i am directing our house committee to open a formal impeachment prior to the president joe biden. host: this is the washington journal and that was kevin mccarthy in an announcement that they will work on an impeachment

inquiry are. we will show the reaction from across capitol hill. we will ask you if you support this impeachment inquiry. if you support this inquiry (202) 748-8000, if you oppose it, (202) 748-8001. you can text us your thoughts at (202) 748-8003, post on facebook and follow on instagram. washington journal makes the comment that the white house was a party to his son's affairs.

they said that the investigation has turned up no facts so far and that labeling a probe as an impeachment inquiry or is seen as given the house more power and a 2019 report says that an investigation could help congress by including the likelihood that the congress would offer material. you can see on the website, here is kevin mccarthy. [video clip] >> these accusations warrant further investigation by the house. that is why today i am directing our house committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into

president joe biden. this next step will give our committee the full power to gather all of the facts and answers for the american public. it's exactly what we want to know, the answers. i believe the president would want to answer these questions as well. this effort will be led by james comer and jim jordan and jason smith. i don't make this decision lightly. regardless of your party or who you voted for, these facts should concern all of america. the american people deserve to in the federal government is not being used to cover up the the american people deserve to

know that public offices are not for sale. actions of politically associative family. i would encourage the president to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interest of transparency. we are committed to getting the answers for the american public, nothing more, nothing less. we will go wherever the evidence takes us. host: that was from the announcement yesterday. if you support this effort call (202) 748-8000, if you oppose call (202) 748-8001. the washington post reports that kevin mccarthy's calculation on how to launch an investigation said there would not be enough votes to open an inquiry.

they discussed private deliberations that people with familiar with kevin mccarthy said launching and inquire some lawmakers worn that far right could demand an impeachment vote for political purposes. that is just some of the background into yesterday's announcement. linda says she supports transparency and we've had too little of that with president biden. this is from bonnie off facebook she said i was supported if it went to a vote and there was enough evidence and corey says i

supported it, no one is above the law. saying the gop would do all they can to distract from their lack of policy and results. if you want to: if you support this call (202) 748-8000 or for oppose call (202) 748-8001. we will hear first from two in maine. caller: good morning c-span. this kevin mccarthy is joke. i am an independent and this guy, if he can't find anything -- so far it appears that there is no evidence that biden has done anything wrong. if he has sony should be impeached. but mccarthy and those people like that, marjorie taylor

greene, they have him by the throat and he conceded his power away to get the position. he wanted that position so bad with 15 votes to get in there. he is powerless and they know it and he can only do what he has to tell them. host: also on oppose from philadelphia we will hear from horace. good morning. one more time. we will go to sheila in georgia on the oppose line. caller: i agree with the caller, this is ridiculous and he has

read about mccarthy. host: why do you oppose us specifically? caller: why? host: yes. caller: there is nothing there. hunter biden is a screwup but that is joe's son, and once kids become 17, 18 years old he can't control them anymore. i don't see there is anything there at all. host: axios on their website takes a look at how we got to this point. tying words so the campaign 2020

they write mr. biden was asked if his son made money from abroad and he said my son has not made money with this thing you're talking about china. but hunter biden said he was given hundreds of thousands of dollars for business deals which let the washington post to give joe biden's original claim for pinocchio's. in 2015 joe biden met with the lead of the company burisma. it goes on from there, you can

let your phones -- your opinions made known on facebook, twitter or call in if you support call (202) 748-8000, oppose. (202) 748-8001. caller: i support the impeachment of the most incompetent president. host: we have ethan from las vegas. caller: i want to say that i support the impeachment. host: why is that? you can continue to call in and give your thoughts letting us know if you oppose or support

the inquiry. let's hear from chuck schumer yesterday after the announcement from the house. [video clip] >> i think the impeachment inquiry is absurd. the american people want us to do something that makes their lives better not go on these chases and witchhunts. the bottom line, you can only accomplish keeping the government open in a bipartisan way. i have a sympathy for mr. mccarthy best sometimes you have to tell these people who are off the deep end that they cannot go forward. i'm disappointed, i think it's absurd but we won't let us discourage us than the senate --

in the senate. host: susan from maryland on the oppose line. caller: i am against the idea of impeachment. the essence of this lesson about biden and more about his son. the only thing that brought biden down is if it shows that he's in business with his sons business partners. host: you don't think an inquiry would prove that definitively? caller: i don't they have to have confidence to prove it.

i don't think it exists. host: let's hear from break in florida on the support line. caller: i supported for the reason that if there's nothing to hide there's no reason to be nervous about an inquiry. why not check it out, make everyone happy. host: from carol in new jersey on the oppose line. caller: i do oppose this because of the fact that it is based on what his son did. we have many people who have children living in our homes and they don't know what they are

doing. look at these young people who have guns. we have a president, and ex-president who would not even qualify for the normal job. host: that was carol from new jersey. continue to call if you want to give your comments. (202) 748-8000 if you support the inquiry and if you oppose a (202) 748-8001. a post on twitter, facebook and instagram. if you are on the line continues to call in. yesterday, on top of the activities in the house to try and keep the government funded an updated on what's going on

with that. he said there -- we have mr. quigley. host: are we saw on the path for lack of funding for the government? guest:quigley. host: do think yesterday's announcement does complicate the next 2.5 weeks when it comes to government spending. they need to pass a stopgap bill by the end of the i month sick keep the government away from a shut down and right now it looks more questionable than ever. in the endgame continuing resolution would mean some people from the house.

democrats will not feel obliged to help senator mccarthy. host: can you explain a continuing resolution? and what that means for this process. guest: last september congress passed an omnibus which lasts through september and that's for the fiscal spending for the end of 2020 three and now it's time for 2024 spending to get past. the end of the fiscal year is at the end of this month. the end without habits congress needs to pass appropriations. ideally that would be full appropriation.

so it needs to be a stopgap measure me. host: what are the discussions taking place in the background of this and he was leaving that discussion? guest: we are seeing two different pass from the house and the senate. from the senate we see a bipartisan pot with the big vote for the appropriation bill. huge bipartisan support working together. the fed is moving forward with the bill. they are running into issues when it comes to passing a bill on the floor the house. there are house conservative who want more cuts to bills that are

already underneath the cat. we have moderates that are worried about provisions. we are still at the point where both chambers are working on their individual preparation process and negotiations have not yet started. at this point they are working out their own process. today and the house is so that they have to vote on the hill. host: and as i understand there is opposition to the bill itself? guest: democrats are against

thisthere are some policy that this bill mostly because of the cultural implications the conservatives added. address a wide variety of issues that democrats cannot get on board with. you will not see any democratic votes on this. host: in the days ahead what are the things to look out for? guest: we have to keep a close eye on negotiations. we will see the senate move forward in the house may be stalling out. may be stalling out. the next two weeks is when we get into the negotiations between the house and senate and keeping the government open.

there is a lot of work going behind-the-scenes to avoid a shut down but this year, it looks questionable. host: mr. quigley reports on budget and appropriations issues. his work is on roll call.com. thank you for this update. host: you heard i guess talk about the complication of the impeachment inquiry and belies the budget that needs to be passed. we pose the question, do you support the impeachment inquiry. ? if he supported (202) 748-8000, if you oppose (202) 748-8001. caller: i oppose it, it's a waste of time and money. we need to keep going on. we need social security and

relief from inflation. host: when you say is so waste of time and money what you mean? caller: there is no smoke, no fire. when trump went through this they said beware of what you do because this could come back on you. host:when let's hear from sarahn the support line. caller: i am calling to say is supported. i think the mainstream media has had a lot of evidence with joe biden. there are text messages from his son that he is directly connected to his business dealings. his family members have millions of dollars. we need this inquiry.

it is inevitable that biden's problems. -- host: what do you think they will find? guest: i read the prosecutor that was over at burisma was fired and they discovered the guy was not as corrupt. there are things that the mainstream media is not providing. host: the washington post highlights the fact that the has

been an about-face on the decision made yesterday. mr. mccarthy crafted a resolution criticizing nancy pelosi for logic and impeachment without a vote. here's what mccarthy had to say at this time, [video clip] speaker pelosi as speaker of the house but she does not speak on this issue. they have been investigating this president before he even got elected. they have voted three times for impeachment on this floor.

twice they voted before the mueller report came back. our job is a serious job. our job is to legislate, not to investigate something when we have no reason to impeach this president. i realize that 2016 did not turn out the way speaker pelosi hope. but she cannot decide on an impeachment inquiry. what she said today makes no difference. it is time to put the public for politics. host: those are words from 2019 from kevin murthy.

you could find more on our website at c-span.org. now speaker kevin murthy. mccarthy announcing the impeachment inquiry without a vote. gary saying that abuse of power, americans deserve to know what politicians are doing with public money. rebecca says what a waste of time without evidence. hopefully they will stop these games and legislate like an adult. host: on kevin mccarthy they said this is what happens when you allow republicans to become

child care center for children. if you support the investigation call (202) 748-8000 and oppose (202) 748-8001. caller: i think this is a waste of everyone's time. why don't they investigate jared kushner who got billions? he was working in the administration. a vodka got deals from china, why did they not investigate that? why don't they investigate after an insurgency. how come the republicans sit investigate that? host: on our support line this is alex from maryland. caller: i am a vietnam vet and i

am a shade. this is our country and is supposed to be honest people will. if you do something wrong they have to lock you up. they need to stop doing this because this is our country. something wrong they have to lock you up. we have other countries making fun of us. host: you say that they live but you supported and query? caller: no, i don't. host: your calling for the wrong line so i'll remind the viewers a home if you supported call (202) 748-8000, and oppose (202) 748-8001. caller: this seems like madness

going on in this country. it amazes me, donald trump had 17 witnesses that came forward with the impeachment happened. 17 witnesses and now, it seems like lunacy going on in the house of representatives. you have a person who brought out a picture of joe biden's son, a naked picture of him on the house floor a few weeks ago. host: it was during a committee hearing. why do you oppose this and query -- in quiry.

caller: the republican party we have right now does not know how to govern. they have wasted so much money with these inquires. this is supposed to make it look like there is an equal amount of criminality going on, do not vote for joe biden because he's crooked as well. it is absolutely ridiculous. host: you can continue to call on the lines and posting on social media. we are taking a look into president biden on news coming out on this efforts to run for reelection. this is david ignatius in the

washington post with the headline, president biden should not run again in 2024. he will carry to liability since the campaign, he would be 82 when he started the second term. 7% of the public thinks he is too old. biden's age is not just a trope. it's been dinner conversation across the summer. because of those concerns about his age they are focusing on his running mate kamala harris. harris has notable qualities but the fact that she has tracked interest from her own party is

grim. caller: i sure how to laugh listening to chuck schumer and witch hunt. what happened from 2016-2020. twice they tried to impeach him. our country shut down in 2018. it's amazing how people can forget what happened in those four years and the one smoking gun i would like to see are the alias names that president biden is using. are those names of any of the shell companies? do these names show up in the

shell companies? it is very possible that two people can be corrupt. trump and biden can be corrupt. host: we have and in florida on the support line. caller: mccarthy said they had to impeach him to get into his bank accounts. they investigated him but never got into his money. that is why they're impeaching him to get into the bank accounts. host: it sounds like you support the effort? oh, she in them. from the new york times that show how democrats reacted.

on monday the democrats released a 14 page demo with the overwhelming failure of the republican committees investigation. they asked for 12,000 pages of documents on bidens finance and to speak to witnesses. here is one from house minority leader, he came jeffries. caller: we have a responsibility as members of congress to show that we are providing for the government and economic safety of american citizens the.

extreme maga republicans are doing the bidding of donald trump. when he says jump the maga republicans say how high. leaders in the house include marjorie taylor greene, they are driving the train of doing the bidding of donald trump in this unfortunate we find ourselves in this situation. house democrats will continue to partner with president biden to make life better for everyday americans. the growth of middle-class and builds up in economy. it is our hope that a handful of

responsible republicans on the others instead of engaging in this malignant investigation would partner with house democrats to get this done for everyday americans. host: a lot of activity after the announcement was made on the hill. if you go on our website you can find the response to it and also on our c-span app. a report from yesterday that said tromp was speaking with a congresswoman. i speak to trump a lot and she believes that bidens families dealings are the biggest political scandal of a lifetime.

gary in texas, go ahead, you are on. caller: i oppose this impeachment mainly because of the vice president we have. we should just keep whited on. host: let's hear from linda on the oppose line. caller: i oppose and the reason i oppose is this is anotherame for the ma republicans. ey tried to use ukraine to dirtby then so now they are just continuing the dirty work.

host: what do you mean by that? call: when they tried to get ukraine to say that bideneed something over there and trump said, it does not have to be true, just say it. just by saying it and have his counterparts to pound it into the ground. host: how does that connect to the president's business dealings? caller: the connection it and hs is they will throw anything and the kitchen sink at it. they say these are hunter's issues. it serves a purpose to bring it down to make him look just as dirty as trump. host: the washington times

adding the house oversight committee has come through the bank records. james comer said is shows president biden son and family pocketed 20 million. again all of this adding out to the ms rate heard from yesterday about the impeachment inquiry. if you want to support call (202) 748-8000 and if you oppose that number is (202) 748-8001. nancy is up next from florida who supports this effort.

caller: i believe they should have donecaller: impeachment a r ago. the oil wells, the pipeline, everything. the united states monetary policy do something for us. host: why do you support the and query? caller: it should've been done a long time ago. caller: i oppose it let's use some common sense. in 2019 when the campaign started you know the think tanks were taking for anything they could find on joe biden. even lindsey graham cried saying that joe biden was one of the

most honest people he had known. it's disappointing that republicans cannot do their jobs. host: from sally in indiana on our support line. caller: first of all, i am supporting it. i just wanted tell you, people keep calling this an impeachment but is actually an impeachment inquiry and there's a big difference between the two. and the lady who said that trump has said it does not matter if you did it or not just say you did it. he was talking about himself not biden.

host: tell us why you support the inquiry. caller: there are a lot of facts that they have right now and they may not have everything that leads to biden right now but part of the problem is, they can't get the information you would need from the government. if they have this inquiry it gives on the power to do that because it gives them more leverage. someone somewhere has said, when they look into this it will take someone 10 years to get the facts and link it back to biden. i am an independent so i don't know if he has actually done anything wrong but i would like to know for sure because it

looks like he assistance of the gronk. host: we will hear more from house republican leaders about the lach of this inquiry. 10:00 a.m. is when the leadership conference will hold the news conference. a lot of discussions about today's issues. for more you can go to c-span now our app. caller: when devon archer was testifying they were asking him what kind of business did you and hunter biden have? he said we had a grant and they

asked what was the grant? that's when he said joe biden. they talk about jared kushner, that $2 billion was reinvested was not given to himself. that is what people don't understand. biden himself was out there, he was joking about how he went to ukraine saying that they would not get one billion in aid. that is why the head of burisma

hired hunter biden. host: debbie is next, from georgia on the oppose line. caller: i oppose because he is so mentally incompetent so serve as a precedent. he needs to be an old folks home. host: hold on you are calling in on the oppose line. why do you oppose? caller: because he can even survive it. host: we will leave it there. we have joe from the support line. caller: i supported because the

facts so we have now are that hunter biden flew on air force one and the facts so we have to too many ofe international destinations that biden went to so the connection is there between family members and joe biden. the second reason i support this in quiry. the problem is much bigger than biden and the biden family this system is set up so the senators can make a whole lot of money for their family. if you look at the biden's and mcconnell's and pelosi's of pint-size they have enriched themselves as public servants.

host: let's go back to your point about flying on a plane and what you think the connection is? caller: when there's smoke there's fire and it is odd that anyone would have an assumption that alone is reason into an it and query combined with the bank records of bidens reason family receiving money from offshore accounts. i think that enough is to make an investigation and the second thing i remember, look at the extent the intelligence agencies and justice department went through to cover up hunter biden's laptop.

there were public officials that put out information that hunter biden's love top was fake but we found out it was real and there's a lot of damages information list of the top. host: we will go to ellen from clearwater, florida. she opposes this. caller: they are always trying to find something on president biden just because trump is in the limelight. host: can you elaborate on that? caller: but i his son, i'm sure he is intelligent enough to keep business separate and there is no way the president has anything to do -- i'm just sick

of this thing, pedro. host: representative box saying that the gop must stay focused on issues that harm every day americans. representative jim, who will lead the investigation alongside two other committee members. he said the house gop has an overwhelming amount of evidence that he lied to the american people. in jim jordan adding we will follow the law. representative scott perry says of formal inquiry as we fight the culture of corruption is

long overdue. representative johan omar says -- ilhan omar has said many times that you could not introduce an impeachment with the houseboat. that brings -- discredits. that is some of the reactions from congress yesterday. one member of congress directly confronted kevin mccarthy

directly. here's a portion from representative gaetz yesterday. [video clip] >> on this floor in january the world's law the competition for speaker. mr. speaking you are out of compliance with the agreement that allows you to assume this role. the path forward is either to bring them into compliance or remove you with the motion to vacate the chair. we have had no votes on term limits or a balanced budget. there has been no release of the full january 6 tapes. instead of cutting spending you relied on budgetary gimmicks so

that you ended up serving as bidens valet. mr. speaker you said you would use the power of the subpoena and purse. but here we are and we haven't even had the first subpoena on hunter biden. at this point during democratic control they already brought in don jr. three times. we haven't even seen of subpoena. power of the purse? our leadership has to vote on

continuing resolutions. a vote is to continue with the election interference. host: there is more there if you want to see it online on the website up from matt gaetz yesterday. the head of biden'ai put out an announcement saying that as donald trump of his demands for a speechless and query. -- for an investingation.

host: we will go back to calls this is mary in florida who opposes the impeachment in query . tell us why. caller: i was calling in reference to this impeachment junk. we have so many things in this country that we need to focus on. inflation, the price of groceries, they have more on their mind about impeaching biden. if trump had never broadened we would not be going to the situation. we have a lot of problems in this country other than impeaching.

the tax payers are paid for it. if you i can give you something to do. tackle inflation. my theory is this is all the joke. host: we have a supporter of the effort, samuel from california snakes. caller: hello. i like the inquiry coming out because we need to know if the president is on the up and up here. all of these shell companies, let them investigate and see where this goes. i hope they find out what is going on.

look at the border and everything he has done. and everything he has done. joe biden has been a failure and everything and the reason obama picked biden because he did not want a vice president smarter than him. host: we will go to mary from west virginia. caller: i was watching morning i was watching morning joe and the politics of the nation are off-base. what we are doing is attacking biden because he is taking the role of patriarchy. patriarchy excludes women. the originalists are supporting the original history. host: before you go further

let's talk about the impeachment inquiry. caller:caller: when they made wt voting law in 1790. host: you are going way too far afield. caller: you are going way too fr afield. next caller, patty. caller: i supported because if he has nothing to hide why are they worried about it? host: they have not found any direct links to the president.

caller: they found 5 billion fon biden's bank account a lobe related you get that money? host: why did they need to investigate more. caller:caller: why always bringp trump? host: we have lisa from massachusetts on our opposed line. caller:caller: good morning. i don't hear you. i have posted, they are just looking into this because they know trump is corrupt. to the lady who said why do you have to talk about trump? because he is the croak. he told you a long time ago they

would do that. they showed you with their actions, even matt gaetz said yesterday said he's not doing impeachment yet. with the ukraine telephone, just tell them you looking into it. host: how to set science to yesterday's announcement? caller:caller: it's the same th.

host: that is jim in florida finishing off the round of calls. i appreciate all of you who participated. c-span 2 you can see the press conference talking about the events of the day including the inquiry including efforts to keep the funding --

government-funded. joining us to address those issues up next, carlos gimenez of florida. he talked about the impeachment inquiry and take your calls. later on, democratic psident run of kennedy junior on his candidacy and the issues he is running on. but for those conversations coming up. ♪ >> c-span studentcam documentary competition is back and this time we are celebrating 20 years with this year's theme, looking forward while considering the past. >> the youth of today are leaders of tomorrow and it is imperative we take care of them to help them succeed as they progress through life. >> with more awareness we can work together to prevent fentanyl becoming the world's next pandemic. >> inflation matters so it is

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c-span 2 features lding authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. 9 p.m. eastern details his journey from immignto engineer at nasa's laboratory. later at the origin with his memoir the boy who reach for the stars. 10 p.m. eastern on afterwards, lauren shares her book the six about the experiences of the six women selected in 1978 to become america's first female's astronauts. she's interviewed by former nasa deputy administration -- administrator lori gardner. watch online any at booktv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: the first guess of this morning, republican from florida service the 28th district and

serves on the armed services and homeland . can we start with your level of support to the speaker's actions yesterday concerning the inquiry? i agree with the speaker's actions. i think there is evidence to support an inquiry and this is what it is. we need to look deeper into the affairs of the biden family including the president of the united states. we have to do our constitutional duty and if you have evidence that there may have been some wrongdoing there, we would love to pursue it. i agree with what the speaker did yesterday. host: what avenues do you think need to be pursued? guest: there is plenty of evidence that says something is going on. 20 a smoke there. being a firefighter, i know where there is smoke, there is fire. you have millions of dollars going to the biden family. you have documents that said the

executive bribed hunter biden and president of united states and had the president's one worse when he ukrainian prosecutor was looking at it, a company which hunter biden was on the board of directors, for what, we do not know, because he has zero experience in energy. there is plenty there. there are this shell corporations created. there is testimony for people that said president of u.s. was involved in the business of his son even though the president always denied having any knowledge of the businesses. the president's has been caught in lies and -- this money just did not come from inside u.s., it came from countries outside u.s., countries that are adversaries of u.s. so that makes it serious business. it is our constitutional duty to

make sure nothing is going on. host: has the house been brought in to address the inquiry? should the house have been brought in on the vote instead of the unilateral approach the speaker took? guest: i think we may have to vote. may be some kind of precedent for that, but we need to look at, into it. we have to. we owe it to the american people to see what is going on. i have my doubts about president biden. host: you said you might have to but why not take a vote beforehand? guest: when we take a vote or not, i support the speaker's actions -- whether we take a vote or not, i support this because actions. i think there's plenty there. those that say you want direct

evidence, i did not think the president of united states as that dumb to say here is my checking account, why don't you ship all the money into my checking account so you have direct evidence there somehow he was involved. i think you're smarter than that. i think the biden family is smarter than that even though they are not all that smart because everything is unraveling. but i support the speaker's actions because we need to see if the president of u.s. is compromise. the current president of the united states is compromise and that is our duty and i have no problem with an inquiry and letting go where it takes you. there's nothing wrong, president by the should not be afraid. the inquiry shall he did nothing wrong but if he did do something wrong, if i were the president, i would be scared. host: viewers you can ask our guest questions. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

how would you like to see the by the issue of government resolved? guest: i hope we can do it through normal order. hopefully, this week we will pass the defense appropriation bill and that will be number one. we should then move on to tell him the that bill and get as many appropriation bills passed as we can. i know we have disagreements here within the republican party on the entire issue of appropriations, government shutdown. i'm not in favor of shutting the government down the. i think we need to go back to normal order and pass the 12 appropriations bills and fight it out, then we fight it out. that is what democracy is about. hopefully, this week we get the defense appropriation bill passed. that is important to the country. we have the number one adversary is china. they continue same arousal in

thomas states. they have plans of how they're going to unify with taiwan, they have flown planes over the taiwan straits. i personally saw it when i was on the trip a couple of weeks ago. we need to take that serious. we need to beef up our defenses and help taiwan to defend themselves. host: on the defense bill, the funding figures, and issues about various social issues, do you think that will come locate the passage? guest: i'm sure it will but that is what democracy is about. it is like sausage making, never clean, so i'm sure if we pass it here and send it over to the senate, there will be conference and will hash out the differences and whatever comes out, the senate will not be happy with and we would not be happy with and that is probably where we end up. host: you said you hope it will

pass. what is your confidence it will? guest: i am fairly confident. i did not want to be someone in my party accused of holding up a defense operations bill, a bill that increases the been spending. we cannot go back to last fiscal year spending, that would be, for me, dangerous knowing what china is doing on the other side of the world and how they are building up their military. we need to increase our spending. we need to spend money we have more wisely. we need to get rid of programs that do not make sense. this bill does. actually increase spending in those areas, especially in research and development, advancement, nexgen fighters, also shipbuilding capabilities as we face this adversary which is a real adversary, which is the communist chinese party. they have the economic to find

the military and they are doing it and they are advancing at a rapid flip. we to make sure they never catch up with us so it is vital to the national interest of u.s. we passed that bill. host: our guest the 20th district of florida. sergio in florida, public in line. -- own line. caller: good morning. good morning, representative. i have two questions for you. my first question, how do you feel about former speaker nancy pelosi running for speaker of the house? do you have a problem with that? how do you feel about the situation? what kind of evidence do you have against hunter biden in your investigation of the biden family? guest: speaker pelosi running

for the speaker the house, anyone can run, it is democracy. i have no problem with her running. the evidence we have is that we have forms, a very good, highly respected source from the fbi that filed the form in june 2020. the conversation the individual had with the ceo of the energy company based out of ukraine were that individual talking to the informant said he had bribed hunter biden and bribed the president of u.s., we call the big guy, before we knew who the big guy was, by this laptop -- biden's laptpo, for protection. they were seeking protection from a prosecutor, ukrainian prosecutor, looking into it and back when the president was the

vice president he bragged about how he would withhold dollars for mccandless they fired that prosecutor. that is not smile very well and there something wrong in denmark. in this case, there something wrong in ukraine. the president said the prosecutor was corrupt. how documents we have seen now from the european union say no, this prosecutor meeting all the benchmarks they needed to move forward. even the u.s. state department said there is nothing big problem with this prosecutor and yet as vice president he took it upon himself to threaten ukraine government by withholding u.s. aid unless they fired the prosecutor who was looking into the same company his son was a board member. i think that needs investigating.

there is millions of dollars that will flow into shell companies. the biden family. millions of dollars into hunter biden, the president's grandchildren. for what? what we do not know. what skills does the biden family have all these companies shoving out millions of dollars into their coffers? why would you have -- a shell company is a nice word for a fake company. the only reason you have shell companies and a fake companies is to hide money. i think we need to investigate what is going on. host: kathleen in chicago, democrats line. caller: good morning. i'm listening to you talk about where there is smoke, there is fire. you got through saying you sitting on this information about joe biden since 2020. it is 2020 three and no minke

republicans. i admire you all there's nothing -- yellow make something out of nothing. this information oh joe biden since 20, y'all would have came out for -- before now. you say joe biden threatened somebody. did we hear trump threaten ukraine? if he did not get information on joe biden, he would not get them help? where is cushion are getting $2 billion -- kushner getting $2 billion? trump's daughter getting out with the millions. if you're going to do joe biden, what about trump's family? guest: i will be happy -- we do not get the information. the form is written in 2020 and fbi had it and doj had it. we did not know about it until a

couple months ago. that is when we found out. you have the information wrong. i am sorry. president trump is irrelevant. my focus is on the current president of the united states. everybody -- but did trump do? i did -- what did trump do? i do not care what trump do. my duties to find out with the current president of united states was involved in and could the current president of u.s. actually be compromise by adversaries to the united states which would be the greatest political scandal in american history. everybody goes back and rested trump and what about this. i do not care about president trump. i support him for president but what happened in the past has nothing to do with the actions of the current president.

you want to investigate president trump. they are because he's under indictment. we need to investigate what is going on with the current president. that is more radical to the united states -- more critical to the u.s. host: dale in maryland. independent. caller: good morning. the previous caller stole all my thunder because just like you just said, you said we are investigating the biden crime family. but i'm not heard you say anything about the former president son in law who got two days from saudi arabia. it just seems ironic that they suggests he not actually be given the loan because he had no authority. the same would be former president daughter who got all

this money from china. it just seems like all you want to do, to the best of my knowledge, hunter biden never worked for the government, unlike jared kushner or the former president daughter. i would like for you does explain that to the american public. guest: i will be happy to. the vice president, the current president, there are allegations that when he was vice president of u.s., used his position as vice president to threaten a foreign country, withholding taxpayer money, aid to that country, they did not fire a prosecutor that was looking to accompany in which his son was involved in. there is also evidence from this form that says the ceo of that

company, talking to a highly respected fbi source said he had bribed hunter biden and then the vice president of the united states to do just that. that is a high crime misdemeanor. did he do it? we do not know, but we have to find out for a year there are millions of dollars that flow into the biden family that we do not know why. there are shell companies that have been made up and created by the biden family. we do not know why the leak created those shell companies that we do know money has flowed from adversaries of the united states and to those companies. what jared kushner did, but president trump did is not -- that is just a smokescreen to try to take attention away from what the current president of u.s. could have been involved in. that is a danger because he is the current president of u.s.. host: you have said it several times about viktor shokhin.

at the same time the vice president at the time of making comments about him. where other officials concerned if he was on the up and up? guest: that is wrong. there were not concerned about him at all. the u.s. was not concerned at him at all. that is joe biden lying to the american people to cover his tracks i believe. that's what the inquiry is all about. host: which documents are you referring to? guest: documents from the european union that say viktor shokhin was complying with the steps that he needed to receive the aid they were not unhappy with what he was doing at all. the state department was doing at all. we need to follow that track. we need to follow the reasons why all the shell companies,

millions of dollars flowing to the biden family, we need to follow that. why was the biden family being paid this amount of money? we are getting testimony from former biden associates who said yes, the president of the united states involved in hunter biden's business activities. he met with the business partners. the president has always said i did not know anything about the business activities. now it turns out he knew about hunter biden's business activity. we need to continue to look into it. i am i saying he is guilty -- i am not saying he is guilty. i'm giving you the facts as i know them. the american people deserve to know the truth. not what the president -- this president is a pathological liar. he's a plagiarist. he exaggerates and he lies. we need to get to the bottom of what is going on. host: diane in florida.

republican. caller: good morning. i would like to say congressman you had me until you said what trump and his family did is irrelevant. of course it is relevant. he is running for president. you just said you would support him. as a republican, i love my party. i love what they stand for. i would never, ever vote for trump again. this man is also under suspicions of committing crime, yet you are ready to support him. i do not understand that. that is where you got me confused at. host: -- guest: i can explain that well. president trump the former president of united states. he has been indicted. i think 91 times.

i think most of it is politically motivated. that is the former president of the united states. what that has to do with the current president is nothing. the current president did that on his own accord when he was vice president before president trump became president. there are two separate subjects. i can comfort to my -- i can compartmentalize that. these legal troubles of the past president. at the end of the day, elections , the american people will decide what they want to do. if president trump is the nominee and then there will be an election, and to the american people will have the final say. host: being on the armed services committee, i want to ask a question about what is going on on the senate side with senator tuberville holding up

denominations of the military and if you think that is a concern. guest: that is a concerned but i understand why he is doing kid. part of the bill we had and the nda we past took away a lot of the d.e.i. initiatives in the department of defense. department of defense should be about fighting wars, not fighting culture wars. i understand -- i can't understand with the senator is doing -- i kinda understand with the senator is doing trying to send a message to the department of defense. hopefully, clarity hurdles and get the promotions duns -- clearly hurt and get the promotions done. the senator has to to confirm the promotions but understand. we need to get these things done. host: the shutdown happens, are you concerned about levels of security? guest: i'm concerned about

having the levels of funding being the same as they were at last year. we need to increased defense spending and security spending. we need to give the rank and department of defense he wants freed we need to get in the raises they deserve. we need to spend additional money on researching and development. we need to develop new weapons systems and reinvigorate the defense industry here create wanted things we have seen because of the ukraine war and because the things we try to do with taiwan is our defense capabilities are not what they used to be. our production capabilities are not what they used to be. we do not have the industrial base we can count on and so that is one of the things this bill tries to address. reinvigorate, reinvent, restart the defense industry in u.s. to start creating new weapons systems we need because chinese

are doing exactly the same. host: dorothy in baltimore. democrat. caller: good morning, everybody. representative, we need more honesty going on here. you know that a vp children have no authority. they cannot protect a soul. a vp is useless other than making a vote in the senate. they cannot fire nobody. they have no authority. guest: you are mistaken. host: let her finish. caller: there's another think i want to say. i have a theory since we are doing conspiracy theories and making allegations. jared kushner could of got that money trump has stolen from mar-a-lago because that is a lot of money to get, $2 billion per year -- $2 billion.

guest: you're mistaken. the vice president at the time was given the authority over ukraine are the president of the united states. the vice president had authority to distribute $1 billion of u.s. aid to ukraine, but did not fire the individual. if you do not fire the individual, i would not give you $1 billion. he did not fire him directly but he calls that prosecutor to be fired. the same prosecutor looking at the company in which his son was on the board of directors. it all ties back to the form we see from the fbi, they came out in 2020, which they held we did not know about it until recently, where a highly thought of internal source for informant for the fbi, had a conversation with the ceo and that ceo said

he bribed hunter biden and the president of the united states to do with the vice president did so i believe when you have that, you need to look into that. because if it is true, it is high crimes and misdemeanors. it is rubbery and it is against the constitution -- it is bribery and it is against the constitution. there's a lot of smoke there. we need to find out what is going on and if the vice president, the current president, when he was vice president is guilty of a high crime misdemeanor. that is what i am here for. that's what my duties as a congressman. i completely support what the speaker wants to do which is an inquiry. for not impeaching anybody. we're going to inquire because there is more power to subpoena, more power to look at things that are troublesome.

host: june in florida. caller: hello. representative, you keep saying millions of dollars flowing to the biden grandchildren. what proof do you have yet though i have not heard one shred of proof. spreading this false information long before 2020 election on the radio. i heard him say it repeatedly on the radio prior to the election. it is all hearsay and just innuendo. you have no proof. until you come up with the truth, there is nothing there. guest: we do have proof. we have the bank records. the false information you are talking about was this.

when we discovered or somebody discovered hunter biden's laptop, there is about 50 or 60 high place security individuals from the united states that signed a letter saying that sounds like prescient disinformation. that letter was this. the hunter laptop is real and had been in fbi position for some time and yet fbi said by and while this letter was being used by then candidate joe biden to say seat this is russian disinformation. the fbi did not clarify essay it is not. we do have that laptop. that laptop is real. it depends on where you get your information. there are many outlets that will not cover that so you need to broaden your perspective and get information from a wide variety of surface because the only misinformation given during the 2020 election was the fact that the laptop was false or claim to

be false by all of intelligence officers. do you know how that came about? the current secretary of state called to say we need you to sign a letter saying this could be russian disinformation because it can be damaging to our presidential candidate and so they fooled the american people on purpose. unfortunately, you fell for it. host: the president planning or asking congress for 16 billion dollars in emergency funding for disaster aid in light of what happened in florida, are you supporting that? guest: it depends what strings are attached. i want to support my state as much as possible, but with this administration there's always some string attached. i did check out with the strings are. -- i have to check out what strings are attached. host: what strings would you be's concerned about?

guest: to get aid to florida, who had to do something for someone else that has nothing to do with the state of florida or hurricanes. host: even ukraine? guest: i'm support of of ukraine. it should not be tied to support of florida. i'm not aware of the strings. i'm just saying if it is a clean bill to support the state of florida and their needs to recover from the hurricane, i am there. if it is not, then i would hope those things will be killed off and we can have a clean bill. host: residents of a florida server the 28th district and homeless security committees. thank you -- homeland security committees. thank you for your time per year. rejoined by john f. kennedy junior and issues he is running on. we will turn to the phones.

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continues. host: if you support the house republican effort to launch an impeachment inquiry against president biden (202) 748-8000. if you oppose it (202) 748-8001. if you want to post on our facebook page or twitter you can do that. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. it was on the senate side where the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell asked about the actions of the house and what took place yesterday. here's his response. [video clip] >> regarding the impeachment inquiry the house taking in, what are your thoughts? >> are you talking about general health situation? we have our hands full. trying to get through the appropriation process. not -- i do not have any advice

to give to the house. they have a different set of challenges then we do. i think the best advice for the senate is to do our job and we will see how this plays out later. host: a lot of activity in response to capitol hill and the announcement yesterday. you can find those comments from various legislators on the app at c-span now. you can make your comments on the phone lines. market in new york, opposed to this inquiry. caller: i just want to make a statement that any politician can change the way a government work if officials required to show tax returns. host: robert in phoenix on the oppose line. caller: i totally oppose. i think as a talking point for

the republicans trying to make joe biden look like donald trump. i am not opposed to people doing the investigation if they have credible truth or evidence someone committed a crime but those republicans to refuse to do the same for trump and his family, jared kushner. they did not want to investigate him. they want to find something against the current president and his son and so far from what i've seen, there is no real evidence. they are trying to keep that as a talking point to dirty joe biden campaign. host: james in wake forest, north carolina. on the support line. caller: i support what the republicans are doing. it is obvious this guy is compromise. i cannot believe it in the

beginning when he said he is going to run. dude you could go into prison if you run with all this stuff floating out there. with the laptop that the fbi sat on for two years. even some democrats are working up to the fact that their stuff on there that is true and is all about joe biden. all of it is on the laptop. people keep calling in. we got our sides, republican and democrat, but the people, the trump kids and other fella the emergence of the -- that married into the family. do you not understand those are business people. they were all very successful business people. have businesses all over the

world. host: also directly tied to former president trump's administration. should that get them scrutiny? caller: yeah but if you do not break the law, he did not break the law. joe biden's family had to zero of that. they have these fake llcs they set up and they got contracts that had one of the brothers got a contract to do with iran or iraq, rebuilding something, that i do did not know how to rebuild a popsicle house -- dude did not know how to rebuild a popsicle house. host: tammy on the oppose line. caller: hi. i think it is a waste of taxpayer dollars. i think the republicans are tit-for-tat. they feel they need to

investigate because of the impeachment that was done when democrats had control when trump us in office. i think it is a waste of time and republicans should be focusing on to the american people and that is inflation. everything that is going on as far as pricing. everything they promise, they are not doing any of it. they are worried about is not important -- but they are worried about is not important. i oppose it. host: you can continue to call in on the lines and posts on our facebook page, twitter feed, and sent us a text. the caller brought up inflation. cnbc reported inflation posted the biggest monthly increase in august.

the cpi which measures costs across a broad variety of goods and services rose 0.6% for the month and was up 3.7% from one year ago. economist looking for respective increases of 0.6% and 3.6%. excluding volatile food and energy, core cpi increasing its estimates of 0.2%. federal reserve officials focus more on core as it provides a better estimation of where inflation is headed over the long term. gary in ohio. support line. caller: just look into it. that is all. host: the washington post has a

story taking a look at the fbi agents involved and a look at hunter biden's affairs. under the headline fbi agent disputes whistleblowers on the hunter biden meeting writing the younger biden facing potential charges after alleged violations after the collapse of a plea deal in july. lawmakers claimed for years hunter biden's alleged wrongdoing extensive efforts to use his father's name. no concrete evidence to support theories. republicans claims are a element of the impeachment inquiry into the president. interview transcript push back on some of those claims specifically that delaware u.s. attorney david weiss told investigators he did not have the authority to bring certain criminal charges against the president sunday. thomas who manages the team involved in the probe greet with the irs whistleblower that david weiss moved slowly in making a

charging decision. more there for the story online at the washington post. david in ohio who opposes this inquiry launched yesterday. caller: i oppose this. biden has been investigated. they cannot find dirt on him. biden was going to hold back $1 billion from ukraine. i do not care if obama -- obama would have found out about it. now they have to investigate obama. are they going to go that far yet so i highly doubt it. it is a joke to get back at the impeachment of trump. host: joseph in pennsylvania on the support line. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on. yes, we can. caller: i've been listening and

i am no lawyer, no paralegal, but i listen to your program all the time and are respected highly. i would say if they want to have an impeachment inquiry, let them have it. simple as that. do i make since yucca should i be cut up -- do i make since yucca host: what basis do you think an inquiry as necessary? caller: i do not think i have the insight, knowledge, and experience to run an inquiry. that is what our government is forward. if they want to run one, then let's run one. host: why do you support that? caller: why would i not support any inquiry our congress wants to make? if you get to where you cannot

have an inquiry, you're going to find -- you're not going to find out anything capri go whistleblowers. let's hear the truth. the truth will prevail. host: mike in new york on the oppose line. caller: thank you, pedro. i oppose it because it is political. it is to get back to the impeachment of donald trump. your previous congressman he kept us merging into the television when asked questions about donald trump -- smirking into the television when asked questions about donald trump. the fact that the prosecutor was removed in ukraine based on the fact that the prosecutor was corrupt. that was well known. that is been proven. he says that is a lie. just like donald trump, everything is a lie. they do not know what the truth is. this is to get back.

as far as jared kushner and trumps family in the white house, as you said come they were members of the white house. what qualified them to be there? they had no qualifications. what is their business? a trait on the trump name. -- they trade on the trump name. that is their business. that is the first wave to autocracy. host: that is mike. in other news, washington post takes a look at the money distributed over the course of time during covid. the latest report from the government accountability of a saint possibly up to 135 billion dollars stolen that money. the criminals focus their efforts on states which had struggle starting that spring process for federal unemployment aid according to the report on tuesday echoing many conclusions

from oversight reviews to obtain checks they do not deserve, lucius actors masqueraded as real people, mr. blending themselves -- misrepresenting themselves. you can find the reporting on this on the washington post. harold in west virginia who supports the impeachment inquiry. caller: i support. it is an inquiry. there checking to see. they're not rushing into things like they did on donald trump. my personal belief, i think that tony bubble in has the cabability, he was a naval officer and he absolutely said jill biden took -- biden took bribes. check it out.

find out what the deal is and if he is guilty. taking bribes from places like china, russia, that borders on treason. you are the president of the united states. how awful can you get? host: in connection to the funds given out of covid, a story this morning in usa today about how the poverty rate has gone up for the first time in years in connection to money release previously saying newly released data shows in 2022, 12.4% of americans lived in poverty, up from 7.8% representing millions more living without minimum level of resources to meet their basic needs. the increase is likely connected to the end of the pandemic era benefits. child tax credits, expanded

unemployment benefits, medicaid and food stamps cause property in america to jump to record lows in 2020 and 2021 according to columbia university professor, author of poverty in the pandemic. david in missouri on the oppose line. caller: good morning. i deftly oppose this. i agree with the callers who called in. the gentleman who was hunter biden's associate, i testified he has never heard jill biden say anything about receiving bribes or anything else. republicans understand this. this is an opportunity to take the heat off of the president sunday. they want to launch an investigation, find, but they did this every time instead of dealing with the problems of the american people, you keep having

investigations after investigations. when people forget -- what people forget is the vice president does not make policy regarding how much money goes to what the country. that is the president of the united states. why not investigate barack obama? there is no investigation into barack obama. host: at the same time this inquiry was launched, discussion over how to keep the government funded past september 30 also comment on is the house freedom caucus talking about the group's position on any funding deal that would incur. taking a look to avoid a government shutdown. there is part of his comments from yesterday. [video clip] >> we're sick of the theater. very tired of the washington theater. tell them we are working for them and nothing we are doing is

changing their lives. government that tells you you cannot buy the stove you want or drive the car you want is a government of tierney and there is no freedom in america. we not interested in continuing resolution to continues the policies and spending of biden, schumer, pelosi era. we are not going to vote for it. the american people are sick of it. they cannot afford electricity bill. they cannot afford the grocery bill. we are to put our foot down and say it stops now. the power of the purse is in the legislature. will you stop this craziness of the biden administration is to stop giving them money. host: angela in maryland on the support line for the impeachment inquiry loss yesterday. caller: not only do i support the inquiry, i want them to do

the full impeachment trial. for the simple fact that dan gutman are going to make quick work of these republican lies. the gentleman that was on earlier said the state department did not want this. first day of the trump impeachment trial they had the gentleman that was from the state department in 2015 when this was going on, he said it was not biden's policies but the policies of the state department and europeans. but the congressman said was untrue. the fbi talked to the ceo of the ceo is corrupt. as corrupt as the prosecutor. there is no proof of $5 million and i cannot wait. pull it up in your archives, state intimate testified day one of the trump impeachment hearing. they pulled that 32nd clip and asked about -- he testified

under oath. it was the policy of the state department. the prosecutor was corrupt. the co was corrupt. i want the trial. host: people are interested in going back in time and revisiting the impeachment hearings of that nature they can go to our website at c-span.org and find that information there. diane in new jersey who opposes the hearing. caller: hi. i think they should have an inquiry into trump regarding 2 billion for jared kushner. ivanka getting china patents. we have a constitution in this country and we elect officials to work for us.

finding the government is number one. the military -- finding the government's number one, the military. host: why do you oppose the inquiry into president biden and his son? caller: if they are talking millions with biden's son, what about the billions from jared kushner? no one ever questioned that. he just got 2 billion. no one said anything about this. so far, they have been -- i think investigating this for five years. they have found nothing. they are missing in action comer talking about missing in action, the whistleblower. this is just to get away from everything they are doing to trump.

what trump did to himself. host: claudia in north carolina on the support line. caller: yes, i support the inquiry, primarily because i think there was enough questions about the money. and where the money came from. i do not connected to trump. -- connect it to trump. i think it is a separate issue. why are family members, whether it is jared kushner or hunter biden, why are they allowed to be on air force one, taxpayer-funded transportation, in order to support their own interest?

didn't hunter biden have an opportunity for other employment? that alone denotes a conflict of interest. host: that is claudia. the wall street journal reporting the center -- cdc endorsing covid-19 boosters for everyone six months old as cases increase heading into the fall. it was tuesday the cdc accepted recommendations of the advisory committee for the coming season. the fda cleared updated boosters from pfizer, madrona for people six months and older. pfizer said the vaccine will be available soon after the cdc recommendation. moderna says the shots should be available soon. katrina maryland who opposes the inquiry. caller: good morning.

it is almost like tit-for-tat issue because democrats impeach trump so it is like they have to do something. even when you look at the way -- issuing threats on the floor the speaker. all of a sudden he was doing it because he was trying to save his job. this is ridiculous. were going to an inquiry with no evidence. they're going to launch it before they come up with evidence. they're going to investigate this for the last four years. that come up with nothing. it is a waste of taxpayers money. host: bryant in virginia, a supporter of the inquiry. caller: good morning. i wish you had an in between line is that of in favor or against. i am not a big fan of biden or trump.

but republicans keep saying we have the evidence. where is it? i want to see it. i'm not a lawyer. i have been involved with the law and military and other places, not as a defendant. i want to see the evidence. they keep saying we have the evidence. we had the documents but they have not produced them. host: have you searched for what they produce? caller: yeah, i have. pretty good on the internet. it is not out there. it is not evidence. it innuendo, smoke and mirrors, and that is the way they are doing it. if the politicians math is moving -- outh is moving, they are lying. they are doing this for themselves. big deal. get over it.

host: the financial times reporting north korean leader offered his countries unconditional support for the russian war in ukraine which he called a sacred fight against imperialism and the was in a meeting with resident putin. the leaders met. in the country's far east, with the countries facing international isolation and sanctions over moscow's innovations of ukraine. russian risen to a sacred fight to protect as pharmacy and security against forces. he told putin via translator will always support the decisions of president putin and the russian leadership and will be together in the fight against imperialism. amin in texas on the oppose line. caller: good morning, everyone. i would like to say every time it has been some criminal activity done in this country,

it is not fed the democrats, it has been the republicans. the republicans brought drugs over to the black people during the contra war so they could get hooked on cocaine and spend money they use. the republicans what they did, they second think they did, they went for -- host: i appreciate the history. why are you posing the impeachment inquiry? caller: because you cannot believe anything republicans say. they are the people's representatives. they are the rich and business. by supporting those people, they cannot support the regular

people. host: this is reported in the washington journal. that's in the wall street journal and we will hear next from adam in michigan on our support line, go ahead. caller: good morning. i support it for the very reason as he is our current president. we need to get away from this democrat and republican situation. from my point of view, both sides are in a bad position. i support it, thank you.

host: did you support the impeachment inquiries on president trump? caller: i supported just to find the evidence. if the evidence is there -- host: did you support the ones against the previous president when they occur? caller: yes, totally. host: ok,eve from michigan on their probe line, hi. caller: good morning, pedro. and c-span. this is what i would say about donald trump, host: what do you think about the inquiry itself being launched yesterday? caller: it's just totally ridiculous. you are going to impeach trump and then we are going to impeach biden? host: are you there? caller: the people -- can you

believe that people actually believe that the show that was on nbc with the apprentice was real? they thought those people had jobs. they were acting like they were producing jobs. jared kushner went and got $2 billion from the 70's. and donald trump after they killed khashoggi -- host: jodi in arizona on our support line, go ahead. caller: hi, pedro. i'm still laughing at this woman that says biden is honest. i definitely agree with an inquiry for the impeachment. the inquiry will give us -- the

republicans the ability to get all the records and show the ties that are there. if they are not, great. we need to listen to it. the people that think jared kershner got $2 billion from the 70's, jared kershner isn't international investor. he has over 20 employees. he is an international investor before he met ivanka. host: back to the inquiry, you said it needed looking into. the republicans produce what they call evidence of wrongdoing so why not base something off of that? caller: they've got plenty of evidence, way more than pelosi ever had on trump. they just want more evidence. host: if they had plenty of

evidence, why not just impeach him? caller: i'm not opposed to that. but the man in jail today, biden. i'm not opposed to anything. this is step one. unfortunately, we have to go through these steps to get the republicans on board, to understand what's going on. hopefully, the senate, there will be enough evidence where the senate cannot say we can't impeach him. host: caroline in north carolina on her opposed line. caller: i am opposed to this because so far, the republicans only have accusations. they are not evidence. if they has much evidence as they claim they have, they could take him today. they are trying to open inquiry to find evidence. it's to find something.

that's totally ridiculous. i think america is on its way down because these republicans have turned this situation into a fort. this is not a fort, this is a country. we are not that far off with the celebration of 9/11 and remember how many people joined the military and they have turned the situation into a dire situation so they better keep their eyes on russia, china and north korea now and stop this nonsense -- nonsense. host: one more call from georgia on our support line. caller: thank you, sir. first of all, many of the opposed colors, they keep talking about jared kushner.

can i ask you a quick question? the fbi in the doj are able to investigate kershner all day long. the reason the republicans need to do the inquiry is had they not been doing their investigation, the shell companies, the phony email names that joe biden has been using and the whistleblowers would never have come into light. host: that's randy in georgia. that finishes off our calls and thank you to all who participated. the associated present others reporting today that senators on capitol hill will receive a close door hearing, taking a look at the issue of artificial intelligence. joining us to talk about that hearing and related topics is

ryan mosley with m.i.t. technology review. thanks for giving us your time. guest: thanks for having host: question but what is artificial intelligence? guest: it's a super broad term and it covers a lot of different types of computer science techniques but it really refers to machines that can learn, reason and act for themselves. lately, what we've been hearing about is generative ai. that's a type of ai that uses a lot of data about words and language and basically predicts strings of words and how they fit together in the future. that's why we've been hearing about chatgpt, it uses that form of ai generative technologies. host: now we have senators having a close hearing about this. guest: i think there has been so

much focus and attention on the power of ai in the last year or so with generative ai in particular. ai is not new. i like to remind people that ai has been touching her daily lives for most of us for like 5-10 years. what we've seen with generative ai is a quick, rapid deployment of a new technology and the power of it is really tangible. students are writing sis using -- essays using chet gpt and we see this in the technology field. i think it's waking people up to this space and we are starting to see a lot more activity around understanding the risks of ai and the opportunities and congress trying to get a plan together and on how to respond. host: if you had to characterize how savvy congress is on this issue currently, how would you

do that? guest: they are certainly getting better. i think we are far away from the hearings in 2016 where you had senators asking how the internet works and how do i bring broadband to my district. we've seen at least a recognition from lawmakers that this is a technically sophisticated field and they need to learn up on technology. it's impacting society, education and inequality. at the very least, this forum is an indicator that congress learns they need to get smarter about it. i think they are taking the steps to do that. host: senator schumer talked about the closed-door nature of these hearings yesterday so let me play a little of what he had to say. [video clip] >> i don't know which other ones

you are referring to behind closed doors and they may have been on the intelligence committees but we've had 9-12 hearings in the open, there is one in the open today and tomorrow in the open tomorrow. there is a time and place her everything and i think this ai form will produce some real positive knowledge and results. so people can move forward but we will continue to have open hearings in the whole process will move forward through committees in an open process. host: as he says that, the form today is close to the public so why do you think that is? >> that's a good question. guest: i think his goal is to set up a new environment so there can be a change in this format we have seen where tech ceos are grilled in front of the american public for their choices.

it ends up being a media who block. we've seen a lot of those hearings. his intention and what he said his attention is is to create a brain trust that congress can act on. a lot of the folks in these meetings are tech ceos. it's important the american public and the press have real, true insight into the influence that tech companies have on the future of ai regulations in the united states, particularly the companies that plan to profit from ai. i wish it was open and you we might get some information out of the meeting today. there is certainly a lot of reporting about it. hopefully, we will learn of the more about what the function of these forms are and how action for they will be. host: is this open up? guest: it was originally

supported by axios. there is 22 folks at this first meeting. not totally clear if they will be at the subsequent forms. there will be nine like this this fall. of those 22 folks, the large majority are tech ceos. you have elon musk, the ceo of google, bill gates, the coo appellant here, a lot of really big names. the openai ceo and there are a handful of civil rights accountability labor folks. they have the teacher federation from the afl-cio, and accountability researcher. certainly, the invite list is heavily tilted toward tech company ceos and that is pretty interesting. it sends a clear message about who congress is trying to talk to and who they are trying to get a perspective from when it comes to ai regulations.

host: reporting on these issues for the mi technology review is kate mosley, the senior tech policy reporter, thank you for your time and we hope you come back and talk about these issues with us. guest: thank you so much. host: up next, a discussion with democratic presidential candidate robert kennedy junior about his bid for president and the issues he's running on. we will have that conversation when "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> c-spanshop.org is our online store. brow star latest collection of products, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase up support our nonprofit operation. shop now or any time at sea sponge.org -- c-span chopped outward. -- c-span shop.org.

>> c-span i was a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the court, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv network and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling broadcasts -- podcasts. downloaded for free today. c-span now, your front row seat to washin, angtime, anywhere. >> c-span's campaign 20 for coverages your front row seat to the presidential election. watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, speeches and events to make up your own mind.

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author and activist and he's here to talk about his presidential campaign. thanks are giving time. -- thanks for giving us your time. you launched your campaign in april. what have you learned since then, not only about those you are trying to reach or how they are responding to you? guest: i think there is a lot of appetite for on their right now. we are getting an arm's crowds in south carolina and new hampshire and other states. i talked to crowds yesterday with almost 750 people the day before yesterday at a farm in new hampshire. we had about 650 at winthrop college the day before. the crowds we are getting are comparable to what bernie

sanders and barack obama were getting during the late primaries. we are very happy and our polling shows us, our internal poles is showing doing well in those states. host: when you talk to those people, what is the message you work selling to them? what are you telling them that's getting the appeal? guest: i would describe myself as a progressive. i am skeptical about the war and very critical how the ukraine were has been handled. that issue has tremendous residence with the american people. more and more people are seeing the drain it's putting on our economy and more more people see the mistakes of the biden administration in a war that should never have happened.

my major focus is with happening to the american middle class. i'm running against two presidents were both running closer to a four-year term in the white house. they are telling the american public they are running based upon the prosperity they brought to this country but i'm sitting at people kitchen tables and talking to big crowds and nobody is talking about prosperity. they are talking about the deterioration and disintegration of the middle class and working poor in this country, the economic disintegration. this year, we had the highest jump in poverty in american history. also the mental health deterioration that they are seeing all around them. the inability of kids to be positive now as these giant

corporations try to monopolize single-family homes in this country. we are looking at a colonial model now rather than the classic american capitalism and people are feeling it. people are living with a tremendous amount of anxiety as they live from pay to paycheck. 57% of these -- of people cannot put their hands in $1000 if they have a family emergency. they see the engine light come on in their car and it's like the apocalypse. they don't know how they will pay the mechanic. they start thinking about not being able to get to work. they think about losing their job or their home that they are barely hanging onto. the income, the average income in this country is now $5,000 less than the cost of basic

needs of food, transportation and housing. people are putting that $5,000 that they experience every year on their credit card. we have the highest level of credit card debt in history, $1 trillion which is a milestone. those card companies are charging them 22% interest in the mafia would go to jail for loansharking but for these companies, it's been business as usual. host: if that's the case economically, how would a kennedy administration reversed those trends? what is your plan to do that? >> we have a very comprehensive economic plan that looks at these issues. we look at housing because the feedback i am getting from americans is the tickets issues,

one of the biggest issues. we have these giant companies trying to buy up all the single-family homes in this country. it's driven the cost of housing from the average of $215,000 two years ago to $400,000 today in the interest rates have gone from 3% to 7%. it's completely out of reach. the american dream was that you work hard and play by the rules, you can afford a house. it's that you can raise a family and get a summer vacation and put money aside for your retirement. on a single job, that was the american dream and the american promise and that promise is gone. americans are struggling just to pay their bills. one thing i will do to address that is i will change the tax code to make it less profitable

for these giant companies to buy up all our single-family homes. when our kids go out to play, they are competing with black rock which is paying interest rates that are 30% below the richest people in our country. these companies are trying to buy up all of our homes. we are on track now that 60% of the family homes in this country will be owned by corporations within six years. this is a futile model and a colonial model. the other thing i will do is i will create a housing boom in this country by allowing americans to compete with black rock. i will do that by creating a class of single-family homes dish home mortgages. they would be 3%. if you get a cosigner for your

mortgage, you are in a better position. i'm going to give everybody a rich uncle which is uncle sam. i'm going to create a class of mortgages at 3% for single-family home buyers who work and live in that community. the first 500,000 will go to teachers, our most important profession. it's a beleaguered profession so they can live in the communities where their children are. i will finance that by selling treasury bills at 3% tax rates. this will not add to the deficit. i will allow americans to compete against these corporations who are buying up all of the housing stock. host: let me invite people to

ask you questions about your campaign directly. robert f. kennedy, jr. is our guest, (202) 748-8000 democrats, (202) 748-8001 republicans and independents (202) 748-8002 or you can text us at (202) 748-8003. you have an opinion piece in the wall street journal this morning. i will show folks the headline at home. what's the focus of the piece? guest: the democratic party is basically doing the same thing to me they did to bernie sanders last time but worse. in fact, they are adopting rules that will disenfranchise the citizens of states like iowa and new hampshire. . i voted against president biden last time. because i have campaigned in iowa and new hampshire, i will

not be allowed to win delegates from those states. not only that but the dnc is now adopting rule that will disenfranchise georgia voters so that any candidate who steps into new hampshire which is me, will not be able to win any delegates from georgia. no matter how big my vote is in georgia, i will not be able to win those delegates and that's existential because georgia has 164 delegates. the democratic party in my family in particular since the 1960's has been fighting for voting rights with the people of georgia. it is ironic that the democratic party is now leading the battle

to the virtually disenfranchised -- to disenfranchise every georgia voter so their vote will not count in the primary and there are many other mechanisms the dnc has put in place including the super delegates, this new class of superdelegates. they are party leaders and other elected officials. they are all controlled by the party. they are there to ensure that whoever wins, if a progressive candidate like myself wins the democratic nomination, we will not be able to actually get the nomination even if we win the primary. it's not very democratic. we are living in a time now

where a lot of americans are disillusioned with the system. it's not only the economic system which they know was rude against them but also the political system which many americans believe is rigged. we need to conduct elections in this country. both political parties are templates for the rest of the world that we are the exemplary democracy and we shouldn't be like the soviet union where the party came in, picked the candidate at the outset. they claim they worry democracy and the commonest party would come in and pick the candidates and they say this is the only candidate you can vote for. the democratic parties essentially doing the exact same thing. it's not a good example for our democracy. host: we have callers lined up to talks just to talk to you and sharon is on with robert kennedy

junior, go ahead. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. this is quite an honor. you are a kennedy and we like your name but i am a democrat and i kind of cringe when pedro said he introduce you as the democratic presidential campaign. i really need to know from you what makes you feel like you are a democrat. is it the only way i can win is if i claim to be a democrat? you just put yourself in with bernie sanders. i get it. i wish we had that third party. i wish you could feel confidence that you are strong enough in your campaign and beliefs that you could run on an independent because that's what you are. you're definitely not in my book or any of my democratic family

and friends book a democrat. your conspiracy theories literally scare us. we just came out of four years full of trump's laws and his conspiracy theories and this country, you claim you want to heal us as a nation. the wi-fi causes cancer and five g is mass surveillance and chemicals in our water because transgender and antidepressants caused school shootings. i am so confused. i am looking for clarity from you today, mr. kennedy. host: thank you for the call. you laid out a lot of things. guest: thanks for those questions. if you go down the checklist of the things that my father believed in, robert kennedy and my uncle john kennedy believed in, i would check every one of those boxes.

i make classic progressive liberal democratic candidate. i don't think you can look at one of those things i am not fighting for and have my whole life. i am arguably the leading environmental lawyer in this country. i found that the biggest water protection group in this country. i devoted my life to protecting the environment and civil rights. and protecting the right to choose bodily autonomy. i challenge the emergence of the military-industrial complex and the warfare state which is been a classic concern of the democratic party and democratic leadership. it challenges the dominance of wall street and the large corporatism that is taken over both political parties in our country.

also, i champion the cause of the working poor in this country of the middle class. i am the only democrat who is talking about those issues and has concrete policies for reestablishing the american middle class and the industrial base in this country. you say that i have conspiracy theories. a i'm notnti-vax or conspiracy therapy just theorist that's one of the ways the democratic party has silenced me. you mentioned 5g and dismiss the fact that 5g causes cancer. i am representing hundreds of men and women in this country who have gotten a blastoma from

5g and there are reams of scientific studies that show that that is happening. you say 5g is not used for surveillance. is there really any american left who believes the government is not spying on the american people? edward snowden demonstrated this. i don't think you will have a single-member of congress who will tell you no. i don't understand how that's conspiracy theory. i have never said that atrazine causes transgender. what i've said is that atrazine which is well documented and anybody can look this up, atrazine, when it is added to the water in which frogs and

laboratories in which there are male frogs, they took 27 male frogs, expose them to atrazine, 90% of them were sterile and 10% of the frogs became female and were able to produce fertile eggs. it has that capacity. it's an endocrine disruptor which i've been fighting my whole life. i don't think there is any signs of controversy that they affect sexual development. it's very well documented. i said we should look at the chemical exposures and see what their impact is on public health and depression and endocrine disruptors in the alteration, what are girls in this country

demonstrably reaching puberty at a much younger age than they were a generation ago? those are things we should be looking at. that's all i've said. i think that's common sense. i don't think you would say that's a conspiracy theory. host: you say it's science-based so exactly what science are you basing it on? if you put that prove out there, is it out there so people can look at it? guest: of course i have. these scientific studies are listed on my website and they are available to anybody. just go to google and type in frogs exposed to atrazine and fertility. you will see the scientific study with peer reviewed science . it's nothing that's obscure.

anyone can look these up. it's not rocket science. there are literally thousands of studies that talk about endocrine disruptors. plastics and bpa in plastics is in and -- is an endocrine disruptor. i don't think anybody disputes that. one of the great scientists on this is dr. david carpenter and you can look up his studies and track his interviews. this isn't a theory. it's something that's peer reviewed and very well known. host: people can check out the

website. let's hear from indiana. go ahead. caller: hello, bobby. i am so honored to talk to you. you and i are the same age. when i was a teenager, i had a poster of your father in my bedroom. i just adored him. of course, your uncle. i am a republican and i was a trump county coordinator in 2016. but i am so interested in your campaign. my son lives in st. louis and he is volunteering for you. i've listened to almost every podcast you been on. the all in, megyn kelly, and i love everything you say. i hope you get the debate with biden and i hope you really

pressure the democratic party to change those rules prohibiting real democracy within the democratic party which i grew up as a democrat. my question to you is about marijuana. i did hear that at one time you said you thought it should be federally authorized or decriminalized federally so maybe a banking institution can support it. i'm not really clear on your stance on that. i am your age. i am no stranger to the occasional marijuana. host: we got the point and we will let our guest respond. guest: my position on marijuana is that it should be federally

legalized. i was a drug addict when i was younger for 14 years. between the ages of 15-28 years old. i'm worried about the proliferation of stimulants and mind altering substances. i don't think it's a good thing for people but i also believe in personal freedoms and i think the jails are now filled with with people who are there for minor drug crimes and many of them for marijuana which is now legal in many states. i just think what i've advocated is that we should legalize marijuana. we should have a federal tax on

marijuana that is designated for drug treatment and i want to build this part of my campaign on a series of and detoxification centers around this country to treat the rise in mental illness and drug addiction that is debilitating our children. we lost ones are at 6000 kids last year to overdoses which is double the number of kids that we lost during the 20 year vietnam war. we need to start healing our country in many ways. you talk of being a republican and i'm very happy that i'm getting supporters from all parts of this political spectrum with just a commonsense approach and truth telling. for me, this is an issue that we

are handling it now is not helping our country. there are no good solutions and i think the best solution is to lead lives that make it possible for people, for the cannabis distributors to bank their profits and revenues and force them to keep them in mattresses -- and not force them to keep them in mattresses which in -- which is encourages more crime so that we can pay for the addiction treatment for our children. that's my position. host: from jeff in new york, independent line. caller: thank you, pedro. you speak about peer review and trying to help people. how is it you expect people to believe you when you provide all types of disinformation.

let me give you one example. you appeared at the louisiana state legislature. you claimed that the vaccine, the covid vaccine was killing people and you used unvented data that had not been vetted for its authenticity as to which people had died from covid. you cited that as evidence for the vaccine killing people. this has fueled vaccine hesitancy and accounted for countless deaths among people who overwhelmingly die from covid who are not vaccinated. this is absolutely unacceptable to the american people. you talked about feudalism.

this is science denial. there were other instances. host: let's keep it to that one because of airtime. mr. kennedy, go ahead. guest: you raise an interesting issue. is the system reliable? today it's the only system used by the cdc. to test vaccine safety. the system is not a good system and people have known that for many years. it's the only system. the reason it is a poor system is that it relies on voluntary reporting. you need a doctor, if you received a vaccine and you die

17 days later and your doctor then needs to report that and say this was a potential vaccine death but most about -- but most doctors will not do that because they don't see the connection and that system doesn't work. you need a machine counting system that can do a cluster analysis. it does not rely on voluntary human reporting which is biased. nevertheless, there is reports, there have been more reports of deaths of all vaccines combined. that's since 1986. the only measure cdc has and uses, it is the most dangerous vaccine and has killed more people than any other vaccine in history.

i want to say this -- this system has been criticized for many years. that includes david kessler who's the former attorney general and surgeon general who said this system undercounted vaccine injuries by orders of magnitude. cdc retained a group of scientists from harvard that would collect all of the vaccine injuries and do it accurately in 2010. it was led by a team of scientists led by a scientist called lazarus. they developed a system that worked very well. they tried it out on one hmo. they were supposed to unroll it

to all of the hmo's. what happened is they came back and said this works and what we are finding is when we compare it to the old system, the old system is actually collecting less than 1% of vaccine injuries. everybody can look this up. it's called lazarus study. they said cdc was telling people at that time that the vaccines were injuring one in one million people. but lazarus found was that one in every 36 people were getting injured. it's a horrendous injuries free -- injury rate. then the cdc went silent. the description of that interaction, the cdc when it saw the huge magnitude of injuries shut down the system and refused to unroll it and refused to talk to the very scientists they had retained.

during covid, they developed another system calledvsafe which confirmed the horrendous rate of injury and about two weeks ago, when they started to unroll the new vaccine, the boosters, cdc mysteriously shut down thevsafe system. it's unfair to come to me and say i side with a bad system. it undercounted vaccine injuries. those are the own cdc peer-reviewed studies. why doesn't cdc have a system that works? host: we are running close on time but democrats line, go ahead. caller: yes, mr. kennedy, one

person that i was happy about was your father, bobby kennedy. he was the best one. your grandfather and your uncle both hesitated on civil rights. you hang out with elon musk and bernie sanders, two of the worst people. you are talking about fair housing. i've been in my house for 35 years and own it and i don't go out and spend money on anything. i am on vaccines and i've been taken them ever since i was six years old. i'm 75. i didn't get all the other things but if you think that any of us, especially black and brown people are going to believe what you're talking about, you've got things all wrong.

your grandfather, germany, your uncle, sidney poitier and harry belafonte and sammy davis junior went out and helped and wanted to get your uncle in office. what did they do? he wouldn't allow them to come to the inauguration ball. i don't believe you will do anything right and quit telling people to give people a hand up and not a handout. host: thank you. guest: in defense of my grandfather, my grandfather has been maligned in many ways. i've written a book that addresses those issues including this defamation which is utterly untrue that he was a bootlegger

at the beginning of world war ii. he did oppose america's entrance into the war at a time with what was happening to the final solution that had not begun in germany. once the war started, he supported it and was not involved with the american firsters who were pro-germany. he lost his son during the war. he let his other son john kennedy and thought he was missing in action and was presumed dead for 10 days and received the purple heart. the only american president who has. my uncle vigorously supported civil-rights. sidney poitier, harry belafonte were people who i saw costley growing up who were in my house

and were close personal friends with my family, with my uncle and my father. i don't think there's any doubt about that record. they sent federal troops to mississippi. they supported the marches in selma. they work very closely with dr. king on voting rights which was passed immediately after my uncles death in memorial to him. they integrated the university of alabama as well. they forced voting rights and supported the freedom riders. they were in the middle of the civil rights battle.

they were indignant about the way black americans were treated. i am proud of their legacy during that minute -- during their administrations. black americans who had been officially apartheid, they dismantled the jim crow laws. it made black americans second-class citizens. they made america a true constitutional democracy for the first time in its history. i'm very happy that you've had good experiences. with vaccines i've never opposed vaccines. what i said is that we should have good science. we should have robust science and we should and the financial entitlements between the regulatory agencies and the pharmaceutical companies. if people want to take vaccines,

they should be able to do that. i have never opposed that. that's applied to me erroneously. my vested interest including the pharmaceutical companies want to discredit and marginalize me and make me look crazy. i've never been anti-vax. i said you should be able to make up your own mind about anything. now we should have the best science possible in the same scientific studies, the controlled studies prior to licensure that we have for every other medicine. we should have the good studies. host: republican line in florida, go ahead. caller: mr. kennedy, i am so

happy that you're on c-span. c-span, i'm a happy that you have him and i hope you have mr. kennedy again. i am from south bend, indiana and i had a picture of your dad and i celebrated him at the democratic dingo's day celebration. i was a democrat and i turned republican last year because i believe the democratic party has taken a turn and turned away from persons like myself who believe in america first. i am so thankful you're in the race. my question to you is, other than extreme gratitude that you are there, is why is the democratic party not allowing you to debate or even get the news coverage, turning all this

negativity on you? i just don't understand it. you are a breath of fresh air to the democratic party. if i knew you're going to be running in the race, perhaps i wouldn't -- perhaps i would have changed my party. i don't want to live in the past. some of the callers today have put past issues before you. i want to live in the future. host: thank you. guest: thank you for your comments. what we are finding is tremendous support from so many democrats who have left the party and they felt they were driven out, people who voted for obama and switch to trump and people voted for bernie and switched to trump. i am very grateful that so many people are coming back to the democratic party because of the potential that i might be the

nominee. i'm grateful to you and for your comments. i forgot what the question was, i'm sorry. host: i think she talked about the process and you address that when we first started why do you think you're getting a lot of support from republicans? guest: in terms of why the democratic party does not like me, i think -- i can't tell you because i can't look into people's heads. i can tell you from past examples that it's very well documented in the democratic party that they put their finger on the scale to make sure that bernie sanders could not get the nomination. i think it bernie sanders got the nomination, we would be in a different place in our country today. there is an antagonism and antipathy within the democratic party for people who have true

progressive values, people who are challenging the predominance of wall street and companies like blackrock and state street and vanguard. and the military-industrial complex. the democratic party used to be antiwar and now it's at the forefront of promoting these witches is ruining our country. bernie sanders was a threat to the infrastructure and i am 10 times the threat that bernie sanders was. they had pulled out all the stops to make sure that i will not threaten the donor base of the democratic party. it apparently raised $2 billion already. that money did not come from regular americans. that money predominantly comes

from very large donors way think we can assume they are not giving it out of a patriotic impulse. tens of millions of dollars is not out of love for humanity but they believe there is a quid pro quo from them from the democratic party in the military contractors want to keep these awards going and the big corporations who are benefiting from the policies that are now supported by the democratic party. host: when do you decide or what goes into your thinking is for us how long you will stay in this race and what you have to decide and when you decide you don't want to be part of it? guest: i will go all the way to the convention if i can, if they make it a fair fight. i will probably be part of it.

at the debates and in the convention and trying to bring the party back to a gravity that brings the party back to its original values. robert kennedy, john kennedy, martin luther king, harry truman, franklin roosevelt were true democratic party candidates i want to continue to advocate for that and get the democratic party on the issues -- to stand on the issues it always has. host: kennedy 24.com is the website. we are talking about his campaign in the issues he is advocating for. we appreciate your time today on c-span. guest: thanks so much for having me. host: later on today with the announcement yesterday of the house impeachment inquiry, there will be