Transcripts For CSPAN3 Nathan 20240703

Host nathan bomey is with us. Nathan boehm he is with us. Is this reporter and coauthor and here with us this morning to talk with us about the United Auto Workers strike entering day five. Welcome to washington journal. As the strike continues in detroit, what is the latest on negotiations . They are still prfar apart. The uaw just last night threatened to expand the strike on friday if they dont make serious progress with ford, general motors, insta lantus. And the strike started on friday. They are asking for a wage increase of 36 percent. They have only offered about 20 . The uaw wants traditional pensions, healthcare, and a whole host of other things and the automakers are not willing to budge on those asks so at this point it feels like we could be headed toward an expansion of this strike later this week. This is what has been termed a standup strike. Tell us how this approach is different from previous auto strikes and other strikes in general. The best way to think about it is as a targeted strike because what theyve done is selected each plant at each automaker. Ford, gm, and stellantis for a strike and this is unprecedented for multiple reasons. The uaw has historically only selected one automaker for a strike. In 2019 they decided to strike at gm and they ended up reaching a deal there and they ended up using that as a pattern to bargain with the other automakers and reach contracts there. In this case theyve decided to strike all three but only pick one plan at each to start with but the president of the uaw has said if the negotiations continue to not reach the progress that he believes is necessary, they will expand the strike to other plants, possibly including all the factories in the United States run by uaw workers. What do we know about sean fain . How long has he been Union President and what his approaches . He was only elected as president of the uaw earlier this year. I think he is trying to make his mark. I think he understands that uaw workers have been looking for progress on their compensation and benefits for years and the uaw went through a very difficult period. They have struggled with corruption for several years. Federal charges. The last couple in prison because of all sorts of accusations against the union over the last several years. He is trying to regain the moral authority that the union sort of lost over the last couple of years and show his members that he is fighting for them. So, i think that is the context in which this occurs. What he is doing is putting the focus on the automakers and saying they have had these problems over the last several years and they can afford now to deliver that back to the workers. Give us an idea of the potential economic effect of a strike if it is expanded and more plans are added to the list of the three currently being struck. Right now its somewhat limited because of the fact that its just the three, like you mentioned. Right now it will affect vehicles like the ford bronco and the jeep gladiator. These are vehicles that are important to the automakers but not the fullsize pickups where they are making all of their money. If the uaw were to start to strike some of those even more critical plans like the river ruiz plant in michigan where ford makes the f150, thats the most popular vehicle in america. The most profitable vehicle. If they were to hit that plant, you would see an escalation in tensions. If they get to all plans, this could be a devastating effect on the midwest. Likely a recession in the midwest and possibly triggering substantial damage to the economy on a broader basis. We are not there yet but it is a threat that the uaw has made. Nathan bomey is our guest. Axials business reporter. We would love to hear from you. Republicans use 2027482001. And for independence and others. If you are a member, we would love to hear from you. We have a piece with your colleague, ben demon how ev worries are helping fuel the historic uaw strike. Tell us more about this and the role of Battery Manufacturers and what the uaw is asking for. The transition to electric vehicles is a centerpiece of this debate because electric vehicles dont require as many workers to make as your traditional gas engine car and, because of that, that means that you a w is concerned about the transition, naturally. If theres fewer workers required to build evs, that could mean fewer members of the uaw, so they have publicly expressed concern about the subsidies for evs and the automakers handling of this transition. They have said they are cautiously in favor of the ev transition but they want it to be equitable and they want to make sure that its done by unionized workers. I think the problems with the automakers is that most other evs, in fact all other evs in the United States made by other companies are made by nonunionized workers area that includes tesla. Tesla already has a significant wage advantage on gm, ford, and stellantis. The only question is how much wider is that gap going to be after these negotiations are complete . Is the uad hoping to make in states that have right to work laws in states like georgia or kentucky where plants are those battery plants are opening up. Battery plants. I think they certainly have a dream of doing that someday. They havent had much success in the south. You look at the volkswagen plan in tennessee, for example and the nissan plant in tennessee, they just failed to organize those plants over the years. I think they have a better shot of going after tesla. The Fremont California plant in california used to be organized, when it was gm and toyota plant, long before tesla ever acquired it. So there is a history of unionization at that factory. The uaw went after tesla several years ago and failed to organize that plant but we live in different times now. Tesla has become a more mature company. Could the uaw go after tesla after this is over . It certainly a possibility but right now they are focused on getting the deal at the detroit three. You can call on 2022784 3003. I want to play the comments on friday from President Joe Biden. I dont think weve heard from him on the strike since then, but these were his initial comments as the strike got underway and here are some of your responses after we hear from president biden. After negotiations broke down, the uaw announced the targeted strike at the big three auto plants. Lets be clear, no one wants a strike. But i respect workers right to use their options on a collective bargaining system and i understand the workers frustration. Over generations, autoworkers sacrifice so much to keep the industry alive and strong especially the economic crisis and the pandemic. Workers want the fair share of the benefits theyve helped create for an enterprise. I do appreciate the parties have been working around the clock. When i first called them at the very first day of the negotiation and i said please stay at the table as long as you can to try to work this out and theyve been around the clock and the companies of made some significant offers, but i believe this should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts. Let me say it again. Record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the uaw. And just as we are building an economy of the future, we need labor agreements for the future. Its my hope that the parties can return to the negotiation table for an agreement. The president clearly coming out in favor of a better deal for uaw workers. Pretty fascinating remarks because i think he kind of told the line in the sense that he is in a difficult position here. On one side he has the Progressive Left that once mac to have more electric vehicles. On the other side he has got the labor left which is focused on Getting Better unionized jobs and better compensation. These are both priorities for him, and i think he wants to have this all go away. This is a very difficult position for the president to be in. He has been very clear he is prounion and he wants these to be record contracts. I think theres not much risk of that not happening. I think these will be record contracts in all likelihood but there was one phrase in that speech that really stood out to me also which was when he said that the companies had made significant offers. I dont think that was well received by the uaw. Not long after that speech, they said that the white house is afraid. Im not really sure what that means, but the uaw is not really embracing joe bidens role in this process and, they continued to say that they are fighting for their workers and they will stand up to anybody who is in their way. He also said no one wants a strike. Now theyve got one. Does the administration have any ongoing presence or connection with the uaw or the automakers if these negotiations continue . The president dispatched labor secretary judy hsu and his sparling who is a veteran of these types of talks. They are on the ground. They are not brokering the talks though. They are sort of observers. The president said they are able to provide help if needed. I dont really think that is going to play much of a role in the outcome here. I think that the president wants to get the uaws endorsement, understandably, but surprisingly, they have withheld that endorsement. This is historically something that the democrat president could assume was coming. Thats not the case anymore, and i think you need to look at whats happened to the uaw and the way that membership has changed over recent years. In 2016 and 2020, about one third of uaw members voted for President Trump. So, i think the uaw understands this is not an organization thats going to endorse President Trump. Thats not going to happen. They just issued a statement the other day bashing President Trump. So, thats not going to happen, but i do think this is a union that is starting to question where some of its loyalties lie. Lets go to our line for Union Members. Bill is a former union member, retired. He is calling from delaware. Go ahead. Let me tell you something. Dont want to go too far. One time we had almost 1 million workers nationwide. Yv■ they are down to 145,000 and counting. So, go ahead and keep passing all these and stuff. You people are going to put yourself out of work and thats just the way its going to be. And bill, how long did you work as a u member . 30 years. We had two plants in delaware. Joe biden and chris let them clo they them close. They told people to go on welfare do not believe joe biden about prounion. Nathan. The uaw compensation by all accounts did contribute to the bankruptcy of gm and chrysler in 2008 and 2009. That was wellestablished. The uaw made major concessions and gave back what they had gotten overtime. I think since then the uaw has been very affordable for the automakers and has contributed to their contracts. The callers concern is appropriate in the sense that, it the compensation was way out of whack in the automakers could not afford it, that would be bad for the future of their jobs. The only question is where is middleground . How much is too much . I think we will see if the automakers and uaw can reach middleground and make an affordable deal. Lets hear from gabe calling from holly, michigan, independent line. This has been for years who is getting more or less. I think if they just create a tear, if the top down, whatever the ceo gets or the highest level, that percentage is balanced out with the Union Members and whatever the Union Members are promised in terms of compensation and retirement plans and pension percentage, that can only be equal towards the ceo. It is a balance. You want more room at the other side gets more area if there is a lawsuit, the problem with the cars that goes against union money whatever the agreement is for it if it is a crappy design and people dont buy it that goes against the ceo. The each share the problems and they each share the benefits and they can be done with this once and for all and create a stable balance between the two. They are a symbiotic relationship. The only people who suffer are the workers. I have family members who have been uaw. Anytime they struck it was always the most profitable time and the next thing you know, we are close to bankruptcy or my dad was struggling all the time. Whenever overtime was about to be there, they would strike. It is interesting. Overtime uaw deals have changed to include percentage of a prophet. Since the bankruptcies in 2009, uaw members actually get profitsharing checks with ford, stellantis and gm, those are profitsharing checks, that is a percentage of the north american prophets for the automakers and that happens to be where they make most of their money. What you are seeing with gm and ford, profitsharing checks in the order seven, eight, nine, 10,000 at the end of the year, it is a nice boost for the Union Members at the end of the year. It does reflect, if the company does well then they do well. With the uaw wants and assessed your point, the ceos of making way too much and their bonuses and their pay far outstretched the pay of the average worker. They want some of that to flow down to the ordinary folks on the Assembly Line. Caller from delaware, the retired uaw worker said members it had been up to 1 million and he thinks it is ,000today. How has automation and the line of making an automobile changed . It is dramatically more automated than it ever used to be. I remember being a reporter in michigan, the plant in the area had 14,000 workers in the mid 1970s. When it closed in 2009 it had 1000 or 2000 people. That gives you a sense for not just the automation, the decline of the detroit three and their sales overtime. Automation has been a big factor. Onto st. Louis. John is on the democrats line. Good morning. I have two thoughts, one is, where is the profit share . You would have think it happened the same time with the manager bonuses. That is number one. Number two, trump is talking to the uaw on the 27th. Is he extending the strike . That strike could have been settled by now. Is he looking for a win where he talks to them and they get the profitsharing and the strike is over. John is referring to reports this morning that former President Trump will be going to detroit to speak to Union Workers including uaw on september 27. Nathan, your followup. I do not think resident trump has information in the sense of the talks, i do not think the timing is related to it. I think they could reach a deal before he comes, i am a little surprised at this point. I think what President Trump is trying to do is connect with uaw workers who have voted for him. About one third of uaw members voted for donald trump in 2016 and 2020. He has a big basis of support. He is antiuaw leadership, they are antihim, there is no love lost there, he is trying to circumvent the leadership and go directly to the workers because he has bashed president bidens ev agenda and he is going to tell the workers that the president s agenda is hurting their jobs. That is up for debate but that will be his message. Many states, or some states are benefiting from the ev agenda oma the states we talked about earlier, and several red states have battery plants. Absolutely. There is a lot of battery and ev manufacturing in the midwest with jobs that are unionized. I think the uaw is concerned about the advent of these joint venture operations between a Battery Company and an automaker where the jobs may not be unionized. For example, in ohio, gm has a factory that the uaw wants to be unionized. The point is, ev jobs in the future will be different, and the uaw wants to make sure that those folks are in the fold. Lets hear from mark in maryland, independent line. Good morning i just want to clarify about the prior bankruptcies from the Auto Companies back in 2000 with rich medical benefits but they were not really managed that well from a costcontainment perspective. There were independent studies by Johns Hopkins research in the late 90s that forecast the bankruptcies because of overly extravagant medical Care Coverage with no deductibles, no copays and kind of within proper alignment. , might have been reasonable but the rest of the noncomp was high. When you combine that with product quality, the seats are not as comfortable as some of the competitors, Product Reliability issues in the 90s and then it was catchup. It was just dealing with those factors, then we had the financial crisis and that environment. The, had the opportunity in the late 90s and of course the ev products for the big three and gm were killed. It is not labors fault. That is the Product Design and executive management problem and execution problem. Better management all around is what is needed combined with more reliable consistent product quality that is leading edge and not following. Thank you for those observations. The good news is Vehicle Quality has improved dramatically since the bankruptcies. I think you are right, the automakers really fell down on the job in the lead up to those bankruptcies and the fact that people did not want to buy their vehicles and it was a big problem. They did not necessarily have the kinds of vehicles people wanted. As it relates to uaw and the automakers on who is to blame for the crisis, a great auto journalist wants to once said that uaw and the autoworkers were coconspirators in some way oma co. Complacent in the sense that they were arguing and bitter at each other and at the same time they did not look over their shoulders and see toyota coming down the road. They both did deserve lame. They worked together and they got the government to allow it and they reconstructed the companies and they are in much better shape, the question is how do you share the wealth. Kim is on the line a retired postal worker. First off i am supporting the uaw workers 100 . In 2008 and , i do not think there wasnt industry, or auman who did notel the great economic ppen. We felt its in the Postal Service. Every time that a Company Makes record profits, usually those profits come because many times you have three or four tiers of workers in. That is one of the biggest complaints that the uaw is talking about. We see it in the Postal Service and we see it in unions like the uaw. They make it extremely hard to work alongside coworkers that have a decent retirement have a Decent Health plan and that is one of the biggest things they are fighting for. When the union in 2008 and nine gave up so much, and the workers took it. We as americans failed the companies out, when the prophet come, 365 more than the median wage, we as workers in the United States of america are standing up. If it is not uaw, tesla will be coming in. If starbucks and other places are fighting for a union, so will they. I hope they win. I hope and pray that our government stays out of it. The each have their own it is an election time and they are not thinking about the workers. We workers have to stick together and think about ourselves. We will win. Good luck. That is interesting. I think the uaw is primarily focused on the past promises that the automakers have made. The automakers are focused on the future profits. Thats where the tension is. Uaw said you made record profits and assigned to pass it on. Automakers are concerned that Going Forward it will not be possible because they will not be able to pay for labor cost and electric vehicles are coming and they need to make those at a price that people can afford. Right now most are not affordable by your average consumer. That is where the tension is. The question is, can they keep up with tesla . Tesla is the leader. Tesla has a major cost advantage. Will be uaw succeeded in getting in there . I think it is possible. But it could take years. Steve has a question. He wants you to please explain tier pay. The automakers asked for in the 2009 bankruptcy they implement implement the plan that was negotiated by the obama industry can they implemented a tier pay plan where new workers were getting paid at a much lower level than longtime established workers. That has shrunk a little over the years but continues or if there is a two tier system and the uaw wants to eliminate that. With unionized workers they feel like we are all in solidarity and we should all be on the same pay scale. I think that is likely to go away because nkit will be hard and harder for automakers to justify that because bankruptcies are becoming a distant memory. As we wrap up one more observation, joan in milwaukee has this observation, my father was a uaw worker while he was grateful for the good wage and benefits nothing upset my parents more than the greed of the union which ultimately destroyed the industry in the u. S. Which could not compete against foreign automakers. I think there is a lot of otherness at uaw internally and not just externally in part because of the corruption that has been there. The uaw got so bad that the federal government appointed a monitor to oversee the union and that is in place today. There is bitterness and that is partially why shawn fain has been aggressive in trying to recapture the moral authority that the uaw wants. He is saying i will stick up for the average uaw worker and we are going to clean house. That is part of his agenda. Folks can follow nathans reporting on social media. Thank you for being with us and your update. You can call in with your views on other news items, other stores in politics and policy 202748 8000 is a democrat line, 202748 eight 001 for the republicans, another piece on the united autoworkers , this is from the New York Times their headline, uaw members skeptical of bys commitment to their cause they write that despite the president s middleclass persona and his potential 2020 for rival, donald j trumps rhetoric many autoworkers were not convinced that the Current Oval Office occupant is the one that is on their side, i cannot tell when he speaks to the public if hes being told what to say or generally saying it. Jennifer said of mr. Bidens prounion remarks on friday during which he unequivocally backed the uaw. Ms. Banks, a 29 year ford employee was at the Companies Michigan plant. The sign outside said absolutely no foreign vehicles allowed. The ambivalence towards mr. Biden underscores a ongoing challenge to his reelection as democrats try to stench anymore bleeding a bluecollar support after three years of inflation and high interest rates. That is from the New York Times. Also from the New York Times, this is on canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his announcement yesterday, accusations against the country of india. He says the Indian Government killed a sikj leader. They say they carried out the assassination of a that will further sour relations. Mr. Trudeau said that he raised it is involvement with the Prime Minister at the group of 20 summit earlier this month quote in no Uncertain Terms he based the allegations on intelligence gathered by the canadian government. Quote, any involvement of a Foreign Government on the killing of a canadian citizen on canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty he told lawmakers. He said canada would pressure india to cooperate with the investigation into the killing of mr. Nijar. The Indian Diplomatic Mission did not respond to requests for comment. Lets go to your calls. We will go first to frank in pennsylvania, democrats line. Thank you for taking my call. This year i got a nice raise in my Social Security, this is just comment. My rent went up the exact amount of my race. I just want to bring in about corporate greed. That must be frustrating. What was that . That must feel pretty frustrating when you see the money go up for Social Security and your rent is raised. Yes. The prices of everything are going up and then you get a bit of a race and they take the whole thing away. We will go to paul in rochester, new hampshire. Go ahead, paul, on the independent line. I worked for General Electric for 40 years and nine months. Of all the times i worked there, the union tried to get into the plant and they never got to the point where they had a vote. The reason for that was the plant manager and the people who ran the General Electric company 2300 employees in our location were treated like family. One of the things that occurred is whenever the union and the other plants got an offer, we got it immediately when the offer was made then when they voted we got those benefits. We never needed a union. That is why with 40 years and nine months the union never got in there. I just wanted to mention that if you are treated fairly by management you do not need unions. And you do not have to Pay Union Dues. I think that is critical any time you operate a big plant or a facility where you have a lot of people working. You said you worked for ge for 40 years . 40 years and nine months. Did you come away with a pension from ge . Yes, i did. I have been retired for a good number of years, i am 88. I have been retired since i was 59. They treated all of us as family. The plant that we worked at for all of the homes in the country at that particular time. Like you got through thanks for the call. Terry in kentucky is next. I am just thinking, if factories and industries are smaller, i think the gentleman who called that would work so much better. We are so into corporate greed, as the unions are out and they are trying to work these things out, the corporation itself is researching how they can deal with fewer workers. Just a report this morning that japan is now setting up an Assembly Line whereas once a car gets to a certain level the car will go through the line and build itself. In other words it gets to a certain point and it is automated so it can pick up what needs to be put in the car. If this continues, trouble happens to the workers where did you read that story about japan . It was on the nk news this morning on pbs. We will see if we can share that with their viewers. Las vegas. Greg. The other day you had on a show about the banning of schools and libraries, they also said during that same show that 76 of the books that are banned end up back in the school , i just do not understand how that is possible. I cannot answer that. Just to let know, we have live coverage coming up on the c span networks, the house at 10 00 a. M. Other things to look for this morning, fema officials will be testifying on u. S. Disaster readiness response and recovery. It is the house transportation and subcommittee hearing live on cspan three it streams live on the spend. Org and on the mobile app. Coming up at 3 00 p. M. This afternoon on cspan three, a hearing looking at the january 6th capital security failures. A former Capitol Police chief will be testifying for House Administration subcommittee and that is live at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. We mentioned this earlier, our coverage coming up of the oversight hearing of attorney general merrick garland, he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern life on cspan 3 and we will have a live on cspan. Org. We will be covering speeches from the United Nations getting underway from the annual gathering. President biden will be speaking later today. United nations General Assembly leaders are looking for is the headline at bbc. Com. The 140 or so World Leaders have a lot on their plate, russias invasion of ukraine, a global costofliving crisis, a worsening climate industry, there are disagreements that are not over what is most important but what the remedy should be. People are looking to leaders for way out of this mess as the un secretarygeneral its in the face of all of this and more with geopolitical divisions are undermining our capacity to respond. President joe biden is set to speak there today. The ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy speaking tomorrow and we will have a number of those speeches later on the cspan networks. Good morning. Though one man who said he worked for General Electric all those years and they did not need a union because every time some company from the union got a raise they got the same thing so they did not need a union. That he stuck to think if the union was not there or trying to get in there, the other Companies Got a raise, the company does this to keep the union out. You need a union to do this. I was a union member for a lot of years. I retired in 2000 and i have been getting 1200 a week because i was in a union. Unions are very useful for the average working person looking to live beyond the job. If you cannot afford to Pay Union Dues to have a Better Living wage then you should go crawl and a hole and hide somewhere. They are very, very necessary. For 23 years i have been getting 1200 a week for retirement because of the union. If you dont want to have those kind of retirement and if it then the union is not for you. If you want to live beyond your job, a union is very necessary. Thank you and have a good day. Wallace is on the line from edison new jersey. Hello. I just want to make a few comments about overcoming this monster putin by sanctions. He is very crafty. I am sure this that was implemented every country should break off relations anyone whos should confirm people receiving aid that their aid will be reduced 25 if they do not break off relations with russia. Putin does not want to be isolated. Thank you very much. This is from roll call the headline this morning, house stopgap bill falters with no senate backup plan insight. Even if Speaker Mccarthy can scrounge up the votes to pass a stopgap funding measure this week it could take a miracle to avoid a partial government shutdown. Democrats controlling the senate have no interest in the 30 day continued resolution that House Republicans unveiled sunday night which, by more than a percent and would impose a range of border related restrictions that President Joe Biden has threatened to veto. The senate is tied in knots. The 279 billion fiscal 2024 spending package stymied by procedural objections considering more than the base bill with the department of veterans and military construction projects. That chamber is considering an unusual move which could take up much of this week to suspend the rule in order to short circuit the objection. It would ultimately require 67 votes. If that move is successful then the senate would have gotten three fiscal 2024 spending bills to conference with the house, that doesnt resolve the immediate hurdle of avoiding a government shutdown. Next up is linda calling from iowa. Go ahead. Good morning. If there is a shutdown it will be a. They have had all summer long, schumer has to make the time when they can go. He took time off and then he wants to shut it down everybodys throat. They want to vote on each thing. That is how it is supposed to work. If you looked at the floor the other day, susan collins, is a nervous person anyway, murray was standing there like a hawk, she was intimidated by them and that has to stop. The republicans notice whats going on and i am all for this country getting turned around if we want to save america and if we want to save the taxpayers money we have to vote , thats how it is supposed to be done. Thank you very much and i will keep listening. She raised senator schumer, the majority later leader here he is the senate floor. Instead of working with democrats to keep government open, House Republicans want to cut all not defense spending by a devastating 8 . 8 . Eight percent cuts to Law Enforcement , Cancer Research and other critical priorities. Not one penny dedicated to the president s Disaster Relief request. No Health Extenders are included, no attempt to reauthorize the faa. With no ukraine funding the proposal is an insult to ukraine and a gift to putin. I cannot think of a worse welcome for president zelenskyy who visits us this week than this house proposal which ignores ukraine entirely. The proposal can be boiled down to last nights proposal can be boiled down to two words, and reckless. It is not a serious proposal for avoiding a shutdown and reckless because of past it would cause immense harm to so many parties that help american people. This wish list is not a serious proposal for avoiding a government shutdown. It would never have enough votes to make it through the senate. Just under 10 minutes left an open forum as the house comes in 10 00 a. M. Eastern. 2027488000 the line for democrats. For republicans 2027488001. For independence and others 202 7488002. Lets go to bob calling from san diego on the democrats line. Welcome. I have been listening to the callers this morning and i am 150 for the uaw workers and i hope they get what they asked for. I am a retired grocery worker, 31 years, i started when i was in my 20s. I retired the old and 85 at the age of 55. I was a fulltime worker as well. My retirement is pretty much nothing but i am still making it. I hope they get as much as they can because these companies are so greedy. Right now kroger, my former Company Wants to buy albertsons and somehow they come up with 44 billion to make that purchase, and yet they cannot fund my retirement. My retirement is critical. It is critical and it has been for years. It is their way of being able to take another 25 away. As for the tier system, for people in the lower tier , there retirement is nothing, it does not even compared to mine, which is barely enough. I hope they get what they ask for and then some. There might be corruption on both sides, the unions always have your benefits in mind. They are not for the companies but they are there for the workers. I believe biden is to create i believe when trump comes his conn keeps going on he will try to say that he negotiated it after he he will try to say he was the one responsible but he does not have any insight as to whats going on, only the people sitting at the table no what they are after. Thats all i have to say. Thank you for sharing. We will go to maurice in michigan. Maurice. Good morning. I have been listening to c span ever since i retired. It is always entertaining, but not very enlightening program. We are watching various members of both parties, all of them demonstrating their ability to lie. We just had senator schumer on and he does a very good job of always doing something that brings down the socalled we must cooperate crap. You cannot cooperate with liars and there are liars on both sides. I am 88 years old and i have never seen government so in at. This is a really sad event. Next is jimmy in whitefield main. Hello. I am 82 myself just like maurice. Today it is relevant that we dont go to war with iran. We do not want a war with china or russia, or north korea or burkina faso, or ghana, or mixico, or syria, or yemen either. It is my fondest wish that we stop acting like we do. All right. The president is set to speak at the United Nations, this is a piece from the washington post, biden faces a tough sell at un extending Global Support for ukraine. President biden has a clear agenda for the annual meeting of leaders at the un General Assembly maintain robust Global Support for ukraine, but executing on that will be difficult, particularly this year. Ukrainian officials had hoped to ride into new york touting major gains in the summer counteroffensive, rushes entrenched forces have stymied efforts to achieve a major breakthrough in both sides sustain heavy casualties. The food and Energy Prices has accelerated calls in the developing world for settlement. Support from the American Public has been slipping. Biden, who is due to address the assembly tuesday, today, will be aided by the most charismatic voice, ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskyy who also visit new york to raise awareness about russia atrocities and emphasize how the criminal is invasion violates the United Nations most sacred principles something that he hopes will unite all countries fearful of invasion. Next we go to scott on the republican line. We are talking about ukraine. I can see what the idea is, this is all about the trade the trading ukraine has a simple route for exporting goods and services and what is happening here is putin wants that particular trade route, does he deserve it . That is how ukraine is getting rich through their trade route and putin sees that and he started his little he wants that open route for his people, for his russian people. It is the same thing thats going on with the corporations and the union here. Ukraine was getting super rich because they have the open trade route, the water routes, other exports and they were winning and getting rich and of course corruption and all of that stuff. What happened is putin saw the trade. This has always been about trade. Thats how humans operate is trade routes and trade. Same with china. All of this stuff is going on when china scott we are going to let you go. We started the program talk about the release of the americans from iran, the headline from the associated press, americans released by iran arrived home, tearfully embraced their loved ones and declared freedom. Some of the video from earlier this morning , as those five americans were released and greeted by the family. That will do it for washington journal this morning. Do you have any role in any of the campaigns this season . I am working with resident trump in the 24 campaign. It is a long way to go. We have to get through the primary and the general election. It was the honor of my life to work with trump in 2016. It is exciting working on a president ial campaign and fulfilling that role with a lot of people. He has a great gang of economic advisers. Trump understands the economy very well having been a very successful this is man. I always thought he had the street smarts. Do you think he is talking about the economy enough on the campaign trail . Is it safe for him . The fact that he is facing four or five indictments and 500 years in prison. We put together a lot of documents just showing the case for are you better off than you were four years ago, for the vast majority of americans that answer is no with high inflation and the troubles we have had in the economy, we are looking at when Trump Left Office the Mortgage Interest Rate was 2. 9 now it is over 7 , inflation was 1. 5 when Trump Left Office, we think if you put sidebyside the Biden Economic record versus the trump economic record that is a strong point. President biden was talking about the economy he was on a visit to pennsylvania and he was talking to sheet Metal Workers this is what he had to say. 13,500,000 jobs since you got me sworn in in january 2020. 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, you would not know it from all the negative news, we are getting it is one of the greatest job creations. We take you life to hear testimony of warmer Capitol Police chief on security failures that occurred on january 6, 2021