middle and high school students, it is your time to shine. you're invited to participate in this year's documentary competition. picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress. what are your top priorities and why? make a 5-6 minute video showing the importance of your issues with supporting and opposing positions. among the 100,000 in prizes including a $5,000 cash prize. visit our website at studentcam.org for competition rules, tips, and a step-by-step guide. host: good morning, saturday,

november 12, 2022. midterm elections were tuesday but key elections remain undecided and control of the house and senate could go to republicans. but, the gop did not pick up as many seats as expected. what message did the midterm election send to former president trump, what impact do you think that he had on voters? tomorrow's question will be about the message that the midterm sent to president biden. if you would like to weigh in on former president trump's role, give us a call by party affiliation. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. send your first name and city, state. can find us on social media on

facebook or on twitter at journal@c-span.org. a few updates before we get started on some races. democrats security 49th seat in the senate with the victory in arizona. according to the associated press mark kelly has won reelection to the senate over republican challenger blake masters. here is the arizona republican, the headline, and the article starts with senator mark kelly defeats blake masters in arizona's u.s. senate race. another batch of ballots friday night left the challenger still far apart in a contest that boosts democrats' chances of maintaining control of the chamber as well. in arizona, the state -- the race for secretary of state, the democrat defeated the

republican election denier. here is that headline. here secretary of state. that also went to the democrats. he has won the race for arizona secretary of state in a closely-watched race that revolved around faith in the arizona election system. staying with arizona, the state's very closely watched governor's race is still too close to call. democrat katie hobbs maintains a slim but growing lead over the nominee kari lake. another state we are watching in nevada, joe lombardo has won the race for governor beating incumbent governor steve sisolak. here is the nevada current. it says that after backing another statewide race nevada voters elect lombardo over sisolak. the senate race between democratic senator cortez masto

and the republican in nevada is still too close to be called now. here is where the balance of power -- what it looks like in the house. democrats, 201. republicans, 211. 218 is needed to take control of the house. the senate now is 49-49. democrats need one more seat and republicans need to more seats. i want to show you an article before we start taking your calls about our question about the former president's role in midterm elections. it says this. the headline is, how trump infighting limited republican gains. the historic tailwinds collided with the fractious reality of a political party in the midst of a generational molting.

the wall street journal weighed in on this. here's what they said. this is the editorial board. let me show you real quick that headline, and i will review part of it. this is what it looks like. the wall street journal editorial board, trump is the republican's biggest loser. they say this since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked hillary clinton mr. trump hasfect record of electoral defeat. the gop was hounded in the midterms due to his low approval ting. trump lasted 2020. 2021 runoff from flaming party leaders were somehow n overturning his defeat. that gave democrats control of the senate, leading prize but by then pinflation with a $1.9 trillion covid bill,

appoint a liberal supreme court stice, and pass $700 billion climate spending cash. now trump has d the 2022 election and it could hand democrats the senate for two more years.mr. trump had policy successes as president, including tax cuts and deregulation, but he has led republicans into one political fiasco after another step that is the wall street journal's editorial board weighing in on the question that we are asking you about that. what do you think president's role was in the midterm election results? here is president trump sending out this on his social media platform. he said, so sad to see republicans attack and foolishly tarnish the results of the midterm. we won, nancy got fired and is

on her way to foreign lands. republicans are taking over the house. importantly, its committees. and may when the senate majority. depending on whether or not arizona or nevada elections are rigged, which i believe they are. what do you think? let's start with our calls. larry in caldwell, new jersey, democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to thank c-span. again, the power of democracy and truth will prevail and the former president, hopefully, can plan for an extended stay somewhere out of the public eye. host: doug is next in tennessee. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i was going to say trump needs to go.

he was all right in the beginning, but when he denied the election that was too much for me. i come from a republican family and still got people who support trump, but i think he is a windbag and a liar. i will be glad when he is completely out of the picture. desantis i believe is our next president, hopefully. trump ain't going to run for president anyway. he is just collecting money, trying to get as much money as he can. i just hope that the republican party wakes up and forgets about trump. he done all right in the beginning, but when he denied that election i was through with him. host: independent in romulus, michigan. good morning.

caller: good morning. i would like to say like the last caller i have been a republican my entire life also. i would like to say trump has never been good. nothing he has done has been right. i can only hope that he is the 2024 nomination, because he has been the best thing for democrats in the last six years. host: have you been voting democrat? you said you have been a republican all your life. caller: lifelong republican until trump came along. no more. liz cheney is the only republican i would vote for now. host: all right. lisa in herndon bill, tennessee. it looks like we lost lisa. john? john in bridgewater, new jersey, republican line. caller: i am very conflicted.

i think trump did a lot for the party and 2016. if you look at his record, he pastore oversaw lots of good things -- he passed or oversaw lots of good things he will never get credit for. tax reform led to many, many good benefits in the economy. deregulation eased and we became the number one energy producer. i will stop there. as far as the 2020 election, i will say something unpopular. we do not know yet. the problem was the mail-in ballots. we have never had unlimited mail-in ballots before. cities like philadelphia, milwaukee, and detroit are notoriously corrupt. i will stop there.

host: you need to get to the point about the 2022 election. caller: 2022? that's the one we just had. host: you were saying 2020. caller: that's right. i think he did fine. blake masters won, j.d. vance won, herschel walker might win. however, going forward, i think it is past trump time. i like ron desantis and i think we should move forward with him. my favorite pic is mike pompeo. host: let's hear from david in detroit, michigan. caller: good morning, mimi, and to washington journal. to the point i think that the question was what we think 2022 did for donald trump, correct?

i believe that is the question. this is what i say. in michigan we love donald trump, because for 40 years the republicans have an the state legislature -- ran the state legislature, and we were able to flip that for the first time in 40. i thought that would never happen in my lifetime. host: you say that is because of former president donald trump? caller: absolutely. it was nothing more than donald trump. i tell you, this is the honest to god truth. i was listening to c-span early that morning and i caught the tail end of that horrible, it was macabre. donald trump standing there at a rally. i cannot remember the state.

he was going on and on about how horrible the nation is and how bad everything is, and how he and he alone was going to turn it around. the backdrop was this horrible, horrible music. that woke me up, mimi. i said, i've got to go vote! so, thank you donald trump! host: on wednesday he was asked by reporters about the possibility of former president trump winning the presidency again and how allies might respond. [video clip] >> tied to your predecessor, who is about to launch another campaign. how do you reassure them, if that is the reason for their questioning, that the former president will not return. his political movement is still very strong. it will not again take power. pres. biden:[laughter]

well, we will just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by if he does run making sure that he under legitimate efforts of our constitution does not become president again. host: that was president biden reacting to a question from a reporter. what is the message that the midterm election since to former president donald trump? joel in texas on the republican line. hi, joel. caller: hi, mimi. good morning to you. i have been watching since the first day of operation of c-span in 1979. you have quickly grown to be my favorite host. host: thank you. caller: trump time is over. i voted for him. i certainly did. both times. but, the grandiose narcissism

and people who exhibit those characteristics are not fun to be around. host: what makes you think that his time is over? you did vote for him to years ago. was there a tipping point for you? caller: well -- basically yes. the people the democrats put up -- i have never voted for a democrat in my life, i never will i'm sure. i would like to associate my comments with those in connecticut, except for the pompeo com -- comment. i think he did well. do i think that the press had a lot to do with that, yes, i think they did. they were just fanning the flames every day. but he played right into their hands. now he sort of became like a

kiss of death. i don't think anyone really wants to be associated with him anymore. desantis is the new guy. he is going to do great. host: richard in nashville, tennessee, independent line. hi, richard. caller: the santos is the guy. he is a good guy. donald trump got ron desantis, he won by 1.5 million. that's not many when you look at the overall election. donald trump did help him. i understand that you can go back on youtube and you can watch all of the archives of donald trump. he has said the same thing since he was on the johnny carson show, on the oprah show. he has done the same thing. is he a narcissist? probably so. is he a man that speaks his mind? i want to ask every american.

when you go to work monday morning and you look your boss in the i, do i like him or not like him, respect him or not respect him? those are the questions you need to ask. i told my wife and daughter when the wolf comes knocking at your door you want a man to answer the door, not a wimp in office. when i was a little boy growing up in this country -- and i love my country and i love all people because i am a godly man -- but you always heard that in america anyone can grow up to be president. that is not true anymore. unless you have donald trump or rupert murdoch money you will never become president because you have to buy, cheat, do whatever you can to be in office to change what's going on. you can look at the different states and all of that, but my point is this. people, quit wearing your heart on your sleeves will stop if you don't like something that somebody says, you better look

at yourself. the bottom line is we don't like everything that everybody says, but the one thing about it is we respect they have the right in this country to say it. host: got it, richard. let's look at some tweets that have come in. actually, this is a text. i hope trump understands that republican winners won not because of but in spite of him. he didn't help as much as he hurt. he probably energized more democrats to get out and about and i am ruby red. another text from ormond beach, florida. if americans think that the attack on voting rights, women's rights, and democracy in general is going to and when trump go irs come they haven't gotten a full taste of ron desantis yet. this was sent by tweet. can't figure out why he is still considered relevant.

yes both parties think he rallies the base, for and against. let's talk to jail in marlboro, new york, democrat. good morning, joe. caller: good morning. how are you? a couple of things. being from new york, trump has been a grifter all his life. go back to the days when he supposedly wrote books that he didn't really write. that is what this man has always been and new york was trying to tell people that he was nothing more than a grifter and thief. as far as ron desantis goes, he is a smarter trump. he is trump 2.0. that is what i have to say. bring on the indictments. have a good day. host: dean in louisville, kentucky. caller: i am a republican and i thought for my country in

vietnam. donald trump was a draft dodger. when so my friends got killed in vietnam, he wouldn't fight for his country, but he makes america great again. i have converted to the democrat party because of donald trump. thank you. host: ray in salem, illinois. hello. ray? let's go next to kathy in downingtown, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to say that i'm very upset with the outcome of the election in pennsylvania. now we are stuck with john fetterman because donald trump

backed oz. now we are stuck with john fetterman for six years. the man obviously has brain damage from atroke. host: kathy, you are saying that the democrat won in pennsylvania because donald trump endorsed the republican candidate? caller: yes. he has a lot to say with elections. amongst republicans he has a very big swing. he backed oz, who is not even from pennsylvania. why we can't run a candidate from pennsylvania with pennsylvania interests at heart. host: do you think i was lost because he is not -- oz lost because he is not from pennsylvania or trump-endorsed him? caller: because he is not from pennsylvania. everyone i talked to was not

happy with the pick because he was not from pennsylvania. how can he represent pennsylvanians when he is not from pennsylvania? host: take a look at this portion from early on election night at mar-a-lago. former president trump addressed a crowd on election night. [video clip] mr. trump: the numbers have been amazing. as of this moment on endorsements, with the nominations we had a total of 330 endorsements or nominations. this is only nominations. of the 330 we won 200. 224. some of those were longshots. a lot of people in fifth place went to first, but it was 224 out of 330, and that is a pretty

good number. tonight -- they kept saying he is good on nominations but is he good on the general election? as of this moment, we have some out there, we are 80 wins and three losses. is that good? wouldn't that be funny if we were better on the general election than the nominations themselves? north carolina, ted budd is leading, 51-47. in missouri, very good guy eric schmitt is now up 55-43. he is against the bush, but a different bush, it is called anheuser-busch. that is a different bush. you tell me which is the real bush. in ohio, j.d. vance is leading, 52-47. we had an incredible rally last night in ohio.

you saw in florida, marco rubio, we had an unbelievable rally for marco the night before with the heaviest rain i have ever been involved in. i was up there, this is beautiful, this is the tropics, right, florida. it was the most beautiful night. all of a sudden it turned deadly dark and it was like you had massive pails of water that fell on top of you. it was the worst storm but we gutted it out. we had 45 thousand people and no teleprompter. i said, i wonder what biden would do right now, but we gutted it out. marco had a fantastic evening at 58-41. that is really tremendous. i want to congratulate katie, we endorsed katie and she did fantastically. 68-30. that means that she has the

future. young and just a fantastic woman with a husband who is great. he is may be the largest human being that i have ever seen. he was in offensive linemen in the nfl for a long time and played for alabama. katie, congratulations to you. we have a lot of other good ones going out. herschel is leaving right now. but we have a lot of big races going on right now, so enjoy that, enjoy the food, enjoy everything, and in all fairness it is a great honor to have the media with us and we hope you enjoy yourself and this wonderful group of people. these are the people you read about. they are not the nicest in the world, but they are good financially. they are good people, very, very successful, they want what is good for the country and that is why they are here.

to the media, thank you, have a good time. host: that was the former president. we are asking you what you thought his role was in the midterm election. what the message it sends to former president trump. we are taking your calls and text -- texts. trump rules in the minds of so many and he is the spokesman for so many underrepresented working americans. this by tweet, who says, notice how people in government always hate trump. someone who won something for free. trump will never be your kind of president because the man believes in hard work, accomplished things in life. now you will hear some great hearings. a text from michelle in illinois who says that trump endorsements for the 20 campaign was his

attempt to inflate himself for 2024. thankfully the constituents of the united states did not vote for the circus and understood that installing election- denying trump minions would be the destruction of our established government. let's talk to john in warwick, new york on the democrats line. caller: good morning. yes, i wanted to say that trump is proving to be a criminal over time and time again. i think we should all just think about everything, think about the president that we have now -- host: todd in cleveland, tennessee. republican line. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call. you know, donald trump, the four years when he was in office, he

had this country back working and he was doing a great job. for some reason, i don't understand why, but this country has turned on him. we want him -- a young governor from florida. i don't understand what america was -- where this country is headed, but it keeps looking to me like it is not going to turn well. donald trump, to me, was a good president to be had. host: todd, what do you think his impact on the midterm elections was? caller: i think people were -- are against him. i look back to what nancy pelosi said, that donald trump will

never be president again. and he keeps telling the way that this country -- i don't know -- i mean, would i vote for him if he was up for reelection? probably so. but he is going to be held back by the democrat so he can't run. i look for him to still try to put him in jail sunday. -- someday. host: christine in rhode island, democrats line. caller: good morning. i was calling. i think that trump just does what he does. he talks from both sides of his mouth. i don't want to sound so negative and bash anybody. i think that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. to protect our country. i think that liz cheney is doing a great job. and also, i would like to say thank you to all of our vets and

our goldstar families. i don't know if you can hear me or not. host: i can, christine. caller: oh, ok. i feel like we have a lot of things. he is not above the law. right now he still has all this information in mar-a-lago. we are going to have so much. he is just playing his own "apprentice" game and he is trying to win. host: christine mentioned liz cheney. here is republican congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming, a critic of former president donald trump and the vice chairwoman of the january 6 committee. she spoke about the influence over the republican party and the candidates that he supported, how they fared in the election. [video clip] >> the fact that we are here and

we don't know what party will control the house or the senate tells you a lot about defying expectations. the extent to which it was normal. i think you saw many candidates who were reflecting the election denialism of president trump. some races are still left to be called, but i think it was a really important, and frankly hopeful, outcome for democracy. >> it sounds like you are feeling optimistic about the future of democracy. can you make me feel better? [laughter] >> i think we have a long way to go. we certainly have a threat that we have never faced before in our country in terms of a former president who tried to overturn an election, try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and who is still saying things that

he no has caused violence on the sixth and for whom there is still tremendous loyalty inside the republican party. i think it is a dangerous moment. we have a lot to do, but i think that the outcome this week was certainly a step in the right direction and a very important step in the right direction. >> given the fact that election deniers did not fare very well this week, do you feel like trump's influence over the republican party is waning? if he announces, do you think that he will be a likely nominee? >> look, i think that -- my view, obviously, after january 6 was that the party should clearly have said that that is a line that cannot be crossed and should clearly have said we are not going to be in a position where we are embracing

insurrection, excusing it, or whitewashing it. so, i thought that was obvious. certainly, most elected officials in my party did not do that. people talk about donald trump these days as the biggest loser. i think that that is true. if you look at the record from 2018, 2020, the election in 2021, 2022. i think that that is an important point. i also think that as a party we need to be clear that we should not be embracing him even if he were a winner. what he is doing and what he advocates is so dangerous. >> it seems like a fair number of stalwart supporters turned away from president trump with this week's election results.

there were a lot of people who started off repudiating election deniers who eventually came around to supporting them. do you feel that there is a stiff enough spine in the party to stand up against future insurrections? are we worried about january 6 when he 25? -- january 6, 2025? >> we definitely need stiffer spines for sure. host: that was republican congresswoman liz cheney. you heard her talk about election deniers. this is from 5:38. denying the 2020 election was not a winning strategy for political newcomers. it said the doug mastriano has been one of the most ardent supporters of former president's baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. he has threatened to launch a forensic audit of pennsylvania's election results, he attended

the save america rally that preceded the attack on the capital lunch anyway sixth, and on tuesday he lost his race for pennsylvania evan or according to abc news. take a look at a text that we got from joan in minnesota who says, i thought trump was a great president, but his mouth has hurt many people and it is time for him to be gone, as much as i hate to say it. he is his own worst enemy and won't stop. a text in ohio, the message proved that he was right about election irregularities. here we are the weekend after and we still don't have results from a few states. why not question that? a text from new jersey, i am an independent voter with conservative values. i have voted for democrats and republicans. i cannot understand why republican leadership lets trump have any leadership over their

party. asking you that question, what is the message that the midterm election sends to former president trump? next, bonita springs, florida, independent line, good morning morning, john. caller: good morning, how are we doing today? host: good. caller: tom, the independent with conservative values, it is not their party, it is our party . should trump run again? absolutely. he is over the target will stop everyone in the media is -- it is almost like a chorus. they say trump lost, trump lost. what did the republican party lose? they took the house, they will probably take it by the majority, and they have a chance to take the senate. unfortunately in arizona and nevada they have irregularities that continue. shall we say that? we are still waiting for the

results. unacceptable. also like to tell liz cheney that she should get with stacey abrams and they can do a show together. liz cheney is going to be irrelevant in a few months. no one is going to care anymore. mitch mcconnell, kevin mccarthy are the two that should be blamed if you want to call winning the midterms not living but -- not winning by enough. host: you are in florida. what do you think of ron desantis? caller: love him. love him to death. host: between trump and desantis , who are you voting for? caller: i'm voting for trump. ron desantis will be governor for four more years and then he can run. i love president trump. he is the biggest outsider we've had. you can tell. do you know why they hate this man? he takes their money and he screws with their money and it is not business as usual in

washington. president trump is doing what he's doing for the people of the country and not for the businesses of the country and people who are rich for the country. it is amazing how inverse it the republican party to more of the middle-class working man's party that the democrats used to control. now the democrats are the big war, big business republicans of the old days. it is incredible how things change. host: mark in california, republican line. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. when i think about these elections i think about the leadership on these issues. when trump was being inaugurated he sent out a message. he said that the victories of washington, d.c. and the people in office in washington, d.c., their victories have not been victories for the people, they have not benefited the people at

all. this midterm election was -- you keep trying and you keep trying and you keep trying again. we have probably heard that before. we don't listen to people like bill gates who say that it will be a hung election. nobody needs to listen to the mainstream media talking civil war, civil war about this election. it is just a leadership. i think that the current administration, what can we call for a victory for the people with the current administration? host: what are your thoughts on why it was expected to be a red wave. some are calling it a red trickle. do you think president trump played any role in that? caller: absolutely. i think the people are the people are the red wave. trump can talk about it but it is the people, not trump, that is the red wave. it did occur.

that is why they are dragging out the vote count in arizona. that is why they are dragging out the vote count for the senate and the house. if it wasn't a red wave then the democrats would say we won on election night. host: frank on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what do you think, frank? caller: what i think is liz cheney summed up about democracy, the comment about trump, the proven record of his business practices, he bankrupted every business he ever owned. the comment about the people who gets assistance wanting to vote for democrats instead republicans, they don't like trump because he wants people to work for a living's office it.

he never worked. he cheated -- for a living. it's opposite. he never worked. he cheated his whole life. host: what you think the messages from the midterm elections to president trump? caller: i think that their message is is that trump's term should be over. he needs to get out of the way. he needs the republicans who distanced themselves from him who won to take the lead and direction of the party. his old way of thinking is in the past and it is not winnable. host: let's talk to bob in ridgefield, connecticut. caller: how is it going? i wanted to say i love c-span. as an independent it is one of the few places i can go where i get to hear both sides. that type of conversation.

i wanted to sort of answer the question about the impact president trump had on the election and america in general. i think that it is a dangerous message. he stokes election deniers. he was doing this before the election and he was doing it during, and he will do it after. there is no evidence, it is all speculation. at the end of the day, these are state issues not a federal issue. if you don't like the way that states run their elections, vote. at the end of the day i think that really hard-core conservatives tend to put conspiracies around everything they don't like or doesn't go their way. i think that it divides america and it is dangerous. it doesn't give us trust in our democratic system. so, that is what i wanted to say. host:host: teresa in illinois.

good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. for me, the biggest loser is liz cheney. the biggest election denied or is hillary clinton, who not only denied the election, she tried to unseat a sitting presidt with lies and cheating and everythingls right now, we are beingovned by the biotin crime filwho is in with china, w is as dangerous as it can be. host: what do you think the impact president trump had on the election? caller: on the 2020 election? host: 2022, the midterms, the one we just had. caller: i don't believe in them. all the polls showed that we

were having a red wave. it is very, very visible that the democrats cheated anything and everything they do. i do not even believe in this election. right now, the reason they are stalling is because they are trying to get time to cheat to retain the house and senate. host: all right. take a look at some social media -- or maybe not. i don't know. anyway, let's take a look at this thursday on cnbc. the show called squawk box, retiring gop senator rob portman discussed trump's political future. [video clip] >> i don't think donald trump is going to run.that puts me in a distinct minority,

i know. he has hyped it before and has not run. his approval rating is quite high among republicans and ohio state. but when the question is asked, do you think he should run for president, the numbers are less compelling. head-to-head with governor desantis he is losing in some of the republican polls. >> i don't know who could lose to president biden. if you have a hard-core 30% or 25% in the republican party will lose in 2024. could it be a spoiler if he was unhappy and became a third-party candidate if desantis ran? >> i don't think so, i don't think it will be a scorched earth. i think you will look at the data. he doesn't want to lose. i don't think he goes through, but he is still a powerful voice in the party.

he could play a constructive role. his administration on tax policy, foreign policy, building up the military, a lot of good things that he can talk about. that is the role he ought to be playing. it could really help. host: what is the message that the midterm election sends to former president trump? tomorrow will be about the message to president biden. i want to show a text that we got from mountain home, arkansas who says, trump accomplished everything he set out to do 20 years ago. one, to destroy the republican party, to make the democratic party look like fools for not taking him serious, and three, making the american people look like idiots. he is laughing all the way to the bank. the message to president trump is that he shouldn't have put people on the supreme court that took away the woman's right to choose.

charlie in minnesota on the democrat's line. good morning. caller: how are you today? host: good. caller: i am a vietnam combat vet and i just got a couple of things to say. one is that trump ain't nothing but a draft dodging conman. i can't see how people can't see through him. i have something else to say. the republicans on fox news sure got a wedgy after the election. thank you. host: take a look at politico. this is saying that the exit polls show voters divided by biden, trump, and abortion. despite widespread dissatisfaction with the direction of the country voters had equally harsh opinions about the two parties and the men leading them. it says that just over half of the voters said that their choice for congress was either

to support or oppose joe biden. 47% of voters said that biden was not a factor. philip, republican line. caller: hello, this is philip from long island. host: what do you think? caller: i think that president trump is doing the right thing. he is trying to unite the country. the gentleman that you just had on, he insulted everybody by making a statement against mr. trump about not being in the service. you see, i was 3a. i would have served. just like trump probably would have served too. because of his maybe physical problems he wasn't able to serve. if by then becomes president --

if biden becomes president, if biden does what he wants to do, is he going to do the same thing that the russians are doing? drafting children and women into the military to protect them? after he dragged out our military here to the weakest point. if we get invaded right now we are in trouble. host: let's look at breitbart. this is the headline. explaining trump 2024 endorsement. president trump is the leader of the gop. the republican house conference chair number three in the leadership from new york, she endorsed former president donald trump's expected bid for run for president in 2024, saying that it is very clear. trump is the leader of the gop. kelvin in winston-salem, north

carolina on the independent line. caller: good morning. kudos to you and your team for the great job that c-span does. yesterday was veterans day. of course, we honor and should honor everyone who served in the military. the day before that, november 10 in 1898, the only armed overthrow of a duly elected government in america occurred in wilmington, north carolina will stop it was a coalition government of african-americans and caucasians, so-called populist party. they were violently overthrown why white supremacists. the congress, the senate, the president did nothing. ultimately, wilmington north carolina became -- it went from

a majority african-american town to a non-majority african-american town. host: are you relating this to january 6? caller: trump's impact on the elections and the message to him. if people around my age, baby boomer, look at the video, particularly the video from the committees, the hearings, and know that fact about 1898, then the message to trump and anyone who supported the overthrow, whether they were actually climbing through the doors of the capitol or the politicians inside that had conspiracy to not have the electoral votes counted, they should be kicked out. the message to trump should be, don't go there. host: michael and tyrone, new york on the democrats line. michael? caller: yes, yes, good morning.

i have been watching and listening to folks calling into c-span, which, by the way, c-span is a terrific outlet to people's thoughts and views and it is a very non-political station, in my opinion. what i want to say, as we reflect back in history, like the previous caller has, if you look back in history in politics and you look into germany during world war ii, there was a word that pops out, two words that i can say for people today that will educate you. adolf hitler indoctrinated the people in germany to dislike the jewish people. it made division in the country. that is where all that animosity came into play. people became apathetic, which means if you don't know how can

you care? with fox news broadcasting their false information daily, they are indoctrinating the people. host: what do you think about the message that the midterm election sends to former president trump? caller: well, after running five campaigns myself -- i have run for political office before and i know what it takes to run a campaign. i know that politics have changed in the last 10 years. i have had the republican party attack me. in fact, i was once a republican. and vice versa. i had support from both parties at one time. i will tell you that the message that i get from this midterm election is that we have these people who are beating the drum along with trump in the republican party. that is in the house of representatives and the senate. if we do not eked this one out in the senate and have some sort

of overall win in that area it is going to be very difficult for our president to achieve anything in this country. it is going to take at least three or four election cycles, four-year cycles, to repair the damage that donald trump himself has done to this country between the insurrection and the false information he is putting out there. host: greenville, mississippi. the republican line. hi terry. good morning. caller: to me, the reason that the midterms got the results that it got is really because of uneducated voters. when you're able to just send out ballots to anybody -- if you watch jimmy kimmel live they are on the streets and asking people questions, half of the people don't even know who their elected officials are and they vote without knowledge.

that is what really happened and that is the god's honest truth. you have people just voting because they say that they are democrat and they really don't know what's going on in the country. host: terry, your message is that the voters are not informed? caller: non-informed. host: you think that president trump had anything to do with the results? caller: no. no, i mean, but if you don't have anything to lose why would you care? me being a business owner when trump was in the white house business was great. if you think the country is going in the right direction right now something seriously has to be wrong with you. i don't care about trump, i don't care about that, i really care about the country. people just vote to vote.

i live in a small town and i see people vote. they vote for popularity. whoever the media is pushing. that is how they vote. it is not about what donald trump has done. i mean, if your honest he did a great job. host: scott in port st. lucie, florida. independent line. caller: it is the return of poppa john. thank you. you guys say that he is a narcissist. let me tell you that a narcissist does not give his pay up to the military. a narcissist does not create a sixth branch, a space forest. a narcissist does not make the abraham accords. a narcissist does not make the best economy this country has ever had. host: what do you think the message is from the midterm

election to former president trump? what kind of impact did he have? caller: you guys are trying to play it off like they are not getting along. stronger than ever before. him and ron desantis. you guys are shaking in your boots. he filled the oil up to the top and by then let it out. the man opened the borders. let me give you a little fact, -- host: i'm curious since you are in florida about the rivalry between trump and desantis. caller: there is no rivalry, you are connecting it. guess who is in charge? trump behind the scenes. 911 had 3000 to 4000 people killed. one of the worst things in american history. biden opened that border and fentanyl has killed over 100,000 people in one year. host: josie in indiana, pennsylvania. caller: good morning.

i am from the great state of pennsylvania, which for the first time since the 1840's elected two democratic senators. john fetterman won against dr. oz. i believe here in pennsylvania our state legislature is now dominated by democrats for the first time in a decade. we have a governor candidate win by 12 percentage points. people were thinking that we were going to turn into a purple state, and we came out very blue. i think people are exhausted by the divisiveness in our politics. i think people went out and voted to keep our democracy. i worked in the polls on election day. the number of young people who came out to vote, first-time voters, was amazing. also, people who had never voted

in a midterm came out to vote. whether they were voting for, against, or for the future i did not ask because i did not have that role at that time. i want to say that we have been exhausted by all the divisiveness. i think people are looking to people who govern. the republicans have not governed in the last 15 years. host: let's look at a few tweets before we close this hour. jason says, trump is incapable of accepting any message from the midterms that doesn't soothe his massive yet fragile ego. had the gop won "biggly" trump would be on any show that would book him saying it is because of his powerful endorsements. now he is saying, it is not my fault. texas, trump is old news. his strange actions after the

2020 election has inflamed divisiveness, his rants cause problems. it is time for him to stop the madness, but i doubt he will. he has given the cooling to the republicans and they continue to drink. the election results don't sin trump any message. he doesn't listen to anyone because he is right and others are wrong in his mind. it is the narcissist way. that is all the time we have for this first hour of washington journal. next, we have the former cia russian analysis chief george beebe discussing the latest developments in russia's invasion of ukraine. later we will talk with robert pease and jillian youngblood about "the purple principal." we will be right back.

amidst ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information. all the at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. event happens here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> tv every weekend on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. massachusetts republican governor charlie baker shares his book, "results." on afterward, sociologist beth

trousdale looks at the future of retirement and whether working longer provides better financial security in her book "overtime." she is interviewed by courtney coyle. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online at any time at book tv -- booktv.org. >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio got easier. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio app and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. and other events throughout the day. catch "washington today" for a fast-paced report on the stories of the day. listen to c-span anytime. just tell your smart speer to play c-span radio app. c-span radio, powered by cable. >> on this episode of the

weekly, for veterans day, we will mark the 40th anniversary of the veterans memorial containing the inscription of names of americans who gave their lives in service to america. we will look back at the history of the memorial, the presidents revisited, and what they said. >> we come to this is a good place -- to this sacred place to remember. we step toward its granite wall, reach out, touching name. >> you can find the weekly on c-span now, our mobile app, or where you get your podcasts. >> american history tv, exploring the people at events that tell the american story. on lectures in history, are met roosevelt, descendant of theater roosevelt, argues modern america

traces its lineage to the reconstruction era rather than the thousand dollars -- dendy fatty fathers. -- then through the founding fathers. relook -- we look at the presidency of roosevelt with his book "roosevelt sweeps the nation." watch american history tv every weekend and fi aull program on your program guide or online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." i'm joined now by george beebe, a formal special advisor to vice president cheney on russia and former cia russia analysis chief. welcome. guest: thank you. host: nice to see you in the

studio. here is the headline from associated press, zelenskyy says military special units are in kherson. what is the significance of that? guest: it is a gateway into crimea. this opens up the possibility that ukraine could take back crimea from russia. this is the goal that some leaders have a voice, the possible ambition. the other thing about kherson's this is the gateway to the southern ukrainian coast for russia. if russia is to have any hope of advancing and try to turn ukraine into a landlocked country, they have to have kherson.

russia's conditions have to be a lot more modest than they were going into this war. host: if you would like to call in and talk to our guest, you can do that by calling according to party affiliation. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. that was the strategic effect of their withdrawal, what is the symbolic? guest: this is a blow to vladimir putin and russia. it is the most significant loss russia has taken since this war. putin is under pressure domestically from hardliners, people on the nationalist right that belief he has not conducted this war effectively.

he is under growing pressure to demonstrate success on the battlefield. we will have to see what that transits into in terms of concrete russian actions. there is no question that politically putin is on the defensive. host: why hasn't russia struggled so much in general in the war? people in february were saying it would take three days to take the country. guest: there is a combination of reasons. many of them are internal to russia. there were serious errors of judgment putin committed at the beginning of this. heat expect ukraine would put of the kind of resistance it did. russian forces that were advancing on key -- on keith -- kyiv were outfitted with a riot control gear which shows how

much resistance they expected to face. another factor is corruption. the russian military has suffered from poor allocation of resources, a lot of funds that were supposed to be devoted to building the russian military are being diverted and we are seeing the results of that. the biggest factor is the role of the west. the russians are not just fighting one on ukraine, they are fighting against ukraine, the u.s., and nato. u.s. intelligence support has proved to be quite a decisive factor in helping ukrainians repel the russians. host: here is another article from the associated press with the headline "1000 russian troops killed or injured in the ukraine." the article starts with russia's announced retreat from kherson

and a potential stomach in fighting over the winter could provide both countries an opportunity to negotiate peace. that is from general mark milley. do you think there is any opportunity for a diplomatic solution? host: -- guest: i do. for a number of reasons. the russians are going to have a hard time going beyond the line of control that is now in place in ukraine. they are taking in defensively. putin abandoned his goal of seizing kyiv. that seemed too difficult for the russians to pull off. he's not going to have to abandon the goal of going after ukraine's southern coast. this is a battle of holding the territory the russians now have in the donbass and land bridge that connects the russian

federation and the crimean peninsula. what i think that means is that the russians might be open to some sort of negotiated settlement. their ambitions have changed significantly. the other part of this is ukraine. the u.s. has said from the start of this war that our goal is to put the ukrainians and a strong position on the battlefield so that that can translate into an advantageous negotiating position so they can come up with a settlement that preserves ukrainian independence and sovereignty, but at the same time avoid escalation of this war into a direct u.s.-russia military confrontation. mark milley, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff is saying we are probably at that point. the ukrainians are not going to be able to make much more progress and the russians are

themselves stalemated. that seems to be an opportunity to find a peaceful and negotiated end to this conflict. host: what about the impact of winter? the russian winters are historically bad and they will affect both sides of this war. host: -- guest: winter does provide an opportunity for a breather. that is any opportunity diplomats can take advantage of. host: let's take some calls starting with dale in indianapolis. independent line. caller: good morning to c-span and to you mr. george beebe. i have one quick question. if president trump had won the 2020 election, considering -- can you hear me? host: yeah, go ahead.

caller: i am sorry. considering president trump was trying to get the united states out of nato and it seems like the united states basically has supported the ukrainians, i am just wondering, would the united states still be a military supporter of the ukrainians to maintain their freedom? it seems like the people of the united states -- i hate to go back to former president trump. but it seems like he could do no wrong. to me, i felt like he has divided this country. host: let's get an answer to your question. guest: this is a very difficult question to answer. the relationship between the nato alliance and the u.s. military and ukraine is a central factor in this more.

-- in this a war. the russians have said that the prospect of ukrainian membership in nato is a redline for them. i think they have shown that in fact it is. they are willing to go to war to prevent that from happening. the real question is if there is a way the united states can both prevent ukraine from losing its independence and sovereignty and strike some sort of practical understanding with the russians about ukraine's place in the security architecture. i think there is that possibility. the reality is that ukraine is not going to be part of the nato alliance in our lifetimes. the u.s. has already shown we don't believe it is in our national interest to go to war ourselves to defend ukraine.

that is what an article five commitment under the north atlantic treaty would require. if we are not willing to go to war to defend ukraine, that tells you a lot about whether we are actually willing to bring ukraine into the nato alliance. if that is the case, there might be a basis for some practical understanding with the russians on this. host: list talk to john in plainfield, new jersey. democrats line. hello. caller: i have been studying what is going on in the ukrainian war. i think a lot of the countries that border ukraine have been very helpful to that country because of the history of russia going into that country, especially in 1939, when russia invaded poland within the germans going in there.

one of the reasons i think finland joined nato was their war in 1938 to 1940. i think that has been one of the things that pushed the ukrainians, how they held off against the russians. we have to remember in world war ii there were a lot of ukrainians who fight as partisans against the germans. there is a history of resistance to anybody in that country. guest: that is exactly right. there is a long and very tense history between moscow and large portions of eastern europe. that has driven a lot of the demand in that part of the world to be part of the nato alliance. they have strong regions --

reasons to be concerned about russian aggression. fancy nato and the u.s. as their assurance that russia is not going to repeat those kinds of invasions. ukraine feels much the same way. the difficulty here is that ukraine itself is divided on this issue. it has been a long time. question portions of ukraine were once part of poland. eastern portions of ukraine have long been part of russia and had a relations with moscow. how you strike some sort of understanding inside ukraine that allows those different cultural traditions to coexist peacefully has been a real challenge. that challenge is going to remain even after this war is over.

how we handle this, recognizing all of the complicated historical fact is that are at play here is going to be a challenge. host: we have a question for you from a text from dave in annapolis who says, "there seems to be no offramp for putting. will he get desperate enough to set off a tactical nuke?" guest: a very difficult question to answer. after the cuban missile crisis, john kennedy gave a famous speech at american university where he said the big lesson from the missile crisis was that of the leaders of nuclear powers should not be put in the position where they have to choose between a national humiliation and resorting to using nuclear weapons. the question we have in ukraine is how close putin might be to

that kind of stark choice. host: do we know? guest: we don't know. clearly he is under pressure. the russian military has suffered a series of setbacks on the battlefield. clearly, crimea is really the big variable. putin and almost every russian across the spectrum believes crimea is part of russia. emotionally and politically, this has an enormous amount of residence. strategically it is important because crimea is home to the black sea fleet which is vital to protecting russia's southern flanks. if you lose crimea, at not only threatens russia militarily but also politically. the question arises if russia is not willing to use nuclear weapons to defend crimea, could that send a signal that russia

is not willing to use nuclear weapons to defend any part of russia? i don't think that is a decision putin was to face. i also don't think it is in the interest of the u.s. to force him into that kind of choice. we might not like the way he chooses. this is quite an interest situation. host: the russians were making baseless claims about ukraine being ready to set off a dirty bomb. that has gone quiet lately. what do you think of all of that? guest: i think the russians believe that the u.s. has lost its fear of nuclear war, that this is something we regard as an historic relic. it was pertinent in the cold war but that has ended, we don't have to worry about that anymore. the russians believe that this contributes to american recklessness from their perspective, that we are more

and more willing to rock up to the edge of a potential nuclear conflict because we don't think it is significant. what they are doing to address that is quite after productive and quite dangerous. they are essentially trying to restore our fear of nuclear war in the hopes that this will contribute to stability and order as it did in the cold war. what i think it is doing instead is ratcheting up tensions in a dangerous way and making the prospect of escalation even greater than it would otherwise be. guest: -- host: michael is calling us from plainfield, illinois on the independent line. caller: good morning. i have a compliment for mr. george beebe and a question. first of all, i don't know you personally but i have been impressed when i have seen you.

this is the second time i believe you have been on c-span, at least that i have caught. you are one of the few people that seems to be able to have a cool head when you are dealing with people with very different views of the world, as the russians have. guest: thank you. caller: you are welcome. it is absolutely the truth. and i am not easily impressed. my question is regarding the portion of russia that -- commanding grant -- i think is called, it used to be part of the germans under pressure -- prussia. given the fact that we are having these issues in ukraine -- and i personally think he will use a nuclear weapon if we

pushing too hard. he is not the kind of guy that is easily intimidated. this calling in grad -- this is what old east prussia was in fomenting world war ii. it is strategic to russia. this area of conflict that is much closer to native, how is that going to play out? guest: that is an excellent question. it is a dangerous situation. russia's access to kaliningrad

was not a challenge during the soviet period because the soviet and baltic states were all part of soviet territory. once the soviet union broke up, kaliningrad became part of the russia federation's territory that russia did not have continuous land access to. that by itself is not a particularly stable situation. beyond that, kaliningrad is chock-full of nuclear weapons. these are essentially tactical nuclear weapons, battlefield nuclear weapons, artillery shells, torpedoes, various other things that are stockpile there. when you put together the combination of lack of land access to territory that is so heavily fortified, that is

actually a recipe for real danger. that is the reality of the situation we are facing right now. earlier in this conflict, there was some concern that the eu and baltic states were going to be preventing russia from having land and sea access to the kaliningrad exclusive. they -- exclave. they backed down from that. i don't think we can rule out that things might flare up again. this is one of the issues we have to treat with a great deal of caution. host: lay twitter is asking you if russians do not support ukraine in native and are withholding funds, what will be the result? midterm elections, we don't know who is holding congress.

reporters asked president bynum about that at a press conference this week, but support for ukraine and what we can expect if republicans take control. [video clip] >> will aid to ukraine continue uninterrupted? pres. biden: that is my expectation. and by the way, we are not giving ukraine a blank check. there are a lot of things they want that we did not do. i was asked that we provide oregano craft to guarantee the skies over ukraine. i said no, we are not going to do that. we are not going to get into a third world war taking on the russian aircraft. but would we provide all of the rational abilities to defend themselves? yes. there are two kinds of rock you can drop, the cost -- one that

goes 600 miles and one that goes 100 62 miles. we did not give them the ones that go 600 miles because i'm not looking for them to bomb russian territory. going to make sure there is a relationship where they're are able to defend themselves and take on purely what is the ugliest aggression that has occurred since world war ii on a massive scale on the part of putin within ukraine. there is so much at stake. i would be surprised if leader mccarthy even has a majority of republican colleagues who say they're not going to fund illegitimate defensive needs of ukraine -- fund the legitimate defensive needs of ukraine. host: george, what do you think? guest: there is a lot in what president biden said. he is distinguishing between aid to help ukraine defend itself against russia and aid that

seems designed to help the ukrainians go on offense if and strike russian territory -- on offense and strike russian territory. he saying that no country will deny ukraine the self-defense it requires. but he is drawing lines that he is not in favor of beyond that to help the ukrainians attack russian territory, largely because of the risks this would pose for escalation potentially into a direct u.s.-russia military confrontation. i think he is right. i don't think there's much prospect that this congress is going to cut ukraine off. that kind of defensive support will continue. that is going to be necessary to support ukraine in any

negotiations that get underway. the russians have to know that the ukrainians have the military support that they need to make sure the russians cannot win. that is the leverage i don't think this administration or any congress is going to deny. host: let's talk to glenn in new jersey, democrats line. caller: good morning. my question is given how the soviet union collapsed, everyone is surprised. is there any chance that civil unrest inside russia along with all of the corruption will result in any weakness in policy change? guest: i think there is that prospect. we have to consider the possibility that russia will undergo some sort of political

crisis. that is a common phenomenon in states that lose wars and humiliating ways. it happened in russia in 1905 when the military performed abysmally in the war against japan. that eventually led to real political unrest inside russia. world war i built upon that, obviously, and the state underwent a revolution. we cannot rule out that that might happen in russia today. the strong as political forces in russia today are on the nationalist right. there criticizing putin for being too weak, for being indecisive, for not using the military power that russia really has effectively on the battlefield. he is not vulnerable nearly to the same degree from the pro-western, more liberal and much smaller portions of the russian political spectrum.

if there are changes underway, if putin falls and he chooses not to run for reelection, is replaced by someone, right now i think the chances are that we would get someone who is even more of a hardliner than putin is. host: joe is in washington, d.c. on the republican line. caller: i was disappointed to hear your statement that in our lifetime ukraine would never become part of nato. surely you recall in 2008 president bush and nato welcomed the future acceptance of russia and ukraine to nato. if we follow the policy you

recommended, we would be forfeiting the right formations to do any alliance to defend their sovereignty and independence. would you comment, please? guest: you are correct that the nato alliance announced in 2008 that ukraine and georgia would one day be members of the nato alliance. that remains our official position. it was reaffirmed a few months ago by nato. if you will recall, there was a war in georgia in 2008 and it was very much related to this question of whether or not georgia would be a member of nato. the russians fox that war to largely prevent torture from becoming a nato member --

largely to prevent georgia from becoming an into member. today is one of the big factors that has resulted in this war. in terms of these principles to whether states get to teach -- get to choose their military and political allies, absolutely. that is a principal that the united states supports. but a plank for membership in any alliance is not the same thing as having the right to compel the members of that alliance to accept the application. i can apply to also as of clubs and organizations, but those associations don't have to admit me. it is up for them to decide whether my candidacy is one that serves that physician's -- that association's interests.

united states has shown we are not willing to commit america to go to war to defend ukraine, nor are we willing to do that in georgia -- nor were we willing to do that in georgia in 2008. that tells me it is not in the american interest to have georgia or ukraine in the nato alliance. host: we have a question from twitter. this is steve. he says, "can the guest address the concerns a theory that says the uprising and ukraine was actually a coup cooked up by our department of state?" guest: [laughter] that is a contention you hear a lot in russian political circles, that the mind on revolution was really the result of the american state

department, the cia hatching this plot to overthrow the elected president of ukraine at the time. that he is an awful a lot of power to the united states. if that were true, if we could replace other countries' governments, the world would look like a different place than it does right now. that was a popular revolution, a popular uprising. you cannot bring hundreds of thousands of people into central keith -- into central kyiv by the united states making it happen. that is vastly overblown on russia's part. host: let's talk to ray in aurora, colorado, independent

line. caller: hi, how are you all this morning? i am a registered libertarian. when the great theodore -- was writing, one of his concerns was not the outcome of world war ii but the outcome of peace. in july on npr, one of the things was how zelenskyy has resolved rival political parties. what are the prospects of restoration of civil liberties and political dissent, assuming ukraine comes out on top? before i go, i also want to put in a good word for the late stephen s cohen who was a professor of russian studies and

head of use that were not -- and had views that were not in line in regards to conventional wisdom with russia and ukraine. guest: what happens in wars is typically the consolidation of state power. they tended to concentrate power in central governments. part of this is a strong effort to control popular discourse. that is certainly going on in ukraine. is not a good thing in the long run for develop and of liberal democracy in ukraine. ukraine has become a state during this war in which

divergent opinion is quite strongly policed by the government which jimmy me is an argument for trying to send this war to a negotiated settlement soon. if you're going to have an eye on what emerges after this war in ukraine, you have to ask yourself if the conditions of peace will lend themselves to economic reconstruction of ukraine. can we put together a government that does allow political dissent? that does have a spectrum of opinion, genuine political debate and popular discourse? the longer this war goes on, the harder it will be to reconstruct ukraine economically and the more difficult it will be to put in place genuine liberal governance there. host: miami, florida next on the democrats line. dennis, hello. caller: good morning.

i think is identified in and president zelenskyy should not blink on this moment with russia. i think president biden should continue to give ukraine all the support in military indulgence -- military intelligence to cause vladimir putin make concessions, withing the conceit to talks -- willingly concede to talks. reestablish a front to rebuild the country of crimea and

ukraine and all of that area. host: one of the challenges we face in this award is that a few wars historically have ended in unconditional surrender of the defeated party followed by war criminals and prosecution for war crimes. in order for that to happen, you have to not only defeat the other side unconditionally, but you usually have to occupy their country militarily. that poses a problem with russia in that the u.s. is in a position to occupy russia. russia has nuclear weapons which are designed in part to prevent that kind of other defeat -- that kind of utter defeat.

what that means is we have to aim for something less than unconditional russian surrender. we are going to have to come up with some political settlement, and negotiated peace. we are going to have to give a little bit. there are going to be some compromises on all of this. the reality is that ukraine is not going to be able to fight its way into retaking crimea and getting everything it once without having to reach some compromised settlement. host: let's talk to mike next in stockton, california. republican. caller: what a privilege to talk with someone who i believe knows a lot more than what has been discussed so far about this ukraine situation. what i'm interested in is if the

discoveries of national gas fields on either side of the crimea and how that poses a threat to russia. most of their economy is based on commodities and the oil and gas fields. ukraine represents a threat. if they can develop those fields , and we had a shell and mobile cleat out of ukraine now the pressure really is really coming from our allies who are faced with natural gas shortages in the winter. what has happened is our venture is him and a desire to push russia around -- we haven't even mentioned all of the biolab's founder there and jamie raskin's desire to destroy russia. this is the biggest screwup we

have ever encountered. while we are threatening russia because they are a nuclear power. someone with your credentials and your background, i'm sure you know a lot more that is going around and why this is a disaster for these countries. we know putin is not a good guy. we know the hardliners are going to come in if he gets pushed out. all of these are an incredible risk and a stupidity. host: let's get a response. guest: yeah, i think this is a very dangerous and difficult situation. two countries believe their uses tunes -- their existence is at stake.

one is ukraine and it is because russia is threatening their existence, or it was, militarily. the other is russia and that is one i think americans do not understand. we look at russia as an enormous landmass. the notion that the russians think their existence is somehow threatened strikes most americans as farcical. the russians have believed that the u.s. is aiming at weakening russia, promoting a regime change inside russia, surrounding russia with hostile military allies that can result in the breakup of the russian federation similar to the breakup of the soviet union that

occurred three decades ago. that means that this is an extraordinarily high-stakes situation. it is not simply a matter of russia looking to expand, it is also russia looking to protect what it believes is its own survival. when you have two countries who think their survival is a dangerous situation. when you add nuclear weapons into the next, that means the u.s. needs to be cautious. that requires extraordinarily adept statesmanship. what we need are some extra ordinarily forcing leaders who can combine the vision with double medic skill -- with

diplomatic skill. host: let's go to michigan. dave, good morning. caller: there are some economic prospects i am seeking here. i would like to know about the situations economically and the trade situation between the ukraine and russia before the war started? can something be achieved? this is more than a military war, this is economics. that is the way i feel. there is something that has got to give and take and i want to know if nato can have something to say economically. you get these two guys together, russia and ukraine, to try to come to some kind of economic agreement and trade relations of

what a reasonable dollar is worth and the person to their power. host: let's get a response. guest: there is an important economic component to this conflict in the broader ukraine-russia relationship. ukraine, its largest trade partner prior to 2014 was russia. one of the factors that led to this conflict was ukraine's pursuit of any association agreement with the european union. they looked at the eu as a vehicle for greatly improving ukraine's economic development. the eve thought expanding its trade relations with ukraine was also in europe's interests.

how do you improve ukraine's economic relationship with europe in the west while still preserving those very important and quite expensive economic ties to russia? unfortunately, the eu in pursuing this association agreement forced ukraine to make a choice. the you said -- the eu said you either have deep and close relations with the eu or russia, but not both. you have to decide. that contributed to political tensions inside ukraine. the eastern parts favored pursuing relations with the eu -- the western parts did. eastern parts favored keeping

economic ties with russia. it ripped the country apart. i'm not sure you can put that back together again. it will be difficult for ukraine to have any strong trade relationship with russia. we are looking at some real division inside europe. it will certainly be economic, it may be political and military depending on whether this award ends in some stalemate, a very unstable frozen conflict on the one hand or whether we can produce an agreed settlement on all of this. we will have to see. host: last call is merry in his of enya. -- is mary in pennsylvania. can you be brief?

caller: yes. i have been following ukraine for several decades. when senator john mccain went over to ukraine, the ukrainian people were complaining about they were not getting jobs from the american businesses that were in ukraine. we paid back taxes for the businesses in ukraine under president obama when pachinko was the president. what has changed? for us to still back ukraine knowing that people in the businesses are not paying the taxes required to russia. thank you and have a good day. guest: a very complicated issue. that has been a lot of corruption in ukraine over the

decades. that has been consistently rated as one of the most corrupt countries. russia has as well. that plays out with questions of paying taxes, plays out in terms of paying off debts. ukraine is in a situation right now where as a result of this war, it's gross to mystic product is collapsing. most estimates put it at somewhere near 30% lower where it was prior to this war. that means ukraine is going to be independent -- be highly dependent on economic aid from the u.s. and europe for a long time to come. billions of dollars monthly are going to be required to keep ukraine's economy solvent.

that is true whether this war ends next week or not. there will be dependent on aid for ukraine to continue to survive. this is another reason why the sooner we can move towards a negotiated settlement in this war, the better off we are all going to be. but most especially, the people of ukraine themselves. host: that is all the time we have. george beebe is the author of, "the russia trap." currently director of grand strategy of quincy institute for responsible statecraft. still ahead this morning's host robert pease and guesthouse jillian youngblood discussed their podcast "the purple principle."

but first, more of your calls in open forum. you can start calling now. ♪ >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, massachusetts republican governor charlie baker shares his book "results," where he offers his thoughts on how to move past politics and get things done. on "afterwards," beth trousdale looks at the future of requirement -- the future of retirement in her book "overtime." she is interviewed by courtney coyle. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. sunday on "q&a," biographer

john farrell, author of "ted kennedy: a life" at the life of the senator from massachusetts. he talked about the kennedy tragedy -- kennedy dynasty and the tragedies that surrounded ted kennedy's life, including his car accident. >> when his cousin and another aide found him, he was having breakfast with fellow sailors. they said, have you reported? he said no, i'm going to go with the story that mary jo was driving the car. they said you can't do that. still they did not go to the police. they went to a phone so he could talk to other advisors. while they were doing that, they saw the ambulance go over and they realized they had about 15 minutes to get to the police and

make some kind of report. which in is on way was candid and he said i was the driver of the car. >> john farrell and his book "ted kennedy," sunday night on "q&a. you can listen to all of our q&a podcasts or free on our c-span now cap -- app. >> stay up-to-date on publishing with tv's podcast about books. is that the list, plus trends through insider interviews. you can find out more on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but

only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. as it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> listening to programs through c-span radio got easier. tell your smart speaker to place he's been radio and listen to "washington journal post quote daily at 7:00 a.m. and other public affairs events throughout the day. weekdays at 5:00 p.m., catch "washington today post quote for a fast-paced report. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. an, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to

"washington journal." it is open forum so i will be interested to hear your thoughts on anything going on in washington, politics, midterm elections, overseas. feel free to give us a call. i want to flag something for you. there is news from axios that says trump sues the jerry six committee to find a subpoena. former president trump has filed a lawsuit on friday, yesterday, to counter a subpoena from the january 6 select committee. trump's move likely eliminates the possibility of him testifying before the panel which is set to give his final report and dissolved by the end of the year. putting the lawsuit would drive the committee into a protracted court battle. the president is overseas. here is the new york times.

he was in egypt talking at cop 27. the headline is "biden casts america as climate leader and promises a low carbon future." is a portion of the president's remarks in egypt yesterday. [video clip] pres. biden: good climate policy is good economic policy. is driving progress and around the world. in sum total of the actions my administration is taking puts the united states on track to achieve our paris agreement goal of reducing emissions 50% to 52% below 25 -- below -- levels by 2030. that may take a moment to fsis how meaningful it is that i can

say that. i introduced the first piece of climate legislation in descendant in 1986, 36 years ago. my commitment to this issue has been unwavering. today, finally, thanks to the actions we have taken, i can stand here is the president of the united states and say with confidence the united states of america will meet our missions targets by 2030. [applause] host: that was presidents biden yesterday speaking at cop 27 in egypt. it is open forum. first up is in -- is pamela. hi. caller: i am 68 years old and i tried to help improve our planet

by education . about six to 5 million people died in world war ii, millions of people diedn world war i. its the atrocities of ukraine going on with russia, hitting ildren and things like that. we have got to grow up as a planet and realize we are not going to have a planet beuse climate change is real and if we don't use in the about it, you can say goodbye to your grandchildren and it is a shame. host: want to think of president biden's remarks? caller: he is trying both the world has to come together. , change is real. look at all the hurricanes and devastation in florida and all over the planet. we have got to grow up as human beings and stop a warring with each other and come together to stop this planet. otherwise, we will have fashion

on the planet. a billion people are starving to death. host: let's talk to david next in virginia, republican. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i guess my comments were primarily your previous guest and ukraine. i believe, and i don't know if anyone can confirm this, but after dissolving the soviet union, the united states, western europe, and russia agreed that countries importing along russia saw that as a threat. for some reason, that was put out by george w. bush, and as of reason, the other countries along the border have moved to nato.

i think russia sees that as a threat. host: here is the latest from ukraine. russia orders retreat. they give up a capital. those troops have been withdrawn, and it troops have taken that city. let's talk to sidney in pollick, louisiana. caller: yes, ma'am. your guest did not tell the truth. if you want to find out if i'm correct or he is correct, look up the tapes. she worked at the state, and she said how much money we spent to overthrow the ukraine. john mccain was there. there were other politicians there.

we cowered through it, and she said if you don't like what you we are doing, you can go thank yourself. and they used basically the same thing that we did in 53, to overthrow summit on melissa vish. we used money to overthrow countries, and it is not just these two. thank you. host: let's talk to ray in wisconsin. caller: i have two comments. one is about gun violence in america. i think you do a whole episode on that. the other is, immigration. people talk about border walls, but i don't know where we are

supposed to go. it is such a narrow strip of land. you have to go to north america or south america. it is called human evolution. they have to go somewhere. they can't just drop in the middle of the ocean. that's all i have to say. i'd like to cover those topics. host: michael in georgetown, republican. caller: i'd like to give a comment. i know republicans don't believe in science, just like they didn't the past, with everything going on,. host: i referring to climate? caller: yes, climate change. you have to open their mouth, when they were doing the coal thing. host: ok. let's talk to ronald in

massachusetts. caller: i'm just outside of boston. do you note the thing that's wrong with the government, you have too many rich people running the government. i am 82 years old. i was in the vietnam war. i am a soldier, i was in south rehab it these rich people, this has been going on and going on and going on. i was born in west virginia and my father was named george washington and i was born on february 22, 1940. they have to straighten this out. i was trying to vote. i was planning on voting independent because i don't like the way they are going right now. things are all messed up. host: i hear you. john, democrats line. caller: good morning.

i have a hope upon hearing liz cheney being interviewed by a forum at the university of chicago, and i guess my hope would be twofold. one would be from each party, the hope that the republican party would approach liz cheney and let her know that she is open for revision and change in terms of the direction of the party. and, try to retain her within the party of her family, and second, if that does not happen, we have a situation where the family can get things more

self-centered and say, honey, our hope would be that you would not ruin the rest of your career, which is promising. move on with your career and your family and children in mind, and your husband, and under the circumstances, i would close by saying that they would encourage the democratic party, the leadership there to approach her with an idea that they become a solid member and contributing member because she has all of the utilities in place. thank you. host: joe in missouri, republican. caller: i tried to get through. i will bet anyone we have troops in ukraine. i will bet anybody. host: why do think that?

caller: they don't know how to use our weapons. they are so high tech, so we have to send advisors how to use them. we have laboratories in the -- ukraine. host: that is happening in other countries, and europe. there is training. but not in ukraine. that is what the defense department says. caller: i am telling you that they are in ukraine. we can never keep our troops out of combat it i am a vietnam veteran and we lost that one, too. i am a veteran. so what? we lost that one. if you are smart, you didn't go to the vietnam war. that was a war we lost. we have troops in ukraine, i would bet anybody. we have advisors and guys treating them. host: do you have anyone else? caller: liz cheney can go to hell.

host: bill is in florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. he said this is an open forum. host: yes. caller: i would like to see two things happen. number one is term limits. we have been asking for this for 20 years. it should be on the ballot in 2020 or. also, i think that all of these politicians should have to show their taxes, including donald trump. i voted for trump, but i will not vote for them -- him again because he doesn't show his taxes. if i have to show my taxes and take a drug test, then these politicians should have to take a drug test to get to show their jobs. that is my opinion. thank you. host: let's take a look at the hill. house conservatives are pressing

for delays for elections, with conservative republicans pushing for leadership to be delayed ahead of a closed-door vote on house minority leader kevin mccarthy's speaker visit and other offices. it is still not clear which party will close -- control the house with three dozen races without awareness or while the gop is favored to win the majority. it is expected to be much smaller than once thought, which has given critics an argument to make against him. this is open forum. we will talk to steve next we had -- steve next. caller: good morning. i want to say hello to republicans. they really make this show come alive for me. i am one of the tweeters. thank you for reading my tweet earlier today. i had a tweet earlier.

host: are you double dipping? caller: i don't have a tv. i listen on your app, and i don't pay cable, so i'm a cheater, but i will give you my opinion anyways. my opinion is, c-span has a certain promotion that they run in between segments, and the most recent one, it is for ted kennedy. you have this long show, but the tweet is about chappaquiddick, and i'm wondering why you took a line from the senate with 50 years doing a lot of good things, and that is the clip we get. the same thing happened with lbj when we talked about not going to the bathroom until we got a legislation passed it then, you had nixon. nixon gives this thoughtful comment about how he could've helped with the last election. i'm wondering who decides which tweets to do, because it seems

like they just did democrats, and they built up the republicans. host: thank you for sharing. keep tweeting. rhonda is in newton, republican. you have to meet your television. caller: pardon me? host: you have to mute your television. just talk on the phone. go ahead. caller: i am online because my son served with the ambassador from brazil. i am homeless because of our government. not because of brazil. there is been witchcraft forever. i was married into something. i am a white 58-year-old female, i live in america. that's all i have to say. host: dawn in atlanta georgia.

republican. caller: i am so upset. i want to encourage police, and i want to bake the callers and don't lock the line sink good morning and stuff. i want to hear somebody squeeze in a word about iran. what about the little girl being beaten to death in the streets of iran. why is it never time to talk about that? because we have to hear all about not make and the yellow and amber state. it is obscene. thank you c-span. richmond virginia. democrats line. caller: good morning. how are you doing. all right. now, what i want to say is, i want to go back to the first section you had about what we want to say to president trump. what we are trying to say is that we don't want any liars, no

cheats, no people that are going to deceive the people. we want honest people in there. we want people to tell us the truth, and work for us. not hard-core operations. not not for centers, but for everyone. and until that is done, that is the message we sent to donald trump, and to all the republicans that denied election. thank you. you all have a blessed day. host: marian is a republican in new jersey. good morning. caller: i am, well, you are true to form. before the election, you had six authors on that were all against trump. six. now, we are against trump. let me tell you something.

i am 85 years old. i just turned 85 on wednesday. i tried to get through that but i couldn't. and i will vote for him again. i love ron desantis, but it is trump's turn again. i don't believe he lost. you can say whatever you want about me. i want to say something about liz cheney. her father and bush, who i voted for, they brought more body bags and more disabled veterans back to america than trump. we did have a war with him. but we did with her father. who the heck is she to talk? she doesn't like trump because he was against the war. number two, we forget that it was trump who brought the vaccines. he is the one who got us the vaccine it it was biden who is against it, and pelosi who is

against everything that called us every name in the book and said. host: you said biden was against the vaccine? caller: they were against him closing the borders. they said he was prejudiced and stuff like that, but he saw what was coming in from china. what did biden do against china with the pandemic? we had nothing because he is in cahoots with china. it was also biden that said that he wouldn't give any money to ukraine unless they fired the investigator that was investigating his son. that is when ukraine got money. this is before the war read with russia. host: that is all of the time we had for open forum. next on washington journal, it

is robert and jillian youngblood. they will discuss their podcasts, the purple principal, on their weekly spot -- podcasting segment. we will be right back. ♪

host: welcome back. it is our weekly spot cast -- spotlight on podcast. i am joined by robert. he is the host of the purple principal podcast. he is also a creative director

at affluent knowledge, and jillian youngblood is a guest host for the principal podcast, and she is an executive director of this. welcome. guest: thank you for having us. host: tell us about the podcast. what does a focus on? guest: it is about the perils of polarization. the country has been riven and falling apart for many decades now, perhaps more in recent decades, and we wanted to understand how that happens, what are some of the key factors, and more portly, how do we stop it. how do we reverse it and get back to a place where we can have constructive conversations and rational thinking about politics and government and society without all of the anger and disdain and other emotions that get in the way. host: what is the approach you

use and format for the podcast? caller: we managed to get a lot of guests, people who are consultants and political leaders on both sides, and we've been urgent to have a lot of armor elected officials who could speak more freely when they were in office, and there are a ton of academics, political scientists who are thinking about this all of the time, and we have a wonderful cross-section of our experts in different ways who can bring perspectives to independence in this country and what they are thinking and are like. what they are looking at, even among the people that they are. host: you can give us a call and weigh in and talk to our guests. democrats at 20274 eight 8000,

republicans at 202748 8001, and independence, to hutus, 48, 8002. robert, you were quoted in an article saying that i am old enough to remember when politics were not like this. can you tell me more about why you started the podcast, and what your experiences been so far? guest: i developed it because of the pain, really watching the country move from a situation where there was some bipartisanship. there were a lot of people in the center, or moderate people who respected opinions on both sides, and those people have been drowned out. i don't think they've disappeared, but our media is more polarized. certainly, social media has had a big role in that, and it is much harder to hear moderate voices, and less person voices, and we want to create a platform

for those people, and for some of the people who are nonprofits, and boy jillian who are working to mend that divide. >> is your target audience aimed at that middle, the independent minded voter? laxatives. the thing about podcasting is you don't have fantastic data about your listenership, but i would imagine with our branding, or topics, our guest list, there are a lot of people who are either themselves more centrist or just more independent-minded. . they have a profession that allows them to see that people have different opinions, though not necessarily antagonist because they think a little bit differently, and i think jillian has a lot of experience in creating situations for people who have constructive discussions. host: i want to ask you about

that. you are guest host is podcast. how are these organizations aligned? guest: it is a national nonpartisan organization working to overcome political polarization and rebuild civic life it is going great, and as rob was saying, depending on which poll you are looking at, something like 40% of americans say they are independent. that is a huge number of people who are not necessarily being spoken to by the traditional whitaker structure. as was said, ron considers himself to be partisan. that he's a democrat, republican, but they want to talk. they want to solve problems. they recognize that not everyone speaks like them, and that's ok. what we do is bring people from across the political spectrum together to work on a problem. we hold citizen problem-solving sessions. we hold a series of exercises that helps people break down

typical barriers that are thrown up when you have a normal political discussion. we find that people just are able to find common ground, and a lot of those folks, they would say they are moderate, but they are the kinds of people who might respond to the principal branding. a lot are not. they have no intention, of changing their affiliation, but they are interested in working on an issue, and getting something done. i think a lot of those independent-minded folks are really interested in, and there is a boat -- a principal. >> how do you think they impacted the midterm? >> i think independent voters are all over the map in terms of voting. i don't want to speak for all independence. there is a variance by state, from new hampshire, 40%

independent, and there is a lot of split ticket voting in new hampshire, and just reelecting a moderate republican governor, and at the same time, we are electing an all democratic delegation to go to washington to win senate reelection and wind representative reelection, so that is not typical behavior. a high percentage of independence, and alaska, 60% nonpartisan, independent, they are the first stage in the country's history to go through rank-choice voting at that level. it is a fascinating election, and the state of nevada may be passing a similar voting structure, and that ballot is about one percentage point ahead, and they are still counting votes, but if it passes, it may be close to that, with semi open primaries, so

that is a positive development that will help people have more choice, and bringing people who haven't voted, and it will be perhaps moderate candidates, and more moderate tones and campaigns, coming through. host: let's talk to our callers. terrel is in owings mill, maryland. caller: how are you. i was listening in baltimore maryland, and i predicted, used to call, and i predicted joe biden would win the election in 2020, and after i predicted that, and i used to call in, they were defiant, and after that to make a long story short, they stop calling. they stop letting me call in, and i noticed that on the radio, most of the black callers that used to call in, they didn't take those calls anymore.

i just want to know, why do conservative radio stations not talk to people who are on the others of them? guest: without knowing that radio station, this is something that i think a lot of people have noticed, and they've commented on this. it is media, not all media, but media has started to look polarizing in the same way congress does, and it can be hard to find a good opportunity for a show you want to watch or listen to where you really feel like people are having a good argument, and bring you new information. it might not come warm exactly with a particular party line, so i feel that frustration. this is one of those things we talk about all of the time. people don't -- in their daily lives, organically, -- they don't have a lot of opportunities to come together and have a low stakes

conversation with someone who thinks differently than them, and i can say, we had an event in california, and it was an interesting congressional race, and we had a guy who showed up in a t-shirt, and he was seated next to him who is talking about plans to go to burning man, and these two were on network news together. i think they would have both been ready to rumble. they were just talking to each other as regular people, who were interested in solving a problem, and not wearing political points. by the end of the event, they were exchanging phone numbers and email addresses and talking about getting lunch together, so i think what you are describing is something worth seeing in every part of our lives. host: a question from twitter -- matt is asking this. independence seems more like a vanity label than a classification. are these people just calling

themselves independent? i've been an independent my whole life. we are the only country in the world that has a rigid two-party system. almost every other democracy has multiple parties. it is unnatural to try and wedge to wedge people into boxes, and they become independent and nonpartisan. sometimes, that is people in the center, that is people who are just very disgruntled, and ray disheartened, and they may tune out, and that is the danger of being an independent. you become disengaged, particularly for the primary. the effort for open primaries, they are small efforts to create a platform for indie minded voices, and hopefully, that will engage more independence, more

moderates, who believe they don't fit in a two-party system. there is a phrase, politically homeless. people who don't know where to go, essentially. guest: or the exhausted majority, and it is really a fantastic research over the years for a political tribe in the united states, and they point to the fact that there are seven identifiable political tribes. we only hereto, and basically, a more extreme voice within the two major parties. host: mark calling from oklahoma, democrat. caller: the independence in oklahoma kimbo on the democratic ticket. and, i've noticed something. why is it that there are all these ads for women and

everything, and it seems like the government and everything else is doing -- they're not promoting to climb up and stuff. host: the first point was about independence voting on a democratic ticket. would you like to make a comment on that? guest: in our vents, we have people who come from all walks of life, and really device -- diverse groups of people who are interacting with each other, and i spoke to a lot of people who say that they are independent, even though they but one way. and we've seen that in a political science for a lot of time. that someone may always vote republican, or vote for democrats, but they would still say they are a independent, and

it is reflective of a lot of different things. it is reflective of people saying that the system doesn't represent them, and i see this in a lot of voting reforms on the ballot. there is one for rank-choice voting, where i think the ballot is still being counted. i think that you can vote a certain way, and you will still feel like the political conversation is not as nuanced as you think it should be. host: rich and montana. republican. caller: good morning. i haven't heard the podcast, but i appreciate c-span for airing what you air. i think a lot of people in the country are leaning towards purple. i think we are tired of the division we have in the country. i believe, maybe, with these things going on, we come

together, our country again instead of a divided party, and we seem to be in that now. a lot of people are looking for purple, and maybe, i understand we have to have independent republican and democratic lines on c-span, but maybe we will open a purple. thank you. purple is a great color. i don't know if my tie comes through here. i think we chose the name of purple principal because on the one hand, it indicates that there is more than two ways of looking at things, and there are moderate voices, centrist voices in the center. they don't get hurt, and that compromise is essential in democracy to get things done. in our system, you need 60 votes in the senate. you have to have some means of reaching across the aisle to accomplish something, and i

think sometimes the pressures overstates in these elections, that 50 or 51 votes is controlling the senate. it is not full control of the senate. it may be for some budget issues, but it's not legislation, and it is essential that there are members of the senate on both sides of the house, and in all of the state legislatures who are talking daily with people across the aisle. >> laguna woods california, independent. >> good morning. >> thank you for the program. i just wanted to say, i think the problem is starting 50 years ago from the gold standard, and every civilization since france, they had local bread that cost $36, and in a two room, you could buy the army. they had to pay them in wheat or corn or chicken, and that is the immorality of our situation. it is slowly ruining everything.

that is why since 1971, when nixon went off the standard, we've had a decreasing value of our currency. that is what causes people to become disgruntled. my home went up 50 times because of inflation. it is nothing more than a mirage, what is going on. our currency has dropped. that is because people to be dissatisfied. it is fraud. it takes a long time to boil it slowly, they don't realize is being foiled, that's what's happening. host: any comments? guest: i am not an expert on the gold standard, but we try to get a 360 degree view of polarization, including people in business and economics, and certainly, the timeframe the callers talking about, 50 years, polarization has been

increasing, and that is been long or longer. with the floor vote on congress, with the polling by others with views of members of the other parties, all of that has been increasing for 50's or 60's. host: i've been wanting to ask about the voters and when they decide, typically. do you know? do they go into a polling place not quite having decided or is this something they would have decided a long time ago? guest: it is hard to generalize about independence. we're going about people spread out all over the country. there is always a hope among centrists and independents that an independent candidate will come forward in a polarized race, and it will be an opportunity to elect somebody in the middle, but in recent times, that is not been terribly successful, and the most recent

governor in the u.s. was bill walker. he ran again this year, and this does not look great for him. i don't think there is a standard way that an independent views and election, except, because they are more open to more viewpoints, they may be waiting longer to see it, after the party held primaries, and an independent candidate comes forward with a realistic chance or they want to bolster for a future election. without that candidate, they will look at the major candidates in a less partisan way. they will look at positions, track records, character and rhetoric. it is not preconceived. there is a way that it is very often don. host: rebecca in california, independent. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment and

state an opinion. i feel that this next election is going to be very close. it's going to be the independent voter that could determine the outcome. i feel like politicians need to address us -- i am an independent voter. -- we need to be addressed more because we are becoming a larger group. i would like to share that i am one of those people that stays undecided until the very end because with politics, so many things can change by the day. especially as it gets closer to election day. anyways. thank you for taking my call, and thank you for this podcast. guest: comment? guest: i hear a lot from independents that elections get decided on feelings, and they are describing what you are describing, and i also hear from the same people. they would really like more opportunities to talk about the

issues. to feel confident that there candidate is thinking in a nuanced or balanced way about those issues, so i think a lot of us to wait until the last minute because it is just, which weighs is the wind blowing. then, i fear frustration that seems to be how we make these big decisions about we cast our vote. host: the hot -- podcasted eight hispanic voter episode. how the trends towards independence are in that block. host: we had three episodes on hispanic swing voters, in the last election, and it was appealing over time, and it sort of was a strength in the community that has waned a bit.

the boating community is very diverse. we saw different behavior in florida, and then in texas, and hispanics are all over the country. you have generational divides, country of origin divides, so it is a mistake to think that there is a voting block, but it is a growing number of americans who are becoming more engaged, and you see more hispanic candidates, and there is a hope that because hispanics come from a cultural tradition which is conservative, but many of them are more progressive, they can force the party to come together a bit more if they want to get a vote. host: cindy in hampton new hampshire. hello. guest: good morning. being in new hampshire, we split the ticket and we came back in,

but i would like to be an independent, so to the north of us, we have the king, and i love him, and we have bernie sanders in vermont, which is, you know, with bernie, he is very flamboyant in a way. you know what i mean. very progressive, but he's also a straight shooter, and in new hampshire, i think it helps with the split ticket because you can vote for sununu or hassan, but i would really like to see more independence, people like angus king. for bernie sanders, but a little less because he has become a fossil in some political spectrum, but angus king, he is a straight shooter.

we have to push people up and out. i'm sure he doesn't want to run for president, but if he did i would vote in. host: alright. do you want to take that? guest: we talked to a lot of different people at these problem-solving sessions we run, and the ink that i've always felt with people from across the political spectrum, they are talking concretely about a solution to an issue. i think, if congress could look and operate and speak to each other this way, things would look so different. there are people who have all kinds of jobs, all kinds of experiences, who really want to come and talk about whatever issue it is were tackling. i always think, i hope somebody runs for office. people are coming in because they want to have this kind of independent thinking experience, and they have it, and it galvanizes them. i hope that more people can dissipate and hope some folks

will get into the public life after having that experience. host: sean in las vegas, nevada. democrat. caller: good morning. anyway, i decided to say that i'm not in a class, but i voted republican. and, the reason i voted republican is because gas prices are high, and food is too much. and, i know definitely, [indiscernible] i just wanted to know how can we redo this, and everybody just

help, and the republicans and the democrats get together and solve this problem that we have here. and i guess that's all i have to say. host: rob, what do you think? guest: i didn't hear the question, but inflation is a problem for everyone, and inflation is complicated. i'm not an expert. it is hard to lay the blame on anyone factor, but it was mentioned about problem-solving. there is a caucus in the u.s. house, its 50 members from both parties. it is very important. we are pushing through legislation that might otherwise get stalled. there is a little bit of an equivalent, and informal equivalent in the senate, and they came together to help with covid relief, and infrastructure, and those people are extremely valuable.

that includes the house and the senate. with state legislators, it is people who have friendships, who have respect across the aisle. they are cosponsoring bills that actually pass, so, it is extreme important that people are open to the other parties, and for those people, they may be more pragmatic and less ideological. host: i want to read you something from the political report, and they said this. where indepevoters go, so goes the midterm election. in the last idterm elections, the already out of power carri votes by double digits. this year, according to the exit polls, democrats actually carried independent voters two points. what do you make of that? guest: it is not surprising. the republicans, through the meddling in the process, they put up a lot of candidates who

didn't do well, so it's not surprising. people are less partisan, they want solutions, they want the country to come together, and they would vote for a party. that seems more pragmatic, and has not put up candidates who are as extreme. that is not true across the board, certainly, but there are a lot of our left candidates who do seem to be a lot stronger in their rhetoric then on legislative records, but certainly, in the election, it is no surprise that independence would have swung towards democrats. it doesn't mean they always will. host: new york, publican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i believe the issue about political partisanship, and not one party recognizing the other, that is due to these social

media which is growing over the last several decades. you did not have this many years ago when i grew up. they reinforce the political philosophy that they want, and right now, the democrats, not all of them, but many of them, they are so far left that they promote philosophies and schools that are detrimental to families. there is no compromise with them. when a conservative speaker wants to speak at a university, they are automatically shut down. they are not allowed to speak. host: let's get a response. rob, he was addressing you. guest: to the first point, social media, i think you have to say that there has been a big problem. maybe, we did have tribal

psychology, well before social media. we did us versus them, and we do like good versus evil, but to use a metaphor, that was a genetic preaches position to ganser. then, you have partisan cable media, and social media, and it helps metastasize things, and one can only hope that may be, some of the very challenging people leaving or getting fired from twitter will create a social media platform on that, which is more civil and unified. we have gas on the show, chris deyo, who is done great research on social media and one of his favorite data points is that 7% of users generate 70% of content, and that's generally extreme. it's a real problem. host: carol is into desoto texas. independent. caller: this is my first time

calling, and thank you so much. how do we create a generational change in our political system. right now, the average age in the house is 58, and in the senate it 64, so how do we engage more younger people in the political process like politicians. going forward. guest: we are seeing a lot of young independents, and we are seeing them get into politics as elected officials, so the project, recruits and support for younger people who are running for office, i talked to a lot of them who are liking to think in this way, who have a denser or meatier conversation, it like we talk about now, and i think something like 40 -- that is a wild 2019 study, but it is like 40%. republicans and democrats, they consider the other side to be downright evil.

the young people i talked to just really look at something like that and do not understand it. i think you are right that younger generations are really right to get into politics, and in a different way. a lot of the calcified anger that we've seen out there is not long for our politics. how do you bring them in? the last caller was talking about these disinformation issues, and the genius actually been running the problem-solving sessions on the issue, and the last one we had, we had a table with some moderates, and a woman who said she was liberal, and a man who identified as conservative. the first thing she said was social media companies are running wild, they have to be stopped. they need to just regulate them. the conservative guide said no. the problem is socied companies are censoring conservatives. i sat down with the table and said these guys are going to

need a little marriage counseling, soy stuck around for their conversation, and i should've said, they are both younger people. finally, they said, i think what is bothering me about what you said is i don't really want the government regulating speech. the liberal woman thought for a woman -- a minute and said i don't either. that opened a door for them to have a conversation. later, she could say, what got to me about what you said was you are saying the government should regulate businesses, basically. all of these social media companies or private instances, and i run a small business, and i don't know that i want that. he said, i think you're right about that. it is among younger people where i see not only among younger people, but among younger people, it is an interest in getting past people as online social media avatars. really, getting to a solution.

i think it will happen. host: dan, democrats line, auburn, california. good morning. caller: my only -- i agree there should be an independent party. my only problem with an independent party issue is if they have a candidate, democrats have a candidate, and republicans have a candidate, as long as there is a way that two thirds of the people or less then two thirds the people don't lose, where one party gets a little more than one third of the vote, they win, that means almost two thirds of the population have no say in what is going on. that is my only problem with the independent party movement, as long as there is a way to give those folks a chance to have a runoff or something of that nature. i think it is a great idea. guest: that is an important

point. the spoiler effect, and plurality voting, which means a small percentage of voters can elect somebody who doesn't represent enough of the voters or the community, and i think that is what these structural reforms, such as alaska or better, the right choice voting, that is what they are trying to get at. they are trying to get away from plurality voting. there are a lot of ranked choice voting in mayoral choices, and more every election year, adding it because we had cases in primaries where candidates with 10 or 12% of the vote move on to the general election, and it's not enough in rank-choice voting, you have to list your preferences of candidates from one through four, and there is a procedure by which the fourth place finisher drops out, and those second-place votes are allocated to another candidate until somebody gets 50%, and it

creates more consensus and it makes them think more about their choices, and it makes a candidate theoretically, at least not in alaska, but it makes candidates think about reaching out to a larger number of voters. host: william in minnesota, independent. caller: i keep hearing this hyperbole on the air, talking about our next screen, but in my opinion, there is no, at least economically, no extreme left anymore because bill clinton, obama, and all of the democrats, except bernie, possibly, they are to the right of nixon and eisenhower. so, what is happening is we've

shifted so far right that there is no choice anymore. bernie got burned by the dnc. during his campaign with hillary, there was victoria nuland and hillary, and they basically asked him, and part of the reason that trump was elected is the fact that people were in frustration. they didn't have a big enough choice. they went to an independent with no record of politics, whatsoever. he didn't even know how to run his own government from a standpoint of -- she he didn't. host: we are running low on

time. guest: i was going to say, i'm a former staffer, and i worked on the state and local government, throughout my career, and one thing i can say from all those experiences is that the tools that election officials have from their constituency to redesign, and if you are feeling like you've got an elected official and parties at large that are not hearing what you are saying, i would really encourage you to reach out to them. you can go to a town hall or something where everyone will get up and say their piece, and maybe they are yelling, and no one will learn anything, but i would encourage you to meet with your elected officials, and speak your mind, and say, you have a point of view that you think is not being represented in the conversation, and elected officials believe it or not, they are staff members. they really want to hear from

not the usual suspects. the ones who always show up to town halls. they've already posted cards of what they want to say, so they should take the time to get to know this is joseph in north carolina on the republican line. caller: i am a registered republican and he had the border good and clean. now i want to know why they are not letting these migrants clean the mess that they made. instead, they want us to go and volunteered to clean up their mess. why don't they get these people who they put up in hotels and give them everything we don't get. why don't they go down there and clean up the border, why do

they want volunteers? guest: we have had experts on immigration experts on the show. will heard, arizona runs thousands of miles along the border. his recent book is highly recommended and he talks about opening the path to more illegal immigration. we are presented with a lot of false choices in our to party system. one can only hope that with more latino legislators, the lowering of the political temperature in the next legislative session and they will be able to work out a compromise which has been close but it has been 35 years since we have had legislation that

would address policy concerns about border security and the asylum situation and citizenship. host: that is all the time that we have. william pease, and julian young at civic genius. they are cohosts of the purple principal podcast. thank you both for joining us today. guest: thank you, it was a pleasure. host: that is all the time we have for washington journal. in the meantime, have a great saturday. ♪ >> c-span's washington journal,

we are taking your calls on news of the day and will discuss and washington post columnist talks about campaign 2022 and what it means for the future republican candidates in 2024. then jim kessler, executive vice president at third way on what the results of campaign 2022 mean for president biden and the democratic party. watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on sunday morning on c-span or c-span now, our free mobile video app. during the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> broadband is a force for

empowerment, that is why charter invests in billions, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities began small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-sn as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> the ukrainian president delivered remarks recently on the importance of protecting freedom and democracy after receiving the liberty medal for the national constitution center. it annually honors people for their commitment to liberty and freedom globally. we will have this tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org, or with c-span now, our free video app. >> sunday on "q&a," the author of "ted kennedy: a life," looks

at the life and political career of the late senator from massachusetts, talking about the tragedies that surrounded ted kennedy's life, including the car accident. >> when his cousin and another aide found in the following morning, he was having breakfast with fellow sailors, and they said, have you reported it? he said, no, i will tell them the story mary jo was driving the car, and they said, you cannot do that, you cannot do that. still, they did not go to the police, they went somewhere where he could talk to other advisors, and they saw the ambulance go over, and they realized they had about 15 minutes to get to the police and make some kind of report, which and its own way was candid and

said i was the driver of that ca >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." you can listen to "q&a" and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest amends with hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, let your fingertips. also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv network and radio, plus, a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store, google play, downloaded for free today. c-span now, your front row seat to washington.