when should they pull back? they are fighting lawsuits about immigration and deportation efforts, so to make matters more complicated they are trying to get the one big, beautiful build on. that is held up in the senate. i know the president -- about that and some of the fiscal concerns in the senate. really in the courts internationally and on the immigration front and extremely busy week for the president. host: luke broadwater and the new york times covering at all.

this is from the washington post this morning, minnesota killing show depth of nations below to go fractures. this is how the associated press puts it in their story. assassination of a democratic minnesota state law maker and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes are just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the united states. the associated press going on to say the list in the past two months alone, the killings of two israeli embassy staffers in washington, the firebombing of a colorado march calling for the release of israeli hostages. the firebombing of the official residence of the pennsylvania governor on a jewish holiday with his family inside. the story goes on to say, and here's just a sampling of some of the attacks before that. the killing of a healthcare executive on the streets last year, the attempted

assassination of donald trump in a small pennsylvania town during the presidential campaign, the 2022 attack on the husband of of the former house speaker nancy pelosi by a believer in right-wing conspiracy theories, and the 2017 shooting by a liberal gunman at a g.o.p. practice for a congressional baseball game. we've entered into this especially scary time in the country where it feels that the sort of norms and rhetoric and rules that would tamp down on violence has been lifted. that's matt dallek, a political scientist at george water university here in washington, d.c. he said, "a lot of people are receiving signals from the culture." this morning we're asking you for your suggestions on reducing political violence in the united states. again, having this conversation in the wake of those killings in minnesota. it was late last night that minnesota governor tim walz spoke to the public about political violence, this was after the suspect in the shooting has been arrested, the news conference after that. this is the governor of

minnesota. >> a moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. it cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country. each and every one of us can do it. talk to a neighbor rather than arguing. debate an issue. shake hands. find common ground. this is who melissa hortman was. in the first negotiating session that i had a chance to work with her, she got all the partners in the room, and she provided each and every one of us a copy of a book called "getting to yes." the whole premise was debating with a sense of goodwill, a sense of trying to come to compromises that serve everyone. and because of her, we did that. because of her, we did that year after year after year. that's the embodiment of how things are supposed to work.

it's not about hatred or mean tweets. it's not about demeaning someone. it's leading with grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency. that was taken from us in minnesota. with the murder of speaker hortman. host: minnesota governor tim walz. that was late yesterday evening. talking to you this morning and simply asking for questions on reducing political violence. president trump weighing in over the weekend after the shooting took place on saturday. this was what he posted on truth social, he said that such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the united states of america. god bless the great people of minnesota, a truly great place. that was part of the president's statement that he put out on truth social. we'll look for more today and hear from you on your suggestions for reducing political violence in the united states. a conversation in this first hour of the "washington journal." matthew is up first out of

dearborn, michigan, line for democrats. matthew, go ahead. caller: yeah, i don't know what we can do to stop it. i know open carry laws and conceal carry laws haven't helped one bit. let's hope our thoughts and prayers have a little more wisdom to it. that's all i can say. thank you. host: matthew, when i say thoughts and prayers having more wisdom, explain what you're referring to. caller: well, they always say thoughts and prayers, but they never pit any mustard behind it. you know? and then they drop the subject. they always drop the subject. they don't have the courage to make any kind of controls on all these weapons that people carry around, and let's face it, america, we are armed to the teeth. i don't know why everybody is so afraid, but anybody anywhere can own a firearm in just about every state and carry them around on their person.

now, that's a paranoid culture. i don't understand it. host: matthew, in terms of political violence and it being on the rise, the associated press going through some of the recent incidents, why do you think it's on the rise in this country? caller: that's another one i completely don't understand. we live in the wealthiest country, and we are the wealthiest country. we have a lot of wealth disparity, which is a sad thing. i mean, on a weekend, you can go to a ballgame. you can be in a park with your kids. you think people would want to do more of that. for some reason, i don't understand why people gravitate to the end of the world stuff. i don't understand it. it's all gloom and doom. but it's not gloom and doom. i mean, america, i can't think of a better place to live. i played golf on the weekend. i see my friends a lot. i don't understand it. i don't understand why people

are so bitter at the world. i don't understand it. host: matthew, how do we get to a culture of gloom and doom and bitterness? caller: oh, man, i don't know how we got there, i really don't. i wish i could find the answers. i wish we had more positive thoughts. i just don't know how we got there. i don't. i wish i did. host: that's matthew in dearborn, michigan. james in pennsylvania, independent. good morning. you are next. caller: can you hear me? host: i can hear you, go ahead. caller: all right. yeah, i'm an independent. i'm also a high school history teacher in philadelphia. i think one of the ways we could hopefully quell the violence is i think it's really not going to be us as individual citizens, but it's going to have to be some of the leaders of our country, lawmakers specifically, lawmakers, whatever political affiliation that the people committing violence are affiliated with. so conservatives need to talk

down extreme right-wingers and condemn them publicly, just as it's going to take liberal lawmakers to condemn hard levity-leaning extremists. host: do you think that we have the leaders who can do that or will do that? caller: perfectly honest with you, no. only because i feel like it's become, for many of our lawmakers, profitable in the sense they need the votes of extreme candidates. because if you saw a lawmaker condemning this, i guess you could call it extreme supporter from their base, it makes them look weak, it makes them not look affiliated with the party, or the ideas, and i think on some level they're also a little bit of afraid of these people, because they're afraid they'll become targets. but they need to step up, i think, and tell them, look, this is not ok. and it's only going to be able to come from a conservative

leader. it's going to be able to talk to an extreme right leader, just as a liberal leader is only going to talk to an extreme left violence violent person. host: you say you're a high school history teacher. what do you think of this comparison? this is from the "new york times" story, i showed the headline earlier. this is diving in on the jump page. they say like school shootings, political violence is both sickening and becoming almost routine, another fact of living in an anke campus and dangerously polarized country. what do you think about making that comparison to school shootings to where we are right now with political violence? caller: boy, that is a heavy question. no, i think it's appropriate. literally, what was, it the first week of school this past year, we just wrapped up, we will a whole day of training on how to prepare in case there was an active shooter in our building. i posted a photo of our training

session on my personal instagram, and someone was like, what the heck are you doing? and it has become routine. we treat it like a kind of daily routine anyway, where it becomes almost you feel desensitized. i don't think we're there yet, because political violence, i think we're still a little bit shocked with. whereas i fear with school shootings, which is something we've had since columbine, the trainings and mass murders, we're slowly, and i hate to say this, disturbingly becoming desensitized to. host: james, you're a history teacher. would you equate to a certain moment in history where you feel like we are right now? this year, 60 years from the assassination of malcolm x. there's a new book out about his legacy. 19696 of course the political assassinations of 1968 often gets brought up. is there a comparison that you would make historically?

caller: well, there's the old adage, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. i would say depending on which historian or history teacher you ask, you're going to get numerous answers to that. i know many have equated this to the years before the civil war, god willing, i hope that's not the case. there are those who compared us to the 1960's. we have many of the radical movements and changes, which i kind of hope is more so the case, because we're seeing a lot of different social movements right now. but in terms of political violence, it could go any numerous ways in the u.s., civil war, pre-civil war, the political violence of the 1960's is an appropriate comparison, i think. and then also you could look at some historical revolutions in europe and asia and possibly equate it to that as well. does that make sense to you? host: sure, james. what grades do you teach?

caller: i have taught 10th grade and 11th grade. i have taught u.s. and world history, and a little bit of african-american history. host: in terms of obviously this incident in minnesota happened over the weekend, but are you getting questions from your students about what's going on right now when it comes to politics and violence? caller: i had some questions, we just actually let out, so i would not have -- i won't be explaining that to my students this week, because we're on summer break. but i did get some questions last year when it came to foreign policy, regarding the conflict in israel and palestine. in terms of what's going on now, i had a lot of questions from students at the beginning of 2025, so january and february regarding the ice raids, which i am firmly against, just to be very clear. and many of my students were concerned about their friends, their family members, especially, and wondering why

they might be detained, what would happen. they were detained, what should they do? that was a very concerning issue. my students are very alert and concerned about the current situation in america. in terms of political violence, i think, because some of them also come from countries where there's political violence, they've kind of seen this before. host: some of the issues that you bring up that your students are interested in, we're going to talk about throughout the course of today's program. alex nowrasteh of the cato institute joining to us talk about the trump administration's deportation policies, coming up at 8:00 a.m. eastern. and michael rubin of the american enterprise institute will diving into the latest when it comes to iran and israel at 9:15 a.m. james, thanks for the call. thanks for talking about the kids and the students out there in pennsylvania. caller: no problem, thank you. host: brendan up next, tennessee, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i think a lot of this violence

is because constituents don't have a formula, i'm sorry, senators don't have a formula to how to appease their constituents. if they actually did what their constituents needed them to do in the state, there wouldn't be so much unrest. well, you're not getting served by your senator or your elected officials because of the risk. host: what do they need to do, brendan? caller: i really think that a lot of political things need to come to an app where people are informed on what their senator does or didn't get done. i'm 45 years old. i served in the military.

you get violence just like like you are locking up these criminals there will all be these criminals but all of a sudden as more immigrant criminals? that makes no sense. holding people accountable to the job they're supposed to do. there's a bus to make sure that their jobs in the state and make sure the state grows and services you need as a constituent are taken care of.

when doesn't there are reasons. >> senator susanns on her feet on saturday saying the attacks on public officials and and horrifying.nesota are tragic tennessee. thanks for the call, brendan. words from federal officials, mbers of the house and senate, plenty in the wake of the shootings over the weekend out of minnesota. this is senator susan collins, the republican of maine on her x feed on saturday, saying the attacks on public officials and their families in minnesota are tragic and horrifying. instances of political violence and threats are becoming far too common in our country. we must stand united in support of the victims' families, survivors, and local law enforcement as well. susan collins from maine.

the house minority leader hakeem jeffries posted this video. >> the targeted and tragic attack directed at two minnesota elected officials is disgusting. and it should disgust anyone who has any decency in this country. there are so-called leaders in america in elected and appointed office who are creating a climate of violence. making it clear to some of their supporters that it should be open season on public officials. they are targeting, arresting, manhandling people who are elected to serve their communities and going after them simply for doing their jobs. we will leave this at this point to take you live to canada or president trump is meeting with prime minister carney before the official start of the g7 summit. live coveragre