♪ host: good morning, it's wednesday, january 29, 2025. the senate is in at noon eastern today and several trump

administration nominees are on capitol hill including robert f. kennedy jr. and kash patel but we begin with the trump administration trying to reshape the government. yesterday president trump offered a buyout to all government employees in an attempt to whittle down the federal work force. and a federal judge put a freeze on things. democrats are 202-748-8000 is the number to call. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. special line this morning for federal employees, 202-748-8003. you can also catch up with us on social media, x,@cspanwj. you can start calling in now.

the local "washington times" here in dc, focusing on the buyout offer on their lead story spot. their headline, eight months of pay to feds who leave and no guarantees for those who stay. "the washington post," their lead story is the grant and loan freeze. "the washington post" describing it as the actions by a federal judge on tuesday temporarily blocking president donald trump from imposing that sweeping pause on trillions in federal spending. and it is written, a disruption to cover schools, provide housing and ensure low income americans have access to health care. the order prevented the new restriction from taking effect until at least february 3, buying time for a coalition of advocates and nonprofits and businesses to proceed with the case that may challenge trump's power over the fiscal

trajectory. that's their lead. taking you to the briefing room at the white house yesterday, it was the white house press secretary karoline leavitt's first briefing of this trump administration and was asked about the freeze on grants and loans. karoline: part of the confusion is you are not stopping funds to individuals but there are lots of organizations that receive funding and may pass on a benefit, meals on wheels for one who provide meals for 1.2 million. and what is the message for those who voted for him who are concerned that this will impact them directly even if you said the funding isn't coming. karoline: i've answered this question four times. to individuals at home who receive direct assistance from the federal government, you will not be impacted by this federal freeze. in fact, o.m.b. just sent out a memo to capitol hill with q&a to clarify some of the questions and answers that all of you are

asking me right now. again, direct assistance will not be impacted. i've been asked and answered about this o.m.b. memo. there are many other topics of the day. reporter: but it's going to another organization and trickling down. karoline: direct assistance to the american people won't be impacted. as i said to peter, we'll provide the list as it comes to fruition but o.m.b. is focused on analyzing the federal government's spending which is exactly what the american people elected president trump to do. [video clip ends] host: it was just before that freeze was set to take effect 5:00 p.m. yesterday a district judge in washington, d.c. stepped in and put a hold on that freeze. that's one of the two major stories we're focusing on this morning. the other one being that offer of buyouts for federal employees. phone lines this morning, specific line for federal employees, 202-748-8003, otherwise, democrats,

republicans and independents as usual. danny is up first this morning in arizona on that line for republicans. danny, what do you think about these two stories, these efforts to reshape the federal government? caller: good morning. can you do me a favor, please, and explain the second question, i want to make sure i've got that right, please. host: the pause on grants and loans, it was an effort to look at all the grants and loans, trillions of dollars the trump administration wanted to take a look at. it was set to go into effect yesterday and a federal judge yesterday pausing that at least until early february so that's where we are right now but certainly a story that is continuing to develop. caller: ok. i get meals on wheels, ok, and i sure hope they don't take that away because that helps me out a great deal, you know what i'm saying, john? host: understood, danny.

anything else you want to add? caller: no, just that i think before we go -- how can i put this gently, before we go really fast down this i think the trump administration needs to study and take a good look at what they're doing, you know what i'm saying? host: you're calling in on the republican line, were you a trump voter in 2024? caller: of course. i support trump all the way, yes. i just want them to take a step back and study it a little bit is all. host: danny in yuma, arizona. several outlets trying to parse this freeze to see exactly what was affected and as you heard in the white house press briefing it was the topic of several questions for karoline.

it points to the federal financial assistance, surplus donations, loans, interest subsidies, and exempts assistance received directly by individuals including medicare and social security. it refers to the executive order donald trump signed january 20 which ordered department and agency heads to immediately pause new programs and disbursements of development assistance to foreign countries. the department of state announce ed that pause on sunday, though yesterday marco rubio, the new secretary of state, backtracks on the foreign aid freeze, approving waivers for that. that's the headline of "the washington post" story on it today, approving a new waiver for lifesaving humanitarian assistance in a memo sent to aid groups amidst widespread confusion and writes which programs in the $60 billion foreign aid budget would be

exempt from the trump administration freeze on u.s. assistance. and in his memo, rubio defined humanitarian assistance as core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence and reasonable administrative costs to deliver such assistance. programs will not be waived, he said, if they involve abortions, family planning conferences, gender diversity programs, strand gender surgeries or other assistance. he talks about how this would apply to foreign aid funds. this is now all on pause until early february in the wake of a district judge's decision yesterday in d.c. a lot to talk about this morning, getting your phone calls on that story, on the federal employee buyout offer. joy is in philadelphia. line for democrats. good morning. caller: hi. good morning.

absolutely, i'm calling because i read a article about the buyout and read elon musk is in charge of the o.p.m., the personnel office, and trying to put his lawyer in to get rid of career federal personnel. host: elon musk is the department of government efficiency, o.p.m. is a different office and russ vote is the nominee to lead that office. what's your feeling about this buyout? caller: my feeling is that it is twofold and i used to work for the government and i'm a democrat they're trying to get rid of career employees and put trump loyalists in career jobs.

when i was working, there was a thing called the hatch act where you didn't know anybody political. you work for democrats and republicans. the article i read that he sent the letter to the office of personnel. from the office of personnel from the buyout. he don't know how government works. that's the problem. host: that's joy in philadelphia on the buyouts. karoline leavitt saying in a statement, the american taxpayers deserve federal employees who show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers. if they don't want to work in the office and contribute to making america great again, they are free to choose a different line of work and the trump administration will provide a very generous payment of eight months. that's karoline leavitt and tim

kaine from virginia, a state with a lot of federal employees, was on the senate floor last night and spoke about the buyout offer and this is about 1:30 for what he had to say. [video clip] sen. cain: if you leave we'll pay you through the end of september whether or not you show up for work. tender your resignation and then boy, it will be a gravy train, you're going to get paid for seven months without working. the president has no authority to make that offer. there's no budget line item to pay people showing up for work. this is president who made promises to contractors when he was a private business guy, come work for me in the casino or

hotel, we'll do a handshake or a contract. the contractor does the work and then finds out they get stiffed. so my message to federal employees who receive this is yeah, the president has tried to terrorize you for a week and then gives you a sweetheart offer if you resign in the next week, we're just going to pay for you doing nothing the next seven months. don't be fooled. he he's tricked hundreds of people with that offer. if you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you like he stiffed the contractors. he doesn't have any authority to do this. do not be fooled by this guy. you were here before he was here and you'll be here after he was here. show up for work,ing diligent, serve americans every day, make their life better, answer their phone calls, give them an answer, track down their constituent call, don't be fooled by a fake offer because

he's terrorized you from the last week, it would be easy to resign now and get a check for seven months. that promise is worth nothing. host: this is jill from chicago, independent. good morning. caller: i was listening by the comments by tim cain and can't -- tim kaine and can't disagree with him more. what the administration doesn't understand, and most people in america don't understand is that funds, grants, all kinds of federal dollars get handed out to the states who then decide how it will be divided up, too. it's not just that trump can come in and declare i don't like this program so we're going to stop funding it, he doesn't have total control over.

even before he gets to the supreme court, they probably won't pay attention what he has to say about it. at any rate, it's just exactly what i expected from our president chump. have a nice day. host: alexandria from minnesota, mark, a republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to add a comment, this is exactly what the people of america, what we voted in to office. why are people surprised now he wants to cut the "sportscenter"? he's not going to take away food from anybody. he's not going to take away any of that stuff that people are worried about. the man's a good man. the four years of his first presidency proves that. give the man a chance. we put him in there. he's simply doing what we want him to do, cut "sportscenter, "

get spending under control and straighten this world out. that's it. no more, no less. thank you very much. i appreciate you listening to me. host: from south carolina, charleston, lee, democrat. good morning. caller: well, it's a good thing for these people to understand and learn, but they'll never learn. they're just brain fogs from maybe alcohol or something because -- these people are hurting. host: who are you talking about? caller: the particular administration in charge right now, doesn't make any sense but that's good. these people have to go through that. the poor, people working every day, that's good. this is what you asked for. the gentleman called on the first call, buyer's remorse. the guy from illinois, i

believe, buyer's remorse. they're just trying to tell themselves and convince themselves they'll be ok based on a lie. have a good day. host: lincoln, nebraska, dan, independent, good morning. caller: hey, good morning. this is dan. caller: i haven't caught "washington journal" and the first time i caught it in a long time. i just lost it. i fell out with danny -- or dan from yuma. and i mean, hey, dan in yuma, if you're still listening, cry me a river, buddy, because you voted for him, you got him. but anyway -- and then mark from minnesota, the aapologist that says give him a chance, give him some time. well, i think the first day in

office was enough time to know what we're in for the next four years. when people try to say 75 million people voted for the guy and that's who america voted in all you got to read and see what we're in for. i recommend "strong men" by ruth and you'll find out all we're in for. thank you, john. host: rose in the volunteer state, good morning. caller: good morning. glad to be here. listen, d.e.i. was illegal from the moment it was passed, hiring based on graduation date, trans experience, number of people in your family, globalist versus

america first view point which is a potential political bias. the number of people in your home, those are all things i found on ads enlinkedin. merit and skill should be all they count. fire them without benefits. he should have vetoed it when it came across his desk. he would have had he been president at the time. it never should have passed. it's the not even close to being affirmative action. it's clearly an illegal mandate. for four years, those without merit were discriminated against by d.e.i. and vaccine mandate employers. those with merit didn't get the job. those without any merit got the job. in fact, donald trump, if you are listening this morning, give private businesses a 30-day mandate to eliminate job ads with d.e.i. deference. i see them on linkedin all the time and glass door and indeed,

all the jobs ads. find them and when you find them, give them a small fine of maybe $10,000 for continuing to post ads that are clearly illegal. make it a strong point in the next 5-10 days that you are going to get this done for us because we've had to put up with this for four lousy years. thank you. host: rose in tennessee, you mentioned vaccine mandates, that's topic likely toup today at the confirmation ing robert f. kennedy jr. for the health and hu servic secretary, on confirmation ing today before the senate finance committee and also will be back on capitol hill on thursday before the senate

health committee. can you watch the hearing 10:00 a.m. on c-span and where we'll go after this program and thursday we'll air the hearing as well. other trump nominees on capitol hill include howard included nick -- howard lutnick and kelly love letter and kash patel, donald trump's pick to lead the federal lureo of investigation and will have his hearing on thursday on capitol hill and 9:30 is when that's set to start. hope you stay with c-span for all those confirmation hearings and we'll of course be talking about them here on "the washington journal." back to your phone calls on this federal employee buyout offer. the freeze on government grants and loans have now been locked. this is dee on.

good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say i would listen to tim kaine because you can just take a bow and take a letter. you need to fill out papers from a buyout. you don't do nothing from home. you have to have papers showing you applied for a buyout and that's not the proper way to do it. please, people need to listen to what he's saying. also, this is what happened this week about stopping everything in the federal government sounds like a concept of a plan to me. it's never been a plan. he needs to go into office and do some work and stop writing all these executive orders because all he's trying to do is do these orders and play golf. we need a president for all the people, even the people who voted for him see that this is affecting them. it's not about giving the little people anything. it's about him eliminating all these programs so these tax cuts

for the rich will be available as well as all the money being spent on the department. let me ask you something, sir. hello? host: i'm listening to you, dee. caller: these departments cost trillions of dollars, is that correct? did you hear that? that is going to be used. see, he wants to be able to say i deported all these people. half the people are not from the elements but he's trying to make it look like that. i wish they'd stop showing this on television because it's nothing really affecting people live. we've got just as many problems with american citizens as well as the other citizens. they say the lowest crime rate is the immigrants so people need to tell the truth about what's going on here. the money is going to be spent for the tax cut. people, open your eyes. stop enabling a person who does not care about the american people. we need to get back to real

empathy for people in this country. all this bickering back and forth is not helping this country. we need people who are going to be concerned. those republicans going lock step with him is like people in a transe. why do you go to ivy league schools and not practice what you preach? host: thank you. this is tony, independent, good morning. caller: hi. good morning. on this topic, freezing government grants and loans, what i'd love to see c-span do is just have a segment with the disabled and elderly over 65 stop the noise and let the elderly and disabled call in.

i would love to hear their thoughts because i'm sure what he did with that just all of a sudden freeze, just that talk, i'm sure there were tragedies with the elderly just from them hearing that. and in some kind of way i would think -- not voting in the other office but what is that, the 25th amendment something needs to happen because to me it looks like he's trying to cause a great severe pain to people and the elderly shouldn't have to suffer because of it. host: tony in detroit. take you to capitol hill yesterday, senator patty murray, the vice chair of the appropriations committee,

democrat from washington and what she had to say on this federal freeze on grants and loans. [video clip] sen. murray: in a illegal move, the trump administration is trying to freeze federal funding passed into law by republicans and democrats alike. the scope of this illegal action is unprecedented and could have devastating consequences across the country for real people. we could see a screeching halt to resources for childcare, cancer research, housing, police officers, opiod addiction treatment, rebuilding roads and bridges, and even disaster relief efforts. he was just in california to witness the devastation and now he's holding back that aid. trump's actions would wreak havoc in red and blue communities everywhere. this is funding that communities

are expecting and this memo is creating chaos and confusion about whether these resources will be available to them. entire budgets and payrolls across the country are carefully hanging on these resources. we are talking about our small towns and cities and our school districts, our universities, and a lot more. will local head start facilities get their funding? will grantees at our local universities get the funding they use to continue clinical trials? what does it mean for our homeless veterans who are working to get housed? americans should ask themselves, is it woke to fund cancer research or to rebuild an unsafe bridge? all of these critical priorities are funded by the grants the trump administration would pause tonight. this illegal move is a massive, massive overreach by the trump

administration. the american people did not vote for this kind of senseless chaos. so i am urging lindsey graham, the federal appropriator, to hold russell vote that was to occur thursday. they should not advance this out of committee until the trump administration follows the law. host: democratic senator patty murray yesterday on capitol hill. again, that freeze was put on hold by a federal judge just before it was set to go into effect and was 5:00 p.m. yesterday when it was set to go into effect and now on hold until early february. that's the latest where we are on that. we're also talking about the federal employee buyout offer that was sent to almost all federal employees yesterday and a special line for federal employees, 202-748-8003 is that number. this is carry in illinois,

independent, you're up next. good morning. caller: good morning. this president is out to just hurt people. why when joe biden became president he enacted bills to help people. this man is in office to disrupt people and destroy their lives. he's not doing anything positive. he's just hear to hurt us. so like the guy said, why would i give him a chance when he's trying to hurt my kid, he's trying to hurt my neighbors and trying to hurt america. he offers nothing to us. nothing but pain is what this main is offering. and you guys that believe in this president need to have an understanding that he's no good. he's there to hurt you. he's going to take away your benefits. he's going to take away everything and your rights and you're not going to have anything. and to me, his grand scheme is to take the treasury. he wants to take the treasury of

the united states and use the piggy bank for himself. and i wish you guys would stop believing in this, man, because this man doesn't believe in you but believes in oligarchs. he's nothing but a wanna bee tyrant like mili said, why would you want to believe in a man who wants to be a wannabe dictator. host: carey in illinois, you mentioned the start of the biden administration, a look back on that from steven dinan from "the washington times" and people are familiar with his work, he writes, president trump's decision to hit pause on billions on federal spending spawned an avalanche of complaints from his opponents but when president biden did the same thing four years ago, halting all border wall construction, those same voices were silent or in many cases actively cheering the move. the upshot was mr. biden's pause was deemed to be legal so long as it was focused on making sure the money was spent properly but was warned that an indefinite

pause would cross the line into an illegal impoundment of congressionally approved spending. that would be the question for judges as legal challenges to mr. trump's actions make their way through the courts today. he quotes phillip joyce who studies budgeting issues and public policy at the university of maryland saying, it's ok for a president to say that there are more efficient ways for me to faithfully execute the laws but it's not ok for a president to say i'm going to execute this law or i'm not going to execute this law because i don't agree with it. that's been the argument from members of congress saying this money was already approved by congress, signed into law by previous president joe biden that congress controls the purse strings and that therefore, donald trump could not stop these grants and loans that have already been funded. that's some of the legal arguments taking place right now and that's going to continue to play out in the days and weeks to come. we're getting your reaction to that and that federal employee

buyout offer this morning on the washington journal. robin in maryland, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the greatest thing that happened was trump getting re-elected. i am 73 years old and had to go back to work last year because i was going through my life savings and the inflation was horrible, the interest rates were horrible. i'm so looking forward to not having to pay social security on my -- not having to pay taxes on my social security. everybody who says trump's only out for himself and the rich, what about not paying tax on tips, what about not paying tax on overtime? trump is looking at how to help people like me, people that aren't rich. and as far as sending government

employees back to work, i was a government contractor for 20 years and did a lot of work for i.c.e. and d.h.s. and border protection, and i know there's a lot of really hard work in government employees that work from home or work in the office but i know there's also a awful lot of government employees milking the system and we have a lot of empty desks in offices. i think it's great that they have to go back to work. i would like to see something so that they can occasionally work from home because when the plumbers come in, it's great you can work and still have the plumber come but i think trump is making some great things. and keep in mind, he's already been to california and north carolina. he's looking out for all these people. so anybody who says he's only in for himself, obviously has not been seeing what's going on. thank you very much for taking my call. host: to texas. this is charlie, democrat. good morning. caller: yes.

i've got to say that this thing that this is unique is nothing. they've done things like this in the private industry for years. you don't have to be a genius to figure out that if you cut jobs and you lay people off, you're going to start making more money. it's nothing new. trump is not the great businessman nor people who have been hired to run that particular office. thank for you listening. appreciate it. host: this is john in syracuse, new york, independent. go ahead. caller: if they furlough or want these federal employees to resign, it will devastate the v.a. medical center system. as it is, it's short employees now and would be a grave mistake to have this buyout.

and he's asking them to resign. and when you retire from any federal job, i retired from the v.a., you have to go through the process where it takes about three months for you to actually get your first federal pension check. it's a process you have to go through. you don't resign, you retire. there's a group of people that will calculate how much you will get and then you wait for that to come, you know. it would devastate the v.a. medical system. they have enough problems with care in the community and don't need to have this to have people furloughed and resign and collect their paycheck for seven months. somebody in the gs-13 making $90,000 a year, you having them sit home for seven months? no. big, big mistake.

if you want to retire or give you a package for those with years in with longevity and say to them, you know average retirement age is 55, we'll let you go out at 53 or 50. ok. but to tell these people you can just leave, it will devastate the v.a. system. you know, it's a bad idea. it's a bad idea. host: is that where you worked when you were in the federal government? caller: i did. i worked for the v.a. host: v.a., the largest in terms of employees, federal agency with half a million employees, as compared to the smallest agency, the department of education which is just a couple thousand.

caller: right. and nothing against the department of education. they have a certain duty that they have to do. but we're helping vets and there's a huge mental health issue in the united states and these vets are coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder. and to start telling people they can just, you know, take a buyout package with all these people leaving, and they didn't explain, is it going to be someone who has 15-20 years of service or is it 20 years and over? you can leave and near that retirement age? and if you're near that retirement age, then ok. that's a possibility. but to come out with a blank statement -- host: the reported detail is

it's offered to almost everybody, "the wall street journal" reporting, the program the white house calls deferred resignation will be available to all federal employees but the postal service and those related to immigration and national security and military according to the administration. the white house estimates in office requirements of people coming back to the office will prompt 5% to 10% of the federal employees to quit and could lead to $100 billion in savings or more from the white house -- from "the wall street journal" today. go ahead, john. caller: well, big mistake. again, we're talking the v.a. medical center. we're talking men and women who have served their country, who again have answered to the call of the colors and have served their country and they're coming back from service, whether it's iraq and afghanistan and somalia. these men and women, you're

going to deprive them. you're going to deplete the v.a. medical center's work force. this is just -- i know the v.a. is having some issues now but this is -- it's absolutely ridiculous. absolutely ridiculous. host: a call from syracuse, new york. we'll stay in the empire state. this is eddie, independent. good morning. caller: i just want to say, i think trump is doing a great job. he's been in office for eight days and the democrats are ready to explode. what he's doing is he canceled projects, d.e.i., transgender, all that, and did you see the money they were spending or getting ready to ship out $50 million for gaza? that's crazy. all he's doing is taking the programs that he canceled and keeping the money. thank you.

host: jonathan answered questions. and this was after the judge blocked the freeze and after yesterday's senate lunches. sen. thune: they're clarifying it and it's not unusual for a administration to pause funding and take a hard look and scrub of how these programs, how they're being spent and how they interact with a lot of the executive orders the president signed. that's the main criteria, is it it implicate -- do the executive orders implicate funding in this particular way? they've taken certain things off the table. some of you have asked specifically about programs, any program that directly benefits an individual, medicaid, snap, those types of programs are unimpacted by this. what is impacted be obviously is

d.e.i., the green new deal, things like that and are in direct contradiction with the e.o.'s the president provided later this week. reporter: the green deal is infrastructure projects. sen. thune: they're providing guidance on that and will further clarify what will be impacted by this. i don't think it's unusual for an administration to pause. host: jonathan on capitol hill and marco rubio at the state department saying that the pause will not include life-saving help for foreign aid making that announcement yesterday, the secretary of state putting out a memo to his department and we'll see what happens with this pause because a federal judge has now stepped in. this is don in michigan, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span and good morning to the american people. donald trump has now shown us

he's going to be a tyrant and he's going to be a dictator. a lot of people voted for. so i did not vote for him. i was a critic of him his whole four years because he was a crook and criminal. but america got the president we deserve. i'm just going to sit back for the next four years. host: tim in michigan. good morning. caller: i wonder if it will be like this the next four years and really didn't talk about joe biden and his four years of being president. you kind of did but kind of lost a lot of stuff and the first week of donald trump's presidency, we've got bashing going on already.

it's amazing because you've had four years of bashing trump when joe biden was in office, are we going to get another four years of bashing donald trump? so the country stays in total turmoil? and the things that mr. trump's trying to get done, it just blows my mind to think we're ever going to get any better in this country if we just keep bashing one person. they have, what, 400 and some odd people in congress and they are supposed to do the work of the states. the states are supposed to take care of themselves. we put all our energy to one man and just blows my mind at the lack of responsibility for everybody in the government. i mean, including the workers, the workers, they don't take

responsibility for their actions or the results that they produce or any of that. so we just destroy this one guy who is trying to love this country. it totally blows my mind to think that this is going on for another four years. have a good day, john. we'll talk to you later. host: tim in michigan. that line for federal employees. this is ray in colorado. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you thing? host: doing good. caller: i was a career employee for years and received outstanding ratings in the last couple years but last year i accepted a schedule a service position as a person with a disability. now, the o.p.m. memo, i know

they referenced employees that completed their two years and i'm also aware of the executive order dated january 21 keeping american's state in aviation and the order makes reference to hiring on the basis of disability as part of diversity, equity, inclusion hiring. if i may, i'd like to read a part of section 501-b of the rehabilitation act of 1973. may i go ahead and quote from it? host: sure, ray, but keep it short and get me to what you want to say. caller: sure. it says in part, each department shall -- each department shall submit an affirmative action plan for the hiring, placement, and enhancement of individuals with disabilities in such department, agency, instrumentality, or institution. basically the trump administration will have a fight

on its hands, particularly with that executive order going after disability hiring within the f.a.a. thanks for taking my call. host: are you with the f.a.a.? caller: i am not. host: ray, do you think there will be lots of federal employees taking this buyout offer we heard about yesterday? caller: i don't know. i will tell you one thing, i'm not going to take it. host: that's what you're telling your co-workers, that would be your advice? caller: i don't think it would be in my place to advise others, each individual employee situation is different. but taking everything in consideration, i myself will not be accepting the buyout. host: ray in colorado.

this is andrew on staten island, independent. good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i haven't called in for a while but when i call, i warned you before that this would be facism meets the lost cause. trump does not run this country by himself. he does not run the office by himself. he surrounds himself with different individuals that advise him. if you study those advisers, you will see exactly their philosophy and you will see that it meshes with facism and the so-called lost cause. host: andrew, what do you think about the buyout offer and freeze on government grants and loans? caller: that's the same thing, you put individuals out there to try to get individuals to work

for nothing. you want to take away their pensions. you want to take away their health care. all of this has been planned. look at the 2025, nobody read those documents. and now it is coming back to rear its head. people are going to be complaining, especially those who voted for donald j. trump. have a nice day. host: the line for federal employees, this is josh in washington, d.c. josh, go ahead. caller: yeah. this buyout is going to create a lot of confusion. and i know there will be some percentage of federal employees who won't read the fine print and take the buyout and they will find out that this is a bad deal. host: what makes it a bad deal, josh? caller: well, i think if you've

been a career employee for that long, 20-plus years or 25 years, you should just put in your retirement package. this is deferred resignation. when you resign before your time is up, you know, you can't really collect your retirement until you're age 62. it may be fine for a few months but, you know, if you've been a federal career employee for that long, and if you're over 25 years, shoe put in your retirement and not take this buyout. you know what, it's not a big deal. if they're asking to go back to work, go back to work, just because of the comfort, you don't want to give up the comfort of working from home, you know, you go and take this deal. i think it's a total -- this has been done to create a lot of confusion. host: how often do you work from home as a federal employee?

caller: listen, i like to go to the office one day a week, which is not even a big deal for me, you know. i'd be glad to go to the office five days a week if i have to. you know, when did americans forget that for a job you need to show up to work, you know. host: how soon do you think you will be back in the office five days a week? caller: hey, as early as next week, for me it's not a big deal because i never really relied on telework. i always liked to go to the office. so, you know, i think people have just gotten too comfortable. they're teleworking three days a week. by the way, a bill has been introduced by joni ernest that if you don't return to the office and work from home, they're going to take out your locality pay if that bill goes

through and the locality pay for federal employee salary is a big part of that salary. if they take that out, you really will practically not even make anything. and i think for d.c., it's 25%. so if i was a federal employee, i would give up the stupid telework and keep my locality pay and get back to the office like normal folks do and get the job done. host: before you go, do you mind saying what department you work in? caller: i actually work in the navy international sales office. host: thanks for the call in d.c. michelle from d.c., democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thank for you taking my call. i just have a comment. i want to say president musk is so smart. he's getting donald trump to take all the funding away from

americans that are helping americans to give it to himself, to give to elon musk to support him and his little tesla and space x. that is where that money is going to. wake up, people. wake up. host: from the tar heel state, anna, republican, good morning. caller: good morning, john. good morning. i want you to know that i am so proud of donald trump because -- i'm going to cry, but this past week, you would not believe all of the dump trucks and the workers that showed up in western north carolina to clean up our communities. i was just in awe of that. i can't believe that biden didn't do this. i don't understand why it doesn't happen. host: where abouts in north carolina are you, anna?

caller: my kids live in western north carolina around the boone area. but my friends, they all live up around lake lure, swan noah -- swananoa and in those communities that have been devastated and i want you to know, i've never seen anything like it. and we have the amish people up there building these homes. and you can't imagine, building these tiny homes for these people. but that's one thing i wanted to say. but god bless him. thank you, lord. but i know is so many people that have died up there and froze to death this winter. it will make you sick. but the reason why trump is doing the pause on all of this spending is because there's so much waste. when i heard all that money going to gaza for condoms, john, that blew my mind and we know

it's not for that. and i also heard about the wealthy people in -- i'm not bashing the war between ukraine and russia, but these individuals that are in the office in ukraine, they're billionaires now and i don't understand it. and if somebody could explain when biden was in office, what was everybody talking about, it was to secure their pensions in their military or whatever that was. i'm very confused. host: that was hannah. this is steve in ormond beach, florida. caller: i was a republican many years and became independent. i voted for barack obama twice. donald trump, i didn't care for him in the beginning or hillary and didn't vote for either one

of them and put my name in. donald trump kept us out of war the first term. donald trump has helped me as an american citizen and helped me as a military veteran. i was in the v.a. clinic, $250,000 bill going to the hospital and things like that. and donald trump helped the v.a. hospital so much. biden, it's been ridiculous the past four years. i'm hoping trump does good again with the v.a. hospitals because they've been understaffed. it's been crazy. but anyway -- host: are you worried about the staffing of v.a. hospitals, the biggest federal agency amid an effort to offer buyouts to the entire federal work force save the post office, national military jobs. caller: not at all. he will get everything at a level and put people back in. trump has always been a winner.

people attack him all the time. you know, with the wars, though, again, we were close to world war 3. people forget where biden had us. trump is going to get us out of war again, that's the number one thing. with the immigration, people forget about the 350,000 children that the democrats lost, you know, and it's ridiculous all the murders and rapes and crimes. people need to come here legally. host: that's steve. gary, indiana, line for federal workers. good morning. caller: good morning, john. first time caller. been looking into day one of c-span but i'm a retired postal worker and i took a buyout in 1992, and i'm just telling you, the one thing that they don't talk about in this offer, these people take what he offers them, the major thing they're going to lose is their right to continue

in federal employee health benefits because when you resign, you don't take your health benefits with you. and just the main thing, the most important thing to all workers now is their health benefits. so they shouldn't take this. this is a bait and switch. they shouldn't take it. host: imajean in r.b.i. indiana. roxanne, host: imajean in indiana. caller: it's roxanna, and i'm a government employee and first time caller and a bit nervous and worked for an agency north carolina corporate extension service and i worked for 16 years there and i also worked in office which was a usda office, the united states department of ag with soil conservation service and i got county benefits and also state benefits. so i first want to say that the

government is very complicated. it's very vast. there's so many wonderful hard-working people that have worked there, career worked there for many, many years. and so what i see happening that if they go in with the usda and have trouble there and start doing with the farm bill and things like that and mess with the department of agriculture, they could wipe out whole agencies. and one thing i want to clarify that anna said two calls back that joe biden didn't do anything. i have to say roy cooper and joe biden and fema on the ball in western north carolina near asheville and all that terrible, it's devastating what happened to them. i live in the central part of north carolina in greensboro and we were very lucky here but they've had devastation. i can tell that you roy cooper

and the state and joe biden, they went all out. it was so devastated and catastrophic that you cannot -- i mean, i understand how those people feel that they felt like nothing -- that nothing was done for them but it was so vast and so much damage that you people couldn't even get in there. fema couldn't even get in there to try to help those people. so anna, i know she's proud of what trump did with the dump trucks, i guess that's great if that's what he did. but i also saw him hand out the maga hats and people think he's going to snap his fingers and everything is going to be all right. but you can tell i didn't vote for donald trump. and second thing i'd like to say, i also worked for an agency, i'm 79 years old. i worked until i was 77. i retired until i was 52 years old and had over almost 30 years of government work.

i worked in different parts of the agencies but then went back to an agency that's nonprofit and it's here in greensboro that helps senior citizens. they get mobile meals. they would be affected by this. almost someone else would be affected. i have a son with a disability. he has schizophrenia and not able to work and goes to an agency that's a nonprofit that helps people who have severe mental illnesses. you know, get back on their feet in some form or way if they can work or whatever. this is a vast, vast undertaking that what they're going to do, if they go into medicaid, people don't understand that many seniors that are sitting in nursing homes all over this country are on medicaid. so i just want to say that. thank for you this opportunity. i want people to truly quit

turning off maybe stations that they are tuned to that do not give the truth. there is so much detail and things that are happening nowadays, it's fast paced, just try to understand the old networks, the networks that have been true and tried, you know, cbs, nbc,if you don't believe ce shows, tried to get away from all this junk on the internet. it's not telling you the truth. they told so much things about donald trump. go read a book at the library and read about donald trump. he is not -- host: finisher thought but i'm running short on time here. caller: i'm just saying, just inform yourself about what is going on. thank you for the opportunity. host: i think you said it was your first time calling in, you can call in once every 30 days. that is going to do it for this

first hour of our program today but stick around. a lot more to talk about including a conversation next about the role of faith leaders in politics today and later, we will discuss the justice department and changes in the judiciary. lots to talk about this morning on "washington journal." ♪ >> in his latest book titled "waste land, author robert kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future. author of 24 books, he pulls a chair in geopolitics. in chapter three in his 177 page book, he claims "civilization is now in flux. the ongoing decay of the west is

manifested not only in racial tension coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes and erosion of grammar, the decline in ses oferus oaks and classical music and so on, all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization." >> author robert kaplan talks about his book on this episode of book notes plus. look notes plus is available on the free mobile app or wherever your podcasts. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse ocollon of products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. there is something for every fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org.

the c-span bookshelf podcast feed makes it easy for you to listen to all the c-span podcasts that feature nonfiction books in one place so you can discover new authors and ideas. each week we are making it convenient for you to listen to multiple episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing history, biographies, current events and culture. from our signature programs, about books, afterwards, book notes+ and q and day. listen -- q&a. listen today. you can find all of our podcasts on the free span now mobile video at or wherever you leave your podcasts, and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. "washington journal" continues. host: a focus now on the world of faith leaders in politics and public policy. our guest is reverend paul

raushebbush. guest: to make a democracy work for everyone. we believe in civil rights as well as religious freedom and believe those two things can go together. we are a 30-year-old organization started actually in once to a moment similar to this one where it was an outsized influence of the christian coalition and one idea of what religion should be in america and so we decided actually, the mainstream religious viewpoints were not being heard by policymakers, so we were bringing people together from across the spectrum in order to offer a more mainstream, moderate but pluralistic, the idea of a multi-religious democracy where everybody's rights matter. so that is what we've been doing for 30 years and we were actually kind of made for this moment when we have a crisis in our country around democracy, and the role that faith is playing. so we were kind of preparing for this moment. we've been expecting this moment

of project 2025. it is here, we are ready and we are finding across the country people are showing up in important ways in this moment and we need to show up to preserve our democracy. host: what is the moment we are in? guest: we are in a backslide from democracy and a moment where there are a few religious people, a minority, and extreme minority who are christian nationalists, who want to impose a kind of radical ideology on the rest of the nation. using the levers of government and power in order to do that. and so we are seeing this. the entire last week of this administration has made that very clear, that all of project 2025 with its underpinning of christian nationalism, every day it's been coming out. so what we are also seeing our religious leaders from across the spectrum saying no, this is

not what we want for the country. and they are coming together and showing up and standing up and saying no, we have another way. host: defined the term christian nationalism. guest: christian nationalism is a quest for power. the idea that some people belong more than others in this country, namely white protestant christians. it has a long history but it is the idea that we insist on being a christian nation and so some people have more privilege than others. it goes completely against the constitution, which actually says there is no established religion, so everybody from any different faith, tradition, or any different belief should have equal rights and equal say in how we the people will govern and how e pluribus unum, all of us matter, and not one tradition. you're seeing right now a christian nationalists viewpoint which is really running the show. host: led by who specifically? guest: faith leaders across the

country but the problem is it is actually just is. religious leaders, but also government leaders, elected officials. people like ron desantis who will use the bible talking about ephesians and saying we are putting on our armor of god against the left, when actually in the bible it says the devil, and they are using religion in order to create controversy, to create a zero-sum game that we can't compromise because god has anointed. right now there is a whole swath of people out there who believe god has anointed president trump to do this. that is a terrible idea and very anti-american. it is we the people who elect. that does not mean that god anointed his policies. so anybody who stands up at this point and says this doesn't reflect our ideals, we are in the position of saying we are not anti-god, we are actually

pro america and we are pro-religious diversity in america, and if we lose that, if we lose that idea that this is a country for everyone, not just for some who wield power, we are losing an essential idea of america which is everyone belongs. everyone deserves a chance to thrive here. everyone has dignity and purpose and should play a part in our democracy and that is what we are at risk of losing right now. and we seen this incredible onslaught in the last week. we were preparing for this moment because we saw the playbook in project 2025, we saw the christian nationalist underpinnings of it and now we are seeing it played out in every executive order in every different way. host: interfaithalliance.org is the website. here's one headline on pete hegseth as the chairman of, or at the head of the pentagon,

secretary of defense. stop pete hegseth from bringing christian nationalism to the pentagon. how is pete hegseth going to bring christian nationalism to the pentagon? guest: pete hegseth is an open admirer of the crusades, which is by all, most mainstream christian idea, the crusades were not great. the holy war against muslim communities in the effort of christian supremacy. he has tattoos that are christian nationalist tattoos that are very dangerous. and now he has control of our defense department. it's very dangerous, we have to keep a very close look on this and people recognize not only his personal moral challenges around misogyny and violence and alcohol, but he also has

serious, terrible viewpoints on the role that christianity should play in this country, but also in how we approach the wider world. we've already seen it. he has stripped from former four-star generals, he stripped their security. it is a vengeance. we've had many transitions and many presidents come and go. we've had different kinds of leadership, elections have consequences. this is not normal what we've seen this week. and i think it is really important that we say that and that we have clarity and that people are being completely targeted by this new administration, and religious leaders of all people have to see clearly, have to speak truth, and also have to show up alongside those who are being targeted right now. host: president and ceo of the interfaith alliance. phone lines as usual in the segment if you want to join the conversation.

democrats, (202) 748-8001. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independenta, (202) 748-8002. what is your background, are you the reverend of a specific church? guest: i've served churches, i am a baptist minister. i'm also from an interfaith family as my name indicates. my great-grandfather was the supreme court justice who was the first jewish supreme court justice of the country, and his daughter married my grandfather who was the son of walter russian bush, an important theologian who also is part of something called the social gospel which meant the gospel and what we do our lives is not just about a relationship to god, it is about a relationship to one another. we can't love god without loving our neighbor. in a radical, complete way. and that is what is being called upon today. and we're seeing a lot of agreement. you are looking at ice attacking churches right now, so we were

right there, we showed up with our quaker sisters and brothers saying who filed a lawsuit, and we thought that was very important. host: to desecrate houses of worship. guest: houses of worship who have every right to express their solidarity with immigrants and who are worshiping there. it is a terrible aggregation of religious freedom. so you are seeing 85 jewish organizations who are also calling that out. the catholic bishops have called this out. this is broad reputation of what trump is trying to do. what is really important to recognize is that the trump administration does not have a mandate to do the radical thing they are doing. the targeting of communities. whether that is lgbtq people,

which religious communities overwhelmingly support equality for lgbtq people. that is well documented. same with abortion rights, same with immigration, same with opposing book fans -- book ban s. the policies are extremely unpopular and they represent a radical, extreme idea of what this country should be that privileges the few against the many. host: let's chat with some callers, we got plenty already. james is up first, line for democrats. caller: good morning, reverend. guest: good morning. caller: just want to say good morning to you and bless you. i'm glad to see somebody on like you. this is what we need. you are -- host: you still with us? caller: glad to see juan this

morning. we are in a time of trouble now. nobody wants to read the bible. i'm the type of guy, i always communicate and i just love god. obama didn't give me nothing. bush didn't give me nothing. and trump is not going to give me nothing. i get all of mine from god. i am blessed with health from god, god gave me health. i'm 84 years old, people see me and they think i'm 60. keep the word up and go out and keep preaching to everybody. guest: can i respond? i really appreciate that. but we've also seen is that right now, we are in d.c., you and i are speaking in d.c. a lot is happening. i would say it is equally important what is happening.

affiliates across the country in iowa, wyoming, florida, colorado, all sorts of states, and they are seeing the manifestations of this radical it -- radicalily in the divisions and the vitriol coming home in their local communities. so what we need folks who are 84 but look and feel 60 to show up in their local community and say actually, we want to be a place where everyone belongs. and the attack on, for instance, dei and on civil rights, just the sense of the rolling back of what is the vision for this multiracial, multireligious, pluralistic society, that is what we need to get back to. host: when you say show up, what are you asking? guest: for instance, our local affiliates are showing up in places where people are coming in well-organized, well-funded

from the outside, coming into school boards and saying we are going to take off this book off the shelf, this book off the shelf, this book off the shelf. often people of sometimes also jewish and muslim characters. they are basically erasing entire stories in the name of protecting the church. they are not protecting the children, they are protecting an understanding of who belongs in america and they are using their attacks on libraries and librarians to fulfill that. so what our folks across the country are doing and local affiliates, i want to encourage everybody, if you are interested in joining us we would welcome you as a member to show up at school board meetings. show up at library meetings and say we want everybody to belong in our community. we want everybody stories to be there side-by-side. and this is not a radical idea. this is what america means to us.

people say that's politics, we are not bringing politician to it. we are sharing a vision and one of the great american profits, american contributions to the world is martin luther king jr. and what we believe is that everyone has a place in the beloved community. host: a for ship at the national prayer service the day after the inauguration, did she bring politics to the pulpit when she spoke directly to donald trump? guest: no, she brought the gospel. she did not bring politics. this is really important to clarify. she brought a deeply biblical understanding of what was called in that moment, and she used very religious, spiritual ideas of mercy, of love, of unity. if you listen to the whole sermon, it is about unity and how we can create unity and one of the ways we can eight unity is honest and truthful.

she to bring politics. she spoke directly to the president which was amazing. it was actually the most important moment in the hold inauguration and probably the most weight clip of the whole inauguration, frankly, because it was a moment when she said please, i ask you as one american to one another and is one person of faith one another, have mercy. and people are saying that was some sort of radical aggravation of this line between religion and policy. that was pure gospel. she was preaching the gospel and she was saying have mercy, and she mentioned lgbtq people. and if you are not aware of targeting trans people and making them feel unsafe, unwelcome in their communities, you are not speaking the whole truth. so what she did, she said please have mercy. and if that offends you, you have to go back and look at the gospel and look at what jesus said about welcoming the

immigrant in matthew 25 and said when you welcome the immigrant, when you welcome the stranger in your land, your welcoming me. and that is a test. when you are trying to enter heaven, jesus is going to ask you how you treated the immigrants. host: pennsylvania, line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning to anyone who is listening. i want to say this much. that god asked us to love him first and to love everybody. and satan has come in and just disrupted anything. the bible tells us that god raises up kings and leaders whether we think they are good or they are not good. god puts them there for a reason. and we are going and listening to satan. he is trying to take america down. he's trying to take israel down. we have to love god. and please, in romans 13 it

talks to us about government and what government is supposed to be doing. and we are not going there. host: what do you think government should be doing? caller: i don't think anything about government should be doing but they need to respect god and what he wants us to do, not go against what he wants. but also don't forget that satan is doing just the opposite and people are listening to satan. host: got your point. anything to add to that? guest: i couldn't agree more, we have to love our neighbor, but we have to really discuss what love means, which is not condemning, which is not attacking, which is not inspiring violence against. what does love our neighbor mean? it means walking with them and saying how are you, can i ask you what you're feeling, what is your experience, and we are in a

diverse country. that is our glory is our diversity, and it requires that we ask real questions. how are you feeling, what is this moment for you, how can i love you in the way that you need to be loved? and if we can do that, we can develop policies around that. the worry i have with the last caller is the use of satan to describe anyone we disagree with. that is terrible because really, once you described a political opponent as satan, which has become part of the rhetoric of our political, unfortunately, politicians are doing that more and more. again, it is a zero-sum game. part of all we need to recognize that is so egregious about the pardoning of january 6 violent offenders is much of the background of january 6 was christian nationalism and this

idea, and the last caller alluded to it potentially, that god raised up trump. so that anyone who opposes trump is opposed to god. and so a lot of the impetus for january 6 with this idea. that in 2020, he can't have lost because he is anointed by god. like, they have said that. january 5 through a prayer circle saying god anointed him, he can't have lost. so on january 6 they attacked the capital. in the moment you start to bring that kind of rhetoric into a democracy you are in real trouble, and that is the moment we are in right now. host: mike in tennessee, independent, you are next. caller: tennessee or indiana, one of the two. host: sorry about that. caller: no problem. i just wanted to call and make some clarification in regards to what christianity means anymore. the cause of israel is not the cause of jesus christ. the cause of a political radical

life segment of america is not the cause of jesus christ. the cause of ron desantis and donald trump are not the cause of jesus christ. we are called to love and accept all those, but not include them in the realm of jesus christ and i think that might be a fundamental difference in what is being discussed, is how we go about making change in our world. the cause of jesus christ and the kingdom of jesus christ, weapons of warfare are mighty for the politico strongholds. it is not about including those into the realm necessarily, it is about showing the way so that others are willing to join. i just might lead with a question, to what extent has christianity been perverted by political movements such as zionism or christian nationalism and even that term is ironic because christian nationalism as it is described really doesn't

have much to do with christianity. host: that is mike in indiana. guest: i think mike is making a really good point and i really appreciate that. how do we really go deep into our faith, understand that that is a commitment, and really focus our lives around our commitment to jesus christ. i appreciate that. it always does have political implications because somehow, we live in community, none of us are isolated alone in the corner. we are all around one another, and here is the real point. i want christians like myself to express their full christianity, and many things we are going to disagree about. i would love for you to accept all lgbtq people. if you personally don't embrace

that, but recognize that there are other people who do, and other faith traditions that also do. and everyone has a right to live freely, to love, to pray and to be who they are called to be in america. that is an american ideal, and so we have to figure out how we can recognize diversity of opinion. with abortion, abortion is a big question right now and it is about to become a bigger question because there will be a push to create a national abortion ban, i believe that. but i would go to the mat for someone who said please don't make me have an abortion. i would go to the mat. i would never want anybody to have an abortion who did not want an abortion. we've seen that in other countries. that is a terrible thing. but recognize that for many faith traditions, in fact the majority of fatal people in america, abortion is not in

conflict with their faith. jewish groups are very particular about this saying that is not our understanding of our faith, and you are imposing an idea of what faith should be on us, and so what we need to understand is that we are in a pluralistic society where people are going to make different choices about their life, but loving one another, loving our neighbor does involve a certain amount of allowing for people to live their lives and not hurt other people. and what we are seeing is that people are and the trump administration is hurting other people, specifically people more vulnerable. host: the reverend is with us until 8:45 this morning, so about another 20 minutes. phone lines as usual for democrats, republicans and independents. jamie in scottsdale arizona, you are next. caller: for the reverend, you

are very hateful and full of hate. you spew nonsense, and i've been into moss, i grew up in michigan. i grew up around every kind of faith person there is, i have friends of every kind of faith but i've never in my life heard a reverent speak like you. you sound like a cnn commentator, that is how bad you sound. and i don't know who you are trying to win over. obviously maybe a few people who called in to thank you, you are leading the charge against donald trump. i mean, it's just ridiculous. you sound ridiculous. host: we will give you a chance to respond. guest: i'm sorry if it comes off hateful, and i would hate to think that i am being hateful. i really don't hate anybody. i'm really trying to love people as best i can. i'm saying that directly to you, ma'am.

i do think it is important to recognize that this is kind of what we saw against bishop budde, who i know is not a radical but she said something truthful from her tradition to donald trump. and people said it was full of hate. if you listened to that, asking for mercy is not full of hate. here's a really important idea. there are many traditions of christianity, the tradition of martin luther king jr., a broad tradition of christianity in america, which is my tradition, which i am speaking out of. so i am not speaking hate. what i'm speaking is out of my truth as a reverent who comes out of the important tradition in american religious life, so i reject the idea that because i'm speaking my truth i am speaking hate. host: dimensioned the reaction to bishop budde and the sermon

and speaking directly to dolla trump. this is from piers morgan uncensored last week, the reverent franklin graham who we heard at the inauguration ceremony at the beginning of that ceremony, he would be interviewed by piers morgan. >> she was completely wrong to do that. she was mixing the lgbtq+ agenda along with the immigrants and because the president talks about having a new policy as far as the government, of two genders, male and female, that somehow the lgbtq community is going to be maligned some way, that just is not true. she said they are going to feel unsafe. why? nothing has changed, they still have their freedoms and rights as we all do. just because the government is only going to recognize male and female, so she was wrong on that. and then to talk about having compassion, the problems we have

with the border go to biden, you have to put those at his feet. you have a policy that welcomed people to come from around the world. if you could just somehow get to the southern borders, you could cross a great rift to yourself and come to america. so we saw millions of people come to the united states, pouring through venezuela, going through the gap, through panama, all the way through mexico, people being raped and murdered and if you made it to the board you had to swim, go across barbed wire, things like that to get into america. that put people at greater risk. so you talk about compassion. we need a system to go back to where people can come into this country legally, where they can apply and like melania trump, her family came in legally, so we just need to go back to that. but there's nothing wrong with

it. we need immigrants, but not illegally. and they don't need to come in a way that puts their family and their loved ones in great danger, and that is what has happened these last four years. host: let's sum up the reaction that you were talking about. guest: he's using his pulpit right now to say something about how he feels about what bishop budde said. bishop budde was in the national cathedral, she was the bishop of a national cathedral, it was her pulpit, she was speaking the gospel. i will respond to the idea that none of the policies that trump has proposed are hurting trans people, they actually are. there is every fiction, people being able to have gender affirming drugs and surgery. i want to say one thing about

the trans community because i think it is really important. we should recognize that the republican party has spent something like $280 million of the campaign maligning the trans community, attacking a small percentage of the american population who are trying to live their lives as they want to live it. i know parents of transgender children who have had to move away from their state because they could not provide the care for their children that their children required. this is government saying we don't want you to love your child, we are going to tell you how to love your child. this is an overreach of government, and the idea that trump has already -- last night he signed an order about trans people and attacking trans people. trans people are feeling unsafe, and franklin graham frankly does not love the lgbtq community and has set terrible things about the muslim community and other

things, let me say. franklin graham is no billy graham. and for him to pretend like what donald trump is doing is not harming immigrant communities, immigrant families, immigrant individuals and trans people, he is creating a web. but i would listen to the catholic bishops, the 85 jewish groups, the quakers and the many, many religious groups who are showing up in support of immigrant communities as well as trans people and saying actually, marion buddy, and asking for mercy, to please consider the hurt that your policies are about to impose on communities, was doing what she believed was gospel. a lot of times conservatives use the term religious freedom, but it is always religious freedom for me, not for thee. let's go back to the idea that everybody deserves religious freedom.

from whatever tradition you are in, including people who are adherents, the growing many people who are not religious, but who deserve every bit of freedom to live their life as any religious person. host: that executive order, the new york times reporting it would take steps to end gender affirming medical treatment for children and teenagers under 19, directing agencies to take a variety of steps to curtail surgeries, hormone therapy and other regimens. the order chipping away at social protections for transgender and intersex people. coming one day after the trumpet ministration directed the pentagon to reevaluate whether anyone who received gender-related medical treatment should be committed to serve in the military. guest: is a direct attack. so franklin graham is trying to ignore that. let me say one thing also about our good friend elon musk, who has risen to the power of almost more important than anyone else in the government just because

he is rich. just because he is rich. and what he is doing now to the civil service, asking for everybody to give us a letter of resignation, but also the attack on civil service, take away dei, take away civil rights, take away the rights of people within the civil service. we need to really look at what elon musk has revealed to us this week. it's really different. start with the salute, and you can argue about that, and people were arguing about it, and they were arguing about it until he doubled down with many nazi chokes on his own personal platform that he uses for his personal gain, and now he is supporting the far-right fascist movement in germany saying you should be feeling so much guilt about what happened in the nazi

era, let's forget all of that. this is the most powerful man in washington right now, and we need to look carefully at what that says about this administration and their priorities, and the kind of character that is lacking in leadership in this moment. host: less than 10 minutes left this morning. he is with the interfaith alliance, interfaithalliance.org if you want to check them out onne. barbara in oregon, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i just wanted to say thank you that you are an answer to my prayers because i worry about this world, you know, and if people really want to know the way that jesus spoke, they should go and read the sermon on the mount. everybody deserves love, everybody deserves care. i had quakers in my background

and i feel proud of them for standing up, so i just want to say thank you, and i also wanted to give praise to the representative in texas who speaks out on christian nationalism. that was another gift that god gave me to listen to him, so i want to thank you. guest: well, it is nice to be called satan this morning and also people who say that i represent their faith. that is the reality. we are in a moment where there are people who are seeing this very differently syria my hope is that we can actually talk to one another and bring people around one another. a word about the sermon on the mound, it's interesting. a quite conservative southern baptist leader, i want to make sure that i'm not quoting him incorrectly. there was someone, and it might not be russell moore, so i don't want to assume that, who said

people when they hear the sermon on the mound, which was jesus' main preaching think what is this communist manifesto? they can't believe that jesus said that and they are either questioning whether that is even part of the gospel and what they should believe in. i will say something about james talarico who is an amazing person. i have a show called the state of police, i've had a james on the show along with one of his colleagues was a muslim and they are working together to try to figure out how religious prose can work in texas because you see a very big attack in texas under this freedom in the way of saying we should have chaplains in school. untrained chaplains replacing trained school advisors, and these chaplains come out of very right wing evangelical communities and they are being placed in public schools, and they are being told yeah, you are as good as a trained high

school counselor. and this is a way to get into public schools. in my day thing, whether it is 10 commandments, prayer in public schools, chaplains in public schools, as a parent of two kids in public school, i don't want the public school to be responsible for my children's faith. i think it is very ironic that conservative religious leaders, christian nationalist, christian leaders are trying to have public schools do the work of faith training for them. it is bad for faith and it is bad for our public schools. host: the caller talked about her ancestors background. can i come back to your background, your great grandfather, his time in the 20's and 30's, how this country dealt with whatever the term christian nationalism was then, the idea of religious freedom which is something we seem the supreme court deal a lot with in recent years.

are there lessons for the past? guest: it's really interesting to think about the 20's in washington, d.c. the ku klux klan marched down pennsylvania avenue in the form of a cross, and my great-grandfather, the first jewish supreme court justice lived in d.c. at the time and had to go to work. the ku klux klan was anti-black, anti-catholic, anti-jewish. they believed, as christian nationalist belief today, that this is a country for white, protestant christians. so he believed in america. that was the amazing thing. his parents came to this country. they were so amazed at what they found.

thanks when jews were being persecuted, they came here and they found freedom. and he believed in america, in the idea that we could live pluralistically. his daughter married a protestant and he was overjoyed with that marriage because they believed in the opportunity of america to create something better. they believed in the idea that we can always get better. so today, this idea of looking back and saying when -- what are we nostalgic for, really? it's not the golden age as trump said, it is the gilded age. and that is terrible, when a few people hold all the power, but actually we the people have the power. in religious leadership is just part of a broader civic society that needs to recognize that this is a moment, all of us need

to show up and protect our democracy together. host: we've got a few folks waiting for you. new york, republican, thanks for waiting. caller: i'm not going to go so far as to say that this gentleman is spewing hate like the one woman, although i did agree with a lot of what she was saying. i'm very concerned about the impressionable christianity is coming from your mouth because people who are true faith followers following jesus christ our people who, christianity is not an ideology, it is life. you cannot help but be loving toward others and you cannot help try to live a god-honoring life. so hate is not involved. there is a lot of judgment i hear. i really feel like this is really a disservice to christianity overall, and you're kind of turning people off from what real christianity really is.

we are leaving the hands and feet of jesus christ to our neighbors and we make mistakes that we are trying to honor god in living. the purpose of the inaugural service was to lay hands on the president, blessing, ask for god's blessing, asked that he make good decisions, ask that he follows the guidance of his lord and savior throughout his service. that is the purpose, not to give him lectures. she used his name personally and lectured him. she was wrong. she was also wrong, and i'm hearing you use the term lgbtq a lot, that is divisive. why is that separated out from people? we are all people, we need to stop separating out. host: let me give the reverend a chance to respond. guest: i do think one of the things that actually was interesting that happened with

the bishop saying what she did in that moment was that many people like the last caller who maybe were not equated with an entire part of the preston tradition and maybe never heard a christian speak that way. they might object to her being a woman as a bishop, as many people did. they might object to her talking about lgbtq people. so it's really important to recognize that no one has a monopoly on christianity. the tradition that i come out of, which is a rich tradition and actually you could argue is just as big as any other christian tradition, which is the kind of more mainstream, protestant christian tradition is one of many. she has a right to have her mindset and her viewpoint, but she can't diminish mine, and she

can't say that you are not a christian. and i really reject that. and here's the irony. we can't say lgbtq because it is divisive. listen, if we could do away with all the forms of discrimination that the lgbtq community has experienced because of their identity, people would love to just be called human. but that is not the way that history is and that is not the reality of today. so saying we don't need any of those labels, we don't need any of that to be part of our conversation is to dismiss the reality that many people who are from that community are experiencing today. and last point, but it needs to be said, the majority of religious people in america support lgbtq equality. complete equality. and you know what is interesting, she's talking about turning people away from christianity. the people who i heard from most

were non-christian to were like i've been waiting for a christian to sound like jesus, how i imagined christians would sound. people are leaving the church, a lot of young people are leaving the church specifically because of the attacks that they see from many people in the christian community on the right against lgbtq people, and young people don't want any part of that. what she did for many people i know from my colleagues to friends to family say it is great we are a christian be what i imagined christians might be. so i actually thought it was a great evangelical moment for the gospel and for the bishop who i support fully. host: president and ceo of the interfaith alliance, it is interfaithalliance.org. guest: thanks for had me. host: up next, mike davis, the founder of the group article three. we will talk about changes at the justice department and we will talk about the legal system in this country.

stick around for that conversation. but first, just about 30 minutes ago press secretary caroline levitt spoke to reporters about some of these topics we covered this morning about the federal employee buyout, about the freeze on loans and grants. this is about two minutes from a gaggle of reporters. >> good morning, how are we? just a couple, i have a meeting and then i will be back out in a little bit for one more. >> this is an effort to get folks to return to work. it isn't a voluntary buyout, they say this is a purge. >> that is absolutely false. this is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return to work, and if they don't, they have the option to resign. this administration is very generously offering to pay them

for eight months. 6% of the federal workforce in the city actually shows up to work. that's unacceptable. we are all here at work at the office. there are law enforcement officers and teachers and nurses across the country who showed up to the office today. people in this city need to do the same. it is an overwhelmingly popular policy with people outside of washington, d.c. >> how much more is it going to cost, but will it cost to bring all those workers back? >> it's going to save tens of millions of dollars because this government has been wasting billions of dollars on empty office space that is beautiful. look at the buildings in the city. they are gorgeous, a fin here for decades, and the american people are paying for them. so we are going to make good use of the office space in the city by having these federal workers returning to work. i would also add that the order

simply directs federal agencies to come up with a return to work plan. this isn't a purge and this is enforcing every single individual in washington, d.c. to return to work, only if they are able and of course within the law. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: a focus now on president trump's department of justice and the courts. mike davis, founder of the article three project. first remind viewers what the article three project is, your mission. guest: the article three project or a3p is a conservative nonprofit that fights for president trump's judicial nominees and fights against the law fair. we also fight for election integrity. host: how are you funded? guest: we started the project back in 2019 after the capitol confirmation because we saw there was a major void that we filled with the article three project and we are funded with

private contributions, where people can go to article3project and donate. host: you say you fight against lawfair, defined the term. guest: that is when you politicize law enforcement to go after your political enemies for non-crimes or non-violations. it is turning the legal system into another political weapon. host: a headline from the bbc, the trumpet ministration fires lawyers who investigated him. what is your view on that firing? >> i think president trump absolutely should do that. these justice department operatives engaged in an unprecedented law fair against president trump. they made up crimes against the president.

it is not a crime for a former president to have his presidential records in the office of a former president, that is allowed by the presidential records act. it's also not a crime to object to a presidential election, that is allowed by the electro account act of 1887. and if it were, you would see democrats in prison for objecting to republican wins in 1968, 2000, 2004 and 2016. we don't see al gore and hillary clinton and john kerry in prison, but they did try to put president trump in prison for objecting to the presidential election in 2020. host: what was your view of last friday's firing of some 17 inspectors general, although notably not specifically department of justice inspector general. guest: the president of the united states under article two of the constitution has the absolute power to fire executive

branch officials. and it doesn't matter what statute congress tries to put in the way, you can't have a statute trump the president's constitutional power. so the president has an absolute right to fire inspectors general. host: what is your view about the reshuffling of career staffers, the reassignments that we are hearing about out of the justice department, is this different than what takes place at the outset of a new administration went different political parties take over the federal agencies in washington? guest: these democrats prosecutors, biden democrat prosecutors at the justice department, at the state attorney general's office in new york and various da's offices in manhattan and arizona, they ran unprecedented democrat law fair and election interference against president trump. they tried to bankrupt him, they

tried to throw him in prison. four times for non-crimes. they tried to take them off the ballot in colorado and maine and elsewhere, unconstitutionally. they tried to take off his head when joe biden intentionally underfunded president trump's secret service protection and said that he is the greatest threat to democracy, he must be stopped at all costs and put a target on him. so the american people heard all of these allegations and all of this so-called evidence against president trump and the american people rendered our verdict on november 5, and president trump won in a landslide, three to electoral votes, all seven swing states, the popular vote. the american people rendered a verdict and that verdict was that we are going to end this lawfare, this weaponization of our intelligence agencies and our justice system and there

must be accountability. and were starting to see that accountability now. people who waged this lawfare should be reassigned or fired and they need to be held accountable. there needs to be several probes on what happened. there needs to be office of professional response ability probes at the justice department on these officials, they needs to be civil rights investigations because they violated president trump civil rights along with the civil rights of his top aides like steve bannon and peter navarro. who went to prison after serving 250 years of constitutional executive privilege going back to george washington. president trump supporters on january 6 were politically persecuted. yes, persecuted according to the supreme court fisher ruling. it wasn't just trump supporters, the biden justice department went after parents at abortion clinics including putting a 75 euros christian woman in prison for praying in an abortion

clinic. they put the fbi after parents, outraged by gender chaos in schools and the resulting rapes in high school bathrooms. and at the same time that joe biden and is justice department did this to trump and his top aides and his supporters and his allies, biden and his justice department gave amnesty to the much more deadly and destructive blm and nt for rioters. they gave amnesty to the planned parenthood abortion entry activists who terrorized catholic churches and pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, illegally obstructed justice by targeting supreme court justices outside of their homes with intimidation campaigns before their ruling on the dobbs decision. there needs to be accountability for what happens. we need to have new priorities in the justice department. the justice department should actually be going after the

invasion of our southern border and the resulting rapes and murders and robberies and other violence. i think that president trump and his justice department team are doing exactly the right and by read ira tithing the justice department, by real crimes and holding people accountable to weaponize the justice department against lytic lebanese. host: mike davis of the article three project with us for about the next half hour this morning. if you have questions, comments for him, democrats, republicans and independents phone lines as usual, put the numbers up on the screen for you. you say hey need to be multiple probes about what happened. is it lawfare to investigate elastic ministrations investigators? guest: know, because we would actually be investigating real crimes here. it is a very serious federal civil rights ellen a -- felony.

conspiracy against rights, to politicize and weaponize intelligence agencies and law enforcement against your political enemies for non-crimes. and so when you do that, that is the most dangerous thing you can do in our intel agencies, in our legal system. there has to be accountability for that so it never happens again and wrinkly, this goes back to crossfire hurricane, the russian collusion hoax. here is right here. you had hillary clinton with her illegal home server as the secretary of state with our nation most classified secrets, more problematically, for hillary is it had evidence of the clinton foundation pay for play foreign bribery schemes where the clinton foundation has taken millions of dollars from these shady foreign actors and hillary clinton is the secretary of state at this time. this money going into the clinton foundation is

underwriting the clinton's lavish lifestyle around the world where they are taking private jets and living like hollywood actors. what was hillary clinton doing as secretary of state in exchange for these millions of dollars in donations to the clinton foundation? was there quid pro quo foreign corruption, was there foreign bribery? we will never know because hillary clinton destroyed her home server, bleached her home server, took hammers to the phone. after a congressional subpoena so it is obstruction of justice. she thought this evidence went away, but maybe, just maybe that home server was hacked by our worst enemies including russia, and maybe just maybe as hillary clinton was running for president in 2016, she is worried that this material of her foreign corruption will come out before the 2016 election, and so her campaign had worked with a law firm and made up the steel dossier, they made up the russian collusion hoax, they

lied to the court, they got spy warrants on then presidential candidate donald trump, they continued to spy on him as the president of the united states, they hobbled his presidency. this is the biggest scandal in american history. you say that is not possible, how could you possibly think they could do that? they did the same thing with hunter biden's laptop with the biden corruption. 51 former intel officials said it had all the hallmarks of a russian disinformation campaign. they got the new york post, america's oldest newspaper deplatformed from social media. they made it where you couldn't even pull up the story. people would have known about hunter's laptop before 2020. there's no chance that biden would have been in the white house for four years. host: let me get you some call this because there's plenty for you already and we have you for less than 25 minutes this morning. this is lizzie in indiana, democrat, go ahead. caller: yes, hello, mike. guest: hello. caller: thank you, c-span.

my question is how can people from the trump administration, they are putting in the worst people possible to run our country, and the reason is he is trying to get rid of the people that run the government because they are trying to take over the government to run it as a dictatorship. and i will have nothing of that, and i know there's lots of people out here that do not want a dictatorship, especially with donald trump being the dictator. this this needs to be stopped and they need to be accounted for. they need -- they need to be accounted for doing their crimes. host: mike.

guest: i would say when you have a president of the united states when a president -- win a presidential election it's his job to take over the executive branch. and get rid of the political appointees from the last administration. and put in his political appointees. we'll carry out his policy agenda the american people elected him to carry out. guest: this is joe in dayton, ohio, republican. good morning. caller: good morning from a sunny day in ohio. good morning, mr. davis. i want to tell you i love. i watch you on youtube. you are a breath of fresh air. all these cases against donald trump are bogus. there was no insurrection on january 6. donald trump did request troops on january 3. general milley testified under oath on that. but no one wants to report that. the judge case has more holes than swiss cheese. and letisha james will lose her

$500 million case in new york. the grand jury, that was a disaster. these democrats love to use the word fascism, dictator, adolph hitler, mussolini. not one person in this country has ever lived under a dictatorship or fascist. my parents did under mussolini. but these people today want to put labels on donald trump and it's sad. mr. davis, the reason for this call, i love you. keep up the good work. thank you. guest: i appreciate that very much. host: barbara, oklahoma, independent, good morning. caller: hi. i just -- can't watch you all anymore. i don't understand this thing where we don't have facts on here. you just let him go off on hillary. hillary's not in the government. hillary did nothing. you all -- everything they did -- oh, my goodness. i don't get it. i like the last guy. he was honest.

i didn't agree with him with everything. but he was honest. this man is one of the liars you have on here every day. three hours of lies. destroying our country. and i don't understand c-span. you have never been like this before. you have -- oh, my gosh. you just -- just really -- it's something. and every day i wonder -- i can't. i'm not going to watch you. i don't. i can't stand it. i have to turn it every day because these lies. puke up lies on us every single day. host: barbara. mike davis, anything you want to talk about? guest: i appreciate it, barbara. host: richard, montreal, canada, good morning. caller: good morning. mike, love your work by the way. do you think pam bondi will investigate demonization and banning of early treatment drugs during the pandemic like hydroxy

chlorine that led to hundreds of thousands of needless deaths and forcing us to take an experimental vaccine. i know several people injured by the vaccine. they want justice. they want accountability. thank you. guest: there's so much that went wrong with covid. it started with tony fauci. he's probably very happy he got his pardon from joe biden because i think tony fauci committed crimes when he illegally funded covid in the wuhan lab from n.i.h. through a subcontractor. which was illegal. gain of function research is illegal to fund. he did -- tony fauci did it anyway. he lied about it to congress. he instructed -- obstructed the investigations. he covered it up. he conspired with others. this led to trillions of dollars in lost treasure.

millions of lost lives. years of learning loss for kids. particularly poor black kids who are already at a huge disadvantage. and years of unnecessary suffering. human misery because of covid. there has to be accountability. and then after this covid came out, when they were pushing the vaccine at all costs, and not any of the therapeutics and pushing a mask mandate, a cloth mask mandate that does not work. a six-foot rule not based upon the science. how much disruption did tony fauci cost to his lives. he may have his biden pardon, but he must be held accountable. he must be brought before congress. host: you mentioned covid and the response and vaccines. expect to hear a lot more of that today at 0 a.m. less than an hour -- 10 a.m. less than an hour. the confirmation hearing for

r.f.k. junior for health and human services secretary. he'll be before the senate finance committee. that's where we'll go after this program today. if you stick here on c-span. mike davis, you talked about dr. do you think presidential uses of pardon is something that can be used as law fair? lawfare? guest: the president has very broad power to pardon anyone he wants for the most part for federal crimes. and it is an important safeguard for presidents to have this pardon power because it's supposed to correct injustices. the president has every right to pardon the -- president biden had every right to pardon tony fauci and his family. he had every legal right to do it. i think politically it was disastrous for joe biden to pardon his family. they said when president trump was doing pardons the democrats

said when president trump was doing pardons that you only pardon people who are guilty of crimes. he -- biden preemptively pardoned his family. and it is probably because his family took over $23 million from our worst enemies into their bank accounts. that's just not speculation. there are bank statements that house oversight chairman james comber has subpoenaed -- comber -- comer -- comer, showing it comes into their pwa*pg accounts. except for the 6-year-old granddaughter. even those these biden family members have their pardons, there phaoedz to be accountability. we need to have an intel assessment to see what china and russia and kazakhstan and every other hellhole around the world why they were paying the bides. every bide -- bidens.

every biden family member. from vice president joe biden and president joe biden. host: on pardons, a discussion of pardons on the senate floor yesterday, specifically the pardons of those convicted of crimes in relation to january 6. this is from senate minority whip particular durbin on the senate floor about a minute and a half. >> the mob, the insurrectionist mob was taking over the capitol. thousands of people were storming into this building. not for a peaceful demonstration by any means. but sadly for violence and destruction. that day was the worst day i can recall in the history of the senate in terms of our respect for this building. it has become a symbol not only for the united states, but for the world, for peace and democracy. and i thought of those poor capitol policemen who were asked to defend us with their lives. they were asked to risk their lives for us. and they did.

four or five of them lost their lives as a result of it. over 140 were seriously injured. some of the things that were done to them were outrageous. you have seen the videotape. they don't -- we don't have to speculate what it was. we saw it as they tore down building structures. as they beat up on these cops. as many of them faced death and knew at the time it was that serious. the grimace reality of those riots was the subsequent death of 5 of these law enforcement officers. and the injuries to approximately 140 others. many of whom still pay that price to this day. host: mike davis, that speech on the senate floor as senate democrats attempted to pass a resolution condemning donald trump's pardon of those convicted of january 6 crimes. what did you think about that effort on the floor yesterday? guest: just total nonsense. dick durbin knows bert.

he called this an insurrectionist mob when he knows that no one was ever charged with insurrection after the biden justice department ran the biggest law enforcement operation in american history and charged over 1,000 people -- they couldn't find evidence at all of insurrection because it didn't happen. january 6 was a lawful protest, committed by the national park service that devolved into a riot. there were three categories of people there who were at the capitol that day. there were people who were outside, even if you think they are crazey, they are wrong, they have an absolute first amendment right to be there. then there were people who trespassed who should have been charged with trespass. and people who were violent who should have been charged more harshly. like dick dishin did, the biden justice department lumped them together. said they were all insurrectionists. treat the them like they were

enemies of the state. persecuted them for four years. yes the supreme court's decision makes clear they persecuted these january 6 defendants. at the same time that they persecuted these january 6 defendants, overcharged them, kept them in pretrial detention for too long. kept them in solitary confinement, abused them in the d.c. jail. they gave amness at this to the much -- amnesty to the b.l.m. rioters who cause more than a billion in damage and killed people. those police officers that died at the capitol that day. they didn't die that day, but the police officers who died, that was very unfortunate. that was not caused by the riots that day. they were not killed at the riot that day. particular durbin's making it sound like the riot killed five bliss officers that day. that's just -- police officers that day. that's not true. i would say this people who are concerned about president trump

pardoning and commuting the sentences of these january 6 defendants who were persecuted, i'll say this. they have suffered enough. over the last four years. where the hell were these people who are concerned about january 6 pardons, where are their concerns about joe biden pardoning a monster who murdered two f.b.i. agents. the joe biden freed this man from prison. he commuted the sentence. he commuted his life sentence and freed this man from prison after he killed two f.b.i. agents. i don't want to hear the fake tears from dick durbin about police officers when joe biden freed this monster who killed two f.b.i. agents. host: more calls. mark in austin, texas. democrat, good morning. caller: yes. good morning, mike. i am just want to say, you know, you guys sitting here defending donald trump when you know this man is absolutely the worst.

the worst ever. and for all the trump supporters that are out there, he used you guys. you guys were used for idiots for him. you should tattoo that on your forehead. thank you. host: do you want to respond? guest: i would say that you're calling over half of america tpao*uls idiots. you -- useful idiots. half of the american voters useful idiots who just elected president trump in a landslide. 312 electoral votes. all seven swing states. the popular vote. i would say that caller might be the useful idiot of the democrat party. host: philip, mississippi, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. this gentleman has the nerve to be such a hypocrite and talking about all the democrats. but not looking at self. remember jesus, if that's what you know of his name, the spiritual leader of this

country, were to say if you're going to judge, look at the beam in your eye before you make that judgment. the republicans are famous for that now. they just automatically take the highroad when they are the most sanctified group of people helping the american public. and it's the furthest from the truth. host: philip, do you have a question for mike davis? caller: my question is, how do they go about recruiting the members to go and tell us the hypocritical statements that they make each and every day. and this country has been doing it for over 400 years. please tell us how they can say things that they say and get up in the morning and go on a normal basis. host: that's film. mike davis. guest: i would say i can't fix stupid. this is why we need school choice in america. host: victoria, texas. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. mr. davis, for taking my call.

please hear me out. please hear me out. there must be some accountability. i am not a politician. i am a former veteran, educator, and i'm not ignorant. this is very personal to me and i would love to say for the last four years i have been going through living hell. i am glad to see trump come in and do something with justice. my home was pending in litigation that was sold for $585,000. the dallas d.a. judge refused to indict the people that sold my home illegally on a crime. what kind of d.a. is that? just so soros put a lot into our elections. these d.a.'s in the united states, georgia, new york, dallas, including uphold the rule of law.

host: victoria in texas. mike davis, explain what the role of d.a.'s are. how quickly they change over when it comes to a new administration. guest: the district attorneys are generally elected at the local level. local prosecutors. they play a crucial role. they are the ones who handle the day-to-day crimes in your communities. if you have a bad d.a. like a george soros funded d.a. like manhattan d.a., alvin bragg, or fulton county d.a., fani willis, or one of these other terrible d.a.'s like in philadelphia it can cause utter chaos in your communities. if you don't have a local d.a. who is going to fight crime, and then you have a justice department, for example, like the biden justice department, who didn't want to fight real crimes, they wanted to fight -- they wanted to fight against republicans and trump supporters and parents and christians instead of criminals, you have a

real problem. this is why these elections are so critically important. you should pay attention to your local races. pay attention to your local sheriff, your local mayor, your local d.a. because they have the tremendous impact on your lives. host: i guess the difference between a d.a. and a u.s. attorney, u.s. attorney's the one that change over in a new administration. guest: yeah. there are u.s. attorneys all over the country. i think it's like 94 right now. 93 or 94. i can't remember the number. that are u.s. attorneys. they are nominated by the president. they are confirmed by the senate. and they are the chief law enforcement officer of your federal district. most states have one or two of these districts where they have one or two u.s. attorneys. some states have more. like california i think has four. they are the ones for supervising federal law enforcement. host: why are their some u.s.

attorneys, some districts in this country where us they operate that we hear more from an others, southern district of new york, here in d.c., the virginia district as women. why are some-tkoeurpbts want to say more famous, but more from some than others. guest: for example d.c. is our seat of government. the eastern district of virginia, which is just outside of d.c., covers the c.i.a., the pentagon, a lot of government agencies. the southern district of new york covers wall street, the financial sector. those are -- tend to be the biggest offices. also the southern districts of florida, miami has a big office. the central district of california or l.a. has a big office. but the major offices are d.c., eastern district of virginia, and southern district of new york. host: you have gone through a lot of these confirmation hearings. you talk about they all get senate confirmed. can you talk about your whack ground -- background in that process, what you did on capitol

hill, what role you played. guest: i was the chief counsel for nominations on the senate judiciary committee for then chairman chuck grassley back in 2017 to 2019. i helped with the first two years of the trump administration to confirm president trump's justice department officials along with his federal judges. including justice gorsuch, my former boss, who i helped lead his confirmation effort. as his former law clerk from the outside. i went to work for the senate judiciary committee. confirmed a record number of president trump's lower court judges. and then helped confirm justice kavanaugh to the supreme court. then i started the article 3 project after that in 2019. we helped confirm justice amy coney barrett. for the last 3 1/2 years we have been very busy working on this lawfare against president trump. turning lemons into lemonade.

these democrats thought these indictments, these civil lawsuits, were going to take out president trump. electorally. we did 4,200 media hits supporting, defending president trump constant social media, constant opinion pieces. we changed the public opinion on this lawfare. we coined the phrase. it ended up not working out so well on november 5 when the american people rendered our verdict. i. host: you talk about judicial appointments. a chart from the pugh research service -- pew research service on judicial appointments over the years. it was 174 -- 226 total in the first trump administration. you talk about the record there. the joe biden administration we'll say they had a record at 228. you can see the numbers in the previous years. why -- how are there -- this many judicial vacancies that get

filled? why does each administration seem to set a record? guest: i'll tell you the reason we set a record under president trump is because i helped break every piece of china in the senate to get through the democrats' unprecedented obstruction to help president trump confirm a near record number of judges to the federal courts. particularly the critically important federal courts of appeals. president trump when he started out he -- the democrat appointed judges controlled the federal courts of appeals. by the time president trump left we had the first constitutionalist majority in 90 years on the supreme court. along with the majority of the critically important federal courts of appeals that had republican appointed judicial majorities. president biden was able to make up for a lot of that in that four-year term. we set up a conveyor belt. and unfortunately president biden took advantage of that

convey. it would have been disastrous from my perspective if biden or harris won in november because they would likely be able to appoint a jump of justices en-- appoint a number of justices and take control of the supreme court. i think when left wing justices take control of the supreme court, there goes our god-given rights to speak, worship, associate, and protect ourselves. host: how many justices do you expect to step down from the supreme court in the next four years? guest: i don't know. if you look at their tradition, i think president trump will at least appoint one justice to the supreme court. in his second term he could appoint two or three. host: for calls a few minutes left in the segment with mike davis. the aeurticle iii project. terry in illinois, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i have two subjects. one is about the hillary clinton foundation. we all know that president trump during his first term all wait

through it, in fact i think it was right at the last year where he dropped it, because he couldn't find one bit of evidence against hillary clinton. two, i want to talk about this lawfare. aim talking about the hush money payment and we know that he assaulted her. and a jury of his peers found him guilty. and did he this to interfere with the election at that time by hiding the information that he was sleeping with the porn star. while his wife was at home. i understand this lawfare, but the democrats learned that from the republicans. all you have to do is look back through the years, especially the clinton years, they went after him for tea parties in the white house. selling the lincoln bedroom.

the hordes of -- hoards of women that came through that said he sectionually assaulted -- host: let me give mike davis a chance to respond. guest: i would say this. if you want the goods on hillary clinton, wait until crossfire hurricane records come out. president trump declassified them the day before he left office the first time. the intel community, the law enforcement agencies like the f.b.i. ran to mark meadows, the white house chief of staff at the time said you can't release these, you'll violate the privacy act, criminal violation of the privacy act. you'll reveal sources and methods. mark meadows issued an order on january 20, 2021 saying do your privacy act review and get out these crossfire hurricane declassified records. they didn't do that review. instead they did the mar-a-lago raid. that's what this lawfare is all about. 24 time -- this time when president trump releases these crossfire hurricane records i think people will see how

damning the evidence is against hillary and obama and biden and clapper and brennan and all these other people who politicized and weaponized intel agencies to take out president trump. that's number one. it's kind of amusing he picked the weakness case possible against president trump. the hush money case. it is not a crime to settle a nuisance claim. it is routine in business to settle nuisance claims with a nondisclosure agreement. that happens every day. i have been a lawyer for nearly 20 years. i have done that routinely. i didn't realize i was commit ago felony by settling a nuisance claim with a nondisclosure provision in that agreement. or hush money provision. it's certainly not a campaign finance violation. the prior manhattan d.a. declined to bring these charges. the manhattan u.s. attorney

declined to bring these charges. the democrat manhattan u.s. attorney. the democrat federal election commission declined to bring these charges. alvin bragg himself, who campaigned on getting trump, declined to bring these charges. it wasn't until matthew was deployed from the number three office in the biden justice department they decided to bring these charges and the first indictment ever against a former president. the only reason they brought it because they knew trump was running for president again. host: if the hush money case was the weakest case against donald trump as you described it, what in your estimation was the strongest case? guest: would probably be -- look, i don't think that there is a legal basis for this, but the -- on the documents case in mar-a-lago, the obstruction case, would be the strongest case against president trump. but the issue is, there is an office of legal counsel memo from 2019, it's binding on the executive branch. of course jack smith ignored

this memo, so did merrick garland. -but it says this, if you don't have an underlying crime, you cannot obstruct justice for a noncrime. if it's not a crime forepresident trump to have -- for president trump to have his presidential records in the office of former president mar-a-lago which is allowed by the presidential act, the subpoena issued based upon the espionage act is invalid because there is not an espionage act violation when the presidential act allows the president to have his records. so the olc memo from 2019 would suggest you can't obstruct justice when there is not a crime. host: a couple more calls. michelle, staten island, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. mike, thank you for being on. i just -- i have something to say and then i have a question. first i'd like to say, what a crew we have working this country. that the other countries have to

be laughing. they have to be. come on. this is ridiculous what's going on. the people today with this hearing today is just -- i'm an r.n. god forbid he gets this position, i don't know what's going to go on. host: you talking about r.f.k. jr.'s confirmation hearing. caller: correct. kids are going to drop like flies. this is horrible. this is really horrible. and why is trump doing all this? 38 felony counts. no president has 38 felony accounts. this is horrible. you are a lawyer. guest: i think the american people heard all of these allegations and evidence against president trump and the american people rendered our verdict. on november 5. the american people know that this was lawfare. they know it was election interference. these were bogus charges brought by democrat prosecutors and

democrat judges and democrat juries and democrat hell holes like new york, d.c., and atlanta. and the american people not these whack jobs in these democrat hell holes get to select the president. host: john's last, temple hills, maryland, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all i would like to say good morning to all of the c-span listeners. we are dedicated listeners. we sometimes do a lot of stuff. mike davis, good morning, sir. guest: good morning. caller: i am an independent. and i am an independent for a reason. i would love to have a colloquy with with you, sir, i know we don't have time. four questions four and i would will have for c-span listeners to listen to your answers and be objective with when they hear them. the first question is, is donald trump perfect? guest: no. caller: let me finish before and i'll get off the line you can answer. the first question was is donald

trump perfect? the second question is, is there anything that you can think of that donald trump has done wrong? third question, biden, is biden perfect? fourth question, and last question, i'll get off and hear offline. is there anything in biden's whole career that you can say that he did right? thank you so much, mike. listen to the answers off line. host: you get the final two minutes. guest: this is pretty easy, no, president trump's not perfect. he made mistakes in his first term, including picking bad personnel. president biden is not perfect, but one thing president biden did right, and i've said this publicly, he picked very good people for the justice department antitrust division and the federal trade commission to do bipartisan antitrust law enforcement to hold the trillion

dollar big tech accountable, google, amazon, facebook, and apple. that start under president trump. president biden continued that and put it on steroids, and now president trump is going to continue it again. host: appreciate your time this morning on the "washington journal." coming up, in our last half-hour of the "washington journal" this morning, it's our open forum. it's our time when we let you lead the discussion, any public policy issue, any political issue, the phone lines are yours. the numbers are on the screen. go ahead and start calling in, and we will get to your calls right after the break. >> in his latest book titled "waste land," the author focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future.

kaplan, author of 24 books, holds the chair in geopolitics at the foreign policy institute. in the chapter number three, in his 177-page book, kaplan claims "civilization is now in flux. the ongoing decay of the west is manifested not only in racial tensions, coupled with new barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, the erosion of grammar, the decline in sales of serious book and classical music and so on, all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization." >> author robert kaplan talks about his book "waste land: a world in permanent crisis" on this episode. book notes+ is available on the now free mobile app or wherever you get podcasts. >> you be to date in the latest in publishing with book tv's podcasts "about books," with current nonfiction book

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host: here's where we are today on capitol hill. at noon eastern, the senate returns on capitol hill today, plenty of confirmation hearings and nominees for various posts in the new trump administration. probably one getting the most attentn today will be r.f.k. jr. robert f. kennedy jr up for health and human services secretary. he'll be be the senate finance committee. that hearing begins at 1 a.m. eastern. it's where we're going to take youoday after this program, and we'll take you to the hearing room. you can also watch on c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. other confirmation happening today, howard lut you can watch on c-span3. alsoel loeffler is having her confirmationng, former georgia r, she's up to be the head of t small business administ. that hearing, 3:30 p.m. eastern,

also on c-span3. one other note today, as if tha wasn't enough for yo 2:30 p.m. eastern, jerome powell will hold a news conference to discuss interest rates and monetary policy following his meeting with the federal open market committee. that taking place 2:30 p.m. eastern. c-span is where you can watch, also c-span.org and the c-span now video app. more confirmation hearings coming up later in the week as well. i hope you stay with us for that. but for now, it's open forum. any public policy issue, any political issue you want to talk about, now is your time to call in. this is john up first in alabama, republican. john, good morning. caller: good morning. look, i'd like to spoke to the other guy that was just on. i i think he done a really good job explaining stuff. those folks that didn't like him, i watch c-span, cnn, and

fox news, swap them out. and just listen to them. this morning, in new york city, they arrested a ringleader of those, whatever you want to call them, them idiots that couple up there on bus, and he had ordered grenades. what was he going to do with grenades in new york city? and he had ordered a bunch of guns, too ninth democrats to understand, we going to need people like that in this country nowhere. i'm 75 years old. i'm a 30-year coal miner underground. i beat up, i beat up, slap out, and our alabama attorney general stopped the pain medicine coming to walker county and alabama, they stopped it, because there's

too many, my doctor told me last week, there's too many disabled coal miners in walker county to send the pain medicine. i'm 60 miles out of my county to go get the pain medicine in, because walker county can't get it. so i don't, you know, i want people to wake up. this bunch we got in office, biden got in there, they ain't doing right. coal miners i know. nobody else will listen. but anyway, thank y'all for letting me tell what i think. y'all have a great day. thank you. host: st. louis, missouri, sylvia. good morning, line for democrats. caller: yeah, i'm calling, i think it's real sad that you have all these people that's lying for trump. now we have a criminal as a president. i grew up back in the day where people was liking people. there's just a bunch of hatred, and it's sad. and they going to continue to do this, continue to harass people

that doesn't like the conversation that someone else is having. you can't even get along with your own families anymore, because everybody is running around believing this propaganda that trump and his cronies are running around here saying. since we have a president that's a criminal, why don't they let these other criminals get these good jobs that's out here for them since they don't want anybody else to work? but it's sad that this country is going down this low. it's pitiful. host: beverly hills, california, independent, good morning. caller: hi, good morning, john. how are you? host: doing well. caller: i really wanted to talk as well, because i wanted to push back on all of that deliberate disinformation he was putting out there, because that kind of information is intended

to cause damage and hurt and pain upon another person or group of other people. just for click bait. he brought up dr. fauci, blaming dr. fauci for donald trump's failure. the fact of the matter is the country went through one of the worst events of our lifetime, and donald trump was over his head, and he screwed up. he screwed up. he screwed. he screwed up. he screwed up. not one of them will put on their big boy pants, accept responsibility, and take accountability for what they did. it's always laying the blame at someone else. leave dr. fauci alone. next, the dems are responsible for removing his name off the ballot in colorado and maine, the democrats have nothing to do with that. it's yet again disinformation.

it's republican that raised the issue with the court. according to their statute, if they're going to challenge a name on the ticket, it has to be someone who's on that ticket. with donald trump being a republican, only a republican can challenge him. third. host: i've got other folks waiting. can you wrap it up? caller: yeah. let me just go ahead and say this. donald trump has been involved with over 4,000 lawsuits his entire life. over 4,000 lawsuits his entire adult life. whether or not he was running for the president or not running for the president in 2024, he was still being ensnared with legal judgment, legal een taken he willments. will they stop please laying the blame of his woes on the feet of the democrats, president biden, and the d.o.j., other people,

etc.? because he is responsible for his own actions. i wish he would just grow up, act like a man, and be accountable for himself and stop blaming other people. it's tiring. thank you. host: joe is in colorado, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, you got a lag between what's on tv and what's actually coming in over the phone, because i was listening to john in alabama -- host: joe, there is a bit of a delay when you call in. that's why it's best not to watch the tv, just listen on your phone. but what do you want to say? caller: ok, even a broken clock is right twice a day. something biden did that was one pardon that was signed was actually a good thing, and that was for leonard peltier. leonard did not kill the agents. that's been known in indian country for 50 years.

what needs to be done here is the truth actually come out, and they need to look into david hill shooting the agent at the car with the senior agent behind screaming to kill that agent, because he was going to be a whistleblower and expose what was actually going on. host: where did your particular interest in this case come from? caller: i was alive when it happened. allove of us know what really -- a lot of us know what really happened. we finally saw john boy graham convicted, but not the people who were responsible for the death. and this was another thing. they knew leonard didn't do it, and he fought to help try to get him at least before he passed. but the bottom line, what's very simple here is the truth needs to come out. the f.b.i. did cover it up, and

a lot of people have died trying to keep it covered up. this was one pardon that has been so long overdue, it is just pathetic. and it was right that it was done. i'm tired of seeing people like the last presenter you had make that mistake, because he probably, you know, as he was alive, he was in diapers. he doesn't know, really know the case. he's not familiar with it. whereas we've talked about it for all this time, and we know what happened. the real people who are responsible did not pay for that crime. host: that's joe. this is roger in north carolina, democrat. go ahead. caller: yes, sir. i'd like to say i love your show. the only thing i'd like to say is, when you have somebody on like mr. davis there, who's so one-sided, i'd like to see you have somebody who could be in

opposition to him to oppose him, number one. if they had evidence that joe biden is still $23 million, why did not they continue to prosecute him? investigate him for two years. number two, yes, it's not against the law for a president to have his papers, but what trump had, he had the confidential papers, and he refused to return them. that's why they prosecuted him. number three, i think we're seeing now that president trump does intend to try to be a dictator. he's thrown out all these people. he's going to put people in those jobs, like mike davis, to do his bidding, whatever he says. and i'm just really afraid for our nation at this time. thank you very much. host: to brittany in dallas, texas, independent.

good morning. caller: hey, i just want to say the right thing this time. people want to -- you know, god, you know, he didn't create us to be gay. he created us like for the -- stuff like -- host: all right, go to archie in florida, republican, good morning. caller: i wanted to say that democrat caller -- good morning? can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: i wanted to say that democratic caller, the last one, that case against president trump for presidential papers was dismissed, by the way. but my point was on the pardon power. mr. davis, great segment with him, and i listen to him whenever i can. he's a great american and doing a lot of good work for america. he mentioned that the biden period were legal, and i would have liked to have asked him, maybe some other callers can

chime in, i am an attorney, by the way. i think if the supreme court were to hear the case, they would find it nonjustifiable under the political question doctrine because the power is exclusive to the president, and there's only two constitutional restrictions. it has to be for federal offenses, and it cannot be for impeachment. otherwise i think they wouldn't hear the case. they'd find it a political question. thank you. host: that's archie, there's about 15 minutes left in our program today. as we said, we're going to head to the hearing for robert f. kennedy jr. he's up for head of health and human services. that is happening at 10:00 a.m. here on c-span. a topic you're likely going to hear about in that hearing is the letter and the video released by r.f.k. jr.'s cousin, caroline kennedy, former u.s. ambassador. here's the headline from "the

washington post," she warns of "predator" r.f.k. jr. in a searing letter and video. the former ambassador urging senators to reject his nomination for h.h.s. secretary, questioning his ethics and views on vaccines. here's a portion of that video, released yesterday by caroline kennedy. >> i've known bobby my whole life. we grew up together. it's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets, because bobby himself is a predator. he's always been charismatic, able to attract others with his personality, willingness to take risks, and break rules. i watch his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction. his basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action, where drugs were available and he enjoyed showing off, having put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks. it was often a perverse scene of

despair and violence. that was a long time ago and people can change. through his own strength and the many second chances he was given by people who felt sorry for the boy who lost his father, bobby was able to pull himself out of illness and disease. i admire the discipline that took and the continuing commitment it requires. but siblings and cousins who bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death, while bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life. today, while he may encourage a younger generation to attend a.a. meetings, bobby is addicted to attention and power. bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children, vaccinating his own kids, while building a following hypocritically discouraging

other parents from vaccinating theirs. host: caroline kennedy releasing that video and letter yesterday. again, the hearing set to get underway in about 10 minutes here on the senate side on capitol hill. time for just a couple more phone calls. this is nate in milwaukee, democrat, good morning. caller: thank you very much for having me. i was actually calling about confirmation about somebody else. point to an article entitled, starting out with a quote, yes, i want skeptical, congresswoman says there's no needs to point finger in chemicals weapon attack from april 7, 2017. it's tulsi gabbard basically trying to say other groups were responsible for the chemical weapons attack, the assad regime did in the populated area that killed a lot of civilians. and after trump, who actually did the right thing by pointing out it was assad, by trying to punish trump, and after this

came out that other people investigated and said, yes, assad did this, she tried to equivocate by saying that, well, all groups there had chemical weapons. this is somebody who's supposed to deal with intelligence. we ought to think about if there are chemical weapons left over in syria, there are other countries and terrorist groups that would be interested in them. we ought to have somebody who, frankly, can be honest about something as dangerous as that. one thing i also -- host: let me leave it there. lorraine is waiting in georgia, good morning, republican. caller: good morning. how are y'all? host: doing well, lorraine. what's on your mind? caller: i just love y'all, and i love mr. mike, too. this is the first time i've ever called anybody, but i love mr. trump, and i think he's doing a wonderful job. god bless y'all. i just want to ask, why i live in dalton, georgia, why is

anybody not come here? we are a sanctuary city. we do not have our people, immigrants have took over our city. they have built five or six new schools here. all new apartments and everything. our rent has gone sky high. i'm 85 years old. my rent has gone up horrible. i went to get food stamps. i cannot get food stamps because they won't let me have any. i only draw $1,352 a month. host: that's lorraine in dalton, georgia. we will now take you down pennsylvania avenue to 1600 pennsylvania. we are joined by zeke miller of the associated press there at the white house. zeke miller, thanks for the time this morning. it's already been a busy morning at the white house, the new press already gaggling with reporters there. what's the latest on this topic that we started our program on today, the latest on both the offer of buyouts for federal workers and then the grant and

loan freeze that was blocked by a judge late yesterday? guest: well, federal workers have about a week and a half or so to respond to the buyout offers from the office of personnel management. it will be very interesting to see over the next, between now and then, how many workers raise their hand for that offer. the office of personnel management, along with billionaire elon musk promoting f.a.q.'s for federal workers, because that memo that made that offer to them was scant on some of them. in fact, details about how the buyout would work, the deferred compensation, what they can do during that period of administrative leave before they actually stop being paid by the government. that may incentivize or disincentivize some government workers from taking that option, so it will be very interesting to watch that in the coming days as we get some of the numbers. on that second item, the o.m.b. pause of government grants, that was stayed just minutes before

it was supposed to go into effect at 5:00 yesterday by a federal judge. there's a separate hearing today, some of the state attorneys general brought a separate lawsuit, also seeking temporary restraining order that could extend that pause, even beyond the one that is in existence now through monday. the white house is doing a lot of explaining, trying to minimize what the impact of that offer was. association of that freeze. and as they got a lot of backlash from it, chaos was caused by a very vague memo from the office of manage and budget late monday night. carveouts, things like medicare, medicaid, social security, but still, a lot of questions about indirect assistance that millions upon millions of americans rely on, how that would be affected. so they have a lot of answers still yet to give that we are, for questions we are still asking. host: a lot of questions

yesterday at the white house press briefing with the new press secretary. are we going to hear more from her today or more from president trump on these two issues? guest: we're not expecting a white house briefing today. we expect to see president trump later this afternoon when he signs the laken riley act, the immigration legislation that did get some bipartisan support on capitol hill. but knowing president trump the first time around, over the last eight or nine days, his remarks there, he can take some questions, it can go in a lot of different topics. we could expect to hear a little bit more from him likely in that 2:00 hour. host: we're already getting live shots of the hearing room where robert f. kennedy jr. will be testifying for his confirmation hearing this morning. how much is that going to be watched this morning at the white house? what are the expectations there for his performance today? guest: it will definitely be watched over here at the white house. they have invested a lot in trying to sustain his nomination

and preparing him for this confirmation fight. he is one of the most targeted nominees by president trump for his cabinet. they will be looking closely at his performance, and then also trying to read the tea leaves for where some of the senators are on that vote. the next couple of days in some ways are critical for the trump cabinet, some of the initial picks, does he have to look at plan b? host: that hearing set to get underway in just a couple of minutes here. we'll take viewers live there on c-span when it does. robert f. kennedy jr. not yet in the room, but plenty of press and members of the united states senate starting to show up in their seats. what else are you looking for? what would be the most interesting one for you, zeke miller? guest: this one that started, certainly very interesting, just how it scramble party lines.

and how r.f.k. jr., the democrat, has very unconventional and anti-science opinions in some cases, how that plays out on capitol hill. and scramble, the loyalty to the republican party to the president, so that was certainly one. and then kash patel later this week is another one, just because he's become a lightning rod for controversy, for years now in some ways. he himself likes to engage. so that will certainly have some fireworks. host: kash patel's confirmation hearing set for thursday, 9:30 a.m. eastern. we'll be showing that live on c-span3, also on c-span.org, and our free c-span now video app. zeke miller, as if that's not enough, final minute here, what else are you covering today from the white house? guest: those are the big ones, and also keeping our eyes and ears out for more executive orders from the president. he's had a steady drum beat since he was sworn in early last week. we've been told to expect pretty much one or two a day.

keeping our eyes peeled for that. host: when they happen, always hot off the wire from the associated press, ap.org. zeke miller, always appreciate the time. guest: thank you. host: that's going to do it for us this morning on the "washington journal." we'll be back here tomorrow morning. it is 7:00 a.m. eastern. it is 4:00 a.m. pacific. we're going to take you live up to capitol hill, the hearing, the confirmation hearing for robert f. kennedy jr. for health and human services secretary, about to get underway. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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