the look at the struggles between individual's right to privacy and the public's right to information. her book "c can hide" -- "seek and hide" lists some of these. >> hulk hogan claimed the right to privacy, and he argued that even though it was his level of privacy would trump the right of gawker to publish on that truth. ultimately a jury agreed with him and a lot of people were shocked at that because we understand so much about freedom of the press and truth and how truth will protect us, and yet this was an instance of someone's privacy becoming more

important than the public would like to know. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a and you can listen to that and all of our podcasts on c-span now app. host: good morning. it is saturday, october 20 ninth. yesterday, speaker of the house nancy pelosi was the target of an intruder who police say broke into her san francisco home. she was not there, but the intruder allegedly attacked her 82-year-old husband paul pelosi and tim with a hammer -- and b eat him with a hammer. doctors say he is excited to make a full recovery. we are asking for your comments on the attack. lines are split by party affiliation. (202) 748-8001, republica.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents< (202) 748-8002. send us a text at (202) 748-8003 . be sure to send your first name and your city, state. we are on social media, facebook.com/cspan, and twitter and instagram at @cspanwj. welcome to "washington journal." before we get to your calls, i want to show you the speaker pelosi andis statement that he put out, saying earlier this attacked at home by an assailant who attacked with force and defend his life while demanding to see the speaker. mr. pelosi was accepted to zuckerberg san francisco general hospital, where he underwent successful surgery tir a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hand. the speaker and her family are

thankful for the outpouring of support and pra from rains, constituents, and people around untry. the pelosi fami is ily grateful to mr. pelosi's entire medical team and the law enforcement officers who responded to the assault. the family appreciates respect for their privacy during this time. and here is the front page of the washington post -- assailant at the lucy home shouted "where is nancy?" here is the part i wanted to read to you. it says the attack at the pelosi home comes after a dramatic increase in fat since the attack on the council -- the attack on the capitol january 6, 2021. 3 men were convicted in a plot to kidnap wisconsin governor which mayor. earlier this year, man was arrested with a gun near supreme court justice brett kavanaugh's

home after making threats against the justice. let's take a look at what the san francisco police chief said yesterday morning in a brief statement to reporters. [video clip] >> at approximately 2:27 this morning, san francisco police officers were dispatched to the residents of speaker nancy pelosi regarding an a priority well-being check. when the officers arrived on scene, they encountered an adult male and ms. pelosi's husband, paul. our officers observed mr. pelosi and the suspect both pulling the hammer. the suspect pulled they hammer away from mr. pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. our attackers immediately took him into custody, requested emergency backup, and rendered medical aid care the suspect has been identified as 42-year-old david to pappy -- david dep ape. mr. pelosi and mr. depape were

transported to a local hospital for treatment. we are working closely with our partners from the fbi, the u.s. attorney's office, the u.s. capitol police, and our district attorney here in san francisco county and her team. the motive for this attack is still being determined. mr. depape will be booked on the san francisco county jail for attempted homicide, assault with a deadly oven, elder abuse, burglary, and several other additional felonies we are talking -- and like felonies. host: we are talking about the attack on speaker pelosi's husband. we are asking your thoughts. we will start with joy. caller: good morning.

actually, i think, personally, i think all of this violence started -- i mean a lot of it started when president trump, when he was a candidate, and at his rallies, he advocated for violence. and of violence, all of this comes from the top. we wonder why is all of this violence around? even violent rhetoric on social media? that is why i limit myself to social media. a lot of these attackers have been indoctrinated. and, sadly, for our country, i do not think it will get any better. i am very worried about our country. i used to be very proud of our country, but now, with all this rhetoric, this qanon, these

indoctrinations, and the violence -- remember, the children see this. they see our politicians, the way they talk. host: all right. joy brought up qanon. here is the associated press. suspect an assault at pelosi home had posted about qanon, and it said the man accused of breaking into speaker pelosi's home in california and severely beating her husband with a hammer appeared to have made racist and rambling posts online, including some that question the results of the 2020 election, defend former president donald trump, and acute -- echoed qanon because gracie theories. depape grew up in british columbia before leaving about 20 years ago to follow and older girlfriend to san francisco. let's hear from john in pennsylvania, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. i just couldn't agree more with their previous caller's comments. and i am a proud republican. but this violence and all this nonsense stemming, yes, from donald trump has no place in our society now. and i do not think anything is going to get better, as the previous caller has said. thank you. host: stanley is next in florida, independence line. caller: this is definitely due to donald trump. she cannot set the national guard into washington. he keeps lying about that. he is the only one who can do it. every rally he goes through, he brings up hillary clinton's emails, and they go lock her up.

you know what i say? lock him up. because he has more documents and did worse damage with those dock humans -- with those documents then anyone else did. at every rally, he brings her name up -- host: all right. here is a list of threats against members of congress. the number of threats. this is provided by u.s. capitol police. it is on your screen. look at how it has increased. i'm 2017, it was just under 4000 threats. in 2021, it has gone all the way up to 9625 threats against members of congress. let's go next to ben, in state college, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i want to start by saying it is awful what happened to paul pelosi. you have to take politics out of the occasion here. someone broke into an elderly man's home and beat him with a

hammer. it is disgusting. that said, it is not an isolated incident. he is not the first victim of violent crime in this country. it is tragic what happened to him, but people are being victimized every day, especially in major cities. this has been the lead story on the news, understandably, given a high profile individual, his wife being the speaker of the house. but people get pushed in front of subway trains in new york city and people getting murdered in chicago, it is crazy what is going on in this country. everyone is trying to blame donald trump for this. i do not see it. i think the crime is out of control, thanks to the leadership we have at the moment, that it is affecting everybody, no matter how important they are, no matter who they are married to, no matter how powerful they are. host:host: let's talk to kyle next in florida, democrats line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i just think the

rhetoric is definitely -- i will not say -- i think saying trump or trumpism is too small. i just went on the fox news website, where they have the story, and there are people who are celebrating this violence and blaming it on dem policies. i think we are definitely at this pivot point, and hopefully, the midterm election, the environment we are in does not continue to ramp up this level of lack of human respect and values of human life -- it just seems like it has gone too far. host: we take a look at politico. it says paul pelosi told the bathroom he needed to use the bathroom, called 911 from there.

it says that the break-in is a dramatic escalation of the kind of aggressive threats that many lawmakers in both parties have seen in recent years, particularly since last year's brutal capitol siege. steve is next in illinois, republican line. caller: yes, i have to agree with the previous caller. keep politics out. this has been going on forever. look at steve scalise getting shot. and all this culture, burning buildings -- it has nothing to do with trump. it is just fanatics being fanned by politics, and joe biden certainly did not help yesterday, going on about republicans, this and that. he has nothing else to run on. one other thing, i wonder if they will let him out on a no cash bond, which seems to be

going on. that is about all i have. host: let's talk to debbie in west virginia, independence line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: i just have one thing to say. donald trump did not start this violence. this violence was going on far before donald trump. but it got worse when donald trump was elected. i owe that problem to what the fbi did. the fbi did everything they could to control the election against donald trump. and they continued. all these years, they have continued. and they are still after donald trump. what about joe biden? why is he coming on the air, putting all republicans down, saying all republicans are fascists? that is not good.

he is the leader of the free world now, and he, in my opinion, he is the one who was causing all of this now, causing it to get worse. and that is about all i've got to say. host: all right. president biden spoke about the attack before his remarks at a pennsylvania democratic party event last night in philadelphia. here is a portion. [video clip] >> before i begin, i want to take a short pause to send our love to nancy and paul pelosi. i've been on the phone with nancy, arranged for her to be able to get from washington out to see her husband. she is on the plane now, heading out there. and you have seen the news. he was attacked in their home. and when i spoke to the speaker, she said that he is doing ok. he went to the hospital, was operated on, and he seems to be coming along well. he is in good spirits. the whole family is there.

while the investigation is ongoing, the news reports indicate it was intended to be an attack on the house nancy pelosi lives in, the third ranking person in the united states, in line to be president. you know, it was reported the same chance was -- same chant was used by this guy in custody by those attacking the capitol on january 6. the chant was "where's nancy? where's nancy?" this is despicable. there is no place in america -- there is too much violence, political violence. too much hatred. too much vitriol. and what makes us think that one

party can talk about stolen elections, covid being a hoax and it will not affect people who may not be so well-balanced. what makes us think it will not corrode the political climate? enough is enough is enough. every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against the violence in our politics, regardless what your politics are. all of us. all of us together. as americans. knowing paul and nancy and the family as i do, they are as tough as they come. we are praying for them. we are optimistic for his full recovery. host: president biden talking

about the attack on nancy pelosi's husband, paul pelosi. we are asking you this morning about your thoughts and comments on that. let's talk to mary in maryland, democrats line. morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i think it is horrible, and it is definitely responsible through the channels of donald trump, number 45. iq 45. ever since he slithered down the escalator with his wife and said they are bringing -- actually, he was talking about the pilgrims -- donald trump is nothing but satan. they say when satan comes to the earth, he will be treated like a king. the county is being treated by the republican people. the republican party is the party of racism. they are trying to take us back in time again, and we are not going to let it happen. he is responsible for all of the things going on, the disconnect, the division amongst the people

-- that is how you keep everything in control. when you keep people divided, they cannot stand together to bring down the evil. but we will end this atrocity donald trump has brought to this country through the election, through fair elections. there is nothing wrong with it. and i voted by mail. and over here in maryland, we are going to have our first black governor. because it will be a landslide against of the thing that donald trump popped up -- propped up. host: all right. pat is next in florida, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have two points i would like to make. one, donald trump is not responsible for all the rhetoric going on today. it started with the democratic party. two, we have a major problem in this country with mental illness.

every day in america, someone is getting attacked, harmed someone who needs mental help. and this issue, i hate that it happened, i am sorry for the man, i hope he gets well, but you cannot put this on the democrats or republicans. it does not do anything to address the mental health problem in this country. host: let's take a look at some tweets and -- from members and former politicians are the first is mike pence, the former vice president. it says this is an outrage, and our hearts are with the entire pelosi family. there can be no tolerance for violence against public officials or their families. this man should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. and here is representative elaine luria who says i am disconnect us -- i am disgusted by the attack.

there is no place for violence in our political discourse. senator jon tester says the attack on paul pelosi is despicable and a direct affront to our american democracy. this country cannot survive if political violence becomes the norm. everyone needs to turn down the blatantly divisive language and put our democracy first. let's hear from mark next, who is in lawrence, kansas, independent. caller: good morning. thank you for accepting my call. you know, we talk about violence and pointing to -- i feel this is simply reaffirming for which our work republic was established. america is about violence and fear. if we look at our history, nothing changes without violence. donald trump is simply the latest face of white supremacy. so all the great things they are

saying, as far as mr. pelosi getting well and violence should not be in our society -- our whole republic and our histories about violence. we would love for it to stop, but i am telling you, the effort is not there. i thank you for taking my call. host: tim is next in rochester, new york, democrats line. caller: good morning. they got mad when biden said maga republicans. hillary clinton said deplorables. it seems like they are right. like they say, the truth hurts. and another thing -- it just seems like -- you know, i work in the morning, i listen to c-span. it seems like just a bunch of angry white people. like why are they mad, and what do anybody owe them? host: let's talk to janice in

san diego, california, republican. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: personally, i am so sick to death at every time i listen to c-span. i don't give a dog-gone what the topic is. donald trump comes to play. it is like they allow him to rent space in their mind 24 seven -- 24/7. violence has been a part of america forever. i would like to know where all of these cars -- calls were when that young man tried to assassinate kavanaugh. we do not hear about that from not one republican -- i mean from not one democrat. we did not get one of those "this is an outrage" and whatnot. democrats have been silent as a mouse when it comes to violence against the republicans. and it has always been against

the conservatives from day one. if this happens because the democrats refused to, one, enforce laws -- they are the ones who have changed all the laws, letting criminals run crazy all over the place. so i wonder, this man is not going to get out after what he did to paul pelosi, but all of these other people are being released from jail? that woman who was violently attacked in new york city, they released the guy from jail. and all we can talk about is donald trump? this is beyond sickening. it was -- it wasn't a republican. it was the democrats who have allowed all this violence all summer long, closed their eyes, it ordered the border until they started sending illegal immigrants to their town -- host: ok, janice. we are getting off the topic

there. here is the new york times. the headlines says lawmakers confront a rise in threats and intimidation and fear worse. violent political speech has increasingly crossed into the realm of -- it starts this with the attack in maine for senator susan collins' home. by the way, this article is from earlier. this was before the attack. it says that, in seattle, a man who had sent an angry email to a representative repeatedly showed up outside the lawmaker's home with a semi automatic handgun and shouting threats and profanity. a man who traveled across the country waited in a café across the street from representative alexandria ocasio-cortez's home to confront her, part of a near constant 3 -- stream of threats

and harassment that has prompted the congresswoman to switch her sleeping location at times and seek protection from a 24 hour security detail. it says members of congress in both parties are experiencing a surge in threats and confrontations as the rise of violent political speech has crossed into the room of in person intimidation and physical altercation. in the months since the january 6 the attack on the capitol, which brought lawmakers and the vice president within feet of rioters, republicans and democrats have faced stocking, armed as to their homes, and vandalism and assaults. let's go to ed. guest: all problems -- caller: all problems can be solved nonviolently. calls, letters, protests.

all politicians in the united states must leave office now. they are not doing a good job. there are two sides to this point. but violence is never the answer. host: pat is next in new jersey, republican line. hi. caller: how are you doing today? host: good. caller: i just wanted to say, listening to all the people calling, we have to remember who is in the white house now. who is the commander in chief. it is the biden administration and also the attorney general. we have open borders, and they are not -- violence is going to increase. there's a lot of problems -- host: what do you think about this particular attack? what are your thoughts on paul pelosi? i do not believe the attacker came from across the border. caller: ok. well, i asad to hear what

happened to paul pelosi. my prayers are with him. but the administration still needs to correct the problem that we are having in this country. as far as saying donald trump is the cause, he is not. it is on both sides of the aisle. all i can say is it is time to vote, time to vote these people off, and time to get off the democratic plantation. wake up, america. thank you. host: brenda in houston, texas, democrats line. caller: hi. this is my first time speaking with you. welcome, mimi, i think it is. host: yes, thank you. caller: i was not intending to call until after the election, so i could either rejoice or cry. my prayers, first off, are with the pelosi family.

this is trump's doing. and boy, those republicans are on the line with the same rhetoric, every last one of them. i can tell you what each one of them are going to say. but i won't waste time on that. it is a total waste of time. two, my democrat friends, rational republicans and independents, this is from the old southern racist hate book. it is called fear and intimidation. they are trying to -- and trump knows how to push their button. but remember, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. god is for those who are living and doing what is right. those that are -- and the truth. and they will be protected by god. don't worry about this.

this will come to an end. a very harsh end. i think it will pave the way to the antichrist myself -- host: ok, we are getting off the topic. robert, arizona, independence line. caller: good morning. you know, i am appalled about what happened to the pelosis. i think it is a terrible thing that happened. i am 90 years old, and aroma member -- and i remember, when i was a kid, there used to be a cop on the beat on every block. he would keep the order, and nothing was really catastrophic like this thing was. what we need is more police on the streets patrolling, visible, so people know that they are there. host: let's take a look at some tweets. this is senator schumer -- what

happened to paul pelosi was a dastardly act. i spoke with speaker pelosi early this morning and conveyed my deepest concern and heartfelt wishes to her husband and their family, and i wish him a speedy recovery. leader mcconnell says this -- horrified and disgusted by the reports that paul pelosi was assaulted in his and speaker pelosi's home last night. grateful to hear that paul is on track to make a full recovery, and that law enforcement, including our stellar capitol police are on the case. finally, steve scalise, who was attacked himself, said this -- disgusted to hear about the horrific assault on speaker pelosi's husband paul. grateful for law enforcement's actions to respond. violence has no place in this country. i am praying for paul pelosi's full recovery. let's talk next to mike in houston, texas, republican. caller: good morning.

we have laws in place that are expressly designed to prosecute the person who -- the assailant. that is what the laws are for. it is not anybody else. you cannot blame anyone else, if former president. it is insulting that we keep talking about trump when the assailant is responsible. we have free will. the individual is responsible. there is no law to say otherwise. secondly, how much outrage was there and for how long, specifically, how long was their outrage when the republican baseball team was shot up? scalise almost died. there is no question he would have without the police being present. and rand paul, he was assaulted at his house and threw up blood for a year. so i'm sorry, but these salt are

responsible from the individual who perpetrates them. as citizens, we owe it to each other to be focused on good governance, and we owe it to each other to be more respectful. we have to work at that. that takes work. it is really unfortunate. all the calls before me -- not all, but most of them -- so much anger. we cannot have a country and a society and retain the glue that keeps us a nation. our country is with fighting for. even if you disagree. hard work is when we try to reach out and agree to disagree. this is not helping us, to be so angry. we need to prosecute the person who did the crime and keep focused on the big picture, so we solve big problems. we owe it to our next generation. let's agree that the next generation is worth fighting for. host: got it. shirley, missouri, democrats

line. good morning. caller: hello. you didn't say my name. host: shirley? go ahead, you're on the air. caller: ok. i give my prayers to the pelosi family. all of this and that this and that -- it is not about trump -- should be locked up and throw away the key. going into people's homes like this, attacking people -- it is insane. we need to get together, america. get it together. donald trump is not the focus on

america. donald trump is a hypocrite. he is a liar. he is a thief. so wake up, america. get it together. host: let's talk to dora, ju neau, alaska. independent line. good morning, alaska. caller: good morning. i am so sorry for what happened to speaker nancy's husband paul. because first, it saddens my heart, because we do not know what they will be waking up to, what kind of news we will be waking up to every day. i think the fbi should handle this and get down to the bottom of it, because this is really serious, what has happened. i am just so saddened by it.

it could have been our family, your family, pointing our fingers back and forth. it is not good for our nation. i just feel that. and my prayers are going up for them. host: let's take a look at former president obama. he was campaigning in georgia and he mentioned paul pelosi, discussing the state of american politics. [video clip] >> an erosion of basic civility and democratic norms in our politics, not just here, and around the world. i want to take a moment to say a prayer for a friend of mine, mr. paul pelosi, who was attacked.

a politics where some in office or who aspire to office work to stir up division, to make folks as angry and as afraid of one another for their own advantage. and all of this has been amped up, hyped up, 24/7 on social media, on flat forms -- on platforms that find conflict and controversy more profitable than telling the truth. so i get why people are anxious. i get why you may be worried. i understand why it may be tempting sometimes just to tune out, to watch football or "dancing with the stars."

but i am here to tell you that tuning out is not an option. despair is not an option. the only way to make this economy fair is if we, all of us, fight for it. the only way to save democracy is if we, together, nurture it and fight for it. and that starts with electing people who know you and see you and care about you. people who will struggle alongside you. host: that was former president obama talking about the attack on paul pelosi. we are asking you the same questions this morning, about your comments and your thouts on that. let's go to freddie in north carolina, republican line. caller: yeah.

obama started back then that george floyd deal. the guy is an illegal from canada. was living in a storage building, selling hemp bracelets and hanging out with nudist colonies. so he is not a republican. and i agree with the 59% that say the mainstream news is a threat to democracy. host: house of? -- how so? caller: all the lies and all this been told. you ain't brought up marco rubio. his canvasser got almost beat to death. all day yesterday, it never was brought up. but now, you all are making it political, trying to blame donald trump and the republicans for a man standing in his under

where beating a democrat -- standing in his underwear beating a democrat. host: all right. let's go to tyler. good morning. caller: first of all. it is awful what happened to paul. hopefully he has a speedy recovery. actually, i agree with the gentleman who was just on. i believe the reporting on this has not been fact checked. all the independent reporting essay this guy was not dependent, actually hated trump and his family. weird you are making this got a maga republican -- host: when you say we are running with it, are you saying c-span? i do not think c-span has ever said he was a maga republican. caller: will you mentioned

tweets and stuff where they said it and biden said it. typically, i vote along the democrat line, into -- independent line. you just talked -- you had obama on, and he talked about the economy. i definitely will not vote for him, i am broke these days. host: let's talk to thomas, independent line. caller: good morning. i think the previous two callers , i have to be 100% on the same page. my understanding was this was a perfect storm of the breakdown of society. the gentleman, and my understanding, was here illegally. did not cross the southern border. he came from the northern border. that is still a border violation. had been convicted of very serious crimes in the states. was never deported because he happened to be in a sanctuary city, so that was just ignored. also, his homelessness has been

ignored. so if we do not address any of these societal ills, i do not understand what the powers that be think will happen. you put people into this cauldron, and you ignore what happens to everyday individuals, because it is not the husband of a very powerful person. but you are creating the perfect storm of these things and trying to pin this on a previous occupant of the white house as he started this fire is ludicrous. we have real problems in this society. the economy. covid has put tremendous strain upon people. a lot of people are at their breaking point. i do not think you will solve it by trying to demonize or set this on one side. quite frankly, i think both sides are just trying to take political advantage of this by blaming it on democrats, all the

democratic policies seem to have led to this, in some sense, or trying to say that republicans have weaponized politics. that is just ludicrous to me. host: let's take a look at a conversation from tuesday at the heritage foundation. this is justice alito, who authored the majority opinion overturning roe v. wade. he said the leak of the draft ruling in may of 2022 made him and some of the court's other justices, quote, "targets of assassination." [video clip] >> the betrayal of trust by somebody. and it was a shock, because nothing like that had happened in the past. so it certainly changed the atmosphere at the court for the remainder of last term. the leak also made to those of us who were thought to be in the

majority, in support of overruling roe and casey, targets of assassination, because it gave people a rational thoughts of preventing that from happening by killing one of us. and we know that a man has been charged with attempted to kill justice kavanaugh. it is a pending case, so i will not say anything more about that. but that was last term. now we are in a new term. i think that all of us want, all of the justices and the people who work in the building -- we have wonderful staff. i will add that. want things to get back to normal, the way they were before all of this last term, before covid. get back to normal to the greatest degree possible. that is what we hope will happen . i think everybody is working on that.

and during my 16 years on the court, the justices have always gotten along very well on a personal level. i think the public, when they read our opinions, probably miss that. sometimes you can see, by reading those opinions, we sometimes disagree pretty passionately about the lawagree. i am as guilty as others, probably, on this score. but none of that is personal. that is something that i think i wish the public understood. host: that was supreme court justice alito. we are asking you about your thoughts on the attack on nancy pelosi's husband, paul pelosi. let's talk to carla, illinois, republican line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good, thanks. caller: i am kind of on the

fringe about all this. the fact is that, to me, it looks like another one of the whitmer deals, where the fbi has been involved. they got some, probably crazy person off the street, one of the homeless people there in san francisco, to go in and do this. then they will blame it on qanon . it is like, really -- the fbi has a lot to do with a lot of the stuff that goes on in the world. and you ain't going to tell me anything different. they need to get the law back to where he needs to be. they need to hold people accountable when arrested and of giving them cash bail and releasing them the same day. they need to be prosecuted. with decent judges that know the law. there is not enough people

getting prosecuted for their crimes. host: ok. a previous caller had mentioned that attack in florida, and we did find an article to share with you. here is from cbs miami. it says this -- senator rubio stands by a statement that attack on gop canvasser was politically motivated. it says that u.s. senator marco rubio continues to stand by his statement that an attack on a republican canvasser was politically motivated. let's talk to e.j. in new mexico, democrats line. hi. caller: hello. thanks for taking my call. i want to say this country is not going to get back to normal until they put donald trump and his criminal friends in prison for life. that is all i wanted to say. host: all right. let's go to wisconsin,

independent line. susan, good morning. caller: good morning. what interesting calls have been getting. i agree with a lot of the callers. the guy that was doing this, the gentleman probably did not have any politics. his politics was smoking weed, making hemp bracelets, being nudist. he had been here illegally for over 20 years, and he had several felonies on his record. and when you live in big democratic areas, like california, san francisco area, he has been living on the streets. he shows up with a hammer and -- host: susan, where are you getting the -- we are not seeing news that he was here illegally. i am just curious where you are seeing that? caller: it is all over the news. what news do you read?

he is from canada. he is here illegally -- host: yes, i did see he is from canada. but you know he is an illegal resident in the united states? caller: correct, he is illegal. correct. host: all right. let's go to lisa, old orchard beach, republican line. caller: hi. good morning. i feel bad for mr. pelosi about the attack, but i think there is more of an important subject we need to bring up, and that is inflation. people are struggling to pay their bills this winter or struggling to buy food. it is awful he got attacked, but seriously, there is more important things to discuss. people are scared. host: ok. hosea next, democrats line. caller: good morning.

thank you so much for accepting my call. being who i am and what i am, i would like to say that this is not a democratic problem, this is not a republican problem. this is a problem of the spirit. my solution, my recommendation is simply this -- we all need to get back going to church. it does not matter whether you are baptist or methodist, catholic church -- it matters that you should align yourself with the cross, the cross of jesus would solve all of this problem. thank you so much for allowing me to come in. host: here is bloomberg. the headline here says this -- here is how u.s. lawmakers are enhancing their personal protection. it says capitol police cited increased threats against lawmakers. sergeant and arms added more

home security money. it says the violent assault on speaker nancy pelosi's husband at their san francisco home is the latest in a string of incidents that have driven lawmakers to boost their own personal protections. the speaker, who was in washington at the time of the intrusion, has a designated security detail that protects her as a leader in congress, but that is not the case for many of her colleagues. the house sergeant-at-arms announced a new program this summer that would pay for $10,000 to install or enhance equipment in lawmakers' residences as well as monthly maintenance and monitoring costs. quote, "this program will strengthen the security of the house of representative and their families." let's talk to lou next on the independent line, iowa. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. first, i would like the kind of

push back on a lot of the references that the attacker was not political. we see a lot of his blog posts, that he has associated to him, talking about common qanon conspiracies, common conspiracies related to the january 6 commission, as well as featuring many videos accusing queer people of grooming children, saying journalists saying there is no evidence of election fraud should be dragged out to the streets and shot. these are political. these need to be looked at. this is something everyone needs to be concerned about, whether democrat or republican. political violence is political violence. it is only being inflamed by rhetoric on both sides of increasing tensions. that is what i wanted to say. host: all right. let's go next to rick, colorado,

republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. everybody seems to be piling up on donald trump. and everybody seems to be forgetting maxine walters was literally telling people to go out and harass anybody that worked for donald trump or in his round. and it was wrong. i think we have a problem of ideology in our country. and if the ideology seems to be one side this, one side that. there was a problem like this during the civil war. at that time, the republicans were on the right side of that ideology. so maybe that is where we are at now. people are fed up with the way things are. host: what do you mean that is where we are. like civil war? caller: yes. it is getting really bad, because people are just fed up. the one side has this ideology,

the other side has their ideology, and no one will ever agree. we are in a serious spot in this country. host: let's talk to donald next in san antonio, texas on the democrats line. caller: good morning. i was listening to the majority of these people calling in, blaming every -- i do not know where all these excuses are coming up, and no one is having sympathy for this man being attacked in his own home. they are calling in with stories like where did you get that from? and they ask you, what news are you watching? i do not understand these people with this civil war crap. do these people really believe they want a civil war in this country? it will not be like the first civil war. our united states have weapons that will demolish you within

seconds. i do not understand what you people waking up every day -- we can put each other in a box. do your own thinking. think. host: all right. let's take a look at twitter -- actually, this is facebook. charlotte says is this where we are going in the usa, attacking our political system, really? the usa, attacking our political system, really? this is a sad state of affairs, if you ask me. we have come to a time where power and greed is taking over our country i hate to think of what other countries give us, as we are to be a freedom and liberty country, in which we are going down the same path as other countries that are being taking -- taken over by dictatorship and power. let's talk next to rich in ohio, republican line. good morning. caller: yeah, great conversations.

part of the problems we have, or solutions, is when we have people come in legally. they want to come in our country and go by the laws. when people go through the back doors, and evidently this guy did come in through the back doors from canada, they have different attitudes. pelosi was in charge of the laws, having the national guard come out. she had a party to take care of her house. she was also underfunding police left and right. this makes for a big, bad problem. when we do it legally, people are supporting the laws. we have bad eggs, but not everyone will be bad eggs. it only took 20 people to bring down the buildings on 9/11? we have millions coming in. pelosi is in charge of this. we do not know who came in. but you -- we do not know the whole story.

like pearl harbor, way back when, we still do not know the whole story, and we will not hear throughout the election, like biden's son. host: c.j., then rouge, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. it is sad what happened to mr. pelosi. however, this happens every day by the thousands. the thousands in the streets of america. you know what the answer is by some people? defund the police. is that just the stupidest, most idiotic thing you've heard in your life? defund the police when thousands of people are day are killed -- thousands of people a day are

killed in the streets of america. one man who is wealthy and is connected politically get attacked, and everybody goes crazy. the country is going insane, totally, totally insane. host: alright. mary-grace, williamsburg, virginia. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call, and thank you for honoring mr. pelosi and nancy. it did not have to come to this, but a lot of americans are making this a very political, from what i hear unused stations. instead of coming together as one. we are not doing that, even in a time of crisis. we are better than that in america. i am a true patriot, because i want peace, understanding, and

love with all of us. because love is the key to our success. and for anyone who thinks that hate and conspiracy theories are going to solve problems, they are not. and it is very sad. that is all i have to say. i hope america wakes up. wake up, america. host: all right. let's take a look at some social media. this is facebook. from barbara, disgusting and terrifying. no one is safe. this is a text that came in from sue in new jersey -- the news should be taken with a grain of salt. was the attacker mentally disturbed, was it racially or politically motivated? let's wait for the investigation to unfold. we should not speculate on why it happened. host: --on the independent line.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a retired air pistol. we have such a mental health problem, it is unbelievable. this sky was homeless. -- this guy was homeless. he was a nut. he was an illegal alien from canada. we have got to get these people off the streets. if we have to open mental health hospitals up, we have to open them up. you cannot have society like this. another thing is the playing field is not even. it's so one-sided. that's a joke. that's oging to change. musk just took over twitter. it is going to change and it is already changing, so america, get ready. host: let's talk to bill. caller: everybody is trying to do the political thing here and

distract from the election and so on. i would like to make a slightly different point, and that is architecture really reveals where we are going. when i first moved to mobile 50 years ago, if you wanted to see the mayor or the city councilman, you could drive up to the street and see where they are parked on the street. you could walk in the building, go upstairs, and see them. today in mobile, and most other cities, they park in guarded garages. they have separate elevators. you have to go through metal detectors. that is the way people lived 500 years ago in the middle ages -- maybe 800 to 1000 years ago -- because the rulers had to be protected from the peasants. that is where we live today. the peasants are a danger. host: that will be the last call for this segment. coming up next, dr. amesh adalja of the johns hopkins center for

health security at the bloomberg school of public health. he will discuss covid, the flu, and the increase in cases of rsv. and later, daily kos political director david nir and contributing editor david beard join us to discuss their podcast, "the downballot." ♪ ♪ >> live on sunday on in-depth, from the texas book festival, president and ceo of the lbj foundation will be our guest talking about u.s. presential history. his books include "the last republican." join the conversation with pho calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets live this sunday at noon eastern on in-depth on book tv on c-span2. >> american history tv exploring

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house and senate races whether coverage of debates, rallies and candidate events. to events as they happen on tv and the c-span now app, on demand on her website, and find our data rich el page at c-span.org/campaign2022. >> there are a lot of places to get political information. only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> c-span now is the free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in

washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings on the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns and more for the world of politics, all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. c-span now, your front row sea to washington anytime, anynywhe. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. my guest is dr. amesh adalja, johns hopkins center for public -- health security at the bloomberg school of public health. senior scholar. dr. adalja, welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: the new york times is talking about a triple-demic.

flu, rsv and covid. they may collide this winter. flu cases are respected to be higher than normal. another virus, rsv, is filling of pediatric hospitals. what is going on? guest: we could not expect to have a respite for every virus except covid for forever. the viruses were going to come back when people started socially interacting. they were blunted because of the stay-at-home orders, because of people wearing masks. now people -- most people are back to their normal lives. these viruses have come back. they never really went anywhere but were at lower levels. what happened is that there may be individuals who have not been exposed to these viruses as much. that is the case with rsv. a little off-season. that is sort of what is happening as we transition back to normalcy with these

respiratory viruses. the key thing in a situation where we are not worried about hospital capacity and hospitals have the resources they need to take care of people with all three of these viruses. this is going to be the normal for the time forward. host: what do you expect to be happening this winter? guest: we are going to continue to see respiratory viruses circulate. it is unclear when flu and rsv are going to peek. we we'll see cases of covid-19 accelerate as people move indoors. the virus transmit more efficiently and we have more contagious variants starting to appear. we will likely have a normal respiratory virus season that is maybe worse than we remember because covid-19 is with these other viruses. this will be an outpatient phenomenon.

we will see some hospitals, pediatric hospitals with rsv. i don't think we will see covid-19 hospitalizations anywhere near the level we were concerned about. we need to make sure hospitals have staffing and the population is recognizing the risk and are taking the time to use all the tools we have for covid. vaccines, boosters, monoclonal antibodies. so we can try to shift this out of the hospital and keep hospitals able to operate normally during this season. host: i remind viewers if you would like to call and ask questions, our guest a question, we are splitting up the lines by region. if you're in the eastern or central time zones, you can call (202) 748-8000. if you are in mountain or pacific, it is (202) 748-8001. we have a line for medical professionals. that is (202) 748-8002.

dr. adalja, can you give us more information on rsv? what is it? who is most susceptible? symptoms? guest: rsv is a virus that is well known to pediatricians. it is a respiratory virus all of us have had multiple times during our life. most people get infected by the two or three. it usually causes common cold like symptoms. it's dangerous for premature infants, children under the age of one or two, and older adults, particularly those with lung disease. when it comes to adult it is kind of underappreciated. it's around the same level of hospitalization as influenza. there are a bunch of vaccines that are approaching approval but none currently. we don't have very good antivirals. we have one treatment for premature infants.

we don't have many tools but it's a ubiquitous virus. most people get infected before the age of two or three. there has been a gap, a community gap. because of covid-19 and people not interacting, childrens' immunity to the virus kind of waned. we are seeing more cases all that once. we don't usually see this many cases this soon. it is something that is manageable but it is something that requires space. many hospitals don't have a lot of capacity. that is why they are at a low threshold to run into trouble. we are hearing about that at certain hospitals. hopefully we will get a vaccine in the coming years and this will become an easier to handle illness. i think this virus that has been around forever basically is now synergizing with the fact that people are socially interacting and causing this off-season spike. that usually comes a little later. host: you were talking about how

kids are not interacting a lot during the shutdown. this is what being called immunity gap. guest: exactly. we are exposed to viruses all the time. children can get multiple infections every year. adults get multiple respiratory virus infections every year. those infections aren't pleasant but they boost your immunity so when you get it again it is milder in general. one hypothesis is children born during the pandemic or not at school, preschool, day care during the pandemic did not get exposure to rsv and other respiratory viruses. when they do get exposed to it, there is less immunity around for their bodies to fight off some of the more moderate to severe symptoms of rsv. that gives them a lower threshold to meet med -- the need medical attention. when that happens all that wants, that's a lot of kids sick.

they inundate pediatric emergency rooms and hospitals. some thought there would be change in the epidemiology of other respiratory viruses. that is definitely the case. influenza, certain strains are probably extinct because there was not social interaction enough for that to continue to spread. the other side of the coin is we don't get exposed to the viruses so the immunity boosted by being exposed to the viruses, that waned. that could provide an opportunity for more severe disease to occur more commonly. there are some people trying to use that for the politics of what was going on with covid. i think that is not the right way to think about it. it's more of an immunological phenomena. host: before we go to viewers,

how can people tell the difference in symptoms between covid, flu and rsv? how do you know which one you have got? should you just test for covid in any case? guest: there is no way to tell the difference between any of these respiratory viruses. a whole host of other respiratory viruses. the only way to do that is with tests. they are indistinguishable. i do recommend people who have respiratory illness test themselves for covid at home first. that gives you an answer if you have a positive test result. depending upon your risk factors for severe disease, upon how sick you are, think about contacting your doctor or medical facility to get further testing for viruses like rsv for influenza. the covid test will probably be the first line. indistinguishable symptoms. they are the same for all three. host: let's take some questions from viewers. james in texas. good morning. caller: yes, good morning.

i would like to say i am thankful for vaccines against flu and covid. however, we need to get enough funding needed to and eric -- end everything needed. get the flu vaccines and covid vaccines administered to children, adults and older adults across the country and of course worldwide. basically take measures to counter rsv and make sure it does not get out of control. along with covid-19 and flu. make sure every single virus does not get out of control, out of hand. most importantly, don't go out of control. host: dr. adalja, the covid

vaccination, has that leveled off? is it just a matter of you either have gotten it or you will never get the covid vaccine? guest: unfortunately that is where we are right now. the united states, 68% of the population is fully vaccinated. those individuals are really dug in and probably not reachable with persuasion or evidence. i think the anti-vaccine movement has made great inroads with certain people. i think that 32% is going to be very hard to persuade. we have had a more traditional looking vaccine called novavax approved and we did not see much enthusiasm forward. some people got vaccinated that we did not see a significant rise. that speaks to the fact there is this problem we have with people not trusting these vaccines even though they are the best way to

prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death from covid-19. i don't suspect we will see that move much higher than what it is right now unfortunately. host: dr. adalja, we got a text from bob in naperville, illinois. please expand on the study that showed the immune function among vaccinated individuals eight months after the administration of two doses of covid-19 vaccine was lower than that among unvaccinated individuals. thank you. guest: there's a bunch of studies -- i don't have that study in front of me so i cannot speak to all the details. i think it is important to look at those studies in the light of what is happening clinically. when you look at protection from covid-19,, hospitalization and death, it is clear vaccines have a benefit in preventing those consequences of disease.

they stimulate the immune system to respond to the virus. there is a question -- i'm not sure if the person has a question about people who are naturally infected without a vaccine. if that is the case, we know there is immunity that occurs after people are infected with the virus. in some situations, with certain variants it may be comparable or greater to what was done with just vaccine. with hybrid immunity, vaccinated plus infection is probably the most immune type person on this planet. i don't see any correlation between lower immune response if there was something in vaccinated people changing the way -- having any impact on their life or clinical significance. it's important that you understand there are multiple arms of the immune system and that changes in function and another themselves don't necessarily mean anything unless you translate that into what it means clinically.

what it means for your susceptibility to infection. without having that study and not knowing the author and which one he is referring to, that is the best i can do at this point without looking up the study in front of me on the air. host: russ in west harrison, new york. caller: dr. adalja, i would like to ask. there's an interesting model that happened during the pandemic. i don't think it's that important but i with -- but is trust in public health lower now than what it was before the pandemic? do you feel you are a cheerleader for the pharmaceutical industry? thank you very much. guest: i do think the trust and public health is much lower than what it was before the pandemic. i think that's because the whole pandemic became a political problem and it was integrated into identity politics. public health took the brunt of that. when you have abdication of top political leadership, public

health got put into the leadership i don't they wanted it to be in. they were basically having to make very hard decisions because there had been so much in action in the early days -- inac tion at the highest levels of government. i think trust is probably at an all-time low. i think that will come back and hurt us. public health is important when it comes to our resiliency to infectious disease emergencies. the second part of the question, do i feel like a cheerleader for the pharmaceutical industry? i'm a fan of the industry because i don't think we would've had vaccines this quickly, antivirals this quickly , monoclonal antibodies without the prowess of our pharmaceutical industry. i think the are the engine -- they are the engine that makes the treatment possible. i'm grateful the pharmaceutical industry engaged covid-19 because it made our lives better. for the next outbreak in

emergency we are going to rely on the pharmaceutical industry again. that is who has the talent and has the resources and the ability to actually change the way we face these threats that humankind has faced. we now actually have tools. who makes the tools? the pharmaceutical industry. host: let's look at twitter. budda says my brother just passed. he spent two days in the emergency room. they had no rooms in this brand-new hospital. they were full of covid patients. dr. adalja, your reaction to that? are we still having the issue of overflowing hospitals due to covid? guest: not in my experience. i'm talking to you from a hospital where we are not having that type of issue. i don't know specifically what is going on in bloomington. we have a general problem with

hospital capacity that goes beyond covid-19. we have this phenomena where people may wait in the department for a day or two days to go upstairs because there are no beds. it is not necessarily due to covid patients. hospitals are busy places and they don't run with much excess capacity. many health-care workers have quit and left the field. there are staff shortages. even if hospitals have been deep beds, they don't have nurses to staff those beds. i think we have to think about hospital capacity much more broadly and fix these problems so we don't have people waiting in the emergency department for several days for a bed because they don't get the same care at that point they would be getting upstairs. it is probably not necessarily because of hospitals overrun with covid patients but they are at capacity with the other stuff they have to do, plus covid patients and staffing challenges. host: spokane, washington. dorry. caller: hi.

i have a request for c-span for you to play the first address by trump to the state of the union. you will see nancy pelosi standing behind him tearing up his speech. host: we are not talking about that. do you have a question for our guest? caller: yes. i've had all five shots in my flu shot. i cannot get my daughter to get the shots. my question is, since she has not had any and i keep trying to encouraged her to get them, how does she begin? though she just take the current shot that is available? does that protect her? how does that work since she has not had any up to now? host: ok. guest: when you are getting vaccinated we have the primary

series and the booster. the primary series is the old version of this vaccine, targeted to the ancestral strain of the virus. that is what you have to get, two doses. the donor -- moderna, pfizer, novavax, johnson & johnson. this was something that was a bit controversial. a lot of us thought that might have benefited to update those vaccines. it is true the vaccine, even against the ancestral strain protects people against what matters. serious illness, hospitalization and death. we urge your daughter to get vaccinated because she will benefit even if it is not directly matched to the version of omicron that is dominant at this point. what we are trying to do is prevent severe disease. we know that makes it extremely unlikely if you have severe disease. host: dr. adalja, we have a question for you from twitter.

nothing is as effective as natural immunity. masks are worthless. change my mind. can you change his mind? guest: when it comes to covid-19, natural immunity is not nothing. there was a mistake people did not actually say something like that. it does protect you against disease but natural immunity can be topped off with a vaccine. the study with vaccinated people, with just natural immunity and who have natural immunity plus vaccination, the highest level of protection are those people with hybrid immunity. i would tell people with covid-19 natural immunity plus a single dose of vaccine is probably going to get you as immune as you can be. i don't think natural immunity tops vaccine immunity. hybrid immunity is the highest based on the studies we have seen. for high-risk individuals, natural immunity, trying to gamble comes with the risk. suppose you are a seven-year-old with diabetes.

-- 70-year-old with diabetes. you want to get exposed to covid-19 after you have some immunity from the vaccine to protect you against the illness. anytime you think i want to get natural immunity to something, think about what the severe consequences might be. you might end up with natural immunity but you might end up in the hospital or emergency department or even dead if you have risk factors for severe disease. masks i do think work in specific settings. they are part of a layered approach. they are not going to be the be-all and end-all, but if you're using an n95 mask, it is not something that is going to make it easy for the virus to penetrate. when i take care of patients, i'm wearing a mask and it is effective. i think masks have to be something people use as one tool among many based on their own individual risk tolerances. the way this was handled by public health in terms of mandates instead of recommendation has created so

much politics around masks that do not need to be there. i wish they never had mandates but recommendations would have been more palatable for the public and they would not have this public health measure being viewed through people's political lens. they would be thinking about the health recommendation. host: let's talk to dan from georgetown, massachusetts. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. i wanted to bring up a couple of points why the public has lost trust here. i think not only in the medical industry but has lost more trust in the government as well with its abuse of authority. so, i think some things early on got a lot of people concerned. i guess one of the first things is that these so-called vaccines are gene therapy.

the definition literally changed to encompass these new so-called vaccines to be able to call them vaccines. in the past vaccines were all biological type of vaccines. these new things are not. in the past they would have been called gene therapy. a lot of people are very concerned about how this was released into the public to try to make it more palatable. also, a lot of people have some time when this happened. we got online and we looked into things. we found out there are some very basic antiviral medicines that have been around for a while. these are award-winning medicines for how cheap they are and effective they are. super effective against covid, as we can see from information around the world. for some reason here, the united

states, masters of the pharmaceutical industry, we turned our head and went for stuff like remdesivir that kills people and is $3000. host: let's get a response. guest: i think it is true there has been a breach between the public health practitioners and the general public. they were massive mistakes made during the pandemic that exacerbated it. mrna vaccine technology is something i have been advocating for much before the pandemic. every reports in 2017 and 2018. these vaccines, because they harness genetic material are not straightly gene therapy. they are basically revolutionary in the speed at which they can be made. they work extremely well, as we have seen in terms of prevention of severe disease, hospitalization and death.

they use the innovativeness as a pejorative. that's a feature. these mrna vaccines will change the way we face infectious diseases. yes, they are different than traditional vaccines. that doesn't mean bad. this is not the dark ages were everything new has to be feared and run from. i think the mrna vaccines represent one of the greatest technological advances since the days of pasteur. there are other vaccines. the people who attacked the vaccine don't get the j&j vaccine or the novavax vaccine. it's a much broader thing. they use the idea of the innovation within the mrna vaccines as a way to smear all vaccines. the other point about drugs, alternatives to remdesivir, i think ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine which have been shown in multiple trials to have no impact on covid-19.

is unfortunate we had to spend so much money to debunk something that was almost arbitrary. in the early days we wanted to find anything that would work and people were using ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. they did not actually pan out. we have better drugs. not necessarily remdesivir, but paxlovid that does help with preventing severe disease and hospitalization and death. this is unfortunate we have this breach between scientific knowledge, scientific method and the general public who do not recognize the scientific method. that is the bigger problem. we see this kind of idea that scientific reasoning doesn't work or is just a doctor's standpoint. not really actually grappling with the fact we did studies to look at all these things with hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. we wanted those things to work because it would have been great, but they didn't. host: we have a question from

twitter from mark. i think the elderly and those with health issues should wear a mask and be fully vaccinated, but there is no reason why a perfectly healthy person or child should have to wear masks or keep getting boosted. where is the science getting young people vaccinated? guest: covid-19 does treat people differently depending upon their age and risk factors for severe disease. the highest priority is to get vaccinated -- is to vaccinate high-risk individuals. puzders -- i think boosters should only be targeted for someone that is high risk. i think it's a mistake to have universal boosting. it really wasn't going to have much more than a marginal benefit on low risk individuals. i think that i differ with the questioner. if you can take a safe and effective vaccine and prevent yourself from getting covid, why wouldn't you?

you can reduce your risk further by getting the primary series, i think that makes sense. boosting should be targeted to high risk individuals. younger people who benefit from the vaccine in terms of making sure their covid will be as minimal as possible. that's why i advocate universal vaccination against covid-19 but not universal boosting. host: let's talk to kerry in new york. caller: good morning. i have a question regarding the difference in natural immunity versus the vaccination immunity time spent. host: what do you say to that? guest: it depends upon what you mean by immunity. if it is immunity to serious illness, hospitalization, death against serious illness. the after affects will have some

level of long-lived immunity and long-lived immunity after vaccination. which one last longer? i don't think we have the studies to say that. when you are talking about immunity against infection, it is not so much driven by the antibodies in the levels and how fast they decline. it is driven by the virus and the virus changing and mutating to become immune invasive. suppose you are infected with delta and you were vaccinated. your immunity to omicron is not very high because the virus is a different between delta and omicron. immunity against severe disease definitely impacts for a long time after prior infection in a healthy person, as well as after vaccination. it is when the immunity against infection that actually wanes, because there is more then one arm of the immune system.

antibodies may go down but t cells remain and protect you against serious illness. the virus keeps changing. whatever antibody duration we have against delta or alpha or the original version of the virus, that has waned. your protection becomes close to zero in the age of omicron. host: shelby is calling from bluff city, tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, doctor and c-span. my brother had the flu shot, which he gets yearly. about four weeks ago. about a week later, which he hardly ever gets sick and is not around many people, he came down with -- i thought it was a bacterial in his lungs because he could barely talk. the doctor did order

antibiotics, which did not phase it. he had it about three weeks before he started getting any improvement. it sounded to me that it could have been a viral virus infection. he still has a touch of it. my concern is maybe it is related to our rsv. i'm surprised and wondering why they haven't had a vaccine for adults. he's in his mid-60's. i assume there are a lot of different viruses. i don't -- host: you are asking about the rsv vaccine, when they could be available? caller: yes. i'm wondering why they have waited to long. guest: it is not as if they were

waiting. rsv vaccine was very challenging. they call it the graveyard of pharmaceutical companies. it has somebody negative trials where it failed or increased rsv incidents that were harmful. rsv vaccines were very tricky until certain scientific problems were solved. the rsv vaccine, the protein you have to target, it has to find a way to target it in a certain shape. it took a lot of science. the same science behind the covid vaccine was done at the nih that led to the idea that you could stabilize this protein, that you want your immune system to challenge it and it would not be harmful. that only happened in the last several years. what we now have or multiple companies with rsv vaccines in phase three clinical trials. the last phase of clinical development. within a year we will have rsv vaccines for adults and it will be a major benefit. as i said, rsv in adults has the

same burden as influenza. it is not just appreciated that well. i think there will be a major difference when this happens. it was after a long duration of clinical trials and basic scientific work to be able to have the knowledge to be able to make a statement -- make an effective rsv vaccine. i think we will have several to choose from which will be great. host: a question from text. sue from new jersey asks, i appreciate people wanted to get back out there. can you offer some practical advice to stay healthy and hopefully slow transmission of contagious illness to others? what lessons and good habits should remain even as we try to put the covid-19 pandemic behind us? guest: it's important to recognize when humans socially interact, respiratory viruses are part of the picture. when we transition from hunter gatherers to living with

each other in cities, viruses could really transmit. it is no surprise this is happening. what people need to keep in mind is, the most important thing is if you are sick, stay home. if you can't stay home, wear our mask. that's the best advice i can give people. respiratory viruses get around because they cause mild illness and people go about their activities and daily living and infect other people. there is a culture of pragmatism. doctors are guilty of it themselves. you show up for work even if you are sick. the biggest thing to remember is that if you are sick with some kind of respiratory illness, now there are lots of technologies that you can do things from home. try to stay home until you are no longer contagious. if you have to be around people, wear our mask. that is the biggest lesson i think i would carry forward in terms of respiratory virus transmission. try to decrease the number of infected people among us at any

given time. host: mary is close by in arlington, virginia. caller: good morning. i was wondering what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths have been due to a second case of covid? guest: it's very low. i don't have the number to give you. it is rare to see a fatal case of covid on the second exposure. not that it doesn't happen, especially with immunocompromised individuals. it is not very common that once people have severe disease after they've been infected outside the immune suppressed population were high risk individuals. there are some people who do have fatal second cases but it is not very common. in my experience i have not seen one. it speaks to the immunity you get after infections with a t cells protecting you from serious illness. i would not say does ironclad

with high-risk individuals and immunocompromised. host: jeff from bayville, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say if we are to prepare for the next pandemic we have to solve two overarching problems that have not been addressed and seldom talked about. one is the lack of funding that is sustainable. the other is public trust. now, i think the callers have pointed out the problems with public trust. how do we do that? it seems to me it has been over the long run. it cannot be done in the last month. it is like funding cannot be. there's really a common denominator here. we have to find a way to fund public trust consistently and sustainably and well enough to

have the capacities that we need, and educate the population of what public health measures might be called upon when there is a pandemic. whether it is respiratory or blood-borne, these things will change. people need to be informed and advance. guest: i agree restoring the trust between the public health community and the general public will be one of the biggest and hardest tasks. it does come to some of that issue of funding public health, thinking about public health in a different way. it comes out of almost national defense for it is not subject to boom and bust and panic and neglect cycles. can you get a workforce with the ability to work on their communications, hone their communication methods. it is going to be something we have to be proactive about. for much of our history when it comes to infectious disease

emergencies, washington and state capitals are very reactive. we have to get politicians to see past their next election and think long term about building a system that can absorb infectious disease hits than better than before. that has to be something people look at. unfortunately, i thought covid-19 would provide the kind of imperative. we had monkeypox on the heels of that and a lot of the same mistakes with monkeypox remain. we have to be aggressive advocating we fixed the problem so we never get put in a position like we were put in with covid-19. host: vicki and austin, texas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have only tended recently so if you cover this, i have two items, that's ok. i can go back and watch the tape. wanting information about the new variants. i think they are the q variants.

my primary question is could you talk about how we won't get -- where new variants come from? i have not had covid. i'm struggling hard to never get covid. in my mind if i get covid, i could produce a new variant. it is only from infected people where new variants come from. if people want to slow down or stop the creation of new variants, it is my understanding people should stop getting infected. is this correct? i'm on my first cup of coffee. if you could talk about both of those new variants, but most of all to explain to people where new variants come from and how avoiding infection altogether is how we stop new variants from coming about. thank you, sir. guest: the bq variant, those are

the ones people are watching now. they are descendants of the ba.5 version of omicron. it is further splitting. those variants, what is worrisome as they are more immune visa -- evasive. the virus is evolving to infect people with immunity. it will evolved mutations to get around immunity. the bqs may make some monoclonal antibody treatments need to be updated. a monoclonal antibody we give to high-risk individuals may need to be updated. other monoclonal antibodies, the main one we use for treatment, that may not work so well. that will be something important to watch and it may not be that any one single new variant becomes dominant. it might be a swarm of them. they all have similar mutations.

to the second part of the question, where did new variants come from? the virus has to be able to have copies of itself. it has to infect people and be spreading. unfortunately this is a virus that can't be eradicated or eliminated. it would become a part of social interaction, like many other viruses that generate lots of variants. they never make headlines because it is a milder illness. the more people get affected, the more opportunity the virus has to mutate. i don't think avoidance of infection in perpetuity is a sustainable approach for anybody. we don't have vaccines i call sterilizing immunity in the age of omicron. we will see new variants continue to arise like we do with other viruses. this is becoming one of endemic respiratory viruses. with new variants we are going to be -- evolution will not stop with the virus. the shift to the outpatient

stage, make it something that will never cross hospitals again by using vaccines, boosters, monoclonal antibodies, and continuing to improve vaccines. maybe we get to a point that we have a universal coronavirus vaccine or one that works more like the measles vaccine that blocks all infection. i don't think we are going to in the near time. there are too many people getting infected and i don't think we can have avoidance of infectious with such a ubiquitous virus that is now just part of our respiratory virus mill you. host: joe from bend, oregon. caller: i want to thank you very much for the vaccine. i got my boosters a few weeks ago. then i got covid this past monday. if the vaccine worked, i'm feeling much better today. i want to thank you and everybody else who worked on the vaccine. it was terrific.

thank you very much for all your hard work. guest: thank you. i don't deserve any credit for the vaccine other than i advocate for it. i was somebody that was an early proponent of mrna vaccines, popularizing them for talking about them as a solution to some infectious disease problems. i think these problems -- these vaccines may covid-19 a much more manageable illness. host: dr. amesh adalja, senior scholar at johns hopkins center for health security at the bloomberg school of public health. thank you so much or being on the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: later in the program, daily kos political director david nir and contribute in desk intruding editor david beard join us. first, it is open forum. start calling now. we will be right back. ♪

>> book tv every sunday on c-span2 futures leading authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. 8:00 p.m. eastern, former republican south carolyn governor and ambassador nikki haley discusses her book. peace talks about the women she draws inspiration from throughout her life. 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, tufts university professor chris miller traces the history of microchip technology and what has become the most critically needed technology globally. he's interviewed by jim himes. watch tv every sunday on c-span2. find the full schedule on your program guide, or watch online anytime at book tv.org. ♪ >> middle and high school students, it is your time to shine. you are invited to participate

in the c-span studentcam documentary competition. in light of the upcoming midterm elections, see yourself as a newly elected member of congress. what is your top priority and why? make a five to six minute video that shows the importance of your issues from opposing and supporting perspectives. don't be afraid to take risks with your documentary. be bold. amongst the $100,000 in cash prizes is a $5,000 grand prize. videos must be submitted by nuary 20, 2023. visit our website at studentcam.org for competition rules, tips, resources and a step-by-step guide. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. it is open forum. we wanted to alert you to some news. you can call on the phone lines by political affiliation and

talk about anything public affairs related or politics, what is happening in d.c. here's some news that just came out today. reddick is out as irs commissioner. the treasury department yesterday announced the departure of irs commissioner charles rettig, an appointee of former president trump whose term is at the end in mid-november. also here is that she was elon musk's first day as he took over twitter. here is the headline from the new york times on the front page. day of a people as musk takes the reins and twitter. on his first full day as the owner of twitter the social media company medially begin feeling his imprint. top executives are fired and the board of directors dissolved. the company said its stock would stop trading on the new york stock exchange on november 8.

he announced he plans to form a council to handle twitter's content questions, not reinstate users had been barred. he had confidence to help establish a war room and twitter to review its products and policies. that is what is happening with twitter. interested to hear what you have to say. we were talking this morning about the attack on nancy pelosi's husband, paul pelosi. assailant shouting "where is nancy" as he attacked her husband with a hammer. he's expected to make a full recovery. here's a picture from the wall street journal of police and law enforcement outside the home. attack and pelosi's home -- in pelosi's home stirs fears of political violence. let's go to your calls.

robin in cullman, alabama. independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have two comments. earlier you fact checked a member of the audience about habits of the assailant, the perpetrator of the pelosi incident. it made me feel like since you did not read it, you do not believe the facts. this whole morning everybody that has, has said trump was the reason why he got attacked, pelosi got attacked. i never heard you one time ask where you saw that. i think that is a way of hosting the show like that. the audience of c-span needs to just get along.

quit fighting each other. it is not that big of a deal. this country is not going to go under because the democrat did this or the republicans did that. trump is not the world. get over it. host: let's talk to darnell next. philadelphia, pennsylvania. democrats line. caller: good morning, c-span. funny. he was against the democrats and republicans fighting each other. he just got finished fighting with your position. the point i'm calling is elon musk. him taking over twitter and him opening up the moderation. a massive example is -- there are so many things we don't allow for the full truth to be seen. one perfect example is the

n-word. it is on everybody's thoughts. i believe it is on everybody's thoughts from the crime issue to the government, welfare issue. i believe loosening moderation allows people to speak more freely, even though i don't believe in anonymity on the internet. host: you want people to speak more freely the n-word. guest: not that word specifically but freely more generally. more freely generally on the concept of -- wow. even on the concept of the #metoo movement. if people could freely articulate their true feelings. for instance, nice guys finish last. i would like to see that, you know, mixed with the #metoo movement. opening up like that.

i believe in the past you even questioned the #metoo movement, you would be heavily restricted. same thing -- nice guys finish last. you know something? said to the wrong media audience, it can be explosive. host: paul from west palm beach, florida. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. regarding this nancy pelosi incident, why is c-span trying to connect this with january 6. he's an illegal guy living in the united states. host: i think the reason is that he was yelling, "where is nancy ?" that is what a lot of the january 6 attackers work yelling. it is not really c-span connecting that. that is what the reporting is so far. what do you think of that?

caller: obama did the same thing. divide and conquer was the policy of obama. why did you cover when pelosi's husband, paul pelosi, ran his porsche into a mexican guy? everything is covered in the bush. it happened months ago. host: you are talking about the car accident? driving while intoxicated charge? caller: right. were any charges brought against him? host: we can pull that up. caller: something happened yesterday and you are trying to talk about trump, trump, trump. the economy is in bad shape. so many bad things have happened in the last two years and you were talking about trump and january 6, nothing else. thank you. host: paul mentioned obama.

be campaigning for mandelaing to barnes today at 4:30 easte that.ll have live coverage of mr. obama twice won wisconsin. he joins incoming governor tony that is in milwaukee and live 4:30 eastern on c-span on our freeobile video outcome is c-span now, or online at c-span.org. jonathan is in san diego, california. caller: hello and thank you so much for taking my call. you have a wonderful cross-section for your audience across the country calling in which is very refreshing. my comment today is i want to put out to c-span's audience,

whoever you are, do not take your focus off this pandemic we have all suffered through, including myself. the senate hearings with senator rand paul have been published on youtube. i suggest everyone go to those senate hearings and listen to the questions and answers. the most recent was when senator rand paul was asking dr. fauci for the money they were receiving from the vaccine, moderna and j&j, for producing the vaccine and for money they were receiving and giving that. i believe it was 138 doctors and/or scientists that were receiving kickbacks from those companies. dr. fauci responded, we do not

have to tell you because of a law that is on the books that they are not required to divulge the information. i am urging your audience to work with your senators as i have and congressman as i have in getting to the bottom of this, which is of no relevance at this point because the virus has affected all these people. work with your senators and congressmen for the further investigation into dr. fauci to have those men investigated to the fullest extent and also to have them, if deemed necessary, to have them arrested and prosecuted for crimes against humanity. host: all right jonathan. the previous caller, paul, was talking about that car crash. i told him i would bring it up so here it is.

this is from politico. paul pelosi gets five days in jail, three years of probation in the dui. he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence charges related to a may crash in california's one country. it -- wine country. paul pelosi already served two days in jail and received conduct credit for two other days. people work eight hours in the court's work program in lieu of the remaining day. he did not attend the sentencing. it says state law allows for dui misdemeanor defendants to appear through their attorney unless ordered otherwise by the court. as part of his probation, paul pelosi will be required to attend a three-month drinking driver class and install an ignition interlock device where the driver has to provide a breath sample before the engine

will start. he will also have to pay nearly $7,000 in fines, according to the judge. jess from indianapolis, indiana. democrats line. caller: pleasure to talk to you. it is funny that republicans are always talking about immigration and crime as a reflection -- flexion of what the real issue is. i hope mr. placebo xo full recovery but the animal attacked him, looking at his website, has embraced qanon philosophy. who has embraced white supremacist ideology. basically claimed that the holocaust was a host -- folks so this is a political -- hoax so this is a political savage.

donald trump, the frankenstein monster, mr. mcconnell and his racist comments about his wife. this man has basically opened the floodgates for bigots, conspiracy theorists, and one party is trying to preserve democracy and one party has embraced fascism. the problem is fascism and the republican party is not the party of abraham lincoln anymore. they are not a party of alex jones, the proud boys, the oath keepers, and donald trump. all the republicans getting your typing -- your talking points from tucker carlsen and fox news, you can try but we know what the truth is. why don't you just do us a favor, all of you maga people, go back to your stage? host: bubba in memphis, tennessee, republican line. caller: that last guy seemed

awful angry and i take it that he's a democrat. people seem to forget back when trump first started to run for president, people that wore his gear, hats, shirts, was getting attacked and i'm sure it was not trump people attacking them. sarah huckabee got run out of a restaurant with her family, couldn't even eat out. when steve scalise got shot, that was a bernie sanders supporter. republicans don't blame bernie over that. he had no control of it, just like trump has no control of what these people are doing. it seems like democrats are awful angry about something. they just seem to forget how they acted, i remember rand paul and his wife got attacked.

there's been recent ones, like somebody said marco rubio almost got killed. a journalist got killed by a democrat. it is both ways but trump has no control over what these people are doing just like biden don't have control over how his people are acting. democrats have a short memory and we are going to have a red tsunami coming up to get this country back again. like trump says, maga, make america great again. host: henrietta and calla midcity, illinois, independent. caller: good morning. i just want to say i'm not a democrat and not a republican. i vote for the best person for the job. nancy pelosi is as big a liar as trump is. i love trump's program but the

democrats like all immigrants, give them all the money. they give the immigrants housing, food, clothing, a stipend. the americans is left -- i have empathy but take care of your own garden before you start digging in somebody else's. loc wants all these people to come in and be democrats -- pelosi wants these people to come in and be democrats. they have a mind of their own. kavanaugh slowed them down. they didn't care. but that lady, whatever her name was, she didn't like the flag. host: donald in south bend,

indiana, democrats line. caller: yes, i just want to say something else about -- we got a guy here running in the second district. he's promoting himself as a business owner so that's why we should vote for him. the fact that he did debate, i won't vote for him. i have nothing against people who own businesses, great, that's fantastic. but i don't necessarily think it translates into politics. politics -- i'm sorry, public service, because business people want to make a profit. there's nothing wrong with that. that's what they do, but when you get into public service, it's a totally different game.

sometimes you got to spend money to build a road or bridge or something and it may not look fiscally great on the outside, but eventually in the long run it will help the community as a whole. host: you are not impressed with business leaders becoming politicians? caller: i don't want to say that. i just want to make sure that they understand being a pure businessman -- let me just say, government is not set up to be efficient. if that were true we would have aching. -- a. -- king. just because you are a businessman doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be a

great congressman. that's basically what i want to say. host: republican line, hunting town, maryland, anne. caller: i want to bring up the doctor who was talking about the vaccines. i had covid -- hello? host: i'm listening. caller: i had covid and so did my husband and he was saying that ivermectin and the other thing wasn't working. i say it worked very well. we are both in our mid 60's. we had shots and we are not getting shots. my whole family did not get shots and they are fine, including my grandchildren. the flcc will be contradictingc plus, my nurse who is working in a hospital said doctors told her there, in california, not to get

those shots because they had the mrna, whatever that is, that can be damaging to the immune system. i am just saying, not everybody thinks like that, and both my husband and i are educated. he has an mba and i have a bachelors degree and we do a lot of research. i guy said, 67, and i do not believe in all these vaccines. a lot of people i know who had the vaccines were in the hospital or have been very sick. i'm just saying, it's what you choose to do. work on your immune system, take the d3 and zinc and just make sure you know what you are doing. host: raymond, aurora, colorado, independents line. caller: good morning, america. i would like to say a couple of things. first, i do believe my perspective that history repeats itself and i would like to make

two comments. first of all, all of us need to take a look at joshua in the old testament. second of all, all the german people that were following hitler's were not nazis. nazis perpetrated the crimes the most. i listen to mary trump and michael korn, who has been absolutely right about mr. trump. i don't hate mr. trump. i'm praying for mr. trump, but if you have a chance, independents, republicans, and democrats, to look at the documentary "the rise and fall of the third reich" and tell me where we are headed. god bless this country and i hope we wake up before it is too late. host: let's take a look at "the new york times" front page and

the headline says -- "prices and wages keep escalating, challenging the fed." demand for fuel spikes and further evidence it will take time to tame inflation. economic data brought troubling news for fed officials who are trying to rein in the fastest inflation in decades. prices are still rising quickly, wages are rising rapidly, and the strong consumer demand that is helping to fuel the inflationary fire shows little sign of letting up. let's talk to angela next in a connor wingo, maryland, democrats line. caller: it is a proven fact that in the 21st century, most of the political violence has been on the right. i would point to steve scalise, how about gabby giffords, sarah palin put a map out during the midterms with the shooter

crosshairs and that mental case went and shot gabby giffords in the head. obama needed secret service protection when he was running before he even got the nomination, and trump is playing the qanon theme song and everyone is holding their one finger up like they are nazi followers. more than 200 people running for office deny the election was won by biden. please, america, don't let the corporations win. don't let the saudis win. don't let putin win. please vote democratic to keep the democracy in this country. i don't care about your political views. if we don't have a country, we won't have fair elections, nobody's -- will win. host: loretta is calling from saint augustine, texas, republicans line. caller: saint augustine halfway

between houston and shreveport so you get an idea of where we are. we are not near the border. as a republican, i watch newsmax and fox and those kind of stations and i hear so many of our republican politicians saying every state is a border state. that really bothers me. that's kind of like saying every family is a goldstar family. we are all affected by those who are killed in war but we aren't directly affected. we can only feel it. immigration has to be number one in texas and arizona, but in other states they aren't feeling it and they aren't border states. otherwise it would be number one on their list. we are spending so much money in the state trying to control our border. when i go to church -- i'm catholic -- they have three masses in spanish and one in

english. for our first communion class, we had 89 students that are hispanic and one is anglo. it didn't used to be like this. they are just surrounding us and the state is paying so much for our school, medicine, border control, and others should recommend -- recognize that. daca, i'm all for letting the kids who were born here who have done well stay but those who are in jail and dropped out, why reward them with citizenship? we can't give like it coverage for everybody. we have to start looking -- give blanket coverage for everybody. we have to start looking at individuals instead of a law that covers everyone that discrimination. host: delphos, ohio, independent line, todd. caller: i appreciate you taking

my call and i thank you for this format where you allow all sorts of people across this great nation to call in. an ex-military member and we were told to be a political so -- apolitical so i tried to be independent but the temperature i feel is out of control. i kind of like this format because you kind of back it up with what they call receipts. you will go to the internet, look stuff up, show the source, and it kind of makes me miss an old show that was "adam ruins everything." you guys are sort of like that. i believe everybody needs to step back, take a breath, and take a look at your actions and what we are doing to each other. we are a great nation when we

pull together. but right now, the temperature is a little bit too hot and i feel that we are going down a path that we may not be able to return from. so with that, i will close and i appreciate you taking my call. thank you. host: morgan in reading, pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: thank you. thank you for c-span. i want to talk about schemas him. -- donald trump and fox news treated kyle rittenhouse, a teenage double murderer like a hero and treated him like he committed some great, wonderful thing. he was also way nazi sympathizer, and how he was treated by donald trump and fox news and the republican party. joe biden would never invite a

murderer into his home and treat him like a king like trump and the maga republicans have done with kyle rittenhouse. when it comes to extremism, though nobody got it anymore ac cept of extremism like the republicans do. host: that will be it, and this time of open forum. thanks to everybody that called in. up next, david mere and david beard join us to discuss their podcast "the down ballot, on our weekly spotlight on podcasts. we will be right back. ♪

>> do all americans have a fundamental right to privacy? sunday, a look at the struggle between an individual's right to privacy in the public upon right for -- the public's right for information. including ressler hulk hogan's multi million dollars lawsuit. >> hulk hogan brought a claim for the right of privacy againstgawker and he accuse that even though it was truthful, his level of privacy would trump the right of gawker to publish on that truth.

ultimately a jury agreed with him and a lot of people in the united states i think were shocked at that because we understand so much i think about freedom of the press and truth and how truth will protect him, and yet this was an instance of someone's privacy becoming more important in effect, a jury decided, than the public's right to know. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can listen on all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> live sunday, november 6 on in-depth, from the book festival in austin, an author and historian, president and ceo of the lbj foundation will talk about the u. presidential history. books include "the last

republicans." "jfk and the presidency." join us with your phone cls, facebook texts, and tweets. sunday, november 6 at noon on in-depth on book tv on c-span two. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. it is our weekly spotlight on podcast segment and i'm joined by the cohosts of the down ballot podcast, david nir on zoom. he is an elections publisher and david beard is the daily kos contributing editor. welcome. guest: thanks for having us. host: you can join the conversation on our lines by party affiliation. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. aunt independents, (202) 748-8002. you are the politics director at the daily coast. remind viewers what it is. guest: it is the largest online progressive community in the country. we celebrated our 20th anniversary this year and we are dedicated to what we like to call news, community, and action. we want to give progressives, liberals, and democrats a place to read about the news and then also do something with it to take action to affect positive change in this country. the coverage that david beard and i are involved in is focused on elections and as beard will talk about, down ballot elections, the races below the presidency that never get as much attention as they deserve. host: david beard, tell us about

that. the podcast, why you are deciding to focus on the down ballot. guest: the presidency gets an enormous amount of coverage, particularly relative to other races. we have thousands of races that take place. senate and house are further down ballot, mayors, city council, and our goal is to focus on those to provide good analysis, the best way for progressives to volunteer, use their donations, but also understand what's going on. there are so many different races people don't know about when you talk about judgeships or things like that. people might not be familiar with what's on the ballot. host: tell me about the podcast. what's the format, who do you talk to? guest: there is two main segments, a weekly segment between myself and david nir. we go back and forth with a few of the top hits of the past

week, anything we found interesting or notable or worth talking about. then we move into what we call a deep dive which is usually an interview with a guest. occasionally we will do something else, but most of the time we have somebody on. we do not have a lot of elected officials. it primarily is folks like analysts or folks working with an organization on behalf of certain races, that can give an insight view on politics campaigns and what's going on in these races we are covering. host: david nir, you talked about progressives paper and i wonder if that is your target audience or if you are trying to reach a wider audience? guest: progressives have always been our first and foremost audience but it is interesting that you ask. we have always been devoted to being a reality-based community and that means that if the news

is tough for democrats or if honestly, it is good for republicans, we are going to be honest because telling people to clap harder does not allow them to create change. you have to be honest and candid and straightforward with your readers. we know that votes from all over the spectrum follow our podcast and we produce a lot of content, including a lot of data analysis that is of great interest regardless of political leanings. daily coast, our primary mission has always been and will be to support progressives. we like to say we want to elect more and better democrats and that's going to be at the core of what we do. host: david beard, talk specifically about the down ballot races. there is state attorney general, secretary of state, state supreme court. talk about the importance of each. guest: all of those positions

have real impact on people's lives in their respective states in ways they may not initially think about or expect. obviously, we've seen recently with state supreme court that a number of states elect their justices on election integrity to abortion to voters rights and workers rights. there's a ton of different things the supreme court has decision-making power on because state law doesn't normally go to the federal judiciary system. they stop at the state supreme court. who is elected has an enormous impact on those issues. as we've seen with secretary of state and attorney general, the move in recent years to push conspiracy theories around elections and try to impugn the integrity of our elections, it is very important to have elected officials who are willing to push back and stand up for the elections we've

taken, and to show they are being run appropriately in these conspiracy theories have no basis, and to keep conspiracy theorists out. that's what and a lot of these states and races, somebody is going to run an election well or push baseless conspiracy theories about elections they run. host: going to put something on the screen. these are 2022 municipal elections and here are some of the offices thatrep. district attorney is kind of understandable, buthethere is the corner, them a more -- roner, the boreal district board, abatement board. -- memorial district board, abatement board. how do people know what this is? guest: it is difficult. we just had an episode of somebody running for school board and a nonpartisan area. they were asking how do people

make these decisions about who to vote for? it is difficult particularly with the types of offices that you mentioned where i don't feel educated enough to know who the best coroner might be. sometimes you will find partisan cues. if there is a partisanship, people will vote for the democrat or republican and often times incumbency is very strong. you got elected, people just vote for you as long as you are on the ballot. host: at least you have experience. guest: they haven't heard of anything going wrong at the coroner's office. host: nobody died. guest: it is hard, but people don't know what they do. it is sort of an unknown. people tend to vote whoever is at the top of the ballot or whichever name they are more familiar with. we've seen studies that show people with names, irish names have done well in a state like

ohio, and offices are people haven't had any cues. host: what about candidates for municipal offices running unopposed? how often does that happen and what does that say about the position and availability of choices? guest: it happens distressingly often. i think this may be a somewhat unusual view but it is quite possible that in america we actually elect too many offices. we were talking just a moment ago about judicial elections. the rest of the world thinks we are completely off our rocker for electing judges. almost no one else does that. it is a strange system. that also goes for the other offices like coroner, mosquito control board. we as a country need to take a hard look at these positions we are electing and discerned -- and decide whether it is appropriate or whether these

positions should be appointed by people who we have a better understanding of the jobs we do, appointed by the mayor or governor or so forth. we probably would benefit from having a smaller ballot. host: i want to ask you about an opinion piece in cnn.com titled "the many democratic voters skipping down ballot races." it says even if democrats block historic trends and hold onto congress, there's another cause for concern. democrats have a "rolloff problem." describe what rolloff is and why does it seem to be a democratic problem. sorry, i didn't specify which david. whichever one of you wants to take it. guest: i am happy to take that. mid turn -- midterm turnout is always much lower than in a presidential election.

this is a very unusual feature of american politics. most countries don't have midterm elections. they just have one every few years. for many years, democratic turnout in these midterm elections has tended to be disproportionately lower than republican turnout in large part because the kind of voters who tend to show up for these less prominent elections are better educated and more well-off, more affluent, and much of the democratic coalition tend to be younger voters, people of color, and these are folks who just haven't had as long a participant patient -- dissipation in our political system -- participation in our political system. voting is a habit. the kind of people who tend to vote more often, older voters especially, have in recent years

favored republicans. publicans have typically done better in terms of turnout. they have lost fewer voters than democrats. this has been changing as we have seen in the trump years. the democratic coalition has become more affluent and better educated as these former republican voters in they support him or -- suburban areas have moved away from the gop during the trump era and beyond. this election will be an interesting test case but this issue will mitigate itself as the nature of the democratic base changes. host: david beard, talk about split tickets. how often does that happen? does it happen more often for democrats or republicans? guest: it used to be mark popular -- more popular in the

middle of the century. people were more willing to vote for a liberal republican or conservative democrat across the country. we saw that increase. there were a lot of competitive races and ideological mixing where the most conservative or liberal house member were not necessarily a democrat or republican. as partisanship has become stronger and ideology has caused more sorting between democrats and republicans, as a result there is still some ticket splitting. we've seen with governors races, republicans elected in massachusetts and maryland and democratics in louisiana, kentucky, and canada. -- it has decreased a lot because people see the idea of control of congress is more important than the specific

house member or senator you are voting for. as a result they were vote forever -- vote for whoever has a d or r next to their name. host: let's check in on twitter anddp -- twitter and dp said this -- raise the voting age to 25? guest: i am adamantly opposed. a strong and healthy democracy is one where as many people participate as possible. we were talking about turnout a moment ago. it is a terrific thing that happened before i was born when the national voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. i think it is at a good place. if we say to people that you can serve in the military, you are old enough to drive, then we absolutely have to extend the right to participate in our

democracy. host: david beard, you can take this tweet. why aren't we talking about the female vote and gen x vote this year? what are you expecting for turnout? guest: i think the big question is whether or not turnout will reach or exceed 2018 levels in terms of comparison to a midterm. 2018 had high turnout for midterm compared with the last couple of years and i think people expect turn to be high again. the question is will we reach and/or exceed 2018? in regards to turnout and women, the decision has caused a lot of output and desire to reverse that. we've seen turnout be high. it is hard to measure the degree to which women are turning out at higher rates but it is

something to look at after the election to see what sort of disparity there ends up being. guest: if i could add, the down ballot, our podcast, we've talked about this almost every single week and there has really been some fascinating results over the summer in particular. we saw that election in kansas where an anti--- measure was rejected and we saw five special elections were democrats over performed their district means and even won a couple of stunning victories. that to me is very strong proof that we have seen a surge in turnout among women and to the person asking on twitter, this is something i think is extremely important and it is why we have been talking about it so much on our podcast. i would encourage them to tune in. host: let's talk to some

callers, john in chantilly, virginia, democrats line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to say the democrats did the best thing, put the best and the brightest. you look at florida and south carolina, you look at wisconsin, they have the best candidates. but that's not the point. my point is why can't we have a season -- system like alaska? if i want to vote, i don't have to be democrat or republican, i'm going to vote what's right. i don't get this. and then what the guests say about this. host: which david would like to take that? guest: i can take that. there's been a real disparity in terms of canada quality that the

caller -- candidate quality that the caller mentioned, where democrats have really strong top level candidates doing great fundraising and the republicans have nominated less than ideal candidate, from an objective stand -- perspective. as we talk about the increase of ticket splitting that's been less and less important but does still matter, and in regards to alaska specifically, alaska started using a ranked choice method where voters get to rank their choices beyond just their first choice. one of the things that does is allow for greater diversity of who you are selecting so you can pick a democrat or republican for your first choice, and the opposite -- opposite party or independent for your next choice. this narrows it down where if somebody voted for a candidate with low percentage, they get eliminated with the ranked

choice tabulations and the support goes to your second candidate. i can push candidates with broad support even if they are not everyone's first choice, into victory, as we saw with representative mary peltola. host: we saw a question on text from jim in winter park, florida. hypothetically, if yesterday's horrific attack on mr. pelosi was done just to a 70-year-old citizen, with the perpetrator have been released on a no bail death warrant due to the liberal district attorney's policies followed by the california lawmakers? david nir, your thoughts? guest: i think we need to take a step back and look at what happened, the absolutely horrific crime against paul pelosi and nancy pelosi because obviously they were targeted because they are the pelosi's and because nancy pelosi is a

woman and speaker of the house. this was not just an ordinary crime. this was an act of political violence. we know that for certainty because of the political ideology espoused by the attacker who was very heavily influenced by all sorts of far right conspiracy theories. the reason why it is so important to call this out is if you don't identify the problem, then you can't find a solution. so if you treat this as just an ordinary crime or a home invasion, you are absolutely not going to address the incredibly serious problem of political violence that has been fomented by the right. this has going on for quite some time. we saw a crescendo horrifically on january 6 but that was not the end, just the beginning of a new phase. it is extremely important for democratic leaders to call this out for what it was.

it is the only way we are going to stop more political violence which is just beyond unacceptable. host: let's talk to vincent on the republican line in west bloomfield, michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. i have two comments. the first one is on voting at the age of 18. that was the biggest mistake this country has ever done. you are telling an 18-year-old you cannot drink, you cannot buy tobacco, but here we go you can vote. that's a joke. host: wait, what would you want the voting age to be? caller: i would say 21. it was 21 years of age and someone said 25, that's probably even a better age to be honest. the 18-year-olds apply nothing but going after college students

and their whole ideal. that's what the democrats are after. if you want to say you can go to war, fine. anybody that served in the military, you can vote but not the whole thing. democrats even wanted to go to 16 years of age. host: you said you had a second point. caller: my second point is you are talking about the attack on nancy pelosi and that's despicable. i would also like to hear from the democrats about steve scalise being shot. and the other one, the republican candidate that was badly beaten and we hear nothing on the news. that was down in florida or somewhere in the south. it is all one-sided. everybody is upset about nancy. i didn't hear anybody yelling about somebody shooting steve scalise or other republicans at the ballgame. host: all right, vincent.

david beard, how about you? guest: there was enormous coverage of representative scully's -- representative scalise's shooting and there was strong condemnation. it needs to be more consistent. we need for people who are inflaming this rhetoric and causing this type of action to tone it down to come to a more reasonable stance so people don't take incendiary claims about elections being stolen and conspiracy theories, and lead them to believe they need to take this violent action. that's the inevitable result when you have conspiracy theories being bantered about in public, people taking extreme positions and using violent rhetoric. this is the inevitable conclusion. everybody needs to bring the tone down and push our political culture to a place where it

doesn't lead to this sort of violence. host: jack is in florida, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you, c-span. the gentlemen that represent podcasting, this goes out to you and the other mainstream media, we need to educate americans, people just in general, instead of separating them. the tools the media has, whether it is podcasting or commercials are all based on behaviors and getting responses from us. we are mammals. i don't want to go into deepness about mammals and everything, but we are all raised. you talk to somebody about alabama and fsu and georgia, they are always under contention, alabama is the best.

we are imprinted since childhood and our sense is built on imprinting us and for generations, people have voted, i'm going to vote republican, my daddy did. vote the issue, america. learn to think for yourself and challenge the podcasters and mainstream media to educate us. we are just bombarded by everyday commercials, tv gives you 50 seconds of news and five different medical solutions to your problems, as an example, to just the imprinting. host: david nir, do you think people would change their minds? guest: i think the caller's point about educating voters and the need for greater political education is an exceptionally important one. that's why i'm so glad that something like c-span exists and

that's also why we started daily kos 20 years ago and why we created our podcast down ballot. precisely because there are big gaps in what the traditional media covers and we think it is incredibly important to fill those gaps. obviously, we have lost a very sad line in media across the country, especially local media. these down ballot races we focus on simply don't get as much attention as they used to because there are fewer reporters and fewer outlets and smaller budgets devoted to covering it. organizations and podcasts like ours play a very important role in filling that gap and helping provide political education that this country so much needs. host: we got this text from erwin in madison, wisconsin -- what mandatory voting eliminate voter suppression? guest: that is one solution.

australia has essentially mandatory voting. you can go and tap the blank ballot. they don't require you to vote for certain candidate to fulfill the requirements. they do require everyone who has the ability to vote to go and cast a ballot even if it is blank. there are simpler ways. host: how does that work? how do they enforce mandatory voting's? guest: if you don't vote, you get a fine. they don't send you to jail but you get a fine like any minor civil offense. if you don't go and vote when you are supposed to. there may be ways you can have an excuse if you were ill but the idea is you would be given a small fine if you don't vote when you are supposed to. there are a lot of simpler ways to deal with voter suppression than turning to mandatory

voting. you can make it easy for people to vote, give people options, don't give onerous requirements to make it more difficult, don't allow people like we've seen in arizona to watch you as you go to turn in your ballot and make -- take photographs of you and your license plate, in order to supposedly track election integrity. those things are intimidating voters and will make it less likely for people to drop off their ballot. that will be the first thing to make it easier to vote before we turn to mandatory voting. host: matt, bladensburg, maryland, democrats line. caller: that concept is an excellent idea, mandatory voting. if you had people on the right that think everybody should own a gun, it makes more sense, something that everybody should be obligated to do as a citizen of this country, is take part.

not only that, i think it would deter people from trying to take people's right, things like you call a privilege. that's all i want to say. host: david nir? guest: some callers have said they think mandatory voting in the united states might run afoul of the first amendment but it hasn't been tried so first to know what the courts would say. there are other options, including offering voters a tax credit if they have actually voted. it would be small but certainly an incentive. i think that is something municipalities in particular could experiment with, or states could experiment with. it could be a useful experiment. as david beard was talking about australia, one thing they do is it is a tradition to have hotdogs after you pass your

ballot. everybody gets what they call a democracy sausage so maybe we should try that. host: we could do that instead of the sticker. pete in have run, new hampshire, republican line. -- hebron, new hampshire, republican line. caller: i'm watching and li and it is amazing, here in new hampshire when we go to vote the polls open at 7:00 and close at 7:00. you show up, go through the supervisors checklist. in a town of 600 people, everybody knows each other but you still have to show proof of id. you go and cast your ballot and that's that. it's a very simple process. the problem with our country and our voting system is politics. that's what's dividing this country. you guys talked about this morning, you are speaking about the white nationalists and so forth, and the truth of the matter is nobody wants to talk

about -- they talk about january 6 and january 6 -- no one wants to answer the question of what about the riots in 2020? cities and businesses being burned to the ground, all for the sake of a few people. they are charging an organization called black lives matter that got rich. nobody investigates that. the problem in our country still goes back to politics, too much politics. you want to get this country back together, come up with a real voting system and we can move forward from that. this country will only get worse. have a great day. host: david beard. guest: new hampshire is an example of a state that hasn't made a lot of changes that has made it easier to vote like other states did and specifically in response to the pandemic, and it has continued

around early voting and mail-in voting. that makes it easier for people to cast their ballots. there are a lot of people, it may be caring for a sick relative or they simply have an eight hour shift and they cannot leave, and they have to pick up their kids after work. the idea that the polls are open for 12 hours and that makes it easier for everyone to get to their polling place and cast the ballot, especially in urban areas where we've seen there are lines for 2, 3, 4 hours, it is not true that's an easy way to vote and everyone should be able to make it in that 12 hour period on election day and cast their ballot. maybe in a small town in new hampshire where nobody drives an hour for work, maybe that works. what we have seen across the country and in other countries is that when mail in balloting and early voting are available more people vote. that's what we want.

we want people to vote and we want to make sure the democracy is representative. if we make it difficult to vote, that is not truly a representative democracy host: host:. mary lou tweeted -- my state is being destroyed by far right legislators. gerrymandering is rapid. one third of our republican led legislature is under investigation. it is a sewer and judges should not be election. david nir, several things. guest: i definitely agree, judges should not be elected. unfortunately, this is what we have right now including in ohio where the supreme court is on the ballot. republicans have a narrow majority of three. democrats are hoping to split that and turn it into a fourth rico democrat majority. that also direct -- fourth rico

-- 4-3 democrat majority. voters said at the ballot box we don't want politicians to draw their own lines, it should be an independent process that needs to be fair. those reforms passed and then republicans in ohio did everything in their power to ignore them. what wound up happening is they passed more gerrymandered districts. the supreme court said these are unfair partisan gerrymandered and then they ran out the clock and refused to pass compliance. state election officials wound up having to use maps that were still gerrymandered. this is an unfortunate situation. for ohio going forward, the only real answer will be to pass yet

another set of reforms at the ballot box. it is expensive and difficult. you have to get a lot of signatures to get something on the ballot, but ohio needs more redistricting to stop republicans from gerrymandering because they clearly won't stop on their own accord. host: princeton, new jersey, independent line, john, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i would love to hear the response of your guests and the feeling i get, apparently votes are still very important. millions of dollars get spent on getting people to vote. but along with that comes with the fact that the way to get people to vote, particularly if you are appealing to a minority, is to get mad and say incendiary things. what our guests -- what do our

guests say about better education of voters to let them know that these obvious, to me, ways of manipulating your decision is what's really going on here. host: david beard? guest: i think unfortunately, people often say they don't want negative advertising. they don't want to see it. they want to hear about the issues and they want to see positive goals. when you actually do studies of which ads are more effective, study after study shows that negative advertising is more effective at moving those than positive advertising. for both sides, the goal is to win elections, not to have the nicest campaign. when you are in an election, somebody wins and somebody loses so it would be responsible not to do negative campaigning if it is the most effective way, when they are trying to election.

-- trying to win the election. the enormous amount of money in politics is unique in the american system versus other democratic countries, that's puts limits on how much somebody can donate or how much a campaign can spend. the supreme court said that is unconstitutional so there are unfortunately no easy ways to solve that problem in the short. localities have expanded with giving every voter basically a democracy block -- i don't remember what they are called -- a voucher to donate to candidates to even out the playing field around spending. the problem is when there is billions of dollars in campaigns to do this sort of advertising, people will spend that money on the most effective way of advertising and that's always going to be negative campaigning more than positive issue-based ads. host: bradenton, florida, on the

democrats line, yet another david. caller: thank god nancy pelosi was not home because had she been killed by this misguided freak, it would've started a whole change of events. it would have become a tit-for-tat situation and a misguided left-winger would have targeted a republican legislator. who knows what this could lead to, possibly a violent civil war? i believe that we can thank donald trump and his supporters. for his misguided lying to them about what's been going on. i'm 85 years old, been voting since 1960. i have followed politics ever since then and i think i know what's going on.

host: david nir, your thoughts? guest: i agree we are in a really scary place, the likes of which we really haven't seen in this country, at least in living memory. it is very important again to emphasize that lies have consequences. when you tell people false way -- falsely that elections are rigged, that their votes don't count, that democrats are stealing elections, these sorts of people will be influenced and what they will hear is, there is no point in voting because the elections are rigged so i have to resort to other means. those other means are terrible and unacceptable and violent. republicans, especially donald trump and his most for not -- fanatic adherence, have no problem with this. that sickens my soul because there is no room for violence in

american politics, in any democracy. this sort of violence is what happens when you live repeatedly to the american people -- when you live repeatedly to the -- lie repeatedly to the american people. the true act of courage a politician can do is to tell the truth and that is sometimes the case when the truth is hard and the truth may indeed be very hard for republicans. but if the gop were being honest with its supporters they would say, we lost fair and square in 2020. it was unfortunate. we don't want that to happen again. we have to work harder and do better so it doesn't happen again. frankly, it seems more satisfying for donald trump to make up stories about the expo nations for his loss and not has had grave and -- explanations for his loss and that has had grave and terrible consequences. democrats are not taking these

-- telling these same types of lies. they are pushing back. this will only stop when the gop turns away from this rhetoric. host: david beard, here's a question from jason in honolulu. has there ever been a situation regarding problems with mail-in voting leading to serious reconsideration of its validity? guest: not that i'm aware of. that's not to say that millions and millions of mail-in ballots are cast and there is not .01 .001 where a male ballot could be lost -- a mail-in ballot could be lost. usps has a great track record and is a great institution of america. people forget how great of a job the postal service does because we expect male to show up every day. we expect letters to make their way across the country in a handful of days. they know what they are doing

and they work closely with elections offices across the country to make sure that mail-in ballots when they are turned in get to the elections office on time, that they are handled carefully and cap secure. -- kept secure. the elections offices go through a process to make sure the ballot is accurate and that a voter signed it, it is matched to that voter's registration. this is not treated casually. the people who work at the postal service and elections offices take this incredibly seriously and they have a great track record of getting these things right. host: we will just end with a text from danette -- in high school, there should be four years of civics, political science and history required to graduate. david nir, david beard, cohosts of the down ballot podcast with the daily kos, thank you for being with us. that's all the time we have for

today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪ 5 c-span's washington journal, everyday we are taking your calls live on the air, on the news of the day, and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. coming up sunday morning, charlie cook, contributor to the cook political report talks about campaign 2022 and the political news of the day. then, american university communications professor joseph campbell on polls and the

challenges pollsters face. watch "washington journal" sunday morning on c-span, or on c-span now, our free mobile app. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. >> next, a debate between candidates to be california's next governor. democratic incumbent gavin newsom and his republican challenger, brian dahle, take part. then a debate from washington state. where democratic senator patty murray is up against republican challenger tiffany smiley. later white house senior adviser and former new orleans mayor mitch landrieu talks about efforts to rebui u.s infrastructure. former president barack obama travels to sin today, campaigning focratic candidates. state twice, welcomes tony evers

d senate candidate mandela barnes, the lieutenant governor, atent in milwaukee. i would live coverage begins today at 4:30 eastern on c-span, c-span now, or on c-span.org. ♪ >> do all americans have a fundamental right to privacy? sunday on q&a, a look at the struggles between an individual's right to privacy and the public's right. amy geithner or, her book looks at several cases involving the conflict, including ressler hulk hogan's multimillion dollar lawsuit against gawker. >> hulk hogan brought a claim for the right to privacy against gawker. he argued that even though -- he argued his level of privacy

would trump the right of gawker to publish that truth. ultimately a jury agreed with him, and a lot of people, i think, in the united states were ocked at that, because we understand so much, i think, about freedom of the press and truth, and how truth will protect us. and yet this was an instance of someone's privacy becoming more important, in effect. a jury decided, then a public's right to know. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our c-span now app. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including cox. >> homework can be hard, but

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