starts now. join the conversation. ♪ host: this is "washington journal" for saturday, january -- march 8. we are talking about president trump and the economy this morning. we want to know your interest,

your confidence, in the trump administration's handling of of the economy. it comes as a poll shows more people are finding that -- if they are saying it is heading in the wrong direction instead of the right direction. to start today's program, we are asking you what is your confidence in the trump administration's handling of the economy? the lines on your screen. if you are a democrat, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text your comments to (202) 748-8003. be sure to include your name and your city. you can also post a question or comment on facebook at facebook.com/cspan, or on x, @cspanwj.

good morning. we will get to your calls and comments in a few moments. we want to show you more from a poll done just earlier this week. it detailed findings, it shows 34% of americans say the country is heading in the right direction compared to 49% who say it is off on the wrong track. when it comes to several specific issues, americans are more likely to say things are off on the wrong track than going in the right direction. that includes cost-of-living, 22% say it is heading in the right direction, compared to 60% saying the wrong track. when it comes to the national economy, respondents, 31%, said the right direction, with 51% saying the wrong track. and unemployment and jobs, 33% saying the right direction and 47% saying the wrong track.

a headline from the associated press, it is a u.s. economic worries mount as trump implements tariffs, cuts workforce, and freezes spending paired from that article, it says, with his flurry of tariffs , government layoffs, and spending freezes, there are running worries president donald trump may be doing more harm to the u.s. economy than to fix it. the labor market remains healthy with a 4.1 on -- 4.1% unemployment rate and 151,000 jobs added in february. trump likes to point to investment commitments by apple and taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company to show he is delivering results. but friday's employment report also found a number of people stuck working part-time because of economic circumstances jumped by four to 60,000 last month. in the leisure and hospitality sector, that effects consumers having extra money to spend, --

that reflects consumers having extra money to spend, 16,000 jobs were lost. and the federal government reduced payrolls by 10,000 in a potential harbinger of the alarm being cited by the stock market. it was yesterday in the oval office president trump spoke to reporters about the job report, the february jobs report. here are some of his remarks. [video clip] >> many companies are moving into our country. as you probably know, it is a statistic everyone talks about, but nobody seems to have done much about. since the beginning of nafta, there have been 90,000 plants and factories closed in this country. 90,000 plants and factories have been closed in this country. many of them have been car manufacturing plants. that is a terrible statistic, and we will be turning that around. we already have numerous that are being built or starting to

be built and numerous that were being built in other countries, and they stopped and are coming here now because of the tariffs. that is a big deal, that is what you want to hear. during the last year, the biden administration saw a loss of more than 110,000 manufacturing jobs, or 9000 manufacturing jobs every single month. it averaged about 9000 a month, 100 10,000 manufacturing jobs. during the first full month in office, we have not only stopped that manufacturing collapse, but we have begun to rapidly reverse it and get major gains. we created 10,000 manufacturing jobs in february alone. that has not happened in a long time. these are not government jobs, which, actually, we cut. these are private sector manufacturing jobs, so we gained all of those jobs, 10,000 jobs, and we barely started yet.

that is a very unusual number. people are very surprised by that. host: president trump yesterday in the oval office talking to reporters, responding to the february jobs report. one of the indicators that came out this week on the economy. for this first hour, we are asking your confidence in the trump administration's handling of the economy. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. we will start this morning with david in michigan, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: yes, i have some questions about trump and the starling, you know -- starlink,

you know, everything with elon musk. host: what's your thought on his administration's handling of the economy? caller: he is doing really good. i have a feeling that, within the next six to 18 months, that inflation will start going back down, and then the stock markets and stuff will open back up and hit better. host: do you follow the markets? do you follow inflation, the numbers? caller: yes, ma'am, here and there. host: is inflation still impacting you where you are? where's bear lake, michigan? caller: i am about 45 minutes south of travers, michigan, to an a half hours north of grand rapids, michigan. i am kind of in the center. host: and what's inflation look like there? what is your grocery shopping

look like? caller: right now, our taxes are at 6%. when i was up here during trump's last term, taxes were only at 3%. host: that was david in michigan. we will go to bruce in texas, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. host: hi there. caller: i watch your program pretty much every morning. before trump took office, i had to -- well, in order to make a judgment, you have to have money in the stock market, ok? so i pulled most of my investments out prior to him taking office, because of the performance of the last administration, back in 2016. i've been watching a long time, and as you noticed, the markets took a hit this week, as

expected. chaos in the white house, as expected. chaos overseas, as expected. what can i say? people talk about it when they do not have anything invested. but when you are an investor, you pay attention. host: what did you do with the money pulled out of the market? caller: what i did is i have some money still in the money market account, but i put it in the bank and just locked it down. host: that was bruce in texas. ed, new jersey, line for independents. go ahead. caller: ed o'donnell. the main cause of economic

problems is ceo salaries. i've seen too large ceo salaries. not just the ceos but a lot of the vice presidents, a lot of the other people at the top of these corporations are taking too much money? but the other side of the coin, it would be good to get the low income people a stimulus check. those two things could change things. but you have got to stop this obscene ceo salary structure. host: talk a little bit more about that. what impact think that would have? caller: lowering the ceo salaries? it is a good question. the point is, you have to take the savings and get into the low income people in a big stimulus check. and small businesses. my charity helps the very small businesses. the government is giving more help to the fortune 500 companies than it is giving to

the corner grocery store. those are the changes. host: that was ed in new jersey. matthew in maine, line for republicans. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i am pretty happy with the way things are going with the economy. it will take more sacrifice on all our parts. it is not going to turn around overnight, but i think we are heading in the right direction. host: what are you watching right now, are you invested in the market? are you concerned about inflation, grocery prices? caller: i am. i have a 401(k), and have a small amount invested in crypto. so along with quite a few percentage of americans doing the same thing, so i think

things are looking up. it will not happen overnight. it will take more time. it will probably take eight months to a year before we start seeing real, positive turnarounds here. but we are off to a really good start, and keep the faith. host: that was matthew in maine. will in maryland, line for democrats. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. the economy is going in the wrong direction. trump's implement an on-again, off-again is an exercise of folly. then we hear there is infighting within the cabinet and elon musk. we knew this was coming. elon musk waving a chainsaw is going to make a great ad for democrats doing the midterm elections. and i have a message for working-class americans.

stop voting against your own best interests. republicans always put tax cuts for the wealthy, while trump is not paying taxes for over 20 years and firing federal workers that may have even voted for him. stop voting against your own interests. thanks for taking my call. host: that was will in maryland. margaret, also in maryland, line for independents. caller: yes, i do believe some of these measures he takes will create jobs. i, personally, do not have any money in the stock market at this point, because it does make me nervous. but what i am wondering is -- and this is something that kind of concerns me, is the world listens to the united states. so everything president trump says and does. the message that is being sent to the world is, in regards to

canada, cutting up because, wheatland, debt -- we're trying to set -- greenland, debt. we try to set an example that anything goes. what if other countries, like china and russia, say it is ok to grab land and take over other nations, what message does that send? i will give you an example of what i mean. what if mexico says, mexico first, we want to get our southern borders back, that we lost to the united states during the mexican american war? what if russia says russia first, alaska was not a good deal for us, that was sold to the united states, and one that back. my last example would be china. china will probably going at taiwan, and then we have an island group called hawaii in the middle of the pacific that

was basically run over by american businessmen that illegitimately overthrew queen lil'uokalani. what if other nations just took it over for grabs. if nations are going on because there -- they are powerful and their military might allow them to do so, i do not think that will benefit us in the long term in regards to jobs, security, all of that. these are the things i think about, because we are setting an example to the rest of the world. and trust me, the world is listening, including putin and china. thank you. host: that was margaret in maryland. this headline in today's morning new york times, for, delicate

balancing act with trump. the article says the fed is expected to hold interest rates steady at 4.25% to 4.5%. when officials gather, extending a pause and play since january, but its position after that point make it even more fraught, especially if the economy weakens and price pressures rise to the extent economist fear. how significantly mr. trump's tariffs will impact the economy is not yet known. the president has already foot flopped on levy's place on mexico and canada this week but has kept the threat alive by issuing only a short reprieve. sweeping retaliatory tariffs are also still on the table, as are other penalties on aluminum, steel, and other products. the size of the potential impact pens not only on the duration of the policies but how fervently other countries protect themselves retaliatory measures

and how businesses and consumers adapt to higher costs. it was yesterday that fed chair jerome powell spoke about the state of the economy. [video clip] >> we pay close attention to a broad range of measures of inflation expectations and some near-term measures have recently moved up. we see this in market and survey-based measures, and survey respondents, consumers and businesses, are mentioning tariffs as a driving factor. beyond the next year or so, most measures of longer-term expectations remain stable and consistent with our 2% inflation goal. looking ahead, the new administration is in the process of implement and significant policy changes in four distinct areas, trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation. it is the net effect of these policy changes that will matter for the economy and for the path of monetary policy. while they have been recent development in some of these areas, especially trade policy,

uncertainty around the changes and their likely effects remain high. as we parse incoming information, we are focused on separating the signal from the noise, as the outlook evolves. we do not need to be in a hurry, and we are well-positioned to wait for greater clarity. policies not -- policy is not on a preset course. if the economy does not move sustainably towards 2%, we can maintain policy restraint for longer. if the labor market were to weaken and excitedly or inflation were to fall more quickly than anticipated, we can ease policy accordingly. our current policy stance is well-positioned to deal with the uncertainties we face on both sides of our mandate. host: our question this morning to you, your confidence in the trump administration's handling of the economy. we will hear from steve in indiana, line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i think what the biggest factor

in this economy is the oil. we got more money right here in the united states than almost any country in the world, and once, like right here where i am at, i was paying $3.50 a gallon for regular gas. now, i'm paying like $2.70. in just a short period of time. once our prices get back down to where they were when trump was in office, all our prices will go down on everything. because it will not cost as much to transport it.

it is just commonsense policies that trump is bringing back in to focus on everything. i do not believe anybody has got anything to worry about. the democrats want to scare everybody about all this, everything that is going on with musk and all that. that doesn't -- we're just trying to get rid of the fraud that's been taking place. everybody can see the fraud. i can see it right here where i live, in a small town here. and get our jobs back. we used to have 27 factories here where i am at. guide map, delco remain. we had all kind of work. they were slowly transported

down to shreveport, louisiana, then over to mexico, just out of town. we are like a ghost town here. we have not grown at all, our town has not, since our oil factors have left -- host: nothing has taken the place of those companies that have left? caller: well, we got a few companies that have come back in. we have a nestlé factory that came back in, and we have a few small factories that have come in. it has helped out quite a bit around here. we got a few jobs. but our town did not grow. all the towns around us, fort wayne, indiana, indianapolis -- we are kind of caught in the middle of both towns. they have grown quite a bit, especially fort wayne had a big

factory, truck factory, go in fort wayne that helped out quite a bit. but -- until we get this oil straightened out, start transporting our oil to other countries, that will be a big market for the united states. host: that was steve in indiana. we will go to tyrone in new york, line for democrats. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. republicans, conservative republicans, have been calling for the destruction of our federal government when they were talking about making our government small enough to drown in the bathtub. the financial crisis coming up, i believe, is just going to be another part of what they do. in the democratic party is going to have to come in and try to clean up this mess, as usual. the other problem that i see is

that when they call for the destruction of our government, and make it small enough -- again, to drown it in the bathtub -- they do not recognize the fact that other people need the government to help accomplish what they need in this country. our government is an important entity in our country to keep us functioning. now the economic problem that we are going towards, this tariff situation is going to develop for us, and we believe it we can go it alone, making our friends our enemy and making our enemies our friend, i do not think that is the best way to go. we have had canada, mexico working with us for eons. now, we want to make russia our best pal and do everything they want us to do? i do not think that is a good thing. hopefully, we can see the light

and realize we can work together as a country and move forward together as opposed to tear each other down over ei and all the rest of this other made up differences -- over d.e.i. and all the rest of these other made up differences. we need to work together. if not, we will fall. and maybe we need to. this is a country that, if we do not stand together, and we fall, maybe then we will see how badly we need each other. i do not know how far we have to fall, but eventually, we will see it. that is the way i see it, because we are definitely at odds with each other. we are not together at all. host: i wanted to show this opinion written by representative chris deluzio. he is a democrat from pennsylvania's 17th congressional district. it is in this morning's new york times. voters like tariffs -- why don't the democrats?

again, he is a democrat. it says democrats wasted no time reject being president trump's tariffs as damaging and necessary. my colleagues have lampooned them as irresponsible, bad economics, and purely attacks on consumers. this anti-tariff absolutism is a mistake. i'm a rust belt democrat in a swing district from pennsylvania, where lousy trade deals like nafta strip thus for parts. many of my constituents support smart tariffs, particularly ones that target china, and so do i. watch my colleagues on the hill, it is clear we are missing the mark. democrats need to break free from the wrong-for-decades zombie horde of neoliberal economics who think tariffs are always bad. mr. trump's tariff tariff approach has been chaotic and inconsistent. there is no doubt about that. but the answer is not to condemn across -- condemn tariffs across

the board. that risks putting the democrats even further out of touch with the hard-working people used to be the lifeblood of the party, people like my constituents. instead, democrats should embrace tariffs as one component of a broader industrial chatterjee to revitalize american manufacturing and make whole communities that have been hollowed out by decades of bad trade policy. this is not just about making the economy work for more records, it is about turning back the trust and faith of the people we need to win elections and who ought to be at the heart of the democratic already. we will hear from richard in nashville, tennessee. caller: good morning. first off, let me state this. i am 68 years old, and i am still working. the economy has been great for me. until we got to biden. i work in the grocery business. i work for the second largest

grocery chain in america, and we all know who that is, and we all know who number one is. do you know what the gross margin of profit is for a major grocery supplier in this country? it is 4% margin across the board. that means, when the ceos get their money, and the store managers of certain grocery stores get their income, and it trickles on down, there's not much left, because it is a 4% gross margin. when you raise gas prices, which everything that comes to your grocery store does not come on and electric vehicle. it comes on a gas powered diesel truck, an 18 wheeler, which means you have regulations on those 18 wheelers, for the driver, for the truck, for the particular state in which it drives in. if you have a load of produce coming out of central valley, california coming across this country, and when we had covid, it messed up the supply chain.

then we started having problems with aluminum. that meant coke, pepsi, all these that used aluminum cans, we couldn't get the product. by that 4% gross margin, when you stretch it across the board to all people concerned, these people were investors into the food industry in this country, from farm to table. when you cut them out of their margins, they quit investing in that business. when they quit investing, you have nobody. the small boy in the corner in the grocery chain, he cannot compete with the big boys. when he has to, he goes broke, because they force him out. if you want to have the things you want and you want it at a price americans want -- we want the best pay when it comes to being paid, but we want the cheapest prices. you cannot have it both ways. if you're going to keep on hounding this industry, you will find out you will find less and less. eggs and milk in a dairy department in a grocery store --

it is like the things at the register when you check out, it is that impulse buy. the only reason you have eggs at that price -- i've been in the grocery business over 20 years now, and eggs and milk -- half a gallon of milk was $1.89. now it is over $2.39. eggs were $.89 to $1.99. now, they're up to $7, $8. in the dairy department, they make no no money. where a grocery store makes their biggest products is in the frozen food section. we have to understand, if you want this food to get to your table and you want cheaper prices, you got to lower the cost of fuel, because you cannot -- if the biden administration said we will have all energy, we would have had electric but done it in a smart way, but they

tried to transition from one to the other, and they screwed this economy up. all i got to say to the good old americans, if you want cheap prices, you need to pay attention to what is going on -- host: got your point. we appreciate the insight, your expertise in the area. this headline from the wall street journal. richard mentioned eggs. doj opens probe of surge in egg prices. it comes after prices doubled in the past year and eggs are sometimes entirely absent from grocery store from grocery store shelves. grocers say that eggs are one of the leading drivers of food inflation over the past few months. president trump vowed to bring down inflation once he entered office. the investigation is in its early stages. the department sent a letter to some egg companies and instructed them to preserve documents about their pricing conversations with customers and competitors as well as

communications with xpana which tracks egg wholesale information. some say that the justice department spokeswoman declined a comment. a trade group for the industry said that egg farmers are doing everything that they can to fight back against the deadly bird flu outbreak. the egg industry, grocers, and analysts have attributed high egg prices to the worst outbreak in avian flu in american history. it has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 50 million u.s. chickens, turkeys, and egg laying hens according to the agricultural department. let's hear from tony in buffalo, new york on the line for republicans. caller: good morning, ma'am. i would like to mention, i would like to read aerate what a lot of people are saying -- reiterate what a lot of people

are saying. it's all common sense. i have a big confidence now that president trump has found all this fraud and waste. i think it's very important. i compared it to the town of amherst. there has been a democratic board and democratic town supervisor. for example, it has put us 200 million dollars -- they have been in charge for eight years and put us $200 million in hole. a local business owner is running for counsel, a local business owner. back to common sense. he couldn't run his business this way. he owns restaurants in amherst, new york. he couldn't run his business this way with the fraud and waste. he is running for town supervisor. does he need it? no. just like president trump

doesn't need it. elon musk didn't need this. what they are doing, they are true patriots. dan is a local business owner here running for town of supervisor for the town of amherst town supervisor position along with a police officer for 20 years, the republican line, trying to turn this around. it is back to common sense. let's make it makes sense. host: bob in cypress, california, the line for democrats. caller: hey, how are you? good morning. host: good morning, bob. caller: before i get into the topic at hand, i was wondering why you are speaking about the three military officers who were arrested for the espionage they just found out? they just got arrested. that's pretty big news. host: we are talking about the

economy, bob. caller: inflation. i am a lifelong democrat and i'm seeing what's going on. i'm opening my eyes wider every day. i've got to tell you, after that address, presidential address, i think i'm done with the democrats. because it's all about common sense. this inflation. think about it. we had the orange man in there for four years. he left inflation at 1.9%. then we had biden come in, and i guess we had an economy that was pretty, pretty in the tank going up to 9% inflation at some times. remember the baby formula? there was a shortage of

baby formula. they're all talking about eggs right now, but when the baby formula was out of commission, or whatever, they weren't panicking like that. that was baby formula. with the tariffs and all, they have to let him do his thing. he is a businessman.apparently , they've been through this before, this whole doge thing. if you want to go back to the first trump administration, he had a room full of regulations cut. remember the stacks of papers? there were stacks in the room all regulations that were cut from waste and all of that mismanagement. these are actual facts. we have to look at the facts without going crazy and start singing "we shall overcome" and all that. we have to look at the facts -- host: it was on bloomberg

television that howard lutnick responded to questions about the recent economic data. here is a clip. [video clip] >> data hasn't been great. survey data has been softer and a lot of companies have pointed to tariff uncertainty. do you accept that the business community needs clarity on if it is 25, 15, 10? whatever the number may be? the cumulative effect of persistent uncertainty starting to eat into this economy a little bit. >> no way. the president spoke about it last night. he said that biden left him a pile of poop, a lousy economy he is trying to fix. you are looking at data that is biden data. do not try to besmirch my president trump with biden's nonsense. >> you think the manufacturing number is biden's data?

it is your opinion and you are entitled to it. >> of course it is my opinion. we are in early march. my president took over january 20. you think economic data coming out in early march is donald trump-related data? >> monthly survey data? >> stop it. >> are you suggesting that when bond yields drop in a market that is worth trillions of dollars and investors place bets off the back of that economic data, the data doesn't count for anything? that the data is somehow misleading? >> i think that data is leading you to understand that if joe biden was still in charge he would be in trouble, but you have a new president. there is a new sheriff in town. i would bet on the economic growth that is coming from donald trump. host: a little over 20 minutes left in this first hour of

today's program, asking your confidence in the trump administration's handling of the economy. john in clairton, new york on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. i've been listening to colors but they pretty much stall the comments i was going to make. trump has been in office for two months. biden was there for four years. donald trump is going to try to upgrade our energy supply, and that will help out lower prices. the inflation, you can't -- our nation's inflation rate down within six weeks or two months. the price of eggs, when biden was in office, that is when this thing hit with the chicken populations and they had to destroy numerous chickens.

that was before trump came into office, so you can't blame that on him. the price of groceries have been up high during the entire biden administration. i just wish that somehow -- i know your news reference sources are the new york times and bloomberg, but you have to be a little more -- you have to bring in other new sources that give other opinions. the new york times, they are saying this report about what took place with the administration's president's had a closed-door meeting that included, what's his name? musk. i guess they reported there was a big argument between him and the secretary of state, rubio. this was a close-door meeting.

it was confidential. there was no new york times reporters in there. they had a whole article you have been relying on that said there was a big argument that broke out. today, they interviewed someone who was actually in the meeting, who was part of the staff, or whatever, the leaders of these departments, and they said there was a discussion. it wasn't a big argument. but that is how you make progress. the new york times blow this out of proportion, and guess what? you never ask who your sources are. is there a videotape or audiotape so you can prove what you are writing about is true? you get these new york far left journalists who post their stories in the new york times, and they present this stuck with no factual evidence, basically spreading rumors.

the rumors spread from one liberal media outlet to another, like msnbc and cnn -- host: got your point, john. ed, line for republicans, good morning. caller: one thing i want to do is talk about part of the economy that democrats don't understand. their representatives are always talking about billionaires, and that they are not paying their fair share. we have two different documents when you fill out your taxes. you are married or the other document is you are single. if you are a billionaire you pay 37%. that is the highest rank. they did not design it. congress designed it. 37% is what the billionaires pay.

37% of a billion dollars is a lot. it is the billionaires, not the government, that pays to build hospitals. they build clinics. they build bridges. they build roads. they build hotels. the billionaires are the ones who help make the economy grow. when you treat -- the democrats treat billionaires like they are doing something evil, when the truth of the matter is they are the one to help the economy. so, democrats, your leaders are leading you down the wrong road. thank god for billionaires. goodbye. host: greg in champaign, illinois. democrats line. caller: i have complete confidence in the trump's

handling of the economy. i am 100% confident he is driving us off a cliff. in fact, i think we have already gone off it we just don't know it yet. about a month from now we will know it. i just challenge your republican callers to give me even one example of any enterprise, public or private, that has succeeded with this kind of chaotic leadership. come up with one in human history. but at least when the first hurricane hits the gulf coast in the spring, it will have come from the gulf of america. thank you very much. host: another greg, this one in ohio on the line for independents. good morning, greg. caller: how are you doing? why are we even having this conversation today?

he has only been in their six weeks. click a mouse button or whatever and everything will go fine? there are more important stories out there. you are going the way of cnn. i'm surprised you don't have jim acosta in the anchor desk. this is ridiculous. you people are gone. host: david in denison, texas on the line for republicans. good morning, david. caller: good morning, there is too much to say. i will try to talk slowly and you cut me off when you cut me off. businesses do not pay taxes. they collect them. they do pay them, but what they pay are counted as business expenses to be covered by increasing prices. this has been written about since 1817. a pamir economist of his time in

a book on the political economy was very clear. you pay sales tax when you buy something. the business collects it, it is something that increases his costs but he doesn't get the money. same for income tax. they pass it along through the cost that's all that businesses can do or they wouldn't be in business. as far as tariffs are concerned, we've had a lot of success in documentation through history. trump is right about mckinley, talking about the 1880's-18 90's. there are a lot of little things out there that have made what's going on now go on now. for example, in the clinton administration, banks finally got the clinton administration to get rid of a monstrous effect on the economy. it was passed in 1933 and said

that banks could choose to either be a commercial bank, loaning money to businesses, or they could be an investment bank that would be allowed to participate in speculation, stocks, and all this. that was repealed in 1999. it only took from 1999-2005 or 2006, wherever you want to put the bullet point of where we went over the housing agent that caused the great recession, that's what caused it. that is also causing the increase, one of the major factors, causing the increase in the wealth gap that has been growing since then. it was closing. it is now growing. it's taking money out of the local economy. banks used to have a more robust regional local banking. thousands, over half of the local and regional banks have been bought by the majors. host: david, bring it back to

the trump administration and their handling of the economy. tie this together for me. caller: he has the greatest cabinet ever. they understand all that stuff. talking about how we are re-privatizing the economy. it was only 150,000. there were 10,000 more manufacturing jobs, the first positive manufacturing drop report in 15 months. what was down was government jobs. the economy under biden was powered by government spending, not private spending. what scott bessent is talking about is how they are reprivatizing the economy. there will be a transition required, but that is what they are working on. it's related to the glass siegel thing. there are things that happen where they say that trump isn't doing anything to reduce costs and all. the price of oil has gone down about 15% since he was

inaugurated. $67 a barrel now. the saudis are finally cooperating again in producing oil as well. the uptake takes time, but dealing with d.e.i.. billions of dollars in reporting and companies had to take part because biden on his first day required every government agency to implement d.e.i. policies. they implemented it in the contracts that were written. that is why the biden administration, when they passed the infrastructure ball, $42 billion -- infrastructure bill, 42 billion dollars for internet in rural areas, they didn't get one person connected. not 1 -- host: got your point, david. our caller mentioned treasury secretary scott bessent who spoke at the economic club of new york yesterday about president trump's economic plans. here is a clip from that interview.

[video clip] >> on the international economic system, president trump's bold economic agenda will also provide the backdrop for domestic economic policies to succeed. the president has already begun a campaign to rebalance the international economic system. perhaps we are seeing an early big win with germany's discussions to dramatically boost its military spending. the international trading system consists of a web of relationships, military, economic, and political. one cannot take a single aspect in isolation. this is how president trump sees the world, not as a zero-sum game but as inner linkages that can be reordered to advance the interests of the american people. this is contrary to the last several decades when other countries acted to advance their own interests while our

policymakers largely forgot about the trade-offs of unconstrained trade misalignment. the result was the united states provided a source of massive demand, acted as the arbiter of global peace, but did not receive adequate compensation. today, the united states finds itself subsidizing the rest of the world's understanding in defense -- underspending in defense. this is not just a security issue. the united states provides reserve assets, serves as a consumer of first and last resort, and absorbs excess supply in the face of inefficient demand and other countries' domestic models. this system is not sustainable. access to cheap goods is not the essence of the american dream. the american dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.

for too long the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this. international economic relations that don't work for the american people must be re-examined. this is what tariffs are designed to address. leveling the playing field such that the international trading system against to reward -- reward ingenuity, rule of law, and stability, not currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, non-tariff barriers, and draconian regulations. to the extent that another country's practices harm our own economy and people the united states will respond. this is the america first trade policy. host: we will hear from jeffrey in michigan on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i would like to give some free

information to my republican friends. the first four years when trump was in office i was on a tight, tight budget. i am retired, 70 years old. we were in a recession. when sleepy joe got in there, it was the best four years of my life. the s&p broke 50 records. i was scraping the cream off the top of my 401(k) and it was great. now, i am back on a budget again. since trump has been in office i've lost $100,000 on my ira. republicans keep saying, give it time, give it time. we shouldn't give it time, because trump should have been

going with biden and the market should be going up and up. but trump and musk are making millions of dollars off this market. they are buying stock right now. the stock is dropping, and they are buying tens of thousands of dollars of shares. when it goes back up, they are making millions and the banks are making millions. when the market was doing good under sleepy joe, people were paying cash for their vehicles. they were paying off their mortgages, bank and car loans, everything. now, people cannot pull their money out of their ira's because the market is down so far and they will lose a ton of money. the rich keep getting

richer, and that is a fact. thank you very much. host: jeffrey talking about the markets. this is from the washington post editorial in this morning's paper. why the market dislikes tariff shenanigans. it says the best argument for a protectionist trade policies manufacturing know-how takes years to develop and cannot be rebuilt in a hurry when the things that you've been buying abroad are suddenly hard to come by because there is a pandemic or a war. manufacturers seem to think that abrupt changes to trade policy are bad for business. a recent survey for the institute for supply management shows that customers are pausing new orders as a result of uncertainty regarding tariffs. a transportation equipment company reported that the incoming tariffs are causing our products to increase in price. a machinery manufacturer, a maker of electrical equipment,

added the uncertainty about tariffs keep us cautious on spending despite the strong sales right now. uncertainty is the economic term for worries like these. investment takes time to pay off. when government policies consistently shift, companies have a hard time telling if an investment will be worth it. in theory once the tariffs are imposed, regime uncertainty may ease, but the president's frequent shift in policy stance have a chilling effect. adding to the unease will be the administration's attack on the justice system which foreign investors especially are bound to be watching. there is a reason why so much foreign debt is structured to be governed by u.s. law, signaling that america's trade policies could change at any time and that its justice system is vulnerable to political influence risks the country's position as a global destination for securities, issuance and

investment capital. a few minutes left. mark in manhattan, new york on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i want to know, how does he know that the 2 million chickens, they only care about the eggs, how does he know 2 million chickens were culled but were sick? there is a lot of construction going on. i see the workers earlier in the morning. i saw the same workers, until a few days ago, i saw an eight or 10 new man crew of african-americans on the crew, and not from the islands. these are jobs for the second and third class citizens. thank you for taking my call. host: that was mark in new york. mine for democrats, good morning -- liana for democrats, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

calls. you are a blessing to the nation and i pray that you stay on. anyway that i can support i will continue to do so. i want to comment on the last caller, about people obtaining jobs. i refer him to look to what is happening in nebraska, and that goes for everyone. these policies have been initiated, what is happening with him seeing people getting hired and people building things is because of the last infrastructure bill that was passed and those funds are still going out even though trump is trying to stop as much from going out as possible. the real issue we have going on now, like in nebraska, is that our workforce that works to get our crops and things to the table is drying up. we have people who are not

willing to go out and do the work, so we are having cattle ranchers and lots of people who are crying that they need help and they need assistance. this is going to be a real troubling issue. i'm praying that people wake up and understand that they were voting against their own self interest instead of looking for a way to help out people who are here on a pathway to citizenship. yes, we can stop people from coming in through the border, that's fine, but what about the people who are here and have been here for decades paying into the society, paying taxes through sales tax and income taxes? they are being neglected in this conversation. everyone loves to point fingers at what other people are doing but not point a finger at themselves as to what they are doing. i challenge everybody right now

to really step up to the plate and fight back against all of these veterans getting laid off, and all of these people getting taken out of positions with no notice. this is not a way to operate a business. you are at least allowed two weeks notice before you get let go. it is inhumane what's going on right now. i'm praying for the people of gaza as well -- host: our last call for the hour, barbara on the line for independents. caller: i don't even know where to start. i don't understand why you let them call in and lie all the time. they got through saying, it was when trump was in. he was handed $2.17 from obama, and he left it because we

weren't -- because we were in covid and weren't driving. it went up to -- we all know what it went up to. by the time biden got it it was up to seven dollars or eight dollars a gallon. he handed him 9.3% inflation. he had the highest inflation ever. ever. why? i don't understand. he's not going to touch social security? he took $1 trillion out to give to the swamp. they say he will take to trillion dollars this time, i know that he will take $1 trillion. everyone since reagan, the republicans, have stolen $1 trillion out of every one of them. why don't you stop them when they say it was one dollar

inflation and a dollar a gallon? host: that was our last call for this first hour. next, washington examiner, homeland security reporter anna giaritelli will join us to discuss the trump administration immigration enforcement actions, and sarah owermohle will discuss the trump approach to the measles in texas and other health issues. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend, the historian talks about the first female presidential cabinet member, frances perkins, who worked to aid refugees fleeing nazi germany. watch first 100 days as we look

at the start of presidential terms. we focus on the early months of gerald ford's term in 1974, including the pardon of former president richard nixon who resigned during the watergate investigation. on lectures in history, age -- a georgetown history professor on the irish diaspora and the northern ireland peace process. on the presidency, the coeditor of the martin van buren papers, talks about his biography of our eighth president, the first in-depth look at the van buren presidency in decades. watch american history tv every weekend, and find a full schedule on your program guide, or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> book tv, every sunday on

c-span two, features leading authors discussing nonfiction books. this weekend, at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the reason magazine senior editor brian darty talks about the modern libertarian movement led by anchors like barry goldwater in his book "modern libertarianism." at 9:00 eastern, sally pipes, the author of the world's medicine chest, talks about the rise of the american pharmaceutical industry and warns against enacting european-style prescription drug controls. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, a journalist questions if the u.s. is forsaking its core values after 20 years of covering wars around the world and social unrest in his book, one day, everyone wil have always been against this. a university of oxford history professor does the interview. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org.

>> washington journal continues. host: join us to discuss the trump administration's enforcement efforts at the southern border is antigen gary kelly -- is anna giaritelli. thank you for being with us this morning. guest: good morning. host: we will start with a tweet that homeland security secretary kristi noem put out last month. says february was the lowest month in recorded history for encounters at our border. the world is hearing our message, do not come to our country illegally. if you do, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will send you back. thank you to president trump for your strong leadership and our brave officers and agents for keeping america safe. we are just getting started. the administration touting that

record low number. you have visited the border several times, including this week. is that in line with what you are seeing? guest: yeah, i have been to the border 60 times in the last seven years. this last trip that i took, two trips ago last month when i went, was the first time in all those trips that i was with border patrol for five hours on the river and on land and we did not see a single migrant attempt to cross the river. we have never seen that in all of my visits before, not a single person. the 8000 figure that the dhs secretary kristi noem toted, or rather touted, is the lowest figure since 1967. there has been dispute as to whether it is the lowest in recorded history. democrats will tell you 1967 was average. the monthly number was lower that year. i don't want to take away from

the trump administration. the trump effect. whether he can continue to do that for the next four years remains the question to be seen. host: anna, the cbp's number showed the decline in encounter started before president trump took office. to what extent has president trump's policies been the impact of what's happening? guest: historically, before president biden, we would see 30,000 to 50 thousand people arrested by border patrol at the southern border every month. under biden that number got up to 250 thousand in september of 2023, for context. last june, before the election, the biden administration put forth executive orders that got the numbers under control, down to 60,000 per month. trump has reduced those to 8000. i think a lot of not just

president trump's actual executive orders have had an effect, but also him coming in. the same way at the beginning of the biden administration we saw people coming over the border with t-shirts with president biden's face on them with american flags. they realized that they were welcome. it's the same policy effect that trump's arrival has had on other countries are those on their way to the united states. they realized that this is not a welcome environment. this is not the right time to come with president trump in office. i think that's also hard to quantify, the impact of that, but it's certainly one of the reasons we are seeing numbers go down so significantly. host: one of your headlines from a few days ago, vance wants trump to build the entire border wall by 2029. you were on the border this week, as was vice president vance. tell us about his tour, where he

went, and why. guest: vice president vance went to del rio and eagle pass, texas, both hotspots for people crossing the border under the biden administration. 1500 to 2000 people arrested per day under the biden administration at different points. vice president vance flew into del rio, texas and took a black hawk to eagle pass. he met with the mayor of eagle pass, the head of the border patrol, mike banks, and spoke about the issues they are having in the state with the border. not a lot of issues right now. the state wants the federal government to take over a lot of its border enforcement activity and focus on interior immigration. vice president vance was on the border. he did see the wall. he told reporters he was very surprised by the wall.

he was surprised, he marveled over it. it is an 18 to 30 foot steel wall. it is pretty significant to see it for yourself. he's now pushing -- he is hopeful come he said, the president trouble get the rest of the wall done by 2029 before trump leaves office. trump had 450 miles of wall, over 700 miles funded through congress, funds that he redirected from the treasury and defense department. he only got 450 miles done. it's a 2000 mile border. you have about 700 miles of wall across the entire border, so he would have to put up 1300 miles. the remaining include some of the most difficult terrains to put up a wall in. vance didn't make a promise. he protected himself from saying

that he broke a promise, but it's a lot of wishful thinking, you could say, about what vice president vance said about the wall this week. host: our guest, anna giaritelli, is a homeland security reporter with the washington examiner and will be with us for the next 35 minutes or so. if you have a question or a comment, you can start calling in now. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. we have a line if you are a border state resident, (202) 748-8003. anna, i want to ask about other actions that have happened at the border. dhs deputized members of the texas national guard to help process migrants. the texas national guard has had soldiers at the border since governor abbott launched

operation lone star in 2021. guest: this is reallys time? signifan it's nothing kw that a state has ever done before. he turned the state national guard, not federal natio guard. these are state soldiers sent under the governor's direction, they are turned intoration officers who can do border patrol's job. 700 took the oath and were deputized. if the immigrants crossing illegally they can now apprehend those peoplain them, arrest them, take them into custody, and remove them from the country. if they are mexican citizens, they may send them across the port of entry bridge back into mexico. this is something that has never been done before. we know the soldiers have been deputized. we have yet to see them carrying

out this enforcement action. i think they are still under training. the border patrol training is five to six months at an academy. they are learning how to identify someone -- what is their immigration status? it's harder than you might think . the soldiers are doing a quick on boarding trying to learn that. we have yet to see what that will look like, but it's a significant move. one of many by the state of texas to turn -- to take care of its own 1250 mile border with mexico. host: we have callers waiting to talk to you. susan in indiana, pennsylvania. line for democrats. caller: good morning, tammy. can you hear me? host: go ahead, susan. caller: earlier, you showed a graph of the number of people coming into the country over the last four years of biden.

i wish that you would show that again, so that people could read it better, but it looked like 10 million people came across the border, even though trump supporters say 20 million. kristi noem gave up the ghost there. the part that you read that kristi noem said, the world has heard our message. trump is in office and the world has heard that the border is closed. she is admitting that what the world hears affects immigration. let's not forget that for three years of the biden administration, republicans were shouting to the world that our border was wide open. they were shouting to the world that millions of people are streaming into the country unchecked. our borders are wide open. did they think that was going to deter immigration? two your guest, i would like her to answer if she can, over the

last 20 years which president had the highest annual average deportation rate? over the last 20 years? last, on deportations donald trump said that he was going to go after the worst of the worst. you don't find the worst of the worst in churches and schools. i don't understand why ice agents are not working with drug enforcement agents. we have undercover agents in the drug cartels and gangs. why aren't ice agents working with dea agents to round up the worst of the worst and deport them? thank you. bye. guest: the administration with the most deportations was easily the obama administration. across two terms. we did a story several weeks ago looking at arrests and removals, which are different figures, but

president trump is struggling to hit those numbers that president obama hit in his first term. he then faced a lot of pressure from the left saying, why are you deporting people? this doesn't go along with our platform. he reeled it back in the second term. the second question, the administration did early on lift a block to not make arrests in schools, churches, and hospitals. we have spoke with education and school leaders this week, even the los angeles school department, the national education association, and asked, are you seeing kids get arrested in schools? ice didn't respond to our requests, but the organizations and school districts have said we have not had a single student arrested in our schools. the only thing we have seen was a parent dropping children off at school arrested by ice. ice is posting on its twitter

account that some of the higher profile people it is arresting committed homicide and was in the united states. someone who committed another crime who was arrested by ice. you know, i think the change in policy in where ice was allowed to arrest people has really confused some, looking like schools and churches were going to be targeted by ice. ice makes arrests one by one unless they are at a worksite. they are typically arresting one person, not doing raids. host: wanted to let our audience know, anna mentioned one of her stories recently talking about what she just mentioned from january 30. you can find her work and the work of her colleagues online at washingtonexaminer.com. thomas in abilene, texas on the line for order residents.

caller: good morning. does the president have the right to ask the u.s. customs to refuse entry of non-us citizens who are pregnant? host: did you catch that? guest: i did. hi, thomas in abilene. i love abilene. off the top of my head, i'm not sure. it probably gets to the birthright citizenship issue that president trump is trying to undo. he has been blocked four times by federal judges who won't let him move forward on that. the house and the senate are trying to work on legislation to get around that. off the top of my head i cannot give an answer. i believe they cannot refuse someone who is pregnant. we see people come across all the time. if there was a will to refuse

them, i'm not sure that they would be on solid ground legally. host: james in oklahoma on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. what i was going to say was, we are building a wall along the texas border. ukraine and russia had a wall between them. gorbachev and reagan had it tore down. that is what they are fighting over, the land over there free country. they are not acknowledging that they were one country to start with and they just got together. reagan and gorbachev tore down the wall. what we are doing to mexico when we are not allowing them to come to be free, but they don't want to go through the paperwork, from what i understand it doesn't take 30 minutes to fill out the paperwork to come into america to get a green card.

that is all they have to do to be legal. they don't even got to do what they are doing. they can just fill out paperwork and come across. why are they fighting something? why don't they make it legal for them to do it in mexico? mexico is some of our biggest workers in america. host: a response for james? guest: thanks, james, for the question. the green card process is a 1 0-year wait you have to be in the u.s. to get a green card, the equivalent of permanent legal status. five years after that you can apply to become a naturalized u.s. citizen. for certain documents to get into the united states from mexico, it is a lot easier than entering from other countries, but i have heard a lot of horror stories from people trying to get those documents. there are only so many available

for people to get those. so, it is a very difficult process to legally immigrate to the united states, something that the biden administration blamed the first term trump administration for making the process more difficult. for clearing out u.s. citizenship and immigration services, the agency at homeland security that reviews applications and makes decisions. so, that is somewhat of an answer to your question. host: along those same lines, trump immigration officials got rid of the one app allowing migrants to schedule asylum appointments at points of entry. it sounds like that tool would have helped organize the flow of immigrants. why was it viewed negatively by the trump administration? has there been any impact? guest: the cvp one app, that

have been used for years by commercial trucks to send the manifests ahead of time to help the screening process. what cbp did was add a function for people in mexico to be able to request an appointment with a cbp officer at a point of entry to see if they can be paroled into the united states or the idea was that people, instead of crossing illegally, we don't know where or when you are coming, we hope that we arrest you and find you and you don't get into the country without being arrested. by going to a point of entry they can review that and release them into the country. the other function of the apple is that people in four countries -- of the app was that people in four countries not taking people back but having a lot of people immigrate illegally could do the same from afar and pay to come into the u.s. on a commercial

flight and at the airport be reviewed by a customs officer and be paroled in. the biden administration, we saw 700,000 people enter through this app. the biden administration said that this is helping make things more, you know, streamlining things. republicans and donald trump before he was president the second time said that this was a backdoor to get people into the country, to make it look legal but these people would have probably entered illegally. now that that platform is gone, we are seeing the number of people applying for visas in mexico and permits to remain in mexico and seeking asylum, people who have been waiting in mexico for months to get an appointment at the u.s. border, are now applying for asylum in mexico at three to four times the rate seen last year. people realize that they are stuck in mexico. they might have traveled from russia, from venezuela, and now

the cbp one app is gone and it won't be coming back anytime under the trump administration, so what is their next move? host: roger in fort wayne, indiana on the line for democrats. caller: thanks, c-span, for taking my call. i was calling to see if your guest here can explain to me the bipartisan border deal that congress came up with, i think close to the end of last year. the security that would have placed at the southern border. can she explain to me which one is like better? the bipartisan border deal or what the trump administration is doing now? to my understanding, the bipartisan border deal would hav e beefed up security on tracking

fentanyl? if i'm not mistaken, it even touched an area of trying to speed up the immigration process, or whatever. could she help me understand if the bipartisan border deal would have done -- would have gotten the same results as what trump is getting and secure the border more, or is what trump doing actually better for the southern border than even what the bipartisan border deal would have done? i will take my answer off. thank you. thank you, c-span. love you guys. guest: thanks for the question. that was a great question. i think this bipartisan border deal was brought by chris murphy, james lankford, kyrsten sinema. three senators, democrat, independent, republican. a year and a half ago, or a year

ago. ultimately donald trump at the time before he was president said don't vote for the bill. he told the senate not to move forward on it. it was seen as the strongest border security administration that the senate produced. hr2 in the house i would say goes further. that was brought only by republicans but never made it to the president's desk where biden would have vetoed it anyway. what president trump has done has brought about results. something that trump and republicans have touted this week is that biden said he could not stop the border crisis on its own. when he took executive action we saw 250,000 arrests in december of 2023 go down to 60,000 per month. we saw numbers decreased significantly. the trump administration is saying that biden had the tools all along.

he didn't need a bill to do anything. one thing that we will be looking at is the amount of fentanyl being seized at the southern border at the ports of entry. 90% of seizures of fentanyl occur at the ports of entry at the southern border as opposed to between the ports of entry where immigrants cross. is that number going to go up? during covid, when the number of people crossing the border illegally greatly decreased, customs officers who do not arrest immigrants but are at the point of entry, there was less traffic going through so they were able to focus on contraband coming through the ports of entry. even though travel at the ports is not down, the number of people coming between the ports is down. that might impact customs officers in one way to be able to find more fentanyl. i'm interested to see if the seizures are going up.

it wasn't put through in legislation, like the senate bill you mentioned, but it is still in president trump's policies to address both immigration and what is going on with the drugs smuggled at the southern border. host: william in tucson, arizona on the line for border residents. caller: you get a lot of calls from folks calling and saying, well, i have a message for democrats or republicans. in arizona, i have a message for senator gallego, senator kelly, and governor hobbs. get off your rears and do something about the border. i know that some of you listen to this, so you need to pay attention to what i'm saying to you. the people of arizona are getting real tired. as joe biden said, we are losing our patience, and we are losing our patience.

you are going to represent all the people of arizona, not just your democrat buddies. we always talk about the billionaire buddies. well, you got billionaire buddies, too. pay attention. there will be an accounting. if you want to stay a senator or governor, get off your backside and do something about this border. thank you. have a great day. guest: i just came back from tucson a few months ago. it is one of my favorite spots to visit on the southern border. it is not on the border, but it is impacted heavily by illegal immigration and drug smuggling. towns like sierra vista, places like that, douglas in southeast arizona, we have seen a lot of illegal immigration, not just recently but through the years. those are places where, further

from the border, 20 to 50 miles north, sierra vista specifically has had a lot of high-speed chases of people smuggling other people as well as people smuggling drugs and leading police through high-speed chases through towns. we have had a number of fatalities. the sierra vista mayor has said that he is scared to let his grandmother and daughter out during the day or night because you never know when a car will be speeding through town. this is something that is not next-door to the border, but it really impacts communities away from the border. a congressman, a second term republican, for the tucson area going down to the border, has been very vocal on the issue and very active. he continues to be in his second term. he continues to be in his second term. host: greg, go ahead.

caller: thank you for c-span. i would like to ask the guest about the h-1b visa program and what changes are being made, if any. i see that program in which a lot of good paying american jobs are being stolen by large companies that are importing labor and robbing good paying jobs from american citizens. what is the president doing about restricting that program? thank you. guest: hello to dallas-fort worth. we have not seen any action yet on the h-1b visa program. president trump is focused on the border. he certainly wants legal immigration to be merit-based so people who meet certain quotas, and changing those quotas in the u.s. because that program is based on much older quotas for what we needed in different industries, but i think in the

next year or so we could see president trump move on the h-1b program overhauling that. something they have also wanted to get at that he tried in his first term was chain migration. just because you are related to someone does not mean you get easier access to into the united states as well. host: i wanted to ask about something that came up last month. there were reports the trump administration was planning to revive a title 42 policy to expel migrants. remind us what title 42 is and how that can change the picture at the border if it is enforced again. guest: that was a cbs news report i recall. title 42 was an action allowed customs and border protection to immediately turn away some at the border. it was implemented during the covid pandemic under the pretense people coming over the

border illegally might have covid and could be bringing it into the country and spreading it even though it was already here. border patrol agents would simply take those people into their vehicle, take them to the port of entry, and push them out the door and say go back across the bridge. normally, border patrol agents would apprehend them on the border, take them to a station, process them. they might be released into the country with a court date or returned to their home country. we have yet to see any proof or truth to that report that the trump administration is looking to move on that. on day one of the trump administration, he signed over a dozen executive actions through a number of executive orders. one of them was declaring anyone associated with the "invasion" as inadmissible into the united states. under that pretense, i have been

able to return a lot of people coming over the border immediately back by walking them back across the port of entry to mexico, flying them into the interior of mexico much further south of the border, or returning them to other countries, sometimes countries they are not originally from because their countries will not take them back. host: lets talk with carol in minnesota on the line for republicans. caller: good morning, ladies. i do not understand why the democrats are so against sending the people from all of these countries back. i think if something were to happen to one of their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, i think they would feel a little different. i have not been out after dark for five years. i am just getting sick of being

scared to be in my own town. i do not understand the democrats and some independents and i'm sure there are some republicans too that believe it. thank you. host: anna, any response for carol? guest: i'm sorry you live without fear, that is a terrible thing. i am a survivor of violent crime in washington, d.c., so i understand it is a horrible thing to have to live with that. i hope you find peace. host: you mentioned supporting or having migrants walk back across the border, maybe go someplace else. from the wall street journal, there was a story, u.s. suspends costly deportation flights using military aircraft. we saw this for a little while. the trump administration listening migrants back to various countries.

remind us where they were going and what is happening to migrants now. where are they going? guest: we were the first at the washington examiner to report before trump took office they were looking at using and planning to use military planes to remove people from the country. ice charters flights on 13 aircraft. it does not own the aircraft. it uses them to fly around the country to pick people up at different immigration facilities and remove them from the country. trump added in the military aircraft. they were going into different countries around latin america primarily. also going to places like india. those flights cost $3 million for those flights. people on these flights even to guantanamo bay when they were moving predominantly venezuelan men to hold them because

venezuela would not take the citizens back, venezuela has decided to take them back, $26,000 per person to get a person on the flight to guantanamo bay on this military aircraft. the military aircraft were significantly higher dollar for the u.s. taxpayer to fund. now they are at the point where we do not entirely need the military aircraft. we still have resources available enough. we are waiting to see if customs and border protection and immigration and customs enforcement ice, they are operating out of their 2024 budgets which under the biden administration arrests and removals of illegal immigrants were significantly lower than the rate president trump is going. ice can only do so much with the money it has left in its pocket, which is not much. they are in the process of scaling back flights which could

affect the arrests within the country. they are going to be detaining people longer because they do not have the flights to remove them from the country. we are working on that 20 budget in congress, congress is working on it, i am not working on it, right now the next few weeks. host: let's talk with dennis in alexandria, indiana, the line for republicans. caller: when biden and harris come into office, even before they was into office, they was over in these other countries putting flyers out that the border was going to be open, come on over.

thousands of them was down coming through. it was all the -- harrison was going over there. and then they were having -- while the election was going on, she was also going to these motels and having seminars teaching these people how to cheat in the election process during -- while the democrats was just doing all kind of different things. host: dennis, we will have anna respond to your comment. guest: thanks, dennis. i have not seen there was a reports -- i have not seen those

reports. i cannot corroborate them about what vice president harris was doing in motels advising migrants. have not seen anything to confirm that. host: willie in little rock, arkansas. are you there? [tv repeating in the background] he walked away from his phone. we will go to ralph and george on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i have three things on my mind. i am retired from the military. if i'm not mistaken, people that come across go to our schools all the way up to our highest university. they come over and work in our hotels and in different jobs, and then they were supposed to

go back. i wonder if that is still happening now. the other thing is these people flown to these sanctuary cities from texas and florida, are they vetted before they are sent there to see the status? one other quick thing. the people that helped us when we was in iraq, afghanistan, and all of those areas, they had to wait up to 18 months before they could come to the united states, go to another country. now, i hear that they are going to be sent back to their countries. that is what i have. thank you for my time. interesting topic. guest: first of all, thank you for your service to our country. i'm going to get at your second question primarily. under the biden administration, we had millions of people, at

last count by house republicans, it was 5 million to 6 million people released into the country. i know president trump and others have touted 20 million. the number i am going by is from congress. that is based off customs and border protection numbers. of those 5 million to 6 million released people who illegally entered the country and were released and given a day in court, hundreds of thousands were given notices to report. that just means it is a document. normally, when you are released from i.s. and border patrol custody at the border you are given a document. they put you in the court system, so the government knows such and such person needs to show up in the new york immigration court on this day in the future to see if they are allowed to remain in the country or will be ordered to be removed. in this case, the notices to report recently telling them we

don't have time to put you into the country, we also don't have time to do full vetting of you which is supposed to occur, so we are giving a document asking you to report to an ice office when you get to the city you are going to. at that point, we are hoping by a good-faith system you will report to them and then we will place you in the immigration court system and we will know to track you and such. it actually just came out in the past two weeks, there was a congressional report saying in these cases people were not being thoroughly vetted. i want to give you an example of one person that might be included in this. taylor hamilton was a 21-year-old autistic woman living in aberdeen, maryland. i worked with her mother a number of years now since kayla was murdered in her home by an

ms-13 gang member who came into the country during the biden administration, was not vetted with the ms-13 gang member and slipped through border patrol and ice and somehow they did not catch that so it looks like he was not vetted, was probably given a notice to report. he claimed to be a minor, was released into the country and ended up committing this heinous crime. that is just one example. kayla's mother timmy have been trying to get answers for years and how the federal government did not scream him, did not that him, did not know his background when he was arrested in maryland. it was easy for local police to determine he had a significant flag in his background that should have been noticed at the border and stopped. host: one last call from clara on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. my question is about the

protests and to what degree, security can become involved. i fully support everyone's right to be able to protest legitimate concerns and grievances but i do not think you should be allowed to wear a mask. we are free to protest in this country and you should exercise that right and not wear a mask. i also don't think you should be able to bring a sign to a protest that has a stick attached to it which can be used as a weapon. hold your sign with your hands. i do not think children should be allowed at a protest. the other concern i have is, can homeland insecurity -- homeland security investigate to what degree george soros might be involved in playing these people as protesters? they don't have a legitimate grievance, they are employees of someone like george soros who pays them to come and protest.

guest: thank you for the question. i cannot speak to what homeland security is investigating and whether they are being paid by groups on either side to be out there. the department homeland security will get involved in certain protests for security, especially if they have found there is a terror threat associated with the protest, someone might be planning to attend. they are tracking it and might have agents or officers present at the event. the department's participation in these protests for safety reasons varies. we have not seen a lot of homeland security involvement protecting the peace at protests since the riots in 2020 when infamously president trump in his first term sent dhs personnel to portland, oregon,

to deal with protesters. not just protesters but rioters trying to burn down the federal courthouse in portland, oregon. host: anna giaritelli is a homeland security reporter for the washington examiner. you can find her work online at washingtonexaminer.com. thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you, tammy. host: next, stat news' correspondent sarah owermohle will join us to discuss the trump administration's approach to the measles outbreak in texas and other key public health issues. first, yesterday, scientists public officials, and activists spoke at the stand up for science rally at the lincoln memorial in washington, d.c. here is bill nye the science guy's remarks. [video clip] >> we are gathered to insist our lawmakers stand up for science!

[applause] the framers of the u.s. constitution made sure to include article one section eight, clause eight, congress is to promote the progress of science and useful arts. [applause] useful arts would be an 18th-century expression for what nowadays we would call engineering! using science to solve problems and make things. [applause] these constitutional ideas have helped make this country great, a world leader in innovation as well as in the rule of law. [applause] the process of science, along with our hard-won scientific body of knowledge, has enabled us to feed and care for the world's billions, build great

cities, cure diseases, create global transportation and communication systems, and even know our place among the stars! [applause] my friends, science is part of the american story. if the united states is to lead the world, science cannot be suppressed. and so today, my friends, we demand that scientists not be censored, that there be legal safeguards to prevent political interference in their research. [applause] and that they be enabled to communicate their findings freely. [applause] furthermore, we demand that all of us, the public, have access to scientific information. [applause] all of the data, reports, and

resources that were available before this president swore to uphold the u.s. constitution in january of this year. this is our right. we paid for this science with our tax dollars. [applause] >> as we stand here today, certain elements in our own government have suppressed references to climate change, have advocated against life-saving vaccines, and have ordered an automatic review papers for the purpose of censorship. papers that include certain words like "female." over my friends, is the u.s.

capitol. to the other side, the side were stripping access to scientific reports, scientific data and resources, we ask, what are you afraid of?! [applause] what is it about the process of science, modern medicine, caring for our neighbors, or woman's history month -- [applause] that you all find so scary? my friends, science is in the national interest. censoring science is not. i encourage those on the others to break ranks, become leaders -- [applause] oppose this suppression of science! the founders embraced the idea that by promoting science and

engineering, our citizens would be free to do research and to innovate which would in turn stimulate the economy, help us compete on the world stage, and keep us safe, ultimately improving the lives of all of us! [applause] every citizen, each of us, wants a better future for ourselves and for our families. together, we can and we must stand up for science! >> "washington journal" continues. host: joined us now to discuss the trump administration's response to the measles outbreak in texas and other key public health issues is stat news' correspondent sarah owermohle. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will start with the latest on the measles outbreak

plate remind us where it is, how many people are affected right now, and who is being infected. guest: it is primarily in texas now although there are cases closer to new mexico. the latest is 220 cases, many of them children. there are reports many are unvaccinated. there have been two deaths so far. one was a child in texas who was unvaccinated and had no known underlying conditions. the latest report is an adult new mexico died. that was reported this week. we do not have more details right now on that person if they had known underlying conditions. the cdc is monitoring the situation. texas has asked the cdc to assist them. it is still an ongoing situation where they are urging people to get vaccinated and take precautions. host: there are those measures happening at the state level.

the trump administration still fairly new, r.f.k., jr., was just sworn in not long ago. how is the trump administration responding? what are they recommending? guest: robert f. kennedy, jr., in the past has been skeptical of vaccine safety. what he has been talking this week about what to do about the measles outbreak, he had an op-ed and comment on fox news where he said while vaccines can be important and prevent measles, it also is a personal choice. that is in line with how he has campaign and talked about vaccines in the past. it did earn criticism and alarm from public health experts and republicans who wanted to hear him say vaccines are an important part of this. he has also talked about vitamin a being something that can help people out. that also got some criticism because vitamin a can be helpful when someone is malnourished. we know in developing countries it can be import for a child, but it does not prevent measles -- important for a child, but it does not prevent measles and

will not save you from a severe condition. host: robert f. kennedy, jr., has also said measles outbreak's are not unusual in the united states. how is what we are currently seeing compared to typical outbreaks? guest: we have seen measles outbreaks in past years. i think there were 16 last year. the difference is these are the first two deaths since 2015. we are seeing this in a child that did not have underlying conditions. that is alarming to say the least because we know this is a preventable disease. host: our guest for the next 35 minutes or so is sarah owermohle, washington correspondent for stat news. if you have a question or comment for her, you can start calling in now. the lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. we also have the line set aside

if you are a medical professional, 202-748-8003. what is the medical community saying about the response so far? one of their concerns? -- what are their concerns? guest: there have been a lot of concerns this could further erode confidence in vaccines. the mmr vaccine has been around many years. we have a lot of safety data. millions of people have gotten this vaccine. we are talking about an unprecedented measles outbreak and deaths. it is not just about measles when people talk about this. are we going to see more preventable deaths and disease outbreaks because more people are questioning the safety of vaccines? host: when we talk about

vaccines, some people may not be vaccinated at all. others depending on how old they are may have only gotten one shot. what is happening right now in terms of vaccination drives or the availability of the vaccine? guest: the mmr vaccine definitely available. there is no shortage issue. there have been efforts on the ground in texas and new mexico to get people vaccinated. the trump and administration is still in early days figuring out what this will look like under robert f. kennedy, jr. and particularly under the cdc. we are still try to seek what level of communication they will be allowed to have with the public. we have seen in the past with the covid pandemic or other health concerns the cdc has been very communicative about vaccine drives, public health officials'messaging. we have not seen that yet with the trump administration.

host: we have some callers waiting to talk with you. we will start with bill on the line for medical professionals. caller: i am a pediatrician now retired. basically, the measles vaccine is very effective. unfortunately, what happened the last few years with the covid epidemic, the mandate pushing covid vaccines on children caused families to no longer trust the public health system. a lot of families because of the covid vaccine being pushed on children and causing damage, princeton's myocarditis -- for instance, myocarditis, parents no longer had confidence in the vaccine. it can't prance to not just give the covid vaccine but all vaccines, including the measles

vaccine. this public health crisis, this outbreak of measles in some ways, and it is much more extensive than previous years, is caused by those who pushed the covid vaccine, specifically the american academy of pediatrics and the cdc. everyone knows people are afraid to be open about it and say this is the truth. we reap the whirlwind. we have now reaped the whirlwind. i feel sorry for the child who died, but this is what we deserve for what we did to our children. and you know what, i know it, and the new head of the fda knows it too. that is all i have to say. thank you very much.

good day. guest: you bring up a really good point about the covid-19 vaccine crate i agree that eroded a lot of trust with the public because it was a very different vaccine from the measles vaccine and others we have safety data on. the covid-19 vaccines started out as a huge medical achievement to have this record-breaking develop and vaccines but the requirements for younger children did raise questions for people. i think we are in this reckoning now with public health agencies about how we will go forward from that and if the new fda commissioner is confirmed, he will have to reckon with that and where they go from here. if we have another situation like covid, hopefully not, how we will handle that in the future. host: we talked about the newness of the current trump administration, r.f.k., jr., recently confirmed. there were other hearings on the

hill this week. one for nih director. what was the senate's reaction to him? first, tell us who he is, what you know about him, and how did the senate react to his testimony? guest: is a long-time health economist and professor of medicine at stanford university. i think most people would have known his name in the past few years for one thing in particular. he became very popular for opposing broad covid lockdowns, mask mandates. there was a declaration that advocated for moving lockdowns and having more of a herd immunity approach, letting us all get out there and maybe get sick but build up our immunity that way. he got a lot of kisses him in the medical community for that. in recent years, as the left color was saying, we know there was lower risk to children but there is a higher risk to anyone immunocompromised or older. that would have been risky for

public health as a whole. coming into the hearing what was notable is he was largely respected by senators on both sides. they had a lot of questions about what he would do in terms of what has been happening with layoffs and potential funding cuts. that was a lot of what people wanted to talk to him about. they also wanted his views on vaccines. i think we can expect he will get confirmed into this position. what is going to be in front of him is how they approach vaccines, vaccine studies, and also what he does with what the administration is saying about funding cuts, playoffs, etc. -- layoffs, etc. host: another was on the hill for his hearing and confirmation hearing. remind us who he is and the takeaways from his testimony. guest: he is a johns hopkins professor and author and

pancreatic surgeon. what most people would know him for his he has written books about how we can improve the health care system, how we can humanize it in and the high cost and inefficiencies. that is what he made his name on craig during the covid pandemic, he was critical of the response and requirements. that is one way they are parallel. his hearing paralleled and a few other ways as well pretty was asked about layoffs at the fda, how he feels about vaccines. they had similar answers could they both said they believe in vaccines and they save lives but they would not discourage more research which is in line with help r.f.k., jr. has talk about it. makary also had a largely positive back and forth with both sides of the dais. host: the expectation is he will also be confirmed? guest: i think so. there has been concerned about all the nominees the trump

administration has made. he has been talked about in the health care community as being one of the least controversial. it has to do with his background, his experience, but also with the food and drug administration. he is going to oversee such a wide range of issues from vaccines to drugs to medical devices to food policy. we know food policy is a big priority for r.f.k. and everybody to be honest. host: let's talk with ellen in massachusetts on the line for democrats. good morning, ellen. are you there? caller: i am right here. of things consistently mentioned is the use of vitamins. i think a lot of people think a vitamin is natural. you can overdose on natural things. particularly when you are dosing children, you need to be very careful. many of the places where people

do by vitamins, there is not that much control as to what you have in there, the milligrams and so on. it is important to realize a solution is not to go out and get your vitamin a and super dose your child because you may end up with a problem besides the measles or your fear of measles. guest: that is a very good point. it goes back to the data and what we know about a measles vaccine versus what we know about what you said, any kind of dosage, whether organic or not. we were just talking about the fda. another purview of the fda is dietary supplements which vitamins fall under. there has been a long time drive to have better regulation of dietary supplements. we will see if that is a priority in this administration as well. host: loda on the washington state line for republicans. caller: yes, my concern about

the immunization, i worked in public health. i truly believe all children going to public schools have to be vaccinated. all of this boils down from the board of education and we really need to have parents understand the need to be vaccinated and also to realize sending a child to school while he is under some kind of medical symptom, who knows what it is, spreading it to the other kids in school, therefore, more kids are bringing it home, everybody is getting sick, regardless of what that sickness is. i truly believe kids need to be vaccinated. and if not, then maybe the school board of education can

find another solution. as far as vitamins, all families have prenatal. there is wic, women infants and children. as of today, it still exists. they get information as to what their child needs, plus their medical provider. if a child is lacking in some kind of vitamin, the doctor will tell you by doing blood tests. some children are born with an immune deficiency. therefore, they can also seek medical treatment and get the right treatment for their child at the proper age. host: who get a response from sarah -- we will get a response from sarah. guest: i think you get at the crux of the issue with schools. someone can choose not to

vaccinate the child but that can affect other children. as an earlier caller said, there are differences in levels of trust. measles vaccines, we did not think we would be here so soon with confidence in vaccines lacking. but because of the covid-19 vaccines, there has been more hesitation. that has been supported by people like r.f.k., jr., who have said this is a personal choice and questioned whether there is enough safety data even when we have years and decades of safety data especially around older vaccines children tend to get in the early years of their lives. host: let's talk with lee in new york on the line for democrats. caller: i am calling about my experience with measles. i was born in a very poor, rural area in 1949 before the measles vaccine was available. we had no access to doctors, nor

even to over-the-counter drugs like aspirin. i developed a very high fever, and i went into a coma. there was a small community hospital about 45 miles away. they told my parents i would die. i did come out of the coma, but i feel like it may have affected my immune system. i have been pretty frail, not very well, my whole life. i am just curious if you do contract measles, does it affect your immune system? the other thing i would like to discuss his coat 19 --is covid-19. i have had very severe reactions to being vaccinated even for the flu. the doctors concluded i was too

immune compromised to be vaccinated. what happens when someone like me or colin powell who i believe was taking chemotherapy at the time who died, children go to school and infect other children, the children go home and infect their parents. the parents come to work. i had a woman next door to me who had three children and she was always coming to work sick, and then i wound up very ill. we just don't seem to understand me versus we. i don't even feel it we have a public health system anymore. people are just doing what is right for them. there is nothing right for the public. i would like your comments on any of that. guest: it sounds harrowing your experience with measles. i'm am glad you are here today. i wish more people could hear

stories like yours. it was not long ago it was serious and impacted people. i think we have had some short-term memory about how serious these illnesses are preyed they are not chickenpox. i think you asked about whether that can cause immune issues in your future. i think there is still an open question with that and other viral diseases like covid-19. even if we are questioning or certain people like this administration are questioning the long-term safety or impact of vaccines, are we tracking the long-term impact of getting these diseases, and the risk and benefit. bringing up being in a medical situation like yourself or colin powell, that is why there was so much controversy over the barrington declaration co-authored by the now potential nih director.

it might not be as much of a risk for a child but a child is in the community. you do not know who is in that community and what medical problems or risks they may have. host: it was a few days after president trump took office for the second time the administ ration put a pause on communications. remind us what that did and if the pause is still in effect. guest: first, it caused mass confusion about who could talk, when they could talk, especially with the measles outbreak, what level of communication the cdc can have with reporters, the public. we would see impact public health emergencies like covid-19 or even when people are getting sick from vapes, they would hold weekly calls with reporters about how they were tracking cases. we are not getting that now. now all of the communications

seem to have to go through one central locus at hhs. that stalls when you talk about how vast the health care agencies are. the level of communication, the rapidity of communication. what is ironic is r.f.k., jr., has come in preaching radical transparency. he has said a lot you will not even have to file a freedom of information act request because we will be so transparent. there been a lot of questions about when that happens and who it pertains to and the answers you can have about communication's. with regards to the measles now, there has been confusion about that. i have been able to speak with people unlimited things but the public meetings they generally have have been delayed or canceled. host: back to calls, we will talk with pat in baltimore, maryland, on the line for

republicans. caller: how are you? host: i am good. how are you? caller: i am good. i have a question about how the measles starts. is it always from a carrier? how does it start? all of the children that have come across the borders, are they carriers? i am sure some of those countries do not vaccine. guest: thank you. it is generally from another human carrier. one of the things that is dangerous about it is that you can contracted it and not show symptoms for about four days, and then you will start to get a fever. within those four days, you could be seeing people and interacting and then figure out you may have even other people the measles. with regards to the border, mexico also has vaccine policies and requirements. particularly when we talk about

the measles vaccine, internationally it is usually required and distributed. it is not by any means rare. while i don't think we can quantify what level of children at the border are vaccinated or unvaccinated, usually we can say something like the measles vaccine is a very common vaccine globally. host: patrick in maryland on the line for democrats. caller: hello. thank you for accepting my call. i want america to think outside the box for just one second. from my understanding, in the next six months, our kids have to go back to school. and in the next six months, our kids need to be vaccinated in order to attend school. if that is indeed the case, you know there is going to be representation that is going to say vaccines are not necessary. and there are going to be those parents that say put my child in school because it is my right to have my kid not vaccinated.

what is going to happen with that if you are going to have kids that are not vaccinated and then you are going to have kids that are. all you need is one child to get sick and then all hell, pardon my expression, is going to break loose. and then it is going to be, why did the school system allow my kid to attend school? why did the government? this is going to be a storm that is about to happen. unfortunately, we are talking about our kids, not democrat and republican kids, our own. what is your response to my statement? thank you. guest: thank you. i think you illustrate what the future risks are. we are already dealing with this in two states and we have seen more than 200 cases. how does the spread, not just when children go back to school, but over the summer and for the holidays? this echoes where we were with the covid-19 pandemic before we

had the vaccines and there were ongoing lockdowns. there has been a lot of controversy over how long lockdowns had to go, especially for schools. if we get back to a place where there are outbreaks in schools, of measles or another disease that is vaccine preventable, are we going to be back in that situation where children cannot come to school right now because too many of them are sick? i think we have to think about that. we have to think about what kind of community risk and benefit we will have. you are right. we are going to have to see how the federal government communicates about that. we know robert f. kennedy, jr., has talked about wanting to put out vaccine communications that stress what he calls informed consent, saying here is the risk, here is the benefits, and it is your choice. we are expecting that to be some of the messaging out of cdc on vaccines. if that changes as things worsen, that remains to be seen. host: lynn in oregon on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: i was born in 1953 and

did not have a measles or mumps shot, and i contracted them and was very ill. when i began having children, i recognized or my doctor asked me to get my child vaccinated, that that was important, and i did so. but now, the problem is those are actually vaccines that prevented a disease. now, they are calling vaccines, a flu shot or a covid shot that does not actually prevent you from getting the disease. i believe it is a matter of semantics. you should call it a shot, not a vaccine. vaccines prevent it. shots lessen the impact or probability you may get it. i believe that is a problem and how it is communicated. thank you. guest: thank you.

you are definitely echoing something we were talking about earlier with covid-19 vaccines. i do think there was a messaging issue. at first, it was believed the vaccines would help prevent you getting the virus. now we know that is not the case. one important thing with both the covid and flu shots, you are right they are different. covid and flea mutate quickly -- the flu mutate quickly. you can still get a version of the virus slightly different. important thing with both is they are designed to make the infection less severe. they can still be a beneficial thing to get those shots. you are right that it was communicated different at first. i think it is opaque to talk about that with more nuance -- i think it is ok to talk about that with more nuance. it may not prevent you from getting the flu or covid, but it may make it less severe. host: good morning, dave, on the line for democrats.

caller: good morning. i am not that educated on disease and all of that. i do remember the obama administration, this is a question, didn't they implement a disease prevention team within the administration? do you consider if that would have been implemented now, would it change the course of what is happening in texas like the measles outbreak? guest: so -- go ahead. with the obama administration, there could be a few things you are talking about. he did have a pandemic strategy that was issued by the white house. it talked about the chain of command around agencies. i don't know if that is what you were talking about. there were some parts of the

government started under the bush administration that had to do with pandemic and disaster response. that has also evolved over time weather with the obama administration or trumpet administration. -- the trump administration. host: ken on the line for republicans. caller: someone else already brought it up, the effect of having millions of illegal immigrants come into the country in the last four years would have on the spread of disease in the united states. i worked on the border for several years in enforcement. we were required to have different vaccine site for hepatitis and different things because they realized immigration, not all people

coming into the u.s. were healthy. i think that could have something to do with what is going on now, especially as kids from other countries are going into our schools and not required to have vaccinations. thank you. guest: i will say about the border, we do know when children are in holding facilities they are assessed for their help. -- health. in the early days of the pandemic, ask around to agencies whether the children were receiving covid vaccines and they were. even if they were not vaccinated coming in, they would get vaccinated at the detention facilities. it is important to note the child who did die from measles unfortunately were unvaccinated themselves. host: we talked about the confirmation hearings for the nih director nominee and the fda commissioner nominate. there is another hearing next week for the cdc director

nominee. what can you tell us about him and what will you be watching? guest: a lot of hearings, they are moving quickly on the nominations. dave weldon is a physician practicing for quite some time, especially since he left congress. he was a house represented of from florida for 14 years. while in congress, some of his major priorities were hiv-aids and global health but also he was very critical of vaccine safety. he was one of the early proponents of the idea vaccines could be linked to autism. at the time he was bringing that up in 2000 and 2001, there were questions because of a study that has since been retracted about whether vaccines cause autism. we know from multiple studies since then that there is not a link. he left congress in 2009. much of this was about two decades ago he was talking about that. i think the chief question i'm going to have is whether his vaccine views have evolved.

if he still has questions, what data would satisfy those questions? what would tell you vaccines do not cause autism and the vaccine schedule is safe? i think we will be hearing about whether he thinks children should be getting the range of vaccines they do or at the age they do. as we have been talking about, what he thinks is the responsibility of the agency in terms of public messaging on this. host: you can watch the full confirmation hearings online at c-span.org and you can also follow c-span an hour networks for coverage of next week's cdc director nominee hearing. lets talk with anthony in ashland, kentucky, on the line for democrats. caller: hello, how are you? guest: good, how are you? caller: back in the day, i am 70

years old, we all had the measles and mumps and the chickenpox, and just about everything else. it seemed like our kids back then were healthier. it may be what they are eating today. i grew up at a time when there was not any peanut allergies or anything. everybody gets on him. but his gripe was the injections they were giving kids were full of mercury. i think that was part of the problem. i think he will do a good job. i would like to know if they would do a better job on what we eat. we are eating more junk. there is stuff that is in there that is more plastic than food. i tried it myself. i cut some oreos and you cannot

burn it. they are letting kids eat cookies, all kinds of junk. when we grew up, we had stuff but it was more healthy than today. host: we will get a response from sarah. guest: you bring up a good point about robert f. kennedy, jr., and the momentum around him and he make america healthy again movement. a big part of that is food nutrition policy. the questions around the make america healthy initiative are, why do we have more chronic illnesses in children, more childhood obesity, asthma, allergies, more reports of autism? there is a lot of questions and potentially a lot of answers to that. it could absolutely be nutrition. it could be lifestyle. it could be environmental factors, toxins. it could be all of these factors. that is one thing he has promised to come in and make a

laser focus on across agencies. we have seen all these nominees talk along those lines as well about what kind of research they want to do, what kind of food policies they want to change, and how they will come at this from multiple angles. host: time for a couple more calls. randy in tallahassee, florida, line for republicans. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. host: good to hear from you. caller: you guys stated there were decades of safe research for older vaccines like measles, mumps, rubella. i don't think you stated whooping cough but that maybe one of them. why don't you guys require just the ones that there are decades of safety records for for school and not require all the other ones that have not been proven or may cause problems? guest: i think it comes down to what has been developed over the years and what the needs are. as we have heard from people, there is this risk-benefit analysis for the community. you are right that there are

newer vaccines with fewer years of research. there have also been difficulties tracking over many years what the potential adverse reactions are. that also does not mean we are not tracking them. we have the vaccine adverse event reporting system where people can report something like dizziness after the shot to something serious like myocarditis. that has been long-term research on a lot of these things. if you are talking in terms of more recent vaccines like covid-19, i think there is going to be continued research and certainly under this administration on whether any long-term adverse event particularly among children. i think we get those answers eventually. it does come down to risk versus benefit. some of these diseases, we know what the harms are of getting that disease, of getting infected, and the potential very serious adverse events you could have even if you survive a very serious illness. i think it is about what the

community benefit is there. host: one last call, alina. caller: yes. my point is the classical vaccines for mumps, measles, and rubella, those are classic. those never go away. they have worked very well. it is the newer ones causing issues. there are too many, especially for children. there is no transparency. i don't think there has been good transparency on that. r.f.k., jr., intends to open all of that up and let people know the facts, whether kids need all of that nonsense and garbage going into their bodies that may affect their health like autism or god knows what. also, question about the covid vaccine, it is not a true vaccine.

it was kind of a gene therapy that was originally made for cancer-causing cells in different organs. it is not a true vaccine. people never asked the question, is it a vaccine? because it is not a vaccine. under the extremely corrupt biden administration, it was marketed as a vaccine when it was not. it was never tested. covid was just the flu that people got and got over it mostly. 90% of people did not need the vaccine for that. host: we will get a response from sarah. guest: i think you are echoing what we have heard from a lot of other callers today and also voters who propelled r.f.k., jr., or wanted to hear about what he would do in this instance. you are right that i think r.f.k., jr., is going to want to assess the amount of vaccines children get which is called the vaccine schedule.

the way he has talked about doing that is doing long-term safety studies. i think what is going to be challenging we look at the question of the long-term impact of the vaccines is that is going to take a long time. if we say we are going to have a group of children that take fewer vaccines and follow them for 10 years and that is when we start to see the answers to whether the vaccine schedule is better or if there are adverse events we are missing. these are not answers we are going to get very soon. host: our guest, sarah owermohle, washington correspondent for s >> sarah, thank you so much for being with us. >> we are wrapping up with today's program with open form. you can start calling in now. here are the lines, democrats 202-748-8000. and republicans 202-748-8001.

we'll be right back. ♪♪ ♪♪ sunday, on c-span q&a, congressman james comer and author of "all the president's money" talking about the business practice. representative comer argues that the bidens have benefited financially from corrupt financial dealings involving ukraine, china and other countries. >> 600 banks filed suspicious reports against the bidens. they were subject to another 50 suspicious activity reports.

no bank would file a suspicious report against the son of a prominent politician unless they were darn sure that a financial crime is committed. when you file one of those the bank examiner rolls in your bank and it causes a lot of problems. the banks knew there was a bad thing going here. >> james comer with his book with "all the president's money," sunday night on cspan q&a. in the years right before world war ii started in 1939, winston churchill had been out of government. however, even though he was far from power, his country home became churchill's headquarters

of his campaign against nazi germany. katherine carter reveals how churchill used chart will as his base to collect key intelligence about germany preparations for war. author katherine carter with her book on this episode of book notes plus with our host brian lam. book notes is available now wherever you get your podcast. washington journal continues. >> welcome back for the next 25 minutes or so. we are in open formal. i am going to start david, independents. hi, david. >> caller: good morning.

the last caller - well, good morning anyway. my topic today is about what's going to happen tonight in the middle of the night is daylight savings time. i am getting kind of old and i have never worked or met anyone in my life who wants to jerk their clocks back and forth twice a year. i don't understand why we are subjected to this. trump was on there yesterday, i believe, he was saying that it is a 50/50 situation and so half people want it and half people don't. a person with low iq could at least flip a coin and get one of the others to stop the craziness. my suggest is to split-t difference, 30 minutes one way

and the other and leave it alone. leave it alone, man. it is torture. while i am at, don't you think trump need a conservative haircut? >> thank you. south carolina, line for republican, patrick. >> caller: good morning, how are you? >> host: doing well. >> caller: i was wondering i can do a little history with your audience. >> host: sure, go ahead, patrick. >> caller: in 1920s, the government were not allowed to get a salary. they were working on a per diem basis. what they did was they asked the american public voters if they could have the salary.

all the american public voted no to that. well, the politicians didn't like that so back in 1924, they came back again and this time instead of asking the american public, they voted amongst themselves and they voted themselves a salary. i believe that was pretty much illegal because, you know, voting yourself a salary on the american taxpayer dollars? well, the last 100 years since 1924, our government is basically been getting a salary on our taxpayers' dollar and we had no say about it. they give themselves raises and free medical. that was never the way it was supposed to be. they were supposed to be working on a per diem when they showed up for government business. that was not supposed to be 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

that was supposed to be a short term for, you know, working on american business. so, now they're getting $174,000 salary on our taxpayers' dollars which adds up to $200 trillion a year for the last hundred year. well, they have not been getting that for the whole time. they keep adding to it whenever they vote themselves a new salary. basically, american people just paying for this. >> host: patrick, if you can pick the salary for congress, how much do you think they should get pay? >> caller: well, like i said, they're not supposed to be there everyday, seven days a week and 365 days a year. the government people have been ripping off the people the last hundred years.

>> host: we'll go to don, also for louisiana, line for independents. good morning, don. >> caller: yes, i am calling from new orleans. we have anchor economy basically in the beginning was medical institutions and the cuts to the va employees. the anchor institutions in every region of the united states play an important role in economic development and all the other economic metrics that we hold dear to our prosperity and civic society. you know there is a time value related to money. i was studying time value. you know a million seconds is about rounded up is about 12 days. a million second, is about 12 days. a billion second is equated to

32 years. a million second is 12 days and a billion second is 32 years. when you talk about a trillion second as we are talking about trillions of dollars of assets in the united states and deficits, 1 trillion seconds is equated to 32,000 years. we have more than enough assets in this country with proper stewardship to offset any deficits. it is those who refused to invest in anchors economy. these super yachts that these billionaires have didn't have a correct anchor, it would drift and be in desperate need to the natural currents by waves. yet, these same billionaires

refused to put an anchor, to offset. they can't go nowhere in any part of the world to reap prosperity that they reached throughout the law and our equilibrium of assets and contributions to civic society. we need to invest in our anchor economy and not trying to shift it away to billionaires who have no use unless they have an an chor. >> host: trump strongly considering new sanctions on russia force ceasefire deal. he's strongly considering imposing what he describes as large scale sanctions including

on banks because of perilous state port. mr. trump believes mr. put fortin wants to end the war and would be more generous. mr. trump suggested that it was ukraine that would be more difficult to work with. russian officials met last month with top trump officials in saudi arabia. russia has not given any public indication that it would accept any truce. u.s. officials have said russia has shown openness to continuing discussion. let's talk with rudy in sun city, california. line for democrats. hi, rudy. >> caller: good morning, tammy. i would like to say i am givedty

of what's going on in donald trump's administration. i sure hope he does not disappoint me with the tariffs because he's going back and forth on them. if donald would put the tariffs in. we are going to see what's going to happen. so, i am just - i am hoping for the best. i hope he don't disappoint me because we'll see what's going to happen in a couple years to this economy in this great country. thank you very much, tammy. bye-bye. >> caller: line for republicans. hi, stan. >> caller: i am trying to get my phone. i like to say the people of l.a. and the foothills, my heart goes out to you guys. fire is a very evil enemy.

pine i am worried of the people in the other storm. i would like to go back to 1953, my uncle jed was a fire chief, washington, d.c., in eisenhower administration. i would like to know if -- >> host: let's talk with joe, maryland, line for independents. good morning. >> caller: good morning, can you hear me or no? >> host: yes, go ahead.

>> caller: that one about splitting the time, half hour/half hour, i have not heard about that. maybe that's a possibility. wi are all tired of the time change, i think? with that said, i am from washington, d.c., not in the city, but from the surrounding area. d.c. is surrounded by maryland and never mind on the side of virginia on the water. i want to say a couple of things. we need to do something with citizens united. that law that made it okay for corporations around the world to get involved in our personal united states america politics. the term america when politicians use it, everyone thinks they mean the united states of america, but the people from brazil and mexico,

guatemala, when trump or anybody or biden says we are going to help all the americans, that goes from canada, all the way to brazil. we need to make it where they reference america. they need to put that u.s. in front of it. we need to make sure who we are really talking about because it is real funny how everybody says we are going to help all americans. we think it is the united states of america. i am not being selfish. i hope to have all humans. i don't like divisiveness. with that all said, last thing i would like to say, please - a long time ago, when the united states of america started, they were doing the colonies, the pill gram of massachusetts didn't want the colony. they didn't want those pagan

catholics. i never knew the pilgrims didn't want the catholics. this is what they could call them. last thing i want to say thank you, i am from maryland all my life with my great grandma in new york and my great grandfather die in the hospital. they would lock them up as it turns out. that's a congressional hearing last year. this maryland thing, right here, supposedly paid the indians. this is in maryland archives.

they supposedly paid the indians 666 and 2-thirds something for all the land. is it funny? i don't hate anyone, we got to unified and got citizens united. >> host: let's hear from james, line for democrats. >> caller: good morning, can you hear me? >> host: yes, i can. >> caller: i am calling in part to this doge cutting pause. i wonder the government is going to reduce our federal income tax that we paid. maybe move some of the income tax, what they are not covering anymore. i wonder if that's a possibility as far as democratic senators and congressman should be thinking about that or how can we get that account for? that's all i needed to say. thank you.

>> host: line for republicans, good morning, williams. >> caller: good morning. i want to bring in the fact that several years -- moving 4,000 jobs in my hometown in kentucky to honduras and no one cried about that. the way they're trying to save money for taxpayers by crying so much for federal jobs being cut. i wish they cared as much for americans as they do for bureaucrats. thank you very much for your time. >> host: david for virginia, line for independents. hi, david. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. on the deficits of the united states, the debt and the

deficits. there is an other alternative that people are not considering. the united states government controls 460 million acres of land. a lot of that is land and unusable in a lot of different ways. if they took one % of that, that's 10,000 square miles. you could lease it to company for energy production, was it solar when even possible fuels and you can lease that and you can charge a one-time lease fee. plus, you can have revenue every month based on the percentage of kw produce. that way, you would create the tremendous amount of revenue. it would not require taxes to go up, you would add hundreds and

thousands of jobs. so, that would be my suggestion and i would like to see doge or one of the other, maybe the department of anterior consider that. just like water and land out in the gulf of mexico, they can use unused land and alaska and arizona. it is a suggestion and thank you for your time. that's it. thank you. >> caller: that was david. this headline in "usa today," deadline looming for trump to avoid a government shutdown. there is one week to go until federal funding dries up d the u.s. government shutdown if

congress can't pass legislation by march 14th. yes, americans have seen this show before. particularly during president trump's first term and most recently right before christmas last year when the republicans was preparing to take office for a second time. americans have felt it, too. a shutdown would force majority of federal workers stop working and go without pay. services deemed essential such as border protection, air traffic control and power grid maintenance as well as payments for social social security and medicare and medicaid would continue. other services would be interrupted, services and national parks would be closed. environmental and flood inspections would stop. researchers at the national institute of health would not be able -- right now republican leaders in both chambers say they want to extend the current funding known as a continuing

resolution or as they are through the end of fiscal year on september 30th. it says that house speaker mike johnson told reporters that the details of the proposal will be available as soon as friday. a vote is expected on tuesday and louisiana lawmakers say they think there will be enough republicans onboard to successfully pass it. a few minutes left in open forum. let's talk to brenda in new jersey, line for democrats. hi, brenda. >> caller: good morning, america. i am calling to give my opinion. i think democrats are doing a very bad job. i have been a democrat all my life. i will tell you something, for what i have seen them doing lately is just so uncalled for. i don't understand why they don't give the president a

chance, instead they pull them apart and it is just not fair. he's trying to change america for the better. although i am still a democrat, i think i am switching over to becoming a republican. what has the democrats done for me or for other people? >> host: brenda, did you vote for president trump? >> caller: no, i didn't. i see what's going on now and how unfair the democrats are being and other people that are doing nothing. it is just not right. >> host: brenda in new jersey. gilbert in birmingham, alabama.

>> caller: thank you, c-span. i like to encourage fellow americans to continue, we talk about going primary and everybody that didn't voted. when we think about this doge thing, government accountability everywhere. who's going to check out the doge. he's got no checks the balance. as long as we got these strong output of citizens. the changes are going to be made. thank you so much. >> host: in pennsylvania, line for democrats. hi, rita. >> caller: i think donald trump has not been doing anything but using the office of the president to go after his

enemies and people that punished him for crimes that he actually committed. he's done nothing to deal with them and most people voted for him and that's inflation. he's disgusting to the ukrainian people. he's making it easier for putin to do whatever he wants to destroy these people. he said that putin wants to make peace. how can you say somebody wants to make peace when they are killing innocent children and everything. trump says that from now on, - the way he's acting towards putin and praising him and love letters from kim jong-un, maybe he should change what he's wearing and take off his pants and put on a dress, thank you. >> host: san francisco, hi, cindy. >> caller: good morning, sandy. i want to point out to everyone over the course of biden's four

years, president trump was saying that if he had been elected, putin would never have invaded ukraine and one time, just one time president trump said that ukraine, zelenskyy invaded russia. for all this and everybody is just so upset because he said that one time. for years he had said that putin would have never invaded ukraine if he had been reelected. i am just finding this hysteria over one time that he said this hysteria from democrats to be a little outlandish. that's all i had to say.

>> host: cindy in california. a couple of callers bringing up daylight savings time. this is from axios. daylight savings time start sunday with spring forward. the semiannual change of the clock is this sunday. most of the country will spring forward into daylight savings time after more than four months in standard time. lawmakers attempt to get rid of the twice a year time change and switch to permanent daylight savings time has not gained traction. president trump said it is hard to get excited about changing daylight saving time and calling it a 50/50 issue. senator rick scott reintroduced sunshine act in january to lock the clock.

representative buchanan introduced a legislation in the house and just a reminder that the official time switch is at 2:00 a.m. local time on sunday. tomorrow, unfortunately, that means we are losing an hour of sunrise and sunset. sunrise will be one hour later on sunday and on saturday. a few calls left, donald in nebraska, good morning, donald. >> caller: yes. that caller was talking about covid vaccination and she was whining. as far as daylight savings time. it is no big deal. i am 78-year-old and i have been living with it forever. as far as trump, stabbing ukraine in the back, now he's laughing about them people getting killed.

sooner or later just trump administration being implode from the inside because they tired of elon and tired of trump. i like to see trump put that 250% tariffs on canada. i want to see that. thank you. >> host: our last call for today's program, rich from pennsylvania. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. i think people need to take time out during the day and go to the genesis and land of confusion. the video, oh, superman where are you now when everything is going wrong somehow. i hear all these people complaining and crying, biden this and biden that. when did you see reagan kiss up to putin? no, they sat down.

they had the leader of poland started it all. let's go back in history and look and see what made our country great, okay? it is not cutting off our ally. nato is there for a reason, okay? all you trumpers out there need to wake up and realize that we are living in a land of confusion. you better wake up before it is too late. before you hear the defeat of marching in the streets. that's all. >> host: that's our last call for today's program. thank you to our audience and our guests who joined us. we are back tomorrow with another program. until then, enjoy your day. >> sn

people who did not show up for our community. the allies who simply went