>> coming up on washington journal this morning, your calls and comments live. heath mayo talks about the focus of his organizations summit this weekend and the future of the republican party. also, terry shilling on this week's annual conservative political action conference and the role of social conservatives. c-span's washington journal is next. join the conversation. ♪ host: this is washington journal

for saturday, february 22. after saying ukraine should not have started the war three years ago, president donald trump reversed course, saying russia did in fact invade ukraine. kash patel was sworn in after a senate vote that largely fell along party lines. senator mitch mcconnell announced he will not seek reelection next year and will retire at the end of his term. those are a few of the stories that made headlines this week. we want to hear from you, what's your top news story of the week. here are the lines. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text your comments to (202) 748-8003. be sure to include your name and city. you can also post a question or

comment on facebook at facebook.com/c-span and on x at c-span wj. thank you for being with us. we will get to your calls and comments in a few minutes. i wanted to give you more information on one of the stories we talked about. that was president trump and the reversal he made in saying russia attacked ukraine. here's the headline from reuters that says in reversal, trump says russia attacked ukraine. the article says that president donald trump reversed course on friday and said russia did in fact invade ukraine and that kyiv soon signed an agreement with the united states as part of efforts to end the ukraine war. trump said on tuesday that ukraine should never have started the war three years ago, prompting a wave of criticism both domestically and internationally. pressed on the subject in an interview with fox news radio on friday, he acknowledged russia

had invaded ukraine on the order of russian president vladimir putin. here is that clip from president trump. >> would you accept a call from volodymyr zelenskyy today? >> of course i will take a call from him. he's been negotiating for three years. you say russia was the attacker. russia was attacked. russia attacked. there was no reason for them to attack. there was no reason he should have attacked. that whole thing was going on for years. there was no reason he was going in. it should have never happened. that war should have never happened. and i'm telling you, the way they talked, i said these guys are going to go to a war. this is a -- every time i say oh, it's not russia's fault, i

always get slammed by the fake news. i'm telling you, biden said the wrong things, volodymyr zelenskyy said the wrong things. they got attacked by somebody much bigger and stronger, which is a bad thing to do. and you don't do that. but russia could have been talked out of that so easily. that should never have been a war. and all of those dead people should not be dead and all of those cities should not be demolished right now. so, when volodymyr zelenskyy said he was not invited to a meeting, it wasn't a priority because he did such a bad job in negotiating so far. number one, you should not have had a war. if you did, it should have been solved and settled immediately, it could have been. host: that's one of the stories we have been following here on c-span this week. we are asking you for this first to start today's show, what your top story of the week is.

we will start with marshall in illinois, line for independents. good morning. caller: thank you for this opportunity. i'm reminded of ronald reagan's famous warning in america. it is mourning in america. we have a president who promised us on day one that gas would go down. the mortgage rates are going to drop. the stock market will improve. none of that is the focus. here we are, enabling a war criminal. and i am just devastated on what's becoming of our country. it is amazing what happens to the republican party, a party

that was against the soviet union for decades. we have totally forgotten that part of our history and our ability to stand firm for democracy. there is an outstanding article in the atlantic by timothy rybak , how -- dismantled democracy in 53 days. here we are in day 30 and we are well on our way to seeing our country and government that has taken decades to put together, the expertise we have in place, to run a very complicated system, and here we are and we are just tearing it apart, willy-nilly. i think americans, we need to start hanging our flags upside down to protest what is occurring in our country. thank you very much for this opportunity. you are a treasure, c-span. host: let's go to ray in

fountain top, pennsylvania, line for republicans. caller: good morning. i could not disagree more thoroughly from that misguided previous caller. the united states is finally, finally on a course where we can take control and there can be two democracies. our founding fathers had three articles. the first three articles of our constitution was article one was congress, article two was the executive and article three was the judiciary. what we have now in 2025 is millions and millions of people who report to nobody, who have allegiance to nothing except themselves, who run our country. they don't stand for election. they don't care about the elections. they do whatever they want. and they have squandered billions and billions and billions of dollars. if your previous caller would

stop to understand, we are $36 trillion in debt, the biggest expense we have on our budget is payment of interest. that's money going to nobody for nothing. just interest rates on the debt. our federal government needs to be taken apart, brick by brick in every department. and that's the most important thing. god it's being done now. if we waited another 10 or 20 years, the effect on every american would be absolutely devastating. wake up. host: that was ray in pennsylvania. stephanie in hanover, maryland, line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello. can you hear me? host: hi, stephanie. yes. go ahead. caller: my biggest thing is how

they are indiscriminately firing federal government workers without taking the time to understand what these particular federal workers, what their job duties are. it's fine if you want to look at how individuals work but you have to have a gentle idea as to what they do before you decide to get rid of them. just because they are probationary employees. they can be the employees that you want to keep. as far as the individuals talking about the waste fall and abuse, of course there is waste fall and abuse in the government and i get that. but you have to prove that there is fraud. it's not waste because it is something you don't agree with. you have to prove it. that's what the oig's responsibilities were. but since they are gone, i'm not

sure who is supposed to do that correctly. i feel more devastated for the innocent people who have lost their jobs and the level of inhumane, people seem to not care as if it does not matter. i have not heard trump or elon say anything about the devastation that it is causing people financially, mentally. the impact it will have on their families. you have people who are going to lose their health insurance, their homes. they are expendable, so who cares. i just pray that people are going to be ok. i hope in the united states we get to a point where people actually care about one another. that's really my take. host: that was stephanie in

maryland. we will go to guy in oklahoma, line for independents. good morning. caller: can you hear me? when i listen, my line is extremely broken up. host: i can hear you. go ahead. caller: my biggest story is the financial crisis we are in. going back to 2002. since then, we have lost two thirds of our manufacturing base and our industrial base. these tariffs that trump is trying to put in place to bring back manufacturing, if we don't bring it back, if we stay on the same course in the next 10 years, we won't have any industrial base or manufacturing base at all. that's a big reason for the tariffs. another thing is the budget crisis we are in. we are approaching $38 trillion in debt. it is $1 trillion a year.

we are negative spending. two point true to -- $2.2 trillion a year. all of these cuts they are trying to make, they are trying to save the country. about a year ago -- when i was a kid, my grandma would buy me a u.s. savings bond when i was 10 years old for a present. people used to buy keynotes and savings bonds. in the last 10 years, -- last year, a 65% drop off investing in our debt instruments. they will have to put more money to buy the instruments to keep the house of cards from collapsing in on itself. we are at the cliff. everything that trump is doing, the cutting and slashing, it's necessary because if we don't make extreme changes now, in four or five years, everything

will collapse. they are talking about social security and medicare only having five years left. everything will collapse if we don't make a major course correction and it needs to be done now. it will be painful but better now than a full on collapsing five or six years. thank you. host: that was guy in oklahoma. one of the other stories happening this week is from fox news. kash patel sworn in as the ninth fbi director. the article says that president trump's pick to head the fbi was sworn in on friday after a narrow confirmation vote. thursday, patel was sworn in at the eisenhower executive office building by u.s. attorney general pam bondi, after being confirmed by the u.s. senate as the ninth fbi director, succeeding christopher wray. patel, who is indian-american, is the first person of color to become fbi director.

it was before the senate vote on thursday that senator dick durbin, democrat of illinois spoke against kash patel and his nomination. here is a clip from that. >> it appears my senate republican colleagues are ignoring the many red flags and mr. patel's record. probably because they fear retribution from the president and mr. musk. let me be clear. this is not a partisan issue. during my time in the senate, i voted for four fbi director nominations before this one. each one was clearly a republican and i voted for them, nevertheless. historically, the federal government investigation has been made political. i oppose mr. patel because he is dangerously, politically extreme. he has repeatedly expressed his attention to use our nations

most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies. even before president trump took office, mr. patel announced he would force out christopher wray , who he nominated in his first term before firing the former fbi director, jim comey. the director is the only political appointment of the fbi. congress took steps to ensure this agency remains as a political as possible, by 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 may see it all fall to ashes today. host: after being confirmed on thursday, kash patel posted this statement saying i'm honored to be confirmed as the ninth director of the federal bureau

of investigation. thank you to president trump and attorney general bondi for your unwavering confidence and support. the fbi has a storied legacy from the g-men to safeguarding our nation in the wake of 9/11. the american people deserve and fbi that is transparent, accountable and committed to justice. the politicization of our justice system has eroded public trust but that ends today. my mission as director is clear, let good cops be cops and rebuild the trust in the fbi. we will rebuild and fbi the american people can be proud of. those to seek -- who seek to harm americans, let this be your warning, we will hunt you down in every corner of this planet. mission first, america always, let's get to work. we will hear from fred in camp hill, pennsylvania, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. when you go back to the first

presidency of donald trump, vladimir putin said ukraine is not a sovereign nation, it belongs to russia. i can do anything i want with it and it's not the united states business. two months later, he meets with donald trump in secrecy. after that meeting, he comes out and a reporter says what about ukraine? and donald trump says ukraine is not a sovereign nation, it belongs to russia, putin can do anything he wants with it and it's not the united states business. trump knew they would be attacking ukraine. the thing that bothers me most is in uganda, there is an outbreak of ebola. now, they are gone. this is going to spread.

if it spreads through uganda and through africa, it will make its way to the united states. we will have another pandemic. the final thing, when donald trump was supposed to testify before the molar condition, he refused to do so. he was given 56 questions to answer by writing. he answered them all the same. i don't remember. this president is strange to me. he's ruining our government, doing what the japanese and germans could not do in world war ii. what the russians could not do in the cold war and he's done it all in almost one month. i think people should wake up and understand he needs to be impeached. host: that his friend in pennsylvania, we will go to doug in pennsylvania on the line for independents. good morning, doug. caller: it's very sad like the

previous caller. we can thank the democrats for that for their opening of the border and playing stupid about it. the sickest part is watching all of the republican congressman just sucking up to this guy, it's obvious he only cares about what he cares about for himself. he's done a couple of lapse around daytona. it's very sad. that's all i can say. thank you. host: we will go to bob in massachusetts, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. to your last caller, i have seen and heard more from president trump in this last month and days then i saw from president

mumbles before him. i shouldn't say that. from whatever joe biden was putting out there with him. anyway, my point will be, do you want to talk about the major story that broke yesterday? host: bob, there's a lot of news going on, you will have to be more specific. caller: it was proven by two sets of forensic scientists that barack obama's birth certificate is false. there were seven discrepancies in it. host: we will go to steve in ohio on the line for democrats. good morning, steve. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment about support for ukraine and for nato. what the president said this past week about volodymyr zelenskyy being a dictator is totally false.

zelinskyy, if everybody remembers, he was surrounded and ready to be invaded, he said i don't need a ride, i need weapons. he's brave. to the ukrainian people, if you're listening, there are some millions of us here that fully support you. and i just want to say keep up the fight. as far as the president goes, it's not just him. project 2025 is in full swing. if you read it, there's 900 pages of it. if you read some of it, they have a unitary executive theory. they are giving the president sole power, complete power in the executive branch. congress won't matter. they can pass the laws. the judiciary can interpret the laws. but the executive branch, they enforce the laws. and if a man of lawlessness is

in charge of the law, where is that going to lead us? in 1991, ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons. they had 1900 strategic warheads. they had 175 icbms, they had 44 heavy strategic bombers. there were trilateral talks in 1994 between russia, the united states and ukraine. and they signed non-probe -- a nonproliferation treaty to disarm, which they did. there one objective was they would receive security guarantees from the united states and russia. so there's a treaty and obviously we are afraid to violate that. it seems ridiculous that this president can run roughshod over our constitution and our democracy.

and i don't know, i could just keep going. trump's first trip to moscow was in 1987. he went in 2013. the russians were in the white house in 2017. he sided with vladimir putin in 2018 in helsinki. connect the dots, people. watch what putin did to navalny, his political opponent. he poisoned him. host: we will leave it there, steve. a couple of callers have talked about the -- president trump's cuts to the federal workforce, including usaid. this headline from this morning's new york times, judge let's white house call staff at the chief u.s. agency for foreign aid. judge carl nichols of the u.s. district court for the district of columbia wrote that it was no

longer justified to stall the agency from enacting the plans which include placing more than 2000 additional employees on administrative leave, enforcing -- and forcing some workers posted overseas to return home. the judge found the group that brought the lawsuit, an association of foreign service workers, have not demonstrated that they faced irreparable injury so far and that it was unlikely to win its case. the trump administration has proposed placing nearly the entire global workforce of the agency on administrative leave, while simultaneously canceling a raft of its contracts and proposing a freeze of nearly all foreign aid spending. they argued the plan was carried out dangerously, potentially, stranding overseas workers by

locking them out of communications systems. it argued that what initially appeared to be a mandatory recall notice, requiring overseas workers to return to the united states within 30 days risk harming their families and children who had settled into lives abroad. we have a few minutes left in this first part of today's washington journal. we will go to jerry in broadway, virginia. line for independents. good morning, jerry. caller: good morning, america. i was wondering if any of your democratic viewers out there saw that seen in interview with vladimir putin a week or so ago. you do your viewers a good service if you would replay that for them. i will tell you what vladimir putin said out of his mouth. he said that if the 2020

election had not been stolen and donald trump had been in the white house, the ukraine war would not have happened. that is straight from vladimir putin's mouth. host: that was jerry in virginia. we will go to david in texas, line for republicans. good morning, david. hi, david. are you there? caller: i'm trying to get it off speaker. i would like to bring up something about the economy. if they are so interested in our country becoming sovereign again, why don't they do something about -- why doesn't elon or trump pay taxes? why don't we have millions of trump's friend's paying taxes? here's just a thought. i have no proof. unlike the president, i can't prove any of that.

thank you for your time. host: that was david in texas. a couple of tweets coming in on x. this from sandra. she says my top story is kash patel being nominated to head the fbi because he's been known to spread conspiracy theorie and is too loyal to donald trump. also, what are we to make about his enemies list in a book he authored? this from jdeading says the std out news stories from the past week, the unprecedented purge of senior u.s. military leadership by the trump administration. let's hear from david in d.c. on the line for democrats. good morning, david. caller: good morning. i am a longtime listener and this is the first time i have called ever, i think. i want to say one, as far as the national debt of $37 million --

trillion dollars. remember, that was over our whole lifetime. and so, the average person now makes $2.5 million in their lifetime. so, really, our debt is about $120,000 a person. that is not undoable. i think that is important. the second thing i want to say quickly is that our current president is dismantling our armed forces in a very bad way. it took roosevelt and harry

truman and stimson and general marshall and the people around him, they established a world order that was good until trump came. and what he's doing rapidly is what the countries like germany and japan, they are now talking openly of having big armies. that is exactly what we didn't and still don't want. i think that what he's doing, he's playing with fire. thanks very much. host: that was david in

washington, d.c. that's it for the first part of today's washington journal. next, we will be joined by principals first founder keith mayo. we will discuss his organizations summit happening this weekend. later in the program, american principles project's terry schilling will discuss this week's annual conservative political action conference at cpac and the role of social conservatives. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend on the civil war,

harry, a military professor at the u.s. army command and general staff college on the role of african-american soldiers in the union army and their efforts to gain civil liberties. watch the first 100 days as we look at the start of presidential terms. we focus on the early months of franklin roosevelt's first term in 1933, including actions taken to relieve economic conditions. marlene talks about the life and legacy of slave revolutionary and king, henry kristof and how the united states and other foreign powers reacted to the 1791 haitian revolution. jeffrey rosen leads a discussion of presidential historians on inaugural addresses and how they shape a presidents legacy. exploring the american story. watch american history tv every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide.

watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. at 4:00 p.m. eastern, luis miranda jr. talks about his life as a political activist and organizer in the latino community. then, at six: 45, nicole turner lee with her book, digitally invisible, how the internet is creating the new underclass. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, professor eve l. ewing, with her book original sin's, argues that the united states education system reinforces racial inequality at

the expense of black and native children. she's interviewed by alia wong. watch book tv every sunday on c-span two. watch online anytime at tv.org. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now to discuss his organizations summit happening this weekend, as well as the future of the republican party is he mayo -- heath mayo. tell us about the mission of principles first and why you founded the organization. guest: principles first, a grassroots group of americans from all around the country, coming together to inject some seriousness back into our politics and substance. we were frustrated by the nonsense we see out of washington all the time. it's about putting those principles that have made america great over the course of

our history, really making america america, back at the center of our politics as opposed to the personalities. that's what we are about. we founded it five years ago, to do just that. we hold our summit this year, the same weekend as cpac. if there is anything that civilize is or has come to civil a lot -- symbolizes or has come to symbolize the seriousness and double you wea style of our major politics, it's across the river where they are wielding chainsaws and rolling gold statues into hallways. host: i want to give the audience more background on you. how would you describe yourself lit a clean? guest: for the longest time, i was a card-carrying member of the conservative movement. i voted for marco rubio and mitt romney before that. i was a republican. that was before 2015-2016, the

party started to venture off course. now, i like many americans, are frustrated with both political parties and there's not a home for a lot of us out there. i think that's why this moment is so right for disruption, on the democratic and republican side. i think the republican party has picked what party it wants to be. it had the choice in the last primary and they said we are an isolationist party and protectionist party and we are hooked, line and sinker for donald trump and for a lot of americans, it's not what they want to see. host: your organization was founded five years ago. this is the fifth annual summit you are hosting this weekend. tell us about the target audience for the event, who goes to it and what is the focus this year? guest: it has evolved over the years. five years ago, there were 200 to 300 of us who were mostly disgruntled republicans who were frustrated with the direction of

the republican party. back then, we hope there was a way that we could clawback the party from the direction it was going. over the years to today, it has evolved. we had mark cuban, who has reduced the price of consumer prescription drugs. more of a democrat. same thing with jared polis, the governor of colorado who has challenged his party to reduce the prices of housing in colorado. new ideas, new faces. it's a time for new coalitions in our politics. i'm excited to hear from the speakers on our stage on what those new coalitions look like. are there new movement leaders out there where those new coalitions can form? because clearly it did not get the job done. we need to start building new allies and thinking through new ideas. thinking outside the box to bring those coalitions that can form a governing majority in the united states.

host: our guest for the next 40 minutes is heath mayo. you can start calling in now. the line from republicans is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. i wanted to ask you, your summit again is happening this weekend. it's meant as a counter program to cpac. an event you use to attend. tell us when you stop going and why. guest: like i said, in college, my first cpac was as a sophomore in college. that would have been 2010 or 2011. there were wild hairs every now and but back then, people dressed up as benjamin franklin or were wielding the constitution in the hallways. there was always that flare to

it but it was a place where conservatives, libertarians, even independents could get together and hash out debates. it was a hotbed for the conservative movement. it goes back to reagan. the first one was in the 1970's and ronald reagan gave a speech at a hotel ballroom. and it was a serious place for debates. that's not what it is anymore. around 2015-2016, they invited -- invited milo. they wheeled around golden statues of people in the hallway. it became not a serious place to talk about the challenges that are facing the country. so, that's -- i have not been back since then. i don't think it has gotten much at her since then. that's why a lot of us said we have to start performing our own events to talk about these things. so much of what we are seeing

from cpac and other institutions in washington, political leadership, is not bringing the level of seriousness the american people deserve. host: we will have you talk with a republican. vince in orange beach, alabama. good morning, vince. caller: good morning. thank you for the call. i wanted to see if with rfk voted in, if there is any chance he things we will address obesity and the americans that are on disability and medicare and medicaid. and the billions and billions of dollars thrown at morbid obesity and the waste involved in that. you can buy a million -- a million tons of sugary poison

and it proliferates the situation. i don't think anybody should be on disability because they are morbidly obese. they should be coached and helped to lose weight, exercise. i think it is an enormous waste. host: -- guest: that's a great point. what you are raising is a great concern. making america healthy again is a great idea in theory. i am skeptical of rfk being the right person for that job. he has espoused some wacky conspiracy theories with respect to other things. when you are the head of hhs and at the top of this field, you have to be competent when it comes to addressing some of the problems that you are talking about. you have to know where the funding mechanisms are and you have to know how to attack it. i don't know that rfk jr. is the guy for that.

this is a guy who is out there spreading wild theories about vaccines. and so, you know, that's just not the kind of truth first leader that i am confident in to deliver the change and reform you're talking about. you are right. we need to change the system in washington so that we are not incentivizing unhealthy behaviors. it is a drain on the system. it's a drain on our health. and it's a testament to bad leadership over the years in washington that allows these funding mechanisms for these bad habits to build up. i am hopeful that rfk, now that he's been confirmed, he can work with senators in washington and representatives to look at that legislation and the laws to change what he can. but, you know, i am skeptical i guess i would say, based on some of his statements and the tat -- the past leadership he has exhibited.

host: let's hear from david on the line from republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. as a long time viewer and sometime caller, thank you for c-span. in 2016, a great columnist and guest on c-span wrote about the election and talked about how it is a binary choice. i was skeptical of donald trump. and to a certain extent, particularly, i see you are wearing, your guest, mr. mayo, is wearing a ukraine american pin, and so do i. i'm not a great fan of what the president said about the war. but, when you look at the whole

picture, there no place else for what you call a card-carrying conservative to go, but to the republican party. there is nothing else out there. certainly not the democrat party of oak osseo cortez -- alexandria ocasio-cortez and summer lee. that's it. this is what we have. i, for one, am going to remain a republican. because, overall, president trump is doing the right thing on so many issues that there is no place else for someone like me. and i think you to go. so, deal with that, ok? guest: thank you for the call. i think this type of collar is exactly like so many americans

out there. he goes to the point that i was making about how many americans are frustrated with the choices on offer. we shouldn't have to pick the lesser of two evils every time we go to the ballot box. that's part of what principles first is about, bringing people together to get better choices on the ballot, to take a stand like you say for when the president makes a dumb comment about ukraine that is completely baseless and not true, and he says ukraine caused the war in some way, when putin has invaded that country and killed their people, killed their children, destroyed their farms. it is so offensive almost. and then to have to swallow all of that discontent and go vote for the guy anyways because we can't put anybody better on the ballot, that's a problem for our politics. that's what we have to start doing as americans. we can't keep waiting for better leaders to come along.

we have to start at the grassroots level, coming together and building community and demanding better of our leaders. i certainly hear the call. i agree with what you are saying. the choices on offer are not good. that's why it's incumbent on us as conservative, principled americans, to come together and put better leaders on the ballot and to stand up and say we are not going to tolerate it if you keep lying about the conflict in russia, pulling back from our allies, jacking up tariffs on canada and mexico at a time where there is an affordability crisis around the country. these things are inconsistent with what he campaigned for and he ought to be held accountable to that by americans and his own supporters. i commend the call. i agree with much of what you said. i hope we see better leaders on the ballot in the coming cycles so you don't have to feel that way every election cycle when you go vote. host: we had a question come in

from text from kristin in portndmaine. it says good mornin m mayo. maga has splintered the republican party. the democrats, though wounded, i believe are still a united party. would you consider joining the democrats? guest: i am a free agent that's what principles first is -- free-agent. that's what principles first is about. they need to go through introspection. it was not a good november for them. with all of the absurdities of donald trump, they were not able to cobble together a 50 plus one coalition that could defeat him in his movement. it is a time for rethinking how the party goes about things. seeing how they can bring new ideas and new people into the party. and if they show a willingness and readiness to do that, i am here. if they can put better people on the ballot, better ideas, i am

all for that. certainly, i would be open to joining with democrats. and i think a lot of our attendees at the principles first summit would be. but, principles first. it's not just going to come for nothing. you have to be out there espousing the principles that make america great and showing that you are opening up to new voices and new people and new constituencies out there. host: you will have some of those voices at your summit. the colorado governor will be speaking today? guest: he's tomorrow but he is coming. host: what is it like to have -- what does it mean to have voices like that speaking to people who are attending your conference? guest: it speaks volumes. we are proud to have him. the fact you have somebody like him, a democrat who is chapel --

challenging an establishment in his party to drive reforms in his state, all the way to somebody like john bolton and chris christie, people in the publican party who served under donald trump in the first administration but had been raising alarm bells about his conduct, that broad spectrum of folks coming together i think is exciting. it's new in our politics. that's the way we ought to be thinking. we ought to think outside the box and think about how we can build these new alliances. i think it says a lot about this moment that we are in and how it is time for new alliances and new things in our politics. host: we have a programming alert for our audience. tomorrow on sunday, we will have coverage of the principles first summit. our guest just mentioned that former national security advisor john bolton will be speaking, as well as former georgia lieutenant governor jeff duncan

and others will be there. that is tomorrow. you will be able to watch live, starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile app and online at c-span.org. let's hear from jesse in owings mills, maryland. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. the conversation is perfect for the comment or the question i have. the democrats failed to protect us from this happening, this administration getting into power. the republicans are disillusioned with the party. i think it's time for a third party. i wonder if the gentleman would consider joining together with disillusioned democrats, republicans and independents and

forming a third party because i think now is the time. guest: it's a great question. a lot of americans out there wonder why there's only two choices. and it's a good question, honestly. i think the answer is a bit that new parties are so hard logistically to stand up, it takes a lot of money, unfortunately. our politics, that's a key element of how our politics work in this country, for better or mostly worse. so, parties are hard. the way change happens in america and what makes our democracy really great is that people speak volumes. sometimes the movement can come before the party. some of these third-party movements in the past have come up short because they've tried to start at the top and they say we will form a party and everybody will come and there's nobody there in the room.

we have to focus on the grassroots americans and go into the country. that's why we host dinners in addition to the summit. we have been in charleston, michigan, nashville, texas, kansas, everything you can think of, holding these dinners and bringing people together. it starts with the people. it starts and ends with the people. you have to bring together around those ideas. from there, if canada starts -- certainly, it's about the ideas. if there is someone espousing our principles, we will line up behind that person and give it one hundred 10%. you have seen some candidacies, dan osborn is one of them, was an independent. it was basically like a third-party run and he got 48% of the vote in nebraska, trying to shake things up. that could be a model short of a whole new party.

a bunch of independent candidates saying i don't fall into any of these buckets but i have good ideas about what the country needs to do to solve the problems that we face. i will set the parties aside and speak directly to the american people with my ideas and let the quality of my ideas and the content of my character dictate whether americans will vote for me. if we see more of that, it could be a healthy step toward what the caller is talking about. i think it's a good idea. we have to start exploring all of the options we can, for sure. host: let's hear from john in west lafayette, indiana, line for republicans. morning. caller: good morning. thank you for the discussion today, mr. heath. i have been a republican my entire life. i was a rabid ronald reagan supporter. i guess i will show my age, going back to 1968. i am 72 years old.

but what i have seen over that period of time is a party that refused, for decades, to take on the democrats in a full frontal assault. if you go back many decades, there was a time where my friends would say there is no difference between the two parties. when you saw the policies at the end of any republican administration other than reagan, all you saw was modest tweaks around the edges of policy. you never saw the kind of changes the country needed until donald trump. today, you can't say -- you can't say there's no difference between the parties. they are very different. with donald trump, you see the kind of movement politically that this country desperately needs. what i hear you promoting is

basically a turn back to the mitt romney style of political party. which is nothing but pavlov. i don't like tariffs, but i do like the notion of equivalency in the global, economic field. i think that's where he's landing today. for every one thing that maybe i don't agree with, i see nine or 10 that i adamantly agree with. your movement sounds like a return to the traditional country club style of the republican party. i would like to hear your comment about those remarks. guest: thank you for the call. i would disagree with the characterization of us as a return to the mitt romney style of politics. this is a new era. it is 10 years removed from when

mitt romney last ran for president. the challenges are different. we have mark cuban on our stage, i don't think he's a mitt romney god. jared polis is thinking outside of the box. we are trying to think outside of the box. we can't go back to where we've been. the challenges are different. to your point about donald trump, sure, if the metric for what you really want in a politician and a party is somebody that will go in and break things and shake things up, i agree with the caller that for a long time, republicans were to look timid to take their arguments to the democrats. i think that is what fed a lot of the hunger for somebody like trump to come in and shake up washington. if you look at the way that he's done it, i don't think it's been healthy for the country. he's really challenging the bounds of executive authority. really pushing the limits of what a president can do, saying

he will ignore the courts. this is not going to be a good idea for the country. i hear what you are saying, i respectfully disagree with it. we have an affordability crisis, i agree. inflation was a problem under the biden administration and we have to address it. jacking up 25% tariffs on canada and mexico, i would submit to you, is not a bright idea or wise strategy. we can do it on china, sure. i don't think it's the best way to go. we could do sanctions. a lot of what he does is so reactive and impulsive. same thing with our alliances in europe with authoritarians like putin. we will see xi jinping make a move on taiwan. we need a serious person in office. i will agree that trump has shaken things up to some degree but a lot of times, if you shake things up, you are breaking things in the china shop. i urge the caller to explore and

investigate if trump shaking things up has delivered on the things you wanted to see out of washington. at least for me as a conservative, somebody who wanted to conserve the idea of limited government, reduce deficits and death, trump has added massive amounts to our national debt. massive spending. we will see what doge does. i think it's trimming at the margins. we have to reform programs if you want to get back to solvency. that takes serious leadership that treats people with respect and works across the aisle. i don't know that this type of leadership will get us there. i respect the call. we have to have discussions like this but i still don't think trump is taking us in the right direction as a country that we need. host: president trump has been back in office for a month. some new pulling out from gallup.

a few days ago, 93% of republicans approve of president trump's job performance. republicans also broadly approve of the president's handling of immigration. that is 92%. foreign affairs, 90%. the economy, 90%. foreign trade at 89%. another 80% of republicans each approve of trump's handling of the situations in the middle east and ukraine. he has taken a lot of actions so far. we talked a lot about things that you are pushing back on. is there anything that he has seen that you have seen him do or has talked about doing that you could get on board with? guest: a lot of things that trump does that i agree with, i agree in theory and he tries to implement and execute it and it is nuts, honestly. i am a supporter of israel. all of this nonsense about hamas

on college campuses is crazy. we need to stand with israel. what happened on october 7 is a moral abomination. we need to stand with them and try to resolve what's happening there. but two, and say we will turn the gaza strip into a casino park and real estate deal, that's crazy. similarly, maybe doge, i don't think any american disagrees that there is fraud, waste and abuse and there are ways to trim fat in the american government. but then you put in elon musk and he's a little not on the level. i'm not sure what's going on there. we have a bunch of nuclear engineers. we fire them and then we have to rehire them. there's been a lot of mistakes made and how this has been carried out. it's not a good brand for if you want to cut fraud waste and abuse in the federal government. if we are doing it this way,

everybody will be pissed and not want to do this ever again. there are ideas out there that have promised. a lot of them, i will be honest, are really bad ideas. the tariffs are postured toward europe and our allies, saying it was ukraine's fall. this is shameful and absurd. it does not look like the america that i have ever known. host: i'm going to show you another question that we got via text and then also play something from a town hallhat happened. the question coming in from scott in massachusetts. says he's independent. what does the guest inc. about republicans in congress right now who remained silent regarding trump's actions and his rhetoric regarding ukraine and other issues? guest: it shameful.

it takes a toll on your family. to not say anything about what you believe, to not voice your own opinions as opposed to what donald trump and his people are telling you what you need to say or else you will face retribution, that to me is shameful. there out to be 100 different voices saying 100 different things. i think it used to be that way. there used be factions and disagreement. you read the percentages. this party has made his choice. it has turned into a whatever donald trump says goes and that's how people define themselves. that is not going to be healthy for the long-term trajectory of the party or the country. i think it is shameful, particularly as the person notes on ukraine. everyone from eisenhower to jfk

to ronald reagan to abraham lincoln and washington are completely turning over in their grave to hear that we will sit down with putin and volodymyr zelenskyy's country that was invaded by this guy who had his friends and family killed. crops destroyed, that it was actually their fault that all of that happened. that to me as infuriating as an american, to hear our president go on a world stage and say that , go out and basically

according to what the last guest says, i believe a lot of what he said. i vote both ways. i think the way we get our tv and internet. i think a solution to the problem would be some other way, maybe the voting on the east

coast. most people do not vote on the primary so you get the far right and far left leaders. i think we need a change in how we vote. host: that was donna in ohio. dan from pine city, new york. dan? caller: how are you? how soon we forget as far as ukraine. remember trump refusing to fund the ukrainians, the $300 million unless they'd give some dirt on the biden presidency. it hasn't been brought up in all the news and whatnot. putin is a smart man. as soon as the money was not

available, the invasion, that's when the invasion started and trump was the one that refused the money. am i correct on that? host: we'll go to sal in new jersey. line 4, republicans. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'd like to talk about abortion. concerning abortion. it's not a woman's body but a human being. a crump of cells. it's not a clump of cells. i saw my niece in an ultrasound last year. she was not a clump of cells. i'd like to say the overwhelming majority that go through abortion go through deep depression and anguish and many commit suicide and have deep remorse. most of them commit suicide and then there's adoption. why shouldn't so many couples in this country have their own children, why should we deprive them of being parents and have a family. abortionists in this country

have killed 60 million babies since roe v. wade was enacted in 1973. let's look what abortion is, murdering babies. then i'd like to ask the question, how would liberals like it if they were aborted? don't they appreciate their own lives. and what was to be a moral and ethical nation and judge would -- and god would judge us harshly. think of the beautiful society we would have if all these babies weren't worthed. host: sal in new jersey. floyd line 4, independent. caller: thanks for taking my call. the last guest needs to fact check a little better. what i heard as the e.v.'s were purchased by -- ordered by biden. i think that should be fact checked. biden ordered $400 million of

e.v.'s for the government. host: to richard in cumberland, maryland, line 4, democrats. caller: good morning. i hope everybody is fine there. his letterhead should be masa, make america sane again. wonderful talking points. i'm a democrat and will vote democrat. i'm positive i won't agree with every point he would support but he is talking working with democrats and he has wonderful talking points, back to values. human values reporting laws and government and people instead of

individuals working with democrats. wonderful talking points. and he has wonderful values. host: that was richard in maryland. this headline in this morning's "wall street journal," ukraine-u.s. near minerals agreement. the article says in an apparent nod to an impending deal, zelenskyy, the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said in a nightly video addressed friday teams of u.s. and ukrainian negotiators were working on a draft accord. it says zelenskyy was presented with a deal with u.s. secretary scott bessent in kyiv this past week but refused to sign saying the ukrainian side needed to study it further and a deal should contain some form of security guarantees for ukraine. an agreement could be signed as

soon as saturday, today, though it isn't yet complete said people briefed on the talks. the exact terms of the deal weren't disclosed. yesterday while addressing governors that president trump talked about negotiations to end the war between -- end the russia-ukraine war. here's a clip from that event. president trump: somewhat historic four weeks. a couple things are in the works. we're negotiating with russia-ukraine trying to get that horrible situation over with, it's terrible, so terrible. i see pictures that you fortunately don't get to see. you don't want to see them. it is a killing field. we have young soldiers being killed, thousands a week, and we've got to get it over with. it's bad for russia and bad for ukraine and bad for us on a

humanitarian basis. i've had very good talks with putin and not so good talks with ukraine. they don't have any cards but play it tough. but we're not going to let this continue. this war is terrible. it never would have happened if i were president but it did happen because i got stuck with it and the whole world is stuck with it. right now you have a country that has cities that look like demolition sights. those thousand year old golden domes that were the most beautiful in the world are in smithereens and far more people were killed than anyone understands. people better get it to the table and it should end. never would have happened. shouldn't have happened. host: back to the calls. ilene in new jersey. caller: good morning, how are you?

host: doing well, ilene. caller: fine. i want to say about your best before. he sounds like a republican turned inside out as a democrat. he is so against everything, only in there a month and all they're doing is picking and every little thing that he does. we never had this with biden because he never came out. we never heard from him. so you never had every day of biden, biden, biden, the things that he did wrong and his son. give the man a chance. as far as zelenskyy and ukraine. all he wants is the money and he's a crook. and he's taken the money. i don't even think the people will get it. they don't realize that he's like that. as far as the other man, your guest, i think he's one of the swamp. he's definitely one of the swamp

because they can't line their pockets no more and that's a terrible shame. but thank you, thank you very much for letting me call. thank you. host: that was ilene in new jersey. we'll go to michael in connecticut. line for independents. good morning, michael. caller: how are you doing? you started with trump in the beginning of the show and had to say ukraine did not start the war. how could you even say that happened in the first place. and now they're all screaming about the deficit, the deficit. i remember cheney saying deficits don't matter. trump doesn't make sense in anything he says. he's really, really stupid what we have going for ourselves and he's in charge. it's going to come to a head and all explode in his face. trump is a cancer on the country. he's a republican. see what he's doing?

you know, facebook is not news. newsmax is not news. fox is not news. this is just stuff that people are making up. you've got to be so insane to believe anything. people are dumb. trump is dumber than them. he's leading this country to where? this is making america great, by what? raising the prices on everything on everybody? how is the price of eggs? i'm at the supermarket now. $8 for a dozen. i can't get bacon because it's so expensive. what has he done? it's so hard to bring down the prices and stuff. i can't believe anybody can believe anything trump says. host: michael in connecticut. we'll go to pamela in mount morris, new york. line 4, democrats. good morning, pamela. caller: good morning. i've always been too upset to make any sense when i've called

you in the past because i was so upset about the possibility of what's happening now is going to happen and what i'd like to say about the man in the segment before. i was a late bloomer calling in and only heard a little bit but hardened by the fact that he's a young man that really seems to know the difference between principle and not principles in this country. i stick up for everything the democrats stick up for but most of all democracy. i'd like to read a quote. the one means that wins the victory over reason, terror and force. that was said by adolf hitler. the other day a man called up and he was lovely talking about how -- basically how we lost our minds and we're believing the stuff we're believing. the woman that just called up from new jersey is a perfect example.

now zelenskyy is the enemy. that poor man is fighting for his country. if that happened to us, there's no way we'd be able to handle anybody saying we started the war if somebody was invading us. look what happened at 9/11? nobody questioned the fact that we were invaded by someone else and we took a part in that and did what we had to do. i'm saying to you, do not turn on a country that has been battling to save their country, to save their land, and now we have trump in cahoots with putin to blackmail this man to get the land. and i'm really appalled and saddened by the fact if we lose ukraine, beautien is going to keep on going and the idea that our own -- putin is going to keep on going and the idea that our own president is involved, i'm appalled. everyone from the sound of

myself, get madeleine albright's last book. she wrote it when trump was in the first time and fits now more than ever. it's called "facism, a warning." she was a teacher at georgetown university of history and when you get that book you won't put it down. it gives you an overview of every dictator and has a whole chapter on trump. she was amazing. a wonderful, a great woman and she knows what she's talking about. thank you. host: pamela in new york. tammy in lake land, florida, line for republicans. good morning, tammy. caller: yes. are you there? host: yes, i am. caller: ok. i just want to say, i've been a republican since i was 18 years old. i didn't even know what it stood for at that time, but in my lif.

and in my life, i have loved the difference between democrats and republicans and everything. look, the democrats, they used to be ok back in the day and they have changed. they have turned and changed. and biden, he really, really destroyed our country. before people start bashing trump again, they need to realize instead of talking about it, they need to listen. he has a way about him that zelenskyy wouldn't come to the table, he wouldn't talk. so trump, he did say that about russia -- you know, about ukraine, you know, and russia. but we know russia started the war. everybody knows it. but trump is trying to get him

to the table which worked, didn't it? see, trump has a way about him that he puts stuff out there but he doesn't seriously mean it. and if you really, really knew trump, you know, like i've known trump, all his life, i've been through three wives with him, five kids with him and all the talk shows, everybody involved him until he became a republican. yes, he does want to make this country, i do believe. because he's rich. he cannot have to do any of this. host: got your point, tammy. wanted to show you this article from the associated press coming on the news of senator mitch mcconnell announcing he will not be running for re-election from the associated press. says the scramble to fill mitch

mcconnell's seat in kentucky came as the lawmaker revealed he won't seek election in 2026. former state attorney general daniel cameron jumped into the campaign thursday looking for a political comeback after losing his bid for governor in 2023. else where in the g.o.p., u.s. representative andy barr signaled he would announce his plans soon and said he's been encouraged by his supporters as he considers a senate run. businessman nate morris has signaled his strong interest in the senate race, too. other prominent republicans, u.s. representative james comer will not run for the senate next year but is strongly considering a run for governor 2027. a comer spokesperson said although the prize is a senate seat that will be open for the first time in more than 40 years, leading kentucky democrats did not rush to embrace the challenge in a state

that's turned solidly republican in recent years to democrats holding statewide office. andy about a sheer and lieutenant governor pullman stated they won't enter the senate race. earlier this week here is part of mitch mcconnell's announcement that he made. [videotape] mr. mcconnell: and i've watched colleagues depart with mourning of what is perceived to be declines 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 i will depart with great hope of 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 suggested to uphold laws as they were written. the senate is still equipped for work of great consequence. and to the disappointment of my critics, i'm still here on the job. i yield. >> mr. president? >> senator of north carolina.

>> i ask unanimous consent the members and staff and spectators of the gallery be able to applaud for a period not to exceed 30 seconds. >> is there objection? [applause] host: let's hear from gary in pits field, illinois. good morning, gary. caller: thank you for taking my call. yes, i'm a veteran, a marine. and i'm so disgusted for trump blaming ukraine for invading russia. if you go back to february 23, people, 2022, trump said that putin was a genius for invading ukraine. really, come on? look it up. you people don't do your home work. and for musk to sit there and tell you he's saving the country

money and eliminating all this, look what musk has made off of this country, people. he's made over $21 billion from our government. he's taking money while he's laughing at everybody else and we're paying for this. you have two gentlemen that has 17 kids by six different women and they're telling us how to run our family out here. trump's never had dirty hands, people. and on top of this he got pete hegseth that fired mr. broun, jenn brown that's dedicated -- general brown that's dedicated his life to this country. i would get out with a dishonorable discharge instead of deserving for this commander in heat. host: good morning, john, line for democrats. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call.

i want to make a few bullet points. my first bullet point is getting back to the last caller talking about trump and he's doing a great job and give him a chance. you can't elect an insurrectionist, a felonies. he lied so much about his finance. he's not a good businessperson. my second bullet point is trump started this whole mess. trump is a pure liar. but talking about mitch mcconnell. he reminds me of bull connor on his deathbed he wanted to resolve himself of the racist stuff he did. mitch mcconnell started when barack obama was in office, his exact words he would make sure president obama would never serve another term. so the republicans need to look at their own mirror and see all

their dirty laundry before they start passing the buck as a democrat that started with biden. as far as the ukraine situation, i think if russia can get away with ukraine, we have no idea what the next step in this european takeover that russia would do or china would do with taiwan. thanks for taking my call. host: john in pennsylvania and our last call for this portion is cayenne in barberton, ohio -- diane in barberton, ohio. good morning. caller: i have to apologize last time, i called you rebecca and know your voice without looking at the tv so i apologize. ok. i want to say i want people to understand. when it comes to d.e.i., it's women, people of color, physically handicapped, developmentally disabled and

mentally ill, according to dr. phil mcgraw on "the view" years ago when trump first ran for office said he's a narcissist. trump then is mentally ill people, also. i want to say something about the migrants. according to someone who was on this show stated only 1% of the migrants have done anything illegal in the united states. 99% of it is our born americans. also on this show several times on "newsnation" and "60 minutes" stating 90% to 95% of drugs that are brought in are from americans, not from migrants. so i've got proof for everything

and people still don't want to listen. thank you, tammy, and you have a good day. host: that was diane, our last call for this segment. we'll be returning to open forum in a bit but first we'll be joined by american principles projects terry schilling. we're going to discuss this week's annual conservative political action conference, cpac in the role of social conservatives. we'll be right back. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] >> american history tv, explore ing the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend on the civil war, a military history professor harry laver, on the role of african-american soldiers in the union army in their efforts to

gain civil liberties. watch american history tv series 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 to relieve economic conditions during the great depression. on lectures in history, yale professor marlene talks about king henry kristof and how other foreign powers reacted to the 1791 revolution. and president and c.e.o. jeffrey rosen leads a discussion of presidential historians on inaugural addresses and how they shape a president's legacy. exploring the american story, watch "american history tv" every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide and watch any time on c-span.org/history.

>> book tv every sunday on c-span 2 discusses the latest authors discussing nonfiction books. luis miranda jr. with his book "relentless" talks about his life as a political activist and organizer in the latino community. and then at 6:45 eastern, nicole rner lee with her book "digitally invisible" and contends lack of internet access is creating economic disparities in poor and rural communities. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on "after words." eve l. ewing, "original sins." the miseducation of black and native children and the construction of american racism argues the united states education system reinforces racial inequality at the expense of black and native indian children and along with alia

wong every sunday on c-span 2 on book tv and find a school schedule and watch any time at booktv.org. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now to discuss the cpac2025 and social conservative is terry schilling, president of american principles. why don't we start by telling us about your organization and tell us about the priorities and mission. guest: i run a great group called american principles project. and how i describe it to our donors and supporters when we're meeting them for the first time is in this town of d.c., there's special interest groups, big phrma, big oil, big tobacco and we call ourselves the big family because we have our family as the special interest group we're representing in politics and primarily invest in campaigns and elections and work with

politicians in the legislative cycle to pass laws and we protect laws of innocent children and civil rights and been involved in transgenderrism in this country and specifically around women's sports and protecting children from these gender procedures going on all over. but one of the fights that we've been most successful in, and i'm most excited about, is age verification online to protect children from adult website and been going very successfully. i think we're up to 27 states protecting girls sports. president trump is doing executive orders and federal actions to protect girls all over the country. all 50 states, girls are being protected in their sports. we're up to 19 states now that have age verification to protect adult content online. there really hasn't been anyone on the political gap for the american family, running campaign ads punishing politicians for voting to take away parental rights and not protect our children and innocence. that's the big gap we fill and very proud to do that.

host: you spoke yesterday at cpac as you have previously. tell us about the mood at the event this year. what are speakers and attendees most focused on. guest: as you can imagine, everyone is excited and i was there for a few interviews and the line is out the door. the reason is because president trump is supposed to speak today and steven miller speaking around 11:00. i talked to so many people because they all recognize me from the various shows but they're very excited and optimistic about not just the future of america's economy and standing in the world but excited we have a president right now that's giving them a voice and representing them, especially when it comes to the cultural fights that have been going on in this country. i feel like so many people that are concerned about the culture and where it's been heading in this country haven't really had any big names or prominent people defending them in the public sphere and president trump hasn't been afraid to step

in there and weigh in on very controversial and hot button issues that get a lot of people in trouble but he's been out there and the attendees at cpac have been excited about that. host: you talk about culture wars and something you discussed at your panel and yesterday at cpac it's the war on masculinity. explain what you mean by that and how we got to where we are. guest: the title of the panel was called "take this truce and shove it." it's a reference to mitch daniels who back in 2011 came out with a concept that in order to be successful in solving america's real problems, which he viewed as the national debt and the deficit, we needed to call for a so-called truce on social issues. and how that played out was incredibly disastrous. it ended up being that the republicans ended up, they stopped fighting on a host of important cultural topics like abortion and like lbgtq+ issues

and the bottom fell out so badly that we started giving sex change procedures and gender transitions even to minors. and there's been a huge pushback against that, obviously. but we talked about what the path forward is for this country. and my comments were specifically directed at young men. i think that i'm a young man still. i'm 38 and have four boys and a host of brothers -- i have six brothers as well. if you're a young man today and watching television or netflix or any of our popular culture, you're constantly told being a man is a bad thing and masculinity is toxic. the reality is that's not true. there are men who are toxic that do toxic things but that's not masculinity. it's about self-sacrifice and about love and doing what's right for other people. and my comments were directed to young men to say if you really want to be masculine, the next step in that is to become a father, become a husband, become

a father, take care of other people, serve others. i think the left actually talks about serving others but just do it in a different light, in a different lane. i think the easiest and best way and one of the biggest challenges you can have as a young man is get married and be a really good husband and be a really good father. i think, you know, i have seven children myself and it's been so formational for me as a human being. i have had to do a lot of things that are really tough, a lot of things i didn't want to do. i've had to die to myself and become a lot less selfish. i still have kinks to work out but my experience of being a father and husband has greatly transformed my life and would like for other men to see that transformation and experience it themselves. i can't imagine my life without all my kids, as many as i have, or especially without my wife. so i think that there's a whole generation of young men who are missing out on pivotal and very

important, incredibly life-changing things like being a husband and like being a father. i don't want men to miss out on family and marriage as much as possible. host: pete hegseth had seven children and stumbled when he went to name all his. can you? guest: grace, reagan, bobby, max, peter, abbey, and tucker, he turns 1 next week. host: our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is terry schilling, the president of american principles project. if you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. the lines, republicans, 202-748-8001, democrats 202-748-8000, and independents, 202-748-8002, and a reminder, sent us a text at 202-748-8003. i wanted to go back to what we

were discussing. and the war on masculinity and show you this headline. it was from before the november election in "the new york times" many again-z men feel left behind. some see trump as an answer. this is a qte from the story, in interviews with young man planning to vote for mr. trump, they described feeling undervalued. they said it had become harder to be a man. they valued strength in a president but yet didn't express bier mogyny and exaggerated displays of brawn embraced by the trump campaign. their concerns were mostly economic like whether they could fulfill the traditional masculine role of supporting a family. talk about the impact this is having on our society. guest: you don't need interviews to find this out. in fact, there's a lot of data out there that show young men really feel hopeless, the depths

of despair, for example, for young men are through the roof, the highest levels we've ever seen before. it's important to note depths of despair are drug overdoses, they're suicides. but a lot of young men are giving up. if you look at the trends in our country, way more women, a much larger percentage of women are college graduates now than men, 55% to 45%. ideally that would be a 50/50 number but something is going on in our country where men feel they can't contribute or not valued. and i think that's both cultural and i also think that they are most likely some government programs that aren't recognizing right now. but men, their wages are going down and feel they can't support it. i've been to 48-50 states and

talked to men with all of them and they feel like that's a concern. they feel like they can't support a family and would like to. i think president trump made it clear he wants to help everyone get a job and make more money. it's one thing to be absolutely supportive of people but another thing to demonize people and what we've been seeing from our broader culture at least from a popular culture and music and hollywood and sometimes in the news media. host: talk about the actions president trump can take to address this issue, not just economically but socially. guest: great question. one of the things i heard from young men outside the economic concerns is the social concerns. there are cases all across the country children are being taken

away from their country because one or both parents disagree with giving a child a gender transition. there are cases in texas, a man lost control of his family because he didn't want his son to have a gender transition. and then they think what's the point of getting married if they can be stolen from me on cases such as that. we need to empower people. our government should not be picking winners and losers. we need to make sure everyone in the country has that opportunity. there's nothing wrong with being male. we should have our officials like president trump. and there are bad male influences in this country even the talks around masculinity, there are new heroes rising up like andrew tate who is

incredibly problematic, takes advantage of women mo is misogyny -- miss o.j. -- mysogonist. real masculinity is all about self-sacrifices and serving others and loving your family and wife first and foremost and serving your community. we need to get back to basics and the first step is stop demonizing young men. host: we will bring your audience into the conversation and edward in new jersey. caller: i have been watching cpac, when they declare that they were all domestic terrorists and last year when they said we are here to end

democracy and overthrow the government. my question is are there any left wing events headlined by the top party people that have such hate speech civil war and interactionism. do you have any problem with the who want to identify with having hair so they have to take drugs or men who want to identify with having sex so they take viagra? guest: i am all about men being men and women being women. there is a really problematic thing going on in this country. the whole transgender industry is being cast as a political or civil rights movement. when you dig into it, there is a whole industry around it. there is a $4.5 billion transgender industry making money off of surgery and hormone treatments and more and more they are making money off of children. we need to start affirming people on their bodies. there is nothing wrong with

being male. there is nothing wrong with being female. this notion of gender identity is novel. it is a fight that the democrats are losing and they are losing it badly. if you look at president trump and his record in the first 30 days, last week he signed an executive order to protect girl sports. cnn did a segment and they showed that the polling around this was 79% of americans were supportive of president trump's agenda to protect girl sports and only 19% were opposed. that is not the important number. the important number is before he took office, the support for the issue was 64% to 30%. that means that the transgender industry is losing the argument, not with me, not with president trump. they are losing it with the american people. if the democrats want to keep pushing the concept that men can become women through cosmetic surgeries and hormone treatments, by all means i hope they do because they will

continue to lose elections. but if they like to start getting america back to normalcy and raining in the profits of a very profitable transgender industry which typically democrats tend to oppose profits of any type, especially as it comes to energy, i think they will stop losing so many elections and donald trump might not be in the white house if they had not been pushing the transgender issue on children so strongly. host: let's hear from rod in ohio on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i have a couple of things to say. you said you were 38 years old. guest: yes. caller: and you have how many children? guest: seven. caller: in my opinion, the major cause of all the problems we have is overpopulation. let me talk, please. i would like you to not justify

but give me your explanation of why you think having seven kids and also having, 1-year-old at 38 years old. why do you think that is the right thing to do when overpopulation is killing us early? everything flows down from overpopulation. host: we will get a response. guest: thank you so much for the question. i don't think it is any of your business. my wife and i love each other. we love our children. we take great care of them. they are very happy children. we need more children. america's population is declining. our birthrates are through the floor. marriage rates are through the floor. you are worried about overpopulation. i don't know where you are getting that. we are having a de-population crisis right now. my mom said growing up more hands make light work. if you want an easier time in

your country, you want a thriving population. the sign of a dying nation is a declining population. america is getting older right now. i am actually doing my part and going above and beyond not for any purpose besides my wife and i love each other, we love our children. and instead you have personal objectives to be having seven children. i am wondering if you would have objections to a woman having seven abortions. i think these are personal issues. i don't know which one of my children should not be here right now. i love them all. they are all human beings. this is exactly the type of anti-family attitudes that have risen up in america over the last three decades. it was not always like that. you will never tell someone that they had too many children. that is a radical statement to say to someone. we love our children. i might have three or four more. i will go for more after this conversation. thank you so much. host: let's hear from caroline in ohio the one for democrats. announcer: --

caller: good morning. wow, terry. i am so sorry about that caller from before. i am the youngest of seven and i loved growing up in a big family. this is totally off-topic. i tried to get through to michael yesterday, a podcaster at cpac. anyway, i just wanted this question answered. there is a student from the university of cincinnati in ohio. i am a big proponent. everybody knows i call in about children because i spent so much of my life in the education field. i am very concerned about having young people and i am so happy that you are working to help the system and the same with heath m

ayo before. this young lady had an internship in the transportation department in d.c. she had just moved there to start it and was just told that she did not have a job. i know that the nuclear people are trying to be contacted to come back and i understand the importance. i had an uncle in that area. i don't have any personal affiliations with this young lady. i just heard it in an interview she gave. it just broke my heart that she cannot finish her education. the internship is the last thing for her education. maybe this will bring it to light to someone. i used to have jd vance and sherrod brown's email. they are gone.

jd vance is the vp but that was when he was a senator. i am bringing it to light to you. it is in your lap. guest: thank you so much. i am so happy you are here. being number seven, a big family. you know exactly what our family is experiencing. it is so filled with joy. there are so many spontaneous activities and problems. it is challenging but that is what america is all about. jfk said we do not do these things because they are easy but because they are hard. nothing worth doing is ever easy. mother teresa also said -- i am catholic which is the why we have so many children. mother teresa once famously said that saying they are too many children is like saying there are too many families. children make the world better. they bring joy and truth. they don't have all the filters that we have as adults. i am so glad you are here and i

love children. i think there will be plenty of opportunities for this girl to get other internships. there will still be jobs here in d.c.. what we are identifying are so many expenditures of waste that have been going on in our federal government. it is really important to get the bottom of that. there will be some shakeups here and there. there will be people who lose their jobs. this is something that is part of life. we are human beings. we can fight, survive, work hard and find new opportunities. i am from the midwest. it is an area that has been absolutely devastated. the manufacturing base has mostly left. we lost the maytag plant. we shipped so many jobs overseas to china and mexico and every other country. the midwest and the rest of the country have been going through these downsizings and losing their jobs. it has been really tough. many people have recovered, they

have found new jobs. that will be the same case for any federal worker who loses their job. we have to make sure that we are not wasting money. we have to make sure that we are not spending money that is causing harm to our fellow americans or to our country. i am happy that president trump is looking at these expenditures trying to find the waste, fraud and abuse. there will be a lot. our budget right now is over $6 trillion. even 1% of that, if there is 1% of waste, that is a lot of money that could be used toward helping americans with their education or to be able to afford to have more children like i would like to. host: the caller talking about actions that president trump has taken since he has been in office. he has been focused on deporting undocumented migrants. this headline is an opinion piece on msnbc. these trump administration catholics are at odds with pope francis over immigration. i want to review -- read a quote

and get your opinion. it is an opinion piece by athene butler, a professor of religious studies at the university of pennsylvania. she says, "the trump administrationch describes itself as faith-based is in fact setting itself ufor an epic religious and social battle with deportation.oups over francis's letter is notable e he took time te to the bishops of the united states about the wortations have been categorizede trp administration. the letter is clear about ts, stating, the rightly formed itical judgment and expresske a disagreement with any measure that tactically or explic identifies the legal status of some migrants as criminality, labeling all deportees as criminals and flies in the face of human dignity and is directly

opposed to christian teachings about love and caring for one's neighbor." your reaction? guest: pope francis, i hesitate to criticize the pope but it is obvious that his comments throughout the years have caused great confusion. the thing that bothers me the most about pope francis on this topic specifically is it is actually 100% within catholic teaching for a nation to control who comes in and who comes out of the country. that is absolutely part of the catholic catechism. what has been happening is because of the confusion that has been sown, you cannot deport illegal immigrants, let me be clear. the trump administration is prioritizing deportations starting with violent criminals that should not be here first and foremost. the immigration problem in america has gotten so bad that we have venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes in colorado.

i wish pope francis would have spoken up more during the biden administration. it is suspicious that he was relatively quiet about biden's extreme stances on abortion, which is absolutely a much larger problem for america when it comes to the catholic church's teachings than deporting illegal immigrants who never should have come here either in the first place outside of a port of entry. there are rules for being here and seeking asylum. you have to go through a port of entry. that is the law. what pope francis is encouraging is lawlessness. this is having a great impact on america. american policy should prioritize americans first and foremost. that does not mean however that we should harm to human dignity of migrants. we should protect them. if we are doing deportations, we have to make sure it is humane and there are no signs that president trump is acting in any way whatsoever in an inhumane fashion.

it is unfortunate that pope francis has sown so much confusion around this issue. i wish that he would be more cooperative with president trump and help turn america around. we have so many problems and the catholic church has so many good teachings that actually promote and uplift the dignity of the human person. i wish he would speak out more forcefully about protecting the unborn, protecting children, both in terms of online adult content. he has been silent on that here in america. we have no national age verification here. that is incredibly horrific. we have a whole generation of young men who are getting addicted to pornography. it is absolutely terrible. i wish pope francis would allow america to abide by the catholic church teachings and set its own immigration policies. host: let's hear from rich in massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: hello.

i do not appreciate him badmouthing the catholic teachings. the real reason i called was because of the bill the president is passed. they are people too. you are trying to dehumanize them. they can still be in sports. there are so many sports that are still beneficial to children and young people in this world. they could be playing individual sports where they are just competing like they could play golf, they can play tennis, swimming. all sports that are not competitive and take advantage of strength through the operations. there might -- they might be stronger but there are so many things that can build character in these people. what do you have to say about that? guest: i agree. i think they are human beings. they deserve the best possible

care and treatment that we can give them. unfortunately when it comes to sports, in civil there is a section called title ix. it carves out specific rights for women and it is aimed toward educational opportunities including athletic opportunities. unfortunately what president trump is doing is he is not the one that is banning males from identifying as women and competing in women's athletics. what president trump is doing is upholding civil rights law. that is not my opinion. that is the opinion of legal scholars everywhere. it is the basis of his executive order. if people have a problem with males now not being able to say that they are women or identify as women and then joined the women's locker rooms or showers or restrooms or sporting events and compete against women and take away their trophies, that is absolutely fine. what you need to do is you either need to repeal civil rights law or do something even more disastrous which is to add

gender identity as a protected class of civil rights law. this is a nation of laws. we have to go through congress. if transgender identifying individuals want to compete against women, they can do that but they have to change the law and they have to start winning elections which is a very big problem for them because so many americans see through all of the baloney. we all know what is happening here. i think we should treat these people with respect. i don't think we should cause any harm and insult them or attack them. unfortunately they are not being given the proper care they need. they are being lied to. they are being told that gender affirmation means mutilating your body, giving you cross sex hormones, blocking your natural puberty as a child, causing great harm. i would encourage you to reach out to de-transgender sinners --

de-transitioners. i was just with chloe cole, probably the most famous de-transitioner. she received a double mastectomy at the age of 14. she came to regret that double mastectomy. it came after she was put on puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. i understand there is a lot of misinformation out there. i understand that there are people in this country who want to protect the profits of the transgender industry which right now annually, the profits of the transgender industry with surgery and hormone treatments is over $4.5 billion per year. i understand that those are very big profits and that people need to protect them and they need to say a lot of untrue and unfair things. my heart breaks for transgender people. i think that they are human beings deserving of dignity. we have to get them the proper treatment. i think the proper treatment is helping these people except their own bodies, feel

comfortable in their own bodies. i cannot imagine feeling uncomfortable in my own body and having to wake up every day. i also cannot imagine being told that if i don't get these affirmation surgeries and mutilate my body, that i am at risk of suicide. there is a lot of misinformation. i encourage you to start looking at what a de-transitioner is. host: jo lynn in crystal springs, pennsylvania. on the line for republicans. caller: i want to go back to the young men of today. i am an 80-year-old mother and grandmother. i have since the late 1970's, this is when all of this nonsense started with our young men, our boys. the school system itself did not want -- they got to the point where they did not want young boys to be boys. they were feeding them ritalin

-- they made zombies out of them. so many of those young boys became young addicts as they got older. this has been going on for years. it is not a new thing. but it has to stop somewhere. i have three grandsons that are in their late 20's. two are married and one is not. the one that is not does not want to marry -- he wants to marry. he has a beautiful young woman that is part of his life but he wants to be able to support her. they are teaching young men that they cannot do this and it is not true. it is just not true. i would like to hear a response about that, about what has been going on for years about these young men. to me, it is abhorrent.

guest: i agree with you. if you talk to you men right now, they are inundated with advertisements for pornography, sports games, marijuana advertising. there has never been more young men who were smoking pot, watching porn wasting money on sports betting. we have all of these predatory industries preying on these young men and they are distracting them from the real things they value. i completely agree with you. america is still the land of opportunity but it is really tough for young men because if you look at the cultural influences out there, they are promoting all of these things that actually will not just distract you from the important things, but they will cause harm to your life. america is not a better nation because we have more sports gambling. america is not a better nation because we have more access to marijuana. it is not a stronger nation

because we have more access to pornography. the most beautiful thing in the world is that men and women absolutely need each other. we are complimentary. men cannot live in this world without women and women cannot live without men. that is how god designed it and i think it is a beautiful system. i think we have gotten away from what masculinity is to wear all masculinity is defined as toxic. i think we have gotten away from what femininity is. i don't have all the answers to those definitions but if america really wants to get back to greatness, we have to get rid of these distractions or at least start limiting these distractions that are young men have. drugs will never solve your problem even if it comes from a pharmaceutical company. we have personal issues to work out and it starts with changing your heart and your mind. my father, he grew up in the 1980's at the start of the crack

epidemic. this is when crack was completely new. people did not know what it was and he got hooked on crack because a guy told him it was better than weed. imagine that, knowing what we know today about crack cocaine. my dad, through his addiction, he and my mother almost got divorced when they had four children. my mother was pregnant with number four and he was not getting clean and she filed for divorce. that was what made him get clean. he had problems because his parents got divorced when he was in high school and it just spiraled out of control. but it was that threatening to divorce him where he got clean and what is so beautiful about it is he totally turned his life around. he and my mom went on to have six more children. i am the oldest of 10. he is a successful pizza restaurant owner. he served one term in congress. so you can turn your life around and you might have to hit rock bottom but if you really dedicate -- let me go back to this.

my own experience with my dad and my own family is absolutely one of the main reasons why i think that the family needs to be much more of a priority to this country because without the family, without having those four children and that wife, i don't think my dad would have ever turned his life around. he wanted to break the cycle that he had found himself in. he turned his life around so well that people were surprised when i started writing about his crack edition -- crack addiction because his life was so successful. it is hard to imagine that bobby schilling had ever done any drugs, let alone crack cocaine. that is the beauty of the family. host: let's hear from joe in illinois on the line for democrats. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, good morning. i am 80 years old -- caller: good morning. i am 80 years old. i do not appreciate your opinions of the pope or of the church.

if you are a christian, be a christian. do not be like donald trump, an immoral man who sleeps with prostitutes and pays them off. you cannot tell me that does not go on and working with him is just as bad. getting back to the trans thing. you had seven children and if one of those children decided, when they are born, they are born with certain aspects of what they will be. i don't know between what we have ongoing with the environment that may change these genes, i have no idea. but if one of your children decided they wanted to become trans, what would you do? insist that they would not and they would go to the point of suicide or what would you do? thank you for to call. guest: thank you so much. i appreciate the question. i appreciate the opportunity to

clarify the misinformation out there. the first thing i would do if i found out that one of my children was suffering from gender dysphoria is i would make sure they know how much i love them and how much i support them. i would sit down and asked them what do they mean that they are trans, what does it mean that they are a woman or that they are a girl? we will talk things through and i would get them the proper help and care they need. what i would not do is i would not support double mastectomy's for anyone of my daughters so that they could try to become a male. i would not support blocking their natural puberty. i would not support giving them cross sex hormones or hormones that do not belong in their body. there is nothing affirming or loving about doing these procedures to our children. god made us a certain way and you know that as a catholic. this is actually becoming more of a social trend. when i was growing up and when you were growing up, i guarantee, i think you said you were 80 years old. i guarantee that you did not have any trans children children

in your classroom. i don't think people even knew what the word transgender meant until recently within the last 15 to 20 years. it is a very small thing but it has grown because of it becoming an industry. i mentioned this number a few times already. it is a 4.5 billion dollar industry just from the hormones and surgery treatments alone. the nature of industries is that they take those profits at $4.5 billion will be reinvested into what is called public relations campaigns, government lobbying and activism. what is happening is that's why we even know about this issue is because they want to make money. here is where it gets interesting. right now it is a 4.5 billion dollar industry. if you talk to the leaders of the transgender industry, what they will say is this is relatively small because only a small percentage of people that identify as transgender have actually gone through any type of treatments. this is a direct quote from a

woman named robbie catherine anthony. she said that if we are able to transition, all 1.3 million americans who identify as transgender, this will not be a $5 billion industry. it will be over $200 billion. that is larger than the film industry. that is not my quote. that is her quote. i think it is atrocious. they want to make money. they are making a lot of money right now and i don't want anyone making money off of the backs of my children. here is another thing that is very important for everyone to understand and i loved that this is a national show. the suicide rates and the anxiety and the depression, none of that decreases. it actually increases after transitioning. and we know that because the federal government through nih funded a $9.7 million study to study the lives of transgender children who have undergone these treatments such as puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery to find out whether or

not their lives have been improved. but the federal government's holding that study. they have not released it at all. why is that? if president trump was actually causing harm to these people through these executive orders, wouldn't the nih and these transgender activists like johanna olson kennedy who conducted this research project, wouldn't they release that to respond to president trump and expose him as causing harm to this community? unfortunately what we have seen from europe and the report in the u.k. is that these gender transition treatments do nothing to improve the lives of people who go through them. they just make money for the transgender industry. one thing i will point out to you since you are a democrat is that in europe they have socialized medicine. they don't have profits in their medical system. what we have seen in europe is the european nations are banning these procedures most everywhere when it comes to minors and even in some cases, they are banning

them for adults because the results are so disastrous. i think that we can learn a lot from europe and how they are doing their healthcare system here to protect their people at least from these types of >> host: we have time for one last call. it will be from jean from dublin, virginia. good morning. >> caller: good morning, i have to say the woman that called a couple moment ago kind of stole my thunder a little bit. i am 70 years old, when the school district asked me if i am interested in teaching, i am one of the stem teachers, i have to say i was totally appalled at the way i saw teachers treating the boy male students. i literally over hear who teachers didn't realize i was in

an earshot. this is a quote, "giving them a little scrote because that's what they deserved." i can tell you they don't get to the starting block. i know people say - well, i am just being -- this is not internet legend. there is an mit study that goes through all this and what's been happening from our school system. i came from a substitute teaching being in favor of gender separate education, the way i grew up in philadelphia, the way public schools did it in philadelphia where you had boy side and girl side in some classes were both genders were in it. it is just appalling what i am saying with the boys. >> host: we are running short on time so we'll get a response

from terry. >> guest: thank you so much for that question. i have dived into some of these new studies of sex segregated education. it is very interesting to me. i have not made my mind about it. there are schools here locally that do girls only education and boys only education. that's one thing they point out and brag about that girls who were in an all-girl school, they learn a lot better and no distractions from rowdy boys. the boys learn a lot better in their environment. there is a school here locally called the heights, they learn a lot in their environment because they are free to play and be rowdy. i think there may be some merit there. i still need to do more research. look, men being men is wonderful. it is not just one way, there are infinite ways to be a man. there is nothing wrong with being a man or a woman. it is a beautiful thing.

we both need each other and it is complementary. it is a beautiful thing and it is a beautiful way god works. >> host: our guest, you can find him online at american principle project.org. thank you for being here today. >> guest: thank you for having me. i love coming on. >> host: we are wrapping up the show. you can call right now, republicans, 202-748-8001 and democrats the 202-748-8000. we'll be right back. you can call for our open forum. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> 100 years ago this past august was the beginning of what's often called the great

war. war world one had casualties of 9 million. professor meacum written nine books in 2003. this last book will be the focus of our conversation. world war i was triggered of late june in 1914 by the assassination of ferdinand and his wife. they were gunned down by an serbian 19-year-old. author mcmeekinalks about his book with our host. book notes is available now on

wherever you get your podcast. >> sunday, on c span q&a, form mall associate shares his book of borgata. he explores further details of what he says was a mafia involvement in the assassination of president kennedy and discusses robert kennedy's battle from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. >> you know, a major reason why mostelo feels that he has an arch enemy that'll stop at nothing. if you are a mafia who lived his life with the idea that i will stop at nothing to get what i need to go and now i will face with someone else that'll stop at nothing to destroy me. that's like death.

that's why i think he made that decision. it is going to be me or the kennedy. lewis ferrante, sunday night at 8:00 p.m. southeastern on c-span on q&a. you can listen to our podcast on our free cspan app. >> washington journal continues. >> thank you, welcome back. we'll open our line, we'll start with jones in new mexico. >> caller: good morning. feeling so fortunate to get through. i want to make one comment, donald trump is a horrible, horrible person. i have been listening to some news i have heard for the past couple of days, the cuts he's making to the national parks. this is awful. the repercussion this has through people's lives, their

dreams and the future of our nation as a beautiful place full of tourists and cared for areas. you have to remember something about donald trump. he's narcissist. he has a psychological condition. narcissists like to hurt people. that's all he's doing. what he's doing is lie. we made a promise to them and we believe in democracy. i studied years ago and a wonderful statement, that statement was democracy is like a horizon. the closer you get to it, the further it gets away. perhaps as a nation, we have got close as we can to understanding what democracy is. what has to really understand donald trump is doing to our

world right now. thank you for taking my call. >> host: joan from new mexico. we'll go to kelly, line republican from missouri. >> caller: good morning, i am calming as a grandmother of a veteran. i have watched the schools deteriorate. i have four granddaughters and i was informed by my teenage daughter when she was 11 that, "grandma, i am gay." i said why? in school, you have to know you

are straight or gay by the time you are 11. i just now figured it out. the sexuality does not come into her. she now has a boyfriend. it is appalling to me that these kids are not going to school and learning. i appreciate your time. thank you. >> host: kelly, we'll go to gary. good morning, gary. >> caller: i have a quick point i would like to make. i know our government is at 8% approval rating right now. they - you collect taxes from us and you can't do a better job than this, i am mainly referring to - i am not referring to trump administration so much because they are just getting started. let me give you an example. yesterday at kroger - i went to the eggs section, six packs of large eggs were $4.29.

that was the kroger brand. a year ago it was $1.30. what are we coming to? the second thing i would like to say is thank god for an outstanding individual like terry schilling. he made a couple of really good points about the pornographic influences and the drug influences. real quick here - i want to say number one, as far as the pornographic influences, people don't let that encourage you to go out and get into sexual misconduct, man. they're not trying to make a pimp out of you. that's at them making money. they don't care what kind of person you turn out to be. as far as the drug thing goes. nobody's life ever got better from drugs, it always gets worse. you look at elton john.

he'll tell you. i got into drugs because i want to be apart of guys. i regret it. so, there are just some things to think about today. peace out, america. >> host: that was gary in indiana. i want to show you this headline on the front page of today's "washington post," the trump administration dismised the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and other senior officers on friday night as the pentagon moves to bring its leadership online. president trump posted said he would replace air force general brown jr. he would take caine as the next chairman and

distributed after trump's post said he would dismiss five other senior officers including admiral franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of naval operations and general james sife. back to your call, let's hear from kelly, line for democrats. good morning. >> kelly: good morning, i was wondering if he was talking about like with these kids, is he talking about they want to see more, more babies and male and female together. is he talking about all people or just white people. i know this christian white nationalism is taking forever. it is all about white. it seems like black people and,

you know, these lgbtq people or handicapped people, they don't really matter. that was my question to him. was this pertaining to all americans or just white people because there are lots of babies borned and a lot of people are actually afraid to get pregnant, for fear of being charged of murder in case they had to have an abortion for medical reasons or whatever. i have neighbors in their 30s and the female, she had her tubes tied because number one, this world is crazy right now and so much hate which is terrible. it is so hard to understand what's going on. donald trump comes on tv and says, your son goes to school as tom and goes home as tillis. you are getting sex changes in school. number one, i thought you had to be 18-year-old to have a sex

change, which - that's up to each individual person. i think the republican party has embellished so much on this. they have people convince almost everybody as transgender or whatever. there are so many kids in this world. >> host: i got your point, kelly, we'll go to charles in pennsylvania. good morning, charles. >> caller: president trump wants to keep jobs in america, right? >> host: go ahead, charles. charles, go ahead and make your statement. >> caller: president trump wants to keep jobs in america, right? >> host: we'll go to ryan four

independence. >> caller: good morning, we can define gender on three roles. number one -- people who are mentally delusional. our society should not be defined to these people. they should define anybody getting surgeries to kids like that as a form of child abuse. to respond your other caller, president trump has been doing an excellent job and he's doing what i am as an independent voted for. thank god for president trump. >> host: there were two president trump's picks who were confirmed this week. one of them was howard l. sworn in the white house as cash patel as the new director of the fbi. it was yesterday patel was

confirmed and after he was sworn in, president trump responded to his confirmation. >> talk to us about your reaction of him getting sworn in and the fact that many agents across the country are concerned they'll be fire in mass for just doing their jobs. >> the agents are happy about cash. one of the reasons i love cash and wanted to put him in because respects the agents had for him. i think he'll go down the best ever at that position and turned out he was easy to get approve. a tough guy and strong guy. he had his opinion and i was not sure he turned out to be - he's going to be in the room shortly.

i will say this about kash and howard understands this. one of the reasons i wanted him because the agents love this guy and they respect this guy. this is what they wanted. even somebody like tray gowdy who's a good guy but known as a moderate person. he came out and came out with a statement that was so incredible. he said kash is an incredible person and people don't realize it. when he said that, there was no doubt left. it was a big statement made by somebody that respected and on the moderate side. kash is going to go down as one of the best ever. i am glad. >> host: this headline and "the washington post" today, fbi managers are told that 1500 staff agents will be transferred out of d.c. the information came hours before kash patel newly

confirmed director took his oath for office. a message patel sent out to all fbis, he hinted that such staffing changes could becoming. the more specific plan to relocate hundreds of staffs and agents was outlined to top managers in a second meeting after patel's message went out. employees will be relocated in downtown washington to field offices within cities that the trump administration has designated as higher crime locations. the people who were told about the meeting, additional 500 would be reassigned to the bureaus large satellite headquarters in huntsville, alabama. just about 10 or 12 minutes left, we'll hear from clarence in bloomington, illinois. hi, clarence. line for democrats. >> caller: good morning, i want

to let people know what the dough they are doing, they are stealing the money. everything has been going on been in a movie. elon musk is an as berger person. they have no social empathetic skills so the doge team most likely all of them have some time of asperger's mental illness. as far as your other person, the schilling, he's a transgender. >> host: let's go to scott in illinois, line four, republican. good morning, scott. are you there? >> caller: yes, thank you for getting my call. i have been trying to get on

four months. ladies and gentlemen, we all remember except for the young children and i got great grand babies, 9/11. this country was so together for six months, i mean the patriotism and the love we had. we didn't care who the president. just protect this country. well, the last 15 years, i am a vietnam veteran, and you know, you got to respect all these military guys. everybody is complaining about trump, just let him do his work. let's just see what happens. he's going to be out before everybody knows it. every day they're going to tell us that. it is not elon. trump has a final say. trump is on the worldwide. he's talking to putin. he's just getting it set up for zelenskyy and everybody. i sat in board meetings, it is not one man, it is everybody at

the table. we all put our two cents in but the boss decides which way to go. please pray for america and whatever happens to that saying, "america love it or leave it." if you don't like it here, we don't stop you. you can take a flight to venezuela or columbia, just go. >> host: that was scott in illinois. we have just under ten minutes left in today's program at 10:00 a.m. we will be taking you today three of c-pac, it continues with today with remarks from arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders and congresswoman elise stefanik and others. you will be able to watch it live at 10:00 a.m. eastern as well as cspan and our free

possibly app and cspan.org. let's hear from mike. >> caller: good morning. i have been a licensed cpa for more than 40 years. right now there is something a deadline coming down that of march 21st is the most egregious act i have heard of. i was speaking to a client last night of a 70-year-old grandmother who inherited an empty lot that was handled by a family, explained to her that if she didn't register with the financial crime enforcement network by march 31st, she could be facing two years in federal prison and a fine of $561 a day at penalty.

when she asked me, well, what's the purpose of this and i said - "money laundering and terrorist financing." it only applies to 30 million small businesses. not large businesses but businesses with 20 or fewer employees less than 5 million in sales and large businesses are not subject to this. i am wondering why has there been no network, no politicians, and nobody is taking a position on it. we are looking at elon musk. how many federal workers are going to be hired to be putting grandmothers in federal prison. i don't understand that. i would like one politician, one elected person, maybe donald trump or unelected person like elon musk to explain, one, to

make the statement. i understand it is law, and two, i agree with it and three, it is the right thing to do. you know it would be very easy for c-span before that deadline to bring someone from the national federation of independent of businesses. they're the ones speaking out about this. the deadline and the law changed five times and it has been in different courts. msib is fighting for it. it is rather shocking when you are explaining to a 70-year-old grandmother that she may be facing several prison time for not registering with the a financial crime enforcement network. >> host: let's hear from renee in florida, line for democrats, good morning, renee. >> caller: first, thank you for c-span, we appreciate it.

i have two things, the first one was the top news this week was governor pritzker's speech where he said that, "germany lost its democracy, it only took one month, three weeks and 40 hours to lose their democracy to hitler." second, the fox news are always talking about mainstream media where they're the number one media company in the country but they're not a news agency. they're llc. it is not under a news agency. it is under an entertainment llc. that's why i assume obama would not let them in because they were not, you know, legit news

agency. so, that's my point for this month. >> host: that was renee from florida, let's hear from tony in iowa. line for republicans. good morning. >> caller: thank you. good morning. first, i want to put people at ease that heard -- >> host: tony, are you there? we lost you, give us a call back. we'll go to andrew. >> caller: hi, good morning. i called up a few times. i had a few comments of what he had to say this morning. i agree the fair amount, some of it could have been seen too precautionary for some of the addictions that young men are going through like marijuana and porn and etc. february 9th, i

have been taking a break for sobriety so no marijuana or alcohol, quick cigarettes and no porn. none of these things are bad apparently. it is hard to say anything is really bad, apparently. just if you abuse what you have and you don't realize what you can take advantage of. i want to say to all the people out there, it is okay to watch porn and smoke weed and okay to do all these things but don't let them pick your life over you. you have control over them. my second point or comment is i would love to see c-span have camille paula back on. i was watching an old c-span tv book interview with her in the '90s when she had sexual persona came out. she did an interview with jordan

pederson a couple of years ago and that was great. i would love to see her on c-span again. thank you, everyone has a good day. >> host: that was andrew from louisiana. let's hear from tina, line for democrats, good morning, tina. >> caller: good morning, what i want to say is everybody knows that - he's not running the country. he's letting his so-called people that don't know what they do running the country. one more thing i want to say, leave president biden alone. if trump can release all them thugs he released from jail, president biden had the right to help his son. that's his child. if you american people were thinking, yeah, you are not even helping your own children. look at what's going on. you forget that your kids and their kids is going to have this problem that's created right

now. it needs to stop. somebody need to step up and put their feet down and stop it because this is unnecessary, and it is unhuman. you know something is wrong with that. >> host: that was tina in north carolina. steve, line for independence, good morning, steve. >> caller: i agree with that gentleman suggested that c-span to have camille p. to come on. she wrote a book about "free man and woman," women have blame a lot of men for their problems. that's all i had to say. >> host: let's hear from elizabeth. good morning, elizabeth. >> caller: i want to say trump

is a sick man. and these people that are supporting him when you are sick as him. he's a sick man and he's destroying the united states. he's done a lot of destruction in the last days that he's been in there this time. he's just a sick man. thank you. >> host: let's go to george in kentucky, line four, republicans. good morning, george. >> caller: good morning, i would like to say i feel the whole thing gotten out of hand. the internet was more than what we can handle. maybe we should shut the whole thing down. >> host: mark in honolulu, line for independence. good morning, mark. >> caller: yes, really appreciate your guest this