>> on this quote the yays are 79, the nays are 18. it is agreed to. ♪ host: after months of debate in the congress that's what the republican party, the senate voted 79-18 to approve an aid package to taiwan, israel and ukraine. after passage of that bill we want to hear from all of you.

should the u.s. be more active or less active in overseas conflicts? republicans dial in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also join the conversation by text. (202) 748-8003. include your first name, city and state. or on facebook.com/c-span, and a post on x with the handle @cspanwj. the president is expected to sign the package today. look for coverage on c-span.o rg. here is how the money breaks down. $95 billion total, similar to what the senate approved in february. $60.8 billion and ukraine eight,

26.4 billion dollars in israel and gaza humanitarian aid. for israel. humanitarian aid for gaza. 8.1 billion dollars for allies in the indo pacific region. that is how the money breaks down. here is democratic senator patty murray yesterday arguing a vote for the foreign aid package is sending a message around the world about american leadership. let's listen. [video] >> at a time when the world is watching and wondering if the u.s. is still capable of meeting the challenges before us, if we are still united enough to meet them, this package won't just send aid. it will send a message. it will show our allies our word is still good. we will stand by them in times of need. it will show dictators our warnings are serious and we will not let their flagrant attacks

go unchecked. it will show the world american leadership is still alive and well and we are still a strong protector of democracy and provider of humanitarian aid. that is a message worth sending. host: the democratic senator from washington state arguing for the aid package. should the u.s. be involved? or, less involved in overseas conflicts? yesterday 10 republicans split from no votes in february on a similar aid bill to yes yesterday. that is why they ended up with the vote of 79-18 on final package. president biden expected to sign it into law. there were 15 republicans who did not vote for this legislation. one of them, tommy tuberville of alabama speaking out against more u.s. aid going overseas. [video]

>> you are witnessing the swamp at its worst. being concerned about being smarter than everybody else and lining the pockets of their friends and special interest in the american people. the clock is ticking. comedy must die before we take on our own security as serious as we are taking on other people's borders, including ukraine? we lose 100,000 people your to fentanyl. does anybody care in this body? i haven't heard it. this is a direct result of the border policies of president biden. fentanyl is manufactured in china, ran by the cartel of mexico. at what point does that horrific reality become important enough for us to come in here and vote to shut this dang border down? the left loves to tell you about threats. what killed more americans than the biden border policy? nothing.

the biggest disaster in history since i have been alive and a citizen of this country. ukraine is losing soldiers by far fewer than the number of americans dying by fentanyl. we have to take care of our people before we take care of the rest of the world. host: senator tommy tuberville of alabama arguing against more aid going overseas. that's the question this morning. should the u.s. be more active or less active in overseas conflicts? raymond in pensacola, florida, republican. we will hear from you first. caller: thank you for allowing me to speak. we are spending a lot of money for two different active conflicts and a possible one in taiwan. if russia settled within a week we are going to have to come back with billions of more dollars to rebuild these countries. a lot of people don't realize that. this bill, there's a 45-day

situation where the president has to come up with an end of the situation game. host: a strategy. caller: yes. i'm interested in seeing with that strategy is going to be. anyhow, i think we have spent a lot of money over there prior to this russia attack. it did not help. we have got a lot of people in this country that need money. they can't get it. thank you. i hope things settle down. host: frank in ann arbor, michigan. what you say? caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i largely agree with your last caller. i think we -- i think sending money overseas is kind of

pointless. we have problems to take care of in our own country. we are going broke. we need that money over here. i have problems with the way we conduct our foreign policy. in ukraine, we fomented the revolution. we expanded nato all the way to russia's border, although we promised not to. we have a lot of culpability for causing problems over there. that does not make it right for putin to invade ukraine. i'm against that. we should talk about those issues more there. that's how i feel about that. the real problem is israel-palestine. for the life of me i can't understand why we are sending money to israel when they are turning gaza into a parking lot. they said they were going to turn it into a parking lot and

they are bombing hospitals and universities. they are leveling them flat. 100,000 people have been wounded or killed. mostly women and children. i don't get it. personally it upsets me that my tax dollars are going over there. i would like it to stop. host: that was part of the debate yesterday as well. how the money breaks down that's being sent to each country. the wall street journal in a graphic breaks it down for us. $60 billion for ukraine. $20.5 billion goes to the european command operations. $15.8 billion is for security assistance. about $13.4 billion what replenish u.s. stocks. there is about $9.5 billion, $10 billion in forgivable economic

loans. on that point the new york times reports in addition to the aid package that includes new rounds of sanctions on israeli and russian officials, the house added provisions for the president to seek prepayment of $10 billion and make any other aid to kyiv a loan, but the president could forgive the loans starting in 2026. let's go back to that wall street journal graphic and see the breakdown on aid to israel. $26.3 billion total. $13 billion is for defense activities. $9.2 billion is for humanitarian aid to gaza. $3.6 billion in security assistance. that is how the money breaks down for those two countries. annie in fairfax, california,

republican. more active or less active in overseas conflicts? what do you think? annie, good morning? are you there? caller: i'm here. host: you hold on one second. i will go to annie. good morning. caller: thank you for your beautiful work. i want to say i think -- i have said this before but i think i agree with frank. i am republican in name only. not many people identify that way but i do. it's because of george bush. after 9/11, i thought he would come get me or something. i would say this. i feel like we should get our priorities straight with our

reparations to our indigenous people into the black people of the country. i think that is number one. once we take care of that maybe we can help the other wounds of the other countries. i kind of agree with the republican senator you had speaking about -- i don't agree with the border thing exactly but i kind of do. my thoughts are little scrambled today. i basically feel like we should take care of our own and then we can maybe help others. i heard the left-wing radio saying it is not going to work to have israel and palestine coexist. israel will have to just fold. i think that since israel was started by the u.k. and the u.s. -- i wanted to say something about how the whole war machine

we are putting billions into, billions and billions, people are making money off this that i don't know there is any fair effort to help gaza. i wanted to say that humanitarian aid they send is like canned food and things people don't even want to eat. i have been a victim of canned food before by way of food banks when i was struggling or having a hard time. you don't get anything from them. that's a criticism and i'm not supposed to be criticizing here but yeah. i love your watch. it is beautiful. host: rocco in new jersey, independent. caller: hello. host: hi. caller: the american government is not a democracy. it is controlled by neocons and bolsheviks and zionists and christian zionists who worship the other three.

host: that is rocco's opinion. john in leland, mississippi. independent. caller: i want to say i'm a veteran. i love this country. i am with sandy from california. you have the most powerful nation in the world in the blink of an eye. you gave europeans billions of acres of land. you have a given african-americans and inch. i'm starting to believe you want african-americans to be the foundational family that they are that built this country. i believe you don't want to give us education. you don't want to give us education. you like the uneven playing field you have. host: it is the 'you' you are talking about? caller: this country. they don't want to make things better for us as a country and as a people.

you have assassinated a lot of leaders. why won't you give us education? you won't give us reparations. give us free education. we have to pay to even the playing field out? you don't want an even playing field. if that is the case america deserves to be destroyed. no better than hitler or nobody else. if we are not going to do the right thing and pay our debts and take care of other countries and we can't take care of our own people, to hell with america and i love this country. host: john in mississippi, independent. more arguments from the senate floor for passing this aid package to these countries. here is republican senator jerry moran of kansas on the floor yesterday. [video] >> my colleagues, we live in a dangerous world.

we live in dangerous times. the world is a real challenge. national security crisis abroad and home are increasing. ever-increasing. iran launched a full-scale attack on israel. the mosque stated it's intense to wipe israel off the map. dress-up continues brutal oppression ukraine. china is using companies to spy and track americans. each of these conflicts are interconnected. it would be naive to send aid israel but take a pass on supporting ukraine, taiwan or other allies. it is vital for the united states to be a reliable partner in the midst of so many dangers that threaten the world and our own national peace and prosperity. in a joint fox news op ed with mike pompeo, the preservation of freedom for

requires enormous effort. liberty demands the marshaling of every resource necessary in his defense -- its defense against those who would see it destroyed. host: tavis republican senator jerry moran of kansas on the floor yesterday. do you agree or disagree with him? the question is about to the u.s. be more active or less active in these overseas conflicts like ukraine and the conflicts in israel and gaza. should we be involved or less active in the? -- them? this poll from the associated press in march is echoing what we are hearing from our viewers this morning so far. four in 10 u.s. adults want the u.s. to take a less active role in solving the world's problems. there it is on your screen. what do all of you say? we are taking your calls on the first hour of the washington journal.

a tweet yesterday. senator tammy duckworth told him it has been an embarrassment that ukraine eight took this long -- ukrae doothis long and a tactical problem not hang passed this five month ago. senator young,there's been a lot of territory that may not have happened but aid will help ukraine still." william and marino, -- moreno valley, california, republican. you are next. caller: i don't agree. i think we need to take care of our own first. we can't save everybody, especially with this administration that's going on here. it is totally corrupt. the american people have been sold out little by little and we are waking up. as far as ukraine goes in sending money, one is it going to end? in six months it will be another

package. when is it going to stop? russia will never run out of money. they will never run out of resources but ukraine is and we will be funding them. the way it is going down is that they are fundamentally changing united states. it will be called the united snakes. the american dream is turning into the american scheme. i'll probably be dead in 10 or 15 years but there will be chinese tanks on the streets of america. like the movie "red dawn." there will be no money. no morale for our troops. no get up and fight. they will grab their m-16 and they will drop it. joe biden sold us out. he sold the american people out. thank you for the call. host: james is a democrat in woodbridge, virginia. caller: hello greta. my opinion of the u.s. overseas -- overseas intervention is simple.

we have to have very limited foreign intervention in foreign states. i don't understand why we have 800 military bases throughout the world occupying with our military half of the world when no foreign country has a military base here. imagine a china or iran were to buy 1000 acres in rural virginia who the militaries in there. what what our reactions be to that? we have multiple bases in korea, japan, germany. last time i checked the wars were over 70 years ago. i don't understand why we are still there. host: james in woodbridge, virginia. salem, oregon. john is an independent. caller: hi greta. nice to see you. i don't understand why we are --

these politicians keep saying ukraine is a democracy. it is not a democracy. zelenskyy has killed his opponents, his critics. he's allowed the neo-nazis to come into the military. was embedded with the ukrainian national guard. they worship bandera, who was also a neo-nazi. i don't understand why because he's jewish we cannot question his -- host: where have you read all of that? caller: 12, the internet -- well, the internet. host: you were single ukrainians? caller: the military is known to

celebrate bandera, who was definitely in bed with the nazis and killed lots of people. host: john in oregon, independent. bill is a republican in michigan. hi bill. caller: the word of the day is proxy work. korea. proxy work. vietnam. proxy war. we lost again. now we are here. we are doing it again. why do we keep letting these lawyers who we put in as politicians keep killing our kids? it's a question we need to ask. why do we keep voting for these lawyers? host: bill's thoughts. many of you against sending more aid to ukraine and israel.

the package that passed last night in the senate headed for the president's desk today. it passed 79-18. one of the senators who has been opposed is j.d. vance of ohio. here is what he had to say yesterday. [video] >> there's a weird way the debate has gotten worse. people cannot engage in good faith disagreement with our ukraine policy. you will immediately be attacked for being on the wrong team. for being on the wrong side. i remember as a young conservative highschooler how opponents from the conservative side of the iraq war -- you are just all for saddam hussein. you believe in -- that saddam hussein should be able to brutalize the iraqi people. you have no love for the innocent people. you don't believe in america.

the same exact arguments are being applied today. you're a fan of vladimir putin if you don't like our ukraine policy, or a fan of some terrible tyrannical idea because you think maybe america should be more focused on the border of it sun country than on someone else's -- on some country than someone else's. the inability for us to process what's going on in the world and make rational decisions is the scariest part of this entire debate. you see people who serve their country, who have been advocating for good and public policies, agree or disagree with them for their entire careers, smeared as agents of a foreign government simply because they don't like but what we are doing in ukraine. that is not good faith debate. that is slander. it is the type of slander that will lead us to make worse and worse decisions. it should make us feel pretty weird when you see your fellow

americans making an argument and the response that argument is not here is why you are wrong, or why i disagree with you, but they sling their finger in your face and say you are putin puppet and asset of a foreign regime. this way of making decisions democratically is how we bankrupted this country and start a third world war. we should stop doing it. host: senator j.d. vance of ohio, one of the 15 republicans that voted no on sending this aid package, this money to ukraine, israel and taiwan. it did indeed pass yesterday. 79-18. 31 republicans voted for the bill this time compared to just 22 who supported a similar version back in february. republican conference chair john barrasso was the only member of the gop leadership to oppose it. three republicans were absent,

senators rand paul, tommy tuberville and tim scott. biden said he would sign the legislation today so arms shipments to ukrainian forces could begin this week. oddly enough, some gop senators believe former president trump actually enabled passage of the bill in the end, or gave some political cover to those who flipped from no to yes. 12 trump has declared his opposition to new ukrainian eight, the presumptive nominee then tried -- did not try to kill the measure like he did with the bipartisan support is -- portability years ago. trump later defended speaker mike johnson and make calls from some hardline gop conservatives to topple the speaker. to many republicans that was as much of a green light as they would get from trump to vote for the bill. bill and wells, maine. independent. caller: good morning greta.

let me see if i have this straight. people in the middle east are killing each other. this is news? it would be news if they stopped. every seven to 10 years -- everybody starts their dance. i'm tired of the music. nobody wants to dance. if you want peace in the middle east, get the u.s. off foreign middle eastern oil. that way they will just fade away like every other armpit of this world we don't care about and as far as the u.s. is concerned peace will be declared. if we need something from that part of the world, even if it's not coming from palestine or wherever it comes from, as long as we need something from that part of the world every time they sneeze we will catch pneumonia. we need to slow down and stop

this constant march towards meddling in other peoples affairs and getting ourselves entangled in these strange wars that are no concern of ours. they will cut each other's heads off until there is number heads to cut off whether we want them to do it or not. no matter what we do. host: i understood your point. we will go to norwood, ohio. mike, independent. caller: good morning. i'm glad everybody is finally waking up to realize the biden administration is as incompetent as anything you have ever seen. i'm a veteran. i have 22 years as a military police. i witnessed corruption that is unbelievable. let me tell you something about this aid to ukraine. isn't it funny that biden was attached during the obama administration to ukraine and now hundreds of billions of tax dollars is going over there?

i can understand israel. they were attacked. all of a sudden the people that -- the democratic -- the people that the democratic party stirred up are starting to turn on them. this administration has done nothing for us. it's about time we wake up. there will be a were all right. you just watch -- a war, all right. you just watch. host: senator bernie sanders on the floor yesterday making this argument. [video] >> mr. president, hamas started this war. that is true. this war stopped being about defending israel a long time ago. what is going on out is the destruction of the very fabric of palestinian life. it is impossible to look at these facts and not conclude the israeli government's policy has

been deliberately to make gaza uninhabitable for palestinians. and clearly they are powerful voices in israel's extreme right-wing government who have been quite open about their desire to drive the palestinian people out of both gaza and the west bank. this is not the israel of golda meier. netanyahu's government is beholden to outright racists and religious fanatics who believe they have exclusive right to dominate the land. mr. president, that is why we must end our complicity in this terrible war. that is why we should support the amendment i am offering to end unvented military aid to

netanyahu's for machine. -- war machine. cutting military aid to netanyahu's government is not just my view. it is what the american people believe and are demanding. host: senator bernie sanders, independent of vermont, caucuses with the democrats. he voted against it yesterday, along with democratic senators merkley and welch. gene from illinois. should the u.s. be more active or less active in overseas conflicts after passage of this aid package? what you think? caller: yes, we do. i'm a vietnam marine, retired law enforcement. we have to maintain vigilance. the world is a dark alley and we have to watch and see who our friends are because we know who our enemies are already.

we have to maintain this strength here in our country. debate is good. in the end we have to watch and stay vigilant, because as thomas jefferson said, "the tree of freedom is often blessed with the blood of americans." as people with the colors of the american flag are. thank you. host: speaking of the reckon flag, here was the scene of ukrainian parliament yesterday. the new york times reports the speaker of the ukrainian parliament sent out this picture of lawmakers there holding the reckon flag inside the chamber in gratitude to the united states and every member of the house of representatives who supported that ukraine aid bill. we look forward to assume a decision from the senate -- a similar decision from the senate. reminiscent of what happened in the house of representatives on saturday. thomas massie, who opposed, took

this video of lawmakers there waving ukrainian flags. that was admonished by the speaker the house mike johnson saying the only flag that should be waived on the floor of the u.s. house of representatives is the american one. pete in quincy, massachusetts, democratic caller. good morning to you. what do you say on this question? caller: i say the aid has to go to ukraine in particular. if anything, we have to learn from the annals of war and of history. if marjorie taylor greene and trump have their way, putin will go unfettered through europe. there is no doubt that is his goal. while that might seem unsavory we have to give aid, that is just the way it is. we have to still be the beacon

for the world. host: ok pete. after the house passed the aid package on saturday there was a delegation of lawmakers that went over to the country. ukrainian president zelenskyy had a chance to thank them in person yesterday for the additional aid. here is a little of what he told them. [video] >> thank you very much. thank for coming, dear members. you came after such an important strong decision for us surviving. i can say it truly and ultimately. thank you very much. people of ukraine counted on this decision. we are happy the united states is with ukraine. and our strong and main allies.

sorry. i'm a little bit late. i just finished a conversation with president biden just three months ago finished our conversation in dialect. we discussed this bill. we spoke about how we can rush getting the package of military support that is crucial for our soldiers on the battlefield. they wait. i shared with him the most big deficit. we will speak about it. the first one is air defense. host: ukrainian president zelenskyy getting a chance to thank members of congress who came over there after the house passed the aid package this weekend. the senate followed suit yesterday. president biden says he will

sign the bill on the law and address the american people as soon as it reaches his desk today. stephen in mcdonald, tennessee. independent. your turn to be part of this debate. should the u.s. be more or less active in overseas conflicts? caller: less active. we would be more active if we get people off the sidewalks. everything we did for him -- too late. not enough. they can't even have an election over there. host: affect. adele in springfield, illinois. caller: good morning, ms. greta. i think whenever i call i talk about the military-industrial complex. what eisenhower was warning about is our economy is based upon war.

manufacturing weapons and selling weapons for defense and offensive purposes. $1 trillion is spent on our defense budget. we are the number one exporters of weapons. when we say we are -- all we are doing is selling weapons to ukraine, to israel and to taiwan. we are promoting war so the economy is not hurt. the american people are not hurt by it. since 1945, we have bombed 30 countries. we have been involved in 50 assassinations of different countries and leaders. we have been involved in 30 elections interference. there's a book by john perkins,

"confessions of an economic hitman." we go into countries for the resources. give the regime does not obey our wishes or corporate interests they are overthrown. the idea that we are active is because our economy is based upon it. there's a book called "the united states of war." when we look at these things at the reckon people fed up with it -- and we look at the american people fed up with it, their people in the districts work for these industries. when we have maui burning down and they are still homeless there. if we have $100 billion that we can send it somewhere else and you have entire sections of maui

that is not yet been built, it's been nine months. it's a shame people don't understand how voices are not heard when it comes to these kind of issues. thank you for your time. host: gloria. warren, ohio. democratic caller. caller: how are you doing? host: good morning. caller: there are a lot of people that called you and speak with complete anger it's about what's going on in this world. it's unbelievable. they need to get history books and civics books and they will learn things about what's going on in the world. right now we are involved with all these different programs to try to keep this country safe in order to keep american young men and women from being in war over there with russia and china. that is the only real reason why the united states is still

involved with them, ukraine. ukraine is fighting this war for the world so far, is what they say they are doing. that is the reason they have nato. nato is a program that has got all the other countries involved as far as helping supply ukraine. -- ukraine with the weapons. there are too many weapons in this world and the need to be gotten away with. the fact when need someone who knows what to do as far as protecting this country in the world and try to get better is the one man an office right now, president biden. he is more involved in this wo rld then these people think about. he's doing a program for every thing that's good in this country and the people don't even know what he's done. host: i will leave it at that. also included in this aid

package is a provision on tiktok. congress passes a bill that could ban tiktok after years of false starts. lawmakers tied it to a spending -- sprawling funding package for ukraine and taiwan. here is senator cantwell of washington state and senator warner of virginia speaking in support of the foreign aid bill and highlighting the tiktok provision. [video] >> contains the protecting americans from foreign adversary controlled application act. congress has a nonpunitive policy proposal in passing this legislation. congress is not acting to punish bytedance, tiktok, or any individual company. congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations.

>> mr. president. >> the senator from virginia. >> i would like to expand on what senator campbell said. it has been made absolutely clear a number of chinese laws require chinese companies and their subsidiaries to assist p.r.c. security assistance and abide by the secret and unchallengeable government. these chinese companies don't owe obligations to their customers whether shareholders, they owe it to the prc government. in the context of social media platforms used by nearly half of americans it is not hard to imagine have a platform that facilitates so much commerce, political discourse and social debate could be covertly

manipulated to serve the goals of an authoritarian regime. one with a long track record of censorship, transnational repression, and promotion of disinformation. host: from the senate floor yesterday two senators talking about a provision in this aid package that could ban tiktok after years of full starts. richard and alabama, republican. do you think the u.s. should be more active are less active in overseas conflicts? we lost richard. we will go to steve in maryland, independent. caller: how are you? i think we have a moral obligation in ukraine to do that as long as the ukraine people truly want us there. when they are ready to tap out we should not propagate that work. i feel terrible for the young men on both the ukraine and

russia because of some crazy person invading. that is the real reason i called. i heard somebody earlier talking -- applying that civil war talk. i think those people are disgusting. they should go to gettysburg and look at that. if we are ever at a civil war i hope it is the old grumpy men who were the first ones that get the guns in their hands and the first ones to go. it disgusts me people would say that. thank you very much. host: brent in charleston, west virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. on your question, we have to consider does the united states have a direct interest in a potential overseas conflict? when we begin to evaluate our interests we have to prioritize them. let's just imagine for a moment. all the money we have sent just

ukraine in the last two years. let's take that money and apply it to our southern border and hire ice agents and give them the authority to enforce federal immigration law. do not tie their hands and tell them they cannot enforce certain laws and they have to include -- bring in everyone under the blanket of amnesty, which is totally phony. let's put military soldiers on our southern border and announced to the world the border will be secured and the people attempting to enter our nation illegally are at risk of being shot. with that -- what that benefit the unit saves more than sending all that money to ukraine, where we have received an accounting for none of it?

none of it. they have accounted for not one sent we -- cent we have sent to ukraine. ukraine is a government that is corrupt. most of that money is going to those oligarchs. there is a reason why we have sent $100 billion now to ukraine and ukraine has made absolutely no progress in their war against russia. what direct economic or military or strategic interest does the united states have an ukraine? as to israel, there is a direct interest in our support of israel. first of all it is the loan democracy, true democracy in the middle east. if israel falls, the middle east is at risk and probably will

become a haven for islam a fascist -- islamofascist states. host: brent's comments from west virginia. the debate over more aid to ukraine has split the republican party in congress for months . yesterday mitch mcconnell of kentucky was asked about why there was this split in his party on aid to ukraine. [video] >> you have been one of the most ardent factors of ukraine and the senate here. what took so long to get some of these other republicans persuaded to your position? >> that is a good question. you already know the answer. the demonization of ukraine began by tucker carlson, who in

my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, interviewing vladimir putin. he had an enormous audience which convinced a lot of rank-and-file republicans that maybe this was a mistake. host: that was minority leader mitch mcconnell of kentucky yesterday talking about the split in the republican party. many of you know speaker mike johnson before he became speaker was opposed to aid ukraine. -- to ukraine. he became convinced the aid was needed. biden directed his senior aides to employ two pronged strategy. -- lni heavily on intelligence and laying off attacking the new speaker. senior aide to the president spoke to johnson regularly.

this is from the new york times international section. ukraine desperately digs in. exhausted and low on supplies, ukrainians are racing to fortify a 600 mile line against russia's next onslaught. there is the map on your screen. the government has signed off on a conscription plan to replenish the ranks. european countries have promised to send more missiles and supplies. what ukrainian needs time. training new troops will take time and the equipment will arrive gradually over the course of the. analysts belief ukrainian is unlikely to start a major counteroffensive this year, choosing instead to spend time reconstituting its forces. it will still need to try to stave off russian attacks and keep any small enemy gains from becoming full-fledged breakthroughs. the ukrainian government

allocated $800 million to building fortifications along 600 miles of frontlines this year. that's from the new york times. an independent. good morning to you. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i'm a young black man. we have a unique perspective on what's happening. from our perspective where the most educated amongst our american age groups or whatever. we are kind of looking at this from a what's happening currently and what happening in the past and what might happen in the future. a lot of things are being ignored as far as climate change. everything is getting harder. it's getting harder to deal with the environment. harder to deal with college loans. rent increases.

increases to the price of food and transportation. we also understand we do need security. the war ukraine is something that we did not cause and that is a strategic ally in that location. we need american security around the world but we know we have enough money to support fellow americans. every single year there are more and more homeless people. there is more and more raises to the price of college loans and living. all we are saying is focus on american security, yes. secure the border. at the same time use some of that money you are passing for your fellow citizens. we need the help to survive. the last point. most of our immigration is not coming from the border. it is coming from planes and legal immigration. the whole notion about securing the southern border is

ridiculous. host: i will leave it there so i can hear from dick in sharpsburg, georgia. independent. caller: good morning. i don't know if you read or not -- i just turned the boob tube on. can you explain exactly we are $34 trillion in debt. where in the world are they getting all this money? tulsi gabbard had an article that before russia's invasion of ukraine the cia, our wonderful cia had 50 different locations in ukrainian. they had 25 to 30 biological labs on russia's order. a country did that to us we would invade also. excuse me. china now has a lab five miles south of the mexican border

making forged pharmaceutical pills with fentanyl. we are in a lot of trouble. one stick of dynamite and the whole east coast is in the dark for a week, possibly months. you have a bigger problem. the fbi is saying how they are into our water supply, our fuel supply, on the computers. we are letting 22,000 communist chinese since october across the mexican border. somebody has lost their ever loving mind. i would like to know where the world the biden administration and the democratic party and the rhinos are getting all this money. thank you. host: lionel in baltimore, maryland. democratic caller. caller: good morning.

i have a problem with this ukrainian thing. at one time ukraine had nuclear missiles. what happened to them? did the united states make them give them up? ok. this thing with israel and hamas. the europeans and americans just put those jewish people there without asking the people that was living there to they them there. these little things bother me. i love those jewish people. my first job in america was working for a guy, one of the sweetest people in baltimore city. host: we will get a couple more

calls or more in our remaining minutes of the first hour. should the u.s. be more or less active in overseas conflicts? i want to show it president biden had to say at a campaign stop in tampa yesterday to announce that state's six-week abortion ban. [video] >> next week one of the nation's most extreme antiabortion laws will take effect in florida. it is criminalizing reproductive health care before a woman even knows that she's pregnant. this is bizarre. you can put a doctor in prison if she takes care of a patient, as you just heard some version of from louisiana. this extreme law will impact 4 million women in the state of florida. florida is one of 21 states in america where americans cannot get access you need for care. this ad step to one of three

women throughout the united states of america having this limitation. for 50 years the court ruled it was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy. two years ago, that was taken away. let's be real clear. there is one person responsible for this nightmare and he has acknowledged and brags about it. donald trump. in fact, trump has bragged about it which meant there is no federal right, no decision can be made at the state level. a lot of people don't even know that or focus on it. every state can make a decision. now trump says the law is working the way it is supposed to. trump goes on to cite individual state laws are working brilliantly. brilliantly. it's a six-week ban in florida.

even before women know their pregnant. is that brilliant? take a look at arizona. they goes all the way back to 1864 before arizona was a state and women have the right to vote. that is the law of the land in arizona. today maga republicans refuse to repeal that ban in arizona. trump is literally taking us back 160 years. he says it is up to the states. it's about states rights. he's wrong. the supreme court was wrong. it should be a constitutional right and a federal constitution. a federal right. [applause] it should not matter in america where you live. it's about women's rights. host: president biden in florida yesterday at a campaign stop talking about abortion. the topic is before the supreme court today.

oral argument on an idahoar an abortion ban that allows for in hospitals whether a federal that allows for emergency abortion health care at hospitals preempts this idaho state ban. we'llcoverage beginning here on c-span at 10:00 a.m. eastern time on our free mobile app c-span now, or online at c-span.org. the emergency abortion health care, the federal law and whether or not the idaho state ban violates it will be part of the debate today. front page of the new york times this morning on the hush money trial in new york that's been happening for a couple weeks. witness recalls burying stories to shield the former president and help the campaign. also yesterday at the hearing, the judge dressed down the former president's lawyers,

saying you are leaving all credibility with the court on whether or not the former president violated his gag order. the president -- former president addressed the gag order before reporters yesterday. [video] >> i think that gag order is totally unconstitutional. can't even allow articles. these articles over the last day and a half. they are very good articles. they say the case is a sham and should be retried. i don't even know if you are allowed to put the men. we have a gag order, which to me is totally unconstitutional. people are allowed to talk about me. they can talk about me and say whatever they want. they can lie. tom not allowed to say anything. i have to sit back and look at my complete -- look at the judge who has forced me to have a gag order.

i would love to say what's on my mind. i'm restricted because i have a gag order. i'm not sure if has ever seen anything like this before. host: that was the former president outside the courtroom in new york city during the hush money trial. the supreme court on thursday whether -- oral argument ifase the former president has immunity for hegedole in attempts overturn the 2020 election r. we are going toe corage of that argumennninat 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-sn, c-span.org, and our free mobile app c-span now. we will also get your reaction to those oral arguments thursday evening, 8:00 p.m. eastern time before you read air the entire oral argument in case you miss it during the day. will in victoria, virginia.

democratic caller. caller: good morning. my concern on our topic today. yes, the net estate should be more involved in other world conflicts. what we are doing, especially in ukraine is gathering intelligence from our enemies such as russia. wewe are gathering intelligenceo know how they conduct themselves in a war environment, gathering intelligence on their weapon very systems. i think the ukrainian citizens are very brave to fight that war and give their sacrifice so that

we can gather that information. it is to free the country as well which is the first and foremost. and also with israel and hamas. we are gathering information about, and they are fighting how they fight and their weaponry systems. i think the united states should be more involved so we can gather information to help us defend our country. host: up next we will talk with paul diperna from the group edchoice students and how they feel about their education. and then later talking about

expending resources for survivors of crime and we will hear a story about advocating for crime survivors and those most affected by trauma. it stay with us. >> get information from members of government in the palm of your hand when you order your copy of c-span's 2024 directory with contact information for every house and senate member of the 100 and 18th congress -- 118th congress, the cabinet, federal agencies. the congressional directory cost $32 95 cents plus shipping and handling and every purchase helps support our nonprofit organizations. scan the code or go to our website, c-span.org.

>> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 6:00 p.m., the coffers of fabric of the nation, history it skills and sources talk about the advanced placement u.s. history exam and how this year's exam is structured, provided strategies for answering questions and analyzing historical documents. a series congress investigates looks at historic congressional investigations that led to changes in policy and law. in 1973 and 1974, events surrounding the 1972 break-in at the democratic national committee headquarters at the watergate tile and washington, d.c. and lead to the resignation of richard nixon in august of 1974. at 8:00 p.m. on lectures and

history, a political communications professor from ronald reagan's 1982 address to british parliament, exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span two and find aull schedule and our program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: paul diperna is with us to talk about a new survey of teen views on k-12 education. what is edchoice? guest: it is a nonprofit nationalipartisan organization launched in 1996. our mission is to advance freedom, opportunity and choice

for all k-12 students and for them to lead successful lives in a stronger society. we seek to build awareness and understanding of school choice issues and the broader k-12 education ecosystem that can empower families to access and choose and the learning environment that best meets the needs of their children. we inform policymakers, peer groups, education leaders and entrepreneurs, public policy and legal affairs, medication advocacy, workshops, trainings and outreach. and i lead a research team. host: your group conducted a survey that we are talking about this morning. why did you want to do the survey? guest: this is the eighth time we have surveyed teenagers in the u.s., a series of surveys we started back in the fall of 2020

at the height of the pandemic. we felt it was very important to in addition to all t polling that we do of the public and k-12 school parents and teachers, we wanted to get a better understanding of where teenagers were and how they were adapting during the pandemic. and then really commit to longer-term syria's so we can see any changes over time -- commit to longer-term areas so we can see any changes over time. it was a better idea to get information about students and help them towards their future careers and also to see to what

degree they feel their schooling experiences have been positive or negative and if there are any questions we can ask in order to better say, what can be done to help increase the positive experiences they are having in school and in learning, and also how to mitigate or address some of the negative areas that we have seen in our polling. host: when you quote results of your poll. 78% most or all classmates are bored. 19% say most classmates want to be in school, only 19%. guest: those are the negative findings i think we can all come together and feel that we need to do better for students and to provide them the best learning

experiences in high school and even in the late middle school as well so that they can thrive and learn and be well educated. those are some findings that concern us. my colleagues have it written about this in the last couple of weeks after we released a poll. other surveys have found some negatives. it is not that surprising. we were all teenage at one time and had gone to middle school and high school and had a range of experiences. those levels seem particularly high. that is on the one side. it wasn't all negative and the most recent polling.

we had some broader views and good news that teens and average appeared to be happier than they were at the start of the school year. so some broad indicators, social, emotional, self advocacy, types of questions and they appear to be more positive than they were the last time we surveyed it teens back at the beginning of the school year. so that is some positive and good news in the survey but yes, there are some things that are definitely concerning we should all be thinking about in terms of how we can improve the educational experiences of teens. host: that is the conversation we want to have with viewers, improving the educational experience for teens. parents and students dial in at (202) 748-8000, educators (202) 748-8001, all others (202)

748-8002. you can text at >> "washington journal" continues. -- at (202) 748-8003. you sound -- found 78% use social media and 40% said it had an negative impact on their mental health. is there a link between the negative numbers you sought and social media? guest: the polling we do in the survey we cannot make that direct link and causal link there. we can infer and i think the

descriptive numbers you cited are concerning and to the degree that it is impacting the mental and physical health of teenagers and we have seen this, the pew research center looked at some of these questions around the teenagers use of social media and cell phones and the questions and topics were different but the holistic picture raises red flags in terms of where teenagers and how they feel about social media, cell phones. also in the schools. they have different ideas about an average view, access to social media and cell phones differently. one question we asked was what is the earliest age someone, a

child, that should have access to cell phones or to social media and the teens in our survey were much more likely to say that children can be a little younger to have a cell phone or smartphone, but the vast majority said a student or child should be 13 years old or older to be able to access social media. there is even some recognition on teens' part on the effects that it can be having on children. host:hat about absenteeism, 13% said they have already mied 15 plus days of school. this meets the definition of chronic absenteeism. the highest is for feme students, 16%.

lgbtq students 18%. what do you make of those numbers and why? guest: this is, consistent with other research that has been done in different ways and methods and looking at chronic absenteeism which has been in the headlines and something that has been just being discussed and considered in school districts of all types around the country. that 13% number, one thing to consider is the survey was conducted at the end of february and early march, three quarters of the way through the school year and we already had 13% of teenagers self reporting 15 plus days of absences. with a few more months to go you would expect that 13% to be higher at the end of the school year.

we also asked them how they see their closest friends and classmates and what proportion of those classmates are missing 15 plus days and it is a higher number. their perception is their peers are missing school being more frequently absent at higher rates so it is 19%. the numbers are a little bit down since our last and when you compare not only when teens say themselves in self-report for themselves and what they observes of classmates and friends, but we asked a similar question to parents and our monthly tracking poll and we asked parents if they had a child with 15 or more absences and roughly at the same time we

were surveying teenagers and only 3% of parents reported the absences. we are seeing a difference in what parents and teenagers report. we fielded a survey of teachers that we will be reporting out in a couple of weeks and asked what they are seeing in the classroom and how their students are and it will be interesting to see what their observations and perceptions are of absenteeism because this issue is not going away. it was an issue and a challenge for school leaders and policymakers before the pandemic but when it hit, it exacerbated the problem. even though others have reported

chronic absenteeism has gone down a bit since the peak in 2022, but levels currently are still higher than they were before the pandemic. this is an issue that won't be going away and something we will continue to ask. host: they looked at the results of the survey when they asked teens why there was this chronic absenteeism and 6 of teens survedaid school is boring inuding 69% of black teens, 59ay all of their student use cell phones in class. some said if you are none of the classmates want to be in school. robert in new york, welcome to the conversation. caller: my question is how do you purse out on your statistics boredom of previous generations? i graduated 51 years ago and our

classes were boring also. but we had the hope in the future and our parents would say, this is your job, you go to school and you have to learn and you are going. that is it and nothing else was accepted. how do you purse that out and how do we bring that hope back into the families and children to say it yes, your life will be better with education than without it? guest: that is a great question. thank you for that question. i think it is someone who definitely appreciates and values, history and thinking about prior generations and their experiences. we don't have that data about what teenagers have felt about schooling and education in previous generations and that is

beyond the scope of our project. but i think what you say has validity in terms of kids who have said they have been board at least anecdotally and what research has shown attitudes have persisted for a long time. we don't know, these levels right now are so high and i think it does signal and we picked it up in questions we ask, what can we do to really change? schooling has not changed -- the way the classroom looks but we have technology we didn't have 20 or 30 or 50 years ago but in terms of how we are educating students is very similar to what it was back in the 1950's, 1960's, 19 70's in terms of the classroom structure and

expectations for being in school five days a week and :00 until 3:00. those kinds of -- 8:00 until 3:00. those structures have been in place for ears and the pandemic disrupted that when remote schooling which a lot of people feel had negative impacts on student learning but there have been some positives in terms of more flexibility coming to families the last few years. our organization has been tracking new educational choice programs, school savings, -- programs, vouchers, tax funded accounts have been growing and expanding to the point where we now have 11 school choice programs around the country that are universal or near universal for all students in the state.

most recently alabama passed and enacted a new law that allows for program for students to have much more mobility and choice to public and private options. just yesterday in georgia, a new program enacted that expanded options for students in the state in low performing schools. we see a lot of energy and momentum to increase flexibility and not just in terms of where students are going to school but also how they are learning. we have seen a hybrid schooling take off in recent years and micro schools taking off in recent years that are very different in terms of organization, structure and the way they provide an educational and learning experience.

it will be interesting to see how that continues moving ahead in the future. host: what school choices will remedy these negative numbers? guest: our organization, we do every year put together a review of various types of outcomes on student learning, the academic outcomes for public school students and not only the participating school choice students and we see on balance there is positive effects, sometimes slightly positive, for some groups of students if not all groups of students. we have seen that school choice programs on balance provide a positive effect on student learning on those public schools

and school districts that are feeling competition now because students can move more freely between public and private schooling options. most recently there was a great study, very well done study and rigorous analysis looking at outcomes and how do private schools contribute to civic learning and civic outcomes such as volunteerism, voting and those kinds of activities that we think of as democratic values. private schools were in some cases doing a better job than public schools in terms of instilling those democratic values in civic and leading civic types of outcomes. so there is a body of research looking at the academic

outcomes, civic outcomes so forth that is well documented. host: let's go to bonnie in sioux center iowa, and educator. caller: i would like to make three observations about education and how it has changed since i was a student. the first change would be, there's more stressors that come from the school environment itself. i was a student in two states and have taught in three states, wisconsin, florida, and california, and now i am a substitute teacher in iowa which is where i grew up. when i stopped in florida, the fear and the actuality of school students are stressors. the school from which i graduated where i sub now recently had an active shooter drill. that was something that never would have occurred to us in the

1960's and 1970's. the real or possible threat of violence is very traumatic. the second thing that is a big change, i would like to know how many of people who are of my generation can rattle off the names of multiple substitute teachers. i love substitute teaching but the fact is not only our students donned a lot more, so our teachers. that expectation that my teacher will be there because it is their job, that has changed. there are excellent teachers but there is a mentality that i am entitled to my 10 days off. that was certainly not true when i was growing up. i don't know if that affects the student's perceptions of whether they want to be in school but it is a reality. a third change is family structure. i think that is the biggest factor.

i just had another student tell me, and again student i see it rarely because i sub, that his peers are getting a divorce and that is so common in our society today. when i look back at my schooling, i really knew of almost no homes that weren't intact with a mother and father living in the home. i think the impact of that on our children in every area, including education, is huge. host: ok. paul diperna? guest: a couple things i might add. those were good points. the point about teachers and how they are that something we haven't looked at and we could look at more is the nature of

how teachers are in school and what are the constraints on them and how that may also than pass on and be constraints on the students in classrooms. i think there is increasing discussion about the inflexibility of the teaching profession because of different expectations and rules and regulations that are coming from different whether it from the school district or the state or even at the federal level. i think this is an area that can be looked at a lot more and something we are planning to do some more survey research of teachers. also coming out of the pandemic in terms of being able considering the challenges they

may have in maintaining the profession. we ask about teachers are likely to look for another profession or career and that number has been stable the last couple of years but seems to me it is pretty high, about half that they would think about another career. i think indirectly that can impact students in terms of the kinds of education they are receiving. on the violence, perceptions and fears of violence in schools, we do ask the question in our surveys about if they are concerned about a violent intruder or mass intruder entering school and teenagers are less concerned than parents are about that.

it has been a counterintuitive finding that refined find, less than one third of teens are extremely or very concerned about violence, that kind of violence of an intruder entering a school, where half of parents are concerned about that. then we ask other questions about bullying and teens tell us they are not, it doesn't seem they feel the schools are doing a good job addressing bullying in their schools and only one third really say their school is doing a very good job. that has been an issue for years and generations. but i think there might be some more urgency right now among the other challenges that teens are facing today and adjusting in this post-pandemic world that we live in. host: dave in canton, ohio.

caller: i was wondering if you asked the kids about how they like the school food. guest: that's a good question. we did not ask that. i can tell you anecdotally i have a 14-year-old and 11-year-old both in middle school right now and they actually sometimes say the schools are doing a better job than their dad making lunches. anecdotally, that seems to be a step in the right direction. that is it a good idea and that is something we could look into because i think nutrition, and there are others that do research or on the importance of nutrition for student learning and that is a good idea and i appreciate your question. host: steve in fairfax county,

virginia, what is your view on allowing phones and why it is no phone in the classroom not the default or is it? guest: so it is case-by-case. that is a very good question. i have my own opinion on this but i think that what we see and what we do ask in surveys whether teenagers, parents, if they feel cell phones it should be allowed in the classroom or allowed in school were generally and i don't think it is to anyone surprised that the teens feel they should be allowed to have phones in the classroom or school at much higher rates than what parents think. we will soon find out when we release the new teachers poll and we will see how teachers feel in my hunch is teachers

will feel less conducive and agreeable to having cell phones at least in the classroom. so there is a disconnect between parents and teens in terms of allowing them in the classroom or in school. host: deborah is in odessa, florida. caller: i have a question. we have a program in our area that serves some of the schools like pack asap program -- pack a sack for them to take home. i want to say is do you do any research or do you know anything about how many of the children that are going to school are actually homeless, that their

families are living in cars and not getting a well rested night sleep or even proper nutrition and what are we doing about it? guest: that is an excellent question and we do not ask them specifically in our surveys about their home environment to that detail. so that is a very good question and something we will certainly be considering. we have a certain amount of space on the questionnaires that we use for our surveys and a certain amount of background information and questions we can ask, especially for teenagers. but that is a really good idea and something that we will definitely consider.

host: barber in garland, texas, and educator. what do you teach? caller: i did teach and just retired after 23 years, middle school. host: go ahead with your comment or question. caller: one thing i continually see is it seems that kids are getting free lunch and they turn around and have 150 dollars sneakers on and a cell phone that i cannot afford. we seem to be doing a lot of free giveaways of free lunch. i want to feed the kids, but when they say everybody in the school gets free lunch, it seems to be we are not using our funds in a way that is appropriate or helpful. so i would like to see a comment on that. host: we will have paul respond.

guest: in our survey we don't ask about those questions around those and how they spend their own money or parents money. i think the free lunch point that you made and that was a big consideration and a major initiative especially early on during the pandemic and to be honest, i haven't kept up with for the policy has been going more recently. but that is something we can ask more and go back to the earlier comment about nutrition. i think they are potentially good questions we can ask about the importance around the home environment to the other calle s

's question about homelessness, nutrition and well-being. we do have some questions around well-being but not the specifics of sleep habits or buying habits or those types of things. those are good questions for us and i think there are researchers that could take that on. host: casey in silver spring, maryland, also an educator. caller: i just wanted to ask if you ever had a chance to correlate the attitude or i guess overall positive attitude of students in the classroom when in the classroom the cell phones are allowed versus not allowed and then also further within that analysis if there

could be any correlation between how the attitude of the students and how they might feel in a question that allows cell phones to be used versus a student that doesn't use a classroom doesn't use a cell phone in the classroom. host: we will take that. paul diperna guest: we have not done that type of correlation or analysis. it so much of the reporting we do is descriptive and we just ask readers to take it at face value in reporting the numbers. i think it is a really good question. i do know that when pew research center released their thorough

report a couple months ago looking at teens and parents attitudes around specifically social media and cell phones, they found around a seven out of 10 teenagers actually felt peaceful when they don't have their smart phone. i think you can draw something from that. around 45% said not having a smart phone them feel anxious so you can indirectly come to conclusions on what that does in the classroom setting if they are not allowed to have their smart phone but close to half of teens could potentially be feeling anxious and what does that do to disruptions in the classroom overall for that teacher to handle that with 20 to 25 students.

really good questions and it is something we could look into more and we welcome that kind of feedback and the ideas for different secondary analyses of the data. host: eva, a parent. caller: i am a grandmother, a great great grandmother. what bothers me is they cannot read cursive and cannot read anything that is written in cursive. why had the schools stopped teaching cursive writing? i would love to see my children and great-grandchildren learn to read what i write but our forefathers wrote. host: paul diperna? guest: i am not knowledge about

policies around cursive and so i hesitate to say anything. i know there is a researcher at usc that looked at this around cursive and what it can mean. he is a researcher at usc and that is maybe some went to google and learn more about his research. i am just vaguely familiar with initiatives and legislatures around the country to introduce or bring back cursive for second graders and third-graders but i don't know much more beyond that. host: one of our viewers mentioned that tennessee passed a law that allows teachers to carry guns at school. how do students feel about that? guest: we did not ask that question to students. we have asked that question in the past to parents and

teachers. we found that teachers roughly 20 percent to 25% of teachers are ok with it but the vast majority would not support that type of policy. we haven't asked that question in at least a year or so. and then parents, by contrast, are more likely to support that type of policy, close to 55% to 60% at some level somewhat support and there are differences between parent and teacher attitudes around that kind of policy. that was a surprise finding as a parent for me when we learned that. that is something and we would try to stay responsive to news developments and policy developments and that is likely to be a question we will bring back and ask about.

host: paul diperna is the vice president at edchoice. thank you for the conversation this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: in 30 minutes, a conversation of the group alliance for safety and justice are nonprofit focused on expanding resources for survivors of crime. first, we will take a break. when we come back, we will be public forum. any public policy on your line -- mind. there are the numbers. start calling. we will be right back. ♪ >> friday nights, watched c-span's 2024 campaign trail, a weekly roundup of the spans campaign coverage providing a one-stop shop to discover what the candidates across the

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>> will you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the troop so hope -- truth so help you god? >> watch as we explore major investigations in our country's history by the u.s. house and senate. authors and historians will tell stories and will see footage from those periods and examine the impacts of key hearings. lawmakers held hearings in 1973 through 1974 to examine events surrounding the 1972 break in at the democratic national committee headquarters at the watergate complex in washington, d.c. the investigation led to the resignation of president richard nixon. watch saturday at 7:00 p.m. on c-span two. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back.

there is a shot of the washington monument on your screen. we will turn out to open forum on the program, any political or public policy issue on your mind , we want to hear about it. republicans (202) 748-8001, dem. -- democrats, (202) 748-8000, independent (202) 748-8002 and you can also text at (202) 748-8003 or join the conversation on facebook.com/c-span or on x at @cspanwj. the aid package approved in the congress, the last hurdle in months of debate in washington

over whether or not to continue funding the military effort on the have -- behalf of ukraine. it passed and the president is expected to sign it and he said he will address the nation about the aid package as well. you can talk about that this morning, abortion, the supreme court taking a look at idaho's abortion ban. live coverage of that on c-span at 10:00 a.m. eastern time and also on our free video mobile app, c-span now or online at c-span.org. that is another topic on the table this morning. sherry in virginia, independent. we were just talking about education for teens in this country and that is also a topic. caller: good morning to all. what i do with the juneteenth virginia organization is we take

our local history as it pertains to how slavery started in america and we dramatize it and this is where it all started. the nation we are today in 2024 started here in virginia in 1607 at jamestown and then 12 years later, 1619, the arrival of the first africans into the new world. now we dramatize that history as a way of getting people to talk about the difficult history of slavery. we basically understand that if we can figure out how to deal with it and exercise it, we are able to move beyond it. we take plays into the schools and churches and have people have conversations about them. we have a play happening on june 19 as a part of the juneteenth celebration at the white house. there will be a play that will feature it harriet tubman,

abraham lincoln, david walker, nat turner, sojourner truth and david walker and they will be waxed in the museum and they will bring in a confederate flag and debate what to do with it. we ask the audience, if you work a resident in this abolitionist museum, would you burn or not burn the confederate flag. we talked about history in ways that are helpful and healing. middle school students are the best and we want to have a whole cast of middle schoolers who would be the historical figures asking the question of fellow citizens what do they think the world should be looking like. we want to make a connection to the past and to the future. back in the 1839 when the nat turner insurrection occurred, it was against the law for black to be taught how to read and write. and that is what we are doing about talking about not having

black history as part of the curriculum. host: i am going to want other calls. thanks for the call. john in somerville, new jersey. caller: i was looking to speak to the gentleman earlier concerning the schools and the young people and students. i will make this quick, 18 years ago i took my grown son to a store that sold popular games. i walked around the entire store and i looked at every row and presented myself to the young man at the counter who was polite and professional and seemed to know what was coming, like he had had this before numerous times. i asked him, where are the games that are fun, that embody educational teaching schools --

tools? he provided in a professional manner that there is no such thing. until this day, there is no such thing. we can do anything, a simple thing to focus on, from palo alto to the colleges and universities and schools, we can come up with anything and everything. that was very simplistic to me and there is still to this day no such thing. host: we are in an open forum and i want to share some headlines. here is the washington times front page this morning, ukraine war aid passes thanks to johnson, the speaker, thanks to johnson's deal, the senate cemented the wind with a vote on the long-awaited bill. ukraine could get weapons within days of this passage. president biden expected to sign

it and address the nation about it this morning. next to that headline is this one, absolute immunity decision will weigh on trumped up charges . the supreme court will take up former president donald trump's absolute immunity defense on thursday and a favorable ruling could nullify many of the criminal charges against him. no other former president has been in his situation. we will have live coverage of that thursday at 10:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span, c-span.org or our free video mobile app. in the evening time, we will get your reaction to the oral arguments here on c-span before we re-air them in their entirety. i want to share another headline related to the former president.

here it is in the new york times this morning, he is about to receive a $1 billion windfall. former president donald trump's already sizable stake in a social media company set to jump by more than one billion and as he is rewarded with additional shares in the parent of truth social, the result of the stock price being high. the windfall comes at a crucial time for mr. trump when he is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in legal bills tied to the multiple cases against him. sophia in new york, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i am an independent and have been all my life. i have been a republican my life but change to independent a year ago. i am quoting, i feel so sorry about mr. trump and why his

daughter -- daughters are the first love their daddy. she came in and said my father, the president. now she is going through this mess. she didn't even show up. i know it is difficult to be inside the courtroom but she could drive the car and in the car and that would have given him a lift in his heart. he will be at 78 years old on june 14 and it is not fair. for me, i am satisfied with what he did. he was arrested and fingerprint, and mugshot. that is enough. all he had to do is pay stuff. you will never go to jail. but what i am waiting now is for jack smith to give us our

democracy, to show us he needs to be punished but not to be family. he needs somebody. host: the judge in the hush money trial is expected to rule on this violation of the gag order possibly today and the president expected in new york and his continued presence there on day seven of this hush money trial. paul, southlake tahoe, california, independent. caller: i have three things i would like to talk about. host: ok. we are listening. caller: if you get cold up the -- pull up the picture of marjorie taylor greene green when we make my point.

host: we don't have all that at our fingertips but make your point. caller: i don't agree with lindsey graham very much at all but the speech he made yesterday it made a lot of sense to me. host: about what? caller: the speech about the state of the world come really -- world, really. host: if we do not provide aid to ukraine? caller: all of it. all the way from the top down to the bottom. host: ok. margie is a democratic caller in leavenworth, kansas. caller: i would like to say

there was a small miracle i noted and it didn't get much press but the miracle was nasa in our voyager and it turned back on. one of our these probes turned back on. it is unbelievable and we need to celebrate knowledge and the wonderful web telescope. we need to incorporate it into hope for the world and knowledge that we can see our universe. i was very touched almost to tears. the second thing i would like to say, i used to work counsel for jewish elderly when i was a nurse and i can't believe how israel is acting. you can't just bomb people who can't move. that is unbelievable and i know they had a problem earlier and that was terrible with hamas.

i wouldn't support that. but what i am saying is that we should not be giving money to a genocide and it is absolutely a genocide when you don't want people to eat, when you're bombing children. after the munich incident, it was row how israel went out and found the people that did the harm at the olympics. they didn't just bomb the whole world, they found the people that did the deed. you don't go in there and bomb children and use our money. i am very disappointed we have anything to do. i am sure israel can get their own money now. host: the new york times front page, united nations estimates famine will probably set in i may in gaza -- by may in gaza, the a package approved by the senate yesterday and the

president expected to pass or sign into law today includes humanitarian aid for gaza and includes 26.4 billion dollars for israel and humanitarian aid in gaza, $60 billion for ukraine and $8.1 billion for allies in the indo pacific region. let's hear from jane's, ohio, independent. caller: good morning, greta. i am glad to spend went into a delay and it probably helps you out. i wanted to talk about the previous subject. i taught for years in middle school and adult add. it would be great if you had a follow-up to something like, i know you rebroadcast npr's freedom to choose on economics but it would be great if you could have a series like that devoted to education that ran in the evening or saturday or

sunday morning. a lot of parents are working in children are in school but i think it would be a lot more germane input if they could run a series in the evening. what you have done with the studentcam's is great and maybe you could do something like that as a topic for studentcam's. on the guns, careful how that question is phrased. schools need to be hardened. there needs to be access to a firearm by trained people. that is a lot different than teachers carrying guns that would be crazy. host: i want to share the results of the pennsylvania primary yesterday. here is the philadelphia inquirer, joe biden presumptive nominee for the democratic party the winner with 89.2% of the vote.

dean phillips garnered 6.6 percent, nearly 70,000 votes in the primary. the former president declared the winner there with 82.5%. and nikki haley who dropped her bid against former president almost 157,000 votes, 16.4% voted for her in yesterday's pennsylvania primary. you up next, we'll be joined by aswad thomas of the group, alliance for safety and justice, a nonprofit focused on expanding resources for survivors of crime. stay with us for that conversation. ♪

>> american history tv, saturday, on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story at 6:00 p.m. eastern, co-authors, a history with skills and sources for the a.p. history course talking about the history exam, providing strategies for answering questions and analyzing historical documents. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, our american history tv series, congress investigates. looks at historic congressional investigations, changes in policy and law in. 1973 and 1974. lawmakers examined events surrounding the 1972 break-in at the demographic headquarters at the watergate hotel in washington, d.c. the investigation led to the resignation of president richard nixon in august of 1974. and on lectures in history, university of kansas professor

robert roland on president ronald reagan address to british parliament. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on our program guide or watch online at c-span.org/history. >> do you solemnly swear that in the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> saturday, watch american history tv's congress investigates, as we explore major investigations in our country's history by the u.s. house and senate. each week authors and historians will tell these stories with the historic footage from those periods and we'll examine the legacy of key congressional hearings. this week, lawmakers held hearings in 1973 through 1974 to

examine events surrounding the 1972 break-in at the national committee headquarters at the watergate complex in washington, d.c. the investigation led to the resignation of president richard nixon. host: aswad thomas is at our table this morning. he's the vice president of alliance for safety and justice, the national director of the crime survivors for safety and justice as well. we want to talk about resources for survivors of crime. this is personal for you. tell us your story. guest: thank you so much for having me on. back in 2009, i had just became the first men in my family to graduate college. i was on my way to play professional overseas, but unfortunately, i became a victim of gun violence in harford,

connecticut. i was shot twice and my back and those bullets ended my professional basketball career and nearly my life. like so many victims from the hospital back into the same community where the incident happened with no support, no services, no resourceses to recover from. that incident was changed my life like crime does with so many people with crime. host: what were you doing at the time of this and what were you doing in that community at that time? guest: just leaving the corner store in my neighborhood. just weeks before i was supposed to go overseas to play professional basketball and that incident, my doctors told me about the physical challenges that i would have but nobody ever mentioned the psychological effect of being a victim or dealing with the ptsd, you know, the anxiety, the stress, the

nightmares of that incident. but like so many victims, law enforcement came to visit me several times during that recovery process. but each time that they visited me, it was always about the case. they never asked me how i was doing. they never told me about any victim services that my family could seek out and get support. and they never even told me a victim advocate in their department that were supposed to work with victims like myself and my family were left to deal with that incident on our own. and that started this new journey of working with crime victims across the country. host: what resources were you looking for at the time? guest: like many crime victims, access to things like mental health. i was shot just blocks away from where i lived at. i would have loved to be able to get housing and relocation support to help me move away from that neighborhood, that traumatized myself and my family as well. in addition to that, every state

having victim compensation program that pays for expenses like mental health, counseling, to help with the housing relocation support, but i was never made aware of none of those services, which is the experience of thousands of crime victims across the country of not getting the support, even the person that shot me was also a victim of gun violence four years before i got shot and the doctor that saved my life saved his life as well. just like me, he was released from that same hospital back into that same community but with no support and i strongly feel like his unaddressed trauma played a huge role in my shooting years later. host: what evidence do you have that these resources are needed and on what scale? guest: i travel across the country and meeting with victims, fans with loved ones, and meeting victims with domestic violence and sexual

assault, crime across the country, especially in communities that are most harmed by violence. those communities and those individuals are least supported by the justice system, are least supported by system. so many organizations that are doing incredible work helping victims navigate the justice system, helping to provide grief counseling and support. so many of those organizations don't have the resources that's needed to help support crime victims. so our organization works to organize and train those survivors and organizations to be advocates to invest in more resources. host: why don't they have the resources? guest: when they look at crime and violence in this country, especially in communities of color that are most impacted by violence, we have been disrespected and disregarded for decades. the way that crime policy has been designed in this country, it doesn't protect the people who are most harmed by violence,

and the resources that has been coming into communities for decades don't actually go to people that need it the most. so there are racial disparage that exists in victim services and who actually gets help or not. host: why aren't they getting the resources? guest: so many policy barriers that exists. for example, the victim compensation program, every state have a victim compensation program to help pay for things like funeral and burial expenses and to when the housing relocation that i mentioned, to help change the door locks. every sedate has that program and it is known as the last resort. if you don't have any resources to cover a funeral for your loved one who lost their life to violence, last program that exists to help people but the challenging with that is that we did a survey of thousands of

crime victims across the country and over 96% of victims did not access the victim compensation program. so most people don't know about it. in order to be eligible, in some state, you have to file a police report within 48 hours or 72 hours after becoming a victim of a crime. if you meet that threshold, in some states you only have a year or two to apply for the program. those are barriers that exists in policies. if you or a loved one is on probation or if you owe fines or fees, you're not eligible to access the victim compensation program and there are policies and barriers where law enforcement deem that you contribute to your own victim accusation. so you're not able to get access

to compensation. so those are some of the barriers that exists. most will not be able to access the program because of policy barriers. host: you were in the hospital -- there was a 48-hour policy in your case. you were in the hospital for how long? guest: i was in the hospital for a week. and i didn't know about the victim compensation program until 10 years after i became a victim of a violent crime when i joined my organization. but i come from a family of victims. my father was shot and my older brother was shot and i have two cousins that were shot. and we all plenty of interactions with the justice. , but none that led to any help or services for us to deal with those experiences of being victims.

host: we want our callers to join in. we want to hear your story or chime in. remember all of you can text us, include your first name, city and state to 202-748-8003. so these policies, are they drafted on a city, county, state or federal level? guest: every state is unique. every state is different. for example, in the state of michigan, we passed a law just last year to extend the time limit for victims to file for the program in places like florida, we've passed the law back in 2019 to remove some of those policy barriers. so at the federal level, there are guidance, but each -- guidelines but each state is different. so that's why i've dedicated my

life to working with crime victims, training them to understand. to remove those barriers and increase access to victim compensation. host: how are your groups funded? guest: we are nonprofit organization. we get funded from foundations. we don't receive any government funding. we are grassroots organization. we have chapters of crime survivors which is our national network of victims of crimes. host: tell us about, you mentioned this but your 2022 survivor speak report survey that you did. what did you find out? guest: yeah, in that report -- so we actually did this report back in 2016. it was the first time there was a survey that actually asks victims what were their views on

safety injustice? in 2022, we did that very similar report again as well. there's a few key findings that we find just from talking with crime victims on safety injustice. most prefer a justice system that focus on rehabilitation and shorter prison sentences rather than long sentences. the majority of crimes victims prefer that a justice system focus more on things like prevention, like community supervision rather than locking people up for a long time but we also found out that the justice system isn't helping crime victims. host: there is a victims of crime act. it was passed by congress in 1984 and amended in 1988, established the office for

victims of crime which is charged by congress with administering the crime victims fund that you've been talking about. the crime victims provides assistance and compensation program that offers support for those affected by violent crime. the crime victims fund balance is over $1.2 billion. is that negetting allocated? guest: that one, you know, that money, there's not a lot of resources for crime victims. so when i joined my organization back in 2015, the crime victims fund has increased from $745 million to about $2.3 be. so the cap had quadrupled in revenue to support crime victims over the past few years, the revenue and the cap have been decreasing every year. so currently, we are in a current crisis when it comes to supporting crime victims and many organizations across the countries are having to shut their doors, having to decrease

services because of the decrease the crime victims fund. host: we have a caller from new jersey. welcome to the conversation. go ahead. caller: thank you so much for having me this morning. first off, mr. thomas, i applaud you for your work. i do the same work here in north new jersey. and one thing i would love to just point out is that the victims -- the survivors of crime, those police that persecute those crimes, they are hardly ever held accountable. i deal with case after case where cops commit the horrific crimes and there's reposition of it basically other cities that's surrounding other areas, mr. thomas. second, this reaches a lot of survivors of crime, they do not get basic housing from skills,

so just the support that they get from crimes. there are so many lack of resources that we do not have in our community. so applaud the work that you do and i apologize for you becoming a survivor of crime and anything that we can do in support your mission, we're always there for you, brother, and thank you and have a good day. guest: thank you. and newark is doing incredible work as well. host: alicia, columbia, maryland, a survivor. alicia. caller: hello, greta. i think i'm calling on the wrong line. host: oh, ok. caller: forgive me. i'm so sorry about your situation that -- to happen to you. i'm so sorry. i'm native-american and we need help we are in a situation where we do not allow our officials to

prosecute outside of our reservation. they rape our women, they do the same with our girls and now, the illegals are coming into one of the reservations that i have heard last week into montana. and they are bringing drugs and since the reservation is large, they don't have enough police to patrol, you know, and those drug dealers are very smart. they call the police and say oh, we need help over here. and the police go there and of course, they do their dirty job elsewhere. so, what the supreme court and

all the officials from washington have to do is get this done. give us the authority to prosecute those who do awful stuff to us and we've been begging for this and there were two -- i'm sorry, i'm getting so loud -- host: it's so loud. alicia, we understand. guest: yeah, and thank you for sharing that. and we do need to invest more in, you know, in policies. we need to invest more holding people accountable. accountability and healing and prevention is key into these issues. so we actually can, you know, provide the resources to invest in more from violent crime which is what we are hearing from native communities and communities of color instead of spending so much resources and incarcerating people for

non-violent crimes as well. host: tom from indiana. hi, tom. are you a survivor? caller: yes, i am. host: ok. would you care to share your story? caller: sure, i'll share it it's kind of related. i really think it is. i'm going to try to make it fast. several years ago, a person broke into my garage, stole a bicycle and a bunch of meat on my refrigerate. aswad, i apologize. i know your case is a lot more serious than this. but it's kind of related. the perpetrators or the thief broke into the house, stole my things. they arrested him. so the police did a very good job of catching him. i had a bicycle that was stolen. so they called me in to press charges. i had no idea who the thief was. so they told me and unbeknowing

to me, he was arrested with a kid. well, i was a teacher. i had the kid in my classroom. and i went to -- it says god, you can't put us in this position. so the other victim is the child. so i took it upon myself to not press charges but i wanted an alternative said to let him go. he stole my bicycle, but let's see if we can find an alternative. so they did send me to victim person. but the prosecutor assistant took me into a courtroom with a lot of judge and people sitting in a jury. said look at this guy. he's going to drop charges for this thief and i said oh, i'm not talking to you at that time. i got pretty disrupted with him. went back, went to the main

prosecutor. i said certainly you guys could do something. well, they sent me to the victim advocate. i told the victim advocate, i said let's be creative here. i got this kid in school. he can hardly read. this father is not -- doesn't have a job. let's give him some community service with this kid. send him to the y or bring him to my school and in the hallway, he could tutor for his kids for two or three days a week which is a lot better than going to jail. host: ok, tom, i'm going to have aswad thomas jump in. thank you. caller: and thank you so much for sharing your story. trauma imall of -- trauma impacts all of us. we prefer different alternatives rather than just locking people up.

it is the important work that our organization is doing across the country. and what justice looks like. so it is our goals, our alternatives to incarceration. host: robert in connecticut. robert? caller: yes. i guess i want to ask him some questions. will he give me some personal information about -- he said he's from connecticut. is he -- i believe he said he's from harford, connecticut. so, i wanted to ask him questions about that. host: and what about it, robert? caller: ok. ok. i just want to get right to my point without being disrespectful to him. i used to run there because i

was a drug addict all through hartford. i guess my question is he's a college graduate. he comes home. the question would be does he have a car? and he must know the areas that he shouldn't be going to. so, i don't want to put it on him. he probably was an innocent guy. he got shot. i want him to know if he had enough sense not to go down that corner store. guest: thank you for asking that question. yes, i am from hartford, connecticut. i grew up from the same street where i got shot at. a community that has been devastated by poverty and devastated by a lack of education opportunity and lack of job. the community has been riddled by crime and violence for decades. one thing that i haven't seen in that community growing up and including when i got shot is i

invested in things that actually keep communities safe. invested in programs, invested in helping people get back to work. but most importantly, invested in things that help people heal and recover from violence. and those are the things that a community like hartford and so many communities across the country need in well-being which stops the violence and helping people get back to work and also get housing as well. host: i don't know if you asked this question but maybe you can say do people have a choice about where they are at that time? where they're living in these communities? guest: you know, i was shot in the community that i grew up. i love my community. and my story is not unique. there are so many crime victims of gun violence and domestic violence and sexual assault. for years, we invested billions of dollars into the justice

system. billions of incarceration but we're not safer. what if we were to take a dollar on -- and reverse that and invest more into communities? invest more in schools, invest more in programs? we can, you know, prevent a lot of crime from happening but unfortunately, our priorities are wrong in this country. we're not invested in communities but instead, we're invested in a justice system that doesn't keep us safe. host: a question from david. was a crime victim twice my life. guest: every state has a victim

compensation program. you can go to the website to look up where you can get counseling and support through the victim compensation program. and so many victims like myself, i had thoughts of retaliation. that is often a natural response when you have been harmed. but the things that changed my life, that teenager was a victim of gun violence at 14 years old. and as a result, he lost sight in his left eye. and just like me, he reached back into that same community with no support. and i strongly believe his unaddressed trauma played a huge role in my incident years later.

that leads the victimization to incarceration pipeline. host: they have been a victim themselves. is that true? >> nine of 10 have been a victim of violent crime long before they came in contact with the justice system and they were not recognized as victim then and that trauma caused people to lash out, often cause people to become victims again or become in contact with the justice which we see far too often. host: danielle? caller: yes. host: good morning to you. caller: good morning. so, i just wanted to put a little bit of my story out there. in 2018, my house was broken into and i was pretty much

almost killed. the person who did it, they were arrested for attempted murder/homicide, premeditated. now, i have thought and thought and thought for years in the court -- fought and fought and fought in the court system. the minimum was 15-20 years the experience i had was absolutely horrible. the state prosecutor basically had me, you know, say they were tired of dealing with the case. the person who had done this to me had basically, revolves around attorneys and lawyers and all that other stuff going through. i guess he knew every loophole in the book to go for just to drag this out and drag this out and drag this out. and basically, he only got 12 years. now, the damages that i have from that, i mean, i had the back of my head split open. i spent six months with no memory. and it's people like me who are

scared of those people getting out because even though he did get put in jail and was incarcerated, there was threat letters coming to my home. he had actually had people come out and he was charged with this as well but no added time, took the lug nuts off my vehicle. thank god i wasn't driving my vehicle when it happened but i lost my tires. you had people like me who are terrified when that due date comes for them to come out of that jail. and there's nothing left for me to do about it, you know? i mean, he had a conflict of interest with the attorney because he claims he was a satanist. and now, i have three children. and so, at this point in time, like it's a literal fear of this person coming out and coming back to find me. and i don't know what else there is to do, you know?

so some of these people that have done things like this, i do believe should be basically put away as long as you possibly can. i've gone to the point of even thinking that i need to change my last name. host: ok. danielle's story there. aswad thomas. guest: and thank you for sharing, danielle. and this experience of so many crime victims that haven't found justice in our criminal justice system and justice should be rooted in accountability and in healing. when you are a victim of a crime as i experienced as danielle just mentioned, these are long-term affects that you have to deal with every single day. the mental health challenges that we experience were also just a spear as well. for most crime victims, there are two things that we want the most. we want what happened to us to never happen again and we want

what happened to us to never happen to someone else. so we do need to hold people up accountable. we also need to help crime victims like myself and danielle heal and recover and that's where we need to invest our resource in helping crime victims get back to the safety and support that they need. host: aswad thomas, why are you in washington, d.c.? guest: i'm here in washington, d.c. as i mentioned, the offices victims of crimes is doing incredible work and supporting a lot of states and helping organizations in crime victims access services. so i'm here in d.c. tomorrow as part of national crime victims rights. i will be receiving a award as a 2024 survivor for the work that i've been doing across the country and the work that my organization has been doing alliance for safety and justice this past decade.

it's great to be in washington, d.c. to celebrate crime victims week and to be acknowledged for the work that i've been doing this past decade of my life, which is to help crime victims like me across the country get access and the support that they need. host: thank you to coming to the "washington journal" and being a part of the conversation this morning. guest: thank you so much for having me. host: aswad thomas is the vice president for alliance for safety and justice and the director of the crime survivors for safety injustice. thank you very much. when we come back, more of your phone calls. we'll be in open forum again. any public policy or political issue on your mind, there for the knucks on your screen. start dialing in. we'll be right back. >> thursday, the u.s. supreme court hears oral argument in the case on whether former president

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continues. host: and we are back in open forum until the top of the hour. we'll start with this news in the hill newspaper. speaker johnson from the hill. hundreds of students have occupied columbia's campus for days protesting the administration for hamas war backing a cease-fire and urging congress to stop sending military aid to israel. speaker mike johnson is visiting the university to meet with jewish students as the university faces massive pro-palestine protests that have drawn national spotlight. you can also talk about that this morning here in open forum. and then front page of "the wall street journal" this morning. a "wall street journal" reporter that has been detained by russia, the headline is under this picture -- he shaped a heart with his hands after

hearing in moscow tuesday the court rejected the appeal against his detention. the state department has declared him wrongfully detained. and "the wall street journal" this morning in their newspaper, full page this morning as they've done many mornings in their paper. i stand with evan is the hashtag. it has been 392 days since our friend and colleague was wrongfully detained by russia. john, we're in open forum. caller: i think we've been talking about what's going on in columbia university and other issues with speakers going there to talk to jewish students, i think, i think a lot of it have been -- i think a lot of plane

palestinianans have been fed up with the bombing in israel but i think the issue of what happened in october 7 is a very horrible issue that jewish americans have been dealing with. i hope they are able to find a middle ground solution. and the problem with these two crisis, people are using them for different issues of political things. but the sad thing what's going on in israel is you deal with this fight over the hostages. and it's getting to the palestinian issue and both have really strong gripes that are fair. but also i feel that what's going on with some of the

students in some parts of the palestinian community and supporting hamas, i don't think they realize how iran in that issue has basically used it as an issue to go out jews and a form of anti-jewishism that is very wrong. host: martha, akron, ohio, republican. martha? caller: yes. i wanted to talk about something positive. it's so negative right now. but it's the opportunity zones that were put into place under donald trump in 2017. it is a work, a tax cut bill of 2017 which was initiated by cory booker and tim scott from florida. they weren't seeing any growth in impoverished area after the great recession.

so they decided to collaborate with the government and investors to go into impoverished communities and get economic developers, tax incentives to bill there. the states had to nominate them. there was 8,764 impoverished areas where the annual income was like $37,000. and, you know, a lot of other things. and this has created after three years, 50% of these places seen growth. i'll talk about north minneapolis. there was a black developer that was wanting to develop north minneapolis but he had no funds. and by using this opportunity in, he was able to bring in what you call workforce housing. you know, trump is not given credit. this is 8,764 communities in

united states that people talk about infrastructure. this has put into place to bring jobs there. it was polarized by the left because it was done under trump. and, you know, i'm just putting something out there that everybody needs a job and the people in north minneapolis, they were crying when they seen this opportunity zone come. i live in cleveland. highway 10 was put in by donald trump into an opportunity zone in a very poor area of cleveland. my husband's company put it in. so i know this. and, you know, trump was for american people. he got 30,000 people out of prison. first step. only 12% went back in. this is done under normal circumstances. 42,000 -- i mean, 42% go back in. people need to wake up.

the democrats are not for us. they just let 15 million people into this country. and they're going to be taking jobs from us. host: ok. all right. martha's comments there in ohio. "wall street journal" this morning. abortion returns to the supreme court. the issue in the court would be whether a ball from law supersedes a state ban in dire cases. this is the idaho abortion ban punishable by two to five years in prison with narrow exceptions, including if a woman's life is in danger. many doctors say that ecstatic inception isn't easy to apply the law will be at the spotlight at the supreme court today. when the justices consider one of the most pressing questions to emerge since they eliminated the federal constitutional right to an abortion two years ago.

under what circumstances can women with serious pregnancy complications obtain abortions in state where is the procedure is banned? the case centers on a biden administration lawsuit that argues idaho's ban fails to provide adequate legal cover to medical emergency the high court is hearing an appeal but idaho avalor courts blocked the state ban to the extent it prevented emergency abortions. at begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. listen to the oral arguments here on c-span. mark in mansfield, ohio, democratic caller. mark? caller: if we don't support ukraine, we need to start teaching our children to speak russian. thank you. host: mark there, talking about aid to ukraine. it was a part of a foreign aid

package. $95 billion that was approved after months of debate in congress, approved by the senate yesterday in a vote of 79-18. president biden will sign it into law and address the american people today on that aid package. liz cheney is sitting down with john meacham discussing how leaders can put principle ahead of politics. and that will be live. you can live from the national -- washington national cathedral at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. you can watch on c-span, c-span now or c-span.org. mary in grand rapids, michigan, an independent. hi, mary. caller: hi. hi. yeah. i'm an oldster. and i guess i want to bring -- to have people remember what

happened at ohio state when some very courageous young people decided to protest the war in vietnam and they were actually, i believe, it was the national guard that actually executed them. whether it was intentional or not, i don't know. and that is the question, isn't it, folks? that our young people are protesting here and we're calling it the palestinian but i think our young people are saying that we need to just take care of our own country. stay out of other country's business. stay out of that natural gas field that's off the coast there the mediterranean that all of

our leaders seem to have their eye on. and always remember. you're getting propaganda now because of what was passed by this congress. so all of the media is compromised. it's very hard for you to get the real facts. but these young people know how to dig into that. thank you. host: all right, mary. dennis in san francisco. hi, dennis, independent caller. we're in open forum. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i hope you're ok today. just a little bit of background. my name disingenuous bernstein -- my name is dennis bernstein. and my uncle is dr. leo. he argued some of the key cases before the supreme court on the separation of church and state. he also supported the palestinians' right to have a state.

i was shocked that we learn about the killing of the international -- the opening flyer on that international kitchen in gaza. on that same day, the united states sent 18,200 pound bunker busters and 50 fighter jets to israel. how could one possibly believe what the president says that when he's sending that kind of stuff over, when we're already facing 34,000 dead. we don't know how many missing, how many people are buried under the rubble. and we are seeing children, women, slaughtered. how can we believe that the president is concerned if he keeps shipping over this massive amount of weaponry? and finally, i want, i really

want you to check this fact. since 1990, the current president of the united states has been the number one recipient of israeli-backed money. please, check this out, c-span. and then answer the question. how can you support a president who is the number one recipient of money from lobbies from israel? thank you so much for taking my call. host: dennis's opinion there in san francisco. the foreign aid package includes $26.3 billion for israel and humanitarian aid to gaza. this is how it breaks down. $13 billion of it to israel for defense activities. $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid, along with a $3.6 billion in security assistance.

let's hear from juanita in cincinnati, ohio, democratic caller. hi. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you all doing this morning? host: doing well. what's on your mind? we're in open forum. caller: ok. i know. and i've been in the hospital for the past six months, and i've had a lot of time. i'm 72 now. and i've had a lot of time to go over the facts of this israel-hamas situation. but two things that have stood up in my mind and the number one thing today is mike johnson is our politician taking sides to -- now, i don't have a problem with mike johnson going to speak to the jewish students today. but why wouldn't he speak as well to the palestinian american

students as well? host: ok. you got to mute your television as a reminder. i want to bring you up to the supreme court. we are just minutes away before they take up oral arguments in an abortion policy coming out of idaho. they're banned there. whether or not it violates federal law. this is the scene outside of the court this morning. >> we're going to get started in just a little bit. host: again, the supreme court will hear oral argument of this case, of whether or not a federal law that allows for emergency abortion health care hospitals preempt idaho's state law. live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern time right here on c-span, on our website, c-span.org or our app, c-span now. fred in maryland, republican.

fred? caller: good morning, greta. good morning, everybody. i got a lot to say in a short bit of time. we're witnessing election interference and people's complaining about our threat to our democracy. president trump held that protest on january 6 to point this very thing out. joe biden's doing it right in public. he's the number three guy from d.o.j. is his, is sitting there helping brag out in new york. he's not conflicted. c-span, the fact checker weenie that took off when joe biden became president. he says there's no connection at all. this is all b.s.! everything they're doing. and one more thing. please, start cover the current president. i mean, he's so corrupt. and also, i'd like to leave with the hamas, the palestinian thing. not one palestinian has denounced hamas. none of them are answer for the hostages release. you guys, they're sitting there holding them and you're blaming

israel. israel are being placed in front of them and you guys are blaming the one people that we're in line with over there. host: fred's thoughts there in maryland. in other news front page of "the washington post." california swamped by solar. solar panels are everywhere. you can see them on roofs in homes in this picture. they are scattered over roof tops in los angeles's urban center. but now the state in its grid operators are grappling with the reality. on sunny spring days, electricity prices go negative. giga watts of solar are curtailed, essentially thrown away. "washington post" this morning, if you'd like to read more on that. there's also this front page of "u.s.a. today." world leaders debate a treaty on

plastics. 49 million tons of plans were produced in 2019. that number is up from two million in 1950. less than 10% is estimated to be recycled. a majority has heads to landfill. and 33 million pounds of plastics are washed into the ocean every year. about two garbage trucks worth of plastic every minute. the world leaders contemplating a plastic treaty two days after earth day. and there's also this story in the national section of the "new york times." democrats see water as an issue to win over rural arizona voters. giant farms have turned arizona's remote deserts about 100 miles west of phoenix as

green as fairways. the products of extracting an ocean of ground water to grow alfalfa for dairy cows the pumping is seeking poorer rural towns. the ground has dropped more than five feet during three decades of farming. price and home foundations are cracking and wells are running dry. "new york times" this morning reporting on that. we are in open forum this morning, getting your thoughts on any of these public policy issues, environmental, abortion, aid to ukraine, israel and taiwan, that passed last night. and in the senate, headed to the president's desk, he's expected to approve that today. president was in tampa, florida, yesterday for a campaign event talking about abortion in that state. take a listen.

pres. biden: look, next week, one of the nation's extreme anti-abortion law is taking affect in florida. it's come alive before a woman even know they're pregnant. i mean, this is bizarre. i can put -- you can put a doctor in prison if shtakes care of a patient. this extreme florida law is going to impact four million, four million women in the state of florida. florida is one of the states in america where american, you can't get access you need for care. one in three women throughout the united states of america have this limitation. for 50 years, the court ruled that there is a fundamental constitutional right to privacy. but two years ago, that was taken away. let's be real clear. there's one person responsible for this nightmare and he's

acknowledging and he brags about it. donald trump. in fact, trump's bragged about it overturning roe v. wade which means there's no federal right. no decision could be made. all those decision made is state level. so every state can make a decision. now trump says the law is "working their way it's supposed to." trump goes on to say the state laws are working his words, brilliantly. brilliantly. it's a six-week ban in florida. it's really brilliant, isn't it? before women know they're pregnant is that brilliant? just take a look at arizona. that goes all the way back to 1864 before arizona was even a state and before women had a right to vote concluding that that's the law of the land in arizona. and today, republicans refuse to repeal that ban in arizona.

trump was literally taking us back 160 years. he says it's up to the state. this is all about state's rights. but he's wrong. the supreme court was wrong. this should be a constitutional right and a federal execution, a federal right. [applause] and it shouldn't matter where america lives. this isn't about states rights. it's about women's rights. host: that was president biden in florida yesterday at a campaign event. christine in cedar rapids, iowa. we're in open forum what's on your mind? caller: hi. well, i just wanted to raise a little bit of concern here for our country. you know, first and foremost, we have fundamental liberties. and i don't know if people realize that or not. but our government is here to protect and defend us. not everybody else. us first. and they don't put the american

people above any other culture or nationality. that means that they are not upholding the oates that they had sworn to. and even before the execution, we had laws of nature and nature's law. and i just wanted to leave it at that. host: christine, what are you preferring to specifically? oh, we lost christine. any public policy issue, we'll take it before the supreme court begins the oral argument today. that will happen a little after 10:00 a.m. eastern time. so we'll continue hearing from all of you this morning about the debates here in washington and across the country. one of them was yesterday in the senate when they debated and unanimously -- not unanimously, excuse me, overwhelmingly, that's the adjective, approved this foreign aid package for israel, taiwan and ukraine. most of the $95 billion going to

ukraine. $60 billion of it. there were 31 republicans who voted for the bill this time, compared to just 22 who supported a similar version back in february. 15 republicans voted against it. one of them was jd vance, republican of ohio. and here's what he had to say about this legislation on the floor yesterday. >> there's this weird way where the debate in this country has gotten warped, where people can't engage in good faith disagreement with our ukraine policy. you will immediate i will be attacked for being on the wrong team, for being on the wrong side. i present as a young conservative high schooler, how opponents from the conservative side of the iraq war where year all just for saddam hussein and you believe in -- you believe that he should be allowed to continue to brutalize the iraqi

people. you have no love for these innocent iraqi people. you don't believe in america. and the same exact arguments are being flied today that you're a fan of vladimir putin if you don't like our ukraine policy. or you're a fan of some terrible idea because you think maybe america should be more focused on the border of its own country than on someone else's. this warped fever, this inability for us to actually process what's going on in our world to make rational decisions is the scariest part of this entire debate. you see people who serve their country, who have been advocating for good and public policies agree or disagree with them for their entire careers smeared as agents of a foreign government simply because they don't like what we're doing in ukraine. that's not good faith debate. that is slander. and it's the type of slander

that's going to leave us to make worse and worse decisions. it should make us all feel pretty weird when you see your fellow americans making an argument and the response is no, here's why you're wrong or here's why i disagree with you. but they are saying you're a putin puppet! you're an he's asset of a foreign regime. this way is how we bankrupt this country and start a third world war. we should stop doing it.host: fr yesterday during debate. $95 billion. it heads to the president's desk for his signature. he will sign it today and address the country. carroll, independent. we are in the final minutes of open forum. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a lot of issues, but since we are short on time.

only abortion. i would like to see both sides sit down and come up with a middle ground. because, there has to be a middle ground. we cannot just allow them, but we can't just allow them to up to the minute of birth neither. until both sides gets to the middle, it will be constantly backwards and forth. backwards and forth. as far as what is going on with trump, this is a way to take him out and damage him more than what needs to be. they talk about the constitution. also -- i think it is the bill of rights, the eighth one, something about the fines not being excessive. that is what we are seeing. host: got your point. we are going to leave it there because we are after 10:00.

the supreme court will begin their oral arguments soon. we want to bring you up to the supreme court, outside of the building where folks have gathered ahead of today's oral argument. live coverage here on c-span. change must waiting for the start of the supreme court oral argument looking at whether federal laws on emergency abortion health care and hospital supersedes state-passed abortion bans. looking outside the court before the supreme court begins in meme versus the united states, you are watching -- you are watching c-span.

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>> tell me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> tell me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> our body, our mind, our decision, our court. our bodies, our lives, our decisions, our court. [crowd cheering] >> i don't care if -- [ indiscernible]