host: the one-year anniversary of the start of russia's war in

ukraine offered evidence of the alliance between russia and china. the chinese called for a cease-fire and offered a negotiated settlement after president biden visited ukraine and is meeting with nato allies. the origins of covid to the russia ukraine war, crises test u.s. relations with russia and china, in one view, it raise the possibly of creating a new cold war with the prospect of military conflict palpable with every new crisis between the country. it's monday, february 27. welcome to washington journal. we will ask you about that. are you concerned about a new cold war between the u.s., russia, and china. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats (202) 748-8000.

independents (202) 748-8002. if you want to send us a text, (202) 748-8003. you can post your thoughts on twitter and instagram. we will hear from some lawmakers over the weekend, from some of the sunday shows focusing on the alliance between russia and china. china has a proposed piece and the talks of arms from china to russia. all of that is ahead. we get our question from an article in the new yorker. the title of his piece is sliding toward a new cold war. not since the berlin wall fell has the world and so cleaved by the conflict john f. kennedy called a long twilight struggle. he writes this:

. he also writes:

(202) 748-8001 is the republican line. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. are we on the verge -- is there

the threat of a new cold war. this is from usa today. the headline is nuclear warfare. they write: that is from usa today. yesterday on this week -- on meet the press, senator dan

sullivan was asked about china helping russia in the war. >> what do you think the best way is to deter china from helping the russians right now? if they do, watch of the consequences be? >> they are already helping russia. every time you hear chinese officials talk, they are blaming us and nato for the ukrainian war. there should be a serious redline with regard to them supplying military equipment to the russians. i think that should be in the form of sanctions. there is a broader issue here. republicans are more united. the war in ukraine revealed that we are in this new era of authoritarian aggression led by jean ching ping and vladimir putin. they are increasingly isolated.

they view their neighbors in a very paranoid way. i think this challenge were they are looking to take aggressive actions against their neighbors, whether it's in ukraine or taiwan, it's going to be with us for decades. we need to face it with confidence. there are a number of things we have over these dictators that we should promote. our commitment to democracy and liberty, that is what really helped us win the cold war. their biggest vulnerability is they fear their own people. we need to exploit that. that could unify republicans and democrats. host: the use of the term cold war is more prevalent these days

as the alliance between russia and china grows. because of ukraine war, we are looking at a piece from the new yorker called sliding toward a new cold war. he writes: (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8000 is the line for

democrats. independents (202) 748-8002. how concerned are you about the possibility of a threat of a new cold war? brenda is in new jersey. go ahead. caller: good morning, america. i am very concerned about what's going on. i think the president should be doing more for us. he's involved in other activities. always taking to vacations. i really hope he comes to his senses and does more for america, trying to settle these things instead of what he's been doing. president biden, please help us. host: what do you think about his trip to ukraine and the meeting with nato officials?

caller: it was a stage act. when he went there, listening -- he should be doing more instead of doing what he's doing. i'm very disappointed in the president. host: republicans, (202) 748-8001. this is from the wall street journal this morning. the headline it, department of energy says the lab leak is likely the origin of covid-19. they write:

on the issue of potential arms from china to russia, a senator was on fox news sunday. here is what he had to say. >> a new poll shows 68% of americans think china is a major threat. 26% say there is some threat. what do you make of their growing role in the middle of this conflict? >> i think china is a major threat against the united states. they are encouraging this war by working with russia. they be additional weapons to pursue the war. this is an attack on the sovereignty of a democratic state. ukraine is the front line. russia will not stop there. china is assisting that. china is a major threat against the united states. >> the washington post reports that china moves forward, it's a

conflict despite warnings from the united states not to provide such support. >> china needs to know there will be consequences. we have isolated russia economically. we can do the same thing against china. china needs to understand that they need to be on the right side of history. an attack on an independent state is a war of aggression. china should be with us. the overwhelming majority of the world speaks out. the un security council indicated a wide understanding of who was responsible for the war. china sat on the sidelines on that vote. they should be on the right side of history. host: friday marked the one-year anniversary of the war on ukraine. does that further add to the threat of a potential cold war between the u.s., russia, and now china.

some reaction on social media. this tweet is from joseph: steve says:: this one says: edit in arlington says:

courtney is on the republican line calling from georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a very brief statement. ever since president trump was president, if you tried to speak to zelenskyy about was going on, to find out what joe biden's son were doing over there, they get impeached for that. you have made some kind of unlawful call.

does anyone see any connection between joe biden and ukraine and china where his son could be getting money? i cannot understand how we can't see the president has sold us to china and russia and anybody else that will give him money. that is how i do believe most people feel. i don't understand why this is been revealed enough. host: this is a headline from the hill:

kevin is in windsor, connecticut on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think ukraine is the front line of democracy right now. people forgot that when hitler's declared war on the u.s. and pearl harbor, the ocean is not

going to separate us. you've got the hitler's regime and the republican party. you've got the hitler's governor in florida taking books away. these are playbooks out of hitler's. we've got to unite this country. that's all i have to say. host: this is from the new york times this morning, an opinion piece. ukraine and russia may be headed to a cease-fire.

were asking about the threat of

a new cold war. your thoughts on that. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. in wisconsin that, john is on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to correct the first caller who stated that biden had met with zelenskyy.

he was not president of ukraine when biden took office. do your homework before you spread the disinformation. this is the problem we have trying to communicate between parties. one party gets their information solely from fox news and the other party actually reads. please correct that. host: this is from the piece by evan. he writes:

condoleezza rice was on it face the nation yesterday and talked about what future leaders should consider about the u.s. and russia, particularly regarding ukraine. >> at this stage, foreign policy is getting talked about a fair amount. president trump criticized funding for ukraine. ron desantis said the u.s. cannot provide ukraine a blank check. they reject your point of view in many ways by saying the u.s. needs to pull back. >> i'm not going to put the words and mounds of future candidates.

whoever runs for president understands the essence of this conflict. we are descending not just ukrainian independence, we are defending a rules-based system. you cannot extinguish your neighbor. for those who say we ought to be concentrating on the endo pacific, he is telling you what he thinks about that. he is nunnally watching what is going on in ukraine it, according to our intelligence, he is considering getting in on the side of the russians. host: we have some comments from social media. this one says: this text says:

bc says: greg is on the republican line in pennsylvania. hello there. caller: good morning. the problem we have with this relationship with china and russia is when policy is made by limousine liberals who the chinese and russians do not believe. it's all fluff and no action. go back to the redline in syria. somebody has to say whatever the redline is, you do something. the caller from wisconsin a couple of calls ago said his party reads and the other

listens to fox only. if people would listen to fox more often, they would get a much better mix of news than msnbc where he apparently lives. the problem is you say something and somebody violates whatever rule you make. there must be consequences. for example, hunter's dad has said things about ukraine. put trips in ukraine. american troops. do it. we are sliding toward something that will be reversible. every action has possible negative consequences. that's just the way the world is. host: what is the follow-up to

the spy balloon incident? what action should the u.s. take? caller: what specific action is we should reveal what we learned from it. although i think hunter's dad is an off -- awful president, i support sending troops to taiwan. we are going to do. that's what has to happen. we are on track toward clear obvious negative consequences. host: this is the headline from usa today. what are tactical nuclear weapons?

the tart -- article has an illustration about start. it allows each nation to inspect the other nuclear sites 18 times per year to ensure compliance. vladimir putin said russia was purchase a fading -- suspended participation. in this part of the chart, which countries have nuclear weapons? the estimated nuclear stockpiles

in terms of the overall tonnage in the world, 70,000. that is the total worldwide. the russia part of that is 40,000 plus. the u.s. is 31,000 plus. talking about the potential threat of the cold where. -- cold war. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call and thanks for c-span and this free space to talk about events that are happening now. we should put the historical perspective to the aspect of what is going on. if we look at the spanish civil war, it seems like the same actions are occurring today and

the same people are saying that america first thing. if we look into the historical prospect of the area, the same thing is happening today. we have had many instances of russian aggression against its neighbors. look at hungary in 1956. czechoslovakia in 1968. when ronald egg -- reagan started to call them out. if the average american thinks russians will not destroy them, they are lunatics. i stayed in the military until 1995. i saw it rebuilt and able to do things. for the collet to say we should put american troops there, he's

never done anything to serve this country. it is insane for these people to back a dictator. i would never back a dictator. i would never support the russians. i spent too many years against them and have seen things they've done it. does anyone remember the plane that was shot down by the russians? the korean airliner? the ships that were run -- rammed by russians. we have an all volunteer military that took care of the needs of the country. now they want to destroy this country. if they want to do a favor, take the ar-15's and send it to the

ukrainians who are being slaughtered. with that, i have to leave this call. i am angry at trying to destroy the country, such as marjorie taylor greene. can someone answer that question for me? host: raylene is calling from california. caller: hello. i agree with the previous caller. what is up with? biden is trying to not start world war iii. china is the one who wants it. these people are stupid. they do nothing but lie. we know covid came from them. we they didn't ask europe or the west or anyone for the vaccine because they never ask for anything.

they care nothing about human life. that's why china wants to go in. china is very dangerous. biden is a scorpio. everybody knows he's an irishman. it's not going to desert ukraine. if you ask someone who loves freedom the mouth, they will say it's an irishman. host: this is the front page of the washington times this morning.

dominated by what you can read that at the washington times. our question is about the u.s., russia, and china. is there the threat of a new cold war. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8000 is the democrats line. independents (202) 748-8002. let's hear from randy calling from alabama.

go ahead. you are on the air. caller: let me mute my tv. host: thank you. caller: people look at the good book, this world is not going to be destroyed by nuclear weapons. they need to stop being scared. the good lord is not going to destroy this earth with no nuclear weapons. i can name 20 greens that died in the war. i fought in that war. that man can kiss my rear end. host: terry is in daytona beach florida. go ahead. caller: i would just like to say it's getting out of hand. i think there are people dying

now. i think there is a war going on. i hope the president makes the right choices. that's all i have to say. host: this is a wall street journal opinion piece about the story they broke over the weekend about the findings of the department of energy.

in tennessee, terry. good morning. caller: all i have to say is the united states, we need to stay a great nation.

that is something we need to do now. if we are going to have democracy in the world, we need to back them up. the same thing with china. everybody here, that's what we fight for. they don't care nothing about us. we need to stop buying china's stuff. we need to start making our stuff back in the united states. i hate to say it, it's time to go in there and take russia out and show china we're not playing with them. that's all i have to say. host: we will go to max. this is a story from the wall street journal in their business

section. the headline says firms expand in china. let's hear from max calling from maryland. caller: thanks for taking my call.

i wanted to remind everybody during the second time obama ran, he said the 80's were calling and they wanted their foreign policy back. that needs to be brought up more often. the vice president was joe biden. i think he was the special envoy to ukraine. it sounds like a lot of his family members had dealings over there. i believe ukraine was in the civil war at the time. during that civil war, it went on for seven years. people have to keep in perspective what's going on. this was a slow crawl. this is been going on for almost a decade. i don't think we aren't war. we have all of our time to focus on this war by sending money

over there. host: next up is jamar calling from pennsylvania. hello there. caller: the biggest reason this new cold war -- the biggest difference is about equality. when i went to china, it was a big difference. they are very racist in china. i had people touch my hair. they told me to do the thug shake. they were calling me a thug in china. that's not ok. they called meet george floyd. that's not good. host: what took you to china? were you working there? richard is in pennsylvania. independent line. caller: i might put a different

spin. we are definitely at war. we are supplying arms. what scares me most, we are reducing our arms. our oil is down to less than half. in the book of revelation, it talks about god and china and russia attacking israel eventually. i ran is close to an atomic bomb. israel is going to attack them. that's all i have to say. host: this is from usa today:

the secretary of state antony blinken was on this week. here is what he had to say. >> the administration has warned china not to offer lethal assistance to russia. what can you share about what china could do?

>> all i can say is what you've heard from the secretary of state and other officials in the administration. you just heard from president biden. we have not seen them take the step of providing weapons to russia for purposes of the war. we are watching closely. they haven't taken it off the table. we are sending a clear message that this would be a mistake. those weapons would be used to but barred sillies -- cities. >> you see no indication that china is backing off? >> it is hard for me to say backing off. we have not seen them do it. host: jake sullivan there on this week on abc. the piece from the new yorker, sliding toward a new cold war. in that piece he writes:

let's hear from chris on the republican line in new jersey. what had. caller: i hope that we -- the cold war, this is a new phase. i would call it a new phase. we were fighting with russia and china and the middle east.

after trump retracted troops from europe, now we are fighting in europe. it's very scary, these times we are in. that is basically what it is. host: renee is in florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i believe we have been in a cold war with both of them. china has taken advantage of our situation with russia. i believe fox are being used as a propaganda channel by russia. you can look at the dominion versus fox for proof of what they've done. they started out -- i think they got trump elected. they started out putting him on

their channel, talking about obama wasn't the president, wasn't from this country. they ended up getting him elected. they just continued to do that. they shouldn't be able to be called a news channel. hopefully, that will change. host: we are moving on to annapolis. ned is on the line. go ahead. caller: terrific. i don't think cold war is a good analogy right now. it may come a cold war. what i see happening, you had

the ussr as an integrated empire. when ukraine left, vladimir putin considered this a secession like we considered the southern states. most people don't really understand that. he sees russia falling apart and he is desperate to put it back together. he doesn't see ukraine a separate from russia. we don't think it's an attack. i believe that to be the case. what concerns me here is i think vladimir putin is getting closer to using some kind of nuclear response. the only way to turn that is for top leaders to come together and make clear what the consequences will be. host: an earlier caller said

this is the evolution of the cold war which ended technically in the early 1990's. would you agree with that? it never really ended? this is a continuation or restarting? caller: that was my first inclination. on china, we are in the same position japan was. we are very dependent on china for various materials, japan was very dependent on the united states for intent. i think we are in a much more vulnerable position. it sounds more like a precursor to a hot war with china. i hope that doesn't happen.

we will face a really hellish dilemma. do we lose a conventional war or window nuclear one? it is scary. host: the weekend section of the washington post, there is a new book out about ronald reagan and his role in ending the cold war. it goes over some of the high points of the end of the cold war. the headline of the review is holding up reagan as a hero of the cold war. did the war and because gorbachev abandoned it?

the review says:

we've got about 10 more minutes on the potential threat of a new cold war. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents (202) 748-8002. william is on the emma kratz line in south carolina. caller: if biden went back in,

when he went back in, he got the countries to support him. if russia isn't stopped, they will take all the countries around them and china will take taiwan. that is my belief. i'm an old man. i remember when president kennedy was in and khrushchev had put missiles in cuba. the united states found out. kennedy said to khrushchev, you will not put missiles in my backyard. he backed down because they were in international waters. they turned around and went back.

host: does -- do today's events feel as palpable as that missile crisis to you? caller: what was happening, they sent up balloons. they are trying to find out the power. people have to be stopped from doing evil things. if they aren't stopped, they will take the surrounding company -- countries and china will take taiwan. host: ted is calling in new york. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to remind people that donald trump had projected that if we alienated the russians years ago, they would be in bed with the chinese.

now we see that coming to fruition. there were no wars, no american soldiers being killed. china was not threatening one. there was nothing going on in ukraine. it's the first time probably since we didn't have wars. donald trump did that. the woman who called earlier saying we need to do something about fox news. that is the socialists that are speaking. they want to stop free speech. everyone else can talk. they can say what they want. if anyone counters that with facts, they are banned. they don't want them to speak.

we need to take a good look at what has happened. we have a president with no clue. he has dementia and people are talking about how brilliant he is. he is crooked. his son is crooked. the whole family is crooked. here we are four years after donald trump and the whole world has turned into a dungeon. i'm not a big donald trump fan. there was never a greater president in my lifetime. host: the headline this morning in politico, leaders of the panel condemned the attack on judy chu. on sunday, they represent -- defended judy chu after another lawmaker question her loyalty to

the united states. speaking last week on fox news, he said. more from face the nation yesterday with the select committee on china.

here is what he had to say. >> i read that you are going to require those testifying to disclose foreign ties. given how extensive the ties are in the business community, everyone is going to have to disclose. how do you reassure people this isn't mccarthy territory? >> we need not exhume his body and reanimated. we must be aware of going overboard as we try and win this competition with china. there are disclosure requirements for most committees. our bar is slightly higher. i am confident we can work through the complexity. what makes this more complex in many ways than the old cold war is we never had to contemplate

decoupling because we didn't interact. this is the most difficult area. we have to safeguard our own economy. host: a quick check of social media on this morning. samantha says: lee says: maria is in tennessee. good morning on the independent line. caller: thank you for bringing this topic up. i was listening. i can member a call earlier this

morning asking if anyone remembered the downing of the korean airliner the russians shot down. i remember that and a lot more. if you were a child growing up in the cold war, i was born one month before the cuban missile crisis. my older brothers and sisters played that duck and cover drill. i was born in the northeast. i went to school near the coast guard base. they still have the nuclear shelter signs. when it was shot down, i was working for a minister pali. the local guard was called up.

that's the closest they ever came to deployment during that area. when i think back to all of these things, how bad things were. i think other than 9/11, the only time that true blood was ever shed on our soil was the civil war. before that, the revolutionary war. if we are talking about sending troops overseas or to assist ukraine or sending troops to sending troops over to taiwan taiwan, i don't know if the younger generation really understands what that means. i know that theoretically they understand why but i don't know

if they understand the cost. host: thank you for the insight. we appreciate all of your calls. up next we will take a look at the week ahead in congress. farnoush amiri of the associated press will join us next. dave levinthal will talk about his reporting on congressional ethics and financial conflicts of interest. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the senate and house are back in session following a

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america is watching on c-span. >> washington journal continues. host: we welcome farnoush amiri to the washington journal. she is a journalist with the -- reporter with the associated press here to talk about a short week for the house and senate. what are the highlights, the things you are looking at going into the week? guest: it is a shorter week because of the retreats for houston -- house dems. how santa senate are catching up -- house and senate are catching up on the news of the week, the ohio trained a rail meant. both parties have -- train derailment. both parties have promised to look into it. host: one of your pieces last

week, the headline of that piece said " biden casts a wide net in probes as far as oversight." what will we see this week in terms of oversight? guest: the main offering for house republicans this week will be the china select committee. obviously this is something that started bipartisan. democrats voted to create this select committee but we will see it tested bipartisanship this week. we will see former trump officials testify, some chinese dissidents testify. this will be the first time congress will address the chinese spy balloon. host: where do you start to begin with china in the two weeks they have been off? you had the chinese spy balloon

at the beginning of february than the recent efforts by the chinese to call for a cease-fire in russia. certainly the agenda for that select committee just got wider. guest: that will be a challenge for them. how do you focus? china is a large country. it has wide political influence. they will focus on domestically, one of the issues -- you are showing clips of mike gallagher and one of the focuses will be how china cracks down on people on u.s. soil, these outposts they have like in new york city. we will see more of a unified message in the beginning. host: you touched on the headline -- " committee launches probe into train derailment

." as they have been off on the break, what are you picking up from social media that members are concerned about? guest: it depends on who you are talking to. if you are talking about james comer, he is really focused as his letter stated on friday, he wants to understand when the department was notified. what was the communication mike? many -- communication like? many believe that buttigieg did not respond adequately. host: our guest is farnoush amiri. she covers congress for the associated press. we welcome your calls and questions about the week ahead. the lines (202) 748-8000 for -- (202)

748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independents. (202) 748-8002 -- (202) 748-8003 for all others. guest: this is the first time since 2021 that merrick garland has been before congress. a has happened since then. the democrats have been edging for -- itching for a hearing. you are going to see some of that play out. host: why didn't he testify before congress in 2022? guest: the attorney general

comes before congress. in this period there have been several investigations that involve the fbi. host: there is a security committee hearing this week. is there still consideration of impeachment of the homeland security secretary mayor guess -- mayorkas? host: it is -- guest: it is a small but growing faction that want to impeach mayorkas. if you talk to leadership, that is something they are treading carefully on. host: that meeting with the homeland security committee is this week. as you mentioned out the start, this is a short week because

democrats have their policy conference this week. who are they expected to hear from? guest: biden announced he would address house democrats wednesday night. this is different than when he came to philadelphia last year to talk to house democrats. they had full control of congress. now they are looking at a divided congress. they are looking at republican control in the house. the message will not be the same one of optimism. it will be "how do we get back the house in 2024?" host: in past years republicans failed similar policy conferences. are they planning to do the same thing this year? guest: they will be in orlando at the end of. march they have regained control of the house. they are looking at 2024. it will be interesting who the

speakers are. last year kevin mccarthy avoided inviting trump. we will see what happens. host: what can you tell us about the agenda this week for the house in particular. but legislation should we be on the lookout for? guest: this week because of the house democratic retreat is a lighter legislative week. we will see some resolutions in support of aid and helping out the communities in turkey and syria that have suffered from that devastating earthquake. the select committee on china will be their biggest offering this week. host: farnoush amiri is our guest. we welcome your calls. (202) 748-8001 the republican line. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. we welcome your text as well.

(202) 748-8003. we have one here from georgia. dalton writes, " what will the effect this week be of the release of more tapes to fox news?" guest: kevin mccarthy released documents to fox news hosted tucker carlsen. i expect there will be a lot of questions about these security questions that come up. how much access -- carlsen has said it is unfettered. what does that look like? he and his teams have spent the last week on the hill going through those tapes because they have to do it in a secure room through a terminal. he has previewed that he will start to show some of that. host: are these tapes the january 6 committee has already gone through? guest: the committee has gone

over 14,000. carlsen said he had access to over 40,000. members on the committee have gone through it. host: the sergeant at arms of the house said when the speaker asked for those tapes, he basically has to give them the tape. will other media outlets get access to the tapes? guest: that is the question. there has been a lot of pushback. why this one specific anger is getting access. the speaker has constitutional power to question or pushback on so it remains to be seen. host: let's get to calls. we have frank in staten island, new york on the independent line. caller: are they having any hearings on the supplementary

snap insurance cancellation? the other question was about those objects they shot down. no one is claiming responsibility, like if they were for research or weather balloons. it is where they can't have any information on that. guest: on snap insurance, i'm not aware of any hearings this week. obviously, on the spy balloon's we will see some of that in the china select committee. i expect they would touch on that topic. we should expect a bipartisan condemnation of china using that spy balloon. i think we will see some of that play out, whether the select committee is able to garner bipartisan support to pass meaningful legislation that is able to rein in some of china's power. host: we have the democratic conference policy -- democratic

party policy conference this week. a lot of republican members will be speaking. what is the next big wave of legislation expected to come to the next floor? what is the next house republican priority in terms of legislation on the house floor? guest: we are holding our breath for the debt limit conversation. janet yellen has spoken about june being the timeline for when the government would fail to be able to pay its bills. we will see some of that play out. we will see budget negotiations happen. biden will submit his budget. we will see republicans take aim at some programs. host: when are we expected to get the president's budget? guest: by the end of this month's. host: another question on social media. jose says, " when will they be addressing the george santos

expulsion? how can we move on with anything until the liars are gone? seems open and shut." where does that stand with george santos? guest: that is the difficult things about ethics investigations. they're done behind closed doors. there is little information that spells out until the house ethics committee finishes their investigation and releases their report. we are waiting to see what that looks like, but obviously he is facing a federal investigations, state and local investigations. it is unclear what his future is in the house. host: does it make it difficult -- one, has he been given any committee assignments yet? has it made it difficult for him to defunct just with his constituents? guest: from the steering

committee, he was given small business administrative committee and he was given science. he stepped back. he had a meeting with kevin mccarthy and asked if it would be ok if he took a step act from those committees and that took off some of the pressure. right after that house republicans voted to remove bill hanno mark from -- ilhan omar. he is followed around by a group of reporters on the hill. he does not seem to be part of any legislating. is not on any committees. -- he not on any committees. host: seems like he is in a holding pattern, not really one place or the other. guest: just waiting to see the shoe drop. host: we are waiting on the house. the senate come into session today.

they traditionally start after president's day with the reading of george washington's farewell address. what else is ahead for the u.s. senate? guest: the senate is expected to hear that democrats expect to have aydin attend a caucus lunch this week so they will be hearing -- biden attend a caucus lunch this week. he will say whether he plans to run for reelection again. i believe there is an expectation that they will get a briefing on the spy balloon. there is no date that has been on that. also classified documents is something that similar to the house, senate republicans and democrats are looking to get answers. host: what is the status of john fetterman who entered walter

reed for a mental health evaluation and treatment? guest: the most recent statement said that he will take some time off after that and he is going to focus on his mental health journey. i think it will be really interesting. we saw republicans and democrats talking about the importance of mental health and how the stigma around it causes people in high-power positions like john fetterman to stay quiet, not to open up, not to take time off. so it will be interesting to see what his role will continue to be in the senate. obviously, senate democrats just got an albeit smaller but larger majority with the wind of raphael warnock. any nominations, any legislative priorities will be on hold. host: i was going to ask of the political consequences of that.

senator schumer has to -- he is down one vote with the absence of john fetterman. guest: senator kristen cinema from arizona recently came out independent. obviously she said she would caucus with the democrats, but we have not seen what the practicality of that would look like and whether she will be staying on the democrat agenda. host: is the -- (202) 748-8001 is the republican line. (202) 748-8000 is the democrat'' line. (202) 748-8002 independents and everyone else. "i identify as an american,'mr. manchin said.

'i am an american through and through." he is up for reelection, is he not? guest: he took himself out of the running for president. we will see the- one the democrats were holding their breath for was montana. that is a see republicans are looking to gain back in 2024. ohio with sherrod brown is another competitive seed for republicans. west virginia is the same. it will be interesting to see whether joe manchin runs for reelection in 2024 and whether he runs as a democrat. host: joe manchin, during the 118th and before, he was the focus of democrats. now the majority leader has an extra vote with the full senate there, so he is not really the spotlight that he was in the 118th. guest: as we talked about with

kristin cinema, he might have come back into that. any democrat can become the joe manchin of the 118th congress. host: brian calling from michigan. brian, go ahead. caller: i'm wondering about all these cases since 9/11, these fisa courts, are we ever going to review the fisa courts, the legality of them regarding the constitution? how about tony belinsky? he seems to be the west credible -- most credible witness ever. i have the same security clearance as tony. i was enamored dealing with annapolis graduates, the best of the best. that is most credible witness

i have ever seen in washington dc, and he is willing to step forward. i believe the fisa court is unconstitutional, and tony belinsky, have you heard anything on that? thank you. guest: fisa courts are under the jurisdiction of the judiciary. it has come up as a topic, specifically in the weaponization committee and the house. republicans are looking to investigate what they see as the weaponization of the american government against u.s. citizens. the funds the court has been a controversial topic of focus for republicans. host: what -- i'm not sure you cover that specifically. what did that tell you about the future workings of that committee? guest: we have never seen --

select committees are always different than a regular standing committee. it was interesting. they brought in ron johnson and chuck grassley who were on their own in the senate, investigating what they see as weaponization. they have accused of the doj fbi of going after parents during the early days of the pandemic. it is a really interesting committee. obviously, democrats are pushing back on this narrative. they think the opposite. it started out in a partisan manner. host: let's hear from ted calling from new jersey, democrats line. welcome. caller: my question is to you -- can you bring someone to talk about the --

they make millions of dollars and who pays for it? we pay for it. you are host: -- host: you are talking about trial lawyers? another topic, but thanks for the suggestion. we touched on this earlier, but we have a text from gladstone, michigan -- "are republicans going to raise the debt limit?" guest: the last update we got from both biden and mccarthy was that the conversations were continuing between the two men. after the state of the union address, republicans -- there has been a consensus among most republicans that medicare and social security is off the

table, but what that means for the other programs, especially ones that biden wants to enrich-- republicans have said that they would not do a clean debt limit. host: this is expected to come to a head by? guest: june. the x day is still a question mark. host: we are just seeing this announcement via twitter -- " today i am announcing my run to be michigan's next u.s. is senator. we need a new generation that works hard and never forgets that we are a public servant." what does michigan look like? guest: we saw in the midterm elections and specifically in 2022, it was always considered a

battleground state. democrats did exponentially well in michigan. obviously, biden started that trend in 2020. there is this appetite from democrats to see what that looks like. obviously if she won she would be taking over a democratic seat, but it would be a continuation of their reign over the state. host: you said joe biden speaking to the senate caucus this week. he will speak to the policy conference of democrats this week. what is the message of the democrats to that congress? guest: we will see a different tone than we saw last year. last year it was coming in the wake of legislative achievements, including the bipartisan infrastructure deal. they were in negotiations for

build back better, which would be the inflation reduction act in the summer. they do not have that now because they only have the senate. they are facing republican control in the house. the message is how do we gain back the house and how do we hold the white house? host: has there been a meeting between the white house and republican leadership, kevin mccarthy specifically? guest: they met early on to talk about the debt limit in january. we have not heard of a meeting between them since then. host: your sense of the relationship between republican leadership and the white house? guest: we saw a different tone from mccarthy after that debt limit conversation with biden. there is a different persona you can have when you are a

minority leader and the president of the opposite party. when you are the house, it is interesting to see kevin mccarthy transition to this role. the partisan rhetoric is different than it was. host: let's hear from ed in connecticut calling on the republican line. caller: how are you doing? i was looking at the jim jordan committee. kristin perez and garland and those people, they are definitely weaponizing against us. you see all the bones that were stolen from mike lindell, everyone getting arrested -- phones that were stolen from mike lindell, everyone getting arrested. they should be more transparent. i think china is kind of running our country. i would like to hear your

opinion and what you think about it. thank you for your time. host: what you are -- guest: what you are talking about is the focus for the weaponization committee. they are looking through every aspect of the federal government from the department of education, from the fbi, to see what they think is weaponization against american citizens, whether it is against their first amendment rights to speak at their school board's meetings -- host: the hearings on hunter biden, the oversight committee hearings have not gotten their way get have they?? guest: no. he does not want to bring this to a hearing until they are able to conclude large parts of their investigation. he is still sending out subpoenas and letters to the

various agencies and individuals he believes are involved in this. host: that is an investigation that representative comber again when he was ranking member on oversight. guest: he spent the last 2 eu years in the minority preparing for this gavel -- 2 years in the minority preparing for this gavel to send subpoenas. he has been collecting documents. he has kept track of these individuals. host: one more call for you. we will get james in charlotte, north carolina, democrat line. caller: good morning. my bone to pick with you today is the press. the pit bulls that would put their teeth into an investigation and stay with it until it is complete -- now we have a lot of new people all running for the hot story of the

day to the next hot story. we are arguing the truth versus a lie, not real policy anymore. your reporters are afraid to say when something is totally ridiculous. we are debating the ridiculous. it is almost amusing sometimes the press cannot just say, "that is a lie." host:host: we will let our guest respond. guest: needless to say, i think this is a conversation that newsrooms have. this is a conversation the public has had about the role of media and journalists in society. i can only speak for myself and the ap. we have taken steps to call out lies and you've nuanced -- give

nuanced details to the statements politicians make. host: farnoush amiri, you can read her on the associated press. guest: thank you for having me. host: there is more ahead on washington journal. up next we will be joined by dave levinthal. we will talk about his investigation of congressional ethics and financial conflicts of interest next. ♪ >> start your day with washington journal, your window into the nation's capital, the only nationally televised forum for discussing news in

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no interruptions, and -- c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ♪ >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of books, home to core and accessories -- decor and accessories. there something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. shop at c-spanshop.org. washington journal continues >> -- host: dave levinthal is editor and chief of the publication raw story. peer to talk to us about congress and in particular ethical violations --here to

talk to us about congress and in particular ethical violations. tell us about the focus of your organization. guest: raw story was founded in 2004. we have an around for a while. raw story is very much about covering news happening in the minute. you can find lots of reporting on their website about everything happening in politics, but in 2023 we want to expand and we went to increasingly do incisive, enterprising, original, investigative journalism that will not just be telling you about things that are in the news environments right now but also uncovering lots of news you do not know and will not find in any other publication. host: what is your business model? guest: we are an independent

news organization. that differentiates us. john burns is the ceo to this day. our funding comes from advertising, subscriptions increasingly, and we have a lot of dedicated readers i was delighted to find out are not only reading a story here and there but day in and day out. host: you bring a strong background in investigative reporting with insider, particularly focused on congressional ethics and the financial trades of members in the past. your latest reporting includes the senate ethics committee and these sort of lack of any enforcement on the senate side. the headline of your peace is -- piece is " senators attempt to explain why other senators -- there is not even a slap on the

wrist, dave? guest: as we'll know the senate and house are not lacking -- we all know the senate and house are not lacking for scandals, whether they be financial, or legal. the senate ethics committee on the senate side is there for that very reason to investigate and get to the bottom of matters where another member of congress can lodge a complaint. our analysis of the records available show there have been 1523 complaints of which 204's pond a preliminary investigation by the ethics committee -- 204

spawned a preliminary investigation by the ethics committee. the number was zero. that was shocking to a number of people. our investigation tried to answer, "why is this in the first place?' guest: how does the senate ethics committee function? the house has slap to wrists of members, but here 0 for 2, -- host: -- guest: there has been a lot more action on the house side, including sanctions that have been issued, censures,

reprimands in the last few years. you may remember paul gosar, the representative from arizona for a video he had published about alexandria because io cortez, a congresswoman -- alexandria because io cortez alexandria-- -- alexandria ocasio cortez. he was censured for that. others have nothing to do with that. laszlo, r congressional correspondent caught up with two members of the senate ethics committee. this is a very secretary of -- very secretive part of congress. they're not matter of public record. much of the work being done by the senate ethics committee, a bipartisan body, is done out of public view, behind closed

doors. matt was able to talk to 2 of them and, put the question to them "why is this the case? you do not do anything when it comes to putting the screws to members of congress." the democrat from delaware did not want to talk about it. he reserved his right to not talk about it. senator rich from idaho, republican he talked in great detail to us about the work they do. he made the case "we look into these seriously. this is a bipartisan affair. he noted there were seven letters that went out about were letters of admonition where they admonished members of the senate for things that were found to be either financial or otherwise and said 'do not do that again', "

but they are not considered to be a formal sanction or penalty at all. host: dave levinthal is the guest. we are talking about congressional ethics violations. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats and (202) 748-8002 for independents and all others. on the senate side, raw story caught up with abigail spanberger of virginia and talked to her about speaker pelosi trying to pass the stock act. what is the status of the stock act? guest: those two investigations came together in a way. that has been an issue on the house side all throughout congress. what we are talking about here

is the stock trading on congressional knowledge act, which was a law put in act by congress a decade ago in 2012 to police the conflicts of interest of members of congress. the house and senate ethics committees, both of them they are more or less in charge of making sure lawmakers are doing the right thing, but in my previous work at insider where i had been up until a few months ago and continuing on in raw story, we have found dozens of examples of members of congress violating the stock active. many violations have to do with failing to disclose the fact that members are buying and selling stock in all sorts of different companies. some companies they lobby congress, they are reliant on

huge contracts from the federal government. a good example is what we are seeing in the past year with the war in ukraine. we have members of congress voting on a massive bill. they own stock personally and companies, such as boeing, raytheon, and other contractors whose business model is built on the work they do with the federal government and the money they will receive are not based on the actions of congress themselves. host: staff is involved, particularly high-level staff. guest: staff members, chiefs of staff, legislative directors, they can buy and sell stock too. abigail spanberger is one of a growing members of congress who say " enough is enough. we should ban members of congress and their spouses and children from engaging in this

activity in the first place, or at minimum we should force everyone to put their stock assets in a blind trust or somebody else would be managing their money in a formalized way>" nancy pelosi has been in the center of this crucible. she has been reluctant to move forward in pushing for a ban and that was controversial in the democratic caucus. it is a weird bipartisan issue in this sense that abigail spanberger and chip roy agree on effectively nothing but they agree on this issue and are cosponsoring a bill that would do what we described. host: on the voters end of things, do you look at the voters' view of ethics in congress. i think this would be very much

on voters' minds, how much they are beholden to their investments. guest: we found the exact opposite to be true. numerous polls now, there must have been half a dozen done, that put that question to voters. what would you like to see done? republicans, democrats, and independents, in vast majorities on all ends say " congress should ban itself from engaging in that activity." that is the public sentiment you get in fairly rare fashion given that democrats and republicans are usually at opposite ends of the spectrum. host: dave levinthal is our guest. we will go to diane first and, montebello, california. caller: mr. levinthal, i would

like for you to comment on -- there are a lot of properties being purchased by foreign investors, especially in florida, california. it is making homeownership almost impossible for young americans of all races. it is nearly impossible to purchase a first home. many people in the congress have investments in these foreign countries, such as china and other countries. has your organization explored those kinds of conflicts of interest, especially regarding buying a lot of our land in the united states? host: -- guest: the caller seized on an

issue i think we will hear more about in 2023. republicans in congress have raised the issue of foreign ownership of property in the united states. it is an issue we are hearing a little more about. as to the members of congress themselves and the color;s quest -- caller's question about what kinds of properties that members of congress own, we found many members of congress are landlords. we were just talking about stocks. this is real estate. this can manifest itself in a number of different ways from family farms, long-held homesteads to commercial property that they are getting checks from, from people who

rent or lease that property, including a few members of congress who have significant real estate holdings, perhaps something that would be more far afield than a stock holding in a business -- a company doing business in congress. how -- host: how much does a representative or a senator have to reveal on an annual financial statement? guest: as you mentioned, an annual financial statement has to be issued every year by members of congress. holdings, real estate they may have, even cryptocurrency. there are members of congress who have been playing in the cryptocurrency market, in addition to any book deals they may have, any agreements they may have with random house or

whatever publisher they are working with. also debts and stock trades they have made over the course of the year. separate from that they have to file what are called periodic transaction reports and these reports basically list any stocks they have bought or sold. they are supposed to be filed within 45 days of the trade being made but what we found as many members of congress are terrible at doing this for one reason or another either because of negligence are not directing their stock rocher or financial advisor to do so. the public does not see this information they are publicly entitled to. host: if they are buying or selling land or other property investments do they have to report that,? guest: only on an annual basis. periodic reports apply to

stocks, cryptocurrency holdings. host: let's hear from stephen, alexandria, virginia. caller: thanks for raising this issue. i come from the financial services industry. i spent 15 years as a financial service employee for an individual brokerage. we operated -- two points -- we operated under very strict controls. we were not permitted to do any trading that was equivalent to what we were suggesting or what our clientele was doing, so we were actually being monitored by our employer to make sure that if my client x holds a certain stock, i did not do the same

thing or anything like it. there were very strict controls. i think those controls should be imposed upon our government workers. the second thing is that we were, as employees, compensated, rewarded, merited by our ability to achieve certain metrics. i thing to the government should -- i think the government should also operate that way. is the budget passed on time? if we impose those roles on our government workers, we would have a much more functional system. host: dave levinthal? guest: i spoke with representative abigail spanberger from virginia a couple weeks ago and we published an interview with her on this topic.

a point she has made and others who would like to see greater controls is that the rules and regulations for those who work in private industry, corporate industry are much more strict when it comes to the information they have to provide publicly about their personal trades, or the restrictions they have right out of the gate than members of congress. if -- unless congress acts to change the rules of the road as they are written in today than the status quo will be maintained. i should also note too there are problems that are continuing. we found two members of congress, gerry connolly from virginia, who failed to disclose his stock trades on time. seth moulton, it democrat from

massachusetts, same deal. there will likely be others as we go through this year. is there a problem there? demonstrably! members of congress are not following their own current law. what is being grappled with right now is what will congress do, if anything, to ameliorate the situation and make it better so at minimum members of congress are following their pre-existing rules. host: the problem begins with they make their own rules. guest: they do. this is not picking on congress right now but this is an issue that has been very problematic in the executive branch, in the judiciary, the new york times, sludge. another independent -- host: you mentioned matt laszlo.

tell us about other areas of focus your reporters are working on for raw story. guest: we have done a lot of reporting on jordan green. a fantastic reporter on my team published a 5000 word profile about ellie alexander, someone who was instrumental on creating the situation here on january 6, 2021 but has largely been able to avoid any prosecution or legal jeopardy. we talked to him in addition to reporting thoroughly about the situation as it is now. that will be an issue we will be following in 2 it must be challenged023. host: -- following in 2023. host: it must be hard wanting

longform stories in a world where people want short content. guest: very urgent reporting informs the investigations you are doing. you are seeing what people care about, what readers are responding to, what questions they have. we hear from our readers for better or worse. we pay attention and ask questions based on feedback and information we are getting from the people who are coming to raw story. host: susan in rockville, connecticut, democrats' line. caller: i'm calling -- i am a member of a group. we are mostly older liberal ladies from connecticut. we are reading " madam

speaker." we are critical of what the other side are saying, that we are be out of firing her. why does the other side dislike her so much? is itan -- is it an ethics violation what she did when she refused to see the bill about refusing people investing in stock? how -- if we look critically at both sides may be we would make more progress. guest: the caller makes a great point. if republicans screw up, we will point that out. if democrats screw up we will point that out too. nancy pelosi was a central figure in the saga about personal finances of members of

congress because in late december of 2021, she said we live in a free-market economy and members of congress should be able to participate in that economy. agree with it or don't agree but what that set in motion was a lot of anger, and even fury among republicans who are very happy to beat up nancy pelosi over a statement such as that would also many democrats who say we should not be participating in a free market economy as lawmakers because we receive privileged information. we are party to -- we know more about what is happening in the corporate world than the average american and as a result of having that information as a result of being in that position

we should hold ourselves to a different standard. nancy pelosi diddled to mentally say, " democrats, republicans, you can push forward with bills ," but in the end they didn't bring it to the floor. that was ostensibly the decision of house leadership and something nancy pelosi said she wanted. host: a question on the ethics process on twitter asking exactly what happens to congressional officials when they violate ethics? they don't seem to be ever fired just censured. how can change happen if they are only slapped on the wrist every time? guest: it is very rare to expel a member of congress, but it is something that has happened in u.s. it is very rare. on the house side you have to go

back to the representative from ohio, a democrat who was kicked out of congress because of a myriad number of things he had done that were illegal -- host: but he was kicked out after he was indicted. guest: absolutely. you have to do something so egregiously wrong in congress where it gets to the point where it is being debated among your colleagues as to whether you should still continue to serve as a elected member of congress or be kicked out of the body. incredibly rare. there have been censures and reprimands, fines, other types of penalties and sanctions that have been issued over the years. but as we just talked about, very rare on the senate side in modern history come out more on the house side but it is a protracted process on both the house and the senate side were

sometimes it may take years before ultimately one of the ethics committees comes to a conclusion on a member and they have -- no longer have jurisdiction if a member leaves. if somebody resigns under pressure, if they leave congress because they were voted out by voters, effectively an ethics committee investigation will end at that point. host: does a sensor mean anything? does it mean they can't serve on a committee? guest: it depends but it definitely is essential. the body itself has voted on this notion and the member of congress will have to more or less operate under that cloud for perpetuity until they leave public office. but it is not something where they will automatically lose the committee. it is not something where they

will get kicked out. that is a different kind of vote altogether. a lot of people have in the public then left wanting as a result of feeling justice has not been served this intramural process congress has. host: will go next to atlanta. you are on the air. caller: good morning. it should not be surprised there is no ethics in congress. i think we can watch the news and figure that out, that they are not an ethical, good group of folks. i enjoy c-span because of its independent news and i am looking forward to reading some of your news articles and coverage. i'm wondering, is it going to be an apple or a website, a subscription, is it free? i'm curious also, how are you going to work to make -- maintain the independent title? how are you going to separate yourself from the mainstream picking aside news

organizations? host: thanks. c-span.org -- host: -- guest: there are a number of different ways to interface with our news organization. how do we maintain independent? we have editorial independence. we are not owned by some large corporation or anything of that sort. they're saying it is a very flat -- and we are a small organization too. try to be as responsible as we possibly can from our readers and we would love to hear from our readers too. it does differentiate us from other types of organizations out there. host: you mentioned members investing in cryptocurrency and the headline, a piece last week in mother jones, sam bankman-fried commend the founder of ftx currency indicted for hundreds of illegal campaign donations.

he donated in 20 20, aside from naming stadiums he made a lot in campaign donations. what are we hearing? guest: this is going to be a big scandal going forward and it may be one of the biggest campaign-finance related investigations we have had in a long time in u.s. history. just a step back for a moment, i would like to make the point, to the caller's point, that the big issue in congress and with people trying to influence members of congress, a lot of members try to do the right thing only about half of all of congress is engaging actively in cryptocurrency or stock trades. many say i don't think that is right, i'm going to not engage in the type of activity. yet we do see continued problems with not only the people who are receiving the money but also the people who are giving the money.

for better or for worse, we have a system in place that is very laissez-faire. that is in part because of a series of the supreme and federal court decisions that come down. citizens united and the federal elections commission the most notable. it made it easier to donate money, to pump money into the political process and in some cases do so in a way where it is not public information. where is not readily apparent who is the force behind the dollars. sam bankman-fried allegedly is very much at the center of that type of activity that may cause lawmakers and definitely is already causing the public to reconsider whether the current rules right now are adequate to prevent against illegal activity or the types of money related -- politics and money related

activities that is illegal by federal law today. host: on the subject of hearings, toward the end of the hundred eighteenths, --excuse me, 100 17th. any case --chad's hundred 18 will take this up? guest: usually needs on the big and bad happening for congress to get together in a bipartisan fashion, especially with a divided congress, republicans controlling the house and democrats controlling the senate, to move something forward. we have seen that with the stock issue. it is not impossible. it is not to say they will pass some thing different than what exists today but the wheels of progress are in motion on that and perhaps in a surprising way that would not be typical for congress. campaign-finance is probably a bigger ask at this point. however, a scandal such as this could change the minds of

members of congress, especially those who are concerned that they may themselves be tarred by things that may be detrimental to themselves, their party and their colleagues. it is an issue of great self-interest. just like with stock and cryptocurrency, campaign money, the rules are again made by congress. it will take some thing pretty big to get congress to more or less try to restrict its own ability to fund raise and fuel the political money machine which is never ending and always spinning fast. >> to philadelphia, frank on the independent line. go ahead. you're on the air. frank in philly, going once. will move to daniel in seaside, california. go ahead. caller: good morning. this is -- these are not what these issues --it is not on the

guy really thought a lot about. i have a few thoughts in my head right now about it. one of them is that members of congress also have financial needs. like everyone else. everyone is looking for financial security. and of course, themselves regulating is the problem obviously. one thing i'm thinking of is there needs to be some outside body that looks at this stuff because --instead of them looking at themselves because they all sympathize with each other obviously. so what i'm thinking is --i mean, it is not like they decide on whether or not they're going to help ukraine in order to make money off of it. they saying let's help ukraine and by the way, you're going to make some money if we invest in boeing now and stuff like that.

i don't think it is so cut and dry that this is always a good probe quote -- quid pro quo situation. it is just members of congress knowing, having inside information that all of us have. the only problem is they get to vote on whether or not certain things are done, which potentially can make certain companies money, which could cause them to decide to invest. i don't know what the solution is. i just think it is not always so cut and dry and i guess one solution would be not allowing them to regulate themselves. have some sort of outside body doing it. host: appreciate that. guest: i would agree. every situation is going to be different when it comes to numbers of congress investing their personal money in stocks and companies that are working with government.

one example where this became a big issue was in the weeks immediately before the pandemic ripped united states in march of 2020. there were several senators, one who still remains in the senate, dianne feinstein and others who have made trades that were objectively suspect and they were trading in companies that were very pandemic sensitive. we did not know it was going to be bad at that point or how bad it was going to be, if and when it would reach the united states. they were all investigated. they were investigated by the senate ethics committee, in some cases by the department of justice getting involved. nothing became of it in any material fashion but that was the example of the question that well, the senate and congress had more information about what was going on in the world that was typically coming in and

filtering out to the public. were they acting in a way that was under the cold war illegal by buying and selling based on what information they got specifically dust that was unethical or illegal by buying or selling -- host: the republican line. >> yes, i had a question. i was listening to the wars in washington, d.c.. i'm curious, if you are a lobbyist you can --he would say i did that i need 10 trees on my block. but if eyes a citizen when, give me 10 trees and i can give you 10 thousand dollars, i could be locked up for bribery.

but we can tell ukraine, japan how to run their business, but those of philadelphia, pennsylvania, any city across the state, they are not learning this. we can tell anybody how to run this and will not but we can get the goofballs in washington, d.c. to do the right thing. the gentleman call before me sewed about two thousand dollars. we can work a lifetime and never make $20,000 a year. he's got to bring home like 20,000 dollars a month, not counting other benefits, free health care, free car, free airplane ride. if you had me do that in the real world, would be terminated. host: conrad, we will hear from our guest, thanks for the call. guest: i like talking about philadelphia, other municipalities, the county level. the different levels make their

own rules. this type of activity also happens at the state and local level with elected officials engaging in personal financial trades. all of those jurisdictions are going to have the ability to make their own rules of the road, separate and apart from what the federal government is doing. the last few colors -- callers, they said why --the department of justice does have the ability, if there is a width of commonality or something that could be a potential criminal offense, they can investigate. and we have had examples that go john edwards, the former senator and prosocial candidate, a democrat from north carolina who was investigated by the department of justice for campaign-finance related activities. there are other examples, plenty as well over the past 20 or 30 years. on the house side there is an

independent body, the office of congressional ethics, but does exist to be an independent check on congress. the issue with them is that they are more or less an advisory body. they can investigate, they can submit a report on the very detailed to the health and --house ethics committee. they can vote and make recommendations but the recommendations are not binding and the ethics committee will have to choose to bottom-line act on the recommendations of the office of congressional ethics or not. and the stats show clearly that oftentimes they do not. so the senate on the other hand does not have any body even of that sort, advisor or otherwise, a lot of public affairs advocates and go --good government groups have advocated for the senate having an

analogous organization to assist with investigations at work. host: on this office of congressional ethics, members don't serve on that. things are run by career employees, correct? guest: correct. that was by design. the office of congressional ethics would have the half-staff away from the process and not be introduced -- influenced directly by members of congress who may be on--under investigation by the body. whisk a call from sean, independent line. caller: how you doing? you guys always do a great job. i was curious if there is a reset button, you can just get them all. and start fresh. that was a joke. moreover calling --like the sec. pull of those congress and

politicians and etc., these guys don't even enforce their own laws to the congress, senators, the hedge funds and everyone who deals with all of the pension funds and all of our money, the things that really come down to it, all the congressman, why don't they enforce the laws like their supposed to? they don't to it, there are corrupted like all the politicians that are doing this legal stuff. their buddies. who can enforce that? guest: so the exchange commission does play a role. you can talk about a lot of people who are not too happy and are worried about what they might do. but the sec did get involved in one of the pandemic era stock trade situations. a former congressman republican

from north carolina was subject to an sec inquiry, they chose not to go forward it --forward with anything that would headliner sentient him. very high bar that exists within a governmental entity going after in this politicized word -- world that we live in. an elected member of the senate or the house, obviously president or former president of the united states, the classified documents brouhaha that has got donald trump, biden and mike pence and others involved. that is one of those things where the department of justice got a special counsel to get involved simply because they're so concerned about the almost political liability that comes with assuming like duties --that is politicized.

host: you mention the department of justice. they have a division that is overseeing the attorneys and staff to follow what goes on and the results of congressional ethics committees? guest: they do. they have a public integrity division and they have people who specialize in internal government functions. if it is an elected official, and appointed official, a bureaucrat, someone who is working for the government and getting a taxpayer of the paycheck, they would look into that matter. host: one more call, lee in new york, republican line. caller: hi. first off, when dianne feinstein was accused of insider trading she said it's not my phone my husband did it, that i called about asg. it seems like a social, governing thing that companies are being forced to put part of

their money into that because --i don't really know why. it seems to be an awful thing. the third thing is if stone is the fcc director, that is very dangerous. host: a couple of things. dave? guest: there is the issue --it would extend to spouses and dianne feinstein was not the one typically trading stocks and her family it was her family. nancy pelosi, she does not trade stocks personally, her husband however trades tens and millions of dollars worth of stocks and stock options per year. they are a married couple. you would assume that they have the ability if they don't outrightly talk about their own personal household finances. so we can face what every single

member of congress and their spouse are doing behind closed doors in private when it comes to talking about their personal finances. but the argument being made by members of punkers and others who would like to ban this practice is that we should air on the side of caution. we should air on the side of getting members of congress out of the stock business along with their spouses soda there's no opportunity for them to engage in activity that would betray the public trust in them as elected officials. host: we will ask viewers and listeners to read the latest story on our website, dave levinthal is there editor-in-chief. next is open forum and a chance for you to call in on any of the topics we've talked about, or an item you've been following.

(202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans, (202) 748-8000 free democrats, ands independents, (202) 748-8002. >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are back in session following a break for the presidential holiday. tuesday morning, the house foreign affairs committee holds a hearing on countering the chinese covetous party and the armed services committee will hear from fence apartment officials regarding management of u.s. military support to ukraine. wednesday, attorney general merrick garland testifies for the senate judiciary committee on oversight of the justice department. watch this week live on the c-span networks or on c-span now, our fruit mobile video app.

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supports our nonprofit organization. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span to 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, one forward. --word for word. it --if it happens here or here, america is watching on >> c-span powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: it is open forum until 10:00 a.m. eastern. dial in on your choice of news item or policy issue you are following. something we have talked about on the program this morning, all fair game. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 democrats and

(202) 748-8002 for independents and others. enters the race for u.s. senate giving democrats a front runner. the announcement made by congresswoman this morning via twitter. in wilmington, north carolina, doug on the democrat line. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good morning. caller: it's a good way to start monday morning. and my body and is down. [laughter] last week the news story came out about the big personalities, tucker, sean, ingram, the so-called live they were promoting was bs.

i watch fox pretty much for entertainment, seeing what world these people are living in. they have not mentioned it once and i have just read where howard kurtz has pretty much said it -- who is on full --fox news and consider their real news, said we are in a lawsuit so we can talk about it. while you are willing to promote a big lie and now you got called on it. you all can report on themselves. i know it was probably stock and everything else, it sounds like a crazy business idea. but why are these people considered news? host: edward, republican line in manhattan, new york city. caller: good morning cannot wait to be with you on c-span. i have been concerned since the very day that putin invaded ukraine and dutch about the slow

pace of arms delivery that the u.s. and the eu are giving to zelenskyy. he has been begging for air defense systems, begging for weapons and tanks, aircraft. but we keep dribbling out this pace of arms. we are not going to defeat him. the goal is to win, to recover all of the territory loss and to win. it does not seem to be the goal of the administration or the eu. we are not going to win if we do not give him what he needs. and we keep slowly metering out this. the last thing i will say is that of the 113 billion have given to ukraine, and are not disputing any of this, i'm very appreciative of the support the west has given, it is just too slow. host: why do you think it is

slow? what is behind that? caller: i don't know what is behind it. this troubles me. it seems to be there is a policy difference that could be a fear of putin. initially it was a fear of putin using nuclear arms but that does not seem to be the case now. about a third of the 113 billion is going to war fighting. only about a third. the rest is going to social services, government funding, humanitarian aid and etc. my fear is that putin, the genetic support he has among his people, it is going to protract this war into a stalemate that we will not be able to get out of. i think we need a more aggressive posture and that is the only solution that i see to defeat putin. no one is covering this, i don't know why. none of the networks are

covering this. host: it is the first monday after the presidents' day holiday for congress. the house today is back at noon eastern. live on c-span and the senate at c-span two and three :00 this afternoon, they will begin with the traditional reading of the farewell address this year read by senator of oklahoma, that at three clock p.m. on c-span2. more coverage on the c-span networks. in just a few minutes on c-span2. look at the state of the u.s. economy, at the american enterprise institute. scholars and agent representatives will be talking about the financial help at 9:30 eastern. it is also streaming online and available with our mobile app, c-span now. at 10:30 this morning, vladimir putin announced she is withdrawing from the nuclear arms treaty. the u.s. secretary of state in charge of arms control, mallory

stewart, we'll talk about that live at the brookings institution coming up here on c-span at 10:30 eastern. it will be available free on the mobile app, c-span now and streaming live at c-span.org. we are in open forum for your phone calls on any items in the news. we will go to fill -- phil in colorado. caller: good morning. your guest earlier was talking about the option in our government, our government is never going to be cleaned up. we've got the most corrupt government in the world. it is terrible and people put their feet down and talk about term limits, we have them, it is called voting. we will vote them out and make them change the laws. so they can't do insider trading and make millions. but until that happens it is going to remain the same and get

worse. host: next, independence, missouri. frank on the democrat line. caller: how are you? host: how are you, go ahead, you are on the air. caller: i'm sitting here in a hotel. -- host: we will go to oklahoma and here gd on the republic in mind -- republican line. caller: can you tell me exactly what woke is? i am a poor farmer. i don't know what it means. host: what do you think it means? caller: i don't know. i just laughed because i hear all these people talking about it and i have no idea what it is. it is not in my dictionary. host: north carolina's next,

independent line. roger, hello. caller: good morning, you are one of my favorite moderators. i love your voice, your old school and you get right to the point. a couple of suggestions for wall street journal, there has been an inordinate amount of time reading news stories and to me that is like taken away from people being able to talk. and also a lot of soundbites to go on for like five minutes. i have heard all of that. anyway, the other thing is i know wall street journal wants to --likes to doubt themselves as being independent. about 80% of the time or more

you quote stories from the new york times and the washington post. those are obviously left-leaning entities. thank god you guys are back to having in studio guests. i appreciate it. but if you're going to have remote people, please stop using zoom. it is horrible. anyway, have a good day. host: i appreciate that. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats and for independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. it is an open forum, we will go next to joel on our democrats line in texas. caller: i appreciate your service as well, you do a really good job. host: thank you. caller: yes sir. i'm trying to figure out, i am a democrat in the classic sense of the word, what is the republican

lie? perhaps you can't answer that but perhaps some of your callers can. i have not heard anything they have been lying about. -- host: the headline from the washington post, the student loan forgiveness program comes before the supreme court, we will focus on the limits of executive power, who has standing to challenge --a live oral argument for you tomorrow, biden v nebraska. the court live proceeding begins at 10 :00 a.m. eastern and our live coverage on c-span3 at that time. also online at c-span.org and on the free mobile app, and to tell

you also about coverage tomorrow at 11 :00 a.m. eastern on tuesday, and the departed of education v brown, challenging the student loan debt relief program. that is on c-span, c-span now and the c-span.org. on the republican line, good morning. caller: yeah, you are breaking up on my phone. can you hear me? host: we can hear you. caller: i'm a longtime listener. when i first started --i retired in 95 and i could listen to it every day. after the local news i switched to c-span where would be the

first thing after the weather host:. host:host: we are glad you have and watching all these years, appreciate that. caller: i do not understand. host: you may be breaking up but thanks for watching or listening, we will go on to scott in los angeles on the independent line. caller: good morning c-span, i would like to say kumbaya to everybody, and a shout out to the person who phone. host: agreed. caller: and two quick points. a lot of our favorite time of the day is this open forum. a lot of times you guys will start reading articles, you will search showing a clip of a politician, i would just hope and suggest that during the few minutes of open forum we can actually just listen to what the

people000 all of0 the country have to say. we love it and just a little later0000000000000000000000. his name was00000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000 00000 --i don't want to say long -- it wrong. i find him to be and actually pleasant individual. but it was hard to fathom. the topic came up of the youngsters in the households without the male parent as an influence. and a few callers had made mention of this. when he spoke he went completely the other way with the. he said his stats showed that no dutch actually the black father is more involved in the

youngsters life. and based on my own existence, i have delivered to some very poor neighborhoods and made friends with a whole lot of these people, so many of them are just so wonderful and it is just so sad to see that there is no influence like that in the house and what happens is they get out in the street, i have watched it firsthand day after day for years, the people in the streets become their quote unquote dad or best friend, they see these people have the cars, the girls, the drugs and this is what they want to attain. so i can't ever see it that way. i don't see how things can change when a spokesman for them talks like this. you guys have been sensational to hear me out. thank you so much. host: open form continues.

gary indicator, alabama. democrats line. caller: yes, i have been watching the news on the ukraine war and stuff like that. why do they carry russian guns instead of u.s. guns? we've given them all of these weapons. every time i look at them, they seem to be carrying --another, that i had, i wish america would stop saying founding fathers. this place was not founded. it was stolen. and we need to stop and teach our kids --the founding fathers, what do you think that does to the native people when they hear that kind of word? thank you. host: this is a piece from chad who covers congress for fox news, the headline, spending shocker: latest debt projections

should stone even washington. writing that the most staggering thing about a recent report about the nation's fiscal health was not that lawmakers must lift the debt ceiling the summer or the nation could default. we have known that for a while, although the dropdead date is dodgy at best. the most shocking thing is what should not be shocking and has not been talking for decades. each time we are still shocked but a few years later we are more shocked and the old shock seems passé. the most shocking thing, the sheer level of debt that the congressional budget office projects the u.s. will carry in the next year. he reports, the current debt the u.s. owes is 31 point $4 trillion. but the cbo estimates the federal government will accumulate 19 trillion dollars in debt over the next decade. nuance passed by congress since last year will account for one point $5 trillion of that debt.

the inflation reduction act and the infrastructure bill will tack on an additional 3 trillion dollars in debt, which was not anticipated around this time last year. read more at foxnews.com. austin, texas is next. warren on the republican line. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing fine, lauren. your volume on your tv and go ahead. caller: i was just calling, i want to know how you feel about the fact that i feel that the united states is responsible for the bombing of nord stream 2. and the fact that we are spending all of this with ukraine. are we not in world war iii? i think it is being downplayed. host: baltimore, maryland. next is sam on the democrat line. caller: good morning, and good morning c-span audience. someone called earlier and asked what his woke. i'm going to define it. there is a court case going on

with desantis and his general counsel. desantis said florida is where it woke goes to die. after his reelection victory last month. last week federal judge asked his general counsel to define will. the council answered it is quote the belief that there are systemic injustices in american society and the need to address them. isn't that what america is about, and democracy from the rep --the left or the right, we try to lift everybody up, minority or native american complaints, that is a good word for america is woke. i think you very much. host: in virginia, it is ian on the independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: yeah go ahead. caller: yeah, i was going to say with all the stuff going on with insider trading in congress, i

think i have a solution. host: host: in massachusetts, the republican line. caller: hey there brother. i want to say free palestine and shut out -- thank you. host: this is a piece from the hill.com. the mental competency tensed --a test could rock washington, the proposal to impose mental competency tests to politicians 70 five and older has reunited -- reignited debates on how to decide who will lead and puts the spotlight for generational change should be front and center during the campaign cycle and on battles whether those calls onto to a form of ageism. they write the proposal was a dig at president biden will be

82 by the time of the next presidential inauguration. former president trump would be 78. but it would also have implications for the rest of washington where police --nearly 10% of congress is at least 70 five, including some of the top leaders and decision-makers in both parties. let's hear from anthony in maryland, democrat line. what do you want to talk about? caller: good morning, i was going to answer that guy too. the reason desantis and the republicans --it started as a slang in the black community when we would tell people they were not woke when they were talking about the legal system and how they thought they were going to get around. these kids that were shooting at people, the black on black violence, we would tell these kids to wake up. you got to be woke. you're going to end up in the justice system. this is why they're attacking it.

it is like crt. anytime we are trying to help our youth, or bring them to some type of knowledge, it is attacked and being attacked by the republican party. one guy said what is the republican line? well, the american lie is this country is not racist and that is what nikki haley said, saying the country is not racist. but we still have native americans on reservations. how many years of that? another call said there was revolutionary war, the civil war, but she did not mention the indian wars. which put these people on reservations. or the mexican american war which took texas, new mexico, nevada, california, all the way from mexico. and we would not have the immigration problem because we did not even know until lewis and clark that there was land.

host: go back to your comment about woke. when you hear some of the use that phrase and maybe in a disparaging way or political way, what is your view of that term being co-opted like that? caller: well it was disparaging the way we were using it, the slang in the black community, people would save onyx. because -- ebonics. because we were trying to let people know that what they were talking about, they work not woke, they were sleepwalking. you have to be awake or he will run into a wall. beat woke is what you're trying to say. woke is woke, but we turned it into not being awake from being asleep. literally. just consciously. be awake consciously and know what you are doing. keep yourself out of trouble,

don't be doing the things that are going to cause black on black violence or cause you to get shot by police because you did not stop -- things like you've got to wake up to what is going on. host: i appreciate you answering that previous color --question. next to david in wilmington, north carolina. independent line. >> good morning. can you hear me? host: yeah. caller: i have a couple things, i want to address the american people, specific and the people who vote. get out and vote. part of the problem with the extremism we have is people making the wrong choices in the primaries. we had excellent moderates on both sides, we had gary johnson with the libertarians, the possibility of liz cheney, mitt romney, tulsi gabbard. i think biden was always a moderate but i do question his

abilities right now at his age. like a lot of people do. i don't want to talk about trump. he is plain crazy in my opinion and should not be holding the title of commander-in-chief. that's when i was going to say, make excellent choices, moderate choices in the primaries at the polls. my second point is i'm really concerned post trump about who is carrying the nuclear football. i think it should be changed. democrats should have jumped on this, that the joint chief of staff along with the president make the decision to launch nuclear weapons. one person making the decision unilaterally is wrong, it is dangerous, we know what we had with trump. i question bidens faculty is. who knows what we are going to get in 20 24? they need to change that policy. and with instantaneous electronic digital communication that is secure, they could be online within seconds making that decision. people need to wake up to the fact that we may wind up with

world war iii because of a bad decision maker. that is just my opinion. >> a little more than 10 minutes left in our open forum here on washington journal, until 10:00 eastern, (202) 748-8001 is a line for republicans, for democrats (202) 748-8000, and for independents and others, (202) 748-8002 rhonda on the democrats line next. caller: good morning. i am so sick and tired of the far right radio and tv stations talking bad about biden and harris. with the democrats need to do is start talking more about what biden has accomplished. here is a long list of his accomplishments. he lowered costs for families everyday expenses, or people are

working than any point in american history, he is making those people are making more money in america, he changed the course of the pandemic, he is rebuilding our infrastructure, roads and bridges, subways and airports. historic extension of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans, first meaningful gun violence reduction legislation in 30 years, historic operation of super court justice brown jackson and judges of diverse backgrounds, he railed the world to support ukraine. and i could go on because the list goes on and on. he mailed over 740 million free covid tests to millions of americans. we got two of the strongest years of drug growth in history, more than 40 million borrowers stand to benefit his student debt relief. nearly a million dust nearly 11 million jobs were created since 2021 and the list goes on and on. and everybody keeps complaining

about the inflation. when i go out and about on a saturday or a friday night or sunday afternoon, every restaurant is packed. every mall is packed. the roads are packed. people are going to the airport, going on vacation. i want to know what they're talking about with inflation. two other things. biden, when he was a single father would get on that subway for a two hours a day to go to work when he was a single parent. he would come home at night. he could have hired a nanny but he did not. he went home so he could read his children a book, a bedtime story. that shows you the character of a good man. even though he may be 80, 80 something, he may have the health of a 65-year-old. there are a lot of people that are 50 but have the health of an 80-year-old. there are people that are 70 with the health of the 50-year-old. to me, biden is alert and looks

good and is doing a great job and people need to stop and realize the truth about what he has done. as far as ms. harris, kamala harris, everybody needs to read her biography. she cares about people, truly cares about people. when she was working in california, she tested the truancy. she looked into the truancy problem of kids in schools in california and found out that a lot of the children were missing school because they had no clean clothes. she had a policy where she gave the schools washers and dryers so that these children could wash their clothes and attend school. host: i will let you go there, thanks for weighing in this morning. we talked about george santos, congressman george santos with our guests earlier, from the associated press. there is a new poll out of his desk in his congressional district in new york, reported

here in politico, voters of all stripes sour on santos. democrats, independents and republicans agree. he has to go. a new poll found that six to six percent of new york voters across the state believe the republican should resign from congress according to the research institute survey, up from 50 9% last month. in apex, north carolina on the republican line, next. caller: yes, this is publicist usa on twitter. all the problems that have occurred since 20 19 can be attributed to the world economic forum in the tiny group of elites who have been meeting in secret planning the overthrow of an independent lesion to install what they're calling a new order. stand, american conservatives and refuse to accept or will 1984.

we never voted to let the world economic forum or the each w or the cdc dictate how to live. they're using society ideology, chinese lockstep, latent racism, calling crt. sexual perversion, drag queens, grooming children to destroy the united states of america. and we do not have to accept it. i don't know what that last caller in north carolina was talking about. i see people in line stopping able to afford food here in north carolina. she obviously has her head in the clouds. have a good day. host: in new york, rick, good morning. caller: good monday morning. your previous show talking about insider trading in stocks, it needs to be outlawed. they only have to serve one term and they get two hundred thousand dollars a year plus for

their retirement. i have spent when he three years in the army and then i had to work until my retirement age when i retired at 68. it is not fair. the poor people out here, i would love it if the army kept giving you my full pay and my last job kept giving me full pay. but it is not right. something out there -- they need to get in and bow people out. host: mike in california, democrat line. caller: rhonda took up all my time, i don't know what is going on, i've got a few things here. woke is ridiculous crab. so many in the south in the day decided this stuff is not right, you are woke. it is just ridiculous. the whole idea. i don't want any white kids even in the south, you don't hear about woke in the south, you only hear about cot in the south because my people came from

germany. i've got some weight to carry on that stuff. i live with it. i did not do it and it is not my heritage. i hope it's not my heritage and it is not the heritage of the white people in the south to be jack esses -- jackasses. this is confusing watching the tv, i'm sorry. a judge in texas that is going to do in those day after pills, whatever, he is a big proponent of eliminating the whole idea of separation of god -- religion --he wants a religiosity and the supreme court, alito is going why didn't you tell me all your have to do is say i can answer about a specific thing? he had to live. that was not fair. you can be whatever you want, but trump, come on. what is wrong with you?

the person is a semi-idiot degenerate idiot that was born on third base and takes you near triple? host: ricky in florida, republican line, go ahead. mute your volume and go ahead with your comment. caller: hello, can you hear me? host: yes, make sure you mute your tv. caller: one second. there we go. i'm from the great state of florida and i'm just now listening to some of your callers coming in. we all have an opinion, that is the great thing about living in the united states of america. bullet the facts lay where they roll. you can knock who and vote for whoever you like. that is the great choice of living in our great country.

but what it continues ongoing and the proof is in the pudding, we've got a president -- so-called president in there, his name is slow joe. and he has just been slow. what i mean by that, he has been in that office for 40 seven years. i'm a firm believer in term limits. i think he needs to go. he has not done nothing but everything he is touched is broken. let the facts roll where they may. trump when he was in office, i voted for that man. some things i liked, some things i did not like. i liked what he stood for and exactly what i think most of us stand for, that is god, family, faith in our great country. host: one more headline on the program, from the new york post, they covered this morning the issue, the headline, it had to be wu.

the energy department report, broken by the wall street journal late yesterday. george in michigan on the independent line, good morning. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i have one thing to say. that lady a little while ago asked why we were denigrating biden and harris, you got one that is slow and can even continue his thoughts off of attila proctor. in all the woman does --all harris does is giggle. she is so incompetent and out of place in that position it is unbelievable. i would like to say i agree with the gentleman that call before me. president trump, and he was in office, there were lots of things --i have been an independent my whole life. when he was in office i do not pay much attention to what he said. i did pay a lot of attention to what he did.

he said he was going to do a lot of things and when he got in there he had one hell of a time getting it done because he had to fight the democrats so hard and so long that it was hard for him to accomplish everything he wanted to do. if the man got back in office, don't pay too much attention to what he says, just pay attention to what he is actually getting done. thank you. host: thank you, and all of the calls this morning, we appreciate it. we are here at 7:00 eastern, we hope you are too. until then, have a great day. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023]

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