Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Weekend with a still divided gop lacking a sense in consensus candidate and we continue to follow israels war with hamas. After two american hostages were freed yesterday and as this mornings limited aid begins flowing into gaza from egypt. This morning on washington jourl, we want to hear from you on both of these topics. Republics can call in at 202 7488001. Democrats can call in on 202 7488000. Our independent line is 202 7488002. And youre welcome to text us with your thoughts at 202 7488003. Please be sure to include your name and where you are from. We would like to begin with the House Speaker race yesterday, House Republicans voting to withdraw the nomination of ohio congressman jim jordan. Here he is speaking shortly after the vote. [video clip] i told the conference it was an honor to be there. Speaker designate ash their speaker designee but i thought it was important we all know an answer to the question of they wanted me to continue in that role. So we put the question to them and they made a different decision. I told the conference that i appreciated getting to work with everyone, talk with everyone, i got to know members in our conference i did not know that well the last three weeks and we need to come together and figure out who our speaker is going to be. Im going to work as hard as i can to help that individual so that we can help the American People. Im also going to go back to work. Weve got several depositions line of next week in the judiciary committee, work we need to do for the American People and investigative work. We will go back to work there but it is important we unite. Lets figure out who the individual is, get behind him and get to work for the American People. Host that story is making headlines on many of the nations this morning including at the Washington Examiner where the headline is house gop conference votes to abandon jordan as speaker nominee. That piece written by a congressional reporter for the Washington Examiner who joins us now this morning. Good morning. Thanks for having guest thanks for having me on. Host jim jordan is out for the second speaker candidate to drop out in as many weeks. Members are home this weekend. What is next . Guest so what is next is members have until sunday at noon eastern time to submit their names to run for speaker and so, right now, there is already looks like there will be almost nine to 10 candidates running for speaker of the house to replace Kevin Mccarthy and so, monday, there will be a candidate form at 6 30 where all the candidates will make their pitch to the other members of the republican conference, and those members will also be able to receive questions, answer questions, squash concerns other members might have or what have you. Tuesday morning at 9 00 a. M. , there will be another election series like weve seen the past two weeks. So members will vote private ballots, vote on the candidate, vote on who they will who will be their nominee and then voting on the floor on whoever that is. As weve seen the past two weeks, it does not matter the nominee. That is not a done deal, you have to get 200 70 votes to the floor and that seems hard to do for a lot of the nominees. Host briefly this week it seemed jim jordan was going to be able to pull together a coalition and it fell apart. Embers that headed as members headed home for the weekend, what was the mood like with republicans you were talking to . Guest it depends on who you talk to. If you talk to jordan borders, they were upset, angry, and if you talk to those six out of 25 individuals that were holding out on jordan that were voting against them, they were i would not say excited but they succeeded in their mission. They blocked jim jordan from becoming speaker and now this is going back to the life they wanted. A lot of members do not hate jim jordan. They just wanted something they did not like the process of how it was playing out. Steve scullys, a lot of the thought was the rightful nominee, he did the did when the first nomination and jordan blocked him before he ever had a chance to come to the floor. They said you come to the floor and you will never be speaker. They took that personally and they dont want to reward that bad behavior by giving these people what they wanted which was a jim jordan speakership so they blocked it. They were excited. It was not this static ecstatic but they were like we accomplished our mission and lets elect a speaker. There was a lot of anger and there were tense emotions which is normal in the House Republican conference right now. It is a very divided and shattered conference, and they are divided. They are angry. Especially since those eight people ousted mccarthy. Host lets read some of the social media posts from House Republicans responding to that vote. Heres representative Carlos Gimenez who said yesterday, today, we came together as republicans and decided to move past the gridlock. Jim jordan made the right decision in agreeing to support a new speaker designee. Monday i look forward to listening to all candidates and hearing eivision for america. Then we have rntative David Bilotta bilotti oher who says we are in the David Bilotti said therea is a small minority who impose their will onheajority. Eight republicans teamed up with House Democrats to remove the speakewio plan to replace him. Becline said the swamp struck ck. The opponents of jim jordan, a secret ballot vote was used to remove him as speaker for nominee. I oppose this effort and voted to retain jim as our candidate for speaker. What have you heard, reese, from republicans interned of Lessons Learned in terms of Lessons Learned and how they can move forward . Guest it seems there has not been many Lessons Learned. Its on most as if they people are angry and they will just try to get what they want over and over again. What i hoped they learned talking to some members that after seeing scullys on the floor, steve scullys get blocked on the floor, joining a blocked on the floor, and seen mccarthy ousted two weeks ago or so now is maybe they can come together, coalesce around one singular speaker candidate, and get going with the house. That is there hope. There hope. You can bully your way through things, lets come together, biden is a candidate we can get behind or 207 find a candidate we can get behind and elect. There are members but it is summative that will have to be ok with the fact this might be the last job and politics. It is somebody that necessarily will fight and help the conference. They will not put themselves first. You will have to look and see who the person will be in the conference will have to make that decision but ultimately at the end of the day if the conference has not learned they need to coalesce around a candidate, then there will not be a speaker because it only takes for people to block anybody from becoming the speaker because you have such slim margins. So it will be really difficult, even if they find a way to coalesce, you have to make everybody happy and hope for people dont wake up one day and say i will block the speaker candidate. Host its one of the most powerful jobs in washington and seems to be out the most desirable at the moment but as you mentioned earlier, a few candidates have until sunday to declare their candidates. Where the names either running or talking about running . Guest running for sure is Byron Donalds of florida is running, the house with his thinking about running, making calls, and i think Kevin Mccarthy already endorsed him for the house job for the speakership and i think what he does decide to get it, it is almost sure he will get it. He will be the front runner because of how mccarthy endorsed him, he is already the House Majority whip, so you have that and you also have johnson of louisiana who has been making calls. The Conference Vice chairman, and he also served as the judiciary committee. He is liked by a lot of members of congress, and we will see if he decides to get in. Office got of georgia is running. He is the one that ran against jim jordan last tuesday whenever jim jordan went back into conference and people that were against jordan needed a candidate to vote against. Scott ran and he got 81 votes. Jim jordan, and conference, i think was 124. So now he is running again. You will see kind of a lot more people come out of the woodwork. Roger williams is thinking about running, jack bergman of michigan that is running. You are having a lot of people either running or considering about running and it will be a crowded field on monday and tuesday, be a lot of voting. Host you mentioned dusty johnson who supported jim jordan in all of this. Here is him giving comments yesterday on what he thinks should happen next. We are in unprecedented times hear it i think this continues to show how terribly irresponsible it was for 208 democrats at it republicans to put this house into chaos. It will be another couple difficult days but there is still a tremendous pool of talent in there, people to love the country and understand the need for us to address things like the border and looming government shutdown. We will get it done, it would just take us a little longer. When are you are exciting to see it get submitted on sunday . I dont want to speculate. I think we need to give people time to mourn the development and think about what they offer the house and our country. We want to make sure weve got somebody who i think is mission driven, somebody who wants to do something rather than somebody who wants to be something. It will take some time for that person. Host of the names floating out there, do you think any of them can get to 217 at this point . Guest it is definitely possible, especially if you think of people like Byron Donalds of florida, people like him. He is a likable guy. A member of the Freedom Caucus but liked by members who are not in the Freedom Caucus. I think you look at people like mike johnson who is also really liked. Tom amer, people like him. Have not heard of oak kevin heard of oklahoma who is running for speaker, people like him. I think there are people everyone likes but it takes more people on any given day to take somebodys bid of speakership and block them from becoming speaker. It is very hard, especially in a conference where members have been ok with the fact of blocking procedural motions and holding out until they get what they want and compromise is not a word this conference likes. If you compromise, if you may be give just a little bit, because people like doing that, because people dont like that. There is a realistic chance that people coalesce around one candidate but then you have a handful of people who are mad because they dont think they are conservative enough for too conservative or what have you and they refused to vote for whoever this nominee is and we could be back in the same position next week without a speaker. It is not a done deal regardless of who gets thrown out there. We are going to have to see, but it is definitely not a done deal. There are people that cannot get to 17 but in this conference it will be hard. Host lets hear from james in new york calling on the democratic line. Go ahead. Hi there, james. Looks like we lost james. Some people have floated and even if it is pierce speculate and, the idea of outside candidates, people from outside of the house coming up as potential nominees for speaker. Do you think there is any prospect of that happening . Guest i dont think theres any prospect of that happening. It would be a statistical nightmare and getting 217 votes from somebody from out of the conference is pretty impossible. I know represent of troy nehls of texas consistently floated this idea of donald trump being the speaker of the house. That will never happen. For a lot of reasons but one in particular, the House Republican conference has a rule if you are indicted that you cannot become speaker. There is argument of whether or not with trump not being a member of the House Republican conference chair if those rules would apply to him, but i think that is the least of their worries. Trump will be speaker, but there is also, it is not likely because it takes for people and if you cannot coalesce around when your colleagues, it will be harder to coalesce around somebody who is not around you 24 7 because they have not been in the house so i think that is an idea that is unrealistic. Host thank you so much, rhys gorman, the congressional reporter for the Washington Examiner. Appreciate your time. Guest thank you for having me on. Host we would appreciate your thoughts on this topic or the ongoing war between israel and hamas. Our numbers are 202 7488001 four republicans for republicans, 202 7488001 for democrats, and independents, on 202 7488002. Sticking with the house a little longer, House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked by reporters about the status of conversations between House Democrats and republicans to get over the speaker impasse and here is that exchange. [video clip] host heavy have you talked to republicans today . I have not. Do you plan to talk to republicans . There have been ongoing conversations this past weekend and throughout the week, member to member, about coming to an enlightened agreement to reopen the house because my republican colleagues understand that they have to find a way to end the gop chaos, end the gop dysfunction, end the extremism, and end the House Republican civil war. It is bad for the House Republicans conference but more importantly it is bad for the congress, bad for the country, bad for the communities that all of us took an oath to fiercely represent. When you say member to member discussions, are you talking in the democrats causes caucus or democrats talking were talking with republicans . Democrats and republicans having conversations with each other. A leader to talk to will have to emerge in order for it to occur. Host that was House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. Lets see a couple more responses from House Democrats to everything that has been going on. Representative dunn buyer yi yesterday we still need a speaker and the cha a dysfunction of the republican civil war is a real problem for the country but what a relief thatimordan is going to get it. Representative jamie raskin saying it is a pleasure to get vote against jim jordan every day but i never thought that would be my job. Come on, gop, lets get back to work. Representative jason crow saying checking in, jim jordan lost the speaker vote again, our 18th vote for speaker in 10 months, no speaker equals of israel and humanitarian aid, no ukraine aid, no government funding to avoid a shutdown. We have said it once and we will say it again, work with democrats. We are also looking for your thoughts this morning on the ongoing conflict and war between israel and hamas. Secretary of state Antony Blinken friday afternoon announced the release of those two american hostages that were being held by hamas. About an hour ago, two american citizens held by hamas since october 7 were released. These two americans are safely in the hands of israeli authorities in israel. We expect the team from the u. S. Embassy to see them shortly or in the coming hours they will receive any support and assistance they will need and of course we are anxious to be able to reunite them with loved ones. We welcome their release and we share in the release with their families, friends, and loved ones are feeling. But there are still 10 additional americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict. We know that some of them are held hostage by hamas along with an estimated 200 other hostages held in gaza. They include men, women, young boys, young girls, elderly people from many nations. Every single one of them should be released. Since the earliest hours of the crisis, president has made clear he will do Everything Possible to secure the release of every hostage. During my own recent travels, i emphasized the urgency ended ins of this to the United States and pressed our partners to do everything they can to help us secure the release. Since that time we continue to work relentlessly with partners to do that. I cannot speak publicly about the details of these efforts. I know you understand that, but the urgent work to free every american, to free all other hostages, continues. Host lets go to your calls now, otis is in florida on our democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to respond about what is going on in our house of representatives. Everybody know israel has a right to defend themselves but they dont have a right to murder innocent people like what happened to them. However, the republicans said they did not want democrats support for anything when they took control of the house. You cant even bring up a bill to the floor if they dont have majority. So now youve got johnson and other republican saying if the democrats align themselves with eight publicans to decide to say they dont want mccarthy no more, mccarthy didnt ask democrats will you mind helping me out. Republicans went to democrats and said listen, do you mind helping us out so we can keep the soap in . Its kind of strange that they blame democrats for stopping the republican bill but that is what they do, they project their failures onto someone else or some other group of people. That is the most important thing that we dont have a house, we cant support no other nation out there. Weve got to have the house in order. Host on the republican line, frank is calling in from cincinnati ohio. Caller i want to thank you for taking my call. I have two comments, one about the house and another about israel. My comment is short enough that i hope you let me make a comment about israel too. Kevin mccarthy made a deal that would limit how much money is spent in the next two years but we add 2 trillion to our deficit. Each year. There are people, the reason he was voting out was because these 89 people said no, we are going to hold the line and we did not do it. These people are trying to, there is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party between rhinos and real conservatives. They said we cant going pretty printing money and we had 33 trillion of debt. 33 trillion is 1 million is 100 million bills 100 bills and 1 trillion is 43 million inches long times 33 and that is 100 bills as tight as you can pack them around the equator of the earth. And they want to spend more. That is what this is really about. It is not about dysfunctional Republican Party, it is someone is putting a bottleneck on our spending and that is who these guys are. Im not sure that that is a bad thing. Inflation, infra Interest Rates are going up at the government will keep printing money, we will be 37 trying dollars in two years. What will our Interest Rates be . Inflation destroys us. So that is what is going on in the Republican Party. I would like you to comment about israel too. It is hard to get through if i get a chance. Host go ahead. Caller hello . Host before we go to your comment about israel, hold on one moment, i want to bring up because you were talking about spending in the house, President Biden has asked congress for a supplemental spending proposal to direct some funding to both conflict in ukraine and israel and we have the details of that here for ukraine he is asking for an additional 61 billion, for israel 14 billion, for Border Security, 14 million, 10 billion dollars in humanitarian aid, and another 7 billion for spending in the end pacific region. So i wanted to bring up those numbers before you go ahead with your comment you wanted to make about israel. Caller taiwan, israel, ukraine, it is defective as it is as democracy. These are democracies we must support. Empires are suspected expensive and yes they are at a critical junction and we have to support them. That is true. But what im saying to you and democrats and republicans alike, liken the problem solvers say everything gets a 2 haircut . Every program gets a 2 haircut except Social Security for people and then the president says to his cabinet, five me 2 of savings to everyone in this cabinet in your departments, find me 2 so that we can we dont have to cut Social Security. A reasonable explanation. A reasonable solution to hold the line for now and let our economy outgrow our debt if we can. I dont understand why we cant do that. Im just a guy, what do i know . I live in cincinnati. Host lets go to paul in to connecticut on the independent line. You are one of the best voices i hear when i get up in the morning. Another rainy day in connecticut on saturday but rebomb and rebuild. That is the legacy of u. S. Foreign policy. We had senator blumenthal on local media here being interviewed and the host constantly equate protests and calls for a ceasefire. They equate that with supporting hamas. That is how bad of a media we have here and all over the country. It was jewish peace groups that were protesting in washington, and what did Marjorie Taylor greene do . She equated them with the insurrection january 6. Then we have to deal with onesided media, onesided politicians. Senator blumenthal is a pure politician. He supports the armaments industry number one. That is his number one constituent here in connecticut. Then israel and then the jewish lobby here in this country. How can you or any citizen of the United States take part in political process that is so onesided with the News Coverage . Thank god for cspan. At least you have independent voices on. We have to go to the marginalized press to get any sort of truth on what is happening in gaza and Historical Context of bombing and rebuilding. Thank god the relief trucks are rolling. We need to donate to gazan children really fund. Half of the population is women and children and we are targeting them with revenge bombing . And biden goes over and hugs the war criminal, netanyahu. Look at the polls in israel, the polls blame their own government for that set of surprise attack by the enemy. It is not only people in this country concerned, i happen to stand with the jews on this one. We need peace, we need a call for immediate ceasefire. Get on your phones, call your politicians, please save the women and children. Host lets go to james in new york in the democratic on the democrat line. Caller good morning. Let us not forget about what steve bannon said. He said the destruction of the administrative state, that is what he wants, that is what he is selling. And believe me, jim jordan, who has been in the congress for what, 16 years . He is not passed one single bill. The people in ohio dont like him. Kevin mccarthy broke his promise, paul ryan, he left. John boehner, newt gingrich, these people in my opinion just want to destroy the administrative state. I thought this was all about public servants, we vote these people in and they are supposed to be working for us. I am missing something because everything seems to be working against us, but what is very interesting now is with the Republican Party you have three or four factions, you had the tea party which bloomed into the Freedom Caucus. You have moderate republicans, the trump stirs and people who are the extreme right and they are eating each other up. What i find interesting is people are beginning to blame the republicans because they were unified with Hakeem Jeffries . Sort of like nancy pelosi who had the same narrow margin but she was in charge of her caucus. The republicans i do leave want to destroy the state. The United States, doing absolutely nothing. It is like watching the Marx Brothers or three stooges, but why would anybody want to plus jim jordan did not listen to his subpoena. He has got the questionable stuff that happened in ohio state on the wrestling team. In that case we have clarence thomas, he had problems with anita hill, cavanaugh host i want to followup on your point about the different factions in the Republican Party. We have a clip here from Nebraska Republican dam don bacon who opposed jim jordans candidacy and what should happen next. [video clip] is there anyone in the republican conference that can be speaker . I think we should come back and we just made the commitment to each other, lets do a form. You say you have five candidates, you vote, then you lose one, then you will never have the majority, lets commit to supporting the majority of the majority. I have always done that until now. What happened to Kevin Mccarthy last january . Steve scalise one rightfully last week and people said he could not do it. I just wanted integrity in the system because my vote does not count if we keep doing this. So lets do this right but we should support the majority when the decision is made. Host back to your calls with michael in alabama on the republican line. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Listening to the bit the debates going back and forth, i think the democrats are not being truthful. 208 democrats supported the eight republicans that wanted mccarthy out. So 208 democrats voted against Kevin Mccarthy working with them to keep the government that is my first point. When x point is we voted for the speaker to represent us. I am a republican but i believe once they get in there, they should represent the country and i would like to see one of the republicans come up and try to make a coalition, reach across the aisle and asked democrats to vote for them to be speaker of the house. Why do we gotta go with all the republican votes and thats the only way i can get in . I would love to see that. That would be so i would think of be the greatest thing that could happen if we could have republicans that reach across the aisle and say i will work with you guys. We may never agree on abortion, we may never agree on certain things, but we want to keep the government functional and right now i need some of you to vote for me so i can become speaker of the house and start doing the peoples business. I would love to see that. I think that would be the greatest thing that could ever happen. Host the wall street journal has a headline this morning about matt gaetz who began this whole process by calling for mccarthys for him to be taken away as speaker of the house and the journal says gates has no regrets for triggering the gop meltdown but as folks have been referring to those eight people who worked with democrats as the last caller said regarding the beginning of this whole process. Lets go to barney in florida on the democratic line. Caller yes, we did not as democrats help come mccarthy keep hello . Host we can hear you, go ahead. Caller yes, democrats helped Kevin Mccarthy keep the government open and then this man turned around on the next day and blames the democrats for all the problems he caused. These republicans are ridiculous. Will somebody tell me why cant the Republican Party do like Hakeem Jeffries and hold their conference together . Do the democrats have that problem . No. You are sending these more ons appear in the Republican Party. These insurrectionists, these clowns, they get up and make a spectacle out of the government and yall want somebody to vote for them and help them out to make another big spectacle . One spectacle after another one and as far as this is real thing, like the man said, this is the one side of this, the one side of the news media in America Needs to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. You cant hide the truth anymore. People have cell phones, they can google stuff. You cant fully American People. I dont know why they talk about israel this in israel that. Israel is an apartheid state. They are in south africa when south africa was apartheid country. Host we have other comets on facebook regarding the israel hamas war. This is what tim dahmer has to say. Hamas must be destroyed and ving palestinians hamas aid does not accomplish that. Is also time to stop making e litaryindustrial complex more wealthy along with the oligarchy in ukraine. No speaker means no spending and this is a good thing. Lets go to rick in louisiana on the republican line. Caller hello. First off i would like to pray for peace over there. Secondly, i would like to remind people to think on diplomacy. We ought to deal with people in any effective way but i pray people get educated because Education Strategies and educating people about how these wars started, who started the wars, most of the time these wars are started by people who just want money or they want land. It is not actually for their religion. I am praying for peace and better education. Thank you. That is my comment. Host randall in virginia on the independent line. Caller hello, am i on . Host you are, go ahead. Caller yes, i am an independent and im also a Government Contractor and veteran and i think the House Speaker battle in the Republican Party i think in this post january 6 insurrection, i think they have to do some soulsearching to go back into actual integrity and diplomacy, and i think going with someone like liz cheney would be able to vote for him because they are obvious they not working for the people of the United States. Host darlene in oregon on the democratic line. Caller one thing i wanted to mention is everybody keeps throwing the constitution up in the Republican Party talk about it, democrats too, but most of the people of this country dont read the constitution. We have not taught civics in our schools in years and it was written september 17 was supposed to be a day of the constitution and people should get it comes in a handbook and read the constitution and what some of the people who form the constitution said about our republic and how it should be looked up to buy the rest of the world. We are like a shining light on the hill. Still compared to what is going on in other countries. So when you say get educated, get educated about the constitution of the United States and what it means to you. Thank you. Host on the republican line, earl in york, pennsylvania. Caller hi. I would like to throw a name into the nomination for the speaker and i have not heard this name. I was thinking condoleezza rice. I dont know if they would she would get enough votes but i would like to see some of you that nominated. Instead of a regular politician. Host earlier, reese was saying any outside candidate would face a particularly difficult path to get the speakership. Do think on the lisa rights has a better chance than most . Caller well she would not face any more problems than the people they are nominating now. I would like to see somebody like that but in that does not have all of the congressional baggage all the other people she all the other people seem to have. Thought it would be worth a try. Im sure the black caucus would not vote for her because she is a little too conservative for them, but i would like to see her name brought up. Host ok. Gary in arcadia, wisconsin on the independent line. Caller good morning. Good morning. Host good morning. Caller i just have a comment about the way things are going with the speaker thing. Host mhmm. Caller and they just go about it like one says the other one is wrong. I would really like to emphasize the lady, the democratic lady, that nominated hakeem for speaker of the house. She went on to say that . We in the Democrat Party are willing to step over and work with you guys. Why is it every vote that was taken, to 12, 212, 212, and the last one was to 10. I think that kind of shows how much theyre willing to work not with the amount vote bearing at all. I think going back to the thing with jim jordan, the whole thing about him not being able to be nominated was that he was working in the highest capacity to look into the biden corruption, and that kind of solidified his downfall there. I think we are to the point of my father who was a strong democrat all of his life and i was in the service and i came home and told about how the jew was beginning to change against nixon, that first he thought it was really bad. Host we will just keep it here in the House Speaker battle so lets go ahead to marvin in michigan on the democratic line. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller yes, i wanted to call about the speakership and i hear when they say the 20 or so Congress Persons that want to cut Social Security for people. I worked 30 years and then retired 13 years, i paid into the system. Those people need to be called out. Millions of people depends on Social Security. You only maybe get a couple thousand dollars and we have all these people in congress and washington, we are never getting anything done. Those guys, if they were at a table, i dont even think they would be able to pass a bowl of oatmeal to each other. We need to have term limits. I would like to volunteer and do stuff, help out and stuff like that, but it is so discouraging when you have those people up there do not one see the basics of people to live decency and they want to take that away from them. Theres a laundry list of stuff i can say but that is my main point. Have a good day. Host similar thoughts from someone on x, out with the handle ctyyankee7 ying i wonder when the ideological food fight begins and publiseice begins. This is not a frat house electing the cpter president , this is the american government. Gop is trying to treat this as an internal matter and it is not. Lets go to patricia in minneapolis, minnesota, republican, go ahead area did i dont know what the problem is. I love that there is gridlock. Congress has not been working for the American People in decades. They do nothing about the drug problem. Look at kensington, philadelphia. It is an absolute disgrace. They sent 700 to the poor people in hawaii, 700, and they sent hundreds of billions to ukraine, billions to israel, billions everywhere else for their paid plays and inflation, gas prices, the whole list. They dont do anything for us, so im thrilled. I hope they never come up with a speaker. That is fine with me. Look at how they spent into oblivion and inflation, so i dont know what the problem is. You tell me. The other thing, i have zero confidence in the fbi, cia. I used to think they were credible, trustworthy, admirable, not anymore. I would rather have the mafia run us. Host patricia was just mentioning spending going to ukraine and israel as opposed to issues in the United States. I want to bring back up the graphic of resident bidens 105 billion supplemental spending proposal, which does include funding for Border Security in the United States, about equivalent to the funding for israel in that request, and of course that request is probably on hold given the lack of speakership in the house. I also want to go to a comment on facebook. Susan says at one end of pennsylvaniavee we see a ridiculous clown instead of leadership in the legislative branch of our governnt. At the other end we see statesmanship by the man elected to the executive branch. Lets hear from robert in aurora, illinois on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller i want to speak about the chaos going on in the house representatives. You have to go back when the constitution was written, it created the rules we have. In 1787, they created the senate. People forget the states created the federal government, not the other way around. So they created the senates and state representative than they wanted a house, a body that represented the people. What they ended up with basically, if you look at the house of representatives, it is really a parliament. I always get a kick out of people on tv saying our government should toss the constitution and have a parliament. With a parliamentary system as you see in other countries, all these parties get elected in they form coalitions. We do the same thing here but it is already in the Political Party at the time of the election so one side or the other winds with these coalitions in each party. The Majority Party gets to pick the speaker. Which weve got right now, the republicans got an edge. Now, the trouble is that people dont understand, think about most parliamentary systems be relook at what happened in canada. Youve got a parliament that basically elected a Prime Minister, Prime Minister basically has dictatorial partners. Look at what trudeau did during covid. In this country, trump and biden both had certain things that wanted to be done and congress the country constitution prevented them from doing it. What you go back to the house again and what you are seeing publicly this time has happened before. We dont see it in this country. A few times in the history of our country during the civil war or precivil war and other times we actually saw this public battle going on, these coalitions formed and the Republican Party has coalitions that dont give a get along so they are having trouble picking a speaker. The very nature of the house representatives, it is a parliamentary system. To pick a speaker, nothing gets done because you have a speaker. Host if you are looking at it through that framework of the house of representatives being closer to a parliamentary system, what you think that means for the path forward for the gop . Caller at the moment right now, total chaos until finally somebody wises up or personally, it could happen if theyre not careful they could end up having Hakeem Jeffries or nancy pelosi or liz cheney end up being speaker of the house because there will be some republicans who are going to say im fed up with it. And say ok, democrat, nominate your person or persons and we will go along and pick one. Because they are tired of this craziness going on. Host lets go to richard in South Carolina on the democratic line. Caller hi. I think that people who suggest the democrats are the ones that are the problem in defeating mccarthy, i dont know about that. In my view it would seem the democrats will certainly vote for a wellbalanced republican. It will have to be a republican, it should be, because they are the majority. They will vote for a wellbalanced individual. But democrats did was kept the flamethrower off of the desk and that is not good for the country. That is my only take on it. I think the democrats offered a republican wellbalanced and respected and can work with people, i think everything i will not tell you i think congress will function anymore but i think at least they will have their sides staked out and move forward. Thank you very much area did host ray in tennessee on the republican line. Caller i listen to cspan every morning and i hear these people talk about the constitution. Because a duchenne says this and to the constitution says that, but i hear nobody really saying the constitution is over with because they passed the patriot act. No one talked about the patriot act. It destroyed the constitution. Homeland security was set up the patriot act was set up. Homeland security runs this country. In the patriot act destroyed the constitution. The president of the United States could put anyone in this country in prison for life on secret charges, the lawyer or family cannot even know it they are charged with. That is the patriot act. Host how does that tie into the House Speaker battle at the moment . Caller the House Speaker battle is a joke. The patriot act runs this country, not the constitution. That would all sit up under the constitution, the because a duchenne is over with, it is gone. Host lets go to edward in ohio on the independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Like that last call is represented above the craziness going on in congress. Here is what i think i should should happen. A couple callers mentioned the republicans need to nominate somebody who nominates him but he was some demo because would vote for. I think that is spot on and you dont have to be a current member of congress to be elected speaker of the house. I would say there are really qualified people out there like former michigan congressman publican congressman fred upton or even former Ohio Governor john kasich. , representative lynn cheney would be a good speaker of the house to and i think obviously there would be republicans that to vote for any of those people but there would be enough democrats that wooden i think that would put a good, qualified , quality, knowledgeable person in the speakers chair. Thanks for taking my call. Host pete in florida on the democratic line. Caller good morning. I want to bring a fact up, the American People should realize how much voting means and who you should vote for. Ive never seen cast like this. Im over 90 years old and never seen the panic in the government right now in congress. I said if we had democrats with 221 votes, we would never have this happen. We would have had a leader, we would have the laws passed, so people, wake up when you are voting. Realize who you are voting for and make sure they are voting in your best interest. Please, america. Wake up. Host regina in virginia on the republican line. Caller good morning. Im really second by what im seeing in the divisiveness across the board. Im not blaming the democrats and i believe at some point every republican, ive got a hold my own peoples feet to the fire. I have seen some of the most idiotic behavior from people that claim they are there to make sure the radical this group and that group dont destroy our country. Yet they are running around saying some of the craziest things ive ever heard. I waiting for mdg to just say the president is a person at this point because this is the crazy that keeps popping out of their mouths area did you tell a person that adopts children or that marries into a family with children that they are not a mother. Because they did not give birth. These are not the kinds of things that should be coming out of the mouths of the people that are supposed to represent all of the people. As a republican, im sorry when you are elected to office, regardless of who voted bang for you, you are not just the republican person in virginia. Our governor is not just a republican governor. Host so how do you think the republicans in the house can find a way forward with this House Speaker . Caller first of all, what i need believe needs to happen, they need to have terms. The governor, the president , you cant be elected for life. We had a governor that everybody loved him. But he was only allowed to serve two terms. Host lets go to dennis in california on the independent line. Caller hi, good morning. I love cspan and you guys do a Great Service for the country but i wanted to make a statement on the war in the middle east. I am really kind of pushing push and pull on it. The reason being is i understand israels position, they have a right to exist, but we have to keep in mind that this is the same israel and same netanyahu they came gave hakeems welcome to a guy that got out of prison in the United States for spying on us. It is the same israel that they their spine networks tilde columbine hit which was a top secret weapon out of the United States and belted in south africa in the carter administration. So it is really kind of a catch 22, how much do we really support and how much is really in our interests. It is maybe one of the most complicated decisions i have had to make on which side should i really represent 100 support or parcel support. And then the second question is, with all of the support we are giving, where does it end . I think we should have a conversation about that. I do not believe our house of representatives and senate is a bunch of crazy people. I think theres a lot of very intelligent people in there. But they need to have a conversation on how far does this go and what is the end game , if any, for the United States. There is really not going to be any when it comes to religious wars. Host got your point there. Nbc news reports the u. S. Has so far provided more than 75 million in military and Financial Aid to key in the Biden Administration asked for more. In the latest spending proposal for israel, the Biden Administration is asking or 14 billion anew. Lets go to the laurus South Carolina, democrats. Caller good morning. I would first like to say our government right now is in trouble. The self granule is asian about leaders jeopardizing our world spending in the world. The division is shameful and a house divided cannot stand. As for the speakers, it is simple. I think there should be consequences and repercussions when the peoples work is not getting done. They should not be paid their salaries should be held up until the peoples work is done. We pay out taxes, we expect we vote them in and we expect a staunch and legitimate work out of our government. And as for ms. Patricia, one of your callers at said she welcomes the gridlock, the buffoonery our government at this point is just too much, the gridlock is not it is going to backfire on the United States of america, so i just hope that we can move forward with the constitution and the patriot act, none of that will help us. People need to get humbled and realize their position. God put them there for a reason to leave the people. I praise god brings a better leaders because this is shameful. Host from california on the republican line, don, go ahead. Host can you hear me . Caller yes. Caller i want to comment on how unserious this whole speaker deal is. From the getgo, 20 lousy democrats could have settled this a long time ago for better or for worse if the speakership is indeed so important that we have to have a speaker, we need a leader of the congress, then 20 democrats could have held their noses and voted in a speaker. But do they do it . No. They will stand there all somber face and say this is terrible, we are in chaos, but the constitution is in crisis. Give me a break. You could have settled this a long time ago. The republicans, there are some that just absolutely hate whoever is nominated and will not vote for them but enough democrats could have put a jim jordan over the edge or school lease over the edge to where we had a speaker but we do not have one and then it is such an emergency, they all go home. They all go home and play around and come back on monday or tuesday and pretend to have another vote. This is a joke. Then what do the democrats do about it . They are trying to jet up 100 Million Slush Fund of aid for ukraine and israel and other places. They want a slush fund of 100 billion to hand out like candy and what are we doing about it . The democrats are holding it over the republican saying if you bring a speaker candidate out that will vote for this slush fund, we will all vote for him. That is what theyre doing. This is a joke, the most unserious government ive ever seen in my life. Host lets go to david in naples, florida on the independent line. Caller thanks for taking my call. I disagree with the gentleman that just spoke. I would not blame it on the democrats. I like the idea of the gentleman that spoke before and said lets get a middleoftheroad republican, somebody that is not so at one extreme high or low. It is really i think i could get it done. Two, im tired of these guys on the sides beating each other up. Neither of them give credit where credit is due because they are good things each of them have but they pick on each other. I dont think inflation is that bad. We need to calm down. Our infrastructure, we need to do something. There is stuff in progress to do that, thats great. And really for our economy, corporations are really making a lot of money, so we are not doing that bad. Weve got to defend ukraine. If we dont, russia will just keep going further. I would like them to really be objective, again, i am mentioning, and give each other credit for some of the things that each other have. You pick a middleoftheroad republican, which it will be republican, than i think the democrats will go along. You dont need extremists like jim jordan, the election denier, those kind of people in there. We dont need matt gaetz from florida either. Host i think your line was a little disrupted but thats where we will leave it for now. Coming on washington journal, we are going to hear from peter adams of the News Literacy project who will join us to discuss that organizations misinformation. We will hear from the c campus Rights Advocacy director who will be here to discuss how colleges and universities are responding to the israel hamas war and the impact on free speech. Monday, watch cspans series in partnership with the library of congress, books that saved america. Will feature mark twains novel adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel was controversial from the beginning because of the subject matter and use of dialect. The book has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and has had a profound impact on American Literature. The library of congress quotes Ernest Hemingway in saying that all modern American Literature comes from one book, Huckleberry Finn. A professor in indianapolis has taught classes on Huckleberry Finn for many years. He will join us on the program to discuss the book. Watch books that shaped america, featuring adventures of Huckleberry Finn, monday live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now, our free mobile video app, and online at cspan. Org. 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. Next week on the cspan networks, Congress Returns with the battle over the House Speakership continuing. The center plans to vote on the nomination of Michael Whitaker to be. The next faa administrator on tuesday, the House Foreign Affairs committee will hold a hearing on support for israel following the attack by hamas. On wednesday, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host a state dinner honoring the australian Prime Minister, anthony albanese. Watch next week live on the cspan networks or on cspan now, our free mobile video app. Also, had over two cspan. Org for scheduling information or to stream video live or ondemand anytime. Cspan, your. Unfiltered view of government. Healthy democracy does not just look like this, it looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work and citizens are truly informed, our republic drives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, from the nations capitol to wherever you are, you will get the opinion that matters the most, your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal continues. Host we are joined by peter adams, the Senior Vice President of research and design for the News Literacy project. Welcome. Peter good morning. Great to be with you. Host thank you. Can you explain the News Literacy project to our audience and the mission of the organization . Peter yes, sure. We are a national nonpartisan, Nonprofit Organization that provides resources and training for the classroom, for educators, but also the broader public to help them recognize credible information, but also to recognize and avoid misinformation and to understand the role that a free press plays in a robust and healthy democracy. Host you mentioned that you work with classrooms. What other groups do you work with and how are you all funded . Peter yeah, sure. We work with a variety of other organizations to reach their members. Weve worked with the league of women voters, for example, to do talks within their members and give tips and advice on how to navigate the information environment. We work with districts and schools all across the country. We provide free and open resources on our website as well for anyone who is interested. Our funding comes from a combination of foundations, individual donors, and corporations. Host last week, the library of congress awarded the News Literacy project with a David M Rubenstein prize. What is that price and why did the organization receive it . Peter it was a great honor for us to receive that award. Thats an award that goes to an organization that just advances the literacy, the cause of literacy, and elevates literacy among a broad audience and has a kind of sustained record for excellence in doing so. So you know, we were thrilled at the honor, and you know, felt that it was an important acknowledgment of the ways that literacy has changed here in the 21st century. You know, when you think about how you experience information online, social media is nothing more than a cascade of text, right . So we are always navigating things like context and purpose, evaluating tents, and trying to get underneath that. I think that News Literacy is a really important foundational literacy skill. And this was an affirmation of that. Host one of those skills is deciphering misinformation versus disinformation. Some accurate information. Can you describe that breakdown, the difference between misinformation and disinformation . Peter sure. Misinformation is, just broadly speaking, information that is provably false. And you know, regardless of intent. So someone might accidentally share a piece of misinformation, might accidentally create a piece of misinformation and not me to. Disinformation is more pernicious. It is a more pernicious subset of misinformation where there is intent and there is an ideological goal. An easy way to think about it is misinformation is everything that is provably false, but disinformation when you know that there is intent behind it, that its created on purpose to mislead for some sort of, some sort of purpose or ideological goal. Host why are we seeing so much misinformation about the israelhamas war in particular . Peter yes. I think there is a few reasons. You know, first off, it is a highly emotional situation that invokes, you know, longstanding feelings and biases, and a lot of pain, with, you know, families and communities around the world. And anytime you have a situation like that and peoples biases are strongly invoked, that is a perfect recipe for people to lean into information that they like or they prefer and to dismiss information they dont. We are all, the more strongly people feel about the situation, the more vulnerable they are to falsehoods, halftruths, to quick takes that they see online. The second reason is because the entire world is watching this event, you know, very intensely, theres a lot of global attention, and that brings bad actors to the fore. Bad actors online might just be seeking clicks and engagement, they might have more nefarious motives like advancing their ideological goals. Everybody is sort of rushing to this topic, to this space, that hashtags that are active to push as much information as they can at people to try to get their attention. The intense global attention is also something that i think is factoring in pretty largely. Host we are taking your questions on this, or your comments. Are republican line once again, democrats can call in, and our independent line, 8002. , if 2027488003. Sure to share your name and where you are from. You can go to newslit. Org to get some of this information that hes talking about about navigating misinformation about the israelhamas war and many of the other resources from the News Literacy project. Lets quickly hear from donald, sorry, ronald in oyster bay, new york on the independent line. Caller yes, good morning. Host good morning. Caller greetings from oyster bay, new york, the home of teddy roosevelt. Now, the thing i want to mention is that, in my opinion, without question, to use the terms disinformation and misinformation only really indicates that, unfortunately, this is a type of information that the mainstream does not support. In other words, would like to think that we have a free press in this country, but unfortunately, we dont. The press is about and paid for is bought and paid for by the people in power and corporations empower. Corporations in power and people with different opinions, which all might be deemed disinformation or misinformation. There is often some validity to it, but it very rarely comes across. And organizations such as yours, unfortunately, are to support only the official narrative. Not necessarily valid facts. Host i want to give you a moment to respond. I want to show this headline from fortune magazine. Trust in the media is so low that half of americans now believe that news organizations are deliberately trying to mislead them, which is basically what our last caller was saying. I just wonder how you respond and how people can figure out what is a legitimate news source versus misinformation, or someone trying to mislead them . Peter short. Kimberly, first of all, i think those findings and those surveys concerning trust are complex. There are a variety of reasons why people i think are responding that way. And part of it has to do with the state of the media itself, kind of breadthless coverage that has pushed the people. I think part of it is peoples perception of what counts as news, what counts as media, and Everything Else they encounter online. Part of it, i think there is so much antimedia rhetoric, because it resonates very strongly. Everybody loves to hate the media. It has become a great tactic, a very effective tactic for pundits and politicians. The more they hit that theme, i think we are seeing a real, you know, impact of that. A couple of things, you know, that i think ronald said that are interesting. I think that folks who do work in the mis and disinformation space, Fact Checkers, social media platforms after try to moderate harmful content have to make some tough calls. Obviously, there have been times when legitimate discourse have been shut down or dampened as a result of that. I would highlight that thats a difficult thing for platforms or for Fact Checkers to try to do. In my experience, you know, rigorous Fact Checkers really stick to provably false claims. And you know, if you really dive down in a factcheck from a reputable Fact Checking organization, they will explain why. They will show you that this video was not shot yesterday in gaza, it was two years ago. I would just sort of encourage folks to think about the provably false nature of misinformation, but also think about the harm, the very real harm that it can do. Its not just a matter of competing narratives, there are provable falsehoods that do great harm topeoples personal health, to their decisions around whether or not to get vaccinated, to the way people are perceiving this war, for example, to the way people perceive security of elections. I think the platforms and Fact Checkers do have a responsibility. If i can, one more thing about breast freedom. Ronald said we dont have a free press anymore. I would disagree with that characterization. I would say america does not have the freest press in the world. In annual press freedom rankings, you know, america comes in at about 50, 55 for the last several years. There are a number of reasons for that. We do still have a lot of, you know, obviously, high quality journalism in this country, rigorous newsrooms that are independent of their ownership. There is a very serious firewall between ownership and advertisers and content in serious newsrooms. If those firewalls are ever breached, its a big deal and it garners coverage and it is a scandal that does not happen very often. We can certainly be better in terms of press freedom, but i think thats important to acknowledge. Host lots of folks calling in wanting to hear your thoughts. Lets hear from steve in florida on the democratic line. Hello. Thank you for taking my call. My comment is that lately, our workplaces, our Public Places like markets and such have become very politically charged. And you will walk into your workplace or someplace and people are very bold about vocalizing their political opinions and the things that they should. And you will that they hear. You will hear one person voicing of political opinion and then you will go to another unrelated random place and heres someone else say the exact same thing. You can see what the, whatever a certain media outlet or social media outlet put out, you know, people are zoning in on it and they are parroting it. And i guess my question to peter adams is is that, you know, whether or not we have a corporate owned media, are all of these, i dont know what you call them, rebel Media Outlets that just put out whatever pops into somebodys mind, how can we get big enough and comprehensive enough to factcheck all of these, all of this misinformation and disinformation thats getting through the cracks . Host i think steve brings up a frustration and a hope and a concern for many of us. There is just such a firehose of information coming from so many different sources. What are some tips that people can use to sort through all of it . Peter sure. I appreciate the question and want to touch on, you know, the issue of polarization as well, if we can. You know, i think hes right, you know, that there is more information now than has ever existed on the planet, and tomorrow that will be true again, again and again. The amount of information coming at us is exploding exponentially and the amount of sources is overwhelming. Its very hard to tell if you are looking at something that is standard space and has, by standard space i mean standards and practices that ensure the greatest degree of accuracy and fairness possible. That they are trying at least, showing an aspiration to do that. And if they fall short, obviously take steps to correct it, often cover those instances. And you know, again, in terms of corporate ownership, we have nonprofit newsrooms across the country, as well as corporate owned. I would emphasize serious newsrooms maintain a very stark independence from ownership and really take their editorial independence seriously. Serious journalists do that. I think it shows in their work. We dont have to guess. We can see coverage that has a concern for the truth. We can seek coverage that is at least aspiring to be as fair as possible, to include relevant viewpoints, to Source Information very clearly for audiences, to come back and correct an error. Those kinds of practices are things we need to sit up and take note of. Some of the socalled rebel Media Outlets or alternative Media Outlets, certainly part of the Media Outlets that are playing more to our biases. Individuals online, you will not see those same practices in action. Thats sort of where our work comes in with the public, to help them recognize when that is or isnt happening. On the polarization front, absolutely right. I think we are more polarized and now than weve been in a long time. The Pew Research Center has tracked that overtime, since the 1990s, its been pretty stark. I think social media certainly plays a role. We all have to be aware of how social media platforms work. They are designed to serve us content, to keep us clicking, to keep us on platform. That means serving content that affirms our biases or outrages us. And that can result in polarization. I think the good news is that we are probably not as polarized in the real world as we are online. If we can remember that and try to get back to actual face to face conversations over the water cooler, orr you know, at church or in Community Meetings or in our neighborhood, that we will be better off. Host speaking of social media, there is a piece in fast company with reporting on a study that found 74 of theost viral posts o x advancing misinformation about the israelham war were being pushed by verified x accounts. This sort of gets to your point about how hard it can be to discern what is a trustworthy source. Peter and you know, i would not call them a verified account anymore. Even though i know that is xs preferred linkage, they are not verifying identities, they are taking seven dollars a month and taking a badge that used to mean verification. It has drawn that site into sort of a people. It is very difficult to know who is who and who is posing as who now on x, or formerly twitter. , and so yes that blue checkmark never necessarily match credibility. It was supposed to mean authenticity and no longer does. Host lets go to dan in georgetown, massachusetts on the independent line. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for having me on this morning. I, you know, so you are a misinformation expert. You certainly must know about something called the smith mundt rear modernization act. I am going to hold just for a second to see if you are familiar with the smith m undt remodernization act. Host host do you know about this . Peter i dont believe i dont. Host can you go ahead and ask your question. Flipped into the 2012 National Defense authorization act was something called the smith mundt remodernization act. You have to know what this is. It basically gives a green light for media lie flat out, to disseminate propaganda domestically in the United States, and as long as that propaganda is in line with the governments message, then it is ok. What we have seen with the government suppressing information, factually, right, they are literally controlling whats happening. The smith undt remodernization act. Ive talked to a professor of politics unaware. Everybody i talk to his underwear with this thing. It gives the green light to media to lie to the public if it is in the interest of the government. And the government will not come after them. We have been seeing the results of this since 2012. It is the birth of fake news. You know about it, you have to know about. Host let me pull up some information that i was able to find from the u. S. Agency for global media on the smith mundt modernization act, which the caller was referencing. Since this is new for you, i will read you a couple pieces of information. It seems this has to do with sort of different media organizations. The u. S. Agency for global media and the media organizations that it supports to now make their content available in broadcast quality upon request in the United States. Within the United States. Who we are for this organization the u. S. Agency for global media, they are news organizations that, including voice of america, including radio free europe, including radio liberty, the office of cuba broadcasting, radio free asia, these are news organizations that are funded by the u. S. Government that traditionally were not necessarily distributing their content within the confines of the United States. So going back to some facts about this, what the new law allows that was not allowed before. The new legislation eases smith mundt restrictions and allows its agency and broadcasters to respond positively to request from the United States to their content. Much, but not all of this programming, is available online. The agency can consider domestic requests for ongoing subscriptions if doing so falls within the agencys mission and other statutory or 30s. Is that enough information statutory authorities. Is that enough information to respond . Peter voice of america something the u. S. Government is behind and produces an broadcasts internationally to promote Democratic Values around the globe. We can debate the extent to which that is propaganda or a good thing. But i think its a far cry from the government controlling news organizations here. I am not sure if our caller was referring to sort of recent conversations and even Court Rulings around the Biden Administration contacting social Media Companies and expressing concern about harmful disinformation around things like covid as a matter of public health. I think that is a very interesting issue to watch, right, in terms of protecting free speech in the u. S. , but also, you know, thinking about the governments right to weigh in on things that are a matter of public health, i think thats an unfolding story we should watch. It is a far cry from the. Government controlling everything you see i think that should be apparent if you pick up a sunday paper tomorrow and look at some of the coverage. We still have a very robust press in this country that rigorously holds people empower accountable, that does investigations on the local level in communities that still have a local newspaper, and are very, you know, cautious and, you know, serve as a watchdog of government at all levels, local, state, and national. And thats an important thing to watch. I think thats an important distinction between a free press and what are caller was describing, an authoritarian press. Host we have a call from new york. First of all, i want to commend you for speaking on this responsibility to, you know, become one individual thats part of this literacy project and design system. And i am glad that it is based on research and data. I thank you for that. I come from a background where i was a teacher and it was very, very difficult. I am no longer a teacher. But it was very difficult to bring news and literacy of news into the american classrooms, especially between i would say like when there was a movement to make sure that children were reading informational text and news articles. My concern really is i guess based on my age group, wishes, you know, kind of more conservative in their thinking. I am more concerned about the sources that the children and the young adults and the High School Children and those in college are using. You know, social media is very scary, in my opinion. It is just my opinion. It may not be everyones opinion. But i am concerned about where some of the sources are that these young individuals are getting the news. Host lets give peter a chance to respond. How are you talking to younger people about where they get their news from and how they can discern whats true or not online . Peter sure. Thats a great question and very important. I appreciate the callers question. And you know, experiences as an educator. We work with a lot of educators across the country. I think we try to help students understand that, first of all, not everything that they encounter is equally credible. Not everything they encounter is out to inform them. And that they really need to develop some careful critical habits of mind as they encounter information, especially on social media. Social media platforms. , again, are designed to keep us on platform but also to keep us mindlessly scrolling. It makes all contact kind of look the same. It might be a sponsored post, it might be an opinion voiced by an individual, it might be a standard news report one after the other after the other. Unless we are differentiating between those and noticing differences, reflecting on differences puts us at a big disadvantage. A lot of young people think that no source of information is perfect, and therefore, any source of information is equally valid. I think that is a very disempowering and harmful mistake that a lot of people make thinking that, you know, just because, you know, nothing is perfect, i can sort of turn to whatever source and find information wherever i look. I think people forget that the same standards of verification are not in play everywhere they go. We really cannot approach a video we see from somebody we dont know or who is anonymous on twitter the same way we can a video that is being broadcast by a standardsbased news organization. Doesnt mean those news organizations are perfect and what they do, but they have standards to make sure that they insure with a high degree of accuracy that that video is from where they say its from and showing what they see its shown. Online, we dont have those kinds of assurances. I share the callers concern on that front. The more we see those kinds of pieces of misinformation, the more we are exposed to them, they do stick. Even if we are not sure its true, if we are seeing it and we are not really thinking about whether its true or not, it can really stick with us and sort of misguide the National Conversation in ways i think we are seeing now. Host in brooklyn, new york, roosevelt is calling in on the democratic line. Good morning. Host good morning. I am upset as far as the amount of information coming out of gaza. The Major News Networks in this country, cnn, msnbc, nightly news franchises, i see all of these images of israelis, kids being slaughtered, and i am vehemently against that. What happened there was a crime. But on the other hand, israels response has been bombing and bombing and bombing. I would like to know all of these Major News Networks why all of these Major News Networks, all of these nightly news franchises, why cant we see the true images of whats going on in palestine . Host i want to get your thoughts on this. In circumstances such as this one where there may be limited access to a physical location, how does that factor into how people perceive medias value and truthfulness . Peter well, i think it factors into how news organizations are able to cover things like conflict. Especially to verify things that happen. I think we saw this just the other day with the bombing of the hospital in gaza city, or what was apparently the bombing of the hospital but actually turned out to be an explosion in the parking lot. There is still, you know, some questions around the origin of that explosive. But some news organizations sort of uncritically amplified claims about palestinian officials that it was an israeli air strict, and then later kind of walk to that claim back and complicated it. They did attribute it. They were nearly reporting that the authorities were saying that but they led with the claim in a way that seemed to confirm that for fox. And that for folks. And that was i think a mismatch leading with the fact that the Palestinian Authoritys were claiming this might have been a better way to go. It was very difficult and it took hours and even days for news organizations to gather more information on the ground about what actually happened there at that hospital. I think that is kind of a case study in how challenging these circumstances are. Journalism is difficult on an ordinary day on an ordinary topic. When it comes to Something Like this where there is so much happening, so many claims and counterclaims, so much being introduced by so many characters around the world, its very difficult for news organizations to get to the bottom of it. I think we are seeing images of the devastation on both sides of this conflict. I do not think there has been any sort of excluding of images and descriptions of the cost of human life on both sides. And i think, you know, if you think you are looking at a news source that is not treating them fairly, you know, read across the different outlets and see if you can find a better balance to your coverage. Host donald is in washington on the independent line. Caller hey, good morning, cspan. Thanks for taking my call. This has been an excellent section. Thank you, peter adams, and your organization for being there in a very difficult world of information. I had one comment. This shows up even in some of your previous callers. You know, these days, it is getting so bad that people are so siloed in their viewpoint and where they go to get information that they will actually, if you present them with disinformation they agree with, they will believe it. If you present them with information, true information they do not agree with, they will think that you are giving them disinformation. It makes a very difficult situation. As far as my question, is there, do you know of any source, including may be your organization, that has, puts out a reviewable, or a reviewed and critiqued list of Fact Checking organizations so that people can go and factcheck themselves on, you know, competent factcheck lists . And the other thing, have you looked into and maybe you do this, can we organize and can we get schools, classes, you know, as part of curriculum that are just like what you say. How to deal with information and data, how to critique it yourself . Host lets let peter address both of those things. First of all, is there a place that people can go with a list of reputable Fact Checking organizations . Is there any effort to make this a formal part of School Curricula across the country, the spec checking skills . Peter yes and yes. There is an Organization Called the international factcheck network, that the Poynter Institute overseas. That is basically a set of standards and guidelines they have developed for Fact Checking organizations to sign onto and they make sure their signatories aspire to those standards. I would encourage folks not to take the rating of the Fact Checkers and walk away. Actually dive into the Fact Checking, the substance of the Fact Checking. Again, whether it is politi fact or a reuters factcheck team, or usa today, they dont just say this is false, this is true, there you go. You can read through their reporting on that particular example, whether it is a video or a claim online, and see exactly how they know that it is true or false. Click through to those original sources. They should link to the original, say video clip, in context wherever it was originally published. You dont have to take their word for it. The same is true of good reporting. They should explain how they know what they know and attribute the information they are reporting. Fact checking is no different. We, by the way, have a website that we run as well where we curate examples of misinformation, we summarize those factchecks from reputable Fact Checking organizations, but we also provide people with a take away. Heres what you can learn from this example. This is a common pattern in misinformation, dont fall for it in the future. Those kind of News Literacy takeaways we call them on our website, rumorguard. Org. We publish several pieces a week and pick examples of misinformation that we think are particularly notable. On the effort to teach students Media Literacy, there is a Movement Across the country and i think a growing recognition that, again, this is a foundational literacy scope for the 21st century, to return to our opening theme, that students really need to know. If we are not teaching students the skills, we are putting them at a serious civic disadvantage personally, and also jeopardizing the health of our democracy if we are letting them loose online without these skills, making them even more vulnerable to the bad actors and misleading stuff that awaits them there. We are fully supportive of those efforts at the state level across the country to require Media Literacy for haskell graduation. And i think high school graduation. And i think thats a movement we hope to see continue. Host i want to point to a couple of those resources you highlighted, rumorguard. Org, part of the News Literacy project. You have got the ai video highlighted here as an example of something you all factcheck just recently. The five factors used to determine that it was false. And also you referenced Poynter Institutes international factcheck network, which can be found at poynter. Org ifcn. And your website as well, newslit. Org. Last caller, william in jackson, mississippi on the independent line. Caller i just want to reflect back to several colors ago callers ago, the republican caller was talking about how we was doing in our generation, it sounded like we were in the same generation, but i like to say our generation. I am going to land this plane. You had a caller in the last segment who was talking about civics being taught in schools. Civics has not been taught in schools and over 30 years. You have people 45, 50 years old that dont know civics. A 13, 15yearold mindset that they dont know. Cspan has been global before the internet boom. You have people that get on some folks people that get on and you have some hosts that allow people to spew information, spew false information. Just like your guest said, you know, people feel they can get any information and run with it. Thats unfortunate. But you, cspan, starting with you, you all need to cut them. You need to cut they necks off whenever anybody come on with any type of false information, you need to stop it. Host did you have any thoughts that you wanted to respond to the caller before we let you go . Peter i appreciate the caller emphasiss on the importance of Civic Education. I think there are obviously a lot of committed civics teachers across the country who would disagree that there hasnt in any civic start. But i think they would agree that its been deemphasized nationally in ways that are counterproductive, may be with the best of intentions, to emphasize reading and math skills, things like that. I would agree that civics is a very important topic, along said meteor literacy and the two art pretty tightly intertwined. We work with a lot of civics organizations and sink together a lot about the relationship between news and information as the basis for civic agency and action. I appreciated that. To the point about misinformation, i think his frustration and hearing people maybe share a falsehood on a call with cspan is a good microcosm of sort of the content moderation problem that we are having. Misinformation is very much like pollution. It has an effect downstream of us. It finds us throughout the rhythms, it place to our biases through algorithms, it plays to our biases. I think we all have to be really mindful of that and think about the impact those can have on our loved ones, friends and family. Think about our own information reputation when we do things that that. And to take more care about what we share online and share with others and endorse. Host peter adams is the Senior Vice President of research and design at the News Literacy project. Peter, thank you very much for your time. Peter thank you. Host still had this morning on washington journal, we are going to hear from alex morey, campus Rights Advocacy director at the foundation for individual rights and expression, who will be here to talk about how colleges and universities are responding to the israelhamas war and the impact on free spch. Rst, we want to hear more from you as we return to our earlier diussion of the israelhamas war and the latest on the House Speaker value. Our numbers are 2027488001 on the republican line. Independent at 2027488002, and we will be right back. Book tv. Every sunday on cspan2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. Jim davis and michl graham look at the decline in urch attendance in the u. S. By examining who is leaving, their reasons like, and how to bring people back in their bk, the great dechurching. Ryan riley of nbc news shares his book, sedition hunters where he chronicles how citizens helped Law Enforcement find individuals involved in the january 6 riot at the u. S. Capitol. Then an interview by politico Senior Affairs watch online anytime at book tv. Org. Live sunday, november 5 on indepth, author and former aclu president joins book tv to talk and to calls about civil rights, free speech, censorship, and more. Shes the author of defending pornography, and the recently published freespeech what Everyone Needs to know, a guy to freespeech law and the debate surrounding it. Join in the conversationith your phone calls, facebook comments, and texts. In chapter indepth live at noon eastern on book tv on cspan2. Cspans campaign 2024 coverage is your front row seat to the president ial election. Watch as we follow candidates on the campaign trail with meat angrys, speeches and more with meet and greets, speeches and more. Campaign 2024 on the cspan network, cspan now, or anytime online at cspan. Org. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. 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 drives. Get informed straight from the source on sues bed on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Because the opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Washington journal continues. Host welcome back. We are taking your calls on the two big news stories, the ongoing House Speaker battle on the conflict between israel and hamas. Number for democrats is 20274 88000. Independence at 8002 and republicans can call at 20274 88001. Lets start with sherry in washburn, maine on the democratic line. Caller yes. Thats the thing, im a democrat. But i am calling because i would like to see a handful of decent republicans vote in liz cheney. And i believe the democrats would help them if they would ask. She stands up for the constitution. And there is a lot of us out here that seen how she was treated and it was not fair. And we feel that she needs a second chance. And i think she can prove herself. Thank you. Host allie in washington, d c on our independent line. Go ahead. Caller yes, a couple of points. One should not forget how powerful the israel lobby is in the United States. They can snub the Obama Administration and Benjamin Netanyahu goes to congress and gives a speech and they can announce the illegal settlement building during bidens visit when he was Vice President. They are giving a talk and they announced these things so the israel lobby is very effective, very powerful in the u. S. One of the reasons the u. S. Public does not get a different view is whether its from the Vice President , chuck hagel, the defense secretary, to under secretary of state, these are people that get attacked, or sometimes eliminated from the vetting process. And we do this at the level of the press. In other words, you have some kid who has some high school post at some point, that becomes a document where they cannot get a job in the media because they post or something when they were in high school that was possibly interpreted as propalestinian. The other thing is, what is the solution hamas has or the one state solution people have . One state, refugees come back, and everybody votes for one state. Not a jewish state, not a muslim state, or a christian state. Solution that israel has is a jewish state. They displace the palestinians on day one with the same premise, temporarily move out. Now, you are host ali was mentioning how speaking out in favor of palestinians can affect people. We will be talking about a speech on College Campuses coming up with alex morey. Lets go to chris in sioux falls, south dakota on the republican line. Caller thank you so much for taking my call. I think cspan is really important. I love all the work you guys do. When it comes to the speaker race, as a conservative, somebody who generally votes republican, i feel like this is, i just dont really understand why we work so hard to get a republican majority, and then all we have to do is elect a conservative like jim jordan. We have a very easy shot. Its like getting to the end of the masters Golf Tournament and all you have to do is tap in the putt to win the tournament and you miss it. Its really painful to watch. I wonder why we worked so hard to elect conservatives when they dont do their job. It puts someone like jim jordan in the speaker. I just wanted to express that. When it comes to the Hamas Palestinian thing, i think its important to realize that i dont think en masse represents a large portion of the palestinians. I dont think most of the palestinians living there voted for hamas. I urge people to keep that in mind. Thanks so much for taking my call. Host sally in waterford, michigan on the democratic line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. [audio drop] about the speakers thing. And the last caller before i sent the text republican said if only 8 democrats would hold their nose and vote for jim jordan. I am sorry, Hakeem Jeffries got more votes than any of the republicans. Only five republicans would hold their noses and vote for the man that has the most votes, that would be fine. I want to give a shout out to cspans 9 00 p. M. Monday series on books that shaped america. I am watching it and it is wonderful. Thank you so much, cspan. Goodbye. Host phil in northbrook, illinois on the independent line. Caller good morning. I am calling about the israelihamas conflict. I am a supporter of israel. Why do we never hear a discussion about what laws apply . We now talk about that there is a the rules of war. Obviously, this is a war and a conflict. But is this really, do the rules of war apply . Or do we go back to a primitive, before there were laws of vengeance . And how extensive can a peoples vengeance be . But i am not calling to have an answer. But it is amazing how little discussion there has been about the actual moral dilemma that the Israeli Government finds itself in. Thats my comments. Thank you. Host ok. There was a story here from nbc news just a couple of days ago about the laws of war and how the laws of war apply to the israeli army as well as hamas. Generally, what people are referencing is the more than a century of International Conventions and treaties which are designed to protect civilians in particular from war crimes. Nbc news has had a look at that and has some resources there. Lets go to wendell in North Carolina on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller yes. I was just calling about the things that the republicans have been trying to get a person in the house, speaker of the house. And i want to go back to the first thing, mccarthy, they get him in, and then the guy that let him in, he got around a campaign to get him thrown out. They should have never done that because he might not have been perfect but hes better than the man who got him thrown out. Here comes another one. He was not good enough. Here comes another one, he was not good enough for them. They could have picked anyone of the three would have been fine. But now they know everything, and look what a mess we in. I am a republican, been a republican all my life, plan on voting again, a trump man. Ive seen a lot of things but that beats all i ever seen. They couldnt go to the bathroom back there if somebody let them. Host lori in hamburg, pennsylvania on the democratic line. Caller i am calling about the speakership. I dont know if it bothers any other people but they have given it a little bit of a brick so they can somehow talk the republicans into voting for jim jordan. When there are moderate republicans that are getting because they did vote for him didnt vote for him. I think the moderate republicans, the true conservative republicans need to stand up now. What we have left i think they are what we have left to save in our democracy is right there in the Republican Party. They need to vote these extremists out. They are targeting their own party now. Its been sort of an effort for austerity and budgeting, and no new taxes. They are there not to govern. Matt gaetz does not care if the house is not operating, they dont care. Thats what they are there to do, to stop government from operating. Like Social Security, they say is going to go broke. Its written in the law that it will be cut by 20 something percent. Unless they change that law, as long as they do nothing, that cut is going to take place. The republican side of this, i miss pat toomey, i miss people you could sit down and have discussions with and do what is best for the American People. Because we certainly are not represented anymore. I know this is a republic, they make fun of us when we call it a democracy, but its a representative republic, which means we elect representatives to represent us. They have not been representing us for a long time. They have lobbyists that go into their offices and sit down and write bills and they pass them. We are not welcome to go in and sit down with them and get, you know. Our whole entire government is based on a collective effort, a collective will of the people to come together and stand with each other. Host i want to follow up on something you mentioned earlier about members of the house receiving threatening calls. Roll call has written about this, along with many others, lawmakers describing the threats they have received related to the speaker race, the israelhamas conflict. Capitol police have faced an increase in reports of threats against members of congress and their families. Several lawmakers have gone public with threats sparked by the tensions from both the republican search for a speaker on the israelhamas conflict, which has prompted other lawmakers to point out how common those threats have become. Greg is in southwick, massachusetts on our independent line. Go ahead, greg. Caller good morning. Thanks for having me. I have been listening and ive got a million things but i have called about hamas and israel and the protests in this country. Your previous segment, the guy was talking about the media not being in anybodys pocket. They screamed and screamed and screamed insurrection,. January 6 have you seen anything in the Mainstream Media about whats going on at the capital right now . The place is being taken over by palestinian supporters. And no one is doing anything, no one is throwing them out. And i just dont understand why this is not being called an insurrection. Host kelly is in clements, North Carolina on the republican line. Caller i want to Say Something quick, if you dont mind, about your last segment, and then i will go into about the speakership. Host go ahead. Caller i wanted to say that the Fact Checking idea is completely from the left. And it was made to make sure that people on the right are told they are wrong. And we have to agree to their ideas. It is the control of speech. We dont have control of speech in this country. We have free speech. Ok. Now as far as the speakership goes, those people that everybody keeps calling extremists, they really, really on our side, on the conservative side, they are representing a major part of the Republican Party. If you look at trumps poll numbers, there up to like 60 something percent on the next one down is like 15 . Those extremists are Trump Supporters and that is why they are calling them extremists. I think jim jordan would have been great. He would have been fantastic. As far as liz cheney goes and everybody, democrats, quit with the liz cheney stuff. There is not a republican that is going to vote for liz cheney. She was censored and then her own people and her state kicked her out of the Republican Party and did not vote for her. That is not going to happen. Quit dreaming. That is all i have to say. Host that is all the time we have for calls that we will get to more later. Coming up, we will hear from alex morey of the foundation for individual rights about how colleges are responding to the israelhamas war. We will have a conversation about free speech and we invite University Students and faculty to join. We will be right back. Announcer cspan now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of washington, live and ondemand. Keep up with the dates biggest event the days biggest events from the white house, campaigns, and courts all at your fingertips. You can stay current with washington journal and find scheduling information for tv networks and cspan radio, plus compelling podcasts. Cspan now is available in the apple store and google play. Download it for free today. Diana is the author of five previous books including the wizard of lies. Originally from texas and virginia, she spent 22 years as a reporter with the new york times. In her latest book she writes in her preface, my mission is to describe just one of the new deals most significant achievements, clearing out the vicious jungle that was the nations financial landscape in the 1920s, and replacing it with a well tended to reign where ordinary americans could save and invest with confidence. Announcer on this episode of book notes plus. Book notes plus is available on the cspan now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. Announcer as part of our new series we are asking you, who shaped america . I think the sound and the fury. To kill a mockingbird. Announcer you can join the conversation by submitting your pick for the book you think helped shape this country. Go to cspan. Org booksthatshapedameric a. In 30 seconds or less, tl your pick and why. Watch books that shaped america live every monday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. A healthy democracy does not just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work and citizens are truly informed. Get informed straight from the source on cspan, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the nations capitol to wherever you are, because the opinion that matters the most is yours. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Announcer washington journal continues. Host welcome back. We are joined by alex morey, the campus Rights Advocacy director for the foundation for individual rights and expression. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host can you tell us about the foundation for individual rights and expression . What is the Organizations Mission and who do you work with . Guest sure. We are a nonpartisan free speech advocacy group. For more than 20 years we were focused on College Campuses, but in recent years, we have moved off campuses to defending the freespeech rights of people all around the country, wherever freespeech rights are under threat. We are there to sathis is what the First Amendment protects and defend those rights. I am particularly focused on students and faculty on College Campuses, public campuses, and private ones that make institutional Free Expression promises. Host can you talk about your funding as well as your point of view when approaching these topics . Guest sure. We are funded by donors from all over the country with different political and ideological bents but who agree on Free Expression and that Free Expression is important. We like to say we are religiously nonpartisan. We do not take a position on anything other than that Free Expression is good in and of itself. It is important for our democracy and a core liberty that is required in any free society. Whether people are engaging in speech that is, you know, undergoing censorship, whether they are way on the left, way on the right, in between, we take this principle stance. I like to always say someone is always mad at us because we are defending speech on the left and the people on the right are mad and vice versa. But any look at our record shows we are really nonpartisan and try to do this as fair as possible. Host when it comes to First Amendment speech protection are there any differences between how that applies on a College Campus versus any other place for either students, administrators, or faculty . Guest well, the First Amendment applies in full on public College Campuses. There are some nuances. For example, faculty have a First Amendment Academic Freedom right to have more control over the classrooms. Students cannot be shouting in the middle of class or going off track. But in all the open areas of campus students, faculty, even members of the public have a right to protest. There are broad protections on campus. That also applies to when students and faculty might take particular viewpoints in or out of class. When they are saying things on twitter or giving interviews. They have their rights as citizens to do that. Those are pretty broad rights and any exceptions are very narrow. You know, on todays College Campuses there are a lot of threats to those broad rights when students and faculty are saying things that might be unpopular. There are lots of calls to administrators, you know, sensor this. Our bread and butter is telling schools, hey, this is protected by the First Amendment. Broad protections on public campuses. On private campuses, there are some campuses that are religious or military academies that clearly put other values above Free Expression. But the vast majority of private College Campuses, harvards, yales, many of them, most of them, make First Amendmentlike promises. When those private schools violate those promises we will hold them to account. Host how clear our schools policies on free speech in different places . Is there recourse for students or faculty who feel their First Amendment rights have been violated . Guest well, what is interesting is the vast majority of private schools that promise freespeech and schools bound by the First Amendment policies are clear. These schools in their mission statement, page one of the website, it says we are a community of scholars that gives students broad freedoms. Faculty have Academic Freedom to pursue all, you know, routes of research and teaching. But there are also other policies. I do not know how many of the folks watching have looked at all of the policies that any given school has, but there are so many sub policies that sometimes contradict those clear promises of Free Expression or the First Amendment. For example, email policies or policies on biased behavior often contradict the First Amendment. The First Amendment will say all this expression, even offensive or hateful, is free on a College Campus. You can have these debates in a way that might offend others, but then you get deeper into the bowels of the policy manual and will find a biased Response Program that says if you engage in speech that might offend someone else, well, we can call you into a disciplinary proceeding and you might be punished. We are also in the business of looking through those policies and making sure everything is aligned to make it clear to students and faculty that they do have these expressive freedoms. We are always looking at policies. The freespeech policies are often very clear. It is the other policies and how they are implemented by one administrator or another that muddies the waters. Host we also want to hear your thoughts on these topics as we move through the hour. We have some special lines set up. If you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call 202 7488000. In mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. College students can call in at 202 7488002. And for faculty and administration at colleges, 202 7488003. We also want to bring in other voices of students who are directly involved with the process of free speech on their faculty campuses. I believe we have Zach Blackburn who is the editor and chief and president of the gw hatchet at George Washington university. Thank you for having me on. Host we heard about the difference between Public Schools and private universities when it comes to free speech on campuses. I wonder what you are seeing at gw in terms of these protests and debates to israel and hamas have come up. There has been a large number of demonstrations oncampus and offcampus involving students as this conflict has played out the last couple of weeks. Largely demonstrations or candlelit vigils. Gw has mainly stayed out of it and promoted a freedom of speech and other policies. The first protest was the monday after the attacks. It is not even accurate to call it a protest. It was a candlelight vigil held by the Student Group gw for israel. It was a peaceful event and they mourned those killed in israel. The next day students for justice in palestine, which has gathered and garnered news throughout the nation for some of their protests, they held another vigil Tuesday Morning for those killed in palestine. That was a notably more intense vigil and demonstration as there was a larger police presence, Campus Police and d. C. Police. Some outside media provocateurs tried to stir up some drama as it can go sometimes. While there were some comments not necessarily in support of the hamas militants there were references to resistance fighters and references to freedom fighting in regards to hamas. So, gws president released the second statement after the tuesday vigil and while she said that she still promoted free speech and wanted freespeech to be exercised, she tried to extract gw from that other vigil. Host how have students been reacting . What is the mood on campus as Tensions Mount . It has been very mournful. Of course, there are israeli students and jewish students who know people who died. Families have been in israel and faced these attacks. The same goes for palestinian and muslim and arab students on campus. Some of their families are in gaza. They know friends in gaza who have had to face airstrikes or other attacks from israel as israel tries to fight hamas militants. It has been very mournful for all students. Host what about professors . Are they weighing in on the israelhamas war or reacting to what the students and administration are saying . Many professors are not necessarily saying anything specific about the conflict. Mainly providing support to students as it can often go. There have been a handful, as we have seen at other major universities across the country, have garnered controversy for saying that some of the fighting has been justified and that it has been resistance, not terrorism. And then there are jewish professors who have helped disavow the attacks. Host what has it been like trying to do your work . Have you been receiving any pressure from students or the administration . Pressure from the administration, no. I do not like to think of it as pressure from students. We have received some valuable feedback which we have incorporated into our journal the past couple of weeks. There has been vitriol attacks, which always makes sense, but when we have sat down and talked about our coverage with Student Groups and students on campus we found that, as always, an in person discussion helps clear the air. Host thank you very much. Lets go back to alex. Any thoughts on what zach just said in regards to what he is seeing oncampus . Guest yeah, i am encouraged to hear what is going on on zachs campus. Not every campus is as welcoming of all viewpoints. Many campuses, for example, harvard, penn, uw madison, we have seen a lot of campuses where there are protests and concerns about safety. Students are not wanting to engage with each other and questions have arisen about whether the University Administrators are going to dissent students who are engaging in freespeech policy protected speech that is unpopular. It is very encouraging when i hear that there are some campuses where these debates are happening and students are listening to people that they might not agree with. Host we had a question for you on x from michael thorton. Hello international has played a significant role in censoring speech on College Campuses. Can you address this . Guest well, you know, from my perspective, we are focused a lot on college and administrators or students and faculty asking for other students that they disagree with to be censored. There are definitely outside pressures. I cannot speak specifically to Hello International but we see things on x, legislators, donors exerting pressure on universities to, for example, sensor certain speech that they personally disagree with. As a broad matter, yes, there are a lot of outside actors pushing to influence campuses. That does not necessarily mean that the influence is bad. If they are saying, hey, i am concerned that there is not a lot of Viewpoint Diversity on campus or the university is not meeting its mission to hosting a range of viewpoints on campus rather than just one, that can be a good thing. There are definitely reforms needed where one orthodoxy over another is taking precedent on a lot of campuses, even with the backing of administrators. Yes, it is definitely something that is concerning to us, that a variety of outside actors are trying to pressure campuses to censor one side or another. Host lets hear from carson in michigan on the student phone line. [dialtone] we lost carson. I want to go to another question from x, this from hawk. Can the students who lost Job Opportunities due to voicing thr opinions find any recourse . This feels like their First Amendment rhts are being infringed. N you talk about how common you have seen this come up with the last couple of weeks and whether they have any recourse . Guest yeah, well, the most publicized job recension was at niu. A law student made pro palestinian comments and had their job offer pulled by a big law firm. From a First Amendment standpoint these law firms are private actors with their own expressive rights, with their own right to, for example, pull offers back. Workmen will have the ability to express their views but the law firm has the right to say, we dont want you to work here. That is the legal standpoint. From a healthy freespeech culture standpoint, there has been some perspective when we have seen, for example, billionaires urging ceos to blacklist all of the Harvard Students who signed onto propalestinian statements. These are undergrads or grad students. They are, by definition, learning. You know, they are a little bit different than somebody who has been in the workforce for a long time or is a little older. These are students who are developing their views and college students, you know, for the last 100 years have held views during their College Career that maybe they do not agree with years later. There is something to be said about, yeah, they can rescind job offers if they want, but do we want to effectively excommunicate hundreds of Harvard Students who may hold a particular view now and say we are never going to hire those people again because they held this view at one time when they were 19 . As an organization that pushes people to see others perspectives and try to use freespeech for good to solve the worlds problems, pointing fingers across the aisle and saying, i am not going to talk to you. I am not going to engage with you because you hold one view i dislike is authoritarian and un democratic. It goes against the spirit of the First Amendment which is we should be using our freespeech rights to help solve these problems that might otherwise devolve into violence or make society worse. Host i want to give folks the chance to chat with you. Lets hear from larry in illinois. Caller good morning. You more or less answered some of the questions i have had, but being 76 and never gone to college, i am very happy to see corporations pulling back funds for some of these colleges. I am more extremely happy that if they can figure out who these young learning students are going to be docked and not have these good paying jobs they think they deserve. My question was you were the First Amendment rights lady. When i see the American Flag on the ground with the israel flag, people stomping on them and on fire and calling death for americans, that is not patriotic and not american. I hope you stick up for these peoples rights because they do not deserve any. Thank you very much for your time. Host any response to larry . Guest thanks, larry. Thank you for calling in. One of the great and difficult things about the First Amendment is it gives people the right to express themselves even when it comes to criticizing the government. The sort of philosophical underpinning of that is people have different ideas of how the government should work and even people who criticize the government you know, burning a flag or stepping on the flight, which is protected they have ideas about how the government ought to run better and so do you. The First Amendment keeps that dialogue open, way open, sometimes even to people that would put the flag on the ground. But the Supreme Court has said time and again that this uniquely american experiment we are doing of this wideopen democracy, the First Amendment helps protect, you know, helps protect people of use who criticize the government and your views in hopes that when we talk together and all get to air our voices that ultimately, we will come to a conclusion that works for every american. I would urge you to listen to the points of view of people that, you know, you may disagree with and maybe find point of commonality. But all of that speech you mentioned his First Amendment protected, but so is yours. Host lets try with carson in michigan on the student line. Are you there . Caller hello . Host hello, carson. Caller good morning alex,. I appreciate the work you are doing. I think freespeech is really important on College Campuses. In my experience going to university, the diversity, equity and Inclusion Program that is set up and pushed hard on students, i think people need to learn about diversity. The way everyone is either an oppressor or oppressed. I think that leads to a lot of the freespeech issues we are seeing on campus today. I was wondering if you could talk about what could be done to remedy that. Guest another great question, carson. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or dei are incredibly popular on so many campuses. Many campuses are, you know, trying to respond to a lot of the calls in society to better serve marginalized communities, mixed students who might be firstgeneration or not represented on campus feel welcome. Fire does not take a position on whether that is good or bad but it is clear those initiatives are popular. Where we have seen dei initiatives intersect that is troubling with freespeech principles is a couple of different things. Baked into a lot of these dei initiatives are the things you referenced. Certain speech has been historically oppressed so it ought to be elevated and other speech from people that have been in more privileged positions, maybe those voices ought to be silenced. The First Amendment protects all voices on campus. It does not allow us to make that calculus and say some should be privileged and others should not. One of the most troubling ways we are seeing those dei initiatives play out is through hiring practices. Many schools, including schools that are bound by the First Amendment to do hiring in a viewpoint neutral way, they are asking faculty applying for 10 tenure or promotion to confirm they believe in dei. That they will put social justice curriculum into their syllabus and all of that is troubling from a First Amendment speech issue. We do not want universities forcing faculty to attest to views if they do not believe those views. It also has been functioning as this political litmus test for hiring where departments are looking at faculty members dei statements first and filtering out anyone who does not say the perfect thing that meshes with with the administrator thinks. That is making faculty in given departments all have one view, which is troubling on a college and University Campus where you want an accurate representation of the different views that faculty members broadly hold. Only people with ultraprogressive views about d. E. I. Get the door. Thats really bad not when it comes to abiding for the First Amendment but for students who are not getting a variety of perspective. And that trickles down. Host we have another student ready to join us. Jacob is the editor at northwestern university. Good morning, jacob. Caller good morning. Thanks for having me. Host how are the students at northwestern been reacting to the israelhamas war . Its been a challenging time on campus for a lot of students that are deeply affected by it. Weve seen in a similar sequence of events here on the gw campus. We have two vigils. One organized earlier by jewish student leaders on campus to mourn the lost lives and one leader in the week organized by students in the palestine chapter here and to express solidarity with the palestinian movement. And were seeing student activism on both sides. Lots of conversation happening around this issue and definitely students doing their best to take into account how this is impacting them and what they can do to support other students. Host theres been a couple of circumstance where they see job offers being threatened. Are you seeing students reacting now that some of those events are being publicized . Guest yeah. Students are cognizant of how taking a stance on such an issue that could impact them in the present or the future. They chose to cover their faces to avoid being identified for fear of retaliation and thats what we have a seen in the past. Students requesting anonymity and speaking to reporters which is probably something that weve had to consider deeply. You see students are aware how this impacted them. Host what about the Schools Administration . Has the leadership came down with anything . Guest yeah, were putting new administration here. And he comes from a law background. And hes certainly very cognizant in this issue. He doesnt anticipate that the university will be making statements on social or political issues that dont directly impact the youres core mission. So he shared his own personal views. He stood by his decision to attend the jewish student vigil earlier in the week and said that he would not want to speak on the entire community for fear of infringing on others free speech. And the next day we saw a new statement from the president saying that the university is guide bade set of core values and that hamas is adhering to those values. Host and what about individual professors and faculty . Are they weighing in . Guest yes. Weve seen a number of faculties circulated. Whats been interesting on the administrative side has been the president s at the university wouldnt taken a official stance on this issue. Weve seen many schools take their own stances and released statements speaking the community. And a group of middle eastern and north african professors wrote an opinion last week. And weve seen letters circulated among northwestern law faculty as well as a number of current and former undergraduate and graduate faculty sharing their concerns with the actions of hamas but also on the other side, the study professors and theres a statement out from the Asian Studies department criticizing the administration for not more strongly acknowledging the fight of the palestinians. Host whats your take on the mood . Guest people are probe aware of how kind of grave this loss of life is. And across the world, were very a lot of people are one degree of separation away whether thats jewish or israeli students or palestinian students. So thats where will impacting students. When conversations around the issue clear up, we see between sides that are opposing on this issue. Host jacob wendler, campus editor at the daily northwestern. Thank you very much, jacob. Guest thanks for having me. Host alex, this idea that some universities have tried to take a stance of neutrality which pleases no one, is there a way for schools to find balance on this issue . Guest well, you know, its always weird as a free speech people to say faculty or College President s, administrators shouldnt be speaking on this issue but thats what were pushing right now and let me tell you why. So, zooming way out, universities have historically been the places that the students and the faculties, particularly the faculties are bringing their views to campus and weighing them against each other, searching for knowledge, searching for truth. In the last decade particularly since about 2020 when there was, you know, George Floyds murder, covid was happening, trump president ial election, lots of social upheaval around issues of race, me too, the diversity stuff was getting a big boost. Colleges got in the habit of weighing in on all kinds of social and political issues just like for example, corporations do or other private actors. Now, that practice has come home to roost in a bad way in the sense that now weve got the israelipalestinian situation where theres no clear winner on campus. Theres no one that the university can 100 put themselves behind and say were not going to, you know, make half the campus angry or make angry or whatever. Theyve come to realize what the university of chicago has been pushing for decades now, which is this position of institutional future industriality which neutrality which can be useful. Where youres are saying we are the host of debate. And at a minimum, it makes less an ideal conditions for descent, faculty who might be worried about disagreeing with the president , etc. , etc. And thats what weve seen happening in practice now where schools have release statements that either were too forceful on one side, not forceful enough, didnt make a statement at all. Theres no good way to weigh in whereas the schools who have the few schools that have long committed to institutional neutrality or have recently committed to institutional neutrality will now say we are not going to comment on these issues. Well let students and faculty do that amongst themselves unless this particular situation is impacting campus directly. What universities can do is support students in other way. Host lets get some more callers. John in ohio. Go ahead. Caller you were talking about the unequal availability of free speech to those of in powerful position and the control of ownership and the media. And i would ask people host are we talking about College Campuses. Do you have a comment on that . Caller yes, about censorship and the truth. And i think that if people would look at just look up the cia control media to demonize countries and when youre talking about the board of directors of hard regard and yale who have taken a position in support of the israeli lobby in this really attack against the palestinians to flatten their cities now and cleanse palestine, i think we have to realize that were not going to be getting a fair opinion on campuses because of the power of the deep state, the cia and joined at the him with the israeli lobby. Theres an article about israel did not or hamas did not behead babies in an israeli campus. Host i want to get alex to respond to one of the points that you made about pressure by boards and things like that. I mean, some colleges and universities have seen quite a bit of backlash from alumnis about this. Are you seeing this impact so far the way that schools are approaching their policies around this issue . Guest yeah. One of the most interesting things that weve seen this week is, you know, usually when colleges and universities come out with statements on these issues, they released the one statement we move on with our lives. Here, we have seen so many College President s come out with a statement and then after pressure from donors saying this wasnt the right statement, you should have come out harder against hamas or you should have, you know, recognized whats going on in gaza, then we have statement number two saying the things that the donors said were going to be really important to keeping their checkbooks open, etc. Yeah, there are donor pressure. An important nuance is that donor pressure can be a good thing in terms of getting the muchneeded reforms around ideological diversity on campus, making sure universities arent imposing ideological or political litmus tests, making sure that University Administrators arent prejudicing some views and promoting others. But promoters are saying university, you must come out and say that youre antihamas or else youre not going to get my many millions of dollars and then colleges and universities do that, its certainly, you know, to the detriment of the broader Campus Climate or to the detriment of neutralty. What executes Good Institution versus alumni donors, legislatures seeking to sensor censor one you or the latter. Host the folks the eastern and central time zones you can call in at 2027488000. In the mound contain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. And for college students, our number is 2027488002. And for faculty and administrations, you may want to weigh in, 2027488003 and lets go to paul in North Carolina who is a student. Caller hey. I just have to say i really appreciate this programs commitment to the values of our Founding Fathers and our constitution, but i really female like both sides of the political aisle have alleyed around the perspective that most students around my campus dont agree with. On one side of town, i have a campus where we everyone just puts their heads down. They try not to think about how we are getting a mortgage of debt for an education and no house to point to the first caller in this segment. And now we have now were being told to weigh in on National Security concerns and International Relations when were still learning. Host paul, when you said earlier that you have Students Holding an opinion very different than the main perspectives that are being talked about, what did you mean . Caller i mean we have to consider the we have to consider the way that hamas was as an institution was almost cultivated by israel in the form of blowback, by not allowing palestinians a better way to govern themselves. This is what is fostered. We need actual palestinian independent. We need a way for palestinians to not keep facing these same death tolls year after year because this is normal for them. Whats abnormal is the fact that some israelis had consequences for these terrible political decisions. Host alex, i want to followup on pauls point. Theres been quite a bit of Research Showing that younger generations in the United States tend to have more support for palestinians than older generations and less support to the Israeli Government than older generations and i wonder how you see that playing out in the way that this debate is showing up on College Campuses. Guest well, yeah, its really interesting. And always encouraging to see. I think historically, you know, younger generations will have views that the older generations might find, you know, might find too progressive or not flushed out. College campus is the place for students to air these views. One of the really important things that universities and faculties can do right now is help students find ways to come together with people they disagree with to talk about these views. Theres a lot of, you know, siloing among groups who may be propalestinian on campuses where we hear even administrators say im trying to get the propalestinians to, you know, come together with the zionists to talk us through. And not a lot of willingness, zero willingness to even engage because there is this view in certain, you know, in certain circles that are connected with the d. E. I. And the social justice that even engaging with people that you disagree with makes you somehow complicit or in agreement with these other views. And that is incredibly unproductive from a free speech perspective, unproductive on a College Campus. So one of the things that colleges and universities can do and should do must do is give students the skills to feel confident expressing their views but also engaging with the wider problem in people that they engage with. Host lets bring in a student journalist at Columbia University where she is editor and chief and president. Good morning. Guest good morning. Thanks for having me. Host going to ask you a version of what ive been asking the others. Whats the mood on campus . What are you seeing there . Guest it is quite charged, i think. We are seeing a lot of people who are really passionate about all types of issues. And i think were also seeing a lot of people who are really scared. Theres a lot of fear here. Were seeing increases in both islamaphia and antisemitism. Were seeing people who are jewish and israeli and palestinian and muslim who are all borough really terrible things including doxxing. And its a very hard ti to be a student in columbia. Ato you mean . Say more about that. S for example, last week there, was a very large protest that was organized by two propalestinian groups and a counter protest and those occurred on campus and the Administration Made the decision to close the gate on campus and only allow columbia affiliates to enter campus on that day because there were some concerns that nonaffiliates would come host and by nonaffiliates you mean people who are not students, faculty or staff . Guest exactly. On that day, you had to present your i. D. Card to enter campus. But the exception to that was the new York Police Department and the media. We saw in an oped that the groups that were submitted to us that they felt like animals in a cage because, you know, theyre all on this field in the middle of campus protesting and then directly over them, there are hundreds of reporters pointing the cameras directly at them which they had not experienced. And i think as ch as prost is often about being seen, i think a lot of times, its also about being in solidarity with people you know, you yeah, its a show of solidarity and i think it freaked a lot of people out because at the end of the day, we are, you know, prime fully 1824yearolds. Many people have direct connections to this issue. They have family members in gaza and israel but many are learning these issues for the first time. Its a lot to deal with when youre also just a student and its also just like, you know, this is another thing to add to your already stressful life. Host what about the administration with the broader statement on the war . Have they taken a stance or pushing more of the neutrality that weve heard elsewhere . Guest i think, you know, no, theres no explicit stance that have been made. That being said, every single senior administrator is really being picked apart and analyzed. I think students on all sides of this issue are trying to find a stance implicit with them in it. So the one stance that the university has taken is its commitment to ensuring that students have, you know, are able to demonstrate and also are able to be safe. And i think thats the biggest thing that administrators are worried about is safety for the students, faculty and staff. Host are you hearing from students any concern about the longterm potential consequences or risk of them speaking up on these issues while they are students . Guest yeah. I mean, absolutely. Were already seeing students at columbia who are showing up on public lists which is terrifying weve seen students at columbia and other schools who had job offers revoked and then sort of that was put under review as well. I think a lot of people are really scared about the personal and professional applications are doing this. In particular on the propalestinian side, were seeing a lot of people who are so afraid of doxxing that when they demonstrate, theyre covering their faces. Yeah, theres a tremendous amount of concern there. Host all right. Irie sentner at the columbia daily spectator, editor and chief and the president of that school there. Thank you so much. Guest thank you. Host im going to go back to alex morey now. I just wonder if you are getting a sense of any Chilling Effect that may be happening with these sorts of responses. We may have lost her at the moment. Oh, there you are, alex. Great. Guest im here. And i could hear you. Host wonderful. Are you seeing any effect for the students as this continues . Guest well, yeah. And, you know, it comes from a couple of different places. First of all, i love all the student journalists that you are bringing on. Theyre the most dialed, in covering this stuff. They know their stuff. Dial with us and were here with us 24 hours a day. When it comes to Chilling Effect, not just on the Student Press who sometimes face difficulties getting certain kinds of coverage or getting access to administrators, theres a sort of broader sense that the callers talked about that students are worried about being affiliated with their own views. And that really says something about, you know, not just College Campuses but society. We certainly want people who have passionate views on these issues, but in such a polarized in such a polarized society which, you know, which is happening on campuses too, you know, do we really want people that concerned about airing their own deeply held crews and why are they concerned . Theyre concerned about doxxing. Theyre concerned about being canceled or blacklisted, particularly when it comes to students. We, you know, the proverbial adults in the room, the rest of us, members who are already out in Society Working off campus need to ask ourselves what kind of incentives do we want to provide to tomorrows future leaders to step up and say hey, i have views on this incredibly important issue and i want to talk about them. Or do we want to disincentives them from disincentivizing them . We see this in class where people are saying i want to disagree with my professor or raise an alternate viewpoint but im too worried that professor or my fellow students are going to put me on blast on x or, you know, put me on tiktok or, you know, talk about me on a list serve and say this person is not sufficiently antiracist or whatever is the zietgeist. Host lets talk to a professor from pennsylvania. Emerald, go ahead. Hi there. Guest good morning. Im a professor at penn state and i agree with alexs views. I was born and raised in egypt and i have the pleasure of coming to the beautiful country and making a living and raising a family and its hard now because two weeks ago, i was one identity and now im having to hide an identity that i see all across our student body. Unfortunately what i fear at this point, you know, Mainstream Media and also cooperate america is going to blacklist these students because theyre speaking other than cultural, identifying palestinian. We have students who have lost their host families and are standing up for violence and whats going on and theyre being blacklisted and its unfortunate because the message that goes out is onesided and its not often all inclusive and the university is trying to promote diversity and its contradicting. Host ok. Alex, do you have a Quick Response to that . Guest yeah. When universities are trying to promote diversity equity, inclusion, we are always pointing out, you know, hey, that includes ideological diversity, equity and inclusion. Not just, you know, talking about certain groups, but viewpoints. Thats what we want on campus. And so it is understandable in the current climate why students are concerned. I think universities have to get back to their core mission and recognize not that theyre special unique role but Critical Role in our democracy, equipping students with the confidence, the skills to be able to speak openly about their views that also requires the rest of us to respect other peoples views and allow them to air those, you know, without quite perhaps so much consequence. We all have the right to say i dont want to listen to that persons views. But should we . Thats a question that we should consider. Host before we let you go, what tips do you have for people, students, faculty, Even Administration on campuses who believe that their free speech rights are being limited . Guest well, besides fire, you also should know your rightings rights. So theres definitely limited amount of Civic Education going on in society. We need people to know their first attempt and due process right so when theyre violated they can be aware that they are subjected to a rights violation. When you decide to go to a particular campus, know your rights. Is this a Public School or a private school or a warning school where other things, you know, top free speech and you dont have free speech rights. Know your Due Process Rights and if you find yourself on the other side of the disciplinary investigation a student journalist who has been censored, know that there are people out there like to fire that can help you. So, you know, we are here to help, recognize your rights and advocate to them. And dont tell censor. Host alex morey is the campus Rights Advocacy director for the foundation for individual rights and expression. And that is all for todays program. But please join us for another edition of washington journal tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern and enjoy the rest of your day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap. Org] from washington and across the country, coming to you sunday morning. Sophia kime discusses the week at the white house and republican pollster talk about the House Speaker battle can the israelhamas conflict and the latest in israel. Cspan piece washington journal. Join in the conversation, live, at 7 00 eastern sunday morning on cspan3 anyhow, our free mobile app or online at cspan. Org. Monday, watch cspan series. Books that shaped america. Well feature mark twains novel, idea adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is controversial because the subject matter and use of dialect. The book has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and has a profound impact on American Literature. All modern American Literature comes from one book by mark twain called Huckleberry Finn. Andrew levy has taught classes for many years. He will join us on the program to talk about the book. Monday, live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan now and online at cspan. Org. Also be sure to scan the q. R. Code to listen to our companion podcast where you can learn more about the authors of the books featured. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government including comcast. Are you thinking this is just a community censor . No, its way more than that. Creating students from low income families can get the tools they need to and ready for anytng. Comcast supports cspan along with these other Television Providers give you a front row seat to democracy. Esident univet newspaper, the columbia daily spectator. Host it is saturday, october 21 in the house of representatives remains without a speaker this weekend with a still divided gop lacking a sense in consensus candidate and we continue to follow israels war with hamas. After two american hostages were freed yesterd a as this mornings limited aid begins flowing into gaza from egypt. This morning on washington journal, we want to hear from you on both of these topics. Republicans can call in at 202 7488001. Democrats can call in on 202