c-span is your unfiltered view of government. made possible by these cable companies including cox. this syndrome is incredibly rare but friends don't have to be. when you are connected you are not alone. cox support c-span as a public service as well as these other television providers giving a front row seat to democracy. coming up on washington journal we will take a look at the special counsel report on the conduct of intelligence agencies.

jerry dunleavy is our guest. and then cenk uygur and ana kasparian talk about the young turks. the washington journal starts now. host: good morning it is saturday, may 20. a lot has happened this week in government. the durham report on the fbi's trump russia investigation came out this week and ron desantis is expected to announce a plan for presidency in the next few days. what is your top story this week (202) 748-8000 for democrats,

(202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8002 for independents. http://twitter.com/cspanwj and facebook.com/cspan. before we take your calls on your top news story of the week let's start with the debt ceiling negotiations. here's the latest from the new york times. item voices optimism on debt talks despite sharp statements based both sides. the recent harsh back-and-forth was typical of any association and predicted both sides would get something decent done. president biden rushed off noisy statements issued by both sides. dismissing them as a little more than posturing typical of any negotiation and expressing confidence that he will be able to strike a deal with

republicans. speaking on the sidelines of a meeting ended japan. leiden told reporters that he was not worried about the debt talks at home and later added i believe we will be able to avoid a default to get something decent done. finance comments, after a tumultuous day of the rest and carry. kevin mccarthy declared a pause in talks aimed at raising the debt ceiling. they should reach a reasonable bipartisan agreement, that is what you will see from the president's team and a budget agreement that could pass the house and senate. he is optimistic if everyone keeps working in good faith that we can get this done.

the optimism continues to be there. negotiations are never easy, that is what makes our democracy, having these types of give and take and everyone has to understand that you don't get everything you want. that is how this works. host: that was karine jean-pierre talking about the debt ceiling and we are asking you about your top story of the week. other stories this week was the durham report that came out earlier this week. ron desantis is expected to announce a run for the presidency sometime this coming week. there were abortion bands advanced in north carolina, south carolina and nebraska. the house gop blocked the effort to expel george santos from the house and biden endorses an f-16

training for ukrainians and the transfer of those of 16 from allies. also happening, ukrainian president zelenskyy has arrived in japan for g7 talks. we will go straight to the phones. andy is first from sterling, virginia, a democrat. caller: good morning how are you? host: i am doing great. caller: i want to remind you trump maga supporters how fox news lied to them for years. there was going to be an investigation of the obama administration, hillary was going to go to prison, the whole administration was going to go to prison. their report came out and once again, the trump supporters were duped into believing this was the biggest

scandal in history but nothing came of it. the right wing talk machine is making it sound like there was mass corruption in order to go after their cult leader. nothing like that happened. nobody is going to be present -- going to prison. the only one being indicted is donald trump. host: we are going to be talking about the durham report and our next segment. make sure you stick around for that. todd is in michigan, and independent. caller: good morning. george santos, seriously, what a joke. if this guy does not go to jail there is no justice in washington at all. i would like c-span to do a

segment on corruption itself. why doesn't the government have a corruption task force? it seems the top 1% who pays the media to tell us what they want us to hear doesn't give a dam about corruption. all of the money since wasted that could be used to feed and help people in our own country. that is all of got to say. host: tim is in alabama, a republican. caller: yes, my topic is the debt ceiling. i just don't see how the republicans and the democrats could reach an agreement with the debt ceiling as time gets closer to the date of june 1. they are going to have to come up with a new date or i think

biden is going to have to use support for them. that's the only way i see out of it. host: our earlier collar was about george santos. take a look at leader mccarthy responding to questions about that and whether he should be investigated? [video clip] >> i think the george santos indictment, -- i would like this to move to ethics. if it rises to that occasion. we just had a report come out from durham. what does that say about adam schiff? he lied to the american public. should he be expelled from congress as well? taking america down the path he did.

i think these accusations are serious. i have a concern about george santos. i firmly believe, you have to have a process. i am going to ask ethics to look into this. i think we can look at this quickly and come to a conclusion on what george santos did and did not do. a safe, bipartisan committee. that is when you bring it back to congress. i would like to refer this to ethics. i will have a conversation with akeem. -- hakeem. i think there's enough information where they could look at this and they could come back to congress faster than a court case code. host: that was speaker mccarthy on george santos and the

democrats wanting to expel him from congress and going to the ethics committee. barney is next in florida, a democrat. caller: yes, i think joe biden should not budge on the debt ceiling situation. he will be duped. the republican party, let them collapse the economy. do not cave. host: if the economy collapses then we all suffered? caller: if we don't the republicans will come up with another situation. you know how they do. they will, with something else. they have already storm the capitol and mccarthy up there lying to the public. george santos,, on man.

you have to stop these people in their tracks. if you don't stop them, we won't have a country. do not cave. they have already had an insurrection trying to overthrow the government so what is the difference? host: another story that came out yesterday is the associated press. nebraska lawmakers passed 12 week abortion bands and restrictions on gender affirming care for minors. the nebraska legislature approved a 12 week abortion ban and restrictions on gender affirming care for people younger than 19. lawmakers on both sides said they may be unable to work together in the future. conservative lawmakers called in a visibly ill colleague so they would have enough votes to in the filibuster.

the governor who pushed for the bill has promised to sign it into law. the mood in the capital has been volatile since they advanced by a singular vote the hybrid measure for restrictions that republicans have pursued across the u.s.. one lawmaker, megan hunt disclosed in march that her teenage son is transgender and she now plans to leave the state. russ is next in paris, new york. caller: that orange coat looks great on you. what i think is the most important story is the subway strangler in new york. it was a guy who was homeless who was killed by an unhinged person who was a marine. the marines father was a senior

law enforcement official in new york state and that is why he was given the benefit of the doubt. he walked away without any blood tests, drug tests and for four days we didn't know who he was and he wiped his social media clean. it represents a stand your ground mentality kind of like the last collar. joe biden has cognitively caved already. you can't stand your ground when you can't stand up. the subway strangler taught me about lynch mobs. not everybody there wants it to happen but they don't know what to do. if i came across a marine strangling to death i would've kicked him in the side of the head. thanks a lot, macon. . host: jordan neely is mourned at

manhattan church. mourners gathered at a harlem church for the funeral of jordan neely whose chokehold death set off a debate about vigilantes and public safety. mike gillett is next from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think the biggest story is the durham report. i know it was kind of late. i know it failed to convict anybody and those kind of things are irritating. given the situation with our government and the status of how the justice department has been weaponized, is not surprising.

i do think we should not have had -- it is very unfortunate to our democratic system to have a justice department that is so clearly on the side of one political party. the durham report has shown that. everything we suspect it has been borne out in that report. if you followed anybody but the mainstream media was saying. it is a clearly -- it is clearly a threat to government. host: we will have a segment on the durham report and here's an article from the associated press, fbi acted hastily. the fbi rushed into its investigation of ties between russia and the trump campaign and relied too much on raw

intelligence. it fell fall short of the president's predictions that the crime of the century would be uncovered. larry is next in eugene, oregon. an independent. caller: my biggest story of the week and for several weeks is what is not showing up on my television screen vis-a-vis the budget problem. the debt ceiling problem, only half of the equation is discussed. how much we have to cut social spending. i don't hear a word about cutting the defense budget which is half waste. host: you said half of the defense budget is waste? caller: she usually inflated defense budget. it is never discussed.

also the other side of the equation in any side is income. how come we are not collecting taxes from the very wealthy who contribute to nothing. corporations are making record profits and not paying their fair share of taxes. for me, the biggest story of the week is what is not being discussed. i hear a lot of scandals, a lot of distractions. don't look over here folks. we don't want to pay taxes. the media is complicit in this. they insist we discussed taxes as well as the debt. i think the media has a responsibility to square the sub. host: let's take a look at what kevin mccarthy said thus night

on foxbusiness about the debt ceiling. [video clip] >> we took up osby because of the frustration. this white house will not acknowledge it is spending too much. i've been clear where we need to go. the house passed the bill. the senate never passed anything. the house raise the debt ceiling but put us on a trajectory to get our house in order. what is the debt limit? it is giving your child the credit card and all you ever did was raise the debt limit. you have to pay this credit card but it has more money on it then you make in an entire year. our debt is larger than our entire economy. shouldn't we look at ways we could save money? curb what we are spending? we have been spending more than we have been bringing in.

all we're saying is let's spend less, pull back the covid money. work requirements help people get jobs. let's do some permitting reports so people can build things in america and we could find a good agreement to move forward. but the white house will not budge. host: speaker mccarthy on fox news yesterday. we are talking about the top news story of the week and here is twitter. while the durham report rings up election integrity issues that have been discussed. my top issue is the economy. debt ceiling talks, overspending, bank closures and looming recession will all impacted. joseph is calling from henderson, north carolina, a democrat. caller: yes, good morning. thank you for taking my call.

the big ticket item for me this morning is the gop power play that they did on women's rights. they overturn the veto that governor cooper had done on abortion. they banned abortion after 12 weeks. that was the big-ticket item for me this morning. as well as gun violence. that was second on my list. gun violence in north carolina. you don't even have to have a permit anymore. you don't have to go out to the sheriff's department and get a permit. you can just go and get a

handgun. those of the big-ticket items for me this morning. host: he did mention abortion bands. let's take a look at vice president harris as she was speaking about the antiabortion drive across several states. here's a portion of her remarks. [video clip] >> a year ago at the center we braced ourselves for a world without roe, and sadly, we rightly predicted what would happen. since that night, and states across our nation, extremist so-called leaders have proposed and passed laws that ban abortions, some outright from the moment of conception and others effectively with the band as early as six weeks. on the six-week band, everyone

here knows many women don't even know they are pregnant at six weeks. which by the way, most of these men don't even understand how a women's body works. come on. just last year when we were together, they have proposed and passed laws that make no exceptions. even for survivors of the crimes of rape or incest. they passed laws that turn people away from emergency rooms in the middle of a miscarriage. and prevents doctors from providing care to women unless they are close to death. these are the cases we have been seeing in these are the only ones we know about. all the while, these extremist

dare posture that these bills protect mothers and babies. host: that was the vice president speaking on the antiabortion bands. we are taking your calls up to 8:00 a.m.. take a look, this is the new york times about ukraine with the headline, and a sharp reversal widen opens a path for ukraine to get fighter jets. biden told allied leaders he would allow ukrainian pilots to train on f-16s and will approve other countries to transfer jets to ukraine. here's a picture of world leaders in japan. john is next in naples florida. caller: that should be the major top story. we are one heartbeat away from

that lady be the president. the top story, we are still paying three dollars 50 for gas, going to the supermarket and paying $100 for five items. i can't make it on unemployment. this biden economy, good old joe will get us out of it. it is coming. i went from a job making 60 grand a year. i can hardly go food shopping. that is the biggest story. how are we getting by in america? it is not george santos or the marine who saved all those people in new york. i still have to ask you african

americans, what has joe done for you guys? what has he done for you guys? your taxes are higher. your gases through the roof. you can even go grocery shopping. what is that? i'm maga. i go to church. that is what it means to be maga, which is to love this country. i listen to these calls and it is very sad. host: what kind of job did you have? caller: i was in construction. the construction industry is falling down. it is going to be a real slap in the face. i remember in 2008, when obama had the economy and everyone got laid off. all of these contracts and buildings, these were all

pre-pandemic. all of the money that was borrowed, it wasn't borrowed at these interest rates. it is coming, get ready. how was that not the top story? i have to tell my wife that we have to make a decision whether to fill our gas tanker beat. that is real america right there. i still want to point the question. african-americans, what has he done for you guys? host: ok we got that. tom is in ohio, a democrat. caller: good morning. i think hypocrisy is the biggest issue. the deficit is in the billions. it was in the billions when the republicans passed their big tax cut for rich people. 55 of the biggest companies in

this country pay no taxes. the average billionaire pays 8%. and the republicans are going around yelling about people's rights and the biggest thing they have going right now is taking rights from everyone they can. women, kids going to school, reading books, next thing you will be burning the books. thank you very much. host: let's check in on some text week out. this is rests in california. inflation keeps on destroying america. consumer debt is at all-time hot. bankruptcy is higher than ever as biden touts high employment. a text from virginia, durham

revelations may be the biggest corruption story of all time. if they can conspire against a sitting president what chance does the average citizen have? i was in the marines for 11 years. i never heard of a marine learning to choke a citizen for 10 minutes. jordan neely may have been a public nuisance but he did not deserve to die. a republican from florida is next. caller: the budget deficit talks are probably the most important new story of the week. what i think people don't realize, negotiations include cutting benefits to the poorest people in the neediest people in the united states who are already not in good shape.

i volunteer a food bank. every week we see more and more people coming in because they don't have food. and probably are unable to work, don't have transportation to work. to me, it's an example of the powerful and rich people trying to take more away from the poor people who they look at as lazy, even though they are not. that scares me. host: all right, rob is next, a democrat. caller: good morning. first of all, kevin mccarthy, you are a liar. adam schiff is not a liar. you are just mad because they disclose the truth about trout. president biden, take the floor.

you talk about the fourth amendment, but lots do it. we will not go into bankruptcy if biden takes a fourth. they have been hypnotized by their cult leader donald trump and they are dangerous. host: all right, let's go to bubba in memphis tennessee, a republican. caller: you look gorgeous today. the dude from massachusetts said they lied about the four years of the russian collusion. the biggest story is the white nurse who was pregnant. she tried to get on her rented bicycle and a couple of black thugs were trying to strong arm her and said it was their bike. then the racist that take all

these cases lied about it to her job. later on, the news people, they was quick to say she was in the wrong. saying it was an imminent till -- emmitt till deal. i just want to know if they're going to apologize? host: where did this happen? caller: open new york, it happened yesterday. host: we will look it up it if we find something about it we will share it. mitchell in new jersey, a democrat. caller: i want to talk about the debt ceiling. i have criticisms for both parties. the debt ceiling is the only

point of leverage that house republicans really had in enforcing any type of changes legislatively during their term. yes, they can hold hearings. in terms of actual power, this was kind of it. it is unbelievable that the democrats didn't realize this and address the debt ceiling prior to the election or at least make an attempt to do it in the lame-duck. it is very unfortunate. the fact that speaker mccarthy has put a debt limit bill that passed before the house is laughable. he passed a bill that is so out

of line with what most americans want. we did this, and now it's not their fault for importing with us. host: give me specifics about the gop plan. what bothers you specifically about it? caller: specifically that they want to pull back legislation that has already been approved by democrats. for instance, the environmental work in the inflation reduction act. i know for a fact there was a welfare examiner for a number of years. there are already work requirements for public assistance.

the republicans want to increase that but a lot of companies won't hire you for 30 years because they will have to provide health insurance and they're trying to avoid that. they are putting people in a vulnerable situation into a worse situation. just saying we will cut everything, it doesn't really go to the issue that prices are rising and they won't be able to keep pace with current demand. another thing they are trying to cut is the money from the irs. an increase in agents was to increase revenue going to the government. it is defeating that they are going to go ahead with that and try to cut out the revenue which would help the budget be more balanced to begin with. this is all nonsense and if they

don't come to an agreement, biden will have to go after the fourth amendment but that's not with a lot of risks. there will be a lot of economic fallout from all of this. host: let's take a look at what president biden said. he talked about those work requirements you mention. [video clip] >> what about work requirements on these bills, what would you be willing to accept? >> i am not going to accept any work requirements that will impact on the mental health needs of people. i will not accept work requirements much beyond what there is already. i voted years ago for those work requirements that already exist. host: that was the president

from wednesday before he left for japan. he is currently there for the g7 meetings. another story is this one from cnbc. with the headline, florida governor ron desantis plans to announce a presidential run next week. it says that nbc news is reporting that he plans to formally announce that he is running for president in 2024. it will put desantis head-to-head with president trump and news about the announcement comes after desantis -- disney announced they would pull a project from florida. caller: how the new york mayor allows people to come up for jobs. he is putting people in hotels

and specified meals for them. and there are people that can even get help getting an apartment. it is a shame that democrats are doing what they are doing to these homeless people in new york. the president is not even replying to their request. people in new york, vote independent or republican but stop supporting democrats. even your new stations are controlled by democrats and they don't allow the republican side to come on your station. you have more black men who are independent and republican in new york city and you don't even pay attention to us.

somebody called two minutes ago about what has joe biden done for black people? what about trump? he is immediate idiot. host: in new jersey, pat, a republican. caller: good morning. my top story was, first of all i am proud maga. because we are on the side of life and democrats are on the side of death. as far as kamala harris. i am glad they are stopping abortion by six weeks. life is most important and jesus provides. we are supposed to be supporting life.

you continue to talk about rape and incest and all that stuff. we must protect our children, our babies. that is what we should be supporting. host: what do you mean that rape and incest is allied? caller: as far as that goes, the child is not to blame. we should be helping children, people who were not able to have children. i am sure there are plenty of couples that would love to have a child. they have no right to play god. playing god takes away life. we should be supportive of adoption. that is what we should do. it is not the child's fault. we are not supposed to be the side of death. that's what i'm trying to say. host: glenn in illinois, a

democrat. caller: hello, good morning. listen, pack the court, get rid of thomas and ginny. get rid of the republican that is the biggest liar in the pack. get rid of trump who keeps stirring stuff up. give this coup straightened up, you have 17 in the republican house the need to go to jail. what else can i come up with? host: that is plenty glenn. take a look at this, it is from

abc news reported by yahoo! about dianne feinstein. it says she suffered rain inflammation as complications from shingles. the california senators suffered complications from shingles that included encephalitis and ramsay hunt syndrome. she is a democrat, diagnosed with shingles in february. was away from the senate while recovering at home for three months. the new york times reported thursday that feinstein suffered from encephalitis that affects facial nerves and can cause facial paralysis as a result of shingles. shirley from connecticut, a republican. caller: i think the biggest thing we are not dealing with the supporter crisis.

i do believe most of the news media, they don't cover it. and now, since title 42, they are holding people back and letting some through in droves. where are these people going? i live in connecticut. we have sanctuary cities. as far as i'm concerned, if i lived in texas i would be busting them up here. when they get to the states, what are we going to do? they just want more money. they want more money to take care of them. if you wanted them you should've put them in your budget. host: when you say the news media is not covering the border? caller: they just started because of title 42 ending. they started to cover it and

they say it is much better now. biden is on there saying it is much better. how many people have come over illegally? how many got away? no one covers that. i don't believe that they do. the fentanyl death that, over the border. i do believe our president is compliant with the fact that all of these things come from china. the money we are sending to ukraine to take care of their border but we are not taking care of ours. i don't know, maybe i'm wrong. host: we are taking your top news stories of the week. the numbers are up on your screen until the top of the hour at 8:00 a.m.. then he is in louisville,

kentucky, and democrat. caller: i just wanted to talk about transgender youth and how republicans are pushing for kids not to be affirmed. having the medical necessities to take care of themselves. i am hearing a lot about society is pushing kids into transitioning and i am a mental health professional and i will let you know, i have seen very few transgender youth coming in for transitioning. and when i do my treatment with them, it takes quite some time

before we make that decision. i encourage the parents to be supportive and help them deal with the kids. i have never talked to any of my families about transitioning. i think this narrative of pushing use to go through these surgeries. we understand that this is permanent when someone does this. it's not only our decision. once they get through us, psychiatrist have to see them for quite some time as well. i think this narrative the kids are being pushed into being something, that is just the falsity. host: robin is next. gadson, alabama, a republican. caller: i have been very disappointed at the liberal

news media not being down on our border and telling the truth. host: ok. anything else he wanted to add? caller: i think our federal government, especially immigration officials need to do our job and enforce the laws on record. i don't believe in letting any of them come over. coming over here, eating up our tax dollars. i don't want to spend on of my tax dollars on any of these illegal immigrants. if you come over here and you have a sponsor. someone who is going to sponsor you. i might not have a problem with that. once you are done working, you

need to go back across the border. host: let's hear from lisa, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: i am just fascinated that the maga republican people get to decide how everyone else is supposed to live. it frightens me that half the population feels that way. host: in what respect? caller: that they're in control of everything else does. the right to have an abortion, that's between the person having it and the doctor. they need to mind their own business. host: all right, barry and saint augustine, texas, and independent. caller: good morning. i would like to respond to the guy complaining about he was wanting to know what biden had done for black folks?

the one thing he has done is making people suffer. just like black americans for the past 40-50 years. the higher you get, the further you fall. host: take a look at this article about the capitol police. they request increase presence to handle threads. they want more field officers to investigate threats. more money to increase cooperation with local police. the capitol police want to increase the number of field offices to investigate threats to members of congress as well as more funding to beef up local cooperation with police departments. this was the day after man with a baseball bat attacked

representative connolly's staff. caller: good morning. i would just like to say, if people would read the book america under attack. you would find out that barack obama is behind the government here. he decided, he's a card-carrying communist. he decided he wanted to ruin america so he could take over. he wants us to be communist. host: and dorothy, what evidence do you have of that? caller: read the book, america under attack. host: you read the book so what evidence did a present? caller: he has planned this since he was in college. before he became president.

biden is taking these people by threats and intimidation, he has gotten what it wants. he said he will do anything to get what he wants. host: deon from richmond, virginia. caller: first of all, obama is not even in office. the main reason why i called was the guy from tennessee about the woman trying to get on the bike in the black thugs would let her get on. the boys had already purchased the bike. they had rented it and she is the one who tried to take the bike. then, when she tried to take the bike, we said we already rented this bike. then she started yelling help trying to garner attention from bystanders and by her yelling help, a white man came over

asking what was going on. so it was another emmitt till situation. she tried to take the bike after they had paid for it and she yelled for attention when they were not doing anything to her. that is why they are saying it is another emmitt till situation. so that man culling up here calling them thugs when she was the one trying to steal that bike. that is why i called up here to say that. host: the other side of that, here is fox news about that incident saying, the attorney for hospital worker after the viral bike dispute. she has been defamed. physicians assistant has been put on administrative leave over the incident. her attorney is saying his

client is in hiding because her life and job are being threatened over the encounter. she was branded a racist karen by social media after she was seen arguing with the group of lachman who accused her of taking their bike rental in an iphone video that has gone viral. the six month pregnant worker had ended her shift. she was trying to rent a bike. the men confronted her after saying they had reserved that bike. around that time, these individuals claimed it was there bike. someone pushed the bike while she was on it. stan is in delray beach, florida.

caller: i want to talk about this transgender thing. i don't know why we have educators in school trying to get young people to go change their gender or be another gender. you know what you call people who do that? pedophiles. it is a pedophile. our government is putting a thing on our school system to do that. it is crazy. school teachers are trying to change kids genders. we are nuts. host: let's talk to a republican from missouri. caller: yes, i have a question

for you. i am just curious to know why president trump was impeached by witchhunt as many times as he was. not found guilty, insurrection, not found guilty or anything. i would like to know, my question is, why has joe biden not been impeached yet for infiltrating our country with all the southern border, people coming across like crazy. they have been coming since day one he came into office. i wonder why he hasn't been impeached? if that had been president trump he would've been impeached immediately. biden sent kamala harris down to the border even though she didn't go to the border.

she went a hundred miles away from where she was supposed to go. the lady from tennessee that said something about obama's name would stay out of it. so has president trump but they blame everything on him. host: leonard from edison, new jersey, a democrat. caller: all these talks about the debt ceiling problem. in 1997, 1998, 2000 clinton had a balanced budget. he did it by increasing tax. but this time, the problem we have with the debt ceiling. every time there is a republican in office, they cut taxes.

the country starts losing money. now, we have to reduce expenses. but when you cut taxes look what happens? instead of asking to increase the tax so we can reduce the debt. there is something ironic with the way the gop says, when you do this, cut debts what you think is going to happen? let's raise more money. you cut taxes all the time, you have less money. so let's increase tax so we can help people in need. host: let's go to walt late,

michigan, the independent line. caller: i would like to talk about the debt ceiling. the simple part of the debt ceiling that they seem to understand. this money has already been allocated through congress. the republicans are trying to call back something, they lost power and the vote on. the simple fact was that when trump was in office, he decreased taxes for corporations and for the wealthy. the resulting end of that, the 4.6 trillion that they claimed they were going to save, it's nowhere close to that. if they continue the same tax codes, that revenue decrease will be 1.3 trillion.

it will not solve the debt crisis. my other thought is this, in 1979, there were only 14 billionaires and the person who owned the most money had $2 billion. in terms of today that would be for billion. since the present tax policies that began under reagan, billionaires pay very little taxes. we have increased our billionaire from 14 to over 2000. but the working people of america have not received a raise in 40. they should raise the tax revenue on those who can afford to pay the increase so we can keep the programs everyone has paid into solve it and there is always ways that can be cut. but to hold the country hostage

with the gun while you are negotiating is not good. host: from florida, a republican. caller: good morning, i am calling in response that wanted to put republican house members in jail. i thought that was hilarious. i think we ought to have cognitive tests for our representatives and our senators. maybe every six months. right now, our two leaders for president in 2024 are very old individuals. american should take a look at age when they are voting. another subject, the last caller indicated he wanted higher taxes

for more wealthy people. you have to realize that the 1% of the population or highest earners in the population, pay 40% of the taxes. they are also the ones who are the employers to americans. i am not sure of the exact figures, the next 40% or 50% of the population pays the remainder of the taxes. the higher level of earners do pay most of the federal taxes in this country. host: that is the last call for this segment. if you did not get in, there will be more chances in open forum to call and discuss the story of the week. coming up on "washington

journal," washington examiners jerry dunleavy discusses the special durham's report on the fbi's probe of the trump campaign. later, cenk uygur and ana kaspa rian discuss air podcast --there podcast, the young turks. ♪ ♪ >> american history tv on c-span

two, exploring the people and events that tells the american story. on lectures and history, american university professor joseph campbell explores a decade of political foreign policy, cultural and social events to devise the spirit of the american 1990's. off the presidency, mark silverstone, author of the kennedy withdrawal talks about his research into president kennedy's vietnam war policy and his conclusion jfk was keeping his military options open. exploring the american story. watch american history tv every weekend on c-span two. bind a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ ♪ >> author timothy egan has written 10 books. his newest is called a fever and is described on the cover as the

ku klux klan's fight to take over america and the woman who stop them. publisher viking says of mr. higgins book, the roaring 1920's, the jazz age had been characterized as a time of per polity. it was also the height of uniquely american hate group, the ku klux klan. they hit -- hated blacks, catholics and immigrants in people measure and took radical steps to keep these people from the american promise. >> author timothy egan on this episode of book notes plus. book notes plus is available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ ♪ >> c-span campaign 2024 coverages your front row seat to the presidential election. watch our coverage of the

candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, speeches and events to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on the c-span networks. c-span out, our free mobile video app or anytime online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." i'm joined by jerry dunleavy, the justice department reporter for the washington examiner. guest: thanks for having me. host: what was the stated purpose of the special counsel john durham's investigation into that 2016 presidential election? guest: john durham, when he was still a federal prosecutor for the state of connecticut, the u.s. attorney there was selected by then attorney general william barr, to look into any

wrongdoing related to the launch and the investigation itself of crossfire hurricane, which was the fbi's investigation into allegations of collusion between donald trump and his campaign and the russian government. so, his tasking burst as a federal prosecutor and then as a special counsel was to look into how that investigation began, whether it was properly launched into look into whether there was wrongdoing related to the launch or related to the conduct of the investigation itself. the conclusion of durham after a number of years of investigation was that crossfire hurricane should not have been launched in the wake that it was and that there was wrongdoing related to the conduct of the investigation, as well. host: let's look at a couple of quotes from the report itself.

that report in its entirety is on the justice department website, doj.gov. take a look at the section. it says as the more complete record now shows, there are specific areas of crossfire hurricane activity. that is the codename for the fbi codename for that investigation. in which the fbi badly underperformed and failed, not only in its duty to the public but also in preventing the severe reputational harm that has befallen the fbi as a consequence of crossfire hurricane. importantly, had the investigation actors faithfully followed their own principles regarding objectivity and integrity, there were clear opportunities to have avoided the mistakes and prevented the damage resulting from their embrace of seriously flawed information that they failed to analyze and assess properly. what is the crux of what this investigation is saying, what were the fbi failures? guest: the biggest, obvious one

is the fbi's embrace and reliance on british -- former british spy christopher steals now thoroughly discredited dossier that made a lot of allegations about trump. the one that the fbi relied on most heavily was its claim that there was some sort of well-developed conspiracy between trump and russia. now, there has not been any evidence uncovered whether it was by special counsel molar, by the doj inspector general or now by durham that there was any sort of collusion between trump and russia. but, the fbi relied on that dossier to obtain spy warrants through the foreign intelligence surveillance court to surveilled former trump campaign associate harder page. they also relied on the dossier in other ways. former fbi director james comey

even wanted to include the dossier in an intelligence community assessment that was put out in very early january 2017 about russia's meddling in the 2016 election. i think the big one that everyone knows about was the fbi's reliance on the dossier. there were a host of things that the fbi did, relying on the dossier which we know was ultimately funded through the clinton campaign through a opposition research firm that the campaign had hired that the clinton campaign's general counsel mark elias had hired and to write the dossier. i think that is the most glaring one. there is more detail in the durham report about the problems of the dossier, but even the launch of the investigation itself was based on what is very thin and dubious information.

host: we will take calls from our viewers. if you would like to make a comment or ask a question about the durham report, you can do that on our lines. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. regarding the launch of the investigation, how is that typically done in the fbi? who decides, we are going to investigate something and at what point? guest: it depends on every investigation. the interesting thing about crossfire hurricane is that this fbi investigation in trump and russia is that it was largely managed in fbi headquarters with a lot of input and it appears a lot of pressure from what the fbi calls the seventh floor, the fbi leadership, including james comey, andrew mccabe, james comey's right-hand man, the

deputy director of the fbi. fbi investigations are often, and i think usually, launched in local field offices. the washington field office in d.c. launches lots of investigations. crossfire hurricane was run largely out of fbi headquarters, which set it apart. it is sort of makes since it would be run out of headquarters, because it was such a sensitive investigation. you would hope and expect that with something that is an investigation into something so sensitive, a presidential campaign and something that has the input of fbi leadership and high-ranking fbi officials, you would hope that would be an investigation run exceptionally well. but, it was just the opposite. host: how significant is it that the investigation did not yield any criminal convictions? guest: john durham's investigation, he did have

someone plead guilty during this investigation. that was wrongdoing, that was during the doj inspector general michael horowitz, his investigation into all of this. annex fbi lawyer i the name of kevin kleinsmith was to have fraudulently edited information which the cia had told kevin kleinsmith that carter page was an operational context -- contact, a source for the fbi. while the fbi was renewing its surveillance against carter page, kevin kleinsmith wrongly edited this message from the cia to say carter page was not the source for the cia, which was not true. kevin kleinsmith ended up pleading guilty. it is true the two cases durham himself brought against christopher steals source, while

his main source, igor dichenko and also against michael salzman , a clinton campaign lawyer, those did result in a not guilty verdict spy juries. i was in the room for both of those trials as a reporter and was able to see everything that went into it. there was a lot of, i would say, interesting and new evidence about the clinton campaign's involvement in pushing the allegations that these two men were pushing, whether you gordon checo pushing the dossier or michael salzman pushing what we know now are untrue allegations related to a russian bank called alpha bank, secretly communicating with the trump organization. they were new details unearthed about the clinton campaign involvement in all of that, those did result in not guilty verdicts for those two men. host: the reports cited

confirmation bias on the part of the fbi, but not political bias. guest: so, i do think that perhaps political bias can be hard to prove. but, political bias was there. you can see it in text messages, for instance, between peter strzok and lisa page, who was a -- lisa page was a fbi warrior. peter strzok was a high-ranking fbi agent, the fbi agent who authored the document that launched crossfire hurricane. in the text messages between them, you can say they have extreme bias and distaste for then candidate donald trump. there is a text exchange where, basically, lisa page wonders, is this guy really going to become president?

peter strzok says, no, we will stop him. it seems pretty clear, political animus. you can call it bias or not call it bias, but it seems obvious there was a political dislike. it does seem like it colored the investigation. confirmation bias absolutely colored this investigation the whole time through. as the fbi was receiving these claims, whether it was receiving , especially when it received the dossier -- it went off and running with the dossier. christopher steele was offered up to $1 million by the fbi if he was able to confirm any of the allegations in the dossier. he was not able to. his main source, igor dichenko, was unable to prove any of the significant allegations in the dossier, as well. the fbi still uses information and never told the court it was

uncorroborated that it was disputed and did not tell the court about its political origins with its direct funding from the clinton campaign. these are all pretty big problems. i would say that indications of political bias, especially confirmation bias, among the people running this investigation, thinking there must be collusion here. that is not what you want out of a sober investigator. you want them to be focused on whether it is true or not. host: i want to show the fbi statement in response to the durham report, a portion of that. it says, the conduct in 2016 and 2017 the special counsel durham examined was the reason that current fbi leadership already implement it dozens of corrected -- corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. have those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. this report reinforces the

importance of ensuring the fbi continues to do its work with the rigor objectivity and professionalism the american people deserve and rightly expect. what do you think of that? have there been changes implemented at the fbi? what have you seen? guest: there have been changes and reforms and plummeted at the fbi when it comes to the launch of sensitive investigations like this, and investigation like this would believe now have sign-up from the fbi director and the attorney general. but, as we know from 2016, james comey was pretty key behind crossfire hurricane itself. there have been changes implemented at the fbi. there are new rules when it comes to pursuing vices, as well. at the end of the day, rules are only as good as the people that are under them, oftentimes.

you have to have people that are running these investigations. you have to have people that want to follow the rules and uphold the standards at the fbi. if these rules were in place at the same time, but have the same people pursuing the same things, i am not convinced that the fbi's rules would have precluded all of what we saw and all of the problems within the investigation. host: let's take calls. john is up first in vernon, new jersey. independent. caller: great show, as usual. you are doing a fantastic job. i would like to say something about the rules and regulations. it has nothing to do with it. at the time, most people were working for obama. you had people like holder. you had people like comey. you had people like any woman

that took over for older, nothing was going to change. nothing was going to change at is all -- at all as far as rules and regulations. all this started under obama's reign. all roads lead back to him. no one wants to say that. it is the elephant in the room. i know everyone is going to blame hillary, she is an easy punching bag. this all goes back to holder and obama. no rules or regulations would have changed anything. these people should be arrested for treason. host: all right, what do you think? guest: so, it is true that crossfire hurricane and this trump-russia investigation was launched during obama's presidency. as i mentioned, the most important thing is the people and their willingness to follow the rules and standards. much of what the fbi did in launching this investigation and

conducting this investigation violated fbi rules that were in place at the time. so, it is important to update the fbi's rules and expect people to uphold them. but, that is not necessarily a cure for problems if you have fbi officials or fbi agent that are not willing to follow them. host: stephen, san jose, california. republican. caller: good morning. it sounds like you have got a good handle of what went on in the last few years. i want your opinion. it is this a clear-cut example of the weaponization by one political party, namely the democrats?

we have other examples of what went on with the fbi in twitter. so, is this a clear-cut example of the weaponization of what went on with one political party? host: all right, steve. guest: well, i do think it was a -- you can determine a weaponization of the powers of the federal government to go after a specific, political candidate, donald trump, who was running as a republican and then became a republican president. this investigation, which began under obama, continued during donald trump's presidency as an

fbi investigation and then as a special counsel investigation under robert moeller. so, we have talked a little bit here during the show about the fbi's reliance on information that was ultimately either being sourced from or being pushed by hillary clinton's campaign, whether it was the deeply fault -- flawed steel dossier, or debunked allegations related to russia's alpha bank and the trump organization. at minimum, i think you have -- you had the fbi embrace information that was coming to them with -- that was political biased and politically sourced and had them often running with it to run an investigation into a candidate, and then into a sitting president. host: jerry, let's take a look

at house leadership and their reaction to this report. we will start with house minority leader akeem jeffries talking about the report and follow that with speaker mccarthy. [video clip] >> i have not had the opportunity to closely view the durham report. as far as i can tell, this is another example of right wing conservatives in terms of their reaction to it, trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. this is what extreme maga republicans on the judiciary committee and oversight committee have been doing throughout the year. they keep promising big, blockbuster, bombshell developments that turn out to be

nothing. and, always seeing from extreme maga republicans in terms of their oversight work are fishing expeditions, big, baseless conspiracy theories and efforts to protect the insurrectionist in chief, who they continue to bend the knee down to in mar-a-lago. host: he said they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. former president donald trump did promise this would reveal the crime of the century. guest: you know, look. some people wanted the durham report and the durham investigation to end with people like former secretary of state hillary clinton, former fbi director james comey in handcuffs. if that is what you were expecting, it fell short.

but, i would not say this is necessarily making a mountain out of a mole hill. i do not think the durham investigation was a molehill. while it may have fallen short of what former president trump wanted the result to be, the contents of his report and what was revealed during his investigation further confirmed the significant and serious problems doj inspector general horowitz had unearthed related to the fbi's extremely flawed investigation into trump and russia, they're very problematic and potentially illegal in some instances, use of the foreign intelligence surveillance court. durham helped to unearth more fully the involvement of the clinton campaign in pushing and

originating whether it was the steel dossier for the alpha bank claims, the alpha bank claims with which hillary clinton's campaign once they were published by a news outlet on halloween 2016, that was their october surprise. they pushed that heavily in a last-ditch effort to win the election. you saw the fbi pursuing things that were not true and continuing this investigation into trump's presidency. anyone that remembers 2017, 2018, even early 2019 until the mueller report was released, this dominated american politics. this dominated the first two years of trump presidency. at the end of the day, moeller concluded he could not establish any sort of criminal collusion or criminal conspiracy between trump and russia. this was a big deal, this

investigation impacted american politics for years and i would say we are still feeling the aftereffects. we are still dealing with, i think, a increase in distrust toward the fbi, whose job often times relies on the american people trusting them. so, this is a problem and is a problem we still continue to deal with. host: kyle is in clearwater, florida. democrats line. caller: good morning. i have a couple quick questions. one, we often hear the conflation with the dossier, which was used on carter page but did not start the investigation of the trump campaign. that was started with papadopoulos. maybe just a little clarity there. of course, what we learned about the trump campaign and the

transition team when they met with russians over 200 times and were pursuing dirt to cheat the election and were handing over campaign data and -- in swing states to russian oligarchs and were looking to change policy when they were not the active government, and how that really set the fbi off because they were not really prepared for this presidential candidate being involved with russia and egging russia on, saying a lot of pro-russian things and meeting with russians and working on the deal with trump tower through much of the campaign. if you could give a little

clarity on that? guest: i am glad you brought up the launch of the investigation, because, yes. the way the fbi opened crossfire hurricane, they did not cite the steel dossier in launching the investigation, so it is a little complicated, but here is how the fbi says it is launching investigations. george papadopoulos was then a campaign advisor to the trump campaign. a couple australian diplomats say that in a wine bar in london in may 2016, he passed along some sort of information that he said he had been told by someone else who we later learned was someone named joseph miss him. george papadopoulos tells these

australian diplomats he has been told russia might have some sort of information on hillary clinton that, perhaps, could be damaging to her. these australian diplomats later passed this information along to the u.s. government and peter strzok is the fbi agent who wrote the communication that opens this investigation. it is notable in the durham report that he points out that peter strzok has misled about the reasons why these australian diplomats came forward. they came forward because they started to see wikileaks releasing emails from the dnc.

peter strzok wrote in this book that australian diplomats came forward because of that infamous comment that said russia if you are listening i hope you can find hillary clinton's emails. the problem with what he has said is that trump made those comments after the australian diplomats had already come forward. the fbi you would think, the first thing they would do is talk to george coppola -- george papadopoulos. that is not with the fbi did. instead they opened a sweeping investigation into the trump campaign based on this and i don't think they interviewed papadopoulos until trump had

already become president. this shows that this is then stuff to release an investigation on. they were criticized heavily on this. if the person who wrote the communication can't keep track on the impetus for this information come to the fbi. it seems like disinformation was key to this as well. it is the launch of the investigation itself was a focus of john durham and he found that launching a full investigation into all of these people based on this then thing was not a smart thing to do. [video clip] >> you said that you would investigate the findings of the durham investigation. now that the report has been

reviewed, what is it look like? >> we are asking durham to come in and testify so we can look at it more. it raises the question about adam schiff. remember when he told the american public he had proof? what he put america through and openly lied to us and it's proven in this as well. it raises a lot of questions about his character and whether he should even be inside congress. host: mccarthy says he will be calling durham to testify. anything we could learn? guest: it would be interesting to see what john durham is willing to say. if he is able to go beyond the four corners of his report. if he is able to talk about why he pursued the criminal cases he did. if he is able to talk about why he did and pursues some of the

criminal cases that i think many republicans and former president trump which she did. i found mccarthy's comments interesting about adam schiff as well. adam schiff read portions of the steel dossier into the congressional record in 2017. he tried to rebut what house republicans were saying in 2018 about significant problems with the fbis pursuit of fisa. and in horwitz report, and john durham's report as well, i think have based on the facts and the information they revealed have largely shown, undermined adam

schiff's credibility on this. reading and unverified sealed dossier into the congressional record is something he will take a beating from republicans for a long time. host: let's talk to peter in massachusetts, and independent. caller: i think it is important as we look at this that the steel dossier was disclosed and exposed by a release from the office of john mccain. it came into the hands of john mccain's office, can you hear me? host: yep, go ahead. caller: it came to mccain's office from the people from fusion gps. when their research into this candidate which was funded by republicans initially. they discovered information that they believed was criminal and

they had a legal obligation to report to the department of justice. they show john mccain's office the steel dossier with the information that it was not completed. it was raw intelligence gathering that still needed further development and confirmation. i think it was released by john mccain's office by mistake. this came from republicans who had a screwball candidate that they needed to know more about and when he became the candidate that is when they dropped the investigation. that is when the fusion gps folks marketed to the democrats. but the book talks exactly about what they found out and why they had an obligation to report this to the department of justice and how it ended up in mccain's

office and then was inadvertently disclosed. the information that got out was by definition, not fully developed intelligence and should never have come out that way but it is how it came out. host: the dossier that was being cost along wasn't just john mccain's office, it was being passed along to multiple media outlets, the brookings institute, other think tanks in d.c.. the dossier was everywhere. i think this is an important part. understanding fusion gps'role is important. it was in opposition research firm here in washington dc. they were hired by the clinton campaign through clinton general

counsel mark elias. they went ahead and hired christopher steel. he went on and wrote the dossier. fusion gps and steel, they were pushing these claims out to the media. they were trying to get the media to bite on this stuff because they didn't want trump to be elected. whether they were doing that because they wanted hillary clinton to be elected or they were concerned about these alleged russian collusion. that is for viewers to decide. they were pushing it out to the media. they wanted this reported and they wanted it out there. it was also being pushed by steele into the fbi because he wanted them to investigate. the fbi took steel's reporting which was unverified in which

they were not able to verify significant portions of. they ran off and used it to obtain fisa warrants. and as i mentioned earlier, james comey pushed to include it , the dossier, into the intelligence agency assessment that was supposed to provide a sober analysis on what the russians did. comey wanted this dossier that was ultimately paid for through cut outs by the clinton campaign to be included into an intelligence community assessment. it was included as a classified annex and results were briefed by comey to then elect president trump in 2017. what fusion did here, what steel

did here was two-pronged. they were trying to get the media to report on this. they wanted to get it reported before the election and they wanted the fbi to investigate. they were successful on the fbi front. host: judy sent you this question via text. she is in waynesburg, pennsylvania. did republicans use the steel dossier during the primary and the hope of stopping trump from becoming a republican presidential candidate in only dropped it since the nomination? guest: this is a great question. this is a long-running misunderstanding about this. it is even a misunderstanding that former fbi director james comey had pushed a little bit.

the question of when did the steel dossier happen? who generated it? there were republicans who hired fusion gps during the republican primary. but when it became clear that trump was going to get the nomination, they dropped working with fusion gps. they were subsequently hired by the clinton campaign through clinton campaign general counsel mark elias. fusion gps then subsequently hired peter steel. some of the trump/russia work did come from republican funding but christopher steel was only hired by fusion gps after the

clinton campaign had hired fusion gps. host: let's go to south carolina, jeff is on the republican line. caller: it sounds like the only collusion that happened this with the democrats, the fbi, talking about insurance policies. the fbi manipulating social media, targeting trump's campaign, wiretapping, why is this not being called a coup attempt to unseat a duly elected president? it was not that the dossier wasn't fully developed opposition research, it was a fabrication. even the january 6 investigation was only manned up with people

that supported the investigation. host: calling about the coup attempt? guest: so what was it. you had the fbi relying on information that was coming from the hillary clinton campaign to pursue surveillance warrants against a former member of the trump campaign. you had the fbi director trying to use the dossier, trying to push it into an intelligence community assessment. you have the fbi proceed to hire christopher steel's main source as a confidential human source for years. you have the crossfire hurricane investigation turned into robert

muller's investigation. this investigation did take up a lot of the bandwidth of the first year or two of trump's presidency. it consumed washington, d.c.. i was writing about it constantly in 2019. the first two years of trump's presidency had a lot of people pushing the idea that what these investigations would uncover is that trump was some kind of russian agent or that sort of thing. that is not what the evidence showed. it did impact the presidency. i do think it has harmed the reputation of the fbi and that is problematic.

the fbi needs trust to do a job. host: davison brookfield, florida, a democrat. caller: the fbi has a pretty tough job but this is all reminiscent of the huge circus that was launched by the republican party to investigate bill clinton's sex life. they spent $100 million on that ridiculous charade. the durham report did not disabuse the fact that russians ask -- but trump asked the russians to hack hillary clinton and asked wikileaks to hack hillary clinton's email. it should also be kept in mind that while he was up to this and

during his election, he was trying to work out a deal for a huge complex he was developing in moscow. it is one of those situations where you are dandy if you do and you are damped if you don't. this guy was running for the presidency of the united states and you have these clowns calling in babbling about coup d'etat's. the durham report fizzled. it was laughed out of court. is another attempt for the gop to mount a clinton style witchhunt. i wish trump and his loyalist, goose-stepping supporters would stop whining and start trying to solve some problems. guest: here's the thing. this investigation was a big

deal. it relied on clinton sourced information. it relied on the steel dossier. it was an investigation that lasted from july 2016 until muller's investigations concluded in 2019. this went on for a while. this investigation was deeply flawed. you don't just have to read john durham's report to know that. you can read michael was from 2019 and you see that there were real problems here. there were real flaws. there was real information. and a host of other problems. i always try to look at the

bigger picture. when you have the fbi running an investigation that is deeply flawed into a presidential candidate and then continuing it to a sitting president. i tell people, what if this had happened to your preferred candidate? we want the fbi to be running this investigation well and fairly and not the flaws that horwitz is special counsel durham unearth. host: from arizona, and independent. caller: i want to shout out brian lamb this morning. he would follow-up a lot on some of the pronunciation like this gentleman is making.

did trump have a lot of connections to russians during his time? is russian money particularly corrupt money in the new york city environment and has been for years? did the fbi's office in new york decide the clinton foundation was a threat to democracy? you are a young man and you should accept and take on responsibility for what it is that you are saying and what you are doing this for. you are poo pooing the notion that the gentleman had these connections and his team wanted to use those connections to enhance what it was he was trying to do.

host: let's get a response. guest: i appreciate him calling me a young man. i'm not that young. the investigation into former president trump wasn't about whether there were meetings with russians or about trump's business he made have pursued like the trump tower moscow. it was a question of did trump's campaign collude with the russian government to win the election? we have had mueller investigate, horwitz investigate calm john durham investigate and the question of collusion, the question of a criminal conspiracy to steal the 2016 election is not something that

has a real, evidentiary basis. that is what the fbi was looking into. that was what the investigation sought out to figure out. when it comes to collusion between trump and russia, it is just not there. it is problematic. a lot of the things that the fbi did and the steps that they took and they are reliance on the dossier. it is a big deal to find out the fbi was relying on what could be seen as opposition research documents to obtain secret surveillance warrants. i keep hammering away at that issue, but right now, fisa authorities have used comment

that the government says is key to combating terrorism, combating chinese espionage. that authority is up for reauthorization at the end of this year and there is a lot of questions about whether that is going to be reauthorized because of the mistrust that has been generated towards the fbi because of how they misuse the fisa court in 2017. that is a significant problem, as i have set the fbi needs to be trusted to do its job and trusted to retain these important authorities that are used to combat our foreign adversaries. all of the stuff, using the pfizer court in a political way

because it has repercussions were still dealing with. host: are there any questions that the durham report left unanswered? guest: yes. he has passed off some things to different agencies to fbi, dod to look into. i think a good question for durham is going to be why he focused so heavily on the aspect of the clinton campaign and its involvement in pushing things like the steel dossier, things like alpha bank and why he was filing charges focusing on those

things and what the fbi off the hook leaving willie participants for the information that the clinton campaign was pushing. i think that is a big question for him. a lot of his focus was on his criminal investigation and criminal charges was clinton campaign related. in a large since it seemed like the fbi seemed more than willing to accept the dossier, this other stuff and i think that is probably something dermal get asked about. host: jerry dunleavy, investigative reporter for washington examiner. coming up cenk uygur and ana kasparian talk about progressive

politics and their podcast "the young turks." but up next, open forum. we will take your calls, coming up next. ♪ >> but tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors talking about their latest, nonfiction books. author and cnn supreme court analyst talks about the transformation of the u.s. supreme court after the trump administration. at 10:00 p.m., on afterwards, united airline ceo oscar munoz talks about turnaround time where he talks about his efforts to revive the company. he is interviewed by jeff

wester. but tv, every sunday on c-span2. find a full schedule on your program guide. seattle-based author timothy egan has written 10 books. his newest one is called a fever in the heartland and is described as the ku klux klan plot to take over america and the woman who stopped them. the jazz age has been characterized as a time of gatsby frivolity but it was also the height of uniquely american hate group, the ku klux klan. they hated blacks, jews, catholics and immigrants and

took radical steps to keep these people from the american promise. author timothy egan on book notes plus. available on c-span now or wherever you get your podcast. c-span now is a free mobile app with your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the latest hearings from congress, white house events, the courts, and more from the heart of politics. stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and scheduling information. plus, a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is at the apple store and google play. c-span now, your front row seat to washington.

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continues. welcome back to washington journal. we are asking you what your top news story of the weakest. there are several things happening in washington. you can take a look, we will put it up on the screen. the debt talks resume after being caused yesterday. the durham report, we just talked about that. ron desantis, looks like he will be announcing his run for the presidency next week. there were several abortion bands that were put in state legislatures. the gop blocked the attempts to expel george santos. biden endorsed training for

ukrainian pilots. we will go straight to the calls, michael from fort lauderdale, florida. caller: i just wanted to make a comment on the durham report that somehow it clears trump campaign from collusion with the russians. unlike the four years, the mueller report did put people in jail. paul manafort gave campaign information to the russians. this fantasy that there was no collusion, the mueller report only concluded that the trump campaign was too incompetent to actually collude with the russians but they did help. that is just the truth. that is just my comment in this fantasy of the durham report.

somehow, raising this idea of collusion by the russians is somehow ridiculous. host: marcus in hawaii, and independent. caller: there are a few things i think should be brought up that has to do with the durham report, we are at war with russia now. that would not have happened if we had a president negotiating with his enemy. we had zelenskyy on the phone call that got trump indicted for second impeachment. a clear pay off the set up a war and trump was the guy trying to stop it. biden and the bankers, whoever, set up a condition that got trump out of power and now we

are in a war because of this. no one wants to look at the fact that hillary clinton had -- murdered by turning over documents to wikileaks. hillary clinton was a criminal. she probably should have been in prison a long time ago. obama, i am not going to indict him because i did not see him as the kingpin. i am putting people behind and biden on the fire line because he was taking payoffs. that is ukraine. that is still in -- that is zelenskyy. host: chris in auburn, maine. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my head was going to explode with the last guest. the report goes on to say

somehow fbi weaponize against trump it was helpful to hillary. here is a question for my republican friends. which would be worse, fbi coming out and making statements about you being the worst human on the face of the planet, which they did to hillary, or say nothing about their investigation into their other candidate, trump? which why do you think would hurt more -- one do you think would hurt more? let's talk about the five year investigation into hillary and her emails. republicans releasing a report from congress the day after the election saying, that whole think we just print that i spent five years doing, i guess hillary did not do anything wrong. if you want to talk about weaponization of the government, talk about what fbi did to hillary. host: tim in myrtle beach, south

carolina. good morning. caller: i want to make a comment to all democrats on here. these are facts. there is nothing to hide. there is no fbi. whitewater. all this stuff clinton's going way back. the hazy find -- haiti find they stole money to help people after a earthquake. this the democratic party and people have the nerve to come on here talk about trump and i do not really like donald trump. the democratic party is more corrupt than the mexican cartels, ms 13. these people will lie, cheat, and it still that is why they want illegals here. everybody know in kosovo. -- everybody knows illegals

vote. these people have nerve to talk about republicans. it is sickening. go back and investigate the clinton's from whitewater back to now and look at obama going into egypt, illegally, -- host: you're talking about libya, not egypt. caller: he went into egypt too. host: can you explain what you mean by that? caller: he had military people in egypt. host: advisors? caller: no, they were not advisors. they were spooks going to get into -- to get gaddafi illegally. host: gaddafi was in libya, not egypt. caller: he was in libya but he

had people in egypt. just i still worked in england as a spy. they had spies in egypt. host: the wall street journal first page about the debt ceiling negotiations says that talks resume after impasse, gop wants a deeper cuts as i -- a condition. negotiators broke off talks and resumed them late friday as white house and house republicans work to reach a deal to raise the limit and effort government default as soon as next month. gary calling from minnesota. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to make a few comments. i am independent. i think the country is poorly led.

no other species that takes people's members with no leadership ability or credibility. the thing that frustrates me the most is lack of accountability all over the place. look at the things you're talking about this morning. investigations. the dossier paid for by hillary clinton. the collusion of all sides of the government passing these laws by trading tax benefits for one side or the other. i senator -- senator coming up saying i have proof it is not circumstantial. biden family -- all of them the stuff you just covered with ukraine. the damage it has done to our government, justice department,

fbi -- if the fbi came to my door and said there is a crime going down the street and i want to talk to you, i would say i do not know what your real motives are. you have been corrupted. that's how i feel as a filter. -- as a voter. host: karl in new york city, democrat. caller: good morning. i'm sorry i got only. -- i am sorry i got on late because i wanted to talk to the gentleman just in, tell every think he was saying was wrong. can you hear me? host: yes, i can. caller: the hurricane think was not under obama. it was under george w. bush. when obama came to office he discovered the back-and-forth. host: you are saying the investigation into trump, russia

ties during the trump campaign would not have been during the george w. bush? caller: i ain't saying that. the guy said hurricane use that is the name. host: that was the fbi name for it. caller: no. peter it was the whole thing. donald trump went after him with a vengeance. he invites the russians to the white house and put our reporters out. he did not have some guy from the military did not know when he went into the country. watching this nonsense went -- with the russians. when jeff sessions walked into the room in trump tower and a that spot at the table he

accused himself. donald trump got mad and fired him. the whole thing started with peter. he is the man in investigation of the fbi. he heard the back-and-forth. they had a picture with putin. host: james in chicago, illinois. go ahead. caller: i'm calling about democrats wanting to raise the debt ceiling. they want to raise the debt ceiling and they spend their money on the crossfire hurricane. they spend their money on all the trump investigations. the report. the durham report. it is all talk about how much money they have spent in last four years investigating the president of the united states.

not to mention the fact that soon as biden took office, he opened up the southern border. they do not talk about the cost of millions of people coming in u.s. that we put up in hotel rooms. host: i have a question for you because a previous caller brought up the amount of money republicans are spending -- or spent investigating hillary clinton in benghazi and email servers. what do you say to that? caller: i say that is fine. why not talk about the amount of money they spent for trump? host: all right. richard in idaho, independent line. caller: good morning. i enjoyed the last guy talking on the investigation. one thing that would help he was

an examiner that right wing or left wing. c-span is always right in the middle but it will be nice to know his deal is coming from. one thing i got out of that keep saying they found out a lot. they did not find out anything on that investigation. he put two people to court. both of them unanimously, by jury, said there is nothing wrong. i am concerned about, you hear right wing people call in, left wing people call in, it is almost like brainwashing. i'm concerned about the u.s. we need to calm down. do not only listen to your little powers. go ahead and listen to c-span.

if you are right wing listen to msnbc. if you are left wing listen to fox. thank you. host: shirley in south carolina. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my top story is the guy that called in not too long ago saying that joe biden has separate -- give all the blacks everything and did not give nobody else anything. i want to say to him joe biden and given me nothing. -- did not give me nothing. i worked for mine. you do not get that unless you work for it. i am insulted about that comment. i hope he would change his words and did not put everybody in the same bag. i know plenty of white folks

walking out here forward then i am -- poorer than i am. i own my ranch. i stay in my home. i buy as much groceries as i want to buy and anything else. the lord has blessed me. you think about that young man. host: richard in virgin islands. good morning. caller: i have a couple of comments about the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling has been raise every time it needs to go. i have a little message for speaker mccarthy. he used a credit card analogy to talk about the debt ceiling saying that if your son or daughter go so there limit, you do not just keep going. welcome we also do not call of the credit card company and tell them you're not going to pay. this is money been spent.

if you want to cut the budget, cut the budget in committee and bring it up for a vote. also, if you're to cut across the board you are taking a cut in salary. one more item i have to bring up , i am sorry to be so long. clarence thomas. i'm a real estate appraiser down here. i've been real estate appraiser for over 20 years. if i get 1% of what he did somebody else, my license would be gone. thank you. have a great day. host: harry in illinois, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i hear people call in about the clintons. they started going after the clintons back in 1990 hillary coming out and saying i will stand by my man.

the author of the clinton years -- all throughout the clinton years we had different investigations, tea party, linked in, whitewater, china gate. that went on for what, 30 years now. isn't it time for republicans to get out from underneath hillary clinton skirt? it is terrorism for 30 years -- it is tiresome for 30 years they try to get these honorable people but they failed in every attempt. as soon as their guy gets in there, trump and the senate, they came up with a different collusion then the hand pointed during and heroine's -- durham and we know bill barr was compromise. he was pet portal for donald trump. i think the reports are nothing

but nothing burger. republicans are freaking out because georgia indictments are coming and they need to switch the talking point. let's go back to hillary. we have to whip that horse for another 30 years. host: roger in valley park, missouri. independent. caller: hello. this is what america has not been told about donald. donald comes from a family. his father was mafia. he had to be mafia controlled all the trucks in the country back in. donald's diagnosis narcissistic sociopathic personality disorder. that's why he refers to himself as trump sometimes. he has two personalities. host: why are you getting this information? caller: from

c-span. i watch you guys forever. i watch every news. host: i'm not thinking c-span had that donald trump had been diagnosed. caller: talk to his cousin that lived with him. she is one of the top psychologist in the country. talk to her, mary, she is suing him right now because they took her money from her -- when her father died. they disowned her. there is more to this. the origin of covid. there's is a report from national guard -- geographic. says the origin of kovic took place in europe probably around deliveries at a farm and it was here in a farm in u.s. in michigan and between 19 in november -- 2019 in november. my adopted son right in the army

and he had covid here in michigan. host: we are out of time. coming up next tyt founder cenk uygur and ana kasparian discuss progressive politics. there podcast is called "the young turks." will be right back. ♪ >> says 1979 in partnership with the cable industry c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat about how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span your unfiltered view of government.

♪ >> in the last three years the number of satellites orbiting earth's lower a have gone from 2500 to 8000. on q&a ashley vance talks about the book when the heavens went on sale about the private companies launching these small satellites for commercial and noncommercial use and the risk they represent. >> these tech companies got so large they do the worldwide giant infrastructure and i think space is the next step of that and people need to wrap their heads around this idea that whatever status quo they used to exist or even russia and the u.s. could get along in the space station, that era is over, and is not just the company you should worry about, is a country like russia in space program

collapsing -- will they be a rational actor as a new takes hold? >> ashley vance and his book when he heavens went on sale sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern c-span q&a. you can listen to q&a in our podcast on our free c-span now at. >> seattle-based author timothy egan has written 10 books. his newest fever in the heartland on the cover as ku klux klan plot to take over america and the woman who stopped publisher biking set of -- said of the book will read 20's, jazz age characterized as time of gatsby. but it was also the height of uniquely american hate group. they hated blacks, jews, and

catholics, and immigrants enter critical steps to keep these people from the american promise. >> timothy egan on this episode of book notes plus. book notes plus available on c-span now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> how democracy does not just look like this -- a healthy democracy does not suck like this, it look like this where citizens are truly informed. get informed straight from the source on c-span, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are. the opinion that matters the most is your own. c-span powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues.

host: welcome back. my guest for this segment is cenk uygur and ana kasparian. "the young turks" host and ana kasparian executive producer and host of the "the young turks." you started the network, tell us about that and why did you started and when. guest: we started 21 years ago. where the longest running show in internet history. we are also the first ever youtube partner. i guess we are the root -- original youtubers. we survive the digital news media business. the reason we started is because there was no voice for progressives on air. 21 years later, as far as mainstream media, still there's no voice for progressives on air. that is why we got so large.

everybody that watches thought thank god, someone saying what i think, and honestly about two thirds of the country think what we think. that is why we started it. there was a need for it. that's why i grew so large. -- why it grew so large. it is important to understand we do on this news reporting. perspective come second, reporting first. host: what is the name come from? guest: it means young rebels. young progressives looking to overthrow and establish system. 21 years ago i was a young progressive. along with my cohost and cofounder dave. we thought that sounds all right for us. host: he used the term progressives a lot. how do you define progressive and is there a clear leader

right now for progressives in the country? guest: the second question is much easier to answer and i would say at the moment no. i feel there was a progressive leader in bernie sanders but he has now thrown his full support behind president biden and has gone along with biden's agenda while i think trying to influence it to some extent. when i think of progressive is economic and social justice. not necessarily equity which is what has been associated with progressive label as of lately. that is something that keeps coming up. equality of opportunity. ensuring people have opportunity to move up the economic ladder. provide for themselves and their families and thrive in the country. i do think there was an era

where american dream was real and if anyone wanted to put their work behind achieving the american dream, those opportunities were available. progressives want to bring the opportunities back. there's about the only one in the country who want to do so, as far as i've seen in recent years. host: viewers you can weigh in on our lines by party affiliation. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. there is a new york times article with this headline progressive democrats new momentum clashes with old debates. a push and pull between progressive and moderate democrats shaping the party's policies and politics. what do you make of that? guest: i have not read the article by am surprised by it

because i'm not seen progressives push moderates much at all. i would have them push 2000 times harder. progressives are to those of the country. -- two thirds of the country and we should fight for those principles and policies. biden did not meet any of his agenda. he dropped almost everything progressive in the agenda. he is going super right wing right now. the number one problems with progressives in congress they will not fight back against biden and the established democrats. we do not send them to be buddies and colleagues. i like to -- the fight jamaal bowman had recently. i like cori bush protests on the steps. biden is not your friend. he has had republican policies his entire career in right now he is going right wing.

the negotiation over the debt ceiling is a sham. it is theater. but wants to make the cuts. he volunteers cuts before republicans even say it. you're supposed to fight the corporate democrat who do not have our best interest in mind. host: in an episode even further and said biden is a republican on economic policy. guest: yeah. biden's policies have been draw his career further incarceration, mass incarceration, cut the deficit by doing what? raising taxes on the rich gateau no. he helped make the bags because triple the size of the trump tax cuts. he's always helped the rich. he's always helped the donors. when it comes to cutting spending for the average american? biden is there. cutting taxes for the about the echo biden as their -- cutting

taxes for the wealthy? biden is there. host: a part of the debt ceiling negotiations that concern work requirements for some of the republicans assistant programs. why is that not a good idea? guest: because we have case studies, including what transpired in arkansas, proving not only does it fail to work, it is not do anything to increase employment. in fact, it because money because you need enforce the policy. you need a mechanism set up to check the employment status of the people who are taking social safety nets programs. in arkansas, it did not increase

employment at all. most of the people who needed medicaid where working. the people who were picked off of medicaid because they allegedly did not meet the work requirements turned out a lot of them were working as well but enforcement mechanism at the state requires them to check in online and many people either do not have technology available or just were not as skilled using computer as others might be. it ended up costing the state $26 million. the policy did not last two years. a federal judge blocked it temporarily and later it was completely struck down. this idea we need work requirements at the time when we have record employment. we have a tight labor market. it is ridiculous to claim you have a bunch of americans banged around doing nothing take advantage of -- laying around

doing nothing taking advantage of government cheese only have record employment. host: a lot has been made of invoking the 14th amendment to stave off the debt crisis. what do you think of that and practically, can that work? guest: yes, of course, it could work. every time republicans in charge there is no conversation about the debt ceiling. they raise it without any problems. when a democrat is in charge, republicans and democrats, together do a fake play for all of them. it drives me crazy reporters go along with it. democrats want to cut spending. they never raise taxes on the rich. they never cut defense spending. they always take it from the average american. the democrats go let's negotiate over the debt ceiling even

though we never did under republicans. do you think they do not know that? he can use the 14th amendment immediately. why is he not choosing to say you want to crash the world economy, go for it. then you will get the blame because it is 100% their fault. how easy is it to speak clearly but with the republicans are doing gateau they do not do that because they agree. please stop the play. it is a ridiculous piece of theater because through every time. the next time a republican is president, god help us, you will see there will be no talk of debt ceiling or debt or deficit. they will add tremendously to the deficit as they do every time. because they're going to give it all to corporate donors. what is trump do? he created $7.8 trillion extra in this epic

-- extra in we did -- he created 7.8 between dollars extra in the deficit. you think the democrats are your friends, fighting for you, ask yourself, why do they not fight for miyako violence may not speak as clearly as in canal about how fake republicans are, how they served their donors? guest: can i jump in on that? i have to add to his point. this farce we deal with regarding the debt ceiling it is frustrating because the one thing congressional lawmakers might care about more than campaign coffers estoppel foliar -- stock portfolio and the idea anyone in congress stands in the way of raising the debt ceiling which would crash the global

economy and have a massive negative impact on their stock portfolio is laughable. they have vested interest in lifting the debt ceiling. they're going to let the debt ceiling. it is exhausting to go through the same drama every time he comes up as it is not going to happen. the only thing congressional lawmakers care more about then the american people as themselves and how much they stand to benefit from policies they pass. host: let's talk to viewers. john in new york, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. when the last time the government gave out free money to taxpayers, secretary of treasury came out and said, he

misplaced $500 million and nobody investigated it. it is all on record. donald trump i believe took the $500 million and paid off the hotel he bought from china. let's check it out with him. he is a crook. host: do you want to take rep? guest: i do. i do not know if he took 500 million and put it in his pocket. i've not seen evidence of that but i will tell you this. every time republicans get in office they hand out free money but it is not to the average american. it is to the riches of the rich. donald trump gave 200 million to the rich.

the giant giveaway for himself, donors, everyone in his cabinet, they richest cabinet in history, they robbed is blind. george w. bush $5.6 trillion in tax cuts. ronald reagan tax cut after tax cut for the rich. the idea trickle-down economics is nonsense. when they go to do the robbery, they do it in a legal way. they bribe politicians called campaign contributions. meanwhile they take to ease of dollars out of the back door while we are distracted by the culture wars. focus on economic issues. focus on great robbery happening today. host: anna, my question to you from twitter who says why would dmc cancel all primary debates gateau -- primary debates?

can he debate anymore? what do you think of that and primary challenges to president biden? guest: that is a great question. we can speculate as to why they are doing it. you can look at recent history of contacts to explain what is going on today. i do not think the dnc wants to have a democratic process in place and allow for democratic voters to make a decision about who they favored during the democratic primary. they prop up preferred candidate, joe biden, and i think they are playing with fire. joe biden's liability to the democratic party. when you consider some of the policies he has been implementing behind the scenes, reconsidering -- when you consider was transpiring in blue cities that have much of joe biden's base protesting right

now over the migrant crisis and the lack of resources to the cities that are necessary to deal with the migrant crisis. biden thinks he can have the dnc protect him. he can stay away from any type of public appearance that might make him look bad and a long as he got that dnc democrat establishment apparatus popping him up, everything is going to be fine, but right now it is that being between biden and donald trump, has to keep in mind, donald trump does not have the stink of coronavirus following him around. there are investigations taken place, prosecutions, possible convictions and i think them across think it is great, perfect situation let's pop up trump and biden, and will be a repeat of 2020. i think they are playing with fire. if you ask ordinary americans whether their lives have changed in any material way from the

trump administration to the biden administration, i guarantee you the best majority of those individuals will say it now. the material conditions have not improved. they have continued to devolve and get worse, especially with higher interest rates, federal reserve openly talking about increasing unemployment to get inflation down. it is disaster plan disaster. didi in in an effort to protect -- dnc in effort to protect biden's washing democratic opposition during the primary. guest: i got to jump in on that. i will tell you right now there'll be a vigorous primary against joe biden. democratic party leadership does not care about my credit party voters. they care about protecting their own power.

biden sitting at 36%. that is a disaster. if seven, and is under 50% they are likely to lose. under 40%, it is unheard of to win. democratic party wants us to walk into this defeat. the reason they do not want debates is because everyone knows if biden goes up against a strong progressive in debate, he will melt. no one thinks he can handle it. if you think he cannot handle a progressive, you're going to send him against trump, desantis , -- when he beat trump it was around 50% and now he's 15 points lower. in a comment -- you're going to take an incumbent to go fight republicans, he loves republicans. that's not the guy who wants to fight republicans. send us in.

we will do the job. host: tim in oklahoma, republican. caller: i want to get view on the situation on where government notably department of justice, fbi, cia turned political and the durham report confirmed this and other stuff like 51 agents came out and said hunter biden laptop was russia this information before the last campaign. the news media in the constitution set up to protect the public against an oppressive and corrupt government. the news media has joined the government look at trump in

every way and biden and democratic administration news media refuses and did not report on the durham investigation. like to get your comments on one party government, bureaucracy tied with democrats, and the agencies. host: let's get a response. guest: have a what he saying is wrong but the other half is correct. the republicans right now are like the fbi targeting conservatives. are you crazy? the fbi targeted the left wing in entire history. they executed left-wingers. organize blacks, whites, latinos together, etc.. it is the first time fbi investigating right-wing at all.

the right wing is called -- caught and it turns out we have to abide by the laws too. we saved rule of law it is not just mean oppressed minorities. it means rule of law for all of us, equal. i disagree with the first part of what he is saying but the second part is true one party rule. it is not what you think it is. it is not the democrats or republicans. corporate democrats and corporate republicans they join together half-acre fights over cultural wars. what gender should m&ms be? me well on economic issues they always agree. they agree on tax cuts for the rich, giant subsidies for corporations, including defense contractors, and the press covers it up. democrats and republicans really disagree. another tax cut for the rich.

more deregulation of multinational corporations. i bet they are fighting. they are not fighting. they are on the same team. host: pilot in d.c., independent. caller: i am calling concerning the debt ceiling. when bush tax cuts are made permanent so we could raise the debt ceiling. additionally people compare the poor people with the rich people, nobody knows what middle class in and 70,000 -- $20 an hour i pay social security on 100% of my salary. $1 million a year i pay tax on less than 11% of my salary. the country needs to know what rich is. 98% of the people make less then $1000 a year. guest: i left her comment. she is right about that.

the middle class has been gutted in the country. the majority of people who do pay their taxes pay a far more larger percentage or share their annual income to prop up federal government with their taxpayer money and where does that money go? they're just people get the benefit from low tax that were low prior, they get away with all of that, and we taxpayers end up funding endless wars abroad, military spending, and keep getting nickel and dime to social safety net programs. richard told we are bombs and we need work requirements -- we get told we are bums and we need work requirements. the corporations have starvation

wages. wages have not kept up with inflation in u.s. since 1970's and our wages were further degraded thanks to inflation that was the product of price gouging and corporate greed. i love that comment. the statement was correct and if you really take a setback and you see this country through the lens of understanding that corporations on our media, politicians from both parties, and they are the real decision-makers. there are the ones that mpeg policies here. they are not our friends. they're not looking out for us. they're looking out for themselves. it is clear when you consider how much they pay in taxes compared to what ordinary americans are paying in taxes. host: stephen in baltimore, maryland. caller: big fan. i would like to know why can we

not can vince -- convince american people which you had to safety need they have in europe? they get child care, medical, time off when they have a baby, they take time off. in america we do not get time off. guest: i would love to jump in on that. you look at polling and you will notice that the vast majority of americans love those policy proposals. paid family leave. ability to get paid more for the work we are doing. raising the minimum wage. all of those progressive policies we see as scandinavian countries polled well here.

where is the disconnect? majority of americans wanted it, why do politicians not fight past the policies? the people finding their campaigns do not like those policies because to successfully environment and them you need resources, ensure -- successfully and permits them you need resources. they legally pro -- bright star politicians to avoid passing policies. elections become culture were battles. it is why the transgender debate takes up 95% of the error in the room right now. it is a perfect culture war issue to play ordinary americans against each other and distract them from the fact that corporate wings of both parties are in cahoots and working on behalf of money interests. that is what is happening now. my plea to the american people is to be privy to that strategy,

privy to what is going on here, do not allow them to distract you from the economic justice americans deserve. guest: progressive policies that callers talking about are deeply popular in country. only reason they do not pass is because corporate politicians and media. $15 minimum wage polls two thirds of the country. very popular. whichever red state, it passes easily because american people want it to the majority of republican voters. why do we not have it? democrats pretend to be in favor of the joe biden says i would do $15 million wage and the first interview he does he says we will probably not do it. so you were lying. we know he was signed because bernie sanders forced a vote on

it and top allies in the senate voted against it. that is joe biden saying i never meant it. i was flying the whole time. -- lying the whole time. paid family leave polls at 84%. 74% of americans wanted. in estonia they get any two weeks off after having a baby. we get 0 -- in estonia, they get 82 weeks off after a baby. we get zero. it is unconscionable. it is joe biden pretending to be in favor. why don't you force republicans to vote against their voters? because he does not want to do.

what is the media do? how are we going to pay for that? most talk about the giant evansville will regrow the money in the garbage to defense contractors, they ribose, -- we talk about defense contractors and they throw the money in the garbage. how are we going to pay for that? we live under corporate role. it is time for a rebellion. host: stephen in maryland. no. james in louisiana. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to ask the panel how they feel about federal reserve. should be dissolved? thank you. guest: i do think we need a solution for the federal reserve. it is an elected body of individuals who have too much control and power over our economic situation.

but they did with quantitative easing -- what they did with quantitative easing funneling money to banks in an effort to lend to small businesses and ordinary americans did not happen. they took the money and did corporate stock buybacks which is why we seeing inflation in various assets putting stock market, housing market, disastrous. we need to find a solution. i'm open to the idea of dissolving the federal reserve. but you do with congress as well? considering it as an effective body of people who seek to engage in self-dealing then more than anything else. guest: a simple answer to the federal reserve everyone can understand. federal reserve makes decisions to the new york federal reserve and the board makes the decision. the board is filled with ceos of biggest banks in america.

the giant banks decide to print trays of dollars of money and give it to themselves -- trillions of dollars of money and give it to themselves. does that make sense? of course not. it is a system of rich has set up the benefit themselves. host: doug in illinois. caller: i would like to talk about the debt ceiling. it needs to be praised. they overhyped the drama. they wait to the last minute. the durham report. another thing i am liberal democrat. during 2016 election i am on facebook and i'm hearing stuff

from hillary people and burning people and i can say all kinds of things to praise bernie but if i said any one thing to criticize or disagree with him, i got lambasted by burning people and on the flipside in interest of being fair in said something about hillary i got called the protected. the bernie people i wish they could have seen -- forcing most going to happen. they refuse to vote by delivery -- hillary clinton. they got the opposite of what they were trying to inspire to with their progressive agenda because we ended up with a conservative court 6-3 and trump getting away with all of these judges and then -- some of these changes need to be incremental. i want to say if hillary had been president then there would

have been a lot fewer deaths from covid because trump was trying to blame the obama administration for the lack of inventory and supplies when he had already been in office for three years. host: go ahead. guest: it sounds like the caller has good intent. there is too much vitriol online in all directions. it can drive good people away. by were they so animated? we feel we were ghastly -- gas lit. every time bernie was say something was true, corporate media would gaslight. it is a part of why you see that reaction. i need you to understand the truth of what happened in the election. bernie sanders did over 40 rallies for hillary clinton. in precedent -- it was unprecedented. we said to vote for hillary clinton. people on the extreme left

bothered by that. what is the option? what are the choices? i thought hillary clinton -- a progressive who could do the people's agenda. once we lost it was very content versus donald trump. it is not a close call or an endorsement by hillary clinton. it just means the other guy is way worse. it is not a hard question. i will give you one more fact that is important. after hillary clinton lost to barack obama in 2008, her followers were known as puma. puma stands for party unity by ass. she barely did anything to help barack obama. they voted against barack obama as bernie sanders supporters voted against hillary clinton. twice as many.

hillary clinton did a -- terrible job but you never heard awarded that in mainstream media. host: millie in new haven, connecticut. good morning. caller: good morning to you and i love you both. i love you both. allison on youtube all the time. moving into the 2004 -- 2020 four election, what should we voters be looking for in a candidate? i voted democratic. if you can educate us on what we should be looking for. thank you both. host: do you want to take that, anna? guest: we are looking at a candidates platform what is their platform really about? is there actual policy there that will improve your life? are you seeing cheap shallow nonsense

that weighs in culture wars come weaponizes identity and at the end do nothing to improve america's lives, if anything get elected lead to more possibilities of -- we do need to have an attitude friend against corruption -- united front against corruption. i will say this, whether or not candidate gives a damn and genuine doing away with the moneyed interests and having as much influence in our elections that they do. guest: progressive policy issues poll at about two thirds of the country consistently. everybody wants them, even republican voters want them, they do not know it. we do not have them because of money in politics. i would tell democrats in

congress if you are not addressing money in politics, you are wasting your time. i love you but you need to focus. your colleagues are corrupt. if you do not call it out, the country never have a natural conversation on it. we said biden was never going to do build back better or fdr to point out and everybody said you are too cynical. we are to correct. we know corporate democrats agree with corporate republicans on all economic issues. biden goes more republicans every single day. if you watch the show, we predict the votes and the election. it is not because we are smart. it is super simple.

follow the money. the money always wins in washington. until you stop the private financing of election. you never get politicians who work for public interest. they work for private interest that find that there campaign. there's this great organization will pack.com. totally nonpartisan. they have everybody in their. the number one drive constitutional amendment to end private financing and legalized bribery in the country. where the only country that legalizes bribery. it drives our politics to political -- a drives our politics. the country has no -- no one in the media knows this. it seems bizarre. host: cenk uygur that is and ana kasparian cohost of "the young

turks" tv program and podcast. thank you for being on the program with us. that is it for today's "washington journal" and will be back tomorrow morning 7:00 a.m. eastern live on c-span. in the meantime, have a great saturday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] ♪ >>. every day, were taking your calls on the news of the day and policy issues that impact you. coming up next morning, max cohen talks about the latest on

the federal debt limit negotiations. then, ken cuccinelli, founder of "never back down," boarding florida governor ron desantis, -- supporting florida governor ron desantis, discusses the 2020 four election. and the increasing use of emergency action to change the law without public hearing. watch washington journal, live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, or c-span now, our free mobile app. join our conversation with your phone calls, facebook messages, texts and tweets. congress returns next week, and the house plans to take up an agreement that once is reached, followed by the senate, on recess for the holiday.

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