has decentered mediated politics -- i will talk about that in a minute. there is too much involvement directly from citizens, particularly certain types of citizens. citizens who care too much about things, who are two ideological, who have too much time to harass their members of congress. we have a representative democracy. we elect people and tell them, you figure out how to do it. you phone up on the issues. you talk to each other. we need to get the power back to the members, not the leadership and not to the people. the powers get to go to the members. they have got to do their job. it is not -- we suffer from too much democracy. people are probably smarter and more knowledgeable today and more informed than they ever have been, but they are not

securely well-informed and knowledgeable still. we would not expect them to be. it is not their job. this, these are somewhat complicated issues. it is not their job to bone up on them. they can look at the consequences of what the congress and the president does, and they can decide i like this guy's behavior or this guy's program or i like the results of this initiative better than this one. that is what their job is. it is not to have opinions on everything. host: the root causes of congressional dysfunction, the columnist. stephen pearlstein >> coming up momentaril u.s. secretary of state antony blinken will hold a press conference on the israel-hamas war. live coverage expected in a minute or two here on c-span. thg

yesterday to south carolina on this second campaign-themed speech of 2024. the current president speaking about the presidential election. president biden also pointed to gop backed election challenges accusing election deniers for not having respect of the people who voted for him. he left a statement following similar criticism of former during a rally in valley forge, pennsylvania to mark he

january 6 brian. [video clip] pres. biden: set to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence. tammy say what some cannot. you must reject political violence in america. always. not sometimes, always. it is never appropriate. january 6 is an extension of an old playbook from the threats,

host: if you want to text us do that at 2902-748-8003. plus post on our social media sites. that's on facebook and x. one of the people responding in light of the speech yesterday was the senator from south carolina, tim scott, on his x feed talking about the themes that mr. biden engaged in. here's a portion from senator scott yesterday. >> fear is a common denominator in politics. president biden's vitted to charleston stoke fears as the numbers are dropping amongst all minority groups. is remarkable. with you it's -- but it's also indicative of the fact that people of color, americans all across this nation, are losing confidence in this president because of the economy.

is volatile. crime is raging. education for the poorest kids in america seems elusive. what does president biden do? comes to charleston, stoke fear. fear. you know what fear really is? false evidence appearing real. america is the greatest nation on the planet. let's unite this nation not divide it. host: yesterday on senator scott's x feed. the second speech that the president has given in this election cycle in 2024. that last one took place you'll remember february just before the anniversary of january 6. the yahoo! reporting after that speech when it comes to the re-election campaign of president biden, raising more than $1 million through online funding alone in that 24 hours after the president's speech last friday.

where he gave a full throated attack described by yahoo! against the former president. this story adding that in response to the 24-hour fundraising haul, the biden campaign noted it sees preserving democracy as winning in 2024. that may be one of the themes you picked up on from the speech yesterday. you can call us and tell us about it. this is rock away park, new york. alan. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that biden hit the nail on the head. everything he said about trump was true. as a voter one thing that draws a red flag with me is i don't want a candidate to focus on how horrific his opponent is. i want a candidate who will say what kind of job -- what he has in mind.

and trump, that's his whole thing. putting names on people. what did he actually accomplish about health care? nothing. about climate change? nothing. host: let me ask you this when it comes to the president's speech yesterday, what did you learn specifically from it about what mr. biden wants to do should he get a second term? caller: he was talking more about how a president should feel about his job. get to work on things that matter. if a candidate is just going to vilify his opponent, that's a red flag for me. he didn't say anything new. host: don't you think that happened not only in this speech but the previous speech last friday? caller: you know. he's not -- trump is -- he doesn't have the pizzazz, that

charisma. he's doing things. he's doing things that matter. he's a nice guy. trump is not a nice guy. thank you for listening. host: alan, he's in rockaway park, new york. we'll hear next from steve also on our line for independents. he's in hudson, florida. hello. caller: good morning. mr. biden had nothing but campaign speech there. he vilified everything he did. for him to be doing it in a black church, which is history of racism, is hypocrisy at its best. host: ok. todd on our line for independent. in california, hello. caller: good morning. i agree with the last caller just said. biden is being condescending to black americans of which i am

one. i don't like biden's policies. i don't like trump anymore. don't think trump is guilty of insurrection. i do think he's guilty in the classified documents case and the financial fraud cases. host: why do you frame it as condescending? caller: democrats have a habit of doing this. they'll go into an all black church or all black city and they'll say things. biden said in the last election that if you are black and you don't vote for biden, then you are not black. it's condescending. i'm not voting for president next time. aim going to leave the space blank. i think we need a libertarian president. unfortunately, we are probably never going to get that. host: todd in california. giving us his thoughts on the president's speech yesterday. the "wall street journal" takes

a look at a potential second term for president biden. some of the things he wants to engage in. this is -- you can find it this morning online the president planning to pursue an expansive agenda if voters give him a second term. including resurrecting proposals for cheaper childcare and prescription drugs, tuition-free community college, assault weapons ban, higher taxes on rich americans. story adding if democrats don't expand their numbers on capitol hill, many of those plans could be dead on arrival in congress. that raises the stakes as democrats fight to retake the house and hold their majority in the senate to enact many of those biggest plans of the current president. the current president talks about several themes yesterday. he also referenced former president trump in that speech. asking you to give us your thoughts on that as campaign speeches of the norm going into 2024. don't forget especially as this weekend approaches, our coverage of the iowa and -- caucuses and

new hampshire primaries you can see on c-span. follow along on our website and follow on the app, c-span now. republican line from maryland, david, hello. caller: good morning, pedro. good morning, america. i don't think it's smart for the president to talk about 2020 election given the amount of irregularities. that's one thing i think everyone no matter what side of the fence you sit on can agree on. there are a ton of irregularities compared to previous election. whether it's mail-in balloting, signature verification machines turned all the way down. i think they put forth how many lawsuits? 16 or something. as far as i understand zero judges would even hear the evidence. which could be anomaly in itself. i'm just curious why they even talk about it considering we

can't really deep dive into it to find out how fair it was. host: do you think the previous election will be a big theme on either side this year? caller: the 2020 election? host: yes, sir. caller: if they have the same processes and procedures as they did in 2020, then we are going to have all these question marks again. and we are going to be divided right down the middle again and we are going to have some infinite arguments. unless you really get into an investigation and find out what's going on in maricopa county and some of these other counties that are red flags. i think if there is red flags in an election, wouldn't both sides of the aisle want to know about it? what if it was your turn to get the short end of the stick? host: el paso, texas. this is from will. democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning.

i'm in a dialysis chair right now. it my not be that great. biden is a good man. and the black people, they are going to give trump 10% of votes? are you out of your mind? we are not giving him anything. we vote 99% for biden. that's the way it's going to be. have you seen mississippi burning that's playing out on show time? do you want to go back with these people talk about make america where it used to be, where they could take the woman -- host: aside from that the speech yesterday from the president, what exactly did you get from it? caller: that he's really trying to help people. that's what he's trying to do. he always has. you can't -- these people just trump stuff. black people. take my belt off -- host: edge water, flat, republican line. jay, hello. caller: good morning.

that's quite interesting some of the responses you are getting. let's just go to what his speech was about. break that down a little bit. it seems like in both his speeches he gave for his opening of his campaign were nothing more than the same rhetoric that's been going around for the last two years. there was nothing in the speech that discussed what his plans for the future were. aside from that article you read. it didn't say he said it, it said he proposes to do this and that. well, everything you listed is exactly the same thing for the last 12 years we have been hearing from the democrats. since the assault rifle ban. everything. there is nothing new. anywhere. there is no new ideas. there is no new ways of talking about the housing market. the fact that kids who are growing up now won't be able to buy a house.

can't start families. you got restaurants that are about to take a big huge dive because of all the wage increase. you buy a big mack it will cost you $25 by the time they end this thing. california right now -- washington state, $18 an hour almost. for any job. any job. that's going to destroy that economy out there. it will start on the west side and work its way over the east coast. i'd like to hear some new ideas from somebody. even if it was biden. but i'm not hearing them. trump's fighting for whatever he's fighting for. and we are not going to get a fair election. i'll tell you why, because the democrat party is blocking anybody else that's trying to run on the democrat ticket. who is it that decides, you can't run as a president if you are a democrat because we don't want you to. host: ok. ok. hear from zach, in wisconsin.

democrats line. caller: how's it going. i really enjoyed the speech from yesterday. i really like how hard he's going against trump and expressing the importance of democracy in this election. this idea that somehow biden hasn't talked about what he plans to do for the country is just -- i'm not going to lend credence to the idea. aside from that, are we seriously going to, like, act, like, trump's whole campaign in 2016 and 2020 wasn't to attack hillary clinton and joe biden? i really like during his speech yesterday how biden called trump a loser. he is a loser. he lost in 2020 and still acting like he won. great speech. host: as far as the speech itself what can you learn new from it as far as promises or what the campaign wants to do?

caller: again, he expressed the importance of democracy in this election. i also really like how he highlighted in this place, in 2015, there was an attack. making sure we get the bottom of violence. that's very important to me. host: the 2020 election, one of those themes from the president's speech yesterday in south carolina as well as themes of the civil war or the causes of the civil war. those were addressed by the president. here's a portion from that yesterday. president biden: after the civil war the defeat of the confederates couldn't accept the verdict of the war. they had lost. so they say they embrace what's known as the lost cause. a self-serving lie that the civil war is not about slavery but about states' rights.

they called that the noble cause. that was a lie. a lie that had -- not just a lie but terrible consequences. it brought on jim crow. let me be clear. for those who don't seem to know. slavery was the cause of the civil war. [applause] president biden: there is no negotiation about that. now we are living in an era of a second lost cause. once again for some in this country trying to turn a loss into a lie. a lie which if allowed to live will once again bring terrible damage to this country. this time a lie is about the 2020 election. the election which you made your voices heard and your power known. just two days ago we marked the third anniversary of the -- one of the darkest days in american history, january 6.

the day the insurrectionists stormed the united states capitol trying for the first time in american history to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the country. we all saw it with our own eyes the truth of what happened. that violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former president. smashing windows, blood on statues, rank sacking offices. outside insur vex had gallows chanting hang mike pence. inside they huntedder *r tpob nancy pelosi, chanting where's nancy? we saw something on january 6 we had never seen before even during the civil war. insurrectionists waving confederate flags inside the halls of congress. a mob attacked and called black officers, black veterans defending the nation those vile of racist names. and yet an extreme movement of america, the maga republicans, led by a defeated president, is

trying to steal history now. they tried to steal an election. now they are trying to steal history. tells telling us that violent mob was, i quote, a peaceful protest. host: that's the president from yesterday. by the way, this speech also got a reaction from the former governor of south carolina, nikki haley, her except a republican presidential candidate. she was in des moines, iowa, yesterday at a fox news forum. asked about the president's speech and her response. here's a portion. >> first of all mother manual church is a psych red place. we lost nine amazing souls that night for just going to a bible study. i will tell everybody, those aphaeugz people all 12 of them when someone else showed up that didn't look like them or act like them or sound like them, they didn't call the cops. they didn't throw him out. they pulled up a chair and prayed with him for an hour. and when they bowed their heads

in that last prayer, he began to shoot. these are people like ethel lance, who just lost her daughter two years prior to breast cancer. she would go around mother emanuel church singing one day at a time, sweet jesus. that's all i ask of you. give me the strength to do every day what i have to do. our youngest victim had just graduated college. on that night he stood in front of his 87-year-old great aunt susie and looked at the killer and said you don't have to do this. we mean no harm to you. or it was someone like cynthia, whose life motto was simply to be kinder than necessary. that's who these people were. for biden to show up there and give a political speech is offensive in itself. but the second thing i'll say is, i don't need someone who pals around with segregationsists in the 70's and said racist comments through his career lecturing me or anyone in south carolina about what it means to have racism, slavery, or anything related to the civil

war. host: nikki haley traveling in the leadup to iowa caucuses and the event today at 10:30 if you're interested in seeing the address will be on along with c-span.org. if you were to stand outside of the d.c. circuit court in washington, d.c., already a line forming for a three-panel judge that will hear a case at the d.c. court of appeals on the topic of presidential immunitiy. at least president trump said he has presidential immunitiy and that will start at 9:30 and you can follow along and listen to that at c-span 3, if you wish, the app and the dot-org. the former president expected to attend that hearing today. watch out for that later today. back to the themes of the president's speech yesterday.

lynchburg, virginia, independent line, we'll hear from robert, thanks for waiting. go ahead. caller: thank you, sir, i appreciate it. i have a couple things here. i endured biden's speech yesterday. he was telling the truth. also, people always, especially republicans, say the blacks are voting for biden for a democrat, but all the racists when they was in the democratic party, they switched to the republican party. so that's where the blacks vote for the democrats now because all the racists went to the republican party. and we got some gullible people out here following trump and will be just like jim jones. host: back to the president's speech, you said he told the truth yesterday. give me an example. caller: when he said that trump

was trying to dismantle democracy, which he is. and trump is always play by himself. people are so gullible, they'll follow him like people follow jim jones. and i'm an independent. i vote for cheney or chris christie, at least they telling the truth and i'm not a republican or a democrat. i just tell it like it is. host: let's hear from leo from illinois, republican line, hi. caller: good morning. i'd like to make a comment, please, about the biden speech and nikki haley's comment. this question here about america right now is not a competition between personalities. it's about what we stand for as a nation. biden and nikki haley quoting jesus and year giving money to

palestinians to steal their land. i'd like your comments about the speech. host: let's talk about the speech itself, what did you get from it yesterday? caller: i got they talked about jesus but is what jesus commended us to do. host: seattle, washington, the republican line. hello. caller: i liked the speech. i think that it's like a stump speech. but it compared to a trump speech which is a rambling maniacal, i don't know what you'd call it. it doesn't make sense. i barely can tell what he's talking about most the time. host: what did you get from biden's speech yesterday? caller: most of it was pretty much speech stuff. but i pay attention. and i know all this stuff.

it was a good speech, it touched a lot of pieces but i watched the husky game football game and trump and the huskies remind me of the same thing. they kind of have the smell of number two. host: that's tom there in seattle, washington, one of the stories and the leadup to the speech and talking about the campaign overall was published in "the washington post" a few days ago, this story saying it was former president barack obama raised questions about the structure of biden's campaign, discussing the matter with him telling his aides and allies the campaign needs to be empowered to make decisions rather than clearing them with the white house. and mr. obama grew animated in discussing the 2024 nomination.

and one of the people suggested to biden the campaign needs more top level people in delaware. mr. obama has not recommended specific individuals but mentioned david who managed his 2008 race, the senior strategist as he did the biden campaign and will be one of the stories you'll see play out as we go through this year heading towards the norv election. president biden making that second campaign speech in south carolina yesterday, following up on a speech last friday, talking about themes and what you got from it and call the lines 202-748-8000 and 8001 for republicans and independents, 8002 and if you want to text us at 202-748-8003.

we'll hear from wayne. caller: i want to say this, i'm a republican and i fought for this country, ok. i was in vietnam to save lives so the two people that are president, biden and the other republican, i don't think either of them should be in office. they better get someone in the office that will listen to the people instead of assuming they got the right to not listen to them. host: what makes you think either the current president or former president don't listen to the potential constituents they're trying to attract? caller: due to the fact i tried

to contact them and email to them about doctors in the hospital that don't obey the medical oath that's killing people. that's why. host: ok. we'll hear from allen. allen is in mississippi, independent line. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: i can. go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. i'd just like to clarify things that were said and muted by president biden and mrs. clinton and one or two more democratic people. they always associate donald trump's name with hitler as a

dictator. i can assure you, and i'd like to assure all your listeners that president trump is as far from being a dictator as santa claus. i'm 90 years of age. i saw hitler's speech at the brandenburg gates and what a dominant man he was. host: let's stick to the president's speech from yesterday, what did you think of it? caller: well, anybody with any sense would analyze it, and he never spoke about the economy, which is in poor shape. he never spoke about the inflation. he never spoke about people's grocery bills. he never spoke about anything. if the truth is known, whether you're a democrat or republican

or independent, it's the things that people are worried about. he spoke about america being great and the flag waving in america and god bless america, and we all know that and we all love that. and that's really what galvanized the people in is saying they enjoyed his speech. host: norris from orange county, california, democrats line and the president's speech yesterday or the themes from it, what did you take away from it? caller: the campaign speech. it's suppose to be just like i expected it. it's going to wrap up as we get closer to election time and they'll start rolling out the commercials and everything but it's expected. i didn't take too much of it. it's the start of the campaign. that's what you expect. host: some of you texting in your thoughts. this is from mike in new jersey saying he supports president biden, adding, i just don't

understand i think african-americans will vote for him based on that speech. they think they're so malleable. from little rock, arkansas, president biden's race is awesome, racism is alive under the trump umbrella. his speeches are tone deaf, go joe and vote blue. michael saying biden's speech, wow, is that how you restore the soul of america. doesn't sound like it to 70 million americans. then this is bill in ohio saying that's true about biden, he stands for nothing and said things in the 1990's and 2000's he took a complete 180 of today, the spine of a jellyfish and stands for nothing and they play video of the real biden, not the one we see today. if you want to text us your thoughts, 202-748-8003. that speech, by the way, still available at our website at c-span.org. if you follow along on our app, you can download it, too, if you

happen to be out and about and want to watch it on your device of choice and follow it along and see it there, or the website. let's go to mark, independent line. he joins us from new jersey. hello. caller: good morning to everybody. my takeaway, i think his speech was better but still bad. to me my takeaway, the democrats are pretty good at governing but the republicans are great at campaigning. they campaign all the time and never coverage. and they are great at it. what the democrats need, every democrat needs a publicist or frank lutz if anyone knows who he is. host: you say the speech itself was better but still bad, what do you mean by that, can you elaborate on that? caller: yeah, he's starting to hit some points but the

democrats are very wony and not aware people vote on the motions and he'd very wonky. that's a cute word they heard in the eighth grade. i think they need to hear if you vote for trump, you're voting to not have your vote count anymore. if you want to vote for him, forget it, you won't be able to vote anymore. or if you do, it's not going to count, it's only symbolic. people need to hear that. i think they're more interested in their ring tones than democracy. host: that's mark in new jersey, "the washington post" columnist, eugene robinson this morning. you can find the column online at "the washington post" website. he talks about the re-election campaign of joe biden saying, i am not trump enough of a message to drive non-maga voters to the polls and fishing numbers for biden to win, question mark. i don't see fear in loathing as

campaigning tools and not freaked out by the polls showing a closeo election because that's the only election we have these days but worry about polling that indicate key democratic constituency such as young people and african-americans are not interested in voting in november. he makes other themes when it comes to the re-election campaign of the current president and this goes on as the former president still making his case to receive another four-year term in office. you can comment on the speech yesterday and the themes that took up. velma in kentucky, you're next. go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. i don't care for any of biden's speeches, they're usually very rhetorical and same old-same old. he did speak about january 6. you know, when you allow violence and vandalism and destruction and arson and on and

on to take place, and this took place in major cities all across our country, so over the past decade, without a peep in the democrats. and even one boston mayor said let them go ahead and do it. and the police and the national guard were told to stand back and just take the abuse time after time after time. well, when you allow this, you eventually come to a january 6. and there's so much hypocrisy with all that. he touched on that. i didn't get to hear everything he said. i wondered, did he even go to near the fact that by now, over 100 u.s. locations across the world have been attacked since october 7. did he have anymore to say about that than besides don't, don't. and the border. he's so passive and indifferent about the border p. the democrats are going to cram as many people into this country as

they can before the next election in case he's not re-elected. people keep going on about democracy. how are we going to continue with democracy with being invaded by half the world? host: pete in new jersey. democrats line. caller: he's not realistic. how are we going to continue with democracy. host: you have your television up. i'm going to stop you there. let's hear from calvin, democrats line, in georgia. calvin, good morning. caller: how are you, sir? host: fine, thank you. democracy is very much at stake in this country and freedom. people here -- if the republican party gets the white house, donald trump is going to put itself in position where he's going to be the president the rest of his life. we don't need dictatorship in this country. we have enough problems here. there is a real bad race problem

here especially in georgia. people need to wake up. people need to see trump and his people for what they are. host: as far as the president itself, what did you take away from it? caller: it was a great speech the part i caught. i didn't know it was coming on. i go to c-span periodically through the day and happened to see him on there and i said oh, my god, let me listen at this. from what i caught, it was a good speech. he really wants the job again and think he'll do a great job. host: calvin in georgia talking about the speech yesterday addressing one of those themes that was actually talking about allies that the president has in order to gain another term in the white house especially his friend jim clyburn in south carolina, in talking about that and also talked about the importance of the concept of truth. here's the president from yesty.