some sort of scope, the secretary of state yesterday said that was 17 times as many mail ballots as were requested in the 2016 primary. so a pretty big challenge here, and that number is only going to grow as we head into the general election. and the mail-in ballot that we saw this year was not in response to the coronavirus. it was almost eerily timely, the change, but there's going to need to be additional changes that republicans haven't been onboard with so far in terms of processing the ballots and making sure that things go smoothly. i think we'll have a lot of work today to make sure that november goes smoothly, especially with all of the eyes being focused on the localities in pennsylvania.

>> my guess is we'll be checking in with you often. laura olson, who covers politics in washington, d.c. and allentown, pennsylvania.ning thanks for being with us. us >> joining us this morning from north dakota is representative kelly armstrong, congressman from that state, representing also a member of the judiciary committee in the house. we'll talk about a couple issues this morning.out -- a first up, though, congressman armstrong, i want to ask you p e about the story we read earlier today about the judiciary committee taking up some legislation, certainly olice discussingac legislation next week, looking at police activitu in the country across and polic: reform across the nation. what can you tell us about what might be proposed? >> yeah. h i mean, we're going to have a hearing i think june 10th. next wednesday. so i'm glad we're doing it.ma i hope we can keep it towards oo moving forward on issues that really matter. majorit

i hope we recognize that the vastre majority of police offics are great people who have a really tough job. and anything we do is really rooted in the fact of getting rid of bad cops, racist cops, and those types of things spent without mydemonizing the entireh profession. i spent my entire legal career dealing with law enforcement ast a criminal defense attorney, and i can tell you that one thing that we can figure out pretty quick is we have to make -- we have to incentivize departments to get rid oft ha badrder cops have to be able to fire bad cops, but we cannot make it harder for good cops to do their job. >> coulde ci inty this o case b city of minneapolis or should the city of minneapolis and thee staterm of minnesota move faste in terms of determining charges for the four officers now charged?ink we h >> so, first of all, i think rc they moved pretty fast.u' and i think we have to recognize that when you'reme dealing with charging law enforcement, i mean, charging them is one

thing. but we all forget that they have to get convictions too. and these are hard cases. a lot of times, particularly with the three officers that . weren't directly involved.ab listen, i have seen the video. all is absolutely no excuse., it's horrible, heinous. it's criminal. it was murder. but we have to -- i mean, the hennepin county state's a attorney's office has been one departments that has got a murder conviction against a law enforcement officer in thh last ten years. qui sometimes i think with theck '' political unrest going on, we want the law to work quicker ot than it should because it's really importantnt not only tha they gotot charged but they can get a conviction out of this. those aren't always the same thing. so i mean, we need to let the justice department work.em one of the problems here is mos people don't think the justice system works the same way when law enforcement is involved. >> just a logistical question. will that hearing of the

judiciary hearing be a virtual hearing or will you be here in h washington? >> well, if it's possible, i will be there in washington. i think these are exactly the t kinds of reasons we need to be there. i just -- i literally got notic of it five minutes before i came on this morning, so i heard about it on the news and got notice on it, so we'll find out >> well, the senate judiciary committee, as you know, is oldig meeting in a person in washingt, holding an extensive hearing yesterday. the e review of the fbi probe into ger russian interference in the 2016 election. they had the former deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, on yesterday. i don't know if you got a chanch to see some of that or read estd about it. what are your thoughts on what happened yesterday?ol >> yeah,ved i think this is on of -- i mean, this is really, and i have been involved in the fights are often inin judiciary and the general flynn case, and i think two things yesterday that i pick up from mine that e arens really concerning is, one

that mr. rosenstein said he didn't read the entire thing ann signed it anyway.rant. two, that if he knew not what he knew then, he would never have signed the fisa warrant, and three, as early as august of 2017, they were aware that ther. was no real collusion case. those are really concerning facts. and i know media is topical ande i know we're in, you know, we is move from one story to other asl immediately as possible, but this captivated everything for almost three years. -- gets and because of how information d comes out of classified -- getsn declassified and gets presentedt we are missing the ball when we're not really addressing how this entire thing got started hl and howse truly, truly disturbi it is. >> what else do you think that rod rosenstein could have done to bring more transparency to pe the effortm. during the investigation? >> well, i think -- i mean,

here's the problem.to we had director wray injudiciars continues to talk about different procedural safeguards and if we want to talk about the 26 warrants and the deficiencies on 26 americans that were not l named president trump, we can da that as well, but the bottom thc line is this was a fillier of people. this was people with incredible hubris and doing things that they absolutely had no reason tp do. and there was a failure of leadership at every step of the way. all the way up and through who was allowed to be on the mueller team as they conducted this investigation. and we can put all procedural safeguards in place, but if we don't have more good people in theseof positions and people whn truly respect the position of authority they have, we're going to continue to have these n the problems. >> you sit on, as we mentioned,d the judiciaryry committee. also on the oversight and refors committee. are there any up this plans by f those committees to take up this issue? >> i don't think so.s the pr

not under the current leadership. and this is the problem with d.c., and i think also, specifically with fisa and fisa reform, it's almost too bad because obviously, how this affected a duly-elected president needs to be addressed and needs to continue to be thu addressed. but i'm going to go back to the ig horowitz's finding that on ae 26 u.s.m citizens that had warrants issued in the fisa court, all 26 that they looked a at hadse deficiencies.they the average number of deficiencies was 20 per case.e g they couldn't find the file on four cases. you outside of getting through the intellectual and legal hoops a where you sayrts that a secret court putting secret warrants od american citizens can ever be constitutional, that should be disturbing to everybody.r >> lines for republicans, 202-748-8001. for democrats, 202-748-8000. and independents and other, 202-748-8002. kelly armstrong, congressman

armstrong from north dakota. we hear from florida, and this is barbara.f the patrol >> caller: yes, if the police h chief of the patrolman that did the killing had been permitted to get rid of him, but he couldn't, his hands were tied by the police union.our br and also, mr. floyd, you will see your brother again, as long as you believe in christ. other and if the blacks would just quit killing each other, they ef have toat remember, they have mothers, fathers, brothers, kiln sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles. and they're not just killing and each other. they're killing their own families. and also, when are we going to, instead of having blacks and ai whites, why are we completely ignoring the real true americanh the indians? we have just done everything al. againstst them.

and -- your arbara,ng? thank you for call. congressman armstrong. >> yeah, well, as far as -- i '' mean, so native americans, i represented a lot of them in court. we obviously have great native american population in north dakota. and some of the criminal justice disparities towards them has a lot to do withth thecour differ between sentences in state cour and federal court, and also, i mean, race obviously plays a role. i want go back to what she said about the police union, because the minneapolis union chief ot e yesterday, police union chief, said something that should alsof disturb a lot of people. and i think before we start fo draftingev significant federal e size fits all legislation for every single police department h across theey arecountry, we sh recognize one fact. good cops know who bad cops area they do. they're a tight-knit community. i watched this in north dakota. we buried a hoar elast week who died trying to save another law enforcement officer. a 29-year-old with a wife and a 10-month-old kid.

i mean, it par was absolutely tl the saddest thing i have been a part of, not just in public we service, but in my life.ncentivi but good cops know who bad cops are. we need to incentivize to get rid of bad cops and we need to make sure hey can't just hop from one department to the other.eani calling on the independent line.call scottsville, virginia. >> caller: yes. thanks for taking my call. it is hard for a true independent to relate to conditions bya which you prote a democratic republic. a democratic republic that's , a based on maintaining a human the environment rather than ck replacing it with an animal environment where the animal pack leader receives the support of animal pack followers.our ey it's as if you believe that you

eyes didn't see general flynn ng being honored at the russian propaganda tv dinner, sitting next to the kgb agent, vladimir putin. and doing his duty to deconstruct the state by which we maintain a human environment. so sir, please, we did see what: our eyes saw. >> we'll hear from congressman armstrong. >> i mean, i'm just telling you, i view the case through the len of my former job as a defense attorney. i have read every single piece of this. and i couldn't disagree with yof more about the flynn n investigation. order to be convicted of lying to an officer, a federal agent, you o need two things. you need a lie and you need it to be material to the underlying case.ior fbi personnel office had recommended closing the flynn ag case prior to the. interview evr taking place. is a this isn't me talking.

this isn't republican politicians talking. this is the actual fbi line agents. and conveniently, that memo gotg misfiled. so before we start a talking abt denigrating a general who has f. his life in service to thips kuthis country, we should look at the case file. the problem is the case file as we have it now isn't the case file as when the narrative was written. wewe continue to get more information as it continues to be disclosed, and part of what i was actually really excited about in thehe fisa reauthorization language is thec requirement that this stuff goto disclosed to the public quickers but i'm telling you, from the start to finish of the flynn case, and it is truly an abuse. >> you're a former criminal defense attorney.e, why do you think, given it eralf looked like he hadly the facts l his side, why do you think t general flynn pleaded guilty?ast >> i could walk through the ti actual weekend.fo as late as friday, this was the

second time his lawyers asked 'or the 302s. they were told by the fbi they e couldn't have them becausem. th compromised other parts of the investigation. that was friday. sunday, nbc ran a story that said that they had enough enouge evidence, which was leaked by the doj, i mean, it just was. rt they had enough evident to convict or charge general flynn's son. that afternoon, he proffered. he was between $4 million and $6 million into a criminal defenseh they had threatened his son, anl he proffered that same day. so as a criminal defense attorney, i can tell you the alu trialrt panels, they exist significantly in federal court. when you're that strained financial financially, you're going to geo a deal with no or little jail o tine, oftentimes you take it.rel >> we goic on to terry, illinoi republican line. >> caller: