[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.] host: yesterday marks one month since donald trump was sworn in

as president for his second term and a lot has happened. he has signed 68 executive orders so far, begun mass lay-offs of federal employees and declared a national emergency at the southern border among other actions. so, what do you think? how would you grade president trump's first month in office? are there certain efforts you support, some you oppose? what surprised you about his first month? here's how to share your thoughts -- republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. you can send a text to 202-748-8003. send us your first name and your city, state, and we're on social media, facebook.com/cspan and x at @cspanwj. welcome to today's "washington journal." we'll start with president trump. he addressed a gathering of

republican governors in washington yesterday and spoke about his first month. pres. trump: every day of my administration we'll be fighting to help your state succeed and prosper and together, we're going to bring back the american dream. something that nobody talks about anymore. in our last four weeks, our new administration has accomplished most administrations do in four years. last year the administration was negative 50%. it was a deaccomplishment. on some day one, i declared a national emergency on our southern border. i sent our military to the border to secure the sovereign territory of the united states of america. we ended catch and release we begin the largest deportation operation in american history, larger even than that of president dwight d. eisenhower. he was a moderate guy but he was very strong on the fact that he didn't want people pouring in

from our country. he was very tough. he has a record. we now have a record. it's not the record that i'm proud of but we have no choice. i mean, they let criminals, many, many criminals, hundreds of thousands, probably millions of criminals, 21 million people, i believe, is the number, and of nats, millions of people are hard, stone cold criminals. in the past four weeks, illegal border crossings have plummeted by nearly 100% and the tiny number of illegals that do make it across that are being apprehended are sent right back to their home where they belong. every single one, even though they said and strongly, we're never taking them back. they said that during the biden administration and it didn't work. they're taking them back. they have no choice. they're taking them back. they know we're not playing games. [applause]

host: and this is "the washington post" -- a relentless effort to remake the presidency. in just one month, president trump made it clear that he sees the presidency on different terms -- it continues by quoting a history professor at the university of texas at austin. we are in a new kind of presidency with donald trump. he is trying to make the presidency like a c.e.o. position in a corporation. wonder what you think about the

first term -- sorry, the first month of president trump's second term. this is the washington examiner. trump flexes power in dizzying first months. back in office. he's in command. it says president trump and his aides promised shock and awe during his first 100 days and just one month back in the oval office, trump has delivered an avalanche at a face that has gob smacked washington and the world. trump has expanded the presidency through his use of executive action and policy policies from reduce the side size of the federal workforce -- so what do you say about that? we'll start with clara, who's in

garner, north carolina, a democrat. good morning, clara. caller: good morning. i think that i would grade him with an f. i certainly understand and expect everything that he's doing is what he said he was going to do and therefore, that's where we're at. and i absolutely, you know, when he starts to call himself change, that says it all. everybody should not be surprised or should be absolutely not dumbfound. i don't think there will be any more elections. he can suspend that from the constitution. he is successfully going through and flashing through and telling all of the departments. i wouldn't fly now if my life dentedded on it. host: what do you mean he can suspend elections?

how would that play out? caller: there will not be any more elections. host: you think he will stay in office indefinitely? caller: yes. that's what he's after. there's not stopping this. but i do need someone to reflect on it. i'm on social security. when they go after social security and medicare, i have a pension of $2.70. so take my social security away. i've worked since i was 13 years old. i know nobody wants to hear it, blah, blah, blah. i get it. neither one of us to file for taxes because our income is below poverty. so go ahead and slash into our social security and please. i read the 2025 project several times.

i mean, nobody grasp. they told you what they're going to do and they'll do it. i have no doubt about that. and for him to have called the head of ukraine, the dictator to do the kinds of things he's doing, they're not just smokescreens or flashes in the pan. these are things that are in fact, what he intends on doing. and i would ask just -- just one point i want to make and you could all -- there's two points and i won't bother anybody any longer. the first point is that all these people that you are firing, including f.b.i. agents and members of the justice department. where do you think these people are going? where do you think we're going to do? he didn't receive a mass majority of the vote of 150 million people. he didn't receive -- barely received a little over 49%.

host: all right, clara. got to move on to charles in gaithersburg, maryland. a republican. hi, charles. caller: hey, good morning. i would give president trump a d minus. he has created a nightmare and he should be removed from office. a dereliction of duty. the democrat friends said a lot. but he is not doing what is right for this country at this time. that's all. thank you. host: so did you vote for him, charles? you're a republican. caller: no, i did not. host: why didn't you? caller: because of his criminal record and the mentality that he has that it's all about donald trump. and it's not all about donald trump. wake up, donald. snell the roses, buddy.

host: let's talk to phil in orange county, florida, independent line. caller: good morning. donald trump, i give him an f. not a d minus but a straight f. incomplete work. the reason why i say that this when you have the mindset that you want to go after people, just out of spite, then you have to look at this guy. he are doing things. he planned a good chess move and the people he has around him are no dummies they know how the government works. so when you start taking pieces out of the government or reducing the government so it won't be effective in size. i never known a family in the united states of america to have 10, 12, 15 people live nag two bedroom house and then saying that we got to downsize. what are you going to do? the american people got over 350 million people in it. so the government agencies that

support these people have to be big enough to get them adequate and time of service. what is going to happen? you might like him for fore reasons. -- other reasons. when you -- donald trump have a lot of tendency, raping women, assaulting women, excuse me, like to assault women. like to criticize the least of us. he always pretend to be a bully. i'm a 23-year vet. if i had a sergeant in front of me that was scared to leave, how could i follow you? donald trump was a coward to go to vietnam and now he wanted to talk about how tough he is? and then the people that supported knowing that they needed to keep this in mind, a lot of the cutses that donald

trump doing are come from your red states. and in the federal government, oh, yes, a lot of republicans in the federal government. now they are saying the exact same thing that i seen. and he is going to hurt a lot of people. host: some response from lawmakers. here's representative eric burleson, a republican of missouri. one month in, president trump has delivered on his promise to secure our homeland. reversed catch and release -- and this isenator tommy tuberville, one month ago --

here's energ and commerce democrats -- and representative judy chu, a democrat says -- and this is karen in gwen oak, maryland, democrat. hi, sharon. caller: rodgers, how are you doing, mimi? good morning to you. host: good morning. caller: i grade donald trump, i wouldn't give him no grade at all. because he has a revenge against

people that he thought did him wrong. and i just don't understand how we got people that standing up here and let this man tear this country down and chaos. and people don't realize. we have children. you know? our children don't need to be going through this and then you wonder why these young people get out here and do the things they do. donald trump is not a good representative for this country. he needs to be impeached and our country need to be put back where it needs to be, put back. and the federal workers, i feel sorry for them because they have to run up out here to get a job. you know, to pay their mortgage, and, you know, buy food, and stuff like that. and i just feel -- i just don't feel too good about it because donald trump is not doing the right thing for this country. and the spooky thing about it,

he fraternizes with vladimir putin, the worst person ever, evil. and he side with him to be his buddy and it's not right. he don't care about the american people. so that's why i'm not giving him no grade. as me being a black african american woman, i'm doing fine because i put my faith in god and i pray to god and i will ask god to pray for this country and look up for this country because donald trump is trying to tear this country up because he wanted to be a dictator. and that's all i have to say. host: all right, sharon. and let's go to the independent line in alabama. noah. you're next. caller: yes. i don't know how you start this. i give him an eight. and the reason i say that is he took a bullet, got right up. he won me over there. we're already agree on his policies is like the ukraine war.

we spent $300 billion over there. and they can't even find $100 billion up. them oligarchs. ukraine was the most corrupt country the world. and you can go back the obama administration. he sent us blankets. when trump went in there, he gave them tanks. and then biden got in there and then they invaded ukraine and kamala harris said they were going to invite ukraine into nato. i don't like putin either but he would never do it with trump because -- now they're going to step up and start paying because ukraine's running out of men. they have to drag men out to the front now. and we need that money over here we need to stay out of here. we fought two wars over there.

my sons have been the military. i've been in the military. my dad was the military. and it's just time for us to -- let europe take care of europe. let's guard our borders. and these people taking bubble batts work for the government. and you can look that up online, working at home and not doing their job. he needs get rid of these people. i'm retired from the government. state government, not federal. but them people in federal make a whole lot more money. so, that's all i got to say. and the man's only been in there a month. give time to clean the swamp out. there's more like a sewer now since biden left. beginning time. host: all right. here's robert, a republican, in franklin, indiana. good morning, robert. caller: yes, good morning. i would give him a d. it's very sad to me that my party, the party of ronald reagan, who had a spine, who saw

the defeat of russia in the cold war. now we have, you know, the president and the maga group that seems to be intent on making russia great again. seems like to they are more like the kremlin than they are republicans. and secondly, you know, the primarily job of a president is to keep the country safe. and we're gutting the c.i.a. and the f.b.i. at a time when we have turmoil going on in the middle east. have we forgotten the lessons we learned from 9/11? that it's the c.i.a. and the f.b.i. that has kept us safe since 9/11. and we're gutting those two agencies? putting them in turmoil at a time when we're in the most

dangerous. yeah. i think that he has failed in keeping us safe. that's my opinion. host: all right, robert. and this is a column from rex hub printed in .s. today" yesterday. he says if your go i voting to own the libs and make fellow americans've decided to hate feel scare or miserable, then congratulations. the first of the nation's first everconvicted felon president ha been a massive ccess. if your goal in voting for trump was to make your life better perhaps by lowering the cost of eggs and other groceries or entrusting a republican to fearsly battle inflation, i have bad news for you. you a conned. along withillions of others andrump's first month in office has demonstrated how little he cares about you or your day-to-day existence.

that is in "u.s.a. today." if you'd like to read that opinion piece. and this is jack, upper marlboro, maryland, democrat. good morning, jack. caller: hey, good morning. i think the piece of article that you just read sums it up. donald trump has been a resounding failure from everything going with his cabinet picks, with his pardoning of the j-6ers and the destruction of the federal government and gutting the federal workforce, inflation is on the rise again. food prices are creeping back up. i mean, egg prices are ridiculous at this time. everything in his mind is still joe biden's fault even though he's the president. so, yeah. it's been a resounding failure. his foreign policy has been a disaster. he's spitting in the face of all our allies, how allies for the

north in canada. he started a trade war. our european allies, he has absolutely no regard for. this country is in trouble. and if you don't believe me, just look at what's happening with these republicans congressional members are going back home and holding town halls. people are upset. and there seems to be this idea that republicans or red states won't be affected by what trump is doing with all these cuts off the workforce and the federal government. our national parks is suffering. you name it. it's a problem and hopefully what will happen is these republicans who vote for donald trump will wake up and see that they have been conned. donald trump is a conman. he's conned his way back into office and unfortunately, we're all going to suffer from it. and the only thing that would help is in two years, these

republicans vote for these congressional members who just advocate their responsibility and get them out of there so we can get somebody in there who will hold president trump accountable. host: all right, jack. let's hear from vice president jd vance. he was at cpac yesterday morning talking about the administration's accomplishments for the first month. vp vance: we have a historical mandate on a few issues. we have to secure the southern borders and thanks to his actions, border crossings are down. [applause] he recognizes that we have to unlock the engine of american growth. we've got to get back to having a growing economy to create good jobs and high wages for the american people and a lot of that goes back to drill, baby, drill. we've done more on energy under president trump's leadership than i think any administration

in history and that's not an exaggeration. and we're doing to do more. and the third thing that he's tried to do, of course, with the help of elon and all the great folks at doge is ask what are we doing with all of the american taxpayers' money and why are we wasting so much on it on garbage that the american people aren't aware that we're spending it on in the first place? for example, the stuff that we figured out, mercedes is unbelievable. why are we spending money on progressive modern art projects centered around toilets in afghanistan? that's actually something that your tax dollars were funding until very recently. and i think all of us are sitting around asking what the hell are we doing with the american people's money for the last four years? let's turn off the spigot and spend the american people's tax money on the american people's priority and that's been a big focus on the administration, too. [applause] host: that was vice president from yesterday at cpac.

c-span's coverage of the conservative tiff political conference continues today. this morning with remarks from veterans affairs secretary doug collins, kari lake a sebastian gorka. that gs underway live at 10:00 a.m. eastern this morning on c-span2. and more from cpac this afternoon with florida ngressman byron donalds, hud secretary scott turner and others. that's also live on c-span2 at 3:15 p.m. eastern. additional coverage on c-span now and c-span.org. then tonight, homeland security kristi noem gives key remarks at the ronald reagan dinner hosted by cpac. that live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span, also on the app and online. we get back to your calls now in

jeff in west virginia, a democrat. hi, jeff. caller: yes, ma'am. i'm calling from west virginia, the red state for donald trump. and they have a place called public debt. and a lot of my neighbors who vote for trump, they're walking around scared, crying, nervous, and they are forever trumpers but i'm a diabetic and i'm on medicare and when joe biden was in there, my insulin was $6 for 28-day exploit. i just went to c.v.s. to get my new supply. it went back to $80 because the american recovery act was canceled. so it went from $6 to $80. so i don't know if anybody else out there on medicare and are diabetic that their insulin shoot from $6 to $80. but this is sad. all these new senator, nobody calls you back.

you're getting a recording. and everybody's protesting out in their offices and they're not even reporting back or saying anything. but i get donald trump an f. and to america -- host: so jeff, when you say that the -- your neighbors that voted for trump are walking around scared. what are they scared of? what are they telling you? caller: because the biggest -- outside of coal and dupont industries is a place called a government office that they a lot of people work at. it's a good paying job but they're nervous that their jobs are going to be in jeopardy. younger people that just first-time home buyers, just closing in on a home like the neighbor across the street. they just closing a home. her and her husband work at public debt. they don't know? they're going to have a job. they don't know if some of the cuts or whatever.

so that's what they're saying. they're nervous. they're scared. and they're forever trumpers, flying his flags when he was running. now they're nervous and scared. so i give him an f. host: all right. here is edwin in new bern, north carolina, independent. good morning. caller: let me try to educate your listeners, ok? i give -- shoutout to senator rand paul. this is how it goes. the senate is about to pass a bill for $341 billion more in funding. we taken $5 trillion in incoming and we spent $7.5 trillion this year. that's a -- 2.2 trillion deficit. ok? if we don't watch it, we're going to be broke in this country. and the party of fiscal responsibility republicans are not showing me because do you know all the funding that doge

has found? that could be a resensation bill back to congress, ok? and be reallocated to cover the $341 billion that they're trying to pass. secondly, the most successful program is pay-go. and this year, they're about to stop it. $1.7 trillion in cuts. and that was done by bill clinton and it goes like this. any program that started, it's going to be killed. ok? i don't know if this is crazy but to think about giving $5,000 in checks to everybody, it ain't going to happen. it's not the blueprint. i want every person in america that has a congressman to contact their congressman, ask them. the money that was saved on doge, put it a -- back in congressing and they don't have to right now, $341 billion? money is going to coast guard

and to the border. and this is crazy. we are going to kill each other from within and people on social security, in 2032, they're only get 20% of their money. and for all my federal employees, you have rights. if you're not a probationary employee and your career competitive service, you need to get up with the u.s. merit system protection board, file a claim, get a lawyer and your activity has to so the you why they're let you go. if it's not for misconduct or performance, you got a case. because i helped somebody. they sent home for a year. they find her unwillingly, she went to the merit protection board. she got a year's worth of back bay and her lawyers fees are paid. i just don't understand the party that's supposed to be fiscally responsible is not showing me anything. and with doge, i'm going tell you right now.

every agency, all those items are showing. and the 14 appropriations that cover the budget this year, everybody in congress needs to red line every single item. that way, doge is not involved. i don't understand this. host: so edwin, i want to show you "the guardian" with the headline. you were talking about this. trump floats the idea to give americans 20% of saving from doge cost cutting --you would rf sending checks to americans? caller: of course it is inflationary. during covid when money was given out and approved by donald trump, guess what happened? i guarantee you today the unemployment numbers are going

to rise and it will affect the stock market. you know why? all of the probationary federal employees are sent home. judges sent home. inspector general's that inspect activities go home. i don't understand this. we are in a $2.2 trillion deficit, all the money that doge is saving it goes back to congress. host: we got that and i want to update people that early this morning the senate did vote. here is politico. "senate republicans just approved their budget resolution after more than 10 hour vote-a-rama. for now it is the gop's plan b as trump's preferred budget may not have the support to move ahead next week in the house. some republicans grumbled about

having to go through the exercise. senator josh hawley told reporters he spoke to trump on thursday evening relating that while the president did give a little not towards the senate budget in a truth social post, he made clear to me he wants one big beautiful bill. he said that two or three times on the phone." we will be following that and see what happens in the house next week. this is conrad in farmington, maine. republican. good morning. caller: i would give donald trump an a. most people do not understand that the chief executive officer of the united states of america is the president. whenever a ceo comes into a business or is hired to take over a business he has to make decisions based upon all the different departments and he has to go and analyze all of the different problems within the system.

that is what donald trump and his team is doing. the second time around he has a better idea of what is going on and that is why he has such a diverse group of cabinet picks. with all of these different problems -- america has been going down the tubes for a long time since the early 1900s. what people are going to have to understand is this is not going to be an easy task and we have a person that is willing to take all of the heat and all the conflicts from every group of people, class, whatever. the federal workers are upset because they have had a gravy train for a long time. they get great benefits and all those different things. they do not have to produce, they just live off the gripped of their money and do not have to worry about any consequence for not producing. america's viability in the past was because they could produce and they could make something so we could create wealth. when we have everybody living

off the tax base there is nothing created. if you don't create something you do not make any wealth. that is where we are today and people are going to have to stand up. the sad thing is there is a lot of people on social security and the only way we are going to be able to take care of those people the elderly and the real disabled people is if we create some wealth. i think donald trump is doing the best job because he is willing to stand for what is right. it is not going to be easy for any of us. host: let me ask you about this article. this is npr reporting. the headline "irs cuts over 6000 jobs in the middle of tax season." you worry about the irs not having the staffing required to process tax returns and tax refunds? caller: if you look into the

actual audit that has been done on irs agents that have been delinquent on paying their taxes it does not scare me a bit. if people go and do their research and look up where the tax was implemented and see the legality of being taxed. people would be surprised. those are the things people do not want to hear. that is why there is a congressman or congresswoman that said taxes are voluntary. there is nobody believes our taxes are voluntary. these are the things people need to look into and not just believe the news agencies that are telling you their talking points. host: i have to move on. here is jerry in pennsylvania. democrat. caller: i just wanted to say i would give trump a d. host: why?

caller: because whenever i see him on tv he is patting his own self on the back. that is one thing i hate. i would like someone else to give me praise not praising myself. whatever he is doing he is not doing a good job so he has to pack his own self on the back. host: here is ron in north miami beach, florida. republican. go ahead. caller: this is something -- i will give him a b because we have a long way to go. he has been amazing. i've never seen anyone in my lifetime like him. i am 75 and have owned my own business for 40 years. i never minded paying taxes.

if i pay taxes that meant i was doing well and making money. he is a businessman that has tone that his whole life. he grew up in a tough city, he knows his way around the whole world because of it. i think you ought to give him a chance to get the job done. we are in trouble. there is one big factor that most of our listeners do not consider. they are worried about losing a little here and there because of some benefits. we are in a situation where if our dollar is devalued we will be out of business. it is just that simple. host: i am curious why since you said he is doing a great job why give him a b and not an a? caller: we have a long way to go. there been some mistakes made. last night i listened to kevin o'leary who said if he buys a

company and he goes in there and cleans house he says somebody may get fired by accident they can hire them back and that is what is happened already. we have a lot to do in a short time to do it. we are in big trouble. this debt is mind-boggling. with clayton they balance the budget. -- with clinton they balanced the budget. we have nothing. the interest is more than we spent on our military. we need to build ships and planes. we need to build our systems. we will not have the money. we will see countries that could care less about the value of their dollar that can do whatever they want. they own the country. host: when you said some people

will be laid off by accident, the ap reports a few days ago the trump administration tries to bring back fire nuclear weapons workers in doge reversal. my understanding is they were having trouble finding those workers since there government emails were terminated. all that story as well. here is ryan in falls church, virginia. independent. caller: i am pretty pleased with the job president trump is doing so far. i would give him a b. vertically with the layoffs. yesterday there was a federal employee who is very distressed about the layoffs and he and his colleagues work so hard and are so dedicated. i will call myself america and this is a message from me to washington so washington can better understand what is happening.

a federal agency is supposed to provide a public service and the people that are hired to affect that service are public servants, they are paid with tax dollars and that is my money. you are taking it from me and you're telling me you will provide a public service. your service sucks. that's why this is happening. your postal service sucks. america cannot count on the postal service to be open on time. the postal service sucks. we had a presidential candidate almost get assassinated twice because the service from the secret service sucks. you had an article that 6000 people got fired from the irs. they had 6000 superfluous people and they cannot answer the phone. the service sucks. the fbi and doj cannot prosecute a doctor for raping gymnasts?

the service sucks. it is over and over. it is everywhere across the federal government. i see tom homan running his mouth about how great border patrol is. i don't know if washington knows this but cdp failed to provide that service for four straight years and washington will go with some copout, we are dedicated to the mission. texas dps and texas national guards were the only units fulfilling the mission of securing the border. two thirds of the thorough workforce in d.c. is a joke anyway.

we call them non-essential. i was in d.c. when that city shut down because only essential people were working. and why are we paying the salary of superfluous people who have done nothing to deliver any public service? we are sick and tired of crappy public service and even crappier public servants who confuse working hard with working long hours. your service sucks. host: don in turtle creek, pennsylvania. caller: i would give president trump an a. he is doing exactly what he said he would do just like he did in the first four years. promises made, promises kept. one thing i would like to point out is you brought up an article from usa today which is a paper only because they have contracts with hotels who lay them in front of people's doors where they would not be in business.

the gentleman had to bring up the eggs. you keep bringing that up every day. is getting old. there is a bird flu. a lot of farmers are hurting because they had to kill their chickens because of the bird flu and that has caused a shortage. i wish they would have pointed that out after you read the article. the other thing is all of the democrats who call in every day and want to see him impeached. go ahead and impeach him. bring the articles of impeachment and impeach him. that's right, you don't have the house and the senate so there is no way you can impeach him right now. i don't know why people keep calling in and saying they want to see this or want to see that. we the american people voted. he is our president for the next four years and everybody is going to have to put up with it. i am loving it. we win every day with trump and elon out and i guess the

democrats do not like to win. thank you and have a great weekend. host: a few days ago somebody was -- a caller asked about elon musk's security clearance and whether he had a top-secret clearance. i mentioned that he has said on x that he does have a top-secret security clearance even though there was reporting that he was not able to get one because of previous drug use and contacts with foreign nationals. cnn did put in a request to see what their level of security clearance was. cnn -- "the trump administration has multiple fired multiple members of the privacy team and other officials from the office that oversees the hiring and firing of federal workers. a move that limits outside

access to government records related to security clearance to elon musk and his associates. cnn was first notified of the firings at the office of personnel management in response to a freedom of information act request for records related to the security clearances of elon musk and anyone from the department of government efficiency who had been granted access to sensitive or classified government networks. here is what they got in response from an email address. "good luck with that, they just got rid of the entire privacy team." in addition to the privacy team members of opm's communication staff, employees that handle requests were also fired. this is sherry in ohio. independent line. caller: i'm trying my best to hurry up and get everything in. first of all, to all of the

people that keep talking about federal workers, it is a sad thing where you hear people say federal workers are lazy. i am a federal worker. i am not lazy. i serve my veterans every day. there are so many agencies under the government. what happens is people hear the word government -- i heard the one caller talking about the worker sucks. he is probably on some type of federal program but does not even say that. if it sucks it is because it is so understaffed. everywhere in the government is so understaffed and people do not realize that. that is why i wish the news would go into agencies and see what agencies do. it is heartbreaking because you have a workload and you try your

best to get it done. people think you make all this money. i don't make no money. people have to start educating themselves. there's nothing wrong with the federal workers. we worked our butts off just like the private sector. i worked in private sector and federal. no one is lazy. host: gave tell what department you work for? caller: i work for veteran affairs. i serve the veterans. host: have there been layoffs? caller: yes. we cannot afford any layoffs. host: what are the job functions of those people that have been laid off? caller: you have crisis line where people send the veterans that want to harm themselves. you have people where as the

nurses they have their contracts rescinded, whereas the doctors when they try to go for the jobs this got rescinded. we have doctors and nurses, medical staff getting there offers rescinded. this hurts the veterans. people do not realize this. people not realize all of the agencies. elon musk is an billionaire immigrant going in and slashing things and not taking a look at them. let's go in. a little bit of time as to what we need to cut. you cannot go in and got something. all of these agencies -- people need to understand the government has a bunch of agencies that make this world go right. you think people just sit back and do nothing. that guy that said he is happy about this, you have people that lost their jobs.

they are worried about their mortgage. they are trying to figure out how to take care of their kids. who does that? what human being feels happiness for someone to lose their job? it is sick. republican and democrat. we need to stop doing this. this is why we get so upset about politicians because you have two parties they're acting crazy instead of just one. be a good human being. you should be hoping they are ok. instead you are happy they are getting fired. people lost jobs. it is not just federal. there are people in the private sector. there will be inflation. people be employed. -- people will be unemployed. this man i give an f. washington maryland.n fort

"this radical human being that claims he is pnt needs to be removed. this country will be isolated and will be attacked again. needs to be removed swiftly and all lawful means necessary. is taking away people's livelihood." this is james in richm "it is not layoffs. it is called waste and fraud. no it 190 years old receiving the social security check. especially thousands of people. all of this money is being wasted and all hedoing for stopping the waste and fraud which know that the democrats are using the money t the american people. he has only been in office -- he is only been here for 30 days so i would give him a b+" let's talk to earl in georgia. democrat. caller: i was drafted in june

1969. i am a baby boomer. i was sent to kentucky which is the airborne. i did not volunteer. i decided i was not going to volunteer for anything in the army. i should have been drafted in 1967 but i had trouble getting through school and got drafted in 1969 and i've seen a lot of reports on a lot of things. i never met a hispanic or latino person, i never even saw a person like that before i went into the army. there we were, half the company was hispanic and latino. while we were in our training the airborne recruiters came around trying to recruit people for the airborne. the whole company i was in, we only had two volunteers and they went awol.

nearly everyone of this panic and latino people volunteered for the airborne. when we got through with our training they got a 52 beat which was infantry. every one of -- they got a 52 b which was infantry. everyone of them. host: what are you thinking as far as the deportations and the actions at the border, the building of the wall. caller: i think he is all wrong. it is ridiculous. there was a guy that called in yesterday from georgia or from texas, i think it was georgia, but he was talking about taking up arms and having a war. apparently he does not know what he is talking about. i am sure that is what donald trump would like to see. then he can say it will be martial law and i will be the president forever and he can keep it going. you know it. everyone knows that.

if they don't know that they need to volunteer for the army. they don't even have a draft anymore. i went to germany. i did not go to vietnam, thank god. nixon had the invasion of thailand and i was in germany the airborne folks that did that came through the airbase. bob hope was right behind them. host: this is charles in north carolina. independent. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: you look very nice today. go ahead -- host: go ahead. caller: i give president trump an a. he and some of his people know how bad of shape our country is in. most americans are underwear. if you look at the price of gold

that gives you an indication of what the world thinks about the dollar. they are only cutting costs because they realize -- we do not have time to waste to try to keep this country on financial footing it needs to be to go forward. we cannot continue to be the bank for the world when we borrow the money to do those things and our revenues and our expenses have to come in line somewhere or other. someone earlier mentioned the post office. i am a firm believer that the post office could not break even if they took the mail in and shredded it and did not deliver it. they have their costs for their facilities, their leases are so high, higher than market rates in every city. it is pure pork they have distributed to people trying to get a lease for a post office years ago. they bid higher.

i offer no cost for the land and did not get it because someone gave someone the opportunity. host: i just wanted to make sure you know about this on the front page of the washington post this morning with the headline " president expected to rest control of usps." president trump is preparing to dissolve the leadership of the u.s. postal service and absorb the independent mail agency into his administration, potentially throwing the provider and trillions of dollars of e-commerce transactions into turmoil. you would welcome that? caller: i think they should take each zip code and auction it off to mailboxes are us or ups because with the fax machine and the computer, most of the stuff people depend on prepayments, the post office is obsolete. they try to do overnight packages but fedex and ups beat

them every time. every time i go to our post office in north carolina the hours are cut. they have good people in there. they get so much junk mail. host: here is a republican in dudley, pennsylvania. mary. good morning, mary. caller: this is frustrating. the first thing i want to say is may god bless america. donald trump has been the best light shown since jesus christ. he is in my opinion wonderful. look at the fraud, the waste, the insanity that he is showing the country right now.

i was a democrat. in the kennedy era i started voting because i believed he was a good man. i knew very little. i was a teenager. now since trump may be a little bit of reagan, but since trump i've been educated on what is going on. i am sometimes astounded of how this country is where we are right now. right now we are coming out of it. if we back a man that loves this country and those behind him that finally got behind him. i am a military wife. my husband put 20 years in the marine corps. very proud of the man.

he is a republican all his life. host: i wanted to show you results of a washington post poll and they asked this question. "since taking office do you think trump has acted within his authority as president or gone beyond his authority as president?" the dark red line gone beyond his authority and overall u.s. adults is 57%. the majority. this light color is 40% acted within his authority as president. randall, north dakota, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. the earlier caller apparently thought there would not be an election in four years. frankly there's not going to be any midterm elections. you look surprised when you said it and confused.

it is not hard to figure it out. he has the fbi. who are you going to call when he declares an emergency a month before midterm elections because of some made-up fraud or something and says we will delay elections? this is going to happen and there is nobody to answer the phone. i just wanted to throw that in to that lady. there was a guy who also called about that. you are thinking too far out. it will happen at midterms. host: coming up on washington journal, more on president trump's key actions during his first month from two perspectives. up first we will have michael

knowles, host of the michael knowles show at the daily wire and later we will be joined by serious xm talkshow host reecie colbert. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv. saturdays on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend on the civil war, a military history professor at the u.s. army command and general staff college on the role of african-american soldiers in the union army in their efforts to gain civil liberties. at 7:00 p.m. eastern watch american history tv first 100

days as we look at the start of presidential terms. this week we focus on the early months of president franklin roosevelt's first term in 1933, including actions taken to relieve economic conditions during the great depression. and at 8:00 eastern yale university professor talks about the life and legacy of slave, revolutionary come in king henry kristof and how united states acted in the haitian revolution. and at 10:15 on the presidency a discussion of presidential historians on inaugural addresses and how they shape a presidents legacy. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program gue or watch any time at c-span.org/history. >> book tv every sunday on

c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. there is a look at is what is coming up this weekend. at 4:00 eastern luis miranda jr. talks about his life as a political activist and organizer in the latino community. then at 6:45 p.m., nicole turner lee with her book digitally invisible, howhe internet is creating a new underclass contains lack of internet is creating lack of disparities in poor and rural communities. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, professor eve l. ewing. all sins. -- original sins -- the construction of american racism -- argues the united states education system reinforces racial inequality at the expense of black and native children. watch book tv every sunday on

c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by michael knowles. welcome to the program. tell us about the daily wire and your show. guest: the daily wire has existed for 10 years which makes me feel old. my show has been on for eight years. i got my show through a strange series of events. i published a book called reasons to vote for democrats: a comprehensive guide. as a published because it did not have any words. host: it was 266 empty pages. guest: it was just irritate my liberal friends and relatives. very few words. i self published it and i hit number one on the charts.

i think i am the only person little media history who got a show for not writing a book. host: or writing a blank book. you spoke at cpac yesterday and you at first attended in 2011. tell us about the difference between what you saw in 2011 and today? guest: cpac has changed many times. it is an institution that has been around for many decades. 2011 was the height of the obama years. everyone was more depressed. maybe people were drinking more in those days to get through those difficult years. now people are exhilarated. i think the feeling is different than it was in 2016. i think the reason for that is this time around president trump won the popular vote so there is a real sense of excitement there is a new voter coalition, huge swaths of voting democratics -- of voting demographics that have been secure for democrats for decades have come over in this election.

there is a feeling of vibrancy. it is always fun to be at cpac but it is especially fun when your side wins. host: you spoke about there being a disconnect between what the popular vote once and what the establishment delivers. talk about that disconnect. guest: a great example is on immigration. for my entire life we've been told we have two options, more illegal immigration or more legal immigration. if you look at public opinion polls, the vast majority of americans want to drastically reduce all immigration. not because we do not like immigrants or have anything against people from various countries. we just happen to have the largest foreign worker percentage of the population ever. it is hard to assimilate people and a lot of people believe we have to put the brakes on this, especially if illegal immigration is such a serious problem. this new coalition is formed in part because people feel neither major political party has really

represented them in recent decades, which breeds opportunity. host: you believe immigrants are not assimilating in the united states? guest: i don't blame the immigrants. i think there's been a multicultural push for some decades to not assimilate, to view america last as a melting pot and more as a salad bowl, as i was taught in school. this is reflected in public opinion polls. the harvard harris poll said most americans want the caps on legal immigration to be 500,000. when you chill into the numbers you realize we take in between 1 million and 1.2 million people per year. that is a lot of people. the movement of people into the country for the last 65 years's largest movement of people in recorded history. i like people from all over the world but it a certain point need to make sure you maintain social cohesion. host: do you believe that would impact the economy negatively. in other words we have a low unemployment rate right now.

do you think having less legal immigration would make that worse and make it much harder to find people for those jobs? guest: even reducing illegal immigration will have an effect on the economy. this is the way mass migration has been sold, not just in the united states but in europe, which is the economy will collapse if we do not take in people from around the world. this is why you are seeing more of a focus on family policy, on encouraging people to get married and have children. it is a thorny social problem without question and has to be done carefully and in an intentionally way. as jd vance said at the munich security conference, he said united states is not nearly an economic zone. our chief goal is not merely to take up the gdp. we are a nation and we need to balance that as well make sure we do not put the cart before the horse. host: if you would like to join our conversation you can do so. our lines are (202) 748-8001 for

republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and (202) 748-8002 for independents. the washington post it sows has put out a poll and i wanted to share the results on the question, do you approve or disapprove of the way donald trump is handling his job as president? right now his approval of u.s. adults overall is 45%. 53% disapprove. why do you think that is? guest: in a country as divided as ours those numbers are not that bad. in part it is because there's so much to do in the first month of this presidency. the situation was quite dire. this is how trump won the popular vote as a republican for the first time in 20 years. it will take a while to unify americans. when they see the results beyond the first month in office i think most americans will be pleased with what they see. people have been attacking elon musk and doge for consolidating

the federal government. my advice to democrats is if you want to run on a federal bloat and bureaucracy, be my guest, i look forward to the midterms. host: you approve of how doge is going about cutting the federal workforce? guest: without question. i think doge is doing a great job. some people have made the argument that doge is unprecedented and upending the american tradition. the president for doge goes back to the wilson administration. wilson himself created through executive action the bureau of efficiency, almost the same name. he was followed by fpr -- by fdr that create major reform. host: did they do the same things? guest: they did the same things but in fdr's case they are growing the government. reagan had the grace commission.

the clearest analog come from the clinton administration. this was when al gore established the national partnership for reinventing government. the national partnership for reinventing government got rid of something like a quarter million federal jobs, consolidated 800 federal agencies. it took a big slah to the government. it is the one nice thing i will say about al gore ever. you cannot say what elon musk is doing is unprecedented. there's a lot of president and most of it has been from democrats. host: you don't think the american people will see any impact to all of those positions being cut? we had a call in the last segment from somebody in the v.a. and she said there are nurses having their contracts revoked, doctors. she said the veterans will feel that impact. guest: i don't know anyone who defends the current state of the v.a. and i have a lot of friends

who served in the military. there is a lot of reform that is required. the question is do we maintain the status quo? especially in the executive agencies and the bureaucracy. that was a question put on the ballot box in november and a majority of voters said we do not. say what you will about president trump or elon musk. you cannot say trump hit the ball. he was campaigning with elon musk. this was a major campaign promise. if people are upset. i'm not upset with the government becoming more efficient, reducing the size and scope. the people are upset, the only people to blame are the voters. host: let me ask you about the war in ukraine. president trump has said president zelenskyy is a dictator and ukraine started the war. why do you think he is using that kind of language when clearly russia started the war? guest: russia invaded. it is a longer standing conflict that goes back to 2014 with the

obama administration. i suspect he is referring to volodymyr zelenskyy as a dictator because he has suspended elections and instituted martial law. there is a funny argument for the people who want to continue the war. they say this is a war for democracy and there is a great fear. newsweek had an article. there is a great fear that if ukraine holds elections the voters might kick out of zelenskyy. let us democracy. host: it is strange president trump has not called vladimir putin a dictator who has been in power for 25 years and holds sham elections and all of his critics end up poisoned. guest: president trump has been tougher on vladimir putin than any president in my lifetime. host: how so? guest: trump's administration only administration during which vladimir putin to not further invade another country. invaded georgia under bush, he invaded crimea under obama, he went into ukraine further.

in other trump he got stopped. then under joe biden he launched this massive invasion. i think president trump's most precise comment on ukraine is the war would not have started on his watch. people say that trump boasts or he exaggerates. in that example we have clear historical evidence. host: and you believe that ultimately president trump will be able to negotiate a fair and lasting peace between russia and ukraine? guest: certainly. i am quite confident in his abilities. what i'm even more confident of his joe biden cannot do that. what i more confident of is barack obama cannot do that. i am willing to give president trump a chance. the question for the people who do not want president trump to try to broker a peace is what is your idea for the end of the war? as of right now it seems to be the american grand strategy stated explicitly by many people

within and without the government is what ukraine remain a meatgrinder so we can reduce the capacity of the russian military which is a euphemism to kill more russians and to sacrifice an entire generation of ukrainians to do it. this does not seem amoral view of the war and is does not seem sustainable. we are talking about a conflict that could easily expand and could lead to potentially a global conflict when we are dealing with a major nuclear power. president trump has a realistic vision of foreign policy. he is much more interested in peace than many people in washington and i think a lot of americans voted for him because of that. host: let's talk to callers. we will start with al in tennessee. independent bank. you're on with michael knowles. caller: i would like the guest to address the bifurcation of the republican party. you have the trump crew versus the gop establishment. you see that even in the call in

categories. about 40% of people are independent, about 30% democrats and 30% republicans. of republicans i would say half of those are maga so only 15% of your collins are maga publicans. the moderator brought up vladimir putin being a dictator. i will remind everyone that people in washington, d.c. vote for democrats about 94%. there is only matched by african dictators. and where we have "the new york times, washington post as fact-check and the topic generation. the new york times took $29 million from hhs and use that to forward government narratives and cancel people. the washington post took money from usaid. politico took usaid money. when you spread all of those

newspapers out understand that is not news. that is regime propaganda. we all know it. now we have quantified the dollar value. have some introspection at c-span. i think your programs would be a lot better. thank you. host: your thoughts? guest: i think most of his comments are directed at the media and c-span but as much as this involves me i think he makes a good point about the republican party. there has been a split between the older bush from the wing of the party in this new trump wing. the way this is often presented in the establishment media as this is a hostile takeover of republican party or somehow the true republicans have been rejected. is a great threat to the party. i cannot help but notice trump has grown the party. we look at 2024, the first popular vote win. when you look at trump getting one in five black male voters, 46% of hispanics, something like

40% of women over 45. the most shocking number to meet was 40% of women under the age of 30. we were told this was the voting group most inclined to vote for kamala. they voted for donald trump. i totally understand trump has changed the republican party but if i am looking at those numbers and i am a gop strategist it is clear he has change the party for the better. host: you did mention newsweek and the caller mentioned the new york times, here is a backcheck that says the u.s. government did not give the new york times tens of millions of dollars. just to clarify that. let's talk to pat in west virginia, a democrat. caller: good morning. i want to put a little comical error on it. the republicans every election cycle come up with some kind of make america great again some kind of moniker they use.

i'm reminded of the andy griffin that show where he takes a u-turn and gives a ticket to gomer for making a u-turn. he says "a citizens arrest." if you listen to it it sounds quite a bit like a citizens arrest. waste fraud and abuse. it is all nonsense. thank you for your time. guest: i think there's a lot of waste and fraud and abuse in the federal government. i think most democrats in this town, especially those familiar with the government would acknowledge there are some inefficiencies that could be corrected and that is what is being corrected now. host: here is stephen in kansas. republican. caller: enjoy the program. it will be a great weekend.

i've a part question. do you think trump is underrated that he is destroyed every political dynasty in existence and you think you should be on mount rushmore at the end of his term? should he serve a third term. i guess there is a possibility steve bannon says they could elect host: placeholders and then appoint trump speaker of the house and then there is no constitutional law that says he cannot serve a third term. do you think he should serve a third term if he succeeds at the end of the second. guest: i will take your questions in order. trump is more than welcome to have his face on mount rushmore. i think it would more fitting to put his face on mount mckinley. he has taken the great interest of president mckinley, he is renaming that mountain back to mount mckinley. he is an american original.

he needs his own mountain. also in unrealistic scenarios there is this question that is been raised as to whether or not trump will serve a third term. he is obviously term limited by the constitution. it is worth pointing out that president reagan did campaign in his last year in office and after he left office to repeal the amendment that term limits the president. i do not think that will happen anytime soon. it seems like a root goldberg political machine for trump to become the speaker of the house and then the other two guys leave and he becomes the president. it reminds me of people in 2018 who said there is one we are trick for bernie to get the democratic nomination. that will not happen. more portly for trump's legacy, getting back to what we were talking about earlier, trump has legitimately change the republican party. i think he has done this for the better and in many ways heroes restored some of the best aspects -- in many ways he has

restored some of the best aspects of the republican party. the question for his legacy will be what happens after trump leaves office and i think you're a number of contenders who could pick up the mantle but i think you will see his legacy not merely through trump installing himself as caesar permitting president until he is 500 years old. i think you'll see it in his political successors. host: i want to ask you about some things some of our collars in our last segment said, that they are worried president trump will announce some sort of a national emergency, a state of emergency and suspend elections. that there will not be elections after this. i take it you disagree with that and number two believe that the republican party would stand up to that and refused to go along with that. guest: i think the hypothetical is totally ridiculous. what trump has done most conspicuously in his first month in power is reduce his own power. he is streamlining the federal government.

he is reducing the size and scope of the government. he is trying to get all of those inefficiencies out of there. very few future dictators would remove their own power as their first act in office. host: you believe the president now will have less power as a result of president trump's actions? guest: by slashing his budgets and the scope of the executive branch i think that is what will happen and that is the stated goal of president trump's actions. you get back to this question of elections and the peaceful transfer of power. i am old enough to remember bush v gore 2000 when democrats do not accept the results of that election. tillery clinton referring to president trump's first election as illegitimate. i think stacey abrams is still pretending to be governor of georgia. if anyone will question the results of election iva greater fear that will come from democrats. host: here is david in new jersey. independent. caller: good morning and thank you.

i think an area where republicans and democrats could come together to really stop abuse would be in the community action programs that stand in the middle of the money stream between the federal government and head start. head start is a highly emotional issue because it is iconic from lyndon johnson. it is in project 2025 because it is such a red flag. the bipartisan piece is that these community action programs around the united states collect in the range of $1 billion a year and they are not monitored by either republicans or democrats for how they use the money. here in flemington, the minute flemington dropped below the federal poverty line, the community action program

headquartered in philipsburg, new jersey rushed into flemington and filled it with programs, including head start and early head start. i am not debating the lives of children. that is cruel. i'm not debating who should get it, how long you should be here. what this community action program does and what they do around the country, they treat those federal dollars as their own. they pay their executives whenever they please and i know as a matter of fact they pay poverty wages to employees that are not federal employees. they were employees of these private community action programs and they pay them such a low wage. just above the poverty line for they cannot get medicaid or food stamps, they are outrageous in terms of benefits. host: let's get a response from our guest. guest: i totally agree there is

lot of graft in these programs. nobody in the country objects to educating children. nobody in the country objects to the efficient and just use of the government and some kind of staff or executive office to carry that out. the devil is in the details. i think a lot of what you've seen from the cuts in usaid are highlighting how absurd some of the uses of their taxpayer dollars are. one example that came out last week was the former u.k. politician who is now professor at yale recently picked a fight with jd vance, he was complaining his wife's nongovernment organization had a contract with usaid and they were going to stiff this ngo for $1 million left on the contract he was quite upset about this. they asked what is the organization do? it turns out one of their initiatives is to teach afghan

citizens about the modern art of marchal do jump. i am all for interesting art but it seems to be there would be better uses of that money, both for the pieces of afghanistan. host: $1 million for one lesson? guest: usaid cut the contract and withheld the million dollars still owed to the organization. many more dollars have gone to that organization and organizations like it over time though i do not know the precise cost of the one lecture. host: here is stephen in indiana. a democrat. caller: good morning. i have one simple comment. trump won the presidency both times because of his opponents. a woman for president. i probably will not see it in my lifetime.

a woman for president is just not going to happen. it is not how great trump is. that is the facts. host: what you think of that? guest: we have had women in pre-prominent positions of power in the united states. host: never president. guest: the democrats keep putting up women who are bad candidates. hillary clinton was one of the most detested figures in american public life and kamala harris was an extremely weak candidate. she was at a disadvantage because she never had a real primary. one time she ran in a primary she was out almost immediately, she was the first candidate out. nobody really wanted her. conservatives like plenty of women figures in politics. margaret thatcher is probably the clearest example. we have lots of great governors. plenty of strong women in the trump administration. the candidates the democrats put up, let's say as president trump

says as some other country sending illegals here, the democrats are not sending their best. host: who you think will be the first republican woman president of the united states? guest: if you judge by the last election cycle nikki haley would like to do that. kristi noem might be eyeing that job. i think sarah sanders who was so prominent in the first trump administration, i think she has a real shot at it. it would probably drive some of our friends on left side of the aisle crazy of the first woman president were a republican but there are a lot of good candidates if they want the job. host: this is gary in newport, kentucky. republican. caller: $77 million and some change. says it all. the people one things done and trump is getting things done. that kind of sums it up. the ping-pong match democrats

and republicans of been playing with immigration. as far as ukraine, colin powell said i had to shake hands with some pretty bad people. i think that is what trump is doing. shaking hands and trying to get things done. host: i want to ask you about kash patel it confirmed yesterday. what kind of changes you think you will see at the fbi? guest: the first order of business is to stop the abuse. i say this as a catholic myself. perhaps i should not be surprised but i was scandalized to see during the biden administration the fbi was spying on catholic parishes. the fbi came out and lied about it and said it was only one field office. we later found out it multiple field offices viewing catholics as extremists. radical ideologues, whatever nonsense euphemisms they used. despite non-christians for practicing their faith.

traditional faith of this country. you also need to stop the abuse with the fbi and the doj targeting parents who have legitimate questions about how their children are being educated. in particular being exposed to leftist ideology, sexual ideologies. that has to be cleared up. selective prosecution. weaponizing the government to go after one's political enemies. all of the things we were told to fear from president trump that came to pass under the biden administration. that will be the first order of business. host: and you are in favor of them to be let go? guest: the january 6 cases were preposterous. capitol hill without a lot of information about that. the federal government have a lot of egg on its face when we were told that that eccentric fellow was about to shred the

constitution and then video which had been withheld by the government came out that he was escorted around the capitol by police. there were videos available for anyone to see. that is important. most important in terms of upending precedent, the fact that the bite in the adjacent agents to raid the home of a former president, that is completely unacceptable. that degrades united states to the level of some banana republic. host: these are the classified documents to former president would not give back? guest: this is the raid when federal agents showed up to raid the home of a former president because president trump had classified documents, which many of his predecessors did as well. joe biden had a box of

classified documents with his drug addict son having access to it. host: i want to show you dick durbin on the floor, a member of the judiciary committee speaking out against kash patel and then i want your response. ♪ >> the many red flags in his record, probably because they fear retribution from the president and elon musk. this is not a partisan issue. during my time in the senate, i have voted for four fbi director nominations before this one. each one was clearly a republican and i voted for them nevertheless. the federal bureau of investigation has been historically apolitical. i oppose kash patel because he is politically extreme. he has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation's

most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies. even before president trump took office, mr. patel announced that he would force out fbi director christopher wray who were nominated in his first term before firing the former director jim call me. the director is the only political appointment at the fbi. congress took steps to ensure that this agency remains as apolitical as possible while providing for a single term of 10 years for a director and subjecting the appointment to the advice and consent of the senate. 50 years ago we made this reform. we have seen it all fall to ashes today. host: your response? guest: that is quite rich coming in the age of james comey even the first trump election when

the fbi colluded with democrats to cook up this information that suggested that trump was some type of kgb agent which was used to undermine the trump campaign and to undermine president trump 's first administration. give me a break. a hand rating as joe biden's fbi sends thugs to raid the home of his political rival. spare me the crocodile tears. host: here is michael in denver, colorado. independent. caller: thank you. mr. knowles, thank you for your work. it holds significance in promoting free speech and dialogue. i am a millennial so i appreciate what you do. my question, i wanted to ask you about comments made on your show a few days ago. you said trump in many ways is our napoleon, a product of the

revolution and the undoing of the resolution -- the revolution because he rides his way into the revolution like napoleon. when you use the forward revolution in this context, it is a very serious word, a forcible overthrow of a government or forceful order. when you say trump is undoing the revolution because you can say biden introduced green energy policies or environmentally friendly and dei. to justify that trump is undoing a revolution, will need more than just a typical talking points. i am curious to know from you, what justifies using that phrase in terms of undoing biden's revolution and how do you

explain the rationale behind making that statement? guest: i'm speaking in more of a cultural context. i am not speaking in a literal armed revolution. i am speaking of this cultural revolution. trump has had this ironic self comparison to napoleon. that is a profound comparison because napoleon was the child of the revolution and the undoing of the revolution. trump comes out. he was not formed by the conservative movement. this is not someone who attended cpac every year of his life. this was a man of broadly liberal culture, a billionaire, television star, real estate mogul, a larger-than-life figure. in many ways, he participated in the cultural revolutions and was a big figure. now that he is a political

figure, he is undoing a lot of those excesses. if you had told me 20 years ago that donald trump, the reality tv star would be the leading figure in restoring standards, norms, the traditional american way of life, profamily policies, social conservatism, i would've said you are talking about the billionaire from new york? there is no way. there is a paradox to his career it is delightful. host: we talked about how divided the country is. what do you think is the reason for the country being so divided right now and what is the solution in bringing us back together? guest: speaking of the cultural revolution, a big cause for the fissures that came up especially in the 1960's which were a huge time for political division, i don't think we have really recovered from that. there is an issue that has been talked about ad nausea in recent years that the transgender

ideology is a clear example of americans not even being able to agree on the basic definition of what a man is and what a woman is. we have divisions that do not merely pertain to wishing to slightly increase the tax rate or decrease the tax rate. we are disagreeing on questions of ontology, anthropology, epistemology, pretty fundamental stuff. how do we reconcile those divisions? we can either sit in a philosophy seminar and debate the questions abstractly. i think the better issue for politics which is very much a practical science is we just get back into the swing of a normal way of life. president trump, paradoxically enough because he is such a larger-than-life figure, he was elected because people want to get back to normal. they do not want a nerd with a 10 point manifesto. they don't want some radical on the right or the left. they want a guy who wants to get back to normal, have a flourishing economy, have strong

families, enforce basic immigration laws, have borders that delineate countries. that's what they voted for. that is the only way to heal these divisions, in practice. living out the way of life. host: let's talk to christine in maryland, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. thanks michael for being here. it is cool to talk to you. two questions. i have always identified as a democrat because that was who i was surrounded by but recently realized my values actually are more conservative so i have switched to republican. one of the two places i still stay on the liberal side is that i want there to be peace with palestine. i am wondering first is there a place for me within the republican party to have that view and without being called an anti-semite.

unfortunately all of my friends and family any time i try to bring up what i think is a reasonable logical argument, they look at me with disgust which i find to be very sad because i would not do the same to them even though we disagree. i am wondering just from that human perspective how to navigate with people you care about. thank you. guest: really good question. glad to hear that you identify more on the right side of the aisle. there are many people who are like that who say the democrats just do not represent me anymore. as to your family, there was research that came out some years ago that showed that republicans tend to understand the democrat point of view better than democrats understand the republican point of view. not saying this is because of differences in intelligence. i think it is because we live in a popular culture that is broadly liberal. if you are conservative, you are

exposed to the alternative point of view. if you are on the left, you are not necessarily exposed to the right point of view. maybe a little grit for your family. host: she did bring up gaza. guest: as for peace in the middle east and israel, i think that president trump. if anyone will solve the problem in the middle east, president trump is a good contender. if you had the historic abraham accords. it all felt a part the next administration and broke out this massive war that is horrific. host: there are critics who say that the abraham accords were one of the causes of the october seventh attack leaving the palestinians out in the cold and them feeling like they needed to make a big statement with very tragic consequences. guest: i wonder if the critics

would also say that the moon is made of green trees -- green cheese. very outlandish. what president trump has done with reorienting policy, president trump called off the chief under of terrorism not only for israel but people who live in palestinian territories. the obama administration went much softer and try to normalize relations. president trump killed the top iranian general. host: are you totally on board with the president's idea to own gaza and forcibly remove the gazans living there? guest: president trump raised this point. he said where will they live now? gaza has been reduced to rubble. if there is a rebuilding effort, they have to go somewhere at least temporarily. i do not think that's controversial. as for the united states having a role, the united states is the

global hegemon. we have had the best success at establishing peace in the middle east. we will return to france to do it? probably not. to your question, is there room in the republican party for people who have sympathy for palestinians or anyone in the global conflict, of course there is. but the question has to be what will the policy be that is most conducive to the flourishing of those people elsewhere around the world and for the united states. i think trump has a much better record than his predecessors and successors. host: john from california. make it quick please. caller: sure. first of all, our history considers trump considers a serious contributor. guest: i don't know which historians you are reading. caller: what i wanted to call about was being isolated.

i feel like i'm being corralled as a u.s. citizen as everything is being dismantled. more broadly, c-span has listened -- c-span is listened to globally. if ukraine is frozen right now the way the russians want it, they will have a port to access and you think all of the europeans, the european union, nato, their concerns are unfounded? that they are not concerned that russia will go further? i really think you have to take another look at your position with donald trump because he is not helping us. he is hurting us with his policies. this is one month in. let's look 100 days in or one year from now. and those people in the rest of the world who are listening right now, i apologize to you personally for this mess that we have in this country right now.

all of your talking points are bent toward isolationism and we need the rest of the world. i do not agree with your positions. guest: i think our caller's memory is hazy. 30 seconds are referred to america as the global hegemon. i don't think i'm advocating isolationism. as for blaming president trump for the war in ukraine, it is worth remembering that the war in ukraine broke out in two discrete incidences. wonder in the obama administration and one during the biden administration. it did not escalate during the trump administration. a reminder that joe biden literally invited the russians to invade when he said that if there were only a minor incursion for president putin into ukraine, there would not be serious consequences from the united states. while we are talking about the history, which look at the history of the ukraine war as well. host: michael knowles, host on the daily wire.

thanks for coming in. up next, another look at president trump's time in office with sirius xm host reecie colbert. we will be right back. >> all this week watch c-span's new members of congress serious when we speak to republicans and democrats about their early lives, previous >> careers, families >> and why they decided to run for office. tonight at 9:30 p.m. eastern interviews include sarah mcbride , the first openly transgender member of congress. >> from those first moments after his diagnosis, we know how lucky we were. we know how lucky he was to have health insurance that would allow him to get the care that would hopefully save his life. we both know how lucky we were to have flexibility with their jobs to allow him to focus on a full-time job of trying to get better and need to focus on the

full-time job of caring for him, loving him, marrying him and eventually when he found out that his cancer was terminal, to walk him through his passing and i decided to run for office because i did not believe that in delaware or here in the united states in the wealthiest most developed nation on earth that the time and ability to get care should be a matter of luck. it should be the law of the land. >> watched no members of congress this week starting at 9:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here is a look at what is coming up this weekend. luis miranda junior talks about his life as a political activist and organizer in the latino community. at six eastern nicol turner lee

and how she contends that lack of internet access is creating economic disparities in poor and rural communities. at 10:00 p.m. eastern, professor eve ewing with her book "original sin's" which argues that the united states education system reinforces racial inequality at the expense of black and native children. she is interviewed by associate press editor alia wong. find aull schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv that'll work -- book tv.org. >> 100 years ago this past august was the beginning of what often has been called the great war. world war i had military casualties of over 9 million and

millions more of civilians. this professor located in new york state has written nine books since 2003 on subjects including german history, russian history, the ottoman empire, communism, world war ii and one titled "july 1914," which will be the focus of our conversation. world war i was a trigger in late june of 1914 with the assassination of archduke frantz ferdinand and his wife who were gunned down by a serbian 19-year-old. >> sean mcmeekin talks about his book on this episode of books no explosiv -- book notes plus. watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues.

host: we are joined by reecie colbert. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: tell us about your radio show and what you talk about. guest: my radio show is on sirius xm urban view. it is a saturday afternoon program with a mix of politics and pop culture. it is a fun show and we take live callers on the show. host: i was going to ask you about that. what are the big issues they are calling about? guest: my show is the black talk radio show. they are not surprised at all about what we are seeing. this is what my community voted against. we are having more of an i told you so dialogue on my program. there are some people who support what is going on mostly because they are looking at things like what they believe are guatemalan sex changes being

bandied about, the kind of dis information that is out there. host: why do you think so many black men voted for president trump this time? guest: i think that we have a lot of people who sat out. their proportion of black men who voted for trump went up slightly because our overall turnout was lower. he did say some things that resonated with the black men which was about immigration. republicans strategically were smart even though it was cruel to ship migrants to predominantly black cities like chicago and new york city. some of trump's rhetoric around immigration resonated as well as some of his rhetoric around the trans-issue really resonated. there were some people who felt like he was stronger on the economy but those kind of culture issues resonated with that section of the population who voted for trump.

host: what are you hearing from them one month in? are they pleased with this past month or not? guest: they definitely are. i had to ban one color because he went off the deep end. my show is in its third year. we have had dialogue but i think he is feeling more emboldened by the types of acts that donald trump has taken particularly when it comes to the lgbtq community. host: i want to show you a portion from the white house yesterday. there was a celebration of black history month. of course this is amid all the rollbacks in dei efforts. ♪ [video clip] >> i am proud to say that we

received more votes than any american president. should i run again? you tell me. there is your controversy right there. >> [chanting] host: your thoughts? guest: that is appalling. that will not play well with black voters at large. he did not win 40% of the black vote by any imagination. he did improve slightly with black men but that was largely part of the disinformation targeting our communities. that is a curated crowd that is not representative of the black community. host: let's talk about the roll back in d.e.i.. what you think the effects will

be and what are you hearing from audience members? guest: the effects are widespread. it is more of a pretext or a wider array of cuts being done. it is something that gets people more on board without actually asking specifics about why these programs are being cut. you are talking about in the health sector when they are doing a search on things like the word woman, how is something like that going to move the country forward? is a smart play on the part of republicans to couch everything as dei particularly when you have one group that believes it is only black people who benefit from dei. then you have black people who largely have seen that white women are the primary beneficiaries. you have two sides viewing the issue from different lens and that is working in the republicans favor. host: if you would like to join our conversation, you can do so on our lines by party.

republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. you have spoken out against doge efforts. tell me why. guest: doge is a prime exa mple of why we need dei. they are almost entirely white young males who do not have the capacity to make the decision for millions of people what has value and what does not. elon musk literally had a chainsaw on stage yesterday, a chainsaw to the government without any regard to the fact that may the things that are not important to them have value to other communities. they are just sloppy and it is cruel. it is what the people voted for in terms of the republican voters. they voted for this kind of cruelty but i don't think they

expected this cruelty to be so widespread in the communities that they were not expecting. host: there are people who believe there is a lot of waste in the government and that there is a lot of abuse of taxpayer money and that it needs to be audited, it needs to be looked at and cut. what do you say to them? guest: that was already happening. having this discussion around the notion of there is widespread race -- widespread waste and fraud in our government is playing to the republicans benefit. we should be discussing how our taxpayer dollars and fees will not all taxpayer dollars fund these agencies, they are at an investment not just in the federal workforce but in the economy, in our society. alzheimer's research is an investment for our future. we will all get old one day and we can be so lucky to not have to deal with that. but there are people who are suffering from it. all this stuff being framed as though the default is waste and fraud is really doing a

disservice not only to the people who are patriotic servants of this country, but to our society because now things are being stripped away that we really do need and people have taken for granted. host: let's talk to callers starting with jeff in indiana, a democrat. caller: good morning, ladies. to your guest, it is the first time i have heard of you but i will try to find your program and listen to it because i support what you are saying. i followed dr. rayshard ritchie. i am pretty sure you are aware. you are absolutely correct. we have become the new in words likewoke and vertical race theory. it is veterans, it is women. it has become the new in word. i always say this. kamala did not lose. fascism won. misogyny and bigotry won.

this is why so many voted against their best interest. you have people in dearborn, michigan, the palestinian community who could not deal with a black woman but they voted for zionism, they voted for gaza to be destroyed and now they are having second thoughts. the hispanic community who voted for mass deportation. what is the old saying? you messed around and now you are finding out. a lot of people are regretting their vote. that is just the fact. factory workers, unions, white women. you thought roe v. wade would be the solution. once again, they voted for a male patriarchal society and now they want to be stepford wives and handmaidens. people need to deal with the consequences of this election. host: let's get a response. guest: elections have consequences and i think we are seeing it. a lot of people did vote against their interests because they thought that do harm would be

on someone else, on migrants, on trans people. take your pick. they are seeing that with the lack of precision and the complicity of republicans in congress have no regard for any community. this is impacting people far and wide. people are starting to see that and the polling for donald trump is starting to show that people are not so happy with the direction that he is taking things. host: jeffrey in alabama, independent. good morning. go ahead. caller: i have one question. if trump and elon musk are finding all of this fraud money, why cannot they find enough money that they don't have to raise the deficit? host: ok. guest: he makes a good point. a lot of the money they are claiming to find is this just

they are not understanding. they are claiming that millions are getting social security which is absurd. he claimed that $8 billion was saved when it was really $8 million. a lot of what they are doing is marketing as opposed to governing and that is why they are trying to push for an increase in this new republican bill. host: what would a better way be to go about getting that waste out of the federal government? guest: it would have been not firing the oig's. it is understanding the processes and putting them better -- putting in place better processes and procedures. it is full of bureaucracies that can help and hurt us. they should have been respectful of the fact that there are decades of things that have been put in place to protect taxpayers as opposed to thinking that they know better than all of these servants. host: caller: i was going to ask you, back in 1993, 1994, when

president clinton balanced budget, he laid off 273,000 federal workers. do you consider that disinformation? that would be my question. thank you. guest: i'm not familiar with that specific number that you quoted. but there is a difference between laying off federal workers and just doing a search and seeing who doesn't have -- who hasn't completed their probation and then lying on these workers and saying that they have performance issues. just so that they can get around the laws that are there to protect our civil servants. so there is a difference between analyzing where things should be cut and going from agency to agency with a hack saw. host: it says here, i was able to bring up a fact check. clinton initiative cut over 377,000 federal jobs in the 1990's. it is not comparable to trump's effort. so if you just go to snopes

you'll be able to read about what our previous caller just talked about there. mistie, clare water, florida, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. more like grand rising. first of all, i want to say, i really love you, reecie colbert. we need to start putting a little bit more respect on your name. guest: thank you. caller: but my question is, you probably heard from me, i say it's the illusion that causes the confusion. can you expound on why d.e.i., why don't we just say the word diversity, inclusion and equity and stop calling it d.e.i. because i think by us giving it those letters, we allow people to diminish what it means and if more people hear the entire words, i don't think people will be -- i don't think people are against diversity and inclusion. but -- [indiscernible] host: you're going in and out, mistie. i think we got the point.

guest: yeah. i think that it's like c.r.t.. but i think when -- there are -- most people, most americans are not against diversity, equity and, inclusion. the other part that people leave out is the a which is accessibility. we are for those things, but when it's framed in a way as though it's the boogieman, it's something that even if in your heart you agree with it, because of this tribalism that we have in this country, people are more willing to sell it down the river. but, i mean, it's disappointing and i think that we should be leaning more into d.e.i., diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, as opposed to falling for this argument that that is the opposite of meritocracy. host: mike in he will month, new york -- elmont, new york. democrat. good morning. caller: from what i heard, the statistics on the d.e.i., like 60% of the hires were white females. i'm not sure if that's a fact or not. but i'm sure it's close to it.

you know, if we can go back to when they brought up bill clinton, bill clinton raised taxes too and we had a balanced budget and then george bush came along and the republicans came along and started two wars, made up all sorts of lies. congress abdicated their duty at that point, that's when it started. and we spent $8 million on those two wars. now they want to take away health care for the vets who have ptsd and stuff. they're taking away research from n.i.h. for cancer research. i mean, all sorts of stuff. once upon a time i used to sell to the government agencies and the usaid was the most efficient, they watched every penny when i went there and they made me explain everything, every benefit that they got from what we were trying to sell. it's just amazing, all the b.s., there's a lot of b.s. these kids that elon musk have, they don't know old programming

languages, i think you mentioned that before. and -- which is pretty silly. these greiss not the cream of the crop -- these guys are not the cream of the crop and they are just going there and putting in key words and making cuts to programs and stuff. it's going to back fire. i mean, you've got swine flu jumping from bird to cattle to humans now. if you want to save money, maybe trump doesn't have to go to super bowls, daytona 500. they just dropped elon musk's investigations, eight of them or so. i mean, he has conflict of interest because there's a lot of competition with spacex that we could use. there's just so much waste. host: all right, mike. what do you think? guest: there was a lot in that. but, you know, listen, elon musk is -- they can't even keep their stories straight on what elon musk is. and the court filings are saying that he's not part of the administration and yet he's walking around like he's the co-president with donald trump. but yeah, i think that what we have to realize is that some of

the framing is really to distract people. it's to get people caught up on one small portion like when we're talking about d.e.i., when really this is a civil rights rollback. it's a rollback of the investments that we've decided are worthy in this country. and so i think that people are starting to see that the d.e.i. was cute for the first week or so but now they're starting to see that this is going far beyond that. and they don't like it. host: here is edie in montrose, minnesota. republican line. good morning. caller: i don't quite understand where people are coming from. if we're cutting the fat and the waste in the government that's been going on forever, i think that's a really good thing. really good for our young people coming up in the world. these kids that are working for elon, they are so computer-savvy. they're finding things that have been hidden. why do you think all of the people that have been in the government, that have been doing

a lot of these waste programs and profiting from are all of a sudden jumping ship like rats? they're selling their homes, they're checking into criminal lawyers. i think it was like 400% high on criminal lawyer checks on the computer and offshore banking and some of these programs they've got going on that are stupid. why would we want to see if frogs mate during the day or at night? who cares? i mean, it's just ridiculous the amount of waste. and anybody objecting to finding the waste, you know, they're not looking out for the future. i think that's really, really important. host: all right, let's see what reecie has to say. guest: first of all, i want to point out that the things that are -- these programs are funded by a house majority that's republican-run. anything that's keeping the government going right now has passed with republican votes. and so these are congressionally appropriated programs that elon

musk is -- and doge is unilaterally canceling without congressional approval. so to describe everything that's been congressionally appropriated as waste i think is ridiculous. then if we're talking about the future, republicans right now are putting forward $4.7 trillion of tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy, a the expense of -- at the expense of medicare, snap benefits, other things, student loan relief, other things that are actually going to help most of society. so i think that it's a little bit hypocritical to call what doge is doing something that's better for the future when they're really just disregarding the other branch of government which is the congressional branch. host: and here in covina, california, line for democrats, jacinto. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling regarding trump's white house reception with black americans. it's so hypocritical when he

didn't even allow them to live in his apartments and also i'm a proud mexican american. and he mentioned us being rapists and criminals. i think it's just a farce. he doesn't like people of color. that's my call. thank you. guest: whether he likes people of color or not, his policies are hostile to people of color, period. when one of his first orders of business is to undo a lyndon b. johnson civil rights executive order, that shows hostility there. and so i'm looking at the policy. i don't care what's in his heart. i want to see what he's implementing and everything he's implementing is detrimental to people of color and to women. host: there's an article here with the headline, can democrats message on d.e.i. convince white women to dump trump? you're quoted in this article. what did you say? guest: i said that democrats need to stop trying to convert

white women that are with trump. they need to focus on the base. there are white women that are part of the base. but too often democrats are trying to get this mythical white woman voter that is appalled with trump and is going to dump the republican party as a result of it. the liz cheney voter. that's just such a small slither and they do that at the expense of galvanizing their people that are sitting on the couch but would come out to vote if they were being spoken to. host: what would galvanize those people sitting on the couch? guest: i think they have to talk about things like the economy in a way that shows that democrats do grow the economy. i think that they need to talk a -- they need to talk more about crises of food, of inflation and things like that. of job growth, wages. and talk about the difference between democratic policies and republican policies. and if they get that message through and they break through all the disinformation, then we can get more people galvanized. host: here's gwen in jacksonville, florida. independent line. good morning.

you're next. caller: good morning. this is my first time calling. and i'm calling -- i was kind of sick and tired of, as a black person speaking on behalf of all blacks. i'm sick and tired of, we just keep on going back. in other words, we want to have a separate this and separate that. we want to have a separate -- we do our own separate black national anthem, we want to -- we have february of black history. if we want to be american, let's be american. i'm sick and tired of keep trying to put us in this box and everything. let's move forward. i mean, thank the lord that we do have a president that's going to hear the people. i mean, and the democrats -- i mean, i'm serious. and a lot of black fools in the

democratic party claim to be christian. then when time comes to vote, voting time, don't matter what the candidate's saying for abortion, homosexual and everything. they're going to put regardless of what god's word said. i'm sick and tired of. it. start being american and stop putting blacks in this box. guest: i'm a proud black woman. my blackness is not mutually exclusive to being american. it's unfortunate that she feels that it somehow hinders her ability to identify with or assimilate or be accepted as americans. but i don't share that view. host: here's joseph in point pleasant beach, new jersey. republican line. go ahead, joseph. caller: how are you, mimi? i got a couple of points if you let me finish. to your guest, i just want to let her know i'm ultra, ultramaga. ok? guest: ok. caller: that's not a bad thing. you just said about 10 minutes ago, about this country's too

much tribalism. all i hear you talking about is african-americans this and being american. i look in the mirror, i don't look at myself as a white irish italian kid. i'm an american. and i just -- i think that causes a lot of problems. second, the guy that is in the white house now, they were going to put in jail if he didn't win this election. because of a book keeping error. so you're telling me that president trump as the chief executive can't look it's a agencies that are wasting -- look at agencies that are wasting money and could be getting kickbacks? and a lot of that money could be used. if he saves money, a lot of that money -- i grew up in new york city and newark, new jersey. that money could be given to inner cities to help african-american kids. and you want to give it to other countries? i just don't understand what your thinks is. i don't know you don't like trump but he's fighting for all americans. that money could be used for inner cities, not for cities and countries that can't stand us. thank you.

guest: very interesting. well, you know, let's talk about kickbacks. this administration is trying to roll back foreign bribery rules. so i think that when we're talking about kickbacks, let's not go there when it comes to the trump administration. but as far as this whole notion that we can't talk about race, we can't talk about gender, we can't talk about sexuality, that is somehow un-american or that'sdy vicive, is part of the reason why we're -- divisive is part of the reason why we're in this mess. because people are uncomfortable with the idea of diversity and inclusion and people of different backgrounds having value and having pride in that and because of that narrow minded thinking, now we're seeing an expansive usage of d.e.i. to roll back things for all kinds of people. i haven't just talked about black people. i talked about the fact that this is impacting all communities, and not just black people. but i understand your position. i respect people who are maga because at least you voted. i have a bigger issue with

people who don't vote than people who vote. everybody has a vote, if you use it, use it how you see fit. but i have a big issue with people who don't vote. but i don't think that -- the fact that i'm talking about black people is an issue. if you have a problem with it, i think that's something you probably should deal with. host: you also talked about funding for foreign countries instead of going to the inner cities here in the united states. guest: right. i think the thing about it is that a lot of time when people are talking about foreign funding, they understand that a lot of that funding is going to american businesses. look at what's happening right now with usaid. and farmers, u.s. farmers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of money they were expecting and even though the products were being shipped overseas, that was something that stimulates the american economy. a lot of the funding that went to ukraine was actually going to defense contractors in the united states. and so sometimes we have to realize that even though, you know, we should be worried about our status in the world, but

there is a benefit, there's a tangible benefit to americans, even when foreign funding is happening. host: sandra, brooklyn, new york. democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. my name is sandra. and i am a democrat. i'm looking at whereas going on in this country -- what's going on in this country. this country is so divided. and the republican party, they're responsible for it. what they have done, they have slashed medicaid, medicare, they're talking about getting rid of all these other agencies. meanwhile, you've got planes going down, you think one day you're looking at one plane, it's another plane going down. what about households that both families, the mother and father working for the federal government, they don't have a job, so how do they pay their mortgage? how do the children go to school? how do they put food on the table? you've got trump talking about gaza and talking about what's going on in ukraine, but you've

got california looking like ukraine. you've got floods going on here. and yet he's talking about making canada the 51st state. what about what's going on here? the people are struggling. as i said, i'm a democrat. i didn't vote for trump and thapg god i didn't -- thank god i didn't. but what's going to happen, you have elections that are going to be coming up. let the democrats, let the republicans cut their own throat, put people in place to take those positions so that this way the three-party government becomes one and the democrats and the independents take over so that this way trump can be held accountable. because our allies are afraid of us. they can't trust us. they don't know what they're going to do. and i'm hoping and praying that nato does take in ukraine because i'm a proud to be an american but right now what i see as an american, it is truly

making me sick. making me sick. guest: i'm glad she brought up so many of those points because the previous caller talked about, we're sending money overseas instead of fixing what's happening here. and yet donald trump is talking about cutting fema, he's talking about -- republicans are talking about making disaster relief in california conditional. upon implementing their policies, which go against the policies of the california voters. and so we're seeing time and time again where republicans are not talking about making more investments in our country, taking care of the people here. they're talking about putting more money in billionaires' possibilities. host: and this is mike in madison heights, michigan. independent line, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i'd like to know, with all this fraud and waste of our tax dollars, how come no one's got indicted? if mr. musk has any knowledge of

this fraud and stuff, he should get the people's name and make it public. that's my question. why wouldn't he make it public if it's fraud? fraud's illegal. guest: right. i mean, there's always ways that fraud has been detected and it has been prosecuted. how many people went to jail for p.p.p. loans that were fraudulent? and, hey, elon musk's businesses, a lot of them have been under various investigations. the person that was pushed out of the air traffic controller, f.a.a., had a battle with elon musk over a fine for one of his businesses. and so i still don't like the discussion around fraud because it just assumes that there is fraud in the government. which there is to some very, very small degree. but the vast majority, very, very vast majority of the spending in our federal government is valid based on congressional appropriations. host: here's terry in rogers, minnesota. republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning. say, i'd like to just correct a couple of things. first off, the tax cuts for the billionaires, that tax cut benefited the middle class the most of any group. that's just a fact. it also created more tax revenue than any other tax cut in history. secondly, when you get into the issue of whether or not we should be in ukraine or gaza, he's doing something about it. he's trying something. he's offered up something different. i mean, the idea that we just continue with the process that hasn't worked for 60 years, it just ends up in another war and another war. something different has to happen in gaza. and when you say, well, it's helping us build bombs, it's good for america, that's your stance? that's where you're at? i'll say, i think you've got to understand something and this is it. the american people elected a

president, a house and a senate and you're right, they fund the government. they give block grants and then the executive branch and the bureaucrats under them determine where it's going. there was no line item that said, we're going to fund transgender theaters, there wasn't one. that was a bureaucrat that picked it under the executive branch. we had an election, we have a new executive leader. we have a new executive branch. that's why they got cut and they should be cut. i think you just have to come to the acceptance that the american people don't believe what you believe anymore. liberalism has been killed because it was lunacy. a lot of it was. have a good day. host: you too. guest: there was a lot in that. i just want to point out that donald trump did not win a 50% majority of the vote. he just was under 49%. kamala harris, vice president kamala harris received 75 million votes. so the idea that liberalism is

dead is just mathematically untrue. it's funny that republicans want to talk about america first. colonizing gaza is not america first. colonizing el salvador which is what we would be doing by shipping migrants who are deported, undeportable anywhere else, is not america first. buying greenland is not america first. making canada the 51st state is not america first. and so there are all these contradictions in the so-called america first policy. i don't think doing something different in terms of just completely disregarding the sovereignty of a nation like ukraine or disregarding the humanity of palestinians by forcibly dislocating them, saying they can't return because america now owns gaza, is something different that we need for this country. the something different that we need is more investment in the american people. more investment in our health care, more investment in our schools. and more investment in fighting this climate change that is

running rampant across this country. those are the kinds of investments that we need. and the last point on the tax cuts. i believe 80% or more went to the top 1% in the country. it ran up trillions of dollars of deficits and even though middle class people and working people initially got a cut, with each year our tax bills went up. i got killed personally by trump's tax cut and so as much as i despise republicans right now, i hope i get a little bit of relief in this tax bill. that would be one small consolation for me. host: just to make sure about the percentage of the popular vote, here's cnn. it's got the percentage of the popular vote by donald trump is 49.8%. they are the number of votes there. and then kamala harris got 48.3% of the popular vote. guest: right. host: here is steven in niagara falls, new york. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. and good morning, reecie. i like what you say and

everything about the trump situation. i'm concerned with the people that i hear calling in, the republicans and other people, talking about what a great job he's doing when this musk deal is going around and they're willy-nilly laying people off that watched the nuclear stuff, whatever. and also the people that take care of the veterans and everything, that take care of the bird flu and stuff like that, they just willy-nilly got rid of those people and everything. i mean, just down the line that they're just willy-nilly getting rid of people. now they're trying to find some of these people that they let go because they realize, oh, man, we made a big mistake on this. guest: yeah. caller: so i agree what you say. and i just want to make one comment towards c-span. i listened to the gentleman you had prior to her, to reecie. i wish that c-span would do in

the future, because i was listening that guy spew a lot of nonsense when he's calling jack buttigieg going after trump and everything, after those down thes, whatever, when -- documents, whatever, when the national archives were practically begging trump to give some of that, get that stuff back, whatever, he was ignoring them, whatever. so i would have appreciated, reecie was sitting across the table from him when he started talking some of this absolute crazy nonsense that they could come back and say, wait a minute. what this guy is saying is not true. whatever. or he's lying, whatever. host: we do like to do round tables but not all the guests agree to that. is that it, steven? caller: people on the democratic side, whatever, do that because these republicans come out and they don't care about lying. they'll lie about anything. host: go ahead. guest: let's talk about project 2025. i haven't mentioned that yet. what they talked about and what

steve bannon has talked about for years is deconstructing the administrative state and so part of the point of all of this willy-nilly stuff is the chaos that it creates. it's about the new o.m.b. director, russell vought, said they want to traumatize federal workers and so they're haphazardly doing things because they don't care about an executive branch, to the extent that it doesn't function, they hope the american people will continue to turn against it but it's really starting to back fire because they are hitting so many communities and so many populations that did not expect to be impacted by it. and who were actually formerly and in some cases still trump supporters like i mentioned earlier, the farmers. so this is part of the point, the chaos, the cruelty is part of the point. and it's incumbent upon us as the american people to push back. host: and this is nbc news with the headline, usda says it accidentally fired officials

working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them. agriculture department spokesperson told nbc news that officials are, quote, working to swiftly rectify the situation. here is tim in gasville, arkansas, independent line. good morning, tim. caller: good morning, mimi. we're $40 trillion in debt. and you look at all the usaid projects. these are slush funds for corrupt officials to use. and i'm surprised c-span hasn't put out a list. come on. give us the list so we can see more. host: we're trying to find that but usaid's website has gone down. and we are having trouble finding -- if you have that information from a credible source, please do send it to us. tim? tim? no. i guess we lost him. guest: so this is the problem that i have. so much of what's being done now

is based in disinformation. it's based in these imaginary problems or these drastically exaggerated problems. we do not -- we do not have widespread fraud in the government. and yet that's the basis of making these cuts. the idea that all of these federal workers are just moochers who sit at home and collect money is ridiculous. most of donald trump's policy right now is based on disinformation. what he's doing in russia and ukraine, par ottawaing russia -- parroting russian talking points, is disinformation. we're having policy decisions that could have generational impacts when we're talking about doing away with alzheimer's funding based on disinformation and people not understanding the way our government works. and what we need to make investments. host: reecie colbert, host o "the reecie colbert show" on siriusxm radio. thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you. that was fast. host: up next, it's open forum

and it's your turn to talk about any public policy issue or topic you'd like to talk about. you can start calling in now. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002. we'll be right back. announcer: looking to contact your members of congress? well, c-span is making it easy for you. with our 2025 congressional directory. get essential contact information for government officials all in one place. this compact spiral-bound guide contains bio and contact information for every house and senate member of the 119th congress. contact information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. the congressional directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling and every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit

operations. scan the code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to preorder your copy today. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here's a look at whereas coming up this webbed -- what's coming up this weekend. at 4:00 p.m. eastern, luis miranda talks about his life as a political activist and organizer in the latino community. then at 6:45 p.m. eastern, nicole turner lee with her book, digitally invisible. how the internets creating the new underclass, contending that lack of internet access is creating economic disparities in poor and rural communities. and at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwords, professor eve l. ewing with her book, "original since:the miseducation of black and native children and the construction of american racism"

argues that the united states' education system reinforces racial inequality at the expense of black and native children. she's interviewed by associate press editor alia wong. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online any time at booktv.org. >> democracy. it isn't just an idea. it's a process. a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. it's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span. giving you your democracy unfiltered. announcer: "washington journal" continues.

host: welcome back. we're in open forum and we will take your calls shortly. wanted to make sure you knew about this news. here is the courier journal that says, senator misch mcconnell won't seek re-election. and here's a portion of his announcement from the senate floor yesterday. >> so often i've watched colleagues depart, vetting their frustration at the confines of the institution. or mourning what they perceive to be decline of its norms. regardless, regardless of the political storms that may wash over this chamber, during the time i have remaining i assure our colleagues that i will depart with great hope for the endurance, the endurance of the senate as an institution. there are any number of reasons

for pessimism. but the strength of the senate is not one of them. this chamber is still the haven where the political minority can require debate. it's still the crucible in which jurists are tested for their fidelity to upholding the constitution and laws as they were written. the senate is still equipped for work of great consequence. to the disappointment of my critics, i'm still here on the job. [laughter] i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> senator from north carolina. >> i asked unanimous consent that the members and staff and spectators in the gallery be

allowed to applaud for a period not to exceed 30 seconds. [laughter] >> is there objection? [applause] host: and to the calls now. mike in racine, wisconsin. republican line. go ahead, mike. caller: good morning. i kept hearing from the democrats after the election about how they need to do a better job of messaging. well, all through the campaign we were ostracized and called garbage, nazis, fascists. and it's not just the messaging, it's the messengers, because guys like me that live in rural wisconsin, how can we relate to somebody who is screaming and shrieking like ayana pressley or chuck schumer or any of the

democrats that start going on and on? they need a total reboot on their policies and i just want to say thank you for taking my call. good-bye. host: here's jason in williston park, new york. independent. caller: yes, hi. thanks for taking my call. i think that as the previous caller mentioned, you know, we have 50% of the country feeling the same way about each other. and i'm an independent, i've always been an independent, but i skew to the left. i'm on the coast. and i think what we've got is a failure to communicate, as they say. and going both ways. and i think that i have a conscience and it makes me feel a certain way. i grew up in a judeo-christian household. and i think that i know what's right and then the other 50% of the country thinks that they know what's right. and i think we've come to a conclusion here that i think

that really what it comes down to is fear and i think that everybody feels that if somebody gets ahead, that means somebody has to lose something. somebody's not going to get something. and i think that we're in a situation where white heterosexual males really are feeling threatened and that's really what it comes down to. is that people feel that in order for somebody that doesn't look like me, somebody that doesn't feel the same way, somebody that feels that the america that our parents felt that they were going to get and that never really existed truthfully, that it's going to change. and it's the fear of change, fear that we're not going to get something that we thought we should have gotten, fear that we're not going to see the people that look like us living next door to us. that we're going to lose something. but you know what, the american dream isn't a finite thing. in my mind. in my humble opinion. and everybody can get what they want and not lose what they think they're going to get. and it's that fear that's driving everybody right now.

host: all right, jason. and this is rita, also in new york. line for democrats. rita? you there? caller: yes, i'm here. host: go ahead. caller: ok. so i am a democrat. but like george washington said, when he was elected president, that the two-party system would be the demise of our government, and i really believe that the republican party is using the headlines like our education system is broken, we're spending too much money, we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing for the country as a whole, no good medical insurance, those are all headlines and what the republican party is doing is using those headlines to make their followers believe that they're actually doing something about it. and what they're not doing is

anything about it. they're using those headlines to destroy our democracy and to create an authoritarian government that will ruin the united states of america. host: walter, republican in michigan. caller: yes. host: hi. caller: yes, this is my first time calling. and i was a former democratic voter and i switched to the republican party because of all the weaponization of our government. and the reason why i'm calling is i want to send a message to the republicans and the rest of america. while we're on this waste, fraud and abuse investigation, we need to look carefully at our foster care funding system.

the federal statute that incentivizes the seizure of children from their family members for placement in private adoption situations is nothing short of waste, fraud and abuse. and i myself just filed a complaint with the office of investigative general because i'm involved and entangled in such a situation and as a grandparent in america, i have had to spend $100,000 of my grandson's inheritance to try to get him out of a foster care system. my representative, jamie green, isn't doing anything for me. even though she's a republican. ok? and until we start holding the states accountable for the billing submissions that they submit to the federal government, and we start checking to make sure that the c.p.s. workers and the foster care workers and the court system and the local state

government isn't defrauding the federal government, we're never going to correct this problem. so when i hear that 150-year-old social security claimants are getting payments and i don't know if that's true or not, because i don't know anybody that has lived to be 150 years, but seriously, we need to look at the foster care system. that is one of the biggest things for every state. if you look online, there's repeated complaints about the corruption at the state level and the federal government and its program incentivizes that abuse. thank you. host: here's manuel in houston, texas. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, mimi. you're looking lovely as always. host: thank you. caller: let me see if i can get on this real quick without getting on a long ran the. rant. i was trying to get in to talk

to mr. knowles. mr. snoals a trump sycophant -- knowles is a trump sycophant. he looks through a trump collide scope. that's what his vision is. now, i want to remind america to wake up to what's going on. basically from the nazi playbook, when the nazis first got into office, they started going after -- oh, we're going to save the government money, we're going to save money and this and that. we're going to look into these programs. it's the same thing they did. they started getting rid of people, getting on the yes-man, sycophant, to do trump's bidding. what's already happening, america's turned into a fascist country and trump and the republicans are going to help -- the republicans are going to help trump facilitate. trump is just in my opinion salivating for demonstrations so

he can, you know, send out the troops because it's coming. it's coming. this guy, he wants to be a dictator. it's all in the writing. look at what he's doing. trump concentration camps are coming, it's already happened, it's already started with guantanamo bay. he's going to take the immigrants there, start putting them in camps. this guy, america, this guy is going to destroy america from within. as far as russia, what he's doing with russia, taking millions of dollars we spent over decades keeping russia in check, this guy's going to hand everything over to russia because he's owned by russia. host: all right, manuel. there was a hockey game yesterday between the united states and canada. and before that game president trump said this on truth social. calling team u.s.a., quote, to spur them on towards victory tonight against canada.

host: canada did beat the u.s.a. 3-2 in overtime. that was in boston. and canadian prime minister justin trudeau posted on x just after that game -- host: let's go to michael in fort lauderdale, florida. independent. hi, michael. caller: good morning. i'm calling to advocate for more representatives in the united states house. so initially when we -- when the bill of rights was first proposed, it was proposed that we have a cap on the size of house districts and i believe

that -- around 1913 it was basically fixed at 435 representatives and i'm advocating that that be -- that the size of the house be expanded to be more representative. host: do you feel like there isn't enough representation for the amount of pop flaition a given congressional district -- population in a given congressional district? caller: correct. the house was supposed to be the chamber that is representative of the people and very democratic and i believe that the fact that house districts are so large forces house representatives to spend all their time fundraising to be able to afford media outreach to a very large district and --

immediate outreach to a very large district and if house districts were smaller, it would be a way of limiting the effect that money has on the, i guess at least the house of representatives. and i think that would have an overall beneficial effect on the entire political system. host: got it, michael. here's holly in dawsonville, georgia. republican. good morning. caller: hey, good morning. thanks for having me on. i agree with that previous caller. i think maybe he should run for office. he seems pretty reasonable. i wanted to mention reecie, your guest. boy, the gaslighting that the progressives utilize is truly an art form. i mean, it's almost as if they all went to a special school that only they're invited to and really perfected this craft. i mean, two examples that i heard, and i hear this all the time, it's not just her, and i truly believe that the way that

they're speaking to people, so dismissive, so belittling and condescending and twisting their words in this acrobatic way, this is a big reason why they're losing people. when the black woman called in who was a trump supporter, she was expressing her frustration with being put in boxes, being put in this black box as if you're speaking for me and i'm supposed to think this sort of way. and she was expressing that frustration and reecie's response, part of her response was, well, my blackness is not at odds with being an american. wow. wow. gaslighting 101. host: you don't believe that, that you can be black and american at the same time? caller: well, of course. but do you not understand how disrespectful that implication is to the woman that called? as if she was trying to say that her -- oh, well, good for you, your blackness -- sorry that your blackness is at odds. what a joke.

and then the second one. the maga gentleman who called afterwards. he didn't say anything about race by the way. he was touching on some other points. but after he got off the phone, but one of her responses was, you know, if you have a problem with me talking about black issues, that says more about you than me. where did that come from? again, gaslighting. i mean, it's just amazing. and it's amazing to me that it's become path logical and you guys -- not you, but they don't even notice that they're doing it. it's amazing. and you know what, people are seeing through it and they're sick of being spoken to like that. thank you. host: here's margaret in santa maria, california. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i want people to think about after world war ii. if germany had been allowed to keep parts of the countries they had captured. isn't that what the u.s. is negotiating with russia right now? just something to think about.

oh, and people should stop referring to ukraine as a territory. it's a country. that's why i called in today. thank you. host: that's margaret and this is lauri in las vegas. independent line. caller: hi there. so i was going to call for one thing by you have to agree -- i have to agree with your previous guest, not the one just on but the one before that with reecie. as a black woman i found what she said very offensive. it's degrading and belittling. i'm not a believer in d.e.i. at all because things should be based on your merit, not the color of your skin or gender because it's nonsense and they do gaslight people really, really bad. it's nonsense. on top of that, everything she said, talking about the tax -- the trump tax cuts did not help her, they did help the middle class. but she's probably not middle class which is probably why she did not feel it. but the rest of us did as a country. 07% of people in this country -- 70% of people in this country

voted for trump because we like what's happening. host: 77 million. caller: 77 million. so when people who are so against what is happening, i don't understand how people can want their money to be wasted or not used for american people. all these frisk louis programs, and -- frivolous programs, and you can go right to the government page and see everything that's being spent. so i'm sorry, i don't want my tax dollars spent that way. it's ridiculous. and there was a woman who called in talking about the schools and the department of education. well, in the paper, a report that i read talked about how the american report card was horrible because kids fourth through 12th grade, 60% of them cannot read at a proficient level. so our schools are absolutely failing. i feel leak all these agencies need to be gutted and i hope that trump, kash patel, all of them do more. thank you, have a good morning. host: and lauri in pennsylvania, republican. good morning, lauri. caller: good morning.

so just one month back in public office, i give president trump an a++. promises were made and promises were kept. and i don't even know where to start. from border control to tariffs and on and on. but i'd like to speak about doge. it stands for department of government efficiency. let me repeat that. department of government efficiency. elon musk was appointed by trump to eliminate all the fraud, waste and corruption in the government. this has been needed to be happening for decades. i mean, we're finally here. trillions of dollars have been uncovered so far in government fraud. are you listening, america? doge isn't coming after your money, they're going after the people that are stealing your hard-earned money. it's a purge and a downsize of government. this isn't rocket science. and the money uncovered will come back to the people. we just need to be patient. it's only the start of how to fix america and everything else needed that we're looking for, we're hoping for, we'll follow.

it's the takedown of all that evil that we had to endure the last four years. indictments will come. anyone not awake and not onboard with this is a complete disgrace to this country. i'm sorry, this is why we're in this predicament to this very day. so a great awakening is needed to move forward to the golden age. you've had five years to research and figure everything out for the sake of all humanity. thank you. host: an nbc news reports that trump floats giving 20% of doge savings to american citizens. says the amount of any payments, an idea that trump said was still under consideration, would depend on figures from doge which has had some of its savings claims debunked. here is steve in brillion, wisconsin. republican line. caller: that would be correct. i heard a lot of comments made by a lot of people. one thing that bothers me is

when doge or musk and his people go around and fire people, ok, or they try to do other things with him and then you've got a fallout where, say they fire the head of a department and then the number two, the number three, the number four person quits in disgust. instead of doing that, why don't they stand their ground and fight back? it would make more sense to me, it would probably send a message back to musk and his little muskovite crew. they're doing silly things. he's going after, cutting with a hack saw or a chainsaw and, yeah, there might be some waste and everything, but, damn, use a scalpel instead of a chainsaw. host: when you say that they should stay and fight back, you're talking about the federal employees, the high level -- caller: the high level federal

employees or the heads of some of these departments that are -- host: how would they fight back? what authority would they have? caller: well, what authority does musk have? host: i guess he's been given the authority from the president. caller: well, does the president have that authority to begin with? host: we'll see, i guess the courts are going to have to determine that. kendall in cincinnati, ohio. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. one of the problems that i see with d.e.i. is that it is a substitute for reparations for african descendants of slaves. my ancestors were not paid for their labor. we had jim crow laws that just strictly dealt with african-american people. and so this whole thing, including everyone, it just blurs the whole issue.

now, i think that federal tax-exempt status for african-american descendants of slaves should be on the table. as a matter of fact, there's a hollywood actor, i believe terrence howard, he is contesting his tax, perhaps saying he should have tax-exempt status because our ancestors put hundreds of years blood and work and were never paid. they were not allowed to create an estate, pass down generational wealth. our parents were subject to jim crow laws and so instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, federal tax-exempt status, that was in a book called economic revolution, federal tax-exempt status for african descendants of slaves will be an equitable way, you're not giving anyone anything, if someone doesn't work, they don't get paid, but at the same time it allows people to get their

hands out of the pockets of the people who are often pushed out and show that we're down ready toen and poor and the reason why is -- down ready toen and poor -- trodden and poor and the reason why is because we've had hundreds of years where they're taking out of our pocket and they're still taking out of our pocket. federal tax-exempt status. host: got it. here's charles in washington, d.c. democrat. good morning. caller: hey, how are you doing? i hope all is well out there in c-span land. a gentleman called some time ago from sarasota, florida. tony, i think his name was. and he mentioned that blue states should pay more in taxes. news alert, blue state does pay more in taxes. but more than paying more in taxes, we are linked together. so the taxes the blue states pay, red states get a bigger benefit from it. and we are the united states of america. and one thing effects the other

and the other effects the other person as we live here in this united states. i'll say it again, united states. when the states are united, we're stronger. when you start dividing by politics and red and blue, you dilute the power of the whole. because you separating yourself from yourself. as we sit here together talking on the phone, and i listened to all of these people talk, nobody's talking about, how you make this a better situation as human beings on this very small planet, in this place that we call the united states of america. and the part that would put together a better world for our children by making better decisions and i'd just like to say this to all that's listening. as we stand together, we do better together. the same dog that bites me will

bite you. they came for the black, they came for the jews, then they'll come for you. the gentleman talked about germany or the lady after world war ii, breaking up germany and letting them have more land. it's happening right now in front of our face. everybody needs to wake up and know that a lie is a lie. tell the truth about the history of america, african-americans, native americans. host: we'll stay in washington, d.c. this is sophia, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, good morning. really appreciate this program and really appreciate this show and the opportunity to contribute. but i'll just say this. i think trump 1.0 was defined by defensiveness but trump 2.0 is just organized and really truly about dismantling i think democratic institutions. trump 1.0, we watched i think in disbelief as trump threw his hands up and imitated a disabled

reporter. that ugly moment in my eyes, you know, was a blatant display of disrespect. and i still really haven't forever given him for that. but these attacks he's making on d.e.i. programs are alarming. i think as a black woman, i think they're dangerous and also just we're watching the impact that they're having on the corporate world. this completely undermines efforts to promote and ensure that we have representation. i don't think we can sit here and say that we live in an age of color blindness whenever we see the impact and when you look at the disparities for representation amongst minority groups, not just black and white, but other minority groups as well. who are not, you know, accounted for. certainly as we look at education and we look at opportunities and different contraries. and then let me not just focus on race, his attacks on our lgbtqia+ brothers and sisters

are equally concerning. he's issued several anti-lgbtq executive orders and really trying to erase the existence of transgender people, cushing the government's efforts to protect and support that community which i am an ally of, of course. and then i certainly am astounded at somebody who lives in washington, d.c., on his coordinated attack on the federal workforce. really him and elon musk coming together to reduce the size of the federal government and people comparing on twitter and all over the place, even on this program, of course, where they have the right to espouse their beliefs but the federal workforce is not -- does not need to be privatized essentially. so -- host: we're running out of time. so let me try to get allen in. silver spring, maryland. independent. go ahead. caller: thank you so much, c-span, for all you do.

i just want to remind immigrants that they can be the party of truth and light at the same time. if we start speaking the truth, only when we want to support a certain group, we will end up falling into the same trap the other side is using against us.h and then we can hold ourselves accountable and hold other people accountable. that is all i have to say. host: that is all the time we

have for today's program. we will see you again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on "washington journal." [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] >> c-span's coverage of the conservative political action conferce continues this morning with response from veterans affairs secretary doug collins, former arizona senate candidate kari lake and white house deputy assistant sebastian gorka. it gets underway live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span2. and more from sees back with byron donalds and others. that is live beginning at 3:15 eastern with additional coverage on our free mobile video app and

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