Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Thousands of wounded who carried with them the shrapnel wounds and the memory of what they endured. These traumas never go away. There are many families waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones not knowing if they are, alive, dead. Holocaust survivors have been , now threatened to execute. The brutality of hamas, its bloodthirstyness brings to mind isis, but sadly, for the irish people israeli people, it is not new. The scars left by a millennium of antisemitism on the jewish people. At this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with israel. Host that was yesterday from the white house. Today the secretary of state is expected to arrive in israel sending this tweut his visitosrael yesterday. I am going to discuss ways we can support them in the midst of these terrorist attacks. Our support for israel remains. We went to keep you updated on what is happening on capitol hill today. We could have a speaker by the end of the day today. Joining us to talk about it is Catherine Tully mcmanus. Thank you for joining us by whom. Lady thank you for joining us by zoom. How likely is it that we will have a speaker by the time this Program Starts tomorrow morning . Host 90 guest 90 members last night were doubtful that we will have a speaker by the time washington journal signs on tomorrow morning. What we heard from republicans leaving that Candidates Forum going in and out as the 2 candidates Steve Scalise and jim jordan gave the pitches to their colleagues is that neither has the support needed to win a vote on the house floor, but this morning republicans will be meeting once again to do an internal vote within the conference. What they want to make sure within the conference behind closed doors is that they have a speaker candidate they can get behind. What republicans in the house do not want to do is a repeat of january, this floor fight that went on for days and tonights that really signaled too many that the republicans were so divided that they may not be able to function. In many ways, that has come to pass. They do not want a repeat of that, which they fear would display their weakness in leading the house. They will try to coalesce around one of two candidates this morning. How that will work behind closed doors as candidates get put forward folks can nominate mccarthy. They can nominate whoever they want, but the lowest vote getting candidates will be knocked off. It is a runoff system, for folks familiar with runoff elections. What they dont have at this point is either candidate with the 217 votes needed on the floor to secure that gavel. The Development Last night was that both leading candidates said that they would support the other if they were the nominee of the conference, that was not something that was guaranteed in this painfully divided conference. Host this contest between the two of them, there had been a push to change the rules within the republican conference we are hearing to get the member, whoever they may be, the votes needed before they get to the floor. In the past it has been the person who gets the majority of the republican conference, that person is the nominee. Explain how this rule change would impact the floor vote . Guest it would change the threshold needed to bring this candidate to the, floor and move forward to get this person a gavel without those 217 votes. This is not unprecedented. Speakers have been elected in many different ways in the past. Sometimes it has been a resolution with a speakers name to elect a speaker. Sometimes it has been a plurality. This is not upsetting president in a way we have never seen before. It is paving a path to get the house out of this limbo state where because of how they are viewing this temporary speaker pro tempore patrick mchenry, they do not believe they can act on legislation during this limbo period. Closing the book on the speaker race is what effectively that rule change would attempt to do. Host it is 10 00 a. M. Eastern when republicans meet behind closed doors. We expect the house to come in session in some form. Catherine Tully Mcmanus, take us to what you just hinted at, the business of the house specifically, some aid package being pushed for, for israel. Guest we are seeing Different Things in each chamber. In the house, right now we are seeing a bipartisan effort to move aid as soon as possible. Republicans and democrats are coming together in agreement, supporting americas biggest ally in the middle east is a priority right now. In the senate we have not seen a supplemental of procreation or anything move yet, but what we have seen is moderate, centrist democrats calling for a freeze on irans assets. There are reports that iran has aided in this attack, on israel and they would like to see an immediate freeze on those assets do not allow any further funding to go towards hamas. Those are two approaches that each chamber is taking right now. In the house, both democrats and republicans have made clear that they do not believe they can take action on aid to israel until a speaker is finalized, and until they have someone to lead the house forward on this effort, of course there are different interpretations, but none of those are being taken seriously within the house itself. Host we will find out what happens today. You can watch the proceedings on the floor of the house here on cspan. Catherine Tully Mcmanus and her colleagues at politico, starting her day with us. We are taking your phone calls. We are talking about the speaker battle and the israel conflict. Phone lines are split by phone party by party affiliation. Republicans, 202 7488000, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000 202 7488000 202 7488002 democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. First up is cj out of minnesota. This is teresa, dandridge tennessee, republican. Caller i do not think the rules change will have the votes to succeed. I dont think they will go with that rules change vote. It will not pass. The only thing i have heard, especially about Steve Scalise i s. He spent 112 days as Kevin Mccarthys righthand demand in the field raising money. You are special interest. You owe people favors for the money you take in. Jim jordan is the only choice. I do not want anybody who supports aid to ukraine. This extortion that the democrats and republicans are doing with the aid to israel is awful. They are extorting and blackmailing. We will not give aid to israel unless aid to ukraine is added in the bill. That is the most horrible thing i have ever heard of. Ukraine has gotten enough money from us. It it is time to fund israel now. The money israel has already been allocated, they are not reading the rules right for the speaker pro tempore. He does have the right to pay and make a resolution. The only thing he cannot do is become third inline to be president. He does have the right. They are just doing this because they want to rush through a speaker. Kevin mccarthy is nothing but a lie year. I will run for speaker, i wont run for speaker. The only reason they want Kevin Mccarthy is because he will fund ukraine. Host this is the headline on aid packages for israel. House turmoil complicates the promises of aid to israel. Lawmakers pushing for emergency aid package, including increasing funding and supplies for israels iron dome. You spoke about the speaker battle there, teresa. This is Steve Scalise yesterday after the candidate forum, making his case for speaker outside of the doors of that forum to reporters. [video clip] do you feel like you have the votes to win . We have been building a great. Coalition among Great Coalition among my colleagues. What people have really liked about my approach is i am a unifier. We have delivered big wins. People want to cs get back on track. Tomorrow we need to get people want to see us get back on track. Tomorrow we need. To get back some of the legislation be passed, just a few days ago we passed a foreigna an appropriations bill. Some of those things are needed right now. The senate needs to get to work on some of that legislation. There are things happening in the world that need to be addressed right now. We need to get back to work. We are putting together a strong coalition. We will do this tomorrow. Host the House Majority leader Steve Scalise. That was yesterday morning. Republicans will meet again at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, and the house is said to come in at 3 00 p. M. Taking your phone calls this morning this is walter out of new bedford, massachusetts. Caller good morning. Thanks for having me. I want to point out, i am getting really sick and tired and disappointed to see how this whole thing is playing out. I hate to see people being hurt. I hate to see people dying over war and conflict. If we want to fix the problem, we need to start with the truth. At the end of the day that is not happening here. This conflict started. Something started the israelipalestinian conflict and that is what people do not want to face. You want to stop the wars . The United States needs to stop supporting israel and what they are doing. They are destroying people as well. Palestinian folks have reasons for doing what they are doing. My comment is not about supporting either one. It is about talking common sense. All of this stuff is affecting the american public. Our children will have to deal with whatever financial and moral issues it will cause in the future. We need to stop listening to these politicians getting us all riled up to kill and spend money. This conflict started at that is what americans need to focus on. Host the president pointing out yesterday in that statement that he gave 14 americans killed in the attacks over the weekend, and an unknown ar number ae this point. Does the direct impact to american citizens, does that change your feelings about this . Caller this is what i am saying. I dont care what anybody else wants to say. The reason american citizens are suffering is because of how our leadership is carrying all of this. You want to put our american lives on somebody . Put it on congress. Put it on everybody who has the power to do something, and is not doing it. Our congress is power mongering, money mongering. They are not dealing with the peoples issues. It is sad to hear him talking about protecting israel to the end. There are innocent women and children diane. How does children dying. Host this is steve in marina del rey, california, republican line, good morning. Caller yes. I dont know why the United States needs to financially support israel given the size of their current army. They have 600 warplanes, 300,000 reservists. This is the equivalent of the United States invading grenada. There is no way hamas can compete with them militarily, so i dont know why they need our help at this point in time. It does not seem to be a financial reasoning to all of this. Host now to stephen, democrat in kentucky. Caller i have a couple things to say. Number one, i agree with the young man, the independent from massachusetts was saying about israel. My heart goes out to the israelis and palestinians and americans who were casualties of this domestic terrorist attack, and that is what this is. What kills me about all of this is netanyahu propped up hamas to begin with. Lets not forget about that. What kills me more than anything is mike lawyer went on television and talks about how the Biden Administration are responsible for enabling this extremism. Really . You want to go there for this moment . Their party is as extremist as it can be. How can we eliminate terrorism abroad when we have it fostered here by mike lawyer, jim jordan, Steve Scalise, and the front runner himself, donald trump . Just so we are on the same page again, i heard his remarks yesterday. He makes it all about himself. All of these people who are gone right who are on recess at least biden and harris are trying to remedy the problem, whether you agree with it at this point in time. Where is congress right now . They are on vacation . They cant even pick a leader and they want to sit here and offer advice, for heaven sake . It is ridiculous. Trump is the one who started giving money for the hostages. That lady calling in from minnesota, i believe that is what i heard once before that he got this process started. Biden continued it. Lets set the record straight for a minute. Host i got your point. You mentioned netanyahu. William galstons column in wall street journal calling what is happening now the beginning of the end for netanyahu and his leadership in israel, saying throughout his career is strong suit was security and that ended up in disastrous failure here. The events of the past few days have undermined that claim, and i suspect his political career will end soon after the war does. We mentioned Antony Blinken is expected to arrive in israel today. He spoke briefly yesterday about his trip to israel. [video clip] you heard President Biden speak very clearly to the pure evil that we see inflicted on israel over the last few days. We stand with israel. That is a message that he has asked me to carry directly to our israeli partners when i travel to the region later this week. We are very engaged with partners throughout the region, as well as looking out for american citizens, families who have had loved ones killed or have loved ones missing. I well have more to say about that in the days ahead. Host if you minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal. A shorter first segment of the washington journal today. That is because we will be joined by two members of congress. First Sheila Mccormick the democrat from florida, and then later today we will be joined by republican congressman don bacon. Michael has been waiting in pittsburgh, republican. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Thanks for cspan. I love this forum. I im highly in favor of jim jordan. I want to echo that first republican womans remarks about Steve Scalise who is a top lobbyist together lobbyist getter. Jim jordan is well respected among republicans. I think he will do a good job. He has some strong principles, which are american principles which are american principles. I do not like this narrative when they say they are far right extremists, the republicans on the far right. All that republicans like jordan and trump are advocating our line item bills. I think that is the right way to go. I think jim jordan will be a strong advocate for israel. I think we have to have israels back. They are the one country who is with us in this fight. Host you talk about calmness im the bis bills omnibus bills and your concern about them. How do you feel about efforts on capitol hill to combine aid for ukraine and age for israel aid for israel in one bill. Caller we have to do things that are good for america, not always things that are good for ukraine. We got too involved with ukraine before during the Biden Administration, and pushing for nato, to join nato when they knew that would be a tough call for russia. We cannot fight russia and china and all of these countries and iran. Iran is a big problem and has to be contained. The Biden Administration has done nothing. Host that is michael out of pittsburgh. Two manhattan to manhattan. This is carl. Caller this israeli thing is crazy. In the south china sea, israel shot up an american spy vessel i n the south china sea. The president couldnt bring ship back until they killed about 400 sailors. Aerial drones killed 1800 palestinians at one time. Nobody says nothing. Host carl, historically you have concerns about the u. S. Relationship with israel . Caller do i have a problem with it . Host it sounds like you do. Caller of course i do you know why . Because they do not see the truth. Let me say this before i go, they turned the iron dome off. This was the opportunity for netanyahu to go into gaza and murder 2 million people. Host this is lanita out of for pain, alabama fort payne, alabama. Caller do you reair this Program Later in the day . Host we often do, if there is time between congressional schedules. Sometimes we dont if congress is in throughout the day. It depends. Caller i am making a suggestion to the people who called in. Maybe they need to listen to what they said on your program. I will make this quick. People need to stop namecalling and pointing fingers. They need to open their bibles and read about israel. That is why people support israel. You better get on your knees and pray and open your bible, and you will see that the last days are near. You better quit pointing fingers and looking at other people. You better look to god, open your bible, get on your knees, and pray. Host lanita out of alabama, our first caller in this first segment of last caller in this first segment of washington journal. First up is Sheila Mccormick and later we will be joined by don bacon. Join us for those conversations. We will be read back. American history tv saturdays on cspan two, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. Michael trott he talks about the escalating tensions between colonists and the British Government prior to the american revolution. A discussion on the Foreign Policy achievements of barack obama and the legacy of michelle obama, hosted by hofstra university. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv on cspan2. Watch online any time canrg history. Monday watch cspans series in partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. We written by we will feature common law, written by Wendell Holmes junior. Controversial at the time holmes wrote that the life of the law has not, been logic it has been experience. Th National Constitution center will joine us to discuss the book. Watch books that shaped america, featuring the common law. Watch online or on air. 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. Be uptodate on the latest in publishing with the podcast about books with current Nonfiction Book releases as well as bestseller lists, insider interviews, and industry news. You can find it on cspan now or wherever you get your podcasts. Washington journal continues. Host we welcome the first of two house members joining us this morning. Sheila mccormick represents floridas 20th district. Congresswoman, what can and should the United States be doing right now when it comes to israel and the war against hamas . Guest we started with a good first step by the president supporting stating our support of israel. The funds we want to allocate so they can restock, we cannot do without a speaker. The u. S. Has made it clear for anyone coming in not to since israel is our strongest ally over there. We will support israel no matter what. Host what are they asking for . You were talking about restocking. I assume you mean the iron dome. Do we have a price tag on that . Guest we do not have a sense of what the price tag is right now, but they have received the ammunitions they have munitions we have sent to them. As their greatest ally, we need to be prepared. Host what is the biggest concern have right now as you look at this from a Foreign Affairs perspective, from keeping this from becoming a larger regional conflict. Guest im hoping israel will show some restraint, even though right now the temperature is so high. We have seen so many gross atrocities. When i see the videos of what is going on and the terrorist attack that was levied against the jewish people, it has my blood boiling. If you are living through that i can imagine how you must feel like you should retaliate, but there must be some restraint to preserve however can be saved. W cannot forget who caused all of thise. It was the terrorist organization hamas. Hamas is calling causing palestinians to lose lives. These organizations who support terrorist organizations need to be taken to task. Until we take a hold of hamas, this will continue. It is important that israel does whatever it needs to do to defend itself. It is important that everyone in the world takes a stand against terrorist organizations like hamas. Host when you say restraint, define what you mean. We are on the verge of a war in the gaza strip. Guest whatever can be done to preserve palestinian lives. They or sending out warnings where they were bombing, the areas they were coming into. Effect can continue, people will get the heads up to get out. The Palestinian Authority allows. Hamasto be there that is the real problem, when you have the Palestinian Authority allowing a terrorist organization that only in the territory that supporting and deleting actions. That is what makes it dangerous for palestinians everywhere. Israel has done everything to come to a place where they can have a two state solution, but any time you are cooperating with terrorists it causes instability and great death to everyone surrounded by it. Host former speaker Kevin Mccarthy called on joe biden to freeze 6 billion in iranian funds in wake of the attacks by hamas. Your thoughts on that move . Is that where you would like to see the administration go . Guest it is more disappointment from Kevin Mccarthy. At the end of the day, we understand that no iranian money was used toward this terrorist attack. I am disappointed by republicans trying to say that the iranian money that biden allowed them to freeze, they had access to it. We all know that iranian money was never used, and when it will go to iranian help for iranian people, it will be highly monitored. What he is calling for is more of his deceptive nature we saw when he was in the house, saying one thing and doing Something Else. Drawing attention to freezing that will not help the problem we have right now. Was hoping the former speaker would change his tune and become more honest. I was hoping the Republican Party would be more honest, and do not try to sell this idea that the United States gave money or that iranian money was used to go towards the terrorist attack, because that is false. Not one dollar from that fund has been used at all. It disappoints me. I think the president is going in the right direction. Continue to support our closest ally. We will do what it takes to protect israel. Host phone lines are open if you would like to join the conversation with Sheila Mccormick, member of the Foreign Affairs committee. Republicans, 202 7488002 republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. What is a worstcase and best Case Scenario today as a democrat . Guest the best case would be if they came to a bipartisan pathway forward and elected a speaker who is not extreme and who is not trying to cater towards the maga extremists. Worst case we come out with speaker jim jordan, who we know is extreme, and would not be seeking a bipartisan path forward. When we look at the paralysis we are facing, it has angered me because it feels like they do not take their responsibility for governance and to make sure the American People safe as seriously. I hope that bipartisan pathway forward is what they will lean on and reject the demands of the maga extremists. Host if it is a binary choice, you would prefer Steve Scalise . Guest i would. He has worked with us in the past to be more even keel, and to be the adult in the room. I would like to see Steve Scalise selected as speaker. Host crystal in florida, west palm beach, florida, you are on with congresswoman mccormick. Caller good morning, congresswoman. Host go ahead, crystal. Caller my concern is the Media Coverage of the conflict in israel. I feel really bad about all of the people who have been hurt, injured, or killed, what is happening to the palestinians right now i am curious about why our government is not recognizing the findings of the human the u. N. , saying what they are doing right now, the blockades, the siege we see it every day, but the coverage is so onesided and so unfair. There is no context and no history. I cannot stand the vocabulary that people are using unwavering support, as if there is no history. Im concerned about the educations and awareness that congress is actually getting inside of their office, inside of our government. Who are they listening to . Do they do their around their own research . Host let me give one member of congress a chance to respond to that. Guest we do our own due diligence, but we have to make sure that everyone is aware of how this conflict originated, especially the one we have right now. It was with the terrorist organization hamas. Hamas started this war against israel where they killed 260 children and teenagers who were at this festival. We are finding more and more bodies of people who were slaughtered, babies and adults. You never go after civilians. We have to make sure it is very clear, this is a terrorist attack. When we were here we were under terrorist attack. The u. S. Had to defend itself also. The rockets flying into israel are coming from hamas. We have to acknowledge that this terrorist organization is living in palestine. That is why we say we have unwavering support to make sure this terrorist organization comes to an end. Host this is nevin out of port charlotte. Caller my question is the other country that borders the gaza strip is egypt. Will egypt open their borders . The refugees should be allowed out, the ones who are not hamas. It is our government is our government working with egypt . Guest we dont know what the intentions of egypt are at this present moment, but we are looking at that at the moment. The migrants there are coming from palestine. Host this is ed, columbia station, ohio, republican. Caller im tired of the crocodile tears from the democrats. She said iran, 6 billion have been used. They can have it in the bank. Everyone knows iran is funding hamas for years and years. Now they have pulled 50 billion in oil sales when youre destroyed energy here in america. All the sanctions are off of them. He didnt even mention iran yesterday and for two days straight no mention from our president. Your party, right now you have colleges with swastikas. They have no problem with the palestinians. Host you bring up a lot of points. Let me give congresswoman mccormick a chance to respond. You want to start with iran and the issue of the 6 billion . Caller it is guest it is unfortunate that republicans started talking about this 6 billion being used for the attack. Not assent of that 6 billion not a cent of that 6 billion fund was used in that attack. Host to that point that the caller was talking about at the end there, colleges and universities, this is a headline from today war stirring tension in schools. Groupa of student organizations saying that the Israeli Regime is entirely responsible for the unfolding violence there. Your thoughts on what is happening on College Campuses here. Guest we know there has been a movement to paint an agenda where they paint israel as the source of this conflict. This conflict has been going on for decades. It is a conflict we take seriously, but our children on our College Campuses, and everyone has to be aware of what is going on. Nowhere should we tolerate a terrorist organization. How do we have a conversation about what just happened, if we are not pointing out there is a terrorist organization focused on killing regular civilians savagely and keeping them as hostages and children. We have to remember who is facilitating this. They are terrorist organization who were funded by iran, but right now we have no proof that iran was involved in this attack. Jumping the gun and making conclusions that have not been verified is not where we should be as members of congress specifically when we talk about moving forward and not exacerbating the situation, letting cool heads prevail. Wew have to be honest people. Host plenty of calls for you. This is jeff in springhill. Caller im glad i got to follow the republican gentlemen who run off at the mouth without having any proof or evidence about what he is going on about. Truth does not abide in the republican terrorist party. It is very dangerous to have terrorists within your country like palestine. This House Speaker ship is nothing more than the maga republican terrorist party trying to gain control of the Republican Party fully. Secondly i, would like to say this. I im a little disappointed in the democrats. You have been in for three years now, and no one has made any proposals to give congress peace. Donald trump proved that congress and the constitution has no teeth. All he has to do is stick his finger in the air and say he will not abide by those rules, that he will not testify, or anybody in front of congress that needs to change. You have to lose your power as a congressman or senator, if you do not comply with a subpoena from congress. Host congresswoman mccormick . Guest i believe in a lot of the things that you mentioned. When it comes to congress having teeth, i think we. Need to elect more honest peoplewe need to focus on teeth, i think we need to elect more honest people. When we elect extremists, you get these kind of results where people bend the rules, make up roles and live a dishonest life. They put that dishonesty before people. Im proud that as democrats we have been putting people before politics every time. When we took that vote against mccarthy, we knew it was because the American People deserved an honest speaker. I think about is what is needed at this time. Host you use the term extreme maga republicans. The caller was using the term terrorists in congress. Just your thoughts on calling other people terrorists in the other party . Guest the terrorist was not what i was agreeing with, but the extremity. We cannot allow the institution to fail. We have to work with each other and find a bipartisan pathway forward, making sure we can meet the need of the American People. When it came to vote for the cr, democrats stood up and we had 90 republicans who voted against the cr at the 10th hour when we were trying to make sure that American Peoples could get their paychecks. That is what we are talking about and we talk about extremists. Their goal is to destroy the institution until they can gain total control of it. If that means getting rid of, a speaker holding up the process, they have no problem because they want to take full control of it. Host wilson, north carolina, this is len. Caller please give me a chance to make my point, because it is very important. When the nukes start flying, i want everyone to remember this conversation here on cspan. In the last 11 months, because Benjamin Netanyahu just like trump was under indictment. All of a sudden this is all his fault. All of a sudden when he gets in, this happens. This doesnt happen in regular israel, it happens in the settlements. Netanyahu was continually building settlements. Im not agreeing at all, but you cannot continuously let people live in a prison. They cannot even get out now, and bombs are falling everywhere. Old got these people got ptsd. When you treat people like this for so long, their feelings go. We are right behind it. When israel goes in there, which they will never do, but say after they do this, netanyahu is going to look like this big hero who saved israel. The way israel goes is the way we go. Host let me give the congresswoman the chance to jump in on netanyahu and the settlements issue. Guest before netanyahu, we saw major advancements with israel working with the Palestinian Authority and palestinians. Before this bombing, they had visas from 22,000 people coming into israel and working. We saw five truckloads of food and water going into israel. Some of the weapons that were used in these terrorist attacks were the same types were sending into palestine to help the palestinians. I want to bring up that when it comes to how the palestinians are living on a daytoday basis, that is something we have been working forward to make sure they live a better livelihood. As i mentioned earlier, we cannot ignore that hamas was among them. There is a terrorist organization. Their whole goal is to terrorize israel. We have to acknowledge that. That is the only pathway for ward, and then coming to a two state solution where both can live a life of dignity and pride. Even when it came to stability with the abraham accordss and talking to saudi arabia, we have seen so many steps forward. This attack comes on the heels of a forward progress movement. My fear is that it will slow down our Forward Movement and making sure palestinians and israelis can live together in peace and dignity. Host next caller, tampa, florida. Caller here is the thing we are steadily building towards another pile of sulfur and tent poles and turning it into yellowcake and cooling pipes. Some of our elected leaders are in a rush to start another war, this time with iran. People forget that our bad relations started over there or got worse with the shah and their elected government, or former government was thrown out. The people over in gaza, if you pull up google maps and go back 20, 30 years and work your way forward, you will see where it was continually armed and destroyed bombed and destroyed. They already had them on powerouters. They moved in and destroyed their homes with bulldozers. If you keep kicking a dog, the dog will bite you. Host congresswoman . Guest i want to make sure everyone is aware of hamas and what they do. Hamas uses the Palestinian People as human shields. They are using their hideaway in regular family homes. They will put their ammunition in regular family homes or buildings that have day cares in them. They intentionally embed themselves in civilians lives. Any time israel has responded in palestine is because it has been provoked. All of the missiles coming into israel have been coming from gaza, have been coming from the palestinians on that side. Unfortunately, it is hamas. The Palestinian Authority has the responsibility to kick hamas out of the territory. With hamas not president and the Palestinian Authority taking responsibility, negotiating and creating a life with the people, that is when we will start seeing change. As long as hamas is continually attacking israel, and, israel being forced to respond w will find ourselves in it. People neglecte that hamas is a terrorist organization. W alle need to come to a consensus and realize that the killing of anybody is wrong, especially by a Tourist Organization terrorist organization who does not care about killing innocent lives in israel or palestine. Host this is joe, west palm beach, line for democrats. Caller good morning, john and welcome, ms. Sheila. Thank you for representing our area. What i would like to point out is that the democrats should have voted to leave mccarthy in that position for one reason. To render debts irrelevant. Now voting him out leaves these important positions in th hands of unqualified options doesnt help us. It is a matter of making decisions and recognizing that at least mccarthy is somebody who has some qualifications for this position and is not a complete brick thrower like jordan and scalise and some of the others in that party. We are looking forward to seeing you in golden lakes thank you for your representation and coming to visit us over the years. Host that is joe in florida. Guest really i really want to address this. Mccarthy had disingenuous leadership. When we first negotiated the debt ceiling, we wanted to make sure we precluded any form of having a shutdown. He agreed to the negotiations. We voted on the budget. Not only that, he promised it to the president. When he reneged on his promises when we are working with someone, especially in the speae house, the one thing we need is trust and honesty. Every turn we took he turned around and did some dishonest behavior. Trying to put the presumption that somehow iranian funds were actually used, that is with the American People do not deserve. When we look at jim jordan, they are the worst of the party but there are better republicans that can serve as speaker and i believe scalise can do that job with integrity. Host one more call. This is charlie in pennsylvania, republican. Caller number one, the planet is in chaos. Complete chaos. It is so sad. Host charlie, are you with us . I think we lost charlie in pennsylvania. This is charlie in florida. Independent, go ahead. Caller hi. I would like to say that hamas is basically looking to they look more concerned with themselves getting off on killing israelis than they do protecting their own people because they knew what was going to happen. With that said, the government in israel maybe netanyahu want to get rid of all of them. The people that should be there to take care of everything is the british, who created the problem in the beginning in 1920. The bottom line is that the horrific things that have been done, somebody should total of the issues, everything that has gone down with the palestinians and how they are treated. No different than the way we treated the indigenous population. Took their land and said, thats it. What do you expect people to do . But that is not to give into somebody like hamas. Hamas is against israel being a nation. Frankly, way back when, people who lived in that area lived without a nation called israel. Jews who basically came to israel or that land and cohave habitated with the arabs of that land. Host congresswoman . Guest what we saw in apartheid and what africanamericans have gone through is not comparable to what we are seeing, i believe, in israel. But i think we have to be clear when we use strome language. Does the relationship with palestine have to get better . Absolutely. Do we have to make sure they have access not just to basic necessities like food and water, but to live a livelihood in a place they can call home . We were in that trajectory and that is why it is important that we use some kind of restraint when it comes to what is going on to make sure palestinians have dignity in the life they live, but also making sure both parties can live in peace and not in fear that a terrorist organization is going to impact them negatively. Host i know it is a busy day ahead. We will let you start your day but thank you for stopping by washington journal. Come back down the road. Guest thank you so much. Host up next, we are joined by another member of congress, don bacon, republican of nebraska. Later, we are ined by the former house historian, ray smock. We will talk about todays speaker fight and what might happen for the institution. All of that coming up on washington journal. Announcer cspans studentcam documentary is back. Celebrating 20 years with this yearss theme looking forward. Make a video addressing, in the next 20 years, what is the most important change you would like to see in america . Or over the past 20 years what has been the most important change in america . As we do each year we are giving away 100,000 in total prizes with the grand prize of 5,000 and every teacher who has students participate have the opportunity to share a portion of an additional 50,000. The deadline is friday, january 19, 2024. Visit our website at studentcam. Org. Announcer Nonfiction Book lovers, cspan has a number of podcasts for you. Listen to bestselling authors and influential interviewers on the afterwards podcast and on q a. Wideranging conversations with authors who are making things happen. Book notes plus episodes are weekly hourlong conversations that feature fascinating authors on a wide variety of topics. And the about books podcast takes you behindthescenes of the Nonfiction Book Publishing Industry with industry updates, interviews, and bestseller lists. Find the podcasts by downloading the free cspan now app or wherever you get your podcasts. And on cspan. Org podcasts. Announcer cspanshop. Org is cspans online store. Browse through our products, apparel, books, home to core, and accessories. There is something for every cspan fan and every purchase supports our nonprofit operation. Shop now or anytime at cspanshop. Org. Announcer washington journal continues. Host joining us again is Nebraska Republican don bacon. Thank you for being here. Guest thank you. Host when it comes to what the u. S. Should be prepared to do and what israel needs from the United States, what is the immediate need and what are the middle and longerterm needs we should be prepared for . Guest currently, we have to stand behind israel. We have to make clear we are with them 100 and they have to destroy hamas. What we saw this past week was the most barbaric, evil, dehumanizing things i have ever seen in my lifetime. Going back to even world war ii. Israel needs to know we have their back 100 . We cannot after two or three days of battle say, ok, time to deescalate. No. They are going to need precision weapons and other munitions. They will need logistics support, intelligence support. I think we have folks there advising how to get folks out. Whatever they need we should provide an they are our best allies in the middle east. Host are you concerned about this conflict expanding to other parts of the middle east . Guest yes. Iran is behind us. The administration was wrong on multiple times. They said they were not sure what irans role was. Iran helped hamas for over a year plan this operation. There also connected to southern lebanon and southwestern syria. I anticipate the hezbollah being activated to help out hamas. I think the Prime Minister of israel will say, iran is behind this whole thing. I would not be surprised to see israel do something to iran. In the end iran, organized and made this possible. Over 1000 israelis have been killed. I do not think israel can ignore it. Host if israel strikes iran, does the United States condone that . Guest we should. Iran not only killed 1000 israelis, they have killed 14 americans. They have american hostages right now in gaza. Hamas could never have done this without iran and i dont think netanyahu will ignore this. He should not. This would never have happened without irans help. I anticipate this being a broader conflict and america should stand by israel 100 . Host on munitions, can the u. S. Provide israel what it needs and continue to supply ukraine, and provide taiwan enough munitions to deter china, and keep our stockpiles where they need to be . Guest at the current production, no. However, we should increase production. We have a problem, we see it, lets deal with it. The weapons israel will need is different than what ukraine is asking for. It is not 100 duplication. I think we can do both. By the way, what russia has done to the ukrainians is similar. The murders, the rapes, the brutality we saw this week in hamas we have also seen in ukraine with what the russians have done. But also, taiwan has had about, i think 19 billion of weapons they have purchased and not received. Those are different kinds of weapons that israel does not need or ukraine does not need. We have to support all three but we have to increase production. Host congressman don bacon with us. Please join in the conversation. What happens today in the republican conference at 10 00 a. M. Behind closed doors . Do you think we will have a speaker by the end of the day . Guest i do not know the answer. I wish i did. I was angry with what 4 of the republicans did. 96 of republicans supported Kevin Mccarthy. I did not really want to cooperate with some of the nominees we have for speaker, but after seeing what has gone on this last weekend with israel, and the need that we have to come together and get the legislature working again, i am going to likely vote for Steve Scalise. But whoever comes out on top, jim or steve, we have to get a speaker as fast as we can. I do not know if we are going to have one by the end of the day, but we need one. Host why your preference . Guest steve has been in every district in all districts. He knows omaha. He goes twice every cycle. I think he knows the needs of every member better but i will tell you, that jim has done great the last couple of years as chairman. Jim has convinced me that he can represent the entire congress. I think he would do a great job of speaker as well. Whoever gets the majority, we need to support. Host you are talking majority within the Conference Meeting today. Guest yes. Host you think that person will get 217 votes from republicans when the house comes in at 3 00 p. M. . Guest they should. However, we saw the past 10 months that eight people held out. It is the new normal here. The mad new normal. We have to coalesce and get whoever comes out on top, we need to support that person. However, we saw Kevin Mccarthy was not given that same custom and it was wrong. Host this is deborah in westchester, ohio on the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. I am very concerned about the lack of Foreign Policy knowledge among the American People. And also, some of the choices this particular administration is making. For the first time in the cia we have our own wonderful person in terms of knowledge and skill. It is the first time in the history of the cia that has happened. If you were to read mike pompeos book and understand the cia, or people read the books about what goes on in the administration, they would not just get rhetoric. They would get history. I think Antony Blinken is it does not make any difference what i think. He has a degree in social studies and his law degree and his original appointments were political. He was also the Foreign Policy advisor when joe biden was Vice President. It does not make any difference. We can argue whether that is significant. Our enemies know that. Guest i agree. Thank you for your call and your input. I have been discouraged by what i have seen from secretary blinken. He could not say honestly in the last few days that iran was behind this. We know it. Hamas thanked iran for their support and the weapons. Iran has expressed direct support or said they were behind hamas publicly, and yet our own secretary of state could not acknowledge that. We gave we have promised 6 billion in humanitarian aid for the ransom for the hostages iran had. That was wrong. President biden and secretary blinken need to acknowledge we should not give iran anything. In the end, money is fungible. It will find its way back to terrorism or all of their intelligence operatives. I have been discouraged by biden and his whole team. From day one they have cozied up. If you look at the oil exports out of iran, they have quadrupled in they have used that to fund terrorism. I agree with the caller. Host aurora, colorado, this is ray, independent. Caller good morning. First, i want to complement cspan on its new set. It is a nice change. I am affiliated with the libertarian party. I wanted to ask you, representative bacon, what qualities are you seeking from the new House Speaker that may or may not you may or may not have seen from former Speaker Mccarthy . On another subject, i wanted to know about why you joined the conservative caucus and what your reception has been with other republicans . Guest thank you very much. I appreciate the two questions. I did not agree with Kevin Mccarthy 100 . I disagreed on january 6 and some other things, but i believe in the Ronald Reagan model. If you agree with someone 80 of the time, you try they are not your enemy. They are your friend. I would say the same with jim jordan and Steve Scalise. I do not agree with them i would like to see more of a strong statement in support of ukraine, for example. There are things that i ultimately agree with but i think both will do a good job in the end. I got them to admit yesterday that an independent ukraine is in our National Security interest. How we go about that we can discuss and figure out how to handle. But the United States is the leader of the free world and we have to operate that way. It does not mean we have to get involved in every trouble spot. We are not the worlds policeman but we have to coalesce the free world and Work Together with nato, japan, australia, all of our allies, and we have to stand up against authoritarian regimes like russia, china, and iran. We cannot do it by ourselves but we are indispensable in all of this. That is what i want to see in a speaker. An acknowledgment of our role in the world. We also have to be fiscally responsible. When it comes to the Climate Solutions caucus, i think republicans should speak more about environmental needs. I believe in Renewable Energy but i also believe in all of the above. We should not have to import any fuel or energy from venezuela, russia, or anywhere. We have the ability in the United States to produce all of our energy. I want to see that balance. Environmental policies but also Energy Independent america. I believe that is what that caucus stands for. Host can you dig into that story about getting scalise and jordan to admit to that . Guest i saw ambiguous answers when it comes to ukraine and i wanted more clarity. We have to figure out how to handle the continuing resolution that expires in november. We have to have a budget going into next year for israel. We have a southern border that is broken. We have to have policy changes. I acknowledged all of that and that is what they would say has to be done before it gets to ukraine. I think that is true. We have to address these problems. But in the end we know that putin has said he wants to restore the old soviet borders. Ukraine is just part of that. If ukraine falls, he will not stop with ukraine. He already said the baltics are renegade states which implies that the baltics could be next. It is in our National Security interest that we help ukraine win this fight. I wanted to hear both candidates say that. How we get there we could debate. I think we should have the Inspector General biden should be more forthcoming. Why do we need this or that weapon . But in the end, ukraine has got to win. If russia prevails, it is going to cost us more in money and blood if we do not help ukraine prevail. Host this is jeff in nebraska along the Missouri River on the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller mr. Bacon, couple of questions. I do not think the American People have a problem with trying to help ukraine and give them the money. However, we have no idea what happened with that 100 billion. No idea. I guarantee you dont have any idea. You probably dont have any idea what happened to half of that money and our border is absolutely chaos. Nobody can sit here and tell the American People that we dont have terrorists coming across our border right now. You guys are not doing anything about it. You guys need to get off your rear ends, come together host congressman, we will give you a chance to respond. Guest i agree with what half the caller said. Regarding ukraine, we can track every weapon. It is classified but we can track every weapon we send to ukraine. We have a good accountability on the weapons. Money is a different matter but america sends more military support. Europe does the humanitarian, rebuilding, more of the direct money. We are helping out with the military. We have good accountability on the military stuff. I would disagree with the caller on that. I agree about our southern border. We have had people coming across the border from 100 different countries. Pakistan, afghanistan, iraq, iran, you name it. They are coming in from brazil and being trafficked all the way through mexico into our border. We have caught hundreds of people around the terrorist watch list. We have a Security Threat based on the border and there are things we should be doing. I remind the caller, we passed hr2, one of the most stringent Border Security legislations ever. The senate has not taken that up. The president does not agree with it but it is the president who is responsible for not enforcing the border. We have policies in place. He is not enforcing them. The u. S. House has tried very hard to pass legislation and force the president to do more. The president has not lived up to what this country needs on the border. And the republicans and the house want to do more. We have passed legislation but the senate is not taking it up. Host johnny in Tampa Florida on the line for democrats. About 10 minutes left with congressman don bacon. Caller you are such a hypocrite. You talk about securing the border. There is one way to secure the border and that is to make laws in congress. We have no choice but to let those people in and you act like they are coming in because they want to run crime. All you got to do is change the law. Change the law and stop complaining all the time. All you do is play politics. Biden this, biden that, what happened in 1979 . We put those people in charge. The cia told iran it is our fault because iran is acting like they do. On of a sudden, you are going to blame iran for everything when we put them in power. Host the border and iran. Guest i disagree with the caller. He comes from the blame America First group. What happened in iran happened 60 years ago. He is still blaming us for what is going on with iran. That is baloney. Iran is run by the ayatollah. They hate our country. They hate israel. They want to destroy us. They want to destroy israel. They are the largest exporter of terrorism, and yet this caller wants to blame america. I do not accept that. The border itself we solved with the previous president. I did not always agree with trump but his policy work. Remain in mexico worked. You have to come to this country with permission. If we put that policy in place, it will stop most of what we are seeing at the southern border. I remind the caller that we have had 12,000 people a day in recent weeks come across the border. Under president obama the Homeland Security secretary said, if we had 1000 people a day, it is a crisis. Today we have 12,000. The remain in mexico policy works if we enforced it and this president will not do it. Host grant here in washington, d. C. , independent. Caller back in the 1950s and 1960s when the israeli Foreign Affairs work funding money i have to say the 360 billion worth of aid that has been funneled to israel by the u. S. Is fungible. Israel has used it to become the state sponsor of Nuclear Proliferation in the middle east. And now we are given the chance to help on the basis of unsubstantiated claims like iran is helping hamas, which, by the way, was created by israel. But we have been given a golden opportunity to finish the ethnic cleansing that was launched before 1948 when the state was created. It would be really great if politicians like this one who are so hawkish would pick up a book. Host congressman bacon. Guest this guy is clearly antisemitic. I support israel. Israel is our ally. The jewish people have been persecuted for thousands of years. They deserve a homeland. They deserve a safe haven for jews all over the world. I stand by israel 100 . By the way, it is not just allegations about iran and hamas. Hamas themselves have said iran a this possible. If he will not listen to the leaders of hamas, he is deluded. I disagree totally. Host back to the United States and what we are sending to israel. The Carrier Strike group in the Eastern Mediterranean and the possibility of a second joining, what capabilities does that give us . What should we use those capabilities to do . Guest it is the newest aircraft carrier. 5000 sailors on that ship. We would have the potential i think it is just there in case they need help. Israel can do these military operations on their own but they will need weapons support. They need us to resupply them with weapons and fuel, perhaps. They will need more precision type weapons over the long run. I think we are also there in case they need our support in rescuing hostages. I think we should be prepared to help them when they need it and that is what we are doing right now. That is why the carrier is off the coast. I do not think we will be needed, but we should be there if they call 911 and say, america, help us. Host to brooklyn, connecticut. James, you are on with the don bacon. Caller how are you all doing today . Congressman, i am a republican. First president i voted for was Ronald Reagan. We have had this problem with israel forever. Why are we friends with these guys . They are not even a democracy anymore. They just deported their own Supreme Court. This is a distraction from what is going on in africa. How come you are not talking about the operations running over there . Host conner smith bacon. Guest the first person i voted for was Ronald Reagan. Israel is a democracy. It is the only democracy in the middle east. They have better human rights they agree with all of our values. Arabs in israel can vote. They have all the rights that the israelis have. I disagree with the caller on that. They are the only democracy, so we should support them. But if you go back thousands of years, the jewish people have been persecuted. Look at world war ii alone with 6 million jews murdered. We need this world to be a safe haven for jews. I stand by that. From a faithbased perspective, i believe those who live in israel will be blessed. In africa, we do have forces there. We are going after al qaeda and various terrorist groups aligned with al qaeda. We have a very small presence there but we need to be there. Whether it is somalia or niger, they would also attack americans if they could. That is why we have a small presence in africa. Host we wanted to ask you about one of your republican colleagues not in the race for speaker. Congressman George Santos. The story from the New York Times yesterday, prosecutors filing an array of additional charges against the congressman from new york, accusing him of new schemes, including stealing the identities and credit card details of donors to his campaign. It goes on to talk about a new 23count indictment. Should he continue to be a congressman . Guest first, he should resign. There is no doubt about that. If he does not resign, how the house will handle it will be one of two things. If we get back the Ethics Committee and it shows these are true, we will expel him. If he is convicted in court of doing these things, we will expel him as well. The house will act but i think he should resign. Host one or two more calls. This is milton out of philly. Caller thank you for taking my call. First of all, i would like to send out my prayers and condolences to the israelis and palestinians that were killed as a result of this. I am a strong supporter of israel, dont get me wrong, but lets be honest. Benjamin netanyahu is a racist and he has some serious issues. He will say the palestinians should be at peace with israel, but at the same time, he expands the settlements and keeps expanding in the west bank. They want to talk about peace but then take land away from the palestinians. I support israel but it should be a twostate solution. The israelis have a state, so should the palestinians. Would always seem to be on israels side but ignore the palestinians. I think hamas is dangerous and should be destroyed, but we should look another thing i want to bring up host we are running short on time. On settlements and a twostate solution. Guest hamas should be destroyed. We agree on that. Israel offered a twostate solution to the palestinians and they refused. The palestinian leadership refuses to acknowledge israel as a jewish state. They want to destroy israel. They do not have a negotiating partner that is legitimate. The only partners say, hey, i want to destroy them. They have told the palestinian leadership that the acknowledge israels right to exist and then they could get to a twostate solution. But right now they do not. Israel does not have a partner to negotiate. Until the palestinians come to the table, the israelis will use these settlements. Acknowledge israels right to exist and eventually will get to a twostate solution. Host you have plenty of meetings to get to this morning including a potential speaker vote. Appreciate your time. Guest thank you. Host coming up later this morning, we are going to be joined by former historian of the u. S. House of representatives, ray smock. We will talk about todays speaker vote and put it in historical context. But until then, back to your phone calls about this speaker vote today and the war the israelihamas war. The numbers are on your screen. Call in and we will get to those after the break. Announcer this year book tv marks 25 years of shining a spotlight on reading Nonfiction Books. Nearly 900 cities and 16,000 events. Book tv has provided viewers with 92,000 hours of programming on the latest literary discussions on history, politics, and biographies. You can watch book tv every sunday on cspan2 or online at booktv. Org. Book tv, 25 years of television for serious readers. Announcer cspan now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and ondemand. Keep up with the days biggest events with live streams from congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. You can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and by scheduling and find scheduling information, plus compelling podcasts. Cspan now is available in the apple store and google play. Download it for free today. Cspan now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. Announcer a healthy democracy does not just look like this, it looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed our republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are, it is your opinion that matters the most. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Announcer washington journal continues. Host taking your phone calls for the next 20 minutes. We are talking about the two main stories we have been following all week long. The House Speaker battle and the israelhamas war. Republicans, it is 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. And independents, 202 7488002. It was President Biden speaking yesterday from the white house about the u. S. Response to the attacks on israel. This is what he had to say. [video clip] pres. Biden my team has been in constant mitigation with israeli partners, partners across the region, and the world from the moment this crisis began. We are sending ammunition and interceptors to replenish iron dome. We are going to make sure israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend its cities and citizens. My administration has consulted closely with congress throughout this crisis. When Congress Returns we are going to ask them to take urgent action to fund the National Security requirements of our partners. This is not about party or politics. This is about the security of our world, the security of the United States of america. We now know that american citizens are among those being held by hamas. I have directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to advise israeli partners on hostage recovery. As president , i have no higher priority than the safety of americans being held hostage from around the world. The United States has also enhanced our military in the region to strengthen our deterrence. The department of defense has moved the uss gerald off the mediterranean coast and we stand ready to move in additional assets as needed. Let me say again tenney country, any organization, anyone thinking about taking advantage of the situation dont. Dont. Our hearts may be broken but our resolve is clear. Host this is the front pages of the major newspapers. This is the wall street journal, biden calls the attack on israel sheer evil, the headline from the times. Israeli forces mass for a gaza ground war. Israeli jews and palestinians endure host we will start in new jersey. Brian is a democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a lot of empathy for the jewish people. It is appalling what is happening but their plan is illconceived. When you go into an urban environment with tanks and cheap ways of destroying tanks, this will become a quagmire. It is going to get worse and worse, and ultimately, this is going to be bidens war because this will end up being a war with iran which is the fault of the United States. The israelis have had an apartheid with the palestinians for a generation. Anyway. Host you might be interested in David Ignatius column in the washington post. Israel is about to step into a nightmare of urban warfare, saying israel must answer saturdays terrible attack. The countrys existence was shaken and the aftermath might bring a happier future for palestinians who are one of modern historys most faded people. But a colleague warned me decades ago when it comes to the middle east it is an unfortunate truth that pessimism pays. This is rich in ohio, republican. You are next. Caller really important issues coming up and the solutions are out there. One is look at Oil Independence for the United States. It is more than being number one. We like giving up our Oil Independence. Russia is making billions of dollars. Around is getting billions of dollars i ran is getting billions of dollars. Other countries are working on bombs with the extra oil money. We have got to be crazy. On the border we have laws to not come into our country within our laws. Look what happened to israel. They have the double wall and everybody got through it. We have wideopen walls and we do not know who the hell is coming into our country. We have got to be crazy. There are solutions out there but we have got to get onto it. Countries that need our help, we should spend their dollars before we put a dollar into their countries. Some of these countries are very rich. Host joel in bellevue, illinois, independent. You are next. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking the call. I do a simple Google Search of the conflict and since 2008, roughly 6400 palestinians killed and 300 israelis since 2008. The israelisresponse has always been extreme. How are we condemning what hamas did and i am not condoning anything but we are not saying anything about the 1300 dead. Are they all terrorists . Where they all convicted of terrorism . 1300 dead in gaza. 3. 6 billion is not enough to stop a couple of guys in gliders . I see guys in gliders. Lets be real. Guys in gliders are coming over the fence. 3. 6 billion with a b everyone, something smells here. Host this is marie in mississippi, democrat. Caller good morning. The first thing i wanted to talk about is my comment on the speaker position. I think back when they were pushing jim jordan to become speaker of the house. The problem i have with that and he was involved with january 6 that it goes back to when they were upset because nancy pelosi would not put him on the committee. It took me back to hundred years when black people were being killed, hung, burned, and murdered and the same people who participated in the crimes were the ones that sat on the jury and made the decision. Black families had to watch that. If jim jordan not only get the gavel in his hands, the Capitol Police and those that were killed got to watch the same person that participated in january 6 sit with a gavel in his hand. Secondly, i wanted to say this is ripping a scab off a 200yearissue. When i go to the mall or the Grocery Store i am not looking over my shoulder for someone from mexico. I am not looking over my shoulder with somebody for a hijab. I am looking for the white boy who is going to shoot the place up. Host one of the members who is the reason we are having another speaker vote today, matt gaetz. He spoke with reporters yesterday after one of those closed door meetings among the republican conference about who will leave the house. This is what matt gaetz had to say. [video clip] i thought both candidates understood the need to unite the conference and to bring the conference into a more effective fighting force. Really, to put the pressure on Senate Democrats to take up our bills to get the government funded. Reporter how are you going to make sure what happens with mccarthy does not happen again . I am confident both of these men would be an upgrade over Speaker Mccarthy. I am not [crosstalk] [indiscernible] i do not want to govern by cr one more day. Jim jordan has been a tireless fighter for less spending from the federal government. I think we have to put pressure on the senate to take up our bills. Mr. Jordan believes one strategy to force the senate to take up our bills would be a continuing resolution with automatic cuts. I want to hear him out on that but as i have stated many times, my preference is to govern without crs at any point. Host matt gaetz, republican from florida, leading the opposition to Kevin Mccarthy. Another one of those republicans who voted to oust mccarthy was nancy mace. She spoke yesterday about who she would be supporting and why she showed up wearing a big red letter a on her shirt. [video clip] be supporting jim jordan. He answered every question with energy and that is the bear minimum of what the American People need and deserve. I am excited about this vote tomorrow and i hope we can come together very quickly. Reporter do you think the congress is united behind chairman jordan . We will find out tomorrow. Win, lose, or draw, i hope we can come behind one person. Reporter can you explain the a . I am a woman and has been demonized for my voice. I am letting the world know that i am on the side of the people, not the establishment, and i am going to do the right thing every single time. I do not answer to anybody in d. C. Or washington. I only answer to the people. Thank you. Host South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace yesterday. The republican conference set to meet at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, in about an hour antenna minutes. If they come to a consensus on who they will support as speaker, we expect a speakerphone around 3 00 p. M. Eastern today. There is a pro forma session scheduled at 3 00 p. M. We will show you gaveltogavel whatever happens on the house floor. This is henry in naples, florida, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, i am a republican. Secondly, i am very sorry about what is happening in israel. I am a republican and they should put back Kevin Mccarthy. He was doing a good job and he was an excellent person doing the right things. Another thing is why people are so concerned about giving money to ukraine. Lets talk about what is happening in our country and our southern border. Everybody is coming through. I see in the newspaper the line of guys coming here from i dont know if they are criminals or terrorists or anything like that. Please, please put back Kevin Mccarthy. Host do you have a preference between Steve Scalise and jim jordan . Caller not really because it is the same thing. Scalise or jordan, they are going to do and gaetz is going to agree with them. Kevin mccarthy did a good job. They had the country running and they did not do anything bad. It is just a personal vendetta. We should put back Kevin Mccarthy. Republicans, wake up. Host that is henry in florida. Mary in maryland, independent. Caller hello. I am calling to express my opinion on the war. On bbc, they showed how the Israeli Military goes into the homes of ordinary palestinians in the middle of the night. They took them out of their homes, led them away, there were three children and a husband and wife. They are living in incredible oppression. Their living in a pressure cookerlike environment and we are supporting israel against hamas but what about the palestinians who are suffering just as much as israelis, if not more . This is like supporting putin against ukraine. They are the ones causing this misery to the palestinians. Why dont we give them the ability to intercept missiles and protect themselves . I would suggest you invite professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University to throw light on the situation. Thank you. Host that is mary in maryland. This is the story one of our callers earlier brought up about the United Nations chief secretary general, antonio guterres, saying he is deeply distressed about the announcement that israel will soon initiate a complete siege of the gaza strip following the attack by the Palestinian Group hamas over the weekend. The headline from reuters. This is ishmael out of indianapolis, indiana, democrat. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Just a quick comment about this war. This war is going to be global. We are going to send shipment after shipment to israelis. The people of israel and palestine have the same blood. It is red blood. The Biden Administration is wrong to escalate this war. It is costly. Host what would be an escalation that the United States would do . Caller providing more weapons. It is run by hamas. We know about this. Look at the destruction. Put yourself in that situation. The food, the water, the gas, the medicine, everything has been cut off. The hospitals are running out of generator fuel. Host this is wanda out of california, republican. Good morning. Caller i want to talk about nomenclature. These socalled palestinians are ethnically arabs. That is where they should go. Host this is ali in virginia. Caller good morning. First, i want to say that hamas is a terrorist organization. We know where is the head of this problem. The innocent Palestinian People will pay the price. [indiscernible] i really would like to hear from anyone that if china or russia started a war, they would find a way to support. 300 years ago this is my home and i want it now. Host two columns today. The first from the oped pages of the wall street journal. It is the president of the yorktown institute, israeli victory is critical to u. S. Interests, is the headline. A timely shelve american strength would deter russian meddling in chinese and chinese opportunism. From usa today, ingrid rights, this is israels equivalent of our 9 11. It is easy to say stand with israel but it is good question our politicians when they say those words. A mark of which truly stand with israel. There is no excuse, she writes, to abandon our allies when they need us most. This is clarence out of arlington, texas on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, thank you as always. You have a great staff. I want to remind our republican colleagues and you mentioned 9 11 our 9 11 terrorists came over to the United States. We have problems in many other have problems in many other areas when they play politics about the southern border. None of those terrorist that attacked just on 9 11 came through the southern border. They all came with valid visas. We have to start working on those areas. There is been too much divisive politics in the United States. Nows the time to rally behind our president. Host clarence in arlington, texas. Last caller in the segment. Up next will be joined by ray smock, the former historian of the house of representatives to talk about ts historic battle for who will be speaker of the house. After that more of your phone calls. We will be right back. Monday, watch cspan series in partnership with library of Congress Books that shaped america will feature the common law by oliver Wendell Holmes, jr. From a series of lectures he had given on criminal and civil law. Controversial, holmes wrote that the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience. Jeffrey rosen it join us to discuss the book. Watch books that shaped america featuring the common law live monday at 9 00 eastern on cspan or online at cspan. Org. Scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast where you can learn more about the authors of the books featured. Since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, cspan has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors, party briefings, and committee meetings. Cspan has given you a front row seat about how issues are debated and decided with no commentary and no interruptions and completely unfiltered. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. If you miss any of cspans coverage you can fight it anytime online at cspan. Org. Videos feature markers that guide you to newsworthy highlights. These markers appear on the righthand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. This tool makes it easier to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. Scroll through and spend a few minutes on cspans points of interest. Washington journal continues. Host in historic times it is helpful to turn to ray smock who served as the historian of the house of representatives for decades. Good morning to you. We possibly could see a second speaker vote in less than 11 months. The houses operating under an interim speaker pro tem and one of americas closest allies is now in a state of war. In historical terms that there some analogy you would point to or what is your thinking about today as we watch this go down . Guest as we know this is unprecedented. We have never had a speaker rejected by a motion to vacate in the history of the country. We have had many occasions where there is been turmoil on the floor of the house and difficulty electing a speaker. Probably the longest and most contentious speaker contest was that the annual banks before the civil war. They took 133 ballots before he was elected and it took two months to get a speaker elected. At that time there were multiple parties. The Republican Party was a new party. There was a lot of tension over the issue of slavery. We were just a few years from the civil war. In kansas the civil war was already going on. Whenever there is tension in the country. Whenever there is turmoil and division that frequently reflects itself in the house of representatives. The house is supposed to be a balancing party where we come together to hammer out our differences. When those differences are so extreme it is difficult. In that case it took forever to elect a speaker. We had other occasions where speakers have been contested. Thereve only been three incidents where anything close to a motion to vacate. The first was in 1910 with joe cannon, who was a strong speaker. He was called a czar. He was like an autocrat. He ran the house with an iron hand. His own party decided to break with him. They did not want him out of the office but they wanted his control of the rules committee to be limited. It took a huge effort to undo that. And then speaker cannon asked for a motion to vacate because he knew he would win it. He wanted to see if he still had control of the chamber. He won that but he lost the power to control the rules committee that was a huge change in the rules of the house and a big fight in 1910. We do not have anything close to the motion to vacate until more recently when he was in congress, mark meadows had a motion to vacate speaker john boehner. He did not bring it on the floor. He sent it to committee. It was never used. John boehner was closer to resigning. He cannot deal with his own conference anymore. He left. Just recently, the thing with Speaker Mccarthy where it surprised everyone that such a small number of House Republicans could unseat their own speaker. That was because of a rule that Kevin Mccarthy agreed to that one member of the house could bring up a motion to vacate and it would be a motion that would have to be taken up on the floor. To everyones surprise, when matt gaetz introduced that the speaker was removed and here we are in the crisis. We better resolve this because the speaker is second in line to the president the end of area important Constitutional Officer and we cannot have that Office Vacant and that house and turmoil especially with all the things going on in the world. Host here is where we are on october 11. The House Republican conference is getting set to meet in just under one hour. They will be meeting in a room on capitol hill, a camera set up outside that room, waiting to see if any members stop by and make comments ahead of that in come to an agreement we could see a vote around 3 00 eastern today. That is what we know, but there are a lot of unknowns as we wait to see what happens. We are joined by ray smock, former house historian on the history of this moment. You mentioned joe cannon calling him one of the stronger speakers in history. How do you think history will view Speaker Mccarthy . Do you think he will be seen as a week speaker or somebody who was undone by the rules he agreed to . Guest if Kevin Mccarthy does not come back there is still some talk the republican conference might bring him back that is at least speculation. If his speakership ends at 269 days, he will go down as the second shortest tenure in the office and will have no major accomplishments and the fact that his election was contested and he agreed to this poison pill rule that one person could call for his ouster, that does not bode well for him in history. It is too new. I am a historian. I to wait for the dust to settle. I cannot make a prediction about how history will view him. Certainly right now he does not rank anywhere near the strong speakers we have had in the past. Speakers who are able to control their conference. I will tell you one story from 1925, when speaker Nicholas Longworth the Longworth House Office building was named for him when he became speaker the first thing he did was punish 24 members of his own party because they failed to vote for Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 election. He stripped them of their Committee Assignments and reduced their tenure and their seniority as a punishment for not being loyal to the party. That is taking strong action. He got away with it. He was a very likable guy and a very popular speaker. He did not tolerate much dissension within his own conference. That is a different era, different speaker, and certainly different circumstances than we are witnessing today. Host we are at the centennial of Calvin Coolidge ascending to the presidency. Plenty of coverage of that on American History tv. If you have questions for ray smock on the house of representatives, he is with us for the next 20 minutes on the washington journal phone lines for republicans, democrats, independents. We have talked before about the expanding powers of the executive branch of the presidency, especially postworld war ii. I wonder when it comes to the speaker of the house, has there been a similar expansion of the powers of the speaker in the modern era . Host in the early history of the country the speaker was not that important office. It was important, it was a Constitutional Office since the beginning. Duties as speaker have increased. The party leader, the chief administration are of the house of representatives, the National Negotiator on all issues, always in the big meetings when congress is meeting with the president , it is the duties the duties of the speaker have expanded greatly over time. It has always been an important Constitutional Office. When new degree in great became speaker in 1995, he saw the speakership as a way to rival the presidency itself. He tried to use his strong powers. We had government shutdowns but we also had Newt Gingrich working with president bill clinton. We had a balanced budget passed. The two of them working together. No speaker since Newt Gingrich is tried to exert enough power to rattle the presidency. Host what is your understanding of the duties of an interim speaker pro tem . 202 7488000 guest the idea of interim as part of a speaker pro tem resulted after 9 11. The idea the cabinet could have been attacked and probably was going to be attacked and so some succession had to be figured out , and so a list of potential if the speaker was incapacitated than someone else would come in as an interim speaker. There is no good indication of the powers of that individual to conduct the full scale of business that the house needs to do to perform, especially passing appropriations bills. It is a placeholder more than anything else and there is no good precedent for how an interim president pro tem acts. The idea of a speaker pro tem the speaker pro tem, all that means is whoever is in the chair that day as a speaker for the time being. The house runs itself that way. The speaker in the chair during the house procedures there is usually someone designated called the speaker pro tem. Host this is stephen in california, line for democrats. You are on with ray smock. Caller i have a quick question. You mentioned the current speaker was the second shortest. It was the first shortest tenure . Guest there are two answers to that. One is michael kerr in 1876. He died in office. He was only speaker 267 days, two day shorter than Kevin Mccarthy. There was a strange event that occurred in 1869, where a speaker was elected for one day. That was Theodore Pomeroy of new york. The reason is that the former speaker, skyler covax, had just been elected Vice President. Colfax was resigning to become Vice President so they needed a speaker, it was the last day of the session. Thomas pomeroy was only speaker for one day. Host this is why we love having you stop by. This is carolyn in georgetown, delaware. Republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. I guess my question is that even though we do not have a speaker right now, are all committees still functioning as usual and i would like to make the comment that i hope everyone unites behind jim jordan. I feel that Kevin Mccarthy let us down when he let the Congress Take a break after the devon archer testimony. He should not ever have allowed congress to take that break. My concern is about the committee. Guest your right to be concerned about the committees. That is where congress does its work. The committees are meeting i am not sure how that work in the committees gets transferred through the rules committee and onto the floor. You need a speaker to help guide what legislation does come to the floor through the rules committee. It looks to me like nothing has been passed, nothing can be passed even though the committee is working. Host this is michael out of reno, nevada. Independent. Good morning. Caller what you think about this idea, that since the house is almost divided 51 to 49 that monday, wednesday, and friday the republicans could have the speaker and tuesdays and thursdays the democrats could have their speaker of the house . Instead of just speaking into empty air, why isnt attendance required . In other words, they speak not just to the moderator but the whole audience so everyone would be required to listen. You need an audience there. Host ray smock . Caller the floor of congress, seldom there are very many members on the floor unless there is a vote. That is the way it has always been. Members of congress are doing committee work, they are meeting with constituents, they are doing all kinds of things and sitting on the floor is only part of their duties. When there is something extraordinary or some huge issue they are facing, then they will all be there. Most of the time the motion on the floor is independent of anything related to all of the other things going on in the vast complex that makes up the capital. I will tell you what one strong speaker in the 1890s said about the minority. That was speaker Thomas Brackett reed, a republican who had the strong majority. He said the purpose of the minority is to help us draw your paychecks. It will be the Majority Party that rules. In one way or the other, that is the way it has been. Host one of the callers was asking about committee work. I want to focus on one committee. The house Ethics Committee. The reason i ask is it was congressman don bacon on this program earlier today saying that when it comes to George Santos and the latest allegations against the republican from new york, healed there would be an Ethics Committee he hoped there would be an Ethics Committee investigation. Guest the Ethics Committee knows its job is to police wrongdoing by members of the house. It is their job to Pay Attention to those things. Whether or not they need to launch a full Ethics Committee investigation is for them to determine. I dont know what information they have. I suppose that was the first step before any efforts to expel airports to force a resignation. Given the charges that have been brought against congressman santos, it does raise the bar for his removal. Host does the Ethics Committee operate like the other committees where the membership is determined by proportion of control of the house . Caller eight used guest it used to be an equal number of members. It was one of the few committees where it was a joint operation not based on a majority. I dont know how it is functioning right now, to tell you the truth. Host the in new york, republican, good morning. Caller good morning. I think Kevin Mccarthy was a fine speaker and they tied him hand and foot. I love Steve Scalise and jim jordan. Steve scalise i worry about his health. Jim jordan was a great chairman of the judiciary committee. What i am concerned about is your congressman bacon said earlier that the house pass hr to to close the border but it will not go through the senate. The thing i am most concerned about is they say the try to put Hakeem Jeffries in which is a frightening person to me. If the keim jeffries were in charge of the house, nothing would get done. What is your comment . Guest first of all, i do not think Hakeem Jeffries will become speaker because the Majority Party still makes that decision. The Majority Party gets to elect the speaker. It has never been a case where the majority has not elected a speaker. In the past when there was not a clear majority i do not think you have to be concerned about that happening. The question is who can the republican Conference Rally behind and can that person pick up the pieces and move the Congress Forward . Host when was the last effective Bipartisan Coalition that made things happen in the house . There is a lot of talk about the problem solvers caucus. There were members on the republican side who were upset the democrats did not help save Kevin Mccarthys speakership, wondering whether they should break up the problem solvers caucus. Historically, when was last time one of these coalitions was able to operate effectively . Guest the truth of the matter is up until about the 1980s, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, regardless of who had the majority, there were always factions within the party and both parties come up until the 1980s had liberals and conservatives within that party. In effect we had a four party system. Everyone call themselves liberal republicans or conservative republicans and the same with the democrats. Whenever party was in control usually had to figure out a way to keep their own Party Together and then sometimes move into if it was a liberal measure they would have to move to the liberals on the democrat side if the democrats were in charge. I was there when speaker tip oneill and Ronald Reagan was president and the democrats had a majority in the house and the reagan revolution was underway. Tip oneill was not stopping at. He would say i can stop it only if i have the votes, i do not have the votes. That is because he could not control all of the democrats. Some of the conservative democrats were on board with the reagan program. Right now the thing making it so hard for everybody as the parties are so polarized. There is not much cooperation. There are two powers and they are not communicating with one another as well as they should. The fact that it is so close, such a tight thing, it is the polarization and the extremism of the politics where there is no cooperation and no compromise. The art of politics is compromise and we are not seeing much of that. That is where it gets into how well the body works. Host when did that four party system you described start to break up and melt into two . Guest it started in the 1980s and rapidly increased and took on a new role when the republicans got control of the house of representatives again in 1994. One of Newt Gingrichs ideas was to be more strident. Do not think of your opponent as your colleague. That increased with the rise of the two party system and other things on the republican side. The Democratic Party is a left of center party, but given that both parties look polarized, we still have to find ways to pass legislation. At some point there has to be giveandtake regardless of who does the giving and taking. We need the appropriations bill. Otherwise in 30 days we will shut the government down. Host five or 10 minutes left with ray smock. Taking your calls as we wait to see what will happen with the speaker vote today and what will happen in this republican Conference Meeting set to begin at 10 00 eastern. This is art in ohio, democrat, good morning. Host caller i just wanted to repair correct to correct something the historian said. In 1993 the democrats passed the bounce budget act without one republican voting for it. In 1995 the republicans took the house back and they tried to sabotage that, they close the government down. They did the same thing in 1996. In 1997, by than the balanced budget act was working and they did some kind of compromise, but not until 1997 with Newt Gingrich and the republicans come to some kind of compromise. Host ray smock . Guest i agree with your chronology. Host tulsa, oklahoma is next. Mark, good morning. Caller is good to talk to the American People. Let me talk to you jonathan, real quick. American people come if you want real entertainment call in and tell them to put Mark Cunningham on the show for 30 minutes. You can bring anyone you want. I will challenge them. Mr. Smock . What you think of this government. You talk about this tugofwar, these two Power Systems that keep us on the rope and we go nowhere. How about we go somewhere . It is a government based on platos writing 2400 years ago. It is a pyramid scheme of the egyptian pyramids that ties often goes nowhere. Lets go somewhere. Lets quit giving the Central Government so much power over health care, military, media. If you look at fox news, you have a gentleman who owns that company and is passing it on to his son. We will follow this with the Murdoch Family owning all of these local channels . Host a lot there. Guest i think when this nation was founded it was founded with a lot of thought about what ancient governments were like, what republicans were like, they looked at the ancient republics of greece and rome and then shape something new. A new larger republic. We are always going to argue how large government should be and how small it should be. The differences between the parties are lined up along that. The democrats see government as a positive good and the republicans see government as something that should be limited and smaller and less involved in the lives of the people. That is a struggle that has been played out through our entire history. How much government is enough, how much government is not enough. We have seen times when the government rescued the people. During the depression in the 1930s. We needed a strong government to get through world wars. Other times in our histories, we were talking about joe cannon in the 1890s and into the early 20th century, he was happy with the way the country was running, he said this country is working fine and does not need legislation. That is extreme. Do not even bother to pass bills, we are doing fine. That is the struggle. You have described it and you can continue to argue that as long as the republic survives. How strong the government is, how weak the government should be, that will ebb and flow depending on circumstances. Host a final question, it may be unfair for a historian. Any interest in trying to predict what will happen today in the house . Guest i cannot protect that. There is some talk about Kevin Mccarthy sneaking under the tent and coming back. That would be quite interesting. I do not have a vote so i do not have a magic wand for who will come out of the speakership. Whoever it is, not the two contenders. Maybe somebody else. It is a very interesting day and i will be watching like everybody else. Host he may not have a vote but he has a history. Former house historian and director of the Robert Byrd Center at shepherd university. Thank you for the education this morning. Host about 25 minutes left in our program and we will finish it with your phone calls. Want to hear from you on what we have been talking about. This House Speaker battle, the israelhamas war. Phone lines are open for your calls. The numbers are on the screen. Start calling in and we will get your calls right after the break. Part of our new series asking you what books you think shaped america. My pick is to kill a marking bird. Upton sinclairs the jungle. You can join the conversation by cementing your pick for the books you think shaped the country. Go to our website cspan. Org books that shaped america. Lect record video and in 30 seconds or less tell us your pick and why. Watch books that shaped america live every monday at 9 00 eastern on cspan. Cspans campaign 2020 for coverage is your front row seat to the president ial election. Watch as we cover candidates on the campaign trail with meet and greets, features, and more. Campaign 2024 on the cspan network and online at cspan. Org. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Listening to programs on cspan through radio just got easier. Tell your Smart Speaker to play cspan radio and listening to washington journal daily at 7 00 eastern. Important congressional hearings and ugly another Public Affairs events. Catch washington today for a fastpaced report on the stories of the day. Listen to cspan any time. Just tell your Smart Speaker to play cspan radio. Washington journal continues. Host keep you updated on where we are. Overseas, Antony Blinken set to arrive in israel today to engage with israeli partners directly about the situation on the ground there. Here in washington, d. C. , we are waiting for the beginning of a republican Conference Meeting. That is said to happen behind closed doors at 10 00. House republicans seeing if they can come to some consensus on who their nominee will be for speaker of the house, jim jordan or steves police or perhaps someone else or Steve Scalise. Or perhaps someone else. Jim jordan and Steve Scalise are the announced candidates. The house had to come in at 3 00 p. M. Right now is scheduled to be a pro forma session but it could turn into a full vote for speaker of the house. If there was not enougg o , at 10 00 on capitol hill at the su court, the su court said to hear oral arguments in alexander v the South Carolina conference of the naacp on the states Congressional Redistricting map and gerrymandering issues. Live coverage on that will begin on cspan at 10 00. You can watch on cspan. Org and the free cspan out video app. Stay with cspan all day long and especially this afternoon around 3 00. That is when we could see another speaker vote. The next 20 minutes, your phone calls. We are talking about the speaker battle in the israelhamas war. Republicans, 202 7488001, democrats 202 7488000, and independents 202 7488002. Lewis is out of holly hills, South Carolina. Line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller about the war in israel. 1948 when israel became a state and set all the choose can have a state to, home to. They had a law that no blacks could come into israel and sign up as age you. South africa was there known ally. Black choose only came into israel in 1977 when apartheid was falling in south africa. They flew some black jews into israel and i wonder how the black jews are being treated now in israel. Those jews that are in israel, that state was made for those white jews that are not hebrews. That was the problem. When they came in people rejected them and they cannot get along with other races. Host this is ryan in kansas city, missouri. Republican. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Listening to all of the callers and interviews, it is a tense moment. My biggest fear is something occurring where somebody does something, whether it be a call from the main office or whatever it might be for a domino effect. We have seen wars started for much less scenario. I think every country, i dont care if it is brazil or england or japan the fear i have is there Something Else that needs to be on the forefront that we need to see in the next days or minutes or hours. I know the simplest thing, even overreaction or other or under reaction could cause world war iii. Everyone says world war iii will last eight minutes. These are the moments in time that humanity as to dig down deep. It is very complex and very unnerving. This is a great show integrate conversation. Right now it is very trying times and i feel for all of you. You have a great day. Host Thomas Friedman in todays New York Times, the headline of his peace israel has never needed to be smarter than now saying it would be a mistake to give hamas what it wants like an overreaction. What israels enemies want is for israel to invade gaza and get enmeshed in a single entanglement that would make american entanglement in fallujah look like a childrens birthday party. We are talking about fighting that would undermine whatever sympathy israel has garnered on the world stage and force israel to stretch its resources. Absolutely do not want israel to refrain from going into gaza very deep for very long. That is Thomas Friedman in todays New York Times. This is dolly in bedford, texas. You are next. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have so much to say but i realize i do not have much time. There was a previous caller that made a comment about how Team Jeffries about Hakeem Jeffries and it struck me that i needed to call i am 87 i have watched for about 60 years i have been voting. Hakeem jeffries is the most positioned person he is the best person there is to lead our country resolutely, doing the right thing. You know what else . I will say Something Else. You know that none of us on this earth during our lifetimes will ever be perfect. There will be nothing else perfect on this planet. 87 years has taught me that. It is hard for me because im very much a perfectionist. Hakeem jeffries makes me proud, not because he is perfect, not because he is a democrat, but because he resolutely thinks things through and he speaks to me. I dont even know him, but he speaks to me for my values. I want to give a shout out for him because that woman said people like him scare her. That sounds i am not going to say what it sounds like to me by the word begins with an r. Thank you for taking my call. I could talk all day. I love your program. Host this is richard in michigan. Democrat. Good morning. Caller i am concerned about the American People that are hostage over there in that war. I want to give the money to the government to get those people back . They should be giving money to get them back. That is what my concern is. They are u. S. Citizens. The government is so corrupted, we do not know what to do. Why do you have 70 democrats and republicans on the floor . Host that is richard in michigan. It was President Biden yesterday at the white house confirming 14 americans had been killed in those hamas attacks over the weekend and also confirming some americans were among the hostages taken. The numbers out of israel between 100 and 150 hostages taken back to gaza. This was President Biden from the white house yesterday. This is an act of sheer people. More than 1000 civilians slaughtered in israel. Among them at least 14 american citizens killed. Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach churning reports of babies being killed. Entire families slain. Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace. Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies. Families hid their fear for hours and hours, desperately trying to keep their children quiet to avoid drawing attention. Thousands of wounded alive but carrying with them the shrapnel wounds in the memory of what they endured. You know these traumas never go away. So many families desperately waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones, not knowing if they are alive or dead or hostages. Infants in their mothers arms, grandparents and wheelchairs, Holocaust Survivors abducted and held hostage. Hostages who hamas has threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality. It is important. The brutality of hamas, this bloodthirsty does brings to mind the worst rampages of isis. This is terrorism. Sadly, for the jewish people, it is not new. This attack has brought to the surface painful memories of the scars left by eight millennia of antisemitism left by a linea of antisemitism and genocide for the jewish people. We must be crystal clear. We stand with israel. Host that was President Biden from the white house yesterday. This is the oped page of todays washington times. Retired Army Lieutenant general, former National Security the trump administration. The headline, have your been to auschwitz, look no further than hamas actions. This is jerry out of 10. Good morning. Caller i have a question. Am i correct in assuming that if the democrats all voted present, that the election of the speaker would be down to the majority of those were actually voting and wanted the democrats score a tremendous coup by all voting present and let the republicans do their thing, it would be the First Step Towards conciliation between the two parties . Host you would see it as a sign of allowing republicans to hash it out among themselves on the house floor as an olive branch to republicans . Caller it would kind of say lets get the country going. An olive branch to republicans . What about us . We need people to do works at the democrats are not going to decide by voting for one or the other or voting negative, it will just a that way like it did before. Host youre right that voting present would lower the threshold for whoever would win the speakership. It is expected that democrats will all vote for Hakeem Jeffries as they did 15 times in january when it took Kevin Mccarthy that long to win the speakership. Caller if they did that we would still be at a stalemate. He would not have a majority either. He would not have 51 of those voting. Host that is jerry in denton, texas. This is jerry in california. Line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . I have been watching cspan since day one, since brian used to host and susan. What happened everybody . Host ryan and susan are still here. Ive seen them this week. Caller i love those guys. I miss them terribly. Let me say this. Jim jordan, mr. Benghazi, lets not forget how long he dragged that out and how much money he pissed away. Number two, the palestinians have been getting the hell kicked out of them for years and decades and no one reports on that. I remember seeing medical people going to help these peaceful demonstrators and they were shooting the medics in the head. That is a war crime. They blew up ambulances. That is a war crime. Lets get the piece going on and give them their state, give them their own state. Anyway, instead of this apartheid craft. Thank you for your time. Host that is jerry in california. The previous jerry was talking about democrats, recommending they vote present today on the house floor and a speaker vote that could be happening around 3 00 eastern. One column from democratic consultant doug showing from the hill newspaper going back to what he thinks was a mistake by democrats not to vote present and therefore help save Kevin Mccarthy from beg ousted from the speakers chair. This is what hetes. Democrats could have saved the country from t mess by having least some of their members vote present instead of gas on mccarthys roval which would not have represented an endorsement but would be preferable to lithe use without a speaker. Certainly helping mccarthy to be ousted was a shortsighted cision, he writes. Usdemocrats shouldve realized it w in their best interest to bail out mccarthy, not only did show the American People they were above the chaos of the Republican Party but to make them dependent on them. Doug schoen in the hill newspaper. Less than 10 minutes left in todays washington journal. We will take you over to the Supreme Court at 10 00 for a case being argued today in the house expected to come in at 3 00 eastern. This is francis out of sterling, virginia. Independent. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to say the president reached out saying we are behind israel. As an africanamerican i want to say folks like nikki haley come out and say 50 years ago america was a great place. They treated black folks with german shepherds and dogs and everything else. I stand with the people of palestine where israel is bombing. No palestinian ever called me nigger. Known of them ever called my grandmother nigger. We had 14 killers in d. C. What is the president talking about . Yes i am passionate about this that we should not be sending our troops over there getting involved in another war. We need to leave our boys home. My father served in the military, my grandfather. I am tired of serving your wars. Leave the people alone. They are not even the real jews. Host that is francis in virginia. This is another francis. Democrat. Good morning. Caller hello . I need some information if you can. If im arrested i would get a mug shot and i would also be fingerprinted. Host where are you going with this . Caller where im going with this is if trump took a mugshot and trump took fingerprints, is he not under arrest . Host we will come back to the four indictments against donald trump and his cases. Not talking about that today. We are talking about the speaker battle happening in the house and the israelhamas war, topics weve been talking about this week. This is harold out of ohio. You are up next. Go ahead. Caller i ask the citizens of america to learn from this. The people of israel went to a safe room to defend themselves. The safe room seems to be a place where they went defenseless and hugged each other. If the population had been armed this wouldve been a very short occasion. Americans remember this the next time the government wants to take your guns. Host have you read the stories about the people who were armed and fought back against these attacks coming out of gaza . There been many stories about the firefights that have happened in the attempts to protect their settlements. Caller they seem defenseless and those safe rooms. That is all i know. I do not pretend to know everything. Host that is harold in ohio. This is courtney in santa barbara, california. Your next. Caller good morning. I wanted to interject, i agree with the last gentleman who said do not let the government sees your guns. Our right to bear arms is for this very situation with a tyrannical government, we can raise up as the people. I do not know what is going on. They are spraying something into the stratosphere that is making us all passive. The fact about mccarthy, i feel he betrayed america when he made a lot of promises about january 6 and the hostages being held in america and have been for quite a long time. This is an unimaginable tragedy that a lot more investigation shouldve been done before we launched into a fullscale war. I get it, it is an abomination. At the same time i do not want america to lose sight of the fact we are already in a war, a different kind of war. As long as we have people being taken from their homes in the middle of the night, having that bang on their door, having the door busted in, seeing children having their parents taken from them for years. I think we need to not fall for too many things that take our focus off the fact that america is at war and has been at war. We are under siege and we have been for quite a long time. When you see a situation where this many surveillance cameras, this much electrical wiring all over cities like montecito for no reason. When you see all the atrocities going on. I live in montecito and i go over one gallon of my allotted usage for water they charge me a fine. Even our own Utility Companies seem to be attacking america. Host got your point. This is jill in iowa. You are next. Caller thanks for taking my call. I want to point out from the previous caller that the people in jail from january 6 is because they chose violence over any kind of compromise. Politics is the art of compromise. Our parties problem is people are not electing politicians, their electing bomb throwers and that is my big concern with the house election. We are electing people on the fringe, people who have ignored congressional subpoenas and yet you will be the speaker of the house . I dont think so. I agree with tom friedman. The quality of your politicians will lead to the quality of your politics. This is netanyahus war because he has a keep netanyahu in power government instead of a government that is qualified and has ills. His defense minister is someone the army would not take 20 years ago. That is the kind of government we will get if trump gets back in power because his loyalty test would be all that matters. Host running short on time. Youve been watching members of the republican conference enter that meeting today where they are expected to debate once more who will lead the party and who will lead the house. You just saw the interim speaker pro tem mchenry enter that room and other republicans gathered in the hallway. Cannot see exactly who is cackling with reporters down the hallway. We will let you keep watching. This is sheila in new jersey, republican. Caller i am listening to the callers. If President Trump was still president , this would not be going on. He talked about law and order. There is no law and order in the United States. Host our last caller today. Lots to watch for in the house today. Stick with cspan throughout the day. We have a new speaker by the end of the day. For now, to the Supreme Court. The case is alexander v. Sc conf. Of naacp. Oral arguments expected to begin momentarily. We will be back here tomro morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Waiting live for Supreme Court oral arguments to begin in the case of alexander v. South carolina conference ofheaacp , dealing with Congressional Redistricting. Oral arguments expected shortly with live audifr the u. S. Supreme court here cspa a live but carrying with them the memory of what they endured. We all know these comments never go away. Still so many families desperately waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones, not knowing if they are alive, dead, or hostages. Infants and their mothers arms, grandparents and wheelchairs, Holocaust Survivors of ducted and held hostage. Hostages who hamas has now threatened to execute in violation of every code of human morality. It is abhorrent that abhorrent. The brutality of hamas, the bloodthirsty this rings to mind the worst rampages brings to mind the worst rampages of aces. This is terrorism. Seven, for the jewish people, it is not new. This attack is brought to the surface painful worries and scars left by millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the jewish people. In this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with israel. Host President Biden, that was yesterday from the white house. Today the secretary of state is expected to arrive in israel sending this tweet about his visit to israel day