♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, january 30. last night at american airlines

jet and an army black hawk helicopter collided near washington's reagan airport. both aircraft are in the potomac river and search and rescue was underway. there were 64 people on the passenger jet from wichita, kansas. three army personnel on the helicopter. we will take calls on that and update you on the latest as development occur. the phones of a region. eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain for pacific, it is (202) 748-8001. you can send estate text at (202) 748-8003. we are on social media. facebook.com/cspan and x at @cspanwj. welcome to the washington journal. we will keep you updated on the developments with the crash at

reagan national airport in washington, d.c. early this morning at about 1:00 a.m., d.c.'s mayor mary lou bowser gave a conference -- news conference -- mary lou bowser. [video] >> we are extremely sorry for the families for experiencing the loss tonight. we want you to know we will continue to work with american airlines to share information as frequently as possible and make sure we are getting accurate information out to the public. my sorrow for all the people and crew on the plane and our military personnel on the helicopter is very deep. host: that is d.c.'s mayor. she will be giving another news conference to update the public

on the situation at reagan national airport at about 7:30. we will carry that for you live and show that. make sure you stay with us for that. sean duffy, newly sworn in yesterday, attended the news conference. here is what he had to say. [video] >> secretary duffy, have you been in touch with the air traffic controllers? >> i have not. >> this is your first several hours in this position. what are your thoughts and what are you feeling right now? >> my focus is on those impacted. i have been secretary for a little over a day. the tragedy that we are going to deal with, this recovery, it is touching everyone's hearts

and kansas -- and the d.c. area and kansas. we are praying for everyone who lost a loved one. >> [indiscernible] can you tell us more about the president's [indiscernible] >> i was not in the situation room. i had a conversation with the situation room where the president was located and with secretary hegseth. not just the local team of the federal team has performed very well in this crisis. the president is incredibly concerned about what has happened here today. i'm sure we will hear more from him. i will continue to consult with him and secretary hegseth.

which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- >> [indiscernible] >> absolutely. the president committed to this team and to the ntsb through the d.o.t.. we will provide all resources necessary as we go through this recovery and the support from the faa and dot as the ntsb investigate. host: that is transportation secretary sean duffy. we are taking your calls on the plane crash. there was a midair plane crash over the waters of reagan national airport and potomac river. 64 passengers were on the american airlines jet. three army personnel. they have collided in midair. this is what donald trump has posted on truth social. "the airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. the helicopter was going

straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. it is a clear night. the lights on the plane were blazing. why didn't the helicopter go up or down or turn? why did the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane? this is a bad situation that looks like it should have been printed. not good!!!" this is vice psident jd vance on x. "pleassay a prayer for everyone involved in the midair collision near reagan airport. we are monitoring the situation but for now let's hope for the best." here is secretary defense pete hegseth. "absolutely trag. search and rescue efforts still ongoin prayers for all impacted souls and their fils. investigation launched to by armyndod." this is from the media chief at

the department of defense. "we can confirm the airaf involved in tonight's incident was an army u-60 helicopterro bravo company, 12 aviation battalion outf vison army airfield, fort belvoir. we will provide additional information want to becomes available." also from the washington post. you can see a picture here of the aircraft in the water. this is search and rescue crew here. searching for survivors. there have been bodies pulled out of the water. no survivors as of yet. we will take a call now from max in mechanicsville, maryland. good morning, max. caller: this is a terrible thing that happened.

i wanted to give perspective. i drive over that bridge to and from virginia everyday. at least twice a day i drive over the bridge. aircraft flight over the bridge. something that has been very different is the amount of helicopters in the air in d.c. lately. hopefully somebody will figure out why. i'm not talking twice as many. on talking a marked increase of helicopter traffic. if you would normally see one or two or marine one, you have 5, 6, 7 helicopters in the air for the last few months. sometimes more than that. you see the lights from helicopters. it would be nice to understand why that is the case. thank you. host: here is the washington post. rescuers are combing the potomac river in search of survivors of american eagle flight 5342.

it collided with an army black hawk helicopter near reagan national airport, sending both aircraft crashing into the water. no survivors have been found. police have pulled bodies from the water even as the deep ice cold water and lack of light complicate search efforts. the psa airlines operated american airlines aircraft was flying from wichita to national airport with 60 passengers and four crew members, and the helicopter was on a training flight with three servicemembers on board. u.s. figure skating confirmed that several members of its community were on the plane. let's talk to rob in new york. caller: good morning. it looks like the air traffic control needs a little bit of help. i don't understand why that radio call from the tower -- they did not ask the helicopter to go up, down or sideways.

all they said was do you see that? that was a foolish thing, i thought. anyway, i think this is low hanging fruit. why don't we talk about something that is more important to the brick and people like what is going on in washington, these horrible democrats? host: we will talk about other things happening in washington. we want to give a chance for people to comment on the horrible tragedy happening -- unfolding here in washington. this is ed in new jersey. caller: good morning. i kind of -- i'm a little uncomfortable with you saying there was a midair collision. i think it would be more accurate to say this airplane was struck by the helicopter. that is number one. number two, the most important thing for me to know right now

is, what is the identity of the people who were flying the helicopter? host: why is that important to you, ed? caller: because i don't think this was an accident. host: you think it army helicopter intentionally hit a passenger plane? caller: why -- if you get up in an airplane you usually have to have a license and you have to be schooled and very knowledgeable where you don't fly. that is the main question. we will have to find out why this accident happened. was this a child flying the helicopter? who was flying -- host: the investigations are ongoing so i'm sure we will find out more. this is nbc news with this set of dallas.

deep sorrow. the american airlines ceo says the focus is on the passengers and crew. they have established a phone line to check on loved ones, if you need that. this is -- it says the american airlines ceo issued a statement late wednesday after that flight collided with a military helicopter. he says, "i would like to express our deep sorrow about these events. this is a difficult day for all of us at american airlines and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders, along with their families and loved ones. it is unclear if there are any survivors." that is from the american airlines ceo. guy in stickler, oklahoma. caller: good morning.

i'm a former air force pilot. after i left the military and worked for united airlines for a little while. back in the day i could not even get an interview with a major airline unless you have 5000 or 6000 hours of flight time in the military. they had very high hiring standards. nowadays you have dei requirements, a certain percentage of people have to be a certain color to get hired. they have lowered the standards across the board. this has been going on for the past 20 years. the used to call the minorities when i was flying -- them minorities when i was flying. they would get hired with lower standards, the quotas. the used call them goals because quota is an illegal term. we have seen a lot of close and midair collisions, occurrences with ground control. nowadays you can get hired on with a major airline with 700

hours. that is frightening. there is nothing that makes of her experience. -- up for experience. when you get your couple of hundred hours and you get hired on and you go right to a major heavy airliner, these people have no experience. we will be seeing a lot more of close midairs, ground occurrences. i don't know what to say about the air safety. they are hiring people with no experience. like the guy said, the helicopter flew into the airliner. it was on an approach. the helicopter was flying vfr. this is the kind of stuff that happens. we will start seeing a lot more of these things happen in the next couple of years. i'm sorry to say that. host: paul from england in the

u.k. caller: good morning. what a sad morning. my heart goes out to the people, the victims of the terrible collision. awful. my heart goes out to them. host: tom in st. landry, maryland. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. my thoughts and prayers go to the people involved in this crash and the families. a terrible, terrible mistake. it seems like the possible result of a culture of wanting to cut corners rather than pay the proper people in order to, like, everywhere.

the people in charge are cutting corners instead of hiring serious people. -- some of the insanity from callers earlier about conspiracy theories. one thing i have to say, unfortunately for the mainstream media, you absolutely capitulate [indiscernible] host: i'm afraid your line is not that clear. i apologize. we will move on. this is transportation secretary sean duffy. he was sworn in only hours before the crash. here are his remarks about what his plans were for the agency. he made these remarks before the crash. [video] >> we will usher in the golden

age of transportation. we will work on efficiency. making sure our infrastructure actually works for the american people, the american family. making sure you can get to and from work, back to your family in a timely fashion. we will work out congestion. work on an airspace that is more efficient. getting people to fly airplanes and not wait in terminals is our mission. what an amazing time. when you think about the department of transportation you don't think of innovation. we are in one of the most innovative spaces in government, whether it is with drones or autonomous vehicles or uber in the air. we are in a race to beat the rest of the world that have rules that will make america the best home for this innovation is critical. we will work on that at the department of transportation. 47,000 employees strong.

i guess that will not grow at all with the executive order. [laughter] it is a great team and i look forward to working with them. i am honored you did this today. i am honored for the president's trust in me. let's get to work. thank you. host: the newly sworn in transportation secretary. this is linda in dallas, texas. caller: good morning. i listen to c-span all the time. this is my first time calling. i had to call because the previous caller talking about dei. that has nothing to do with this tragedy. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: here is kendra in virginia. caller: hi, mimi. just like the previous caller said, the person from oklahoma

referred to the people in the helicopter as maybe a dei hire. i'm offended. i'm a black woman. he said dei hires are colored people. there are other categories of people that can be considered dei hires. it stands for people that may not have the qualifications for a position but, you know, there are other people that could be a dei hire. i voted for trump actually, but a lot of people in his cabinet i might consider dei hires because they don't have the actual skill set or background for the positions he is putting them in. that is all i wanted to say. dei falls under a lot of different categories except color. thank you. host: we will go ahead and start

taking your calls on anything else happening in washington you would like to talk about. if you would like to continue talking about the plane crash, you can certainly do that. open forum starts now. the lines are on your screen. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, call us at (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. our line for texting is open as well. (202) 748-8003. as is social media. roseann in san diego, california. good morning, roseann. caller: the reason i'm calling -- i wasn't going to call but i'm shocked at some of the callers that have called already. i'm disgusted. so much lame. all they are doing is -- so much blame. all they are doing is blaming. they are blaming. the guy that blamed dei people

is off-the-wall. there is no proof of that. why he even called in and said that is shocking to me. they goes to show what is wrong in america these days. everybody is full of hate. everybody has to blame everybody else. nobody can say how horrible and sad this is. all they can say is somebody planned it, oh, it must've been some colored person that is not qualified to be flying anything. it's just disgusting. i had a call in and apologize to all of our black citizens that hear stuff like this after a huge tragedy and just say that i'm sorry i'm listening this morning because that was so offensive. it will be with me for the rest of the day. when i look at the pictures

there of those people trying to get the bodies out of the water, i will think of someone saying all those colored people doing this to us. i really resent it. i really, really resent it and that is why i called in. thank you. host: the washington post has this report. the d.c. crash took place in congested airspace shared by jets and helicopters. it says the airspace along the potomac river where an army helicopter and an airliner crashed wednesday night poses some of the most complex challenges in the country for pilots, requiring them to rely on layers of procedures and electronic safeguards to avoid a catastrophe. jim in north little rock, arkansas. caller: yeah. c-span. as the world gets more complicated let's hire more people that are more incompetent, that can't reading can't write, can barely do

arithmetic. that is going to solve the problems. host: all right. this is bruce in franklin grove, illinois. caller: hello. how are you today? host: good. caller: i was pretty disgusted with the response is semi earlier people -- responses from some of your earlier people about race being involved. i heard last week trump got rid of some people on the air safety board. the traffic control safety board for the airlines. is that true? host: i'm not sure. i will look that up and i will share with you what an able to find. you are talking about the ntsb which is tasked with investigating the crashes. caller: yes. he disbanded it last week. host: it has not been disbanded,

bruce. the ntsb has not been disbanded. we will see if there is any personnel cuts. we will look that up for you. janice in aberdeen, maryland. caller: i wanted to call in to say i heard quite a few hours ago there was only one air control person in the -- i used to fly a lot. i am not putting blame on anyone. i understood earlier, hours ago i think, there was only one traffic control person they are when normally they are two. it probably was a human mistake that he was not able to tell one of the -- either the helicopter

pilot or the airline pilot to move up or higher. it was a mistake. no one is to blame. it is quite a tragedy. i'm so sorry to hear it. the family members. it is quite a job to do something like that. we should not be complaining or blaming. we should be praying for the people to be able to do their jobs. i'm certain it must be a tremendous job to do something like that. i would like to encourage and pray for them. in particular the persons who have lost their loved ones. enke for taking my call. -- thank you for taking my call. host: denise in greenbelt, maryland. independent line. caller: how are you?

thank you for taking my call. i want to give up my condolences to the families involved in this tragedy. i am black. i'm calling about the comment about d.e.i. it is unbelievable there are still people calling with these comments because they are in this trance and believe the lies told to them. dei does not only involved or include black people. it includes white women who have had more advantages. and the disenfranchised. it is not just black. having family members who were pilots, black pilots, for 40 plus years who retired with excellent records. that comment, especially by the guy from oklahoma -- anytime they bring up dei you know they are racist. it is absolutely sickening we

are still here and will probably be here for the next couple of years as we have seen in the last week or so, just the disgusting comment. the people have the nerve to say these folks are uneducated. no, you are and you sound like it. i'm calling in defense of my family who were pilots. black pilots. some of you were probably flown by them on the different airlines like united and american airlines. excellent records. if you look at the crashes that have taken place, i hate to tell you, they were mostly white men. that is my comment. my sincere consultants is -- condolences to the families involved in this tragedy. host: catherine in burlington, new jersey. democrat. caller: first time i got to speak to you. i usually talk to greta. happy new year. my condolences to the families and friends of the people on the airplane. i remember years back a similar

incident in the potomac. i used to live in baltimore. dei. i'm going to leave that alone. anyway, that is my call for the month. nice talking to you, maybe. people let there, let's wait until we find out what happened and then make a decision about what happened. thank you. host: ron in san clemente, california. republican. caller: good morning, mimi. three quick ones for you. yesterday i made some phone calls to american airlines reservation. they had a glitch in their program. i thought that was kind of an odd coincidence. that is my only comment about the crash. the second thing is about birthright born in america. it is interesting. did 1939, -- in 1939, they were

telling people they couldn't -- these are jewish immigrants from eastern bloc. they said they could not come aboard to the united states. when they went to cuba, they got refused. as they were going by the three-mile limit, an eight-month-old -- eight month pregnant lady jumped off the ms st. louis and dove into the water and swam for three and a half miles so she could have her baby born in the united states free. that is one little big thing about birthright births. the final thing is, trump is creating a chaos, oppression and terror society. what he's going to wind up doing is keeping this going all the time. the only thing i can suggest as

a fixed is we should remove about 80% of the republicans from the congress and about 20% of the democrats from the congress. they are all on the maga team. get rid of them. that is the only way we are going to do it. we are looking at four years of incredible chaos. thanks so much for your time. host: james, newark, new jersey. independent line. you are in. caller: you haven't -- host: you have been doing what since 1956? caller: doing politics. politics, spies, russian spies. anyhow, i group and activist. i was born and activist -- an

activist. i was born an activist. reagan is the one that [indiscernible] fired air traffic controllers. yet we honor the name of reagan? about the trump usda. 90% of them quit. these are scientists inspecting our food. 90% of them quit because trump wanted to change the location. trump has got more points [indiscernible] air traffic controllers.

trump got more points for closing usda. these are foundational american organizations which did good. it makes no sense. this country makes no sense anymore. host: a previous caller mentioned the crash. this is from the usa 9. that was in 1982. it says the potomac plane crash rekindles memories of air florida flight 90 tragedy. it was genuine 13, 1982. -- january 13, 1982. they crashed into the 14th street bridge moments after taking off from national airport. you can see here rescue operations of pulling people from the very cold waters of the potomac during that time. that was 40 years ago. it says what is happening now --

this happened shortly after 9:00 p.m., this crash that happened last night. it was making its descent into ronald reagan national airport. the plane had 60 passengers, four crewmembers. as of this point there are no survivors. that is ongoing so we will continue to update you with that. host: james in akron, ohio. caller: i have been dealing with these politics since 1956. i have watched the washington journal and all that stuff. here is what i'm concerned with. i'm really upset and i get upset all the time. like the lincoln riley act that was passed. one third of the democrats voted for it.

it is not a popular bill with the democrats because the the deportation in the bill. not one republican voted for it. not one. when it came time to get it through the senate, because in congress all the democrat it's -- democrats voted for. they were two democrats, kyrsten sinema and the guy from west virginia, i can't think of his name right now but -- host: joe manchin. caller: they could not get a vote taken on the bill. when they asked why, they stated -- not them but some of the republicans, they were concerned about if they get the bill through the next thing is we would have d.c. and puerto rico becoming a state. we would get in the majority

because they felt the representatives and senators from the states would be democrats or black basically. they said the republicans would never win again. the republicans right now have no problem getting laken riley through in less than two years. we have been try to get voting rights since 1965. we can't get voting rights for everybody in this country. they say we are not racist, but all the racists are in the republican party. the white supremacist, the john birch society, the whig party, all the people in 1965 when they switched all the races groups, they went to the republican party. they keep calling the democrats racist. i am really upset. not about the laken riley stuff. we needed something there but

i'm upset about the voting for black people that are not allowed to vote. i get disappointed when i hear black republicans coming and said they voted for trump. that is just embarrassing for me as a black person. i'm embarrassed every time i hear a black person calling and say they voted for trump. we are you embarrassed. thank you -- very embarrassed. thank you. host: npr says trump signs first bill of his second presidency, the laken riley act into law. this happened yesterday at the white house. you can see that there. we will go now to d.c. area bowser -- mayor bowser speaking to reporters. [video] >> we are all sharing a profound sense of grief. i want to thank the first responders who acted quickly last night, to rent towards danger, went into a very frigid river and have worked throughout the night.

chief donnelly reported last night we have a strong mutual aid agreement in our region. those teams have worked together throughout the night in really tough and heartbreaking conditions. we should all thank them for their heroic efforts. we will have several updates today. i will first turn to the secretary of transportation sean duffy. then you will hear directly from chief john donnelly with a situational update. >> thank you, mayor. sean duffy here, secretary of transportation. we wish we were gathering for a different purpose today. the department of transportation, the faa, the white house, president trump, local, state and federal partners all work together -- working together on this incident in unison.

i could not be prouder of the team assembled. mayor, i want to thank you for your work. the american airlines flight coming in to land was in a standard flight pattern as it was comin into dca. this was not unusual with the military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at dca. if you live in the area you will see that frequently with those two aircraft working together. as many have reported, we have located the two aircrafts. the fuselage of the american airlines plane was inverted. it has been located in three different sections. it's an about waist deep water. that recovery will go on today as that takes place of the

fuselage of the aircraft. ntsb is going to start to analyze the aircraft, partnered with the faa with all the information we have to get the best results possible for the american people. i want to say that safety is our expectation. everyone who flies in american skies expects we fly safely. that when you depart an airport you get to your destination. that did not happen last night. i know that president trump, his administration, the faa, the d.o.t., we will not rest until we have answers for the families and the flying public. you should be assured when you fly you are safe. thank you. >> thank you, secretary. thank you, mayor. i'm joined by chief bohne of the

metropolitan washington airport authority. i'm john donnelly. last night at 8:48, the control tower sounded an alert to respond to the report of an aircraft crash on or near the airport. that sets off an immediate response from the airport authority fire department, the district of columbia and metropolitan harbor control fire boat and other fire boats on the river to support that type of operation. very quickly the call escalated and became -- responders realized they had a plane crash. immediately escalated to a response that ultimately included about 300 people last night. these responders found extremely frigid conditions. they found heavy wind. they found ice on the water. they operated all night and those conditions.

i would like to take a moment to acknowledge the agencies that responded in addition to d.c. fire and ems. montgomery county fire department, prince georges county fired apartment, charles county fired apartment -- fire department, anne arundel county fire department, alexandria fire department, arlington county fire department, fairfax county fire department, baltimore city police department, the maryland state police, the maryland national resources police, the department of defense, the joint base fire department and the staff, the u.s. army, u.s. coast guard, the u.s. park police, metropolitan police department, the fbi nds tsp -- the fbi and the ntsb. we are at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. we don't believe there are any

survivors from this accident. we have recovered 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter. the district office of the medical examiner -- reuniting these bodies with their loved ones and we will work to collect them and reunite them with their loved ones. we should also acknowledge the virginia medical examiner and the army medical examiner are involved in this operation and a very important part of getting people identified. >> our hearts are certainly with all the crew and american airlines. we will hear from the ceo. >> thank you, mayor. good morning. i'm robert ison, the ceo of

american airlines. i want to express my condolences for the accident that happened last night. we are absolutely heartbroken for the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members. and also for those that were on the military aircraft. our focus now is to do every thing we can to support all of those involved in the psa -- tsa airlines team. this is devastating. we are all hurting incredibly. we urge any family and friends looking for information about their loved ones to call our designated helpline. 1-800-679-8215. 1-800-679-8215. here is what i can share at this early stage. an american eagle flight 5342 operated by psa airlines from

wichita, kansas to reagan national airport was involved in an accident just before 9:00 p.m. local time on final approach into reagan national. they collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach. at this time we don't know why the military aircraft came into the path of the psa aircraft. flight 5342, acr j 700 was under the command of four crewmembers and carried 60 passengers for 64 people on board. in addition to local resources already here in d.c., american airlines has activated our care team. a group of specialists that are trained to support these types of responses. these team members are on-site or arriving soon. we have members of our go team on the ground in d.c. they are being deployed with

resources to do everything we can to take care of the needs of the families and the loved ones of the passengers and crew members. that is our sole focus. we are so grateful for the first responders that have been working through the night. courageous efforts. they are working with local, state and federal authorities and emergency response efforts and closely coordinating with psa airlines as they cooperate fully with the ntsb on the investigation. i know there are many questions at this early stage. i will not be able to answer many. we will provide additional information as it comes. thank you. >> i want to introduce the metropolitan washington airport authority ceo jack potter. the authority manages reagan washington national and dulles international.

>> good morning and thank you, mayor. let me begin by expressing our condolences for all the victims of this flight and for their families. there is a lot of grieving going on. we are very sympathetic to that. i want to echo what was said about the first responders. when there is a problem in this area, everybody drops everything and they rushed to where the problem is. i want to thank the chief, the entire team from washington, d.c. just as important, the list of folks that the chief described, the federal authorities that have been here en mass. a lot of effort was brought to bear. unfortunately we were unable to rescue anyone. we are in a recovery mode now. i wanted -- last night i expressed the fact we hoped to open at 11:00 today. that is still the case. we will open the airport at

11:00. condolences to the families and thanks to the many, many who were still out there working very, very hard to complete this recovery. thank you. >> i do want to acknowledge that there virginia transportation secretary is here in addition to the alexandria mayor. i would like to ask members of the virginia congressional delegation to the podium next. u.s. senator mark warner, followed by tim kaine. >> thank you, mayor. i want to join with everyone else expressing my console as is -- condolences for the victims. for the folks i do not live in the dmv, we are made up of a lot of jurisdictions. reagan airport is in virginia.

across the river we have maryland, the district. as indicated by the chief, when tragedy happens, all those distinctions between the various jurisdictions and federal partners disappear. i want to thank all the first responders. on a personal note, i will add literally i now know i was coming back from the district from a dinner to my home in alexandria. while i did not see the collision, i wondered -- i had never seen this many red lights streaming towards the airport across the river in maryland. my phone started blowing up and i realized an accident had taken place. there will be a time -- ntsb will have a briefing later today. to the victims, my condolences. to the first responders, our

thanks. >> sorrow as all have expressed to the crew, the passengers, to the soldiers, to their families, to their friends, to the loved ones, to the people still trying to get information. i'm sure whether their loved ones have been lost we offer our profound condolences to them and our sorrow for this tragedy. i will echo mayor what you begin with. when you see a challenge like this and you see people from so many different agencies, local, state, federal, with different uniforms, different badges but working in such a coordinated way even in the midst of a tragedy, it gives you a sense of appreciation and pride in people's willingness to come to the danger and work together. i saw that as a local official 30 years ago and i have seen it here. finally questions.

they will be a lot of questions. a lot of questions. that is what ntsb's job is, and into -- an independent investigator of situations like this. they have been here since they got the alert. they will be doing the work in answering the many questions we have. that is as it should be. it is not a time to speculate. it is a time to get answers to the questions and i have confidence that will be done. thank you. >> following up on the senator, grief, thanks and service. with millions of americans traveling every year we are all grieving knowing it could have been our loved ones, it could have been us. our hearts go out to all those who lost folks. in a partisan place i'm thankful that democrats and republicans, people from all over have come together to try to make sure

people are served. as the local representative i want the families to know our office is available to serve you in any way we possibly can through this time of grief and transition and loss. also just note we are deeply grateful for the people who risked their lives last night at a moments notice and spent the night on the river in the ice and wind serving us. finally, as senator kaine noted, after the investigation we have to make sure at the federal level and with the support of virginia, maryland, d.c., we're doing everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again. >> so, with that it has been said already that the national transportation safety board becomes the lead agency in the

investigation. our jurisdiction in d.c. where the crash occurred over the river is -- concludes in the leadership role of the unified command as we shift to a recovery effort. we expect the national transportation safety board to provide briefings to the press later in the day. at this point we can take a few questions. yes. >> can you say without a shadow of a doubt people are safe to fly? >> what we are -- what we can talk about today is what happened here with the collision of these vehicles. we said what we know and the national transportation safety board continues to investigate. i don't know that any of us have been briefed on anything that would suggest any other aircraft are implicated. yes. >> you are still missing 30 plus

people in the water. what are the challenges in recovering them right now? >> chief? >> the rescue operation -- the recovery operation goes on. it is a lot of touch and feel in different parts of the plane and helicopter. the crash area is a little spread out so we have some work to do. i think it is a normal type of situation. i don't think it is six ordinary. >> how spread out as the debris field? >> the wind started blowing so we had debris travel from the airport as far as the bridge. >> mile-wise? >> i couldn't tell you. less than five. >> a question for the ceo. you will open the airport at 11:00 this morning. how are you going to do that and what impact will that have on operations, on passengers, on people's anxieties? >> well, we will over the airport at 11:00.

it is safe. we have worked with all the federal agencies, the faa. it has been determined we can open the airport safely. the recovery effort on our property is on the waterfront. our primary runway, 119, it will be open. it is away from any activity. we have a secure area around that. all are comfortable we can get back to operations. each airline will announce or communicate to their passengers what their operations are going to be. the networks were disrupted overnight. we might have a slow recovery but the bottom line is we will begin to have aircraft moving at this airport at 11:00. >> 1, 2, 3. >> has a flight recorded been recovered? >> i don't think we can say anything about what is in the

ntsb's kirby. -- purview. >> there's a lot of helicopter traffic. will helicopters be flying through here beyond the recovery efforts? >> i don't know the answer to that. we don't have anything to add about that. yes? >> secretary duffy, can you reassure americans the u.s. still has the safest airspace in the world? >> cannot guarantee the american flying public the u.s. has the most secure airspace in the world? the answer is absolutely. yes, we do. we have early indicators of what happened here. i will tell you with confidence we have the safest airspace in the world. >> when it comes to informing the families who lost their loved ones, what has that looked like so far? have any been informed? the flight manifest, any details on that front?

>> can you add anything? >> all i can say is we have published the 800 number. we have family assistance centers set up in dca in wichita as well -- and in wichita as well. i'm not at liberty to give the names of families who have used those services. we have over 100 team members that are here or on their way. they are specially trained to work with family members and handle travel arrangements and hotel arrangements, incidentals, to make sure we are taking people in any way they can. as our teams are hurting and suffering, as our passengers and their families need assistance, we are doing everything we can. i don't have more information on that right now. >> chief donnelly, can you

describe the next phase of the investigation? how confident are you you will be able to recover all 67 of these bodies? can you speak to some of the debris that is being pulled out of the river? we understand there are suitcases and other things that have been pulled out from the river. i would like to ask anyone here, perhaps the transportation secretary or mr. isen if we know anything about the victims, the gains ranges, nationalities? >> the next phase of the operation is going to be led by the ntsb. all of us are working together to search the area. i'm confident we will do that. that will take us a little bit of time and may involve more equipment. as far things collected, i don't have personal knowledge. i know we have been collecting debris we would expect to see from the plane. >> anything about the victims? >> the question is about the

victims. the ntsb is going to lead that portion of contact with the victims. american will be involved as well. so will the faa and department interpretation. >> [indiscernible] secretary duffy, the flight path the helicopter was on, is that a common flightpath and is it normal for helicopters to get clearance to cut across busy approach paths? >> i don't know if you heard the question about the flightpath of the helicopter. i don't want to go into too much detail about the information we have from the faa. obviously, it is nonstandard to have aircraft colliding. i want to be clear on that. prior to the collision, the flightpaths flown from the military and american, that was

not unusual for what happens in the d.c. airspace. as the investigation moves forward we will provide more information about the details of that statement. >> i wanted to follow-up with the question regarding the flightpath. conversations with air traffic control, whether blind spots? that's where they are blind spots? -- there blind spots? >> i don't to make statements about that. i don't know that answer. again, whether it was air traffic control, whether it was the military aircraft helicopters or the american flight, everything was standard in the lead up to the crash. something happened here. you will get more information and details as this investigation moves forward. we will learn what happened.

those who live in the d.c. area, we see military helicopters fly up and down the river. it is a standard path they fly. aircraft landing at dca. there is a procedure in place because it happens every day. something went wrong here. i look forward to the time we can give you the information but i don't to comment on that right now. >> you all have been very vocal about your concerns about busy runways here. air traffic. it is early in the investigation. are there steps you plan to take to address that? >> we have raised this issue continuously. we have a busy airspace. -- we will ask questions at the appropriate time. in this time when families are being notified, we are trying to figure out what happened. >> we have been plain about our

concerns. it isn't a good time to speculate right now. we have faith the ntsb will provide answers about this. >> we will take three in the middle and then we will have to wrap. >> chief, it must be traumatic for first responders to have to deal with this. how are they doing right now? are you offering services to help them as they process this? >> thank you for the question. our first responders are resilient people but yes, this call will be hard for them. our support teams are already engaged with the responders and we will be following up on that to make sure they are ok. >> what kind of communication was there between the helicopter, the plane and the tower? >> i don't want to say too much on the communication between the helicopter and the tower and the

airline and the tower. but i will say this, there was communication. it was, i would say standard communication. there was not a breakdown in communication between the military helicopter and the american airline flight. there was communication between the aircraft and the tower. >> was the plane aware there was a helicopter in the area? >> i would say the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area. >> the president, has he returned to the briefing room? also, a question about the national security adviser. he's saying there were 30 bodies that have been recovered. i know it's hard for you to update but i have a question on

potus. >> in terms of body recovery, as we recover bodies, we have a process. we don't count any bodies. there may be some fluctuation. >> i have been with this team for the last hour plus. as we have rolled through the details of information we wanted to give you. it is my understanding that either this morning, there was going to be a notification in the situation room. the president has been kept in full apprise all of what has taken place. -- appraisal of what has taken place. >> i'm just curious when the airport opens at 11:00 today,

our planes being directed of a different way to leave? -- are planes being directed of a different way to leave? >> safety is paramount. i don't have information from the faa so i don't want to provide an answer or inaccurate information. routes will be flown out of dca. >> two questions really quickly. what do you know about the experience and the history of the pilots of the american airlines plane and the helicopter? last night, the president said this could have been prevented. a question why air traffic control didn't tell the helicopter what to do, is that something that should have happened in this situation? >> just quickly, i don't have a lot of information to release but these are experienced pilots.

i know the captain had six years with psa and the first officer almost two years. again, standard approach. that's about all i can say. >> in regard to the military, i don't have information regard to the experience of the military pilots. i would know this -- note this was classified as a training mission. sometimes people could consider that as someone inexperienced in the cockpit. don't read into that. we had how many hours of pilots the military aircraft had. >> [indiscernible] >> we are going to wait for all of information to come in from

this vantage point. to back up what the president said and what i've seen so far, i think this was preventable, absolutely. >> thank you. >> is there an acting faa director? host: we are back with you here on washington journal. you saw the live news conference updating you on the situation in the potomac river. two aircraft collided. a black hawk helicopter and an american airlines passenger jet collided on approach to reagan national airport in washington, d.c. the fire and ems chief has said he's not expecting any survivors from that crash and that they have switched from search and rescue to a recovery operation. 27 people have been pulled from

the plane. one from the helicopter. they are set to continue that until they find all of the victims of that flight. the airport itself is set to reopen at 11:00 a.m. it is closed currently. the ntsb is taking control of that investigation to find out what happened. we have the full news conference. we will have that full news conference. here is rob in auburn, new york. on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call and covering the news conference. i would like to use this tragedy to make two bold propositions to my fellow americans. perhaps mr. trump could use this experience to offer retention balances to members of, for instance, the faa and the air

traffic controllers association. the national transportation safety board, and encourage young americans to go to work for the united states government. second, in terms of the department of gross exaggeration, perhaps mr. trump could encourage mr. musk to take off his t-shirts, put on a t-shirt representing the u.s. aid or the american peace corps, go back to his homeland of south america, where the unemployment rate of adults is 35%. where the port of cape town is in virtual collapse and where the public school system is so badly broken for lack of economy.

let's get something good out of this tragedy. thank you. host: robin. this is alan in brooklyn, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. this is a very unusual week. there are so many meaningful overlaps. even before this tragedy happened with the airflight. first of all, we are talking about people who came out as emergency responders who had to know what they were doing. they all had to be trained, even the lowest level people flying helicopters, grabbing ambulances, divers who know how to search in these kinds of cold and dark conditions. were any of them asked about their loyalty to the president personally over the constitution or where they asked only about their loyalty to law and confidence -- competence for

their jobs? this is the same week we are holding a hearing to confirm a crew of cabinet nominees who were described gleefully by members of the russian television program that if they were all approved by the senate, they would help dismantle america from within, brick by brick. i would think this would be an occasion for every republican center to consider whether this is the course they want to follow, if they have enough courage to face a primary challenge in order to defend the constitution and the confidence of our workers from a president who would rather have incompetence in office, who are pleasing his friends in russia or his own ego. we don't have the luxury of this when tragedies like this happen. this is the same week that a distinguished experienced leader, mark milley was

outrageously stripped of his security and his status. he had the idea to pledge his first loyalty. this is the same week we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz from people who insisted on the loyalty to the leader over loyalty to the law. one of the judges who was convicted of participating in the nazi atrocities, even remotely, asked how could it come to this? he was told by spencer tracy, it came to this when the first innocent man was wrongfully convicted on facts that were falsely presented. if we are going to avoid this kind of thing in america, 80 years after auschwitz, we must focus on competence and law and

not allow ourselves to fall into a dictatorship where anyone man's will or ego is the primary controlling factor in our government? -- in our government. host: here is moe. good morning. moe, are you there? mesa, arizona? caller: hello? host: sorry. fill in aberdeen, maryland. independent line. good morning. caller: i was really disgusted this morning. when i picked up to turn on the tv and the first thing, i listen to c-span every morning. the first thing i hear was that talk about the tragedy in washington was caused by dei hires. that's the most ridiculous thing i've heard in my life. these things happen. just to blame on dei hires is

the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. i don't know which direction this country is headed but we are headed down a really bad road. i think that we as citizens don't really let people know the truth, then it's going to get worse. host: lynchburg, virginia on the independent line. robert, your next. caller: hello, good morning. first of all, my prayers go out to the people who are in these tragic accidents. i am a retired military guy myself. the people that voted for trump and the republicans, they are all responsible for whatever happens between now and four years from now.

you reap what you sow. i can't believe so many people got hoodwinked. thank you. host: laverne in fort worth, texas. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. dear lord, god. i want to make a comment. i listened to president trump on one of his speeches and he had said that he had stolen this election and he was going to steal the next one and there was not going to be anymore elections. i wanted to know could congress or the doc or whoever, can they investigate that? host: i don't think president trump has said he stole the last election and stole this one. that's not accurate. caller: yes, he did. he was making a speech, i think it was shortly after his inauguration. he made that comment. host: all right.

with tt, the next segment is bobby cogan, who takes a closer look at the president trump administrations attempt to freeze aid. later, we will talk to brian blase, he will discuss the make america healthy again movement. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend at 3:00 p.m. eastern, we will bring you the military commissioning ceremony for harriet tubman, given posthumous the by the american -- posthumously by the american national guard. at 5:30 eastern, michael tackett looks back on the legacy of

tch mcconnell, who stepped down at the end of the 118th congress. he's the washington, d.c. bureau chief for the associated press. an author of the biography on senator mcconnell, titledhe price of power. at 7:00, american tv history looks at the first 100 days of past presidential terms. this week, we focus on the early months of president george washington's first term in 1789, including the establishment of the office of president, the cabinet and the first judicial appointments. at 8:00 p.m., elections of history. amy stallings discusses the history of the 1607 jamestown settlement in virginia and efforts over the four centuries to remember the first permanent english settlement in the americas. exploring the american story. watch american history tv, saturdays on cpan two and find a full schedule on your progm guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history.

>> book tv, every sunday on c-span2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. there's a look at what's coming up this weekend. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, former obama administration homeland security senior advisor charles marino argues president biden's border policies have weakened u.s. national security in his book, terrorists on the border and in our country. at 9:00 p.m., colin schade, author of y2k, reflects on how cultural and technological innovations of the early to thousands impact of the past, present and future. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, eva dou shares her book, house of huawei. which shares how huawei became china's was powerful company and what it means for their competitors. she is joined by adam siegel.

watch book tv, every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. ♪ >> in his latest book titled wasteland, author robert kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future. kaplan, author of 24 books, holds a chair in geopolitics at the foreign policy institute. in chapter number three in his 170 saving -- 177 page book, kaplan claims civilization is in flux. the ongoing decay of the west is manifested not only in racial tensions coupled with new barriers to free speech put in the deterioration of dres codes, erosion of grammar, decline in sales of serious books and classical music and so on. all of which have traditionally

been signs of civilization. >> robert kaplan talks about his book wasteland, a world in permanent crisis, with brian lam. book notes plus is available on the c-span app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> democracy. it isn't just an idea. it's a process, a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices. it's where debates unfold, decisions are made in the nation's course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span, giving you your democracy, unfiltered. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by bobby kogan.

he's the federal budget policy senior director for american progres. -- progress. welcome to the program. the white house rescinded the memo that had frozen all federal grants and loans. on monday night, it had sent out a memo saying that all federal grants, several trillion dollars had been frozen. can you bring us up to speed as to what happened and what's happening now? guest: sure. on day one, the trump administration proposed a few illegal -- a lot of our foreign assistance. on monday, they said we will freeze about one third of the budget.

grants, loans and almost all of the federal financial assistance. all the stuff that go to the states or authorities or that type of stuff. on tuesday, they then sent internal guidance to the agency, saying let's carry it out. the agency sent a bunch of emails to the staff saying they are carrying this out. publicly, they started walking it back. partly, they said let's go forward. publicly, they said that we meant the day one stuff. yesterday, they rescinded the memo that said let's do one third of the budget and they are back to their original illegal process. host: ok. so caroline levitt, the spokesperson for the white house said that the policy itself is still in effect and the memo is not. there was a court case. and a judge has paused that.

so, what's happening with that? guest: the way that i swear that , because the -- square that, because the white house memo didn't say what we all thought it to say. it said let's go beyond our initial pauses and pause one third of the budget. headstart and snap in that sort of stuff. publicly, they said whoa, we are not pausing all of those things. we are doing our original stuff. privately, they implied they were going ahead. their public stance was they were not doing anything. when caroline levitt said -- when they rescinded that monday memo and levitt said we are still going ahead, i believe what she was saying was we are going ahead with our day one stuff. this is a spin to pretend they have not walked back there monday stuff.

the federal judge interpreted it differently and said we don't know what you are saying. let's pause everything. let's put a stay on everything. i believe that was a spin to pretend they have not walked back there monday order. and said our plan was to continue pausing our day one stuff. so we will continue our day one pause. host: currently, given the judges order, bobby, is everything going forward as usual? are all of those expenses going out or are they paused? guest: the caveat that we don't know if they were going to comply with the court order. if they are complying, the monday stuff is pause. but the day one illegal actions are continuing. the foreign assistance pause will still be continuing. and then also, the bipartisan infrastructure law and the efficient introduction act stuff. that stuff is ongoing. i believe that's what levitt was

referring to. the caveat here is that part of the issue is they were giving different information to the agencies rather than the public. it's not clear what they are going to follow. host: the administration argued this was necessary because they wanted to make sure that all funding complies with president trump's agenda. is this typical when a new administration comes in? guest: no, it is not. it is also illegal. you are not allowed to pause for policy reasons. if you look at in 2020, the government account -- accountability office, when they said trump had violated it for his 2019 ukraine pause, they say you are not allowed to pause for

policy reasons. no, this is not typical and it is not allowed. if you don't like a law, you are allowed to try to change it. i would expect a lot of loss to change. there is a path to legally pause a lot of money. they could not have illegally paused all of it, probably. there are ways to try to resend a lot of the money. but you are not allowed to, just because you don't like it, stop carrying out the law. that, you not allowed to do. host: we have bobby kogan with us for the next 20 minutes. if you would like to call in and ask a question about the federal grant and loan money that has been paused by the administration and the memo that has been rescinded, you can do so. it is 202-748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8003 for

independents. you mentioned impoundment. can you explain what that is? guest: yeah. impoundment is any action or inaction that causes money to not be spent temporarily or permanently. it is any way in which you cost someone money that is supposed to be -- cost some money that is obligated to be spent -- it was illegal before the impoundment control act existed. they codified that. there were a few sparse court cases before nixon that were never adjudicated. just because the president does something does not mean it is legal. the way to determine whether something is legal is it goes to court and the judge says yeah, that's fine or no, it's not fine.

there are a few sparse cases. nixon sort of broadly impounded. those went to court. before the impoundment control act existed, of the cases that were decided in the merits, nixon lost everyone. the court said hey, here is the money and this is what the law says you have to do with the money. we passed a law before he left office saying this is an allowed but if you want to do it, here are the paths. impoundment is some mechanism through which you are illegally not allowing money to go out. and so, as i say, ica created two paths to legally do it. you can call for the money to be peeled back and you can pause it temporarily.

there's information including what you want to peel back and how long. then you have to give one of the three justifiable reasons. if you do that, you are legally allowed to posit. president trump did not do any of that. it's not ok. he did not give the information required to read he did not pick one of the three justifiable reasons. the come ability office has said clearly that i don't like the policy. policy reasons are not a legitimate reason to pause. host: unless you repeal the impoundment act which is what president trump has said he wants to do on the campaign trail, and his nominee to lead the vote has been a critic of the impoundment act. do you think it is possible politically that that would be repealed? and what impact do you think i would have? guest: sure, i would reiterate

that nixon lost his impoundment cases before the impoundment control act existed. some of them were adjudicated after it existed. they were all adjudicated on pre-impoundment control act law. it's not the way that they speak about this, they say presidents have had the authority to do this for 200 years. within this unconstitutional law came in and unconstitutionally stopped us. as soon as that goes away, we can go back to doing it. that is not true. nixon lost every single case that was decided in the marriage. you can't do it because authorizing lost -- law says you can't do it. you can't do it because appropriations law says you can't do it. i don't expect the supreme court to overturn the impoundment control act. the argument that they are making is that congress may not bind you on spending.

they say that tax law is not optional. the president does not get to pick the tax law. they say that -- they say that criminal law is not optional. you don't depict the severity of any of the crimes listed or whatever. they say that all spending law is optional. that everything is a ceiling treat you can't spend without it. but it's not a target. congress can't mandate it. congress says he is $15 million for a bridge. what they are saying is you can sign into law and say that's fine but i will choose not to do this. they say it would be unconstitutional to say no, you must do this. what that really means is that anything that is currently down is unconstitutional. it means security's

entitlement and medicare's entitlement and medicaid's entire men and snaps entitlement is unconstitutional. the president would be able to say i will give you less because i don't like this. i don't think congress would like that because it usurps congress's role, not just in saying we want to give you money. but you must do with the money that we gave you. it is so radical that i just can't -- with the caveat that the supreme court has found creative ways to interpret the law beyond what many lawyers -- host: i want to play for you a portion of russ vote. he was asked in his recent confirmation hearings about this idea of withholding funding that has been appropriated by congress. then i will have you respond. >> under your leadership in

2019, of the illegally withheld 214 million dollars that congress appropriated to the department of defense to provide security assistance to ukraine, the government accountability office concluded that on these actions were a violation of the impoundment control act. four years ago you told this committee the under your leadership that omb would abide by the impoundment control act. however, your past actions in public statements suggest that you may not follow this law in the future. my question for you, sir, is if you are confirmed as a whim be director at again, do you commit -- omb director again, do you commit -- >> thanks for the question. i will commit to upholding the law.

i disagree with the characterization of the general a coming office. my time, we followed the law consistently. we will continue to do so. >> do you think that is within the law? >> we did not. we were engaged in a policy process with regard to how funding would flow to ukraine. >> do you believe the impoundment control act of 1974 is the law of the land that you must follow? >> it is the law of the land. the president has run on that issue. he believes it is unconstitutional. for 200 years, presidents have had the ability to spend less for an appropriation if they had the ability to do it for less. as it pertains to the parameters of how we would use that, that is something that his team will have to consider when they are confirmed in these roles. host: bobby kogan, what do you

make of that? guest: thank you for letting me respond to that. i was watching it live and talking to my tv. russ vote says we followed the law because we did release it. and that is not following the law. the law is actually incredibly clear. section 1013 of the impoundment control act says if you want to defer funding, which is what they did, they called for a pause. if you want to defer funding, you must transmit a special message which they can do. and then they can say there are only three acceptable reasons. you heard russ vote say they were doing it for policy reasons. that is not one of the acceptable reasons. here, you can see very clearly, russ vote making the argument against himself in his statement. he says but we released it before the end of the year so we are kosher. that does not matter. you not allowed to pause.

while we are at it, he released it so late in the year, i think he released it two weeks before the end of the fiscal year. money ran out. they waited so long that they ran out of time to use the money. there were frantic emails from dod to omb saying please release the money. please release the money. we are about to run out of time. we won't be able to spend this all in time. that is quite literally what happened. congress had to go in and resend and re-appropriate that money to allow it to be spent. what he did, quite literally, was positive so long -- pause it so long the money could not be used. that is superduper illegal. the fact that russ vote is trying to defend it, which he goes on to say it's because we don't like the law in the first

place, that's what's going on. it's fine for him to not like a law but you don't just get to break laws that you don't like. there are a few, narrow cases in the past 200 years. of those cases, some of the ones that russ brings up are ones where congress explicitly granted discretion to the president. he loves to talk about this 1803 gunboat case. in it, there were two appropriations. one says here is money and the other says here's a another set of money of up to this amount of money that you may use if you think it is in the public interest. jefferson didn't use that because it became irrelevant because we did the louisiana purchase. we no longer needed gun votes on the mississippi because it was

not the westernmost border. congress gave him the authority to not spend it. there are a couple of narrow cases of impoundment. they were never challenged. just because a president does something does not mean it is legal or illegal. as soon as they were actually challenged, they lost. host: let's take calls for you. mark is wanted to talk to you from evans dale iowa will. hi, mark. -- evans dale, iowa. hi, mark. caller: president biden, he used funds to produce his drones and the supreme court said that can't be done. so, how was he able to do that? host: mark, thanks for calling. i didn't hear exactly what mark said? host: he was talking about the biden administration's student loan forgiveness. guest: so, the biden

administration argued it had the authority to renegotiate existing contracts. that does not cause a dispersal. it revises an existing kind of financial asset. the supreme court said no, you can't do that so he stopped doing that. it wasn't a dispersal or a lack of dispersal in either case. it wasn't an impoundment issue in any way, shape or form. it was a question about whether they could change an existing contract. the supreme court said no so he didn't do it. i would say that it is common for presidents to try to do something they think is legal and then for courts to say no, you can't do that. it's not technically wrong for a president to try something and for a court to swat it down. i would say what's special about this is they are walking in, saying we don't think the law

that binds us is legal. in that case, president biden said we think we have authority under the higher education act and some act for the second attempt at it. and we think we have the authority so we think we can do this. in this case, there is a law that explicitly says -- there are a bunch of laws that explicitly say trumpet ministration can do this and the trump administration is saying yes but we think those laws are unconstitutional so we think we can ignore the law. host: here is marshy. caller: good morning. i am in 87-year-old reasonably intelligent person and it seems like common sense to me. i live in a small town. every time they are going to pass a budget, the police chief has to come and the head of the

water department has to come and the fire chief has to come and say what they did with their money and why they may be want more than a time. so, i don't understand the brouhaha. it seems like common sense. what did you do with your money? and what are you planning to do? it seems like then we wouldn't have studies on matching socks, 900,000 dollars. by the way, this is a perfect example of the need for -- host: bobby kogan. guest: i think it is totally right for congress to reevaluate its budget. one third of the budget is up for negotiation every single year. other parts are up every few years. i think it is completely right for congress to consistently reevaluate its budget. this is a separate question of

whether you are allowed to unilaterally not follow a budget that is already existing. we are in the midst of negotiating fiscal year 2025 funding. we are running things on the cr, continuing resolution. president trump has said i will stop following it because i don't like it. that is, i think, where i think the problem comes in. i would expect the shape of government to change, that's how democracy works. i would expect the seat -- to see the government change more to be in keeping with the republican agenda. that is a separate question from is the president allowed to simply ignore the problem in the meantime. even if congress might end up saying no to those things. that i think is quite bad. host: danny in dallas, texas.

line for democrats. caller: good morning. good morning, from dallas. i was calling to say, first of all, that we are 10 days into this presidency and we have not some extreme executive orders. here's where i want to pose my question to bobby. me and my wife, elise, are on medicaid. we read somewhere that this would put it in jeopardy. host: this is virgil in utica, ohio. republican line. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i am a listener. i think it is not bad to take a break and look at some of these things and reevaluate what we spend money on and where we give our money. that is our tax money.

not only that, bring this up again. i had a contract with the post office. there we go. i have some extra parts, i want to get rid of this money. if not, i won't get a bigger budget next year. that is my comment. i will sit back and listen. thank you. guest: thanks so much for calling in. i would reiterate i think it is legitimate to reevaluate the budget. what is legal is to pause it entirely in contradiction with the law. congress will vote on a new budget in months and decide what they want to do. what is completely illegal here is to say in the meantime, i will not follow the law. i would say the pause they proposed on monday it was

sweeping and broad. it would have paused head start facilities. on february 1, a whole bunch of new grants go out. and start facilities would have closed on february 1. section eight money also goes out on a monthly basis to housing authorities. they have special veterans, families with kids and people with disabilities with a special preference for this. those of the bulk of the vote. that means folks are missing their payment. there were immediate effects that would be seen here. the point i want to make is i want to give credence to the idea that it is legitimate to pause -- not to pause but to ask yourself how we want to spend our money. that's what you want to do and then change the law to make it be the way you want it to be. what you are not allowed to do is ignore the law in the meantime because you don't like it. host: does the omb have a role

to play in that process as far as how the money was spent, was it spent wisely and is this the money you need? guest: omb does a review. one of the legitimate reasons they could have done is they are trying to find ways to be more efficient. that's one of the three acceptable reasons to pause. i don't like this policy is not one of them. i would say while we are at it, we are talking about omb, what was the farias last time, it's and impoundment control act violation to not spend money. it's an anti-deficiency act to spend money you don't have. that one carries criminal jail time. what omb has done to insert itself in the process is they mess with the apportionment. that's where it is this technical step where congress will authorize and appropriately money and omb will formally

release the money. and then the agencies will go about obligating and spending it. omb inserts itself by saying here's the money. that part of it has to happen for nonpolicy reasons. it's about making sure the money goes out so you don't spend it all too partly or too slowly. what omb has done and what i think they will do again this year is they came in and said you can't have the money anymore. if the agency tries to spend it, pursuant to the law, they are facing terminal violations. that's what happened last time. that's why dod couldn't spend the money. that's why they were frantically emailing omb, saying please release the funds. as they were spending the money, the budget officers were facing criminal liability for spending this money they didn't have, even though congress had appropriated it. they are abusing this.

they abused it last time and we are worried they will abuse it again. host: one more call. this is david in ardmore, pennsylvania. caller: hi, bobby. you know trump is a master of deception and chaos. i think he already knows that if he goes through congress, he will not succeed. he writes this executive order that creates chaos and and then it is taken up in the courts to determine sending a message to the base saying i'm the president, this is what i said i would do and i'm doing it. he doesn't really care what the veterans or the fresh start -- whether the veterans or the fresh start program gets the money or not. 90% of the time, he doesn't read what he signing. do you think that is the

case with president trump here? guest: thank you so much for calling in. i think chaos is right. they wrote and rescinded this memo. the memo is released and rescinded within 43 hours. in that meantime, it seemed like they illegally paused a third of the budget. stuff like nutrition and housing and education. all of those are in that pause. then they privately said they wanted to do that and publicly said they were not doing it and peeled it back. in peeling it back, they said oh, we didn't change anything great so much that a judge said i guess we will pause it anyway. i think chaos is right here. this feels like trump one point oh where nobody could figure out what was going on because there were so many contradictory things. i think to your point, the purpose was to get to the courts.

as mimi said earlier, russell vought has said they don't think -- is constitutional. the washington post reported yesterday that the trump administration internally had been clear, the purpose was to get this in front of the courts. what they are trying to do is they are trying to argue the president has the authority to ignore congressional tapes. and they want to ignore that congressional dictates can't happen when it comes to money. that puts at risk everything. that puts at risk medicaid and people's nutrition and anything congress is trying to do to help people, which is a contradiction to what trump ran on. he ran on lowering prices for people. it does not lower prices for people if you take away their nutrition and their education and health care. host: bobby kogan, former advisor to the director of office management and budget in

the biden administration and center for american progress federal budget policy, senior director. you can find their work at american progress.org. thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you for having me on. host: up next, we will be joined by brian blais of the paragon institute. we will talk about the make america healthy again movement and the priorities for the trump administration. stay with us. ♪ >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this morning at 3:00 p.m., -- wes moore spoke at the event.

at 5:30, michael tackett looks back on the career and legacy of mitch mcconnell, who stepped down as senate republican lde at the end of the 118th congress. he's the author of the new book on senator mcconnell, titled price of power. american history tv begins a new series looking at the first 100 days of past presidential terms. we focus on george washington's first term in 1789, including the establishment of the office of the president, the formation of the cabin and the first judicial appointments. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures , amy stallings discusses the history of the 1607 jamestown selement in virginia and efforts over the four centuries to preserve and remember the first english settlement in the americas. exploring the american store,

watch american history tv, saturdays on c-span two. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, you can find it any time online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen, when you hit play on select videos. this timeline toll makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home decor and

accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by brian blase, he's president of paragon health institute. welcome. guest: thanks for having me. host: talk to us about paragon health institute, your mission and funding. guest: paragon was founded about three and a half years ago, we are a policy research institute that is dedicated to evaluating how government programs are working and developing sense of reforms that empower patients and inform government programs by changing incentives, so that people are oriented and all of the actors are oriented, getting

as much value out of a system as possible. we are a nonprofit, so we are funded by individuals and foundations. paragon takes no corporate funding. host: why did you feel the need to create paragon health? what are the issues you're are trying to solve? guest: health policy is the most important domestic policy issue facing the country. it is a huge part of family budgets. it's a huge part of what the federal government does. it's a huge part of what states do. policies are not working for the american people. they are not working for patients. the quality of health care is underwhelming. they are not working for the hard-working american families and taxpayers that are financing these programs. there are a lot of things that are broken that need to be fixed. host: why is health care so expensive in this country and the quality is not there? guest: i could answer that for a

long time. host: what's the biggest reason? guest: a lot of it goes back to the creation of medicare and medicaid in the 1960's. they used cost base reimbursement. hospitals were getting as much from the pair as they claimed their cost to be which led to an inflationary increase. we have separated the edge user of health care from the price of those services. 90% of what we spend in health care comes from third-party payers. it comes from the government bureaucracy or it comes from health insurance companies. we have created this big wedge between the supplier, the producer of the service and the user of that service. and there is a lot of intermediaries in the process and some of them play valuable roles and some of them i think are less valuable. they have led to escalating costs over the past several decades.

host: i want to play you a portion of rfk juniors confirmation hearing from yesterday. he talked to senators. this is senator michael bennet, a democrat of colorado, talking about his previous views on health issues. then i will get your response. >> did you say that covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets black-and-white people but spared ashkenazi, jews and chinese people? >> i did not say it was deliberately targeted. i quoted an nih funded and nih funded study. >> did you say -- >> i quoted an in age study -- an nih study. >> i will take that as a yes. i have to move on. did you say that line disease is

highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon? i made sure to put in the highly likely. did you say lime disease is a highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon. >> i likely -- >> i want them to hear it. did you say exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender? >> no. >> i have the record i will get to the chairman and he can make his judgment about what you said. did you write in your book that it is undeniable that african aids is an entirely different disease from western aids? yes or no. >> i'm not sure. >> i will give to the chairman, mr. kennedy. my final question, did you say on a podcast "i would not leave it, abortion, to the states."

my belief is we should leave it to the woman. we should not leave it to the government, even if it is full term. >> i believe every abortion is a tragedy. >> did you say it, mr. kennedy? this matters, it doesn't matter what you come here and say that isn't true that is not reflective of what you believe that you have not said over decade after decade after decade. unlike other jobs we are confirming around this place, this is a job where it is life-and-death for the kids that i used to work for in the denver public schools and for families all over this country that are suffering from living in the richest country in the world that can't deliver basic health care and basic mental health care to them! it's too important for the games you are playing, mr. kennedy. and i hope my colleagues will say to the president, i have no influence over him. i hope my colleagues will say to the president, out of 330

million americans, we can do better than this. host: what do you think of that? guest: it does not sound like senator bennet is ready to confirm mr. kennedy. i think the president selected mr. kennedy because of the compelling message around make america healthy again. host: which we will talk about. i want to ask you do you believe he is qualified for the position? guest: i do. he was selected by the president. host: do you believe he is qualified because he was selected by the president or because of his qualifications? guest: i think both. it is a really important position. i think that mr. kennedy brings attributes and skills to that position that are going to be a good fit. host: make america healthy again.

walk us through some of those key points. guest: i think it is diagnosing the state of american health. if you look at many measures of american health, one of the principal ones being life expectancy, we have been in decline. starting in 2014, for three straight years, life expectancy in the u.s. decline. and then of course, we had the pandemic and the tragedy around the pandemic. life expectancy is lower now than it was a decade ago. i think you have an increase in many chronic diseases. diabetes, obesity. i think during the hearing yesterday, there were about two out of three americans who struggle with obesity or being overweight.

and there are problems with children, too. american health has stagnated the last 15 years. i mean, public policy has failed to recognize that. there have been different things in health policy, and that brings us back to it matters for american health. host: we will take your calls with brian blase. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independent, (202)-748-8002. republicans, (202)-748-8001 republicans., what regulation do you think is needed right now? guest: it overlaps with the usda and the guidance that the federal government puts out. host: with help to consumers.

guest: yes, one of the main problems and that advice put out was back to what was created several decades ago. and it really overplayed problems with that and what we learned now from nutrition sciences with that guidance to be an american families. we did not need to have high sugar, excess sugar is what is problematic. if i'm looking at from what they should do first, we should look at what information they need to dole out to provide americans with better information. host: going back to chemicals such as food dyes and preservatives, do you feel that is something that they should mandate be out of our food supply?

guest: i think they need to process that and weigh the pros and cons. i know that the fda just grand fru -- baned red dye 33 starting in 2027, and it seems like there is bipartisan agreement on certain food additives that should be removed. that's not my area of expertise, so in order to process it, you need to understand the science. ultimately, he said i'm fine with people who go to mcdonald's to have cheeseburger and coke, it is about making sure americans have the information any to make the best decisions possible for them. host: and you agree that it should be the same with vaccines? that you should make whatever choice on vaccines without the government telling you these are the vaccines that are recommended or required?

guest: well, i think there are differences with the covid vaccine and the requirements with the covid vaccine. host: so leaving aside the covid vaccine because that is a newer one, but if we looked at polio -- measles -- guest: from listening to his testimony yesterday, he endorsed the measles vaccine. i don't think there is mention on whether or not american should take those. host: let's start with our callers. caller: good morning. my statements are, first, we have plenty of money in our health care system. the problem is we have

stockholders because it was just left for people who pay the bill. i'm 76 years old on medicare, handicapped now. on oxygen 24 hours a day, and the health care benefits have fallen apart and not being able to get the things i need. we have plenty of money with health care, it is just you make no profits off of health care. health care should go all to the people. my second one is, i question your views of how you think that mr. kennedy is qualified because just 100 years ago, we would say he was a salesman. we cannot really depend on what he says because he will not even

admit to the things he said in the past because it is not carried today because he's trying to get a job in the trump administration. if you try to get a job and someone else's administration, he would be singing a different song. i would not trust this man. my family does not trust him. host: catherine, we will get a response. guest: on topic number one, i agree there is plenty of money in the health care system. i think the prophets are fine, the prophets are actually good. we would like to have a profit motive and suppliers to make a profit by providing better health care services by developing innovative products to get them to consumers. but the prophets that many in the health care industry get now are not the result of providing value to consumer, they are

about how much lobbying power they have in washington, so a lot of these groups, insurers, hospitals, to get more money from the government than they do the private sector, and the resources that are allocated for them are more a function of the lobbying power of individuals that the organizations have rather than the value they provide. on mr. kennedy, he would be an appointee for president trump, so on areas they disagree, abortion is one of them. the president sets the policy agenda, and his appointees, the cabinet officials, and all the people who work in the white house, they have to follow the agenda that the president puts out. the president was elected, he got 77 million votes. and part of that was an embrace of this make america healthy again movement, which was really

spearheaded by robert kennedy. host: sarah is next in edgewater, maryland, independent. caller: you mentioned earlier that there was a die removed from the food --dye removed from the fda. they have no for decades that that is cancer in a box, and the question is why would they allow this to be included when they know that because there have been cases that have caused cancer, and then the second thing is health care in america, call it profit care. as you said, there is such a thing that there's a lot of fraud and abuse going on, and, you know, if you look at every major insurance company that offers medicare, they have actively defrauded the federal government by tens of billions of dollars and have gotten away with it, and there have been

absolutely no consequence. the government should shutdown an insurance company when the actively defrauded the federal government. why do companies continue to offer medicaid advantage plans and they have defrauded? that, i think should be addressed, and the last thing i wanted to stay here, a lot of the offices today do not do their billing anymore, and experience this by talking to people who work for these outside companies that do the bills for the doctor office, and there was a lot of fraud involved in that, too. employees get incentivized by adding additional cost to the bill by adding procedures and changing the coding that is being used so that they can make more money, --

guest: let me focus on the middle of your comment on fraud, waste and abuse. i agree there is a tremendous amount of fraud, waste and abuse in our health care. that goes back to what i mentioned. there is a lot throughout the health care sector with all of the individuals. on medicare advantage, there are more than 30 million seniors right now enrolled in medicare advantage, it is more than half of all medicare enrollees who have chosen medicare advantage, and what medicare advantage is, it is a senior on medicare who chooses to get their benefits offered through health plan, they get their traditional benefits of hospital care and medicare advantage plans can

offer benefits like dental, vision, and benefits that seniors value, so i think there is value in medicare advantage. that said, i think there are ways to improve medicare advantage. a comprehensive report was put out last year on ways we think the medicare advantage program could be improved. they hit on one thing you mentioned, the insurer profiting. the main issue of controversy there is around it's risk adjustment program where insurers get paid more based on having sicker enrollees, and that has given the incentive to diagnose all conditions of the enrollees, and in many cases, they have diagnosed and exaggerated in order to get more money from the government, and we think that is a real problem and something that the government should look to address. host: let's talk to lynn next,

republican, north carolina. caller: good morning. i was watching yesterday with bobby kennedy, and i'm always taken back when he gets drilled by these immigrants. they have a frigate meltdown. elizabeth warren, it seems like it is a democratic party that just give the man a break. give the man a chance to answer the question. they just keep going on and on and on. what president trump is trying to put in place is a warning to let everyone know about the number three red dye that bobby has known for many years. i could be wrong on that, but there is no telling what we

don't know. i think with his health condition that he had studied, this has been his cup -- cup of tea, so to speak, he has done his research and written six books on nutrition. he is very active, and he is exactly right. i'm always envious of seeing people in china being so much smaller than the people in the united states, i only wish i could be a size three again. there are things i could do myself, but i also know that president trump is trying to get these warnings out, get his cabinet in place to give them a warning. not to tell you that you cannot go to mcdonald's, it is a choice thing, just like your amendments one that gives you the right to speak. it is a choice thing, but know what you are eating and drinking because sometimes there are harmful side effects.

as far as the health system, the last caller was right, it is crazy. they have been added to jobs, to other companies, and there are ways to cut the spending, which, in the long run, has helped the consumer, and give them a chance and spend like 10 days. there is no sense in the attitude of the grilling and the screaming. guest: like the previous caller mentioned with the billing structure, i agree. just to step back and give you context on the department of health and human services, it is

a massive federal department with 80,000 employees. if you think about the federal budget, the medicare program, the medicaid program run through the department of health and human services, and you have got all the public health agencies. nih, fda, cdc, so it is impossible for anyone man on the planet to know everything about the health care programs that are managed by the department of health and human services. so you have got a set of other people who have been selected by president trump, dr. oz, mahdi bagheri, fda, and these are very serious for minded individuals that i think are going to be great leaders at the individual agencies within hss and provide recommendations both to the

secretary, as well as to the president. host: you mentioned it he thousand employees at hhs, are you concerned at all about the potential cuts in the federal workforce in that department impacting the services they are able to give to the american people? guest: so, it is a tough question to sort of evaluate right now because we don't know with the exact impact is going to be of that order. i know there is a severe problem of government workers, and that is one of the issues trying to be addressed, 6% of federal workers are back at the office full-time. i do think some of the work that cmh do, yeah, you need to have scientists there, you need to have evaluators there. i do not know. host: jeff, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: i wanted to know if you

promote the restrictions of people with the government food stamps about restrictions, whether it is ice cream, because we have an overweight president that drinks cans of diet soda a day and is addicted to fast food. i work out, have low blood sugar , a lot of these people voted for him. these are people he hurts the most. host: jeff, are you on snap? caller: yes, i work out and i should be entitled to do whatever i would like. host: currently, there are restrictions on what you can buy, you cannot buy soda? or are there no restrictions? caller: exactly, so they are imposing all kinds of things.

like i said, trumpers are really trying to hurt us and he is drinking 18 diet sodas. host: about the restrictions on food stamps. guest: so, there is a policy debate now on whether the snap program and enrollees in the program should be restricted from using that benefit on sugary sodas, sweets, really substantial percentage of the spending on that program goes to the consumption of those products. there is also a sense that money is fungible, people will use their own money on those products. i myself, my view, is that it is ok for the government to place restrictions on a government benefit, so if the government studies this and thinks there is a problem with too much

overconsumption of sugar, soda, and sweets, which there is in the country that places limits on that welfare benefit, then that sounds like reasonable public policy to me. host: another jeff, new york, independent. caller: i would like to point out to you that you said there is no disagreement apparently between people understanding the vaccine, but that is not true. mr. kennedy has been opposed to those specific vaccines, and he said so with his own words to recount what he has said and talked about consumption with that, and then he changed his mind suddenly, and he is a very

dangerous man to have as hss secretary. a very great concern, for example, that it could turn into a pandemic at one point, but would be like somebody like robert f kennedy junior in charge of the vaccine program at a time when we need to save millions of lives? guest: i don't think so. what he said yesterday as he is pro-vaccine, pro-polio, pro-measles, i take him at his word that he is in favor of all of those vaccines, and i know marty, carrie, who was nominated, is also pro-vaccine. he said they will follow the science and make the

recommendations that are ultimately in the best interest of the american people. host: he did say a lot of the hearing that he will follow good science. is that problematic that maybe people have different ideas of what good science and that sciences? guest: clearly, if you just look at the experience of the pandemic, there were a lot of government recommendations that came out from the closing of schools to the six foot distance guidelines that had no basis, but were promoted at the time, but i think science is a process and evolving, it is evaluating what evidences, and i think there are good studies that are well-designed that have control groups that you can draw definitive movements from, and there are studies that are much weaker and they may come to a conclusion, but because of the

study design, you cannot really draw the conclusion. host: alex, washington, d.c., republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a phd in sciences, i think that robert kennedy is a good choice only for the purpose of radical transparency. i think there has been a massive loss of trust, and a lot of that is well-founded, and the people opposing him, i just think that they need to understand when you have previous discussions, the 50/50, or if it comes out of china, you may never know, and then they go publicly to say that they did not come out of china, and the conspiracy theory, the new head who is actively censored by the previous head of nih, that would be anthony fauci, these are the things that are the seeds that

so distressed, and we had to latch onto that and realize that they need to have transparency if they are ever going to regain their credibility. and they need to push back against that. i think that c-span can help in terms of getting the document, whether it is the grant that looks a lot like the dramatic sequence of covid-19, and it just shows that there is a lot of evidence and they have not really been forthcoming. if they do that, we can trust experts again, so thank you. guest: i think he makes reasonable points. there is a severe lack of trust in public health authorities, largely because of the pandemic response, and transparency in

public health and more broadly throughout the health sector and people have more confidence in the recommendations from experts. host: brian blase his former white house economic national advisor in the first trump administration. you can find his work at paragon online. democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here's a look at what is coming up this weekend.

8:00 p.m. eastern, charles marino argues that president biden's border policies have weakened national security in his book "terrorists on the border and in our country." and: shade, author of "y2k" reflects on how innovations of the early 2000's impacted the past, present and future. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on "afterwards," eva douu shares her book "house of huawei," and what it meanfor global competitors. she is followed by adam s egel. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime tv.org. >> if you ever miss any of

c-span's coverage, you can find it anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates and other events future markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. the timeline makes it easy to get an idea of what was elated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse our latest collection of apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase helps support nonprofit organizations. shop now or at any time at c-spanshop.org. >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is

easy, tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily. important public affairs events throughout the day, and catch washington today, listen to c-span any time, just tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio. created by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: we are in open forum, so you can call in and discuss any politics issue that you would like to discuss. we are following the developments of the plane crash from last night here in washington, an american airlines passenger jet and an army black hawk helicopter collided midair and crashed into the potomac river. that is a recovery operation and all 67 on board are believed to be dead, and we will let you

know anything we find out about that. also happening this morning, getting underway very soon, in a few minutes is--patel's confirmation hearing. he is president trump's pick to lead the fbind wl be on capito to eak to senators. he's a former justice department utor and as an r in the first derway in a few minutes on c-span3,covege of that senate judiciary committee. it is also on c-span out and on the app. right after this program at 10:00 a.rn, it is tulsi gabbard's confirmation hearing, nominated for the director of national intelligence, and she has observed in the army national guard and arm reser since 2003 and represented hawaii and congress as a

democrat, and then switched during t 2020 presidential -- she switched to the repn party in 20 24, so that is live here on c-span. those confirmation hearings will be on c-span.org and on our app, c-span now. you can watch it there. we will take your calls. we are expecting secretary of defense hegseth to have a news conference, and we will go to that. first, cedric, alvin, texas, democrat. caller: good morning. my heart goes out to the people with the accident that just happened. i'm really sorry about that. i would like to touch on the gentleman you had on before. c-span probably got this history , people have selective memory, and michelle obama was trying to

incorporate sugary drinks for kids and lunch and all of that. and after the trump administration took over, donald trump scrubbed all of that, so what i tried to understand is yc trying to bring it back now with somebody else's idea, c-span should have the history of all of that. and, also, i wanted to say about them putting stuff on your medical record, they changed the code and what i did, i had to contact the insurance company and tell them that they did

that, and then insurance did not pay the doctors office, and then the doctor's office got mad and dropped me as one of their clients. host: here is donald, missouri, republican. caller: hello, i was hanging on the line and wanted to talk to brian, but let me say something about that helicopter and plane crash. i wish the news media would look up and report to us who the pilot of the helicopter was in the circumstances and the authorization to fly that. anyway, what i was going to say to dr. brian was i think the government is still time two out and threw the wool over the american people's eyes about this dangerous stuff that they are putting in our food.

the european union does not include all of these things in our food, high fructose -- host: corn syrup. caller: hydrogenated items, anything that makes the food addicting. by its taste. i was disappointed in rfk junior's answer yesterday, i was listening to him, and i thought he was in there, and he would take on his -- take out these additives that is causing us to be obese, and he said, i still support anybody who would like to either greasy hamburger. fine, that is great, but that is like saying well, i know that a lot of people like it and all, so we are just going to sprinkle it on.

and just buy all the fentanyl you would like. the working-class people cannot just go and hire a dietitian and review all their food and have their own chef, working-class people have to go to the grocery store, which they can hardly afford anymore, and get what they can get. that stuff just needs to be taken out of our food. host: got your point. mason, tennessee, independent, good morning. caller: hey, thank you for taking my call. i would like to touch on the immigration topic. an article came out yesterday, and it was widely reported that donald trump has deportations and 600,000 venezuelans under

manley the temporary protected status for asylum. and i wanted to touch on that. you have a lot of friends who are here legally and that basically i don't understand it because people have authoritarian governments, we should not only invite them but welcome them because they would like to contribute, and they are fleeing political persecution, so thank you. host: david, louisiana, independent. caller: good morning, miss mimi. thank you. we had a newspaper article printed and it is on the l.a. illuminator and l.a. illuminator

and they had an editor-in-chief named greg larose, and he went to l.a. illuminator and they had to cut them for some reason. i did not even know who it was, but we had this noise pollution, and it is what our local government has done out here in my neighborhood and what they have done to us, and if you would like to see the picture, you can look it up on l.a. illuminator. host: got it. here is brenda, new jersey,, got. -- good morning. caller: i'm just calling to let

you know that i'm very, very sad of being a democrat to the fact that things have gone so good with president trump, the things he's doing for america, and i'm thinking of switching over to becoming a republican. things you have to change in america, things have gotten so bad, when the other president was in office, and now that president trump is doing, it's like so different, and that is my say-so. host: mike, republican, north carolina. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. first, i would like to see that my prayers are going out to the people in the crash. and, mimi, i don't know, maybe how you were brought up, but

when i was coming up, he looked on sugar and it said sugarcane, sugar and now it says granulated, process sugar, what that is is beet sugar, so we are not really eating the same things that we did when i grew up. there is so much high fructose corn syrup. anyway, one thing i would like to say is i would like to see more democrat calls. you know, i would like to see like five more democrat calls to republican calls. host: why is that? caller: well, i did not know how stupid i was or how much of a nazi i was until the democrats. host: going back to your original point of food, sugar and things like that, what do you think is the solution because you have one side

that says, educate people and they will make the right choices and others would like regulation, where you tell the food industry you can do this, you cannot put that in our food, etc., what do you think of that. caller: go back to the 1970's, people had coca-cola, they had sugar snacks all the time, but you did not see the obesity, like you are seen today, so there has got to be a connection with food, and, yeah, the food manufacturers, they need to be going over it and told, you cannot do this. i mean, if you may be or somebody else tampered with someone else's food, that is illegal. you cannot do that. host: got it. here is bonnie, florida. caller: i have three points,

number one, on the rudest of the all the political bouvier dean, and it is the amount of time given for the answer, so that someone cannot sit there and go on and on and then demand, yes or no and not allow the person to answer. equal time question and answer, i hope some congresspeople are listening to you right now. another thing is about the red dye, i think it is in tongues, and it takes a while to stop it. i understand that, but there may be some way they could have those products out at the same time and if someone wanted to pay a little more, and that might solve that, especially when it is in medical thing, and

now i think there is read dye, someone could check on that. point number three, i knew people who vacationed in italy and said they could eat anything they wanted, and they felt wonderful, with eczema and various stomach problems, so there is a difference in food. thank you. host: rick, new york, independent. caller: hi, thank you for taking my call. i would like to state something about senate confirmations, trump has clearly given the people who are getting confirmed or questioned to say whatever they feel the senate would like to hear, and they go completely against what they said the last five or 10 years on a topic just so they can parse it in a way

that they know people are going to read it, and they when they get in, they are not going to pay attention to what they say and it won't matter anymore. that is every single person who has been on the confirmation, they are saying things they believe people would like to hear, the senate, and it encounters everything they have said for almost a decade, so please keep that in mind when you hear continued confirmation, they are not telling the truth, thank you. host: here is brian, missouri, republican line. caller: good morning. what i would really wish is that the media would have the backbone to ask questions after the initial answers. they never follow-up with staff

that gets in the court of what the person was supposed to have answered. host: you are talking about in white, can you give an example? caller: every situation, whether it is hearing candidates, press corps, sure, it is easy to see i support the president or i would like to do what is right for the american people but it does not answer the question. one of the things that drove me the other way, we are going to open it up to every sort of media, and if you would like to apply whether you are on a podcast or website, you know but, yeah, you are not opening it up. trump is only going to allow people in, you are endorsing his

ideology. and the other thing is, why did somebody say you would like to make it look like you are inclusive and wide open, but we would rather hear from someone who has 500,000 persons platform then letting one of the media sources who tends to question you that goes out to 70 million people? they would like to look inclusive, but they are not, and so often in the hearings, these guys give soundbite answers, and i agree with the lady who just said, the guy he will give a 4.5 minute ramp, but it was just -- rant, but it was just to making a political speech. and they do that on both sides. the republicans would like to sit there, and then the democrat will sit there and bash the

guy, but if you are going to ask a 4.5 minute question, the guy should have 4.5 minutes. host: we do have confirmation hearing going on now for kash patel, nominee for fbi director, over on c-span3. we will also have it for you on our website. >> data special agent in charge of -- host: and this is bradley, michigan, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to complement the capitol police to continue to be brave and stand out from their peers that are not standing up and tell us what happened on january 6, and, also, the earlier guest davis, or whatever he was affiliated with, anyway,

he downplayed the january 6 violence, and it sort of brings me to my point of four years, they have gotten away with a lot of things that are questionable, they feel threatened from grabbing a candy bar to reaching for a cigarette, january 6, these cops were attacked with colds that had trump's banners and flags on it. what if they had withdrawn all these weapons, i would ask the rest of the country, how would you react to that? would you go back to police and stick to law and order? just asking the question, america. thank you. host: independent line, california, andy, you are next. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. the couple of issues. i have heard it a few times, and i don't think the american public is getting fooled at all. these kids are just giving answers, exactly what the senators would like to hear. are they under oath, niemi? i have not heard one that took an oath to swear to their answers, and i did not hear rfk junior, i did not hear hegseth. it is a joke. they just turned 180, and then one more thing. i find it quite ironic and hypocritical for these people not to let some of these people let immigrants in our country. they would like to shout, cry and moan about they are

criminals and rapists and everything. well, what i find hypocritical about that is the president gets -- just released 1500 criminals back into our society that basically defaced our capital. it was just disgusting. and i would like for people to ponder that, as well. you are not going to let people in who would like to work hard for their families. you don't have any problem with releasing these people back into society. you saw on tv with your own two eyes doing what they did. thank you. have a great day. host: william, tennessee, republican. caller: good morning. thank you. number one thing, thank god

donald trump became the president. the things we need to be discussing in congress, term limits. i think with the all republican house and senate, this country for the first time in 20 years will see numbers were past legislations and congresses and we have not been able to pass more than 20, 30 pieces of legislation. this country runs on curtailing and passing laws. it will be more effective to all americans. i think it is crazy that they are not talking about the bob menendez, who was sentenced for -- host: 11 years, he's no longer a senator. he is not a senator. caller: he has stepped down? host: yes, absolutely.

that was a while ago. caller: ok. host: and he was replaced temporarily. and then there was an election, and andy kim is now in his seat. caller: one thing i wanted to mention was yesterday, the white house correspondent kept trying to correlate with the white house representative that trump had changed his policy from violent criminal to who he was going around up first, rounding up people who were illegal immigrants. i don't understand why the national news media is listening to all the different services when they said that they are going to the most violent people first and nine times out of 10, those people that they are for, that are the biden criminals, they are just supposed to leave them there?

i don't understand why the national news is trying to propel that there is some change in method, rounding up illegal immigrants and putting them where they need to be and sending them back to where they belong. it is a crime, a federal crime. and we are no longer going to sit by and watch our country be infiltrated. this whole narrative that we are trying to hurt people with all they are trying to do in secure our borders and make our country more safer our citizens. host: independent line, pennsylvania, dave. caller: hi, first thing is, i wanted to call with brian blase. i totally disagree with his on

kennedy. and the thing of it is, this country, i agree with trump on some things, like the border because it needs to be taken care of. but, as far as congress and senate goes, kennedy is going to get pushed through because trump's minions in the senate are going to push them through. the man has no business in there. and all i can say is god bless trump. i totally disagree with him as a person. but he is the president of the united states, and to all the

self-proclaimed christians who voted him in, i love my god, and i'm praying to god that trump does the right thing, and that our congress and senate does the right thing. thank you. host: jeff, indiana, democrat. caller: good morning. as you said, i'm a democrat, but when i was watching the hearing yesterday, i'm appalled at the democrat representation displayed yesterday with the rudeness and unprofessionalism. the questions were not really questions, they were just points , trying to let the candidate or the person not get a chance to answer truthfully or honestly. basically, it was all political, political games, and that is

mentioned. it made me think of a documentary that is out on youtube, a documentary that summarizes the 90 minute film. one place in america that is called north putnam. and there are two youtube videos i would like your viewers to look at before they really decide their views about what happened yesterday. one is a 25 minute video that says the hopes and the struggles of america public schools, it is about 25 minutes long. it summarizes that even further with different views. this is not narrated, it is a professionally done documentary, and then ask yourself, who has done more for these people?

or the person that is trying to be in the health and services administration. host: paul, iowa, republican. caller: hi, 78% of the population voted for trump -- host: wait, you said 78%? caller: is it lower than that? of the population, you are talking about the popular book? popular vote came in at 49.5%. i have got to give you the correct number. caller: which is fine, thank you. you need to let trump shape thing -- shake things up, especially in the fbi and hhs, the hoover building needs to be

shaken up to. host: in what way? caller: they need to make sure those offices are running the right way and they are not prosecuting people because of their political views and we need a change in our government and country. that is why trump was voted in. host: just so you know, it is 49.9% of the popular vote, 77.3 million votes credited to president trump. that is what you were talking about, you thought it was 77%. big difference. here is a, california, democrat. -- here is ray, california, democrat. caller: good morning. i'm really disappointed at the way of musk and the trump

administration are going about trying to reduce government spending. it seems like they are depending on protests that actually individual people. in the meantime, the government is subsidizing large companies, they are subsidizing amazon drivers. it was billions of dollars for boeing, tesla even. tesla is giving all sorts of contracts or elon musk is getting all sorts of contracts and yet, they would like to trim what ordinary working people receive and i think that is

really unfair. and with topics for his cabinet, the president would be picking the best and the brightest to run our government, well, i don't understand why we would pick a secretary of defense who has so many tremendous problems. what are his triggers? if the job is stressful, will he begin drinking? it seems like he is just too risky, and then he puts other

people in place who do not know anything about the departments that they are going to be taking over. lastly, it is mind-boggling that a day before the inauguration when trump had this rally, he was declaring thanks to elon musk, and then went to pennsylvania for a month and nobody knew those voting machines like he did, and that is a very suspicious comment, and i would hope that this would be looked into. this is very important, i think because elon musk has a lot of technological knowledge that allows him to produce his own

rocket ships and go out to the international space station. host: we are running out of time. mike, independent, connecticut. caller: the largest cereal makers in the country publicly acknowledged that they contained genetically modified corn. in europe, they pledged customers not to use genetically modified ingredients. roundup, a pesticide in their products, then why does the united states allow this? it has been done for years and years, and cornflakes, rice crispies, you name it. i just wanted to mention that,

gmo's and all the serials, mainly the united states. they sell it in this country, but just to let you know that, in fact, the kellogg's corporation goes along and helps out the europeans were not americans. thank you. host: dylan, south dakota, republican. caller: yes. i'm 100% disabled veteran from vietnam and i don't think much of your new secretary for the army. she's actually too young and she's got a lot of garbage she's bringing with him. host: you mean secretary of defense pete hegseth. caller: yeah.