journal">> and we are joined ts morning by niall stanage, who is a white house columnist for "the hill" newspaper. and he is here this morning to talk about how controversial issues are playing out in state legislatures. niall, good morning. >> it's good to see you. >> all right. you recently wrote a column in "the hill" newspaper, talking about the culture wars and the united states are playing out at the state level. tell us a little bit about why we are seeing. >> i think it depends on the specific issue. so, abortion, obviously, has been a culture war issue for ever. clearly, that's been moved to the states by the supreme court decision about 11 months ago, striking down roe v. wade. now, then you have other additional issues, like so-called so your two laws, which have really come to the four as a matter of debate much more recently. then, in addition to that, you have some politicians -- presidential ambitions caught up in this as well. governor desantis in florida has quite clearly and quite ostentatiously been inserting himself into some of these -- six-week abortion ban, so-ca

host: we are joined by niall stanage, a white house columnist for the hill newspaper to talk about controversial issues are playing out in state legislation. good morning. guest: good to see you. host: you recently wrote a column in the hill newspaper talking about how the culture wars in the united states are playing out at the state level. tell us a little bit about why we are seeing this. guest: it depends on the specific issue. abortion has been a culture war issue forever. clearly, that has been moved to the states by the supreme court decision 11 months ago. then, you have other additional issues like so-called crt laws, which have come to the force as a matter of debate more recently. in addition, you have some politicians presidential ambitions caught up in this. ron desantis from florida has been asserting himself into some of these debates. abortion ban, so-called anti-woke act. host: why are we seeing this being built in state legislatures rather than in washington, in congress at the white house? why are we seeing this coming up in the gubernatorial and legislative at the state level