if the president aspires to be like somebody they probably aspire to be like washington or lincoln. there's a relation between good presidency and bad presidents. washington and fdr at the top of the surveys and they were decisive man. james polk hated him for being the secretary of state and always went back and forth on the decision that the interview

with the former senator bob graham who's co-authored a new book about citizenship. he discussed his book and recent events in the news on the washington journal. this is 40 minutes. o >> were just as the former u.s. senator who served in the state of florida from 1987 to 2005 and is also the co-author of the book america the owners manual. thank you for coming to the program today. >> guest: thank you for thee invitation. intell >> host: a couple of intelligence related matters on the bipartisan calls for investigation. but facing the intelligence community and congress in this matter. >> i think the calls are very

appropriate. i've been calling since september, 2001 to get all the information out on 9/11. i hope this investigation of doesn't take the better part of the 15 year15 years to get stard completed and supported to the american people. it's also important to the american people that they know there is a good relationship between the president and the intelligence agencies. the purpose of the agenc agencio provide for the president strategic advice that he could not get through the normal channels. the strategic advice is the key to help protect the security advance. it's very counterproductive forh there to be a public clash between the intelligence agencies and the

commander-in-chief. we talk about the investigation looking into these matters and what does this mean going forward as he becomes president? president? a >> guest: isn't a happy sign in terms of what the long-term relationships were going to be and in addition to involving intelligence agencies but congress has a responsibility to provide oversight. i had the privilege to serve for ten years and this is exactly the kind of issue that isuest. intended. >> host: the book that is now cowritten talk about this idea of increasing civic engagement. why are you so concerned about these matters? >> guest: one of the things we've learned out of many ofe this is how dissatisfied so manl americans are with their federal

government. they've publicly seldom been in as low esteem as an institution and individual parts of the government than it is today. what are some of the prescriptions to try to restored what people like john adams talked about in terms of the closeness of the people to their government i think one of those is to get people more directly involved in their government. there's been a feeling that youa can't fight city hall just whatever the government does you have to take it. it includes a problem with government action or inaction and have fixed it and our book k provides the essential skills necessary to achieve that as well as many cases studie any ct

how it has been achieved and advice from professionals and people that are in or out of public office and political consultants and academics and how to go about implementing the skills of citizenship. >> for wanting to get involved especially if he or she may feel disenfranchised from the whole? process.ou have to fee >> first you have to be passionate about the initiate. it's to avoid that same tragedy and so for her friends to establish an organization in a relatively short period of timed

in the united states by almost half. >> host: the book is called america the owners manual. he served in the senate in the state of florida from 97 to 2005. the first one is from new york democrats line your own with senator bob graham, go ahead. good morning, senator. from miami lakes florida i know it's a wonderful community that bob graham and his familylike te created. to get a response from the senator about the politicizatiol of the cia. let me give an example that most will be familiar with. that then cia chief walked into

the oval office and said mr. president, it is a slam du dunk. while we know what is there after the invasion, they were not there. would they be angry at getting some false information, he was not. wouldn't you also think the senate and the house and religions oversight committees would have been outraged. they were awarde over to the presidential medal of freedom ie attendance were many members of the house and the intelligence committees applauding. >> guest: thank you for your kind remarks of my hometown.

the few corrections.. they have the run-up to the iraq war we demanded they be produced what had previously been produced which was a comprehensive intelligencensives analysis. they have those exposed to that in-depth analysis and after 9/11 of m made up to the members of the house and the senate intelligence committee which spent the better part of a year gathering information on the role of the intelligence agencies and the 800 page report on chapter of which primarily is related to the financing of 9/11

and was withheld from the public for 13 years and not made available. i think the oversight committees of congress were diligent and they provide to the american people the truth of what happened on 9/11. >> go ahead.supported >> i always supported you and democrats.he same if you do not use the same strategy the republicans used against barack obama for eight years, i'm done with the democrats. you're sitting there and being

run over by donald trump and the republican party. so you all have a chance now to do something good and that is a block filibuster delay. do not approve the next supreme court justices going to appoint. >> i would agree with you if you are suggesting that there shouls be examples such as the next u.s. supreme court member which the democrats should make a strong stand and depends. it's what the senate did when barack obama was elected which is to say the number one objective of the republicans in the senate is to keep barack

obama from being reelected and regardless of what the issue was, they opposed a delay i believe they were similarly frustrated in a peculiar way by electing the candidate who appear to be the most shout out into th the nighttime night timt going to take any more. they used the opportunity to vote for the unusual candidates to convey a message that they were mad as hell and not going to take any more. our democracy can't function with people yelling at each other. it functions when people work together and understand that they have a responsibility to the american people.

it's what they can do to make their life better and make their life more secure. >> caller: i live in south beach carolina and i wanted to call and say that i'm tired of hearing the story that the russians hacked into the computers and stole the election for donald trump because the people of this country are tired of not having any decent jobs. they are tired of having regulations around their neck for everything they do in this world like telling our girll children they have to go to the bathroom of boys. this is ridiculous. yet they send their kids too private school, so that it doesn't have to happen. i'm tired of nancy pelosi standing up and saying you can only walk 30 hours a week now,

but the you will have time for some special events for your self. the people in this country need 40 hours a week. they don't need two or three part-time jobs.ne your democrats need to get over the election, because the people elected donald trump. >> guest: i don't believe the issue is about whether he will be the next president of the united states. he was elected under the electoral college system. but this issue of the foreign government being involved. o they support one candidate over another and they use their technical capabilities to achieve that objective as very,

very unacceptable. we can't have forerunnersin oury determining who they will be. so i am a strong supporter of congress accepting its oversight responsibility to try to get to the bottom of this case. did russia play a role trying to influence the outcome and if so, what sanctions should the united states have? i don't think we can afford to do what we did with saudi arabia for 15 years, which is to have compelling information that they were involved in 9/11 and do nothing because what that has done is encourage saudi arabia to continue to support terrorist organizations and i believe if we send the same signal to russia that it would involve itself in how they without any response but you're just going to encourage more easily and

inappropriate behavior. >> host: west virginia, democrats line. call for good morning. i haven't called in for severalo months. but one of the people who callee in earlier and also this morning to the senator. he had a comment about unions and he said that right writes tk was the right way to go. i have a comment about this. over and over again this right to work, there isn't one state in the whole country that has any law that states if you do not want to belong to a union or go to work somewhere that a union is in place that you can't go right from the street to the nearest place and get yourself a job, that's a fact.

>> host: we believe that there.chlight, >> host: brad and searchlight nevada, good. >> guest: argue from harry reid's hometown? >> caller: yes, sir. >> caller: he talks about it all the time. we all have come to know about a searchlight very well. >> caller: we are a pretty small town, but we get along together and that's the biggest part.ting .. everybody that is a congressman or senator, you call them and let them know. i do it all the time. arizona, i'min sure senator mccain got tired of me calling. host: when you called, what kind

of response did you get? caller: did not get any. that certainly is appropriate. people should register, they should vote, they should be participants in all the ways of democracy. don't forget that you don't have >> people should register, they should vote, they should be participants in all of the ways of democracy, but don't forget you do not have to wait for an elected official to take action, you have the rights and responsibilities as a citizen of the united states of america to make a difference. i use the the example of the women in sacramento who, in a few years with the principal force and cutting in half the number of deaths attributed to drunk driving and united states.

the use government but they did not wait for government. they took the initiative. and that's what i am urging. the people who feel passionate about issues, they need to have the skills of how to go about this. this is not just something you pick up in the play yard, you have to know what the skills and how to use them are. and.me and then you have to beckly, persistent.an government doesn't typically act quickly and you have to be prepared to play the game, not the hundred yard-if you're going to be successful. >> we have a call on the republican line. >> caller: good morning to both of you. i have have a question about voting in florida.ou don' there was places where reagan served hillary, how come you don't check into that. >> i'm sorry, what was happening? the voting in florida this year, it showed and was proven that there is places that they were rigging for hillary. we watched it in florida.

>> man, this is the perfect example of what a citizen citizen can do. if you believe there is credible evidence that there are some rigging of the election in florida, what you have to do is find out what official is responsible for monitoring those elections and in the case of florida it would be your county supervisor of elections, go to to him or her with theyo information that you have, if you have other friends who havew evidence there is bad behavioror at the lection, bring them them along with you, let the newspapers or television stations know what you're doingc so that the public will be better informed, there are steps that you can take as a citizen citizen which will make a difference.

>> we coined the term to this last collection fake news news that comes from the internet and other sources, what you you think about the rise of this information and what you think about traditional news sources and are people still engaging in reading newspapers and things like that in order to gain information make decisions. >> the fact are all the traditional means, newspaper, radio, television have seen a decline in their audience and their influence and particularly in the case with television, delusion by the number of channels that are providing news frequently, heavily partisan in one direction or another. i1 direction or another. i think one of the things that is contributed to the current low standing of government in the eyes of people is that the people do not know very much he government.97 we stopped teaching civics in america in about 1970.

we've gone from an average of three one-year classes between the seven in the 12th grade 20 civics in our school. that's been a major frustration and alienation of voters and i hope that one of the results of this election will be ath re-examination, not only whethec we should teach civics, the answer to which is a resounding of course. it also what kind of civics.o sn we should be teaching spectator civics where we just teach the students to sit in the stands and launch democracy we need to teach them to be an active player in democracy. >> here's tony from kokomo indiana. >> and senator graham, the man a while ago was talking to you about democrats are going to

stop voting for you guys if youu go along with these republicansd it started out that mitch mcconnell said were going to make sure he's a one term president they shut down the senate, nothing got done at alle and then the people punish the democrats. the republicans republicans took over the senate, the democrats worked with the senate, the people rewarded the republicans. if you guys go along with the democrats or republicans again you're going to lose us democrats because were not in a vote for you, time to stand up to the republicans because there because her cleaning our clock. we will go to third-party. >> what i've said is yes the democrats ought stand up where there's a matter of principle. for instance the president trump nominates in out of the mainstream person to be the next u.s. supreme court member, democrats should protest point

that out and use whatever means available to them. but on something like the proposed program of infrastructure i think they neee to be cooperating because that's critical of this country and another issue i think is cochair critical, going to be presenting today is cochairman of a lumina foundation on higher education, a proposal that we think is the equivalent of the g.i. bill of the 1940s to increase the number of americans who have some form of education after high school, whether it's it's a vocational certificate, community college associate degree or for your baccalaureate degree, we need substantially more higher educated americans

if america is going to be competitive in the 21st century economically andin politically. >> senator bob graham served in the senate from 1987 till 200505 and co-author of the book fort wayne indiana, justin, hello. >> caller: on the issue of civic engagement i wanted to throw out the idea of maybe taking a step toward direct democracy without involving the constitution like the rules of debate and procedure in the house or senate, you can somehow give a voice, maybe, maybe the online mechanism kind of like change.org to allow citizens to have their input directly impacting the debate may be in a committee. maybe you could have a virtual vote and let people actually have a vote on the specificci amendment or billing committee.s

when there's a 10's of different configurations. i think it be interesting to think about how that could work via online tools and not necessarily constitutionally change anything but just by changing the roles of the house. it could be experimented with unlimited measures to see how it works. it could increase the problems we have with special interest but it can also force people to debate actual issues instead of making politics what it is not is basically entertainment. it's like high school level entertainment. this team versus that team. i think we get people engaged in the issues was some sort of direct democracy push for initiative we might be able get people to be rational and look at facts and have facts matter again. >> i congratulate you for being so creative. there are number

mssibilities in which there can be greater citizen involvement without having to amend the constitution of the 90 states to do it. this is a little bit off your examples but in the earlier panda congressman mention the fact that many states, includina florida now prohibit members of the legislature from raising money, soliciting money while the legislature is in session. it looks unseemly for a legislator on monday to have gone to a special interest and asked for 1000-dollar contribution to their campaign and then on tuesday as a member of the legislature, vote on a on a measure which benefited that special interests. congress ought to pass a rule and that's all it would take, doesn't take a wall ornot so constitutional change to say

that we will not solicit money while the congress is in session. i think that would beir an example of the kind of direct citizen involvement. it would increase the confidence of the citizens that the legislator was represented theii interest and not the last person who solicited a campaign contribution. >> host: brenda on the republican line. >> caller: hello. i wanted to say that i've been an independent for years until i watched watched c-span the last couple of years. i turned to republican after i started watching the hearings. i heard you say that we need to have hearings on the russia thing. but during during the hearings on hillary clinton or really anything about or against the democrats, all the democrats

did was lecture and not even participate. and that was the reason i switched from independent to republican. as far as the russian thing, itt has been you so much it's kinda like the brady thing one should go marsha, marsha, marsha. it's the russians, russians, russians. >> guest: first, i think the fact that c-span caused you to reassess your party affiliation is an indication of how important programs like the one we are sharing today are. and the fact that you change your party because you saw the democrats as being too obstructionist or too unwilling to listen to other issues. that's a message that the public is tired of hearing politicians squabble each other.awful, r they want to have a civil, thoughtful, respectful of the public display of their public

office. going back again to this russian thing, if the if the allegations that have been made are true, it is a very seriousfn matter with a foreign government making a conscious decision to try to influence the outcome ofa a u.s. election. i think think all americans, republicans,ith democrats and republicans would agree with that. we need to know the facts. i would think it would be a great disservice to our democracy if, like in nine/11 would be 12 or 15 years after the event still squabbling over whether the american people are going to be given the information as to why the event was considered to be important. so, thank you for your call, i think you think you have made a number of good points.e >> allowed a confirmation hearing stressed and for the senate. what will it be like to

be a minority democrat facing the hearing process and vote process? >> guest: my policy was that as it related to appointments to the executive branch whether president is selecting the person that he or she wants to be secretary of state or agriculture, whatever, i gave a high level of deference to the executive. these are his people, they're, they're going to be working in his or her name, he ought to have individuals that he or she has confidence inches now, it's different with the judiciary because the way the constitution was constructed, the selection of the members of the judiciary was to be an equal role for the congress and for the president., and there i think the standard is considerably higher for confirmation and i believe that is where a lot of the fireworks

going to occur, particularly with this first appointment toto the u.s. supreme court. >> host: how many votes will be needed in the senate can those rules change? >> several years ago the congress change the rules relative to the filibuster for judicial offices and said essentially that with the exception of the supreme court, the filibuster will not apply to judicial appointments. but the big exception is the supreme court, so if there is a contested nomination it would take 60 votes to shut down the debate and then moved to a vote on the individual. so, the magic number for supreme court justices is 60. >> host: from mason, ohio, the independent line with tom. >> caller: hello. c-span.or

we have to remember folks, thisr is not the democratic party that we had when mr. kennedy was votd president. those last time i voted democrat, he he would be turning over in his grave hearing the socialists speak the way they are. we have to remember that we do not have a socialisticwe? government but how do you answer that sir? >> guest: when i was studying economics, i was taught that we have a mixed economy. we have an economy which is primarily a capitalist capitalist driven by private-sector decisions that in which the government plays an important supportive role, goinh back to the subject of infrastructure, historically historically from the very beginning of the country was

government, primarily the federal government that built the roads, the canals, the other things that began to knit these 13 states into a new nation. i think things like that and areas of fundamental research, the things that we take for granted today such as the computer that peter was looking at were largely developedto because of government defense, intelligence and space programs. we have a mixed economy and the political challenge is to figure out what that mix should be. >> host: from oklahoma on the republican line with jim. >> caller: i like to make comments about the senators said empathetic statements about the russian involvement if there is one. the bottom line is, they wind up been able to expose hillary's emails if she didn't use the

illegal server. so that's a ridiculous stance, completely. and it's pretty sad. and then your statement about the people not being aware of what the government is doing, we are well aware, gladly more americans have been waking up to what you been doing or not doinb and are sick of it. your stances totally horrible. you're still whining about that. and i don't get your point at all. >> guest: i'm not whining. and not taken a position. i'm just saying that i think this is an important enough issue that thes american people should have full information as to what happened. now there will be a debate as to what that means. some people will say it's trivial and dismiss it, others will, others will say it's world war iii time. i think one of the fundamentals

of democracy is a relationship in which the government treats the people as adults with respect and confidence in the people's good judgment.n't want i don't think that has been done relative to 9/11 and i don't want to see it repeat it with the roles of the russian. itnk might be that you might be right. frankly, i hope you are right. i hope we do not find out that the russians were trying to metal in our elections.er: hi. but i think we should know enough 50 years from now still be worrying about what happened in dealing with conspiracy theories. >> pet lives in nebraska. hello. >> hello.even

my comment is that americans are trying to be involved, but we have things like when our votes are being stifled by things like that voter crosscheck that rendered how many of our votes not even counted. it's disheartening. and in the we do have an incoming president who cannot be bothered to do his job and go to national security meetings and briefings. so that's my comments. i love to hear what you have to say about that. >> again the point that i'm trying to make and is made through this book is that you don't have to just wait and be certain that your vote is cast and counted. there are so many other ways in our democracy where a citizen can be directly involved and can

make a difference. but it takes passion, skills, persistence for citizens to do that. i believe this book provides a lot of encouraging examples of where that has happened. and, the book provides a clear, the book provides a clear roadmap as to how you, on the issue you feel y passionate about, make a you difference.r if you think the election system in your state has been taken over, distorted, then you as a citizen can do something aboutue that. you don't have to wait for somebody else to takeout the initiative.times >> the comment she made about the president-elect trump and his intelligent briefings, now three times a week apparently history that. to think it's necessary to have this? >> i think it's a matter of whan the president inclination is. some presidents got very down into the weeds of the intelligence daily briefing, and others used it as more of a

general outline or suggestion of activity. i think that it's up to the individual who happens talk by the white house. i would i would not say that one is more patriotic or more committed to their job than the other because they hear it one, three, or seven times a week.o walk h >> when they're delivered to the president-elect, was a level of depth and information. does he need someone there to walk them through what it means? >> guest: they are quite detailed. they they tend to be on a specific topic. they will have in the room the people who are responsible for producing that particular presidential briefing paper. in many ways it's a means of starting a dialogue. one of the things the intelligence community does is fill in the gaps, 80% of what the president needs to know to make a decision you can read

about or see on television, is that final 20% that the intelligence community is responsible for fulfilling. so the president may say to the briefers, look, i want more information on points one, seven, 13, and 24 in this report. and they take those instructions in the next time they have a briefing they will fill out the areas that the president had felt were deficient. that is the back-and-forth it typically goes on with the presidential briefing by the intelligence community. >> the chairman of the senate

select community from 2000 want to make 2003 plus a senator representing the state of florida, also the core a third of the book, america, the owner's manual. thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much and. >> thank you very much and thank you to your informed viewers. >> next week this authors week featuring new authors each day beginning at 830 emmy eastern. on monday december 19 charles murray joins us to talk about his book, in her hands. her plan the plan to replace the welfare state. author mark levinson discusses his book, an extraordinary time in the postwar boom the return of the ordinary economy. thursday december 22 author james with twilight worriers, the soldiers, spies and special agents revolutionizing the american way of war. friday december 23 other kathy kramer with her book the politics of resentment.

on saturday december 24, 2 authors join us time with a nation of nations, great american immigration story and robert jones with his book the end of white christian america. finally on sunday december 25, the author with shall we wake the president. be sure to watch others we can "washington journal" beginning sunday december 18 at 8:30 a.m. >> next, federal reserve chair janet yellen on the economy and the fed's decision to raise interest rates. then the father of a child killed in the sandy hook elementary school shooting speaks about gun violence prevention. later, afghanistan's ambassador talks while the future of the u.s. about the future of the u.s. afghan relationship during the trump

administration. >> were asking students to tell us what's the issue for the new president. ashley tell us about your student cam documentary. >> in 2015 my partner and i produced a documentary where we covered issues of homeless veterans on the streets of orange county, california. we decided these are the people who fought for our country and given their off our country. the fact that they are living on the street that had been family or anyone to care for them was not okay. we decided we're going to talk about this issue within our community and decided to make a documentary about it. i encourage seniors and juniors in high school and middle schoolers to use this platform to raise your voice.

to say that your generation deserves to be heard in the government and if there's a better place to speak these issues this is it. >> i think my advice for students is to really look into your community and see what's affecting those around you because they are the one who you love. they're the one who see the most in your surrounding with almost every day. and so there is is an issue that you see happen every day on the street, that is probably where you can start. the a part of the documentary because you want to be a voice for your community. >> thank you for your advice and tips on student cam. if you want more information on our contest go to our website, student cam.org. >> today, the federal reserve to

raise short-term interest rate by 25 basis points to three quarters of 1%. only the second rate rate hike in ten years. they might might raise interest rates three times next year. janet yellen held a press conference after the meeting. it is under one hour. nonoaud. >> and afternoon. today the federal open market committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by one quarter percentage point bringing it to one half to three quarters%. in doing so my colleagues and i are recognizing