>> "washington journal" is next. a look into dominion voting systems lawsuit with fox news. now, "washington journal." ♪ 4 host: good morning, it's monday, april 17 and this is

"washington journal." on friday, samuel alito put a pause on a legal battle by temporarily suspending a lower court ruling that oppose limits on access to the abortion drug. justices will have more time to review the case. several states continue to push new limits on abortion and democratic lead states are stockpiling the abortion drug and working to pass new protections. the party may be going too far on the issue and turning off independent voters. this morning, we want to hear from you. is compromise on abortion law possible and what ideas do you have?

you can also send us a text message and please leave your name and where you live if you do so and you can join us on facebook.com/c-span where the conversation has already begun and we are also on twitter. yesterday on fox news sunday, republican representative nancy mays of south carolina shared her thoughts on the issue and whether the party may be going too far. [video clip] >> we need to find a middle ground on this issue and i've a great voting record with some of the stances we have taken. it's so extreme, the middle

independent voters, they cannot support it. i represent a purple district and i talked to a vote or other day and she left republican party over this issue and is an independent voter and is pro-choice and her limits are 14 weeks. i am at 15-20 week so there is a lot of middle ground that's important how we talk about the issues and offer solutions. we've got 14 counties in south carolina that don't have a single ob/gyn doctor. what are we doing to make sure women have access to birth control? what are we doing about improving adoption services in our country? what about the kids not wanted? what about our foster care system? what about getting nurses who can treat women who need this care in rural areas? what are we doing with getting birth control at pharmacies? we can protect life and not alienate the independent voter. host: again that was south

carolina republican nancy mace. also over the weekend, vice president kamala harris made a surprise appearance at a reproductive rights rally in los angeles. i will bring up the los angeles times report on that rally. here's what it says --

that is vice president kamala harris also weighing in on the issue but today, her question is for you -- do you think compromise on abortion law is possible? here are the numbers for you -- we will take your calls so let's start with todd in california. is compromise possible? caller: good morning.

unfortunately, i don't think so. abortion should be between a woman and her doctor. right wing people have no business telling women what to do with their bodies in the abortion medication should be able to be mailed nationwide. host: all right, thank you. just -- just this morning, cbs news -- it was yesterday, they came out with a new poll on the abortion issue. the headline says -- this is a new cbs news poll.

host: that is from cbs. let's bring up another video. yesterday on meet the press, republican senator bill cassidy

make comments about the dobbs decision which is the supreme court decision last year that kicked abortion regulation to the state and removed federal protections for abortion. here is senator cassidy's comments on the dobbs decision and the idea of a federal abortion law. [video clip] >> i think dobbs is the unfortunate middle ground. no one group has the ability to oppose -- to impose their will upon each other. i think dobbs was a correct decision. >> will you vote against any attempt at creating a federal standard considering you think this goes back to the states? you had supported a 20 week bill but would you ever be open to that? >> i think the dobbs decision is correct. you can give me theoretical's

all day long. i am pro-life but you will need 60 votes to get something through the senate. what kenny baldwin was talking about is there could be no restrictions in the state on abortion meaning a child could come through the birth canal and still be aborted. that's wrong. most americans think that is wrong. that will not get through to the senate. there is not 60 votes for allowing that. on a bipartisan basis, it's already been rejected. host: that was senator bill cassidy, a republican from louisiana speaking about the dobbs ruling and whether there should be a federal ban on abortion. we want to hear from you -- is abortion compromise possible? caller: i believe compromise is possible. i am pro-life but i also believe that there are a wide majority

of americans who do not want babies killed within minutes of birth of a viable human being. i do believe that if we look at other nations other than north korea and communist china, other nations we are more politically aligned with, we can probably come to a compromise probably around 10-15 weeks. that doesn't mean i think that's the way a woman should choose to go but i do believe that we as a nation can come to a compromise at that point. i just don't agree with murdering viable children moments before their birth. that is what is legal in many states including the state i live in. as far as availability of birth

control, i do believe that these are adults with responsibility. if you are a man and woman who have decided to have sex, you should assume you are pregnant whether you think you use birth control or not. going into that with that knowledge, woman should assume she's pregnant and surely she would know by six weeks-eight weeks whether she is pregnant. in the case of incest or rape, that is a totally different ballgame. i have acquaintances who were born of rape. their mother decided to carry them to term and every one is a viable adult but that would be an extremely difficult decision to make as a woman and i wouldn't want to impose that on anyone.

i would like to see nationwide 50 states where it's 15 weeks or 12 weeks, somewhere in there and that's my thoughts. host: all right, marilyn in washington. now queens, new york, alan is on the line. caller: good morning. as far as the issue of abortion is concerned, i was ambivalent. i can see persuasive arguments on both sides of the issue. as soon as that decision came out by the supreme court, i said to myself you have to be kidding , unite injustices. you are going to tell a woman what to do with their own body and her own life? as we understand religion, god himself gives us freedom to

choose between good and evil. it says something -- something is wrong. to answer your question, given the people in congress, some of home are really out there, not rational, it would be difficult to sign a compromise. my last point is, i'm not a political person but looking at the republican party and they are all for abortion, pro-life but they are adamant about gun control, i think their whole policy is ridiculous. thank you for taking my call. host: all right, alan in new york. i want to bring up one more video from maryland governor wes moore who announced he was stockpiling the abortion pill

and is explaining how his state will protect reproductive health. [video clip] >> maryland will lead on this. this is the first time we have seen a supreme court actively working to take rights away from people. maryland will be a state where we will protect reproductive health and reproductive rights. and not only have i instructed our public health to make this decision of stockpiling but if you look at the legislative session we just had, we have rebuilt and focused on access and privacy in making sure having an abortion in maryland will not be criminalized. i worked with the leadership to make sure that next year, abortion and reproductive rights will be on the ballot in maryland. maryland will lead on this issue. host: that was maryland governor wes moore on his efforts to protect access to abortion in his state.

we want to hear more from you. next is mitchell in new jersey. caller: good morning. most people don't understand that roe v. wade actually was a compromise legislation by the courts. they looked at fetal viability as the compromise point where the state would have an interest in the pregnancy. it was constructed as three months, the first trimester there were no restrictions in the baby certainly wasn't viable . and the second trimester with doctor's approval and the third one based on medical necessity. that compromise was never

acceptable to those with religious views who felt that any kind of abortion was unacceptable. i am 66 and i am a grandparent and a parent and i love my children and my grandchildren very much. in the 1980's, when my wife had to be on medication and she was told not to get pregnant during that time and we use contraception and it didn't work and she got pregnant. we were basing the situation -- we were facing the situation where if we brought the pregnancy to term, we already had a child and were prepared to bring up another one and that child would be born with potential birth defects. we aborted it and i cannot even imagine what people in similar

situations are going through and that kind of scenario. there are so many different scenarios where women or young women who are just not prepared for this in life, not ready to assume the responsibility for parenthood, they go through all these compromising situations and now they are in jeopardy of not being able to really have control of their own life. what i think -- i think the right to life side, they don't want to hear it. they are not looking at the different scenarios and situations, doctors a woman has to go to and family has to look at and i think it's unfair and i think it will be reflected in a very negative turnout for the

republican party in the next election. host: thank you for your call. our next caller is coming from clarksburg, west virginia. ed is on the line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am an 88-year-old white male. i believe in abortion but not as a means of birth control. by that i mean i see no problem with the pill and i see no problem with condoms. if there is not a heartbeat, i find no problem with it. one thing i've been wanting to say and that is this -- a woman has a right to be with -- to do with her body as she pleases. leave the prostitutes on the street alone because it is their

body and they are doing what they want. host: another caller, lois and pence -- lewis in pennsylvania. caller: i would like to ask the women that marched in the street for abortion and the women that are against it -- get together and go hand-in-hand to washington and ask the world to quit having war and killing everybody. if they march and say you 18-year-olds, if you want to keep killing people, just as the ancient greeks did, the women finally told the men to stop having war and they would never be in their lives again. maybe we can do that. another thing, get rid of the

word power and everything we do. let's pick up a new word. i don't know, do the right thing instead of somebody has power and somebody doesn't. let's do it a different way. these women can also gather up the religious leaders. let's do something like that in a big way. that's all i have to say. host: let's go to texas, allison is on the line. caller: good morning. being in texas, it's really hard , something that's never brought up is the fact that when they wrote the bill a couple of years back, they failed to includeivf. it just proves the point that

it's really not about protecting the life at conception. it's more about controlling women's bodies. if it's outside the uterus, it's ok but if you are a woman, the majority of men in the legislature have to control our body so i wish they would back off and keep their bibles away from my uterus. host: thank you. i want to bring up some of the comments we are seeing on her facebook page.

host: we will keep the conversation going. if you are in the eastern or central time zone --

mountain and pacific. in any medical professionals, call us. before we go back to the phone lines, i want to show a few statistics on abortion. this is from the kaiser family foundation. the first chart shows when abortions are occurring, most of them occur prior to 10 weeks of gestation. that's 40% in six weeks or earlier. the next biggest chunk which is 7-9 weeks is 39%. again, six weeks or earlier, nine weeks or earlier is nearly 80% of all abortions happening. the lighter blue is 10-13 weeks which is 13% and 14-40 weeks is

8%. that is second and third trimester together 8% of all abortions. i will scroll up on my screen to another chart that i found interesting. the title of this chart is most abortion patients and 2020 were in their 20's and had at least one previous birth. 57% is the ages of 20-29 and then the next biggest chunk is ages 30-39 which is 30% of abortions and most of them were people who already had at least one previous birth. let's go back to the phone lines. we want to hear from you. it compromise on abortion law possible? chris in chicago, how do you answer the question?

caller: my question is, it should come down to everybody talking about a woman's right and i agree but the babies right. at what point, does it become murder of a child or any living person? the viability question has to be decided. i am a 50-year-old father. i am for women's rights to choose but at some point, the viability question has to be decided. of when that child is fully living and breathing because then it comes down to killing a person at that point. it would be interesting to hear others opinions and who gets more statistics on when viability truly becomes recognizable for the people of the united states or the world.

that's a decision that has to be made. you have a great day. host: let's go now to baltimore, wayne. we just heard from the governor of maryland about protecting access to abortion, do you agree with governor moore on that? caller: i do, i am a 67-year-old grandfather and father. i think if men had to carry babies to term, abortion would not only be legal but more common than tooth extraction. thank you. host: all right, wayne and baltimore. let's go to barnum, minnesota, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i have

nine children and 38 grandchildren and i would like to say that everybody wonders why things are so bad and all the terrible shootings and everything going on. i believe abortion was the beginning of the end. especially these people think it's ok to tell -- to tear apart their baby. people need to stand up for the right to do that. it's down to morals, why are people living together? why are people having children out of wedlock? i don't think any of that is right. host: i want to hear your

comments but you are breaking up. you might want to call back in but we will try to stick with her. let's go to becca from massachusetts. you are on the line. caller: i just wanted to call and say that i agree with the lady from washington that called in this morning. i am a republican. i also agree with nancy mase, not all republicans believe in strict laws. i am against the extremes on both sides. in massachusetts, they want to pass up to nine months for any reason. i am against that and i believe it should be 12-15 weeks for any reason.

if you can have that and in cases of rape and incest, the dna should be saved so that person that the law can be brought in and cases can be saved on that aspect. i think we just need to come together and find the right but when they sometimes put it onto voting, they don't give you a choice. are you for against abortion? that's not right. the politicians need to question people because i believe there is a lot of democrats that believe it should not go all the way up to birth. thank you. host: that was a caller from massachusetts, let's go to california. caller: am i on now?

host: yes you are on. caller: my opinion is this. it is huge misconception to say we are going to allow any kind of abortion up to birth. that's actually kind of stupid. i live in california and it used to be a was up to 23 weeks. when they first made the rule years ago they said it was -- i guess it's a viability issue. they do not do abortions like that to birth. that's illegal everywhere. i think they are talking about is let's say your baby is going to die. you had a miscarriage, etc.. you can have a miscarriage at any time. if you say abortion is banned at a certain point that goes into a miscarriage, your baby is going to die after birth.

it's not that you can have an abortion -- as far as the other things they are saying. if they were to look at birth control, education, making things better economically, that would help a lot with women who choose to have an abortion as well. people need to look into economics and education and birth control. that would really help with anybody who decides to have an abortion out of pure choice. it never should be up to the government. it's a woman's choice. host: april in california. our next caller is doreen from louisiana. go ahead. caller: how are you. i enjoy watching you. host: thank you. caller: listening to all of the

women, it such a spent -- sensitive issue. i'm a mom and a grandmother. what divided us is when this came out from somewhere that you can abort a baby at nine months and some other stuff went around that even of the baby is born the mother can choose to harm the baby or not let the baby live. this made everybody so divided and it's so sad. every state will have their own what they're going to do about six we's and yet it is a difficult situation. but 15 weeks or 12 weeks sounds like it would be something that may be we can come to agree on.

but with all this stuff going on with nine months, it just made everybody so upset. women out there have to just stay strong. republican or democrat and get the facts and every state is going to make their own decision. that's all the supreme court did was send it back to the states and i hope we can come to some compromise. god bless the women out there and children. host: doreen in louisiana. let's go to new haven, connecticut. julian is on the line. caller: good morning. you have the patience of a st. from the different opinions you have to here for three hours. on get a be brief. quite frankly i think this is a cultural issue, the missionaries

are sold telling the natives, that's not ever going to work. this is evangelical sharia law. if we were looking at the nightly news and this was going on in iran or russia or somewhere else like that, we would be protesting. the bottom line is there are some cultural issues that will never be resolved. we need to educate young people on birth control. i don't agree with abortion i think it's barbaric. but the bottom line is there are kids in certain cultures in our country that dare each other to rob a store and whose can get the girl pregnant.

this is insane and it cannot be controlled with evangelical sharia. thank you for letting me speak. host: next on the line is charles in donaldsonville georgia. charles, go ahead. caller: good morning. first off i'm white, male, christian and i have a question that i've often wanted to ask that people are for abortion, when were you not alive? i had that thought watching a documentary about one cell that had been discovered in antarctica and i thought that's amazing. they tell us the human embryo

there's just millions of cells and that's not life? life begins by god's favorite conception. to keep arguing the woman has the right to her body is just a matter of semantics. there is an individual that's been created by the power of god and we can argue and twist things around and semantics over and over. we are dealing with life and why don't we have more respect for that. i heard it mentioned on the responsibility of the female. responsibility of the mail. we have a problem with people that just have sex, it's a free-for-all. but we better consider who gives

us life and how we treat it. thank you very much. host: charles in georgia. let's go to sean in virginia. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have two points to make. the guy just ahead of me stole my thunder. i wanted to say we keep hearing it's a woman's choice and were telling what women to do with the body. it's not their body. they can do what they want with their body. it's the little body inside of them that we protect. we want to keep protecting them. the other thing is people i guess we don't believe in god or jesus, only one thing i have to say to you people. it's time to turn so you do not burn. good day. host: let's bring up some new

video. mike pence was on fox news and he expressed support for proposal out of florida that passed the florida legislature and was signed into law by governor ron desantis creating a six-week abortion ban. here's former vice president pence. [video clip] >> i want to commend florida and their governor for making the heartbeat bill. florida becomes the 20th state in the union to protect unborn children moment a heartbeat begins. we've had three grand jott -- three granddaughters born in the last few years. i don't think there's a family out there that isn't thrilled at the sound of an ultrasound when you hear the pitter patter of that heartbeat. i'm pro-life, i don't apologize for it. i couldn't be more proud to have been a small part of an administration that appointed three of the justices that overturned roe v. wade and gave us a new beginning for life.

progress yesterday in florida, progress in nearly 20 other states as part of a new beginning for life. i'm getting continue to be a voice for advancing the cause of the unborn on principle also on compassion. i think florida, texas and other states have done well not only expanding protections for the unborn but expanding support for women facing crisis pregnancies. we ought to be supporting newborns as much as the unborn. they are doing that with resources in those states. i commend those efforts and i will always be a champion for life. host: that was former vice president mike pence commending florida after it passed a six-week abortion ban. it's known as the heartbeat bill. i want to go back to the kaiser family foundation for another chart showing statistics on abortion. this chart looked at states that banned or restricted access to

abortions after the leak of the job ruling -- at the dobbs ruling. it looked of the number of abortions been april 2022 -- and august 2022. the first chart is states that banned or severely restricted abortion, at the time there were about a dozen states. those showed abortions dropped 95% and then there were about a half dozen states that restricted access to abortions during the april to august five month periods or so dropping 32%. and then in the remaining states were abortion remained -- in states where abortion remained legal with few restrictions, they saw a slight uptick in the number of abortions, up 11%. that included at the time states like the just -- included the

district of colombia, states like new jersey, new york, north carolina, virginia and washington. some more stats to share with you as we continue our conversation. just to remind you the numbers if you're in the eastern or central time zone, 202-748-8000. mountain or pacific, 202-748-8001. any medical professionals out there, 202-748-8002. we want you to weigh in on the question. is compromise on abortion law possible. for we go back to the phone lines i want to show more of our conversation from facebook. william writes the question will always be when does a human being have rights. those who believe it is at conception will never compromise. those who believe sometime after birth will never compromise. without a national law or constitutional amendment, each state will decide for itself

that you can live there or move. a text message we receive said rich women can fly in a private jet or first class to get an abortion but the un-wealthy? that's from arthur in cape cod. another text message, if pro-life republicans care so much about unborn babies let them give mothers free prenatal health care and pay for all the costs related to raising a child. that text was received from kristin in portland. on facebook, writing remove the right fingers and may be. heidi powell writes it's a life, be responsible, figure it out for hand. let's go back to the home phone lines -- let's get back to the phone lines to hear more on the topic. john in washington, d.c.. caller: good morning.

i've been listening to the debate for decades. i've been waiting for someone to come up with a simple solution. i guess people just like to argue. i've been asking for so many years if a woman is sexually active or has had sex, why not take the early pregnancy test, all women that are sexually active, take a pregnancy test strip once a week. that way your good and no within the first few months. if you take a pregnancy test every week, you are going to be in the know. with you go to the store pregnancy tests $10 or $15 so if the government made billions of them we could make them free to all women that are fertile ages and this debate would be over. the people -- host: our next caller is judy in

florida. judy, go ahead. caller: i'm always very concerned that these men who make all of these decisions and really discount the women's input. but why is it that the government pays for viagra, which makes men capable of having sex when god said their capability is over. i think that a very relevant issue that very rarely gets discussed on c-span. so stop paying for viagra and they will -- there will be a lot less pregnancies. thank you. host: let's go now to annapolis,

maryland. go ahead shape. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i'm 100% for abortions. i think women have a right to choose. unfortunately from what i saw from the video and the program, 20 states have already change the abortion laws and basically put -- the only way this country in my opinion is going to move forward is the supreme court. because as we can see republicans, as long as they have the judiciary there is no big major legislation especially for reproduction rights are not going to get better for everybody. there's no way nine people should decide for the rest of the country what you shouldn't should not do with your body.

republicans, when they get the house and senate and the white house back they are going to do a federal abortion ban. thank you very much. host: our next caller is eula in columbia, kentucky. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: my opinion is, 75-year-old lady and i think that a woman should be able to choose. my only problem with it is i see a lot of children that nobody wants, throw away children, they end up grown and they never had parents and nobody wants to take care of them. i say the people that are against abortion let them raise these children. that's my only thoughts. host: coming from kentucky, let's go now back to florida. susanna is calling from west

palm beach. go ahead. caller: you want me to tell you what my opinion is? host: absolutely. caller: personally i believe that life begins at conception. however, i also -- host: you might want to turn your tv down. caller: ok. host: did we lose you? caller: no. i'm sorry. host: i think we lost susanna. we are going to have to move on to happy in houston, texas. hattie in houston, texas. caller: good morning. i'm 81 years old.

i think that really my problem is with this. they do this now. i don't want my grandkids -- but my problem is, more babies are being killed with guns. and they're not worried about that. they should be taking -- when you are married they should be taking these birth-control pills so they won't have to have kids. we had six kids. three girls and three boys and after that, my husband used protection and i used birth control pills. so we couldn't have more.

this is just not like the way these men have taken over with that in the supreme court and everything else. they don't think about people being shot down with guns. in schools, so if they care so much what kids lives, pick something. if a woman has been raped or it should be between her and her doctor. that's just -- thank you. host: let's bring up our next caller, marie in michigan. what are your thoughts? caller: i have to say i am sick to death of these men calling in and telling a woman what she can or cannot do or when life

starts. until a man carries a baby for nine months and has a baby in a hospital, i think they should keep their mouths shut. they have no say in this. hillary clinton was elected. she got the popular vote. i've got news for you people she also got the electoral vote. talk about stop the steal. you are republican people, you stole hillary. you stole al gore. you people need to get -- wake up and get real. you women who voted for trump, you deserve to believe in the back alleys. i'm sorry that that's what it's going to come to. bleeding in the back alleys with an illegal, unsafe abortion. that's all i have to say. host: let's go now to west

virginia. goldie. go ahead. caller: yes. god's word how -- has said how wonderfully were you patient in your mother's womb. he is the word. genesis and in first john in the old and new testament, the word was with god and god is the word. it's ungodly. putting into the life that god gives. -- putting an end to the life god gives. i don't think it should be allowed. i raised 12 children. i would've gladly -- they said it was a miracle i carried my baby's full term. i loved each and every child i raised.

and it's just an ungodly thing people trying to not face their responsibilities. host: thank you, goldie and west virginia. next up is ron in collinsville, illinois. caller: there's been studies on how much it costs to raise children and they've come up with like $200,000. i would think a smart lawyer would sue some of these states that there forcing women to raise or bring children into the world and some of them are not capable of spending it. i think the government, whoever is doing this should pay for these children especially if they tried to get an abortion and did not pay. there forcing people to raise children. thank you. host: next up is chris in

washington. you are on. caller: thanks for letting me on. i call in frequently about a lot of different topics on c-span. this when i have a basic opinion about. i'm glad i'm alive. nobody asked me if i wanted women to have rights. that's the question now, sure. but my rights also matter. that's really all i have to say. i think you should just work for msnbc for a change if i may say so. host: we are going to bring up -- before we get back to the phone lines i want to show a few more abortion statistics as we talk about the topic. now i am at pew research.org, also having stats on abortion. looking at two charts.

this pie chart at the top says in 2020 the majority of abortions were for women who had never had one before. it said 58% of abortions, legal induced abortions in 2020 were from women who had zero abortions. 24% were from women who had one previous abortion. 10% with two previous abortions. 8%, three or more. 58% it was the person first abortion. down here is something we touched on previously. most u.s. abortions in 2020 were for women who had previously given birth. of the legal u.s. abortions in 2020, 39% had never been pregnant before. but the remaining 61% breaks

down like this. one previous birth, 25% of abortions. two previous births, 20 percent of abortions. three previous births, 10% of abortions. most u.s. abortions about 61% were people who had given birth before that. before we go back to the phone lines i do have a few more posts from facebook. this is from andrew in nashville. it says abortion is the taking of human life. against the law and against god at any age. derek friday on facebook writes this is mainly about white christian nationalists being able to control women's wombs due to their fear of white replacement theory.

lisa on facebook writes put a time limit in place. 16 weeks. any woman should be able to have an abortion. we still have induced labor and emergency c-sections for later in the pregnancy if something goes wrong or the mother's life is in danger. it saves the mother and gives the baby a fighting chance. last one for now on facebook. diane writes interesting how the party of pro-life is now willing to compromise on life because they are doing poorly on the polls over a ridiculous ruling. pitiful. let's go back to the phone lines. the question, is compromise on abortion law possible? virginia in louisiana, what do you think? caller: i think we should have the right to do or not have chill -- children.

you should do what you can and not have children -- to keep from not having children. the man should learn he can have a vasectomy. why is sex the most important thing in this whole world? host: thank you, virginia in baton rouge. our next caller is tanya from jackson, mississippi. you are on. caller: good morning. thank you very much for receiving my call. i'd like to first ask anyone involved in the broadcast this morning -- host: tanya? caller: yes. to think about the people that have called today and even prior to now to educate ourselves and

think about the w's. who, what, where, why. those who introduced this compromise as such. i remember a time in my life where i could not walk on the sidewalk, i could not drink from a certain fountain if you know what i mean. there's a lot of compromises that were there, compromises that still in effect today. please try not to bring in compromisers. don't do it. leave us alone. do what you need to do, do your job. some of you need to get out from washington and go home and sit down. you don't want to pay your child

support because you got her pregnant and now you don't want to see -- now you want to -- certain people. do your job, go home. host: one more caller this segment. mary in ohio. you are on. caller: my opinion is this is all put on the women like everything else. condoms have been available for i don't know, 70 years. all these gentlemen who are calling in and blaming the woman. if they simply took the time to buy condoms and use them, there would not be a need for abortion. if a man doesn't want to raise a child and be responsible for his actions, then he should make thank you. that is going to do it for us for this segment.

we will take a quick break and when we come back nbc news senior congressional correspondent scott will discuss the week ahead and the news of the day. george washington university law professor catherine ross will be discussing dominion voting systems defamation lawsuit against fox news. we'll be right back. ♪ >> calvin coolidge in 1924 i just been elected to united states senate. >> the white house correspondents dinner is saturday, april 29 watch c-span's live coverage from the red carpet arrivals of

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wong he is the senior congressional reporter for nbc news and we will be discussing the week ahead in congress and the news of the day. guest: good morning to you. host: thank you so much for joining us this morning. congress is back they have been gone for two weeks. and it's funny because i think they have a to do list but there is also so much news that happened while they were gone that they're going to be forced to address. what do you think is something, what do you think they want to accomplish up to the august recess? guest: i think we have to consider that the top priority for the congress will be to address the debt limit and there will be some developments on that front today in fact kevin mccarthy is going to be giving a speech on the debt limit and the

economy at the new york stock exchange in manhattan. there is a couple of events happening and we will get to some of that leader but president biden has been pretty firm in saying that he will not entertain spending cuts. he wants a clean debt ceiling increase and that has been his position. what he has said to kevin mccarthy is limited conversations has been if you guys want spending cuts then show me those. but all blame from nancy pelosi show me your budget show me your values so far we have not seen any concrete plans come out of the republicans who are in the majority in that chamber perhaps today at the new york stock exchange we could see not some

concrete ideas but get a just of what some republicans want to cut. host: we will be carrying the hearing that we will get to as well as we will be carrying speaker mccarthy's comments right here on c-span. you can stay tuned and watch for that. you mentioned that we don't really know any specifics about what republicans want to do. can you start by explaining why has it been so hard for republicans to say what they want to do and do we have any indication of if they are coalescing around any of the many ideas that have been thrown out there? guest: the biggest challenge for house republicans is the fact that they have such a narrow majority and you saw this play

out during the speaker battle a few months ago. kevin mccarthy really struggled to get back to a team number two secure the speaker's gavel. he is struggling to unite republicans around a spending cuts plan. some of the specifics that we are hearing about is that they would suspend the debt limit for about one year. that puts us to about may 2024. the problem is that puts us right before the election, right? so they would not set the spent limit past the election but create another fiscal cliff right before the election. they also want to resend tens of billions of dollars in unspent covid funds. that is an idea that has been kicking around washington for several months now. they want to create work

requirements for certain types of medicaid recipients as well as other recipients of federal aid programs. these are some of the early ideas we could see revealed later this week. there was a conference call among house republicans yesterday that took place. they didn't settle around any particular plan but we could hear more of these details in the weeks to come. host: i want to ask a follow-up question. i want to posit and give our viewers the phone lines to call in. whether you have comments about the week ahead for congress or the news of the day, or if you have questions for scott, you can go ahead and start calling now. republicans, your line is (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002 go

ahead and start calling. no, scott, we talked about some of the potential things that could be put out there sometime this week coming from republicans. some of the things you said sound like nonstarter's such as work requirements for medicaid. we know democrats are not likely to support that. they control the senate. even the covid money, they are probably going to give their members of congress and tearful if they have unspent covid money they think the federal government might try to palm back. my question is how serious of an offer is this, or is this just kind of republicans starting the conversation but knowing it's not going to go for? guest: i think this is the starting point for republicans we have not seen any proposals over the last several months.

it also speaks to what you pointed out. democrats are the ones who control the white house as well as the united states senate. they are, joe biden and the administration are in a much stronger negotiating position. this is why we haven't seen much negotiation between the white house and kevin mccarthy. among the frustration which he has been expressing repeatedly to reporters on capitol hill. joe biden's stance has been we are not going until you show us something and what you stand for. until then, we are going to take this position that we want a clean debt ceiling increase. host: before we move onto other topics, what is speaker mccarthy's standing with his many factions?

not just on the debt ceiling but that is just one of the many kind of topics with -- which speaker mccarthy is trying to please all factions of the gop caucus. guest: it's always going to be a challenge for him given that very fragile majority. if you remember also during the speaker fight he negotiated with the freedom caucus, or the freedom caucus put a list of demands to which speaker mccarthy agreed to. one of those was to restore the motion debate case where they lawmaker so the republican lawmaker could bring a resolution to the floor and call a vote to remove the speaker of the house. that is sort of the -- what is dangling over his head. if they don't like what they see

with the spending cuts there is a real threat that they could try to remove mccarthy just months into his speakership. host: we will definitely be watching for that. want to bring up a caller, joshua connie college station. turned on your tv and go ahead. -- turn down your tv and go ahead. caller: i'm wondering what the question is. host: i don't think josh what was serious with us this morning let's try rosa instead. caller: good morning. i was wondering if someone could tell me, there was a lady on the today show last week talking about all the different prices was coming down, this is coming down. but i see gas steadily going up. can anybody tell me why?

host: all right, rosa. scott? inflation is still something that is a challenge for the biden administration. what are your comments to that caller? guest: she experienced something in touched on this we can myself. consumer prices have been coming down but for some reason i did notice that the gas prices were ticking back up. it could be related to spring break travel or folks getting ready for summer travel but this has been a stubborn issue for the biden white house. obviously, they want to see prices come back down especially as they had into 2024 and the president's what we assume will be his reelection campaign. host: you mentioned the house judiciary committee is holding this field hearing in new york city.

mccarthy speech at the new york stock exchange, can you talk about what they say is the purpose and what people say is the real purpose of this hearing this morning? guest: this hearing by jim jordan, one of donald trump's foremost allies on capitol hill is a field hearing looking into what he and republicans say is the ramping crime issue. they are focusing on victims of violent crime in manhattan. there are no coincidences in politics. these republicans find themselves in manhattan today because of the investigation, the prosecution of the former president, donald trump. led by alvin bragg the manhattan district attorney. this is related of course, as we have all been following the hush money scheme related to payment

to the adult film actress stormy daniels. so jordan and other republicans are trying to make the case today just in a few minutes that alvin bragg had taken his eye off the ball, that he has been focused too much on donald trump and not enough on prosecuting crime in new york city and specifically manhattan. host: i know you have been writing on the issue here is an article from hearing on new york city crime. i do want to point out to our viewers and listeners, we will be streaming the hearing online starting at 9:00 a.m. eastern. you can go to see -- span.org or the c-span now app.

democrats have taken the stance in other field hearings that said we are not going to participate but they are taking a different posture on this hearing. is that they are going to go and try to push back and challenge this republican narrative. not just about da bragg but about crime. guest: jerry nadler the top democrat probably as we speak is holding a press conference at that very federal building. along with mayor eric adams. pushing back on this narrative that crime is out of control. they are going to point to statistics from quarter one, just this year, that show year-over-year violent crime has actually fallen in some key categories including murder and shootings and other violent crimes.

so this will be, you know, a line that you hear from democrats as the hearing proceeds later today chuck schumer meanwhile has been pushing back the democrat from new york and the democrat leader of the senate. he has been pushing back in his on way challenging jim jordan and other republicans, specifically kevin mccarthy, to say distance themselves from some words that former president trump has uttered himself. defund the fbi, defund doj, you can't say that you are against crime if you are calling for the defunding of federal agencies that go after crime and prosecute crime. host: i also want to know there have been several recent high profile mass shootings louisville, kentucky, has two in the span of a week. there was a mass shooting at a

sweet 16 in alabama. four people were killed, 28 injured. the list goes on and on as we know, relatively common in america do you think democrats might take this opportunity to say if you want to talk about crime let's talk about it. do you think that might be something that democrats push as they push back on republicans' narrative around crime in major cities? guest: absolutely. and you have heard from the president every time one of these mass shootings occurred and they are occurring it seems almost every other day now that he has been pulling -- calling on republicans to help democrats pass a ban on assault weapons. a number of politicians, high-profile politicians the

governor of tennessee, the governor of kentucky personally lost friends in these mass shootings in their own states. these are red states, all three of the ones that we mentioned and now we have high-profile politicians who have lost personal family friends in these mass shootings. there was a recent study that showed that a high number of americans have been impacted in some way by can violence whether that was being a victim of gun violence themselves or knowing somebody who was a victim of gun violence. and so that seems to be more and more common. i think we all know people who either have been impacted themselves, or we ourselves have been impacted in some way and that number just seems to be growing and growing. host: let's go back to the phone

lines to get more of our viewers'questions or comments. but one of nbc news, john in dearborn heights, michigan, what is your question or comment? caller: i just think it's kind of outrageous that they have these two-week vacations and it seems like every other two weeks. and i look on the congress.gov and they call it a district work period. and then i look at my local representatives and they are reading books to kids in elementary schools and doing pancake fists -- breakfast with the veterans. i see they have a lot of hearings and cram them on a tuesday and they have a hearing for like every various agency they want to fund in the budget and i have some ideas. the pentagon is an area to cut.

we actually heard during the mccarthy vote that some of the maga people are trying to cut the pentagon. if that was the case that would be welcome. we could eliminate the aid to israel and ukraine. host: i do have some statistics. we are mid april, theoretically the next big long recess is in august which is three months away. the house has 32 legislative dates scheduled between now and august. the senate has 54 legislative days between today and the start of the artist -- august recess. i guess on the outside looking in people are saying what are they doing with their time? what is your response to people who don't know how this works? guest: i think this particular

congress is going to be a pretty unproductive one for a number of reasons. it is divided government. democrats controlled all of the house and senate as well as the white house. we saw a lot of things get done in the congress. now we have dividing government and not a lot of grievance. not on gun reform, immigration reform, there is a stalemate in those areas. so there's not a lot of activity or legislation moving on capitol hill because of that. i also pointed to the 222 votes the republicans have in the house. the very narrow majority makes it harder for republicans to put it through that chamber. there's a number of challenges that make this particularly and unproductive congress. i will point out over the weekend that one area where we could see some agreement because

there appears to be this window of opportunity, there is not a lot happening on efforts to regulate big tech. what we have seen his bipartisan efforts to try to crackdown on tiktok over national security concerns. we have seen a high level of concern in people wanting to regulate artificial intelligence with the rise of chat gpt and other chat bots and technologies. and finally, there are a number of privacy and data protection bills that are preparing to move through the congress. then through the congress a congressman who represents silicon valley told me he thinks the low hanging fruit for the congress in the tech realm is to

protect children and their data. online child privacy legislation and he thinks that is the real sweet spot were democrats and republicans can get behind that's the low hanging fruit you think the congress can tackle first and the easiest. host: the caller also mentioned spending as potentially what republicans propose as far as cost-cutting measures coupled with increasing the debt limit. do you think that's going to be something they include on their list? it is a shift in the stereotype of which party is more likely to want to cut defense spending. guest: we haven't seen defense and penta cut -- pentagon spending cut. republicans want to focus on the

nondefense discretionary spending. that will be, i think, part of the proposal that we see roll out in mccarthy's speech and throughout the rest of this week as mccarthy speaks to members of his conference and they sort of try to coalesce around what possible cuts they want to present to the president. host: all right, that's quebec to the phone lines. robert in california. you are on this morning, robert. caller: good morning. i just wondered about catalytic converters. are they a nation right -- nationwide requirement for the u.s.? or just california? i'm out here in the middle of the mafia desert and just wondering. guest: i'm not sure. host: it's an emission control device.

let's broaden it a little bit. we've heard a lot about green energy, boosting electric vehicles, that was something that one democrats had control they were able to do through the chips and science act and the inflation reduction act. the biden administration keeps putting out new regulations but do you think more will happen in this congress on green energy? guest: well i will just say that this week represents 100 days of republicans controlling the house majority and their first legislation hr one which means it is their top priority focus on energy. they made a conscious decision to make sure that was their priority and they passed that bill recently. it aims to expand energy

production and try to bring some of those energy sources back to american soil. you will hear through the republican leadership talk about their accomplishments in the first 100 days of their majority democrats will take a much different view. there are a handful of items, particularly the d.c. crime bill that republicans were successfully able to overturn with the help of one president joe biden much to the countries -- the house democrats had been opposed to overturning the bill. there are a handful of success stories prefer the republicans. the energy bill will never become law because as i mentioned democrats control the united states senate in the white house and will block that from happening. there lies some challenges for

the republican party. host: let's go back to the phone lines. john is in north carolina. morning, john. caller: good morning. abortion is terrible. but biden, it's killing thousands of people and guns are anything else. but nobody is saying anything about it. it's ok. how can anybody spend -- stand in front of the american people and say something like that just like the mayor of new york city saying it's the safest city in the united states. i don't understand how a lot of these democrats stand in front of people and square out lie to people that know better.

have a good day. host: the caller brought up to issues. that no, immigration, also a little bit about concerned about crime which i think we have already covered area any possibility that anything could get done on immigration? guest: i don't think that this is been an issue that has been there for a generation. we have seen no movement on that front. people have tried to tackle it in a comprehensive way. nothing has been successful but this was an issue back, it is externally complicated. there is a tremendous need for immigration because we have seen a worker shortage in some really key areas of the economy. retail, hotel, and hospitality.

this has been an issue, the two sides it simply have not been able to agree on it are some time. host: our next caller is ed and he is calling from maine. what is your question or comment? caller: thank goodness for c-span. the other thing i have never been able to understand is how we can appropriate a defense budget, congress can approve the money for a defense budget but we never completed a full financial audit for the department of defense. how do you appropriate money not knowing where your money is going? thank you. guest: tough question. i'm not the budget expert. what i will say is there is a there are hearings underway. each agency does need to come to capitol hill each year and request money for their

agencies. this includes the pentagon as well as all of the other agencies. the previous caller asked about why there are so many hearings asking for manning. this is a normal part of the budget and appropriations process in washington. people have to make their case for why their agencies deserve the money they are asking for. host: we have been chatting this morning with scott wong a senior congressional reporter at nbc news. think you so much for joining us. guest: it's been a pleasure, thank you. host: we will take a quick break. katherine rosman be accepting dominion voting systems defamation lawsuit against fox news but first more of your calls in open forum go ahead and start dialing and now. republicans (202) 748-8001.

democrats (202) 748-8000. and independents (202) 748-8002. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app of your view of what's happening in washington. keep up with four plus seatings of hearings white house events, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. it helps stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal. plus a variety of podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store, and google play. downloaded for free today. c-span now, your front proceed to washington anytime,

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fast-paced report of stories of the day listen to c-span anytime just so you're smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. >> if you are enjoying book tv sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive a schedule of upcoming programs, festivals and more. book tv every sunday on c-span2 or any time online epic tv.org. television for serious readers. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal". it is open forum and we are ready to take your calls. again, republican style (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. and independents (202) 748-8002. first up is marsha in new jersey

on the democratic line. what is your comment this morning, marsha? caller: i am calling and i would like to see ar-15 guns banned in the united states. i watch the news in almost every other day there is a mass shooting. what has happened to us? we have become an uncaring country. host: all right, marsha in new jersey. let's take a call from queens, new york. robert is calling on the independent line. caller: yes, i'm calling relative to the reporter that you just had on from nbc news. i'm just curious as to why

c-span never seems to have a reporter let's say from newsmax or perhaps from fox news or something or, you know, to have a liberal reporter and have a conservative order there such that you can have a balanced opinion rather than having a one-sided situation. i realize that c-span is very liberal and you lean towards a democratic persuasion. however, c-span is supposed to be objective. and not to take any particular side, one sitter the other. so it would be nice to see, you know, have two reporters have a conservative and a liberal.

that way you have a balance. host: i want to point out that we have a lot of guests on c-span "washington journal". all sides of the political spectrum, we had a fox news or order i'm sorry and newsmax reporter john gizzi on just last week. so if you ever want to get different viewpoints and you don't see it on that particular show go to c-span.org. we had someone from news mags on this very show. mark in myrtle beach, south carolina. go ahead, mark. caller: i'm one of those new yorkers who left to go to a red state because it's a lot safer done here. it's all lot you default on here. then for your future guess that's coming up from dominion,

the lawyer that's rep extending them -- representing them i don't know with all the technologies here in the united states as far as fingerprint codes or facial recognition that we can't have one universal type of voting so that you can have in banking. you can't get your money out of an atm without a four digit code so why can we not in this modern country have the technology to have one form of voting? no tabs in florida so that's my question for your future guess and think you for the time. host: i made of note -- i made a note of that. our next caller is marilyn and calling from illinois. caller: good morning, i really

love c-span and the format and i think you are very fair and balanced. my comment is about the assault weapons. i'm not against ordinary guns and hunting guns but the assault weapons, there has to be something done. i often wonder if congress and the nra i believe they don't have a parent's art and understand the pain that these assault weapons are causing the families. i wonder if they would have been congress would have all their children and young again -- grandchildren and be forced to take a vote on which one of those children what they want to see shot by an assault weapon i wonder if that would open their eyes. my heart is breaking for all these families losing so many people and so many young children and especially in schools. i'm 80 years old when i went to school, i never once had to even

think about somebody coming in and shooting me. and that is my comment. have a wonderful day. host: i do want to bring up cbs news just put out a new polling on the issue of guns. here's a chart on showing 52% of the voters poll supporting a nationwide ban on ar-15's semi automatic weapons. 38% oppose. again this is brand-new polling out over the weekend from cbs news. there are a lot of other statistics and charts shared. i want to share one more. the caller mentioned concern about gun violence at schools. doon 2020 72% of parents were concerned. that is now up to 77% in this latest poll. people who were not concerned

went from 28% to 22%. again, the issue of violence in school is on parents minds as well. we will go back to the phone lines now. rebecca is calling from merced, california. caller: good morning, everyone. the topic i would like to talk about this each americans credit score. eventually your credit score is going to be more important. if you don't have a decent credits or you won't be able to buy a house, rent an apartment, get a job it's going to be very serious in the future. and then something may be c-span might do a segment on the apart of a good credit score because eventually your credit score is going to be your life. that's it, i was just hoping to make a suggestion that may be c-span could do something on the importance of a good credit score. have a good day, everyone.

host: i would say search our archives because and this is a good reminder tomorrow is tax day. if you have not gotten your taxes in april 18 is your deadline. let's go to chattanooga, tennessee. anthony on the democratic line, you are on. caller: what i would like to see is the school loans being taken care of. if we can go, if we can pay all these trillions of dollars for a war that we have -- that nobody in america is fighting then i feel that school loans should be taking care of. one more other thing about the caller calling in if the republicans, they needed to be voted out. they need to be voted out, thank you very much. host: that was anthony in tennessee.

let's go to massachusetts now. john is calling on the republican line. go-ahead, john. caller: i would like to get a point across so that we you guys don't cut me off. i have been trying to call the past couple of weeks. every time i try to call for my one phone call every month, you guys don't want to answer my call. so i have a little speech i want to read to everybody. can i do that? host: i will let you go for a little bit, go ahead and start and we will see how long you can go. caller: this is how i'm going to start it. welcome to government and -- corporate fascism. from the ones who created racism, fascism, watch how british zionism and now nato nazi communism. you will be happy and am

nothing. so the banks on wall street, the central federal reserve bank who funded communism, who funded communism funded hitler's to the wall street banks, rockefeller, j.p. morgan, hugo boss, ok? so what are we here for? are we here to aid these animals? fund a one wall -- one world government with one world currency? and your so-called looking at your money and worried about your interest rates going up when the very banks who are funding your sellouts in congress and all three corporations all your news media are owned by the corporations where do the people get there's free speech from when everything is controlled by the elite and

the rich? host: we appreciate your comments this morning. were going to go to another caller now. up next is mike. calling from delaware on the independent line, what is your comment? caller: i just like to say i appreciate the last caller for his words. i think he just had a little bit of emotion going on there. one thing that i would like to talk about is the state of the economy and how student loans are not being taken care of because one thing i will say, i am visiting my brother. i've been in pennsylvania. we are sitting here in an apartment that he is taking care of and doing very well. but the economy here isn't moving. there aren't any jobs here. to make matters worse, this is a student, this is a school town where it is nothing but students everywhere. i would like to see the government doing more to assist

the future which is our students who are coming of age or people coming of age to go into corporate

caller: i remember what that man up there. they want to talk about we always talk about blaming the white man for everything. it hurts me so bad that there's people out here working together to keep our country as a utopia. there speaking. there are people out here that don't have an education.

no matter how many important people we've got they paid them to educate those people. what we are talking about now yanni to wake up. the attack is on us. when somebody calls on the show and talks about about my sister the same thing they did for cnn they went inside the republicans. so they can control the airwaves. this is what they are trying to do on cnn. you know, were not going to do that on my face. i don't care if -- host: were going to have to move on to more callers. i want to remind you of the numbers to call in because we have some more time left in open forum. again, republicans call (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. and independents (202) 748-8002. we want to hear what your

thoughts are about the news of the day or whatever topics you would like to weigh in on. our next caller is on the republican line. john in pennsylvania. go ahead and share with this, john. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't think we will be able to solve the immigration problem. i'm 65 years old and when reagan was president they kind of allowed 1.5 million illegals to have a pathway to citizenship. that was supposed to solve it. we can have a practical solution today because they keep changing. we went from illegal immigrants to undocumented to asylum-seekers. you can't find a practical solution. as long as you keep changing the narrative. also with respect to student loans. when i got out of graduate school and had $16,000 in student loan debt that's equivalent to $43,000 today. i paid the student loans off. when my student loans were paid off i got braces for my kids.

i understand about student loan debt but now am i supposed to tell all these young people why should my wife and i paid our medicare part b which is like $350 a month? the reality is they are not going to solve student loan debt because the schools need it. these schools have to realize if you go to school and major and a criminal justice you've already hurt yourself. paying the student want that was something i did. i didn't think it was an entitlement. it was hard. but i paid it and when i got my kids braces i said to myself you know what, i was paying 250 a month now i'm only paying 150 a month for braces. thank you for taking my call. i really appreciate it. host: john in pennsylvania. let's go to rodney in louisiana

now. caller: my thing is i want one white evangelical christians are called in and explain to me why is it they claim they love god so much what they've never seen but they can't stand the black people and hispanic people they live with every day? someone calling an extreme that to me, please. host: ok. donald in michigan. donald on the republican line, you're on. donald in kalamazoo? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: pardon me? host: go ahead, you are online. caller: i want to talk about the president i keep hearing about trump and biden all the time.

i would like to give you a little information about another president. and i will start out by reading this. i ordered the military into action for the first time firing 23 tomahawk missiles into iraqi intelligence headquarters. or of them overshot, three of them landed in a baghdad neighborhood. pointed out how far we had to go there were hate crimes a black man dragged from the back of his pickup truck and killed. there were bullets shot into a jewish school, korean, african, -- african-american and a filipino killed because of their race. the air campaign would work if we could hold a coalition together for two months.

there were 30,000 fluent in the old campaign. all of the team wanted china in the world trade organization. iraq expelled six u.n. weapons inspectors on the 13th blocked inspectors again. it may just a second here. host: i need you to get to where you're going. i think we are -- he's gone. rick in hermann, nebraska on the independent line. go ahead, rick. caller: i have several things about firearms. all my firearms are tools. i have one 22 in the back, sitting by the back door for any kind of critters that might come into my yard. coyotes, badgers, foxes.

i have a shotgun that i use for pheasant hunting. i have an 18 inch barrel shotgun kept behind the bed for anybody who might try to kick my dorian and kill me and my wife. it's a little town with the police. i do have several handguns that i use for personal protection when i go into tomahawk, nebraska. murder capital of nebraska. i also have a two to three, 556. it's called a match target. it doesn't say ar-15 anywhere on it. i use that 2% from a radical government. as far as you go, i have seen you chiming in on the chorus of liberal hate speech. your brother that was saying that he would like anybody to

say that about you on face-to-face with him i do not use arms and a civil conversation. also i'm 63 years old. my dad made sure we went all over the country showing how all kinds of different people live. i grew up in iowa where i had to fight to keep my lunch money. in a segregated, in a diverse neighborhood. i'm 63 now i don't care who comes to my house i greet them cordially. no matter who they are. unless they had ill intentions. thank you very much. host: fredericksburg, virginia, democratic line. you are on. caller: good, thank you c-span. i would like to understand the

hypocrisy people that care about saving how come they are not so adamant in serving and protecting children and people that have been killed? the irony is palpable. if they are christians, they love the lord. protecting the unborn which is good but how come the children that are living, they don't think of protecting them from being killed? from measures that would protect these children. host: all right. our next caller is bonnie. bonnie is calling from cedar edge, colorado, on the republican line. morning. caller: good morning. i would like to see c-span i guess you may have mentioned

this before but i have not seen anything positive about adoption. that is a huge option. there are thousands and thousands of people who cannot have children. their hands are empty, their arms are empty. they want to adopt these children. and why don't these women give these babies up for adoption? if they're worried about feeding them because there's lots of people that want to adopt a baby and it would be very interesting to me to have your show put all the information about how hard it is to adopt, how much it costs. the reasons why are it can't be made cheaper because that seems to be the main excuse why women

are getting these abortions. and killing their babies just because they are afraid to raise them but they don't have the money. but if a person could, you know, just have their baby my doctor told me that when a woman is pregnant her uterus is in the healthiest stage of its life. that is has nothing to do with her help when she is pregnant. there's so many different ways to deal with this abortion problem and it always seems to be the same same old thing. i just wish they would have more information about adoption and

how hard it is to adopt. why is that when there is so many women that don't want a child they are carrying. but she does need to carry that baby and then she can give it away. host: appreciate your call. were going to go to stone mountain georgia now. victor is on the independent line. no ahead, victor. caller: how are you this morning? host: doing all right. caller: i just want to commend you for the job that you are doing. i also think i want to say you're really looking beautiful up there. but i also want to just commend you for taking all these comments and most of them are negative comments on your show. just hang in there because, you

know, -- host: i appreciate it but this is an open forum i want to hear from you. tell me what you to talk about as far as the political ends of the day. i think he's gone already. let's go to willie in slidell, the louisiana on the democratic line. you are on. caller: thank you, ma'am. i was born in 1941 to a segregated society. we lived in a black community. you took the black community and they put us all out of their and did a white project. i went in the military. we had box, caucasians. --blacks, caucasians. when i came back in sick 1960 all these caucasians had disappeared. did they get on a spaceship?

i never found out. i'll probably never knowing so as far as i'm concerned they have no reason to be angry and they are not white. the only white fox i ever saw were caucasian -- albinos. thank you ma'am. host: our next caller is anthony in massapequa, new york on the republican line. you are on. caller: good morning. it's a pleasure to talk to you. i just want to make a comment about the united states. we are always giving money to other countries. turkey had the earthquake and we some people over there. ukraine, i felt sorry for those people we are sending all kind ofbillions and billions of dolls

go to all of these countries. now we are worried about taiwan, that they might have a problem. back at home in the united states got veterans from the vietnam war, the middle east wars, homeless in the streets. why aren't we taking care of these people? could you answer that? host: anthony in new york, we appreciate your call. let's go to madison, wisconsin. jean anne is on the independent line. good morning. jean anne? caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: thank you. thank you for taking my call. i have a number of issues but i will start with the fentanyl

crisis. it is coming from china to mexico into this country and it does -- kills an average of 300 americans per day. of that is the equivalent of having an enormous airplane crash a day. why doesn't our government put out a public service announcement with regard to fentanyl? it is being laced with other drugs that are illegal and it would be of no cost to the government. it might help to save lives. it makes common sense. common sense is something i regret we lack a lot of in this country. i wish people would roll up their sleeves, sit down and discuss things in an intelligent manner, not shouting anyone down for their opinions but coming to

a consensus. i wish someone would pay attention to legal immigration. i believe in legal immigration. but no vetting at the border when busloads of chinese nationals and people around the world that are not necessarily our friends are coming in. they are not being vetted, yet the government does not allow tennis players without vaccinations to play in tennis tournaments. we need strong leadership. host: all right, jean anne in wisconsin. that will do it for this portion of open forum. we will be back with george washington university law school professor catherine ross. she is going to be discussing

dominion voting system's defamation lawsuit against fox news which is scheduled to begin this week. we will be back after the break. ♪ ♪ >> c-span shop.org is c-span's online store. the latest products, apparel, books, home to core and accessories, for every c-span fan. every purchase supports our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> order your copy of the 118th congressional directory now available at c-spanshop.org. it is your access to the federal government with bio information for every house and senate information, information on committees, the president's cabinet and state governors.

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and decided with no commentary, no interruption and completely unfiltered. your unfiltered view of government. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with catherine ross, a law professor at george washington university. we are going to discuss dominion voting system's lawsuit against fox news. good morning. guest: thank you for inviting me. host: thank you for joining us. let's start with the status of the case. there was an update over the weekend. we thought the trial was going to start today but that is no longer the case. guest: the party is resumed settlement talks which had broken off in december. while it is common for cases to

settle on the courthouse steps on the eve of trial, there was no reason for dominion to want to settle this case, it had such a strong case. with preliminary skirmishes and decisions the judge made, fox has in norma's incentive to settle and enormous risk if it moves forward with the trial. i would suspect they may be motivated -- this is speculation -- to make a serious settlement offer. any time you go to a jury, no matter how strong your case, there is a risk that one juror will vote the other way. and dominion runs the risk that a strong verdict and big damages could be reversed in the appellate court or tied up for

years. it given that andy -- and the judge's unhappiness with the fox lawyers, it is possible they will settle. host: i want to give our viewers the number to call so they can ask questions about the trial or related issues or share their thoughts on the case. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can start calling now and we will get to those calls in a moment. is this case unusual? we are talking about a private company suing arguably the biggest cable news network. is there much precedent for what we are seeing unfold?

guest: there is no precedent both in terms of the parties but more importantly, the almost unimaginable facts and what we have seen in discovery. this is by far the strongest case i have ever seen for defamation under the very stringent standard created in new york times versus sullivan to protect the news media, to put the first amendment over traditional defamation law in which you only had to show there was a falsehood. here, they are protected unless they proceeded with what is called actual malice that is something very different when we use it in conversation. host: talk more about the standard of malice. that is the precedent that was set in the new york times versus sullivan case.

we have a little bit of an overview of that. the landmark case, which held in 1964 that if a plaintiff in a defamation suit is a public figure, particularly a public official or candidate for public office, he or she must meet the higher standard of proving actual malice in order to make their case. how does that apply to what we are seeing in dominion voting system's v fox news? guest: first, the concept of a public figure has expanded. but under new york law which applies here, the public figure standard applies. even though this is in a delaware court, it is applying the laws of defamation in new

york. actual malice says the person who published the fal with recks disregard of the truth. meaning they had reason to suspect that it could be false and did nothing to follow-up and find out. we learned in discovery that fox had internal fact checkers and expressly said we don't want to hear the facts from you. it is not good for our business model. i am paraphrasing of course. but that is a strong indicator among all of the emails and behind-the-scenes commit occasion and the testimony and depositions that the speakers at fox and the network officials who published these falsehoods

knew that the statements were not true. host: i am going to read a quote. this is an article the hill wrote where you were quoted. you said it fox does not appear to have any plausible defense in light of what dominion uncovered in discovery of real-time knowledge of falsities. i wanted to ask before we take calls. does dominion have any instances to settle? --incentives to settle? fox may have some because their case might not be strong but does dominion have incentive to settle? guest: they have very limited incentive to settle. they have an important point to make in this case in addition to

wanting the damages. they will make the point most clearly with a trial. the point they need to make is that they are reliable so that they don't lose contracts moving forward. that is the harm to their business. there will of course be competing testimony about how much they have been harmed in terms of dollar amount. but there is no question that they have suffered reputational and business harm. host: let's go to the phone lines. mario in new york on the republican line, what is your comment? caller: how come c-span is not carrying the dish area committees in new york city today? host: that is off-topic but you can go to c-span.org or the c-span now app. we are seaming the judiciary hearing live. it is scheduled to start at 9:00

a.m. eastern time. on the topic at hand, dominion voting system's v fox, dave in florida on the democratic line. what would you like to ask? caller: you know, the thing is i think we need more regulations in news and information. if you put out bottles of a medicine that were mislabeled, they drag you into a criminal court and put you in jail. but this company, fox news has been getting away with labeling their products news for over 30 years and it is not news. it is simply propaganda, lies packaged up, and echo chamber for some of the less informed people in the world to parent lines at each other. that is all they do is sell lines. murdoch personally confessed to these facts.

he said in deposition, it is not about lou or read. it is about green. not even a basic single celled organism can survive without access to facts, truths and accurate data. even a virus, in order to mutate, has to operate on actual data. but fox news has been able to spew lines of toxic propaganda and absolute bs into the public consciousness of this country for 30 years. it is operated by a foreign alien, rupert murdoch who slithered in and made himself a billionaire on being able to call and dupe some of the most uninformed people in the world. this is been going on --

host: let's let our guest respond. guest: there was a question at the beginning which is important and that is why can't the government regulate the media to get rid of this information and lies? that is really the central theme of my book, the right to lie. that is because the government, if it were to regulate what is true and what is untrue would be a sensor. -- censor. many courts have compared this to 1984 and talking about what happens when the government decides what you can and can't say based on the government's assessment of truth. that is an almost impossible undertaking, the whole point of the first amendment, that we the citizens are supposed to hear a

variety of ideas and interpretations of facts and decide for ourselves what is true and false. that said, i want to add the judge in the dominion versus fox case went through each of the more than 130 instances of falsehoods that the dominion company listed in its complaint and concluded that each and every one of those statements that appeared on fox was false. he used capital letters and there is nothing for the jury to decide about whether it was true or false, it is false. it is very different from the government, meaning the executive branch, through regulation and enforcement, tells people you can't say that,

it is false. host: let's take another caller. mary lou in connecticut on the independent line. go ahead. caller: listen, i don't know about the dominion case but i live in connecticut. i have been here, my first vote was in 1962. i have gone to the same polling place every single time of the election since then. i went to the election and polling place this time, the same one. i walked in the door, hand them my license and they said we don't need that. i said you don't need it? no, we don't. i said do you want to know where i live? ok. i said on willard avenue. ok, we got that, get your ballot. i live in a rooming house that

has nine apartments in it. they could not have known who was voting from that house. do you think that that was a real election? the election in 2020 was affixed. i live in connecticut where blumenthal, murphy and all of them are democrats and very seldom do the republicans get in. but i'm telling you, my first vote was for eisenhower. host: this caller believes the election was fixed. believes what fox news and others have said. what are your thoughts? guest: sure. in most jurisdictions you need to sign the voter book and they look at your signature and see if there is a disparity. so they did some sort of check. we have had report after report of official agencies, and you

may not question them, but under the trump administration, federal officials, we have had audits in numerous states, many lawsuits. and each instance the factual outcome was that the election was fair. where there any instances of fraudulent voting? a handful. in almost all of them by republicans. but the phrase that everybody used was not in sufficient numbers to affect the outcome. this was not a stolen election. we had more evidence than we have ever had before because of the challenges the republicans brought. so you should be able to sleep easy. host: on a related note, we had a color in a previous segment who wanted me to ask you, why is

there not a universal system for voting, making it consistent nationwide? guest: wonderful question. because the constitution gives the power to conduct elections to the state governments. that is part of our federal system. it would be possible of course for the states to all agree to do it in one way. but they don't have to. host: let's go back to the phone lines. on the republican line, don from lancaster county, pennsylvania. caller: yeah, i am a hunter and the last election in 2020, i left the house at about 2:00 in the morning and all of the swing states, pennsylvania, georgia, all of those states. i live in pennsylvania.

there were only 10% of the votes left. the only way trump was going to lose pennsylvania is if biden got all of the votes. eight that amazing that all the votes -- ain't that amazing that all the votes were provided? we talked about fox news being fair and for republicans, let's get our heads out of the sand. most of the people in this country think that 2020 elections were rigged and they did what they had to do to beat trump. we don't stop doing trump. he is not even in office and we are still going after him. he was the greatest thing in this country for the last 40 years. if she's going to sit there and lie and say that dominion voting machines were not rigged, she is full of it. host: can you respond to those who have concerns about how

those later votes tend to trend toward democratic candidates? guest: sure. and this is a little beyond my area of expertise but is something i have followed closely. one reason might well be a -- and it is true in many states -- that it depends on the geographical area the votes come from and where they are counted. we watched through trends coming election night, often a particular county or city reports later than other parts of the state. we live in pretty segregated silos right now in this country. so the zip codes that are coming in late are let's say 90% one-party, it won't be surprising that most of those votes took one way. host: let's take another.

sandy in katy, texas on the democratic line. caller: thank you for taking my call and good morning. i wanted to say that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. i am glad that fox news is getting what they deserve after all of the misinformation they have put out. the election process itself is broken because of the electoral college system. how are there presidents who have been elected through the electoral college system but not the popular vote? like bush and trump, they did not win the republican -- the popular vote. that is all have to say. guest: thank you. you're right, the electoral

college was designed to give smaller states more power and today we have a greater disparity in where the population is based compared to the geographic spread so the electoral college can very easily tilt away from who won the popular vote. that would require a constitutional amendment to change. it is very unlikely that we could achieve such a change. in addition we have problems beyond the theme of this segment, that we have real problems with voter suspect -- voter suppression and gerrymandering that makes it impossible to put congressional -- flip congressional seats. those are hurting our democracy. host: alan in ohio is calling on the independent line. caller: i would like to take

your attention back in number of years ago to a program started called war of the worlds. this relates to what we are dealing with now. in the fact that after the aftermath they came up with rules and regulations from the fcc that made it illegal for any news media to report something falsely. that that would be wrong to do and illegal. that is something the government presented. there was a phrase coined back then called false radio. trump comes up with false news. it is accurate with a lot of publications done through the country by different companies. i take my hat off to c-span because i have seen them refer to articles written or something past that they might pull up from the internet or past history.

but we have to take into account that these are a lot of times opinions. we have to be careful. my concern would be that at everybody has the same standard. if fox news says something differently, like they knew or it could happen, that would be different. i would like to see that these companies, if fox news violated that fcc ruling, they should be held accountable to that as well. host: catherine? (202) 748-8001 -- guest: that is great. for any listeners who don't know about the war of the world, that was a notorious radio play a fiction done by orson welles in which aliens from outer space were invading the united states. and it was so realistic that many americans panicked and got in their cars and hid in the basement.

it was an extraordinary event. that is the context. the rule about fulcher ports, i don't know the current status of that rule. but it was decades before a number of supreme court decisions that protected the right to share falsehoods. it was not until 2012 the supreme court said lies and untruths are not outside the protection of the first amendment. and we are still trying to figure out what that means and how far it extends. so if something is fictional, i think it would be very hard for the government today in light of the emerging document since war of the worlds to regulate it.

in terms of other falsehoods, there is no question from the discovery material that fox knew he was lying lying -- it was ld that each of the assertions -- and after that, dominion told fox in more than 3500 communications this is false. here's what happened and fox kept broadcasting. that is a different scenario from the fictional horrible roads. host: bringing -- war of the worlds. host: back to the lawsuit, it does center on the first amendment. here is a statement fox news made about the lawsuit. our source is cbs news. it says dominions lawsuit has been more about what generate headlines than what could withstand lnd

factual scrutiny. as illustrat by t demand by thr expert debunkedirlion after impossible cla some took an extreme view of defamation law that would prevent journalists in their efforts to -- comments from a sitting president of the united states should be recognized as a blatant violation of the first amendment. fox is making a first amendment case here. how do you think -- how are they trying to apply it? guest: there is a lot to unpack. first, the fox statement grossly misrepresents the first amendment. the judge in the court has made it clear that they cannot repeat

these kinds of statements in front of a jury. he will stop them midsentence and tell the jury they have misstated the law. he's already made pretrial rulings about the proffered defenses from fox. the first amendment does not mean you want anytime you want. and defamation law is intended to stop these kinds of lies even when we are talking about the hard to satisfy sullivan standard. what is ironic is fox is saying we should be able to play fast and loose with the truth as a news media organization or the first amendment is in trouble. but that is what sullivan says you can't do. we needed robust political discourse, but it has to take place within some kind of confines.

and the court has made it difficult to stop the news media went and they say things -- when they say things they can't fully backup. but if this does not satisfy they sullivan standard, i cannot imagine a case that will. that means it would be a message to a responsible journalists that they can lie as much as they want and there is no remedy and that is -- that would spill over into the next election cycle. host: let's go back to the phone lines. our next caller is patrice on the republican line from south carolina. caller: first of all i would like to say that trump is going down in history as the best president in our time. we are in a war right now, good versus evil. i want to go back to the call, he was from massachusetts, he

stated the powers that be, the elite. they're the ones behind the scenes running the show. all news media is propaganda. they are the ones that the biggest weapon used against american people, because they have a tax on us. i would like to also state that a lot of americans are waking up and have woken up. we see through all of this. if biden got 80 million votes, where are these 80 million people following him like they follow trump? there is no way i believe and most americans believe that biden got 80 million votes and won the election. no way. host: catherine? guest: it is a hard statement to

respond to. people often believe what they want to believe, regardless of information. i think a lot of the 80 million people who voted for president biden may be sitting in their homes wondering where the people who voted for trump because i don't know any of them? we have a disturbing absence of trust in the mediating institutions that are essential to democracy. that is a whole other question and one we have to grapple with. host: let's go to the democratic line, christina calling from illinois. caller: you got the name right. i have a question. isn't fox not registered with the fcc as a news organization and entertainment organization? if you could answer that for me

and also for the lady who just called, sometimes democrats are a little more quiet about what we like. i will take my answer off the air. thank you. host: she went ahead and hung up so she could hear her answer. guest: i was confused. yes, i don't think we can say there is a cult of president biden in the same way there is a quote unquote cult of president trump. that does confuse some people watching what is going on. i don't know whether fox is technically considered an entertainment corporation or fox news a news organization. but we have to assume they have news credentials because they are allowed at weiss -- white

house re-things and they have press credentials. there is part about whether they should be treated as a news organization with those privileges. host: let's bring up tony in sugar land, texas on the independent line. you're on. caller: cna you hear -- can you hear me? host: yes. caller: do you know anything about the cisa reports? google cbs article on cisa report on dominion voting machines. in this report, i called in before, it was the only one that ever discussed the report. and it talked about the vulnerabilities of these voting machines. the vulnerability is where a

hacker or someone wanted to forge and get into the session and print numerous ballots, please read the article and it will explain the different vulnerabilities of the dominion voting machine. my question would be, did the government print this report or put out this report in 2022 for the 2020 election and in the report it says that they from 2019, they have known about these vulnerabilities. did they check every single voting machine to see that nothing has happened, no forgery, no hacking? it seems unreal to me. and when i read the article, i can't believe we still are using these machines. host: go ahead. guest: he is getting into a technical area and i may not

have a deeper understanding of those reports than you do. but from what i have read, there were a very small number, certainly a distinct minority of machines that could be accessed theoretically. like all technology, the companies continue to refine and improve. but while it does not appear, nor what i think it would be practical, to look at every voting machine in every district, there has been no evidence at all that votes were actually accessed and changed. and one explosive piece of discovery in the lawsuit was when rudy giuliani after claiming that votes were changed in many districts and in swing states told a host at fox, we

have no evidence. i've got people working on it. we can assume that if motivated people with some access were looking for evidence and never found that it has probably not there. host: i do have the report pulled up, i want to read a crucial line of the summary. it says while these vulnerabilities present risks that should be mitigated as soon as possible, cisa has no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited in any election. let's go back to the phone lines. james in albuquerque, new mexico. republican line. caller: for catherine ross, i am more of a conservative than a republican, but i don't believe anything you say. i don't care what credentials you have.

but cnn, msnbc, fox, everybody lies. the administration that is in place right now from biden down all live. they don't tell the truth. when you talked about the first amendment, before must took over -- musk took over twitter they were shutting down free speech. who is the truth detective to say what is true and what is a lie? the people in this country don't believe the government anymore. the government is lying to the public. we are not stupid out here and they put people like you on here to try to defend and say that you are speaking the truth. i don't believe anything you are saying. the media does a stop line every day.

and the president does a stop line every day. it is unbelievable where our country has gone. dominion -- host: we will have to wrap up the segment. we will give you the final word. do you think that dominion voting systems v. fox trial could change people's opinions about the 2020 election? guest: that is the biggest uphill battle in our current environment. as clarified by some calls we have gotten today. i hope people will listen with an open mind. i hope fox and other purveyors of falsehood will rethink the limits on what they can get away with and try to be more responsible moving forward. host: we have been chatting with george washington university law professor catherine ross. she is also the author of a

book, "a right to lie." thank you. guest: it was a pleasure. host: we will take a break and then we will hear from you from open forum. start dialing in, republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002. ♪ >> a healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this. where americans can see democracy a work -- at work. i republican thrives -- a republic thrives. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are. it is the opinion that matters the most -- your own.

c-span, powered by cable. ♪ >> live, sunday, may 7, an attorney and author will be our guest on in-depth toakyour calls about government and legal reform. he has written many books, including bestseller the death of common sense. his latest book is a critique. philip howard, sunday at noon eastern on c-span two. pres. biden: the very first president to attend the white house correspondents dinner was calvin coolidge. i had just been elected to the senate. >> washington's premier event is saturday, april -- this year's

headline is the daily show's roy wood junior and president biden is expected to speak. the white house corrpondents' dinner mount live, saturday, april 29 on c-span, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with open forum, your opportunity to weigh in on the news of the day or any topic on your mind. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002. we will be carrying live house speaker kevin mccarthy's speech at the new york stock exchange. you can tune in to c-span and c-span now and see -- at

c-span.org. we are also streaming on our website and app the judiciary sales committee on new york crime already underway. and at noon, deputy treasury secretary discusses the irs budget and the plans for the appropriation in the inflation reduction act hosted by the urban brookings tax policy center. watch live coverage beginning at noon eastern today on c-span2, also c-span now and c-span.org. open forum is now. john in connecticut on the democratic line. what are your thoughts? caller: i have two points to make. the lady who called earlier from connecticut i think was misleading the program.

when i vote in connecticut i have to show id. usually my license. i am presenting this to six people sitting at a table, three of which are democrats, three republicans. and when i identified myself they cross my name off the voter list. at the same time once i have identified myself and they have concurred, they handed me a ballot. i run over to the machine, fill out the blocks, the circles, and i put it in a machine. that is the end of that. the other point i would like to make is in terms of representation in the country, there are approximately eight states with a population of 6 million people and they all have two senators so that is 16 senators for 6 million people. and the state of california has

roughly 40 million people with two senators. that is unequal justice and why we are not getting any gun-control past. thank you, have a great day. host: from connecticut now to delaware. sherwood on the republican line. caller: good morning. i watched with tremendous interest the last segment with ms. ross and her book and her thoughts on the upcoming suit. i live in delaware and i have worked in the broadcast industry for more than half a century. i was educated in this industry at the school of public mitigation. this lawsuit that this foreign company has brought against fox news is more of a threat to the free press and the united states than anything i have seen

in my lifetime. i was nine years old when sullivan versus new york times was handed out as case law. what this does is it means from now on, any news organization that wants to write a story, not an editorial, but a story though i am presuming editorials will be covered by court decisions in this country as well. if you don't like an editorial you will be able to sue and find a judge that will shut down the newspaper or the cable channel or radio network or website that published the editorial that you as a public figure don't like. my main problem with this is that neither the republican national committee, the campaign

to elect george w. bush or anyone else that i recall brought any lawsuits against mary makes, dan rather or cbs news when they were all framed a demonstrably and then proven false letter designed to make president bush look like a quote "draft dodger" when he was in my brother texas national guard. host: all right. darrell is calling from pasadena, california on the independent mine. -- line. caller: as a former democrat for all my life i am now an independent. it is amazing to me that fox can

be sued by dominion like the previous caller said when all of the major stations except for fox work swearing that the covid-19 came from a wet market which was a big lie. all of these social media companies shut them down. secondly, i do not understand how any black person or anybody else can object to the fact that you should show id to vote when that is the most precious thing in america. it seems like democrats don't care anymore about whether you're a real american citizen or not. host: our next caller is on the democratic line, carmen in phoenix, arizona. caller: good morning. i am enjoying this programming. i want to make a couple of

comments. one is the followers of trump. was he the only republican who lost? because many republican seats were kept or won. how can you test they dominion voting system to be ok for some republicans who did win, and they are all upset because trump lost. people wanted him out of office. he was offensive, he was doing many things that are bad. and everybody is fearful. i can't believe how much fear mongering is going on about suing fox. i have tried listening to that station. these people are crazy. everything they are saying, they are not telling anything

beneficial or the truth. whatever the other channels are talking about, they are not talking about. i don't understand. it is a president but even when they speak to trump people at rallies, they should ask, do you want a criminal in office at? if there was a democrat criminal running around, running for office, would you want him in office in? no you would not. the people never ask the followers, you don't think he committed crimes? the crimes we know about our because he has been exposed. how many crimes do we not know about that he has committed as president? host: from des moines, iowa, on the republican line. caller: how you all doing? iwnated -- i wanted to say i

love the program. but it seems we as republicans need to understand -- and this makes us so unpopular. we have not won the popular vote for president in 40 something years. if we keep acting crazy and irrational we are never going to win again. if you are an hvac owner in a mcmansion maybe you doing good but for the working poor, we need to do a better job. thank you. host: now roger from hawaii. good morning. caller: good morning. a loja. i would like -- aloha. i would like to make a comment about the assault rifle bands no one wants to commit to. if the nra are so interested in profits, what would they do if

their child was shot in one of these mass shootings? or if an elected official had his child shot in one of the shootings, i bet they would change their mind then and get these assault rifles banned from the general public. they are only good for military and law enforcement. they should be banned. the assault rifles. what kind of hunter would need an assault rifle to kill a deer? it would shoot so many bullets so fast, the deer would be mincemeat. or any animal for that matter. but i believe the nra and elected officials hsould -- sho uld ban assault rifles.

and if -- god forbid it never happens. but if the members of nra and elected officials have a child killed with an assault weapon in a mass shooting i am sure they would change their mind and get the vote for banning assault rifles. thank you. host: now is jim from evans berg, pennsylvania, the aquatic line -- democratic line. caller: not to do any good but for my fellow pennsylvanian from lancaster and could not figure out all those votes went for biden in the 2020 election, they were all mail-in ballots. republican legislature would not allow them to be counted ahead of time. it took a couple of days after the election for those to come

in and since trump had said don't do it by mail, most of the votes there were from democrats. i doubt it will do any good, but that is why biden was able to win in pennsylvania. all of those late votes, which republicans would not have allowed to be counted ahead of time, were excepted late. that is it. thank you. host: next is andy from phoenix, arizona on the republican line. caller: good morning. i wanted to get in at the last second so i will make a few comments on. it was about the dominion voting lawsuit against fox. who knows what really went on? there were a lot of irregularities. we need the utmost integrity in our elections so everybody trusts us. covid changed the trajectory of

how we did our votes in 2020 and i hope we get away from some of that. i believe the best way for people to trust the integrity of elections is to really have same-day voting. a male voting is fine but it can't be two month voting election cycle. they should be counted so the day of the election all the votes,. should know who the president is of this country pretty quick. it should not take three weeks after the election to figure out who our president is. a few other points if you will allow me. i believe there is election interference with foreign countries. but i also think our own government metals i-- meddles in

our elections. fbi in facebook, twitter, google and all of them, centering speech was not a good thing for this country -- censoring speech is not a good thing for the country. lastly i think you are a good host. i know sometimes you are on msnbc. would c-span ever consider this from fox? great day. host: to houston, texas, robert on the independent line. caller: hello, how are you. this week is the four twenty celebration. for many the focus has been the label of marijuana.

but for me it is for cannabis. that correlation relates directly to george washington carver, which many people are not familiar. and his association and friendship he had with henry ford, who built the first hemp car and ran it off biofuel. many people don't know that. it is in a book or in somebody's closet somewhere, not readily known. he was also considered the father of chemistry -- chem-e rgy. which is in competition with the oil and gas industry. wonder why. thank you. host: to fontana, california now.

caller: the soul weapon should only be for an ivory members and they are regulated more. our political system is being controlled by other countries. we can look at our situation today versus yesterday. if you read the bible, you will see when things would happen. our situation is getting that and people are losing faith in our government. trump is crooked, biden is crooked. you are not a criminal until convicted. thank you. host: we've got another caller now, shelley and logan, ohio, republican line. caller: yeah, thanks for taking my call. i would just like to say that people want to say that it's a

cult trump. he is the best president we have ever had and people want to talk about trump being a criminal. they need to look at hillary, biden, connor. to me, the democrats are the ones that are the criminals. host: all right. let's go to birmingham, alabama, on the democratic line. michael? caller: this is me. i would just like to say that donald trump, when he first came down the escalator and made his announcement to run for president then, that he also said to people, the midwestern and southern republicans didn't have much common sense. and he also knows that jim