concerned are you about crime in your community? our phone lines are divided by region. eastern/central timezones, 202-748-8000. mountain/pacific timezones, 202-748-8001. you can text us at 202-748-8003. twitter and instagram at cspanwj. lori lightfoot becomes the first chicago mayor in 40 years to lose reelection. her unfavorable ratings have soared with chicago is fed up with our -- car violence and robberies.

790 -- 797 and more than 500 shootings, 1400 more recorded in 2019. lightfoot has made a point of noting violence had ease by the end of last year. that is not easy anxieties among chicagoans. 62% say they did not feel safe. here is mayor lightfoot on tuesday after losing her bid for reelection talking to her supporters. [video clip] >> i'm grateful we work together to remove a record number of guns off of our streets, reduce homicides, and started making real progress of public safety. i'm grateful we were able to connect youth to mental health services, housing, education, job training, and legal services. i am proud we made investments

in communities that have been neglected for decades. [applause] >> and putting over $2.2 billion in communities in our neighborhoods, that commitment must continue. [applause] >> i am proud we will deliver on the city's largest ever investment in affordable housing and to achieve record investment in our public schools, adding schools, social workers, and special education case manager's. you better believe i am grateful we took on the machine that held the city back. [applause]

>> regardless of today's outcome, we salt the right fight and be put the city on a better path, no doubt about it. host: that is chicago mayor lori lightfoot. we are asking you how concerned you are about crime in your community. we are taking your calls by region. the numbers are onhe screen. take a look at paulaallas, one of lori lightfoot's opponents, the candidates, this is from tuesday where he addressed supporters and here's what he said about crime. [video clip] >> public safety is the fundamental right of every american. it is a civil right. [applause] >> it is the principal responsibility of government/ we will have a safe chicago. will make chicago the safest city in america.

[applause] >> it will not only come from providing the police with resources and support they need, but from building the bonds between the police department and the community. [applause] >> so we have true community policing in the greatest sense of the word because the police can only be as effective as the community they work with. i will support our law enforcement officers but i will also support and have a zero tolerance when it comes to violating the law or violating the constitution. [applause] >> this is coming from a family of four police officers.

including my wife. host: we are asking you about how concerned you are about crime in your community. first up is danny in arizona. good morning. caller: hi. i was born and bred in chicago. i have been down here nine years. i think care my dad. -- i take care of my dad. in my small community, with -- we are getting overwhelmed with these illegal aliens coming in and the crime and the drugs have indoctrinated our community.

we cannot take it. host: what kind of crime is it? you mentioned drugs. what are you seeing there? caller: burglaries. going in and out of properties. the police cannot keep up with what is going on because joe has an open border policy which is stupid. who in their right mind is this? he is going to guess the constitution -- against the constitution of our country. he supposed to keep us safe but what he is doing -- i do not think he knows what he is doing because he is stupid. he's making it so bad for us. host: i hear you.

let's take a look at mitch mcconnell talking on the senate floor about the increase in crime across the country. [video clip] >> the american people are concerned about the collapse of law and order in our country. 39% of new york residents say they felt less safe than they did we are ago. last month 63% of voters in chicago said they felt personally unsafe of gun violence and crime. on tuesday, though chicago voters tossed out the incumbent mayor. american see this problem going from bad to worse. more than 70% of the country will see crime rates rise even higher this coming year. unfortunately my fellow kentuckians know this as well as anyone else, in my hometown of

louisville, homicides triple between 2018 and 2021. since the onset of the pandemic, louisville has seen the second-worst increase in homicides among more than a dozen similar u.s. cities total homicides have slightly subsided from the record high in 2021, but there still sitting in the triple digits. want louisville couple who 19-year-old son was murdered by a convicted felon in between 19 summed up the way everybody is filling. he said homicides are maybe down but it is not down enough. crime is not limited to the most callous acts of murder. there is also a literal rash of brazen theft. two days ago the town of

somerset was stunned with a local car dealership was robbed pointblank. a group of mass thieves stormed the storeroom and drove no fewer than six high-end cars right off the lot. the nationwide decline in law and order has not been happenstance. the democratic party has made a decision to make public safety a lower priority. host: now senator mitch mcconnell. we are asking how concerned you are about crime in your community. a tweet that says absolutely concerned but not living in fear. keeping things in perspective. media makes the country look like a war zone. the link fortunate to live where i do. a tweet that says the uncle wealth disparities will continue to generate crime as usual.

intellectual crime and going militia groups are a greater concern. sonia tweets, no. i visited four major cities in the last year and always felt safe and found nice people when in need of assistance. sean is calling us from north carolina, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. yes, the crime. i see the attorney general come out daily and tell the united states that no one is above the law. he must be lying because i have seen the things the president has done, brown television. -- right on television in his own words. if i myself went down to the corner and provoke people to a the governor's office, i would be in jail. it has been over two years and the sitting president who has done nothing while this was

going on is still free. host: how are things in north carolina where you are? caller: i see a lot of people emboldened to do more crime because i believe a lot of people -- we are not nation of laws no more. i sat in the parking lot with my wife eating our dinner last night, report in the get dinner, we are going to rest and eat. a pickup truck comes flying through the parking lot, kids and stuff walk out of the stores with their parents. i sat there for 45 minutes. the police department did not show up. host: rose is next in new york. hi. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call.

seemly concerned about crime. live in new york my entire life. what is taking place as a result of community leaders is horrible. our legislators are not trying to consider our laws and it seems they are taking side of the criminals. i'm hearing stories about little children, a couple of years ago be shot in the head two years old. all these children and no one seems to care. they just care that their progressive as they can be but they are not taking the citizen safety into account and that is the problem. host: have you found it worse? you live in new york all of your life. in your community, has been worse lately? caller: yes.

i think people are staying indoors more. i think they are afraid. i know for myself i did not take the subway. i'm concerned about the crime occurring here. i think people are just afraid. host: let's take a look at foxnews.com that says kathy hochul loses support in new york amid start in concern over crime and living costs according to a poll. despite a drop in support, several initiatives touted by the governor welcomed by empire state voters. gar in decatur, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm not really concerned about crime in my immediate community, but i grew up in 50's and 60's. before the vietnam war you almost never had shootings of individuals, family members. work comes home. -- war comes

home. we were in 20 years in afghanistan. we have had 75 wars in 274 years and we think war is not going to come home? crime as a result of all of the wars we have been having. host: you think it is veterans who are in iraq and afghanistan have come back and committing these crimes? caller: no, i did not think it is them. when i grew up and guys came home from vietnam base to bring duffel bags full of all kinds of drugs and this is the early 1960's. 15-year-olds standing on the corner with thousands of dollars in 1965. the vietnam war was the catalyst of the prime -- was one kalus of the crime the experience.

>> jan is in colorado. caller: hello. this is janice. i want to talk about people coming here illegally and all the problems we have had. we have had some things in colorado. we have had shootings and people getting killed. this is ridiculous. i do not understand why people getting picked off. we have to take all these illegal people, two busloads to each senators congressman territory, and have them fill the effects of all these illegal people coming here with the drugs killing our children. host: you are seeing that in colorado?

caller: when it happens to everyone of them, i want to see two busloads to each senators and congressmen. host: are you seeing that in colorado? caller: possibly stop them when they have to them in their backyard. host: michelle in maryland. hi. michelle, are you there? michelle? caller: thank you. i had to meet the call for a moment. i'm concerned about the trickle-down effect of crime such as we cannot talk about the effects of the vaccine, covid, and many people suffered heart attacks because of that. i am concerned about people blaming the mayor that was not elected in chicago because i remember six years ago she is found in the freezer dead --

jenkins found in the freezer dead. that led to oregon harvesting. that is why the types of crime that trickle-down. also what is taking up -- ti cking up as predatory crime like stocking. right now, i am being stalked. i live in a building with a neighbor using something -- i am -- i know i'm not crazy. he is using a machine to talk to me in my head every night. those are the type of crimes. host: "the hill.com crime bill in d.c., the headline is why

d.c. crime bill creating big problems for democrats and it says, senate republicans trying to put the squeeze on democrats on legislation next week that will undo parts of district of columbia crime bill to eliminate most mandatory sentences, lower penalties for a number of violent offenses including carjackings and robberies and expand the requirements for jury trials in most misdemeanor cases. legislation was he -- but was approved. the gop led house pass a resolution of disapproval that was blocked limitation of the law. that resolution is lucky to pass despite democratic senate majority and parties usual support for d.c.

luke in new york. caller: i want to clarify the prior caller. the former president said to protest peacefully so that has nothing to do with crime . policies making crime go up is e nobel reform by the democrats. -- is the no bl performed by the democrats. they stop the asian hit campaign because it was one type of group putting putting violence on asians. the no bail reform is hurting the communities. they're just getting out the next day after too many violence crimes. you have communities funded by george soros letting people out

and it has been proven come our attorney general on capitol hill, he said, you cannot go after people that are bombing spreading centers because it has been done at night and you cannot figure out the crimes. they are picking and choosing based on who to prosecute in the whole thing has been politicized and we have to get back to calling people out, stop being politically correct, and putting bad guys in place host: let's take a look at white house press secretary asked yesterday about president biden's decision not to veto a bill just mentioned about the d.c. crime bill. she talks about a previous white house statement of the administration policy. [video clip] >> is not a broad statement

about d.c. statehood it says the administration opposes the revolution that would dismantle the crime bill. when must the policy reverse? itwhy was house democrats not notified about the rehearsal? >> there is never a change of heart on where we were with the sap. the way it is laid out speaks to the president supporting d.c. statehood. that is where we were at the time. we wanted to make sure lifted up where the president has been for the past decade, making sure d.c. by for d.c. to become a state and we say if congress wants to move forward in that way, we should pass hr 51, make

d.c. the 51 state. we never laid out with the president was going to go once it came to the desk because we wanted to allow congress to move forward in a way they normally do with the mechanism legislation moves forward. we never said anything at this time and now that we are communicating clearly now that we know this isolation is going to be the president's at the desk. mimicking clear where the president is -- we are making clear where the president is on the legislation. >> it says the word opposes. is it the administration was not aware of the content, the specifics of the crime bill and now you are aware? when you release the sap i am assuming maybe incorrectly you

were very aware of what the council was proposing. >> we were aware of what the castle was proposing but we are saying that we wanted to make sure we continue the president's continued push for statehood and that is what we did. host: we are talking about crime in your community and taking your calls and social media posts. michael on twitter says, crime is a local concern. drug striving most of it. must concern me we have a national media who seeks to normalize much of it and show empathy towards perpetrators more than the victims. duane cynthia takes, crime is a huge problem and prevalent in democrat-controlled cities. there are no repercussions for smash and grabs. when a business owner defends their life and property on their

own, they are the ones prosecuted. kathleen calling us from montana. good morning. caller: good morning. i do not know how to but my situation into words, but this is my lifelong home community. i was born in 1949. i never earned a living in my hometown but i come back whenever i can. now that i am back in my elder years, i have in total shock about the facts of life. lying and cheating is the way to survive. people have come here with little money. they do not have to earn any money, but they warm their way into the few jobs we have, the

school. the kind of people we are getting in my hometown community, i cannot even put into words. host: what kind of crime are you talking about? caller: i cannot call it a crime. it is worse than crime. that is all i have to say. host: christina in chicago. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say lori lightfoot is the most disgusting liar. when she did this beautiful city. i live along lakeshore drive. now it is just tense, drug dealers. it is so appalling to me. two years a when there is

flashing macy's, thr times, stole all the purses and macy said we are done, we are leaving. that liar just said, we are keeping control of that. calling the police wires. -- calling the police liars. i lived across the lake years ago and i will swimming at 1:00 -- 1:00 in the morning. now i am a spray to go to the grocery store. a girl was beating and fort lee marine came -- fortunately a marine came. i do not get it.

i do not know what the endgame is here. the drug dealer said he loves chicago. it is the most corrupt city in the united states. host: brooklyn new york next. hi jimmy. hi jimmy. caller: remember when nobody had that window gates, car alarms. we were bad in school, admit you were chewing gum. then i got bad in my neighborhood during the mid-1960's. the drug operation i guess america is not just crime, it is a part of an operation. we hear more about communist china flooding us with fentanyl but before that it was a soviet operation. 1969, highest levels of soviet defectors defected, and warned us willing to be destroyed by drugs. he said there developing synthetic drugs, 1969.

u.s. intelligence ignored this guy and he proved to be correct. i was inside the communist movement for half a century and i've been exposing it. we are being torn apart racially, sexually, morally. they took got out of the schools and replace it with transgender, antiwhite indoctrination. but american troops go to be and i'm, -- when american troops went to vietnam they want you're going to be destroyed by drugs. it is killing the case. host: rick in tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. i have lived all over this country. others in l.a. -- i have lived in l.a., florida, nashville. when i came to nashville as a

little boy there was two skyscrapers. never knocking on the door to three quarters of a one million people. two skyscrapers were small and now we have over 50 downtown. i live 10 miles straight shot of nashville. i live 5 miles from where carrie underwood lives. host: how is the crime there? caller: the chris can travel today. -- the crooks can travel today. when i was a kid, you do not have a car. if you're looking to go to college, you could have a parent to afford to give you an old joke a car to drive. after that, it seems like everybody started working. kids part-time out of high school. kids are not graduating and now you have commercial type jobs and no one is making any money

but they are spending their money on cars and wills and stuff. in my neighborhood today and i live -- i can name you multimillionaires. i live in a house i bought for $60,000 35 years ago which is worth $400,000 now. host: right crime are using in your community? caller: when i got to bed i can sit here and i can hear gunshots were the gang members are pulling up at stop signs and having shots at each other. i work at kroger still at my age and people are walking in. this is not san francisco, this is nashville. they walk in and we had to stand there and watch. customers walk in awe. my friend son got his head blew off two years ago.

his wife committed suicide over this. they have not found the young man that killed him over a watch and a car. we have to break drivers getting robbed. everything you here in san francisco and new york, remember everything happens on the west coast and east coast lite comes to the center of the country. the gentleman who called about the warning signs, when i was a young man, we had to drop because russians were coming. the russians were not coming but we went through that. one think i heard that carrie is true today, if the red the chinese effort decide to march on america -- ever decide to march on america, we are in trouble. host: sandra in missouri. did i pressed the wrong button? sandra, are you there? caller: i am here. host: go ahead.

caller: i'm in st. louis and i am concerned about the young youth crime. we used to have cameras on the light poles. the police department could see these crimes. now is like everything shut down and everybody has turned a blind eye. these kids need to be accountable. they do not need to be 21 to be accountable. if you are 10, you need to be accountable. we have so many people driving around with expired license plates. if they hit somebody with insurance, we have to pay for that car to get fixed. it is unfair what is going on. everybody seems like they are turning a deaf ear. host: you no longer have the cameras? caller: in some places where they needed, no, we do not. this rule with the cars, you can

get hit somebody today and their driving around with a three year expired tag, you are out of luck. nobody is saying anything about that. there should be more concentration to get these kids, anybody in line who is doing a crime. host: let's take a look at merrick garland and senator cory booker at a hearing earlier this week on the justice department effort to oversee local police departments to keep them from questionable practices. [video clip] >> putting limitations on the chuckles, guidelines for no not lawrence, a dangerous -- guidelines for no knocks warrants, a dangerous. created a database to serve as a

repository for officers within the next eight months which is now this past january. the order issued in june of 2020 also directed the attorney general to great -- collect information. >> there's a working group to stand this up. there is difficulties with getting reporting and difficulties with respect to finding when a determination has been made but we are seized with this and we are working full speed ahead to get this done. >> i am grateful and hope we can continue to medicate on that -- communicate on that. >> local state agencies to contribute to , how is that going? >> we have made outreach to those supporting this remaking

outreach to state and local law enforcement. we are making progress. i cannot say more about at that point. >> the biden administration in cooperation with congress has put significant amounts of money to the cops grant program. it was the highest amount of money given to programs that help local police departments. what processes are in place to ensure the funded funds are being used for internet purposes? does the department audit the grants? >> whenever a government agencies gives out grants there is always a risk. we have tight auditing and review processes for the grants. host: that was the attorney general talking to senator booker. retaking calls about how

ncerned you are in your community. the numbers on your screen. sharon in ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm glad to talk to you. i have aot of complaints about the shootings we have in a small town. we are a very small town. i do not live in chicago, california, new york, or nothing like that. but today i am 80 years old. i never seen anything like this in my life. i was born and raised in the 1950's and 1940's. lease to be able to go outside, lay in the yard, and we were a very happy family. it was harder for my mom and dad to raise eight kids but they did

and we were happy and lovable family. today, i am scared to go out in my front yard and plant my flowers. i'm scared to death to drive in the grocery store. i have to have people do that for me. i hope they -- i prayed to god every night i go to bed because i'm a christian person and i pray that they get somebody else in their before 2024 because i do not think this country is going to make it for another four years with biden. it is terrible. i'm afraid for the kids, with their teaching them in school. i have a grandson and granddaughter. they will be going through kindergarten shortly. i'm scared. i keep telling my son, please,

send them to a private school. do not let them go to public schools. host: so you're in new york, new york. caller: i was born in new york city. i became a homeowner in east harlem and it seems every few years it is good and then it goes bad again. ram concerned is there is a lot of we have a female governor and a female police commissioner, it seems more photo ops. we have more women in -- i'm off women in leadership -- i am all for women in leadership but more for effective leadership. i feel it is more about politicizing. look at what is going on in the neighborhood. east harlem has in the past has

had a bad reputation of being crime-ridden but we have a councilwoman who has allowed injection sites to be all over this area. it brings drugs addicts and it is unbelievable. you feel like a pioneer. you are going to go and justify the area, by in the area -- justify the area, buy in the area and hope for change but you see pockets of new development, but yet the area has gotten worse. it is very discerning. it is very heartbreaking. host: let's take a look at facebook. cheryl says, i'm concerned about

the number of former cops getting elected as mayors. i'm concerned the city budget will only fund the police, not the other needs of our city. bill says, my concerned, yes. do i spend my day worrying about it? no. i put my level of concern of three out of 10. cindy says in my community we respect law enforcement and respect the police. it makes a difference. crime is low. gary is calling from cleveland, ohio. hi. are you there? just in fayetteville, and of: a. -- jeff in salina. caller: good morning. you have 5% of the population that commits over 54% of violent crime and if we talk about it, if we bring it up, we are

labeled racist. crime is going to continue unless we decide to sit down and talk about it. i had a sister murdered in 1994. my parents split up in my dad committed suicide six must later. i cannot handle it. unless we sit down and talk about it, it is not going to change. host: carol in texas. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and for taking my call. i wanted to talk about taxes. i am born and raised in texas. you do it was a bit of research and look at the numbers of mass shootings we have had in texas in the last 10 years.

what the response has been by the government -- governor, i remember need to watch texas nationally because what republicans can get done in taxes, they end up trying to do or doing on a national basis, i the abortion bands -- like the abortion bans. matter what has happened in texas, no matter how many have been murder in walmart, schools, the only thing they have done is make sure more guns are allowed on the streets and more people are allowed to carry guns. an example is the santa fe's school shooting in 2018 were 10 students were murdered by another student. the response by the republicans who control texas for 20 years, two decades, was in 2021 in

september they made it legal for everyone to be able to carry a pistol. everyone can carry a pistol wherever they want to without apartment. there's no permit or training required. that is allowed without a permit. they did that in 2021. we had another mass shooting. i understand it do not use pistols and stuff that another mass shooting in uvalde in 2022, just last year. the response from the governor has been to affirm more gun rights. they came up with this thing where they make texas a sanctuary state for the second amendment. they always double down the making sure they have more and more gun rights. host: azalea in california.

good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. a lot of people around there talking about all these criminals, i think i have it in their town and i feel for them. counties have the money to put in police and police constantly dealing with situation in our area. there is crime. it is a small town. usually the police would take care of it. people are against police. we have the problems we have as the reason. you go to neighboring town and you will see they clean up the

streets and makes a they are out there -- and at the next day there out there. i feel so sorry for the homeless but the drugs have done it. i feel the government is at fault. not all of them. we are at fault because we had -- allowed it. we voted for drugs to be ok in our country and that is the problem. we are the problem. we are voting for people that do not care about the government. they do not care about the rights. they care about the money to get. you will see it right away. host: dell in arnold, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. that lady that just called for the guy they called in north carolina, jeff about the guns. they doing that because of the way the guns are done they killed so many people so quick. i wanted to say there is gangs in this country. there is gangs in the senate. how can one senator stop all the progress being done unless they got a concerted action to stop something that is going to help the american people? look at what happened at the abortion program. host: what is going on in arnold, where you are as far as crime goes? caller: all over the united states the bloods got one thing,

the crips got another, the politicians got another, and whenever somebody start saying hey, police need your money. host: you have gains in your community? you have gangs in your community? caller: we do not have them openly. not like they do in other places. but it is the gangs in washington dc look at the wind that just got the multimillionaire house in new york. that was the gang. look at what kevin mccarthy just did. he got the gang at work it was that -- where it was at. host: gary in amsterdam, new york. good morning. caller: good morning.

we had a beautiful town at one time. you cannot find any dirt on the sidewalk. when they started buying these houses, people from the city started buying the houses and brought people from new york city, supposedly from brooklyn and they took over the city. bell reform has got to be changed. it is too much crime. this -- it has to stop. i had to pay the price and i was younger. i went to jail for a little time but i sure in my life out and i think we have to look at this from the perspective. i was a part of it when i was young. i do not do it anymore. thank you for your time. have a great day. host: michael in killingworth, connecticut. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm ok. caller: it is a perfect storm

going on here. we have the breakdown of the family. lots of kids in the city do not know their dad is. there is no direction. we are prosecutors in the city not prosecuting criminals. we have open borders and the our propellant and it is coming out everywhere. i've seen a huge increase in crime in connecticut. new haven and hartford are 20 minutes for me. i'm in the suburbs. you are seeing murders, rapes, smash and grabs, on a routine basis. what happened is we have a gigantic push to defund the police. see connecticut, the governor took it a step further and they voted to sue the police. host: sue the police for what? caller: if someone arrested to they were arrested wrongly or

perhaps there is a gray area there, they have the opportunity after the arrests to go after them, job, income, pension. this puts heavyweight on law enforcement shoulders. the breakdown of the respect for law and order and it is harder to do your job properly. you are seeing we are now down in connecticut 25% in state police enrollment. host: thomas in abilene, texas. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you're on the air. caller: i was say crime is pretty average -- i would say crime is pretty average here.

some people are saying they are not criminals calling in. how do you stop people who want to be that way? maybe they calling because they keep thinking about guns. another way to control guns as the ammunition. if they made it like alcohol, you have to buy ammunition, then they would not worry about it. they would not have the ammunition to use it with guns easily. crime is crime. it is worse now because they are too incentivize to be criminals. host: take a look at twitter here. we have this from first responders and veterans who says, crime is a major issue and it is unconscionable that these politicians would endanger the citizens they have entrusted to

protect for their ideological pursuit. stores are closing in areas that fault so long to have them in their communities. this tweet says, i do not care who does not like it. i live in california and clarence going gone up incredibly because the policies are leaders establish -- crime has gone up incredibly because the policies are leaders establish. woody is next. caller: good morning. i have a question. the direct relationship between crime and poverty. my question is, would we be better off as a society if we were to educate and train people so they can make income and a living for their family? the crime rate would drop. host: johnny in massachusetts.

good morning. caller: hi. good morning. the fellow just set something in my thought also as far as education. i think the problem across the country is there's lots of crime but if you go back, i would say, the crime starts by not being educated we are pointing fingers at everybody instead of looking at ourselves in the mirror. try to be kind to people. across the country, it has to happen no matter what. i traveled the whole country in my career. the one thing about being out of boston was i would always look around my surroundings because it would make you feel like comfortable if you do not feel what is happening.

i feel this way in boston. it is awful. the crime is bad. what a really a lot of angry people, whether it is driving a car, trying to let somebody cross the street,. it has to be taught in school. when i was a kid we had police officers come once a week and talk to us. host: once a week, a police officer would come? caller: once a week in boston. they have programs for the -- where the police can teach them how to be across the street, red and yellow light, being kind to your schoolmates, stuff like that and i think that is why boston one of the most safest

cities in the country. we are slipping. i go to the city council meetings. i can tell you that myself. i'm in my early 70's now. it is getting worse. the only way we are going to change that is for people to start being kind to each other. host: ed in maryland. hi. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. a lot of your callers touched on the main points that cover or give us the reasons why we have this crime problem. one of the foundations of it is of course drugs. when we talk about drugs, we need to look at the origins of how drugs have been used in the past to destroy economies and control them. we about the chinese -- we talk about the chinese but do not mention the chinese were

fortunate to trade by the british and others and their winning the trade war with the porcelain, silk, and he -- ttea. transport in hong kong from china and they were targeting the pores of people in china to get them hooked on opium. even the british new this was a bad move but because they're able to shift the trade they're able to take over china and because with the chinese call 100 years of shame. host: tell me how things are going in buoy? caller: things are going well but we have a couple of carjackings. basically what the viewers have an opportunity to go to the

library and read the politics of heroin by alfred mccoy. dr. lyons -- dark alliance in the story of ricky rawson he was contacted by people. taught how to make crack and basically that was the beginning of the crack epidemic. i want to mention something critical about vietnam. a lot of drugs were brought over heroin from vietnam and vietnam was a prize housing for their friends because they were getting most of their opium from the french for the french. host: we're out of time on this segment of "washington journal" but of next we are joined by niina farah to discuss the biden administration's upcoming decision on whether to approve a major oil drilling project on

alaska's north slope. later in our spotlight on podcast series, adrian rice -- adrienne ross talks about the state of the democracy is the u.s. and abroad on the show she host is called "democracy! the podcast" and we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> the united states of america was originally built on 2 important documents. the first, the declaration of independence, was signed by 56 men in 1776. the constitution was signed by 18 men in 1776.

denise kiernan has written a short background story about 95 of the signers in 2 books " signing their lives away for the declaration of independence," and " signing their rights away for the constitution." >> pay pack, one of the largest annual gatherings of conservatives is back in d.c.this week. c-span''s coverage of the conference continues. today at 5:30 p.m., former president donald trump. watch online at c-span.org.

>> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. where it -- no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word,, if it happens here,, or here, or here, or anywhere that matters, what -- america is washing on c-span. >> the house and senate are in session. the senate will work on nominations for district court and the house on protecting people from government intervention act.

the heads of the u.s. intelligence agencies will testify on the threats facg the u.s. in 2 hearings on thursday before the house intelligence committee. on thursday u.s. senators from ohio, federal and local epa agencies, and the ceo norfolk southern will testify on how to protect the community after the trn railment in ea palestine, ohio. he over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on-demand any time. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. i am joined by niina farah. she is an energy log reporter.

we are talking about that major oil drilling project. it is called the willow project. guest: the willow project is this big oil drilling project in alaska. if you are looking at a map it is right at the far north of the state. it was developed by conocophillips. if this project went forward, it would be a lot of drilling in an area that had not seen a lot of oil and gas development is so far. conocophillips has some other drilling projects in this area, but it would be a pretty big change. host:if you would like to call in you can do so on our lines by party affiliation. the lines are democrats, (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. the released a supplemental review of the situation. the trump administration had initially approved the willow project in 2020. walked -- walk us through what happened. guest: this was part of the energy independence initiative. trump was eager to open as much public land as possible to fossil fuel development. it was first approved in 2020. in 2021 judge sharon gleason ruled that the analysis of the project failed on a few

different counts. it did not look at fossil fuel emissions, or the impact of foreign emissions. i did not look at enough alternatives -- it did not look at enough alternatives. it did not consider how the project would impact a lake that is important to migratory birds and caribou. that was in 2021. in february we had that initial report from blm saying "we have gone back, we have looked," and instead of the initial program, which would have 5 drilling areas, they have decided to have 3.

this is still a really big emitter and environmental groups are concerned by what this will mean for the climate, if this does go forward. host: we have a line set aside for alaska residents, specifically for alaska residents. that number is (202) 748-8003. you can also use that line for texting us. i want to talk a little bit about that. it requires the federal government to use all practical means to maintain conditions under which man agencies to incorporate environmental considerations during their planning using a disciplinary approach. talk a little bit about that act. guest: it is processed log

requiring the federal government to take a hard look at the environmental impact of projects. it does not require a specific outcome from an agency that it does require them to take care if a specific project will impact the environment. this is something judge gleason referenced specifically in her opinion. if they do approve it, there could potentially be more litigation as well. host: approval does not mean that it is done. this could still go back to the boards. guest: for sure. the environmental groups have not committed yet to filing new litigation. they are waiting to see what the

biden administration decides to do here, but they could very easily go back and look at the problems judge gleason found with this project, looking at emissions, possible alternatives, and whether this project is protective enough to this wildlife area, and to say "their analysis does not do enough." host: what is the timeline? when do you think the president is going to make a decision about this? guest: it is tough to say. the statutory deadline, the agency has 30 days after this analysis was published on the federal register. that 30 days expires on monday. it could come later. i do not have any specific insight on that.

host: we talked about conocophillips, we talked about environmental groups. what about the alaska residents, especially the indigenous groups? guest: this project has a lot of support in alaska. alaska has a lot of tie-ins with the fossil fuel industry, and they get a lot of money from fossil fuel development. senator lisa murkowski, senator dan sullivan, representative mary, who is a democrat actually, have all voiced their strong support for this project. that is because the money from oil and gas development can go to education, infrastructure. senator sullivan said if this project goes forward it could bring 2000 jobs to the state. that is a big deal. they also talk about the importance of having domestic energy production and not

relying on other nations for our energy prices. host: this is in the arctic area. any special concerns giving that it is arctic? guest: the arcticguest: is one of the fastest warming places in the world so environmental groups are concerned about what this is going to mean for the planet. the estimate was about 9 million metric tons from this project every year in the project is supposed to go for 30 years altogether. that will be a lot of emissions. president biden is facing a lot of pressure from environmental groups and democrats to rein in this project because they say it is inconsistent with his climate message of wanting to cut greenhouse emissions in half by 2020 -- by 2030, which is just

a few short years away. this is one area where you have a lot of power over public lands. you could say no. host: we are taking your calls on this topic. you can call in on the lines by party affiliation, , (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . if you live in alaska, i know it is early there, but you can call in at (202) 748-8003. how big of a project is this? how big of an impact is it expected to have?

guest: the relationship between oil drilling domestically and gas prices is not quite direct. the gas prices we see at the pump are linked to global oil prices rather than domestic reduction so we do not necessarily see a one-to-one relationship there that it a lot of oil. conocophillips at one point estimated that it will be 180,000 barrels of oil a day that would come out of this project. host: and you do not see that as impacting gas prices, given that many barrels of oil? guest: that is outside of my area to be honest so i cannot comment on that. host: ready to take calls? guest: let's do it. host: thomas is in spring hills, florida. caller: this is a waste of time.

the biden administration has no intention of drilling, fracking, or any type of program. this administration is going green. it is in the pockets of the green party who want to do away with fossil fuels, that want to put windows and solar panels. they have no intention of fossil fuel. did they just want to push their agenda for electric vehicles. democrats who voted for biden, shame on you. shame on you all. guest: i would push back on that a little bit. i think there is a chance that the biden administration does approve this project. that is because the transition to renewable energy, while it is a big priority for the

president, i think he understands that right now the country still relies a lot on oil and gas and that transition is not going to happen overnight. he is in a difficult decision right now. he is getting a lot of pressure from both sides, from republicans and from folks in alaska who say "we have to continue to drill. we cannot make a rash decision to limit how much we are drilling." on the others he is facing extreme pressure to walk away from fossil fuels wherever he can. i would not say that it is a sure thing that he will not approve it. host: let's check in on social media. michael says this -- " may be the guest could explain how all of the alaskan citizens a in the wealth from the gas they take from their?' guest: i cannot quite answer that question. while there is a a lot of of

support in alaska for this, there is one particular village that is very close to where the drilling that is taking place that have said they do not one this project to go forward. they are concerned about what this will mean for subsistence hunting or air quality. host: you can take a look at this map here. this is the project area. here is the border with canada and that there is the proposed area for the willow project. let's go next to sean calling from columbia, maryland. caller: thanks for taking my call. piggybacking a bit off the previous call, the more that we turn away from fossil fuels, the more we are fueling prudent and his war machine -- fueling putin and his war machine.

if we became the giant that we are in fossil fuels, we would bankrupt putin. i would rather have a putin that is powerless and not funding his war machine and taking care of all of the rest of the world with all of the natural resources we have been sitting back -- the way they do this now is a lot cleaner. i don't understand biden. it is like he is destroying this country. host: -- guest: thanks. your comment about russia and putin, i think that point has been made in a similar way by a lot of republicans who have said, "we need to increase domestic oil production." they have pointed to the war in ukraine as an example of why we need to have a country -- we need to as a country continue

production. it is just what is the pacing of that going to be. host: mark is next in new york, democrats. caller: thank you for c-span. i am not ashamed that i voted for biden and that he is pushing green energy, because that is the way the world needs to go. i am tired about these dinosaurs calling up and saying fossil feels are the only way. we have damaged the planet. wake up! i swam last summer for vacation. denmark will be 100% renewable in a year. i'm sorry. i hope biden says no to this

drilling. the right wing can get all mad as they want, but we are saving the planet for them too. guest: there is another way the biden administration could reject this project without rejecting it. conocophillips has said they need 3 drilling areas for this to be a profitable project. what we could see the biden administration do is approve it, but approve a smaller size, so it could be 2 drilling areas instead of 3 or 2 drilling areas with the possibility of a third at a later date. the administration can say they are not rejecting the project and appease some people in favor of it while in effect eliminating it. host: congo phillips would say "it does not -- conocophillips would say "it does not make

sense to do this given the price." our next -- mary is next. caller: i agree with the caller previous. change comes slowly sometimes, but it does need to come. the guardrails we have in place are minimal for any disasters regarding oil spillage, train wrecks. we could have an hour-long conversation about just that. what happens when and if, but mostly when, there is leakage, a spill? you are talking about an area that is mostly pristine, should stay that way, is in danger for

a lot of different reasons right now with the warming alone. let's not add to that. i am not in any way a hard person on this. i am looking for a solution, but the proof is in the pudding. once that bubble blows up and what is in it goes everywhere, good luck trying to put it back in the bubble. guest: that is a really big concern for environmental groups looking at this project. i mentioned earlier the lake area that is near this drilling. you have migratory birds coming from as far away as argentina, antarctica, coming appear to nest in the summer months. it can be devastating to bird species if there is an oil spill that happens in this area.

environmental groups are also concerned that once you have development start in this area, that will enable other companies to come in. once you build the pipelines and other infrastructure, it is easier to continue drilling in a certain area. host: let's talk to linda next on the line for democrats. caller: i do agree with the previous callers. it is a hard know for me. one of the things -- it is a hard no for me. one of the things that has gotten two people is trump's crowing about energy independence. i think people -- most of our oil gets exported out. i believe it only means that we

are producing as much oil as we are sending out. if we produce more here, it will not necessarily go to americans. it may not even be a type of gas that can be refined for our use. when we start talking about migratory birds, we have already lost so many species. i recall hearing the last 2 years that we have 900 how wells that oil companies -- 900 wells that oil companies have chosen not to drill in, so why can't we go to those 900 wells? it is blasphemy to ruin that land. host: a couple of things there. guest: sure. i think the figure is even higher than 900. it is close to 6000 wells that

are not being drilled. there is an opportunity there for companies to go to existing wells that they have authority over to develop them to produce more oil. on the point of exports, the u.s. is a leading exporter, by demand in the u.s. has been going down. wind and solar are getting much, much cheaper. we are sending moyle of -- more of our oil and gas overseas and transitioning at home. host: connie is a republican in sisters will, west virginia -- republican in west virginia. hi. caller: i'm interested in the topic you are talking about today. personally, i feel the united states is basically way ahead of china, india, any foreign

country on clean energy. we have had the cleanest oil and gas around for years. why they got rid of it or are trying to get rid of it is basically because they want to destroy this country, the party that is in office, because ever since they have shut down our supplies, we have gone down the tubes with one crisis after another in this country. clean energy is doable, but in its own time. you cannot tell people you will do away with natural gas and oil because you produce so many products with it. the windmills are out in the ocean. they are as tall as the chrysler building, jammed down into, the floor of the ocean, which is destroying the marine life. whales are washing up on the east coast. something is harming them.

they do not have a lot of news coverage about it because anything that has to do -- that would deter anybody from wanting renewables, they are going to not talk about it because they do not want you to know. host: connie, let's get a response. guest: cleaner production in the u.s. is appointed republicans have wrought up a lot. if we have to have fossil fuel production, we should do it here where our standards are the highest and we should not be getting production from other countries where we do not have control over their environmental policies. there is still risk involved of doing that here as well. host: harry is on the line for democrats,, rocking him, north care -- rockingham, north carolina.

caller: this is jerry, not harry. i've been sitting here listening to the republicans, how they downgrading biden. they need to think about the way the polar bears are losing their habitat there in the north pole around alaska. they talk about putin. these people got up there in congress now trying to overthrow the united states of america. they are the ones running this country now! they love putin! look up there and see what they are saying. if i was a republican, i would not be shouting about -- talking about biden! that guy down there in florida -- those people if, they hang around long enough they will be waiting around in water down

there. host: ok, jerry. guest: i think drilling in alaska is getting to be a little more challenging with climate change. i i have heard reports from climate groups saying that even during the winter they have to install chillers on the ground so that it is cold enough to do drilling. otherwise they cannot get the heavy equipment out there. they use that as an example of why this is a terrible feedback loop of drilling more, getting more oil out of the ground, burning it, getting more co2 into the atmosphere and warming it. host: speaking of polar bears we got this text from james in raleigh, north carolina who said, "gas companies will kill endangered animals and the gas prices will not drop a scent -- a cent."

let's talk to henry in lexington, kentucky on the independent line. caller: good morning, ladies. i apologize if you have already answered this, but does the u.s. have a national energy transition plan? i have been able to find 10 or 15 other countries who have been able to do that, but i have not been able to find one for the u.s.. guest: that is a really good question. i didn't= -- i should know the answer to that. congress put a lot of money recently into transitioning to fossil fuels with the inflation reduction act. there is certainly a lot of emphasis on changing to

renewable energy, but i cannot put my finger on a specific plan. host: karen is a republican in alabaster, alabama. caller: good morning. i wanted to put out a couple of facts. a caller called in and said finland is 100% renewable energy. that is completely wrong. i looked it up. host: he said iceland was 100%. caller: he said finland. go look it up. nuclear energy is 20%. a a lot of these cultures over there are using nuclear energy. the climate people up here will not use nuclear energy. if they were serious about it, they would consider nuclear energy. the polar bear population is actually thriving, not declining. look it up.

this whole climate change hoax, what they are trying to do is change the way we eat, change how we live, they want to control the population. they are not being progressive. they are being regressive and taking us back to caveman days. it is completely ridiculous. look at germany. 50% of their energy is renewable. they are going back to natural gas. why? windmills aren't working! if you want to read about this, there is a book out there called "the climate change hoax argument." read about it. the people doing this are making themselves rich and trying to control the population. guest: certainly finland is doing a lot to transition away from fossil fuels. nuclear energy is then important question. -- is an important question.

small modular reactors is something, people are looking at but there are strong feelings about what to do with the waste. our country does not have a permanent repository for nuclear waste. there is a lot of litigation, including from republican led states not to throw away waste in their states. it is complicated to figure out how to do that. host: we got a text from randy in michigan. "i agree that the alaskan drilling project should move foreword." any comments on that, niina. guest: i'm sorry. host: "your guest mentioned migrating birds from argentina

being harmed by an oil spill in the arctic. what about the millions of birds being slaughtered by windmills?" guest: i cannot speak to that too much in detail, but in general the fossil fuel industry is a much bigger danger tell wildlife. we do not have nearly as much wind development as we have fossil fuel, so just the scale of the problem is much different. host:host: let's talk to cliff next on the line for democrats. caller: my name is clifford froehlich and my question for niina would be recently the epa addressed the cdc in regards to greenhouse gas emissions from large dams and large reservoirs. my question is since the 1950's,

both russians and canadians have dammed up major rivers in the arctic region, forcing the waters to flow all winter long and changing the dynamics of the hydration and atmosphere up there. this they have been doing for 60 years. they were forcing sea-sized reservoirs to flow during the wintertime. humidity would be released into the atmosphere and the surrounding region. the arctic has been known by scientists four years to be the most sensitive places to any human impacts on the climate. why is what is going on for

60 years been overlooked by the governments of the world? these are not small. these are sea-sized these reservoirs. they heat all summer long and it is forced down during the wintertime and practically flows all the way to the arctic ocean without freezing. my question is why has it been overlooked? guest: i'm so sorry. that is not an area i am familiar with at all. trying to figure out how to manage broader supply and for donating across countries is difficult for managing climate change and managing the environment. host: jim is an independent in roe sankey, texas.

jim,, you are on the air. caller: i'm calling in because a european company is making a solar field on my southern fence line. they are very destructive. they destroyed 2000 acres and the bad part about it is they are getting $60 million of federal money to do this, to destroy my life. they have put part of this online, and everyone thinks that solar is so nice. you put it up and it sits there nice and quiet. they take it from bc -- the converters to take it from bc to ac is making a lot of noise. all of my wildlife is gone.

it is a european company called rwe. you may know of them. they are not really a green company. they have coal and nuclear there in europe. what are you say about all this about the destruction and totaling of my home? what can you tell me about that? guest: i'm sorry to hear about your experience with the solar farm. i'm a legal reporter he usually covers litigation over fossil fuel projects but i expect more litigation against renewable projects with concerns over condemnation of land to make way for transmission lines and things like that. this will be an issue. we have to build these projects somewhere.

how we do that is very important. host: 10, you are next -- ken, you are next in pennsylvania. caller: god bless the people who want to work. people in alaska, please: -- please call in, have your morning cup of coffee. it is your state. the democrats feel this way and republicans feel this way. the previous president was drill, baby drill. biden is no fossil fuel. so prices are going to increase. your guest was saying we are exporting. that is because the market here is shrinking.

other countries need it now because of what is going on with ukraine. all of the above -- let's use all of the things available. what irritates the republicans is they will push it down our throats. guest: i think the biden administration is in a tough position because both sides of argument are very entrenched. the need to have fossil fuels, the need for domestic production is a big republican priority. on the other hand you have environmental groups saying this project cannot go forward. there is a possibility the administration could approve this project but approve a smaller version than what

conocophillips might want. another alternative could be approving the project as they have detailed in this analysis, so having 3 drilling areas but including some environmental concessions. they might say restrictions on drilling elsewhere or other environmental action to offset that. the biden administration may try to appease both sides here and probably make neither side very happy, to be honest. host: our next caller is from atlanta, georgia, democrat. caller: i'm very happy you are having this conversation. that last caller from texas talking about the republicans not wanting it shoved down their throats, these are the folks who, like trump said, "climate change is a chinese hoax."

they are not interested in knowing the science about it. one of the things that has led me to understand why fossil fuel is so detrimental is that the fuel coming out of the ground, the carbon that is in that oil has not seen the white of day in millions of millions of years. that oil we are pulling out of the ground and burning is now filling up our atmosphere. i don't think a lot of people understand that. the oil we are burning, this carbon is getting added to the atmosphere that has not been in the atmosphere in a long, long time. that being said, a couple other things i wanted to talk about was, i don't believe solar

energy is the answer. i think there are some challenges with those because there are a lot of plastic materials that go into those photovoltaic cells, so that may not be the answer. host: let's get a response. guest: you are absolutely right. when we are burning fossil fuels, carbon dioxide is going into. the atmosphere it creates a blanket in the atmosphere that traps heat. co2 stays in the atmosphere for a very long time. that is why this country is looking at, " how do we limit emissions?" there is only a certain amount of warming this planet can stand before we start to have environmental impacts. we are already seeing the effects of climate change with intensified, extreme weather, drought, there are links with wildfire and all these other impacts affecting our planet already.

host: chris, independent. caller: how are you doing today? host: good. caller: a lot of the people who call in on the environmental side are very uninformed about how drilling is done in alaska. they have this idea that it is very dirty./ in fact it, is a very clean of wha -- clean way of producing oil in a very environmentally responsible way. if they were better informed, they may not be as opposed to the projects being done up there. furthermore,, the projects that are done fund what is called the permanent fund in alaska, which makes money go back to every alaskan citizen, which is very, very good for the population in

alaska, which is something people are not aware of. the oil profits are distributed to the people in alaska, and that is something that is very important to the population of alaska, including the indigenous population. guest: thank you so much for that comment and the background on how the funding from oil and gases being distributed. i think senator dan sullivan would agree with you. he made some comments last year like "why all this attention on alaska?' he pointed specifically to new mexico, and said, "there is a lot of drilling happening here. why aren't democrats up in arms about what is happening in other states and let alaska also have these projects?" host: byron is in marion,

virginia. caller: good morning. i would like to say that the biden communist democrat party, if they really wanted to help americans, instead of these aliens and trillions of dollars going to foreign countries -- billion and trillions of dollars going to foreign countries, they would install solar panels. we would be building more hydro dams, which is zero emissions. trump was right. in california they have all these huge rivers letting -- huge rivers. they are letting them flow right back into the ocean. they have no management -- no forest management, which causes the massive forest fires every

year. you can transition to clean energy for vehicles. the gas you can make by electricity and minutes h2o. guest: keep an eye out for the funding coming from the inflation reduction act. a lot of that money is getting distributed already. i is going to a lot of republican states. a lot of my colleagues have reported on the districts seeing most of -- seeing the most funds are going to the districts of politicians who opposed the inflation reduction act. i lost my train of thought there. host: we are out of time anyway. niina farah, thank you for being on the program. nice to talk to you. coming up, it is our weekly spotlight on podcast segments.

we have adrian ross of the consortium for elections. she discusses the state of democracy abroad. first it is time for open forum. you can start calling in now. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . we will be right back. ♪ >> the united states of america was originally built on 2 important documents. the declaration of independence was signed by 56 men in the middle of 1776.

the constitution was signed by 39 men in september of 1787. denise kiernan and joseph dagny have written short background stories about 95 of the signers in 2 books, " signing their lives away for the declaration of independence, " and "signing their rights away for the constitution." >> book notes plus is available on the c-span now apt or wherever you get your podcast -- app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-span has the latest coverage on the war in ukraine. we also have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders, alls on the

c-span network, the c-span now mobile app and c-span now/-- follow tweets from journalistss on the ground. go to c-span.org/ukraine. >> pay pack, one of the largest annual gatherings of influential conservatives is back in washington dc this week. c-span's coverage of the conference continues speeches from members of congress and media personalities. today at 5:30 p.m., former president donald trump. watch online at c-span.org. >> next week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in session. the senate will work on judicial

nominations for district courts, and t house on protecting spee fm government interference act. chair jerome powell wi testify at 2 hearings, t fst on tuesday before the senate banking committee, and again before the house fan committee. on wednesday before the -- thursday u.s. senators from ohio and pennsylvia federal and local epa agencies and the ceo of norfolk southern railroad testify before the public works committee on how to protect the public and environment after the train to real mint ast palestine, ohio. -- train derailment in east palestine, ohio. head to c-span.org for

programming information or to stream live. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. it is open forum so i am interested to hear what your take is on public policy, anything going on in washington. first i would like to start by showing you this article from the new york times. there was that meeting earlier this week. it says " president biden and olaf scholz are heaping praise on each other for their united effort to support ukraine, despite a diplomatic misstep between the two countries over sendingk tanks toyui -- over sending tanks to kyiv. the alliance has hit some rough patches over the year, still

they presented a united front for the cameras." let's take a look at a portion of that. this is from the white house yesterday, president biden and german chancellor schultz gave their statement on how the war in ukraine has been going. [video clip] >> we are in lockstep to provide critical security assistance in ukraine. ammunition, artillery, air defense systems, we have been together throughout this to help ukraine meet its basic needs like food, health, and we continue to maintain the pressure on putin and undercutting his ability to fight this war. as nato allies, we are making the alliance stronger and more capable. you heard me say before when i talked to putin a couple months

before, i told him he is more likely to get the -- he had that effect in terms of what has happened. a lot has happened since last year. we have a lot to talk about, and i look forward to our conversation. >> thank you for having me again. let me just say, this is a very, very important year because of the dangerous threat to peace that comes from russia invading ukraine. it is really important that we act together, that we organize in lockstep, and that we can get the necessary support to ukraine during this time. this time it is very important

that we get the message that we will continue to do so as long as it takes and as long as it is necessary. host: that was president biden and the german chancellor at the white house. also take a look. usa today says president biden had basal cell cancer removed from his chest. his doctor said this -- all cancerous tissue was removed and no further treatment is required. let's go to the calls now. jess is-- -- jeff is in virginia. caller: good morning. put the money into title production. we have a vast coast in the united states that would produce a lot of energy. the tidal never stops moving as

long as we have a moon. why is the u.s. interested in -- if the u.s. is interested in peace talks with ukraine, they should sit down with putin instead of sending weapons. host: all right. roger, ipswich, massachusetts, democrat. caller: i have a following up on the russia thing and an energy question. someone asked a question about the russian mega dams that have been built in the last 50 years. a canadian oceanographer, hans miller, he warned that the building of these hydroelectric projects in russia

and canada would affect the sea ice and the regional climate. the evaporation, all of this water vapor in the atmosphere in the winter, and during the winter the climate would change. this is a weapon. i'm not sure if it was released intentionally, but this could be changing the climate, amplifying our burning fossil fuel problems. no one is talking about it. it is so secret it went off the radar screen after 1980. it is perplexing. everyone is so silent on it. host: speaking of ukraine and russia, the attorney general

merrick garland makes an unannounced trip to ukraine. he vows to pursue work criminals. "he affirmed u.s. commitments to assist ukrainian officials in pursuing work criminals. he was in ukraine at the invitation of the craney and prosecutor general according to the justice department, adding that the trip was not previously disclosed because of security reasons." john is next in greensburg, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am doing ok. caller: i wanted to ask niina out question, but as far as the energy, i can never get a straight answer to this. let's say we built 20 million electric cars and the batteries

averaged from 1000 to 1500 pounds each of them. when they go bad, what do they do with all of that lithium and everything else? we dump it in the ocean? we bury it? what do we do with them. i cannot get a straight answer on that. people need to think about that. i guess that is -- i guess my main point being, the german chancellor coming over here, germany put in $3 billion -- well, it will be $1 trillion before we are done rebuilding ukraine. host: kyle is on the independent line in new mexico. what is the name of your city? caller: the city's name to truth or consequences, new mexico.

host: that is seriously the name? caller: that is unfortunately the name. it is a controversy. it used to be hot springs. before that it was caliente -- we have hot springs here. host: go ahead. what do you want to talk about? caller: for the week the headlines would be the dialogue in india. i would encourage everyone to listen to sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister and listen to what other nations of the world are saying about russia's special military operation. it is very important for everyone to know. host: what do you think about what he said? caller: i think we all need to consider it and regardless of

what we think, the global south is developing an opinion, and we need to understand that. we have been doing this for a long time. i do not think it is a happy thing anymore for a lot of people. we have invaded a lot of countries over the past 37 years. i served in iraq. i remember the new york times and i remember colin powell. we should have a little bit longer of a memory. another new story is congress, the special subcommittee. i want to give credit to representative barra on the covid response. i thought he was logical. all the republicans did a great job, but the censorship is coming out. that has been very important. if you look up the term meant as

lamb -- facebook will show you know results. that is impossible. i is trending on twitter -- it is trending on twitter. facebook is host: this is in the new york times, the headline is, biden awards medal of honor the black vietnam veteran. the nomination in 1965 receiving three teammates while injured in battle. it was revised in recent years. you can see on your screen there a part of that ceremony, he is 83 years old. this is 60 years after he was nominated. robert is in new york, democrat. caller: i just want to talk

about the previous segment. the republican woman mentioned giving money to alaska. that is socialism. that is not so bad. the second thing i want to mention, the greenville, -- the green deal, it is all crazy because they'll be bragging about how electric cars go. today's conservatives were yesterday's liberals. thank you. host: don in texas on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning to you. i wanted to say everybody should get shot back in the white house to save our country -- should get trump back in the white house to save our country. thank you ma'am. host: another don in michigan, independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call.

i would like to remind the american public that if we draw oil to full capacity, the price of a barrel of oil laying down low, russia could not finance their war in ukraine. we could help ukraine like that. host: ok, don. let's talk to lou in florida, democrat. caller: hi. i would like to comment on the previous article. the batteries for these electric cars were recyclable. you can take them apart and put them back together again and they'll be fine. have a good day. host: let's go to patrick next.

madison, connecticut. hi. caller: hi. i would like to comment on the last segment you had. i'm in the petroleum industry. i drive a tanker truck for a living. i carry gasoline, diesel fuel. our country is dependent on fossil fuels is incredible. we booted for our national security. our current president has left us bear bedded. i want to help you understand what is considered exporting and importing oil. if they ship oil out of the gulf of louisiana, gulf of mexico and it goes around florida, that is an export. if it enters long island and oxon in new haven, that is an important -- and adults in new

haven, that is an and adults inw haven, that is an important. i saw two jets fly over north madison in october and it was the first time i saw two fly low level over my sound. i was wondering what they were doing and i heard there are two russian bombers off of the close of nova scotia. they look like they were f-22's or f-18's. they not battery-powered. we need oil and we need to stop -- our national security is a threat and i hear people talking about the crime wave and we get warnings when we pull in the terminals. people look after this, after that. no suspicious people around your truck. let's face it, i drive a running bumper living. with all of the crime, where is our security? where is the security at the

terminals? how to have two fbi background checks to drive my truck. where is government security? when you got people homeless, standing outside terminals with sex -- sacks and we have watch out for a knapsack at the entrance gate. what are we supposed to do? what about harris decides to act like a homeless person and beg for money, which remains open the gate, which i have a card to do? what if he runs in there with an explosive device? terminals are a target. the balloon that passed of alaska, the chinese spies balloon. they're probably keeping track of we drill for oil. we need to drill for oil. host: take a look at front page of the washington post here. it says probes focus on the

trumps lawyers as 2020 four race against special counsel appears to be picking up his pace. federal prosecutors and investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election have asked witnesses excessive questions about the actions of rudy giuliani, the lawyer for former president donald trump, including where he got his information about alleged fraud, but he did in the days around 1/6/2021, and what he knew about the actions coming that day. people who have appeared in front of the grand jury say investigators looking at classified documents taken to mar-a-lago, trumps private home, have salts are testimony saying there is evidence that the former president use attorneys legal services in further of a crime. it is open and form and we are taking your calls now. mary, hi. caller: good morning.

i'm sitting here in st. petersburg after living 43 years in alaska and i was there during the alaska pipeline, both for all of those things and i retired from the state with department of natural resources. i have been around it. i wanted to point out that hardly anyone from alaska has called in. i think most of the people calling in do not have an idea or the makeup of the state of alaska. i like to point out 82% of the entire state is not connected by road. when i move there, there is under 300,000 people. now there is 750,000 people of which 300,000 live in one city. which is anchorage. noah seems to be -- no one seems

to be mentioning the citizens of alaska who actually live there and what has transpired within the state, the statehood. host: what do you think of a drilling project? would you be in favor of it? caller: i would because overall there are so many checks and balances built in by the department of natural resources and the office i retired from, the office of pipeline security, which was a joint office between the federal and the state and they were together all of the time, did all the environmental, all the checks and balances were done. host: let's take a look, republican president nikki haley candidate the slip -- liver

marks as cpac talking about the state of the democratic party and present biden. [video clip] >> the democratic party is a socialist party. look at how much taxpayer money biden has wasted since he took office. on joe biden's watch, we hit $31 trillion in national debt. he has put us on track to add $20 trillion more in the next 10 years. by the way, some republicans have helped him do that. we need to stop with the earmarks and tax projects once and for all. [pause] >> jo's only regret is he has not spend more. he wants more handouts to illegal immigrants. more bailouts for college students.

he does not mind spending so much because he knows it is your money he is spending. dully he needs to spend more of nds to spend more of his more time in retirement. host: that w nki haley, republican presidential candidate speaking at cpacnd that continues today former president donald trump is heduled to speak in the afternoon. we will have live coverage fm maryland national harbor starting at 5:30 p.m. ete time on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video up, or online at c-span.org. gary in new york. democratic. good morning. caller: good morning. all of this conversation about the atlantic pipeline and all the guys makes me cringe because president obama had a lot of oil that was being drawn out. i'm not calling about that. i am calling about we got one of

the best human beings ever in hospice, jimmy carter. i think somebody needs to bring up something about jimmy carter because without him, ronald reagan would've not gotten a lot of the things he got done. jimmy carter laid a lot of ground work and got a lot of things blamed him him he is a great human being. he's one of the best human beings we ever had for president. that is all i have to say. let's celebrate jimmy carter. he was a great man. host: allen in mississippi, republican line. hey, alan. how are you doing? caller: i'm doing good. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to comment on your guess you have on. i would, and i think the

majority of americans citizens in this country would like to see congressman on c-span so they could put their questions to the congressman. host: we do have congressman on during the week. do you watch "washington journal" during the week? caller: i watch "washington journal" all of the time. i do fill some of the guests, majority of the guests. they really do not represent america at all. promoting their books. it is a joke really. the people of america want to talk to people that count, that can do something where they can

put their problems to. we need congressman. $200,000 a year -- 300,000 dollars a year plus expansions. they work three days a week. they really ought to be in touch more with the people. host: susan in brunswick, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a two points to make. please listen to what i say. start using cash and use it in the system. they're about to take us to a digital currency which is actually a chinese form of credit, social credit. i just pay my taxes and i wrote the check out to zelenskyy so that he could buy some more primer the state in europe. thank you. host: kimberly in arizona,

republican. hi. caller: hi. i'm so frustrated because the one thing joe biden out of many things he has done wrong is the border. does anyone realize his open border policy is going to create another 9/11? there are so many known terrorists on the watchlist that come to the border and mayorkas, who is a joke, it does not know where they are at. if anyone does not see that, my mind is boggled by that. it is scary. we need -- we need a big ego is -- we need a big ego in office. host: one last article from cnn.com that says walgreens will not distribute abortion pill in 20 states. it said it announced on friday

not a shipping abortion medication in 20 states following pressure from antiabortion lawmakers and losses targeting the legality medication abortion. that is it for open forum. thanks for everybody that called in. of necks our weekly spotlight on podcast segment. adrienne ross discusses the state of democracy in the u.s. and abroad. her podcasts "democracy! the podcast" and we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine bring you the latest for the presidents and other white house officials, pentagon and state department, and congress. we also have international

perspective from united nations and statements from foreign leaders. all on the c-span network. and see spain -- and c-span.com/ukraine. but the c-span.org/ukraine. >> be up-to-date as get the latest in publishing with the book tv podcast about the books with current nonfiction book releases plus bestsellers list as well as, industry news, trends through insider interviews. you can find “about books” on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> live sunday from festival

bugs, investigative journalist jeff guinn are our guest on in-depth think your calls on history and american outlaws. he has written books about bonnie and clyde, charles manson, and the mexican rd war and his latest book waco about the 51 days stand up in texas between fedal agents and david christ branch davidians. to end the conversation with your phone calls, comments, text, and it -- and tweets. >> sunday night on the q&a in his book driving the green book, alvin hogg talks about the green book an annual travel guide used by many african-americans from 1936 to 1967 during the jim crow area.

he visited a dozen of those sites to learn more about the books history and lasting impact. >> the green book helped african-american survive a very difficult time. it also enabled them to negotiate between unknown territory where you do not know what was going to happen, but it also was an act of resistance, saying we are not going to take this anymore. resilience. see what we can do as people come as americans to create a brighter future, to make our lives livable and enjoyable. >> alvin hall and his book driving the green book sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span q&a. you can listen to q&a and our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: welcome back. it is our spotlight on podcast segment. my guess is adrienne ross the host of "democracy! the podcast" and welcome. 'twas about the podcast. -- tell us about the podcast, way focuses on and where the funding comes from. guest: it has become a pet project if you will and it is an excellent opportunity for us to highlight democratic strengthening happening in countries around the world. that's where the cuts ocean works in partnership with isd. as an opportunity to get people a front row seat to history to see how democratic strengthening the habits on the ground -- happens on the ground. the podcast does an excellent

venue to showcase with their working with. it is a partnership with u.s. iad under a cooperative agreement with u.s. iad so in partnership with local partners on the ground the consortium is able to work with local partners to strengthen democratic and take so many forms. the consortium is soap made up of three equal partners -- is made up of three different partners. host: i will remind our viewers if you would like to call in and make a comment or ask a question you can do so on our lines by a. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002.

i know you are focused on international and overseas but the elephant in the room when we talk about democracy is the attack on the capital january 6. for your comments on that? guest: the consortium is not spending so much energy here in the u.s. on democracy. we recognize democracy as get u.s. as a work in progress as democracies are everywhere and sometimes democracies have backsliding and i was say that's what we saw on january 6. while we do not work specifically in the u.s., democracy is a worldwide universal virtue everybody really seems to be working towards. host: your second season of the podcast launch last month and you had a minute series -- miniseries on ukraine. why the focus on ukraine and what you talk about? guest: last exempt we were able to do a tour of duty of further

training -- strengthening of extraordinary work. it seemed to be an opportunity to talk about ukraine and would have been a problem talking about democracy of other nations without taking a break and a look at ukraine. host: do you take a position on u.s. support for ukraine? is it enough? guest: do we take a position? we are here to strengthen ukraine's democracy and institution that support and sustain democracy and freedom to ukraine. ukraine has celebrated 30 years our freedom since the soviet union fell. the consortium helps to maintain institutions and sovereignty they themselves have established. host: one of the episodes in the first season was called '

democratic resilience.' tell us about that. guest: that is our most listen to out of all the episodes we have live right now. it seems to be the most popular and it features the president and former ambassador to vermont, dr. garrett mitchell and he talks bit democratic resilience. what it is and what elements we look for, how we get it and also with the problems are that might hold us up having democratic resilience. host: let's ask you about an article in the economist. it says, a new low for global democracy. more pandemic restrictions damage democratic freedoms in 2021. talk about the issues that go into strengthening and democracy. what does it take? what are the factors? guest: sometimes the quality of democracy is not always tangible. we know the initial factors that

indicate i democracy might be backsliding. there are things we hear about all the time in washington, censorship, median transparency, transparency in our institutions. sometimes democracies are on the backside before we recognize there backsliding. host: what is the u.s. role in strengthening the democracy overseas? west the benefit to americans for that funding -- what is the benefit to americans for funding or going to other countries? guest: the u.s. is a leader in democracy. we believe we are and we know we have downfall sometimes. our democracy struggles as well. we offer a hand in hand support for partners in foreign governments when they are interested in working with us to shrinking their institutions. by the state department takes it upon zero rehab implements working side-by-side -- we have

government working side-by-side. usiad does development work in local partners and consortium works alongside these nations to provide the required strength. host: lawrence in new york. democrat. hey. caller: hi. good morning, america. they took five weeks of that case. host: how is that related to democracy overseas? caller: they got a lot to do with overseas. we go through the war back and forth. we are not minding our business. we have worse -- we have the wars going on over here.

we pay attention to people overseas. host: anthony in greektown, pennsylvania. hi. caller: good morning. i am trying to understand the role of media in other countries that are trying to promote democracy. i look at our current situation here in the united states where i think the media has a significant bias towards one side and i think it is the grading our democracy here in the united states that we do not have a media that holds what they're supposed to hold as true to power. hunter biden laptop story being a typical example of that. the russian dossier for donald trump first promoted heavily by the media. -- which was promoted heavily by the media.

in other countries, the media it must be the base of trooper democracy to flourish -- must be the base of truth for democracy to flourish. host: you had an episode called 'the power of the press: the power of the media and democracy. guest: c-span is an exemplary place to look at democracy in action. c-span as you are aware was the first organization to get cameras into the u.s. chambers in the 1980's. we applaud the ability you have to have public discourse and criticize the government and talk amongst yourselves these are hallmarks of a strong democracy. you are right. we do address media and the power of media in episode of the previous season. i am everyone to listen to it. you will get something out of

it. it will answer your questions about media abroad. it is difficult. we have a long-established media course here physically in washington. other countries are getting up to speed and able to have a functioning media that can effectively criticize or look at what the government is doing. the consortium can work in these local governments with local partners to help strengthen the transparency and access that reporters may have. in some cases reporters are learning to how to cover the governments effectively because they have not had access to those institutions in many years. host: to show people reporters without borders, it is a map they put out every year for global press freedom. talk about the trend of press freedom around the world.

it's getting worse? is it getting better? guest: as a country to country basis. places like russia, access to information, media itself is a closing space. in ukraine, you hear on the podcast, mayor crisco, the mayor of kyiv, former heavyweight boxing champ, he says, she information, access information is more viable than tanks and weapons. and he has had to get true information out. reporters every year we have had an up tick in the number of matters reporters are suffering. there is a crusade among reporters to get accurate information to the public's hand in many countries. host: in new hampshire on the independent line. caller: yes. what i said they should have a

vision to lead. the united states is the world and like overseas democracy for an example, i remember in the political in haiti, the politician went out to kill the president. we allowed them to do it. the democrats, conniving kill the president. i do not like the democratic rules.

we always it was a bit criticize it. host: you have an episode on haiti. guest: we do. i urge everyone to take a lesson. the podcast is for everyone. rescue 140 countries around the world. we have 42 cities and in the case of haiti, we have local partners on the podcast and they talk about what the situation has been like on the ground for them in terms of security, democracy, and what they are hoping to achieve in their nation. the episode features the president of international foundation system was a veteran of the united nations and has spent many years in times and hades -- haiti and i think he's able to give an eloquent cap situation on the ground is in haiti and what we're looking at in democracy and how he can move forward past the turmoil

experiencing the last couple of years. host: alan in east chicago, indiana. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call and i truly love "washington journal". the best show on tv. united states, we have never established democracy overseas in any country but we have established a lots of right wing conservative dictatorships around the world. in my opinion, israel is not democracy. it is apartheid state. zionism meant they wanted a country only with the jews. they do not want any non-jews.

i would ask what they are doing with the palestinians, they occupy the country, there are pressing them -- they are oppressing them up for no one has gone to the gaza strip to see how they are living. there a lot in there. no communication with the outside world. totally dependent upon any a they get from israel that we get to israel -- totally dependent on any aid they get from israel that we give to israel. guest: we are happy to have discourse and debate. i will state the united states does not cover -- establish government. we strengthen democracy and in places where partners are wanting democracy and freedom and astonishment of independence themselves. it is a hand in hand relationship and the united states is not setting up

governments in foreign lands. host: it is women's history month. march. can you talk about women in government and leadership positions and how that can strengthen democracy? guest: i would be remiss if i did not mention we had to delete secretary matalin all right in the first season. if anyone is interested and cherry picking episode. that is a good one to look at. she was a wonderful woman for equal rights. we know around the world will may make up half of the population and in many cases do not represent a quarter of political engagement. that is something we have seen a place for among governments trying to make that revolution towards democracy. host: david in lake, texas.

caller: hello. talking about democracy. i would like to see about democracy in our country. we keep our principles -- we have to keep our principles. the president is voted as president for a to protect the people of the country. never country's is 6000 miles away -- now the country is 6000 miles away. they have their problems. we have immigrants coming in. the homeless people not taking care of. i do not think biden is doing his job. he's not taking care of the people in the country. guest: i think democracy is a work in progress. every concerns -- it is not the silver bullet. if you look at the democratic resilience episode we talk about if there's one thing i can say

to everyone that would help you have stronger health care, stronger economic systems, michael writes -- more equal rights, that one thing was a democracy, wouldn't you say that is worth the struggle? it is a work in progress. democracy offers freedom. host: i was asked about misinformation, disinformation and social media. what are your thoughts? i believe you did an episode on that. guest: we did. the president of international republican institute is a wise man who talks about the trouble with disinformation and how we see it as a leverage governments often used to manipulate and encourage people to do things that may not be in their best interests or something that they are aware of.

we talk about the situation in ukraine. ukrainians are really struggling right now to get to access information. they have turned to social media rather than mainstream media or broadcast media. another thing to point out is ukraine the media channels are in alignment so they are broadcasting at the exact -- same information. they're not able to do individual programming right now. it is important to know in the u.s., particular, might want to take extra time. if a headline looks strange, check it out. google he had -- google the whole headline and you can crosscheck wet -- what you think is true information or somebody trying to get in your head and turn the troop around. host: kevin in arkansas.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a critical question or philosophical question about democracy as a virtue which we earlier stated. i have a philosophy professor and history professor in local community college and i teach american history survey courses in philosophy will recover liberalism -- where recover liberalism. the founding fathers of the u.s. greatly influenced by john locke and other philosophers from europe. they were critical of democracy. they considered it to lead to tyranny. one of the close from the founding fathers is 51% of people in democratic society can pull away the rights of 100% of the people in that society.

what do think about the role of multinational corporations in democratic societies across the world? how much influence they can get see that democratic political system? guest: thank you, professor. i would encourage your class to listen to the podcast as well. there's a lot of meat there for discussion for your classroom. i would say the opposite of democracy is for keeping it in basic terms as autocracy. what one person horse all the power and information and money the alternative is a democracy. looking at the two systems, i do not think there's any competition and democracy will win every single time. as far as multinational companies, i think it is an opportunity for countries to engage with multinationals.

i want to point out in the case of sudan, this into the first season, you will hear democratic strengthening individuals in the country on the ground see the harshest of conditions, in some cases not able to work when he reported the podcast several days because of the rain falls so heavy. sedan is at the beginning of his establishing -- of subsea democracy and we talk about offering sedan and variety of options and things other countries do not necessarily u.s. but other countries operate. then they help sudan with whatever sudan decides it is best it needs. it is not the u.s. putting u.s. virtues and values and principles on other nations. it is about lending a hand. host: donel in new york, new york. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing?

host: i'm good. caller: i have a simple question. you are talking about democracy overseas? guest: yes. that's a fascinating subject. caller: my question is this, how can you promote democracy overseas when we are missing it here? guest: is that your question? all right. democracy is very fragile. we recognize that. democracy is a work in progress. we know around the world democracy is backsliding. it has been difficult 10 years. the last couple of years you all have experienced covid-19 and understand how much of your rights have been infringe upon in many cases for the whole of your fellow citizens. we recognize there are factors that change and different

variables that influence how strongly i democracy -- how strong is a democracy in certain moments in time. it is a workings progress -- a work in progress. host: kay in new york. caller: good morning. i'm going to address a similar issue about our democracy. i have been following indexes and i think they tracked. you mentioned education, health care. the indexes i think show us around number 37 of the challenge democracy now. top 10 typically listed, i believe denmark as number one. it includes scandinavian countries, canada is around number five. i think americans are in say a delusion think it america is the greatest democracy in the world.

it is not true. it is not for the reasons of the democrats -- it is not for the reasons. i believe the reason we are not as different from republican gentleman who called in. i think you said we are leader. it is tough to be a leader when we are functioning -- we are classified from democracy as autocracy as a challenge democracy because of our poor educational system, our poor health care system, and many other factors. i feel like we are being -- thing are being skewed and i would like your comments on how we can be a leader for democracy when we are in fact so challenge. guest: the greatest thing you can do and i think you will hear this throughout the podcast, almost every single democratic strengthening expert we speak with talks about doing something in your backyard.

we have a guy who was inspired to participate in democracy because his father was murdered in the war. talks about taking the garbage off of the street and cleaning up your blog of your neighborhood. democracy does not thrive on their owns. they thrive when the citizens dissipate and actively take part in democracy. you're concerned about the status of democracy in u.s., the greatest thing to do is get involved in your neighborhood. just on your street. host: william in chicago, illinois. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to go back and ask a question. i gentlemen inquired this notion -- i gentlemen inquired this notion that you said democracy does not remove leaders.

i want to get some clarity. host: american policy overseas as far as creating democracies? is that we are talking about, that a question? caller: any narrative in which america did not supplant leaders or governments. host: removing world leaders. guest: yes. usiad the permitting partner on the ground -- is an implement team partner on the ground. we work to help local partners make the best decisions for the nation. i cannot overstate how mature democracy system is in the u.s. maybe suffering backsliding. democracies are up and down but in places like sudan, haiti, they are starting at the bare minimum. local partners are looking for

guidance, information. how does it work? how do you vote? how do you do free elections? things we take for granted because they have been in place for so long. i think there are lots of opportunities in podcast, or driving around and to do, there are things to learn everyone can benefit from. host: you did a two part show called navigating the northern triangle about the root cause of immigration. tells about those episodes. guest: it is impossible to talk about democracy and freedom without looking at hotspots is get u.s. -- looking at hotspots abroad. we talked about ukraine. the northern triangle is another place that has experience variables in democracy themselves and yet we see what usiad. we see a salvador, returning

from and something up in important ways to strengthening their democracy which will strengthen the economies, strengthening the security abroad, and hopefully retain more of their own people at home and give them freedom and opportunities and economic prosperity which is something that has been a root drive of migration. host: scott in wyoming. republican line. caller: yes. i am a long time viewer. did you comment on the contribution that commonwealth of nations has contributed to democracy? host: do you know anything about that? guest: no, i do not. host: brad in maine, democrat. good morning. caller: hi. i wanted to ask about the

electoral systems. what works the best. when i think we are missing out on his majority base, majority requirement. maine does have far a few elected offices in congress. what influence does that have on the outcome of democracy? that is my question, if you understand the question. guest: i'm not sure if i understand your question entirely. i will point out in latin america we discussed the northern triangle, they use a different system is that of the electoral college and but we have in place here. they do a general luncheon and

then a second runoff so it is number by number -- they do a general election and then a second runoff so it is number by number. it is an interesting thing to look at, how different countries manage the election,. host: the different type of election systems. do you have an opinion of how that impacts how voter participation in voter confidence in the results? guest: i do not. not individual systems. going back to misinformation, we know better education, better read individuals, people who have access to organizations, media and put it here, make better decisions in voting booth. in voter confidence, the martins parents the available to more information on the candidates and more accessibility people have to those candidates to ask questions, to get their thoughts

heard, and filtered by the candidates, we know there is better voter turnout. host: brad is humane. caller: yes, i'm still here. host: oh, i'm sorry. did you have something further to add? caller: what about the difference between plurality and majority? instead of having elections based on the most vote without a majority. would make a difference? guest: it is important that a country comes together and in ukraine they have a referendum vote so they cannot change a federal law without voting on it as a nation. while working more than 140 countries so plurality breast majority depends on what nation

you are in and what those citizens i have chosen for their systems with what they feel best about. host: stephen in san diego on the independent line. hi. caller: good morning. what i just wanted to say is that democracy, the notion of democracy on your part can be a bias. there were eight years of russian history in new york and i took a class under one of them -- there are two professors in russian history in new york and i took a class under one of them and for some nations or groups of people, democracy is not a natural thing. and never seems to work out. that is a part of russia's history. they went from azar's time to

the soviet time and now they have that are proven -- and now they have putin. i just listen to a young man in the philippines who lost family members during the times of ferdinand marcos and yet ferdinand marcos grants and is in power now -- grandson is in power now in this grandson is installing the virtues of an autocratic leader who was backed by the previous autocratic leader of duarte. a lot of times when we as americans interfere in other countries for the sake of democracy we must the world of.

guest: i will point out more than 70% of the world is a bit an autocracy right now. we have covered democratic backsliding quite a bit. we talked about how places like the philippines ebb and flow in terms of the democracy, but generally speaking, the united states is not putting democracy on other nations. we are democratic strengthening team. the consortium does the work with partners and we help them make -- to execute the decisions they are choosing for the nations. host: ronald in colorado. good morning. caller: good morning. miss rawls we cannot sweep january 6 underneath the rug. we had an autocratic epps president -- we had an

autocratic as president. we had a coup. we cannot sweep january 6 underneath the rug. guest: i do not disagree with you. but again, democracy is a work in progress. u.s. is not perfect. our democracy is not perfect but we are here to partner with local partners and help them achieve what they are looking forward for their nations. host: paul is next in michigan. independent. caller: according to article four of the constitution, we are a republican form of government, not democracy. i cannot find democracy anywhere in the constitution. we are actually -- can you find that anywhere in the world, including the united states? guest: brace democracy -- host:

is there an actual true democracy, not a republican form of democracy? guest: democracy is defined by it for the people, by the people. as long as individuals are voting, citizens take part in democracy and they are supporting their neighbors and local elected officials and their taking part in town halls, that's what i constitute a democracy. going back to the question about -- host: going back to the question about immigration and migration, how is the lack of democracy impacting the around the world? guest: an triangle? host: immigration and migration in general. guest: immigration in general is a stabilizer of a stable nation. if you look at ukraine, you got a situation where immigration and migration was brought on by war. we are also seeing destabilizing

factors in things like economic disparity. people heart -- people who are struggling may leave their country to migrate for opportunities. food stability is another driver of migration and refugees. i would point out in ukraine however, it is the largest refugee crisis since world war ii and more than 90% of refugees are women. host: kevin in indiana. democratic. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern is we need to be in united states, an example in the world rather than tearing down our system and letting our media tear our system down. to try to score political points which they do every day. we need to uplift the world and show them what democracy should look like. i think january 6 in part was due to the feeling that

integrity was lost in the election system. that is what triggered it. i think if we can somehow rebuild that integrity, i think there will be an example for the world to follow. we cannot be electing people that are dead after what happened in pennsylvania or people incoherent and now in mental hospitals because they were not stable enough when they were elected and everybody knew it. we cannot be doing things like that because that shows the system is flawed when you put people in that are supposedly going to represent you but yet they are not capable mentally of doing so they know it they are elected or they are dead. that is craziness to me. you have to be an example. guest: it sounds like that is an op-ed. it is to be an op-ed that needs to be written. we live in a democracy where we have freedom of speech and

you're able to say that publicly without worry of repercussions from your government. i know being in a democracy takes a lot of work but having the ability to say that aloud sure that with your neighbor and get your block on board with your thoughts and aligning for more secure, free and fair elections in your state is the first step to take. host: adrienne ross host of "democracy! the podcast" thank you for joining us. guest: thank you so much. it has bn great to be here. host: later today at 5:30 p.m. eastern time former presint donald trump will speak at cpac. live coverage from maryland national harbor startt 30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, mobile video app, and online at c-span.org. that's all the time we have for today's "washington journal".

we'll be back again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. in the meantime, have a great saturday. ♪

y. >> the supreme court heard oral argument in biden v. nebraska, a case involving six states challenging president biden's student loan debt relief program. nebraska ang with five other states argue theroam is not lawful. the supreme court has throu june, 2023, to issue a ruling. >> biden v.ebska. >> mr. chief justice and may it ea, the court, covid-19 is the most deb stating pandemic in our nation htory and it has caused enormous disruption and economic distress. over the past three years millions of americans have strule to pay ren utilities, food and many have beennable to pay their debts. to head off immediate harm for

student loan borrowers, two secretaries across two administrations invoked the heroes act the states ask this court to deny that tarelief to millions of americans but they lack standing to seek that result. they princal assert harm to a separate legal person that could sue in its own nambu has chosen not to do so, and the state'sssted harms to their tax revenues are self-inflicted and indirect. the state's disagreement with isolicy is not the sort of concrete i