same time, efforts to advance a strict nationwide ban

in congress have fizzled. after pushing for a national heartbeat ban on abortion in the spring, which would outlaw the procedure as it is cardiac activity was detected around six weeks of pregnancy, republican lawmakers and some antiabortion advocates have retreated from the idea. some legislators are now pushing for a 15 week ban. we want to know what your top story of the week is. we talk next to bill in philadelphia, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: hello? host: hi, you are on the air. caller: my name is bill. william. host: got it. go ahead. caller: i am on the democrat station, right? what is going on with the media? i used to be a democrat. i am not going to vote. all you do is live. 2020, how about all the problems in the street?

local channels, cable, cnn, msnbc all live. donald trump did more better than obama and biden did together. open your eyes, america. they lie. talk about maga. do you know what that means? "make america great again." host: all right, bill. let's talk to ethel in louisiana on the democrat line. caller: hi. my concern is since karine jean-pierre became secretary i have not seen any recording or showing of her since she has been on. but when the other lady was there, i could catch of the briefings quite a bit.

is there something wrong with karine jean-pierre? host: you know what? i have seen her on c-span many times. maybe you are not catching it. is that your top story of the week? caller: that is one of my concerns. i am home, i am retired, and i am constantly channeling "washington journal." i am not catching it like i did before when the other lady was there. but again, i just want to bring it to your attention. i have not been able to see her briefings as often. host: we heard you. mac is in south carolina, independent. caller: i will be brief. if this donald trump, is him and his regime are not taken into

custody, we have already lost our government. this man has not answered subpoenas, he has lied. he is a draft dodger. thank you. host: next is bernard in elk grove, california, also independent. caller: hi. my thing is about the cause-and-effect of the lies of donald trump in regards to these elections. for instance, in alaska, you have sarah palin. she lost the bid for congress. then she is complaining that there was some type of fix. she does not want to concede. we have the same thing happen in california. we had a radio personality, larry elder.

he ran for governor. donald trump told him, hey man, just say you won. it don't matter. he was going to do it but he finally decided not to go along with that but we were like, here we go. the man only received maybe 2 million votes. he claimed he received more but that is my concern. these people lose and they say they won, you know, and it is ridiculous. they don't want to accept loss. i don't know what to say about our democracy because it is the spirit of trump. if you lose, say you won. it doesn't matter. that is my concern. host: all right, bernard. let's check in on what is happening with covid. cdc director rochelle walensky was at the white house earlier this week and she talked about the importance of getting that updated covid vaccine. [video clip] >> data have repeatedly

demonstrated being up-to-date on your covid vaccination provides protection against severe illness and death from covid-19. especially for those most at risk. including those over the age of 50 and others at high risk of severe disease. additionally, a recent jama article demonstrated health care workers who received more doses of vaccine were less likely to have long covid. last week following fda's emergency use authorization, the cdc advisory committee recommended pfizer-biontech updated vaccine for people 12 and older and moderna updated vaccine for people 18 and older. the cdc and acip recommends anyone, regardless of the number or type of previous doses, receives a covid-19 bivalent vaccine this fall.

you can receive an updated dose at least two months after your last vaccine dose. as 99% of circulating viruses in the united states are ba-5 or ba-4 updating our vaccines helps us better be protected against these variants and future variants that might be closely related to omicron. getting an updated vaccine this fall will help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and laboratory data suggests the addition of the ba-4 and ba-5 spike proteins might broaden the spectrum of variants that muses to ms. ready to respond to. an uptake of updated covid vaccine doses could prevent as many as 100,000 hospitalizations, 9000 deaths

and save billions of dollars in direct medical costs. host: we are talking about your top news story of the week and taking your calls. this is from birmingham, alabama, independent. gilbert, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to talk about kitchen table issues that i think would be the top stories. one in particular is the cost of food. on an earlier segue you had the congressman, the senator, talking about a 13% increase in the cost of food. somebody lying. all the politicians, the news, everybody lying. a pack of margarine they used to be $.98 is costing $1.98. local bread that was two dollars is now $3.50 which is a 75% increase.

it is a lie being told to the american public. i guess they think nobody knows anything about math. food prices have gone up 50% to hundred percent across-the-board. everybody talking about 15% and 20%, that is a lie. another top story is what is happening in jackson, mississippi with the water crisis. we as a nation, the infrastructure is falling apart. we are facing the possibility there could be other things like jackson, mississippi. but there are lies being told about the cost of food. food has gone up 50% to 100% and somebody need to quit lying. host: derek is next in randall's town, maryland. caller: good morning.

the first thing i want to say is the first question is, what have the republicans done for this country? what have they done? they tried to get it so you could not get insulin for $35 and then they talk about trump. if we are lucky, he might end up being in jail for these secret documents. also, let's talk about the fact that trump, he is accumulating the highest national deficit and the highest trade deficit of any president in the history of the united states. he did in four years what obama did in eight years. let's get that part right. everybody have a good morning. thank you. host: ed is next in columbia station, ohio, republican. caller: i am a conservative, not

a rhino. it amazes me your callers don't fact-check. that one talking about california and elder. newsom is going to be running for president. he is running that stick into the ground. i have been to california many times. you cannot recognize it today. you cannot charge your cars, they have rolling blackouts. the republicans, like your last caller said, what have they done? ima maga voter -- i am a maga voter, not a fascist. i am a 30 year vet. it was best for me, my kids, my grandkids and the cost of living was down, your wages were higher. we broke every good record with our policies. democrats have run this country into the ground less than two years.

over 100,000 deaths fentanyl every year and more. that alone is more than all of vietnam combined three times. the media's lapdogs, the democrats have no issues. that is why no one talks about them. democracy? they are shutting down the internet. joe is owned by ukraine. the money we sent to ukraine alone, one package is more than we could have to finish the border. they have a wide open, 152 countries all diseases coming in. it is pathetic. that is the democrats' way. people who still vote that way, they don't want the truth. host: let's go to new york, new york on the independent line. is it nairu? caller: it is nairu. my issue was jackson,

mississippi but after the last caller i don't know. i would give it another 10 years. host: for what? caller: another 10 years before we have serious issues in this democracy is pretty much over. this is an experiment and i think is coming to an end. we are so divided and so polarized. my original call was about jackson, mississippi. we have the same issues in public housing with lead in the water. it makes parts of america a third world country. but after the last caller, i think the main issue and problem we have is i think we are heading toward civil war. host: what is the solution? what do you think?

caller: [laughs] i could not tell you what the solution is. the base problem i think is white supremacy. trump kind of let that -- he gave a voice to white supremacy and i think it is permeating our country. i think is going to keep going. until we deal with that, i don't think we are going to -- i don't think it is reparable. host: mark is next in las vegas, nevada on the democrat line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i have a couple of issues. the first issue is the case -- the defamation case against hillary and all of the oath

keepers and that ilk that have been getting five and six and seven years which is less than they should be getting. my final topic of the week was all those people that stole those maga people's money saying they were going to build a wall and then steve bannon is going to go to jail. he is doing five years and a lot of those other people that sold those people's money thinking they were going to build the wall privately. three miles of wall they built half of it is sinking into the rio grande. all of you maga people, keep sending your money to donald. host: here is the new york times article on that. bannon pleads not guilty to new york charges in wall case.

he has been entangled in what prosecutors have said was a crowdfunding fraud scheme. the self-professed populist advisor to former president trump was accused on thursday of defrauding americans who wanted to contribute to construction of a southern border wall, resurrecting a threat mr. bannon's seemed to have escaped with a 2021 presidential pardon. luis is next. let's go to stan in scottsboro, alabama, independent. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am an independent in alabama listening to your newscast this morning.

the big top story is donald trump's mar-a-lago and queen elizabeth passing away. host: what do you think is the most important? caller: probably the ukraine war is the most important but we have not been hearing about it this week because the other stories were overlapping. i want to make a comment on the show. i listen to democrats call in. they back everything said about the democrats. republicans call in and they pair what you hear on fox news, which i listen to too. try to have some independent thought. pay attention to what is going on in this world and quit this parroting you hear on tv. host: liz in jonesboro, georgia,

democrat. caller: hi. good morning, america. i do have a story that i think was incredibly important this week, but before that, i want to make a comment about the call from ohio. 30 year veteran and i never disparage veterans, but my god, the man is so angry. i am glad he is no longer active duty. there is no telling what he would do. however, the top story i think is the justice department appealing the decision. as someone said earlier, if we cannot indict and convict donald trump, we have no country, we have no democracy. because it means some person is above the law. thank you. host: let's hear from doris in georgia, independent. caller: i do not know where to

start other than a quotation stock in my mind -- stuck in my mind. "none are so blind as those who will not see." that is what is happening. all the smoke and mirrors coming from trump and all his buddies have blinded people. they are not even thinking anymore. they are just blindly following what he is spewing out and it is lies and smoke and mirrors. i am just appalled that people have gotten so blind. that poor man in the military, i know about his anger because i feel it too. this world, not just this country, but this world falling apart fast and it is because of crooked, dirty politics. another quotation, "history does repeat itself." if you go back into bible

history, you will see where every dictator throughout history has had a very big downfall. trump's's is coming fast. when he hits the ground he will blow up like a big will be cushion -- whoopi cushion. host: that is all we have time today on this for seven of "washington journal." pentagon leaders write an open letter warning of an extremely adverse environment for the country. we look at that with patrick paterson. and then the weekly spot light on podcast. jen briney will discuss "congressional dish." it digs into why americans should pay closer attention to what happens on capitol hill. we will be right back. ♪

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gone on. safeway 5% on decor and switchers. there is something for every c-span fan. c-span's fall sale going on right now. scan the code on the right and start shopping right now at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." i am joined by patrick paterson. welcome to the program. guest: good morning. host: we are talking about this civilian military divide. there was this open letter from the former defense secretary and former joint chief of staff chairman. i want to read a piece of it and have you comment on it. it said many of the fact that

shape civil military relations have undergone extreme strain in recent years. geopolitically, the winding down of the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the ramping up of great power conflict mean the u.s. will simultaneously come to terms with wars that ended without what was accomplished, while preparing for more daunting competition. socially, the pandemic and the economic dislocations have disrupted suicidal patterns. politically -- societal patterns. -- that culminated in the first election in over a century when the peaceful transfer of political power was disrupted and in doubt. patrick, do you agree that this is an exceptionally challenging time for the civilian-military relationship? guest: yes.

it is a difficult time for a lot of reasons. the overseas conflicts, peer competition with a rising china as well as russia returning in parts of europe with its attack on ukraine and stuff like that. also domestically, there is a lot of tension internally. that is not something the u.s. military gets involved with. internal domestic law enforcement. the military only gets involved domestically in very severe crises like natural disasters, hurricane strikes and severe protests and stuff like that. host: the article does mention january 6. i'm wondering why this has come out now. january 6 was over a year and a half ago. guest: this is important. the fact that there is eight former secretaries of defense and five former chairman at the joint chiefs of staff, the top echelon of the pentagon and

department of defense got together and felt compelled to write this letter because the conditions are so severe right now. a lot of uncertainty going into the future. there are three important takeaways i can share with your audience. the first is the fact that the senior individuals felt obliged to lay out the rules of the game , how civilians and their military counterparts interact to develop defense policy and the deployment of u.s. military. what the military does not want to do is get involved -- they want to maintain their apolitical nature and nonpartisanship. they don't want to get involved with the nasty politics that are so prevalent in washington, d.c. and throughout the country. that is the first take away. the second is that in the 16 items that they mention, they also referred to the third branch of government, the judicial department. there is a lot of talk about the executive branch, as well as the legislative branch.

there is a term, dual responsibility, that the senior military officers are responsible to answer to authorities from both of those branches. the executive branch is the president who serves as commander-in-chief -- commander-in-chief and other appointed officials who work in the secretary of defense. on the other hand, you have the congress. you have probably heard the term they control the budget of the military. they have a lot of power and influence of the department of defense as well. they are often times -- senior military officers are often call before the house or the senate to testify. they do that annually or in the event of a serious issues such as the withdrawal from afghanistan. it is a system of checks and balances that is important to our democracy. i think why this is important and they mentioned the judicial

system is that it there is any sort of election dispute. perhaps in the 2024 election cycle, the military does not by any means want to get involved with that at all. they want to leave that to the court. the judicial system will dissolve -- resolve it. the last item i would point out that is extraordinary is that in the final sentence, it has been emphasized that the military does not choose the president to the voters do. therefore, the military must follow the orders of the elected officials. part of the military discipline and principal of the military professionalism. what they are referring to is what happened at the end of the last administration. lots of tumultuous issues and instances that occurred or nearly occurred. there was nearly a political coup, there was an attack on congress for the january 6 committee is investigating that. there was talks about martial

law and almost the disruption of peaceful transfer of power per there was talk about having the military ordered to the streets to provide security during these protests and a whole bunch of stuff. all of which would have been nightmare scenarios for the united states military, which tries to maintain its professionalism and apolitical nature. at any of those occurred, it would have been a no-win situation for the united states military. that is what they are trying to avoid. host: let me tell people that they can call in if they would like to talk to you. you can call -- democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. we have a line set aside for active and retired military. if you're in the military or retired, give us a call at (202) 748-8003. i'm going to put it on the

screen. signatories of that letter that was printed, former secretaries of defense, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. i'm wondering if there is anybody missing. guest: the only person not listed is donald rumsfeld, who passed away. all of the most recent secretaries of defense, going back about 26 years have signed the letter, which says a lot about how important they feel it was. a couple of the acting secretaries of defense during the end of the previous administration are also not on it. all of the former chairman of the former joint chiefs of staff are on it as well. going back about 20 years. host: put things in historical perspective for us, the idea of how the civilian and military world relate to each other in this country. guest: it is a very important role for both sides of the party. the military determines how the operation lies in the defense policy.

they often times have responsibility for not just the operations but the tactics. the civilian officials are the ones who determine the necessity for military employment. there is lots of competing interests that senior civilian officials have to consider. international rules, treaties, trade agreements and stuff like that. the military, usually the military is just one of the tools they have to consider. the relationship is a combination of mutual trust and ordination between the two groups. the senior military officers and senior defense officials. it is important to have an effective defense policy. host: let's start taking calls. jay is first up from texas. caller: how are you doing? i am also a veteran. i'm in my car. how did we get it so wrong with

determining russia's capabilities? that we see on full display right now? host: get it wrong in what way? caller: their ineptitude. their ineffectiveness. host: let's get a response. guest: i think the russian military is very capable. they have lots of technology that they can employ. a lot of what the caller is referring to is the morale of the troops. they have highly trained, capable people with lots of different arms and equipment -- we have highly trained, capable people. the russians may have that technology but the

professionalism of the russian forces is not what we anticipated it would be. i think that is what the caller is referring to. the russian military may have all of the ability to conduct operations in ukraine and elsewhere but they don't necessarily have the professional force that i think a lot of people expected them to. host: let's talk to tom in silver spring, maryland. independent. caller: i just would like the speaker to speak a little bit about the need for people in the military to actually firmly believe that the separation of the military and the government are important. we have the example just recently of the general flynn, who had plans and -- had a plan to establish the military. martial law -- marshall law, when he was in court, he was asked if he believed in those

principles and pleaded the fifth amendment. perhaps you could speak to our general flynn. he developed -- and possibly other people in the military who do not believe in these pencils. i'm a veteran. please speak to that. guest: the military is not intended to be used in domestic law enforcement. it occurs in extreme circumstances. that is for good reason. we do not want armed soldiers on the streets of u.s. cities when protests turned nasty. soldiers are normally not trained for escalation of force tactics or the police operations that go into it. including deconfliction techniques and use of nonlethal weapons. i wrote my book called the

blurred battlefield which distinguishes between these two fields of law. the law on conflict was used during a conventional war. army versus army. on the other hand, you have rules that are normally governed by human rights treaties and human rights law. that is what the national guard is trained in. and what most police are trained in. the two worlds should never clog, only in extreme circumstances. what general flynn was talking about with martial law is something that was on the books and certainly possible in extreme circumstances but should be a last resort, only after the police abilities and national guard abilities have been overwhelmed in the military needs to come in. host: telus -- patrick, tell us about that is. guest: we are the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff university. we have civilian officials come through our program. there are a number of different centers and colleges.

my center happens to work on latin american governments, working with our partner nations. it is -- the namesake is after one of the secretaries of defense who participated in the article, william j perry. i work at the william j perry center. there is a lot of education that goes on at fort mcnair in southeast washington, d.c. where seniors, civilian and military officials come through to advance their education. we have a lot of international partners as well. host: let's hear from susan in revere, massachusetts. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you for being on the show. i hope my comments are germane to your comments. i have concern about the really low, almost pathetically low

recruitment numbers in the military right now. especially in the army. i think a lot of it has to do with the debacles of the last two decades that the joint chiefs, congress and multiple presidents facilitated and allowed to continue, when those wars should have been aborted in my opinion. i think it left a bad taste among the young. why would they go to the slaughter for these ill-fated boondoggles? i am promilitary. my farther -- father serve. during vietnam, he was conservative and patriotic to the point of tears every time he watched a parade. he was vehemently opposed to the vietnam war. as my brothers were aging in that draft period, i knew for a fact that if they had come of age and the war was still going

on, he would have gotten my brothers to canada. that is how vehemently opposed to the war he was. on the positive note, i have -- my best friend from college, her daughter married a recent graduate. he just completed -- he was a logistics major. he only did two years. he came back to massachusetts and secured a killer job, doing international and domestic logistics for a big beer company, actually. he turned down a job with google and a defense contractor. but the military, he explained to me, he says for every civilian job, there is a parallel job. i know about this because i have a close relative in a prior decade went to the harvard law school. many of his peers -- this was in

the period of relative peace, -- host: let's go ahead and get a response. guest: the last two decades of conflict in iraq and afghanistan, they started off with the best of intentions, i think everybody knows. trying to do nationbuilding and build up the institutional capacity of these governments so that they are not fragile states or failed states that could be right for terrorism -- ripe for terrorism. protecting the homeland starts with our overseas partners. tomorrow is the 9/11 anniversary. that is where the problems began. we provide a lot of assistance. the distinction between the two conflicts is in vietnam, there was a draft and it got turned off in 1973. a lot of unwilling and perhaps

involuntary personnel were sent over to that conflict. it was a tough environment over there. iraq and afghanistan, we have an all volunteer and professional military force. conditions were no doubt very difficult in both of those conflicts. but, there is also a pull factor within the united states economy, when the united states economy is cooking along, there is a lot of opportunities out in the public for people to get good jobs, well-paying jobs. the military provides a lot of that. there is a lot of great things that can come if you spend a couple of years. you can learn about leadership and technical skills and things like that. there are a lot of things that go into the calculation of why iraq and afghanistan numbers and enlistments are going down. host: i want to share something

from sheriff jack reed. he talked on wednesday at an event about polarization. >> i am concerned by the increasing frequency of politically motivated attacks on our military. there was a long tradition within the american military of being a political, which is essential for our democracy and civilian control of the military. -- generating a sense of outrage and indignation. such tactics may serve a short-term political agenda. in the long run, it damages the national interest by sowing doubt within our society. this has grave implications and they must end. host: what do you think about

that and what the white house and congress can do to make sure the polarization that he talked about does not affect the military? guest: the political parties need to come together and work toward a common cause. the divisiveness and toxicity of right now in american politics is some of the worst i've ever seen. that is generating some of the public backlash gentleman referred to in the video. the unite states military has to remain apolitical and non--- united states military has to remain apolitical and nonpartisan. we don't want to get involved in the disputes of nasty politics going on in washington and around the country at the moment. this is the root justification and motivation for senior officials to write this letter. they are also very worried about the political -- military reputation as an institution. host: steve is next, republican, hi, steve. caller: i want to touch on, we have 9/11 coming up.

with our border unsecured the way it is, is there any concern about this? and how about the fentanyl that is killing 300 to 400 people a day? i've had family members die from it. by our borders being unsecure, how -- this ain't even a normal country we have going on right now. host: all right. guest: the borders are a major concern. authorities are down there watching who is coming across to read there are 75 border checkpoints on the mexican -united states border. it is a lot to keep an eye on. we are doing a pretty good job

in my personal opinion about checking who is coming across. there has not been much intelligence that there is terrorists coming across. it is really just a lot of scared individuals from central america and other countries who are trying to escape the poverty , corruption and problems occurring in central america or haiti or elsewhere. there is an obligation to assist those asylum-seekers. we are seeing the numbers grow. including the unaccompanied child crisis that happened a couple of years ago in 2014 and 2015. we have humanitarian obligations to assist those people. it is a big, big problem. but we have the capacity to manage it well. host: i wonder what your take is on this idea of former generals becoming secretaries. that happened with jim mattis. it is happening currently with floyd alston. what do you think of that? guest: that is a tricky one. they should not have those two

worlds collide. in general term, a former military general like mattis sometimes can't separate their responsibilities and loyalties as an institution or to their senior civilian authorities in the government. both of those individuals are super professional and have an immense amount of experience. they bring a lot to the table on how the military should operate. the con is they sometimes may not be able to distinguish between their loyalties to the military as an institution as well as to the government when they have to make tough decisions that might be counterproductive to the military. host: kathleen on twitter says this. talk about the inappropriate use of the marines with bidens political speech. guest: the marines were in the background of president biden's political speech. standing at the doors of independence hall. there is a lot of

showmanship that goes into these events. the previous president had the same kind of thing, talking in front of mount rushmore or the lincoln memorial on those issues. i'm sure there were a lot of senior military officials who were cringing to see marines standing in the backdrop of a very political speech. that is exactly what our secretary of defense and joint chiefs of staff are trying to avoid. having the military become local props. i think it was innocuous. i wouldn't encourage the viewers to read into it he double much. it is certainly one has -- to read into it too much. it is certainly one reason -- host: military leaders attending the state of the union. what do you think of them attending and how should they behave? that is really political. guest: that is very political.

for viewers who may not realize it, the military joint chiefs of staff and the chairman sit in a distinguished position right in the hall of congress as the president makes his state of the union address. they are sitting alongside the supreme court justices. note their reaction. every time the president makes a remark and one side of the hall will stand up and share and the other side will sit with their arms crossed, looking angry with what the president suggested. the military will sit stonefaced. they are not permitted, nor do they want to show any sort of advocacy, nor rejection for what the president's points are. that is on purpose. the military -- so the military does not look like they are condoning one party over the other. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. i wanted to comment. i have three suggestions. when you analyze what is going on in america today, what we are going through internally and on the foreign policy level, you can summarize everything into one statement, lack of credibility. there is a lack of credit ability on the local level, state-level level and federal level. i believe there is lack of credibility. this is what is causing division and undermining our foreign policies overseas. the first suggestion is this. we must lift every section we have imposed on all of the countries. if we do that, that would help improve our credibility and give

us standing in china and russia. number two, the media is absolutely incredible. they say one thing today and say another tomorrow. number three, every congressman and congresswoman, every senator and the delegations, -- they almost resign. they all have ash they all must resign -- they all must resign. they have no credit ability. if we do this, -- they have no credibility. if we do this, it will reinstate credibility and help us stand on a better level to compete against china and russia.

all right -- host: all right, abdul. guest: he makes a great point about the credibility of the united states. the amount of foreign aid or security cooperation we provide other countries to help improve their institutional capacity and make them good, democratic partners who respect the national standards of human rights is important. it is a small chunk of change of the overall budget. that, as many about military officials have said in the past, that network of alliances is a really powerful force. what is happening today in ukraine, where the russians have had to abandon many of their objectives and retreat back to the ukrainian-russian border, hope to just consolidate the ukraine region on the border area. they failed, absolutely failed in some of their objectives. that is because we have so many

other partners around the world who also have the capacity to defend u.s. interests abroad. the overseas lines of defense and protections of the u.s. homeland begin far, far away. i mentioned 9/11 attacks, where the attacks occurred in failed states. the credibility that abdul mentioned is important. that goes through our partner nations. china is also, to some degree, being contained because they have so many important partners in the asian region. the philippines, japan, south korea and others. working and improving our credibility and not going it alone is in the u.s. interests. host: i want to show you a tweet we got. how many of these former and current defense officials have financial and other ties to the so-called for-profit defense industry? guest: that is a great question. there certainly would be what

some people refer to as a rotating door in our government and in the defense industry. there is rules that control and restrict exactly how that works. certainly, we hope that even retired military professionals will maintain their professionalism and not have conflict of interest when they are working for defense industries. they bring a lot to the table. they know how the government works and know what the defense industry needs. they have been on the front lines. they can bring a lot into the defense industry, that civilians may or may not necessarily understand. it is kind of a double-edged sword. host: anthony in woburn, massachusetts. republican. caller: yes. i have a question for mr. paterson. i noticed that the statement from the eight former defense officials mentioned january 6.

that seems to be rather political. i remember the 51 former national intelligence officials have previously said the hunter biden laptop was -- . the former defense officials did not say anything about the southern border or the pretrial detention of the year and a half for people who were at january 6. you were talking about human rights and something else with foreign countries.

i just wonder why we should listen to another pronouncement from a group of current and former officials. guest: no doubt about it, the january 6 attack on congress was a sad moment in united states history, trying to disrupt the peaceful transition of power and congressional response ability to validate the results of the elections across the 50 states. the congressman went forward after this event occurred and validated the vote at the end of the evening. democracy was going to be delayed but not deterred. in that case, it is a worrisome event. certainly in the history of the united states, i taught history at the naval academy for a few

years. i'm a big fan of history. we have never seen anything like this. it is very worrisome. the fact the u.s. military almost got involved, either through maintaining security during protests or something like that is also very worrisome to the office -- authors of this article. we don't want armed soldiers of the united states on the streets, trying to control protests which will be out of control. the military are not trained for those operations. it is better left for the national guard and police forces. host: hector is on the democrats line, boston, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i have a question. what is more dangerous? the border or trump possibly selling national security secrets to putin or north korea? and number two, do you agree

when trump used the military on peaceful americans? guest: great question. i think both the leak of -- the potential leak of secrets is very worrisome. i'm sure the intelligence agencies are scrambling to conduct damage control on that. the jury is still out on that. we don't know how severe it was. we are relying upon the courts to make the investigation and figure out what occurred there. the southern border has been a problem for a long, long time. the amount of people trying to escape from very dire conditions in central america and south america and other parts of the world is very worrisome. we have a lot of resources to control that. there is a lot -- the take away from hector's point is that there is a lot of challenges that the united states is facing on security, internal security and external defense issues that we have to deal with outside of our borders.

these officials that have written this letter are concerned about the complexity of the security environment in our world today. they want to make sure that by providing these 16 guidelines they wrote about in this letter on tuesday, they want to make sure that future leaders in the pentagon and department of defense know exactly how they are supposed to support themselves. whether that be president trump, president biden or anyone else, it applies across the board that the military has to understand exactly what the rules are when working with their counterparts. host: maxine is next, in leavenworth, kansas. democrat. hi, maxine. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i want to piggyback on hector's question in that i want to know how the military felt when president trump had the general

come with him to that church during the protest last summer? thank you. guest: great question. general milley called it one of the worst moments of his life. it seemed to imply that the military should get involved in domestic law enforcement issues. maxine is referring to the june 1 lafayette square incident where protesters just north of the white house were driven out by police forces there in order to have a photo up front of a church. again, that is not a role for the united states military to play. that is a role for the police, national guard and other domestic law enforcement bodies and groups to operate in. they are trained for sit -- specifically for escalation of force tactics. they have nonlethal arms so they can go through a range of different options before they resort to legal force.

soldiers, the national guard and the military police are better equipped for those kinds of things. there is a hybrid nature between those two groups. a normal active-duty soldier is not trained normally in those kinds of police techniques. that is the worry of putting soldiers on the street, as was alluded to right after that, during the president's speech on the lafayette square incident. he promoted himself as a law and order president. he was going to, because of the black lives matter protests that were going on throughout hundreds of cities in the country, he mentioned he may deploy the active-duty military into the cities, with or without the authority of the mayors and state governors in that case. that is a dangerous situation that was worrisome to senior leaders at the pentagon. host: let's talk to susan, a republican from massachusetts. caller: thank you very much. what are some events that many

of us could create in order to very loudly support our defense forces? for example, i have not heard any group singing the star-spangled banner anywhere in a long time. and i am a singer. our perspectives on our small planet have become very global. instead of nationalistic. so, we see that we need to make some changes on how we promote loyalty for our defense forces. guest: i think the military is well respected as an institution within the country. it is nice when you are traveling on an airport to see soldiers returning from deployment or going on deployment to get a round of applause or a pat on the back. they get lunch or drinks bought for them. i think there is a lot of respect for the uniform service members in the country, whether they be in the army, navy, air force, marines are national guard. susan, i think, let's continue

that support for individuals out in harm's way, often times deployed are away from their families and loved ones, putting themselves in danger. you saw what happened at the abbey gaetz when the suicide bomber attacked all those people, killing 13 u.s. service member's. these are the individuals out in faraway places and we need to continue to support them in any way we can. host: bob is next in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. republican line. caller: hello. tell me why this is so different. first of all, they want to investigate white supremacy in the american military. general milley indoctrinated himself with the kanye west -- communist manifesto.

is there any reason you feel i shouldn't trust the military? i'm starting to believe all of the stuff. should i feel wrong about this? guest: i think general milley, when he talks about studying critical race theory or communist manifesto's is doing what most military officers should do. understanding the holistic issues that are at play in our complex world today. as a famous military philosopher said, you have to understand your enemy in order to effectively counter that person. we look at a whole range of different issues and things that we don't necessarily agree with. it is important to have a holistic comprehension of what is at play.

i would encourage you, especially with the white supremacy thing, that is really, kind of a long history of conflict and racism in the united states that i still think we have not worked all the way through. there is certainly some fears about right-wing militias, which i think are valid. there is also fears about left-wing groups as well. the black panthers, what happened in oklahoma in 1995 when timothy mcveigh attacked the alfred b. murray building and killed 68 americans with a truck bomb. on both sides of the political spectrum, you can have extremists that can be very dangerous. and united states law enforcement is watching both sides of the issue very closely for our own good. host: dave will be our last call. caller: good morning.

are people disillusioned by how our budget works in the military? we have armed military and we have the non-armed military. you have the postcard and the red cross. who sets the budget aside for education and so forth for all of our military, whether in uniform or not in uniform and how does that mix with civilians is what i'm saying? who sets those standards and where does it go? host: it is usually driven -- guest: it is usually driven from the bottom up by the department of defense. we spend on a whole range of issues including research technology.

professional military education is a big part of that. we have learned three years and years of operations that we want our military officers and enlisted personnel well trained and educated on a variety of humanity issues as well as on their technical capacity to execute their warfare specialty. whether it be pilots, submariners or any other requirements that come with their vocation. i wish i could answer the budget issue in 60 seconds. it is much bigger than that. i will point out that the coast guard now belongs to the department of homeland security. they are used in some capacities, occasionally with support of the military. it is generally a separate asset under -- a separate asset. host: patrick paterson, thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you for having me here. host: coming up in 30 minutes, it is our weekly spotlight on podcasts segment. jen briney discusses her

podcast, congressional dish. it discusses the inner workings of congress. but first, more of your phone calls on your top news story of the week. you can start calling now. the numbers are on your screen. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday on q&a, a look into the commercial salmon farming industry with investigative reporters douglas. -- threaten the environment and produce fish that are unhealthy for human feeding. >> each from consists of usually maybe 10 to 20 cages. and each cage holds up to 100,000 fish. so, a farm itself can contain one million or more fish. >> because of that proximity,

the parasites find -- and it is easy to spread diseases. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span app. -- free c-span now. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. caleb fuller talks about widely held myths the general public has about economics in his book "no free lunch." at 10:00 p.m. on afterwards, political columnist and former fox news analyst chris shares

his book, broken news, where he argues the media puts trumpets over good journalism. he is interviewed by matt welch. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online at book tv.org. >> now available to c-span shop, c-span's 2022 congressional directory. though there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this compact, spiral-bound book is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress including bios and committee assignments. also, contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. order your copy today at c-span shop.org or scan the code with your smartphone. every c-span purchase supports c-span's nonprofit operation.

>> c-span's campaign 2022 coverage is your front row seat to the midterm elections. watch it as it happens on the campaign trail. meet and greets, debates and other events during this year's senate, house and gubernatorial races. don't miss a single election moment. you can take us with you, on the go with c-span now. a free mobile video app. and visit c-span.org/campaign 2022. your website for midterm elections on demand. to track results from every primary. c-span campaign 2022. your unfiltered view of politics. host: all right. welcome back to "washington journal." during this half hour, we will

be asking you the same question we asked earlier this morning, which is your top news story of the week. some things to note, here is an article from usa today, president joe biden will attend queen elizabeth's funeral. details have not been set. the date has not been set. that was queen elizabeth, the monarch of the u.k. past earlier this week. -- passed earlier this week. we have remarks from king charles iii after his procession. >> i am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now been passed to me. in taking up these responsibilities, i shall strive to follow the inspiring example

i have been set in upholding constitutional governments and to seek the peace, harmony and prosperity of the people. end of the commonwealth's realms and territories throughout the world. in this purpose, i know that i should be upheld by the affection and loyalty of the people's whose sovereign i have been called upon to be. and that in the discharge of these duties, i will be guided by the council of their elected parliaments. host: that was king charles iii of the u.k.. there were a couple of callers earlier who mentioned the water crisis in jackson, mississippi. here is an article on that from nbc. and it says that the federal

watchdog is probing jackson, mississippi water crisis. the environmental protection agency, inspector general inquiry is similar to the inspector general's involvement in flint, michigan. you remember that story a few years ago. it says that a team from the epa's office of the inspector general arrived in jackson last week to begin a multidisciplinary top to bottom review of the current drinking water crisis, an agency spokesperson told abc news. -- nbc news. that is from the spokesperson. we are asking you what is your top story of the week? let's start with steve, who is calling us from louisville, kentucky. republican. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i'd like to acknowledge the queen and her passing. i loved the queen and i think this whole nation and the world

did. so, god rest the queen. the thing i would like to say is why are democrats trying to destroy this country? with everything from the border to energy, to the way they have handled crime in our cities, releasing people at a recidivism rate where they kill and destroy our federal citizens? what in gods name are they thinking to defend this type of behavior, compared to where we were at four years ago when president trump was in office. -- in office? we were living in a utopia, almost. the country was firing on all cylinders. the border was under control. everybody had a job. the people on the lowest end of the weight scale were doing their very best. how can you compare what is going on now to what was going on then and say it is better in

any way? host: would you vote for president trump if he ran again? caller: gosh, yes. host: are you not worried about the mar-a-lago thing with the classified documents? caller: please, come on. all that is is -- it is the same thing as the russia hoax. host: you actually think it's a hoax? that there were no classified documents there? caller: i didn't say that. host: tell me. caller: there may have been classified documents there but that does not compare to where this country is at now, compared to where it was when he was the leader. i didn't agree with everything president trump said. i wish he had kept his mouth shut a lot of times. what he did for this country cannot be denied. everywhere from trade deals to the border, to our standing in the world. we were respected again. and we are not now. we are a joke. this president we have is a joke. host: jerry is next in

waynesboro, north carolina. republican. caller: i am a registered democrat. but i vote republican. my problem with this whole deal is if the people out there would just stop a minute and think how long this has been going on, this has been going on for a total of six or seven years. who is paying for all of these investigations? the american taxpayers. your money is going to these investigations. host: which investigations are you talking about? caller: all of these investigations of donald trump. our taxpayer money is paying for these investigations. i've been watching it for seven years and i'm tired of my tax money going to these investigations. and still not finding a thing.

host: all right, jerry. let's talk next to gilbert in texas, democrat. caller: yes. i would like to say something about the mar-a-lago issue and how did we actually get there. in my mind, mitch mcconnell set the stage for this to happen years ago in destroying democracy as we know it. back during the obama era, when he refused to work with obama when he tried to make him a one term president. when he fused to let -- refused to let merrick garland have a hearing on the floor for being a judge. and then we get down to the fact that we all know that donald trump was a bad president and he should have been impeached. and just because the republicans wanted power, they refused to

impeach him. this brought us to where we are today, with him running off from the white house and feeling that he is above the law. host: gilbert, how do you respond to our previous caller who said the investigations on the president were all a hoax? caller: they didn't seem to think that investigating hillary clinton was a hoax. which i believe it was a waste of taxpayers dollars. but this issue with donald trump, it stems from -- he has been a criminal all of his life. a con man all of his life. i just to understand how it republicans, how any person in their right mind, especially those who profess to be christians, can even consider voting for him the first time and then again say they would vote for him again. that is what i don't understand. this is cultlike. this is the worst thing that has

ever happened to americans. i blame mitch mcconnell. he started it all. he and the republican party have brought our democracy almost to a halt. host: let's talk to helen from brooklyn, new york. independent. good morning. caller: hello? host: hello. caller: yes, i am an independent. i vote mostly republican. i just want to say that it is really sad. i watch you every morning, for years. i am a 70-year-old woman. and i don't like what's going on with these politics. and i noticed that all of your anchors, and it's true, our pro biden. -- are providing. everything you make people say about trump. i didn't like him but his policies were pro-american. maga means make america great.

the socialists and haters, my husband was assassinated five years ago. a retired police captain. and nobody cares. black lives matter -- i am biracial. they are crooked. you never talk about them. you only talk about january 6. it is very unfair, your program. caller: thank you very much. i think your program is spot on. i have listened for years.

i think the world of any organization that is going to try to get the people's voice on the air. good grief, america. the first collar that was on a little while ago, they said the democratic party is trying to destroy the country. i think that's ridiculous. who in their right mind thinks either of these parties are trying to destroy the country? we have these characters and clowns that would take advantage of and exploit the system. that's what we are trying to understand. we are trying to make our way into a democratic forum of government. it is difficult. i appreciate the public venue. i think we should try to have some hope and i think our focus should be on sustainability and the industries need to be

addressed as to how they are going to exist on the planet with so many people and still maintain ecosystems that keep us alive. that's what i have to say and i thank you very much. host: a programming note, tomorrow is 9/11. we will have coverage of those events starting live tomorrow morning with washington journal at 7:00 eastern, taking your calls lie. we will also have the director of the more in common u.s., he will talk about attitudes toward the terrorist attacks and their mission to reduce polarization. later, we will take you live to the remembrance ceremony at ground zero. you can watch that live starting at 7:00 tomorrow morning on c-span, c-span now, which is our free mobile app. you can join the discussion with phone calls, text messages,

tweets. tuesday, the former head of security for twitter will testify on allegations of privacy and security failures by the company before the senate judiciary committee. we will have that live on c-span. we are asking you what is your top news story of the week. let's hear next from don in north carolina. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i listen to all of this for six years. before president trump did anything, they were impeaching him. host: how so? how were they impeaching him before he was in office? caller: talking about it. then they did it and they did it again.

i have to say i believe donald trump is probably the cleanest most law-abiding citizen in this country. how can you go through six years of proctology examinations and they find nothing ever. this whole thing about the documents is so exaggerated. we should all take a minute and wait and see what these documents are. host: you are not concerned that there were marked classified it? caller: i am not concerned at all. he had the right to look at any of that information. host: he wasn't president at the time. when he leaves office, he doesn't have the right to keep those documents. right? caller: that will be sorted out. there has been talk about all presidents having documents. after president trump, they found classified documents in the nixon library. they take any little thing and

they load up to this giant thing. president trump is going to sell nuclear secrets. host: all right. let's talk with david. he is in georgia. caller: that's correct. i'm going to start out with something most of your listeners don't understand. on c-span, in the congressional rules of debate, it is fair to lie. they call it an opinion. it is still alive. i have heard for your collars use that very same thing. you give them all the time in the world to run down that rabbit hole. as an independent, i have spent

many calls to get this line. now, we need a line for the people that the supreme court said in 1957 were un-american. let's just get it out there. the conservative party is un-american. that was decided in 1957. they have lied to us about the decision. if you are clear about america, when obama left office, the border was beautiful. they had a reason to go. trump in two years time had it caravans coming to the border. that is because he cut off the money so they stayed out there to get visas and whatever they wanted to get into the united states. we didn't have inflation.

in 2018 it, donald trump past a 25% tariff on all durable goods coming into the country. we had covid covered up. i am pain $1.32 more for cookies that cost one dollar. america, you can keep living in that fantasyland of projecting your failures of the conservative party on good americans. in 1957, the supreme court said you are un-american. host: i want to show you some news from overseas. this is the wall street journal. ukraine gains an edge in surprise offensives.

ukrainian forces advanced on a strategic city in the east, threatening to isolate russian troops after four days of rapid gains that caught moscow off guard and have altered the momentum of the war. the breakthrough has demonstrated for the first time that ukraine with the help of western aid can recapture territory from russian forces occupying the south and east of the country. we are asking you, what is your top news story of the week. let's go to and in north carolina. -- anne in north carolina. caller: i was calling in response to some of the republicans calling them, saying how great the situation was with the previous president, i don't know what happened. maybe c-span it could play some tape of what the situation was

at the end of that term. there were millions of jobs lost. there were food lines. people were being evicted. there were gas prices low because no one was driving anyplace. the country almost shut down. when they talk about how great it was, it's like amnesia or something. it might be a good idea if c-span can play some of those tapes to remind them what the situation actually was. host: we've got that on c-span.org if anybody would like to take a look back. grand rapid, michigan. caller: good morning. i would just like to piggyback on the last two collars, which

is right. i could not breathe. i couldn't breathe during the trump administration. he never should've been an office in the first place. anyone who has a crooked school who has to pay people back the money, they shouldn't be an office in the first place. i'm glad he's out. host: all right. mark is next in california. caller: hello. good morning. i was calling to pay my respects to the queen. i think she is a wonderful person. it's very sad that she has passed. she was a wonderful ally to our country. so is great britain, obviously. i would like to say there is a line that mel gibson says in the

movie the patriot. there were trying to get his family to go to war with the monarchy. why should i trade one master that is an ocean away for 10 masters that are right here host: host: in my face. what is your point? caller: my point is our government is out of control. the 87,000 irs agents, the democratic party especially. they want to beat us down just like the soviet union.

you name it. their actions are clear. host: what was your point about the irs agents? caller: they are just part of the democratic army. the irs has been weaponized. people are aware of this. it's obvious. they've weaponized the fbi now. we elect the president and put him in there. they spend the whole time and all our money to eradicate the leader that we choose as americans. you are part of the media. you are part of the fate news. host: ok. richard is in oceanside, california. are you there?

caller: i'm here. let me turn this down. you are my favorite host, by the way. i called to talk about a thing that has been talked about some lately, it is called trumpism. now, i've heard it said in many ways. the real problem now is trumpis m. anybody knows that people are adversarial by nature. they believe what they want to believe. they listen to other people say it. it becomes the truth. you can lie in this country, you have the freedom to lie.

the liars are winning the game. they are not the majority, i don't think they will prevail. they will destroy the country. we are based on truth, law & order. a little bit of decency. someone once asked me why they liked donald trump. the man himself. i said he is indecent. he consorts with cookers. he is president? that was enough to burn him for me. the guy is the most accomplished liar in the world. it is going to be continuing and people believe his lies. that's just because they heard it. that's all i've got to say. the adversarial nature of what's going on is really bad news. host: florida, the independent

line. steve, hello? caller: first of all, you are doing a great job. i don't think you guys show a lot of bias. i think you have a very good show that goes on here. my major story is the missing documents in the mar-a-lago raid. so many of them are just missing. a lot of us wonder where they went. we want to know more about it. it seems like the trump called doesn't want to hear about it. you can't really talk to people who don't want to listen and don't want to listen to truth. trump means anything but truth. if anybody thinks they can have an honorable opinion of this man, i want to ask them within themselves and see what is going

on with him. we all know what trump's. he has shown it over the last six years. i wanted to say what a wonderful job you do. host: that is our last call for this segment. up next, it is our weekly spotlight on podcast. jen briney discusses her podcast. it digs into the inner workings of congress and why americans should pay closer attention to what happens on capitol hill. stay with us. >> washington journal will take your calls alive on the air as we commemorate september 11.

the director of more in common u.s. will talk about americans attitudes toward the attacks and their mission to reduce polarization. we will take you live to the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at ground zero. washington journal live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning on c-span or c-span now. join the discussion with your phone calls, text messages, tweets. >> next week, twitter's former officer testifies before the judiciary committee about his allegations of widespread security failures. hearing wednesday on its national security ramifications. officials from tiktok, twitter, other companies will testify.

officials will discuss the monkeypox response. the house and senate are both back in session. the house will swearing three new members. watch next week on the c-span networks or on c-span now. head over to c-span.org for scheduling information. >> on august 16 1977, elvis pressley died at age 42. the autopsy found eight different drugs in his body, he was richard nixon's in the overall office to fight the war

on drugs. he asked for a special agent badge from the bureau of narcotics. a copy of the photo on that occasion is the most requested from the national archives. our guest has spent a lot of her life telling the story of elvis and his well-known manager tom parker. the colonel was not an american. he was not originally named tom parker. >> the extraordinary story of colonel tom parker and elvis pressley on notes plus. it's available on the c-span now free mobile app or or wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: it is our weekly spotlight on podcasting. i am joined by jen briney.

welcome to the program. first, tell us about why you got interested in congress to begin with. guest: it started in 2003. i was living in germany and i saw my country start a war and saw the reaction to that from the rest of the world, which was quite negative. i was very angry at the administration. i realized everything that the president does is authorized by congress. i started paying closer attention to congress, watching c-span in my downtime. there was one moment where i saw a member of congress who is still there, i saw him slip into a funding bill that protected secret campaign contributions. i watched it on c-span. he bragged about it. there's no way i actually heard that.

i went to the congressional record and looked at the transcript. i was right. i wondered how often does this type of thing happen. it wasn't covered on the news. it was like it didn't happen. i started looking into bills and laws. i wasn't intimidated by the language. i saw that it was happening all the time. it was making me a little crazy. i started congressional dish as an outlet. it happened to turn into a career. i started in 2012. my 10 year anniversary is next week. host: the podcast exposing what congress does with our money and in our names. guest: that's pretty much the goal. i am not a member of either party. i don't subscribe to any ideology. i want to know what is in these bills. i love the hearings.

c-span is one of my favorites. the hearing to become my window to the world. i learn a lot about our role in the world and what is happening by what congress is being told. i wish these were more widely watched. i have learned so much. that's why i've learned a lot about wars. host: if you would like to ask questions, feel free to call in. where splitting the lines by party affiliation. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. the cost of making a podcast, how are you funded? guest: i am extremely blessed to have an audience that pays for my show.

i don't accept any advertising. i think that is a corrupting model. i have a patriotic were people pay per episode. people send in paper checks and then mows and bitcoin. it's 100% listener based. there is another podcast called no agenda. we call it value for value. i tell people this is a valuable podcast. i asked people to pay whatever they think is fair. it varies widely depending of what people can afford. i'm very proud of the funding model. host: you are not local to d.c.. caller: i have never lived here. host: what does that do for you as far as a perspective? we do tend to have that inside

the beltway perspective. guest: i am not in the bubble. i am living wherever my next event takes me. i think the perspective i get is i'm seeing what it's like out in the united states. by not living here and not having the insider access, i don't have any of those considerations in mind. i don't care about donors or campaign contributions. i'm not trying to get congressman on my show. i don't have to care about any of the drama. i have to care about how does this law affect normal people that are living all over the country. i think that perspective is important. host: you said you started your podcast as a reaction to the war in iraq.

does your podcast have an ideological stance? guest: i don't think so. i was upset about that war because i considered myself a republican bakhtin. i just voted republican. i was 18. i was horrified i what my vote did it. a lot of it came out of guilt. i started watching how the sausage is made. i am not thrilled with how washington has done things. in september, it probably won't be funded by september 30. they tack on all kinds of things it probably couldn't become law on their own. i'm not thrilled with the way washington is functioning.

that is more where i am at. hearing by hearing, i judge individuals and individual bills. host: how do you decide what issues you are going to cover? guest: i generally don't have guests. it's bills -- my audience has a lot to do with it. the ones people are asking me for. i'm working on the chips bill and the inflation reduction act. really, i looked through the congressional record every day. the daily digest tells me. that will tell me what hearings have been aired. when i'm walking around town, i'm listening to the hearings.

that's how it gets picked. host: let's talk to jason in florida. caller: how are you doing? i have called before. i want to -- i just want to ask you a question. do you know any time when a disability bill is going to come forward. it seems like they are leaving us out of the loop. you know when they're going to start helping people that need help? my parents were like that. i'm not going to say what he said. you can't believe the lies anymore.

when do you think the bill will come forward? guest: i'm sorry to hear you are frustrated. i don't have a crystal ball, i can't tell you it's coming in the future. my show focuses on what has happened. i don't know. the best thing you can do is call into c-span. i think members of congress watch this. you should communicate with your member of congress regular. they have the power to do what you are asking for. i would get on the phone and start writing emails and see what you can do. host: john is next in maryland. caller: hi there. this is john. it's good to see you on the television. i just wanted to ask a little bit about your process. some of the show you do are pretty straightforward.

you mentioned chips. that's going to be a huge sprawling bill. they are so complex. how do you get up to speed on some of these topics or areas so you can talk about them on the air? guest: that's a good question. for the really complicated ones, i go to the same resources congress uses. i just read a 60 page report that gives me the background i need in order to dig into the bills and the laws and understand what i'm looking at. by the time i get to it, there is an article that has written. i cheat. i will use mainstream media sources to get information. most the time, i'm getting information from the law itself in the background.

there is a lot of information that can help me. that is the beauty of the internet. i try to go for primary sources. those things help me. host: we have a question from twitter. how does government spending differ between the parties? guest: i find that the republicans in general have really been funding things that favor business. the democrats are all over the place. they are a mixture of different personalities and people. they are harder to put in a box. the republican party is the party of big business. the one thing i think is stunning to me is how bipartisan a war spending is.

that is where i get the most frustration. war spending increases no matter who is in power. that's the biggest difference. host: trenton, new jersey is next. caller: can you hear me? great. thank you so much. this is my first time hearing about this podcast. i am definitely going to be tuning in. i am wondering about the potential for improvement. i worry that we are not going to ever be able to generate a government of we the people if we continue to have congressional members come to congress, get schooled i the people who are already sitting there on how to fatten their own

pocketbooks as they pursue the business of the public. actually do our business as opposed to doing the business of major corporations. you said the republican party is most guilty of taking care of the corporations. i'm sure there are democrats too. that's one of the reasons why hillary did not do as well. people saw her as a neoliberal in the pockets of big business. what do you think about it as we move forward? guest: i have those same fears every day. one of the reasons i wanted to do the show is who gets into congress is still up to us. where i have hope is in the

house of representatives. we can fire the entire house every two years. every one of them is up for reelection every two years. it really is up to us to determine who we send to congress. i hope at some point we take more responsibility for that. i know it's overwhelming to look at congress as a whole. each one of us only has two senators and one representative. i look at every two years that cycle is a chance for us to vote in people who are not beholden to campaign donors. i hope we will use these resources that we have now to research who we have representing us and do a better job. if we don't like who is in congress, that is our fault.

in two months, we have the chance to change the personnel if were not happy with what is going on. your concern about corporate interests controlling congress is a real win. i would love to see the american people demand that members of congress not be able to trade individual stock. that's not an unreasonable man, whether they making bills and laws to enrich themselves or not. that's where i have hope. i have hope that we will change things. that's the only way it's going to happen. host: greg is in fort myers. caller: i just want to start off by saying what you represent is a fourth branch of government. i would like to thank you for your podcast. the idea of the check you bring,

you watch this. the reality of what's going on happens on c-span. i've been concerned over the past three years of the reverse repo rates. have you seen anything about them trying to curl back the feds unlimited printing it? people don't understand. it's upsetting they are making themselves neat. the fed is printing trillions of dollars. do you see our government trying to cap that unlimited spending? guest: have i personally seen and doing like that? no.

sometimes there are 20 hearings in a day. if you are curious about that, i would start looking into the hearings and see who is pushing back on the fed. i know rand paul has talked about the fed many times. there are people who are aware of the fed. is that something being actively worked on? i don't think there's any real actions to limit the power of the fed. host: we have a question from twitter. we see it happen. when there is no watchdog, americans sleep through the theft. have you started any investigation? guest: what affects my life is

what becomes law. what affects my life -- am i ever going to get health care that doesn't require private insurance? i'm not really focusing on individual members of congress. it's up to people in the district to decide whether or not they are doing a good job. my job is to tell you what the bills and laws are so you can look at their voting record and see if that matches what you wanted to be. i mentioned tom cole. i can't believe he is still in congress. that was a fireball offense and he is still there. my job is to tell you what's in the bill so you can look at the voting record. host: danny is in maryland. caller: good morning.

how do you understand what they actually mean. they are 2000 pages. i went to the bill and tried to understand it. i couldn't understand it. it was all legal talk. it's not fair that these are 1000 pages. have you ever compared bills from one hunter 50 years ago? i feel like the citizens are getting ripped off. guest: i also feel like we are getting ripped off. 10 years ago and i started reading these, i haven't looked into how they used to be. you will see they will craft

something from current law. you have to see what was replaced. i do a lot of copying and pasting to see with the original paragraph was. it's very frustrating. there are committee reports that will put the bills into plain language. there are resources for members of congress that can be used. the longer i've done this, the more i found these resources. have to be really careful about that. i took one class in college, it was business law. it taught me the bill language. having some type of formal education really helped. it is hard to understand. it would be useful when these laws are completed to have them

put into plain language so you can see what they did. it's not a thing we are asking for. host: philadelphia, pennsylvania on the democrats line. caller: thank you very much for your service. i am so glad that somebody is actually talking about this regarding congress and what they are doing. this has been going on since the inception of congress. i am one of these people that looks at those bills. it gets me very mad when i see the politics. they vilify them so everybody in the public -- they are the ones being the watchdog for our money, making sure that certain things are put in. it's on both sides.

as far as the listeners, we've got to stop putting the same people in. it's our state and local legislation. we have become lazy voters. we need to look at who we are putting in and stop doing it. we can fire these people like you said. we seem to like to keep them because they show up on the ballot. thank you for your service. that's all i can say. guest: it's kinda fascinating. we're not happy with the way congress operates and yet we vote people and based on name recognition. the incumbency rate and how often we revoke these people in is baffling to me. maybe we will do better this year. host: denise is calling from

georgia. caller: hello. i agree with that lady the just got off. we are the ones to blame. we have the right to vote these people in and out. they talk about term limits. i don't that was something they were trying to get past. were the ones that can do term limits. we've got to pay attention to who we are voting for. besides -- we will get somewhere. i used to be a democrat. when hillary ran for office, i turned republican.

i was paying attention to what model trump claimed she was saying. i voted for donald trump. i would vote for him again. he did a lot of good. host: let's get a response. guest: the president has very little to do with gas prices. i agree with you. we are the people who can put in term limits. i'm not a big fan of the idea. if someone is represents well, we should be able to keep them. it's up to us to pay addition -- attention to our three members of congress and determine if they are doing well. i am with you on that. host: we have a question from twitter.

guest: that's a good question. at this point, the norms are broken in washington. having experience in a system that -- i have to make a differentiation. i think it's a genius system. this system the democrats and publicans -- republicans have in place is broken. you get a committee assignment based on how much money you bring into the party. that is bonkers. this is a system or i don't think having experience is necessarily a good thing it. i don't envy other countries

don't get the fire there people who aren't doing a good job. if we get some new blood in their, if we get back to the instruction manual of the constitution, i don't consider that a bad thing. host: let's talk to judith in austin, texas. caller: i wish i could talk to you for hours. i'm one of those people that screams at their tv. do we mention names? how does the leader of the senate tell other republicans whether or not they can vote. there are so many things going under. most people do not hear these things. they go to washington making money.

within a number of years, they are multimillionaires. we can't get the dark money out of congress. a lot of people don't realize what's going on it. guest: that's a choice. these members of congress who decide to vote how their party leaders tell them, they are making that choice. if we don't like having sheep representing us, it is up to us to let them know that we not happy with their job performance and fire them if they are doing a bad job. host: this is a tweet for michael. most americans don't have staff. we really don't have time to read these bills and understand them. guest: a lot of things are getting by me because i don't have time to cover it all.

that is a huge problem. i hear that we have a do-nothing congress. they do so much. unfortunately, the corporate media has staff and they're not using the resources to dive into these bills and laws. the inflation reduction act, we found out how it got made. until i actually read it, i don't feel like i know the details. our media, they have staff they could be using to cover these things. i am not enough. i wish there were a dozen copycats to get help with the workload. i'm going to do the best i can and make sure people see my success and join me. hopefully the media will do the same. it's just hard work.

people don't want to do it. host: what of the most underreported congressional stories? guest: for me, it's year after year these government funding laws. it's not just what gets funded. there are policy changes. there are important things inside them. the pattern is they kick the can until around christmas and then by the time everyone comes back to work, it is old news. i do feel like there is an opportunity in that. there are dozens of stories in there.

if the same with the national defense authorization act. because they passed them during the holidays, they go under the radar, which is possibly strategic. that is where i would love for journalist to take more time. host: ramona is in georgia. caller: top of the morning to you. thank you for taking my call. how long have you been doing this? since the trump administration? guest: i started in september 2012. my 10 year anniversary is coming up. i went through half of obama and all of trump. what is stunning to me is it's the makeup of congress that affects our life the most.

republicans had control of the house. democrats have control. who is in the presidency affects me less than who has the majority leaders. that affects my life more than the presidency. host: steve is calling from portland. caller: thank you, c-span. i am signed up for congressional dish now. i once tracked down why we are spending money to put ethanol and gas. congresspeople didn't know anything about it. the real people that were writing the bill for the oil companies.

by the time it got to hearings, the decision was already made. the presentations were structured in order to excuse the passage. the real bills are written by the backroom people for corporations. they are presenting themselves for the next reelection. shouldn't we be looking before the hearings? guest: there are a lot of times where i see bills presented. i'm not sure who writes them. they're not going through the process. unless you are from san francisco and nancy pelosi is your representative, few of us have very real power.

that is not the proper process. i'm not happy with the way congress has been functioning for the 10 years i've been doing this. the process is so broken. it's one of those things that until the spotlight is put on congress and we understand how these bills are being created, we have to demand that it changes. a lot of times, i'm not sure where the texts of these bills are coming from. it's very frustrating. host: let's talk next, calling from new york. caller: good morning. it's nice to be listening today. i'm enjoying this presentation

from this young lady. when it becomes law, do you follow how it gets relegated to agencies? agencies seem to get authority to do a lot of different things that are against our rights. the irs, the things that go on there. do you follow how the agencies and permit these policies. guest: i don't have time for that. i do see that in so many laws. it's congressional laziness, a lot of the important decisions are left to the agencies. they are in charge of enforcing the law, they are also in charge of making the policy. that is not how it is supposed

to be. we often see changes based on which administration is in charge. the bill that comes to my head, the affordable care act. so much was left up to the health and human services secretary. the trump administration came in and changed so much of the implementation. i wish i saw it in law that there was less up to the agencies. they are doing more than they are supposed to and it's not their fault i think they should have more detail. there is a lot blamed on the presidency. a lot of times, congress needs to be looked at. it's a problem. host: i want to ask you about this poll about confidence in

u.s. institutions. the averages at a new low. why is that? how do you turn that around? guest: i wish i knew. that is what keeps me up at night. i understand being frustrated with congress. i don't feel like my problems are being addressed by these laws. i can look at campaign contributions and lobby organizations. the chips built, giant companies are in that. i am still paying out of pocket for private insurance. i could easily be bankrupted. the things we are screaming about are not being solved at the progression all --

congressional level. i would love nothing more than for congress to be so functional that i could do something more fun of a living. here i am. i do get to be on c-span. host: robert is next in virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for bringing our attention that the president has very little to do with gas prices. do you find most of our representatives on one platform, the platform goes away. guest: i don't think they are that selfish. i actually like so many of them as individual people. i think they have good intentions. there is something about the culture. i am not from d.c., i don't

understand what happens. there is something about the way the parties are operating. that leads to groupthink and i don't know what it is. do they come to congress and make themselves rich? i don't think that is how it is. i think it is a side effect. it's up to us to determine whether or not that's true. host: let's take a call from angela in california. caller: i have a couple of different things. one would be how can viewers encourage the media to be more neutral? how do we the people get the

administration to enforce current laws that are on the books. your opinion on what trying to limit the acquisitions and mergers of larger companies, to create more competition between small business. there was a tax but to larger corporations. i would like to have your opinion on it. any suggestions we could do for the media to be unbiased as well as encourage congress to do their job. guest: guest: when it comes to the media, i think that's an unrealistic goal. it's kind of impossible. you either know what your bias is or you don't. i think that's less of an issue than the way they cover stories.

you can know someone is biased and they can still give you good information. they are having debates and conversations instead of giving us new information. i would like for them to do more informing. as opposed to left versus right squabbling. i think it's a really important thing. you talked about trump, i don't keep ever really wanted to do that. they have appointed people that seem to want to do that. that's a little bit of good news. when it comes to the executive agencies, we don't have a lot of power over them. congress has power over them. if you have an issue with the way an agency is being run, the

best avenue for dealing with that is to contact the committee that has oversight. that committee can have a hearing or do whatever. that's the avenue for you to have any affect on an agency. host: jen briney, host of the podcast congressional dish, thank you for coming in. tomorrow is 9/11. we will be having live coverage of all the events around that. we will be starting with washington journal and taking your calls live on the year as commemorate that anniversary at 7:00 eastern time. we will have the director of more in common u.s., he will talk about attitudes toward the terrorist attacks and their mission to reduce polarization. we that all starts tomorrow morning

at 7:00. that is it for today's "washington journal." thank you for joining me and we will see you again soon. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> is this just a community center? >> it is more than that. >> comcast is partnering so students from low income families can get the tools they need. >> comcast support c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy.

>> sunday on q&a. a look into the commercial salmon farming industry. the authors of "salmon wars," where they argues salmon hatcheries are bad for the environment. >> this farm consists of cages. each holds up to 100,000 fish. >> these pens are