♪ host: this is washington journal. yesterday president trump

announced tariffs on mexico, canada and china. they would go in place today. officials give updates on the midair collision of the passenger jet and u.s. army helicopter that killed 67 people. also this week, several cabinet picks testified at senate confirmation hearings. those are a few stories that made headlines. to start we want to hear from you. what is your top news story of the week? republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text comments to (202) 748-8003. include your name and city. you can post a question or comment on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. or on x at @cspanwj.

good morning and thank you for being with us. we will get to the stories and others in this first hour. an update on a story that has been developing. the headline from the wall street journal. hamas says first captive -- american captive will be released. the article says the militant group would free 65-year-old israeli american keith siegel who was kidnapped from his home on october 23. he was taken with his wife, who was released in a previous cease-fire deal in november of 2023. siegel, born in north carolina, immigrated in his early 20's with his brother. he was last seen in a video released by hamas in april of 2024 in which he broke down in tears as he spoke describing how he found the protest calling for his release in tel aviv and

jerusalem encouraging. his release with lead to additional american hostages in gaza. one is a male civilian, another is an israeli soldier. the bodies of four dead american hostages remaining gaza. an update from nbc two hours ago saying siegel arrived in southern israel. that is according to the idf. he will undergo an initial medical assessment and reunite with members of his family. one of the senators from north carolina where he is originally from tweeted almost 4:30 this morning. "we are overjoyed for keith siegel and his loved ones that the long nightmare is finally over. keith is now reunited with his wife and family, for filling the

prayers of millions across united states and around the world." that is one of the news stories we have been following this week. news yesterday from president trump as he annoued tariffs going into place for mexico, canada, and china. this from this morning's washington post. saying he was speaking in the oval office. the president denied his enthusiasm for tariffs represented a negotiating device or he was seeking specific concessions from other countries. that was in response to a question if they may be would not be going into place. it was yesterday he oke with reporters and explained more about the tariffs. here's a clip from that oval office -- from the oval office. [video] >> i got elected for a lot of reasons.

number one was the border. number two was inflation. i had almost no inflation and i charged hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs to countries. i had almost no inflation and took in $600 billion in money from other countries. tariffs don't cause inflation. they cause success. they cause big success. there could be some temporary short-term disruption. people understand that. i negotiate a good deal for the farmers. those deals have been led astray by biden and his people because they did not enforce the deals. we had a deal with china but there was nobody to enforce it in the biden administration. they let them get away with murder. that is another thing we will be bringing. they committed to buying $50 billion worth of farm product and they did it when i was president.

when i left they stopped because there was no one to enforce it. the tariffs will make us very rich and very strong. we will treat other countries very fairly. if you think about it, other countries charge us tariffs. we don't charge them tariffs. it is about time that changes. host: for the first hour of today's program we are hearing from you, your top news story of the week. marilyn in tennessee on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i want to say my prayers to all those people. i want to make one point. arkansas, oregon, alaska, mississippi, louisiana, missouri. it is horrible. south carolina. those are all republican states with the highest crime rates. in tennessee, they are cooking

meth in their backyards. then we have mexico, colorado, washington and california. four democrat run states. tell me the worst states. as far as senators and congressmen, mr. greene, black, bill hagerty should be paying attention to their states and not two satans, which is donald trump. that is all i have to say. have a blessed day. host: dave in new orleans, the line for independents. caller: i have a story i heard from my buddy the other day. he said the d.e.i. issue, i'm not prejudiced but a lot of white women are being laid off and the black people were thinking a lot of the dei issues

was to get rid of us. we are not that large of a population in the united states. a lot of the dei is caucasian. ken washington journal do a show on dei? have the dei people call in? thank you. host: mark in milwaukee, the line for democrats. caller: good morning. my main concern is the division between the parties and fake news. it seems that each party has their own news sources and the bottom line for me is i am trying not to look at my republican friends as being a moral. -- immoral. it is hard to do that when you have a president that doesn't

really care about anybody but himself. the policies that they voted for are only going to hurt the entire population. thank you. host: we will go to trent in louisiana on the line for independents. caller: i'm just overwhelmed by the full-spectrum dominance that trump is taking in the country. re: melbourne -- ari melbourne on msnbc said the only way to describe what is going on is so-called idiotocracy how a man with the 56 iq has the highest iq in the country and the average iq was about 22. that is the view of the left towards the traditionalist populist nationalist theocratic

movement that is occurring. they don't seem to understand what is going on. middle america has decided that you push us around too far and we will leave scorched-earth. i want to speak in the spirit and say [speaking another thing language] host: that was trent. frank in georgia on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i would like to thank the universe for c-span. if you want a news network.

the biggest story of the week is the president's plan to dismantle the premier law enforcement organization in the world, the fbi. they have already fired the top leaders. they are going to start investigating thousands of agents who were involved in cases against trump. we are clearly headed to the government of men and set of laws. we had a government of laws. now we are going to have a government of men. one man namely. as for the -- one additional thing i would like to say. the family of one of the pilots of the black hawk helicopter that crashed, it was a woman

pilot. she was killed. they asked not to release her name. the reason they did not want her name released is because of trump's remarks about dei. this tragedy on the potomac river being caused by dei incompetence. they knew if her name was released, she would be attacked by trump supporters simply because she was a woman. thank you very much. host: that was frank in georgia. frank talking about the firings at the doj and fbi. the trump administration on friday fired a group of prosecutors involved in the january 6 criminal cases and demanded the names of fbi agents involved in the same probes so they can be ousted. moves that reflect a white house determined to exert control.

apologies for the ad popping up -- purge agencies of career employees seen as insufficiently loyal. acting deputy attorney general amil bove ordered the firings of the prosecutors days after donald trump's sweeping clemency actions benefiting 1500 people charged in the was capital attack according to a memo -- u.s. capitol attack according to a memo obtained by the associated press. ray in tennessee on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. first of all, i would like to say to all these no-trumpers and the people that are paranoid, get over it. he is the president. the majority rules. we won the election. he's going to be a president. he's going to straighten this country out. you look back at what biden did

to this country and you are going to say you want more of that? four more years of biden we wouldn't even have a country. as far as this dei and all this crazy stuff, yeah, it is going out. nobody wants it. you will have to suck it up and act like -- we are all americans in this together. thanks. host: ray in tennessee. daniel in indiana on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. my top news story of the week is one that has not been told from what i have seen in the national media. our president -- our hearts pour out for those who were tragically lost in the airplane accident.

my top story of the week is the rising cases in our region of the flu, covid, and rsv. it is sad to see so many people going through it. one lady i know, her entire household is sick with it. there is a chance there may be organ failure related to covid. that is a pretty big story with those rising cases. everybody take care of yourself. wash your hands and do the things you're supposed to do and have a wonderful begin. host: that was daniel in indiana. danny in -- annie in north carolina on the line for democrats. caller: i'm calling about the washington post referring to the department of treasury where it said in the article that doge, elon musk, one of his workers

went into the department of treasury and demanded paperwork concerning medicaid, medicare. the government payroll, the spending cuts and everything. the gentleman refused to give him the paperwork. the gentleman resigned before he gave the paperwork to doge, elon musk's worker. i would like to talk about the washington post and this article. thank you. host: let's go to kelly in denison, ohio. the line for republicans. caller: good morning, tammy. mi only the second republican caller this morning? that is not my point.

i want to say something about the hostages that were coming back from gaza thursday. there has been no news coverage of that. i would like to bring up the the confirmations -- bring up the confirmations for tulsi and kash. they made such a big deal of eric snowden and julian assange was never brought up. these politicians i consider him a traitor. he exposed our government. why don't they bring up things about that they were exposed on? these are the things that trump is going to take care of. i want to say on a future call in show about my stepbrother who was killed by our federal government. if you want to hear about it, i will explain it now if you want me to. host: there are a lot of people

on the line. scott in new york on the line for independents. caller: good morning. i want to say these people that say there was a mandate, one third of the population did not vote. a third of the people voted for trump. a third of the people did not been for trump and a third of the people did not vote because we don't really care about the people in charge. i feel we are at the most dangerous point with terrorism before 9/11. president bush -- trump, for weeks before he stepped in the office said, "if you do not release all of the hostages by the time i am in office, i will release hell on the middle east." well, we got three ladies that were let go for 90 terrorists. all the hostages are not released. the terrorists look like they

have not been hurt because they have their black tights and machine guns over there looking strong. by us not doing nothing when we threatened them tells them we are weak. we need to quit rattling the cage, quit running her mouth's -- our mouths, donald trump, and god bless us all because we are in this together. have a great month. host: that was scott in new york. new information has been coming out the past few days about that air collision. from the washington post. "d.c. fire official said friday they had recovered the remains of 41 victims. a crane arrived at the site to let the black hawk from the water. authorities say they think most or all of the victims remains that are still missing or

stolen said the jetliner's fuselage which is broken in three pieces and settled upside out and relatively shallow water. when asked how long it will take to get the fuselage out, they said they are working as fast as they can but they were not going to get it a timeline. they would be careful and make sure they don't hurt anyone else." the ntsb updated the media on the state of the investigation. peer is a clip from that. [video] >> regarding the see rj's cockpit --crj's cockpit voice recorder. it had water intrusion. that is not uncommon. it is not an unusual event for us to receive a recorder with water intrusion. we deal with that all the time. our recorders division is one of the best in the country. in the

world actually. there is a step. the cvr was soaked in ionized water, at which point the team put the cvr into a vacuum oven to abstract moisture. they ready to try download. it is one step of many steps we will take in order to get that data. we have a very high level of confidence we will have it. we just have to work through a number of steps. lastly on recorders, the sikorsky where the crj, a combined voice recorder and digital flight data recorder in one box. we have recovered the sikorsky black box.

it is safely at the ntsb headquarters. we will begin an evaluation as the other two recorders did last night to determine when and how to take action. i can't tell you from a visual inspection -- i can tell you from a visual inspection we sign a damage to indicate it was compromised at this time. we have a high level of confidence we will be able to have a full extraction from that as well. host: back to your calls. hearing your top new story of the week. bruce in winter haven, florida. the line for democrats. caller: how are you? i just want to make a couple of points. one of the callers that called a few minutes ago about elon musk wants to access the treasury system with the money and everything. i think that the democrats and

republicans, all the elected officials need to come together and stress how serious this is. he's accessing people's financial information and at the treasury department. i think c-span and other news media needs to pick up on this. this is treason against the country and trump does not realize how serious this is. it's an abomination against the whole country and the world, because of elon musk gets access to the treasury department, the money system, this will be the biggest bank robbery in u.s. history.

it is awful to see what is going on. i am a democrat but i love this country. i just don't like what is going on right now, because we are all in this together. we will all be affected by this. the democrats and republicans, they really need to come together and find some kind of way to remove these people. these are very evil people we are dealing with right now. host: that was keith. calvin in circleville, ohio. the line for republicans. caller: i have been watching the confirmation hearings. you can see the democratic party is so corrupt. there should be a complete investigation of the party. not just adam schiff. not schumer. the whole party is so corrupt. that is what biden -- why biden

pardoned all these people. they left the country in ruins with how many illegals -- i see the highway patrol in texas. i have a lot of time. this gentleman was transporting a lincoln town car limousine in between were the smuggled illegals. same thing in florida. the country -- biden left this country in such a mess. you can see it in trump's actions. he is so frustrated with the country is headed. there should be a complete investigation of what happened to the democratic party. this party as i was a terrorist organization. think of all the damage they have done to this nation.

i thank you for your time. host: talib in maryland on the line for independents. caller: back in the 1950's, my parents told me you had to be twice as good as the white man to make it. you have to go up against all the white supremacy and all the things they have to keep you out. white males have had 406 years of affirmative action. over 150 years of legacy for mediocre white males. i know this because i went to college and grad school all over the country. donald trump did not even take the sat, according to his knees, not me. -- niece, not me.

he got into fordham. then the university of penn because of somebody his brother knew the admissions office. legacy admissions. donald trump is a career criminal. if you get 3 million so-called illegals and interview them, none of them would touch the crimes he has committed. a serial rapist. and educated sex abuser. bayfront -- adjudicated sex abuser. a fraudster. a convicted villain. this man is a criminal. plus, by native american relatives never should have let you come to this country. who committed all these genocides against my native american relatives?

my african relatives who were enslaved? sex trafficking. jim crow was state-sponsored white terrorism. that went on for almost 150 years. i had several relatives who were law enforcement officers during reconstruction. one was assassinated. he was a trial justice. the other one, attempted assassination in 1876. he testified in a congressional hearing. there's a long history of law enforcement in my family. even up to this day. when i look at donald trump and i see people say this. he should have been tried for negligent homicide for the forced 450,000 people who died -- first 450,000 people to die during covid. p said covid was what? -- he

said covid was what? a democratic hoax. one of my sister-in-laws died from covid. host: we will go to veronica in fredericksburg, virginia. the line for democrats. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i was calling to ask the republicans -- i'm calling is a democrat -- when they are stating that biden left the country in a mess, what do they mean by that? what is the mess? the economy was turning around. i would ask them to do their research. when they talk about dei and they say that needs to go away, why did they -- why don't they use their intelligence or google or the internet and research what dei really means? who it affects?

fluid benefits? -- who it benefits and realize everyone will be affected by the removal of dei? i was going to speak about work but i forgot the point i was going to make. thank you for your time and i enjoy your show. host: a couple of callers breaking up the treasury department in this article from the washington post. senior u.s. official exits after riff with musk allies overpayment system. the highest making career official at the treasury department left the agency after a class with allies of billionaire elon musk over access to sensitive payment systems. according to three people with knowledge of the matter, it says that david lebryk announced his retirement on friday and email to colleagues obtained by the washington post. president trump named him acting

director when taking office last week. lebryk had a dispute with musk surrogates over a system used to disperse trillions of dollars every year. the exact nature of the disagreement was not immediately clear. just about 30 minutes left in this first hour of washington journal asking what your top news story of the week is. bob in massachusetts on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. um, i would like to say thank god those illegal immigrants attack democrats. my point is i wish they could have gotten yesterday. that's got -- i could have got in yesterday. you had a scientist talking about covid. he never brought up that there were reports -- i'm sorry -- 100

million people have irreparable disease from the covid vaccinations in america. that's nice. i would like to know if you know about a thing called -- google made a computer chip called willow they can do computer computations that would take 20 4 zero's. you want to be worried about what google is making. have a good day. host: mustafa in michigan on the line for independents. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. my top news story is black americans who are black americans and friedman whose ancestors built this country escaping the democratic plantation. as a proud u.s. army veteran and black american, because of

cultural conditioning and indoctrination i have historically voted for democrats. well, i finally have broken the chain and i will never vote for the democrats because they neglect towards the black american community. [indiscernible] i will also not vote for the antiblack republic clan party. i will support a party based on policies i feel affect my family and foundational black american communities. three issues if he would allow me. cast reparations for black americans. antiblack american hate crime bills stopping and deporting the harris-biden illegal economic aliens. illegal immigration is genocide for the foundational black american community.

lastly, i would implore you and your listeners to please stop referring to foundational black americans as african-americans. it helps create ethnocide. some black people were here prior to slavery. furthermore, cath no genesis has taken place with us -- ethno genesis has taken place with us. host: this headline from the washington post as hhs pick revises his ethics form. democrats call for a delay. it was robert f. kennedy, jr. who was one of the -- one of several cabinet tics testifying this week. the article says that senate democrats on friday called to slow the confirmation process for robert f. kennedy, jr. who

is seeking to become the nation's's top health official after his ethics f -- he said he would amend his ethics form for questions on a potential conflict of interest. it centers on questions about kennedy's financial stake in litigation against the manufacturer of a vaccine that protects against the human papilloma virus, hpv. kennedy played a key role in ongoing litigation. saying that merck -- it can prevent cervical cancer and dismissed the allegation as baseless. kennedy on friday said he was having to modify his ethical disclosures to the senate and divest his financial stake in the case. senators say they had not received kennedy's amended form

and asked for additional time to consider his nomination, saying the new statements raised more questions about his potential conflicts of interest. robert f. kennedy, jr. set for two senate confirmation hearings this week. during one of them on wednesday, the senate finance committee confirmation hearing, it was senator michael bennet of colorado who question him on his previous statements and views on health issues. [video] >> 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 an nih published study. >> did you say it targets black and white people but spared ashkenazi jews? >> i quoted an nih study.

>> i will take that as a yes. i have to move on. did you say that lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon? i made sure i put in the highly likely. did you say lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon? >> i probably did say that. >> i went our colleagues to hear, mr. kennedy. you said yes. did you say exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender? >> i never said that. >> i have the record i will give to the chairman and he can make his judgment about what you said. did you write in your book, "it is undeniable that african aids is an entirely different disease from western aids. yes or no?

i will give to the chairman. my final question. did you say on a podcast, and i quote, "i would not leave abortion to the states. my belief is we should leave it to the woman. we should not have the government involved, even if it is full-term." did you say that? >> i believe every abortion is a tragedy. >> did you say it? this matters! it doesn't matter what you come here and say that isn't true, that is not reflective of what you really believe, that you have not said over a decade after decade. unlike other jobs we are confirming, this is a job where it is life-and-death for the kids 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 cannot deliver basic health care and basic mental health to them.

it is too important for the games you are playing, mr. kennedy. i hope my colleagues will say to the president, i have no influence, i hope my colleagues will say out of 330 million americans we can do better than this. host: back to your calls. brenda in south carolina on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. the biggest story -- the stories you talked about. the treasury, and the dismantling of the fbi. they are using january 6 but they are going after people who are in charge of terrorism units, cybersecurity, forensics, investigator units. if we lose that $6 trillion from the treasury to investigate where it went, elon musk has the cryptocurrency. also trump has a cryptocurrency.

once you transfer money into that crypto market, it disappears. i believe they are trying to take this country apart from the inside. this will crash the economy. they control social security, medicaid, medicare, everything. we are in trouble. thank you. host: that was brenda. sheila in henderson, nevada. the line for republicans. caller: good morning, angel. i appreciate your show very much. everyday i try to watch it all to make sure i get up. there is no problem because y'all are on tv. thank you. i'm also calling in reference to my top story this week. the confirmation in the senate for all the people that are running for different offices for our government. which is the american people.

the american voters have spoken. they want change. everyone that is involved in the government should be on a payroll that each individual and the american -- in the american country gets the same amount of pay. defeats gives the same amount of pay the people in the government, the people sitting at the offices in the senate and the house, they would speak a little bit more respectable. they are not showing any of these children that are trying to watch these programs any respect. these people are voted into office. they are making extra money off all these different organizations. they say they are not doing criminal things. yes. the house and the senate are doing criminal activities.

i appreciate your show. i hope everyone remembers that whenever a person gets a blood transfusion, we don't ask them is this blood going to be from this person or this person or this person. we are all americans. we all donate blood to each other. be respectful. rest and relax and have a great new year. thank you. host: that was sheila in nevada. sandra in spring lake, north carolina. the line for independents. caller: i would like to point out that donald trump only secured 49.8% of the vote. kamala got 48.3%. that is hardly a mandate. it was literally only 1% of the popular vote. i want to point that out to everyone. second, i'm responding to a

gentleman that called a bit ago and was saying that everyone is upset about ai. we should be looking at google. that guy should be looking at the google ceo that was on the inauguration stage behind trump. he should look at that. that is a lie have to say. thank you -- that is all i have to say. host: tyrone on the new york line for democrats. caller: thanks for taking my call. happy black history month for all the so-called black people out there. i want to say the billionaire club, the two billionaire boys that have gotten together to fight back against an entity they believe -- the only entity that can stop them from decapitating our government is the united states government. we are united states citizens. these people at the head of our

government are looking to make things easier for them. if they can destroy -- what i know a lot of people in this country want to see this government destroyed. how united states government destroyed. they think that would be a good thing for all of us. it will not. all of us don't have armed guards and gated communities and live with security around us 24 hours. these people have that. if we live in a community we are going to need protection from our government, our police, our law enforcement, we better wake up and realize these people are looking up for what is best for them. if the majority of us understand that we don't have the money to pay for the protections that they have and if they dismantle the fbi, the law enforcement agencies in this country, you are ok with this -- these people

attacking the capitol police. that is your problem. it makes it our problem when you notice these are the same people we need to protect us from, the terrorists as y'all say. the people looking to do was harm you will blame -- do us harm. you better make up, people and realize we are not helping ourselves by allowing this man to run roughshod over us and our country. dismantling the aviation security. the aviation protection. we got two planes that crashed. these people are dead and this man throws the rock and hides in the sand and blames somebody else. dei. wake up and realize this man don't mean us no good and is destroying our country. host: jimmy in marysville,

tennessee. the line for independents. caller: how are you? host: doing well, jimmy. caller: i'm calling about letting the american people know america is not safe anymore. we don't have no guard rails against trump. he can do whatever he wants. we are probably heading down the road to another terrorist attack in this country. it might be from foreign. it will probably be from domestic. a lot of people need to wake up and realize we are in bad shape right now. he has fired all the fbi agents. he has fired everybody that he can think of in the federal government. the elaine thing i have to say -- the only thing i have to say is we need to pray to god that

everything turns out all right. bye. host: that was jimmy in tennessee. another story making headlines this week. blocking trump's spending freeze. a federal judge blocked the trump administration from temporarily freezing federal spending, saying the white house withdrawal of a policy memo on the issue was not enough. u.s. district judge john mcconnell junior and rhode island granted a request by 22 states and the district of columbia for a temporary restraining order that says the administration can't pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel or terminate its federal financial assistance obligations to the state. jay goes on to say at issue was a -- it goes on to say at issue was a memo instructing federal agencies to pause funding while it assess whether federal programs complied with

trump's executive orders cracking down on foreign aid, diversity initiatives, and green energy projects. a little over 10 minutes left in the first hour asking your top new story of the week. john in orlando, florida. the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i'm upset. i listen to a lot of ignorant people making comments. this racist thing. this has gotten so bad. this has been since obama. this is what the democrats do. they divide this country into believing -- i'm sick of it. here is the thing. the democratic party, which i was a part of until after obama. i am a republican. they are the most corrupt, the most immoral people you could ever imagine. watching these committee hearings, the attacks, the

personal attacks most of the democrats -- they are on the take with big pharma and all these other corporations and industry. it is disgusting to see them morally attack these candidates that were very much their friends most of the time. i'm out of breath because i'm so angry that people are so ignorant about donald trump. thank you very much. i'm not even going to comment anymore. a lot of ignorance about this racist stuff with donald trump is ridiculous. have a nice day. host: let's hear from charlie in washington on the line for independents. caller: my top story is the plane crash. yesterday i talked to an old friend of mine who is a retired marine corps helicopter pilot. i asked about it because i had

read the reason the helicopter crashed into the plane was because it was flying above its 200 foot flight ceiling. i read that might have been because of winds or jet exhaust vortexes forcing them higher. my friend said no. it is child's play to fly a blackhawk at 200 feet. the crash occurred at 300 to 350 feet. my point here is that with all the various factors being talked about, the real factor here is why was that helicopter flying so high? this is not the first time this has happened from that national guard base and that airport. this points to a lack of discipline and training at the national guard base.

67 americans are dead because of it. i really hope this will be investigated at that -- that will be the main point. everything else comes out around it. thank you very much. host: charlie talking about the plane crash. another caller today mentioned a second plane crash from the associated press. a medical plane carrying a child patient and five others crashed in philadelphia, setting homes ablaze. the article says a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and for others aboard crashed in philadelphia shortly after takeoff friday evening, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. jet rescue air england -- ambulance said we cannot confirm any survivors.

there was no immediate word on whether anyone on the ground was killed. all six people aboard were from mexico. the child had just been treated in philadelphia for a life-threatening condition and was being transported home according to jet rescue spokesperson shy gold. the destination was tijuana after a stop in missouri. back to your calls. dale in birmingham, alabama. the line for democrats. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i, along with the people of the world should be very -- i'm overwhelmed about the plane crash and those young people losing their lives along with their parents. i'm not calling as a democrat, republican or independent. i wish all of us would lay down our political influence and come together as one.

we have a lot to worry about. you read about the elon musk and his -- the people asking about our personal information, about the treasury department. that should be a red flag to everybody. if you start messing with everybody's medicare payment and medicaid and the treasury department material, i think the call from washington said it best. let's all stop thinking about whether or not we are -- our party affiliation. i have some good republican friends. everybody is not the same. if you are wrong, you're wrong. i don't care who you are. i voted for president obama. if he said something wrong i would've spoke out against him.

i don't have to agree with you just because i am a republican. let's stop thinking like that and think about what is right. one caller mentioned the democrats grilling the people. they are grilling the people based on what the people have said. they are just getting them to see if they changed their mind or what they were talking about. like robert kennedy junior saying terrible things in the past. all they are doing is making him say it to the american people. if that she was on the other foot and the republicans was doing the democrats, i don't hear them calling and saying they are asking hard questions. let's take our political hat off and come together and love everybody. we don't know who those people

-- divers are going into the water to retrieve bodies. they are not asking if they are white people or black people. they are doing it because they care. that is because that is their job. all these thousands and thousands of fbi agent being fired, come on. when we get to the bottom of it, the tsa agents, all of them being fired, they are traffic controllers being fired. these are experienced people. and you put in people they don't know what they are doing. i am sad to say but i would not it on a plane right now, because you just don't know who was behind that plane. who is the air traffic controller. if you are putting people there, inexperienced people, you don't know how this world -- what is going to happen.

please come together, everybody. stop hating. i'm just out there and i for everybody. i'm not just for the democrats. i for everybody. my fellow man, whether you are black or white, i will be there for them. i'm not asking if you are a republican. host: that was dale in alabama. c-span has been airing all the confirmation hearings. if you want to go back and find them, you can find them all on our website, c-span.org. jack in scranton, pennsylvania. the line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say john from florida, you pretty much stole my thunder. i would like to say for all the left-wing democratic party with their beliefs, i don't know what

they are thinking. it is completely asinine the way they think against trump. trump isn't the most perfect guy but he's better than what we had. our past four years, everybody should bury their head in the sand if they believe joe biden did well and kamala harris was going to take this country into a better level than what we are going to be taking with donald trump. just my two cents. host: that was jack in pennsylvania. the last call for the first hour, we will be going to open form and abou -- at about 9:30. next on washington journal, wall street journal immigration policy reporter michelle hackman

joins us to discuss efforts -- the latest on the trump administration's mass deportation efforts. later, michael shifter, senior fellow at the inter-american dialogue will discuss secretary of state marco rubio's trip to central america and the future of u.s.-latin american policy under the trump administration. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story.

the military commissioning ceremony for harriet tubman given posthumously by the maryland national guard. marilyn governor wes moore spoke of the event. looking back at the career and legacy of kentucky senator mitch mcconnell who stepped down as leader at the end of the 118th congress. he's the author of a new by biography of senator mcconnell called "the price of power." this week we focus on the early months of president george washington's first term in 1789, including the astonishment of the office of the president, the formation of a cabinet, the first judicial appointments. on lectures in history, college of william and mary lecturer amy stallings discusses the history of the 1607 jamestownettlement and efforts over the centuries to preserve and remember the first permanent english settlement in the americas.

exploring the american story. watch american history tv every weekend on c-span2. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime ac-span.org/history. -- >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, charles marino argues that 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. eastern, co-lead shade, author of y2k, talks about how cultural innovations of the early 2000's impacted the present and future. then at 10:00 eastern, eva dou

shares her book, house of huawei. whh shares how huaweiecame china's most powerful company and what it means for their competitors. she is joined by adam siegel. -- segal. watch book tv every sunday. >> in his latest book, titled waste land, author robert kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future. he holds a chair in geopolitics at the foreign policy institute. in chapter number three of his 177 page book, chaplain claims civilization is now in flux. the ongoing decay of the west is manifested not only in racial tensions, coupled with new

barriers to free speech, but in the deterioration of dress codes, erosion of grammar and the 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, waste land, a world in permanent crisis with brian lamb. book notes plus is available on the c-span app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us to discuss the trump administrations mass deportation efforts is michelle hackman. she's an immigration policy reporter with the wall street journal. welcome back to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: we will start with one of your headlines, trump ramps up deportation efforts after slow start. tell us when the deportation

efforts started and what they look like right now. guest: we wrote that story because a few days before trump took office, we caught wind that they were planning a mass raid of chicago, basically. the tuesday after he took office. and we reported it and by reporting it, i think they actually temporarily called it off. those first few days, we were tracking their efforts. they were blasting out press releases and videos, showing deportations. by all accounts, those seemed pretty routine. they seemed like business as usual for the biden levels of deportations, the types of people being deported. last weekend, we suddenly noticed this uptick in them sort of trying to bring up their numbers and arrest more people per day. host: when we talk about who they are focusing on, explain

who that is, what's the priority for them? guest: it's a really interesting question, tammy, because that question has shifted over time. when trump was a candidate, he would say i want to deport everybody. i want to go after 15 million people. it's not clear if there are 15 million people who are eligible deportation in the country. after he won, we saw trump and his advisors narrow that group. that came out of recognition that what he was promising was sort of not practically possible. he said we will go after people with criminal histories. ice once estimated that there are approximately 700,000 immigrants here illegally who have some kind of criminal record. that i think seemed like a more manageable size of a population to them. it is what we see them prioritizing. it does not mean they are only

going for criminals. they are arresting other people too. and i think that is in part because they want to drive up their numbers. host: and how are they finding the undocumented immigrants that they are apprehending or are at least talking with? guest: yeah, so when uci's go out and -- you see ice go out and do an arrest, they are working on a target list that they have developed over time. they are using intelligence and other factors. these are people they have prioritized for deportation, typically people with some kind of criminal record or sometimes people who have received a final order of deportation from a judge. and so, typically, the way ice works is it creates those lists. these are not precise numbers. let's say they have a list of 2000 people in chicago for an

operation. they will try to hit as many of those people as they can. the thing about those lists is that, especially people who have more serious criminal histories, they are typically not the easiest people to get. they know the drill with police. they know how to evade ice arrests and it is easier to arrest somebody with no criminal history whatsoever who may not know that you don't need to open your door for an ice officer to avoid arrest. host: our guest, michelle hackman, is an immigration reporter with the wall street journal. if you have a question or comment, you can start calling now. the lines from republicans is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. michelle, you mentioned chicago a couple of times. already, when we look at who is actually carrying out these ice

raids and the deportation efforts, explain the role of the federal government versus state and local officials. guest: primary authority for arresting and deporting immigrants false to ice, immigrations and customs enforcement. they only have 6000 officers for the whole country. the trump administration, because it is their goal to deport as many people as possible, they have deputized a sort of unbelievable number of other federal, state and local agencies. they have recruited fbi agents, dea agents. they have brought people in from secret service across dhs. they have also said if you are a state or local law enforcement official, we will give you arresting authority to help us out. we have not seen that happen in any kind of large-scale way, yet. we could see the state of texas

has the department of public safety and officers around the state border. we could see them carrying out arrests. we could see the state of oklahoma, who said they would cooperate by turning over the immigration status of children in their public schools. i think we will see an unprecedented level of that type of cooperation, particularly in red states, cities and counties. host: you have said the trump administration has been trying to increase the number of deportations, apprehensions. we know how many arrests have been made? guest: we have been coming up with a daily tally. i think it is a little over 5000 or 6000 at this point. the point i want to emphasize to listeners or to viewers here is that an arrest of an immigrant living here illegally is not 1:1 with a deportation. often times, ice will arrest

someone and for various reasons realize they have to release them. a common reason is they will arrest someone and say oh my gosh, your country is just not taking any deportees right now so, there's no point in us detaining you when we have such limited space so we are going to release you. and you are on bond for now but we will come get you at some point. host: we have callers waiting to talk with you. we will start with steve in florida on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have two points. number one, we have had open borders for the last 40 years. ever since the 1980's, when they started working in construction. and they have sort of gone through the immigration cycle and established themselves and had open businesses.

i've worked with a lot of people coming up from the mexican border and they are just like everybody else. the fact this began with the biden administration is laughable. they brought them in originally for the sole purpose of undermining prevailing wage. the second point i have is we need people here to work. we need people here to build houses. we need people here to provide long-term care, which the population we have now trying to get people to work in these industries is woefully inadequate. we are paying well over $2000 a month for rent. and well over 400 -- $400,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bedroom two bedroom, 2000 square-foot house. i think these new border

policies are the exact opposite of what we need. guest: thanks so much, steve. you raise a lot of interesting points and it's probably impossible to address them all. for better or worse, what's happened over the last four years feels a little different. we have had illegal immigration or whatever you would like to call it coming from mexico for as long as america has been a country. in the 1950's, we had -- this is an issue that goes back more than 100 years. what happened in the last four years that feels different to me, i won't say it is better or worse, is that typically, when you think of a really typical undocumented immigrant, you are thinking of somebody who sneaks across the board and goes unnoticed and does not have any papers whatsoever and gets a job

. -- job under the table. recently, what we have seen is people asking for asylum, putting themselves in the system and getting a government work permit that gives them a social security number and allows them to integrate into the regular economy. i think for those people, it's better in the sense that they are avoiding sort of some of the abuses that come with working under the table. but, it's different in the sense that they have been factored into the economy in a different way. a lot of people would say it is more of a draw because it facilitates their lives. host: let's hear from michael in massachusetts, line from republicans. good morning, michael. caller: yes. my question is the 1.3 million or approximate number of illegals cases who have been adjudicated, why have they not

been removed from the country at a faster rate? thank you. guest: that's a really good question. it comes down to a philosophical debate, michael. where people with final orders of approval. the big answer is that, as i said, we have 6000 people working in the entire section of ice that is responsible for arrest, detention and removal. that's a small number of people. congress never felt inclined to hire a significantly higher number of people. it is an issue of prioritization. people have treated it in different ways. past administrations, particularly under obama, they prioritized deporting as many people as possible through jails. that's how they ended up deporting so many people, actually. hunter biden, they decided -- under biden, they decided we

don't want to pin somebody's life if they have mitigating factors. if they have children or have lived there 20 or 30 years. they didn't want to collect resources into deporting those people. that is a philosophical difference. i think the other big friends is -- big difference is we think of people having their cases fully adjudicated. in the meantime, let's say they have married a u.s. citizen or have gotten some kind of job or their employee is able to sponsor them, on one hand, they have this order of removal on their case but they have a pending green card. from administration to administration, it changes whether you try to deport that person in the meantime or not. trump is still going after people who have pending green card cases because they have a removal order. biden would say that's a waste of time. we are just going to have to bring them back so why go after them at all? host: it's not your outlet but

this morning's new york times has the headline and, to your earlier point, deportations only work if countries agree to take citizens back. what countries are looking at seeing a potential increase in these deportation returns? and what does the current trump administration's relationship with them look like? guest: it's a really good question because it's one of the most complicated issues before the trump administration. obviously, the main countries of deportation, we have a well oiled machine with them. mexico, guatemala, some countries in south america to ecuador and honduras. the big problem is venezuela.

that regime has not been in good relations with washington for at least a decade or so and categorically refuses to take its citizens back. it's a really big problem because, especially in the last few years, we are not seeing regular venezuelan refugees. we have seen in that flow, a relatively small but significant number of gang members. those people, i don't want to downplay it, they are genuinely pretty dangerous people. a lot of them have been arrested or are in jail in the u.s. but, we have nowhere to put those people. if you have that person, we can't deport them even the we want to. they have to make the tough decision of holding somebody indefinitely in jail in a precious detention bed. we have relatively few of those. or, to have to release that person. host: let's hear from diana in

new jersey on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: i was wondering if the guest could shed some light on the economic contributions that immigrants, whether they are undocumented or not, make to the country. for instance, they give $25 billion to social security that they never collect. also, if they are going to go after the immigrants, they need to go after the employers. i know firsthand as a returning stay-at-home mom to work, without a college degree, i competed with immigrants. i worked side-by-side in some of the richest houses. i lived in livingston, new jersey. one of the upscale suburban neighborhoods. not all of us are rich. i live in livingston, too. i became a nanny for rich families. employed at their houses are nannies, maids, secretaries to help them conduct their life. they pay them all under the

table. me being an american citizen, i questioned it and they said don't worry about it. he tried to treat me like a w-2 employee instead of -- a contract worker instead of a double to employee and i spoke up. he was a real estate developer like trump. he put me on the books. and then of course, the kids got older and i moved on. a lot of this goes on. it's not just illegal immigrants working under the table. it is americans. a lawn doctor came and -- host: michelle, your response? guest: sounds like you had some really interesting experiences. yeah, it's a really good question and it runs the gamut. i think like time and again, all the research and all the evidence points to the fact that

long-term immigrants coming to the country contribute economically to this country. both because often they work and they pay into social security. if you are undocumented, you can't collect what they have put in. approximately 50% or more of people we consider undocumented pay taxes. even if they don't have a social security number, the irs has a way for them to pay taxes which a lot of people feel they need to do in case they ever have a path to become legal here. they want to be able to show they have done their part paying taxes. it is much broader than that. i would say our country, for better or worse, has priced these people into being here. the example i always give is that there are people here picking our strawberries. if they were not coming and taking those jobs steadily, replacing each other, this is an exhausting job that a lot of people can do for very long. the price of our strawberries

might double because we would not have anyone pick them. even more broadly than that, if you think about it, you always want the economy to be growing. you want more people to be coming in. more people are working but more people are also consuming. that is a basic economic principle but it is something that immigration really helps with. host: let's hear from keith in palm bay, florida. line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning, ladies. hope you're having a great day. one of the biggest things, do services, you are talking about strawberry pickers. america has always had migrants who have come in and done the farms themselves and gone back and forth for ages. reagan promised us the border would be closed after --

nobody followed through in our government. between our government and workers, we have progressed into this thing where it is migrants, illegal aliens and what we are having now, which i think started in 2019, when all seven democrats on the podium said they would give free health care to anybody coming. i believe they started walking then. the ngos help them through cities and the cartels helped them through jungles. i think we are doing a real disservice to these people. and then president biden developed that app and now we are getting them from overseas. the african countries, the middle east. even europe and stuff has people

flying in. i think we need to shut down the borders. we don't have enough people to be doing what we need to be doing, manufacturing and being self-sufficient. we need people coming in but we need to know how many, what kind of work and stuff they need to do and we need to have an orderly, non-expensive way of getting into america. i really feel sorry for all of these people who have waited in line for 10 years and paid the right way and they are americans living the american dream. i believe that's why they lost a lot of votes from -- hispanic votes from the democratic party. guest: thanks for that perspective. i totally agree with you that i think this is not how literally anybody would have designed an

immigration system. it is crazy. i think that the problem is that you've hit on something fundamental that a lot of people feel. which is there are so money people waiting in line, they are trying to do it the right way. why are we allowing people to do it the wrong way and rewarding them? the problem with that is i will give you an example. the line -- in order to get in the line, you need to have one of a few things. a child who is a u.s. citizen, a college de n od to be applying to college or you need to have an employer who is sponsoring you for a job. typically, the sponsorship process is so expensive that it's rare for you not to have a college degree or an employer to find you and sponsor you. they are very, very, basically no other avenues into the country if you don't fit into one of those categories. you were talking about this.

there are people coming from around the world and crossing the border. i will say it's not actually true that people were registering on an app and flying from countries like africa. they had to physically make their way to the border and use an app. the app was designed to say if you are already here, we are acknowledging you here and please don't cross illegally. we will give you a reward if you wait and let us screen you and know who you are and come in some illegally. -- semi-legally. -- farm work, all sorts of construction and industries, we have absorbed those people right in. we needed those people to some extent. we have no legal way for those people to come in and no legal way for companies to say i need someone, i am finding no

americans, i need more people quickly and i need to use a visa to get them here. there is no such program that does that. host: about 20 minutes left with michelle hackman, reporter for the wall street journal. we will go to bruce in florida. line for republicans. good morning. caller: hi. how are you doing? we need immigrants. like the gentleman who spoke before, there is a legal way to do it and there is a legal way that has been happening for years. the influx for the last four years i think, correct me if i'm wrong, they call these people to go to these certain sanctuary cities, correct me if i'm wrong, isn't congress, when the senses is taken -- whether they are voters or not, that's my question. guest: it's true the way that

the census works is that undocumented people are counted as people for the purpose of the census. it does mean that anywhere that they go, they are increasing the population. i think we are going to have to wait until 2030 to see how that sort of impacts the way that the map is drawn. i will say in 2020, this is not my area of expertise but i found it notable that even though you think of these patterns of migration as being mainly toward places like new york, california and chicago, the places that grew the most were the sun belts. i think that's because even though we think of migration as being the sort of future influx into the country, it is more significant -- sort of this huge influx into the country, it is more significant elsewhere. that is canceling out americans moving to different parts of the country, especially the sun

belt. host: i want to hit on something you talk about earlier, the lack of space to hold migrants once they are apprehended or detained. trump has ordered the use of wonton obey to house migrants. what can you tell us about that? -- guantanamo bay to house migrants. what can you tell us about that? guest: i'm glad you asked. it's controversial considering the use of guantanamo bay, as a place for terrorists. and the migrants who are caught at sea, haitians and cubans primarily. the thing about the trump administration, there are approximately 41,000 beds across all of iced attention. that, even under biden, was pretty tight. they were trying to move people out as quickly as possible. they wanted -- the biden

administration was deporting 200,000 or so people. they wanted to move people through as quickly as possible. the trump people are saying if we want to scale up and deport hundreds of thousands of millions of people, we need a lot more beds. and so, one thing they have come up with is they have figured out they can open a facility in guantanamo that they think and hold about 30,000 people. and they think they can use it as a pentagon contract to pay for that and stand that up really quickly. host: let's hear from marvin in michigan, line for democrats. good morning, marvin. caller: good morning, ladies. i've seen the deportations. the colombian president announced that all colombians are working -- that are working in the united states can come back to columbia immediately and he will have jobs for them.

where was all of this information before the election process was going on and they knew this could happen to them? and they voted for the guy anyway? guest: it's interesting what happened with columbia. what happened as far as i understand it is that the colombian president had seen pictures that disgruntled him, where he saw deportees shackled. i think that is relatively standard for ice to treat their detainees that way. the columbia president, he's a bombastic figure himself. i think some people talk about him almost as a trump like figure in his own country. he really almost stunts. he said i'm not taking any military aircraft to my country.

then you saw trump snap back in a comprehensive way, saying i will put sanctions on your country and i will cancel visas and do tariffs. i think what we learned from that experience is, at least for columbia, that was too much. they caved. what happened this week was columbia sort of did this stunt where they said we don't trust the americans to treat our people well so we will send our own planes to take our deportees back. this came as a delight to the trump administration because it is one fewer flight they have to pay for. it's interesting how this whole episode went down. host: patricia in texas, line for republicans. good morning, patricia. caller: good morning, c-span. i wanted to correct your guest on the number of ice agents we have. according to the official website, we have, and i quote, more than 20,000 law-enforcement and support personnel.

so the number of agents is much larger and those facts do matter , that ms. hackman is a journalist. she should know the correct number. and also, she stated that they just figured out about the beds in guantanamo. they did not just figure that out, they've been planning on it for four years. i have a friend who works in guantanamo. she needs to get her facts straight and i appreciate the call from florida -- caller from florida and his sentiments were what i agree with. maga. guest: thank you for looking that up. i will expand to you why our numbers are different. ice has 20,000 employees overall. about 6000 work in the division that i'm talking about, which is

called the enforcement removal operations. roughly another 6000 work in something called homeland security investigations. those are closer to fbi agent's. those people are not day-to-day arresting immigrants in the country illegally. those people are investigating migrant smuggling organizations, cartels. they are even doing things, a big hearing for them is looking into child pornography. often, that is sort of coming in and out of the country internationally. the rest of ice, or a lot of them, they are lawyers or prosecutors. so, yes. ice has 20,000 people. practically speaking, those who are available by job title are responsible -- that our response will -- responsible for doing

arrests and deportation are only 6000. caller: people realize our medical system. they go to doctors who don't care if they get well-paid there are 9 million people with disabilities. 100,000 added every year. these people, if they want to natural doctors or homeopaths, etc., can actually get well and go to work. we are not taking personal responsibility for our health. they go on disability and linger for the rest of their lives and big pharma loves it. host: do you have a response for our caller? guest: this is not an area of expertise for me but i will say one trend we have seen that has

made it particularly advantageous for immigrants in the country illegally to have available jobs for them is that a lot of jobs that typically would go filled by americans who typically don't have college degrees or don't have specialized training or skill sets is that a lot of that population has unfortunately become addicted to painkillers type drugs and that has made them less and less able to work. and so, a lot of those jobs they would or should be taking are instead going to immigrants. host: chris in alabama, line for democrats. good morning. caller: yes, hi. i have a catch-22 question. we are deporting mexicans, rapists and killers and etc., etc. and yet, from what i understand, if you know a killer and you don't report it, you are -- you

are helping them. ok? so, he's released people from january 6 who have been found guilty of these crimes and they are being allowed to come into this country by our president. and yet, he's throwing out rapists and killers who they don't necessarily have any clue of them being such. certainly, i would just like an answer of who's who and wise why -- why is why? thank you very much. guest: i have heard that criticism from a lot of people, that we are treating different people who have committed similar crimes differently and that is something that i should

not share an opinion on because it's not something i cover day-to-day. but you raise a point that a lot of people say -- share. which is we have an american criminal system. is it almost like double punishment if you throw someone in jail or in prison for 10 years and also deport them? i'm not going to share an opinion either way because if someone is deported, they have been in the country illegally. you can decide for yourself if that's fair or not. host: michelle, you have had a busy week. i want to share another headline. trump sows fear among migrants with shock and all deportation campaign. talk about the advocacy groups supporting them. guest: we wrote a story to highlight the fact that a lot of

people that trump is highlighting for deportations are people who were being deported under biden, also. biden focused on serious criminals. trump has cranked up a pr campaign that is working pretty well. he is blasting out video of people loading onto deportation planes. he is sending relatively high profile people out on deportation operations. a lot of viewers saw kristi noem on a deportation operation, wearing a sort of law enforcement uniform. they sent dr. phil out. they sent all sorts of other right-wing personalities out there to show how these operations are working. and what it has done is, a, it has made the operations look different or stale.

it is also -- has also sewed fear in migrants, saying these arrests are ubiquitous, they are everywhere and they are coming for me next. people have really responded in a rational way, which is that they are too scared in some cases to go to work or go to the grocery store. we have heard reports that public transportation like subways or buses are more empty than they would have been a few weeks ago. that is having an impact on the country and the economy already. host: let's hear from bill in alabama on the line from republicans. good morning, bill. caller: there is no law that you have to return illegals to their country of origin. why don't we make a deal with low-cost countries where people are desperate for money, pay a billion dollars to somalia or sudan or chad and just load

these planes up with illegals and take them there and let them out and let them enjoy the life of those people? we don't have an obligation to maintain these people who are here illegally, they chose to make an illegal action and they can suffer the action -- consequences by going to live as millions of others do all around the world. guest: you raise an interesting point and that is the trump -- strategy the trump administration is attempting to pursue. the first such deal is likely with el salvador. el salvador has an extensive prison system and the trump administration is concentrating on trying to see if they can send some of those venezuelan gang members i was talking about to el salvador to sort of be in their presence rather than hours. even in that case, i think that the numbers of people that el

salvador is willing to take will not be unlimited and we will have to compensate them in some way. and so, it's going to take some amount of diplomatic work to keep striking these deals with other countries. it is certainly something this administration is looking into. host: let's hear from ronald in new york on the line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. i am disappointed in the sense that on this issue and other issues, it's not really taking a position that i thought would be correct. now, regarding illegal immigrants, they have all committed crime in the sense that coming into this country illegally is a crime itself. during the eisenhower administration, they were able

to successfully deport a million illegal immigrants. either we obey the rules as a country or we do not. these people broke the law and the right thing is for them to go back and come in legally. that's it. they won't let in one person who comes in illegally. not one. you will say that's a small country. that's true, of course. but either you a by -- obey the rules of a country or you don't and then suffer the thank you. guest: thanks for the feedback. my job as a journalist is to inform about what the facts are,

but also to share perspectives that people have considered. a lot of readers are uncomfortable and don't like it but it is our job to make sure we are representing the views of everybody in the country. the employer's of people who have immigrants moving into their communities and of the immigrants themselves, their experience working through the system. i will say, to your point about laws, there is a common misconception about what is a crime and what is not a crime. i will lay it out pretty quickly. entering the country illegally is a misdemeanor. it's not a felony in the vast majority of cases. it could be prosecuted but the justice department under every past administration has decided it's not something that is worth pursuing. prosecuting someone for a misdemeanor would not send them to jail typically.

if people across-the-board are illegally more than once, that turns into a felony and that much more often becomes prosecuted. living in the country illegally is not a crime, it is a civil violation. same in statute but not in consequences, like getting a parking ticket. that's not something that somebody can be sent to a criminal jail for. i will say that answer makes a lot of people angry because they feel like it should be a crime to live here illegally. and i will say that's something that, if people feel that way, that is something that congress could change and speaks to the fact that our politics have interests in having those people here for economic and other reasons. that's why there has been pressure not to change that. host: we have time for one last call. we will hear from ralph in georgia on the line for democrats. good morning, ralph. caller: good morning.

i would just like to say, i will try to make this quick. i lived in el paso, texas after i retired from the military. there were people who would come across the border, go to the schools and come work in our different places, hotels and our agriculture, any type of work and they were required to go back in and return. what i want to know is we went into all of these countries that they are talking about, are those people that were flown to chicago, new york, texas and from florida, where they vetted to see what their temperatures were before they were flown into these countries? people are begging for these

people to come work for them. guest: you speak to the continued brokenness of the system. as i always say, this is a system that is not remotely operational and is the consequence of 40 years of not fixing this immigration system and coming up with something new that actually functions. because no one would design it this way. you have employers all over the country who want workers, want to be able to hire people legally in most cases, i shouldn't say in all cases, who would be willing to go through a visa process if that existed. it does not in most cases. especially for these lower income types of jobs like construction or working in an interesting home or something. what you have is this roughshod system where immigrants are

crossing the border, often legally, they are often -- often illegally, they are often asking for asylum and choosing themselves where to go. texas was bussing people to different places. if they did not have a destination in mind. you had people showing up in places like chicago, new york and denver that were being sent there by texas but there was no coordination whatsoever between texas, the federal government and those places to say where are they needed and wanted and where are their jobs for them? there is no mechanism in place to do that because that is the system. this is all not how the system is supposed to work to begin with. there is no way to coordinate in that sense. host: our guest, michelle hackman, you can find her work

online at wsj.com. thank you so much for being with us today. guest: thank you. host: next on washington journal, michael shifter, senior fellow at the inter-american dialogue, joins us to discuss marco rubio's trip to central america and the future of u.s. latin american policy under the trump administration. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> american history tv. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. we will bring you the military commissioning ceremony for harriet tubman, given posthumously by the maryland national guard.

wes moore spoke at the event. michael tackett looks back in the career -- at the career and legacy of mitch mcconnell, who stepped down athe end of the 118th congress. he's the washington, d.c. bureau chief for the associated press. and the author of the book on mcconnell titled the price of power. american history tv looks up the past 100 days -- first 100 days of past presidential terms. we focus on george washington's first term in 1789, including the establishment of the office of president, the formation of the cabinet and the first judicial appointments. amy stallings discusses the history of the 1607 jamestown settlement in virginia, and efforts over the four centuries to preserve the first english settlement in the americas. explore the american story. watch american history tv every

weekend on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ >> in his latest book, titled waste land, author robert kaplan focuses on the importance of technology on determining the world's future. he holds a chair in geopolitics at the foreign policy institute. in the chapter number three of his 177 page book, chaplain -- 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, but in the deterioration of dress de erosion of grammar, decline in sales of serious books and classical music and so on. all of which have traditionally been signs of civilization. >> author robert kaplan talks

about his book, waste land, a wod in permanent crisis on this episode of book notes plus with brian lamb. ok notes plus isvaille on the c-span now free mobile 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 and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. it's where debates unfold, decisions are made and the nation's 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: joining us now is michael shifter. he's a senior fellow at the inter-american dialogue.

we are talking about u.s. policy in the americas. thank you for joining us. guest: is a great pleasure. good morning. host: good morning. why don't we start with telling us a little bit about your work at inter-american dialogue and how your organization is funded. guest: it is a policy center, and a think tank that has been around for over 40 years. it has a long history and works on a variety of issues on the agenda in the united states and latin america. it is funded by the private sector. the business committed, both in latin america and the united states. -- committee, both in latin america and the united states. in addition to private foundations in the united states and europe as well. and also multilateral organizations and multilateral banks are a sourceort for the dialogue. host: our topic for this segment

is secretary of state's visit to central america. he's heading out on a diplomatic vision across central america. how significant is it that his first foreign travel is to latin america? guest: i think it is significant because it is the issues that are priorities for the trump administration and they relate to latin america. principally migration and china and the presence of china and influence of china on latin america. of course, we remember in president trump's inaugural address, the country he referred to most was panama. he pledged to retake control of the panama canal. it's not a surprise that secretary rubio's first stop will be panama to talk about that issue. host: he has long exerted

influence over u.s. latin american policy, including during the first trump administration. remind us of his background and his perspective as he comes into this role. guest: secretary rubio has been a senator from florida. he's the son of cuban immigrants. he has been somebody who has served on the foreign relations committee and intelligence committee in the senate. and he has certainly stood for a very strong commitment to fight for democracy. particularly in venezuela and cuba and nicaragua, that are both under dictatorship. he has also been noted as a real hawk on china. and china's growing presence and influence around the world,

including in latin america. host: we will talk about china. we wanted to stay in latin america for just a moment. i wanted to show you a quote from an op-ed that the secretary review, in process, making america great again means helping our neighbors a greatness. the threats mr. trump was elected to stop are threats to the nations of our hemisphere as well. we share a cmon home. the saferstronger and more prosperous that home becomes, the more all nations stand to benefit. together, there are few limits to what we can accomplish. that is senator rubio's vision for moving forward. how does that compare to president trump's america first policy? guest: there is an alignment, secretary rubio has aligned

himself with president trump. there is clearly a perception of a threat of what trump is called an invasion of our region. president trump has implement a variety of measures to stop that flow of migration and the region is a major source of that. i think that aligns with president trump and china being very much present and having spread much in the region in the past several decades is also something i think secretary rubio is committed to trying to contain. it raises the question of how he's going to do this. reading that editorial, it's clear where his position is in general terms. but we have to see what the details are and what the specifics are about how to make

the region strong and prosperous and what is the united states prepared to do with latin america to strengthen it, the sides keeping out china and keeping immigrants away from the united states. those are negative kinds of objectives. is there a more positive forward-looking agenda there that we just have not heard yet? hopefully that will come. host: our guest is michael shifter. if you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. the line for republicans is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. i wanted to go back. to a couple of countries you mention. you mentioned panama and china.

president trump has claimed -- it is a stop that secretary rubio will be making. president trump claims the canal is being operated by china. can you clarify china role with the canal? -- china's role with the canal? guest: china operates two ports on both ends of the canal. they have a company called the hutchinson that is based in hong kong that states from the late 1990's. there is a long period which they have operated. things have changed in hong kong and china since the late 1990's. it's true that china does operate their. china has increased its presence

since panama recognized china and broke relations with taiwan in 2017. i think the claims that china controls the canal don't have a strong basis. i think the panamanian authorities are still in control of the canal and china does not control the canal but it does have a presence and has a role to play in the operation and management of these two ports. host: we have been hearing a lot about the panama canal the last month or so. it is something that president trump is interested in taking control of back. panama's president said there will not be a negotiation around this. secretary rubio said it will be discussed during his visit. where does it currently stand and what are your expectations for that point of discussion? host: i think the panamanians

were more surprised that president trump emphasized panama during his inauguration address. they have dial back their relations with china and have made a -- dialed back their relations with china and have made a pivot to get the united states much more involved and invested in panama. i think one of the governments complaints is that the united states has not bid for some of these big projects. and china has. i think one of the problems and hopefully this whole controversy about the canal, the good that can come out of it is maybe the united states will be more committed to investing in panama. that's what the panamanians want. to some extent, china filled the void when the united states was not there and was not present and did not make bids.

they are reviewing and doing an audit of some of the concessions . i think the negotiations will move in that kind of direction. china is a big issue, migration is also a big issue. so, maybe a little bit more pressure there, although the government has done a great job with migration. you can never do enough. and also, president trump is referring to the rates that are being charged, saying the united states is being charged i don't think the panamanians will give up control of the canal and so i think hopefully, they will be able to sort of reach some sort of agreement to address the concerns that have been raised and willing to

engage in those discussions. secretary rubio before he left, he had what i thought was a conciliatory tone. i think that is the spirit he goes with. i don't think it is going to, nor should it go back to the united states. this is something that over a quarter of a century panama has run this and has been generally very responsible and professional. host: we will start with harvey in louisville, kentucky. line for independents. caller: unfortunately, you cannot run the farms in our country. canada is taking the farms over and they are raising their crops and giving it to china. china is taking over all of our farms and for chinese workers.

they are going to florida, iowa, illinois and working on these china farms. guest: this is about the united states, i assume. i don't know about chinese workers. host: paul in idaho, line for republicans. guest: good morning, i have a question. what kind of legacy -- host: paul, it is hard to hear you. are you moving around or on a cell phone? try again. guest: i have a question for your person. caller: that is, what kind of legacy did lincoln leave the secretary of state office after he left when the administration

was done with their four years? i'm sorry, what was the guy's name, rubio? what kind of legacy will he be walking into -- what kind of deal is he going to be left with? do you follow me? host: i believe he's asking what the legacy that blinken left behind and where secretary rubio will be picking up. guest: certainly, this region was not a priority for secretary blinken. he was dealing with the middle east, ukraine and so forth which secretary rubio is also dealing with. it was a sense of kind of managing the situation in south america. he made several trips to the region. there was an emphasis of getting things on a better track with

mexico and a couple of other things but i don't think there's a very strong legacy that the biden administration left on latin america. i think secretary rubio comes to this job with at least the ambition of changing that and getting more allies in the region and showing that the u.s. can be tough on issues of china migration, trade, drugs, other issues. host: let's hear from tom in richmond hill, new york,, line for republicans. caller: my question deals with senator rubio -- secretary of state rubio's efforts to engage latin america and how trump supporters will feel if that involves increasing foreign aid, which most trump supporters oppose. how do you reconcile the attempt to stem the flow of immigration

with the resistance to providing foreign aid to latin american countries? thank you. guest: i think from all indications so far that secretary rubio is on the same page as president trump in terms of cutting back foreign aid. he has expressed a lot of these programs and support of not really crucial. they don't really serve u.s. interests. he made that clear in the speech before the employees to the state department when he first took over. i think this may be a problem because my own view is i think the united states, it is one way the u.s. can be engaged in the region. if it pulls back from a lot of foreign aid and programs, that also leaves an opening for other actors like china and others to

fill that void. i think it is good for the united states to have that level of presence and engagement through its foreign aid program. but, that is under revision. i think so far, secretary rubio has been pretty much aligned with president trump on that issue. host: let's talk more about china, their growing influence in latin america is a concern for washington. how would you describe the current standing between china and those latin american countries when it comes to things like trade and looking to them as a source of finance? guest: well, if the -- the china-latin america relationship has been going through a lot of different phases. i think it started with trade finance. trade is kind of the underpinning of the relationship. it is the pillar of their relationship. china is the main trading

partner of latin america. if you leave out mexico. mexico is obviously a separate case because its relationship with the u.s. is important. certainly in south america, it is very important. that continues to be the case. financing has diminished somewhat but now there is -- there have been investments like in a major port in peru. this is also what they call new infrastructure which is more text communications which is more sensitive and has raised a lot of concerns and worries in washington. it has gone through evolution and really starting to establish its presence in the end of the last century and early part of this century. host: let's hear from steve in maryland, line for democrats. caller: i usually like to wait

to talk to a senator or house of representative, but on this topic of china and south america. south america has the largest shipping port in peru. they've been in brazil for the past 15, 20 years. they have the largest population in brazil of chinese immigrants. they set up the largest mining and ore facility ever created. we once again, the americans and our legislative branch, has let china take over control of south america. i find that interesting because the munro doctrine clearly states we are not supposed to have anybody in our western hemisphere, but due to the out sourcing in the 1980's and have mr. clinton, we have let china run amok in south america and south africa. so, china is eating america's

lunch and will continue to eat america's lunch. i don't see us lasting. as mr. rubio said in his confirmation hearing, in the next 10 years, there's nothing we are not going to do without china's permission. where does the lobbyist stand on this topic? thank you. guest: i'm not a lobbyist, first of all. i think it is a very good question and i appreciate it very much. the caller makes an excellent point and underscores the withdrawal, disengagement, drift between the united states and latin america over the last several decades. and latin americans have agreed to chinese role, not because they embrace china or as china as a model, but they are being

pragmatic. they need trade, they need investment. the united states at this point is very protectionist, it is anti-trade. there have been few countries in the region, ecuador, uruguay, that want to free-trade agreement with the united states. the message from congress and the executive was no. i think that will continue under president trump. they want investment. the panama canal is an example. the u.s. is not interested in investment. if they are not interested and the panamanians need investment to grow jobs and the economy, they will be pragmatic and they will take it from china. i think the big question was secretary rubio and what he plans to do to address this. it is not whether the punishments or the threats to stop engagement in china but what is he prepared to really offer an alternative to these

countries? my own sense is that most latin american trees, if not all, would before church deal with the united states -- would prefer to deal with the united states then china but the u.s. has to be prepared to make a serious offer and demonstrates of interest to the region. host: just about 20 minutes left with our guest, michael shifter, a senior fellow at the inter-american dialogue and also a let an american politics professor at georgetown university school of foreign services. next, we will go to edgar in texas, line for republicans. good morning. caller: i have a question. my question is why is the united states so concerned about china having those, i think the two ports in the panama can now? -- canal?

why is there concern about that? guest: the reason is, and secretary rubio was very clear about this in his confirmation hearing, is that he sees these two ports as chokepoints that if there were some conflict between the united states, economic conflict or military conflict between china and the united states, and nobody is saying that will happen but it could happen, that those two ports, the chinese could control those and prevent the u.s. from going through. under the circumstances and scenario of a warlike situation. that is what secretary rubio is concerned about and he wants to make sure that is not the case, that the united states would have free access because those ports are in essence controlled by the chinese government. so, they don't want china, the

canal being used to help china under that scenario. that is what he emphasized in his hearing before the senate. host: let's hear from mario in sacramento, line for independents. good morning. caller: i just wanted some clarification. not sure the name of the company, hutchison. guest: correct. caller: ok, you say that is a chinese company, but also everybody refers to the chinese government. is it a chinese government company or a company within china? guest: it is a company actually based in hong kong. i think when it started 25 years ago, it was seen as more benign, not as serious. clearly, china has changed and hong kong is not what it was.

so, it is a hong kong company, but it's not the chinese government, but the chinese government clearly has control over that company. that, i think, is the concern. they are not chinese companies that are totally independent from the government and the communist party. i think that is the issue for washington. host: we will hear from sal in new jersey, line for republicans. caller: good morning. i would like to ask you what can we do to help develop democratic values and free-market economies in latin america so these people, the latin americans don't come to america en masse the way they are? and what can we possibly do to

this mental chinese presence in -- dismantle the chinese presence in the western hemisphere? guest: i think we have to have a positive agenda in let america. -- latin america. if free-trade is off the table in washington and there's not enough investment going into latin america -- president trump has said he wants investments to come to the united states. so companies deciding whether go to latin america to invest and comes to the united states instead, they would be in better standing with the administration. i think there needs to be serious economic initiative in latin america that i think has been lacking. if you talk to latin american leaders and officials, as i try to do, that is basically what

they are asking for. i think my question is will the trump administration be prepared to offer something along those lines or will it just be more threats against governments because they are getting too close to china? that is a negative, i think, approach. and the question is could they have a more constructive and positive approach. host: many of the leaders across latin america are fairly new. they did not interact with president trump during his first term. how do they see him? how do leaders in latin america view trump, his administration, and what have the interactions looked like so far? guest: i think the -- it varies. one thing we should say from the outset is that latin america is not unified.

it is certainly not monolithic. each country is on its own, has its own agenda, and deals with washington in its own way. it goes from different countries. there are countries like argentina and el salvador whose leaders are very much aligned with president trump, there's a great affinity. they're applauding and cheering. we saw with a case like colombia, president petro, he's not as enthusiastic, i don't think. there are others. most of them are kind of cautious and waiting to see exactly what happens. i think we will see that, if in fact, the tariffs are applied now to mexico and canada, 25%, as of now. that has not happened. if it does happen, i think we may see some retaliation by

mexico and canada. and i think that could lead us down a very bad path, especially if there's an impaact not only -- impact not only on the mexican and canadian economies, but the u.s. economy because prices will be higher and that can fuel inflation. if inflation gets worse, u.s. economy has troubles. if the u.s. economy is not good, that affects the latin american economy. if the economy gets worse in latin america, there will be even more pressure to leave and come north to the united states. host: let's go to kay in ohio, line for republicans. caller: i have just a thought. we pay trillions of dollars sending money to other countries. if millions of people came from other countries and certain countries in particular, we

should stop spending money to those countries because the leaders of those countries are not giving it to the people to build water, electricity, getting jobs. they are keeping it for themselves and their 10 best friends. we don't know how they are spending that money. if you have a certain amount of people from countries coming over, those countries should be eliminated and the money should be used in america. maybe reimburse social security. they will get what is getting taken out of their paychecks. we need to start thinking about where our money is going and why these people are coming here that are not getting money. as for the dreamers, i feel like they should be able to go somewhere and get citizenship. they turned their lives around, they have jobs, they are not gang bangers. we should be able to give them

their citizenship papers. as for the little kids coming into the country, it should be part of the educational system as an incentive to graduate high school. they should be taking a citizenship course, and when they graduate from high school, they get citizenship papers as well as their diploma. guest: i agree on the dreamers, 100%. it is unfortunate that has not happened yet because i think they are integrated into society and they are hard-working, so they should have citizenship. i'd say on the caller's other points, two things. i think the united states can do both, should be able to do both as the strongest economy in the world. take care of its own people and the homeless and do domestic needs, but also have a presence overseas. the foreign aid budget in the united states is extremely low. it is extremely modest.

i think sometimes there's a misconception that it accounts for a substantial share of the budget but it is very minimal. i agree on the point the caller makes unaccountability. there needs to be accountability on how these funds are met but i think the u.s. government has tried to do that. there's more to be done but totally agree, corruption is a problem and resources should not be going to corrupt officials and leaders. they should be making sure it goes to the people who need it and would benefit from it most. i think that is a challenge of reform but it does not need to completely cut it off because i think there are benefits for the united states to have a presence and show another side of the united states in foreign aid programs. host: barbara in california, line for democrats. caller: good morning. i wanted to call in because i

wanted to say that i am a democrat, but i really like president trump. the reason why i like president trump is because the first time i ever saw president trump really laugh with any kind of sincerity is when he told the black americans be quiet, you guys don't have anything anyway, and he's absolutely right. because when the black americans were put off the cotton farms down south with the civil rights movement, we had people protesting not picking grapes, not picking the orchards, not doing the cashers. cesar chavez was up there cutting the deals and now we have to take the brunt of everything. we've had too many illegals bringing the drugs across here. they have the homes. they let the grandmas bring the drugs. the men got all the contracts, they hire the illegals.

they hire them under the table. black americans in this country, we are not at fault for this mess. china, you are right, they are in bed with them and working against this government. and we are not going to be the pawns this time. it is not right, it is not right. all this illegal money have put these children through these catholic schools, private schools. our children cannot even get new jobs. my grandchildren graduated from high school, they were not bilingual, they couldn't get jobs for we will get a response from michael. guest: i agree that president trump is very transparent and very direct in what he says. messaging for a lot of people that is somewhat refreshing. i think the caller next an excellent point that the employer's in this country are also part of this issue of

immigration and all the attention has been focused on the migrants and the undocumented migrant migration to the united states. it takes two. a lot of employers are contracting with this population. i think that should also get some balance in the way this migration challenge and problem is dealt with. i also think -- what everybody says, our immigration system is not in good shape. we haven't had reforms since the 1980's under ronald reagan. i think if there were reforms, that is the best thing president trump and the congress could do, really have reforms so that the system can work and be adjusted to new realities because it is obviously broken. you are right. the priorities should be in the

united states. there should be attention given to the employer's who hire these undocumented workers coming here. the question is why are they coming here? could the united states do anything in the source countries to try to make it more attractive for these people to stay there? because now they don't have economic opportunities. they are under repressive rule. it is not surprising they want to look elsewhere and the united states, there is a labor shortage and there are opportunities. it is logical that they would come here. let's see if we can offer a positive agenda in the region. that could be helpful. host: just a few minutes left. we will go to nelson in florida. good morning. caller: good morning, can you hear me? host: yes. caller: mr. shifter, my question is quite simple.

there was a gentleman previously that mentioned the monroe doctrine. isn't china in violation of the monroe doctrine? the the united states still honor the monroe doctrine or is it dead? thank you, sir. guest: it is a great question. i would say the monroe doctrine is being revived now. one person we have not mentioned is michael waltz, the national security advisor, and he talks about monroe doctrine 2.0. i think that is kind of his argument or rationale for particularly addressing china. let's not forget, there are a lot of external actors in the western hemisphere in latin america. there's russia, japan, turkey, korea.

this is globalized economy and there are a lot of others that are making investments and so forth. it is not just china. john kerry, the former secretary of state, in 2013 at the organization of american states said that the monroe doctrine is obsolete and we will retire it. he retired it in 2013, but some 12 years later, it is now being revived because of heightened concern and tensions particularly with china. the question is what do you do in that case? is putting pressure and making threats to latin american countries going to work or not? or could it be counterproductive if latin americans say i cannot do this, i will not break off ties with china. the of this is the choice, maybe we will go even more with china. i think this is a risk that u.s.

officials and secretary rubio and others should keep in mind. it could have the opposite effect. during president trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021, latin america got closer to china, not more distanced from china. this has been a trend over time. the question is how do you address it, the issue? i think providing an alternative makes a lot more sense and would work a lot better than making threats. host: we have time for one last call. we will go to angela in california, line for independents. caller: good morning. i'm a black america born in louisiana, married to a mexican-american out of mexico. here's my question and my concern. the united states is connected to mexico and canada. i remember when ross perot was

running and he said those trucks are coming out of mexico with drugs in them. my brother was an 18 wheeler at the time and he was murdered. the trucks could only come into america 30 miles and an american driver would take over. we knew drugs were coming in then. we have fentanyl coming into this country. it is coming through mexico and it's coming through canada. i agree with president trump when it comes to immigration. we've got to close that border. they are walking across that border. we are in the middle of the water. biden was flying them in. we have to do something. my other concern is the panama canal. if china is controlling two ports and we gave that canal back to them, the united states needs to get in there, get china out of their or we take back

control of the port. they are sitting here in south central l.a. plotting and planning. my mother is 85, the only black left in south-central, and they are harassing my mother. talk about blacks not doing nothing? me and my brothers and sisters work for the government and the city and own homes. my mother has a right to live in her house until she dies but we are fighting ms-13's down there harassing my mother. some of the stuff donald trump is saying is true. i have to admit it is true. you all are not talking to the people living in the community. host: we will have to leave it there because we are short on time. we will get a response from michael. guest: i think president trump often puts his finger on real issues and that is why he's popular and that is why he won the election. i thick my question is whether he's going to be able to solve

these problems and whether his prescriptions and proposals are going to work. maybe they will. i don't know. i think the biden administration was certainly focused on the fentanyl issue. i think secretary blinken spent a lot of time on that and the mexican government has been doing what it can. we know this from the united states over the last 50 years, it is very hard to stop drugs from coming into the united states. whether it is cocaine, now fentanyl, or whatever it happens to be. this has been an issue with drugs, it has been very frustrating and we have not seen any solutions. i agree with the caller. i hear her and understand why she's drawn to president trump and what he says. we just have to see if he can resolve the problem. if you can, more credit to him.

host: our guest, michael shifter, senior fellow at the inter-american dialogue. you can find his work online at thedialogue.org. thank you for being wis. we are wrapping up today with open forum. if there's a public policy issue or topic you would like to talk about, you can start calling in now. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. first, later today, members of the democratic national committee will vote on a new chair. c-span will have live coverage of that event starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. the new dnc chair will lead the party's national fundraising, recruiting and organizing efforts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. from yesterday, here's democratic senatorial campaign

committee chair kristen gillibrand at the winter meetings speaking about the 2026 midterms and encouraging democrats to remain focused on issues important to voters. [video clip] >> i know and you know that politics is a combat support. sometimes you get knocked back down, the important thing is what to do when you get back up and keep moving forward. that is how the democratic senate candidates won in states across the country even when president trump carried most states. in wisconsin, arizona, nevada, michigan, our democratic candidates emerged victorious. you have to know how did they do it? a relentless, unwavering focus on the issues that matter to those voters the most. the cost of things, the cost of eggs, the cost of meat, milk.

public safety, can my daughter walked to school on her own? can by family know they are safe? these are the issues voters were most focused on in those purple and red states. it makes sense. if you are worried about putting food on the table, if you are worried about whether your kids are going to be safe at school or whether your first responders are getting attacked on the subway by gang members, these worries will dominate your thinking. you won't be thinking as much about other issues, whether it is democracy or reproductive rights or the environment. we just have to reckon with what people are thinking and how they voted and why they voted the way they did. these kinds of issues have always been at the heart of the democratic party and american families. if democrats are going to win, we need to make sure these issues remain at the forefront of the message. it does not have to be the only

message. we are always going to care about everything else but they have to hear it and there's a lot of noise. you know how much noise there is. people receive their news not from television, not from the newspaper, but from their phones. you know that the phones can so easily be used for maligned foreign influence, misinformation, for targeted messaging to harm people and how they see the world. that is what we are up against and we will fight back on that very issue. so, we only need to look at president trump for what we are going to think and talk about. if you look at what he's done his first few weeks, 10 days of his administration, he has cut funding to make kids be hungry, make our seniors be hungry, make our first responders not have the equipment they need. to not let the firefighters get the equipment and support they

need to fight these fires in california were fight the fires in new york. he has blocked funding for every afterschool program, every early childhood education program. you cannot imagine the damage he's done every day to the people that we serve every day. and has he mentioned the cost of eggs once? no, he has not. has he mentioned to the cost of housing once? no, he has not. he is not talking about the issues that the american people what us and him to be talking about. so, i think this is an opportunity for us. instead of issuing the orders to block funding for the law enforcement, the fire departments, veterans care, and our schools, threatening trade wars with important allies, we can be talking about what people care most about. host: and again, c-span will have live coverage of the democratic national committee as they vote on their new chair

ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. that is starting at 10:00 a.m. this morning. you can find it here on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. we are in open forum. we will start with gilbert in birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. i'd like to give condolences to the victims in washington and philadelphia. i talk about this precarious situation america finds itself in today. in accordance to the committee and get the cabinet together. america is in a dangerous situation in my mind. it is as dangerous as it was from the first american revolution or even the civil war. when i look at the cabinet

people, i can only think about the vile racists like john c. calhoun before the civil war or strom thurmond in the early 1940's and 1950's. what we have here is a confederacy/fascist type government that we have. the conservatives -- the polarizing situation we find ourselves in today. the repercussions of what america has done to the world. when we think about immigration, the world -- people across the world have become nomads and each country has to bear its own load from wars and everything. the whole world is in a state of confusion. we as a country have come to a place where we are tearing down our institutions, laws and policies. it took years to build up the

policies, laws and institutions that this country is tearing down in 10 days. it is amazing. host: that was gilbert in alabama. let's go to marguerite in kansas. line for democrats. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i'm calling to give a hug if i could to the capitol police and to let people know when trump release to those people that attacked our capitol, it hurt me so bad. like a posttraumatic stress. it was hard watching people attack our capitol, which is very beautiful. to see them be released is like a slap in the face. i want to tell the capitol police, jason crow and all those, i heard you.

i wish i could give you a hug in person and thank you for your service. this is our capital and people attacked them. what in the world? they didn't go attack some other country or defend people. no, they attacked us. it hurts very bad and i just wanted those police to know that there are people that were really against that and would li ke to help the healing. but, it's unbelievable to me that there's people in power that hate our country. and are destroying things via i get meals on wheels because i have cancer and i cannot cook. you want to stop that? what is wrong with you? i don't want to despair and give up, but i do send my love to those who keep trying.

keep trying. don't give up. and that is why i am calling today to let you know. thank you. host: that was marguerite in kansas. let's go to mary in ohio, line for republicans. good morning. caller: i have been a lifelong democrat but i switched over to republican. i'm calling about several issues. all of them covered on tv this morning. first, dei is a violation of the laws on the books. deoc was passed, -- eoec, equal opportunity employment commission was passed several years ago. it is illegal to hire someone based on the religion, race or creed. whenever they are turning around and say we will not hire you even though you are the best qualified, we will hire someone of a different race or creed or religion instead of the best qualified, that is in violation

of laws that have been on the books forever. your recent person discussing panama. there was a hearing on c-span this week. china, they have two ports, one on either end of the can al. they can shut it down, completely shut it down. plus, they are planning on building a bridge spanning the panama canal. that could shut down the panama canal. per the contract that was signed with the united states when carter gave the panama back to them for one dollar, there was actually stipulations that were built into it. panama is in violation of two of the five major stipulations. we have every right to go back in. for all the people that want to talk about illegals in this country, i don't know of too many strawberry fields that are sitting in the middle of new york city that illegal aliens are picking the strawberries from or the apple orchards.

in 2009, while obama was president, it cost $12,000 per illegal alien student to send that child to school, plus that school had to take their compensation and hrie a teat -- a hire a teacher that spoke their language. for instance, we have teachers that can speak spanish and teach spanish. iraqi, iranian, all of the rest of the countries. we are hiring all of that is that of teaching the students what they need to learn, read and write. also, they get free electricity. when they have a house and an anchor baby here, they get free housing, free medical, free electricity, and everything else. i was involved with helping to bust a restaurant here that was hiring all illegal aliens. more than 40 of them were living in a house and all of their

food, all of their electricity, their groceries, their gasoline and everything else was being paid for by american people and they put american workers out of work. host: we will leave it there so we can get some other voices in. we will go to don in new orleans, line for independents. caller: very good morning. i thought dei, three separate issues, diversity, equity and inclusiveness, was in spite of, not because of. the issue -- when i hear -- what i am excited about being in the united states of america is c-span does an excellent job. book tv, i look forward to it. that is the separation from my media mind, if you will, from

media, the first amendment, the free press. books, unlike media, is categorized -- fiction, nonfiction. that is the beauty of books. books gives us the choice, a true american choice or a global choice to study those realms of writings from a perspective that is either nonfiction or fiction that gives us a perspective on humanity. when all of these former fbi and government employees are being relieved of their duties, they have a plethora of knowledge inside that will give us a perspective on the sovereignty and the democracy of america. in the spirit of the life and

times of frederick douglass, and booker t. washington, and the issue of sovereignty and illegal immigrants and undocumented immigrants, books more than any other media gives us that true american and that true global perspective on humanity. host: that was don in louisiana. one of the major headlines this week was yesterday's announcement from president trump that he would be placing tariffs on canada, mexico, and china starting today. in this morning's "wall street journal," an opinion coming from their board. the headline, "the dumbest trade war in history." it says there's a prospect of retaliation which canada and mexico have shown they know how to do for maximum political

impact. in 2009, the obama administration and congressional democrats ended a pilot program that allowed mexican long-haul truckers into the u.s. as stipulated in nafta. mexico responded with targeted retaliation on 90 u.s. goods to pressure industries in key congressional districts. these included california grapes and wine, oregon christmas trees and cherries, jams and jellies from ohio and north dakota soy. when mr. trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs in 2018, mexico got results using the same tactic, putting tariffs on steel, pork products, fresh cheese and bourbon. canadian prime minister justin trudeau has promised to respond to u.s. tariffs on a dollar for dollar basis. canada could suffer a larger gdp hit since its economy is so much smaller, but american consumers will feel the bite of higher costs for some goods.

that was yesterday in the oval office that president trump was asked about the tariffs in addition to other topics. here is part of his remarks. [video clip] >> do you think you need to ban more of the chips nvidia are selling to china? >> i had not met him. the biggest in the world in terms of chips. i cannot say what's going to happen. it was a good meeting. eventually, we will put tariffs on chips. we will put tariffs on oil and gas. that will happen fairly soon, around february 18. we will put a lot of tariffs on steel. we already have tariffs on steel and have saved this steel industry but that was relatively small compared to what it will be. steel, aluminum and ultimately copper.

copper will take a bit longer. that will happen pretty quickly. it will be a great boost for our steel industry and make our steel industry very strong. if i didn't put the tariffs on years ago, which biden left because they were so much money they could not do anything about it. we would not have one steel mill in this country if i didn't do that. we saved the steel industry. it was an honor to do it. i think the people that love me the most in the whole world are the people that make steel. we will be putting sometime this month, next month, we will be putting tariffs on steel and aluminum. and we will give you an announcement as to what the exact date is. it will be a tremendous amount of money for our country. you see the power of the tariff. nobody can compete with us because we have by far the biggest piggy bank.

that will take place very quickly. we will also be doing pharmaceuticals, to bring our industry back. we want to bring pharmaceuticals back to the country. the way to bring it back is by putting up a wall and the wall is a tariff wall. we are the richest country in the world. we were at our riches from 1870 to 1913, that is when we were a tariff country. then, they went to an income tax concept. how did that work out? fine, it was ok, but it would have been better. host: just about 10 minutes left in this morning's "washington journal." at 10:00 a.m., we will be taken you'd live to the democratic national committee where they will be building on a new chair. this is a live look at the room where the event is getting ready to get underway. we have about 10 minutes left. we will hear next from randy in iron river, michigan. line for democrats.

caller: good morning, tammy. we just got done hearing the guy that was talking last about we and got no way to take care of a drug problem. we have a way to take care of a drug problem. take a here sample, it will tell every single drug a person's ever did in their whole life. we can even tell after they are debt, every drug they've ever done. if we take a hair sample, we will know. we will know if they have drugs in their system. if you do any drugs before we test you in the next year and a half, or year, whenever your number comes up, you go to jail. if you don't have drugs in your system, you go home. all these people, we wain't going to be able to take care of them. put them under house arrest. make sure they don't have people coming to their house, feeding them heroin, meth, crack, all these illegal drugs. take hair samples. the other thing is in michigan,

pot is illegal. we had 693 pot arrests. we had 9000 alcohol-related accidents. i'm saying arrests for driving with pot. we found out that 478 of them had 0.4, 0.5, 0.7% alcohol in their blood at the time they got picked up for that pot. 14 of those 693 were prescription drugs. most of them, out of the 14, two of them where methamphetamine and the rest were prescription drugs. out of those, 201 pot-related accidents in michigan. that is the whole thing. in 2022 and 2023, we had 8152 alcohol-related accidents. altogether, all illegal drugs together, 4441.

which is the biggest problems to worry about? the reason why we don't get this taken care of is we don't make any of the rich people, business owners take any drug tests. they are the ones that live out on the lake, buy $100,000 worth of meth, drop it into a town, let the cops rounded up. then, the guy that got done -- host: that was randy in michigan. we will go to rick in indiana, line for republicans. good morning, rick. sorry, i think i punched the wrong call. we will get rick on the line. are you there? caller: yes, are you there? host: yes, hi. caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: anyway. here's what gets me and perturbed me. why these colored people call

in -- i've got dang good -- host: we will move on to diane in syracuse, new york. line for independents. are you there? caller: can you hear me? host: yes, hi. caller: hi, yes, i am going to be 68. i never watched politics or follow the government for very negative reasons in the past. when covid hit, i was unable to work full-time so i decided to watch c-span. i watched the senate hearings live, the house hearings live. i listen to the supreme court when they have that. i even listen to my local, you know, assemblymen stuff and i

really got an interest. i said i will be prevalent at washing everything, learning how this works, not making any assumptions. then, i finally voted about two years ago. but after the election of president biden. but, my thing is today is that i have seen so much disparity on how things are run and what are said and who are saying those things, and i'm not blaming one party or the next, but it has got to stop. i have three things to say. about children, saying the littl e hen ran around the farm

yard saying the sky is falling and when the little chicken finally needed help, nobody believed the little chicken. also, the fact that i do not watch cbs, nbc, i do not watch any of the locals. i do not watch pbs. i do not watch bbc. and i do not like how the reporters, they interrupt each other. then, when questions are done and said to be done, no more to be asked, they just chirp like little idiots to see if they can get one more thing. i would like it back to walter cronkite. as far as watching the democrats, i'm sorry, but whoever smelt it first dealt it. sorry, but c-span is getting a

little bit that way. i still watch you, but i only watched the hearings. so, thank you very much for letting me say my piece. have a good day and i'm sorry for everybody, the plane crashes, the fires. god bless us all. host: that was diane in new york. we will go to jonathan in minneapolis, line for democrats. caller: good morning. you look stunning this morning. i don't know how you do it at 7:00 in the morning. believe me when i say this, but for the democrats that are listening at the democratic national committee, get it together or we will not have a country left. if you don't, our country will not be our country. and i also wanted to say, i have been very patient this morning and tolerant of ignorant

republicans. the gentleman that said colored people, and you hung up on him. great job on that. that is racist, number one. number two, if you don't like gay people, don't talk to gay people. i'm tired of being targeted by president trump with all of his nasty words the people that are lgbtqia. he erased an entire community yesterday online because he does not like gay people because he's probably closeted. host: sorry, we will leave it there. reminder to watch your language went on the air. we will go to juan in miami, line for republicans. caller: thank you for the time. i just want to say president trump is starting to move in the right direction.

the tariffs and all the other things he's doing, including immigration, we are all immigrants that came from other countries. i'm originally cuban so i am aware of the situation. again, the situation that is bringing people into this country illegally and all kinds of -- all types of, you know, people that are murderers and doing all these things that are hurting americans. you can see all this happened throughout the years with the democrats. another thing is about the capitol. i think that americans had a tough situation there. i don't condone what happened, but again, i feel so badly because an american died also there who was shot directly in the face by one of the guards. that is something that should be looked at in the future.

it could have been done differently. i understand they were in a situation where they were being harassed and beaten up. again, that is something that should be looked at in the future for the guards also. both liable on both sides. that is something that i feel so badly for the u.s. veteran. just to go ahead and drive in there for democracy in her own way but was shot in the face for no reason. i will leave it at that. one last thing i want to say is, all the latin american countries wanted to say, all latin american countries, cuba, venezuela and the other latin american country, mexico. this is something that was at the time, russia is always trying to take the countries and make them against the u.s..

we have to come up with a better plan instead of spending money on the immigrants and the situation going on. we have to see how we can take that money and be able to incentivize these other countries to turn to the other side. we have to be the people to go ahead and change these countries so all this immigration does not come to our country. we are just blowing our money helping all of these people. the last thing is social security. why should someone in this country that has been working all of their lives, ok, have an immigrant come from another country and get a social security and empty out our social security that we we worked all of our lives for? again, that is my statement today. thank you for your time. we will go to -- host: we will go to kevin in mechanicsville, virginia. line for independence. good morning.

i have a quick observation, the senate hearings on cabinet nominations is the things that i want to speak to. these hearings are supposed to help the public be better informed, where the candidates get a chance to speak and he we can hear them directly. the republicans talk for five minutes and we learned nothing. the democrats ask questions and then cut off the candidate from answering the question. and these two parties make a good argument for an independent panel to ask the questions of these candidates so we can get a better understanding of who the president is really selecting to be part of his cabinet. so, here in virginia, we have been independent. the senators have been independent-minded for a long time. when cain and warner got in there as you have seen on the hearings, they make a great argument for getting these guys

out of the way and putting somebody in who can ask them really straightforward questions and we get to hear the answers. that is my observation this morning for the open forum. i appreciate you letting me speak. thank you. host: we will go to james, philadelphia, pennsylvania. line for democrats, good morning. caller: the next time that donald trump is on stage claiming that he will shut down the mexico cartels consider this, donald trump less than two weeks ago on january 21, 2025 pardoned the silk road founder, someone who is sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin. the district judge had to say that nobody -- he was no better a person then any other drug

dealer. they say that he also solicited six morton -- murders for higher including one against a former employee, probably a snitch. and the answer is to why. while seeking the court votes, he hinted that he planned to commute his sentence during his speech last year at the libertarian national convention. he kept his promise, this is the hypocrisy at the same level that you find when we get cash patel -- when you talk about patel. host: john in new york, line for independents, and he will be the last call for today. caller: i was going to say there are a lot of racist callers calling in on both sides of the aisle. i hear people calling the majority of trump supporters white supremacists.

that is a racist remark. that poor older guy, i do not think he met any disrespect and you cut them off short of making his comments. that is up to you and i do not care. the other thing i will recommend it as i watch the show numerous times and you kind of lock out your republican audience by taking maybe four or five, out of 10 calls you take one republic call or a majority independent or democrats and you will take one republican call. it would be nice if you had a complaint line where every time that occurs, you can call in and give the date and the time and you name the host and the staff that runs this program, they do not want that to happen. they want to treat every american with the same respect as every other one. you give your jose warning, and then the second time it happens you fine them may be $500 for

doing it again, and then the third time it will be a $1000 fine. and if it happens again, they are told if it happens one more time you will be terminated from your job because we want to treat every american, every person in our country with the same decency, respect and they all deserve the same -- and you know. host: i completely understand and i understand what you are saying on that and it is the call is a democrat and republican or an independent and not a lot of republicans. we take the calls as they come in, and they are stacked as d, r, i an alternate them. if nobody is calling in i cannot take a republican call. that is how it works. unfortunately today in the first part of the show there were not a republican -- not a lot of republican callers calling in. we appreciate you calling that out.

that is the washington journal for today. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern for another program. now we take you live to the democratic national committee, event where they will vote on a new chair. this event is already underway. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ [chatter]

>> we are live at maryland's national harbor outside of washington, d.c. were members of the democratic national meeting our -- democratic national dimension are leading. we expect this to get underway shortly. live coverage here on c-span.

[chatter] ♪ host: this is washington journal for saturday, february 1. yesterday president trump announced tariffs on mexico, canada and china going and play starting today. also yesterday official gave updates on the midair collision of a passenger jet and u.s. army helicopter that killed 67 people. and also this week, several of president trump's cabinet picks testified at senate confirmation

hearings. those are a few of the stories that made headlines this week and to start the program we want to hear from you, what is your top news story of the week. here are the lines. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. you can text the comments to 202-748-8003. be sure to include your name and city. you can also post a question or comment at facebook.com/c-span or on x at cspanwj. we will get to stories as well as others in this first hour, but i first wanted to bring you an update on a story that has been developing. this headline from "the wall street journal." "hamas says the first american captive will be released.

the militant group would free 65-year-old israeli american keith siegel, who had been kidnapped from his home on october 23. he was taken with his wife, who was released in a previous cease-fire deal in november of 2023. " the article goes on to say that he immigrated to israel in his early 20's with his brother. he was last seen in a video released by hamas in april 2024 in which he broke down into tears as he spoke describing how he found the calling for his release until levine and -- tel aviv and jerusalem heartwarming. that would leave two american hostage. the bodies of four dead american hostages also remain in gaza. nbc with an update from them about two hours ago saying that

seigal arrived at a reception point in southern israel according to the idf. he will undergo an additional -- an initial medical assessment and reunite with members of his family. one of the senators from north where he is from, just at almost 4:30 this morning we are overjoyed for keith siegel and his loved ones at the long nightmare that began on october seventh 2023 is long over. keith is a united with his wife and family, fulfilling the prayers of millions across the united states and around the world. that is just one of the news stories that we have been following at c-span this week. another one, news yesterday from president trump as he announced that tariffs would go into place for mexico, canada and china. this from "the washington post"

saying that he was speaking in the oval office. the president denied that his enthusiasm for tariffs represented a negotiating device but that he was seeking specific concessions from other countries. that was in a response to a question if they might not be going into place. and it was yesterday in the oval that he spoke with reporters and explain more about the tariffs. here is a clip from that oval office. [video clip] >> let me just tell you i got elected for a lot of reasons. number one was a border and number -- >> kindly take your seats, we are about to begin.

>> good morning mr. chairman, we will be here all day. >> good morning. good morning. secretary, could you come here? yes sir. [chatter]

[chatter] >> we are live at maryland's national harbor outside of washington, d.c. where democrat -- where the members of the democratic national committee our meeting. on the docket, voting on a new chair to lead the party. we expect this to get underway shortly. live coverage here on c-span. [chatter]

>> let's do it quickly, because i have to get this rolling. ok. [chatter] >> thank you all. thank you. thank you.