button. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> now a portion of sunday's "wall street washington town with sean spicerment we'll show you as much as we can before of the start of the senate session at 3:00 p.m. eastern. >> sean spicer, welcome back to c-span. >> good to be back. i look around and realize i didn't have a new c-span cup. they need to come back and get the new condition. >> would glad to have you, let me given with news this week. the upcoming summit on june 12th. will it happen between president trump and the north korean lead center sunny think it will but >> guest: i think it will but who knows, as president trump said. i think the president wants this to happen. gait for the country good, for the world. but you don't know what kim jong-un's motives are. is he trying to do enough that people have a better image of

him and allow -- give him some economic relief? or does he really want to deal. that's the million dollar question. >> there. >> host: some compare it to the honeymoon to an the leader and then the military exercises take place which he knew would happen and then they use that as an excuse to stop any talks with the south. >> guest: that's what i think gave me pause, which was they almost were fishing for an excuse. using your words, there is would honeymoon and looked great. met at the dmz, looking to denuclearize and open up trade but i wonder if kim has gotten what we wants to is which is to be recognized on the world stage and then walked away with from the deal with that being the only thing the wanted. we'll see if the talk goes forward. think kim also recognizes in order for his country him as a

leader to go forward he needs a deal like this. >> host: how does at the present for this type of meeting that >> guest: like he was. he goes back and forth with aides and it's an which escalating process. >> host: what's your biggest concern about the boxers. >> guest: my biggest fear is tom kim is not serious. that he just wants to recognition of a meeting with the president of the united states, the leader of the free world and then walks away. i think that we can't give him the credibility of being seen as a world leader without getting some concessiones, the hostages being return was a good first step but if he want thursday economic relief and trade that goes with that, then he needs to denuclearize. not shut down one plant. >> host: in regard to iran and the u.s. pullogy out therefore

odile, the european council says with friends like this, who needs enemies, very critical of donald trump and pullogy out of agreement. that was worked out with the five countries countrie european union. hoss does the president -- >> guest: i dope think he carolina. he ran on the agenda of putting the american people first, getting out of bad deals and anyone who is shocked from this decision needs to get out from underneath a rock because has been talking about this since the campaign. anybody who found this surprising is interesting bit don't the president cares necessarily what other people outside of this country think: his administration is dedicated to advancing american interests sending the mesh people and not serving the european union. >> host: we'll get a speech by mike pompeo, the secretary of state, plan b on iran, based on what you know or what you think will happen, what can we expect.

>> guest: i think additional sanctions, talking but how to isolate iran and how bad the deal was. my guess is that secretary pompeo makes the indication for how bad of deal was, what iran would do in terms of the nuclear -- and then talk about how the u.s. is going to isolate them and sank them to sort of achieve a better goal, better outcome. >> host: let's turn to domestic issues. how much time did you spend on capitol hill working for house members. >> guest: i first came to washington in 1993. i left capitol hill to go work for the united states trade representative under george w. bush in 2006. so, the reason -- the math is fuzzy because i would go join a member's office or committee, and then in the off 'er i would -- off year work or their campaign 0 someone relations campaign and i worked for

different committee, the national los angeles county committee and over the course of the year is have 11 years of federal service. >> host: i ask the question because of the farm bill which went down on friday. how significant is that for the house g.o.p. >> guest: i don't think it looks good. you never want to a bill to go down. but i think to some degree i've always believed that sometimes that tough love, those discussions that need to happen, need to happen. so allowing a bill to go down like that that has lot of reforms in it, that is good for conservatives who have been fightingor reducing waste, fraud and abuse to try to maximize the impact that the farm bill has to really put a better deal in place. for the sake of the discussion on immigration you have to juxtapose the ultimate goal, and sometimes the greater discussion that is at hand is what are we trying achieve needs to happen, and so while it's not good in the short run, i think ultimately it serves us better because it forces a discussion

which is are we throwing the baby out with the bath water. >> host: there are two fantastics win the g.o.p. and there are 20 moderates republicans who want 'o'oput together a ditch charge petition that would force a more moderate immigration bail and provide assistance for dreamers. democrat wood go onboard for this, how likely that could happen sunny think you'll gate series of votes. think speaker ryan, lead are mccarthy and -- recognize they would rather play the game on their terms than have a discharge petition and have it be more unwieldsy. at the end of the day he don't see the time and legislative calendar for the senating a and at the president to do anything. so are you accomplishing something or forcing votes. >> host: is this accomplish sunny don't think so. but cite by and that's one of the other questions. if you're speaker ryan or leader mccarthy, by putting this sort of hot potato on the table, are you forcing out an issue that

you nosily don't want to be campaigning on? >> host: you spent time at the rnc, to look ahead know mid-term elections first in the house and then senate. >> guest: this stage i think we keep the house. probably lose a few seats but i feel good and better every day about where the house is. i think you see a lot less excitement on the democratic side. they are very captive by the progressive left, far left part of the party, and you saw that in recent primaries where they're put mortgage and more people on who make easier to campaign against somebody that is that far to at the left. i think president trump's approval rating continues to rise which is a good thing, the economic news is a good thing. at thes of the day elections are about how people feel. do they feel secure, both safety-wise and economically? and more and more we're seeing the economy kick up and and the president's fight against isis goes well, which means that people generally speaking with want to keep the team that is on the field. that bodes well for the

republicans at this point. in the senate i feel very good. a one-seat majority right now. wouldn't be surprised to see us actually pick up seats. most of that is because we have a tilted playing field. a much greater degree of democrats who are up for re-election this cycle that are in states that trump carried by a lot. >> host: the book is titled the briefing. came out in july. what is it about. >> guest: it's but several things. about -- just to be blueprint it's my -- be blunt, it's my story, my briefing. takes people back when came another of the white house i wasn't fully committed to writing a book. start doing speeches and people would ask the same questions over and over again. holiday howe didout yet? what it like did this really sustain thought to myself, if i'm going to set the record straight about who i am and how i felt about certain things, it wag incumbent to write the book and tell people how i got here. what was it like in certain circumstances and talks houston

bow i good at to washington, my early areas, and then my career progression and then the experience nets the campaign, transition and the white house. >> host: what did you learn but yourself in writing where the book. >> guest: that's a great question. it's cathartic and therapeutic, it gives you an opportunity to reflect on who you are as a person, and i mean that in the sense that why you made certain decisions, would you make them differently,or thank you he best person you could have been -- were you the best person you could have been? i talk about my faith in the book, which is something i don't speak generally quite often publicly about. just how i reflect on certain moments and whether i could have been a better person or handled certain things better. >> let me put one moment on the table. january 21, 2017. your very first briefogying. hough did that come about? >> guest: well, it's in detail in the book so don't want to give too much away. basically the short version is

this. we had a very historic january 20th. the president got out there, gave a peach, he laid out his vision for putting america first, and he wakes up on january 21st, our first full day in officer and there's a bunch of discussion going on in cable news channels bowled the crowd size and the inauguration. and i think the president felt as well as many other of us, that was really a sad commentary on what had just happened. you had this historic election, and a president who was coming enough a bold agenda to change the trajectory of the country and yet we're talkogy but how many people were on the mall or not. and long story short, we trade to put together a statement and a briefing where we talked about how petty that was. >> host: one thing you talk about is the suit you are wearing. >> right. >> guest: yeah. i mentioned that in the -- thank you for replaying that.

i talk about that in the briefing. that one press conference cost me a few thousand dollars on a government salary because you recognize small little things suddenly matter in a way they hadn't in the past. i'd been on television multiple times and different shows but never had that level of critique set in. but you start to realize how all of those things and the level of intensity and interest there is in every little aspect of the job. >> host: let's get to phone calls on the republican line. robert from illinois. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. good more than, sean, pleasure to talk to you. thought you did a great job, look forward buying your book. with all due respect to jimmy kimmel, even this writers couldn't have come up with a law that would prevent this past shooting, a kid getting gouges his dad. my commentes for seven years and nine months, president obama did nothing to prevent the russian

hacking, and to the election and their bombarding our president with, blaming him for the 2016 election meddling when he got in there by a fluke, i think, glad for it i love the president, doing great job. think every time a liberal asks a conservative about president obama -- i mean president trump interfering, they should refer back and say obama did nothing fer seven years and nine months. thank you. >> host: thank you. >> guest: i get into this in the book but we were briefed on that, the obama administration's department of homeland secured asked me to come with n with -- to talk but what they were seeing and maded very clear they had this under control. so, i agree with robert there. this -- the past administration knew what was going on and for whatever reason didn't make it a big enough deal. i understand. i'm not -- i think that if they

head made it's big deal a lot of people were saying day were trying to tilt the election so i'm not saying that it wasn't a tough decision but the fact of the matter is that robert was right, that they did know things were happening and they were confident they had everything under control ump don't see any evidence there was anything that changed the outcome of the election but i think that all of us, republican, democrat, independent, need do everything to make sure the integrity of our elections is sound. and i think that our election officials need to do the same. >> host: next is crystal from pennsylvania. democratic line good morning. >> caller: good morning, steve. good morning, mr. spicer. give me an opportunity to make my comments. mr. spicer, you and trump is the lyinges people i have seen. this administration lies every day to the american people, and you are talkogy about the republicans will get back into

office. i ever u will never, ever vote for another republican gain. my salary has not increased. nothing has changed since i was working during the obama administration. i pay nor n gas prices so nothing hat changed but you, the president, and his families, to me are the biggest criminals ever. >> host: crystal,? i respectfully disagree. i hope things get belter and argue this country is a better place over the last year and a half. both economically and security-wise, and our safety and the relationships abroad. so i wish you the best and hope your life does get bet jeer from raleigh, north carolina, charles on the republican line. good morning. >> caller: good morning, steve. morning, sean. >> guest: morning. >> caller: i look back and how the media treated josh earnest and gibs and carney, almost with

a reference -- reverence and i look bat at your experience and i see the hostility with very today and i feed like we talk but fake news, at the very, very least is a extremely slanted news. it comes from a viewpoint that seems to be in a herd, and the herd that the mainstream media from my standpoint, maybe hire the same people that went to the same schooled that have a limit viewpoint and an example, maybe nonpc but when you have major news anchors, like anderson cooper and rain rachel mad dao who live an alternative lifestyle, they may look through a different lens than say a mike huckabee looks through lens. >> host: thank you, charles? a couple of things. i've been very careful not to paint the media at large with

the same brush because i think there's some very,er. >> reports and some great journalists that not just in the white house briefing room but throughwards and journalism that focus on the facts and do a gate job of pursue pursuing the through, and there are some tom cot with an agenda there are some that actually have a agenda and some don't acknowledge the agenda. so two very distinct groups. your background taintses how you view the world. if you group in one particular way, you see things and i think good journalists try over them to inherent biases and want to here but the side. if have seen my entire career when i was he to us bug committee, people that viewed everything that we did in this negative light about cutting and hurting and slashing, and i think there's a lot of times we would reform a program or intend

to reform a program because we thought that it send people better, because the private sector, charitable organizations did a better job than a blooded government bureaucracy. i i think journalists would talk about slashing and cutting and hurting because wherever where they came through. >> host: saw that with the farm bill. >> guest: right. i don't think generally speaking that people come to congress or come into public service to hurt people. you come to help people. but a lot of time you look it's from different ways because you believe there's a better way to help people. i think lynn recalls believe that government is all the solution. i respect my differ agree with that. but i don't think they're coming at things to hurt people. i don't think that conservatives come to hurt people. we believe that public service and elected offers is a way to help the american people, our country, and a lot of case this entire world with a better way but no one is coming at this right or left to hurt people.

>> host: our guest u.s. sean spicer, press secretary to donald trump. we welcome viewers and listen are's the bbc parliament channel and c-span radio and channel 24. i want to get your information to the piece, mentioning the media. he writes the news isn't fake but flawed. he says, quote, one of my overarching fears but the trump era is he hill drag the rest of the country, including the media, down to his level. little he would loaf more than to inval tate us because then he could sell whatever alterative fantastics he chose. to that's a chill chilling pros prospect and that's why we cannot abet his cause. >> guest: i agree with part disagree with part tomorrow. the extent that journalists need recognize the, especially in this age of social media that

rushing to be first and then ultimately being wrong undermines their credibility. i am a believer in a free and robust press corps. but the same first amendment that gives every journalist their right to -- or anyone to write what they want, publish what that want gives every other american and anybody here who is here constitutionally the right to criticize that piece. want good pieces. i want strong, robust journalists that push back, that investigate, that seek the truth. but? so many instances, you see that rush, trump, the idea of -- no pun intended -- of being right and we have to insist it's better to get it right than to be first. what we have seen with twitters and facebook and these other social apps that journalists would rather be the first one through the gate than be the first right one through the guilty. >> host: do you miss the job. >> guest: no. not a day. it was an authorize -- an honor to have it.

i would do it again but it was an authorize serve, the right time to leave. both for me and for the president's administration. >> host: allen on the line for independents in houston. good morning. with sean spicer, former white house press secretary. >> caller: good morning and thank you nor opportunity to speak to you. i disagree with the statement that president trump does not care about what nonamericans think about him or his policies, and if you -- i have four very quick point dots prove that. written comps to israel some and netanyahu, mr. trump apparently cares so much but what he says he said american middle east policy will be whatever mr. netanyahu wantses or the israelis want. when it came to the chinese phone company, that was sanction evidence by the u.s., -- sanctioned by the u.s., the chinese are bankrolling a trump project in indonesia, they

granted him and his daughter hundreds of trademarks. he immediately jumped in to save that company. when it comed to thank you saudis and me money, i think he demonstrated very clearly he carolina what the saudis think and when it comes to put put who pay parentally has something on the president, he is very quick to jump in and protect him from sanctions. mr. spicer, with all due respect, you and the president, you're not as big as your rhetoric. >> guest: i'm only 56 outsoar i'm not that big. i would respectfully disagree we ever the statement. i think the president has shown very clearly his commitment to make this a better place for all citizen and ran on a promise of america first and i think he is delivering on it. >> host: this is a piece from the atlantic magazine. itself is more than 14,000 words in length bit john dickerson of cbs and cbs this morning. how the presidency became impossible and it's not just donald trump. the job is now too much for

anyone. one point he makes is that george washington would not recognize the modern president si. >> guest: it's true in the way the governments has grown and why we need a smaller central government and get back to riots of the country which is pushing decisions back on the state there's no question the government has grown too big, too unwieldy and is not sending the best interest of the american people. >> host: another point he says the buck stops here was not supposed to mean that the president is responsible for everything that happens in the executive branch. >> guest: well, when you look at the size and the scope of what this government is doing now, you literally can't have one person by virtue of just time, involved we everything that happening and all the decisions being made at the various different agencies and departments contracts being

made. i argue a the government has gotten too big. >> host: you saw the flow of information. >> guest: i did. >> host: what changes needs be made. >> guest: i think you have seen its back at least in the modern era to al gore reinn veining the government i think we need to really at some opinion have almost a separate group of people that are specifically looking department by department weapon don't have any incentives for downtown sizing government. the incentive is to grow government. and i think that what we need to do is look at piece by piece, budget by budget. when you have departments in this government that can't do -- pass a clean odd, that says something, don't know how much money they're spending. that tells you how big we have become. i think we realy need to get down to brass tacks and recognize that there needs to be some kind of look at what government does, where we are

serving the american people and where we're not. the problem is that it's power. and that there's groups of anymore this town that want to make sure that every agency and every job is filled pause because that allows them to get a contractor. that part of the beggar problem. >> host: in terms of your area, the daily briefing, is that still relevant. >> guest: no. i think that the press office should be available as they are, to give the press responses and updates as to what is going on in the white house but the daily briefing has sort of -- is worth reexamining the department of defense and others don't after the a daily briefing of on camera sense and i think a morning gaggle and then selected days where you do an on camera one is worth it but briefing has become more of a shoshanna outlet of information for the media and we should provide the

media answers to the questions that they have, updates to issues ongoing but i think that the time and effort takes to get the briefing going and what you get in rinser not worth it anymore. >> host: i suspect that is part of the new book as into the a little. >> host: steven from connecticut. good morning, independent line. >> caller: good morning. thank you for taking my phone call. i disagree. i think the daily briefing can provide hope to the world. i'm calling bought social media. facebook just surpassed or is closing in on two billion users. that is more followers than people in the muslim religious. i mean, i'm still trying to wrap my head around the power of social media. >> host: what about you. >> guest: i mean, i agree.

it's an extremely powerful tool and i think it's dawn lot of good. don't get me wrong in terms of giving people a voice that didn't have one before. there's natural disaster that allows fonder toes be in touch and people to reach out so there's a huge utility for it. the problem is it allows at the same time misinformation and, again, people to say and act in a way they would never do somebody's face. so, i think it's sort of -- it's pros and its cons but at the end of the day, all of these things come back to us as people, how we react in person on a social media platform and my goal, my hope is that people recondition how they think and how they express themes. >> when the president would send out a tweet, did he ever check with you first or did he do this on his own?

and you're smiling. >> guest: once in a while he would tell you he would do it but i think that percentage-wise, probably 90% he just doing what he wanted to do and 10% he would tell you i'm thinking about doing this. >> host: is the private donald trump any different than the public? >> guest: um, he only difference that i would suggest is that i've always -- there's many instances in which i've seen him being carrying and empathetic and concerned that i wish would get out more. he carolina deeply about people. especially in times of tragedy, and i wish people got to see that more. that's the only differs. but generally speaking -- >> you can watch the rest of the discussion with former white house press secretary sean spicer online on c-span.org. we leave it as e