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announcer: c-span campaign 2024 coverage is your front row seat to the presidential election. watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greet, speeches, and events, to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on the c-span networks. c-span now, our free mobile video app or anytime online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. announcer: washington journal continues. host: at our table this morning marianne williamson presidential

candidate. thank you for being here. guest: thank you for having me. host: why are you running? guest: i believe the united states needs to make a economic u-turn. the sense of the people think the country is headed in the wrong direction and they are correct. the radicals it the way have the poor american ideal. and that people direct things. and right now things are and directed not so much by the people as by corporate donors and huge entities of corporate wealth that actually determine our past. people need to step in there and turn things around. host: are you getting people to support you financially? guest: i am. i am in there. that is what a campaign is all about. it is a big, job interview. you're presenting yourself to the people and your agenda. you let people know this is what

i would do if i was given the job. many people think about it. the problem we have right now is that the forces seek to limit the voices that are represented to the people. this is why it is so important that the democratic party allowed this debate so that the voters in the democratic primary can recognize there are three candidate so far. and that american people should have a wide array of options before they are responsible. host: what have you heard about debates? guest: i have heard what you and everybody else has heard witches they do not plan to have any. they have decided that joe biden is the nominee but that is not democracy. party that has traditionally been a champion of democracy itself should not be wary of the democratic party -- policy in our own house. host: what is your strategy? where are you in the country? how do you plan to stay in the race given that the property, as you said, is joe biden. guest: the party is not even mentioned in the constitution.

they are not the ultimate authority. the people are the ultimate authority. i am staying in the race because i am talking to the people. a lot of the conversation online is with tiktok commas and -- tiktok, and other online variations. you go out there to the states also that is the american way. that is what i am participating in. host: you're popular on tiktok. explain your strategy there. guest: it's interesting we use the word strategy. when donald trump won in the election, did he have a strategy or did he hit a nerve? i think that is my main strategy. i think i am saying thing that everybody says but few people say them in public. that is that we are not at the moment functioning is a government of the people by the people, for the people, -- in gettysburg the man -- lincoln said the man who died for the soldiers for the union had died

on the battlefield had been what they called the last full measure of devotion so that the government of the people, by the people, for the people would not perish from the earth. it is perishing now. for all intensive purposes the governor of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations our congress in many ways is a system of legalized bribery where legislator after legislator in the final analysis does more to answer to the goals of the corporate donors than to the people of the united states. we have a safety and well-being and the health of the american people at this point and it is almost secondary to the profit margins and insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, agriculture chemical companies, food manufacturers, and big oil contractors. the people know this. we have 39% of the american people now report that they skip meals in order to pay their rent. this is in the richest country

in the world and the number goes up to 44 percent among millennials. one third of americans are living economically unstable lives. one in four americans are living with medical debt. we have the highest poverty rate including the highest child poverty rate in any country in the world. we have half of our seniors living on less than $25,000 a year. and our workers are living on less than $15 an hour and not having a place to live. things are not going well. host: what would you do? guest: we have to have an economic u-turn in the country. we have to recognize the rights that hold together a level of economic stability and the capacity of the able to thrive -- they should be granted to the americans. such as universal health care, tuition free college, we have that in this country until the 1960's, and free childcare, paid maternity and maternity leave,

guaranteed six pay -- sick pay, and guaranteed livable wage. those are the pillars and should be seen is the main organs to provide the people the ability to thrive, not just survive the economic justice system. host: that sounds like president biden's platform. he has tried it and others have tried it. how would you be different? guest: i would say if we got build back better that would have been amazing but we did not get that. there are still things the president could do. the president could have said that we would have a raise in the minimum wage which we have not had in 13 years. one third of american workers live on less give me a break. the president had gone to the floor of american workers but then they put it on a bill. you know what stopped it? the parliamentarian. would they allow themselves to be stopped at parliamentarian? we allowed ourselves to be stop there because it was convenient to do so. the president has also approved

the -- has given more oil drilling permits than trump did. the president is a nice man, it is not about who is not a nice man, but i have a difference with the president of how fundamental things of whether or not we have oil in 100 years. host: marianne williamson with us this morning. let's get to calls. connie, independent and florida. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. marianne, i am a longtime student of the court and i studied for several decades now. i want to know how your political ambitions aligned with the teaching of the course i.e. guest: you know, i think of myself as radically american. the foundational principles which are included in our declaration of independence are deeply spillage or --spiritual

and humanitarian. number one, it is all men are created people. number two, god gave all men in rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. in the book of deuteronomy it says justice shall pursue. if in fact, as it says in the declaration, the governments as it says there are instituted. our government is instituted to have those rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. that means we must pursue justice. we did not have environmental justice, criminal or racial justice in this country and other issues that we should have. that is love. to me what is love? love is feeding the hungry child. it is outrageous that we have hungry children in this country. you ask about the president read the democrats corporate leadership establishment like to brag about the fact that the child tax credit, they cut child

poverty in half. it is very good, although i would say if you can cut it in half you can eradicate it. however, it expired. the tax credit expired in six months and nobody got around to making it permanent. that, to me, is what love is. love is not a word, but in action. it means you remove the economic shackles that so many people live under in this country. not all chains are visible. the chains of economic debt, anxiety, despair, that the majority of the americans live under, to me, it is a living thing to remove those shackles. that is a humanitarian civil to replace the economic bottom line. that now governs our country. host: we go to rob in new york. democratic. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. you're never going to get elected talking about love. god bless you, but i agree with

most of all of your positions. one cannot speak from weakness and one cannot -- that is not what voters are going to go for. one cannot speak from hoity-toity abstract language. you need plain talk and plain english. unfortunately, in today's world, kind of like trump, he is a shock jock he is an idiot, but he gets everybody's attention. he talks plain talk. so my advice to you -- host: what kind of plain talk do you want to hear? caller: everything should be plain talk. we have to get off of talking about subjects in such a way where we make ourselves weak. if it talks about a male body, swimming competitively with other males, not females, all of

these things, the immigration. we need to get strong on the border just like on the republicans the way that they talk strong. you've got to talk strong. it got to host: understood. marianne williamson. caller: i was talking about -- guest: i was talking about love because the last caller asked me about it. and i am a mother. i believe that love restores reason and not the other way around. i would argue that this fake woolly nonsense toxic masculine way of looking at the world that is represented by the former president has gotten us to where we are. i would suggest, you say that is not the weight -- anything else is not the way to get elected. but that is not helping this country. the fact that i offer something that is an alternative to that i think is a good thing, not a bad thing. this country elected abraham lincoln and some intellectual giants. the political system has trained

us to think like seventh graders. this is not a time to think like evans graders. i find, it is interesting, greta, if you have any two americans that talk, we are decent people. i believe this strongly. we get real. we talk about what is really going on in our lives but when it comes to our public conversation and political conversations we go into the sophomoric, excuse me if that is too big of a word for anybody, but it is a childish slogan where it is a time in history where we can afford to do that. we must dig deeper. franklin roosevelt said that most important job of the presidency is moral leadership. and i think people are ready for the conversation of what is true in our hearts. that is where the country is off course. we are governed by an economic system that is soulless and puts

profits of corporate entities before the health, safety, and well-being before -- of our people and planet. it is unsustainable, it is spiritually and politically wrong. we must change this. host: let's go to colorado. everett in grand junction colorado, republican. caller: good morning. i am a republican. of course, but it does not mean that i would not vote for you and your campaign. i would like to ask you a constitutional question, you mentioned earlier that the parties were not mentioned in the constitution. when ben franklin was around, he was asked a question about the republican, you know, and he -- and what government we would have. he responded by saying that republic as long as we can keep it. i would also ask, like you to maybe relook at article four section four in the constitution.

that says the unitedwe need to . there are high-minded minority values in democratic values. we are a democratic form of government and republic, a representative democracy. the constant interplay between federal power and state power, as hamilton said, the states of the laboratory were reformed. that was played out. that conversation was established in the constitution and we are playing that out today. thank you. i appreciate it and are open mindedness. and about parties not being in the constitution. george washington warned us about them. he said men can become factions who care more about their factions than their country.

john adams also said he thought it was the greatest thought to them on -- greatest threat to democracy. we need to become consistently devoted to those elements and those constitutional principles and the principles of the declaration of independence that matter most to us. we, ourselves, as people. host: gabriel in pennsylvania, independent. good morning. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i have two quick questions. there are about 500 of us watching on twitch. my first question is, how can you force president biden to debate with you? secondly, if you were to get elected, all the special interests would call their politicians they own and make sure no one would work with you. how do you think you can actually move your agenda, if

you were to get elected? thank you so much. guest: that is an excellent and legitimate question. number one, i cannot force the president to do to me. however, robert kennedy junior and i are quite vocal about challenging the president to a debate. pointing out that this is a democracy. as i said before, people should have a wide array of options before them as possible, particularly those of us who wish to see a democrat win in 2024. we need to have a serious conversation about who is the best candidate? what is the personality level, who is the best candidate, and what is the best agenda that would be the strongest form 2024 -- 42020 it reminds the of 120 years ago when a bunch of men would sit around a table and smoke cigars, deciding who the

nomination should be. that is not what should work. the primary voters should decide. i cannot force it. everyone who cares about the basic principle of democracy should be raising their voices about this. polls show the majority of democrats want to hear what the other options are. the second question you asked is quite legitimate. the matter who the president is, they are hoping they have a party that will work with him or her. that's not forget, even if you do not have a house willing to work with you or a senator willing to work, the president has tremendous power. the president of the u.s. does not have a magic wand, nor do we want that, but the president can produce executive orders. cbo says that we could -- does is a pretty responsible force, the congressional office, that we could cut a trillion dollars from the military budget over

the next decade and be fine. the president can unilaterally begin to close basis. we have not found 800 military -- we have 800 military bases in other countries. there is so much the president can do by executive order. many would argue if the president had just come in and cancel the entire college loan debt that the opposition towards shaving off $10,000 would not have been as easy to stage. the president still has a lot of power. the president has the bully pulpit. i will be saying the truth to people. this is a time when we need radical truth telling. we have some serious lies that have been fostered. the way to defeat that and override it is to tell serious troops. we are going to have to be honest with ourselves. this country has to reckon with serious mistakes we have made in the past.

we need to take a good look in the mirror. living the principles we say we are. that will get us to the other side of this. i have had 40 years helping people and organizations and/or chaos and transform chaos. that is what i will do as president. i believe that if people see the idea of my being present as, this is not a bad idea, i want to go for that, then we have to begin an entirely new era of citizenship in this country. many of us thought, i will build every two years, short for the congressional race in the presidential race, but that is not enough. corporate lobbyists, sometimes without our best intentions at heart, are in the office of our legislators every day. some people need to worry about in this country are not just forces active in washington but throughout states, in every single state capital.

we need a new era of citizenship and we need people who begin to see our civic activism as part of a meaningful, well lived life. if people support by campaign, you need to also get involved in the national elections in our district, senatorial elections if they are happening that year, and you have to get involved on the level of primary. so that i am deliver the kind of legislators that will play ball with me and they will get a lot done. host: on support for your campaigns and debates, in 2020, the criteria to get on the debate stage -- there were two of them. tonguing 65,000 unique campaign donors -- tallying 65,000 unique campaign donors is the second. would you meet those two right now? guest: in terms of amount of donors, i don't know.

i would have to ask i campaign manager. but suppose already happy at 10%. who knows what they would have to say to get into the debate today. some was no question at the moment because they are saying there will not be any. but certainly there will be enough public pressure and the dnc will give that. host: ramona, georgia, democratic caller. caller: good morning ladies. i am an american indian. i would like to know, i work for my money through social security. i hope republicans do not approve the debt ceiling, because if i lose my check because of that, we will vote them out. what do you feel about social security? guest: social security must not be touched. if anything, we need to remove the cap entirely. we need to not touch social

security. -- the she think if we take it back, that she will get less in social security? host: she thinks it's republicans time the debt ceiling to social security cuts, i think she is concerned about social security and disability. guest: the democrats need to hold strong there. the democrats set in the last state of the union that nobody will touch social security. and certainly, if i am president, nobody will touch social security. we need to raise the capsule everyone is paying into it. host: columbus, ohio, independent. caller: hello. i am watching with 500 people on twitch.tv. i am curious about your role plan. do you support ending ama's?

i am curious about your opinion. guest: what? host: rural plans. guest: i was in a small town in south carolina during this last campaign. the mayor said something that impacted me and stayed with me. his son, did you know there are many people in this country, particularly young couples with cauldron, that cannot afford to have the lives they want on the coast? he said, in my town, i have everything that could possibly want in order to raise a family. by do not have the roads in order to attract them, the sewer system, the rent or the schools. he said, before the 1980's, we had small banks which cater to the world farmers. a farmer would go into the bank and say it, i did not do too well this year.

a local bank would say, i understand. the year was not great. come back, will carry it forward and will pay us next year. what began to happen was a huge monopolization and conglomeration of everything. the huge banks were acting in service to the huge agricultural companies. this squeezed out. before that, when there were smaller banks, and intention and focus on the small farmer, the u.s. government would not only give loans, but the loans that were given to the minister of how these grants. all this was gotten rid of in order for big banks and big gag. that will change when i am president. host: rhondda, new jersey, democrat. you are speaking to marianne williamson. caller: good morning. it is an honor to speak you. i love you.

i watch you on youtube. i would love to see a woman run for the highest office in the land. because women have compassion and we live on budgets. what is upsetting to me the most about the republican party is i would not vote for a republican for dogcatcher. that is how much they have corrupted themselves with the donald trump administration. they are all cracks in my opinion. i am terrified of where our country is headed, now that they have ron desantis there, who is absolutely trying to erase black history from our country. this man is crazy. he is donald trump on steroids. he is a copycat with no personality at all. but what i would like to say

that i love about women is we have been reversed 50 years in this democracy with the republican role. now that they have congress, there is no immigration reef on that they are putting forward -- reform that they are putting forward. they are still blaming joe biden for everything they have done to this country. tucker carlson came out last night on a tv show. to think he thinks this way about me, black people, it is ok to kill a black person and crush his face? this is the republican party. they are fascists and we have to stop them. we have to stop these people. guest: i think there are neofascist elements there. i do not think the entirety of the republican party is. i think we need to all move back

and have mercy and compassion, and recognition, that i do believe the majority of people in this country are decent and dignified and open. martin luther king said to have very little morally persuasive power with people that can feel your underlying contempt. so let's move back. i agree that the policies of ron desantis are dangerous to our democracy. the six week man on abortion -- most women do not know they are pregnant at six weeks. telling people if you have an undocumented worker in your car or at home that you can be tried as a felon. the average american person does not realize how many people are forced to live in an undocumented state who have lived for years, pay taxes, and contributed as citizens. ron desantis is trying to tell colleges what courses they can teach, trying to suppress a lot of light history, and so forth.

i am deeply concerned about those things. that is why i think i should be a democratic nominee. roosevelt said this, we would not have to worry about a fascist or communist takeover in this country as long as democracy delivers on its promises. the deeper problem is not just the disease of neo-fascism and authoritarianism, but also weakening of our societal immune system. we are being attacked on the outside by trickle-down economics -- by authoritarianism, i mean, but we are eroding from the inside this economic principle that has weakened people's lives. the best way to defeat republicans in 2024 is the economic u-turn i have mentioned, by offering to the american people universal health care, free college, cancellation of college loan debt. and i say free tech schools, paid family leave, guaranteed

free pay, free childcare, and a guaranteed wage. this is the way to defeat fascists, not by incremental changes. so many incremental changes being offered by the democratic establishment at the moment -- we are trying to tell people the economy is doing well. 20% of american people are thriving in today's economy. it is like we live on an island that is surrounded by a vast sea of economic despair. we cannot win in 2024 by saying we are giving you a little here and there, and we did that, and we can stop this in six months. that is not going to win. we want fundamental economic reform, we want to do more than help you survive in an unjust economic system, we want to end the system of injustice. that is why i am the candidate who is the best one to defeat

whether it is ron desantis or donald trump, the people you are most concerned about in 2024. host: how do you measure your success as you go along? what are your milestones to reach to win the race? guest: i am aware that poll after poll shows american people agree with me. they are a little bit left of center. the american people want to universal health care, free college and tech school, and so forth. positions i am speaking to our moderates positions in every other advanced democracy. the people are not the problem. the issue is simply getting to the people. i appreciate you having me on. there is, in this country, what i call political media industrial complex. or is a lots of mainstream media that conspires with a political elite in this country to make it difficult for people to hear me, to be on some programs that you think i would be on given i am a

declared candidate for president of the united states. young people are not having that though. the young people are online. thank you to the people who are watching on twitch and other platforms, not just cable television. go to marianne2024.com. donate if you can. have to get the message out ourselves. the message resonates clear attitudes from the majority of people that are most suppress in this country. we need to wake up and realize we have been plagued by political elites. if we are going to change things, the status quo will not disrupt itself. of course they say anybody who has other ideas is crazy and kooky. of course they would say that. if you look into abolition, women's suffrage and the original labor movement and the

civil rights movement, these things came from the people they came from the people, and then parties pick them up. it is time for us to do what other generations have done or. that is why we pushed back under chronic voices -- pushback -- host: what kind of statements are you getting? guest: it is great. most of these people were not even born in the 20th century. they do not see why they should have to live their lives to the effect of bad economic policies over from the 20th century. they know that people in other advanced mockers these other advanced industrial nations, even in our democracy, can go to college and tech school and do not have any institutional memory of a time when our clinical party really had our back -- when either political

party really had their back. they will know it and feel it. it will be there every day. host: texas, roberts, independent. caller: good morning to c-span and to ms. williamson. i wanted to know, you mentioned george washington's $.17 -- 1796 farewell address. you just went up a couple points in my book. i believe there is a growing anti-partisan movement in the united states. people are getting fed up of both parties and not being given a choice. while in office, went he worked to eradicate political parties in the night -- the united states? my opinion is, what we have

essentially is a two-party tyranny. guest: it is called a corporate duopoly. i do not think it is appropriate or within the power or the appropriate use of power as president to eradicate political parties. the people will make the decision of what happens with political parties. if you look in the history of the u.s., third-party voices have been important. abolition came from abolitionist parties, women's suffrage came from women's parties. civil rights came from civil leaders and so forth. even social security came from the socialist party. what has happened in the last few years and decades is the mike ross and republicans have formed an unholy alliance that make -- is the democrats and republicans have formed an unholy alliance to share their ideas. the american people are registering their dissatisfaction with this. i do not think the american

people are necessary to actually vote the dissatisfaction because people are afraid of the spoiler candidacy. they are afraid that if i vote third party, i might actually help the person i at least want to get into office. this will change over the next few years but it will be the people that make those changes. this should not come from the president. host: here is a text message. curious why ms. williamson switched from independent to democrat? guest: iran as independent in 2014 because i wanted to talk about ideas that i thought were not popular in the democratic party for some time. that change was only for one year. i have been a lifelong democrat. it is public information and for the candidates i give money to. it is out there. i saw someone talk about this on the internet the other day.

i am a roosevelt democrat. i have been a democrat all my life. i believe in the pillars of the democratic party that were personified by franklin roosevelt. that's is the unabashed advocacy for the american worker. that should be the sign. it should be taking care of the worker. right now, we have had a $50 trillion transfer of wealth into the hands of 1% of americans over the last years. we have created the policy after policy. those who are already in this country with wealth have an easier time getting more, while those who don't have a hard time getting any. those do not want to feel they create wealth at the expense of other people having a chance to. i believe in traditional values of the party and i stand by those. host: who or what shape your philosophy? guest: my father.

my father died in 1994. anytime i asked by father, who did you vote for dad, he said roosevelt. i grew up in a home where franklin roosevelt was a great room. as i have gotten older, i have rediscovered franklin roosevelt for myself. last year, i read a book that has been out for a while called "no ordinary time" about franklin and eleanor roosevelt during the years in world war ii. it spent in my thinking. it is interesting, if you look at lincoln and roosevelt, both had plans for what they were going to do when the war was over. that is when both of them died. again right after and franklin roosevelt right before -- lincoln right after, and broken roosevelt right before. i am going to make a speech in washington on the 18th of this month about a 21st century

economic rights. we need to take up what some of these people left behind. host: the westward father? guest: he was a well-known immigration lawyer. my brother is also an immigration lawyer. i father went to vietnam in 1965 because he said he wanted us to see. i came home from seventh grade. my social studies teacher said that if we did not fight on the shores of hawaii, this was during the vietnam war, and by teacher told us if we did not fight on the shores of hawaii, that we would be fighting -- if we did not fight in vietnam, that we would be fighting someday on the shores of hawaii. they called that the diet -- my father said we need to go to vietnam. we will not let the military

industrial eat our children's brains. my father made sure we had a view of the country that was not filtered through official propaganda. that does not serve us. host: kathleen, democrat. caller: i want to say that c-span and washington journal are national treasures. marianne, so much of what you say, i have such deep respect for. on poverty, on childcare, on pay scales, on corporate greed, on eleanor and franklin roosevelt. my parents did the same thing. roosevelt was the hero. a mother who just died a couple years ago, 93, would set up when senator sanders or warren were on the news and say, those guys were like roosevelt. that is who all democrats used to be. i have such deep respect for you. i was at the memorial for alethea titus and during the q&a

period, i got up and asked about the lack of accountability in regard to the bush administration and iraq. you diverted my question about accountability to bush's paintings. it brought up questions for me in regard to justice and accountability with you. i want to ask you with regard to foreign policy, he invaded iraq under many false pretenses prior to the invasion. i write, syria, libya -- iraq, syria, libya. how would you deal with foreign policy and the fact we live -- leave hundreds of thousands of people dead, entered and turned into refugees? guest: we have to deal with the american war machine. in this town, it is called the blob.

i referred to it as articulated by president eisenhower. not only a republican president but the supreme allied world war ii. when he left the presidency, he warned us about the military-industrial complex. it is alive and well. we have an $858 million budget, even though we have left iraq. we have left afghanistan get our -- and yet our budget got larger. it is dominated not by legitimate security concerns as determined by our own military commanders, so much as they are determined by the short-term profit maximization goals of the contract such as boeing, raytheon and more. we should be aware that our secretary of defense is a former board member of raytheon. the american people, in so many areas, are about to hit an

inflection point. people realize the criminality of the war in iraq and realize we were lied to. people realize, or i hope they realize, that while they support having got into at anniston, the last 20 years -- afghanistan, the last 20 years were a spectacular failure. how would i deal with this? i would name it the way i just did. i would lead a serious effort. i believe there are people of both parties who are willing to have a serious conversation about cutting the military budget and i would establish a wage of peace. you cannot just buy it of these, -- just to find a disease, you have to cultivate health. donna kennedy said if we do not get rid of war, where would get rid of us. host: marianne williamson, thank