Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240704

A surprise. Not a surprise was to both independence and accountability that was doubted by key republicans. Where will the hunter biden investigation go from here . How will the Biden Campaign respond . Will the mounting legal troubles of hunter biden and donald trump obscure other issues and candidates in the 2024 president ial race . It is saturday, august 12, 2023. Good morning and welcome to washington journal. Those questions and more about the announcement of the special counsel. We would like to hear your thoughts. 202 7488001 is the line to call for republicans. It is 202 7488000 for democrats. For independents and others, 202 7488002. You can send us a text at 202 7488003. Tell us your name and where you are texting from. We will also look for your comments on facebook and twitter, cspanwj. We will give you the chance to hear all of Merrick Garlands brief comments from yesterday. We will look at some analysis and update where the investigation is now. And we will hear from you on the hunter biden at best occasion and the announcement of david weiss as special counsel. 202 7488001 is the republican line. 202 7488000 the democrat line and 202 7488002 for independents and all others. This is the hill special counsel named. Four things to know and we will touch on one of those. Attorney general Merrick Garlands move to elevate david weiss to special counsel in the hunter biden investigation sits against the backdrop of multiple gop investigations. It puts the focus back on two irs whistleblowers and comes as a plea deal has evaporated. Garland made the announcement friday and was met with republican\and printing backlash and of questions. The hill writes the attorney generals announcement comes as the House Republicans intensify multiple probes into issues surrounding hunter biden, which were fueled by testimony from two irs whistleblowers, who criticized how weiss and the department of justice handled the investigation. They claim the Justice Department slow walked the hunter biden investigation, gave him preferential treatment, and declined to pursue charges in california and washington, d. C. Where there were stronger evidence. The whistleblowers also alleged weiss was denied special counsel status. Both weiss and garland have denied doing so, saying if he desired special status, it would be approved. David weiss was named yesterday in an afternoon News Conference for Merrick Garland. Heres with the attorney general had to say. [video clip] in the july 2023 letter to congress, mr. Weiss said he had not asked for special counsel. On tuesday mr. Weiss said his investigation have reached a stage at which he could continue his work as special counsel and he asked to be so appointed. Upon considering his request and the extraordinary circumstances related to this matter, i have concluded it is in the Public Interest to appoint him as special counsel. This appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. Weiss all the resources he requests. It reaffirms mr. Weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently, based only on the facts and the law. Mr. Weiss will also continue to serve as u. S. Attorney for the district of delaware. As special counsel, he will have the authority and responsibility he has previously exercised to oversee the investigation and decide where, when, and whether to file charges. The special counsel will not be subject to the daytoday overseeing by the department but he must comply with the regulations. Consistent with regulations, at the conclusion of mr. Weiss work, he will provide me a report explaining the decisions reached by him. As with each special counsel who has served since i have taken office, i am committed to making as much of his or public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and public policy. Todays announcement affords the prosecutors, agents, and analysts working on this matter the ability to proceed with their work expeditiously and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. The men and women undertaking this investigation are Public Servants who have dedicated their careers to protecting the citizens of this country. The appointment of mr. Weiss reinforces for the American People the departments commitment to both independence and accountability, and particularly, sensitive matters. Host some of the announcement yesterday by attorney general Merrick Garland on appointing david weiss as special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. Leading the republican side in the house has been james comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, who tweeted yesterday saying that the move by the attorney general is part of the Justice Departments efforts to attempt a biden family cover. In light of the gops mounting evidence of President Bidens role in his familys schemes selling the brand for millions of dollars to foreign nationalists. 202 7488001 is the line for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. Independents and others use 202 7488002. Lets go to new york and hear from rob on the democrats line. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Bill, you are one of the best. Thank you. As far as hunter biden is concerned, my feeling is that there may influencing matters that arise. But i feel it is nickels and dimewhen we spend millions on this investigation. I hate to sound like a broken record but the issues with Jared Kushner and billions of dollars from the saudis and his wife, the ivanka trump with her chinese patents and her ability to do business there when others could not, and the huge sums of money. If you are going to spend money on an investigation, it should be money that comes back to the taxpayer. The fortunes that the kushner and trump family were able to extract from the saudis and the chinese is mountains compared to these nickels and dimes. With hunter biden i think the american taxpayer deserves a return from issues like this. Thank you again. Keep on keeping on. Host timothy in saint augustine, florida on the republican line. Caller how are you this money . Host fine. Caller good. I was a former u. S. Treasury official and i am very disappointed at the decision made. During my tenure we prosecuted criminals in nearly threeyear or sixyear statute of limitations. We went back 13 years and were persecuted if we allowed the statute of limitations to expire. This has never, ever happened before and im disappointed in the decisions. Host you are disappointed in the decision to announce the special counsel . Or are you disappointed in the investigation itself . Caller both. It is very disappointing to see how some people cannot use the law how it should be. Host lets hear from robert on the independent line in maryland. Caller good morning. All this is is a direct violation of the law. They have done this for the simple reasons the last caller brought it up running out the statute of limitations. Mr. Weiss already let the statute run out on tax charges. You have witness testimony that backs this up. That is their intent. The statute of limitations is coming up now. The second thing that benefits them is when they are subpoenaed to come in front of congress now their testimony will be, we cannot comment. We have an Ongoing Investigation that they could run for infinity. Certainly past the president ial election. It is pretty obvious what they have done. Why the media is so stupid not to realize they are being manipulated on a daily basis. But the reasons for what they did is what i said. They do not have to answer any questions for subpoenas. Host let me ask you, do you think now with the appointment of weiss there were calls for additional charges in california and here in washington, d. C. Does this open the ability for the department of justice to bring forth those charges, which they have already investigated and said they could not bring up charges . Caller i believe the evidence will show they will run out the statute of limitations on these cases past the president ial election and will not testify in congress. Look at the Bank Statements from hunter biden and joe biden. Joe biden has committed treason. He has sold out this country and that is the bottom line and they are doing everything in their power to cover it up. This government is crooked. This election is rigged. This is a rigged system and the American People need to realize that. Host crystal is in pennsylvania, democrats line. Caller good morning. I remember the trump followers or the republicans used to say it was a nothing burger. That is the way i feel about the hunter biden thing. I did not vote for hunter biden. I do not really care if hunter biden is convicted of any crime that he committed. I do not have a problem with that. However, what the republicans are trying to do is mix hunter biden with joe biden and they are different. If hunter biden calls his father while he was in a meeting, so what . That is the way i feel. I have nothing to say about hunter biden. I voted for joe biden. They voted for trump. Trump is a criminal. Joe biden is not a criminal. They keep coming up with all of these accusations about how joe got money and they cannot come up with a witness. Every witness they had has said, no, he was not involved. Host this is the hill story we touched on earlier. Some of the elements in the aftermath of the special counsel, the headline, republicans rip special counsel move despite previous calls. Some republicans pushed garland to appoint a special counsel in the hunter biden case with many signing a letter saying weiss should be elevated to that role. But in the wake of fridays announcement republicans raise alarms about how a special counsel could interfere with their own investigations. Here is a tweet from the House Speaker himself, kevin mccarthy, saying this action by the doj cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the biden family corruption. If weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that cannot get approved, how can he be trusted as special counsel . House republicans will pursue. We will get more from other members of congress as well. We will go to tom in bethlehem, pennsylvania. Make sure you mute your volume and go ahead with your comment. Caller ok, fine. Good morning. Host good morning. Caller the investigation and everything that is going on in washington with hunter biden is only a smokescreen to protect the biden family corruption brand. Host how so . Caller if it were you and i and we got millions of dollars from a foreign country and the people negotiating this, mainly hunter biden, was not allowed to do that would you consider me legitimate, honest . No, you wouldnt. Why would we consider hunter biden legitimate or honest . If my father was president and he decided, well, i think i am going to do everything i can to obstruct the investigation of my son because he is the major key to my biden family corruption and the ability to spread the money around through the family, why would i prosecute him . I would put everything in there to stop that. That is why mr. Weiss has been elevated. Host that is toms view reflecting that of the trump campaign. Spokesperson saying crooked j biden, hunter bidenanthe Biden Crime Family have been protected for decades, even though there is overwhelming ence and credible testimony detailing their wrongdoing of lying to the American People, g out to foreign enemies for the bidens cartel own gain. If the specinsel was truly independent, although it appears he failed to bring proper charges a fouryear inveion, and appears to be moving this to a democrat from the venue, he will quickly conclude joeiden, his son hunter, and the media, which colluded with the 51 intelligence agents who misled the public about hunters laptop, should face the consequences. That from the trump campaign. Doug on the democrats line. Go ahead. Doug in florida, you are on the air. One more time, doug on the democrats line. John in east hampton, massachusetts. Caller this is hilarious. I am an independent. Anybody can say that trump stunk, great, but biden stinks. How did the bidens get money . The underage bidens get money to sell out the country. Why do they hide the money . Why did they need to put it in offshore accounts . Everybody talked about Jared Kushner. He had something that he did and he got the money legitimately. There was not 170 fars put out on him during that time. It is so funny that everybody sees the devil in trump but they see nothing wrong with joe biden. He is a great family man and loves his family. Where did the money come from . We are tracing it down and Everyone Wants to say there is no connection to joe. Treason and bribery does not need to be paid directly to the person, it can be paid to the family. But nobody cares about that. Everybody wants to complain about donald trump. Maybe they can get a vaccine for donald trump host greg is on the democrats line. Caller won was the last time special counsel was appointed to investigate a private citizen . It reminds me of why would they not investigate trump . They were running money through his hotel in downtown washington, d. C. I invite joe biden to set up a hotel, run through that, and i invite him to tell the republicans just like the republicans and trump did when the democrats were investigating trump for the impeachment. Host talking about the announcement yesterday by attorney general Merrick Garland and the appointment of attorney david weiss in the special as special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. 202 7488001 is the line for republicans. Democrats, it is 202 88000. Independents and others, 202 7488002 on the jiciary committee senator Lindsey Graham reacting to the announcement. [video clip] this is a political decision, not a legal decision. They are trying to put out a fire and they poured gasoline on it. Nobody in their right mind making him special counsel cleans up the mess that has been created. If it were not for the house of representatives, we would not for we would not know any of this. On october 7, 2022, the whistleblower says, i was in a room where my mr. Weiss told me the decision to bring charges and where to bring charges, he was overruled. It was not decision. On june 7 he writes a letter of this year to jim jordan saying i have all the authority i need. He writes one to me and said i could have all the authority i need. This does not pass the smell test. They tried to give hunter biden a deal no other american would get. The judge asked hard questions, the plea agreement blew up, and to think the guy that wrote the plea agreement is seriously going to continue to investigate the bidens is laughable. The guy that wrote the plea agreement did it in a fashion to give hunter biden the biggest break in american legal history. Does anybody in their right mind trust the weiss team to continue to fairly and impartially investigate the hunter biden, joe biden matter . I dont. Host reaction from senator Lindsey Graham. His colleague on the judiciary committee, senator dick durbin, democrat of illinois, with th reaction. A statement after the attorney general garland has committevoiding even the appearance of politicization at the Justice Department and his appointment of the special counsel demoates that commitment yet again. In President Bidens decision to keep david weiss on in delaware when he was sworn in stn stark contract to former prt trumps repeated efforts to use the Justice Department and attorney general as h psonal lawyer. David weiss is a distguhed prosecutor and i trust the Justice Departments professional, nonptin approach will carry on as the special counsel continues his investigation. Rich is calling from ohio on the republican line. Welcome. Caller interesting conversations. It seems that the bidens needed approval for foreign negotiations that everyone else has and go to jail if they do not have it. The second one is our Justice Department has certain rules and rigths and obligations. In order to get special counsel they cannot set a special counsel outside the government. I do not know how they can have that right to set up a counsel not outside of government. The problem is inside the government you have all kinds of funny things that happened, like any organization. I do not know how you jump that legal line. Maybe the Justice Department can but i do not even think they have rules. Otherwise we get in these weird things that happen. I will hang up and listen to your answer. Host tim is in wisconsin. Caller hello. I think that was a guy from arlington. The reason they are going after hunter biden is because his dad is the big guy. I love the way democrats and radical leftists always deflect the subject. Donald trumps kids did not take any money while they were in the white house. They took that money after they got out of the white house. Number two is they are assigning him special counsel. Now there are certain things he does not have to answer. He can stonewall the committee and say i cannot talk about an Ongoing Investigation. And it is probably going to work. Host he probably could not comment in that regard before hand. He has an investigation going on. He cannot she was already leading the investigation so he could not have commented. Caller i thought the special counsel gave him more rights i am not exactly sure. Now that this has happened they will ride this to the president ial election and probably get away with it. Good luck to everybody out there because we are going to have another crooked biden presidency. Pray for this country. Host here is background on david weiss. He was appointed by President Trump to serve as u. S. Attorney for the district of delaware. He was sworn in february 22, 2018. Previously served as a First Assistant u. S. Attorney from 2007 to 2009 an acting and u. S. Interim for the district of delaware. He began as a law clerk for the delaware supreme court. Victoria in kentucky is next on the democrats line. Caller we are just hillbillies down here. Host naw. Caller this is a bunch of bs. It is a ploy from trump and the republicans to take joe biden down. To me it is like, why dont they leave the kids alone and go for what joe biden has done and what trump has done . The other thing republicans are, did they all take the money joe biden put out after covid . What was it called, the stimulus money . How many took it . I did not see any of them turn it down here in kentucky. But they complain about how joe biden is running the country. I think it is going great. That is my personal opinion from a woman in kentucky. Host glad to hear from you. Lets go to jerry calling from broadway, virginia on the republican line. Jared, sorry. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller what attorney garland did was illegal to begin with. This is not supposed to be a special counsel. It is supposed to be an independent counsel. Someone outside the Justice Department that is under his own laws. He is violating his own laws. This man has already proven he is partisan. Host do you think there is anything to be gained by appointing the attorney that was already leading the investigation . Could it be that david weiss had more to investigate and they do not have to reinvent the wheel by appointing an outside attorney . Caller he was already investigating for five years and all he has done is cover up for the bidens. He can now continue to cover up for the bidens. It is supposed to be an independent counsel, not a special counsel. Host thanks for pointing out some of thenalysi peter baker in the new york times, the headline, a political liability that might not go away soon. He writes they thought it was over or they could put in the rearview mirror, all that hunter biden had to do was show up in the courtroom, answer questions, sign some paperwork, and that would be it. Not that the republicans would let it go but any real danger would be passed. Except the did not work that way. The criminal investigation has been given new life with the collapse of the plea agreement and the appointment of a special counsel who now might bring the president s some to trial. What had been a painful, but rather contained scandal, could now extend for months as the president is gearing up for his reelection campaign. This time the questions about Hunter Bidens conduct may be harder for the white house to dismiss as politically motivated. They may even break out of the echo chamber to the public, which is largely not paid attention until now. It remains unclear whether hunter biden faces criminal exposure beyond the tax and gun charges lodged against him by david weiss, the prosecutor first appointed in 2018 to investigate him by donald trump. It may be that Merrick Garlands decision to designate mr. Weiss as special counsel with more independence to run the inquiry means there is potential legal peril stemming from Hunter Bidens business dealings with foreign firms. 202 7488001 the line for republicans. It is 202 7488000 for democrats. And for independents and all others, 202 7488002. I just want to update you on a couple of promotional programming notes coming up this weekend. Today the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the march on washington at the Lincoln Memorial and washington, d. C. Rev. Al sharpton and the family of mlk will be there. That begins at 11 00 eastern. Will have live coverage on cspan. You can follow on the mobile app, cspan now, and you can also follow online at cspan. Org. I want to tell you about the busy day in the Nations Capital. We will tell you about our coverage coming up on the National Book festival getting underway at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan 2. We are in iowa as well today with campaign 2024 coverage. That is this afternoon. We will have coverage at cspan. Org starting this morning. Nikki haley, ron desantis, former President Donald Trump all part of the coverage. Check cspan. Org for the schedule. Lets go to dusty calling on the independent line in myrtle beach, south carolina. You are on the air. Caller this is a smokescreen by mr. James comer. Donald trump has asked comer to pursue this false accusation about President Biden taking bribes. When biden was in the ukraine when he was Vice President he said they had to get rid of that crooked d. A. Biden came back over and started running for president then. If he wanted to dig up dirt on President Biden, why did he not bring it up in the 2020 election . Now he has got somebody who is weak like james comer. I watched james comer talk about this. He made of accusations that never came up with any proof. He has never came up with any proof. Even hannity has asked comer and then the whistleblower come out and he has five or six charges against him. Host we will hear from james comer later on. The brief statement by Merrick Garland yesterday announcing the appointment of david weiss as special counsel. [video clip] i am here today to announce david weiss as special counsel, assistant with the department of justice regulations. In keeping with regulations i have notified the designated members of each house of congress of the appointment. In february of 2018, after being nominated by the former president and confirmed by the senate, mr. Weiss was sworn in for the district of delaware. Mr. Weiss had been a career prosecutor having served in the office for more than a decade. Beginning in 2019 mr. Weiss in his capacity as attorney, and along with federal enforcement partners, began investigating allegations of criminal conduct by, among others, Robert Hunter biden. That investigation has been recently referenced in the district of delaware and as noted in those proceedings and other statements by mr. Weiss office that investigation remains ongoing. In february 2021, u. S. Attorney weiss was asked to remain as u. S. Attorney for the district of delaware and to continue to lead the investigation. As i said before, mr. Weiss would be permitted to continue his investigation, take any investigative steps he wanted, and make the decision whether to prosecute in any district. Mr. Weiss has told congress that he has been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including the responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges, and for making decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of any prosecution consistent with federal law, the principles of federal prosecution, and departmental policies. In a july 2023 letter to congress, mr. Weiss said he had not to that point requested special counsel designation. On tuesday of this week mr. Weiss advised me that in his judgment his investigation had reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed. Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, i have concluded that it is in the Public Interest to appoint him special counsel. This appointment confirms my commitment to provide mr. Weiss all the resources he requests. It also reaffirms that mr. Weiss has the authority he needs to conduct a thorough investigation and continue to take the steps he deems appropriate independently, based only on the facts and the law. Mr. Weiss will also continue to serve as u. S. Attorney for the district of delaware. As special counsel, he will continue to have the authority and responsibility he has previously exercised to oversee the investigation and decide where, when, and whether to file charges. The special counsel will not be subject to the daytoday supervision of any official of the department but must comply with regulations and procedures of the department. Consistent with the special counsel regulations, at the conclusion of mr. Weiss work, he will provide me a report of the prosecution or declination decisions reached by him. As with each special counsel who has served since i have taken office, i am committed to making as much of his report public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and department policy. Todays announcement affords the prosecutors, agents, and analysts the ability to proceed expeditiously and make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. The men and women undertaking this investigation are Public Servants who have dedicated their careers to protecting the citizens of this country. The appointment of mr. Weiss reinforces for the American People the departments commitment to both independence and accountability, and particularly, sensitive matters. I am confident that mr. Weiss will carry out his responsibility in an evenhanded and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department. Thank you. Host the entire statement from the attorney general yesterday on announcing david weiss as the special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. 202 7488001 of line for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats and for independents and others, 202 7488002. Lots of reaction via text and twitter. This one says it amazes me if i tried to do it. We would be looking through bars. The whole bunch in d. C. Only care about lining their nest. The republicans are trying to point the finger at hunter biden so we will take the country off there darling donnie, says bob. The biden laptop debacle cover and the information was underreported. Many americans were upset over it. Mainstream democratic networks downplayed it and are just as culpable. This tweet says, this was not just a tax issue. It was reduced to a tax issue. To claim he paid his taxes misses the problem completely. I want to correct myself. I mentioned the march on washington coverage. It is not today but two weeks from today. That is coming up in two weeks. We will have coverage but not today. Lots of other coverage on the networks and you can find that at cspan. Org. Back to the calls and liz is in jonesboro, georgia on the democrats line. Caller i have a new term. We heard the term rhino. I think we need a new term for cspan. I know these people who are independent in name only. Every independent caller has come down on the republican side except that lone person who had a different point of view. The second thing is it is amazing to me that people are parroting and saying the biden Crime Organization without a single shred of evidence. Nothing has been confirmed that they can see with their own eyes and that they can hear with their own ears. If anybody is acting mafia, it has been the donald trump organization. Leslie, mr. Weiss lastly, mr. Weiss being appointed, the judge said, is there other things you are investigating . He said yes. That is what he is doing. Garland has bent over backward to try and illustrate that his department is objective. You are damned if you do and damned if you dont. Thank you. Host next is robert in aurora, indiana on the republican line. Caller i dont know why this man puts up with what these people do to him. They never convicted him of anything yet. It is always trump, trump, trump. The man has done his job. He wants to take all of these crap from these democrats who think he is crooked. Biden is probably the crookedest guy in government. He dont know how to talk. He is stupid. If we do not get our government straightened out, country is dead. You people wake up. Host on the former president and the january 6 case, this from the associated press. Judge warns of restraints to what trump can talk about. The federal judge overseeing the election conspiracy case against donald trump warned friday there are limits on what the former president can publicly say about evidence in the investigation as he campaigned for a second term. Presiding over her first hearing for the case u. S. District judge Tanya Chutkan heard argument the how to structure a protective order for evidence turnover by prosecutors, a common step in criminal cases. She stressed that Political Considerations would not guide her decisions. She repeatedly said trump was the subject was subject to the courts rules as a defendant before trial, even as he runs for the 2024 nomination for president. Next is eugene on the independent line in boston. Caller good morning. I am an independent who voted for donald trump but i could not vote for him again. We witnessed treason on january 6. It is amazing to me people calling in keep calling and saying joe biden has committed treason. Treason was what you witnessed january 6. Donald trump has Bank Accounts in china. Joe biden does not. He has Bank Accounts in saudi arabia. Joe biden does not. He has Bank Accounts in russia. Joe biden does not. That 2 billion to kushner . 1 billion was the coverup and the other billion was to smooth the way in so donald trump could sell out an entire American Sports industry, golf. I do not hear the republicans saying anything about that. That was very patriotic about donald trump to sell out an entire American Sports industry. Why hasnt Virginia Thomas been charged with treason . She is one of the key organizers of january 6. They should not just banging on the little people. The people who set it up need to catch time and be charged. Until that happens america is not going to be able to refocus. That crime wave was started by donald trump and what he did through january 6. After that happened what type of impression do you think that gave criminals, after what donald trump did . That is what set off this crime wave in america. You can attribute that to donald trump too. Host kavan in marshall, texas on the republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I thought investigating hunter biden was an impeachable offense. I was curious if congress is going to go back and rescind their previous impeachment for investigating him. I got to tell you, i have absolutely no faith and it is sad. I have no faith in this doj and our Justice System. This is not about hunter biden. I do not care about hunter biden. And it is not about trump, it is not about any of that. He got a Justice System that is so empowered it things it can pick the next president , and that is what is going to happen this time. Whatever the outcome is this is going to decide who our next president is. Host when did that mistrust of the Justice Department start for you . What triggered that . Caller honestly, if you look at the history of the fbi from j edgar to Martin Luther king, from the kennedys to now, given that much power over everything economy, Foreign Relations it is going to get corrupt. I think it is too big. For me it has always been something to think about. Waco, all of this, they have got too much. Host appreciate your call. Aaron in heath, ohio, independent line. Caller how are you today . Host fine. Caller i have been in Law Enforcement years ago and did my fair share of undercover work. I would like to direct everybodys attention to something we forget about and have not looked at because it is history. Mk ultra. There was a very secret project run by the cia that went down into the air force and the army. It was determined that they did a lot of things that was illegal. When they were investigated they destroyed every record they had about the subject so they could not be prosecuted. Now it comes back to a Government Agency that they knew these things happened and they did not prosecute any individual in those cases. Now we have the hunter biden thing where we had 51 that signed a letter that turned out to be false. Being a member of Law Enforcement anyone who did that should have been criminal charged, but they were not, because the law states you cannot give false information to Law Enforcement. They did. Not only to Law Enforcement but to the public and misled them. Where are the crime that are going to be prosecuted against the 51 that gave false information not only to their department but the public of this country . It goes well beyond the bidens. It goes to every Law Enforcement officer that is willing to commit such an act to this country. It is about time that we wake up, america, and understand what is going on. A lot of it is going to be buried. There is evidence being created and being found on both sides. Host last week Hunter Bidens business associate testified. This is the headline from usa today after that take away, five takeaways from devon archers testimony. There was no business conversation. The chair of the committee, james comer, talking about a memo of alleged payments. Here he is earlier this week on newsmax. [video clip] first of all, it confirms the president of the United States has been lying to the American People for years about his involvement in his familys shady business dealings. We believe every Single Person that wired the bidens money, that joe biden communicated in some form or fashion with every one of them, even sitting down for dinners with these people. All of these people who sent the bidens millions of dollars are people who are in trouble in some country around the world, usually their own country. They are all bad people. They are all bad characters, bad actors, and they are all from adversarial countries to the United States. One thing they have in common is they needed something from the federal government. It is becoming more clear every day this is a pay to play scheme where the president s son was out front but joe biden was working behind the scene, communicating with every one of these characters multiple times. You look at the money trail and i wonder what these people from Foreign Countries why were they paying the biden grandchildren . What did they have to do with it . I think that is more part of the Money Laundering scheme. Six different banks, major banks in america, have accused the bidens of Money Laundering. That is a serious federal crime. If you look at the payment we disclosed yesterday in a third bank memorandum,s payments would always go through one or two companies first. The exact amount was monitored from the oligarch to the show company and then the Company Purchased the car. They always put it through a company first. That is Money Laundering. When you set up a bunch of companies for Money Laundering, that is called racketeering. The number of crimes this family has committed continue to grow on a weekly basis. But the one thing that is most important to us from our investigative standpoint is that joe biden knew darn well who his family was receiving money from. Host the chair of the Oversight Committee from a couple of days ago on newsmax. Other congressional reaction. This is california congressman Democrat Robert garcia tweeting, just a friendly reminder that there is zero evidence that lynns Hunter Bidens business dealings with the president. Nothing has changed. Jim jordan says, david weiss said he did not have the power he needed and wanted special counsel status. Then he said he had all the power he needed and now he gets special counsel status because he did not have the power he needs . Something is not right. The majority whip these gullies, lets be clear, the majority will continue using our Constitutional Authority to investigate Hunter Bidens corruption and any ties to joe biden himself. Now to the Olympic Peninsula in forks, washington. Doug on the republican line. Caller good morning. Trumps kid that was selling clothes in china and all of that and that his son in law, they were in business. Trump has been in business forever. That is what they did to make money. But today we are talking about hunter and the attorney they just got, he is on the same team. There is nothing different there. My main point is why do we keep talking about trump . He is going to jail. He is done. All of them are. But why dont the democrats agree with me on this . Where did the bidens and why did they get millions and millions of dollars . They do not have a company, they do not sell anything, so why do they get millions of dollars . That is the whole thing. And it is about hunter, not trump. Thank you. Host samantha calling from inverness, florida on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I wanted to comment about how bad it is that the gop has really they have copied trumps skill at projection. By calling the biden family a Biden Crime Family it is taking our eyes off the fact that the trump family business, which is a longstanding questionable business, is truly are people that i Hope Congress will investigate in the future. Especially in light of their direct participation in our government while mr. Trump was in office. But the trumpy gop has learned a lot from donald trump, because donald trump is king of projecting onto others the crime that he is actually doing. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking my call. Host we got a couple of comments on social media. This is james in aberdeen, south carolina. There is zero evidence against joe biden. This is a nothing burger and has been for five years. It is a distraction from their socalled leader. In honolulu, hawaii, the hunter biden investigation has been going on for five years i believe. That is a long time for tax fraud with nothing to show. Another dud for republicans while they do not do work for u. S. Citizens. Republicans have no shame, just lies. If hunter biden paid his taxes, this is a moot issue. Are we making a special counsel to cool the hotheads around the country . Jersey girl says, why are republicans moving the goal posts . We have been calling that a special counsel is needed and now one is appointed and it is a cover up. Just the latest from the horrific fire in lahaina. This is the headline from the daily mail, the maui wildfire death toll rises to 80 with 1500 missing. Making that blaze the worst Natural Disaster in hawaii state history. Lets hear from dave in liverpool, new york on the independent line. Caller good morning. Sorry to maui. Our hearts go out to them. The biden issue. It is basically donald trump versus joe biden. Donald trump is a sleezebag so of he is throwing this dirt. Joe biden has done a great job. When trump was president [indiscernible] host anderson, south carolina, leah is next. Caller hunter biden reminds me of the brothers cain and abel and hunter is cain. We have this horrible president , biden. Look at the lies he has told from way back. Even how he was the top of his class in college. He has lied to the American People. He is telling people he is going to pay for their college and they are so gullible that they believe him. He is such a liar and the cookie trail goes straight to him. What can they pull out of their hat . Little green men and flying saucers. Thank you. Host bob calling from oregon, democratic caller. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller my first point is the reason we are talking about donald trump has everybody missed the point he is putting fear out there talking about nuclear war . And how he can stop it within 48 hours . Did he start it . You had a caller that called in on the third of august and said, and i quote, democrats should not be christians. I was baptized, sang in the choir, my mother was a secretary so i did janitorial work, i did everything for my church and in all those years of bible study i did not read anywhere and if somebody can prove me wrong, please do because i would like to read it for myself i did not read anywhere where donald trump was there to help jesus christ. Host one more call. Tulsa, oklahoma, tim on the republican nine. Caller good morning. 20 million have been transferred from russia, china, ukraine, other bad actors to the biden family. And the Justice Department knows this. They have had the evidence since getting the hunter laptop on the crimes and there has been no action taken. They have actually allowed the statute of limitations to run out. Trump was impeached for asking the ukraine president about the biden corruption. He was impeached after the fbi got the hunter laptop and the Washington Post reported on this before the election. 51 criminal leaders in the Intelligence Community gave joe biden a talking point between him and trump. We have corruption throughout. The democrats support that corruption. All of these democrat callers become corrupt themselves for supporting a corrupt fbi and Justice Department. Host there is more ahead on washington journal. Ahead, we will be joined by matt schultz. He is chief credit analyst with lending tree. We will be talking about the credit limit deadline, and what it means for the broader economy. Later in our spotlight on podcasts segment we will talk with overly about the big policy debates here in washington. This year, but tv celebrates 20 five years of presenting Nonfiction Books and author 25 years of presenting Nonfiction Books and authors. Since 2001 book tv has provided uninterrupted coverage of the National Book festival, featuring hundreds of nonfiction authors and guests. Watch today as we bring you coverage of the National Book festival. See our complete National Book festival coverage. Sunday night on cspans q and a, james rosen, author of scalia talks about the first of his 2 part biography about antonin scalia. Scully recoiled from the excesses of the student antiwar scalia recoiled from the excesses of the student Antiwar Movement of the 60s. You cannot understand how he got to be Justice Scalia without understanding the elements of his academic career. James rosen with his book scalia on cspans q and a. You can listen to all of our podcasts on the cspan now app. Cspans campaign 2024 coverage is your front row seat to the president ial election. Watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, and speeches. Follow along on cspan or on cspan now. Org. Washington journal continues. Host just this past week of the Federal Reserve bank of new york reported americans are now 1 trillion in Credit Card Debt. To help us understand that and what it might mean for the broader economy, we are joined by matt schultz, chief credit analyst with lending tree. Com. Tell us about lending tree. What does your company do . Guest lending tree is an online marketplace where you can go and search for reddit card loans, auto loans, personal loans, mortgages. We are not a lender. We are a middleman to help people find the best prices on loans and compare rates, but we also have an Editorial Team that creates a lot of great content to help people make smart decisions about their money, and what to do when they have acquired credit. Host you said you are more of a broker, a guide for folks shopping for credit cards, for loans. What is lending trees relationship with the Credit Card Companies . Guest lending tree on the business side collects a bounty for every person who successfully applies for a credit card through our site. In my role, we have editorial independence in terms of what we put out there. As somebody who spent most of my professional career in journalism, the relationship between our Editorial Team and my role at lending tree is very similar to the role of an Editorial Team in any tv station or newspaper as it relates to their Business Program as well. We keep a pretty good divide there. Host your role is chief credit analyst. We mentioned the report from the new york fed on household that. You have seen this coming. Household debt. You have seen this coming. Matt schultz, have you been seeing this rise to 1 trillion coming . What is causing all that Credit Card Debt . Guest there is never only one reason why Credit Card Debt rises, but unfortunately rising Credit Card Debts is a default state for the american consumer. The only time we have seen significant decreases since the fed has been tracking these numbers for decades is in times of economic catastrophe. We saw a drop saw it drop at the onset of the great recession. We sought it drop at the beginning of the pandemic recession. Beyond that we only see Credit Card Debt rise. What a lot of people do not recognize is that it is not just people who are struggling at lower income levels who have Credit Card Debt. Wealthy people, high income people, people with good Credit Scores have it as well. It is often times a matter of how they use that credit card, and the role it fulfills in their financial life. Host the rise in Credit Card Debt means the ability of people to pay is declining. Tell us more about that. Why is the ability to pay such an important factor here . Guest job number one for anyone with a credit card is to pay that bill off as soon as they possibly can, ideally when that bill comes at the end of the month, because if you pay that credit card bill off at the end of the month in most cases you will not have to pay any interest. Then it becomes a good, shortterm, loan you can use lowcost and it can be a very useful tool. Where gets very dangerous is if you keep spending, and you run up debts that you cannot pay off at the end of the month. That is when those Interest Rates kick in. Right now the, average Interest Rate that someone who is carrying a balance from month to month pays is a little over 22 , according to the fed. That is the highest it has been. They have been tracking these numbers since the early 90s. Host has that credit card Interest Rate also tracked the rise in Interest Rates from the Federal Reserve . Guest generally speaking, yeah. The average Interest Rate for new credit card offers is about 24 , and that has risen much in lockstep with the fed. Interest rates for folks who are carrying a balance from month to month so a slightly Different Number there has risen a little bit faster than what the fed has done, but generally speaking, especially for the last 10, 15 years, generally credit card rates have tended to move as the fed moves, and otherwise been fairly stable. Host matt schultz is our guest. He is chief credit analyst with lending tree. We welcome your calls and comments on the issues. 202 7488000 is the line for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. It is 202 7488001 mountain and pacific. We are talking about credit card Consumer Debt with matt schultz. The way we live today, it is a castellanos society. You go to so many a castel e ss society. You are using your credit card for everything, even a coffee. Guest the Cashless Society is overstated. Generally the trend is towards more credit card use, especially we have all run into a coffee shop or any other sort of small retailer and had one of those machines where you tap or swipe or insert your card. And seen that tip mechanism pop up. Often times the options ucr 22 and 25 person options you see are 20 , 22 and, 25 and you have to go out of your way to tip less. We have seen more credit card use. Credit cards do make it easier for you to spend, and they are a tools that requires a lot of discipline. If you are disciplined with it, it can be a lucrative thing because of rewards and things like that, but if you are not it can cause you some trouble. Host you were quoted in a piece in cnbcs your money column. You said in this article a huge test is coming for cardholders, tying the cento Student Loans. Tell us what you mean by that huge test. What will it be and when is it . Guest it is coming later when student loan payments resume for many people in this country. It will be a really big deal. By and large most americans financial margin for error is pretty tiny. That is true even during this student loan payment pause. The introduction the reintroduction of those payments into peoples budgets will force people to reprioritize some of their spending. And that money that now has to go back to paying that student loan bill off will be money that cannot go towards paying Credit Card Debt off, to your Emergency Fund, your retirement, your college fund. It is going to be a real challenge. We do not know exactly what it will look like, but for a whole lot of people in this country it will be a real challenge. Host how has inflation benefactor in inflating Credit Card Debt . Guest it has been a really big deal. Life is really expensive in 2023. Most people do not have a lot of wiggle room financially. As the cost of things has risen over the past year and a half, 2 years it has really squeezed peoples budgets to wear that little bit of wiggle room they had may not be to where that little bit of wiggle room they had may not be there anymore. It means that for some people, if they are not able to put money away to save, it may mean they look at a credit card as a de facto Emergency Fund and end up running up debts if they have to take their dog to the vet or if they have to get a car repair or other kind of lifehappens things like that. It has played a huge role. Host i saw a statistic that more than one third of americans have more Credit Card Debt than they have emergency savings. Guest really, savings is the key to the whole thing. Heaven knows, there have not been a whole lot of positives for the consumer about the Interest Rates rising so consistently for the past year plus, but one of the positives is savings accounts are now yielding a whole lot more than they have been years, so for people who can put a little bit of money away, that money is going to be working harder for them than it has in a while. That is such a big piece. I get asked a bunch of times whether people should focus on savings are knocking down debt, and the answer is they should do both, because if you do not have any savings when that credit card bill gets down to zero, all that happens is that next unexpected expense goes back on that credit card and the cycle of debt keeps spinning. If you have some savings put away that you can handle a little bit of a surprise cost, then die can make a whole bunch of difference and make it to where may be that next big expense does not have to go on your credit card. Host how many and what is the average how Many Americans have Credit Card Debt . What is the average monthly balance that they hold . Guest generally, a little over half of people with credit cards carry a balance from month to month. The average balance, depending on the source that you look at, is around 7,000. That is a lot of money. It is not a lot of money compared to what a lot of people owe on their car loan, their student loan, but it is real money, and it is usually the highest interest debt. That means even if it might be smaller than some other debts you have, it has the most potential to grow, so it is important that you address it. Host we have calls waiting for matt schultz, chief credit analyst for lending tree. Com. Earl is up in detroit, michigan. Caller i noticed some things even about credit reporting agencies that i would like you to address, if you can too. With the credit reporting agencies, the way you get a socalled good score, was to leave cards open. Back in the day if you paid a card off and closed it, then you go then your credit score went up. It is like they encourage you to leave cards open, knowing people are not disciplined really and will use that open limit. They want to leave the limit open. That is how your credit card score goes up. That to me is a scam. You no longer get an increase for paying off cards. They dont even advertiseno more advertise no more come to our company, we have lower rates. It is all about gimmicks. The credit reporting industry, they are part of the problem. Host we will hear from our guest. Guest one thing that is important to understand, and i know a lot of people get frustrated with credit reporting, but one thing that is important to understand is that the consumer is not the primary customer for credit euros and credit scoring Credit Bureaus and credit scoring companies. They are primary customers are the lenders, and their job is to show the lenders who are risky borrowers and who are not. That is what the whole system is built around. It is frustrating for a lot of people because they do see when they have finished paying off a car loan or student loan where there score may drop their score may drop a little bit. That is hard to understand, but generally speaking, what we are seeing over the past 5 years and a little bit before that the industry and that is the industry trying to take in more data points to where people can more Different Things can help people improve their credit, things like experience boost which allows you to connect your bank account so they can see utility bills, cell phone bills and things like that. There are companies who can facilitate rent payments being sent to the Credit Bureaus. I understand the frustration. It is not a perfect system. I dont think anyone will debate that. The good news is there are things being done to try to expand Credit Access to people and to have a lot of the things that people do on a regular basis, and a lot of the bills they pay on a regular basis that are not factored in to have that help people. That is a positive thing. Host next step is homer in north carolina. Caller how are you doing . I am a citibank retiree. Thi right now they are using the steam of low interest for 12 months so people can build up debt. The banks are pushing the issue themselves. They are hitting them with as much as 20 points over the Federal Reserve discount rate. That is one reason this has increased the way it has. Guest there is no question that Interest Rates are as high as they have been. It is interesting he talks about 0 offers, and those are still widely available. Those are one of those things that early 2022 when the fed started raising rates, there were questions about whether those would stay around because banks make less money if they are giving 0 cards when the rates they are paying go up. What we have seen is that those rates, though 0 offers, both typically on Balance Transfers but sometimes on purchases as well have stuck around in part because they are very popular with consumers and like a lot of financial tools, if you handle it well, it can save you a lot of money, but the other side is correct too. Banks love that as well, because it is a way to get customers in the door. It is a lead generator. If they make the right offer, they get you as a customer, and then you have a good results from that credit card, you are more likely to stick around. The longer you stick around , the more likely the bank is to make money off of you. Though 0 cards are not going anywhere anytime soon. Host were are talking about Credit Card Debt, particularly the 1 trillion reported by the Federal Reserve of new york. Our guest is matt schultz. We will go to richard calling from nashville. Caller let me give you a real thing, what i did. I have used a credit card and saved a lot of money, but i have 0 . My mama always told me, keep your credit clean and dont ever use it until you have to. I have done that for 67 years. I have a paid off mortgage. I bought my house for 30,000, and it is worth over 400,000 now. I have always gotten 0 , even on car loans. This time around i got a 3. 49 interest at toyota. My Credit Rating is 840. I have raised a daughter, paid off a mortgage, paid off high school bills on 30,000 a year. I t can be done a year. It can be done. I got 0 for 15 to 18 months, and then i would pay it off every month, and if i could not pay it off i had zero interest. You should not use your own money, if you can be disciplined enough to pay it off. All these hairdos, naildos, the rooster will come home to roost. Your wife cannot take care of your business. You have to do this. Pay off your debt as it comes. Try not to have any debt. It does not matter how much money you make in this world. Guest it sounds host richard, it sounds like you could write the book on it. Thank you for your advice. Guest there are plenty of examples like him of people who have used Balance Transfer cars to save themselves some money cards to save themselves some money. They can be great. Credit cards are like a lot of financial tools. If they are used wisely, they can be really lucrative, but if you dont, it can cause a lot of trouble. One thing i will say about it card debt as a whole, there is never one reason. It can be about confidence or it can be about struggle. We think about it primarily as being about struggle where people run up Credit Card Debt because they have to, because they dont have any choice. The other option would be payday loans have any choice. The other option would be payday loans. Credit cards are about confidence. People may be able to get access to that credit and might feel good enough about their financial situation to use that card to remodel the house or get a new wardrobe before they start a new job, or help their kid get off to college with some new home decorations. There is always a balance between confidence and struggle when it comes to rising Credit Card Debt. I what imagine that today that struggle side is rising a little bit for sure, but we cannot discount the fact that some people are using Credit Card Debt as a tool because they can and less because they absolutely have to. Host if one is going out to get their very first credit card, or getting a new credit card, searching a lower Interest Rate, what are the fine point details they should look for . Where should they look for information on monthly Interest Rates, for example . What are the important things they should know . Guest one of the good things about applying for credit cards at a site like lending tree or a lender website is that there are certain disclosures that need to be made up front. At least broad disclosures that have to be done up front when you apply. What those include are things like the overall Interest Rate on the card. You will not find out your specific one until you apply but issuers are required to provide a range of potential Interest Rates so that can at least give you a ballpark idea, but things like annual fees, Balance Transfer fees, foreign transaction fees, a lot of that has to be spelled out in a big, bold print box that you can generally find on your card issuers website or on a site like lending tree under a link that says pricing and terms, r terms and conditions. A lot of that information is there and that is really important stuff, especially depending on how you use the card, if you are somebody who is just trying to get rewards, it is one thing but if you are somebody trying to pay down debt, or extend that budget a little bit, that data gets even more important. Host lets hear from alan in rhineland, wisconsin. Caller i, want to point out you mentioned Student Loans, Student Loans surpassed Credit Card Debt in 2010. That was 13 years ago at this point. In the meantime, since 13 years ago Student Loans have screamed up but for the repayment pause during covid, we would be well over 2 trillion at this point. Credit card debt has risen quite modestly, only 200 billion since 2010. I have a question unlike all other loans in this country including credit cards, Student Loans are nondischargeable in bankruptcy, and 90 of that debt now is owed directly to the federal government. How wise is it for people to start throwing their student loan payments on a credit card . What is your opinion on this whole thing . What is this student loan nonsense where 100 billion of interest every year is accruing to the federal government, and now we are looking to the private credit industry to lend people money to shovel to the department of education . My real question is do you think Student Loans should be treated the same way as all other loans in this country in bankruptcy proceedings . Guest yeah, it is an interesting question, and it is certainly something that people need to understand before they apply. My son is going to be a seniorin High School Senior in high school here in austin, and it is something first and foremost in our mind, the cost of Student Loans. It is important to understand that a a lot of times bankruptcy is important with student impossible with Student Loans. That is one of the things you need to factor in when you are looking at where you want to send your kid to college or where you want to go to college yourself. One thing i will say myself is it can be possible to Pay College Tuition with a credit card. A a lot of people are like if i can pay it off then maybe if i pay with a credit card i can get a bunch of rewards points and fly off to paris with those rewards, which i would already be paying for anyway. Problem with that is it is th at is often times there are fees associated with paying College Tuition with a credit card that outweigh any rewards you would get from the credit card, while there is the risk that if something were to happen, you had a financial emergency, and you are stuck with all of that debt on your credit card. Host the fight over a bill targeting credit card fees pits Credit Card Companies against retailers. What can you tell us about the credit card competition act . Guest there has been a battle going between Credit Card Networks and banks and retailers for an awful long time. Merchants basically have to pay what are called slight fees to banks and Credit Card Networks in order to accept credit cards at their business. Right now, for most places, the idea of not being able to accept credit cards would just be a nonstarter. It would be a business killer. It is one of those costs merchants have to adapt to. What the credit card competition act does, and it is a bipartisan bill sponsored in part by illinois senator dick durbin who has been involved in credit card legislation in the past going back to dodd frank around the great recession, but what this essentially tries to do is insert a little more competition into the Credit Card Network space. What essentially what happened is for all card issuers above 100 billion in assets, so the top 30 or so card issuers in this country, they would have to on that credit card, they would have to include more than one Credit Card Network they would have to include more than one Credit Card Network. This gets a little wonky, but what a Credit Card Network is, is american, mastercard, discover, visa. They laid the rails a facilitatend rails and facilitate the use of credit cards. Visa and mastercard dominate that space. Most cards in this country will have a visa, mastercard, american express, or discover logo on them. This bill would require instead of just one of those Companies Logos you would have to have more than one generally speaking. Instead of having a chase visa card, you might have a chase credit card that has visa and discover on it, and that would be a significant switch for merchants in banks and networks, not as much for consumers as far as the transaction goes, but it would still be a pretty big deal. Host lets go to california and hear from ruth. Caller good morning. I have a question and a comment. My question is my bank has the experian thing somehow built into it. I get offers from experian all the time. It is preapproved and the fine print says maybe not for this, that, and the other. They know exactly what my balances are. They will say, they will offer me a bunch of choices, but i like the Balance Transfer 0 , right . A couple of times i applied, and when they did end up rejecting me, they lowered my credit score. I wonder why does that have to happen just because you applied, especially when somebody like experian who knows who you are, they know my balances offers me something they think i am likely to be accepted for, why do i have to be why does my credit have to be degraded because i get turned down . The second is a cautionary tale. I took out a loan from lending tree a while back, and i paid off my credit card totally. I was slammed immediately by a whole bunch of scammers and hackers, and this and that. I learned that if i do get some amount of money to just feed it into the credit card slowly. If you pay it off, somebody notices right away. That is my question and comment. Host matt schultz. Guest a couple of things one, generally regardless of who you are or whether you are successful applying for a loan or not, your credit score will usually have a small, temporary ding when you apply for credit. The short answer is it is another potential risk that if you get this new card and run it up, it could make you a little more of a risky person. That is something small, but generally speaking that movement is not enough to have a Significant Impact on your credit score. Nor does it last very long. That is the important thing to understand. The other thing to understand is that with credit, credit is very important. There are times when you just, you need to do what you need to do. The idea about paying or keeping a credit card balance or that sort of thing in order to help your credit is a troubling thing. Ultimately, with these loans, the last thing you want to do is pay on them longer then you need to and pay more than you need to, so regardless of whether it may ding your credit a little bit, the most important thing for you is to get that credit card balance off of your budget to where you can start saving that money, instead of putting it towards debt. Host lets hear from drake calling in kirwans bill, pennsylvania calling from pennsylvania. Caller my question i really have two questions. One is if you have a credit card and debit card, and you have cash available, is it better to put it on a credit card or a debit card . My second question is credit cards are basically unsecured debt. What happens if a person dies . Is that debt payable . Guest yeah. Essentially, with a credit card some of it is just up to your personal preference. I know a lot of people just dont want to use a credit card because of the debt, and that is completely understandable. In a lot of ways using a credit card is a wiser choice over using a debit card, assuming that you have the money to pay that credit card off. The credit card comes with protections such as if you order something through amazon and it comes through broken, you can go to your credit card issuer and have them handle that purchase, and often wipe that cost away. It can build rewards and things like that. Security is another issue where if a bad guy gets a hold of your credit card and runs up a bunch of charges, usually it is just a phone call that you need to make sure report that, and those charges get wiped away. If someone gets a hold of your debit card, that is a whole other thing because that is real money coming out of a real account. That money will likely be replaced within a few days, but during that window where that cash is gone i can that can cause some issues. Host this is a philosophical question from jimbo in california does mr. Schulz reasoned that americans do not view owning 1 trillion of Credit Card Debt as an issue because the government has so much debt . Guest it is interesting. That is a whole other discussion that i tend not to get into. The truth is Credit Card Debt is a difficult thing. I myself, i had 10,000 in Credit Card Debt and a new car loan when i was in my mid20s, and it basically wrecked my life for about five years. I flipped it around on the others and now leverage rewards and cashback and all that sort of thing. I understand. I have been there. It is a difficult thing. The other thing that is hard. The other thing that is hard is while that credit card number is at 1 trillion, some of that 1 trillion is an amount that is being paid off every month, and some of that is being carried forward. Generally speaking as wild as it sounds people have generally been handling their payments well since the onset of the pandemic when a lot of people thought that this situation was not going to be now what it is financially. Delinquencies are rising but, they are still basically low historically. The amount of Credit Card Debt that we have is still relatively low compared to our expendable income broadly. That is certainly not the case for everybody. It is a difficult situation, and an awful lot of people are struggling, and student loan repayments are going to mean that a lot more people are struggling, but right now it is something that amazingly enough, people seem to be handling as well as you can help. Host a couple more quick calls for you. We go to angela first in massachusetts. Caller good morning, and thank you, mr. Schultz. I love this segment. I think it is very appropriate for this time of year. I am trying to get my debt down. I have a large debt. At the shop when he gave me the bill, i thought 193, but on the little slip that was attached there was a 10 fee on my discover card. I was thinking what was that . Should i ask first before i go in there if they charge a fee if i put something on my credit card . Guest yeah, generally that is a good idea. A a lot of times a business will post something at the checkout counter that says that, but if that is a concern of yours, that is something that you should ask. It is not unheard of and going back to what we were talking about with the credit card competition act, credit cards are a serious expense for businesses. It is generally between 1. 5 and 3. 5 percent of each transaction that retailers have to pay to be able to accept credit cards, but as small as the margin is for most businesses, profit margin i mean, that is a significant thing. I think you may seeing more businesses adding on that surcharge. If you are concerned about it, it is worth asking if that is the case. Host lets hear from eric in new york. Caller good morning, cspan and matt. I am a little bit confused. I heard about wealth transfers from the greatest generation. I just pulled up an article in fortune boomers great wealth transfer to millennials will come with some strings attached. I hear about a student death and so for student debt and so forth. Are the demographics divided in such a way are parents is sitting on all of this money watching their children twist in the wind with tripling student debt . That sort of thing. Are parents doing it, but there w ar some who dont have but they dont have the money to help their children struggling with student debt . Guest the short answer is that every family is different, and every family struggles in different ways financially. Generally, Student Loan Debt is a significant issue in this country, and when those repayments start it will get a whole lot harder for people to make their credit card payments. That will make a tough situation even tougher. Host thank you for joining us this morning. Guest thank you. Host still more ahead on washington journal. Coming up, it is our weekly spotlight on podcasts. This week we will speak with stephen overly about his new podcast politico tech. First up in our next segment, more of your phone calls with open forum and your chance to weigh in on political or news items you are following this morning. 202 7488000 is the line for republicans. It is 202 7488001 for democrats. And for everybody else 202 7488002. Start calling in now. We will get your calls in just a moment. This year book tv celebrates 25 years of presenting Nonfiction Books and authors. Here for the 22nd year in a row, book is live with the National Book festival. Since 2001, we have provided uninterrupted coverage of the National Book festival, featuring hundreds of Nonfiction Book authors and guests. Watch today as we bring you live all day coverage of the National Book festival. Guests include carla hayden and former nfl player rk rundle. Here are our complete National Book festival schedule hear o ur complete National Book festival schedule online. Sunday night on cspans q and a, james rosen author of scalia talks about the first of his twopart biography of the Late Supreme Court associate justice, antonin scalia. Scalia recoiled from the excesses of the student Antiwar Movement of the 60s. All of that shaped him in ways that made him a better judge and a justice so you cannot really understand how he got to be Justice Scalia without understanding the elements of his academic career. James rosen with his book scalia at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan q a. You can listen 12 or podcasts on the cspan now cap. A healthy democracy does not just look like this. It looks like this where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are informed are republic our republic thrives. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are, because the opinion that metals the most matters the most is your own. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host we have a another chance for you to tell us about some of the political stories youre are following this morning. 202 7488000 is the line for republicans. 202 7488001 for democrats. For independents and others, 202 7488002. We have touched on some things already. Christina is first up however. She is on the democrats line. Caller i was trying to get on with mr. Schultz. As i have always told my children and grandchildren, there are differences between what we want and what we need. We should take care of our needs first and unfortunately i have seen that so many people do not know how to live frugally. They always figure tomorrow they will have more money, so they spend, and spend, and spend. I had a question for mr. Schulz, but since he is not there to answer i will turn it into a comment. Somehow, when a woman becomes a widow her credit dies with her husband. 16 years ago i had to start over and rebuild. I went to the credit agencies in charge, borrowed 600 for two months, paid it off and now i have built my credit back, got a small credit card, paid everything off, and that is really the only way, but we all must live more frugally. Host what is your secret to living frugally . Guest besides pay off what you need first caller besides, pay off what you need first, do you really need that thing . Do you have to have it . Do not go out and buy the most expensive things. If your smartphone is still working, just keep using it until it breaks. Dont spend 1800 on a new one. Save water save everything. We can all live frugally. We have to not spoil ourselves. Host we go to menton, illinois, tyrone, welcome. Caller welcome. Good morning. I have several things to ask you about, one being the topsecret files that our archives had. I would like to know in the last 20 years how many topsecret archives the American People deserve to know how many topsecret things out there have not been retrieved . I think they also have a right to know what we are doing to shore up our capitol. We found cocaine in the capitol and they said the cameras were down. How any times have the cameras been down in the past 20 years . I also wanted to bring up schools. I think our federal government needs to meet with colleges. Degrees for teacher use to be 4 years, now it is five years. Why do people have to keep going to college longer . How come more credits from colleges when you go from a twoyear to a fouryear, why dont all of your College Credits transfer . I think they need to be held accountable, these colleges for some of this stuff, and also the prices they are charging, i dont think every College Needs to have these giant football fields and Everything Else first sports. Im a sport person myself but they are there for education. What can they do to help keep the prices down to help their kids go to college . The college debt is getting way too much. When your housing for kids for College Costs more than the education itself, that is a big problem. Host we will go to mike also in illinois and rockford. Good morning. Caller i am hoping then news can go down the rabbit hole a little further. When mayorkas testified a couple weeks ago a congressman brought up a 135 million in damage in one military base camp, camp mccoy due to the afghanis housed there. That is what it is a lot of damage at one base. We housed them at 10 bases. How much damage did they do across the board . The second question has to do with the indian tribes. We are giving lands back to the indians. How many acres . After watching the hearings on cspan last year, there were some very weird hearings about the tribes and their territories. That is one question. The other question is the covid clawback money. There was a hearing where the guy was asked where the clawback money was going. He said 30 billion is going back to the bank. The clawback of any bailout is where it disappears. We never get our money back. The car corporations got paid back. That is where the scam is. Our government is telling us to fight inflation, lay people off, the labor force is too strong. Our government is telling us this after they target our porta, are airlines our ports, our airlines. Lets not forget that 250 hospitals nationalized during covid. Host i went to update you on the latest news we have heard from hawaii, thats from the states star advertiser. Investigaion launched as the lahaina fire death toll rises. Maui county lifted the restriction on Public Access to west maui and the death of this weeks horrific fire reached 80, making it the deadliest National Disaster in state history with questions mounting on whether residents were given enough warning before the pending disaster. departmentmy my department is committed to finding their results. Now is the time to begin this process of understanding, in louisville, kentucky, good morning to martin. Caller good good morning sir. Last saturday you had a guy talking about consulting comments. I would like to talk about what you hear from the people on tv. We listen to fox tv, what youre listening to is something invented by guy , mohammed ali, trash talk, some people in the public Republican Party they need that. But sometimes you make a full of yourself. There was a guy on cnn, conservative radio guy supposed to be involved in a conversation, something to do with the government. Out of the blue he said i believe in the Second Amendment and boobs. And the lady moderator said what did you just say it . He was trying to be a jerk. As the local newscast to her committee is making jokes. Some people think they are tasteless but they are making jokes to make people laugh. When hear this they are trying to make people angry. Theres a difference between a joke and and so. Chris rock found that out. Host john as wisconsin on the republican line. Caller hi. People that support joe biden and i do not know why for the next election because he does a lot of that she has dementia and he does goofy things. I did not know people can trust him but people are still going to vote for him and that worries me. I did not know why people do that. I think the republicans are much better. They have desantis and trump. I think theyre better for the country and i do not get why people, why democrats cannot see through biden. He is one of the moderate difficulties. He is one of the moderate democrats. I think republicans are better because reagan. I think republicans are the ones that will win the next election. Host appreciate the call. It is open forum on washington journal. Our annual coverage of the National Book festival in washington at 9 00 eastern so you can find that over on cspan two. Want to tell you about our political coverage today. We have campaign 2024 coverage from the iowa state fair. On our website cspan. Org that will begin this morning about 9 30 and first of you coverage this morning, nikki haley, also later from ron desantis and former President Donald Trump. Marion willison and robert f. Kennedy, jr. On the democrat side. The four coverage details at cspan. Org. A piece of the hill. Com published this morning, the memo, legal chaos and goals trump and biden. They write a dramatic day in washington shook up the 2024 president ial race causing problems for President Biden and former President Trump. The more Shocking Development when attorney general Merrick Garland announce appointment of a special counsel to investigate the president s son hunter biden. He special counsel will be david weiss who at already been the lead prosecutor but with more circumscribed powers. Relatedly, negotiations about a plea deal for the younger biden over failure to pay taxes and a gun matter broke down. A deal had seemed to be sealed in june but a crumble during a Court Appearance late july. The chances of the bill be resurrected were extinguished friday. Shortly before all that, the judge in the most recent of trumps three criminal cases impose restrictions on what the former president can say and how he can use evidence unveiled in the recovery process. The judge on the case said any attempt to quote intimidate witnesses or prejudice potential jurors would draw action from her. She asserted he will not be able to share sensitive evidence in the case with the public. You can read more of that on the hill. Com. Summer in illinois on the dependent line. Caller hi. It is so great to be here. I have a couple of points i want to talk about. Credit. You had to the man on talking about credit and unemployment and how you do all of these things. My things is they are talking about it is to be a 5 . Only 30 percent for capitalism to work so im trying to figure out what just happened only 3 for capitalism to work some try to figure out what just happened. People are really upset this unemployment and try to get back into the workforce because of how abruptly they were fired during the pandemic. You got laid off easily during the pandemic. People had lowpaying jobs and did not get unemployment for a long time. Now you want them to come back to work work for you after you let them go. People are going to find other things to do. They will invest in themselves. They will take the credit card and invest in business or find Something Else to do. Im tired of working for low income jobs and not getting reciprocity when it comes to being taken care of on the back and by whoever owns the company or the government. My last point is, i didnt come up biden, and trump, trump. If you really want to nepotism because that is what we are talking about, people need to understand this is the way europeans governments work. With kids, your kids flourish off of your name. Kushner has flourished off of his family name. Trumps kids has flourished over his name. Im trying to figure out where these republicans or where people get in this i year all of a sudden or people who use their family names to make money because that is what i thought was the european way. Host we will go to bill in waynesboro, pennsylvania on open forum. Caller hello. Host you are on the air, go ahead. Caller i would like to thank cspan for allowing people with any viewpoint to give their views in the most fair way possible. I would like to say a rhetorical question. I read a lot of news and politics for 50 years of my life. I am shocked and dismayed when i look around and see about how 30 to 50 of our country sees things. I asked the question, in 2024, are we going to look at history and open our eyes and look around or are we going to have the first authoritarian government in the history of the United States . Host all right. Appreciate the input. Leticia in virginia on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I have a couple of points. I was talking to my nephew and he was telling me something about i want to apply that to the kingdom of hawaii. The u. S. Is debating hawaii and invading hawaii and they need to get out. I want to bring up the situation in haiti and how kings will try to send troops there to intervene kenya will try to send troops there to intervene. And also people need to stop thinking just good and evil. It is basic. We could use a lot less of people that express bigotry against the lgbtq community, africans, and indigenous population. Lastly, the last guest look like elmore. Host are you still there . We lost her. Raymond on the republican line in the. In north carolina. Reach your television and go along with your comment. Caller is that better . Host much better. Caller my comment is people need to stop paying attention to the r and d of the Republican Party. People need to understand this is no longer the United States that we grew up in. Specifically, Democrat Party been corrupted so much at a point that the africanamericans are being slaughtered in the streets of chicago, los angeles, and baltimore and no one is paying attention. They destroyed the cities by rioting and looting. They destroyed the Economic Opportunities for a lot of these black people in the communities. Then they pump the drugs coming over the border into the communities and created the underground economy. The people are fighting each other in the streets. Not only are they specifically drug dealers, but a lot of people they are hardworking people who want to support their families, but the opportunities have been destroyed. So let me get a quick dollar. Try to get drug money or whatever. Hey mom cannot send her to into the store to get milk at night because they may not come home or even in the daytime. The Democratic Party has been silent on this. The media has been silent on this. They need to start stop payment picture to democrats or republicans every cent they are all trouble. People need to understand the voting in this country is intentionally being corrupted. People cannot for some reason they cannot understand that we need to get to simple basics again. Same day voting, paper ballots and this whole thing about it is racist to believe you cannot get voter id or Something Like that. Host when you say potentially corrupted, it is your view intentionally corrupted by Democratic Party . Caller no, sir. It is not just Democratic Party, but Republican Party also. There are doing it because there is a global movement. It is no longer about donald trump or joe biden. This is about the global government. They need to do two things. Get rid of the constitution and get rid of god to take over this country and theyre working on it. They attack christianity left and right. They do not understand. Host a quick political story before we wrap up open forum. The mystery of the rapid rise in the pole. Dustin imposed a right of the public in primary voters showed former President Donald Trump in first place by a wide margin but with a startling is who came in second. Ron desantis in his usual spot far behind trump and the other shows 38yearold first time political candidate Vivek Ramaswamy edging out desantis for second place. His early riser possess the most Significant Movement and still nascent race for gop president ial nomination, or does it . Politico. Com and a reminder Vivek Ramaswamy one of the candidate is premiering at the oyo state fair and our coverage online at cspan. Org they underway shortly at cspan. Org. Jeff is in Silver Spring on the democrats line. Good morning. Caller thank you a lot for cspan. You provide a great disservice to everybody who is interested. I have three unrelated points. Actually i want to respond to the next guy. The other thing somebody was complaining about bites kids. I have mixed feelings about biden. On the one hand i feel bad he has had a lot of problems and suffering especially with bo that again to some extent that is an indication of the extent to which your principles are enduring if they are carried on in your progeny. Besides that desantis saying black people should be thankful for the skills they learned in slavery, maybe he should double down on that and also think slavery for bringing them to the good athletes who now can make a lot of money and get them to pay the reparations. Host mitch in new jersey, independent line. Caller i believe the department of justice is committed election interference in realtime. If this is not attorney general garland, must give a press conference stating it is not interference. All court action brought against donald trump but not prohibit him from accepting the republican nomination, for running his campaign, and from taking office as 47 president of the United States after winning the election. If you cannot give a press conference stating this, then it is really election interference in realtime. Host thank you for all of our callers in open forum. Come make up on washington journal it is our weekly spotlight on podcast segment. After the break we talk with Steven Overly about his new podcasts politico tech about Big Technology and policy debates. And how to deal with the fastgrowing ai industry. That is next. Sunday night on cspan q a, newsmax chief White House Correspondent other of scalia rise to greatness, 19361980 six talks about the first of this two part biography of the Late Supreme Court associate justice. Scalia i think requoted from the excess of student Antiwar Movement. The sizing a debate and silencing of debate and all that shaped him in ways that made him a better judge and justice so you cannot understand how he got to be fiscally it without understanding the elements of his academic career. James rosen with his book scalia sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan q a. You can listen to q a on our free cspan now app. This year book tv marks 25 years of shining a spotlight on leading nonfiction authors and their books. From the author talks, and festivals, but pv provided viewers with a front row seat to the latest literary discussions on history, politics, and so much more. You can watch book tv every sunday on cspan two online at booktv. Org. Book tv 25 years a television for serious readers. Cspans campaign 2024 coverage in her front row seat to the president ial election. Watch our comfort of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, speeches, and events to make up your own mind. Campaign 2024 on the cspan networks, cspan now our free mobile video app or anytime online at cspan. Org. Cspan your unfiltered view of politics. Cspan shop. Org is cspan so my story. Browse our latest collection of cspan products, apparel them books, home decor and accessory. There is something for every fan and every purchase help support our nonprofit operations. Shop now or anytime online at cspanshop. Org. Washington journal continues. Host like we do every saturday on washington journal we were you are a on podcast. This one is a new one. Politico tech and the host of politico tech podcast is Steven Overly with politico. Tell us about your politico tech podcast. How is it different rather podcast that focus on technology . Guest a lot of them are great and focus on business of technology or own gadgets and reviews. We are focused on the power struggles around technology and around the ways tech disrupts politics and policy. You cannot have a conversation today about labor or education without talking about ai and you cannot talk about National Security without talking about cybersecurity or quantum computing. We have covered all of those topics and more in a week and a half so far and it is something we will keep digging into. I think it is an aspect of tech often under covered. Im doing explained that through interesting conversations. Explore that through interesting conversations. Host it a gap that these things are not been addressed on a daily basis on a podcasts format. Guest we have grown aware of the influence technology has. The way it is shaping our lives and affecting things like our privacy, our only speech. Our only speech. Our audience in washington and around the country are starting to wrap their heads around that. Our podcast is a place where they can come to learn and get a pulse of what the conversation is are to govern the new technology. Host you are a daily podcasts and who do you want to listen to and from early results, who do you know is tuning into it . Guest yes, 15 minutes every morning and for me, the goal is to reach audiences in washington and brussels and well beyond. I think all of our lives are touched by the issue so every day we start with Technology News you need to new you need to know followed by a conversation with one influential person in tech and politics. We have had unique lineup of guests. Our very First Episode was with President Bidens advisor on microchips who was stepping down from the white house, we were the first report that and talk about where their program is headed on chips. Did we went to the hill with senator todd young of indiana and talk about ai and whether the senate will pass major ai regulation. The next day we took a very hard to turn and talk to justine bateman, filmmaker in hollywood about concerns with ai destroying the hollywood creativity we know. I think every day we are able to bring in a fresh voice and someone who has smart thing to say on technology and how it is reshaping our lives. Host lets take ai. What potential policy, Regulation Solutions are being proposed . What potential congressional action being floated to deal with the challenges presented by Artificial Intelligence . Guest there are few bills percolating that target specific aspects of ai. There have been bills introduced around facial Recognition Technology and whether that should be use in Law Enforcement. There has been a bill proposed to regulate ai generated deepfakes in our elections whether candidate should be able to use those on the campaign trail. None of these bills have moved forward. There at the idea stage proposal stage and i think the reason for that is congress is not sure what it wants to do on ai and they are figuring that out in real time. I think when they return in september, that will be a big focus. One of the main debates you see this in the senate is whether Congress Needs to take sweeping take on ai or whether something more modest is in order and lawmakers are not in agreement on that. We do not know what congress will do on ai. I tell you havent covered technology for so long, text regulation does not happen often in washington. It is difficult to move through so my hunch is that congress will probably move somewhat cautiously on a i. Host you mentioned you read politico for six years and with politico tech podcasts. Struggling to keep up with things row time and it does seem like issues that come up that there were technology that members of congress and their staff are trying to figure out the effect of technology in real time. They are overwhelmed by it it seems. Guest absolutely and having covered technology, there is greater awareness and interest in take them before. It used to be reporting on the hill you have to find the few law makers that Pay Attention to the step. More do now but a part of that is trying to understand what the technology is all about and how do you the way it has been framed, howdy regulate the bad without compromising the good . Technology like a. I. Has some of the application so if some are beneficial, some are harmful, how do you start to write down. A lot of times in washington we have to strike ballots, you do not act. Theyre trying to figure out how to read that needle. Host Steven Overly is our guest some of the host of the politico tech and we welcome your calls and comments. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Look into the Technology Issues the podcast has covered and welcome your comments and questions about current Technology Issues you are following. I want to get back to a. I. And a headline in the associated press, a. I. Is the wildcard in how strikes and an expiration of its unsettling role. Can you tell us why a. I. Is such a big deal with the strikes going on, the writer strike and the actors strike . Guest it is a huge source of anxiety for workers in the industries. The writers are concerned a. I. Will be use to generate movie and tv scripts. Actors are concerned their faces and voices could essentially be replicated and used without their consent and movies that they actually did not start in personally so those are real concern. The Technology Getting good enough that it is possible. It is indicative of what is happening in a lot of industries. You see this in education. You see it in aspects of health care where i think people are concerned about Artificial Intelligence replacing them at work. The counter argument there is a. I. Is a tool for workers. It is not going to replace workers. It will make us more efficient what we are all more busy and efficient not because internet or smartphones so i i would be the next iteration of that. It is the most powerful of those technologies to date so i think there are legitimate questions and concerns about whether it has the power to replace us, not just advances. Host the greens are typically more the unions is more than just the writers and actors strike. I assume politicians are right about where a. I. Fills in with other fields of work in society. Guest a. I. The terms of the force to magically and economically. If a. I. Does lead to some or a lot of job displacement that has direct implications for all these lawmakers and their home economies and how popular they are with voters there. I think and to your point, it is not just california it is not just hollywood, it is manufacturing which is all over the country. It is education. There are real considerations for lawmakers to have in mind when it comes to the Economic Impact of this technology can have. Host you mentioned deepfakes and potential regulation but i want to show a couple of quick videos for viewers. We have because waiting and we will get right to you. To give examples of what that is like. The first one is when joe biden analysis reelection campaign, the rnc responded with this advert using some a. I. Generated video. [video clip] this just in, we can now call the 2024 president ial race for joe biden. This morning and in balance and vasa taiwan emboldened china and vasa taiwan. Invades taiwan. Whos in charge here . If it is like the train is coming off of the tracks . Host one example of a deepfake they are. This is another one, ron desantis campaign, super pac, television advert that uses an a. I. Generated fake voice for donald trump. [video clip] Governor Reynolds is a conservative champion. She signed the heartbeat bill and signs up five humans every day so why is donald trump attacking her . I opened up the governor position for her and when she fell behind, i endorsed her and she won. Now she wants to remain neutral. I did not invite her to events. Trump should fight democrats, not republicans. What happened to donald trump . Governor kim reynolds is a conservative champion. Host the last voice of the fake donald trump voice, almost clearly that was not him. Why are campaigns using these fake images, this fake audio . Guest maybe you could argue it is a form of parity or form of messaging. I think the more nefarious thought it is the form of deception. The Deepfake Technology we are talking about, creating fraudulent images, video or audio of political opponents is becoming more comment and this technology is Getting Better so by the time we are voting in 2024 liam more sophisticated than it is today it will be more sophisticated than it is today. If youre watching ads possibly not where the technology exists come he might be inclined to think what you are seeing is reality. Which has real implications for how people vote and how they engaged in politics. Campaigns i think see this is a new tool clearly shiite starting to explore with frequency but it is something Election Officials worried. Theyre looking into that in term of regulations to prohibit deepfakes . Guest that is right. What happened this week is that the commission would forward a petition to get Public Comment on this issue. On whether they need to create new rules or regulate in this space. It is three democrats and the republicans often gridlocked gridlock, not a lot moussa whether it comes the past really remains to be seen. The fact that it is moving forward is indicative of the fact that these concerns are real and it is something people want to see addressed in some way, whether that is the sec or capitol hill or the state level. Host we have cause for you. Cardio you on the democrats law in line in kansas. Caller im calling because ive had a thought that, some of my friends im not really considered much, is it feasible with a. I. , i hear a lot a. I. Taking workingclass peoples jobs. It seems more feasible to me that it could potentially replace ceos, middle management, and people like that. In my background, aviation, i use to crawl around planes and fix clanc planes and a less a. I. Is putting robotics, i did not see it replacing like laborintensive. Jobs. Guest i think this is interesting question because we have Seen Technology evolve. Initially there was talk about automation replacing manufacturing laborintensive jobs. The most basic example is vacuum cleaner for placing some of those working in hospitality or housekeeping. Technology has evolved were Creative Industries like hollywood actors and writers fear they will be replaced because technology is Getting Better. It does raise the question is there any position, any industry that is completely safe from a. I. And i say safe in the sense of if youre concerned about replacing your job. When we interview justine basement i asked her this question, should it ceos you are negotiating with to be worried and she made the point that there are movie studios that use a. I. To evaluate scripts and determine what movie should get made which is an executive level production type of decision. A. I. Is being deployed in all aspects of companies and that is only going to continue. I think the callers question is legitimate. I do not know anyone is sitting comfortably when it comes to a. I. And whether it can take aspects of their job, if not therefore job. Host amber in north carolina. Independent line. Caller the last segment that said black people should be grateful for the skills we learned, absolutely not. I would rather be in our in africa. My real question is, technology is not an issue it is not an issue with technology. We are not a smart country. Education level is low. Reading literacy is bad. How could we actually be and we believe in that step because we are done. The Economic System we are under, capitalism, means it will happen over and over. Things will get worse. What would it look like under socialism or communism . Host there is a lot there. Feel free to respond to anything she said but she mentioned Technology Literacy. Guest i think two interesting points raised here. One is who we are continuously trying to advance our Technology Literacy and technology education. In a lot of technology fills including a. I. And semi conductors, they are not enough workers to meet demand for jobs. That is only increasing because this technology is just getting more pervasive and more commonplace. This is a real problem policymakers are grappling with, trying to figure it out how do you expand the members the amount of people getting stem degrees and at the High School Level so there is a future pipeline of future candidates. It is picking up steam as technologies get morphs of escape. Get more sophisticated. There is this question about the values in technology. He had that talk about a lot. Our values as a society essentially being baked into technology and exacerbated by technology. Whether you have democratic values, freespeech, civic liberties, those cant be directly translated into the technologies we use those can be directly translate into the technologies we use and our politics. Those will be considered to be u. S. Values considered to be u. S. Values are dropping the day driving the day. You compare that to technology being developed in china which has a different set of values when it comes to free speech and censorship and civil liberties, that has people concerned. So much of our Technology Conversation in washington and around the world is driven by that. It is driven by concerns that china is on the rise as a technological and economic power. Does that have Global Implications for all of us . Host President Biden recently signed a memorandum about u. S. Investment in technology. What would it say in china . Guest it is been a long time coming. There has been debate within the administration about how strict executive order should be. They have landed on restricting certain investments in companies that develop a. I. , quantum computing, microchips in countries of concern, i. E. China is what we are talking about there. That executive order is more limited than what was discussed initially. The administration has been looking at restricting investments in fields like biotechnology including energy there is a tension here. How heavily do you restrict american businesses for making investments in business deals that could benefit those companies but also benefit the Chinese Military . That is what the administration is trying to rein in here. Host back to calls and hear from carol texas. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you Steven Overly for appearing. I will give you a pop quiz. You talked about good a. I. And bad a. I. I would like for you to give us two good examples of a. I. Versus a bad example of Artificial Intelligence. I have one other comment to make. Youre talking about china women to go. I think china uses peoples Friends Networks and watches what people say between their friends and then they get a hold of your Friends Network to try and get you to conform to cut government policy so that is an example of someone using Artificial Intelligence in a bad way. I would like you to take a pop quiz this morning and give us an answer. Guest i think this interesting. Good and bad is subjective to some degree but for instance, there has been studies that Artificial Intelligence can be used to scan medical images and more accurately than doctors detect signs of cancer or other illnesses. I think he would argue that its a good use of the technology if it helps to improve medical care. Conversely, a. I. Technology can be used to scan peoples faces as part of police surveillance. There been studies that show the technology is less accurate when it comes to people of color or woman. I think that is a problematic example at the technology is deployed in Law Enforcement contacts. Does it mean some people are better protected . More likely to be prosecuted and criminalized than others . We have seen actual examples of this where black individuals have been misidentified and accused of and arrested of crimes they did not commit and the primary evidence for that was facial Recognition Technology. Those are two examples there. There are broad applications for a. I. Beyond just recognition that i think raise a lot of questions about how it is use. Host what about the concerns over china he says reaching into peoples Friends Network, simi Something Like someones facebook friends or ima list email list, having access to that. Guest it speaks to concerned about china and surveillance particularly through social media networks. The administration and congress have done some to create a separation, try to prevent Chinese Technology companies from having that much access to the u. S. Public and more sensitive networks. We have seen that in telecom with restrictions on companies and more recently we are seeing this in social media context where you see at the state level, montana has moved to ban tiktok, a chinese owned company. I think there is a lot of questions and things that remain uncertain the extent that is happening, but it is clear policymakers and public has anxiety about it. Host with tiktok it feels like the horse has left the barn on that. Everyone seems to share tiktok videos. Guest it has exploded in recent years. It is one of if not the most popular social media platforms in the u. S. I think it is raise a few questions. It is raise questions about whether the Data Collected gets back to china, the company has denied that, but the questions are still out there. As well as questions about the content on tiktok and what it is promoting creed you see online researchers raise questions about harmful content around eating disorders or suicide being served up to people on tiktok including teenagers. This question around tiktok are infinite and it is something increasingly see the government trying to grapple with. Host peter in seattle, washington. Good morning. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Could we use plug in browsers to identify a. I. In political, with the government required that during political phases . Host ok. Guest the colors in about there i think a. I. Disclosures. That is something that is being talked about. The administration recently put out voluntary guidelines that a handful of a. I. Companies have agreed to. Among those was this commitment to disclose when a. I. Generated images or other material is being utilized. Those are voluntary commitments and emphasis processes on voluntary. It is also not clear yet what the disclosures will look like, where they will show up, how permanent will they be, but we immediately recognize them. If we talk deepfakes and campaign elections, it is another area disclosures are being talked about. If the campaign uses political deepfakes or a. I. Generated deepfakes, should they have to disclose that prominently on their ads . There are not yet rules around this but it is something that is being discussed. There are Public Advocates and researchers who say those disclosures could be very effective at preventing people from being deceived by these images or other a. I. Generated materials. Host we are talking about the intersection of politics and technology. Steven overly is the host of the politico tech podcast. The lines are republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independence and all others, 2027488002. Joe in california on republican line. Caller i always had a problem with the whole term a. I. Instead of being applied to as Artificial Intelligence, i think it out to be on interrogation because it is all about feed of information gathering rather than creation or sentiment diligence. These programs do not create anything, they just sample everything i type or speed. And make a mess medical mechanical calculation and make what they consider to be the correct answer. The fact that the internet, something you are talking about with social networking, which increases the amount of misinformation and misinformation that is in the information universe is aids the confusion in everyone trying to make a determination about what is real and what is not real. I do not think Artificial Intelligence, think it ought to be considered to be a sampling of said sampling system and not a creative sentient intelligence at all. Guest i understand the point here. Lots of a. I. , especially generative a. I. , the images come from vacuuming up all of the data and using it as composites to generate new material. There are creative applications for dad and upon the reasons why percolation in the space is hard is when it comes to things like free speech or free expression, those are concepts that do have to adapt to new technology. A. I. Fits into that to some degree. The real challenge becomes how that is then deployed and when is that problematic. We talk about the elections or instances where it could potentially replace workers. The regulation around those individuals use cases is a lot of what you hear being discuss. And it is only being discuss. There has not been a lot of action in this space yet. But there is urgency because it is moving in and evolving quickly so i think the points are well taken. Say we have an interview coming up on the podcast within a. I. Researcher who is developed a. I. Powered robots, interviewing him you could hear a drive for new discoveries. And i asked, is it possible that drive for New Discovery is blinding you and others, researchers and engineers, to concerns in the space . The pursuit of new knowledge coming at the expense of things like jobs or privacy or reality. In short his answer was no, but i think it raises questions about what guardrails need to be put in place so that we do not compromise advancement in technology, but we do it in a way that does not harm us either. Host you do the podcasts daily. Politico tech podcast. How big is the staff . Who helps you generate stories and produce the program . Guest im very involved in generating the stories and lining up the gas. Our book with an amazing senior producer any grease who helps with the process and help make it sound good in your ears. We have a broader tech team at a political and cyber covering the issues so they are contributing and it is really a collective effort. Host heres a question for you. From lawrence, can you guess speak to the blending of a. I. With the emergence of quantum computing . Guest one think i will say is im not a techie. I been covering technology for 10 years plus. I did not write code. My iphone needs to be upgraded. I ask a lot of questions of engineers and executives and regulators and that is how ive come to understand this stuff. I try to share that knowledge to the podcast. Quantum computing is essentially even more advanced technology that is really still in development and applications of it are still being figured out. It has the potential to compute much faster, more powerful levels than what is possible today. Just like a. I. , that can be used for positive reasons and for negative reasons. I think regulators are even further behind on any conversation around quantum computing than they are a. I. Host cal in oklahoma on the democrats line. You are on. Caller good morning. You are talking about an issue that is increasingly bothering me. I have served in legislature out of here for 28 years and in that experience, especially with the explosion of the internet, legislators get socalled model legislation. It is continuing to grow and there is no refilling revealing usually that this is model legislation from some special Interest Group and they are very wellfinanced now, the most notable one the american legislate exchange counsel paid for by a very large corporations. You know this is happening when you see an issue like trans. It is not as though legislate as woke up one day and said we really need to get interested in this topic and so there is a flood of legislation filed jets spontaneously by individual states. It is language that is been provided, people do not realize that and it is why you see this kind of occurrence. It is not all good or bad but if you want to know the material comes from, it is increasingly harder to know that. Host thank you for that observation. Any response . Guest two interesting points here. One is a lot of tech policy that is advancing is advancing at the state level. The caller mentioned serving the state legislature and so i am based here in washington and paying a lot of attention to washington. And state capitals because there is really interesting policy being developed in montana. Where some of the most policy that is moving and getting passed into law is happening at the state level. To the callers point about legislation being written by special Interest Groups, this does happen in the space. There are powerful associations and lobbying groups around tech policy were trying to shape statelevel and federal regulations who are crafting some this legislation for lawmakers. It is one of the reasons why you see a lot of focus on lawmakers trying to learn about these technologies. So they are smarter and more equipped when they go into hearings for meetings with the special Interest Groups. It is real tension here. There are many advocacy groups behindthescenes pulling lawmakers in both directions. Heavyhanded regulation of technology and a. I. As well as lighter touch approach to regulation. Host in the coming week emily spent time looking at the year since the Inflation Reduction Act and the expansion of broadband across the country. Does your your program touch on that issue and the importance of that to expanding technology in the country . Guest absolutely. Broadband is a persistent problem in our country and making sure that more people have access to it, especially in rural areas so it is something we will touch on. Who is tech we are often future looking and talking about a. I. And with technology we are often feature looking at talking about a. I. And metaverse and fast acting concepts and we forget there are some people in the country who do not have highspeed internet. Do not have great mobile reception. I imagine it is hard for those people to fully sort of conceive and understand how a. I. Will impact them if they do not have full Internet Access at this point. But it will. I think you can expect us to explore that on the podcasts. Host detroit, roland, go ahead. Caller i did not know if you guys discuss the false identification of the black eight month pregnant woman who was arrested for carjacking as she prepared her children get up and go to school. They came to her house. Six officers and arrested her. Put her in the Detroit Detention Center which is like a russian gulag. She was in there for eight hours and she was dehydrated and it was a horrible, horrible situation. All charges were dropped. They admitted they misidentified her. This would be a case study for you. We already know. It has been discussed that black people are misidentified with this a. I. Can you imagine eight month pregnant woman preparing her children for school and soldiers of a. I. Come to arrest her without doing any due diligence, investigation to see if they got the right person . Just absolutely horrific. A. I. Is a pathway to complete destruction of rights and liberties. Guest the caller is referring to the story about a woman who was arrested and accused of carjacking. The police went to the house to arrest her and discovered she was eight months pregnant. The reason they thought she was the person behind the crime was because of facial Recognition Technology that had misidentified her. It is not the first case of this and im sure it will not be the last. This technology was overly relied on and as a result, some was falsely arrested. Someone was falsely arrested. In this case in many cases it was a black individual because the technology is less accurate on people of color. What you hear in response to this often is that we cannot completely rely on these technologies. They are a tool, not a replacement. You hear that come up again and again. The degree to which they are relied on varies. There are problematic examples here like what the caller suggests. That is why there are calls for regulating. But so far except for some state and local legislation we have not seen anything at the federal level yet on that technology. Host sue in trenton, illinois. Democrats line. Caller hi. I want to talk about and ask is that i have seen my on facebook go to a. I. And it is not very good. It was not very good when it was human beings. It is downright terrible now that it is a. I. The a. I. Program that they are using rely so most on keywords and is almost like a people used to apply for a job and they had this this technical filter that they used to doorway throw away a bunch of applications, maybe someone said i am familiar with microsoft programs and they ask for outlook. They throw that person think in the trash. Host i will let you go there. Pointing out the facebook moderation. Is that routinely being done by a. I. . Guest it is increasingly being automated not just facebook, but a lot of platforms that use a. I. To automate these processes and to some extent, there is good reason for that. Theres a large volume of content in these platforms and it is difficult for human moderators to manage that in real time and try to remove problematic content from content related from suicide, pornography, terrorism. There are tradeoffs heremaybe t faster at a larger scale and less precise. Or it may rely on keywords that might be lacking content that is not problematic but it misconstrues what the post is. This technology is not flawless by any means. Human beings are also not flawless by any means. That is one of the recurring tensions we explore on the podcast. We have a lot of anxiety because of a. I. There are problematic examples of it, but you also have to ask what is the alternative . If the alternative is the status quo, is that good enough . Should we be pushing for more . You can hear that in the context of online moderation, the context of policing or employment or any number of areas where a. I. Is deployed. Host it is a really interesting topic. Appreciate you coming by. The podcast is politico tech. The host is Steven Overly. Guest thank you for having me. Host that will do it for washington journal this morning. We are back tomorrow at 7 00 eastern. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Announcer cspan announcer washington journal discussing the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy. From washington and across the country. Coming up sunday morning, a look at freedom conservatism, a movement aimed at countering the conservative movement in the u. S. We will speak with the president of the foundation for research on equal opportunity. In coexecutive director of indivisible on campaign