territory in ukraine and the impact of the military mobilization. later we will talk to new york times national policy reporter, astead herndon about the 2022 elections at his podcast "the run-up". washington journal starts right now. ♪ host: good morning. it is saturday, the first of october, 2022 and the start of the federal government fiscal year. hurricane ian changed to a tropical storm moving north after devastating parts of florida. this morning we are asking you on your thoughts on the role of the federal government should play in natural disaster response. have you ever apply for federal assistance? how do you rate local assistance? for eastern and central's time

zones (202) 748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. and a special line for those impacted by the hurricane at (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. we are on social media at facebook.com/social -- facebook.com/c-span. welcome to washington journal. i want to show you a couple headlines and we will hear from governor desantis and president biden. take a look at cnn.com. as ian weakens farther inland, recovery efforts are underway in florida and south carolina. here is abc news.com. hurricane ian could cause 65 billion in damage. the best case scenario for damage is $55 billion.

take a look at the front page of the washington post. the headline is "as ian hits south carolina, fortis still digs out". this says that about 34,000 floridians have filed for federal emergency aid according to governor ron desantis. at least 23 people have been identified to be victims of the storm as a friday evening. before the department of law enforcement said. confirmed the causes of death are a slow and deliberate process and the toll is likely to rise as medical examiners complete more autopsies. let's hear from governor ron desantis florida. he was with reporters yesterday after he took a tour of some areas devastated by these storm. [video clip] >> is there an idea so much that

so far of the cost we have seen? >> i think that will take some time. i can tell you with our preparations in everything we do to prepare for the state, it was hundreds of millions of dollars. $300 million from the time that storm developed. we said last week it was going to be an issue and declared a state of emergency. we were able to do that and that has helped with the response tremendously. you remember i proposed a couple years ago to have a fund in state government for disaster response. we have $500 million that we earmark every year. this is the first time unfortunately that we are having to tap it at that money was there and ready to go. now that fema -- now that the administration has given out the 30 days, a lot of that is going to be reimbursable. a lot of what the local governments and local communities have done is the first 30 days will be 100%

reimbursable by the federal government. that was similar to what was done with other hurricanes like michael. the thing about this one is sometimes you hear hurricanes and it will hit one place in one state. in florida, when they meander across the peninsula, you are hitting all these communities and there is a lot of impact across the state. host: that's here now from president biden who also made remarks about the devastation in florida and the federal resources he is allocating to search and rescue efforts. [video clip] pres. biden: the situation in fort is far more devastating. we are just beginning to see the scale of the destruction. it is likely to among the worst in the nation's history. you have all seen the videos on television, homes and properties wiped out. it will take months and years to rebuild my heart -- our hearts

go out to all peoples lives were devastated by the storm. america's heart is freaking, just watching people watch it on television. i want you to know we see what you are going through and we are with you. we are going to do everything we can for you. i say to the rest of americans, imagine yourself in that situation. water rising, walls collapsing, streets turned literately -- literally into rivers. the homeless people work so hard to establish literately washed away. folks across the country are now waiting to hear from parents and grandparents who live in florida , hoping and praying they are ok. we have pre-deployed the largest team of search and rescue folks in recent history. because so many of the rescuers need to be there in place now,

in the water now. the u.s. coast guard has been deployed as well. six aircraft, 18 rescue boats and crews, 16 rescue helicopters which were in the air all day yesterday and are again today. working with the defense department, the national guard, state and local first was honors, they have rescued a hundred 70 people on the southwest florida coast in fort myers and naples so far. host: we are asking you your thoughts on the proper role the government should play in disaster response. let's hear first from ed calling from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: hello. let's have those in florida helping people from the flood, the hurricane identified larger generic year-long need, poverty,

food insecurity, housing, mental health needs and connect them with people and institutions that can help. so we can help people with their larger, year-long generic's. in other words, a passionate social worker mentality. host: and who should do that? is there a role in the government? caller: everybody in florida who is helping. government, charities. though beyond the flood and identify the poorest of the poor and connect them with proper resources so we can help them with their larger lives all the time. host: all right. ron in san clemente, california. hello. caller: hello there. before i say anything about this issue, i just want to commend you on being such a good moderator. wonderful to have you on board

the whole c-span crew. really good, thank you so much. as far as this terrible event and the travesty for the whole state of florida, it is wonderful for one reason. that is that our president has been through 40-50 years of these kinds of events and has prior service on that. that is good. the bad thing is that president trump is not going to have his rallies and he will not be able to throughout paper towels to everybody and let him know how much he feels for them. it is just a sad story. anyway, we are hopeful that it all works out for the people of florida. i think we have the right people on the job at this point. thanks a lot. host: let's take a look at politico. here is the headline. it says this could break the

bank. category four hurricane turns to a vulnerable coast. development has blocked states like fort out that are susceptible to powerful storm surges, just as it has two wildfire prone parts of the west. i am wondering what you think of that. people building along coast that are vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes, there are people building in areas prone to other natural disasters like wild fires, tornadoes. interested to know what you think. you can give us a call and share your thoughts. here is the hill newspaper. it says president biden says it will take years to rebuild from hurricane ian. the beginning says president biden on friday said it will take years to rebuild from hurricane and which dealt a serious blow to florida. it is now approaching the south carolina coast.

it says that president biden said the search-and-rescue team in recent u.s. history has been deployed and 170 people have already been rescued along the southwest florida coast. the coast guard saved people ranging from a 94-year-old woman to a one month old baby. he said you have all seen on television homes and property wiped out. it will take months and years to rebuild and never hearts go out to all those folks whose lives have been devastated by the storm. i am wondering what you think of the role the government should play. have you ever applied for federal disaster assistance? have you been affected by a storm? let's hear from steve who is in indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern in this is all the money that is going to be spent

on this rebuilding, especially our government. i do not even believe that any of the money -- maybe 20% of the money might get to them. it is just like the hillary clinton deal. she collected money for years for disasters, $3 billion. seems like the -- that is all they want to do. still all the relief in. host: you think the people that are affected are stealing it? do you think the government should not? caller: i think our government is stealing it. the government is stealing the money. we had $150 billion come up missing from the covid relief money. they never did find that.

it just vanished a fort in the wind -- fart in the wind. host: let's hear from christine who was with governor ron desantis yesterday. [video clip] >> will send inspectors out to look at what the damages are. it is important to note that fema does not replace insurance so insurance is your first line you need to go to and then we can help jumpstart the rest of the recovery process. we are capped for how much money we can give repairs but we have the same amount of money we can give for personal property belongings we will continue to work with individuals because we know their cases all unique. every individual is going to have is that have a unique circumstance, specific to them. so we will have case managers. when i was talking to guthrie, we were already starting the case manager process. host: that was the fema

administrator. we are talking about the role the government should play in disaster response. we are hearing your thoughts and comments. connecticut, mike, good morning. caller: morning. this is perhaps an odd way to look at it and i think we heard a bit from the president yesterday talking about let's leave politics out of it. let's leave politics behind. this is a great opportunity to bring this country together to help americans. i think we saw a bit of that between governor desantis and president biden yesterday. perhaps even because he lives in the state, donald trump, the former president who lives in florida, perhaps we could involve him in bringing people together. if nothing more than getting him to throw paper towels for the people of sanibel island.

i think it would be a wonderful opportunity to bring people together. host: sandy is next out of columbus, ohio. caller: i would like to say the government does allocate a lot of funding to these disaster areas. but what happened like in florida, the state and local government use the money for other things because their mayors were on tv talking about the infrastructure that the money was allocated they did not get to them. when we talk about the government, they always give the money to all of these areas. but the local governments spend it and withhold it and they do not do repairs as necessary. host: so you want to see better oversight of the funding that does go? caller: yes but the government cannot do everything. it seems like the people of the

states would vote in people that would fix things like the building that fell in miami. that was a structural thing. the money that they have their that the government and the states is not doing their part in keeping up the state. host: i wanted to show you an article from the new york times. it says ron desantis wants a no on storm a, petition the president. the fort or governor as a congressman opposed aid to of hurricane sandy but is seeking relief from the biden administration as hurricane ian ravages his own state. you can see a picture of destroyed homes and flooded streets in florida. it says as a freshman congressman in 2013, he was conspicuous of federal billets after hurricane sandy was at irresponsible boondoggle.

a simple quote of put it on the credit card in tallassee. he said "i sympathize with the victims but his answer was no". what do you think of the role of government in natural disasters? we will hear next from shirley in mississippi. caller: hello. this country is so split and divided. if this country does not come back together, and everyone learn how to help one another no matter what caller they are and work together, because even in -- you always see people are doing so bad that god shows his hand. sometimes that is the way it is going to be, if we do not get out from under this curse, learn how to love one another, work together and try to help one

another. we were considered the best country in the whole wide world and now we have fallen and we have fallen fast. let's come back to god. host: all right, shirley. here is a foxnews.com about the new york article i just read. it says hurricane ian, msnbc, new york times and war mocks ron desantis asking biden for federal assistance. saying it took a natural disaster to stop ron desantis's "political terrorism". steve sent us a tweet. he says president biden should plan a trip to fort myers soon to visit floridians there. you can give us a call and let us know what you think about natural disasters, specifically about the government's role.

have you ever applied for aid? how did it go? have you had to rebuild after a not for disaster? we would love to hear what you think in your thoughts about that -- and your thoughts about that. here is reason.com, and this talks about the insurance -- federal flood insurance. it says government subsidies encouraged millions to move into hurricane ian's destructive path . it says the extent of the havoc wreaked in photo by hurricane ian now downgraded to a tropical storm is still unclear but it is apparent it caused major damage for which for radiance will need ample help recovering. millions of people without power, an untold number of homes

destroyed. after the hurricane pummeled fortis coast for most of yesterday, ice -- governor ron desantis said ian would rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. let's hear next from clearance in bronx, new york. you were impacted? caller: yes. i am in the bronx but i am actually a floridian. i was very fortunate that i came from the sarasota area and that was very fortunate ace on information i have gotten from my neighbors, that my home is in pretty good shape. i had some downed trees and a lot of debris but for the most part, the house is fine. and with respect to your question, i think the government has a major role to play but

also as the first caller said, i think you have to marshal all the forces. city, state, federal, local charities, community organizations. the key thing for me, i am an african-american, and the key for me is equity in whatever is done. two, i think you have to have accountability in the system like one caller talked about. accountability is important in terms of how the money gets distributed. host: take a look on the screen. here are the top five most costly weather disasters topping the list is hurricane katrina in 2005. note these numbers are all adjusted for inflation.

followed by hurricane harvey, maria, sandy, and ida. of course we do not know about ian but notice that besides hurricane katrina which was a while ago, all of these very expensive disasters happening since 2017. let's hear next from connie, tacoma, washington. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that it concerns me when i see these states asking for federal assistance when they seem to be working against them -- against uncle sam on so many issues. when offered different resources, they do not want the federal government to help states out with so many things they need. also, with global warming, as far as rebuilding florida, the storms are going to keep happening. i do not want to be throwing my tax dollars after bad pursuits.

it is just going to flood again and we are going to have or hurricanes -- have more hurricanes and more destruction. i think people need to move and make wiser choices on where they resettle. host: connie are you still there? caller: yes. host: i wonder what you think about -- you said they should be encouraged to move somewhere else. some people said they should be banned from building in some areas. what do you think of that? caller: i agree with that. i do not think insurance companies are going to be able to handle this burden. all our insurance rates are going to be going up. i do think we need to put in legislation to prevent that from happening. i understand people leaving their homes and how hard that must be for them but there is a saying, a curve in the road is not the end of the road unless

you fail to make the turn. i think we need to make the term here. host: jared is next in wisconsin. caller: yes, good morning. i agree with the previous caller . the federal government certainly has a role in helping these seashore states or coastal states rebuild. however, these areas have been developed unbelievably out of greed, right up to the seashore. it is crazy and it should not be allowed. there is a lot of unfortunate people that wound up living in very low lying areas. it is just unconscionable. then you have the state of florida which does not even have a state tax, as far as i understand.

they should be having a fund. they live in an area where these disasters are going to keep happening. host: let's take a look at this quote from politico. it says the number of climatic fuel disasters in the u.s. with $1 billion or more in damage is surging. federal agencies have noticed a trend that is largely a factor of more money as investment being poured into places that are vulnerable to climate risk. providing safety in those communities is vexing for the federal government which spends millions on disaster recovery annually and for local governments that stand to gain revenue from development in risky locations. i also want to show you some tweets that came in. sandy says one role would be educating people about climate change and the effects of

overbuilding along vulnerable areas. cynthia says it is clear governments can no longer promise to rebuild afterwards. folks should not be living at sea level in florida. the focus needs to be on rebuilding sustainably. let's hear next from pat in decatur, illinois. caller: good morning. i want to just say that i think the government should not be involved to any degree beyond helping rebuild the infrastructures that the government has already been responsible for. i think the natural incentives and disincentives that are involved in the private market and free enterprise will best regulate where people build and where they don't. because certainly we would not have all the multibillion-dollar houses and other facilities

built up to the seashore if it was not for the subsidies involved in insurance. private insurance is either unavailable or far too expensive for people to build houses there. it is only there because the government came in there and subsidized insurance. whether it is obama's multi-multibillion-dollar hundreds of dollars mansion in martha's vineyard. whether it is, i am sure there are conservatives with rich houses right along the seashore. there is no reason the government and people should be subsidizing those facilities. it would not be practical. the only thing i want to make sure and mention, and one reason conservatives are often upset with your show, is because you just quoted the new york times article on ron desantis's vote and you seemed to mention fox news but all you read was the

headline that just confirms the article you wrote was criticizing ron desantis. the reality is if you look at that package, that was the package of relief that obama and the democrat-controlled congress put on all sorts of money, just like the covid relief, where billions of dollars are wasted to fraud and international criminals. 30% of the money in the bill that ron desantis voted against went to hurricane relief. the democrats put all kinds of other expenses on it and try to criticize anyone that voted against it because they named it a hurricane bill and the media along with it. i see that happening again especially in the new sources like the one to use consistently for the program so i ask you to think about broadening the new sources you use and not repeating the same thing over and over that is published in all of those washington post, new york times, and -- msnbc.

host: democratic congressman jim callan was on the house for yesterday, highlighting disaster relief in the stopgap funding bill. p [video clip] >> i mentioned earlier the devastating hurricane in florida . we also had a devastating hurricane in puerto rico from hurricane fiona traded and people in alaska are recovering from a terrifying typhoon. this bill will help people across the u.s. as they recover from natural disasters. madam speaker, we are talking about hurricane relief. i am begging my republican friends, can we please come together in providing relief to our communities devastated by hurricanes. we all agree that we ought not to shut the government down in the middle of a major disaster response? the funding in this bill will help families and small businesses get back on their

feet and rebuild from extreme weather events while repairing damage to critical infrastructure. this is a bipartisan bill. it earned 72 votes in the senate. do not think it could get 72 votes in the senate on what to have for lunch, let alone on government funding legislation. host: we are asking you about what you think the government's role should be in natural disasters. take a look at the top republican on the committee. kate granger voted no on the funding bill and said it is currently focused on the wrong policy. [video clip] >> i oppose this for several reasons. we should be here addressing the border crisis, the energy crisis, the inflation crisis. this bill does nothing to fix any of these issues. this bill actually bails out the biden administration for their failures and provides additional

appropriations to put a band-aid on some of these problems for a few more months. for example, this bill includes nearly $2 billion in funding for children and families flooding the border, providing more funding without changing the policies that led to this crisis will only encourage more migrants to come. second, it is unfortunate that this bill would be rushed through the house today was just hours to spare to avoid a government shutdown. the american people continue to wonder why congress could not get its job done until the very last minute and why we do not have more time to review legislation. for these reasons, i urge my colleagues to vote no and i reserve the balance of my time. host: take a look at roll call.com. it says the stopgap funding bill cleared the house and says lines are drawn for a lame-duck spending battle and request

roles for more hurricane 80. let's talk to jimmy in seattle, washington next. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: will make it short and sweet. when it comes to natural disasters, the topic is for the day that you get to what you put into the federal government. you can't put 2% in and want 75%. that is all i have to say about that. host: james next in kansas. hello james. caller: hello. first, to comment on kate granger, if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. she should step up and help do the immigration solution so that

is why have to say about that. the second part is we should not have to go in and repair florida every year at the government's expense. but they should do is use those properties in a way when they can all vehicles and houses out of there. have a wider range of rv parks and if they need concrete structures, they should be on footing so the water can flow under them and they went around them and this does not happen again. buy an rv park, they have really good products out there that people live in your route. it should also make any alliance that not everyone is going to have a pickup truck to pull one but that should be around. host: let's talk to john next in hague, virginia. what do you think? caller: i am getting pretty

tired and kind of sick of hearing democrats. you get democrats on and you have democrats calling in and they want to blame republicans. republicans aren't in charge of the white house or the house. there are not in charge of the senate so how is it the republicans fault? you tell me? host: how are they blaming republicans? tell me more about that. caller: about the votes for raising the debt limit and stuff like that. host: john, tell me what you think the role of government should be in natural disaster response? caller: they should fund it, they should. host: list take a look at twitter -- left as take a look at twitter. the first tweet is from mylan who says disaster eta bills are always full of pork, that is how

they passed. i would lawmakers in nebraska support hurricane aid over and over again without something in it for them? nebraska seldom has any natural disasters. venice says assume for a gets $5 million in nebraska 80, how much of that you think will reach the people? very little, that is how they roll. some people have been talking about the natural zesty national flood insurance program. i want to show numbers like that on the screen. over one trillion dollars in coverage provided by policies which is the national flood insurance program. we will go next to chris who is calling us from all of, mississippi. caller: good morning. i have one sort of idea about what goes on with this

rebuilding of florida. there are so many migrants and immigrants coming into this country who are skilled workers. not all of them but skilled workers who need a job. they need a place to stay. i know, where i live in mississippi, anybody who is having a roof put on is always by hispanic people. they are hard workers and they work all day long in the heat. our trash collectors. host: what do you think the role should be for government in natural disasters? caller: i think they should bring in the migrants who are here and are willing to work in florida to help rebuild. to not send them all over the country, which is fine too, but

do not send them all over the country. they need them desperately in florida to help with cleanup and to help with rebuilding. host: let's take a look at more numbers on your screen about the national flood insurance program. the program collects over 4 billion dollars in revenue from policyholders premiums seized and surcharges. also, it owes $20 billion to the u.s. treasury and $10 billion in borrowing authority remains. the program is set to expire december 16. that was extended because of the stopgap continuing resolution. edward in newport, florida. you were impacted, tell us about it. caller: greetings. we had a home down in fort myers during hurricane charley.

it is all about construction. in essence, our home had concrete ceilings, concrete floors, concrete walls. the buttons of the windows and we had a generator. so hurricane charley went through. our condo would have withstood a category five. secondly, our niece and her husband have a home that is built on stilts and the water goes through just as you saw in south carolina. it is all about the construction. anything left in fort myers that has destruction comparable to our condo will be standing. as far as rebuilding, you can

rebuild but you have to rebuild with proper construction. example, mexico beach in the panhandle. there was one home that survived the hurricane in 2017 and that home, the owner spends 35% more on construction after the hurricane. all the homes in mexico beach after the hurricane were completely wiped out with the exception of one home. host: as you said, it is more expensive to build that way. you are saying the homeowners should bear that cost if they want to build in flood zones or hurricane zones than they need to spare the extra cost of making their homework resilient? edward? caller: yes. host: you have to meet your tv.

caller: ok. it is muted. host: i am just wondering what you think the role of the federal government should be? i hear what you're saying about making homes more resilient. the government pay for that in rebuilding? should that cost be borne by the homeowners? should there be regulations about that and say if you want to build here than you have to build it this way? caller: no role for the federal government. they need to stay out of anything. amtrak, post office, etc. anything they are involved with is just a waste of money. it is all about self responsibility. if an individual wants to live on a beach, they have to have the proper construction and that is all i have to say about that, just like forced to go -- like forrest gump.

host: robin, you were impacted. caller: we were getting bye-bye the skin of our tea because it brought a lot of wind and rain but we did not get as -- hit as bad as our neighbors down south. saying the republicans have no say in this, it is not about the federal government all the time. the state government in florida has allowed the insurance companies to basically just price people either out of areas by going up and changing the flood zone constantly with their building, without thinking about their neighbors. however, there were a lot of laws. you could not build anything for a long time that had more than five stories within five miles of the coast. the loss kept getting changed

over time and it happens slowly. we can fix it if we go back to it but we really do need to understand that it is technical. it is not a republican state. it is really the republicans in the senate who take the money, decide the laws and which ones to get rid of. they are responsible. however, i think governor desantis did a good job. he really did. president biden helps as best as he can. host: when he said the government should have a role because we all pay into it with our taxes? there are people in other parts of the country who say why do i have to keep paying for florida because it keeps getting devastated by these hurricanes. what you think of that? caller: that is my point about where to build and how much to build on the coast. i agree.

there were laws in place that were taken out of that should have stayed. like nothing above five stories and nothing within five miles. you could not do it but now you can't go past day-to-day without seeing -- you cannot see the ocean anymore for all the buildings. i agree with that. also building changes the level of the elevation of the ground so therefore flood zones change. they also build where they block the flow of the water to get to the swap. i believe we should help because i don't care, we send help. we sent help for sandy because that's what we are supposed to do. we are neighbors. we are not getting along right now but that is ok. we are still good friends and neighbors and we are going to take care of each other.

i do not have a dog in either hunt. i just watched. host: let's take a look at what people are sending us by twitter. here is steve. he says they reimburse what is the cost to repair and rebuild the same structure, if they are covered at all. this does not mean they have to build the same structure. they can use their own money to build back better or take the money and build elsewhere. jim marie says let's be honest, this is a horrific tragedy. the republicans have been weaponizing the role of the federal government and misappropriating billions of dollars to the "border" and other political gain. i wonder what you think about the role of the government in natural disasters and if you had any personal experience with that. talk to michael in california. caller: good morning.

i think what we should do since this seems to be happening all the time is puts a big hands from tech -- a big fence from texas to south carolina and nobody can live there. we are doing this year after year after year after year. the rest of us that do not live there are subsidizing all of this. they cannot even give us a bill right now and now they are showing these luxury places they are building on the host. everybody knows this is going to happen. out in -- i do not feel as a taxpayer in california that i should be bailing out all of these states that are consistently getting hit by these devastating hurricanes. host: but you are in california so what if you are hit by a forest fire? caller: i live in the desert.

not going to happen to be. host: but what about other parts of the west? there are wildfires, there is drought. caller: those idiots should not be building houses next to force. when we looked at buying a second home, the first thing be said is we have to keep -- have to quit subsidizing all these bad decisions made by people to live in environments -- host: hold on. it's about drought? that is also a natural disaster. caller: the drought is something that is up to god about whether we get rain or not. we can build more dams, we can quit watering logs. i am very frugal. i turn off my shower. there is a lot of things became due. we need to build more dams out here in california. all the farmers will say 85% of the water is going back to the ocean and we are way behind on

building dams. host: there is some other news and wanted to make sure you are aware of and i will get back to your calls about this topic which is the government's role in natural disasters. you can feel free to call in. the situation happening in ukraine and russia. president biden spoke about that yesterday. he reacted to the news of vladimir putin's annexation of parts of ukraine and here he is. [video clip] >> america and its allies are not going to be intimidated. we are not going to be intimidated by vladimir putin and his reckless words and threats. he is not going to scare us or intimidate us. his actions are a sign he is struggling. his sham referendum that he has carried out in this routine he put on, don't worry.

this sham routine that he put on this morning is showing the unity and the people holding hands together, the u.s. is never going to recognize this and the world is not going to recognize this either. cannot sees his neighbor's territory and get away with this, as simple as that. they are going to stay the course and continue to provide -- and we are going to continue to provide equipment so ukraine can defend itself. there are also additional resources congress is giving today of 13 billion more dollars to help ukraine defend itself and fight back. we are fully prepared to defend. i want to say again that america is fully prepared to defend with our nato allies every single inch of nato territory. every single inch. mr. putin, do not misunderstand

what i am saying. every inch. host: that was the president reacting to vladimir putin's annexation of parts of ukraine. craning forces to hold some of those areas that have been annexed -- ukrainian forces still hold some of those areas that have been annexed. we are going to be dedicating the next hour to what is happening in ukraine and vladimir putin's actions there so be sure to for that. we are talking in this hour of phones on the government's role in natural disasters. some people have called in who are impacted by the hurricane. i want to make sure you are aware of fema.gov in case you are affected in any way to apply for assistance. this is what the website looks like and there is a button right there for applying for federal disaster aid. let's talk next to bill.

he is in west virginia. caller: hello. i am calling about what you are talking about. where i live at, every year people get new homes in this state because they live in these places where we have floods. i cannot see why we have to pay, as american citizens, for them to have a new home every year. now, florida does not pay the same taxes. so they are using our money. they are using the ones that do pay taxes to pay for new homes in florida. host: should taxpayers not allowed people affected by hurricane ian? caller: if you do not pay taxes, you did not pay federal or anything to the government, why

should you expect anything back? host: meridians do pay federal taxes -- floridians do pay federal taxes. caller: they do not pay nearly as much taxes as regular people because that is why elderly people moved to that state because there taxes are low. they do not pay anything compared to what i paid. host: you think the solution would be a higher tax rate for people living in disaster prone areas? caller: yes, if you live there, you ought to pay extra because they are living right there on the beaches. host: diane in key west, florida . how are things in key west? caller: we got hurricane ian. it was stronger than i thought. i have been here for over 30 years and i think it was up

there with hurricane wilma and hurricane katrina. the ones -- winds were stronger. i was nervous. we had 1.5 feet of water. some people lost their cars. i lost my wash machine and dryer selected myself lucky. on this topic of the government, the locals here in the florida keys for years have been trying to protect the environment. there protection from the government years ago because of the older development. they initiated a program and we were coming to the end of that. we have so much housing that there was just a few years ago, there were no more road goes left so governor scott, before he left, he gave 1300 row go's. developers find ways to build.

they say we need affordable housing so it is considered an emergency of rices so those buildings are allowed to stay. these days they do not just build one house but huge projects like 300 apartments in one area. the locals, we complain about it and we complain about it and we say to our commissioners please, the impact. right now we have so much traffic. it is impacting the environment. they do not care. developers in florida for some reason are given special permissions. they do not pay for the building permits, they get row goes for free. it is not affordable housing. it is expensive market rate. for jet is that one of the most expensive cities to live -- florida is now one of the those expensive states to live in.

the local government does not hear us. they have an agenda and we do not understand it. we also have an initiative that the people banded together and got signatures on a ballot for safer, cleaner ships. it was tremendous the amount of cruise ships that would come into our ports. and they won. host: and a lot of people are saying people should not live in places like key west that are part -- are prone to hurricanes and costly needing to be rebuilt. what do you think of that? would you leave? caller: i agree. host: but you are still there, are you going to leave? caller: you know what's, i would be a hypocrite i guess. but for any future development, let us be practical. for any future development, people buy and sell whatever

they can sell. whether it is dangerous or not, they want to make a profit. if we have a new commission for the people and their own safety, the people who are here, those houses that are torn down, perhaps not let them rebuild -- perhaps do not let them rebuild. it's going to happen now in florida. the cities that were just devastated, you are going to watch developers come in and build two or three times the more housing that was just destroyed. i say, for the safety of people, do not build new the -- near the coast for any future development and perhaps that would be fair. host: henry in inglewood, california. caller: good morning. i just want to quickly say that i think the government should help.

let me say, i pray with people in fort myers. i used to live in fort myers. looking at the news, my spirit was down. i use to on captiva island. i drove over that causeway bridge. but i think that moving forward, there has to be a standard when people want to rebuild. because at -- a hurricane is no joke. i was fortunate to go through hurricane in september 15, 19 95 in st. thomas. that night, i thought i was going to die. host: what do you think when people say you should not rebuild there? ricky has come through all the time and just do not build -- hurricanes come through all the time and just do not build houses there. caller: i would think that if

hurricanes come past, you probably should not build because what do they say, you are doing the session sanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? they have to rebuild to a different standard like a previous caller said. they are putting money into this but if there is another hurricane then you should probably not rebuild. host: james in melbourne, arkansas. james, are you there? james is not there. we can get in another tweet from lou greene who says this. those of us born in florida know to keep away from water especially when building a home. i would never live near the water and only live inland, far

away from the coast. the building needs common sense. the beaches only for swimming and federal governments should not pay a dime. that is all the time we have for the time we have for this segment of washington journal. up next, we turn our attention to russian president vladimir putin's move yesterday to annex occupied territory in ukraine. that conversation is with mark cancian, the military expert at the center for strategic and international studies. later in the program is our weekly spotlight on podcast featuring new york times national political reporter astead herndon and his podcast called "the run-up". we'll talk about the campaign in 2022 and why the selection is not just a referendum on the party in power. ♪ >> american history tv,

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watching on c-span. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. for this hour we are speaking to market kantian. -- we are speaking to mark. mark, welcome to the program. we will be talking about putin's annexation of parts of ukraine, the possibility of escalation. if you would like to give us a call, please do. our lines are by party affiliation. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. i want to start with this annexation. i would like you to hear what putin said through an

interpreter yesterday in moscow. [video clip] >> i consider russia my motherland. i think and speak in russian. i believe in the spiritual strength of the russian people. the spirit of the people is my spirit. it's destiny is my destiny -- its destiny is my destiny. its prosperity is joy to me, and the great spiritual choices behind these words and many generations of our ancestors followed this path, and we are making this choice. citizens of the donetsk republic made the decision to be with their motherland, to share

its destiny, twin and prevail with its motherland. russia is with us -- to win and prevail with its motherland. russia is with us. host: there you heard president putin through an interpreter. guest: he starts with this ode to russia. that has been consistent with his views are his entire life. he has this mystical view of russia and the russian homeland. he sees that not just as the russia we have today, but as greater russia, harkening back to the russian empire, the soviet union. he talks about incorporating these new territories they have

chosen to be with mother russia. he regards all of ukraine as historically part of russia. at the beginning of the war he argued he wanted to bring all of ukraine in. that is consistent with his long-standing views. host: i want to show you also a headline, front page of the washington post this morning. it says " in speech putin steps deeper into the mire. he excoriates the west and leaves no easy exit." it says that " by proclaiming the largest military seizure of territories since world war ii, putin left no offramp from his war in ukraine, placing russia and ukraine in danger. a new, more perilous phase of the conflict, russia has --

putin has made clear is not just with ukraine, but with the world." is there really no offramp for putin? guest: putin had been claiming the entire country. of course kiev and zelenskyy said they wanted to liberate all of ukraine, not just of the territories that have been conquered since february 24, but the donbas and crimea. there is no common ground. this makes it even worse. putin has essentially burned the bridges behind him by incorporating these territories. negotiated settlements are even further away. we expect the war will continue

for some time. host: ukraine has formally applied to nato membership. is there any -- guest: there is no possibility. i think as a gesture -- ukraine wants to declare its links to nato -- i think practically it is very difficult with this ongoing war. if ukraine were to join nato, that would lead nato to defend him and the united states and nato have been emphatic that they will not send troops into ukraine. they will provide support, training, equipment, but not troops on the ground. we heard that in president biden's speech a few minutes ago. he was emphatic that nato would defend nato territory, but he did not include ukraine. host: obviously the other big

news is putin calling up the reserves, which he has resisted doing up until now. what does that tell you and the reaction in russia to that? guest: the russian military effort is failing. that is not much of a secret. an acknowledgment by putin that they had to do something -- i think the generals went to him and said " we have to do something. if we do not do something, our whole position might collapse>" he could have sought -- might collapse." he could have used nuclear weapons, so he opted for this partial mobilization, which gets boots out there to solidify his position. this longer political strategy

is to keep the war going until the winter when he hopes that high energy prices, inflation and the cold weather will come together and induce the european populations to push for a cease-fire. host: as far as the quality of those trips, we saw the training of the -- troops, we saw the training of the russian troops left a lot to be desired as far as professionalism was concerned. guest: some of these troops got out before and are being pulled back into service. that has always been in place in russia. the big thing is that because these troops have been out for many years, they need new training. putin and the minister of defense said they would get that

training, but the chaos of the mobilization does not seem to be allowing for that training so these troops are showing up very poorly trained. plus there is the question of motivation. we have seen russian males fleeing the country. the craniums are not very well-trained either. the ukrainians -- the ukrainians are not very well-trained either. the ukrainians have been clever in building a defense, but most of these are troops that were called up after the war. they got may be 2 weeks of training. in the marine corps, they give a new recruit 22 weeks of training before they send that recruit into combat. host: let's hear from some callers now. joyce is in flint, michigan.

caller: does anyone feel the way that i feel? we already spent about $13 billion. we are spending another $13 billion, yet we cannot get our budget approved. it we were upset about the student loan forgiveness of $10,000. we have no childcare for our mothers, we have a homeless situation we could not get health care for the american people. i do not understand how we are always so quick to send money to other countries, but tax dollars for americans, we can never do anything at all. we just got out of the war in afghanistan. now we are in a financial war for ukraine. does anyone feel the way i feel? host: let's get a response. guest: the u.s. has committed a

lot of resources to ukraine with the $13 billion the president has proposed, that brings the total up to $66 billion. about half of that is military aid. it is a substantial commitment. there are elements on both the left and the right. that is the progressive left and the populist right, both making the argument we just heard, that we should be spending this money at home, rather than sending it abroad. i think many people in washington, myself included, would argue that defending democracy is worth expending some resources, that they ukrainians are resisting, and without the support we give them that resistance would collapse. it is worth doing, but i

understand the argument and the concerns about resource demands. host: let's go to the republican line next in harrisburg, pennsylvania. wayne, good morning. caller: the lady who just called in, i agreed with everything she was saying. why can't we spend that to $60 billion at home? the united states -- why would you send them weapons? if you do not send them weapons, they are going to surrender. you are getting people killed over there. host: you would prefer the ukrainians surrendered to russia, wayne? caller: i would. they are going to lose anyway. guest: i think the answer to that is no. early on there were questions as

to whether they would succeed in maintaining an autonomous ukraine, but now the tide of the war has changed. they launched a counteroffensive that claimed significant territory. the balance of forces is in the favor of theo craniums. the training is getting -- the ukrainians. the training is getting better. at lease to they will be able to hold onto what they have. in terms of the spending, as i noted, there are a number of americans, and many who believe we have -- i would point out we have a military budget of $66 billion. we have a federal budget of $5 trillion so the $66 billion to protect the independence of ukraine, to keep the russians at

bay, and safeguard democracy is not a terribly high price to pay. host: what would happen if we had not send those weapons and that support? caller: the ukrainians would have been overwhelmed in 2 or 3 weeks. zelenskyy has turned out to be the greatest wartime leader since winston churchill, but there's only so much he can do, if you do not receive supplies and equipment. every army needs a constant flow of equipment and munitions. i think they would have held out 2 or 3 weeks but there is no way they could have gone beyond that. host: i know we are talking hypotheticals, but had ukraine just collapsed or had they surrendered, what happens ? -- what happens? caller: the problem there would be twofold. you would have russians on the

eastern border of nato, bordering poland and romania, so the threats to those two countries would have increased. the poles are scared to death of that eventuality. it would have emboldened the russians. an easy success as they were planning on would have encouraged them to launch attacks on other countries. they are very exposed and difficult to defend. there is also a concern about what china is learning regarding taiwan. china, just like russia, claims taiwan as part of its national territory. they have stated emphatically that one way or another, they will breen that back -- bring that back into the fold. had they seen an easy victory they might have used that to attack taiwan.

there is a high likelihood the u.s. would be brought in and that would be a catastrophic conflict. host: let's talk to al next in virginia on the independent line. caller: hello. i would like to ask the colonel why president biden doesn't take a page out of the way book of john f. kennedy. kennedy got us out of a dangerous situation in the cuban missile crisis. host: al, you have to mute your tv, just talk on. the phone -- guest: i think eat -- just talk on the phone. i think he is talking about the cuban missile crisis and a blockade? caller: the problem with -- guest: the problem with a blockade is it is an act of

war. the u.s. had overwhelming military superiority in the caribbean. enforcing a blockade was militarily achievable. trying to do that for russia today would be extremely dangerous. russia is a large

guest: that is a great question and there has been a lot of speculation about what if russia actually decided to use nuclear

weapons, and there are a couple of things they might do. they might use it to gain an advantage, or may be to use nuclear weapons on transportation nodes and airfields and supply depots. the battlefield use of nuclear weapons is -- the thing about the battlefield use of nuclear weapons is you have to use a lot of them. keep in mind, military forces on the front line are thinly distributed and well protected, so you do not inflict a lot of casualties, you do not have a lot of effect. you need to use a lot of weapons, 10 to 15 to gain a battlefield advantage. they might use nuclear weapons as a political point.

they might have it go off over some uninhabited area to make a political point to try to intimidate ukraine. host: i want to show our viewers some maps from the washington post. here is the map of ukraine before russia's invasion. you can see here crimea was annexed by russia in 2014. and the donetsk and luhansk was held by russian-backed separatists. now here since putin's illegal annexation, these are the areas that have been included. these are russian held areas but they are still contested here in that map. let's talk to jimbo next in bakersfield, california. good morning. caller: good morning and thank

you for the excellent work c-span does. also your guest -- your organization provides so much useful information. inc. you for your organization. here are my three points and three question -- thank you for your organization. putin's speech seemed to be a pre-buttal the use of technical nuclear weapons in eastern ukraine. my question is this -- why would putin not use tactical nukes in eastern ukraine, if he perceives himself using, now that he has the pretext of calling them part of russia? the second question i have for you is where does the world reach a point where we understand that it is putin versus 8 billion of us? when do we reach that threshold?

i cannot thank you enough for the great work your organization does and for c-span. bye-bye! host: by. -- bye. guest: there are a lot of reasons why putin might not use nuclear weapons. it might escalate to strikes upon the russian homeland. a general nuclear strike is not inevitable but it would be catastrophic. if you are putin, you have to we igh to russia-- weigh the threats of an existential threat to russia and capturing ukraine. there is a whole range of pushbacks the united states and nato could make against a nuclear detonation. the u.s. government has

threatened severe consequences. i do not think we would use a nuclear weapon in response. there are still a wide variety of things we could do. we could tighten sanctions on china and -- tighten the sanctions. china and india are really not abiding by the sanctions. the detonation of a nuclear weapon would further isolate russia. so far, it is clearly not worthwhile for putin. instead he opted for this partial mobilization. host: let's hear from jack next in fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning, colonel. i think this really started in 2014 when he took crimea and nothing was done whatsoever. it is hard to believe he

would use nuclear weapons when the prevailing winds would end up killing the russians. as far as now, i would think there are a few things that should be done. we do not need to attack russia, but i wonder what the colonel would think about blocking the darnell's so russian ships could not get out of the black sea, and let him know that that blockade would -- thank you for all you do, c-span. guest: there are a variety of things i think united states and nato would do. one thing would be to strengthen eastern european allies,, bringing in air defense, and may be some additional troops. it is also possible that we might take action in the black

sea, as you note. the darnell's themselves, there is a whole question. the straits are controlled by turkey, and we have to bring turkey into any decision that we wanted to make. if there was a use of nuclear weapons, they might come along and be willing to blockade the straits. in general, the use of a nuclear weapon would change the dynamics across the globe, and make it possible to take some severe actions that so far many countries have been unwilling to do. host: back to the question of the cost and the funds going to ukraine, jodi says " when we were soaking money into afghanistan, i felt the same way except we were paying the cost of losing american troops.

we are not paying that cost in ukraine. here is another one, that says, " what has europe done to help ukraine? have they given as much as the u.s.?" the question here is the comparison with the rest of the world and their support for ukraine and the cost of iraq and afghanistan, putting that in perspective. host: -- guest: on the first point about the relative costs of ukraine versus iraq and afghanistan, in ukraine we committed $66 billion. the cost of those 2 wars, depending on how you count, was in the trillions.

there was also a bunch of secondary effects. by comparison, what we are doing is much less demanding. the other point about u.s. troops is important. putin has claimed that this is a proxy war with the united states and nato, and on this point i think he is correct. it is a proxy war. we are supplying the ukrainians with weapons and training. the ukrainians are using that training and those weapons to kill russians. from a military perspective, that is a great position to be in. we are not risking our own soldiers. we are not taking losses of our own troops, but we are helping ukrainians, who are perfectly willing to do whatever it takes to defend their homeland. host: nick is next.

good morning. caller: good morning. a quick question -- if the russians destroy the nuclear power plants, would that be considered the same as using a nuclear tactical weapon? guest: the short answer is no. for two reasons -- a nuclear weapon is much more distractive, and there might not be a single nuclear weapon. powerplants, because of the construction of the one in separation -- because of the construction, the threat of widespread radiation is low. it would take a tremendous amount of effort to actually destroy them. it would be localized radiation, which would be bad for the o'quinn nance, but you would not see this --ukrainians, but you

would not see the massive plume you saw at tunable. it would be -- at chernobyl. it would be very different. host: let's talk to mike calling from fort lauderdale, florida. caller: what will happen after ukraine wins the war? i think the country is motivated and with the help of the west, they will win this war and they will get all their territory back. what will happen after? they gave away their nuclear weapons, which was a big mistake. in 1994 they signed the budapest agreement where the u.s., great britain, russia, and ukraine signed it, and they said that the borders of ukraine were guaranteed, but in 2014 when the russians invaded, obama did

zilch. nothing. britain did nothing about it either. who is going to guarantee their sovereignty, their borders after they win the war? why can't they be admitted to nato? i don't understand that at all. they are showing their ability to fight off a major army. what is the problem with them being admitted to nato? host: let's get a response. guest: it is a great question. you raise 2 points -- one is about the budapest agreement when ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. they got some guarantees, but the guarantees had no implementation mechanisms when the russians invaded in 2014.

in terms of what happens after the war, a lot depends on how the war ends. it is conceivable that ukraine will drive russia out of all occupied territories, including crimea. that would be a very long, very bloody path, but not inconceivable. whether the putin regime could survive that is up in the air. i think nato would be reluctant to bring ukraine in as long as there was any unresolved conflict. for example, if the russians still head crimea and the ukrainians -- held crimea and the ukrainians still claim that, nato would be very nervous.

you will see some long-term agreements about equipment and training, but to provide a broader spectrum of equipment that would allow the crane's to defend themselves more effectively -- ukraine to defend themselves more effectively. for example, tanks and aircraft. they take a long time to get people trained on. it is not very practical when you are looking at a war that will last may be months but if you are, thinking about a long-term security situation, where we have years, then building up the ukrainian air force, sending tanks to ukrainian forces, that makes a lot of sense. that is that kind of thing we would see in a postwar environment. host: with crimea being annexed, the caller said the obama administration did not do anything.

what are your thoughts on that? what more could have been done? guest: the united states and nato just put some sanctions onto russia. they were not terribly severe. the russians basically shook them off because of their major interaction with the west through energy. some people argued that week response encouraged -- weak response encouraged russia to take this step, thinking that the response from the west would be tolerable from their perspective. host: there will be more sanctions that were just announced. are they doing anything? more and more sanctions -- is that going to help ? guest: -- is that going to help? guest: sanctions are more of a signal. we have done about as much as we can do, short of entirely

shutting off the flow of russian energy and given that major countries like india and china are not going along with much of the sanctions. keep in mind that sanctions are long term. it takes a long time for them to bite. in military terms, the sanctions will affect russian villa terry rebuilding not there -- military rebuilding. host: let's talk to david next in liverpool, new york. caller:. good morning -- caller: good morning. do you think one of the strategies here is trying to protect, latvia estonia and lithuania against the russians because those are small countries?

i also think that our pettiness and the worrying about how much it costs, when you consider that these people are on the front lines and we are way in the back protected by an ocean. host: let's see what mark thinks. guest: the baltic countries are part of nato, and they are very exposed. the populations are small, they are distant from nato military centers. there has been a lot of concern about those countries, particularly since 2014 when it was clear that russia was willing to use its military forces. whether that was driving the response to nato, that was clearly a piece of it. if ukraine was to fall, there would be pressure on the baltic countries, which are part of nato. that is not the only reason.

even if those countries were not part of nato, the united states and nato would have supported ukraine. host: you know there was that attack on the nord stream pipeline, the undersea pipeline. what do you make of that, especially leading into winter and the energy needs of europe? putin is blaming the west for that attack. guest: right now, nobody really knows. it looks like sabotage because there were multiple fractures in the pipelines. in terms of who gains the most, it would probably be russia in the sense that a key component of the russian strategy is to force the europeans to ask for a settlement by cutting off energy supplies. putin hopes the european

population getting cold in the winter and high inflation will demand a cease-fire on the current line. i think the party is most -- who is most likely to benefit certainly looks like the russians. host: let's talk to rich next in love your, michigan -- next in michigan. caller: thanks for taking my call. i would like to ask him about the economic effects. so far the stock market is falling, $15 trillion in the u.s.. the sanctions do not seem to have worked economically for the u.s.'s benefit. we are also looking at the alienation of the russians for a

considerable amount of time politically. the soviet union was formed from the failed state of eight monarchies in europe. the peasants of europe had nowhere else to go. over the time the u.s. has continued to push the dollar into the european sphere. let's talk about the economics of the war. guest: there is no question the war has had some major economic effects. we will put aside the effects on russia, because those have been quite severe. the russian government is trying to insulate the population from the worst of those effects. in the west you have seen a couple effects. inflation is one of them with higher energy prices. there has also been a question of food supplies. it seems to of been resolved but for a while the ukrainians could

not get their agricultural products to europe. they are major elements of the world food supply. about a month ago it was not an agreement but there is no question that there has been an economic effect. there are lots of other things going on in the united states and europe so it is hard to tease out one factor. the u.s. has had the pandemic and we are still feeling the effects of that. there has been a lot of spending and some argue that that spending is driving up energy prices as much as russian action. there is no question that the war has exacerbated these negative economic effects. host: let's talk to walter in st. john. caller: good morning, mr.

colonel. i have been watching this situation since it started. including -- i always look at something as the aspect of the shoe on the other foot. i have a hypothetical question for you, and please do not ignore it. let's say, for example, the situation between the u.s. and mexico deteriorated to an extreme point, and russia stepped in and offered to have a mutual defense pact with mexico, and started moving in arms, massive forces and spending tens of billions of dollars to move-in weapons on the border with the united states. what would the united states' reply be?

i think northern mexico would be a sender very quickly. host: let's see what mark thinks. guest: i think we have to be careful about hypotheticals. the mexican government -- at first the u.s. government would say that the mexican government is suffering and can maintain foreign relations as it wants. we have to live with our southern neighbor. if the russians moved forces into mexico, that is a very different situation, but i would point out that the u.s. has not moved any forces into ukraine. the united states has been emphatic that it will defend nato where we have treaties. there is a little difference in this situation. host: let's go to thibodeau, louisiana.

janet, how are you? caller: i do not think we should be in ukraine at all. it is a delayed civil war. don't you think it is sort of like if texas decided to withdraw from the usa? and a foreign country came into support texas? really? guest: i will give you an example -- suppose puerto rico opted for independence. independence is not very popular, but it is not inconceivable that they would opt for independence, and i firmly believe the united states would let puerto rico go if that is what the people of puerto rico wanted. i think we would let them form their own, independent country. we did that in the pacific. the philippines, we had occupied

at the beginning of the early part of the 20th century. they wanted independence. we give them independence. same thing with other territories in the western pacific. texas is different. we had a civil war. the question of whether they would es -- brothers territories that are not -- host: mark, senior advisor the center of strategic studies, it is always nice to talk to you. guest: thank you for having me on the show. host: our weekly spotlight on podcasts segment will focus on the run-up. we will focus on campaign 2022 and why this election is not only a referendum on the party in power, but first it is public forum.

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unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, or here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. it is open forum for about the next half hour or so so feel free to call us about anything you would like to talk about public policy wise. the last thing we talked about was what was happening in ukraine and russia, annexation of parts of ukraine by putin. i wanted to show you president biden reacting to that news yesterday. [video clip] >> america and its allies are not going to be intimidated, are not going to be intimidated by putin and his. reckless words and threats

yes not going to scare us or intimidate us. putin's actions are a sign that he is struggling. the sham referendum he carried out and this routine he put on, the sham routine he put on this morning, showing the unity, and people holding hands together. the united states is never going to recognize this, and quite frankly the world is not going to recognize this ever. he cannot seize his neighbors territory and get away with it. it is as easy as that. we will continue to provide military equipment so ukraine can defend itself. including additional resources congress will give me today of 13 billion more dollars -- $13 billion more to help ukraine fight back.

we are fully prepared to defend -- america is fully prepared to defend with our nato allies every inch of nato territory. mr. putin, do not misunderstand what i am saying. every inch. host: that was president biden saying he is prepared to defend every inch of nato territory and putin doesn't scare us. here is axios. it says " u.s. urges citizens in russia the leave immediately amid mobilization efforts. it says " citizens should leave russia immediately." that was from the u.s. embassy in moscow. let's talk first to kirk calling us from athens, alabama,

independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a point or two to make. why is it that this country considers itself an arsenal for democracy whereby any country who wants to have their way and writes, we are too quick -- ri ghts, we are to quick to arm them with our tax dollars. we are not even a democracy. this country is a democratic republic, and even with that, if you consider the corruption and the propaganda from our corporations and news media, we are more like russia and china then russia and china is. host: how so? guest: -- caller: yeah. the authoritarian stuff -- what

do you call it? scamdemic or plandemic. our rights being taken away, our news media being given -- our elections are corrupt. you can do this stuff that we are doing, which is running this country into the ground and making it easy for china to overthrow us. host: let's talk to the next caller in massachusetts. caller: i wanted to call because no one had mentioned the possibility of a cease fire. could russia be trusted to allow

the existence of an independent ukraine? the other thing i wanted to say is how disappointed i am with professional historians failing us. from 1990 to 2014 and up-to-date, you could tell the history of ukraine from elections. there was always a battle between the pro-russian voters and the pro-ukrainian voters that prior to 1914 allowed a pro-russian to be elected. he was then overthrown in a coup . russia then invaded the crimea, essentially in an almost bloodless invasion. to talk about self-determination

of peoples you almost, need to do that in 1990, not today with a war going on. i hope there is some possibility of having an armistice, of understanding that there is a strong pro-russian population within some of the areas of ukraine, and that ukraine is a true and independent country, and should be respected. host: let's hear next from ali in minneapolis, minnesota. caller: i have a question for the colonel. as far as the gas pipelines, the russian pipelines, why in the world what a benefit russia to destroy their own infrastructure, when all they have to do is turn off the gas lines? i think it is worse for the ukraine. it makes no sense for russia to destroy their own infrastructure

they spend a lot of time to build. host: jean is next in santa barbara, california -- gene is in santa barbara, california. caller: the russian people, universally, everyone i met, was very pro-american. they kept whispering in my ear " why are we having these problems?" host: what year was that, gene? caller: i can't remember exactly, but it was 20 years ago when i was there. the russian people were great. they loved us. everywhere i went, they had open arms and had -- host: this tends to happen a lot. the people love us, but the governments don't. i'm pretty sure the government does not love us. caller: i will tell you this --

i do not know how long putin will get away with this, because the russian people are very pro-american, and i cannot help but think something is going to happen where he is going to be thrown out of office, because he is following the game plan of hitler. " i want a little bit of this, i want a little bit of that." it is so obviously the kind of moves hitler's made, when -- hitler made when he started the annexation of countries around. the russian people just aren't like that. they will not go for this behavior. i think sooner or later, it is going to backfire. host: there is definitely people trying to leave russia right now. you can take a look at the washington post. it has this article that says, " photos show 10 mile line at

russian border as many flee mobilization." a lot of people are trying to get out of russia right now. the traffic jam at the georgian border stretches 10 miles. satellite images show a line of cars and trucks trying to leave, formed at a crossing point on the russian side of the border. max are technologies released those photos monday. the traffic jam likely continued further north of the image area. aerial photos from the company show vehicles snaking into another long line near russia's border with mongolia. let's hear next from been in california -- ben in california. caller: i would like to point out the fact that when president biden was talking about his

interaction, what was going on with putin out there in russia, he mentioned that congress was going to give him $13 billion. i just wanted to point that out, because no one made any effort about that, any mention of it. i do not reallyother thing i woo mention his history has shown we need to be very careful about looking at how we approach certain situations like this, especially with we never understand that all of russia is going to go with or go against what president putin is saying. you never know. we have people going over to ukraine and the possibility of them coming over here is decent as well. i would say, it just needs to be

understood that we need to approach this situation very cautiously. quite frankly, i do not think that the president has very well understood that. vladimir putin is radical and you never know what he is going to do so we need to understand that we need to approach these things very cautiously. host: do you think the president has not been cautious? what do you recommend? caller: i think that he is very loose with his words. everything is scripted nowadays and people always talk for him. they write everything out for him. i think we really just need to be careful with how we talk about certain things going on with russia in the ukraine war.

as we have seen, president putin is radical. he believes that his effort is the main thing, even if he has to lie about it and create false documentation for it. host: bruce in oklahoma. hello bruce. caller: my name is bruce. i volunteer for greenport. i did two tours in vietnam and i really love this country. i do not understand how this president's son could get $1 million and $6 million from china and get 3,000,000-5,000,000 dollars from the mayor of russia and this president has not given these planes to ukraine and is letting the chinese get away with all of this and nobody has investigated

them. if he has done this, he should be tried for treason and executed. host: you are saying the president has not given what to ukraine? caller: planes. they did not give the planes. trump gave more missiles originally in one shot then he started giving them all this ammunition. with china, he has never even done anything. he once all this solar and all this solar is made in china. all the oil and gas products are made in the u.s. he wants to build up the chinese with their money and everything else and he is letting russia get away with this message in the country they are fighting. host: michael in queens village, new york. democrat line. caller: good morning. thank you c-span for taking my call.

i often wondered why about this democracy that we call it, i often wondered why -- shyam a new yorker and new york is very big about respect. i respect texas and florida and their points of view but i also want my point of view respected. why do we have this democracy? why don't we split this place up like the european union? you can have the way you want to live in florida and georgia and texas. but i in new york want to live the way i want to live. california has 40 million people , that is more than 12 states. california has two senators. that is 24 senators for 12

states but california has more people there. that is not fair. host: ok, michael. take a look at the associated press with this headline that says "putin illegally annexes ukraine land, kyiv seeks nato entry". the washington post, "zelenskyy pushes accelerated membership for ukraine". that will probably not happen as a response to that. it is open forum and we are taking your calls. peter in valley cottage, new york. republican. caller: good morning. i did not see the whole interview with the colonel but we have a very important fact regarding the ukrainian situation. that fact is november of last year, president biden signed with president zelenskyy a

strategic alliance and in that strategic alliance, it states that we support ukraine's entrance into nato. if you recall, that was in november, and by the end of january, february, that is when vladimir putin started to mobilize his troops on the border of ukraine. the fact of ukraine joining nato was the ticket dello -- that president putin would not tolerate. i believe that president biden actually precipitated this invasion into ukraine by sanctioning the fact that ukraine would join nato. that is all i have to say. i wish they would discuss that little bit more. thank you. host: take a look at the front page of the new york times. it says "i need to fight speech, putin cast the west as russia's

enemy". it says speaking to hundreds of russian governors and lawmakers in grand hall, vladimir putin says the leaders -- the citizens of these four nations would become part of russia forever. he then held a ceremony with the heads of these regions and started the effectual -- the official annexation process but for -- before clasping hands with them and chanting "russia, russia". douglas on the republican line from los angeles, california. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is douglas, as you mentioned. i am an independent now. i have the opportunity to testify and i have the opportunity to vote -- vote for

a president i think is worthy of this country in many years. the last one was richard reagan, as a republican. then, jfk as a democrat. after that, you had president that was caught with a lady under the desk in the white house. that were liars. the nation does not have much of an opportunity to vote for an individual that should be qualified to run this country. until that happens, i think we are in a pretty dire position. one of the reasons i think that is we have a border down south where the last presidents let in over 200 individuals that have crossed the border without

sanctioned one way or another. we do not know whether they are scientists that are going to destroy this or they are carrying a disease or that. host: i have a question for you. you were talking about the quality of presidential candidates. the midterm elections are coming up. how do you feel about your candidates for congress? caller: [laughter] for congress or for the presidency? host: for congress which is coming up next month. caller: there are a few that are out there that i think possibly have some qualifications. but until it gets down to the nitty-gritty, we do not really have an opportunity to find out who they are because they are more or less just jousting each other and you do not to get an

understanding of who they come up and talk to each other and voice opinions. like i said, the whole democratic and republican party are in complete chaos. they have these little -- you do not really see what is going on. i watched the russian general over there, you know who i am talking about. there were all these people in there and they were all under the gun. they only have a vote one way. they were like people in an audience. the guy with a plaque or whatever saying "clap" or "sing". that is what they had to do. host: from talladega, alabama,

independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: good morning. caller: i have several statements if you will allow me the time to make them. first, about the colonel that was on in the previous segment, he lost all credibility with me when he told the flat out lie that russia was involved in the 2016 election. we all know, it has been proven and we have seen the testimony and the documents were it was the clinton campaign and the democratic party pushing the russian hoax. ok, that is fact. another subject i would like to touch on are supplying ukraine with all of this military aid,

weapons, money. if everyone would remember just a little over two years ago, they were trying to impeach donald trump for making a phone call to the president of ukraine because of corruption involved in ukraine. we also have the hunter biden deal where he received millions of dollars from ukraine for a energy company that he has no experience for. now let's skip to china. the money that he received from china for investment. he has no experience in that either. host: bill, you bring up the impeachment. that call that was made to president zelenskyy was about withholding weapons, american

weapons that congress had already proved to be sent to ukraine. anyway. john in baltimore city, maryland. republican line. caller: i would like to just give a warning to this administration of what they are putting this country through. you have older people with physical problems and stuff and now they have all of these economic problems. they have to watch over their back when they go outside the city. they are turning into urban free-for-all jungles. this is deception. the fentanyl, the depth of the -- the death at the border. people just dying left and right. suicides are up 4%. people are not working, they do not see a future anymore in this country.

my goodness. the people on tv are acting like this is all normal. you have pelosi at acting like a goofball and then you have fetterman. that guy is not right. they have to put people in the have an iq. host: eric in california, democrats line. caller: good morning america. my issue today is 21 years after 9/11, what i see going on here is christians are now fighting christians in america. i am talking to one group of people. christians fighting christians. i am talking about my own family. and not just anybody but wealthy americans. host: what are they fighting about? caller: you see it. all in front of you. love your enemy, love your neighbor. everybody knows this.

it is wealthy people that are complaining about how people are coming at us the border. they are not talking about themselves but talking about how other people are suffering because they are going on vacations, spending all this money they have made while the last four years they were bragging about all the money they made over the last four years and they are now complaining after a pandemic about the food and gas prices going up. food and gas prices have been going up since the 70's. it is these rich people now trying to complain about it like they are going to fix the problem. they have been complaining about food and gas prices going up since the 70's. host: let's get one more call in. this is james, new york. caller: i am really independent, but mostly been moderate. i have been interested in russian politics since 1986.

i have a message for vladimir putin. you are a hack. you are not --. host: that is going to be our last call for open forum for this segment of washington journal. up next is our weekly spotlight on a podcast segment that features astead herndon and his podcast called "the run-up". we will talk about the campaign 2022 and why this election is not just a referendum on the party in power. stay with us. ♪ announcer: sunday, on q and a, author and poet javier discusses his book in which he details the story of his migration from el salvador to the u.s. at the age of nine, traveling through near impossible and treacherous conditions across water mollo,

mexico and the desert. sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. important congressional hearings and other public events throughout the day. and weekdays at 5:00 and 9:00

p.m. eastern, catch washington today for a fast-paced report on the events of the day. listen anytime. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. c-span, powered by radio. ♪ >> middle and high school students, it is where time to shine. you are invited to participate in this year's studentcam competition. feature yourself as a newly elected member of congress. we asked this year's competitors what is where a priority and why? make a 5-6 minute video that shows the importance of your issue from opposing and supporting perspectives. do not be afraid to take risks, be bold. amongst the 100,000 dollars in cash prizes is a $5,000 grand prize. videos must be submitted by january 20, 2023. visit our website at

studentcam.org for rules, resources and a step-by-step guide. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. it is our weekly spotlight on podcast segments. i guess is astead herndon, host of the podcast "the run-up" and new york times national political reporter. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: a new start for telling me a little bit about the podcast and why you started it? guest: "the run-up" and tate is a podcast exploring our midterm election. we wanted to explore in the traditional way that we think a lot of times these races are explored just looking at individual races and who is up and who is down. we felt these elections had a different weight to them and we wanted to give people the language to understand all going on in our political landscape. we tried to start from the

premise of why has politics become so fraught and how is democracy being challenged and threatened right now? the podcast initially starts off with a look at the ways that political establishments show where voters were in transitions to see through that lens of work and we understand how voters are being motivated for the selection. we had a recent episode that highlighted the roots of christian nationalism and how that changed the republican party. another recent episode highlighted the meaning of democracy for groups like black voters. he did an interview with jeff clyburn and grassroots republicans and folks in arizona who do not believe democracy should be one of america's goals. we are trying to take some of the big the magic questions in the midterms and give people the language to understand the ahead of the election. host: you giphy a lot there. i want to ask you about some of

that. a caller from our last question was talking about how christians were fighting each other. you mentioned you did a podcast on the idea of christian nationalism and the impact of evangelicals on the republican party. what did you find out? guest: we talked to a times political reporter and dr. al mohler. what we found was you can the changes in the -- can track the changes in the republican party back to the foundations of the invalid gel goal -- the evangelical church. we really start to see a story of this change in both trumpcare and leading up to these midterms were now you have a church being led by the grassroots that trump was swaying and is pushing the church leadership to go in directions they may have otherwise not wanted to go. instead of having to back donald trump differently what we found

is that for dr. mohler, they had to get on board with a slew of candidates who are going further with government nationalism and conservative christianity and attacking democracy. in our interview, dr. moeller make clear for him that things like january 6 were not as important for his vote in relationship to things like restricting abortion and stopping the advancement of lgbtq rights which he feels is a foundational threat to the country. he was willing to set the democracy concerns aside in service of those two goals. that is what we found in the episode and that is what we in the landscape broadly. that has pushed republicans to embrace a new type of language on politics. host: if viewers would like to weigh in, you can feel does -- feel free to start doing that now. the lines are split by political affiliation. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. he said earlier that some said democracy should not even be a goal. explain that. guest: that came through in a talk with my colleague robert draper who did a year of reporting in arizona and some reporting i have done. i went to an event called trumpstock, woodstock for trump fans in arizona. what i found there is people were willing to openly say that if the election did not go they way they wanted in terms of donald trump being reelected that they planned to commit violence in the name of saving america. these are people who end up at the capitol on january 6. what we are fighting is since that's in the last two years, public kids, particularly in a state like arizona, have doubled and tripled down on this to

which you have candidates down ballot who are not only saying and defending the actions of figures attacking joe biden as a democratic president but are saying democracy itself is not a core american value. that we are a republic and not a democracy and majority rule is actually tyranny. these are open words from the candidates that we were able to highlight. that is something we were trying to bring out as a counterbalance to the speech joe biden gave to kick off this midterms. he was trying to rally americans around the concept of defending democracy but i think the argument has a blind spot. because for some of those republicans, democracy is not something they find really intrinsic to the country's founding or intrinsic to where it should be going. they have built in excuses to ignore whatever comes this

november. it is a really sobering conversation with robert in that podcast episode because it makes clear the challenges we saw on january 6 were not just the end of the trauma era but a start of a fundamental democracy question -- the trump era but a start of a fundamental democracy question. host: is in the root of that not necessarily not believing in democracy but leaving the elections are not trustworthy? guest: i think there is a line of that but we need to acknowledge that this has a root in american politics. there have been often times that people have been willing to change election rules. do not have a direct democracy. we do not have silly that -- have something that 50 plus one is a direct route to power. but we found is this is free the

2020 election. it is not just that they agree with donald trump at the country is being stolen at that instant tracks with decade-long concern of conservatism in that state and the california acacia and -- californiacation avenue arizona. i appreciate that question because that is how we are trying to say this is not just the outgrowth of 2020 but the outgrowth of a larger train of thought that has been growing amongst republicans where they view democracy as an obstacle to political power instead of something that is a shared american value. host: we are going to get to calls right away but i want to ask one more question. typically the midterm elections are a referendum on the party in power. you are saying this is more than that. why? guest: we have to be clear that this is a different year for the

midterms. there is usually a referendum on the party in power but there are bigger actions motivating the election that is not coming from the president or congress but coming from the supreme court. this has actually motivated the base of the president's party which makes this year unique. we have seen every indicator shifting towards democrats since that decision. at the same time, we have a country that since 2020 and 2016 is wrestling with democracy which does not cut neatly on the typical midterm lines. while we do have things that are certainly within the scope of what we typically see at midterms at a president with a low approval rating, soaring inflation that has hurt the party in power, we also have other factors that are complicating these midterms. i think in part i do not see this as a typical year. i think polling and other indicators prove that because we

have so much intersecting at this time. i think 2016 and 2020, we had a political system wrapped up in the individual questions of donald trump. what with him off the ballot and not in power, we now see a system being tested across the board with some of these similar trump evinces -- grievances and questions feeling democracy. host: shreveport, louisiana on the democrat line. carmella. caller: good morning. i am an educator in shreveport, louisiana and i am not speaking for all educators across the board. however, because politics and history and everything reflects -- and i am a history teacher -- everything reflects what we are able to teach in school. how do you go about suggesting how, when, what to actually educate our students on because

of such different variety of information and some that has been restricting? guest: i think that is a great question. i appreciate the work educators do because the answers are hard. i did a year as a teacher partly because the answer to this question is so hard. i think we see this is a situation where it is not just history -- i think there are fundamental historic facts that guide some of this moment. american democracy is not a straight line from 1776 to now. it is something that has oftentimes been tested on questions of inclusion and expanding the american promise to other sectors of the electorate. that cannot be denied. we have a movement in this country specifically around the question of who is democracy for? i think in that view you can see what is happening right now.

nice of aberration in american politics that has to have unique heroes and villains but actually a continuing of a story that wraps up into american history and has been animated consistently throughout american political history. i would point to that in trying to find ways across american history that really speak to this. other times in which presidents of political leaders have used conspiracy to drum up support and times when people have embraced terms like "republic" other than "democracy". i think that has been true of the political and skate and i will look back to inform people how to look forward. i would also say i think our podcast this a good job of laying this out in plain english. try to use moments that speak to where people are and try to understand and give language to

what can seem like a very distant political system. i think journalism should do more of that and i hope it can help teachers bring these lofty political topics to the classroom and make them more tangible. host: tony in bedford, texas. republican line. caller: hello. i really love c-span. first off, i think this could have happened to democrats as well. there was a time when people were dixie-crats. my question is what is the way out? i am a republican and a conservative and i do not hear anyone from my party, except liz cheney cheney talking about fiscal responsibility or even jeb bush about a real immigration plan. what a short opinion on how we get out of this because right now i am -- what is your opinion

on how to get out of this because right now i am going to go against my party? guest: that is a good question. i do not have a good solution. i think you are really right in terms of identifying a shift within the republican party. it's is shift has happened among democrats to especially among republicans. you look at an event where there used to be a roast focus -- a real focus on responsibility language and now it is all about cultural grievances and identity and demonizing the other side. it is all about creating a motivation to the base. not from those what we used to call kitchen table issues. i think you might have to see a reset before you see those issues come back to the forefront. but i will say is the midterm elections might be that reset. when you have an issue like

inflation soaring to the top of the agenda and when you have two parties who are really nervous about their position, ahead of the presidential election, what happens in the midterms will recalibrate where the parties are, going into 2024. you see a democratic party that loses the house or feels disappointed, then there will be questions about whether president biden has focused his time and energy on the right issues. if you see republicans lose this opportunity to gain seats in the house and senate, i think there will be figures printed at donald trump and trumpism for doing what you just described of too much of a cultural dry front rather than the typical issues we have come to know republicans for. i guess that is kind of not be answering the question by think it will become clearer after the midterms are over. host: following on tony's point which is this idea of political homelessness. have talked to some voters who

are saying they feel clinically homeless. what is going on with that and where are they going? guest: this is a big thing that we talk to voters about in the summer and leading up to our start of our podcast. we have polars looking at the y because they get the why behind it and when we did that, we found a lot of people say they felt without a political home. they were laying out that the parties have changed in such directions over the last 10-15 years to when they do not feel like either party represents them. this goes a lot of different ways depending on who we are talking to. there were young people mad the democratic party was not embracing bigger and bolder change or changing to accept bigger issues like climate change the way they wanted. there were trump supporters upset that they feel that this republican establishment has

blocked donald trump from being able to make bigger change. we really see is throughout both, there is a disconnect between the establishment place of where the parties are and the grassroots where voters are. that is what we think is driving the political homelessness feeling, the idea that the folks leading the politicians -- the parties and the politicians with the cases were not speaking most directly to the issues that they were concerned about. orbit structures like the filibuster in gerrymandering and the electoral college have shifted politics from being able to directly respond to where majority of voters are. i've been using this as an example, abortion. in state legislatures across the country, we are getting abortion bills that are very different from republican opinion -- from popular opinion in going into the conservative side because of

the way that maps are drawn. the political homelessness feeling cannot be removed from the way we have government structure and prioritize the outliers rather than the middle. host: maryland, independent line. caller: hello. i would like to ask our guest. there is something out there called the new black media and there are three principal players. they say that politicians like stacey abrams and kamala harris and even obama wants black people to vote for them but they will not adopt a black agenda. black agenda includes something like reparations and qualified unity for police. first, are you familiar with the few gentlemen i named and what is your opinion of their stance on black politics? second of all, should black

politicians adopt a black agenda in order to get the black vote? guest: i am familiar with those politicians and i was the reporter who pushed all the presidential candidates on the democratic side to answer the question of reparations. and very familiar with this issue. i will say is the kind of construction of those media voices to say to black politicians that have not take up that mantle is something that is focused on the wrong people. it is an entire political plan and in christ -- and entire democratic party and republican one who has not taken up that stance. at think you cannot judge politicians individually but a system that does not invest in black communities or is targeting issues that you typically see as most important to black voters and has not been done. if you take the last three

years, joe biden is an example of this. he went to south carolina through the clybourn endorsement. i would encourage you to listen to the episode on "the run-up", our podcast. but at the same time, joe biden said after that that he has a specific -- to the black community. i think when you will ask politicians, you will get indirect answers. something like the filibuster has come in to stop joe biden from being able to make these big changes. he has not been able to target racial wealth gaps in the way he promised because he tailored down the build back better will in the senate. and student loans, any issue where he went bigger because of the specific pushing of black politicians, he is getting legal and political challenges to complicate that. i think that speaks to the difficulty in terms of following through on the promises that many politicians, black or

white, have made in the black community. what i would say it, as someone who has interviewed president harris, clyburn, and stacey abrams, that they deserve questions and accountability about whether there promises to black communities have followed through by would say that is true of all politicians. host: sioux falls, south dakota. jack on the republican line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: i think it is problematic that you have propaganda from such a corrupt institution like the new york times on your trail. just spewing marxist word salad and then when somebody brings up black issues, he is so quick and happy to be talking about it. billy such a bigot. host: do you have a response to that or we can move on? guest: sure i have a response to

that. i am a journalist and i talked to republicans and democrats the same way. i talked to white voters and black voters in hispanic people and people in between. i talk to people who are conspiracy theories and people who are not. i talked to truck voters and i have been to more trump rallies than anybody on the new york times. host: ron in johnstown, pennsylvania. the . democrat line. caller: in any other country, trump would have never been elected president. he talks about rigged elections but there is nothing more rich than the electoral college. he lost by 3 million votes to hillary. he lost by 7 million votes to joe biden. that is over 10 million votes he lost by in two elections. let me tell you that no one ever uses the word poor loser. he is a poor loser.

most people don't like poor losers. he talks about stolen elections and that is a joke. i cannot believe there is any promise, that clears thomases wife still believes the election was -- clarence thomas's wife still believes the election was stolen. trump was never popular. he won because of the electoral college and that has to go. that is my opinion. guest: i think that certainly donald trump has had a history of poor losing. do not think that is in question at all but i would say i do not think the election was stolen. if we run presidential election through the electoral college and hillary clinton wanted to be president should have won the electoral college in that campaign. host: bill from florida, independent line. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. i am just going to address the abortion issue at the idea of a right. the supreme court, -- the supreme court decision only said that there was a mistake made and abortion is not a right. a right is something that in every person but america -- in america but one is opposed to it, that person has a right. i do not have a right to murder somebody. there is no right in the constitution that says you can murder somebody. we vote as a democracy in our individual states. there are a federal law -- there is a federal law outlawing murder. abortion is not a federal right. just because public opinion and the majority want something. a right is something that the

majority cannot take away. that is my only comment. guest: that insure belief about abortion and i will not push on that. i will say to reiterate that the supreme court decision also did send the issues back to state. because of the structures we are talking about, they intentionally created state legislatures that are out of step with their state. at neither level of this decision are you having voters weighing in to create a medium ground directly. that is not an opinion but a reality. in a place like kansas who had a referendum and a place like michigan where the referendum was on the ballot, have seen people be able to come out and weigh in on whether they want abortion to be in their state. that is not true for a lot of states because there has been a

filter through gerrymandered state legislator that is upheld through a judicial system. i think that can be your belief and also people will say that belief runs up against a democracy challenge. host: nelson from pembroke pines, florida. independent line. caller: good morning mr. astead herndon. i completely disagree with just about everything you are saying. you are one of the reasons why i do not trust the new york times at all. of course, the states have the right to determine which way they want to go in abortion. there is a thing called the people who have the right to vote and to put representatives that feel and support whatever their particular opinions are concerned. i have been listening to you for a little while.

i mean no disrespect but you are not a journalist. you are a propagandist for the new york times. again, listening to you and reading other individuals from the new york times has convinced me that you are a paper that has very little if any credibility whatsoever. host: go ahead. guest: i am proud to work for the new york times. i think it is one of the best if not the best daily newspapers in the world. adding the value of what we do is going to people entering things like this and tell you our process. i am not saying things based off of conjecture but saying things based off of going to people and talking to them directly. i believe in the process and translating that accurately. i do not believe in calibrating between a middle point. i believe in being honest and fair and that is what i have done. bring our show we try to talk to

democrats and republicans. talk to trump supporters and progressives and people across party lines to create a level of clarity and do that work. i understand people can be upset with that and i respect people's minces with the newer times and be individually by do not think that process of reporting can be understated. it is important for us to come to places like this and talk to people who does with us. i think that is something the new york times should be proud of and plotted for. the process of reporting is still valuable. in creating -- and creating a record is still a vital function of democracy. i think this is a great example of that. host: i want to ask you about possible demographic ships for the election coming up. what are you seeing and hearing from you voters? guest: that is a great question. joe biden's approval rating was cratering over the summer

partially because he was going down with democratic constituencies. a used young voters and working-class voters and people of color who were all feeling less good about the biting presidency which is why he sought his approval rating hit the low point at the end of the summer. he went up slyly because they pass legislation in washington on the -- up slightly because they pass legislation in washington on the build back better. but we do not know how this is going to play as things get legally challenged. our voters still going to reward him on that? we do not have a lot of evidence for that or evidence that that will overcome the whole in which joe biden has been in ever since his presidency. remember this was not the preferred choice of most democrats but especially not younger democrats area i think he is trying to make that push around democracy and democracy protection to motivate those groups and say to young people that maybe you may not have liked but the administration has

done on x and x issue but you do agree the party is allegedly a better steward of the democratic system than their republican opponent. that is why they are making the push to overcome the -- that still persists among young people, a group who really needs to come out this november if they are going to have the kind of atypical midterm result democrats want. the first thing we should know about the midterm is republicans have a structural and sort dental advantage. the bar is very high for democrats and they have to clear that. they are hoping that increasingly young people will help them do that. host: tyrone on the republican line from illinois. caller: good morning. i look at our politics right now and i think we are lacking a lot of concepts. but we talked about president

trump with his documents -- when we talk about president trump his documents and an the white house, why do presidents not get checked on what paperwork they have to take out of the white house so something like that cannot occur? and do not know how many past presidents have taken stuff out that they are not supposed to but i think it is wrong. i fear a loss on january 6. i cannot say i agree what happened with that but i can say that i have not heard much of what our government is doing to secure our capitol buildings so something like this can never happen again. i think that is really important. i cannot go with these things that the democrats are saying right now because of the energy thing, for example. i do not think there has been enough thoughts on it. they had people on c-span talking about to upgrade our

grids would cost $6 trillion in the electrical fields to get things done. to switch over. i think we are putting electric cars -- i think we are putting the cart before the horse. i think that is kind of wrong. being an american citizen and talking about the black population in the u.s. and the ghetto, there is a lot to be done there. i am not sure a referendum is the right way to go but whether you are black, white, hispanic or whoever you are living in poverty areas, i have not seen a good way to get people out of that, to break the chain. host: ok. there is a lot there, let's get a response. guest: i certainly think there is a lot to say for common in politics. i agree. i see your point about the

capitol building and i think that is an interesting point. i have also seen since the flip side, d.c. has walled off a lot of the capitol building's that used to have public access. i think there is a challenge on the others to. your point about black communities, we have not seen improvement in a lot of those areas for a long time but that is not because of the individuals in those communities but because of structural realities that have not been overcome. we are dealing with persistent problems in these areas that neither democrats or republicans have prioritized. host: jack on the republican line from warren, ohio. caller: i wanted to talk to the lady hosts. i want to see if you have an opinion. i would like for you to have the host invite angela stanton king to your show to represent us black people from the grassroots. will liked -- we would like for

you guys to invite greg marcel dixon from south carolina. these are black men and women who have boots in the ground in america and we do not need these fake journalists. no disrespect against a brother but we want our anti-hate crime bills and we want our black reparations. we need people to push these black politicians that are not doing anything and we are tired of being labeled as people of color. the hostess lady, we want you to invite somebody like angela stanton king. please write that down and greg marcel dixon of south carolina. angela stanton king is from atlanta. you can look up her podcast. host: our producers hurt you. thank you for the suggestion. any comment on that? guest: no. [laughter] i would say they are not the only people pushing black politicians. i am too. host: lisa on the republican

line from -- keith on the republican line from maine. you have to mute your tv and talk right into your phone. keith? caller: bill? are you on here for a bill from massachusetts? host: go right ahead. bill, what line are you calling on? caller: republican. number one, i hope you realize that the ku klux klan was the democratic party. ok, are you there? host: yes, we are there. caller: number one, the kkk was the democratic party so i do not know why any flag person -- why any black person would vote for

the democratic party. number two, every inner-city is a failure because you have democrats who are communist that sit in inner cities and only keep doing poverty as a con job. i do not know why black people fall for the con job which is the democratic party. number three, we need to have two separate countries. because the republicans believe in god and democrats believe in abortion and the devil. the republican party believes in free speech. the democratic party believes in censoring and shutting people up. the republican party -- -- host: got it. guest: i did not really sure a question in that. host: you know, there is a point he makes which is the very violent cities and the very

cities that are impoverished are all run by democrats. guest: i think that is the nature of cities. i think that we have the states that have high crime rates and those include republican states. then violence is an american and dimmick issue that is not specific to party or race -- gun violence is an american issue that is not specific to party or race. i think this is a complicated issue that should not be reduced to race and ideology. host: let us take a line from pennsylvania, democrat. caller: i do not know how to put everything i want to say into words. if you check out history, you will find that no people have been treated the way we work. these people calling in talking about they believe in god, they

believe there is a god. if they believed in god, they would not consider themselves a superior race. that is how satan got in trouble in heaven. even moses, how do i put it? the israelites were given time to get themselves together. 40 years and they were just used to re-create a new race. we never had a chance to reset ourselves. now, they have us begging them to treat us as human beings. how do i know that i am not putting it in the best words but i am just sick of them blaming us for the problems and almost wanting us to apologize for being black. guest: adding that level of frustration i hear a lot of in reporting. these are fundamental ways of the country and its founding.

there is a story of america that starts in 1776 that is routing in democracy and we all believe in but there is an actual story of america were all these issues including race has been since the founding. just as we view america and a lot of other things, there is this question of who is included in democracy and who gets to have political power? that has come from america's founding until now, always been wrapped up in questions of race. not only race but has always included the question of race. host: cj in virginia, democrat line. caller: good morning. two quick compliments. first, to you the moderator. i love the way you handle elderly people. you give them some time to get their thoughts out and i appreciate that. and to the gentleman, mr. astead herndon. i cannot believe how patient and

decent you have been with these comments -- with some of these ugly comments from the various parts of this country. it is always good to hear the voice of america. like "the ku klux klan was a democrat party". we are not talking about 1869, we are talking, -- times have changed. this country has only been a real country arguably since around 1964-1965 as far as at least starting to live up to our ideals. if we all want to be stuck on stupid and turn the clock back to whatever we have going on -- and if you are a light -- a white person like me, that has

reached a certain age, by definition you have a pretty darn good run. it is time to just relax for yourselves, go to your graves as a christian as a verb as opposed to a christian as a noun. because, patting yourself on the back that i am going to heaven by do not have to do anything out of a sense of brotherhood is like a sick notion to have. host: alright, let's try to caller: thank you for taking my call, i am piggybacking off of the call about the inner city, any place where african-americans live. let me give you the example of asbury park, atlantic city, long

branch. these areas, their code enforcement won't even come in and stop these slumlords from making the places where they live livable. i no one place in atlantic city where this lady's children is being bitten up by mice. host: i want to get a really quick response before we wrap up. guest: those infrastructure problems are real. those contribute to the gun violence and education problem. the issue in american cities, the issue with predominant lot communities but not exclusively black are not one issue, it is a confluence of things that have united to keep these places in that situation and it will take a massive amount of political will to undo that. to this point, we have not seen either party have the political

will. host:astead herndon thank you so much for being on the program. that is all the time we have for "washington journal," . we will be back here tomorrow at the same time. until then, have a great saturday. c-span's washington journal, every day we take your call live on the air on the news of the day and we discussed policy issues that impact you heritage

foundations adam pickel talks about student loan forgiveness. then we talk about civic learning and engagement. watch washington journal sunday morning on c-span or on c-span now are free more black. join the discussion with your facebook comments, text and tweets. democratic senator chris murphy and former republican senator discuss gun violence and investments a mental health. watch the conversation tonight at 8:00 eastern and anytime online at c-span.org or c-span now are free app. >> on q&a, the poet discusses

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