host: this is "washington journal" for monday, february 10. it's been three weeks since president trump was sworn into office. since then, he's taken dozens of

actions aimed at fulfilling campaign promises, including shrinking the federal government and carrying out massive deportation across the country. we're asking to you grade president trump's first three weeks in office. here are the lines. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text your comments to 202-748-8003. be sure to include your name and city. you can also post a question or comment on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. or on x, @cspanwj. good morning, and thank you for being with us today. we'll get to your calls and comments in just a few moments, but first, wanted to share some new polling on our topic from cbs news. the head lean, trump has positive approval amid energetic opening weeks, seen as doing

what he promised. the article says with most describing him as tough, energetic, focused, and effective, and doing as he promised during his campaign, president trump has started his term with net positive marks from americans overall. many say he's doing more than expected. of those who say this, most like what they see. very few think he's doing less. his partisan and his voters in particular say he's got the right amount of focus on matters, like ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and deporting those who are in the country illegally. he goes on to say his deportation policy finds majority approval overall, just as many voters said they wanted during the campaign, and that extends to sending troops to the border too. one key issue looms, americans say the administration isn't focused enough on lowering prices.

inflation was the seen as a key reason mr. trump won the election. the poll finds overall that president trump's overall job rating, 53% approve, 47% disapproving. president trump was on fox news yesterday. an article from the outlet says president trump details his plans to input doge lead elon musk to probe the education, defense departments for wasteful spending. the president told fox news chief political anchor bret baier in an exclusive pre-super bowl interview that the billionaire entrepreneur has been a trustworthy ally in fulfilling his promise to cut red tape. the article talks about the interview. it aired just before yesterday's super bowl. it focused on the changes the trump administration has enacted since the inauguration last

month and the first 100 days of his presidency. from yesterday's interview on fox news, here's president trump talking about his efforts to cut the government and also elon musk's role. >> some of your plays have raised some questions and had some pushbacks. 19 states' attorneys general filed a lawsuit, and early saturday a judge agreed with them to restrict elon musk and his government efficiency team, doge, from accessing treasury department payment and data systems. they said there was a risk of irreparable harm. what do you make of that, and does that slow you down in what you want to do? >> i disagree with it 100%. i think it's crazy. we have to solve the efficiency problem. we have to solve the fraud, waste, abuse, all. things that have gone on in goth. you take a look at the usaid, the kind of fraud this in there -- >> you found significant fraud? >> we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of money going to places where it shouldn't be going, where, if i read a list, you'd say this is ridiculous. you read the same list.

there are many that you vanity even seen. it's crazy. it's a big scam. now, there's some good money, and we can do that through any one of a number -- i think i'd rather give it to marco rubio at the state department. let him take care of the few good ones. so i don't know if it's kickbacks or what's going on, but the people -- look, i ran on this, and the people want me to find it. and i've had a great help with elon musk, who's been terrific. >> you say you trust him? >> trust elon? oh, he's not gaining anything. in fact, i wonder how he can devote the time to it, he's so into it. but i told him do that. then i'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the department of education. he's going find the same thing. then i'm going to go to the military. let's check the military. we're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. but i campaigned on this, bret. host: more of that interview is expected to air today on fox news on "special report with

bret baierer." this first hour, we are asking you to grade president trump's first three weeks in office. we will start with mitchell in new jersey, line for democrats. good morning, mitchell. caller: good morning. i give him a complete f, and here's why. it's one thing to go after waste and abuse, but it's another thing to just do these things criminally. there is no possible way that you can have audits, accurate audits of what these individual departments do in two weeks. these are complex organizations. and the other thing is that he's violating the article one powers of congress by just going in and dismantling these agencies. for instance, the omb director has basically said he's going shut down the consumer financial protection bureau. they're making things up.

they've been fact checked on a number of things like as an example, they have said that the usaid is delivering -- i heard trump say $100 million of condoms to hamas. it's just a lie. it's just not true. they're being called into court, and now the latest thing, and this is something that i think all your viewers should be really cognizant of and really concerned about, is they are starting to push back on following the court orders. thom tillis two days ago said, i'm quoting, that, yes, the axes of musk and company runs afoul of the constitution in the strictest sense, but nobody should belly ache about that. j.d. vance had said that they should stand up like andrew

jackson did and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him try to enforce it. and yesterday vance also expanded on that, saying the judges who are pushing back on trump's executive orders argue they're going too far f. a judge tries to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal f. a judge tried to command the attorney general in hue to uses her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. elon musk condemned a judge who ruled against doge's actions, saying a corrupt judge is protecting corruptions, he needs to be impeached now. this is really, really dangerous stuff that's going on in this country. and i know somebody in the republicans, they're going to say joe biden didn't follow the law and he gave out student loans, which isn't factually true. he just found a pool of money that was legal, and he didn't disregard court orders. i know that's going to come up in the response to what i'm saying here. this is a very, very dangerous

thing. once the rule of law is circumvented by the administration, and that's exactly what they're trying to do, and they're aided and abetted by their party, where are we as a country? that's all i have to say. i appreciate you listening. host: we'll go to john in connecticut, line for republicans. good morning, john. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. caller: yes, i'm grading president trump pretty well right now. this is what he campaigned on. let's give him a chance and see what happens. it's only -- it isn't even a full month yet, and we got four years. let's give the man a chance and his administration. let's all work together and just make this country better than it was. not just the past administration, the whole, everyone, every administration, we got to get back to normalcy around here, and that's all i'm saying.

but thank you for your time. host: thomas in south dakota, line for independents. good morning, thomas. caller: good morning. i just want to thank c-span for the great coverage. i love it. i watch it every day. i worked for robert f. kennedy jr.'s campaign for president. one thing i want to mention here, i give president trump an a+ in a sense of getting action done. number one is, we have, since 1997 till now, have lived on continuing resolutions and i think they may be doing it the wrong way, but i know one thing, to take $200 billion out of the defense department would be very, very good thing to do. and i know they can do that.

another point i want to make is that those continuing resolutions, mr. trump may enhance the congress, the congress not to meet only 113 days a week and not get their work done before the time they need to, maybe they will start getting it done before they need to get it done. and it will be more effective to stop the fraud and abuse. but anyway, let's give him a chance, and i agree with the caller from connecticut. let's just try to compromise and work things out. host: thomas, your governor, former governor kristi noem, is now homeland security secretary, and she's been taking an active role in the administration's deportation efforts. what do you think about how they're doing there? caller: that's a great question.

to answer that, i would have to at least know more in 90 days, how this all plays out. host: thomas in south dakota. dennis in williamsport, pennsylvania, line for democrats. good morning, dennis. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i give trump a triple f. he ran on lowering prices. all these executive orders he's signed, not one of them has anything to do with lowering prices. in fact, most of them will raise prices because of his tariffs. and since he ran on, that was one of his principal things, running on lower grocery prices and stuff. he gets an f, because he has done nothing, nothing to lower prices. have a nice day and thank you. host: jason in texas, line for independents. good morning, jason. caller: good morning. how you doing?

i give him an a, i guess, for shaking up the system. that's what he wanted to go in there and do. one of his campaign promises was to make more leaner, efficient government that we need. we don't get $36 trillion in debt because you're lean and efficient, and there's no corruption at all. obviously there's some kind of corruption going on there. otherwise people wouldn't be pushing back so hard up there. they're used to a certain lifestyle. i give him an a for closing the border and dealing with border issues. the previous administration had an f on that. also give him an a for what he's doing in north carolina, trying to do in california. and other than that, i don't want to hold up other callers, so i'm going to let you go. thank you. host: democrats in congress have been pushing back on president trump's efforts and calling out

elon musk's involvement in efforts to cut government funding. it was yesterday on abc news "this week" that senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut, was talking about, was responding to president trump's efforts. here is a clip from that interview. >> listen, i think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since watergate. the president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes. the president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends. he can punish his political enemies. that is this iteration of democracy. you stand that next to the wholesale endorsement of political violence with the pardons given to every single january of rioter, including the most violent, who beat police officers over the head with baseball bats, and you can see what he's trying to do here. he is trying to crush his

opposition by making them afraid of losing federal funding, by making them afraid of physical violence. so, yes, this is a red alert moment, when this entire country has to understand that our democracy is at risk, and for what? the billionaire takeover of government. i'm sure we'll talk about this, but elon musk is inside our federal agencies -- >> let me just say right now, they want to cut the federal budget. they would disagree that it's corruption or anything else. they want to cut the federal budget and the workforce. do you have issues with that? >> well, i don't, but there's no evidence that that is the goal. ultimately at usaid, they sent a whole bunch of people home who were still getting paid. and i think you have to ask why are they doing this. if it's not actually accruing any savings. to me, again, the reason is that somebody like elon musk stands

to gain from the closure of usaid. it makes america much less safe around the world, but it helps china. usaid is a thorn in the side of the chinese government. elon musk has many major business interests at stake inside beijing, and so making beijing happy is going to accrue to the financial benefit of elon musk and many billionaires who outsource work to china. host: senator chris murphy talking about elon musk's doge efforts. one of the programs that they have put in place was a deferred resignation offer to federal government employees. this headline from the associated press, judge temporarily blocks trump plan offering incentives for federal workers to resign. this happened, this is from saturday morning, a federal judge temporarily blocked president trump's plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, the latest turmoil for federal

government employees already wrestling with upheaval from the new administration. thursday's ruling came hours before the midnight deadline to apply for the deferred resignation program, which was orchestrated by trump advisor elon musk. more on that hearing is expected to be held today. a federal judge will hear more in that case, that temporary block. a caller bringing up vice president vance's response to that ruling. he says if a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. if a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. judges aren't allowed to control the executive legitimate power. back to your calls, asking you to grade president trump's first three weeks in office. steve, san jose, california, line for republicans. good morning, steve.

caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i would grade him an a. only because i don't want him to lose focus, and i think he might have lost just a tad of focus by naming, renaming mount mckinley, renaming the gulf of mexico. those things are not of interest to a lot of people. but i give him an a, and have you noticed that he is laser-focused on several issues, reducing waste and fraud.

the cries of the democrats regarding musk, to me they ring hollow. musk is privy to a lot of secrets regarding space technology. he would do nothing, i trust him explicitly, he would do nothing to hurt national security. and curious, curiously, have you noticed how the democrats, the liberals, the progressives don't want to talk about everything that musk is uncovering, especially regarding usaid. laura engram, among others, conservative tv, conservative

radio, is just listing them repeatedly, but none of your liberal papers, none of your liberal tv stations have listed them. they don't want to talk about them. you might ask a caller, a liberal, progressive, democrat caller why they don't want to talk about them. i'll let you go. host: steve, we'll go to diane in st. paul, minnesota, line for democrats. good morning, diane. caller: good morning. i thank you for taking my call. what i'm calling about, i rate mr. trump, i give him an f below f, for the simple reason that i watch him now making an attempt to dismantle all ways that people of color have a way of

getting jobs. i'm 75 years old. i know had it not been for the federal government that i was able to get a job, even with a master's degree, i was able to get the master's degree because there were programs out there for me. so i could raise my family out of poverty. and we had to compete, we have to compete with white meals. and what the white males are mad about now, we come in, people of color come in, and we qualify, because we couldn't get a job with somebody telling us that we come out of high school. but i worked for a warden, because i worked in corrections. i worked for a warden who didn't have no college. i had a master's degree, and i couldn't have gotten a job that he got. that's here in minnesota. so i can imagine what it's like down south. i know what it's leak down south. i was born and raised in

arkansas, and we have white kids, books, we don't get new books, and we only had one-room school house. white kids had the good schools to go to. we didn't have them. and if we go back to that, because i think this is what america is all about, putting them on top and us on the bottom. and the other thing, i wish you would check for me about this, nobody mentioned about it, about this special order that the president has given, has given to south africa, and what he says is that the afrikanos are being mistreated, and he wants to give them the permission to be able to migrate here to america or wherever else with a special order. that's not right. that's discrimination. because there are also black

people in africa who want to come to america, but no, he's making a special order. will you check that out for me, please? they haven't mentioned that at all about the executive order he made for the afrikanos out of africa, who have -- who have been there for just decades. i've been to africa. i've been to south africa. this is about the south africa people. he's making special, it's all right -- host: we got your point, diane. we'll go on to mark in new york, line for independents. good morning, mark. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i find it very interesting that people either grade trump an a or an f. i'm definitely in the f category. he ran on lowering prices.

i vanity seen any prices go/i haven't seen any prices go lower. i haven't seen any executive orders trying to help people in their day-to-day lives. all his executive orders are political. he's not just trying to get rid of fraud, waste and abuse. why would he get rid of all the foreign aid? i mean, there's going to be probably a million people in sudan that starve now because they're not going to get food that we provided for them. this is less than 1% of our economy. and they do say that they are going to audit the pentagon. i have to see it to believe it, but that is the biggest waste of our money. so we spend $900 billion a year on the pentagon and it never gets touched. it's never passed an audit. and he just shuts down usaid, because god forbid we actually help people who are starving. but this is what maga is all about. it's about cruelty. it's about racism.

it's about making crime the way of the land. host: mark, you were talking about the economy in the past three weeks. have you seen, have you had any changes to what you're seeing where you are for better or worse, or your personal situation? caller: no, absolutely not. we'll see what happens with the stock market. i'm retired. i depend on my investments. i depend on social security. i don't trust him at all. i believe he's going to try to cut social security, medicare, all the things that help people, because they're not interested in helping people. they're interested in the billionaires having total power. that's what trump is really there for. and if anybody thinks different, well, they're just in a big bubble. host: mark in new york. janet in arizona, line for independents. good morning, janet. caller: good morning. i'm really feeling like i'm on

the titanic with this gentleman that's running our country. i feel the immigrant system needs to be improved. these are hard-working people. we shouldn't gather them up and put them in cuba. we should pick up all the lazy, drug-addicted, nonworking people laying around in our parks that can't even speak anymore. the homeless problem in our country is way worse than the immigrant problem. and i'm just so sad for america. thank you. goodbye. host: that was janet in arizona. janet talking about immigration. the bbc had an article on friday outlining some of president trump's actions, says 17 things trump and his team did this week. one of those, number eight, sent first plane of deportees to guantanamo. u.s. sent first group of

migrants to guantanamo bay on tuesday after trump announced plans to expand migrant detention at the u.s. navy base in cuba. it was yesterday on cnn's state of the union that homeland security secretary kristi noem was questioned about the legality of those efforts and how long they would be detained. >> undocumented immigrants detained in the united states, as you know too much, have a right to legal counsel and due process. but one of the questions is about whether or not guantanamo, you have the law on your side to actually use guantanamo for this purpose. we have seen, at least we know about the 9/11 detainees there. we also know that when somebody who was trying to get into the united states illegally is interdict at sea, they've been brought to guantanamo.

i don't believe that people who are already on u.s. soil have been brought to guantanamo. >> well, guantanamo bay has been used for migrants in the past, you're right, when they've been coming to the united states -- >> do you have a legal basis? are you comfortable that it is legal to bring people who are already on u.s. soil to guantanamo? >> i am, and the president is comfortable with that in&his legal scholars are. obviously there will be people that will be critics of that. but we are standing up the operations, believing we have all legal right and authority to do so. that facility has been used for migrants in the past. the direction that they're flowing, agreements that we have with their home countries will continue to keep that population changing. >> a lot of this, as you said, the timeline for how long people are going to be there, depends on whether or not anybody is going to take them. >> right. >> so it could be some people are going to be there undefinitely. >> what's interesting is the previous administration knew who these people were that were committing these crimes. they knew where these folks that had final removal orders were in

our country, could have negotiated agreements with these other countries to take them back home and didn't. and we saw countries like venezuela release their prisons and mental -- >> what are you doing? are you comfortable that you're going to be able to not keep them there indefinitely? >> i'm super thrilled that secretary of state rubio has been actively going out and negotiating, taking people home. that's part of all the decisions on when we identify people in communities. as soon as we're able to go get them and return them back home as quickly as possible. my goal is people are not in these facilities for weeks and months. my goal is that there's a short-term stay, they're able to follow the process and get them back to their countries. >> that's your goal, but not ruling out they could be there for weeks. >> i'm not. i'm not going to rule that out, because we are going to continue to make sure that we're talking with every single country, but it's not an option for us to legal people illegally anymore. american citizens have been put behind people who have chosen to come and break our laws, and that's not going happen anymore.

host: about 30 must not left in this first hour -- about 30 minutes left in this first hour, asking to you grade president trump's first three weeks in office. next to tim in kentucky, line for democrats. good morning, tim. caller: good morning, everybody. i'm going to give him an z, and i want to give a shout out to the guy from new york. he's dead on, spot on. i don't have any problem with musk and all this. i disagree with it, but i don't have any problems with getting rid of fraud, with getting rid of fraud waste and abuse and all of that. that is fine and dandy. he has an agenda and his agenda is right wing extremism and he is out to destroy everything that he calls the left wing lunatics, whatever, all of that.

that is his agenda. stuff his own pockets with money and destroy democracy. that is what i am against. let's do it right. let's give elon musk oversight. that's all. thank you. host: ken in florida, line for republicans. caller: i appreciate c-span. i believe everybody is missing the point. trump was given absolute immunity for official acts by the supreme court and he can do anything he wants. and claim immunity or whatever. he and all of the presidents men

are going to do anything they want, legal or illegal. he can claim immunity. all the presidents men can say the president ordered me to do this so it is all on trump. it will get worse before it gets better. a mere three weeks into his presidency and i believe we are already living under full-blown fascist racist dictatorship and it will get worse before it gets better. the only thing that is going to stop him is a supreme court reversal of that immunity. host: you're calling on the republican line. did you vote for president in 2024 or any of the other elections? caller: never voted for him.

i never followed him before in his private life but any time i ever saw anything about him from 20 or 30 years ago i was given the very distinct impression that he is a lowlife sleaze ball opportunist and he will do anything for money. i never voted for him. still the supreme court reverses that -- somebody has to bring a case to the supreme court that focuses on that one specific issue. we are either a country of laws or we are lawless. host: we will go to joseph in west virginia. line for independents. caller: good morning. i would grade trump f-.

here are the highlights of why. in over 225 years our country has never been attacked and overcome by forces outside the country. presently we have forces within the country headed by this man dissembling our democracy, disassembling our country. i am very shocked and ashamed. i am old but i have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren that have to live here. i don't know what the future is going to be like. this man -- i have served 22 years in the service.

i was proud to serve my country and defend it. i've heard this man called paper who died in service of our country losers and suckers. this fatally flawed man, a convicted felon, corrupt, is now running our country. the role of the has been bent and he is above it. all i can say is god help us. host: that is joseph in west virginia. tony in michigan, line for democrats. good morning. caller: i will jump on that guy who was just cut off the air. people should look at what is going on just like the guy said in florida. he has carte blanche. look at what he has. he has the fbi, the cia.

if the supreme court made a ruling and he decided not to follow that ruling, who is to police him? there is nobody. it is a really scary thought. our way of living in the united states is about to change and the laws we thought we were being governed by. thank you. host: we go to jeff in north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. hello? host: are you there? caller: can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: i would give him an a+. you have to realize this man has been there three weeks. what you think he is going to find in six months? a lot of these people fight it

and it is going to the supreme court. it is going to happen, sit back and let it happen. these callers call in, if trump cured cancer they would still hate on him. a lot of these callers, these democrats, just hate, hate. i think a lot of them was up on easter sunday dressed as transvestites flashing their fake boobs. that is what i think. give the man a chance. host: that is jeff in michigan. the article from roll call talking about the budget effort, efforts to fund the government. we would be talking more about that during 8:00 our with our guest. first, the article says "house republican leaders emerged late thursday from a roughly three hour meeting without an agreement on the contours of the massive budget reconciliation

package they have been talking about for weeks. earlier in the day top republicans met with trump at the white house to try to work through remaining issues. the key sticking point was cost. trump's priorities including permit extensions of his 2017 tax cuts plus new tax breaks and spending could push the price tag near $6 trillion." it was yesterday before the super bowl on fox news sunday that house speaker mike johnson spoke about where the budget efforts to fund the budget stand. [video clip] >> you're working on getting the framework together for the budget, for the vehicle, including the tax cuts. your colleagues on the senate side say it is time to get moving. he says i have tremendous respect for speaker johnson and i hope the house will move forward soon but we cannot allow

this moment to pass we cannot let president trump's america first agenda stall. one of the things he cites is border czar tom holamn and he says he will run out of money. he is not going to wait for the house. >> lindsey graham is a good friend and i understand what they are engaging in, they want to move the agenda and so do we. he is working at breakneck pace to do that with the executive branch and we will do it with legislation. it is very complicated and complex set of things we are delivering. of course we will secure the border and mixer american committees are safe, we will get american energy dominance going again but to do that in one bill takes a little bit of time. we are working through that process productively. we have been building on this for years.

we spent 4.5 hours at the white house on thursday and three outers later that evening working through the final details and we are very close. i appreciate the senate's zeal and we have it in the house but i have about 170 additional personalities to deal with and he only has 53 on the republican side. we have a diverse caucus with a lot of interests but we will get this done. host: back to your calls asking you to great president trump's first three weeks in office. we go to roland in detroit, line for independents. caller: i will give president trump an f. it is because although i think biden and his prosecutors unfairly targeted him with all of these charges, trump seems to be on a revenge tour which is

not healthy, it is not a healthy thing to exact revenge. some scholar once said on your way to revenge make sure you dig two graves. this country is too massive and powerful to engage in that kinds of child's play. i still am holding onto confidence that the three branches of government will smartly and intelligently and independently look at everything and make good calls. don't do it because trump said you should do it. that supreme court, i am sure they will become more flexible. even congress, they will not let just anything go through. that is my hope and as far as

elon musk doing an audit, a billionaire who has nothing to lose, why doesn't trump and united states hire an independent auditor like ernst & young to look at the books? why don't they have this guy -- why do they have this guy? it makes no sense. i look forward to this country and our country and our world moving anymore progressive, fairway. host: that was roland in detroit. josie in new york, line for democrats. caller: good morning. i'm a democrat but i have voted republican. i'm not going to grade trump. i will simply say this is supposed to be a democracy. it seems more like a dictatorship.

i am 66 years old. no prices have went down. i want everybody to be treated fairly. i also don't like the fact that he put musk in there. what does he have to do with anything? he was not elected. i don't trust it, that is my opinion. it is not because i'm anti-republican or anti-democrat. it is because of what i am seeing going on. some things i do like that he has done but others i do not. it seems more like he is a dictator and it frightens me. i future generation family, i am already a senior citizen. i watch c-span, i'm not really political but i've been watching c-span and i want to thank you i want to wish you a pleasant day. thank you. host: that is josie in new york.

steve in new york city. line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning up i would give him in an a+++ at all i want to say is all of you people calling in and giving him an f you should remember you are selling us for four years that your guy was in great cognitive health when he was clearly demented and that is what was running the country. we still have no clue who was running the country. we want to know. two abide by the rule -- we want to abide by the rule there is one law, not two, not three. you do not get a free pass. what about all of these people

who were spying on the campaign? you are crooked people and we are going to find out who you are and we are going to get rid of you politically. we will drive you out of office. i expect after they find out what usaid was into lots of you will resign, lots of your politicians and your party people are going to resign because they were laundering money and they were setting up operations, lawfare. host: will leave it there will stop a reminder to our colliers -- we will leave it there and a reminder to our callers that you can be passionate without using language. caller: this is my first time calling. i don't know how to grade his

first three weeks. i am curious to see what he is going to do in his next 90 days so. host: what you want to see him focus on? caller: i want to see him focus on what he said he was going to do in terms of lowering prices and i've not seen anything about that. on gas, groceries, and so forth. it seems like everything has been going up. it will take time for stuff to actually go down. he is focusing on the wrong things in my opinion. if i am going to grade him, i would give him a d right now because i feel like he is focusing on the wrong things. host: that is timothy in new york. william in houston, line for

democrats. caller: good morning, c-span. he does not get an f because he is a convicted criminal and draft dodger -- i just wanted to say all of the people that are going to get terminated, they deserve it, because that is what they voted for. i worked in corporate america for 40 years and in my department in those 40 years i worked with a handful of african-americans. this whole issue about d.e.i. being targeted towards minorities -- once these departments to the clearance they are doing will hurt the maga's because they hold 95% of

federal jobs. we will see how they feel when they come home and they do not have a paycheck and when they sit at home and are not going to be get themselves paid because once they leave their jobs under circumstances of this illegal way they are doing it they violated themselves. you will see. have a good j -- have a good day and enjoy it and i want to sit back and watch. i just paid $1000 on $20,000 worth of social security so don't tell me if you are making less than $300,000 you would get a tax break. have a great day and enjoy watching the dog and pony show. host: that was william in houston. we go to lisa in alexandria, virginia. line for republicans. caller: good morning. i would give the president an a

because their statements all weekend long was when they stop the funding for usaid there were babies that were going to be starving for necessary food they were giving them. my question is here we are in america being overpriced for food and all of our food is coming from other countries. that is why we are paying higher prices because of the tariffs. where is usaid buying the food from, what country, and it is time -- overdue to slim down this government. you cannot have all of these employees and keep paying them and expect to get the budget into a balance. i think we need to go back to a balanced budget so we can stop spending money on unnecessary things and on people in governments own agenda versus

what the president's agenda. that is why we have a new president's because we want them to set their agenda and the government employees are under the executive office and they should be following his agenda. that is the bottom line. host: when looking at cuts to the government you think president trump and elon musk are on the right track or are there other areas you think they should look at? caller: definitely. number one, the agriculture to see where the money is going and number two, we have foreign agricultural services, we have foreign services in hhs and foreign services in almost every agency. why are we using another agency to send money? the money is going out from every agency. the pentagon. that definitely needs to be

looked at. everybody knows that for decades they have been selling. we know auditors come in from outside the government and they do this all the time, they go over government spending and they are given information. i do not see any difference in what they are doing -- there is no difference. host: that was lisa in virginia. looking at the list from bbc, wrapping up residence actions last week. number one was proposed the u.s. takeover of gaza. "at a joint press conference with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at the white house on tuesday trump said the u.s. would take over and own gaza, reselling its palestinian

population in the process. from proposed developing the territory devastated after 15 months of war between israel and hamas into the riviera of the middle east. " it was yesterday on cbs's face the nation that democratic representative elana omar of minnesota was asked about that plan. [video clip] >> i want to ask you something president trump said this week alongside the israeli prime minister. take a listen. >> the u.s. will take over the gaza strip and we will do a job with it. we will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site. >> the president said palestinians would be permanently removed. how do you think this is heard and understood around the world? >> that is just plain ethnic cleansing and genocide is what he is talking about.

the palestinian people will remain in gaza. there is no support around the world for the ludicrous suggestion that he is making. >> e said give them a choice to leave, open the gates. >> i am sure most of the people in gaza would love to remain in their homeland. host: just a few minutes left in this first hour. we go to david in new jersey, line four independents. caller: two points, one about israel and one about the budget. what i have noticed with israel in comments that are made and actions taken around the country since hamas attacked is that people in whom -- and there are a ton of them as shown by the rates of anti-semitism in this u.s., which are at a record level, people in whom

anti-semitism is a deeply rooted illness have used all the actions of israel since the hamas attack and comments by the president of the united states as a vehicle, a front, to get on c-span, to agitate on campuses, and i want to be objective. i lived in israel. there are more than enough reasons to criticize israel, to raise questions about israel. benjamin netanyahu -- host: bring it back to our question, we are gritting president trump's first three weeks in office. caller: ok. thk you. i think i would rate it as -- a c with a lot of vagaries. i think gaza will remain a problem. i am also deeply concerned that

people use the front of being concerned about people in gaza and people in israel to express anti-semitism. i would say it is half of the people. we are at record anti-semitism. host: got your point. we go to charles in alabama. line for democrats. good morning. caller: first time caller. i will grade president trump an f. that is all i have to say. host: tell me more about why you're giving him that great? caller: he can't stay on one topic. he is all over the place. i don't know about the gaza strip and the panama canal and all this. he is all over the place. host: what would you like to see him focus on? caller: just doing the right

thing. he just needs to do the right thing. you can fire a bunch of people and think the government will run straight. host: we will go to steve in massachusetts. line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i hope your favorite team won yesterday. i notice you wearing green, i'm a patriots fan. i would give president trump -- report cards have lots of great. i will give him an a on the border, everything else is incomplete. the reason i give him an a, harkening back to andrew jackson and the nullification crisis, south carolina wanted to secede at the time due to protective tariffs. they wanted to get their kotten to market, to britain and france

and whoever wanted it. there economy was supported by slavery. eventually jackson said he would use force and also they compromised on the tariffs and they would lower them down. today, and i mentioned the border crisis, we have all of these sanctuary cities. this is the same thing. i cringe when i hear a democrat or anybody saying these are the people we can use to clean our floors and serve food. this is the equivalent to serfdom and i think president trump will call out these sanctuary cities. it is simply a nullification crisis. they are not following federal law just like under slavery with jackson. i will leave it there. i could go on all sorts of tangents but i appreciate c-span

and you taking my call. host: that is our last call in this first hour is bristol in philadelphia. line for democrats. good morning crystal. caller: yo, yo, yo from the champion city of philadelphia. i was so happy about that. the last guy was talking about the cotton tariffs. cotton that was picked with three raber. give everybody rights and no rights. shameless jellyfish, that is what the republicans are. trump lines the hallway with military as he walks down the hall to talk about ridiculous nonsense. a pack of lackeys. they are the losers and suckers. we are left to pay the price. it doesn't make any sense to take away rights left and right.

for this convict, loser, rapist. it is a horrible situation america finds itself in. i tell people to look at what he is doing, look at what he is doing. he puts all of his people in here and they talk about buying the panama canal. my price of eggs, i had a nice little party yesterday and the prices are up. he was going to liberate ukrainians. he is a liar. please wake up. thank you. host: that is the first hour of "washington journal." next we will be joined by axios's stephen neukam to discuss the week ahead with congress and the republicans work with trump administration

on advancing its legislative agenda and later cato institute senior fellow jeffrey singer will discuss the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. and the trump administration's approach to addressing it. we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in session. the house will consider legislation establishing new penalties for evading u.s. border patrol agents in car chases. the senate continues voting on president trump's cabinet nominees including tulsi gabbard and robert f. kennedy, jr.. the chair of the federal reserve jerome powell will give the semiannual monetary policy port before two committees, first before the senate banking committee and on wednesday before the house fincial services committee.

also c-span continues our comprehensive coverage of comprehensive -- of confiatn hearings for president-elect trump's cabinet nominees. thlar and pension committee willolhearings for two nominees. former oregon republican congresswoman lori chavedrm or for secretary of labor and on thursday for former businesswoman linda mcmahon who is a nomination for secretary of education. the senate judiciary committee will note -- will vote on the nomination of cash patel for director of the fbi. watch live on the c-span networks or on c-span now. also head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on-demand anytime. c-span, democracy unfiltered. nonfiction book lovers, c-span has podcasts for you. listen to best-selling nonfiction offers and influential influencers and on

q&a hear wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others were making things happen and book notes plus episodes are weekly hour-long conversations that regulate feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> democracy. it is not just an idea, it is a process shaped by leaders elected the highest offices and entrusted to a select few regarding its basic principles. it is where debates unfold, decisions are made, the nation course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span giving you your democracy unfiltered.

listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is easy. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 eastern. important public affairs events throughout the day and weekdays catch washington today. listen to c-span any time. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. c-span, created by table -- by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is stephen neukam co-author of axios's hill newsletter. we are talking about the trump agenda. thank you for being with us. we will start with congress and what they are working on. number one is the budget. remind our audience what the fiscal deadline congress is facing our -- congress is facing

are? guest: they have a funding deadline august 18. this is the deal they made last year that they would kick government funding into early in his first 100 days. now they are coming up against that. the short of it is they are just not on track to get this done by march 14. at least the regular order passed all of these bills. they need to supercharge this process over the next month and if they are going to reach the march 14 deadline we will need action from appropriators and from leadership in the next two weeks. host: a phrase will be hearing a lot of his reconciliation. this is a legislative maneuver the gop could use, explain what that is. guest: the budget reconciliation process allows republicans in the senate to circumvent the filibuster process say they will

not need 60 votes in the senate, they only need 50, which is a big hurdle for any party in the senate. what they are able to do there is move money around, change federal spending priorities, they cannot necessarily make policy for the reconciliation process, but they can allocate money differently for different priorities and different office so they are trying to take two bites of the apple, the house gop is. they want to do a border bill and another one that has to do with taxes and tax reform and extending those tax cuts. in the first year of the trump administration this is the biggest thing that is in front of them. host: something else we could be hearing is the phrase budget resolutions. both the house and senate can use those. explain what they are and what role they can play in the process. guest: right now that is the big hold up on the resolutions and

tried to figure out which chamber will go first in this process. the issue for republicans, the biggest issue on capitol hill as they have a very slim house majority. the challenge is to get anything through that house that most likely will get through the senate. they've been trying to figure out which chamber will go first. they want the house to go first. they have had major delays and the markups with their budget resolutions. the senate last week unveiled its first budget resolution ready to go. if they have to, procedurally in the senate it is slower to get that started and that is usually why they defer to the house. we will see how much patient senate majority leader john thune has with house speaker mike johnson to get the troops in order on the house side and get a budget resolution done. host: it was senator lindsey graham who is the chair of the senate budget committee who announced the senate has their bill ready to go.

the house does not. other than the approach to final passage, what we know about the house and senate, the differences in their priorities. guest: they want to do the same things. they have the same agenda. it is how they get there. mike johnson wants to do this in two processes, with one bill being for the border and energy and defense and another tax package that will go first with the border bill. on the senate side they want to do one big package, tax and border in the same package. mike johnson sees it as easier to get two bills through the house, not packing everything into one. he says senate leadership does not totally understand the reality of politics in the house. senate leadership wants to do it in one bill, get it done, and

again that is the tension. how much patience does john thune have with mike johnson and allowing him to try to do this? host: our guest for the next 25 minutes verso is stephen neukam, the co-author of axios's hill leader newsletter. you can start calling in line. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, and independents (202) 748-8002. it was last week that hakeem jeffries, the house to reporters and pushed back on the idea that democrats could hold a passage of a bill. from meet the press, i want to share this clip, senator andy kim, democrat from new jersey.

we will get your reaction on the other side. [video clip] >> you take me to my next question because your colleague said he is prepared to try to shut down the government over some of these sledgehammer actions he has seen by you on must. are you prepared to shut down -- he has seen by elon musk. are you prepared to shut down the government? >> you have to look at what the trump administration is doing. they are trying to dismantle the government. yes. if we have to take steps to hold them accountable, we will use leverage we have to force it. i cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness we are seeing when it comes to this administration's actions. for us to support government funding and that way only for them to turn it around to dismantle the government, that is not something that should be allowed. >> you're open to voting yes to shut down the government to make this point? >> this is about whether or not they can get the votes.

they are the majority and if they cannot govern that is for the american people to see. i work in government, i've worked through multiple government shutdowns, i would be the last person to want to get to that stage. we are at a point where we are on the cusp of a constitutional crisis seeing this administration taking steps that are slow clearly illegal and until we see a change of that behavior we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that. host: the republicans do have control of both chambers. how likely is it democrats could shut down the government when it comes to these talks and the issues they want to act on? guest: the reality facing democrats as they do not have many leverage points at all. republicans have unified control of the government. the one leverage point they do have is government funding. they have the leverage because

in all likelihood house speaker mike johnson will have to call on minority leader hakeem jeffries for some democratic votes to get any funding resolution through the house and then senate majority leader john thune will aid a number of democratic votes in the senate to pass the bill. they need democratic support. the debate going on internally between democrats is whether it is politically helpful to shut the government down and can you blame on republicans. you've seen the senator making the argument it would be republicans fault, versus when they were in power, when democrats were in power they were seeing a government shutdown was harmful and dangerous for america and national security. they need to look themselves in the mirror and decide if that is something they're willing to do in the first 100 days of this administration, not hoping to

pass government funding. host: we have callers waiting to talk with you. andrea in illinois. good morning. caller: i was calling because i have not heard anything on the news about whether or not in shutting down all of these agencies those services are still available to americans? like student loans or any of the other things. i know some farmers are not getting cost-sharing, things like that. can he talk about what we know about whether the government is functioning at all? guest: it is pretty scattershot. there was a lot of orders that came from the white house oval office. an array of agencies were affected and there has been an

array of court decisions handed down, whether injunctions or the courts blocking moves. it depends on which agency and which area of government you are looking at of what is functioning. democrats on capitol hill have raised the alarm about the government funding spree -- the spending freeze, grants and loans and aid to community services. we know a lot of those in a lot of committees around the u.s. have been delayed if not canceled. i think that is what democrats will raise the biggest fuss about. that is what they are carrying into this fight about government funding. what they're are saying and democratic leadership is that in any government funding conversation come in any agreement they make with senate and house republicans at the white house, the to express language in this agreement to rescind that funding freeze and

guardrails so they make sure the executive branch spends the money the way congress has appropriated that money. host: members have reported they are getting calls in the thousands compared to the double digit numbers they may normally see. how have members responded to calls about elon musk and what they are seeing the doge team do . guest: they are in a hard position. they have constituents telling them they need results and they need to do something. we already talked about the futility of democrats on capitol hill. they cannot do anything concrete except this government funding deadline next month. they have constituents telling them they want action, they want them to stand in the way, but there's only so much they can do to stand in the way.

press conferences, raising awareness. democrats have tried to use social media to get this message across. again, they are hearing from folks that they want action there's not much they can do right now. host: let's hear from william in tennessee. line for republicans. caller: good morning. all i have to say is i think the democrats would go aboard the cruise liners and send the democrats out of the deepest part of the ocean and pull the plug. that is all i have to say. host: any response? guest: i think the democratic party, if you take a big picture view in 2024, really a catastrophic loss for the party. they were cast into the

wilderness in the white house come in congress, statehouses across the country. what they are trying to figure out now is how to get out of that wilderness. in some ways they have been cast out by voters. they have been thrown out of power in washington, d.c. and the internal debates going on within the party are what we need to focus on, what should our leadership look like, what should our message be and how we get that message across? who is it we need to be talking to. they lost the blue wall. they held the blue states in california and new york but lost the margins. it was pretty catastrophic for the party. host: let's hear from mark in cary, north carolina. line for independence. how are you doing -- caller: how are you doing? host: we are doing well. caller: i have a bunch of

questions. you have people showing up of different government agencies, the treasury and so forth and they are looking at what i consider to be secret documents or information. why isn't the media pushing to see the receipts? the federal government has everything in writing and they say we are here for read-only. how do we know that? that is my main question. guest: i think that is a question for the courts more than anything else. they have ruled against the read-only situation for the treasury department payment systems. the judiciary is trying to set up guardrails. i think my colleagues in the media have done incredible reporting on not only what the department of government efficiency is trying to accomplish and what they are

doing but who works there, how they have recruited those folks. i think there's a lot of reporting out there and if you're interested in oversight there is a lot of stuff out there and you should also read about it on axios. host: we may learn more about the work of doge. there is a hearing on wednesday with the subcommittee on delivering on government efficiency titled "the war on waste: stamping out the scourge of improper payments and fraud." two is going to be testifying at that hearing and what are you expecting to come out of that? guest: the number one focus of that hearing and the most fascinating for me is marjorie taylor greene. she is trying to transform herself from this right-wing flamethrower, this person was on the outskirts of the party who is now becoming an establishment figure, having the chair of a powerful committee that will be in the spotlight for this first

hearing. it is interesting to pay attention to her and from the democratic side, who on that committee -- a lot of these earrings are fought in the media, the social media clips. who has those moments of flair, who has the good back-and-forth's? host: a lot of media outlets do show you clips. you'll be able to watch the entire hearing here on c-span. let's hear from tracy in michigan, line for democrats. good morning. caller: i think this is a very dangerous time for our country and the gentleman that call just recently saying the democratic party should essentially be drowned in the ocean is reprehensible. donald trump is spreading lies and he has demonized half of our country for over five years. people are not aware that usaid performs a vital function that

causes the good name of the united states of america across the world. people are not aware there is drug resistant tuberculosis among poor african children, particular in the west cape and it will spread through africa and it will take off and it will come to america. shame on america for turning this back. donald trump is doing tremendous damage. we cannot continue to demonize half of our country. i think it needs to be called out every time we hear it on c-span because it comes up very often and it is dangerous. it is very dangerous. guest: on usaid, an argument i've heard from democrats on the hill, especially those worried about foreign affairs, veterans like senator mark kelly, is the vacuum the u.s. may be leaving

on the international stage with these aid programs and the fear it will be filled by china, by russia yielding the soft power the u.s. has done so successfully over the past century, the fear that adversaries will move into that space and fill the gap the u.s. has left in places like africa. host: the senate is gaveling back into session this afternoon. they are going to be working on confirming more president trump's cabinet picks. tell us who they are going to be looking at and what we know about the status of them being confirmed? caller: the biggest ones -- guest: the biggest ones are the headliners that are yet to be confirmed. tulsi gabbard, robert f. kennedy, jr.. kash patel, the fbi director,

that nomination they will not get to. if you talk to republicans they feel better starting this week than they did two weeks ago, especially after the gabbard and kennedy hearings. they got good news from swing votes, phone folks they were not sure would work -- from folks they were not sure would vote for any of these candidates. they were able to pass their committees which is a good indicator of republican support. it will be close. i would not expect much if any democratic support for either rfk junior or tulsi gabbard and this will be up to the three or four republicans depending on how they want to vote. folks like susan collins and lisa murkowski, todd young, thom tillis, folks like that who hold the fate of these nominees in their hands. host: one of your headlines from last week, russ vote confirmed

as trump's budget director ahead of democratic protest. tell us what happened. guest: what the democrats did with russ vought's they completely protested the committee vote on him. it is interesting the omb director is not one of the headline making nominations. you hear about the secretary. democrats after the own funding freeze really latched on to the vought nomination and they made a concerted effort to boycott that boat. they help the senate floor for 30 straight hours protesting his vote, debating his vote. i do not think you will see that with a lot of these other candidates. it is very time-consuming and takes a lot of energy and ultimately all you're doing is standing in the labor process that will be over in 30 hours anyway. they will be confirmed with

republican support. i think you will see them take every opportunity possible to debate it, stand on the floor, vote against it. chuck schumer made a plea last week blanket opposition to the nominees and we will see if he gets that. host: let's go to jay in waldorf, maryland. line for independents. good morning. caller: senator john thune of the republicans, it is up to them. when watergate happened it was the republicans who told nixon he needed to resign. trump will not resign. they need to tell trump and doge he needs to be more reasonable. this cannot be a corporate takeover of the government. we need to do this in the traditional manner of republicans and democrats in the congress -- congress has the power of the purse -- that is in

the constitution. instant say we can push work with trump line about cutting some of these programs and for democrats it will be a compromise. we will cut some of these programs but also save a lot of the programs. it is up to the republicans. they need to be reasonable and say it a few months or years dog e do not need a bigger congress. their power will be affected. republican congressman and senators, their power can be affected along with the democrats. regional republicans will say we need to cut government waste. we need to do it the constitutional way, the legal way. the president makes proposals and recommendations and we do it that way. we do not go in and takeover over agencies and fire everybody. eventually they will find out you made mistakes.

especially in the defense department. thanks. guest: that is the appeal democrats on capitol hill are making. if you want to stop the funding of these programs or these agencies, there is a process to do that. they have the budget reconciliation process coming up and can appropriate money however they want. that is the argument from democrats there is a way to accomplish what you have really accomplished so far but you can do it through congress. there is a big alarm notches from democrats on capitol hill but also republicans who are concerned with the amount of executive power that the president has flexed so far in the first weeks of his presidency and honestly on capitol hill there is not been many republicans who stepped forward publicly and stood in the way of that even and

including the leadership and that is something to watch when we get to that point. do they get to that point? we also know president trump uses the bully pulpit. strongly, both from campaign events to social media and he has a powerful media ecosystem those pressure campaigns can be pretty powerful and brutal. that is all of the forces republicans are thinking about when they are tried to make a decision of do i speak up against the president or do i not? host: i think we've hit most of the highlights in terms of what congress is focusing on, budget as well as senate confirmations. is there anything else you're keeping your ion or anyone in your keeping your eye on this week? guest: the interesting thing this week and long-term is the reality we have talked about all morning is that republicans are

in control but over the next two years they will need democratic support to do anything they want to do outside of the reconciliation process. the reconciliation process is filibuster proof. they can do that with their own majorities. everything else, government funding, a border bill that exists outside reconciliation from you cannot legislate the reconciliation, you can just move money around. i talked to the purple state senate democrats started the administration, making a direct appeal to the president saying we want to work on the border resolution. they had a border bill last year that almost got across the finish line. i talked to the same folks last week and a handful of them told me everything the president is doing is making it almost impossible for us to approach those generalizations on a

bipartisan border compromise. there is interest in both parties for that. trump burning bridges and congress is -- burning bridges in congress he is going to need. host: stephen neukam, thank you so much for your time. still ahead, cato institute senior fellow dr. jeffrey singer will join us to discuss the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. and the trump administration's approach to addressing it. first, more of your calls and comments in our open forum. start calling in now. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, and independents (202) 748-8002. we will be right back. ♪

>> this week on the c-span networks come the house and senate are in session. the house will consider legislation establishing new penalties for evading u.s. border patrol agents in car chases. the senate votes on president trump's cabinet nominees, including gabbard as director of national intelligence and robert f. kennedy, jr. as health and human services secreta. jerome powell will give the semiannual monetary policy report before two committees, first on tuesday before the senate banking committee and on wednesday before the house financial rvices committee. c-span continues our comprehensive coverage of confirmation hearingsor president-elect trump cabinet nominees. on wednesday former oregon republican congresswoman chaff chaf chaff -- lori chavez-deremer and for former businesswoman linda mcmahon who is a nominee for secretary of education. also on thursday, the senate

judiciary committee will vote on the nomination of kash patel for director of the f.b.i. watch live on the c-span networks or on c-span now. al head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> john dickinson is one of the most significant founders of the united states who is not well-known by all the american public. author jane calvert is trying to change that with her new biography. john dickinson is known for his nine essays under the title fabius published anonymously in newspapers during the time that the states were deciding on whether to approve the new constitution. john dickinson of maryland, delaware, and pennsylvania was the only founding figure present

and active in every phase of the revolution, from the stamp act crisis through the ratification of the constitution. >> author jane calvert talks about her book, a biography of john dickinson on this episode of booknotes+, available on the c-span now free only app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. bruce through apparel, books, home decor and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are in open forum. we will go right to your calls

starting with ron in colorado, line for democrats. good morning, ron. caller: hi. as far as doge goes, we spend about three times more on private contractors than we do on federal employees, and the fact that we have a private contractor in there deciding who should be in the government and remember, a contractor accidentally electrocuted soldiers in iraq and got paid extra, $83 million. so that's something to chew on. another thing, back in february a guy was arrested and it turns out -- and i dare anybody to google this -- the burisma emails were russian disinformation. the guy was arrested in february. in february trump also lost a lawsuit to christopher steel of the steel dossier and this

information they used in the biden impeachment, corrupt family were russian disinformation. look it up. and so as far as research goes, these people need to do some more research. thank you. host: that was ron in colorado. john in texas, line for republicans. good morning, john. caller: hi. host: hi, john. caller: i am trying to know this. host: go ahead, john. john, are you there? caller: yes, hi. hi. host: we will go to randy in madison, wisconsin, line for democrats. good morning, randy.

caller: you guys have a demographic problem because linear tv is what you guys are on. it's watched by old people. you are always getting old people which is why you get some really crazy people. let's talk about what trump has done so far. first off, firing the attorney general was actually so he could commit crimes, right? because he is a criminal. he hired a criminal for this job. he is committing crimes. he fired him so he can commit crimes. what did he do? he send doge in the middle of the night to start firing people. who does stuff in the middle of the night? not to mention he is unelected. you have an unelected billionaire. if george soros did this, you people would lose your minds. the crimes are endless. inside the treasury gives you a map to who we paying throughout the world for intelligence. he now has that. he has ties to china. endless -- j.d. vance just yesterday said that they can ignore the courts, so he has no

control over him whatsoever. congratulations. you are now a dictatorship, america. host: that was randy in wisconsin. from npr this headline, federal judge pauses deadline for trump administration, resignation offer until monday. it says a federal judge in massachusetts granted a request from labor unions on thursday to pause trump's administration's "deferred resignation offer" to federal employees until monday. the u.s. district judge, a clinton employee, issued the decision just hours before the deadline for federal workers to accept the offer to resign from their jocks. now -- jobs. now with the promise they can keep their pay and benefits through september 30. he said the court had just received a brief from the government and wanted to give labor unions that brought the lawsuit until close of business friday to reply.

he scheduled another hearing for monday, that's today, at 2:00 p.m. eastern where he will consider the merits of the case. back to your calls, bobby in kentucky. good morning. caller: yes, ma'am. everybody is talking about all this wasteful money. why don't people like newsom in california check where all his money is going to? got that big monster rail system that's going nowhere. but yet he is able to afford a $9 million home in malibu or wherever it is. and then the democrats are spending all this money on transaction comic books and heterosexuals. that's what them countries think about them people.

thank you. host: kevin in washington, d.c., line for democrats. good morning, kevin. caller: good morning. there is a conference in munich called the munich security conference, and a congressman said that the most important thing we need to do is buy a security treaty because of the possibility of non-state actors making weapon like covid, costs teps of thousands of dollars. they could also do fentanyl, ending the wars in ukraine and gaza. so i think we need to listen to young congresswomen like this one from massachusetts. he spoke at a security

conference on thursday. the guy from cato is a doctor and he had a forum called covid collateral, and so he is an expert on covid. his father was the successor of anthony fauci. he is a surgeon and really smart guy. so this -- also being investigated by a dozen state attorney generals and i think he is a good guy, but he covered for this guy dazak, who should be in prison. from the world health organization, who said it was

crazy to say that covid was manmade. he said it came from nature. it was a big lie. are you still there? host: yes. go ahead, kevin. i will give you another 30 seconds. caller: thanks. so the cato guy is a really good person to ask, how can we get a treaty that bans the offensive use of biotechnology and only use it for defense? thanks. host: that was kevin in washington, d.c. nicole in florida, line for independents. good morning, nicole. caller: hi, good morning. my name is nicole and i am a minority, and i don't straddle the fence as far as democrat or republican. i think that trump, the republicans are finding money

that had disappeared and as an american citizen and a minority, i never got any free money. i never got any free programs. i have been working since i was 14 years old. so keeping that in mind, i am glad they kind of cleaning things up because maybe we will have a fighting chance. the people that actually came from here was born here, lived here and have never had the opportunity to take advantage of these programs that all these other people have been, that wasn't even here or have a united states birth certificate. host: that was nicole in florida. she was talking about doge's efforts from yesterday's cnn state of the union. it was homeland security secretary kristi noem that was asked about elon musk's access to sensitive data housed within d.h.s.'s federal emergency

management agency. here is that clip. [video clip] >> "the washington post" is reporting that musk and his doge team have access to fema's sensitive disaster data which includes personal information about tens of thousands of disaster victims. have you authorized elon musk and his team to have access to americans' personal data that is housed inside d.h.s.? >> we are working with them at the president's direction to find what we can do to make our department much more efficient. this is ea essentially an audit of the federal government which is very powerful and needs to have happened. that agency -- one of the things i have been very clear to the appropriators in the senate and the house is please give me the authority to reprogram funds. >> that's different from him having access to personal data that is housed in -- >> the president has authorized him to have access. >> you feem comfortable with that? >> absolutely. >> i remember a time when republicans were very worried about the government,

particularly unelected people -- >> we can't trust the government anymore. >> personal data. >> oh, absolutely. >> you are the government. >> yes, that's what i am saying. the american people now are saying that we have had our personal information shared and out there in the public -- >> now elon musk has access to it. >> elon musk is part of the administration helping us identify where we can find savings and he has gone through the processes to make sure that he has the authority -- >> you are totally comfortable with it? >> i am today by the work that he is doing by identifying waste, fraud and abuse. his information that he has is looking at programs, not focusing on personal data and information. >> not focusing on it but he has access to it. >> we will be continuing to talk to him about what all he has access to. but this audit needs to happen to make sure we are going through a process that has integrity back into these programs. people's personal information has been out there in these caseworks that have been closed for a long time that people are getting responses that they

haven't had before. >> about 30 minutes left in this open forum. want to give you a programming noten at congress is doing today. the house will beaving back in at noon eastern. the lawmer will be considering several bills under suenon of the rules, involving china currenc practices and their impact on foreign ehae markets. also the senate wi b back in at 3:00 p.m. eastern to continue debate on more of president trump'canet nominees. senators will vote at 5:30 p.m. eastern to advance the nomination of tulsi gabbard to serve as director onational intelligence. you can watch live coverage of theouse on c-span and the senate on c-span2 and all of our congressional coverage on our c-span now app and online at c-span.org. back to your calls in this oarp forum. -- open forum.

arnold, line for republicans, good morning, arnold. caller: yes, i am a full-blown trump supporter, and i was wonder whag do you think or how long do you think the democrats are going to keep their panties in a wad over everything trump is doing? host: car nold, we were asking during our first hour for people to grade president trump's first three weeks back in office. what grade would you give him? caller: an a ++. host: what do you like specifically that he has done so far? is. caller: i like what he has done at the border. i like what he did about the boys playing in girls sports. i don't think that's right. i don't disagree with anything he has done. host: that was arnold in texas. james in north carolina, line

for democrats. good morning, james. caller: good morning. i think the problem we have is not a spending problem but it's a revenue problem. looking back in the history of our national debt, bill clinton's administration was the only one that prevented an annual budget surplus and if you check what george w. bush done, started with reagan when he started to trickle down economics and sent all of our manufacturing to third world countries and then on came bush and wasted the surplus we had and then gave massive tax cuts to the rich and then obama pulled us out of a depression and here comes trump, and they

gave massive tax cuts to the rich back in 2017. right now they're trying to see where they can cut, you know the average people out of benefits to keep them -- having to take back the tax cuts that were given to the rich, but that's all we need. we need more revenue coming in because the top 3% own over half the wealth of the nation. i think we are under siege by the rich, the top echelon of society. i think the republican party if you study their history, they are for big business and for the rich and well had -- well to do that the democrats, working class need to take back the country because we are in dire straits right now. the working class has been

destroyed. we can't afford housing. education belongs to the rich folks. everything you look at is geared toward helping the wealthy. they run the country. i think the fate of the nation is in the hands of the rich. host: that was james in north carolina. we go to tommy in kentucky, line for independents. good morning, tommy. caller: good morning, everybody. i hope everybody is doing ok out there. i think i just wanted to say that i find it terrifying that -- i understand people appreciating their political candidate, people liking trump. but i find it really disturbing that people have no criticism at all. that's what bothers me. it's almost -- i don't want to say cultish, but it feels a little bit cultish to me. i live in a very sparsely

populated part of the country, in a place that people think of as very conservative. but i would like the viewers to know that out here there are different people. we aren't all just folks who want to send all the democrats to the middle of the ocean and drown them. we have nuanced ideas and we have nuanced ideas within our families and within our communities. a lot of times, when you get one-on-one with a person they're a lot more reasonable. so i just would ask people to kind of ask questions more about their political candidate and look with a little bit more of a discerning eye and really try to steer away from these politics that drive us away from our family and our community and from us being able to get together. that's all. host: that was tommy in kentucky. president trump has been in office for about three weeks,

and something that he has talked about are tariffs on countries from the associated press, this headline. trump says he will announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs monday and more import duties are coming. the article says that those tariffs, 25% on steel and alum numb imports including from canada and mexico as well as others. it says that trump also reaffirmed that he would announce reciprocal tariffs probably tuesday or wednesday, meaning that the u.s. would impose import duties on products in cases where other countries have levied duties on the u.s. he said aboard air force one yesterday on the way to the super bowl that if they are charging us 130% and we are charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way. back to your calls. we will hear from dave in las

vegas, nevada. line for independence. good morning, dave. caller: good morning. i don't know what is wrong with people. 34 felony counts allegedly assaulted 26 women, convictedded of one, nobody does anything. nobody does anything about the 34 felonies. he breaks every law in the book. he is cutting off food to six million people in sudan. he is going to -- they're literally going to die. and then he has them in the white house break every law in the book, gets police officers killed. he did that. then they pardon him and the news media does nothing about it. what is wrong with -- do you think government will be better now? you put -- he getting rid of middle class, people. you don't get it. there's something wrong with you. he is not a republican. he is a communist fascist. he is trying to get rid of the

government. he is going to hurt millions of people. this guy is deranged and warped. so that's a guy you got running the country? we're in big trouble, people. we need to march on washington. everybody needs to march and have him removed from office. that guy is sick and demented. host: chris in maryland, line for democrats. good morning, chris. caller: good morning. i just want to say to everyone that is listening that i can't imagine what they think is going to happen with all the money supposedly that will be recovered from this supposed waste, fraud and abuse. that's public funds. it was invested smartly in a lot of cases, n.i.h., research, it helps our economy. there will be so many job layoffs and it's going to impact the entire economy in such a bad way. inflation will go through the roof all from disinvesting in

the american public. nobody is going to get a tax break except for the super rich. this is a theft. it's a theft of public funds. i wish people would phrase it that way more often. thank you. host: that was chris. we will go to john in california, line for republicans. good morning, john. caller: you know what is baffling to me is there are still people like harris who are calling in. the people that are deranged at this point are the ones that still think that there was no waste, fraud and abuse after what has been uncovered. i mean, come on people. it's not rocket science. when you are given a billion dollars and then you are asked, hey, what did you do with that billion dollars and you cannot account for it, that's waste. i am not sure exactly what some of your callers are talking about because to me it seems

like they're still listening to the mainstream media after how many years now has it been since they've been exposed for their state-ran propaganda? i mean, you have -- talk about abuse. nobody cares that the department of justice illegally spied on a president or had attorneys withhold evidence or point fingers at people that were actually doing the same exact thing that they were claiming that donald trump was doing? why doesn't anybody care about the corruption of the biden family and how corrupt they are and the payouts they got? so take a look in the mirror, people. lastly what i had say about this is thank god elon musk, the richest man in the world, is on donald trump's side. thank you. host: thanks john in california.

we will go back to your calls and comments. first we want to talk with jeff mordock, white house reporter for "the washington times." there is a busy week coming up at the white house. good morning, jeff. thank you for joining us. guest: good morning. host: i think you probably heard our last caller talking about doge. that's a popular topic this morning. talk about how the white house administration is responding to the outcry about doge and elon musk's efforts. guest: what they're arguing is that it's within the president's purview to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and they frame the argument that they're going into these agencies and what they're finding is essentially slush funds for various projects, various liberal causes that the president says he ran on opposing. they're arguing he has the authority to do this. it will be interesting to see. we have some temporary halts in

the court. the trump administration has not done well in the courts so far. we will see what happens this week. but even as these lawsuits and opposition rise up, the president and elon musk remain undaunted. trump said over the weekend that this week doge will look at the department of education which as you know trump ran on a campaign promise of shuttering, as well as the department of defense, which has an $800 billion budget. i am sure there will be plenty of things they can find at the department of defense. host: jeff, you mentioned the lawsuits. one will be heard today, more about the federal buyout offer, and there are a few others going on. how has the white house and administration responded to the lawsuits? guest: they haven't really said a lot in terms of public. they're trying to let the court process play itself out. what they've done is just try to argue that they do have the authority to do this.

one of the things i think is interesting is the argument against the buyout centers on appropriation and whether or not the funds are available. the white house is arguing that as the head of the executive branch these are executive level positions. that puts the president in charge of them. therefore whether the money is appropriated or not, he does have the authority to offer buyouts or eliminate the positions. host: in much of the outcry is related to elon musk's role in the cuts and examining these departments for possible waste, fraud, and abuse. what is your sense of how often musk is checking in and who is he talking with? guest: musk is talking directly to president trump. he is checking in with president trump on a fairly regular basis. it's interesting how much that he has come in and out of the oval office in the past few days, and it sounds like he is working hand in hand with trump

on this. host: something that they -- president trump said during his interview with fox news is that -- pointed out that musk doesn't need to be doing this, that he is surprised he has the time to put into this effort. reminds us how long this -- the doge committee is supposed to be working for? guest: the doge committee, there is no end date to it. it's going to keep going until they've gone through all the branches of the government. this could go on for quite a while. for everything they find, there is going to be opposition. look at usaid as an example. all the stuff they have found in usaid but the opposition to that is fierce. it's kind of interesting that there is such fierce opposition to eliminating usaid because a lot of people forget back in the 1990's, president clinton had offered a proposal to eliminate usaid, it didn't go far but it's been in the cross hairs of certain presidents for quite some time. host: the senate confirmed russ

vought as the new o.m.b. director last week. this is his first full week in that role. what role do you expect him to play in the trump administration? guest: he will play a key role in eliminating and shrinking the federal work force. that has been one of his big priorities. you have seen a little bit of the -- like the buyouts. that is something that russ vought had thought of. you are going to see more of that start to ramp up once he gets settled. host: and there have been more than a dozen of president trump's cabinet nominees confirmed so far. the senate working on more today, including tulsi gabbard to be director of natural intelligence, robert f. kennedy to be h.h.s. secretary. is the administration confident with those two? guest: yes, those two are the

most controversial. the administration is still very confident that those two expect to pass. i think tulsi gabbard will have the hardest time. i think in the end she does get confirmed. host: kash patel is also one that we will be watching closely. his committee vote for f.b.i. director was postponed to later this week. what do we know about the likelihood of him being confirmed? guest: i think he will be confirmed. he did a very nice job at his confirmation hearing trying to distance himself from some of president trump's more controversial law enforcement decisions such as the pardon for the january 6 riders. i think he did well and i was surprised there wasn't as much democratic opposition to him as i thought there would be. i think people will be surprised how much -- it will probably be on party lines. maybe they get one or two democrats but i think he sails through with little problem. host: we have talked a lot about doge and the efforts there. what are you going to be watching this week in terms of doge or other white house

actions? guest: i think the most interesting thing this week is president trump's meeting tomorrow with the king of jordan because the king of jordan has opposed president trump's plan to relocate palestinians in gaza, have a u.s. takeover of the region, and the president put it, turn it into the riviera of the middle east. we send $2 billion in aid to jordan. that's aid that they cannot afford to lose, so the president has a lot of leverage over the king. but there's going to be a lot of opposition -- there is already a lot of opposition to the king within his country. a lot of people in jordan did not like they stepped up to help bat down missiles when iran was raining missiles on israel. they do not like the idea of bringing palestinians into jordan which is something president trump keeps floating. that could further weaken his leadership in that country.

he is between a rock and a hard place. he can push back against president trump but then he will lose the aid. he could stand firm against president trump but then he will be a weaker leader in his own country. host: jeff mordock, white house reporter for "washington times." you can find his work online. jeff, thank you so much for being with us. guest: thank you. host: just about under 15 minutes left in this morning's open forum. we will go to james in florida, line for independents. good morning, james. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. go ahead. caller: i give the trump administration a d, a real low grade. number two, i would like to see c-span start at 6:00 in the morning because we, the little people, like c-span. number three, i give you an a-plus because you do a very,

very good job. number three, i thought the super bowl, the super bowl, the super bowl halftime show was terrible. terrible! a triple f. we thought the super bowl halftime show was awful. what do c-span callers think about the super bowl halftime show? host: james in florida. grading a lot of things this morning. we will go to calvin in raleigh, income n -- north carolina, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. we have all heard that we don't miss the water until the well runs dry. i think we are going to realize

that it wasn't that bad with president biden. i would like to give a shoutout to mr. putin for causing chaos and choosing someone to cause chaos and division in the united states. so russia, if you are listening, mr. putin, you got what you wanted. does anyone realize that after vice president harris lost, the protestors in the streets stopped immediately? talk about people eating cats and dogs stopped as well as -- i believe that mr. putin thought about this. together we stand, but divided we fall. i believe that putin along with the republican party helped to create division in the united states to prove that the republicans want to get rapists, criminals out of the united states. i think the mexico president said it best when she told

reporters americans should not elect one for president. but it is obvious that the people that voted for this man wasn't smart enough. i really believe that most of the people that voted for this man to be president of the united states would say oh my god, i wish i had never voted for this man. thank you. host: we will go to paul in florida, good morning, paul. caller: good morning, everybody. i would like to say congratulations to the philadelphia eagles. the gentleman who just said that the halftime was terrible, if he is just tuning in to the super bowl for the halftime he is tuning in for the wrong reason. the other thing is, a lot of people are very concerned about

elon musk having access to personal information. couple items i have there. one is, most of america turns over their personal information to their local doctor's office, their bank, their loan officers, so on and so forth. you clearly hand it over. i am more concerned about the people that sit in front of a computer every day at their jobs at the treasury department, social security. they have access to your personal information but nobody complains about that. i am less concerned about the gentleman who is the richest man in the world having access to my personal information. what good is it going to do him? my last item i would like to bring up is the department of education. i am a baby boomer. so i went through the public education system before there was a department of education. bhead out -- weigh made out just fine. i am not sure what the department of education does. if there is anybody that can

explain it to me, i would love to hear it. i do have one more item. there was a lady -- i don't know if it was a woman or man earlier that was talk being january 6 and said that the rioters had killed an officer or something. that's not true. there's certainly -- it disappoints me when c-span does allow people to make absolutely false statements. they're not correct. sometimes you do, sometimes you refer to an article and tear it up. quite often it's not done. that disappoints me. that's all i have. i hope everybody has a great day and congratulations to the philadelphia eagles and the city of philadelphia. thank you. host: that was paul in florida. this headline in this morning's the hill. senate democrats launch portal for whistleblowers in trump administration. it says that senate democratic leaders, chuck schumer and

senator peters, ranking member of the senate homeland security committee, said they're launching a newportal for whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing and abuses of power in the trump administration. it says they noted the whistleblower protection act prohibits retaliation against federal employees who disclose evidence of wrongdoing. monday's announcement of the newportal is the latest escalation of democrats' tactics and pushing back against the trump administration's effort to freeze spending and cuts to federal programs. just a few minutes left in open forum. we will hear from marietta in maryland. line for democrats. good morning. caller: hi. i want to talk about karma. karma is what goes around comes around. a white american man bought colored man and made him their

slave and forced him to suffer. now in comes karma. a.k.a., elon musk, the white man has bought the white american man for a little over $250 million. and now they're his slave. and he will force them to suffer. so now america has finally come together with a common goal, and that is we are all slaves now. we are all going to suffer. we are now all owned by the african man. host: we will go to russell in kansas city. good morning, russell. caller: good morning. i would like to say that it's about time somebody got into office that's going to take the wall that the democrats have put up down, open the gates and

allow those people that are less likely to wake up and open their eyes to the real worlds. things need to be changed. it's about time. that's about all i have to say. thank you. host: skip in pennsylvania, line for independents. good morning, skip. caller: good morning. how are you doing this morning? host: doing well. caller: ok. i don't know if any of these folks have studied the bible to look at the four hidden dynasties, financial, political, educational, and religion. it's all coming to an end. thank you very much. you have a wonderful day. love you guys. bye-bye. host: we will go to john in florida, line for republicans. good morning, john. caller: thanks for working, thanks for taking my call.

i would like to give the super bowl halftime show a super big f. i agree. we tune in for everything, the entertainment, football. i give trump an a-plus for everything he is doing. i give c-span a d and there's no conservatives on c-span. what do you give trump? what do you think his personal grade is? host: we will go to james in lawrence, massachusetts. line for democrats. good morning, james. caller: hi. i just had a couple of quick questions. one, have you ever seen on mainstream media or have you ever read the entire word for word excuse that joe biden used to pardon his entire family? do you ever intend to put that up so that people will know exactly what he said? and i know because there's been other hosts that would look up

the meaning of fascist. i am just asking why don't they ever put out the complete truth about what joe biden said of why he was so scared and pardoned his entire family? i would appreciate that very much, and i thank you very much. goodbye. host: bill in jonesboro, arkansas. line for republicans. good morning, bill. caller: good morning. i have a question. why are the democrats getting so hostile and upset about anybody investigating any of the government departments for waste? are they afraid they will find that the money is going into their pockets? if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, it scwaks like a duck -- it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. god bless. have a good day. thank you. host: let's hear from roger in

milwaukee, wisconsin. line for independents. good morning, roger. caller: good morning. i have to say i listen to both sides of this coin, and everybody really needs to take a deep breath. everybody wants to save money. efficiency is important in government. nobody argues that. it's the way you go about it. under the circumstances, you have to look at if somebody goes in and cancels a program and now we have people all around the world starving or perhaps virus is breaking out, ebola or whatever and there are other ways to do things. that's where i find that the trump is just so abrasive. they're whole -- their whole administration forcing unqualified people into major key positions. this is not the way to go about making america more efficient.

id ee love to hear what other people have to say about it. elon musk is a disaster. he is a smart guy, nobody will argue that. but there are ways to do things. and this is just -- it's outrageous the way the american people have to sit on the sideline and watch this all go down and feeling somewhat helpless. we not helpless. at the same time, you know, the republicans all go kiss the ring down in mar-a-lago. if these republican senators and congressmen would get off their butt and realize they have the power, not individually but as a group. these guys could shut up donald trump and at least tame, tame the way he wants to change government. that's what we are talking about. taming a beast.

for the right reasons. so everybody have a great day. great to hear that the eagles won. and really everybody's got to take a deep breath. you take care. host: that was roger in wisconsin. our last call in this open forum is nate in new jersey, line for democrats. good morning, nate. caller: hi, how you doing? love this show as always. i just had to call in and i see so many people call in, in opposition for the halftime show yesterday. i just think that it's super funny, when arrowsmith and other white acts nobody has an issue but when we have a black audience talking about black culture, black history month, what we have been through as a community and as a people in this country, there is so much opposition. i just want to let people know that they don't like it, black history is american history. i will step off line and i thank you for your time today.

host: that was nate in new jersey. our last call in open forum. next on "washington journal," cato institute senior fellow dr. jeffrey singer will join us to discuss the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. and the trump administration's approach to addressing it. we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in session. the house will consider legislation establishing new penalties for evading u.s. border patrol agents in car chases. the senate continuesoting on president trump's cabinet nominees, including tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence and robert f. kennedy jr. as health and human services secretary. the chair of the fedal reserve jerome powell will give the semiannualonetary policy report before tw committees. first on tuesday before the senate banking committee and then on wednesday before the house financial services committee. also c-span continues our comprehensive coverage of confirmation hearings for president-elect trump's cabinet

nominees. the senate health, labor and pensions committee will hold hein for two cabinet nominees. on wednesday former oregon puican congresswoman lori chavez-dem. the nominee for secretary of bor. and on thursday, for former businesswoman linda mcmahon, nominee for secretary of education. also on thursday, the senate judiciary committee will vote on the nomination of kash patel for directsor of the f.b.i. watch live on the c-span networks or on c-span now, our free mobile video app. also head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> john dickinson is one of the most significant founders of the united states who is not well-known by all the american public. author jane e. calvert is trying to change that with her new biography, penman of the

founding. john dickinson is known for his nine essays under the title fabius published in newspapers during the time that the states were deciding on whether to approve the new constitution. john dickinson of maryland, delaware, and pennsylvania was the only fowdzing -- founding figure present in every phase of the revolution from the stamp act crisis to the ratification of the constitution. >> author jane calvert talks about her book, a biography of john dickinson, on this episode of booknotes+ with our host. book is available wherever you get your podcasts. listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is easy. tell your smart speaker play c-span radio and listen to "washington journal" daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. important public affairs events throughout the day and weekdays

catch washington t tell your smart speaker play c-span radio, c-span created by cable. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now to discuss the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. is dr. jeffrey singer, he is a health policy senior fellow at the cato institute. dr. singer, thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: why don't we start by having you talk about your background both as a practitioner and also as a health policy researcher at cato. guest: well, i am originally from new york as you can probably tell from my accent. i have been in arizona now for 45 years and i have been practicing in private practice as a general surgeon for about 40 years, and i am also a senior fellow at the cato institute where i work in the department of health policy studies.

the cato institute is a 501-c-3 nonpartisan think tank that develops public policy proposals based on the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. i work in the health policy space there. host: much of your research has focused on the fentanyl epidemic. where are we in this public health battle? guest: well, if the research holds, we are not anywhere close to seeing things get significantly better. a study came out by the university of pittsburgh school of public health, published in 2018, where they were they were able to get data from the c.d.c. going back into the 1970's. what they demonstrated was looking at the data that the overdose rate from nonmedical use of drugs has been on a steady exponential increase

trend since the late 1970's. the only thing that's changed is at different points in time different drugs are predominating among those drugs as the principal cause of overdose deaths. in the early 2000's, the principal cause of overdoses was diverted prescription pain pills and recreational users like to use. then as the policy establishment, political establishment, wrongly blamed it on doctors overprescribing prescription pain pills and clamped down on prescribing, which it was at 1992 levels, the people migrated to heroin and it got mixed in with fentanyl. we will see what's next. it's been on a steady increase. it spiked during the covid pandemic along with alcohol use and other substance uses. a lot of factors involved there.

including the fact that because of border closures and supply chain issues it was difficult to ship, grow and ship opium which is processed into heroin. so the drug traffic organization switched out to fentanyl which they can make easily in the lab and fentanyl is more potent and deadly than heroin. that also contributed a spike. now that the pandemic has passed, we are seeing an ebb in the overdose rate. also seeing a return of heroin into the drug supply. so that may also be contributing. we also have seen a lot of states and federal policies start to accept harm reduction strategies which have helped to reduce deaths. we are still at just under 100,000 a year, which is amazingly high. if we continue our restrictionist sort of doubling down on drug war, i would predict it will continue either

at the same level or higher level. host: dr. singer, you mentioned some of the causes and not causes for the crisis. remind our viewers what exactly fentanyl is and what we know about how it impacts the human body. guest: first of all, a little bit of nomenclature. there are opioids and opiates. opiates are derived directly naturally from the opium plant. codeine and morphine are opiates. opioids are opiates that have been chemically modified to get a certain desired result. so for example oxy co-done they use the original natural substance of morphine and make the additional molecule, they add additional molecules to get

a desired result. those are called semisynthetic opioids because they have some of the natural part. then there are completely synthetic opioids that don't require the plapt at all. they can be made in a test tube. fentanyl is one of them. it's been around since the 1970's. it's a very important drug. it rapidly reduces pain and wears off quickly. we use it in anesthesia. if anyone has had a general anesthetic or procedure where they had intravenous sedation they likely received fentanyl. we give it to patients recovering post-on and intensive care. we even have fentanyl skin patches that we have been giving to patients for decades, where you put a patch on your skin and over about 72 hours, a small dose slowly gets absorbed. that usually reduces your requirement for oral pain pills

because you have that in background supplementing any pain pills you will have. it's a very useful doctoring. -- drug. there are fentanyl analogs which are modifications of fentanyl, slightly different than fentanyl. there are a few of them that we use in the medical field, mostly in anesthesia. now, in the -- just like methamphetamine which is a legal, prescribed drug developed to treat adhd and the brand name of the original name, we still prescribe it occasionally. but like that, fentanyl can be made in the lab, in an underground lab, and sold on the black market. that's why it's important to distinguish between fentanyl and illicit fentanyl. host: and our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is dr. jeffrey

singer. he is a health policy study senior fellow at the cato institute joining us for a discussion on the fentanyl crisis in the u.s. if you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. the lines are regional for this. if you are in the eastern or sen time zone, it's 202-748-8000. if you are in the monday tin or pacific, it's 202-748-8001. there's also a line if you have been impacted by the fentanyl crisis, you can call 202-748-8002. dr. singer, you mentioned that it can be made, illicit version can be made chemically. once it's made how does it get into the u.s., legal or illegal crossings, and which borders are we looking at? guest: it's very easy to synthesize. once it's made, according to the

data from the government, roughly 90% is smuggled in by legal u.s. citizens or residents, mostly in cars and trucks through legal border crossings, not through the illegal entry points. and it doesn't just come in through the southern border crossings. it comes in through the airports, through the mail. it occasionally comes in through the northern border crossings. it's so powerful and that's why it's gotten popular for the drug organizations to use, a very small amount can be hidden very easily. most dogs at border crossings are not able to smell fentanyl, so it's easy to smuggle through. a lot of people think that the illegal migration across illegal border crossing areas is related to this, but that's actually a mistake because the government's

own data shows most of it comes legally. if you were in the drug trafficking business, it makes more sense especially considering the billions of dollars that this brings you for sales on the black market, makes much more sense to pay a handsome sum to some u.s. citizen who will then drive it through the border and deliver it as directed to someone on the other side and will not be suspected at all by law enforcement than it is to trust somebody who is trying to maybe migrate up to the united states through central or south america or elsewhere and put some of it in their backpack and tell them when you get to the other side make sure you hand it over to somebody. it makes no sense. it's much better business sense to spend that money on hiring people to do it. the precursors to make fentanyl originally were mostly coming from labs in china, but as pressure is placed on the

chinese government to put pressure on these labs that are making the precursors, they're now coming from a lot of other places. we are seeing them made in india. the drug enforcement administration reports they're coming from southeast asia and recently we learned that there are canadian "superlabs" making fentanyl directly. most of them -- those superlabs are shipping it to drug traffickers in australia and new zealand. but some is coming south of the border into the united states. the point is that when you have drug prohibition, the opportunity to make money -- remember, this is not -- people seem to talk about it as if drug trafficking organizations south of the border launch missiles into the united states that explode and release fentanyl into the air that then goes looking around for people to go into and kill. that's what they say, they're

sending fentanyl in the air, poisoning our country. no, we have drug prohib ig. just like with alcohol prohibition as long as there is a market and people who want to buy it, the market is going to be met long as there's a market -- prohibition, as long as there's a market, and people want to buy it, there's a policy called the iron law of prohibition, which is the harder the enforcement, the harder the drug. some are easier to smuggle in smaller sizes, you can get more bang for the park. prohibition, they were smuggling in beer and wine into the country, they were smuggling in whiskey. yesterday during the super bowl, people were tailgating, but you cannot bring alcohol into the stadium, most people do

not smuggle in beer and wine, they smuggle in the hard stuff. it is the war making this happen. when the black market dried up, heroin, around 20 12, traffickers realized if you had a little bit of fentanyl, cheaper heroin, to make it more potent, smuggle it in in smaller packages. started appearing in heroin in 2012 and gradually increased in amounts. it started in the eastern part of u.s. and worked its way west. in the eastern parts, it was in white powder heroin in places like afghanistan and asia. black tar heroin, you can mix it in, and it is a little more difficult. by the time the covid pandemic hit, there were supply chain

problems. the ingredients to make heroin, because you have to convert morphine to diazepam morphine, which is heroin land. -- is heroin. it was also getting difficult to ship opium around the world, because of all the border closures during the pandemic. so the cartels switch to fentanyl, because that was easier to make an in abundant supply. then for a few years during the pandemic, that was almost exclusively the opioids smuggle in this country. so nonmedical users of heroin, they were not necessarily thrilled that they were getting fentanyl, because it is a completely different experience, but, you know, they had a dependency, and they took what they could get. over time, their tastes started to change them and they started to like fentanyl.

now those problems have abated. we are starting to see heroin use here again, because we have a very healthy black market, and if there is a demand for heroin, the demand will be met. about a month or so ago, we were seeing a big boom in heroin again in the united states. host: we have colors ready to talk to you. we have jim in texas, on the line for those impacted by the fentanyl crisis. good morning, jim. caller: good morning. i want to start out, people may be surprised, whether you are prescribed opioids for pain or whether you are a recreational user, the way of developing opioid use disorder is about 7%, regardless of what population you are part of. people think of opioid is a one

time, you are probably going to turn into an addict. the other thing is, we have created the the fentanyl crisis because of, you know, it started out with prescriptions and rescheduling of hydrocodone and things like that. when you think about 8%, 8.5% of the adult population suffers from chronic pain, that has a huge impact. there's a lot of people out there that unnecessarily, you know, do illicit drugs, heroin, fentanyl, simply because it has become unaffordable to go through the rigmarole of going to a pain management doctor, which i'm currently going to a pain management doctor right now. now, i've had chronic back pain for decades. it used to cost me about $300 a year, everything, doctors,

prescriptions, whatnot, to address my chronic pain. now it is costing over $100,000 a year. of course, i don't pay all of that. the v.a. covers most of that. do you have any comments on that? and what is the solution? do we reschedule the drugs? i don't think we make them all legal, but let me hear what you have to say. thank you. guest: thank you. first of all, i want to correct you about the addiction rate. this is government data. if you check out my blog post, i've written about this a lot. according to the substance abuse and mental health services administration, which conducts a national survey on drug use and health, they have been tracking the addiction rate of two prescription, for example, pain pills, for example, since 2002.

it has never been higher than 0.8%. they also track that for heroin and for other opioids. it is all less than 1%. i know you are not supposed to say that, because we had a lot of movies on hulu and netflix suggesting that is not true, but you can go to the website of the national substance abuse and find out for yourself. opioid use disorder is a broad term. addiction comes under that umbrella, and addiction is defined as compulsive use despite negative consequences. you see that with alcohol use disorder, gambling disorder. so in other words, even though you want to stop, it is an underlying compulsive behavior disorder that makes you continue to do it, and you know it is harming you. also under the umbrella of opioid use disorder, dependency,

which is a completely different thing. opioids are a kind of drug that when you've taken them steadily for a couple of weeks, then your bodily adjusts, and if you suddenly stop taking it, you go through a withdrawal reaction. that comes under opioid use disorder as well, but you don't have the addiction. i had some who became -- i had some patients who became dependent on opioids intravenously. but they never craved it. they never felt like they needed it again. other drugs, including antidepressants, beta blockers, which are commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, if you abruptly stop that and you've been on it for a while, you can actually get a fatal withdrawal. you can have a stroke or a heart attack. dependency and addiction are two different things. as far as the pain management is concerned, unfortunately, because our policymakers have

long concluded that this is for treating pain, to be honest, there have been some dishonest doctors out there using their medical degree to sell prescription, and, you know, some of them are high-profile cases. of course, i don't blame that on the chemical. i blame it on prohibition, because you can make a lot more money selling prescriptions for painkillers then you can taking care of a patient in your office. because prohibition makes it a very lucrative business, for people who want to be dishonest. so anyway, because of that, doctors have been put under pressure by law enforcement, by state laws, and they are afraid to prescribed pain pills now. and in fact, the latest data shows we are now prescribing at a below 1992 level. back in the days when the national institute on drug abuse was urging us to prescribe more, because they said we were under prescribing.

and the overdose rate, of course, has gone up. so a lot of pain patients, not only have we not help the overdose raised by doing this, but we've made a lot of pain patients afraid they will get a visit from law enforcement, some of them in desperation going to the black market to get their supply, and the dangers of the black market our that you don't know what you're going to get here you may think you are purchasing oxycodone, which is what you usually use, but it may turn out that it is counterfeit and it is fentanyl. that is happening frequently. there are patients committing suicide. a doctor at the university of alabama at birmingham talks about that. thank you for asking the question. host: dr. singer mentioned a blog post. you can find his writings on at cato.org. in ohio, the line for impacted by fentanyl crisis good morning, heather. caller: good morning.

i have a question. my brother is a fictional attics. even when he does not have it, he feels like he's getting zapped, like if he touches metal. he mutilated himself. even if it had bugs in it. i'm wondering if he will ever be ok again. guest: i feel terrible about what your brother is going through. he may have some underlying psychological disorder as well as addiction to the fentanyl. so it is hard for me to say without being familiar. with his case. . some people turn to drug use as a form of self medication for whatever underlying mental health condition they have, so that may be part of your brother's problem. it is rare for just using an opioid continuously, i'm not

aware of it causing you to develop psychosis. it has not been associated with that. host: let's hear from dennis, also in ohio, on the line for impacted by fentanyl crisis. good morning, dennis. caller: good morning. hey, the reason i'm calling is because trump can do anything he wants to do to try to stop this, but the american people are hooked on illegal drugs. they want it, so they will do anything they can to get it, which, of course, if they can't get it the way they want, our crime rate goes up, and it is just a huge problem. i don't know how you're going to solve this. he may try to stop stuff coming through the border. the american people want these drugs come and they will do whatever they can to get them. so what do we do? guest: that is right. when we instituted alcohol

prohibition, we had a whole lot of people buying from bootleg alcohol, we had a whole lot of corrupt politicians to him that we had crime. -- politicians, we had the growth of organized crime. we cap tightening up the border. this time it was coming through the northern border, canada. finally in 1933, we got smart and said, this is a bad idea, let's make it legal and regulate it. so now, for example, when i go to my drug dealer, which is the nearby liquor store in my area, town, i happen to like bourbon, and when i go to the aisle that has burden on the shelf, i look at a bourbon bottle that says 45% alcohol, and never enters my mind that they may be lying to me, that has 50% alcohol, it may have fentanyl in it. that is because it is legal. if a teenager goes into that store, the retailer is going to seek i.d. to make sure everyone

is 21 years or older, because the store will lose their liquor license. that. is a good way to keep it. . it's a good way to reduce access to young people. so the answer is that we need to end the war on drugs. as long as people are going to want this, a healthy black market will exist, and it will always find a way. you can put walls on borders, you can do all sorts of things, beta sort of like water going downhill in a brook. you can add boulders to different parts of the brook, but the water is going to find its way around the boulders and trickle down stream, because water takes it downstream. and like i said, the harder you enforce it, the more you are ensuring the fact that something even more deadly and dangerous is going to come around. for example, in the last couple of years, we've all heard that the cartels have been adding the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine

to fentanyl, usually referred to as tranq. that's not even an opioid. but you can smuggle it in small sizes. there's another opioid, not related to fentanyl, a category called nitazine by a company called novartis but never brought to market, and since 2019 commit has been making his way to the black market. in 2023, in the u.k., they reported there's a huge amount of nitazene showing up in the black market. not a lot of labs are aware of it, so they are not testing for it. if it gets too difficult to make fentanyl, the cartels will then move over to nitazene.

there will always be something else. my idea, the ideal solution, is to end the war on drugs. these are randomly decided to be illegal. cocaine was legal, it was put in coca-cola up until 1914. in 1914, we decided to make certain types of drugs that early illegal, and that is -- federally illegal, and that is when the problems began. we learned from alcohol prohibition and make it legal and regulate it, that will put the cartels, they are already in multiple lines of work anyway, including money laundering and selling dvd's, smuggling humans, so they will just have to concentrate on those other industries. just like when alcohol prohibition ended in the united states, the organized crime moved over to things like drugs. that is the real answer. in the short run, if that is not politically feasible right now, at least remove government obstacles to harm reduction strategies. in five states in this country,

including texas, which has a huge population, if you wanted to hand out fentanyl to people in your area where you know there's a lot of drug use, to test what you bought to see if there's fentanyl in it, you can be arrested, because that is considered illegal. in new york city since the end of 2021, the city has had two overdosed prevention centers to operate, where people can come inside, they use their drug in a safe environment, get it tested personally. there are people standing nearby to rescue them in case, if they overdosed. well, that is actually against the law federally. there's a thing called the crackhouse statute that does not allow that. but these two organizations have been operating since the end of 2021, beginning of 2022. they've already reversed more than 1300 overdoses. and these are people who would be dead. now one just opened actually in

the state of rhode island that the state government approved, and the state legislature just approved one, they are working on getting online in vermont. but that is federally against the law. in the previous administration, the justice department exercised prosecutorial discretion and chose not to prosecute. but there's no telling what will happen in this administration. so if you can't make this legal and learn the lessons of alcohol prohibition, then at least let organizations that want to help people minimize the risk of overdose death and the spread of disease like hiv and hepatitis from shared needles and that kind of thing. at least get out of the way of people who want to do that by removing the laws they don't allow that. host: dr. singer, to your point, you're talking about possible solutions. the house has passed the h.a. l.t. act last week that would

personally -- permanently classified things like fentanyl into schedule one. do you think that would help at all? guest: yeah. coincidently, i have an article that went live this morning, and the title of the article is, is the h.a.l.t. fentanyl act delusional or performance art? the fact is, it is both. in 2018, the drug administration organization through a temporary emergency orders that all of these analogues of physical, other than the ones already fda approved that i mentioned earlier, all the other ones will be schedule one, that means no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse, and they are totally banned. you are not allowed to prescribe them or anything. in that order was extended a couple of times by hungers, beta scheduled to expire in march -- but it is scheduled to expire in

march of this year. the house passed an act that would not expire. if they herald this as a big change, that is where it is performance art, because all it is doing is continuing what has been unsuccessful since 2018. in reducing overdose deaths. that's number one. the delusional part i think you already alluded to it, which is you cannot stop it. on top of that, heroin is scheduled one. it is scheduled one since the controlled substance act was passed in 1970. cannabis is schedule one kid we don't see any cannabis in this country at all, right? psychedelics are schedule one. we don't see any of that, do we? the point is, just making it schedule one, you are deluded if you think that is going to suddenly do something. in addition to that, there are other features of the act that will also be harmful. so, for example, it is very

difficult if you want to do clinical research trials to see if they have medical use. we all know cannabis has had you since antiquity. we also know psychedelics can help with addiction, depression, ptsd, but in order to get permission to do research on schedule one drugs, they are highly restricted. this whole fentanyl that. -- this h.a.l.t. fentanyl act recognizes that. there are several restrictions. if you are in the pharmaceutical industry, it is just too much of a hassle. those restrictions are a deterrent for you wanted to do research using those drugs, to see if they can have any therapeutic use. you will just do research and other drugs, so you don't have those hassles. for all we know, i mean, we don't know, one of these fictional analogues that are now schedule one, might be good for

preventing overdose deaths kid we will never know. it will pretty much be impossible to do studies on it. also, the h.a.l.t. fentanyl act extends mandatory minimum sentences to people who are found in possession of these schedule i fictional analogues. and, you know, the research has been clear for decades that mandatory minimum's do nothing to deter drug use or drug doing. it is so lucrative, the risks involved with doing drugs are already baked into the decision drug traffickers make to traffic it, plus none of them ever think they are going to get caught. host: we will go to tina in pennsylvania, lines were impacted by the regional crisis. good morning, tina. caller: hi. not necessarily fentanyl. i lost my sign preventable, lethal dose of oxycontin and some other drug. but i am a pain patient, and i

belong to the doctor patient for them. i want to say there is such a bad = stigma on people such as myself who have to take it. i don't take it to get high kid i'm riddled with metal. i have two bad ankles, bad knees. i've broken them both to two times. the problem i'm seeing is these unconstitutional pain clinics, like with me, i'm allergic to cortizone. i've had i can't tell you how many shots in my back, neck, and knees to cortizone. my doctor made me prove my allergy, which sent me into anaphylactic shock, which i had to go to the emergency room, and i almost died. the problem is, you have these people giving these legal prescriptions, and they are selling them. why aren't we locking them up?

because eventually they will kill someone like they killed my kid. i'm tired of the dea being in the doctor's office with me if you have met with the dea. i save everything, every mri, every ct, everything. i cannot go -- i'm not going to spend the rest of my life laying in a bed because i cannot move. and it just makes me so angry that people that are far worse than me because we have idiots on the street that want to get high. put them in rehab. there are empty prisons all over pennsylvania. don't hand them a needle. get them clean. give them something to look forward to. i know if i ever run out of my medication, i'm not going on the street to look for any. because i'm not an addict. i'm physically dependent to them because of my back, my neck, and my knees, but i'm not an addict. host: we will get a response

from dr. singer. guest: well, first of all well,, i empathize with your problem. part of the problem is we doctors are being pressured by lawmakers to treat pain by other means other than opioids. every state has a prescription drug database now, so if you start prescribing opioids that law enforcement think this too much, all of a sudden, you can get a visit from law enforcement. and pharmacies are just as worried, so sometimes we doctors will prescribe an opioid commander pharmacists won't fill it, because they are worried. a calling from the cato's are burris, two years ago wrote "cops practicing medicine," which i urge you to look into it online, but as the caller was

intimating, this is cops telling us how to practice medicine. if you go to a pain management specialist, they will try everything short of an opioid, and then there's a financial aspect, because that is billable and they get paid for it. i disagree by you saying put them in jail, that is prohibition. that is not going to work. substance use disorder is a behavioral disorder. but some people actually like using drugs. research shows 80% to 90% of people who engage in illicit substances over the age, they begin using them in their mid-20's and out, because when they are under 25 or so, your prefrontal cortex is not developed, so you don't have the executive functions you have as an adult.

but 80% to 90% of adults who use illicit drugs don't become addicted, they don't even become dependent, they just use occasionally, but they love to use. college dorms, certain parties, people would use restriction pain kills -- prescription pain pillows like oxycodone or oxycontin. i don't think it is right to use something other than alcohol. it is alcohol, they don't go to jail, but if it's oxycodone, they do. if you force someone to go to treatment, not only is that doing something about their consent and therefore is immoral, but there's evidence showing that they could actually be counterproductive. we did get a number of people, if you don't want to go into rehab, then you go to the order, your underlying compulsive disorder has not been corrected,

so you are still using, but you are using at the dose level that you remember used to give you the desired result, but you've lost your tolerance because you have not used for several weeks, so you are more prone to overdose. also the research shows 80% to 90% of people who have addiction to these drugs began using when they were adolescence, when their brain was not fully matured. so we get into two separate issues, adults versus minors. i don't think you should put an adult in a cage because they chose to use something other than alcohol. to get a buzz. i think that is their personal decision. just like with alcohol. don't get behind the wheel of a car if you could jeopardize others. especially if you're using in the privacy of home with friends. that is your business. they should not be put in a cage for that. host: we have a couple minutes left, but we have time for one last quick question. we go a mic in massachusetts,

line for impacted by physical crisis. good morning, mike. it looks like we lost mike. we will go to nixon in fort lauderdale, florida. good morning, nixon. caller: good morning. good morning, doc. doc, my wife has lupus. she is on ox, she's on serious pain meds. the doctor prescribed her fentanyl, and she had an allergic reaction that she basically hallucinated, "i don't want to take that anymore." so i told the doctor, all these pain meds you are prescribing my wife, i don't want her addicted to all these medications. is there anyway you can get to the root of the problem of what is causing her to have a flareup? he looked at me as if he don't know anything about what i'm talking about. i asked him, what is your background and studying lupus.

he said, i have none. your wife's case is a rare case. and i'm basically going back to school dealing with your wife. so i basically said, what can we do to take her all follow these pain meds? because i don't want my wife addicted to the pain meds come and when she do have a flareup, i rush her to the emergency room , and they are looking at her like ok, here she comes again, she wants morphine, she wants this, and then she's addicted to these things. what advances have we made in lupus? guest: i'm not a specialist in room of the logical diseases, i'm a general surgeon. i suggest you get your wife to see a rheumatologist. those are medical specialists who specialize in rheumatology, connected tissue

diseases, sjogren's disease, rheumatoid arthritis. in regard to her reaction to the fentanyl, every single drug that exists, some people have idiosyncratic reactions or side effects. a lot of people, for example, when they take opioids, they find that they get nauseated. other people, they don't get nauseated. it is important to understand, and our lawmakers do not come that one size does not fit all. everybody has got their own physiology, their own liver function, their own kidney function. different medications in their system that interact with opioids that had a lot to do with the effect they have, so that the one person, five milligrams may be enough to relieve the pain, and another person may need 10 milligrams of oxycodone. so i really, i could not give you advice regarding lupus, but i can recommend that you get your wife to a specialist, which would be a rheumatologist. host: our guest is dr. jeffrey

singer. he's a health care policies studies senior fellow at the cato institute, also author of the book "your body, your health care," which is coming out in april. dr. singer, thank you so much for being with us today. guest: thank you very much. host: that is it for today's "washington journal." we present our guests and our callers. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. until then, had a good day. [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] >> on capitol hill, the house gave ilater today at noon eastern. lawmakers will consider several

bills under suspension of the rules involving chinaurncy practices and their impact on foren change markets. the senate is back today at 3: p.m. eastern to continue debate on more of president trump's binet nominees. senators will vote at 5:30 p.m. eastern to advance the nomination of tulsi gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence. watch veoverage of the house on c-span, theene on c-sp2, and all of o congressional coverage is available on our free video app, c-span now, and online at c-span.org. >> john dickinson is one of the most significant founders of the united states who is not well known by all of the american public. author jane e calvert is trying to change all that with the