of the kennedy center board? because i want to make sure it runs properly. we don't need wolk at kennedy center. we don't need some of the shows were terrible. there are disgraces. they were even put on. so i'll be there until such time as he gets to be running right. any shows there? how do you go? no, i get reports. it was so bad i didn't want it. i didn't want to go. there was nothing i wanted to see. thank you very much. and morning voters are voting. thank you. he was great. great. he's he's a great guy. he's he's very sad over his mother's past. he's a great guy. thank you. thank you. thank thank you, mr. president. c-span's washington journal, our live form involving you to discuss latest issues in government politics and public policy from washington and across the country.

coming up monday morning, stephen newcomb with axios discusses the week ahead in congress and republicans work with the trump administration's legislative agenda. then jeff mourdock, washington times, white house talks about the latest on president actions and white house news of the day and cato institute senior fellow dr. jeffrey singer examine the trump administration's approach to combating the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. washington journal join in the conversation live at seven eastern monday morning on c-span. c-span now are free mobile video app or online at c-span dot org. welcome back. we're joined now by skype harriman, who's president and ceo of democ crissy. forward here to chat with us about legal efforts to challenge the trump administration's agenda to washington journal. thank you for having me. can you talk a little bit about democracy for a word, what your

group does when you were founded, founded and how you're funded? sure. well, democracy forward is a legal organization that believes that the promise of democracy is open to everyone and that the courts have a really important frontline role to play in protecting people's rights and in protecting communities across the country. and our organization was founded actually in the wake of the 2016 election in early 2017, when we started seeing the trump pence administration. the time take a number of actions that were deeply harmful to people and communities. there were obviously things like the muslim ban which which a captured headline attention and that there were many legal challenges to stop our attempt to stop that destructive policy. but under the radar in ways that the media was not necessarily covering, the administration was doing a range of things at federal agencies that were really undermining people and

communities and in some instances, our democracy, as a whole, like when they set up the pence kobach voter suppression commission that that sought to to collect data on individual voters across the country. so our organization was founded to add legal capacity to ensure that people rights were protected at the federal level. after january 6th, 2021, we began expanding our efforts to counter far right extremism in state and local communities. and then now, with the federal landscape changing and with the way that we're seeing the trump administration operating, seeking to accelerate project 2025 and other harmful policies for people and communities across the country, we are also focused and now, you know, very much focused on ensuring that people's rights are protected through our legal actions. and how are you funded? we are funded by individuals and communities across the country. there is a way that you can go to donate on our website at

democracy forward dot org. and then we also are grateful for philanthropic support. so that's going to be grants from foundations and communities as well. what is your overall legal strategy when it comes to reacting to the trump administration's actions and how do you choose which cases you're going to pursue? well, we know the trump administration's playbook. there have been a few surprises, which we'll talk about, including his installation of elon musk and and doge across the federal government, seeking to really undermine the way our government functions for people. but we've know the playbook, and we saw it in the first administration when we saw it and project 2025. and so our strategy is to counter that playbook. we want to make sure that if this administration does things that harm people and communities and that and those things are unlawful, that there are swift legal challenges brought. and so you saw us, you know, you

saw us immediately be able to get into court when the administration froze essential services across the country with its spending and funding freeze in the matter of hours, getting there to get a court order to ensure that that people services were not disrupted or you. and so it's very it's sort of meeting the, quote, shock our approach of this administration with swift legal challenges that really ensure that people and communities have their rights protected. you mentioned musk and doge. why do you think what are the legal concerns that you have about this arrangement and the actions that the doge commission or agency or group has taken so far? well, there are a host of legal concerns and then there are a host of human concerns. and i have concerns about both of them because you ask about the legal concerns. i'll start by saying that, you know, doge has been operating in a nontransparent manner. we have a lawsuit filed to try

to force transparency requirements that federal law requires the american public gets to know about their government and who is influencing and advising the president and. we believe that they have violated a range of those. what we would call more transparency and accountability protections. but even beyond that, now, this institution or these sort of actors, elon musk and others, are violating things like the privacy act that protects the privacy of individuals across the country, that that prohibits the government from invading that privacy of that personal information. and they are operating in a way that violates our federal protections against arbitrary and capricious government, seeking to go in and even brag about how they're going in to rep shop across the federal government. and so we have a host of concerns. we are happy that the courts are beginning to check this

behavior, especially with the court order that. the attorneys general were able to were able to secure yesterday. with respect to treasury data. you had a meeting with the senate minority leader, chuck schumer, recently and he posted on x about the legal work that you all are doing to, quote unquote, protect the american people. what was the nature of this meeting? and will you be working directly with democrats on your legal challenges moving forward? you know, we're a nonpartisan organization and we invite anyone in this country, whether you're a conservative liberal, independent, whether you vote democrat, whether you vote republican, whether you. we hope you vote. but whether you don't vote, we invite everyone into our work, because this is really a moment that is not about one political party. it is not about one political perspective. it is about the country. it is about our people and our communities across the country. and it is about the future that this nation will have. and so we make ourselves available to brief lawmakers

when we are asked on the legal challenges, the concerns that we're seeing, what we're hearing from people and communities. and we will continue to do that at both the federal and the state level. recently, president trump gave his assessment of elon musk's actions and also accountability for them. let's listen to a bit of that and then i'll get your response rate and then finding tremendous waste really waste more than anything else. i think you could say probably fraud and abuse can be added to it. the more standard waste, fraud and abuse. but they're finding a tremendous amounts of really bad things, bad spending. i've been reading about you've been writing about some of it, frankly, and some of the things that they've doing is just terrible. leah elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval and we'll give him the approval

where appropriate. we're not appropriate. we won't. but he reports in and he it's it's something that he feels very strongly about. and i'm impressed because he's running obviously a big company has nothing to do if there's a conflict that we want, let him get near it. but he does have a good natural instinct. he's got a team of very talented people. we're trying to shrink government and he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else. your response. you know, i mean, there's nothing about efficiency happening right now going into agencies and taking individual personal information about the american people. your personal financial information, health care, infamy, ocean wage and our information. that is not a fast track to government efficiency, dismantling services across the country in by the way, red communities and blue communities, big cities and rural areas. that's not that is not

efficiency. this is really an effort that we're seeing an unprecedented effort in this country to have unelected and unequal billionaire and individuals seeking to really infiltrate the united states government and to do things that are harmful to all of us, regardless of what your political persuasion is. i'll just say that efficiency in government is incredibly important. we need our government to do better. but what we know and what data shows is that the quickest way the fast track to a less efficient government, a more corrupt government, one that does not run on time or work for the people, is a government like what you're seeing now where where loyalty is the calling card of the day, where civil servants are being attacked are those that, you know, people who served and engage in public service for this country under democratic administrations, under republican

administrations, they're being attacked and where there is an effort to install loyalists within our federal government as opposed to those that work for the people. and so this is really a smokescreen for what is appears to be a very corrosive and harmful private agenda. and it's not any way that we are going to accomplish a greater and more effective government that works for the people in this country. there have been a variety of, well, just many actions taken by the trump administration so far that have resulted in legal challenges and some that have been successful that are still in progress. i just want to talk about one of them. the administration had argued for a temporary pause in funding while it examines spending practices. this was a statement from the former acting director of the office of management budget, matthew veith. i should say that we have now a current acting omb director, russ vought, who was confirmed on thursday night. but back in juary, what the

omb was saying was in the interim, to the extent rmissible under appe law, federal agencies must temporarily pause al activitie related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance and oer relevant aactities that may be implicated by the executive orders. this temporaryprove the administration timto review e best uses othe funding fore those programs consistent with the law and the president's priorities. this created a lot of backlash. what is your take on the legality of this approach? well, it's unlawful and we were able to get a court to pause this within, i believe, 24 hours of the memo coming out. it was a callous disregard for the american. this approach did not do anything to enhance efficiency or to create reviews times or

contemplation about our federal spending or our federal government. what it did was that it shut off things like head start, meals on wheels, services that rural areas rely on, services that urban areas rely on, that blue states rely on the red states rely on. and it was a national crisis. and so we were pleased to go into court with our clients, the national council of nonprofits which, by the way, has a membership that is highly diverse. right? nonprofits, some of them some of them do things you agree with. some of them do things you might not agree with. but this was the national council of nonprofits, the american public health association, that we're seeing in real time the harms to health care. there were a reports about medicaid portals being closed off the main street alliance, which was small businesses across the country and then an advocacy, a civil rights advocacy organization. and so the federal court, you know, the federal court was able to pause the administration's arbitrary activities. it then extended that pause last

week and there will be more briefing. but this is an example of arbitrary behavior by this administration that is deeply, it's not only troubling from a legal perspective, it's troubling from a human perspective, because this isn't serving anyone. and you saw the white house come out scrambling after the court ruled members of congress were having to mobilize because their communities were not getting what they needed. and so i think that this was the courts have, of course, provided a really important check. but i think if this is sort of a preview of how this administration is going to operate, what we're seeing is that they're not really operating in a way that is making people's better in the day to day, but rather operating in sort of a chaotic way that's really causing a lot of uncertainty, but also harm to people who, by the way, some are still not getting the funding because of backlogs, because you can't just turn, you know, turn

on and off switches like like the government ought to do. so i think this was a real troubling a real troubling activity that the government that the trump administration relied on and i was pleased that we were able to help communities across the country get relief in court. and i should also mention that the trump administration later rescinded that memo. but the issue, as you mentioned, some of the issues are still ongoing. c-span, democracy unfiltered. we're funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. and we're just getting started building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. charter communications support c-span as a public service, along with these other television pviders, giving you a front row seat to democracy.

next on c-span's q&a, reginald dwayne betts talks about the impact that dr. king's letter from birmingham jail had on him when he read it in prison and the life he has led since getting out, including founding freedom, roads and organization that builds libraries, prisons, then prime minister keir starmer addresses energy security, children's mental health and suicide prevention during his weekly question time before the house of commons and later president, trump welcomes israeli prime minister netanyahu to the white