host: security threats to the

u.s. front and center on capitol hill this week as top domestic and national security leaders testify before the intelligence committee. a poll shows americans were most concerned with the threat china plays even more concerned in years past. they hearing for lawmakers concerns over a wider range of

threats from artificial intelligence, climate change, and the southern border and with the budget there is a president biden cautioned of the security threat posed by any potential defaulting from our national debt. good morning. it is saturday, march 11, 2023. welcome to the "washington journal" in the first hour we ask your thoughts on what you think the top security threat facing the u.s. is the lines to use democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. we are also on facebook, twitter, and instagram at @cspanwj. throughout this our we will play you some of the highlights of the hearings, the comments from

national security leaders, members in congress who participated in this series. we hear from president biden as well. start calling. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. all others 202-748-8003. here is the headline from gallup. americans continue to view china as the u.s. greatest enemy. they write for the third year in a row americans are most likely to mention china as the united states greatest enemy in the world today. when asked, 50% of america says china is the nation's greatest enemy. with most of the west -- rest naming russia. north korea is not a distant third at 7%.

coinciding with the widespread reporting of china's balloon surveillance device being shot down over u.s. waters. there's also been a growing concern in u.s. about china backing of russia in ukraine conflict and association with the origin of the covid-19 pandemic. gallup using the term enemy of the united states in their poll. our question for you is domestic. and that was the title of the hearings in house is senate intelligence committee, top domestic leaders testifying top threats, domestic and national security leaders testing on the topic to the united states. xi jinping leader from china, headline from the associated press, he awarded third time as china president extending role. they write, the chinese leader xi jinping was awarded a five-year term as a nation's president on friday putting him

on track to stay in power for life at a time of severe economic challenges and rising tensions with the u.s. and others. the national security advisor testified at the senate hearing and the house hearing this week and talk about the concerns over china's leadership. here is what she said. [video clip] >> surrounded by like-minded loyalists. we assess that during the course of xi jinping third term they will together attempt to press taiwan on unification which they perceive as a threat and drive wedges between washington and its allies and partners and promote certain norms that favors china's authoritarian system. you may have seen xi jinping recent criticism during his speech on monday what he referred to as america's oppression of china reflect he

has distrust of u.s. goals and is belief that the united states seeks to quote unquote contain china. his speech was the most public and direct criticism we have seen and probably reflects growing pessimism in beijing about china's relationship with the u.s. as well as xi jinping worries about the trajectory of china, domestic economic and development and indigenous technology, challenges he blames all u.s. and he wants to message his populace and regional actors that the u.s. bears responsibility for any coming increase in pensions. -- in tensions. host: democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. our opening question, what is the top threat facing the united states?

from spectrum news in new york, the headline, intel community china, climate change a part of a complex environment to the u.s. in its annual assessments of threats to the u.s., national security country and allies will likely confront a quote complex and pivotal international security environment from two critical strategic challenges that intersect with each other. the threat of rising global powers like china as well as shared global challenges like climate change and rapidly evolving or evolving technologies which could disrupt society and businesses while at the same time create unprecedented vulnerabilities and attack surfaces. let's hear from you. isaac is calling from maryland on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree that the external threat

of the u.s. and the reason why i believe is because of the greatest domestic threat of the u.s. which is white supremacy and because the u.s. congress and senate i'm not been working together, they're not been able to tackle that and because of this division america has not been able to deal with the external security threats. the example is refusal of 26 congressman to sign the two sentences condemning white supremacy. they signed that statement and that is unfortunate and i which congressman jamie raskin had produce this document before the

midterm elections because that makes it clear the republican party support my supremacy and put party above unity of united states of america. thank you. host: scott is a green party member calling from connecticut. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning. i think there are multiple issues, but certainly climate change is an existential threat and probably our number one threat. in more of a, let's say, sociological perspective i think there is a profound ignorance in the country where a segment of the population, a significant subset is not able to recognize truth has zero respect for scientists and documented will

supported arguments and that ignorance is probably our greatest domestic threat as well as the terrorist organizations we have. we have innumerable, i think over 1000 various organizations that are an end of hundred -- the rn undercurrent, undermine democracy potentially. and the two party ineptitude as you mentioned, i am a green party member, but i think it is fair to say the two party system we now have in congress where one party main objective is to oppose the other and to prevent the other from accomplishing anything is also a great start on a domestic level. i'm not concerned about china's balloon, certainly there is

nothing that could have been obtained in the way of information from that balloon that is not obtained from hundreds of satellites. host: does the growing evidence of your technique -- is the growing evidence of the technology concern you? caller: they are a competitor. all countries are completed at an international level. what we have to do is work to cooperate in terms of dealing with these global issues such as climate change. ask any of the people a person in africa dealing with famine right now but the number one problem is and whether the country should cooperate internationally to address climate change global warming. ask any california who is trying to dig out of these ice houses on steroids. because of the additional moisture in the air. every single degree celsius

increases the moisture in the atmosphere by 8%. host: appreciate the input. on part of his point from the ga report on domesticrism they write from fiscal years 2013-2021 the fbi number of open dome terrorism lses grew by 257% from the track of a total of 231 domestic terrori incidents with racially or ethnically motivated violence extremists. tom is in illinois on the republican line. welcome. caller: good morning. a couple of things to say. i think those people who advocate that china is competition is naive and that

come from the white house and this caller who just called. amazingly he did not mention the wells getting beached in new jersey and new york and other areas because of the environmental policies. china has been selling our technology, thus improving for decades now. when you ask about our concerns the competition when it comes to the technology, of course. they are stealing from us constantly. let me just say, for the last month or so the president has walked up to the reporters at the white house and with the helicopter blades spinning refuses to take questions and runs away. that is so callous on his part. his inability to stand there and take questions. the only time this man speaks, the only time i speak is congress is when they are

smearing other americans, other members of congress constantly belittling with no facts. if you are not for the ukraine war, your for putin. everything is put in context of supporting the democrats and everything they demand as babies and then constantly besmirching and smearing other people at every effort they turn. it has become despicable in this country to listen to some of this nonsense. host: this week senate and intelligence committee hearing, arkansas senator tom cotton asked the director of national intelligence about transnational terrorist groups. here's that conversation. [video clip] >> there is an annual threat assessment so let's look at it.

on page 33 you write, transnational racially or ethnically motivated extremists continue to pose the most lethal threat to u.s. purses and interests. are you serious? you seriously think racially and ethnically motivated extremists are the most lethal threat that american space? >> yes, sir. in terms of the numbers of people killed or wounded as a consequence. >> had many people were killed by racially and ethnically motivated extremists last year? >> i do not have the exact number but i will care for you. >> how many people were killed by fentanyl last year? >> as you know, it is over 100,000. >> isn't that a more lethal threat? >> absolutely. but it is in the context of terrorist threats. >> on page 38, you write about

governance challenge in europe and he talked about populist parties taken advantage of inflation, high energy prices. you worry that public discontent, potentially including increased mass protests and undermine backing from mainstream european governments while increasing support for populace and extreme parties. he also say undermine quality of democracy. houses foreign intelligence? who are these populist parties in europe we are concerned about? >> we can get you further information about this but i will say as a general matter, we do cover different effects on democracy throughout the world and that is something that is typically perceived as part of our agreements. >> are the brothers eventually and extreme party that

is a threat to american interests? >> i would not want to speak for whether or not they consider them a populist party, i suspect they may buy do not know if there was say they are threat to u.s. host: we open the program this morning asking you your thoughts on what the top threat is to the united states. this is after the hearings this week. there is also a house intelligence committee hearing. the lines are democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. all others 202-748-8002. all social media and via text some comments here. this was says putin, xi jinping singly worse and if they can forces against u.s. or its allies, saddam was bad but he kept his torment within his own country. these new guys to get to a higher level and want to world the world. richard says, his is china,

russia, north korea, and mexico. it takes a vladimir putin is the biggest threat proving that will adopt children, fire hypersonic missiles at nuclear plants. it might says the greatest threat to the u.s. is the macro called. these people are un-american and want to turn our great country to an authoritarian dictatorship. jim says covid-19. officials mandate we wear these paper mask that prevent transmitting the daily virus through them. these are highly educated people. chris in louisville kentucky the democrats line. caller: good morning. if i'm correct the topic is what is the top threat based in the u.s.? host: yes. caller: i feel strongly the top threat facing the u.s. is donald

trump and the maga crowd and how un-american they are they are getting away with it. i am an older american. i'm a military veteran. i have seen some things and learned some things but as i watched the michael crowd i parallel it with the confederacy during and after the civil war. that is why we need to to put the civil war to bed by dealing with these maga people who fermented harm against america when they attack our capital generator six recently attacked it was to try to prevent. host: do your concerns of the domestic stuff you pointed out that concerns about a foreign threat? caller: very much. that is a red herring.

now the internet is changing everything. all of these people who say china and the border they need to go on youtube and watch the videos of china some of the cities in china. china's more peaceful than america right now. don't walk up and down the street and vc clean streets. you do not care about the shootings, mass shootings telling people in china. but i want to say the reason i say that michael crowd is such an issue and weiser christmas are such a domestic issue is because they are doing in the open. they had people in the position in our government, marjorie taylor greene. host: we will move on to laurie in modesto, california. are you there? caller: thank you for taking my call. i agree with the gentleman from

the green party and the one who just spoke. i consider our biggest threat is domestic and the division because we have to work together. as lincoln said a nation divided the nation that will fall and that is what lies to happen. we had to work together and get along. this do things for each other. let's help each other and i believe there's more good than bad. i've been independent my all life because i vote for whoever is for the people. stop the fighting and everybody get along and we can become the greatest country. host: darryl from idaho on the republican line. good morning. caller: hi.

my idea of the biggest threat to the u.s. is financial. we are running huge deficits and we are problems and interest rates so high on our debt that is going to be the long-term problem with this country and what really irritates me about all of this, i am a business owner. i have been in business over it well over 40 years. these companies calling small business and tried to get them to take the ppp loans. i've told them, i have taken you off my call list. i do not want you calling me. i do not want your government money. they're not calling alone -- they are not calling it a loan, they are calling it a grant. you could hear them in the background. host: they are calling you to

take the ppp loans still? caller: well, now they are calling it something different. they have a different name for it. there been calling me for months because am eligible or whatever. it really irritates me. host: do you own a business? caller: yes. i belonged -- i have owned one well over 40 years and it is a small business. only like, we have had four or five employees but they say i am eligible for $120,000 or never. it makes me mad that they are trying to -- they cannot get rid of the money fast enough. host: thanks for your call this morning. darrell mentioned his concern was financial including bank values. most prominently the news

yesterday about silicon valley bank shut down by regulators in biggest bank failure since the global financial crisis. a right to financial regulators have close silicon valley bank and taking control of its deposits, the fdic announced friday in one of the largest u.s. bank failure since the global financial crisis of more than a decade ago. the collapse of silicon think valley -- silicon valley bank please companies and wealthy individuals unsure of what will happen to their money. douglas in fairfax, south dakota on our democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. my biggest threat is our politicians beating the wardroom against china but with the guy was saying about the loan, they got advertisements out to pick up money from you get a money i guess. our politicians keep beating the

drum on china and china moving towards russia all the time they started to cut iran and saudi arabia to go to all oil producers on china side and i say we keep beating the drum and we going to move them right in to russia and so forth and the politicians keep going on and on. our big business and monopolies all the work over there in which i hate to say this about the union trying to help push that and these people talking about the greed stuff -- the green stop and we send things over there with a pollutant and it is us sitting everything over there. i do not know . politicians are the biggest threat to our economy now. we are broke. all the money we buy is borrowed from china. putin is not doing us any good

either. host: on china, the top democrat on the slate committee of china is from illinois, the ranking democrat on that committee. he is also part of the house intelligence committee which held is hearing on the global security threat on thursday this week. the representative asked -- talked about the threats he sees of ai, artificial intelligence. [video clip] >> i wanted to ask you a question about threats from chatterjee bt but i cannot think of any. i went to chat gpt and i said ask question of cia director about threats from chat gpt and it is said, directed burns, what measure does the cia taking to monitor and mitigate potential risk associated with the use of ai language models like chat gpt and how would you prevent ai language models not to be used

by malicious actors to spread positive formation or influence public opinion? that is for my powell chat gpt. >> i'm glad to give you an example which chat gpt is aware of that adversary intelligence such a service where english is not the first language and they are thinking about ways in which they can come up with messages, it is logical to use artificial intelligence to produce the message that can be pretty effective and taking advantage of vulnerabilities. what we are working on with colleagues across the intelligence committee is ways of identifying when that effort is being made using artificial intelligence by foreign adversary. host: a couple of stories related to our conversation this first hour on the top threat facing the u.s., same story a

couple different takes on it. a headline for washington post, u.s. grapples with years of values in middle east. china secures a win. china successful brokering force the united states in the upper position of applauding a major middle east a core secured by his main geopolitical rival, could we support 80 effort to de-escalate tensions there. john kirby reestablishes for the first time in several years and the reopens the embassies. agreements rights the results of talks began monday as part of an initiative by chinese president cpm got developing between taiwan. that is reporting of the washington post. a deeper dive into that new relation in the new york times

printed with a deal between longtime rivals means for the middle east. they write, that announcement by iran and saudi arabia reestablishing the diplomatic ties could lead to a realignment and represents a geopolitical challenge for u.s. and the victory for china which brokered the talks between the two long center rivals. elsewhere in this article they write, what this could mean for the united states. the news of the deal they write and paging roles in brokering alarm in washington. renew ties as a result of chinese mediation is a lose lose lose for american interests set the chief executive of the foundation for domestic -- defense of democracy. he said his show's audio rub your it in washington.

-- it says saudi arabia lacks confidence in washington. our first hour on the program u the top threats facing the u.s.. you've heard aan of those from artificial intelligence to china. want to hear from you. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents and others 202-748-8002. kurt in mount union pennsylvania on the independent line. caller: good morning. i feel the top threats to the united states is the ever-growing loss of free speech and the exchange of free ideas. host: what is the most obvious example of that? what do you see that most on a daily basis? caller: you see it a lot on your

internet channels, like youtube. twitter not so much anymore. just recently, scott adams was canceled. when people speak or change free ideas or they have free speech to express themselves and it does not suit the politics, they cancel them. they shut them down completely. host: all right. we go to frank on the republican line in georgia. welcome. caller: good morning. this is a heavy topic. we are outnumbered and outgunned. if you look at the united arab world coming and russia and china, north korea, i do not see

-- we keep spending. we have economic inflation. they did not get busy forming in ukraine, a loaf of bread will get $10 next year. maybe they would drive the budget down. i do not understand what we do not have socialized medicine in this country. would it cost us more? i do not know. maybe it would control health cause. you have to pay an insurance premium anyway so what is the difference in paint a medicare tax? host: to your point, do you think we spend too much money addressing security threats from abroad? are present in ukraine? efforts to counter china and we should spend more of that money towards domestic security threats, socialized medicine,

health and well-being of people in u.s.? what is your view? caller: either way. we are damped if we do, damped if we do not. throughout rod is changing and a lot of it has to do with the internet and the fact that we are interconnected now. if you want to crash internet, try to control the western hemisphere and kick all these foreigners out of here, you can try that but either way, if somebody has to come to a compromise and we have to have somebody that has a brain in their head to talk to somebody. this guy that is president now, i have no confidence in him whatsoever. host: we go to sandy calling from columbus, ohio. democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm calling because the greatest threat in america is the people of america.

the distinction between everybody. the hatred. the other threats i have is yes, naturally china, iran, russia see a foothold in coming in on us and the only reason they could do that is because we are not standing together. you got the republican party and the democratic party wished their idea is to help america -- which there idea is to help america. the republican party for the rich. you need both but everybody has to have rules and regulations. could not have the wealth in this country only to certain people and that is across all races. people pick up the fact that they think this person let the gentleman before, the foreigners and people, minorities not like them, are causing them to have less, then we are against each

other and we cannot stand. so the fall in the u.s. to me will be within and if we were united and working together for causes for everybody, wealth and everything, we would not have to worry about china and russia. they cannot get in. we are the superpower. but we are limiting that. that is what i am wanting to say. the biggest problem is race in this country and divisions among the races. host: onto lewis calling from new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. the biggest threat this country and to the world is the. -- and to the world as the biden administration. they are incompetent. about the bank failing, not to look into that because there weeks ago every top person in

their sold off almost 80% of the stock holdings. they knew this was happening and did not let anyone else know. host: silicon valley bank? caller: yes. the need to look into that. regular folks get screwed in the rich get richer and for everybody out there, general knowledge, enjoy the other millionaires and billionaires in this country are democrats. they control it and the other biggest threat is the military complex and that is why they hated trump i cannot believe i'm going to say this, i'm that guy now, trump was right. military complex that is why everybody was against trump because he was shutting the wars down. that is where all the money is made. host: luis brought up the story earlier and this is from the daily mail and here's their headline on the ceo silicon valley bank sold three point by

7 million in stock two weeks before his collapse is got a medic trade planned on the january 26 and the cfo ditched 575 thousand dollars the same day and you can read that at daily mail.co.uk. top threats facing the u.s. is dominic of next on staten island new york. the public in line. -- the republican line. dominic, mute your volume on your television go ahead. caller: yeah. is it ok now? host: i think so. go ahead. caller: the biggest threat is our leadership. our leadership is the biggest threat. we have no leadership.

the situation with biden when he came in and i heard a few people talk about unite. as soon as he came in, he overturned everything that was good. ok. we are in trouble. he was giving money out. it is ridiculous. i got money that i should not have to tell you the truth. our leadership. since trump left there we had all the problems with russia and all the problems with, i consider our enemies. there's a thing called principles before personalities and i think a lot of people they do not look at that. host: do you think those threats, the foreign threats, i've gotten worse under president biden?

caller: of course. if you cannot see that, you have a big problem. of course. everything this person did was counterproductive to our country. host: the headline here on house action yesterday, house votes to declassify covid origin intelligence writing the house on friday unanimously voted to require the intelligence community to declassify information having to do with covid-19 origins in a rare show of bipartisanship thank out the priorities on capitol hill's -- lying out the priorities on capitol hill. jean in louisville, good morning. caller: the threat to the u.s. is the fed. they cannot get an arrest they go after your family. my car -- my mom car was hit by the feds twice in the car next door it my mom's house. my sister was murdered and it is

still a cold case. the police is corrupt in louisville. my family life is in danger and i call your show about the hair might be installed in this country and this is going -- i call your show about the heroin being sold in this country. forget about china. forget about russia. let about what is going on here with the fbi and cia? i be calling your show and tell you about the heroin being sold over here. my life is in danger. my mom's life is in danger. he was hit twice by federal agents. host: we go to maurice in michigan, independent line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i think most of the

speakers you had on hit the nail on the head. we have no adequate leadership in washington. he's a donkey. he has no understanding of what is going on in the world. i'm 87 years old. i have been around since roosevelt was president. this is the worst example of incompetence i have ever seen in washington. that is all i have to say. host: this story from the washington post, former tiktok employee says company u.s. data protection plan is flawed. a former risk manager at tiktok has met with congressional investigators to share his concerns that the company's plans for protecting united states user data is deeply flawed.

22 evidence that could inflame lawmaker suspicions of the app at a moment where they are considering a nationwide band. in an inclusive interview, a former employee who works for six months from the company's trust and safety division said the issues could lead to data from tiktok's more than 100 million u.s. users expose to china-based employees of its parent company. even as the company races to implement a new safety rules while he optimistic user information. tiktok was a concern of marco rubio at the senate intelligence hearing on wednesday. here's what he asks of director fbi christopher wray. [video clip] >> for the chinese government there is on a ship -- of his ownership of -- could they use tiktok to control data on

millions of users? >> yes. >> could they use it to control the software and give the opportunity to do so? >> yes. >> could they use it to drive narratives and divide americans? let's say china wants to invade taiwan and make sure americans see videos arguing like i want to belong to china and what u.s. should not intervene? >> yes and to the point of that last one that we are not sure we will see outward signs of it happening if it was happening. i think the thing, the most fundamental piece that cuts across both risk and threats you mentioned that america seemed to understand is that something sacred in our country, the difference between private and public sector is aligned -- is a lien that is nonexistent in the way that ccp operates. >> is a viable to see how

china operates in u.s. and china? is he tenant they are encouraged to focus on math and signs in building the country. as an example of how two different versions of tiktok? one feeding our society poison and another feeding positive values? >> i think those are among many telling indicators we should be looking at and assessing the national security concerns it poses. host: we are asking you the top threats facing u.s. interaction on social media this one reacting to what callers comment saying the crater was not canceled as a caller said earlier, he was held accountable. you can say whatever you want but you can be held accountable. jeff says, no master's in china has not heard about with the government does the populations it disfavors. ever hear of chinese oregon harvesting taking from alive people?

bug assessment of the biggest threats as a popular news outlet, my and continually and with impunity and effort said lies, false pretense, half-truths and student government data published another by elected appointed officials. bob on the republican line in maine. caller: good morning. russia, china our adversaries at our biggest adversary is our own government. i read this morning that bennie thompson of the select committee on january 6 admitted they did not look at the security footage that vindicated many people that are still in jail for over two years. that that is not criminal, i do not know what is. they did not look at the security footage which we seen a piece of so far that vindicated

at least the so-called -- how many hundreds of other people are still in jail because these people do not do their jobs? not only not do their jobs, they hid the evidence that vindicated these people. what is wrong with these people in our government? the same people are still around. if they lie that much to you, we are in trouble. host: next up is loretta in cleveland on the democrats line. caller: good morning, bill. good morning, america. i frankly do not know where to start. here this guy worried about insurrectionists that got locked up in the conditions have been the same forever. he did not care about the black people that have been locked up

for little or nothing in the keys are gone away. no, he is worried about the insurrectionists and the tragic takeover america. i called about the top threat to america is education. people are not taking the time to educate themselves. people are looking at the talking heads, sean hannity, all of those nut buckets on fox news telling lies, lies. trump is the biggest threat to america. here it has been proven that he loss and he still will not sit down. why is that? he must be president again. -- he wants to be president again.

why is that? what is really going on? i think you manufacture all of these crises biden is going to. i think trump and the republicans manufacture the gas crisis, the grocery store crisis, the trains that have crashed, the trains that are validly -- failing. we even had a crisis with baby food. we have had at least 15 crisis since biden has been in office and somebody needs to call in and tell me when this last time this kind of stuff has happened. host: bonnie in virginia. hello. caller: thank you. 25 years ago my sister gave me a call and said to bonnie, in minnesota, a biology teacher had asked her students to collect frogs, i guess the biology

experiment about cutting open frogs, and the kids brought back frogs that add three legs. both male and female genitalia in them and the news article went on to say, in florida with the fish, the same thing. the fish had male and female characteristics. to me, one of the most dangerous problems facing america is uncontrolled pollution. we need to have more regulations. ample regulation that is sensible -- i am for regulation that is sensible. i know homosexuality is generally one in 10 and has been since the ancient world where you have roman pottery showing

men running after young boys but this transgender business is new to me. it is so sad and i wonder does this -- does the pollution have anything to do with our whole physical bodies? not only that, it is nuclear waste pollution. i work for the nuclear piece alliance in knoxville, tennessee for almost a year and i met a man who work in environmental restoration at the nuclear weapons plant there. he said, every year the scientists had -- they look for genetically characteristics,

like animals and stuff there were not the same that they ought to be and in oak ridge, the nuclear waste is going into bear creek, white oak creek down to the tennessee river. host: thanks for the input and your concerns here. here's this week that says government sanctioned pollution of our farmland and waterways while destroying food processing and storage facilities no doubt lead to death of starvation down the road. headline from u.s. news and world report on the release of the president's budget, biden warns the biggest threat to economic recovery is republican talks as he tells his job report . here's the president's briefing from yesterday. pres. biden: this may be the part that pleases me the most about the reports is people saying out of the job market is moving back in.

there moving back in. jobs are available. if people are working again. are becoming more optimistic about their future. the biggest threat is the reckless top. the republicans of the united states congress do they want to do. they are threatening to default on our national debt. in fact, planning to default as some republicans seem to be doing putting us at risk. i believe we should build up on our progress not to go backwards so i urge our mega public and friends to put their -- our maga republicans friends and join me. let's finish the job. we talk about -- i just saw the house freedom caucus, members of the house caucus consider to

vote to raise the debt ceiling, continue up the enactment of legislation. cut defense by 25%. that means cops, firefighters, it means health care. that is what is called discretionary spending. host: continue our conversation asking about the top threat facing the united states. marion in south carolina, republican caller. go ahead. caller: hello. host: you're on the air. caller: ok. i think the worst threat is our national debt. if we do not pay down the national debt, it will destroy the future for young people. our farmers are the number one people in our nation. they give us three meals a day.

our federal government comes in last. we must rebalance -- we must balance our federal budget and if we do not, it will destroy this country. it is the most important think we need to do right now. host: neil in scranton, pennsylvania on the democrats line. caller: good morning. one of the biggest threats as the stupidity of the american voter for voting and competent in office. you haven't kevin mccarthy, marjorie taylor greene, cruz. where are in real trouble. we do not have much leaders. you have all the violent selling shares -- you have all of the violent senators. we are in bad shape and the world sees this. they see the failed leadership

here that i believe is the biggest threat. host: you heard president biden mentioned this. a story about it to the washington post in debt ceiling debate gop gives automated -- ultimatum for the washington post. i news conference on friday to talk about that and here is texas representative chip roy at the conference. [video clip] >> his budget proposes street trillion dollars tax hike. we think we should be pulling government back and getting out of the way of the american people. if you create economic growth, you can grow out of the debt we face. it is the only way to save this country and advance america to stop spending money do not have. we believe we can do that. scott outlined it. understand we can say $3

trillion over the next decade by putting the spending of federal bureaucracy back to pre-covid levels. who among us thinks besides a government is 2019 was small and efficient and effective? anybody? anybody wants to sign up and says that government was knowing it? they were efficient and effective. how about, is it better now bloated with the covid spending? we are asking to take the bureaucracy down the street and return it to pre-covid levels and have a simple growth over the next 10 years and be able to sustain our government at the level it should be and save $3 trillion. president biden wants to tax us into oblivion, regulate us in oblivion. we are standing against that. host: a few more calls on our opening topic. go to frank from cincinnati, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. my fillings do not matter.

i like facts. if you go to the u.s. department of treasury and you see how big a dollar bill is it is 0.03 inches thick. take that only a flat at the congress and run it westward and multiply that times 1000 to get one billion times 1000 to get a trillion times 30 four the government owes and times 30 -- plus another 30 for credit debt in this country. $60 trillion. that is enough money stack that will go all the way across the united states from across the pacific ocean, cross china to nepal and they want to spend more. no matter how much money you get the government, it is not going to want to spend it and ask for

more. that is why they are in congress to spend money. to decide what should be done next and it always expensive. we'll end up happening eventually because all debts must be paid, that money must come back and their of our farmland. they are buying up assets with the very money we borrowed from them. host: we go to florida, marshall on the republican line. caller: hey. i wanted to say a couple of things. i believe our government is the biggest problem. i do not think anybody can say i government has done anything efficiently or effectively except screw up. i want to nail it down a bit to today's democratic party. i was a quote -- i want to make

two close they are stark difference from where the democratic party was 40 years ago. one was, asked not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. today that would be, asked not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you. secondly the quote martin luther king jr. we says we should judge somebody not by the colors cape their skin but by the content of their character, today the democratic party judges anybody and everybody by the colors of their skin. every policy is for women, children, minorities and people of color and

i am not in that. in education, we are being told that it is ok for adult men and women to talk to our children about sexuality. this is the democrat party. today medical science and advancement says that we know that what is growing in the womb of a woman is a human being. we appreciate all the calls the segment and there is more ahead of the washington journal. up next we will be joined by jeanna smialek talking about the new policies out of the federal reserve. later, ron steslow cofounder of

the lincoln project will join us. he will talk to us about how the 2024 field is taking shape in his podcast which is called "politicology". all of that is coming up next, on washington journal. >> next week on the c-span network, the houses out. the senate will work on executive nominations including mayor eric garcetti as u.s. ambassador to india. they will also hold meetings on bidens budget. on thursday, treasury secretary

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powered by cable. "washington journal," continues. host: jeanna smialek covers the federal reserve the new york times and she has a new book out. we will talk to her about that. here to talk to us about the jobs report but the upcoming fed meeting and what the fed might do. the jobs numbers came out yesterday and while there were a healthy number of jobs added the unemployment number kicked up a little bit. guest: it kicked up for good reasons. people rejoin the labor force and it takes them a little while to settle into jobs. i think it's important to put that cake up in the context. the unemployment rate is very low. we were previously at the lowest

since 1959. were not very far off of it. it's a very strong job market anyway you cut it. host: people reentering the workforce, was that expected? guest: we have been waiting for more re-entrance into the workforce. we have seen a lot of demographic groups hang on the edges of the labor market. they dropped out during the pandemic and have not fully reentered. we are stating to see some of that comeback. and that's good news because it would expand the economy. host: tell us about this puzzle that the federal reserve faces. they have pretty strong job numbers, unemployment numbers are low but yet inflation remains high. they have a meeting in a few weeks, what is their next move

on inflation? guest: i think this is more of an and rather than an and, yet. the labor market is firing on all cylinders in the economy is still operating at a heart rate. we still have a strong economy and that comes in conjunction with other data, retail sales, a pickup in consumer spending and goods and services. there is still a lot of demand in this economy. and when you have a lot of demand, that can help to keep inflation strong because it means companies have the ability to pass on price increases to their customers because they are not seeing customers pull back. what that suggest is that there is going to be a more difficult

rate increase requiring road back to lower inflation. host: the fed chair was pressed about this, her concern long-term was what happens when we get to higher unemployment number? you could have 2 million people out of work. from this perspective, from march 11 2023, does that seem a likely trajectory of what might happen? guest: the fed has been raising interest rates a lot. it expects to do more of that. interest rates go up, people expand their businesses less and the idea is that the job market was slow and that would resolve higher unemployment. senator warren painted that this

could put people out of work. in any case, the labor market will be weaker but the idea is that is necessary to bring inflation down. it's a painful process but chairman powell said what would be worse would be to have several years of inflation. host: jeanna smialek is our guest and she covers economic policy for the new york times. we welcome your calls and comments. (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats, (202) 748-8001 four republicans and (202) 748-8002 for independence and all others. you can send a text to (202) 748-8003. i want to go back to the

president's budget, the headline of earpiece, the biden budget nods to economic weakness ahead. what do you see in the budget that gives you that hint? guest: it's worth starting with the caveat that the economic projections, we saw that the president staff had a grim outlook for the economy than they had in the previous year. in the prior year what we saw was the white house was expecting a strong economic performance. they would believe growth would hold up in inflation would come down on his own. we have already had rapid inflation but they thought it was going to go away. in this budget, they think inflation is going away but alongside unemployment and weak growth.

the consensus among the field is that this is the path we are on but it's interesting to see the white house agree with it. the spending plans are ambitious, that was an interesting thing in this budget. the idea is that the spending would be paid by tax increases on the wealthy. host: part of the president's plan includes rationing back some of the 2017 tax breaks of the trump tax plan? guest: some of them but not all of them. it's not completely scrapping that entire suite of tax codes. host: our guest is the author of the book limitless. why did you write it and what is

it about? guest: it's a book about the federal reserve's evolution in the 20th century. i think we have had such a sea change in what the fed does in the economy and what roles it fills in society. i have been covering the fed for the past 10 years. even in the time i've covered it we have a shift in how it fits in to our system of democratic capitalism. when i started covering it, the fed would never have thought to help municipal governments. but in 2020, it really provided backstops for state and local finances. that's an interesting shift in its power. the fed has become much more expansive and how it responds to issues and how it thinks about problems. i think it's a reaction to the

2008 crisis. host: the term they used was extraordinary measures during covid to help the economy? has that term ever been used before? guest: it had not been used for a long time but in 2008 when the world was falling apart the fed took its emergency powers and pulled them off the shelf. they had not been touched since the 1930's. we thought that was a once in a lifetime thing. in 2020, we saw tweets that the pandemic was heading. we were using those tools much more expansively than in 2008. the fed was using powers that most people weren't even

familiar with. host: i want to read some quick comments from jay powell in testimony this past week. he talks about the future rate hikes. maybe you can help encode some of what he says. [video clip] >> although inflation has been moderating, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go. as a mission, the latest economic data has come in stronger-than-expected which suggests that the ultimate rate of interest hikes would be higher. if the toe toddler he of data -- totality of the data suggest we need to raise rates. we will do that. our overarching focus is to use

our tools to bring inflation back down to 2% and keep expectations well anchored. restoring price stability is essential to set the stage for achieving maximum employment over the long-term run. the historical record cautions against prematurely loosening policy. we will stay the course until the job is done. host: jeanna smialek from the new york times. he talks about higher rates. what else do you hear from this comments? guest: the thing that really stuck out to wall street is the reason we saw such a reaction is that he signaled that they might speed up the rate of rate increases. last week, they were trying to catch up and they made three .75

rate increases. they did not want to keep the gas pedal stuck to the floor. in november they stepped down to a .5 move and then a .25 move. we all thought that was the plan, that we would go slowly forward with these little meaningful rate increases. what he says the economy has been so strong we might step up to that .5 move. i think that car people by surprise. host: our guest jeanna smialek, a graduate of nyu. richard is on the republican line, go ahead with your question or comment. caller: first you had that guy

that lost billions of dollars with his mom and dad. look like he was living in his mother's basement. and now, you have this past week the second largest bank in american history failed after that silicon valley thing. come to find out, the ceo sold more than 3 billion of bank stock before this thing goes under. you had janet yellen come out yesterday and say, we are keeping an eye on it. we will do our best. apparently, her best is not enough. if she is keeping an eye on it is like a rat on a sinking ship. and now biden wants to spin more money. -- spend more money.

host: i think he is talking there about the failure of the silicon valley bank. does that reflect a policy failure? guest: i don't think we know the answer to that yet. if someone should have been conscious of this earlier. what is pretty clear in the situation is that it failed because we had such big moves in interest rate increases. a big part of why silicon valley banks business model, it loaded up on long-term treasury securities in the low rate era. but it did not work in a world of higher interest rates.

they are very attuned if this shows up in other banks. whether they have followed the strategy. a lot of people think this is idiosyncratic, but i think this is something we don't know the answer to and were anxiously waiting to see a play out. host: on to jim. on the independent line. caller: i was traumatized by the late 70's and early 80's by stagflation. i wonder what the chances of that coming back are. my second question, are the impact of natural disasters being factored into future budgets? host: thank you jim.

guest: the stagflation question is an interesting one. i don't think we have a coherent answer to this yet. the fed will tell you they are extremely attuned to how high inflation is and they are working aggressively to get it under control. that's a big difference from the 1970's. in the 1970 they kept increasing rates but as soon as they saw unemployment rising they would bring the rates back down. they were trying to balance the labor market and inflation. the fed sees inflation as a problem they cannot allow to become intractable. there will be a lot more resolved there. they will accept a little more pain on the labor side to get inflation under control. on climate change, it is diffuse

throughout this budget. the other thing we see this pop up right now is at the fed. they are starting to run climate scenarios asking if the financial system is exposed to those earthquakes, floods and fires. we have not actually gotten through the first cycle of that yet so were waiting to see how that plays out. host: next we have bob from north carolina. caller: hey, how are you doing today? i am 82 years old and like your guest i graduated from north carolina and nyu. the growing gap between the rich

and poor in the united states and the inability for the government to raise enough money to do all of the things we need to do. there is a solution. it's a matter of changing our income tax system. there would be a tiny sales tax and attacks on large corporate revenues. and then a progressive tax on surplus wealth. all of this would enable us to double government revenue, increase the income of middle

income earners by 50% and allow the government to do all sorts of things it does not have the money to do right now. thank you for listening. host: thank you bob. the things he suggests seem like a politically steep hill. the amount of money he suggests could be brought in, is he right? guest: any time you talk about tax increases that's of political steep hill. that has been a consistent problem, when you try to tax wealth they will move it overseas. it's a difficult policy to design. it doesn't mean it's not worth looking into. host: why is 2% of special

number, why do we need to percent? guest: there is not a good explanation for this. the idea that you would want some inflation, if you don't have any inflation companies will not give wage increases because it won't increase their profits. we have seen this throughout history. that is how we got there. but the 2% is because new zealand adopted a 2% target back in 1990 and everyone looked at that and said, that seems all right. host: what is the inflation like an other democratic countries?

guest: all countries are missing that goal right now. host: are they higher than the united states? guest: i would say the reasons for those countries to have higher inflation seems to be circumstantial because they are exposed to the war in ukraine. host: what piece of our inflation comes from the money that was spent on covid relief? guest: this is a difficult thing to suss out because it requires some advanced metrics. it is pretty clear that some portion of it was. you will see estimates something between 1/5 or one third of inflation was due to the government spending in that first year.

at the end of the day, we had a pandemic that was a huge shock to the system. we spent a lot of money and people use that money that fuel demand. in the supply issues caused by the pandemic because the whole system to be out of whack. host: next from coral springs, florida. robert on the independent line. caller: i want your guest to expand on the unemployment number. i think the administration is being disingenuous by touting the robustness of the economy. 3.6 is a general number, the unemployment rate has ticked up 24.8%.

-- to 4.8%. i think hispanics and people of color will be the most vulnerable to these rate hikes. that's just my comment, thank you. guest: that's an interesting point. unemployment is higher for hispanics and african-americans than it is for white americans or asian americans. that is almost always the case. we see an unemployment gap, it's a structural problem in the labor market. i think you picked up on something interesting which is that those groups seem much higher unemployment and times of

economic weakness. those workers tend to be a lot more vulnerable. we are starting to see some recognition of this out of the administration. i think the idea they parrot is that while there is pain and calming and could be particularly unpleasant for these marginalized groups, inflation is also painful for these groups. people with lower incomes and those who are vulnerable spend most of their monthly income on

necessities. i think that is what they would say to that. host: next to james in florida. caller: good morning everyone. under president bush, 2006 when the great recession started. under his administration there was a 6 trillion deficit and when president obama was in office, he brought the economy out of a deep recession. he also had a deficit of 8.3 trillion. when trump took over, he had a .2 trillion.

now, we have president biden with its $2.7 trillion. with inflation all over the world, u.k. is a 12%, a europe is about the same from what i've gathered. in canada is even a little bit higher than that. the republicans remarked that this is all biden's fault and that does not make sense because it's not biden's fault that the whole world is in inflation. the cost of fuel went sky high not because of president biden. increasing those interest rates, and hurts lower and middle class

families and it's unfortunate. the question is, how much longer are we going to be dealing with this? will we be dealing with this for the next 6, 8, 10 years? host: alright james, couple of things there. guest: the question of how long we will be dealing with this is a key question. that's why the fed is moving so aggressively with interest rate increases. they want to get inflation back down rapidly enough that it does not become the case that we come to expect inflation. in the 70's, there was an inflationary psychology that took hold. people expect inflation to be high. they asked for bigger wage increases and it stop them from shopping around.

i think that is what the fed is trying to fend off. in order to do that they have to get inflation down quickly. host: in the ark of the feds interests, has that interest rate hike been seen throughout the economy? guest: it flows pretty quickly through to the mortgage rates. and so we have seen the housing market respond to these rate increases. the interesting thing has been that every time the fed takes

his foot off the gas, every time it backs off a little bit, the mortgage rates can fall and we see a rush of homebuyers jump back again which shows that there is latent demand there. that's one of the reasons why the fed needs to keep its foot on the gas. host: you are saying that at some point they could not interest rates back and mortgage rates could fall in kind? guest: nobody thinks that high interest rates will be necessary forever. i think so many things are changing about the economy in the wake of the pandemic that i would put low confidence on any of those projections. we don't fully know where

interest rates will end up. host: the money you earn in a cd or deposit, you could get a pretty hefty return. are we seeing that spread to other sectors? guest: what we have seen is that nontraditional banking service providers, the sophia's of the world are really -- traditional banks hold the rates low. there is a speculation that one bank starts raising everyone will have to. there is also this reality that we all bank with whoever we bank with and it's a lot of work to move to another bank.

host: some banks have been a faded from the higher rates? guest: and mortgages, they can do better business. host: on the independent line we will hear from alan. caller: i have a couple of comments. i think this leads to a much worse situation. i believe the federal reserve is protecting the dollar. i think we will be entering a currency crisis. i believe no foreign country is buying our treasuries but the federal is buying treasuries to support the federal government. that will come to an end because the federal reserve is a private entity that has private stock ownership.

their balance sheet can only take so much. i believe the federal reserve is actually broke. guest: we should talk a little bit about that. the first and most important thing we should chat about, the federal reserve is not buying treasury bonds. they bought a lot of treasury bonds during the 2020 crisis and now they're trying to shrink their balance sheet because they're trying to raise interest rates and shrink their holdings of bonds. the federal reserve is a partially private entity, they have 12 reserve banks around the country. they serve the public but they are owned by the banks. the most powerful portion of the federal reserve is the board and washington.

those governors are appointed by the president. in the board in washington is a public entity. the federal reserve is fairly limitless. their only constraint on how much they can buy -- host: jeanna smialek as our guest. her new book covers the fed and she covers the fed for the new york times. host: (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats, (202) 748-8001 four republicans and (202) 748-8002 four independents.

let's take a listen and i want you to explain this to us. [video clip] >> prioritization is not paying all the governments bills when they come due. that is something we have never done since 1789. that is just a follow up name. what is critical is that we maintain our commitment to pay the governments bills, all the governments bills when they come due and if we don't do that, or think there is some shortcut around it that will avoid economic chaos because not paying the governments bill will enact economic collapse. guest: it's the idea that you

don't pay all the bills just what you deem the important bills. they say we will pay veterans, we will pay social security and we will make sure we continue to make payments on the debt. we won't play government employees but we will make sure that the debt is taken on. the problem with debt prioritization is we don't practically know if we can do it. in 2011, 2013, during previous debt limit crises the treasury and the fed figured out how this would work. they did a lot of contingency planning. there wasn't a huge amount of confidence that it would play

out the way we were hoping. there's also not a huge amount of confidence that it would avert financial calamity. the idea that this was a last ditch effort to make things less bad but it would not fix the problem. it could really hurts the united states reputation. host: joe from north carolina on the republican line. caller: it's a pleasure to listen to you and your expertise. what percent of the current inflation is due to a different green energy policy, less drilling and less oil? my second question would be, everyone of us has had to cut back with inflation. why can't the government cut back 5%, 3%?

i will hang up and listen to your response. guest: what percentage is due to green energy policies, it's hard to answer that question. it's important to note that the reason we saw less drilling during the pandemic is because the price of oil absolutely plummeted in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic because everyone was prepared that we would not be driving and going out. when economic activity rebounded much faster than expected, that resulted in a whipsaw effect. that's a pattern we saw and a lot of markets.

that's a pandemic story rather than green energy story. why can't the government cut back? the government's budget is so different from a household budget. it's funded differently and does not operate in the same way. in an inflationary environment, if you see the government cutting back on social security or these big obligations, that could make inflation worse for people. host: a question for you from barbara who since this text. how are unemployment rates are so low when i see so many help-wanted signs?

is it because the government is taking such good care of them? guest: the fact that unemployment is so low is that everyone looking for a job can find one. when you fill out applications you can get hired immediately. there are a ton of help-wanted signs because there are so many jobs open in the economy we don't have enough available workers to fill them. i think there's a sign that there's a strong economy right now and the demand for workers exceeds the amount of workers looking for a job. host: you pointed out that we saw in this latest report, people were returning to work that had been on the sideline. guest: there are questions on how long the can continue. i think this is one of the interesting changes we saw

during the pandemic. a lot of people leaving the labor market were over 65. there is a supposition that some of these people may be a little sticky on the edges of the labor market. host: a couple of more calls, we have paul on the democrats line. caller: good morning. inflation with jerome powell and the federal reserve, i think the inflation thing is nothing but a ponzi scheme by the federal reserve. we got a stimulus check a couple years ago and so we spend a

little money and now you want to cut the spending because we got a little chat. my other question, explained to me the jfk 1963 executive order 11110. thank you so much. guest: i don't know about that executive order. but i can say about the inflation comment, the stimulus checks came from the elected portion of the government it was not the federal reserve. the elected government is the one that's able to spend. they did send out these checks and people spend a little more money and we saw strong economic growth and consumption in the wake of the stimulus checks.

now were just trying to get to the study, sustainable path. host: because you wrote a book on it, when did those packages get passed, how was that viewed by the fed? guest: i think this was an interesting instance where the fed came close to talking about fiscal policy which is something they usually avoid aggressively. back in 2020, we saw the fed embracing some of the early spending packages because they were worried about a situation of 2008 where the government did not spend much to pull us out of that crisis relative to the size of the problem. we saw years of week growth. they were cheerleading the early

spending. somewhat toward the end of the crisis, they were not talking about that final stimulus check. there was a lot of skepticism about that package because we were through with the worst of the pandemic. host: let's get a call from james on the republican line. caller: i would like to ask you about how the federal reserve is looking at the real estate market to see if inflation is still active? for the first time in our history we had hedge funds and wall street move into the housing market because the fed was printing money at 0% and

giving it to major banks. this took millions of home off the market from the residential standpoint and made them into large scale commercial investments. we have a situation where the housing market is inflating in many regions of the country and there is nowhere for people to go. how do you see the federal reserve looking at this issue where the housing market is concerned. i would like to know your economic background yourself. thank you for your courtesy. guest: this is an interesting question and i think we are still waiting to see the file out from it. it is absolutely the case we saw a lot of investment in housing during the low rate era.

since interest rates have been low, investment banks, hedge funds, wall street money has been involved in the housing market. one interesting thing we've been seeing is that even as rates rise, we have not seen any seismic declines in housing prices. i think there was some skepticism, a lot of people thought there would be bigger declines in home prices because of the wall street activity and it has not come to fruition yet. on my economic background, i did not study economics in undergrad. i studied global studies.

i went back and got my nba and focused on economics and finance. host: she is now reporting at the new york times. her new book is called limitless. jeanna smialek thank you so much for being here. host: still ahead, coming up is our spotlight on podcast. he will talk about how the 2024 gop field is filling out. his podcast is called "politicology". up next, is open forum with a chance for you to weigh in on the subjects we've covered this morning.

democrats use (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001 independents and others (202) 748-8002. go ahead and start dialing. >> the name of america which belongs to you and your national capacity. four score and seven years ago. ask not what your country can do for you. throughout history presidents have delivered pivotal speeches during times of challenge and farewells. what are 10 part series on american history tv. here are words of george washington, abraham lincoln to barack obama. lyndon johnson called on his

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host: here's our open forum segment. you can talk about items from the news or public policy. the line for democrats is (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents and all else. (202) 748-8002. silicon valley bank was taken over by regulators. it collapsed on friday in the second against bank failure in history after a run on deposits doomed their plans to raise fresh capital. they have taken control of the bank by a new entity. all of the bank's deposits have been transferred to the new bank

. insured depositors will have access to their funds by monday morning. fdic who exceed the insurance caps will receive receipts. from staten island in new york. caller: what i always appreciate about c-span is the book segments. i still love the book crisis point where they talked about working together. it would really be good if c-span could come out with a podcast on the book on the federal reserve. so we can better understand what it is all about. like the person you just had on

was excellent and i will probably go and get that book. for a lot of us, we really don't understand the role of the federal reserve as far as economics is concerned. i know c-span is fantastic. if you can come up with several books that might help educate us on what this is all about so we can better understand it and we can make better judgments. i really appreciate all of you very much and i thank you. that's a great suggestion and we appreciate that. host: ray is on the line from ithaca, new york. caller: from your earlier topic, the greatest threat is illegal immigration and it's because it hits so many different areas including fentanyl. we could

have spies come over. they could be bringing in dirty bombs. there is a major threat that way. the situation where these border communities just can't absorb the amount of people and the citizens they are really suffering. everywhere is becoming a border city and we are now educating their children. we don't expect them to ever show up in court. we have a serious language problem where there are portions of the country that don't speak any english. i think the cost will be overwhelming and it has the potential is to cause us a lot of doom. host: we will go to tom on the independent line. from erie, pennsylvania. caller: i have a couple of simple observations. the number one problem with

inflation in america is simply greed. if the government would implement windfall taxes i would not be going on. the failure of the justice department to stifle a monopoly. that gives rise to these companies being able to charge whatever they please because there is nothing stifling them. if you are 401(k) return 10% a year, you would be doing great. these companies can't be happy with a 20% margin. they think 20% is where you start and then go up from there. i worked in industries where

they survived on as little as a 3% margin. if they were doing 7% it was fantastic. host: job numbers came back yesterday. payrolls rose 300,000, the unemployment rate increased to 3.6%. president biden at the white house talked about the jobs numbers. here he is. [video clip] >> when i took office, there was no recovery in the economy was reeling and 18 million people were unemployment compared to less than 2 million a day. unemployment was 6.3% and the cbo predicted it would not get below 4% before 2026.

employment has been below 4% for 14 straight months. last month, the unemployment rate remained at its lowest level in 50 years. people who are staying out of the job market, are now getting back into the job market. they are coming off the sidelines. the share of working age folks is higher than it has been at any point since 2008. host: the headline, biden scraps trumps schema. u.s. air force unveiled a nuclear scheme for air force one discarding the pellet closing by president trump. in open forum on the democrats line. in portland, oregon. caller: good morning. i'm calling about business

closures. and i'm not sure c-span is covering but in walmart announcing their closing two other stores in the city. we have been organizing and supporting a boycott of walmart. we think it is good that walmart is leaving. the buckeyes in support of gun reform -- the boycott is in support of gun reform. walmart sells according to our paper, one in five bullets sold by walmart. there is a video on youtube we got a local station to donate. it is walmart boycott. portland gray panthers. i do not know if you know if

c-span has covered it. host: will it measure 114 do -- what would measure 114 do? caller: a bunch of us past signature positions to get it on the ballot. there is 17 and interested and 18. ip 17 got on the ballot designed to gun registration and to ban high-capacity munitions in colorado bullets. washington state next door to us in their state house they just passed a bill -- a ban against assault weapons. did you have another question? host: know come

appreciate your feedback on that. steve in arizona on the republican line. caller: folks when you call in trying to present with a laundry list of things, we all know there are many problems in america. there's too much wrong going on but i would like to respond to the greatest threat to america from the damage is done with the dumbing down of america. it is not mean to hurt anyone's feelings but the systematic thing. the dumbing down of america. you can ask the average person on the street to find it and they could not find it on a map. i'm want to keep it short and sweet. thank you very much. have a good weekend everybody. host: james is up next in newark, new jersey on the independent line in open forum. caller: yes. thank you for taking my call. the 2% had g7 meeting two years

ago. the other g7 group wanted to talk to us and i the meeting on c-span. and she said the 2%. she said that. after her to kick her out of office because she had to percent. trumps that 2% -- trump said to percent. trump would keep the tax cuts. people making [indiscernible]

the 2% -- host: jim in massachusetts on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: yes. this is openthis is open forum,? host: yes, it is. caller: i want to talk about the whitewashing of january 6 on fox news last week. host: go ahead. caller: yes. the republicans have been getting away with that stuff now for over 30 years. i think it is about time they finally got caught in their being called out for it. they use to whitewash republican scandals, tried to paint democrats as were sinbad and all the rest of that -- as worse and bad and all the rest of that. i think that now that people are

getting wise to that they are seeing that and they are pointing it out what that man at tucker colson did. i saw the whole thing. i watched the whole thing and he made it look like that guy in the bike's wasn't anything and i did not know what he was up to but people breaking the windows, people getting killed in that bank, crazies and he is trying to whitewash. i also heard speak of mccarthy -- speaker mccarthy says is a cover colson -- send it to tucker colson and know why the elves so they could do whatever he wanted to it on fox news. that is whitewash the thing. i do not know if it happened. it is what i heard. it is good to see they are calling these people out.

republican party [indiscernible] can be doing that. we cannot have the other side is no good mentality. host: 10 minutes left in our open forum in "washington journal". democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents and others, 202-748-8002. from the huffington post, and associated press story michael: to monday in trump hush money probe writing donald trump's former lawyer and fixer is scheduled to testify monday before a manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments made on the former president's behalf. people familiar with the matter told ap they are not authorized to speak publicly about grand

jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity. : it is a key witness in the manhattan district attorney investigation and this testimony coming at a critical time as prosecutors close in on a decision on whether to seek charges against trump. prosecutor sometime save their most important witnesses until the end stages of a grand jury investigation. in roslyn heights, new york next up is charles, independent line. caller: i had to call in today because i am hearing -- we are being brainwashed. i'm talking about against illegal immigrants. we need immigrants in our country. we always have. our company -- our country economic success is based on that. aoc did a great youtube video on immigrants. google aoc immigration youtube

and she explains what is going on with immigrants in our country needs them. i saw a stat that says for every 1% of immigrants in our country, the average american becomes 3% rancher. our country always use immigrants whether it is the germans, irish, italians whatever. we always use immigrants for economic success. we need them. we need them for everything. we are getting these lies and distortions against immigrants and it is crazy. host: thanks for that. francis is next in new jersey, republican line. caller: how are you doing, john? host: great, thanks. caller: i want to talk about covid. we have been lied to for so long over covid and everybody knows it. theology change -- dr. fauci

change his story. was not credit in your lab. -- it was not created in a lab. china, russia and ukraine and now the only thing they're not telling us is what -- must again a function is completed they put in a petri dish, then the coronavirus get sent to laboratories in the united states and colleges everywhere. dr. fauci described the deaths for 3-4 days of exposure. you are dead in 24 days. i have seen her purse and i have covid and that was in -- i've

seen a person die of covid in august 2017 and it was not transmitted through direct contact because many people were around the individual. total shutdown of everything. nobody could come up with a blood test to prove it. host: u.s. house with the unanimous vote. here is the headline vote. here is the headline from dealing with covid and the response from covid, cbs headline house about 419-0 two declassified intelligence on covid-19 origins and send the bill to the president desk. in nevada, david is up next on open forum. caller: hi. mother say thank you for taking my call and i hope to get my entire few words in here. this is not a red or blue issue. i do not understand why people

are trying to divide this issue but the biggest issue seems to be the corruption and the press in the federal government. we the people must govern them the government moving forward. the krupp united nations, nato -- the corrupt united nations, nato all comes out of world war ii. i did not understand why people are trying to fight each other and not use our words moving forward to make more sense of this. when it comes to covid-19, that means certificate of vaccine id, not covid-19 2019. i want to know when we are going to get trials in 2023 or moving forward. it is crimes against humanity's, pfizer should be held accountable, dr. fauci, bill

gates. free vaccine trans-humanism, there is a 2013 patent that your government property once you get this free vaccine which is experimental drug, you are government property from that moment forward. host: a few more calls on open forum. cedar rapids, iowa, abraham on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my line. most importantly i want to bring to everyone's attention this morning the failure of silicon valley bank and what it means for entrepreneurship and the future economy and the united states. about 50% of all tech startups and biopharmaceutical startups are funded by this bank. more importantly, this bank had a bunch of misallocation of

funds and there's a lot of chatter from venture capital firms that this bank should be backstopped by the federal government and it is not what we should allow. we should let the federal reserve take care of that since it is already in place but more importantly it is important to note that a lot of these startups, a lot of these emerging technology companies are actually going to be in a bind over the next four years while all of this funding is now locked up. 90% of that finding was actually uninsured so we're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars so all this capital cannot be deployed pretty -- host: you said you thought 50% of the money going into startups whether it is tech or pharmaceutical world is coming through this bank, silicon valley bank that is not has been taken over by the fdic? caller: i believe it was 50% of

all current tech startups or biopharmaceutical companies banks with this bank. yeah. host: thanks for that information and your point. in new jersey, tom on the republican line. welcome. caller: yeah. do you hear me nice and clear? host: yes, we can. caller: i want everyone to listen to what i have to say. you have iran, russia, and china. you have drones that are flying from iran to these countries to eventually try to kill america. do you know where the drone technology came from? with iran? host: tell us what is your point. caller: president obama gave

them all of our technology on drones. you can google obama drones iran look at what happens. obama lived in our military drills in iran and the next day he says can i have the drone back? check it out everybody. google it. host: morofour phone calls a of "washington journal". of next here on the program where joined by former republican strategists and lincoln project co-founder ron steslow talking about his podcast “politicology” next. ♪

>> book tv sunday on c-span two teachers leading authors scussing the latest nonfiction book. at 8:00 p.m. eastern florida republican governor ron desantis shares his book the courage to be free about his leadership in florida and i success there could serviceable printor surviving america. reflects on her journey in becoming the first black republican woman to be elected to congress in her book qualified interviewed by axios cyr politics reporter eugene scott. watch tv every sunday on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime apple tv.org. ♪ >> american history tv exploring the people and events that tell

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hearings, party briefings and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span your unfiltered view of government. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only as c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, or here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our saturday morning spotlight on podcast segment and

because the creator and hose of “politicology” a political podcast and he himself as a political reporter public and strategist here with us this morning to talk about his podcast and the state of politics, basically presidential politics. welcome to the "washington journal." you describe your podcasts “politicology” as politics without blindness. what do you mean? guest: when most people think about politics as a word they have a limited view of what that invokes. we think about the horse race of elections every two years and the residential campaign every four years and for most people politics is a fight for power that they get to participate in once every two years, maybe in an all beer -- in an off year in virginia and new jersey. politics is about how we figure out how we are going to do life together without killing each

other. when my favorite authors place this way says -- when my favorite author says, politics is how we decide what we do with the share of our life together. if you think about politics in that sense than the way it is covered in most mainstream news and really think about politics being just a fight between two parties, red and blue, who is right and who is wrong, it limits that. when i think about politics what we are trying to do at “politicology” is open it up and help people understand how the issue seems to be intimately connected to another one that seems completely foreign. trying to draw the connection to people to help them see politics through different lenses. how did anthropologists see politics? how do social psychologists see politics? what does it say about this

project were all engaged in? that is how i think about politics and when i say were here to redefine it or open up, that is what we are doing. host: you come from a grounded background as a republican strategists, mainstream behind-the-scenes political and in front of the scenes, political work. how do you reach beyond that to reach out to the people who are not normally engage in politics, anthropologists, poets? guest: i do come from a political strategist as my background and i worked in republican politics for a long time up until 2060 when i left the party -- 2016 when i left the party. joined the lincoln project in 2019 and there was the first time i have been a public person at all. that was the origin of the podcasts. a lot of people that come to “politicology” are people i have

known law -- and who have been in politics. how does a strategists read the political landscapes? sometimes that is jarring for people to listen to but i think it is also an important lesson to hear how the movers and shakers behind-the-scenes making the calculations with they shouldn't say and when why they're making those decisions. we do that and then also there something deeper happening in our society. we think about since covid the trauma that everyone have lived through watching a million people die. how does a psychologist reckoned with that? what is i have to say for -- does that have to say for how we do life together? i talked to catherine, a

psychologist at stanford university, her groundbreaking work on cultural norms. she would book -- he wrote a book and if you get rid of the labels of red and blue, political parties and think about why the cultural norms they might find together -- buying together different identity groups and what characterizes those groups and how might we use them to speak better to? that's what i mean. host: it sounds like part of the trauma we have experienced has a lot to do with our politics. guest: yeah, i do. i think something broke with the election of donald trump and i saw it in my own family, i saw it in my own friends groups. for me, born in 1983, this is the most divisive period i can

recall a political dialogue. we can talk a lot about trump and trumpism but i did the pandemic on top of that exacerbated the device of already there. host: i suspect you will get some questions. your cofounder of the lincoln project. i that in and you mentioned it was there he started -- type that in and you mentioned it was there shortly after you started the podcast. guest: i always do my work behind-the-scenes working for candidates and causes and doing consulting work and during 2020 in the lincoln project we realize that running as about the president and getting him to respond to things that was important but if you are after to achieve our goal which was the pill off 2% of republicans

and keep underground locations we would need to make a case of them that it was ok to leave their tribe, ok to vote for democratic, even if it is the only time you vote for a democrat in your life. the podcasts at the time was called lincoln project podcasts and it was designed to bring conservative voices to the table to talk about what it meant to them to vote against their own party and to give conservatives a place of belonging, place the felt like they were not alone in what can be a alienating experience. that is what the podcast was designed to do enter that process i talked to fascinating people and freely fell in love

with the process -- and really fell in love with the process of asking questions and going deeper. “politicology”grew out of that. lincoln project is designed to persuade voters. “politicology” following the lincoln project asked, now what? what are we going to do now? donald trump loss, yes. not by very much. now what is it mean to engage in politics in america? how do we begin to hill these wounds? i think we need to bring more voices and disciplines to that question. host: ron steslow is our guest in his podcasts as “politicology” it is our spotlight on podcast talking about that, politics between 24 and more. we welcome your calls and comments. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002.

bring us up to current day and the shaping field of the republican primary in 2024. ron desantis, governor of florida, in iowa last night. here is the headline, i will poll trauma can support the road as the sand variability start strong. i want to play you a bit of that from last night in the viewers see it as well. [video clip] >> when the world went mad over covid, when, sent became an uncommon virtue the state of florida sent as a refuge of sanity. we were ace at of freedom for florida and people all around our country and around the world that escaped to the state of florida over that difficult time. we are not going to allow our

state to descend into dr. fauci dystopia. we do not let people's rights be curtailed and livelihoods be destroyed. every single thing we were doing , we are getting absolutely flayed by national and local media, the left and even some republicans attacking me three years ago whenever we started to do that. when i said, have kids in school, there were republicans that were not supporting me on that. now everyone acts like they were supportive of that. that was not you back then. i had -- that was not true back then and i had supporters calling me and saying you need to lay off of this. the schools, you're making a mistake. maybe do a mandate or more restrictions or something because you're getting killed and we worried about you, we are worried whether you will be able to be viable in the future. i just said, my job is to

protect the jobs of the people i represent. if that cost me my job, then so be it. i cannot be looking out for me in the short term political over people's liberties and freedoms and jobs. we made the decision and it is the way it goes. host: ron desantis speech last night in iowa. one of two stops he had yesterday. we had the entire event at c-span.org. ron steslow there are bullet points of potential. he's not yet officially a candidate. guest: not yet. we only have two declared candidates in the race against joe biden, donald trump and nikki haley. at this point in the presidential campaign, it is about raising money. he's raising his profile and raising money. one thing we talk about is how the norms have shifted around fundraising.

whoever wrote the largest case or brought in the largest checks from other donors had a big seat at the table, big say on how the campaign went and priorities of the candidate. that is not the case anymore. at least on the right. it is now the case most of the fundraiser happens in grassroots, emails, digital fundraising. it is now most of the candidates raising money. ron desantis any buzzwords you will see fire up the base and small percentage of voters but who are a large percentage of donors to put money in his campaign. you're going to get a lot of rhetoric that is designed to get people fired up, designed to get them open their wallets and give five dollars, $10 over and over again. at the same time, he is trying

to carve out this line were he's a fighter but not offending people like donald trump. host: does he have to win over more of the five dollars, $10 donations or does he have to touch into disaffected independence, right-leaning core center democrats? guest: he is in the republican primary. he has to win over the republicans who will vote in republican primary. independents are not a concern right now. he has time if he gets nomination to pivot. i do not know if he can get there with donald trump holding onto the third of republican base. we're talking about whether or not there are enough republicans believe eligibility is a reason to vote for someone other than donald trump. i think that remains to be seen. smart people they may believe

there is no chance that can happen to him. he's not taking a hit. he has not been placed in the job. a lot of people think you will be able to take it. there's a lot of hollow optimism around ron desantis. host: we have calls waiting for you. alvin in decatur, georgia on the democrats mind. caller: i want to go back to her all this hate came from, intergenerational trauma. why people suffer -- white people suffer from europe and they brought it to the rest of the world and it is happening right now. it is happening from people in asian lands -- agent lands --

ancient lands. guest: if i hear the caller correctly he's talking about trauma, intergenerational trauma and i think it is interesting subject. there is a book i recommend for anyone who wants to go deeper on that by cook, body keep score, and it is a huge contribution to literature on trauma of what we know from that work is that trauma is in the body, not just the flexion of the mind. i find this work fascinating and we can have a long conversation with doctors about what that means for society. i would encourage listeners to find that book. host: fact politics, the former president donald trump and cpac taking a stride tie in trauma

saying, i am your retribution. aggressive tone to that crowd at least expected to be the continued tenor of the trump campaign. guest: i think donald trump cannot help but strike that tenor. i do not see a way he deviates from that. his campaign for the beginning has been about retribution, grievance and we know that is how he keeps i hold of the republican party that would not abandon him. i think, yes. you will continue to see more of that. as a spread or is it shrinking? -- does it spread or is it shrinking? host: norm on the republican line, go ahead. caller: i just want to thank you so much for the lincoln project. i think it was instrumental in 2020 election.

thank you for doing it. i want to say that if people want to read about how trump operated, one good place to read about it is the book lessons from the age, which exemplify the good and the bad and the interplay in trump administration. i do not know if you read that, but i saw her testify at the impeachment hearings and so thank you. host: the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. guest: thanks, norm. i appreciate that. discouraging to her support -- it is encouraging to hear the support. host: what happened to the lincoln project? guest: from the beginning, everyone who came together to

create the lincoln project new we were all taking our own path to that moment in time and we all convinced the best use of our time and energy and skills at that moment and the same thing that let me to the lincoln project, my conscience, led me away from it at the end and to start working on “politicology." host: on the podcast, how do you think you distinguish your podcasts from the many other political podcasts? guest: i do not think about it that much. that is the honest answer. if i were to think about it that much, i think i would drive myself mad. there's an author, elizabeth gilbert who wrote a book called big magic. it held me think about trade of worked a lot differently which was it is not necessarily matter if the thing you are creating becomes commercially viable or can pay the bills.

it puts a lot of pressure on creative work i think we are doing at “politicology." she said it just because it has been done already does not mean it has been done by you. i think of the podcast as a unique creation that i get to bring in the world with the help of a fantastic team that cares about offering people a deeper understanding of what it means to participate in this whole thing capri host: listening, i think a starbucks addict, is that a part of what helps pay -- helps pay? guest: yes we have different advertising that helps pay. there are sponsors that will do direct endorsement for products that i like and use. there we also offer subscriptions for people who want to go deeper, actual

conversations with strategists and we offer political -- “politicology”plus program without as an bonus content. host: steve in ohio. caller: thank you for taking my call. one opinion, thanks for discounting us independents. i will leave it at that because you did in two, what happens host trump era? you do not have maga, you do not have trump in your sentence. what is next? guest: great question. let me clarify independent. i a registered independent. when i say independence are not a concern right now ron desantis, that is by no means a dismissal of the role of

independent voters in the campaign. in the context of republican primary, for ron desantis up until he presumably achieves his goal of getting the nomination, independent voters are not a big concern. he can always go back to the middle afterward if he makes it to the nomination. i'm sorry you heard it that way. host: the second question was posed trump era. guest: that is the big question on the table right now. one of the reasons i think republican primary so i'm saying inconsequential is it is the first formal process republican party going through to decide who's going to lead it. why the advice of republican party going to be. where this republican party think america needs to go.

the process by which the party decides that is the snake republican presidential campaign. the primary. that is why it is so consequential. what happens at the donald trump? the question is what happens out of the primary? host: you are digital media director -- war digital media director in 2016, correct? you left the party after the donald trump won the election. it wasn't just the trump election or had you been seeing signs in the party you did not like? guest: i do see it that way. in 2015 running in primary against donald trump, it became clear to me when trump of the nomination party was everly only a tool for consolidating power.

the principles of conservatism did not carry more weight than the pursuit of power. my decision to leave the party was not a sudden revelation but it was the culmination of years of feeling alienated by the party, by the people he chose to embrace, by the rhetoric chose to endorse. also my own journey, i was raised in a conservative evangelical home. i came out as gay in my 20's in the process of dismantling both my fundamentalist upbringing and reconciling my sexuality with what i believed involved social, political entanglements and it took me a long time to do that. by the time to your 22015 and

the primary and donald trump, lots of became inevitably clear and i recognized i did not have a place in the party anymore. host: two will calling from missouri. democrats line. caller: i will always support democrats. i will always support them. i would like to see hakemjeff -- i would always like this see hakeem jeffries in 2024 election because i will always pray for ukraine and it is sad because it is very sad and i would like to move forward and keep on going forward.

we have an a plus back in bill clinton. we have an a plus and that is number one for the american people and it is time to move forward and go forward. host: will give us an opportunity to look at the democratic side. he mentioned hakeem jeffries. as you look at president biden expected rerun for president told 2020 for. what else do you see for democrats? guest: reprocess all the comments with the fact that i'm not a democratic and never was in democratic politics. things look different on that side. what i see is a president who has spent successful in what he has been able to achieve in two years and may be selling those accomplishments and how meaningful they are to the american people. every structure package which is

a landmark achievement by any measure and yet it would take a long time permit people to see the fruits of that investment. i think when he talked about his age, i think it is a valid concern. it is a concern i have. it does not mean he is doing the job. it is not mean he is not on top of the campaign but i think it is a concern a lot of voters have and it is valid and is not being fed to them. think it is a natural human response to wonder if someone is going to be 82 when he exhorts his next her -- when he starts his next term. we look around washington and you see a lot of old people and you wonder if there is not anyone younger, in tuned with the country deleted. i think it is valid.

i put everything i had in 2020 to get him elected. host: nikki haley had made age an issue on the republican side. guest: these are unfortunately changed when solomon -- on cnn when don lemon called her past her prime and she seized on that moment to do fundraising saying this with i think of conservative women. they do not respect us. we talked about that on the podcast understand the monetization of outrage, political exchanges because that entire exchange was to her benefit because it raised her a ton of money in the first 48 hours on that exchange. one of the things isaac and deck that one of the things i to connect the dots for may have seen the story, this exchange but if you understand it in his

full life cycle, it is change the political last game some ways. host: complete separate story from the media side in the political side. in harrisburg, pennsylvania on the republican line. caller: good morning. i have you on tv right now and i'm looking at the screen. i heard richard guest has said. i want to say this. i voted for trump, i am a republican. i realize that trump was his own worst enemy. we have never had a perfect president those so we're not going to have one either. i do think that trump can still be relevant in the party but i do think it is passes time.

i think we are fortunate because we have several good qualified potential candidates in my opinion would be a dream team, haley desantis or desantis haley. i was in the army active duty when john f. kennedy was voted president and to this day, i will say, i am very proud to have served with john f. kennedy as my commander in chief. i say that because i'm not a republican who is narrowminded. i will say unfortunately the democratic party is that the democratic party of either john f. kennedy or going back to truman, unfortunately. there are now going to be

defined by john fetterman and joe biden. sorry. that is the way the voters have shown their knowledge and their choice. guest: thank you for your service. i think the sentiment that the caller express about donald trump being past his prime is something that you're going to hear a lot more drought the primary. there are a lot of voters, who are really hankering for moment where the republican party purchases so from trump and trump is not there running strategy and it is time to move on. i do not think that moment is going to happen. instead you're going to see a lot more sentiment like the one just express where donald trump come i voted for him, like him. but he is past his time.

it is time for the party to move on in a better way. that's not going to be satisfying for a lot of americans. however it is the way if and when they moved past on the trump, 2024 will be the signal over there that will happen, i think it will look a lot more like that. host: we will have thfoer president donald trump monday evening, seven: 15 eastern live on c-span in our mobile app c-span now and c-span.org and recover the ron desantis speech last night available as c-span.org as well. independent line, derrick in minnesota. hello. caller: good morning, america. it is hard to keep my breakfast down. he said contentious and divisive

and the worst in american history read the lincoln project created that. you were very addicted to attention and the words your founders fed by the president at the time and the stunts he pulled with the torches and next to the man and the rainstorm, you are creating it. it was disgusting. obviously, you made a lot of money. plus about the sexual harassment inside the lincoln project. thank you. guest: i would applaud your caller to the exhaust reporting but the new york times but i like to clarify which the specific incident with the tiki torches that happened after i left the lincoln project. i did i keep in touch with the remaining people there -- i do

not keep in touch with the remaining people there and i did not stay up-to-date with they are doing. host: two rudy in democrats line. caller: good morning, bill. good morning, rhonda. mark twain said once that history never repeats itself but it often rhymes. that is what i am looking at with ron desantis. there american people will not take him and that is going to be it. thank you very much. ron, i would like to get your answer on that. guest: yes, i think the american people may not have an opportunity to vote up and down on ron desantis because he may not make it to the republican primary. there may to be seen. -- that remains to be seen. host: his dream team is a “politicology” podcast.

guest: yes, nikki haley ron desantis ticket. as an interesting idea. we could explore as a hypothetical but it is really orderly to be hypothesizing about -- it is really early to hypothesize about the presidential elections. so much can happen between now and then. host: how far you thinking about the next podcast in terms of the lining of lining up gas, topics? guest: we do two episodes a week. wednesdays we release a longform interview, deep dive on some subject. fridays a weekly news roundup. fridays we have an editorial meeting on wednesday, look at all the biggest news of the week. a rubric for deciding what goes in or what we do not talk about his, -- is the story affecting the landscape? is it changing the political landscape?

then we translate with who the guests are going to be that week. and political strategies? psychologist on? what is there contribution going to be. the longform interviews where planet weeks and months ahead based on -- we are planning weeks and months ahead based on exam weight -- based on the books i'm reading. host: tom in charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. we went to different schools together. i voted for him twice, donnie. i do not think i will vote for him a third time. i do not think it would do us any good. but mark meadows i think is real apparent, chief of staff and republican from north carolina.

i would like to see him run. all democrats have been -- are baby killers. host: ed in maryland on the democrats line. caller: yes. ron you seem like a fair-minded guy. you said there republican party is all about the power first. would you say that if gerrymandering was not legal, if nancy pelosi still speaker of the house? guest: fascinating. really great question. gerrymandering is a topic we have covered in the show and in

2011, i got to draw the lines in nevada and go through that process from start to finish, which was enlightening project. i think gerrymandering is a thing that is misunderstood because you have the hierarchy of laws you have to comply with as you draw district boundaries and as it currently stands partisan gerrymandering, they information between boundaries based on political affiliation, not currently illegal. an attempt to make it illegal. has it worked? whether nancy pelosi will be speaker is a question of if she will win her district and i think conceivable that she can draw the lines differently in a way that she would not win. technically the question to it is yes but it is a complicated one and i would point you to

“politicology” episodes on what is at stake and was involved. host: the release of the taste by house speaker kevin mccarthy to tucker carson, the helpline was tucker carson capital segment criticized by democrats and republicans particularly democratic and republican senators criticizing it. less so a republican side in u.s. house have you addressed this issue yet? guest: we did. we talked about it on the weekly roundup that came out yesterday. fox news is something we have been covering a bit especially with the new voting lawsuits and what we saw we could go with rupert murdoch saying it is not red, blue, to screen pointing to his beliefs that profits are the most important thing, not objective reporting of news for fox news.

i was really disappointed, alarmed to see that given the backdrop of fox battling the lawsuits for defaming the million and actively light when they knew they rely -- actively lying when they knew they were lying that may be the financial consequences for trafficking is he lies then he realized that even as that is going on tucker carson decided to show, give people an alternative reality to live in by january 6. it signals to me there is no hope, you cannot expect internal fox news and get balanced reporting. host: where does this leave fox? that fall and other favorite with the chum campaign. that is not going to happen. in terms of political influence

on the republican side, where they stand? guest: i think there wondering that. they're trying to figure out exactly what their role this because they are now battling newsmax and other more conservatives, further right source of information and that was as we saw in the testimony that one of the reasons they were afraid of not giving the viewers what they wanted. one of the reasons you saw from the host asked to put errors on the trump column after 11 called for joe biden. dr. still trying to figure that out. host: tampa, anthony on the independent line. caller: hello, gentlemen. i really had a questions during trump presidency whether republican or democratic acting asking the name of a republican. when you look at, he was funded fully for the 2100 mile wall in the first project by schumer and

ryan, he turned it down. obamacare, what is he do? he takes the tax off. he signed up more people on obamacare, twice as many as obama did. he could not safeguarded in any better than a democrat. number three, whether chengdu with the crime bill -- what did trump do with the crime bill? after that bill was passed it seems like crime skyrocketed. even the most liberal democrat could not get that bill anywhere near past to get trump -- the way trump did. it basically funded the democratic unions, the mexican workforce was using -- was unionized and it was of the trump organization who ran the

democratic unions. the amounts of money trump spent also when it was shut down, he backed out from pelosi and gave her $1.6 trillion budget for four straight years. host: ron steslow, final thoughts. guest: i think the initial question the caller race was trump republican or democrat. less people cannot figure it out. what we saw as a person who did not believe anything except in himself and pursuit of his own agenda. i'm not surprised. he was a registered democrat at some point. host: ron steslow as the host and founder of “politicology” with weekly podcasts and interviews. check out c-span's online above podcasts go to

c-span.org/podcasts for more information and all kinds of topics today including washington today our daily radio show as well. ron steslow, thank you for being on the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: thank you for being here. we are back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern and we hope you are too. enjoy the rest of your weekend. ♪