>> this morning, policymakers and philanthropists gather to discuss conservatism in american politics at an event hosted by the national review institute. live coverage starts at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span2 and you can watch on the free c-span now video app or online at www.c-span.org. >> yesteay, a new york rancheria voted to indict former president donald trump for his role in hush money payment is ma to an adult film actress during his 2016 presidential campaign. we will get your reactions this morning by taking yo calls, text, tweets and facebook comments live on the air. "washington journal" is next. ♪

host: for the first time in u.s. history, a former president has been criminally charged. this morning, your reaction to president trump being indicted. the indictment charges, the details are still sealed but we do not know what they are but according to cnn, the 45th president faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud. he is expected to be taken to court tuesday for arraignment. we want to get your reaction to the news this morning. here's how you can dial in. the line for democrats is (202)748-8000, republicans (202)748-8001, and independents (202)748-8002 you can text us your thoughts with your first name, city and state and join us on facebook

c-span or in a tweet. good morning, everyone on this friday, march 31. the district attorney's office put out this statement yesterday. it's been reported he will be arraigned tuesday, april 4, 2 p.m. eastern time. the former president issued this statement - this is political rsecution and election inter-parents at the highest level in history. from the time i came down the golden escalator a trump tower before being sworn in, the radical left, democrats, the enemy of the hard-working men

and women of thisry have been engaged in a witchhunt to destroy the make america great again movement. this is the headline on many of the newspapers across the country with two simple words -- trump indicted. the des moines register says trump indicted in 2016 payments. out of california, the deseret news in palm springs, trump indicted. the atlanta journal-constitution

with the same two words and the detroit news as well. pamela and dixon, tennessee, democratic caller, let's hear from you first, good morning and go ahead. caller: good morning, host: what's your reaction to the news? caller: i am a baby boomer and of the generation where we grew up it was the 60's before the censorship would allow a bad guy to get away. the bad guy always got caught in the movies or died in the end. it was a strong sense among as baby boomers of right and wrong. that's why i want to see someone who has done of a lot of illegal things be held accountable and i hope it will not cause a lot of violence since he's the type of

person who tries to generate violence. i hope everyone can remain calm and follow the law. i don't know why he thinks he is above the law. anyone should be convicted of a crime with evidence. he was trying to steal the election without any evidence and appoints to the fact that they are trying to steal the election. it's a sad day for america and i hope people can keep their violence down. people who protested for him last time are already in jail. it's too bad they went to jail and the person who started the protest didn't go to jail. i don't know why they are not angry about that or why they want to help a dictator take over our country. i hope everyone will remain calm and not cause violence and not cause any damage or not harm the d.a.

the republican party wants to break down law and order and break down these officials in mr. trump is calling for violence against the d.a. i hope everyone remains calm . host: security is definitely being ratcheted up in d.c. and new york, in florida around mar-a-lago as well. on your screen is protesters outside the manhattan district attorney office last night. then you had pro-trump protesters in mar-a-lago last night. we will see what those two scenes look like and how they unfold this morning. new york police officers have been told to be in uniform today so authorities are expecting more protesting. hopefully, it will be peaceful protesting.

cindy in connecticut, republican. caller: good morning. i just want to say that every time joe biden is getting himself into trouble, something happens like this. i suppose nobody will talk about or you will have a segment about how china, i ran and saudi arabia will trade oil in the yen and another u.s. dollar. our cash will be worth nothing soon. let's go indict trump so we can take the focus on the mess this president made and after everything this country has been through, we are a euro entity for the american people. we want to tear each other apart. host: can i ask you -- do you think this deserves to be front page news across the country? caller: of course it does.

it's big news. i'm going to hear this to death ad nausea. no one is above the law except for hillary clinton who also violated -- had violation laws. she was left with a fine but they don't go to jail. do you see the difference? host: what happens once the former president is in custody? this is the question posed in the washington post. this is the answer --

one restriction -- that could be in place from vice news -- bob in oak grove, missouri,

independent, hi there. caller: good morning. this is a sad day for our country for sure because we have seen the republicans take party over country many times. now, the republicans are taking a criminal over our country. there is no doubt donald trump did this. the republicans are raving that it's a campaign donation, it's not. it is actually a case of host: a case of what? caller: i want to say they are finding him for lying on business papers. it's not the contribution that is a problem here. it's that he doctored his is newspapers.

what i want to say is, now that trump is screaming about the mar-a-lago documents that he was really did, he had 1.5 years to turn over the documents and didn't do it. he is the only one that says the documents belong to him and should not be returned. the man is a criminal and it really hurts me being an independent to know that i can vote for a republican already who takes a criminal over the word of law and order. host: did you ever vote for the former president in 2016 or 2020? caller: no, ma'am. since he came down the escalator, i knew he was a criminal then and i will not vote for a criminal. they want to say that the

justice department is after trump for this and that. he has been indicted for other things by the house of representatives. the republicans took party over country once again there. i just hope -- i was watching fox news -- they are getting ready to lose 1.6 dollars for lying, they are lying again. i thank you for taking my call and i hope the republicans will look up and not take a criminal over country. host: ginger, kentucky, democratic caller, you are next. caller: thank you, you are a great host.

let's all remember the little babies and those people that killed by guns. i will rent -- i will remember all the soldiers that got killed in helicopters. it seemed as if you've got to money to pay your way out, you will be free in this country. that's one thing about it. if you are guilty, i don't care if you are democrat or republican, you should go to jail. we have to remember our babies. it's been over and over, our babies are getting killed. host: ginger talking about what happened at that private school in nashville. that is a debate that is happening here in washington

around the country as well. this morning, we are talking about the front page news that broke yesterday. the former president indicted, the first u.s. president in u.s. history to be criminally charged. the wall street journal had this story last night, and exclusive -- conrad in pennsylvania, republican, go ahead. caller: good morning. i haven't called for quite a while. i think we are on another witchhunt. it's unfortunate our former president trump has put up with

this for six years at least. it's costing us taxpayers a lot of money for the democrats to keep prosecuting him. it's a real shame. allegedly, it was $38 million for the russian hoax. we've got to stop them from just arbitrarily punishing people with no real rights. i think what somebody, maybe even speaker mccarthy might have to do is get a bill passed that if you want to bring in a camp somebody like donald trump, great president, i think what they should do is if you lose the case, in this case the democrats, they would have to pay the fees involved instead of the taxpayers paying it. this is really a ridiculous situation. host: why do you think this

potential charge for these charges are ridiculous? do you think he paid the money or do you think even if he did, it's not a crime? caller: we already heard about two months ago that money was paid. he may have had an affair but we don't know what goes on really. the media doesn't really publish truthful information. the point was, was it paid from the campaign funds. in his case, one of his attorneys said it was paid personally. cohen is lying that it was paid from the campaign funds. we can only judge what's going on from what we get from the media. of course, you are pretty good.

host: we don't know. we don't know all the details. i told you that cnn reported there are 30+ county fair. politico notes on that number of 30 counts, they add up quickly. for instance, every one of the 11 checks he wrote to his former lawyer to allegedly reimburse him for the hush money payment could be a separate count. that's where maybe that number in this indictment comes from. a couple of pieces i want to share with you, opinion pieces -- the washington post editorial. this is their view -- this is what they write --

then you have this piece written today in the wall street journal --

eric in california, independent, good morning. caller: yeah, thank god for c-span. it's a bad day for america. this is a bad precedent. i remember back when the supreme court nominees were brought in with respect and as long as they were all a fight, they came in and they were not right or left and now it's almost a war every time. this is unprecedented. criminally charged political enemies especially former president's, the bob guy had it right. he's a crook but they don't know

why, they just want him in jail. i washed my hands of trump after january 6. but now, i'm back on board. host: because of these charges? caller: yeah, he was in idiot on january 6. he let his ego get out of control in my opinion. he needs to keep his mouth shut and let the lawyers do the work and is no way he's going to get 12 people to convict him no matter what. the first thing he said way back when, if i shot somebody in the street in new york, they wouldn't do anything. and they are trying to get them on these charges? this is really bad. host: when he said that he was referring to his poll numbers and his poll numbers have gone up since his indictment. he's been able to raise tens of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars off of this, what was

then a potential indictment and yesterday, and indictment coming down. caller: this is all stuff that preceded his presidency. this is just bad news. it's a bad call and it will have bad results. host: what do you make of the fact that this was an indictment by 23 manhattan nights, the majority of them had to vote in favor of an indictment. you said 12 people will not convict him but a majority of 23 said there should be an indictment. caller: i had always heard the d.a. could indict a ham sandwich. host: that's what they say. caller: i don't put too much credence in that. especially -- we don't know what the charges are yet but if it is some creative attempt to expand the normal use of the law, this is not the time to do that.

the supreme court could be the one to rule on this. then people will say the supreme court is not legit. the whole thing going on withbrix now, congress or make sure they get the money paid. if we default, the dollar could crumble. this is not a good time for this to be going on. host: a republican lawmaker plans to hand out ham sandwiches today. norm in grass valley, california, democratic caller, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well so what is your take on this? caller: he is guilty and he will go to his grave on any subject that arises. i didn't do it, they are going after me, i'm not a criminal, i will survive. when somebody asked me what i thought of trump as he announced

his campaign, what kind of person do you think he is, i had to think about it for a moment and a couple of weeks later, i came to the determination that he is a snake oil salesman, nothing more than that he goes from town to town selling his product, knowing is not good but he doesn't care because it's all for me, it's all my family, i don't care about anybody else. nobody has used the term " moral turpitude." i haven't heard those two words yet applied to trump. i tried to become a teacher years and years ago. i had something in my past that was considered moral turpitude. man, he has manipulated his bank accounts, his real estate holdings, heat sets them up for his personal gain and is minimal

loss. he only cares about himself. he will carry as many [indiscernible] in his pockets as possible but once they turn on him, their careers are over. i commend michael cohefo telling the truth. if in fact it is true and i believe he's telling the truth. host: what you think about the charges? do you think this case should go forward? you heard from a previous caller who said he doesn't think this is worth charging the former president on and this is just political. caller: nobody is above the law. that's a given fact. it should go through, never give

up, it should go through and may the cards fall where they may. donald trump is a flimflam man. he is a misogynist. , egotistical megalomaniac. if you look at his fan base, the dominions that follow him, they are not of the highest intellectual group standing. look at the people that rush the capitol building on january 6. . you cannot go into a public library with a pistol but these people showed up at congress with automatic weapons using tactics only the military uses. host: i will go to eric, columbus, georgia, your turn. caller: thanks for taking my call.

i know i'm not the only one who thought this were the only one who said it but i knew this was coming. i knew it was coming with a tried to get them on one thing and he got away and another thing and he got away. i knew it was coming and i will tell you why. i didn't know much about donald trump before he ran for office. i was fooled by the fact that they said the man was a racist. i just came out and i said no, i saw exactly what was going on. the fact that they are after him and they have been after him since he got on that escalade -- the escalator, i'm sorry. the fact that they are after him only proves that he is not on

the inside. he's not one of these corrupt politicians on the inside. all of them are after him. that shows you he's somebody on the outside. they don't want that man in there because they know he's going to push a lot of them out of their 501's. i think they will try to get him locked up. if other people didn't know, they know it. that man believes in revenge. what i suspect is if he gets back in office, people will be punished. he said that about hillary clinton but he didn't do anything about it. he said she needs to be punished. he will get back in office and these people are afraid. i know i'm not the only one that is thinking this. i hope he gets away because you all eat him so much -- you all hate him so much. host: from the new york times --

that's referring to the investigation in georgia in the former president role there, he tried to overturn the election

and referring to the case in washington on those classified documents that were brought to mar-a-lago. frank, independent, poughkeepsie, new york area we will go to you. caller: thank you. for the last caller, thank you for your opinion. they keep talking about him innocent. you're innocent when you come out of the womb, that's the only time. you are wasting our time with this criminal who needs to face justice like everyone else does, he has to go to court and you have to do the same thing like any ordinary citizen. these maga people say the country will be destroyed as

going to be corruption across the nation. they frighten children with a kind of language, you don't frighten grown men and people that know right from wrong. as far as desantis, i will not ship them to new york because i'm the governor, that's as far as it will get. host: referring to the florida governor saying he would not extradite the former president. some reaction from republicans across the country this morning, we will share that with you this morning onthe "washington journal" as we take your calls and reaction to the unprecedented indictment against the former president. let's start with his former vice president, mike pence. he was on cnn for a scheduled

interview before this news broke. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> i think the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states in a campaign-finance issue. is an outrage it appears to millions of americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution that's driven by a prosecutor who literally ran for office on the pledge to indict the former president. >> excuse me for interrupting, it wasn't just the prosecutor or the district attorney in new york, this was a grand jury of 23 people, a majority of 12 to go ahead and criminally indicted. >> i understand that and it's been a long time since i've been in law school but i remember the old saying, you can indict a ham sandwich. the burden of proof is very low. prosecutors make decisions about what they bring all the time. federal prosecutors passed on this. manhattan d.a. initially delayed

it and passed on it. when you have an attorney general in new york, a manhattan d.a. that targets one particular american in their campaign, i think that offends the notion of the overwhelming majority of the american people who believe in fairness, who believe in equal treatment before the law and this appears to be just one more example of the kind of two-tier justice system that the american people have had enough of. >> the trump-pentz justice department charged trump's former attorney michael: over these very same payments. i'm quoting from the trump justice department -- in coordination and at the direction of donald trump. he spent more than a year in prison, was that a crime? >> i can see that lying to congress is a crime. >> that wasn't the only charge.

>> i'm traveling around the country a lot and we are going through the process of making decisions about our future. >> we will get to that. >> i was in i would yesterday and i was in three different cities and even though this has been in the news over the last two weeks, and issues about me and another investigation were in the news, not one person raise this issue to me. the media obsession about these investigations into donald trump, i think it's being lost on the american people who are struggling under the weight of the failed policies of the biden administration. i think the american people will look at this and see it as one more example of criminalization of politics in this country. it's one more example of the drama the captures washington, d.c. >> you are a law and order politician. if trump is convicted of these

crimes he's being charged with, should that disqualify him from being a republican presidential nominee or should he drop out? >> it's a long way to that decision. i promise to answer that decision if that approach happens. host: the former vice president reacting to the news last night on cnn. on that last question, can the former president run for president in 2024? the washington post says, is never been attempted by another candidate for major party before, resin trump is allowed to run for president under indictment or if he is convicted of a crime. reaction from democrats -- here is the leader of the democrats in the senate, chuck schumer of new york.

you had adam schiff which is part of the team of democrats who attempted or impeached the former president. we want to know your take on this news this morning. the former president indicted. brian in buffalo, new york, democratic caller. caller: thanks for having me. good morning. i think we just need to strip the politics away from this and look at it for what it is, if he committed a crime, he should have the book thrown at him. i know tensions are high and he's a controversial figure but that's how it works. you commit a crime, you get charged. host: given a crime like this?

his lawyer argues that he was trying to hide his faithlessness from his wife, not from the public. what you think of that argument? -- what do you think of this argument? caller: he won the election any money he could have spent is a campaign-finance issue. the problem is, people like you and me, it's supposed to be a fair playing ground but we are not billionaires and cannot spend 100 grand toward our own reputation during an election. that's a crime, you can't do that. not to mention, there was already -- he was already an unindicted co-conspirator for michael: going to jail for this -- michael cohen going to jail for this. whether it's political or not, we don't know. this isn't the first time a major politician has been

indicted. i'm pretty sure rick perry was running under indictment in 2016 and it didn't hurt his campaign. the thing that crashed his campaign was not knowing what three agencies of the government were even though he was running. i don't think this is evidence of a banana republic or system failure. it shows it's working and if he did the crime, he has to do the time. host: mark, california, republican. caller: hello, can you hear me? host: we can, go ahead. caller: good morning. i don't know, i think about the past headlines in the winning streak of the democratic party going after trump. it was early on in the

presidency when it was the rush of collusion and then there was stormy daniels and they said they had the proof there on a cd and they showed a blank cd on the news. the big headlines that usa news had today was impeached and not too much longer later, usa today said acquitted. the new york times, when trump went to north korea in the best they could do was print a picture for their front page of kim jong-un with the small of his hand on the small -- his hand on the small of donald trump's back like they had a bromance. this is just something to stir the pot. it's been a long time since something juicy has been in the news. this is not going to hurt trump. it will boost his popularity. i would like to see what comes of this.

he has already embarrass the court system by predicting the arrest. he took the thunder away from that so they have to do something. host: it doesn't sound like he will be arrested but his lawyers have negotiated with the das office that he will surrender on tuesday, april 4, 2 p.m. eastern time is what we've learned to a court in manhattan. it doesn't sound like he will be in handcuffs. he will not be arrested but there will be fingerprinting and mugshots taken according to news reports. he will have his appearance in court as well. tom, ohio, independent, good morning. caller:. good morning i'm just glad there are people with open minds. i'm a 61-year-old retired veteran.

i believe in the courts and not hearsay. i don't believe cnn and all of votercrap. one thing i've learned about the democratic party is when they accuse you of something, this will backfire on them. they say he will clean house. the individuals on both sides. they allow us to choose the lesser of two evils every year and every year we choose the lesser of two evils. if trump is so people, why are you trying to get rid of him? because he's going to change washington which deserves to change. they talked about the mueller report and russian collusion. we wasted almost $100 million to try to put this guy in jail. what a return our sites on the real evidence of joe biden and his corrupt family? we had the doj that was put in the position and he's not gonna

charge his own boss. we the people have to start opening up to realize the problem is washington, d.c. itself. host: when the former president appears at a manhattan courtroom on tuesday, the first court proceeding, according to the washington post after an arrest or surrender would be an arraignment hearing. a judge within determine if he would pay bail or adhere to certain restrictions pending a trial or whether he can be released without bail or restrictions. one of those restrictions according to vice news this morning is that a judge could issue a gag order.

steve in michigan, texas says kathy in kansas, democratic caller, good morning. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call. i just have to say that i felt a lightning in my whole body when i saw this. i've just been so distressed ever since this man has gotten into office. he is so crooked. he is so misogynistic. he is just a fully and he is a criminal. this charge is the least offense.

i don't know why that man was not thrown in jail when he incited the insurrection. you republicans can sit there and say all you want -- it wasn't an insurrection -- i watched the whole thing and his speech from beginning to end. the whole thing with trying to send the electors back and everything, saying they would not accept him. he is trying to overthrow our constitution. why is this man not in jail for treason already? no one should be above the law and especially this man. that's all i have to say. i hope he is charged with everything but mostly i hope he's charged with treason and trying to overthrow our government. if he gets back in office, don't think for one minute this man will not do everything he can to try to become a fascist dictator like putin. then all you republicans, when your rights get stripped away, you will be sorry voter this man back in. that's all i have to say, thank you. host: from twitter --

bill, a republican in ohio, what do you say? caller: let trump be trump, let trump be trump. republican say that all the time. folks, we should not be rejoicing about the president of united states being indicted for a crime. it's an embarrassment. here's what i wonder -- with these justices, mr. trump wants to be tried, the one that we currently have for the one that he advocates for which is no constitution which lets the mob decide. it gets me that the republicans want kamala harris to decide the

next election. why are we counting michael cohen and stormy daniels lies but no one says anything about trump lies? we are talking about a cult of personality. one more thing -- if you see a republican today with a self phone, thank them for being a regressive -- a progressive. host: granville, ohio, independent area caller: good morning. i thought it was interesting we have had a couple of callers this morning that talked about a russian hoax and the multitude and millions of dollars that perley cost the american taxpayers. i believe this is old news when that story was the hot topic. it wasn't enough to cover the

entire investigation so it's interesting hearing these cries coming from what supposed to be the law and order party this morning. i hope these callers have the dictionary ready and look up the word pariah. this is only the beginning. have a good day. host: on fox news last night, eric trump reacted to his father, the former president ing indicted. take a listen. [video clip] >> my father's only crime was winning the election. i lived that book every single day. we got subpoena after subpoena and would have people go out and campaign on the promise to take down a person, not knowing anything about them or their family. they said i will go after his family and sue the hell these people are wicked.

you have hunter biden who has pictures on his laptop and bill clinton paying paula jones. you have hillary clinton who hid 33 million emails and no one says a thing about those people. when my father is leading by 35% in the polls and they know he will be the guy joe biden will beat, that's who they go after against the statute of limitations or a couple of years after. they will do anything to take the man out. they will do anything they can to imprison the main and attack his family and imprison all of us. they have shown their cards time and time again. we did not so much as a speeding ticket before we -- before my father got into office.

i went into cvs the other day you cannot buy tylenol because it's locked behind glass counters because there is some was theft and looting and homelessness and crime. yet, their attention is going after donald trump. the girls are getting shot in times where and they are going after donald trump. give me a break. host: eric trump, the former president's son defending him on fox news last night after the news broke that for the first time in u.s. history, a former president has been only charge. the manhattan district attorney filed an indictment against the 45th president. he will show up in court on tuesday in manhattan around 2 p.m. eastern time for his arraignment. we are asking all of you this morning to give us your reaction to the news. pennsylvania, democratic caller, go ahead. caller: good morning.

this is a very sad day for america. and law enforcement. innocent people are once again going to be rich because of this dangerous, evil man, the trouble he will cause in our country. the senate and congress republicans who supported him, they know he's wrong that they refused to stand up to him. mike pence who could have lost his life because of him still supports him. ted cruisers wife was so -- ted cruz, whose wife was so insulted by him still supports him. they say it's political but they -- but that's exactly what they are trying to do to president biden. he is just so people. i don't know why any decent person would support him. he is making so much money.

if he is so great, why doesn't he help the storm victims in the south with all of the billions of dollars that he has been accumulating because of this? thank you. host: philadelphia, republican, hi there. caller: how are you doing? i am a republican and i've listened to all the callers and their opinion. as of -- they are a bunch of phonies and there's no way this man can be considered running for president of the united states again. it's all because of january 6. this guy is not one of them because he used to be a democrat. they don't like donald trump. they like his followers. it's not about donald trump. it's about his base they want.

they will do anything to get his base to get them votes but the republican party and the democrats are full of crap. host: joel in north carolina, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to make this straight -- i was a democrat and i left the marxist mcrib party to become an independent and now i will be calling on your republican line from this point on. to watch this atrocity that's been put on america is political prosecution. it's the same thing we see in north korea, china, russia. you cannot be a democrat and be a christian. that is incompatible like water and oil. for all you democrats calling in, watch the 2012 election in charlotte when the democrats denounced god to be in their platform. a thunderstorm came up and blew

their power out. they did not listen. this is a warning. the third horseman is writing in the fourth one is coming up and if you don't get back to god, america's lost forever. host: arnold in welcome, new york, democratic caller. what was your reaction when you heard this news yesterday? caller: i was not surprised. let me say this, michael cohne, his lawyer and cfo all went to jail for this man. if you listen closely, he was on tv last night, they had recordings, they have receipts. michael cohen went to jail for this thing. they know nothing about the southern district here in new york. these are the same people who

took down john gotti. they don't bring the case unless they can win. this black man who is leading this charge, he knows what he was up against. you've got to believe he's got every i dotted and every t cross. he had 23 people that looked in -- at the evidence and said we have a case. i am sick to my stomach to watch mike pence to be begged to be testify when this man ran with his wife and kids and was so scared that he would not even get in the limousine. he is a coward. he could never run for office ever in my eyes. host: i want to share this headline with you and others -- one of the callers product fundraising.

carey in boone, iowa, hi there. caller: good morning, please don't cut me off. this is a joke. america needs to wake up and quit watching the dnc news channels and get some real information out there. first off,cohen went to jail for lying to congress, not for paying off a point star. he lied to congress and that's why he went to jail. everybody can quit saying that he went to jail and therefore trump should go to jail for the same thing. trump has not lied to congress yet celeste just see how that goes down. i would like to give you a moment, the last bit of my time to apologize to america for your

russia collusion and also your hunter biden laptop cover up that you keep ignoring. every time it's brought up, you drag at a piece of paper and say we've covered this and talked about that. you spent as much time on hunter biden and joe biden's crime as you did on trump, joe biden would be out of office right now. joe biden would be the one scurrying away, worrying about what him and his party will do. i see you smirking and you think it's all cute. you really need to get a new job because your colors are showing every day you get on here. host: go to www.c-span.org and check it out for yourself what we have covered. michael cohen from the associated press article -- this was from november, 2021.

larry from lewisville, texas, democratic caller. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. there is so much i would like to say but i will keep it short. these were people that look like you and i that indicted trump. they made based solely on evidence. the republicans want to attack the district attorney, saying it was weaponized. what about the white house being weaponized when trump incited those people into felonies. what about blocking the full investigation of the russian incursion. what about trumpeting the fifth amendment where hilary did not take the fifth in three days of testimony.

the fact that republicans want to believe what they want to believe and look -- and not look at the truth. hunter biden is a u.s. citizen. we don't care about him. if you want to investigate someone trump couldn't -- trump put people in the white house that should not have been in the white house. people have made up their mind to overlook all of that evidence plus all of the people that trump blocked from testimony. what if that was hillary or any republican that was blocking people from testifying, blocking the truth being told. it's a sad day for america and i'm so sorry for this country.

thank you for taking my call. host: john in maryland, republican, your turn -- caller: you are my favorite one on c-span. you probably will agree with the just with me that this country has a mental problem. people are sleeping on the street, you have people that cannot figure out and they are shooting up people. you got trump syndrome going full blast. i don't know how you can sit there all day and listen to this craziness calling in there. other than the second coming of jesus, i don't see any help for this country. as far as the indictment, maybe some truth will come from this. so far, we haven't heard anything, just insinuations and a bunch of nothing. as far as the trials and all host: let's go to rich in

wisconsin, independent. caller: good morning. just keep smiling. that is all you can do. as far as donald trump, i was not a supporter at first. i voted for bill clinton twice. i voted for hillary clinton wants when she ran against obama. i started doing due diligence on politics and what was going on because of all the accusations, i wanted to find myself politically. rudy giuliani represented him/ donald trump was loved. hillary clinton, the most crooked individual to hold office. the clinton foundation was a

money laundering operation from the beginning. host: i apologize. you are breaking up. i have to move on. may call back on a better line. we are at the top of the hour on the east coast. three hours this morning on the "washington journal" with your reaction to the former president being indicted, first time in u.s. history. 20 is this morning as the cofounder of "punchbowl news", a longtime reporter up capitol hill to talk about congressional reaction. let's begin with the speaker of the house, kevin mccarthy. what was his reaction and what you think he does about it? guest: mccarthy like a lot of republicans express outrage over the indictment, the news of the indictment. he said the house of

representatives will make sure, continue to look into this issue. you had three house committee chairs send a letter to manhattan da asking for testimony and documents -- the deadline for that is set today but alvin bragg has indicated he is not going to cooperate. you have mccarthy who is a close trump ally. he says the house will look into this. we do not know whether the house will try to subpoena bragg or what will happen if he misses the deadline but that will be a different level of involvement in an ongoing criminal case. we'll have to see how far house republicans are willing to push this. host: jim jordan, the chair of the judiciary committee tweeting out outrageous last night. you had the chair of the oversight committee, james comer tweeting about this, alvin bragg

has weaponize his office to launch a political indictment. which committee will this fall under? you have the new select subcommittee, weaponization of the federal government, and james comer the oversight committee. guest: will have to see and see if they move ahead with it with any's kind of subpoena. they threatened to subpoena but that was before the news that trump has been indicted. interfering with an ongoing active criminal case, is unprecedented move. we have seen it before. we have not seen it in decades. congressional committees usually stay out of it. you would think alvin bragg would resist any kind of subpoena or move to subpoena anything related to the case and

this will end up in court. to cross the line for the judiciary committee or oversight committee, or the house a meditation committee, that would be a serious step. it sounds like republicans may do it, but this would be a serious step. alvin bragg indicting -- seeking indictment of trump is unprecedented, having something like this happened would be -- having congressional committees to try to subpoena ada in the middle of a criminal case -- a d.a. in the middle of a criminal case will be a move i have not seen in my time. host: we talk about the house. they are that minard -- minority in the senate. what is the reaction there? have we heard from mitch mcconnell? guest: we have not. we did report this morning that there is a statement from number

three senate republican, he was outraged over this. a number of other republican senators expressing their displeasure. lindsey graham from south carolina put out a strong statement in defense of trump criticizing alvin bragg and saying how dangerous this is. we saw a number of other senators say the same thing. alvin bragg, pursuing this case that the justice department did not pursue, that he is going to a place that prosecutor should not go. and it is a political prosecution in attempt to destroy a candidate from president, a former president who is a candidate now. we are off the map. we are in a place that is has not occurred before. host: what about democrats? there reaction?

guest: they are pretty cautious. chuck schumer without a statement -- put out a statement. nancy pelosi put out a statement. the number of democrats saying the same think that trump is innocent. trump has the right to full defense to get a good legal defense, but they are saying again, you hear every democratic saint nobody is above the law, even former president. you've heard that 25 times within the last days from democrats saying no one is above the law. alvin bragg had the right to bring charges against trump for this crime and if you violated the law, just because of trump status as a former president, does not make you immune from criminal action. host: we seen security beefed up

in cities including the capital. the timing of this occurred hours after the house had adjourned in the senate was gone and now they're on a break for a couple of weeks. guest: yes. congress is not back till april 17. this broke a couple of hours after they had wrapped up for this period of in session and are gone to the middle of april or the easter recess. it was unbelievable because that was all in but it was talking about will he be indicted. there were confusing reports that the grand jury was not going to do anything until later in april and that he that trump was the price. -- and later that trump was a price.

literally, we were sending out and the story broke. the new york times broke the story about the indictment. not that he was indicted, but the timing. it's really a shock. i do think members are scattering all over the place. there are congressional delegations going overseas. i think this surprised everybody. i think we'll have more discussion about it today. host: covered capitol hill's for many years, cofounder of "punchbowl news". you can find his reporting if you go to twitter at punch bowl news or website "punchbowl news". news. thank you very much. always appreciate your time. host: let's go back to calls. steve in ohio. democratic caller. good morning to you. your reaction to the news that the former president has been indicted. caller: thank you.

good morning to everyone. i was wondering if you could tell me what is the status of the class action lawsuit against trump? this is the lawsuit that many have launched about the fact that he allowed a half a million people to perish in this country, according to the university of john hopkins and others another official health experts that proclaim how did not been for his behavior during that time, a half a million people would have been alive

today. i was wondering if you could tell me, what is the status of the class action lawsuit? host: i would try to find something. i did a quick search. i do not see anything immediately but we can have a producer look for that. host: in arizona, independent. hi, nona. caller: thank you. i am tired of the house this country is going against. if you look at our economy, what it is today compared to what it was when he was in office, our country is in shambles. our border is not secure. i live in arizona where we have people come across the border every day. people that are ill. people that are criminals. people that should not be here without going through the legal process. my husband came through here legally from canada.

he came over and he served in the u.s. military while a canadian and then was denied a government job when he applied for one when he got out. he became a citizen thanks congressman that took care of it within two days. this country needs to wake up. people are suffering daily. people do not want to go to work because of the handouts that this administration is giving them. host: tie them back to the indictment -- that back to the indictment. caller: the indictment is a crock. they are doing anything they can so that president trump will not run again. the democratic party is afraid of him. they can to make people dislike him and not do the good things he did for this country. host: james in florida. republican.

caller: i am appalled by the ignorance of the callers who are supportive of this indictment of donald trump. it is a sad day in america. this trump derangement syndrome israel and they go after him because they do not like him. to me i see it as the end of freedom. i'm flying my flag at half mast today. host: renee, michigan. democratic caller. caller: good morning. i have quite a bit to say but i will keep it limited. james, thank you for your call. you call it ignorance because we disagree, not necessarily do not like him. i do not like him his ways. as it relates to the indictment,

i see people going to jail every day. i see people being killed every day. on the behalf of the police. we do not visit them in jail. we do not have any concern about their well-being but those who tear down january 6, who goes in and kill cops. how dare you tell people where they can and cannot go? for a man to take children away from their parents simply because they come from another country, they should not be here, who are you? if you felt that way, go ahead and pass something on immigration to assist, not to destroy. how can you sit there and say he is a good guy? he is full of hate. that's all he has been living under for the last eight years almost. dealing with this guy and his

way of thinking and he brings his puppets. he's a puppetmaster. he has occultist personality and you say you should go after bragg. she go after everybody there republicans disagree with. trump is not a part of congress. they are backpedaling information. everybody is suckers for him. he is running it. what have they done? what bill has a past that made a difference? republicans in the house have not done anything. host: we will stick to the news this morning. indictment of former president, first time in has three. he will be arraigned on tuesday, april 4 around 2 p.m. eastern time. from there reporting in the paper, a the suspect and daddy police custody, police or other law enforcement process them behind closed doors taking mugshots and fingerprints.

the process is identical whether the person is arrested or has agreed or negotiated through lawyers to turn themselves in. as we have said to you earlier, the first court procedure after an arrest would be an arraignment where the judge would determine whether the former president needs to pay bail or adhere to certain restrictions like a possible gag order which will prohibit him speaking about the case publicly and anyone close to him. james is the fort myers, florida. cnn reporting 30 plus counts in this indictment although it is still sealed and we do not know details. what do you make of it? caller: good morning. first of all, i have to say we should be thankful for the checks and balances that we have in our system and that is all this is, a check imbalance. -- a

check and balanced. i'm 73 years old. i'm not seen anyone that can get by time after time, it is the number of people who want to support trump because they perceive he has done something no one else has done. i'm talking about good. he has done bad too. and that is to be checked and balance. that is the way i see it. i'm glad we have it. i thought about this a one million times when i was listening to "washington journal" and we all better -- one of the other would not work. that's the way i see the. host: you're looking at video

from last night at mar-a-lago as the news broke. this is from reuters. pro-trump supporters in florida yesterday we saw some pro indictment folks outside of the district attorney's office in new york. security is being beat up in those cities -- beefed up in those cities and here in washington dc as officials expect more protests today. roy in woodstock, georgia. republican. caller: good morning. you all owe me an apology. i called in about january 6 and i mentioned a person named ray epps, an informant that instigated the january 6

insurrection to stop the challenge other republican election. but the think we trump -- the with trump, they have been after him since day one. he went to the world economic forum and said he would make america great again. they wanted a one world american cyst -- one world system and trump said no and you should make your own country great. ever since he been there, because of the world economic think israel. america needs to wake up and see this. we have this agenda 23. erode road economic system people are trying to impose -- there is an economic system people are trying to impose and trump is standing in their play and they want him out of the picture. make us need to stop this into cnn and get real news. our country is in trouble,

we are approaching an area of no return until we start doing things the right way. host: here is a text from steve in florida. donald trump getting indicted for an affair, campaign hush money is like al capone getting indicted for income tax evasion. you can text us with your reaction to the news this morning at 202-748-8003. using go to facebook.com/c-span and post your comments there or send us a tweet with the handle @cspanwj. you can follow the story on instagram as well, same handle @cspanwj. taking your calls all morning. your reaction to the news of the former president being indicted. chuck in pennsylvania. democratic caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. this is a first of four indictments coming down the road.

this is the tip of the iceberg. you have the jack smith indictment from the federal government. new york city is going to have one and georgia. this is just the beginning. as far as heads of state being indicted or gone after, this is the only country that probably has not had one. it is have them in mentally -- it is had them in italy. people from south korea. one from france in jail. this is only new in this country. just because he broke the law does not mean you're allowed to break the law in this country. they had distinct when you are president you cannot be -- this think we were president you could not be indicted. that is the policy they followed. host: usa today with a similar

headline, charges against trump will be up first in the united states but other countries every tilney charge -- they routinely charge leaders. italy, south korea, and france have convicted leaders of crimes. host: bill, independent. caller: good morning. listen to some of these people talk is interesting. the idea of indicting trump is a good thing. nobody in this country supposedly is above the law and i think that is a good reason to have him taken down. anybody that is indicted then they say we are going to have a big rally and people are going to be hurt, killed that should not be allowed.

the january 6 comes back to what he said about having an x direction in new york city -- and insurrection in new york city. i am not unhappy. i just hope this gentleman -- i hope this does not turn into a farce. host: the district attorney? caller: yes. host: alvin bragg. caller: i hope he has real solid evidence that he's not going to make an idiot of himself and not make it idiot of the justice department. i hope he has all his ducks in a row and will be able to do it properly and legally. thanks very much. host: front page of the new york post this morning. your grand jury poster charge --

poster charge. caller: this kind of looks like election interference to me. i know the laptop, hunter's laptop, the fbi said 50 of them said it was fake and now we realize it is not fake. and that it showed bidens grandson that i -- got $100,000. he is 14 years old. looks like they are hiding what they want and exposing everything they can about trump. alvin bragg was elected because he said he was going to target trump. he gave him $40 million to run. this is seven years of trying to get trump.

i know they also tried when they went down to mar-a-lago and they got these secret documents and they're going to press charges on that. within biden had -- but then biden had them in his garage and all over it that killed that does them trying to get trump on the documents. i know stormi. seven years ago she paid trump because they proved e was lying. she had to pay him. seven years ago if you remember that but now it is changed all around. there is even a letter that stormi wrote saying it was not true. they have tried, four years of the russian lies, two attempted

impeachments. it is scary meet that the left, every single person that calls in from the left, he is a racist, he's a extremist, he is a liar. i've never heard so many names called. i'm 73 years old. why does the lab have to use such nasty name-calling constantly ? host: can i ask you about your 40 million from george soros. where did you hear that? caller: i think that was on the british network. i'm not sure but is it true? did your sorrows back alvin bragg? host: this is from political fact. you heard this mentioned before. trump's attack on alvin bragg

back by george soros. here's what you need to know. facing potential indictment over hush money payments, the president attacked or portrayed the prosecutor as driven bipartisan intent. he says in march -- your sorrows did give a aggressive racial group $1 million in may 2021 and in the same month they endorse alvin bragg and pledge to spend over one million supporting his campaign. however dorsi was $1 million was not earmarked for alvin bragg. there is supporting other progressive district attorney candidates that year in different cities and had done so in previous elections as well. it is impossible to know 's weight the decisions on the best getting trump. the group's focus has been criminal justice policy

and trumps legal situation. the money came from your sorrows given to a group called for equal justice, that group donated to alvin bragg's campaign. your reaction? caller: before bragg was even the d.a., he ran on getting trump. and he got $1 million, ok. $1 million to help him and his whole thing was running to get trump. three other da's and the feds refused to prosecute. isn't it strange that now trump is running for president again and all of a sudden three da's and the feds said they do not have a case and bragg does? i note new york is strictly democratic so it does seem

one-sided. host: right. michael on twitter says no proof of politically motivated prosecution exists. alvin bragg is doing his job just as any other dh throughout the usa. he gathered facts, evidence and the evidence has been presented to a grand jury. 23 citizens doing their duty resulting in an indictment. sarah in virginia. democratic caller. caller: hi. what took them so long? mr. trump's father took him under his wing. donald trump has gotten involved in a lot of things and he started off with the student by new york city with regards to the father not running to people of minority groups -- renting the people of minority groups

and i think trump from that said i can do whatever i want to. remember his statement when he was running, he can go ahead and shoot somebody on fifth avenue and he would never be indicted. i think mr. trump thinks he is of a class that cannot be touched. the banks in new york city were not known him money. only one bank, deutsche bank. that should tell you little bit about his standing in new york city. there is a reason why he changed residents to go down to florida. my question i go back, what took them so long? he thinks he is privilege. you can get away with anything -- he can get away with anything. i hope he gets a fair trial and i'm sure he will. the judge will see to that. it is in the judge's hand. it is not in the republican or democrat's hands. or any of those crazy people that will go march for him. on top of that, mr. trump went

out over a week ago and said i'm going to be indicted on a tuesday. he went out and raised over $1 million just on that one statement along. that should tell you about the mentality of mr. trump. host: he saw a poll numbers go up among republicans voters. this morning we are continuing on the "washington journal" getting your reaction to the breaking news that the former president was indicted yesterday by a grand jury in manhattan. the new york times frames it this way. the nation finds itself on a path never traveled. the wayne in jamaica, new york. independent. caller: good morning. it amazes me and i listen to callers. some have good points on what is going on. have anyone of them sat in a grand jury and listen to evidence? bragg did not pull the evidence

out of thin air. he has the evidence. i have set on the grand jury. i listen to the evidence. if the evidence did not make sense, i voted against it. whatever the grand jury saw that the evidence to indict the former president, that is what they would with. host: how do you respond to people who say the bar is low for an indictment? and people make the joke you could indict a ham sandwich, caller: these are all little sayings. people come up with these things to make a joke out of things. and i a ham sandwich? this is real stuff. this man has been indicted. not convicted of a crime. when he comes to trial, the evidence will come out. we do not know with the evidence is. we are assuming.

we are all fighting. let's see what comes out of this. host: i would add cnn reported last night, early this morning that over 30 counts. 34. "politico" -- "punchbowl news" noted that the counts added quickly because each one the 11 checks that the president signed to michael cohen is one count. i want to get your reaction to that. caller: i am not a legal scholar by any means but if that is the evidence we so far know about, that is a 30 counts, that's all we have to do with -- not week, he has to deal with. he has to hire an attorney to defend him on that. everyone thinks it is about think what is doing, it is.

if you are signing finance checks to a person for sex, they say it is not a crime, in new york state, it is a crime. host: his lawyer is likely to argue is previewed in the washington post this morning. a writ of caution on the indictment. prosecuting him over checks makes for a problematic case. they argue the strategy is novel and courts may regard it with skepticism. the potential campaign finance charges self is shaky, when federal prosecutors charged john atwood with a similar crime following his 2000 eight presidential run, he rebutted the accusation by arguing he was trying to disguise his faithlessness from his wife, rather than from the voting public. the child ended in acquittal --

the trial ended in acquittal and the justice department dropped the charges. in memphis, tennessee. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. it seems to me most of the democrats calling in are so bitter and haters. i'm a trump supporter. i've been called all kinds of names this morning on your program just because i supported trump. bragg run on getting trump, taking him down, and the most this is is a misdemeanor is trying to turn into a felony. in manhattan, he is letting these felons out with a misdemeanor that has been out killing people and doing much worse things than what trump has done. trump has not done anything. we do not even know. democrats are really angry.

you sat there and let them call us all kinds of names. january 6, trump did not tell these people to do what they did. he told them to peacefully march and let your voices be heard. that is left out all kinds of times when you talk about january 6. host: we covered what he said that day in the entirety and i encourage others to listen to what he said the morning of january 6. allen in brooklyn, new york. democratic caller. caller: good morning. there are so many points i want to make. first of all, the new york times versus sullivan case in the 50's said you had to work harder to prove libel if you are a public figure, debbie interest in free

speech, in favor of the free speech, the ordinary people and against the protection of public officials. when i hear people arguing, we are to have a higher standard of proof in order to indict a public figure, that is opposite of what the supreme court said about the balancing of public versus private figure in the free speech context. if you consider the fact that michael cohen was indicted and put in jail for the very same crimes that were talking about here being charged against trump by trump on justice department. he tried to keep him in jail longer when he began to write a book to silence him. i do not see how he can argue the merits against him are somehow less then he used to put his former attorney in jail. then there's the whole question

of the balance of the past 40 years of republican misconduct enlarging their powers. we heard recently about ben barnes, the testimony that the election of reagan was almost stolen in 1980 when the interfered in negotiations to release hostages and that probably calls part of the election -- cost the election. how many major decisions, enlarging the power of gop the past four years were based upon this interference? when people say republicans are getting the wrong deal, democrats doing thing for their own party, look in the mirror. look at what is been placing an imbalance of power in your favor. host: more reaction from republicans. this are from senator of

missouri, he was on fox news last night. listen to what he had to say. [video clip] >> i think what this is about as nothing to do with the rule of law. this is about power. this is the demonstration of raw power. the democrats know it has nothing to do with the law. they are sending a message, they will use any power they have tender fear the next election -- to interfere in the next presidential election. there were not willingly let donald trump run. it would use every means at their disposal. these are the same people who sent swat teams to pro-life activists. use fbi against parents at the school board meetings. they'll use any kind of power to try and hold onto their privileges, their own position is interesting that tonight. it is unprecedented in american history. the only way out now is to win. >> is like a fastball to the head of about her? >> exactly. and the head of the batter is

the american people, conservatives who want to have their own abuse and make their own decisions and democrats are saying will use power against you. you want to elect donald trump, no. we will use power against you. you want to speak up against a school board meeting. we will use power against you. you want to protest peacefully at an abortion panic. we will use power against you. it is burning down the rule of law. they will regret doing this because the american people will not stand for it. we got to make sure they did not succeed in what they are trying to do. host: missouri senator josh hawley on fox news. your turn to give us your reaction to the indictment of the former president. gregg in california. what do you say? caller: i think more or less to me it gives me a better belief

in the rule of law. the president of former president can be indicted, it tells me that maybe there is fairness to this judicial system. you got all these republicans on fox news grant setting, -- grandstanding, this is so terrible but i'm thinking behind closed doors. i think they're going to return to some sense of normalcy and they are saying they really hope this guy is taken down and they cannot wait for the other shoe to drop. i really do not think this about anything necessarily bad. this is what we signed up for. this is democracy at its best. people need to stop looking at it as one-sided -- one side against the other side. it is good old-fashioned law.

it is something that happens every day to people and you should not be above it. it is not like the democrats are indicting this guy so white lump them all together. it is the d.a. in new york. are you going to say the same thing when the shoe drops in atlanta the federal case based on january 6 and the documents? this is what we signed up for. this is what we pledge the allegiance to the flag for. this is what we all want in markedly. for of all. it is beautiful . i do not have any dog in the show. i do not care if he's convicted or not. i have thought of his -- if he does becomes president, he's going to upset a lot of people. host: would you vote for him in 2024? caller: i voted for him in 2016.

i tell you what, i'm going to hold onto that. it depends on his policies. he cannot have these crazy ass rallies where he goes up there and talk this and that. where you going to do about taxes? what were your ideas on education? i'm smart enough to know at least after this whole thing was over with trump. make the grade economy in the world. the economy was not bad when he took over from obama. that was not the case. i want actual policies. if he comes up with greater policies that benefit my life as opposed to him -- going here are there, i am willing to vote for anyone who makes the country better but you cannot have rallies where people are standing in doing this. he has to have actual policies that benefit me in my daily life.

otherwise i'm not going to vote for him. host: carol says in a text to put a song from lizzo, trump has avoided being held accountable for anything so far. know is above the law and that includes the line two impeach of the january 6 trump. dave in michigan. republican. caller: good morning. first of all, i want to give you kudos up link up with the individual -- for putting up with the individual for chastising you. and c-span 2. i love to listen to this in the morning. you're getting the opinions of other people's, not just what you read or hear. listen to all your c-span stations. one thing about this fiasco with trump, it is deriding the country even more so. lesson people comment -- a lot

of people, that why you do not trust the government did not think this is helping matters and i think it is something that needs to be -- we all need to get the rest of the story so we can all voice our own opinion. i appreciate you folks giving us the opportunity to voice our opinions. i love to listen to you guys because you put up with a lot. our work with the public. i know what you are going through. host: president biden left the white house this morning. he is off to tour damage later today. kelly oh donald who covers the biden administration at the white house tweeting he stopped to talk to reporters. she asked him about with the trump indictment means to the rule of law and the united states. he responded i have no comment at all. he and the first lady leaving to visit mississippi after the

deadly tornado there left 25 dead and dozens injured. patty in ohio. democratic caller. we are talking about the indictment of the 45th, donald trump. your reaction. caller: i'm a democrat. i would never support donald trump but do not care. i'm so sick of hearing about him. the people that called in and said terrible things that democrats were calling them, who started it all? trump started all when the primary started. all the candidate names and crucifying them. that's what he did to hillary clinton. it goes on and on. i've been a teacher over 35 years and then i substitute teach for many years after that. i'm embarrassed to say this man represents our country.

i heard a child swear in the hall, a bad word in front of two girls who were standing right behind him and i called the boy over and said why are you talking like that? you do not talk like that in the school. he said, president trump talks like that. this is the kind of man we want to represent our country? between hookers, cheating the government on tax money, cheating on his wife? this is who we want? let him propose good ideas. but he does not. he stands up there and talks about himself. what a great person he is. i pay my taxes. i do not cheat my government. i want the government to work well and i do not care they take tax money out of my check which is hardly anything to compared to what he makes. i'm disgusted with him. he is like a degenerate fraud

and all he wants to do is takes these people money. i have a neighbor down the street with a sign hanging in his front yard a huge one that says fuck biden and i called the police department and there's nothing they can do about it. where are we coming to we put things like that? i'm sure there are signs that are not nice for the democrats but he started it all. he stepped on that stage in the primary the first time with his mouth. host: bobby, independent. you heard the news what you think yesterday? caller: first of all, you are less caller should go into the kitchen and have a snickers bar. calm down. what i thought was this, i think it is more in my opinion, it is more of a resurrection of alvin

bragg. alvin bragg if you take a look at when he came into office and there were prior da's, two of them did not touch this. i'm not a trump guy here. i'm looking at this is small potatoes. you have bigger fish to fry. you got a georgia. you got january 6. you got the secret documents. there are bigger things to fry. i think it is about his political career. when he came in he was getting heat. crime wave was skyrocketing in new york city and putting a picture to him where his light on crime. they want to recall him. he passed up on this issue with trump. now all of a sudden out of nowhere here is alvin bragg trying to pound a square peg in

a round hall. that is nothing. misdemeanor. this is not the case to go after trump. this is alvin bragg political career that was going down the tubes and alvin had to do something to shake things up. host: ernest in columbus, georgia. republican. now it is your turn. caller: good morning. my take on this, i am a conservative. all republicans are not conservative. i'm not really concerned about whether trump goes to jail or not because republicans have other good candidates out there that may have a better chance than him. we're in good shape one way or another. the thing that bothers me i am 81 years old and retired. i watch a lot of c-span.

it is pathetic the amount of time and money we put into investigating biden, trump, or other politicians and our country is going to hell in a hand basket. we cannot pay our bills. we have problems with railroads, infrastructure, immigration and we are sitting there worrying about somebody having an affair. all politicians have an affair. i'm disgusted with our congress and our politicians. they are not statesmen anymore. it is a vendetta to get even with someone else. i hope it gets better. host: ernest mentioning the other potential candidates and those that have declared the 2024 contest for the republican party, nikki haley who was announce a presidential bid. this is more about revenge that it is justice, her reaction last night on twitter.

ron desantis, florida governor, ting out a weaponization of the legal system to advance political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. it is un-american. the district attorney has been the law to downgrade felonies into criminal misconduct. we read from put a fact earlier on this claim of -- "politico" fact earlier on the claimed alvin bragg back by george soros. torsos they give a group, color of change $1 million and in the same month they endorse alvin bragg and plan to spend over one million supporting his campaign however is one million was not earmarked for bragg, it was given to this group color of change. it was supporting

other candidates that year and had done so in previous election cycles. you can read more if you go to politifact.com. david in michigan. caller: good morning. host: what was your reaction when you heard the news yesterday? caller: the main think i called about, i am a democrat so my opinion really is more in favor of the indictment, but i do believe the things he did -- he is not about the law but what i'm concerned that i do not remember if it was an official statement or a post on social but he mentioned it was election fraud. i guess i posed the question suit republican listeners, do you consider this election fraud ? host: this indictment? caller: yes.

host: he called it election interference in his statement on true social, the former president did. caller: yeah. i am curious if the listeners they agree with that and if they will act the same way they did last time. that is something i'm curious about. i wonder why he chose those words. host: tina in pennsylvania, independent. hi. caller: good morning. i have a few things to say. i voted for trump in 2016. i did not vote for him in 2020. i thought he was out there. what happened yesterday seems to be a coincidence if you will. there police the so-called -- they release the salmon after

prison at the documentary footage aired of the january 6 the burglary at the capital. what they have done now is going to catapult this man into -- he is going to be the candidate. do not necessarily agree with alvin bragg. it is out of the statue of limitations. the federal government did not pick up the indictment. he is doing this for him. our country is going to suffer. it is going to suffer really bad. host: do you think heat win in general election, the former president? caller: absolutely. host: why? caller: because it has been nothing but trump, trump, trump since 2015. you had military men die

yesterday. have not heard anything from biden on that. the shooting in nashville. is set of talking more about the attack on the christian facility, your hate more of a transgender with mental problems so let's go grab everybody's guns. in today's world, you need to protection. it is a sad day for america. people need to get off of all of this trump aide and come together -- trump hate and come together as america. a promise that biden said that he would unite this country. he did not unite this country. he has divided us now. it is so bad. host: in general election matchup, if it is the former president from versus president biden, who do you vote for in

2024? caller: trump. because biden has run this country into the ground. billions of dollars for special interest groups. ukraine is one think. in the beginning i was all for sending the support, but come on. look at our border. if the immigrants do not see what is happening, they are leaving countries that are police states and socialist states, coming into a free america where they can capitalize and make their lives better. host: tina an independent voter there. chris in pennsylvania, republican. your reaction to the news here. caller: hi priya tina -- hi. tina sort of stole my thunder. i think it is adjusting timing

with an be released from prison to the halfway house yesterday. people calling in that are concerned about the president being above the law, it is not about being above the law, it is about following the letter of the law. this case was already thrown out due to lack of evidence. it is over the statue of limitations. i think people are missing the point here that once you start down this road, it is a slippery slope. the repercussions of using the law to prosecute your political opponents is a very dangerous game. host: garan in keyport, washington. democratic caller. good morning to you. caller: hey, there. host: what was your reaction when you heard the news? caller: i will admit i was not

too surprised. it seems like you cannot throw a rock in any direction without hitting at least two suspicious incidents surrounding this particular president. i think i find the strangest part of this whole deal is the amount of people who are more focus on the facts that trump has been indicted than what he has been indicted for. there is not a lot of talk concerning the actual merits of the case. i understand part of that is because the d.a. has not come out and stated everything that is going on. i think i saw a note that said there were 30 potential charges. host: that's what cnn is reporting this morning. you are right the details are still do. we do not know yet. caller: we do know they are related to business fraud. i am sorry but the clear facts

behind donald j. trump, not even as a politician, but as a businessman, fraud is not uncommon to those guys -- this guy. he makes a consistent living off of shady deals. he has bragged about it. he has made a point of hyping up that aspect of his operating and you look at his history. host: let me it your reaction to this. apiece in the wall street journal this morning. the case against trump is far from open and shut. presumably trump as company ceo had a limited role in the trump. it came more limited after he entered the white house. it is left unclear how the prosecution will prove beyond a reasonable doubt trump knew how the payment from ms. daniels

will be reported. perhaps michael cohen testimony or some currently unnamed trump organization employee can show trump personal knowledge of and involvement in the alleged false recordkeeping. from the absence of such testimony, the prosecution case may founder on this elementary point. caller: that is a solid concern. in the case of potential crime being committed, you want to know the person committed the crime but i would counter with that's when jimmy carter was selected, they gave him a cloth. donald trump did not follow through with that. he did not properly divest himself of his businesses and that in and of itself was a problem when he was originally elected. that was quickly paved over by a whole lot of other issues.

this is part of the reason why you do that. if he is too big of a personality to walk away from his business, in the proper way that we have -- the standard we have held other presidents to, he should face consequences. honestly, we are not talking about a share of writing a parting -- parking ticket for someone who does not like. this is the district attorney. granted, the guy may be aiming high but he is not just going to run out with no evidence. he will not run out with no evidence on 30 charges. host: sit tight. keep your chin on c-span because joining us is perry's dine, a justice reporter --. stein, a justice reporter for the washington post. this is the pc wrote for the paper. here is what it means and what happens next.

i want to begin with the district attorney spokespersons statement last night. where the district attorney's office said that we contacted esther trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender. that word "surrender". can you talk about that? >> when someone is indicted by a grand jury, they have the option to surrender or they can face arrest. meaning what you may think of as a public arrest. someone taken in handcuffs at the door, or as the d.a. suggested, they are working on surrender. that is when donald trump would voluntarily turn himself in and go to either the da office or where ever they do it, and go through the process of getting your mug shot taken and getting your fingerprint. it sounds like based on alvin bragg's statement and what we heard from the trump team, they are working on a surrender. host: reported this morning in

your piece that the arrangement is expected for tuesday around 2:00 p.m. eastern time. you also noted in the piece that under traditional arrangements, there would be a mug shot taken and fingerprints taken. will that be the case with this president and will the public see those things? guest: all of that, i do not know. that is the typical process. with think that yes, that would happen. in terms of it being public, i cannot say. i think there are reasons that they would perhaps insure these do not come out but i cannot speak to that. this is the typical process. every state has different laws depending on whether they make mug shot of public and stuff. i cannot speak to that part but he is expected to go through that process. host: what does it take to get an indictment? guest: an indictment is

basically a fancy way of saying that the paper that lays out what the charges are. this is a grand jury of 23 people. think of it as like a jury of your peers. they have been hearing evidence over the last -- for a long time now, about this case. once all the witnesses come in and the evidence is presented, they take a vote. it has to be a majority of the voting for charges. once they vote, they hand down the indictment which is basically he has been charged. host: what do you make mcn and reporting -- maybe you have confirmed this or ask sources about this that there is potentially 30 or 34 counts against the former president? guest: i have not reported this. i do not want to speak to this

specifically. we do not know what is in these charging documents or in this indictment. obviously, i am not trying to knock down the reporting. i just have not reported it. it is possible. we know broadly what they are looking at and what they have been presenting evidence about to the grand jury, which involves the stormy daniels -- who alleges she had an affair with trump and then ahead of the 2016 election and campaign, they paid her to make sure she did not go public with this affair. that is what we know it is about. i do not know what the charges are. those could come out during arraignment or could come out before. host: what will happen at

arraignment? guest: if charges have not been made public yet, then they will be made public at the arraignment. also, what has happened is the judge would set what we think of as bail or say what the terms of his release are. in crime like this that is not a violent crime, it is unlikely that trump would have to stay in jail or stay with a lot of restrictions. it is unlikely that he would have a lot of restrictions before he can just go out and wait for the next step in the proceeding. they will set the next court date. that is the first step to getting a legal proceeding going. the arraignment is what you think of when you watch shows or hear courtroom proceedings where they say bail or no veil, and

you can go home on house arrest not. host: there is a possibility the judge would issue a gag order to the former president, that vice is reporting. is that one of the restrictions that can come up at the arraignment ring? guest: that is a good question. this seems to be a possibility, yes. what i meant was not really possible or did not seem likely that the judge would say you have to stay home until the trial or you have to pay this amount for bail. host: who is the judge? do we know? guest: we do know who it is. i do not want to mess up on the name. it is a new york judge. i am sorry. i do not want to mess up on the name. it is the judge that has been overseeing the grand jury. host: you referred to her as a female. so this is the judge that will be provoked -- presiding over the arraignment. guest: it is a male.

sorry. host: i apologize if i said female. no worries. the arraignment takes place tuesday. what happens after that? guest: this is where it goes to trial or not. it is possible that donald trump could make a deal or charges can be does this -- could be dismissed. there could be motions to dismiss them or trump could make a plea agreement. but if he does not, this is where we see it goes into trial and he could be found tilting or not guilty. -- guilty or not guilty. we are starting the steps to find out if he is guilty or not guilty. an indictment does not mean he is guilty. it just means these are charges that have happened and now we are entering the legal proceeding to determine whether he is convicted of a crime or

not. host: how long could it take before bca trial? guest: i don't know. we know that legal proceedings take a long time. i do not think we should expect an answer next month or this month on that. think about how long the investigation has taken. we are talking about something that happened in 2016. this is a particularly slow place -- slow pace. host: perry stein, justice reporter with the washington post. you can read her piece, "trump is indicted in new york". go to washingtonpost.com. back to calls. heater in florida, republican. we are getting your reaction this morning around the country to the news that a former president has been charged with a crime. good morning. caller: the morning.

it is disgusting that we have double standards in this country. all you hear is donald trump, donald trump but they go after nobody else. we have bigger problems than this. i do not understand why people have suppressed the movie "2000 meals" where it shows you how the election was stolen but nobody wants to take a look. congress does not want to look at it. the supreme court does not want to look at it. i do not understand why even reporters do not want to look at it. host: did you watch the january 6 hearing in the evidence they put forward from people in their own words like the kearney general par -- the attorney general bar saying there was no evidence? caller: they did not want to look at the movie. if evidence was out there, they did not want to look at it. host: have you looked at it?

i am talking about the counter yourself. caller: yes. host: jack, brownsville, california. morning. president trump indicted. your reaction. caller: by reaction says with all the criticism of alvin bragg bringing this case forward, the criticism in my opinion lies at merrick garland. because when he took that oath, but had no manners about the law. for him to not seriously go after -- when the january 6 commission laid out all the evidence, but he has been silent all the way through this. in my opinion, he has not lived up to what he was hired for, for whatever reason.

that is the only criticism i have of our president. i believe he will go down as one of the greatest presidents we have ever had. he has taken on a big job, there are a lot of problems. they can be dismissed. the attorney general. for whatever reason, he has done a good job but he is not -- has not been cut out to be the attorney general of the united states of america. do not know how he would have done as a supreme court justice. to me, it is really sad that ep would have done his job, we would not be talking about everybody saying how this should not have went off or they should have not started with this. it is a of limitations. all the things he did while he was president -- they keep using the word unprecedented.

it is unprecedented that a president has been indicted. everything he did. when he sat over there in helsinki and talk to vladimir putin for hours and people said, what do you think he is talking about? getting back to the point, i feel that merrick garland should have been the remedy. host: trump was the cause, got it. there is another viewer. "if donald trump broke the law of 30 counts, then so be it. it -- if it is about the adult actress, ok. but i hope we will be scrutinizing all politicians like this". caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a question. what is beijing biden and his crime family above the law?

why is nancy pelosi and her husband for insider trading above the law? why is adam schiff's, for lying to congress, above the law? why is hillary clinton the law? are the only people that are supposed to follow the law have gotten a "r" in front of them? we are a joke. the u.s. has been made a joke by the democrats in front of the whole world. it is terrible and very embarrassing. donald trump was the best president that we have ever had. our economy was booming. crime was down. our border was safe. everything was just wonderful when he was president. now we have this person who has

a 35% approval rating. we need to indict him and impeach him. that is my opinion. thank you for taking my call. host: e lane in florida, independent. caller: i agree with everything that woman had to say. as far as i am concerned, this indictment is just to divert the american people about the border isis. this president said the vice president was going to be there to help. i have not seen her do a thing. host: we are listening to you. are you getting confused by the tv? caller: no, i am not. i have another question. i saw on the news the other day, biden's resident is not even in his name. it is in son's name. and it does not even go the

right way. it is in the sense name. and these -- and the story that stormy daniels own lawyer went to jail for fraud and was stealing from her? i am a new yorker. about 30 or 40 years ago, there was a woman in the midwest who needed an operation and had no money. donald trump paid for her operation and paid her mortgage off. you are in a bad way with this so-called president. host: richard, little rock, arkansas, democrat. caller: alvin bragg is an elected official, am i correct? i believe that his job is to deliver indictments and subpoenas. he has issued 117 tax fraud subpoenas since he has been in office.

this is just catching up from the last seven years. four of them have to do with donald trump. the statute of limitations are no and void when he is in office. the crimes he committed were out of office. who knows what is in that indictment? nobody but alvin bragg. everybody else can calm down and wait until the indictment is unsealed and then, we will go from there. i cannot wait to see with the jury pool is going to be like in new york city if this comes to trial. host: all right. the indictment remains sealed this morning after the news broke last night. cnn is reporting of the our 30 plus related counts against the former president. we will see if that comes true. when and if that is unsealed before the president is arraigned on tuesday, april 4. washington post reporting that

is happening around 2:00 p.m. eastern time. mark in maryland, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. the democrats have finally done it after years of being the bad guys in american history, they have finally done the ultimate and indicted a former president. we are supposed to believe, i guess, the two star witnesses in the case are a pornography star and a serial perjurer. this is just as pathetic as the russia hoax, the ukraine impeachment, the january 6 fraud that we now know was an fbi operation. there were at least two dozen fbi agents there, coercing people to go into the capital. we now have the receipts for that thanks to the twitter files, even though you have not

done an hour on that, even though it came out to more than a month ago. the democrats have been trying to burn the country down every sense they lost the civil war and have their slaves taken away from them. the republican party should have dissolved the democratic party at the end of the civil war. we would have never had the clan in this country and never had jim crow and the democrats would not have been around in the 60's to get and dr. nathan into communism which is the news they have been following the last 60 years. host: the front page of the washington times this morning, "from indicted over hush money". the first former president to face criminal charges. in the new york grand jury indicts trump. the first ex-president charged with a crime and plans for possible arraignment on tuesday. front page of another nationally

news -- another nationally used paper, washington post. the first former president and current presidential candidate has been charged. the new york times with a very large picture of the former resident above the words "trump indictment". mark, philadelphia, democrat. hello. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i am amazed listening to these trump cult members calling in, defending their dear leader here. when we are talking about the grand jury in manhattan, they are saying they cannot indict. i heard the jellyfish mark pentz say this. first, there were rebuttal

witnesses in the grand jury which means donald trump's lawyers had the potential to present trump's case and the grand juror's still indicted him. are we led to believe the grand juror's in manhattan are all democrats? it was not alvin bragg that indicted trump. it was grand juror's. the trump cult members know how our -- do the trump cult members know how our system actually works? host: bert in kentucky, republican. you are next. caller: every time i hear the names soros, my blood boils. here is the man -- many sources i have read. i have seen it where he is the most evil man in the world. when alvin bragg ran for office,

he ran on the fact that he was going to indict donald trump. soros gave $1 million to the democrat whatever party -- host: color of change. caller: just exactly the same amount, $1 million, went to alvin bragg. not $500. i do not care what you say. that was earmarked to go at trump. a note to all dems out there, you secondhand through alvin bragg and you are all ponds of soros, the most evil man in the world. i heard twice that you fact check to this thing about soros.

i understand what they say. in my mind, it was earmarked for alvin bragg. also, i heard a couple times donald trump said that he could shoot somebody and not be indicted. that did not sound right to me. i googled and fact checked it. several sources -- he said he could shoot someone and not lose voters. now, this is donald trump's way of bragging. you and i both know why you did not fact checked that. host: you must not have been listening because the first person who brought that up, i said i was referring -- he was referring to his poll numbers. judy, new hampshire, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. i do not think he is going to

get a fair trial in new york. especially when i hear callers coming -- calling in and democrats have such hatred in their voice. why don't they take qualified judges who are qualified to do this indictment, put him in a hat, draw their name and the trial would be held in that state and the jurors to be picked state. that way you are taking it out of new york which is such a democratic state. listening to these colors, i do not think he would have a fair trial. i do not think anyone would have a fair trial whether they were republican or and ended in new york -- or independent in new york. the hatred is unbelievable within the democratic party. come together. let us work together. i agree that nobody is above the law.

i do feel a lot of happening in this country with people who have committed crimes and they get off scott free. that includes the district attorney who is letting all these criminals out without any type of bail, no jury, nothing and push people off into trains. they watch people getting sucker punched. lemon getting beat up and men. especially elderly. where is this country coming to? host: i will leave it at that point. more calls coming up on the washington journal until 10:00 a.m. eastern time. earlier in today's program, john bresnahan from huntsville news joins this morning to discuss how -- punch bowl news joins this morning to discuss the reaction of house speaker kevin mccarthy. [video clip] >> mccarthy like a lot of

republicans expressed outrage over the news of the indictment which broke last night. he said the house of representatives will continue to look into this issue. you have had three house committee chairs sent a letter to the manhattan d.a. alvin bragg, asking for a testimony and documents. the deadline on that is today. alvin bragg has indicated he is not going to cooperate. mccarthy is of course a very close trump ally. he is saying the house will look into this. we do not know whether the house will try to subpoena alvin bragg or what will happen if he misses the deadline. this will be a whole different level of involvement in an ongoing criminal case. we will have to see how far house republicans are willing to push this. host: jim jordan, the chair of the district committee tweeting

out something outrageous last night. you had the chair of the oversight committee james comer tweeting about this. the manhattan district attorney alvin bragg has weaponized's office to launch a blatantly political indictment. this committee will this fall under? you do have the new select subcommittee. the weaponize station of the federal government and james comer who heads up the oversight committee. >> we will have to see if they actually move ahead with this with any kind of subpoena. again, they threatened to subpoena or intimated there would be a subpoena but that was before the news that donald trump had been indicted. a congressional committee interfering with an ongoing active criminal case is a really unprecedented move. we have seen it before but we have not seen it in decades. congressional committees usually

stay out of it. in this case, you would think alvin bragg would resist any kind of subpoena or move to subpoena anything related to the case or end up in court. to cross the line for the judiciary committee or oversight committee or house administration committee which is also involved would be a pretty serious step. it sounds like republicans may do it but this would be a serious step. just as alvin bragg indicting -- seeking indictment of trump is unprecedented. having something like this happen would be really -- having congressional committees try to subpoena ada in the middle of a criminal case would be a move that i have not seen in my time and i have been reporting for 30 years on hill. host: we talked about the republicans in the house. they are the majority there, the minority in the senate.

are the reactions? have we heard from minority leader mitch mcconnell? guest: we have not. he did report this morning at principal news from a number three statement from john marotta. he was outraged over this. a number of other republican senators expressing their displeasure to a lindsey graham, at republican senator from south carolina, put out a very strong statement in defense of donald trump. criticizing alvin bragg and saying how dangerous this is. he saw a number of other senators say the same thing. that he is going through the indictment and pursuing the case in the justice department did not pursue that alvin bragg is going to a place that prosecutors should not go. they just become a political prosecution, intent to destroy a candidate for president, and former president. the whole, we are off the map

here. we are in a place where there's has not -- where this has not recurred -- occurred so far. host: what about democrats? guest: democrats are pretty cautious. chuck schumer put out a statement. nancy pelosi put out a statement. a never of democrats pretty much said the same thing. that this is just an accusation and donald trump has the right to full defense, to get a good legal defense. but they are saying again and again, every democrat is saying nobody is above the law. even former president's. you probably heard that 25 times within the last day from democrats saying no one is above the law. that is what they are saying. alvin bragg had the right to bring charges against trump for this crime. and if you violated the law,

just because of donald trump status at -- as a former president, does not make him immune. host: we have seen security being beefed up in host cities including the capitol. the timing of this occurred hours after the house and turned in the senate was gone and now they are on a break for a couple we. guest: congress'not back until april 17. this broke literally a couple hours after they had wrapped up a period in session and are gone until the middle of april for the easter recess, spring recess . it was unbelievable because all week, that is all anybody was talking about. will trump be indicted? then, there were confusing reports that the grand jury was not going to do anything until later in april. then later reports that trump himself and his legal team were surprised.

everybody kind of took it down the hill and took a deep breath and said, it will come back and we will end up dealing with this. literally, we were sending out our pm addition and the story broke with the new york times. it caught everybody. not the fact he was indicted, so much as the timing of it. it was really shocking. i do think members are scattered all over the place. there are congressional delegations going overseas. i think this just surprised everybody. i think we will have more discussion about this today. host: john bresnahan of punch bowl news from earlier today on the program. 30 minutes left this morning on the washington journal. we are getting your reaction to breaking news last night. the former president indicted. cnn reporting 30 plus counts related to the hush money paid

to stormy daniels. dennis in virginia. democratic caller. when you heard this yesterday, what did you think? caller: my first thought was it was a long time coming. i was born and raised in new york city from the late 60's and donald trump has been manipulating the law for decades and it is finally catching up to him. i believe the people who support him just recently heard about him within the last eight to 10 years but i have been hearing about him for decades. i have known people who worked in his casinos in atlantic city and i have never heard anything positive or good about him. i think the indictment is exactly what he deserves and a long time coming. i am looking to see how this plays out because i think he has had this coming for a long time. host: pleasant valley, new york. ed, republican. caller: i live in the state of

new york. it is a cesspool, as you can tell. we have 33,000 illegals running our street, crime of an down the street. i am up in midstate. our little town we live five, you cannot recognize. there are no americans on the streets anymore. they are all illegals. this guy killed his whole family 30 years ago and they are letting him back out on the streets in our town. this is ridiculous. the law is not equal. people should start to open their eyes. i will not even go to new york city because people are getting mugged and beat up on the subways and set on fire -- host: tie it back to the indictment. caller: the indictment is ridiculous. i want to thank all the democrats that are so happy that he is in trouble because he will be our next president and i hope they love it. host: dax, independent.

what was were first reaction when you heard this news? caller: my reaction was that every president since nixon should have been indicted and charged with all sorts of manners of rhymes. obama was killing 70% of civilians with his drone strikes. president biden pushed for the 1994 crime bill. in general, we are just losing ourselves in dishonest arguments from the republicans saying donald trump -- what are all these things behind alvin bragg 's intentions? the man should be in jail but probably so should wear than 50% of the people in congress. i would say let's not entertain the dishonest arguments of the republicans. obviously you are a news outlet

and you are trying to -- but these people are dishonest. now donald trump, i imagine, regrets pussyfooting around with fascism and not going through with putting hillary in prison. the reality is this majority of people are going down the road of fascism. once this happens, they have already begun to take matters into their own hands and kill people in the streets like that kid. i forget his name. in general, this is an issue where fascists are rising. host: danny, denver, democrat. caller: he is exactly right. this movement going on is crazy. you asked about my reaction at first and i was driving and listening to the radio when the announcement came over. at first, it was a little bit of relief.

not jubilation. i am not excited or happy about this. if the american voters put donald trump back in office, we are going to have a situation where it is going to be like a civil war. these people want total chaos. they forget that donald trump is tied in with bannon. donald trump said he was to eliminate the constitution. if he gets elected, we are going to have a dictatorship. it is a shame our country is coming to this. mike pence is not speaking up. he is a weak person and everyone who does not speak against him is a weak person. host: hooted to say is not speaking up? caller: mike pence. he is the weakest one of all and wants to run for president? he should have been exposing this man before all of this came down or when it was coming down. the evidence is going to show

and the evidence is already there on these other procedures. the evidence of his phone call to georgia. there's so much evidence against this guy. he is a con man who has conned everybody into believing in him like he is a messiah. it is a shame it is coming to this. they might try to reelect him again. by the time i got to work, i was thinking to myself, lock him up. you remember how he wanted hillary? they sit there and say what about hunter biden, what about hillary? it is all a distraction. host: understood. jason in d.c., republican. what israel take on this? caller: i believe the only two people that will be able to help donald trump through this indictment -- host: austin texas, independent.

caller: listening to all the rhetoric this morning from everybody from all sides, everybody is so absent and filled with hatred. no one is actually looking at the facts. our country is going down the toilet. the restricted act is about to be passed by congress and they will completely take down all independent voices in this country. host: john, tie this into the indictment. caller: joe biden is more guilty -- the crimes him, his son, and his family have committed compared to this trumped up charge. i am not taking either side. i am just looking at our country. people need to start looking at our country and where it is going because we cannot come back from where we are going if people keep the hyperbolic rhetoric going about everything they do not understand.

host: terry in dixon, illinois. democrat. caller: good morning. i have two comments. one, the crime was committed in new york so that is where it should be adjudicated. not some other state. two, i am just laughing at myself. here from 1990 until the end of 2016, the republicans have been after the clintons. do we all remember from 1990 to 1999 all the investigations? china gate, file gate, teacup gaetz, whitewater, monica, all these things that they were trying to lock up this president? that is what they are saying. no man is above the law. at the process go through. if he is innocent, he will be released.

i am just laughing at republicans. here they are flip-flopping saying donald trump was the worst investigation of any president? i am sorry. go back to bill clinton's administration from before he even got into office. they were after him. host:. and people can use our archives if they want to go back to those times and the investigations held in congress. terry mentioned the trial will take place in new york. that is where the former president is headed on tuesday, april 4 for the arraignment. the washington post reports that will happen around 2:00 p.m. eastern time. cnn is reporting he faces more than 30 counts. sharon in middleton, delaware, republican. hello. caller: hello. here are my comments. donald trump more than likely didn't pay the hush money. but how does this compare to

what joe biden and his crew are doing to read which was a legitimate rape offense? where is the investigation into this? the new york times posted her full social security number. all you callers out there, would you like to see this happen to you? the new york times is suing tara reid for legal expenses. as far as the country is confirmed, i am very concerned. a couple callers back, they said if donald trump is back in, we are on the verge of a civil war. where have they been? do they see what china, russia, iran and north korea -- today see what is happening out there? they better wake up. i do not worry for myself because i am elderly but i worry about my kids and grandkids coming up in this mess. host: allen, arkansas, independent. what do you make of this news?

caller: good morning, greta. as an independent -- conservative independent, i wanted to make the point from a higher elevation, looking down on the arguments here. it seems to me that the issue really is a pro-life issue. you have the democrat party and the republican party now split. both parties -- the democrat party is 100% for abortion. republican republican party is pro-life. donald trump came out as pro-life when he ran. that is the main key. host: how is this related to the indictment? caller: it is an absolutely obvious farce. if you not expect to get any conviction. they just want the headlines. three hours of talk. i wanted to ask you a question on programming.

i have asked you before in previous call and you said you would work on this. i remember that you were on the morning of january 6. i called and asked you on air to replay the morning of january 6. you were on the air time that morning. i keep saying and asking people, why are we not discussing the issue there? the issue there was having three days of debate on whether or not these three closest dates could be reviewed -- states could be reviewed. that is what it seems to me the democrats wanted to stop. host: we are going to sit with the indictment story. james, democrat, massachusetts.

caller: i have been sitting here and listening for three hours and not once as the statute of limitations interpretation been mentioned. i am no expert so i would like to refer everyone to -- his letter who is a much better lawyer than i ever could have hoped to be if i took up law. he is saying right now that in his newsletter, "according to the new york statute, it exempts any period of time the defendant was continuously outside new york eight -- states. the whereabouts of the defendant were continuously unknown and an ascertainable. donald trump could have been indicted at any time during the two years or five years, whether it was a misdemeanor or felony they are accusing him of and

they never did which he served his right to a speedy trial. he certainly maintains residence in new york while he was president because he was in and out of new york a hundred times. and everybody because he was president exactly where he was and he could have been found to be subpoenaed". i am sure people want to realize this and they are say nobody is above the law that nobody is but view the law either. i am calling from a state whose attorney general, now governor, sued trump 220 times. alvin bragg to 100 times. when are you going to call it quits? i would like to congratulate you for your 15 seconds of fame. thank you very much. host: dennis, alabama, republican. caller: hello. i am just so -- can you hear me?

host: yes pecan. you are listening. caller: i am so upset and so is 125 million other americans. we are about pushed to the very end. all the things -- i noticed the independent and republicans are altogether on your calls this morning. the democrats seem to be programmed. i have heard their voices before . it is not fair. thank god i live in alabama, where the truth is the truth. i know that they were going to indict him. it is not fair if they have it in new york. it is all going to come out. it is going to be a big mess.

the democrats about spend our money broke. the black people in these big cities need help and need to get a jumpstart. they need to get an education. they need some love and we are sending all this money overseas. host: all right. dennis, republican in alabama reagan we have around 10 minutes left. we are going to keep taking your calls. take a look at these newspapers in states across the country. this is south florida, "trump indictment" dominating the front page of papers across the couny. you have the desert sun from palm springs, california. again with the two words, "trump indicted". at the same for the atlanta constitution and the detroit free press as well. -- the detroit news, excuse me. john in wisconsin, independent.

hello. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. it is what it is at this point. we have to let it play out in the business -- in the judicial system. for a long time, he had qualified annuity -- immunity. the democrat party wants to get rid of police officers. who will protect us? same with the indictment. we will see what happens. it is not going to go anywhere. except it is going to andrew does -- going to energize the republican base and drive more people out to vote for him. i do not think this will come to an end before the 2024 election because even though in their constitution, i says they have a right to a speedy trial.

no trials missed to be speedy nowadays in the country. my previous caller said, i think this is driving the country right down the drain and dividing us even more and more. it is just a sad thing to see. thank you so much for taking my call. host: in headlines is running about the former president and a couple hours after this indictment news broke, he was sending out fundraising emails related to it. brad in missoula, montana. democratic caller. caller: i was calling because i am disappointed in people who do not think he can get a fair trial in new york. of course he can. people there are just like people everywhere. they believe in the system and will show up and do what they need to do. they should not be able to just throughout a bunch of horsemen newer -- horse manure that they

should be able to move it to another state or country. people there are as good as they are everywhere and will make a good decision when it comes to putting him on trial. host: lu in florida. republican. caller: good morning greta. thank you to the staff and yourself for being so brave and listening to all these people call in. the clintons are very happy today. she has had a vendetta against trump ever since she lost. trump tried to fix things with nafta and fix the border and people are against that. china -- we are giving china the upper hand here. it is wrong. nobody is perfect. nobody is perfect but god.

it is so crazy. you have to all get along in this country. the division is a horrible thing. thank you so much for letting me on the air. i am very grateful. host: rita, tucson, arizona, independent. waiting to hear the news? where were you? caller: i was in my kitchen, cooking dinner. host: what into think? caller: i see we have a awful -- an awful lot of people who want to judge. instead of judging something that happened prior to him taking the presidency and winning the election quite well, judge him on the four years that he was in office and did some magnificent things for the country.

the news media, aside from a few, do not want to focus on this. they want to bring the sensational things out that, as far as good common sense, do not make a hill of beans in our everyday living and the future of the country which the man was dedicated to improving and doing the best he could to really make this country great. the last four years have been a disaster. anyone with any sense can see we are on a downtrend in every way. host: michael, democrat, tennessee. your turn. caller: i think your question was when did i hear that they indicted mr. trump?

host: and your reaction. caller: my reaction is i am a person and i want to hear the facts of the indictment before making any judgment call. i think america should sit back and start doing this. before just saying that he is innocent or guilty. listen to the facts first. i am a democrat. that is how i am going to look at it. i will not judge him. i will just listen to the facts. host: however, republican in colorado. hello. caller: thank you for having me on. this boils down to an article in an l.a. paper about large contributions from china into the clinton campaign. the metal line albright took jobs and money and investments -- matta line albright to jobs

and money and investments. the people that are within the stuff is the chinese. the country is being divided on a silly, trumped up charge. trumpers for america. he is for the middle class, hard-working americans. they want to stop that. they want to and world dominance e. they do not care about middle-class americans. it happened in other countries. they have a get together every year where powerful people decide what they think should be right for everybody in the world and it leaves people out and keep people from having a say in what is going on. host: you voted for him in 2016 and 2020? caller: that is correct. host: in his four years in the white house, what did he think for middle-class people that you of right away -- that you think

of right away? caller: he brought jobs back. maybe you and and other countries pay their fair share. the border was more secure. he made us energy independent where we are not buying oil from russia. we are not buying oil from saudi arabia. the guy in washington has sold american people down the tubes. host: the former president posting again this morning, moments ago, on his true social website. the judge assigned to my witchhunt case, a case that has never been charged before, hate speech. his name is juan manuel and was handpicked by alvin bragg at the prosecutors and is the same person who railroaded my 75-year-old former cfo to take a

plea deal, plead guilty even if you are not. 90 days, fight is in court. 10 days, life in jail. he strong-armed allen which you are not allowed to do and treated my companies which did not plead viciously. appealing. we will learn more as the days go on. nakia, las vegas, independent. caller: i think it is horrible what they have done. i am not sure how you indict someone with no charges. they have spread all this information and made this a big deal. then, when he gets charged, all of a sudden the people cannot know. i feel like the prosecutor needs to be fired because what the state of new york and the crime, if i lived there, i would be pistol -- angry because of that

is what they are going to focus on, it is absurd. everyone keeps talking about facts when they call in but what facts? there was no crime. i do not understand what facts people are talking about. host: that will be our last comment. inc. you for joining, watching, and participating in the conversation. that is it for today's washington journal. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] >> a look at our live coverage at c-span at 1:00 p.m. eastern a discussion about the potential impact of ending the tax

exemption of employer sponsored health insurance hosted by the kato institute. then at 2:25 today, president biden will be in mississippi to talk about tornado response and recovery efforts. last week's storm impacted the towns of rolling fork and silver city, mississippi, killing at least 25 people. at 4:00 p.m. eastern we'll hear from the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark hilly in conversation with the government media group. the top u.s. general will discuss the russia-ukraine war, china and the future of the joint forces. >> friday, 8:00 p.m. eastern, c-span brings you "afterwards" nonfiction authors are interviewed by legislators and more on their latest books. tonight, a pulitzer prize author and sociologist shares his views on how americans can spread the

worth came called "poverty in america." watch "after words" at 8:00 eastern on c-span. sunday on q&a, neil king reflects on his nearly 300 mile journey walking from washington, d.c. to new york city. we interviewed mr. king in 2021 shortly after he completed the walk. >> doing it a year later after what happened, all of us being shut in and all of us walking behind masks, that long covid winter as we call it was pretty horrific, the events we saw play out of january 6 at the capitol which i live nearby and the contested election. there's a lot of bad blood overall and made my desire to go out, i think it was the fifth day of spring and walk through a

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