biden's aid request for israel and ukraine. we will preview tonight's state dinner honoring australian prime minister anthony albanese. "washington journal" starts now. host: it is the washington journal for october 25. house republicans gather at noon today. representative mike johnson

gained the votes needed to secure the position. watch that on c-span. he has been over 20 days since the house has had a speaker. to start today, we ask you if you have seen over the past three weeks and if it has affected how you view congress and how it operates. tell us on our phone line. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002 is how you do that. if you want to text us and tell us your view of congress has been affected by the lack of a speaker and the election process, (202) 748-8003 is how you do that. you can post on facebook and on x and follow the show on instagram. a recent poll by the economist is highlighted in a recent story, looking at the view of congress in light of the speaker election. the economist asks folks if the lack of a speaker was a problem. an amount saying overall it was

helping government. 25% saying it had no effect and about 50% saying that the lack of a speaker was hurting government. among democrats, that view about hurting government is shared and independents as well, as well as republicans. that is how the parties break down when it looks at the operational view of congress. maybe this election process has impacted you and how you view congress you can let us know how you view congress. you can let us know on the phone lines. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. louisiana representative mike johnson was chosen last night to become the speaker designee. that vote will take place at noon on the house floor where he will try to gain the 217 votes

needed to become the house speaker. punch bowl takes a look at some of the things working in mr. johnson's favor when it comes to that, saying that johnson has a good chance of getting to 217 after former speaker kevin mccarthy he may be the best position of any house republican to do so. he can lose only four votes but he can make it. house majority leader steve scalise and judiciary chair jim jordan have offered support. three gop lawmakers voted present last night in a private gop only roll call vote. there were only 23 -- there were 23 absences. this is where johnson's problems will be, if he has any. some may be holdouts, but there was an event last night that some gop lawmakers attended instead of the vote. if republicans cannot elect johnson as speaker, the game is

up. moderate republicans will go to the floor and join with democrats to elect patrick mchenry. the house has been without a speaker for 22 days. members are fed up with the paralysis, the lack of a speaker, and the process over the last three weeks affects you as far as how you view congress and how it operates. you can let us know. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. clearance in tennessee about the view of congress and the speaker election. he is in nashville. good morning. caller: good morning to you and to america. i am a lifelong republican and pleased they finally have a candidate and i encourage anyone , most of us never knew this

particular individual, i would encourage you to look at -- google resume. he appears to be a solid candidate and i hope this group will elect him with no no votes. i would encourage many of these republicans to not allow the press questioners to stand and talk for five minutes before questions. it is pathetic, the way the press has treated this entire situation. it has been so one-way. host: how do you view congress and how it operates? has it changed your opinion of

that? caller: i have been discouraged, especially for one tennessee congressman that joined that. i think that was atrocious. but better to get it done. the public should not be surprised that there are some differences of opinion rather than the echo chamber that the democratic caucus uses and uses wastefully. host: your view of congress and how it has been affected by the house election -- the speaker election process. a viewer from hawaii, democrats line. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: it has been three weeks. the house has not yet had a speaker.

i'm always on the side of someone -- hakeem jeffries has always been someone that i would hundred percent support. there are a lot of things that need to get done and we need to get back to work. the house needs to get back to work and get business done, funding for israel, for ukraine, and protecting underserved communities, making sure that all of america stands united. it is really all about doing what is right. whatever could be happening today when the house is meeting for the floor vote, i am prepared. we need to get together. we need to do what is right and we need to heal this nation. our nation has suffered so much and we want to make sure everyone does what is best.

host: let's go to deborah in massachusetts. again, your opinion of congress and if it has been affected by the speaker election. caller: we have all been impacted. first, congress cannot do anything. basically, the house of representatives is supposed to be an appropriations body and he cannot do that. right now, if something really major would happen, let's say korea would do something or china would do something, the house of representatives is who calls war nothing president. right now, we cannot call war. we cannot do anything. they have left is paralyzed. the republican party is in shambles. the press is not going after them. they are going after themselves. as mitt romney says come at they do not believe in our

constitution. i do not think they do because right now we do not have a functioning house of representatives. what they have done to kill this -- i think they are going the way of authoritarianism with the republican party. they seem to only go after whatever their leader wants. that is what they do. they cannot seem to think for them selves. i believe this man is also one that does not believe that president biden's president, so i do not think it is working out at all for us. host: patty in connecticut, republican line, you are next up. caller: i have to say i agree with the last woman that called and i am a republican. the republican party is a disgrace to this nation. the crazy eight, as they are called, seem to be running it because they are running it at the behest of trump.

he seems to be running congress. the joke is always they are going to elect him speaker. this country is in shambles because of these republicans. everything that biden has tried to do, they have voted against. they have done nothing but criticize him since he came into office. host: what is your view of the latest speaker nominee? caller: it is a disgrace that man is dangerous, just like the rest of them that they tried to nominate. host: why? caller: he denied biden as being president. he is kissing the ring of trump. anything that trump wants is what these people are doing. host: you can continue calling

on the lines. you can text us if you wish at (202) 748-8003. you can post on social media. several of you have done that. vicki mayfield offcebook saying, it is refreshing to see them fight to do whatright for a change and they need to stop all the spending. people are addicted to unlimited spending. jay saying i have never positive opinion of congress and this is reaffirming that opinion. the only difference is now there a reason why congress cannot doomhing to help the average person in this country. another viewer off of twitter, both parties are a joke. either party could elect a speaker if they cared more about the country than their party. it was rep. johnson: after that election last night that got him the title a speaker designee, went before cameras talking

about what he sees as next steps and hopes to do should he gain the speakership. >> democracy is messy, but it is our system. this conference, this house republican majority, is united. i am honored to have the support of my colleagues and this is servant leadership. we are going to serve the people of this country. we are going to restore their faith in this institution of government. america is the last best hope of man on the earth. abraham like and said it. ronald reagan used to remind us all the time and we are here to remind you that again. we will restore your trust in what we do here. you will see a new form of government and we will move this quickly. this group is ready to govern. we are going to govern well. we are going to do what is right

by the people and the people are going to reward that next year but we have a lot of priorities ahead of us now or the world is on fire. we stand with our ally israel. we have a busy agenda. we have appropriations bills to get through the process, but you will see this group working like a well oiled machine. we owe that to the american people. the people up here have been sent here by the people of this country to do this job, and we are going to do it well. we commit that to you. inc. you for allowing us to go through the process and get to this. it was worth it. we will serve you well. the intention is to go to the house floor tomorrow and make this official. host: that is what you will see

at noon today and we will watch on c-span and follow along on the app. to see if representative mike johnson can get enough votes to gain the speakership. we are asking you about not only the process but also what you think as far as how congress operates. bernie in kentucky, democrats line. caller: hello. i'm going to give this congress a little latitude. they are going through short and are times. i will give them some latitude and some time to work themselves out. this might sound -- i believe everybody up there is working hard. i think they are up there doing their job. probably only a handful people in this country could do that job. yesterday's last call on the

journal was the call of the year. i am so glad you were the host. i hope that becomes a trend, the journal as a learning tool in classrooms. i have not seen a better call all year. host: that was a great call. for those of you who want to see the program yesterday, it took place at the end of the program. axios looks at about johnson -- representative johnson's relationship with former president. he was a defender of the former president the impeachment hearing and led to the amicus brief signed by more than 100 house republicans in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. liz cheney released old videos highlighting johnson's

involvement as well as the quote in the new york times that called him the most important architect of the electoral college objections, according to reporting from nbc. again, mike johnson will take his place and see what happens as noon approaches today. in jefferson city, missouri, independent line. caller: if the democrats would nominate tom emmers and all vote for him, he would get at least five more votes from the republicans and become the speaker. it will be better than the maga ring kisser johnson. listen up, democrats. host: what is it about tom emmers that you support? caller: he did not vote against the -- during the election process, he did not vote against biden for whatever trump thought they stole the election and

everybody else like johnson voted to cast out the votes. host: the washington post, their lead editorial today, democrats should help elect a republican speaker. this is the case they make, saying republicans have considered even trying some of these options. they said what they have not done is rely on democrats to make the map -- math work. democrats have routinely backed their leader for speaker, the point of which is to raise the threshold for the republican candidate to achieve a majority on the floor. this has allowed a small number of gop radicals to deny a majority to the various speaker candidates. democrats have more productive options. at least a substantial number of them could vote present, changing the map and lowering the threshold to achieve a majority. mr. mchenry could get the votes to be temporarily in charge or

the knox -- next tom emmer could become speaker without having to placate the far right. the government will otherwise have to close this month. democrats would sign line those with too much influence during kevin mccarthy's brief tenure. this is from eric in west virginia, republican line. your view of congress in light of the house speaker election process. >> caller: the way i see this, matt gaetz and those eight congresspeople have created a problem. i think history will show that they were trying to save our country from bankruptcy because in the future when the debt is greater than the gdp and we are

paying a trillion dollars interest on the debt, they are going to have to start cutting some of these social programs for people. then we will realize that maybe this was a time that was right for what happened. and i cannot understand how joe biden can use the piggy bank of the federal government to buy votes like canceling debt for college people. host: darrell from georgia, republican line. caller: trump has his hands all in this mess. he goes to true social and basically just canceled mike

emmer -- tom emmer out. that is what killed him. these insurrectionists that do not believe that biden won and all that -- he wants these people in. it is not just him. we know about trump, but it is three of them. there are three guys killing this thing with the congress and killing this country. it is donald trump, sean hannity, and steve bannon. those three men have their hand all in this stuff. host: your view of congress during this process? caller: congress -- they are all scared. everybody is scared. everybody on the republican side is scared to death of trump. that is why they are scared to make a decision and when they do

make a decision they are scared to stick with it because they have to go back and see what he thinks about it. that is why they can never move forward. host: from ruth in indiana, independent line. caller: i agree totally with the last caller. one of our biggest problems is when we go to vote we do not look into who we are voting for. we just pull the lever for a republican or pull the lever for democrat. i do not have the benefit of being able to easily look up on the computer the history of people and so forth. i watch mainstream media and c-span and pbs and find out what these people represent, what they are going for and so forth, and that is how i vote. i have voted for a lot of republicans, but i have no no sense of anything in congress anymore. i just do not believe in -- they

got radicals up there. we are voting them and because we have not paid attention to who we are voting for. but be more serious -- let's be more serious. host: have you had a chance to look into rep. johnson:? -- representative johnson? caller: the fact that he cannot accept the fact that biden became president fair and square and that is the view of most of these guys running, my own representative here in south bend voted not to certify him. the guy that took over for her -- she was tragically killed in an accident. same thing. when i call his office, they do not care what your name is or what district you came from because they do not have any intention of replying to you. they are just doing what they want to do. forget about what the american people want to do. host: that is ruth from indiana.

this is marion in california texting us. you can do the se. my view of congress is an example of our government coming undone. the deliberate division and corruption we are following the path of powerful governments through the centuries that fell. this is if you were saying 21 days -- 22 days actually without a speaker of the house. a great republican failure. again, a variety of ways you can post if you want on social media or facebook. jeff, republican line, in louisiana. hello. caller: i am from louisiana, born and raised. mike johnson is one of the sweetest and kindest men you will ever meet with a kind young

family. i heard the previous caller talk about his support for protesting the election results. you have to remember what district we come from. that was the popular sentiment at the time and that was before january 6. but he is very approachable, deliberate. he was a very well-known attorney, kind man. kind neighbor. a young man and somebody who i think really would get along with both sides. he would really be a blessing for our country and for the republican party. he is a staunch conservative, but he is not a fringe conservative. i can tell you that firsthand. host: that is jeff in louisiana. c-span has a tradition of interviewing incoming freshman

when they enter congress to talk about their experiences, their background, what they hope to bring to the position. rep. johnson: sat down with us -- representative johnson sat down with us as a freshman. he talked what efforts he wanted to make to improve the tone on capitol hill. @cspanwj -- [video clip] >> we all talked of and how we wanted to change the tone in washington and raise the level of civility. i drafted a document called a committed to civility. 53 of 55 freshman members signed onto that. we made a contract with one another that we would raise the level of decorum and treat one another with dignity and respect because i think that sets an important example. >> how does that play out amongst those who have been here for a while? >> we are in a different era now. steve scalise is from my home

state of louisiana and a dear friend of mine. that got everybody's attention, even national media. there has been a lot of discussion about the level of discourse here ultimately leading to violence now and a majority of the american people, over three fourths of the american people believe that is true. there is recognition that we have to change that and it has been gratifying and encouraging to see people from different parties agreeing on the idea that we need to do this better. i think that is what the founders envisioned and intended and that level of statesmanship that we used regard and respect in this country, i think we can get back to that and do a great service to everyone. host: more of that interview available on our website. rep. johnson: will face the whole house at noon today to determine if he can gain enough votes to become house speaker. brendan is next in pennsylvania,

democrats line. caller: i'mto coming into congrt now. i'm talking from experience of being a former politician in my career choice. i have -- whenever it comes to gerrymandering situation, where we got people in that we did not vote for, and then the lack of knowledge for the people that did get voted in, we are paying the price for those votes right now. you can see they are doing it more for social reviews than for actual law. they want to fight they want to picket each other. there is no camaraderie in anything they are doing. it was all started to have a bunch of members work together, but the three branches of government -- you have a fourth party coming in and trying to manipulate the situation to try

to cause more discourse. host: let's hear from eddie in massachusetts, republican line. caller: the guy from virginia really summed it up. it is the interest rate on the debt. they are so high the last couple years. they have gone up 5%. he is worried about it reaching $1 trillion. the reason they are funny because these people, it is the continuing resolutions to continue the budget and the deficit spending. the president is just wanting to add another hundred billion dollars to the deficit. it is a worthy cause, but you have to cut out the waste, the welfare in the country. congress has to do it. thank you. host: do you think the lack of a house speaker's want to complicate men -- matters considering the funding deadline in november? caller: of course it is want to

be in trouble. they are going to stop government. host: would you consider than a containing resolution a short-term fix? caller: no. that is why they are voting negative, the continuous resolution. they are ok with $2 trillion deficit spending each year. that is the problem. that is why they are so negative. host: this is from gary, democrats line. caller: republicans want to fight culture wars, the assault weapons ban, which is the response ability is the safety -- that has killed how many people because of these assault weapons?

host: let's stick to the topic of the speaker election. caller: this criminal donald trump what they do not want to denounce him. they refused january 6 subpoenas. a lot of them were in on it with that criminal donald trump. host: gary from jacksonville, florida finishing this portion. if you are interested in the topic of congress and the speaker election vote today, our next guest will join us to not only talk about what you expect to answer your questions -- stef kight of axios covers congress and will join us next to talk abt that. later the program, we will be joined by aaron david miller to talk about the latest concerning was going on in israel and he will take your questions about that as well. those conversations coming up on washington journal.

♪ >> tonight, as by and first lady jill biden host a state dinner in honor of the australian prime minister. watch as they welcome the prime minister to the white house, guest rivals, and more. watch the white house state dinner tonight at 11:00 eastern on c-span, our free mobile video app, or online. book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 6:30 p.m. eastern, new york university professor shares her book, or she recounts being taken as a 12-year-old in 1970

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>> american history tv exploring the people and events that tell the american people. -- the till the american story. the mysterious case of rudolph diesel, where he discusses the life of the inventor of the diesel engine and his disappearance ring the lead up to world war i. at 9:30 p.m. eastern, a discussion on 1976 presidential campaign rivals who became lifelong friends and found common cause after they left the white house. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays and find a full schedule on yo pgram guide or watch online anytime. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now, stef kight of axios to talk about the house

speaker race, what to expect today. what are rep. johnson: -- representative johnson chances? guest: at this point, it does seem that he has some important momentum right now after he was voted the nominee last night. we did not see as many republicans come out saying they were going to vote against him as we have seen with some other candidates. so it looks like things are going well at this point. it is early in the day. we expect a vote in the early afternoon. johnson is well-liked in the caucus and seems to be someone who threads the needle where he is someone who is supported by the far conservatives. he has been a defender of former president trump, but he is also known as your kind of typical conservative. he was a lawyer.

host: according to reporting in the secret vote, 20 people were not present. four or five emerge that could sink the nomination. guest: that is the group we are looking for as members return to congress today. we are going to look for any of those people who were not present to decide to vote against johnson. there has not been anyone again -- a handful of people have refused to vote for johnson but did not say they would vote against him. there could be a handful who decide they are not going to fall in line here, but one important thing to note about where we are now is that republicans are frustrated. it has been three weeks without a speaker of the house. there are big things that need to get done in congress. we are close to a government shutdown situation again. there is the emergency funding package the white house has sent to congress that they have to deal with in some way. we are seeing republicans grow tired of the fight, so there

would have to be some real reason, some real tension, big issue for enough republicans to again say we do not want johnson and risk their being some kind of a deal with democrats to get someone in the speaker position. host: democrats will probably support their candidate, but how do they view johnson as a potential speaker generally? guest: there is definitely concerns there, especially given the fact that johnson was one of the leaders who attempted to overturn the 2020 election results. that is something we are certain to see democrats pounce on. we have seen some raise that point again, reminding people johnson was one of those members to vote to decertify the election results but also present this argument for why republicans could do so beyond the more extreme claims being made by former president trump at the time.

so we will expect democrats to support hakeem jeffries. some have said they would be willing to work with republicans for some kind of temporary situation with mchenry staying on a speaker, but we do not expect them to be excited about johnson in the speaker position. host: our guest is with us until 8:00. if you want to ask her questions, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. if he does receive the nomination today met what are the next steps? what is congress prepared to do in light of the three weeks of inactivity? guest: first, they have to talk about how to avoid a government shutdown again. that is what led us to this position in the first place. mccarthy's efforts to avoid the last government shutdown is what

sparked the effort, successful efforts, to oust him from the speakership, so johnson will have to deal with the situation, make sure they can get some kind of appropriation bill through, likely have to come up with some kind of short-term funding measure to push the deadline back. johnson does not have the kind of staff others have. he will have to beef up his own staff to respond to some of these issues. he will be thrown in with mcconnell and jeffries and senator schumer as well and they will have to start working on affording a government shutdown and dealing with the funding package the white house has sent them and figuring out how congress will support israel as we see the situation unfold there. host: now the possibility of another cr to keep the government funded.

is there appetite within congress to allow that in the short term? guest: we will have to see. there are conservatives who are not happy about the idea of kicking the can down the road again. they want to see actual appropriations bills passed that allow them to cut funding for particular agencies, like the departed of justice. the fbi was in that. we will see whether having johnson changes the dynamic at all, whether we again see a fight over any kind of stopgap measure but also given how much time has been wasted trying to come up with the right speaker there is not quite to be a lot of time to get these kinds of complicated appropriations bills done in the house, whether they try to do so anyways is something we are watching. host: what faces rep. johnson: -- representative johnson in the day-to-day job a speaker? host: there are --

guest: there are procedural things he will be responsible for, deciding what the conference will vote on. the most difficult dynamic now is managing his own party, which has been so fracture us. that was the biggest issue mccarthy faced through these past few months. he may have won the speakership, but he still had to contend with this divide within the party. that is not going to go away, no matter who is speaker of the house. johnson will have to wrangle the far right conservatives who have flexed their strength now that they have such small margins to deal with but also keep moderates happy and allow them to vote in ways they feel they need to as we head into another election year. everyone is already thinking about 2024. members are acting as if they are heading into the 2024 election and that adds another political dynamic that johnson will have to navigate. host: this is axios's stef kight

joining us. this is from lewis, the mike ross line. -- democrats line. caller: top of the morning to you. i have a comment and question but we do know that we had a feeling this may happen with the republican party. i call the republican party the pink bouquet party. that stands for proud boys, insurrectionists, and oath keepers. here is my question. you have republicans calling in. they wonder why the democrats do not vote and help the republicans to elect a speaker. we tried to deal with a speaker named mccarthy, but he lied and it a lot of things -- would you please tell the people why we would not vote on a republican congressman that is maga?

guest: i think the caller raises an important point, that democrats were already hesitant to work with mccarthy and republicans while mccarthy was speaker and now you arguably have a more controversial speaker candidate who is looking likely that he might be able to pull this off. that will not do much to help with any bipartisan efforts here. we will have to see. johnson is no jim jordan. he has not been as outspoken in his defense of former president trump. he is a little more measured and his lawyer experience comes out for sure, but given his experience and involvement in the 2020 election questioning, that is going to make it difficult for some democrats want to work with him and reach across the aisle and if there was going to be any kind of bipartisan solution to the speaker situation, that was

going to be, a moderate republican and only in a temporary way. host: for tom amer -- emmer, how close was he to the former president? guest: he characterize the relationship as a good relationship. trump took to truth social, kind of blasting him yesterday, saying he was just not the kind of republican that they need. trump ultimately took credit for his ultimate failure to get the speakership. there's is definitely some tension there and potentially one of the reasons why emmer did not go as far as expected given that he is well-liked within the party overall, but there are just some of this more conservative trump supporters who felt he was not going to do enough for them. host: this is from sheila in

florida, republican line. caller: i think what is going on with congress is the people are sick of the party. the younger people who came into congress came into be more fiscally responsible and to see the cuts that are needed to bring our debt down. and mccarthy made that backdoor deal to have a cr with no amendments. that is what got the ball going here. what is going on is healthy for our party. we are sick of seeing the party continuing the cr that rolls downhill and just collects more and more pork, more and more foreign spending, more and more garbage. we the taxpayers are seeing nothing. it is going to foreign countries. it is going to progressive, green energy stuff that is

failing right and left. we need it to clean up our party and get back to fiscal responsibility, and that is what is going on now. guest: the caller did explain why many of these republicans are doing what they are doing. there is a divide in the republican party. we all know this. we are seeing it plainly. we have seen it over the past several years. trump's election was a key moment there. we have seen more and more members enter congress who feel similarly to the former president. we are seeing that tension play out here. it is why the speaker nomination and election has taken so long as republicans are trying to figure out who they are as a party and some factions drill down on financial issues, on making sure spending is not what it has been over the past few years. spending was huge under former president trump as well.

this is not the rise in federal government spending, something that only democrat in mensuration still, but what the caller is talking about is a real concern and we are seeing voters vote in a way that shows it is something they care about. there also is a divide in the republican party and they will have to figure out a way forward or we will see things fall apart as long as we have margins this slim in the house. host: jim in missouri, democrats line. go ahead. caller: i am going to say this as a statement versus a question. it goes like this. there are many of us out here that do not believe for a moment that the republicans are frustrated at all. we believe that this is the exact opposite. we think this is scripted. we believe this is a ploy

instituted by not just donald trump -- donald trump after all is just sort of face of this. this comes from people, individuals like steve bannon and institutions and policies -- think tanks like the claremont institute. this is the deconstruction of the administrative state. these people do not believe in our experiment in self-governance. they are ready to burn the house down. this johnson, although he spoke eloquently yesterday, i believe he is much the same. that is all i have. host: can i ask what you base were believe on specifically? caller: i am borrowing from the presser we had yesterday when we

saw lauren boebert of all people shouting down the reporter who asked a legitimate question. mr. johnson was either not -- i believe he was prepared for that question. i believe the answer he was going to give before he was relieved of that responsibility by this fox woman and the rest of those gathered around for the photo op, i think they -- i believe they are actually -- i am sorry. host: we got your point. guest: you look at the past few years, months, weeks, it is hard to see this level of unprecedented chaos in the house and not think this has to be intentional.

in many ways, there are many republicans who are tired of this. they do not want to keep having to change speaker nominees and huddle in closed-door meetings every day and go to the floor only to have a speaker nominee fail. that is not the way many republicans, who want to get things done, want to keep going with this, but this has been a chaotic time in the house, for republicans. there are political actors like matt gaetz and others who have led the charge to oust mccarthy and those are intentional actions on their part. we cannot get at what their motives are, how much of it is political versus something they truly believe was the right thing to do. those are things the caller was touching on, but it is important to recognize american voters are watching and frustrated and there is a political risk as we go into 2024. host: to what degree did matt

gaetz and those republicans influence perhaps mike johnson, should he become speaker, and how he does things in the house? guest: they are supportive of johnson as a nominee. that could be a good thing for the house getting things done if they are willing to follow. johnson and mccarthy from the beginning had personal feuding going on, which led to tension in that relationship. matt gaetz was often obstructing efforts by mccarthy and republicans to move forward on various issues. potentially a different speaker would have a better chance at navigating those dynamics, but he is still going to have to contend with moderates who have made it clear they also are not going to go along with the flow. they are going to make sure their priorities are met as well. host: david joins us from massachusetts. caller: first, i thank god every

day that nancy pelosi is no longer the speaker. the caller that just spoke about intentions -- i think both parties have intentions and everything they are doing. i do not understand why the democrats are picking on the republicans will they have the right to vote somebody in and start getting things done. i blame them even more because they are just sitting around watching all of this. it is not a question, but i guess that is a statement. guest: i would only add not only have democrats not set -- stepped forward to support any republican speaker nominees, but republicans also have not made any real effort across the aisle to get democrats on their side. republicans are equally concerned about the optics of teaming up with democrats. that is not something many think is a politically viable option,

so of course democrats have the ability to step in and help republicans elect a speaker and avoid these weeks of nothing getting done. pub's also have the ability to make more intentional efforts across the aisle as the majority party. they have the ability to try to reach a bipartisan solution. we have seen very little public effort there. there have been some discussion, some offers, but nothing has come of those so far. we are nearing the deadline for when we might see actual action like that, but this is a both parties issue. neither party feels that there is much political upside to working in a bipartisan manner on issues like this. host: if representative johnson does not secure the votes, what options are left? guest: i think we would see real movement to empower patrick

mchenry to ensure he can bring legislation to the floor to allow him to act in a speaker -- with all the powers of a speaker at least for a temporary period to get us through the end of the year, potentially a little longer. there has been reporting this is a plan that has been discussed between moderate republicans, moderate democrats, but this is a plan that would require bipartisanship, and that will be difficult to get done, but i think if his nominee bid fails we will see more serious conversation around some kind of plan like that. host: noon is when that vote is scheduled. let's hear from rick in north carolina, republican line. caller: trump is going to need somebody he can work with. it is going to take him several months to get the ship turned around on not only our economy

and the border but now what is going on in the world, he is going to need somebody he can work with. i think johnson is the person. guest: johnson has been a defender of the former president. if trump finds himself in the white house again, we have a long election season ahead of us, but if that is the case, if republicans are able to hold onto the house there is the possibility that johnson and trump could work together on that. there is a lot up in the air. it is unclear if republicans will be able to hold onto the house majority next year. that seems look a big question mark. all signs point to trump being the gop nominee for the presidential race next year, but that is went to be a close election if it does conduct trump and biden. it is not clear who would ultimately win a race like that and we still need to wait out the rest of the primary season. host: one of the responsibilities of the job is fundraising. do we know representative

johnson's history with fundraising? guest: this is a weak point for johnson. he does not have experience raising the money that mccarthy or any speaker would be expected to raise for the party. that is something he will have to figure out and start making more of an effort on. he is a relatively -- he was a lesser-known republican for a long time. he does not have big fundraising abilities. being speaker would probably change that slightly automatically, but that is an area where people are watching closely and a key point of criticism for his nomination. host: this is albert in florida, democrat line. go ahead. caller: i believe the republicans should elect their own leader. i really do. host: anything else to add to

that? caller: i believe the republicans should elect their own leader, not depend on another party to assist that and go forward with that. i really have a problem with the republicans because they had a president -- they elected a president that demonstrated that he was autocratic or desired to be autocratic. he even said he would do away with the constitution. what american supports a guy wants to do away with the constitution? host: that is albert. guest: that is a good example some of the tension within the republican party and the tension within republican voters where they on one hand do not want republicans versus democrats they want republicans to work together with a are not always

thrilled with the leader republicans end up voting for so they have concerns about trump or whether they disliked mccarthy. again, the divide we are seeing with the republican leaders does seem to mirror and divide we see in republican voters as well who are uncertain what their priorities are, whether they are wholeheartedly in support of the former president or want to see a new direction, whether they want to see more moderate policies in the forefront. host: if johnson wins and steve scalise hold onto his position come it is up to louisiana. guest: louisiana will be holding a lot of power. host: let's go to mark in maryland, republican line. caller: the last caller that called and was saying republicans should vote in their

own speaker. i agree with that. i do not fault the democrats for voting mccarthy out or not cooperating with republicans. i think the whole idea of the two parties collaborate with each other is kind of silly. the main reason i called in is because i wanted to point out at the beginning of this conversation you were prefacing the narrative of talking about johnson and mentioning he was somebody who crushed in the 2020 election. i wanted to point out it seems like in the last 2.5 years every time a republican is talked about on c-span or any other media outlet the first thing that is mentioned is whether the questions the election. do you mean like all the democrats in the 2000 election or 2004 election or the 2015 election?

hillary clinton went on a book tour talking but how the election was stolen from her and they even came up with a russia hoax that they put the american people threw for three years. yet every time you guys talk about a republican, it is always prefaced by this person is an election denier. why hasn't jamie raskin been referred to as an election denier? he questioned the 2016 election. host: he is not a house speaker candidate. as a house speaker candidate, should that be considered? caller: let me ask you a question. why is it president that somebody questioned the 2020 election? i realize the first six months after biden was put into office every elected republican who came on c-span, the first thing you all latched on was do you believe biden was president -- elected in a fair and secure election?

host: in this case, we are talking about the house speaker election. don't you think that is pertinent to know? yes or no? caller: you guys never asked a single democrat that question after the 2016 election. guest: i would add in response to the caller's concerns that 2020 was different from past years were there have been embers who have questioned result or voted against results, absolutely, but in the but in the past, the loser of the presidential election would still concede. the fact that trump took so long to concede is loss in 2020 key point in one of the reasons why the media in general continues to talk about this issue. we've also seen people continue to this day to be careful about their words and not formally recognized the 2020 election results to both sustain power

from those efforts in 2020. january 6 was obviously a key moment and another reason why it continues to come up. those of us who were there or who had friends in the capitol dome, that very personally and also the fact that trump himself did not concede until after that vote was taken are all the reasons why these particular republican members continue to be known for their election denial that comes up in a way that is different from the past. post: walk us through the mechanics of what to expect at noon. >> we will once again go through the rollcall. we will be watching to see whether johnson can get that 217 votes needed to be speaker. we've seen this quite a few times now, 15 times in january and for five times over the past three weeks. we will be keeping an eye on the moderates and the republicans

who maybe were not present last night during the internal nominations. host: you can see the work of our guest at axios.com. thanks for your time. guest: ask for having me. post: coming up we will turn -- ho: coming up we will turn to matters concerning --. please join us when washington journal continues. announcer: john hancock is one of the most famous signatures in the history of the united states. most people don't know much more than that about him the founder of the old taverns tour once to change your perception of this american signer of the declaration of independence. the book is called "king hancock." he got that moniker back in the middle of the 1700 he also

writes his stature eventually rose so high that he became known by both his friends and enemies by that name. announr: author brooke barbier on this episode of footnotes plus wherever you get your podcasts. >> monday, watch c-span's partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. published in 1918, the novel is part of the prairie trilogy and tells the story of the friendship of an orphan boy from virginia and the elder daughter in a family of bohemian immigrants who settled in at nebraska, known for bringing the american west to life. the book addresses the good experience and women's issues of the time. melissa homestead has taught

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and conversations. on book tv, on c-span 2. washington journal continues. host: -- is a senior fellow, a former analyst and negotiator in both republican and democratic administrations. as always, welcome back to the program. from those lenses of your past experience taking a look at these issues in the middle east, how do you view what has been happening over the last two weeks? >> strategic disaster. unprecedented, and i feel the israelis and palestinians are in a strategic cul-de-sac with very few ways out. the terrorist strikes on october 7, indiscriminate killing,

hostage-taking has resulted in the israeli response also unprecedented in gaza, air. cash airstrikes. -- airstrikes. half the population is under the age of 15. you do the math, it is pretty tragic. in a hostage situation which has introduced an extraordinary degree of complexity into the situation, and you have the looming israeli --. now is the time for a lot of humility to understand what we don't know, to avoid reaching judgments. it's also time for humanity. i cannot believe that we can allow a brutal savage attack on october 7 two crowd out the reality that palestinian

innocents are being killed in gaza. it is a time i think for not just hope, but for action on all of the players who genuinely have a desire to see this unwind and only have one more comment about the future. i was in jerusalem on october 6, 19 73 when israel went to war, and within six years, by 1979, on the white house lawn, 1993, convinced wrongly that the israeli-palestinian conflict was going to be resolved. in the first instance trauma turned to hope.

in 1993, hope turned to trauma. my point is it is very difficult and i think we need to keep open the possibility that history bends and very unbreakable ways. the question is can humans on all sides bend it in the right direction? host: (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to ask a question about guest, you can text us at (202) 748-8003. what specific actions need to take place as of today? guest: we've got three sets of problems at least, i may have lost count. humanitarian disaster. 3.2 million people, half under the age of 15 coming in at

roughly 4% of what gaza needed before. we are talking scores of trucks, in 500 per day. i think it is a constellation of factors. very hard to imagine right now the process they have created. egypt checking the cargo, israel checking the cargo is to facilitate what is absolutely required. fuel is not coming in which is critically important. the israelis are adamant that fuel not be in because it is going to be diverted. weapons going into gaza is also a concern for the egyptians and israelis, and we also have 400 americans, families who are

visiting or workers who aren't allowed to get out. and that, according to antony blinken is a function of the fact that hamas controls that side of the border. in the north you had a potential for real escalation on the part of israel and hezbollah so far. both parties according to the rules of the game, established between 2006 when israel and hezbollah found itself in a major confrontation which lasted 34 days. the united states has sent signals encouraging them not to be involved in this. i think right now almost three weeks into this there is a reasonable chance we won't see the kind of escalation, but war

can take all sorts of twists and turns. the presence of two u.s. carrier strike, but dwight d. eisenhower will arrive in a few days. it pretty important signal of deterrence. meanwhile, a hostage situation. the egyptians working with the israelis and the biden administration, i think relieved that there is a possibility of additional releases to come in the days ahead. the administration has, i think, waiting pretty heavily for the space required to see how many hostages can get out. hamas is clearly using these hostages to delay and constrain an israeli ground campaign, and of course they are trying. i think it is impossible to

change the reality that in fact even though we have adopted islamic state tactics, which claimed 1400 israeli lives, that a sort of change the image and project a sort of humanitarian side of things. meanwhile, the united states i think is asking extremely tough questions both publicly and privately about a prospective ground campaign, what it is they hope to achieve, what about the day after, and reminding them repeatedly about the need to adhere to international humanitarian law, report nobody, to try to avoid civilian casualties. i think this is a disaster. is it possible to find a way to even think about the prospects

that things most middle east -- have been preceded by terror, war, insurgency and violence, could this give rise to something better? we can't rule it out, but right now i'm afraid the situation is going to get worse before it gets much worse. host: let's hear from joe in pennsylvania starting us off. >> good morning, thanks for c-span. president biden recently proposed a massive impact with 14 billion dollars for israel and $40 billion for the ukraine. since we are discussing israel, i will address that part. he had a $33 trillion debt, national debt and of course it is not just him.

we started giving large sums of money to israel back in the early 80's. hundreds of millions of dollars. for the last 20 years, we've been getting close to $4 billion and occasionally, much larger sons. we pay for the iron thomas. but back in 1983, israel had a 280% debt to gdp ratio which was a disaster. 280%. we had 26% debt to gdp. host: mr. miller, to the initial point as far as the aid package, $14 billion for israel, for their assistance. talk about that figure and the

support that the united states does give israel financially. guest: i'm not sure whether or not the caller was lamenting assistance in general. he seemed to be making that point. the 100 billion dollar aid package the president envisioned going to ukraine, that money remains here since weapon manufacturers are doing the manufacturing and purchasing from them. the assistant represents a fraction of our total gdp expenditures. as a general proposition with both ukraine and israel, i think i support the biden administration's broad objectives with regard to the need to defend like-minded partners and allies of the united states. clearly i think your discussion should be had.

israel is a very rich country, it's gdp is among the top 10, 12, 15 in the world. at some point i think we need to have a very frank discussion about whether or not the united states, whether or not israel needs the military assistance that the united states is providing. in calmer moments i think that discussion frankly would be wise both for our interests and for israel. now with a crisis, you can quibble or lament the fact that the united states has been an erstwhile supporter of israel for decades and support is not a manner of any administration's discretion, it is grounded in congressional and public support. any foreign policy is absolutely

dependent on public support. i think in large part over the course of the last 15 or 20 years, the perception of israel and the united states is changing. an ally is defined by a country that shares common interests with the united states. a strong case of domestic support. i think that over the last several years, particularly this israeli government, both the value proposition and the interest proposition is increasingly fraught. i understand the caller's concerns, but it seems to me the united states clearly has a stake in trying to figure out a way to de-escalate that crisis so we don't have to expend additional assistance. or worse, frankly, project

american military power. nobody wants the united states involved in another middle eastern war in the wake of afghanistan and iraq. host: jv is next in arkansas, democratic line. caller: there seems to be no doubt that the need for fuel is the main thing in gaza and they are worried about hamas accessing the fuel. how much trouble would it be for the united nations to post arm centuries with instructions to shoot to kill anybody that tries to get in there and steal the fuel? it seems to me to be a commonsense solution.

can you answer that? host: the wall street journal reported that the united nations sitting there humanitarian efforts could be impacted if they don't get access to fuel. guest: no doubt about it. the u.n. works agency is close to ceasing all its operations the u.n. has a role to play, clearly. americans have worked at a deal where the united nations is going to coordinate its decisions. with respect to deploying actual observers or multinational observers, the u.n. participates in peacekeeping and other missions all over the world. you need a un security council resolution to deploy u.n. peacekeepers or monitors. in the middle of a free fire

zone, with the israeli ground campaign looming, i don't think there would be much support. i think the russians and the chinese would probably veto any un security council resolution that sought to --. i think the colors point as well-taken. if and when this concludes, and will conclude, the u.n. may well have a role to play because the real objective is to destroy ha mas and try to undermine its capacity to govern, something has to replace it. and i suspect the u.n. could end up with other parties, financial support from key states. you can begin to imagine some sort of structure. right now i think the odds of deploying individuals to sort of monitor, let alone armed individuals, adding that factor to this very toxic mix probably

isn't doable. host: on the front page of the wall street journal this morning there is a story reflective of the comment secretary of state blinken, particularly warning iran about potentially its actions and what is going on. to what degree do you think iran is involved? guest: whether or not iran coordinated this operation, provided the green light to it, literally micromanaged it, there is no intelligence we've seen so far that demonstrates that iran coordinated this. but there is no doubt that the units meet frequently with

hezbollah. i am sure the iranian revolutionary -- provided hamas with more than just funding, but with training as well. this operation was planned probably a year ago. i suspect there was some sense of the fact that they were planning and military operation. planning i'm not so clear about because no matter how intrusive israeli monitoring was, they clearly missed this, and i think one of the reasons they missed it is because hamas went dark in terms of curtailing and restricting their communications and broadening the circles of individuals and other organizations.

i would say the knowledge clearly provided support over the years both in terms of munitions and rocket technology but i doubt frankly whether there was an iranian-hamas war room somewhere that was coordinating this attack. caller: first i would like to preface my comments by saying that the attack on israel was obviously terrible. however, this did not happen in a vacuum. context in history is very important and so we need to consider that hamas is perhaps the third country with the highest population density in the world, and while that

happen, we had israel building homes in palestinian territories. also, overcrowding. research showing clearly that overcrowding actually engenders violence, and we can see that. also, if you consider that jerusalem, the israelite capital was moved to jerusalem, clearly the international community knew that that would conflate tensions in the region. also, netanyahu is not the representative of hope for palestinians. it's very unlikely that they have any hope that anything is going to happen under him. finally, the palestinians have been living almost in indentured servitude for so many decades. that is going to cause problems.

host: mr. miller, you listed a lot of things under the umbrella of contributive factors. what do you think? >> the israeli attacks did not begin october 7. yes, the conflict is extremely important, but in 1973 they launched a two front war against israel. the strategy was to inflict limited military defeat on israeli forces. in an effort to create a pathway for a diplomatic settlement. that was not their objective. in fact, they have done everything they possibly can to frustrate and undermine negotiations. yes, there is an israeli component of the story, there is no question about that. and the most fundamentalist extremist in israel's history has no intention, no desire whatsoever to enter a meaningful

negotiation with any israeli occupation and create perhaps what i would argue is the least bad solution to this problem, which is still a two-faced solution. so yes, this israeli government has not helped matters by expanding israeli settlements in the west bank. as far as hamas is concerned, hamas is not a country, it is an organization. in 2007, palestinian authority's primary palestinian faction was the largest faction and it created and ruled over gaza, which frankly, i would argue is an open air prison.

there's people who they do need a better future. they are not going to find it under hamas as an organization. this attack is not designed to somehow create the environment for a political diplomatic solution to israeli-palestinian problems. it was designed to break out the strategic problem with gaza. it was designed to re-center them as the main driving agent of the palestinian national movement. it was designed to see if they could provoke unrest and anger in the arab world and trigger israeli airstrikes which of killed thousands of palestinians. their objective in that regard has been a think achieved. they would be on far better ground if, in fact, hamas was

interested and used an attack on israeli forces in israel to re-center the palestinian issue, to create an environment with some need for them to be involved in a negotiation as a representing -- representative of the palestinian public. that was not the intention of this operation. so while the context here is important, the israeli occupation is important, israeli policies are important. this particular issue, this particular campaign was hamas- centered. and it was not to get israelis and palestinians into a negotiation that could address the needs and requirements of both sides including an israeli occupation. that was not the objective here

and i think it is important without reading the context of israel's responsibility in the fact that we do not have a solution to the israeli-palestinian problem, to ensure that everyone understands that hamas' aims and responsibilities are. host: we saw president bob and travel to the region. what was the impact of that trip and what hand should the president deploying and in resolving this issue? guest: i think the administration's rhetoric from the beginning, the very emotional speech the president gave on october 10 in which he said he was prepared, the administration was prepared to do what it believed it needed to do with respect to responding to hamas'brutal attack. i think the position has evolved in response to the hostage crisis on which they put a lot of emphasis, in response to

trying to dissuade the israelis from preventive strikes in the north, which was seriously under consideration a week ago. that has had an impact on israeli thinking and to remind the israelis and to ask tough questions, and perhaps even to suggest alternatives to a ground campaign. to get the israel this to think through something i think they know full well, that a ground campaign in as a signed to eradicate hamas as an organization is going to cause an additional frightful loss of palestinian lives, israeli lives, and in the end, has israel not by clearly enough about the day after? even if israel succeeded in eradicating the military structure, hamas is still an idea. it has been in gaza since the early 80's.

originally as a brotherhood. in palestinian national terms. what is the day after going to be like? the president has the authority i think to remind the israelis about 9/11. 3000 americans dead. this is 15 9/11s for the israelis given the difference in population sizes which remind the israelis that 9/11 lead to the two longest wars in american history where the standard for victory was never could we win, but when would we leave? the deaths of thousands of americans, scores of thousands more who received life crippling injuries from which they will never recover, shattering their lives in the lives of their loved ones and friends, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of iraqis and afghans. so military power is a means to

an end. it is a means to achieve realistic and sustainable goals, and that to me is the greatest constraint that is probably also causing delay in terms of what the israelis have to do. some response is necessary to the deaths of 400 people, mostly civilians. some response is required in order to respond to hostage-taking of maybe 200 individuals, some of whom are probably not under hamas control at all if you believe the reporting and may be held by individual palestinians. so some response is necessary because the government open legitimacy with the capacity to protect its citizens. in october 7 not only was a

monumental failure, it was an operational failure. and that challenge, the need to strengthen israeli deterrence and really didn't mind its own contact with its people in the wake of that savage attack is very much on the minds of israeli decision-makers. i think they are seriously torn by the complexity and the challenges of a massive ground campaign in gaza. once you go in, it is not so easy to get out. host: joseph in new york, democrats line. caller: can you hear me well? host: go ahead. caller: thanks, c-span, and mr. miller has just opened up my mind here and i appreciate his commitment to the facts that he has been given.

one question, friend. actually, two. one is the high rate of population under 50% due to the extreme oppression that they are going through. and the other question would be concerning israel and the generous amount of money we are sending that way in difficult times. can they be weaned after this? to slowly get an amount of money that is proper? thank you. host: thank you. guest: i'm not sure i understood the first question but i will deal with the second. i really do believe -- israel is a very rich country, a startup nation.

extraordinary technology and ability. i think, frankly that israel's dependence on the united states for $2 billion a year is not healthy for israelis or the united states. we can continue to be an incredibly close ally of israel, research and development, pre-position material, we exercise with the israelis. but i think it would be best for both countries in a period of calm that in effect, the united states begins to consider and the israelis understand that $3 billion a year is not necessary. and so yeah, i think that that conversation is one that we need to have. obviously it is impossible to

have it now and i would not recommend it now, but i also don't think this notion of we need israel off of american assistance should be viewed as a sanction, or a punishment. i think frankly the fact that israel is dependent on us hurts both of us. it creates a sort of dependency. a creates the notion that since we give israel $3.8 billion per year, somehow we have leverage over the israelis that we should somehow use. i think it is a very unhealthy aspect of the relationship, and i do not believe either u.s. security or israel security would suffer as a consequence from conversation that would seek to wean israel off of other systems. yes, i think it would make sense.

host: republican line, tennessee, hu. caller: i would like to remind the viewer that mr. miller is a mental of the count -- member of the council of foreign relations in one of their goals is to have a united nations one world government. i think america should mind their own business. we need to stay out of all these foreign wars. we need to bring all our troops home from every country to end all foreign aid to every country. we need to get out of the united nations and the united nations needs to get out of the united states we need to get out of nato and although i agree that israel has a right to defend itself, i would still like to remind the viewers of -- liberty. host: the color put a lot out there. you can respond with that as you wish. guest: i realize there is a certain mythology surrounding not only that organization, but

other foreign policy organizations that somehow seek to create one world. i don't think that is true. i would agree with the caller on one aspect here. the fact is, we have an extraordinarily fortuitous geographic position. you want to understand american foreign policy? understand where we are. real estate's location, location, location. we have an incredibly fortuitous location. we are the only nation in the history of the world sandwich between two non-predatory powers to the north and south, canada, mexico, and literally to our east and west. this explains so much about the way we deal with the world. it explains our arrogance. we have a margin for making mistakes that no other country

will outclass. it explains our naivete. but i'm not sure we understand it because not inflate it in century have the united states narrowly perched on the eastern seaboard with the french, spanish literally and are backyard. not since the late 18th century to we have any sense of real threat from powers actually in our backyard. we have a capacity because of their extraordinary security to play a role in the world. we can free ourselves from the forces of history and geography that impinge themselves on almost any other power and seek to create the vulnerability and the insecurity and defensiveness that makes their capacity to play the role we can't. we are not the indispensable

power. if the logic of the caller's question leads to the notion that the greatest threat that we face today is not from china, not from rushing, not from iran, certainly not from this problem, the greatest problem we face today comes from us. from the domestic dysfunction. a binary political system. we have two parties. i've worked for republicans and democrats, half a dozen secretaries of state of both political parties. and the source of our national power is our domestic resilience, our economy and a functioning political system, however imperfect that has created a unique capacity for

self-governance. and that to me, for sony fact is we don't have time to debate. so i agree with the caller, i don't want to go into anymore more foreign military adventures. no more trillion dollar social science experiments where we try to somehow project american military power and fix the problems in iraq and afghanistan. you can't do it, we never could. we can to some degree help leaders who are prepared for this, to take responsibility for their own nations and their own communities. we can help them to a degree, and that is true of the israeli-palestinian's. but drawing my point back to the issue we are talking about, we do not see the leaders on either side in israel or in the state of palestine that are capable of making the kinds of decisions that would lead eventually to a

negotiation. we cannot do that for them. frankly, this conflict has probably pushed us further away because we are going to end up with two traumatized society. leaderless. we need a mandela or a --. we need -- prisoners of their politics or ideologies. who really do care about their societies and are bold and brave enough to take the kinds of decisions required to push israelis and palestinians to a different place. i will not abandon hope because without hope there is no life. and it is going to be a very long road, but i will only note that every -- in the conflict zone was preceded by war, by

terror, by insurgency and violence. whether it with a 1973 war which led to the peace treaty, whether it was the invasion of kuwait and the push to push them out which led to the peace conference, whether it was the peace treaty that succeeded and changing calculations among israelis and palestinians. so maybe, just maybe the long, dark tunnel we are in, mary date -- maybe there will be a way out of this that will somehow preempt and prevent these tragedies for each peoples taking place again. host: our guest's work can be seen at --. we thank you for your time, sir. guest: thank you, and thanks for c-span, it is a great program.

host: from now until the end of the program we e going to be taking your calls on one of two topics. represented of mike johnson seeing if he has enough votes to actually become house speaker, or whatever previous guest has discussed, the issues regarding israel and hamas. you can coent on one of those two. we will take those calls when washington journal continues. announcer: tonight at 11:00 eastern, president biden and first lady jill biden host a state dinner in honor of the australian prime minister. watch as the bidens welcome the prime minister to the white house, yes arrivals, dinner toast and more. watch the white house state dinner tonight at 1120 on

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douglas brunt discusses his book "the mysterious case of rudolf diesel" where he recounts the inventor of the diesel engine and his disappearance during the lead up to world war i and on the presidency, a discussion of the 1976 president or campaign rivals jimmy carter and gerald ford who became lifelong friends decades after they left the white house. find theull schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. book tv every sunday on c-span 2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. new york university professor martha -- shares her book where

here towns being taken as a 12-year-old in 1970 by a palestinian resistance group during a flight from israel to new york city. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, -- argues that america is a more progressive country and offers his thoughts on how to advance a liberal agenda with his book "justice is coming." watch every sunday on c-span 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. washington journal continues. host: now until the end of the program we will be taking your calls on either what is going on with the house your vote today or also issues concerning israel and hamas. you can call the lines, imposed on our social media site, and you can text if you wish. you can start calling during the course of the program. members of congress will be stopping by to give the various

thoughts on these topics including -- who joined us right now, democrat from california. representative, thanks for giving us your time. as far as the speaker vote today, you've heard as much as i. what do you think the end result might be? >> we are going to do the same thing over and over. i seriously doubt the republicans will be able to get their act together. they are very, very badly split. we've seen that over the last few weeks. host: what gives you pause specifically? >> yesterday, the day before, the day before that and the day before that. the split in the republican is extremely deep, visceral, and very personal. it came down to almost fisticuffs in their caucus, and that is not going to go away easily.

but they have settled on is a very right wing, very conservative republican and the more moderate republicans have refused to go along, jim jordan being the case in point. maybe they will get their act together. we really need a coalition congress. even if they choose a speaker, the chaos in their caucus isn't going to end and we will be faced with the kind of uncertainty and chaos that we've seen over this last year. it will continue for the next 14 months through the next election. but the democrats have put up the votes necessary to deal with the debt as well as the continuing resolution. we are prepared to work with republicans in a coalition to deal with the very important issues at hand, some of which is ukraine, the border wall, all of

those things. host: as far as that coalition that you talk about, how does that work practically? what would it look like day today? >> keep in mind that within hours of the hamas attack on israel, -- which was in a terrible, bitter fight came together and formed a war cabinet and that has been operating since the hamas invasion of israel. we could do the same here. we certainly have critical issues that have to be dealt with. he can be a combination of democrats and republicans. take the rules committee, make it 50-50, share power. have a clear understanding of what it is we need to accomplish. fight it out in air districts with the state and the in the house elections and the presidency, and run the

government, fund the government which we have not yet done. take care of ukraine, take care of the necessary spending for israel, the border wall. let those priorities come to an agreement that that is what we are going to do. take those and run with it. host: if the vote comes down today and there are not enough votes, what about this idea of further empowering the speaker pro tem and could democrats support >> that? >> it all depends upon what is involved in that. it may or may not end the chaos and we need to decide what it is we are going to do here in the next three months. we know we are going to have to fund government.

we have long-term appropriations by selling -- sending funding for ukraine, the border wall, the femur coverage. those things must be done. if that is part of the deal, that is what the speaker will accomplish, go with it. but if it is the kind of cast why have seen, why bother? host: are you a member of the progressive caucus when it comes to the funding requests from the president? what do you think of the figures involved, are they appropriate? >> it was the responsibility of the congress to take the president's proposals and analyze them very carefully including a whole host of things, many of which may not be imminent. so we need to look at that.

some of which i think are also in the standard appropriations program that would be presumably going forward if we ever do appropriations. a very quiet, wide-ranging a way of cash array of programs the president has to --. host: can you elaborate on that not imminent part that you spoke about? >> $3 billion to build columbia submarines. the submarines are not going to be finished until late this decade. when host: it comes then to the armed services side and particularly what the u.s. has done in providing israel military and other aid, how much further to the u.s. go? >> we should go as far as necessary for israel to protect itself. it has been a long-standing policy of the united states. we need to continue that. we also need to recognize at the

president is now putting pressure on israel to be very, very careful about the israeli assault into gaza and the humanitarian problems and deaths that will surely occur as a result of that. we need to be very sure that we work with israel as the deal with their own security with hamas and other issues and hezbollah in the north in lebanon, that those military actions are done in a way that reduces, eliminates of possible civilian casualties. host: john garamendi, democrat from california, thank you for your time. again, we will hear from some members of congress but mostly we will hear from you during the course of time from now until 10:00. they'll in california, democrat line starts us off. thanks for waiting.

caller: good morning. host: go caller: ahead. good morning. yes, i would just like to urge our president to continue to say more clearly heard and in deed cease-fire. they're very weary world is waiting for our leaders can want to stop the killing. thank you. host: mark in phoenix city alabama, republican line. caller: i just want to make a comment about what is going on in congress right now. it's completely disgusting. we need somebody to step up and lead the republican party. who that's going to be, i don't know. i'm hoping it is going to be a moderate because trump and his people have been destroying this country for too long.

i am even hopeful maybe the democrats will step in and help a moderate republican get the votes he needs to stir up the mess that is in congress. host: why do you think that is the course particularly as a republican? caller: the republicans can't do it. what has happened is the republican is just completely -- it amazes me. i will not vote for a maga republican. i've got some in the state that are wrong in the way they approach the problems of the united states. i don't know what the answer is, but if the democrats can help get a republican leader, i'm hoping that they will do it. host: alabama, when it comes to that speaker election at noon today. you can follow along in the app

as well as our website. couple of postings on various social media sites. representative mike johnson is a friend, fighter and respectable conservative who can get the job done. he has my fu support as speaker workinther to put our couryirst. s a view or kathleen from ohioayg we need a house ker, but one who is not a qug lackey of donald trump. we need a speaker who wants to t the nation --, only hakeem jeffries is about that business right now. our text is (202) 748-8003 if you want to send a thought that way. caller: i was just going to say that it is not trump or biden, it is the system that has been

created. that is how it is designed. it was designed that way. and much like our system is founded on genocide, israel's country was founded on genocide. the genocide of the gazan people. so have a good day, but realize there's a lot of genocide going on right now in israel, and palestine is being taken advantage of. host: when it comes to the speaker election, scott wong at nbc reporting on the former president giving his blessing to mike johnson, saying "i'm not going to make an endorsement in this race but my strong suggestion is to go with the leading candidate mike johnson and get it done fast." also hhlhting the fact on cnn that speaker kevin mccarthy's sign has been hanging above the speaker's office for weeks and has finally been taken down. what that indicates, who knows,

but we will watch it play out at noon today. this is from philip in maryland, democrats line. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i would just like to say i would like to have peace in the middle east. my vote is for peace, cease-fire, talks. united nations, whoever. let's try to work something out for the sake of peace. thank you. host: that is philip. caller: good morning. the state of massachusetts is a democratic state and may not need any help from the democrats in the rest of the country. you don't want to be like massachusetts. it is ridiculous. as far as israel is concerned, we should not handcuff them in

any way. they should be able to defend their country, their people come and go in and do whatever it takes to tom us out to the to -- to root hamas out. host: mike johnson after receiving both yesterday were before cameras to talk about what he hopes to do should he become house speaker. [video clip] >> democracy is messy sometimes but it is our system. this house republican majority is united. [applause] this is a servant leadership, we are going to serve the people of this country. we are going to restore their

fame in this congress. america is the last best hope of men on the earth. abraham lincoln said it, ronald reagan used to remind us. we are going to remind you of that again. we are going to restore your trust in what we do here. you see a new form of government and we are going to do this quickly. this group is ready to govern. we are going to do what is right by the people. i believe the people are going to reward her next year. we have a lot of priorities. stand with our allies -- our ally, israel. [applause] we have a very busy agenda, we have a appropriations bill together the process. you are going to see this group working like a well oiled machine. we are that to the american people. the people up here has been sent here by the people of this country to do this job. we commit that to you.

thank you for allowing us to go through this process. it was worth it and we are going to serve you well. [applause] the intention is to go to the house for tomorrow and make this official. host: that will take place at noon today. you can follow along on social media. one of the people who will be involved in the vote making is representative bobby good. representative good, thank you for giving us your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: we saw support for byron donalds. you turned that over to mike johnson. tell me about your level of support? guest: mike john is the right time. the conference is united in a way i have not seen since i have been in washington.

sometimes you have to go through difficult times, get in axle together, go through some -- get in the foxhole together, go through some painful times together. i think that happened. it was incredible to see the conference at this ethically behind mike johnson. his feet solidify the support and respect members across the conference have for him. put him to get approximately 200 votes yesterday evening with no votes against him, about 20 mentors -- about 20 members had been missing. half a dozen candidates --hopefully you will see us united on the house floor and we will be able to move forward. host: are you concerned there will behold that's -- there will be holdouts? four or five people against him? guest: you can always be concerned of the unknown until we get it done.

i am reasonably confident we will. the enthusiasm was incredible. the connectivity of the members behind mike johnson yesterday was palpable. i think we have found the right person and people see it on the house floor. host: sure that happened, one of the first things to be considered if he becomes house speaker is the future of funding. what you think is the best approach given the timeline given? guest: you will see a stubble down on passing our spending bills? the previous speaker left the new t speaker -- and the new speaker in a tough situation -- left of the new speaker in a tough situation. the senate has not passed any. i would call on the pennant -- call on the senate to pass those we sent over there. about $2 billion of aid toward israel.

we have got to double down and work. you will probably see next week when we were not supposed to be in session, you will see is in session doing the work of the people elected us to do. we will have to see how far we can get over the next three weeks and see how we fund the government beyond that. host: if a speaker is elected and you start working on it, the bills don't happen, that a short-term fix will the order? guest: we passed three bills in the last week of september. we brought four bills to the floor. we have got eight to go. with three weeks to go, i've cautiously optimistic we may be able to get that done. we will have to see what the best path forward is. i think they will be behind him. host: would you say a short-term cr is off the table at this

point? guest: i voted on a conditional cr which secured our border. i think this speaker will leverage the republican house to force the biden administration to face seriously the crisis he has created at the border and he will try to create a border security with whatever we do in the senate. that bill i voted for had a spending cuts in exchange for 30 days of continued funding. i have not been an absolutist on the cr, but against the unconditional cr for 45 days. host: we saw the president handed down -- hand down a supplemental request. to what degree are you are sure you in line with what the president is asking for? guest: i think it is terrible the president is trying to hold hostage the near unanimous support for israel except for the few radicals.

and majority of democrats support republicans in supporting israel but we should not hijack that support with billions of dollars that has nothing to do with israel. israel ought to be standalone and we ought to give them the support they need. we are running a $200 billion deficit so it is not hard to come up with $10 billion of cuts in exchange that we don't borrow from china to find that. you do have support for israel, but we should not be sticking in there aid for ukraine or undefined humanitarian assistance, undoubtedly some that would go to hamas. host: if there is a new speaker moving forward, what do you think is the discussion of future funding within the house of representatives? guest: democracy take the majority and majority of republicans don't support

additional redefined funding for ukraine without a strategy defined by this white house without the case being made to justify borrowing. everything we sent to ukraine has to be borrowed. we don't have the money. everything we send in foreign aid is borrowed and increases our national debt and it is crushing us with higher interest rates, massive inflation and suppressing the american people. i don't support funding for ukraine but the case should be made in a standalone bill focused on ukraine. host: representative bobby good -- joining us. thank you for your time. guest: great to be with you. host: we will continue on with your calls. this is from ross in california, democrat line. caller: my thought is to redraw

the lines and institute ground control -- instituted gun-control. i grew up in big city but it has turned into a shooting gallery. every time the police department has a gun buyback, they don't run out of bullets or guns, they run out of money. all of those munitions manufacturers that produce that equipment should be required to buy it back. the human -- the un screwed it up in 1948. they need to redraw the lines. i don't think the israelis or palestinians are going to settle this. it is to go back to the united nations and they need to figure out good lines, get a plan. , and stick to it. . host: jerry in kansas, you are next. caller: the last caller said it should go back to the united

nations. that would not work when the united nations general secretary says he favors palestine over israel. i have a question for people like him that support hamas, the news organizations to call them some militants, not terrorists. they are animals. these hamas supporters talk about genocide. that is what they wanted you to israel. israel is not doing the attacking, they are. israel have said that the zionists support apartheid. then why is egypt who are arabs blocking in,'s in the gaza strip -- walking in hamas in the gaza strip? host: antony blinken talked to the security council specifically about the security situation in israel. here's a portion of that. [video clip] i am here to -- >> i am here today because the

u.s. believes that the united nations and this council has a crucial role to play in addressing this crisis. we put forward a resolution that sets up practical steps we can take together toward that end. the resolution builds on many elements of the text. it incorporates feedback we receive from councilmembers over recent days. it also draws heavily on the views that i heard firsthand from partners across the region after hamas's attack, views the united states shares. first, we all recognize the right and indeed the imperative of states to defend themselves against terrorism. that is why we must unequivocally condemn hamas's attack against israel. babies riddled with bullets.

young people hunted down and gunned down weekly -- with glee. young people beheaded, families burned alive in a final embrace. parents executed in front of their children. . children executed in front of their parents. and so many taken hostage in gaza. we have to ask, indeed it must be asked, where is the outrage? where is the revulsion? where is the rejection? where is the explicit condemnation of these horrors? must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating -- from repeating itself. host: secretary of state before the united nations. let's hear from jerry,

republican line in maine. you are on. caller: republicans nominated president trump for president eight years ago. he is a fraud. why don't they get to be speaker of the house -- george santos a vote for speaker of the house? host: this is in louisiana, democrats line. robert, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to make a comment about this is really think -- israeli thing. americans did the same things to the indians, they called them savages but they were trying to take their land. host: you are still on. caller: i am just trying to say

they did the same thing to the indians and all they were trying to do was protect their land. you have israel doing the same thing. host: we will hear from patty in atlantic city. guest: -- caller: i am calling about the israelis, past aliens, -- palestinians, and the protests. i think some of these need to study their history. in 1948, the land of israel was given in part to the jewish state and partitioned for the palestinians for the other part. from 1948 on, the palestinians refused the state. they did not want to live side-by-side with the israelis. they wanted the entire state for themselves. when they said occupation in

2023, they are talking about regular israelis living in is really proper -- living in israel proper. it is heartening piece of the group of people who don't want peace -- it is hard to make peace with a group of people who don't want peace. where are the protests to release the hostages? where is the outrage? why are people protesting to protect a terrorist group? why are they protesting to save the hostages? people don't like the jews and they don't like israel. that includes the united nations who want even say it was an atrocity. host: charles is next, washington, d.c., democrats line. caller: two quick points. [indiscernible]

every time republicans get in, they run a deficit. donald trump gave more money to billionaires. they don't talk about. ronald reagan or bush, how much money they spent and runnable deficit -- and they run up the deficit. how about taking money from the superrich and spread it out among the people? the next point i have got, a story real quick. the romans and killed the christians, the germans killed the jews. the europeans enslaved blacks. north and south koreans fought against each other. we do the same thing over and over. the same people who killed the christians is the body of man

that lives today. host: that was charles. mitch mcconnell went to the floor in discussions and talking about the middle east. he talked about his concerns over iran. here's a portion of that. [video clip] sen. mcconnell: americans have escalated attacks -- they have escalated attacks against american forces. they have reported multiple attacks in iraq and syria. one u.s. official put it, there are "red let's flashing everywhere -- lights flashing everywhere." deterrence has failed and the united states must restore it before iran acted terrorists kill americans. we must strike back anyone who targets u.s. personnel. more broadly, it is time for

president biden to close the book on his failed iran policy. it is past time to work with republicans to craft a bipartisan strategy that will outlive this administration, united america's allies, and candor the full threats iran poses to the region and the world. this includes confronting their man as the most active -- iran as the most active sponsor of terror. we ignore this threat at our own peril. host: let's hear from nicole in washington, d.c. caller: good morning. i am calling because the first thing i want to talk about is our congress. i have called a couple of times before but this time i wanted to say, when are we going to come

back to the table to look at america's entire infrastructure? a constitutional convention is the only way to restructure our government. whether it works for the people on the ground now and not the people who have been on earth and have been in 60 plus years in office doing the same thing. the atrocities in washington are terrible. it is not doing anything for our country. the second thing is that israel -- is the israel palestinian war. that war literally looks like genocide when you are dropping bombs and have killed over 5000 people. not to say what happened to israel was right, but if we are going to go i for an eye, we

have tripled our eye on what that looks like. i think everybody needs to look at it because god is not pleased with what we are doing as humans. if we don't get it right, the entire world is at stake. host: that is nicole. representative marjorie taylor greene called on matt gaetz and seven other republicans who voted to boot kevin mccarthy to apologize to heal the conference. going on to say we have to get back in the room to see who will run. i also hope the republicans who join the democrats need to apologize and we need to heal our conference in order to move forward. this is in light of the house expecting to hold that vote today. republicans voted to put mike

johnson as their candidate for the speaker. that happened late tuesday night. that vote happening at noon today and you can see that on c-span. in michigan, democrats line. caller: i was watching c-span and i saw the group standing up there saying he was going to be speaker of the house and i think he is from louisiana. it scared the heck out of me because i did not see diversity at all. i thought it was back in the day when my grandmother and grandfather was there and always saw was that is just the kind of people. i am not used to looking at the congress and looking to see that. there was no diversity there. they was talking the way they are. i want to add to this conversation that did anybody

stop to realize that donald trump moved the embassy of the united states into israel? if that embassy was still sitting between the palestinians and jerusalem, i don't think this would have happened. host: mark is next in new jersey. caller: to correct your last caller, the embassy in israel was in tel aviv. it was moved to jerusalem. it has no bearing whatsoever on this discussion. before you start saying something, please have effects. number two, american allowed iran backed terrorists who bombed u.s. bases in the middle east for over 13 u.s. soldiers have been wounded and to sit there and do nothing other than

talk, it is an embarrassment to this country. at what point do we say a missile hit a u.s. ship in the gulf, in the mediterranean, people were unfortunately killed? we have to act now. if we don't, we will have hamas and hezbollah in downtown washington. don't blame israel. israel was attacked. anyone who does not understand that is being an estimate -- an anti-semitic. host: if you go to the capital, the bronze statue of freedom faces east over the entrance. it was sculpted in rome i thomas carper. now getting a bit of work done. you can look at that from our live camera. you can call on the house

speaker vote expected today or what is going on with israel. 202-748-8002 --202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. and independents, 202-748-8002. let's hear from maria in maryland, independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to talk about all of the failures we are having, failures in intelligence at the gaza strip. the israel's allowing -- the israelis allowing terrorists to come in. we had fires in hawaii. the chinese balloons gathering information over america. this is too much to believe that it is not purposeful. it is very convenient for the globalists to push their agenda

for the one world government. host: from florida, democrats line. steve. caller: i have been a fan of ryan lander since 1979. -- brian lamb since 1979. i love to spend. as a john kasich republican, former republican, but i cannot for the life of me see how these supposedly intelligent people cannot college that trump lost -- cannot acknowledge that trump lost. these people do not want to admit it at the microphone. like her than not laugh -- why did they just laugh at the person asking the question? he lost the vote. all of the people he appointed say he lost, including attorney general barr. john kelly spoke of how trump asked him at a greater sense, why did they do it?

why did they sacrifice their lives? what else do they need to know about this guy being a total sleeze ball, pathological narcissist? i don't get it. i grew up on long island and i watched this sleaze ball operate. there have been people who have been cheated by him in business. host: how does that relate to the topics we are talking about in this segment? caller: it is my one chance to talk on air to suspend. i see this as a dry and -- i see this as a giant umbrella covering everything. host: as is daniel in florida, republican line. caller: i am the vice chairman of the county republican party. i am thinking about what is going on with this speaker race and asking myself the question,

what will unite republicans? i am of the opinion that it is not necessarily going to be one person or the other. it won't be steve scalise or matt gaetz or mike johnson up for vote today. i hope the republicans can unite around the constitution, the 10th amendment, and the first amendment accountability clause. and forcing the constitution is what republicans are supposed to be about. i hope that can unite the caucus. host: noon is the expected time for the speaker vote. you can see that on c-span. another taycan from maxwell frost -- another speech came from maxwell frost on what he might expect today. >> -- [video clip] >> the fact of the matter is we have no idea. we can guess, we can think about

it, we can try to make a hypothesis. no one knows what is going to happen. more than likely -- more likely than not, what happened to the last five nominees or four nominees could have been to this one where it does not even make it to the floor. at this point, it seems there is nobody in the republican conference that can gain the amount of votes to become speaker. at this point it seems like it is easier for their members to vote for a kim jeffries than for them to get their own members together on the same page. host: from new jersey, independent line, this is lewis. caller: unfortunately, the palestinians are being held hostage by hamas. they are putting them in military schools, they won't let them leave when they tell them

they're going to bond -- to a bomb a certain section. at least the palestinians will be free from hamas. people are dying, it is so bad. the woman from maryland is absolutely right. everything that is happening is on purpose. host: that is lewis in new jersey. we will continue on with your calls the next half hour. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000, democrats. and independents, 202-748-8002. we will break just for a little bit to talk about an event the white house is sponsoring featuring the prime minister of australia. here to talk about the importance of it is brenda samuels of the hill. he is their white house reporter.

why this event with the australian prime minister in the first place? guest: the timing is certainly -- he would not think that the prime minister of esther there would be top of mind but this goes back to earlier this year in may. president biden was supposed to visit australia and have this meeting with the prime minister while he was on a separate trip in that part of the world. because of the debt ceiling negotiations, president biden and the white house felt it was necessary for him to be back here in washington and sign off on any deal. it came together to avoid a default. as a result of president biden scrapping that trip to australia, he extended this invite for a state visit which is a very formal high-ranking imitation to extend to a form later -- invitation to extend to

reform a deer -- to extend to a foreign leader. host: we are showing video of the president to greeting the prime minister. talk about the schedule for today. guest: we are expecting the two leaders to talk about a range of issues. climate change being one of them , investments in technology and artificial and -- artificial technology. this submarine agreement that the united states, the u.k., and australia reached. that is expected to be on schedule. there is an expectation given the events in the middle east are ever present that that will come up in conversations today. that will be a press conference with the two leaders -- and will be a press conference with the two leaders. president biden doesn't have those all the time so it will be interesting to see a press

conference this afternoon. host: what are the australians looking for from this visit? guest: this is something of a win for the austrians and the prime minister to be offered this invitation. only if you are the leaders have gotten assisted invite to have gotten this state -- have gotten this estate invite. this is something be -- something the prime minister can hang his hat on and say this solidifies the partnership with the u.s.. the defense agreement for example is a big deal for australia. the u.s. and the u.k. are working with them on submarines, technology agreements. that is a big talking point. it is an opportunity for estrella -- for australia and we can see a statement on joint

objectives these countries can work on. host: you mentioned the submarines, talk about that and why reach out to the australians on this topic. guest: ultimately this gets at one of the big goals for the biden administration which is to build up alliances in the indo pacific and find ways to counter china's influence in that region. this is one way the biden administration looks to do that with his disagreement with australia, to build up their defense capabilities. if viewers remember when it was first announced, this has set off a bit of a tiff with france who have their own a deal in the works. that has been moved over and this is the centerpiece of what the u.s. is doing with u.s. and

australia to build up australia defense capabilities as part of a broader effort to counter china. host: because it is dealing with the white house and international agreements, does congress have a role in this agreement? guest: congress has been supportive of this defense spending and building up outlets to counter china. it is one area where congress has been able to find agreement. this is not an area where the biden administration much pushback. we will see members of congress being supportive of this. estate -- the stated energy that -- the state dinner tonight and all of this. host: many details -- any details about the dinner tonight? guest: the preview was that the

b-52s band was supposed to be the headlining performance. however the first lady announced -- did not specifically mentioned the middle east but spoke to the sorrow and grief gripping parts of the world that they felt it was not appropriate to have the b-52s perform. they will be in attendance but they will not be performing. it will be interesting to see who is there. there tend to be celebrities and lawmakers. it will be worth watching to see who turns up. host: that is at 11:00. for joint press conference at 12:30 and of the state dinner at 4:45. stay close to find out more about this visit from the australian prime minister. thank you for setting this up and discussing it.

guest: thank you. host: back to your calls, we will start with brian in ohio, democrats line. caller: i live in jim jordan's district, the most gerrymandered district in the state. it is nonconstitutional by the voters of ohio. we had a guy who may had been elected speaker, the democrats could have gone behind him. now we have another maga clown coming up and it is going to be the same three ring circus. host: in texas, this is mary on the republican line. caller: i am wanting to talk back about the outrage, especially from the squad. since they were so adamant, so

demanding about abortion on demand, if that has not made them so calloused about babies being tortured and killed and 20 part -- and torn apart even up to the ninth month. host: romney in kentucky. caller: i blame what they do up there with the democrats, republicans -- and come as one. just come as one. do away with the egos and everything. come as one and represent the people. we can take yell out anytime you want -- take y'all out anytime

we want to. if y'all can impeach each other, why can't we impeach y'all out of there. host: the wall street journal takes a look at what some republican are considering when it comes to the aid package the white house sent, saying mitch mcconnell said he is generally supportive of the administration's big picture approach, did not object to the price tag but he plans to push for changes. "it is pretty clear this supplemental set up is just a starting point. we are going to go over it with a fine toothed,. there is a lot of passion about having a security provision in there and we will make other changes. republicans want the -- eight separated from the ukraine eight

ukraine aid -- ukraine aid." we will hear from mary in florida -- rosemary in florida, democrats line. hello? caller: i am 83 years old and i want to call to say how terribly sad and depressed i am watching the republicans try to tear down this country. trump got in. the republicans want to cut social security, they want to cut medicare. they want to give in for anything -- won't give in for

not -- for anything. when they do, they flatten each other. they have put that out into the country where a neighbor because you don't know. you will be threatened. people are worried and unfortunately i feel i want live long enough for this country to change and get back to the dreamers and the people looking forward to the future and with hope. i blame it on the republican party and hatred of each other. host: let's hear from wanda in california, republican line. caller: i keep hearing people say there is no evidence about a stolen election. if you go on youtube, you can

see hearings that were state-level hearings conducted by rudy giuliani and others and they were presented with evidence of election cheating. host: his portion is about either the elections today or israel, what is going on there. do you want to comment on those? caller: when are we going to have a government not stolen by the democrats? five swing states proven they cheated and there is no media coverage whatsoever. host: hairy in north carolina, independent line. caller: i cannot understand why we are allowing george santos to carry on. he does not belong there, including jim jordan.

all these people working for our government that denied the election, they should not be allowed to run again. they should be sent on their way and find another place to tell lies and make other people's lives miserable. donald trump is the most dangerous thing that ever happened to this country. host: don is next in pennsylvania. democrats line. caller: i want to comment on the speaker of the house, this republicans, i cannot believe them. they signed this level of agreement to overthrow our election. everyone of them that goes on there, i could not vote for. the problem is between the democrats and republicans, when it comes to election time, they have term limits.

it is up to the people. you want to guarantee you want to make a mistake, i guarantee if we voted out every incumbent in this election and get bumper stickers that say we elected nobody, they would be lumped together, they would have hundred page amendments and this place would straighten out. if they do not see it then, do it in the next one. we are the only ones that can wash the swamp. host: john kirby was at the white house as part of a press briefing. he answered questions about attacks on u.s. personnel in light of all the other conflict. here is part of mr. kirby from yesterday. [video clip] >> the state of attacks on u.s. forces in the region, can you characterize the threat of the u.s. faces in the region right now? >> we remain deeply concerned by

the potential for future attacks on our troops. we have seen about a dozen over the last several days. as a result, one contractor died as a result from -- it is a dangerous environment and we are taking it seriously. our commanders on the ground have the right to defend themselves and their troops and are taking the appropriate protection measures. the president has added additional military force to the region and one of those terrorist strike groups is going to go to the gulf region to make sure we send a strong signal not only of deterrence but a willingness to defend ourselves. host: those can be seen in their entirety if you go to our website, c-span.org. you can follow on c-span now and watching television.

those three you can do at noon today when the house is expected to gavel in on this election. representative mike johnson to potentially become speaker of the house. you can comment on them on the platforms including facebook and x. oklahoma, republican line, you will hear from frank. caller: i have a suggestion which is a bit off-topic. we have quite a few planes -- private planes flying through the arab areas empty. i would suggest they let some of these college students from harvard or wherever hop on board and taken to the country of their choice and let them get out and demonstrated there. that would enthuse a young

harvard student today. host: thank you. this is texas. caller: i did like the reelected nobody bumper sticker, that is a good idea. this is a horrible time to not have a speaker. they are third in line and there are legal issues. i am tired of this red team blue team stuff. i would like to see a democrat vote for their favorite republican but that will not get us anywhere. bring back -- he has all these skills at this time. host: from al in oregon, republican line, you are next up. caller: thank you for letting me speak. i would like to point out if you read your history, the election

of 1886 -- 1876 is similar to what happened on january 20 without the fact of people coming in. that wasn't a crime. the house overthrew the election and that was not a crime. i would like to educate with some people reading up about the election. host: how does that relate to the house speaker race today? caller: it doesn't. i just wanted to make my point. host: let's go to david in georgia. caller: thank you for c-span. i have a question for the democrats and a question for the republicans. my question for the democrats is what is mike johnson agreed to publicly state he is incorrect about the 2020 election and it was not rigged and not stolen?

my question for the republicans is why is it so hard to admit the truth that the 20 election was not rigged and stolen? host: visited johnson did go before cameras. the video you see, the complete statement after winning the speaker designate. he made comments about what the father raised up. -- the caller raised up. 2017, representative johnson as a freshman talked with us about a lot of different topics, including the tone he wanted to see on capitol hill and the role he could play on it as a freshman. here is a portion of that interview. [video clip] >> we talked about how we wanted to raise the civility so i drafted a document and 53 out of

55 members signed onto that. we made a contract with one another that we would raise the level of decorum and treat one another with the and respect. even when we disagree, do it in an credible fashion. host: what was the reaction? caller: we are in diff -- guest: we are in a different era. after the shootings in couple of weeks back, steve scalise is from my home state of louisiana, that got everybody's attention. there has been a lot of discussion about the general limitation people have that the level of discourse is leading to violence and a large majority of the american people, over three fourths of the making people believe that is true. we have to change that. it has been gratifying and encouraging to see people from different political ideas and

persuasions agreeing on the idea we need to do this better. that is what the founders envisioned and attended. that level of statements -- statesmanship, i believe we can get back to that and it will do a service to everyone. host: that was 2017. go to our website to see the full interview. carol, democrats line. caller: i agree, i think there needs to be civility. i just watched the news conference, press briefing, a couple of times. i was appalled. i believe her last name is fox, representative fox. she is a senior citizen like myself and i was not even paying attention. i heard different words coming out of her mouth when they were asking questions and i believe i heard her say shut your mouth to

one of the people asking questions. i did not hear the question, but i believe i heard her say that. i hope that there is some civility. i know it goes for the democrats and the republicans because i heard things were being said by democrats, too. i was very saddened when i heard representative fox saying what she did at the end when there were questions. that is all i have to say about the house speaker vote. host: during that press conference yesterday, which you can see on c-span's website, their workoo, "shut up,"

"next question." this when mike johnson was asked about denying the 2020 election results. we are showing you video of that right now, that for press conference is available online. but hear from mike in maryland, independent line -- let's hear from mike in maryland, independent line. caller: i promise to be brief. first and foremost, israel's hands are not clean in this. but just to bring in perspective of what a world looks like, it is trying to separate grains of sugar from grains of salt and using a missile to do it. it is always good to be messy. is always in everyone's best interest to avoid a war. but to say the u.s. should act

out is horrible. if we involve ourselves in this more -- in this war, what we see in afghanistan, it would trumpet. these people are fighting a religious battle and they are willing to give up everything to see their goals accomplished. host: go ahead. caller: west point. -- last point. in congress, it would be good to see if the democrats and the republicans would get behind in independent, one they could vote for as speaker of the house just to show us a show of solidarity. host: harvey up next in dallas, texas. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a comment and a question for you and your listeners. this is not a war between israel

and hamas. this is a battle for civilization. islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. in your perfect world, from the river to vc needs extermination. give them what they want. we know the love between soon and she, arab brothers -- sunni and shieh. they are arab brothers. who is going to be left -- to be the last man standing, a sunni or shia? we have a lot more to weigh about here. caller: i saw a man on tv say just because you think the bank took your money doesn't make it legal to rob the bank.

republicans, you see them scrambling to get away with what they did. they are never going to put a non-election denier in there because they think the possibility of the ones getting involved getting caught. that is all i have to say. host: ronald in chicago, independent line. go ahead. caller: just an idea i had for the war in israel. if the israelites would stop their bombing and bomb a path to busy to get to the tunnels, they could front of the tunnels, that would run the hamas people out. while they are running, they would get away, israel could be line to those hospitals and start coordinating relief

materials. it might save a few lives. host: just a pew other stories as we come to the end of the program. former president trump, the pro-trump lawyer amplified his claims of election fraud as part of what she called a legal "strikeforce team" pleaded guilty tuesday. she pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting. meds. -- abetting false statements. michael:, who was also previously affiliated -- michael cohen, who was also previously affiliated, saying the president gave marching orders to direct assets for a false net worth that could be used with lenders and insurance firms. he will look at the total assets

and say i am not actually worth 4.5 billion dollars, i am worth more like six blinged dollars, an example of the types of talks he would have with president trump. the hill highlighting the fac on their twitter feed that former presintrump suggested ma mdows would be a weakling and a coward after he reportedly reached such a deal with special counsel jack smith. floyd in iowa, republican line. caller: the uss liberty, the guest you had on did not even address that. the uss liberty was a united states navy ship attacked in international waters. it was said to be attacked by israeli aircraft and torpedo boats. that attack went on for hours.

this time, don't attack our u.s. navy ships or personnel. please. host: one more call. this will be from rose in alexandria, virginia. independent line. caller: i am disappointed about the inhumanity of some of the callers. palestinians are human beings and the carpet bombing is a war crime. united states is complicit. this started when is militias forced over 800,000 palestinians from their land and over 500 villages. the palestinians owned 90% of the land. we need an immediate cease-fire. we need biden and covers to call for an immediate cease-fire to stop this from spreading to the entire region. americans are responsible also because we pay $4 billion a year

to maintain israel's occupation. palestinians are human beings and they are civilians and they are being murdered. host: that is arose and alexandria finishing of this program. join us in two hours as you resume the process -- as we resume the process of the house speaker. you can see that on c-span, c-span now, and c-span.org. another edition of "washington journal" comes your way tomorrow morning. we will see you then. [indiscernible] -- ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-spais your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these

television companies and more. including buckeye broadband. >> buckeye broadband sports c-span as a public service. along were the other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> on capitol hill republicans have picked representative mike johnson as their nominee for house speaker. he received 128 votes. in a secret ballot election. and had minimal opposition during internal role call vote. he becomes the fourth republican nominee since reprentative kevin mccarthy was aoufted from the position more -- ousted from the position more than three weeks ago. the four-term congressman from louisiancurrently serves as the vice chair of the house republican