john lewis will be lying in state at the u.s. capitol all day today for the public to pay their respects. we'll be streaming this all day on our website at cspan.org. >> good morning, this tuesday, july 28th. a solemn moment happening on capitol hill this morning. live, happening in the retun da of the u.s. capitol as the casket of the late georgia congressman and civil rights leader, john lewis, lying in state. the public will be able to pay their respects continuing today starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern

and overnight while the casket was in the rotunda, according to abc, close family members and staffers took turns sitting vigil overnight while lewis lies in state in the rotunda. also happening on capitol hill today, the attorney general, william barr, will be testifying before the house judiciary about his performance. we'll begin a conversation on that. what do you think about mr. barr's performance as attorney general? do you agree with him at 202-748-0000 is your number. disagree, 202-748-2001. you can also text us at 202-748-8003. or join us on twitter and facebook.com/cspan. joining us on the phone is todd, a legal affairs staff writer with cq roll call.

remind our viewers why this hearing is taking place. >> hi, good morning. well, this is basically something that used to happen all the time and does happen all the time. it's an oversight hearing. and you have the house, which is the closest representative to the people of the united states in the government and they get a chance to bring in a trump administration official and have him sit there and answer questions. it's going to take about four or five hours to go through all of the members of this committee. get about five minutes to ask him. and this is something that congress does routine ly. this used to happen frequently, but u for barr, this is his first journey to the house u

judiciary committee to testify. he was previously attorney general and he didn't appear. this time, he has been back and forth with the democrats for about a year. trying to, the democrats have been trying to get him in. so this is a lot of, so it's going to be a vigorous hearing today. >> tick off some of those topics that democrats are likely to address. we can drill down later, but just remind our viewers, what are some of the big items that democrats will be asking the attorney general about? >> yeah, absolutely. you could drill down into each of these for an entire hearing on their own, but there's many. i think there's basically three areas of questions for democrats. all of them are sort of going to focus on what they say are barr's support for trump's re-election and personal interests. the first, the first sort of bucket are doj actions that are happening now.

there's the federal agents in portland with the protestors and riots up there. there's barr's role in clearing protestors from lafayette park just outside of the white house. ahead of sort of that famous photo op of the president holding a bible. there was the removal of a federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york where there are several trump related investigations going on. there's barr's comments about mail in ballots and fraud in the upcoming election. there's immigration enforcements. actions that have been taken recently. i know democrats are concerned about lack of civil rights enforcement. the doj stepping into challenges to covid related closure orders from governors across the state as we deal with the pandemic. i'd also think another bucket is the positions that the doj has taken in court. the top one there is the obama care when congress eliminated a

penalty for the individual mandate, the justice department is now arguing that the entire 2010 health care law should fall. they're also fighting at the supreme court,court, the judici committee's request to see more grand jury materials from the mueller probe. the doj is currently fighting a committee subpoena for don mcgahn to testify. and there's cases that have connections to trump that are all over the news, the dropped prosecution of former national security adviser michael flynn that barr and the doj sought a reduced instance for, trump ally roger stone for convictions that included lying to congress. there's a lot of things that democrats have to talk about stretching back to the mueller report which was released about 18 months ago. >> and william barr's assessment of that mueller report?

>> right. yes, that's one of the things that they have wanted to talk to him about in front of the committee for months, more than a year. and that is he came in and -- to the job as attorney general when the mueller investigation was still going. the mueller investigation finished and attorney general barr put out a summary first before the report came out that the democrats have said was not an accurate portrayal and that spun the public's understanding of what was in the mueller report. as i mentioned, so much has happened since then. that might not be a primary focus of this. there is just a whole lot going on and there's an election in 100 days. and both sides will certainly -- republicans on the committee and democrats on the committee will be looking to strike -- score

some political points during these question and answer period. >> what will republicans on the committee focus on? >> well, they have -- they say that -- the democrats are concerned about politics at the doj and republicans are also concerned about politics at the doj. but they say the democrats are going after attorney general barr because barr came into the justice department and started looking at the russiagate investigation and is rooting out and uncovering the political actions that happened under the obama administration before trump took over, when they launched the investigation into trump, trump campaign, and pushed that. and barr has been -- assigned a federal prosecutor to look into the origins of that investigation. we don't have any results from that yet. barr has not said whether there

may or may not be any criminal charges coming out of that probe. and so they're going to focus on that. and barr in his opening statement, his prepared remarks for his opening statement, talked about how he's -- the democrats are trying to discredit him for conjuring up this narrative that he's the -- doing the president's bidding and that's because he was -- what he calls -- he says there was grave abuses in that russiagate investigation. and so he's coming in there ready to -- ready to be combative. the democrats are definitely ready to be combative and i think neither side has much motivation to play nice here. this is going to be 4 1/2 hours of vigorous questioning. >> todd ruger, thank you for setting it up this morning. appreciate the conversation. >> thanks for having. >> we will have coverage of the house judiciary committee at

10:00 a.m. eastern time, also on our website, c-span.org or you can listen with the free c-span radio app. william barr before the house judiciary committee. it's your turn to let them know what you think of the job performance of the attorney general. you disagree with the job he's doing. tell us why. >> caller: i watched some of his confirmation. i knew he would be a trump man. he does anything that trump tells him to do, the federal trooping in portland. he's sending them to chicago. really for no reason. he's removing prosecutors in new york that have something to do with trump -- investigating trump. the doj is just not doing

anything. he's -- anything trump says to do, he does it. like, when stone was let out. if it had be me or you or someone who doesn't know trump and doesn't have millions of dollars, they wouldn't have been let out of prison. he broke the law. that photo-op in lafayette square, i don't understand why he would have them -- those troops to fire on civilians who were peacefully protesting, to hold up a bible? trump don't need to be holding up a bible. he needs to be reading one, studying it. i know one thing, jesus wasn't pleased with what he done. he wasn't pleased with that. >> there's new reporting on that from "the washington post" last night. national guard officers says police moved on lafayette square protestors. used excessive force before the

president's visit. an officer is contradicting claims by the attorney general and the trump administration that they did not speed up the clearing to make way for the president's photo opportunity minutes later. a new statement by adam demarco who now serves as a major in the d.c. national guard also casts doubt on the claims by acting police chief gregory monahan that violence by protestors spurred park police to clear the area at that time with aggressive tactics. he said that demonstrators were behaving peacefully and the tear gas deployed was excessive use of force. they believe the clearing operation would happen after 7:00 p.m. curfew, but it was accelerated after attorney general william barr and others appeared in the park around 6:00 p.m. the park police chief says that the operation was conducted so that a fence might be erected

around the park. demarco said the fencing materials did not arrive after 9:00 p.m. and the fence wasn't built until later that night. demarco's account of events reveals for the first time the details of the visit that general mark milley made to lafayette square before the move on protestors and the warning he gave his troops. milley who had arrived at the park warned demarco to keep officers from going overboard. he told me to ensure that the personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators' first amendment right. it's likely to be brought up at today's hearing. let's go to texas. you agree with the job of mr. barr. good morning to you. >> caller: good morning. i think that the attorney general has had his work cut out from him from the beginning,

every investigation that he's had to field and especially with the michael flynn case and what he's doing with that. and that's something that he'll take a lot of questions for today. and i really just don't envy being in that room with everyone just staring you down like that. ready to ask you about all of these things that really -- the attorney general would do and defend because just the mike flynn case is so abrupt and obviously politically influenced. so i think he's doing a great job and does not really get enough respect for what he does. >> it's unfair for attorney general to be in that witness chair, and her words, stare down by the house judiciary committee members. there are several of them on

that panel. the testimony begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern time right here on c-span. let me correct myself. right here on c-span, 10:00 a.m. eastern time. also on our website and if you want to listen on the, go you can download the free c-span radio app. the hill newspaper has this headline about barr's opening statement. barr expected to blast democrats for efforts to discredit him in upcoming hearing. reporters have been given the attorney general's opening stateme statement. from that, the attorney general is going to say, ever since i made it clear that i was going to do everything i could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus russiagate scandal, many of the democrats on this committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that i'm simply the president's feedback factotum.

paul in connecticut, you disagree with the job in a the attorney general is doing. good morning. >> caller: very terrible attorney general. a piece that came out this morning outlines three areas of grave concern, measures that the ag barr have taken to politicize the position, the independent position of the attorney general, the biggest law enforcement officer in the united states. lafayette park, i thought, was a turning point because trump's own henchmen esper, the department of defense that tagged along with the photo-op after the protestors were

cleared, he came out very forcefully and admitted that he shouldn't have been there. the ag is supposed to be above reproach and what we have seen is a further deterioration of the rule of the law set up to protect all people. and the written testimony is out from barr. typical written testimony of the major demarco from the national guard. by the way, they stood down and they were there basically to protect the protestors. however, the head of the park police lied about the use of violence, frozen water bottles and such thrown at them by the protestors. he lied about using tear gas. when you read demarco's

testimony, it's clear that that happened. if we can't trust our law enforcement officials, these are para militaries attached to various departments in the u.s. government. and when they are politicized, number one, when they are politicized, it's dangerous. number two, when they lie and they're not truthful about policing, that is a symptom of a corrupt system. >> okay, paul. go ahead and finish your thought, paul. >> it extends into our local policing. the examples set by barr is very powerful. and, you know, last week the president made a remark that reached out to local law enforcement, like they would break ranks from civilian control when the feds go into these locals and cities.

very dangerous. >> paul, at the same time that william barr is testifying and answering questions about what you just brought up, the house natural resources committee is going to be hearing from the head of the park police about what happened at lafayette park. and that will have -- we'll have coverage of that live on c-span3 and our website and also on our radio app. so you can be -- you'll be able to toggle back and forth between this hearing about -- specifically about that park incident with the head of the park police and william barr getting questioned about it as well. here's what the attorney general had to say at a news conference last month defending the clearing of the protestors at lafayette park. >> unfortunately because of the difficulty in getting appropriate forces, units into place by the time they were able

to move our perimeter up, there had been a large number of protestors had assembled on 8th street. there were projectiles being thrown and the group was becoming increasingly unruly and the operation -- they were asked three times if they would move back one block. they refused. and we proceeded to move our perimeter out to i street. it is true that the metropolitan police have a lot of experience in dealing with demonstrations. but we have a lot of federal -- this is the federal city. it's the seat of the federal government. many of the buildings, as you know, and facilities here, and the monuments are the responsibility of the federal

government. and the proceedings and process of the federal government take place here. and so when you have a large-scale civil disturbance that is damaging federal property, threatening federal property, threatening federal law enforcement officers, threatening the officials in government and their offices, and our great monuments, it is the responsibility of the federal government to render that protection and we do so in close coordination with the metropolitan police department. >> william barr defending his decision at lafayette square park, one of his decisions that will be questioned by the house judiciary committee here when they gavelled in right here on c-span. and jerry nadler who heads the house judiciary committee last month talked about the removal

of u.s. attorney geoffrey berman and other instances where he says the attorney general has politicized the department of justice and that's why he's bringing him before the committee today. >> it's part of a clear and dangerous pattern of conduct that began when mr. barr took office and continues to this day. mr. barr's actions make clear that in his department of justice, the president's allies get special treatment. the president's enemies are targeted for extra scrutiny and the needs of the american people and the needs of justice are generally ignored. mr. barr's practice of abusing the department to shield the president and his allies goes back to the beginning of his tenure at the doj. when the special counsel had completed his investigation, the attorney general mischaracterized the special counsel's findings and he did so

on the president's behalf. among other deceptions, mr. barr pretended that compelling evidence of obstruction of justice, including evidence that the president may have lied directly to the special counsel, simply did not exist. mr. barr's deception seems blatant. but don't take my word for it. the special counsel wrote to mr. barr directly to complain about the inaccuracies. a federal judge later said that mr. barr's inconsistencies were so misleading and could not trust the department's assurances to the court about the contents of the mueller report. >> that was chairman nadler last month, his reasons for wanting to hear from the attorney general today. the attorney general in his opening statement is arguing this, when some noteworthy event occurs that potentially has legal ramifications such as leaks of classified information,

potential civil rights abuses by police or illegal price fixing, the president has occasionally and appropriately confirmed that the department is aware of the matter. but the handling of the matter and my decisions on criminal matters have been left to my independent judgment, based on the law and fact, without any direction or interference from the white house or anyone outside the department. robin, you like the job that the attorney general is doing in pennsylvania. go ahead. >> caller: yeah. attorney general barr, it's funny the democrats are crying about attorney barr doing his job about the lafayette park and about all these protestors and about who they're firing and hiring. but yet they don't say a word about the investigation and the

coup that was put on the president. when the indictments come down and people go to jail, then you democrats might open your eyes and listen and see what's really going on. i think attorney barr is the best attorney general going and when barack obama had his attorney general, he said he was obama's wing man. so you know what, democrats, get a life. thank you. >> all right, robine. republicans on the panel according to bloomberg are expected to press barr about details of a criminal investigation he ordered into whether fbi officials spied on trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his associates. an investigation led by connecticut u.s. attorney john dur ram, whose results may be released before election day. republicans likely to focus their questions on that when you watch today right here on c-span. ricky in north carolina.

ricky, what's your opinion of the attorney general? >> caller: the attorney general, he's no better this man that they had stepped in for attorney general -- >> ricky, pause for a second. please turn off your television and then start talking through the phone. >> no better than he is. barr acts like he's the president's attorney -- special attorney. he came in. he stood in front of the house judicial system and he come in like a snake, like he was going to be -- he was going to do all of this stuff and he was going to keep it straight. and then after he got the attorney general, he turned the

whole nine yards. it wasn't right. during the mueller special thing, he wasn't right in that. everything he's done has been against what he said he was going to do when he was trying -- when he was standing in front of them trying to get that -- get that attorney general. i disapprove of him, period. i wish he would step down and be -- step down and stop all this stuff. because the man is not right. anybody can see that he knows he's not right. >> ricky in north carolina. as we told you at the beginning here, happening up on capitol hill, the casket of the late congressman john lewis is lying in state inside the rotunda of

the capitol. the public viewing will begin at 8:00 a.m. eastern this morning. yesterday, lawmakers and others were able to pay their respects to the civil rights leader as well as joe and jill biden. they flew to washington to view the casket of the congressman and pay their respects yesterday inside the rotunda. there was a memorial service as well. later in the day vice president mike pence and karen pence paid their respects to john lewis during an outdoor public viewing that went into the evening. the casket brought inside as it is today -- where it is this morning and, again, that public viewing gets under way at 8:00 a.m. eastern time and goes into the evening until 10:00 p.m. on the east coast. owen in colorado, owen, good morning to you. >> hey, greta. i haven't talked to you in eight

years. how are you doing? you look great? >> thanks owen. >> caller: william barr is kind of slow -- no, he got him -- it's like he's a bail bondsman. he got him through it. he got him through the russian thing, all that stuff with -- what's his name, mueller, and the other guy nadler. i could fall asleep like it was a lullaby to barr. i was going to say when they were talked about the first amendment rights of the crowd, you know what i was thinking, you know, why can't the first amendment right be our excuse to just go on about our business without a mask and all that. in the bible it says not to live in a spirit of fear and it will be a snare unto you and lean on him. not on your own understanding. i was just thinking, you know, because -- i saw video of some

people in the store -- >> i'll leave it there. randall from texas. >> caller: good morning. and i'm a veteran of your united states. the reason william barr returned to the white house is because his father, donald, hired jeffrey epstein. and he went to -- jeffrey epstein went to bears, stern, barr wrote, if you go to wikipedia on bill barr, you'll see a book he wrote. and jeffrey epstein went from not qualified to teach, anderson cooper went there, chevy chase went there, and he went to work for a brokerage firm and he set up the book that his dad wrote.

that's what jeffrey epstein did. they won't be a sex offender out in new mexico at his ranch. >> okay, randall. elvin, do you agree with the job that the attorney general is doing? good morning to you. >> caller: i think he's doing a fantastic job in lieu of what he had to deal with once he became the attorney general with the obama administration, loretta lynn -- not loretta lynn, the former attorney general meeting with bill clinton on the tarmac. and i think what the russian hoax investigation, the fbi being a part of that scheme to eliminate the president, barr is going to get to the bottom of that. and i think it's going to drop just about election time. because they've already concluded that the president,

the vice president, and many members of his cabinet to include susan rice were a part of that to take down a duly elected president. and the report is going to reveal all of those details and facts. and so they're going to kind of like blind side the democrats thinking that joe biden is going to scapegoat into the white house. he's going to be walked out the door and never to be involved in politics again. they have put together one of the most unique cover-ups and schemes in the history of this great country. >> on social media, this is a text from car roll who says, barr is a disagree. we have a ship of corrupt, lying and dangerous fools running the country into the ground. you have kathryn says, i approve of william barr's performance, 100%. and then lin says, no -- that's

from yesterday. those are just a couple comments on -- by texting us, which you can do so, with your first name, city and state, or join us on twitter and facebook as well. according to bloomberg's right up of this morning's hearing, barr has been criticized in his role in orchestrating the federal response to continuing protests against police abuse and racism. the attorney general played a key role and forcefully removing protestors from lafayette square on june 1st along with department of homeland security personnel. william barr writes in his opening statement, to condone destruction and anarchy is to

abandon the basic rule of law principles that should unite us in a politically divisive time. we should be able to agree there's no place in this country for armed mob that seeks to establish zones beyond government control or tear down statues or monuments or destroy the property of business owners. government is supposed to ensure the rule of law. the justice department will continue working to meet that responsibility. and "the washington post" reports this morning that more federal agents are going to be dispatched to portland as protests rise in other cities. and then also "the washington post," the inspector general's -- inspectors general is to examine the law enforcement actions at portland and d.c. protests. patrice, new jersey, good morning to you. what are your thoughts on the attorney general?

>> caller: hi. good morning. i'm a little -- i disapprove of barr and his handling of pretty much everything since he's been confirmed. he has clearly been a trump -- i wouldn't say -- maybe an enabler. he sent out a memorandum earlier this month on investigations that could affect the presidential election. and redistricting, you know, the fbi from opening investigations into the 2020 political candidates or donors. it's sad. does that sound like the u.s. attorney general or a private attorney? and i believe trump has several

private attorneys. so our attorney general, the united states attorney general, should not be sending memorandums controlling prosecutors whether it has anything to do with the presidential -- that's what makes me feel -- i don't mean to shift around. this makes me feel like what he did with the mueller investigation and basically setting that narrative to where callers that the previous caller called in saying that it was a hoax or it wasn't legitimate. there was so many legitimate things found within that report that maybe 3% of the country read. and obstruction of justice is a crime. and he had, like, ten counts. for people to call in and say that the russia investigation that mueller did was some hoax or it was found out, also the fact that these people are -- and barr, especially, coming to

capitol hill in a defiant manner to these duly elected officials, democrat or republican, he should be respectful. >> okay. each of those members of the judiciary committee will get five minutes of questioning time of the attorney general. it begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span. you can also watch on our website, c-span.org or on the go if you listen with the free c-span radio app. it's unclear if there will be several rounds or just one round of questioning with lawmakers each getting five minutes. carol in tulsa, oklahoma, do you agree with the job that mr. barr is doing? good morning to you. >> caller: good morning. oh, yes, i do. i'm formerly of florida. i lived there all of my adult

life. except for the years i spent abroad in europe in spain. i'm here now because my family lives here. but, yes, i think that he is just a wonderful, brilliant man. probably the best we've ever had, william barr. i don't think you could get a higher -- man with a higher iq or better credentials to have in the office of attorney general. but i think that that's what makes the democrats mad. they're finding -- he's finding out the real truth and all of the dirt and we're going to get a lot more about that, about how dirty the obama/biden administration was and what they did to try to hurt the newly elected -- the man coming in, which was president trump.

president trump definitely isn't what we're accustomed to in our office -- in our presidential office. he's different. i totally understand that. but i think he has our country's best interests at heart. and he is not a politician. he's not a slick and smooth and can get away with what a lot of them have. but those democrats have played very, very dirty and they're going to get it all put back right in their face. >> okay, carol. got it. dave in michigan. dave? >> caller: yes, hi. okay the choice was approve or disapprove. i strongly disapprove. and we'll start with the mischaracterizing the moving report. one of the most outrage things i ever heard from a leader was

that -- i'll para phrase, he said trump did everything he could to cooperate with mueller. mr. barr, from what planet is that statement coming from? trump did everything he could to block that investigation. you could assemble 200 or 300 tweets easily disparaging the mueller and the report and the hoax. it was just an outrageous mischaracterization saying that trump did everything he could. and then of course the pushback, which kind of went unnoticed, was that 1,000 current and former u.s. prosecutors endorsed the statement strongly disagrees with what barr did. and of course he did that, you know, running interference for mr. trump. of course the last caller, of course, is talking about the upcoming durham report which of course is going to be the

september or october surprise. and it's -- you can see barr's playbook moving pieces around like a game of chess, by releasing some of these prosecutors in new york so they can get their loyal people in there to try to support this upcoming report. anyway, i strongly disapprove with mr. barr. he's acting as trump's personal attorney and, you know, that, of course, is wrong. >> and, dave, democrats will want to know why barr in february ordered prosecutors to reduce their sentencing recommendation for a longtime trump associate roger stone. stone was convicted of lying to congress in connection with serving as a conduit between the president and wikileaks during the 2016 election. four career prosecutors working on the stone case with drew. stone was given a 40-month prison term but trump commuted the sentence this month. here's jerry nadler, the chair

of the judiciary committee, questioning federal prosecutor at a june hearing about pressure from, quote, the highest levels at the justice department to scale back its sentencing recommendation for roger stone. >> leadership at the department wanted a lower sentence. when you ask the department why they wanted a below guideline sentence for mr. stone, they were told it was political and because the u.s. attorney was afraid of the president. is that correct? >> that's correct. >> what did you understand that to mean? i understood as described in my written statement to mean that political considerations were weighing in the u.s. attorney's decision and that the concern about the president was driving his decision-making process. >> and what were you told could happen to you if you refused to go along with this lower recommendation? >> we were told that he could be

fired. >> now, you've described clearly that the department treated roger stone differently because of his relationship to president trump. is this against department policy? >> it is. >> and is it wrong? >> it is. >> is it unethical? >> it is. you wrote in your written testimony that it pains you to describe these events. can you explain why it pains you. >> mr. chairman, i took an oath when i took this job as did many -- all of my colleagues who are united states attorneys across the country. we're proud of what we do and proud to serve in the department of justice and proud that we prosecute without fear or favor. this sort of contradiction of all the reasons that we have taken these jobs is deeply

painful to me. >> that was a june hearing with the head of the judiciary committee. you'll hear him questioning william barr this morning starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern time right here on c-span. mary in fort washington, maryland. you disapprove, and tell us why. >> caller: the person that's in office right now is not my president and not a president for anybody. he's pushing jim crow and when you're a jim crower, you need more jim crowers to help you. he's a jim crow. barr is a jim crow. in 98 days they will be gone and we won't have to worry about any of their file and filth that they're putting on this nation. barr is a liar and a cheater. they're robbing this country right in front of our eyes. but you see all the protests everywhere, it's not being

accepted. people need to know that -- i'm very sorry for the lady in oklahoma, she believes what she put out, all the file and filth is on the republicans. they've always been that way. since the beginning of our politics. when have republicans ever done anything for the people, not just black people, for the people. and lindsay graham, oh, my god, like i said, i have no idea what's going on with this right now. but it's going to end in 97 or 98 days. >> okay. mary, on your point about sending the justice department's reaction to protests across the country, sending in federal agents to chicago and other cities, here's the attorney general with the president last week announcing that decision to combat violent crime. >> now, at the end of the day of the obama administration, crime started going back up again. and for the first 2, 2 1/2 years

of this administration, we're succeeding it in pushing it down. as we saw crime starting to go up in a few cities, you asked me to initiate a surge in those cities, to help our state and local partners deal with it. and so we did start this program, which we call relentless pursuit. unfortunately, covid intervened and we had to abort that effort. since then, we had that terrible event in minneapolis, but then we had this extreme reaction that has demonized police and called for the defunding of police departments. and what we have seen then is a significant increase in violent crime in many cities. this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces and the president's gone

through the terrible statistics. in response to that, we have initiated this program, operation legend, to step up the activity of our task forces, our anticrime task forces in the hard-hit cities by committing more federal agents and supporting more state and local task force officers. it's -- >> the attorney general with the president last month. "politico" reporting with this headline, mayors are asking congress to ban the deployment of militarized federal agents in cities as the president mulls sending in more. homeland security is sending in additional agents to portland. howard in florida, you approve of the attorney general. good morning. >> caller: good morning, yeah. i think he's doing a great job. the democratic party has given

us four years of hoaxes, the russian hoax, one of the dirtiest political tricks in the history of this country. they're attacking police, inciting violence. they plan to ride a crime wave to victory in november. it's a disgrace. defund police and create violence. i think he's done a great job. and i expect him -- if you folks remember the robert mueller trip to congress where he embarrassed the democrats, i think they're going to be embarrassed today again, because the gentleman is doing a great job. it's a disgrace what the democratic party is doing. >> peggy in new york, good morning to you. it's your turn. >> caller: good morning, greta. i totally disagree with barr. i'm very disappointed in what's going on in our country today. barr should be charged along

with trump, his family, including his daughter, with all of these chinese -- i don't know what you call them -- patents, that she's getting and making money. there's too much money being put into their pockets by their influence and people that go along with that, that are influenced by this administration within this administration should all be charged. i'm so upset, so upset with what is happening to my country. i really am. anybody who can't say what's going on. >> okay, peggy. peggy in new york. tim from rhode island sends us this text, president trump and william barr will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents and one of the greatest attorney generals in this country. the distraction of these riots will not help the democrats. barr has betrayed his oath.

he works for trump, not the citizens of the united states. matthew says, he's doing a great job, was given a huge mess to clean up and is doing it well. he's returned professionalism back to the department and made the department about justice again. gail in north carolina, what do you say, gail? >> caller: hi. >> good morning. >> caller: good morning. i think barr is doing a great job. you heard the term "drain the swamp," i think he's wading through it, walking through the swamp and eventually he's going to get to clear water. there's a lot of people in power that don't like that. they like the old guard and i also think the president has had a lot to do with. he's an every day person like we are. he's not shiny and he is -- that's why we elected him. we wanted to clean it up. and i think they're both doing a great job and i'm going support

them the next term and hopefully the president will have four more years. but barr is doing a great job and i support him also. >> okay. michael, you disagree with the job he's doing and what's it like in your city? >> caller: yes. i wanted to just talk about -- i live two miles downwind -- by roads, downwind from the courthouse. i started feeling the gas down here and between, you know, me in the courthouse, there's the, you know, hospital and if i could feel it here, i know they feel it there. i went down to the courthouse to walk around. i'm a veteran. i've been through the gas chamber before and understandably it feels like -- just walking around the city, i had a worse reaction than i did coming out of that. i walked around the courthouse

and i know there's a narrative where they're telling people that they're trying to burn it down and destroy it. if you go to the back of the courthouse, there's no graffiti, there's no destruction and the narrative seems wrong. i haven't been a part of the protests. i've just gone about my life here in portland. it's a beautiful city. and any way, i disagree with attorney general barr because, you know, i think that he's escalated it to this point. now we're feeling it. if i'm two miles away, there are other areas that are taking a much worse impact from this. i wanted to get on here and let people know that that's what's happening. this is the real effect that this is happening and there's real people's lives that go to work every day through that in the city. i just wanted to get that out there. >> do you support the protesting? >> the protesting, yes.

not the destruction. i can see how it gets to a place where it needs to be broken up. but the amount of gas, if it's reaching me, is just astronomical. and, you know, it's going everywhere. it's all over the city. >> where did you serve, michael? >> caller: i was in the army. i served and was deployed. came back. went to fort lewis. it's up in seattle. yeah, that's where i served, you know. >> michael in portland, oregon, disagreeing with the job of william -- of the attorney general. we'll go to anthony next who approves in new jersey. anthony, good morning. >> caller: thanks for taking my call. yeah, i like william barr.

in fact he's one of my heroes along with congressman john lewis. if we had more people like them, they would -- we would be in a lot better place. just before i get cut off, i haven't called in a while, i wanted to make that comment. i wanted to make also a prediction and i wanted also to offer a solution because i think that's important to. yeah, you know, all it is -- when people are burning down courthouses and when they're burning down the church next to the white house, you know what, that's a hate crime. where is the outrage? if that was a different religion, it would be -- that's a terrible thing to do. so that's a hate crime. john lewis would never roll like that. he was a fantastic person. he got his skull cracked, okay. he didn't pick up a brick and throw it at the police. he didn't throw feces at the police.

he didn't throw m-80s at the police. that's not the way to get things done. we don't need a mob tearing down the statues. we need people to go to their representatives. in fact, john lewis did a fantastic job. we got so many people of color into the congress, into the government. okay? so against what? they're all on a take. two they're just as bad as the -- we have systemic, you know, racism in the country. i think we have systemic nepotism. it's not what you know, it's who you know. that is my comment. my prediction for today, i would like to add all of the time that the democrats in the house used to talk and i believe it would be close or over the time that bill barr would -- if he added a time for the democrats making their grand standing speech, that's -- and you add that time

up, and you add the time that bill barr will be able to answer questions from the democrats, i believe it's going to be probably pretty close, if not in the favor of the democrats. my solution, they've been there for 40, 50 years. they've done nothing. they've made things worse. thanks for taking my call and god bless you. >> in the opening statement by the attorney general, he's going to tell those members of the judiciary committee although the death of george floyd at the hands of police was a shocking event, the fact is that such events are fortunately quite rare. according to statistics compiled by "the washington post," the number of unarmed black men killed by police so far this year is eight. the number of unarmed white men killed by police is 11. nevertheless, every instance of excessive force is unacceptable and must be addressed. william barr, before the house judiciary committee in about two

years. you can watch that right here on c-span at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, on our website, c-span.org, or on the go with that downloadable free c-span radio app. hunter in ohio. hunter, you do not approve of the job? >> caller: yes. i've had the privilege of meeting a couple of department of justice personnel, including loretta lynch. i didn't approve of her handling of racial tensions with police. and yet, i can't help but citing barr's record as attorney general under george h.w. bush as the architect on continuing the war on drugs which had a disproportionate effect on people of color. we live in a country where we don't protect people's health, we don't protect the health of the communities of color, but we'll protect federal courthouses tooth and nail.

i find the comparison between, you know, william barr and john lewis to be abhorrent. welcome barr is the architect of these racist policies and john lewis has been the dismantler of these racist policies. when we talk about police abuse of force in this country, we can see that it's per va sievasive country and debt meantle to our way of life. and it's a good way to address the kind of crime that i think this administration and previous administrations will want to address. i really don't think excessive policing to the extent of the president of the united states is the answer. >> hunter, there are 40 members of the house judiciary committee. there's 24 democrats and 16

republicans. as far as we know, each will get five minutes in one round, if not two rounds, of questioning of the attorney general. bob in tennessee. bob, good morning to you. tell us what you like about the attorney general. >> caller: i think he's doing a good job. the majority of the country, the leftist media in this country will not cover the violence that's going on. just yesterday, nadler said it was a myth and joe biden is hiding in his basement. he won't make no remark on it. i believe within the first hour, the democrats are going to even regret having this hearing because the republicans, all they're going to discuss is the corruption in the obama administration, the department of justice and john durham is not going to make a report. he's going to come out with a

federal indictment. thank you for taking my call. >> okay, bob. bob, good morning. >> good morning, greta. my name is dell and i'm calling to let you know that the caller from new jersey really offended me. associating john lewis with william barr. that was an insult and a slap of the face to all of us who actually knew what john lewis stood for. how can anybody follow barr and trump with all the vitriol and hate, and he's releasing hard-core criminals and giving them pardons, and that's absolutely wrong. if you're going to go that route, why doesn't he go and free bill cosby? >> okay. all right.

dell, we will leave it there. >> live now to remarks from joe biden. he's expected to talk about his build back better plan to bolster the economy. from wilmington, delaware, you're watching live campaign 2020 coverage on c-span3.