Host good morning. President biden and former President Trump agreed to at least two debates but with different rules and conditions from previous election cycles. More ethics questions for the Supreme Court following a New York Times report of the upside down American Flag outside the home of Justice Samuel alito junior in 2021. We want to know your top news story of the week. For democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents can reach us at 202 7488002. If you would like to text us, the number is 202 7488003. Include your name and where you are writing in from. On social media, facebook. Com cspan. On x at cspanwj. Lets start with the news about the debates. Heres the story in politico. Having spent months avoiding engagement on an and where, donald trump and joe biden seemed to agree on a time and place in a matter of minutes on wednesday, setting of highstakes showdowns in late june and mid september. The former president s campaign expected an invitation to the debate. The current president expects to debate the current president. Biden said he had received and accepted an invitation from cnn, then agreed to participate in abcs. Here is President Bidens initial challenge the donald trump via x. [video] donald trump lost two debates to meet in 2020. Now hes acting like he was to debate me again. Make my day, pal. Lets pick the dates, donald. Host here is former President Trump talking about the upcoming debates at a political event last night. [video] i just want to debate this guy. Im going to demand a drug test either way test, by the way. I really am. I dont want him coming in like the state of the union. He was high as a kite. Is that joe up there . By the end of the evening hes like he was exhausted, right . We will demand a drug test. They are going to be fair. You have to deal with it, right . Host former President Trump will speak at the 2020 for an ra Leadership Forum in dallas today nra Leadership Forum in dallas today. You can watch that on cspan now or online at cspan. Org. Those debates have different rules than years past. That includes qualification candidate be constitutye eligible to serve as president , with the federal electionkanas e commission, they have the name appear on enough state ballots to reach the threshold0 electoral ballot electoral votes neededo win the presidency. The at the agreed to the rules and formats, and that they receive at least 15 in four separate National Polls of registered or likely voters that meet cnn and abc standards. That does exclude president ial candidate rfk junior, who said on x, President Trump and President Biden are colluding to lock america in a headtohead matchup that 70 say they do not want. They are trying to exclude me from their debate excuse me. Trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid i would win. Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy. 43 of americans identify as independents. If americans are ever going to escape the hammerlock of the two party system now is the time to do it. These are the two most unpopular candidates in living memory. By excluding me from the stage President Biden and trump seek to avoid discussion of their eight years of mutual failures, including deficits, wars, lockdowns, chronic disease, and inflation. That is just one of the several stories we are following today. You can call in at 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. A recap of some top news stories we have been watching, concluding biden and trump agreeing to that debate. Justice alito and the stop the steal ag ror the Common Association for the upside down American Flag. The house gop has voted to reverse the israel weapons block President Biden enacd. Biden blocked the release of special counl pes this week. There has been quite a bit of soaledia traffic about Harrison Butker, the nfllar and his commencement speech at a Catholic University and the reactions to that online. Lets get to your calls. Duke in maine on the line for independents. Caller good morning cspan. My top news item was about trump and the sideshow soap opera thing hes doing in court. After i saw that thing about alito, his wife flying the American Flag upside down, its a total disgrace. I have no respect for that Supreme Court. They are a disgrace to themselves, a disgrace to this country. Im so fed up with the whole thing. If donald trump stops short, they would go right out of sight. Player of his rear end and i dont think its right. Host more about that story from the New York Times. Justice alitos house, a stop the steal symbol on display. An upside down flag adopted by Trump Supporters contesting the Biden Victory flew over the justices front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case. After the 2020 president ial election, some Trump Supporters falsely claimed President Biden had stolen the office. Many displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on cars and on the light posts. An upside down American Flag. One of the homes flying in flag during that time was the residence of samuel alito in alexandria, virginia, according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. It was a loft on january 17, 2021. President Trump Supporters brandishing the same symbol had rioted at the capitol a little over a week before. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were obtained by the New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court. People who work there said in interviews. I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag, Justice Alito said to the times. It was briefly placed by mrs. Alito in response to a neighbors use of it of an personally insulting language on yard signs. Lets get back to your calls. Your top news story of the week. Matt in new york on the line for republicans. Caller good morning. A Quick Response to the first caller. Its a disgrace for the flag to be flown upside down by a Supreme Court justices wife, but it is free speech when College Campuses are burning and stomping on the American Flag . Thats an amazing statement. My story of the week is joe biden trying to shore up his black support by going to the college but also showing up at the white house celebrating brown versus the board of education. I want to remind everybody that back in the day joe biden was against busing. He actually said he would not want his kids to end up going to a school that looked like a jungle. On top of that, i remember him saying or implying barack obama could speak intelligently. The location there was that for a black man. This guy is a total hypocrite. I cant believe people actually fall for this crap. Host in regards to biden attending to shore up his support with black voters, he is speaking today at morehouse im sorry, tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern he will deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College in atlanta. That has attracted some controversy. Here is the story we saw from the Associated Press. Bidens upcoming speech roils Morehouse College. When he gives the commencement address at Morehouse College, President Biden will have his most direct engagement with College Students since the start of the israelhamas war at a center of black politics and culture. Morehouse is in the largest city in the swing state of georgia, which biden flipped from then President Trump four years ago. Bidens speech comes as the democrat tries to make inroads with the key and symbolic constituency young black men and repair the Diverse Coalition that elected him to the white house. As a reminder, tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern when President Biden delivers that commencement address at Morehouse College in atlanta, georgia, you can watch that on cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. Lets go to ralph in new york on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. I am a uaw worker. My top news story is the debates. I stand with President Biden. I dont need to listen to the debates. All the debates are about is who gets the best knockout punch or has the best oneliner. Im an issue voter, as most union voters are. President biden is supportive of raising the federal minimum wage, the right of workers to organize unions, equal pay for equal work, and the economy from the bottom up in the middle out. The debates are about nothing and i thank you for your time. Host thanks for your call. John in dearborn, michigan. Caller good morning. Joe biden has been the senator and president for mbna and the delaware corporations. Like the previous caller, hes always been kind of a questionable on topics of race and things like that. That is not the point. I dont know how the top story couldnt be i go on social media. I see disemboweled children and children with their skulls blown out in gaza. I cant help but think this is what all of our congressmen want. I dont know they see it. You dont see it on mainstream media. It is disgusting. I see videos on social media of ukraine, of their conscripting young men. They are beating them into a van trying to conscripting. Between ukraine and gaza the United States is lost. Host thank you for your call. A bit more news this week on israel. The u. S. House voted to force weapons shipments to israel, rebuking biden this week. Heres a story about that in reuters. The republican led u. S. House of representatives passed a bill on thursday that would force President Joe Biden to send weapons to israel, seeking to rebuke the democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with hamas. The Israel Security assistance support act was approved 224187 , largely along party lines. 16 democrats joined most republicans in voting yes. Three republicans joined most democrats in opposing the measure. Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael Mccaul was on the house floor on thursday speaking about why that legislation to push military aid to israel. [video] im deeply disappointed for some in this country and for the administration that the moral clarity has faded. That their ironclad commitment apparently is not in fact ironclad. In an aboutface the Biden Administration is now withholding critical arms necessary for israel to win the war. This administration wants to dictate how israel executes the war that they were thrust into. They did not ask for this work. They did not start this war. Hamas started this work. War. President biden said, if they go into rafah, im not supplying the weapons, period. That would be similar for us to say during world war ii, you can invade all the way up to berlin but you cannot go into berlin to finish the job. Imagine if we had done that with our allies back then. Israel is in a fight for its very existence. This administrations public break with israel has only made negotiations and victory more difficult. Host gene in chesapeake, virginia. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Goodness. I hear all the comments. Im going to stick to what i wanted to talk about. The flag upside down. Im a veteran. I served in the u. S. Army. Im proud of my service to my country. Im proud of my country. I could not help but be disheartened by seeing the protests at Columbia University when they took down the u. S. Flag and put of the palestinian flag. Lets go back to january 6, when we first started seeing this disregard for our flag. I dont vote party. I vote issues. I am for democracy over dictatorship. If we also roll it back, we want to see why the military is suffering with military recruitment. Look at what our justice did. Lets go back to january 6. Now lets go forward to the flag being taken down and the palestinian flag raised over a building. People need to do their history on the u. S. Flag. Now what justice with the flag upside down. My heart broke for a third time. We have got to unite these states of america. The one caller talked about what joe did. Who feels the same with a felt 40 years ago . If that was the case, we would look at 45, trump. Trump never served the military. He has no ancestry of service in the United States of america. Nothing against the young man, hes 18, but his people is he registered for Selective Service . We must come back to one United States of america. Those young people, we cant fight the war. Yes, we feel for palestine and israel. There are other ways you can help out. We cant tear down our democracy and our United States of america. We have got to stand together. We have got individuals that are supposed to be representing their constituents going up to new york. Do the business of the United States. We are also distracted here now. Please people. We have got to be united. Host speaking of members of Congress Going up to new york, theres a story about that in axios from this week. House republicans have been working to carry favor with former President Trump with trump trial visit. Nearly a dozen House Republicans , the largest attendance yet by gop lawmakers. The trial is rapidly becoming the essential trump loyalty test for republican members of congress, to the point where it appears to have appeared with official business. Several republicans on the House Oversight committee, which rescheduled upland market from markup. Next up, henrietta in fort pierce, florida. The line for republicans. Caller hi. Good morning. Two things. You were not real clear with regard to the flag. I find it very interesting that when the the Supreme Court was cluttered with democrat appointees, they were the greatest thing in the entire world. Now they are conservative. They are such terrible problems. January 6 was not the first time that flag was flown upside down. The symbolism of that is distress. The Supreme Court toledos alitos wife was in distress. Her neighbor was going up to her face, like the congresswoman from california, waters, all good democrats should do. Secondly, donald trump host i want to come back in a moment. I will read more the New York Times article referencing what you were talking about before i let you continue. Interviews show that justices wife had been in a dispute with another family on the block over an trump sign on their lawn. Given the timing and starkness of the symbol, neighbors interpreted the inverted flag is a clinical statement by the couple political statement by the couple. That particular sign that the neighbor had put up included an expletive related to former President Trump. Go ahead. Caller who cares what the neighbors thought . You are making this out like it is a New York Times lets beat up conservatives because they are not our cup of tea. Secondly, trump was the one who called for the debates, not biden. Not biden. Trump did. He said anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Biden thought he would be smart by saying yes. They thought donald would say we need this, we need that, we need this. No, he called bidens bluff. Drug testing biden would be a good thing. It truly would. So we can see what the heck he is on. We know this meant aint able to stand. Host thanks for your call. s go to a post we saw on social media for James Hopkins on facebook. I would save mr. Butkers commencement speech. Misogyny and homophobia was on full display and an overview of how otherouthere think. The w hlaced his talk with disinformation and misinformation were out of place on the occasion. The ones who agree with him probably wear red hats and will affect the election in november. Heres an article from cnn about that particular speech. The nfl is distancing itself from controversial comments from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker during a recent commencement address. In addition to calling pride month eight deadly sin, he set off waves of criticism when he suggested women find more fulfillment theyre getting married and having children than by pursuing