community centers so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready foanything. >> comcast supports c-span as a public service, along with these other providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. coming up, kimberly fletcher talks about her organization that promotes conservative values at home and the president and ceo of the e.r.a. coalition and fund for women's equality joins the chair of the group osco legal task force to discuss efforts to ratify the equal rights amendment. washington journal starts now. host: good morning. president biden will announce

additional military aid to ukraine and meets at the white house with the german chancellor. republicans continue together for the conservative political action conference just. headlines include nikki haley and other conservative leaders and president trump will speak and give what he calls a monster speech on saturday night. this morning, we want to begin with your thoughts on the top news story of the week. a lot happening in washington. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. text us with your first name, city and state to (202) 748-8003 . go to facebook.com/c-span to post or send a tweet with the

handle @cspanwj. in washington this week, we have several hearings on competition with china and national security concerns and there was the first hearing in primetime of the new china select committee and also cpac and the gop 2024 split screen, with republicans having competing conferences, cpac in washington and the club for growth in florida. president biden huddled wh house and senate democrats this week. he was in baltimore for the house democratic conference retreat and on capitol hill yesterday with senate democrats. you had the attorney general, merrick garland, in the hot seat on capitol hill, testiing for several hours before senators, getting grilled on a lot of different topics. there was also the story of the

fox owner, mr. murdock, t -- murdock commenting on the fox news election fraud claims. feel free to chime in. we will get to your calls. let's begin with that hearing of the new select committee on china. washington post headline is a house hearing on the chinese communist party bipartisan show of concern. we begin with the chair of that committee, mike gallagher's opening statement. [video clip] >> we have an excellent group of thoughtful legislators on this committee. we will be working hand-in-hand with our teammates on the standing committees, particularly my friend michael mccaul, who helped set the stage for our work for the china task force. chairman mccall's leadership are -- leadership produced

bipartisan proposals we must build upon we expose the ideological, technological, economic and military threat posed by the ccp. we may call this a strategic competition, but it is not a polite tennis match. this is an existential struggle over what will life look like in the 21st century. the most fundamental freedoms are at stake. the ccp is laser focused on its vision for the future, a world crowded with totalitarian techno states. for the time being, it is still up to us to decide if that is the future we want for our children, but it will not be for much longer. time is not on our side. just because this congress is divided, we cannot afford to waste the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering to the press. we must act with a sense of urgency.

i believe our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next 100. we cannot allow the ccp's tech power dystopia to prevail. we must learn from our mistakes, for for much of the past half-century we try to winco the ccp -- to win the ccp over. they laughed at our naivete. that era of wishful thinking is over. the select committee will not allow the ccp to lull us into complacency or maneuver us into submission. host: congressman mike gallagher, that new chair of the select committee on china. we covered that hearing on c-span. go to c-span.org. hit play on the video player on the website and you will see key

moments. is that your top story? that is the conversation we are having. adele in springfield, illinois, democratic caller. host: good morning. caller: i was going to combine them. it looks like we met with russia this week, with the foreign minister, and we have a drumbeat with china, and it seems like this military-industrial complex is marching on in a new front. we are trying to pose -- to push china into a corner that it would respond in an adversarial way in taiwan and so forth. i think we need to look at what we are doing in our foreign policy. china's minister, xi jinping, is going to russia later this month, and we are already

talking about sanctioning them. i just do not like the idea that we are muscling these two superpowers, number two and three, coming together militarily and economically. russia is weakened militarily but not economically. we need to look introspectively, exactly what do we see our role in the next five to 10 years. are we ready to go to nuclear war with these countries and is europe looking to look at a war in poland with belarus? it can get out of hand and this is something we need to think about and we need to control regardless of if it's trump or biden. i don't like these wars. host: adele mentions the

secretary of state meeting on the sidelines with his counterpart from russia, the foreign minister, at the g20 meeting yesterday in india, making the front page of the wall street journal and other newspapers this morning. the secretary of state held a news conference and told reporters yesterday that he talked to the russian foreign minister about the ukraine war, asking them to emd their aggression there, and also to reverse russia's decision on not participating on the nuclear start treaty. the secretary of state also spoke about our role in ukraine. you can find that on c-span.org. let's hear from joseph in new york, republican. your top news story. caller: good morning.

these meetings they are having, blinken, with russia, they are insignificant. they will not go anywhere. we need a real sit down to move anything. putin will not go on the meeting they have. he's smarter than that. he has a plan. this is not going to be a worked out -- be worked out with little meetings here and there. they should have no meetings because it's insignificant and you are fooling the american people and the world because it will not go anywhere. host: the headline out of that meeting was this was the first meeting of these two since the war began. caller: it's still not enough. you need a real sit down. again, it is just a hiccup. it is a little bit for the cameras. it means nothing. you will see that it will go nowhere. putin has a plan.

china will get involved. it is a slow, gradual way of doing what they plan to do, and they will try to outsmart us, just like the chinese are doing. they have an ultimate plan to do what they want, taiwan back, russia wants certain land back, and this is nice for the cameras, but if there's no real sit down meeting and toughness, this is going nowhere and the american people know that. host: russ in texas says biden keeps giving away billions to ukraine as americans suffer through inflation and gouging prices. this is always the top story, he says, and it's not going away. joseph just mentioned at the india of his comments about the chinese spying -- at the end of his comments about the chinese spying. that came up at the hearings

this week on china. listen to jim's -- listen to jim banks's reaction. [video clip] >> what reaction was the ccp sending to the american people with the chinese spy balloon? >> they will take everything they can get. the message is that we are intending to continue a broad range of surveillance activities. the balloon is a metaphor for the massive effort at espionage. you can see from the path the balloon took, and i'm not -- they have maneuvered over strategic locations. when we figure out where previous balloons have gone, we will see the same pattern, trying to get a better look from signals intelligence,

communications intelligence and imagery of our most sensitive sites. when you combine that with the massive buildup of chinese strategic forces, nuclear forces, i think that's a cause for concern. you combine that with xi jinping talking about preemptive war. that is an even greater cause for concern. the balloon is important to look at but i think placing the ballooning context was perhaps most important -- the balloon in context was perhaps most important. host: robin in yankee tarrant, florida, democratic caller. your top news story of the week. caller: listening to everybody talk, my top story is, as a democrat, why are we not sanctioning the people in russia that paid the biden crime family? that is my problem. this war is a lie. what they have done to us and

what they are doing to us is unthinkable and this is a crime family. obviously, the chinese have plenty on joe biden. the reason we are not confronting china. that is all i have to say. we need to fix our problems. host: john in st. paul, texas saying, conservatives were censored and deleted for daring to question anything about covid and we are finding more and more that they were more correct than the media speak going on, referring to alleged lab leaks from the wuhan lab. david, your turn. caller: i do not know where to begin this morning. i am old enough to remember. i am an ex military fighter pilot so i can comment on the ukraine thing but i remember who stopped the sale of arms ukraine wanted to buy, donald trump.

$100 million they wanted to buy, and that preempted this war, and there's no question in my mind that trump is buddies with putin. he says he believes him over our cia. i happened to hear the last comment but i called about this problem with giving 60,000 factories, giving them to china. do you think they will give us our equipment back? that was all our secrets. i'm an engineer and i work in manufacturing. who is going to build the machinery and bring all this production back here? that was our strength and we gave it to our enemy, which is china. that is all i have to say. host: cheryl, provo, utah, republican. top news story. caller: we are -- my story.

sherry lake is a good person for election integrity but the person she's taking it too is the person is over the process in arizona. it seems like it's the fox guarding the hen house. we need to see at least one story where election integrity has been prosecuted by the law because we know that it happens and when we don't see any results from our efforts to contest integrity, then of course people are not going to do -- you know, fight for that, and i am just wondering if our laws need to be changed so that wrongdoing is prosecuted. host: all right, cheryl. kari lake will appear at the

conservative political action conference this evening just outside washington. look for our coverage of her remarks over the weekend. today, how coverageegins at 10 a.m. eastern time -- ou coverage begins at 10 a.m. eaern timeith marjorie taylor greene. nikki haley is slated to speak. donald trump, jr.. we learned rumored republican contender mike pompeo, former cia director and secretary of state, is also expected tk today at the conservative political action conference. saturday night, the former president will speak at the conservative political action nfence. live coverage from the national harbor in maryland starts at 5: p.m. eastern time, c-span now, and c-span.org. jan, democratic caller. caller: good morning.

i was calling to say that our governor that we have now, she's talking about jobs. there's no jobs in arkansas. when they promote a job it is four or five years down the line. every day, you turn on the news. there's homicides. we need to be talking about guns instead of school choice and all of that. that is my topic today. host: all right. joan in minnesota says glad to see we finally have a bipartisan committee to do the right thing for the right reasons. this new committee on china are focused on the country and not one party or the other. mark in missouri, an independent. hi, mark. caller: good morning. i think the -- one of the main things is the corruption of the mainstream media. it just seems as though most of

the mainstream media is a political arm of the democratic party and that's very apparent when you look at the stories they report on or more importantly the stories they do not report on. it is unbelievable. people need to realize that that is the strategy of the democratic party is to get a hold of the mainstream media and control the narrative so that the american people hear exactly what they want us to hear. host: yesterday, president biden was on capitol hill talking with democrats. the headline from cbs, the president gearing up for reelection bid, urges democrats to tout accomplishments. the day before yesterday, he met in baltimore with house democrats. here's a little of what he had to tell them. [video clip] >> by sticking together, we got a lot done. we are back in the house and

will finish the job. let's take a look at what we have done. we came in, the economy was in ruins. we had so many lost jobs and it went beyond the pandemic. it started before that. but we can see it in the distance, those new jobs. they are real jobs, man. we created more jobs in two ears than any other presidential term in american history. you did it. the on employment rate at 3.4%, a 50 year low. 800,000 manufacturing jobs. who is saying we cannot meet --lead manufacturing again? i do not buy it. there is no reason. inflation has fallen seven straight months.

cast prices are down $1.65 since the peak. our economy has grown at a solid clip but it is not an accident. we have worked together, tightly together. we passed the american rescue plan. we bailed out a lot of republican governors. they do not want to acknowledge it but it doesn't matter. i did not run to be president for democrats but for all americans regardless. truly, think about it. you saw the effects firsthand. we put cops back on the beat. cap teachers in the classroom. we passed the largest investment in infrastructure since eisenhower's interstate highway system. host: the president talking to house democrats. a headline, the business section of the washington post,

president biden pledges $1.6 million to combat -- $1.6 billion to combat covid relief fraud. president biden called on congress to approve $1.6 billion to combat fraud, hoping to empower federal prosecutors and prevent such historic theft from targeting taxpayer funds again. getting your top news story of the week. reva and gaithersburg, maryland, democratic caller. caller: aren't there so many. thank you for having me. the continued book banning and criminalization of teachers and librarians. indiana is considering some laws to do it that. it reeks of -- greeks is not the right word -- reeks is not the

right word but it reeks of hobnailed boots. it is a carryover from what's going on in florida and texas. it is a contagion. i wish it would stop. host: gill in jamestown, north carolina, democratic caller. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me share my voice and opinion. i have three topics that are not widely expressed in the news. first of all is the sexual transmission of stds in the country. 68 million cases this year and increasing by upwards of -- the percentage is up. the increase of congenital syphilis in some communities, i believe memphis, increased 900%. the increase or documentation of

16 million cases of long covid. granted, we have lost one million people in our country, but 16 million cases of long covid projected, and lastly, the environmental perturbations we are seeing. in florida, where only 20% of the people are insured, they will not be compensated. going back to florida, florida ranks fourth in the country for stds. so these are the topics that are not being reported. and i agree with those that have called. i have listened and people are voicing serious concerns but the tremendous increase of sexually transmitted diseases and the amount and increase of hiv -- we

are seeing upwards of 50,000 new cases a year. host: all right. we will leave it there. we covered this week the attorney general before senators getting grilled on several different topics. the new york times has the headline that he faced heated questions in the senate hearing. here is what he had to say in an exchange with republican senator chuck grassley about the department's investigation of hunter biden. [video clip] >> lawfully protected whistleblower disclosures to my office indicate the justice department and fbi have at one time over one dozen sources that potentially provided criminal information relating to the hunter biden. the alleged volume and similarity of the information would demand the justice department investigate the truth and accuracy of the information. accordingly, what steps has the

justice department taken to determine the truth and accuracy of information provided -- of the information provided? congress in the american people have a right to know -- congress and the american people have a right to know. >> i promised in my confirmation hearing to leave the matter of hunter biden in the hands of u.s. attorney for the district of delaware, who was appointed in the previous administration, so any information like that should have gone, or should have gone, to that u.s. attorney's office and the fbi squad working with them. i have pledged not to interfere with that investigation. >> in april 20, you testified -- april 2022, testified that the investigation was insulated from political interference because it was assigned to the delaware attorney's office but

without special counsel authority he could need permission of another u.s. attorney in certain circumstances to bring charges outside the district of delaware. i would like clarification from you with respect to these concerns. >> the u.s. attorney in delaware has been advised that he has full authority to make those kind of referrals you are talking about and bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it's necessary and i assure if he does that he will be able to do that. host: from this week's hearing on capitol hill with the attorney general. we covered that. you can find that on c-span.org. he was testifying for hours, 10 a.m. until the afternoon. if you don't have time to watch the entire hearing, go to our website, hit play, and he will find gold stars at the bottom that indicate -- and you will find gold stars at the bottom that indicate key moments.

we will talk to raymond in aurora, colorado. independent. your top news story of the week. caller: good morning, america, and thank you, c-span, for allowing me to speak my mind. there's three. first, rupert murdoch. i wish he said in the deposition -- i wish he would read what he said in the deposition. what is happening is to -- happening to america is the same thing that happened to the roman empire. we will destroy ourselves from within. the reason i say that is because we constantly are lying. everyone is lying, both sides. i'm an independent. the democrats are lying, the republicans are lying, and the people are not accepting the facts, so i would employ the republicans to listen to what rupert murdoch said about fox

news and how they deceived the voters. there was no voter fraud and it was all about money and greed, so until -- and i hope there's scientists out there hearing me -- until we are able to have ai create something where we can tell for sure who is lying and they have to answer to ai by putting their finger in something, this country is going to fall. one of god's commandments is thou shalt not bear false witness. lying is in the 10 commandments and i will end on that. thank you very much. host: politico and other outlets reporting yesterday the house ethics committee plans to investigate congressman george santos. the committee is continuing its

review of the case involving democratic representative alexandria ocasio-cortez's visit to the 2021 met gala. gene in new york, democratic caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. my topic is china. people are talking about china doing this, doing that. china is not doing anything.

caller: i saw him having sex with underage girls on that video. i so i'm snort piles of coke with hookers -- i saw him snort piles of coke with hookers. host: democratic caller. caller: fox news said to their viewers the votes were stolen when they knew they were not. they lied to their viewers and something should be done to an organization for purposefully lying to their viewers and having them storm the capitol. fox news, for lying to their

constituents, that the votes were stolen. they were not stolen. host: the two top congressional democratic leaders, chuck schumer of new york, hakeem jeffries of new york, sent a letter to fox on this. here is congressman hakim jeffries, minority leader, democratic leader in the house. [video clip] >> the letter speaks for itself and relates specifically to the issue of the big lie, which apparently was well understood at the highest levels of fox news. and i think leader schumer and myself simply expressed the position that, since everyone seems to clearly understand that joe biden one co. -- joe biden won the 2020 presidential election, that donald trump perpetrated a big lied to the american people that had dangerous consequences,

including a rise in political violence and an insurrection as part of an effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power that perhaps it is time for america to be able to move past that big lie and an important step would be those who know it was a big lie to publicly repudiate it. we will cross that bridge when we get to it. host: this week on capitol hill, democratic leader of the house. rachel in texas, independent. your top story. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have not heard a lot about this in the news, but what's really concerning to me is the rise in anti-semitism and attacks on jewish elected officials in michigan. host: ok. jordan, north carolina, democratic caller. caller: yeah. good morning, greta.

my top news story for the week of course has to be the murdoch case. host: michael in california, independent. michael. caller: good morning. i am 75 years old, a vietnam veteran. i want to give a shout out to the ss golden state and all those on that ship in 1968 and 1969. all this about fentanyl coming in the country, it is all here already. they don't have to bring in anymore. we have enough to kill the world. education bothers me right now with all this. what the hell is going on? host: we covered -- caller: california -- host: we covered a couple

hearings this week on fentanyl in the united states. check out our video library at c-span.org. vicki, mays landing, new jersey, independent. caller: hello, greta. you are wonderful. before i start with my issue, i have to say thank you so, so much. i have brain damage, you probably notice, and i got stuck. i was making strange noises. that's part of what happens and i could not say conan allred and he quietly said, are you speaking about this gentleman, and he put his face up there and said conan allred, ignoring that i had that stutter and was making strange noises. you are an angel and you are so informed. i am sure the guys love that you

are so pretty. you are wonderful. i have to put that in because i was in tears. i was so embarrassed being on that phone and i could not speak and you guided me through. thank you. host: no problem, vicki. thank you for calling in today. next, live from the conservative political action conference, kimberly fletcher joins us to talk about her group and its role in the parents rights movement. we will turn our attention to efforts to ratify the equal rights amendment. that conversation with the equal rights coalition. we will be right back. >> cpac is back in washington, d.c. this week. c-span's coverage continues with speeches by potential presidential candidates, members of congress, conservative

activists and media personalities. today at 12:45 p.m. eastern, speakers include nikki haley, and saturday, at 5:30 p.m. eastern, former president trump. watch the cpac annual conference from washington, d.c. on c-span, c-span now and online at c-span.org. >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided coverage of the halls of congress. c-span gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered.

>> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine, bringing the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon -- officials, the pentagon, and state department. all on the c-span network. our web resource page, where you can watch the latest videos live or on-demand. go to c-span.org/ukraine. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network, unfiltered, unbiased, word for

word as it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> the united states was originally built on two important documents. the first, the declaration of independence, was signed by 56 men in the middle of 1776. the second, the constitution, was signed by 39 men in september of 1787.six of theirs ose men put their john hancock on both documents. these authors have put -- have written background stories on the lives of these assignors in two books. >> denise karen and joseph dagny

on this episode of book notes plus. book notes plus is available on the c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: joining us from cpac this morning is kimberly fletcher, founder, president and ceo of moms for america. according to your website, your mission is threefold, in power moms, promote liberty, and raise patriots. what do you aim to do and why do you think a group like this was necessary? guest: i founded the organization in 2004. i realized moms needed an opportunity to be able to engage in the public square without feeling like they had to give up their entire life by doing so. this is a way where they can have their voice heard and their values represented to recognize the powerful impact of their

vote and learn what america is about, because our history and our heritage has been stripped from us in the public schools and the public square. this gives us an opportunity to give them the story of america, what their rights are, where they come from, and that helps moms to be more effective in promoting liberty in their homes, communities and through their vote. host: you are at cpac. why are you a conservative? caller: i am a constitutionalist -- guest: i am a constitutionalist. i think america is the greatest country on earth. i am proud to say that. i am an unabashed america loving mom. i think it's important we help the general public understand the uniqueness of america and why it is that freedom is prospering here and we cannot lose it. this is a bastion of hope for the world and an opportunity for us to help moms realize how

powerful america is because of its uniqueness and share that with their children. we have a lot of great programs, events and resources to help them do that. host: how big is moms for america? guest: we are over 500 thousand moms across the country in all 50 states. we are currently in the process of seeking out and training moms and grandmas to be ambassadors. every 13,452 school district in the country. so we have members in all of those districts opposed to the radical agenda imposed on our children. we want them to learn the things we used to do in school. we want to get back to that.

this is an opportunity for us to work together to do what is in the best interest of our children and the students in the classroom. host: what is the radical agenda of schools? guest: there are a lot of things that we hear from moms. i have experienced it myself personally. one of the things that happened because of the things being taught is the radical sexualization of our children. it is the promoting racism in the classroom. whatever you label it as. it is the gender confusion. and because of all these things that we have pulled away from our children, there's become an increase of violence in the schools as well, and teachers are standing by and letting children fight each other and going into the hospital. we have had multiple reports of this. what is happening in the schools is they are literally teaching our children to hate their country, hate their neighbor,

and hate themselves and completely disregard and marginalize their parents. that is the real issue for us as parents and moms because parental rights are fundamental and supreme, protected in the constitution of the united states, and all those organizations out there, churches, community organizations, are there to support us, not regulate, restrict, and certainly not completely ignore us. host: the american federation of teachers union had put out a statement saying that union head put out a statement saying was terrible for everyone. teachers are now asking elected officials to focuse building blocks of student instead, legislators and 45 states have proposed hunof laws making itarder, laws seeking to ban boom scol libraries, restrict what teachers can say about race, racism, lgbtqia plus issues, and

american history, and limit the activities in which transgender students can participate. voters are saying that not only are these laws bad policy but are also about politics. kimberly fletcher, your response. guest: i think that what's happening in our schools is becoming a political environment and we need to take politics out of places where politics do not belong. the school system is a place to educate our children on, as i said, real science, true history, civics, what it means to be a citizen, the constitution, math, good, solid, real math, and we got a copy by a teacher -- we have multiple teachers across the country who reach out to us all the time and thank us for what we are doing because they said it is making a difference, because they are being bullied and intimidated by the teachers unions and are being forced to say these things

and teach things they don't want to teach and they are afraid to say anything because they do not want to lose their job or be bullied or intimidated. it is happening. the teachers are being bullied, the school board members are being bullied, parents are being marginalized, and we are all coming together to stand against the teachers union, so for the teachers union to come out and say there's a problem in the classroom because we are not focused on student success, i would agree with that. let's stop talking about things that should not be taught in the classroom and let's not start promoting gender confusion. they have been doing it for 10, 15 years. they are confusing our children. they go to school to be able to have a safe environment. we have entrusted our children to those schools and we can no longer trust those schools and classrooms because they are not safe places of learning for our children and that is what we

have an issue with and that is why we agree with the nea on one thing, that we should go back to student success. how do they become good citizens and be able to succeed in their future. because all moms want the same thing, a good education for their children first and foremost -- children, first and foremost to be safe and protected, and an opportunity to succeed. it does not matter who they are. we all want those things and that is what we are supporting. host: how does your work relate to the federal legislation pushed by republicans, which is the parents bill of rights? guest: we support the parents bill of rights but the one parents bill of rights we really need is a very simple statement that says parental rights are fundamental and supreme, already protected in the constitution, just to reiterate the fact that we have those rights. they already exist given by god

and the government has no authority to take them away. they are our children and those organizations are there to support us. host: we will take calls with kimberly fletcher. if you are a republican, dial in at (202) 748-8001, democrats, (202) 748-8001, and independents, (202) 748-8002. text us as well. include your first name, city and state to (202) 748-8003. keith in denver, colorado, democratic caller, you are up first for camberley fletcher. caller: good morning, ms. fletcher. before i ask my core questions, can i tell -- can you tell me and the audience how much education you have? caller: i am a mom -- guest: i am a mom and i am well educated

in the world because i have raised eight children. i am very well read. i am a strong historian and i probably know a lot more than a lot of the teachers who taught my children. host: why do you ask that question? caller: she's attacking our educational system and she has no background at all. that is not my core question. i would like to understand how you would teach children k-12 about jim crow, which lasted until 1965. guest: are you white, server, or are you black -- white, sir, or

are you black? caller: i am black. does that matter? guest:guest: why does my education matter? caller: you are talking about education and you have no expertise in that field. guest: when my children are being taught in the schools i have every right, authority and responsibility to speak about what is happening in the classroom on behalf of my children and all the parents who have concerns. we are hearing from hundreds, thousands of teachers in all 50 states reaching out to us, saying what is happening in the classrooms is unacceptable. they do not want to be involved in it. they want to be able to go back to teaching the things they love and that is not being taught anymore.

regardless of your position, agendas and politics should not be taught in the classroom. caller: you are teaching an agenda, you are at cpac, ok? i want to know how you would teach jim crow to children. guest: i teach history and jim crow is one of the things that is in the list of things we teach when i teach homeschool. i teach everything and there are other things -- do not constantly talk about the fact that it happened and is still happening. you say this was a bad mistake, teach that and they recognize

that themselves. i saw the pictures of auschwitz when i was 14 years old and looked at those images mortified and said never again. we do not even teach that anymore. half the kids in this country have no idea this even happened. we need to be teaching history so we don't repeat the mistakes we learned and do better in the future and that is the world i want. host: allen in greensboro, north carolina, independent. caller: i am teacher on my way driving to work and i'm interested in the ones who seem to take the moral high ground. you are at cpac. , isn't match lap under investigation for fondling a man for sexual -- isn't matt flap under investigation for fondling a man? guest: i can tell you i have no information about something that

has nothing to do with me, so i will not comment on that, but i can tell you that i am here at cpac because i'm talking to mom, parents, families to help give them solutions for the concerns they have in this country and there are a lot of teachers who are concerned about our country as well, so i don't understand why the venue is such an issue. the second thing i will say is i have known that family for a long time and the integrity of that family and their children and i think it is a travesty that, just because certain people have certain beliefs, that you are a target for attacks, whether you are, as i say, left, right, republican, democrat. i am not any of those things. i am a principled american that stands on the constitution and the things that unite us. we need to start uniting together, as jfk said -- the

things that unite us instead of lingering on the things that divide us because there are more things that unite us then divide us. host: jesse in new mexico, a republican, go ahead. caller: good morning and thank you very much. i am a teacher also. i am just waking up. guest: thank you for your service, by the way, because that is what teaching is. caller: thank you. i wanted to ask you -- i think i heard either nikki haley or someone else running for president on the republican side talking about putting cameras in classrooms and i just wanted to -- i wondered what your opinion was, especially because you are about promoting liberty and that is somewhat kind of against liberty, but at the same time, i see a value in cameras in classrooms. i wonder what your opinion was.

guest: we already have cameras in classrooms basically during covid and that is what helps parents realize what was happening in the classroom. i kind of go back and forth on that because it should be based on the local level. what do the parents and teachers in the community at the local level feel is the best option? but what i will tell you is monitoring the classroom is vital. you do not even have to have children in the school to go in and monitor the classroom, look at the books children are being exposed to, but we are told that we cannot go in there because they are protecting the children. even the school board members -- we have several school board members who were elected and told they cannot go into the school because it is unsettling people. unsettling people/ what is it that you are being unsettled by? if you don't have anything to hide, why do you have a problem with someone from the community sitting in the back, going

through the proper entrances, signing a badge, saying who i am, what you are therefore, sitting in the back of the classroom. why does that disturb teachers so much? is that something that come as a teacher, would bother you -- that, as a teacher, would bother you? host: i think we lost that collar. we will go on to paul in kansas city, missouri, an independent. caller: good morning. the position taken by the even jell-o coal -- the evangelicals, apple is -- abolitionists before the civil war, is the opposite of today, looking back at the civil war and saying what things were. you say you teach your instance the important history. is it important that they know,

in 1677, in virginia, that a law was passed that baptized or not, slaves were slaves and baptism meant nothing? the fact that christians owned christians, is that worthy of teaching your children? would you consider that black history or would you consider that white christian history? guest: i think at all history needs to be taught, including the history that we had a whole group of christians who sat in the constitutional convention and created the most incredible document the world has ever seen -- aside from the bible -- [laughter] -- and made sure people were recognize that they were created equal from the declaration of independence and protected in the constitution. there is no place in the constitution of the united

states where it says a woman cannot run for president, a woman cannot vote, a black person cannot run for president or vote. there is no place in there. it is about an age, whether or not you will are a citizen and whether you were born here. there is no restriction on who gets to vote except you have to be 18. ok? let's talk about the fact that america was a bastion of hope for the world and a spring of humanity, completely unique from all the world, where everyone was treated equal and everyone had the opportunity for freedom. that constitution of the united states and the flag, which is the banner that recognizes it, is the thing that unites us because it gives us the protection and freedom. the rights come from god. the constitution protects us and we should be standing behind that because that is what protects us from a big government that, regardless of how you live your life, who you love, how you decide to dress,

what color you are, what religion you are, protects our rights to live our lives the way we want to. that is the thing that unite says. so why is it that we are being divided by something that protects all of our rights to be able to live the way we went to and teach our children the way we want them to be taught? host: joann in nevada, republican. caller: good morning, ladies. we are still ladies, aren't we? [laughter] yes. listen -- i'm a retired vocational instructor in private schools and that was in the 1990's and our kids, we would get kids from sacramento, could not read and write. it is like what do you do? you have to teach them how to read and write, good kids, but bad education.

and we need to reform our education. i am so glad cpac has this -- is this weekend. i will be watching you tomorrow night and that's good because we are nothing but a chaos world now and we are in trouble. thank you for doing what you're doing. guest: thank you. host: speaking of the cpac line-up, today, you will hea from nikki haley. what are your thoughts on her? guest: i think nikki i think she did an incredible job in the united nations but there is a lot of things not going right in the world so it was good to have a strong mom there to speak out on common sense and issues that matter to moms and all countries across the world. i would caveat to say the you and will be there and i honestly

hope it's not at some port in time, but it it is, we need strong moms like nikki haley to stand on truth and common sense that benefit moms and children in every country across the world. host: what other folks are you excited to hear from today in the lineup or tomorrow? we heard the caller mentioned the former president speaking as well. guest: there is so many people that are here that are thinking about a variety of subjects and that's what's so exciting about cpac and the people you get to meet that come here, to hear everybody's different perspectives and view. there is a misnomer that conservativism is i don't know, a box where everybody fits in it and they all think the same and talk the same and regurgitate the same language. that's the farthest from the truth. you have so many people here from all different backgrounds,

all demographics, even different political persuasions, who come here to hear from all these different people from their opinions and from their perspectives. then you can get an idea of what other people are facing and how can we work together to solve problems. that's the most exciting part of being here. i would have to say my favorite people on the stage are the panels where you get to hear the people talking about a specific topic. each one of them shares their opinion and then you can walk away and ask how you feel about it. the conservative community is an opportunity for you to listen to all this information and then decide what resonates with you and start to form or solidify your own opinions on various things. host: robert in boca raton, florida, democratic caller.

we can hear you but we can also hear your television. caller: i want to hear what i am saying. host: you can't do that. mute your television. caller: i'm in a hospital in boca raton, florida, can you hear me now? host: yes. caller: i'm in a hospital and i'm a retired cop, 24 years. i'm an x-men range. -- i am in marine. there are pros and cons to what she is doing. i don't get involved in these things but i have to tell you, she's doing an excellent job, excellent job. and i wish biden and the powers that be would involve more and try to adjudicate this so it will work because it doesn't work. i have seven children. coming home from school, some of them are saying things that are

disgusting. i don't know where they get it from. the schools have such lax security, it's making me sick. that's why you need people like this lady. however, we need to sit down and become bipartisan. when the powers to be get involved, that's the only way this will change. host: so a bipartisan effort, kimberly fletcher. guest: i think the word bipartisan -- i think american is the word we are looking for. what is it that unites us as americans? the declaration of independence, the constitution, the eyes and -- the ideas and values that made is the most prosperous nation on earth. that's the greatest bipartisan effort we can have. in the past, it was about policy and disagreeing and now it's a

massive disagreement about the foundation of what america was founded on. that is what needs to be countered immediately. what america is and how america was founded, the principles that guide it, that made us the freest country on earth. those are the things that should be uniting us because those are the things that protect all of us and allow us to seek out our american dream and reach it. we should be encouraging that in the classroom. we should be encouraging that in society and culture instead of dividing. we should be uniting on those principles that lead us all. host: durham, north carolina, independent. caller: yes, ma'am, my question is that you are a dismissive person in reference to what the guy was asking you.

you dismissed him and then the other part is you mentioned that jim crow, you brushed over it, there was no passion about how bad it was and what those people did. you just passed it over like it was nothing. it was horrible. let me tell you the reason why that bothers me. a gentleman in tennessee had the nerve to bring up the fact that hanging somebody for the death penalty -- that is a memory for people of color. history needs to be taught so it doesn't happen again. there needs to be some passion about how wrong it was. what about when people took pictures and sent them to other people, white people, that's what needs to be discussed so won't be done again because it was horrible.

you didn't have any passion. host: let's give her a chance to respond. guest: there are some really great movies out there. the free state of jones, i can't remember the name of the movie, three amazing black women who were involved in the astronauts going into space, incredible mathematicians and how they went and changed the world. there are so many great movies and stories about real people who lived and changed the world who were black and why are we talking about that? booker t. washington, talk about passion. his up from slavery, his autobiography is one of the greatest books ever written. they don't even talk about him in school. why not? it's an incredible story.

what he created was a great work ethic and built these men and women who had just been released from slavery and great people who became leaders and became the teske airman and started businesses and families. the black family was so strong, stronger than white families. they supported each other. the government has replaced the father and a lot of those homes and white homes as well. what's happening is the government is coming in and trying to replace fathers and mothers. they will never be able to do that because no one will love our children as much as we do. we will be telling our children you can do whatever you want, find your dreams and live it and work hard and you will achieve it. that's not what they are learning in school. they are learning that if you are black, you will not be worth anything or achieve anything because there's some white person who will get it.

if you are a white person, you are being told you are a horrible person because you were white. how is that helping our children? we had teachers who are whistleblowers who come to us all the time and send us this information, pictures and images, things they are told they have to teach these children. one of them sent us the nea magazine and the entire magazine was heralding how all these teachers in every single septic from art, science, math, history were promoting racism in the classroom. this is not something we should be teaching or heralding in the schools. we should be talking about the things that unite us, not the things that divide us. we should be encouraging children to live their dreams and preparing them to be able to seek it out. we are not doing that. let's go back to a quality education where we are following the students love, heart they student centered parent and

teacher guidance. we went to see the spark that ignites the passion and these kids and let's give them the opportunity where they can explore and pursue that passion. then they will become great because they are doing what they love. let's stop taking away the things that give us passion and purpose and let's fill their buckets with more of that. host: we will go to cindy in englewood, new jersey, democratic caller. caller: kimberly, i would like for you to explain the woke theory and how you feel about it and why does it seem to be a problem? i feel taking books out of schools like in florida, ron desantis is trying to take all of our books out of the schools because they don't want the white kids to feel bad. i need for you to explain this whole woke theory and how you feel about it since you are a teacher. thank you. caller: guest: i do not like the

word woke and i think it's absurd and it gives power and agenda is not worth anything. it is childish and what we need to be talking about are the principles and values that lift people up, not drag people down. i don't want them to have any more power. with that word. i talk about anti-freedom and anti-family agenda and all parents should have a problem with that. if you could see the book we are talking about in the classroom that our children are being exposed to my it has absolutely nothing to do with race. it is about grooming and sexualizing our children and introducing concepts they are not ready for. if you can see this curriculum, i would be happy to share it with you. it is curriculum where he teaches children in kindergarten how to sexually stimulate themselves.

it teaches masturbation. it has boys and girls in a classroom through elementary school talking about subjects that make them feel externally uncomfortable. they are having coming out parties where janie becomes johnny in first grade and these children are coming home traumatized, screaming in the bathroom because they are afraid they will suddenly turn into another gender. they are confused so what is going on? they are coming home to their parents upset and struggling with what is this. when you are sixth-grade to 11-14, that's a difficult time for anyone and they are already trying to discover who they are. they are coming into themselves physically, mentally and emotionally. that is a time when we should be encouraging them and heralding them to be the best they can be. not confusing them by saying maybe you or maybe you are that.

there is an irony of this where in the late 90's and early 2000, the big thing was you were born that way. now, you are not born a boy or a girl. this is ridiculous. all parents across the country should be reading the emperor's new clothes to our children every day. that way they have the strength to walk into that classroom and say excuse me, the emperor is naked. host: do you track these incidents you were talking about, what evidence do you have of it happening everywhere? is that your contention? guest: everywhere where there is a teachers union this is happening and there is a teachers union and every single school district in the country. the teachers union is not teachers. the teachers union is an organization of individuals who often times are not even teachers and have never been in a classroom or pushing agendas

on teachers on the classroom on parents and they are starting it in the colleges where they teach the teachers to teach our kids these things before they leave the classroom. then they come into the classroom and our children's schools and they already think this is what we are supposed to be teaching the children. they saved the right thing, equality and equity are completely different things. equal justice, equal freedom, equal rights is what we should be promoting, not if you have it i should have it. if you want it, go earn it and let me help you learn how to do that. that's how we change that. that's not a color thing, it's not lack, white, hispanic, it's common sense. we have thousands of mothers of color who come to us and they are the ones who are angry most promoting racism in the classroom. you don't tell any mother, ones

that are not your children and your kids are not good for anything and they won't succeed you tell any mother that, they get upset and they get angry and they will tell their children, you be what you want to be, i will help you get there. you put on your pants one leg at a time like everybody else. you go out there and you be who you want to be and achieve what you can achieve and you can be the best you can be. that's what we should be promoting in school. those of the books we should be promoting. there are thousands of them out there that promote those things. a classical liberal arts education is the best education a child can get and they are not getting that anymore. what they are getting is political indoctrination and no parent, no teacher should be ok with that. host: the founder and president of moms for america. thank you for your time. guest: thank you, ma'am. host: we are seeing kimberly

fletcher at cpac in our coverage at cpac gens at 10 a.m. eastern time with marjorie taylor greene and nikki haley will be there and donald trump, jr., mike pompeo as well. you can watch here on c-span and rc spent now mobile app or our website, www.c-span.org. coming up later on "washington journal", we will turn our attention to ratify the equal rights amendment. that conversation is with the coalition. more of your phone calls on the question at the top of the program from cpac and president biden speeches to congressional democrats to the high-profile china hearing this week, what is your top news story of the week? start calling in now. >> the united states of america

was originally built on two important documents, the first, the declaration was signed by 56 men in the middle of 1776. the second was the constitution signed by 39 men in september of 1787. six of those men put their john hancock's on both documents. two authors have written short background stories about 95 of the signers into books. >> the two authors on the episode of notes plus. it's availablee c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> cpac, one of the largest

annual gatherings of influential conservatives is back in washington, d.c. this week coverage of the conference continues with speeches by potential presidential candidates, members of congress, conservative activists and media personalities. today at 12:45 p.m. eastern, featured speakers include 2024 presidential candidate nikki haley and saturday at five 30 p.m. eastern, former president donald trump. what's the cpac annual conference from washington, d.c. this week on c-span, c-span now, and online at www.c-span.org. >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio, and listen to "washington journal" daily at 7 a.m. eastern with important congressional hearings and other public affairs events throughout the day and week days at five and 9 p.m. eastern.

cats washington today for fast reporting and listen to c-span any time, tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio. c-span, plat -- powered by radio. >> "washington journal" continues. host: a busy week in washington and we want to know what was your top news story. from capitol hill, the first hearing of the china select mitty took placthis week. we covered that on c-span and there is also outside the ltway, the conservative happening. the president huddled with top democrats in baltimore this week and yesterday, he was on capitol hill with senate democrats asking them to tell their compliments test their accomplishments and the attorn general was in the hot seat on capitol hill this week

testifying for hours before senate lawmakers and he had a story about mr. murdoch who owns fox news and his comments about some of their news anchors. also what they said on television about the 2020 election. we want to know if any of those are others are your top news stories for the week. fayetteville, north carolina, democratic caller. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] caller:caller: good morning. host: your top news story? caller: for the week, it has to be the fox election fraud where the top executives and the owner of fox has perpetrated propaganda that has ignited o third of our population not to believe t election. i think there suld be some serious ramifications for that in terms of damaging the journalistic community that

people now will come to the opinion of what's true anymore. that was just a blatant assault on the truth. i think that was really damaging to the so-called free speech in america where i believe it should be free speech but i don't think you should be telling tales that people look to you to get information. host: olivia in birmingham, alabama, democratic caller. caller: good morning. my comment is the first lady who was on about moms speaking at the cpac convention. host: yes, moms for america. caller: what i would like to say is first of all, she doesn't get to tell black people what to teach our children because

whether they banned books or not, black people will teach our children about the history of america. we are going to teach our children about slavery, we are going to teach our children about christopher adam, we will teach about what they need to know about america and slavery and about racism and whatever. we don't care how many books they banned. this is the disgrace of america that her children can be taught about america. what she is trying to say is teaching our kids about character and being an upstanding citizen and even though this country has a lot of black people, we know we are in america we know our freedoms here. we don't want to live anywhere else and we want them to stop. i'm being very serious.

there's some of that white guilt. you are feeling guilty because we want to teach your children about what we went through in slavery and bout how our black women were raped. that's why we have so many new lotto children in this world. they are going to find this out anyway. children are children. i was a child once and became a senior citizen. they need to know about certain things but i learned on my own. we are intelligent. we don't need you to teach us that. black people, teach your children about our heritage. we need to learn that. if you don't learn something from your mistakes, it will be repeated over and over again. we need to know about this. thank you. for letting me get my point out and have a blessed day. host: your top news story of the week, there were several hearings this week on china with u.s. competition with the

country and national security concerns and one of them was in prime time with this new select committee and the house on china so take a look at the opening statement by the chair of that new committee, mike gallagher of wisconsin. [video clip] >> thanks to speaker maccarthy and leader jeffries, we have an excellent roof of thoughtful legislators on this committee on both sides. we will be working hand-in-hand with their teammates on the standing committee, but tickly my friend michael mccaul who helped set the stage for our work through the 2020 china task force. is leadership produced a number of bipartisan proposals that we must build upon as we investigate and expose the ideological, technological, economic and military threat posed by the chinese communist party. we may call this a strategic competition but it's not a polite tennis match. this is an existential struggle

over what life will look like in the 21st century. the most fundamental freedoms are at stake. we are laser focused on his vision for the future, a world crowded with techno totalitarian surveillance states where human rights are subordinate to the whims of the party. for the time being, it's still up to us to decide if that's the future we want for our children but it won't be for much longer. time is not on our side. just because this congress is divided, we cannot afford to wait the next two years lingering in legislative limbo or pandering to the press. we must act with a sense of urgency. i believe our policy over the next 10 years will set the stage for the next 100 years. we cannot allow the dystopia to prevail. therefore, we must learn for -- from our mistakes. we have tried to win them over with engagement and believing economic engagement would lead to reforms in china.

the only problem is it didn't work out, we were wrong, the ctp left it our naivete and took advantage of our good fit. that year of wishful thinking is over. that committee will not allow the ccp to maneuver us into complacency or submission. host: the chair of the select committee on china mike gallagher. we covered it on our website, www.c-span.org you can follow along their with points of interest as well as our other coverage from this week. what is your top news story, illinois, independent. caller: i think the main trouble with our country and we see all the things going on around the world is that there is good and evil in this world and people is predominating in many places. we see it across the ocean and we are starting to see it in this country where it didn't used to exist.

the men who wrote our constitution were godly and they set the bill of rights. godly men in 1789 said we will take this king james bible and it will be taught as part of the curriculum and all the public schools across this country. my parents went to college back in the 1940's and they still had convocation every morning and every student on a college campus had to be there. we have left that. we hear this lie, the big lie that you cannot have religion in public schools. that's the big lie. we are losing our civility because this country is losing his godliness. host: david in ridgeland, south carolina, republican is next. caller: my question to everybody

in the country -- what we need to do is come together as a country. not play the race game, we've got to get out of that. we need to love one another at all times. do you hear me? host: we are talking about the top news stories of the week and we have delighted the lines. you can al text us and include your first name, city and state. you can also go to facebook.com/c-span. david in nashville, tennessee, democratic caller area caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. my top story of the week would be the fox debacle. i don't understand how they can be called fox news when the new -- they know the information they put out is not true. tucker carlsen, sean hannity and

the rest of the gang with their backdoor emails confirming that they knew the information that guests were coming on with false information they support a puppy because they are more concerned with the bottom line in their retirement benefits and the stock price at fox, wise's still called fox news when we know the news is false and all of the words and all of the speakers and all of the false information and misinformation put out has directly impacted the minds of people in this country leading up to the tragedy on january 6. that played a factor. these people needed to be held accountable. the news is supposed to be factual. first amendment, freedom of speech is great but you cannot put out false information because you say i have the

ability to say what i want to say. news is different. walter cronkite is turning over in his grave. the news should be the truth, not a lie and not predicated on your financial status. thank you for taking my call. host: hakeem jeffries and charles schumer sent a letter to rupert murdoch about this issue. [video clip] host: and democratic leaders in congress chuck schumer's and jeffrey's sent a letter about this very topic. here is the congressman from new york talking about it.

-- this is had dangerous consequences as an effort to disrupt the transfer of -- peaceful transfer of power. it is time for america to move past the big lie. those who know it was a big lie to have it publicly repeated. host: from the democratic leaders news conference this week. we speak with sue in the mask

is, maryland. >> the top news story is uncontrolled immigration. i wanted to say something about your previous guest which i thought was interesting and she mentioned the nea i thought it stood for that national extortion agency. and a successful homeschooling parent of three of my kids have advanced degrees all graduated with honors and they wanted an election attorney -- and one is a election attorney. if you're going to live in this country, like you're one caller said, this is about making white people feel bad white kids and black people have to be taught certain things about history. well, you know what? we need to teach real history. we need to teach that africa was

the middleman between the arab and european countries. they sold each other into slavery. we need to know the democrat party is the founder of the kkk. it is the founder of jim crow. it is the founder of slavery. and be continuation of slavery is the democrat party. so if you want to teach american history, teach american history do not teach this woke politically correct nonsense so that it teaches like children they can never achieve anything and it teaches white children that they have to have guilt. if there's any guilt in this country -- host: we understand your opinion there. we are talking about the top news story with glenn, in california. what is your top news story? caller: this is what is not in the top story. you talk about student loans,

china, the cherokee nation deserves a delegate to the congress. we have no voice for our treaty rights. my grandmother and great-grandmother it was stolen from their families after being forcibly removed from the land in georgia. public schools, you want to talk about history? where is our delegate to the congress of the united states as a sovereign nation? the cherokee nation, the creek nation, all indian nations deserve a voice in the congress of the united states of america. host: alright we heard your point. lee in buffalo, new york. democratic caller. >> hello. the woman you just had with cpac

just -- we need a stronger education system that prioritizes critical thinking. you cannot for judgment in a vacuum -- form judgment in a vacuum. what she is saying is a doctrine nation. and blinker who happens to be a heterosexual who homes their -- homeschools their children we are a multicultural nation and multiracial nation. we are not white people all white people. i am white, but that does not mean that i think that white people are right. we are not and haven't been for most of our country's inception. and for judicial system is based on the constitution, not the

bible. that does not appear to be the way she feels. i am so frustrated to read -- i'm 57 years old and thank goodness my children have all graduated but to think of the children who have been raised in schools with no books and cannot even go to a library. a book, for heaven sakes, is the foundation of all. knowledge is the foundation of all not the obliteration of knowledge. as hard as it was to listen to that woman i think you for bringing her on because the country needs to understand what is happening in the red states to our schools. host: margaret in fayetteville, arkansas. caller: the previous caller stole a lot of my thunder. i agree with the gentleman in alabama it has to be taught. the other lady with fox news and the grooming of everybody.

everybody -- wake up people. there is another group agenda and they are lying to you, but the whole idea. yeah, they -- the democrats and history are responsible for the bad things that happened in -- to black people. and that needs to be taught. the good, the bad, the ugly. that is history. that is how we develop our minds in the civil-rights era there were black and white people that died and blend so that we could have civil rights now. and a human that was on your guest that called up the petition of all the rights women did not have the right to vote until the 20th century. that had to befall for also by women -- be fought for also by women. that was not in the constitution. and black people were half of a

person, that had to be changed. that was not changed until the 20th century when blacks got the civil-rights. so, and to say we do not want people to feel bad and the crt will teach racism are you teaching about the holocaust? anti-semitism? that should be -- not be taught and swept under the rug? we teach peace thing so it does not happen again and we teach these things so we know how far we have come because we do not do any of -- a lot of these things. please see this is wrong now there was a time where crowds gathered and thought it was ok. this is how we gauge progress by learning what we did wrong in history. host: we understand mark in annapolis, republican. caller: good morning trying to gather the things with education

but not necessarily a top story. volunteering with people getting involved in the schools at the ground for -- ground floor level is required in pretty much every state in the country. but dealing with the three r's schools have one of six or one of seven subjects a day reading, writing, and arithmetic. courses need to be in school and there needs to be supplementing the on education materials. the cost of doing business is books educational tools. . more volunteers are required the bigger issue is the supply chain issue. re-shoring. let's take apple for a second $300 billion has been taken by apple to assist chinese communist party to develop infrastructure in china. that cannot go on.

the idea that the full of apple's products are made in china and offshore is a huge problem. and the idea that we have oil up to an $80 a barrel level. we need to go back to late 1990's policy. that is the quickest way to defang russia. host: the hearing on the select committee in china. the issue of the spy balloon came up here is republican congressman asking former administration national security adviser his take on it. >> what message was the chinese communist party sending to the american people with the chinese spy balloon? >> they will take everything they can get and bay have used it over time to complacency. and the message is we are attending -- to continue -- attempting to continue this.

and bo balloon is a metaphor of a massive effort of espionage -- and the balloon is a metaphor of a massive effort in espionage. -- when we figure out where previous balloons have gone we will see the same pattern of trying to get a better look from singles intelligence communications and imagery of our sensitive sites. and when you combine that with the massive buildup of chinese strategic nuclear forces i think that is a cause for concern. when you combine that with the president of china talking about the contempt of war that is a grazer could -- greater cause of concern. i think the balloon in context is what is most important. host: as china in our relationship with the story your top news story of the week or is that something out.

-- something else. catherine in massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning i want to talk about this president and what happened to me. one morning, my neighbor came over and he told me i was a ni gger moving outta here. he called me that four times. and i listened to him talk. you had a -- in your home. i helped you i lended you my car and did those things for you. the next morning he came back to me and apologized to me. we became the best -- he became the best neighbor i had. if i told my husband my husband would have killed him. i had a friend that died seven years ago she is white. she told her son to take care of me. he has in taking care of me. he gave me $1500 and he gave me

$500 and he gave me $300. no child is going to be raised -- born and raised as prejudice. someone had to teach that child. if a baby is hungry he does not care who breasts he nurses. was no more than two years old and my grandmother was a slave. my grandfather was taught to never hate nobody because the bible says divinity is his and he will repay. i went to the hospital and they told i was put down i was a hebrew and i told the doctor that the government do not tell me who i am. i was in another hospital where the doctor asked me he did not wait on me and like i said we will all be in the kingdom of heaven together. or we are going to be in the lake of fire. i should not blame you or what your parents do.

you have your own hind. and no child, like i said is born in this world you know it they do not care who they play with somebody teach the child that you know and i know. host: alright in massachusetts. kristi in deerfield beach florida independent. caller: hello i every -- agree with the previous caller. i was raised with -- by my father to not date or dance with the black man. and now i am dating a man who is partially lack. and i fell in love. and then i found out i am to present nigerian and you will react to the way you are a raise. the woman asking are you black girl light i thought was rude. there is only one race. humankind. human kind means be kind. if children do not get their education from a trusted adult

they will get it from there internet, classmate, or neighbor. let's generate conversation in the home. gay transgender needs to stop. we all need to get along. thank you. host: ken and hernando florida, hello. caller: i'm just listening to some of the people calling in complaining about fox news. they have a short memory. for six years msnbc, and other stations created a false story about the russian pollution. and that went on for six years. they were prosecuting trump i know bided won the election -- that biden won the election let me get that right, but how many said the story was true? and i am curious how many people were actually on the stage with him that claimed it was true.

and spread the false information. you have hypocrites out there seeing one side of the story, but not the other. some people cannot face reality. we had a call previously from a person which is five miles away from me calling from putin's puppet so you know these people need to be educated i guess is the right word for it. thank you. host: from the washington post this morning the president is willing to block the sealed law it will be the first bill halted in decades. president biden says he will have a gop resolute -- lead resolution to block d.c.'s major revision of criminal sentencing laws in the nation's capital should that pass congress. a remarkable moment for a city that has gone full throttle on hsing democrats to unite behind

d.c. statehood in recent years. aydin's decision is likely to influence more democratic senators to join the republicans in rebuking the city which could result in the congress successfully voting to block a d.c. bill for the first time in more than 30 years. now they have turned to -- intervening in the cities affair something the city typically decries among republicans in congress but now must be contended with on the greatest bipartisan scale in memory. that was in the washington post. and this is in the washington journal this morning. the president can be issued -- sued -- trump can be sued over january 6 the doj says. he can be sued for the january 6, 20 21 attack on the capital. the dust is -- the justice department argued declining to back the former president's

claims of absolute immunity from the allegations he sparked the violence that disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. they have been ours to reject the former presidents immunity claims and lawsuits brought by capitol police officers and democratic lawmakers: he incited his orders to storm the capital. democratic caller, what is your top news story of the week, michael? caller: the top story is the news. i want to continue the dialogue about folks lying. and for the christians out there thou shall not bear false witness. that is different from plain lying that is like standing up in court raising your hand and saying that person did something wrong when they did not. and for an example, donald trump calling up zelenskyy and saying

announce that you're going to investigate by -- you do not have to investigate him but announce it. he called babar and said just announce that the election was -- he called bob barr and say just announce that the election -- moat -- so many of your viewers will turn off c-span today and go right to fox news and get the news that they want to hear. i guess they are paying for it. they are moneymaking businesses. you can find these sleep agents, you can buy pillows, and the news. people need to get back to where the truth is. media mainstream or professional journalists like you are. host: ken in washington dc.

independent. caller: good morning my top news is some of the same with your previous caller since they have rehashed this. i know that you have an expert in the field or whatever she considers herself but the only difference between a modern-day karen and an ancient karen is about 50 years. when you see one you have seen them all. this is an insult on history to change or make the narrative what you want it to be. that is light cultural aggression towards anybody that does not believe in so-called american values. the ancient karen said something to the extent where the democratic party created the clan and slavery. i'm sorry, you are either born democrat white in not sure which one is first. so you have to be clear when you

talk about race. race is among people it is not just the human race it is a literal race it is sort of a competition and each race sticks together. it does not mean you can injure -- cannot intermingle or marry other unless you ask a karen. host: connie top news story. caller: good morning c-span. the greatest story is these people are listening to ms, it nbc, cnn, and they do not care on the stories like an 11-year-old boy. i listened to him read out of the book he took out of his school library. in new hampshire. and it is pornography.

illustrated with pictures. pornography. host: i will jump in and tell you and those who are waiting to talk or call in you have to new your television. it is distracting for us who is trying to listen to you and it is distracting to you as you try to talk. mary in georgia. caller: it seems like republicans cherry pick often. they cherry pick random things that happened -- ok, i am almost 70. i have never even seen a transgender person. i do not know anybody who has had an abortion. none of this stuff affects my life at all. and if there are schoolchildren reading a book like the previous lady said, it is probably one in 40 million people that have --

never seen that book. it is like they cherry pick one thing. it is sort of like if the republicans wanted to take down the bank they will say this is a tiller -- tell her and she stole the money out of the till. they would say oh my gosh bankers are doing this everywhere. it is almost like ginning up stuff that does not affect our lives. what i do care about is social security and the policy that really does affect me. but it seems like with false -- fox news, they especially keep their audience agenda with -- audience ginned up. and they cherry pick and there will be somebody doing something stupid among all the people. and they use that and then they say it is happening everywhere be careful and scared. and i find that is what is

troubling to me. it is they are. it is the disingenuousness of it all. host: met in new york, independent. caller: yes the story of the week is the stories. it has to do with the school districts. i hear all the tour moil that is going on and everybody is worried about the balloon and they are worried about this and that. and the old stories of fox news and cnn that we see our political distractions. while you know your children you use to worry about sending them off at 18 years old for college to get indoctrinated and now you put them on the school bus at five and they get indoctrinated. you go through the school boards they are empty. people -- school boards are not

republican or democrat so people need to step up and they need to get involved. all these other arguments are nonsense. they've been going on as distractions for decades. you do not put your trust in republicans or democrats. you put your trust in yourself and your neighbors. you need to get involved because if you sit back and complain about this and that and have all the distractions, at the end of the day, there are children at 5, 6, seven, 8, 9, 10 years old. host: dave will tell us his story in greenville, tennessee. republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. my top story remains the southern importer -- southern border invasion and that has yet to affect our inflation rate and the rate of killing with fentanyl and trillions of

dollars in government spending that we are having. we have not seen what inflation will do yet. it's going to be a major mess. i really appreciate the gentleman for talking about the cherokee nation not getting representation. that is a crucial thing that has been neglected for years upon years. and you have had some other good colors this morning the fellow from washington dc needs to change his glasses or change what he is drinking i did not know what the problem is there. but i appreciate your time and thank you for the program. host: miles in texas democratic caller. caller: hey, good morning. it is nice to see you today. i have two things i want to talk about i missed last month i i did not call in. this morning i called and it happen instantly. what i want to tell you about propaganda from the right about

abortion. it may not be current events but they say that democrats are those that want women to have abortions right up to the moment of birth. they say this constantly it comes from all over the place even liz cheney said it or something. but that is illegal that is why we had it moved away because it enabled women that assess what we have roe v. wade. because it enabled women to take control of their lives. and it is amazing that was taken away. but that needs to be the top story all the time because until you know who gets what he deserves this story is not over. because really truly it was one man's doing and we have all the documents and the text that fox news was lying to people outright. they say oh well, i knew that anyway so i will watching them. i do not understand it.

we should get together behind prosecuting trump and realizing he has done immeasurable harm to our country. there have been great callers especially the women. thank you girls we appreciate c-span very much we will see you next month. host: steve independent from wisconsin. go ahead with your top news story. caller: i have a couple the story of abortion the government needs to back off from this. you cannot legislate morality it should be between the woman, her doctor, possibly the guy who got her pregnant and maybe her spiritual leader. other than that, everyone else needs to but out. and the other thing is the news media and the news story. what the people need to do is redevelop critical thinking skills. what i -- when i was in journalism it was that there was

three sides to each story what the person on the left said, what the person on the right says, and what actually happened. so you need to have more than one source for your information before you start spouting off. thank you for the soap box and back to you. host: charles republican we want to hear your top news story. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was going to talk about president trump also but there was some many with the calls before me i think i want to talk about -- percival the president is exercising his constitutional rights. what he said was to oppose it peacefully which was in the constitution. but some say that he was lying and attacked the capital. that is where they prove the

law. he did not say go in and attack. that is not a crime and he is sued for it. if he waved the consequences and i see exactly of what he supposedly said, though more peaceably to protest you have the right in the constitution. to sue you for abiding the constitution is wrong. my other thing is like, a lot of people in this country -- for four years i do believe that the election was stolen. it does not make any hints. host: i apologize we have to leave it there at that thought. the house is coming in for a quick pro forma session on this friday morning. we will ring you there for that and then come back to take your top news stories. we expect it to be pretty quick. thank you. stay with us.

sharing the bounty of wealth, food, medication, and clothing with those in need. remind us today and each day that prayer is our greatest defense against the affliction of despair and hopelessness. would that we wield that privilege often and with compassion and wisdom. in the sure and certain hope that in our asking you will answer. we pray in the strength of your eternal name. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house the approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. the chair will lead the house in

the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on march 2, 2023, at 1:32 p.m. that the senate passed, senate 227. senate 619. that the senate passed without amendment house joint resolution 30. that the senate agreed to senate resolution 57 relative to the death of the honorable david f. curen burger, former united states senator of the state of minnesota.

appointments, united states china economic and security review commission. commission on the future of the navy, united states commission on civil rights. signed, sincerely, cheryl l. johnson, clerk. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. sir, on february 28, 2023, pursuant to section 3307 of title 40 united states code the committee on transportation and infrastructure met in open session to consider 10 resolutions including in the general services administration's capital investment and leasing programs. the committee continues to work to reduce the cost of federal property and leases. the 10 resolutions considered include two alteration projects and eight lease that is will result in $382 million in savings from the voided lease cost and space reductions.

i enclose copies of the resolution adopted by the committee on transportation and infrastructure on february 28, 2023. signed, sincerely, sam graves, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on appropriations. without objection, the house stands adjourned until noon on tuesday, march 7, for morning hour debate, and 2 p.m. for legislative business. host: a quick pro forma session

by the house today. lawmakers are not in congress today. and today not in session. we are back at the washington journal continuing with your top news story of the week. democrats (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001 independents (202) 748-8002 lewis and salsberry north carolina. democratic caller. thank you for patiently waiting. caller: top of the morning to you and america. yes i waited because i have something to say about the crp jetting should be called the caucasian induced thinking. but there's something i want to talk about i know that there are certain republican governors that have books that are banning

where the authors are jewish or characters are african-american. and they want to ban gay writers and characters. but they seem as though they forgotten that the bible was written by the jewish people in hebrew. israelites. we know that there are african black people in the bible. but we can also speak of songs and solomon. and they get you definition of what they look like. and they also want to ban books about to gay people. we all know that king james was a gay man. he was bisexual. he had three male lovers. are they going to ban the bible because of that particular issue? look it up people. they also want to an folks about julie's -- jewish people.

but i think they forgot about jesus. jesus was a jewish man but they want to ban books about jewish people. what about black p will. there was a black man who helped jesus carry his cross. in jesus also is a black man. i would like for you to go to this documentary called reclaiming the throne. my issues do not start with 1619 my history began when -- the israelites walked around jericho. my history begins where you see moses was being led down the nile to escape. but all i know is this. if people do not get they self together you cannot erase history. you cannot erase history because it will repeat itself. thank you. host: alright i will move on to karen who is in ohio. independent. your top news story.

caller: hello i am listening to your collars this morning and talking about the news. everybody has got to realize not one of these news stations are telling you the truth. you find a story and once the story is told, that is totally different from the same story that was on a different channel where they leave pieces of it out and the same thing with fox news or cnn. they forget what happened with cnn and schumer standing up and saying i have the evidence which turned out to be a lie. they have seen them recording him saying he knows he was lying. but you cannot just lie on one news channel anymore. it is a shame you have to -- cannot rely on one news channel anymore. it is a shame to have to look at multiple sources and figure out what the truth is.

the guy that said karen 14 times how sensitive is that? if people start treating each other like they want to be treated i think the world would be better off. just like the january 6 hearings. nothing came out about why they did not have toarry. nothing. why would you have a big showing like that and not have security. why not have the capital and everybod else not hand out security in a place like that. host:nderstood. cpac is happening outside the national harbor in maryld. the lineup is miss green of georgia, nikki haley, donald trump, jr., mike pompeo, and the coverageegins here at c-span at 10:00 eastern time and on our free mobile app c-span now and on our website c-span.org.

tomorrow those gathered for this event will hear from former president donald trump. and our coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. eastern time. on the same platforms on sees dan, our mobile app, c-span now, or our website c-span.org. many presidential contenders and those who are thinking about it are appearing before this conference this week. president biden is also considering whether or not he runs for reelection in 2024. he was talking with democratic house members this week in baltimore here is what he had to say. >> i was thinking we would get a lot done together. i was thinking we are back in the house and will finish the job. let's look at what we have done. we came in and the economy was in ruins. we had so many large jobs and

beyond for pandemic it started before that. and we can see it in the districts the 12 new jobs. they -- 1200 new jobs. it means we created more jobs than any other residential history. not just me you created it you did it. unemployment rate is a 50 euro loan. 800,000 manufacturing jobs. we are in the hell can we not lead the world in manufacturing again? i do not buy it. there is no reason why we will not be leading the world in manufacturing again. inflation has fallen seven straight months gas prices are down $1.65 since the peak. and it is not an accident it is because we all worked together. we worked tightly together. we passed the american rescue

plan which was built on republican governors who do not even want to acknowledge it. it does not matter. what you all said i did not run to be president for all democrats iran to be president for all american whether or not. truly, think about it. we saw the effects firsthand of what comes back in the music. they could not afford the budgets to pay for it. cap teachers in the classroom in each district. in addition we did the passing of the largest investment in infrastructure. host: from president biden earlier this week. your top news story is what we are talking about the next few minutes or so. john, new jersey, republican. it is your turn. caller: hello. my top story would be a story that is supposedly being suppressed. it was written by an investigative journalist named

seymour hersh. and seymour alleges that we -- the u.s., along with norway aligned the nord stream to pipeline back in june during the military exercises. and it was a slow fuse that was not detonated until september. so, the russians are obviously getting mileage out of it and using it. against america. but i am not sure what if it is the truth. it is based on only one source that seymour hersh is protecting. host: all right carl in michigan democratic caller. caller: hello greta. host: good morning.

caller: hey, the big news story is that fox news lied continually. the russian thing is real. host: alright chris horseshoe north carolina independent let's hear from you top news rate. caller: thank you so much happy friday to everybody as well. and i want to come in and thank c-span for what they do a thing there is a mission hear about is often lost and you look at some of the channels whether it is fox, cnn, i commend c-span for continuing to deliver straight news. on top of that i say if you're looking for a reputable news source look at the source material. that is why c-span, i watch these hearings and there is corruption all the way through

it not only on one side, there is corruption going on and you can watch the hearings and listen to the answers. i will leave it with that. i do commend the previous caller for ringing up the nord stream pipeline story. that has not gotten a lot of attention in the u.s.. but internationally there's a lot of stories on that. and one thing as well the washington fa hearing i thought was everyone should go watch that. it is quite fearful if that is the person we are putting up. greta, thank you again. have a good day. host: i will direct people to our website c-span.org thomas the faa confirmation hearing. a lot of information about his experience and he defended his experience. and the issue of safety ran throughout the hearing. you can find it on our website c-span.org.

steve massachusetts republican caller. top story. caller: good morning the top story to me would be the media. it is pretrade in our society and what is told to us. the gentleman just talked about nord stream. i've been talking about it forever we know nothing about it. it was a huge disaster that went on. we do not know who did it. and the next woman who talked that said she had never seen a trans person in her life all she has to do is go to the public library they are in there all the time doing different shows for children. host: we will even there we will take a break. when we come back we will turn our efforts to ratify the people rights amendment will have a conversation with ziggy at thomas and linda with the er coalition. we will be right back. ♪

♪ announcer: live sunday from the tucson festival of books. jeff grueniltake yourlse. he has written books about bonnie and clyde, charles manson, and the mexican border or. and the 51 day standoff in texas in 1993 between federal agent and branch davidians. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, textan tweet in depth with just quinn life this sunday on ot tv on c-span two. ♪ announcer: book tv every sunday on c-span two has authors discussing their latest

nonfiction books. we are life with the tucson festival of books darting with the -- we h have continued of the coverage with the author of ey want to kill americans and chris whipple with the book his fight for his life. and at 9:00 eastern forme secretary of state mark -- mike pompeo talks about his book. and his interactions with allies.'s alley -- enemies and and we also discussheook africa town where we trace the history of nearby industries in a community that was established by slaves in 1860. he is -- and we also have catherine flowers. watch book tv every sunday on c-span two. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org.

♪ announcer: american history tv saturdays on c-span two the american history story. and we discussed the victims of communism and elizabeth spalding telling the story of political domination spanning more than a century. and a transistor radio used to navigate out of communist held cambodia. and we have santa clara university vassar examining the experience of gays and lesbians in colonial america. exploring the american story watch this saturday on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> there are a lot of places to

get political information. but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues. c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c's and. powered by -- on c-span. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back in the topic this morning is to ratify the equal rights amendment. joining us this morning is ms. thomas the president and ceo of the coalition for women's equality as well as linda co. really who has joined us from chicago the e.r.a. board member and the task force chair. we welcome both of you we

appreciate it. let's begin with the history of the equal rights amendment. walk us through it. >> that people rights amendment was introduced a hundred years ago. it was the first time it was introduced in congress. 50 years ago in the 19 70's it was passed by both houses in congress in a bipartisan effort. in 2025 -- in 2020 it was ratified and it is waiting to be published to the constitution so it can be the law of the land. host: after virginia passed this it was the 38 the last state to do so. what happened under a trump administration? caller: they issued a statement that the time period for ratification past. and the equal rights amendment was no longer valid. in the 1970's there was -- the preamble of the e.r.a. being

edited and there was a certain amount of time where the amendment needed to be ratified by the states. but our argument is that if congress can implement or execute a time limit on an amendment it can also resend a time limit on an amendment and that is what we are asking congress to do right now. to acknowledge that the timeline does not apply. the equal rights amendment has been altered and requirements are needed and that it is the law we need them to realize that. host: let's talk about the legal aspect of this because some say the timeline and deadline is up. >> the timeline was on ratification. and the time has passed in the sense that the original time limit said seven years. there was a resolution passed in the late 1970's to extend the

time limit by another three years to 1982. it is true that 1982 came and went without additional ratifications. the last three ratifications took place in 2017 2018, and 2020. as mentioned, if congress had the power to put that timeline in the preamble they have the power to remove it. we have the principal in the government democratic system that one congress cannot bind future congress is. under that premise congress can change the joint resolution with the time limit. to remove the time limit or declare the e.r.a. valid. and that is what the existing revolution in the house and senate would do. host: is there a legal challenge to what the trump administration did? guest: there is a case that was

filed by the ratifying states. that lawsuit was a specific kind of lawsuit. it salt an order from the court compelling -- it slopped and border from the -- it's -- it searched for an order from the court compelling them to have a ratification. there is an order compelling the executive branch to take that action. and take a step back for a second. usually the executive branch has no role to play at all. but congress created a very narrow ministerial role for the executive branch by giving the archivist of the responsibility of counting up ratifications. when the number reaches the appropriate level to flatbush -- to plant place -- to publish the

amendment. and then they count up the ratifications and declare when there are enough. we believe that in a ministerial role they should have complied with that and publish the amendment as soon as all constitutional requirements for the amendment were satisfied which happen in 2020 with a ratification by virginia. so that is the lawsuit. the lawsuit was dismissed at the district court level. for lack of standing. in other reasons as well. just this week, the d.c. circuit judge affirmed the dismissal. it is important to know that move. and how the d.c. circuit judge the three states had not satisfied the high bar required for the relief they were seeking. the decision does not finally resolve the question of the validity of it. and it does not say anything about whether congress has the

power to remove the time limit. the prior administration had declared the time limit expired. and that they could not revise it. and the current administration office of legal counsel issued a decision saying nothing in the prior olc opinion stood in the way of congress taking action to remove the time limit or recognize the e.r.a. as well. host: we want our viewers to join in the conversation. we divided the lines with support and opposed. if you support a equal rights amendment dial in at (202) 748-8000 and if you are opposed dial in at (202) 748-8001

or you can text us at (202) 748-8003 and tell us whether you are opposed or supporting. here is what someone had to say about her views on the eera. >> good things came out of this. every state has elected women to represent them in washington and congress has a record number of women. which includes me which is the very first woman to represent mississippi in congress. women are already protected from discrimination under the law through the 14th amendment through the constitution which ensures equal protection. under the law. women's rights are also protected by the equal pay act of 1963. the title seven of the civil rights act of 1960 four the title ix of the education amendment of 19 need to. the pregnancy discrimination act of 1978 and more. the equal rights amendment will

only money the wires -- waters because of its vague language. it would work to undo many of the great achievement and in does not allow for any engine between men and women. even -- any distinction between men and women even when it would be important to do so based on biological differences. i am concerned about the privacy and safety for women and girls that the equal rights amendment would destroy. locker rooms, prisons, hospital rooms, domestic violence shelters, and restrooms would allow men into areas where women should feel safe and protected and have privacy. host: the republican senator from mississippi. the equal rights amendment let's read the language for our viewers before we get reactions. e quality of rights under law should not be of -- abridged by

any state under the account of sex. this is a time is to the senator and her opposition. guest: we have make -- we have made great strides in this. but it can be rolled back by a future congress or supreme court. as we saw in the decision last year rights we thought were protected and we thought were established can be overturned by a supreme court. what the difference is between and people right and having the patchwork of laws that we currently have is it is a stronger level of protection. it is important to have it added to the constitution. and it provides a higher level of protection against discrimination. the e.r.a. being recognized in the constitution would have persuaded this court to reach a different conclusion in dobbs. there is language in the dobbs

decision that suggests this court does not believe pregnancy is an issue of equality. i do not believe it would've made a dramatic difference in the outcome on that issue. the dobbs decision illustrates the importance of an e.r.a. for a more abstract reason. the majority of our supreme court is convinced that the concept of equality that appears in the constitution today, the meeting of the 14th amendment and all of its provisions, is frozen in time in 1868, when that amendment was ratified. the very rights that the senator from mississippi was talking about could be rolled back. this supreme court has made clear it does not see a basis to understand equality, to

encompass a guarantee against discrimination on the basis of sex. what that tells us is if we are going to have a constitution that is limited to its actual words, then we need to put a prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex into the actual words of the constitution. for that reason i think dobbs underscored the importance of the amendment process and how vital it is that the e.r.a. be ratified and recognized. host: the equaligs amendment first pass by congress in 1972 requ8 states ratify by march 1979. 1977 it was approved by 35 straight legislators -- in 1977 it was approvedy state legislatures. it was extended until 1982.

as we learn today and as many of you know this was ratified by the 38th state in 2020. christina, we are asking people to support or oppose. you support. good morning. caller: i do support the e.r.a. and i have been trying to talk locally about it. i believe we have, at least on the democratic side of the aisle in florida, support for continued equal rights. i would like us also to look at it as far as our march for our lives. kids are our youth. equal rights as far as gender all the way down through protected equal rights for our children. as well as equal rights for education. i do think we all benefit from a

level playing field. that is who we are and where we want to grow from. our congress should simply be able to enact reversing the limitation of time for the ratification and we need to see much more action on protecting our democracy and our individual rights and liberties. host: where are the polls and where are the polls with younger people? caller: -- guest: the polls say there is overwhelming support for equal rights amendment. north of 70% of the country think we should have an equal rights amendment. recently ms. magazine did a poll that show the vast majority of young people support the equal rights amendment and think men and women should be treated equally.

this has very strong popular support among the people and bipartisan support in both houses of congress. it is important for both of remember this is not amendment for one part of the population, it is for everyone. as you are the text of the amendment come equality for all should not be denied on the basis of sex. we are not taking something away from one group but we are making sure we have a level playing field for everyone. caller: -- host: loretta, charleston, mississippi. you oppose. caller: i oppose if it is -- leah thomas is a transgender man going against natural born girls in swimming and it affects girls with scholarships for trying out. if it favors him over a national -- over a natural board women. i am of creel dissent in jewish dissent. my daughter ran track. i do not want a man dressed as a

woman in the women's bathroom with my daughter and as a blind woman i do not wanted either. i want women's rights to be protected with natural born babies. women's rights are going back with not defining what a woman is. host: we heard the mississippi senator talk about that as well. linda, will you address that? guest: the way i see the equal rights amendment is it requires our lawmakers to be more precise about the problems they want to solve. it does protect all people against discrimination on the basis of sex and we have a decision from our current supreme court, written by justice gorsuch that makes clear that discrimination on the basis of sex encompasses discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. it is true that if the government discriminates based on sex, that is something the

equal rights amendment would contend with. i think what this requires is our governments to be more precise. if there is a safety problem they should address the safety problem. if there is a fairness problem they should address the fairness problem. our courts right now are dealing with this issue under title ix. it is already an issue. courts are already contending with the issue of how do we deal with a transgender girl who wishes to compete on a girls team. i will tell you i am much more concerned about the other aspects of inequality we have and the other deficiencies we have in terms of protection for women and girls. i am much more concerned about those things that i am concerned about the idea that a man will dress as a woman to gain access

to a locker room. i do not think that is a problem that is widespread enough to be concerned about, and i am much more concerned about the violence that is inserted every day by men who are men who are victimizing women and girls, whether in the home or in the workplace or on the street. i am much more concerned about those other kinds of violence than i am about the hypothetical impact of a trans girl entering a locker room. in my experience a transgender girl is trying to live her life and trying to be an individual. that is how i see that issue. i am much more concerned about the other aspects of the quality that we need to work so hard for in our culture. host: justin in chattanooga,

tennessee. supporting the e.r.a.. welcome to the conversation. caller: thank you. i support people rights for all beings because the problem with this world is the human condition. as a human, as a being, we have the distinction to see positive and negative and duality. these things are an illusion which should be avoided. you can designate something as this or that. it is an illusion. we perpetuate all these constituents to represent us as what we call democracy, which is really a republic, and they do not. as far as equal rights are concerned, the bottom line, there is no being on this earth

that should not be respected for its view or its idea. host: we heard your point. why don't you respond. guest: i agree. we are all human beings and we should all be treated as such. right now our democracy does not allow for that. as our recent supreme court has said, we are not protected against discrimination in the constitution. right now, i believe justice scalia said women are not recognized in the constitution and discrimination is not mandated and also not protected against. i should leave the legal terms to my colleague. that goes to show we need higher levels of protection because right now we do not have that. we are at threat of being rolled back to a previous century with the protections we have. if we want to ensure everyone is treated equally we need to have an equal rights amendment.

host: let's go to vanessa who is in tennessee who opposes. caller: hello there. i wanted to say this is a farce. i believe you are manipulating the language to push another agenda. i will say this. as a woman in america and i am i do not feel my rights are not equal. i do not feel i am not being protected. i see that border and i see women coming to this country in droves. there is no way you can tell me women do not have equal rights because in this country we know there are laws, we know there are things in place that will allow a woman to get ahead, that will allow a woman to be successful in this country. this is about manipulating the language to push another agenda and it will hurt our children. host: what is the agenda so our

guests can respond? caller: the agenda is this. when you say you want to protect and you use the word sex. you know there are people claiming there is more than two sexes when we know it is man and woman. now we have there are 2000 genders now. that is the agenda you are trying to push. if it is about sex, say male or female. you do not say that. you leave it so vague to where you know it allows all of this other stuff to come in. host: i will leave it there and let both respond. linda, do you want to go first? guest: the word sex is the use -- is the word used in many of the laws the caller was referring to. it is the word used in title ix

and title seven. it is the concept the meaning of which is worked out in the courts and that is what always happens with constitutional amendments. our constitution is a set of principles, not a set of specific laws. what happens is the constitution is interpreted by the court. we already have a lot of caselaw about what the word sex means. this is not any different from what does the word free speech mean? what does the word religion mean? the facts we are using our general terms, sex, is because that is the thing we are doing. we are adopting a principal in the constitution. the other thing i wanted to mention that it is true there are a lot of laws and things that protect the ability of women to get ahead.

ivory with that completely. a lot of the laws have changed since the 1970's for the better. let me give one example. in the 1970's many states have laws that said if there was a child custody debate the mother got custody presumptively. now we have laws that say the court looks at the best interest of the child. many times they will be the child but the child is first. that is a good change. what that change has done is require our lawmakers to get more specific about the problems they are trying to solve and not make generalizations about men or women or anybody else. we want our laws to be fair and to be focused on the problems they are trying to solve and not

to make generalizations about characteristics of people, whether that is race or religion or sex. zakiya thomas -- host: zakiya thomas? (202) 748-8000 -- guest: i am grateful the caller has not experienced any discrimination based on her sex. my concern is those women who do not have that experience and are discriminated against on a regular basis, who are making less than their america -- than their male counterpart. the lgbtq individual being attacked because of who they are. that is why we need the equal rights amendment. we need the equal rights amendment to make sure everybody is treated equally and there protected because of who they are. host: linda coberly, that caller was from tennessee. tennessee is one of five states

who have thought to rescind the ratification. why the states trying to do so? do they have a legal argument? guest: virtually all of the efforts to rescind ratification happened in the 1970's. it is a reflection of the fact there was a very active and well-funded opposition to the equal rights amendment in the 1970's. the early years after 1972, states ratified really quickly and there was overwhelming support for the equal rights amendment from both sides of the aisle. once the opposition took hold their started to be efforts in a handful of states to pass a new resolution attempting to take back an earlier ratification. history tells us that is not something that can happen. history tells us that when a state has ratified, it is finished. it does not have the power to take back a prior ratification.

the best example of that is the 14th amendment. when the 14th amendment became part of our constitution, two states that had ratified had also made an attempt in the later legislature to try to limit their prior let ratification. -- their prior ratification. those efforts to rescind were not recognized as valid. congress enacted a resolution recognizing the 14th amendment as fully ratified and listing those states as having ratified, which they had. that is why we are asking congress to do the same thing now. the resolutions that are pending in congress would recognize the e.r.a. as valid, notwithstanding the time limit and notwithstanding the efforts by a handful of states to take back the ratification. the reality is there are now 38 ratifications of the equal rights amendment. that is all that is required

under the constitution to recognize and amendment as valid. host: let me follow up with this tweet from a viewer. why should it be passed by way of an ex post facto law that changes the conditions that were set by law when nothing prevents congress from passing it again with states ratifying the same? linda coberly? guest: it has taken us 100 years to get here so i'm not interested in waiting another 100 years free quality. that is the first thing. ex post facto is a specific legal concept in the constitution. it has to do with criminal consequences that flow from action and whether congress can enact something after the fact and also be responsible for it. this is different. the amendment itself is not being changed. the amendment is the same words

that were voted on by the states in the 1970's and again by nevada and illinois and virginia in the last few years. the amendment is identical. what congress did in the middle of the 20th century's it began to put time limits on ratification in the preamble of the amendment. by putting the time limit there, congress were observed for itself the power to change the time limit later if it wished. congress is already done that once come in the late 1970's, when it extended the time limit by another three years. the first hundred 50 years of our nation, there were no time limits at all on ratification. the 27th amendment, which is our most recent amendment to the constitution, was proposed by james madison. it is a congressional pay amendment and it took 203 years to ratify. the situation we have right now is unprecedented.

there has never before been a situation where an amendment has meant all of the requirement for an amendment under the constitution and a joint resolution by congress is purporting to stand in its way. we believe and we think constitutional scholars support this notion that congress can change that resolution now. host: robert in arlington heights, illinois. supporting the equal rights amendment. good morning. caller: good morning. i support the equal rights amendment, but it seems to be your guests on your panel are going against the grain of the past few callers who have called regarding to the bill. the concern is the transgender community can access the bathrooms. that is a radical concept to be able to digest. i think most people are ok with equal rights but that aspect has people pretty upset. even if you agree with equal

rights, most people do. it is ridiculous we're even talking about this in the year 2023. the issue is the transgender community and are we going to make concessions with regards to the accommodation of bathrooms? as we the taxpayer going to pay for that? bottom line, are we going to pay for that. host: zakiya thomas, go ahead. guest: there are states that have equal rights amendments in their state constitutions. linda is the expert. they still have same-sex bathrooms. the question of transgender individuals being able to use bathrooms, we already have family bathrooms, we already have bathrooms that allow people of different genders to use them. you talk about concessions, it is not about concessions, it is about accommodations. it was not too long ago that we had better government implement at bathrooms based on race. we recognized it is not

necessarily right -- it is not necessarily wrong for the government to have the ability to do that, at this point why not have a unisex bathroom? a lot of restaurants and hotels and other places have added that to their facilities. the cost of that can come from different places. it is important for us to remember that at the end of the day transgender individuals are people and we need to recognize and appreciate that they have the right to use the restroom, whether it is unisex bathrooms. that is something we should all want for everyone in our country. host: linda coberly, do you want to talk about the state legislatures? guest: illinois, where i am sitting right now, is one of the half of our states that has an equal rights amendment in its constitution and has had such an amendment for many years. illinois, which was one of the last states to ratify the federal e.r.a., has had a state

e.r.a. for decades. we still have single-sex restrooms. we still have single-sex prisons , we still of battered women's shelters. a lot of the concern about the impact of the equal rights amendment is very overblown. also, in terms of the impact on things like restrooms, the other thing i will note is the issue about access to bathrooms already exists. the able rights amendment will not change that issue very dramatically -- the equal rights amendment will not change that issue very dramatically. as long as our laws continue to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, which they do. they prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in education, in employment. as long as those laws exist and prohibit discrimination on the

basis of sex, courts are going to be working out these issues about access to bathrooms. that is how the supreme court decided the issue a couple of years ago in concluding the protection against discrimination on the basis of sex in title vii does encompass discrimination on the basis of sexual identity and sexual orientation. we are in a growing pains moment on this issue as people are adjusting to the idea that there are human beings who do not fall as neatly into the categories of male and female we have always had. i think that has been an unsettling fact for some people in our culture and is something we will all be adjusting to. i think to say that that that issue, which we are all working through is a reason to say no,

we should be able to discriminate on the basis of sex. i do not think that holds up. the vast majority of americans agree there should not be discrimination on the basis of sex. let's recognize that in our constitution and continue to work through exactly how that issue plays out in specific contexts, like we do with every other constitutional right. host: jamie in missouri. what do you think? caller: i think it is bull. i am looking at three beautiful women who are successful and doing well. i love you guys and your great. where have you been put down in light because of being a wonderful female? you are successful and you're doing it. second, i am a woman, i never got a foodstamp, i was a teen pregnancy, i work for potatoes, i never got welfare. i worked.

that is what you do. what you're doing is you are marrying in a man who identifies as a woman with a penis going into my grandchildren's bathroom and putting their sexual preference in their face and saying it is about women. it is not. if a guy wants to be a cat, that is a mental illness. i'm a strong surviving woman. i have ms do not get a free ride. you are women that are born women. you are beautiful women. a guy who has mental illness. host: i will jump in. zippy and thomas, i want -- zakiya thomas, i want to take the point you're asking for a free ride.

guest: i do not understand free ride in the context of the equal rights amendment. my first job i made about 20 thousand dollars less than the man i ended up supervising because when i came out of college they assumed he would have more skills and qualifications but we were hired at the same time. i ended up being his supervisor. that first job set me back. i should be making a lot more in life and that will affect my retirement. this is the economy i'm talking about. use a free ride i'm not sure what you mean. i worked hard my entire life and i know linda has. she is a partner at a prestigious law firm and she is doing this work every day on behalf of all of us in this country because that is who the equal rights of men and protects. yes you are a woman in that definition is the one you identify with but i do not understand the context of a free ride when it comes to the equal rights movement.

none of us want a free ride. people do want a free ride, but the folks who are up here want hard work just like you do. we want to make sure we are not discriminate against because of who we are and not the work we perform. host: patty in atlantic city, new jersey. caller: good morning to all of you and thank you for the brave and important work you do. it is very much appreciated. my question is right now, because of the dobbs, women are going to become second-class citizens. i wanted to say to the two of you, the panelists, i do not want you to forget about the abortion issue. if women become second-class citizens there is no equal rights for anyone and i thought about running a public service commercial on tv during tv shows that regular people watch to show the real effects of what

would happen, what is happening with abortion being illegal. women suffering, bleeding and dying and so forth. tell me what you think about that, about the public service commercial for women. thank you very much. host: zakiya thomas, do you want to take that one? guest: thank you for standing up for those that do not have the ability and are not able to do so. i think the abortion issue is important for all of us to think about. no matter where you stand on that issue there are consequences to the dobbs decision and i believe linda is better qualified to talk about. i thank you for the work you are doing because it is so important we keep in mind the effects that decision has had on our people. host: linda coberly? guest: i think the dobbs decision is a wake-up call for us all. for many years when i was doing this work, the response to the question about abortion rights

was always we already have abortion rights, we already have reproductive freedom in this country without an equal rights amendment. the e.r.a. is doctored to change a lot on that score. now we know what happened with that -- the e.r.a. is not going to change a lot on that score. now we know what happened with that. one of the reasons that happened is because the supreme court adopted a very limited reading of the constitution. whether the e.r.a. would have made a difference to the justices who wrote the opinion in dobbs or not, and i wish i could say it would have, i do not think it would have. whether it would have made a difference, what they wrote his they are going to interpret the constitution based only on its text. what that means is our constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of sex. it does not. that is what our current supreme court believes.

i take that as an invitation to amend the constitution, which is what we have been trying to do now for 100 years. to refer to what the earlier caller said, i have been very lucky. i think many of us are very lucky and we have had extraordinary challenges in terms of discrimination in our lives or our careers. i think it gives us an obligation to use the advantages we have received to work for those who may not have those advantages. getting a constitutional amendment that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex would prohibit that. host: the president and ceo of the coalition for women. we thank you for the conversation this morning. we will bring you now to the

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