why numbers of congress are calling for the resignation of ericsson seki. and we will take your calls on facebook -- and you can join us on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ morning, it is sunday, may 11, 2014. we are watching that controversial referendum in eastern ukraine. its divides between russia and the west. meanwhile several states are keying up -- are gearing up for key primaries. next week in georgia, kentucky, pennsylvania among others. it is mother's day. in light of that we want to open up our phone lines on "the washington journal close quote

to hear from women about how your opportunities today compared to the opportunities your mother had when she was growing up. what challenges to mothers and women still face in those areas he echo -- in those areas? if you are in the eastern or central time zone -- e-mail us at journal@c-span.org. a very good mother's day to you. opportunities compared to those of your mother? it was a subject taken up in a series of essays today. the headline of those essays --

in this piece in "the washington post" -- one other piece in that is by the d.c. police chief here in washington dc. she writes --

just two of the pieces you can find in today's washington post. we are opening up the question to our viewers, how do your opportunities compared to that of your mother? we are talking to female viewers only read our phone lines are open. before we get to your calls, a few stats from the pew research .enter a report came out last week and noted there were fewer of today's moms that are married. 69%.ed moms account for 15% are divorced, separated, or widowed. 15% never married. back in the 1960's only two percent of moms -- in the 1960's 92% of moms were married.

it also has stats on how many kids mothers had back in the 60's versus today. american mothers are expected to have on average one point nine children compared to 3.7 children in 1960. the average for hispanic mothers is 2.2 children over the course of their lifetime impaired to one point not for non-hispanic 1.8 four asiannd and non-hispanic white mothers. in 1965 mother spent about 10 hours per week in childcare efforts. week were spent on housework and eight hours per week doing paid work. in 2011 those numbers were 14 hours per week in childcare, 18 hours per week in housework, and 21 hours per week in paid work. just some of the changes over time.

we are asking how your opportunities compared to those of your mother. our phone lines are open. we will start with marissa calling in from montana this morning. good morning. good morning c-span. i'm so grateful for c-span. i love book tv. if you could possibly expanded during the weeknights i would appreciate it. my comment is there are so many opportunities for women and i am so grateful for c-span. could you possibly start showcasing women outside of the beltway that are working for animal rights issues? pitas working to root animal rights. there are lots of women doing to -- there are aen lot of women doing stuff. to our question how your

opportunities today compared to those of your mother, any thoughts on that? amazing,y mother was she got two or three degrees. we american women are so spoiled rotten. the women outside of america need our help and support. if we just reach out to our sisters across the way -- those 300 girls they are trying to rescue. thank you for your hard work. i am so grateful. host: thank you for the call this morning. we want to hear from female viewers. we are asking how your opportunities compared to those of your mother. phone lines by region, eastern and central time zones -- mountain and pacific time zones -- the conversation also happening on our twitter page and facebook page. facebook.com/c-span. a few comments from our facebook

page this morning -- one other comment from our facebook page this morning -- you can join in on that conversation on facebook. a few more stats from the pew research poll am comparing .others over the decades mothers and the labor force accounted for 47% of children --

of women with children younger than 18 creative in 2012 it was 71% with women with children younger than 18. . hear your comments this morning on this subject. waiting into linda fayetteville, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. opportunitiesore -- i have a lot more opportunities then my mom had. i was able to go to college. i just think the young girls today -- the sky is the limit. if they make sure they get a good education they can do anything they want to do. -- shewas not able to always wanted to be a nurse but she was not able to go to school but i was able to go to college.

i think opportunities are tremendous for young girls today. thank you for the call. loretta is waiting as well in columbus, ohio. good morning. caller: hello. when it comes down to the opportunity of the women that are faced with the obstacle of theirhey go through color, race, nationality, that takes a lot of time. sometimes that takes out the -- rtunity we have to look forward to the we have to follow when it comes to our skills and also the

determination of making sure that we get there. it has a lot to do with the background, it is coursese same obstacle but in a different manner. tell us about your mother's experience. you bring up educational obstacles. the chief face educational obstacles he echo caller: -- obstacles -- did she face educational obstacles? caller: she did not have the same opportunities i did. when you go into the lifestyle where you try to take on the

light struggles of everyday opportunities in your community, to live on, and that a single -- er all the time that takes circumstances. -- i want to thank you for having the opportunity to talk. we are asking our viewers how your opportunities compared to that of your mother's. we are talking to female viewers on the washington journal. several stories on this topic around the country. here is "the pittsburgh post-gazette here co. -- post-gazette." the headline --

owens,uote from jennifer talking about some of the resistance out there for women in the workplace. we go to pat in minnesota.

thank you for calling. caller: thank you for presenting this opportunity to talk about it. i am in my later 70's. my working career began before 1976. i'm thinking about my mother. my mother's only opportunity after she was married was during world war ii. the woman went to work in this country. war the mothers were expected to go back home. 50's and in the early had my children. i was a single mother at the time. a joblooking at losing because one of my children had to have surgery and i couldn't

get anybody to take care of him. i lost a job. now i think about all the things they wouldn't hire married women during the korean war. my husband was in korea. thomasdn't get a job relied about our marital status. so much difference. ,t took two acts of congress both the sexist discrimination and the age discrimination. job. 42 before i got a i was working in a processing plant here up in minnesota. the i am thinking is difference is i look at my , she drives anow truck for the highway department for minnesota. she has four children. seeas been interesting to

how these generations have progress to read -- have progress. they are trying to take a lot of rights away from us. host: before you go, talk about what you mean and they're trying to take our rights away from us. we talking about women specifically? caller: yes i am. i didn't hear that because i have my -- i am muted. who is trying to take rights away from women these days he echo -- these days? i feel there are a lot of local governments or state governments that are trying to change the laws to take away a lot of the rights that we fought you -- hard for. host: you talked about your mother working during world war

ii. did she want to go back to work after she had gone for a few years during the war? caller: actually she did go back to work them. but she went back as a temporary. she never had a regular job. she was an accountant so she could always find work. host: thank you for calling in for minnesota this morning. we are talking to our female viewers about how your opportunities compared to those of your mother. our phone lines are split up regionally in the eastern and central and mountain and pacific time zones. you will keep the lines open for the next half hour or so to talk to our female viewers about the subject. one other bit of recent polling data, this from the market out ofh firm it so maury

asks -- it if you want to know the numbers

specifically on people who , it wasd to the data .ust 29% in the united states this graph breaking it down. the united states ahead of france, spain, and belgium on that list. how are your opportunities? caller: hello there. now.88 years old when i was a mother it was a full-time job to take care of the kids, to cook, to clean. when the kids came home. i was a very liberated woman. my friends and i would get together every other day or so and play mah-jongg and rink line. how do you like that he echo -- like that? talk about the challenges

the next generation faces. caller: i blame what is going on with the lynnwood -- what is the women's liberation. they asked me what i do. i think women are forced to go to work and now they can't handle it. you cannot do it all. don't believe in daycare. i believe in taking care of your children. host: thank you for calling in. a tweet -- we will be talking about the subject with our viewers this morning. several members of congress day holidayother's here in the united states. here is nancy pelosi on friday

offering her mother's day wish for women. [video clip] >> when women succeed americans succeed. want equal pay for equal work, raising the minimum wage, paid sick feeling -- paid sick leave us, affordable quality childcare. we certainly want flowers and .oses and mom not having to do the dishes. we also want to unleash the power of women. they want to be entrepreneurial and start their own business and create jobs. they want to be able to do so in a way that has a proper balance between family and work.

one other story from the pittsburgh post-gazette on those that minority leader nancy pelosi brought up on friday. women pitching issues to lawmakers. one of the front page stories there. we are talking about how your opportunities compared to those of your mother.

mary is in illinois this morning. thank you for calling in. caller: i have mixed feelings. husband did not make enough money and i had to go to work. until my children got older enough to take care of themselves. i had a kind lady that always took them to school for me because she didn't work. i believe that unless it is absolutely necessary a mother should stay home with their children until their children are old enough to take care of themselves and then go to work. these children need their mother when they leave, they need them and i knowome home, that in this day and age now a

lot of mothers have to work. work to pay the bills. heart for these little kids that are drugged out in the cold in the winter. i wish all mothers could stay home and take care of their children until they are old enough to get themselves ready. that is just how i feel about it. we played you a piece from house minority leader nancy pelosi. here is a video tribute to that speaker -- video treatment that speaker house -- speaker of the house john boehner put up this week. [video clip] >> i had 11 brothers and sisters. it wasn't easy for my mother.

>> never a dull moment. with all that pressure that she had, she stayed awful cool. thing i can close my eyes and vividly see were diapers. there were always diapers. the basement was full of diapers. >> if my mother got angry at us over something she wasn't at all about taking the spark plug wires out of the spark plug. devious. host: the new york times has a

piece on the women of city hall, noting that women hold half of the highest ranking in city hall and new york. it notes that the longtime fraternity of government empowering -- helping him build the agenda. there is a picture of the women of city hall as noted by today's new york times. that's go to deborah waiting in buffalo, new york. my great great grandmother worked. she used to break the bread with the -- break the bread on the island she came from. my great-grandmother immigrated to the united states and she worked when she came here. her daughter worked to create a my mother worked through high school to help support her family and then she enlisted in one my father died

and my mother got social security she got a degree in teaching she didn't work because she had three children to look after. women have always worked. especially black women. i know women now who have to work because they have to feed their children. women have always worked. things are better for women. the point is can you take advantage of them? that's all i have to say. host: are you a mother? caller: i never had children. host: what you see are the opportunities for the next generation?

i think women will advance and women will do better. that.s like host, on our twitter page -- we want to keep you updated on some of the stories from around the country. here is from "the hill" newspaper coming up yesterday.

we will talk about that and our 8:00 hour into our 9:00 hour. some of those controversial referendums taking place in eastern ukraine today. we will also talk about that with thetoday's show moscow correspondent of "the new york times" to get an update on how that effort is going. one story that is already making -- headlinesning this morning --

ed donovan confirmed that parlor agents were pulled off of their white house today to check on the safety of the directors assistance in 2011. the spokesman disputed accounts that moment operations lasted for months --

that new story on the secret service coming out in today's "washington post." you how your opportunities compared to your mother. let's go to kathy waiting in new hampshire. go ahead. caller: my opportunities have been incredibly more than what my mother had. was point to an immigrant family back in depression times. pushed that i get an education that she was not able to get herself. i was able to get a professional degree and i have raised two children. the big difference is she really encouraged education and i have those opportunities.

there were a lot of schools toes of attend and financial aid. i think they were unimaginable for my mom back when she was younger. host: we will go to kathleen in north carolina. i am kind of like the woman that came before me. my grandmother's mother was a 1900s. back in the early my mother was a secretary. they all had children. we did not have all the things they had to help us. my mom was ringing her closed through a ringer -- her clothes

through a ringer. they worked long hours but they made it. even have the cushions we have now in society. they lost their job or got sick the rest of the family had to pitch in and loan them the money or help us get through. host: how do you feel about that cushion? is it too big? caller: i don't think it should be bigger. when you have a big cushion like that it is easier to fall. cushionif you have less you have to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and keep going. from our twitter page --

you can follow the conversation at c-span wj. let's go to tina in millwall key, wisconsin. thank you for calling in. so excited, this is the first time i have gotten on c-span. i grew up in the jim crow south. my mother was phenomenal. she had four children. my mother was able to work hard. she educated two of us, two of us were college graduates. i am really excited about the opportunity to express my feelings about my mother, who is passed away. you getu said she hoped

an education, what was her education level? caller: my mother was in eighth grade graduate. she spent a lot of time working with us. post comment you think we overcame most of those obstacles at this point? i know because i had such a strong mother dedicated to educating her children, i was able to have a great experience. i was able to travel abroad. do a lot of things i have not been able to do had it not been for my mother and her dedication to my -- dedication to her children. should be much more encouragement and support from others. host: do you mean on a federal level?

proponent ofa big early childhood education. i think the federal government should do more to educate younger children. there are a lot of single woman that needs support in the children in particular need to be educated. i am a big component of that. educate them while they are young. host: we have time for a few more calls. ofant to update you on some the highlights coming up on today's sunday shows. congressman trey gowdy of south carolina was picked to lead that smitty on benghazi this week. mike rogers, congressman mike rogers, the chairman of the select intelligence committee will be appearing on abc's this week. chuck hagel will be appearing along with marco rubio.

on today's meet -- on today's newsmakers we welcome congressman harold rogers from kentucky. here is a bit of a clip of that , talking about whether earmarks may return to spending bills. [video clip] now a ban on your marks on the house side. as long as that ban is there i will enforce it on our committee. however there is a lot of merit to the idea that members of congress know their districts better than a bureaucrat in the white house and that we ought to have the u.s. congress with the power of the that areedy problems

not being taken care of by the regular process. read -- simplyly redirects money that bureaucrats would have spent with no increase in money. it makes no sense? -- makes no sense. i think it should have to originate only in the subcommittees and not in her drop along the way. tobe it should be limited money directed to units of local government or state government. host: harold rogers appearing on our newsmakers program today after "washington journal here come -- journal." you can also find it at c-span.org. callse some time to take from our female viewers. we are asking how your opportunities compared to those of your mother. .e go to washington

good morning. caller: hello. i just wanted to say that i for femaleseasier today. growing up i barely saw my mom. my mom worked three different jobs. females have we as -- i'mhe opportunity to sorry, we take the opportunities we are given for granted. i am in the military. benefits.otted we get the opportunities to go. i think a lot of young females make excuses. there was no time for excuses growing up. there were four of us. she had to go out and make a living. now everything is handed to us. i think it is easier now.

but it is harder because no one is taking it -- it is harder because everyone is taking advantage of opportunities. host: i know the pentagon is go about putting women on the front lines in combat situations in the military. your thoughts on that? caller: i think all military opportunities should be equal. as long as we are able to go overseas and fight with these men that we are supposed to call our battle buddies, as long as we are able to do that we should be able to go out and do exactly what they are doing. i am all for fighting on the frontlines. it might seem a little weird because a female may say i'm not going to do that, i'm not going to sit for x amount of hours. we should be able to do whatever

it is they do without any kind of discrimination. go to tammy waiting in montgomery, pennsylvania. good morning. how do your opportunities compared to those of your mother? caller: i opportunities are more limited demo mothers. my mother graduated high school andwent to washington dc work for six to nine months there. the war ended and she came back to montgomery. we had a thriving community. montgomeryat the males for 34 years until it closed down. seen things get better. right now she has a disease. she went back to work part-time after she retired. nowadays when you graduate you --her have to go to school

go to college or else you have to try to find work. trying to find work and my mother's generation was a lot easier. -- a lot easier if you didn't have a college education. nowadays you cannot do that. host: do you think the opportunities are only going to get slimmer? do you think there is less opportunity now? do you think there is for the competition, as you are describing it? caller: i think it is going to be worse. host: why is that? an --: if you don't have have a college education the only workaround here is going to mcdonald's, usually. a fast food laser something like that. -- fast food place or something like that. going to college is expensive. expensive.ining is

and it is very hard to get a. -- get aid. host: one other story i want to note for you this morning, this from "the washington post" -- here's a bit from the first lady's address. [video clip]

oni am michelle obama and this mother's day weekend i want to take a moment to honor all of the mothers out there and wish you a happy mother's day. i also want to speak to about an issue of great significance to me as first lady and more importantly as the mother of two young daughters. like millions of people across the globe, my husband and i are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night. was unconscionable act committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education. grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls. to know that barack has directed our government to do supportng possible to the nigerian government's efforts to find these girls and bring them home.

in these girls barack and i see our own daughters. we see their hopes and trains and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now. many of them may have been hesitant to send their off -- send their daughters off to school fearing that harming come their way. but they took that risk because they believe -- they believe in their daughters promise and wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed. the girls knew the full dangers of what they may encounter. recentlyls had been closed due to terrorist threats. these girls still insisted on returning to take their -- they were so determined to move to the next level of their education, so determined to one day build careers of their own and make their families and communities proud. in nigeria wased not an isolated incident.

it is a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions. combos kidnappings are the subject of bill kristol's editorial in this week's weekly standard. he writes under the headline -- if you want to read more on his editorial, that is in this week's weekly standard.

we asked our viewers how your opportunities compared to those of your mother. we will go to any in minnesota. the morning. caller: good morning. i am the last of my parents three children. my father was an educator. my mother, eighth grade. they are both deceased. both my sister and i became educators. i am the first on my family on both sides to receive a phd. i am grateful for the parents i have. i went to school when it was not legal for me to use the public library. my parents pay income tax every year. through it all, to my parents didh and determination we our parents proud. say happy mother's day,

we love you and miss you. the last color in this washington journal segment. up next we will talk with matt lewis about -- matt lewis of the daily caller and sabrina of the huffington post. later tom tarantino joins us to discuss the reports of misconduct at the asus -- at v.a. facilities. we will be right back. >> on this mother's day, some clips from our c-span video library. >> the day after christmas he came into the kitchen where i was and said mother, would you

mind if i invited a girl to visit for two or three days? i said i would be delighted. i called her mother and asked when he wanted her to come. he said today. they both went to boston to school and they married the day after she was graduated. tipper has turned out, as you can gather, to be the very best campaigner of our lives. >> hank miller said roberta, two planes were shot down and we did not see any objections. we went and decided we were not going to say one word at this dinner. and we did go to dinner. , chief ofme home

operations called and said, we are sure that johnny is gone. i was taking care of my daughter's three children and i went out to a country house we had and a steward came flying out. can you believe that the best news i have ever had in my life. it depends on where you are standing how things affect you. >> i was 17 years of age when i -- he had gone as a delicate to boys nation in washington. i'll never forget the expression on his face when he came back and showed me the picture.

it will be government that will be his career in some form. i have no idea he would be running for the presidency or anything like that. >> all this baloney with george competing with his father, it is ridiculous. they are devoted to each other and there was never any competition. i think they feel loved and i hope if i have a legacy other that iing the enforcer will have raised a great family along with george. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by sabrina

siddiqui and matt lewis of the daily caller. the houses on district work break last week. last week was a busy one on capitol hill, highlighted by that committee on benghazi -- on benghazi. what you want them to answer? >> we need to learn about what actually happened in benghazi. why was the consulate not more secure? why was there no be enforcement or calvary to arrive -- or cavalry to arrive? was there a cover-up? was there an intentional effort by the obama administration to downplay the terrorism aspect heading into the 2012 reelection and to talk about this video creating a spontaneous uprising? they have a lot of work cut out for them and i think they will have their hands full. host: there have been

congressional hearings on the subject. have some of those questions been answered by these groups? been countlessve hearings and a number of investigations on both the house and senate in the relevant committees. i think certainly the administration can handle this a lot better than they did. the problem is there hasn't been any smoking gun that has emerged from the investigation they have already conducted. i know a republican has actually said before this panel was announced that this chapter is kind of close, there wouldn't be a research on this. there was nothing more they could have done in that circumstance, there was no standdown order given by hillary clinton. there was no evidence of a cover-up. a couple of republicans said to move on for couple of times. i do think that there are some

politics to the timing of this investigation. it has been almost two years and john boehner had a lot of pressure to do it up until now. it doesn't strike me as a coincidence. >> here's a headline from the national journalists week. you wrote about this piece in the national journal. what do you mean by that? part of the reason for having an investigation is not to convict people but to discover facts. we saw just in the past week or actually request which produced e-mails.

i think showing the administration was attempting to misrepresent what happened in benghazi for political purposes -- this piece essentially argues a pox on both their houses. republicans are overplaying it for political purposes and their fund raising benghazi. are all all bad, they crooks. my point is assuming everything in the article is true, assuming the white house did intentionally mislead the american public and assuming republicans are overplaying it for political purposes, i would still argue the former is much greater and we should hold the white house to higher standard. i think it is a very big deal. >> we invite our viewers to call in. democrats can call in with questions and comments for sabrina siddiqui.

if you are outside the u.s., it is -- we will also be checking our twitter feeds and you can also e-mail us. sabrina siddiqui, tell us about the congressman who has been picked ahead for this select committee. what does he bring to this investigation? guest: he has a background as a former prosecutor. risings to be a younger star. this is going to elevate him to a much higher profile and introduce him to a more national audience. he is from south carolina. he has fought certain high-profile cases in the past. as mostuck me interesting about him is he is come out and promised that he is going to be very independent in this investigation. him this is not about

politics but rather about answering some of the questions that matt said republicans have not adequately answered. we were talking about fund raising. i think that is maybe an initial moment where he may be had not said what he hoped the party would say. it puts him on the defensive position where they are being asked why their lead investigator as saying don't fund raise off of benghazi. host: e-mails going out? guest: the committee was tasked with collecting the publicans to the house. they have sent several fundraising e-mails. we asked how you justify fundraising off of this, especially when trey gowdy is saying not to do it.

us this is about holding the democrats and administration accountable. they believe their voters should be aware of the democrats that voted against establishing the select committee and those democrats don't want americans to learn the truth about what happened in september 11, 2012. then there are a couple of outside groups that are fundraising. there is an actual coordination with members of congress. john boehner and eric cantor was asked whether there should be fund raising. they didn't say there shouldn't be. i think they are of the opinion it is fair game. host: atle bit -- little bit from that press conference. we will come back and get that lewis's thoughts on them. [video clip] >> our focus is on getting the answers to those families who lost loved ones. >> their fundraising off of it.

is getting the truth for these four families and for the american people. >> why's that happening? >> our focus is on getting the truth and the american people and these four families. youf that is the case, will -- to make it even more clear that it is not going to be a circus or political? democrats will get shut out and it will be political. >> i had a conversation with the minority leader yesterday. we made it clear this is a serious investigation and we wanted to work together to get to the truth. the 75 split is eminently flip -- imminently fair. >> from their perspective it is not so much about the ratio but the power the democrats have.

abouthad a conversation how the committee will operate. there are further conversations continuing on that issue. heatedatt lewis getting questions about fund raising and how the committee will operate. guest: i think it is an effort by democrats to muddy the waters and nullify whatever republicans find. now politicizing this very serious thing. it has also been almost two years. , think it is very bad optics very bad politics for republicans -- for there to be an appearance that they are politicizing. some point these things are no longer tragedies that you are exploiting, like a shooting that just happened and your kind passed legislation five minutes later. the parties actually take a principled stand.

look at the iraq war. president obama won the democratic nomination arguably because he opposed that war. you could say he was politicizing it he had a principled stance. he opposed iraq and thought it was a quagmire and does not want that to happen again. of course he is going to fund raise off that. is a principled stand. we are getting that now with benghazi. it is not what you jumping on an issue that happened recently. this is part of our political landscape. it is part of where the parties are coming down. if republicans say we think this is important that the public knows what happened, that is a campaign. you need resources to run a campaign.

i don't think there is a problem with this. an appearance of a conflict of interest. for a republican committee to do it, it is probably bad politics. the: here's a headline from newspaper. what are democratic members of congress saying to you as they consider whether to participate or not? guest: there are strong feelings on both sides. one idea that there should be some representation on this committee. then we won't have any control over the subpoenas or how witnesses are questioned or what information is then released to the public. there is a larger

coalition of democrats who say we should boycott this altogether. they are taking a principled stand that there are questions , it ised to be answered been two years and this is been investigated time and time again by republicans. they keep bringing it back up for political purposes. we should not play a part of that game. that contention is going to went out. nancy pelosi is not believe that this is anything more than politics. they are most likely inclined to boycott. they will be all in or all out. there won't be in in between. they are leaning toward staying out of it. there is a concern that there might be a lot of miss repton -- misrepresentation of what comes

out. one thing we learned about benghazi, if you work for the government and get into a situation you can't depend on obama for help. we will read through tweets and e-mails. canton, north carolina. is hillaryproblem clinton. he -- she said we are going after american citizens in this country exercising his first amendment rights. offends that video muslims.

a offends me when they fly plane into our buildings and watch our flag being stomped. the hell out of me. host: how are mirrors of congress keeping those feelings in check? guest: it is an issue that people are very passionate about. we did lose for american lives. the investigations say that this could have been prevented. that was the biggest lesson that came out of it. what could they have done to have prevented this attack from occurring? or should of been more security than there was. some requests had been denied.

they also turned down some offers that were made in the months before to provide more protection. it is in hindsight difficult to evaluating how you could have gone about something differently. i think they will think about the security around the globe about where you have any kind of diplomatic mission or ambassadors in place. what kind of warning signs might there be. that is where the focus is. people are trying their best to focus more on the lessons learned. the most passionate person has been darrell issa. he is not on the committee. i think that was a message from republicans that he is seen as a more partisan voice. deliberately out when it comes to investigating this. guest: let me get back to the

question about hillary clinton. of hilleryt victim is ambassador rice. ambassador rice went on and did the full ginsburg. she did five sunday shows. she talked about this video. it struck me at the time as lacking believability. this was the anniversary of 9/11. we might have expected an attack. you might have wanted security to be heightened around the anniversary of 9/11. they were pushing the notion that it was a spontaneous attack brought about by a video. it seemed unbelievable at the time. it seems less likely.

victims was ambassador rice. twitter, whent on e-mails are held back how can you know the facts? when?id hillary know and back to the phones in montana. caller: good morning. because i feel like everybody is dancing around the issue. the are talking about political fundraising. they are talking about hillary. why is it that we have not brought anybody in for prosecution. we know who they are. we have the videos on it.

we are talking about a murdered ambassador. that is serious and all i hear is political garbage going want towhy would nobody continue with this investigation when we have an official that is murdered? that.ld be talking about that would be on every news program. this is the same question on twitter. by all of the investigations, what solutions have they come up with that it doesn't happen again? where are we on that front westmark --? guest: there is still an investigation into whether there is a cover-up. the focus has been that the administration is protecting itself and president obama ahead of israel action. aey would like to find

smoking gun that the administration was selecting talking points and they were not being honest with the american people. that is one of the most striking things about benghazi. congress,a member of the most obvious question would be what are we going to do about it now and why have we not held anyone accountable for it westmark --? that is what is the most scary if you are in the american public. to find theone is people who did this and hold them accountable. then reevaluate security in the future. host: henry is in oak ridge, tennessee. caller: my question and problem with the situation, i go all the

way back to beirut. to investigatent beirut. they did not want to investigate 9/11. there is nothing there. this is a witchhunt. the republicans want the white house. guest: there was a columnist who brought up beirut last week. interestingt is that liberals are stretching 30 years back to find an example of republicans doing something similar to benghazi in order to justify what happened in benghazi.

there is some argument that the to then that he made led rise of bin laden. reagan hadue that his hands full winning the cold war. it is a stretch to look back 30 years and try to find an example of republicans mishandling something in terms of foreign policy or military use to justify the tragedy of benghazi. national democratic committee highlighted this week a video this week. obamacare. obama talked up

the success of getting americans to enroll in insurance plans under the affordable care act. 8 million americans have signed up for insurance. and we have to get what happened to the bottom of what happened in benghazi. this demand your impeachment. it looks like nothing more than a partisan stunt. debate is at a stalemate after republicans blocked the paycheck fairness act. the senate filibustered and blocked an increase in the minimum wage.

host: the issues brought up in that ad, equal pay laws and immigration and minimum wage. how much are democrats going to talk about these issues in the face of a new benghazi -- committee? guest: it will talk about all of these issues. harry reid needs to talk about minimum wage. nancy pelosi needs to do the same. obama has been going across the country with some of these messages in recent months. that is the strategy they outlined to be competitive in 2014. they're not going to take back the house, but the senate remains competitive. this ideafocused on of income inequality.

tohink they will continue emphasize the buying politics in the benghazi thing. 90% of people have paid their first premiums and obamacare. republicans have acknowledged that obamacare for now is running out of steam and they need to refocus their message elsewhere. democrats need to keep pushing the issues that they promised to deliver on to the american people. obama wins and democrats when the talk about things like income inequality and the war on women and lay class warfare. that is what obama was able to do in 2012.

democrats, 2013 was full of issues like edward snowden and the irs scandal. the obamacare rollout was disastrous. a badas been about economy and obamacare and benghazi. most wars are won before they are five. who can pick the terrain will win. if the terrain is the war on women and income inequality, democrats do better if it is about something else. great 2012. he's not been a great job of staying on message. host: we are being joined by .att lewis and sabrina siddiqui

we are taking your calls and comments. we have about another half an hour or so. we are talking about the 2014 election. let's go to mike waiting in connecticut on the line for independence. i am independent. i don't have a dog in this fight. the onlyformation, thing that i can say is we have not changed the circumstance that led to as having a murdered ambassador and republicans will not finance security through the state department. as we speak, every single diplomat that we have on this planet is in danger because republicans will not finance security to the state department to protect our diplomats. you know this'll be spun into

the ground. if we lose one diplomat while they do this ridiculous , the republican party could not get elected dog catcher. that is harsh stuff on mother's day. my mom is watching. he makes an interesting argument about funding. i think that is an argument that democrats could score more points on if you want to play politics. are we funding enough security? that is a legitimate question as far as i am concerned. things,e a couple of barack obama did kill osama bin laden. done. it was a huge deal. house at a white

correspondents dinner the night before while navy seals were about to go in. we don't know what precautions are being taken. i hope there are things that we do not know that would protect our diplomats abroad. we should troubling no. from actuallyside focusing on better security and making sure that this never happens again, it is legitimate to talk about the politics of this. it is important that the public knows the truth. it is not academic whether or not that takes place. it is legitimate for there to be an investigation about whether or not the administration intentionally misled the american public for political purposes.

that is a big deal if it happened. it may not be as important as making sure that we secure our consulate and our embassies. it is a big deal. host: let's go to dennis in south dakota. caller: i just want to add to the previous caller. in 2011, the republicans voted $128 million.y by in 2012 they voted to cut the security again by $331 million. i would like to hear matt's comments. these colors are doing a better job than harry reid a nancy pelosi. those are legitimate points. i suspect that it is more complex than that. thanis a better argument most democrats are putting forward. host: john is in maryland. good morning. caller: this thing is 20 months

ago. just because there is a midterm election coming up. issues the most prominent the republicans could hammer on. fundraising. the reason this happened when it because it was for political reasons. it was because obama needed to look like he was strong and his foreign-policy. this went counter to that. the embassy should not have been here. it had nothing to do with funds for security. we are spending trillions of dollars. we have $18 trillion in debt. for extrasador asked help and they did not have

americans defending him. they should not have been there. hillary's doing. we had two presidents involved. that is why people should wake dutyhis was dereliction of to save their own rear ends. ahead, sabrina , what did we learn so far in these early primaries

that of artie taken place? guest: they are fascinating. a lot of the narrative leading gop civil war and establishment canada it's our sending out a tea party challenger and being forced to take positions of -- to the right of where they want to be. clearlyhas said very that primary season it needed to be shorter and the did not want to be dismantled by his own party. in north carolina, this was like a primary that never was. the establishment candidate won handily over the tea party

candidate. those were the two names at the top. i do think that the tea parties influence appears to be diminishing. at least election. in congress it is very much there. polling that they become less popular with the republican party. this will help them a great deal in 2016. they cannot have this distraction where a candidate is forced so far to the right that it becomes difficult to move back to center an appeal in a general election. an l.a. times story talked about the north carolina election. caller: he is a conservative and

establishment. those two things are not mooch really -- mutually exclusive. i think conservatives should see this as optimistic. as the tea party has matured and there is more parity, your ending up with is better candidates. i think what happened in 2010 was after the tea party thing happened you had these egregiously liberal republicans wound up becoming democrats. you had great candidates like marco rubio who are able to oust them and when. republicans and conservatives overreach and nominated people who were not ready for prime time.

the pendulum has swung back and we are nominating good conservatives by and large. and are more sophisticated more electable in a general election. host: is there a primary coming up that worries you in terms of this split between tea party and establishment? guest: they should be optimistic. we have nebraska coming up on tuesday. that a selfhance funder will sneak in. that might be a missed opportunity for conservatives. it looks like in places like georgia, conservatives are pushing aside congressman brown who is conservative but maybe not the best face.

who knows how these things shake out. they're as a reason why they have a collection's. it seems like the conservative movement and tea party is gotten more pragmatic. host: ron is on the line for independents. caller: good morning. i listen to your show all the time. i just see a bunch of dancing around the issues that affect the american people. one is the health care law. it has been passed. a guy that is making six dollars an hour is getting a raise. he can be pulled onto the government where they force you to go onto welfare to pay for the insurance.

the illegal aliens continue to get free medical at our cost. there has been no effort to remove the corruption and abuse where hospitals compete against each other. you guys talk about stuff while saddle our children with debt. we will take on the subject of the affordable care act. you were talking earlier about some of the numbers. talk about some of the challenges that still face the affordable care act. guest: it is still going to be a long road. the administration has benefited from the fact that the enrollment surged later on after the rollout. they can now say we have 8 million people signed up for

private plans and another 4 million in the medicaid expansion. the number will be significant. we have learned that a lot. the premiums are being paid. it is staggered in terms of when people have to pay them. people will not pay at the same time because they enrolled at different times. there is still opposition to some of these. the hobby lobby supreme court case is going to affect this. i do like to make predictions with the supreme court, early indication is the court is leaning against the birth control mandate. to theuld be a huge blow

politics around the law. if one of the central tenets loses in court, that is going to give republicans a chance to come back in and refocus their message around obamacare and where they believe it is not working and the parts that think the american people don't want. i -- guest: i think sabrina is right. it does seem like there is a movement toward some sort of exception for people of faith. we will see how it works out. i do think the issue of religious liberty is becoming a very important issue. religious liberty is now essentially under attack.

if you're a christian or person of faith who has strong objections to something, can you opt out? not the issue of our time, i think depending on how the court decides, it is going to have a big effect going forward. good morning. i appreciate you all being here early this morning.

when he made the comment about people reaching back 30 years to give a comparison of bay route to the situation of benghazi i would like to share with matt that my high school best friend that i had known since eighth grade, a graduate of university of illinois was killed in bay route. i'm also an 11-year veteran. i also guard it had united states embassy successfully. so i'm sorry that some of us have a few more years on you than others it doesn't mean that my information is any more pertinent but i would like to address benghazi from a contemporary stand poipt and a mathematics and logistics and marine corps stand point. in combat when you want to quote the art of war, whatever that was. i'm not calling to jump on matt but what i'm trying to say is in combat when you take on a combatant you want to attack at least a two to one ratio or

three to one ratio. in benghazi they numbered nywhere from 150 armed people. i would share with the listeners was not technically an embassy or a registered consulate. it may have had a temporary provisional status with the libyan government which was shaky to begin with and it also had a c.i.a. complex in the compound. so it had a anybody luss status to begin with. is this jumping back to the mathematics and logistics. the u.s. marines have a group called the fast team. the fast team is designed specifically i was a part of the foundation of fast team from a counter intelligence and marine corps embassy background and experience, in its inception and they were immediately notified by panetta from what i've read. so the fast team would come from where let me ask you where is it coming from?

guest: i nowhere there were some folks in italy. you tell me. host: you seem to know about the topic. let me ask you about the select committee. do you think there's more to find out here that already hasn't been found out from the pentagon reports and some of the congressional investigation that is have already happened? caller: it doesn't appear to me. it doesn't appear that will be. and in fact if there is then that will be the case. the point i want to make about the time distance and travel, benghazi to spain where my fast team company would have come from is about 110 miles. you can find a ch 53 you could fly in a c 130. you'll need about 600 marines to attack that side. and to load up that many people in that many erik is going to take an hour to get everybody in there. then you fly across the mediterranean. that's going to take at least

four hours. host: we've got a bunch of people waiting to talk as well but i appreciate your expertise on the subject. let's go to ron waiting in newport beach, california on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. what i want to talk about here is three things. the first thing is that the republicans are making a slight error here. they're looking like a kangaroo court when they go with a 7-5 split. there should be some sense of fairness. point number two is matt you've ot to do more research about fat with a. because simon will tell you what a fat fat wave is. -- fatwa. hese are muleas who make decisions about what is nasty and affect it is muslim community.

seven countries are being attacked with fatwa's about this so-called ambiguous movie about mohammed. so that's number two. number three is come on you guys, goudy should be after the veterans department for taking care of our veterans the last 20 years inappropriately rather than spending all their time. i mean, darrell issa spent how long making -- 20 minutes of attacking on benghazi and didn't bring up anything about the torture of the embassy personnel that were there? host: matt, the last two callers wanting to talk to you personally. caller: where to begin. look, i think that let's go to the last caller. and by the way, let me compliment you smart callers. we can agree with that.

partisan but smart. so congrats on the good listenership. you know, during watergate there were more important arguably things happening in the world other than whether or not there was a burglary at the watergate hotel or whatever. during iran contra we were trying to win the cold war. arguably more important things than threatening to impeach ronald reagan. yet we go through these exercises and you can call them phony but i think it is important for the american people to be able to trust the president, the administration shooting straight with them. and as president obama's said we can walk and chew gum at the same time. we ought to be concerned about the v.a. but that doesn't mean that we should turn a blind eye to the possibility that we can do something better to protect our ambassadors in the future when they're under attack or that we ought to investigate whether or not the administration

intentionally misled the american people telling them this was a spontaneous thing happening because of the video when in fact it appears not to have been so. host: indnts line. caller: you don't have to go back 30 years to find where for america obama did not call a select committee. he forgave the live weapons of mass destruction to kill 4,000 americans. the tea party ever since then constantly for six years have been hounding this ppt in front of the world embarrassing the america to make him appear weak. these republicans have taken good christian people in the south and with all these political things made them think that we're attacking religion. we are not. we are on both sides of this. we need democrats and we need more people in the center who care about this country and not taking religious people and take fake issues and run them down and make them seem unchristian. you are the people that are

unchristian and un-american. you've been doing this since way back in 12979. host: david from arkansas. we've been talking about some of the other issues going on outside of benghazi. other things happening on capitol hill this week. the senate was possibly scheduled to have a vote on the keystone exl pipeline and that vote ended up not happening. what does that vote mean going forward for some of the members of congress who are in tough election battles? guest: it depends on who you ask. arguing over this energy efficiency bill crafted by senator jean shaheen and rob portman is a very -- a rare bill that has broad bipartisan support. i have in recent years not seen harry reid and mitch mcconnell often if at all go to the floor to repeatedly praise the same bill. it would create 190,000 jobs as well as save americans up to $6 billion in energy bills by 2030

is the projection that's come out. the issue is that vulnerable democrats up to 11 of them actually wanted to join republicans and vote on the approval of the keystone pipeline and harry reid did make an offer that we can do that once we pass the energy efficiency bill. mitch mcconnell rejected that offer. he said he wants to vote on keystone as an amendment along with a couple other energy amendments that are reflective of republicans energy priorities and that's where there is now a standstill and republicans are poised to filibuster this bill tomorrow and monday. but i think that it is concerning for the democrats to be able to vote on keystone and go back if you're mary land rue or mark prior or mark begich and jean shaheen -- not jean shaheen. kay hagan in north carolina. they wanted to go to enforce their approval of keystone they can go back and say they fought.

but i think they're going to turn around and say it's mitch mcconnell would have allowed a vote because there was a problem off and on to vote on it next week. host: a couple headlines from different outlets on who is to blame here on the keystone vote. obstruction is the headline rom town hall. your thoughts on the keystone vote. guest: number one, maybe i'm -- my opinion is that president obama could have unilaterally acted on this. so by not doing so for years now he has essentially put democrats especially mary land rue in a tough bind where now it's not happening, it's hard for her to argue that her tenure and her way as a u.s. senator will help increase american energy or exploration

because clearly it's not happening here. i think this is a very symbolic issue. i think the symbolism is much more important. i don't think that keystone is going to provide a ton of jobs for americans but i think what it is is that environmentalists view this as an example of us remaining dependent on fossil fuels. i think they were hoping that we would run out of dinosaur bones and have to turn to alternative fuels. and now with fracking, with oil sands, with other sort of ways of doing exploration, it seems like this is an attempt to essentially move beyond the use of fossil fuels. the problem is that canada will find a way to get this to market. and if we don't build the pipeline then what they will do is ship it on rail. which will actually be very

devastating environmentally. and so it's really this has become a political football on both sides. it's not really about the key stone exl. it's about a much -- it's a surrogate battle over a much larger war about whether or not we're going to stay on fossil fuels. host: just a few minutes left with matt lewis and sabrina of the huffington post. we'll get in a few callers. from farmington, nume. good morning. kiveraget good morning c span. just to back up a minute on the keystone pipeline. the reason the president isn't letting it be built is because of nothing else than his environmentalist base. the benghazi thing which is an outrage thing over there, the secretary of state and the president of the united states are responsible for the security not the republican

house or not the house of representatives. they don't design it. the president does. the president did absolutely nothing to help those people over there. the president as far as i can tell i would an hour or so after it started had to get to a fund raiser in las vegas and he went to bed and didn't check all night on what was going on until he got up the next morning and found out they were all dead. those two navy seals that were over there it wasn't 100 something people it was like 400 attackers on that embassy. those navy seals held them off for 7-1/2 hours over there. they were asking and asking and asking for help and they got absolutely zero from hillary clinton and the president of the united states. who are responsible for their safety. those guys held -- they killed like 40 to 60 attackers while they were being held off. host: can i ask, what questions do you want this select committee to get to if you had one or two questions that you would want them to ask?

caller: i want them to get the president to admit exactly where he was while that whole thing was going on. because where was he? he was in bed sleeping. they didn't have photographs there like they did when they were nailing bin laden over there and he could get a lot of publicity out of it. he has zero respect for our military. it's 7-1/2 hours. they didn't have a plane in the air at the end of that 7-1/2 hours when those guys got killed. host: all right. matt writing furiously during that segment. your response. guest: well, look, first of all again just to reiterate the purpose of an investigation is not to convict but to discover facts. we just don't know. the fact that there was an email that just surfaced because of a freedom of information act implies there is probably more information being withheld. i think the fact that the obama

administration has engaged in obfuse caution has not been forth coming has sparked conspiracy theories and has sort of led to what some people call a witch hunt. i think you can blame the obama administration at least partly for not being forth coming. we don't know where president obama was when the benghazi attack happened. they don't want to talk about it. so then people speculated. it sort of feeds into a paranoia. maybe it's completely innocent but who knows. they won't say. and the caller is right. it was a 7-hour firefight. so the notion that we couldn't or shouldn't have tried to get somebody there to help protect american lives again i want to see an investigation but it is troubling to just sort of leave people twisting in the wind when we could have helped them. host: i'll give you the last 30 seconds or so that we have here. guest: i'll bring it back to earlier in the show with respect to why they didn't send any enforcement to protect

these people. buck mckeon i'm going to bring him up again it's rare that a republican is going to stand up and they did investigate this matter for him to have said that there simply weren't the appropriate personnel in place and there was nothing more they could have done even in the course of the 7-1/2 hours. that just raises questions again for the future when you do have a diplomatic mission and it is anybody luss what they were doing there in the first place. guest: and it is on 9/11. guest: then maybe you have that in place beforehand to try to circumvent another future attack. but it does by all means according to republicans in congress appear that for this particular attack there was actually nothing more that could have been done to actually prevent those four americans from being killed unless it was heeding to warning before the attack actually transpired. host: you can follow sabrina on . itter and matt lewis

thank you both for being with us today. guest: thank you. ost: up next, tom taryn teeno, iraq and afghanistan veterans joins us. later we'll talk about the latest on situation in ukraine as pro russian separatists hold a referendum today in some eastern parts of that country. we'll be right back.

>> a look at the relationship between 1600 pennsylvania avenue and wall street. tonight at 9:00. part of book tv on c-span 2.

and on line our book club election is it calls you back. "washington journal" continues. >> we return now to those reports of inadequate treatment and coverups at some veterans ffairs facilities. tom, you met with v.a. secretary eric shin secy on friday morning. what did he have to say about some of these reports? >> he brought in representatives from all the major vets and organizations. he was -- well, he is taking this very seriously p as he should. we had a very positive conversation where he talked about what are the measures that the v.a. is going to do next. they're going to audit the appointment systems of all 1700

points of care. that should be done in a few weeks. they're going to launch another investigation in fort collins in the allegations coming out of shyian. and he talked about how the inspector general is going to do a very thorough report of the allegations coming out of phoenix. so it was a positive conversation. what we need is the secretary to be doing that a lot more and we need the secretary to be doing that in public. it's one thing to reassure me but i'm a professional in the veterans affairs community. he needs to reassure those vets out there who need care and want to go to the v.a. and he said that his primary concern was that there are vets out there that want care that need care that aren't going to get it because they don't have faith in the v.a. and that's our primary concern too. the key to that is getting him out in front. but there are some groups who ant him out of that job. where does the iraq-afghanistan veterans of america come down

on whether eric shin seci should stay in that drop? >> that's a pretty drastic move so we are looking at this very carefully. we are polling our members we are talking to our members via social media, calls and email. this used to be a deliberate decision because removing the secretary might be a solution but we have to make sure that not only is this something that the veterans community wants but it is also something that they need. we have to make sure that we are solving the core problem and not just calling for heads. and so this is going to be a very deliberate decision that we're going to go through. we're not going to make this hastefully. i think we have to do is focus on the men and women who are out there that need care and are afraid to get it because of their losing faith in the v.a. system. >> host: are there any results of that polling that you can share with us? guest: i actually haven't seen it yet. host: eric shin seci set to

testify this week in the senate committee on veterans affairs. bernie sanders has also been very vocal on these issues. what are the questions that you're expecting him to face besides obviously the phoenix and colorado reports that we've seen? guest: well, what i expect is him first of all to ask what happened. what we really do need is a full accounting of what happened not just in phoenix but also at fort collins and san antonio and austin. and not simply about what is happening in these individual hospitals but is this something that is pervasive throughout the entire v.a. network of care? and that is really the question we have to answer right now. because if that is true, then we have a much larger problem than just waiting a little extra time to get an appointment. then we have v.a. employees, leaders at v.a. hospitals actively deceiving their patients and the american

people and that is a very serious problem. >> host: if you want to join in on this conversation with tom taryn teeno of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america ur phone lines are open. some mixed reaction on capitol hill for eric shin seci the secretary of the v.a. senator jerry moran a tweet from earlier this last week.

guest: this is a very complicated scenario. the v.a. when the secretary took over was working on

systems that were obsolete before you or i were even born. it was a paper based process basically still living in this post world war ii environment. and they have done a tremendous amount of work to modernize. but if you have a car that's stuck in a ditch and you pull it halfway out you still don't have a running car. your car is still in the ditch. it's going to take a long time and a long process before we get to a place where we're adequately caring for the men and women that have served our country. and to be fair, the v.a. does do a lot of great things. they provide home loans that program is amazing, the give bill has served over a million student veterans. but it doesn't excuse the fact that we still have around 300,000 veterans that are waiting too long for their disability claims and that wait times at hospitals are still too long. and this isn't a new problem. the v.a. actually got in trouble for doing something similar to this in 2011 where mental health wait times where

the v.a. was reporting that it was taking two weeks where it in fact it was taking up to 50 days. they changed that system and the changes is what i think is now exposing some of the problems that we're seeing now where people are allegedly cooking the books. >> that is the one thing that is not about. the v.a. hospital is funded by over $60 billion and we don't fund v.a. medical centers but for this year. we fund them a year in advance. so when congress doesn't pass a budget -- which it hasn't in years -- you don't shut down v.a. hospitals. so when the government shuts down patients can still get care. by and large when they do the quality of that care is still very high. it's actually my primary health

care provider. that's where i go because i get fairly good care. but what we are seeing across the country, what we're hearing from members and seeing come out now, is that in certain hospitals the management there is not running as efficiently as it should be and people are waiting too long for care. this may be a problem in places across the nation but not -- i don't think it is across the entire system at all 151 v.a. hospitals. that's the question we have to answer in the next few weeks. >> in this segment we have a special line for veterans. bob is a veteran waiting in oklahoma. go ahead. caller: what the man just said a minute ago about the different care in different a lot ls, it's true that of our hospitals don't have a specialty care. and we have to go to a bigger

v.a. facility. to be seen. in the past it was that way real bad. like my local hospital, they didn't offer some care that i had to go to oklahoma city or little rock to receive. but the waiting time has really improved over the last few years at our local hospital. i know one time i had to wait. i waited over two years to get a colonoscopy. and finally, i went to unfortunately pretty close to between two and i went to the fayettville hospital. of course you would be concerned about something like that. and by the week i had my colonoscopy done in fayettville and thank goodness it was ok. it's really improved and i

think the general has been a big factor in this. and like you said about the management of our hospitals. because you can tell from manager to manager the administration of it. changes. for both better and worse. >> that actually really well outlines the problems and the improvements of the health care system. we have a saying if you have seen one v.a. hospital you've seen one v.a. hospital. it is a system of 1251 hospitals around 800 different clinics. they are not really organized outside of 21 regions around the country. and in the past if you needed care at the v.a. you had to just go to the v.a. if you didn't live near a v.a. facility it would take you a long time. not just to get there but also to wait. that is changing where v.a. hospitals are cooperating a lot more and the clinics are specializing more, and they're starting to shift to having

jouth of network care. so if you got to the v.a. and they don't have what you need you can go to a provider outside of the v.a. network that the v.a. knows and things like your records and treatment protocols can go back and forth. that's something that's changing right now and that is going to vastly improve over the next few years. host: we're talking with the chief policy officer at the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america veterans himself former army captain spent ten years in the service here to answer your questions as a special line for veterans in this segment. and we'll stay with that line for now. joe is waiting in texas. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i really appreciate it. it's me and you and who knows how many people out there. i want to know at any level are the people that administer the veterans hospitals political appointees? guest: no actually.

and this is interesting about the v.a. it is the second largest government agency yet it has one of the fewest political appointees. generally senior executive service or senior civil servant employees. and this is where we're seeing problems in the system. it's not generally the people at the top although they are ultimately responsible and they need to make sure that the system is accountable. but what we've been seeing is that information is not getting to headquarters. is that medical center directors are lying about wait times. and they are keeping a veapt set of books. these are the allegations out of phoenix. we have seen this happen before with mental health appointments. but what i think -- what -- and this is what we've seen and what i have seen through doing this for a living, is that there's a lot of problems in the regional offices at the edical centers and those

problems are not being filtered up to headquarters and not getting held accountable until someone gets busted like they did in the last few weeks. zue there's actually two problems. the first one is wait times. wait times at hospitals, wait times for appointment, wait times for disability. this is more of a process problem. either time, people, resources. this is something that is solveable in terms of better management and better resources and better times. the problem that is causing so much consternation right now is that people were allegedly willingly lying about the wait times. so if you need an appointment you're supposed to be seen within two weeks. they put you into the system and if you're not seen in two

weeks the hospital falls in time. what's allegedly happening is that people were putting when people put the v.a. they get put on a separate book and when that appointment would bnb within that two-week window then they would enter them. that is the deception part. that's a problem with management, leadership, personnel accountability. one of the things we don't have is doctors in the mental health field. so in terms of certain parts of care we are having problems with not having enough doctors. but i think speaking specifically to the thing that is causing so many problems right now is that this is people deceiving their patients and deceiving the v.a. ost: guest: if they can't get care inside that hospital doesn't have eetsdzter capacity or the equipment, they can go outto a

private care facility. the v.a. will send you out there. the problem is that those hospitals aren't using that system enough. they're not being judicious enough with their fee-based care. and what will happen in the next year is that each part of the country will have a dedicated network of care kind of like your private health care not really hmo but an out-of-service network so people can go to outside facilities easier and the records make it back. in the past if you went to a facility outside the v.a. it was a crap shoot whether your records would make it back to your primary care physician. this is something that is improving and we should see this change pretty significantly in the next year. let's go to robert on our line or veterans. caller: i'm in the appeel process very unique thing. i had my entire stomach removed

because i picked up a bug when . was in asia very unusual case. i never had a stomach problem in my life. when i got back from asia i was assigned to fort macarthur so i hit the dispensery in those days all they had was barium upper give. and everybody knows that that didn't really detect much. most stomach problems were related to stress is what they thought. then in the 0s they found out no it wasn't. 90% were related to this bacteria. they found out if a young guy got this bacteria and had it for decades, which i had, i went through misery most of my adult life. it can turn to cancer.

now, i was a microbiologist for 12 years and ironically, the last procedure i set up is detection of that organism. but in those days it was just related to ulcers. now it's discovered that it causes cancer, the same cancer i had. put in a claim to the v.a. and they addressed that claim immediately and denied it immediately. so that's how they do their numbers. guest: it's actually not a unique experience. the broken claim system has been a problem for decades. they finally have a digit yat process, finally fixed some of the rules and finally turning it roonlt but there's not a lot

of confidence that if we get rid of the backlog there's not going to be a backlog the year later. and to robert's appeal, the emphasis on getting rid of the backlog of claims, the resources shift fix that has caused the appeals backlog to grow tremendously. this is a problem we're going to be deal with for years. guest: yes and no. congress needs to make sure that they appropriate enough money to actually handle the care at the v.a. they also need to make sure that they are doing enough oversight of the v.a. this is something we've seen a lot in the last years in the house and the senate has been very attentive in making sure that the v.a. is accountable. we need the v.a. to actually give congress the information that they ask for. this is one of the reasons that the secretary was subpoenaed last week. a lot of the information that

the congress asked for the v.a. simply hasn't been providing whether they don't have it or in a way that that makes sense. i don't know that. but this is something -- congress has a duty to make sure that the money that they're appropriating is going to the care of the men and women who have served in this country and this is something that they need to keep pressure on v.a. just like we do out in the public need to keep pressure on v.a. to make sure that they're keeping their promises. host: on the issue of secretary shin seci and whether he should eep his job. lso asked about the topic. this was on tuesday. here's what he had to say. >> as the president said last week we take the allegations

around the phoenix situation very seriously. that's why he immediately directed the secretary to investigate and the secretary has also invited the independent veterans affairs office of the inspector general to conduct the comprehensive review. we must ensure that our nations veterans get the benefits and services they have deserved and earned. the president remains confident in the secretary's ability to lead the department and to take appropriate action based on the ig's findings. host: and we should note the secretary is going to be on capitol hill live on thursday. you can watch him on c-span that's happening at 10:00 a.m. eastern. he is going to be at that hearing on the veterans health care before the senate veterans taking committee that your calls and questions on this topic. let's go to mike on our line for veterans. mike is in oregon.

caller: good morning. happy mother's day. host: yes, sir. go ahead. caller: the reason why i'm calling is because i've been red flagged for three years now and i feel that it's detrimental and my care i'm not getting the proper care that i need. i have to drive over two hours to go to roseberg. i actually live in tooze bay to roseberg which is over two hours. and i don't know what a behavioral group is. maybe you can splan to me how a group of people can say red flag you call you names as far as i'm concerned they should call me a veteran and not a red flag person. i don't like it. i do not want to go to the v.a. if a stilt if i can keep from it. i would like to go to anybody

around this area. and i've heard comments about it. how do we get -- how do i go about getting it done? host: tom answering his question what is red flagging? guest: itch no idea what that is. i'm sorry. and like i say, this might be something that's happening just in that local hospital might be a policy around the v.a. i certainly hope not. sort of terfying that they're red flagging people for care. he actually brings up a very good point about access at the v.a. if a stilt. they're calling it pc 3 which each area that the v.a. serves in the country is going to be linked to a health care network something like try west or health net or humana. so that people like him don't have to drive two hours. they can -- you know, they can run to the v.a. and the v.a. says you have a care provider in your hometown that's in the network. you can go to them. the key to making this work is

making sure that the v.a. does use it. e veterans population is slinking. what that means is you're going to have a large network of hospitals serving a shrinking population. so we have to get creative in how we make sure that veterans can get the care they deserve in the time they need in a reasonable location so you don't have to drive six hours just to get a blood test. >> are there some specific issues that the iraq and afghanistan veterans are facing specifically? they're going to become larger and larger portion of our veterans community in the years to come. guest: my generations has a really great problem is that we generally are surviving combat at an incredibly high rate. there's a 90% survival rate. this is great news. but what that means is there are a lot of injuries that we are seeing that we've never seen before. this concept of poly trauma where you have a brain injury, a physical -- a physical

injury, your body as well as mental health injuries like post traumatic stress all interacting together in ways that we've never seen. and this is something that medical science hasn't really gotten into in terms of caring for all these things at the same time. so this is having huge effects on our generation. right now the biggest problem n the veterans care entirely is suicide. 22 veterans a day die by suicide and this is we are at a point where we have to start aggressively looking at this. not just within the v.a. but within the department of defense and within our local communities. because if we don't we are going to have a crisis on our hands. host: if you want to learn more about tom's group the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america is iava.org. we've got about 15 minutes left with him as we talk about these issues. caller:

>> how are you doing? >> listen, bringing up the point about the major backlog in this country. this country has an obsession with wars. if we're good at anything we're good at causing casualties and bringing them home. as far as this secretary of veteran affairs, you've got to give this man all the credit and support he deserves. you would have to be half crazy to jump into a job like that to begin with. and as far as anything other than monetary or whatever, we should take the last administration that was generated on war profit tiering. kellogg brown and root, blackwater, executive outcome. halliburton. where have these people pay for what is going on with these individuals today.

host: bringing up the debate over secretary shin seci and whether he should keep his job. one comment i want to play for you speaker of the house john boehner from thursday when asked about the same question and whether the secretary should go. >> i'm not ready to join the chorus of people calling for him to step down. the problems at the v.a. are systemic. it's the backlog. it's the preventable deaths that have occurred within their system. there's a systemic management issue throughout the v.a. that needs to be addressed and i don't believe that just changing some at the top is going to actually get to the solutions that many of us are looking for. we're working on the v.a. accountability bill that would allow the secretary more discretion when it comes to firing managers that aren't

getting the job done. host: i want to get your thoughts on the v.a. accountable bill. why does the v.a. secretary need more power to be able to fire folks? is he not able to do that right now? guest: it's difficult. even senior executive service are still government employees. and the speaker makes a good point. the problem people, the people allegedly perpetrating the problems it's not the secretary going in and doing that. these are high level senior executive service employees. it is very difficult to fire a medical center director and in the past the v.a. has either been unable or unwilling. there's a lot of stories where you have senior managers at the v.a. who do something really terrible and instead of getting fired they get moved. so we need to not just give the secretary the power to clean house and clear out the people causing problems but also

embolden them and encourage them to do that. because this is one of the things about the secretary that we need to see more of. we need to see him out in front. we need to see him out taking bold action. kind of a lame way to say it but he is the veteran in chief of the united states of america. veterans out there who need care at the v.a. need to know that that system is there for them and it is really his job to be out there in front. and up until a few days ago, he really wasn't doing that. he wasn't seen in public. he needs to continue to be out in front to make sure that veterans know the system is out there and people are being held accountable. host: let's go to our line for independents. caller: good morning. thanks. i'm sure we'll do a big study and look at it and make sure the stuff never happens again. i've been hearing that for a lot of years now. all due respect, i'm a veteran too and we need to look out for these guys. the problem with society is heads don't seem to role.

so i'm hoping that we do hold the people accountable, that have clearly shown a dare licks of duty. and far peeyond that. to make them perceive like they're doing their jobs when they're not and people need to speak up more. we understand all of that. but the main thing we need to hold the people accountable. you can look at it may seem off track but it isn't. you've got a commander lee polede whose the head of the cole i happened to be in that port many times. he allowed his ship to blow up. many sailors hurt. we had a clear dare licks of duty but yet he goes around the country now speaking like he's an expert. in fact he's been on c-span. so i've been appalled with that. so we need to hold people accountable. host: can i ask you are you confident that the secretary can do that? caller: what i am confident for is that we need to have patients and find out what really happened. but it shouldn't take forever.

it's foo early on that to judge him fully on this. if you have managers at v.a. clinics that are gun decking or falsifying documents and saying our people are getting taken care of and they're not it's pretty hard. that's a big outfit so i do think we need to learn more. host: let's go tour line for veterans. john is waiting in florida. john, good morning. caller: good morning. i've been listening to your program about the v.a. one important thing has not been brought up. every veteran that even qualifies does not receive veteran benefits. basically i don't know how long ago, eight nine years ago the government ran out of money, veterans were divided into eight categories. one is the unfortunate individuals that lost limbs disability, goes down to eight categories. those who the government says well you've got enough money get your own benefits. i only wanted to get my

prescriptions from the government. the government says do it on your own. and ironically i'm going to my super market and get my same prescriptions for nothing. so not only the government can get to give the veterans the benefits we were promise. guest: the way the v.a. works is there are eight categories of care ranging from permanent disabled, prisoners of war purple heart all the way to you're perfectly healthy and the v.a. can be a health care option for you. the v.a. has actually expanded that access by about half a million over the last four years. they've expand it had category eight. and there's actually we're talking about one of the things that we're looking at is expanding access for care for meltsd care, expanding access for care for combat veterans from five to 15 years. so that when people need care they can go and get it. host: here's a suggestion from he report who writes

guest: well, judging by metrics, the veterans health care system tends to have a lot higher quality than the health care that members of congress get. this is what we found is that while people are frustrated with the obvious and insane problems at the v.a., when they actually do get in they like their care. when we survey our members, you know, the v.a. has a very negative rating when it comes to what do you think? doufrpblf do you think the v.a. cares about you? veterans respond overall in the negative. but when you ask specifically what about your care your g.i. bill, your home loan? they respond very positively. so the health care that you get at the v.a. is good. you just have to get in the hospital first. and that's the problem that we're seeing now in certain hospitals. and it's not just the access but it's also people who are supposed to be serving you who are supposed to be caring for you are essentially lying to you. and that's what makes this situation so ridiculous.

because it's not a new problem. there's been over six reports on v.a. times and how they measure wait times and what they're measuring isn't actually what's happening in the patient experience. so this isn't a new problem. they're just getting busted for it now. host: let's go to texas. good morning. caller: gorpge. i would like to know if there's any stats tick available that would indicate the percentage of those people applying or attempting to process claims received a clear bill of health on their separation physical. thank you. host: that's a great question. no, there aren't statistics available for that and that is a huge problem. in the past the d.o.d. and the v.a. have had virtually no communication. they now sort of kind of have communication. if you're injured in service and you're leaving the service because of a medical condition

there is actually a warm handoff. the v.a. does determine your disability. but most people leave the service and their exit physical is either not done very well or they just want to get out, or injuries that they had in service don't show up. this is a big thing with mental health injuries. post traumatic stress the show years afterwards. we're finding about a quarter of post traumatic stress issues happen 10 to 12 years after leaving service. so it's not necessarily that the day you walk off the military base those injuries are all what's accounted for. there are things that happen to you in service that might not show up until much later. host: i want to go back to something you brought up earlier, the issue of suicides and veterans communities. what work is the iava doing on this topic and where can folks go to seek more information on that if they want to? guest: so this year they're launching our campaign to combat suicide.

this is a comprehensive approach to battling suicide within communities. we are looking at connecting over 1 million veterans to services and care. we are looking -- we are asking the congress to pass comprehensive legislation that is going to fix some of the broken parts of the mental health care and health care system and we're asking the president to sign an executive order to do everything he can in his power to fix the health care system and suicide prevention across the country. host: again it's iava.org for folks who want to look up the work that you all are doing. we've got time for a few more comments and questions with tom taryn tino of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. ted is calling in from massachusetts on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a veteran vietnam era. i've been in the v.a. system for quite some time. and the main thing that has happened was that the v.a. was

started to be privatized back in the early 2000 and after as we entered into war, they did not increase the v.a. facilities. and that's what ended up leaving a lot of veterans back out and nobody taking care of us. presently right now if we make an appointment it can take sometimes three or four months to get that appointment and if you're hurt or feeling bad too make -- to get -- and you miss that appointment, you've got to end up waiting three or four months to get the appointment back. and that's where the main portion and problem exists. host: tom, on some numbers on the issues that he brings up is 152 v.a. hospitals in the v.a. health care system. 800 community based outpatient

clinics. 126 home nursing home care units. the caller brings up the question once again is that enough? guest: in terms of v.a. facilities, yes and no. i mean, if you're looking at just the pure v.a. facility they have a decent amount of coverage. the key to this -- they've actually increased the amount of v.a. facilities considerably over the last ten years. and the key to this is making sure that people can get the right care at the right time from the provider that they need. so it's not necessarily that we need to build a v.a. hospital in every small town and across america so that everyone can have a five-minute drive to it. it's to make sure that the care they need organized through the v.a. can get to the vet. and that's why they are reorganizing it. because the system was designed where 10% of every town in america served in the military and that's not true. it hasn't been true for a very long time. so we have to get creative for

how the v.a. provides care. we have to make sure that we have a care for veterans to keep the promise. but we also have to get creative with how we provide it. whether it's at a v.a. facility or a contract provider linked to a o facility. host: which brings up this question. guest: because the v.a. first the v.a. is a closed network. it's basically a closed hmo system. and you actually don't want to just go anywhere willy nilly because you have to make sure that your care is managed. so unless you are managing your own medical records, you have -- you wouldn't be able to go to five different doctors and then coordinate all that care. so one of the advantages of the v.a. system is that you do have care coordination. they have electronic health records that can transfer between all hospitals and facilities. one of the biggest problems of veteran care in particular is we do suffer from poly trauma. we have multiple injirns that interact with each other.

and if you're seeing one guy for your bone injury and one guy for head injury and another doctor for a give problem, they're not talking to each other, you're going to have problems. so that's why the coordinated kire within the v.a. system is important but it's also why we need to make sure that they're coordinating with the private care providers that people can go to outside of the system. host: one more call in from jeff in tennessee on that line we have for veterans. good morning. caller: hey, thanks for taking my call. i'm a full-term dav, been on 50% service connected disability since 78. i'm familiar with the meb, the peb. and you all raised a lot of questions while i've been on hold, hmo's that's health maintenance, you know. i mean, and those have all kinds of boards. are you familiar with the v.a. experimenting on veterans?

i was experimented on in augusta, georgia in the 8 to 90 period with the drugs of loxa pin and i'm a mentally ill disabled vet. now, it comes to pass that that drug is now used opiate addicted individuals. awaiting on some resolution of the claims so i can get a lawyer. i was put onhen disability, my doctor asked for 100%. the government gave me 50%. shut me out. miserable -- >> i do not want to cut you off, but we're running out of time here and i want to give our guest a chance to respond. know of the v.a.

conducting experiments. it illustrates a huge problem with the disability system, in that it takes way too long, especially someone with a disability. it is taking way too long to get obvious care to veterans who need it. that is why we need the secretary to really push out in front and make sure people screwing with the system are being held accountable erie this is why veterans need his a focused on the v.a. and make sure the v.a. improves and does not get away with denying care to people who need it. >> you can follow him on twitter. appreciate you coming on. happy mother's day, and happy mother's day to mom. sleeping.you are we will get back to that hearing on thursday happening at 10:00 a.m. we will be right back to open up the phones to our viewers.

♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> everyone is coming to the new york world's fair. they're coming from five corners, idaho. they come from tokyo and kokomo and rome tom on down through arroyo -- aurora, illinois. 295 from the bronx. in the traveling teachers from kansas.

and the wilson's got here at last. there's is the symbol of air, the great units fear. fully -- place playfully demonstrate the law of averages. by chance, the wilson's and they meet and join up or site seeing -- seeing. weekend, to the fair follows a variety of people as they. the 1954 world fair. today on c-span3. for over 35 years, c-span brings

public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house event, briefings, and conferences. of rightpublic service industry. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 35 -- watch us in hd, like us on facebook, and swap s follow us on twitter. washington journal continues. >> we are back to open up the phone to our viewers here. in the last 25 minutes, we are happy to talk about any of the subjects we were you about this morning. our question this morning talked about the discussion. 202, 585 -- l

-- we will also continue to go over some of the headlines and we're happy to take your comments on those as well. one of those headlines from posted -- "hillary clinton's no good, very bad week. week." one day, she was weighing in on gun control and obamacare and social in the alley, and next, taking the heat in benghazi. group behind the kidnap of the girls. then there was the monica of 1998.scandal this was arguably the roughest week hillary clinton has had since she left the state department early last year.

that is the story in "politico." a possiblery on presidential contender. vice president joe biden appeared at a closed-door fundraiser in south airliner late friday and delivered an elizabeth warren type speech. the story notes several democrats at the event were struck by one remark he made about the clinton's presidency. biden said the fraying of middle-class economic security did not again during the president george w. bush term, but earlier in the later years of the clinton administration. biden of course could face off against former secretary of state hillary clinton for the democratic nomination in 2000 esteem if they both decide to , marcoe other story

rubio headed to new hampshire on friday. the latest sign he is gearing up for a 2016 run. democrats is in front runner, saying, they are threatening to nominate someone now wants to take us to the past, to an era that is gone and never coming back there that friday night dinner with republicans, "the road toare on is the a the american dream. if you want to read more on that, it is on the hill newspaper site here at our phone lines are open and we are happened -- happy to take your calls. elizabeth is in florida, on our line for republicans. i have been listening to

this and i am probably a candidate of everything that has gone wrong in the v.a. system. i ditched a jet in the south china sea, a hostage in north vietnam. you do not know about that and nobody does. i have been fighting this battle with the v.a. since i retired and the nsa still has me classified secret. why? deserve? i get what i >> we have been talking about problems with the v.a. and him of the sermon. what are your thoughts on the secretary? 2007, this was a letter. in 2014.01 to 50% i have attempted suicide three

imes. our previous guest was talking about some of these issues. we are directing folks to some of their issues on some of these issues, if you're interested there. let's go to thank in arizona on our line or independent. >> good morning. i do a clinic locally and there are times when i do not even get to see my provider. everything goes through the nurse. it depends on her interpretation as to what service i get. i do not think she is all five to make those decisions. host: who is qualified?

caller: my provider, or my doctor. host: have you written to the v.a. and asked them to address this? caller: i have written to them, complained of them call them, talk to my senators, and i got no response yet i waited 2.5 years to get a shoulder surgery. i cannot even watch my own hair anymore because i cannot raise my left arm's high enough. host: frankie in arizona. we noted earlier in today's program the referendum vote that in parts of eastern ukraine. we want to bring our viewers up to date in what happened there. we are joined by david of the new york times, a moscow correspondent. you for joining us by phone. -- thank you for joining us by phone. caller: i am in ukraine.

ont: bring us up-to-date what the referendum votes are, where they are taking place, and the response of the government. you know the referendums are on the way in the east and part of the country. by unrest and violence for weeks now. some of these names are becoming familiar, american viewers and listeners. we see separatist trying to stage their desire to see it from the ukraine. -- to secede from the ukraine. andrew kramer is telling me some of the stations are filled with lines of people. some of them are not quite sure why they are voting to break up a country they would like to see remain united. they have a lot of anger toward the provisional government and

quite a few people are turning out to express their displeasure and say they would rather be part of russia and president vladimir putin. that is where it stems. the government views this as the west does, as an entirely illegal and illegitimate process. it has been loud and clear. of theing head presidential ministration, the chief of staff for the president saying today that folks will be brought to justice and relating this illegal effort. the results will not be recognized in any way. >> we have a headline amid must -- much uncertainty. separatists prepare. fromw kramer has the story the ukraine. what has been the response of the russians so far and president vladimir putin? was he calling for the referendum to be postponed? >> that was a surprise wednesday

of this past week when president clinton, who has been very clear he wants to see the rights of the pro-russian votes to be protected thomas saying it was a better idea to hold off. we do not know how sincere he was. yes and trying to make that this is an organic restaurants process. it may have been quite convenient for him to say, hold off and see the leaders on the ground say, we are going forward on the ground. and say, i cannot control these guys anymore then joined the demonstrators over the month -- months they were demonstrating your. some of the ground shifting. maybe more in russia's interest to start a dialogue looking ahead to presidential elections in the ukraine. the results after that, there is goy a -- so long this can on. further sanctions against

russia, before it starts to be a real problem for him. off. we know held the inevitable result is that .here is some desire there is a segment of the population that wants this and wants to be part of russia. it was clear ahead of time russia was supporting that process. steps are not quite as clear. we will be watching for reaction and see what the challenge is. we are seeing the vote today. are there other possible votes being talkeds about down the road? is the the main vote presidential election scheduled for may 25. that vote is going ahead. there have been concerns all

along, but it seems the central government is quite committed to carrying out that vote. they have provisional plans to allow voting in some of the disputed regions in the east and allow voters in crimea. they do not read nice russia's annexation of crimea. to come out of crimea into the border areas, if they want to vote for president. that would be a very important step. creating a new government that even russia would be hard-pressed to say is illegitimate. they constantly refer to the provisional government as the result of a coup. the ex-president fled. everybody can disagree about that here national elections, a clear winner, moscow would then say the government is illegitimate. that is a consequential moment coming in today. voting across the country for a new president.

with the new york times on the ground. before we let you go, what is the latest on what that government is saying about the u.s. and international sanctions? and what effect they're are having in this situation? the government appreciates the sanctions already imposed and would like tougher sanctions, should the unrest continue. you heard warnings about this from the german chancellor and from the french president that if russia were to -- to continue unrest, it would legitimize the results that yet another round of sanctions is prepared. yes, they support that and in fact, russia is pressing ahead, although it -- there is an indication there are now negotiations. we expect to see a national roundtable coming up next week, or some dialogue that gets underway.

host: david on the ground. thank you for joining us this morning. here is a headline from the washington post, a piece written by a russian-american journalist , the author of "the man without rise ofthe unlikely vladimir putin. who is next is the question. in a speech in parliament, putin accused the bolsheviks of having drawn an art that artificial borders. the piece notes that more importantly, putin clearly indicated he will -- borders drawn even earlier revolution of 1917 can and should be redrawn. in other words, he positions contemporary russia as the heir to the russian empire, as it was constituted under the czars. speaking to the public via his annual phone hotline, he brought other -- others in his to the

scenario, saying parts of them were in czechoslovakia, hungary, and the hungarian empire, and parts of poland. andmessage is borders can have been drawn. let's just divide the ukraine between us. we have done it before. if you want to read more on that piece, it is in "the washington post". "ones to end today's washington journal." good morning. good -- caller: good morning. i want to talk about ted nugent, who called my president a subhuman mongrel. this is from wikipedia. listen to this area -- this. do not read wikipedia peer we want your reaction and not something from the website area caller: -- website. caller: this is the problem.

you have people come in with their opinions. i want facts from wikipedia. on anything.basis this is from wikipedia. hello? ok. he tookgent said crystal meth and defecated in his pants -- host: let's move on. at in pennsylvania. good morning. thank you for taking my call. under president bush, we had 12 u.s. consul in attacks. congress, asns in soon as they got control, they cut the funding for security by $500 million. is republicans who did that should be impeached. goes, are john mccain

civil war breaks out. he needs to shut up and do his job in america. . just cannot understand i am a republican and this is my party. they kicked me under the bus. i cannot even go into the bars here i say to good people, you supported these guys. it is embarrassing to be a republican anymore. >> who do you see as the leaders of the republican party now? >> i believe leaders are the coke rudders and i will not vote for anyone. i will vote a straight democratic ticket. i've had it with my party. they need all to be out of office. we need to start from scratch. at least democrats, they will do what we want them to do. that is my opinion. from pennsylvania, talking about an upcoming election. the worst week in washington went to a democratic senator of north carolina, noting that tuesday night did not go quite

as the senator had hoped. that the state house speaker, widely regarded as the strongest potential challenge, not only finish first in the republican primary but avoided a costly runoff. north carolina is a swing state and national politics winds are blowing in the death their favor. a freshman democrat, you just got harder for them. the independent political handicapper moved a race into the tossup category, noting hagan does not have a significant advantage. watching your narrow edge collapse overnight. you had your worst week in washington. congrats or something. chris writes in his weekly worst week in washington peace. primaries are coming up this week. nebraska and west virginia, next week, highly watched primaries

in states including arkansas, georgia, idaho, kentucky, oregon, and pennsylvania. we have got about 10 minutes left or so on here. charles is in las vegas, nevada, on our line for republicans. good morning. go ahead. >> i see a pattern here with the obama administration and the government in general. the government has been infiltrated by primarily the muslim brotherhood. if you look at the benghazi video, it was not about the video. it was about september 11 and killing our ambassador. they say it was our fault. you look at fort hood and they say, that was not an act of muslim terrorism. that was workplace violence. if you look back to the 1993 bombing of the world trade center, that was an isolated group. that was actually the blind shake, and he led the muslim

brotherhood faction in egypt. ouror this infiltration of government you're talking about, where'd you go to try to find out information about that eschenbach what news sites do you trust? not necessarily sites. you have to read books. after 9/11, i read three dozen books on the muslim brotherhood, on islam, on sharia. if you get your stuff from sites, you're just reinforcing your own president -- prejudices. what you have got to understand is muslims think mohammed was the perfect man. mohammed was a warrior. he spread islam with the sword. he said "off with your head." we will go to sean waiting in pennsylvania, on our line for independence. "as. good morning. -- open phones. good morning. caller: a quick comment about

the ukraine. shortlyteresting that after the situation started over there and started getting pretty bad, you know, our government did not hesitate one second sending our tax held -- taxpayer dollars over there to help. we have to nip it in the but, before it gets too crazy. we do not want to start world war iii or whatever, but i think it is interesting how quickly they're able to fund situations abroad and they are not so quick to help a mystically. -- help domestically. host: we are talking about several subjects here. -- a story from the obituary section of the new york times. a secret service agent who regarded vice president lyndon johnson when president john f.

kennedy was assassinated in dallas, and who became a high-ranking secret service official when the administration -- he died on saturday in his home in alabama. he was among three secret service agents writing to record behind the convertible carrying mr. johnson and his wife lady on november 5 second, 1963. there is a picture of a secret service agent there. "theer story from washington post" this morning. noting u.s. officers killed arms civilians in yemen. it is a story that has gotten some attention over the last couple of days as reports have come out. the story noted a u.s. special operations commando fatally shot two armed yemeni last month during a botched kidnapping attempt in a commercial district of a volatile country.

officials confirmed over the weekend the americans opened fire on armed yemeni of village -- civilians. a u.s. official said on saturday the u.s. embassy in yemen has been operating on reduced capacity in recent days as u.s. shows there have sought to limit the movement and exposure of their personality and a flurry of warnings. more on that is in "the washington post." glenn in oklahoma on our line for republicans. did i get the town right? caller: that is correct. talking about -- and there arete certain presumptive conditions, cognitives, presentedn, conditions.

you submit then claims, you do not have to prove a service connection. .hese are given health issues related to the illness. however, in reality, when you submit a local claim to the local office, when you submit -- when you go for your cmp, you're going to end up getting denied for those presumptive conditions. host: let's go to linda in stanley, new york. linda is waiting on our line for republicans. caller: i have been listening to the program all morning and i keep hearing that the state like to cut over many years. a report just came out within the last two weeks in over five years, the state department has

in dollars. six oh -- $6 billion. misplaced $6 billion. i wish people would get their facts straight before they go on here and spew all their hate and rhetoric. thank you. linda will be our last call her today. tune in tomorrow, where we will be joined by david hawking's, a senior editor, to talk about the history of select committees in congress. we will also be joined by luis of the wall street journal health policy or reporter to talk about the affordable care act and the demographics of those who are uninsured. of the simpson center joins us to talk about pay and benefits for active military personnel. that is all tomorrow at 7:00 pacific.0 a.m. hope you have a happy mother's

day. ♪ >> today on c-span, "newsmakers." after that, a house debate on establishing a special committee to investigate the 2012 benghazi consulate attack, followed by nancy pelosi talking about the issue. >> we want to welcome back to "newsmakers" the chairman of the appropriations committee, hal rogers.

here with us to help us with questions, to reporters, andrew taylor with the associated press and roxana tiron with bloomberg news. to remind youed but it may be useful to remind people viewing that laster's appropriations process was a bit of a mess. if you saw it ahead of the time. a time. i gave you at least uncertainty for what you use for last year's major omnibus bill and for the upcoming round of appropriations bills. yesterday you can rdc some landmines with them attract new -- you could already see some landmines with republicans. you going to avoid a situation in which you get to move the popular bills like the veterans bill or the homeland se