let's weather these two storms as we always have and as we always will, together. because in this moment, we will show those who came before us and those who will come after us that this chamber, this body, and this state that we understood the assignment. thank you all very much. god bless this state, and let's leaf no one behind in our work. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] >> on friday, interior secretar dougburg up, along with gorns jared polis and kevin stitt and others will discuss.

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>> c-span, democracy unfiltered. we're funded by these television companies and more, including midco. >> where are you going? or maybe a better question is, how far do you want to go? and how fast do you want to get there? now we're getting somewhere. so let's go. let's go faster. let's go further. let's go beyond. >> midco supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. utin of russia. this week, top u.s. and russian officials met to discuss the future of ukraine.

after ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy expressed frustration about being excluded from those talks, president trump amped up his criticism of zelenskyy. this is the latest from last night. [video clip] pres. trump: think of it. a modestly successful comedian, president zelenskyy, talk to the united states of america into spending $350 billion to go into a war that basically couldn't be won. they never had to start, and never would have started if i was president, never a chance, it didn't start for four years, never would have started, but a war without the u.s. and trump will never be able to settle, they will never settle that were without our involvement. that's why they did such a great job this weekend. that's why saudi arabia did such a great job this weekend in hosting. the united states has spent 200 billion dollars more than europe, and europe's money is guaranteed. they get their money back. it is a form of a loan.

nobody knows that. i know that. why isn't someone saying we do at the same way? we spent much more money. we have to equalize. while the united states gets nothing back, so they get their money back, it's alone. we just give our money. we had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal, they broke it two days ago. we had a deal. we are spending $350 billion and euros gets their money back in the form of a loan, and we don't. we are just giving the money hand over fist. that is the biden administration for you. but they are no longer dealing with the same united states as they were dealing a few month ago. why didn't crooked joe biden demand equalization in that this war is far more important to europe than it is to us and that there is a very big, beautiful ocean of separation. we are helping europe, we are trying to help europe, and on

top of this and linsky admits that half of the money that we sent them is missing. they don't know where the money is. he said, we don't know where half of it is. he refuses to have elections. the real ukrainian polls, how can you be high when every city is being demolished. someone said, no, his polls are good. give me a break. every city is being demolished. they look like a demolition site. every one of them. the only thing he was really good at was playing joe biden like a fiddle. he played him like a fiddle. that is an expression we use, yes, sir, to say that he's pretty easy, pretty easy. a dictator without elections, zelenskyy better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. host: president trump from late yesterday, taking your phone calls this morning as we talk about the u.s.-ukrainian relationship. what has happened in the last 48 hours. here are quotes from yesterday

from ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy speaking to ukrainian tv saying that president trump unfortunately lives in this disinformation space, saying, at a news conference yesterday, that he wished donald trump's team had more truth. tweeting this out yesterday afternoon saying, he spoke with the u.s. senat rublican lindsey graham. werely appreciate the bicameral and bipartisan support of u.s. core to the ukrainian people in our fight against russian aggreson as always, he said, senator graham is construcvend doing a lot to help bring peace closer . it's all important that security guarantees remain on the bl he said, and they work for ukraine for real and lasting peace. saying thank you for your support. baltimore's zelenskyy yesterday on his x page. here are headlines in this morning's major papers about this relationship.

allies fear u.s. may realign its russia policy as donald trump appears to move closer to putin. this is the front page in the new york times. the headline, trump calls zelenskyy a dictator as feud grows. the news analysis piece from peter baker, a hero to biden is a villain to his successor. washington times, donald trump topples the u.s. stance on ukraine. some of the headlines, we will go through some of the reaction in this first hour of the "washington journal."the numbers for democrats, republicans, and independents as usual. this is doug in ohio on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello. first of all, trump is the one who wants to be a dictator, not zelenskyy. the republican party ought to be ashamed of themselves for keeping supporting this man because he is the want to be dictator. i support ukraine all the way, because they are trying to stop

the evil threat of the communists all over the world. you give them an inch over there, and then china, north korea, south korea, and the world will be a bigger mess. trump is making a big enough mess at home and now he is trying to make a mess overseas. we are not going to turn gaza into a gosh-darn resort for anybody. it has been the longest month of my life watching this guy cut up my beautiful democracy the way that he has. i just hate the man, anything he does anymore. he's destructive. he's the most destructive thing this country has had since king george iii. you must be a king. he can be louis the 16th of france. it can be 1789 if he wants it to. host: elizabeth city, north carolina, republican, good morning. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. first of all, i strongly

disagree with the previous caller. i would like to correct him. king george iii was not american. i disagree a lot with what trump is saying. i totally support ukraine's freedom. they need to be free, and i don't trust russia. not at all. russia started it. they gathered troops on the border and they invaded ukraine. i believe ukraine to be free and must be free. so, i would let mr. trump have the president of ukraine involved in the talks. host: what you think about the reaction that we have seen in the day or so since this feud, this rift has started. here's a headline from the

washington post. gop senators split on trump's attacks on zelenskyy and reversals on ukraine. caller: the gop in general is supportive of ukraine. there is no question about that. they are walking a tight rope with trump, because they realize that he is the president. trump has done a lot of good, there is no question about it. i support him in the good, but ukraine must be free. there is no question about the russian aggression. there is no question in my mind he was the real bad guy here. putin, i don't trust him at all. the republicans, the gop, they must really come together and really think and do what is best

how to best help ukraine. that's my take on it. host: bodmer zelenskyy -- volodymyr zelenskyy talking about his conversation with lindsey graham. this was his tweet yesterday come his x post. and it comes to blame for the russian invasion of ukraine i blame putin above all others. if you're looking for american politicians to blame, by then and obama are at the top of my list. they were pathetically weak handling putin and failed to protect ukraine from invasion. to the course of democrats who now love ukraine after they invaded, where were you before putin's invasion? why didn't you up your game as i encouraged you to. saying donald trump is ukraine's best hope to end this war honorably and justly. i believe you will be successful and will achieve this goal in the trump way. his comments on x.

more comments from other members of congress. we continue to hear from you. mountain home, arkansas, republican, joel. caller: thank you for taking my call. i support president trump and i voted for him. i would like to say a few things now. we have given this country $200 billion. we have a state here, north carolina, we have not taken care of those people. they are out in the cold today. they are -- i just can't believe what we are doing. the reason i'm saying this, we pulled out of afghanistan and we left all that equipment over there. then iran and those people got that equipment, selling and on the black market. this president didn't have to take all this on. he's a billionaire. $36 trillion in the hole now.

if we can't meet this payment each year, and the payment is as much as our budget each year now. what does the people not understand? host: you mentioned afghanistan. are you concerned that ukraine could become donald trump's afghanistan? what afghanistan was for joe biden? a moment when you can look back and the public opinion polling flipped on joe biden with the u.s. pullout? do you think that walking away from support or funding for ukraine, if that is what happens, do you think that could be something akin to afghanistan? caller: i'm going to tell you what started this work. ukraine kept asking to be part of nato. now, ukraine was part of russia many years ago. i don't remember when, but they left russia somehow.

i don't understand that part. host: the end of the soviet union. caller: ok. now, we didn't like the russians in cuba and we almost went to war over that. i'm 83 and i will be 84 soon. i served 24 years in the military. we see what's going on. i'm just saying, if we had texas saying they wanted to go to another country we wouldn't like that either. host: joel in arkansas. elizabeth, nashville, tennessee, democrat. caller: i just wanted to say that all of the republicans who are going to be calling in who still believe joe biden was too cognitively impaired to be president, i don't know why they aren't saying anything about donald trump. it's clear something wrong is going on with him. there is no sort of proof from him that volodymyr zelenskyy is a dictator. volodymyr zelenskyy is a hero

who cares about his people and is trying to save them for more. why doesn't he share that same rhetoric about vitamin putin? why doesn't he share the same rhetoric around xi jinping or kim jong-un, who he gets along with very well, i might add. all of the republicans who think that joe biden was too cognitively impaired to be president, i think trump and his team should be taken out of office. host: plenty of criticism about this decision in the major national print papers this morning on the op-ed pages, including from the editorial board of the wall street journal. donald trump tilts towards a ukraine sellout, putting pressure on for a deal than he does on the kremlin. the u.s. government's biggest cut is in global credibility right now. writing about ukraine. cal thomas writing in the mostly

conservative pages of the washington times op-ed pages, no substitute for victory. putin must be defeated, is what cal thomas writes. this is from nicholas kristof in the new york times, there op-ed pages, humiliating month to be an american. it goes on. if you're looking for support for donald trump criticism of ukraine, conservative media online has a few articles on it, including alex marlowe writing for breitbart.com. yes, zelenskyy is a dictator is the headline of his peace. red states is another of those websites that you can go to. the headline on the red state's website talks about donald trump slamming dictator zelenskyy, and jd vance tags and and hammers volodymyr zelenskyy for bad mouthing the president. getting your reaction, plenty to choose from. this is doug in newport news, virginia.

republican, good morning. caller: i don't understand why everyone is upset. yes, i support ukraine. i believe trump still supports ukraine. but when trump asked for ukraine to give us rights to start paying some of the money back to help them, everyone is upset. why are we the world's su cker? i did 20 years in the military, retired. i've been over there. we should have been getting paid from the gulf war. if you give trump time and let him run his course, he knows what he's doing. yeah, he likes to piss people off, but that is part of his strategy. host: you say you think donald trump still supports ukraine? what makes you believe that? caller: because we haven't stopped giving them any money, and they can't account for the money that we gave them. how do you -- it is just like

our country. we are going broke taking care of the world. why do we keep being involved in all this stuff? when i do agree with him, it is europe's problem. it is not our problem until it becomes our problem. we've stepped up more than europe. europe is the one sitting there with russia. i don't trust russia for nothing. i don't trust putin. most of the time you have to keep your enemies closer than your friends. host: at what point, doug, do you think this would become our problem? caller: when it -- when russia wants to take all of it. then you will have a problem. host: all of ukraine? caller: yeah. if you remember, everyone sat back when hitler went into poland and said, it is just poland, let them have it. until he ended up taking almost

all of europe. then we had to get involved. it's time we stopped being the police of the world. host: doug in virginia, bob in new hampshire, good morning. caller: hi. thanks. white make russia great again? this past caller, it's amazing. trump, putin is maneuvering to how trump did in afghanistan when he made the piece with the taliban. the military, the government folded like thin air. that is what left of the equipment there, and it will be the same thing in ukraine as we pull out. ukraine can't make it. they will end up losing. you will have a mess like the gentleman said. we have to do it now, or else we will send troops later.

why make russia great again with the equipment that we leave there like we did in afghanistan? one more thing, putin is maneuvering us. he is -- make no mistake. he is going to take ukraine. he's afraid of a democratic and free ukraine than a nato ukraine. russian citizens see that on their doorstep, it is the end for putin and he knows it. it's not nato, it's a free and democratic ukraine. this martial law in ukraine, how can you get a vote? you can't get an honest vote. trump himself should know about honest votes. host: bob focusing at the end about the criticism on delayed

elections are the editorial board of the washington journal bringing up that point when donald trump makes the criticism of volodymyr zelenskyy as a "dictator." they note that ukraine has delayed elections while it is operating under martial law and fighting a war for survival. it's constitution allows it to do this. britain under nazi siege did not hold an election in world war ii asking the question, was churchill a dictator? ? -- the opposite of leverage in any negotiation. mr. trump wants to be able to claim that he brought peace as promised as a candidate. a cautionary tale is joe biden. he tried to wash his hands of afghanistan, but instead his retreat set in motion a chain of global crises that defined his presidency. he tried to sell his withdrawal as a triumph of military logistics but the public knew better.

americans macy a similar reaction if they see russia emerged triumphant and realize that this was not the piece that they had in mind. this is charleston, west virginia. alberta, democrat, good morning. caller: thank you, doug. i appreciate the time and energy. he has been spewing the answer on his thing last night, what he thinks of the united states. the three things was love, respect, and strength. in my observation, love him loves his special ones. respect, there is none except for the elite. strength, by bullying everyone who is not in his boat. also, we can move this us. there is a loophole here. trump's mother was born in the united kingdom. vance's wife -- host: bring me to ukraine. caller: i am totally with

ukraine. as far as him calling him a dictator, i think he needs to look in the mirror, totally. he is straight up running the mob. he has gone rogue and the republicans are not stopping him. i thought that there were things in place for this. i've called every one of my senators and representatives daily. let me tell you, i'm getting nowhere. it's really in for your -- it's really infuriating me. a lot of people have anxiety because all of us are immigrants. host: that is alberta in west virginia on the republican line mark in hampstead, maryland. caller: good morning, john, how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: it's funny that zelinski used the phrase, saying something about trump being in a disinformation bubble. it's funny that he uses the word

disinformation, because that word was pushed by the cia a few years back when we had covid. you notice all of the media outlets started using the word misinformation and disinformation overnight at the behest of the central intelligence agency. now, with zelenskyy using the phrase, it's funny, because it was the cia that put it into place. host: what if he was using the phrase "fake news?" what if he used the phrase "fake news?" caller: what do you mean? host: what if that is the phrase that he chose instead of disinformation? caller: that would just be putting it into layman's terms. saying using disinformation and misinformation, those words came from the same people who started using the words conspiracy theorist. the thing about zelenskyy, a month before zelenskyy came into

power in ukraine, there is a tape of victoria nuland, you can look it up on youtube, she was speaking at a conference, she was naming the people who she wanted to be in zelenskyy's cabinet. victoria nuland is the same deep state operative that got us involved in iraq, and afghanistan. host: did you ever support spending u.s. dollars to go to ukraine to help fight this war? caller: i don't, and i will tell you why. if i can put it this way, there is a move. we had 13 countries involved in nato to begin with. vladimir putin has been telling us for 25 years that ukraine was the line for nato. biden sends kamala harris there three days before putin invaded and says from the television

cameras, we would like to invite ukraine to join nato, knowing that that was the redline. i'm not saying putin is a good guy. i don't know why democrats -- democrats seem to hate russia now. they didn't hate it so much when it was the soviet union. that's kind of curious, but let's put that aside for a second. two things can be true at once. yes, putin is a bad guy, but that doesn't mean zelenskyy is not a bad guy. he got rid of all television over there except for state-run television and radio. he shut down orthodox christian churches and canceled elections. that is the definition of the dictator. host: mark in maryland. ian in kearney's bill, west virginia. -- kerneysville, west virginia.

caller: i worked in the intelligence community for 10 years now. i will say plainly that it's well-known that donald trump is compromised. i also see that the americans don't quite understand how america maintains global supremacy. what we are doing in ukraine is we are literally draining their resources of a world power without using american lives. pulling back at this point is profoundly dumb. we have russia on the ropes. they have lost over 600,000 troops. this is a great thing for america. listening to some of these previous callers, it is obvious why we are in the situation we are in. host: when you say that you worked in the intelligence community for 10 years, can you be more specific? caller: i was in the military, i got out and i worked in contracting for several different agencies. i won't go into the agencies or

projects that have worked for, but i will say -- host: what makes you say that russia is on the ropes? we are entering the fourth year of this. the invasion in february of 2022. caller: yes. host: what makes you say russia is on the ropes? caller: they are losing troops at an insane rate. it is pretty bad for us. at one point they were losing 1000 troops per day. this is unclassified information p you can look it up. so the nato alliance between the u.s. and the european nato countries has single-handedly taken a small country like ukraine and decimated what was once considered one of the premier military forces in the world. within four years with no american lives spent. it is a great thing for america.

pulling back is -- it's really hard, honestly, to see what's going on. to see a man like donald trump, who is clearly compromised and morally corrupt, and to listen to americans speak about this man as if he is some kind of savior for america. it's very worrisome for the future. host: ian and west virginia. lester in tuscaloosa, alabama, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, john. how are you? host: doing well, sir. caller: listening to the last caller, on the line i heard four republicans call in. these republicans act like they run the united states. they don't have a leg to stand on. donald trump is compromised. donald trump started the war in ukraine when he first left office to make biden look bad. host: how would he have started

the war, lester? caller: as simple as this. he didn't want biden -- he knew when biden got into office america was great. we didn't have any problems. donald trump lost over close to 3 million people because he come in with nonsense stuff. look at the cabinet he got right now. host: how could he have possibly started the war? caller: he is a putin sympathizer. the united states did not tolerate with russia. russia, in our history, has always been a dictator country. look at hitler, how he came into power. is the same way the donald trump is trying to run the united states. host: this is nancy anne in louisiana, republican, good morning. caller: i'm calling in to let

your viewers know that i support president trump's statement on ukraine. to all of you viewers and your callers, president trump doesn't have a mean bone in his body. he is for the united states. all of these callers should think about these hostages, hostages around the world that need to be rescued. this is what i have to say. this is how i feel this morning holding on for 20 minutes. i support president trump's statement on ukraine. thank you. host: nancy anne in louisiana. 7:30 on the east coast and we are taking your calls on the rift that we've seen in just the past 48 hours between donald trump and ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, asking you what it could mean on the

international stage and what you think it means here at home. republicans, democrats, independents, phone lines as usual. we have been taking you through some of the reaction on capitol hill. here are a few more comments from x from members of congress. josh hawley, the republican from missouri, putting the ukrainian situation togeth with the budget framework thathe senate is working on right now, and the house as well, saying i'm not voting for a budget framework that facilitates more taxpay mey to ukraine. period. youngest woman anna paulina luna sang the deep state in washington once the russia-ukraine war to persist forever at pense of american taxpa we can't let this money launderi scheme continue. marjorie taylor greene s the ukraine war has always be a deep state funded and controlled money laundering operation and oxwar against russia. zelenskyy is an actor and green

juuit that extorts money from everyone, she says. bernie sanders say trump and his american oligarchs are now openly aligning emlves with putin and his russian oligarchs. this putin-trump alliance means abandoningurllies and supporting authoritarianismnd undermining our democratic traditions. mark warner, democrat from virginia, president trump should really have a conversation with his own intelligence offials before he again blames ukraine for being invaded by russia sheldon whitehouse saying there was always trump/russiand there still is trump/russia. the early actions of the trump adnistration signaled a continuing force of trump/russia. feelree to add to the list. some of the reaction on x. we are mostly interested in your reaction this morning. phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. jc is an independent from mobile, alabama. caller: good morning.

listening to trump's rhetoric, it is surreal what is happening. it is actually difficult to believe that this is really happening, but nonetheless it is. if someone could be orchestrating it, conveying it so absolutely backwards. we are seeing now i kind of replay of we can say the ghost of neville chamberlain. it was fitting that the recent meeting was in munich, the famous, infamous site where chamberlain came back and said, yes, unfortunately, it is the start of the comparison to hitler. it was a historical fact that neville chamberlain said the adolph hitler was a man that we could trust and believe in. three times he signed pacts that he brought back to england saying adolf hitler was summoned to be trusted. several years ago vladimir putin did a grand, sweeping speech in which he called up the greatness

of russia from antiquity, the russian empire, that he wants -- he was open about it, i give him that. he aims to restore, re-conquest the old czarist russian empire and he is doing an excellent job. we've all heard of the nobel peace prize. if this thing somehow ends up being a nobel peace prize awarded to trump or perhaps trump and putin, what it should be is the nobel appeasement prize, not the nobel peace prize. he is appeasing vladimir putin. noticeably absent were the war crimes, the vast numbers of hideous, vile war crimes that have been documented and verified. also, the thousands and thousands of ukrainian children who have been absconded, kidnapped, and brought into russia forcibly.

these were all noticeably left out. these were -- to suggest that ukraine caused it is like the old male adage that a woman caused herself to be raped. ukraine was and is a sovereign nation that has a right to join nato. since when does vladimir putin get to dictate who does and doesn't enter nato with sovereign nations? that is not a vassal of pew 10. ukraine is a sovereign nation. host: you bring up 1938, the nobel peace prize. in the washington times, bringing up both of those things as well. he writes that wall street journal columnist wilma brennan >> you can continue watching this on our website. we take you to the annual conservative political action conference near the nation's pi