>> good morning. it is saturday, july 8. the job numbers came out yesterday. it wears added 2000 jobs.

this week, an unofficial record was set for the hottest day on earth at the secret service is investigating the cocaine round in the white house on sunday night. and biden has improved the delivery of cluster bombs to the ukraine. those are the top stories this week it what is your top story of the week #>> democrats can call the number on your screen. you can send us a text as well. be sure to send your c-span number, at c-span area welcome to washington journal. we will start taking your call shortly. i want to start with jobs numbers read here is the washington post read this employer is that 209,000 jobs in june, a slow but steady gain.

the article says that it is the smallest pickup since december of 2020, signaling a slowing with bills on labor market gains fell short of the predictions, indicating that the market is cooling down from its peak last year. the unemployment rate fell. >> let's take a look at what president biden said yesterday. >> a move from trickle-down economics. that's what everyone on the financial trying -- financial times going by the number it is the middle out and bottom up. when that happens, the folks in the bottom have eight chance to raise up and the wealthy studio very well. it will not hurt anyone at all. today's job shows that biden on

mx. is working. we had a 200,000 jobs in all four, we. over 13 million, 13,000,003 hundred thousand. two and half years, thus more this any -- that's ever been great any four-year term, and the unemployment rate is below 4% for 17 straight months. not since 19 60 has that occurred. inflation continues to fall. >> that was the president talking about job numbers that just came out. take a look at some of the response from republican lawmakers. here's a rough genitive on twitter who says despite the president's touting abide in onyx and the recent job report, only 33% of americans approve of

the handling of the economy. americans can see that from inflation and gas places. a recent study found -- i'm sorry. this is daniel webster. june job report is coming in under expectation, adding 209,000 jobs. revisions show reports were overstated by 110,000 jobs. it is past time to provide in onyx aside the hard work americans first. while biden claims he is starting the economy or a quickly, the june jobs report shows the opposite. we will see if that will resolve the issue. real wages are down and in nation's up. thinking of twitter you have

heard about medicine twitter rival thread. it will explode to 70 million sign-ups, one day after launch. here is cnbc.com. they say that met his new twitter competitor thread has exploded in growth in its first full day since a public debut on cnet, will by instagram and its massive user base. the social media product is already 70 million sign-ups. that is according to mark zuckerberg. and, it says meta only needs one in or instagram users to use thread's monthly for it to be as big as twitter. here is the associated press saying that twitter is threatening legal action over its new rival action thread. it has drawn tens of millions of users and reds since launching this week, and's its rivals from

its social media plot arm, it is saying that in a letter on wednesday with the meta-ceo, an attorney representing twitter accuse them of unlawfully using a trade secret with other intellectual properties to create a coffee cup app. this ramps up tensions between the social media giant after it debuted on wednesday. it targeted those who are seeking out alternatives to twitter admixed on popular changes to the platform for $44 million. we wonder what our friends on twitter think about that. if there will be a switch or what their thoughts are on that and other news items. we are taking your calls during the first hour, we will go to the bones. linda is first in chico. hello.

>> hello. i'd like to say that there are no most -- almost no words that can describe the united states what it does to other countries. right now, i'm thinking of sending -- we are now going to send cluster bombs to ukraine. that is antipersonnel weaponry. meant to kill people. they know that has to be included. even innocent people who are not even on the battle the old when they bombed the areas, there are hardly words to describe that. we've been so deceitful. we've been -- and our reasons

for going to war, i don't -- i am so. >> we get your point. let's take a look at the new york times front page about that? biden is sending ukrainian arms. a cluster munition can endanger civilians. president biden is sending his decision to provide ukraine with cluster munitions which are outlawed by many of the closest allies saying that it was a difficult decision, but they are running out of ammunition. for months, they wrestled with a decision to supply weapons which scatter tiny bombs across what -- the battlefield. they have been known or even years after the fighting ends did also, among children who did not explode when initially dropped. >> let's take a look at what

president biden said in that dissenting decision. >> is a very difficult decision on my part, and we discussed this with our allies on the hill. we are in a situation where ukraine continues to be brutally attacked across the board by cluster munitions which are very low or very high. they are dangerous to civilians. number two, ukrainians are running out of ammunition. the ammunition that they call 155 millimeter weapons made this is a war related to munitions. they are running out of ammunition and are low on it. what i finally did was take the recommendation of the department to not terminate late, but to go out for a transition. where we had more weapons or

shells for ukrainians to provide a load dose. 150 which is the least likely to be blown, and it's not just the good areas, but they're trying to get through trenches and stop tanks from rolling. it was not an easy decision, and we are not signatories to that agreement, but it took me a while to be convinced to do this but the main thing is they had weapons to stop the russians from keeping them from stopping the ukrainian defense and these areas. access president biden about the decision to send a cluster munition ukraine, and we are taking your call on the top news story of the week. jeffrey is a democrat in north carolina you can morning. >> good morning. thank you for taking my call. please give me a moment.

[indiscernible] a lot of people are going to be coming after me, and it's very sad to hear people address the same identical positions when trump was in office about the numbers for unemployment. in the post economy and different numbers as before. what is more disturbing is it was this man once again in a position to let me repeat that. the united states of america read this man has federal and state indictments. charges that no other person can

be in a position or employer to still be employed. and have a job. not play itself out. you will totally be dismissed. this is a decision that this man has millions of followers. he is disregarding that. and that is totally dangerous and unfair. i started paying more attention to a political evaluation based on what they hear on the news from all of the different networks that give people information on so important day today. we are at war and we have been at war for 40 years. there are drugs in america. but we can find money somehow without being in a debate to put stuff from mars, it is just unbelievable all the trillions

of dollars and the damage that we have to walk on the streets with people who will now, they are not there normally, but it is unbelievable did that will be in the eyes of every citizen in america ever over four years. drugs and then the damaging hail in the coffin is the violence with guns. it doesn't make sense. people are just somewhat numb to it. >> we want to show an article about that. there is a lot of violence over the fourth of july weekend and this is abc news. they say this is insanity. or the july mass shootings with a hundred 26 injured. the article says this in celebration of fireworks for the long fourth of july holiday week. cities across america have been left reeling from the scourge of nonviolence as mass shootings occur at block partings and other festive gathering spread a

hundred killed in hundred 26 injured and 22 mass shootings that corrupted between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. friday and 5 a.m. on monday -- wednesday according to the gun violence archives. it says this. they say the holiday mass shootings happened in 20 among the mass shootings were philadelphia, boston chicago, are worth texas. the shooting victims include a 15-year-old boy and many children were among the ended. this is a societal problem we are dealing with it a mass shooting where a disagreement turns into 28 people shot. this is insanity. that is what the president of the maryland state senate said this cannot be a society we are expected to live in red we have to do better. roy is on the line for democrats

from greensboro north carolina. good morning. >> thank you. you do such a good job with washington journal. all of the news and statistics have been produced did the first lady from california, she has a lot, but let you address the drop -- job numbers did their 209,000, and every month recently, it has been adjusted upwards. some months, it is adjusted like 50% of words, so that is probably a low number did gas prices and inflation, this is something republicans mouth pieces are hammering to continue to hammer that we have the lois capps races in the world. if gone up less than anyone else in your.

i'm glad to see the ministration tooting their own horn, but 17 straight months of job growth is the most since 1960. this is very parallel to 1960 be because joe biden is there is an irish catholic just like john kennedy. it is something to worry about after kennedy was gone. we had this inflation fueled by the vietnam war. we were about to go into this traffic or we are producing ammunition and this production is great, but there are fewer consumer goods being produced for that money that is chasing it so that is what creates inflation. we are not in that yet you digest hope rid >> roy, why do you think biden has such low of will ratings on how he is

handling the economy? >> excellent question. the republican mouthpieces are just hammering all of these things that just -- it is not really true in the administration has been tooting their own horn, even on the border. they are hammering that. there are more people arrested than ever. they are setting out record every year, every month, and they are doing an amazing job. with the economy, i can't imagine that the numbers -- i am hardly a mystery why they are at 33% approval on the economy. but, i think that will come around when people see the inflation has been defeated. i hope we don't go into that and ration area spiral like vietnam war with weapons production like that was said. >> all right.

here is a tweet from south ort rick -- grange who has an office opinion. they say that gas and inflation is the lowest when trump was in the white house did biden now makes is a disaster. let's talk to the irs next in michigan. independent. x hello did hello my fellow americans. i didn't know that we had a one man show in washington. all of a sudden, we hear about joe biden making a decision, and sending him over to the ukraine so they can use him. i didn't know we were even making them here. how do you like that? >> what are we going to have with some of these attacks, and looks like we have that had that happen. we just didn't know a president, a short-term job, more or less, as this much to someone do that

without consulting congress like the rest of us. >> where do we stand on this whole thing? we have nothing to say? we can it in tears. we put out the pay. they went to us. and we were for them? when do we put that back in? he is not even talking about doing a day and it all pops up. it is close -- we are sending cluster bombs there. what do we have for our own defense? we should put our metal to that or whatever and asked them if they've read the story about what they are responsible. let us know what you are thinking about. >> here's another opinion on twitter. i can't help thinking howard

defense entered -- industry manufacturers liens upon billions of dollars worth of rep -- weaponry, and it will go obsolete. i am sold. we have a wonderful war in ukraine. weapons are ukraine, but we have purchase money. jerry is in new jersey. online for democrats. good morning. >> good morning. i am a registered democrat, but i am extremely concerned. i've never known the democrats to be warmongers. i am amazed. i really am. we were always against that. vietnam, and all the sudden democrats are reward rid all of her money is going there. i'm not sure where the money is going. i believe it is taken so we don't even know. i think the rich are getting rich and biden will get rich. i don't believe the money is going words supposed to.

there was a gentleman who set up numbers hereby. they were higher every month, but the numbers were lower. they get revised lower. i don't believe a thing anyone says about the job. i see stores closing, bed, bath & beyond, and the baby store. they are closing a. the whole shopping center is getting boarded up. it's like in the obama days, 10 years ago. then it all came back, and now it's all going again. i am extremely -- this whole thing is a disaster. it, and i'm a democrat, so i don't know. it is scary. it is really scary. i used to depend on democrats to use their brains but there is none. as far as cocaine in the white house, everyone knows -- i don't know. someone brought this end but joe biden, that's a wake-up thing. >> we will take a look at this.

the house oversight is to see cocaine found in the west wing. the oversight and reform committee's are -- investigating the details of how cocaine is brought into the white house and it is busting a staff reaping and there was a letter with the director of the secret service on friday, investigating the matter to assess the security practices whose failures led to the evacuation of a legal substance of joe biden and his family out of town. an unknown substance was found in the west wing leading to a white house evacuation. the secret service later confirmed after numerous tests

that the substance was cocaine. the press secretary said that it was found in a heavily raveled area of the camp is to the white house, adding that is where the west wing visitors come through. paul is in ohio. a line for democrats. good morning. next morning. yes. i am a lifetime democrat, and everybody knows their dogs. they were talking about cocaine. dogs bomb dogs, the only way it could be brought in is if someone like biden, or one of them brought it in. number two, these jobs they keep talking about that come back, we lost them during covid. they're just redoing it. biden isn't doing anything but selling us down the river to

china we are sending all of this ammo to ukraine. i wouldn't worry about shutting the border down so that we don't get tagged from china. >> who are you planning to vote for the next election? >> i'm not sure, but it won't be a republican. x yes. i'm not voting for biden,. rated --. >> who are you thinking about right now? >> it would be between trump or desantis. >> let's take a look at what the white house press secretary says about the cocaine issue at the white house area >> with the cost during yesterday, i guess she says it -- they are avoiding it because of the hat jacket. [indiscernible]

whether or not the cocaine belongs the biden family? >> a couple of things there. he mentioned the hat because it was posed to him using donald trump, so he was trying to be very mindful. >> ok. i hear you, but i am answering this question for you. that is why he said the hat jacket, so i would have you read the transcript fully so you can see exact what he was trying to say, that is number one, so we are not avoiding the question. we've answered this question. it has been dated for the last two days. exhaustively. there has been some irresponsible reporting about the family. so, i got to call that out here. i have been clear two days ago when talking about this over and over again, and we were being asked they russian. as you know, media outlet

reported this. the biden family was high here. they were at camp david. they were not here saturday, they were not here sunday. they were not even here monday. they came back on tuesday. so to aspect question is to actually incredibly irresponsible. i will just leave it there. >> were taking your calls this morning on your top huge story of this week. we will continue to take care of calls up until the top of the hour. we are 35 minutes, and let's hear from anthony. south river new jersey. good morning. >> thank you for coming in. you guys on the weekend, you do a great job. you have great listeners. two things. one thing i would like to ask family, when the president dies, and i know he is in hospice, and unfortunately, when he passes, i

would ask the family to invite president trump to the funeral. i think that would the country better together. the bushes didn't invite him, and we need to toughen up from that. >> the private today is the biggest story in the week. to me the weather. it re-hot out there. i don't know if you would agree with me about that. my question is, my statement is, we know that the current administration is saying that the global warming is a existential crisis. existential crisis, we've heard that. we've have talking points with climate deniers and everything, and i know that they have been putting up solar panels and buying electric cars, and that is great. i would like to know from you or

your viewers, where are the lands for the country as they sit down and they are lowering the admissions by this much, and we do this, it will do this much for the admissions. what about the rest of the world like china or india. where is the actual care plan like going to the doctor. you go to the care plan, but we don't really have a lamb. we just say, if you are driving an electric car, we're not going to have bad storm. we need a think they should have, when they have a presidential debate, this is a constructive suggestion, when they have a presidential debate, just have one debate solely dedicated to the climate situation so we can know what everyone is thinking, and where we are going. thank you for c-span.

great job. i appreciate your help. >> anthony mentioned how hot it was red here's the associated press. articles say that earth hit an unofficial record high temperature this week, and stayed there. an unofficial analysis of the past seven days have been the hottest week on record. the latest milestone in a series of climate change driven extremes. and, president biden was in california last month. they were talking about climate change, and his administration's efforts on that one. >> you know, i toured many sectors across the country. [indiscernible] here in california, the government analyzed the first responders near monterey bay. with a devastating storm causing historic flooding and killing 21 people.

that comes on the heels of the worst drought in california and more than a millennium. the high sea level rise in more than a century. >> i've seen wildfire devastation across the west. there are more acres of the ground then square miles in the state of maryland. that is how much got burned to the ground and all of this, just flying over and devastating. much burned the ground, just flying over, devastating. there has been historic tornadoes, flooding, and the southeast. just last week, across the east coast and midwest, we saw what you've already seen in california, millions of americans sheltered indoors, the air not safe to breathe, orange haze covering the sky. it is incredible. by the way, to address the wildfire smoke coming from canada, we're sharing cutting edge technology that is already used in california to help protect early fires and help them. in addition, firefighters and tanks as well. the impacts we are seeing and

climate change will only get more ferocious and costly. last year alone, natural disasters in america caused 165 billion dollars in damage. just last year alone. $165 billion of damage. the worsening impacts are not and evitable. building on our incredible effort locally, my administration is doing all he can to help her cover and build so we can be prepared and adapt. host: we go back to the phones. anthony is in south river new jersey, democrat, good morning. caller: am i still on? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i was the one which is called in. host: sorry. i got the wrong one. sorry about that. bob is in denver on the republican line. bob?

sorry. i think i pressed the wrong button. can we get bob? caller: yes, this is robert. host: go right ahead. so sorry, robert. caller: how are you today? ok, now the main thing is always with c-span, the cameras that you have in congress you have in the senate. the senate control the cameras. when mccarthy was running for the house, the cameras were off grade, everyone got to see how dirty business could be. one was on the phone with donald trump all they were voting. all these republicans running for president, they are not running for the presidency, they

are running for reelection. this is how your campaign money together. lindsey graham and people like that took herschel walker's money and ted cruz, they took herschel walker's money. you can give money away. donald trump is giving money away to everybody. he's got some to everybody. he is running this like the mafia. michael cohen, everything he said said it correct. i'm very discouraged of our nation, we are living in a nation of hate. have a good day. host:host: all right, robert, let's go to patrick. pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent. caller: for 20 years i was a democrat and change political parties in 2020 to vote for donald trump and i have to tell you i am profoundly disturbed by what i'm seeing, particularly with the utilization of

scorched-earth weaponry, which are cluster bombs. these are weapons of mass destruction, weapons to kill as many people as possible. anybody in this country that sits on the sidelines, i don't care what your political discourses, republican or democrat, if you don't speak out, you are not a human being. you are not a human being. these weapons are diabolical. what are we witnessing? over 100 nations around the world have banned these weapons. they banned the weapons because they are horrific outcome, children getting their limbs blown off. so they will shoot these weapons into russian and ukrainian neighborhoods? this war have note -- this war has no legitimacy. it is nothing but military contracts about oil, but everything, about greed, american people are the most naive people on the planet and you need to wake up. host: take a look, here is white

house national security advisor jake sullivan talking about that decision to send cluster bombs to ukraine. >> we based our security decision on ukraine on the ground and ukraine needs artillery to sustain its offenses and defensive operations. artillery is at the core of this conflict. ukraine is firing thousands of rounds a day to defend against russian efforts to advance and to support its own efforts to retake its sovereign territory. we provided ukraine with a and historic amount of artillery rounds -- an historic amount of artillery rounds and we are ramping up production. we've seen substantial increases in production but this process will continue to take time and will be critical to provide ukraine with a bridge of supplies while our domestic production is ramped up. we will not leave ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict, period.

second, russia had been using cluster ammunition since the start of the war to attack ukraine. russia has been using cluster munitions with high failure rates of 30% to 40%. in this environment, ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions to defend its own sovereign territory. the cluster munitions we would provide have been far below what russia is providing, not higher than 2.5%. third, we are coordinating with ukraine as it has requested these munitions. ukraine is committed to post conflicts de-mining efforts to mitigate potential harm to civilians and this will be necessary, regardless of whether the united states provides these munitions or not because of russia's widespread use of cluster munitions. we will have to continue to assist ukraine with the mining efforts no matter what, given the significant cluster

munitions used by russia. we recognize the cluster munitions created risk of civilian harm by unexploded ordinance. this is why we deferred this decision as long as we could. but there is a massive risk of civilian harm if russian troops and tanks rollover ukrainian positions and take more ukrainian territory and subjugate more you taint -- ukrainian civilians because ukraine does not have enough artillery. host: that was jake sullivan at the white house talking about the new weapons going to ukraine and, josephine is calling us from livingston, new jersey. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i was loosening to the man from pennsylvania -- listening to the man from pennsylvania complain about ukraine. i pray all of this working come to an end, but putting our heads in the sand and ignoring what is going on.

the next president says if i get into it i will end the war in 24 hours. it's simple like he would do in afghanistan, he was blamed, along with biden, for being incompetent in getting the war settled. he is going to end the war in 24 hours? fine, he will say his friend putin, yes what, you can have ukraine, the war has ended, that is what we are talking about. we've got to unfortunately allow them to defend themselves. they're not asking us to fight for them. if they did, that would be a different story. i think we would look at it differently but they are doing their job, they are trying to save their nation and it is a big nation and the breadbasket of south africa. to have putin sit there like mr. innocent, think about it, the two guys, the one guy in particular, i can't pronounce his name correctly, this

appeared. really? disappeared? the other gentleman disappeared. host: are you talking about the head of the wagoner group? caller: correct. he disappeared. he never went to belarus. that is what the president of belarus said, he never came here. not only that, the propaganda from going to his mansion, that was his buddy. that is how they live, that is why they call them oligarchs, they steal from their own population. he is only interested in power and we have a president that once asked putin and xi, how do you stay in power? you mean you can be the president for life? you are dealing with the same mentality. i'm sorry to say, ukraine has to happen, not our choice, that was putin's choice in how many people have died? thank you. host: let's go to the republican

line in erie, illinois. kent, good morning. caller: hi. i hear we are selling water now to saudi arabia. we are so stupid sometimes, it just makes you wonder. why don't we say ok, you want to buy our water? it will cost, instead of oil being $70 a barrel from now on we wanted to be $10 per barrel. if you don't want to sell it to us for $10 per barrel, then we are knocking to sell you anymore water and we will let you try to drinker oil. and see how you like that. but we won't. i had a couple other things if i might. host: so i just wanted to see what that was about. it says the associate press headline, water permits were saudi arabia owned farm in

arizona revoked. it says the state of arizona rescinded drilling permits for two water wells for saudi arabia-owned alfalfa farm and western portion of the state after authority said they discovered inconsistencies in the well application. anyway, you had something else you wanted to say. caller: they found cocaine in the white house, to me that is a no-brainer. the democrats put that in the white house. they've got the jettison of biden and kamala harris some way. biden can see it is readily apparent with anyone with eyes this guy, his mind is fading. kamala harris is not near as good a shape as bidens so how do they get rid of these two? you put cocaine in the white house, you blame it on the bidens, even if they did not do it, that doesn't matter, the democrats, when they decide they gotta do something, they are

going to do it. i think they were the ones that put that in the white house. host: marianne is in mansfield, ohio, democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing good. caller: there's rumors of a story that have been breaking about jack smith investigating where donald trump is using donor's money. it reminds me of the story with building the wall with steve bannon, how you muzzled the money for his own use. we saw donald trump was raising money off of we stop the steel but the election was not stolen and he knew it and everybody else knew it. they had 60 court filings, nothing happened. they said the election was fair

and square, biden one. anyway, i feel sorry for these people who are giving money to trump. a lot of them don't have a lot of money, some do, but i also heard the big donors and not giving to trump because they see he is probably going to lose and they don't want to invest their money with him so i am hoping some of these people wake up. first of who gives money to a billionaire? he should be able to find his own campaign if he has over $3 billion. he started out initially that he had $10 billion back in 2016 when he was campaigning so it boggles the mind why anybody would do that. host: i wanted to show this article from politico about that topic. let me get it right here. the headline says trump pulled in more than $35 million in the

second quarter. nearly doubled what he raised first quarter and suggested indictments are helping with fundraising says the former president fundraising committee rate and 35 million according to a campaign official, twice the 18.8 million the committee raised in the first point of the year and the committee split between two entities, trumps official campaign and leadership political action committee called save america. james is on the line from walden, new york, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to mention two quick things, number one, the history states that the kkk, during republican/lincoln, when he won the civil war, turned it to the democratic party. host: the kkk turned into the

democratic party? caller: correct. it is in the books. host: what books are you talking about, james? caller: history books. i don't know how old these people -- all these people support biden because bidens best friend was head of the kkk. the second thing with the climate change. host: wait wait, i don't think byrd was head of the kkk. caller: let me do the climate. host: ok, the climate. caller: the magnetic field is shrinking, it is reversing, and shrinking, and the sun is spewing out a lot of sunspots. that is why we are getting all of this heat that we are seeing because of the magnetic field is shrinking because it is reversing. the sun is spewing out a lot of sunspots. i understand we have to lower the co2 but the trees lower it. in new york state, they are cutting down trees galore to

build houses and we have the catalytic converters in the cars. thank you. that is my statement. host: all right, james. must take a look at republican senator john barrasso, talking last month about the biden administration's climate policies and criticizing the energy policy. [video clip] >> many americans view the biden administration as working against them rather than working for them. the biden administration teaming up with climate extremists making it worse on american energy. the minor changes that were adopted in terms of permitting during this debt ceiling vote, they will not do with the americans need in terms of energy. people know what they want, they want energy available, affordable, and reliable. yet joe biden has now commanded the epa, commanded the epa, to

prioritize climate change over energy available, reliable, or affordable. the epa is now the evil empire as it attacks american energy prosperity, american energy reduction. the epa is aggressively attempting to shut down coal-fired power plants, natural gas-fired power plants while there is no other source of energy to replace it. they're trying to shut down something that has worked for a long time when there is nothing available to replace it. it is foolish, it is harmful. host: that was senator brown's oh. we are taking your call on your top story of the week and crystal is next in pennsylvania. democrat. host: good morning. i have several things i want to say. number one is i am so happy that

twitter has competitors like threads and other twitter accounts, the types of twitter accounts, because i'm sick of elon musk. another thing i want to say -- host: do you have a twitter account? do you use twitter? caller: i have a twitter, i'm on threads, i'm on others, but i try to stay away from twitter now because it has been so toxic that i don't care for it anymore. i will tweet when c-span comes on. other than that, i try to stay away from it. let me say i am so happy about president biden and what he is doing for the american people. all i hear about trump is about trump, when trump talks it is about trump, it is not about the american people, and what he's going to do for them. the republicans don't even talk

about what they will do for the american people. all they talk about is the democrats. another thing is the cocaine thing. i could care less about that because that is all don jr. does every day and no one talks about that. so i'm just happy about biden, i am happy about what he is doing. another thing that a guy mentioned to callers ago that you mentioned about history, i wish some of them read a book area you talk about look at history books, he had one right in front of him and he would not have made that statement. i'm happy about biden, i'm voting straight blew all the way down and i'm happy. host: all right, let's talk to judy next, independent in michigan. all i, judy. caller: good morning. -- hi, judy. caller: good morning. i used to be a democrat but then from obama back down, it is nothing but a corrupt -- it is

just corrupt whatever you say or do of the democratic party, it is always racial. if you make we were the greatest nation in the world, for voting in a black man, but then every time we had a comic, we question something, we were racist. and that is all the democratic party does now. is racist constantly. then finally what is just the top for me that i will never vote again is how can the bidens disown a four-year-old child. do you know in a few years when that child is old enough to read, do you realize what she's going to go through for what the bidens have done? host: tell me about this -- it

was the four-year-old they are disowning? caller: hunter's child. they do not acknowledge that little girl. they've only got six grandchildren, not seven. and that is terrible. that adults would do this to a child. host: all right, let's talk to joe in murphy's borough north carolina, good morning. >> good morning. i have two things i want to say. the people in this country [indiscernible] i heard some lady say that trump said he can in the war if he was back in office within a day or whatever. do they remember who trump sworn

in, and side of the oval office? when they went into the oval office and sat down with them and there was nobody in their -- in there. this man's is a traitor and people don't sue it. -- cf. the man told you to his face that if you enlisted you are a slacker. how dumb can you get? that's was going on in this country. and like the lady before me said something about race, that is the reason why. host: let's talk to pierce next on eight karen crow, louisiana, independent? caller: yes, ma'am. good morning. i joined c-span for 40 plus years -- enjoying c-span for 40

plus years. i am 66 years old but i was in the seat four days, record-setting heat, but exxon, and you're too young to remember but they have been doing climate change studies since the 1970's. so they knew 50 years ago, and they predicted with great accuracy what was going to happen, so what did they do? they took their platforms from a certain height, let's say 60 feet, and elevated them to 80 feet. so we knew -- and to this day they will still deny it but they knew what was going on. as far as the economy goes, the s&p is up, year-to-date, 7.5%, which is not a bad investment.

three b is up 5%. cds are close to that. regardless of what people say, look at the facts. look at the figures. as far as the politics go, like him or not, trump was entertaining in 2015. like a car wreck. you don't want to look where you got to. this is just the second act and it is more of the first. it is acting. but the main thing is that a minority party has to be able to bamboozle enough people to vote against their own interest just to stay relevant. host: let's go to texas last --

texas next on the line for democrats, maryland. caller: yes. i was in the third grade when our wonderful president roosevelt passed away. brothers that fought in world war ii. to see was going on today, all the lies and people are haven't got enough i hate to say since but that is what it is -- i hate to say it, sense, to tell the difference between the lies in the truth. the democrats have always been for the working class. the republicans, although they in the democrats used to solve problems and work together, ever since trump, a womanizer, has people forgot teen -- forgotten some of his past.

host: have you been a democrat all your life? caller: all my life and i have brothers, one of them was at pearl harbor when it was bombed and those on the ship nine years retired air force. all of my family have been democrats. if you live long enough, i'm really sorry what it represents today but is called a bunch of northerners like crews from canada and some of the others moved in hang out elected to take over our government here in texas. i thought we all were under nation under god and they certainly don't know their bible or they would not be following a lying ex-president like trump and a womanizer. host: let's try to get remi in

here, brooklyn park, maryland, republican. caller: good morning. thanks for taking the call. listening to everybody speaking and it, to me, seems like people are focusing on the politicians. i call them tagteam politicians because you always have a good guy and bad guy and he goes back and forth. but we never seem to be wanting to concentrate on the pain masters, i call the corporations and lobbyists, that take us to the places, i will go back as far as vietnam, laos, cambodia, and a fast track to iraq and afghanistan where we ran up over 30 between dollars of national debt. i don't know how that will ever be satisfied. the fact of the matter is we are just talking about this new issue that came out about cluster bombs going to ukraine. on the same issue, why is it we are not talking about the corporations and lobbyists and

ceos who benefit by the munitions being manufactured that we sell to the government and then they are used -- we don't have to invade a country anymore, we can come in through the back door. if you look at the stocks of the corporations, general dynamics, oshkosh, it gives a clear picture of why publicans are the most hated people in the planet when we have gone in and indiscriminately ability rated. that's probably what is disturbing me more about the media today is they want to focus on what i call mis-direction and that is taking away from the actual focus of what the country is basically built on, a 30 chilean dollars national debt. when can we ask the people of america to say listen, we have had enough, we need to make big changes and that is from the top

down through complete reconstruction. i appreciate you taking my call. host: that is all the time we've got. if you do not get a chance to call in or make a comment, we will have another opportunity later in the program but coming up next on "washington journal," the center senior researcher discusses treasury secretary janet yellen's visit to beijing and the state of u.s. china economic relations. later, washington post lillian cunningham discusses her podcast field trip about america's national parks. we will be right back. announcer: listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play

c-span radio, and listen to "washington journal" daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. importing congressional hearings and other public affairs events throughout the day. at five a clock p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern, catch washington today for a fast-paced report of the stories of the day, listen to c-span any time, just tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. announcer: from 1966 to 1976, china experienced a cultural revolution. during that time, millions of chinese were killed and tens of millions were persecuted by the chinese government for being enemies of the state. sunday on q&a, cardi newspaper editorial writer and former china correspondent kenya brannigan shares her book read memory which profiled several people who were targeted during this period and discusses a lasting impact of the cultural revolution in china today. >> lau had begun to move against

people in the party, he want -- party, that he wanted out of the way, and he issued a notification and told people within the top ranks of the party i believe we have been corrupted, we've got revisionists within the ranks, we have to root them out. this is a problem that goes right through our society and culture, has be fundamental change. the red guard group switch have begun to spring up tentatively were given the marks of his approval so it really lights the fuse on the whole cultural revolution. it makes it not just a party matter but beijing lied, a universal matter. announcer: kenya branigan with her book red memory, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. you can glisten to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app.

announcer: a healthy democracy does not just look like this, it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work, where citizens are truly informed, where a republic drives. get informed straight from the source on c-span, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, from the nation's capital to wherever you are. it is the opinion that matters most, your own. this is where democracy -- what democracy looks like. a c-span powered by cable. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. my guess is from the george mason university center, a senior research fellow. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: janet yellen is in china right now. what is the objective of the trip. guest: this particular trip, i

think the objective change from the the goal has changed from the past. now it is about managing expectations, not getting the worst outcome. host: how did things get this bad with china to begin with? there is a lot happening. the secretary of state went to china. guest: i think things have not looked too good in the last several years now. in the past i thought the u.s. approach to engaging with china is more the romantic version, hoping when we trade with china, things eventually will be fine. china may become a more open society. the united states has been hoping for that for decades since china joined in 2000. it turns out it is not becoming that way.

china has had more economic trade activities with more foreign countries, but in terms of how much china is integrated in the global economy, abiding by the rules of international order, china has not changed all that much. i think all of that is causing tensions between the two countries, and expectations are not aligned. china is not moving in the directions the west is hoping for,, that is underlying all of the tensions between the officials. host: if callers would like to call in and ask questions about secretary ellen's -- secretary yellen's trip to china, they can do so. democrats, (202) 748-8001 journal@c-span.org [speaking foreign language] -- democrats. (202) 748-8000/

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. guest: having a normal relationship between the 2 largest economies in the world is important. having diplomatic engagement like this, like secretary yellen's trip and secretary blinken's trip are good in the sense that it is good to keep the two sides talking. when tensions are high, we avoid major conflicts. we have several candidates with the south china sea, and we have even seen close contact between u.s. and chinese warplanes in the area. it is important that we keep the line of communication open. it is like being able to dial 911. you may not need to use it, but

it is important that the line is not failing. host: i want to ask you about decoupling the economies. consumers are funding the chinese government. they are an adversarial government to us so we should decouple, we should stop buying chinese things. before you answer that, i went to play janet yellen. she talked about this. [video clip] >> i don't think it is and are interested to stifle the economic development of the chinese people. china succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and that is something that we should applaud. i think we gained and trying again from trade and investment -- we gain and china gains from

trade and investment. de-risk, yes decouple, absolutely not.there is a tendency gu -- guest: there is a tendency in the u.s. public to swing from -- economies are so intertwined. it's basically impossible to implement the possibility. not to say that, that would be disastrous. u.s. part makers need to properly deal with the trade-off with the fact that they receive gains from dealing with china and a legitimate concern from

china. how do you balance the two? every time we take measures that are countering china, we are necessarily hurting our domestic freedom. if you think about trade war with china, let alone whether or not that will change any of china's unfair trade practices. imports from china are hurting american businesses so every time when we think about countering china, we pay a cost in terms of domestic freedom. policymakers' jobs should be to find the best trade-off here. have you gain the most security? host: let's talk about a specific example, and that is the ai chips. the united states had announced earlier limiting the chinese companies who could american artificial intelligence. china responded by saying they

would limit gallium and germanium shipments to the united states. guest: if you look at the supply chain of semiconductor chips, what go into computers and samples of finished chips, many of them are fabricated in taiwan, which is the leader in the manufacturing of the supply chain. if you dig deeper it comes from a lot of critical minerals on the ground. a lot of those when countries mine then they send the dirt with minerals in them to china. then the fabrication eventually happens in taiwan before they get into cell phones and computers when we buy them from walmart, for example. the critical thing is when the

u.s. imposes an export control on all of the chips china can buy, that is a broad measure. china's countermeasure was let's contain critical minerals so americans can feel the heat as well. a very useful tit for tat. the point i raised is it is important to target china that is targeted. you do not want broad and narrow policy. chances are good that we are hurting small and medium-sized businesses in china, which have nothing to do with china's military around the world. china's military can still smuggle chips from the u.s.. the bad guys are still getting

the things we want to control, but innocent people are hurting. host: i want to ask you about american companies. here is the new york times that says yellen and beijing criticized china's treatment of u.s. companies. treasury secretary ellen reflects continuing tensions between the 2 -- secretary galland reflects continuing tensions between the two -- treasury secretary yellen reflects continuing tensions between the two countries. guest: it is just like other companies who are doing their business in the u.s.. they are just of the same whether they are german firms or chinese firms in the u.s. market. company is when they going to

china, they want that but the chinese government is not giving them that. there are a lot of benefits to being a domestic firm. the government gives out a lot of subsidies to to private companies founded and run by chinese people. they get better treatment in subsidies when they have -- when they have any legal dispute they get a home advantage. the court would be biased towards you, but the entire system is favoring domestic companies. china may have more economic activities with other countries, but it is not done in a fair way. host: have there been any breakthroughs so far in this trip or is it still too early to tell what impact this trip is actually going to have? guest: it is too early to tell. it is a crisis management trip.

it is like repairing a 911 phone line that may not be working. we don't usually call 911 11 that often. you don't know if it is because we don't have an emergency, or if we are likely to have one. it is important to make sure these lines of communication are open, so when we have close contact on the sea, we can align each other's expectations. nobody wants a war. let's not make that happen. keeping -- this is a very low bar. we should have higher hopes for the two largest economies in the world. this is a very low bar to clear. in that sense it is not looking good. host: how is secretary yellen received in china? is she liked? is she respected? guest: she is

very risk -- is she respected? guest: she is respected. she has taken many posts previously. chinese officials usually appreciate american officials who have been a nobel prize winner. that does not speak to the credibility of secretary yellen per se, but this is how the chinese people think. i think these matter. having a well-respected official go to china to serve -- serves the purpose of keeping the line of communication open better. host: let's talk to viewers. we start with dave in long island, new york. caller: 2 quick points. the first point is the

deindustrialization of america. there was a great book i read. it explains and goes over how we sent all the jobs to china, and everybody -- then the second point is we use the dollar -- we kind of weaponized it. you see it in what way did to russia with the sanctions. now you see the rise of the shanghai cooperation organisation. you see the bricks becoming more important. all of these countries are trying to get out of the dollar system. we have empowered china in multiple ways. on top of that, trying to bring the chip industry back to the

united states, i don't know how that is going to work. just the cost. that is more of a military issue and security issue, but how will we afford to pay people? host: it is not just security for those chips. those chips go into a lot of things, including solar panels, vehicles, and all kinds of things like that. guest: that is a valid concern. the u.s. economy has gone through a huge transition since china joined the w2 in 2000. if you think about low value goods you buy from walmart, cheap toys imported from china, the u.s. might be making those toys at home decades ago. now those same workers, same types of workers, they are taking better jobs now than before. if you look at the u.s. economy, most people who want to have a

job, they do have a job because the unemployment rate is relatively low now, historically speaking, which means that most people can be reemployed. the u.s. economy has moved up the value chain. now we import the lower value products from china and vietnam because they have lower cost of labor. now, we might be concerned that some of those toys are made with forced labor in china, so that might be one reason to justified to say that we do not want to buy toys made in china or at companies in china who use forced labor. that is a very different reason ro say we want to make everything at home. it is impractical to make everything at home. we would be buying toys at a much higher price. i don't see how that serves any

security purposes for the u.s. economy. host: let's talk to henry and de soto, texas -- henry in de soto, texas. caller: i would like to talk about terrorists and their role in -- tariffs and their role in inflation. the last administration talked about imposing tariffs. were those tariffs imposed? guest: when it comes to tariffs, particularly those on u.s. imports, the biden administration has maintained the trump era policy on imposing tariffs across-the-board on imports from china. there are talks about lifting some of those tariffs. that would really have helped at the time when we had high inflation, but none of that

happened. broad but shallow policy does not do any good. it impacts other purchases. every single purchase american people make at the store when they buy imported goods, but that has not changed any trade behaviors from china. the chinese government has been subsidizing firms like they always do. they are not impacted by these trade tariffs. in fact, trade if you look at the numbers between u.s. and china is higher after the pandemic than before, because people have to buy stuff they have to buy. broad, untargeted, shallow policy is hurt us -- policies hurt us. host: what economic challenges are china facing now?

guest: that is a great point. it ties into the earlier question. china's economy is not going well, and it turns out it is not because of covid! when china first lifted the covid restrictions late last year the market was expecting that china would have a huge rebound from the economic lows of the last two years. it turns out that did not happen. china has -- it comes down to the fact that the chinese economy is expanding. it is rich. the private sector even more so in recent years under president xi. china used to be more pro-market under the former president, and even more so under the president before that in the late 90's -- that in the late 90's.

now we see the communist party trying to install representatives in even private companies on their boards. i think all of these actions are infringing on economic freedoms domestically and china and that makes the chinese economy less dynamic. this is really a moment of truth for the rest of the world because covid restrictions and china have been lifted and the chinese economy is barely improving, not by much and that speaks to how much of a problem the chp's control is in china. host: larry is next in eugene, oregon, independent. caller: i am amazed at this kind of conversation.

so many facts have simply been forgotten. your guest referred to the bad guys of the chinese military. are you kidding? what has the united states military done in the last 20 years? afghanistan, iraq, before that vietnam. we are now surrounding china with military bases in the philippines, south korea, guam, and so on. i find this very disturbing that there is a one-sided picture of what china is. they have never harmed us. they have never tried to harm us. they do not have bases near us. our military is 10 times the size of there's. host: is that -- size of theirs. host: is that true? is it true that our military is

10 times the size of theirs? guest: if you look at the actual active service members, i don't think the 10 times is accurate. even in terms of spending, if you look at spending, divided by the size of the economy, proportionately china's spending is one of the highest in the world. the highest is north korea. we are not going that far! we can look at where the tension points are. i understand where the caller is coming from. if you look at the south china sea, the balance not that lopsided,. china has been changing the status quo in the south china sea. now we don't have the freedom of navigation anymore for many

countries, because china is claiming a lot of territory, a lot of those man-made islands that did not exist before, but because they put a little dirt on it, it becomes a territory. that becomes a problem for free-trade around the world. that is a very important passage for global free-trade, seafoods going through the south china straight. that is a major route. when china is blocking those routes, it causes a problem for the global economy. we have to look at it in that way. china has not engaged in a major war with the united states, that does not mean it will not. when it comes to taiwan, or in the case that china decides to take over taiwan, they would like to do it peacefully, but they're willing to do it violently. host: how will that impact their military ambitions as far as

modernizing their fleet and building their military capabilities? guest: that eventually will put a strain on their military expanding. you look at the growth numbers in china, they're not really accurate. even the chinese premier, the head of the chinese government, similar to a prime minister, when he was premier 10 years ago, -- he said "i look at other things, electricity usage, water usage, what keeps the train moving," because we have known that provincial leaders will fake numbers to get a promotion.

i think china's economy is still growing, which is helpful from their perspective for the military but it is growing increasingly slowly which is a concern. host: let's go to san bernardino, california, next independent line. caller: this is a question i have to talk to the guest. i am curious with the tensions going on between the united states and china, and with my limited economic knowledge how china purchases our treasury bonds, what is to say that china just redeems their treasury bonds with the one billion dollars they have purchased from the united states and stops purchasing. don't you think that if china

redeems their treasury bonds and stops financing the usa, the two countries can become friends? along with the bricks nation and the shanghai corporation, china can divert all of their interests to outside other than the usa, and then we in the usa can be free. what do you think? host: it's what do you think? guest: the timing on not buying u.s. bonds are the people who buy it. the fact that china lends a lot to the u.s. gives china leverage. when they don't do it anymore, its will put pressure on u.s. bonds. it is an interest -- there is an interesting economic paper that found out that when china redeems those bonds in other

countries, its fundamental reason is related to economics that would potentially hurt the u.s. bond market. the reason is not related to economic, if china is not lending, other countries would be lending. eventually, it does not affect the price, the rate of the debt. if china pulls out, greed has nothing to do with the fundamentals of the u.s. economy. it basically has no impact. lending in the south, i don't think it is a person issued that the fact -- the fact that the u.s. lends to china is not creating any concerns.

we don't want cameras on the street in the united states to have any possibilities in terms of letting data be accessible to the chinese authorities, so we are concerned about the use of technologies in this way much more so than whether we borrow from china or japan. host: let's talk to paul in denver. good morning, paul. caller: ok. host: we will move on to tyrone. caller: i am a retailer in the midwest here. i noticed that during the covid thing the price of containers went up to $30,000 a container for freight.

they are back down for a 40 foot container. who made the money on that? was it the united states or china? that is a substantial amount of money. what are your feelings about china buying american land here in the united states? with china doing their infrastructure, they are having trouble keeping up with their own infrastructure, let alone supplying goods to the united states. where do you see that falling out in the future with the problems they -- with the population problems they are having? guest: thank you for your question. one was about transportation and shipping containers. we had various kinds of supply chain issues because the

economic activities between the u.s. and other economies in the world had declined at the time. the best example to think about of who that benefits is think about shortages of face masks. when china scooped up the face masks at the beginning of the pendulum it, because they needed it and -- the pandemic because they needed it, but then people realize they couldn't buy face masks anywhere. people, companies step into the gaps in supply chains and that caused the prices to go up. when prices go up, who does it benefit? the producer. the consumers to because those face masks, with the price going up, they were sold because customers want to buy it.

it is a voluntary transaction. the transaction benefits the buyers and the sellers. things are going back to normal. i think all of those are normal economic activities. the purchase of farmland is interesting. normally, we value economic freedom. that includes buying property, buying whatever in the u.s. economy. that is because we treat everyone the same way. when it comes to land, you want -- when a country who is not exactly friendly to the united states buying land right next to an airspace, that is not good.

"we do not want chinese to buy anything," is going too far. a chinese -- host: why do the chinese want to buy american farmland? what are they getting out of it? guest: for those places near military space, it is tough to tell. it might serve intelligence purposes, but because they could potentially intercept signals -- we don't know a lot. even including the balloon flying by airspace, there is a question of whether they were collecting information and sending information back to beijing. when it comes to intelligence, we know very little because intelligence agencies in the u.s. are not telling us a lot. there may be logistic concerns especially if you are right next to an airspace that might give

you proximity to intelligence collection. we know chinese authorities are interested in collecting everything on the usa. they think of the usa more highly than any other european countries. anything could happen when you are on a piece of land so close to a critical infrastructure facility. host: let's talk to david in hackensack. caller: i came a little late, so i'm not sure if this topic has been addressed, but i am curious to know their position with regards to china, russia, ukraine, the united states, and how foreign support will continue support of russia. guest: that is a very important question. for a while now u.s. officials

have been saying they don't have concrete, specific evidence of china providing lethal aid to the russian invasion of ukraine. what came out a few weeks ago is u.s. reporting that china was actually sending weaponry to russia, things that could be used by russian weapons in the invasion effort. china was interested in somehow supporting the russian invasion of ukraine. it would be harder for the ccp to -- china does not want russia to fail, but china is not willing to help russia succeed. it is in a difficult place in

the middle. we should incentivize china to pull away from russia, not to support russia, but instead to stand with our side, and that is hard. host: what about china helping russia avoid the sanctions that were imposed against russia? initially, people were saying the russian economy is going to collapse because of this. is china shoring up the russian economy? guest: that is part of it. if you think about it from the russians' perspective they have been trying to find ways to evade sanctions. if the chinese will not provide this means, the iranians might provide this means.

china has been known to support companies and north korea who evade national sanctions too. we have seen chinese vessels block korean vessels from -- i think china is capable, enough certainly helps the russian economy last month. host: let's go to new york city, lane for democrats, fortune, good morning. caller: china is being used as a scapegoat in the united states by politicians for failures for job creation for the uneducated in america. bu everyonet loves cheap products from walmart in the dollar store.

the chinese are another problem. -- the chinese are the problem, we americans are because we are so concerned with the chinese business. the taiwan situation -- chairman mao defeated shane kai-shek. shane kai-shek went to taiwan. why are we so concerned after shang kai-shek lost the war, chairman mao allowed shang kai-shek to remain in china. that is one of the major issues the chinese have with us. guest: that is a great question. i think the caller is right. china has been in some scenarios a scapegoat for failures in u.s. policy.

the example i would give is on the semiconductors and chips policy. using those advanced technologies to impose a threat on the u.s. is a legitimate concern. that is part of what the u.s. has been trying to do too. we i have this giant chips and science act that gives out government handouts to domestic companies. it seems like that is how chinese . companies succeeded that is a failure of u.s. policy. that is wasting taxpayers' money. it moves the u.s. economy away from fair market competition to picking winners. i think that will make the u.s.

economy less dynamic. that is not the right way to go. often we have u.s. policy failures at home, and we reject that failed policy by saying "it is china." dealing with the china challenge and dealing with policy failure at home, it is a tough place to be in. host: what about what he said about taiwan? china considers that a renegade province. why should we be concerned about taiwan? guest: we should be concerned about taiwan, because the past few decades, the u.s. did not know how to deal with taiwan. we left it off by saying we abide by the one china policy. we also note that midland china and taiwan -- mainland china and

taiwan have differing interpretations of what one china means. that was what for a long time has been the ambiguity. that may have worked in the past because china's ambition to take taiwan was not strong. today it is very strong because taiwan is a huge province under the ccp's rule. why can't china have democracy? a lot of chinese people want that, and the ccp is not delivering. that is why china is a huge problem for beijing. host: let's talk to kino on lakeland, florida. caller: praise be to c-span. my question to your guest is there is a book that came out

last year, and he predictss a demographic collapse within china in the next 10 to 15 years, and globalization will cease because globalization is based on china's economy. china's population may be halv ed. what do you make of his prediction that the whole of the chinese economy will collapse in 15 years? guest: i'm not aware of the book but i am aware of these statistics in chinese demographics. it is true that the generation in china is about my age. i was born in china. i was born in the year the one child policy was implemented in my province. a typical prime age chinese

person lives in a family. they have one child because the cost-of-living now is so high, they are not having more than one child. then they have 4 grandparents. that is a lot of stress on the chinese economy. the trend is not changing anytime soon. in urban areas the cost of raising children -- so even though china has done away with the one child policy, we are not having it even though we are free to do so. whether that will lead the chinese economy to collapse, i think that might be going too far. in globalization we have a lot of countries having a shrinking population. japan is one example. it does not mean that having a smaller population or an older

population will be necessarily bad for globalization. host: let's talk to richard, republican in fort myers, florida. caller: this is one of the best programs c-span has had on in quite some time. will the taiwanese people present such a staunch opponent to the chinese as the ukrainians have? has premier xi said "putin is having a tough time." will the ccp have as tough a time in taiwan? guest: your guess is as good as mine. if you look at the period before the russian invasion of ukraine, the public did not expect the ukrainians to fight is fiercely as they have.

the willingness to fight is something very hard to predict, because you never really have any data points. when it comes to taiwan, we don't have any data points, even though we have had the taiwan straight crises. none of them led to actual conflict in any real sense. we we'll find out when it comes to that point. gauging a population, a people, a public sentiment like this is really hard, and if you look back to 1979, the iranian revolution, what turned out to be a huge intelligence failure on the cia's part because the cia could not foresee that the iranian revolution would be so successful. even for those whose job it is

to watch this very closely, it is hard to tell. host: we will take one more call from alan in woodbridge. caller: good morning. i don't agree with 4 things that you failed to mention. ne thing -- one thing, china, a person said had never been involved in threatening the united states. let's go back to korea, and let's go to all the other places china has been in the past. now let's go to, previous to korea, when shang kai-shek fled with his congress to taiwan, which was then formosa, and took over the people of formosa, executed many people, jailed many people, and then the people who ruled formosa, then now

called taiwan, died out. the people of formosa had been able to take back much of their culture much of who they are. then we have several other things. one is the one child policy where people were killing their girls, and then the boys had no women to marry. you forget to mention these things! i could go further. i will let you answer those. guest: you are right. first, very quickly about the one childi could go policy, mans because of the male preference in china, historically it is still very strong today, some

people when they found out they were having a girl, they would go for anit is a human cost. it is a human cost. i mentioned the economic cost, but there is a huge human cost of it. -- the republic of china that only lived in taiwan at the time, the u.s. has a defense treaty with taiwan. in the 50's mao came up with an idea. he said "i'm not sure how the

u.s. is in terms of defending taiwan, celebs bomb some islands off -- so let's bomb some islands off the coast of taiwan." the aircraft carrier is now decommissioned in san diego, but midway went all the way to taiwan to defend them, because china was bombing taiwan territory at the time. that was a direct challenge to the u.s. military, not that it has not happened before. host: wei-sung z thank you for joining us todayong, -- still today on washington

journal, lillian cunningham presents her podcast field trip about america's national parks but first we will hear from more of you as we returned to our earlier question about your top news story of the week. you can start calling right now. ♪ >> the house and senate are both in. the house will debate the policy bill and the senate considers president biden's executive nominations. the senate homeland security committee on permanent investigations will hear testimony from top pga officials. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns about the merger.

christopher wray testifies before the house judiciary committee as they examine the politicized nation of the -- politicization of the industry. stream live or on-demand anytime. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. ♪ >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, home decor and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan, and every purchase helps to support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. ♪ >> from 1966 to 1976, china

experienced a cultural revolution. during that time millions of chinese were killed or persecuted i the chinese -- persecuted by the chinese government. former chinese correspondent tonya branigan shares her book "red memory," which profiles several people who were targeted during this period, and examines the lasting effect of the cultural revolution today. >> he had also issued a notification that told people within the top ranks of the party, "i believe we have been corrupted. we have got revisionists within the ranks. we have to read them out, which is a problem that goes right through our society, right through culture. it h to be this fundamental change." the red guard, which had begun to spring up rather tentatively, were given the mark of mao's

approval, so it really lit the fuse on the whole cultural revolution. it makes it not just a party matter, but a beijing-wide, a universal matter. >> tania bread again with her book, -- tonya branigan, with her book "red memory." you can listen on our free c-span now at. >> a healthy. democracy does not just look like thisit looks -- now app. >> a healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this. get a form stray from the source on c-span, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like.

c-span, power by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. it is open forum where returning to our question that we ask this morning, what is your top news story of the week, and we are taking your calls by party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents. (202) 748-8002. i wonder show you something quick before we take calls. a color this morning brought up the story of hunter biden -- a caller this morning brought up the story of hunter biden's daughter. "hunter biden's daughter and a tale of two families. the story of president biden's granddaughter who has

not met her father -- lyndon roberts posted photos of her father during a trip to washington on instagram. dna testing established that the girl's father is hunter biden, but she has yet to meet him or president biden." you can see that in the new york times by jd rogers. this is in the washington post. it is about forever chemicals. it says here " forever chemicals tainted nearly 50% of u.s. tapwater, according to a study contaminants linked to health issues such as cancer, high cholesterol. the latest evidence of the pervasiveness of forever chemicals, that is a new study by the u.s. geological survey. it estimates these contaminants meet nearly half of the country's tapwater. the study looked out water

coming directly out of the tap adds to a body of research showing that pfas chemicals are long-lasting and widespread in water supplies. exposure to pfas has been associated with severe health risks, including some cancers, developmental delays, in children and reproductive effects in pregnant people, though the epa states that research is still ongoing to determine how exposure to different levels of pfas can lead to a variety of health affects." we go to dwight from fairfield. caller: mimi, i would like to address, i believe it was a caller from new york who

compared the democratic party to the kkk. he was correct, not the current to democratic party, but our history. abraham lincoln freed the slaves back in 1865, and most of the plaques went to the -- blacks went to the republican party. i was republican for a long time. my name is dwight. was named for dwight eisenhower, a republican president as well. during that time, the democratic party, which was called the dixiecrats in the southern states, they put their hoods on. this was the old democratic party. when lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act in 1968 the southern states really went all

out. i can mention george policy was the governor of alabama at the time who was a democrat. i can remember sure connor in georgia, it was a democrat, but then the pendulum swung where most of the old dixiecrats and democrats win over to the republican side when barry goldwater ran against lbj. that is when the pendulum swung, when democrats -- blacks started leaning more towards the democratic party. there were a lot of surprised faces. it was another caller who disputed what the guy from new york was saying, but he was correct. you have to take in the context and the times he was talking about. i am a 70-year-old guy, i live there a lot of this stuff and the pendulum has swung as far as

democrats back then, and democrats now. host: mary is in philadelphia, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i am concerned that we are funding these nonprofits, these business organizations that are primarily filing against us in our united states court system based on civil rights violations. i am concerned about what happened with the supreme court with their overturning a lot of the civil rights legislation that has been put in place for decades. i am a major taxpayer, and they are using first amendment rights to do this but freedom of speech? you can go on any street corner

and preach and say whatever you want based on freedom of speech but you are not allowed to use my tax dollars to fundamentally go against me as the major taxpayer in this country. host: can you clarify? what tax money is going towards that? guest: federal tax dollars -- caller: federal tax dollars. i pay not only city, state, federal taxes. when you have taxes that are basically used to start up businesses to give major tax loans allow businesses, but now they are saying that an organization can discriminate against me. we use -- we get funding to

universities. when they put these cases on the supreme court, what cases do they use to deny president that has been for decades. i am looking at -- if you want to do this, you use this on your own tax time. don't use this based on what i have to provide for the rest of my life. i had to pay federal taxes for the rest of my life. i am not exempt. >> i want to sell you something from usa today, that is what our pre-scholars have been talking about. it says that there is a fact-check for democratic party's that did not found the kkk or start the civil war. the claim is that the democratic party started the civil war to preserve slavery and then the kkk. the article says that as america

marks a month of protests against systemic racism and many people draw parables between the current events, and oversimplified trope about the democratic parties races path has been posted online. a reminder that if you support the democratic party, up or support the party that founded the kkk and start the civil war to keep slaves. this is a claim of an image, tweet. many users read between the lines of the tweets implication and modern democratic and republican parties. some argue that this many know that the party created the freedom of slavery, but it also created a freedom for slaves, and said that most active still vote for democrats who want to keep slaves. i am a conservative, but i find

this argument pretty stupid because that is not with a support anymore. values change over time. historians agree that although factions of the party did contribute to the civil war start and the kkk founding, it is inaccurate to say the party is responsible for either. mark is calling from florida, independent. good morning. >> hello. you are a goddess. i can't believe i got through. you are an excellent host, and i found some people who worked third shift, and i walked in here, and i walked into turned the television on and i put on foxbusiness and c-span. you are on and i -- those year ago. i've seen every single show in dvr. this program is the best program. >> is nice to have you. >> what is on your mind?

>> all right. white from california made an excellent point on bringing up the history of the democrats. i hope everyone listened very clearly to it. it was very good. i also liked the point you brought up about hunter biden. you brought an article to everyone's attention, and i do watch fox news, and i was aware of this, but many democrats aren't aware of a lot of things. the answers you provided, i think a big problem for the people not knowing each other, if they would just listen to each other, be around each other, not get involved with the media projection, i think things would be a lot better and a lot less divided. the government has gotten into too much control. programs like this, they bring this subject to life, and i'm

glad to be making my point and bring things to everyone's attention. thank you very much for your time, and again, this is the greatest program. everyone gets to say, and there is a quality gas and they should appreciate the cast and the access they have two that because sometimes, people start getting a little will behave when they call. your guest should be on other programs in other news organizations because it is very quality and very measured. temperament with knowledge. >> thank you. marion is in augustine georgia. the morning. >> morning. the reason i'm calling is that u.s. what we were most concerned about in the stories of the past, but there was no major

concern come almost every week. mass shootings wherever they occur. i am a retired psychologist and the american psychological association has consumed research. it involves people who do mass shootings. and when they do it. it is just baffling to me that we haven't tried in this country to do something about mass shootings that is really meaningful and works. i don't want to say that i have the answers. i don't. but i do feel that there are qualified people who have done enough work to offer meaningful suggestions that could lead to a meaningful compromise. there is no one in favor of mass shootings. the argument is about statements on guns.

at any rate, i just wanted to register that concern and say that it is worse in my heart. as a country, is a congress, there is not any unity. and we are trying to come up with reasonable answers. >> take a look at what president biden said recently about gun violence. over the last few days, we have once again under the wave of a tragic and senseless shooting across america, from philadelphia to fort worth. baltimore to lansing. wichita to chicago. today, jill and i read for those who lost their lives and as we celebrate our independence day, we pray for a day when our communities will be free from gun violence. it is within our power to once again ban assault weapons and high-capity magazines and acquire safe storage for guns to

and gun immunity from liability and to enact universal background checks. i earn other states to follow the lead and continue to call us on a public and lawmakers in congress to come to the tabor on commonsense reforms that the american people support. next to jerry in tar heel north kierland. democrat. >> good morning. you know what? i urge the democrats and republicans, both parties, to step back and take a look and deal with uranium. we have to be a man, and we will win.

we have to outlaw these issues, and boone even sign it treaty, so we've done this [indiscernible] we are the leaders of the free world [indiscernible] warfare. all we know how to do is sell weapons. this was a good country. we need to get back to making things in this country. to have leadership that brings everything back to normal. there are millions things in america. >> let's talk to melissa in las vegas. >> hello. the biden terrace have caused us to lose oppressive arms. >> ok. >> jonathan in minneapolis,

independent. >> good morning. first off, i appreciate your show and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we all need to come together as a country. my main concern is being in minneapolis last weekend for the fourth of july, if anyone knows what were talking about, there was a group of people shooting off fireworks at the police department here and the people in the crowds were running and screaming, and it was just a mess, so it my main concern is in the city of minneapolis, we have a problem with the homeless youth and parents who don't know how to maintain their children and respect the country that we live in. we also have the right to live in our homes and be happy in the states we live in. the problem is no one is doing anything to protect the people -- protect the people of this area. i am tired of having to be in my

house by 6:30 p.m.. i can't even go for a walk. not without being harassed or jumped. i was just on sunday the fourth of july, and i literally have gone to a point where i've gotten so angry that i am having a rally on national night out, and i wish everyone would join me and walked the streets of minneapolis or wherever you are from, if you're tired of violence and you are tired of what is going on in this country. it is not a democrat problem. it is not a republican party problem. it is a human condition problem. if you have homeless in your city, do something to make their life better. go to the people in your city and go to their office and talk to them and say we demand action. i demand action from the

governor of the state and the mayor of the state -- city to do something to make it safe in the city of minneapolis. i am tired of walking down the street and not being able to feel safe. i have trained my brain to say not all people of ethnic backgrounds or whatever, where you're from, to be ok, walking down the street. >> let's take a look at an interview earlier this year on cbs. this is south dakota republican dusty johnson. he is a member of the problem solvers caucus, and he talked about why he thinks legislation is not the solution to gun violence. >> is there anything that can be get done? something that hasn't already been done? i don't know. i am quite skeptical, but will it move the needle and we wanted

to? >> i am the father of three sons who get dropped off at school or drive themselves to school, and obviously, when you see this kind appear people, it sucks everything you've got out of your soul. this is the type of thing that should be good for the world. what can be done? last year, when folks largely on one side of the aisle past some legislation and safety, we were told this could be a big advance and that this was -- anyone who wasn't for this was continuing carnage. this is that we stop the carnage. no one really believes in that legislation. they have not stopped acts of people. i think that is part of the problem with this legislative solution. we feel like we have to do

something, but the carnage is unfortunately a lot bigger than what we saw national. the carnage is 100,000 people who died of drug overdoses every year. and a hundred thousand people who died every single you. we are not a healthy nation. we are -- what you got about? >> i think a lot of the key institutions that we used to bind us together and used to help the resilient have weekend. i'm not trying to criticize the way anyone is living their lives, but we have to watch the economy from last week in the faith community. their mental health is substantially, significantly, materially stronger than people worn. the economy did say that because jesus in their life. we are not talking about spiritual tributary where human capital.

the ponds that have helped us to look at for another and be guardians of one another are an absolute ball watermark. our social capital has fallen off a cliff, and i think until we talk about a hundred thousand people killing themselves every year, we are going to continue to talk about them killing others. >> walter m butler indiana, go ahead. >> good morning. thank you for taking my call. i hope you survive. you were being attacked by her coffee a little while ago on tv. i was worried. >>'s water bread i only drink water. >> oh really? >> i love coffee, but on the set, i'm only going to drink water because i'm afraid to spill myself. >> you're so pretty, he you can do anything you want. the reason for my call is that i want to report wonderful news. i have two full families of

geese that have moved into my pond in the backyard. i have a set of mourning doves that are in a tree, and i set up there and have a coffee, and i watched a beautiful piece with their goslings growing right before me and i listen to these beautiful dogs and just to pass on some information, we look at the beauty in life. the joy. if you can't control it, consider yourself with it. we are so blessed and so soft. we have to look for the beauty of life and enjoy your own personal life. turn over all of the noise and the squawking and hawking and be blessed, and if you want to find life, look for it. you can find a wonderful world because i submit that if you wake up in the morning, and you have a roof over your head that only leaks once in a while, then you can turn on the faucet to get fresh drinking water, and you have pods and cell phones, and you can press a button and

somebody will bring you food, trust me, you have no problems at all. so just go back to enjoying the simple things in life because we are going to go home at the end of the day, and none of these things matter. i hope all of you can find this simple joys of life because it is misleading. have a wonderful day. >> a lesson for all of us. independent line. >> good morning. i don't know about that kumbaya moment, but i want to look at a couple of things that were spoken on with the democratic party. the democratic party may have not started it, but you can believe the majority of them were democrats. and the reason why -- excuse me. or luther king was a republican. but the reason blacks went to democrats was johnson priddy at affirmative action. if you noted, that is not the same type. one of the poorest countries in the world, china, became a

centrist because they wanted to ship off union jobs to black communities of progress. so they sent the main factoring jobs because they said these became bad. everyone knew the unions were the recent they had no class. you know, we think about that, you have to think about the current president. biden. biden says i'm working across the aisle. but he was working with strom thurmond and robert byrd. two ku klux klan recruiters. you can go back and look in the 90's we came up with the three strikes you're out, and whole nine yards. welfare for reform, and this is a very racist country. they let millions and millions of illegals here. >> are you going to vote for the republican ticket? >> it doesn't see haitians out

for the weekend. >> are you voting for the republican ticket in the next election? >> the republicans are no different than the democrats. that's the whole point with the democrats. just like the tea party. you know what i mean? big money takes over. ask who are you going to vote for? >> we have independent days for the citizens. we have abraham lincoln, we have july 4, and that we are trying to celebrate juneteenth. that is when citizens -- they were citizens for two years. they were deprived and beaten. they had to work for free. nobody got a dam reparation. now, they want to celebrate that. they don't want to celebrate what lincoln did for us, but they want to celebrate the two years that the citizens -- and they give this a federal

holiday. where the majority of white people are federal, --. >> will more call. buffalo new york. good morning. >> the morning. one more thing about the ku klux klan. when donald trump first ran for president in 2016, the media got a hold of the fact that david duke, former wizard of the ku klux klan was campaigning for donald trump. when that was presented donald trump, when that was happening, trump said that he didn't know the man, never met the man, and i guessed all trump forgot about the interview that he had with david duke. the grand wizard of the kkk. that's all i have to say. thank you. >> that's all the time we have for the segment. next on washington journal, we have our spotlight on podcast. we will talk to lillian cunningham about her podcast called field trip, about

america's national parks. will drip back. -- we will be right back.

>> i'm joined by the host of a podcast. welcome. >> i'm glad to be back. >> tell us about this podcast. the field trip. what does this focus on, and how many episodes are there? >> first, thank you for having me on, and highlighting this podcast. we've been working hard on this for a full year. it's been a labor of love and i appreciate the spotlight. the podcast is about the national parks, and the big question we are facing in the 21st century.

the series is five episodes. it focuses on five national parks in particular where there are urgent and fake and interesting stories playing out about their future. everything from climate change to how the park is wrestling with that threat to ways that other parks are trying to re-forge a better relationship with native tribes that used to live on the land and not next to the parks. the idea is really to not look at these questions before the parks today and that is inevitably a journey back to the past. the origins of these parks, the original missions, the degree to which the ways that we have tracked in the past to protect them are still relevant, given

the new challenges. >> why only five episodes? there are 63 national parks. >> there are. why not go to all 63 of them? >> i agree with you. there is a small chance that the people listen to the ca spread we will discontinue to add more parks. but we started with five because we went really deep on this reporting journey, so for each of these parks, we took a long and in many cases two week reporting trip inside of the park, and we did an expensive archival research with hundreds of hours of interviews with experts. it pulls together these five expert -- episodes which hour-long. we deal with those five. i just want to mention to our viewers that if you would like to call in and make a comment or

a question for our guest, you can do so. our lines are regional. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, you can call the numbers on her screen. lillian, what is your personal interest in this? you were on this program before. a while ago. you had u.s. presidents here. >> yes. i'm a journalist of the washington post. i've been there 13 years. but for the past eight of those, i've been doing these large enterprise podcast series about big chapters of the american story. my first big podcast was called presidential about presidential history, and i did one on constitutional history, and i

did a third on the space race, so now the national parks. i am someone who is just as deep an interest in american interests, but i would say i love david macola. he was a historian, he did biographies of teddy roosevelt he always said that in order to look forward, you have to look backwards. as a journalist, i want to embrace that. it's a comprehensive story of what is playing out around us. it is often helpful to dive into that history, and national parks are such an iconic piece of what many people today think about when they think about america. they also think about america's best idea, so, it feels fitting to take a look at a piece of the country's history that was very

much about the land and the ideas of american democracy manifested through the way we treated those most special places in the country. >> let's talk about the history before we talk about what is happening now. abraham lincoln started the idea of national parks. >> he is the president certainly. he hit -- kickstarter the idea. people give teddy roosevelt to much credit. he often touted for sort of laying out a national park vision, but it was abraham lincoln during the civil war who signed the first public landfill in this country, the use amity valley grant. it protects part of the parks. there is a growth with the giant sequoias. and yosemite valley, where there

is a famous el capitan, and the domes. it wasn't called a national park at the time, but the first national park sort of official designation went to yellowstone, about a decade later. that idea of preserving land in america for the american public to use and enjoy and appreciate and to protect it from what they saw in the encroaching development threats. that really started during the civil war with lincoln. >> why was that a priority? the civil war was going on. they had much bigger problems on their hands. >> he would think that would probably be the last thing that they would take time for that. but there are number of reasons. a couple of them, there were a lot of influential people in california at the time.

they were pushing for the public land designation, and to be crucial to the war effort, and in some ways, that was a bit of a hurrying up local favor did more importantly, there was a statement about the endurance of american democracy and the united states as a country, and it was a way of putting or were the idea that there was a role for the federal government to play in creating this country, unlike any other we have on earth right now, and one of the ways that -- one of the reasons we preserve a union like this is the majesty of what this landscape is. so, we had a symbolic rationale

as well. >> you mentioned this before, climate change. what impact does that have on the natural parks. how are they responding to that? how are they becoming more resilient to the effect of climate change? >> i think i interviewed the national park service directly, and they would tell you that climate change is the biggest threat to the national park service and the system today. overall, on average, the national parks are warming at twice the rate of the rest of the country, and that, it sort of makes sense when you think about that because they protect the sort of exceptional landscape, so the highest mountain, or the lowest coastline, and these places we've cordoned off for a

protection are the ones by virtue of landscape are even more at threat than the rest of the country. that looks different, of course in every part, but one of the episodes takes place in use amity and we focus on the threat of wildfires. i mean, they are taking massive efforts out there to protect the sequoias and protect the whole park area from wildfires. what it is a very difficult battle. they have sums -- some projections that unless things change, there are projections that the sequoias will be dead. from long-term wildfire, and these are trees that have been around for thousands of years. they've been through wildfires for thousands of years, but the intensity and frequency of the

wildfires that air being seen now, they threaten on a whole new level. >> how do you do that? how do you protect trees from wildfires? >> well, one of the ways they are realizing is sort of the most effective is actually to turn back to indigenous practices for protecting the trees, and for much of the history, they were actually banned. it was intentionally setting fire around the trees, which might seem counterintuitive, but these trees actually -- and much of our parks, they need a certain amount of fire in order to be healthy. it helps clear out underbrush around them. in the casas acquires, it actually come in order to birth new sequoias, the fires but they need a certain type of good fires, and they have been very deliberate about bringing what

is called a prescribed burn practice back to the park where they to intentional controlled burns that help make the forest more resilient with massive wildfire burns rolling through. we will start taking calls shortly. you can join the conversation by calling our line spy regions. eastern and central time zones, 20 270,000. mountain and pacific, call us as well. you went to glacier national park, you spoke to members of the blackfoot tribe about buffalo reintroduction. tells what is going on? >> the blackfeet are one of the tribes that live very close to glacier national park, and they actually live on and have much of the land that is now glacier national park prior to becoming

a national park, and there are a lot of pieces of history and tension and headache. it is between the tribe and the u.s. government. a park service. but one of the ways right now that they found to collaborate is through the reintroduction of buffalo to the landscape. they use to roam the western plains, and into the mountains that are part of glacier national park. for about a hundred years, there are no buffalo in glacier national park. since it has been a national park, has not had buffalo unlike yellowstone. the blackfoot tribe in their own effort because of the cultural significance of buffalo to return to the landscape, they went to the national park to reintroduce buffalo to the area.

they opened up gates and they let a herd of buffalo out off of the reservation land to roam freely between the reservation and later national park. if you are visiting that glacier national park this summer, you will possibly see that as we go through the sun road, there are mountain goats or bears, and you could also come across a wild buffalo now. x in general, what are native tribes doing as far as being more involved in park management, if anything. >> again, these parks are in many ways not reporting up to the national park service. they do have their own identities, and they sort of work out their own agreements in

a lot of ways. they bring to these tribes what is happening in glacier something different than what is happening in the everglades, but i will point out that for the first time ever in national park service history, right now, we have native people who are the head of the park service. we also for the first time ever have a cabinet secretary who is a native american who is the head of the department of interior. that is pairing people and a strong leadership role, and creating a moment that a lot of people say of opportunity for discussion of tribes in the park service to reach a new level, and one of the things they talk about is this idea of comanagement, co-stewardship, and it is looking for ways to be

brought more into the decision-making process of how these lands are managed, and that can mean everything from consulting on a small program that happens within the national park to in some cases having a discussion about whether large parts of the park service unit could be managed primarily by native people. >> us talk to the callers. john is up in long beach mississippi. morning. >> imani. how are you. i can see you're taking my call. this is the first time i've reached out to. this is coming from saying a lot of things i have to agree with. if i can continue by telling you might thoughts on this matter i appreciate it. >> go ahead. >> i think, if you would put an end to the fact that nature

should have as much right as we do. the constitution it doesn't. if we can stop those who have as much to say and we can challenge things, and we can turn around and stop people who are politicians from becoming lobbyists when they leave office which i don't think it's possible. but that would be a good thing. and we can get the taxes that might contribute a great deal to resolving problems when it comes to nature. and how we cannot separate ourselves from nature. we are part of nature, and it cannot be a natural, and i think, this is saying a lot of things i agree with, and i appreciate that. >> let's get a response.

>> i think the question of how to protect nature, and i don't know about giving constitutional protections, the will you people, but certainly, i take your point that it is a huge question and one that many care about witches how do we make sure we protect these places, and one of these things we explore in this podcast series are the facts that you can draw a line around the national park since they've protected it, but we were talking about something like wildfire or you are talking about something like mining happening right outside the park border, there are so many things that happen right outside these places that we are trying to protect, and inevitably, it is steeped in an effect of the natural world inside it that we

have decided we want to protect, so how you do that is really tricky. at times i think it has led to one of those episodes we have in the series about the national park in alaska. we've explored the fact that in 1980, there was an effort in alaska to create parks on a size and scale that was just completely different from the national parks we have in the lower 48, that was partly an acknowledgment that it is really hard to drop a line around a small area because they are protecting nature and you have to -- if you're committed to that, one of the ways you try to do that better is by protecting things at a larger ecosystem level, but obviously, that is hard in the modern world. tell us about the funding

situation. how that is looking from the federal government the national park service is part of the department of the interior. >> i think the national park service would say that they could certainly use more funding. everyone says that. >> it does -- i think, visitors to these places have it easy to travel through them, and on a summer vacation, you know, perhaps rightly, not in the amount of work that goes into maintaining or supporting a park, but with yosemite as an example, it takes millions of dollars for them to maintain yosemite every year. they have 750 people who work there in the summer and within the national park service. and, you know, millions of visitors pass through their gates who only need support

services, and these places, you know it they are nature, but many of them have lodges or roads. they have campgrounds. they have a lot of infrastructure inside of them. it has to be supported and maintained, and i think, you know, how do you get the money they need to maintain them the way they have to be is always a challenge for the park service. shaun is next in massachusetts. good morning. >> hello. i hope that you give me a little bit of time so i can give you the correct history of the world. >> room was fact. it was taken over. eastern europeans were supposedly during a time we had problems with russia. during the time roosevelt, stalin, churchill made a deal. >> is about the national park's?

>> and with the history of the world. >> welcome i would like to know, brown people on this planet have a place where they can go without getting bombed by europeans and european caucasians. >> any response to? >>, sure he was going, but i will say, one thing that i think is worth pointing out is that it is absolutely incorrect to start telling a history of the national parks by telling the history of when they became national park's as designated by the u.s. government because all 63 of these parks sit on indigenous land. they all create -- they all have somewhere on their landscapes, sacred sites, and they have deep

histories where people who live on these lands are connected to, not just connected to but maintaining these areas so i would just say, it is worth pointing out, and anything we try to do as well to backup our historical storytelling and tell that sort of deeper, in some cases deeper geological history, but also the history of the human presence that predates the coming in national park. >> charlie is in roslyn heights near. morning. >> good morning. saving the national parks are important, but the rest of the court is important. we are here in new york on a co-op conflict and we are fighting pesticides over here. it's like pulling teeth. i wish people were out on the streets like a few years ago

with george floyd. there was water that is a whole other issue that came up in the news. they said half of the faucets are giving us poisonous water or chemicals. i can't understand where the epa is. why the american people are not getting upset about this. maybe you can answer this for me. >> a much sure that's really connected to the national parks, but let's talk to kathy in independence missouri. >> i am part apache and part gentleman. and a lot of our lands are meant to protect our lands, and the natives know that. it is time that the united states of america didn't give us

anything when they say we could be known as american indians. our parks belong to the indigenous people. let's let the indigenous people run our parks and run our waterways, and you will see a difference in what is happening to our country. thank you. what do you think? >> i will say that comment feels very similar to a sentiment i heard from people in the blackfeet in glacier as well. i mentioned how there is a lot of discussion going on right now about how a national park and tribe can better collaborate, but certainly one of the ideas, a lot of people were pulled in a lot of native people were pulled , but as you mentioned, these lands could just be fully managed by the native people who were douglas lands.

before they became national park's and well to entirely turn ownership of the national parks over to tribes would be a pretty massive legal change that would have to happen, there is a lot that can happen up to that place where it is the national park service is power to do quite a lot to bring indigenous knowledge and experts, neighboring tribes into the management of the split places, and i think, what you have expressed is something that a lot of people would like to see. >> there are questions from rick. why is more attention not given to the hundreds of national park visitors advantage each year? why are missing person records

not available for national parks? did you look at that? >> unfortunately, i cannot help too much there. we did not focus on any individual cases. we focused on telling the story more than the park themselves. >> nebraska, go ahead. >> i am all for national parks. i want more. that's all we have in america where europe has all of the big cathedrals and the big cities that are so old and stuff. we have national parks. i don't have a problem with making more of them and giving them more money. however, living in nebraska, i am a little -- i would be leery of giving any responsibility to the natives because they live in

swamps anyways, the way they live right now. i don't think they are capable of doing something. i'm not all of them, but i'm saying a lot of their areas they have, i don't know if they are capable of running that. >> what do you think? >> i think a lot of people would disagree. i think also, this is a place where there is a lot of dark history in this country around how native people have been treated and the circumstances that have led to a lot of inequality and injustice in these communities. they are tied out the many cases to the loss of lands, the loss of culture, and so, i think there are people who would say that to strengthen the

connection with native people, they could have that with the land, and and to revive cultural practices on those lands, but it would also be a step towards helping these communities rehabilitate. >> angela washington, d.c.. hello. >> good morning. i'm glad to see her guest today. i want to clarify that we are talking about the continental united states. i grew up in the united states and the virgin islands where there are national parks and monuments. and sanctuaries. >> there are -- one of her national park is in the u.s. virgin islands, and i will say, for our podcast, we've been focused on the 63 national parks with a capital you are alluding

to overseas, more than 400 national park units. so, that includes national parks, but also, as you mentioned, national my name is. national seashores. even national battlefield. gettysburg is part of the national park service. it is certainly true that the scope of areas of the park service is protecting, administering, they like to say being keepers of the american story on these landscapes. that is certainly a print that is much larger than just 63 national parks we think of an yellowstone ornate yosemite. >> you go to the everglades, and we focus on the ecosystem and restoration. tell us what you saw?

>> in the everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration work in history across the planet is going on. the united states, the federal government in the state of florida, it is pumping billions of dollars into trying to restore the everglades, and it's a long winding tale that is super interesting you should listen to the episode, but the short version is that in an effort to develop in south florida over the past century, the united states has a lot of money training everglades. there was a misperception that this was treacherous, undesirable land in its current form, and it's a lot of martians, it's a lot of swamps.

it is a shallow flow of water systems throughout basically the southern half of the state of florida. it is great for wildlife. but at the time, when they were trying to develop florida, it made things very hard to bring you new people down and live on it and use it for agriculture, so there was a major effort made, and they employed the army corps of engineers to do it. to set up canals, levees, tykes. a whole system that drains and controls the water. in some ways, this works, and it dries out south florida of the massive city of miami, and tons of development. but what they are more recently realizing is that created there is a domino effect of a lot of difficult environmental problems

which are now kind of circling back around my development. it is hard to have a clean drinking water like they need to support city of miami when they are not filtering the water. they've also seen massive algae blooms and other sort of environmental tourism in florida, and so, in addition to there being an environmental imperative now to rehydrate the everglades, the there is also a strong economic case for why we need to do the environmental restoration work and that is of course maybe more urgent because of climate change and sea level rise and most of south florida is not far above sea level. getting water right there is really important, and really important.

>> let's talk to area in griffith, indiana. >> thank you for taking my call. we see there is awareness, and we want to have an example. i grew up in the northwest indian area outside chicago, and it is establishing the lakeshore, as part of the national park system. my rule is to expand community outreach and get by the community at large, but particularly low income areas that have surrounded one of the areas of the park across three counties, and one of the most western areas is a population of 70,000. the presenter people of color. a percent are black lung. there is a median income of towing 1000.

they had a nato image that is not part of the national park, and there was nearly 4 million year, but it also means that there are deeds that work there before. i don't really have a lot of knowledge on this, but to my knowledge, and maybe you could talk about this little bit, but there is an income level of two blocks from the park. at least for that part or another part. went to get your comment regarding access to the low income communities and populations to the national parks, especially when they exist within our own communities. >> what do you think? where access a great question, and i don't know that i can answer it in total detail, but i mean, you are correct. for most national parks, there are entrance fees now. depending on your age and if you

buy a park pass for the year, and whatever. they are all very different. the park service has also instituted a program where every fourth-grader across the country has free access to the national parks and can bring their families. certainly, what you articulating is an issue for low income communities near the spark, that doesn't address if you are not a fourth-grader, but i do know the national park service says that this is an area they care a lot about, and it makes the parks more accessible. and, diversifying by income and race, the people who come to these parks, but i don't know whether there are plans in the work to provide more service

exemptions than they already have. >> lillian, which of your national park? >> that's not quite it i have so many favorites. i am indecisive. i will say case of the arctic in alaska was my most transformative national system. it was also north of the circle in alaska, and unlike most national parks, there is not a single road in the park it there is not a launch in the park. they are even dealing with heart -- hiking trails. but it is really just pure nature. and the only way in is to take a plane. >> all right. well, lillian cunningham, the host of the field trip all caps from the washington post. thank you for joining us and that is our show for the day.

we'll be back again tomorrow morning. 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. have a great day.