Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Host good morning. It is saturday, october 7. A lot happened in washington this week, including a surprisingly high number of dog jobs added in separate temper. The house of representatives does not have a speaker. That election process is expected to start this upcoming week. President biden announced construction of a border wall along the portion of the texas mexico line. Those are some of the stories we followed this week. This morning, we are taking your calls on your top stories. Give us a call. Republicans, 202 7488000. Democrats, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. You can text us at 202 7488003. Be sure to include your first snake and city, state. You can post to social media, facebook. Com cspan and x. Welcome to washington journal. In addition to those stories i mentioned in the introduction, there is a few more you might be following. Those are former President Trumps trial, new york fraud trial, began this week. Also, the uaw and kaiser permanente, that is set to end this morning. Lets start with the jobs numbers and take a look at what President Biden said about that. [video clip] this morning, we learned the economy created 336,000 jobs in september alone. That means since i have taken office, we have created 13. 9 million new jobs. You heard me say it for, my dad had an expression. A job is about your dignity. It is about respect. It is about looking a kid in the eye, it is going to be ok and mean it. 330 6000 more americans if they have children can say that to their children and mean it. The Unemployment Rate has stayed below 4 for 20 months in a row, a longer stretch in 50 years. We have achieved the 70 year low unappointed rate for women, record lows in unemployment for africanamericans and hispanic workers and people with disabilities. Folks who have been left behind in previous recoveries have been left behind for too long. We have a high share of working age americans in the workforce and 20 years. This is no accident. It is bidenomics. We are growing the economy from bottom out, not the top down. Inflation is coming down at the same time. It is down 60 since last summer. Core inflation was 2. 2 over the past three months. Now, we have the lowest inflation of any major economy in the world. Host that was President Biden. We have a few responses from members of congress on the republican side. You can take a look here. Representative mike collins said, since President Biden took office there has been a 17. 4 increase in prices of goods. 59 rise in the national gas average and 709 more ink by americans every month on goods and services than two years ago. This is the stark reality of bidenomics. This is representative andy biggs of arizona. Biden is bizarrely touting the success of his economy. Why is he celebrating high inflation, high interest rates, high gas prices and a High National debt . Congressman mike waller says, families are struggling with record high grocery costs, gas prices yet again on the rise and highest Mortgage Rates in decades. Now is not the time to be taking a victory lap over the jobs report when the affordability crisis is as crushing as ever. And coach tommy tuberville, centerville senator says Mortgage Rates have tripled. Joe biden is in denial. And regarding the speaker race, the ouster of Kevin Mccarthy this happened yesterday on foxnews. Com. Trump endorses jim jordan for speaker of the house. Complete and total endorsement. Jordan and scullys have announced to replace mccarthy as House Speaker. Warmer trump gave jim jordan his complete and total endorsement for speaker of the house, saying he is respected by all. Congressman jim jordan has been a star long before making his successful journey to washington, d. C. Representing ohios fourth congressional district. Trump posted on truth social overnight commerce affected by all he is now chairman of the house judiciary committee. I am sure you heard what the former House Speaker said after his ouster, but here it is again. He spoke to reporters after the house passed 216210, eight republicans voting to oust him. [video clip] one thing i will tell you is, doing the right thing is not always easy but it is necessary. I do not regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job. I do not regret negotiating. Our government is designed to find compromise. I do not regret my efforts to build coalitions and find solutions. I was raised solve problems, not create them. I may have lost the boat today, but as i walk out of this chamber i feel fortunate to have served the American People. I leave the speakership with a sense of pride, compliment and yes, optimism. From the day i entered politics, my mission has always been to make tomorrow better than today. I thought for what i believe in and i believe in this country of america. My goals have not changed. My ability to fight is in a different form. Unfortunately, 4 of our conference can join all the democrats and dictate who will be the republican speaker in this house. I do not think that rule is good for the institution, but apparently, i am the only one. I believe i can continue to fight in a different manner. I will not run for speaker again. I will have the conference pick somebody else. I hope you realize that every day i did the job, regardless whether you underestimated me or not, i wanted to do it with a smile. Host that was the speaker after his ouster. There is this article i want you to be aware of, then we will start taking calls. From politico, with the headline Kevin Mccarthy considers resigning from the house before the end of his term. It says the post, former speaker has made clear he plans to stay through the speakership election before ending his house career. Two people familiar with the matter tell politico however, he is quoted as saying this publicly, no, i am not resigning. I am staying, do not worry. We are going to keep the majority. I am going to help the people. We are going to expand it further. Steve scalise and jim jordan have put their names in to succeed him. We will take your calls now. Lewis is first in birth head, colorado, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Well, it has been a busy week. Mccarthy is out. I am supporting jordan. Looks like there is more between the israelis and palestinians breaking out. I support the war. I support the ukraine war. I am on the ukrainian side. I like the idea that maybe joe is building a border wall. Huh, go figure, that is a new one. It would appear that americans have their priorities a little bit, maybe out of order. Inflation is killing us whatever happened with the polish makes migs . I think that may have been a key factor in ukraines loss. Well, maybe next week will be could it possibly be even more exciting . I do not know. Host you never know, lewis, but keep it on cspan. Lewis did mention the more going on. War going on. The New York Times, this is real gaza conflict israel gaza conflict. The Israeli Military said at least 2200 rockets had been fired from gaza. Prime minister agyeman netanyahu ordered a call above reservice and said, we are at war. At least 2300 people 23 people have been killed. This was a surprise attack. This is real and gaza israel and gaza war, early assault on southern israel that had few president s and its complexity and scale invading several israeli towns and firing thousands of rockets toward cities as far away as jerusalem. The militants crossed into israel by land, sea and air according to the Israeli Military. By late morning, at least 22 israelis had been reported dead by the countries in Ambulance Service and israel had retaliated with massive strikes on gazan cities, killing at least one palestinian according to local reports. We will keep you updated on that story as it develops for you. Tom is a democrat, ohio. To city. Caller good morning. I would like to know about three points. The republicans are running on the deficit. Donald trump added 8. 2 billion to the deficit in four years, twice than any other president. That is the guy they want back . The other thing, the border wall if they would start arresting the people that hired these illegals under the table, i think if they killed the job market, it would have a lot to do with people wanting to come across the border. And, the economy. This inflation started when trump mishandled covid. Everything shut down, and all the companies that he gave tax breaks to are now sticking it to us. Thank you very much. Host lets go to emerson in aurora, colorado. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am pretty in support of this palestinian action in israel. Israel created palestine into an open air prison. I do not open up my phone and see being brutalized or murdered by the idea. America is back in israel. Yeah, i am supportive of palace dean. Alice dean palestine. Caller good morning, mimi, how are you doing . Host good. Caller first of all, the Republican Party is a hot mess right now. I feel a bit sorry for Kevin Mccarthy he brought this upon himself. There is an old saying with dogs , his pack with donald trump, a committed felon, a career, whitecollar criminal. This is the republicans leader. As far as jim jordan jim jordan was a part of a six candidate, took place at ohio state university, tried to cover that up. Steve scalise spoke at a White Nationalist conference some 20 years ago, sponsored by none other than david duke. Ok . Do the best you got, gop. Wow. You got greg fields who is a fox news host calling for violence. I guess fox news has not learned their lesson from the dominion episode. This is your gop. As far as the palestinian and israeli thing, you know, i am no fan of jim and netanyahu. I think he is a thug. The way he treats the palestinians is horrific, almost the equivalent of apartheid in south africa. The palestinians have every right to defend themselves. They are taking land away from the palestinians, brutalizing the palestinians and no one says a word. Netanyahu the man is a gangster. He wants to be a dictator in israel, he is going after christians as well as muslims. I do not know. As far as the Kevin Mccarthy, he is a pathological liar. He went on national tv after the democrats bailed him out and he accused the democrats of why there are problems in congress. Host jeff mentioned fox news. I wanted you to be aware of this, this is on the hill. Com with headline, televised fox news Speaker Forum called off after candidates pulled out. There is plans for a televised fox news forum with three contenders for House Speaker soon after fell apart soon after house judiciary jim jordan and kevin hearn for a monday event that fox news billed as a joint interview rather than a debate. But, the unusual move nationalizing and in journal gop conference decision prompted backlash from gop members and changes to the plans. A spokesperson for jordan first said he wanted to adjust the schedule so that the candidates talked to the gop conference first. Conference is scheduled to host a closeddoor forum on tuesday. Darlene is in georgia, republican. Hi, darlene. Caller hello . Host hi. What do you think is the top news story this week . Caller m eye on now . Am i on now . Host you are. Caller i want to talk about tim scott. I was watching fox news this week, he did an interview with Harris Falconer that was really, really off the charts. When he was talking about how blocks survived blacks survived slavery and jim crow, well, they did not survive. They died and we are still seeing the effects of jim crow now. Blacks have not survived any of this stuff. Black slaves died in bondage. I do not call that survival. He needs to address the story, the way it is. I said, i am a black republican but i would not vote for him. When he talks about black fathers, that they are not in the household, they left to get so the female could get a welfare check i have a white father that never cared about me that lived less than 10 miles from me. Never brought me one time of anything. It is not just the black men. It is white men, too. He needs to tell the whole story or the whole truth, because what he is telling his platform he is running on is not host who are you supporting in the republican field . Caller as of now, nikki haley. But, not tim scott. Host willie is in hope mills, North Carolina. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, willie. Caller i wanted to speak on a couple issues. The main issue is bidenomics. The second is, americas priorities. The third issue is the fiasco in the house. We will go from the third. Host ok. Caller the problem with the house and the republicans is the same thing the problem with the democrats. One word, compromise, just seems like a bad, bad taste in everybodys mouth. Nobody wants to get away from a Party Platform to get to a country platform. The economy is in shambles. Our priorities must be an issue. I think our priorities are mixed up in the fact that the border is unsecure. We do not live in our prices are going up. The president speaks about ukraine infant structure. Ukrainian security. Ukrainian this. I am a black american, i have been a democrat all my life. I am at a point now at 72 years old that i cant see myself as a republican. But, i cant see it. I do not see a viable option that this doesnt seem to be one. Just, unqualified support of israel is ridiculous. Other black americans that are traditionally on the Democratic Party we are being blinded. Even if we speak right now, there is a new apartheid created in rwanda with american dollars where ukrainian people that were supposed to be in england england did not want them. They made a deal with rwanda to remove rwandans out of their traditional homelands. Guess who is there now . In nice places we built with our money. Our contributions to the ukrainian effort. In 20 years, the ukrainians will be just like the africom and south africans. It will be their community and ultimately, we will find ourselves support again. I say that america is in turmoil and i do not trump, biden, i do not see haley, scott, harris i do not see a savior. I say savior in the sense that, we really need somebody to with common sense in the white house. Thank you. Host lets go to the line for democrats. Orangeburg, south carolina, shirley, good morning. Caller good morning. Im calling to say Speaker Mccarthy, i think he got the speakership the wrong way anyway. I am not sorry to see him go, because he fought the democratic leader that night tooth and nail to get that seat. Now, his own people have kicked him out. So, i do not see anybody on the republican side that i would like to see president and big mouth jim george i do not see how those people in ohio even think about electing him or anything for anything. Host here was republican tim burchett, he was one of the eight republicans that voted to oust mccarthy. He was a guest on this program earlier this week and explained his decision. Take a look. [video clip] my conscience was telling me we need to make a change. We had not brought up the term limits bill. We stayed the entire month of august, two weeks into september, knowing our fiscal year was going to end september 30. There was no urgency. What did we do . We passed a 45 day continued resolution up to the thanksgiving holiday so that will force us to pass an anonymous an omnibus bill then. They told me i needed to pass that to pass a continued resolution so we would not pass any continued resolutions. We have totally abdicated our duties of one thing, we are supposed to pass a budget and 12 appropriations bills. We just have not done that. So, i prayed about it. My buddy told me, he said your conscience serves you well. That is what got me through my political career, if you will. I conscience told me we need to make a change. My conscience told me we need to make a change, so i voted to make a change. Host that was earlier this week on this program, 10 project was one of the eight republicans tim burchett was one of the eight republicans that voted to oust mccarthy. Steve says, over 300,000 new jobs in september. That is seven jobs for every person applying for asylum. Andrea also on x says it continues to be the immigration debacle in new york city. New york democrats are now claiming the border should be closed. At least they are not blaming climate this time. Dwight is in fairfield, california, independent. Good morning. Caller good morning, good talking to you this money. Mimi, i am going to pivot away from the stories that washington journal has suggested. My story this week is the passing of my beloved senator, dianne feinstein. She passed at 90 years old, we had the opportunity thursday to go to her services attended by thousands of native californians. Dianne feinstein was a true fire. Yes, she was a democrat, but she was inclusive way before diversity, equity and inclusion was even a topic like it is now. Dianne feinstein broke the Glass Ceiling when she ran for supervisor in San Francisco and she won. Dianne feinstein was next door to the office of harvey milk, who in San Francisco, was the first openly gay individual who won a seat on the board of supervisors in San Francisco. We had a another supervisor there that walked in his office, not only killed harvey milk but killed mayor mass goni as well. That was because the man was an openly gay man, some of the thin ware dealing with now. Feinstein got up out of her office, walked over to harvey milks office and he died in her arms. If you remember, she was the champion of these assaults, getting rid of him. These men did not like that at all, but s w a fire and she stood her grod. I am so very, very proud to have lived through the era of Dianne Feinsteins representation of the state of california. Thank you for taking my call. Host all right, dwight. Eric in virginia, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. What i would like to say is, trump is a reflection of the majority vote majority of white people in this country. They are the ones who vote for him and support him. I want to think about what type of country this would be if white people had voted, not even black people black people did not vote. Best those states where black people are swayed the election and the democrats. We have a country worse than afghanistan if these republicans are allowed what they say they want to do to the American People, they are hateful but love giving out money away to israel and countries like that. They have no problem. Abortion is legal. Drugs are legal. Marijuana is legal. They continue to deny black people in this country of reparations. They continue to deny us full citizenship in this country, but of the people that come over in this country since marco rubios people, ted cruz people ted cruz was born in canada. These people act like they have the rights, people have been through slavery. My generations of family. These people have come over here, there is a lot of them in the United States that think they have the right to tell us what is right and wrong. Most of these crimes is being committed in the United States, committed in these red states and red areas. Most of the government is government welfare. It given to white people in these red states. Millions and millions more 30 million black people people in this country and we have hundreds of millions of white people on welfare. Food stamps. Emigration, i am a black person. Something needs to be done about this immigration issue. Those people coming over here are taking away from black people. We are at the bottom. They change their race from hispanic to white. 1. 3 million of them they joined this battle against the black people such as affirmative action. It makes no sense. We need our rights. Host got it, eric. We are taking your calls this morning on your top news story of the week. A lot happened in washington. The essay call, let us know what you consider your top story. The number is republicans, 202 7488000. Democrats, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. You can also reach us on social media. Marianne posted on x, her top news stories are mccarthy booted as speaker, the attack netanyahu says israel is at war, trump fraud trial, september 2023 pakistan record and maga nonsense opens opportunities for jeffreys speakership. Bobby says, House Republicans wandering days left to Fund Government and prevent shutdown infighting. 41 days to work. They will spend 10 days replacing a speaker. Just so you are aware, the breaking news is about that violence going on between israel and the palestinians. Here is the New York Times updating us. Violence between palestinians and israelis has been seething for months. It has been years since israel has experienced this kind of violence taking place on saturday, but tensions between israelis and palestinians have been surging for months. As have warnings of the risk of allout war. Most of the recent focus has been on the occupied bank where current is really violent military operations have sparked gun battles with palestinian militants. Palestinian militants in the gaza strip have thought similar engagements. We will continue to watch that throughout the program and keep you updated on those developments in the middle east. Jarosz in talladega, republican. Good morning. Jarosz . Did we lose you . Sandy, oregon, republican. Good morning. Caller how are you today . Host doing good. Caller all right. Been listening to your show and this stuff about racist i am a republican. My best friend was black. That is africanamerican, i am sorry. I do not understand race. What happened was biden said he was trump was a racist. I do not understand that because we have republicans that are running for governors and stuff , were colored and running for governor because he was a republican. I just i do not understand that. All my life, i live in a really redneck town. We were never, ever, hurt anybody of a different color because i am part navajo. I do not understand why everybody in the colored life are saying, we deserve this and stuff. What about the native americans . They were attacked in the 1800s. Forgetting is to move on. Host we will move on to paul in pennsylvania, republican. Caller i am a staunch republican. I think the main reason why mccarthy was ousted was the fact he gave in to the democrats as far as the debt ceiling and also as far as the continuing resolution to extend funds. Basically, he is kicking the can down the road. With all the money we spend on israel which i am a staunch supporter of it, and ukraine, it is no wonder we are running deficits so that my grandkids grandkids will be paying on this deficit beyond the future. Host would you end american support for israel . Caller not at all. Host you would not. Caller i would increase it because they are a staunch ally of the United States. I have been there. I was a u. S. Marine. We had how do you say it joint host you also support american support for ukraine . Caller two a degree. I think the europeans are getting more of the benefit then the United States is. The United States is stretched thin with north korea, with ukraine, with israel, with securing the borders of our own country. We are beyond the credit card, keep charging it for future generations. Host paul, who would you like to see as speaker of the house . Caller probably a moderate, whether it be a democrat or republican. It would not matter to me. Either way, they are going to have to get along with the president that is currently in power or the next president. Hopefully, they will be able to pass it a lot quicker than mccarthy. It took 15 tries to get him in. Hopefully, it would be a lot quicker. I would vote for that representative from i cant member his name from, what is it, oklahoma, i believe . Host are you talking about kevin hearn . Caller yeah, kevin hearn. I think he would make a great speaker. Host lets talk to carl in alabama on the line for democrats. Caller good morning, thanks for taking my call. I just want to speak on the change of speakership with the republicans. It is like, pick your poison. I think Kevin Mccarthy was bad, but if they select jim jordan, i think he is going to be an abject disaster. I do not see anything getting passed, we know that donald trump has already endorsed him. I think the only thing he is going to be interested in doing is whatever donald trump says he is doing, that would include the investigations of the bidens. The obamas, the clintons it is whatever donald trump tell jordan to do, that is what he is going to do. I think it is really sad, but the country. I just not know who would be a good choice on the republican side to become speaker of the house. You know . They are not interested in compromise. Host all right, carl. Take a look at what truth sayer says on x. Top local news property taxes increased over 50 . I do not know how those on fixed incomes and retirees are going to absorb that. Not a national headline, but definitely a concern to me. Tracy says this on facebook, my top story of the week is the discovery that come yet again, trump has proven to be unfit to ever step foot in the white house as president again. They have testimony that says that trump has shared classified information about our Nuclear Submarine capabilities with foreigners. That was the australian individual. Cindy on facebook this administration has caused an elevation in crime, high prices in every area of living, supply chain issues and chaos around the world. Biden tries to sell you on how wonderful his failed policies are improving your life. Eric is calling from long island, new york, independent. Caller hi, how are you doing this morning . I have a few points to make. First of all, fit no is killing fentanyl is killing 100,000 americans a day. If you say that, that is like having a plane crash of 300 people every day. I do not understand how the democrats can look themselves in the mirror and say, oh, just ignore it. It is just absolutely amazing. They call this a lack of god in the Democratic Party. I grew up as a hippie and a democrat. I voted for the green party in 1981. Winston churchill said, if you are young to vote democrat, liberal, you do not have a heart. If you get older and do not vote conservative, you do not have a brain. That is so true. Everyone should love jesus. Have a blessed day. Host all right. Mike in dallas, North Carolina, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. I think you missed the really top story this week was when Hillary Clinton said the republicans need to be reprogrammed. What is that . What is reprogramming . She also said they need to there needs to be a reckoning when she was running for president. I do not understand. Where are we going . Host you know, mike, i do have an article about that. Let me see if i can get it. In the meantime, lets look at a portion of that interview with cnns christina with Hillary Clinton. Take a look. [video clip] when you look at how to go forward for the country, you say, is there any area of Coalition Building that could happen that are per magic republicans pragmatic republicans, could there be a new way of trying to get legislation going and cross Party Governance going by democrats and certain republicans forming a coalition . He saw the number of republicans who voted along with democrats to keep the government open. There is clearly a common sense, saying part of the Republican Caucus in the house. But, i think they are intimidated. I think they oftentimes say and do things they know better than to say or do. It will require us to those most extreme measures and the people who promote them in order to try to get to some Common Ground where people can Work Together. That is the way it used to be. We had very strong partisans in both parties in the past and we had very bitter battles over all kinds of things. Uncontrolled, climate change, the economy, taxes guncontrol, climate change, the economy, taxes. There was a little tailwagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today. Sadly, so many of those extremists the maga extremists, take their marching orders from donald trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He is only in it for himself. He is now defending himself in civil and criminal actions. When do they break with him . At some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. Something means to happen. How do you do that . You said you need to do that by defeating the leader, donald trump. How does this change at all . At this point, i think sadly, he will still be the nominee and we have to defeat him. Have to defeat those that are election deniers as we did in 2020 and 2022 and we have to be smarter about how we are trying to empower the right people inside the Republican Party. Host former president ial nominee Hillary Clinton speaking to cnn. You can read the article about that here on cnn. Com. Here is the headline, clinton calls for formal deprogramming of maga cult members. That is on cnn. Com. Also, an update between the israelis and palestinians from adrian watson, the nfc spokesperson. The u. S. Unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by hamas terrorist against israeli civilians. There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand firmly with the government and people of israel and extend our condolences for the israeli lives lost in those attacks. Also posting the National Security advisor, Jake Sullivan has spoken to the israeli National Security advisor. We remain in close contact with our israeli partners. We will continue to keep you updated on that. Meanwhile, take your calls on your top news story of the week. Dennis is a democrat in memphis, tennessee. Caller good morning. I just have a couple of points. One is the border, because there is a Storm Brewing down there. You cant keep letting all these people come in here and we already do not have anywhere to put them as it is. You look at Atlanta Police stations and all of that. Guess what . It is starting to get soon. They cannot get out there. Do not take a Rocket Scientist to figure that one out. You need to put the National Guard or whoever down there. You can only enter at a port of entry. You just cant come across. We have nowhere to put you. Host dennis, you welcome the announcement of the border wall, a portion of the border wall being constructed . Caller that is not going to help anything. They will climb over it and go through it. You have got to get that under control, because you are going to see people dying because they already do not have houses for them. That is something that can be easily tooken care of. It is only going to get worse. It is not going to get better. I got a secondstory that is not getting too much national attention. Here in memphis, we had a Mayoral Election in the past week. The current sheriff was running for mayor. He really was the prime leader. But, a video surfaced last month showing his deputies beating a prisoner to death in the memphis jail. Beat him to death. The autopsy, he died by beating to death. The sheriff got on there the next day and said, he seen nothing wrong with what his deputies did and he would be the first one to bail them out. Quite naturally, you know that cost him the election. I would like to say, for everyone to see if he said they did not do anything wrong, that man must not see anyone would elect him as mayor. He was not going to be elected as chair the next time. Host on your first point about the border, here is a portion from thursdays press briefing, white house secretary karine john key was asked about the Biden Administrations border wall decision. [video clip] the border wall does not work if that is the case, why does his own department say the public noted there is an immediate need to construct a physical barrier . I can speak to what the president was very clear in saying and what you have been reporting about this construction. The facts are this. This is not new. These funds were appropriated in the school year 2019 under republican leadership. Dhs is required by law to use funds for appropriate purpose. This was announced in june by dhs. Look, we believe there are better, effective ways of moving forward to secure our border insecurity. We have continuously asked for congress to act, to provide Law Enforcement at the border to give the resources they need to do their jobs. We are going to continue to call on congress. The president has been clear even when you ask him, does the border wall work, and he says no we believe we need Border Technology that is modernized and land ports at entry. That is what we want to see. That is what i can speak to. This is something we will require by law. This is an administration that does believe in the rule of law. Why now . The president spoke to this. This is one of the things he was saying. He has been asking congress to reappropriate the funds. He has been for the past couple of years. Congress refused. We have to comply by law to get this done. That is what you are seeing happening now. [indiscernible] we have to comply by law. That is what we are doing at this time. We asked congress to reappropriate the funds. That is what we would prefer to see, not waste the funding. But, they refuse. Now, we are moving forward. Host on the border we are asking for your top news story of the week. You can give us a call, we will take your calls for the next 10 minutes or so on that. Arnett is calling from pleasant grove, alabama, independent. Caller good morning, how are you doing today . Host doing ok. Caller thank you, maam, and thank you cspan and cspan viewers for watching. My top story of the week is being has been local. It has been, lets say, national. It amazes me that here in this country, you can tell there is a certain segment of our society that is intended on attacking americans. Want to assassinate certain of us. They wonder to wholesale slaughter us. I do not understand why we are attacking americans when every american is just trying to live and get along. Host what do you mean, people are trying to kill americans . Who are you referring to . Caller i am referring to those people who applaud the attack upon mr. Pelosi, those people who applaud the assassination attempts or tried attempts or calls for our military leaders. Those people who applaud anyone and denigrate a lot of our people, those people do not want to admit the history of our country. Those people who just deny history, who only watch a certain segment of news. I watch every channel that is available to me, because everything is in a loop. There is a certain segment that calls in with a certain thing. There loop is the same subjects. All these extremes are killing america. The speaker of the house is supposed to be the speaker of the American Peoples house. He is supposed to come up with 218 people, not 218 republicans or 218 democrats. He is supposed to come up with 218 people and carry that forward. But, what we have is if i do not have the majority of the majority, i am not going to put any bill on the floor. That was a republican rule. That rule is killing america because it does not make sense. If i am going to be speaker of the house, i am going to speak for all American People and have to get everyone in consensus so we can leave this country forward to summing better. Host lets go to the republican line, earl, good morning. Caller yes, it is two things that is destroying this country. That is hatred and money. The Second World War that persecuted the jews, that is why we have world war ii was meant to be and god says, you will be persecuted for my namesake. People have turned god away from this country. Until we get him back in this country, nothing is going to happen. You are always talking about trump. Trump, trump, trump. [indiscernible] trump is just one man. We have got to get this country together. The democrats and republicans on either side knows what they are doing. They need to set out and get together. That is what this country is about. Love and god. That is what we are based on. Host and lets go to the democratic line in brooklyn. Is it nikisha . Caller it is. How are you . Host good, go ahead. Caller i live in brooklyn. I came from another country and i became an american. God bless america. America is supposed to be for the people, by the people. I feel like if you are going to be the government, once you get elected, it is not about your party anymore. It is about the American People. When i see, for instance, you have the former speaker of the house you gave into your party. If you are going to be the speaker of the house, it is supposed to be for everyone. Therefore, you have to be bipartisan. You have to come together collectively, make a decision as a democrat, republican, independent, to do what is best for the American People. Number two. For instance, in brooklyn, in new york city, you make marijuana legal. It is a drug. Every corner is a smokehouse. Why is it my children are supposed to be coming from school and there is a smokehouse . I tell my kids, stay in school, do not do drugs but you cant specify what drug is legal . Marijuana should not be legal. It is a drug. How about you put things on the corner that my children, who are in brooklyn, need . Afterschool activities . Funding for spreads programs on the weekends that children who are in urban areas like my children cant afford because i am working i work five days a week and still cant make ins meet. How about you invest in local issue, also . Also, when they talk about affirmative action affirmative action was established because you want to give the people who have been this advantage because they were taken from a country that was not theirs and they were brought here and you expect now they have the right to vote . Now, you it was made to get the foot in the door. If you get in the race, how can you have a chance to win . Host all right, lets go to new jersey, independent line, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. Story for the week for me was the disarray in the Republican Party in choosing the speaker. It seems there is some good news here. There is still we are still a democracy. Our government gets elected by majority vote. I think the Republican Party can win the vote by getting more voters, which may mean hitting a majority getting a minority of the u. S. Population angry enough to vote, rather than striving to get a majority of the whole country to vote. I think it is really important. We are blessed. I am personally grateful that elections still matter here. Host john, i am curious since you are an independent which way you are leaning for the next president ial election. Caller that is a good question. That is a good question. I can think of a couple of republicans i would vote for. Depending on who gets nominated. I probably still stick with biden. If he runs. Host all right. Lets talk to wayne in new york, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. My main story this week was concerning to me about the ouster of Speaker Mccarthy at the house of representatives. I understand the passion around the border wall and Border Security and that being what prompted many republicans to call for his ouster. I also am very concerned about the funding for the war in ukraine and how some of the republicans are calling for reduced funding for ukraine absent Border Security for our country. I guess my question would be, our dhs are dhs department capable of securing the border if given the go order and consequently, the funding for the war in ukraine should be restored. That war should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Eventually, it is going to migrate into a greater conflict absent Decisive Action by the United States and its allies. What we seem history is repeating itself, like every war we get into, it tends to get elongated and prolonged. We basically lose interest and walk away, and walk away from much american suffering and casualties. I feel that as a catastrophic failure. We also i was informed yesterday that each and every american taxpayer in this country owes 298,000 by virtue of the national debt. Which is very, very concerning to me, as it should be all. Again, i wish they could Work Together and help resolve some of these issues. Host wayne, on the speaker election, here is rollcall call. They said the House Republicans set the speaker election schedule and said the house gop conference will hold its internal election for speaker wednesday morning after tuesday evening candidate forum, according to a schedule distributed by republican conference chair Elise Stefanik of new york. Steve in las vegas, democrat. Good morning. Caller yes, mimi. Thank you for taking my call, i appreciate it. My biggest concern is, i am on Social Security medicare and the republicans on the national debt. If you want to take on the national debt, you have got call it out, good luck in your next election. You say, we need to go ahead and cut it and do what you think you can do. If that is your biggest problem and you are worried about it, if you cannot feel around the edges , food stamps, does not mean nothing when your Social Security medicare is go after the big ones, if that is what you want to do. Thank you for taking my call. Host all right, steve in las vegas. That was the last one of this segment, but we will have another opportunity later in the program to share your top news story of the week. Next on washington journal, Anna Giaritelli discusses the Biden Administrations response to the recent migrant surge at the u. S. Mexico border. Later, dolly a wick discusses her podcast and dahlia washington journal continues. Host welcome back to washington journal. We are joined by Anna Giaritelli. She is the immigration reporter for the Washington Examiner. Welcome to the program. Guest thank you. Host i want to start with a quote from secretary mayorkas, the secretary of the department th. Homeland security, who says there is presently an acut phical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States, in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States and the project areas. In order to ensur the expeditious constr of the barriers and roads in the project areas, i have determined it is necessary that i exercise the authority that is vested in me by section 102 c of the illegal Immigration Reform and responsibility act. That was in the washington times. Tell us what is going on with that and why the aboutface i the administration. Guest yeah, so President Biden promised a number of candidates in 2020 that he would build not another foot of border wall. President trump had put up 415 miles. He set out to put up 800 and did not get there. There was several billion dollars worth of projects that were incomplete. President biden said we are not going to move on that. The money was taken from the department of defense, the military project that was diverted to cover it. And then from congress, money that was mount meant to build the wall. When biden canceled that, he said we will give the money back to the military. The other money that was meant for the wall, they will redirect that. What we saw this week was dhs said we have this money that has not been spent, congress in 2019 under trump said here is how much it was, 1 billion to build this part of the wall in the Rio Grande Valley in south texas. Congress has not changed its plan. The Biden Administration, instead of just not using it, which has done with most of the border money, it came out this week and said we will build 20 miles of 18 foot wall in stark county, texas, a democratic district. And so, i think it has been confusing for republicans and especially democrats, who feel like biden is walking back what he promised to do in 2020. Host lets look at President Biden being asked about the border wall. Pres. Biden money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get it redirected. They did not and would not. In the meantime, they have to use the money. I cant stop that. [indiscernible] no. Host you heard the president say he doesnt think the border walls work. Do we have actual information about that . Is there a subjective is there subjective evidence on whether the border wall works or not . Caller we do. Guest we do. It is interesting he said it does not work when his department of Homeland Security said we need the wall because it works and it will help in one of the busiest parts of the southern border. There is a big conflict happening there. It is like asking is water wet. I dont take a stance on the wall. But walls everywhere work. There is a fence around the white house that works. The wall around the southern border is no different. It is meant to funnel people. If it is 20 miles long in a 30 mile area, it will funnel people to the open 10 miles to cross it there and where they can have agents ready and waiting. In other areas, you will have a 30 mile area and there is 30 miles of wall so you wont get through their. In very rare circumstances, you may have somebody come over. It is a 1830 foot high wall. I would say walls certainly work. I think with the amount of wall that was put up under trump, it left a lot of gaps. Part of that is to funnel people into certain areas where Border Patrol knows it can make apprehensions and people are not just looking across. But under the Biden Administration, Border Patrols reported 1. 4 7 Million People 1. 47 people. They have walked into the United States but they have not been able to arrest those people. They go across and the people continue into the u. S. And we dont know where they end up. That is because there is no barrier in those areas. Host President Biden said he had no choice but to use that trump arra funding for a border wall. Trump era funding for a border wall. Is that true . Guest department of Homeland Security is using that line, saying they have no choice. They could have just not used it. Instead, they are choosing to use the money to build 20 miles of wall. That is why democrats are upset. They see it as he had a choice and he chose to do something with the money. It sure did not seem like he was going to be forced to do that or it sure seems like he had a choice early on in his administration, when the First Six Months were spent spending in june, july of 20 20 one, saying no, we are officially canceling all the contracts. Its Money Congress appropriated but you dont have to spend it. If you are not going to spend on what it is meant for. Host i will invite viewers to join the conversation. Republicans, 202 7488001. Kratz, democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. We have a line for border residents. 202 7488003. You can interact with us on facebook and on and at cspan wj and on x at cspan wj. Also represents the district where the wall will be erected. He was on this program and discussed what he thinks Congress Needs to do. Ive said to both democrats and republicans, when you play football, why would we keep playing defense from the one yard line of the u. S. Mexico border . Why would we not extend the perimeter to the 20 yard line, where we can play defense before they get to the border . I have a heat mask and i would be happy to share that with you. They call it a wall, it is a fence. They are talking about building a fence. When you have a river, you cannot put the fence at the river. You cant put it in the riverbank because it will get washed up. So, they put it about a quarter or a mile away from the fence. The people trying to come in are not trying to avoid their asylum papers. I say asylum papers because 89 to 90 of them will be rejected. They come in, touch the riverbank and walk half a mile or quarter mile a quarter mile, wave at the camera and say here i am. The fence does not stop them. The heat mask that shows most of the activities of the last couple of years heat map that shows most of the activity of the last couple of years has been at fences. We added 15 more of an increase in homeland. That is 2. 4 billion more money into homeland. My thing is lets rethink our strategy. What we are doing right now, throwing money at it is not working. Host i want to hear your reaction to that and also what he said about you cant build a fence in a river, so what to do about those river crossings . Guest yeah, i think the congressman has a really good point. He has been one of the most outspoken democrats on the border crisis, since President Biden took office. Lets talk about el paso in western texas. Its a place where we have seen 10002000 people crossing every day. When i was there last december during the surge, you have the river, that is the actual International Boundary between the United States and mexico. And then you have, a couple feet up the shoreline, and actual fence, wall, barrier, whatever we want to call it. What immigrants do is they come across the river. The first stuff they take to the soil on the u. S. Side, they are in the United States. And so the wall, theoretically, it looks like you should not be able to get in through the wall but there are gates so that agents can go in and come out while they are on patrol. What people do is line up at the wall and wait to be taken in. Some of the more conservative republican said we shouldnt be just taking people in if they are at the wall because they are in the United States whats the point of having a wall if you are going to ope the gate and let people in . Border patrols perspective, they are taking people in because once someone has made an unlawful entry, it is a federal crime its a misdemeanor your first time and a federal crime every time. Border patrol cannot just let people be illegally present in the u. S. And not do anything about it. I dont want to say it is a loophole but it is part of the law that certainly works in the benefit for people who are or are not seeking asylum. Most people have not sought asylum. They have that ability to anytime they are going through the process after being released. Like i said earlier, it funnels people to one area. But, if youg erybody in because they crossed illegally and taking them into custody and they get released, it does undermine the purpose of a barrier. Host lets Start Talking to some of our viewers. Robert is up first, a democrat in chicago, illinois. The morning. Caller good morning to both of you. Good morning, robert. Caller maam, the problem we have with immigrants is love and hate. Some people love immigrants and some people hate them. This lady just came in and told you that joe biden could have, he should have, he could not do nothing. The money was pulled from the department of defense to be used primarily for the wall. Biden tried to change it. He tried to have it put out in technology. He tried to have it put out in border agents. He tried to have it put out in extra judges for people filing for the asylum. But anyway, it was all turn down turned down. Host lets get a response. The caller mentioned technology. Is there a Technology Solution to the border . Guest im going to say roberts understanding of the issue is inaccurate. The money was not taken from the department of defense for this particular project. It was appropriated by congress, specifically for border infrastructure in the Rio Grande Valley. When it comes to how that money has to be spent, Congress Said it needs to be spent on physical barrier, it can be spent on roads, it can be spent on technology. Sensors in the ground that detect people. Possibly even drones. It cannot be spent on hiring more agents. It cannot be spent on Immigration Judges because that is under the department of justice, not the department of Homeland Security. Congress handed the Biden Administration plenty of different ways they could have spend it spent it. It has spent plenty of money on technology. Saying they did not have any way to spend it other than the wall is coming up short on the full truth. Host john is in clarksville, independent, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for the program. I have a question. If walls dont work, if walls are ineffective, why do so Many Americans tend to support the wall . It seems like there are a number of fairminded americans who want the wall. Why is that, if its not effective . And i guess my next question would be is there a scenario in which a wall could be effective . Guest thanks for the question. I dont think its a matter of it not being effective. I think that is a blackandwhite statement. I think it is effective. It is hard to quantify its effectiveness when you have say, lets go back to 30 miles with the border area, and you put up a border wall within 25 miles of it. You are having a ton of people cross in this five mile opening. Lets say the five people cross and go over the wall, that 25 miles of wall. You could argue that the wall is not effective. People are still coming in. You can argue that five got over, it is not effective. What we dont know is how many people, had there been no barrier, would have come through that area . And how many of those people are who are coming over were arrested and caught by Border Patrol or how many got away. With Border Patrol increasing over the last couple of years under biden and even under the Trump Administration, the Biden Administration has said encounters might go up. We are encountering more people because we are Getting Better at seeing them on camera and responding. The border wall is funneling people so they can only walk across certain areas, so we are apprehending more. I think it depends on how we are looking at the effectiveness, how it is being used and what it is meant to do. Host i want to put up on the screen, the latest poll from abc News Washington post about Approval Ratings for the Biden Administration on immigration and the southern border. Approval is at 23 percent. Disapprove, 62 . No opinion at 15 . What are those but are the actual border policies of the Biden Administration . Can you outline those for us . Guest yeah. In short, it is pretty much the Trump Administration and i didnt administration have completely opposite policies. Biden came in, he took a slew of actions, rescinding the border wall. He said he would stop all deportations within 100 days. Thats in a strong message outside the country. He said he was no longer going to require asylumseekers to wait in mexico, rather than being released in the country. There have been a number of different policies. He walked back ices ability to arrest any illegal immigrant in the country. They have to be convicted of a certain serious crime. If you are a National Security concern, if you are in espionage. If you crossed the border and were released and are in the country now. If you are a convicted felon. Not just if you have four duis or have been convicted for shoplifting. You have to be an aggravated felon. In the campaign, he said we want to treat immigrants humanely. We believe people should have dignity in this process. But also saying im not going to do these sorts of things that trump did, it is common sense that people around the world and said this is great. Immigrants outside of the United States, in countries where they dont have jobs and they dont have food to eat, places like venezuela and cuba, where conditions can be extremely, you know desolate, they are not turning on the news and saying lets compare the policies between they use these administrations. They are going on my sister used this guy to get 5,000 to get them into the u. S. A lot of it is wordofmouth. We have had 7 Million People encountered at the border since biden took office. If i said to you we have had 7000 people come acre border, it would be like wow, 7000 . Ly that 1000 times to 7 million. We have had more than 2 Million People released from the border into the United States in 2. 5 years. There are nine cities and states now up north that have declared states of emergency. When republicans are saying the border is open, everybody is getting released, those are sound clips that if the cartels wanted, they could click that, translate it and say here is the u. S. Politicians saying the border is open right now. It is so much a wordofmouth as well as policy changes. People know based on what they are seeing and hearing, people are getting in and getting released. Host lets talk to dennis next in casper, wyoming. Her crack. Hi, dennis. Democrat, hi, dennis. Caller i agree the wall is an effective funneling device and a boundary marker. Out there in the middle of the desert, where there is no river, these people coming into the United States, at least they know when they are in the United States and they can wait for somebody to come pick them up. It saves lives. You can just put bus stops out there and fake signs saying wait here and you would have so many people waiting for the bus to take you to get processed. Putting the military down there is not going to stop people from coming. Once they are here, you have to send them to a court or some kind of process. And if you dont expand the scope of that process by hiring more judges and stuff, expanding the Immigration Courts, you are never going to solve this problem. Host what do you think . Guest when i go to his point, shout out to wyoming, with soldiers on the border, lets think of the texas National Guard, that has sent more than 10,000 state troopers and National Guard women and men to the border over the past 2. 5 year those soldiers, the govis tweeting every single day, governor greg abbott, a republican, saying t are relling people that is a term he uses regularly repelling people. Ats a term he uses regularly. Soldiers are on the ground at the riverbank, telling people kn, you cant cross here. Go downstream. We are not gngo cut the wire and let you in. What is happening is it is just, again, funneling people to certain areas to cross. I think it is an in accurate way of per training what the soldiers are doing. The state troopers down there are making busts every single day of human smuggling and people who have gotten over a legally are picked up and transported deeper into the u. S. And the troopers pulled them over on the road. The soldiers at the border are allowing, when people get through, they are holding them for Border Control and transferring them over to their custody. So, they are not actually deterring. They dont have the Legal Authority to push somebody back into mexico. I think that is why there is so much debate over how effective having these men and women down there for a long period and permanently is worthwhile. Host i want to ask you about an article you wrote for the Washington Examiner with the headline u. S. Quietly strikes deal to send military to ecuador amid drug cartel explosion. Tell us about whats going on there. Host that was the exclusive thing we learned from congressman dan crenshaw, a republican in texas. He is leading the task force on taking down mexican drug cartels. Drug cartels are also heavily involved in human smuggling that we kyiv the border. Mr. Crenshaw spoke with us last week and shared that the president of ecuador had is it washington, visited congress and spoken with lawmakers behind the scenes at a private briefing and shared what the country had done to work on its drug cartel problem. And also shared that he was not in town as it looks publicly to meet with lawmakers and talk about how his country had handled the drug cartel. He was there to find some documents sign some documents with defense, Homeland Security and the state that would allow the u. S. , the United States to send military not just into ecuador on land, but also in the maritime environment. So, on the coast in the water. This doesnt mean that troops are going to be sent there. But for the land, we have these sort of agreements with a number of countries in europe, basically to maintain a presence of troops overseas proactively. We dont have these types of agreements with a lot of countries in central or southern america. Especially the ones in the water. This is allowing the United States to have a military presence there if we want to. And, ecuador is on the Northwest Side of south america. Next to columbia, where we are seeing cocaine typically coming up through the water, through the ocean on either side of the caribbean. It is moved up north, typically through the puerto rico and caribbean islands to florida. So, i think this is the United Statess proactive move to, if it wants to come up before its presence there. And sort of pushed the border out and do more offshore, rather than waiting for drugs or human smuggling to happen at our border. Host lets talk to joe next. Hi, joe. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller as far as the border is concerned, living in arizona, that is something that is important. The folks that live here, i think the Biden Administrations policies have really opened up the floodgates and exacerbated the problems. I dont see anybody on that side of the aisle doing anything, anything to help these the burden on ease the burden on the border states. We had the border closed end it is no longer closed. I want to see action. But i cant see action from an administration that lacks leadership. There isnt a leader on the democrats side. The present it president isnt a leader. He doesnt understand leadership. He is a loser. This country will suffer bigtime because of his lousy policies. Thank you. Host any comment . Guest im glad he brought up arizona. Communities on the border, this is why governor aberdeen bust people. They have bussed 15,000 people. 50,000 people. 50,000 people have chosen to take the free rides to cities up north. The cities up north are experiencing what cities on the southern border have experienced for years and years before this, where there have been surges. The Biden Administration has continued to put out nearly half 1 billion in the last two years to communities who give that money to nonprofits, who are helping immigrants. It is, again, like putting a bandaid on it, helping those communities and nonprofits that are working with immigrants, dealing with those initial issues of helping people get transportation, getting shelter space and food for people who are getting out of custody and literally have no money and nowhere to go and thought the u. S. Government would take better care of them. They did not realize they would be it would be everyone for themselves. And down near the tucson area is where, out of 328 ports of entry nationwide, airports, land ports and seaports, the lan port of entry where you and i would drive across has seen more fentanyl seized than any other port in the country by a far amount. Soldiers are seizing an enormous amount of fentanyl from not just commercial trucks coming along, they are seeing more hidden on motorcycles and body carriers. They are finding men and women who have a burrito, no joke, the size of a aaa burrito, and it is stuffed in a woman or mans body cavities. Sometimes in both body cavities of a woman. It sounds like why would you walk over a burrito of fentanyl pills . But that amount over and over and over again, if you can work the system and not get caught, fentanyl goes for so much more money than marijuana would. And so they are seeing the cartels move through there. That is an area of arizona and the country that has been heavily impacted by drug smuggling and the drugs that come in are going out to major cities and dispersing from there. Host secretary of state blinken, homeland secretary of security may arcus secretary mayorkas had a meeting. Can you tell us what the purpose of those meetings were or anything that may have come out of those meetings . Guest this is the third annual meeting the Biden Administration has conducted with mexican leaders in mexican mexico city. They are discussing how to continue trades between both countries and security issues. While sec. Mayorkas was down there, the Biden Administration officials were down there and the department of Homeland Security and the white house announced something that had nothing to do with this meeting. But the u. S. Government will now begin immediately flights back to venezuela, deporting, removing, repatriating venezuelan immigrants at the u. S. Southern border. That is a big deal because they have not been happening. And what has confused immigrant advocates was the u. S. Recently decided a few weeks ago that hey, we are going to protect and extend the ppf for venezuelans who are legally in the United States because the country is not in a position to take them back. If they apply for this program and get approved, we are not going to deport them for any reason in the next 18 months. At the same time, the government came out and said this week, if you go to the border illegally from venezuela, you could be on a flight back home. The difference they are saying is that we create so many legal ways for people to be admitted into the United States, programs where they can apply for help from their home country, go to regional and state Mobility Centers to see if there is a way they can get admitted. Or, if they meet make the journey, they can meet with u. S. Customs officers. They are saying if you in to illegally, its not because you did not have a legal way of doing so, its because you chose not to. Therefore, you are eligible to be removed act to your country. We saw 22,000 venezuelan immigrants illegally cross and be arrested in august. It should be making a dent. We have seen huge numbers. In a couple of months, the Biden Administration will implement something and the cartels find a loophole and the numbers go down and come back up. We might see another drop. But how long until the numbers go back up again . Caller thank you so much for taking my call. Anna, a previous caller asked you about trumps policies. You have find numbers about joe bidens policies. Could you tell me some trump and republican policies besides for the last three years, every political republican did a political ad at the border and came back with no policy, zero policy except it is joe bidens fault. Im a 65yearold, young lady and id like to tell you this aint the first time ive been lied to. Im a retired firefighter who did arson investigations. The first thing that happens is i asked the guys name and it is lies from there on in. Guest joe, thank you for your service as a firefighter in maine. Im sure your community appreciates that. President trumps policy, he issued 300 exec that actions alone during his administration in four years. He put up over 450 miles of border wall. He was the one who said we will start deporting more people. We are going to open the categories for how many people can be deported, not just the serious criminals. With President Trump, i cant even think how to list all of the things that he changed immigration wise. It would be very easy to say the Biden Administration just rescinded all of those things. As far as your question, republicans, you know, are very quick to say we should undo everything biden did and go back to President Trumps policies. They passed a bill, hr two, that would do all of those things. The senate has not picked it up. Back to the beginning of the program, where we spoke about the house and senate not moving all of this money and the Biden Administration saying its hands are tied and they dont have a way to not send spend this money on the border, that is congresss fault. If they wanted something to change, democrats control the house. Im sorry, democrats control the senate. For the last couple of years, congress has been in a better position to change things. So, it did not get done. It comes down to congress as well, who skirted its ability to take further action. Host karen in new port richey, florida. Go ahead. Caller good morning, cspan. Things change and individuals and situations change. Republicans should help instead of complaining. No one cares about difference of opinion, to wall or not to wall. Shock and drama have no place in politics. We have republicans on fox news for that. Most intelligent americans know americans are bringing infants know for money in fentanyl for money, not migrants. We cant go back to any trump policies because most of those were illegal and against human rights. Everyone knows that. The republicans saying the border is wide open is what sent a message to the world, not biden. I know you understand that we let people in dozens of different reasons, right . Guest i cant say dozens but if you cross the border illegally and you initially are taken into custody and say i have a credible fear of being returned back to my country, you are supposed to go undergo an initial screening and see if you meet a basic threshold where you might be a candidate for asylum. Some of the folks on the right would say the threshold is too low and that is why so many people get released into the country. It will take several years before you appear in court. You have that period to make work through the asylum system. That is what ends up getting a lot of people released. We dont have the time to detain people. We dont have the facilities to detain people through those proceedings. That is why people get released. The Biden Administration does not want to hold hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in custody, waiting for them. That is one of the things that has been talked about by politicians, during the Trump Administration, as far as if we can immediately start screening people at the border and say you are not meeting the threshold, rather than releasing them. We can at least prevent more people from being released into the u. S. Get a hold on things now and deal with the 2 Million People in the Immigration Court system, waiting to go before one of 700 judges. Host while people are waiting to appear before a judge, are they allowed to work or how are they supporting themselves . Guest if you make an asylum claim, you will get documents to work six months after that. You do not need to claim asylum to be released into the country. If you do check in with ice as you are supposed to, you appear in court. You will have better circumstances, better abilities to get jobs. That has been such a difficult challenge for places like new york city, where they have had over 110,000 people not just come in from the border. More than that have come in from the border. But come in and say we need help. We dont have food or money. The city is saying to the Biden Administration, look. Say all of these people want to seek asylum, they are supposed to wait six months until they get a document saying here is my paper that allows me to legally work in this country and take any job. They cant have people working under the table. It is certainly difficult anyway with that number of people. Until they get jobs, they dont have money for housing. The city has over 200 sites in all five boroughs where they are housing people. The mayor and democrat said a couple of weeks ago they are destroying our city. That is strong language. What the Biden Administration is trying to do is improve the work permit situation. So the people can get working. On the flipside, you have republicans saying this is enabling people. It is incentivizing more people to come, knowing they make it work permits sooner. They are saying forget what they did legally. We are going to help them in this way. At the end of all of this, you could go before an immigration judge and the judge says i have heard your asylum claim, you dont meet the threshold, you are not persecuted for any of these reasons and you came for economic purposes and that is not asylum. You need to leave the country or be deported or self deport. That puts millions of people who have been released into the country in a position of what do i do now . I have been in the country for several years. It is a complicated problem. Not just from the front end but the ilLegal Immigration of the border. But, what do you do with people who do violate these laws . Caller host mike in houston, texas, republican line, good morning. Caller you described the fundamental transformation of the United States. This is how you change it. People have any understanding of the history or the founding of our country. They are coming here. A lot of them are good people but we cant take an ocean of people into the country. First thing, donald trump got the mexico government to agree that was done by donald trump. Or executed by donald trump. 5 billion people of the 8 billion live on five dollars a day or less. If even 1 of them want to come to the United States, that must be somewhere around 250 Million People. At some point, we have to control this. They had a Committee Hearing on the border and they would have wanted and they did want democrats to show up and have a transparent conversation. How can they not have a conversation and allow dialogue to occur . Aoc makes a big scene with tears running down her cheeks but when it comes to this situation, imagine how people are dealing with this in the emergency room . Emergency rooms. Not one democrat had any relationship with the cost of burdens in small towns like dell rio. Joe biden has never paid the price for bad policies in his career. He lives in the finest zip code in america with the greatest protection around him and never has to take more than one question or give us a second answer. Guest erased some valid points. The president has not been to the border since he was in el paso, texas, 1. 5 years ago. Vice president Kamala Harris has also been down there once. She is the borders are. Border czar. Her role is dealing with the root causes that because people in Central America, particularly the countries of el salvador and guatemala to migrate to the United States. Her team has had a lot of success bringing millions of dollars in corporate American Investments down to reason is regions for jobs. The problem is, focusing on those new countries, we have people coming from all over the world to the southern border. We always have. Every year, there are typically people from 150 countries who are apprehended at our nations borders. We have seen far more people coming from countries that are not normal to see people from. Where we might see a couple hundred people from china, we are seeing a couple thousand or more than 10,000. Same with venezuela. A couple of years ago, we saw a couple of tens of thousands. In the last 10 two years, we have seen 320 thousand people from venezuela come over the border illegally. I think if you are looking at how to deal with this, the administration really needs to and im sure they are, be looking at the factors not only sending people here from around the world, there are so many different factors. But as far as the pull factors, the reasons that we can influence that people want to come here, how can we improve that . Can we improve the Legal Immigration system to make it easier that way . Those sorts of things, as well as the root causes that are prompting people from all over the world to want to flee and release flee in relief of their country at this time. Host Anna Giaritelli, thanks for joining us. Guest thanks, mimi. Host you can find more of her articles at Washington Examiner. Com. Late in the program, we will talk to Dahlia Lithwick. She will discuss her podcast called amicus and legal news of the day. Up next, more of your calls and comments as we ask for your top story of the week. You can start calling in now. We will be right back. American history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. On lectures of history, university of kansas lit a coke Communications Professor Robert Rowland talks about Barack Obamas keynote address at the 2004 democratic convention. And how they have impacted president ial campaigns and the presidency itself. Explore American History explore the american story. Watch American History tv. Book tv, every sunday on cspan2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. At 8 00 p. M. Easrn, amber ac shares her boo the snowflakes revolt, where she argues that woke millennials working in media are changing mainstream journalism for the worse. At 10 00 p. M. , melissa kearney, author of the two parent privilege, contends the decline in twoparent married households is a driving factor in many of americans economic issues. She is interviewed by scott. Watch book tv on cspan2 every sunday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. Monday, watch cspan series, in partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. It will feature the life of Frederick Douglass. It was the first of three autobiographies by Frederick Douglass. In deeply personal and sometimes graphic linguist, he describes his childhood years on the Eastern Shore of maryland. His time as a slave in baltimore and his escape north in 1838. The book was widely sold and is said to have highly influenced the cause of alkylation abolition. Watch books that shaped america, featuring narratives of the life of Frederick Douglass. Monday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Our free mobile video app, or online at cspan. Org. Also, scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast, where you can learn more about the authors of the books featured. The office of speaker of the house of the United States house of representatives is hereby declared vacant. On tuesday at 5 00 p. M. Eastern, the house public and commerce meets to discuss the potential candidates for speaker of the house, following Kevin Mccarthys removal, with a party vote expected on wednesday morning. The House Democrats have announced their plan to select Hakeem Jeffries as their nominee for speaker. Stay with cspan as the battle over how speakership continues. Follow every moment from capitol hill as the historic election unfolds. Watch on cspan, cspan now or online at cspan. Org. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back to washington journal. We will be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so on your top news stories of the week. For we do that, i want to update you on the breaking news of what is happening in the middle east. Here is the Associated Press. The hamas attack on israel. The militant hamas rulers of the gaza strip have carried out an unprecedented multifront attack on israel, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, catching the country off guard on a major holiday. Hours after the invasion, hamas militants were fighting gun battle inside of federal israeli communities. Prime minister netanyahu declared israel was at war and called for a Mass Mobilization of army reserves. The invasion revives memories of the 1973 war, practically 50 years to the day ago. The latest is that the death toll in israel is at 40. At least 40 people have been killed in a wideranging hamas assault into israel. We have tweets coming in this morning from congress. The majority whip says america stamps stands firmly with israel. We will support our strongest ally in the middle east and their rights to defend themselves. Representative jerry nadler says Israeli Citizens are experiencing unspeakable horror as Hamas Terrorists launch attacks. Israel has the right to defend itself against such wickedness and violence. I stand with israel. Senator Marsha Blackburn says just weeks ago, the Biden Administration handed over 6 billion to iran. Today, innocent israelis are murdered by iran backed terrorists. And representative jerry conley says i am horrified by the terrorist attacks on civilians in israel and i unequivocally condemn the violence committed by hamas. The United States stands with our ally and the israeli people. We will continue to watch that throughout the program. We take your calls now on the top news story of the week. Dennis in iowa, democrat, good morning. Caller ok. In iowa, we have 90 nine counties. 95 of them voted for trump for president. We have the maga republican candidates for president running tv ads. Farmers selling their land to china. Id like to ask these republicans, when the heck did joe biden become a republican farmer . They are liars. Thank you. Host mark is a republican in pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. I wish i was on the phone with adam. Anna. We know what the problem is at the border. Asylum, 95 of people will not qualify for asylum but they are led into the country to have a hearing. The reason this is happening is we are allowing payments to go to these different countries, from the immigrants who are already here and they send it back home to pay the trump cartels. Its like a revolving door. The solution is simple. Lets change the asylum law. No cost to the American People. Spending billions on the wall and billions more on helping people cross the border. We already have a country law, for if you go through one country, you have to apply for asylum. You dont go through the country you pick. You get to go to the first safe country. I dont know why that is not being enforced. We should say you can go to the embassy we provide most of these countries to make your asylum claim. We can house them down there until a judge can grant them asylum are not and that would solve that problem. They wouldnt be coming up to the border here and they wont be let in. Everybody is going to suffer because of this. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on immigration. Why congress isnt disgusting discussing any of this . If you want to stop fentanyl, tell mexico it either gets stopped or we will shut the traffic down. I guarantee you they would stop cartels from doing this because they dont want to stop the economic stuff. Host got it, mark. Carol in st. Louis, missouri. Caller good morning. I was wondering if you could play the second of the ousted speakers speech where he could roof where he referred to the court host what do you think about that, carol . Why are you thinking about that right now . Caller i think the funding for Ukraine Support is the biggest mistake we could make. It just opens the door for the invasion by russia. I dont understand people, i just dont get it. Host lets talk to jeff, next. Woodbridge, virginia, republican. Caller talking about your last guest that was on, following up on that, excuse me. The problem is it is global, as she noted. As long as conditions, especially in Central South America persist, it is not going to stop. You are kidding the smugglers come up and building more border wall is not going to solve it, either. These smugglers are smart, they come equipped with hand held electric metal cutters and cut through the bottom of the fence ajd are able to get in. Its open for anybody to come through. So again its an unsolvable problem right now. Host i want to ask you what our previous caller talked about which is ending remittances from people here back to their families either in Central America or mexico or wherever they may be. What do you think about that . Because you started your comments about how awful the situation is in those other countries. Caller well, its true. But the statement that he made its that they fund the smugglers. Maybe part of it. A lot of it just goes into their own families. They build better houses, theyre able to take care of their families better. And remittance by the way makes up a significant portion of the gdp for a lot of these countries. Host lets talk to marty in montana, independent line. Good morning. Caller are you there . Montana . No. Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, democrat. Something wrong with the phone lines maybe . Lets try donald in michigan, republican. Caller yes. Host there you are. Caller yes. I would like to say that were complaining about the president and all those people in washington, d. C. Guess what, we sent them there. They didnt steal the job. If were so stupid that we send those stupid people to washington, d. C. , were getting just what we deserve. Thats one thing. Im just let it go with that. The countrys in such a mess it doesnt make a difference what we do or dont do. Host who are you supporting for speaker of the house . Who would you like to se caller i dont give a it doesnt make any difference. Host are you going to vote . Caller im not wasting my time voting for trump or for biden. Host is there somebody that you like right now . Caller no. Host theres caller i dont know that much about any of them. I wouldnt vote for any of them. Host all right. Mitchell in florida, independent line. Caller i want to make a couple of points. This is 2023, we send people to the moon and back. Im sure that we can solve that problem down there. And we need to. They need to come legally and be vetted. And we cant stop it without spending some money to do that that it means stopping. My niece works at the local Health Care Facility ran by the state of florida and ive been there to see her and its just like she said its full of hispanics and latinos and once the paperworks done the majority of them do not have, they came here illegally. So were spending a lot of money on their health care. Joe biden, he cant even walk across the stage without tripping there. I hate it but i believe joes senile there and we need to get him out of there and get another president in there. I dont know who that would be. But we need to clean them up, up there, and get some people that will run the got. Thanks. Host all right. Take a look at this from monday. This is former President Trump at his trial concerning fraud charges. This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt. We have a rogue judge. A tiny fraction of what they actually are. We have a racist attorney general whose a horror show who ran on the basis that she was going to get trump before she knew anything about me. She failed in her attempt to run for governor, she had virtually no calling. She said now ill go back and get trump again. Its a scam, its a sham. My Financial Statements are phenomenal. They are actually less in terms of the numbers used than the actual net worth is substantially more. No bank was affected no bank was hurt they dont know why they have to be involved. They cant believe that theyre involved because they were paid back on time, no default, no problems. And it was like a perfect client. In the meantime people are being murdered all over the sidewalks of new york. Host that was the former president from monday. Also in the news is the noble peace prize awarded. Here is the article in the New York Times. Terry is calling. Good morning. Caller good morning. I like to commend putting the conference together. I just want them to know that we need to deal with a hand of strength to keep the house together. If we have the republicans out we could be able to have the strength to push for gun controls that weve been working for. Lets bring back the child tax credit, and lets pass the john lewis bill. Lets not give up on those ideas. Thats hour hand of strength. Host ed in pleasant valley, new york. Republican. Caller good morning. I missed your last person there. She kept talking about how they vet these people that come into this country. I want to know how do you vet somebody that doesnt have a name, doesnt have any id . And i brought this up two years ago on your show that i found some ids from an individual in our state here. He had three different ids, illinois, pennsylvania, and new york, three different names and he had free medicaid, free housing things, food stamps stuff in there. You cant vet anybody that doesnt have an id. The only people being vetted are the american citizens that are stuck here with our Social Security number and paying the tax roll for all these people filling our local schools up. Its impossible for the senior citizens, which i am, to pay our housing costs, for school and property tax, and people are coming in here and were giving away the money that should be going to the American People. All of us. Everybody. The poor, the middle class, and the rich, too, i guess. But were all paying through the nose for this stuff going on. And we dont have money for Social Security but were putting out billions. What mayor adams said costing them almost 10 million a day to take care of these people. Thats what you get when you make a sanctuary city. New york is a sanctuary state just about. And all our catholic and christian people are welcoming these people into open arms which i believe Children Women everything. But who is going to pay for it . Its us, the middle class. And the low income people are going to pay for this in the future. Thank you. Host lets go to the independent line, cleveland, ohio, john, good morning. Caller i dont think people can really speak out of anything but their hat if they believe anything that were being told through the networks, tv, radio, newspaper, and radio, which is all really controlled and infiltrated massively by the c. I. A. And pentagon and owned and controlled by right wing billionaires that are profit off of war. War profit tiers, theres a search phrase ive used the c. I. A. Controls media and movies to demonize countries for u. S. Attacks against those countries. If you look that up, i think it will pop up a lot of information about how we bring lies concerning to iran, the discussion of the people coming here being forced to. The history of the United States c. I. A. And installing brutal exploitation death squad governments throughout central and south america that have killed people through the c. I. A. s training of death squads in honduras, guatemala, killing hundreds of thousands for the benefit of u. S. Big business. If you would look up crimes of the u. S. Empire. Glad io crimes of the u. S. Empire, you can see some of the things that the media in this country dont want us to know that would really throw a spotlight on why people are driven to come here. These are the unspeakable crimes glad io crimes of the u. S. Empire. Please look that up. It will bring out the fact that the United States for instance in ukraine is supporting a nazi government installed by the c. I. A. , the pentagon, the United States government in 2014, before the russians responded to that aggression and installed a nazi, noo nazi government that was spear headed by nazis in positions of power in the secret police in the country in the military and the parliament. Host got your point. Emma, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. My news story of the week this morning i heard that hamas has attacked israel and nettenia huh has declared a state of war for the nation of israel. So we need to pray for them. Thank you. Host and this is a live update on that from the Associated Press here. It says we will continue to watch that for you. Nettenia huh the Prime Minister promises to exact a huge price from hamas. Caller before today, mccarthy being ousted by my party is ridiculous and very concerning and i dont have a choice for speaker of the house. It certainly isnt donald trump which fox news is reported that some of our representatives has put his name into the hat donald trump of all people speaker of the house. And that is why mccarthy has been oust td is because of donald trump. And host how so . Why do you think its because of trump . Caller well, because the mag ma republicans that came that still remains in the house of representatives follow him to the tee and im going to be voting for nicky hailey here in the North Carolina primaries because she has picked up a lot of momentum because shes shedding a lot of light. After january 6, i could never have anything to do with donald trump again and unfortunately the Republican Party is leaving me but i will never be ousted from the Republican Party. , which is the party of lincoln. And i believe George Washington as well. Host all right. Independent line in st. Thomas, virgin islands. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Sorry i couldnt get on during your last guest. Theres a couple of things i do agree with her. Number one, youre not going to stop people from coming from central and south america because of the conditions they have there. Thats just a fact. Its not going to stop. Number two, the amount of border wall, new border wall built during the Trump Administration was 49 miles not 450 miles. Number three, people in this country take drugs. Theres been a war on drugs since 1971. How has that worked out . If you want to get rid of drugs youre going to have to have a complete turnaround and make them legal so people can get them at the pharmacy like theyve done in a lot of states with marijuana. But that probably wont happen but youre not going to get rid of drugs coming into the country. Its not going to stop because people want them. Theres a market there for them. And my last point, i dont mean to take so long. Just played a clip of the former president talking about how great his Financial Statements were and how low they were compared to what they actually are. Well, he just admitted to tax fraud on air in front of everybody. Thank you for your time. Have a great day. Host all right, richard in the virgin islands. That will be our last call but i wanted to give you a quick update on the situation in the middle east from the New York Times. The military wing of hamas describes saturdays surprise assault on israel as an operation in defense of the mosque, a picture of it right here, you can see invoking a dispute around the site that is sacred to both muslims and jews and among the most deeply contested on the holy land. Its considered the holiest in judaism and the third holiest in islam. Muslims call the site which includes the dome of the rock shrine the noble sanctuary. According to islamic scripture the prophet mohammed traveled and then ascended to heaven. We will keep you updated on that if anything more happens on that ongoing situation between israel and the militant group hamas. Coming up, the podcast amicus and legal news of the day. Well be right back. Step inside her office as she talked about the stewardship and controversies over white house records to the current debates under joe biden. Under the law, after the National Archives does a search and determines what records would be responsive to the specific requests from, for example, chairman of the committee, then we have to notify the president of Whose Administration those records come from as well as the current president , the incumbent president. In this case, president obama that would be for vice President Bidens records, and then of course President Biden himself is the incumbent president. And then there is at least a 30day period in which they have time to review those records. And then the period in which we are able to hopefully provide access and request to the chairman of the committee or whoever has asked for them under a special access request. Watch our exclusive interview. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now our free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Monday watch cspan series. Books that shaped america will feature narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas written in 1845, the first of three auto biographies. He describes his childhood years on the Eastern Shore of maryland, his time as a slave in baltimore, and his escape north in 1838. The book was widely sold and set to influence the cause of abolition. The author will be on to discuss the books. The life of Frederick Douglas monday live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now, our free mobile video app or on line at cspan. Org. Also be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast where you can learn more about the authors of the books featured. Washington journal continues. Host were joined now by dahlia, the host of the amicus podcast, also a Senior Editor. Welcome to the program. Guest thank you for having me. Host the Supreme Court term has started in ernest and i wanted to ask first before talking about your podcast in detail about the possibility of ethics and any policies, any rules that are going to come out as a result of those ethics investigation that is have been happening mostly in the media. Guest i think thats the last thing you said is maybe the most important thing, which is almost everything that has come out in the last year about justices taking hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of free flights, free lavish vacations at gorgeous sites, and not disclosing that. And then further sitting on cases where sometimes parties had an interest in a case before the court. All of that is a function of the press in a sense. Its not a function of the courts actions or any investigation. And its also a thing that i think has really cast a cloud over the court for the last over a year. I think that and the week of the dobbs opinion gives the public the sense that all is not right at one first street. And the justices have been really slow to take that seriously. So weve had a series of events in the last couple of months, noticeably Justice Roberts was requested to testify, refused to show up, sent a pretty ters letter saying separation of powers yoent answer to you and i think that might have been very significant in terms of courtcongress relations. And then we had Justice Samuel alito saying in the pages of the wall street journal theres absolutely no authority that congress has over the court. They may not regulate us, an issue that may some day come to the court. I think the court was kind of turning up the temperature rather than turning it down. As a consequence, there is no several bills pending that would regulate the court, ethics rules that would force the court, which is the only court. All other article 3 judges have binding ethics rules, only for the Supreme Court those are advisory, theyre not enforced or enforceable. So theres a bunch of momentum on capitol hill to pass legislation. But one thing that i think has changed a little, first weve had justices kavanaugh and kagen say over the summer, no were getting closer to creating some ethics rules that we will enforce ourselves. So thats movement. And then last month Justice Clarence thomas amended some of his disclosure forms to note some of the trips that he had not accounted for. And then this week, and i think this is important, too, Justice Thomas declined to sit on a case, recused himself on a case where he may have had a conflict of interest. He didnt say why. So it feels to me again these are just tea leaves that the court is starting to take very seriously. The fact that public approval numbers are at historic lows and some of that is because of the case, some of that is because of overturning row, some of that is because of the gun case, some of that is because of affirmative action. But the other piece is imposing ethics rules on themselves and taking seriously the fact that americans are very worried about it. Host you wrote an article last week with this headline, the Supreme Court terms grimace cases share one thing in common. What are those grim cases and what do they share in common . Guest theres a whole bunch of cases that i think folks feel like are going to be a continuation of what i think in that article we call it, i wrote it with my colleague, i think we called this moment a constitutional revolution. There became a 63 super majority of conservative justices, fundamentally what changed is we no longer have a swing vote. Theres no anthony kennedy, sandra day oconnor, where the fifth judge on any given issue could go either way. Those dayors over. And as a consequence weve had a slew of rulings under the last two terms, overturning row, massive expanding gun rights, hugely increasing the involvement of religion in the public square. And then last term doing away with affirmative action in Higher Education and gutting President Bidens loan relief program. And also hobbling both the e. P. A. In the Clean Air Act and the clean water act. So huge, huge changes that some striking down cases, been quite a big two years. And the piece warns theres more to come. Theres going to be a whole bunch of cases, including one heard this week kind of trying to undo the regulatory state, the administrative state. So doing to other agencies whats now been done to the e. P. A. And the c. D. C. And so theres three of those cases on the docket. Theres a massive gun case on the docket. Host i wanted to ask you about that. You did talk about that in one of your podcast episodes. Tell us what that case is. Guest its essentially a followon. Folks will remember that in the heller case in 2008 the u. S. Supreme court for the first time in history said theres an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. That has not been the law of the land for 200 years. In 2008 the court said you can own a hand gun in your own home to protect your home. And that was expanded to the states a few years later, and then we had a water shed case two years ago that essentially said invalidated a new york state licensing fee. But more importantly it changed the test. It said Going Forward the test for any gun regulation is whether theres an analog, whether theres a similar regulation that dates back either to the founding or to the time of the ratification of the 14th amendment. What that means is a whole slew of gun laws have come down around the country as a consequence because the law that said you cant saw off the serial number on your gun, there was no serial numbers on mufkts. That law falls. The law you cant bring a weapon into a shelter for women who are subject to Domestic Abuse, there was no such thing as shelters for women. So it follows on in that. This is a fifth circuit case. Essentially we have a guy who badly abused his domestic partner in a parking lot was adjudicated to be in a civil adjudication that he was guilty of Domestic Violence. And under federal law he loses his gun. He went on to be involved in a whole bunch of crimes with his gun and the federal court said no, under this statute you cant have a gun any more. You were in possession of a gun after being adjudicated a Domestic Abuser. And the fifth Circuit Court of appeals said no that law is now unconstitutional because there was no Domestic Abuse as a founding. In fact at the founding women could be beaten by their husbands. So its an important case for many reasons both because its going to kind of question whether that test in the bruin case is really going to help us determine how gun laws rise and fall. But more urgently i think its put gun law on a collision course with Domestic Violence protection. So it is a very big deal. Host ill invite our viewers to start calling in now if they would like to make a comment or ask a question. The numbers are on your screen. And i want to ask about abortion. What are the chance that is the Supreme Court could take up the case . Guest so this is the case folks will probably recall that came out of a filing in one District Court in texas where there was only one judge that could be drawn and it was a challenge to one of the two drugs that are used in medication abortions. And folks may recall that judge essentially said i am withdrawing all f. D. A. Approval for this drug around the country. Its over, nobody can it is over and nobody can use it. What they did was they said were going to set the clock back and use old fda rules and regulations. Which would hugely decrease the ability to use mifepristone. The Supreme Court put the ruling on pauls. It is already been appealed by the Justice Department up to the Supreme Court. I do not think there is any possibility the Supreme Court can duck that case. I think they will have to take it because it essentially a National Ruling that would make it impossible to access one of the two drugs in the abortion medication protocol. I think the court has wiggle room to get out of this case if they do not want to take on another huge Abortion Case in an un a president ial election year. Host tell us about the podcasts amicus and what it focuses on. Guest it started going weekly this week. There is a lot of legal news right now. It started out of this slightly, devious plot but my first producer who relies the Supreme Court realized the Supreme Court in 1014 releasing audio for oral arguments. They had audiotapes of all the oral arguments on tuesdays and wednesdays, two out of every four weeks but the court is not releasing them until 5 00 on friday night, which meant the press was not able to use them. If you really wanted to hear in your earbuds the justices voices, it is difficult to do that on the weekend so we decided cunningly we would make a show that drug on saturday morning salute use new audio so we would use new audio so people could get familiar with what the justices voices sounded like. In covid, the court started doing their sessions telephonically and broadcasting on audio realtime arguments. People can tune in and listen to all of the arguments in real time but that was the genesis of the show. We wanted to tweak the court for dumping audio for oral argument on friday night when nobody could listen. It is evolved into a show to the law of trump and all the trials and we try very hard to make it a show that is kind of a just not a chat show about the law but here is a deep dive on some important legal issues. In our last show, we went for a very long ride in conversation with ryan bussey who came up to the gun industry until he realized he did not feel like he was aligned with the values they shared. We also spoke to an Abortion Provider who has not been able to do her job the way she wants to. This morning show we spoke to elizabeth warren, senator warren about the cfpb case, financial, regulatory case heard this week on tuesday at the court. I think the genesis of the show was just get the voices in your ears. Both justices who are speaking while the cases are being argued, also may be more urgently to talk to people who are affected by the Court Decisions and to have skin in the game of the Court Decision and to make people understand the things that happen in the temple on the capital actually affect all of our lives all the time. Host who would you say is your target audience . What are you hoping your listeners will take from the podcasts . Guest probably more than anything, we want people to understand and engage with the court, and not just the court as a factory that makes doctrine for two weeks of the year in june, but a really Important Branch of government that, as you started at the beginning of the show, right now the whole country is worried and anxious about how the court is conducting itself, approval numbers are in the 30s, which is the lowest the court to prove has been since gallup started pulling. What we wanted to do is both have the show be real for the rule of law and the idea of independent judiciary but also a call to engage with these issues. I often feel when i was a young mom, Young Mothers used to say to me i do not really read what you write because it feels like it is science, beyond my understanding. One of the reasons we created amicus is because we did not want anyone to think the show was beyond understanding or what the court does is beyond their understanding. What the court does affects the water we drink, the air we breathe, it affects every single focused on pill in the country since to be subject to a court ruling. It affects gun safety, it affects every part of our lives. I want our i tell the guests talk to me like youre talking to a really smart pico Student High School student. Do not talk to me like you are a lawyer. It is for people who really felt like they want to come away understanding something new and profound about the way the law works in country. Host ready to talk to our viewers . Guest absolutely. Host brad in minnesota, republican. Caller good morning. She is telling the people about how the court wants to expand than rights. That is completely false. That is misleading. What she should be saying is that the court is just upholding the law. They never made a new law for nothing, for no gun rights, so when she says that, that is completely false. When i hear about the abortion part of it, the court did not strike abortion was against the law. The court said they do not have the purview to be taking up the case that is a state issue. What i have learned is she is what the real problem is in the world. Theyre looking to find the court of public opinion. Everyone that has two or she wants to listen in on her podcasts, they believe in what she is saying. But she is doing is that she is trying to make the case with her heart instead of her head. Host lets get a response on the issues you brought up on guns and abortion. Guest i am not sure it would objection is to the word expanding gun rights. Gun rights have been tightly constrained since the founding we have had. Hundreds and thousands of gun laws on the books and what the court did in the case was create a test in which many of those will fall. If many, many gun laws fall, that is expansion of gun rights. The idea that over hundreds of years, the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment as being a right that only in militia and not individual until 2008 when that was changed was an expansion of gun rights. If you give individuals the right to bear arms, it is an expansion, and that is what the case was, a further expansion striking that more gun laws and that is what the next case will be, a further expansion. Not sure why the word expansion is triggering but that is what it is and the gun industry call it an next it an expansion too. The word expansion should not be problematic. I think both sides agree that is what heller did. In the Abortion Case, not using my heart, in my head. The court struck down 50 year old president that said precedent that said the due process protection that gives us the right to form our families and raise our children is a right that is at the beating heart of loving versus virginia, the beating heart of griswold versus connecticut that allowed families to use contraception and the beating heart of roe, the due process, the right to control your own body and to make intimate partners, familiar decisions under the notion of privacy and dignity. The court for the first time in history said no that is not really a right. It is not really a right in any state. It is for the states to determine if they are going to enforce or not enforce abortion law. The idea there is an inherent constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy was in fact reverse. To the extent we are saying center back to the states and that was just as Brett Kavanaugh justice kavanaugh, statebystate issue, nobody is going to say you cannot get an abortion in the state that permits it. The mifepristone case puts the light of that because that case does not say we are doing the way with abortion drug only in states that want to do away with it. It is a federal ban on every single state including states that allow abortion may not use mifepristone. We are seeing places like texas making it unlawful to cross the state lines going to a state governments and abortion. That comes back to the fugitive slave act. This is just for a minute it is simply a statebystate ban is not true. States prohibit you from entering another state to terminate a pregnancy, that is a national ban for purpose of somebody in texas or order who wants to leave the state. I think the last thing i want to say i am not using my podcasts or my pen or this conversation to recruit people to my values and my views. I am presenting what i think is a fair exclamation. I have a law degree, i know some stuff and i have been covering the court of 35 years of what the law is and how it is changing. The fact that does not fit with somebodys characterization does not mean i am being untruthful. It means you may not agree with me. Host paul in florida, independent line. Caller thank you for your efforts. I have two questions. The first legal question is, mchenry is serving as speaker pro tem of the house under the authority of Kevin Mccarthy signature that appointed him as speaker pro tem in case of it was necessary. I understand that Patrick Mchenry is going to serve as speaker pro tem until the house can elect a new speaker of the house. The question is, could either Kevin Mccarthy or Patrick Mchenry, without requiring any further vote, appoint donald trump to serve as speaker pro tem until theres a vote as to who the new speaker will be, without requiring any vote, by appointment . By making her say i am sick and cannot show up and donald trump will be speaker of the house pro tem. Is that legal . Guest im going to say my understanding is that it is not but i want to be super clear that i am not i have not dug deep into the rules governing how the House Speaker session is going to happen. My understanding of the issue is that because donald trump has been indicted for a crime, he cannot serve. It is the plain reading of it. I know it is a controversy. I do not think it is dispositive so i think this is one of those issues where the rules seem to suggest he cannot simply appoint donald trump and also i do not know for certain beyond a shadow of a doubt whether that is an unequivocal think. Host merriam in texas. Democrat. Caller [indiscernible] i come from a very poor family. My mom has five kids. We are so poor. There is a limit that cannot handle it. They make mistakes. Im already 50 years old. I was able to go to college. I did not have to go through abortion but i was able to help my family, my brothers, my sisters and now there are women in texas that are probably going to go to the same thing. I feel for them because the republicans are creating all these rules. They do not understand what women go through. It is a very complex situation. Republican men when i hear you, i hear there is hope that there are women out there, they are trying to be advocates, trying to bring awareness and i hope you keep it up and i hope that the woman from texas and all over the nation come out and express their voices because we are not doing this for political reasons. We are trying to create voices, a voice for women that are out there who have no hope. Thank you very much. Guest i want to tell you two things. There whoone is i feel you. Woman all around the country fill you and we should not be in a situation where we have 14 and 15 year old girls who are victims of rape who are having to carry to term or having to as you know in texas we have a physicians have to wait until somebody is septic or bleeding out, following a miscarriage because theyre still signs of life and they do not feel they can do lifesaving interventions that indicated by normal medical practice. This is for sure impacting woman around the country. Pregnant people around the country. That is not in dispute. The think i want to say that is important, in every one of the seven states that has taken after the dobbs decision, taken the issue and put it on their ballot, side by Ballot Initiative for state referendum, all seven states including kentucky, abortion has one and that has meant in ohio, michigan , kentucky, around the country women have been organizing with amazing male allies and have gotten the issue on the ballot and in every case, abortion wins. The wisconsin Supreme Court stated a justice who openly said i am here to campaign for womens reproductive rights and freedom. She won by a landslide. If we can do what you are saying to him it is not about politics, it is about if we can do what you are saying, it is not about politics, it is about organizing. As a direct connection between what the Supreme Court does and our daily lives in democracy and our safety per year youre going to see i think people rising up and saying we will do it on a state basis. We will do it by changing who our governor is. Who would do it by changing to our attorney general is but this is in the power of the people to correct and i want you to know and for all the women who are feeling vulnerable or feel as if the court did not see them in dobbs, we see you and were going to organize and every time we organize in history, women have one. Host cindy lou in alabama. Republican. Caller i want to go back to the beginning of the show with your guest. Shes talking about the ethics. Looking at skin in the game, the justice has been doing something i do not really like and im all for writing books. She has made millions and millions of dollars in these book bills but there was a case with Penguin Random house where she got a lot of money. She did not recuse herself that is question number one. How come she can do that . Everybody was throwing mud on Justice Thomas. Number two, how come she cant require it she goes to colleges or any of these high and mighty places for learning and she is to say a part of my deal is you take my books, by a bunch of my books and then i will come speak. I do not like that. My third question is has your guess ever one read this book called the brethren. From 1979 and in it it is talking about how Harry Blackmun way back in the beginning when the abortion arrived was talking about terms, the first term, the second term, the third trimester , so looking at the science. The science of the beating heart and i heard your guest talking about the beating heart but never the beating heart of the abortion thing. Some of the states yes are allowing abortion but they are saying there are limits. It has to be done in the first trimester or maybe even the second trimester. Not to many people are supporting that. Host go ahead. Guest a lot of questions. All good ones. I think that controversy around the justices book really goes to the point that i was making before it reaches the need to be ethics rules. The need to be ethics rules for all the justices. I did at the candy what forcing people to buy books do not think anyone was forcing people to buy books, it was her office, the chambers were involved in the sales and her staff should not be working on it. I did not think there was a role in the will would to see her speak had to buy a book but i completely agree that the fact there are controversies around justice and controversies around Justice Ginsburg who traveled although she disclosed her travel that across the board and every single justice should disclose and every single justice should recuse. The one thing that is factually incorrect, you suggested that none of the justices other than Justice Alito who went on that famous fishing trip in alaska with pauls finger had a case from pauls finger before him very shortly after in which he did not recuse, more importantly kathy crow sits on the board of the Manhattan Institute which is a group that has multiple briefs before the court this year. The argument is the stipulated. Both sides misbehave and both sides should have ethics rules and this should not be hard. But at a minimum if a justice goes on a trip with somebody who has an interest in a case before them, that justice should recuse and that justice should also tell us in the disclosure form. The statutory requirement, it is not a feeling rule. They had to tell as they have done it so i think essentially what you are doing is proving the case that both sides do it, both sides you have binding ethics rules. The last thing i want to say is i love the brethren. It is probably on the bookshelf behind me but the lachman framework from roe v. Wade that was reaffirmed in 1992 took apart that trimester framework. Essentially said theyre going to set the threshold for viability. Stopping about three trimesters and when the fetus was viable and you could have more regulation post viability that you could create viability. Previability. States that want to pass six weeks bans, before almost any pregnant person knows they are pregnant, at six weeks, that is the benchmark. We are not talking anymore about heartbeats or heartbeat bans or viability. We are talking about states take it upon themselves to determine when life begins. An awful lot of people would suggest and i think im among them that is the logical question, not a medical question, but certainly i do not think you can take the posture that the states imposing sixweek bans are using the framework we set out in roe v. Wade, there has been gone since 1992. Host john is next in u. S. Virgin islands, democrat. Caller good morning. Thank you for the opportunity and your guest. American legislative exchange council, a conservative group out of arlington, virginia and what they do is go to state legislators and proposed bills like stand your ground the to the doctor and place it into the streets and that is how they expanded gun laws. Thank you. Guest it is a great question. I think that alec is one of several groups that are doing what are called these cookie cut laws that they go to the various states and say here is essentially the template for how we are going to pass a law all around the country. It was like it is a grassroots law that is being injured or in that state and in fact, you are quite right, it is cooked up often by a very wellfinanced entity thats passing similar laws all around the country. Alec is a good example of it. We have a lot of examples of it and i think one of the things this goes to and it is such an important point is another reason Public Confidence in the court is disintegrating. Goes to and discuss of the Citizens United decision, the amount of undisclosed, untraceable dark money that is flushing around the system, not just as he did additional branch. The sum of what we are learning about. The Federalist Society to change the shape of the legislature but tolegislature bt the dark money is floating around doing all sorts of things including Voter Suppression bills, including transit ban trans bans. Mucking up the clean and orderly way we do democracy and when the may be and not controversial point to end on, one thing about Citizens United decision, it is one of the most reviled decisions i have ever covered. Acrosstheboard nobody likes the idea of millionaires and billionaires pumping their own money into the judiciary and to states Supreme Court races and into fights about gerrymandering , nobody likes the idea a handful of billionaires own the law of the land and so maybe that brings us back to where we started on my podcast which is this idea if we all engage with the law, the judiciary, democracy and voting come and engage deeply from an informed place, we might to be able to teach ourselves how to push back a little on this moment we are in where a handful of very wealthy people are determining the kinds of bills that are coming up in our state legislatures. Host Dahlia Lithwick , just want to matching your latest book has just come out. It is called lady justice women, the law, and the battle to save america. The podcast we are discussing is called amicus it is from slate and also Senior Editor there at slate magazine. Guest thank you for having me. Have a great weekend. Host that is it for todays washington journal and will be back again live tomorrow morning 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Until then, have a great saturday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. Mr. Gaetz thank you, mr. Speaker, i yield as much time as he may consume to my colleague from virginia, mr. Good. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. Before the gentleman speaks, i would remind the parties that all need to be heard. Please clear the well and clear the aisles and any extraneous conversations need to be taken from the floor. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from virginia is recognized. Mr. Good thank you, mr. Speaker. Like so many others, i deeply regret that we are here in what was a totally avoidable situation. I must take you back to january, however, which for many of us was about not repeating the failures of the past and letting Republican Voters across the country down once again, when in the past for many years when republicans have had majorities in this chamber, weve passed our major spending bills predominantly with democrat votes, something the other side of the house has never and would never do with majority control. Back in january, i expressed my concern that the previous two years during my first term here in the house, we had not used every tool at our disposal to fight against the harmful, radical democrat agenda that is destroying the country, bankrupting the country, and under which the American People are suffering. But most in here wouldnt know that i helped persuade my five colleagues who comprised the remaining resistance in the wee Morning Hours of january 7 to switch our votes to present to let mr. Mccarthy become speaker. And i went to him on this very floor to tell him that he was finally