the hill reporter on president's environmental policies and a look at hillary clinton's political career with jonathan allen and amy" pars, authors of the bookhrc." >> good morning. on your screen is a live feed news service of independent square and tf. the death toll is climbing. begin -- continue today. the new violence comes after a truce broke down.

democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. you can post your comments or e-mail them at c-span.org. to help us understand what is happening, we are joined by john herbst. how do we get to where we are now? there is great dissatisfaction, not just among people in the center and west of the country, but even in the east with his role. corruption, which is a major problem in the ukraine, has become worse. you had his rejection of the trade deal and tens of thousands

of protesters came out to protest. he made the mistake of cracking down. the crackdowns are not well received in the public. we had tens of thousands of demonstrators demonstrating on one day. after the crackdown, we have hundreds of thousands in the streets. the numbers have ebbed and flowed ever since. insistingters are that he give up our. they want a ukraine that has democratic freedoms. host: who are the protesters? guest: they appeared spontaneously. protesters that occurred --

the protests that occurred in 2004 were planned by the opposition parties. these occurred spontaneously after he broke the trade agreement with the eu. people came out in the streets addressing their frustration. you have opposition leaders in the ukraine. they only have some influence with the protesters. they do not control them. protesters are bound and to bring concessions out of mr. yana kovacic. nukovich. there are some groups within

them, but i would not put stock among the demonstrators. it is not as if there is a single group that speaks for more than a few hundred people in the streets. host: what you make of the violence? guest: ukraine in the post soviet. they do not have a traditional violence. this is a turbulent period. reflects the heavy hand of viktor yanukovych. he used force to try to clear the streets. he does not seem to have the ability to use the major mama force necessary to clear the streets. the armed forces from his perspective are not reliable and he cannot count on them to turn arms against fellow citizens. the police, the main apparatus

for exercising control, also not reliable. he has had to use the special police unit. even they are not completely reliable. note are people that do like the idea of firing on their fellow citizens. this may explain why the standoff has lasted so long. host: there was a reference in the paper two thugs. to thugs. guest: they are thugs who are hired to do the dirty work so the regime can claim they have nothing to do with the dirty work. they are out in the streets. there may be a few hundred of them. these are simply people who they hire, where is the people in the streets are committed to a new and better ukraine. that is the real story. this crisis has lasted for three months, despite the fact that it is in wintertime.

belowatures drop well zero. it has lasted this long because there are only two possible ways to resolve it. either viktor yanukovych has to , or he haspression to offer a serious concession. he is not ready to do that. he has offered a lot of half measures. he fired the prime minister, it to --. the reason he did not take it is because under the ukrainian constitution, viktor yanukovych can give him that job and fire him tomorrow. if theyo real authority do yana kovacic does not want him to have that -- if viktor yanukovych does not want him to have that authority. host: this is a statement put out on the official website of the ukrainian president.

this is from earlier today. radical protesters lots and ascension of -- launch an offensive on the lawn forced officials using firearms during the declared truce. all attempts of the government to establish dialogue and revolve -- resolve the conflict work ignored. these firearms including sniper rifles, they shoot to kill. law enforcement officials are not armed and used special means. bloodshedes to stop and confrontation are being taken. guest: that is excellent in order to justify a crackdown if they try another one. not thet statement is

most efficient propaganda. look at the numbers that talk about. dozens or scores of fatalities and injured. we know that there are many thousands of injuries among the protesters. the statement is that the police are not using firearms and they are not using librarian action. that is false. any examination of the injury sustained by thousands of protesters proves that is false. here's a tweet from an abc reporter. diapers targeting news crews filming from windows, including abc's camera. that doesn't surprise me. they don't want an accurate portrayal of the story. one of the things viktor yanukovych did was shut down

channel 5. it is owned by a member of the opposition. it was important during the orange revolution, conveying news about what is happening. it was important in this crisis, conveying real news. targeting western journalists are just a step up from what he is doing by targeting -- by shutting down channel 5. he can solve this crisis tomorrow by offering a real concession. he has not been willing to do it. for him, maintaining power is important. host: foreign ministers of european countries may have wrapped up their meetings with the president today. called an emergency meeting to vote on sanctions later today. what do you make of this effort? guest: that is very important. the people doing the nasty things in the ukraine government

are not driven by a strong ideal or ideology. they are driven by a love of power and the ability to become rich by being powerful. eu were to sanction individual ukrainian officials responsible for the violence, refusing visas to come to europe, take action against their financial assets in europe, this would weekend the anukovych regime. riches are in danger by carrying out these topicies, they will s doing it. host: should the u.s. do the same? guest: we issued a visa sanctions on about 20 or so ukrainian officials.

would move towards some financial sanctions. our impact will be less than the where --ause it is because the eu is where they park their money, much less than the united states. i think we have done a good job so far. we have spoken out in support of democratic processes in the ukraine. we have cautioned the demonstrators to avoid violence. we lead the way on visa sanctions four weeks ago. withve been in touch viktor yanukovych and others to express our concerns about what is happening. should move to financial sanctions, but i don't think this is a tool we should use on a broad scale. choose one or two people

and let the europeans choose one or two people. the idea is not to punish folks. it is to encourage them to stop doing nasty and violent things. this economically and diplomatically, not a military? guest: it is not a military matter. with thehe ukraine fighting, it is not a military issue. the ukrainian military has not been involved in political affair since the country became independent. during the orange revolution, the military made it clear that they would not accept a crackdown on protesters. so far this crisis has been studiously outside of the whole contest. thing mr. yana kovacic this

week, he sat the chief of the army. the fear is that this man may be g theested in helpin government crackdown. this is not an option -- and operation of just my service. they do not want to repress the ukrainian people. host: john herbst is our guest. 2006.ved from 2003 to what should the role of the united states be? mark, brighton, massachusetts. i would like to bring up the recent conversations which

were brought to light of the u.n. best -- the u.s. ambassador who was candid about what the was, which was to bring the ukraine into the european union and into their fold and away from russia. my question is, if we are doing we do if thered was outside the capital of ec, -- of d.c., people through maltz of cocktails s molotov cocktails at police, do you think they would move them down with machine guns? mischaracterize the phone conversation between tori newland and jeff.

what they said, they talked about how they would like to see the opposition respond to the last offer from mr. yanukovych o. tori newland was reported to say it would be a good thing if -- became the prime minister. gentleman remained outside the government. that is all they said. if you listened to my conversation with greta, the opposition rejected the proposal to take the prime minister. of course american diplomats have the opinions about individual matters in ukraine. that does not mean we control it. you mischaracterize the demonstrations.

the demonstrations were peaceful from the start. the first violence was applied by mr. yanukovych. there have been several efforts since then to crackdown on the demonstrators. depression has been overwhelmingly a tool implied -- employed by the authorities. you haven't seen organized repression and violence on the part of the demonstrators, except in defense. the casualties suggest there are thousands of casualties among the protesters. there are not hundreds of casualties among the police.

the usa has no role in ukraine as president obama has made us no longer a superpower. another says if it is a civil war, i don't make we should have any role, unless we started up. another says we need to keep our nose out of it. i want to get to those sentiments. is this a civil war, and our role, but first, andrew kramer is joining us on the phone. he is in kiev. what is happening there now? in thei am standing square and there has been a resumption of violence this morning. morning about 8:00 this .hen there were gunshots

there was quite a bit of gunfire. i heard gunfire coming from the police. it was a scene of mayhem. host: does it continue now? --guest:ere is there is a temporary lull. i suspect they will declare a state of emergency this afternoon. the opposition leaders have a plan to hold a recession of parliament. host: what does the state of emergency mean? guest: he could bring in the and to declare martial law

try to restore order in the capital. host: the president met with the foreign ministers of european countries. what is the news coming out of that? i have not seen the news from that. i have been out on the square today. host: what were they going to talk about? i think the delegates would be raising me threat of sanctions against ukraine. there have been discussions about the eu joining the u.s. in sanctioning officials deemed to be responsible for the violence. host: there are reports that comings sniper gunfire at cameras.

news tweeted out a picture as well. have you witnessed this? guest: yes. there has been quite a bit of sniper fire on the square this morning. when i was out, there were rifle bullets whizzing by in the square. there was shot gunfire, which is a more standard crowd control measure. a doctor has seen some loans from a shotgun -- some wounds from a shotgun shot. host: a doctor was saying there are wounds to the eye of patient they were seeing. guest: those would likely be from the concussion grenades.

outside my hotel, there were 11 bodies on the sidewalk. some of them had been hit by real ammunition. whatever caused their deaths, it was not a concussion grenade. ,ost: what are the crowds like compared to the previous days? guest: the crowds are large. many of them are wearing constructionor and helmets, skating pads from in-line skates, caring baseball bats and gloves. some of them are also carrying guns. there's also a good number of people that look like they might , bringing groceries and supplies, but the mood is tense. they have been capturing policeman and parading them

through the crowd. saw one man struck by a protester. ofre has been plenty violence, so i do not want to say this is general. we are showing a live feed from reuters. they have one of their cameras set up so people can go to their website to watch this. this area that we are looking at, is characterized as calm, compared to what you're talking about. your hotel is outside of the square? guest: it is right on the square. host: how are you able to cover this story? guest: the police had approached from two sides of the square. causeintention was to

people to leave, not so much to trap them over the last two days or so. road testers have built a defensive barricade within about 20 yards of the main stage and then they ate knighted a large bonfire of tires. that was the ring of fire that was intended to keep the crowd a control vehicles away from the stage after some of the vehicles had burned. this was kept up for about a day and a half. her testers moved from outside their barricades and pushed the policeman back. host: are you concerned for your safety? guest: i am being careful.

host: let's talk about the death toll. it has reached 35 or more. how are you getting information about how many have been killed? thet: the information from classes on tuesday was from the health ministry of the ukraine. i think their numbers may be off by one person. today, i do not know. i saw what i think is nine bodies on the square. i saw them bringing in wounded and dead people on stretchers. i think the final death toll is not determined. host: what are you watching for today? guest: i think it is important

to see if yanukovych declares a state of emergency. he could declare this type of violence is unacceptable in the center of its capital. whether that would have an effect is unclear. also, the opposition planned to use parliament to take back power by changing the constitution. that could be a development today. also, i am just watching the square. kramer, with the new york times, stay safe. what did you hear? guest: he gave a good description of the assumption of violence. i think he was shrewd to observe that mr. yanukovych consid ering a state of emergency, but what that means.

it is important, although probably not, but is likely they will not succeed in making reforms. if mr. yanukovych of his allies to go with the opposition, you would have constitutional reform which would be the way to end this crisis peacefully. during the orange revolution, the two sides were at a standoff. the second round of the -- thetial election presidential election was falsified. the government recognizes they cannot maintain this election.

they agreed to a third round of the vote. they also insisted the government -- the government insisted on constitutional reform. this is exactly the same technique to avoid confrontation. host: this tweet that -- let's show that to our viewers. u.n. wants to intervene in the ukraine, the u.s. should join a coalition, but we should not do anything on our own. nothing. viewers to weigh in. a video of the mayor announcing

leaving the ruling party in euromaidaner violence. guest: we thought it might be the loss of the beginning of internal cohesion. mr. yanukovych was able to stop that. became a common , it is a possibility. us bank more evidence of people shooting -- host: more evidence of people shooting. the u.s. do not think has any role in what is happening. when you look at the republicans and they keep saying there is no

money for unemployment and this and that, how can they find money to go into another war. we do not need to be a part of anything else. -- it will be an amount of time before you see john mccain saying let's arm these people in the next people. you give them rifles and you don't know who you are giving them to. as for the president, stay out of it. we do not want to be involved in another war. let's focus on the problems we have here and put our own money here to help our people. host: john mccain put out a ease calling for sanctions against ukrainian persons. they are drafting legislation. that could come to the floor for a vote next week. we will see how this develops. do you want to weigh in on what she had to say?

guest: i have all expressed a concern that the united states would intervene in the ukraine. i think this is a natural concern. we have been very incompetent in anddeployments in iraq afghanistan. in libya, we did not do well. this is a different situation. we should be active in ukraine. i have talked about that. sending talking about american troops or billions of american dollars into the ukraine. i'm talking about acts of diplomacy. interest that the ukrainian people have a chance to live in a democracy. it is an hour interest -- it is promotenterest to democracy. we should do this. it is part of creating a world that would be better for american interests. host: until the economic problems that the people feel in ukraine are dressed with them in

mind, they appear at the end of their rope. what is there economy like? yes bank that is a smart observation. one of the main reasons for this great frustration with mr. yanukovych is the fact that ukrainian economy has been sputtering along and all the president and his allies seem to sure that they can steal ukrainian resources. alexanderent's son, has become a wealthy man because they are able to buy government assets at bargain basement prices. that is why mr. yanukovych wants to hang onto power. what are their resources? guest: they have serious industrial capacity, chemical industries, serious agricultural assets.

they have the largest transportation system of gas pipelines in the world. there are assets that can be privatized. factbook. is the cia they put together the numbers on all the different countries. this is what they say about imports and where they get their import partners. 32% from russia. china, nine percent. this is from 2012. their export partners, russia, 25%. turkey, five percent. egypt, four percent. what about russia's ties economically and otherwise, politically, to the ukraine. guest: those ties are large. is also true that the

cultural ties are substantial. people talk about the division in the ukraine between the east on one side and the west on the other. theeast is looking towards west culturally and the west looking towards europe culturally. ukraine needs to have a good relationship with russia. having good relationships with russia does not mean that ukraine should be forced into the eurasian economic union. it is a disastrous idea for economic development for not just the ukraine, but for russia itself. the principal businessman in the ukraine, the oligarchs, including those in the east of the country, understand that ukraine's economic interests lie with europe. russia does not like that under mr. putin. they have threatened economic boycotts. for mr. putin, establishing

control over ukraine is more important than the prosperity of the russian economy come or perhaps he does not understand economics. putin playedle has in the violence that we have seen? guest: this is overwhelmingly a ukrainian story. role has been uniformly negative. , theyhreatened to boycott have urged mr. yanukovych to crack down the demonstrators. the point man of the ukraine has justified a violent crackdown. every time yanukovych comes back putin, he is restrained.

host: americans are only waking up to the crisis. a should care how this turns out. ukraine want to pull into the western orbit as a matter of human dignity and strategic interest. a europe leaning ukraine can join the company of free nation that fulfill the aspirations of its people. a ukraine tilted toward the corrupt authoritarian regimes allied with moskal will be a source of regional unrest at best. there are some legitimate points in that editorial. there is some purple prose there as well. certainly the united states would prefer if ukraine reached an agreement with the eu, but our policy has been driven, not so much by ensuring the ukraine turns to the west, it is driven for ukraine's

democratic aspirations. if yanukovych rejected the deal cracked down on the demonstrators, american diplomacy would not be in high gear. we are responding to the violence in the ukraine on the part of the government. statement bymous , i think headams said it when he was secretary of the state. the united states is the well was sure of everyone's freedom, but only the guarantor of its own. for people who believe that, i think all of your callers expressed that sentiment, what we are doing in the ukraine is more in the way of well wishing than intervening. vention" is very small and surgical like. host: stay out.

if they want help, they can ask. here is another one. why can't ukraine accept terms with both russia and the eu? guest: i think that is admiral. i think the you would endorse that sentiment. the kremlin will not. served in ukraine, there were two issues that were relevant. whether the ukraine should join the eu, the other was whether ukraine should join nato. the russian position was in no way should ukraine join nato, but no problem if they joined the eu. since then, the position has shifted. as the prospect of a closer eu-ukraine relationship grew, they said no. russia stopped all ukrainian exports at its border as a way

to say to the ukraine, you will suffer if you make a deal with the eu. here's another tweet. he has a picture of a priest with a gas mask. skip, virginia beach, independent caller. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. good morning mr. herbst. i have to react to your first two callers. mark, from massachusetts. he asked the same question i was thinking of -- how would this country respond to mr. herbstand gave a diplomatic answer. the lady from florida said we do not need to get involved and i agree 100% with her.

how do you think this government in this country would react if other countries around the world might think they're type of government should be installed in this country. i love this country, i do not want any change in the type of government, but how would we feel if other countries wanted to put their type of government into our country? i gave you the answer from john quincy adams. i do not think that there is a problem in the united states being supportive of democratic freedoms. that is what drives our policy in the ukraine. supporte you would not a violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. that is how this began. the demonstrators only became violent, and i would not overstate the violence. it happened after weeks and weeks of impressed -- of

oppression by authorities. i can understand why you do not want united states to get involved in a major way in the ukraine, but i do not understand why you would not want the ukrainians to enjoy the same freedoms that we enjoy. president?as the -- jury yanukovych turnedviktor yanukovych his life around and became a successful bureaucrat and a major leader in independent ukraine.

his political fortunes prospered and he became prime minister and eventually the presidential candidate in 2004. he lost the presidential during the orange revolution. vote,he lost that everyone assumes his political career was over. he did not assume it. he recognized he was dealing with a new ukraine where there would be democratic elections. eastern andd in the southern part of ukraine. he restored his role as the leader of the opposition at that time. fairn a free and presidential election in 2010. power, he wanted to make sure he would not leave power. he has instituted oppressive

measures ever since. his behavior has been wretched. host: possibility of war crimes? guest: i am leery about saying this man has blood on his hands. he has a great deal of power. if there is going to be a peaceful resolution so that from this day or tomorrow that there is no more violence, you will have to make a deal with him. if you say he is a work criminal, you war are saying as no acceptable compromise. i do not think that will help us get a peaceful resolution to the crisis. host: benjamin, republican color, welcome to the conversation. pay -- the u.s. should play a role.

it is something that has been in our history. this guy wants power. is no country, there king. there is no person that can hold power forever. we know what power does. like dealing with the human. mr. yanukovych is a convicted criminal. why not let people live in a democratic state? he knows he will start to lose a lot of the power, slowly and surely as the people start to get more content and happier with the way that policies are. this is like syria and libya. it will start popping up more and more. the united states need to say all of you guys that want

diplomatic happiness, you have to get it without power or being afraid of a protester giving a criticism of the government. you need to say, this is what we are doing wrong, let's change it. country cannot know what it is doing wrong lessig is criticism from its people. i agree largely with what you said. we have a long and wonderful history of support for democracy. that is what is driving our policy right now. this is a live feed from russia tv. this is the maidan square. what you make of the numbers? guest: it is a large crowd. we do not see how large it extends from beyond the pictures thing. host: richard, you are next.

go ahead. i do support what the ambassador said as far as stepping in in terms of diplomacy and may giving advice, but as far as spending any viable resources or time or energy in the ukraine, it seems senseless, considering we still have issues at home in terms of obamacare and our national debt. we should concentrate and focus on our issues here and tackle those before we go anywhere else and deal with their problems. host: here's what the president had to say yesterday. he traveled to mexico city and met with his mexican and canadian counterparts.

he was asked about the violence in ukraine. here's the president. [video clip] regard to ukraine and our european partners, we will engage all sides and stress to president yanukovych and the ukrainian government that they have the primary responsibility to prevent the kind of terrible violence that we have seen. to withdrawal riot police, to work with the opposition, to restore security and human dignity and move the country forward. this includes progress towards a multiparty technical government that can work with the international community on a support package and adopt reforms necessary for free and fair elections act your. ukrainians are a proud and resilient people who have overcome extraordinary challenges in their history. that is a pride and strength i hope they draw on now. i have urged the military to show restraint and allow

civilians to pursue the dialogue necessary for progress. we have seen reports of a truce between the government and the if the truce is implemented, it could provide space for the sides to resolve their disagreements peacefully. we will do a we can to support ukrainians as they seek a peaceful solution. host: what did you make of what the president had to say? guest: i think it is an excellent statement. he covers all the points. he makes clear that we are looking for a compromise that would be acceptable to the government and the opposition parties. i like that he cautioned that the military to stay out of it and he talked about the willingness to offer some assistance if they are willing to make the necessary reforms.

host: a joint statement by eu ambassador and myself, what is his role and what you make of his efforts? .uest: is a solid professional he is handling himself well. is capital in which he accredited and is in crisis. we have to be careful about what we do. he is handling himself well. host: john, independent caller. caller: good afternoon. host: go ahead. the past --nd statements to be disingenuous. the history of america involves themselves and other problems, they look good going in, but the results have not been nice. history bears that all out. if the innate -- if the

ukrainian nation wants to solve their problems, and they have a lot of them. the only country that has their and are inhe wealth a position to help them are the russians. anyone who steps on russia will have to be careful. while we wish to ukrainians -- foundingrming fathers told us that there is no democracy like we have here. there is no people in the world like we have here. the people in ukraine have to start thinking. arehey are doing what they doing here in america, i would ask my government to clean the streets. guest: i think you expressed

some admiral sentiments. we have intervened in some places around the world. goingnot talking about into the ukraine. we are talking about using diplomacy to come up with a diplomatic solution. what mr. putin is proposing for the ukraine is not good for the people. he is not helping them. he is trying to draw them into an economic and political union, which is a dead-end. the ukrainian people are resisting that. that is understandable. our support for ukrainians is not unreasonable.

host: a string of tweets. he ran into the opposition leader who thinks the government vokedroke -- pro today's violence to show visiting foreign ministers a truce was impossible. guest: i don't have at my fingertips to the exact 25 moven, but if 20 or from the government parties to the opposition parties, the opposition would have a majority. that would lead to the constitutional reform we were talking about. 10 is a significant number. in late november, two or three people left. 10 is a lot more interesting and significant. this is coming from the

opposition leader, so we do not know if this is true. it is, the serious talk of sanctions is having an impact. these parliamentarians do not want to be sanctioned. , andre showing us especially europe, do not target us. host: bob, virginia. caller: there's a four-part series on youtube, i recommend everybody look at this history. it is by a ukrainian and it covers the 4000 years of the history of the ukraine, which is ofically the meat grinder scintillation over the last 4000 years. thank you. civilizationer of

over the last 4000 years. thank you. host: president obama is saying the u.s. condemns in strongest terms the violence that is taking place in the ukraine. that was tweeted out yesterday. mark, columbus, ohio. go ahead. caller: i would like to remind the ambassador that the united states has always had their problems too. i do not recall any country coming into the united states when we were enslaved, when we were fighting for our civil rights, the government turned against us. we were trying to get our own personal civil rights. no one came to help us. the united states should get involved in any type of military action outside the united states. -- let's take the ukraine. when all ukrainians in america

return home to help their country, that is when we should get involved. this caller, like most of the others express is a serious concern about the fate intervening overseas. -- about the united states intervening overseas. what we're talking about in the ukraine is not a deployment. it is diplomacy. pute are no dangers when we military for -- of the type that existed when we put military forces on the ground in afghanistan. the caller is right. other countries do not get involved in our civil rights movements. we have a history as the world's to encourageacy democracy around the world. there's nothing wrong with that.

host: if we learned anything and rock -- from iraq afghanistan is that invaders have little or no control after regime change. guest: this is not afghanistan. anti-interventionist tendency as a result of our problem deployments in afghanistan and iraq. host: possible sanctions? guest: that is diplomacy. it does not cost anything to issue sanctions. sanctions talk is having an impact. a positive impact. host: who does it impact and who does the cost? guest: it costs those that are

causing and promoting violence in the ukraine. that is the beauty of the sanctions. aq --t the sanctions on ir all the sanctions on iran. sanctions against a few oligarchs does not hit the people of ukraine. they pay no cost for. er it leads to bett policies, that is their benefit. host: ukraine opposition leader urges demonstrators for truce as protesters seize government building in kiev. that sound like it is the right thing for the opposition leaders to ask. one of the problems is that the opposition leaders do not control --. host: milo, independent caller. caller: thank you for taking my

call. -- theseting to ask people in the ukraine, not just in the ukraine, but venezuela, thailand, egypt, syria, all over they are probably against their government looking into -- listening to their phones, watching their e-mails and texts, knowing everything about their banking, their health, parts of the government putting down any kind of groups that do not agree with them. familiar andnd does this country need to look at our own situation when it comes to democracy and liberty? the new thing now is that we newsroomsators in our , radio stations. they want to monitor our license

plate tags. i imagine people all over the world are protesting against that type of situation. host: let me jump in. viewerso update our about the story you mentioned about license plates. the homeland security has canceled the plan for a national license plate tracking device or database. that has been canceled after it was revealed yesterday by the washington post. i agree with the caller that many people around the world aren't happy about the authoritarian policies of their government. it seems to be that call is more about what is happening in the united states. of course we have to be vigilant to preserve our own freedoms. thesehow many of eruptions are in putin's

backyard and attributable to his influence? guest: he lives in an unstable region and i do not blame the russians for the current term don't in ukraine. are not playing a helpful role, but the problems are of ukrainian origin. host: what will you be watching for today? we will see if mr. yanukovych issues a state of a state ofdecrees emergency. that is important. we'll see if the military does anything to help control crowds. that is important. thealso, the efforts by apposite -- opposition to pass constitutional reform. these are the things i will be watching. host: where do you get your news? guest: online, i have good contacts with people in ukraine. i get a lot of stuff directly from there. there is a good group of 10 to

15 people in washington that know the ukraine well. over the past several months, we have been in regular touch with each other. host: what are you hearing from the people you know inside ukraine. make: my job is to try to sense of the various reports i get. most of the folks i hear from our people who are on side of the demonstrators. the nastyorts about tactics of the government and we get a lot of reports about their fears. early and mid december, every few weeks i am getting stuff in from people out there saying the crackdown is coming. been efforts of crackdown, there has never been a serious effort. host: thank you for being here. we are going to turn our domestic issue here. later, we will be joined by the authors of the new book, "hrc

." we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tonight, we will talk with two u.s. senators about their personal lives, careers, and interesting facts about their names. the senator tells us how her name went from mary catherine to heidi. >> i grew up in a small catholic community. the twoas growing up, classes, first and second or third and fourth, were all in the same classroom. a small group of

girls, there were a lot of mary's. a mary beth and marianne and mary jo, and then married catherine. my parents never called me merry. my name was cathy. but my best friend's name was cathy. so she decided in the third grade she would rename me. she was a voracious reader and had read hundreds of hooks by the time she was in the third grade and heidi was one of her favorite books. was greatt it alliteration and she gave me the name heidi and it stuck. we came from norway in 1906 and when he got to ellis island, english,not know besides apple pie and coffee. they were asked to change their name because they thought it would be too difficult to spell

and pronounce for people in this country. when they got to ellis island, they picked the name of the farm where they lived near norway. they got to ellis island and had a sponsor in south dakota and they came out to work, railroads. interviews profile tonight starting at 9:30 eastern on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. journal" continues. host: laura barron-lopez is here.

that adds to his 2011 standards that the epa and the department of transportation finalized. those standards applied to big rigs and semitrucks, garbage trucks. what did he announce earlier? guest: in 2011, he announced for 2013. they reduce and cut fuel consumption. host: what is expected to be the impact of the latest announcement by the president? the 2011 standards are expected to cut fuel consumption by 130 million barrels of oil. they are also expected to cut emissions by 270 million electric times. some of the most potent greenhouse gases. he has not

exactly said what the new standards -- how much they will cut emissions by or fuel consumption. what he did say is he wants them to go into the next tech date and the standards to reach into 2025 the way his car standards do. host: what has been the reaction? so far, good. during the speech tuesday, obama haded the auto industry come back because of the fuel economy and fuel efficiency standards. that these new technologies need to be used. so, the new efficiency standards announced on tuesday, there has been slow reaction to it so far. they have yet to look over it. why do you think it has

been slow? will they try to fight him? guest: i am not sure they will. werethe 2011 ones announced, republicans did not exactly take to it completely, but i spoke to the senator the other day and he said he still the newook over standards, the announcement obama made on tuesday. they are in recess right now. that is probably why the reaction has been slow to come out. there is probably one part of it republicans will definitely not take too kindly to, which is the energy security trust obama was touting again. that takes revenue from oil and pushes it into find alternative fuels for vehicles. listening to what the

president had to say the other day, talking about green technology. fueleir goal is to develop economy standards for heavy-duty trucks that will take us well into the next decade just like our cars. they will partner with manufacturers and autoworkers and other stakeholders, truckers, to come up with a proposal i march of next year. they will complete the rule a year after that. businesses have sent a clear message is -- a clear message. more oil, savee more money, cut pollution. , whatlaura barron-lopez was the argument? was trying to say fuel efficiency standards are important, that they are crucial for the u.s. to reach the air -- heir efficiency standards.

to bring them down from levels in 2005 by about 17-20%. the u.s. has been touting we want to be him a forefront of fighting it missions. a big part of president obama's second term legacy is his climate agenda. what could be the impact on consumers of the new fuel efficiency standards? they are supposed to save -- the heavy-duty truck ones are supposed to save operators and businesses about $50 billion in fuel costs. obama touts they are supposed to save consumers money at the pump , that they are not supposed to be hurting gas prices. that argument could come out in the future when more lawmakers

look over the standards. >> could you see the price of cars go up? have you seen it go up? >> i have not seen the price go up. it is not something that has been raised. a lot of green groups are cheering this and saying it consumerwill help the and is good for the economy. putting these new technologies out there. >> how is this part of his overall effort on climate if they arehey say finalized, which they should be green group and a lot of advocates are saying this could be one of the biggest tops it president has taken mitigate the effects of carbon thesions, to help curve drastic effect of climate change, this along with a possible rule the epa has

proposed, which is to curb carbon emissions. host: we are talking with laura barron-lopez about the vehicle standards set by the president today and also climate change. paul, you're up first, republican caller. >> good morning. call.you for taking my i appreciate you letting me get these points out. this president is the worst thing that ever happened to this country. he is a disaster. he could not govern a milk farm. the fuel efficiency thing, they are not making these vehicles more fuel-efficient. they are replacing steel with aluminum. now they have changed the narrative from global warming to climate change. tell us how this will help us when china's don't -- china don't acknowledge any of this crap and all of the stuff goes here. we have got coal miners out of

work for the very reason the epa is shutting them down. lance --r -- coal fire there is no more coal miners. this president is crippling us. the coalwill speak to aspect. that is something president obama has to deal with. lawmakers like mitch mcconnell in kentucky had valid to make it one of his main points on the election campaign this year, that these new standards are crippling the coal industry, that obama is not being kind to coal miners. the new standards, which , use cut carbon emissions carbon capture technology to do there is something the u.s. says needs to be done in order to stay on the track that obama has set for carbon emission goals. when it comes to china, they

definitely have been -- i have been talking to kerry about this. he has been making this a big part of his campaign, climate change. he recently had a speech in indonesia and is also meeting in beijing with some officials. this is definitely a big part of that. i would say china is reacting to it. the biggest carbon emitter, the u.s. second to them. they want to take a stand on this. >> i want to show what our secretary of state had to say when he was in indonesia. he is quoted as saying, think about the proliferation -- response to him

comparing climate change to a weapon of mass instruction? there was a good amount of response to that. obviously, conservation groups cheered it and were very happy he took such a strong line when it came to climate change. republican lawmakers like senator john mccain asked kerry what planet he is on because he said, how can you compare extreme weather to a weapon of ?ass destruction john kerrych blasted quite a bit, saying this is not something he should be touting and this is something he should resign for. he called for that, as well. there was a good amount of reaction. host: 83 -- -- a tweet -- natural gas is definitely

something obama is trying to expand more. he spoke a lot about in his state of the union. to branch outg into these new technologies. it is something the administration is looking to. it is definitely going to take a because there is a lot of pushback on natural gas. the environmental effects of it are not exactly fully -- they have not come into the scene yet. they are not completely sure all the impacts of it. >> that brings up the keystone pipeline and what is to happen with that. we were talking about natural gas. where does that stand right now? now, the state department is in its 90 day interagency review. they just dropped their environmental impact statement,

which takes a look at the environmental impacts of the pipeline. the impact statement found the pipeline would not drastically increase greenhouse gas emissions, that regardless of whether or not it is built, oil sands in canada would expand. so, right now, the state department is finishing the final review and opening the public comment time. done, and it should wrap up in june, that would leave it to president obama to make a decision. a nebraska drudge through a -- nebraska judge through a major hurdle. --

this was tweeted in about vehicle fuel efficiencies, saying -- bob in michigan, a democratic caller. caller: it is time for everybody to start connecting the dots between our unfettered and unregulated trade with countries , that do nothing for their own people, and just wreck the environment, while we continue out of ourss cheese north american continent, spoiling the one resource we still have that no one else has, which is freshwater, and then exporting that resource to the same countries that still rely on slave labor to produce the

junk we rely on here. until we connect the dots, we are going nowhere. >> john in columbia, maryland. independent caller. have a couple of statements to make and i will take my answers off air. environment and concerns there, can you talk a little bit about some liquid gas or construction that will be going on in the chesapeake bay and when it comes to the hybrid cars and large batteries, when they are at the end of their life and they can thatnger be used, how is impacting the environment with how they are getting rid of these cars? as far as recycling and such? thank you very much. as far as the batteries and

where they're going, they are being used. that is not something that has been addressed on the hill, that i have covered. i probably would not have the best answer for you right now. when it comes to liquid natural gas exports, which is i think what you is asking about, that is something that is heating up in congress. they are looking to a bunch of ,ifferent export possibilities natural gas, which the industry seems to be keen on. crude export as well. exports,, the 1970's band, is something lawmakers are looking to more now than they ever have. the conversation did not seem likely before in the senate but they have brought it up now and have had hearings on it. there is a possibility of those becoming big in the election cycle, certain vulnerable

, andrats like alaska louisiana, because it is something constituents look to. also on the issue of climate change, in the papers this morning, usa today had the headline that the high court could put the brakes on gas rule. they will weigh in on one of the most intractable issues of our time -- global warming. the health and welfare of americans will be jeopardize unless the government can continue to combat climate change by regulating greenhouse emissions from all sources -- president obama announcing this week new fuel efficiency for medium and heavy duty trucks. is here ton-lopez talk about that and the

administration's overall efforts on climate change. caller.epublican go ahead. all of this climate change, i have been saying over and over again, it is nothing but a bunch of bunk. nobody believes it around here. it is all lies coming out of and the secretary of state, it is all bunk, man. there is nothing to replace gas and coal. all this greenhouse mess is nothing but bunk. host: what do you do for a living? caller: i drive an 18 wheeler. i will not change my fuel in my truck for obama to come up with some bowl. it is all political anyway.

know obama don't like america anyway. he wants to destroy this country. host: all right. the guy mark has a new assignment in the senate, given what her constituents are said there, what role is she taking on and what you expect from her leadership? it is a big move. know, definitely, you would likeustry, she to expand and make sure coastal states like louisiana are from offshorenue oil drilling that is afforded, that is allowed on lance. she would likeng to tackle. she has also talked about crude oil exports. it is something she is very interested in.

definitely be playing a prominent role and this will help her in her reelection bid because of the fact that she has someower to push forward core issues with her voters in louisiana. ohio, democratic caller. caller: good morning. rebuffs to the couple of people that call. coalne guy saying companies and the power plants are not using coal anymore, and the reason they are not is because natural gas is cheaper. please listen to that. natural gas is cheaper. for the gentleman that just called from louisiana or if you do nots,

believe in global warming, the next time you call, try to explain it to everybody why the oceans are acidifying, the ph level is changing, and the coral is dying everywhere. once the coral dies, the oceans are in trouble because the coral is where all fish do their young.g and have their the other guy who called first, theorgot to mention aluminum they are using in their vehicles now to make them more fuel efficient is lighter and so, consequently, it leads to better mileage. thank you. >> all right. on twitter, mark says -- mike, go ahead. caller: thank you.

all this is crazy. vehicles since the early 1970's that could get hundreds of miles per gallon and they lock the patents up in a of it.nd that is the end it is all big oil. frankly, if you want to talk , it should be on japan and china, shipping all of their goods over here. listen. i am all for a free market economy. it is a world economy. however, make it fair. you, in a decade or will be run byry china. they will be an economic powerhouse and we will be left in the dust. if we do not get a manufacturing

base back in this country, and we could build economic vehicles, and we could build sources to make energy in many different ways, instead of spending money all over the our gigrying to enforce on other people, we should be building -- if california -- we should be using our money to put plants on the ocean by california so they have water to grow crops. host: mike says we should be looking at all options. "the washington times" is reporting -- the energy secretary confirmed wednesday the obama administration will make

available the lands of dollars in federal loan guarantees to support private construction efforts. one of those efforts in georgia. in massachusetts. independent caller. one, in 1980, i had a car that went 40 miles to the gallon. 2003, give or take, lot ofn england, a diesel cars were going 75 miles to the gallon. the u.s. has consistently regulations that told get our efficiency up standard. smallt straight to suv's, trucks, instead of producing cars. that is how the car industry got around that one.

a recent c-span3 panel pointed and 85 could be used in eliminate theld huge exhaust system they have to use and they would be lighter and cheaper to build and get that are asked mileage and pollute less. whole bunch of options, one of which is getting which china did. early on they need to eat the corn. coal. get methanol from it seems to me like a huge blast task by the oil companies to

just continue their control. gas prices have gone up more than 300% since 1999. guest: he mentioned ethanol and biofuels and that is another aspect of the obama administration standards when it comes to the amount of biofuels mixed into the supply within a certain amount of time. the epa recently came out with their proposal on how much biofuels will be mixed in. they retreated this past year. they went back a bit, the first time they had gone back. so, the oil industry was happy about that. the renewable fuel standard should be repealed altogether. it is not something they think

is smart for the economy. it is something they think hurts certain fuel engines. say when you mix too much of ethanol into the fuel supply, you hit a blind wall. host: a tweet -- charles, alabama, republican caller. caller: you keep changing the name from the heating to the calling to climate change. i need just a minute to say something about this. this planet is spinning around the sun and we're traveling right now, 76,000 miles an hour on this rocket called earth.

in addition, we are a spinning 24 hours, we make a complete circle. things affect the environment, the weather changes, for eons. this thing about the ocean is going to wipe us out, the ocean has come through and divided the to the unitedrica states and south america. i believe it there because we're running out of time. what is next on climate change? what are you watching for? guest: if it does come through, there is severe pushback from republican lawmakers on the hill and also from the coal industry.

whether or not obama is able to finalize those in time, it should be finalized, hopefully. the proposals came out earlier this year. we are waiting in june for the epa to push out its proposal for carbon emission limits for existing power plants. the proposal is already out there for new ones. that is something in the pipeline. that as well as the keystone pipeline, whether or not he will make you decision on it by june and whether or not that affects 2410 election cycle. there are things to look for. host: you can follow laura barron-lopez's reporting. thank you very much. up next, we will speak to jonathan allen and amie parnes right after this update from c-span radio. 31 eastern time.

nuclearst round of talks between iran and six world powers have just ended. negotiators agree on a plan that aims to reduce concerns about iran posses nuclear ambitions. officials from both sides described plans as very productive. the next round of talks is set for next month. turning to the state of the union address call for an increase in the minimum wage, the president has e-mailed a statement to a clothing's tour signing onto the effort. he says he applauds the gap for announcing a decision that will benefit about 60,000 workers in the u.s.. they plan to raise their minimum to nine dollars this year and $10 in 2015. walmart stores, the largest private employer in the united states, says it is looking to support an increase in the min wage as well. speaking in a telephone interview, he says interviewing -- increasing the minimum wage those people who

shop at the chain weekly would now have more income. >> civil rights, black power. march that begins in memphis in the beginning of june 1966 and three weeks later in jackson. you could make an art -- an argument in the three weeks that anduns -- it changes approaches a crossroads. the call for black power is first heard there. that slogan was unveiled midway through march and intermediate -- immediately generates controversy and a great swelling of enthusiasm among many local black people and it ignites a new direction in black politics. those changes might have happened over the course of time anyway. did is dramatized the shift because it brought together civil rights leaders

and regular people, white and black, from all across the country, and put them into a asoratory a black politics they move through mississippi. always dramatic moments were created that highlighted key divisions and tensions but also key strengths. rightsok at the civil movement saturday night at 10:00 eastern and sunday at 9:00. about blackmore power and the civil rights movement. a historian will take your calls, comments, and tweets. live on c-span2's booktv. and, at the book club, you still have time to comment on february posses in-depth guest. read a women's history for beginners and then go to website to enter the chat room. >> the all-new c-span.org website is now mobile friendly. you can access our comprehensive coverage.

want, when you want, and how you want. posses responsive design scales to fit any of your screens, from the monitor of your desktop computer, to your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, whether you're at home, the office, or on the go. you can watch c-span's live coverage. search our extensive video coverage whenever and wherever you want. c-span.org makes it easy for you to keep an eye on what is happening in washington." -- in washington. >> washington journal continues. host: we're back with two authors. .mie parnes and jonathan allen co-authors. what story are you trying to

tell in this book about hillary clinton? a couple of storylines. one is her comeback story. i find it fascinating. i think anyone would find it fascinating. mostly how she would govern if she were president. this is her biggest management job. she manage a 70,000 person bureaucracy and how does she govern and what decisions does she make and who does she surround herself with? all of these things are highlighted in the book. if you are trying to figure out what kind of president she would make, what did you think you needed to say about her? >> we needed to figure out how makes decisions, what she puts an emphasis on, what her priorities are. she has had a lot of experience inside washington.

nobody campaigns successfully as the ultimate washington insider. that might be good on television but not necessarily for presidential candidates. the truth is what we see with a lot of recent presidents is the inability to maneuver in washington and work with congress, a lack of understanding of how agencies and the private sector work and interact. we wanted an idea of her views on those things. is of the things we found that she is seen as having a bias for action, wanting to do things and be willing to take risks, calculated risks, but take some risks in order to try to achieve something. most politicians are risk-averse. host: what did you learn about , her personality, her decision-making process? guest: the bias reaction she

has. she is a retail politician in her own right. we think of bill clinton as a gregarious guy but she does it as well. we tell a story about how she left the state department and cents 16,000 thank you notes to people, 5000 of them handwritten. quite a task. we thought that was interesting and also how she kept tabs on politics. to 112 away and travel countries, but she always had her pulse on what was happening here back home. host: why do you think that matters? guest: it matters in terms of politics. running for president, we detail how she cut the operation and continue to reach out to the business community, to supporters throughout her time in the state department, helped her husband settle scores on the campaign trail, held president obama with the election. it all sets her up in a better 2016, thanking

people. a lot of times when presidential campaigns do not work out, candidates and and it is the end of the world for the them. not only does it help in terms of trying to win an election later, but it helps when you are trying to move them on public holocene issues later on. it is classic politics, the thing all old-school city mayors would do, and something that is one of hillary and invite these ways of reaching out to people. her husband has great charisma in terms of winning people over. she has got to work harder at that. it is interesting there is a lot in here about bill clinton and what he is doing at the same time that she is secretary of the state. why did you include that in the book? guest: they are interwoven.

i see her as an individual person, but he is so much a part of her life. his story is her story. they are tied together for good and bad. host: would her aides like it? guest: i do not know they necessarily like the image. i know not all of these things in this book. land anda hillary eight the world and they make a claim you -- universe and there is a crossover when you have two principles with their own interests, sometimes, it lines up perfect we and sometimes less than perfectly. there are strategies for getting things done. a lot of conflict. did you hear from the former secretary of state? are not talking about who we got it from. we heard the reaction. it's reviews. some clintonites not happy with us.

some happy and content with the book. guest: that is probably a good way to say it. one of them was this hit list where they tracked the people who do not treat her particularly well and then bill clinton went out on the campaign trail and not many of them out in the primaries. nobody in clinton land like that at all. that made news, but there was one part in here where you talk about claire, the senator, by how much she is disliked the clinton camp. why is that? to this day. it is interesting. she has come out early to endorse hillary clinton. to 2006.back the clintons had campaigned and fun raised for her and she was wasmeet the press," and she

asked about president clinton, and she said something to the effect of, i think he has been a great leader but i would not want my daughter near him. that angered a lot of clintonites and following that, she made a quick to a friend saying, she would not want to be stuck in an elevator with her, which we found to be interesting. >> in 2008, she not only it sourced says in -- senator obama, but the issue of a fresh endorsement every day on television, they had -- the headquarters, people were cursing their tv sets every time they saw her on whichever show she would be on. they got very upset or you now where come full circle she is trying to get back into clinton posses good graces. hillary clinton herself and bill clinton will be gracious about that, but when you talk about their -- talk to their aides, they still hate that and it will

not change anytime soon. >> i want to go back to her personality and what goes into it. your book. part of she has something driving her more than just power. a strong moral compass. this is a quote, that she leans into. she does not wear religion on her sleeve, but if you had any length of conversation with her as a methodist and talked with her about her faith, she will be very insightful. oft do you make of the role faith? >> is something she has spoken butt at times before, clearly, it is important to her. we found out she is on an e-mail chain with a small set of old friends. 2008, ah adviser in longtime clinton aide, jesse jackson before them. they s andss religious teaching

stuff like that. she does not often want to go to church in public because she worries about disturbing other people's ability to worship because of the fanfare that comes along when she sleeps in with the secret service or state department detail. it is something that matters to her. her fate is in methodism, a strong component of public service in it. role to do as her things for the better good. not everybody agrees with her view of how that should happen or what is the better good, but it is something driving within her. you writes that played a role in her decision to accept president obama, many please for her to join his it ministration and take over the state department. guest: she dodged him a few times. went out to chicago and they sat and she said no and he said to think about it and sleep on it. calls aed his fault --

few times. what eventually happened was he offered it to her, and she said, let's talk conditions and called him back one morning and that was a sign. the way she explains it is, if she had been president-elect, and she had asked president -- senator obama to serve for her, she would have expected him to do it. she has a call for public service. she is a politician, but this is something she really believes in. >> there are more details to delve into from the new book, what her role was, what her responsibilities were, what she took credit for, what she did at the state department. we will get into that here. but howard is up first in pennsylvania. a democratic caller. caller: good morning. i think the to say middle-class class, which i

consider myself a part of, whether you are a republican or independent or democrat, we are looking for someone to address the problem of our jobs going to china and india, bringing them and i thinkica, obama made a big mistake by emphasizing health care. i think the economy is number one and our jobs. that is all i have to say. host: you write about the role hillary clinton say -- played on president obama said he would push health care. secretary clinton was generally attempted to stay out of domestic politics, generally not the job of the secretary of state to get involved in politics. because she had been involved in health care in the early 1990's, there was a level of toxicity she might have for obamacare had she been publicly involved. behind the scenes, she was to presidentce

obama's his top aides on her history with health care, trying to fight in the early 90's for insight. she spoke to a few lawmakers for the white house who were considering what they should do with their votes. we write about a cabinet meeting in 2009, right after the tea party summer in september 2009. basically all the cabinet members were getting upset and there was a lot of frustration and complaint are -- for the white house that their agenda was getting consumed by health care and health care would end up bringing down the party and the rest of the agenda. made anclinton impassioned plea for the cabinet members to get behind president obama. that is not an opportunity comes along like this very often. let's get this done now. told in the administration us they felt that was an underappreciated moment, but still a pivotal moment where she

was bringing the force of her political weight behind president obama in front of all these leading democrats. >> you have in the book this picture of president obama receiving a congratulatory hug. clinton had pushed for health care reform when her husband had -- was president. the insistence the lobby past and she spoke up on the president's behalf. let's go to bob in illinois. independent caller. >> good morning. i look forward to reading your book. i have two questions. we are told we should not talk about the past with fast -- with secretary clinton. if she does run, looking forward, i wonder if you guys would rank her accomplishments as secretary of state. with russia, slowing down iran posses development with nuclear bombs, egypt, syria, benghazi, how would you rank those? we saw the photos when osama bin laden was taken down in the

white house situation room. as far as we know, hillary clinton and the president were both in washington when that happened. in all your interviews and research, did you ever see a photo in the situation room or know where she was on that day? let's talk about her competence at the state department. of the biggest things is that she did support the president and was a big advocate for him on libya, the afghan laden,the rate for bin but i think the reset button is also a big moment for her. there are other moments i think john can also talk about. generally speaking, the united states was seen around the world after the first term of obama administration and she was a chief advocate abroad. relationships with european partners, some relationships in the arab world approved.

that everything got better, but i think that was an important thing she contributed to. elevated development and diplomacy as part of american foreign policy for so long in the post-9/11 world. american foreign-policy was all combat. it was all military. that elevation of diplomacy as part of the foreign-policy mix was an important accomplishment and it would've been harder for some folks with less influence to do it as fast in the american government. >> what about weighing in on the controversial issues that the secretary of state has to take on. the middle east peace process. >> there is obviously no middle east peace. she did not get israelis to sit down and join hands. nor has anybody else in a long time. and the white house really wanted to control the -- those particular issues. she had a special envoy for the

middle east. ended up quitting. so yes, she did not make a lot of progress with that. the last time there was an outbreak of violence in the area, the two brotherly palestinians, it was hillary clinton who went in and literally shuttled diplomacy between the israelis and palestinians and the egyptians to get a cease-fire in late 2012. we detail it in the book. she was skeptical of how long that would hold. it has held for about a year and a half so far. no long-term peace deal, but at least they're not shooting at each other. >> before we continue, it is really interesting. her one day came to she cametuation room

to lunch, no one knew about it. her aide thought she disappeared for a little while. he actually wanted her buy-in. we think that is a pivotal moment. he saw she had a so-called bias for action that we talked about. he we really wanted her support on this and was important for him. i was a strong moment for her. really someone she aligned with and they shared a lot of opinions, but this was where they disagreed. >> vice president biden as well, who might run against her in the primary, generally that are in the democratic primary to be a dove, but she was the hawk in the national security meetings and biden was the dove and a president obama ended up taking a more hawkish position then democrats thought he would. she andrite that president obama were in washington the day of the raid. guest: the bin laden rate, yes.

before the correspondents dinner, you might recall, there was a funny moment where there was a whole situation, what happens, what do we do if the whole thing interferes with the white house correspondent dinner and she used profanity and said, who cares? we are not allowed in the situation room but there is no reason to believe it was fake. you write president obama had to change his jokes because he knew what was about to happen later in the evening. not, lot of his aides did including his speechwriter. guest: they thought it was an interesting moment, like, why are we changing this. at that point, they did not know mitt romney would be a nominee. they went through a series of republican nominees and give

them nicknames. they had to change it because they knew the raid was going down, so they changed it. that is one of the fun stories in the book. students's get some involved in the conversation. our big 12 conference tour. today, iowa state university, we have six political science students. i want to start with kristen johnson. go ahead, you are up first. good morning. such an extensive history. it seems remarkable hillary clinton has been able to keep such a positive image for most americans. i was curious what you thought of that? guest: resilience. this is something up and down

and when she gets knocked down, she has not stayed down. for her adversaries and enemies, some of them at least respect the fight in her. for those inclined to like her, they see her as an inspiration in terms of coming back time and again. at one point, amy wanted to call the book of the phoenix because she thought hillary clinton was rising from the ashes one more time. we saw on the campaign trail in 2008, she was -- we see the echoes in 2016. as an underdog when barack obama was beating her, she suddenly gained more popularity and seemed more comfortable in that role. it is an interesting thing. a lot of people identified with the basic comeback story. we think that is one of the reasons the book is readable and enjoyable, whether folks agree or disagree with her. she had high numbers at the state department and largely was told by one of her friends, because you are not in politics

anymore. as soon as she is coming back in politics, you're seeing that already. her numbers are coming down. her friend advised her one day in a car ride. were talking about numbers and she said, once you come back into politics, watch out here at your numbers are high now. i think the clintons are very aware of this sort of thing. gerald is next, a democratic caller in cow -- carolina. caller: how are you on this pitiful morning? -- beautiful morning? please bear with me. veteran.abled vietnam i have got a couple of quick items. i think what is wrong with america, one reason why hillary clinton keeps bouncing back, is that most americans do not confuse the definition of is with proof, versus accusations, which is without proof.

we do not confuse that. the second item is benghazi, somebody brought up this morning. i understand that is a tragedy but most people leave out the senate report that just came out. page 20 and the top of page 21, when the ambassador refused security two times from december 16 -- august 16 until september 11, when the commander offered it to him. one last item, the situation over in syria, russia keeps intervening, the only report they have, why don't we just rented -- hong kong for about 50 years. we could settle the problem over there. with scandaln versus accusations. >> this interesting because of recent papers coming out. lewinsky a little more, and the 1990's, the clintons in

the 1990's. they want to move past this. there is disagreement in the republican party about how to handle it. everything issay fair game. karl rove saying, not so much. there is so much to focus on right now, benghazi, where we dredging up the past? how tove to decide handle that. i do not think you will hear a peep from the clintons on that right now. host: a tweet -- guest: interesting. i think the book probably has the most serious, concise, ,ndependent, nonpartisan description of what actually happened in benghazi, what the foreign policy was there, the decision to go into libya, how hillary clinton first put the coalition together to go to knock them out of power, the

effort that was put in there to normalize relations with the government, all the way through benghazi not only on the ground there, but in washington as well. then the aftermath, talking points, classified briefings on capitol hill, the famous moment shehe senate hearing when says, what difference at this point doesn't make? -- does it make? as far as benghazi goes, she says it was her biggest regret. there is no evidence the request for security in tripoli, a long-distance from benghazi, ever actually made it anywhere near her desk. she says she is responsible. the question for blame lies with the terrorists first and foremost. then there is a secondary uestion, anybody else? the caller mentioned and others weorting we heard since finished the book, basically

suggesting, kristi vince wanted to be out there in dangerous places. -- talking to the linens -- talking to that e libyans. aether that should the decision and ambassador makes on his own is reasonable. i would recommend that readers, particularly read our parts on benghazi. we try to take a serious and fair-minded look. me go back to iowa, students from the iowa state university. morgan, go ahead. when it came to gathering research from your book, what was the biggest obstacle you faced? guest: good question. it was a long complicated process. we started a couple years ago in 2012 around the convention

season. the research was really a particularly difficult thing, it was hard to get access. this is a very insular world. john and i had sources on the hill and at the state department , at the white house. we tried to cobble together our source list, talk to as many people as possible. we talked to more than 200 people. people who like her, don't like her, everyone. guest: it is unusual for two reporters to have completely different source lists. there is very little overlap between the people amie talk to and the people i talk to. that was helpful, we were really talkingg who we were to. another thing i found difficult, the state department summarily rejects a lot freedom of affirmation act requests that seem simple. we had a researcher helping us, you have to frame these things pretty carefully.

i was surprised at the types of things that came back as rejection letters. makes me want to spend more time constructing requests. host: nancy, texas, independent caller. caller: i have two points of view. what we need in the white house -- we do not need all these politicians and old blood. we need new blood and leaders. host: got amie parnes your amie parnes point, nancy. point, nancy. amie parnes? guest: that is tough for the clintons, they have monica lewinsky and the 1990's. i think they would actually fare quite well. thet: that is one of reasons you see karl rove and republican leaders saying these scandals are not fertile ground, if it did not stick to bill

clinton and hurt him politically, it is not going to hurt hillary clinton politically. who was more than a bystander but not much more. and, nearly all female democrats i know one hillary -- want hillary. guest: i am sure there are some female democrats who do not want hillary, it is a small minority. host: what about the female vote, i want to show from her concession speech in 2008. one line, a couple lines she put in there. and the talk about the back story. [video clip] [applause] we were not able to shatter that hardest glass ceiling, but thanks to you it has about 18 million cracks in it. [applause]

the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with hope and knowledge that the past will be a little easier. time?amie parnes, next guest: it was arguably her best speech of the campaign. jim kennedy came up with that 18 which weracks line, discovered in the book. i think she is going to embrace it a little more this time, she was reluctant to do that during this particular speech, there was back and forth with one of her aides about how to address the fact that she was a woman candidate, i don't think she will have the same hesitance. guest: taking that speech apart, we do that in the book, there is a rhetorical refrain where she echoes sojourner truth, the abolitionist and seve

uffragist. sojourner truth was famous for saying "ain't i a woman." hillary clinton is saying at the end, but i am a woman. sort of linking through sojourner truth the women's movement and the black civil rights movement. her way of getting supporters to see obama as somebody making history. that same logic could be applied should she be running for president, to be the first woman president, to talk to african-americans, hispanics, and others who have seen glass ceilings and went to see those come down. it is interesting to see those seeds planted and later in the convention speech, she uses harriet tubman, known as an abolitionist. a little different from sojourner truth, still using one arc of unifying in

person the hopes of folks who wanted to see the first african-american president. host: let's go back to ames, iowa. matalin, go ahead. good morning. you described hillary clinton as a formidable states woman, drawing attention to her adoption of traditionally to achieveraits success. i was wondering, with hillary's success as a strong female leader, do you think she has inspired other fema candidates to defy traditional gender roles and the political realm? guest: she got advice throughout her campaign from people who let people know how strong you are.

she had a series of sessions at her house that summer, she learned she should have done that a little more. it does signal you can be a powerful woman and embrace the fact that you are a strong female canada. guest: -- strong female candidate. guest: i want to know whether these students think hillary clinton could win the iowa caucus? i we have any more students, would like their opinion. host: we can have them think about that. dana says why did hillary resign? guest: it was never her intention to stay longer than four years, most cabinet secretaries do not stay on past a first term. therd air force one, president asked the secretary to hey on for another year, says will you stay? someone told us he did not put the screws to her, she did not

want to stay, she left a few months later. guest: leon panetta had told him he was not going to stick around, hillary clinton was leaving, the successor for hillary clinton, susan rice, the one obama wanted, was getting destroyed on capitol hill over benghazi and the talking points on the talk shows. her charm to win over some of the senators, she ended up making more enemies than friends. where het a situation will have to have a new defense secretary, a new secretary of state. he has got somebody leaving who has become a pretty loyal and strong advisor to him. he thought we can keep hillary clinton for a while and find the next secretary of state, resurrects susan rice a little bit. interesting moment, she just says i am done. the impacthe think

could be on john kerry's tenure, what he might accomplish. if shee overshadow -- decides to run in 2016 -- could he overshadow what she did? sure, he has a few years left, he is reaching for the stars, and efforts to clean up ria's chemical weapons, get iran to give up nuclear weapons, peace in the middle east. on iran, the state department under hillary clinton really started those negotiations. victory, john kerry will get credit, that is a shared victory. we also know there is a possibility for a lot of things to go wrong. a lot of folks thought they were the ones to go into the middle and solve the problem, as we see, assad is still solving his own -- is still slaughtering his own people.

, given what ises happening in ukraine, how do you think hillary clinton shaped obama's decision-making process, how do you react in a situation like ukraine? guest: she made him more of a hawk. that surprised a lot of democrats, she brought him farther than he was willing to go. that is why leon panetta wanted her buy in on bin laden. what do you think? guest: we will see what happens with ukraine. for the u.s., we simply do not have that kind of power we would like to have internationally. there was a time when the u.s. would speak and other nations would respond. i think the american public expects there is something the

u.s. can do to affect a situation. really, in terms of affecting foreign politics, often it is a long-term thing we can do through sanctions. it is very hard to do immediately. if you are in the ukraine and fighting for your life are fighting to put on a revolution, what the u.s. says or sanctions might not have any immediate bearing. host: talking about hillary clinton's career and her future with the authors of a new book, "hrc." ,"ie parnes of "the hill jonathan allen from bloomberg. this line from your book on libya. war." was hillary's hert: this could have been

crown jewel, republicans think that was the attack they were taking, then benghazi happened. guest: in terms of it being her the presidents., and many of his advisers, including update -- including biden werend joe reluctant to get involved in libya. they were already involved in afghanistan and iraq, some knew there was a plan to go after bin laden, another strike on a sovereign nation potentially. europeansnally, the wanted a no-fly zone, americans thought that was ineffectual. you had to get arab nations on board. different politics within them, you had to get them bought in, they were bought into a no-fly zone, then i got turned around -- then it got turned around into a strike.

a set of strikes to take out gaddafi. all that was done on the ground in various capitals by hillary clinton. she came back to president obama and said the coalition is here for this if you are willing to do it. put together this coalition, she had her stamp on it. host: terry, indiana, republican caller. caller: good morning. republican.aul but i love the clintons. guest: go figure. caller: when president clinton was in office, the economy was great. i am sure if hillary was the president, it would be great again. can i ask you why you think because it was great under bill clinton, why you assume it would be great if hillary clinton became president? she forgave her husband,

he is still by her side, he would help her become a great president. host: she is a two-fer. caller: yes. marijuana should be legalized. if that is what she is for, i am cool with them. host: let's leave it there. guest: a good way to win colorado. that is a great example of a nton crossover voter, interesting to see what he would do a favor and against each other. the economy was in better shape during the clinton years than it is now, some of that is a result of policies that president clinton put in place. the economy goes in cycles and the presidents tend to get too much blame for what is going on. it is fair to say there was a clintonian worldview when it

comes to how society should operate. the role of government and the private sector. what is interesting, the clintons seem to believe in both the government and the private sector and that they need to work together to move the country forward and have a economic growth. theblicans tend to favor private sector and have a skeptical eye of the government. democrats tend to favor the government, the clintons have a triangulation of saying we need the private sector and the government as well. would see her you adopt economic policies that were not too different from him. guest: you make the point of a two-for. people say it is a two for one deal, she has tried to establish her own brand away from him. she got upset when somebody asked her what is your husband think of this? she said i am the secretary of state. she has worked hard to separate herself and develop our own brand. host: let's go back to iowa,

dakota, go ahead. caller: hillary clinton is a celebrity politician with a mile-long resume of qualifications. she is dealing with her husband's legacy, she is dealing with potential fallout from 2008, she is dealing with being the novelty of being the first female president, and then all of those preemptive strikes with her being in the front running for so long. i was wondering if you thought -- is she still a viable democratic candidate for 2016? host: let me turn that around? do you think she is? using she could win iowa? iowans i believe that are ready to see hillary clinton in 2016. guest: pretty bold prediction.

i think she is a viable candidate for 2016 right now, if you look at the polls, polls change fast. she is far and away the leading candidate for nomination. she was that in 2008, a change. and leading republican candidates. what happens in the next few years. whether she is viable, i think she is. landscape is already set up for her, she has fundraising and researching going on, they are waiting for her to jump in. host: on twitter, did the dems show their war on women when they chose obama over hillary in 2008? john, pennsylvania, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i have been around a little terser than the commen

there, the guests. there has been a clear deterioration in the integrity of the political class. eisenhower --dent he would never consider. jimmy carter -- his post-presidency has been fantastic. he has been selfless, all for others. instance, whenor they retired and left office, when bill clinton left office, he was in debt. worth 5 years, they were $100 million. books, speeches. he want and was giving speeches for a 15000 a pop

minute speech at financial firms, jewish community centers. host: do you think this hurts her chances in 2016? caller: the fact is, it is really not even discussed. host: amie parnes? guest: i think the clinton people would say they have done their share of good. the clinton has cgi, clinton global initiative, he travels the world and does good things. if a clinton aide were sitting here, they would point out. caller wouldhe call me on my youth and inexperience, it gets me. these are questions that will be answered in a presidential campaign. reporters will attempt to make. to them. we have a scene in the book where hillary clinton has to raise money for the world's fair in shanghai in a short period of time, the chinese has said it

will be an embarrassment if the u.s. does not show up. under the bush administration, there was a decision to not support the world's fair. there was a loophole that allowed the secretary to have some involvement. basically, she hired a couple clinton fundraisers, family raises, to go out and money from the private sector, clintonped into the donor network to build a pavilion at the shanghai expo. showing how involved some of those old donors were to her work at the state department. we have a scene and there will bill clinton inscribes the coffee table book from the shanghai world expo for one of those aide.s s. he says "we did it, buddy." concerned that his network was

going to be a conflict at the state department. i don't think we saw that publicly over the four years, any scandals. was not anitely complete disentanglement of the two clinton worlds. about,ne thing you write the lessons she learned from the two thousand eight campaign. how she applied them to being secretary of state. her first five months at state, she had poured mental energy and resources into making sure that her operation was far more forward leaning that her campaign had been. aware that technological superiority could become the force behind a second bid for the presidency." lesson,he learned this she saw barack obama run circles around her campaign and turns of technology. she said what went wrong? she plucked one of his people

and brought him over to stay. he started this movement, she implemented a lot of what she learned that state -- at state. i think if she were to run in 2016, she would do the same. host: does she have a team built? team, thereas the are a number of new age tech warriors who grew up studying under innovators like jerry cohen, he was a condi rice protége. , a crowd of people who are even younger. they were figuring out how to use technology to affect political movements abroad. train revolutionaries in another country to upload video of the atrocities going on in their country. you can use gps and text messaging to try to warn people of troop movements.

you can raise money for the haitian earthquake victims. all these things they could do to affect political activity abroad could be turned back into a political campaign in 2016. host: she meets with the heads of technology companies and says to them use me like an ad. guest: isn't that interesting? guest: she may not be able to we say she understands technology. there is a joke, she is a person who is detached from the actual mechanisms that are involved but very well aware of how people and organize. what she is saying, in this case, it was in terms of companies being able to do foreign policy, doing commerce abroad, talking to foreign leaders, in some cases threatening foreign leaders.

we get into that with syria. she is saying i want to be helpful to you in spending -- expanding your footprint in a way that helps the u.s. and its foreign-policy goals. a woman who said she asked her doctor to send her first -- her daughter to send her first text message and bill clinton was receiving faxes. host: let's get our next student. go ahead, nicole. caller: good morning and thank you for having me. my question is about your brand," youed "hrc mentioned the photo diana walker took that turned into an internet sensation. did that have an effect harming her reputation and brand for

young adults because of that picture turning into a joke? guest: you might have a better perspective on that than we do. i had not heard that, that does not mean it is not true. there may be a segment of young voters who think it is ridiculous and shows she is trying to be in touch and is out of touch. there is a careful line you have to play with popular culture. as -- is president obama cool because he listens to jay-z or is he just an old guy who listens to jay-z? she is obviously trying to capture some of that magic. host: she use of that picture on her twitter page. guest: she realizes that a human eyes as her, people had this image of her as being a buttoned up woman who did not come through, she wants a lighter side to come through. host: tim, illinois, independent caller. caller: good morning.

how are you? i would like to say i don't believe hillary clinton should be blamed for her husband's dalliances. she could be considered an enabler. the subject i have not heard, we have heard a lot about what she thisrecently about -- at point, what does it matter. i would like to hear somebody issue when file gate hillary clinton was first lady. host: jonathan allen? guest: that is not something we went into in the book, we were focused on the end of 2009 to 2013. we felt like most americans, voters who were trying to judge her and how she makes decisions, needed a better picture of what she was doing at the state department. we did not get into file gate, traveled gate, she fired folks,

the impeachment. -- mosthat stuff is americans who will be voting in 2016 have a pretty good handle on those issues. host: why did you title it "hrc "? guest: interesting question. i actually wanted to call it "the phoenix." people actually call her hrc. e-mails, we thought it was a hip way to refer to her. host: does it go to her brand? what is her brand? guest: i don't think "hrc" is something people knew she was called. it comes from the hill, all the members of congress are referred to by their aides by their initials. barack obama was bho.

so, that is where it comes from. as a result, when you see e-mail communications as a reporter, you see e-mails from people. they refer to her as "hrc." we just thought it was simple. it was easy. hopefully, it brands the book more than it brands her. host: fred, pennsylvania, independent caller. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. a couple questions on hillary's career. before president clinton became president, he was governor of arkansas. if my memory is working, it was a big white water banking savings and loan scandal in arkansas. on the internet, hillary worked for monsanto as an attorney. host: what is your point?

caller: you are saying she is a viable candidate. is it -- what are we not getting? why are these things not brought up? tweet,- host: this is a we already know all the skeletons. will havehink voters that debate if she runs in 2016. the senatee that hearings on benghazi happened in the same room, hart 216 room, where the whitewater investigation went on. it is not that these things were not discussed. you might remember the chairman of the banking committee at the time, the whitewater committee, going after whitewater pretty hard.

some of the subsequent scandals grew out of that. that is pretty plowed turf. benghazi, you write about after ambassador stephen'' body was brought back, there was a moment -- maybe after they get the news. president obama asks of the secretary of state if he can go back with her to the state department. why? her,: it meant a lot to aides described this. it meant he was heartbroken over it. him toed -- she wanted come and see the people, see the faces at the state department who were so heartbroken. that moment really did mean a lot to her. guest: and to address them, to talk to the people who had just of their own, including ambassador who was extremely popular. the foreignne in service with him who had remembered him as standing out. people like chris stevens.

president obama can to the state department that next day after he had give remarks in the rose garden. he made some unscripted remarks to the people at the state department. host: was it reported on? not, ihis comments were do not think there is a recording. the fact that he was there was reported on. his basic sentiment was recorded. afterwards, he met with people who had been close to chris stevens, hillary clinton introduced them by name to the president. people at the state department we talk to who were not in the clinton world cited that moment as a big day in terms of trying to get in the morning and the healing process to begin. it meant a lot to a lot of them that the president was there and

that secretary clinton had brought him there. host: john, vermont, republican caller. caller: two questions and i comment. for amie, early on in the show, you mentioned that hillary had her finger on the pulse of everything going on. i know that benghazi thing has come up. eventually, they blamed that on a video and sent there. over the country landing benghazi on a video. i thought that was a little strange that you would make that comment. in researching your book, both you and jonathan, did you read a body,"lled "ron brown's published in 2004. it is a very insightful book on the history that is being talked about this morning with both

clintons. i would recommend anybody to read it. wndas published in 2004 by books. host: ok. the benghazi video. was a movingk it target at that point, they were trying to figure out what was happening. trying to piece together what was happening. they might have erred into doing that. host: did she refused to go on sunday talk shows? put on?susan wrighrice guest: hillary clinton goes on when she needs to. when she is trailing in a campaign and needs a moment, she will do it. generally speaking, her bent is to stay away unless there is a compelling reason.

there was other stuff to do, i think she recognized the potential political danger. this is me-- speculating -- maybe felt it was inappropriate for her to be on television when there was so much to do in terms of trying to figure out what happened. know, once she was not available and bookers for the tv shows have gone through the state department and the white house asking for her, they quickly moved to susan rice, susan rice use talking points that had been negotiated. one out beyond what some of those talking points said. ambers of congress decided, lot of members, including some republicans, decided she had lied to the public on the television shows. hillary clinton have been doing briefings on capitol hill where she had talked about armed militants going to the compound.

her people who listened to talk about armed militants thought she had said terrorists. the distinction between armed militants and terrorists. she felt like she was telling them one thing and susan rice was telling them something different. host: what is one thing you learned? thinkingcame into this that she was very buttoned up a bigt -- there was not human side to her. she not only is quite funny, she has a wicked sense of humor. this feel of public service, a duty for public service. one of the biggest things i learned, behind the shell, all politicians have it. service women in public should develop skin like a rhinoceros. is some raw there

energy and emotion. about decisive, you hear things she said to her aides and her reaction to things like the white house correspondents dinner and the bin laden raid, say she profanity to did not want to think about the effect of the dinner. raw humanome pretty emotions -- good, bad, indifferent -- in a way that some politicians are more careful about hiding. says she is not as cap good as her husband in terms of political -- an aide says she is not as calculating as her husband in terms of political payback. host: "hr amie parnes and jonatn allen, authors of "hrc." a big thanks to our students at

iowa state university. thank you for the questions. we are going to open up the fonts -- the phones. weigh in on public policy and politics. jobless numbers in this hour show the number of people seeking benefits fell by 3000 last week. to a seasonally adjusted 336,0 low.ayoffs remain the labor department says the four-week average of applications rose slightly. millionof 3.53 americans received benefits as of february 1. million therom 3.52 previous week. as for consumer prices, the labor department says they rose as a sharp rise in energy cost was offset by cheaper clothing, cars, and airfares.

the figures suggest inflation remains a mile. prices have risen 1.6% the past 12 months. turning to politics, the ap reports this year's senate incumbents and hopefuls picked up more than $.5 million a day last year, signaling 2013's off your cash boom will bring campaign ads this year. democrats on the ballot in 2014 raise more than $108 million last year, besting republicans. incumbent democrats outpaced income but republicans by more than 2-1, outspent them by almost 3-1. both parties have roughly the 80 million. banked, $ 35 senate seats in play this year, democrats will be defending 21 of them, republicans need a net gain of 6

seats. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. they wanted me in that spot for two reasons. he thought i could handle it. people,, he wanted young people of both races to come into the supreme court room, as they all do by the hundreds and thousands, and somebody to say -- who is that man there? he is the solicitor general of the united states. thurgood marshall served as solicitor general to the johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. , concluding the series of oral history interviews with supreme court justices. m, washington at 90.1 f

online, and nationwide on xm satellite radio 120. >> c-span, we bring public events from washington to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences. and offering coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. c-span, created by cable tv 35 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and open funds for the rest of today's "washington journal." you can start dialing in, republicans, (202) 585-3881. democrats, (202) 585-3880. independents and others, (202) 585-3882. send us a tweet, @cspanwj or

post comments on facebook, e-mail us. are already lined up. george, illinois, republican caller. response am calling in to a comment made by a gentleman, to which mr. allen did respond briefly. i believe not quite adequately. i have not yet read the book. he gentleman who called, asked only about one particular involving hillary clinton. that was what became known as a file gate. that travelsponded her rolefile gate and

in the impeachment process were prologue, i do not recall the word. my point is -- travel gate received more publicity, as did the impeachment process. than did file gate. file gate involved the sudden appearance, in a most strange and appear -- and mr. is when -- someone' appearance on s bed of files that have been subpoenaed from a law firm, one of the arkansas-based scandals. whitewater resulted in no conviction -- host: why do you bring it up? caller: it has never been

adequately explained by the clinton people. it was one of her top aides, i recall seeing her on television, and african-american lady who the discovery, she discovered the files. she worked for hillary. it was the strangest thing, these files had been unaccounted for, nobody knew where they were, they were being subjected, it was the of a prosecutor's investigation. they turned out and were found by one of hillary's top people. host: john, minnesota, democratic caller. caller: hi, thank you. host: what's on your mind? people i hear a lot of denying climate change. it is interesting when you look at where they are coming from and the backgrounds and the industries -- like the trucker that called in and then the coal

miner. interesting to look at where people are getting their ideas from. you guys are taking different views so we can hear where people are coming from. host: you heard the truck driver say that when you go to greener technologies, this latest announcement from the president, it impacts his industry. caller: exactly. -- because't think you have an economic interest in this, you should deny science. people are changing all the time, they have to evolve in their jobs. there is different technology that comes along. i just think people need to look at where the deniers are coming from. host: we started out the show this morning talking about the situation in ukraine.

after a truce was agreed to yesterday, it fell apart. this is a live feed from reuters. the violence has erupted, bbc news is reporting that at least 21 protesters have been killed by security forces in kiev. witnesses have said some type of a result of single gunshot wins. witnesses reported live rounds, petrol bombs, and water cannons. european union foreign ministers are meeting with the president of ukraine, that was happening earlier today. we heard from andrew kramer, new york times reporter covering the situation in kiev. they are looking to see whether or not the president will call a what willmergency and happen in parliament in that country. a lot unfolding live. go to reuters' website for a

live feed, lots of information. an englishkiev post, speaking newspaper out of that country. "the wall street journal" weighs in on ukraine america. americans are waking up to the crisis, but they should care how this turns out. the u.s. should want to pull ukraine into the western orbit as a matter of human dignity and strategic interests. a europe eating ukraine can -- a europe leaning ukraine can fulfill the aspirations of its people. carl, west virginia, go ahead. caller: what i have to talk about -- maybe it will concern you. cc are toying with the idea of sending people out to different newsrooms and different newspapers to find out why they are reporting on certain stories. and why -- what are they

reporting on. this is a failed attempt to silence fox news -- this is a veiled attempt to silence fox news. bernsteinting for -- ixon'sto nex shenanigans. the irs thing that is going on now, the media is not covering it. this is one of the most dangerous situations. you see what is going on in that european nation. do you think that couldn't happen here? host: are you talking about ukraine? government is trying to snoop into the newsroom and steer the stories that you're putting out and using the irs to silence their opposition.

this is dangerous. host: here is another tweet from the abc news reporter kirit ra dia. wants toine skier maidan,testers at unable to book a flight home. many athletes have withdrawn winter olympics in protest. on the divestment side, usa today has this story about the sec. new net rules. the federal communications commission will begin work on new rules of the road. tom wheeler announced that he wants staff to begin crafting rules that the commission can vote on. last month, a court struck down the fcc's net neutrality rules. update on what is happening with net neutrality.

company will raise minimum hourly wage. page 465,000 of its 90,000 workers in the u.s. -- it would raise pay for 65,000 of its 90,000 workers in the u.s. minnie? caller: i would like to highlight for the world how arrogant and inhumane the governor of georgia is. accept thesed to federal government's money to expand medicaid. his name is nathan deal, he is up for reelection later this year. recently went through a snowstorm here in atlanta. tohas said that he is going be asking for money from the government to help with the cost taking care of the snowstorm.

i would like to point out how arrogantly selfish and stupid that is to deny people access to health care, free access. it will not cost the state of georgia a penny for three years, he does not want to accept that money, but he will ask the government for money that he spent putting sand on the streets. ridiculous. host: anthony, new york. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. my comment is in reference to parnesk "hrc" by mrs. and mr. allen. they are both acting as apologists for hillary clinton. inconceivable that hillary clinton acting as secretary of state did not know that this was a terrorist attack in benghazi. that is my comment. host: keith, indiana, republican caller.

take careey need to of what is going on in this country. the president needs to focus on the needs of american people here. he is talking about things that should have already been taken care of. ok, at the end of the vietnam war is when this really started happening. ok, he don't need to worry about these other countries. that is a problem of their own. he needs to take care of the children, the people here. he cannot take care of something he lacks knowledge of. he has not fought a war, he has not done anything in a hard work force, he can not physically do the jobs that american people have done. he cannot stand on the side of an iron worker, a construction

worker, a steel worker, and get his hands dirty. 8 hours to 12 hours and physically work with men and women in this country. he does not need to play i know how hard it is. get in there, work 12 hours, come back and tell the american people i know what it is. i feel your pain. host: bill, washington, dc, democratic caller. caller: i would like to talk about ukraine. the u.s. has a weapons system based in alaska called harp. it can send signals around the world that will excite the emotions of people. bob woodward and andrea mitchell are on tape talking about this. we have a conversation by our ambassador to ukraine, this

woman, who has ever occurred saying we want to put such and such person in power. it is pretty obvious we are using this weapon to stir up the emotions of people in ukraine. we have an ambassador saying we are going to pick and choose the next leader. host: you think the u.s. is behind what is happening there? caller: not only there, but syria. host: go to our website, www.c-span.org, we had the former ambassador for the u.s. 2 2006.ne, from 2003 he talked about the history of the background of what is going on in that country. go back to our website and listen to that first hour. weets from members of congress reacting to what is happening in ukraine. by reports of ongoing

violence, ukrainian government must respect democratic rights of its citizens. says i remain deeply concerned about violence in the ukraine. read his statement there. levin, we call on all sides to take steps to de-escalate the situation. rush, calling for peace in ukraine at a chicago rally. from members of congress tweeting about the situation over the most recent day. paul virginia, independent. caller: two comments. the guy that called about the climate change and saying look at where the people are coming from, the deniers. let's look at the opposite side, the ones who are saying climate

is changing and it is man-made. let's look at the money they get. the majority says that we are the ones doing it, the scientists are getting my from the government. host: jim, alabama, republican caller. caller: good morning. i think hillary clinton has her twouch, other than terms in the senate, has been forced on the american public to do her husband -- due to her husband. she has proven herself to be disingenuous and not truthful time after time, file gate, t benghazi., i think she is going to put her foot in her mouth if she decides make a boo boo like landing under fire in kosovo.

host: here is a tweet, why don't goper's worry about finding a candidate? ukraine.more tweets on senator robert menendez heads up the foreign relations committee. time for sanctions because of human rights violations. john mccain and senator murphy of connecticut ar draftinge -- fordrafting legislation sanctions. the foreign affairs committee tweeted this out. betty, the lamellae, democratic caller. caller: john mccain should retire, lindsey graham should retire, congress should require -- should retire.

greta, some of the commentator, you never know what politics they are. when republicans call, it is a glorified thing. you did not address the president as president obama. you need to do better and address the president has president obama. host: a follow-up story to yesterday, homeland security is canceling national license plate tracking plans. the secretary said on wednesday the cancellation of a plan by the immigration and customs enforcement agency to develop a national license plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concerns about the initiative. ice solicited proposals from companies to compile a database of license plate information from

commercial and law enforcement time readers. carol in texas, nevada caller/ -- independent caller. just talking about growing up. before i did things i did not say i could not do that because i am a republican. , parties, if you are a democrat, you are for abortion but against god. this that and the other. if you are a conservative, you are a god-fearing person. it is the division. because of the labeling. just because of the way you vote does not make the way you feel about certain things. seeing a bunch of kids playing games with peoples minds. if you listen to talk radio every day, there is anger. my husband is angry.

just by listening to that garbage they put out there. host: tweeting in about ukraine. all mayhem is created by the government in the u.s. weighs this morning, nsa retaining data for suits. considering enlarging the nsa's anlection of phone records, unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop surveillance programs. a number of lawyers believe federal court rules on preserving evidence related to lawsuits require the agency to stop routinely destroying older phone records. also, on the affordable care act, here is "the washington times." a challenge to obamacare subsidy has been rejected, a judge in virginia has thrown out a claims obamacare

subsidies should only flow to residents who live in a state that decided to run its own insurance market. briann, you are last -- phones.in open caller: hi, i wanted to comment on the ukraine. i was sitting here and listening to you and as the ukraine athletes started withdrawing from olympic competitions, i have to tell you that i think it is so sad that athletes around the world are doing this. the olympics were put in place as a means to global french. countries that normally would not come together under peaceful circumstances,